VEN. TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS AND THE HOLY FACE

New Zealand Tablet, 20 June 1918, Page 29

VEN. TERESA OF THE CHILD JESUS AND THE HOLY FACE

The Archpriest of Bethune in France, who since the beginning of the war has been exposed to many dangers, wrote the following account of a grace received : , “I owe to Sister Teresa many favors of protection, the most remarkable of which was accorded on December ; 18, 1917, while a terrible bombardment was going on. On the morning of that day, being at the altar, I was seized with indescribable anguish. I turned towards the Sacred Heart and murmured, ‘What does this meanwhat sayst Thou, Lord?’ And I seemed to hear this interior answer: ‘Be without fear; I will save thee.’ “In the evening at 4.30 before the Tabernacle, I felt again that same indefinable sadness. At five, before giving Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, I was leaving the sacristy, preceded by the acolytes and followed by the organist and chanter, but scarcely had, I taken one step in our little narrow passage when I heard a formidable explosion behind me. I stopped, deafened, and my shoulders bent under an avalanche of stones. I lost consciousness. Suddenly I was revived by an unexpected breeze, and as I raised myself I perceived St. Teresa in the midst of this refreshing wind which gently moved her scapular. Standing be” fore me and looking at me with compassion, she said one word, ‘ Go.’ 1 immediately obeyed, feeling capable of doing so, though I had lost much blood from a wound in the head and another in the leg. My surplice and soutane were torn and stained. “Soon two British soldiers hastened to the scene of the disaster, and escorted me to the presbytery, where my wounds were attended to until I was taken to the hospital. After a successful operation, I was placed under the care of two Franciscan religious who kindly told me little by little of the misfortunes that had befallen me: the organist had been beheaded, an acolyte killed, and the chanter’s chest fatally injured , the sacristy had been demolished, the roof of the side aisle of the church ruined, and all tfie stained glass windows broken. As for me, the doctors condemned me to two months of complete rest, but Sister Teresa came to my aid and upset their ’calculations. On January 25 I was able to say Mass, and on January 29 to pronounce the panegyric on St.

Francis id© ■ Sales, ' Patron of the Hospital where I . had been sheltered. “A former professor of ' philosophy, gifted with a calm; temperament and opposed to visionary ideas, I hold the 'firm conviction that I have seen with my eyes ' the form' of my amiable protectress, whose pity for me attracted her to the sorrowful scene. Henceforth the dear little saint will have no more faithful apostle than the poor priest who owes so much to her. “(Signed) L. Duflot, “Archipretre de Bethune.”