Treasures
from the Archives
Our Lady of the Cenacle
Treasures
from the Archives
Our Lady of the Cenacle
Treasures
from the Archives
Our Lady of the Cenacle
Treasures
from the Archives
Our Lady of the Cenacle
On the morning of Sunday, 26 June 1864, Thérèse received a very special insight into docility to the Holy Spirit. Following her meditation, she wrote a text that would become fundamental to the spirituality of the Congregation: “Self-Surrender.”
In this text, she says, “Our Lord has often made me understand how helpful it is for a soul desirous of making progress in the spiritual life to surrender herself unreservedly to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”
This disposition of Mother Thérese’s soul was already formed, and on that day, it was enriched with new light.
It was already formed because, as a young religious, she was guided by Father Terme.
Father Terme was taught the Sulpician tradition, which is based on the French School of Spirituality. He passed on some of its principles to Mother Thérèse, in particular “letting oneself be guided by the Spirit,” which is one of its characteristics. He himself experienced this with the Virgin Mary in the Chapel of Our Lady of Deliverance in Chapias in 1832, as recounted in this letter to Mother Thérèse dated 19 December of the same year:
“So I arrived happily, and as I was preparing to ask the Blessed Virgin for many things, it occurred to me that one thing was enough, and that I should only ask to do the work for which God had destined me, that I should not even seek to know what that work was, but only ask for the grace to act according to God’s plans for me. And, in fact, that was the way I directed my prayers from that time on, and I found that sufficient.”
In another letter, Father Terme quotes an excerpt from Father Louis Lallemand, a Jesuit whose writings he particularly appreciated: “From now on, depend only on God’s good pleasure and resign ourselves entirely into His hands” (to Mother Thérèse, 1832).
In her memories of Father Terme, Sister Pacifique Devidal recounts that Father Terme “always preached to us about trust in Providence, surrendering to God’s good pleasure.”
On the other hand, we know of his intense devotion to the Eucharistic mystery, which he passed on to “his daughters”.
For Mother Thérèse, all this contributed, from her early religious life, to her desire to unite herself with Christ and to give herself without reserve.
In a letter dated 14 January 1836 to Sister Agnes at Plagnal, she wrote, “Pray to Our Lord that he may inspire me with his spirit so that he may guide me in all that I do and say, and that I may work only for his greater glory and the salvation of the souls he has entrusted to me.”
“I want only the will of our Divine Master.”
“To desire only God,” “Let us be concerned only with God and for Him,” “God alone is everything; the rest is nothing,” “to abandon ourselves without reserve”’… She meditates on these fragments of selected letters on Holy Abandonment by Father Claude-François Milley, and they become “her delight.”
Mother Thérèse transcribed this spiritual attitude in a prayer:
“Lord Jesus, you are my life, and without you I die. Deign, therefore, to communicate to this poor soul that is dying something of that heavenly and divine life that is in you, so that it may destroy in me this earthly and material life that always wants to dominate. Amen.”
In her correspondence with her sisters or family, she speaks of “holy abandonment”, of “surrendering to the divine will” and “divine pleasure”, expressing deep submission and total abandonment to God.
For her, “self-surrender” means abandoning oneself entirely to God by accepting His will, whether in joy or sorrow. There, she tells us, “lies the peace and happiness that we seek in vain.”
She also encourages her correspondents to live in the same way, to accept trials as means of sanctification and union with God, and to find peace and strength in union with Christ.
“The good Lord always gives us trials that are proportionate to our strength; we just have to surrender ourselves and let Him do His work.”
“When one is with the good Lord, it is not appropriate to be there only half-heartedly; one must give oneself with great generosity if we want the good Lord to let us taste the sweetness of serving Him.”
’Finally, the will of the good Master before our own is always my refrain, for I see nothing so sweet as holy abandonment into the hands of Him who has all power at His command and who desires only our good in all that He allows or commands.”
The letter she wrote to her superior general, Mother de Larochenégly, on 13 February 1864, on the last day of her retreat, reveals this spiritual attitude that had been taking shape in her heart and soul since her youth in religious life. Speaking to her about her retreat, she wrote:
“… it was with all my heart that I uttered these words: Behold my God, your little servant, may it be done to me according to your will and your good pleasure.”
“My heart is ready, my God, my heart is ready to embrace all your will.”
“I can say that this is all I did during this retreat, I surrendered myself, and God did the rest.”
“I saw a God who was good and merciful to me, to whom I owed all my love. So I let myself be carried away by this attraction of love, which is always the most dominant and frequent in me.”
“So I let the good Lord and his grace do their work, gratefully receiving each day what he deigned to give me.”
On the morning of 26 June 1864, the grace given to her took on a special aspect. She received it to the sound of bells calling the faithful to attend the divine mysteries. She then desired to unite herself with all the Masses and received a vision of the universal Church and of “a multitude of altars where the adorable victim was being sacrificed”… In response to this Love, she offered herself. Love that was totally self-giving!
Through this gift of herself on that day, Mother Thérèse was now “a living offering in praise of his glory.”
She then lived by this principle and constantly renewed her act of surrender. This is evidenced by the third resolution of her retreat in 1874, repeated in 1876: “To live in surrender to Divine Providence and the infinite Mercy of our God through the merits of our Lord. / Long live Jesus – Amen.”
Through this gift of herself on that day, Mother Thérèse was now “a living offering in praise of his glory.”
The letters she continued to write to her sisters and family bore witness to this.
My body was crushed, but my soul possessed its full liberty and my will all its power to surrender itself and to desire to be continually united to the Sovereign Good, which is God himself. I was deprived of Holy Communion, it is true, this was a sacrifice, but I was so well repaid for it by this intimate union of the soul with its God that I may say I desired nothing else. God possesses so many means of uniting himself to souls that he does so when and as he pleases, we do well to let him do so and abandon ourselves to his divine guidance.”
“God alone is everything and takes the place of everything.”
“…may our miseries not lead us far from him. Sometimes I wonder about this and fear it, but I always come back to holy abandonment, to that mercy which is fortunately infinite, and then I go in peace despite my misery, which the good Lord sometimes makes me feel keenly.”
“in the meantime, we ask for patience and complete surrender to God’s will for this good Mother.”
“a religious must belong entirely to God, without division, without restriction, without reserve.”
“later we will see what Providence indicates we should do: we are in His hands and it is good to surrender ourselves to Him and to think that it is He who regulates everything, who orders everything for the greater good of His chosen ones.”
“I seem to perceive in your letter a feeling of pain and sadness that distresses me, and I would be very happy to be able to do something to console you, but I see no other means than to abandon myself entirely into the hands of Divine Providence, which allows or ordains everything that happens to us.”
“Continue to pray to Him to enlighten you about what He is asking of you, and desire only the fulfilment of His most holy will and His good pleasure.”
“But I belong to God and am wholly devoted to God. I leave everything else to His Providence. I accept everything and submit to everything.”
“I am very pleased that you love the (saints) of the Society of Jesus. Pray to them to obtain from God the light necessary (to) know and fulfil the divine will, but it is (not) necessary to ask them to die young like them. If it is God’s will, he knows where you are and he will call you at the moment marked by his providence. So let him do it and desire nothing other than his good pleasure.”
Even today, Mother Thérèse draws us in her wake and invites us to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit.
Dimanche 26 juin [1864]
« Déjà plusieurs fois Notre-Seigneur m’avait fait connaître combien il était utile pour l’avancement d’une âme qui désire sa perfection de se livrer sans réserve à la conduite de l’Esprit Saint. Mais ce matin il a plu à sa divine Bonté de m’en donner encore une vue toute particulière. Je me disposais à commencer ma méditation lorsque j’ai entendu le son de différentes cloches qui appelaient les fidèles à l’assistance aux divins Mystères. Dans ce moment, j’ai désiré m’unir à toutes les messes qui se disaient et ai pour cela dirigé mon intention afin d’y participer. Alors, j’ai vu d’une vue générale, tout l’univers catholique et une multitude d’autels où s’immolait en même temps l’adorable Victime. Le sang de l’Agneau sans tache coulait en abondance sur chacun de ces autels qui m’apparaissaient environnés d’une fumée fort légère qui s’élevait vers le ciel. Mon âme était saisie et pénétrée d’un sentiment d’amour et de reconnaissance à la vue de cette satisfaction si abondante que Notre-Seigneur offrait pour nous. Mais j’étais aussi dans un grand étonnement de ce que le monde entier n’en était pas sanctifié. Je demandai comment il se faisait que le sacrifice de la Croix n’ayant été offert qu’une seule fois ait été suffisant pour racheter toutes les âmes, et que, renouvelé tant de fois, il ne suffit pas à les sanctifier toutes. Voici la réponse que j’ai cru entendre : Le sacrifice est sans doute suffisant par lui-même, et le sang de Jésus-Christ plus que suffisant pour la sanctification d’un million de mondes, mais les âmes manquent de correspondance et de générosité. Or, le grand moyen d’entrer dans la voie de la perfection et de la sainteté, c’est de se livrer à notre bon Dieu.
Mais qu’est-ce que “se livrer” ? Je comprends toute l’étendue du sens de ce mot : se livrer, mais je ne puis l’expliquer.
Je sais seulement qu’il est très étendu, qu’il embrasse le présent et l’avenir.
Se livrer, c’est plus que se dévouer, c’est plus que se donner, c’est même quelque chose de plus que s’abandonner à Dieu.
Se livrer enfin, c’est mourir à tout et à soi-même, ne plus s’occuper du moi que pour le tenir toujours tourné vers Dieu.
Se livrer, c’est encore ne plus se chercher en rien, ni pour le spirituel, ni pour le temporel, c’est-à-dire ne plus chercher de satisfaction propre mais uniquement le bon plaisir divin.
Il faut ajouter que se livrer, c’est aussi cet esprit de détachement qui ne tient à rien, ni pour les personnes, ni pour les choses, ni pour le temps, ni pour les lieux. C’est adhérer à tout, accepter tout, se soumettre à tout.
Mais on va croire peut-être que cela est bien difficile à faire. Qu’on se détrompe, il n’y a rien de si facile à faire et rien de si doux à pratiquer. Le tout consiste à faire une seule fois un acte généreux, en disant avec toute la sincérité de son âme : “Mon Dieu, je veux être tout à vous, daignez accepter mon offrande.” Et tout est dit. Avoir soin désormais de se tenir dans cette disposition d’âme et ne reculer devant aucun des petits sacrifices qui peuvent servir à notre avancement dans la vertu. Se rappeler que l’on s’est livré.
Je prie Notre-Seigneur de donner l’intelligence de ce mot à toutes les âmes désireuses de lui plaire, et de leur inspirer un moyen de sanctification si facile. Oh ! si l’on pouvait comprendre à l’avance quelles sont les douceurs et la paix que l’on goûte quand on ne met pas de réserve avec le Bon Dieu ! Comme il se communique à l’âme qui le cherche sincèrement et qui a su se livrer. Que l’on en fasse l’expérience et l’on verra que c’est là où se trouve le vrai bonheur que l’on cherche en vain sans cela.
L’âme livrée a trouvé le paradis sur la terre, puisqu’elle y jouit de cette douce paix qui fait en partie le bonheur des élus. »
Sunday June 26 [1864]
” Several times already Our Lord had made me aware of how useful it is for the advancement of a soul that desires its perfection to give itself up unreservedly to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But this morning, His Divine Goodness was pleased to give me an even more special insight. I was about to begin my meditation when I heard the sound of various bells calling the faithful to attend the Divine Mysteries. At that moment, I wished to join in with all the masses being said, and so directed my intention to participate. Then I saw, from a general view, the whole Catholic universe and a multitude of altars where the adorable Victim was immolated at the same time. The blood of the spotless Lamb flowed in abundance on each of these altars, which appeared to me surrounded by a very light smoke rising towards heaven. My soul was seized and penetrated by a feeling of love and gratitude at the sight of such abundant satisfaction that Our Lord was offering for us. But I was also astonished that the whole world was not sanctified by it. I asked how it could be that the sacrifice of the Cross, having been offered only once, was sufficient to redeem all souls, and that, renewed so many times, it was not sufficient to sanctify them all. Here’s the answer I thought I heard: The sacrifice is undoubtedly sufficient in itself, and the blood of Jesus Christ more than sufficient for the sanctification of a million worlds, but souls lack correspondence and generosity. Yet the great way to enter the path of perfection and holiness is to surrender ourselves to our good God.
But what does “surrender” mean? I understand the full extent of the meaning of this word: to give oneself up, but I can’t explain it.
I only know that it’s very broad, that it embraces the present and the future.
Surrender is more than devotion, it’s more than giving oneself, it’s even something more than abandoning oneself to God.
Finally, to surrender is to die to everything and to oneself, no longer caring for the self except to keep it always turned towards God.
To surrender is also to no longer seek anything for oneself, neither spiritual nor temporal, i.e. to no longer seek one’s own satisfaction but only the good pleasure of God.
It should be added that surrender is also a spirit of detachment that holds on to nothing, neither people nor things, neither time nor place. It means adhering to everything, accepting everything, submitting to everything.
But you might think that this is very difficult to do. Well, there’s nothing so easy to do, and nothing so gentle to practice. The trick is to perform a single generous act, saying with all the sincerity of your soul: “My God, I want to be all yours, deign to accept my offering.” And all is said. From now on, take care to maintain this attitude, and never shy away from any of the small sacrifices that can help us advance in virtue. Remember that we have given ourselves up.
I pray Our Lord to give understanding of this word to all souls desirous of pleasing him, and to inspire them with such an easy means of sanctification. Oh! if only we could understand in advance what sweetness and peace we enjoy when we have no reservations with the Good Lord! How He communicates Himself to the soul that sincerely seeks Him and has given Himself up. Let’s experience it for ourselves, and we’ll see that this is where we find the true happiness that we otherwise seek in vain.
The surrendered soul has found paradise on earth, since there it enjoys that sweet peace which is in part the happiness of the elect.”