Oh, let me tell thee face to face, dear Mary, how I love thee,
And say to thee forevermore: I am thy little child."
How much pain she bore with Mary's aid—and with what joy! How much could I cheerfully bear if I were in very truth Mary's "little child"!
(3) The Book of Jesus Crucified.—The Crucifix was in very truth the "book" of St. Therese; she read in it many times daily and studied it profoundly.
(a) In the first place, she busied herself with the Passion as a whole—she fathomed the science of a God suffering for love of His creatures and felt her love grow warm in return. The first sermon which she understood as a child was one on the Passion. Later the words of Isaias depicting the "Man of Sorrows" were made by her the "basis of her whole spirituality." She understood that "true glory and the only royalty to be coveted lies in being unknown and esteemed as naught," like Jesus Crucified. Seeing man so unmindful of this love, she wrote: "My heart was torn with grief to see the Precious Blood falling to the ground with no one caring to treasure It as It fell, and I resolved to remain in spirit at the foot of the Cross, that I might receive the divine dew of salvation and pour it out upon souls." She called herself "a little flower which unfolded itself under the shadow of the Cross, having for refreshing dew His tears, His Precious Blood, and for radiant sun His Adorable Face." She was deeply devoted to the Way of the Cross.
(b) In her love of Jesus Crucified it was especially to the Holy Face that she was particularly attracted, and here she was ever "discovering new beauties that entranced her soul." It was her "home, her kingdom, her sun." Confined to her bed of pain, she delighted, in imitation of Veronica, to wipe the image of the Holy Face with rose petals, "to offer my Jesus some little consolation." This same Holy Face was her bulwark and strength in her fearful temptations against faith: "Mother, how I was tempted last night; but I looked at the Holy Face all the time and made acts of faith."
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