Day 55 of 80

The Artist's Canvas

Chapter IX·Manuscript C·Littleness & Humility
Context
Thérèse saw herself as God's brush — a small, defective instrument that the Master Artist uses to paint holiness in others. The beauty belongs entirely to the Artist. The brush need not boast, nor complain about being re-touched.

If an artist's canvas could but think and speak, surely it would never complain of being touched and re-touched by the brush, nor would it feel envious thereof, knowing that all its beauty is due to the artist alone. So, too, the brush itself could not boast of the masterpiece it had helped to produce, for it must know that an artist is never at a loss; that difficulties do but stimulate him; and that at times it pleases him to make use of instruments the most unlikely and defective.

Dear Mother, I am the little brush that Jesus has chosen to paint His likeness in the souls you have confided to my care.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux — Story of a Soul, Chapter IX (Manuscript C). Taylor translation, 1912 (public domain).
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