Love! Only Love!

"On our way to Rome we crossed Switzerland and saw its mountains with their snow covered summits lost in clouds, it's waterfalls, it's deep valleys thick with huge ferns and purple heather. It was wonderfully good for me to see all the richness of this natural loveliness. My soul soared up to Him who delights to scatter such masterpieces over the place where we spend our brief time of exile. Sometimes we were carried up to the mountain peaks, and precipices, whose depths our eyes could not plumb, opened at our feet as if to engulf us. Then we passed through a charming village, with it's chalets and graceful church spire over which wisps of cloud were drifting. Later the blue waters of a great lake, calm and clear, would catch the glory of the setting sun.

"But how can I describe what I felt before the wonder and the poetry of these scenes? They were a foretaste of the splendors of heaven. I saw life in a convent as it really is, with all it's restrictions and it's little daily hidden sacrifices. I realized how easy it would be to become wrapped up in oneself and forget the sublime purpose of our vocation. I said: "Later, in the hour of trial, when I am imprisoned in Carmel and able to see only a small patch of sky, I shall recall today and it will give me strength. All my trifling affairs will be lost in the power and majesty of God. I shall love only Him and I shall escape the misfortune of attaching myself to trifles, now that I have glimpsed what He has in store for those who love Him.""

-St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul