Thérèse of Lisieux: Difference between revisions

She became acting mistress of novices in 1893 and considered it her mission to teach souls her “little way.” Her path was a path of love, for, she wrote, “it is only love which makes us acceptable to God.” Her favorite works were those of [[Saint John of the Cross]], the Gospels and ''The Imitation of Christ''. She desired only “to make God loved as I love Him, to teach souls my little way”—the way of “spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.”

<blockquote>There is in the community a sister who has the faculty of displeasing me in everything, in her ways, her words, her character, everything seems very ''disagreeable'' to me. And still, she is a holy religious who must be very pleasing to God. Not wishing to give in to the natural antipathy I was experiencing, I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works; then I set myself to doing for this Sister what I would do for the person I loved the most.... I wasn’t content simply with praying very much for this Sister who gave me so many struggles, but I took care to render her all the services possible, and when I was tempted to answer her back in a disagreeable manner, I was content with giving her my most friendly smile and with changing the subject of the conversation....</blockquote>

<blockquote>Frequently, when ... I had occasion to work with this Sister, I used to run away like a deserter whenever my struggles became too violent.... Never did she suspect the motives for my conduct, and she remained convinced that her character was very pleasing to me.<ref>''Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux'', trans. John Clarke, 2d ed. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1976), pp. 222–23.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>Following my ascension, I was accorded the grant to spend a portion of my heavens on earth. But for another portion, the Father did assign me to study under the three masters [[El Morya]], [[Kuthumi|Koot Hoomi]] and [[Djwal Kul]]. These [[Three Wise Men|three wise men]], [[adept]]s of the East who did come and tend the birth of the Lord Christ, therefore did tend with me the full flowering and birth of that Christ in my being multiplied many times over by their presence after my [[ascension]].</blockquote>

<blockquote>Therefore, through their hearts I did learn the mysteries of the East, the profundity of the message of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] and his oneness with our Lord. Thread upon thread, they did assist me in weaving and weaving again the fullness of the garment of light that does comprise the whole complement of the teaching of God to this age.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Therefore, beloved, I had full opportunity to receive that instruction that did fill in for me all of those sacred mysteries that had not been revealed through the established Church. Therefore you understand that much teaching that is given to you in this hour I received at inner levels after my ascension.</blockquote>

<blockquote>As I did say recently, there are many in the Church who have had the holiness and the sanctity and the purity [prerequisite for sainthood] but because the powers that be in this world who have seated themselves in these positions of power in the Church hierarchy have not seen fit to deliver the [[Everlasting Gospel]] to the people, those who qualified for the ascension and for sainthood could not receive that promotion, and therefore they did reincarnate.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Blessed ones, I desire not to give you any cause for personal pride or spiritual pride, but I am here to tell you that some who are in this place are among those who have reincarnated because they have been “shortchanged,” as you would say, by the Church and its tradition.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Therefore, beloved, I come to tell you that the way of discipleship can be seen by you as a thousand stairs upon a thousand-tiered golden spiral, and that step by step there is an orderly path of discipline. These masters who have sponsored your messenger and this activity, who have supported Jesus in establishing through the messengers the true [[Church Universal and Triumphant]] on earth, have seen fit to also establish an ordered ritual, for they are fully aware what it takes to mount one of these steps.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The figure of the nun burdened with the cancer in her body, concealing this from all others and occupying herself with the humble task of scrubbing the stairs of the enclave<ref>[[Saint Bernadette]] (1844–1879), a devout peasant to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared 18 times in a grotto near [[Lourdes]], France, when she was 14, endured the painful and debilitating disease of tuberculosis of the bone for more than seven years while she served as a Sister of Notre Dame at the Convent of Saint-Gildard. During the last two years of her life she developed a large tumor on her knee, which she kept a secret as long as she could so she would not be relieved of her duties, as portrayed in the film ''The Song of Bernadette'' (1943) based on Franz Werfel’s novel by the same name.</ref> must be seen as archetypal of the soul who, bearing her karma, recognizes that she must clear the debris in each step of consciousness, scrubbing by the [[violet flame]] until that level of record and ideation is fully and wholly transmuted. In the process, she may mount a single step. In past ages it would take a soul perhaps an entire lifetime to mount a single step, for the only purging of [[karma]] and record and self, as well as its outcropping in the body as disease, would be manifest through prayer and works of penance.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Thus, beloved, to know “how great, how great thou art, O God, my Father, my Mother, how great is the gift of the violet flame!” you must establish a co-measurement, a sense of realism that such a gift is also an experiment. For it is a dispensation for which ascended beings of the seventh ray, not the least of whom being your beloved [[Saint Germain]], have given this opportunity. And after a certain lapse of cycles, they will give accounting before the [[Lords of Karma]] and the [[four and twenty elders]] who stand round the great white throne, and they shall determine whether a people have taken that flame and used it only to deliver themselves of their discomforts, or whether they have used it seriously for the path of initiation as an adjunct, as a mighty assistance to the soul’s entering in.</blockquote>

<blockquote>You must therefore understand that you are watchmen of the night, keeping the watch in your time and in your place as many who have gone before you have kept that watch. In this dark night of the age of the [[Kali Yuga]],<ref>''Kali Yuga'' is the term in Hindu mystic philosophy for the last and worst of the four yugas (world ages), characterized by strife, discord and moral deterioration.</ref> you bear violet-flame torches and torches of illumination with the beloved Mother Liberty. Therefore, beloved, understand that all holy orders have had their rituals and their disciplines and their rules.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Therefore, those who would serve to keep the flame of this nation must come into alignment, as must those of every nation and city, to understand that it is both the spirit and the letter of the Law that must be fulfilled and obedience in the details of service and the givingness of self. It is this that will lead most swiftly to the desired goal of light in the seven [[chakra]]s balanced in the supreme blessing of the [[Father-Mother God]].<ref>Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, “Outside the Church,” Part II, {{POWref|31|39|, July 13, 1988}}</ref></blockquote>