The Blessed Virgin smiled on me
My greatest consolation when I was sick was to receive a letter from Pauline. I read it until I knew it by heart. Once, dear Mother, you sent me an hourglass and one of my dolls dressed as a Carmelite; it was impossible for me to express my joy. Uncle wasn’t too happy, and said that instead of making me think of Carmel, it would be better to remove it from my mind. I am quite convinced, on the contrary, that the thought of one day becoming a Carmelite made me live.
I enjoyed working for Pauline. I made her little things out of cardboard and my greatest occupation was to make crowns for the Blessed Virgin out of daisies and forget-me-nots. We were at the time in the beautiful month of May, and nature was adorned with flowers and was bursting out with joy. The “little flower” alone was languishing and seemed forever withered.
However, she had a Sun near her, and this Sun was the miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin that had spoken to Mama twice,57 and the little flower often, very often, turned her petals toward this blessed Star. One day I saw Papa enter Marie’s room where I was in bed. He gave her several pieces of gold with an expression of great sadness and told her to write to Paris and have some Masses said at Our Lady of Victories so that she would cure his poor little girl. Ah! how touched I was to see my dear King’s faith and love! I would have loved to be able to tell him I was cured; but I had already given him enough false joys, and it wasn’t my desires that could work a miracle, and a miracle was necessary for my cure.
A miracle was necessary and it was our Lady of Victories who worked it. One Sunday58 during the Novena of Masses, Marie went into the garden, leaving me with Léonie who was reading near the window. After a few moments I began calling in a low tone: “Mama, Mama.” Léonie, accustomed to hearing me always calling out like this, didn’t pay any attention. This lasted a long time, and then I called her much louder. Marie finally returned. I saw her enter, but I cannot say I recognized her and continued to call her in a louder tone: “Mama.” I was suffering very much from this forced and inexplicable struggle and Marie was suffering perhaps even more than I. After some futile attempts to show me she was by my side,59 Marie knelt down near my bed with Léonie and Céline. Turning to the Blessed Virgin and praying with the fervor of a mother begging for the life of her child, Marie obtained what she wanted.
59. “Marie said something in a whisper to Léonie, then disappeared, pale and trembling. Little Léonie carried me to the window; I saw Marie in the garden but didn’t recognize her still. She was walking slowly, extending her arms to me, smiling, and calling in her most tender voice: ‘Thérèse, my little Thérèse!’ This last attempt failed.” (Histore d’une Ame).
Finding no help on earth, poor little Thérèse had also turned toward the Mother of heaven, and prayed with all her heart that she take pity on her. All of a sudden the Blessed Virgin appeared beautiful to me, so beautiful that never had I seen anything so attractive; her face was suffused with an ineffable benevolence and tenderness, but what penetrated to the very depths of my soul was the “ravishing smile of the Blessed Virgin.” At that moment, all my pain disappeared, and two large tears glistened on my eyelashes, and flowed down my cheeks silently, but they were tears of unmixed joy. Ah! I thought, the Blessed Virgin smiled at me, how happy I am, but never will I tell anyone for my happiness would then disappear. Without any effort I lowered my eyes, and I saw Marie who was looking down at me lovingly; she seemed moved and appeared to surmise the favor the Blessed Virgin had given me. Ah! it was really to her, to her touching prayers that I owed the grace of the Queen of heaven’s smile Seeing my gaze fixed on the Blessed Virgin, she cried out: “Thérèse is cured!” Yes, the little flower was going to be born again to life, and the luminous Ray that had warmed her again was not to stop its favors; the Ray did not act all at once, but sweetly and gently it raised the little flower and strengthened her in such a way that five years later she was expanding on the fertile mountain of Carmel.