To a Friend

Letter 1

1 901.

1 see that my little N is no nearer being converted, and I assure you that it grieves me. I overlooked your fits of temper in the past, but you are no longer a baby, and the scenes you make are ridiculous. I know that you will allow your Elizabeth to say anything, so that I shall speak my mind, and you must really set to work to amend. As your nature is like mine, I know what you can do. If you only realized what it is to love God and to give Him all He asks, especially at our own cost, you would not be so slow in listening to me. No doubt you would feel the sacrifice at first, but later on you would enjoy a delightful peace. I want you to be so good ! . . . I will suggest a plan to you as I am not there for you to pour out your feelings to me. Whenever you wish to confide in me, run to your room and recollect yourself for a moment between your crucifix and my portrait of which you are so fond, and imagine that I am there with Jesus and my little N . Whenever you feel out of sorts, do that. Will you make that bargain with me ?

Thank God for me. I am too happy ! You do not understand it. . . . If you only knew how sweet it is to love Him solely I I beg Him with all my heart to teach you.

Letter 2

1902.

. . . Yes, I pray for you, and keep you in my soul near the good God, in that little inner sanctuary where I find Him at all hours of the day and night. I am never alone : my Christ is always there praying within me, and I pray with Him. ♦ You grieve me, for I feel certain you are unhappy, and I assure you that it is your own fault. If only I could teach you the secret of happiness as God has taught it me ! You say I have neither cares nor sufferings. It is true that I am happy, but in the way one can be while one's will is being contradicted. We must fix our gaze on God. It requires an effort at first when we are boiling with anger, but gently, with patience and the help of grace, we conquer in , the end. Build a little cell within your soul as I do ;

remember that the good God is there, and enter it from time to time. When your nerves are upset or you feel unhappy, take refuge there at once and confide everything to the Divine Master. If you practised it a little, prayer would not weary you.

You used to love to sit close beside me and tell me all your secrets : that is how you ought to go to Him. If once you understood that, you would suffer no more : that is the secret of the Carmelite life.

I keep you in the little cell of my soul as you must keep me in yours ; then we shall never be apart.

Letter 3. - .,

0 April, 1902.

I have spent a good Lent. Nothing I have seen at Carmel is more beautiful than Holy Week and Easter Day — indeed, I should say that nothing could compare with them. 1 will tell you all about them when we meet.

What a joy it is to live in intimacy with God, our life being spent heart to heart with Him in a constant interchange of love with the divine Master when we know how to find Him in the depths of our soul ! Henceforth we are never alone and we long for solitude that we may enjoy the company of the Guest Whom we adore. You must give Him His proper place in your life, in the loving and passionate heart He has given you. If you only knew how kind, how loving He is in every way !

I am begging Him to reveal Himself to your soul, to be the Friend that you can always find ; then you would see all things in another light, and life would become a joy.

This is not a sermon, but the overflowing of my soul into your own, that together we may lose ourselves in Him Who loves us, as St. Paul says, with an " exceeding love !"

Letter 3

T July 24, 1905.

I still keep the long letter you wrote to me before you left. I have read it again and again, begging the Divine Ideal to take captive and wound the dear little heart He seeks and restrains as it struggles to escape Him and to live engrossed in things immeasurably below the end for which He created it and set it in this world.

I understand your craving for an ideal — that is, something to draw you out of self and to raise you higher ; but that ideal is to be found in Him alone : Truth Itself. If you did but know Him in some degree as your Elizabeth knows Him ! . . . He fascinates the soul ; beneath His gaze the horizon becomes vast, beautiful, and luminous. I love Him passionately, and in Him I find my all. It is through Him, by His light, that I must view all things and perform every action. Will you turn with me to that sublime Ideal? It is no fiction, but a reality ; it is my life at Carmel. Look at Magdalen and see how she was captivated. Since you need to live above self, live in Him : it is so simple. And then you must be the comfort of your dear mother. You do not know what there is in the heart of mothers such as God has given you and me. Remember, nothing better is to be found in this world, and I do not think my Master could have asked more from me than to yield Him mine. I want you to be perfectly submissive, and to dwell in God and in His peace. The more sure I feel that you are not good, the more resolved I am on winning your soul, for the Master wants it. Besides, are you not my own little child ? I feel to some extent answerable for you, so do not let your conversion be too difficult. Let the Master take you in His nets, for it is well to be there.