Teresa died of hard work and worry and shameful neglect, almost to sheer
starvation. But she had meat to eat that all Anne Bartholomew's
remaining mites could not buy for her dying mother. And, strong in the
strength of that spiritual meat, Teresa rose off her deathbed to finish
her work. She inspected with all her wonted quickness of eye and love of
order the whole of the House into which she had been carried to die. She
saw everything put into its proper place, and every one answering to
their proper order, after which she attended the divine offices for the
day, and then went back to her bed and summoned her daughters around her.
'My children,' she said, 'you must pardon me much; you must pardon me
most of all the bad example I have given you. Do not imitate me. Do not
live as I have lived. I have been the greatest sinner in all the world.
I have not kept the laws I made for others. I beseech you, my daughters,
for the love of God, to keep the rules of your Holy Houses as I have
never kept them. O my Lord,' she then turned to Him and said, 'the hour
I have so much longed for has surely come at last.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53