Saturday, June 12, 2010

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: Joy and Thanksgiving

To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon
May 2, 1683 (23)

"My soul is filled with such great consolation, dear Mother, that I can hardly stand it. Let me pour some of it into your heart so that mine, which hardly ever leaves the Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, may be relieved. This morning, Good Shepherd Sunday (May 2nd, 1683), when I awoke, two of my good friends suffering in Purgatory came to bid me goodbye.

"This was to be the day on which the Sovereign Shepherd would receive them into His eternal fold and, accompanied by more than a million others, they were taken up midst songs of inexpressible joy.

"One of them is good Mother Monthoux (died February 5, 1683), the other my dear Sister Jeanne Catherine Gacon (died January 18th, 1683) who repeated to me over and over again these words: "Love triumphs, love enjoys, love rejoices in her God." The other said "How happy are the dead who die in the Lord, and religious who live and die in the exact observance of their rule!"

"They want me to tell you for them death can indeed separate friends but not destroy their union. This message is from good Mother Monthoux. Sister Jeanne Catherine will be as good a daughter to you in Heaven as you have been a good Mother to her on earth.

"If only you knew how my soul was transported with joy! While I was still speaking to them I saw them gradually lost and as it were swallowed up in glory. They wish you to say in thanksgiving to the Blessed Trinity, A Te Deum, a Laudate, and a Gloria Patri five times. As I was begging them not to forget us they said to me these parting words: "Ingratitude has never yet entered Heaven."

"If you only knew the suffering that other one has caused me (See the proceeding letter). It is simply inexpressible. Give me a few drops of water with which to refresh her, for I am in the flames with her."
~ St. Margaret mary Alacoque, from The letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque ~

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