“charity must not remain hidden in the bottom of the heart”

St. Therese of Lisieux once wrote: “Ah! Lord, I know you don’t command the impossible. You know better than I do my weakness and imperfection; You know very well that never would I be able to love my Sisters [and Brothers] as You love them, unless You, O my Jesus, loved them in me. … Ah! I understand now that charity consists in bearing with the faults of others, in not being surprised at this weakness, in being edified by the smallest acts of virtue we see them practice. But I understood above all that charity must not remain hidden in the bottom of the heart.” (Light from Light, an anthology of Christian mysticism, Dupre and Wiseman, 413, 425)