God, then, with all His omnipotence, was ever at hand, more intimately present to her than her soul was to her body, and conscious of this sweet presence, she cried out: "I cannot well see what more I shall have in heaven than I have now; I shall see God, it is true, but as to being with Him, I am that already on earth." This thought was not only her joy, but also her strength:
"My heaven in the Trinity I find,
Within my heart my Prisoner of love;
There seeing God, fearless my life I bind
To serve, to love, nor seek reward above."
She, too, could exclaim with her holy patroness: "God and I are a majority!" As the tide of suffering rose higher, it was this thought that gave her new courage and confidence, and during her last days she wrote in pencil and with a trembling hand the following lines: "My God, how good Thou art to Thy little victim of Thy merciful love. Now, even when Thou joinest these bodily pains to those of my soul, I cannot bring myself to say: 'The anguish of death hath encompassed me!' I rather cry out in my gratitude: 'I have gone down into the valley of the shadow of death, but I fear no evil, because Thou art with me.'" How did she attain to such an unbroken, loving consciousness of the abiding presence of the Blessed Trinity in her heart? By forming the habit of living with God, her "Treasure," in her heart, for, as she confessed: "Scarcely three minutes ever pass without a loving thought of God." What a great saint she became! With me it is perhaps hours that pass without such a thought, and I still wonder at my weakness in suffering?
(2) The Gentle Hand of Jesus in All.—Being penetrated with a deep and living faith in the indwelling of the heavenly Father in her heart, St. Therese saw nothing come to her, whether joy or pain, directly from creatures, but all from His loving hand—it was always His hand writing on the signed sheet she had given Him; knowing how deeply He loved and watched over her, since His love was above all one of infinite and paternal tenderness, she was firmly convinced that ALL He sent was for her good. In the guidance of her Prioress, whether mild or severe, she saw
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