Spiritual Roses from Story of a Soul - Feed My Lambs

Welcome to my series featuring excerpts from the book that started it all - Story of a Soul. I'm calling the series Spiritual Roses from Story of a Soul and I hope that you will visit here every day for an inspirational message from our dear little saint.

"Ah! don't think, dear Mother, that your child wants to leave you; don't think she feels it is a greater grace to die at the dawn of the day rather than at its close. What she esteems and what she desires only is to please Jesus. Now that He seems to be approaching her in order to draw her into the place of His glory, your child is filled with joy. For a long time she has understood that God needs no one (much less her) to do good on earth. Pardon me, Mother, if I make you sad because I really want only to give you joy. Do you believe that though your prayers are really not heard on earth, though Jesus separates the child from its mother for a few days, that these prayers will be answered in Heaven?

Your desire, I know, is that I carry out at your side a very sweet and easy mission, but shall I not be able to finish it from the heights of heaven? You said to me, just as Jesus one day said to St. Peter: "Feed my lambs." I was astonished, and I told you that I was too little; I begged you to feed your lambs yourself, and to keep me and have me feed with them. And you, dear Mother, responding a little to my just request, retained the little lambs with the sheep; but you ordered me to go often and pasture them in the shade, pointing out the best and most nourishing herbs, showing them the bright flowers they must not touch except to trample them under their feet.

You didn't fear, dear Mother, that I would lead your little lambs astray. My lack of experience and my youthfulness did not frighten you in the least. Perhaps you remembered that often the Lord is pleased to grant wisdom to the little ones, and that one day, in a transport of joy, He blessed His Father for having hidden His secrets from the wise and prudent and for revealing them to the little ones."

Excerpted from Story of a Soul, ICS Publications, Third Edition, page 208. This book and many others along with a line of holy cards and photos of St. Therese imported from her monastery in Lisieux can be found at my webstore called The Little Way.

St. Therese, open our hearts to your little way. Teach us to throw ourselves into the arms of Our Lord, casting away all doubt and fear and accepting all that He sends us as graces for the salvation of our souls.