Celine, the intrepid one, pray for us!

“Brutal mechanical processes of reproduction, showing only the physical structure of the face, cannot capture the soul any more than they can capture refinement of manners or the perfume of a rose. What I always and only wanted to capture and show to others, as much as possible, was this ‘je ne sais quoi’, with the true picture of her soul beneath her features.” - Celine Martin (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face)

Today is the feast of Sister Genevieve, that is our sister Therese's 3-year-older sister Celine, and therefore, our sister Celine too! We owe her so much for her photos of St. Therese, but even more for her portraits which could capture the true face of our little sister as known by those who knew her best.

On Wednesday February 25, 1959, the day after her 63rd anniversary of profession as a Discalced Carmelite in Lisieux, and at the age of 89 and 10 months, Celine finally received what Jesus describes to Marcel (in their Conversations) as His first real kiss, which is also the last. Or is it the last kiss which is the first? It depends on your perspective, but as Therese put it, this "life" on earth is really exile, and real life begins with our supposed and apparent death. That means what seem like kisses from Jesus - no, not the Mother Teresa kind where we suffer, but the kind that means what we mean - big, loud, smacking kisses, in the words of our Therese - these kisses in this life, consoling as they are, well, they're just a shadow of the reality, that Kiss from the Bridegroom for which we beg when reading the very first line of the most poetic book of the Bible, the Song of Songs:

Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth . . . 

That kiss (or those kisses) which will happily end all sufferings and whoosh us up to Heaven instantly. I can't wait!

I'm thinking a lot this morning about two friends of mine who got that kiss and that whoosh many years ago. I grew up with them - haha, I started to grow up with them, or was it growing down with them? I was quite a grown up in my childhood, and then in college I had the joy and glory of meeting Therese, along with these marvelous best friends ever, and I learned with them to grow down, just as Therese taught Celine to do in the Carmel in Lisieux. When Celine worried that she kept failing, Therese would explain to her as my friend Jon used to explain to me:

Success is not where it's at!

As Mother Teresa put it so beautifully, we are not called to be successful, but to be faithful. And as her friend and our Holy Father put it:

Be not afraid!

That was another lesson I learned from my two dear friends and their lives in exile, as well as what they tell me now from their front row seats at the Beatific Vision. Jon used to like to say simply:

God is so good!

Or was that his bride who said it all the time? Either way, it sunk in, and I learned to thank God for everything, even and especially His crazy love that whisked these two friends away from us way too early. But who's to say, actually? I have to thank Him that while many mourned their departure (even while we rejoiced in their newfound joy after that big, smacking kiss from Jesus) - and many of us still mourn their departure, I should say, and their ditching us while we're still stuck in exile - there are also many who gained life because they lost theirs on this earth. "Unless a grain of wheat die," Jesus said. Then what? Well something like unless a grain of wheat die, you can't get what comes next. Hmmm, I'm so not a farmer. Give me a second . . .

Ah, thank you Google elves!

"I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single kernel; but if it dies it produces a great harvest." - Jesus in John 12:24

I know a certain Luke C. who is so much fun and doing such good for his family and friends (and for one of my sons, even, and what an incomparable joy to see the generations continue in friendship and charity!), and he - not to mention several irreplaceable, irrepressible older brothers and an amazing younger sister - wouldn't exist if not for Jon's falling into the ground. Not to mention the joy that transformed Luke's dad Jack's humdrum existence when a small family of three discovered him sometime after Jon exited stage left.

Then there's a bunch a blonde kiddos who wouldn't have seen the light of day if another Jack hadn't departed for Real Life . . .

So weird, this life that poses as LIFE and is really just a kind of preamble. How it confuses us and makes us think it is The Real Thing, and yet how like Plato's cave, or just a shadow.

Well. Thank you Celine for giving us Therese (and your parents) in so much more living color than we could ever have otherwise known them in exile. And thank you for sticking around until 1959 so that we could realize how close our sister (and you) were and still are to us. And finally, thank you Jesus for at last sipping up dear Celine, the remaining Martin, like the drop of dew she was, so that she could be re-born into that eternal reunion more fun than anything we've ever known here, even when what You've given us, yes even here in exile, is a life with the saints so spectacularly lovely.

Jon and Jack (and Celine, Marcel, et al), miss you guys and can't wait to see you again! Don't forget to pray for all our special intentions - you've got His ear right there - whisper to Him we love Him, give Him a big smacking kiss for us, and ask Him to stop sending messengers and come remain within us as within so many tabernacles! See you soon!

And as I'm trying to get the photo to show up, I realize I'm hearing these words from the early days, the days when I was a pretender, but oh, how soon I was to meet Truth in Person, and in you guys! 

I found a picture of you, oh,
Well, it hijacked my world . . .
To a place in the past we've been cast out of,
Now we're back in the fight . . . 

I found a picture of you, oh,
Those were the happiest days of my life
Like a break in the battle was your part, oh,
In the wretched life of a lonely heart . . .

Exackel! but I have to add that those days were merely the beginning of the happiest days, and thanks to Jesus, Our Love, many have been happier yet . . .and the wretched life of a lonely heart is now the beautiful life of a heart so full of His friends that I can never be grateful enough.

Celine, you must have longed like I do to capture the scent of our sister's roses and share them like photos, or better yet, like portraits, but it seems impossible! No matter, we'll keep doing our heartfelt best to share everything we can while we're in this pretend life, and when it's time to go, may we leave with the joy that suffused your face so many years after it brightened the face of your little sister Therese!

Draw me, we will run!
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