Jesus Lives On In The Church (Pt. 3): The Mystical Tradition (cont.)

SOME REVELATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT (cont.)

(4) A Vision of Bl. Marie d’Oignies
“In the life of Bl. Marie d’Oignies it is related that Our Lord was accustomed, on the occasion of different Feasts, to show Himself to her in the Blessed Sacrament under a form in harmony with the mystery being celebrated.” (‘Christ in His Mysteries’)

(5) A Revelation to Mother Jeanne Deleloë* (d. 1660)
“At Christmastide,” she writes, “during all those solemnities of our Saviour’s Birth, I received great favours; His Majesty often gave me a vivid light so that I knew these divine mysteries as if they were then really taking place.” (‘Christ, the Ideal of the Monk,’ Bl. Columba Marmion)

*“Often, during her ecstasies, she was heard reciting the Divine Office; but a curious thing was that she pronounced the verses alternatively, as if the inhabitants of Heaven were repeating the psalms with her; she recited the whole without omitting a single syllable, whatever was the Office of the day…
We likewise see St. Catherine of Siena asking Our Lord to teach her to read in order to be able to chant the Psalms and praises of God during the Canonical Hours. Often, too, Our Lord walked up and down with her in her cell and recited the Office with the Saint. It was as two religious might have done.” (ibid.)

(6) A Vision of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
“God also granted her to see Jesus in the heart of the sisters after they had received Holy Communion; and sometimes she manifested in what form she saw Him in each of them,
He showing Himself to her in some as a child, in others at the age of twelve, and in others still at the age of thirty-three years, in others as suffering and crucified, and in others as risen and glorious; and this diversity occurred according to the various meditations the sisters were engaged in, or according to the capacity and the merits of each of them.” (‘The Life of St. Mary Magdalen De-Pazzi,’ Fabrini)

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi in ecstasy

(7) Another Vision of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
“One morning, it being Easter Sunday, whilst she was mistress of novices, and sitting at the table with unwonted joy and gladness, a novice waitress could not keep herself from asking her the cause of so great a joy. To whom Magdalen made answer: “Because I see Jesus resting in the breast of all the sisters, glorious and risen, as Holy Church to-day represents Him to us; and His presence is the cause of my being so joyful.” (ibid.)

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Jesus Lives On In The Church (Pt. 2): The Mystical Tradition

God Deserves Infinite Praise
‘Great is the Lord,’ says the Psalmist, ‘and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain’ (Ps. 47:2). Truly, God is worthy of infinite praise: ‘exalt Him as much as you can: for He is above all praise’ (Ecclus. 43:33). How then are we to praise God adequately?

The Chalice of Salvation
The answer is simple: unite yourself to Christ; live by His life (1 Jn. 4:9), by His hidden, Eucharistic life. There is no other way: ‘What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things He hath rendered unto me? I will take the Chalice of Salvation; and I will call upon the Name of the Lord’ (Ps. 115:12-13).

God Alone Can Praise God Worthily
God alone can praise Himself sufficiently. For this reason, God was made man; to this end He established the Church (‘the City of our God’), which offers to Him, upon her Altars (‘His holy mountain’), the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that is, the perfect ‘sacrifice of praise’ (Ps. 115:17), which mystically renews the offering of Christ on Calvary:

‘For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, My Name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for My Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts’ (Mal. 1:11).

God is ALL
To reiterate: ‘What shall we be able to do to glorify Him? for the Almighty Himself is above all His works’ (Ecclus. 43:30). Be a host. Thus we shall realise, in full, the prayer of Jeremiah: ‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved, for THOU ART MY PRAISE’ (Jer. 17:14). This is the key to Christianity:

‘Sing to the Lord,
in union with His Bride, the Church, Who lives by His life,
O ye His saints: and,
through the Holy Mysteries,
give infinite praise,
through Christ, the God-Man,
to the memory of His infinite holiness.’
– Ps. 29:5 (the words in italics are mine)

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SOME REVELATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

(1) A Vision of St. Hildegarde of Bingen
“As I gazed upon this Flesh and Blood I saw the signs of the Incarnation, the Birth, the Passion, of Our Saviour reflected in them as in a mirror, and just as we know these events to have been accomplished when the Son of God was on earth.” (‘Scivias’)

(2) Another Revelation of St. Hildegard of Bingen
Words of the Eternal Father: “Hence these mysteries shine before Me in the Heavenly places; for I have not forgotten them, but they will appear before Me in great brightness, like the dawn, until the end of the world.” (‘Scivias’)

Bl. Columba Marmion: “Doubtless we must never forget that under the Eucharistic species is found only the substance of the glorious Body of Jesus, such as it is at present in Heaven, and not such as it was, for example, in the crib of Bethlehem.
But when the Father looks upon His Son Jesus in the Heavenly splendours, what does He behold in Him? He sees the One Who lived thirty-three years upon earth for us; He beholds all the mysteries that this mortal life contained, the satisfactions and the merits whereof these mysteries were the source; He beholds the glory that His Son gave Him in living each of them.” (‘Christ in His Mysteries’)

St. Gertrude in ecstasy

(3) A Revelation to St. Gertrude the Great
“It is related in the life of St. Gertrude, that one day, on the Festival of the Ascension, when she received the Sacred Host from the hand of the priest, she heard Jesus say to her: ‘Behold Me: I come, not to bid thee farewell, but to take thee with Me to Heaven, and present thee to My Father.'” (‘Christ in His Mysteries’)

Easter, 2020: The Centenary of Death of St. Teresa of the Andes

“Christ is risen!”

Today – Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020 – marks the centenary of the death of an extraordinary little soul: Teresa of the Andes (d. April 12, 1920).

[Further down the page, you will find some selections of her beautiful letters, taken from ‘Letters of Teresa of Jesus of the Andes’.]

A Quick Snapshot of Her Life
Known in the world as Juanita, as a young woman, this social, intelligent, playful, and devout “Child of Mary,” like St. Therese before her (one of her favourite Saints), followed the call to the cloister of Carmel. Inflamed with love for Jesus, the Spouse of Souls, she felt powerfully drawn to a certain little convent that, while poor and humble from a material point of view, was nonetheless a house permeated by the richness of Divine charity.

In any case, it was not comfort she was looking for, but ‘the God of all comfort’ (2 Cor. 1:3), Who “seeks solace from His little creature” (Our Lord to Sr. Benigna Consolata, another inspiration to St. Teresa of the Andes). It was while visiting the aforesaid convent that Our Lord was pleased, on at least one occasion, to manifest Himself from the Tabernacle, not with an expression of sorrow – as was often His wont – but with a joyful countenance. By this, Our Lord would have His daughter know that she had found the paradise of delights to which He was calling her. He was consoled here, and it is here she would flourish.

During her brief time in the cloister, she led a life of great, albeit hidden virtue in the cloister, paying close attention to the inspirations of Divine grace. Our Lord made it known to her that she would die young, and for this reason she must practice great fidelity to the counsels of perfection given to her by our Blessed Mother, but more so to holy obedience, and to the holy Rule handed down by St. Teresa of Avila, her Patron in religion. Obedience was ever her guide. “A host, Eli,” she wrote to a friend, “has no will of her own.” “I want,” she wrote in another letter, “to be a host through the Host.”

Ever spurred on by her desire for God, Who often flooded the soul of His little spouse to the point of ecstasy, she did not always succeed in mortifying herself (in the world she had a weakness for her favourite caramels!), as she lamented on more than one occasion; nevertheless, she knew how to draw profit from all things, knowing well that humility (which cannot be separated from confidence in God) is the key to Charity. Like St. Therese, she knew how to take herself lightly and in the spirit of childlike liberty, without which perfection – that is to say, the flowering of God’s love in the soul – is utterly impossible.

After only 11 months in the convent, Sr. Teresa (affectionately known as “Teresita”) was consumed by love, ending her short life at 7:15pm on Friday, April 12, 1920.

Ora pro nobis!

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+ SOME SAMPLES OF HER LETTERS

Beautiful Apparitions of Our Lord
“Sometimes He appears to me so filled with beauty and tenderness that I can’t describe it. Believe me, it all causes me dissatisfaction with everything [that is less than God]…”

Real Friendship
“… real friendship consists of perfecting one another and of coming closer to God.”

Apostles of God’s Mercy
“We must, dear Isabel, be apostles of that Heart’s mercy. We must dissolve the wall of coldness with which they keep Him isolated. On the Altar, we must caress and console Him in His mystical agony.”

At the Foot of the Tabernacle
“… let us live forever at the foot of the Tabernacle, be it only in spirit, consoling Our Lord in His agony.”

With the Divine Prisoner
“… I’d like to live till the end of the world, suffering with the Divine Prisoner.”

Mary: Her “Priest”
“I’ve made an agreement with the Most Holy Virgin that she may be my priest who will offer me at every moment for sinners and priests, but bathed in the Blood of the Heart of Jesus.”

God’s Will: Our Only Good
“How shall we become more like Him except by doing His Divine Will? In loving and embracing It, we love and embrace a good that is infinitely pleasing to God; a good that contains within Itself eternal reason…”

Prayer: A Loving Gaze
“My prayer, for the most part, is a kind of gazing at God without using any reasoning… Interiorly, I feel a consuming fire completely consuming me.” (“Love, invade me!” – A Prayer she was fond of)

God Does Not Reject Sinners
“As for what you say about believing that Jesus looks at you in anger and not wanting to pardon you, that is a temptation… Why fear that Jesus will reject you? Would a mother reject a daughter, who, after failing in obedience, goes to beg her forgiveness? No, she would hug her daughter tightly to her heart. Why not believe that Jesus does this to us, His sinful creatures, since He possesses not only the tenderness of a mother, but a tenderness which knows no bounds, for it is infinite.”