Confirmation

A short time after my First Communion, I entered upon another retreat for my Confirmation,⁶⁹ I was prepared with great care to receive the visit of the Holy Spirit, and I did not understand why greater attention was not paid to the reception of this sacrament of Love. Ordinarily, there was only one day for retreat made for Confirmation, but the Bishop was unable to come on the appointed day and so I had the consolation of having two days of solitude. To distract us our mistress brought us to Mont Cassin⁷⁰ and there I gathered very many big daisies for the feast of Corpus Christi. Ah! how happy my soul was! Like the Apostles, I awaited the Holy Spirit’s visit with great happiness in my soul. I rejoiced at the thought of soon being a perfect Christian and especially at that of having eternally on my forehead the mysterious cross the Bishop marks when conferring this sacrament. Finally the happy moment arrived, and I did not experience an impetuous wind at the moment of the Holy Spirit’s descent but rather this light breeze which the prophet Elias heard on Mount Horeb.⁷¹ On that day, I received the strength to suffer, for soon afterward the martyrdom of my soul was about to commence. It was my dear little Léonie who acted as my godmother, and she was so much moved that she was unable all through the ceremony to hold back her tears. She received Holy Communion with me, for I had the happiness on that beautiful day to unite myself with Jesus.

After these delightful and unforgettable feasts, my life returned to its ordinary course, that is, I had to take up again life as a boarder and this was very painful. At the time of my First Communion, I loved this association with children of my own age, filled with good will, having made like myself the resolution of practicing virtue seriously. But now I had to come in contact with students who were much different, distracted, and unwilling to observe regulations, and this made me very unhappy. I had a happy disposition, but I didn’t know how to enter into games of my age level; often during the recreations, I leaned against a tree and studied my companions at a distance, giving myself up to serious reflections! I had invented a game which pleased me, and it was to bury the poor little birds we found dead under the trees. Many of the students wanted to help me, and so our cemetery became very beautiful, planted with trees and flowers in proportion to the size of our little feathered friends.

I loved, too, to tell stories I made up as they came into my mind, and my companions gathered round me eagerly, and even the older ones mingled at times in the crowd of listeners. The same story lasted for several days, for I liked to make it more and more interesting when I saw the impressions it produced and which were evident on my companions’ faces. Soo the mistress forbade me to continue in my role as orator, for she preferred to see us playing and running and not discussing.