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Harvest of Flowers "The flowers have appeared in our land." Canticle of Canticles, ii, 12 One of Saint Theresa Margaret Redi's characteristic virtues was love of the hidden life. To work and suffer, seen only by the eyes of God, was her heart's chief desire. The result is that few of her sayings have come down to us. Of her writings we have more, but these we have in direct opposition to her will. What she wrote was generally addressed to her spiritual director with the request that he destroy after reading. The little we have is not of a personal nature -- rare beauty characterizes it all. Glancing at these pages that have, miraculously, we might say, escaped the ravages of time, wars, revolutions, suppressions of convents that followed the Saint's death, causes us to hear once more that sweet voice resounding, after the silence of a century and a half, in the solitude of that dear Carmel where its owner spent her few short years of life, martyrizing herself in the ardor of her love for God. The Scripture verses, "The turtle-dove is heard in our land ... the flowers have appeared in our land," come at once and of their own accord into our thoughts and make us ask ourselves if we ought not, now that Holy Church has crowned the brow of this humble Carmelite with the aureola of Sanctity, make the echo of her voice travel afar from Carmel's sacred enclosure. In this thought, it has seemed only right to gather into one sheaf the "little flowers" that are the musings of her mind and the outpourings of her heart, culled not only from her writings but also from the memories of her companions in religion or from the testimony given during the Processes for her Beatification and Canonization, and to present them joyfully to the world in their sweet simplicity. Let us never forget that, although our Saint came from a family whose literary genius seems to have been patrimonial, for herself she sought only the "science of love" and that of it alone she understood the language. I. OF THE LOVE OF GOD. "My God, is there any other than Thee that I desire, on this earth or in Heaven? Thou alone art, Thou alone shalt be the sole Lord of my heart and my will. Thou alone art my portion, my wealth in time and eternity" (Aspirations). "The sole anxiety of a religious should be, to acquire the perfection proper to her state, the cleansing of her own heart and the living in union with God" (Maxims). "Set your mind on living wholly recollected in yourself and in God. Thus ought all a nun's thoughts and affections be divided (between God and self), for a nun is set apart from the world for the very purpose of attending only to God and to herself" (Advice to a Sister). "Nothing do I do to respond to Divine Love ... I feel continuously within me the Supreme Good reproaching me, and, on the other hand, everything seems to prevent me from rushing to God and uniting myself to Him ... no other remedy is there except to work in faith; but it is hard to believe what bitter nourishment it is to live without love, for the one that burns with longing for this love" (Letter to Friar Ildephonse, December 19, 1768). "If I should see hell opening to receive me, I would still love my Savior" (Sayings). "Enough to keep closed those outer gates which are the senses ... then the soul can go nowhere else than to its center, God" (Process -- Sayings). "I propose, O my God, to have only one aim in all that I do, within or without, and that one aim is love ... reminding myself always that I must render love for love" (Resolutions, 1768). "My only Love, wholly in Thee do I abandon myself, that in me, in accordance with Thy designs, Thou mayest work" (Ibid). "I desire to love Thee, O my God, with a love that is patient, with a love that abandons itself wholly to Thee, with a love that acts, and, most important of all, with a love that perseveres" (Ibid). "Dispose of me as best pleases Thee, provided I follow Thee on the way to Calvary: the heavier I find Thy Cross, the thornier Thy path for me, the more content shall I be" (Ibid). "You must know that I cannot do less than admire that loving guidance of our good God that has brought me to this holy Place (Carmel) ... I thank Him for having made me victor over myself, and for having freed my heart from those many attachments that cut it off from the only object in which it ought to repose" (To Mother Maria Anna (Albizi), St. Apollonia's Convent, January 5, 1769). "Let us never worry over God's disposings; but let us leave everything to Him, uniting ourselves to His intentions, and thus we shall love Him with purest love" (Maxims). "Just as one who loves a creature of it thinks often, so let the lover of God have Him often in his thoughts" (Maxims). "Nothing must stand in our way when it is a question of acquiring the true and perfect love of God" (Maxims). "Let us do everything for love and, remembering that love longs for love alone, nothing can appear hard to us" (Ibid). "To gain possession of this Love, Which is God Himself, nothing, no matter how fatiguing, should seem hard to us, and we should recoil from no difficulties we may meet in the way" (To Mother Anna Maria of St. Anthony of Padua). "The mirror into which we must look in order to attain divine love is Jesus Christ, for no one can attain this love except through Jesus Crucified and through His merits" (Ibid). "Please listen ... in these plants God, without speaking, speaks to us, and reminds us that we must love Him" (Ibid ... in the garden). "Love cannot bear the thought of repose or delay ... it's life is to suffer for the Beloved" (Maxims). "I sense in my heart such a flame of divine love that I feel myself transported towards intimate union with Him" (Letter to her uncle James, the Jesuit Father). "Our good God desires ardently to give us the great treasure of His love, but He wishes that our demand for it be pressing and constant, and that we so labor that everything we do may be considered as supplication for this love" (Thoughts). II. OF THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. Once when she was urged by a sick nun, whom she was attending, to go to the choir and prepare for Holy Communion which was about to be given, she said, "Lingering here actually causes me to suffer, yet, since Obedience would have me here taking care of you rather than in the choir, I believe that doing what I have to do here well is the best preparation for Communion, since God is restricted to neither time nor place" (To Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). "If the actions of our neighbors had a hundred sides, we ought always to look at them on the best side" (Ibid). "When an action is blameworthy, we should strive to see good intentions back of it" (Ibid). While she was infirmarian, if a sick person asked her for something that would be harmful rather than helpful, she would say, "Now is the time to offer Jesus this sacrifice which He expects of you" (Memories). "See to it that you are all God's in love, all your Superiors' in obedience, all your neighbors' in charity" (To a Sister). "Act without expecting recompense from creatures ... always advance, doing good for evil" (Writings). "Of ministers of God and all superiors it is becoming to speak with great respect and caution, because, doing otherwise, it is very easy to be guilty of great imperfection" (Ibid). "Never worry about the failures of others but take the matter to yourself; if we seldom succeed in doing what we desire, what right have we to grieve if others do no better?" (Ibid). In her affection and gratitude to the religious of St. Apollonia's, where she had been educated, she used to say, "If I could cut myself in two, I would become, half of me, a nun at St. Theresa's, the other half a nun at St. Apollonia's" (Memories). When one of the Sisters one day had received a public reprimand and showed that she was suffering very much under it, the Saint said to her, in a comforting way, "Now is the time to heap up merit for blessed eternity by making to Jesus an offering of the discomfiture that you feel, by making a little nosegay of your sufferings and offering it to Him, then forgetting them forever, excusing and pardoning all" (Memories). "Let us never forget that Our Holy Mother founded our monasteries principally to help by prayer those who wear themselves out in leading souls to God. If in this we fail we depart wholly from her spirit, and the Holy Mother will not regard us as her children" (Words which the Saint frequently said to Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). III. OF FAITH AND OF HOPE. "All God's dispositions are so many little steps of that mysterious ladder which leads us up to the eternal possession of the desired goal (eternal life). Therefore let us take everything as coming from the hand of God, and we shall be happy" (Maxims). "We are in the hands of our good God, the Father of all consolation; everything He sends or permits will, although it may be hard so to understand now, redound to our greater good" (Maxims). "What is there to fear, if God has promised to hear us whenever we shall have recourse to Him?" (Ibid). "What a fine thing it is to pray to Him Whose will it is to give! So far as God is concerned it is enough, to be heard and answered, to open our mouths in prayer and tell Him what we want ... could one do less to be favored? (Ibid). "How wonderful to think that our good Jesus, even while we sleep, amuse ourselves, or have no thought of Him, or of ourselves, never ceases to pray to the Eternal God, His Father, for us!" (Ibid). "Oh, how much good is our dear God always doing us!" (Ibid). "Rest assured that, no matter how things may go, all will always go well for us, since God always disposes best for us" (To the Sisters). "Let us place all our trust in God, and let us always remember that it is a matter of faith that God gives us strength in accordance with His demands on us" (Ibid). "Let us trust in God, let us trust in God Who is so good and benevolent; He will not abandon us ... we need not fear" (Ibid). "Do you not see how God helps us so that, at the journey's end, everything is finished?" (Ibid). "It is my wish to live on trust in Thee, O Lord... I hope for final salvation" (Can. Proc. -- Saying). "Father, shall I be saved? ... assuredly, if I hope for salvation through love and the Father's infinite goodness, and through the merits of that Jesus Who belongs both to the Father and to me!" (To Friar Ildephonse). "Taste and know, you who believe not, you who burn not to be bound unto His side, how good and generous is our most beloved God!" (Can. Proc. -- Sayings). IV. OF HUMILITY. "The poorer, the more wretched am I in myself, the richer and stronger am I in God" (Can. Proc. -- Sayings). "God shall be the more glorious in His mercy as I, in my wretched lowness, prove to be vile in my nothingness, my sins, my weaknesses" (Ibid). "When a God has so humiliated Himself for us, is there any depth of humility to which we would not be willing to sink?" (Ibid). Towards the end of her life, particularly, the Saint used to say, "If people knew how bad I actually am, they would never stand near me!" (Ibid). "Let us not think that, when things go well with us, it is because of our prayers; on the other hand, when things have not gone so well, let us place the blame where it belongs, on our sins" (Thoughts). "The spirit of Jesus is the spirit of subjection, simplicity, humility, and kindness" (Ibid). When she returned from boarding school to her father's house, the Saint frequently showed unwillingness to inconvenience the servants; she actually believed that she was unworthy of the service she received, and blushed when she had to submit to it (Deposition of Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). The Saint would frequently say, "I cannot understand how God has given me this great grace of being located here in this garden of angels (the Monastery)" (Ibid). The Saint often wondered "how Our Holy Mother had been so definite and emphatic in her desire to have her in this paradise of such angels as her Daughters assuredly were" (Ibid). * "Let us seek that Love Who has created and redeemed us, and now commands us to love Him ... if we yearn to find Him, this the way ... humility of heart and simplicity of spirit" (To the Nuns). "Thus, as love makes lovers conform, so we, lovers of Jesus, ought to become humble like Jesus, sweet like Jesus; and His humility shall teach us how to become glad again when we shall be contemned, how to be silent when nature shall make us seek to excuse ourselves" (Ibid). "How wonderful for us that our good Jesus, reigning gloriously at the right hand of the Father, bothers with our wretched miseries, and deigns continually to perform for us the office of humble intercessor!" (Can. Proc. -- Sayings). V. OF OBEDIENCE. She resolved to live willingly in, on, and under pure obedience, and therefore in everything she did she strove to be able to say to herself, "This I do through obedience, and with obedience" (Can. Proc. -- Dep. of Friar Ildephonse). "If everything here in the Monastery is done through obedience, it seems to me that God cannot destroy His work" (that is, by allowing external occupations to be an impediment to union with Him) (To Friar Ildephonse). VI. OF POVERTY. When the Saint was asked, with some insistence, by her father what she wished him to give her, she answered, "I want nothing, dear Father, and have need of nothing. So great is the gift you gave me when you allowed me to clothe myself in this holy habit that, if from morning to night I prostrated myself to the ground to thank you, I should always be doing less than I ought" (Can. Proc.). In the last few hours of her life the physician prescribed a few drops of laudanum. She followed the prescription gratefully, protesting, at the same time, that the medicine was too good and precious to be wasted on a poor discalced nun who did not at all merit such attention! (Can. Proc. -- Deposition of Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). VII. OF SILENCE. "He who loves peace, sees, suffers, and is silent" (To the Sisters). "If we wish to make saints of ourselves, we must work and suffer in silence, keeping our souls in peace" (Ibid). "When speech is not a remedy, it is best for us to remain silent, and give ourselves to prayer, thus leaving the matter to God in a heart-to-heart talk between Him and ourselves" (Ibid). She had resolved to strive only to please God in herself and in her neighbor and to unite herself to Him, especially through humble and patient silence in everything that it was to be her lot to suffer (Can. Proc. -- Dep. of Mother Anna Maria of St. Anthony of Padua). The Saint was accustomed to say that in disasters, troubles, and hopeless (at least humanly so) matters, the one remedy was "patience, silence, resignation, and prayer" (Memories). VIII. OF MORTIFICATION. "Prudence and guarding of the heart are necessary to the one who would walk well and securely in the ways of God" (Maxims). "The intellect, memory, and the senses must be mortified so that they may become spiritual, so that even they, together with the soul, find their only delight in God, that we may be able to exclaim, "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God' (Psalm 83, 2)" (Ibid). "You must take good care not to give yourself over wholly and with too much preoccupation to external works, to which, after all, we should give only what is necessary, keeping everything else (that is, the mind and the heart) for God" (To a Sister). The Saint had made a resolution never to let slip an occasion of suffering that might be offered, and a further resolution to suffer as much as she could in silence between herself and God (Can. Proc. -- Dep. of Mother Maria Anna of St. Anthony of Padua). IX. OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART AND TO The Saint regarded the Sacred Heart as the center of love Whence the Divine Word has loved us from all eternity ... therefore her devotion consisted of loving Him in return consistently and always. She wished to be called "of the Sacred Heart," showing by this that she did not will to live or even to breathe without returning His love with all her might (Can. Proc. Deposition of Friar Ildephonse). "Yes, my God, You know well that no other longing have I than to be a victim of Your Sacred Heart, entirely consumed as a holocaust in the furnace of Your holy love" (Resolutions of the Saint). "Your Heart shall be the altar of this my consummation in You, O my God; and You shall be the priest Who shall immolate this victim in the furnace of Your holy love" (Ibid). "Therefore, O my God, inspire me to make myself in everything like to You, in as far as I can; particularly do I desire to imitate You in those virtues most pleasing to Your most amiable Heart, that is, humility, gentleness, obedience" (Ibid). In moments of strife and darkness of spirit, "I recommend myself to the Most Holy Virgin that she may put me into the Heart of Jesus; then I imagine myself re-entering His Heart through her, and then I ask His pardon for having separated myself from Him, and I make Him anew the offering of my whole self" (Letter to Friar Ildephonse, November 4, 1769). "Since nothing else do I desire than to make myself one with the Heart of Jesus, therefore I make it my business to persist in the practice of those virtues that can make me a true copy of my dear Sovereign Good" (Ibid). X. DEVOTION TO MOST HOLY MARY. "Let them recommend themselves to God," the Saint would say to the religious, "and they shall see themselves consoled by Him. Let them have recourse to the intercession of Most Holy Mary in all their necessities, and they shall always be heard" (Can. Proc. -- Deposition of Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). The Saint used to place her sick patients under the charge of the Blessed Virgin, and then go to sleep most tranquilly, saying, "Let them put their absolute confidence in her assistance, for they are in good hands" (Ibid). "Bless us, dear Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, Advocate and Consoler of all those who place their trust in thee" (Aspirations). "Mother of Mercy, give us strength against all our enemies, so that, with thy help, we may always come forth from the fray victorious" (Ibid). XI. MISCELLANEOUS. "If the Lord wants us, He is Lord and can gather us in with His almighty hand where He will, and when He will" (Saint's words on occasions of danger). At the moment of leaving her father forever, when she made her solemn profession in Carmel, she seemed, as she said rather innocently to several of the religious, "to be cutting her soul out of her body" (Memories). "How is it possible that men can do anything that would offend God! Oh, it cannot be true, they cannot have had the intention of doing evil!" (Sayings). "Everything comes to an end; therefore take heart, for we pass from one thing to another until at last we arrive at eternity. Even seeing how things of this world end so quickly ought to console us, because the nearer and more quickly are we approaching that end towards which all our activities should tend" (To one of the Religious). I. I shall never act in anger, or in anxiety. "One must remember," the Saint used to say, "to make use of spiritual directors through pure necessity, for frequently it happens that what begin with being conferences in spirit end with being conferences in self-love" (Can. Proc. -- Dep. of Mother Theresa Maria of the Most Holy Conception). "If we live and move in God, it does not seem possible to me that His company and His love can prevent us from moving and working externally, too" (To Friar Ildephonse). "Every day I realize more and more the great mercy the Lord has shown me in placing me in a sanctuary such as this (the Monastery) ; where I find my every desire, where I am always content" (To her father). "A discalced religious is obliged never to speak a word without necessity, never to look at what is not needful ... if she so acts all the time of her life, let her know that she shall not be acting in excess of virtue, but merely fulfilling her obligation. It is wholly certain that for uttering one useless word, that for one superfluous glance, she must stay in Purgatory" (Writing on a card pinned at the entrance of the Saint's cell). "Lord, give me greater patience, that I may be able to suffer still more for Thee" (Words of the Saint, when she was dying). * This refers to the locution she received from St. Theresa of Jesus. See Chapter V.
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