The Way of Divine Love

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BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER III. TAUGHT BY THE HEART OF JESUS


PART III. INVITATION TO SOULS December 19th, 1920–January 26th, 1921

“It is My Will to use your suffering for the salvation of many souls.” (Our Lord to Josefa, January 25th, 1921)

ALREADY five months had passed since Josefa had been clothed in the habit of religion, and all this time Our Lord’s training had aimed at making her adaptable and supple in His hand. He had shown her the redemptive result of her struggles and suffering, as well as the effects her fidelity had on the salvation of souls.

She was to go forward, henceforth, strengthened by this twofold light and to understand more deeply the interests of the Heart of God.

On Sunday, December 19th, she heard the well-known voice calling: “Josefa!”

She looked about, but seeing no one, went on with her work; however, on reaching the bottom of the stairs near the chapel:

“I felt drawn somehow, and went up to the Noviceship. He was there, and from His Heart there gushed a stream of water. ‘This is the tide of love, Josefa, for your martyrdom will be one of love,’ He said.

Josefa’s one ambition was to love Him and make Him loved, and she cried: “I will never again go back, O my God; I will suffer whatever Thou wilt, provided Thou dost never cast me out of Thy Heart.”

“ ‘You console Me by saying that,’ He answered with enthusiasm. ‘I want nothing else from you. You may be poor, but I am rich; feeble, but I am strong. But I do ask you never to refuse Me anything.’

“Listen to My Heart beating . . . each beat is for a soul I am calling. . . . I wait and wait in expectation of them. If they heed Me not, I will call again . . . I will wait for them with you. We shall suffer, but they will come, soon they will come.”

So union in a common suffering drew them closer together. Our Lord constantly reminded her of His hopes and wishes, and often He timed His visits in the midst of Josefa’s work.

“I was in the dormitory, making the children’s beds, and telling Him all the while how much I loved Him,” she wrote on Tuesday, December 21st, “when He came to summon me.”

“ ‘Come. I want you.’

“ ‘I want you to offer yourself as a victim today, and that your whole person may agonize for those souls; humble yourself and ask pardon. I am with you.’ ”

Then, enveloping her with the fire of His Heart, He added: “Courage. I can give you no better gift than suffering. It is the selfsame road that I trod.”

She now seemed to have fully understood the value of the gift, if one may judge from her progress since the day when Our Lord first asked her: “Do you love Me?” Now He was able to say: “Will you suffer?”

The day after He repeated: “Be on the lookout today for what costs and mortifies you most, and make as many acts of love as you can. How different souls would be if they knew this secret . . . how dead to self they would become and how they would console My Heart.”

Night and day Josefa offered herself for this intention. “I only ask Thee to give me fidelity and courage,” she wrote, “for I have not the slightest desire to enjoy myself here below.”

“I too ask you for one thing only: fidelity and abandonment.”

And then He told her in detail what He required of her. “I want you to be like an empty vase, which I Myself will undertake to fill. Let your Creator care for His creature. As for love, let it be without measure.”

That same evening He reminded her why He wanted to be able to count on “a love without measure.”

“I was in the linen-room and I heard His voice: ‘Josefa! My bride!’

“I could not see Him, but I answered: ‘What wilt Thou, Lord?’ . . . Some time after, in the chapel during my adoration, He called me again: ‘Josefa! My bride!’

“ ‘Why do You call me “bride,” Lord? I am only a novice.’

“ ‘Have you forgotten the day when I chose you, and you chose Me? That day I had compassion on your littleness, and that you might not be left alone, we made a pact of mutual alliance forever. That is why you will have no other love than that of My Heart, and I will ask of you, and give you, whatever I like. Never resist Me.’ ”

Christmas night was to see the ratification of the divine choice, and Josefa heard for the first time the call that had brought the shepherds to the Crib, and like them she contemplated the “Great Little One” in His Mother’s arms.

“During Midnight Mass,” she wrote, “I was already in the middle of the chapel on my way up to Communion, when I saw Our Lady coming towards me. In her arms she was holding the Child Jesus, covered with a white veil which she took off as soon as I had communicated. His little garment was white and His hands were crossed on His breast. Then I did not see Him any more. . . . When I had reached my place in the chapel Our Lady came again quite close to me. She lifted the Holy Child slightly; He was lying in her arms. Little Jesus stretched out His hand and fondled His Mother. Then with His tiny right hand He seemed to be asking me for mine, and I gave it to Him. He seized hold of my finger and held it tight, and all around both of them floated an unknown but delicious aroma. Our Lady was smiling: ‘My daughter,’ she said to me, ‘kiss the feet of your God, Who will be your inseparable Companion if you wish. Have no fear, draw near, He is all love.’

“I kissed His little feet; He looked at me and then He crossed His hands on His breast and Our Lady wrapped Him once more in her veil. She looked at me and I asked her to bless me, which she did; and then they vanished.

“This time,” commented Josefa, who had not lost her eye for dress designing, “Our Lady wore a white tunic, a very pale rose mantle, and a veil of the same color, but it was of much finer stuff; the Holy Child’s raiment was of a material I had never seen before; it was as light as foam . . . and an aura of radiance surrounded His head, and Our Blessed Lady had the same.”

The radiant happiness of Christmas extended over the following days, and after having associated her with His redemptive sorrows, Our Lord made her share in His joys as Saviour.

The very next morning He appeared in all His beauty . . . and making allusion to the souls to whom He had appealed for a long time . . .”See my Beloved,” He said, “We have saved them! Your pains have consoled My Heart.”

A new experience of the predilections of His Sacred Heart still awaited her: on December 27th Saint John, the Beloved Disciple and sharer of graces like her own, appeared to her. During the short span of her religious life he would be several times the bearer of messages to her.

There is little variety in the form of Josefa’s notes on these stupendous happenings. At that date we read in her papers:

“I was asking for love . . .” (her usual petition) when after Communion Jesus, who always responds to this petition, even amid the gloom of faith (a fact she was quite aware of) today gave her a more tangible proof that He was attentive to her than was His wont:

“Jesus came,” she said simply, “and I found myself as once before (on June 5th) in the Wound of His Heart. . . . He said nothing, but never before had my soul been so steeped in happiness. Then all vanished.”

With no transition whatever, she adds: “That same evening Jesus left me all alone.”

It is unnecessary to call the reader’s attention to the method so often adopted by Our Lord with His little victim: brusquely He detaches her from the delights she has been experiencing, delights both supernatural and very pure. They are but a passing flash, destined to light up the arduous path by which she is rising heavenwards.

“The next day,” she continued, “my soul was in such a state of coldness and aridity that I had to force myself to say even a few words to Our Lord. I did my best, and tried to make as many acts of love and confidence as possible. Soon I was unable to hold my own against the temptations which oppressed me.”

She noted humbly every detail of these struggles, in the midst of which it seemed to her that her courage must suffer shipwreck. Though the devil’s assaults varied little as to their object, being always directed against her vocation, they were nevertheless so acute that she was badly shaken.

“I was thus tempted from December 27th to January 9th,” she wrote, “suffering more than I can say. That morning, on awaking, I thought it impossible to go on with the struggle, and the same inexpressible anguish continued during my prayer.”

In spite of her distress, she never failed to seek the encouragement she needed in obedience, which alone could defend her, and with touching fidelity she did her best to follow advice which aimed at keeping her safe for God, and relieving her affliction.

“I promised Our Lord to make as many acts of humility as I could, so as to draw down His mercy on me, and during Mass at the Consecration, with all the determination I could muster, I once more made my offering. Suddenly, even before the Elevation of the Chalice, I saw Jesus: His face was so kind, His Heart so ardent. I prostrated myself at His feet to beg His forgiveness and to humble myself.

“ ‘Love never tires of forgiving!’ He said.

“And with gentlest compassion He added: ‘But you have not offended Me, Josefa. The blind stumble as you say. . . . Come, draw near My Heart and rest awhile. I wish you could realize how much you have comforted Me these last days . . . and all the time I held you so close to My Heart that had you fallen it could have been only into Its depths.’

“I asked Him why He allowed such darkness and temptations.”

“ ‘It seems to you that you see nothing and that you are about to fall into the precipice. But need you see, if you are guided? . . . What you need is to forget self, to abandon your own will and offer no resistance to My plans. Thanks to the acts done in the midst of your sufferings, several of the souls that you will see later have come nearer to My Heart.’ ”

Our Lord was here alluding to the souls He had been calling when He made her listen to His Heart beating on the preceding 19th of December.

“I then explained to Him that when I am thus tempted and lonely I look everywhere for Him and cannot find Him.

“ ‘When you cannot find Me, look for Me in your Mother. Follow her directions implicitly, for she will guide you to Me. I gave her to you for that very purpose; and know, Josefa, that if you do what she tells you, you are giving Me as much satisfaction as if you were obeying Me personally. Love, suffer, and obey. So doing you will enable Me to carry out My plans in you.’ ”

That very evening, in a charming object-lesson, such as He loves to give simple souls, Our Lord renewed recommendations which were very dear to His Sacred Heart.

As she was praying before the Tabernacle, He appeared to her, “holding in His hand,” she wrote, “a little chain of brilliants which held three small golden keys, very pretty ones.”

“ ‘Look,’ He said, ‘one . . . two . . . three . . . they are of gold. Do you know what these keys represent? . . . each of them guards a treasure that I want you to secure.

“ ‘The first is complete surrender of will to all I ask of you, directly or indirectly, steadfastly trusting the goodness of My Heart that always takes care of you. You will repair in this way for the sins of many who doubt My love for them.

“ ‘The second is a profound humility which consists in knowing that you are nothing, in humbling yourself before all your Sisters, and when I tell you to do so, asking your Mother to humiliate you. Thus you will repair for the pride of many souls.

“ ‘The third is great mortification in your words and actions. I want you to mortify yourself corporally as much as obedience allows, and to receive with real joy the sufferings I send you. This will repair for the immortification of many, and will console Me in some measure for the sins of sensuality and illicit pleasures of the world.

“ ‘Lastly, the little chain on which the three keys are strung is an ardent and generous love, which will help you to live abandoned, confidingly trustful, humble and mortified.’ ”

Josefa never forgot the three symbolic keys. Many a time Our Lord would give her just such a simple object-lesson. They abound in the Gospels, and contain very deep and profound teaching.

But the hours in which Josefa was to find rest became more and more rare. From now on they were seldom granted her, and were of short duration. Our Lord kept before her mind the thought of the souls He had entrusted to her. This work was of prime importance in her life. “Do not tire of suffering,” He often repeated. “If you only knew how greatly it profits souls.”

Before long He sent her the suffering she most dreaded; she had had it before, and it would often be renewed. “I do not ask Him to take away my pain,” she wrote, “but only to give me strength to bear it.”

A violent storm of doubt and obsessions clouded her soul. Then, as if it gave her some relief, to hide nothing of her weakness and failings,

These doubts, temptations, obsessions, which will be multiplied from now on, have no other motive than to make Josefa turn back from the special mission which opens before her. These are her hesitations, and strong repugnances which she self-reproachfully calls weaknesses, failings or infidelities.

her notes became longer and more circumstantial.
“Monday, January 24th,” she wrote. “All day I have been begging Our Lady to deliver me . . . and quite suddenly during my adoration in the evening, I recovered my peace of soul.”

She stood there, smiling with motherly tenderness.

“ ‘Here I am, daughter,’ she said.

“ ‘It is right, Josefa, that you should endure these temptations; but love and suffering can obtain anything. . . . Do not weary of them . . . it is for souls.’ ”

Our Lady disappeared, but her coming had been as the dawn announcing the luminous advent of Jesus, who Himself brought Josefa the assurance that nothing was changed between them.

“On Tuesday, January 25th, He came at the beginning of Mass. I asked Him if I had wounded His Heart. He knows only too well that nothing else matters to me. . . .

“ ‘No,’ He answered tenderly. ‘Ponder this word: “Gold is purified in the fire.” So tribulation purifies and fortifies the soul, and the time of temptation is of great profit both to you and to souls.’ ”

Encouraged by so much compassion, she confided her greatest anxiety to Him: the most painful torment of the days of trial she had undergone. “The fear,” she said, “that such struggles would end by putting my vocation in peril.”

“Who could doubt of your vocation, Josefa, if you have been able to withstand such tribulations? . . . I allow them for two ends,” He said, divining the thought that was in her mind. “First, to convince you that when alone you are incapable of anything, and that the graces I give you spring only from My goodness and the great love I bear you; and secondly, because I want to use your sufferings for the salvation of many souls.

“You will suffer to gain souls, because you are the chosen victim of My Heart, but you will come to no harm, for I will not allow it.”

To this promise, in which she had perfect faith, she responded by a fresh offering of her whole being. The next day, January 26th, He again insisted on the necessity of suffering:

“During adoration He came,” she wrote. “He made me listen to the beating of His Heart. I asked Him to keep me faithful, to teach me to love Him and never to allow me to cause any sorrow to His Heart. He seemed to like that prayer and said to me: ‘The soul that loves wants to suffer, for suffering increases love. Love and suffering unite a soul closely to God and make her one with Him.’ ”

And when she reminded Him of her frailty: “Have no fear, I am strength itself. When the weight of the Cross seems more than you can bear, have recourse to My Heart.”

Then He told her where to look for His Heart: “Do you not know where I am to be found, and in complete security? . . . Accept the guidance you are given. My eyes are ever on you, fix yours on Me and abandon yourself.”

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BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER III. TAUGHT BY THE HEART OF JESUS


PART IV. HIDDEN LIFE IN FERVOR January 27th–February 21st, 1921

“Tell Me what offerings you can give Me for souls.” (Our Lord to Josefa, February 20th, 1921)

LENT and the Quarant’ore were at hand, and everyone at Les Feuillants felt them to be an invitation to an increase in love and reparation. These latter were becoming more and more Josefa’s habitual aim, for Our Lord unceasingly put before her the fact that she was the victim of His Heart; He was now about to give her proofs of it.

The First Friday of February was the anniversary of her arrival at Poitiers. Jesus appeared to her, and showing her His Heart all aglow, He said: “Every Friday, and especially on the first of the month, I will make you share in the bitterness of My Heart, and you shall endure the torments of My Passion in a special way.”

“Todos los Viernes y conpreferencia, el primero de cada mes te haré participar de la amargura de mi Corazón y sentiras de una manera especial los tormentos de mi Passión.”

“ ‘In these days when Hell opens to engulf so many I want you to offer yourself as a victim, so as to save the greatest possible number of souls.’

“He stayed a few minutes more, but in silence, and then vanished.”

The Sunday of the Quarant’ore, February 6th, He renewed the same appeal to Josefa. From early morning she had offered herself to repair the offenses of sinners, and at about three in the afternoon, Our Lord appeared to her in the chapel.

“What compassion I felt for Him,” she wrote. “His face, His arms, His breast were covered with dust, and blood flowed from His head, but His Heart was shining and beautiful.

“ ‘It is the want of love that wounds Me thus,’ He said, ‘and the contempt of men who run like madmen to perdition.’

“ ‘Why then, Lord, is Thy Heart so lovely and so glowing, in spite of the sins of men?’

“ ‘My Heart is never wounded unless it be by My chosen souls.’ ”

This answer touched Josefa deeply, and unveiled to her the most intimate of His sorrows; and often He was to ask her to share it and console Him. But today she was made responsible to God’s Justice for the flighty and guilty world. She spent before the Blessed Sacrament which was exposed, every minute of leisure left her by her work, and the thought of so many offenses against the Divine Majesty never left her mind. . . . Jesus, who had laid this weight upon her, came, however, to uphold her courage, and on February 8th, in the chapel at dusk, she saw Him as if weighed down by a heavy burden.

“The sins committed are so many and so grave,” He said, “that the wrath of My Father would overflow were it not for the reparation and love of My consecrated brides. . . . How many souls are lost!”

“But one faithful soul can repair and obtain mercy for many ungrateful ones.”

These words brought to Josefa’s mind the expiatory mission to which, from the first, Love had invited her. But little by little another plan was to become apparent, first intimated to Josefa on Ash Wednesday, which fell on the 9th of February.

Then, for the first time, Jesus entrusted her with His full plan: “The love I bear for souls, especially for yours, is so great that I can no longer contain the flames of burning charity that consume Me, and so in spite of your unworthiness and helplessness, I mean to make use of you to accomplish My plans.”

‘“El amor que tengo a las almas, y muy especialmente a la tuya, es tan grande que no puedo contener las llamas de mi ardiente caridad y a pesar de tu gran indignidad y miseria, Me servire de ti para realizar mis designios.”

The appeal, with its full implications of the gift of self and total surrender, was to become clear to Josefa only very gradually. But already the Master asked her consent; and a tangible sign was to seal her acquiescence.

“ ‘Will you give Me your heart?’ He asked.

“ ‘Yes, gladly, and more than my heart, Lord.’

“Jesus took it from me and placed it close to His own. How small it looked beside His! Then He gave it back to me, all on fire.

“Since then I feel within me a consuming flame, and I have to make very great efforts to control myself, lest anything should appear outwardly.”

Josefa decided to keep secret this signal grace which she so simply narrates, but Jesus would have no secrets, and on Thursday, February 10th:

“ ‘Now, listen, Josefa,’ He said, ‘I do not want you to hide anything from your Mother. She is right; you must tell her all.’ ”

Two days later He again impressed on her how much He held to her absolute dependence. “Tell your Mother everything,” He insisted.

And as she feared even the shadow of hidden self-complaisance in relating such things . . . He interrupted her vehemently: “It would be pride if you kept silence. Humility lies in simplicity and lowliness. Know for certain that if I ask you one thing and your Mother asks another, I prefer you to obey her rather than Me.”

We find noted on February 12th a long parenthesis regarding her reaction at each of Our Lord’s visits:

“In order to obey you, Mother, I will write down what I feel each time Jesus comes: First, an intense desire to humble myself. I always begin by asking His pardon for all my sins, for I see my soul all soiled and besmirched . . . and if it were not for an irresistible attraction that impels me forward, I should not dare approach or speak, when in His Divine Presence. I cannot say how it is that I am drawn . . . my soul is in peace . . . the more I try to humble myself, the better it seems to please Him. Sometimes, I am not able to utter a word, I am annihilated in adoration. At other times, it is like a torrent of consolation, even when He makes me suffer with Him. My heart as it were expands and loses itself in God. Again, at other times, I feel as if a furnace were kindled within me; Jesus burns me up in the fire of His Heart. At the same time, He makes me see my littleness so keenly that it passes my understanding how a God can love so lowly a creature as I, and my yearning to love Him grows and grows, and I want to gain souls for Him. I feel such a horror of myself that I cannot think what to do to root out my evil inclinations, and repair for my sins and ingratitude. It, so to speak, wrests my soul from earth and I find the greatest difficulty in settling down again to my daily occupations. I wish I could make you understand the agony of finding myself once more in my poor body, for often, when I am with Him, I think this union is going to last forever.”

A little later, and still under obedience, she explained how she had accustomed herself to do everything with Our Lord, and to tell Him everything.

“On Monday, February 14th, I was serving in the refectory at midday, as I always do. There was not enough of the first course. I went to the kitchen, and there was no more. . . . I didn’t know what to do . . . and as I am accustomed to talk over everything with Him, I said at once: ‘My Jesus, there is nothing more to eat.’ . . . On coming out of the refectory a second time, I suddenly caught sight of Him. He was near the taps in the kitchen; He stretched out His arms and smiled as He said: ‘Is it My fault, Josefa, that there is no more?’ . . .

“He vanished at once, and I don’t know how I ever went on serving, for He was so dear, so lovely . . . it was like Heaven . . .

“That is how I talk to Him of everything that happens. If I am sweeping and drop something: ‘O my Jesus . . . what a noise. I shall wake Thee.’ If I lose my things, I ask Him: ‘Where did I leave it, Lord? . . . Let us go and look for it together.’ When I am tired I tell Him. If I am late for my work, which often happens, for I have to go so many journeys because of all the things that I forget, then I say to Him: ‘Come now, Lord! We must hurry today, for it is late and there is much to do,’ especially on Saturdays, when I have to distribute the bundles of clean linen and the shoes in the children’s dormitories. In short, I tell Him all my fears. There are times when I do not see Him, but I talk to Him, knowing that He is there. Some days I tell Him everything that comes into my head. Sometimes I ask myself if I am not wanting in respect, but I don’t think so, because I am so happy, and I find myself at it again in no time.

“Often, too, I call Our Blessed Lady, especially when I sit down to sew: ‘Mother, do come and join us two,’ I say. ‘Jesus is here, so you ought to be here, too.’

“That is how I spend my days. I have explained everything, I think, as well as I can.”

These heavenly exchanges did not prevent Josefa from leading the most simple and laborious life with the other novices.

After her Postulantship, during which she had been helping in the kitchen, she was assigned care of the school linen-room. Les Feuillants had not yet completely recovered after its use as an ambulance during the war, so there was little to facilitate the work to which she devoted most of her time and energy. She shared, too, in all the common labors of the house, without ever betraying God’s special hold on her true life, which was concealed by her perfect self-forgetfulness.

We must therefore continue to follow her in the obscurity of common life and daily labor.

One little happening which occurred just about this time should not be left unrecorded.

“I was praying before the Tabernacle for my mother and sister. I was sad about them, and should have loved to be able to console them, and I thought of what I would do if I were at home, and I was not counting enough on my Jesus . . . when suddenly He came with His Heart glowing, and in a grave, solemn voice He said to me: ‘What could you do alone for them?’ and showing me His Heart: ‘Fix your attention here,’ and He disappeared.

On Sunday, February 20th, she wrote: “During Mass, after the Consecration, Jesus came, so entrancingly beautiful (hermosisimo).” She is fond of this superlative, which is the least inadequate expression she can find.

“ ‘Tell Me what you have to offer Me for the souls I have confided to you. Put it all in the Wound of My Heart, so that your offering may acquire an infinite value.’

“I told Him that He could take everything, for all I do is for these souls.

“ ‘Tell it to Me in detail.’

“Then I began an enumeration of everything: my Holy Hour, my little mortifications and penances, the suffering of the Crown of Thorns, every breath I draw, my work, my fears, my weakness and nothingness, everything I do and think . . . ‘It is all for love and for souls, Lord, and it is little indeed.’

“At nine-o’clock Mass He came back, with His Heart aflame.

“ ‘Look,’ He said, ‘these souls are safe now, deep in My Heart.’ ”

The next day, after Communion, Jesus appeared to her, and gazing at her with unbounded love, He told her once again what He wanted of her: “I want you to be so forgetful of yourself and so abandoned to My Will that I shall be able to warn you of your slightest imperfections, for I will allow none in you. You must never lose sight, on the one hand, of your nothingness, and on the other, of My mercy. Never forget that it is from your nothingness that My treasures will be poured forth.”

During the morning of Monday, while she was putting the dormitory in order and collecting the children’s Sunday uniforms, Our Lord showed Himself to her with His hands bound and His Sacred Head stained with blood from the Crown of Thorns.

“ ‘Do you love Me?’ He asked her eagerly.

“I don’t know what answer I gave . . . I said a hundred thousand things . . . He knows very well that I love Him . . .

“ ‘Listen, Josefa! I want your thirst for souls to grow and I want you to save many of them . . . and I want you to be burnt up with this longing.’ ”

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BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER III. TAUGHT BY THE HEART OF JESUS


PART V. LOVE’S DESIGNS February 22nd–March 26th, 1921

“The world does not know the mercy of My Heart! I intend to make it known through you.” (Our Lord to Josefa, February 24th, 1921)

THE time for a more solemn appeal had come, and on Thursday, February 24th, during her evening adoration, Josefa heard Our Lord say: “Tomorrow you will offer My Father all your actions united to the Blood shed in My Passion. Try not to lose sight of the Divine Presence one single instant, and rejoice as far as possible at anything you have to suffer. Do not cease thinking of souls . . . of sinners. . . . O! how I thirst for souls!”

Already He had told her that He wanted each Friday to be a day of offering and of closer union with His Heart. This was a reminder.

“I offered myself to comfort Him and to win souls . . . ‘but, O Lord, do not forget that I am the most ungrateful and miserable of them all.’

“ ‘I know it,’ He said, ‘but I am training you.’

“He went away . . . I made an act of self-surrender, to do all He wished, and I understood that He meant to take me at my word: ‘O Jesus, I know that Thou wilt have pity on me, and that Thou wilt give me the strength I need . . . ’ In the evening, during Holy Hour, I was thinking of sinners and of how many there are . . . but also of how much greater His mercy is . . . suddenly He stood before me, and with a voice of great majesty, as might be a king’s, He said to me: ‘The world does not know how merciful I am; I am going to use you to make it known.”

“El mundo no conoce la Misericordia de mi Corazón. Quiero valerme de para hacerla conocer.”

Fear took hold of Josefa, and she cried out:

“ ‘But, dear Lord, do not forget how weak I am, and that the smallest obstacle makes me fall. . . . ’

“As if He had not heard, Jesus continued: ‘I want you to be the apostle of My goodness and mercy. I will teach you what this means; forget yourself.’

“I implored Him to have compassion on me, and to leave me without these graces to which I am unable to correspond, and to choose other and more generous souls.

“Jesus only answered by these words: ‘Do you forget, Josefa, that I am your God,’ and He vanished.”

There was no offense to His Heart, however. He knew that in the very depths of her will she was all His, that her very fears were the expression of her humble distrust of self, and with this He was never displeased.

The next day, Friday, February 25th, He returned during Mass:

“He looked at me,” she wrote, “and I begged to be left like all the other novices, without any extraordinary happenings, for I cannot exist as things are now.

“ ‘If you cannot, Josefa, I can.’

“ ‘But I do not want to,’ she ventured to murmur timidly. ‘I so want to be like everybody else.’

“ ‘But I will it to be so. Does that not suffice you?’

“Then He added firmly: ‘Where is your love?’ . . .

“ ‘Love, and have no fear. I want what you do not want, but I can do what you cannot do. It is not for you to choose, but to surrender.’ ”

How many struggles this surrender was going to cost Josefa’s soul. . . . God no doubt allowed them to prove the authenticity of His action with greater certainty, and to dispose of any doubts entertained by those around her. It can be truthfully said that Josefa never ceased dreading her mission, and the three years to come would be punctuated by the terrors that assailed her every time she was asked to surrender.

A few days after that memorable date of February 25th, 1921, with confusion she notes that she drew back before the costly act of transmitting the message that Jesus gave her.

Then, she adds, He disappeared. . . .

The measure of Josefa’s sorrow after such a parting is not difficult to imagine. She tried at first to hide it. But the arch-fiend seized his chance of making capital out of the silence that now fell on her soul. He persuaded her that it was all lost and that further efforts were useless. The word “martyrdom” which she used seems not too strong a term to fit the situation—that diabolic influence which God allowed the powers of darkness in that awful hour. “O! Mother, what a martyrdom!” she wrote a few days later. “I could bear no more . . . had I not been restrained by faith, I know not what I should have done. . . .”

Then in great detail she related her humiliating struggle and continued:

“The evening of March 3rd I went to ask you to forgive me, as I had already been to Jesus, and I began to see things differently. . . . I know that He will forgive me again, for I know His Heart. . . .

“During Holy Hour, for it was Thursday, I threw myself at His feet . . . I do not know what I said to Him, but I felt relieved, although my soul remained as cold and stony as ever.”

The next day, the First Friday of March, peace and light began to return, though the devil made one last effort which he hoped would settle the matter. Josefa was in the garden, picking flowers for the chapel, of which she was sacristan, when suddenly she was given a violent push, and falling on a glass frame, it broke under her weight. A stream of blood flowed from her right arm, which was deeply lacerated. The hemorrhage yielded to the treatment instantly applied, but her arm remained useless for several days. During that time (ever faithful to obedience) she dictated the notes she was unable to write herself. They were as follows:

“In the middle of my adoration Our Lady came, so kind and so compassionate, with open arms, like a mother. I begged her pardon, and asked her if I should still be able to console Jesus and gain souls for Him.” (This was always her first and greatest anxiety.)

“ ‘For, knowing His Heart, I have no doubt that He will forgive me.’

“ ‘Yes, daughter, you are forgiven—infernal fury will lay many more traps for you . . . but take courage, you will not fall into them.’

“And giving me her blessing, she disappeared.”

This celestial visit was again renewed a couple of days later, March 11th:

“I was praying to Our Lady and telling her how much I wished Jesus would forget the past, when suddenly she appeared. . . . She was all sweetness, her hands crossed on her breast. I knelt down and she said at once: ‘Jesus loves you, daughter, just as much as before, and He wants you to gain souls for Him.’ ”

Then, in allusion to Josefa’s wounded arm: “The devil would have killed you, if he had been able to do so, but he was not able.”

Jesus Himself came very soon to reassure His child, and to tell her that nothing could change His love or His choice.

Passiontide gave Josefa the chance she coveted of repairing and of participating in the sufferings of her Master.

On March 14th, Monday in Passion Week, He came to her after Communion.

“His glance was penetrating, but full of pity. His way of looking at me made so great an impression on me and said so much. . . .

“ ‘I cannot resist your misery any longer,’ He said.

“Then, after a moment’s silence: ‘Do not forget that it is your nothingness and littleness that act as magnets to attract Me to you.’

“That same evening, when I was in the chapel and still under the impression of the look He had cast on me, He suddenly came.

“He had never looked on me like that before, and I think His eyes made me see in one instant all that He had done in me . . . and what I had done for Him, alas! so little, returning His love by ingratitude . . . but that glance also told me that nothing of it all mattered if I was determined to be faithful, for He was always ready to show me His love and give me fresh graces. All this was present to my mind and I never stopped asking His forgiveness and promising never to resist Him again.”

It was the first time that Josefa had drawn special attention to the forceful glance of Our Lord.

“ ‘See, Josefa, I am still interceding for souls and forgiving them,’ He said.

“He glanced at me for a moment with the same searching look as in the morning. It said so much, there was no need for words. Neither did I say anything. After a moment He spoke: ‘Do you know all I have done for you?’

“Then I saw again all His graces and my ingratitude. I told Him of my determination to do not only all He asks, but all that I know He would like me to do, and this came from the bottom of my heart. As I spoke, His Heart changed entirely. It expanded, flames issued from the wound and His face shone with bright effulgence. Then He said: ‘I will make you taste the bitterness of My Passion and you will suffer in some degree the outrages inflicted on My Heart. You will offer yourself to My Father in union with Me to obtain pardon for many sinners.’

“He looked at me again, as if to give me courage, and departed.”

It had become a real necessity for Josefa to implore forgiveness, after her recent failings, and she did so incessantly; Our Lord never resisted these appeals.

“On March 15th, Feast of the Five Wounds, I was still asking Him to pardon me, when, after Communion, as a flash He passed before me, stopped one instant, and said only: ‘Love blots out everything.’ ”

This lesson became more and more deeply imprinted on her mind. She lived on it during her work. That morning, being in the loft preparing linen for the laundry:

“As my one desire is reparation,” she said, “I asked Our Lord to save as many souls as there were handkerchiefs to count. I offered my whole day for this object, uniting my sufferings to His Heart and to His merits.

“Towards nightfall, a little before my adoration, I went into the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, where Our Lord was exposed, and He appeared.

“ ‘If you concern yourself with My glory,’ He said, ‘I will look after you. I will establish My peace in you so that nothing will be able to trouble you; I will set up in your soul the reign of My love, and your joy none shall take from you.’

“He came close to me. His wound opened. Then I saw a long line of souls prostrate in adoration, and I understood that all these were the souls I had begged of Him that morning.

The 17th of March, Thursday in Passiontide, was the twentieth anniversary of Josefa’s First Communion. This was a date she never allowed to pass unnoticed, and she wrote in her notes: “Twenty years today since Jesus chose me for Himself, and never have I been less worthy of His love.”

Then she humbled herself at the thought of so many graces to which she had not corresponded enough, but she added at once:

“I decided that I must make a complete change, and while I was making this firm resolution Jesus, with open arms, appeared before me and in His most endearing voice said to me: ‘Yes, Josefa, I did indeed call you that day, and since then I have never forsaken you. I have kept you inseparable from Myself. How often you would have fallen had I not been your support. . . . Today, I once more reiterate My choice: I want you to belong entirely to Me . . . to be faithful to Me . . . and to respond to My love. I shall, in exchange, become your Bridegroom and I shall love you as the privileged bride of My Heart. I take on Myself all the labor; you will have only to love and abandon yourself. Your littleness is nothing to Me, and even your falls; My blood wipes them all away. All you need do is to rely on My love and surrender yourself.’ ”

But the divine predilection always brought Josefa back to one thought, that of the salvation of souls.

On March 22nd, Tuesday in Holy Week, after Communion, Jesus showed Himself to her, His arms extended. She took courage at what she termed “the immense kindness of her Master.”

“I should like to ask Thee for many things, Lord,” she said.

“Do you not know what is written in My holy Gospel? ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ ”

“Then I implored Him to have compassion on the whole world and to enkindle it with the fire of His own love.”

“ ‘Ah! if only they knew My Heart . . . mankind is ignorant of Its mercy and goodness: that is My greatest sorrow.’

“I begged Him to set souls on fire with zeal for His glory, to increase the number of priests, and to call many into religious life. . . . I stopped at last . . . but in the silence that ensued I still whispered to Him how much His glance said to me . . . and what confidence it gave me. Afterwards He showed me His hands and made me kiss His Wounds. Then He departed.”

Such records suffice to show to what extent the burning zeal of the Heart of Jesus already consumed that of Josefa. Souls had become the aim of her life, and her converse with Our Lord in each of these divine visits was always about them.

During meditation on Spy Wednesday, March 23rd, she asked Him in her prayer what exactly He meant by “saving souls.”

“He came,” she said, “and looked at me with great affection. He replied: ‘There are some Christian souls and even very pious ones that are held back from perfection by some attachment. But when another offers Me her actions united to My infinite merits, she obtains grace for them to free themselves and make a fresh start.

“ ‘Many others live in indifference and even in sin, but when helped in the same way, recover grace, and will eventually be saved.

“ ‘Others again, and these very numerous, are obstinate in wrongdoing and blinded by error. They would be damned if some faithful soul did not make supplication for them, thus obtaining grace to touch their hearts, but their weakness is so great that they run the risk of a relapse into their sinful life; these I take away into the next world without any delay, and that is how I save them.’

“I asked Him how I could save a great many.

“ ‘Unite all you do to My actions, whether you work or whether you rest. Unite your breathing to the beating of My Heart. How many souls you would be able to save that way.’ ”

The last days of Lent associated Josefa more intimately with the sufferings of Calvary. For the first time she followed her Master step by step through the Passion, and on Good Friday, March 25th, she was constantly brought back to His suffering Presence.

“When I had finished my sweeping I went upstairs to visit Our Lady in the Noviceship,” she wrote. “I had hardly entered when Jesus came. His hands were bound, and His head crowned with thorns, His face all soiled with blood and bruises. He fixed His eyes on me with supreme sadness, and then vanished.”

“At three that afternoon,” she wrote, “I saw Him again. He showed me the Wound in His side and said: ‘Behold the work of Love.’

“His wound opened and He continued: ‘It opens for mankind—for you . . . come . . . come nearer . . . and enter.’ ”

The Mother of Sorrows put her seal on the graces of the day by one of those revealing words so peculiarly her own. At five that evening Josefa was in the oratory of the Noviceship:

“There, in wordless prayer, I sat at Our Lady’s feet and in spirit went through all that I had seen and understood that day. Suddenly I became aware that she was present. Clothed in a very dark purple tunic and veil, she held in her hands the Crown of Thorns, all covered with blood; she showed it to me, saying: ‘On Calvary, Jesus gave me all men for my sons; come then, for you are my child. Have you not already realized to what an extent I am a mother to you?’

“I asked her leave to kiss the Crown of Thorns, and as she gave it to me, she put her hand on my shoulder and said: ‘O how I love to think of Him as He bequeathed those souls to me.’ ”

With the morning of Holy Saturday, March 26th, this series of graces came to an end, closed by a heavenly favor that left an ineffaceable stamp on Josefa’s soul. “Do you know why I give you these graces in such abundance?” Our Lord asked of her, appearing to her during her prayer, His wounds all glowing. He repeated what He had once said in almost identical terms to Saint Margaret Mary: “I want to make of your heart an altar on which the fire of My love will burn constantly. That is why I want it pure, and that nothing that can stain it should touch it.”

“Sabes el fin que tengo al darte mis gracias en tanta abundancia? Quiero de tu corazón hacer un altar en el cual arda continuamente el fuego de mi Amor. Por eso, quiero que se purifique y que nada lo toque que pueda mancharlo.”

“He vanished,” said Josefa, “and I went down to the chapel for Mass. After Communion I felt as if in Heaven. I saw within me, as on a resplendent throne, three Persons clothed in white. They were all three exactly alike, and so beautiful! My soul was in such delight that it was like fire which consumed without burning it, pure joy. Then all faded away.”

This interior grace was renewed on the 5th of April following. A marvelous peace pervaded Josefa’s whole being in the Presence of the Three Persons. She tried to explain, in terms of singular simplicity, what passed in her soul and apparently was ignorant of the import of so signal a grace.

“Ordinarily,” she said, “I am enveloped in the Divine Presence, and even when I enter into the Heart of Jesus I am immersed in Him. But on these last two occasions at the moment of Communion it was more like an amazing feast being celebrated within my soul. Jesus entered into me as if into His palace. I cannot explain it . . . and as I was most determined to surrender myself completely into His hands, to do exactly as He wished with me, it was like Heaven.”

It is not difficult to conceive how, after such contacts, Josefa had to do great violence to herself to attend immediately to the work that awaited her. This effort, so impossible to gauge, often gave a loophole to the arch-enemy, and he hastened to avail himself of it.

[Stone]

BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER III. TAUGHT BY THE HEART OF JESUS


PART VI. OPPOSITION FROM THE DEVIL March 27th–May 31st, 1921

“The devil will work assiduously to make you fall, but My grace is more powerful than his infernal malice.” (Our Lord to Josefa, April 6th, 1921)

THE months that followed on the Lent of 1921 saw a recrudescence of the devil’s attacks. Nothing extraordinary at first revealed his presence. Temptations cleverly exploited Josefa’s attractions and repugnances concerning the path into which little by little Jesus was leading her.

His incomparable fidelity and the sway that His Holy Mother held over her continued to protect, pardon, and direct her whenever she swerved from the right way, as undoubtedly she did more than once.

The point in question is her weakness to accept, in spite of her repugnances, the special mission to which Our Lord calls her: all her weaknesses or falls of which she speaks or accuses herself refer nearly always to the acceptance of this mission.

But she learnt the searching lesson she was to pass on to us one day: that love knows how to use even our failings for the salvation of souls. Josefa bowed with difficulty to the influence of divine graces, coming as they did in the midst of her very laborious life which she loved so dearly; and on March 27th, Easter Sunday, she wrote:
“This morning at my prayer, I complained a little to Our Lord, because He keeps my mind so concentrated on Himself that I cannot apply myself to my work . . . and there is so much work to be got through! I wonder if I should not be more in my own sphere elsewhere.”

She had hardly finished her plaint than Jesus appeared with a look of sadness on His face:

“ ‘Why do you complain, Josefa, after I have drawn you to so special a share in My Heart’s work . . .

“He spoke these words very forcibly, and vanished.”

She had to wait several days before she saw Him again, keeping, meanwhile, the memory of that sadness on the divine countenance which she knew she had caused.

“On Wednesday in Low Week, April 6th, after Communion, He returned with outstretched arms, while I was telling Him how I want really to love Him. He listened in silence, as if He would like me to say it again. I begged Him to forgive me, saying: ‘Dear Lord, I surrender myself wholly to Thee.’ He looked at me very lovingly and said: ‘A soul who truly surrenders herself to Me gives Me so much joy that in spite of her miseries and imperfections she becomes a very heaven of delight to Me and I take pleasure in abiding in her. I will tell you Myself what prevents Me from effecting in your soul the realization of My designs.’

Seeing the anxious look on her face, He added: “Yes, the devil will tempt you assiduously and try to make you fall, but My grace is more powerful than his infernal malice. Trust yourself to My Mother, surrender yourself to Me, and always be very simple and humble with your Mother.”

Josefa understood how opportune this recommendation was, for she had a presentiment that the devil was about to attack her; she prayed and renewed her offering:

“I begged Him,” she wrote on Thursday, April 7th, “to teach me how to humble myself and how to surrender myself in a way that pleases Him. I think He likes this prayer, for suddenly He came:

“ ‘You can humble yourself in various ways,’ He told me, ‘first, by adoring the Divine Will, which, in spite of your worthlessness, uses you to make known God’s Mercy. Secondly, by thanking Me for having placed you in the Society of My Heart, though you have done nothing to merit it. Never complain of this.’

“He impressed these words so deeply on my soul that I begged of Him no longer to remember my ingratitude, and I again told Him how much I wished to make amends for the pain I had given His adorable Heart.

“ ‘You will comfort Me, Josefa, if you often repeat this prayer: “O Divine Heart—Heart of my Beloved—the most tender and sensitive of all hearts, I give Thee thanks that in spite of my unworthiness Thou hast deigned to choose me to spread the knowledge of Thy mercy on souls.” ‘

“He looked at me again and vanished.”

That evening, in Saint Madeleine Sophie’s cell, where she had gone in the fullness of her heart to beg of her never to doubt her desire to be her true child, Jesus came unexpectedly, and opening His Heart made her enter therein, saying: “Here, you will obtain forgiveness.”

Our Lady was watching with maternal solicitude over Josefa, on account of the latter’s inexperience. Coming on Saturday, April 9th, she said: “What I chiefly fear is that you may not be open enough with your Mother (Assistant) and that so you will fail to notice the toils of the evil one who tries to ensnare you. Do not relax, Josefa; watch over your thoughts, that temptation may have no hold on you. And should you feel any complacency in yourself, own it at once, humbling yourself. Be very simple with your Mother. This I again recommend to you; it is the only way of protecting you from the wiles of the devil.”

Jesus Himself drove the lesson home a few days later. On Monday, April 11th, she repeated the words Jesus had taught her on the preceding Thursday.

“At once He came, and I saw by His look that it pleased Him to hear me say that prayer, so I repeated it again.

“ ‘Every time you say those words I place them in My Heart that they may become for you and for souls a new source of grace and mercy.’

“I asked Him, or rather I begged Him, to have compassion on me, for none is more in need of it than I.

“ ‘If through you, Josefa, I will to pour out the treasures of My mercy, do you think that I would not begin by yourself?’ ”

Then He reminded her to hide nothing from the Mother to whom He had entrusted her.

“You must learn to own to her even what humiliates you most, and in the most costly way. If I had not willed to subject you to obedience,” He said with emphasis, “I should have left you in the world, but I led you to My Heart that there you might live only to obey.”

Two days later, she was to experience how grace is always hidden in obedience.

“On Wednesday, April 13th, I received a letter from my sister, and the thought that she would very likely enter the Carmelites and leave my mother all alone upset me. However, I never ceased telling Jesus that I would be faithful to Him. The following day the temptation was so strong that I went and told you all, Mother, because I knew it was from you that I should get light. You said one thing that struck me very forcibly: ‘The Heart of Jesus loves your mother infinitely more than you do.’ I reflected on this, and in consequence resolved to leave everything in God’s hands.

“The next day, during my thanksgiving, He who knows my frailty came, full of kindness, and said to me:

“ ‘If you surrender all, you will find everything in My Heart.’ ”

It was by such a call to abandon all into His hands that Our Lord prepared her for the stormy days that were about to begin for her.

On Friday, April 22nd, we see in her notes how the devil tried to take away her peace of mind:

“ . . . I went up to the oratory of Our Lady in the Noviceship to implore her not to let me fall. She came, at once, very motherly and said:

“ ‘My daughter, I will give you a lesson of very great importance: the devil is like a mad dog, but he is chained, that is to say, his liberty is curtailed. He can, therefore, only seize and devour his prey if you venture too near him, and that is why his usual tactics are to make himself appear as a lamb. The soul does not realize this, and draws nearer and nearer, only to discover his malice when in his clutches. When he seems far away, do not relax your vigilance, child; his footsteps are padded and silent, that he may take you unawares.’ ”

“She gave me her blessing and went away.”

Temptation was, indeed, very close to her, and this time Josefa was to learn how strong the devil is, even when allowed only a measure of liberty by God.

“Two or three days later,” wrote Josefa, “I was alone and feeling very desolate. The fury of the devil seemed to fall upon me and blind me and tear me from my vocation. I suffered much until Saturday, May 7th, but I did not cease calling on Our Lord and Our Lady for help.

“That evening I went to make my adoration with the other novices, and to help myself I began to read the words spoken to me by Our Lord and which I had written in my little notebook. But instead of being a help, this reading increased my trouble, for I thought that all these graces would lead in the end to my perdition. I tried as well as I could to repeat my offering, but that instant a shower of blows fell upon me. Frightened, I left the chapel to put the notebook away and see if the Mother Assistant was in her cell, so as to tell her what had happened. But when I reached the cloister of Saint Bernard I was violently caught hold of by the arm and dragged to the kitchen, and the idea came to me to burn the notebook. I tried to do so, but was unable to lift the copper. A mother who was there told me to throw the book into the wood bin, and that it would then be burned at once.”

Josefa crumpled it up in her hands, threw it into the bin, and went away much relieved in mind, and hardly realizing what she had done. She then went to resume her work in the ironing-room. Gradually, however, the gravity of the action she had been, as it were, forced into came home to her. What would happen if the notebook fell into strange hands and revealed the great undertaking of Love which Our Lord had so formally charged her to keep secret?

“In other circumstances, I should have been desperate,” she continued, “but this time I prayed with all my faith to be delivered, and above all to be forgiven. . . . I went back to the kitchen, hoping that the notebook would not have been burnt, for it was late. But I could not find it, and I implored Our Lady to take charge of it herself. . . .”

The next day, a Sunday, seemed an eternity to Josefa, who dared not own her fault to the Mother Assistant, and sought to avoid saying anything about it. But when evening came she was unable to bear alone the anxiety it caused her, and she confessed the whole story to the Mother Assistant.

“When I saw her fear of the consequences I implored Our Lady to restore the notebook to her. I hoped with full confidence that this would be done, not for myself, but for her.”

Our Lady could not turn a deaf ear to so filial a prayer.

“On Monday, May 9th, I was sweeping the corridor of the cells, and could not take my mind off the thought of the notebook . . . but I had lost all hope of finding it again. . . .”

Suddenly Josefa heard the well-known voice of Our Lady:

“ ‘Go to the kitchen; there you will find it.’

“I did not pay any attention, and continued sweeping, thinking that I must be going out of my mind, but I heard the same words a second time, and so went up into the oratory of the Noviceship, where a third time the same voice repeated: ‘Go to the kitchen; there you will find it.’ ”

Hastily Josefa ran downstairs, and on reaching the kitchen, there in the wood bin she saw her notebook . . . it was wrapped in a piece of very clean white paper, and laid on one side against the edge of the bin. Josefa seized it—with what excited feelings can be imagined.

She spent two or three days in gratitude, not unmixed with shame at so much indulgence. . . .

On May 13th, during her adoration, Jesus appeared with arms extended:

“I begged His forgiveness, at once,” she wrote. “ ‘Forget it all,’ He said. ‘My Heart has wiped it out. Do not be discouraged, for My mercy is best shown in your frailty.’ ”

Then she implored Him not to tire of her and of her frailty and falls.

“Never does My Heart refuse to forgive a soul that humbles itself,” He answered, drawing near, “especially when it asks with confidence.

“Do you understand that, Josefa? I shall raise a great edifice on mere nothingness; that is to say, on your humility, surrender, and love.”

“Yo haré un gran edificio sobre la nada, es decir sobre tu humilidad tu abandono y tu amor.”

Our Lady was to have the last word in the closing stages of this trial.

Next day, Saturday, May 14th, she appeared to her child, who was just finishing the Stations of the Cross.

She was more beautiful than ever; her dress gleamed with silvery reflections and she smiled as she told her of the entry into Paradise of a soul for whom many prayers and sufferings had been asked.

“When she was about to go, I thanked her once more for the notebook.

“What did you want to do with it, my child?’ she asked.

“In spite of my shame, I told her the truth: ‘Alas, I meant to burn it!’

“ ‘It was I who prevented your doing that,’ she said; ‘when Jesus speaks, all Heaven listens in admiration to His words.’ ”

Josefa, who now understood better than ever the value of words from the lips of Jesus, was speechless with sorrow at what she had done.

“I asked her forgiveness and thanked her for not allowing the notebook to be lost.

“ ‘When you threw it away, I saved it. . . . The words of my Son,’ she said a few days later, ‘I leave here below only for the good of souls, otherwise I take them back to Heaven.’ ”

Josefa never tired of thanking this compassionate Mother who had come to her rescue so mercifully.

“I thought,” we read in her notes, “how very much she loves me and how wonderful is her tenderness for me.

“ ‘Ah! daughter, how should I not love you? . . . my Son shed His blood for all men . . . all are my children. But when Jesus selects one soul in particular, my Heart rests in her.’ ”

This oneness of love of Mother and Son was further confirmed by Our Lord; Josefa wrote on the 18th of May:

“After Communion, my soul was filled with such peace that I could not help saying: ‘O Jesus, I know Thou art here; I am certain of it . . . ’ Before I had finished whispering the words, He stood before me. His hands were extended, His face expressed the most loving tenderness, His Heart was escaping from His breast, and His whole Person shone with respendent light. It was as if a fire were burning within Him.

“ ‘Yes, Josefa, I am here. . . . ’

“I was beside myself . . . but regained sufficient hold on myself to beg His pardon, and to bewail my failings, miseries, and fears.

“ ‘If you are an abyss of miseries, I am an abyss of mercy and goodness.’

“Then, stretching out His arms towards me, He said: ‘My Heart is your refuge. . . . ’ ”

Thus ended the incident of the notebook: on Our Lord’s part a veritable effusion of mercy.

The devil tried many other ways of destroying the writings to which Our Lord attached so high a price. But he never succeeded.

On May 25th, feast of Saint Madeleine Sophie, who in 1921 was still only a Beata, Josefa recorded the first intervention of this holy Mother in her life. She had a very filial love for her, and notes in very simple words this favor which gave her new life and strength:

“Today, the feast of our Blessed Mother [Madeleine Sophie], I went into her cell many times to whisper a little prayer to her, and once (I was in my blue working apron) I just stood for a moment and said: ‘O Mother, once more I ask you to make me very humble, that I may be your true daughter!’ There was no one in the room and this little invocation escaped me out loud. Suddenly I became aware of the presence of an unknown nun. She took my head in her two hands, and pressed it lovingly, saying: ‘My child, commit all your frailties to the Heart of Jesus, love the Heart of Jesus, rest in the Heart of Jesus and be faithful to the Heart of Jesus.’

“I took her hand to kiss it, then with two fingers she made the Sign of the Cross in blessing on my forehead, and disappeared.”

This first meeting was followed by many others. Up and down the cloisters of Les Feuillants which her feet had so often trod, in her cell, in the shadow of the Tabernacle where she had prayed, Saint Madeleine Sophie showed herself to her child, with the same vivacious and ardent expression of countenance she was known to have had on earth, but now stamped with the light of glory. Josefa spoke to her with the same confidence and simplicity with which she had recourse to her mothers on earth. She listened to her counsels, confided all her difficulties to her, and under such motherly guardianship she felt her vocation safe.

However, Our Lord was teaching her humility by the experience of many falls, and did not free her from the natural frailty of her nature. He seemed almost to take pleasure in seeing the little novice prostrate in shame at His feet, so that He might constantly remind her of the mercy of His Heart, and sometimes He made use of the simplest comparisons to bring home to her His favorite lessons. “I begged of Him,” she wrote on the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, Thursday, May 26th, “to give me strength to conquer myself, for I do not yet know how to humble myself as He would like.”

This was during her prayer, and at once Our Lord made Himself manifest. “Do not be anxious, Josefa,” He said tenderly. “If you throw a grain of sand into a vase which is full to the very top, a little of the water will trickle out. If you throw in a second grain, more drops will come out. In the same way, in so far as I enter into your soul, you will become less and less occupied with yourself. But this will come about gradually and take time.”

Three days later, Sunday, May 29th, He amplified this thought and strengthened her for the labor which was to be long and costly.

“ ‘Why are you afraid? I know well what you are, but I say again: I do not mind your helplessness.

“ ‘When a little child toddles as it tries its first steps, his mother begins by holding his hand; later she lets go of him and urges him on to the effort of walking alone, but she stretches out protecting arms that he may not fall and hurt himself. Tell your Mother that the feebler a soul is the more it needs support, and is there anyone weaker than you?’

“ ‘My Heart takes comfort in forgiving. I have no greater desire, no greater joy, than when I can pardon a soul. When a soul returns to Me after a fall, the comfort she gives Me is a gain for her, for I regard her with very great love. Have no fear whatever. As you are nothing but wretchedness, I wish to make use of you. I will supply for all your deficiencies. . . . Let Me act in you.’ ”

This continual interchange of mercy on the one hand, and humble, generous love on the other, is repeated on every page of this life, and stands out as an essential lesson to be learned. But He who with such persevering longanimity gave it did not want Josefa to become absorbed in her failings, and everything was to become gain for souls.

[Stone]

BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER IV. LOVE’S VENTURES

CONCERNING THE SOULS OF THREE PRIESTS AND A SINNER, AND TWO CHOSEN SOULS June 1st–July 1921

“Do you want to be a comfort to Me?” (Our Lord to Josefa, June 14th, 1921)

“SOME time before the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I no longer remember the exact date,” wrote Josefa, “I saw Our Lord; His Heart bore three fresh wounds, and from each there flowed much blood.

“ ‘See what I want for My feast.’ ”

And as she expressed her grief at His sorrow:

“ ‘There are three priests who are wounding My Heart . . . offer all you do for them.’

“I said how poor I was that He might supply what is wanting to me. He replied with much love and clemency: ‘The greater your helplessness, the more My power will sustain you. I will make you rich with My gifts. If you are faithful to Me, I will take up My abode in you and will take refuge there, when sinners repulse Me. I shall rest in you, and you will have life in Me. Come to My Heart and there find all you need, even if it is what I have asked of you. Have confidence and love.’ ”

From that moment, suffering of both body and soul rarely left Josefa, till Friday June 3rd, Feast of the Sacred Heart, when the power of prayer and the mercy that responds to it were shown to her.

“During my prayer He opened His Heart for me to enter in: ‘Come,’ He said, ‘enter in, and continue to confide to Me all I have asked of you.’

“He gave me sweet repose after all the anguish of the preceding days. Then He, O! so beautiful . . . stayed near me . . . as if unable to restrain His joy. I spoke to Him of the three priests. ‘Pray to My Heart for them,’ He said; ‘they have not yet come back . . . but they are nearer.’ ”

Overjoyed at the sight of His beauty, Josefa alluded to the Feast, which she thought would have given Him so much glory.

“His Heart glowed at these words; never before had I seen Him so.

“ ‘Yes, today is the feast of My love. Souls, those that I love so much . . . they delight My Heart, coming as they do to seek strength and remedy in My Heart which so ardently desires to enrich them; that is what glorifies and consoles Me most.’

“He stayed to the end of meditation and then followed me to Mass.”

It is the custom in the Society on the Feast of the Sacred Heart for all the nuns to renew their vows before the Sacred Host at the moment of Communion. Josefa could hardly contain herself as she listened to the renovation uttered so earnestly by each of the community in turn.

“O! how happy I am in my dear Society . . .” she wrote.

“Suddenly I saw His Heart . . . at first, alone, immersed in a blazing furnace; then, as if a few fleecy clouds parted, Jesus Himself appeared. O! what beauty! . . . I know not what I said. . . . How can I thank Him for all He does for me?

“ ‘I will tell you how, Josefa. Take this Heart and offer It to your God. By It, you can pay all your debts. You know now what I wished to do when I attracted you to this house. I want you to fulfill My plans by the docility with which you allow yourself to be handled, and with which you surrender to My love, which only seeks to possess and consume you. Love will despoil you of self and allow you to think only of My glory and of souls.’

Then with increasing animation, He added: “ ‘Now pray . . . ask all you want . . . tell Me your desires.’

“Then I prayed for all I most desire—first for the Society, as is only natural, and at the same time I offered Him all those fervent acts of renovation for the three priests. . . . All day long I never ceased praying for them . . . I cannot say how often I repeated: ‘Lord, Thou hast told me that today souls give great joy to Thy Heart and gain many graces . . . cannot we gain those three priests? O! let Thy Heart be touched!’ ”

Towards three in the afternoon she went to the Novitiate, and as she passed the organ tribune she made another flying visit:

“To knock at the door of His Heart,” she wrote, “in order that He might no longer resist our supplications. He came at once, and as if He had not heard, He said to me: ‘What do you want? Tell Me.’

“ ‘But, my Jesus, Thou knowest . . . what of those three priests? . . . I implore Thee, since it is Thine own wish. . . . Thou alone canst do it.’ ”

Then with majestic solemnity and divine joy, pointing to His Heart, He said: “Josefa, they have returned to Me!” And, as if gripped by intense emotion, He continued: “If they had refused My grace, they would have been responsible for the loss of a great many souls.” And, as prostrate at His feet, she was mute with the joy that filled her, He added: “You will repeat these words every day: ‘O Jesus, by Thy most loving Heart, I implore Thee to inflame with zeal for Thy love and glory all the priests of the world, all missionaries and those whose office it is to preach Thy word, that, on fire with holy zeal, they may snatch souls from the devil and lead them into the shelter of Thy Heart, where forever they may glorify Thee.’ ”

Josefa never forgot that Feast of the Sacred Heart. She had witnessed the infinite joy of the Sacred Heart when His priests give Him all the love they owe Him. The prayer He had taught her became her daily petition and priestly souls the first and biggest intention of her consecrated life. A little secret note found only after her death proves that at this time Our Lord kept the thought of the missions constantly before her eyes.

“It was on June 11th (I was still afraid of betraying myself to those around me), when suddenly I saw Our Lord. I told Him of my fears, and with inexpressible tenderness He answered: ‘Remember My words and trust in them. The one desire of My Heart is to imprison you in It, to possess you in My love, and to make of your frailty and littleness a channel of mercy for many souls who will be saved by your means. Later on, I will reveal to you the burning secrets of My Heart, and they will be for the good of many souls. I want you to write and to keep all I say to you. It will be read when you are in Heaven. It is not for your merits that I use you, but that souls may see how My power makes use of weak and despicable instruments.’

“Recuerda mis palabras y ten fe. El deseo único de mi Corazón es aprisionarte y ahogarte en mi amor, hacer de tu pequeñez y flaqueza un canal de misericordia para muchas almas que se salvarán por tu medio. Mas tarde te descubriré los secretos mas amorosos de mi Corazón y ésto servira para hacer bien a muchas almas. Deseo que escribas y guardes cuanto Yo te diga. Todo se leerá cuando tu estés en el cielo, no es por tus méritos que quiero servirme de ti, es porque las almas vean que mi Poder se sirve de instrumentos débiles y miserables.”

“I asked Him if I was to say even that,” she wrote ingenuously.

“ ‘Write it; they will read it after you are dead.’ ”

Thus He gradually unveiled to her the great design of His love which was being prepared in the silence and labor of her working days. Of suffering there was to be enough, and Josefa, who advanced courageously towards humility, was not without frequent temptation. The devil tried to change into obstacles acts which she could have done so simply at another time; but Our Lady was there as always to enlighten, guide, and defend her.

“ ‘I used to tell her all that happened to me,” she wrote on the 13th of June, “but I was not expecting to see her, when she came like a loving Mother, so kind.

“ ‘Listen, daughter, do not pay any attention to what you feel. Believe me, the sharper your repugnance, the greater your merit in the eyes of your Master. Be on your guard about these three points by which the enemy of souls will endeavor to make you fall.

“ ‘First: Never give in to scruples which he suggests to you in order to make you give up Holy Communion.

“ ‘Second: When my Son asks anything of you—be it an act of humility or some other act, do it with great love, telling Him all the time: “Lord, Thou seest how much it costs me . . . but Thou first, and I afterwards.”

“ ‘Third: Pay no attention to the artifice of the devil who tries to persuade you that the confidence you have in your Mother subtracts something from your tenderness for Jesus. If he is able to master you in this matter, he will have gained everything.

“ ‘Open your heart in all confidence, and love your Mother without fear; always tell her with great simplicity what you think, all that worries you. Jesus also willed to love on earth those who represented His Father, and He is pleased when you are open and simple with her. But on no account ever omit a Communion: this I particularly recommend to you.’ ”

Who would not wonder at the thoughtful kindness of such motherly counsels! It was by following them implicitly that Josefa became in the hands of her Master the docile and supple instrument He was forging for His redemptive work.

“Tuesday, June 14th, Jesus the all beautiful came,” she wrote. “He bore in His hands the Crown of Thorns and He asked me with an expression of the most gracious mildness: ‘Will you comfort Me?’

“Of course, I assented at once . . . and He continued: ‘I want you to work at bringing back to Me a much-loved soul. Direct your attention and offer all you do for him. Often present My Blood to the Father. Kiss the ground in reparation for this outraged Blood trampled underfoot by the souls I so dearly love. If you obtain leave, I will tell you all you can do for him. I shall not infringe the Rule or any observance.’ ”

Our Lord’s attention to the observance of the Rule kept Josefa ever on the straight path.

“Have you leave from the Mother Assistant?” He said to her after Communion the next day.

“Thou knowest, dear Lord, that her one wish is to please Thee.” “I know it, but you must first submit to the will of your Superior, even before you do what I Myself ask you.”

Then He laid out a plan for days of oblation:

“ ‘When you awake, enter at once into My Heart, and when you are deep down in It, offer My Father all your actions united to the beating of My Heart. Unite all your actions to Mine, so that it will no longer be you, but I, that act in you.

“ ‘During Mass, present this soul that I want to save to My Father, so that He may pour over him the Blood of the Victim that is about to be immolated.

“ ‘When you go to Holy Communion, offer the divine wealth you then possess to pay that soul’s debt.

“ ‘During your prayer, place yourself beside Me in Gethsemane, share My anguish, and offer yourself to My Father as a victim ready to endure all that your soul is able to bear.

“ ‘When you take your food, think that you are giving Me that alleviation and do the same whenever you take pleasure in anything whatsoever.

“ ‘Do not be separated from Me even for one instant. Often kiss the ground. Do not omit to make the Stations a single day. If I need you, I will tell you.

“ ‘Look solely to My Will in all you do and accomplish it with the greatest submission.

“ ‘Humble yourself profoundly, but always joining confidence and love to your humility.

“ ‘Do everything out of love, and do not lose sight of what I suffered for souls.

“ ‘During the night you will rest in My Heart. Mine will hearken to the beats of yours which will stand as so many acts of love and desire. Thus you will bring back to Me that soul that so offends Me.’

“I asked Him to be indulgent with me, if one or other of these points is not done exactly as He wishes, for I am very weak.

“In the evening, during my adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, He came with bleeding hands and feet, and looking up to Heaven, He said: ‘Offer My Father the divine Victim and the Blood of My Heart for that soul.’

“He repeated the same words three times. I told Him of my desire to comfort Him and to carry out all He had explained to me.

“ ‘Do not be over-anxious; you possess My Heart for all I ask you to do.’ ”

Josefa was learning how great is the price of a soul’s salvation. For many weeks to come she was associated with Christ’s offering and redemptive sufferings, and step by step she followed the return of the wandering soul.

For the last few days a violent pain in her left side had been added to the many sufferings that were wearing her down. At times she was hardly able to breathe. Efforts to relieve her were quite ineffectual and the doctor’s diagnosis did not reveal anything abnormal. But in her heart she feared that this pain might be an obstacle to her religious life.

Again she turned to Mary and confided to her maternal Heart this anxiety, which far more than the pain oppressed her.

On Monday, June 20th, she was praying in the Noviceship oratory:

“Suddenly Our Lady came, and said sweetly to me: ‘Do not be anxious, daughter . . . tell your Mother that there is nothing to be afraid of. That pain is a spark from my Son’s Heart. When it is more intense, offer it up, for it signifies that at that moment a soul is offending Him grievously. Do not fear pain; it is a treasure both for you and for souls.’

“She gave me her blessing and was gone.”

That same evening, in the refectory, faithful to her Master’s injunction—

“I was offering up my food to Our Lord as He had taught me to do,” she wrote, “when suddenly I saw Him, and He said:

“ ‘Yes, give Me to eat, for I am hungry . . . give Me to drink, for I am thirsty. You know well what I am hungry and thirsty for . . . souls . . . the souls I love so much. You can give Me to drink.’ ”

“He stayed all through the meal. Then He said: ‘Come with Me . . . do not leave Me alone.’ ”

He was planning for her to follow Him along a path of increased pain, and the next day He manifested Himself to her during her thanksgiving: “Offer everything to My Father in union with My sufferings. I will make you spend three hours every day in the dire distress and anguish of My Cross, and it will profit that soul exceedingly.”

Josefa never hesitated to accept these missions of suffering. Though she dreaded the favors, the responsibility of which was ever present to her mind, she was ready to take on herself the Cross which was destined to save souls. This Our Lord knew, and He counted on her, and made further demands on her generosity.

On Thursday, June 23rd, at Holy Mass, He appeared again:

“ ‘Today, I want you to get leave to make a Holy Hour. You will offer that sinner to the Eternal Father, reminding Him that it was for him that I suffered the agonies of Gethsemane. You will offer Him My Heart and your sufferings united to Mine. . . . Tell your Mother that these pains are a trifle in comparison with the joy which will be Mine when that soul returns to Me.’

“That night,” continued Josefa, “I awoke, as the pain was very severe, and soon after, Jesus came, crowned with thorns: ‘I come that we may suffer together.’

“He joined His hands and remained long in prayer. If only you could see how beautiful He is, Mother! His eyes look heavenward, and there is such mournful sadness on His countenance . . . a luminous ray fell on His face, a sort of reflection of Heaven.”

Many days and nights passed. Josefa noted down visits from her Master, who told her again and again of His thirst for souls and of His hopes. She, so to speak, watched this pursuit of love which tracked the path of a soul in peril. But while He made her responsible before God, Jesus wanted her collaboration with Himself to be entirely disinterested. When she asked Him whether the sinner was nearer conversion, He answered her on Tuesday, June 28th, while she was busy working:

“ ‘Mark My words, Josefa: if you are really desirous of pleasing Me, do not concern yourself with anything else than suffering, while giving Me all I ask of you, without trying to know the “how” and the “when.” ‘

“That night,” her notes continued, “Wednesday, June 29th, at two in the morning, suddenly Our Lady came. I said something about that soul and begged her to ask Jesus to remove from him the occasions of sin and to give him the grace and strength to cast sin away. Her eyes filled with tears and she replied: ‘Oh, how low he has fallen . . . he let himself be deceived like a lamb . . . but take courage, do all my Son tells you, and ask Him to load on you the punishment that that sinner deserves. If you do this, divine justice will spare him. Do not shrink from suffering, Josefa, you will never lack the strength you need, and when you can bear it no longer, I myself will give you courage and relief. I am the Refuge of Sinners; that soul will not be lost.’ ”

The next day, Thursday, June 30th, Our Lord appeared to Josefa after Communion and showed her the Wounds in His hands and feet, and taught her to discover the invisible wound of love. “Look at My Wounds,” He said. “Adore them . . . kiss them . . . they were caused not by souls, but by love.”

And as she was mute, not knowing what to say, He repeated: “Yes, they are caused by the love I have for souls . . . a love of compassion for sinners. . . . Ah! did they but know . . .”

Then, in silence, Josefa let her Master stamp that invisible wound on her soul, so as to share it with Him, and relieve His pain. “The greatest reward I can give a soul,” He continued, “is to make her a victim of My love and mercy, rendering her like Myself, who am the divine Victim for sinners.”

On the first of July, Feast of the Precious Blood, and the First Friday of the month, Our Lady came to put her in mind of the redemptive value of His blood, which she must make use of for the sinner.

“Adore the Precious Blood of my Son, daughter,” she said to her, “and beg of Him to pour it on that soul, that he may be touched, forgiven, and purified . . .”

Thus, as day succeeded day, Josefa was kept face to face with her mission.

“Do not stop uniting your actions to Mine and offering My precious Blood to My Father. . . .”

“Never forget that you are the victim of My Heart.”

But Our Lord was far from confining Josefa’s horizon to one soul, and on Friday, July 8th, He entrusted to her two other souls of whom He said: “See how they pierce My Heart and rend My hands.”

He returned again during her adoration: “Look at My Heart. It is all love and tenderness, but there are those who do not recognize this.”

We can easily conjecture the energy and generosity of effort that were required of Josefa to carry on this twofold life: on the one hand, days and nights passed in contact with the invisible, which entailed so great a sacrifice; on the other, the fidelity with which she kept to her work and to the Rule. With matchless kindness Our Lord allowed her to share in His joys as Saviour.

“He came during my adoration, so beautiful,” she wrote on Saturday, July 9th, “and He said to me: ‘See, Josefa, one of those two souls has at last given Me what she had so long refused Me, but the other is very near being lost unless she succeeds in seeing her utter nothingness. . . . ’ ”

“Yes, offer yourself to obtain her forgiveness. A soul will profit even after the greatest sins, if she humbles herself. It is pride that provokes My Father’s wrath, and it is loathed by Him with infinite hatred.”

“I am in search of those who will humble themselves to repair for this pride.”

On Tuesday, July 12th, she wrote:

“At about four in the afternoon He returned. His face was so grave and beautiful, and there was a gaping wound in His Heart: ‘Give Me your heart, Josefa, that I may fill it with the bitterness of My own; and offer yourself to repair the pride of that soul. Do not refuse Me anything; I am your strength.’

“Then glancing heavenwards, He said: ‘Pride blinds her . . . she forgets that I am her God and that without Me she can do nothing. Why does she want to rise in this world? I want you often to fall down in adoration before My Father, and to offer Him the humility of My Heart. Do not forget that without Me a soul is nothing more than an abyss of wretchedness. . . . I will raise up the humble, and make little of their frailties, and even of their falls, provided they have humility and love.’ ”

Weeks went by without a moment’s respite for Josefa. The pain in her side, the Crown of Thorns, her aching limbs, her soul burdened with the weight of divine anger . . . everything reminded her of the charge given her by Love.

But Our Lady came to give her fresh courage.

“It was three in the morning,” she wrote on the 22nd of July.

“Suddenly she came, and putting her two hands on my shoulders, she said: ‘Child of my heart! I come to aid and assist you, for I am your Mother. Nothing of what you endure is useless. You will have to go through another big trial to save that proud soul. As soon as you feel the approach of temptation, reveal it at once. Then obey, obey, obey . . . ’

“I told her that these two things are what cost me most at present.

“ ‘Listen, Josefa; now is the time to submit your judgment to obedience, and so you will be expiating the pride of that soul. The devil has little influence over her while you struggle . . . you must suffer for souls, you must be tempted, for, mark you, the archfiend dreads your fidelity . . . but take courage.’

“She blessed me and disappeared.”

In the early dawn, Our Lord Himself came to confirm His Mother’s words. It was after her Communion, purchased by such a hard fight.

“He was so beautiful,” she wrote, “although He wore His Crown of Thorns and had many bleeding wounds.

“ ‘Look at My wounds and greet them with a kiss. Know you whence they come? Love. Know you who opened My Heart? Love. And who crowned Me with thorns? Love. If I have loved you so much as to refuse no suffering for your sake, cannot you, Josefa, suffer without refusing Me anything? . . . Abandon yourself to Me.’ ”

By such words, Josefa’s will was linked more strongly than ever to that of her Lord.

The fruit of so much suffering had meanwhile ripened through the long weeks of oblations and struggles, as Josefa was soon to learn.

On July 25th, Jesus reminded her of their mutual promise of August 5th, 1920: “If you are faithful I will make the riches of My Heart known to you. You will indeed share My Cross, but I Myself will be your consolation, for you are My well-beloved.”

Then He added significantly: “Never do I break My word.”

That same evening news of the sinner came indirectly to Les Feuillants, and they were full of hope.

“I do not know how to thank enough,” she wrote the next day, Tuesday, July 26th, “all the more that I was still under the impression left on me by His words: ‘Never do I break My word.’

“He came,” she continued, “and said to me: ‘The work is not yet completed; I shall show that soul still greater mercy. All I ask of you is to be faithful.’ ”

On Wednesday, August 3rd, towards evening, Our Lord appeared radiant and said: “At last the sinner that has made Me suffer so much is in My Heart, Josefa.”

The next day, it was of the soul whose pride wounded Him so grievously that He reminded Josefa: “I want that soul to return to Me as quickly as possible. Are you willing to suffer for her? . . . Offer everything you do today for that intention. I will return soon.”

“That same evening, Jesus intimated His coming to me,” she wrote, “and I went to the tribune of the Noviceship. Instantly He came. His Heart no longer bore the wound that for so long the proud soul He had told me of had inflicted on Him.”

“ ‘Come,’ He said, ‘draw near and rest. That soul is in My Heart . . . ’ ”

It was on August 14th that Our Lord definitely confirmed the salvation of those souls so dearly bought.

That evening Jesus said to Josefa: “That soul left by Me on earth to purify herself is now in Heaven. As for the sinner, My Heart has completely won him. He will comfort Me from now on by responding to My love. And you? . . .” He continued. “Do you love Me? . . . I have plans for you, plans of love . . . do not refuse Me anything.”

[Stone]

BOOK ONE - THE MESSENGER OF THE HEART OF JESUS

CHAPTER IV. LOVE’S VENTURES


A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY August 1921

“I wish to use you for a great undertaking.” (Our Lord to Josefa, July 26th, 1921)

IN August 1921 a work of reparation in which Our Lord had invited Josefa to cooperate came to a successful end. In order to follow it from day to day, we must go back to Tuesday, July 26th, when after Communion Our Lord had asked her: “Are you prepared to follow Me faithfully?”

“I told Him my fears on account of my weakness,” wrote Josefa, “but as regards my desires, He knows them well enough.

“ ‘I am about to make use of you for a great undertaking. You must bring back to My Heart a community that has wandered away from Me. I want these consecrated souls to come back here.’

“And He pointed to His Heart. I asked Him what I could do.

“ ‘Go on doing what I taught you to do for that sinner; offer all My blood; its price is infinite.’

“He came back towards midday, bearing a heavy cross,” continued Josefa.

“ ‘I come to bring you My Cross,’ He said. ‘I want to take it off My shoulders and lay it on yours.’

“Then He remained without a cross, and I was weighed down by such intense suffering that had He not given me special grace I could not have borne it.

“ ‘I have chosen nine souls for this work,’ He went on. ‘When I leave you, I will go to another, and so I shall always be comforted by one or other of My consecrated souls.’

“He remained in silence for a few minutes; then, as if speaking to Himself: ‘It is true that many wound Me by their ingratitude, but there are more souls in whom I can rest and who are My delight.’ ”

Josefa, thus weighed down, went to her ordinary work. Her Master was still present and He said to her: “Let us work together.”

As they were alone at the time, she occasionally knelt to adore Him and offer herself to His good pleasure.

“ ‘I want you not only to draw these souls closer to Me, but to pay their debt, so that they owe no further reparation to My Father,’ He explained.

“It was four o’clock when He said to me: ‘Now I am going, and I will come back when your turn comes round again.’

“He took His Cross and vanished . . . and all suffering left me.”

Henceforward, these long hours of expiation recurred at fixed periods, Our Lord going from one to another of the souls He had chosen to carry His Cross. After Communion on July 27th He appeared to Josefa: “I come to rest with you,” He said. “I want you to forget yourself and to comfort Me, to think of Me so much and love Me so vehemently that I alone fill your mind and aspirations. Do not be afraid of suffering. . . . I am powerful enough to take care of you.”

She at once spoke to Him of the work of love begun on the preceding day:

“And as if I had reminded Him of a great sorrow, He answered: ‘It is a tepid and relaxed community . . . ’

“Then, after a moment’s silence, He resumed: ‘But they will be Mine . . . They will return to My Heart. It is to bring them back that I have chosen nine victims. There is nothing of greater value than suffering, when united to My Heart. I shall bring you My Cross tonight. I shall come at midnight, for that is your hour when your turn comes round.’ ”

That same evening Our Lady came to entrust Josefa with a soul in peril:

“ ‘Till tomorrow I should like you to put all your enthusiasm into saving a child I dearly love,’ she said. ‘Jesus, casting His eyes upon her, had given her the treasure of a vocation; but she lost it by her want of correspondence. She will die tomorrow, and what pains me most is that she has thrown away her scapular. How much my heart would be comforted if this child could be saved.’

“She gave me her blessing and disappeared.

“I was unable to sleep all night, for I was in great distress at the thought of this child so near her death. Besides, there was the pain in my side, the Crown of Thorns, and all the accumulated sufferings of each night. Towards midnight Jesus came with His Cross. He stayed beside me, but without the Cross, which I felt weighing on my body as a crushing load, while my soul was oppressed with unspeakable sadness.”

The weight of this invisible Cross pressed on Josefa’s right shoulder, and doubled her in two, almost crushing her. Her breathing, already so painful on account of the pain in her side, became more and more labored, and efforts to help her were quite ineffectual.

“Suffer with courage,” Our Lord said to her, “that My religious may let themselves be pierced by this arrow of love.” And from His Heart there issued a ray of fire.

“Kiss My hands and My feet, and repeat after Me: ‘Father, is not the blood of Thy Son of sufficient value? What more dost Thou require? His Heart, His wounds, His blood . . . He offers Thee all for the salvation of these souls.’ ”

“I repeated the words after Him,” wrote Josefa next day. “There were long pauses of silence. I think He was praying, for His hands were clasped and He was looking up to Heaven . . . At four in the morning He said: ‘Now I leave you, for another of My beloved ones awaits Me. You know there are nine of you . . . all chosen by My Heart. . . . I will return tomorrow at one o’clock and will give you My Cross again. . . . Adieu, I was thirsty and you have slaked My thirst. I shall be your reward.’ ”

On Friday, July 29th, at one in the afternoon, as He had said, Jesus returned with His Cross. “I have come,” He said, “to make you share in the bitterness of My Heart, which is oppressed with sorrow.”

He gave her His Cross, which at once plunged her whole being into the pain she had already experienced these last two days.

“Much blood poured from the wound in His Heart,” she wrote.

“ ‘Repeat after Me,’ He told her: ‘ “Eternal Father, look upon those souls reddened with the blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ, the Victim which is unceasingly offered Thee. Will this blood which purifies, burns and consumes, be powerful enough to touch these souls? . . .” ‘

“He remained in silence for a few minutes. I repeated the words several times; then He spoke with energy: ‘Yes, I want them to return to Me. I want them to burn with love, while I am consumed for them with sorrowful love.’

“Then He added sadly: ‘Ah, if souls only understood how ardently I desire to communicate Myself to them! But how few do understand . . . and how deeply this wounds My Heart.’

“I comforted Him as best I could, and begged Him to forget for a while the souls that grieved Him, and to think rather of those that love and console Him. His Heart seemed to expand at these words.

“ ‘I am the one joy of souls. Why do they go away from Me?’

“ ‘Dear Lord, all do not go away . . . and if we often fall, it is because of our frailty. . . . Thou knowest it well!’

“ ‘I would condone their falls . . . and I am not unmindful of their wretchedness, but what I want is that they should not remain deaf to My appeal and that they should not turn away from the arms outstretched to raise them up.’

“From one to four in the afternoon I spent in offering His blood and all His merits to the Father, and in repeating the prayer He had taught me.”

In the silence that surrounded her, Josefa resumed her work as soon as Jesus had taken away His Cross, but her soul still bore the dolorous impress of the secret imparted to her by Our Lady.

Her hour of guard recurred on the evening of Saturday, July 30th:

“I was going up the school stairs, when I met Him with His Cross. He told me that He was waiting for me. After asking His leave to put away the work I was carrying,” she continued, “I went to the room where I sleep, and found Him waiting.”

Then, she spoke to Him of the soul that had been unfaithful to her vocation, and had been placed in her keeping by Our Lady.

Since the day before, when the fury of the devil had made her suffer much, she knew through Our Lady that this much-loved child had escaped the infernal assaults. But during the preceding night she had appeared to her in the pains of Purgatory, begging her intercession that her sufferings might be shortened. Josefa was much affected by this first contact with Purgatory, and she confided her fears to Our Lord: “Lord, if a person of the world can suffer such torments, what must not a religious endure? That is, if she does not use the graces she receives in such abundance. . . .”

“Quite true,” was the reply.

Then with great tenderness He comforted her:

“ ‘When one of My religious falls, I am always there to raise her up, if she humbles herself lovingly. A soul’s wretchedness matters little provided her one desire is to glorify and console Me. In her very lowliness she obtains many graces for others.

“ ‘I love humility . . . and it is pride that turns so many away from Me.

“ ‘I want your sacrifices and zeal to draw souls, especially consecrated ones, to My Heart. I want your desire to see Me loved and to gain souls to Me to consume you, and your love to comfort Me.’

“He then kept silence for a long time, and I said everything I could to comfort Him . . . and I spoke to Him of a soul that needs His help.

“ ‘If she does not look for strength in My Heart, where will she find it? Love gives strength, but self must be forgotten.’

“Then I said: ‘Lord, forgive us; we are so feeble.’

“ ‘When a soul ardently desires to be faithful to Me, Josefa, I uphold her in her weakness, and even her falls are a call on My mercy and clemency. But she must forget herself, and make efforts in all humility, not for her satisfaction, but for My glory.’ ”

We have now reached August 3rd, when Jesus, having conquered the sinner that had cost Josefa so much suffering, appeared, saying: “That sinner is now in My Heart.”

That same evening, on going to the dormitory, as she drew back the curtain of her cubicle she found her Master with His Cross waiting for her there.

“Take My Cross,” He said. “I come to rest in you. Ah, if religious souls but knew how great My love for them is and how they wound Me by their coldness and tepidity! These souls do not know the dangers they run by neglecting their faults. They begin by a small infidelity and end by relaxation. Today, they grant themselves a slight indulgence; tomorrow, they are deaf to an inspiration of grace, and little by little without realizing it they allow their love to grow cold.”

And to make Josefa realize where alone lie the safeguards of fidelity, He gave her this valuable lesson: “I will tell you now, Josefa, how to open your heart to your Mother in all simplicity and humility.”

The point in question is that openness with Superiors, which is spontaneous and always free in the religious life.

“I want you to be holy, very holy, and you will only become so by the path of humility and obedience. . . . I will show you all this by degrees. . . .”

Before leaving her, He concluded with these words: “I advise you always to keep before your eyes, and rooted in your heart these two important principles. First: God has specially cast His eyes on you, to manifest His power the better, by raising a great edifice on foundations of utter insufficiency. Second: If He wants to lead you to the right and you insist on going to the left, the loss of your soul is assured. Lastly, Josefa, let the result of all this be a deeper consciousness of your own powerlessness and a more complete surrender of yourself into the hands of your God.”

This lesson of confidence and humility is so dear to the Heart of Jesus that He will come back upon it many a time yet.

The following counsels found in Josefa’s notes and carefully preserved by her are enlightening.

“I wish to make known to you the most intimate attractions of My Heart. I have already told you with what simplicity you must confide in your Mother and open your soul to her without allowing yourself the smallest reservation in your avowals. Today I wish to advise you never to lose an occasion of humbling yourself. When you are free to make or not make one of these costly acts, go and do it.

“I want you to give an account to your Mother of the efforts you have made, and of the occasions you have either made use of or lost. The better you know what you are, the better you will know what I am.

“Never go to rest at night with the slightest shadow obscuring your soul. This I recommend to you with great insistence. When you commit a fault, repair it at once. I wish your soul to be as pure as crystal.

“Do not let your falls, however many, trouble you. It is trouble and worry that keep a soul from God.

“I want you to be very little and very humble, and always gay. Yes, I want you to live in joy, while endeavoring all the time to be something of an executioner to self. Often choose what costs you, but without loss of joy and gladness, for by serving Me in peace and happiness you will give the most glory to My Heart.”

This very clear statement kept Josefa in the straight path and at the same time taught her that it was the only one in which, following their Master, the workers of His Redemption must tread.

Thus the “great undertaking”—for this was Our Lord’s name for it—went on. Josefa continued to carry the Cross which Jesus gave to the nine chosen souls in turn, so that the consecrated souls He was pursuing might be brought back to fervor. This work was, however, about to be completed.

During Mass on August 5th He came resplendent in beauty:

“ ‘I want you,’ He said, ‘to burn with love of Me. I have already made it clear to you that you will find happiness nowhere but in My Heart. I want you to love Me . . . I hunger for love . . . but I also want you to burn with desire to see Me loved, and this must be the one food of your soul.’

“I said many endearing things to Him, and Jesus continued:

‘Every day after Communion repeat with all the fervor of which you are capable: “Heart of Jesus, may the whole world be set on fire with Thy love.”’ ”

It was in this kind of fiery fervor that she spent the day “full of ardent desires” as she herself noted.

Towards nightfall she went up to the dormitory. Jesus was waiting for her: “Take My Cross and let us go and suffer for souls.”

After a moment’s silence, He added: “If My consecrated souls have reflected that I am all love, and that My supreme desire is to be loved in return, why do they treat Me as they do?”

Then He explained to Josefa how love enhances the smallest acts:

“ ‘When a soul does a costly act out of self-interest or to please herself, but not out of love, she gains little merit. On the other hand, a very little thing offered with great love consoles My Heart so much that It inclines towards her, and forgets all her worthlessness.

“ ‘Yes,’ He repeated, ‘My one desire is to be loved. If souls but knew the excess of My love they would not disregard it . . . that is why I go seeking them out and spare nothing to get them to come back to Me.’

“He said all this in a very moving way; it was a veritable cry of Love; then He remained long in silence, as if in prayer. At eleven o’clock, He left me, saying: ‘Suffer with great love . . . never cease offering My blood for souls. And now give Me back My Cross.’ ”

Three days passed during which besides the mysterious pains that associated Josefa with the Cross of Christ, a costly offering had been asked of the whole house: the changes usual in all religious congregations now demanded of Les Feuillants the sacrifice of their Superior. Josefa, with all her Mothers and Sisters, shared in this meritorious offering, and Our Lord used it to finish His work.

Monday, August 8th, was to be for Les Feuillants one of those days treasured by the Heart of Jesus when Mothers and Sisters, united in the fervent offering of a costly sacrifice, bid good-bye to one they love.

After Communion Our Lord showed Himself to Josefa: “Those souls must come back to Me without further delay. Pray hard that they may allow grace to penetrate them. Although you can do no more than desire to see Me loved, this is already much. It relieves My Heart. For this longing is love. Those religious are soon going into retreat; offer yourself, that love may pierce them through and through.”

That evening at seven o’clock, Jesus returned, this time without His Cross, His Heart and Wounds shining brightly. Josefa hardly dared believe in the hope, which she felt, at the sight of the radiance of His sacred face. She asked for the Cross.

“No,” He answered, “these souls no longer wound My Heart. I accepted for their benefit the sacrifice made by this household today, for I found much love here. Tomorrow that religious community will go into retreat, and soon will become for My Heart a refuge of much consolation.”

Thus ended this tale of divine mercies. Josefa, too, was about to enter on a new phase of her life.

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CHAPTER V. SEARCHING TRIALS

PART I. FRESH TRIALS August 26th–October 1921

“Do not be afraid of suffering. If you could but see how many souls have come back to the Heart of Jesus while you were tempted.” (Our Lady to Josefa, October 24th, 1921)

OUR Lord’s admirable plan for Josefa’s life brought her to a new phase at this time:

At the end of August 1921 a more stringent dependence was imposed on her, and we see this reflected in her notes. She was told not to respond to the appeals of her Master outside the times of common prayer, without a special permission. Perhaps this order indicated a certain doubt about her state in the mind of those over her. . . . The new Superior of the house who, by the express wish of Our Lord, had been fully informed on her arrival of all that was taking place, felt it to be her duty to spare no pains to guarantee the authenticity of the mysterious path into which God was leading Josefa, and it seemed to her that prudence prescribed a wise delay and much circumspection. Josefa submitted with her whole heart to all the directions of obedience. She knew the Heart of Christ too well to allow a doubt to cross her mind or shake her confidence; she knew too the exacting fidelity her Master expected of her in connection with His great undertaking. No hesitation, therefore, troubled for a moment her supernatural and simple obedience to the decisions of her Superior. But great was the cost to herself, reserved as she was in this domain, to be obliged to speak, explain, answer questions, and henceforth submit all to the twofold control of both Mothers, and feel by the very fact that she was under stricter observation.

Nevertheless, all in Josefa’s life was divinely linked together. In that very hour God’s action appeared so evident that no lasting doubt about this child of His was found possible. God gave the authentic sign by her fidelity and detachment that nothing was able to impair. Then too the devil, to whom was given the dreaded power of sifting the precious wheat of these acts of divine love, found that Our Lord had surrounded His work with a rampart of protection, which in the event was able to resist all the attacks of the enemy.

Thus a new and unpredictable phase of her life opened for Josefa, which was to end in the happy day of her First Vows.

Les Feuillants was a big household, where children abounded, and there in the midst of a numerous community, although Josefa was the eldest member of the little Noviceship, she remained in complete effacement, laborious and devoted as ever. The Superior and the Mother Assistant alone were the guardians of the secret work accomplished under their eyes. But the sure and vigilant support of Rev. Father Boyer O.P., Prior of the Dominicans, who was appointed by Our Lord Himself to cooperate in His designs, laid many anxious fears to rest, and unmasked the snares of the evil one.

So, enveloped by all these guarantees and safeguards, Josefa was led by Our Lord into the dark night of her greatest trial, one which would end only on the day of her religious consecration (July 1922). It was a baptism of pain which bound her to the redemptive work of which she was to be the witness and collaborator, before becoming its messenger.

The hour of the Prince of Darkness had struck, and Josefa entered the lists against him. She was now to meet him at every turn. But Our Lord fought in her, and was preparing the most humiliating of defeats for Satan. He would make him feel the limit of his efforts, the stupidity of his futile devices and the impotence of his guile. If at times He left the devil an appearance of facile triumph, if He abandoned Josefa to the wiles of an adversary who seemed to master her, if He allowed her descent into the bottomless pit, He nevertheless remained in possession of the soul which He had made His willing victim and sustained her by the fidelity of His love. Never was He more present within her than in the hours of her martyrdom, when alone the divine power could act as a counterpoise of trials and humiliations that escape ordinary human experience. By means of the frail instrument that Josefa was, we can see a combat between God and Satan, between charity and hatred, between merciful love yearning to make its affection known to mankind and the enemy of souls whose awareness of a heavenly scheme made him rage against it with satanic fury.

All the demon’s efforts during that long period of nine months were centered and concentrated on the destruction of Josefa’s religious vocation before it was too late. He spared nothing to bend her to his will: violent temptations, fear of a crushing responsibility by which he terrified her, perfidious falsehoods that alarmed her conscience, deceptive and menacing appearances, blows, abductions, and burnings . . . all were hurled at the frail child, as a tornado, in which it would seem she must suffer shipwreck.

That she did resist with incredible energy, was surely a result of her habitual simplicity in the performance of duty, and still more of her loyalty and obedience in letting herself be guided. Above all, she was sustained by a divine strength which never forsook her, though it was veiled at times, and by the power of the Blessed Sacrament imparted to her by her daily Communions.

During the last days of August occasional celestial visitations were granted to her, bracing her will for the struggle ahead.

On Friday, August 26th, at nine in the morning Josefa, faithful to the instructions she had been given, knocked at her Superior’s door. She was wrapt in recollection which gave the impression that she was accompanied by an invisible Presence. In a few words she asked leave to follow Our Lord for a few minutes.

“For,” she said, “He is here.”

Her lowered eyes, the expression of her face, her prayerful attitude, the effort those few words had cost her, spoke for themselves.

“As I left you, Reverend Mother,” she wrote later, “I said to Our Lord: ‘I have permission.’ He was walking beside me and He led me to the tribune. I began by saying what you had told me to say: ‘If Thou art really He whom I believe Thee to be, Lord, deign not to take offense if I am made to ask leave every time, before listening to Thee and following Thee.’ He replied: ‘I am not offended; on the contrary, I want you always to obey and I also will obey.’

“He looked like a poor man when He said this, then He added:

“ ‘Your Superiors please Me in ascertaining with so much earnestness whether or no it is I. Remain united to Me all day, and repair for many souls, Josefa.’ ”

With incomparable sweetness Our Lord consented to submit to the requirements which henceforth surrounded His visits. This fidelity of His Heart, fortifying that of His child, put the seal of divinity on His Presence; moreover, during the months of August and September 1921, while bowing to the restrictions imposed, He changed nothing in His intercourse with Josefa and continued as before to ask her for the help of her offerings for souls.

“On Thursday, September 1st,” wrote Josefa, “He came after Communion. When He began to speak His voice was very sad.

“ ‘I want you to comfort Me,’ He said. ‘Great is the coldness of souls . . . and how many blindly throw themselves into Hell. I should like to leave you My Cross as I used to do.’

“Afterwards, when I had asked leave, He led me to the oratory of Saint Stanislaus and there He said: ‘If I were unable to find souls to solace Me and draw down mercy, justice could no longer be restrained.’

“A little later, He continued: ‘My love for souls is so great that I am consumed with desire to save them. But O! how many are lost, and how numerous are those who are waiting for the sacrifices and sufferings that are to obtain for them the grace to forsake their evil ways. . . . However, I still have many souls who love Me and belong to Me. A single one of them can purchase pardon for a great many others who are cold and ungrateful.

“ ‘I want you to burn with desire to save souls. I want you to throw yourself into My Heart and to make My glory your sole occupation.

“ ‘I will return this evening, that you may slake My devouring thirst and I shall take My rest in you.’

“At the beginning of the Holy Hour, He returned, as He had said:

“ ‘Let us go and offer ourselves as victims to My Eternal Father. Let us prostrate ourselves in profoundest adoration in His Presence . . . and worship Him, offering Him our thirst for His glory. Make oblation and repair in union with the divine Victim.’

“He said all this very slowly, then a little before the end of the Holy Hour, He went away.”

A few days later Our Blessed Lady appeared to Josefa; she came to encourage her, for Josefa was troubled by many secret conflicts.

“ ‘You little know how much I who am your Mother, Josefa, want you to be faithful, but not to grieve. All Jesus asks of you is surrender to His Will; He will do the rest.’

“I explained to her how much it cost me to have to tell all those things now, not only to the Mother Assistant, but to Reverend Mother as well.

“ ‘The more Jesus asks of you, the more you must rejoice, dear child,’ answered Our Lady, and, as if to root her in humble distrust of self: ‘When we look at a masterpiece, it is not the paint brush that excites our wonder, but the hand of the artist. So, Josefa, if it comes about that great things are wrought through you, do not for a moment attribute them to yourself, for Jesus alone does them—He who lives in you, it is He who uses you. Thank Him for so much goodness . . . be very faithful in little things as in great ones, without considering the cost. Obey Jesus, obey your Mothers and be humble and abandoned. Jesus is taking care of your littleness, and you know that I am your Mother!’ ”

On Thursday, September 8th, Our Lord allayed her fears, and gave her the secret of courage. “Let your sole occupation be to love Me; Love will give you strength.”

But love, too, was to keep her ever busy about souls. “There is a soul that greatly wounds Me,” He told her on Tuesday, September 13th, “and I come to get comfort from you. . . . Go and ask leave to stay with Me a little while; I will not keep you long. Do not fear if you feel utterly undone, for I want you to share the anguish of My Heart. . . . Ah! poor soul . . . she is on the brink of the abyss.”

“For three hours of the night of the 14th–15th, He left me His Cross and His Crown.”

The same thing happened on the following nights, and during several days; Josefa thus cooperating towards the return of the erring soul.

At the close of the night of September 24th–25th, which was spent in terrible anguish and pain . . .

“Suddenly,” Josefa wrote, “all suffering vanished. A sense of immense peace took possession of my soul. Jesus was there, resplendent in light; His raiment looked as if it were made of gold, and His Heart was ablaze.

“ ‘We have won that soul,’ He said.

“I gave thanks and adored Him with deepest reverence, for all God’s Majesty was in Him, and after asking forgiveness for my sinfulness, I begged Him to keep me faithful, for I am so weak. . . . However, He knows I have no other wish than to console and love Him.

“ ‘Do not worry about your miseries; My Heart is the Throne of Mercy and the most wretched are the best welcomed, as long as they come to lose themselves in the abyss of My love.

“ ‘My eyes are upon you because you are little and helpless. I am your strength, and now let us go and gain other souls . . . but first rest a while in My Heart.’ ”

This repose was not to be of long duration, and to gain other souls more than she had ever hitherto had to suffer was to be demanded of Josefa. On the same day, Sunday, September 25th, began the phase of great temptations which at first remained in her silent soul, but which quickly acquired a strange influence on her mind.

This was true: it was a desperate fight. Under the most violent attacks of the devil, Josefa kept repeating: “I will be faithful or die.” Soon, however, she imagined herself to be abandoned and repulsed by God.

Two or three times peace was instantly restored to her fevered mind when she remembered certain words of her Master. In these rare moments of truce her whole soul at once recaptured a love so ardent as to be inexpressible. Then, how evident her sincerity became, how well witnesses realized the martyrdom she was enduring and her attachment to the vocation which was costing her so dear and which she loved above all else in the world!

At other times her distress was so poignant that no human aid was capable of helping her. She was crushed with sorrow. Her Communions were bought at the price of a huge effort of faith and courage which at times triumphed only at the very last moment, for the devil sought desperately, though in vain, to deprive her of the Bread of Life for which her soul longed.

A month passed, and no outward sign betrayed the violence of the combat. In spite of the fact that her sufferings continued without a break, she never failed to carry out her duties and all the observances of religious life; and always she could be found, silent and courageous, at her allotted task. But the devil redoubled his attacks.

“I was desperate,” she wrote on Monday, October 17th. “It was the feast of Saint Margaret Mary, and after Communion I implored her to obtain for me the grace to be faithful and to die without ever being separated from Him. The whole day I continued a prey to that terrible temptation.”

The next day she rose, still under the influence of this diabolic temptation and decided to leave all and go.

“At the hour of Mass I went to sweep the corridor of the cells,” she wrote, “when suddenly in a flash I was encompassed with peace, and at the same time came the thought ‘could I possibly do without Him?’ At that moment all my temptations vanished as if they had never been. I ran to the chapel and was just in time to receive Holy Communion.”

Often again in the midst of demoniacal assaults, Josefa was to be suddenly delivered, with a completeness that could be attributed only to heavenly intervention.

But not for long did the devil desist; he prowled around her, seeking to exploit any and every occasion on which her will might waver. On His side Our Lord, who knew what intense struggles still awaited her which she could not sustain unaided, urged upon her total and simple recourse to her guides, which had the effect of keeping her humble, while it doubled her power of resistance. At the same time, He did not hide from her how great were the tribulations still awaiting her.

On Thursday, October 20th, He appeared to her with His Heart burning, and showing her a chalice which He held in His hand, He said: “Josefa, you have drunk only a small portion of it yet, but I am here to defend you.”

The prospect of further heavy trials overwhelmed Josefa, and for a moment her courage wavered. How could she accept them? It was but a momentary weakening, yet how painful to her loving heart. She spent four days in very great disturbance of mind, and it was the visit of Our Lady which as usual brought her peace. “Do not fear pain and suffering,” she said, “I wish you could see how many souls have come back to Jesus while you were under temptation.”

And the Master, ever compassionate and close to those in suffering, answered her call for pity the next day, October 25th: “I am here because I heard your call.”

In the confusion of mind into which the devil threw her, Josefa, always fearful of having given in, asked piteously what she could do to repair. “There is one thing that you must do, Josefa: love, love, love!”

Love therefore remained the first and the last word of the battle in which she was about to be engaged.

[Stone]

CHAPTER V. SEARCHING TRIALS

PART II. OPEN PERSECUTION November 1921–February 1922

“I will give you courage for anything I ask you to endure.” (Our Lord to Josefa, November 29th, 1921)

FOR several weeks more Josefa continued faithfully drawing up the notes of all that happened to her. It was an effort of obedience all the more costly for its sincerity.

“From the 11th of November,” she wrote, “I no longer enjoyed a single moment of peace, and both my nights and days were spent in extreme distress.”

“I was relieved,” she wrote on Monday, November 21st, “by the pact they have made me make with Our Lord, asking Him that each breath and every beat of my heart may be so many acts of faith and love, which will speak to Him of my determination to be faithful unto death. This gave me great peace.”

A heavenly ray of light pierced through her dark night. On the morning of Tuesday, November 22nd, she was, as usual, sweeping the rooms of which she had the charge, when:

“Two hands were gently pressed upon my shoulders. I turned and saw Our Lady, in all her loveliness and so motherly. My heart gave a bound of joy, and she said sweetly: ‘My daughter, my poor, poor, child!’

“I begged her forgiveness and implored her to intercede with Jesus for me.”

This was ever Josefa’s first impulse, for the sensitiveness of her conscience always made her fear that when in tribulation she might have wounded the Heart of her Master, even without knowing it.

“ ‘Have no fear, Josefa,’ Our Lady replied. ‘Jesus has contracted an alliance of love and mercy with you. You are forgiven, and as I have already told you: I am your Mother.’

“I hardly know what I said, as I was overflowing with happiness; every time she comes I find her more motherly. I thanked her, and begged her to obtain for me from Jesus, the return of His Crown.

“ ‘Yes, He will give it back to you, and if He does not bring it Himself, I will do so.’

“That evening, during adoration, my beautiful Jesus came. He held the Crown of Thorns in His hands. As soon as I saw Him, I told Him how contrite I was, and added all the tenderest things I could think of, so that He would take pity on me.

“He came close to me and with loving graciousness placed the Crown of Thorns on my head.

“ ‘I want you to reflect deeply on the words of My Mother: “I have contracted an alliance of love and mercy with you.” Does love ever grow weary or mercy come to an end?’ ”

“Three days later, after Communion, Jesus came in all the Majesty of God,” said Josefa on Friday, November 25th. “He showed me His Heart surrounded by flames, the Wound opened, and He said: ‘See how My Heart is consumed with love for souls! You, too, must burn with desire for their salvation. I want you to go deep into this Heart today and to make reparation with It. Yes, we must repair,’ He repeated. ‘I am the great Victim, and you are a very little one, but if you are united to Me, My Father will listen to you.’

“After a moment or two He vanished.”

On Saturday, November 26th, Josefa was working with her usual industry at the children’s uniforms in the Noviceship work-room, when suddenly Jesus rejoined her.

“ ‘I want you to ask leave of your Mother that I may stay with you a few moments.’

It may with reason surprise readers that on one or two occasions Our Lord, who is Master and Sovereign and needs no permission from anybody, was pleased to act with such deference towards those into whose charge He had committed Josefa. Was it not perhaps to teach her the humble submission she owed her Superiors? In any case He was only confirming His own words: “I too will obey.” The lesson sank deep and bore fruit. Josefa was given it that she might transmit the message to other religious souls.

“I went at once to ask for it, then on to the Chapel of the Congregations, where He came with His Cross.

“ ‘I have given you a little rest, Josefa; now let Me repose in you. I should like to give you My Cross for a few minutes. Are you willing?

“ ‘I have so many who forsake Me and are lost! And what wounds Me most is that they are souls whom I have chosen specially and overwhelmed with gifts. In return, they show Me only coldness and ingratitude. How few souls correspond with My love!’ ”

Our Lord then gave her His Cross and disappeared without another word.

Monday, November 28th, Josefa noted in a few laconic words the trial that henceforth was to leave her no respite. Fresh power had been granted to Satan, and for the first time she heard the raucous voice that was so often to pursue her, night or day, in the corridors, in the noviceship, in the workroom and dormitory: “You will be one of us . . . we shall tire you out . . . we shall overcome you . . .” She was terrified by it, but bore up bravely.

That evening she wrote:

“During adoration Jesus came with His Cross. I asked Him to let me have it, and He answered: ‘Yes, that is why I have come. Give Me rest, and make reparation for all that My souls refuse to give Me. How many are not what they ought to be!’

“He left me His Cross for an hour, and when He took it back He only said: ‘I will soon return.’

“That night, I think it was nearly midnight when I awoke. He was there: ‘I bring you My Cross, and we shall go together to make reparation.’ ”

She owned humbly that she felt faint under the weight that was crushing her.

“I begged Him to help me,” she wrote, “for He knows very well how small I am.

“ ‘Do not regard your littleness, Josefa; look rather at the power of My Heart sustaining you. I am your strength and the repairer of your abjectness. I will give you courage for anything I ask you to endure.’

“Then He left me alone and returned about three o’clock. ‘Give Me back My Cross, I will soon return to you.’ ”

At daybreak on Tuesday, the 29th, He brought it back during meditation. It weighed on Josefa’s shoulder, while Jesus went with her to her work and to Mass. After Communion He reminded her of the secret of all true generosity: “Now you have life in Me; I am your strength. Courage, then, and carry My Cross.”

“I went to work, still carrying His Cross,” she said simply.

But soon the Cross of Our Lord was to weigh upon her in quite a different manner.

“Since that day,” she wrote, “I suffered many things from the devil.”

A new trial was added in the night of December 4th. Pulled violently from her bed, she was thrown to the ground, under the fiendish blows. Long hours were so spent, and the torture renewed on the two following nights. After one such terrible night, she wrote on the morning of Tuesday, December 6th:

“Unable to bear any more, I knelt beside my bed. Suddenly I heard gnashing of teeth and a yell of rage. Then all vanished and before me stood Our Lady, all loveliness.

“ ‘Do not fear, my daughter; I am here.’

“I told her how terrified I was of the devil, who made me suffer so much.

“ ‘He may torment you, but he has no power to harm you. His fury is very great on account of the souls that escape him . . . souls are of such great worth . . . If you but knew the value of a soul . . . ’

“Giving me her blessing, she said: ‘Do not fear.’ I kissed her hand and she went away.”

After this maternal reminder of the great worth of a soul, and of the great price that must be paid for it, the Mother and Son disappeared for a time from Josefa’s dolorous path. She wrote nothing more about her daily encounters, through which, by one torment after another, her generous love was ripening and being strengthened.

Although Josefa wrote nothing, the account of this phase of her life was noted day by day, as the facts were revealed. This allows us to glance back over events and endeavor to gauge the poignant reality of her sufferings.

On Tuesday, December 6th, as she was coming out of the Chapel where she had just been to Confession, Josefa was suddenly faced, for the first time, with an infernal vision; a huge black dog, whose open jaws sent forth flames, barred her passage and tried to throw itself upon her. She did not draw back, but braved the oncoming beast, notwithstanding the terror that seized her; grasping her rosary, and stretching it out before her, she went her way.

From that day on the devil appeared visibly to her; sometimes a menacing hound that pursued her in the corridors, at others a serpent coiled up in front of her. Soon the apparition took on a human form, more to be dreaded than any other.

These encounters increased in number from day to day, without succeeding in modifying in any way her fidelity and devotedness; but God knows at what a price, and what courage she displayed!

The hour was about to strike when a more intense trial would call for still greater abandonment.

On Wednesday, December 28th, she was returning in the evening from the work she had been doing with the other novices, when she abruptly found herself face to face with the arch-enemy. With lightning-like rapidity and as though she had been a bit of straw, he carried her off and threw her down in a loft which was difficult of access and at the other end of the house. Josefa never had a moment’s peace after that day. The devil seized her, baffling every attempt to guard her, with the one exception of God’s care. These abductions became more numerous; under the very eyes of her Mothers, who tried not to lose sight of her, she suddenly disappeared, impossible to say how, for it all happened in a flash. After searching everywhere, they might find her in some remote corner of the house where the demon had carried her to persecute her. But Jesus who loved her so much was aware and watchful. He meant to show that He was the Master, and that He reserved this divine guardianship to Himself. When His hour struck He intervened to claim His rights. The devil with blasphemous execrations relinquished his victim—God’s might had made the infernal attempt fail. Then Josefa stood up once more, worn out indeed, but conscious of all; her courage revived and she prayed and resumed her interrupted work. The enemy never succeeded in overcoming her unconquerable energy, and the frail creature, clothed with the strength of God, was sheltered by His love.

The fury of Satan increased tenfold in the face of this unexpected resistance. He tried to reveal to all eyes her sufferings which had hitherto remained secret, but in spite of his efforts no one ever became aware of Josefa’s disappearances.

From time to time a bright interval lighted up her dark and murky way, then, out of obedience, Josefa resumed her notes:

“On January 1st, 1922,” she wrote, “a little after the Elevation, I heard the voice of a tiny child which filled me with delight: ‘Josefa, do you recognize me?’

“At once there stood before me Jesus; He seemed to be a child of a year old, perhaps slightly more, clothed in a white tunic rather shorter than usual. His little feet were bare, His flaxen hair shone like gold. . . . He was too lovely! I recognized Him at once and said: ‘I should think I did know Thee. Thou art my Jesus, my Lord, but how little Thou art!’

“He smiled and replied: ‘Yes, I am little, but My Heart is very big.’

“When He had said this He put His tiny hand on His breast, and I saw His Sacred Heart. How can I say all that I felt at such a sight. . . . O! my Lord, if Thou hadst not such a Heart, could I love Thee so much, but Thy Heart has ravished mine . . .

“ ‘That is why I wanted you to know It, Josefa,’ He said, with a tenderness quite impossible to render, ‘and that is why I have hidden you deep down in It. . . . ’

“I asked Him if all these sufferings were at an end.

“ ‘No, there will be more for you to suffer. I need loving hearts and souls who will make reparation, and victims for immolation . . . but above all, souls that are entirely surrendered.’ ”

Then alluding to the word which more than once in the preceding days had given her strength: “Your Mothers have found the word . . . abandonment. The devil has no power but what is given him from on high. Tell them that I am supreme.”

One last word—a recommendation on the subject of humility—from the divine Child:

“ ‘You see how I have willed to make myself small, Josefa? It is in order to help you, too, to become very little. If I have humbled Myself to such an extent, it is only to teach you likewise to humble yourself.’

“With His little hand He blessed me, and then I saw Him no more.”

Josefa’s notes again come to an end. That same evening the trial began again more violent than ever.

On Wednesday, January 11th, her Director, in order to strengthen her, proposed to her to advance her Vows by making a Vow of Chastity.

In an ecstasy of joy Josefa renewed that donation of herself already made on the eve of her First Communion and promised fidelity to Our Lord until death.

The day after, during her thanksgiving, Jesus Himself became manifest to her, and alluding to the vow she had taken the day before, said:

“ ‘Josefa, My bride, do you know what your Superiors have obtained by that vow? . . . They have constrained My Heart to have exceptional care of you. Tell them that it has given Me much glory.’

“I asked Him if the trial was over.

“ ‘I want you to surrender yourself and to be always ready to undergo the torments of the evil one, or receive My consolations, indifferently.’ ”

Thus was she kept by Our Lord to the path of abandonment, to go forward with closed eyes, confiding in Him. Father Boyer, who followed her up closely, likewise maintained her in faith and humility. “He recommended me to make myself very insignificant, placing myself at the feet of everyone, and to look on myself as the most unworthy of creatures.” Our Lord Himself insisted on this same direction, so entirely in accordance with His Heart’s wishes in her regard.

“Josefa,” He said to her, “did you quite understand the advice given you by the Father? It is indeed My wish that you should be very, very little. I wish,” He added forcibly, “that you should be humiliated and ground underfoot, that you should allow yourself to be made or unmade according to the plans of My Heart.”

That same evening Our Lady for the first time gave her an intimation that her earthly life would not be of long duration.

Josefa had expressed the hope that she would never have to take back the sacrifice she had made of her country. Our Lady replied: “You will die in France, in this house of Poitiers, and that before ten years are out; and then . . . Heaven!”

On the 31st of July of this same year, encouraging Josefa to bear up in face of her great difficulties: “Before three years are out,” she said, “you will already be in Heaven. I tell you this to give you courage.”

“I think,” Josefa said a few days later, “that it was the 13th or 14th of January that the devil began once more to assail me. He tried to force me to abandon my vocation. In his increasing fury he even tried to ensnare me by taking on the appearance of Jesus Christ.”

Here Josefa’s notes again come to an end. From the 13th of the month Satan tried every kind of attack, though he did not succeed in shaking her, and witnesses heard her energetic protestation: “Well, then, kill me.” Then, as she related, the devil transformed himself into an angel of light in order the better to seduce her, and appeared even under the lineaments of Our Lord. . . . At first she was nonplussed, but soon discovered the imposture. The words addressed to her no longer bore the impress of that lofty humility, of the strength and sweetness she was accustomed to hear from her Master’s lips. Her soul recoiled before a vision that gave her no sense of security or peace.

More than once this particular trial was renewed. Josefa’s humble self-distrust, her confidence in her guides, and her implicit obedience to the directions given her, saved her from this new peril. Her spiritual Director ordered her to renew her vow of virginity (until replaced by those of religion) at any and every appearance. The arch-enemy was not able to endure such acts of faith and love, and his crafty wiles failed in the face of them. He changed his attitude and aspect, became agitated and like an imposter caught in the act of deception he betrayed his guile by a sudden disappearance with blasphemous words. Later on, at the word of obedience, Josefa added to this renovation of her vow, the Divine Praises which she begged her heavenly visitants to repeat after her. Jesus Himself, His Immaculate Mother, and Saint Madeleine Sophie at once paraphrased them with incomparable ardor. The devil with his polluted lips was never able to utter such words of praise and benediction—“for he can no longer love.” When unmasked thus, his furious violence was redoubled.

Notwithstanding all this, the spirit that guided her and the love that sustained her became more evident. In the midst of such a life of suffering and humiliation Josefa never exempted herself from the prescriptions of the Rule, of common life or of her allotted work. As soon as her prayer was over and she had heard Mass, she went to her sweeping and housework, and was punctually in her workroom, supervising the ironing, and in the little Auxiliary Chapel acting as sacristan; all her spare time was given to needlework and mending. Little works of supererogation, which abound in a big house like Poitiers, fell to her as of right, and in this devotedness she was of great assistance, being both active and intelligent, and still more, self-forgetful and devoted.

She made no change throughout those difficult months of December and January. As soon as the evil one loosened his hold of her, she quietly resumed her tasks with a courage that was nothing less than heroic.

Seeing her thus, ever even and unruffled, who could have imagined all she had just undergone, or what she might expect to happen at any moment? As a matter of fact, in spite of the efforts of the infernal spirits, nothing outwardly betrayed the dolorous road into which it had pleased God to direct her footsteps, and this safe custody in the hands of God was surely a sign of His presence and action.

As always, Our Blessed Lady’s advent brought a gleam of peace into her dark night.

On February 3rd (First Friday) Father Boyer, in order to give greater stability to her vocation, at her request allowed her to add to her vow of virginity a second one, always to remain in the Society of the Sacred Heart, as long as Superiors were willing to keep her. This gave her new courage, and a still firmer determination to suffer as long as this pleased Our Lord.

On Sunday, February 12th, after a morning in which the devil had done his best to overcome her constancy, towards evening she had gone with all the novices to the Auxiliary Chapel, where Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was to be given. After the Blessing Our Lady appeared, surrounded by light and standing quite close to her. Josefa started at the unexpected joy, thrilled at the sight of her Mother . . . She had not seen her for such a long time . . . she trembled . . . hesitated . . . but peace was flooding her soul, and she heard the loved voice she knew so well: “Do not be afraid, daughter. I am the Immaculate Mother of Jesus Christ, the Mother of your Redeemer and your God.”

Josefa’s whole soul exulted, but faithful to the directions given, and in order to thwart any possible snare of the enemy, she said: “If you are the Mother of Jesus, allow me to renew before you the vow of virginity that I have made, until such time as I shall have the happiness of making my vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart. I renew also in your hands the vow to remain until death in the Society I so love, and to die rather than be unfaithful to my vocation.”

Whilst speaking she was gazing spellbound on the sweet vision before her, which was regarding her with such tenderness. Our Lady placed her right hand on Josefa’s head and said: “There is nothing to fear, daughter. Jesus is here to defend you and so am I.”

Then, she made the Sign of the Cross on her forehead, gave her her hand to kiss and vanished. Josefa’s troubled soul was filled with peace and joy, but her enemy was far from disarmed.

Yet did he not seem to know he was defeated? And though Josefa was shattered, the radiant mental picture of her Mother’s smile and glance remained her comfort. For some days there was a cessation of her trials, and on the next day, Monday, February 13th, it was the voice of the Master that she heard calling:

“Come, there is no need to fear; it is I.”

“Uncertain if it really were Our Lord . . .” her notes continue, “I went to tell the Mothers, and from there to the tribune, where I found He was already waiting.

“ ‘Yes, Josefa,’ He said, ‘it is truly I, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin.’ ”

Never would the devil, in spite of his effrontery have dared to use such words.

“ ‘Lord, my only love,’ I answered,” wrote Josefa, “ ‘If it be Thou, deign to allow me to renew in Thy presence the vow I have taken for Thy sake.’ He listened to me with pleasure, and when I had finished, He answered: ‘Tell your Superiors that because you have been faithful to do My Will, I too will be faithful to you. Tell them that this trial is over . . . and O! what glory it has given My Heart . . . and you, Josefa, rest in Me in peace, as I reposed in your sufferings.’ ”

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CHAPTER V. SEARCHING TRIALS

PART III. A BREAK AFTER TRIAL—THE FORTY HOURS  February 14th–March 3rd, 1922


“Do not think that I love you more now that I console you, than when I ask you to suffer.” (Our Lord to Josefa, February 14th, 1922)

JOSEFA had now reached an oasis of peace, a break in a stormy sky, a respite between two storms; we may thus characterize the three weeks which elapsed from February 12th to March 3rd, 1922.

Our Lord resumed His divine and cordial relations with Josefa, but she, who had shown herself so brave in the fight and so abandoned in pain, seemed hardly to come up to His expectations when faced with His appeals. He often stopped her in the midst of her work, and her marked attraction for common life seemed to grow each time she was called upon to sacrifice it. This ever remained the beginning of temptation, but no less the source of her humble contrition and of generous new efforts, by which the Sacred Heart of Our Lord intended to teach the world the riches of His pardons.

Josefa’s notes were resumed from now on.

“On Tuesday, February 14th, I was preparing for Holy Communion during Mass,” she wrote, “and hungering for His coming. A little after the Elevation, I saw Him and He said to me: ‘If you are hungry to receive Me, I, too, hunger to be received by My souls. I come down to them with such joy.’

“After Communion He came.”

“ ‘Do not think that I love you more, now that I console you, than when I ask you to suffer. In any case I cannot leave you without suffering, but your soul must remain in peace, even in the midst of pain.’ ”

“That evening,” she wrote humbly, “I was greatly tempted.” The devil, who for a time at least had been beaten, still prowled round his victim. Josefa was very vulnerable. Her repugnance to the painful path before her revived; and she accused herself in detail of this weakness. She spent four days in hard struggle, till Jesus, full of compassion, gave her the light she needed, and with it His forgiveness.

“Poor Josefa,” He said on the evening of Friday, February 17th, showing Himself to her, as in all humility she was deploring her frailty. “What would you do if you had not My Heart? . . . But the more feeble you are, the more tenderly I love you.”

“I entreated Him again to give me a love true and strong,” she wrote next day, “for I believe that if I really loved Him in the right way I should be better able to conquer myself. This was during my prayer, and Jesus came and said to me: ‘Yes, Josefa, let your food be love and humility. But do not forget that I want you to be always abandoned and happy, because My Heart cares for you tenderly.’

“Then I explained how sad I feel that I cannot conquer myself nor correspond to so much goodness.”

“ ‘Never mind. Cast yourself into My Heart, and follow the guidance that is given you. That will suffice.’ ”

Next day, Sunday the 19th, after the Elevation at Mass, He showed her His wounds shining resplendently.

“ ‘This is where I attract My souls, to purify and make them burn in the tide of My love. Here they find true peace and it is from them that I expect real consolation.’

“I asked Him how we can console Him, since we are so full of miseries and weakness. He answered me by pointing to His Heart: ‘I make little account of all that,’ He said, ‘provided souls come to Me with confidence and love. I Myself make up for all their frailty.’ ”

It was Carnival time, days in which so many sins are committed in the world; consequently the salvation of souls could not but be of first importance in Our Lord’s daily appeals.

Thursday, February 23rd, Josefa was ironing with the other novices, when suddenly Our Lord appeared and said: “I want you to come with Me.”

Always faithful, she begged to be allowed to ask leave. He followed her to the very door of her Superior’s room.

“I knocked twice,” she said, “but as there was no answer, I was about to go away, but He insisted: ‘Knock once more.’

“When I had obtained permission, I went to the tribune, Jesus walking beside me all the way. I asked His pardon, while we walked, for having let slip so many little occasions of doing the small acts He loves. ‘If you want more, Lord, tell me and I will do them.’

“ ‘Love, Josefa, love consoles Me. Love humbles itself. Everything lies in loving. . . . During these days when I am so sinned against I want you to be My Cyrenean; yes, you will help Me carry My Cross.’

“ ‘It is the Cross of love . . . the Cross of My love for souls . . . you will comfort Me and together we will suffer for them.’ ”

The next day Our Lady came to confirm her Son’s appeal.

“Yes, dear child, if you are docile and generous, you will comfort His Heart and mine, and Jesus will be glorified in your wretchedness.

“Then, laying a hand on my head, she went on to say: ‘See how His Heart is outraged in the world. Do not lose any chance of making reparation these days; offer up everything for souls . . . and suffer with great love.’ ”

Hardly a day passed without the sins of the world being brought before Josefa’s mind, through the grief of her Master.

On Saturday, February 25th, she was on her way to close the windows of the cloister of the cells, when she saw Jesus weighed down by His Cross in the oratory of Saint Stanislaus.

“I went in,” she said, “and He said to me: ‘Souls are crucifying Me anew; comfort Me, Josefa. My Heart is steeped in woe . . . sinners despise Me and trample Me under their feet . . . there is nothing of less value in their eyes than their Creator.’

“He left me His Cross and disappeared.

“That night, at about ten o’clock, He returned, a heavy Cross on His shoulders; He was crowned with thorns and His face was streaming with blood. ‘See the state I am reduced to . . . ’

Our Lord showed Himself to Sister Josefa as actually clothed in sorrow for the sins of the present day. We know that His Sacred Humanity can no longer suffer. But He made it actual, as He had done for Saint Margaret Mary and other holy souls. Josefa made no mistake about this, and in the lucidity of her faith understood quite well how her participation in her Master’s sufferings could bring alleviation to Him, to whose Heart everything was present at the time of His Passion.

“ ‘How many sins are committed,’ He said, ‘how many souls are lost . . . that is why I come to obtain relief from those who live only to comfort Me.’

“He remained a moment in silence and with joined hands. He looked so sad and at the same time so beautiful! His eyes spoke more than His lips.

“After a while, He said to me: ‘Souls run to perdition, and My blood is lost for them.’

“ ‘But souls that love Me are sacrificing and consuming themselves as victims of reparation, and they draw down God’s mercy, and that is what saves the world.’

“He vanished. I think it must have been about one o’clock, and I kept His Cross till a little after four.”

The days of the Quarant’ore were beginning, always a time for very special reparation. On Sunday, February 26th, before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, the whole household was assembled in prayer: a loving Guard of Honor that longed to compensate Him for the outrages of the world. Josefa’s inconspicuous figure was among them, sharing their desires and listening in their name to the secrets of her Master.

“During the nine o’clock Mass,” she wrote that Sunday, “Jesus came with a radiant Heart. . . . It might have been the sun.

“ ‘Behold the Heart that gives life to souls,’ He said. ‘The fire of this love is stronger than the indifference and ingratitude of men.

“ ‘Behold the Heart that bestows on the souls He has chosen a vehement desire to consume themselves, and if necessary, die to prove Me their love.’

“His words were so forcible that they went through and through my soul. Then, glancing at me, He continued: ‘Sinners tear Me to pieces and fill My Heart with sorrow. . . . Will not you, My chosen little victim, repair all this ingratitude?’

“I asked Him what He would have me do, for He knows my helplessness well.

“ ‘My Will is that you should enter deeply into My Heart today; there you will find strength to suffer. Do not reflect on your helplessness; My Heart is powerful enough to sustain you. It is yours; take from It all you need. Be consumed in It . . . offer this Heart and this blood to the Eternal Father. . . . Cease to live except a life of love, reparation, and suffering.’

“That afternoon at about three o’clock He returned and said to me: ‘I come to take refuge here, for My faithful souls are to Me as ramparts to a city: they defend and console Me.’

“ ‘The world is rushing headlong to ruin. I am in search of souls who will repair the many offenses that are committed against the Divine Majesty and I am consumed with desire to pardon. . . . Yes, to pardon these dear souls for whom I shed My blood. . . . Poor souls, how many are lost . . . how many throw themselves headlong into Hell.’ ”

Faced with this sorrowful eagerness, Josefa did not know how to put into words her own ardent wish to suffer and repair for sin.

“ ‘Do not torment yourself, Josefa; if only you do not part from Me, My strength will give you strength and My power will be yours.’

“He then vanished, leaving me His Cross.”

On the Monday of the Quarant’ore and on the night which followed Josefa bore the Cross of Christ, and pain and anguish were her portion.

The following day, February 28th, she went as usual to her work in the laundry, “but after a few hours, the pain in my side was so excessive, that I could hardly breathe,” she wrote. She took refuge in the little attic where her bed was, a place already consecrated by many sufferings and heavenly visits.

“Jesus came at once, beautiful as ever, and His Heart all burning.

“ ‘How great are the sins of men . . . but what distresses Me most is that they blindly fling themselves into Hell. . . . Do you understand My grief, Josefa? To see those souls that have cost Me My life, lost forever. . . . It oppresses Me to think that for them My Blood was shed all in vain. Come with Me, and together we shall make reparation to My Heavenly Father for all these outrages.’

“Then I united myself to His Heart and offered Him my pain.”

She was particular to notice the humble, petitioning attitude of her Master: His hands clasped, His eyes raised to Heaven, His silence, all expressed His divine and constant offering to His Father.

“ ‘Tell the Mothers that this house is the garden of My delights,’ He continued. ‘I come here to seek consolation when sinners offend Me and make Me suffer. Tell them that I am indeed the Master of this dwelling, that it is a beloved refuge to Me and that My heart finds rest in it.

“ ‘I do not want or ask for great things. What I want and what is a consolation to Me is to find love that prompts good works, and that I find in this house.’ ”

That evening during Benediction Jesus again manifested Himself, and from His Heart there streamed light. “A little group of fervent souls can obtain mercy for many sinners,” He said, “for My Heart cannot resist their prayers. . . . I sought for one to comfort Me and have found her.”

The first days of Lent demanded still more redemptive sufferings from Josefa. March 1st was Ash Wednesday, and at the hour of her adoration Jesus became visible to her, His face disfigured with blood:

“ ‘Is there on earth any creature so insulted and despised as I am? Poor souls . . . it is I who gave them life, and they seek to deal out death to Me. Not only are they oblivious of Me, those souls that have cost Me so dear, but they even make Me an object of contempt and mockery.’

“ ‘Come near Me, Josefa, rest in My Heart and share Its grief. So many fill It with sorrow, but your love will comfort Me.

“ ‘Repair, Josefa, for those who ought to but do not make reparation.’ ”

“At this moment the bell rang for the end of adoration, and I left the Chapel. He walked beside me. ‘Go, Josefa, and ask whether I may stay with you while you do your work.’

“When leave had been given me, I went to the tribune just for a moment, and then resumed my work in the linen-room, because I think this pleases Him most. He was still there and spoke now and again:

“ ‘Ask forgiveness for the sins of the world. O! how they sin . . . how many are lost . . . souls that once knew and loved Me . . . but now they prefer their own enjoyment and pleasure to My Heart. . . .

“ ‘O! why do they treat Me thus? . . . Have I not given them enough proofs of love? . . . And once they responded, but now they trample Me underfoot and ridicule Me, frustrating the designs of My love on them . . . where shall I find relief for My distress?’

“I said to Him: ‘Why, here Lord, in this house, in our souls . . . there are still many everywhere who love Thee.’

“ ‘Yes, I know, but those are the souls I seek; I love them with a boundless love.’

“Again I offered myself to suffer for them, that they may repent. Jesus did not go away, and from time to time repeated:

“ ‘Gather up the blood I shed in My Passion.’

“ ‘Ask forgiveness for the whole world . . . for those that know Me and yet sin, and offer yourself in reparation.’

“He stayed till about eleven o’clock at night, and then left me His Cross, the pain in my side and grief in my soul. A little before three I was relieved of all pain, and being exhausted, fell asleep.”

Alas, temptation was close at hand. It would seem that Josefa could not hesitate after such intimacy with the Heart of the Master. Our Lord, however, left her to her inherent frailty. Apparently it was a clearly defined plan on His part, and the means chosen by His wisdom, to keep her safe amid the many graces she received and the dangers that threatened her, allowing her thus to plumb the very depths of her lowliness and nothingness. Already there were signs that the powers of darkness were coming back to the charge.

On March 2nd we find in her notes a humble avowal that she inwardly resisted Our Lord’s desire for comfort, because:

“I had not yet finished my work in the linen-room, having had to sweep the little Chapel.

“ ‘Go quickly and ask leave,’ Our Lord insisted. ‘I want victims to make reparation and to console Me, and where else can I go if I cannot find them here?’

“I went to ask leave, but Jesus did not return. Both the Cross and the Crown disappeared at the same time, and my soul was plunged in remorse . . . for truly I want to live only to be a comfort to Him, but my weakness is overpowering.”

Josefa spent the whole day in an agony of distress. It was the First Friday of March; all day long she begged Our Lord and especially Our Lady to forgive her. “For,” she wrote, “they know very well that it is my weakness and not ill will.”

Our Lady could not resist her distress. She came and reassured her child, who at the time was just finishing the Way of the Cross.

“Do not be unhappy, my daughter; if you are willing, Jesus will go on drawing comfort from you. He wants it so much, but remember that your love is free.”

Then she confessed what she ever afterwards characterized as the greatest sin of her life.

That same night Our Lord came, “all-beautiful,” but wearing a look of sadness: “Here are My Cross and My Crown, Josefa, take them. Give Me the rest I need, I am so sinned against . . . so many souls are lost . . . and I love them so!”

And in response to her petition for pardon and oblation of herself to all He might require of her: “Never refuse Me the comfort I look for from you,” He said. “True, there are many who love Me and console Me, but none of them can take the place I have reserved for you, for I have cast a special glance of love on you.”

At these words, Josefa, who deep down in her heart could not rid herself of the invincible fear she had of the extraordinary path mapped out for her, felt as if a huge wave of opposition arose in her. She was unable to overcome it; when later she gave an account of that dolorous incident, she characterized the inward recoil as “ingratitude.” But Our Lord, to whom all hearts are open, knew well that she was dominated by fear, and that she would never entirely succeed in overcoming her apprehension. . . . His Heart was full of compassion for hers.

“ ‘If you knew what sins are committed against Me, you would not refuse My Cross,’ He rejoined. ‘Do you know what that Cross is? . . . It is the freedom you must grant Me to use and take you whenever I want you, without regard to the place, the occupation, or the time. It should suffice you to know that I want you to console Me. If I am with you, what does it matter if the whole world is against you?’

“At this point,” wrote Josefa in all sincerity, “I say it for my greater shame, I replied by entreating Him to spare me that path. He looked at me sadly and said: ‘I cannot forsake you, for My love for you is boundless, but as such is your wish, be it done to you according to your desire. No one but yourself will be able to close the Wound inflicted on My Heart . . . ’

“He took back His Cross and His Crown and vanished.”

A few days later Josefa wrote as follows:

“It is impossible to say all I have gone through since that day. It is a torture that nothing on this earth can equal. First: I know that I have wounded Him, and next, if He does not return, my life will be a martyrdom, for I myself have thwarted the designs of His love.”

She had not yet sounded the depths of that Heart’s mercy. . . . Notwithstanding her vacillations, nothing was changed in the design of His love. It would be gradually unfolded, but on a different plane, which His wisdom had already foreseen, so that on March 3rd a new phase in Josefa’s destiny began.

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CHAPTER V. SEARCHING TRIALS

PART IV. THE BOTTOMLESS PIT OPENS TO JOSEFA March 4th–April 15th, 1922

"Remember, daughter, that nothing happens, unless it be in God’s plan." (Saint Madeleine Sophie to Josefa, March 14th, 1922)

THIS new phase of Josefa’s life was perhaps the most mysterious one of all. At first sight, it looked as if chastisement was being meted out to her as a result of her resistance to Christ’s appeal; but it soon became apparent that the design that was being woven on the obscure loom of her destiny was a very different one, unveiling to our eyes Our Lord’s divine predilection for Josefa, and disclosing how He took advantage of a momentary weakening of her will to further His great work by giant strides, still in and by her.

Greater power over her was being given to Satan, who opened before her the bottomless depths of Hell itself. She was steeped in agonies never before experienced, and knew by sharp physical pain what the loss of a soul really meant, and how total was the immolation demanded of her for its redemption.

Whilst Our Lord allowed her to be thus crushed by sorrow, He sank her deep in humility and in a faith and abandonment that she could never have acquired by her own personal efforts. Our Lord kept the carrying out of this work in His own hands, and it was accomplished when and how He pleased, by means that defied human foresight.

In an admirable page of her autobiography, Saint Teresa describes the indelible impression left on her soul by a passage through Hell. We have many notes written by Josefa under obedience, describing her long sojourns in the abyss of pain and despair. These records, striking in their very simplicity, take us back after four centuries to the classical narration of Saint Teresa. They sound the same note, one of pain and contrition, of redemptive love and burning zeal. The dogma of Hell, often disputed, and oftener ignored in incomplete spirituality, to the great detriment of souls, and even with danger to their salvation, is brought out with a clarity that admits of no doubt. Who, when reading these pages of what Josefa saw, heard and suffered, can question the existence of an infernal power attacking Christ and His Kingdom with desperate fury? Who can gauge the value of the long hours spent in that prison of fire? . . . Josefa, who believed herself shut up in it forever, witnessed the fierce efforts of Satan to snatch souls from Jesus Christ, and felt the excruciating torment of no longer being able to love.

Some extracts from her writings will be useful to souls. They act as a cry of warning to those who have a rough path to re-climb, if they are to recover their friendship with God. Above all, are they not a call from Love to those who make up their minds that they will spare nothing in order to save souls who are in danger of eternal perdition?

It was in the night of Wednesday to Thursday, March 16th, that Josefa made her mysterious descent into Hell for the first time.

From the 6th of March, soon after Our Lord’s disappearance, infernal voices had several times caused her great fear and disturbance of mind. Damned souls, invisible to her eyes, came from the lowest depths, reproaching her for her want of generosity. She was greatly perturbed. . . . She heard cries of despair like these: “I am there where love is banished . . . forever . . . how brief was the enjoyment . . . and the punishment is eternal. . . . What have I gained? . . . hate, and that forever . . . eternal hatred!”

“O!” she wrote, “to know that one soul is lost and to be able to do nothing for it! To know that for all eternity a soul will curse Our Lord and that there is no cure . . . even if I could suffer every torment in the world . . . what terrible sorrow. . . . It would be better to die a thousand times than be responsible for the loss of one soul.”

On Sunday, March 12th, she wrote to her Superior, who was absent from Poitiers on a journey to Rome:

“If you knew, Reverend Mother, with what grief I write. I no longer have any of my jewels [as she calls the Crown of Thorns and the Cross], for I have once more wounded Jesus, who is so good to me. . . . I still hope that He will have compassion on me, but for the moment I am paying dearly for it, for since the night of the First Friday the greatest of sufferings has taken the place of His visits . . . when you return, Reverend Mother, you will know the full extent of my weakness.”

And in order not to sadden her Superior, she added with the tact that never forsook her:

“How glad I am of the happy days you are having at the Mother-House; except for me, everybody here is, I think, trying to console Our Lord, and His Heart is receiving what He expects from ‘His garden of delights,’ as He calls this house. With me things go on as before: my efforts are directed to being kind and faithful, and telling everything to the Mother Assistant, and the rest you know.

“Pray, Reverend Mother, that Our Lady may lay her motherly hands on me and obtain my forgiveness.”

This time Our Lord sent Saint Madeleine Sophie as His messenger.

On Tuesday, March 14th, she appeared to Josefa in her cell. After listening to her humble avowals, she gave her fresh courage, and heartened her with the words: “Remember, daughter, that nothing happens unless it is in God’s designs.”

Josefa told her of her overwhelming grief, and of the sorrow that weighed her down when she realized the consequences of her frailty, which she was convinced were beyond repair.

“But, my child, you can repair your fault,” was the quick reply, “if from your fall you draw great humility and generosity.”

“I asked her whether Jesus would ever again return. I call on Him, I want Him, for I cannot believe that through my fault I shall never see Him again . . .”

Then interrupting her with motherly impetuosity, our Holy Mother said: “But you must expect His return, my child; the longing and expectation of the bride are the glory of the Bridegroom.”

This heavenly visit testified to a love that was unchanged and to forgiveness that never tired. Evidently Jesus meant Josefa, now at the beginning of the great trial she was to undergo, to feel that He was still there, and quite unchanged.

“In the night of March 16th towards ten o’clock,” wrote Josefa, “I became aware, as on the preceding days, of a confused noise of cries and chains. I rose quickly and dressed, and trembling with fright, knelt down near my bed. The uproar was approaching, and not knowing what to do, I left the dormitory, and went to our Holy Mother’s cell; then I came back to the dormitory. The same terrifying sounds were all round me; then all of a sudden I saw in front of me the devil himself.

“ ‘Tie her feet and bind her hands,’ he cried. . . .

“Instantly I lost sight of where I was, and felt myself tightly bound and being dragged away. Other voices screamed: ‘No good to bind her feet; it is her heart that you must bind.’

“ ‘It does not belong to me,’ came the answer from the devil.

“Then I was dragged along a very dark and lengthy passage, and on all sides resounded terrible cries. On opposite sides of the walls of this narrow corridor were niches out of which poured smoke, though with very little flame, and which emitted an intolerable stench. From these recesses came blaspheming voices, uttering impure words. Some cursed their bodies, others their parents. Others, again reproached themselves with having refused grace, and not avoided what they knew to be sinful. It was a medley of confused screams of rage and despair. I was dragged through that kind of corridor, which seemed endless. Then I received a violent punch which doubled me in two, and forced me into one of the niches. I felt as if I were being pressed between two burning planks and pierced through and through with scorching needle points. Opposite and beside me souls were blaspheming and cursing me. What caused me most suffering . . . and with which no torture can be compared, was the anguish of my soul to find myself separated from God. . . .

“It seemed to me that I spent long years in that Hell, yet it lasted only six or seven hours. . . . Suddenly I was violently pulled out of the niche, and I found myself in a dark place; after striking me, the devil disappeared and left me free. . . . How can I describe my feelings on realizing that I was still alive, and could still love God!

“I do not know what I am not ready to endure to avoid Hell, in spite of my fear of pain. I see clearly that all the sufferings of earth are nothing in comparison with the horror of no longer being able to love, for in that place all breathes hatred and thirst to damn other souls.”

From that day on Josefa frequently endured this mysterious martyrdom. All was mystery in those long, dark, and gloomy sessions beyond the pale. Each time she was warned of the oncoming of the fiends by the noise of chains and distant yells, but they came nearer and nearer and finally surrounded and overwhelmed her. She tried to fly, to distract her mind by work, to escape the hail of blows which in the end overcame and threw her to the ground. She had just time to take refuge in her little cell before losing all consciousness of her surroundings. She began by finding herself in what she described as a dark hole, faced by the demon who appeared to think that she was definitely in his power forever. He boisterously commanded her to be thrust into her fiery niche; and Josefa, tightly bound, would fall into the chaos of fire, the dolorous abode of rage and despair.

Her notes were written objectively, and in the simplest terms she told things just as she saw, heard, and experienced them.

To those watching only a slight tremor made known her mysterious abduction. Her body instantly became entirely soft and supple, like one whose soul had just departed. Head and members were no longer under her control, though her heart beat normally; she was as one alive, yet dead.

This state was prolonged more or less according to God’s Will, who thus delivered her over to the powers of darkness, but held her still in His very sure and strong hand.

At the moment decreed by Him there was a slight, almost imperceptible, tremor once more and her body came back to life.

She was not thereby wholly freed from infernal influence in that dark place where he overwhelmed her with threats.

When at last he relinquished his hold on her she slowly returned to herself. The hours spent in Hell seemed long ages to her, and only by degrees was she able to resume contact with the places and people that surrounded her. “Where am I? . . . Who are you? . . . Am I still alive?” she asked; her poor eyes once again sought to make contact with a life which at the moment was so distant and remote. At times tears silently ran down her cheeks, and her face bore the impress of a sorrow difficult to describe. At last, and very gradually, she succeeded in realizing the actuality of sensible objects and persons; how could one depict the feelings of intense emotion that overwhelmed her when she suddenly became aware that she could still love God!

Josefa herself described this moment of transport in words of passionate fervor:

“On Sunday, March 19th, 1922, which was the third Sunday of Lent, I once more went down into the abyss, and it seemed to me that I remained there for long years. I suffered much, but the greatest of my torments was in believing that I could no longer love Our Lord. When I come back to life I am simply mad with joy. I think my love has increased tenfold and I feel ready to endure for love of Him whatever He wishes. As to my vocation, I esteem and love it to folly!”

A few lines further on she said:

“What I have seen gives me great courage to suffer, and makes me understand the value of the smallest sacrifices; Jesus gathers them up and uses them to save souls. It is blindness to avoid pain even in very small things, for not only is it of great worth to ourselves, but it serves to guard many from the torments of Hell.”

Josefa tried her best, under obedience, to recount the history of the descents into the bottomless pit, so frequently made at this time. Not everything can be printed, but a few pages which contain valuable lessons may act as a stimulus to those whose good will urges them to sacrifice self for the salvation of the unfortunate beings, who every day and at every hour stand on the brink of the chasm, and who run such terrible risks in the tragic fight between love and hatred, despair and mercy.

On Sunday, March 26th, she wrote again, “On reaching that abode of horror, I hear yells of rage and devilish exultation because another soul has fallen into everlasting torments. . . .

“At the moment I am not conscious of having previously gone down into Hell; it always seems to me to be the first time. It seems, too, to be forever, and what an agony that is, for I remember that I once knew and loved Our Lord . . . that I was a religious, that He conferred great graces on me, and many means by which to save my soul. What was it, then, that I did? How did I come to lose so many good things? . . . How could I have been so blind? . . . And now all hope is gone. . . . My Communions, too, come back to my mind, and my noviceship. But the most crushing and overwhelming grief of all is the torturing memory that I once loved the Heart of Jesus so dearly. I knew Him and He was everything to me. . . . I lived for Him . . . and how can I now exist without Him . . . loveless and with blasphemies and deadly malice on every side?

“It is impossible to put into words the poignant distress to which my broken and oppressed soul is reduced. . . .”

Not infrequently she witnessed the efforts of the devil and his fierce satellites to snatch from divine mercy the souls that were on the point of becoming his prey. The agony endured by Josefa in those cruel moments seems to have been the ransom of those poor souls, who would owe the final victory to her pangs.

She wrote on Thursday, March 30th:

“The devil is more enraged than ever, for he is after three souls to drag them down to Hell. In strident tones he yells furiously to the others: ‘Don’t let them escape . . . they are getting away . . . stand your ground . . . steady, hold hard.’

“And from a long way off I heard vociferations and unspeakable clamor.”

She was witness of the fight for these souls for two or three days in succession.

“I begged Our Lord to do with me whatever He willed, if only these three could be spared,” she wrote on her return from the abyss, Saturday April 1st. “I appealed to Our Lady and she gave me great peace, for she left me determined to endure anything, if only they could be saved, and I do not think that she will allow the devil to get the upper hand.”

On Sunday, April 2nd, she again wrote:

“I could hear Satan’s yells: ‘Don’t let go of them; be on your guard . . . plague them in any way you can . . . they must not escape . . . induce them to despair! . . . ’

“It was a ferment of agitation, vociferation, blasphemies, when suddenly with a howl of passionate frenzy he cried: ‘No matter . . . we shall get the other two . . . they must be made to despair.’

“By this I understood that one of them was safe forever.

“ ‘Hurry . . . press on . . . ’ he roared. ‘Those two must not escape . . . hold them, seize them . . . bring them to despair . . . they are escaping us. . . . ’

“Then Hell resounded with the grinding and gnashing of teeth, and in indescribable fury the devil howled: ‘O! power and omnipotence of that God. . . . He is stronger than I. There is only one left and she shall not escape . . . ’ but by the medley of groans and blasphemous words I understood that all three were safe in the Heart of Jesus. How I rejoiced, though unable to make a single act of love in spite of the longing I felt to do so . . . but none of the feelings of hatred manifested by the unhappy souls around me affect me, and when I hear their curses and blasphemies, I feel ready to suffer anything rather than hear Him so outraged and offended. Shall I in time, I wonder, become as they are? What suffering such a thought occasions, for can I ever forget how I once loved Him and how good He was to me?

“I have endured much,” she continued, “these last days. It is as if a stream of fire were being poured down my throat, passing right through my body, while at the same time I am pressed between the fiery planks, as I said before. The pain is intolerable, and beyond description; my eyes seem to be starting out of their sockets, wrenched out, my nerves strained, my body wracked and doubled in two, incapable of stirring, and over and around the nauseating and offensive stench, infecting the air.

This intolerable odor enveloped Josefa on her return from the bottomless pit and it was the same, at the moment of her abductions and persecutions by the arch-enemy. It was of mingled sulfur and burning putrid flesh, and it clung to her, say the witnesses, for a quarter of an hour or so, even half an hour, but she herself was painfully aware of it for a much longer time.

Yet, what is all this in comparison with a soul who knows God’s goodness and is forced to hate and revile Him? This suffering is all the greater in proportion to the love she formerly had for Him.”
There were other mysteries beyond the pale that were revealed to Josefa during this period of Lent 1922.

Whilst day and night she bore the burden of these terrible persecutions, God put her in touch with another abyss of woe, that of Purgatory. Many souls came to solicit her suffrages and sacrifices in terms of very great humility. At first she was frightened, but by degrees she became accustomed to their confidences. She listened to them, asked them their names, encouraged them, and very humbly recommended herself to their intercession. The lessons they inculcated are worth remembering.

One of them came to announce her deliverance and said: “The important thing is not entrance into religion, but entrance into the next world.” “If religious souls but realized the heavy price to be paid for concessions to the body . . .” said another, while asking for prayers. “My exile is at an end and I am going to my eternal home. . . .”

A priest-soul said to her: “How great is the mercy of God, when He deigns to make use of the sufferings of other souls to repair our infidelities; what a degree of glory I might have acquired had my life been different.”

It was a nun who, on her entrance into Heaven, confided to Josefa: “How different the things of earth appear when one passes into eternity. What are charges and offices in the sight of God? All He counts is the purity of our intention when exercising them, even in the smallest acts. How little is the earth and all it contains, and yet, how loved. . . . Ah, what comparison is there between life, however prolonged, and eternity! If only it were realized how in Purgatory the soul is wearied and consumed with desire to see God.”

There were also some poor souls, who having escaped through God’s mercy from a still greater peril, came to beg Josefa to hasten their deliverance.

“I am here by God’s great mercy,” one of them said, “for my excessive pride had brought me to the gates of Hell. I influenced a great number of other people, and now I would gladly throw myself at the feet of the most abject pauper.

“Have compassion on me and do acts of humility to make reparation for my pride, thus you will be able to deliver me from this abyss.”

“I spent seven years in mortal sin,” another confessed, “and three years ill in bed, and I always refused to go to Confession. I was ripe for hell-fire and would have fallen into it if by your present sufferings you had not obtained for me the grace of repentance. I am now in Purgatory, and I entreat you, since you were able to save me . . . draw me out of this dreary prison.”

“I am in Purgatory because of my infidelity, for I would not correspond with God’s call,” said another. “For twelve years I held out against my vocation and was in the greatest peril of damnation, because in order to stifle my conscience I gave myself up to a life of sin. Thanks to the divine goodness, which deigned to make use of your sufferings, I took courage to come back to God . . . and now, of your charity, get me out of this gloomy prison.”

“Offer the blood of Christ for us,” said another who was just about to leave Purgatory. “What would become of us, if there were no one to help us?”

The names of these holy souls, who were personally unknown to Josefa, having been carefully noted down with the date and place of their decease, were more than once verified. The assurance thereby gained of the truth of the facts she related remains as a precious testimony of her intercourse with Purgatory.

Lent was drawing to a close while these successive alternations of pain and austere graces continued. Without the special intervention of God Josefa could not have endured such contacts with the world invisible and at the same time lead her even life of devotedness and labor. Such, however, was the spectacle of heroic love she daily gave to the Heart of Him who sees in secret, whereas those about her could not but mistake the value of those externally monotonous days, spent in the plain accomplishment of duty.

Two facts relating to the last days of Holy Week stand out.

In the afternoon on Holy Thursday, April 13th, 1922, she wrote:

“I was in the Chapel at about half-past three when I saw before me a personage clothed like Our Lord, rather taller, very beautiful and with a wonderful expression of peace on his face which was most attractive. His vesture was of a dark reddish purple. He held in his hand the Crown of Thorns just like the one Our Lord used to bring me long ago.

“ ‘I am the Disciple of the Lord,’ he said, ‘John the Evangelist, and I bring you one of the Master’s most precious jewels.’

“He gave me the Crown and himself placed it on my head.”

Josefa was at first rather startled at this unexpected apparition, but she gained assurance through the feeling of intense peace which took possession of her. She ventured to confide in the saintly visitor, telling him of the anguish the ill-treatment of the devil caused her.

“ ‘Have no fear,’ was the reply. ‘Your soul is a lily which is kept by Jesus in His Heart—I am sent to make you acquainted with some of the feelings that overwhelmed His Heart on this great day:

“ ‘Love was about to part Him from His disciples, after it had baptized Him in a baptism of blood. But love urged Him to remain with them, and it was love that made Him conceive the idea of the Blessed Sacrament.

“ ‘What a struggle then arose in His Heart. He thought of how He would rest in pure souls, but also how His Passion would be carried on in hearts sullied by sin.

“ ‘How His Heart thrilled at the thought of the moment, then approaching, when He would go to the Father, but it was crushed with sorrow at the sight of one of the Twelve, one specially chosen, who was to deliver Him up to death, and at the knowledge that for the first time His Blood was to prove useless to save a soul.

“ ‘How His Heart wore itself out in love! But the want of correspondence to grace of those so beloved plunged It into dire distress . . . and what of the indifference and coldness of so many chosen souls?’

“With these words he was gone.”

This heavenly visitation upheld her courage for a time, as it brought so forcibly before her mind the call to reparation by which the Holy Eucharist appeals to consecrated souls.

But this apparition of peace was but an interval in the storm. That very evening the Crown disappeared, leaving her in great perplexity. The enemy was at pains to sow anxiety and trouble in the soul of his victim.

The old anguished question returned: Was she not being played upon by illusion and deception? . . . All those things to do with the invisible world, were they not a mirage of her imagination, caused by an unbalanced mind or unconscious suggestion?

These questions were not confined to herself alone. Yet there was nothing in her that could morally or physically give support to this doubt. But the prudence with which she was surrounded was on the watch, and seeking for an authentic sign that what was taking place was due to the direct intervention of the devil. God was about to give that sign and so remove all hesitation and doubt.

On Holy Saturday, April 15th, Josefa, having spent the last two days in terrible contests, heard the sounds that usually were a premonition of the approach of the evil spirits. She was engaged in needlework; and supported by obedience she resisted with all her might the approach of Satan, but he ended by casting her to the ground. Then, as on former occasions, her body seemed to become lifeless.

Kneeling beside her, the Mothers prayed earnestly, begging Our Lord to remove all doubt concerning the mystery enacted under their eyes.

Presently the usual slight tremor which preceded Josefa’s return to life was noticed. The expression on her face betrayed the horrors she had witnessed and endured. Suddenly she clutched at her chest and cried: “Who is burning me?” There was no light or flame anywhere near, and her religious habit was apparently untouched. With a rapid movement she tore open the front of her dress, and at once the cell was filled with the acrid smell and fetid fumes of smoke, and her inner garment was seen to be on fire. An extensive burn remained “near the heart,” as she said, attesting the truth of this—the first attempt of the kind made by Satan. Josefa was terrified: “I prefer to go,” she wrote in that first moment of shock, “rather than continue to be the devil’s sport.”

God’s fidelity, in thus tangibly manifesting the power of the infernal agents, was hereafter of notable comfort and reassurance in the months that followed.

Ten times in all Josefa was thus set on fire. She saw the devil vomit on her flames of which visible traces were seen not on her clothes only, but on her person. Painful wounds which took long to heal left on her body scars which she carried to the grave. Many of those scorched garments have been kept, and are witnesses to the devil’s rage, and to the heroic courage of Josefa, who endured these assaults in order to be faithful to Love’s enterprise.