Lord, you know that I have no other treasures but the souls that you chose to unite with my soul: these treasures you entrusted to me yourself, which is why I dare to borrow the words with which you addressed the heavenly Father on the last evening that still found you here on our earth as a pilgrim and mortal. Jesus, my Beloved, I do not know when my exile will end… many an evening I still have to sing of your mercy in exile, but eventually even for me the last evening will come. Then I would like to be able to say to you, my God: "I have glorified you on earth. I have completed the work that you entrusted to me to carry out. I revealed your name to the people whom you gave me. They were yours, and you gave them to me. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words that you gave to me, I have given to them. They accepted them and truly knew that you sent me. I ask for those whom you gave me, for they are yours. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me. I am coming to you now, but I say this while I am still in the world, so that they may have the joy that comes from you, fulfilled in themselves. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from evil. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I ask not only for them, but also for those who will believe in you through their word.
Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am, so that the world may know that you have loved them just as you have loved me.”
Yes, Lord, this is what I would like to repeat to you before I fly into your arms. Is it audacity? But no, you have long allowed me to be bold towards you. As the father of the prodigal son spoke to his older son, you said to me: "All that is mine is also yours." Your words, Jesus, are therefore mine, and I can use them to invoke the graces of the heavenly Father upon the souls that are united with me. But when, Lord, I say that I want those whom you have given me to also be where I will be, I do not mean that they could not attain much higher glory than what you may wish to grant me: I simply want to pray that one day we may all meet in your beautiful Heaven.
(St. Therese of Lisieux, excerpt from manuscript C)
