Suffering has held out its arms to me from my very entrance into Carmel and lovingly have I embraced it. My intention in coming here, I declared in the solemn examination which preceded my profession: I am come in order to save souls, and especially to pray for Priests. When we want to attain an end we must employ the means, and Jesus having made me understand that He would give me souls by means of the cross, the more crosses I met with the more my attraction to suffering increased. During five years this way was mine; but I alone knew it. Here was just the hidden flower that I wanted to offer to Jesus, this flower which exhaled its fragrance for Heaven alone.
HIST. D'UNE AME, CH. VII
For one pain endured with joy, we
shall love the good God more for ever.
I LETTER TO MÈRE AGNÈS DE JÉSUS
In my soul's intercourse with Jesus—nothing . . .
dryness! sleep! Since my Be-
