Page 32 - Demo

history of spirituality. This page ought to be read a thousand times over for its depth, clarity andbeauty. There, Therese helps her sister, %u201cMarie of the Sacred Heart%u201d, to avoid focusing thisdevotion on suffering, since some had presented reparation primarily in terms of accumulatingsacrifices and good works. Therese, for her part, presents confidence as the greatest and bestoffering, pleasing to the heart of Christ: %u201cMy desires of martyrdom are nothing; they are not whatgive me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my heart. They are, to tell the truth, the spiritualriches that render one unjust, when one rests in them with complacence and one believes thatthey are something great%u2026 what pleases [Jesus] is that he sees me loving my littleness and mypoverty, the blind hope that I have in his mercy%u2026 That is my only treasure%u2026 If you want to feel joy,to have an attraction for suffering, it is your consolation that you are seeking%u2026 Understand that tobe his victim of love, the weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is for theworkings of this consuming and transforming Love%u2026 Oh! How I would like to be able to make youunderstand what I feel!... It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love%u201d.[134]139. In many of her writings, Therese speaks of her struggle with forms of spirituality overlyfocused on human effort, on individual merit, on offering sacrifices and carrying out certain acts inorder to %u201cwin heaven%u201d. For her, %u201cmerit does not consist in doing or in giving much, but rather inreceiving%u201d. [135] Let us read once again some of these deeply meaningful texts where sheemphasizes this and presents it as a simple and rapid means of taking hold of the Lord %u201cby hisheart%u201d.140. To her sister L%u00e9onie she writes, %u201cI assure you that God is much better than you believe. He iscontent with a glance, a sigh of love%u2026 As for me, I find perfection very easy to practise because Ihave understood it is a matter of taking hold of Jesus by his heart%u2026 Look at a little child who hasjust annoyed his mother%u2026 If he comes to her, holding out his little arms, smiling and saying: %u2018Kissme, I will not do it again%u2019, will his mother be able not to press him to her heart tenderly and forgethis childish mischief? However, she knows her dear little one will do it again on the next occasion,but this does not matter; if he takes her again by her heart, he will not be punished%u201d. [136]141. So too, in a letter to Father Adolphe Roulland she writes, %u201c[M]y way is all confidence and love.I do not understand souls who fear a friend so tender. At times, when I am reading certain spiritualtreatises in which perfection is shown through a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd ofillusions, my poor little mind quickly tires; I close the learned book that is breaking my head anddrying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single worduncovers for my soul infinite horizons, perfection seems simple to me. I see that it is sufficient torecognize one%u2019s nothingness and to abandon oneself like a child into God%u2019s arms%u201d. [137]142. In yet another letter, she relates this to the love shown by a parent: %u201cI do not believe that theheart of [a] father could resist the filial confidence of his child, whose sincerity and love he knows.He realizes, however, that more than once his son will fall into the same faults, but he is prepared32