Words Set Down During The Last Months Of Our Saintly Little Therese’
(Sister Agnes of Jesus)
Fortunately for us, those who attended St. Therese' during her last illness, from July to September in 1897, not only listened to her conversations, but wrote them down.
June 5, 1897
“If you find me dead in the morning, don’t be troubled; it is because Papa, God, will have come to get me. Without a doubt, it is a great grace to receive the sacraments; but when God does not allow it, it’s good just the same; everything is grace.
June 9, 1897
It is said in the Gospel that God will come like a Thief. He will come to steal me away very gently. Oh how I would love to aid the Thief!”
“I’m not afraid of the Thief. I see Him in the distance, and I take good care not to call out: ‘Help Thief!’ On the contrary, I call to Him saying: “Over here, over here!”
June 27, 1897
"How unhappy I shall be in Heaven if I cannot do favors on earth for those whom I love.”
July 4, 1897
“Our Lord died on the Cross in agony, and yet this is the most beautiful death of love. This is the only one that was seen; no one saw that of the Blessed Virgin. To die of love is not to die in transports. I tell you frankly, it seems to me that this is what I am experiencing.”
July 8, 1897
“It makes us so good when we are suffering; it leads to more observance and charity.”
July 24, 1897
“I’m like a little child during my sickness; I don’t think of anything. I am content to go to heaven and that is it.”
July 30, 1897
“I would not want to have picked up a pin to avoid purgatory. Everything I did was done to please God, to save souls for Him”
August 3, 1897
‘No, I don’t believe I am a great saint; I believe I am a very little saint, but I think God has been pleased to place things in me which will do good to me and to others.”
August 7, 1897
“Oh, how little God is loved on this earth, even by priests and religious! God isn’t loved very much.”
August 19, 1897
“I am suffering only for an instant. It’s because we think of the past and the future that we become discouraged and fall into despair.”
August 25, 1897
“Oh! How I complain! However, I wouldn’t want to suffer less.”
September 2, 1897
‘I shall go; I shall go very soon; if you only knew how quickly I will make my journey. When we accept our disappointment at our failure, God immediately returns to us.”
September 9, 1897
“Yes! What a grace it is to have faith! If I had not had any faith, I would have committed suicide without an instant’s hesitation.”
“Soon I will speak only the language of angels.’
September 25,1897
“As far as little ones are concerned, they will be judged with great gentleness. And one can remain little, even in the most formidable offices, even when living for a long time. If I were to die at the age of eighty, anywhere, I would still die, I feel, as little as I am today. And it is written, “At the end, the Lord will rise up to save the gentle and humble of the earth.” It doesn’t say to ‘judge”, but the “save”.
September 30, 1897
Day of Her Holy Death
“My God, have pity on Your poor little child! Have pity on her!”
“Oh Mother, I assure you, the chalice is filled to the brim!….But God is not going to abandon me I am sure…He never has abandoned me. Yes my God, everything that you will, but have pity on me! My God, my God, you are so good! Oh, yes, you are good and I know it!….”
”Oh, Mother, present me to the Blessed Virgin; I’m a baby who can’t stand anymore…prepare me for death! Never would I have believed it was impossible to suffer so much, never! Never! I cannot explain this except by the ardent desires I have to save souls.”
At six o’clock, when the Angelus was ringing, she looked at the statue of the Blessed Virgin for a long time. Finally at a few minutes past seven, mother dismissed the community and she (St. Therese’) sighed;
“Mother, isn’t this the agony?”
"Yes my poor little one, it’s the agony, but God perhaps will to prolong it for several hours."
Therese’ answered with courage; “Well…. All right…All Right! Oh, I wouldn’t want to suffer for a shorter time!’
After looking at her Crucifix:
“Oh! I love Him…My God, I love you!”
Suddenly after having pronounced these words, she fell back, her head leaning to the right. After her death, she had a Heavenly smile. She was ravishingly beautiful. She was holding her crucifix so tightly that we had to force it from her hands. Her limbs were supple right up to her burial on Monday, October 4, 1897
Sister Agnes of Jesus
St. Therese’ Act of Oblation
In order that my life may be one of perfect love,
I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to Thy
Merciful Love, Oh Jesus, imploring Thee to consume
Me unceasingly, and to allow the floods of Infinite
Tenderness gathered up in Thee to overflow into
my soul, so that I may become a very martyr of
Thy Love, Oh my God! May this martyrdom, after having
prepared me to appear in Thy Presence, free me from this
life at the last, and my soul takes it’s flight without delay
into the Eternal Embrace of Thy Merciful Love.
O my Beloved, I desire with every beat of my heart, to renew this oblation
an infinite number of times. “till the shadows retire”, and everlastingly
I can tell Thee of my love face to Face.
St. Therese'
PRAY FOR ME!
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