..
Jesus! Maria! Anna!
Glory, honour, awe and reverence to
the three Divine Persons in one unity.
Amen.
My dearly beloved sisters and daughters,
in the charity of our merciful, sweet and loving Redeemer, Jesus,
and of his loyal spouse, our mother Holy Church, with all humility
of heart and devotion, I commend myself to you, in life and in death.
I commend both my intentions and the burden which I have to carry
before our Lord, that I may render a good account of it to him on
the day of judgment.
My dearly beloved sisters, chosen out of the valley of the shadow
of death by the uncreated wisdom of our sovereign Father, to enter
into the gospel way of life of his dearly beloved Son Jesus. To
be his spouses, true daughters of the sovereign King, temples of
the blessed Holy Spirit, heiresses and queens of the most high realm
of heaven; and for a little labour to obtain repose, honour, glory,
and unending salvation without limit or measure.
Therefore, my dearly beloved daughters, be aware of your call from
God to holiness, your great dignity and high perfection. Ignorance
of these things is damaging, consciousness of them will enable you
to bear much fruit.
Living the Gospel
Know, then, that
you have entered on the true way through the door of divine inspiration
and God's loving call. For as our dear Saviour says, no one can
come to me, unless my Father draw them by his inspiration.
This gateway into the rich field of the gospel way of life is total
renunciation of the world, the flesh and one's own will. For thus
says the blessed Son of the pure Virgin: "If any want to become
my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me" by continually repenting of their sins and failings,
so as to keep the grace God gives whole and alive and avoid future
falls. This is shown in Saint John the Baptist, who was sanctified
in his mother's womb. All his life long he carried the cross of
continual penance, not because he had committed any actual offence
but so as to persevere in grace and give good example. If this is
what the just man does, what ought the sinner do? Whether here below
or bt the life to come, every sin will have its consequences.
The Lord says follow me. Follow' Erie by final perseverance, keeping
completely until death all that you have promised in accordance
with the Holy Gospel, so as to be found in your last hour only desiring
the fullness of my h4 will; rooted in the perfect love of God.
Obedience
Note well then,
my beloved daughters, that you have been called by grace to perfect
obedience, so as to obey at all times and in all things, save in
sin. Jesus Christ did this even unto death.
For it is not sufficient to obey when it suits you, or in certain
limited things only. We should obey, even unto death, in everything
not opposed to God, or contrary to your own souls, or to the Holy
Rule. Following the example of our merciful Redeemer, who became
obedient for our sakes even unto death, we in our turn ought to
obey, for his sake, even unto death.
Let us not to set our own judgments and feelings above those of
our superiors, for the even the true Wisdom, Jesus Christ, was submissive
to Joseph and obeyed his dear Virgin Mother.
The truly obedient person is concerned only with the work of true
obedience, obeying purely for God sake and as with much reverence
as if he had received his orders from the lips ofJesus. The more
humble the command in human eyes, the more precious is devout obedience
in the eyes of God. The truly obedient person fears more to be lacking
in obedience than to run the risk of bodily death; after the example
of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, of whom Saint Bernard wrote,
saying: remember, that Jesus Christ much rather preferred to loose
his life through his bitter Passion, than to fail in obedience to
God his Father.
All evil comes through disobedience. As another saint said: one
prayer of a really obedient person is worth a hundred thousand of
a disobedient one. If we are obedient to God, and to our Superiors
for God's sake, God himself will obey us in granting all our good
desires.
Rid yourselves then of all self-will for it is the one fuel for
eternal destruction.
Above all the other virtues I recommend to you holy obedience, in
which the excellence of charity is shown forth, when in all things
we obey the creature for love of the Creator. In this virtue with
Jesus on the cross, may we be able to die and oltain life everlasting!
Amen!
Poverty
After the renunciation
of ourselves through complete obedience, our Saviour wishes us to
carry our cross daily - that is, our vow of holy poverty. Poverty
is the heavy cross of not wishing for anything under heaven, except
him who bore the cross on his shoulders, and deigned to die for
our love on this cross: pierced with nails, crowned with thorns,
spat upon and heaped with blows; his side pierced by a lance.
O holy poverty! Finery of our redemption! Precious jewel and certain
sign of salvation!
It is to poverty that the King gives possession of the kingdom of
heaven ,lastingly and without end.
And you, daughters of Adam and Eve, 0 why do you not love this precious
jewel, this noble pearl, whose worth and dignity is that of the
kingdom of heaven, and so is far more precious than innumerable
worlds?
Alas, and more than a hundred thousand times, alas! You could possess
poverty more easily and as an incomparably better bargain than this
wretched world, which is full of wrong choices, traps and snares,
lies and clinging mire; in the midst of which, you can, all to easily,
lose the kingdom of heaven and saddle yourself with pain and eternal
torments.
O my most beloved sisters, love, love, love most perfectly this
noble and precious and most excellent virtue, the poverty of the
gospel; loved by God and hated by the world.
After the example of Jesus Christ, who had nowhere here below to
lay his head, and the example of our glorious father, Saint Francis,
and our mother, Lady Saint Clare, be utterly content with the form
of your poor habit allowed by your Rule, and hold everything else
as suspect, such as books, chaplets, thread, needles, pins and whatever
trivia; kerchiefs, veils and other things which may be for your
own use and on which you may set your affection.
Have only those things which are truly necessary, and possess all
things in common.
In this present life, be content with what is necessary, so as to
attain more easily to the true goods of the celestial kingdom, to
which you already have a claim by reason of that holy poverty which
you have willingly promised and vowed for the love of God.
The kingdom of God will be ours without fail if we keep faith with
Lady Holy Poverty.
By this cross of holy poverty I mean: to live a life of continual
abstinence, not eating meat, fasting daily, going barefoot and enduring
the cold, sleeping on hard beds, wearing poor clothing, being content
with scanty and coarse food, and bearing the burden of labour, both
manual and spiritual.
Whoever at the hour of death is found possessing anything, in fact,
or in deliberate desire, will be dispossessed of the kingdom of
heaven.
Live and die truly poor, my dearly beloved daughters, just as our
sweet Saviour died on the cross for us; for if it seems that few
love him in this way, it is all the more reason that we should so
love him.
After Lady Holy Obedience in the order, I recommend to you above
all else, Poverty, which is the straight ladder by means of which,
without anxious wobbling, one mounts easily to that self-same kingdom,
thanks to the complete renunciation of all passing goods for the
love of God, who is so good, and who promises us his kingdom and
does not lie.
Chastity
Since our Lord
has said follow me, I understand that we really are to follow Jesus
Christ - the spotless lamb, the virginal Son of a virgin Mother
- through true purity of heart and body until death. Through this
true vow of angelical chastity, one becomes a loyal bride of Jesus
Christ, in virtue of that faithfulness promised and given at the
time when we made our vows in the hands of superiors, who represented
God on earth; a pledge made in the presence of witnesses:- the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Saint Francis, Saint Clare, and all the saints, and
before those other witnesses who were present when we made our vows
at our holy profession; a profession through which we obtained the
remission of all our sins and the full assurance of eternal life.
O noble and most precious virtue of chastity! Loved by God as his
loyal bride, honoured by the angels as spouse of their Lord and
King, most highly praised by the saints, and so splendidly proclaimed
in sacred scripture!
It is the noble crown you will wear in the kingdom of heaven at
the true wedding feast of your true spouse, Jesus.
O most excellent garden! Full of all the plants that are truly good!
You never let thorns, nettles, or poisonous weeds grow in you; you
do not allow any profane thing to enter. 0 how good is your strong
surrounding wall!
How loyal is the one who keeps faithful watch at your gates and
allows none but the true messengers of your true spouse and king
to enter!
Naturally you will find your place in the imagery of Sacred Scripture
as the finest flowering trees bearing this noble fruit, which is
served to the King of true love in his kingdom!
O worthy and excellent virtue! Your dignity, your meaning and your
worth, and the excellence of your victory - it is impossible to
understand them properly and to express them! God alone is your
reward, whom you will see in bliss divine! This virtue, coming next
in order and merit in the sight of God, who loves holy chastity,
I commend to you, so that through her you will have honour and merit
on the great day of judgment. But those who are false to the vows
that they have promised before God, and who have not made fitting
reparation, will suffer the consequences!
.... Our merciful Redeemer, through his highest obedience, poverty
and chastity is the sole source of the virtues for us. Through him
let us live in blessed penance, for it can win for us full reconciliation
with our beloved Father.
Enclosure
The Lord willingly
allowed himself to be shut away in a sepulchre of stone.
As it pleased him to be enclosed for forty hours, my dear Sisters,
you, too, must follow him; for after obedience, poverty and pure
chastity, you have your holy enclosure to support you. In it you
may well live forty years, more or less; and in which you will die.
You are therefore already in your sepulchre of stone; that is to
say, the enclosure which you have vowed.
O how precious is the sepulchre of Jesus; that tomb visited by so
many out of devotion!
O how precious is that sepulchre - your enclosure - into which devout
souls enter to obtain their salvation. From the depths of that tomb,
these souls take flight, with the help of the three vows already
mentioned, soaring to the great celestial palace without difficulty,
or hardly any, and without danger, having carried out all the works
required in accordance with the call they have received from God,
How much comfort, delight and aid, should these fellow captives
feel when a new bride enters into the noble realm of the Bridegroom
she has loved and desired.
Such is the abundance and superabundance at the table of this blissful
marriage feast, that when a tiny part of the great and immeasurable
joy and bounty of the noble King and Spouse falls from it, it cannot
but delight the poor captives, whom sin still keeps from entering
into this noble wedding feast.
O happy enclosure, which can remove you from many vices and occasions
of evil and keeps you secluded securely and worthily in the midst
of noble virtues.
O noble castle, powerful and strong, of the King of heaven! It fears
not the assaults of the world, the flesh and the devil.
O impregnable tower, you enclose within yourself all truth's provisions
against the assault of the devil.
You have within yourself universal obedience, the daughter of Holy
Humility, which condemns all self-will, the cause and root of all
evil; you are fully supplied with Lady Holy Poverty, which has no
care about worldly things and who makes it her entire aim and desire
to tend entirely towards his glorious kingdom, without anxiety about
the untrustworthy things of this passing world. Against the strong
and harmful assaults of the flesh, our particular enemy here below,
we have its adversary Holy Chastity, continual prayer, fasting cold
and bare feet, close guard of the senses, holy silence, chapter,
correction, meditation, tears, sighs, regular discipline, the Divine
Office, sacred Scripture, holy Mass, the sweet partaking of the
precious Body of Jesus Christ, purity of heart, right instruction,
the remembrance of death, the cross, the passion, the sight of the
cemetery, the faithful guardianship of your good angel, the fidelity
loyally promised to your dear Spouse, the hope of eternal reward
- and the thought of the terrible punishment of those who will have
merited otherwise.
Be gone then, away with you, foolish and rebellious flesh, full
of distracting promptings and evil inclinations; you who seek to
lure us from the way of perfection, bringing shameful death and
perdition.
Be led by Lady
Holy Grace as her servant, and by wise reason, for your profit and,
ultimately, your glory.
Sin passes away swiftly and its punishment is unending; penitence
is short, but its ending will be your eternal glory.
O happy enclosure! 0 soul completely enclosed, according to the
will of its superior, which nothing causes to go straying abroad
here and there, but which rests at all times completely submissive
to the will of its superiors. There is its only rest!
O precious and sure enclosure! To be enclosed by continual remembrance
in the precious wounds of Jesus Christ!
O happy captives, soaring above the heavens to hear with the ears
of the spirit the nine choirs of angels, whose sweet praise and
chanting magnifies the Holy and Blessed Trinity, one God in three
persons.
Praise and Glory
With all the
angels praise God, glorify him - in him and through him, and through
all his creatures in heaven and on earth: exalt him above all for
his inestimable favour in creating the human person in the image
of the Creator, and for the sovereign gift of the sacred Incarnation
of our God, who is so good that, after having created all things
for our sake, he himself became truly man and our loving Brother,
so as to restore all things by his glorious death and his passion.
... O infinite good!
... O bounty without measure!
... O ingratitude which forgets so great a gift!
Praise him! Exalt him with all your voice for the great gift received
in Holy Baptism, that of knowing complete innocence and becoming
temples of the blessed Holy Spirit.
Give thanks worthily to the Lord for having borne, so generously,
with your sins and failings. His pity has recalled us to himself
through contrition, confession, atonement and the resolution to
lead a good life. He has drawn us through our call to the religious
life, to enter into the state of perfection found in the Form of
Life, with a good company which will not desert us, so as to glorify
him at all times for the holy promise of eternal life, the promise
he has already made to us.
Praise him, love him, serve him worthily so you can be sure of everlasting
life - as sure as those who are already in full possession of it
and who see God in the clear vision of his sweetness and infinite
goodness, in the highest bliss arid perfect surety of their eternal
inheritance.
In order to be able to attain to this by his grace and his aid,
we must loyally keep the vows that which we have promised him, and
if we commit some fault through human frailty, we must make haste
every time pick ourselves up, to make ourselves clean and to make
up our losses through holy penance. And our dear Father, during
this life receives us without delay into his mercy and his sweet
reconciliation, considering that first, holy and good intention,
which he gave us in our holy vocation and in his loving binding
of us to himself, and for the sake of all his innumerable favours,
graces present and to come.
Praise, praise always, praise everlastingly, and love the Father,
the Son and the blessed Holy Spirit; the most humble Virgin who
bore Jesus Christ, the holy and sacred soul of our Redeemer, and
his precious body which hung upon the cross for us all; love the
saints, men and women, and all the angels, and all the good and
just people who serve God day and night.
Set your minds on living well and dying holily. The end is approaching;
the world not improving: malice increases; goodness, loyalty and
truth decrease; iniquity abounds, charity grows cold again; devotion
and religion are found in very few hearts. Many are called, but
few are chosen.
Alas! The pity of it all! For God, according to his holy will, wants
to save all humankind without exception! Yet so few of them let
themselves be chosen ! All are called, but few consent to come;
and if there are those who start out and go on for some time, nevertheless
there are very few who persevere to the end in keeping the law of
God.
There are many who make solemn vows in religion but alas, and more
than a hundred thousand times alas, there are all too few today
who acquit themselves of them loyally in the sight of God who misses
nothing. In order to be saved people are obliged to keep in completely,
justly and loyally, all that they have promised and vowed; the punishment
for dishonesty is eternal! Surely it would be better not to promise
anything and so fail in nothing, than to promise much and then fall
abysmally short.
The greater the promise, the greater the injury, and the more awful
the fate of the transgressor. But for the good, the greater the
promise, the greater is the merit and the greater the salvation,
which will be given us as a pure gift by the Father of all mercy,
the Son by his holy Passion, and by the blessed Holy Spirit, the
fountain of peace, of sweetness, of love and of all consolation.
... Amen, amen, without recall.
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