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CHAPTER XI.
SOLEMN PROFESSION.
"My Beloved to me, and I to Him." — CANT. II, 16.
The 12th of March, 1766, was the much desired and ever blessed day of the Venerable Sister's solemn profession. How sweet and at the same time edifying it would be for us to penetrate deeply into this soul, where all was a harmonious concert of love for the Beloved. He alone heard her fervent sighs, her longings to embrace Him at daybreak; He alone interiorly received her irrevocable vows, consecrating her to Him, body and soul, for time and eternity. "At the moment of her profession," says an eye-witness, "one would have called her a seraph. At so lovely a sight the religious were deeply touched and could not restrain their tears." The happy victim of divine love, inundated with sweetness, received from our Lord a superabundance of interior consolations. Fearing to betray her secret, she earnestly entreated the Mother Prioress not to take her out of retreat until the following day. This favor was granted her that she might enjoy to the full the ineffable happiness of her mystic nuptials. The following day the Mistress of Novices led the newly professed to the evening recreation. Welcomed by the community, happy at having her once more among them, she was radiant with joy and thanked the Sisters for the inestimable favor of her profession, which, binding her to our Lord, fixed her forever in this blessed monastery. On the 6th of April she received the sacred veil, symbol of her solemn consecration. According to their Constitutions, the Discalced Carmelites pronounce their vows in presence of the community and without any outside witnesses. But the taking of the veil publicly follows this, their private profession. Great was the concourse of the nobility and the people at this ceremony, and all departed wonderfully edified and impressed by the marvelous modesty and devotion of this new Spouse of our Lord. Now at last our dear Sister Teresa Margaret returns to the common life, completely occupied with putting in practice her resolutions of "changing her life," redoubling her exactness in the least details of religious observance, above all applying her heart to a strict union of love. Ever to increase in divine love was the dominant life-trait of this most pure and mortified soul. Only four years remained to her here below, during which she was to pay the price of this victory. This course was very short, but it sufficed to make of her a perfect model of the religious life, and to merit the glory of being the living copy and the worthy sister of the angelic Saint Aloysius of Gonzaga. To her may be applied the praise from scripture: "Being made perfect in a short space, she fulfilled a long time;" for, said Father Ildefonso, "she aspired in all things to the sublime and perfect. Such, it always seemed to me, was the ever-persevering effort of her interior endeavor, such also was her hidden life." And by these means this young religious quickly attained the eminent degree of virtue which we will consider, with some details, in the following chapters.
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