An eyewitness account of Marie-Julie Jahenny's mystical suffering of the Passion. Her ecstasy and messages dated October 17, 1877.
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A quarter to one - Marie-Julie is sitting in a wicker chair, her head resting on her bed. She is
oppressed. Monsieur (Fr.) David (her confessor) said that it is the happiness she feels united with her Saviour. We were placed on chairs and on benches around the room which can only hold seven or eight people, the other seven in number, start at the door outside the house (her room).
Marie-Julie asks for the blessing of the priests at the invitation of Fr. David, they rise while all the assistants imitate Marie-Julie, prostrating themselves during the priestly blessing. She sits down and almost immediately the ecstasy begins:
"My beloved Jesus, I adore You and love You and I see You come to me full of love and tenderness! My beloved Jesus, hide me in this holy love. My heart flies to You, my beloved Jesus, receive me! Come to me Love of my heart, transported with love. I did not deserve to have so much happiness, I will be with You, near the cross, dear Beloved, treasured Spouse. I give You my heart to walk in Your footsteps.Make me suffer because I
languish with love. My heart is Yours, enclose it in Yours. It's too
much love. Give me suffering, the cross, my Spouse of Calvary!"
The servant of God put her hands behind her back, she continues her holy effusions. She attends the Saviour’s agony in the Garden; the abuse, he is condemned, the outrage, the taking up of the cross. Marie-Julie shares the pain of Jesus and refers to the column of the flagellation, the barbarous treatment inflicted on Jesus Christ. She admires the heroism of Veronica who, braving the soldiers and executioners, came to the Divine Master and wipes His face covered with sweat. In the words of the ecstatic, the holy women, especially Madeleine, try to give some relief to our Lord that tradition does not report. Marie-Julie implores forgiveness of Jesus and His mercy.
Marie-Julie: “Strip me,” she said, “and my will, and my freedom, give me Your love, give me Your cross, Your thorns and Your nails. Strip me of everything, put on me Your clothes of poverty, give me a piece of clothing at the foot of Your cross, purity, virginity. Forgiveness for sinners, for me, my beloved Jesus!”
The Man of pain does not utter a whisper. Perfect model of patience, resignation, charity.
Marie-Julie kneels and begins the way of the cross, walking in silence on her knees and bearing a mystic cross that crushes and she is made to march under its weight with extreme difficulty. She wears a small cross with both hands above her left shoulder.
One hour and twenty minutes - First fall.
She falls face against the ground and cries. After a time during which she speaks softly and requests, she said aloud:
Marie-Julie: “My beloved Jesus, I adore You and love You. I see You wear my sins, in Your tenderness and Your love. How I may not ask to suffer, miserable sinner that I am! My beloved Jesus said:
Jesus: “Do you wish to suffer more? Will you suffer to console My Divine Heart? Suffer for the conversion of sinners?”
Marie-Julie: “Oh! too happy to suffer with You at the stake of torture of the Cross. Always and everywhere to suffer! This is where I enjoy my happiness. I must suffer. Oh! prepare me the cross, suffering!”
She goes back on her knees and continues the path of the Cross, bearing the mystical wood with more pain and fatigue than before.
One hour thirty five minutes, the second fall. She speaks softly, sobbing and praying. Her small cross fell to her left, detached from her. Then she said aloud:
Marie-Julie: “My beloved Jesus, I adore You and I see You and I am with You. For some time I offend You, You have suffered long enough for me! I promise You O my treasure, I promise you a thousand times to die rather than offend You.”
Jesus shows His wounds. He falls face against the ground and separates the cross from Him. Oh! Father! O my eternal Word, I contemplate Your adorable Wounds. They are many voices crying, asking for prayers!
Jesus' words: “Prepare your heart,” said the ood Jesus in His tenderness to me, “give Me your love. I saw that you share My pain. I will make you (a) support to comply with My Will, (to) call the graces and blessings of heaven.
Marie-Julie: I see the bloody wound in His shoulder! How deep and painful it is.
Jesus: “I will tell you My prayers that alleviate My suffering. I desire that this Wound be made
known to My children.”
(Click Here for the NEW WOUND of the SHOULDER PROMISES given to Marie-Julie Jahenny)
My divine Jesus opens His Heart. He said: Jesus: “The people for whom you pray, they come knocking at the door of My Divine Heart. I will purify by the pain and their sacrifices, which you ask me.”
An hour and three quarters. Marie-Julie gets on her knees once more, rests a moment, looking intently up into the sky, closes her eyes and walks again on her knees. She stops beside her chair, supported by the parish priest of Savenay (Monsieur l'Abbé Mauclerc) to whom she gives her small cross (20 to 30 centimetres), fixed her eyes again to heaven. She is oppressed, she sobs, closed her eyes and leaving her small cross in the hands of the priest continues her walk with her mystical cross that is so heavy.
One hour fifty five minutes - she falls for the third time, her face against the ground, upper arms parallel to the direction separated from the body. She sobs. After some time of silence and prayer, she speaks again:
Marie-Julie: “My beloved Jesus, I ask You to have a share on Calvary, in Your suffering. The Cross of Your sacrifice is prepared. Cruel executioners, nail me to the place of my Jesus, it was I who deserved all the pain! My Saviour said:
"Come on My Cross."
Marie-Julie: “O tender love of the cross, when you have tasted it, you can not leave it! Lay me on the gallows, I want to live and die on the Cross, the Cross of Calvary.”
She tries to get up six times and six times she always falls face against the ground! In the seventh effort, she remains kneeling.
Marie-Julie continues her invocations to the Divine Heart of Jesus. She relies on Mary and unites her prayers to those of the Virgin without stain. She attends the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion and her language is that of an angel calling the torments of the eternal King of ages, consumed with this holocaust of reparation. She opens her arms and looks up to heaven:
"Too sweet suffering, come to accomplish the sacrifice I ask of you. My heart swims in delight, I am with You on the Cross that consoles!"
Three quarter hours - She raises her hands by further opening her arms, turns, puts her left foot on the right foot and fell behind her arms up high and open, hands clenched as nailed to the Cross. She says the Litany of St. Germaine (composed by her) in which each verse begins with "St. Germaine, spouse of Jesus Christ or my sister, O my Germaine etc.."
After these litanies that are admirable, she sings a plaintive air, with arms in the same position, she is still on the cross and said:
"Every day, my Spouse of Heaven, give my heart, an extreme tenderness, on the top of the Cross, O Jesus, from the top of the Cross, render a kind glance to your children that weep and moan. My beloved Jesus, show us Your love. from heaven, watch your children. Mercy, my God for sinners who so far have not listened! And you, O Mary, O my loving Mother, pray to Jesus, your beloved Son! Ask that He has mercy on us!
Without You, my God, alas, without You, we perish! Hide us in your heart, tender Mary, bear our hearts to Jesus! O Divine Master, we will all bless You, Your Sacred Heart. It will be our defence. It will be the King of men! Divine Jesus, bring forth the victory in Your adorable Heart. Show your mercy.
Precious Treasury that is the Cross! What rich portion to possess the Cross! Pity, my God, from the height of the Cross, for your children covered in a coat of mourning. Show us the
flower of hope that will one day save us.
Mary, my august Mother, present to Jesus, the plaints of our hearts and say to Him we want
peace. Your dear Son does not know how to refuse you! Hurry this time of peace. Pity for
your children!
Oh! Mary, ask Jesus that He forgives before exercising His Divine Vengeance! We will not
perish because Mary has promised us. Mother Mary will protect us."
Three hours and forty five minutes. They say a decade of the rosary while Marie-Julie does not
speak.
Three hours and fifty minutes. She is struck with a spear. We see her sufferings betrayed by groans of pain and the side that is contracting. She kissed the crucifix that she is presented, she prays in a low voice and is stationary.
Then, four hours, she said:
"My beloved Jesus, I adore You and love You with all my heart. I see You died for me on that cross ... There are many tender hearts but there are others who are cold and very hard, for whom faith is dead. Have mercy on these poor, wake up love in them! My beloved Jesus looks with pity, (He) calls them in His mercy.”
Words of Jesus: "Love, come, sinners,” He says, “it is time for forgiveness, repentance, contrition. Soon the time will be spent. I will not forgive any more, it will be time for Justice, and
I will strike."
The Heart of God is full of hidden treasures and not yet known. “Soon,” says the Saviour, “you will see how My Heart possesses love for you. Oh, My children who have ceased to offend me! I do not want to leave you to die because you are My work, I have forgiven you and forgive you every day!”
At the foot of the Cross for poor France, I saw Mary quench her tears with her cloak. For a long time She holds the arm of her Son. She suspends Justice. Mary asks for prayers for the children of the Sacred Heart. She is begging for us, she asks the Sacred Heart a little more time before we invoke again. The Divine Jesus, does He forgive (us)?"
Marie-Julie saw Saint Francis of Assisi at the foot of the Cross and lets fall from her soul accents worthy of the founder of the SeraphicOrder.
Marie-Julie (drops) down the arms along the body: the tomb. She remains motionless. Then at half past four, she received a new strike from a spear (or the blood of the other spear seems to stifle it.) Embraces the crucifix, the relic of the True Cross, the statue of the Blessed Virgin .
She asks for the image of Saint Francis of Assisi, a priest takes one from his breviary, she does not take it. Fr David said to the Abbot, "I know what it is, the image is not holy." He blessed it and immediately she approached affectionately with her lips. (Kisses the image.) Same thing happens for a rosary she refuses. Fr David asked if it was blessed. - “Yes,” they say. Is it the cross? - “I do not know” is the answer. “I had lost it, and I replaced it.” We present the rosary again to Mary-Julie who did not take it (until the cross is blessed) and she accepted the rosary and the cross with kisses. She makes signs of the cross on her forehead with her relic, she passes it over her eyes. She prays and often brings to her mouth, crosses, rosaries, relics she has with her.
During this time of silence, one recites the last four decades of the second part of the Rosary,
plus ten for the intentions of Marie-Julie.
Five hours. She gets up, gets on her knees, hands, eyes turned heavenward, she said:
"The Seraphic Father Saint Francis had a tender love for his crucified Jesus that when he heard His name pronounced, he fell face against the ground and could not contain his happiness. Oh! Seraphic Father St. Francis, soon I will call you my Father, and many others too. "
Marie-Julie points out the following facts: St. Francis remained unconscious three hours when
he felt the iron of the spear for the first time. He stayed five hours in agony on the rock. A flame
would come from his heart sometimes. Marie-Julie saw a consoling grace of which the
day is not far away.
Five and a half hours. Her eyes are open, she gives her crucifix to kiss, which he returned after his turn of assisting. Marie-Julie announced that an abundance of grace came out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus "but I can not quite say" she cries, “I will speak in secret, my beloved Jesus and His Blessed Mother will defend me from speaking in public.
The Blessed Virgin does not bless us now, it will be Our Lord and the seraphic St. Francis. We will honour and make amendment to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
She falls down and said an admirable prayer aloud. The whole audience joined her on her knees. Then she gets up and bows with Our Lord and St. Francis all the objects in her hands for the blessing.
Finally, she falls, broken, into the arms of her mother who sits in her chair when she revived to normal life, but not right away. Everyone retires discreetly leaving her family. Each of the assistants is happy and confident. Fr. David her confessor waits for her to completely revive (from her ecstasy).
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