A Sister's Final Promise

Céline Martin remembers her sister St. Thérèse's look of encouragement in her final agony

During her final agony, a few moments before she expired, I was passing a little piece of ice over her burning lips, and at this moment she lifted her eyes to me and looked at me with prophetic insistence.

Her look was filled with tenderness, and there was in it a superhuman expression of encouragement and promise as though she were saying to me: “Go, go! Céline, I shall be with you!”

Did God reveal to her the long and laborious career I was to carry out here on earth for her sake, and did He will through this look to console me in my exile? For the memory of that last look, so much desired by all and given to me, sustains me always and is an inexpressible strength for me.

The community was in suspense in the presence of this great scene; but suddenly our dear little Saint lowered her eyes in search of Mother Prioress, who was kneeling by her side, and her look took on again the expression of suffering it had before.

— Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, O.C.D. (Céline Martin)

Last Conversations with Céline, 30 September 1897

Note: Saint Thérèse died shortly after 7:00 p.m. on the evening of 30 September 1897.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever considered what you would want to say—or communicate through a look—in your final moments?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

Source reference

Thérèse of Lisieux, S & Clarke, J 1977, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington DC.

Featured image

Adobe Firefly image of ice cubes in a clear, shallow, glass bowl on a vintage hospital tray table. Created by Carmelite Quotes in Adobe Express.