In a few words I will confide to you the secret of my life. We will soon separate, and the desire we always cherished, in our childhood, to live forever united will soon be foiled by another, much higher ideal than that of our youth. We must follow different paths in life. To me goes the better part, as it did to Magdalene. The Lord had pity on me. He approached me and whispered: “Leave your father, your mother, and all that you have and follow Me.”
Who can refuse the hand of the Almighty that reaches down to the most unworthy of His creatures? How happy I am, dear little sister! I have been caught in the loving nets of the Divine Fisherman. I wanted to make you understand this happiness. I can say with certainly that I am His betrothed and that soon we will celebrate our nuptials in Carmel. I will be a Carmelite. What do you think? I do not want to keep any crevice of my soul hidden from you. You know, however, that I cannot tell you personally all that I feel, and so I decided to do so in writing.
I gave myself to Him. On December 8, I pledged myself. It is impossible to tell you all that is in my soul. My mind is occupied only with Him. This is my ideal; it is an infinite ideal. I long for the day when I will go to Carmel to occupy myself with Him alone, to meld myself in Him and to live nothing but His own life: to love and suffer in order to save souls. Yes, I thirst for them, for I know that they are what my Jesus most wants.
No doubt, your sisterly heart is torn at hearing me speak of separation, at hearing me murmur this word: adieu forever on this earth, so that I may enclose myself in Carmel. But fear not, my dear little sister. There will never be separation between our souls. I will live in Him. Seek Jesus, and with Him you will find me. And there the three of us will continue the intimate colloquies that will perpetuate in eternity.
Saint Teresa of the Andes.
Excerpts of a letter dated 15/4/1916,
telling her sister Rebeca
of her entrance into Carmel
