J.M.+ J.T. Carmel of Lisieux
March 2, 1906
Jesus
My dear little Sister and child,
Yes, it is necessary to love “holy pleasures”. It is the good Jesus Who wishes them for us on earth … only they are not permanent … it will only be in heaven, my dear little Sister, that our joys will not need to be renewed because they will last forever.
Shortly, I will send you all that you have asked of me. I am happy to see in you the same intensity as ever toward my little Thérèse. Do not let go of her little hand that wishes so much to led you where she is so happy to have arrived. I ask her to continue to bless and protect your dear monastery and your good and worthy Mother Prioress. I love our Carmel very much, my little child, and as I write to you feel as much at ease as if I were speaking to one of my daughters.
Pray for us! Our God, so good, is offended in our unhappy France. This breaks our hearts. For us it matters little if we be hated, persecuted – but Him! Help us to console Him by our being for Him, as Thérèse was, roses of love and sacrifice.
Goodbye now, my dear little Sister and child. I too remain with you in Jesus.
Your “little Mother”,
Sr. Agnes of Jesus, r.c.i.
I have received the postal voucher for 10 francs.
Did I tell you that Sr. Geneviève of St. Teresa (Céline) has painted a Holy Face that the Holy Father has enriched with indulgences without number1? He has also deigned to attach 300 days’ indulgence to a prayer to the Holy Face by our “little Thérèse”.
In the new edition2 that is going to appear in a month, there will also be this print of the Holy Face and the prayer of our angel.
1 Sr. Geneviève’s portrait of the Holy Face is taken from the photographic negative of the Shroud of Turin, made in 1898. The picture revealed for the first time the fact that the image on the holy relic was an actual photographic negative, because the photographic negative made from the Shroud showed a striking positive image of Our Lord in death. Pope St. Pius X granted the indulgences , of which Mother Agnes speaks, in February, 1906.
2Of the Story of a Soul.