St. Zélie Martin is best know as the Little Flower’s mother, but she’s also a legend in her own right. Between her letters to family members and her five daughters memories of her, we have a few books that detail her inner thoughts and the activities that filled her daily life. Although July 12th is the day in which we celebrate both her and her husband, Louis, these quotes written by her are reminiscent of feelings all mothers have. So grab your drink of choice and meet your new soul sister.
1. “I want to become a saint; it will not be easy at all. I have a lot of wood to chop and it is as hard as stone. I should have started sooner, while it was not so difficult; but in any case ‘better late than never.’”
2. “The good Lord does not do things by halves; He always gives what we need. Let us then carry on bravely.”
3. “It is necessary that the heroic becomes daily and that the daily becomes heroic.”
4. “When we had our children, our ideas changed somewhat. We lived only for them. They were all our happiness and we never found any except in them. In short, nothing was too difficult and the world was no longer a burden for us. For me, our children were a great compensation, so I wanted to have a lot of them in order to raise them for Heaven.”
5. “I long for rest. I have not even the courage to struggle on. I feel the need of quiet reflection to think of salvation, which the complications of this world have made me neglect.
6. “It is over little things that I worry most. Whenever a real misfortune happens, I am quite resigned, and I await with confidence the help of God.”
7. “I’m suffering so much from the fasting and abstinence! Yet it’s not a very severe mortification, but I am so tired of how my stomach feels, and especially so cowardly, that I would not want to do it at all if I listened to my nature.”
8. “Oh well, that’s the day so far, and it’s still only noon. If this continues I will be dead by this evening! You see, at the moment, life seems so heavy for me to bear, and I don’t have the courage because everything looks black to me.”
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