Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Sleeping Jesus


"Jésus dormait comme toujours dans ma petite nacelle. Ah ! je vois que bien rarement les âmes le laissent dormir tranquillement en elles. Ce bon Maître est si fatigué de faire continuellement des frais et des avances, qu'il s'empresse de profiter du repos que je lui offre."

(Jesus was sleeping as usual in my little boat. Ah! I see very well how rarely souls allow Him to sleep peacefully within them. Jesus is so fatigued with always having to take the initiative and to attend others that He hastens to take advantage of the repose I offer to Him.)

St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, mans. A, VIII.

Therese said this when she was experiencing the very dry desert of her spiritual life. However, in this troubled moment of her life, her faith was so deep that she let Jesus sleep instead of rescuing her from that dry desert. Her faith surpassed that of Jesus' disciples when they experienced huge storm (see Mt 8:23-27). They had little faith and noisily woke Jesus up from his sleep, while Jesus was physically there in the boat with them. On the contrary, Therese believed that Jesus would not leave her and just let him sleep deep inside her soul. What a great faith from a little girl!