Quote of the day, 21 November: St. Thérèse of Lisieux

As is so often the case with the pen of Therese, this stanza was rooted in a small but concrete incident, and the concluding lines were first written by another person. In her memoirs, Celine mentions that in March 1895, about a month after she received the habit, she was with Therese in the monastery garden. Seeing the first snowdrops, Celine was about to pick one when Therese reminded her that she could not do so without permission. That she was no longer free even to pluck a tiny flower grieved Celine. “Back in her cell, Celine tried to find consolation by reminding Jesus in a poem of all that she had given up for Him. But the muse, who was never favorable to her, disappointed her this time, too. Only these words broke through her sadness:
The flower that I pluck, O my King,
Is You!
The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, ed. Donald Kinney, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996, p. 100).
Therese wrote “The Canticle of Celine” to remind her sister that “In You, Jesus, I have everything!”