On the evening of Love, speaking without parable,
Jesus said: “If anyone wishes to love me
All his life, let him keep my Word.
My Father and I will come to visit him.
And we will make his heart our dwelling.
Coming to him, we shall love him always.
We want him to remain, filled with peace,
In our Love!…”
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus
PN 17, Stanza 1
Living on Love!
Featured image: Detail of St. Thérèse’s manuscript copy of Vivre d’Amour (Living on Love), one of the masterpieces of Thérèsienne poetry. You can read all of the poems of Thérèse online in English at the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.
I haven’t got it verbatim, but He said the Father’s commands are simple, to believe in the One He has sent. And elsewhere, of course, to love our neighbour as ourselves. As a self help manual I own reads, “Simple, but not easy. It meant the destruction of self centeredness…” And St Therese embodied this to the hilt.
Yes!
Of course, it is far less preached-upon, but He did say, elsewhere, that we are to love our neighbours as He loves them. That tends to be kept quiet, and is far more demanding – and, again, St Therese was perfect at this higher standard, IMHO, although she would never have said so herself.
PPS you will never know how grateful I am to you, for keeping me in Carmel, when my Community ended my journey as Aspirant.
You don’t know how grateful we are for YOU!
Now I’m crying!!!
I haven’t got what it takes to blog myself, but I have, as one of my inspirations in life, something I read many years ago: “If you can’t win, make sure the one in front of you breaks the record!”…