In comunione con la Chiesa in Purgatorio
Si possono inviare richieste di preghiere per le Anime di defunti per cui si intende pregare e far pregare.
Scrivi a: chiedo-offro-preghiere@evangelizzando.net
Nell’Oggetto dell’ email inserire soltanto:
- il nome di battesimo del defunto
- luogo e anno di morte
In communion with the Church in Purgatory
Mailto: chiedo-offro-preghiere@evangelizzando.net
At this email address you can send prayer requests (free of charge) for the Souls whom you are praying for, and/or whom you want to have prayers said.
In the Subject field (of the e-mail) insert only:
– the baptism name of the deceased
– place and year of death
MANUSCRIPT OF PURGATORY
SISTER MARY OF THE CROSS
INTRODUCTION
It is given to the press, for the second time in our country, the translation of a pious manuscript that the Direction of the “Bulletin de Notre-Dame de la Bonne Mort” (Tinchebray – Orne – France) published years ago as a purely historical document and with all the reservations desired by the Holy Church, according to the decree of Urban VIII.
The manuscript, put the above Direction from a Priest, a missionary of great dedication, talk about the rapport of a Religious woman with a soul in Purgatory.
First of all, let’s note that the possibility and existence of apparitions of the living souls in Purgatory to people on earth cannot be denied: they are authentic narratives that we find in the lives of the saints and the testimony of theologians, documented by historical facts.
A collection of many appearances published by Msgr. Palafox y Mendoza, Bishop of Osma (Spain) bears this suggestive title: “Light to the livings from the experience of the dead”. It perfectly expresses the providential reason of the events by which the souls in Purgatory are turning to the livings to beg for mercy and solicit suffrages.
We note, however, that facts and reports on those events have merely human authority, until the Church had pronounced itself on the matter, an authority proportionate to the value and the number of historical documents on which the ones and the others are based, and by which they are accompanied.
MANUSCRIPT
Authenticity
This manuscript contains a lot of interesting things about life after death, especially in Purgatory, partitioned up by many spiritual direction tips.
Its authenticity is indisputable. The informer of the manuscript is Sister Mary of the Cross, in the century Elisa Sofia Clementina Hébert, born in Néhou-St-Georges (diocese of Coutances) the 11 of December 1840.
She remained orphaned of her father at the age of 6 years old. At 11 years she received her First Communion and Confirmation in the Augustinian Convent of Valognes, where there was as religious her maternal aunt, Sr. Angela Quettier, who was later to become Superior of the Convent and to remain such as an edifying example until the moment of her death.
At 18 years old Elisa returned to the Convent of Valognes, as a novice. On the 15th of May 1861 she made her religious profession. In 1884 almost unanimously was elected Assistant and the following year became Mother Prefect.
In 1904, because of the orders of expulsion of the religious from France, driven from her convent, she found refuge with some cousins in the small village of Vauvicard, municipality of Quettehou. She was 63 years old. A few years later she had to get to Cherbourg, where she lived together with another cousin. Here St. Pius X, of his own free will, granted her the privilege of a private oratory, with the power to keep the Blessed Sacrament.
She died in Cherbourg on May of 1917. She is buried in the family tomb in Quettehou.
In 1871 a major epidemic raged on the Community of Valognes and reaped many victims including a young Sister of 36 years old, Sister Maria Gabriella. “In curing me, told us an old nun of Valognes, named Gertrude, in a few hours Sister Maria Gabriella was taken off her life. This act of self-denial, added the same nun, perhaps deserved her, and she has made known it hereafter, the eternal salvation “.
The young nun, in fact, supernaturally was not very perfect … which entitled her by Sister Mary of the Cross rather frequent reproaches … To which she replied: “Well, if I go to Purgatory, you will take me out. ” She did not think that it would really be so.
In November 1873. Sister Mary of the Cross is in her cell. Suddenly she hears prolonged groans … “Oh !, she exclaims terrorized, who are you? … Do not scare me! … Especially do not reveal yourself, but tell me who you are!”. No answer … Scared, more than ever, she speaks to the Superior (his aunt) who does not show surprise and simply says: “It is a soul of Purgatory, we shall pray for her.”
This was done, but to no avail. The groans continued, increasingly coming closer. Sister Mary of the Cross he was appalled. She feared becoming a laughing stock of the devil: she did not like the extraordinary way … She wanted to follow the common way.
In the Manuscript we will find references to these fears, to her will. Even in 1880 she expressed these doubts.
On the 15th of February 1874 she had to undergo the first dialogue … And so it happened that until November 1890 between the soul of Sister Maria Gabriella and Sister Mary of the Cross there were the mysterious relationships that the latter entrusted the precious manuscript of which we start the publication.
The value of Manuscript derived:
1 – From the person of Sister Mary of the Cross.
All those who knew her agreed that she never ceased to practice, even heroically, all Christian and religious virtues.
As director of the Boarding School, she enjoyed such an influence on the students, that all survivors (and still are many) agree that her words and actions had a profound influence on them.
All eyewitnesses unanimously say that Sister Mary of the Cross was equipped with quick intelligence, good learning, perfect balance and absolute common sense.
Valuable is her reluctance to go on a path that was not common and her stubbornness in thinking that it was a trick of the devil. However, despite her reluctance, she took the opportunity of the visits she received, widely for her spiritual progress: authentic witnesses to this are her sisters and the notes taken on the occasion of the Spiritual Exercises.
2 – The authority of received claims.
Her spiritual director R.P Prével, of the Fathers of Pontigny, then Superior General of her congregation in a letter directed to her on November 4, 1912 by Hitchin (England) confirms that he was exactly informed about the messages of Sister Mary of the Cross with her ancient companion: “Tell me, he says, of your dear afflicted, who long should be engulfed in the glory of hes Beloved! … has she then abandoned you? … or she still consoles you in your dejections?
“Did you continue to write down her communications? For my part, I have preciously preserved the old ones and I reread them quite a few times.”
Clearly, then, he esteemed the received communications trustworthy, and presumably he did not judge those as such without good evidence. And here other precious testimonies:
Can. Dubosq, former superior of the Major Seminary of Bayeux and promoter of the faith in the canonical processes for the beatification and canonization of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Can. Gontier, the official censor of books in the diocese of Bayeux and author of highly valued works.
An eminent and very worthy Master of Mystical Theology, of whom we need to respect the anonymity for reasons entirely independent from the subject we treat, but of whom we can say that his good books have earned the following praise of St. Pius X: “the learned men make a fitting tribute to your science and your experience” (Letter of December 13, 1908).
After mature examination of the Manuscript those reverends, mentioned above, did not hesitate to affirm that it contained nothing contrary to the teachings of the faith, nothing that was not in perfect harmony with the principles of the spiritual life and the edification of souls.
Completely satisfied, they noted that Sr. Mary of the Cross, with her most correct judgment and her greatest good sense, was thereby protected from the deviations of a too vivid and dangerous imagination.
They also noted with satisfaction that Sister Mary of the Cross had done everything to escape the visits, those unwelcome jewels; she had protested, wondering if this were not a punishment, imposed by Heaven; she found those events so remarkable she did not know what to think; finally, that she had done so many objections to the apparition that they could not in any way attribute to her the intention of having imagined or invented the occurrences , which she was the object of.
Finally the above mentioned theologians were strongly affected:
- a) by the great lesson of Christian charity that clearly came from all over the unfolding of the apparition: on one hand indeed, Sister Maria Gabriella, in the Convent of Valognes, with her poor religious conduct had made to suffer very much Sr. Mary of the Cross, who was responsible to call her back to duty, and on the other hand, after death, by the will of God, she had to ask just Sr. Mary of the Cross, to be freed from Purgatory;
- b) by the fact that the lights given to Sister Mary of the Cross became much more alive and more precise, as Sister Maria Gabriella was purified,
- c) by the progress made by Sister Mary of the Cross in the work of her own sanctification; considerable progress, which made can. Dubosq say: “By publishing the manuscript of Sister Mary of the Cross – and I want you to do it – you start the cause of beatification.”
In short: the consulted eminent theologians unanimously concluded that the manuscript of Sister Mary of the Cross in itself contained evidence of the perfect authenticity, therefore it had full value as to content and as to the origin.
CONCLUSION
The Manuscript of Sister Mary of the Cross, which we will call “The Manuscript of Purgatory”, as witnessed by the most exigent, it is presented to us – by the only historical and human side – with all the credit guarantees you could wish for.
The Management of the “Bulletin de Notre-Dame de la Bonne Mort” is pleased to publish the uplifting and impressive content of the Manuscript; the voice from beyond the grave that you will hear, revealing the justices and the mercies of Purgatory, proposing to us the advice of piety and holiness, of which the manuscript is full, it will be for us a bright light for the orientation of our lives on path of eternity(1).
And we do not doubt that such “light to the living from the experience of the dead” may be for many of our Followers an eloquent school of good life and, thereby, a healthy and effective preparation for a good death (2).
- To comply strictly with the text of the manuscript, we will not separate parts concerning especially the Last Things. The reader can do it so by himself, if he deems it appropriate, as also he will compensate the enunciation of some questions put to Sr. Maria Gabriella by Sr. Mary of the Cross, having Sr. Mary done without premising it in the manuscript to the answers of Sr. Maria Gabriella.
- Many of the biographical information requirements mentioned above, and concerning the two Augustinian Sisters of the Convent of Valognes, have been taken from the book “La Dirigée du Purgatoire” published also by the “Direction de l’Association de Notre-Dame de la Bonne Mort”, Tinchebray (Orne ) France (nAt.).
THE TEXT OF MANUSCRIPT
The Mother Superior is in heaven since the day of his death, because he has suffered a lot and was very charitable.
If you were as perfect as God wants, how many graces He would have loved to treat you with!
The good Lord wants you to be holier than many others.
Reverend D. L. is in Purgatory, because he loved to give retreats and preach anywhere! …
… Yes, that was a good thing, but he neglected the parish.
The good Lord will like what you will do to all the souls in Purgatory as if you did it for one, He Himself applying your intention.
I am, at this time, the most suffering here, because I was not living up my vocation.
The Way of the Cross is the best prayer after the Mass. I’m suffering more than Sister … because she lived up her vocation; only evil had soured the character; moreover, she had been ill-advised.
I cannot give any outward sign. The good God will not allow it; I was too guilty.
Because I have displeased you, and the good Lord wants you to pray for me!
You can also tell Sister … whom I have likewise displeased and the Mother Superior whom I have made suffer so much… If she could have Masses celebrated in my suffrage.
Some rosaries for me! Your meditations well done, because I did not do it at all! The Office well said, because I do not recite it well! A great modesty everywhere, because I always kept my eyes lifted to see what is not necessary that I saw! … Some elevations, and a great submission to the Mother Superior whom I made suffer so much! Poor Mother Superior! … (Ten or fifteen times repeated).Ah, if you knew what I suffer! Pray, pray for me. It’s because I suffer extremely everywhere! OMG! … How much are you merciful! Alas! You do not figure what the Purgatory!
You have to be good and have mercy on the souls! Some good advice! … The Way of the Cross.
On Earth always you suffer in body and in spirit, and often one and the other together! How much happiness in Heaven! There is a distance so great between Purgatory and Heaven! We sometimes get like an echo of the joys that taste
the Blessed in Paradise; but it is almost a punishment, as this arouses in us so great a desire to see God! In Heaven, pure light; in Purgatory, profound darkness!
The good God loves you more than many others … Hasn’t He given you enough evidence?
Mother E. is in Heaven. She was a soul hidden and with a deep inner life!
But no! I’m not the devil! I am Sister Maria Gabriella. I will not leave you quiet as long as I will not be in heaven. Afterwards, in my turn, I will pray for you.
Yes, even now I can pray well and will do it every day. You will see if the souls in Purgatory are ungrateful!
The biggest sinners do not see the Blessed Virgin. When a soul is liberated from Purgatory, this is a great joy for God Himself. What you read about it in books is true.
On Easter Sunday, I’ll have a bit ‘of relief (from my pain). If you use a lot of supervision on yourself, the good Lord has graces to grant you that He still has never granted to anyone.
You can recite the Psalter for many people at a time, making sure, before you recite it, to direct the intention as if you could say it to each of them, and they will be part of it as if you said it to each of them.
There is a penalty in Purgatory for Religious who have displeased their Superior: Purgatory for them is terrible. They will be with me and they will see the punishment which they also will have to suffer!
[Year 1874]
March 4, 1874 (2nd Sunday after Easter). – Tomorrow go as often as you can before the Blessed Sacrament. Since I will come with you there, I will have the happiness of being close to God. Yes, this is me with relief. (Annunciation) – At the present I am in the second Purgatory. From the day of my death I was in the first, when you suffer such a great pain. In the second you will suffer a lot, but much less than in the first.
Always be a support for your Superior. Do not often speak; wait for someone to ask you to respond. MAcclo – I’m in the second Purgatory since the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. That day I also saw for the first time the Holy Virgin (l), as in the first we cannot see Her. The vision of Her gives us courage; besides that good Mother tells us about Heaven. During the time that we see Her our suffering seems to attenuate.
Ah! if I desire to go to Heaven! Ah! What a martyrdom we suffer since we know the good Lord!
What I think! … God allows it for your benefit and for my relief! … Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: “The good Lord has great graces to grant you. He wants you with your good advices and your examples to save a large number of souls. If, by your conduct you interpose obstacles, one day you answer of all those souls that you could not save! “.
It is true that you are not worthy; but since the good Lord allows all this … He is the good Master who gives his graces to whoever He pleases.
Do well to pray and to have prayers San Michele. At the hour of death we are happy to have had confidence in some Saints, so that they are our protectors in front of the good God in that terrible moment.
Do not be afraid to remind all your young girls the great truths of salvation. Souls often stand in need of being shocked, this more than ever! The good Lord wants that you give yourself to Him entirely. He loves you more than many others. Consequently, He will also grant you a greater number of graces. (He is the good Master of them!). To you, therefore, it will be easier to love Him even more. Do not neglect any of the graces that He bestows upon you.
Live only for the good Lord. Promote his glory everywhere. How much good you can do for souls! Do not do anything except to please God. Before each action recollect a time in yourself to see if what you intend to do will accepted by Him. Everything for your Jesus! Oh, love Him very much!
Yes, I suffer but my greatest torment is to not see God. This is a continuous martyrdom which makes me suffer more of the fire of Purgatory. If hereafter you will love the good God as He wants you, you will experience a little what is that languor that makes anyone want to join himself to the object of his own love, to the good Jesus!
Yes, sometimes we see St. Joseph, but not as often as the Blessed Virgin. You should become indifferent to everything except the good Lord. That’s the way by which to reach the summit of perfection to which Jesus calls you.
Mother I. did not have any benefit from the celebration of Masses made in her suffrage. Sisters have no right to dispose of their property; this goes against poverty.
If you do well prayer, the souls entrusted to you will feel the advantage. The good Lord never denies the graces which He is asked for in a well-made prayer. Purgatory for Religious people lasts longer and is more severe than that of the people of the world, because they have abused a greater number of graces. The good God has allowed it and the deceased Mother Superior has got it, because there are many abandoned Religious souls in Purgatory (their fault, of course!) And we do not think about them anymore. The late Mother Superior told me that if you could, in the Community, to celebrate a Mass from time to time in their intention, the good Lord would be left well satisfied. You will say this to Mother Superior.
Yes, the good God loves the Mother Superior very much. You know He gave her a good cross to bear, here is the best proof of His love for her. One cannot imagine the pains that you suffer in Purgatory! Nobody in the world thinks about it. Religious Communities also forget it. For this reason, God wants us to pray in a special way for the poor souls in Purgatory, that we teach such a devotion to students, so that they in turn will talk about it in the world. So not be in the least afraid of fatigue. When it is for the good God, sacrifice everything for Him! Obey promptly to your Superior, where she turns in all the directions that she wishes. Be very humble. Always humble, to the center of the earth if it could. Mother … is in Purgatory because often, with her cunning words, has hindered the good that the Superior could have done.
Take as a practice the presence of God and the purity of intention.
The good Lord looks for dedicated souls who love Him for Himself. There are very few! He wants you to be in the number of its true friends. Many people like the good Lord; so they believe, but they love Him for themselves! That’s all!
No! in Purgatory we do not see the good God. That would then be Heaven!
When a soul is really seeking, sincerely, with love, the good Lord in his heart, he does not allow that it remains disappointed.
It’s true; but since the good Lord does abound graces often there where abounded malice … why would you refuse them?
Give yourself wholly in sacrifice for the good God! You can never do too much for him!
Think well that only the most of our own piety pours over others.
Have no human respect, even in respect of older sisters. Always say something when it comes to defending your Superior.
The good Lord does not use his great friends to try and make others suffer. Thank Him not to be of that number. It is better to be the anvil than the hammer!
We must never tire of suffering in body and in spirit, because barely you compensated for the past. Your crown has just begun.
JUNE. – When a storm caused to make suffer a soul is lifted, you notice that all this soon disappears!
The devil has followers everywhere … even in convents! No, I do not see the good God when it is exposed; I feel his presence. I see Him with the eyes of faith, but our faith is more alive than yours. We know well what the good Lord is!
Always have the good God present in you. Tell him everything as a friend and be very vigilant on your interior. To prepare well for Holy Communion must love back, love during thanksgiving, love always.
The good Lord wants you to live only for Him, that you think only about Him, that you do not want anything but Him. Put to death, your spirit, the eyes, the tongue, this will be more pleasing to God than corporal mortifications that often come from our own will.
We must act with God as we act with a father, a very loving friend, with a very dear husband. You must pour out the tenderness of your heart on Jesus alone, all of it, all of it on him!
Yes, all eternity, you will sing the mercies infinite (God) about you.
You have to love so much the good Jesus that He can find in your heart a nice house in which to rest, so to speak, from the offenses that He receives everywhere. You must love Him for indifferent, for the feeble souls and for you in the first place; in a word: you have to love Him so much that, in Valognes, yours is an example that hits …
It is true that St. Teresa and Mother Eust, loved Him very much; but you, who had given Him sorrows, have to love Him more compared to those innocent souls.
December 12. – If you will love Him very much, the good Lord will not deny anything to you. When one truly loves his fellow man, you know that goes round and round in all directions around him to snatch a yes about what it wants and always gets it … The same thing will occur from the good God concerning you. He will grant you all that you will ask for from Him.
(1) Many saints and learned theologians claim that, for a divine favor, the Blessed Virgin sometimes visits the souls in Purgatory, for their relief and consolation, especially on the days of her great feasts.
The good Lord wants you to deal with him alone, with his love, and to accomplish his holy will.
Although minding the good Lord … we must also take care of souls. There would not be a great merit to save only ourselves.
The good Lord requires of you a great perfection that he does not require from many others!
[Year 1875]
February 1875. – Be very vigilant about your inside, save your small sorrows to Jesus alone. He may well replace everything that was taken from you.
Your life must be a continuous interior acts of love, mortification, but which God only knows; not do anything extraordinary: very hidden life, very hidden, of great union with your Jesus.
The good Lord wants us to love Him in a unique way. If you do not place any obstacle to his charms, He has extraordinary graces to treat you with, that He still has not granted to anyone. He loves you in a very special way. Have not you ever noticed? We should love his plans, without seeking to penetrate them. He is master to do for the souls what He pleases. Be always very humble, very hidden. Do not bother anyone, but care only about what concerns you, about your own sanctification.
No! You do not have to have too many relationships … She is too expansive and too talkative. The good Lord does not require this from you.
It is not right to be so wary of your Jesus. You donated everything to Him, and you should be sure about this … all that happened, He allowed it …
Love our good Lord! Oh, how happy are the souls that have such a treasure!
Your great personal pain, during life, will not be the absence of Jesus, but a great grief for all the sorrows you gave Him in the past, a distress occasioned by the superabundance of graces that He has filled you and which will increase with, and the powerlessness to return to Him all the love that you would like!
You may as well get up at four o’clock and going to bed at the same time to the other sister, unless you’re seriously ill. I assure you that you would not feel a disadvantage, since more or less half an hour is no big deal, but a source of edification.
Do not go for mild disappointments to complain to anyone, not even with the Superior. Keep those little sufferings for you and one for your Jesus, to whom you have to say everything.
Do not bother too much about your health. The good God will give you enough to serve Him.
May 14. – In making the retreat have the intention not to miss any of the graces that God bestows upon you, always follow the impulse of such graces, and have a very great spirit of faith, and also a great recollection. For a long time I have been working with you for this.
You have to remain always, especially during your actions, so recollected in yourself as you are during thanksgiving after Holy Communion.
Thank the good Lord for all the graces that he has given you, and of those who grants you every day. Every morning you will think about it at the end of meditation. Also pray to Him also for what I told you yesterday …
Never do anything without gather for a moment, and without seeking advice from Jesus who is in your heart … You know what I mean …
Oh! certainly, I love very much the good Lord, but as a soul is purified, that is, as it approaches Heaven, also its love gradually increases.
Think often all the love that God has for you. Be very faithful to all the inspirations of grace.
Every day, start again as if you had done nothing yet, never discouraged.
May 18. – Oh! how small is the number of the true Religious who really have the spirit of their state! There is just about one in fifty. You must at all costs be part of that number!
How great is the responsibility of a superior, of a teacher of novices, of a teacher! What account to make to the good God!
When gradually I am released, you will understand me more clearly, and when I will be at all, I will become for you a second guardian angel! But an angel you’ll see!
Mother … is still in Purgatory. She accepted into the Community many subjects without vocation who introduce relaxation there. It is a great science to know how to discern spirits. If there were more attention to those whom we receive, there we would not have so many drawbacks in the Community.
June 20. – God does not demand more than you can give. Only hearts He wants totally for Himself.
To get his graces, both for you and for the Community, you must renounce yourself from morning to night, that you may not seek yourself in anything, that everything may well be hidden from the eyes of the creatures, and that only God may know everything and see your little daily sacrifices, He alone, you understand!
Many things you feel disgust of; the good God permits it, that through this, you may purchase merits. Pay close attention to this and do not waste anything.
Yes, it is true, but there will be greater glory, in a sense, for the good Jesus, in having to obtain his glory by a person who has not always been his friend, and, as for you, a lot more confusion to see that the good Lord, despite your spiritual infirmities, chooses you to serve his designs. Likewise, you must in return sacrifice and immolate yourself.
Do you know why the good God will not grant at the present the graces that you ask Him for? For the fact that you do not trust Him enough.
It is also true that too easily you forget the great graces that Jesus gives you. He followed you closely from morning to night, and you avoid him as much as you can. We must not behave like that with a God so good, so good, and above all with you.
At any time examine yourself, examine your heart to see if you please the good God. Consider also if you do something that might cause Him pain. That’s what always attract more on you blessed glances of good Jesus.
You have to love the good Lord so much that, in a short time, he can find in your heart a nice home, where He can, so to speak, relax. This good Jesus must tell you, Himself His pains, the ones that every day the world makes Him suffering, and, on your part, it is required that you show Him so much love that He will consoled.
August 14. – The good Lord wants you not to listen to yourself. Have full confidence in him, do not I have told you so many times? Could that be possible that He cannot give you, despite your weakness, the strength to serve Him? Why are you so wary of his power and of his goodness?
August 15. – Yes, we have seen the Blessed Virgin. She has risen to Heaven with many souls; though I remained. Feel hot? Ah! if you knew that heat there is in Purgatory comparison of your own! A brief prayer makes us so well! It is as refreshing as a cold glass of water, given to a person who is very thirsty.
Love everyone, but do not trust totally in anyone, because Jesus wants to be your only great confidant. Everything to him and for him alone.
Accomplish all your actions under the gaze of the good Lord. I’ve already told you: consult Him before everything you need to do or say. Oh! then, how many graces will rain down on you!
Your life be a life of faith and love, and if you do so … you know what I told you about it.
Do nothing for you to get noticed from the outside. (Without offending charity) avoide the company of those among your sisters, who are too expansionary, who lack charity! As for you, just take charge only of your purposes. Forget yourself. Never say your opinion, except that you are not forced to do so. Take care of the only subject who needs to be the motive of your whole life. Jesus! … Yes, Jesus, from morning to evening and from evening to morning!
August 20. – Withdrawal. – Alas! I complain because I suffer a lot more than usual … the fact that I once abused of these days of grace and salvation and I am punished for it at the present.
Accomplish all your actions under the gaze of the good Lord, simply trying to please Him alone in the world. As long as you will not be reached this detachment from everything to pay attention to Him alone, He will not leave you in peace.
You must be a living rule for the whole Community. It is necessary, that in seeing you, people can say of you: “That’s the rule.” Even more, it must be, as you were another Jesus, that you reproduce in all your conduct, as far as possible to a creature, Jesus himself.
September 7th. – The good God, though very great, isn’t He?, is not ashamed to familiarize Himself with the soul that loves Him and to enter into the smallest details of what concerns her. What a goodness!
But yes, it is not true that in our soul there is something intimate that only God understands and that can be said that to him alone?
September 8. – The good Lord allows that some souls have a considerable tenderness of heart, while others are less sensitive. All this fits in his plans. As to those who have a more loving heart, He gave them that heart especially for Him, so that they may flow back all their love into his adorable Heart. He can indeed grant to each one what pleases him. He also has a particular fondness for certain souls; you are of them.
At night, when you rest, I suffer most. It is true that I always carry with me my Purgatory, but during the day, since I am allowed to accompany you everywhere, I suffer a bit less. All this is enabled by the good Lord.
November 7th. – Think carefully to what I am about to tell you: Be very vigilant on your interior life, on everything you do. At any time ask yourself if God is pleased with you, because you should soon become a saint.
Yes, it’s true; but by the grace of God we can do anything. Acknowledge to yourself that you are unworthy of these favors, but, despite everything, act.
December 8. – Love greatly the good Lord. Do not be afraid of suffering. Trust in Him and not at all in you. Die to yourself from morning to night. To you it is known what I have told you regarding the new Bishop; it will come true …
Do not breathe, do not live except for Jesus Christ!
The good Lord must He only your confidant. Do not complain if not with him alone. Be well hidden from the eyes of the world. Sometimes you will be ill and even seriously sick, and you will look healthy, because God wants to be the only witness of what will happen in you. You will see that you will understand each other well.
If you will be like the good Lord wants, seriously vigilant of yourself, so not to miss any of His graces, He will communicate with you in a very special way.
You caused sorrow to God, when you do not think of Him. Imagine a meeting of friends. Among them, often, there one that we prefer, who better understand us and to whom we do not hide anything. Well, if this friend sees that we do not pay attention to him, that we do not talk to him, not even with a look we tell him that he remains our favorite friend, he will be displeased. That’s how the good God acts towards you. He certainly likes many souls, but, as I told you many times, although you do not deserve it as many others, He loves you in a special way, and your indifference causes Him a more painful suffering as he awaits for the reciprocal love of your heart, to cover you with graces. The good Lord is sensitive to everything that you do and craves you to think of Him, that is, that despite your occupation, your thoughts be always for him first of all. Before speaking to the people, whom you deal with, may He always have your first look; in a word, you have to live and breathe for Him alone: here are his rights and he is Master to act as He pleases.
December 12. – The good Lord wants that before retiring for perpetual adoration, you do it first in your heart; you understand me. Likewise, there is need to get used to make often the spiritual communion. If you do that properly, you’ll get the richest and salutary fruits.
December 30. – Never ask for anything for your health; but do not reject what He gives you. We must not appear at all ridiculous.
[Year 1876]
January 1876. – When you have something to say to the Superior and you may differ it, do not be too anxious to tell her. Postpone the thing to another time, so that to moderate and mortify yourself. You need to prepare a dwelling place for Jesus in your heart, so that, further He can, as I told you, come to rest there. Also you have to prepare yourself in the best possible way to the holy Communion. Think about it the previous day and especially in the morning, since the alarm.
You also need to not only to prepare a home for Jesus, but also to invite Him. Because what good would be to prepare a nice apartment for a friend, if you ever invite him to enter it? So often invite Jesus with your desires and above all with your love.
You should become so inward never lose the presence of Jesus, even with the commitment of school. To get there, guard a lot about yourself.
About the cave … the good God will help you and will supply to all that you cannot do; but if you want to please Him, on Sundays do not do anything. Pray to Him as much as possible, that’s all.
The good Lord wishes hereinafter to make you His support and your heart His sanctuary!
FEBRUARY. – Yes, it is true that the good Lord in Heaven receives infinite adoration, but because it is on earth that He is outraged, He also wants on earth to receive the repair and you are just the one to do the repair, by loving Him, by recompensing Him with your tenderness of what He suffers from the neglect everywhere. You know how I told you about it.
(Annunciation). – When God wants a soul of its own, starts by crushing her, more or less like the apples under the millstones of a winepress to squeeze the juice, in his passions, in search of itself, in a word, in all its faults; afterwards, when this soul is so crushed, he gives her the shape He wants and if she is faithful, soon she is to be completely transformed; then only the good Jesus fills her with his selected graces and the floods of his love.
July 16. – The Eucharist must be for you a magnet that will attract you more and more. The Eucharist, in a word, should be the motive of your whole life.
August 28. – Do not have any desire but to love more and more the good Lord and to be united with Him more and more. You have to try to become every day more interior and more united to Jesus through corporal and spiritual sufferings and especially through love.
If you would correspond willingly to the designs of God in this life that He especially requires of you, I could not say to what degree of holiness and union with Him, He wants you to arrive, or what graces He has to give you! .. . I have already made known some of those graces, but the other … I am not known. Oh! supervise a lot about yourself. Must the mere sight of you, your presence alone inspires pity!
August 30. – Retreat. – The retreat will be for the whole Community, it is true, but the good Lord will allow all sermons to be somehow for you. Be very careful. The retreat should make you become very holy!
The good Lord made your heart for Him alone. Surrender yourself to our Lord without ever looking neither forward nor back. Throw yourself into his divine arms, tighten yourself to his heart and then, there, do not fear anything.
Every morning do a brief prayer to Our Lord to worship Him in all the churches where he is left abandoned. Bring there your thoughts and then tell Him how much you love and would like to compensate for the abandonment in which He is left. Renew this intention several times during the day. You will do something pleasing to the good Jesus.
The good Lord wants you always to think of Him, to do everything under his divine glances: the prayers, the work; in a word, that you do not lose sight of Him as much as possible. But all this must be done calmly, without affectation, that no one ever may realize it: your Jesus only knows what happens between you and Him. Please keep your eyes down when you are responsible for supervising, and even then do it in the most modest way possible. Do not have any human esteem. Be always very humble. Make God loved as much as you can. Discard what is transitory, and you too pass as well among the large crowd modestly, or, if you are obliged to show, do it with simplicity and reported everything to God, not troubled if, after doing everything to please Him, your initiatives are successful or not!
Have no desire but to love more and more the good Lord.
At the end of the retreat, take as a resolution to think often about what I’m going to tell you: God alone! My God and my all! … Everything passes and passes soon! … The tabernacle is my rest; the Eucharist, my life; the cross, my legacy; Mary, my Mother; Heaven, my hope.
Yes, it will be pleasing to God in the morning do not take butter with the bread.
November 20. – Do not ever judge, or investigate what your other sisters do. You will not answer for them, and you should not even mould yourself on them. The good Lord does not ask the same perfection from all. Mortify yourself and do not observe if the others do not do what you do, because the good Lord does not require it.
You never want to believe what I tell you. Have you seen this morning what the good Lord wants from you, since he gave you what you had asked of Him as a sign … Well, yes, the good Jesus wants you to act with him as with your most affectionate and sincere friend, without any fear. It is true that His majesty frightens and that you are well miserable for daring to have such intimate relationships with your Jesus, but is it not He Master of enriching the poor? So ask this good Jesus that he may make you become rich in virtue as he wants to see you, but in the meantime continue to act in accordance with the inspirations you receive. Widen your heart, especially because Jesus wants to see love in it. How many graces you would get if you were faithful! … Graces, which you have never thought of!
CHRISTMAS 1876. – When you feel some pain, you do should not complain about it with everyone! That does not bring you any relief. You should talk to Jesus first, but, on the other hand, often you talk to him last.
Yes, I’m very comforted and I think the end of my exile is not far away. Ah! if you knew how much I want to see God! … But no one should know it, except … and among all those supernatural things, you have to be natural, yes, so simple that no one notices or can understand what it is all about … Likewise for the remainder. You understand: look for hiding yourself more than you cannot, without forgetting what you need to do; everything is simple! The good Lord wants to know, He alone, what happens in your interior.
[Year 1877]
January 1877. – Lean quietly on the adorable Heart of your Jesus. Tell him all your pains like a friend; He will understand, but what I told you about the little corner in his divine Heart, that will be revealed to you only when you will be more inward than you are at present.
Do not grieve for all of the school hassles. I pray for you every day, so do not lose patience.
February 13th. – (Before the Blessed Sacrament). – See how Jesus is alone! Yet at this time there might be more people, if they had a little more of good will. But, how much indifference … even among the religious souls! Our Lord is very sensitive in this regard. At least, you love Him in the place of those unjust souls and the good Jesus will be compensated for such carelessness.
May 12. – Mortify, both in body and especially in the spirit! Forget, totally waive yourself. Never mind to what the others do. God does not require of all souls the same perfection. Not all are illuminated by the same lamps; you however, whom Jesus illuminates, always look to Him, He alone is your purpose in everything!
Before any action, observe and examine whether it could be pleasing Him, and this is all for you. His look, his love and his good pleasure should be enough. An indifference, a lack of respect on your part offends Him however, while a frequent reminder of his holy presence, a short elevation, a look, a little attention towards him, give Him pleasure and He is sensitive to this.
Be vigilant about your inner world and do not miss any of the good Lord. Do not pay much attention to your body. Willingly forget yourself. Set yourself with ease in the arms of Jesus and He will not leave you in embarrassment. Only have unlimited confidence in his goodness. If you knew how great is his power, you would put thereby limits to his power? What cannot Jesus do for a soul that He loves?
December 13. – In your actions do not try to please anyone if not the good Lord. To Him you have to do everything, without priority to human respect and without never growing weary; Moreover you know what Our Lord has recommended 25 times a day. If you truly love the good Lord, in those moments he will not deny anything of what you ask for … Yes, you are poor, it is true, humble yourself, Jesus however does not always give his graces to the most holy.
Always prepare yourself with great care for Holy Communion, confession, holy office; in a word, to everything that has to its end a largest union with Our Lord. … However, it should be much less difficult for you than for many others to see Jesus always present in your heart; after the graces that he has given you in that regard, you should not find any difficulty to recollect!
I have already told you that God seeks souls in the world who will love him, but with a childlike love, with respectful tenderness, it is true, but warm. Well, those souls are difficult to be found! Their number is smaller than you think. The Heart of the good God narrows too much. The good Jesus is considered so big that you cannot pull him over and the love given to him is cold. Respect finally degenerates into a certain indifference. I know that not all souls can understand the kind of love that our Lord requires; but you, whom Jesus made it understood to, make up to such indifference, such coldness. Ask Him that broadens your heart so that it can contain a lot of love. You can fix what is not at all given to understand with your tenderness and the respectful familiarity that Jesus allows. Do it and especially loved much!
Never tire of working! Start again each day as if you had not done anything yet! This continual renunciation of self-will and of what is convenient to you, of the way you see, is a long martyrdom well meritorious and well pleasing to God.
The good Lord wants you extraordinary, not so much in the exterior, but rather in the interior. He requires of you a union so great that you should reach the point of never losing sight of him, even in the heat of your occupations.
[Year 1878]
August 1878 (Withdrawal). – The great sinners and those who are left almost all their lives far from God out of indifference, as well as the religious who are not as they should be, are in the great Purgatory, and there, the prayers that are made for these souls are not applied to them. They were indifferent to the good God during life. In turn, he is indifferent towards them and leaves them in a kind of abandonment, so as they may repair for their life that has been nothing.
Ah! being still on earth, you cannot imagine or make for you an adequate idea of what is the good God! Instead, we know and understand Him, because our soul is released from all the bonds that held her and prevented her from understanding the sanctity, the majesty of God, of His great mercy. We are martyrs, we yearn for love, so to speak. An irresistible force pushes us toward the good God as the One who is our center and, at the same time, another force repels us to the place of atonement. In this state, we are forced to like not being able to satisfy our desires. Oh! what pain! … But we deserve, and we do not complain, here. We want what God wills. Only on earth you cannot understand what we suffer.
Yes, I am well comforted. I am no longer in the fire. I do not have that insatiable desire to see God, a suffering still very painful! … I feel, however, that I approach the end of my exile, the place I aspire with all desire. I realize that well.
I gradually feel free; but, to tell you what day and when (I will be at all), I would not know. Only the good Lord knows. Maybe I’ll have to spend years in such a desire for Heaven. Continue always to pray, and hereafter I will repay you, although already pray a lot for you.
Oh! how big are the mercies of God to you! Who can understand them? Why the good Jesus does so with you? For what reason he loves you more than many others? Why He still has so much great graces to bestow? Maybe because you deserve it? No! … And even much less than many other souls! But because he so wants to do to you; He is master of his graces. So be very grateful. Remain always in spirit at his divine feet and let Him do. Be very vigilant on your interior. Be very faithful in trying to find what can bring pleasure to your Jesus! Have no eyes, no heart, no love, but for him! Always consult him before all things. Surrender to His good assent; and therefore, stay quiet. All that I told you will happen; do not interpose any obstacle! It is the good Jesus that wants so.
The people who are lost, are lost only because they want to at any cost. Because, in reaching that extreme, there was no need would reject thousands of graces and good inspirations, sent to them by God. It is therefore all their own fault!
When I’ll be there, I’ll tell you; however, I think that the great feasts of Heaven are celebrated with a growth of ecstasy, admiration, thanks and above all love.
But, in regard to what I said just now, you must have come to so great a union with God that nothing disturbs you: pains, joys, successes, failures, polite or rude ways. It is necessary that any of this shocks you not even a bit, but that Jesus may control everything in you, that incessantly you may keep the inner eye fixed on Him to catch his slightest whim.
What did not Jesus do for you? What will he not do so again? Put together well your outward; but to the interior is quite another thing, you know. Take care only for your purposes; look down everywhere. Talk little and in a low voice; but always remain with your Jesus. No! It you do not get tired; this is what he expects of you. Be good with young girls. Do not treat them harshly. Be clever in mortifying, in the breaking of your own will. Anticipate people who are a bit less acceptable than others to you, whatever wrong they have towards you, and this to renounce yourself; Jesus will remain satisfied. Everything else what can do to you? Exactly for this we need to silence the human ego, and obey Jesus who wants it, no give precedence to the self-love, but instead, by doing with my eyes closed all that Jesus loves.
– Why, when I pray for you, I do it with less fervor than when I pray for others, and often I forget you?
R … Do not regret it; is the good God who allows so; and also, for me is a somewhat kind of punishment. If you were to pray even more, I would not receive any extra relief. God wishes so. If he want you to pray more, he will inspire you.
I repeat once again not to be afraid of me. You will not see me in my sufferings. Further on, when you become stronger, you will see the souls in Purgatory, and you’ll see some of them in a very ugly way. But do not think about it so as not to scare you.
The good Lord will give you at the appropriate time the necessary courage and all that will be required to accomplish his holy will.
– Maybe is this not for punishment?
R … But no! I am here for my relief and for your sanctification. Please pay a little more attention to what I say …
– It is true, but for me these things are so extraordinary as not to know what to think of this! It is not ordinary thing to hear you so!
R… I understand well your hesitancy. I know what you suffer in this regard; but since God allows it, and this to me is a great relief, will you want to have pity on me, won’t you? When I will be liberated, you will see that I will give you more than you have done for me. Already I pray a lot for you.
– Where is Sister …?
R … In the great Purgatory, where she does not receive prayers from anyone.
The good Lord is often upset at the death of more than a few women religious (so to speak), the reason being that he had called those souls, so they would serve Him faithfully on earth and, after their death, could go immediately to glorify Him in Heaven .. . And instead, for their infidelity it happens that they stay long in Purgatory, much longer than the other people in the world, who have not received so many graces!
[Year 1879]
August 1879 (Retreat). – We see St. Michael as we see the angels; he has no body. He comes to Purgatory to take all your souls already purified, since it is he who leads them to heaven. Yes, it is true, he is among the Seraphim, as stated by Monsignor. It is the first Angel of Heaven. Even our guardian angels come to visit us, but St. Michael is much nicer than them! As to the Holy Virgin, we see Her with her body. She comes to Purgatory on the days of her celebrations and goes back to heaven along with many souls. While she is with us, we do not suffer; San Michele escorts her, but when he is alone, we suffer as usual.
When I told you about the great and the second Purgatory, I did it to make you understand it. With that statement I meant to say that in Purgatory there are different degrees. So, I call great Purgatory the place where there are the most guilty souls, where I remained for two years without being able to give any sign of my torments, then the year, during which you heard me complain; you know that I was still there when I began to talk.
In the second Purgatory, which is always the Purgatory, however, different from the first, we also suffer a lot, but less than in the first Purgatory; finally, there is a third place, which is the Purgatory of desire. No fire is there. There are souls who did not desire heaven enough, who did not love the good God enough. I’m there right now; and in those three Purgatories there are still many degrees. Gradually when a soul is purified, no longer suffers from the same torments. Everything is proportionate to the faults which she must atone for.
Are you now shaking, and will you think to God seriously? How long I am following you for this purpose!
The retreat was good and bear fruit; the devil was not glad.
The good Lord loves the Father who gave the Exercises.
Tell the good Father I thank him for the Memento who promised you to do for me in the Holy Mass. For my part I will not be ungrateful; I will pray that the good Lord grant him the graces he needs.
You did well tonight, to tell him all that I have told you. It was St. Michael to send it to you; the Community has profited, but what is certain, is that especially for you that he came here. San Michele, whom you love, and who protects you from long time, wanted one of his missionaries to know everything that I told you. The good Lord of his drawings in this. You will know them soon. Further you can also give him more precise information about San Michele.
I wonder if Father P. is pleasing to God. This is what you shall tell him: that he continues to act as he did so far; he is pleasing to God and what God loves most about him is his great purity of intention and his inner spirit, (as) his kindness for souls. Tell him that he continues to become closer and closer to the Heart of Jesus. The more intimate is his union, the more his actions and his whole life will be meritorious for Heaven and will profit the souls. No ordinary perfection I expect from him. In Missions and Retreats he should recommend the offer of the day’s actions, because in the world and even in the communities not always we think about enough, and so it is that many actions, good in themselves, the last day will have no reward, because they were not offered to God before we take them. Never be discouraged, if he sees that his efforts have not the outcome he wants; think that God is happy and satisfied with his apostolic activities, even if he had instilled in the hearts a little ‘love for only a quarter of an hour! …
What I have said just now, the good Lord made me to know, because he (the Father P.) did not welcome you when, the other day, did you talk to him. Put what I told you in practice. Let him know in writing all that you have learned from me. Do not forget anything and put to profit all the advice he will give you in this regard. As I told you, the good Lord sent him. He has great designs in acting in this way about you. Be very faithful to all the graces that Jesus gives you. If, hereafter, as I hope, the good Lord will make myself known something that interests your Father, I’ll tell you. Thank him again of his prayers and tell him that I will not be ungrateful. Now I will pray for him as for you.
Think that God wants you to become a Saint. You might say that this will not be in a moment, because, how long your Jesus has been behind all this, and I also! However, now it is time, and we need this time to put you to work seriously; you realized this especially during this last retreat. Do not put any obstacles to grace; let yourselves be led by God in the way He wants. But above all, do not resist to any of his inspirations. Put aside the nature and one’s own self; thus relieved of that burden, go straight ahead and never lose heart. Pray much for me, that soon may come to the object of my desires so persistent and so great! I will be even more useful to you in Heaven than here. The closing day of the retreat you have had a good thought inviting me to adore Jesus present in your heart during thanksgiving. If you had always done so far until here, I would have had more relief. Do this well before all your prayers; also offers to me a bit of your work. I have so great a desire to see God.
Yes, the notebooks (1) the good Lord really like them. That is the most expeditious means to reach a great perfection and intimate union with Jesus.
I have been waiting for a long time for a little more love in all that you do. The more a soul loves Jesus the more his prayers and his actions are meritorious in his sight. In Heaven, he will reward only love. Everything which will be done for any other purpose will be void and, consequently, lost. Therefore, love Jesus as He wants to. I’ll get a great relief.
(1) This are probably different notebooks, where Sister Mary of the Cross noted her spiritual “budget” in regard to the “Regulation” which we traced. These notebooks were found among her personal cards.
– The good Lord is a bit happier about me these days?
R … Yes, He is pleased with you because you are looking for a greater effort to please Him. Have you noticed his goodness? Did you observe his attention concerning you? Has He not shown his likeness to you during these days? Well, here it is as He always will act towards you. The more you do for Him, the more He will do for you. I’m so glad to see that you really love God and work to achieve the perfection that, if it was necessary to remain a bit longer in Purgatory, I would do it with pleasure if I knew that, through this suffering, I would help you get to that level which the good Lord wants to see you for the accomplishment of his designs.
Never look back to examine too (carefully) your conduct. Put it back entirely in the hands of God and go on and on.
Your life must be summed up in two words: sacrifice, love! Sacrifice from morning to night, but also, at the same time, love!
If you knew what the good Lord is! There is no sacrifice that you would not do, no suffering that you would not bear to see him only a minute, and then you would find so satisfied, so comforted, even if you were to see Him not ever again! What will be, then, for all eternity?
For you there is no middle ground. Some souls, picking on the middle, will be saved; but you, or you will be a great saint or a great sinner; choose. Do you remember that one day, during one of your early retreats, long time ago, you remained hit hard at this passage: there are souls for whom there is no middle ground? Or they will Angels and demons. Apply it to yourself. You indeed well-recognized that it was for you!
August 13. – I have so many things to tell you that you alone and the Father will understand. Have you thought of thanking the good Lord because he sent it to you? Pray for him every day.
– What is the best way to glorify San Michele?
R … The most effective way to glorify Him in heaven and on earth is to recommend as much as possible devotion to the souls in Purgatory, and to make known the great office that he exercises for the souls in Purgatory. He is instructed by God to lead them to the place of atonement and to introduce them, after they have served, in the eternal abode. Whenever a soul is to increase the number of the elects, the good Lord is glorified by that soul and such glory falls, somehow, on the glorious minister of Heaven. It is an honor for him to present to the Lord souls who are going to sing His mercies and to join their gratitude to the one of the elects for all eternity. I am not able to make you understand all the love that the Heavenly Archangel has for his divine Lord, as also the love God has in turn for Saint Michael, and also the love, and the great mercy that the Holy Archangel has towards us.
He encourages us in our suffering, talking of Heaven. Tell the Father… that, if he wants to please San Michele, to recommend immediately devotion to the souls of the Purgatory. In the world people do not know it. At the death of their relatives and friends, there are some prayers, weeping for some days and the all is nice and finished! The souls are abandoned; it is true that they deserve it, because on earth they have not prayed for the dead and the divine judge does not give us in the other world that which we have done in this. The people who have forgotten the souls in purgatory are in their turn forgotten, and that is right, but had you suggested to pray for the dead, you had made them to know a little bit what Purgatory is, and perhaps they would have acted differently.
When the good God allows it, we can communicate directly with the Archangel in the way in which the spirits and souls communicate between them.
– How San Michele is celebrated in purgatory?
R… The day of his feast, San Michele comes to Purgatory and returns to Heaven with many souls, most of whom had been devoted to him during their life.
– What glory receives San Michele from his feast on earth?
R… When on earth we celebrate a Saint, San Michele receives in Heaven accidental glory. Even if you do not celebrate him, in memory of some heroic act that he had accomplished in life or the glory procured to the good God in some occasion, in memory of this, he also receives in Heaven a special reward in that eventuality; this reward consists in an increase of accidental glory, united to that which the memory he accumulated on earth provides. The accidental glory that the Archangel receives is higher than that of the other saints, because the glory of which I speak is in proportion to the magnitude of the merit of the one who receives it, as well as to the value of the act that has deserved said reward.
– Do you know the things on earth?
R… I know them as much as the good God wants me to, and my knowledge is limited. I knew something about the Community, and that is. I do not know what is happening in the souls of the other persons, except for you alone; and this the good God permits for your perfection. That sometimes I have told you about some people in particular and I will tell you again, the good God does me know it there and then; but, except this, I do not know nothing else. Some souls have knowledge more extensive than mine. All this is proportionate to the merit. Thus, in regard to the relatives of your father, at this moment I do not know the will of the good God for them… Will I know it later? I do not know. I will pray to the good God for them, and I will recommend them to San Michele.
As regards the degrees of Purgatory, I can talk about them because I passed through them. In the great Purgatory there are different degrees. In the lowest and most tormenting, which is a momentary inferno, there are sinners who have committed crimes enormous during their life and that death has surprised in that state without giving them time to just repent. They have been saved as a miracle, often for the prayers of their faithful relatives or other persons. Sometimes they could not even make a confession and the world believes they are lost, but the good God, whose mercy is infinite, gave them, at the moment of death, the contrition needed to be saved, in view of one or some actions which they performed during the life. For these souls, purgatory is terrible. Is Hell, with the difference that in hell you curse the good God, while in Purgatory you bless him and thank him for having being saved. Then immediately after there are the souls that, without having committed faults as great as the first, were indifferent to the good God; during the life did not satisfy the solemnity of Easter and convert likewise at the point of death, often not even having been able to communicate, and are in Purgatory because of their long indifference, suffering horrendous punishments, abandoned, without prayers… or if you make for them, they cannot make a profit from it.
Finally, there are still in said Purgatory, Religious lukewarm men and women, who forgot their own duties, indifferent to Jesus; priests, who, not having exercised their ministry with the reverence due to their Sovereign Majesty, have not done enough to make the good God loved by the souls entrusted to their care. I belonged to this level.
In the second Purgatory there are the souls of those who die guilty of venial sins not atoned before death or of mortal sins forgiven, but of which they are not fully satisfied with the divine justice. There are also in said Purgatory different degrees according to the merits of the persons. Thus the purgatory of consecrated persons or who have received more graces is longer and more painful than that of the common soul.
Finally, the purgatory of desire, which is called the vestibule. Very few people avoid it; to avoid this, you must have ardently desired Heaven and the vision of the good God, and this is rare, rarer than you would not believe, because many people, even the pious, are afraid of the good God and do not desire with enough ardour Heaven. Said Purgatory has its martyrdom well painful to the par of the other; being deprived of the vision of the good Jesus what a suffering!
– There you know each other in purgatory?
R… Yes, as you know the souls. There are no more names in the other world. We must not compare the Purgatory with the earth. When the soul is free and dissolved by its mortal casing, her name is buried in the tomb together with the body. I explain very little what is purgatory and you understand a little more of the others, because the light that the good God gives you. But what is this little compared to reality? We are here lost in the will of the good God, while on earth as much as one is a saint, he always retains his willingness. We instead we no longer have it. We know only what pleases God to let us know and nothing more.
– Do you talk among yourselves in purgatory?
R… The souls communicate between them when the good God permits, according to the way of communicating of souls, but without words…
… It is true that I am speaking to you, but are you a spirit? Could you understand, if I would not pronounce the words?…
But as for me, because so wants the good God, I understand you without your uttering the words with the lips. Nevertheless, there is communication between souls, between spirits, even without being dead. So when you have a good thought, a good desire, there were often communicated from your good angel or some other saint, sometimes by the good God himself: this is the language of souls.
Where is located Purgatory? Is it thick in a narrow place?
R… It is located in the centre of the earth near hell (as you have seen one day after the holy Communion). The souls there are as in a narrow place, if one considers the multitude that is located there, since there are thousands and thousands of souls, but how much space is needed for a soul? Every day there come several thousands and most of them remains there from thirty to forty years; other much longer still and other less. I say this to you according to the calculations of earth, because here is quite another. Ah, if you knew, if you knew Purgatory and when you think that it is for your guilt that you are here! I have been here for eight years. It seems to me that ten thousand years have passed!…
Oh my God! Tell exactly all this to your Father!… He should learn from me what is this place of suffering in order to make it more widely known in the future. He can experiment by himself how beneficial the devotion to the souls of the Purgatory is.
The good God often grants more graces through the mediation of these suffering souls than through those of the saints themselves. When he wants to get a thing with a certain result, he should ask the souls who have most loved the Blessed Virgin and whom consequently this good Mother wants to release, and he himself will tell you if he got a good result. There are also some souls who do not reside in the Purgatory itself. So, during the day, I accompany you wherever you go, but when you rest, at night, I suffer more; I find myself in Purgatory. Other souls sometimes do their Purgatory in places where they have sinned, at the foot of the holy altars in which there is the Holy Sacrament, but wherever they are, always take with themselves their own sufferings, a little less intense however than in real Purgatory.
The Father (spiritual) had good reason to tell you not to ever seek other that the holy will of the good God in all that you do. This will give you happiness: see his will in all that happens to you, sorrows and joys. Everything comes from Jesus equally. Oh! Be good, doubly good, to bring pleasure to the good God, to Him who is good for you! Always keep the eyes of our soul fixed on him to prevent the minimum of his desires. Go even further, in order to make him happy. The more you seek to please Him, the more he will do to you. The good God does is not outdone in generosity, on the contrary! He always gives more that he does receive. Therefore be ingenious to work for his love and his glory.
The English drowned at Mount San Michele is gone to heaven directly. She has had the contrition request at the moment of death and at the same time the baptism of desire. Everything happened so for the intervention of San Michele. Happy shipwreck!
As to the Father who retired, San Michele is not satisfied with it, but the good God has left to teach own his own freedom. He wants in his service only people who freely pay him the homage without ever turning back.
Tell the Father P. from the good God that he should follow with great courage all that he has undertaken for Him, but that it would be prudent, namely, that he does not make more of what constitute the most of its forces. I pray, I have already said, for all his intentions, and also for him, as also for you.
Pius IX went directly into heaven; his Purgatory was done on earth.
– How do you know that M.P. went directly to Heaven, from the moment that you have not seen him go through purgatory?
R… The good God she made me know it, and it is also He that, for his goodness, allows that I know what you ask me for, when I have not seen and experienced it by myself. The justice of the good God holds us in Purgatory, it is true, and we deserve it, but be certain that his mercy and his fatherly heart does not leave us there without any consolation. We wish with ardour full achievement with Jesus, but he wants it almost at par with us. On earth often he communicates in intimate way to some souls (because a few want to listen) and it please Him to uncover His secrets. The souls who receive his favours are those that seek to be accepted in all of their conduct and that live and breathe only for Jesus and to please him. In Purgatory there are souls very guilty, but which repented and, despite the fact they need to expiate their sins, they re confirmed in grace and cannot sin anymore: they are perfect. Indeed, as soon as the soul is purified in the place of atonement, she understands better, but without seeing the beatific vision, because then there would be no more Purgatory. If purgatory we did not know the good God more than on Earth, our sufferings would not be so intense or our torment so atrocious; what constitutes our main torment is the absence of him who is the sole object of our so persistent desires.
And when a soul is destined to have the most beautiful place in heaven, has not even in Purgatory a larger number of graces that not many others?
R… Certainly, the more a soul is destined to occupy a high place in Heaven and, thereby, to know there better his God, more vast likewise are his knowledge and more intimate his union with Him in the place of expiation. Everything here is proportionate to the matter.
The three friends of V.P. have been in Heaven for a long time.
– Well, what has happened to the prayers that the Father P. has done for them?
R… The people who are in heaven and whom we pray for on earth, can have these prayers for the souls whom they wish to apply them to. It is a well sweet memory for the souls in the other world to see that relatives or friends do not forget them on earth, even though they no longer need prayers. In return, they are grateful.
The judgments of the good God are very different from those on earth. He takes into account temperament, character, of what is done for lightness or for pure malice. To him who knows the bottom of our hearts, it is not difficult to see that that takes place (in souls); the good Jesus is very good, but nevertheless also very just!
What distance is there between the land that we live in and Purgatory?
R… Purgatory is in the centre of the globe. The earth itself is not perhaps a purgatory? Among the people who live there, some do purgatory entirely through voluntary or accepted penance: these people after their death, go immediately into Heaven; other people begin it, because the earth is certainly a place of suffering, but these souls, not having enough generosity, go to terminate their earthy purgatory in true Purgatory.
- Suddenly and unforeseen deaths are a justice or a mercy of the good God?
R… This kind of deaths are sometimes a justice and sometimes a mercy. When a soul is shy and God knows that is prepared and ready to appear before him, to save her anxiety and fear that could happened at the last moment, God takes her away from this world with a sudden death. Sometimes even the good God takes the souls in his justice. They are not for this totally lost, but they are deprived of the last sacraments or shipping them in a hurry, without being prepared to their last step, their purgatory is much more painful and it lasts more. Other, having filled the measure of their crimes and having remained deaf to all divine graces, the good God takes them away from earth so that there they would provoke even more his revenge.
– The fire of purgatory is a fire similar to the one on earth?
R… Yes, with the difference that the fire of purgatory is a purifier of the justice of God and that the one on earth is well tolerable compared to that of Purgatory. It is a shadow in comparison with the large braziers of divine justice.
– How then can a soul burn?
R… For a proper permission of the good God; the soul that was the real culprit, because the body only obeyed the soul (in fact what evil do you see committed by a dead body?), the soul suffers as if it were the body that suffers.
– Tell me, what happens during the agony and after? The soul is located in the light or in the darkness? Under what form is the judgment?
R… I did not had the agony, you know, but I can tell you that at the last moment the devil relieves all of his anger around to the dying. The good God, to make the souls merit more, allows that they undergo those tests, that latest fighting: souls strong and generous, in order to have a place even more beautiful in heaven, often at the end of their life and in the anxieties of death, like the terrible battles against the Angel of Darkness (you have been witness to it ), but they emerge victorious. The good God does not allow a soul, that has given itself to him during its whole life, to perish in those last moments. The persons who have loved the Blessed Virgin, who relied on their whole life on Her, receive from her many graces in the last fights. The same thing occurs even for those who have been devoted to San Giuseppe, San Michele or some other saints. Then especially, as I have already said, they are happy to have an intercessor before God in that distressing moment. There are souls who die quiet, without experiencing anything of what I said. The good God has his plans in everything he does or allows everything for the particular good of each.
How to tell you and describe what happens after the agony? It is not possible to fully understand the test without having passed it. Nevertheless I will try to explain it to you best I can. The soul, in leaving the body, found itself lost, all immersed (if I may say so) in God. It is located in such a light that in the blink of an eye sees its entire life and, in consequence, what it deserves. She herself in this vision so clear pronounces her judgment.
The Soul does not see the good God, but it is annihilated by his presence. If it is a soul guilty as I was and that consequently deserved Purgatory, it is so oppressed under the weight of her sins that remain to be expiated, that by herself is sinking into Purgatory.
Then only we understand the good God, his love for souls and which misfortune is the sin in the eyes of His Divine Majesty. San Michele is there when the soul leaves the body; him alone I have seen and will see all souls. He is like the witness and the executor of divine justice. I have also seen my guardian angel.
This is for you to understand how we can say that San Michele takes the souls in Purgatory… since a soul is not taken, but it is also true in the sense that he is there, present to the execution of the judgment. Everything that happens in the other world is a mystery for your world.
2- and when it is a soul that goes directly into Heaven?
R… For this soul, the Union started with Jesus continues to death: behold Heaven, but the union of Heaven is much more intimate than the one on earth.
Why today you acted in this way with the good God? He is not happy of your conduct. He who is so good with you; this is ingratitude on your part. And for what reason investigated the conduct of others? Only take heed to your conduct: that is enough. Not all have the same head and, if you had had to lose it in seven years that I speak to you, after all fears you had, by a long time what would have already happened. Be of good cheer, therefore, and do not repeat ever more to act as today!
You are quite rightly not to love the ecstasy. Certainly, we must accept when the good God send it, but he does not want you to wish for. These things are not what will lead us to Heaven. A life mortified, humble, is more to wish for and much more secure. It is true that many saints have had revelations and ecstasy, but this was a reward that the good God gave them after a long struggle and a life of renunciation, or again because he wanted to use them for great things in view of his glory; and everything happened without clamour, without pomp, in the silence of prayer, and, when they were discovered, they remained all confused and did not talk about it if not for obedience.
The good God has crushed you in the past, but be patient and be very well courageous because He will crush you again in the future.
Tell the Mother Superior that when she meets souls of the character and the temperament of Sister X…, to be careful and not listen to everything that they would even tell her.
With regard to what I say, been quiet. Here is how you can tell that a grace is granted by the good God. These graces arrive and are poured out upon you as a downpour that surprised you in the middle of a beautiful day, while the sky appears almost serene. You must not then be afraid of having tried to obtain them; because you did not think about them. You have observed this several times. The thing is quite different when it comes to the graces that you believe granted by Jesus, and they, on the other hand, are not the fruit of an imagination who worked to produce them. Said graces should be feared, because often the devil works inside and profits from a weak brain, a weak temperament, a judgment not too honest; then he deceives those poor souls who doe not commit sin, provided that they are subject to the advice of the people who run them, and I can surely say that there are many such people in the world today. The devil acts in this way in order to make religion fall into ridicule!
Few people love the good God as he wants. They, believing they seek the good God, seek themselves and pretend to have a holiness that is not true!
– Tell me, therefore, what true holiness consists of?
R… You well know it, but since you wish, I repeat it, I have in fact already told you it several times: true holiness consists in giving up yourself from morning to evening, in a living sacrifice, in knowing how to constantly put away the human ego, in letting oneself be modelled by the good God as he wishes to receive the graces which come to us from his goodness, with a profound humility, being aware that you are unworthy, in keeping as much as possible to the holy presence of the good God, in accomplishing all your actions under his divine stare, not seeking anything but his witness of their efforts as the only reward; in addition all the other things that I have already said. This is the holiness that Jesus wants and demands from the souls who want to be only his and live his life. The rest is nothing but an illusion.
Some souls benefit their purgatory on earth through suffering, others through love, because love truly has also its martyrdom. The soul that seeks really to love Jesus, notices that, with all her efforts, does not love as she would like, and this constitutes in itself a continuous martyrdom, caused solely by love and not free from large pains! Ii is there as I said, a little status of Purgatory in rushing unceasingly toward the One who is her only desire, and whom she sees at the same time rejected from, because her atonement is not fulfilled yet.
Ask the mother Superior to reread what I tell you from time to time in place of the reading. Take a day each week, on Thursday for example, since what is the purpose of writing, if it is never reread (what did you write that for)? You would end up forgetting it, and it is not for this purpose that I say that , but that so you may profit from it.
– If I had not spoken to anyone of what you told me since I listening to you, what would have been the consequence? You know well that I had great desire of keeping everything for me alone!
R… You were free to keep everything for you alone, but if you had not spoken, I would have recommended you to do so because the good God has never allowed that the perfection of any man could come directly from Heaven. Since men dwell on Earth, God wants that on earth they finish to perfect themselves by following those advises given for this purpose.
You therefore have done well to reveal what was so difficult for you to say. For the rest, all this does not come from you, and the good God, who directs everything to the good of those whom he loves, knows at the same time how to draw his glory.
November-December 1879. – the sister of … is located in Purgatory, where she suffers a lot. The Rev. Father can alleviate her pains by offering for her the Holy Sacrifice of the mass.
The old sinner was saved by the mercy of the good God, like so many others. He is in the great Purgatory.
- the day and the eighth of the Dead bring joy and cause numerous releases in Purgatory?
R… On the day of the dead, many souls leave the place of expiation for Heaven and, for a great grace of the good God, that day only all the souls in purgatory, without exception, can participate in the benefit of the public prayers of the holy Church, also those of the great Purgatory. However the alleviation of each soul’ suffering is proportionate to its merit. Some receive more, others less.
Nevertheless all feel the effects of this exceptional grace. Many poor souls in purgatory, for a justice of God, do not receive that this single refreshment during the long years they spend in Purgatory. However not in the day of the Dead the greatest number of souls rises to Heaven, but on the night of Christmas.
There are many things that I could tell you, but I do not have the permission. You should question me. Then I will be able to reply to it. I am very heartened by the efficacious prayers of Rev. Father. Tell him that I thank him of his and of those that by his charity he makes said for my intention. For him I pray always, as I said. I hope to do even more when I am in Heaven. Also tell him that I know he prays for me and that the same thing happens for the other souls in Purgatory. Because of a decision of the good God, this constitutes a greater suffering for them, because the prayers that you make according to your intention are not always applied to them. About the prayers done on earth, in purgatory the soul receives only so that God wills that every soul receives according to its disposal. It is a pain added to the others for these poor souls to see that the prayers that you make for their liberation are applied not to them but to others. Very few souls receive prayers; most are abandoned, without a single memory nor a single prayer of the earth.
As at the time of our liberation we know nothing. If we knew the term of our sufferings, this would be a relief, a joy for us, but no! We see well that our pain decreases, that our Union becomes more intimate but which day (according to the calculations of the earth, because here there are no days) we will join Him, we do not know; this is a secret of the good God.
The souls in Purgatory know of the future only to the extent that God allows and wants to give them to know. In proportion of their merits, some souls have more knowledge of others; but to know all these things concerning the future what profit is for us, unless it concerns there is an interest in the glory of the good God and the good of some soul?
It should not be surprised if the devil and his followers sometimes give, around the future some knowledge that comes true. The devil is a spirit; consequently, he possesses tricks and knowledge much more numerous that any person of the earth, except some Saints on whom the good God shines His light.
He wanders everywhere trying to do evil; he sees what is happening in the world and by reason of his circumspection, can easily foresee what will happen: here it is the only explanation. Woe to those who become his slaves by consulting him; this is a sin that displeases very much the good God.
1- Souls can sometimes make mistakes? God can allow this to happen?
R… Yes…, not with regard to the existing things, but to those of the future however, for them in this there is no imperfection. God himself does not seem to change often the order of his plans (1 )? Here is how: it can happen that God in his justice, wants to punish a kingdom, a province, a person: it is the intention that he manifested, but if some people of that kingdom, of this province, with prayer or with other means disarm his justice, God forgives all or decreases the penalty according to the forecasts of its infinite wisdom. Often He allows great events to be predicted in advance, or He makes them know to some souls, so that they can prevent and stop his vengeance: his mercy is so great that he fails to punish if not at the end. So in respect of the person you spoke to me about one day: at that moment I did not tell you things as well as they occurred. Nevertheless that was precisely all that the good God made me then known about; but, since the person changed a little her conduct for the better, the good God inflicted only half of the punishment that was reserved had she remained under the same provisions. This is how sometimes it seem that we are wrong.
(1) This way of speaking is conforming to the human language that in time sees only successions and changes… But for God there is no time and consequently no succession and no change: his decrees, provided and fixed from all eternity, are immutable and eternal as He himself.
– Are there many Protestants saved?
R… By the mercy of the good God, there is a certain number of Protestants who are saved, but their Purgatory lasts a long time and it is strict for many. It is true that they have not abuses graces as many Catholics, but neither they had the graces attached to the sacraments and other comforts of true religion, which causes their atonement to be extended for a long time in Purgatory.
I speak in a voice lower than usual because you too, since eight days, talk to the good God with a voice too low when you recite the psalm. When you speak in a louder voice, so will I.
– In Purgatory do you know the persecution which the Church is subject to? Do you know when it finish?
R… We know that the Church is persecuted and we pray for its triumph, but when this happens? I do not know it… It may be that some souls know it! As for me I do not know.
In Purgatory souls do not remain only occupied their pains; they pray very much for the great interest of the good God, for the people that shorten their sufferings. They praise and thank Our Lord for his infinite mercies toward them, because for some of them the space that separates Purgatory from hell has been restricted and only for a little they did not fall into the abyss. Then consider how great is the gratitude of these poor souls so taken away from Satan.
I can not explain in what way we do not see Earth as you see it; this cannot be understood if not when the soul has abandoned the body, because then the earth that she has left, leaving in it her body, no longer seems that a point in the comparison of the infinite horizons of eternity that it unfolds for her.
We must not look for “what will be said of her?”. The true merit of a soul does not consist in receiving patiently reproaches that she deserves a little, but in receiving patiently
those she does not deserve, especially when she did everything that was in her power to fulfill in the best possible way what ishe s accused of.
I receive greater relief from one of your action performed in a large union with Jesus, that from a vocal prayer, because what does the good God grant? Everything that is done with the inner spirit. How much more intimate is the union of a soul with Him, the more he gives everything that the souls asks for; a soul intimately united with Jesus is the mistress of hir heart. Strive therefore to this union that Jesus, yes, from long time has been expecting from you. You want to give him pleasure? Here is the only way: approach increasingly his heart paying great attention to the smallest wishes of his divine will. It is necessary that he can turn and turn you again as he wants to, and that never he may encounter resistance from your part. When you come to this, then you will see and understand his goodness.
Make very serious attention to work for God alone. Always seek him as the only witness of your actions. Besides, before performing any action, be beware not to mull over things like these: “I will do this to please the person; if I do that in that way, I will please this other person”. The good God does not like these human reasonings on the part of anyone and on you even less. Direct solely your intention toward the end of pleasing your Jesus, toward him alone. If, by doing so, you do what pleases someone, so much the better. If the contrary happens, so much the worse! The good God will be happy; this must be everything for you.
8 DECEMBER, hours 2- Immaculate Conception –
Alas! How many lives look full of good works and at their death, they will be empty… because all of those things look good on paper, all those actions clamorous, all that conduct which seemed irreproachable, all this has not had Jesus as the only end. They wanted to appear, to shine, they wanted others to look at them as observants of religious obbligations, for a Religious to appear faithful to the rule, here are the only motives of so many lives. And in the other life, here, what a disappointment! If you knew how few people act for God alone, how few perform all their actions for God alone… Alas! How many regrets we are preparing at the point of our death, where we will no longer be blinded, alas! If we would reflect some time to what eternity is!
What is life compared to that day that will have no evening for the elect, that night that will not have a day for the reprobate?
We love everything on earth, people attach themselves to everything except to the One who alone ought to have our love and to whom we refuse it. Jesus in the Tabernacle waits for souls to love Him and finds none. Just one in a thousand who loves Him as we should love Him! Love Him; make it up for the indifference so guilty that there is in the world!
– But, in Purgatory, do you love Him?
R … Certainly, but our love to repair our faults, and if we loved on earth as we should have, there would not be so many, there would not be many souls in the place of atonement.
– In Heaven is Jesus much loved?
R … In Heaven He is very much loved. There He is compensated, but not even this is that Jesus desires. He wants to be loved on earth, on this earth, where is annihilated in every tabernacle, so to get closer to Him is easier, and people do not do it. We pass in front of a church with more indifference than in front of a public monument. If at times we enter the holy place, it is more to offend the divine prisoner who lives there, with our coldness, with bad attitude, with prayers made in haste, without attention, without telling tell him an amicable word, a friendly word with gratitude for his goodness to us.
Tell the Rev. Father P. that God expected of him this love that He meets so rarely; from him that every day approaches Jesus so closely, and receives Him in his heart. Oh! Tell him that, in those blessed moments, he should shelter with his tenderness the indifference of so many ungrateful, that his heart should melt with love before Jesus in the Eucharist, especially for his priests who, like him, have the same happiness, but who treat the holy mysteries with a heart of ice, remain cold as marble before this brazier of love, and who do not have an affectionate word to tell Jesus. His union with God should be more intimate every day, so that to prepare well to the great graces that Jesus is reserving for him.
I told you that there are souls who do their Purgatory at the foot of the altar. They do not stand there in punishment of the sins they have committed in the Church; those sins which directly offend Jesus present in the tabernacle, are most severely punished in Purgatory. Thus, the souls coming there to worship, are there for a reward for their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and for their respectful demeanor in the holy place. They suffer less than if they were in the real Purgatory, and Jesus, whom they contemplate with the eyes of the soul and faith at the same time, sweetens with his invisible presence the pains they suffer.
[Year 1880]
January 1880. – On Christmas Eve, thousands of souls have left the place of expiation for Heaven; but many are left and I am among the number. Sometimes you tell me that the perfection of a soul requires very long time, and it’s true; there is also surprisingly the fact, that despite many prayers, I remain here so long without being able to enjoy the vision of God. Alas! the perfection of a soul in Purgatory is not advancing more quickly than on land; there are some souls, and it is the smallest number, who have to atone for some venial sins; they do not stay long in Purgatory. Some well-made prayers, some sacrifice will release them in a short time. But when it comes to souls like me – and it is the case with almost all! – who have spent a lifetime doing nothing, dealing with little or almost nothing about their salvation, they must, in this case, restart their lives in the place of atonement, you have to begin down again to perfect his soul, to love, to desire Him who has not been loved enough on earth.
That is why the liberation of souls sometimes you wait so long. The good Lord has also done me a great favor by allowing me to be able to ask for prayers. I did not deserve it; without divine condescension, I would have stayed here, like most, years and years!
– The Religious and the others of the same family have relationships with each other?
R … In Purgatory, as in Heaven, the Religious of the same family do not always go together; souls do not deserve all the same punishment or the same reward. However we recognize in Purgatory. You can also, when God allows it, to have mutual relations.
–You may receive a prayer, a thought from a deceased friend and let him know the memory you have of him?
R … You can make arrive here memories from Earth, but it is not very useful, because as I told you, the souls in Purgatory know well the people who take interest in them on earth. Sometimes God even allows you to receive a prayer, a warning, a tip … So, what I’ve told you several times about St. Michael, came from him; what I told you about your father, came from the good Lord. All the commissions that many times you have given me to the other world I have always done; but all these things are subject to the divine will.
– The faults of each are known by everyone in Purgatory, as they will in the final judgment?
R … In Purgatory, generally you do not know the faults of others, however, except when God permits it in respect of certain souls, for his designs; but it is small the number of those whom he does so to.
- Have you of the good God a more perfect knowledge of ours?
R … Ah, what a question! But certainly, we know him much better and love him more! Alas! just this here is the cause of our greatest torment. On earth we ignore what the good Lord is. We make an idea of him according to our narrow views; but, in leaving our mud wrap, when nothing hinders the freedom of our soul, oh! then only we know God, his goodness, his mercy, his love! After such clear vision, such a need of so great union (with Him), the soul tends to God, this is her life and, increasingly, it is refused, because she is not pure enough, and here is our suffering: the hardest, the bittest. Oh! If we were allowed to return to earth, after knowing the good Lord, what kind of lives we would live! But useless regrets … and yet on earth we do not you think of such things, you live like blind. Eternity is not held in any account. Earth, which is nothing but a place of passage and that only receives the bodies, which, in their turn, become the earth also, is the only object to which tend almost every wish, and we do not you think about Heaven! And Jesus and His love are forgotten.
– In Purgatory, the souls consoled each other in the love of God, or each one is completely secluded in her grief?
R … In Purgatory, our only consolation, our only hope is God alone. On earth, the good Lord allows that sometimes in their body pains and spirit can be consoled by a friendly heart; and moreover, if in such a heart the love of Jesus is missing, the consolations are ineffective, but here the souls are lost, sunken in the divine will, and God alone can soothe their pain. All souls are tormented, each according to his guilt, but all suffer from a common pain that surpasses any other: the absence of Jesus who is our element, our life, our all. And we are separated from our own fault!
After an action, we must not waste time in going back to consider if you have done well or not! Certainly it is necessary that every day you examine your actions in order to make them better, but this must not be at the expense of the soul’s tranquility. The good Lord loves simple souls. Then you must go to Him with great good will, always ready to sacrifice and to please Him.
You have to act with Jesus as a child with his mother, trusting in his goodness, putting all your spiritual and material interests in his divine hands; so try to please Him in everything, without taking care of anything else.
The good Lord does not look so much to the great deeds, to heroic acts, but to such a simple action, such a small sacrifice, provided that such things have been done for love. Sometimes even a small sacrifice, not known except from God, and from the soul, is more meritorious than one large that has been praised. You have to be very inward, not to retain in ourselves anything of praise that are bestowed us.
The good Lord look empty souls of themselves to fill them with his love. He finds few. Self-love does not leave any room for Jesus. Do not miss any opportunity of mortifying yourself, especially inwardly. Jesus has some graces to give you during Lent; prepare yourself for it with a growth in fervor, and above all love. Love above all else Jesus. Alas! in the world He is so little loved and much outraged!
The Holy Virgin loves you very much; from your part, you also love her with all my heart, and procured to work for her glory as much as possible.
You will never understand the goodness of God’s good enough. If you would care to reflect upon a few times, this would be enough to become a saint, but in the world do not know enough the merciful goodness of the Heart of Jesus. Everybody measure it according to his own way to see, and this way is defective. It follows that please evil. Yes, few know how to pray as Jesus would. It lacks confidence, and yet Jesus does not hear that in proportion to the ardor of our desires and the greatness of our love. That is why often the graces that you require are not granted.
To be happy in religion, one must be deaf, blind and dumb, that is to say that one has to hear quite a few things that may be repeated, but it is often better to keep them for yourself. You will never regret to have been silent. We are also obliged to see and hear, (but should behave) as if we had neither seen nor understood anything. Oh! if you knew how little are those nothings, which get much attention! The devil uses these little straws to stop a soul and hinder all the good that it was called to do. Do not be seduced by him. Have a big heart and soar over these little miseries without noticing them.
Jesus for you must have enough attractions, without you stopping to anything whatsoever outside of Him. Consider everything as coming from his goodness; either it is He who afflicts, or consuls, it is his love that regulates everything for the sake of his friends.
Never get discouraged, whatever happens to you. If Jesus willed, it could make you reach the summit of perfection, which he wants you to attain to, in a few hours, in the blink of an eye; but no! He prefers to see your efforts and wants you to know and see it by yourself as harsh and rough is the journey to perfection. Be very generous. Jesus has bestowed upon you and grant you more graces than to many others; but, in return, he hopes to find in you a soul full of spirit of sacrifice, all devoted to him. He requires of you especially much love, and after you have so fought against yourself, against evil tendencies, when you have acted with great spirit of faith, well !, then faith will give way to reality; but first you have to act as if Jesus were always with you, and this must be for you something almost natural, though supernatural.
Preachers and spiritual directors are good to the souls in proportion to their union with Jesus, that is, to their spirit of prayer and vigilance, to how they are able to preserve their inner calm, if they always bear the eyes of their soul fixed on Jesus, if they are ready to do and to sacrifice everything for the salvation of the people entrusted to them.
– The promises made to those who recite the Saint Michael’s chaplet are true?
R … The promises are real; only we should not believe that people who recite it mechanically and without regard to their perfection, are at once freed from Purgatory. It would be untrue. San Michele is more than promises, but he does not take the place of atonement so soon from those who must serve their sentence of a long Purgatory. Certainly, in memory of their devotion to the Holy Archangel their sufferings are abbreviated; but how to be restored to complete freedom, then this no! I who recited it, can serve as an example. The immediate release takes place only for people who have worked courageously to their perfection, and who have little to atone in Purgatory.
France is very guilty; unfortunately it is not alone. Right now there is no one Christian kingdom that does not look overtly or covertly to drive out the good God from its breast. They are all secret societies and the devil, their leader, who thus put everything into turmoil and foment all the machinations of these kingdoms. This is the hour of the prince of darkness, but have them do all of them: God will make them see that He is the Lord and not they. Maybe not with gentleness He will make them feel his power; on the other hand, even in the punishment he inflicts, Jesus is merciful.
Courtesy of the good Lord, in Purgatory we know what is happening at this time on earth, that we pray for the great present needs, but our prayer only is not enough. If Jesus could find some souls of good will who want to pay as agreed, to move to pity the majesty of Him, his outraged divine goodness, they would do something pleasing to His Heart offended by so much bitterness, and could move his mercy, that only asks to forgive those who humble themselves. Say this to the Mother Superior.
San Michele will intervine in the fight that the Church will sustain. He is the head of this Church so persecuted, but not so soon annihilated, as the wicked think. He is, also, the special protector of France, and will help that nation take again the place of the eldest daughter of the Church, because, despite all the crimes that are committed in France, there is still much good in it, there are souls of great dedication.
– When it will San Michele interfere?
R … I do not know! We must pray much in compliance with such intentions, invoking the Archangel, reminding him of his titles, and beg him to intercede with Him, on whose heart he has so great power. The Holy Virgin be not forgotten: France is her privileged country among all; She will save it. It is good thing everywhere to pray with Rosaries and chaplets; this is the most effective prayer in these needs.
The heroic vow is something that pleases God very much, of great help to the souls in Purgatory and very profitable to the generous souls who love to do it. By the way, in thus giving part of their merits, rather than making a bad deal, they earn more.
As the plenary indulgences, I can tell you that few, very few are the people who profit from it entirely. It must be so great a disposition of heart and that is rare, rarer than one might think, to have all the required arrangements to obtain the total remission of their sins.
In Purgatory, we receive indulgences, which are applied to us there, just as intercessory prayers , as how the good Lord allows them, and according to our dispositions. It is true that we have no more affection for sin, but we are not anymore under the reign of mercy, but under that of the divine justice; therefore, we receive only what the good Lord wants to be applied to us. When the soul is near the end of all his desires, that is, closer to Heaven, it can be released and allowed to come to the eternal joys for the effectiveness of a plenary indulgence well purchased, or even purchased in half according to her intention; but as to other souls, it is not so.
SEPTEMBER – Here the retreat ended up across the Community, but for you it should not be over. Continue it all year and always in your heart; even in the midst of your greatest occupations, always have a usual little place, where you gather your heart together with to heart with Jesus, and there, never take your eyes off it. Last year you were too distracted; at the present, it must be no longer the case. You have promised to God, as also to your Father, that you would have started a new life; you must at all costs keep your word. This will cost you, but maybe hereinafter will it cost you less? No! Alas! Everything goes by so quickly, together, without even realizing it! For a long time, Jesus has been behind you. After all the graces he bestows upon you, you will not deny the total abandonment of yourself in your lovely hands. If you would leave him act according to his will, how soon would you be a saint and a great saint … He wants you to become one.
Your Father perhaps, has not yet once said, in his name, the past few days, that there is no middle way for you? How many people had already said it, and you have been indifferent to such things that should have been sacred for you. This time, it seems to me you were paying you more attention and you have been impressed by that word, again repeated. Think often, it’s serious. Jesus, I’ve already said, awaits you just a little effort and He will do the rest. Be very generous. What you would not get from God, if you were as He wants you to be. That intimate union He desires to have with your soul! What joys wants to give her! If you only knew! Oh! how good Jesus is with you! often evoke in your heart the graces of the particular election that he has given you.
Mother Superior told you that she had asked for you especially your father, again this year; you did not believe it enough, but it is true; she has followed this inspiration coming from God who wanted that you know him better and that he too may know you more. Take advantage of this new grace that will not be the last; put into practice what he said to you; you are free to deal with him; always open to him your soul; may he read you like a book. If he knew you as I know you!
You are not understood at first glance; there is the necessity of a bit more time. All the thoughts you had yesterday in this regard are evil thoughts. The devil wants to prevent the good; but you will anyway, because you will give him no more listening. Preciously guard well the great graces of the retreat; they will never abandon. you Do not be afraid to sacrifice yourself from morning to night to do the will of God. He will reward you abundantly.
– Because I felt an emotion so strong at hearing the first words of the Rev. Father?
R … This was already a principle of grace that you were to receive during this retreat. There is a certain attraction between the souls, of which one is not well aware on earth. The good God has made the soul of your father and yours one for the other: hence, that impression involuntary heard from you, and which perhaps you will feel again in the future. Pray much for the father that Jesus gives you to help you raise your soul to Him. He needs stronger, much greater graces than many others, never to be discouraged. Often he spends days of very hard-working, very burdensome for his nature. His life is hard, painful. You have to help him with your prayers. So far you have done it, but it’s still not enough. You must bid according to his intention your work, some of your external sufferings, some sacrifices; in a few words, join it to what you do, and join it also to what he does. Jesus has great designs on him, as much as on you; that is why He allowed you to turn to him and you were free to open the door of your mind. Consider it your father; love him, obey him like a real daughter and God will be pleased. Do not mind if I tell you all these things, indeed, so far you did them all more or less; but I was yet willing to tell them, and you also tell them to the Rev. Father. Do you understand?
The retreat was very pleasing to the good God and very profitable to souls. Jesus sees with pleasure religious souls turning back to Him, seek Him as their only goal. That’s why he calls them to his service, but on earth it is easy to forget even what is most sacred! Good Retreat helps souls to regain their pristine force: this is what did the retreat you had. It has comforted the so good Heart of Jesus.
What are the moments that we spent on earth compared to the endless joys of eternity? At death, you will find you never have done too much! Be very generous, do not listen to yourself. increasingly target the end to which Jesus calls you: holiness, the pure love … and then always go forward never looking back!
Crosses, large crosses, those that tear the heart apart are the legacy of God’s friends. The past days you were lamenting with Jesus of having sent sent you not a few suferings this year! It is true, but because you find such crosses heavy?
Why do not you love enough! Oh! you have not even finished with crosses. That you have had so far is only a prelude of what awaits you. Did not I tell you that always suffer in body or in spirit, and often with the one and the other together? There can be no holiness without suffering! But when you leave freely act the grace in you, when Jesus will possess your will and will be absolute master, the crosses, as heavy as they are, they do not weigh more. The love will absorb everything. From now on you you will suffer and suffer much, because not in an instant the soul gets to break free from everything so as not to act rather than for the pure love. Jesus sees with pleasure your efforts. Oh! If we knew him better on earth! On the contrary, we forget! You, at least, love Him! Make up tohim! Your efforts should always be growing, in order to please Him. Worked tirelessly to arrive early (to be) where he wants to see you!
September 16th. – These days you feel a little better about yourself and Jesus too, because you strive to please Him and join Him more. But do not think of having arrived yet; this is just the beginning of the union that he wants to have with your soul. Oh! how little is this understood on earth, is not it ?, what detachment Jesus demands from all the souls he wants! We believe to love, one could imagine undoubtedly to be a Saint for the fact that he feels in himself, so it seems, a little more than sensible love of the ordinary, but all these natural feelings are nothing . It is necessary that the soul be raised, that it would break away gradually from all that surrounds it, and above all from herself, from her self-love, from her passions, in order to reach the union with God, and Jonly esus knows what it costs to nature to come unto there! We must have done more than a sacrifice, the heart must be crushed to expel all human love; this is difficult! How few are the souls that understand such things! You that understand a little for the great mercy of Jesus, because he loves you so much, boldly get on your path of self-denial and death to yourself. Often considered all the tenderness that He has had for you, as he went to seek for you far away, as he smoothed all the difficulties encountered on your way. He has done more for you than for any other!
Every day fills you with the graces of his choice. Also take into consideration how he acted towards you in these last days; likewise, He expects of you a great generosity, more than many others, whom he has not granted many favors to, and whom he does not require so great perfection from. He also expects a devotion in every trial, and especially a lot of love. You must dedicate your soul, your heart should be lost in Him, they should operate solely to please Him. You should arise above earthing things and everything around you, to immerse yourself in his holy will. You have to come to never lose sight of him, not even a minute. Do not think for that of being taken to the point of not being able to fulfill your obligations! No, (indeed) you will see little by little that is quite the opposite and that the soul more united to Jesus will also better fulfill all her duties; indeed she loves him who acts for her; He is no longer, so to say, that one with her. Think if it is well directed and helped in what she must do! What good an inner soul can do around her; only she can do so; everything else that is done is useless.
The soul united to Jesus, she alone has right on his heart, he is the master, he did not deny her anything. I would have many things to say to you in this regard, but you would not understand me. We must wait for the moments willed by God. If you want, they will not be long in coming. Jesus has great desire to unite totally to you, the more you can not even understand at this time. Be very watchful of yourself; it is so good to love Jesus; yes, it is consoling to go immediately, without transition, from the intimate union on earth to the even more intimate union in Heaven. Think about everything that I tell you. One of your actions offered to my relief, with purity of intention, when you are very close to Jesus, consoles me more than many vocal prayers. As soon as you becomes more perfect, soon also it will be my release.
Is it true that the Mother Superior has suffered much in the past few days, but a day of great suffering, similar to those that she sometimes tries, is more profitable for her soul and for the whole Community than ten days and more of good health , in which she can act and do everything that depends on the duties of her office.
September 29th. – Yes, I knew all the pains of your Father; that’s why, to your question if he were a bit recovered after the undergone sufferings, I said no, without adding another particular, because I did not want to make you feel apprehensive. You would have been restless, knowing such suffering, and as you think about him before the good Lord, even more than usual, no doubt to some particular inspiration, I believed to be better than he himself will make known to you all the torments he experienced. Jesus will take that into account for him; the souls he so long regrets are at this time in Purgatory, but for a short time, especially the priest that God wanted to reward, and the two young people who wanted to preserve removing them from this world, where what is good can easily become bad. Tell him to take joy at the thought that Jesus loves him very much and does have in store for him, in preference to so many others, a very special place in his heart. There he must go in spirit to rest and restore the mood to continue what he has taken on for his Divine Lord.
2ND OCTOBER. – You say several times a day: “O my God, you accomplish your designs on me and let me not interpose any hindrance with my behavior. My Jesus, I want what you want, because you want it, how you want it, and and as much as you want!”.
Sunday, October 3. – Oh, if you were given to understand that Jesus is treated with indifference and contempt upon the earth, not only by the common people, how He is insulted, mocked, ridiculed, even by those who should love him! In this way indifference can be found in Communities, among men and women religious, his chosen people; there whether He should be treated as a Friend, a Father, and a Groom, in certain moments He is no longer considered anymore than a stranger. You will find this indifference even among the clergy. At present, more than ever, Jesus is treated as an equal by the Priests. They should tremble at the important mission entrusted to them, often as a maximum they fulfill it coldly, with boredom! How many there are who possess the inner spirit? Their number is small. Here in Purgatory, the priests who are serving time for their indifference and their loveless life are numerous. Their guilty negligence must be expiated by fire and torture of all kinds. Judge for all this if the good Lord, so good, so lovable for his creatures, may find souls who are are to love Him, and to repay Him. Alas! how few there are! Here is the great suffering of the Heart of Jesus: the ingratitude among his own; yet his Sacred Heart is all filled, all overflowing with love and He does not seek but to pour it. If Jesus would find dead souls to themselves, he would cover them with his love in torrents, more that he has not even done for any other so far. Oh! how little they are, therefore, understood on earth, Jesus’s mercy, and His love! We try to know, to deepen everything except what is true happiness! How sad!
You should never sicken yourself nor outwardly or inwardly. Do what you can to avoid any setbacks. If, nevertheless, it happens that, for rudeness or malice, I suppose, you do what you should not, well, stay calm; Once you committed the foul, since there is no remedy, what good shudder? It would be almost two fouls in place of one.
October 14th. – During my giving thanks.
The smallest infidelity on your part, the smallest forgetfulness, the least indifference to Jesus, is deeply felt by him, and causes more pain to his heart good yes, yes so loving, than not an insult by an enemy. Watch therefore yourself with great care; do not forgive anything. May Jesus come and relax with joy in your heart, so that you may repay he bitterness, that the world gives him. You act with him as with the best of fathers, with the most affectionate of the spouses. Comfort Him, repair with your love, with your tenderness, the injuries he receives each day. You have to make yours the interests of his glory with all your heart. Forget yourself before Him and be certain that by doing so, your own interests will become his and He will do for you more than if would take care yourself.
October 16th. – A person has quite a lot to do getting around to the souls that entrusted to her, take them back, trying to instill in them a bit more than the usual pity: she would succeed in proportion to her inner self. Only what is more of her piety will outpour in their hearts; otherwise, if she is not what should be, unless she is united with Jesus, her words will reach the ears, but not the hearts, and her efforts will not be blessed. Consider whether it is good thing to be united to Jesus …
Yes, isn’t? … And in this only, it is the true happiness on earth.
November 1880. – When you have to rebuke a person who did something wrong slightly or even seriously, do it very gently, sometimes with firmness, when the fault demands it, but with a few words and never in anger, because the reproach made way, harms he soul of the one who does it and the one who receives it. In rebuking a young girl, avoid especially, for example, to reproach her for past failures. This is a common fault in the sight of the good God. Those who act in this way commit an offense. Who told them that what they criticize is not already forgiven? Why then to go back on it again? The good Lord has not given them any parable example. One has to constantly humiliate for his own sins and remember them unceasingly before our Lord, in the bitterness of his heart, but you should never go back on the past of anyone.
A Christian soul and, a fortiori, a religious soul, if he wants to please our Lord, will act with respect of the neighbor as want Jesus to act in his regard. Do you consider this well and, on occasion, put it faithfully into practice.
Do not ever let yourself taken over either by the duties or by the things and cares of life, so that your soul will lose the freedom that would prevent it from joining herself any moment to Jesus, and to know and always fulfill his holy will. If you suffer, you accept suffering with resignation because it is made possible by Jesus, who, from the evil that lets do, is able to bring the greatest good. Go with ease at the feet of the tabernacle and there, trust your Jesus with what there weighs upon the heart, that sometimes seems very heavy to carry: His heart lightens everything. Conversely, if you rejoice in the joy that you feel particularly at rare intervals in the service of the good God, accept with humility and gratitude, and you think that earth is not a place of rest, but a place of exile, of toil and suffering of all kinds!
Let all walk around you, without disturbing your peace of mind. Nothing should stop you. Your only joy, your only rest must be in Jesus; be made for him alone, his love will give you courage; you can never be too much for a God so lovable! The more you distantiate yourself from everything that surrounds you, the more Jesus will fill you with his special graces, with his divine caresses. Often you will experience a great indifference to things that at one time would have impressed you; this too is a mercy of the One who loves you, and who wants to see you in that kind of detachment He expects from souls whom He wants only his. Jesus allows that these above privileged souls may feel a certain distaste for anything that is not related to Him. He makes for them unpleasant findings what does not concern him directly, because he wants them, in this way, to empty their hearts from any human attachement that is there in order to fill it with his graces and make you overflow his love.
NOVEMBER. – The days of Communion, in which we celebrate the first Mass, you could have breakfast a bit before eight. You do not need more than three minutes. I tell you this because the good Lord wants you toincrease your thanksgiving as much as possible. By doing so, you will have a quarter of an hour more. The first quarter of an hour will be for you as usual. How many things do you have to tell Jesus, don’t you? The second quarter of an hour will be for Him. You might as well still continue even during the Minor Hours and a large part of the Mass. Ask permission to Mother Superior. You see how many graces!
For a special favor of Jesus, the Sacred Species remain long in you after Holy Communion; you profit of it, therefore, with gratitude for those happy moments, where, heart to heart with the One whom the heavens cannot contain, you can get everything. How big love of a God for his poor creature that make Him lower himself to spend time with her, as a friend with his friend! Then you must adore, thank, ask, and repair especially for all the insults that Jesus receives from the world in these sad times! It is so offended the good Jesus! Oh! love him very much! You know that He loves you: you have evidence!
Being still on earth, you cannot understand what the good Lord requires of a soul who atones for her sins in purgatory. You believe that many prayers even if well done indeed, almost immediately put a soul in possession of eternal happiness!
Not so. Who can scrutinize the judgments of God? Who can understand the purity that He demands from a soul, before admitting her participation of his eternal happiness? Oh, if you knew, if you reflect on all of this while you are on earth, what kind of life you would lead! Examine how many venial sins seriously commits a day a careless person, just as concerned for his safety, all dedicated to the things of the earth … How many minutes does she consecrate to God? Does she think about it at least with careful consideration? Well, that’s like 365 days a year … and if many years resemble each other, that person dies with her soul burdened with a multitude of venial sins not forgiven, because she did not pay attention to it. Just barely remains in the soul so overwhelmed a small glimmer of love, when it comes to give an account of her life to the One who requires it back. Here those lives near zero, you have to start their process of atonement, lives without love of God, no purity of intention. The soul who has to live of God, did not live for Him; the soul must, therefore, they restart her life and that is of unimaginable suffering! On earth she has not taken advantage of the divine mercy. She was a slave to her body; once in the place of purification, she must pay to the last cent and regain her former splendor; this, as for the souls indifferent to their salvation, but for souls even more guilty, is quite another thing. Love so much the good Lord that you will not be obliged to come here to buy his love through suffering without merit. The suffering of the earth, the penalties are meritorious, do not let them escape you: especially love! Love erases many sins and also avoid them because you do not want to displease Him who loves you; for this soul who truly loves Jesus is constantly on guard and avoid anything that might offend his divine glances.
Many souls in Purgatory rely on you to be released from the place of their suffering. Pray with all your heart for them.
[Year 1881]
1881 – The physical and moral suffering are the legacy of the friends of Jesus until dwell on the earth. The more Jesus loves a soul, the more he gaves her a large part of the pain suffered by him for love. Happy the soul so privileged! How many merits she can buy! This is the shortest way to get to Heaven … Do not, therefore, be afraid of suffering; on the contrary, love it, because there is the closest way to him whom you love. Have not I told you one day that love will make sweet what still seems very bitter, because you do not love enough?
The fastest way to soon come to an intimate union with Jesus is love, but love joined to suffering. So far you have had many crosses, but you do not yet love them as Jesus would. If you knew how much good for the soul is suffering! The sufferings are the most gentle caresses that the divine Bridegroom can do to one who wants to unite to himself intimately. He sends them, to privileged soul, suffering after suffering, pain after pain, in order to detach her from all that surrounds her. Then you can talk to the heart. What happens during those divine talks? If you want, you’ll know.
Jesus holds pending graces to be poured out in torrents upon you, when he will see you ready, as he would like, and suitable to receive them.
Jesus wants you to operate only for Him, to converge all your actions to his glory, that you may make him the recipient of all your joys and all your sorrows,that you do not do such thing, however small, without asking advice and direction, and as a reward for all that you do, you may not want nothing but Him alone. We we’re already worked on this for many years! “My Jesus, tell him then, may I never receive any certificate of gratitude on earth for the little good that I will be making here”!
You only are my all!”. What do you think of this question? It is well made? Jesus does not let himself be outdone in generosity, you’ll see. Think, too, that not so much your prayers will put me in possession of the eternal abode, as your perfect actions, your intimate union with Jesus. Be certain that He has had some great designs on your soul by sending me to you this way; if I could tell you what I know about this!… Great is the love of Jesus for you! How many delicacies, how many concerns He has had about you. He is not discouraged by your indifference! Sometimes, how cold you are, and forgetful in regards to a such a good God! Ask him for forgiveness of all of these shortcomings and act with Him as a son acts with the best of fathers. Do not be afraid to annoy him. I like to see the trust in your heart. Always try to please him, from the first moment you wake up until the evening, without ever listening to the uprisings of your nature.
APRIL 1881. – If not advanced more quickly in perfection, it is because your will is not enough united to God’s will. You research yourself too much. At times you fear even yourself. Jesus patiently endures all these delays!… Who is going to loose on this? You! Yet, if you knew what graces he wants to reserve for you, His desires to join himself to you, would you give this rebellious will, that today’s wants and tomorrow no more, to the One who’ll ask for it with such yes great goodness, and, above all, with much love!
Jesus will not leave you in peace until you will have reached the perfection in which he wishes to see you. Do all that you want; as long as your will does not form one with his, until there will be a return on yourself, and as long as all your doings shall not be performed under the divine gaze, to please Him, you will not have peace, or inner peace!
[1882]
Day of SEPTEMBER, 1882. – Jesus has done a lot for you and even more he will in the future, but you must correspond to his graces and you are should be very generous too. The souls who reached the perfection that Jesus requires from them, are the master of his Heart: He did not deny them anything. When you get there, Jesus and you will be a single thing. You shall be of the same mind, the same thoughts, the same desires. Therefore, be good, be in a hurry to become a great Saint to bring much glory to your only Friend, that waits for that moment to pour out the streams of his graces on you.
You still do not make enough efforts to ensure the goodness of your interior and to keep the divine presence of your Jesus. Try, try and you will be well helped. Jesus is waiting for just a little bit of good will, and He will do the rest. You say to yourself every day: since Jesus has granted me many special graces, what I am to become? What should I be? What would I be if I had always well corresponded to them? These reflections if meditated a few minutes shall make good to your soul. Think about it seriously; just now I have told you it is the will of the good God. He also wants to work seriously at your perfection, because so many others depend on it.
Jesus has a love so great for you who wants to fill you with his special graces, with particular favours he grants only to his intimate friends. Hasten by your prayers and sacrifices the happy moment that will see the divine union that Jesus wishes to contract with your soul.
Acknowledge before this Divine Friend the extent of your need, the abyss of your miseries and let Him do the rest. The enrichment of the poorest is classical of his love. Then his goodness shines even more.
Oh! love Jesus very much. Adhere to him more closely than you might imagine. Stay close to him with all the powers of your hearts, to live solely for his holy love!
For the love of Jesus, love all the people around you and those with whom you have relationships. Do not be afraid to spend yourselves in kindness, prayers, devotion, solicitude towards them. The more a soul loves Jesus, the more it loves his fellow men.
October 30th. – You always complain, because, you say, you want to be like all the other sisters, but you have not finished with me yet! You will be obliged to listen to me as long as it pleases the good God. Do whatever you want, but I still have many things to tell you and you will know them. Perhaps you will become more reasonable in this regard?
25TH DECEMBER. – Do not worry if I am not yet in heaven. It is true what I told you: “I will go there only in the day when you will come to the perfection that God requires of you.” However, do not think that will reach in a second this high perfection which Jesus calls you to. There are many degrees of perfection, and not the first is required by you. You know that Jesus loves you, although you are far away from the state in which he wants to see your soul. He knows, this dear friend, that it would take a miracle to achieve that perfect state that He requires of certain souls, and such a miracle, he is not willing to do. You have to climb gradually this path, which sometimes, yes, it is harsh for your nature. To reach the goal that Jesus wants you to reach, you must be totally dead to yourself, and not to have neither will nor pride. Yet you have not reached that stage. So when you are wrongly accused, when people attribute you intentions that you do not have (you know what I want to allude), well, not necessary these things should disturb you. The good God allows all this, in order to give you possibility to renounce yourself and to adhere only to Him. He wants you to reach the point where nothing disturbs you in the inner calm: sufferings, joys, setbacks, all steps should pass in indifferent way. He alone, you understand well, wants to dominate all the powers of your soul, to satisfy all your desires, fully satisfy your heart and be for you everything that is around; and this is not, you may be sure, the work of only a day.
No, you are not too good! In some cases it is better to give than to prevail. I suggest a course of action that Jesus wants you adopt. Before giving a warning, before making a reproach earned by a student or any other person, gather together a second; then, put yourself in the place of the one you are about to consult and act towards him as you would like he did with you in such an occasion. Then Jesus will be pleased.
[Year 1883]
1883 – Another year passed to eternity! So they all, one after the other. One day follow each other up to what ends the short earthly life and begins the long life of eternity! Use well every moment of your life. Each of them can make you deserve Paradise and avoid Purgatory. Your every action performed under the gaze of Jesus, he will give you a greater degree of glory in heaven and, at the same time, a bigger degree of love for Him also. Each of these acts of perfect life form a chain of love that binds the soul more and more to He who is the object of your love. When the last link is formed, then Jesus breaks the weak bonds that hold the soul full of merits joint to the body still on earth. So free, the soul unites herself to Him even more closely, and forever in the blessed eternity.
Do you understand then what a life, of which each instant is for Jesus, has of pleasanty, despite the fleeting bitterness of which it can be disseminated?
If a few minutes of conversation of the holy soul with Jesus can send her in ecstasy and make her forget all past punishments, what will be when she is in the everlasting union? Oh! if you knew, if you could understand it, as you would work without rest to your perfection, you, whom Jesus provides with all possible means to get there! Oh! if we had only five minutes of the time that you lose to investigate yourself if what I tell you is true or false, what we would not do for Him that we desire so ardently! It is the devil that sometimes blinds you and causes not pay close attention to what I say. He knows very well what would be the consequences. Thwarte his intrigues, get momentum with the work, and sanctify yourselves, and this year be the beginning of that perfect life that Jesus expects of you, for so long!
At the beginning of this year, take practice as not to utter any useless word. Do not express your opinion about it of anything whatsoever, except you are forced to; also as to the useful things, speak little … Likewise, never raise your curiosity eyes. Every morning Jesus has your first look, the first thought, the first word, and this is a word of gratitude and love!
At the foot of the tabernacle, storing your heart into that of Jesus throughout the day and converse with him until the evening. In the evening, deplore your new deficiencies at his feet, thank Him for your favors … You know what I told you in this regard.
Be very faithful to those practices. Jesus wants from you a great purity of intention, a love without limits. Do not forgive anything. The more a soul sacrifice herself, the more happy she is. Love is repaid with love, it is true, but you also pay with gratitude, renunciation and self-giving. Sacrifice, then, and give yourselves to Him forever.
Suffering always precedes love … There is a degree of love that only those who have suffered much, and suffered well can reach. I am alluding particularly to moral suffering.
The greatest suffering that can prove a soul who truly loves Jesus is not to love Him as she desires. Oh! How much Jesus loves you, despite your misery and coldness! Consider how, through his graces, entice you with kindness; through the suffering, the trials, the detachments (of all) and, through love, want to unite you with Him so intimately that you are, so to speak, another Jesus.
Mother O … is located in the depths of Purgatory. Religious souls, priests and people were filled with graces have to serve a terrible Purgatory, having abused the means, the good Lord made available to them.
MAY – Retreat 1883. – The good Lord has not a few means to achieve his ends, when she wants something special from a soul.
How good God keeps her well guarded. He makes it clear when it pleases him. Especially for you the good Jesus, from all eternity, has had the intention to prepare and to sanctify the person whom I speak of. You will sanctify one with the other.
The good Lord loves you, you love Him. Your union must become closer in this retreat, so that your love may continue to grow, and your will be one with Jesus’s will, and his interests your own!
Why worrying so much in regard of your father! Everything that God does is good. Is it not He who have prepared it, and is it not He that givesit to you? Why would He want to keep it away? The designs of God are inscrutable. When he wants a soul for his own, what does He do to unite her to himself? How many means unknown to us He has in power. Therefore be full of confidence in your Jesus. Do not be wary of his goodness. The more you are good, the more you will seek to agree to Him on everything, the more He will also be generous with you.
This retreat must be the beginning of the great perfection, which Jesus has been calling you to for so long.
Jesus expects much from you in this retreat: He has given you a new well precious grace … What do you need more? In return give yourselves totally to Him: He is the Master of your soul. Be vigilant with great diligence on your interior. Always hold back your heart to heart with Jesus. Not a word, not a thought, not a bait desire from you that does not comply with His adorable will. If you knew that Jesus wants to contract marriage with your soul, you would not hinder his plans, you would not put up resistance as you often do so! Do you understand it finally? This great perfection frightens you; you are afraid that everything may be an illusion.
But, with Jesus, what have you to fear? He is your Father, your friend, your spouse, your all … Does he not have the right to demand from a soul what he wants without telling her why? He is the great Master, the Lord of all; why do you want to investigate with your narrow-minded views his actions? Adore his designs and obey them blindly. That’s what He requires of you; make yourself, then, with all your heart to work seriously toward your sanctification. Grow in love, in tenderness for Jesus. Console Him, make up to all the abuse he gets from the world. Love for those who do not like, repaired for those who outrage him; ask forgiveness for those who do not think about. This Jesus is waiting on you … will you deny it to him?
MAY, 20TH. – It shows that Jesus loves you; also, in return he wants proof of your love. It is well known to you what it has been required from you for so long; we must not hesitate. Give yourselves totally. Lose yourself in Him; never take back the gift given to him of yourself.
On Earth everyone does in his own way, but in the other world the good Lord will dispose of us as it pleases him !
There are few true friendships on earth! Often times we love on a whim, for interest. A slight contrast, a word, a lack of respect sometimes separates close friends that seemed inseparable. This, because God was not quite well in their hearts; indeed, only the hearts, in which abounds the love of Jesus, can give their fullness to friends. Every friendship, not based so in God, is false, is not durable.
But when Jesus owns a heart, that heart can love and do good to friends, because there is in it the source of friendship pure and without any other mixture. This is a small reflection of the friendship of Heaven. Everything else is natural affection and nothing else.
Always have the highest views on earth. Never win for yourself nor the esteem, nor the friendship of anyone. Jesus alone is yours and he also want you for himself forever. It would not be too much if you gave your whole heart to him. Love … but only for Him …
June 1883. – Well, are you happy? You believe it now? I forgive you all that you thought of me the past few days. In such circumstances it could not be otherwise; in this you have not sinned. Admire the goodness of Jesus. After leaving the devil to act , who has made you suffer so much … finally Jesus destroyed him and his holy will was accomplished; He was waiting for this. Oh! when God has special designs on certain souls, they do not materialize without much suffering; you experienced it again, is it not? But you were not alone.
M. L. should never get discouraged! He may have some moments of disgust, weariness, but he has the tabernacle; there he should open his soul before Jesus and ask with a trust for His lights, in order to be himself the light for the souls entrusted to him. Jesus loves him, and will give him a proof. In return, he will never do too much for such a so lovable God!
June 1883. – It is not true that your joy to have finally found a Father continues? well were attentive to everything that you say you will do something very pleasing to God. This is another grace, profit from it with gratitude. It is such a great fortune for a soul to meet another that understands and seldom this happens on earth!
… Jesus meets so few generous souls in this world, there are so few who love Him … even among his priests! He, the good Master, expect much from your Father!
Oh! how great is the priest! What a sublime mission is his! … But alas! how at the present there are few who understand it!
28 August 1883 – Feast of St. Augustine. – So far you have never prayed as Jesus wanted! You do not pay enough attention to all his inspirations! Too often you lose sight of even his holy presence, so that you did not progress in perfection, as he expects of you. Keep watch, then, hard on your interior. For so long I have been asking it on his part!
August 29. – Retreat. – There are so many years that God is behind it … With a pretext and with the other you make a deaf ear; but it is now time to pay attention to everything I told you. Take advantage of these holy days of retreat and put into practice what you have written. Consider how far is your union with Jesus, who is so good and so patient with you. Think that one day he might get tired of you, seeing that you pay so little attention to the spiritual graces that he has given you and to those that will have in store for the future. Demonstrate, therefore, to your Jesus that you love Him and give him your will completely. Enough of hesitations. Tell him that to do everything he wants of you, but let it be said from the bottom of the heart. Holiness is less difficult than you think. In resisting, in fighting every day against the good Lord who attracts you, you suffer more than if you had given yourself to Him without reserve and forever.
Seven o’clock in the evening. – Get used to talk to Our Lord as with the more affectionate and sincere of your friends. Do not do and do not say anything without consulting Him. For many years I have been told this. I have told you several times; today I repeat again. The good Lord wants you to be careful and above all that you put it into practice. Always fix our eyes on Jesus, to grasp his smallest wishes, this divine language that He wants to use it with you will not disturb or forbid you from waiting on external occupations. On the contrary, if the inner is not calm, it is impossible for the exterior to be. The inner passions are always reflected on the outside and the soul, which watches with great commitment on her interior, is also master of her exterior. That’s what Jesus requires of you: a life of faith and constant union with him, a humble life, hidden, known to him alone … May He be everything for you, Jesus! Consider everything that happens to you as so many means which he uses to join you more to Him, to implement the designs that has on you. Do not create obstacles to them, be generous. To you lacks neither the energy nor the heart; begin, then, that life of renunciation, sacrifice and above all love what Jesus wants absolutely from you. In it you will find only the calm and peace that He has wanted to give you from so many years!
The holy will of God be the basis of everything that you have to do or suffer. Jesus expects much from you, many bodily and spiritual sufferings and also much love. You can not love without that nature suffers, as you well know; you have not experienced it in the past. Get ready for the future. The good Lord has given you everything you need to feel the pain more than any other. This is a mercy and another grace more. Where there are great sacrifices to be made, there will acquire more merits.
I implore you not oppose more resistance to the plans that the good Jesus has on you; do not ask for more evidence, you have had enough. Further, at least inwardly you feel that Jesus wants you to be his own. Consider these things carefully at the foot of the tabernacle; see what you have to do and do not hesitate any more. How many graces await you, if you want to, first of all graces for you and also for other souls. You answer to all this one day.
Be all of your Jesus. Do not pay more attention to what can be said about you; the devil provokes it to arrest you on the path and Jesus allows it to detach you from everything around you. Please, do not loose sight of your goal, do what is right and every action to please Jesus. This is everything for you, the rest is only accessory.
Be very generous; put the ego aside and in evrything give priority to Jesus. Think often about this: if you want that your actions are acceptable to Jesus, have each of them to include always a small sacrifice, something that costs; without this there can be no merit. It is not difficult, especially for you, the give Jesus such satisfaction. Therefore, do not think than when something costs you a lot, there is no merit in it, far from it: as long as only Jesus and you know it. Ask me every night if God is pleased with you, and I’ll tell you.
You have suffered greatly, you will suffer still much; but in return, how good Jesus was with you and how much more he will also be in the future!
[Year 1886]
May 1886. – It is true that no one deserves the graces of the good Lord; they are favors, but when He bestows them on you should receive the gift with gratitude and profit from it.
To the religious soul is necessary the inner spirit, a life of sacrifice, purity of intention: here it is the epitome of life.
Learn to respect the Rule and the Priests. Those who attack the ministers of Jesus Christ, they wound Him in the pupil of his eye. Woe! Three times woe to those males and females who act in this way!
Be very generous; put your ego aside and give in everything priority to Jesus. Think often about this: if you want that your actions be acceptable to Jesus, have that in each of them may be always a small sacrifice, something that costs; without this there can be no merit. It is not difficult, especially for you, to give Jesus such satisfaction. Therefore, do not think anymore that when something costs you a lot, there is no merit in it, far from it: as long as only Jesus and you know it. Ask me every night if God is pleased with you, and I’ll tell you.
You have suffered greatly, and you will suffer still much; but in return, how good was Jesus for you and how more he will be in the future!
[Year 1886]
May 1886. – It is true that no one deserves the gracies of the good Lord; those are favors, but when He bestows them you should receive them with gratitude and profit.
A religious soul is necessary to the inner spirit, the life of sacrifice, purity of intention, here is the epitome of life.
Learn to respect the Rule and the Priests. Those who attack with ministers of Jesus Christ, they wound Him in the pupil of the eye. Woe! Three times woe to those both men and women who act in such way!
What a Religious can do more pleasing to God for the souls of her deceased relatives, is not so much to say some prayers, but to do all her actions with great purity of intention and in union with our Lord.
On earth Jesus more crucifies the soul that He loves most, but the cross sent by God always has sweetness together with its bitterness. It is not the same as the crosses that come to us through our own faults: those contain only bitterness.
November 1886. – All these tests! … The good Lord has allowed everything to put you to the test, for infusing to you strength of mind and also for the triumph of his glory, his justice and his love.
… He wants … the life of union with Him, and a life of repair and prayer. If you seriously take to heart the interests of Jesus, He also will take to his heart yours.
CHRISTMAS 1886 – If you want … soon the trouble will be taken from you and the freedom given back to me …
[Year 1887]
February 1887. – When God has special designs on a soul, when he does not want her from the common man, He gives her a great mind, a generous heart, a sound judgment, good character, a balanced head. If you do not find those qualities in a person, (know that) the good Lord does not want her to be anything special.
Jesus does not show all of a sudden to a soul what he requires of her; she would be scared. But reveals his secrets and makes her become part of his cross slowly and gradually while his grace makes her stronger.
The good Lord loves you in a special way. You are his favorite daughter. What happened to you was your greatest asset!
Everyone must love God in a special way, but for you there is a special obligation: reciprocity.
June 24. – Be very close to Jesus. Before any action or what you have to do or say, ask for His advice; talk to Him heart to heart as to a friend who had always been nearby.
Jesus wants your soul entirely, with all her full faculties and all her powers; your heart, with all its tenderness and all its love. Good Jesus desires to do with you just one thing, and all that will be necessary of graces and dedication to your fellow man, it will be taken from his divine heart, from that divine source that never runs out. Here it is how the brides of Jesus must act, giving themselves totally to him, and above you whom He loves more.
Jesus wants that you restitute him the recompense. Oh! If I could make you known all the graces that God has in store for you, if you do not walk contrary to his action towards you, powerful graces that will unite you indissolubly to Him, gracs of special choice, particolar graces, intimate graces. He has quite a few things to confide to you alone and for the common good.
When possible, in passing in front of the church, make a visit to your Jesus, and there open up before Him your heart. Show Him your sorrows, your joys, your sufferings, everything. Talk to Him as you speak to a loving friend, a father, and a husband. Tell him all your tenderness for him, and when you can not go to church, talk to him in your heart. From time to time during the day let his holy presence penetrate you for few instants, recollect yourself before His Majesty, acknowledge your misery, but also his subtleties, and thank Him with great love. All day you can speak from your heart to Jesus’ heart; this He desires and has been expecting from you for so long.
If you will be faithful to what I tell you, if you will work on yourself, and if you will try to please your Jesus in everything, working for Him with all the delicacies of a loving heart that always holds the eye of the soul open to seek to know what can bring pleasure to her divine Spouse, Jesus, by his hand, will give you the most intimate communication, his divine caresses, his love of a Father and Husband most loving; then also you will get everything that you ask. Jesus will not deny anything. You give the whole and He will be whole.
The good God wishes that this Retreat will put you in the spiritual state from which He has wanted to see you for a long time. The good God reaches his purposes with means, often, to us quite unknown. Well, get to work, with courage! Jesus, meanwhile, is to treat yourself with new graces; and correspond to them with great generosity, especially for you and for the good of the Community. May the good Jesus find it easy to bend down and shape you to his liking! Listen carefully to his voice in the depths of your heart, and do not miss any of his graces. Your will with his will, to form only an adorable one end! May your heart be lost in his!
Soon He will accomplish his plans on you, if you will not create obstacles. Don’t lose sight of his divine presence… The good God wants you to be holy in a special way and only his. Work on it!… The good Jesus wants to see in your heart the pure love, the disinterested, the generous, which is not afraid of suffering, nor it seeks its comfortability, and all this to please Him only.
The good God does not forbid to take care of your body, but there are people whom He wants to cure and heal when it pleases Him. The remedies are not beneficial to them. For them, a little mortification is worth more than all the rest. Believe what I tell you, and you will see. The common path, that is what Jesus wants for you whom He loves in a special way.
Practical faith should be at the core of all your actions! Trust in Jesus and in his love may make you undertake generously all that He requires of you! Every morning, when you wake up, tell your Beloved: “my Jesus, here I am to do your will; what do you want me to do today to please you?”
Do all the exercises of piety under the gaze of Jesus with a great love. You are doing good for souls only in proportion to your union with God.
The good God is seeking those souls that repair the outrages He receives, that love and make Him loved. He wants you to be in the number of these.
At a given moment, God foils the plots and sends to nothing the plans of those who do not seek only his glory. Jesus, before granting a soul an intimate union with Him, purifies her through a test, and the larger are his designs on this soul, the greater also is the test. The devil immediately realizes that the good God has designs on you; that’s why the evil one bothers you and makes you being harassed by his minions… don’t be discouraged. The good God is there to help and He will continue to help you. You struggle bravely. Despite the efforts of the devil, the good God will achieve his purposes.
The good God uses me to give you courage, because you do not have at all. Think well about this and realize that nature has need of these small encouragements. On the given occasion you will have to think of it, because you have and you will have to help souls. God gives you the example in the Garden of the Agony.
Have full confidence in Jesus. He will never fail you. Fix your habitual residence in the Heart of Jesus. Love be the chain that unites your heart to His adorable Heart! Your poor heart will purify itself, will detach (from all) in contact with that Heart so pure. Also take from the divine Heart of Jesus tall he graces that you need for the others, for your office. He will not deny anything that you ask with trust and love.
The pains and sufferings of the heart are more painful than the body. But for a soul that loves Jesus, the greatest pain is to give him pain, every day with their own sins and ingratitude!
Ask the Heart of Jesus the fortitude necessary because he may accomplish his designs on you.
If the good Lord requires so great purity from a soul whom he admits to his heaven, it is because He is eternal Purity, eternal Beauty, eternal justice, eternal goodness and eternal Perfection!
The good God allows you to suffer in body and in spirit, so that, dead to yourself, he may implement on you his great designs, and so that, by your own experience you know the art of perfecting others.
To secure your spirit in the presence of God, take every day one
of the fourteen Stations of Our Lord in His Passion, about which will think more. To Jesus is dear that we recall to mind all the sufferings endured by Him for us. On the festive days, take to reflect upon, one of the glorious mysteries: the Resurrection, the Ascension. Often think also about the Eucharist, the hidden life of Jesus in the tabernacle. You will see there especially, his love. Remain so alone, without anyone to worship Him in most of the churches in the world! To wait in vain for someone to tell Him: “I love you!”.
Every Sunday, make your small supplies for the week; in a word, try to please Jesus. He will recompense you.
Through the holy Communion, Jesus will unite you to Him very intimately, and he will cling to you more that he has done for any one else. In this divine food, you will find an amazing strength to rise to the perfection that Jesus requires from you.
Everything passes and passes fast! Let’s not worry so much about things that one day will have to finish. We aim to what will never end… with our actions holy and carried out in union with Jesus, we will adorn the throne of Heaven. We want to ascend some steps, very close to the One that we will have to contemplate and to love for all eternity. Here is what must be our sole occupation on earth.
For a soul that He loves, Jesus does things which, at first view, seem impossible. Here is how He will act in your regard!
Jesus draws you to Him very softly, very gently, but at the same time, strongly. Do not resist his divine attractions.
Soon, Jesus himself will tell you what he wants from you. In the meantime, I am appointed by Him to convey to you his divine will.
Listen carefully to his voice speaking to you intimately in the bottom of the heart; do not deny him anything and you will get everything; because, if you are generous, He will be much more. You have already had evidence of it.
The good God wants in his service generous souls who have no thought of themselves, that put all their effort, all their good will in making him loved and served, at the expense of their own interests.
The graces of the good God are gifts which He is not obliged to give us. He grants them to those whom He likes best, so that no one should find fault with them. Who has the right of dictating the law to the divine Lord?
Receive, therefore, humbly the special graces that Jesus will donate, but, at the same time, with humble gratitude, without trying to investigate why.
Jesus wants you to rise above all that is created, that no bond, not even a thread will keep you attached to the earth. You need to live already the life of the Elects, whose only occupation is to rejoice, to love and get immersed in God!
[YEAR 1890]
A memory. – NOVEMBER 2, 1890: last blessing of the month of the Rosary.
I will try to make you understand, for how much you can on earth, what is Heaven.
There are parties always different, that follow one another without interruption, a happiness always new that – so it seems – we have never experienced. It is a torrent of joy that overflows constantly to all the
Elects… Heaven is God above all, God loved, relished, enjoyed; it is, in a word, the satiety of God, without, however, being never satisfied!
And the more a soul has loved God on earth, the more it has reached the peak of perfection, the more also he loves God and understands Him in Heaven!
Jesus is the true joy of earth and the eternal joy of Heaven!
AMDG
(translation by Liana Sammartino)
Send me Thy assistance, that I may apply the time yet remaining to me for Thy love and service; have compassion on me, and, at the same time, on the holy souls suffering in Purgatory.
Wonderful, what a website it is! This blog provides useful flash-news to all, keep it
up.