backache

“I want to describe how the Master has made me find joy in the cross. After my profession, folio wing the advice that had been given me, I hastened to the “bleeding Flower of Calvary ” and plucked it continually with the cross for its stem. This cross was the daily, perpetual mortification of our austere life: austere indeed for one who refuses nothing to the good God and who is perfectly faithful to the Rule and duty. I no longer sought for imaginary crosses and dreamt of them no more, and as I received each day the grace to bear my daily cross, I carried it cheerfully, finding by experience that the first step is the hardest, and that the generous acceptance of a light cross brings with it a deep peace which gives strength for greater and harder mortifications.

Fasting tried me very much, I found it very hard to work in the morning on fast-days, as I was obliged to do for several years while I had sole charge of the refectory and swept and dusted it. The weight of the Breviary at Matins gave me a back-ache which was so increased by the weight of our mantle on feast days that as a rule, my prayer only consisted in offering to God my poor back, which occupied all my thoughts. When, later on, I was forbidden to perform the penance of the Rule in such matters as fasting, want of sleep, and other things, illness supplied their place. I was very glad, as, had it been left to me, I should have preferred, except in certain moments of temptation, to take no care of my health and to keep my Rule exactly.”

MOTHER ISABEL OF THE SACRED HEART CARMELITE NUN OF LISIEUX. 1882-1914

”I am the lowly herald of the “LITTLE QUEEN. With an introduction by Dom Benedict Weld-Blundell, O.S.B. THE KINGSCOTE PRESS, 3 DYER S BUILDINGS, HOLBORN, LONDON, E.G. 1916 Authorised translation from the French.
http://www.meditationsfromcarmel.com/podcast/?p=125