+
Jesus
M.J.T. (September 26, 19101)
My dear little child,
We are will into the Process2 … the diocesan tribunal is sitting at this time to collect our depositions. It is, I assure you, very solemn and important. Pray for us.
We recveive up to 92 letters in a day3. I have three secretaries; our occupations are consoling, no doubt, but they take a great deal of our time … it is why, my little Stanilslaus, I write but only a few lines. But my heart remains always well attached to you. Love Jesus very much in order one day to take you place above, beside ?little Thérèse@. Listen well to her teachings; they will carry you to an always greater confidence in Him Who took you for His little spouse and wishes to press you against His Divine Heart for all eternity and even through each moment of your life on earth.
My good and very dear child, say these words always to Jesus in your prayers: “I cannot pity myself, my Jesus, over that which contents You.”
Goodbye in Him; tell your Reverend and good Mother of all my religious affection; tell your Sisters who cherish “little Thérèse” that I recommend them particularly to this angel in heaven.
Your poor little Mother from Lisieux,
Sr. Agnes of Jesus, r.c.i.
September 26, 1910
You will have some wood from the coffin and several small pieces of clothing1. But wait.
I can no longer send out anything of Mother Marie-Ange2 – patience!
Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart and Sr. Geneviève3 do not forget you.
1 By the time that this letter arrive at its destination, Sr. Stanilslaus was aleady seriously ill. In August of 1910 she had a severe attack of gastritis, and although she tried to resume her duties, she was bedridden by December.
2 The First session of the Ordinary Process began at the Carmel of Lisieux on August 12, 1910. In the course of a year it interviewed a total of forty-eighty witnesses.
Mother Agnes of Jesus testified from August 12-19 and August 27-September 15; Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart from September 6-13; and Sr. Geneviève was testifying at the time that this letter was written – September 14-28, 1910. The other Sisters of the Carmel testified in February and March of 1911.
3 The number of letters arriving at the Carmel would increase dramatically as the Cause progressed: in July, 1914, a daily average of 200 per day was recorded; on a single date (February 9) in 1918, the number was 512.
1The exhumation of the remains of Sr. Thérèse took place in the cemetary of Lisieux on September 6, 1910. The Carmel of Philadelphia still preserves the piece of wood from the coffin and a piece of cloth that was exhumed with the remains, both of which were sent later by Mother Agnes. See Page 8, Note 2.
2Perhaps circulars or information concerning her, or a piece of her Habit, had been requested.
3Blood-sisters of Sr. Thérèse. (See page 7, note 1; page 19, note 2)