an can do without God's help. This is why
Jesus said to him before his fall: 'Thou being once converted
confirm thy brethren';[23] that is, 'Tell them the story of thy
sin--show them by thy own experience, how necessary it is for
salvation to rely solely upon Me.'"

* * * * * *

I was much afflicted at seeing her ill, and I often exclaimed:
"Life is so dreary!" "Life is not dreary"--she would immediately
say; "on the contrary, it is most gay. Now if you said: 'Exile is
dreary,' I could understand. It is a mistake to call 'life' that
which must have an end. Such a word should be only used of the
joys of Heaven--joys that are unfading--and in this true meaning
life is not sad but gay--most gay. . . ."

Her own gaiety was a thing of delight. For several days she had
been much better, and we were saying to her: "We do not yet know
of what disease you will die. . . ." "But," she answered, "I shall
die of death! Did not God tell Adam of what he would die when He
said to him: 'Thou shalt die of death'?"[24]

"Then death will come to fetch you?"--"No, not death, but the Good
God. Death is not, as pictures tell us, a phantom, a horrid
spectre. The Catechism says that it is the separation of soul and
body--no more! Well, I do not fear a separation which will unite
me for ever to God."

"Will the _Divine Thief,"_ some one asked, "soon come to steal His
little bunch of grapes?" "I see Him in the distance, and I take
good care not to cry out: 'Stop thief!' Rather, I call to Him:
'This way, this way!'"

* * * * * *

Asked under what name we should pray to her in Heaven, she
answered humbly: "Call me _Little Therese."_

* * * * * *

I was telling her that the most beautiful angels, all robed in
white, would bear her soul to Heaven: "Fancies like those," she
answered, "do not help me, and my soul can only feed upon truth.
God and His Angels are pure spirits. No human eye can see them as
they really are. That is why I have never asked extraordinary
favours. I prefer to await the Eternal Vision."

"To console me at your death I have asked God to send me a
beautiful dream."--"That is a thing I would never do . . . ask for
consolations. Since you wish to resemble me, you know what are my
ideas on this:

'Fear not, O Lord, that I shall waken Thee: I shall await in peace
the Heavenly Shore.'

"It is so sweet to serve God in the dark night and in the midst of
trial. After all, we have but this