Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 8. Her Last Sickness-Her Death.

THE mission of the Sister was accomplished. According to the designs of God there remained for her but to perfect the sacrifice which she had so often made of herself. Already her health was beginning to fail. At the close of the Lent of 1848 she entered upon those sufferings which, uniting her more and more to Jesus Crucified, were to crown her pure, holy life by an admirable death.

On Good Friday, at three o'clock, when prostrate on the ground adoring Jesus Christ dying on the Cross, it was revealed to her that the divine wrath was about to descend upon men.
Immediately, renewing her act of perfect abandonment, she offered herself to God as a victim to appease his irritated justice. It seemed as if the Lord had awaited this last and generous offering before immolating his courageous victim, for immediately was developed that long and painful sickness which caused her final dissolution. She was consumed by a burning fever; her throat became ulcerated ; her tongue and mouth were as if incessantly pierced by cruel thorns—a noticeable fact, since our Lord had told her she must pray and suffer for blasphemers. Night after night she was unable to take the slightest repose; each change of position on her bed became a new martyrdom; ulcers were formed, which added to her sufferings. This frightful state for human nature she bore without the least injury to her interior disposition; her patience never waned, her union with God was continual, her spirit of sacrifice entire and without reserve, her docility, innocence, and simplicity like that of a child.

Early in June she received the Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction with a fervor and rapture that made it seem that she already had a foretaste of the eternal joys in store for her. On Friday, the 16th of June, they thought her dying, and began the Prayers for the Agonizing. Perfectly conscious, she united with the pious nuns by making frequent aspirations. Suddenly she entered into a supernatural state, the effects of which were very apparent. When, after the recommendations of the departing soul, they pronounced these words, " Maria, mater gratiæ, mater misericordiæ" she impulsively threw up her arms toward heaven with the eagerness of a child at the sight of its mother. She remained a long time in this position, although a few moments before so weak and stiff were her arms that they seemed immovable. Afterwards she extended them in the form of a cross, in order to expire as a victim. When the dear nuns attempted to prevent it she said: " Leave me thus; for me it is a duty." Alternately taking her crucifix and the little statue of the Infant Jesus which never quitted her, she covered them with kisses and pressed them to her heart. Then, holding the little statue as high as possible, she pronounced in a low, solemn tone these words : " Eternal Father ! once more I offer this Adorable Child, thy Divine Son, in expiation of my sins and those of the human race, for the needs of the Holy Church, for France and the Reparation. Amiable Jesus, I abandon this work into thy hands; for it I have lived, for it I shall die." Then, placing the statue on her head, she said: " Divine Child, cover my criminal head with the merits of thy Precious Blood; renew in my soul grace and innocence; clothe me in thy purity and the spirit of thy humility. Oh! hasten unto me! When shall I leave earth? Come, O my Jesus, and delay not! Mary, my tender Mother, come for my soul! "

She said to the Mother-Prioress : " My career is finished, as our Lord has made known to me; for the Work of Reparation which is to save France is established. It was for this God placed me on earth. Now I have but to suffer; it is necessary for the accomplishment of his designs. Ah! how true it is that he has means of satisfying his justice unknown to man."
Her agony was long and painful. As death approached she recollected that our Lord had promised to restore to her soul at the last hour the image of God, and she wished to renew her baptismal vows; as a symbol of the grace she desired to receive, she asked for some holy water, made the sign of the cross upon her head, and pronounced these words: " Child, I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Then, joining her hands, she added: " I renounce Satan and all his works and pomps; I desire to belong for ever to Jesus Christ." After this little ceremony her face assumed such an expression of heavenly beauty that one might readily have imagined her a child just from the waters of Baptism or an angel about to re-ascend to its celestial home. From that moment till her last sigh she never ceased praying. The sweat of death covered her brow, its chill had already benumbed her pain-worn frame, and yet the cold, livid lips continued to murmur: " Jesus, Mary, Joseph! Come, Lord Jesus ! Sit Nomen Domini benedictum! " These were her last words. Soon her eyes closed, and, as a last trait of resemblance to her Divine Master, she uttered a cry, and sweetly expired. It was on Saturday, a day consecrated to Mary. The mortal remains of this admirable daughter of St. Teresa have been, through the care of M. Dupont, deposited within the enclosure of the Carmel of Tours, in the Chapter-Hall where they now repose, which corresponds to that part of the chapel which is on the right of the entrance. A mural stone near the holy-water font bears this simple inscription:

Here rests

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre of the Holy

Family,

A Professed Religious of this Monastery,

Who died July 8th, 1848,

Aged 31 years and 9 months,

Having been a Religious 9 years and 8 months.

Lord, thou wilt conceal her in the secret of thy Face.

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 7. Her Virtues.

IT is time to speak a few words of the virtues of our dear revered Sister. We shall only mention those which were the most characteristic. Above all, she possessed charity in an eminent degree; the glory of God and the conversion and salvation of sinners were the sole objects of her thoughts and the motive of all her actions. The loss of souls made so vivid an impression upon her that she could not repress her sorrow. More than once she was heard weeping and sobbing. Her tender and solid piety also inspired her with a great zeal to relieve the souls in purgatory, especially those that were the most forlorn.

Her heart expanded with love for our Lord; she honored his Sacred Humanity in all its mysteries, but those of his Birth and Hidden Life had for her inexpressible charms. Her devotion to the Divine Infancy and to the Holy Family was manifest on all occasions. Being Portress, it was a source of joy to her to open the door to carpenters, whose occupation reminded her of the labors of the childhood of Jesus and St. Joseph, One day a wagon drawn by an ass entered the courtyard of the monastery. Approaching the animal, the good Sister began to tenderly stroke it in remembrance of the service rendered Jesus and Mary by the humble beast in their flight into Egypt. At Christmas-time she testified her joy and piety in various ways; she contemplated with a radiant countenance the statue of the Infant Jesus in the Crib, took it in her arms, lighted tapers before it, and sang for the Divine J3abe her sweetest songs of praise ; sometimes, even, like David before the Ark, she began to dance, inviting her companions in the Novitiate to do the same. The Mother-Prioress expressed astonishment and warned her against dissipation. " Oh ! no, Reverend Mother," she answered. "I do it to honor the Infant Jesus, and to make amends for all the guilty dances that offend him."

Her affections were also directed to Jesus in the Eucharist. In the choir, before the Blessed Sacrament, the expression of her face, her manner, her looks, made it seem that, piercing the Eucharistic veil, she really saw Jesus on the altar. Quitting the sanctuary, she left there her heart; and in whatever part of the house she happened to be, she turned towards it, transported with joy when she could catch a glimpse of the altar. She had attained to a rare degree of humility. She sincerely believed herself the least in the community, the
most miserable, an unworthy sinner, and reproached herself for the slightest imperfections as if they were grave faults. One day a Sister found her weeping and asked the cause. Sister Saint-Pierre reminded her of a fault she had committed the day previous in her presence. The Sister assured her she had not noticed it, it was so very trifling. " Nevertheless," she answered, " God may have been offended, and that is the cause of my tears." Self-complacency found no place in her mind. She ingenuously avowed it. Once ; when she was still a novice, the Mother-Prioress during recreation asked her to sing for a newly-arrived postulant the canticle, "Blessed be God, I am his spouse." She did so with so sweet a voice and so lively an accent of piety that her young companion was delighted. When she had finished the Mother-Prioress said aloud: " Eh, well, my Sister Saint-Pierre, how many thoughts of vanity had you whilst singing ? " Lowering her eyes, she modestly answered: " If I have had any I have banished them."

Her obedience was prompt, implicit, and perfect. She complied in the simplicity of a child with all that was required, stimulated thereto by the example of the Child Jesus at Nazareth. The words of the Gospel, " He was submissive to them" were ever on her lips. She rendered a blind obedience not only to her superiors, but to the Sisters upon whom she was dependent, and, in fact, to all, regarding them as her mistresses and making it a duty to acquiesce in their wishes, just like a child who has no will but that of its guardians. Thus she was able in her last sickness to say in all truth and candor: " It is my consolation in death that I have always been obedient."

Her recollection was so profound that merely to see her was sufficient to raise one's thoughts to God. She seemed unconscious of what was going on around her, so much so that even after her Profession she was ignorant of the various places assigned the different nuns in the choir and refectory. One of the nuns, whose cell was so situated that she had an opportunity of seeing her when she thought herself unseen by human eye, assures us that during the time she occupied this cell, which was for several years, she never saw her raise her eyes from her work but to cast them on the little statue of the Infant Jesus which she always kept near her.
After any supernatural communications she would appear pale, trembling, and bathed in tears; especially was this the case when they revealed the woes impending over France. Then her tears flowed, yet calmly and silently. She would then appear so absorbed in recollection that it was difficult to draw her therefrom; and this would last for hours, though without hindrance to the performance of her duties. Her union with God was intimate and continual; she never lost sight of him, and, according to her expression, her soul, closely united to our Lord, was " happily bound at his feet." But this life, apparently so heavenly and sweet, was not exempt from interior trials and sufferings. The Mother-Prioress was convinced that these were so great that, whilst serving to purify her soul, they shortened her days in this world.
She also possessed in an eminent degree that sweet liberty of spirit which distinguishes a true Carmelite. She knew perfectly well how to blend with the practice of the most exalted virtues the charms of charity, and even gayety. One day a friend brought to the convent as a present a piece of cake. Sister Saint-Pierre, then Portress, was very much fatigued. On receiving the cake she immediately carried it to the Mother-Prioress, and, presenting it to her, said
with her usual simplicity: " "What a providence—the ass of the Infant Jesus is hungry !" , The good Mother smiled, and gave a piece of the cake to her little Portress, who, giving thanks to God, gaily partook of it.

During recreations she spoke but little, always preferring to listen; nevertheless she was cheerful and amiable, expressing herself to the point and taking part in all that was said, though it was often necessary for her to make extremely violent efforts to break off her interior converse with God. Her companions loved to be near her, because they always found it to their spiritual benefit. Her reserve was especially noticeable in matters pertaining to charity; she excused every one, palliated their defects, and this with tact and cordiality.
During her last illness, having passed a night of extreme suffering, she said to a nun who was from the same part of the country as herself: "You remember that in Brittany our little excursions ended with a feast, each person furnishing his or her share, one paying for the cream, another for the sugar. The good Jesus last night assigned to me the furnishing of the sugar by making me suffer very much."

When, in 1848, she fell sick, it was at the time of the government elections, and the Carmelites had had more than one alarm. One day the Mother-Prioress said half-jestingly: " Since you cannot pray any more, you will be the spiritual drum, and whenever you hear the National Guard beat the call to arms, do you call the holy angels to our assistance " She accepted her new mission, and the next day presented the Reverend Mother with a little drum, upon which was inscribed the Holy Name of God and that of each of the choirs of holy angels. Unable to make vocal prayers, she would take the little drum on her bed, and, striking it with her fingers, thus call the heavenly militia to their aid. The world may laugh at this trait of childish piety, but those not of the world will see in it the admirable simplicity of a soul transformed by the science of the Crib and the virtue of obedience. This drum, after the death of the Sister, was sent to a friend of Carmel as a plaything to amuse his little boy. But in his family it was richly encased under a glass globe and is preserved as a precious relic.
Until the last our dear Sister cherished a special devotion to the Divine Infant Jesus and the cares which at that period of his life he received from his august Mother. She was richly rewarded by the ineffable communications graciously vouchsafed to her concerning the Divine Maternity, whence she drew greater and still greater confidence for the triumph of the Church and the salvation of France.

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 6. The Archconfraternity Of The Reparation.

THE 7th of March, 1847, our Lord said to his faithful servant : " Rejoice, my daughter ; the hour approaches when that most beautiful work under the sun is to appear." As the Sister was much troubled concerning the many obstacles to be overcome, the Divine Saviour said to her: " These obstacles are only the mist of a morning ushering in a fine day."

A question rises here regarding the Work of Reparation through the Holy Face. Without doubt the Redemption wrought upon the Cross is, and always will be, the masterpiece of Divine Wisdom and Divine Love; but the Reparation asked by the Saviour of Marie de Saint-Pierre is so intimately, connected with the Redemption of man, so identified with the expiation of Calvary, that we may truly consider it an application of the same; and thus, notwithstanding the feebleness and unworthiness of the instruments employed, it is in reality " the most beautiful of works, the most necessary for the needs of the age in which we live.'
The day, in fact, was fast approaching when this Work would be definitely established.
The Confraternity not having been instituted at Tours in the manner the Lord wished, the Holy Virgin of La Salette, the 19th of September, came herself in person to begin it. Sister Saint-Pierre had solicited the intervention of Mary, and Mary, our merciful Mother, announced it. " His grace," says Sister Saint-Pierre, " coming to no decision, I appealed to Mary. I clearly saw there was no hope but in her intercession; daily I recited the chaplet to obtain the establishment of the Work. I longed to proclaim it throughout France and make known to my country the misfortunes which threatened her. Oh! how I suffered in being the sole depositary of so important a thing!" " Holy Virgin," she again exclaimed, "appear in the world, make known to some one that which has been communicated to me concerning France." When the pious Sister heard that the august Queen of Heaven had spoken to the little shepherds of the Alps, Maximin and Melanie, in transports she cried: " O Virgin Mother of my God! I thank thee for having given me these two little shepherds as sounding trumpets to echo from the mountain to the ears of France all that has been revealed to me in solitude."

And again : " The voice of my dear little associates has been heard throughout the world. Let us pray, let us weep for our sins. The time is not far distant when France will be shaken to her foundations. But she will not be engulfed, if before the eyes of the Lord appears the Work of Reparation. She, who was to be utterly destroyed, will be only lightly chastised." In fact, in less than a year after—and perhaps to this we owe our continued existence—the Work was earnestly begun. Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres, having heard of the projected "Work, took a lively interest in forwarding it as much as possible. His zeal for the Holy Name of God made him labor with much ardor for the establishment of the Association; his efforts were crowned with success. He wrote to Mgr. Morlot, Archbishop of Tours, who, still judging that it was not opportune to pronounce judgment, left the initiative of the Work to the Bishop of Langres, being all the more willing to do this as Langres was his (Mgr. Morlot's) birthplace.

 A Confraternity of Reparation was then canonically established at St. Dizier in the church of St. Martin of Lanoue. Reverend M. l'Abbe Marche, its pastor, was sent to Rome to solicit, in behalf of the Association, the title of Arch confraternity, together with some indulgences. Pius IX. received the petitions with the most ardent enthusiasm, and it was on this occasion he made use of the words that have been so often quoted: " Reparation is a work destined to save society." He granted the requested indulgences, and by a brief dated July 30, 1847, raised the Association of Reparation established at St. Dizier to the dignity of an Archconfraternity, with the right of aggregating throughout the Catholic world similar associations ; and His Holiness requested that his name should be the first subscribed on the register of membership— a signal privilege, which was to be the seed of wonderful benedictions.
The Confraternity of the Reparation answered so well the need of our times, and was so evidently the work of God, that from its very commencement it spread like a fire among dry reeds.

Nevertheless it had for its centre only the second parish of a small town, in a. diocese far from the place where the communications had been made. Besides, the episcopal ordinance of Langres had made no mention of the cultus of the Holy Face indicated as the sensible object of the Reparation. Consequently, though the canonical erection of the Archconfraternity of the Reparation filled the pious Sister with joy, she yet said, "My heart is not entirely satisfied; for in this work the Church of Tours, the heritage of the great St. Martin, still remains inactive. When will it bring forth the fruit which has been conceived in its midst?"
She was not to see the fulfilment of this legitimate desire; her earthly pilgrimage was drawing to a close. Still the future welfare of her country was ever before her, and she ceased not most earnestly to pray for its salvation.

On the 2d of December our Lord appeared to her covered with wounds. u He made me," she says, "hear these sorrowful words : ' The Jews crucified me on Friday; hut the Christians crucify me on Sunday. Ask them in my name, at least for this diocese of Tours, the establishment of the Work of Reparation, in order that my friends may embalm my Wounds by pious expiations and obtain mercy for the guilty. My daughter, the storm is already threatening, but I shall keep my promise if my wishes be accomplished. Speak with humility and at the same time with holy liberty.'"

The storm of which the Saviour spoke was indeed at hand. Two months later it was to burst forth in all its fury. This the Divine Master clearly announced to his servant in a communication of the 13th of February.
"Our Lord," she says, "has made known to me in these words the terrible woes impending over us : ' The Church is threatened with a fearful tempest Pray, pray ! ' It is impossible," she adds, " to describe the touching and impressive accents with which this charitable Saviour said to me, ' Pray, pray!' "

This prediction was, indeed, verified in 1848, in the epoch usually called Days of February ', by an unexpected Revolution which hurled Louis Philippe from his throne, made France a Republic, and shook all Europe, particularly Rome, which Pius IX. was obliged to leave and seek refuge in Gaeta.

The soul of the Sister was in anguish. " Ah!" she cried, " the Lord has long asked of France a Work which would be for her a rainbow of mercy. Happily, the work has been inaugurated, and its influence is being felt; but it is yet too feeble to arrest the wrath of the Omnipotent. Ah! if it were but extended to all the dioceses I should be without uneasiness, for God is faithful to his promises." She adds : " Oh ! how I wish to make known to all the bishops this consoling truth, and entreat them in this great crisis to aid in the "Work of Reparation. I have always said it, and I again repeat it: It is this Work which is to disarm the justice of God and save France and the world! Happy if they know how to profit by this means of salvation !"
" Nothing," she further says, " is more efficacious to disarm the irritated justice of God than to offer him this Most Holy Face, which has taken upon its Head the thorns of our sins, and has exposed itself to the strokes of that same justice. It has cancelled our debts, it is our security ; whence our amiable Saviour has commanded me, notwithstanding my unworthiness, to keep myself constantly before the throne of his Father, offering him this Divine Face, the object of his complacency. And this tender Saviour has made me the consoling promise: ' Every time you offer my Face to my Father I will open my Mouth to demand mercy.'

The good Jesus has also promised to have pity on France. Let us, then, have great confidence; his all-powerful Name will be our buckler, and his Adorable Face our rampart. And he made me also understand that he wished this devotion to his Adorable Face rapidly and widely extended. O good Jesus! hide us in the secret of thy Holy Face, that it may be for us an impregnable tower, a fortress against the attacks of our enemies." One day after Holy Communion our Lord appeared in the interior of her soul as he is represented in the Ecce Homo. "He at first attracted my attention," she says, "'upon the contemplation of his Holy Face. Soon he directed it to the reed he held in his Hand, and presented it to me to combat the enemies of the Church, promising me they would feel my blows.

He made me understand that this feeble reed was the figure of my soul. Yes, I am only a feeble reed, but in the Hand of Jesus Christ, my Spouse, becoming most powerful against his adversaries, I shall say with faith and confidence: "O malice of the demon, vanish before the reed of Jesus Christ!'

"Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Holy Face of Jesus. It is a mysterious coin of infinite value which alone can cancel our debts. Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Holy Face of Jesus to appease thy wrath. Remember it has borne the thorns of our sins, and the blows of thy justice, of which it still bears the marks. Behold those Divine Wounds of whose voice I wish to be the echo; they incessantly cry, ' Mercy, mercy, mercy for sinners !'"
With these words she bowed her face to the earth, saying, " Lord, I merit only hell!" The Good Master answered: " I have applied to your soul the virtue of my Face, to restore therein the image of God. Those who will contemplate the wounds of my Face on earth shall one day contemplate it radiant with glory in heaven."

" At that moment," says the Sister, " I was on Thabor and would fain have repeated with the Apostle St. Peter : ' Lord, it is good to be here. Let us make three tabernacles for the three powers of my soul, that it may always enjoy this sweet repose which infinitely surpasses all the pleasures of earth.' But our Lord made me understand that his true spouses should prefer the heat of combat to the repose of contemplation, and should not shrink from throwing themselves into the conflict to defend his glory."

It was after these divine consolations that Marie de Saint-Pierre composed as by inspiration those beautiful invocations of the " Adorable Face of our Lord" improperly called the "Litany." They are jets of light, cries of love, a kind of spiritual poem to the glorification of the Holy Face, which she is pleased to consider under its different aspects—joyous, sorrowful, glorious, merciful, and terrible. At the end of her writings, in a hymn of thanksgiving, she particularly thanks our Lord "for having made her the gift of his Divine Face, so suitable to appease the justice of the celestial Father, and from which flows a precious Blood which assures us of eternal life." She adds: " O blessed, holy angels ! thank Jesus and Mary for me, who have heaped favors upon me, and draw me to heaven, in order that I may, notwithstanding my unworthiness, sing eternally with you a hymn of gratitude for all the graces I have received from my God, and, above all, for the Work of Reparation which his mercy has established in France."

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 4. Her Revelations On The Holy Face.

OBEYING- the archbishop's counsels, Sister Saint-Pierre began to pray with renewed fervor for greater light regarding the establishment of the Work of Reparation. But it pleased the Divine Master to lead his servant once more through the path of interior trials. She was assailed with fears and doubts; terrible temptations met her at every turn; all sensible consolations were withdrawn; she felt that her soul had lost even sanctifying grace, and in her agony she hardly dared receive Holy Communion. One day, while awaiting the hour of Mass, and hesitating as to whether she should approach the holy table, she thought that this Bread of the Strong would infuse courage. She seized with renewed faith her crucifix, and, recalling to mind that Jesus had said that the Act of Praise called the Golden-Arrow delightfully wounded his Heart, she pronounced this formula ten times in succession and resolved to receive Holy Communion in Reparation for blasphemy. Nothing more was needed to touch the Heart of the Heavenly Spouse. This fervent, loving soul was filled with consolations, and the Mystery of the Sorrowful Face of Christ was suddenly revealed to her. She felt herself transported in spirit to the road to Calvary. "There," she says, "our Lord vividly portrayed to me the pious act of Veronica, who with her veil wiped his most Holy Face, covered with spittle, dust, sweat, and blood. This Divine Saviour made. me understand that the impious at present, by their blasphemies, renewed the outrages formerly inflicted on his Holy Face. All the blasphemies hurled against the Divinity, whom they cannot reach, fall back, like the spittle of the Jews, upon the Face of our Lord, who has offered himself a victim for sinners.

Then he told me I must imitate the zeal of the pious Veronica, who so courageously braved the crowd of his enemies to reach him, and he gave her to me as a protectress and model. By-promoting the Reparation for blasphemy we render him the same service as did this heroic Jewish woman, and he looks upon those who thus act with the same complacency as when he gazed upon her on his way to Calvary." All the purpose of the Reparation is here in the germ. We shall behold it developing in the succeeding revelations. Henceforth the Sister applied herself to rendering homage to the Holy Face. "I believe," she says, " I am under the special protection of the pious Veronica; I am continually occupied in adoring the August and Most Holy Face of the Divine Saviour. This Adorable Face is the mirror of the perfections contained in the Most Holy Name of God." "I comprehended" she says, "that as the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the sensible object offered to our adoration, to represent his boundless love in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar; so in the Work of the Reparation our Lord's Face is the sensible object offered to the adoration of the Associates, to atone for the outrages of blasphemers, who attack the Divinity, of which it is the mirror and expression. By virtue of this Adorable Face presented to the Eternal Father we can appease his just wrath and obtain the conversion of the impious and blasphemers." Our Lord favored his servant with still other lights. He made her comprehend that the Church is his mystical body, and religion the face of that body. u He then showed me," she says, u that this face is to-day a butt for the enemies of, his Holy Name; and I saw, by means of this divine light, that the impious, by wicked words and blasphemy against the Holy Name of God, spit upon the Saviour's Face and cover it with mud; that all the blows given to Holy Church and religion by sectarians are a renewal of the numerous buffets which the Holy Face of our Lord received, and that these wretches, in striving to annul the infinite merits of its sufferings, cause, as it were, the sweat of this Most Holy Face."

"After this vision," continues the Sister, "the Blessed Saviour said to me: 'I seek Veronicas to wipe and honor my Divine Face, which has few adorers.' And he made me understand anew that all who would devote themselves to this Work of the Reparation would thereby perform the office of the pious Veronica. After which he addressed me these words: ' I give you my Face as a recompense for the services you have rendered me. They are slight, it is true; but your heart has conceived great desires. I therefore present you this gift in virtue
of the Holy Ghost, in the presence of my Father, the angels and saints, through the hands of my Most Holy Mother and St. "Veronica, who will teach you in what manner it should be venerated.' He moreover added: 'By my Holy Face you will perform wonders.'" The Sister understood that this precious gift was not for herself alone; that it was to become in the Work of Reparation a distinctive sign and powerful means of action. But this grace was for her, after that of the Sacraments, the greatest she could receive. " Now," added the Lord, "if any do not recognize in this my work, it is because they close their eyes." "Two days after, having taken for the subject of my prayer," the Sister says, "the Betrayal of Judas, I sorrowfully considered the outrage the Face of our Lord had received in the kiss of his perfidious disciple, and it seemed to me that the Divine Master invited me in a spirit of reparation to kiss most fervently the image of his Holy Face. (See Brief of Leo XIII.) After obeying the inspiration I felt that this amiable Saviour willed to instruct me on the excellence of the gift he had presented me in his Adorable Face, and he had the goodness to accommodate himself to the feebleness of my mind by the following simple comparison: ' As in earthly kingdoms' said he, 'one can obtain what he wills with coin stamped .with the king's effigy, so with the precious coin of my Sacred Humility, whose effigy is my Adorable Face, one can obtain in the kingdom of heaven all that he desires.' And he promised me, besides, that all who, by words, prayers, or writings, would defend his cause in this Work of Reparation, he would defend before his Father, and would give them his kingdom."

Succeeding these communications on the Holy Face, Sister Saint-Pierre had the next day an interior light on the same subject, which she expressed in the following prayer:
" Remember, O my Son! the instructions which thy Heavenly Spouse has this day given thee concerning his Adorable Face. Remember that the Divine Head represents the Eternal Father, who is unbegotten; that the mouth of this Holy Face represents the Divine Word, begotten of the Father; the two eyes, the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, for these divine eyes have but one light, one identical knowledge, and produce the one same love which represents the Holy Ghost. Contemplate in his flowing hair the infinite perfections of the Most Blessed Trinity. Behold in this majestic Head, precious portion «of the Sacred Humanity of the Saviour, the image of the Unity of God."

A series of other communications soon came to unfold more clearly these consoling truths. On the 3d of November, in order to show more plainly the propriety of the choice he had made of his Holy Face as the principal object of the Adoration, our Lord declares to Marie de Saint-Pierre that he gives it to her "to be wiped with her homages and perfumed with her praises," and he adds: " According to the care you will take to make reparation to my Face, disfigured by blasphemy, will 1 take of your soul, disfigured by sin. I will reimprint my likeness upon it, and make it as beautiful as when it came forth from the baptismal font. There are men skilled in restoring health to the body, but I alone am the 'healer of souls,' I alone can renew in them the image of God, effaced by sin." Hearing these words, the pious Sister in transports exclaimed: "I salute thee, I adore thee, and I love thee, O Adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble seal of the Divinity. With all the powers of my soul I apply myself to thee, and I most humbly pray thee to imprint in all of us thy image, disfigured by sin." " What a mystery of love !" continued our Carmelite. " Man is invited to repair the outrages made to his God, and in a loving return he promises to restore his image in our souls! Let us, therefore, wipe the august Face of the Saviour, soiled with the spittle of blasphemers, and he will wipe our soul, soiled with the spittle of sin,"

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 3. Her Revelations On The Reparation.

ON" Christmas night of 1843, having obtained the permission of her Superiors, the Sister made, according to the reiterated demands of our Lord, "an act placing all her merits in the hands of the Most Holy Infant Jesus." As a reward she was favored with still more abundant lights and graces. " It seems," she says, " that I hear Jesus from the depths of the tabernacle addressing us these words: ' O ye my friends and faithful children, behold if there be any sorrow like unto mine! My Divine Father and my spouse, the holy Church, the delight of my Heart, are despised and outraged by my enemies. Will no one rise up . to console me by defending them against those who attack them? I can no longer remain in the midst of this ungrateful people. Behold the torrent of tears that flow from my eyes! Can I find none to wipe them away by making reparation to the glory of my Father and imploring the conversion of the guilty ?' Ah!" cries the pious Sister, "if a king, or even his ambassador, be treated with indignity by a foreign power, how quickly the whole nation rushes to arms to avenge the insult! Troops are mustered, and the death of numberless soldiers is accounted as nothing. And yet the holy and terrible Name of the God of hosts, of the King of kings, is despised and blasphemed, his day is profaned by sinners in infinite numbers, and no one is troubled thereat, no one thinks of Reparation. Behold, our Lord Jesus, the Envoy and Son of the God of armies, the Ambassador of the kingdom of heaven, demands a Reparation of honor to his Eternal Father, or war will be declared against us and France will suffer the chastisements of his wrath. "Will we pause to weigh the matter ? Will we hesitate in our choice ?" The Archbishop of Tours, who at that time was Mgr. Morlot, wished to see and examine the*writings of the Carmelite. We say her "writings," because the Mother-Prioress had required her to write all her revelations. The prelate approved in this regard the wisdom of her Superiors, and authorized Rev. Pierre Aileron, Superior of the Carmelites, and at the same time pastor of Notre Dame La Riche, to establish in his parish an Association for the Reparation of Blasphemy. This was on the model of the one in Rome, approved by Gregory XVI. August 8, 1843. Its members were thus enabled to gain the numerous spiritual advantages granted to the Roman association. The permission of Mgr. Morlot is dated March 15, 1844. The association, on being established, took for its patrons St. Michael the Archangel, St. Louis, King of France, and St. Martin. Those that belonged to it were to recite daily a Pater, Ave, Gloria, and the Golden Arrow before mentioned.

This, without doubt, was something— a first step towards the Work of Reparation. But more was required—namely, an archconfraternity similar to that of Our. Lady of Victory for the Conversion of Sinners. The Sister was very sorrowful. They saw her coming from her prayers pale, trembling, and bathed in tears. She continually offered herself in sacrifice to turn away the*divine scourges and obtain the salvation of her country. On learning that the usual prayer of St. Denis was " Give me souls!" she unceasingly repeated it, and begged the Sisters to do the same. In the meantime the Divine Master revealed to her more and more the enormity of blasphemy.

" You cannot understand," He said to her one day, "the malice and abomination of this sin. If my justice were not restrained by my mercy it would instantly crush the guilty, and all creatures, even inanimate ones, would rise up to avenge my outraged honor." " After this," the Sister adds, " he showed me the excellence of the Work of Reparation; how it surpasses all other devotions, is agreeable to God, to the angels, the saints, and is useful to the Church. Ah! if you knew the degree of glory you acquire in making but a single act of Reparation for blasphemy, in saying only once, in the spirit of Reparation, ' Admirable is the Name of God'!"
She again wrote: " This work is within me as a consuming fire. I continually beg our Lord to deign to save France; to establish in all her cities his "Work of Reparation, and to raise up apostolic men for this end. Thou seest, my sweet Jesus, that I, a poor unworthy creature,
can do nothing; vouchsafe, then, to enlighten the heart of him who can render thee this service with the knowledge of all that I suffer."

The Carmelites, forced to leave their monastery, lived for two years in a secular dwelling where cloister enclosure was almost impossible. Sister Saint-Pierre, still in her office . of portress of the interior, had much to suffer. But our Lord, in the very midst of the embarrassments and distractions of her charge, consoled her with new and consoling lights. In her great desire to comfort and strengthen those who came to her with their sorrows, she was inspired to communicate to them the devotion of the Gospel of the Circumcision, and of the Holy Name. Thus she writes of this devotion : " The demon uses all possible means to snatch from our Lord Jesus Christ the inheritance purchased by the cross, and he is ever seeking to rob this Good Shepherd of the lambs obtained at so great a price. To put this ravishing wolf to flight Jesus has made known to me that he wishes his sheep marked with his Holy Name, by bearing on their person the Gospel which announces to all nations that the Incarnate Word was named Jesus. This amiable Saviour has acquainted me with the virtue of his Sacred Name—that it would drive away the demon, and that all those placing themselves under its special protection would receive great graces." Her superiors permitted her to distribute printed sheets of this Gospel on which was stamped an image of the Infant Jesus. To this was added a piece of the palm blessed on Palm Sunday. These sheets were folded and enclosed in a little square sachet, marked upon the outside with the Sacred Heart and the instruments of the Passion. It was to be worn on the person in the same way as a medal attached to a scapular, etc. The pious Carmelite had thus in view the glorification of the Name of Jesus. Numerous graces came to confirm her faith and make her rejoice in the devotion. Every one wished to have these little sachets. On the sheets, beneath the Gospel, these words were inscribed :

" When Jesus was named, Satan, vanquished, was disarmed."

" Our Lord has revealed to me," says the Sister, "how glorious it is to him to have his victory celebrated by these words, for they make the demon tremble with rage; that he will bless all who wear this Gospel, and will defend them against the attacks of Satan. 55 (See p. 202.)
On the 17th of June, 1845, the Divine Master resumed his great design, and encouraged his servant to address the archbishop personally. The prelate very kindly visited the holy Carmelite, whose virtues he held in the highest esteem. Ushered into his presence, she knelt, kissed his feet, and humbly asked him to deign to accomplish the work he had so happily begun in authorizing the Association of Notre Dame La Riche; and she disclosed to him how strongly our Lord had urged her to request the official establishment of the Work of Reparation in the metropolis of Tours, formerly the centre of so many graces for France. In the kindest manner the prelate answered: "" My child, with all my heart I desire to establish the work and give it all necessary and well-deserved publicity; but there are obstacles in the way which are difficult to overcome. It is a hard task for us to incite our people to follow the ordinary practices of piety. Might not the proposal of new and additional devotions provoke the wicked to still greater blasphemy" Nevertheless he reassured her by declaring he saw in her revelations no stamp of illusion, but recognized in them the seal of God; and he exhorted her to still pray and solicit new light on the subject. He permitted her to recite the prayers of Reparation, and some time after accorded permission to have them printed. He also approved of a little book on blasphemy entitled Collection of Prayers, followed by " Little Office of the Holy Name of God," composed by M. Dupont.

"This little book," says the Sister, " authorized by the archbishop, at once became very popular, and by this means in a short time more than twenty-five thousand Prayers of the Reparation were distributed. Tours received numberless applications for them from persons in various cities who wished to propagate this devotion to the Holy Name of God, and everywhere they were recited with the greatest fervor. Our Lord revealed to me that this new harmony appeased his wrath, but that he still wished to have an association established such as he had demanded."

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 2. Her Mission.

IN the Carmelite convent Perrine gratefully felt she was in her proper place. The fire of divine love filled her soul. From the first her companions recognized in her a solid judgment united with a cheerful, equable disposition; she was reserved and very discreet; she shunned all self-seeking and singularity; her modesty, mortification, and obedience were most exemplary. The candor and tranquillity of her face mirrored the innocence and serenity of her soul. A sweet simplicity characterized this elevated nature, as may be judged by the following trait.
On the day of her arrival, during the hour of recreation, she was invited to sing. Without waiting to be urged, she at once began to sing a canticle which, she says, "I had sung in advance while awaiting the fortunate day of my entrance into Carmel; it commences with these words: ' Blessed be God, I am in a refuge.' . . . They were composed of some fifteen stanzas, and I sang them in so joyous a manner that no one thought of interrupting me." The new-comer did not seem disposed to leave one stanza unsung, when suddenly the Mother-Prioress, at first absent, came in. Finding one singing and the others attentively listening, she judged it a fitting opportunity for giving the new postulant her first trial. " Indeed, you have been in a hurry," said she to the latter, "to show off your little talent!" An embarrassing silence followed, which was broken only when the Mother-Prioress turned to the singer and said : " Let us see if you know any more." "Oh! yes, Reverend Mother," she answered; "I have kept the best for you." And without betraying the least annoyance or ill-nature, she began anew. They knew then that the little girl from Brittany, by virtue and temperament, was not one ready to take offence or be easily depressed; that she possessed the cheerfulness which St. Teresa held as one of the proofs of a vocation to Carmel.

Her first interior attraction was a tender devotion to the Divine Infancy of Jesus. " I looked on myself," she says, " as a little servant of the Holy Family, and consecrated myself to them in that capacity." She mentions having still another ambition, which, with a charming candor, she thus explains: " The Reverend Mothers were making their annual retreat, and during that time the postulants and novices took their recreation in the novitiate. One evening during recreation, when we were all collected before a picture of the Holy Family, I proposed to make a little Bethlehem for the Holy Family, each of us to especially consecrate ourselves to serve it in the capacity of that beast of burden which should fall to her lot; for instance, one would represent the ass, another the ox, and so on. The proposal was unanimously adopted.'' The lots were drawn, and, to her great satisfaction, she was chosen to represent the ass of the Infant Jesus. " Thus," she says, "I was his ass in prayer, striving to warm him by my love; and his little servant in my actions, imagining myself in the house of Nazareth, and performing as if for the Holy Family all the daily duties of my state of life."
She was inspired to honor the Infant Jesus each day of the month by meditating, one after another, 'on the different mysteries of this period of his life. Thus the thoughts of the Divine Child followed her in all her actions, and rendered every occupation easy and agreeable.
On the 8th of June, 1841, she made her profession. To the names which she had borne since her novitiate, and which placed her under the protection of the Queen of Angels and the Chief of the Apostles, her devotion for the Holy Family suggested an additional title. Henceforth Perrine Elnere will be known as Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre of the Holy Family.

The Prioress of the Carmelites of Tours at this time was Mother Marie of the Incarnation, a religious as eminent fa' her prudence as for her exalted virtues. She at once employed the newly-professed in different manual labors, and afterwards gave her the office of portress. This office, so contrary to her natural inclinations, was the means Providence used to elevate her to the highest degree of perfection. The pious Sister dreaded its duties, fearing she would not be able to unite with them the spirit of recollection which was so dear to her. Respectfully she made known to the Reverend Mother-Prioress her distaste and fears; notwithstanding which the Mother-Prioress retained her in this employment, and she kept it all her life. This disposition was providential; for thus the humble daughter of the cloister in the performance of her duties frequently found herself in relation with pious secular persons who later on were not slow to aid her in her Work of the Reparation.

This mission, for which, during the four years she had been in the convent, grace was secretly preparing her, was to be conferred on her by our Lord himself. It was the 26th of August, 1843, the day after the Feast of Saint Louis, King of France; in the evening the Sister was meditating at the foot of the cross, when the Saviour said to her:
"I have heard your sighs; I have seen the desire you have to glorify me. My Name is everywhere blasphemed; even the children blaspheme! This frightful sin more deeply than all others wounds my Divine Heart, by blasphemy the sinner scorns me to my face, openly attacks me, annihilates my Redemption, and pronounces his own condemnation and judgment. Blasphemy is an impoisoned arrow which wounds my Heart continually. 1 will give you a Golden Arrow, that with the delicious wounds of love you may heal the wounds of malice which sinners give me" And lie dictated to her the following formula:

"May the most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible, and most ineffable Name of God be praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified in heaven, on earth, and in hell, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen."

Such was the Golden Arrow that the Lord gave to his servant, assuring her that every time she repeated this formula of praise she would wound his Heart with a wound of love. "Be watchful of this favor," said he to her; "I shall ask of you an account of it." At that moment it seemed she beheld issuing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded by this arrow, torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners, which inspired her .with confidence to say: " My Lord, dost thou then give me charge of blasphemers ?" She did not fail to make known all this to the Mother-Prioress, who, being as prudent as she was experienced, wished to prove and assure herself it was not an illusion. She consulted pious and learned ecclesiastics, and closely watched the conduct of the Sister. Far from encouraging her in this extraordinary way, she endeavored to turn her from it. She even forbade her to recite certain prayers which had been recommended. But several incidents which she could not but look upon as miraculous—among them her own cure, obtained by the prayers of the Sister in accordance with the order of our Lord, and in the manner he himself willed—decided her to relax her severity towards her and to permit her at least to say the prayers of Separation.

Our Lord continued to reiterate his orders to his servant. The poor Sister would sometimes exclaim: " Ah! if the Divine Master could suffer bitterness, he would be sorrowful unto death on beholding men, instead of making up for their insufficiency by uniting themselves to him and thus glorifying our Heavenly Father, continually blaspheming his holy Name and united with Lucifer and his reprobates. How satisfied, on the contrary, he would feel to see at least a few faithful and grateful children joined to him to love and bless the Name of that Father whom he so tenderly loves!"

This view of the question brought her to make a heroic act of entire abandonment. "I feel myself," she says, "interiorly urged to make to God the sacrifice of my whole being and all the merits which I can acquire." But she submissively awaited the consent of her Prioress.
On the festival of St. John of the Cross, one of the patrons of Carmel, our Lord made his spouse hear these momentous words: " Till now I have only shown you in part the designs of my Heart, but today I wish to show you them in their entirety. The earth is covered with crimes. The violation of the first three Commandments of God has irritated my Father y the holy Name of God blasphemed, and the holy day of the Lord profaned, fill the measure of iniquities. These sins have mounted to the throne of God and provoked his wrath, which will soon burst forth if his justice is not appeased. At no time have these crimes ascended so high. I desire, with an ardent desire, that there be formed an association, well approved and organized, to honor the Name of my Father" Here the object of the Work of Reparation is clearly indicated: it is to repair the violation of the first three precepts of the Decalogue, which include all crimes that have a special character of hostility against God and the profanation of the Lord's day.

Amazed and confused, the humble .daughter of Carmel hesitated. But our Lord said to her: " Take good care; for if, wanting in simplicity, you put obstacles to my designs, you will be responsible for the salvation of many souls; if, on the contrary, you are faithful, they will embellish your crown." In conclusion lie said: " And to whom should I address myself, if not to a Carmelite, whose very vocation enjoins on her the duty of unceasingly glorifying my Name?"

Thirteen days after, on the eve of the Immaculate Conception (7th of December), the Blessed Saviour returned to the same subject, and this time the culpable nation is named. He made the Sister see how greatly he was incensed against France on account of her blasphemies. " He has declared to me," she says, " that he cannot longer dwell in this France, which, like a viper, tears the bowels of his mercy. He still patiently bears the contempt shown himself, but the outrages committed against his Eternal Father provoke his wrath. France has sucked unto blood the paps of his mercy; this is why justice will now take the place of mercy, and his wrath burst forth with greater fury for having been longer delayed. Filled with terror, I tremblingly said: ' My Lord, permit me to ask if this Reparation which thou desirest be made, wilt thou yet pardon France ?' He answered me: ' I will pardon her once more; but, mark well, once. As this crime of blasphemy extends over the whole kingdom, and as it is public, so also must the Reparation be public and extend to all her cities. Woe to those who will not make this Reparation!'"

What Frenchman's heart could hear unmoved warnings so severe, so solemn ? The reproach, alas! is but too well merited, for the crime is evident and incontestable. Everywhere among us do we hear incessantly uttered with impunity that blasphemy designated by our Lord to his servant as a frightful sin. France is pronounced the most guilty of all nations, because she is the most highly favored by Heaven, the most loved of Christ, and the eldest daughter of the Church. Having become in Europe the principal centre of the spirit of revolution by the practical atheism she professes in her laws and government, she exerts in regard to blasphemy a kind of universal proselytism, as baneful to individuals as it is to society. Is it astonishing, then, that she is especially threatened with the strokes of Divine Justice? After receiving this communication Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, as we learn from one of the other Carmelites, came from the choir in a state difficult to describe. She was deathly pale and bathed in tears; her countenance, usually so cheerful, bore an impress of suffering which it long retained. She appeared as if crushed, annihilated beneath the weight of divine wrath.
In the midst of her anguish a great consolation was vouchsafed her. She learned that the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XVI., had, by a brief dated August 8, 1843, permitted the establishment of pious Confraternities for the Extirpation of Blasphemy. "I no longer doubted," she says, "that the work entrusted to me came from God. What particularly struck me and awakened my admiration was the following happy coincidence in this manifestation of Divine Providence: On the 8th of August the Sovereign Pontiff issued Ms brief at Rome, and on the 26th of the same month, and in the same year, the day after the festival of Saint Louis, our Lord revealed to an obscure little Carmelite this great Work in Reparation for blasphemy with which he wished to enrich France as a means of salvation, to snatch her from the hands of his offended and irritated justice."

Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of reparation : a brief history by the Very Rev. P. Janvier ... Translated by Miss Mary Hoffman Chapter 1. Her Youth

IT is to Catholic Brittany, strong in faith and great in heroic virtues, that we are indebted for having given us Marie de Saint-Pierre. She was born at Rennes on the 4th of October, 1816. At her baptism she was given the same patrons as her father and mother— St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and St. Francis of Assisium : Frangoise-Perrine being derivatives of these names. Her father, Pierre Elnere, was a locksmith by profession. He married Francoise Portier, who bore him twelve children. This couple were fervent Christians. The father daily assisted at Mass, every evening visited the Blessed Sacrament, and during the day still found time to pray. He early taught his little daughter the practice of the Way of the Cross, and the mother instilled in her a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Little Perrine was often sick and had a disposition difficult to manage. But, thanks to the guidance of her pious parents, she early learned to govern it and to overcome her faults. From childhood she had a deep abhorrence of sin, and bitterly reproached herself for the slightest imperfections. Her eldest sister, finding her one day in tears, asked her the cause of them. "I weep for my sins," she artlessly answered.

Another day a poor blind man, miserably dressed, passed before the house. He had lost his way, and paused at the corner of the street, waiting for some charitable hand to set him right. A secret instinct warned the child that here was an occasion to curb her pride and self-love. Suddenly darting out, she took his arm, and, giving him her hand, she led him whither he wished to go. Whenever anything disagreeable happened to her she checked her impatience, saying : " My God ? I offer thee this in expiation for my sins." She had such a dread of evil that, having at the age of eight years an uneasiness respecting a little story-book that had been loaned to her, she carried it to her parish priest and asked his advice. When she learned from him that, without being bad, it was a frivolous book, she immediately returned it without having read the first page. The remembrance of the sufferings of our Lord deeply affected her. She thought her sins the cause of his sorrows and pains; confused and contrite, she would say: " O my Saviour! didst thou see even then, during your Passion, that I would one day be converted and belong entirely to thee?" She often made the Way of the Cross, kissing the earth at each Station. But her chief attraction was mental prayer. At first, not knowing the method, she recited her prayers with great attention, waiting till God should make known to her this holy exercise. She had not long to wait. When she was but ten years old she heard a sermon on the subject which shed a bright light on her mind and heart, and soon made her proficient in this science of the saints.

At twelve years of age she lost her mother. Like St. Teresa at the same age and under similar circumstances, she ran in her wild grief to Mary, threw herself at her feet, and implored her to be a mother to her in the place of the one that had been taken from her. The Queen of Heaven adopted, in fact, this innocent soul, and gave her through all her life sensible proofs of her maternal care. As her father was burdened with a large family, he confided her to the care of two aunts, who were persons of great piety. They kept a large store for the sale of seamstresses' work, and had a number of young women in their employ. There Perrine made new progress in virtue, was a model to her companions, and even to several of them became a preceptress of the Interior Life, striving to make them love and practise mental prayer, in order to be more united to God. She seized every opportunity of devoting herself to works of mercy, such as succoring the poor and visiting and assisting the dying. Near to Mr. Elnere's house a poor family came to live, consisting of three members—the father (a day-laborer), his blind wife, and a little boy four or five years old. The young girl looked upon them as the image of the Holy Family of Bethlehem. She conceived for them a great affection, and 6pared no care to relieve their poverty; she often visited them, instructed them in their religion, made them approach the Sacraments, and, when there was any disturbance, restored peace in the household. Soon after she devoted herself to nursing a poor young woman, who died in her arms. Receiving her last sigh, she hesitated not with her own hands to prepare her for burial, notwithstanding the fear she had of death, and to which she had never before been in such close proximity.

For a moment, however, this soul so pure was on the point of being seduced by the frivolities of the world. She at first relaxed her fervor and had the misfortune to make a few concessions to vanity. God, in love and mercy, punished her. Pressed by remorse, and having, as a member of the confraternity, to prepare herself for a festival of the Blessed Virgin, she undertook to make a good and serious retreat. She then felt the interior workings of grace, and came forth from these exercises completely changed, resolved more than ever to live for God alone. The desire for a religious life which she had already experienced developed itself strongly in her heart. It was the sole object of her thoughts, of her burning desires. For this end she imposed fasts on herself and made pilgrimages in honor of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. She also addressed herself to St. Martin, the illustrious Bishop of Tours, for whom she had a great devotion, supplicating him to receive her as a religious in his diocese, though she did not then know that any Carmelites were there.

Still she was agitated by perplexities. Her confessor, who was a man of God, wished to test her vocation. For five years he made her undergo numerous and painful humiliations. At the end of this time she was inspired to make a pilgrimage to a celebrated chapel of the Holy Virgin in the vicinity of Rennes—Our Lady of La Peiniere. There she clearly perceived that God called her to serve him by the practice of religious vows. All her yearnings drew her towards Carmel, while her confessor appeared desirous she should enter the order of the Hospital Sisters. But as she was returning from her pilgrimage our Lord, after Holy Communion, made her interiorly hear these words: " My daughter, I love you too much to abandon you longer to your perplexities. You will not he a Hospitaliere, hut a Carmelite" The interior voice repeated this several times, "You will he a Carmelite ", and she believed the last time was added, " Carmelite at Tours" In the meantime her confessor, without informing her of the fact, had proposed her as an applicant. Therefore what was her astonishment and joy when she heard him say: " My daughter, you are received among the Carmelites " ! She left Rennes on the 11th of November, 1839, under the auspices of St. Martin, whom she had not uselessly invoked. Her virtuous father accompanied and presented her himself. She was then twenty-three years of age.

The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Part 1.

The Holy Face, or Veronica, is one of the three great, remarkable and very holy relics which the patriarchal Basilica of St. Peter of the Vatican preserves with a jealous care, and which have been in every age of the Church, the object of the veneration of the faithful. The Veronica, is a veil, or handkerchief, on which is impressed the true likeness of the adorable face of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, miraculously imprinted, not produced by artificial colours, but by the divine power of God the Son made Man.

These precious relics are preserved in an oratory situated in the interior of one of the four large pentagonal pillars, which support the magnificent cupola, at the epistle side of the papal altar. Paul V. placed the Holy Face there in 1606, and Urban VIII., the holy Lance in 1625, and the wood of the true Cross in 1629.

From a constant tradition, which is founded on the most authentic documents, we are informed, that whilst our Saviour was on the painful journey to Calvary, loaded with the heavy wood of the cross, the altar on which He was to sacrifice His life for the redemption of mankind, a holy woman, moved by compassion, presented Him a handkerchief, or towel, to wipe His face, all covered with sweat, spittle, dust, and blood; and that Jesus, having used it, gave it back to her, having impressed on it His majestic and venerable image, so full of the deep sorrow into which He was then plunged by the weight of the sins of the world.
It is for this reason, that this holy woman is usually represented near our Saviour, holding in her hands the Holy Face, as may be seen in the sixth station of the holy way of the cross.

The learned Piazza, in his work entitled, "Emerologio di Roma," which was published in 1718, relates this pious tradition on the feast of St. Veronica, the 4th of February. St. Veronica, a noble lady of Jerusalem, lived about the year 88 of the Christian era, during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. It is believed that she is the woman that was cured of the bloody flux by our Lord, and whom Baronius calls Berenicia, being called Veronica, from the circumstance of her having possessed the blessed relic of the Holy Face. After Jesus had left the house of Pilate, and was on His way to Calvary to be put to death, being all covered with blood from the scourges which He had received, and the wounds of His blessed temples, which were caused by the crown of sharp thorns; after having gone 450 steps, He came near to a house which formed an angle, where, Veronica seeing Him approach in the distance, through compassion, went to meet Him, and, taking the veil from off her head, presented it to Him to wipe His face, all covered with sweat and blood. Our Lord benignly received it from her hands, having wiped His face with it, returned it to her with the impress of His Holy Face printed on it. (Brev. Ambr. Petr. in Catal) A gracious acknowledgment, but with a resemblance so natural, that the marks of the fingers of the cruel man who had given Him the sacrilegious blow, are quite visible. Veronica, full of joy at possessing so precious a treasure, piously cared it till the arrival at Jerusalem, from Rome, of the ambassadors whom Tiberius on being informed by Pilate of the great number of miracles which Jesus had performed, had sent in the hope that he likewise might be cured of a malady with which he was afflicted. When the envoys of the Emperor arrived, they found that Jesus had been crucified, and heard from the Jews the fable of His disciples stealing His body, and pretending that it had arisen, but Veronica undeceived them by showing them the towel with the Holy Face of our Lord impressed upon it. She promised to accompany them to Home, and likewise told them that at the eight of the holy relic the Emperor would be cured. Having placed the Holy Face in a case, or shrine, she set out with the ambassadors for Rome, where, having presented it to the Emperor, he was instantly cured.

This is why Tiberius wished to honour Jesus Christ by placing a statue to Him in the Lararium, or chapel, where the Romans kept their household gods ; but the Roman Senate would not allow it, ''on the principle" says Baronius, " that they would not give that worship to a mortal which was due to a god." 1

Cardinal Baronius, in his "Ecclesiastical Annals" 2 of the year of our Lord, 34, after he had spoken of the shroud which enveloped the head of our Saviour in the sepulchre, said, "Now, this shroud is different from that which Berenicia gave our Blessed Redeemer to wipe His Face all covered with sweat and blood, and on which remained the impress of His adorable Face, according to the tradition of the Christians, and testimony of an ancient manuscript 3 which is preserved in the Vatican library, and that mentions it was brought to Rome." Bishop Methodius, an ancient chronographer, speaks of this Berenicia, likewise called Veronica, and of the image of our Saviour impressed on the veil.

Very many writers testify the truth of this fact, authenticated by a perpetual and uninterrupted tradition; we will quote some in the course of this notice. We will content ourselves to cite in this place what the learned Bishop of Samelli affirms in his " Letters on ecclesiastical subjects that all the writers on the Holy Land, and especially Adricomio, say that the house of Veronica was situated on the same route on which Jesus went to Calvary, and that everything occurred that we have already related.

Although the act attributed to Veronica may appear to us somewhat extraordinary, we are, however, less astonished when we know that a custom prevailed among the Jewish women of wearing on the head or neck a veil of linen or cotton, which they presented to persons as a mark of friendship, when they saw their face covered with sweat or bathed in tears. Such is, in effect, the primary meaning of the word suaire, which Bergier thus defines in his theological dictionary : " A handkerchief or linen, used to wipe the face." Veronica not only conformed to the received custom of her nation, hut she had to hrave the fury of the cruel soldiers, and also the wicked treatment of the violent and bloodthirsty populace. But she merited by her devotion to Him, in having His sacred image impressed on her handkerchief, as a mark of eternal love; this is why the heroic action of this woman will be glorified in every age, and pious souls will not cease to bless her for this service and this honour rendered to Jesus in His dolorous agony.

Valerius Maximus speaks of another Berenicia, which Pliny calls Pherenicia, who, by an exceptional favour, was allowed to be present at the Olympic games, which was not allowed to other women. But far greater and still more exalted was the glory given to our Berenicia, by the image of the Holy Pace being impressed on her handkerchief by our Saviour. The prize obtained by the conquerors at the Olympic games, was a laurel crown; for Berenicia, the highest glory was a head crowned with thorns; it is for this reason, that the hymn composed in honour of Holy Face, by Pope John XXII., who was created Sovereign Pontiff at Avignon in 1316, says—

"Salve, sancta Facies nostri Redemptoris, 

In qua nitet species divini decoris 

Impressa panniculo nivei candoris 

Dataque Veronicæ signum ob amoris."

Hail! O Blessed Face of our Redeemer, 

Face pure, where shines celestial splendour 

Upon linen white divinely impress'd, 

A pledge of love to Veronica blest.

As we have seen in. the touching relation of Piazza, it is generally believed, that St. Veronica is no other than the woman cared of the bloody flux by our Saviour. In an historical manuscript in the Grecian language, translated into Latin by P. Combefis, and printed at Paris in 1664, we read: "That the woman's name was Berenicia, who was cured by our Saviour of the bloody flux; to which the learned Sarnelli adds: "As to the name, Berenicia, which we call Veronica, it means the same person whom people honour and invoke in all sickness from the flow of blood, in very many places in France." Although, in changing the name, instead of Berenicia, or Veronica, they say in some places, Venizia. in others, Veniza, it is evident from the paintings, that this is the very same saint, for she is always represented as having at "her side the towel, or handkerchief, on which is represented the Holy Face, as a distinctive mark, as Bollandas truly observes in his " Historical Commentaries of St. Veronica."

1 It appears that the senate was angry because Pilate sent the account of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ to the Emperor Tiberias, and not to them, as was customary. It is likewise certain that the governors of provinces wrote directly to the emperor on great and urgent occasions.

2 Translated by Pierre Coppin, D.D., Cure of Notre Dame du Vailes, Paris.

3 Alveri, in his ,c Roma in ogni Stalo," vol. ii., page 210, gives us the history of Veronica, taken from an ancient manuscript of Nicholas Signorile, inscribed in the Vatican library, No. 3351.

Prayers Of Monsieur Dupont, "The Holy Man Of Tours"

O my Saviour. Jesus, at the sight of Thy most Holy Face disfigured by suffering, at the sight of Thy most Sacred Heart, so full of love, I cry with St. Augustine: “Lord Jesus, imprint on my heart Thy sacred wounds, so that I may read therein sorrow and love; sorrow, to endure every sorrow for Thee; love, to despise every love for Thee.”
“O adorable Face of my Jesus, so mercifully bowed upon the tree of the Cross on the day of Thy Passion, for the salvation of men, now inclined in Thy pity towards us, poor sinners; cast upon us a look of compassion, and receive us to the kiss of peace. Amen”
“O Lord Jesus Christ, in presenting ourselves before Thy adorable Face, to beg of Thee the graces we most need, we beseech Thee, to give us above all things the disposition of never refusing at any time to do what Thou requirest of us by Thy commandments and divine inspirations. Amen.”

“Be merciful to us, O my God, and reject not our prayers when we call on Thy Name in the midst of our afflictions, and seek Thy adorable Face with loving hearts. Amen.”
“O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Thy Son, Jesus. We present it to Thee with confidence to implore Thy pardon. The All-Merciful Advocate opens His Mouth to plead our cause: hearken to His voice, behold His tears, O God, and, through His infinite merits, listen to Him when He intercedes for us, poor sinners. Amen.”

“May I die consumed by an ardent thirst to see the adorable Face of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!” (ST. EDMUND).

(Towards the end of his life Monsieur Dupont very often repeated this prayer.)

AN ACT OF REPARATION FOR ALL THE OUTRAGES JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED IN HIS HOLY FACE FOR OUR PERSONAL SINS

I adore and praise Thee, O Divine Jesus, Son of the Living God; I desire to make reparation for all the outrages Thou hast endured for me, the most miserable of Thy creatures, in all the members of Thy Blessed Body, and particularly in Thy adorable Face, disfigured by blows and defiled by spittle, and hardly to he recognised through the cruel treatment which Thou didst receive from the impious Jews. I salute Thee, O blessed Eyes, all bathed in tears for my salvation. I salute Thee, O blessed Ears, assailed by insults, blasphemies and cruel mockeries. I salute Thee, O blessed Mouth, filled with graces and tenderness for us sinners, but embittered with vinegar and gall by the monstrous ingratitude of that people, whom Thou didst choose, from among all others. In reparation for all these ignominies I offer Thee all the homage which is given Thee in that holy place, where Thou art pleased to be honoured with a special worship, uniting myself thereto Amen.

(Abridged from the History of the Holy Face of our Saviour preserved in the cathedral at Laon.)

O most Holy Face of God made Man, battered, bruised and defiled for my sins in Thy Passion. O Holy Face, which I myself have injured with more malice, more knowledge, more ingratitude than the soldiery of Pilate. Behold me kneeling before Thee in abject penitence and adoration, and by my veneration of Thy Holy Face and my faithful service, I desire to consecrate myself like Veronica to the work of repairing, as far as is in my power, the injuries beyond number which I and all mankind have inflicted on Thy Holy Face. Amen.

Blessed for ever be the holy Face of Jesus, our consolation on earth and our joy in heaven

PRAYER OF POPE PIUS IX TO THE HOLY FACE

O my Jesus, cast a look of mercy on us: turn Thy Face towards each of us, as Thou didst to Veronica. not that we may see it with our bodily eyes, for this we do not deserve, but turn it towards our hearts, so that remembering Thee, we may ever draw from this fountain of strength the vigour necessary to bear the combats of life. Amen.

Devotion To The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ compiled by a member of The Ursuline Community, Blackrock, Cork. Part 6.

TO THE HOLY FACE

Ah, awful Face of Love, bruised by my hand. Turn to me, pierce me with Thine Eyes of flame, And give me deeper knowledge of my sin: So let me grieve, and when I understand How great my guilt, my ruin and my shame, Open Thy Sacred Heart. and let me in!

REV. HUGH R. BENSON.

Devotion To The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ compiled by a member of The Ursuline Community, Blackrock, Cork. Part 5.

INVOCATIONS TO THE HOLY FACE IN REPARATION FOR BLASPHEMIES AND FOR THE CONVERSION OF BLASPHEMERS

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us,

Christ, hear us.
Christ. graciously hear us.
Holy Mary pray for us.
O adorable Face, which was adored with profound respect by Mary and Joseph, when they saw Thee for the first time, pray for us

O adorable Face, which in the stable of Bethlehem didst ravish with joy the Angels, the Shepherds and the Magi, pray for us
O adorable Face, which in the Temple didst transpierce with a dart of love the saintly old man and the prophetess Anna, etc.
O adorable Face, which was bathed in tears in Thy holy Infancy,
O adorable Face, which, when Thou wert twelve years old, didst appear in the Temple, and fill the doctors of the Law with admiration,
O adorable Face, white with purity and ruddy with charity,
O adorable Face, more beautiful than the sun, lovelier than the moon, 

more brilliant than the stars,
O adorable Face, fresher than the roses of summer,
O adorable Face, more precious than gold, silver and diamonds,
O adorable Face, whose charms are so ravishing and whose grace is so attractive,
O adorable Face, whose every feature is marked by nobility, contemplated by the angels.
O adorable Face, sweet delectation of the saints.
O adorable Face, Masterpiece of the Holy Ghost, in which the Eternal Father is well pleased.
O adorable Face, delight of Mary and Joseph,

O adorable Face, ineffable mirror of the divine perfections,
O adorable Face, whose beauty is ever ancient and ever new,
O adorable Face, which appeaseth the wrath of God,
O adorable Face, which makest the devils tremble,
O adorable Face, treasure of all grace and blessing,
O adorable Face, exposed in the desert to the inclemency of the weather,
O adorable Face, scorched by the heat of the sun, and bathed in sweat on Thy journeys,
O adorable Face, whose expression is wholly divine, pray for us
O adorable Face, whose modesty and sweetness attracted both just and sinners, etc.
O adorable Face, which blessed and kissed the little children.
O adorable Face, troubled and weeping at the grave of Lazarus,
O adorable Face, brilliant as the sun and radiant with glory on Mount Thabor,
O adorable Face, sad at the sight of Jerusalem and shedding tears over the ungrateful city.
O adorable Face, bowed to the earth in the garden of Olives, 

and covered with shame at the sight of our sins,
O adorable Face, bathed in a bloody sweat.
O adorable Face, kissed by the traitor Judas,
O adorable Face, whose sanctity and majesty smote the soldiers with fear and cast them to the ground,
O adorable Face, struck by a vile servant, shamefully blind-folded and profaned by the sacrilegious hands of Thy enemies,
O adorable Face, defiled with spittle, and bruised with innumerable buffets and blows.
O adorable Face, whose divine look wounded Peter’s heart with a dart of sorrow and love.
O adorable Face, humbled for us at the tribunals of Jerusalem,
O adorable Face, which didst preserve Thy serenity when Pilate pronounced the fatal sentence.
O adorable Face, covered with sweat and blood, and falling in the mire under the weight of the Cross,
O adorable Face, worthy of our respect, veneration and devotion,
O adorable Face, wiped by a pious woman on the road to Calvary,
O adorable Face, raised up on the Cross.
O adorable Face, whose brow was crowned with thorns,
O adorable Face, whose Eyes were filled with blood,
O adorable Face, into whose Mouth was poured vinegar and gall, pray for us
O adorable Face, whose Hair and Beard were torn out by the executioners, etc.
O adorable Face, which was made to look like the face of a leper.
O adorable Face, whose incomparable beauty was obscured under the dreadful cloud of the sins of the world,
O adorable Face, covered with the shades of death.
O adorable Face, washed and anointed by Mary and the holy women and then wrapped in a shroud, enclosed in the sepulchre.
O adorable Face, all resplendent with glory and beauty on the day of the Resurrection,
O adorable Face, all dazzling with light at the moment of Ascension,
O adorable Face, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament,
O adorable Face, which will appear with great majesty in the clouds of heaven at the end of the world O adorable Face, which will cause sinners to tremble, which will fill the Just with joy for all eternity,
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Have merry on us. O Lord.

I salute Thee, I adore Thee, and I love Thee, O adorable Face of Jesus, my Beloved, noble seal of the Divinity; with all the powers of my soul, I apply myself to Thee and most humbly pray Thee to imprint the features of Thy Divine likeness on my heart. Amen.

Devotion To The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ compiled by a member of The Ursuline Community, Blackrock, Cork. Part 4.

ST. VERONICA AND THE AUTHENTIC PICTURE OF THE HOLY FACE

In some popular manuals of devotion we read that Veronica was the name of the image of the Holy Face imprinted on the veil, and that no such saint as she ever existed at the time of the Passion. This is a mistake. The best authorities prove beyond doubt that Veronica was the name of the woman who, through pity, gave Him the veil to wipe His Face. Many learned authors think that she was also the woman cured by Jesus, by touching the “hem of His garment.” Full of gratitude for this miracle, she followed His footsteps with Our Lady, Magdalen and the other holy women, and watched every stage of the Passion.
Father Ventura writes : “It is probable that she who received the distinguished favour from Our Lord of wiping with her own hands the sweat and blood from His Face, is the same who touched His garment with heroic faith, and, in doing so, rendered a most beautiful testimony to His Divinity.”
Piazza, a learned writer, describes it thus: “After Jesus had left the Praetorium, laden with His cross and covered with blood, which issued from the wounds received during the Scourging and Crowning with thorns, and gone four hundred and fifty steps on the road to Calvary, He approached a house that stood at the corner of the street. Veronica, then seeing Him from afar, came full of pity to meet Him, and, having removed the veil she wore on her head, she gave it to Him that He might use it to wipe His Holy Face, all bathed as it was with blood and sweat. Christ, having benignantly received it, gave it back to her, when He had used it, leaving upon it, as a gracious recompense, the impress of His Holy Face. The resemblance is so complete that it is even possible to perceive the mark made by the hand that dealt Him the sacrilegious blow. Rejoicing over so precious a treasure, the illustrious lady preserved it in her house with jealous care.”
Veronica is said to have given the precious relic to Pope Clement, the third successor to St. Peter. Like all the other sacred relics, the Veil was preserved for centuries with the greatest care and reverence, as well as the greatest secrecy. That Veronica herself conveyed the relic to Rome is the unanimous opinion of all holy writers on the subject. The learned Pope Benedict XIV writes: “In the Basilica of the Vatican, in addition to the Spear and Lance, is also preserved and greatly venerated the Sudarium, which has perfectly kept, and still keeps, the impression of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, bathed in sweat and blood.”
Dante, in his immortal poem, meets Veronica in Paradise, and, seeing the Veil, exclaims with admiration: “Oh! my Lord. Jesus Christ True God, it is thus then that Thy Holy Face has been preserved.”
Piazza, who wrote in 1713, describes the Holy Face thus: “The Head of Christ is everywhere transpierced with thorns. The Forehead is bleeding, the Eyes swollen and bloodshot, the Face pale and livid. Upon the right Cheek the cruel mark of the blow given by Malchus, with his iron gauntlet, sorrowfully attracts attention, the same as the spittle of the Jews and the stains on the left Cheek. The Nose is flattened and bleeding; the Mouth open and filled with blood; the Beard torn in several places, and the Hair is also torn on one side.”
The facsimile of the Holy Face sent from Rome corresponds with the above description.
For a long time it was forbidden, under pain of excommunication, to produce copies of the Holy Face. Since 1848, under the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, authorised copies have been printed on linen, cotton or silk. They are impressed with a seal, which is a guarantee that they are authentic and are true copies of the real Holy Face. They have also touched the Lance and Spear and the Wood of the True Cross. It may be added, the copies marked with the seal have the same privileges as the miraculous Holy Face itself.
We know from the writings of the saints that all through the centuries devotion to the Holy Face of Our Lord was practised in the Church. But it was in the middle of the last century that a fresh impetus was given to it.
Extract from Cardinal Newman’s “Meditations on Christian Doctrine” . . . I see the figure of a man, whether young or old I cannot tell. He may be fifty, or He may be thirty. Sometimes He looks one, sometimes the other. There is something inexpressible about His Face which I cannot solve. Perhaps, as He bears all burdens. He bears that of old age also. But so it is: His Face is at once most venerable and most child-like, most calm, most sweet, most modest, beaming with sanctity and with loving kindness. His eyes rivet me and move my heart: His breath is all-fragrant and transports me out of myself. Oh! I will look upon that Face for ever and will not cease!
And I see suddenly someone come to Him. and raise his hand and sharply strike Him on that heavenly Face. It is a hard hand, the hand of a rude man, and perhaps has iron on it. It could not be so sudden as to take Him by surprise, who knows all things past and future, and He shows no sign of resentment, remaining calm and grave as before; but the expression of His Face is marred : a great weal arises, and in a little while that all-gracious Face is hid from me by the effects of this indignity, as if a cloud came over it.
A hand was lifted against the Face of Christ. Whose hand was that? My conscience tells me: “Thou art the man.” I trust it is not so with me now. But, O my soul, contemplate the awful fact. Fancy Christ before thee, and fancy thyself lifting thy hand, and striking Him! Thou wilt say: “It is impossible: I could not do so!” Yes, thou hast done so. When thou didst sin wilfully. then thou hast done so. He is beyond pain now: still, thou hast struck Him, and, had it been in the days of His flesh, He would have felt the pain. Turn back in memory. and recollect the time, the day, the hour, when, by wilful mortal sin, by scoffing at sacred things, or by profaneness, or by acts of impurity, or by deliberate rejection of God’s voice, or in any other devilish way known to thee, thou hast struck the All-Holy One!
O injured Lord, what can I say? I am very guilty concerning Thee, my Brother: and I shall sink in sullen despair if Thou dost not raise me up. I cannot look upon Thee: I shrink from Thee: I throw my arms around my face: I crouch to the earth. Satan will pull me down, if Thou take not pity. It is terrible to turn to Thee: but, O, turn Thou to me, and so shall I be turned to Thee. It is a purgatory to endure the sight of Thee, the sight of myself-I, most vile-Thou, most holy. Yet, make me look once more on Thee, whom I have so incomprehensibly affronted, for Thy Countenance is my life; my only hope and health lies in looking on Thee, whom I have pierced. So I put myself before Thee: I look on Thee again: I endure the pain in order to the purification.
O my God, how can I look Thee in the Face when I think of my ingratitude, so deeply seated, so habitual, so immovable-or rather so awfully increasing? Thou loadest me day by day with Thy favours, and feedest me with Thyself, as Thou didst Judas, yet. not only do I not profit thereby, but I do not even make any acknowledgment at the time. Lord, how long? When shall I be free from this real, this fatal, captivity? He who made Judas his prey has got hold of me in my old age, and I cannot get loose. It is the same, day after day. When wilt Thou give me a still greater grace than Thou hast given me-the grace to profit by the graces which Thou givest? When wilt Thou give me Thy effectual grace, which alone can give life and vigour to this effete, miserable, dying soul of mine? My God, I know not in what sense I can pain Thee in Thy glorified state; but I know that every fresh sin, every fresh ingratitude I now commit, was among the blows and stripes which once fell on Thee in Thy Passion. O, let me have as little a share in those Thy past sufferings as possible. Day by day goes, and I find I have been more and more, by the new sins of each day, the cause of them. I know that, at best, I have a real share in solido of them all, but still it is shocking to find myself having a greater and greater share. Let others wound Thee, let not me! Let me not have to think that Thou wouldst have had this or that pang of soul the less, except for me. O my God, I am so fast in prison that I cannot get out. O Mary, pray for me.