Page 77 In Love with The Divine Outcast

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Let us not be discouraged! Rather at each broken resolution, at each petty fall, (P.77) let us rise courageously, and bravely resume our road, though our knees be bleeding and broken. What hidden courage this implies! Of this we have no suspicion: a fact by which our humility profits. Yet Jesus and the saints are also there, watching with joyfulness and love these constant recoveries that are the occasion of so many virtues.

The great Saint Teresa of Avila gives us some account of a vain struggle against a certain fault lasting three long years. A day come when Jesus, by an infused grace of union, corrected this hitherto incorrigible fault in one moment.

A religious once grew discouraged at the perception of her imperfections. St. Little Thérèse replied to her: "You remind me of a little child just learning how to stand on its feet, yet determined to climb a flight of stairs in order to find its mother. Time after time, it tries to set its tiny feet upon the lowest step, and each time stumbles and falls. Do as this little one does. By the practice of all the virtues keep on lifting your foot to climb the ladder of perfection, but do no imagine you can yourself succeed in mounting even the very first step. God asks of you nothing but good-will. From the top of the ladder, He looks down lovingly and presently, touched by your fruitless efforts, He will take you in His Arms to His Kingdom, never to be parted from Him again. But if you leave off (P.78) lifting your foot, your stay on the ground will indeed be a long one."

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