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Ms A 72r
| [72r°] You are aware, dear Mother, of our bitter sufferings during the month of June, and especially June 24, 1888. These memories are too deeply engraved in the bottom of our hearts to require any mention in writing. O Mother! how we suffered! And this was still only the beginning of [5] the trial.The time for my reception of the Habit had arrived. I was accepted by the conventual chapter, but how could we dream of any kind of ceremony? Already they were talking of giving me the Habit without my going outside the cloister, and then they decided to wait. Against all expectation, our dear Father recovered from his second attack, and the Bishop set the ceremony for January 10. [10] The wait had been long, but what a beautiful celebration it was!Nothing was missing, not even the snow! I don’t know if I’ve already told you how much I love snow? When I was small, its whiteness filled me with delight, and one of the greatest pleasures I had was taking a walk under the light snowflakes. Where did this love of snow come from? Perhaps it was because I was [15] a little winter flower, and the first adornment with which my eyes beheld nature clothed was its white mantle. I had always wished that on the day I received the Habit, nature would be adorned in white just like me. The evening before, I was gazing at the gray skies from which a fine rain was falling every now and again, and the temperature was so mild [20] I could no longer hope for any snow. The following morning the skies hadn’t changed. The celebration, however, was wonderful. The most beautiful, the most attractive flower of all was my dear King; never had he looked so handsome, so dignified. Everybody admired him. This was really his day of triumph and it was to be his last celebration on this earth. He had now given all his children to God, for Céline, too, had confided her vocation to him. He had wept tears of joy, and had gone with her to thank Him who “bestowed such honor on him by taking all his children.”
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