What does the inner life consist of? The real relationship with Jesus

What does the inner life consist of?

This precious life, which is the real kingdom of God within us (Luke XVIII, 11), is called adherence to Jesus by the Cardinal dé Bérulle and his disciples, and by others identifying life with Jesus; it is life with Jesus living and operating in us. It consists in realizing, and with faith, becoming aware, as best as possible, of the life and action of Jesus in us and responding to it docilely. It consists in persuading us that Jesus is present in us and therefore considering our heart as a sanctuary where Jesus dwells, therefore thinking, speaking and performing all our actions in his presence and under his influence; therefore it means thinking like Jesus, doing everything with him and like him; with him living in us as a supernatural principle of our activity, as he is our model. It is the usual life in the presence of God and in union with Jesus Christ.

The inner soul frequently remembers that Jesus wants to live in her, and works with him to transform his feelings and intentions; therefore she lets herself be directed in everything by Jesus, lets him think, love, work, suffer in her and therefore she impresses her image, like the sun, according to a nice comparison of Cardinal de Bérulle, she imprints her image in a crystal; that is, according to the words of Jesus himself to Saint Margaret Mary, he presents his Heart to Jesus as a canvas where the divine painter paints what he wants.

Full of good will, the inner soul habitually thinks: «Jesus is in me, he is not only my companion, but he is the soul of my soul, the heart of my heart; at every moment his Heart tells me as to St. Peter: do you love me? ... do this, dodge that ... think in this way ... love like this .., work like this, with this intention ... in this way you will let My life penetrate in you, invest it, and let it be your life ».

And that soul always responds to Jesus yes: my Lord, do what you like with me, here is my will, I leave you full freedom, to you and to your love I completely abandon myself ... Here is a temptation to overcome, a sacrifice to do, I do everything for you, so that you love me and I love you more ».

If the correspondence of the soul is ready, generous, fully effective, the inner life is rich, and intense; if the correspondence is weak and intermittent, the inner life is weak, petty and poor.

This is the inner life of the Saints, as was inconceivable in the Madonna and Saint Joseph. The Saints are saints in proportion to the intimacy and intensity of this life. All the glory of the King's daughter. that is, of the soul daughter of Jesus is interior (Ps., XLIX, 14), and this, it seems to us, explains the glorification of certain Saints who externally have not done anything extraordinary, such as, for example, St. Gabriel, of the Addolorata . Jesus is the internal teacher of the Saints; and the Saints do nothing without consulting him internally, letting himself be completely guided by his spirit, therefore they become like living photographs of Jesus.

St. Vincent de Paul never did anything without thinking: How would Jesus do in this circumstance? Jesus was the model He always had before his eyes.

St. Paul had come to such an extent that he let himself be completely guided by the spirit of Jesus; it no longer opposed any resistance, like a mass of soft wax that allows itself to be shaped and shaped by the architect. This is the life of which every Christian should live; thus Christ is formed in us according to a sublime saying of the Apostle (Gal., IV, 19), because his action reproduces in us his virtues and his life.

Jesus truly becomes the life of the soul who abandons himself to him with perfect docility; Jesus is his teacher, but he is also his strength and makes everything easy; with an inner look of the heart to Jesus, she finds the energy necessary to make every sacrifice, and win, every temptation, and continually says to Jesus: May I lose everything, but not you! Then there is that admirable saying of St. Cyril: The Christian is a compound of three elements: the body, the soul and the Holy Spirit; Jesus is the life of that soul, just as the soul is the life of the body.

The soul that lives from the inner life:

1- See Jesus; usually lives in the presence of Jesus; not a long time goes by without remembering God, and for her God is Jesus, Jesus present in the holy tabernacle and in the sanctuary of his own heart. The Saints accuse themselves of a fault, of forgetting God even for a small quarter of an hour.

2- Listen to Jesus; she is attentive to her voice with great docility, and feels it in her heart that pushes her to good, comforts her in pains, encourages her in sacrifices. Jesus says that the faithful soul hears his voice (Joan., X, 27). Blessed is he who hears and listens to the intimate and sweet voice of Jesus deep in his heart! Blessed is he who keeps his heart empty and pure, so that Jesus can make you hear his voice!

3- Think about Jesus; and frees himself from any thought other than for Jesus; in everything he tries to please Jesus.

4- Talk to Jesus with intimacy and heart to heart; converse with him as with your friend! and in difficulties and temptations he recurs to him as to the loving Father who will never abandon him.

5- Love Jesus and keep his heart free from any disordered affection that would be frowned upon by his Beloved; but she is not content with having no other love than for Jesus and in Jesus, she also loves her God intensely. Her life is full of acts of perfect charity, because she tends to do everything in view of Jesus and for the love of Jesus; and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord is precisely the richest, most fruitful, abundant and precious treasure of ani of charity ... The words of Jesus to the Samaritan apply very well to the inner life: If you knew the gift of God! ... What it matters, it is to have eyes and to know how to use them ».

Is it easy to acquire such an inner life? - in reality, all Christians are called to it, Jesus said for everyone that he is life; St. Paul wrote to ordinary faithful and Christians and not to friars or nuns.

Therefore every Christian can and must live from such a life. That it is so easy, especially on the principle, cannot be said, because life must first be truly Christian. "It is easier to pass from mortal sin to the state of grace than in the state of grace to rise to this life of effective union with Jesus Christ", because it is an ascent that requires mortification and sacrifice. However, every Christian must tend to you and it is regrettable that there is so much neglect in this regard.

Many Christian souls live in God's grace, careful not to commit any at least mortal sin; perhaps they lead a life of external piety, they perform many exercises of piety; but they do not care to do more and to rise to intimate life with Jesus. They are Christian souls; they do not do much honor to religion and to Jesus; but in short, Jesus is not ashamed of them and upon their death they will be welcomed by him. However, they are not the ideal of supernatural life, nor can they say like the Apostle: It is Christ who lives in me; Jesus cannot say: they are my faithful sheep, they live with me.

Above the barely Christian life of these souls, Jesus wants another form of life which is more accentuated, more developed, more perfect, the inner life, to which every soul who receives holy Baptism is called, who lays down the principle, the germ. which she must develop. The Christian is another Christ the Fathers have always said »

What are the means for inner life?

The first condition is a great purity of life; therefore a constant care to avoid any sin, even venial. Untapped venial sin is the death of inner life; affection and intimacy with Jesus are illusions if you commit venial sins with your eyes open without worrying about changing them. Venial sins committed for weakness and immediately disapproved at least with a glance of the heart at the tabernacle are not an obstacle, because Jesus is good and when he sees our good will he pities us.

The first necessary condition is therefore to be ready, as Abraham was ready to sacrifice his Isaac, to make us any sacrifice rather than to offend our beloved Lord.

Furthermore, a great means of interior life is the commitment to always keep the heart directed to Jesus present in us or at least to the holy Tabernacle. The latter way will be easier. In any case, we always resort to the tabernacle. Jesus himself is in Heaven and, with the Eucharistic Heart, in the Blessed Sacrament, why look for him far away, up to the highest heaven, when we have him near us? Why did you want to stay with us, if not because we could find it with ease?

For the life of union with Jesus, it takes recollection and silence in the soul.

Jesus is not in the tumult of dissipation. It is necessary to do, as Cardinal de Bérulle says, with a very suggestive expression, it is necessary to make the void in our heart, so that this becomes a simple ability, and then Jesus will occupy it and fill it.

It is therefore necessary to free ourselves from so many useless thoughts and worries, to curb the imagination, to flee many curiosities, to content ourselves with those really necessary recreations that can be taken in union with the Sacred Heart, that is, for a good end and with good intention. The intensity of the inner life will be proportionate to the spirit of mortification.

In silence and solitude the Saints find every delight because they find ineffable enjoyments with Jesus. Silence is the soul of great things. "Solitude, said Father de Ravignan, is the homeland of the strong", and added: "I am never less alone as when I am alone ... I never find myself alone when I am with God; and I am never with God as when I am not with men ». And that Jesuit Father was also a man of great activity! «Silence or death….» he still said.

We remember some great words: in multiloquio non deerit peccatum; In the abundance of chatter there is always some sin. (Prov. X), and this one: Nulli tacuisse nocet ... nocet esse locutum. Often one finds oneself repented of having spoken, rarely of having kept silent.

Furthermore, the soul will endeavor to strive for a holy familiarity with Jesus, speaking with him heart to heart, as with the best of friends; but this familiarity with Jesus must be nourished by meditation, spiritual reading and visits to the SS. Sacrament.

With respect to all that can be said and known about inner life; many chapters of the Imitation of Christ will be read and meditated on, especially chapters I, VII and VIII of Book II and various of Book III.

A great obstacle to inner life, beyond the felt venial sin, is the dissipation, for which you want to know everything, to see everything even many useless things, so that there is no place left for an intimate thought with Jesus in the mind and heart. Here one would have to say frivolous readings, worldly or too prolonged conversations, etc., with which one is never at home, that is, in one's heart, but always outside.

Another serious obstacle is an excessive natural activity; that takes on too many things, without calm or tranquility. Wanting to do too much and with impetuosity, here is a defect of our times. If you then add a certain disorder in your life, without regularity in the various actions; if everything is left to the whim and chance, then it is a real disaster. If you want to maintain a little inner life, you need to know how to limit yourself, not to put too much meat on the fire, but to do well what you do and with order and regularity.

Those busy people who surround themselves with a world of things perhaps even greater than their ability, then end up neglecting everything without doing anything good. Excessive work is not God's will when it hinders inner life.

When, however, an excess of work is imposed by obedience or by the necessity of one's state, then it is the will of God; and with a little goodwill the grace will be obtained from God to keep the inner life intense in spite of the great occupations desired by him. Who was busy as many and many saints of active life? Yet in doing immense works they lived in an eminent degree of union with God.

And don't believe that inner life will make us melancholy and wild with our neighbor; far from it! The inner soul lives in a great serenity, indeed in joy, therefore it is affable and graceful with everyone; bringing Jesus into herself and working under her action, she necessarily lets her shine out even in her charity and amiability.

The last obstacle is the cowardice for which we lack courage to make the sacrifices that Jesus requires; but this is sloth, capital sin which easily leads to damnation.

PRESENCE OF JESUS ​​IN US
Jesus invests us in his life and transfuses it into us. In that way that in Him: humanity always remains distinct from divinity, so He respects our personality; but by grace we really live by him; our acts, while remaining distinct, are his. Everyone can say of himself what is said of the heart of St. Paul: Cor Pauli, Cor Christi. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is my heart. In fact, the Heart of Jesus is the principle of our supernatural operations, since it pushes its own supernatural blood into us, therefore it is truly our heart.

This vital presence is a mystery and it would be temerity to want to explain it.

We know that Jesus is in heaven in a glorious state, in the holy Eucharist in a sacramental state, and we also know from the faith that was found in our heart; they are three different presences, but we know that all three are certain and real. Jesus resides in us in person just as our heart of flesh is locked in our breast.

This doctrine of the vital presence of Jesus in us in the seventeenth century occupied a great deal in religious literature; it was particularly dear to the school of Card. de Bérulle, of Father de Condren, of Ven. Olier, of Saint John Eudes; and he also frequently returned to the revelations and visions of the Sacred Heart.

Saint Margaret having great fear of not being able to reach perfection, Jesus told her that he himself came to impress his holy Eucharistic life on her heart.

We have the same concept in the famous vision of the three hearts. One day, says the Saint, after Holy Communion Our Lord showed me three hearts; one standing in the middle seemed an imperceptible point while the other two were exceedingly resplendent, but of these one was much brighter than the other: and I heard these words: So my pure love unites these three hearts forever. And the three hearts made only one ». The two largest hearts were the most sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary; the very small one represented the heart of the Saint, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so to speak, absorbed together the Heart of Mary and the heart of her faithful disciple.

The same doctrine is better expressed in the exchange of the heart, a favor that Jesus granted to Saint Margaret Mary and to other Saints.

One day, the Saint reports, while I was in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I found myself entirely invested in the divine presence of my Lord ... He asked me for my heart, and I begged him to take it; he took it and placed it in his adorable Heart, in which he made me see mine as a small atom that consumed itself in that ardent furnace; then he withdrew it like a burning flame in the shape of a heart and placed it in my chest saying:
Behold, my beloved, a precious pledge of my love which encloses in your side a small spark of its most lively flames, to serve you heartily until the last moment of your life.

Another time Our Lord showed her his divine Heart shining more than the sun and of infinite size; she saw her heart as a small point, like an all-black atom, striving to approach that beautiful light, but in vain. Our Lord said to her: Plunged into my greatness ... I want to make your heart like a sanctuary where the fire of my love will burn continuously. Your heart will be like a sacred altar ... on which you will offer the Lord ardent sacrifices in order to give him infinite glory for the offering that you will make of me by joining that of your being. To honor my ...

On Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi (1678) after Holy Communion, Jesus said to her again: My daughter, I came to replace my Heart in place of yours, and my spirit in place of yours, so that you won't live more than me and for me.

Such a symbolic exchange of the heart was also granted by Jesus to other Saints, and clearly expresses the doctrine of the life of Jesus in us for which the Heart of Jesus becomes like ours.

Origen speaking of Saint Mary Magdalene said: "She had taken the Heart of Jesus, and Jesus had taken that of Magdalene, because the Heart of Jesus lived in Magdalene, and the heart of Saint Magdalene lived in Jesus".

Jesus also said to Saint Metilde: I give you my Heart as long as you think through him, and you love me and you love everything through me.
Ven. Philip Jenninger SJ (17421.804) said: "My heart is no longer my heart; the Heart of Jesus has become mine; my true love is the Heart of Jesus and of Mary ».

Jesus said to Saint Metilde: «I give you my eyes so that with them you will see everything; and my ears because with these you mean everything you hear. I give you my mouth so that you may pass your words, your prayers and your chants through it. I give you my Heart so that you think for Him, for Him you love me and you also love everything for me ». To these last words, says the Saint, Jesus drew my whole soul into himself and united it to himself in such a way that he seemed to see me with the eyes of God, to hear with his ears, to speak with his mouth, in short, have no more heart than his. "

«Another time, says the Saint again, Jesus placed his Heart on my heart, saying to me: By now my heart is yours and yours is mine. With a sweet embrace in which he put all his divine strength, He drew my soul to him so that it seemed to me that I was no more than one spirit with Him ».

To Saint Margaret Mary Jesus said: Daughter, give me your heart, so that my love may rest you. To Saint Geltrude she also said that she had found a refuge in the heart of her most holy Mother; and in the sad days of carnival; I come, he said, to rest in your heart as a place of asylum and refuge.

It can be said proportionately that Jesus has the same desire for us too.

Why does Jesus seek refuge in our heart? Because his Heart wants to continue in us and through us, his earthly life. Jesus not only lives in us, but also, so to speak, of us, expanding in all the hearts of his mystical limbs. Jesus wants to continue in his Mystical body what he did on earth, that is to continue in us to love, honor and glorify his Father; she is not content to pay homage to him in the Blessed Sacrament, but she wants to make each of us like a sanctuary where he can perform those acts with our own heart. He wants to love the Father with our heart, praise him with our lips, pray to him with our mind, sacrifice himself to Him with our will, suffer with our limbs; to this end he resides in us and establishes his intimate union with us.

It seems to us that these considerations can make us understand some admirable expression that we find in the Revelations of Saint Metilde: Man, Jesus said to her, who receives the Sacrament (of the Eucharist.) Feeds me and I feed him. «In this divine banquet, says the Saint, Jesus Christ embodies souls to himself, in such a profound intimacy that, all absorbed in God, they truly become the food of God.

Jesus lives in us to pay homage to religion, adoration, praise, prayer to his Father in our person. The love of the Heart of Jesus united with the love of millions of hearts who in union with Him will love the Father, here is the complete love of Jesus.

Jesus is thirsty to love his Father, not only with his own Heart, but also with other millions of hearts which He makes beat in unison with his; he therefore wants and craves to find hearts where he can satisfy, through them, his thirst, his infinite passion of divine love. Therefore from each of us he requires our heart and all our feelings to appropriate them, make them his and in them live his life of love for the Father: Give me your heart on loan (Prov. XXIII, 26). Thus the complernation occurs, better, the prolongation of the life of Jesus through the centuries. Every righteous is something of Jesus, he is living Jesus, he is God by his incorporation into Christ.
Let us remember this when we praise the Lord, for example, in the recitation of the Divine Office. «We are a pure nothing before the Lord, but we are members of Jesus Christ, incorporated in him with grace, vivified by his spirit, we are one with him; therefore our homages, our praises will be pleasing to the Father, because Jesus is in our heart and He himself praises and blesses the Father with our feelings ».

«When we recite the divine office, let's remember, we Priests, that Jesus Christ before us said, in an incomparable way, those same prayers, those same praises ... He said them from the moment of the Incarnation; He said them at all times of his life and on the Cross: he still says them in Heaven and in the divine Sacrament. He has prevented us, we just have to combine our voice with his voice, with the voice of his religion and his love. Before commencing the office, Ven. Agnes of Jesus lovingly said to the Divine Worshiper of the Father: "Do me the pleasure, O my Bridegroom, of beginning yourself! »; and in fact he heard a voice that began and to which she answered. That voice only then made itself heard in the ears of the Venerable, but St. Paul teaches us that this voice of the Incarnate Word already said in the womb of Mary Psalms and prayers ». This could apply to all our religious acts.

But the action of Jesus in our soul is not limited to acts of religion towards the divine Majesty; it extends to all our conduct, to everything that constitutes the Christian life, to the practice of those virtues which he recommended to us with his word and with his examples, such as charity, purity, sweetness, patience , etc. etc.

Sweet and comforting thought! Jesus lives in me to be my strength, my light, my wisdom, my religion towards God, my love for the Father, my charity, my patience in work and in pain, my sweetness and my docility. He lives in me to supernaturalize and deify my soul to the most intimate, to sanctify my intentions, to operate in me and through me all my actions, fertilize my faculties, embellish all my acts, raise them to value supernatural, to make my whole life an act of homage to the Father and bring it to the feet of God.

The work of our sanctification consists precisely in making Jesus live in us, in tending to replace Jesus Christ to us, making the void in us and letting it be filled with Jesus, making our heart a simple ability to receive the life of Jesus, so that Jesus can take complete possession of it.

Union with Jesus does not result in mixing two lives together, let alone ours prevail, but only one must prevail and it is that of Jesus Christ. We must let Jesus live in us and not pretend that he comes down to our level. The Heart of Christ beats in us; all the interests, all the virtues, all the loves of Jesus are ours; we must let Jesus replace us. "When grace and love take the whole possession of our life, then our whole existence is like a perpetual hymn to the glory of Heavenly Father; becoming for him, by virtue of our union with Christ, as a thurible from which arises aromas which cheer him up: We are the good smell of Christ for the Lord ».

Let us listen to Saint John Eudes: «As Saint Paul assures us that he fulfills the sufferings of Jesus Christ, so it can be said in all truth that the true Christian, being a member of Jesus Christ and united to him by grace, with all the actions he does in Spirit of Jesus Christ continues and performs the actions that Jesus himself did during his life on earth.
«In this way, when the Christian makes prayer, he continues and fulfills the prayer that Jesus made on earth; when he works, he continues and completes the tiring life of Jesus Christ, etc. We must be like many Jesus on earth, to continue his life and works and to do and suffer everything we do and suffer, holy and divinely in the spirit of Jesus, that is to say with holy and divine dispositions ».

About Communion he exclaims: "O my Savior ... so that I may receive you not in me, who am too unworthy of it, but in yourself and with the love you bring to yourself, I destroy myself at your feet as much as I can, with all that is mine; I beg you to settle in me and to establish your divine love, so that by coming to me in Holy Communion, you will be received not already in me, but in yourself ".

«Jesus, wrote the pious Cardinal de Bérulle, does not only want to be yours, but still to be in you, not only to be with you, but in you and in the most intimate of yourselves; He wants to form my only thing with you ... Live therefore for Him, live with Him because He lived for you and is living with you. Go further still further in this way of grace and love: live in Him, because He is in you; or rather be transformed in Him, so that He subsists, lives and acts in you and no longer yourself; and in this way the sublime words of the great Apostle are fulfilled: It is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me; and in you there is no longer the human self. Christ in you must say I, as the Word in Christ is what I say ».

We must therefore have one heart with Jesus, the same feelings, the same life. How could we think, do or say something less righteous or contrary to holiness with Jesus? Such an intimate union supposes and demands perfect resemblance and unity of feelings. «I want there to be no more in me; I want the spirit of Jesus to be the spirit of my spirit, the life of my life ».

«The will of Jesus is to have life in us, the Cardinal said again. We cannot understand on this earth what this life is (of Jesus in us); but I can assure you that it is bigger, more real, more above nature than we can think of. We must therefore desire it more than we know it and ask God to give us strength because, with his spirit and his virtue, we desire it and we carry it within us ... Jesus, living in us, intends to appropriate everything that is ours. We must therefore consider all that is in us, as something that no longer belongs to us, but which we must keep to Jesus Christ for enjoyment; nor should we use them except as something that belongs to him and for that use that he wants. We must consider ourselves as dead, therefore certainly the right to do what Jesus must do, therefore carry out all our actions in union with Jesus, in his spirit and in his imitation ».

But how come Jesus can be present in us? Perhaps he makes himself present with his body and soul, that is, with his humanity as in the Holy Eucharist? Never again; it would be a gross error to attribute such a doctrine to Saint Paul in the passages we have quoted, as well as to Cardinal de Bérulle and his disciples who have insisted so much on the life of Jesus in us, etc. All, intact, expressly say with Bérulle, that "a few moments after Holy Communion, the Humanity of Jesus is no longer in us", but they intend the presence of Jesus Christ in us as a spiritual presence.

Saint Paul says that Jesus lives in us for faith (Eph., III, 17) this means that faith is the principle of his abode in us; that divine spirit that dwelled in Jesus Christ also forms it in us, working in our hearts the same feelings and the same virtues of the Heart of Jesus. The authors mentioned above do not speak otherwise.

Jesus with his humanity is not present everywhere, but only in heaven and in the Holy Eucharist; but Jesus is also God, and is precisely present in us together with the other divine Persons; moreover, He possesses a divine virtue by which he can exercise his action wherever he pleases. Jesus works in us with his divinity; from Heaven and the Holy Eucharist it works in us with its divine action. If he had not established this sacrament of his love, only from Heaven would he exercise his action; but he wanted to draw near to us, and in this sacrament of life there is his Heart which is the center of the whole movement of our spiritual life; this movement starts at every moment, from the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. We therefore do not need to look for Jesus in the distance in the highest heaven we have it here, just Him as he is in Heaven; near to us. If we keep our heart's gaze turned to the tabernacle, there we will find the adorable Heart of Jesus, which is our life, and we will attract it to live more and more in us; there we will draw an increasingly abundant and intense supernatural life.

We therefore believe that after the precious moments of Holy Communion, the holy Humanity or at least the body of Jesus no longer remains in us; let's say at least why, according to several authors, Jesus still remains for a time in us with his soul. In any case, it remains there permanently as long as we are in a state of grace, with its divinity and its particular action.

Do we have awareness of this life of Jesus in us? No, in an ordinary way, unless an extraordinary mystical grace as we see in many Saints. We do not feel the presence and the ordinary action of Jesus in our soul, because they are not things perceptible to the senses, not even from the internal senses; but we are sure of it by faith. Likewise, we do not feel the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, but we know it by faith. We will therefore say to Jesus: "My Lord I believe, (I do not feel, nor do I see, but I believe), as I believe you are in the consecrated host, that you are truly present in my soul with your divinity; I believe that you exert a continuous action in me which I must and will correspond to. On the other hand, there are souls who love the Lord with such ardor and live with such docility under his action, to arrive at having such a lively faith that he approaches the vision.

«When Our Lord with grace establishes his home in a soul, with a certain degree of interior life and spirit of prayer, He makes reign in her an atmosphere of peace and faith which is his own climate of his kingdom. He remains invisible to you, but her presence is soon betrayed by a certain supernatural warmth and a good heavenly smell that spreads throughout that soul and which then gradually radiates around her building, faith, peace and attraction to God ». Happy are those souls who know how to deserve this special grace of a lively feeling of the presence of Jesus!

We cannot resist the pleasure of citing in this regard some features of the life of B. Angela da Foligno. "One day, he says, I suffered such pains that I saw myself abandoned, and I heard a voice saying to me:" O my beloved, know that in this state God and you are more united than ever to each other. " And my soul cried out: "If so, please the Lord to take away all sin from me and to bless me together with my partner and the one who writes when I speak." The voice answered. «All sins are taken away and I bless you with this hand that was nailed to the Cross». And I saw a blessing hand over our heads, like a light that moved in light, and the sight of that hand inundated me with a new joy and in truth that hand was well capable of flooding with joy ».

Another time, I heard these words: "I didn't love you for fun, I didn't make you your servant out of compliment; I did not touch you from afar! » And as she thought of these words, she heard another: "I am more intimate to your soul than your soul is intimate to itself."

On another occasion Jesus attracted her soul gently and said to her: "You are me, and I am you". By now, said the Blessed, I live almost continuously in the God-Man; one day I received the assurance that there is nothing between him and me that resembles an intermediary ».

«O Hearts (of Jesus and Mary) truly worthy to possess all hearts and to reign over all the hearts of angels and men, you will henceforth be my rule. I want my heart to live now only in that of Jesus and Mary or that the Heart of Jesus and Mary lives in mine »

Blessed of la Colombière.