J. M. J. T.
Carmel of Lisieux
November 25, 1925
My dear Sister Ignatius,
I received your kind and interesting letter on the 13th inst. [the current month] and would have acknowledged it sooner, only I was awaiting the photographs of your chapel as you said you would send them. So far they have not come, so I think I am better not to wait any longer to thank you for your letter and donation. I hope the photographs are good and that they will come soon as we care very much for them. Your chapel was surely a “bijou” [jewel], for after what you say of the decorations it was surely marvelous. But what was still more marvelous was the love with which all this was done.
Our saint knows all the time and patience it has taken to prepare such a splendor and above all she sees the love. As her motto is always “Love is repaid by Love,” see what an amount of sisterly love she must have for you all.
Many thanks for the programme of the Tridium. But I have not the cuttings you speak of. Oh! How proud Srs. Mary & Stanislaus must have been of their Carmel. Now they see plainly all that has been done there for the glory of our saint. I think of these dear Sisters and of Rev. Mother Beatrix who did so much from the beginning and I like to remember our saint of it [remind our saint of it], not forgetting all the dear Mothers & Sisters of Phila. who, in a way or another have also helped.
I regret so much to say that we cannot give any relic of the bones as we have no more to dispose of. We could send to the good priest a relic “expulvere sepulchri mixto pulveri corporis.” [you are dust, mixed with the dust of the grave]. It is the best we have and keep it for churches. We cannot send it in a reliquary but in a small packet sealed with the postulator’s coat of arms. It must be put in a reliquary, and then the bishop gives a written authentic. [authentication].
On the 27th December we will have a solemn Te Deum to thank God for the blessings of this year of the Canonization, and on the 31st Dec. in union with Rome and the whole Church we will have one also for the jubilee year. However we can say that the feasts are finished and now that we
find our usual life we seem to enjoy more the souvenirs of the feasts than the feasts themselves. As said our Rev. Mother it seems as it must have been after the Resurrection, the apostles had to return to their fishing, to earn their bread but how transformed, after all the graces they received, their profession was to them.
I hope you are not too tired and that Rev. Mother Beatrice is keeping well. Please give her my respectful love, for indeed I love her as much as her own daughters do.
In case I cannot write before Xmas I send my best wishes to Rev. Mother and to all the Sisters for a happy Xmas and holy new year. Commending myself to your good prayers, I remain, dear Sister Ignatius, your loving sister,
Sr. Anne of Jesus
We have no paper petals with English wording.
