You are mistaken, my dear, if you think that your Terezka is still ardently walking the path of virtue. She is weak, very weak, and she is convinced of that every day. But Mařenko, Jesus likes to teach her, like St. Paul, the art of boasting about her weaknesses. This is a great grace, and I ask Jesus to teach you this, for only in this is peace and rest of the heart. When we see ourselves as so wretched, we no longer want to look at ourselves and only gaze at the Beloved!...
(Thérèse of Lisieux, letter 109, to Marie Guérin, July 1890)
