Here is a mystery indeed!  Is not Jesus all-powerful?  Do not creatures belong to Him who hade them?  Why does He deign to say:  “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send forth labourers”?  It is because His Love for us is so unsearchable, so tender, that He wishes us to share in all He does.  The Creator of the Universe awaits the prayer of a poor little soul to save a multitude of other souls, ransomed, like her, at the price of His Blood.

Our vocation is not to go forth and reap in Our Father’s fields.  Jesus does not say to us:  “Look down and reap the harvest.”  Our mission is even more sublime.  “Lift up your eyes and see,” saith our Divine Master, “see how in Heaven there are empty thrones.  It is for you to fill them. . . .  You are as Moses praying on the mountain, so ask Me for labourers and they shall be sent.  I only await a prayer, a sigh!  Is not the apostolate of prayer—­so to speak—­higher than that of the spoken word?  It is for us by prayer to train workers who will spread the glad tidings of the Gospel and who will save countless souls—­the souls to whom we shall be the spiritual Mothers.  What, then, have we to envy in the Priests of the Lord?

XIII

MY DARLING SISTER,—­The affection of our childhood days has changed into a closest union of mind and heart.  Jesus has drawn us to Him together, for are you not already His?  He has put the world beneath our feet.  Like Zaccheus we have climbed into a tree to behold Him—­ mysterious tree, raising us high above all things, from whence we can say:  “All is mine, all is for me:  the Earth and the Heavens are mine, God Himself is mine, and the Mother of my God is for me."[21]

Speaking of that Blessed Mother, I must tell you of one of my simple ways.  Sometimes I find myself saying to her:  “Dearest Mother, it seems to me that I am happier than you.  I have you for my Mother, and you have no Blessed Virgin to love. . . .  It is true, you are the Mother of Jesus, but you have given Him to me; and He, from the Cross, has given you to be our Mother—­thus we are richer than you!  Long ago, in your humility, you wished to become the little handmaid of the Mother of God; and I—­poor little creature—­am not your handmaid but your child!  You are the Mother of Jesus, and you are also mine!"

Our greatness in Jesus is verily marvellous, my Celine.  He has unveiled for us many a mystery by making us climb the mystical tree of which I spoke above.  And now what science is He going to teach?  Have we not learned all things from Him?

“Make haste to come down, for this day I must abide in thy house."[22] Jesus bids us come down.  Where, then, must we go?  The Jews asked Him:  “Master, where dwellest thou?"[23] And He answered, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head."[24] If we are to be the dwelling-place of Jesus, we must come down even to this—­we must be so poor that we have not where to lay our heads.