Juliet: June 12 – Consoling a poor, grieving little girl

Today (12 June) I went up early to His house, but not early enough. As I turned into Seventy–Eighth Street from West End Avenue I saw Him a block away, hastening toward “His garden”, His robes floating out as He walked.

Soon He came back to us. Miss Buckton had arrived by that time and a poor little [frail Jewish]…girl… She was all in black and her small pale face was very careworn.

I had been in the kitchen with Lua. When I heard the voice of the Master I hurried into the hall, and there I saw them sitting at the window, the poor sad little girl at the Master’s right, Alice Buckton at His left. Like a God, He dominated the scene. Sunlight streamed through the window, His white robes and turban shining in it, the strong carving of His Face thrown into high relief by masses of shadow.

The little Jewish girl was crying.

“Don’t grieve now, don’t grieve,” He said. He was very, very still and I think He was calming her.

“But my brother has been in prison for three years, and it wasn’t just to put him in prison. It wasn’t his fault, what he did. He was weak and other people led him. He has to serve four more years. My father and mother are always depressed. My brother-in-law has just died, and he was the one who supported us. Now we haven’t even that.”

“You must trust in God,” said the Master.

“But the more I trust the worse things become!” she sobbed.

“You have never trusted.”

“But my mother is all the time reading psalms. She doesn’t deserve to have God abandon her. I read the psalms myself, the ninety–first psalm and the twenty–third psalm, every night before I go to bed. I pray too.”

“To pray is not to read psalms. To pray is to trust in God and to be submissive in all things to Him. Be submissive; then things will change for you. Put your parents and your brother in God’s hands. Love God’s Will. Strong ships are not conquered by the sea, they ride the waves! Now be a strong ship, not a battered one.”