Showing posts with label Holy Novitiate of the Cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Novitiate of the Cross. Show all posts

Tuesday 24 September 2019

Fascinating story: The Connection between Marie-Julie Jahenny's Mission of the Cross and Ven. Madre Teresa de la Cruz of Peru


September 24, 2019 I received an e-mail from the archive office of the Canonesses of the Cross in Peru, a religious order founded with special spiritual emphasis placed on the Cross of Christ and His Passion by Venerable Teresa Candamo Álvarez-Calderon, also known as Ven. Madre Teresa de la Cruz.


The order was founded in 1909 and is celebrating its 100th anniversary.


I was surprised and delighted to learn that the spirituality of Ven. Teresa's order was inspired in a very particular way by the Holy Novitiate of the Cross revealed to Marie-Julie Jahenny.


Here's her story and how she and her sister Maria came to know about Marie-Julie Jahenny.



Life of Ven. Madre Teresa de la Cruz


Her father was Don Manuel González de Candamo e Iriarte (14 July 1841 – 7 May 1904), the 23rd President of Peru who served from 1903 until his death in 1904. He also served as Interim President of Peru, officially as the President of the Government Junta, from 8 September 1903 until his death the following year.

He was a man of integrity as according to the Website of the Canonesses he declared that he loved justice, even if it should turn against his favour, meaning, he would bow to whatever was just, whatever the consequences would entail, even if it proved to be a personal disadvantage to him. He also ran his household accordingly.



 

Her mother was Doña Teresa Álvarez Calderón. Her parents married in October 24, 1873. They would have seven children: Carmen (1874), Teresa (1875), María (1877), José Manuel Rafael (1879) who died when 4 years old, José Rafael Victor (1882), José Manuel Rafael Saturnino (1884) and Virginia ( 1889).

Ven. Teresa give an account of the modesty of her mother, who disliked the celebrity associated with being the wife of a senior politician and then First Lady of Peru.  Her husband also came from the richest family in the country!  Despite her dislike of praise, she could be a little haughty and would not accept anything that would insult her dignity.   However, Ven. Teresa relates her mother never left the house except when duty called.   She was not frivolous, nor was she extravagant for she kept her household economy well ordered.   She also taught Ven. Teresa a hard lesson regarding vanity, which checked that vice immediately.   Ven. Teresa recalls that one day when she was a child she ran into the house and related a lady on the street remarked what a beautiful little girl she was.   Her mother then replied. “She has not seen you well." Ven. Teresa admitted it was an unpleasant response, but it made the temptation of vanity in her vanish.


(Image: Ven. Teresa in a theatrical production before receiving her vocation.  Is that the 'Mikado' by Gilbert and Sullivan? )


When a child, in addition to brilliant intelligence, she was also artistic and talented in the areas of theatre, embroidery, drawing and painting, she sang and also learned to play the piano and guitar.  She was also a creative writer for she wrote several poems, all dedicated to the Lord and the Blessed Virgin, and showed great fondness for reading and study. She received her early education with private teachers, later entering the College of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart observing very good behaviour and excelling in studies. She was formed in that solid and serious piety of St. Magdalena Sofía Barat: "Duty above all, duty always."   There God laid in Ven. Teresa's soul the solid foundation for the formation of her vocation that was to be shaken by trials.  She had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin and consecrated herself as the Daughter of Mary. She left school at the end of the year 1892, attaining the Cross of Wisdom, a prize awarded to outstanding students by the religious Sisters.



Discerning her Vocation

After the death of her father in 1904, the family left Peru and travelled through Europe. Her vocation did not strike her all at once, rather, it was a gradual process. Ven. Teresa relates the various steps she came to know her vocation as she travelled.


(*) They arrive in Paris in 1905 a year after her father's death: “Every morning we went to Mass in front of the tabernacle, and I don't know if after Communion, I had for the first time the absolutely clear knowledge that the Lord asked me of My love for him. I don't know how that communication went, I just know that I had no doubt about the thing itself and the obligation that it imposed on my conscience, but no idea of religious vocation occurred to me yet.”

(*) Montreux: “Months later we spent the winter in Switzerland. Fr. Tissot's book fell into my hands: "The Inner Life." I read it avidly finding in him the spirituality that suited my spirit and his reading guided my spirit more towards the only purpose for which we were created, also in a definitive way”.


(*) Florence 1906: “We went to Italy and went to church to be able to go to Confession. A priest came out and I confessed without asking him any questions or any less confidence. (My rough translation – she probably meant she did not confide in him the questions in her soul regarding a possible vocation.) Then the Father told me: 'Do not worry about knowing what God wants from you when the time comes, it will be made known to you'. I did not tell the Father that I was responding to a concern of my soul and I only thanked him for his advice, leaving me very happy because it seemed to me that St. Joseph had given me that grace.” (i.e. of receiving an answer.)


(*) Rome - From April to June 1906: “The visit to His Holiness Pope Pius X and all the monuments full of holy memories and venerable relics clarified, as expected, the idea of vocation in my soul. A great desire to serve the Holy Church woke up (in me) as something within my reach. Sharing these desires with my sister Maria, although reserving them from the rest of the family. We agreed to wait for the Blessed Virgin to give us (interior) light in Lourdes and in the meantime we would live as perfectly as we could in the current state in which we were, to expect the light we needed to decide our lives.”

 

(*) * Alassio, Italy - June and July 1906: “In the summer we went to Genoa. Alassio was a very small town, but it had a church and a convent of P.P. Capuchins where we went every evening to the prayer of the Rosary, and a Cathedral on whose main altar (there was) only a large Crucifix.  One day I went there looking at Him, I understood that He was telling me:


If you are looking for an ideal, here you are; if you want love, here you come; if you want a model here you have it”.

 
“I don't want to say that I heard words, but only the concepts or meaning of those words stuck in my intelligence causing me a lot of fear, because in them I understood all the breadth of their meaning and a whole program of austerity, for which I was very poorly prepared; and all the more austere because I understood that my true vocation was symbolized there.” 

No doubt she means the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel is where she received this knowledge, it is the cathedral in Alassio and it has a large crucifix. 

 (Image above: the Crucifix where Ven. Teresa received an answer regarding her vocation)


 

(*) Lourdes - September and October- 1906: "Following our program, we made the trip to Lourdes enjoying the supernatural ambiance that is breathed there and asking the Blessed Virgin to solve our spiritual problems."


A priest she confessed suggested her vocation might be to join one of the convents in France, but she felt like none of the convents she considered were the answer to the 'call' she received.





Marie-Julie Jahenny's Mission of the Cross

According to the e-mail I received the Canonesses of the Cross in Peru, Ven. Teresa de la Cruz 'encountered' Marie-Julie Jahenny in 1907 during this return trip to France.  While in San. Remo, she first become acquainted with two ladies from Brittany authorised by the local bishop of Nantes to transcribe the ecstasies Marie-Julie experienced, and through them she heard of Marie-Julie and her Mission of the Cross, and, that the visions said there would one day be founded the last and greatest order of the Church dedicated to the cross.

 Teresa was inspired by the accounts told of Marie-Julie, her spiritual abilities to read souls, her stigmata and the suffering of the Passion, and of course, this revelation of a future order dedicated to the Cross.  It seemed this was the vocation she was called to.

She asked if the ladies when they returned to Brittany would they please ask Marie-Julie what her vocation was, and if she was to follow the call to join this promised order of the Cross.




While Teresa and her family were in Geneva, the following reply was sent back from Marie-Julie in May 1907, with spiritual advice, obviously from Our Lady:


"The Blessed Virgin blesses these two children, but She will put their vocation to the test. Often souls are inflamed in desire from heaven, but as soon as the ordeal comes, they stumble and fall.  They must pray and persevere, and I will cover them with the power of the virtues of my maternal heart."  (NOTE: Teresa sister, Maria, also felt she had a similar vocation.)


Returning to Paris in June 1907, they prayed and waited, sorry that they didn't receive any more details about the path to take, but they felt they were going in the right direction and waited for more details from La Fraudais.  They then  received the advice from a prophetic ecstasy of Marie-Julie that they were to first seek a spiritual director before proceeding with discerning her path.  Marie-Julie interceded for them again upon the request of one of the Breton ladies and Our Lady responded:



Our Lady: "... that they choose a director to guide them in the spiritual paths and then I will work." (July 16, 1907)

At this point, the two sisters deliberated on choosing a spiritual director and would decide upon Fr. Marie Bernard Abbé Daurelle who was already so closely connected to Marie-Julie. 
 
Ven. Teresa had just left Lourdes and was in the town of San Remo in 1907, and it here and at this time he became her spiritual director. Fr. Daurelle told her about Marie-Julie Jahenny and her Great Work of the Cross that inspired her greatly – for the archive office of the Canonesses has informed me:


He (Fr. Daurelle) insisted very much on the WORK OF THE CROSS of which Marie-Julie was the victim ... we have the spirit of the Cross and that is the basis of the Work of which the venerable Mother was to be a part.”


Marie-Julie would later confirm that Abbé Daurelle was meant to be their spiritual director.


(Image Right:  Ven. Teresa in San Remo after discerning her vocation

 
Of interest, the archivist from the Canonesses has given me information from Maria's biography that she and her sister finally had the opportunity to witness an ecstasy of Marie-Julie and saw her suffer the Passion just before they left France and returned to Peru. 



 
(Image: a photo of Marie-Julie's cottage pasted in Maria's biography of the family's trip to Europe - the photo is placed at the head of her chapter on  discovering their vocation,  showing how important the two sisters considered their introduction to Marie-Julie and her revelations regarding their call to the religious life centred on the Mission of the Cross.  Photo provided by the archives of the Canonesses. which is much appreciated.)


 
 
From the autobiography of Maria,  Ven. Teresa's sister:


(Maria):  “After having spent two days together and as our desire was to see Maríe Julie in ecstasy and these took place Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we chose the Thursday that was October 3, to make our visit. After having received communion in the Church of Nort, we ride by car and leave town at 8 in the morning. We arrived at 11 o'clock in the village of Blain, where we had lunch quickly in order to arrive at the cabin before the "Angelus" which is the moment in which Maríe Julie generally goes into ecstasy. At 11:30 we were at her door. We called and (the door was) opened (by) the niece of Maria Julia (Angele) 16 year old who was knitting stockings, while resting from caring for the cows that was her daily work. She made us enter into a large (section) where the mother and the sister of M. Julie were, the first was an octogenarian old woman with a fine and beautiful face, dressed in the costume of the Breton villagers, the white touches and the Swedes, (i.e Swedish lace?) the daughter of Mother Angele was dressed the same way, who was busy cooking large cakes in the fireplace. The section she occupied was separated by a partition from María Julia's cell. The ladies introduced us to the family telling them that we were coming from a very distant country and immediately a conversation began about the harvest, the crops, etc.

Marie-Julie's sister entered her cell and announced us, she sent to say that she was praying the Rosary, so we had to wait for it to end. After a few moments they invited us in. As soon as we cross the threshold, we find ourselves in front of the stigmatized one. She was sitting on her bed, with the villager's touch on her head. (Sic. Possibly a local traditional cap is meant.) On her forehead stood out, from the first glance, a red line that crossed her from one temple to another, formed by a scab that covered a wound to lose itself in the hair. A crucifix, a small statue of the Virgin and a Rosary. the stigmatist had in her hands the red crusts of the stigmata, circular and about a centimeter in diameter above, and the palm torn and deep, exactly as they stood out as see in the images of the Sacred Heart, and on the ring finger a small band of white cloth that covered, as the ladies told us the mystical ring. (I.e. Marie-Julie had received a mystic espousal ring of blood around her finger.) Her face was common, rather round than aquiline, and her eyes small and not very expressive. She received us very kindly and with great naturalness and simplicity. The ladies told her that we were from such a distant country, that we had to spend thirty days at sea to return to it, which attracted her attention. To greet her we hugged her and kissed the stigmas of her hands, which she tried to withdraw, but we didn't make any observations about it, because the ladies had told us that we shouldn't do it.

When it was time for the "Angelus" she made a sign to the lady indicating that it was time for prayer, and began to pray, we all did the same. Gradually she picked herself up more deeply and her breathing became deep and noisy as if she went into agony with a stronger one of the others (I.e a stronger ecstasy?) stretched out and was numb like a corpse. The spectacle was impressive, as is the death, (i.e. Marie-Julie lived out Christ's death on the cross) and I remember that there was a time when I was almost sorry to witness it.


She was silent for an hour or so, in this interval we prayed the Rosary in a low voice. At the end of that time, without waking from her dream she began to articulate the following invocations: Verbum caro factum est et habitabit in nobis (...) After this some salutations to the Blessed Virgin joining the blessed, her director whom she called with The name of "Marie Bernard" (i.e Abbé Daurelle) and the people present and after having prayed for sinners said "La Saint Vierge est la". (i.e the Holy Virgin is there.) Then began a long speech of the Blessed Virgin changing tone, as if repeating a dictation, which we have kept very few notes, because Magdalena, who was the one who always wrote, (i.e the Breton Lady whom Ven. Teresa met) told us that on that occasion I was very excited, and that I could do it. And we, back in the house, wrote only what we could assure was accurate with the testimony of the two. It was this beautiful speech, full of heavenly tenderness and divine poetry and in a high and correct language, very different from the faulty and rustic one she used in her normal state.

After finishing this speech, Marie Julie shuddered saying "Notre Seigneur" (Our Lord) and began her dictation again (...)

Our Lord: "Wait for the hour of great consolation. Do not be sad when the call of the great light comes (...) Spouse Madeleine of the Cross, Spouse Providence, Therese and Mary, the soul of Mary Bernard (Abbé Daurell) is a bright sun to which I have riveted you. My Mother did that prepare the rivet, is it myself who did it. Mother and children of the Cross you are the flowers of Calvary, flowers of the garden of the Cross. Wait at the time of great comfort ... Do not be sad when the call of the great light arrives ...”


(NOTE: The two 'Spouses' are the two Breton ladies whom Teresa and her sister Marie met. Our Lord says Abbé Daurelle is the bright spiritual sun meant to direct them and their work.)


Ven. Teresa's sister continues: “We did not understand then the real and austere sense of these last words interpreting them only as an indication that we would belong to the “Work of the Cross”.

(*) Return to Peru - Ven. Teresa writes in her own autobiography:  "We embarked on Peru carrying our secret in our soul, (about her vocation and obviously the founding of an order), and hoping confidently that our hopes would soon be fulfilled because the Father assured us, (i.e Fr. Daurelle) that we would be calm, everything would be done by the voice of the Church."


:::::::

After learning this, all credit due to the archivist who contacted me, I have recently discovered that Fr. Daurelle was appointed by Pope Leo XIII as one of the envoys sent to La Fraudais to investigate Marie-Julie Jahenny and her mystic experiences. Cardinal Rampolla the Secretary of State and Fr. Vanutelli were also appointed to investigate.  

I do not know for sure, but this was either at the time Bishop Fournier of Nantes first began his official investigation into Marie-Julie Jahenny, or, it must have been around the time Marie-Julie was unjustly denied the Sacraments after Bishop Fournier was was transferred to another diocese before his death. There were appeals made to Rome on her behalf, and as Leo XIII was the pope to lift the unjust decree, perhaps it was Fr. Daurelle who was sent to investigate the matter. As it turned out Cardinal Rampolla ruled that the order to forbid the Sacraments was unjust, and Pope Leo XIII ordered that Marie-Julie once again receive the Sacraments.  I also learned Fr. Daurelle sent copies of the accounts of her ecstasies to Rome as part of the official investigation into her mystical experiences.



The archivist of the Canonesses in Peru have informed me that as Fr. Daurelle was Ven. Teresa's spiritual director for many years, he sent her many letters until his death in 1913, their archives have about 150 letters I am told and they contain quite a number of communications about Marie-Julie Jahenny and the Great Work of the Cross heaven gave her. What a spiritual treasure trove!   No doubt they contain the prophecies of the Order of the Cross that would one day be founded?


(Image: Fr. Daurelle, spiritual director of Ven. Teresa de la Cruz, and, one of the priests appointed by Pope Leo XIII  to investigate Marie-Julie Jahenny.  I wish to thank the archivist of the Canonesses for sending this rare picture.)


Of interest, the archivist also said that Fr. Daurelle's real name was Jean Bautista, but that Our Lady had given him the new name of Marie Bernard, which we saw in the testimony of Ven. Teresa.   (After the religious name of St. Bernadette of Lourdes?)   The archivist also said that the Diocese of Savenay in the Pays de la Loire region informed them that everything concerning Marie-Julie Jahenny and Fr. Daurelle is archived with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  We can only hope that when Ven. Teresa's cause for beatification is reviewed again, this close connection with Fr. Daurelle will bring Marie-Julie forward as a case worthy of canonisation as well! 


When Fr. Daurelle died in 1913, Ven. Teresa and Maria understood what Our Lord meant by “Wait at the time of great comfort ... Do not be sad when the call of the great light arrives ...” It was a prediction of the death of Fr. Daurell, but, they were to wait for a 'great comfort'.


The archivist informed me that Ven. Teresa was not discouraged but she went forward, convinced that this work of founding an order with the Cross at its centre was from God.  From what I can read on their official website, Ven. Teresa suffered many years of setbacks and even persecutions while trying to found her order, and from what is revealed in her sister's biography, this persecution was caused in part due to having been inspired by the mystic experiences of Marie-Julie, but she pressed onward in holy patience and obedience.  Eventually the predicted 'great comfort' arrived when the Canonesses of the Cross was at last founded on September 14, 1919 after receiving official permission from the Church.


Ven. Teresa de la Cruz presents the Theology of Faith and total abandonment to the Divine Will in the midst of a materialistic world where the philosophy of forgetting God is imposed. After leading a life deeply marked by the mystery of the Cross, she died on August 24, 1953.   Her cause for beatification has been introduced in Rome since 1980. On April 3, 2009 Benedict XVI officially acknowledged the heroic virtues in the life of the Venerable Mother Teresa of the Cross.





Again we have a beautiful example of the authenticity of Marie-Julie Jahenny's spirituality and the Great Work of the Cross entrusted to her from Heaven when it has influenced the foundation of an order, and, the spiritual life of its founder Madre Teresa de la Cruz who is now not only a Servant a of God but a Venerable on the path to beatification and canonisation. 


 May Marie-Julie Jahenny soon have her own process of canonisation underway!

::::::::::

I wish to thank the archivist of the Canonesses in Peru for all this information.  Biography and photos from the Official Site of the Canonesses of the Cross.




:::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::

Go To:






















Saturday 18 November 2017

#93 Our Lady Visits – She Speaks on the Holy Novitiate of the Cross – A Preparation for Great Things to Come


Ecstasy date November 5, (1878?)

Our Lady: “It is I, my children, I come to say a word before entrance to the Holy Novitiate. My Son loves to open His inscrutable designs and He will judge all. He opened all the ways of God. Now He is going to manifest His powerful glory. Men have arrived at their last resources. They have exhausted the deepest sources, by the invention, by slander, by jealousy, because they wanted to beat all, judge everything, see everything for themselves, by their very humanity. (I.e. see everything only from a human viewpoint.)


My children, they used the Goodness and Mercy of my Divine Son to offend Him, to invent dreadful lies. Well they are at the end, their spirit can not invent something else, now! My children, when the terrible opposition of these souls will stop and rest, that is when my Divine Son will work powerfully.


My children, this way of the Holy Cross, the novitiate of love was opened by my Divine Son for a great cause, a great glory, to manifest His divine miracles, (i.e. the prophetic mission entrusted to Marie-Julie Jahenny) ... This path will be understood by the chosen souls that my Divine Son has called to His service.


Walk safe, my children, at the foot of the Cross there is a foyer of peace for all children of the Cross, it is a shelter here ... Dear children, I bless you, courage, keep your peace! ...”

:::::::

Go To:




Wednesday 25 October 2017

#82 St. Pamphilus - ALL Christians called to Enter the Novitiate of the Cross - How to Bear Abundant Fruit in the Novitiate


St. Pamphilus - God's Enemies are Filled with Hatred more than ever before: Charity has been stifled in their hearts – Accept persecutions and sufferings from enemies WITHOUT RETALIATION, without defending yourself or murmuring – Persecutions become great treasure for us – Explanation of the Holy Novitiate of the Cross - To Enter the Holy Novitiate is to enter into the Wounds of Christ: He suffered for LOVE of us without complaint.





Ecstasy date September 26, 1878


I am Saint Pamphilus martyred under the sacrilegious Emperors for God and His Holy Name, for the holy Religion, for the consolation of Christians. It was in the prime of my age I suffered martyrdom before the judges of the Emperor. I defended my faith and the name of my God until the last moment of my painful martyrdom. I was laid on a rack of very sharp points on which I was gripped by wide bands of iron also spiked in all directions. I could hardly breathe on this instrument of torture. I had placed on me one day, a band of red-hot iron from the fire. Nothing is sweeter than to suffer when you do it for the glory of God! I was crushed, broken, ground, by these instruments of torture invented by malice and cruelty of men. I was then thrown in boiling oil. My body was nothing but one wound, my blood was mingled with this oil. Then I was hung on a tree forming a cross in front of a wall. There I was again tortured. I had my body pierced through and through with iron awls. The greatest pain was felt in my heart, when it was pierced through. Then I had my nails pulled out, my teeth broken, my eyes torn from their place. This is where I expired in pain and tortures.


My love for Jesus at Calvary was so strong that I wanted to suffer for years to pay for this recognition of happiness and love. I also had an ardent love for Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. He was my support, my strength and my happiness. I was tortured like so many Christians who have won this crown. My martyrdom took place during the height of the persecutions of the Church.

Now a word on behalf of Our Lord.

In the past, our Lord had enemies, all (of) His had enemies, the Church had enemies. Today there are more. Today, the enemies of our God have no conscience, they no longer think, so to speak, no more heart. Hatred has stifled the charity of their hearts living in their bodies. Ah well! Dear Brothers of the Cross, be happy and cry with happiness, to have enemies (to help you) get closer to the One who wants to shower you with grace and happiness. Do not retaliate. Look at Calvary and see the Charity of Our Lord (ready to) break forth at any moment to engulf you, to consume you, to regenerate (in you) this Holy Charity that takes you and pushes you to do everything, to suffer everything, to endure everything for the God of Calvary. All the persecutions that must follow you from life to death, only increase your happiness to develop a knowledge of profound peace. And with that peace you glimpse the mysteries of the powerful goodness of Our Lord. Brothers and sisters, you can say at all times:

"We wear flowers, we breathe their fragrance, because at any time, we will suffer, at all times we will rise on persecutions."

This is your flowers and their fragrance! The fragrance of the persecution do not stop the clouds or the heavens. It goes to heaven to the feet of our Bridegroom on His eternal throne.

Dear Brothers of the Cross, take your nourishment in the Sacred Wounds of Jesus, in your dejection and your abandonment. Go to this divine meal. Come, you, souls that God has chosen for Him to win souls for Him, to present Him flourishing graces after your work, after your mission accomplished! What joy! What transports (of happiness) to have placed the souls around His eternal throne! Live love among thorns! How sweet it is to speak the language of love! This language draws on the cutting edge of thorns, the weight of the cross of God. Dear Brothers, study your sermons and conversations at the foot of the Crucifix and feel the sweet effects of love that has engulfed the Seraphim and Cherubim. On earth, brothers of the Cross, you are fed by a valuable and strong Food, it is the Food of our dear Spouse, it is His grace, His love, His tenderness. It gives you everything. It invites you to this Banquet. Go with happiness, go for strength, go where your soul will expand in this pure love that no creature can give. Your hearts will become fountains while your eyes were dug in their sources, that is to say, in tears.


Our heart, in this fountain, swimming, swims, overflowing with joy, but of secret joy, joy that is not known to mankind in the body, or in the miseries of the body. This joy is only known to God, of His Sacred Wounds. Why the secrecy? This is to make you earn, brother called by grace, to the participation and the distribution of wealth, property, of the glories of the Lord thy God! In this passage of time you all have to be like lambs being sacrificed on the Cross, without complaining, without murmuring, without saying, "My God, why this pain?" It is time for sacrifice, it is the hour when the Lord's sheep will be sacrificed by language, by the mind, by the vengeance from the enemy's heart.


The sacrifice is admirable. The sighs of your hearts repeats to God a song of love and thanksgiving. Why? Because you do not try to defend yourself, to apologize. You wear what you are given, you load on your shoulders the cross that they have prepared for you and is far from being fair, because they do not believe it just, nor justified in the righteousness of God. To the eyes of the world, in the eyes of your brothers, you appear guilty. (i.e. as a Christian following God's laws you will be made to be the criminal). Leave it be, leave it go, let yourself be despoiled of this first cloak. (i.e., Do not worry about what people say and think of you. Ignore human respect.) This is not the most beautiful, most perfect. It is probably the cloak that saves innocence, (i.e. the right to defend your good name) but it is not the cloak of innocence. (I.e. this right is not innocence itself.) This one is more hidden, they (your enemies) will not achieve it. (i.e. they will try and make themselves out to be the righteous and take away your innocence, but God and those with eyes that see know the truth.) What joy! Tremble with happiness and love, because you are called by the name of the martyrs, martyrs of patience, martyrs by submission, martyrs by charity and resignation, martyrs by the loving love, that is to say, by the love that loves God. Oh! Your portion is beautiful! Ah! If only those who cause your martyrdom knew your peace! …

Live in God's love. Love is then at the foot of the Cross. Make the Novitiate of the Cross, Novitiate of peace, novitiate of love, cloister of Hope before making your profession in the Heavens, eternal profession. The Christian life is as the religious life. Before pronouncing final vows, (i.e.) the (final) profession, a religious should learn in a novitiate, like a good worker must first be an apprentice, then afterwards confirmed as a professional. In the novitiate, there again, is change. This refers to the old man who must make way for the new man in us all. In this we are all novices and have a lot (that needs to be) converted in us. The cross is made for that. The cloister is a place of silence and prayer, away from the busy world. The novitiate (i.e. the Holy Novitiate of the Cross) is a school of meditation. Enter the School of the Holy Wounds of Jesus Crucified, that is where we learn, that is where intelligence (i.e. spiritual wisdom) develops.

To enter the Wounds of Our Lord means understanding that He loved us to that point. (I.e. He loved us to the point of enduring torture and agony.) He who, as God is unchangeable, wanted to show us in His suffering humanity evidence of the truth of His love: "I carved your name in the palm of My Hands and in My Heart."

And, in your development, this Truth becomes Divine because the flow of the grace of Our Lord gives life, qualifies, makes fragrant, converts and transforms... The Cross is the portion of God, it was then the portion the Saints, it is your portion! Cherish it, plant it in the most beautiful garden of your heart, that is to say, in the most beautiful place, the more ornate, the richest! ...


::::::

Notes: St. Pamphilus was a martyr of Asia Minor, a native of Berytus in Phoenicia. He studied at Alexandria under Pierius, and then settled at Caesarea in Palestine, where he was ordained priest. One of the greatest biblical scholars of his day, he fostered learning and protected all students. His household became famous for its practise of fraternal love, slaves and domestics being treated as sons and brothers. The historian Eusebius assumed the name “Pamphili” in gratitude for the favours received from St. Pamphilus. After years of imprisonment and repeated tortures, he was martyred under Galerius in 309 AD. With him suffered his deacon and ten companions. Feast Day, June 1.


The “Friends of Marie-Julie / Sanctuary Website” offers the following commentary:

... Galerius hated Christians and was very cruel. He wanted to impose, in order to maintain unity in the vast empire that threatened to break apart, the same religion on all subjects, (that is), the worship of gods and the Emperor. From 295 the persecution raged in the army (the massacre of the Theban legion - 6000 victims, including St. Maurice and St. Exupère who refused to sacrifice to the gods). It was a "cleansing" of civil society. There successively appeared four edicts:

-Destruction of all the churches and sacred books
- Imprisonment of clerics
- Order the priests to sacrifice to pagan gods
-Order all Christians to sacrifice to idols and to worship the emperor

For the glory of God, many Christians refused to submit and were slaughtered by methods of "ethnic cleansing" that our twentieth century can not boast of having forgotten. It was not until the Edict of Constantine in the year 313 to stop such persecution in the East.”

These observations from the “Friends of Marie-Julie” are not misplaced, considering how Our Lord, Our Lady and the Saints continually warned Marie-Julie about the coming trials and persecutions the Church would face, including martyrdom, pronouncing the Church will finally be liberated by a Holy Monarch who will bear the sign of the cross and declare like Constantine: “In this sign, you shall conquer,” ushering in the greatest era of the Church and the promised period of peace.

:::::::::::::

Go To:







Tuesday 3 October 2017

#70 St. John-Francis Regis - Sufferings of the Cross Worthy of Holy Envy –– the Mortal Danger of Slander - Unless God Intervenes Slanderers Will be Lost



St. John-Francis Regis visits Marie-Julie Jahenny – Sufferings of the Cross in these evil times Worthy of Holy Envy – Slanderers: how they behave – the Mortal Danger of Slander - Unless God Intervenes Slanderers Will be Lost

Ecstasy August 13, 1878

I have come to give a word on behalf of God at the entry of your Holy Novitiate. We are at the foot of the Cross, and we wait and we hope to go into our sweet and Blessed Country.


What is this earth, what is suffering in comparison with endless happiness? Our life on earth is short and Our Lord has measured our years. Let us commence, it is time to live for God and for Heaven.


If the adorable Lord descended now, upon a bright cloud to judge and condemn, how would He find any just in this fair land of merit? It is frightening! ... Today, what injustice! What hidden infamies! What veiled slander! How do they persevere, those souls who commit them?

This is how they do it.

First they try to stifle remorse, but it follows them everywhere. In conversations, in their companies, their words are beautiful, clear as glass. But the reasoning of the soul, at the bottom of their interior, no one hears and it is frightening. The soul moans, cries, suffers, because it is the only thing in these men that belongs to the Sovereign Good. (I.e. the rest of these sinners has become completely evil in thought, word and deed.)


Slander is like a worm, it eats into the soul of the most beautiful and chaste virtues, and then, after being eaten whole, the soul can not become master because it is opposed by the evil human mind, by human nature so angry and so cruel. The soul can no longer prevail, and if God does not come to its aid, it is forever doomed …


Wait with patience! The time of the Lord is open to Heaven. But what a surprise for the headstrong! (The stubborn sinners who refuse to repent.) But what joy for the few (i.e. the righteous that suffer on earth) that I envy their position on earth, because I would have the honour to suffer for my God! Heaven, I come to their aid!

How admirable is the way of the Cross! It is worthy of envy!



How great are its merits! O Royal Way! Vive la Croix, the treasure of the true chosen ones ...”


*****

Notes:

St. Johan-Francis Regis was born at Font-Couverte in the diocese of Narbonne in Langedoc, France. At the age of eighteen he entered the Society of Jesus at Béziers, was ordained in 1631, and from that moment knew no rest spending himself in preaching the Gospel to the uneducated farmers of Languedoc and Auvergne, providing for prisoners and fallen women, establishing confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament, and effecting everywhere numerous conversions among the Protestant Huguenots. He died while preaching a mission on December 30, 1640, and was canonized in 1737. (New feast day June 16, traditional feast day December 31.). 

*****

Go To:


Previous Post #69 St. Paul - Suffering Opens Heaven - Persecutions from Slander and Envy gain us the most Merits - "Friends of the Cross" will Suffer Persecution- Why Slander is horrible in God's Sight

Next Post #71 St. Gregory the Great - PROPHECY Echoing Leo XIII's vision to Come - CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE CHURCH

Prophecies: Table of Contents


 

Wednesday 13 September 2017

#68 St. Thomas Aquinas Returns - Sufferings Perfect - True Happiness - Peace Amidst Sufferings



St. Thomas Aquinas visits again - Suffering perfects a soul and unites it to God - Suffering a Little-Known Treasure - Suffering is Never Without Reward - Suffering with Inner Peace gives us True Happiness - God Tests through Sufferings to see if we are True Christians - Perfection a Great Virtue Beloved of God and Attained through Suffering -  How to Be Peaceful Amidst the Cross -


Ecstasy August 8, 1878

“I wish you peace, I wish that peace be in your soul in your heart, in your mind.”

Marie-Julie: “It's St. Thomas Aquinas, He is radiant with glory at the foot of the Cross. He
said to me:

'It is I who come to say a word on behalf of the Lord, at the entrance of your Holy Novitiate. 

God created us to love Him and serve Him. All happiness is to love God, and all the joy you taste in the love of God, this is the peace one experiences. Our Lord gives us His goods so generously that there is no heart on earth able to thank Him as He desires, what the Divine Master ... (missing text here?) 

Suffering perfects us and unites us to our Beloved. Our Lord watches over us with such kindness and generosity, He wants our happiness, He wants to give us His rich rewards.  Let us rejoice in the suffering on this earth, that our heart beats with joy, happiness and gratitude! Suffering is a little-known Treasure. If known, this Treasure would also become for us an immense source of comfort, happiness and joy. 

God is pleased to test us on earth, because he wants to see if we are true Christians ...
Our Lord never gives suffering or pains without rewards. When we have trouble on earth, we must always keep a joyful heart of recognition (of this). Suffering proves (or tests) peace and peace proves happiness. All the happiness consists in love of Our Lord and His Cross. We must suffer with a sweet and holy patience, because it is in suffering that is perfection. 

Perfection is an eminent virtue, a virtue that is pleasing to God ... The higher the flood of persecutions pass over us, the more God will love us and God will draw His Glory in our
pains ..
.

Our Cross of the earth is enriched with diamonds and pearls because we bear no irritation, because we carry them with calm, because we want only good for those who wish us harm. This thought, is it not capable to give courage to the soul?


Our souls are such a great price and are so dear to the eyes of God He loves them with a tenderness and kindness that can not be explained here below. Our adorable Lord, by creating our souls, made them with all His love, all His Goodness, but He wants our souls to love Him in return and that they give thanks for all the benefits He gives them in this life. .. . 


Walk with courage, do not worry about anything! Love God, serve Him faithfully. Walk in the way of the Cross with certainty, it is the Way of the Chosen, the Royal Way! I would still live on earth to suffer for the glory of my God!”

**** 

Go to:





Sunday 10 September 2017

#67 St. Vincent Ferrer - the PLAGUE of DEGREDATION - Pastors will be Punished by Scandal - Inner Peace Amidst Crosses



St. Vincent Ferrer visits Marie-Julie Jahenny - SOULS WEAKENED because pastors and ministers are INFECTED with the "PLAGUE OF DEGREDATION" - God is preparing the punishments but waits for sincere wills to return to Him - Pastors and Ministers will be PUNISHED THROUGH SCANDAL - A WARNING WILL BE GIVEN FIRST - God more comforted by single people living in the world who live the Faith rather than priests who fail in their duty in the care of souls - we know God is within us when we retain and feel peace within while amidst Crosses and Persecutions


Ecstasy August 5, 1878

“That,” he says, “is what comes (or, why it is that) souls today are much weaker than before. The faith of the Pastors is not entirely pure, because their charity is not single, it is accompanied by a kind of evil called the plague of degradation, it is the lack of charity, it is the lack of respect we should all have for each other since we are all children of the same Father and of the same Mother, the Blessed Virgin. 

God does not strike yet, He waits and in waiting, He suffers from all sides, but He prepares and He waits for a long time for the return of sincere wills.

 I begin by saying a word, it is this: if the Pastors and the souls entrusted with the painful responsibility of those souls created by God, (i.e. to lead souls to salvation through Catholic Truth) if they do not change, they do not conform in perfect faith, if they do not conform in charity ordained by God and order it especially (with regards) to themselves, God will soon make seen in and by them, a subject of scandal. This is how God is preparing. In the great surprise of His inscrutable designs, God will send them by His Divine Power, a serious warning that will be everywhere at once, it will be found even with those souls who have to follow the straight line given by the Pastors. 

God will strike in secret, He will strike in public for God complains for some time so strongly that it is impossible to understand the manner of these complaints as they are rigorous and mixed with justice.

 I pronounce this word which is very terrible, because God calls me, and God wills it. Here, at the foot of the Cross, I can affirm on behalf of God that God is a thousand times more comforted by the many souls who have no dependants, who living in the world are not in the priesthood but live well in their state. (I.e, single people who live the Faith.) God is a thousand times more comforted by this part than He is from many of his servants engaged in the painful paths of the direction of souls on Earth, I speak of God's ministers.  (i.e He is comforted more by those single inthe world who truly live and practise their Faith when compared with priests who fail in their duty and lead souls astray in the process.)

God cannot suffer for much longer so many injuries and so many injustices, so many infamies and so many veiled crimes. If you knew today how on earth how many iniquities there are veiled to the eyes of souls and the eyes of the body of this world, you would be in a terrible fright. God sees, God knows, God will judge. 

Take courage, they do not frighten us, but God's word will not be held back much longer, (i.e the promised punishments) mind this word. 

Oh! How sweet are the ways of the Cross when one has God as their Father and for support! What can we fear when we do the will of God and when we mind peace amid the waves of persecution and anguish? This is the true character of the operations of God in us, it is peace and the enjoyment of peace, it is the calm and courage that exist within us. I wish that all those who persecute God and His Cross, might know the peace and courage of the friends of the Cross because they are upset and confused, they would be in a kind of  astonishment which I will call an almost amazing and miraculous faith in midst of all this desolation. 

Courage and perseverance, God will accomplish it. God lets pass this effort, this terrible effort in a short time, His adorable Voice will pronounce an end and give to those who have suffered, the happiness of rejoicing in peace and in joy.  This is my last word that I extend to the victims
and to the faithful and devoted friends of Jesus.”

****

Notes: Sy. Vincent Ferrer (c. 1350-1418) A native of Valencia, Spain, he entered the Dominican Order at an early age and soon became the advisor of the King of Aragon and of the Avignon Pope, with whom he sided in good faith.  To heal the schism of the papacy he travelled through Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy, preaching pennance, working miracles and converting thousands, being endowed with the gift of tongues.  When it became clear to him that the Avignon party was not in the right, he turned his efforts towards bringing them into obedience under the ligitimate pope.  It was St. Vincent, who under God, was the primary cause of the cessation of the papal schism.  He died at Vannes, Brittany, France.  Feast Day, April 5.
****

Go to:




Saturday 9 September 2017

#66 St. John of the Cross - How to Suffer Well - Suffering a Sign God Loves Us - Importance of the Morning Offering



St. John of the Cross visits Marie-Julie: Love of the Cross Perfects Viritues Within - How to Suffer Well and not Badly - Suffering a sign God loves us and we are the friends of God - The Importance of the Morning Offering, it pleases God



Ecstasy dated July 11, 1878

“I am Saint John of the Cross. I come to say a word before you enter the Holy Novitiate. Love the cross, all carry the cross. Cherish the cross and we all take comfort in the Cross. It is the love of the Cross which perfects within us the beautiful virtues that the Lord wants to give us in His generosity.

Without the cross and without the tribulations, we must not rely on the supreme happiness, because happiness is in pain, in suffering, in the Cross, in persecutions in this world. The Cross is a valuable book, but so few know how to read (it).”

Marie-Julie: “It is true, good saint, but teach us.”

St. John of the Cross: “The Cross of the Divine Master contains all the lights and all the sublime riches. It is necessary to start our study there during (our) life because that is where the perfection of the soul begins. The more the Lord sends us pain, suffering in this world, the more He loves us, the more it brings us closer to Him, He caresses us more in His blazing love. The pains of the earth and all the miseries of life are infinitely precious merits before the Lord.  Many suffer on earth, but many suffer badly.”

Marie-Julie: “Teach us good saint.”

St. John of the Cross: “To suffer well is to procure the immense glory of peace, wealth, love on earth, the recovery of the bliss of repose of the soul. I also lived on earth in the midst of crosses and tribulations, but I was never weary, because I felt so great perfection, a tenderness of love in suffering, as if I could take all the suffering of the earth, I would have done so for my God. If you are the friends of God, you must expect to suffer. And you, the friends of God, He will help you, sometimes in His joy, sometimes His dear Cross on which He has suffered so much.”

Marie-Julie:“Thank you, good saint, this is good.”

St. John of the Cross: “It is a sure sign that God loves us when He makes us suffer on earth. He who does not suffer, is not the true friend of God. The Lord admits us (into) His grace, thank him. Remember that when we feel the pains of life, we experience His grace. When the Lord begins a work in which He wants His glory to break forth, he surrounds it first with persecutions, the cross, neglect, all kinds of penalties. This is the real charm of the Finger of God. It is necessary that one who is in the friendship of the Lord be tested, that everything in his soul is purified.”


Marie-Julie: “I always fear offending the Lord, teach us, good saint, what to do not to displease
Him in the smallest things
.”

St. John of the Cross: “First, we must maintain humility, obedience, submission, love can say to the Divine Jesus: 'I offer you in advance what will happen, penalties, crosses, or love and joy,' that is the real way not to displease God, for all has been offered to Him in advance ...” (A reminder of how the Morning Offering each day pleases God!)

*****

Notes: Saint John of the Cross was a great Spanish mystic and theologian who worked with St. Teresa of Avila in the founding of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (1542-1591). He was canonized in 1726 and declared Doctor of the Church in 1926. His work in the field of mystical theology is authoritative. He studied with great precision, all stages of the ascent of the contemplative soul in its return to God. It is a long path of light and love, of painful purification and enlightenment gradually, resulting in the total and indissoluble union of the soul with God. Saint John of the Cross describes his personal experience which gives him an invaluable skill. His presence in La Fraudais should reassure those who still doubt the atmosphere of truth and obedience to the Church. He was just appointed to guide Marie-Julie in the ways of the Holy Novitiate. For several months she was taught by the Holy Spirit on the essential place of the Cross in the spiritual life of Christian souls on earth to heaven. (Biography provided by the Friends of Marie-Julie / SanctuaryWebsite.)

****

Go to: