Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/51

Rh purpose had in view only God's greater glory. A state of doubt and anxiety, painful in the extreme, succeeded to the interior peace and sweetness which she had usually experienced. No joy within, no peace without, light fading into darkness, confidence melting into fear, strength giving place to weakness — apparently the crisis had come. Could she further resist those maternal endearments and entreaties? or again, those afflicting censures and denunciations? Was it not a temptation that caused her to cast aside the counsels given her? Some advices she had indeed rejected, but not all; not her old confessor's counsel, which had been her only encouragement throughout the long struggle; and when to her sorrow he was removed from Étables to Saint-Brieuc just at the time her soul needed him most, she often went thither to consult him and receive encouragement from his fatherly kindness. He always urged her to firmness in her resolution, assuring her that the grace of God would finally triumph in her cause. This period of trial lasted about five years. If it had been a time of much suffering to Mademoiselle Guérin, it had likewise been a time of much prayer and austerity, consequently of great accessions of grace and many heavenly consolations.

Suddenly and without apparent reason, Madame Guérin withdrew her opposition. Entering her child's room one night, long after both were supposed to have retired, she said to her: "My daughter, you may go; you have your mother's consent and blessing. I can no longer refuse the sacrifice God asks of me." She found Thérèse on her knees before a statue of the