Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face - My Sister Saint Therese

MY SISTER

ST. THRSE

By

Sister Genevive of the Holy Face
(Celine Martin)

Authorized Translation by

The Carmelite Sisters of New York of

CONSEILS ET SOUVENIRS

Nihil Obstat: Edward Gallen

Censor Deputatus

Imprimi Potest: John Carol

Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of Ireland

Dublin

February 2, 1959

This translation copyright M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, 1959. Also published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Reprinted in 1997 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., by arrangement with Office Central de Lisieux and Les ditions du Cerf, Paris. This edition was originally published by Gill and P. J. Kenedy under the title A Memoir of My Sister St. Thrse.

Cover illustration: St. Thrse, portrait by her sister Celine (Sister Genevive of the Holy Face). Photo: Helmuth Loose, from Thrse et Lisieux by Descouvement and Loose. Reproduction by authorization of Les ditions du Cerf, Paris. (Document Carmel de LisieuxClich Cerf/Loose.)

Pictures in body of book reproduced by arrangement with Office Central de Lisieux. All rights reserved to OCL.

Library of Congress Catalog No.: 97-60610

ISBN 0-89555-598-0

TAN Books

Charlotte, North Carolina

www.TANBooks.com

1997

St. Thrse of the Child Jesus (right) and her sister Celine on the Veiling Day of the latter, Sister Genevive of the Holy Face, March 17, 1896.

"In my childhood I often read the lives of the saints, and these stories used to inspire me and inflame my heart.... By this means, I caught a glimpse of the ideal of sanctity, and how often I used to day-dream about it! Yet I had never made any living contact with it, for in order to touch something, we must be very close to it.... At Carmel, however, I found in our dear little Sister Thrse all that I had been searching for, and through her, all these desires were realized."

Sister Genevive of the Holy Face

(See )

CONTENTS

FOREWORD TO THE
ENGLISH TRANSLATION

THIS Memoir has been translated from the revised edition of the French Conseils et Souvenirs, published at Lisieux by Soeur Genevive de la Sainte Face in 1951. The change of title and other minor adaptations in this English version have been made with the approval of Soeur Genevive and the Carmel of Lisieux. The translation has, moreover, been brought into line with the recent French publication of the original Histoire d'Une Ame, a photostatic copy of Saint Thrse's manuscript before its revision by Mre Agns de Jesus.

Even before her canonization in 1925, it had become abundantly clear that the life and "mission" of Thrse of Lisieux would become a favourite theme for spiritual writers, and that her teaching, because of its essential simplicity, would lay itself open to innumerable interpretations. The Carmel of Lisieux, therefore, at the initiative of the late Mre Agns de Jsus, Thrse's sister, published during the last half century various authoritative commentaries on the life and on the doctrine of the Saint. Such works have served the double purpose of clarifying Saint Thrse's teaching and of correcting many false impressions about her life and her Little Way. By this means we have come into possession of At the School of Saint Thrse, The Spirit of Saint Thrse, Novissima Verba, The Story of a Family, and The Collected Letters of Saint Thrse.

These valuable documentations of the Saint's thoughts and characteristics together with official publications containing excerpts from the Canonization Process have, it would seem, made the world familiar with the chief features of the moral physiognomy of this "greatest saint of modern times." This recently published Memoir of her sister, Cline, however, brings up a new picture of the Saint as seen through the eyes of one who had a unique place in her heart.

This latest document bears the seal of the supernatural under several titles. First, it comes to us from a venerable religious, Soeur Genevive de la Sainte Face, who has spent more than sixty-three years in the faithful observance of the austere Carmelite rule of prayer, self-abasement, and penance. During those years, moreover, her soul has become marvellously strengthened and perfected in the life-giving climate of Spiritual Childhood, in the Little Way which Thrse, during her last three years on earth, traced out for the sister who was also her novice.

Having run as a giant the full length of that Way, this former novice in this Memoir gives us now a look at the foundation on which this life of simplicity and littleness was built. As the road of Spiritual Childhood is not obstructed by many books of rules and regulationsits only set formula calling for a certain habitual disposition of heartSoeur Genevive has chosen the very best means of transcribing for us the content of the Saint's teaching. She merely repeats with authentic detail Thrse's counsels to her novices and reconstructs their conversations together.

Before her death, Thrse of Lisieux wrote that even were she to live until the age of eighty she would continue to run in her Little Way of Spiritual Childhood. Her sister Cline, now in her eighty-ninth year, has done just that. In doing so she has not only added a deathless dimension to the Little Way of Spiritual Childhood, but she has become once again for Thrse, and in startling fashion," the sweet echo of my soul."

THE CARMELITES OF NEW YORK.

LETTERS OF APPROBATION

LETTER FROM HIS EXCELLENCY MOST REVEREND RAYMOND A. LANE, M. M., D. D., FORMER SUPERIOR GENERAL OF MARYKNOLL FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY OF AMERICA.

Dear Reverend Mother:

Your request for a letter of introduction to the English translation of Soeur Genevive's Memoir of Saint Thrse, has revived in my mind the memory of my first meeting with the Little Flower.

In the year 1924, there occurred a very serious strike in Hong Kong. Anti-foreign feeling was strong throughout China and especially in the South. In the city of Hong Kong itself, almost to a man, the Chinese refused to work, and essential services were in a perilous state. Naturally, the non-Chinese had to step into the breach: government officials milked cows at the dairy farms; British soldiers manned the ferry boats; Christian Brothers handled the mail. Everyone volunteered for something.

To complete an already serious situation, rumours were started that terrified the Chinese and the foreigners as well: the government was going to poison the water supply, and the Chinese, at a given signal, were to rise up and kill all the foreigners. Ship after ship left Hong Kong for Canton so heavily loaded with humanity that the vessels were soon deep in water, far above the safety line.

The Bishop of Hong Kong, worried like everyone else, decided on a Triduum to the Little Flower. I was asked to preach it. I must admit right here that I was one of those who had made light of this new devotion without having investigated ita common error indeed. And so, I "backed into" the devotion, as it were, forced by duty.

One of our priests, a friend of Thrse from the beginning, had given me the large edition of the French life, Histoire d'une Ame, along with many other "things to be read when there is time." We were living at that time in a section of Hong Kong known as West Point, and in our house the book had its place on a shelf. It would have gone on gathering dust there had I not been suddenly faced with this Triduum, and the need to acquire all information available about Thrse of Lisieux.