Call to Love - Message from the Heart of Jesus to the World

CALL TO LOVE

MESSAGE FROM THE HEART OF JESUS ​​TO THE WORLD

AND HIS MESSENGER SOROR JOSEFA MENÉNDEZ

RELIGIOUS COADJUTOR OF THE SOCIETY OF "SACRÉ COEUR DE JÉSUS"

REIMPRIMATUR
Rio de Janeiro, 27-3-1963 Msgr. José Silveira
Vicar General.

1890 - 1923

Introduction by Fr. H. MONIER-VINARD, SJ
- Conclusion of Fr. F. CHARMOT, SJ

3rd EDITION

EDITORA RIO-S. PAULO Rua Barão do Bom Retiro, 589
RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL

THAT ALL COME!
I WAIT FOR YOU AS A FATHER,
WITH ARMS OPEN,
TO GIVE THEM PEACE
AND TRUE HAPPINESS!

AMDG
Versio Libri cui titulus - APPEAL TO LOVE ",

The Message of the Heart of Jesus to the World and His Messenger Sister Josefa Menéndez,

my review is et iudico IN DOMINO nihil obstare quominus imprimatur.

Flumine Januari 7 Septembris 1952
Josephus Coelho de Souza Neto, SJ

Visa
Fr João Bosco Bocha, SJ
Praep. Provinc. SJ

Can be reprinted
Rio, September 8, 1952
Mons. Caruso
Pro Vicar General

Without preventing in any way the thinking of the Church, the only judge in this matter, we submit entirely to its future decisions.
The souls who read these pages will have the filial joy of finding here - with the consent of His Holiness, given by his own hand - the autograph of Cardinal Pacelli, then Protector of the Society of the Sacred Heart, blessing the 1st French edition of the “Appeal to Love ”, on a first Friday in April 1938,

Reproduction, with the consent of His Holiness, of the autograph Cardinal Pacelli deigned to bless the first edition of "Appeal to Love"

PROLOGUE OF THE FRENCH EDITION

This new edition of “Un Appel à l'Amour” presents itself as a broad complement to the book published in 1938. The acceptance of those pages since their appearance, the speed with which the editions have followed, the enthusiasm of souls in responding to desires from the Heart of Jesus, the numerous letters from all sources attesting to the profound action of this Message, and the remarkable graces that accompanied it, everything seemed to confirm the promise of Our Lord: “My Words will be Light and Life for an incalculable number of souls. I will give them special grace to enlighten and transform souls. ” (Our Lord to Josefa, November 13, 1923).
A few months had passed since the work, already published in Spanish, was translated into Portuguese (1), Italian, English, Chinese and Hungarian ...
This is how the divine desire was realized, that this appeal be heard to the ends of the earth.
The war did not drown out that flame which a providential wish had ignited before the general conflagration of nations. And despite all the obstacles, the fire, destined by the Master of Love to cover the world, spread from home to home. At the same time, requests poured into the center of the diffusion expressing the hope that a more complete biography would allow Soror Josefa Menéndez to know more about the Message that he was an intermediary better.
The present work intends to fulfill this desire.
There the Message of the Heart of Jesus was placed on its own board.

(1) With the title."Invitation to a Life of Love" - ​​Coimbra 1938.

PROLOGUE OF THE FRENCH EDITION

It is embedded in Josefa's life from which it cannot be separated. For that, it is enough to quote widely the notes written by obedience and carefully preserved. They were translated from Spanish, and the thread that links them is nothing but the testimony of the people who followed, step by step the story of this entire life according to the Designs of the Heart of Jesus.
This direct documentation will undoubtedly be the most vivid and authentic form of this biography in which everything is a message of Love.
In 1926, after having carefully examined the notebooks! by Soror Josefa Menéndez a Consultant to the Sacred Congregation of Rites concluded his opinion with the following lines: Heart."

(Translated from Italian).

Without anticipating in any way the thought of the church, the only judge on the matter, and to which we submit ourselves entirely, it seems lawful to give the souls who read these pages the filial joy of finding here again the autograph of Cardinal Pacelli, then protector of the Society of the Sacred Heart, blessing the first edition of “Un Appel à l'Amour” on the first Friday in April 1938.

INTRODUCTION

On December 29, 1923, Sister Josefa Menéndez died at the age of thirty-three in the convent of the “Feuillants” in Poitiers.
Humble coadjutor Sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart, having lived very obscurely only four years in religious life, she was one of those whose name the world would continue to ignore and whose memory, even among her usual Sisters, should be quickly erased.
On the contrary, behold, twenty years after her death, the whole world is concerned with her.
From the ends of America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, the Message which, through the Heart of Jesus, was entrusted to transmit to men, is fervently invoked and respectfully listened to. In 1938, under the title "Un Appel à l'Amour", the substance of that Message appeared in the Apostolate of Prayer in Toulouse.
Cardinal Pacelli, today gloriously reigning under the name of Pius XII, deigned, in a Preface Letter, to recommend his reading to all.
Five years later, a complete biography is insistently called for.
It is desired to know in all its details that life so rich and so hidden, in which the very poverty of the human frame vividly highlights the splendor of divine Action.
This second edition, very complete, responds to such just wishes. Written according to Sister Josefa's own notes, written day by day out of obedience, and confirmed by the most precious memories of the witnesses of her life, the Superior and Assistant of the Poitiers house and RP Boyer OP, its director, offers her the maximum guarantee .
We will open it with burning curiosity; we will read it with emotion and admiration, and we will close it with an energetic desire to become better and to love, after all, this God who shows such great love to his creature.
For everything there speaks of the wonderful providence of love that God exercises over man. Sacred Scripture represents us, in the psalms, following with vigilance always alert the children of men, attentively searching their actions and responding to the smallest gestures of prayer.
Leaning lovingly on his revolted children, he speaks to them from the beginning, through the voice of his prodigies and his prophets, until the day when, incarnating himself, and humanizing himself in the bosom of the Virgin Mary, he came to tell men, in human language, the great love that fills his Heart.
And Jesus, the Incarnate Word, transmitted to men, in his integrity, the Message that He himself had received from the Father: “Omnia quaecunque audivi to Patre meo, nota feci vobis.” (1)
There is nothing to add to what Jesus Christ said and, with the death of St. John, the last apostle, divine revelation was closed and sealed. Over the centuries, only its content will become more explicit.
However, it is unfathomable in wealth. It is so rich and men, from the religious point of view, so inattentive and superficial, that they do not know how to See in depth this Gospel that needs to be penetrated. Just as in the Old Law, God sent prophets to revive the faith and hope of his people, so Christ raises, from time to time, souls to whom he entrusts the mission to explain his authentic Words to men and to reveal their depth and hidden sense. Once on Easter morning, it was Mary Magdalene who gave the apostles the news of her glorious Resurrection, and since then, in the course of time, it is also often through humble and poor women who will transmit to the world their most important wishes.

(1) St. John XIV-15

INTRODUCTION

In order not to mention but the main ones, by means of Saint Juliana de Montcornilion he instituted the Feast of the Body of God in the Church and renewed his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Through Saint Margaret Mary increased devotion to the Sacred Heart, which took on a new and new meaning. Through Santa Teresinha do Menino Jesus repeated to the world, which seemed to have forgotten him, the merit and value of the state of spiritual childhood.
So it was with Sister Josefa.
The first three received from the Church, with canonization, as if the official recognition of their mission. Sister Josefa has not yet had this honor, but before becoming a sister in glory, she is certainly a sister in grace, for it pleased God to believe her testimony. The Creator who treats his human creatures with sovereign respect “cum magna reverentia disponis nos” (Sap. 12:18), must put his seal on those he sends: we must recognize them as heralds of the Lord. Their Ways are not our ways, nor are their Thoughts our thoughts.
To better show that everything comes from him alone, he chooses weak instruments that, humanly, seem unfit for the projected work. It makes your Strength shine in their weakness. "He did not seek, says São Paulo, to establish his church, neither the wise nor the great in the world." One could attribute to his talent or his prestige the rapid spread of Christianity ... He chose ignorant people. poor, among the rude people, and made them the vessels of choice ...
And so that the greatness of his mission would not overshadow them and not induce them into the temptation of pride, it pleased him to constantly put them before their own nothingness, their innate misery, their weakness. Only in truly humble souls are the Gifts of God safe.
Such is the providential way: over nothing nothing is that God places His Glory.
"-If I could find someone more miserable than you, I would say to Santa Margarida Maria, I would have chosen him ...”
Sister Josefa will often hear the same words:
“If I could have found a more miserable creature, I would have looked at the Look of My Love on it and, through it, would manifest the desires of My Heart. But as I didn't find it, you were chosen. (1)
And shortly afterwards he will add:
“I chose you, because being useless and devoid of everything, see that I am the only one who speaks, who asks, who acts. (2)
The delay that had delayed the realization of his vocation and that could have led him to doubt “a priori of his Strength of soul, the humble category he had in his Institute, his situation as a simple novice, the secondary place in which his love placed her to the hidden life, the difficulty he always had to express himself in French certainly seemed insurmountable obstacles. (3)

(1) June 7, 1923.
(2) June 12, 1923.
(3) Among the novices of that time, mostly Polish, if one wanted to guess by some mystical appearance the chosen one of God, one would not have thought of Josefa: on the outside nothing that would attract the eye or lead to suspect the divine election.

However, this is precisely the divine sign: that humble novice to whom an extreme sensitivity of heart made him so fragile in the struggle, will prove to be an invincible Force. In the dazzle of divine revelations he will take refuge in his nothingness.
The closer God gets to her, the more we will see her lower herself. Despite the evidence of God's Action, he will always fear to deceive himself and to deceive others.
Their Superiors will not have a more malleable daughter, more docile, more respectful of authority, more eager for their vigilance, a mate ready to sacrifice herself.
In his piety, as in his way of being and acting, nothing is exaggerated, everything is simple and sincere.

His temper is perfectly healthy. It has a sense of moderation and order. The divine he carries within himself and whose weight he feels strongly, especially at certain times, the inexpressible torments that come from him, do not destroy his inner balance. And it is this whole set, as well as the superhuman energy with which it endures trials and sufferings, far exceeding the limits of its poor forces, which will constitute, for its Superiors, the best guarantee of divine Action.
"The sign will give it to you," Our Lord had said to Josefa. Suspicious and reserved, at first, their Director and their Superiors had, after all, to surrender to the evidence and believe in their mission.

JOSEPH'S MISSION

It was little by little that Our Lord revealed it to him. He had told her many times that he wanted to use it to "accomplish his designs" (1) and to save many souls that had cost him so much. (2)

(1) February 9, 1921.
(2) October 15, 1920.

On February 24, 1921, at night, in Holy Hour, the Appeal is renewed in a more explicit way:
"The world does not know the Mercy of my Heart - says Our Lord to Josefa. - I want to make use of you to make you known ... I want you to be an apostle of my Goodness and my Mercy. I will teach you; you, forget it you yourself. ”
And as Josefa expressed her fears:
“Love and fear nothing. I want what you don't want, but I can do what you can't. It is not your choice. Abandon yourself. ”
A few months later, on Monday, June 11, 1921, a few days after the feast of the Sacred Heart, in which he had received abundant graces, Our Lord quoted him:

“Remember my words and believe in them. My Heart's only desire is to imprison you and drown you in my Love, to make your smallness and your fragility a channel of mercy for many souls who will be saved through you. Later on I will discover the ardent Secrets of my Heart to you and will serve the good of many souls. I want you to write and keep everything that I tell you. Everything will be read when you are in heaven. It is not your merits that incline Me to use You; but I want souls to see how my Power uses poor and miserable instruments. ”
And as Josefa asked him if he should really say that to his Superior, he replied:
"Write and it will be read after your death."
Thus the Plan of God becomes defined:
He chose Josefa at the same time as a victim for souls and, in particular, for consecrated souls, and as an announcer of a Message of Mercy and Love that he addresses to the world.
Its mission is twofold; it must be Victim and Messenger and these two missions are in close relationship with each other. It is because you are a victim that you are a messenger and it is because you are a messenger that you need to be a victim.

THE VICTIM

A victim is essentially an immolated soul and usually an atoner.
Although, strictly speaking, anyone can offer himself as a victim to give joy and glory to God with his voluntary sacrifices, in most cases, God only attracts souls to those who entrust the mission of mediators: they must suffer and atone for others to whom their immolation will profit, either by drawing graces of mercy upon them, or by covering their sins in the eyes of divine Justice. Dai inferred that no one could get involved in such a mission by himself. In order to interpose between God and the creature, the divine blessing is necessary. What would be the value of the intercession of someone that God refused to listen to? In the Old Testament, weren't any victims offered to God? In order to be accepted by the Most High, they must be of one or such clearly designated species; they were to be immaculate and in the strength of early age, they were to be offered above all by a priest and according to the prescribed rite; and these same rites, strictly demanded and observed, meant the feelings that should animate, both the priest who immolated and the one who gave the victim. In the New Testament, with the new sacrifice replacing the old ones, Jesus Christ is the only Victim and his Sacrifice has value, no longer only representative, but real and infinite. If, therefore, Our Lord wants to associate other victims with Him, they must, to enter his Sacrifice, do one thing with him, share his feelings and, therefore, they can only be human persons, endowed with intelligence and will.
These people, choose them themselves, and because they are free, ask them for their voluntary acceptance. Giving it to them, they put themselves at your mercy. And he then uses them sovereignly.
Assimilated to Christ and transformed into him, the victim soul expresses before the Heavenly Father the feelings of Christ Jesus, and before Christ, the feelings that the men she represents should have; he remains in a state of humiliation, penance, atonement.
Precisely because of his identification with Jesus Christ, he will intimately participate in his painful Passion, he will suffer torments and agonies, in different degrees and in different ways, but, in general, superhuman.
Atoning for certain clearly appointed sinners, he will suffer the just penalties for his crimes: diseases, tests of all kinds, and even persecutions of the devil, of which he becomes a mere plaything.
This was the case with Sister Josefa, to a rare degree. He is a victim, by the express wish of Our Lord and will be so in a total way, not only as to his whole being entirely committed to immolation, but according to all the modalities that include the different attributes of God, to which he was specially offered .
Saint Teresinha do Menino Jesus offered himself as a victim of merciful love; Maria des Vallées specialized as a victim offered to Justice and Mercy; the same is true of Sister Josefa and Our Lord expressly details this, better than she did with Santa Margarida Maria.
“I chose you as a victim of my Heart” (December 19, 1920).
"You are the victim of my Love" (October 2, 1922 and November 23, 1920), "of my Love and my Mercy" (June 30, 1921).
“I want you to be the victim of divine Justice and the relief of my Heart” (November 9, 1920).
For all these titles you will suffer:
“You suffer in your soul and in your body because you are a victim of my Soul and of my Body. How could you not suffer in your heart if I chose you as the victim of my Heart? "(December 9, 1920).
As a victim of the Heart of Jesus, she suffers to console that Heart wounded by the ingratitude of men.
As a victim of love and mercy, she suffers so that the merciful Love of Jesus can flood the sinners so loved by him with grace.
As a victim of divine Justice, he bears the brunt of divine reprobations and atones for so many criminal souls who owe him his salvation.
Her mission requires her in a state of perpetual immolation. Our Lord does not hide it:
"Ama suffers, obeys," he says, "so that I will be able to fulfill my designs in you" (January 9, 1921).
On June 12, 1923, he confirmed his entire Plan on her:
“As for you, you will live in the most complete obscurity; but because you are a victim chosen by Me, you will suffer and, overwhelmed by suffering, you will die. Do not seek rest or relief; you will not find them, for I have so determined. My Love will support you, I will never miss you. ”
To make her suffer like this, however, Our Lord had asked her for prior consent. Sovereign though, he leans before the free will he left to his creature. "Do you want to?" asks Josefa, and as she hesitates, afraid, Our Lord leaves, leaving her desolate with her departure.
And the Blessed Virgin comes to say to him: “Do not forget that your love is free”. (March 3, 1922).
Often times, Josefa will steal, Jesus will then withdraw and it will be necessary to call him repeatedly so that he will come, after all, what he had just proposed.
Most of the time she accepts and with what generosity (1).

(1) God imposes nothing: he does not force, but to obtain the desired consent, he proceeds with divine ability. He leaves after a hesitation without insisting and that departure, which discourages Josefa. he inclines her to even more total acceptance: or else he doesn't show her right away that he wants to serve her pi-to speak to the world: the shock would be very hard, he simply says: 'Do you want to suffer, do you want to be a victim?'
To be a victim, you just have to suffer, you don't have to show up and Josefa accepts.

"I offered myself at your service - she will say - so that you can have me as you please."
God then knows that he can operate at will and repeats:
“I am your God. You belong to Me; you gave yourself up; from now on you will be able to refuse Me. "(July 23, 1921).
"If you don't give yourself over to my Will, what do you want Me to do?" (April 21, 1922).
She surrenders. As the Master will be a victim voluntarily offered.
"Oblatus est quia ipse voluit." As he will also be the pure victim.
You cannot atone for others when you have to atone for yourself.
And God, since Josefa's birth, surrounded her with purity. There is no lack of consent in his life. Her greatest infidelities, according to her own declaration, were delays in responding to the calls of grace, hesitations in the face of the mission that baffled her, nothing, therefore, that could stain, however little it was, her heart and her soul.
Our Lord was watching jealously for his purity of soul.
"I want you so forgetful of yourself and so abandoned to my Will that I will not allow the slightest imperfection without preventing you (February 21, 1921).
Often, when he asks him to put himself in a state of victim, he begins by giving him the grace of total purification:
"Now, suffer for Me, Josefa, but first I will let the arrow of love fall on your soul that will purify it, for you must be pure as my Victims must be." (June 17, 1H23).
Finding no work of atonement to carry out, the suffering that is cast upon this purity will bring its souls of salvation to other souls.
Like all authentic victims, their sufferings will have a double character:
- Victim chosen by Christ himself, to continue to carry out his redemptive Work, Josefa must be in perfect union with Christ the Redeemer and participate in his Passion, enduring the same sufferings as He.
- Victim atonement for the sins of others, their sufferings will be in relation to the atoned sins.

A) Participation in the sufferings of Christ
Only the Passion of Christ is redeeming. To be cleansed from our sins and saved, we must necessarily come into contact with the shed Blood of the Lamb. The great cry of the dying Jesus is an instant appeal to the entire human race.
Everyone hurry to run to the sources of the Savior from which all graces flow!
With the souls that respond to this call, the quickening contact is established immediately.
Others, in great numbers, unfortunately, are voluntarily removed. In order to reach them, Christ will use other souls that he will transform into channels of his Mercies. Branches among all fruitful of the mystical Vine, loaded with sap by close contact with the divine strain, they sympathize with sinners, becoming responsible for their faults; thus, being one with Christ, in them and through them contact is made for free: they are victimized souls. In order to fill this role well, they must be identified with Christ crucified, that their hearts beat fully in unison with His. And he, in order to make his images alive, embodies in them the deepest of soul, heart and body, his painful Passion.
In these souls, He will renew all his Mysteries: like Him, they will be contradicted, persecuted, humiliated, scourged, crucified and what men do not do, God Himself will complete through mysterious pains, agonies, stigmas, which will make them live crucifixes . One easily guesses the power of intercession and mediation that such souls have with God, when in them and through them, the precious Blood of Christ cries out to the Father, infinitely more eloquent than that of Abel.
At certain points, however, such as Saint Francis of Assisi, for example, it seems that the Passion stops there and aims to make them perfect copies of the Crucified One. God thus responds to their love, making them share, physically and morally, the pains of their beloved Son.
In the atoning victims, there is even more, as if expropriated for the benefit of others; the Passion of Christ, after having marked them with his crease, passes through them to exercise in other souls, for whom they atone, the fruits of salvation. They are, therefore, bearers of the grace of Calvary,
They are runners in the strictest sense of the word: the love of neighbor urges them, their mission is different from the others. In those God is pleased with the love that stops in contemplation and becomes immobilized in the glory given thus to his infinite perfection; as for the corridors, God discovers, in contemplation, the immensity of his Love for souls and his Pain for the loss of sinners; that sight shatters their hearts.
Their desire to comfort Jesus is not content to repeat His love to Him, but excites their zeal; whatever the price, they need to bring souls to Christ and that Christ himself ignites their zeal more and more. Communicate their burning love for souls and since then, they love with his Heart. This love gives them a superhuman strength, well described by Josefa herself.
Fifteen or twenty days ago my soul has been attracted to suffering. In the past everything scared me.
When Jesus told me that he had chosen me as a victim, my whole being shuddered; now, on the contrary. There are days when I suffer so much that if He did not support me, I would not be able to live like this, for I do not have a single member spared! .. Despite this, my soul, I would want to endure even more for Him, although not without resistance from the sensitive part. When I start to feel pain, I tremble and retreat instinctively, but in the will there is a force that accepts, wants, wants to suffer even more so that if, at that very moment, they offered me to choose, or go to heaven, or continue to suffering, I would prefer to stay like this a thousand times, to comfort your Heart, although it consumes me in the desire to go to Him. I understand that it was Jesus who made this transformation. ” (June 30, 1931).
Josephus is right, that strength does not come from her, but from Jesus, or rather, it is the very Strength of Jesus that comes to her, just as He communicates her Feelings, Desires, Sufferings. (1)

(1) My Heart rests when it can communicate. I come to rest in your heart, when a soul strikes me; and it is mine to do you good that it passes to you ... (23 of? 1922).

"Since you are ready to suffer, - he says - let us suffer together." (December 19, 1920).
And he gives you his Cross:
"Jesus came, with the Cross on his shoulder and putting it on mine". (July 18, 1920).
"I come to bring you my Cross, for I want to unload myself on you." (July 26, 1921).
“I want you to be my Cyrene, you will help Me to carry the cross. '' (February 23, 1922)
“May my Cross be your Cross” (March 30, 1923).
And that cross that he puts on his shoulders countless times, Josefa keeps for hours, nights, whole days.
He entrusts him with the Crown of thorns, which he brings for long periods, not knowing, like Him, where to rest his aching head.
"I will leave you my crown ... Do not complain about this suffering ... it is a participation of mine." (November 26, 1920).
"My Crown ... I will wrap your forehead with it myself." (June 17, 1923).
It makes you feel the wound on your side:
“This pain - says the Blessed Virgin to her on June 20, 1921 - is a spark of my Son's Heart; when it hurts more strongly it is a sign that at that time a soul is hurting him deeply ”.
He wants her to suffer the pain of blackheads on her hands and feet:
"I will give you a new proof of love, today you will share the pain of my Carnations." (March 16, 1923).
And on Good Friday, March 30, 1923. she suffers true crucifixion:
“Put your hands under my hands, your feet under mine, in order to join closely with my pain. Suffer your members with my Members. "
It is closely associated with the sufferings of your Soul and Heart:
"On every Friday, and especially on the first of each month, I will give you part of the bitterness of my Heart and you will suffer in a special way the torments of my Passion." (February 4, 1921).
On March 1, 1922, he appears with a bloody countenance:
"Come closer, rest in this Heart, participate in its Bitterness ..."
"I approached his Heart and my soul was filled with anguish and bitterness that I cannot explain."
And, like Jesus, it is for others that he suffers like this:
-I want your whole being to suffer to win souls from Me. ” (December 21, 1920),
"I have a soul that offends Me ...”
"Do not be afraid if you feel helpless, for I will give you to participate in the anguish of my Heart" (September 13, 1921).
"Guard my Cross until that soul knows the truth." (March 24, 1923).
“Take my Cross, my Carnations, my Crown. I will look for souls. ” (June 17, 1923).
Those few examples are enough, they are abundant in the course of this book. Expiatory victim Josefa participates in all the pains of Jesus, brings inseparable in his members, as in his heart, the unspeakable Passion.
It becomes one with Jesus crucified; her Anguishes torture her, her Desires consume her, the burning thirst for the salvation of souls leads her to offer herself for all reparations and atonements.

B) The diabolical persecutions
And God accepts that trials are thrown on all sides.
Perhaps it lacked the one that comes from the disease (but, can you tell, she never complained?) And the one that comes from men (her family life as much as her religious life could seem exempt from the great contradictions that mark the life of a Santa Margarida Maria); on the other hand, more than many others it was given over to Satan's fury. And it's not surprising.
There are few lives of Santos in which he does not exercise his evil spite.
Christ's personal enemy, unable to reach him in the glory of heaven, uses all the resources of his powerful activity in hindering divine work in the world.
The more dear a soul is to Christ, the more incarnate is the enemy in its loss, no doubt with the proud desire to increase the number of his unfortunate subjects, but also with the perverse intention of taking Christ from beloved souls paid with the price. of your Blood.
It therefore attacks, preferably, the saints and consecrated persons who want to corrupt, seduce, dishonor. He hates redemptive souls more than others. Josefa was therefore especially abhorrent to him. For the love of Jesus he had happily made the three sacrifices that cost him the most: mother, brother and country; it had offered itself for the salvation of sinners and was destined to snatch large numbers to hell; therefore, we will see Satan rise up on his path and make him his plaything. God gives you greater power over atoning souls. Is it not in the logic of your vocation? (1)

(1) See in particular the diabolical persecutions suffered by Saint Margaret of Cortona, Saint Veronica Giuliani, the holy Cura D'Ars, by the Lebanese Carmelite, Soror Maria de Jesus Crucified, whose life was written by Rev. P. Buzy, Superior General Belharram Fathers and many others!

Taking, on their own, the sins of others, these souls therefore accept, to bear the consequences. Now, by consenting to sin, man, whether he likes it or not, has conscience or not, gives the devil great power over himself, power of seduction and domination. This is little perceived, in general, because the devil is able to hide it so as not to disturb the soul.
It reinforces the perverted nature, behind which it takes shelter and, from there, multiplies occasions of sin and numbs the soul with deadly drowsiness.
But when a victim's soul substitutes for the sinner, the devil comes up against a will that obstinately resists him. Powerless to make her sin, he avenges himself with fury, using the power that belonged to him over the guilty person. And God allows it, first of all, to make it clear, the existence of the devil, which many doubt; for he exists as much as hell that one would want to forget or bury in silence.
It is certainly a real being, and in its conduct towards the saints, it appears with all the evil perversity of its nature. And if there is already so much of his cruelty towards souls over which he has, despite everything, but very limited power, how can he not be the one he exercises over the condemned who are under his control? Who will dare to say that this lesson is useless at the present time, especially? God then wants to confuse the pride of the dark prince. In spite of all his power and his ardent effort, there is no use and he only succeeds in defeat. Hence great glory is given to God.
So it was with Sister Josefa. By all means he will pretend to deceive her, disguising herself as an "angel of light" and even taking on the features of Jesus Christ:

more often, however, it is by tormenting her that he will try to divert her from the path in which she steals so many souls.
In this hand-to-hand fight, which brings into play human weakness and satanic power, God intervenes to increase the constancy of the soul, communicates untamed energy that makes it superior to any suffering.
The demon's strength shatters against Josefa's fragility. With divine help, she, “nothingness”, misery, as Our Lord calls her, triumphs from the “armed fort.”
But how much did she not have to endure!
Since the postulancy, they are boarded, with which an invisible hand grips them day and night, especially when they pray and declare their willingness to remain faithful. He is violently taken from the chapel, or unable to enter. Then there are appearances of the devil in the form of a disgusting dog, a snake, or even more terrible, in human form. Abductions are soon multiplying, despite the Superiors' active surveillance. It suddenly disappears from their eyes, and is only found long hours later, thrown in an attic, under furniture or somewhere lonely. She is burned in their presence and, without the demon being visible to them, they see Josefa's clothes burning, and deep signs of burns on her body.
Thoughts of despair, of blasphemy, hateful temptations that last for nights and days, during which God hides and she no longer knows where she is, seeing herself at the mercy of the most perverse being. (1)

(1) Many saints had a vision of hell, rare are those who made frequent atonement visits there. It seems that it was the case of Santa Verônica Giuliani, born in 1660 and died in 1727, contemporary of Santa Margarida Maria like her and Soror Josefa, atoning victim.

Finally, a very rare fact in the lives of the saints, God allows the devil to bring her down to hell alive.
There he spends long hours, sometimes a whole night, in unspeakable anguish. It descends more than a hundred times to that abyss and always seems to be there for the first time and to have stayed centuries.
Except for the hatred of God, he suffers all the tortures, and the least of them is not listening to the sterile confessions of the condemned, their cries of resentment, pain and despair.
When he returns, exhausted, hurt, all suffering seems small to save souls, and when he regains contact with life, his heart is no longer contained, realizing that he can still love.
It is your great love that sustains you. Sometimes, however, the ordeal weighs heavily on nature. Like Jesus, in Gethsemane. has its hours of despondency and anguish. Witnessing the perdition of countless souls, she asks herself, what will so many descents into hell and such horrible sufferings do? But he quickly reacts and his courage does not fail. The Blessed Virgin comes to help her:
"While suffering, the demon's power is less strong over that soul.” (July 22, 1921).
“Do you suffer to rest Him, isn't this enough to give you courage?” (July 12, 1921).
And Our Lord discovers the treasures of reparation and atonement hidden under that test (6 October and 5 November 1922).
At the same time, God permits her, in hell, to watch the outbursts of rage when the demon souls he already thinks he possesses escape, exactly those for whom Josefa atoned.
These two thoughts, on the one hand that she consoles and rests Our Lord on the other, which wins her souls excite her courage.
Although she has instinctive dread of the devil, because she knows a lot and from her own experience her evil and her power, this fear never manages to divert her from the smallest duty to fulfill. At one time he abducted her almost daily, when she went to her office; Josefa foresees it, trembles, but never recoils from that perspective and the next day finds it determined, with the same courage, not to give in to fear. However, through this heroic fidelity, the most admirable thing is that Josefa, under the impression of her fears, and sometimes of her disgust, sincerely believes herself to be an ungrateful and unfaithful creature, and always believes nothing, to have done for God.
After nights of unspeakable torments, exhausted but brave, she has taken on her ordinary work since dawn without wanting to be dismissed from any point in ordinary life. It is certainly the fire of the Sacred Heart that burns it, because everything that suffered in hell, everything that was given to it as a share in the pains of Christ, far from slaughtering or discouraging it, only makes you stoke and increase your ardor to suffer. Like Saint Margaret Mary, she immolates herself for religious souls, priests, sinners of all kinds. Gentle at the pleasure of the one to whom he gives himself, he only wants to console him and offers himself to all the martyrdoms to win souls to him, most of the times unknown, but who, through him, love him so much. It was necessary, we said at the beginning, that she should be a victim to be a messenger. Doesn't she have all the titles to be heard by men, the one who suffered so much for them? And the one who knew the love of the Heart of Jesus for souls so well, is not, more than any other, indicated and qualified to transmit her Message of Love and Mercy to the world?

THE MESSAGE

I - Its substance
It is indeed a Message of Love and Mercy. Nowhere is it given in its entirety, but fragments of it are found on almost every page of the book. The essential points are often repeated in slightly different ways. Here is the brief summary:

A) First of all, it is the Heart of Jesus, and his excessive charity for men who are highlighted in a remarkable way, It is as if a new revelation of the Sacred Heart, coming to confirm and on some points, to make and perfect, the one that Santa once received Daisy. Since 1675 more than two and a half centuries have passed, new currents of devotion have appeared in the Church.
There would seem to be a return in devotion to the Sacred Heart, or less understanding of it. (1)

(1) In his recent Encyclical on the Mystical Body, of June 1943, Pope Pius XII tells us that devotion to the Sacred Heart prepared the souls who understood the doctrine of the mystical Christ. It is undeniable that the idea of ​​reparation by others that Our Lord added to the devotion to the Sacred Heart and that made it one of the essential elements, supposes the solidarity of all Christians towards one another, in the unity of the mystical Body. But, conversely, devotion to the mystical Christ, to the "total" Christ with his horizons of such seductive amplitude, inclines superficial souls to find the devotion that dwells in the Heart of Christ very restricted.
It is because they have not noticed that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the loving Christ, wounded with love, and uniting with Himself and among them in this love, all the members of his mystical Body.

Many people seem to consider it a mutilation of devotion to the total Christ, or feminine devotion, where sentiment, or rather sentimentality, has too great a part. Against such false impressions, Our Lord reacts strongly. It is his own Heart of flesh, pierced by the spear, which presents to men, his Heart so loving and so little loved, and whose wound having remained open, cries out immense Love. This Love, like all true love, yearns to receive an answer, mainly because this just answer, so natural that He requires, is for men the only way to be happy here on earth, and to reach eternal happiness. If you don't want to give it, meditate on the terrible hell that awaits you! ...
And the Heart of Jesus, through Josefa, makes a great Appeal to the love of the world.

B) In order to better attract men, the Sacred Heart, through it manifests them and is what constitutes the newness and strength of the Message its infinite Mercy. He loves them all, individually, everyone, as they are even the most miserable, especially the most sinful.

What he asks of them is neither his qualities nor his virtues, but his miseries and sins. Far from being an obstacle, miseries and faults are an encouragement to those who approach him.
This is the gift that God expects from his dear sinners, with the only condition that they truly repent and are ready to be converted by his love.
Your Heart awaits, with all the impatience of love, the return of the straying poor. He promises them total forgiveness.
“It is not the sin that most hurts my Heart - he says -; what tears it apart is that souls do not take refuge in Me after they have committed it. "
(August 29, 1922).
What he wants, what he longs for is confidence in his infinite Goodness and Mercy.

C) To his consecrated persons who love with special love, Jesus addresses an appeal to them to share his redemptive life.
He wants you to act as intermediaries to save souls and for this reason he asks everyone for a spirit of sacrifice in love.
It does not require great suffering, in general, but it teaches its chosen Souls the importance of ordinary actions, however small they may be, done in union with him, in a spirit of immolation and love (November 30, 1922, December 2, 1922 ).
On the other hand, it recalls the danger of small relaxation: the fatal slope that can drag them to great infidelities, and expose them to the punishment of hell, where they will suffer incomparably more than less privileged souls (August 3, 1921, 12 December 1922, March 14, 15, 20 and 24, 1923, September 4, 1922).
Revive the souls consecrated to their trust in the Heart of Jesus;
"I care little about their miseries, what I want you to know is that I love them with even more tenderness, if, after their weaknesses and their falls, they humbly launch themselves into my Heart: then I forgive them and I always love them."
"Don't you know - he adds - that the more souls are miserable, the more I love them?"
And he insists:
“I do not mean that the soul is freed from its defects and its miseries by the simple fact that I have chosen it. It may fall and it will fall many times over. But if you humble yourself, if you recognize your nothingness, if you try to make up for your lack with small acts of generosity and love. if I trust, giving myself back to my Heart, it gives Me more glory and can do souls more good than if I had not fallen. I don't care about misery, what I ask for is love. ” (October 20, 1922).
What the Heart of Jesus wants from his people, then, is humility, trust and love.

D) Finally, to all, he manifests the obstinate cry of the Passion, presented at the same time as a sign of his immense Love for men, and as the only Way of Salvation. It is always the Heart of Jesus, painful and suffering, that reveals itself. He exhorts and pleads with us in the name of his immense Sorrows. How it is necessary that he loved us, to have accepted so much suffering! But at the same time, how terrible is the misfortune of those who, through their own fault, escape such a Redemption! Man put sin between God and himself and, since then, the abyss has become insurmountable. So between man and God, Jesus puts his painful Passion. To come to us, it passes over our sin, covers it with its Blood; the path to God is open again, but it is necessary to cross the Passion in order to recover contact with Him. It is impossible to be saved without making the Passion of Jesus Christ enter into you in any way. The dilemma is clear: Passion or hell.
The mission and role of consecrated persons is to enter the Passion fully, enter it into themselves and, with their personal sacrifices, communicate their virtue to the souls for which they pray and immolate themselves.

II - Your opportunity
This message, so insistent, appears with exciting news. Sin is multiplying on all sides, in a frightening way. The pride of man, who tries to do without God, intends to transform the earth into paradise. However, it can only make it the vestibule of hell, where immorality and impiety reign, where all bad passions have free circulation, where the most tremendous wars are unleashed, and where the vast majority of men suffer poverty and servitude, without comfort that only faith can provide.
The Heart of God leans over his children in misery: He shows them the way to happiness, peace, salvation.
This Message is not only transmitted to men, it is lived, Jesus Christ instructs us, not only by what he says to Josefa, but by what works in it: facts move more than words.
Do we want to know the Love of God for souls?
Let us read the pages where she notices the palpitations heard from the Heart of Jesus.
"Each of these palpitations - he says - is a soul I call" (October 26, 1920).
Can we doubt the reality of that Love when we see Him burn Josefa's heart with his flame and make her so fearless and brave in suffering to save souls from hell? Can we doubt the immensity of that Love, when Josefa, who accepts suffering for souls inexpressible martyrdom, tells us, as someone who has experienced, that her poor love is nothing next to that of Jesus, her suffering only a shadow, compared to that of the Passion? (October 28, 1920).
Can we doubt the goodness of that Love, when the immense heartache of Jesus is discovered in the life of Josephus at the loss of souls and his joy in the conversion of sinners? (25 August 1920, 26 December 1920; 3, 4 August 1921; 29 July 1921; 3, 12. 25 September 1922).
"Help me," he said, "help me to discover my heart to men, behold, I come to tell you that in vain you will seek happiness outside of me; you will not find it. Suffer and love, for we have souls to win." (June 13, 1923).
In his so true love for souls, how can he fail to recognize the great Love of the divine Heart that alone could have inspired him?
Likewise, He manifests his infinite Mercy through Josefa's own life.
"I will love you - says on July 18, 1923, feast of the Sacred Heart - and souls will know my Love through the love I have for you."
"I will forgive you and souls will know my Mercy for the forgiveness with which I will involve you."
There came a day to say;
"It is madness that I have for souls" (September 27, 1922).
We are surprised by that word; but does it not have its equivalent in the infallible Holy Scripture?
"If a mother can forget her child, I will never forget you - and behold, your name is inscribed on my hand." (Is. XLIX, 15, 16).
“Where are your sins? I threw them under the sea ”. (Mich. VII, 19; Is. XXXVIII, 17).
"He loved me and gave himself, for me." (Gal. II. 20).
Isn't that crazy?
As for hell and its reality, what a message lived by Sister Josefa! All the sufferings of the Passion that continue in her all the persecutions of the devil and the descents to hell, only have the purpose of snatching souls to perdition and bringing them to the salvation from which they depart. Dogma of Redemption and Communion of Saints in action.
How not to believe, on the one hand, in the existence of the devil, of hell, of purgatory; on the other, in the efficacy of suffering for others, when we read the touching pages in which these great supernatural realities are inscribed, in the flesh and soul of Josefa?
The essence of the Message brings us nothing new: it only discovers, in a more exciting and clearer way, what we already know by faith:
“I repeat it again: what I say now has nothing new. But just as the flame needs nourishment to keep from being extinguished, so souls need a new impulse, which will lead them to progress, and a new heat to revive them ”. (December 5, 1923)
And what strength this appeal has by the humble Josefa!

III - Its authenticity
So as we were able to ascertain, the Message is not just the words entrusted to Josefa, it is in his entire life.
And, in fact, through his life mainly, which the privileged of the Heart of Jesus speaks to us, his whole existence is a wonderful guarantee of divine Action.
Only she heard the words of Our Lord. Therefore, she alone is a witness. But his life is a witness to the truth of the Message, his life that was seen, closely followed, by qualified witnesses. These can tell us both the Unquestionable virtue of the small and obscure Messenger of Infinite Love and the reality of their supernatural states of which they had palpable proof. His virtue was always admitted without contest by those who lived with him, not that it was imposed by a brilliant exterior (Josefa was always more imitable than admirable) but because his influence penetrated, without suspecting, around him. He never looked for personal conveniences, he showed exact mortification in all things, unreserved obedience, gentle patience, fruits of sincere humility.
“You will be an echo of my Voice” (December 10, 1922) Our Lord had said and everything about it, in fact, has divine resonance.
This simple virtue requires conviction in the true and deep action of God in your soul. By itself it would be enough to authenticate, as from God, its supernatural states. Their Superiors and their Director, however, were for a time voluntarily hesitant and doubtful. We owe them gratitude for such a wise reservation, for this instinctive distrust that demands proof. Candid and loyal as she was, she could never want to deceive them, but, she wondered, wouldn't she be deluded by her imagination, and her heart?
This fact is frequent, even in sincerely pious souls. But - very good sign - Josefa lived in that perpetual fear, ready, if the Superiors ordered, to consider everything she experienced as an illusion. And nothing is more characteristic than the following fact:
In Rome, where he went to take the Most Reverend Mother General, on the part of Our Lord, a Message concerning the Society of the Sacred Heart, suddenly, under the devil's lying suggestion, she believed that she was the target of some dream and had no real mission of any kind. God. Without hesitating, or considering the harm that would do to his own reputation in the spirit of the Superiors, he tells them of his distress, his persuasion of being mistaken and asks them to believe nothing of everything he had told them. This humble concern for truth at a similar moment attests to the truth of Josefa.
Only a heroically humble and self-forgetful soul could do this. The same timbre of sincerity resonates in his writings. By order of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin, he makes Superiors aware of everything.
"You must write" said the Master. Without a doubt, he wants nothing to be lost from his words. However, it also intends to ensure, by this means, the vigilance over the minimum deeds and gestures of Josefa and give them more credit in the eyes of all. Now, in these writings, nothing useless, nothing false, nor just misunderstanding, nothing that highlights it or could betray the slightest shadow of vanity: everything there is fair, moderate, moving, holy.
Their supernatural states do not escape the same inspection. When she descends into hell or returns from her ecstasies, the Mothers are, one on each side, watching attentively and maternally, until their return to existence and writing the words spoken during these exciting hours. When he comes into contact with purgatory and learns the names, places and dates of the death of souls who claim help, these indications are always accurate whenever it is possible to ascertain them. Nor can any doubt remain as to the fact that Josefa's abductions by the demon: they were carried out under the eyes of the powerless Superiors to prevent them, nor to the fact that the burns were caught, in the act, in her flesh, and verified on the pieces of clothing scorched that are still preserved today.
More convincing, however, is that all this diabolical supernatural capable of disorienting the imagination (visions of the devil, descents into hell) does not disturb his calm, nor his perfect balance; is that the divine supernatural, with the privations of love received from the Blessed Virgin and Our Lord (1) that should deeply touch her living sensibility, leaves her peaceful, silent, without even that natural need for the soul to communicate to others her emotion. His Mothers noticed his extreme discretion when he told all these favors that they were the only confidants.

(1) Lovely appearances of the Child Jesus at Christmas ... of Our Lady "so beautiful and so Mother" as Josefa always describes her ...

It is, finally, that all those sufferings that should make her cry out for mercy (nights in hell or under the weight of the cross, stinging pain in the crown of thorns, etc.) are unable to give her new ardor to suffer even more, for the love of the Heart of Jesus and for the salvation of souls that He loves to madness. The set of writings agrees with the set of Josefa's life to attest to her divine Action. Even the strangest facts have an end and a meaning. There are no useless details, there is no revelation, nor a word that does not serve to emphasize more strongly, some dogmatic truth or that does not lead to greater penetration into the Heart of Jesus in his Love, in the price of souls, in the happiness of heaven, in the irreparable doom of the damned.
Everything is grace and appeal in this life, grace and appeal that cannot leave us desensitized.
The writings of this humble coadjutor sister, ignorant in the eyes of the world, will undoubtedly be read and meditated by theologians and teachers of the spiritual life. As for Santa Teresa do Menino Jesus, numerous works will be published to develop her profound doctrine and give to know your love secrets. But, what is even better, countless graces of conversion and holiness follow its reading.
The world may be astonished that Josefa's life has come out of nothing, so great things have come out, because it is precisely this nothing that constitutes the great test.
This Message, truly, comes signed by the divine Hand.
"Digitus Dei est hic."

H. Monier-Vinard.SJ

BOOK FIRST

THE MESSENGER FROM THE HEART OF JESUS

I - DIVINE ELECTION

AWAKENING FROM A SOUL
1890—-1907

"I want you to be all mine."

Our Lord to Josefa - March 17, 1901.

It was in the lands of Spain that Our Lord sought, to transplant France, the privileged soul of his Heart.
Josefa Menéndez was born in Madrid, on February 4, 1890 and was baptized on the 9th, in the Church of S. Lourenço, with the names dear to her faith, of Maria Josefa.
His father, Leonardo Menéndez, was from Madrid. Her childhood had been painful. The mother, widowed since the boy was born, remarried; and when he no longer found the affection he needed at home, he was entrusted to the Fathers of the Pious Schools.
She was seventeen when that mother, who was so dearly loved, died. Leonardo felt the loss bitterly and, to forget the loneliness he suffered, he enlisted in the army. He was liked by the chefs who soon discovered him and appreciated his artistic skills. Appointed decorator at the Artillery Museum, Leonardo acquired a certain name. Later on, he liked to tell his children how there was no military party without him presiding over the decorations, whether in the Royal Palace or in the Cathedral of Sto. Isidoro.
On February 11, 1888, he married Lúcia del Moral, born in Loeches, a small town near Madrid. Soul of faith and duty. Lucia gave herself over to the new life and education of the children with whom God was quick to bless the young home. A little boy, Francisco, called to heaven at an early age, left Josefa the place of firstborn in the Christian family on which the divine predilection had descended with her. Three sisters, Mercedes, Carmen and Angela, gradually came to complete the family circle, while the second little brother Leonardito died at the age of a few months.
Thanks to her father's energetic and intelligent work, a certain well-being surrounded Josefa's early years, which were happy and carefree. Children grew up in an atmosphere of faith. joy, work and charity where souls blossomed effortlessly. From the age of five the girl received the sacrament of Confirmation and the Holy Spirit took possession of the small instrument that would become so docile to the action of God.
The Rt. P. Rúbio (1) great caretaker of devotion to the Sacred Heart and who would later enter the Society of Jesus, received the first confidences of the privileged soul. At the age of seven he made his first confession. It was the first Friday of the month, a memorable date in his life, about which he wrote:
"October 3, 1897: my first confession.
Ah! if I still had the same contrition that day! "

(1) The Rt. P. Rúbio, well known in Madrid, was in charge of the "Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart". There it founded the beautiful work of "Marias de los Sagrarios" and it died holy in Aran-juez, province of Madrid, and, 2 of May of 1929.

Since then, the confessor, impressed by the girl's supernatural abilities, initiated her into an inner life proportioned to her age. He taught him to go on sowing throughout the day, with a growing number of people; and Josefa got used, little by little, to talking ceaselessly with the Guest hidden in her soul. The Rt. Fr Rúbio also wanted to lead her to mental prayer and for ten years when she already knew how to read, she gave her “El cuarto de hora de Santa Teresa”, a small book of simple and short meditations that enchanted her. The Rt. P, Director explained how to read slowly, reflect, speak to Our Lord, tell him your love and never end without making a small practical resolution for the day. Josefa did not miss the morning meeting with the One who already had all her heart.
"I found my delights in this little book - she will say later - especially when it came to the Child Jesus and the Passion. In it I discovered a lot to say to Jesus. I also liked the passages about the Kingdom ... the election of life ... and said with myself: I will be his ... but I didn't know how. ”
Keen and cheerful, a lively and lively character by nature, it was well worth the title of “older”. The mother rested on it and the father preferred his "little Empress" as he called him. It gave him a lot of evidence of trust and prominence. The sisters knew that he refused nothing and took the opportunity to make their requests pass through her. Every Sunday, this good father liked to take the little family to sung mass. Before leaving, he always distributed some coins to each daughter to teach them how to give alms, thus becoming known to the poor in the neighborhood. “If there was good weather, says one of Josefa's sisters, Sunday afternoons were spent on country walks. If the weather was bad, we stayed at home, where my father organized games and shared them with us until the time of the third, which we all recited together ”.
Leonardo himself wanted to be Josefa's first teacher and, delighted with the rapid progress, he thought of directing her towards the teaching career. Our Lord, however, had other designs and secretly prepared the way of his choice. The Eucharistic meeting was to mark the first stage and seal the early union between the child and the Friend of pure hearts.
In February 1901, at the age of eleven, she was admitted to the group of boys who; at the Reparadora convent, he met every afternoon for the preparation of the first communion. Her desires were ignited with the idea of ​​near happiness. The ceremony, scheduled for March 19, was to be preceded by a retreat. He obtained permission from his father to follow him. Josefa wrote down, in a very simple style, something from the first exchange of love that was irrevocable on both sides.

How Jesus made the first call to my soul.
"On the first day, he writes, I meditated on these words:“ Jesus wants to come to me so that I can be all of him. ”I was filled with joy because I wanted so much ... but I didn't know what it was necessary to do for that. whom I asked, she said it was very good and so would be all of Jesus.
On the second day, the subject of meditation was: “Jesus is the Spouse of Virgins. he delights in pure and innocent souls ". There was a great light in me and I thought that, being the wife of Jesus, I would be all of him, because I could see that my mother was all of my father because she was his wife. So I thought that if I were a virgin it would be his, and, without knowing what it was, all day long, I promised to be a virgin. In the afternoon, after the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, I made a small offer to the Child Jesus and asked him, with great fervor, to teach me how to The thought that I would soon receive Him in my heart filled me with joy and when I was like this, in silence, and in that happiness, I heard a voice that I will never forget and that was fixed in the depths of my soul:
"Yes, my daughter, I want you to be all mine".
"I can't say what happened, but I left the chapel determined to be very good. I didn't know what a vocation was; I thought that the religious were not people of the land. I realized afterwards that it was a vocation.
"On the third day I renewed my resolution and on that day, the two sisters were going to confess in the Church of St. Je- (illegible) happy of my first Communion, I made this little consecration that sprang up from the bottom of my soul:

“Today, March 19, 1901, I promised Jesus, before Heaven and earth, taking as witnesses my Mother, the Blessed Virgin and my Father and Lawyer St. Joseph, to always keep the precious virtue of Virginity, having no other desire if not to please Jesus and another fear than to displease him.
Teach me my God!as You want me to be yours in the most perfect way, in order to love you always and never to offend you.This is what I wish today, the day of my First Communion, O Most Holy Virgin.
I ask you today, which is the feast of your Spouse S. José.
Your daughter who loves you,

"Josefa Menéndez.”

I wrote this and since then every time I received Communion I repeated it to Our Lord. When I told my confessor what I had done, he explained to me that girls should not promise unless they are very good; and I wanted you to tear the paper. But I could not and repeated: "Lord, it is from this day forward that I am yours and forever.
Josefa kept this testimony of his first offering precious. The yellowed paper covered by the clumsy children's handwriting remained, until death, the treasure of his faithfulness.
The first encounter with the Eucharist gave divine action to the soul in which it was going to be so powerful and free.
Holy communion became Josefa's joy at the same time that the germs of the solid virtues whose development was already being perceived took root.
After the First Communion his sister still writes, it can be said that she is no longer a child. Since then, I no longer remember seeing her take part in the small distractions that she herself prepared us with such affection.

His charity was also great, outside the home.
If any girl, known to the church or the Convent of Reparators, fell ill, he never failed to visit her. Her piety, her spirit of sacrifice, early fruits of the good examples that our parents gave us, together with the natural qualities that we already know, made her the soul of the family. We had in "Pepa" as we called him, a second mother, and we trusted him not only with our desires, but also with our childhood hurts and fears. One day I was still a little girl, they told me to buy something. I did it, but I forgot it. paying me. What was my dread when I realized it, already halfway back. I didn't dare to go back, nor bring the money back home. I wrapped it in paper and left it on the street near a door. Then I ran to Pepa to tell him in secret what had happened. She embraced me tenderly, reassured me and took charge, herself, of going to pay for me. That was how we always resorted to her because everything was arranged without being scolded.
Thanks to her ancestry over her parents, she obtained, for the same little sister, the grace of First Communion, two years before the age required at that time. This is how Pepa's childhood passed, in the simplicity of the Christian families of our environment, but already in the eyes of God. prelude to what would later be our big sister. ” Shortly after Josefa's First Communion, her parents enrolled her in the “Fomento de las Artes” (1).
She learned sewing, sewing and sewing. His intelligence and skills soon caught the attention of the teachers. His nimble and skillful fingers performed little wonders, and his work, crowned with success, earned him diplomas of honor every year.
By the age of thirteen Josefa returned home. It was time to think about the education of the little sisters. At that time, an accident happened to the head of the family determined the entrance to the school of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. (2).

(1) Institute for the development of the Arts.
(2) College and school of the Sacred Heart of Leganitos, Madrid, destroyed in 1936 by the war.

It was the year in which the Blessed Virgin, under the title of Immaculate Conception, had just been chosen by so Catholic Spain as the patron of infantry regiments. Campal Mass would be celebrated in the park of the Royal Palace. Leonardo, under the interested eyes of the young king Afonso XIII, worked on the decoration of the altar. Suddenly, to retain a tool that could, tipping over, injure the prince, he made a sudden movement and lost his balance; fell off the scaffolding and broke an arm. The king, moved by the gesture that preserved him, wanted to take charge of the education of the girls. He offered the decorator to place them in the English checkers of a royal institution. But Leonardo, although touched by the monarch's kindness, did not consent to be separated from his daughters. He preferred to put them in the Sacred Heart school, close to his home. The two little girls came in full of joy, while Josefa experienced what was most gentle and strong in family intimacy. The chapel of Leganitos has since become its daily attraction. In the secret of the Tabernacle, Jesus was already directing the simple child into his Heart that had enchanted Him.
Happiness still illuminated the peaceful interior of the family. "The little Empress" had a place of choice in the affection of her own, being the most dedicated of her daughters and the best of her sisters. Everything was simple in the family union and the mildest joys brought the imprint of the faith that impregnated them.
The great reward for the girls was, at that time, visiting the priory of Carmelo de Loeches, mother's sister. They were received as princesses in the chaplain's apartment. Raids in the library put them in possession of the Rule, which they read with delight. His great joy was playing "Carmelo": the craft was used to make the profession, the penances of the cloister were imitated from afar ...
Josefa excited the sisters, but her soul found in this improvised caramel something more than a favorite game.
The parents who were proud of their way and their taste for sewing, insisted that training in a workshop be completed. He had to suffer in this very light environment, but his heart remained firm and his soul drew, every morning, in the courageously achieved communion, the Strength to remain pure.
“I went through many dangers - he still writes - but God always kept me in the middle of such bad conversations in the workshop. How many times I cried hearing things that disturbed me! But I have always found strength and comfort in my God. Nothing, nobody made me ever change or doubt that Jesus wanted me just for Himself. "
On Sunday, says the sister, she often went to a patronage whose president was Miss. Maria X ... daughter of the owner of the house where we lived. He was a whole soul of God, who consecrated a large part of his fortune to works of charity. Sunday afternoons passed happily and usefully, and many girls found the shelter of their souls in that shelter.
Josefa brought him ardor, self-forgetfulness, intelligent initiative; thus, the benefactor, who knew him and appreciated virtue, always gave him the roles that no one wanted in small theatrical performances.
She performed them with simplicity that enhanced her grace in Madrid.
“I often accompanied Miss. X ... on visits to the numerous poor, but he also went on to render the most humble services to the sick. This example excited his generous nature. One day Maria entrusted Josefa with a secret: she had discovered a poor abandoned leper and was looking for, among her friends, someone to help her take care of her, so that the unfortunate woman would not miss anything and feel loved. His name was Trinidad and he suffered a lot. Her right side was paralyzed, her hands and face were eaten by the disease and, alone all day, she couldn't make the slightest movement. Pepa was delighted with this invitation whose hidden heroism corresponded to his soul's inclination. For several weeks he went to Trinidad to take his daily food. He once thought of taking his sister as his mate, counting on his discretion.
“But the impression I had of seeing the poor leper was such, she continues, that, on returning home, Mom noticed and asked the cause. It was necessary to tell him everything.
My mother forbade Pepa to return and she was very sad. ”
The time passed thus for Josefa, divided between family life, work in the workshop and exercise of charity. The austere law of divine Love was soon to be imprinted in this flowering existence. It was necessary for the wind of tribulation to pass over the fragile plant to taste and firm it.
"Never doubt the love of my Heart - the divine Friend will say later. Never mind that the wind shakes you, more than once:" I fixed, myself, the root of your smallness in the land of my Heart! "

WAITING
1907 —1920

"Let yourself be led with your eyes closed, for I am your Father and I have them open to lead and guide you."

Our Lord to Josefa - September 18, 1923.

Suffering, which had to mark Josefa's life with its crease, soon came to settle in the home that had ignored him until then. He was received in peace by the simple and friends of God. Josefa learned to suffer as she had learned to love and her heart was opened to the school of sacrifice and pain. Her character would thus soften, her nature would be dominated, her soul would be strengthened in contact with the cross, acquiring maturity in love without losing any of the youthful ardor. In 1907 death entered the happy house. Carmen, one of the little sisters, twelve years old just flew to Paradise, and, a few days later, the maternal grandmother followed the child to the grave. Carmencita's disappearance was a terrible blow to her parents' hearts. They struggled against pain but it was superior to their strength. A few months later, typhoid fever fell on the mother; and the father was attacked by pulmonary congestion. Josefa, supported by faith and the deep life of her soul, revealed what it was. She left the work of the workshop, became a nurse for the dear ones and calculated, without fading, the task that weighed on her shoulders. Expensive treatments multiplied, the needs of the little sisters had to be met, and reserves were quickly depleted. Poverty was installed in the desolate house.
Josefa embraced her courageously. For forty days she experienced all the anxieties, deprivations, anxieties of heart, and the weight of the responsibility with which she was alone.
“We slept all three on a mattress on the floor - he said - Our doctor, very good, wanted to transport our parents to a hospital, but I would never consent certain that Providence would come to help us. And it came, in effect, through the Mothers of the Sacred Heart. How good they were! Could I stop loving you? ”
Santa Madalena Sofia also leaned over the family where she grew up, in the shade, what should once be her privileged daughter. In the course of a novena to the Founder of the Sacred Heart, one night, the sick woman, whose condition did not allow more hope, called her daughters; "Don't cry," I told them, "Blessed Mother came to assure me that I will not die, because you still need me."
“We never knew what happened - Josefa later said - but the truth is that the next day I was out of danger.
The Father also got up, but from then on he did not recover his old vigor and did not return to work.
Since then the welfare of the house has disappeared and Josefa has generously given herself to the duty that requested it. He tried to support his family with sewing, while staying with his parents to take care of their health. The Religious of the Sacred Heart kept a low eye on that attractive family. Josefa didn't have a sewing machine because her meager resources didn't allow it. The Mother Superior called her and asked her to buy one for her. He asked him to use it for some time as an experiment and gave him thousands of scapulars from the Sacred Heart to do for Melilla's soldiers.
When Josefa wanted to return the machine to Leganitos, the Reverend Mother refused to accept it saying that so many scapulars had paid for it excessively. Pepa's delicate heart was deeply touched, and that generosity, which she felt drew from the Heart of Jesus, took hold of her. in such a way to the Society of the Sacred Heart that I had no other desire than to enter there.
Little by little, work was coming in from all sides.
Her reputation as a seamstress spread. Soon, despite the help of his sister, Mercedes, on busy days, extended evenings were no longer able to serve the parish. It was necessary to organize a workshop where young workers gathered. Standing at six o'clock, the two sisters went to Mass at the Sacred Heart and went to work until noon. After the meal, followed by a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, the apprentices were received and the whole afternoon was spent in toil. Great animation reigned in the small group because Josefa's jovial character made the work of her helpers happy, while by means of small delicacies she tried to please them. But he was aware of responsibility and, with mild firmness, demanded order and perfection. The common rosary was recited in the afternoon and ended with several prayers, arising from Josefa's fervor. On Saturdays, at the end of the day, the two sisters went to confess in the Church of the Jesuits and Josefa found the safe and strong direction of Reverend Father Rúbio, who followed her with paternal interest.
"On Sundays, says the sister, the whole family would get up early to attend various masses. In the afternoon, Pepa and I would go to see the Mothers of the Sacred Heart of the three houses in Madrid and then our parents would come with us to the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament. in Leganitos. ”
When they had to leave, the two sisters accompanied each other. It was the time for intimate conversations that they couldn't have at home. Vocation was the favorite subject. Both had received the divine call. But the mother could not hear them without tears and they decided that it would not be talked about in the family anymore.
"One day, writes Mercedes, Josefa told me that she wanted to be religious, but away from home, in order to offer Our Lord a more complete sacrifice.
As I didn't agree, he replied that for God everything was little. ”
Despite her serious nature, she was always happy and while the task became less austere near her, her energy and self-sacrifice were enough to meet the obligation. Little by little, laughter returned home. But the stay did not last and, in 1910, the chief succumbed to a heart crisis. During the last illness, the woman did not leave him day and night, saving nothing that could relieve him. One day, going to buy him a medicine, he saw a beautiful image of the Sacred Heart in a shop, displayed in the middle of old things. He was moved and wanted to buy it, thinking of the joy of his people and the love that the Sacred Heart would be surrounded in his family. He asked timidly the price. Unfortunately it went beyond the contents of the scholarship intended to pay for the medicine for her husband. Disconsolate, she thanked him and left. But on the street, she heard the salesman call her: "Give me what you can and take the statue." Full of emotion, Lucia gave the price of the medicine and carried the treasure. She quickly returned to Leonardo. "Instead of medicine," he exclaimed, "I bring you the Sacred Heart." It was a real happiness for the patient whose faith illuminated suffering. He ordered the image to be placed at the foot of the bed in order to contemplate it without ceasing. It was under the gaze of the Heart of Jesus that he breathed his last breath on April 7, 1910, leaving his, in this statue, doubly expensive, a safe pledge of protection. The Reverend Father Rúbio, who had assisted him to the end, became an adviser and friend of the mourning house; Josefa was going to be the mother's only support, and her job was the family's breadwinner. Her soul, however, lived on the same love, and the offering of herself, repeated every day, continued to be the strength and horizon of her life, through the shadows of this new path. Even before his father's death, he had discovered his secret and asked for permission to enter the "Sacred Heart". But, for the first time, his father was heard at home. Although a good Christian, he was angry with his daughter Pepa. And she, wiping her tears away, had closed the treasure of her vocation in her soul.
Later, proposals came from Carmel where a religious from the Order offered to get him admission. It was not his way, Josefa knew. He gratefully refused and took the opportunity to repeat God's call to the Mother. Without opposing Lúcia, she begged her daughter not to abandon her and, for the second time, Josefa waited. But her penalty was great when her sister obtained maternal consent and, preceding the oldest, left in 1911 for the Novitiate of Chamartin (Madrid). Josefa, who had trained her in the hope of passing on the burden of the family, felt bitterly disappointed.
Her faith in divine conduct sustained her, and her mature virtue helped her to forget herself. In this regard the same sister writes:
“Until I entered the Novitiate, we were inseparable. My departure was a pity for her that my young age and the desire to give myself to Our Lord did not allow me to calculate ... later I only understood the sacrifice that I had imposed on my dear sister. So only the thought that God's designs had been accomplished in this way could comfort me. ”
Josefa therefore went on with her work life, giving it, without measuring time and fatigue. I had hopes for the younger sister, who should also one day hear the divine call. In 1926, three years after Josefa's death, Angela entered Carmelo de Loeches where she took the name “Soror Madalena Sofia do Sagrado Coração”. He would soon leave for Portugal with a small swarm that would help the foundation of Carmelo in Coimbra. God, who led Josefa through obscure but safe ways, was going to mislead their steps more than once to teach him the science of abandonment and sacrifice.
R. Padre Rúbio had been following her for twelve years and he had not abandoned her. In February 1912 he thought the time had come to help her fulfill her wish. She was then twenty-two years old. He inclined her to choose the “Reparadoras”, who knew Josefa closely, docile and simple, followed the direction given and renounced the attraction that requested her in the depths of her soul to the Heart of Jesus. she was whole to the life of the postulant. She was happy in the religious family whose spirit she loved and appreciated: to notice by the Heart of Mary corresponded well to the aspiration of her soul. interior bloomed without obstacles.
However, even through this peace, Josefa never ceased to hear another Call. She said later that the neighboring bells, of the "Sacred Heart", awakened in her, each time, other desires that she endeavored to sacrifice. The Blessed Virgin herself would also come to prevent it; that he had not yet found a resting place.
In charge of cleaning a room, Josefa lovingly took care of a large statue of Our Lady of Sorrows. Dressed in Spanish fashion, the Virgin carried a crown of thorns in her hands. What was Josefa's astonishment when one day she saw that crown all lit by a light whose focus could not be distinguished! He did not dare to speak of what had happened, but, three or four days in a row, the crown remained clear. Gaining courage then, he climbed up to the image and saw an incandescent thorn from which the light radiated. At the same time, a very soft voice said: "Take this thorn, my daughter. Later Jesus will give you others". Josefa highlighted the thorn still bright and, squeezing it to the heart, responded to the maternal gift with an offer of herself that would soon be realized in a new experience of suffering.
Six months had passed since its entry.
The time for habit-taking was approaching. It was, however, the absence of the older sister at home, where poverty remained great. The mother refused to consent; R. Padre Rúbio himself advised Josefa to return home and once again she immolated herself. He left the asylum painfully, where he had only anticipated the religious life that consumed his desires. He carried the thorn, whose clarity had faded, but which was buried more and more in his life.
Josefa then resumed the laborious ascent in search of God and boldly set to work again. Every fifteen days he went to visit his novice sister at Chamartin and was entertained by what was in his heart. I would like to talk about the religious life of the "Coadjutor Sisters of the Sacred Heart", who felt more and more to respond uniquely and fully to all their aspirations.
She also went to the schools of the "Sacred Heart", in Madrid, because she was in charge of uniforms. She showed herself to be the type of simple, modest and conscientious worker. The nun in charge of the girls' clothes never forgot "that ardent nature, going directly to duty. ”Thanks to her dedication, she writes, to her happy character, who always found the good side of things, I never had a shadow of difficulty with her.
A thousand small services did me his discreet courtesy, his skill, his quiet activity. He was a soul of faith and his devotion to the extraordinary Eucharist. I really liked the "Sacred Heart" and used to say to me many times: "When I enter this house I feel in my element".
The same did not happen when in contact with the clientele, quite mundane. More than once it hurt his delicate conscience and his soul so pure.
"If I knew, I would trust someone, how much I suffer when I need to give in and dress these people in such an unassuming way ...”
The sight of the world with its demands confounded his heart and made him feel the exile's extension more painfully.
"Ah! I exclaimed, - since childhood I ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus every day to be his wife and now, that I see what life is, I beg you that if you cannot grant me this grace, take me out of world, because my soul can no longer live in it. ”
And, in fact, I no longer lived in the world but with burning desires fed each morning in the Holy Eucharist.
It was the contact of the divine Heart that she drew, not only strength for herself, but also kindness, affection and even joy, which she poured out on the path of others, keeping her cross and her thorn in secret.
He had few friends, but he dragged by example, and maintained, through advice, the small group of seamstresses. Their communicative joy encouraged them when a short break from daily work allowed for joyful meetings. The pilgrimage to Ávila or to the "Cerro de los Angeles” (1), which Josefa's fervor and animation made delicious, left a deep impression on souls.

(1) Hill located in the geographical center of Spain and on which the monument of the National Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was raised.

Time passed, however, and Josefa waited for the divine sign. She thought of meeting him in 1917 and decided to ask for admission to the "Sacred Heart". She was kindly accepted and her mother consented to the departure that was taking place for September 24, the feast of Nossa Senhora das Mercês. but, alas, maternal tears softened Josefa's tender heart, she hesitated and gave in to her mother's pain. That afternoon her place in the Novitiate was empty and she cried for a long time in secret, which called the great weakness of his life. "He, however, who works in obscurity and who is the Light" realized, through these painful alternatives, the plan of his Love.
At that time, I saw France, after the storm, reflecting on the work of the “Sacred Heart” and putting the flame back on the extinct braziers. In Poitiers, the old monastery of the Feuillants, providentially preserved for the daughters of Santa Madalena Sofia, restored their cloisters still embalmed by the founder's memories.
A small Novitiate of Coadjutor Sisters was outlined in a project. It was there that the Heart of Jesus had marked Josefa's place from eternity; it was there that he was going to lead her by the hand, through the last storms.
It was 1919. Josefa. was 29 years old. He understood, by secret Appeal, that the hour of God had come and decided to request once again the admission that he no longer dared to wait.
On July 27, he humbly made the attempt.
"But, he writes in his notes., The answer was negative. Deep in his soul, however, he heard the voice of Jesus who said:" Insist, trust me that I am your God. ''
The insistence did not win the decision that his previous hesitations seemed to have made irrevocable.
On the 16th of September, continues, I threw myself at the feet of my crucifix and begged him to receive me in his Heart, that is, in the “Society” or to take me out of the world, as it seemed to me that I could no longer suffer.
So I believe he showed me his divine feet, his divine hands and said to me: “Look at my wounds. Kiss them and tell me if you can't suffer any more? It is I who want you for my Heart.- 'What happened to me I cannot say! I promised you not to live but to love Him and suffer ... but I am so weak, my Jesus! ”
Two months passed in hot pleas, until the 19th of November.
“On that day, in my Communion - says Josefa - I begged Him for his Blood and his Wounds to open that door of the“ Society ”that I had closed myself:“ Open it, my Jesus, for you know that I do not ask for anything else but be the wife of your divine Heart! ”
The hour had come. This morning, as usual, he went to the Sacred Heart to look for the sewing. They were waiting for her: a letter from Poitiers had arrived. For the newly founded novitiate, certain safe vocations were asked.
Would Josefa have the courage to apply in France for the much desired admission? Without hesitating he answered the most generous "yes" and immediately wrote to offer himself.
“I threw myself again, he says in his memories, at the divine Feet, that I am so confident. With tears overflowing my eyes, but with even more love, I offered to accept everything and, despite my weakness, I felt a strength I didn't know! ”
The mother, desolate, however did not make any opposition this time: God removed the obstacles. To avoid the pain of goodbye, Josefa left the house without saying anything or taking anything. The charity of the "Sacred Heart" Mothers provided him with the necessary.
“Jesus caught me - she says; I don't know how it happened, but I got to San Sebastian. He had neither money nor strength; love and nothing more, I believe, but I was in the “Sacred Heart”! ... I was always the same, so weak! But He is always supporting me. ”
The Convent of the Sacred Heart of San Sebastian, which had welcomed her with such charity, was going to keep her for a month.
Grateful, she tried to become useful and we saw her helping from all sides with what she could. However, the memory of his mother and sister who sent poignant letters to him, pierced his heart. He was also beginning to measure the difficulty of a language he did not know. But her will was fixed on the Heart that awaited her.
"What will you do without knowing the language of the country?" someone asked him - "God leads me", he answered simply. It was true.
On Wednesday, February 4, 1920, he left his country forever to go beyond the borders.
One whose sovereign Love can ask for anything.

II - IN THE SHADOW OF THE OLD MONASTERY

THE OPEN HEART OF JESUS
February 4 - July 16, 1920

"In exchange for everything you give me, I give you my Heart!"

Our Lord to Josefa - July 15, 1920.

Due to its luminous situation, on the side of the hills where the city of Poitiers dominated the Clain valley, the former monastery of the Feuillants. it looks like one of those privileged lands, tailored for the meeting of human fervors with divine favors.
In 1618 a Cistercian colony of 'Bernardos' monks came to be established there, but the French Revolution devastated it.
Only the storm Saint Magdalene Sofia abated in these ruins rekindled the flame of love, founding there the first Novitiate of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
She has been there several times, she has received such extraordinary graces there that the house, the cloisters and the garden, are one of her reliquaries and memorials to her religious family.
It was within these blessed walls that the Heart of Jesus would hide the daughter from her predilection, cultivate it as a chosen flower is cultivated, open her Heart to it, associate it with her thirst for souls, and then realize, in her and through it, the Work of your Love.
When she arrived in Poitiers, however, no one could suspect the great Plan that was beginning to take effect. What was seen at the beginning of his postulancy was manifested during the four years of his religious life: simple, silent, completely devoted to his work, a figure erased among the others. Nothing on the outside attracted attention: sometimes his serious face showed traces of suffering, but it lit up a beautiful smile when someone approached to speak to him or to ask him for a service. His big black eyes, very expressive without effort, spoke for themselves. The warmth of his love and the depth of his recollection reflected in the clarity of that look.
Intelligent, active, adapting to everything, Josefa had received real gifts from heaven. A rare good sense, a right and sure judgment constituted in it that serious and balanced foundation on which divine grace was able to work at will. With a tender and generous heart, she knew how to defend herself when it happened and, like everyone who has suffered a lot, she was good, with that kindness that can only be learned in the school of total renunciation and self-forgetfulness.
He had brought to the religious life a soul matured in the spirit of sacrifice, a supernatural understanding of his vocation, an already profound interior life and a burning love for the Heart of Jesus. But these divine gifts were hidden from those around her and even in her own eyes, and for that reason, since she entered until her death, her dark and obscure but faithful life has gone unnoticed.
The Novitiate of the Coadjutor Sisters then counted only a few recruits coming from different houses, Josefa was the first postulant and soon became the oldest novice.
From the first days, the humble and hardworking life, modeled on that of Nazareth, took his soul.
She found an answer to all the attractions of her soul in this ideal conceived by the holy Founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart: a lot of obscure work to help the Work of the Heart of Jesus in the souls of children. But work done with love, in silence and prayer, in perfect union with this Sacred Heart, from which comes divine wealth and apostolic value. Josefa embraced with all the fervor of her soul that new life so luminous for her faith and so dear to her love.
In a nutshell, it could be summed up what his postulancy, his novitiate and the last eighteen months of his career on earth were on the outside: Didn't Jesus of Nazareth teach us the meaning of divine appraisals, which are entirely different from those of the world? And does the Gospel not summarize thirty years of his earthly life in these simple words: 'Was he submissive to them? ” In the same way, the sanctity of the Coadjutor Sisters in the Society of the Sacred Heart seems all the more authentic the less, the noise it makes, the more profound the more it is hidden.
Soror Josefa Menénidez was one of those ignored souls who see little, hear little and whose history is written in a few words.
But under the veil that covers her fast religious life, another dawn soon appears, the dawn of the grace of school that pleased the Heart of Jesus to deposit in it. The designs of Love will come to bear on the fabric of its existence, although nothing externally denounces this secret guarded by God Himself.
This is precisely one of the wonderful points of the narrative that will follow.
The contrast between outward appearances and the realities of the interior, between the visible and the invisible: Josefa in everything like the other Sisters in daily life, but carrying in her soul the weight of divine predilection, who now abandon her to the attacks of suffering, why, he subdues her in the overwhelming presence of God. Since then, a double chain of love has been established - that divine Love that plunges like an eagle on the prey and whose impulse knows no obstacles and the love of Josefa, fragile but ardent that never ceases to offer itself and to keep itself at the mercy of all the requirements of the divine plan.
These pages intend to show something of the mystery of that life. Although submitting fully to the Church's thinking, the only judge in this matter, it seems a priori that the silence and shadow where Josefa's story unfolds, already bear the stamp of the Spirit. of God: and it does not seem reckless for us to discover his Hand in divine prudence which, exceeding the limits of all human possibilities, managed to keep it hidden. Indeed, while the Superiors of Josefa follow in his footsteps on this unforeseen path, the great house of the "Feuillants" ignores to the end the wonders witnessed by its walls.
Another sign of God's action, and not the least, was also the jealous care with which Jesus wanted his instrument to be small in his own eyes, as in the eyes of all. "- It was not for what you are that I chose you - you will not cease to tell him - but for what you are not. So I found where to put my Power and my Love."
However, would it not be necessary for the Master of all Wisdom to begin by digging into it the capacity where the predilections of his Heart would be poured out, so to speak?
Josefa, who arrived at the port of religious life with such great hopes, was soon going to experience winds and storms much more dangerous than those who had hitherto shaken her at sea,
- Fifteen days of delicious peace - note - followed my entry into the Postulancy. ”
He quickly got to know the Mothers and Sisters, the house and the garden. Even today, in the Feuillants, they remember the arrival of the little black-eyed Spaniard, who did not know how to express her joy and gratitude. Simple and accommodating, he soon found a way to merge into his new family. Mother Assistant and many old Sisters, who had been familiarized with the language on long stays in Spain, gave the newcomer the pleasure of hearing and speaking her dear Castilian. It took him a few days to rest from the emotions of the departure, and the postulant was soon given as an assistant to the sister cook. New work for Josefa, but she gave herself to him with all her heart and the happiness that radiated from her face said that she did not care much about the form of the gift of herself, as long as the one who only possessed all her love belonged. It seemed that nothing could disturb this happiness. The enemy of all good, sensing what that soul would be, hid the first hoaxes in the shade. The hour was approaching when God would allow him to enter the scene. Josefa was suddenly plunged into a dark night.
"... Soon, she writes, I started to falter thinking about my mother and my sister ... about my country and the language I didn't understand."
“During the first few months the temptation was so strong that I thought it was impossible for me to stay. My sister, especially, whom I wanted so much! ... to think that she suffered because of me was intolerable to me. However, I decided to abandon them both to the divine Heart, so that I could take care of them and every time I remembered these two tenderness of my heart, or my Fatherland, I did as an act of love and trust had suggested to me. .
One night in early April, the temptation to leave was even stronger. Throughout the day I had not stopped repeating: "My God, I love you", because first of all I wanted to be faithful to Him. As I went to bed, as usual, I put the crucifix under the pillow. At midnight I woke up and kissing him I said with all my heart: - My God, from now on I will love you more than ever. " At the same moment I was seized by invisible force and a shower of blows, as if they were punches, fell on me. with such strength that I thought I would die. This supplication lasted all night and continued during prayer and mass. I was so afraid that I didn't let go of the crucifix. She was exhausted and didn't dare make the slightest move. At the time of the elevation of the Holy Host, I saw a lightning bolt pass through me, with a violent blowing noise. Everything suddenly stopped but the pain of the blows lasted for many days. ”
Thus begins Josefa the struggle that she will sustain throughout her life against the enemy of souls. However, he always remains the same in his work, faithful to the Rule. Her confidence and obedience to the Master of Novices grow (1) and together with her who comes to seek peace and strength to continue to suffer.
“On Friday, May 7, he writes, not taking it anymore, I begged them to let me go. But Mother Assistant showed me the note I had written asking for the love of God, the Blessed Virgin, my Father Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother Founder that if I asked a thousand times to leave, a thousand times I would be reminded that in hours of light I was convinced that God's Will was to stay.
Since that day I never had a moment of peace and God only knows how much I suffered ...
Five weeks passed in those already exceptional matches; Josefa repeatedly repeats the word of obedience:
“Yes, my Jesus, I will be at your service, I want to love You, I will obey. I don't see anything, but despite this darkness, I will be faithful ... ”
On a May afternoon the diabolical effort is even more tangible.
“Being in the chapel in worship - he will write later - I was suddenly surrounded by an unrestrained mob.
They were hideous figures, shrieks, while my body was furiously beaten ... I couldn't even call for help! I felt so bad that I had to sit down and being unable to pray, I looked at the Tabernacle. Suddenly I felt myself being pulled by the arm as if they wanted to get me out of the chapel. I tried to fight but I was grabbed by invisible Force. Not knowing what to do or where to go, I went up to the cell of our Blessed Mother. (2)

(1) In the Society of the Sacred Heart, it is to Mother Assistance that the Coadjutor Sisters and the direction of her Novitiate are specially entrusted.
(2) The cell of Santa Madalena Sofia, next to the chapel of Saint Stanislaus, was religiously preserved and transformed into an oratory. Numerous marble slabs, witnesses of the graces obtained, line the walls.

When Mother Assistant found me and asked me what was happening, I was unable to answer her. But inwardly he said to me: Even if they kill me, I will tell you everything. Then go out to go to her. But I found myself suddenly, surrounded by the same crowd whose screams horrified me. Then everything disappeared at your door, like lightning. I found myself in such peace that I would never want to leave it ...

"The same thing has happened to me since then," adds Josefa. - Every time I decided to speak, everything stopped as soon as I arrived at the door of Mother Assistant. Above all, I noticed the demon's furor when she crossed a cross on my forehead: she seemed to stomp with her foot in anger and if she ever forgot it, I heard a horrible laugh. ”
In the midst of these trials, Josefa's postulancy ends. The 16th of July was marked for the taking of habit but such unexpected sufferings leave her in painful hesitation and the prospect of so many tribulations arises before her as an impossible obstacle to overcome. Now, he decides to embrace the Will of God whatever the price, now, he feels paralyzed in the face of this acceptance that is so dear to him.
"It was so. - writes - until the day when Jesus wanted to let me know his divine Presence so clearly and since then he has given me so much light and so much comfort. ”
On Saturday, June 5, 1920, after a more formidable assault from hell, Josefa, decided to leave, enters the chapel with the Sisters. That was where Jesus was waiting for her. Under the pressure of the demon that dominates her:
“No,” he says to himself, “I don’t take the habit, I go home. I said it five times; I couldn't repeat it anymore - will write later. - My Jesus, how good you are to me! ...
Suddenly, enveloped in a very soft sleep, as she naively says, Josefa awakens within the divine Heart Wound.
"I can't explain what happened ... Jesus! ...
I ask you nothing but to love You and be faithful to my vocation. ”
The light that floods her, sees the sins of the world and offers her life to comfort the wounded Heart of Jesus. It consumes her with a strong desire to join him and then no sacrifice seems too big for her to be faithful to her vocation. The night disappeared with that clarity of God and the desolation before that unfathomable happiness.
“It was my God who did this,” she continued in the notes written out of obedience. - I feel confused with so much Kindness! I wanted to love Him crazy! ...
I ask of you only two things: love and gratitude towards the Sacred Heart ... More than ever I know my weakness, but also more than ever I expect from him Strength and courage ... I had never rested on that divine Chaga! ... but I now know a little where to take refuge in times of tribulation: it is a place of rest and much love!
“I feel alive with regret for so much resistance to grace and so much infidelity, but this gives me even more reasons to trust that I will never miss Jesus, even when I feel alone. For it was precisely what I was so afraid of: being alone and not being faithful. But, I see now that he supported me then without my suspecting. Anyway, I can't say how much I would like to love Him! ”
When Josefa leaves the chapel, still full of divine contact, it is not difficult to measure, in a few minutes, the total change that took place in her soul.
“And now I don't know what it is - he adds two days later - but I think he wants to discover a new secret for me in yesterday's prayer, Monday, June 7, he made me enter the divine Chaga again: oh my Jesus, how you love me !! ... I can never respond to so much kindness. I seem to see a small opening in this Chaga and I would like to know how to get in ...
but he hinted that this would be for later.
“... Twelve days have passed - he writes on June 17 - since the Lord made me so great a grace.
During that time I had immense consolations but mainly I was able to study everything that the divine Heart taught me. He clearly showed me that he likes the smallest acts done out of obedience.
I realized that this is what I owe for my entire application. By this means I will learn to renounce myself in everything, and however small the act will be very pleasing to the Sacred Heart ... I want Love to consume me. Oh! what a Heart Jesus' is! ... ”
Crushed under the weight of so many graces, Josefa continues to throw overflowing her soul on paper.
“Today, Wednesday, June 23, I was meditating on the Goodness of the Heart of Jesus and the thought came to me that this Heart, so full of love, that loves souls so much and mine is the One that I will take as Husband if I am faithful. I did not know what to say and how to thank you, O my God, I cannot pay You, if not for Yourself because if I am Yours you are mine. I abandon myself to You ... It is necessary that my life is only in God and of God ... to surrender myself so that everything in me is consummated and extinguished and that everything I do and am is his alone. After receiving Him in Holy Communion, I told him, as always, how much I love and desire to love Him. Then he made me enter my divine Refuge. It is the third time that I rest in that Heart! I can't explain what's going on in me ...
but I'm too small for so many thanks ...
My God! that Heart floods with love the one who seeks and loves Him.
In this moment of heaven that I spent in his Chaga, Jesus showed me how he paid for what little I did to be faithful. I do not want to seek my interest in anything, but in everything the Glory of your Heart. I will try to be very obedient and very generous in the smallest things, because I believe that this is perfection and that it is the means of going to him directly. ”
Before the Heart of Jesus, who opens up to her in this way, Josefa does not know how to express the feelings that excite her.
“Today, June 24, Thursday, I saw in a way that I don't know how to translate what the Heart of Jesus is ... I asked him to give me thirst for it! I can't explain what I saw ... but it was him. It was heaven itself ... Oh! my God! I cannot bear so much happiness! ... I wanted to offer something ... give to the One who gives me so much!
But I am so small ... I promised you again to be faithful and, above all, to let myself be guided in everything, to go more safely to your divine Heart. ”
But without being overwhelmed by the impulses of his soul, Josefa stops himself. Try to penetrate to the bottom of the Heart of Jesus to discover His desires, to measure His goodness.
“With each passing moment, I notice two things: Firstly, greater knowledge of divine Goodness, because although I always believed that God loves souls to madness, I now see so clearly what this Sacred Heart is! His greatest pain is not finding a match to his Love and if a soul abandons him, he can be sure that he will shower her with grace and make her a heaven to settle there. This is what I promised in a special way: fidelity and obedience, trust and abandonment.
The second thing I notice is a clearer knowledge of myself. I see myself (I don't know if to the bottom, however) as I am: I would go, distracted, little mortified, not very generous ... Oh! my God, why do you love me so much, you who know what i am? But I will not lose confidence, Lord! ... What I cannot do, I will do, and with your love and grace, I will go forward. ”
Jesus will lead you further into your Heart. The graces with which she was showered in June were just a prelude. Josefa writes in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 29:
“Today's prayer was about Saint Peter's three denials and comparing my weakness with his, I made the decision to cry my faults and to learn to love with him. So many times I promised fidelity too! ... But today I did it with more strength and more determination. Yes, sir, I want to be faithful. I promise you not only, nothing to deny You, but to meet what seems to please You more.
I was in conversation with my God when he brought me into his divine Chaga. I saw the small passage open where I had not been able to enter the other day and he gave me to understand the happiness that awaits me if he is faithful to all the graces he prepared for me.
“I cannot say well what I saw; it was a great flame in which my heart was consumed. I could not see the end of this abyss because it is an immense space and full of light. I was so immersed in what I saw that I could not speak or ask anything ... The prayer and part of the Mass were so ... But just before the elevation of the Holy Host, my eyes ... these poor eyes! ... they saw my Beloved Jesus, the only desire of my soul, my Lord and my God! I kept myself on top of your Heart in the middle of a great flame, I smiled a little. I didn't know what to do ... he even approached me with Chaga. I cannot say what happened, because it is impossible ... But I wanted the whole world to know the secret of happiness. There is nothing else to do but love and abandon yourself, Jesus takes care of the rest.
“I was so astonished, in the presence of so much kindness, so much light. when he said these words to me in a very soft and very serious voice:
"Just as I immolate myself as a Victim of Love, so I want you to be a victim: love refuses nothing."
“This is how that great moment in heaven happened.
because I cannot call it any other way. I could say nothing other than these words: my God, what do you want me to do? ... I asked and made myself available, for I no longer belong; I am yours. Then He disappeared. ”
The memory of that ineffable visit, Josefa could not contain her love. It is already the flame of consuming zeal, for, by drawing it closer to his Heart, Our Lord had allowed the thirst that devours him to overflow on it.
Jesus - she writes - I wish for only one thing: that the whole world will know You, but above all the souls you have chosen for wives of your lovely Heart! If they know You, they will love You, for you are the only Good. Embrace me with your Love and that will be enough for me ... open all souls and it will be enough, because with love we run to You on the straightest path. As for me, I want nothing more than to love You and love You more and more, You alone! everything else will be nothing but a means of addressing You. If I could, even paying with my life, I would bring everyone to this divine Brazier! Jesus made me thirst for all souls to love Him. That is why I will offer everything, I will find what it costs me most, to thank Him and to get some souls to know and love Him.
"I also promised Him nothing to do outside of holy obedience and I realized how much it would please You that I be too simple, too frank to let myself be led like a little child."
A few days after that “great moment in heaven” Our Lord shows Josefa what the thirst for souls that he is already communicating to her will demand of her. She writes on Saturday, July 3:
“Today, I was working at the Novitiate and I was thinking about the happiness of living under the same roof as him and having him as a Companion in all my jobs.
I don't know what I was saying anymore when suddenly, he showed me the Heart surrounded by a burning flame and surrounded by a crown of thorns ... My God! What thorns! ... They were like deeply buried ends and a lot of blood was dripping from each one ... I wanted to take them out. Then my heart was taken as if with very sharp pain and He placed it beside the divine Chaga under the thorns. But only six were buried in mine, as it is very small! A moment passed. I could say nothing. but he knows how I wanted my heart to be bigger so that I could get more thorns out of Him. Then his voice so soft yet so painful said:
- “It was all this and infinitely more, that my Heart suffered. But I find souls who unite with Me and comfort Me for those who depart.
Oh! how you suffered! I realized that there are thorns that hurt Him more than others. I wanted to know what to do to comfort Him because I have nothing but little things to offer Him and it is little for so much suffering! But he didn't tell me. ”
On Sunday, July 4, Josefa is at Holy Mass as usual. He associates himself with the divine Mystery and, to tell the truth - he writes shortly afterwards - not knowing what to say or what to do, but to humble myself because I know my misery and smallness better each day. It was like this when, in front of me, I saw the lovely Heart. It was pierced by a thick thorn that must have been very long because it spilled a lot of blood ... oh my Jesus! who is hurting you like that? ...
Am I? ... What a pain to see this divine Blood!
It is a pain that I cannot express. My Lord and my God take me and do with me whatever you want as long as that thorn does not stay like that, stuck in your Heart! Then I saw it come out like a very big nail, leaving a wound so deep that I couldn't see the inside of this burning brazier, and Jesus answered me:
“- This great carnation is the coldness of my Wives. I want you to understand it in order to burn yourself with love and comfort my Heart. ” "On Friday, July 6 - Josefa continues - during the meditation, he still showed me the Heart, pierced by six thorns. I am extremely sorry, both for what he suffers, and for my smallness that I could not comfort or relieve Him. He made me understand that these six thorns are souls who currently offend Him in a special way and said to me:
"It is these thorns that I ask you to remove with your love and your desires."
"Then he dropped a few drops of his Blood on my Heart ... My God! My heart is too small for so much love, but it is all Yours."
The following day, July 7, Jesus, introducing her again to my wounded heart, leaves her the following order:
"You love Me in your smallness: this is how you will console me."
“From all the graces I receive - concluded Josefa on that date - two things remain deeply imprinted in my soul:

1st: I have a great desire to love and suffer in order to respond to his Love, and this I will find in fidelity to my vocation;

2 °: Be ardent that many souls know and love Him, especially those he chose for Wives. I believe it will be my way: save nothing for this purpose, look for small occasions to offer many acts to Jesus, to the one I love to the point of madness or at least I want so much to love! ”

With these provisions, Josefa approaches the Taking of Habit. On Wednesday, July 7, 1920, the retro begins that will take her, not without struggles, to the long awaited day.
“I yearn to give myself completely without neglecting or refusing anything that I know is God's will. To be very attentive to the divine Voice, so that this retreat is like the foundation of my entire novitiate. To ask especially for great love for my vocation, which for me is the path of union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus. ”
Thus the notes of retreat begin in Josefa's notebook. Each day, he faithfully inscribes the result of his efforts and he realizes through the very simple lines, written only for himself, the storm of temptations that suddenly appeared in the sky of his soul.
“Until the third day of the July 10th retreat - he writes - he was in great consolation. But in the Meditation of the Judgment, I suddenly found myself alone, before the Judge God.
So. Such fear and disturbance arose in me that I lost the peace that had not left me since the 5th of June. I saw in front of me all these graces that will one day accuse me, and I felt in such great loneliness and desolation that it seemed preferable not to receive so many graces for not having to be accountable.
So many days passed and I decided to leave. My God, what a night, and what suffering! My mother and sister were going to arrive: that thought fed me the temptation by renewing my tenderness towards them and towards my homeland.
From the beginning, I had said everything to Mother Assistant and did not cease to repeat, out of obedience, the prayer of offering that she had taught me and that was doing me so well at other times because, first of all, I wanted to stay faithful and at times I understood that was temptation. But nothing relieves me; on the contrary!
“On the eve of the“ Taking on Habit ”, July 15, the fight was so strong that I found nothing else to offer but my own temptation; O my God, everything I love most, my freedom, my family, my homeland, in a word, everything that is a source of temptation, I offer you because I want nothing else but to be faithful or die ...
"It was then that Jesus deigned to console me as I will say here."
But before beginning the narrative of these graces, Josefa always faithful to the Call of Our Lord, specifies her response of love. - Write:
“Practical result of the first three weeks of the Retreat. (1)

(1) The word "week" designates each of the four stages of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

I saw how God calls me to the great perfection that consists in total conformity with his heart.
Means: my vocation, my holy Rules.
God calls me to an intimate life with him. He wants me to live immolated, like the victims.
Take care of my cross. I don't have to ask or choose it. he will give it to you. He wants my life to pass in his Heart and I must know that the thorns and the cross are stuck there. This is my life, it has to be like this is how I will fulfill God's Will. "

“In contemplation to obtain Love, I do not know if I will be able to tell you what happened ... I had such a desire to give Him everything that asks of me that I said with all my heart: Take, Lord, receive all my will, I give you everything I love the most in the world ... If you want anything more, I will sacrifice it with joy! Take my miseries and consume them, take my heart and soul, take me, Lord! ”
Our Lord did not wait until this offer to cumulate it with divine freedom.
“Then - she continues - He brought me close to his Heart and, letting out of his Chaga a jet of blood in which mine submerged:
"For everything you give me - he said - I give you my Heart!"
"I thought I was no longer on earth! ... Today, he was dressed in a white robe that makes his Heart stand out in an inexpressible way ... The face looked like a sun ... My God ... what a beauty ... You take the heart that knows You! ”
Naively, Josefa explains in the following lines that, to meditate on the sky, she did not need a book:
"For true Heaven was in my heart - she writes - I want nothing more than love ... and always love!"
Our Lord, yet again, before the dawn of the great day, will show you the path where Love wants to lead you. In the evening Josefa, who obtained a license to make Holy Hour, begins with an act of profound humility.
“I loved the divine Majesty - note - then I thought of the graces I had received from my God with an ever greater desire to comfort his Heart.
“Suddenly, I saw Him in front of me, in a tunic resplendent with whiteness and his Heart that seemed to escape from His chest. As I was alone at the podium, I went down to the ground, humiliating myself as much as possible, without being able to say anything. “After a moment of silence, he approached me with his Heart and, showing me the six thorns, said with a voice that pierces the soul:
"Daughter, take them out ... Yes, take away these thorns from Me!"
On Friday, July 16, the day of my Making of Habit, at the moment when I received the white veil and then, until the end of the mass, Jesus presented himself to me and made me enter his Chaga. I could only say these words:
“My God, I am yours forever… And I even told Him crazy love!… Then he answered me:
"Me, too, Josefa, is the crazy love I have for you."
“I cannot express how much I lavished on this day. Peace overflows from my soul. ”

REPAIRING VOCATION
July 17 - August 25, 1920

"If you love Me, Josefa, take this thorn from Me."

Our Lord to Josefa - August 17, 1920.

The wounded Heart of Jesus will soon reappear on the horizon of Josefa. She had been elected to a school participation in the redemption of souls and the divine Master came to remind her of her vocation as a victim early on.
Two days after the Taking of Habit, on Sunday, July 18, 1920, he shows his Heart always pierced by six thorns and repeats the same words to him:
"Josefa, remove these thorns from Me!"
“The next day - she writes - he had a license to make the Way of the Cross and prayed for reparations for the offenses of men and especially for the coldness of the chosen souls, Jesus came with the cross on his back. Put it on my shoulder and left it there during the holy exercise. ”
The gift of his Cross is renewed for the next three days.
On Thursday, June 22, making Joseph the Holy Hour with the Sisters, he offers himself to Our Lord, as usual.
“There he was,” she says, “with a bloodied Heart from the six thorns. He took them out and buried them in mine. Then I saw in that Heart the burning fire that consumes Him. I tried to comfort Him and love Him for those who don't love Him. At the end of Holy Hour, when he left, he said:
“This Heart! ... I want you to rest in it as a child, to love Him as a wife and to console Him as a victim. "
“Then he took the six thorns from me and made me understand that that moment had comforted Him.
"The next morning he repeated to me what he had said to me on the day of my habit:
"Me too; what I have for you is crazy love. "
"Then he disappeared, leaving me alone, as if he had never given me any consolation."
Since then Josefa will know the spiritual events through which Jesus will forge his soul; path of faith and love, of humiliating experiences of weakness and confident resources for the Heart that never tires.
“A few days later - she writes simply - I thought it would be impossible to see my mother and sister return, such was the Force of temptation. I discovered it immediately to the mother, to be supported, why alone, what would I do? ... I said goodbye to the two without suspecting anything, but the ordeal was not over ... I am so poor and weak! ”
He then explains how the graces he received became a perpetual torment. The thought of the correspondence of love that will demand so many favors from her and the accounts that she must pay fills her with dread. It seems to you to hear a voice that haunts you and persuades you that is on the path of doom. This temptation does not leave you for an entire month.
Our Lord, however, does not abandon her entirely to herself.
“On Thursday, August 5, he makes you participate again in the pain of the six thorns that hurt Him. Then comfort her with these words:
“- If you are faithful, I will let you know the richness of my Heart. You will carry my Cross, but I will shower you with gifts as a beloved wife. ” “This time,” says Josefa, “I saw Him covered with such splendor that it could not be fixed. His divine Heart, all inflamed, seemed to escape from His chest.
“When I asked Him not to allow me to be tempted against my vocation, he covered me with his tunic and enveloped me with his peace.”
A few days later. Jesus the Savior communicates to him for the first time the joy of his Heart when souls return to him.
“Tuesday, August 10, in meditation - she writes - I felt a great desire to comfort Him. I offered him all the actions of the day, telling him that if he wanted anything more, he would make me understand ... I promised him not to forget Him for a moment and I never ceased to repeat My desire to love Him.
“In the afternoon, before going to worship, I entered the oratory of Mater (1), to ask the Blessed Virgin to help me comfort her Son and, arriving at the chapel, wicker, suddenly, in the presence of Jesus ... It brought me closer to your Heart and made me hear a harmony that nothing matches in this world ... My God! this is for heaven ... not for earth! ... He said to me then:
“I have no other desire than to be loved.
Look at my Heart. Josefa! He alone can make you happy. Rest on it. ”

(1) Oratory located at the door of the “Feuillants” chapel and dedicated to Mater Admirabilis. Under this title, in the “Sacred Heart”, the presentation of the miraculous fresco painted on the wall of the cloisters of “Trinitá dei Monti” is venerated. In Rome.

“Then he continued:
“- I had six thorns. You took me five.
Only one remains and it is the one that most hurts my Heart. I want you to spare nothing to pull it out. ”
“Sir, I replied, what do you want me to do?
What I want is for you to love Me and be faithful to Me. Remember that only I can make you happy. I will discover the richness of my Heart. Love Me without measure. ”
"And again, he left me alone."
The feast of the Assumption is approaching. Josefa, so tenderly attached to her Heavenly Mother, spends the day in prayer. united with her. And, as the memory of the thorn buried in the Heart of Jesus cannot leave it for a moment:
“I pleaded with Him,” he writes, “to take charge of that soul and pull out the thorn that Jesus asks so much to be taken from Him.
“The next day, Monday, August 16, at three o'clock in the afternoon, while I was sewing, I offered to Our Lord my desire to make every point an act of love that could comfort Him; I had not finished the sentence when I found myself in His presence. It took my heart to bring it closer to His. ”
Josefa tells facts such as this, which are not uncommon in her life, as if it were a very natural thing. Her faith simply put it at the level of these graces, although they seem exceptional.
- I'm not coming to console you. Josefa - he said - but to join you in my suffering. Pull this thorn out of Me, see how the Heart pierces Me. This soul is about to bring about my justice. "
It will be with great suffering that Josefa will cooperate in the salvation of that soul. Our Lord initiates her, little by little, in this Work of redemption that will take such a great place in her life.
- The offenses of men hurt Me deeply, but nothing afflicts Me as much as those of my Wives. Of the five thorns you took from Me, the first two were religious souls that I had showered with favors, but they kept their hearts in the creatures without remembering Me; I called them to return to the life of love, but they did not listen to Me and I was about to abandon them ... Now they are in my Heart.
“The three others were chosen souls, but so cold that the measure of my Justice would overflow.
This is why I seek love ... I hope for the love of souls that I have redeemed with my Blood; but mainly that of my Wives. ”
“He asked me still:
"- Do you love me?"
"It is an arrow that launches me because he asks like a poor person to beg."
Yesterday, Tuesday, August 17th, in meditation was the first thing that made me say again:
“- Do you love me? If you love Me, Josefa, take this thorn from Me! ”
“I replied, Lord, you know that I love you.
But, as I am poor, it is with your own Love and with that of my Mother, the Blessed Virgin, that I want to love You.
"Those words:" Do you love Me? " he repeated it at least thirty times, throughout the day, and with that voice that pierces the soul. During the Mass he said:
“- This thorn is a religious soul ... I showered it with talents, it attributes them to itself; pride is losing it. ”
In the afternoon, he showed me his heart, all burned, the open wound and, always, the thorn. ”
- I have two measures for each soul - he said - one of Mercy, and that overflowed ...
another of Justice that is almost at its peak. Nothing offends me as much as the obstinacy and resistance of that soul. I will touch your heart; if she doesn't answer I will leave her to herself. ”
“So I don't know what made me understand, but ... I would give my life to save that soul! In the evening I made the Holy Hour, because I had permission, and I offered myself in union with him in his Passion. Do not look, O my God, at the sins of that soul ... Look at the Blood that you shed for her ... that Blood that is enough to cover all the sins of the world.
"Then I recited the litany of Our Lady, repeating many times" Refuge of sinners, pray for us. " Coming to the words: Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world ... ”my heart was filled with anguish. Jesus said nothing, as if he did not hear. He looked deaf. At the end of the Holy Hour, he came with the Heart always pierced by the thorn. I asked him to give it to me to rest for a while. He did it.
I pleaded with Him to have compassion on that soul and as I answered nothing, I said: but, Lord; will you not forgive her?
“- I will still touch her heart. If you listen to Me, you will be my beloved Wife. If I resist, my Justice will act. ”
Many days have passed. Josefa multiplies generous offerings, but, she confesses - her soul is plunged "in unspeakable suffering". I believe that I never understood what resisting grace is like today.
It seems to me to experience something of the pain of the Heart of Jesus when one resists Him.
“- If you are willing to suffer,” says Our Lord on Wednesday, August 18, “I will wait for that soul. But I can't forgive her until she wants to. I created it without it, but it has the freedom to save itself or to lose itself. ”
A few days later he adds:
"- When I find a soul that loves Me and wants to console Me, I am ready to give everything that asks of Me. I will wait, therefore, I will still knock at the door of that heart, because, if I want mine, I will be willing to forgive him."
“He said this with tears in his voice and left my soul in agony. He taught me to repeat these words often: "My God, I will suffer for your Love and to console your Heart."
This suffering oppresses Josefa's soul, it seems to her that divine wrath has fallen on her.
"At the same time - he writes - I feel in my heart what his will suffer when a consecrated soul comes to condemn itself."
In an hour of greatest anguish, Josefa O finds him, still exhausted and covered in sweat. It's Friday, August 20th and she notes:
My God! Who put You in such a state? ... ”
“- I'm tired of calling that soul, but his heart is insensitive and full of pride. I expect from you acts of humility to relieve my Heart. 'Ask my Father for forgiveness and humble yourself. This is how you will comfort Me. ”
Our Lord's repeated calls persecute her like this without leaving her resting, night and day. He continually carries the weight of that soul on his own, pain accumulates in his whole being as the days go by, but his desire to repair does not diminish.
On Wednesday, August 25, after a night of anguish and pleading, Josefa always faithful to the morning meeting; prayer begins among the sisters.
“Suddenly - he writes - I saw Him ... to Him ... so beautiful that I cannot explain. He was standing, dressed in white, holding in his hands the Heart wrapped in a fire brazier. All of her lovely Person shone in radiant light. The Hair was like gold, the Eyes like two shiny ... the Face ... I can't say ... I don't find a comparison ... the Heart, surmounted by the cross, no longer had a thorn. The open chaga let out flames ... the sun itself would be said. From the Wounds of the Hands and the Feet a very clear flame also flowed. From time to time he opened his arms and extended them. I could only say: My Jesus, how beautiful you are! ... Able to take all hearts away! and the thorn? he smiled, the Heart seemed to want to escape from His hands and replied:
"- Thorn! ... I have no more because there is nothing stronger than love and I find it in my wives."
“The Heart was burning Him more and more. I thanked him for calling me to this Society and I begged him to have compassion on me that I am every day more miserable and more unworthy to be here: My God, do not allow me to stain this group of Wives of yours. Heart! Do not allow these graces to be my condemnation, for I am capable of anything. I want to be faithful or die. ”
It was in this joy that Josefa attended the Mass, moments later, associating herself with the Thanksgiving of the Blessed Virgin, when Jesus appeared to her again:
"He approached me to his Heart, holding me in such a way that I could not make a single movement. After a moment of silence he said:
"—You see, Josefa, how I hold you so that you cannot move without Me: this is how I want to hold my Wives."
"And he continued:
“- That thorn was taken from me here, that soul was saved by the sacrifices and prayers of my Wives, in this garden where my Heart finds its delights ... Say it to your Mother.”
“After communion, I asked him to make me his wife through true loyalty but to leave me on a common path, as I will never be able to respond to all these graces.”
“- Abandon yourself in my hands, Josefa. I will use you as you understand. I will use you when I need you because you are mine. Your littleness and your weakness matter little; what I ask first of all is that you love and console me. I want you to know how much my Heart loves you, what wealth it contains; and be like a soft wax that I can handle to my liking. ”
“Then he added:
“- Repeat it to your Mother; it was because of my wives that that soul was saved. It is not from here, but from your country, this is why I chose you and saved you with the sacrifice you made of your land.
Tell me, Josefa, if you love your homeland ... ”
"Yes, I do, Lord, but I love you much more."
"- Listen. Since you are here, serve Me from your sufferings to save that soul and the other five that were far from Me. I want you to offer Me everything, even the smallest things, in order to comfort my Heart than to suffer, especially on the part of consecrated souls. I want you to rest without fear in my Heart. Look at Him and you will see to what extent this fire is able to consume everything imperfect in you. I want you to tell your Mother, with simplicity, everything that I ask you and to abandon yourself to what they do to you. Anyway, I repeat, I want you as a soft wax to which I can shape the way I like ... Remember that I am your Father, your Spouse and your God . ”
“Just before the end of the Mass he said:
"- Do You Love Me?"
“Then he disappeared. I had never seen Him so beautiful!
“All this time - Josefa notes - I was able to speak to Him and listen to Him because I had a license. But from now on, I was ordered to ignore these things and respond to nothing. ”

THE DOUBT PROOF
August 26 - October 8, 1920

"The sign, I will give it to you."

Our Lord to Josefa - September 20, 1920.

By the end of August 1920, in order to test the spirit that leads Josefa, any communication with the apparition that had so often snatched her soul is forbidden. It is strongly recommended that you leave, without giving any importance to what you happen to see or hear.
Doubt hangs around it. Discouraged.
she begins to ask herself if she will not be the object of illusion as they seem to believe. In fact, the devil had often suggested that thought to her, but she had always repelled him, as a temptation, to stay true to what she thought was God's Will. So where is the truth? ...
At the same time, the idea of ​​such a path tortures her that she neither sought nor desired, it may be considered an obstacle to her vocation.
His instinctive horror at extraordinary things and his desire for a religious, humble and hidden life increase his confusion. But, already accustomed to the most intimate sacrifice of herself and, matured by the spirit of faith and obedience, she does not hesitate. Without dwelling on inner arguments or accommodation, enter this dark path where your love would suffer so much.
as the written notes reveal then.
“On Monday, September 2 - he says - I saw, during meditation, the same person as beautiful, with the Heart as before. He asked me twice if he loved her.
I did not respond out of obedience, although it cost me an enormous effort; because, unintentionally, my soul feels impelled towards it ".
Three days later - September 5 - Josefa is in the novitiate room, “when, suddenly,” she says, “I began to see great clarity in the midst of which the usual person appeared, with a burning Heart.
I was so afraid that I ran away to the cell of our Blessed Mother. I rubbed my eyes with holy water and sprinkled it all over, but the vision didn't disappear ”...
“- Why are you afraid? said his voice - Don't you know that this is your resting place? ”
“A few minutes have elapsed and he added:
-Don't forget that I want you a victim of my Love. "
"And everything disappeared."
The test continues, day after day, Josefa resists and does not respond. But sometimes it cannot escape the attraction that dominates it, the heavenly joy and the peace that invades it.
"- Come - says the voice - get in here ... lose yourself in this abyss."
On Wednesday, September 8, in the evening, she is in prayer in the cell of St. Magdalene Sofia and, like a lightning bolt, that inflamed Heart passes before her, saying:
Which do you prefer, your will, or Mine? ” “I understood - writes Josefa - that it was the answer to what I asked Jesus from the bottom of my soul: to be a good nun, all committed to the love of his divine Heart, but in ordinary life, in the ordinary way, because I am afraid that all these things are an obstacle to my vocation ”.
The next day, September 9, at Holy Mass, she reviews the One she had not doubted for a long time. He held the Heart in one hand and presented a cup with the other:
“- I heard your groans - tell him - I know your wishes but I cannot answer them. I need you to rest my love. Take this Blood out of my Heart which is the source of Love. Fear nothing and do not abandon me. I am pleased to remain in you, for so many souls flee away from Me. ” Josefa is silent.
“However - he observes - I couldn't help thinking:" My God, if I had known, I wouldn't have come here. This idea torments me, because I believe that if I had stayed in the world, none of this would have happened to me and every day it grows I would certainly go back if God had not tied me to Him But I feel bound in an incomprehensible way and the love of my vocation grows every day. It is what compels me to ceaselessly plead with the Heart of Jesus to leave me in life. common, that is, without anything extraordinary, even without any consolation, if you want, as long as I am faithful in small things and love your Sacred Heart without measure.
that Heart appeared to him on Thursday, September 16 and said again:
It takes, to satisfy so much love. to get souls from me. You will find them at the cost of suffering and love. You will have many humiliations to endure. But fear nothing: you are in my heart. "
In the face of these uncertainties, Josefa tries to close her eyes, but she cannot distract herself from the need to love God, who grows in her soul day by day.
“To repeat my love to you - she writes - is the only thing that rests and detaches me from the earth. I once felt a warm tenderness towards my family and many people ... I always love them, but in a different way. I believe that now nothing can fill my heart and, sometimes, I repeat, without knowing how, these words: my God I love you This is enough for me and helps me to do a lot that would be impossible for me.
“Sometimes, I am distracted at work and suddenly, like a lightning bolt, that Heart passes before me and leaves me long with love.”
While the crucifying action of the test is heightened and Josefa's pressures are increasing, obedience keeps her faithful and, little by little, the Spirit who works in her is discovered: Jesus, detaching her from the creature, attaches her only to Himself .
On Friday, September 17, at Mass, Our Lord shows himself, with a sad countenance, his hands tied, the crown of thorns on his head and his heart burning as always. He presents her with a cross that she had not seen at first:
Here is the cross that I give you - he says - will you refuse it? '' 'I am in great anguish because I do not have the license to answer - she writes - because my soul feels impelled towards him without my wanting to. I burn with desires to love him and not being sure that he is himself, it fills me with sadness. So what I ask is that all of this will disappear forever. ”
But he still comes back:
In the meditation on Sunday the 19th, I was looking for what to do to love Him more and more, because I cannot think of anything else. Suddenly I saw Him, his Heart was like a fire ... that Heart - she says somewhere - that gives me peace and makes me able to suffer everything. ” “- If you love Me - he said - I will always be close to you. If you follow Me constantly, I will be your victory against the enemy, I will manifest myself to you and teach you to love. "
The next day, September 20, pursued by the same anxiety, she begs Our Lord to give a sign to his Superiors, so that they know whether these things come from him or not.
“- The sign ... I will give it to you. What I want is for you to abandon yourself to Me ”(1).

(1) “La senal, la daré en ti. What I want is that you abandon Mi. ”

And this sign, in fact, is already imprinting it on Josefa's docile and generous soul, through the struggle that leaves her invariable in obedience. Despite divine invitations, he remains silent. One day, however, “when - she writes - I don't know what happened in me I saw myself as if obliged to surrender and surrender to what God wanted from me and I could only say: yes, Lord , I am Yours. Whatever you want, I want it too. At the same moment I saw Jesus very beautiful who said to me:
"Fear nothing, it's me."
On Friday, September 29, faced with a new question:
"- Are you willing to do my Will?" “My God - she writes - if you are you, I put myself in your hands so that you can do with me what you want. What I ask of you is not to be deceived and that there is no obstacle to my religious life. Then He answered;
If you are in my hands, what can you fear? Do not doubt the Kindness of my Heart or the Love I have for you. ”
“A flame broke out from His Heart that enveloped me:
“- What I ask of you - continued - is that you are always ready to comfort my Heart whenever I need you. The consolation that a faithful soul gives Me makes up for the bitterness that so many cold and indifferent souls fill Me. You will sometimes feel the anguish of Mine in your heart. This is how you will comfort Me. Fear nothing, I'm with you. ”These words, however, do not reassure her and when she finds herself alone again, her soul takes on unparalleled anguish. There is a debate between the sometimes irresistible attraction, the fear and the obedience that forces it to silence; she begs Our Lord to leave her in ordinary life, yearned for by her love, or else give birth that will end with so much doubt and so much suffering.
The hour finally came when the one who had never been invoked in vain would come to lean on his daughter.
On the night of Sunday, October 3, Mother Assistant, guessing great suffering on the face of the novice, sent her to anticipate the hour of rest. In the small lonely dormitory, Josefa, unable to sleep, begs the Heavenly Mother.
“I recited the litany of the Blessed Virgin - he writes - then I repeated with all my heart what I have not ceased to ask of you many days ago:
My mother! I beg you, for God's sake. do not allow me to be deceived and make it known whether all this is true or not.
At the same moment, I heard the light step of someone approaching and, suddenly, I saw, near the bed, a person dressed in white wrapped in a long veil. The face was very thin, the hands were crossed. He pinched me very sweetly and said:
Daughter, you are not mistaken. Your Mother will know it soon. But you need to suffer to give souls to my Son ”.
"And disappeared, leaving me in inexpressible peace.” It was the passage of the Queen of Heaven. Her daughter could not doubt it, but Maria had said: "You must suffer" and to this Appeal to redemptive suffering, Josefa will have to consent freely.
The next day, October 4, Our Lord showing him the wounded Heart says to him:
“- See in what state the unfaithful souls put my Heart. They drop out. Will you at least not want to do my Will? ”
A wave of apprehensions shakes his soul.
“I shut up - writes loyally - But everything refused to me. Then he disappeared. I certainly disliked him, because he left like lightning. ”
The next day, Tuesday, October 5, while reciting the litanies, the Blessed Virgin came, as the first time. There was a good memento. Then he said:
“- If you refuse my Son's Will, it will be you who will hurt His Heart. Accept everything I ask of you. But don't attribute anything to yourself. Yes, daughter, be very humble. ”
“He looked at me with great compassion and left.
The Mother of Love and Mercy had interceded.
Since then, he has entered the path that the divine Master opens to Josefa. There it will remain until the end. With the Divine Son, he will keep his place to play the role, discreet and reserved, so especially his, of tender compassion and firm kindness.
He will leave the Heart of Jesus in the foreground, intervening only to reassure Josefa in her hesitations.
to fortify it in fears or bring it to the Will of God.
Admonishing or reviving her, he will initiate her in the ways of her Son and prepare her for his visit. Teach her to guard against the enemy's snares and to repair her weaknesses. He will be close, at last, in the dangerous battles of the devil and to defend her always, “powerful as an army in order of battle. This intervention by the Blessed Virgin confirms the light that was gradually made around Josefa: simple and courageous obedience, indifference and abandonment, at the same time humble distrust of self, fear of extraordinary paths and, above all, , and the love of her vocation that she does not parallel with anything, - there is the sign of God. Is it lawful to oppose more time to the freedom of divine designs? Therefore, it seems to his guides that the time has come to make way for divine action, while surrounding Josefa with the most vigilant observation. So, despite her vivid disgust, Josefa receives a license to "offer herself".
On Friday, October 8, - he writes - during meditation I made an act of surrender to the divine Will. During the Mass, just before the Gospel, I saw the Blessed Virgin. I pleaded with Him to intercede for me with God, I explained to him why I am so opposed to receiving these graces, but I am determined to accept everything to glorify the Heart of Jesus, console Him and win His souls. I think she took pity on me and said:
Daughter, repeat to my Son these words that your Heart will not resist: "O my Father, make me worthy to fulfill your Most Holy Will, for I am all yours."
“- In the hands of such a good Father, what can you miss?”
"I pleaded with her to receive my act of offering and to repeat it, herself, to Jesus."
In the afternoon of that same day, entering the chapel for worship, Josefa suddenly found herself in the presence of Our Lord.
“With such a beautiful face - she writes - the Heart in the midst of the flames and in that Heart, before the cross, an open book. I didn't understand what it was ... I offered myself again, promising not to go back. he put his hand on my head and said:
“- If you don't abandon Me, I won't leave you either. From now on, Josefa, call me no other than Father and Husband. If you are faithful to Me, we will make a divine covenant: You are my Spouse, I am your Spouse.
“Now write what you read in my Heart; is the summary of what I want from you. "
“So I read in the book:
"I will be the only love of your heart, the sweet torment of your soul, the pleasant martyrdom of your body.
“You will be a victim of my Heart, with a bitter disgust for everything that is not me; victim of my Soul, with all the anxieties that yours is capable of; victim of my Body, with the removal of everything that can satisfy yours, and with hatred of criminal and cursed flesh. "(1)
"When I finished reading, Jesus kissed the book and disappeared."

(1) These words that Our Lord did not utter, but which he showed Josefa written in a book, amid the flames of his Heart, are found verbatim in the works of Santa Margarida Maria. They can be read in the small breviary of the Sacred Heart, in “Friday *” of the office of Tuesday. The saint expresses her mission as a victim there wonderfully, and it seems that, by reproducing them here as her own, Our Lord wanted to manifest her Will to associate him with the humble Soror Josefa.
Is it necessary to add that she did not have any knowledge of the life or writings of Sta. Margarida Maria?

III - AT THE SCHOOL OF THE HEART OF JESUS

FIRST STEPS

October 9 - 28, 1920

"Your misery attracts me!"

Our Lord to Josefa - September 20, 1920.

It seems that the path so brightly opened before Josefa should have known no shadows or obstacles. It would be to forget the ways of God in the conduct of chosen souls: he calls them and hides; attracts and bewilders them; it is filled with wealth and abandoned to its own misery; he carries them in his arms and makes them feel the limits of their own weakness. In the midst of such alternatives he is digging abysses of detachment, abandonment and humility in them, which highlight the creature's nothingness and place the instrument at the mercy of the divine Hand.
Touching is the simplicity with which Josefa's notes discover these vicissitudes and the sound so pure and true that it is detached from them makes them a document of primary importance. From the beginning, he had demanded obedience that she write what she saw and heard.
Then he put it in relief to overflow the graces that flooded her. Josefa was throwing on the paper, with naive and ardent expansion, the feelings that sprang from her heart. But he soon realized that those pages he intended to write just for himself would be the indispensable means of control for his directors.
Then the habitual reserve, the mistrust of herself, the virginal modesty that has always involved her relations with Our Lord, claimed her rights. He sacrificed all disgust, but with struggles and dismay, as all notes prove.
From that moment on, her style changes, she soberly writes at the "love of divine exchanges between her and the Master. We rarely find the effusions of the first days. it was always so hard for him.
Undoubtedly throughout history, so loyal to this soul, Our Lord wants to give the most vivid testimony of his Compassion and his tireless Forgiveness.
Before looking through the documentation in Josefa's notebooks, it will be useful to answer a legitimate question mark that naturally comes up to us. How were these notes written?
From the first contacts with the hereafter, Josefa had been recommended to ask permission before communicating with the heavenly interlocutors and giving accounts immediately afterwards. However costly it was, he always submitted to such control. This allowed the Superiors to write, without delay, the time and place of divine meetings and each word she repeated, even if under the action of the inevitable Presence.
Thus, with the most rigorous accuracy were written the words of which none should be lost as Our Lord himself would say. (1)

(1) It should be noted, once and for all, that Josefa never had to translate into human language “inner views, words or motions”.

Our Lord always expressed her Thought and Desires to her in the direct form of the human word that she sensibly perceived and that she only had to transcribe in the same terms.
It may be added that, always overloaded with work and obliged to ask permission for each meeting and to be accountable afterwards, Josefa did not have material time, neither to prepare nor to compose her reports which, forcibly escaping any premeditation, they bring in themselves one more sign of veracity.

During the busy days that left him no leisure, Josefa abandoned his notes in a safe place.
In the afternoon, if there was a truce, or in the free hours of Sunday, I transcribed them to satisfy obedience.
Leaving the needle, the sewing machine or the broom went up to the cell for that more painful work than any other. There, on his knees almost always, in front of the table, he recreated with his small, irregular but quick letter, the notes he had entrusted to his Superiors. He added only to the narrative of the facts, where the divine Words had been embedded, an exclamation from the heart when he remembered them and the detailed confession of his own miseries and failings.
These precious autographs were kept religiously.
In 1938, the book “Un Appel à l'Amour” (2) delivered some of the main passages to the world, awakening in souls the desire to get to know better what only foreshadowed the pages of this discreet biography. It seems the time has come to resume Josefa's notebooks and to follow them step by step. It will undoubtedly be the best way to respond to the desires of the Heart of Jesus: He longs to discover to the world the riches of his love and Mercy; he wants to make souls understand how far his condescension goes. to take ordinary life with them in order to transform it into "days of divine life." It is thirsty for this union that our human frailties must not interrupt. It is even more thirsty to teach souls the security of forgiveness offered incessantly to but if he so desires the love and trust of souls so keenly, it is to associate them with the total gift and continue his work of Love and Redemption with them.

(2) Translated into Portuguese under the title “Invitation to a Life of Love”. Carmelo de Coimbra edition - 1938.

All this was imprinted, day by day, in Josefa's life.
And it was not for herself that Our Lord forced her to write in full detail. - this clearly manifested demand only brought him sacrifice - but he wanted many souls to collect the Lessons and Appeals of his Heart on those pages.

Since October 8, the day of his offering, Josefa has found peace and light again. In fact, her daily work had not been changed during that difficult period, and whenever Jesus looked for her, he always found her where her duty fixed her.
Today, Friday, October 15, in meditation - she writes - I asked for a strong and courageous love like that of Santa Teresa. Suddenly he presented himself to me with open arms and I could not resist the attractiveness of those arms. I asked him why he loved me so much ... and gave myself to S! E so that he could do or undo me according to his Will. He said to me:
"Your misery attracts Me ... without Me, what would you be? ...
The smaller you are, the closer I get to you; do not forget and let Me do as I please. "
That morning, before communion, Josefa, to prepare herself, renews the act of giving herself completely to the Will of God. As soon as it is over Jesus appears and says:
"I forgive you all. You are the price of my Blood and I want to use You to save many souls that have cost me so much.”
"Saying those words, he covered me with the flame of his Heart and gave me a lot of courage, because now I am no longer afraid to suffer. My only detention is to do his Will.”
The Blessed Virgin comes to fortify her moments later.
"Daughter, is it not true that you will never abandon my Son?"
"No, my Mother, never!”
"Do not be afraid to suffer, as you will not lack sufficient strength.
-Think: today only to suffer and love ... eternity to enjoy! ”
“I begged him not to abandon me and to obtain faithfulness from Jesus. Finally I asked her for forgiveness and she replied:
“Do not fear my daughter Josefa, give yourself into the Hands of my Son and repeat to Him without ceasing; 'O Father, good and merciful, look at your daughter and make her so yours that she may be lost in your Heart, O my Father, that my only desire is to always fulfill your Most Holy Will.
"This prayer will please him because he desires nothing so much that we abandon ourselves to him. So you will comfort his heart. Do not fear, abandon yourself, I will help you."
"It seems to me - continues Josefa - that all this has made me more courageous and, as I gave myself entirely to Our Lord, I believe that nothing else matters to me.
On the afternoon of Saturday, October 18, I asked Him why He gives me so many graces without me having anything that deserves them, to which he answered me during worship, when I saw Him crowned with thorns:
"I do not ask you to deserve the graces I give you, what I want is for you to receive them." "I will show you the school where you will learn this science."
"Let Me act on you."
This School was going to open for Josefa.
Then, since the next day, October 17th, - she writes - I saw Him, as yesterday, with the Heart all burned and the wound more and more. I respectfully adored Him and asked Him to ignite me in His Love. Then he leaned my head against his Heart, whose pulse I could hear, and said:
"Here is the School where you will learn the science of abandonment. This is how I can make you what I want."
Josefa was rehearsing the first steps in this science.
You need to learn the entire availability that, little by little, will leave the Master all freedom.
Two days pass in great solitude of soul.
He begins to ask if he has not displeased Him in any way ... He calls Him, .. Jesus cannot resist the anxiety of that love.
"Why do you call Me, Josefa?"
"I cannot live without You, Lord, and mainly because I am afraid that I have saddened You."
"No, Josefa, I like to be called Me, I am so thirsty to be loved!"
Saying these words, he filled me with that burning desire that makes me understand that I have not yet begun to love Him. I asked him to teach me himself.
He made me hear his heartbeat ... Then he said:
“If you are willing to be faithful to Me, I will pour into your soul the torrent of my Mercy and you will know the Love that I have for you. But don't forget that if I love you it is because of your smallness and not because of your merits. ”
This lesson in humility will be repeated frequently.
While igniting in the heart of Josefa the burning desire to love Him, Jesus will not cease to place her in the face of her smallness and at the same time in view of the souls that she is thirsty for.
“Today, Thursday, October 21, in meditation - she writes - I asked Him for souls to love Him; if you want Love Lord attracts many souls to this Society because here, they will learn to love your Heart.
“During Thanksgiving I first saw that Heart crowned with thorns, surrounded by a flame, which I believe, is none other than Love.
A moment later I saw Him to him, extending His Arms (1). Said:
“Yes, Josefa, I only want the love of souls but they respond with ingratitude. I would like to shower them with graces, they pierce My Heart. I call them: run away from Me. If you accept, I will become in charge of the souls, which you will give me for your sacrifices and for your love. "

(1) “Extending your arms”: this divine gesture, already pointed out by Josefa and that will be reproduced many times. it seems significant in the apparitions of Our Lord his Messenger. It is the sign of his appeal to the souls of the whole world. That is why the attitude of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre, with open arms and an open heart, was chosen and accepted with minor modifications, as the one that best translates this message from the Heart of Jesus.

“Saying these words, he again approached me to his Heart. I heard the pulsations that plunge my soul as if in agony. Then he continued:
“You know that I want you to be the victim of my love.
but I will not leave you alone. Abandon yourself to my Heart. "
Since then Josefa has heard the mysterious throbbing of the Master's Heart distinctly. They are calls of love that shatter yours.
"Between one and the other - he writes - a moment passes and my soul is in such agony that it seems to be torn away. It is living pain and at the same time I wish to suffer even more ... because I only wish to console your Heart and win- Souls to you. "
Jesus reminds him of his plans on Saturday, October 23. Repeat:
"Do not forget what you read in My Heart.
Meditate and fear not. ”
On the same day and in a way so especially yours, it teaches you that your whole life must move in Love as in its own atmosphere: Josefa works in the wardrobe when, suddenly, Jesus appears. But the task is urgent. she excuses herself to stay at her post, apologizing for that freedom ... because she didn't want to hurt You, my Jesus ... but He disappeared immediately. I felt a little sorry for having said that to Him - she continues - and then to console Him, I repeated My tenderness over and over again. ”
In the afternoon, when she went up to the third floor to close the windows she was in charge of, she continued walking, telling her love to the one whose thought never leaves her.
"Suddenly, arriving in the upper corridor - writes - I saw Him, at the bottom, come to meet me." Jesus is surrounded by a radiant light that illuminates the dark and long corridor, he walks quickly as if eager to approach her.
"Where do you come from, He says."
I closed the windows, Lord! ”
"And where are you going?"
"I will finish, my Jesus.”
You don't know how to answer, Josefa. ”
I didn't understand what I meant. He made it:
“I come from Love and I go to Love. For, whether you go up or down, you are always in my Heart, which is the abyss of Love! I'm with you."
"And it disappeared, but it left me such joy that I cannot say."
This charming story enshrined the meeting hall that, in the "Feuillants", was called: "Hall of Love."
But at that time, hours of consolation are rare.
Josefa has to learn from experience what abandonment is and what souls are worth.
On Tuesday, October 26, he notes the coming of Our Lord at the beginning of meditation:
"He was helpless in suffering. The crown of thorns surrounded his head and blood streaked from his face. His heart was also wounded and torn. He said nothing. I offered myself to him and offered the love of all people. souls to comfort him. I told him that I wished to run out of love for him and ended up asking for the fire of his heart to love him.
"Yes, I just want Love! Contemplate Me ... and participate in my suffering."
Then it disappeared leaving my soul in great loneliness. ”
"I want you to console my Heart, Josefa - repeat that same afternoon - I am so alone!"
"No, my Jesus - she replies - I am here.
very small, but from head to toe, all yours!
And besides, you have many souls ready for everything, in order to console your Heart. ”
"Yes, but so many abandon me ... and so many are lost!
Come, approach my Heart and share my pain. ”
“Then I heard a throb from that Heart. A moment passed, then another was heard ... and so I counted seven ... Jesus said:
"Each pulse is a soul that I call."
The next day, Wednesday, October 27, during the afternoon worship, he came and said again:
"I want you to save these souls ...
"Look at the fire in my Heart: it is the desire that will consume you to suffer for them."
“He showed me at the bottom of the Heart the seven souls he is calling.”
“You will win them with your sacrifices. Rest in Me and fear nothing. ”
Will Our Lord read, in Josefa's soul, the ever-present fear that those around her will perceive something? ...
While the following day, Thursday, October 28, during Thanksgiving, she exposes her fears, Jesus comes right away as if in a hurry to answer:
"What do you care, Josefa? Haven't I warned you that you will be humiliated?"
This lesson in humility and abandonment, the foundation of everything he wants to accomplish in it, Jesus will not tire of repeating, but it will only learn at the cost of suffering and loving.
In the afternoon she still appears in the same painful state that leads her to write:
“It caused compassion! ... He looked at me in such a way that I could no longer complain, as I understood that my suffering is a shadow of his. At the same time I saw an endless line of souls behind him and, while his gaze was looking at me, he said:
“All these souls are waiting for you ...
“I made you choose, Josefa. But if you truly love Me, you will fear nothing. "
"I entrusted to Him again the fear that all these things will be discovered" - she continues.
"What do you care ... this is how you will glorify my Heart,"
"Sir! I'm just a novice. ”
“I know, but if you are faithful to Me, none of this will harm you. Nothing to fear. ”
"So I volunteered for your service, so that you can have me as you please."
"Yes - I will make you a victim, because if you are my wife, Josefa must look like me and you don't see how I am?"
“I haven't seen Him since.”

LESSONS AND FORGIVENESS OF EVERY DAY
October 29 - December 18, 1920

"I will seek you in your nothingness to join you with Me."

Our Lord to Josefa - November 8, 1920.

Josefa's offer will take her further on the path traced by the Master.
More than ever, in the following days, experience all the courage and confidence that the divine Will will ask of you.
“I am in such a temptation of coldness and confusion - he writes at the end of October - it seems to me that I have neither vocation nor faith, so callous I find myself and in such great obscurity. I offer my suffering to console the Sacred Heart and win souls from Him, but even that thought puts my whole life of infidelity under my eyes. Seeing myself as I am and daring to pray for other souls, leaves me discouraged. ”
It seems that Our Lord is pleased to abandon her; apparent abandonment that is not at all abnormal in a spiritual life, but which, suddenly following the familiarities of love that her soul experienced, leaves her in the helplessness to which she is not yet accustomed. He reacts in the meantime and does not cease to affirm the love that he wants to remain faithful in spite of everything.
“O my God - he writes - I want to comfort your Heart ... Without seeing, without feeling; I believe in You and I love You! ... And besides, should I add? ... I constantly turn to the Blessed Virgin. ”
Eight days pass ... but over time the temptation increases.
On Saturday, November 6, 1920, Josefa wakes up convinced that everything is useless and her vocation is lost. Try to multiply acts of faith and trust.
“In the midst of this torment - he wrote - he could only repeat the words:“ Jesus, Jesus, do not abandon me.
Horrible thoughts took over my soul and I begged the Blessed Virgin to stop me in time if I was not in a state of communion ...
So I spent meditation, then Mass; I took communion, but I could only call Jesus to my aid and repeat: I believe that you are here in my soul, O my God.
yes, i believe!
His voice replied suddenly:
"Here I am!"
“At the same moment my soul became quiet and I immediately saw Him. He had the crown of thorns on his head, and a few strands of blood dripped from the front. The wound was open and the Hands showed me the Heart, O my Jesus! How you leave me alone ... and so long ... so tempted! I dared not approach. Then he took my hand in his and little by little, I don't know how, I found myself close to his Heart. ”
“When I leave you cold - he said - it is because I take your ardor to warm other souls.
“When I abandon you to anguish, your suffering diverts Divine wrath about to punish sinners. When it seems that you do not love Me and that you repeat your love to me, it is when you comfort my Heart the most. This is what I want: that you are ready to comfort my Heart whenever I need you. ”
“I replied that what most torments me is the fear of offending Him, because he knows that suffering matters little to me.”
“- Come, Josefa, do not be afraid, you are not alone. I cannot abandon you.
“You know that it is crazy love I have for you. The smaller and more humble you are, the more you need to be preserved and the closer to Me I keep you. ”
Faced with this divine guarantee, she could only repeat her weaknesses, her love, her abandonment ...
“I pleaded with Him to give me the virtues I need so much, especially humility. He interrupted me:
"I have humility for your pride."
"I am so soft, so weak to suffer! ..."
"I am the Force itself."
"After all, I volunteered without saving anything for myself."
"You say well, Josefa: nothing for you."
"You, all for Me ... and Me for you."
"When I leave you alone, in anguish, embrace my Will, abandon yourself to my Love."
The Master of Love still insists on the following day, November 7, when he shows himself to her during meditation, repeats:
"Tell me that you love Me, it is the one that most consoles Me."
"I replied that I want nothing more than to love Him, only to him - writes - For everything else I only have a little shadow of love." He added:
“Yes, reserve that heart that I gave you and do not seek anything but love. That's what I want.
My burning Heart wants to consume souls in the ardor of this love. ”
At the same time, however, Jesus makes him aware of the demands of such love, which must, little by little, consume in her everything that nature has alive and imperfect. The minimum absences seem to him to be true infidelities which he regrets and which he never stops asking for forgiveness.
On the afternoon of November 8 (Monday) - while I was sweeping the stairs I was telling him how sorry I was for a lively movement that I had in the morning and that I was very sorry for. Almost under the stairs I suddenly saw Him in front of me. His look told me he wanted something. I just sweep. Then I followed Him to the Novitiate. There he said to me:
- “Do not be overly anxious about your falls, because I need nothing to make you a saint. I want you never to resist what I ask of you.
Let Me act, humble yourself. I look for nothing but yours to join you with Me. ”
Such words illuminate well the way in which it pleased the Lord to direct it. Humility will always lead her to walk safely, obedience will draw her line.
The very next day, Tuesday, November 9, he still insists:
- "If I give you these graces, it is only counting on your fidelity and obedience to Me and your Mother who represents Me.
"Abandon yourself to my Love, I repeat. I want you to be the victim of divine Justice and the relief of my Love. I will sacrifice you, but with arrows of Love Do not fear anything, you are at the bottom of my Heart.
Abandon yourself and let Me act. ”
Divine action continues through trials, in which Josefa only discerns her own weakness. Ten days pass later, leaving her with a laborious, long, obscure effort, difficult to sustain, against temptations from outside and inside.
"However - he writes on Friday, November 19 - it seems to me that I have not offended Him in the middle of so many assaults."
But this question mark is again faced with his delicate soul, when in the same afternoon, being in worship before the tabernacle, Jesus appears to him with a wounded heart and torn with wounds.
"O my Jesus! Am I the one who hurts your heart like that?" he didn't let me finish;
“- It's not you, Josefa. It is the coldness of souls that do not correspond to my Love. If only you knew my pain of loving and not being loved! ... ”
"Then your Heart has become like a fire!"
- This is what made my Heart your love; for although you feel cold and think you don't love, it is then that you retain my Justice about to punish souls. A single act of love done in the solitude in which I leave you repairs, in great numbers, the ingratitude that I am the target of. My heart counts these acts of your love and collects them as a precious balm. ” all his anguish disappears in the flame that springs from the divine wound and covers it for a moment.
"- I prayed for all souls, begging Him that many would love Him and know the goodness of His Heart."
- I am pleased that you are so hungry for my Love and consumed in desires to see Me loved. It is only what consoles my Heart. Yes, pray for souls, for the seven that I have entrusted to you. There are still some sacrifices and soon they will return. ”
On Saturday, November 20, after communion, it is like a poor man that he comes to beg his love.
"Many small wounds tore at his Heart - she writes.
“Tell him, Josefa, what would you not do to console Me? ... Share a little bit of my Heart's bitterness.
“Then my soul was left as if forsaken.
He was always there. And little by little his heart burned and all the wounds disappeared. ”
“Listen,” he said, “I want you to give me souls.
For that, I ask you nothing but love in all your actions. Do everything for love, suffer for love, work for love and above all abandon yourself to Love. When I make you feel anguish and loneliness, accept them and suffer in love. I want to serve You as the staff on which a tired person rests ... I want to possess you, involve you, consume you whole, but all this with great softness, so that, suffering a martyrdom of love, always wish to suffer more. ”
These visits effectively leave Josefa in the face of suffering that bewilders her at times, but does not exhaust her generosity.
“In a few days now - she writes - my soul is immersed in a kind of fear of God and under the weight of His Justice ... It seems that I will never leave this abyss again.
Jesus, however, supports her and on Sunday, November 21, during the Mass, suddenly appears to him.
I come to rest in you, for I am so little loved! I seek love and find nothing but ingratitude. Rare are the souls who truly love Me. ''
"I asked Him if he received any consolation in this Novitiate. Then I offered Him to console Him with the love of the Blessed Virgin, that of the saints, that of all faithful souls and also mine."
"- Yes, love Me, Josefa and do not tire of repeating it to me."
She responds wholeheartedly to the Master's order and despite the obscurity in which the divine Will is plunged, "I tried - writes the next day - to repeat Him with all my soul: I love you, O my Jesus!"
"- Me too - he replied suddenly, in meditation".
There was no light around Him, and like a poor man.
I was silent. But as he looked at me with sadness, I dared to speak and above all said my burning desire to comfort Him. ”
"- Yes, today you must console me and, so that you do not forget me for a moment, I will be at your side." At the end of the meditation, as he was not leaving I said: now, Lord, I have to go sweeping. But you well know that everything I do is solely for your love. Twice while working I asked if I loved Him. "
- Repeat Me, as a kid, to make up for the forgetfulness of so many souls! ”
That Monday, November 22, was spent entirely in divine company.
"He is always there - writes Josefa - without separating for a moment."
From time to time Jesus stops her in the middle of the task: While she sweeps the old cloister of the old monastery lined with primitive tiles:
“- Why are you doing this? He asks.
And he seems to be happy with the answer he already knows beforehand, but which he expects to be repeated:
“Sir, because I love you. Do you see all the tiles in this corridor? ... there are so many, so many times I tell you that I love You! "
Later, when he goes to get charcoal from the garden:
"- What are you doing?"
“Lord, I strive to prove my love in these little things.
he continued:
“- There are many souls who think that love consists only in saying“ I love You, my God! No, love is soft, it acts because it loves and does everything loving. I want you to love Me in this way, at work as at rest, in prayer and comfort as in hurt and humiliation, proving Me without ceasing that love with your works because that is love.
If souls understood how they would go perfectly, and how they would comfort My Heart!
The yoke of this divine Presence worries Josefa, especially when she is among the Sisters. Sometimes it seems to her that she can no longer maintain the necessary attention to work in the face of the Majesty of God that excites her.
"Oh my God - writes - what will happen? I'm afraid to forget everything! ... Just before noon, I asked Him to leave, as I needed to serve the girls in the cafeteria. But Lord, I will never forget You! Jesus replied:
"- Go tell Mother that I'm with you and ask what you should do ... Let's go together." Sweetly Josefa leaves in search of Mother Assistant and exposes her embarrassment. But it is impossible to free you from that task. She apologizes to the Master for the futility of the attempt.
"- It is true Josefa, but you did an act of humility and obedience."
all afternoon she continues in this life of intimacy. If Jesus now makes it visible to Josefa, it will not be to revive faith in the invisible reality in many souls later - how much more authentic and more secure! - of your Presence by grace?
However, in the simplicity of her faith, she is not pleased with these favors, but she fears them and fears that she will not be able to hide them around her.
“How will all this end? ... Sir! - she says - You see how much it costs to pay attention to anything outside of You and, soon, you will realize it ... ”
"- Listen, Josefa, if a little child is in front of a steep slope to go up, but he is with his father, will he let him fall? ..."
"These words gave me a lot of confidence and I abandoned myself to his Will again."
In the afternoon, Jesus, who had not left her for an instant, finished the day's lessons, appearing to him during the adoration in the chapel:
“—What comforted me today - says He was that you did not leave me alone. And what I like about you is your smallness. So you must always keep Me in mind.
And the smaller and miserable you look, the more you can be sure that I am happy with you. ”
“Then putting the Hand on my head - continues Josefa - added:
“- Do not forget that I will be the divine Torment of your being and that you are the victim of my Love. But I am your protection and as long as you are faithful, I will not abandon you. "
“Then he disappeared. "
However, our Lord does not allow him to dwell on himself. The habitual presence with which it favors has no other purpose, in the divine plans, but to malaise the instrument and adapt it to the Hand that wants to use it for the salvation of the world. Again and again she must take care of souls.
“The next day - he writes, on Tuesday, November 23 - I asked Him to give all the Sisters, just as he gives me, the joy of being at your service.
At the same moment he came and said to me:
"- Are you satisfied, even suffering?"
"Yes. Sir, because it is for You.”
"- Do you want to carry the burden of other souls?" "Yes, Lord, as long as they love You!"
“- Well, you will suffer because you are the victim of my Love. but in love, peace and joy, always and in everything. ”
It was around this time that Our Lord said to him:
"- I will unite yours with the faithfulness of many souls." And for the first time, always with souls in mind, he will share in the pain of his Crown of Thorns.
"I was in the chapel of Santo Estanislau (1) - he writes on Friday, November 26. - He asked me to O Consolasse and I was looking for what to do for that."
"- I will leave you my crown for a moment, Josefa, and you will see what my Suffering is!"
"At that moment I felt my head as if it were surrounded by thorns that buried themselves deeply.”

(1) Cell where Saint Magdalene Sofia met her first novices in 1806. It was transformed into an oratory where the Blessed Sacrament is preserved for part of the year.

That pain is repeated many times, so great that I almost complained, but he said:
“- Do not complain about this suffering, because nothing will relieve you. It is a participation in mine. ”
Since then, the crown of thorns has entered Josefa's reparative life. Now it will be the testimony of his union with Jesus crucified, now the part of suffering entrusted to his love, now the sign of long-desired forgiveness. In other times, it will not leave your forehead. Mysterious suffering, moreover, of which it will bear no visible mark. The intensity will be measured by the extreme pallor of the face and the painful expression of the eyes. The head tilted forward will not find rest day and night, and no one will be able to relieve the weight of that pain.
This is how she continues to learn the Work of Redemption for which she was chosen. Little by little, Jesus reveals to him the concern of his Heart in search of sheep stray with that kindness that never gets bored. Towards the end of November, he entrusts her with a soul about which she writes on Sunday, November 28:
"Yesterday, He came to the clothes shop where I worked, with a wounded heart and a face like that of" Ecce Homo ".
"- Until that soul returns to me, he said - I will come to ask you for the love that it refuses Me."
"At about half past one, I accompanied him to the dorm, to the place where my bed is and I adored him with great respect."
In order to better understand my pain, I will make you participate in it. ”
"Then my soul was overcome with anguish: Jesus was there, with the Heart torn and the Face sad.
He said nothing. I comforted Him as I could ... When I left:
"- You rested me - he said - because you gave me love."
On Monday the 29th - she writes - He said to me during the prayer:
"- I leave you my Crown of Thorns and you will offer me the pain for that soul. If it is late, we will join our ardent desire to return. Thus my Heart will be comforted."
But at the same time that Our Lord transmits to him the ardor with which souls await, he gives it; to experience, in itself., the long-suffering of the Sacred Heart. She knows her own weakness and how easily she is vulnerable to the slightest hints of temptation if the Master leaves it to himself.
"I cannot express what I suffer - she continues on November 29 - My soul seems far from him ... my body exhausted and without courage ..."
Ask the Master what he wants to do with her in this state of helplessness and distress.
"What I want - he replies - is that you live so close to my Heart that nothing is able to keep you from it."
And always asking for more generosity:
“- I want to rest in you - he says - Do not refuse Me what belongs to Me. "
"I am so afraid of not having more time to work, confesses Josefa, said: but Lord, I will be late in my service!”
"Don't you heal that I am the Owner of your heart and of all your being?"
Will you know it well enough? ... She avoids the Call and Jesus disappears. Many resistances against this extraordinary path will require multiple renewals of forgiveness. Only through ceaseless struggle will he learn little by little "the science of abandonment". His attachment to ordinary life will remain until the end, as a source of disgust and temptation. The Master leaves him matters to fight to have, apparently, the joy to discover more and more his tireless Mercy.
“I haven't seen him again! ... But I can't live without him ... and since he left I have never stopped asking for forgiveness - she writes - Yesterday, December 3, after work I was in the gallery before the Blessed Sacrament exposed : oh my Jesus! I don't deserve to see you, but give me some proof of your forgiveness.
I said nothing. Suddenly all the temptations of the past few days disappeared and I felt the crown of thorns around my head. ”
This sign, a harbinger of divine Forgiveness, was to be followed by one of the incomparable proofs of kindness and confidence that Josefa's life was sown and which in itself reveal the Heart of Jesus.
“The next day, Saturday, December 4, after Holy Communion, he presented himself to me, as a Father waiting for his daughter:
"- Come, tell me all your fears"
And showing me the Heart:
"- If you don't know how to suffer, come here! ..."
"If you fear being humiliated, come here! ..."
"If you are afraid, come even closer to Me! ...”
I told Him how these graces frighten me because I don't deserve them.
- I know you don't deserve them. But what I want is for you to receive them. ”
Josefa explains the sadness of his soul, because the more I know his Goodness - she continues - the more I feel sorry for what I am towards Him. Approaching the Heart he said:
"- When a little child turns his back on his father, he is not offended ... Come, then; rest in my Heart."
And she reminds him of the soul that he had entrusted to her a few days ago and that she could not forget:
"- He still suffers for her," he said, "he is already approaching Me."
Fill her with admiration and desire with such compassionate kindness. He wanted to respond and bitterly regrets his impotence and what he calls his ingratitude.
But the Blessed Virgin is near to comfort her: -He came - he writes on Monday, December 6 - while I was in meditation, asking Our Lord for his Forgiveness and his Love. ”
“- Daughter - she says - don't be sad like that!
Do you not know what Jesus is to you? ... It is good that you suffer in silence, but without anguish; that you love very much, but without looking at yourself and without knowing that you love. If you fall, don't worry too much. We are both here to lift you up and I never leave you. "
“I explained to him that my greatest suffering is not being able to follow ordinary life at all. I am mainly afraid of being noticed in something. ”
“- Don't forget that it is for souls. If the enemy is so fierce about turning you back, it is because he sees you as a river that in its course will draw souls to Jesus. ”
I asked Him to bless me and not leave me alone, because you can see how weak I am! ”
"—Yes, I bless you and love you!”
The following day, Tuesday, December 7, that very good Mother returned:
"- If you want to comfort Jesus, I will tell you what pleases Him: you will offer everything for souls with no personal interest but only for the glory of His Heart."
And he adds, specifying the effort to be made:
- Until I tell you it's enough, you will recite nine Ave Marias every day with your arms crossed.
You will stop him by humiliating yourself, recognizing your nothingness, but at the same time you will worship the divine Will and leave all freedom to your Creator, so that he can do with you what he wants. Trust in your Heart and in Me who am your Mother. ”
Our Lord, a few moments later, affirms yet again the rights that his Mother has just cited and reminds Josefa of his designs on her.
During Thanksgiving, he covered me with the flame of his Heart, saying:
"- I wish that you would leave Me all the freedom to establish a chain between my Heart and yours, so that you remain in Me without living in anything for yourself."
“It was a moment of silence consuming my soul in the burning of that flame. Then he added:
"- I want you to help Me with your smallness and your misery to snatch the souls that the enemy wants to devour."
“At noon he appeared with a radiant face:
“- Come, rest and taste the joy of my Heart. More! a soul has returned to Me! ”
And so, through this succession of struggles, obscurity, humble efforts, Our Lord revives her by showing her that Love knows how to take advantage of our struggles.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is near.
That day cannot come without the Blessed Virgin illuminating her with her presence. It seems that she is in a hurry because, since dawn, she appears to her daughter:
"- Daughter, never fear neither suffering nor sacrifice - she says; God's ways are like that. If you want to emerge victorious from the enemy's assaults, I recommend two things: first, humble yourself, because you are nothing and nothing you deserve ...
everything is the grace of your God; second, when you feel abandoned, surrounded by temptations, when your soul is cold and without the strength to fight, never leave the prayer. Pray a hundred humility and trust and will soon open your heart to that which my Son gave you as Mother on earth. Believe, my daughter, so you will not be deceived. Receive my blessing.
You know that I am your Mother! ”
These maternal counsels portend the proximity of greater trial and the devil's plot against God's plans. But Josefa needs to be strengthened in her daily struggle and it will be the Blessed Virgin who will come to help her.
On Friday, December 10, after communion, he brings him the crown of thorns, a pledge of his Son's predilections.
"- Look," she says, "I'm bringing you to make it softer."
"She put it in her head" - writes Josefa, who tells her how much she fears these graces.
“- If you refuse, daughter, you will expose yourself to perdition.
If you accept, you will suffer, but you will never lack strength.
I will not abandon you, for I am your Mother and we will both help you. ”
The very next day, December 11, Our Lord asks for a new proof of love.
"- Today," he says during Thanksgiving, "I want to imprison you in my Heart."
And reaching her shortly afterwards when she sweeps the girls' dorm:
“- When I call you - He said - leave everything. "
"I followed Him near the Novitiate."
“- I want to be your torment, Josefa, you will be my rest. I am like a traveler who walks and seeks from time to time, a shelter to rest. You are the shelter. ”
She hardly dares to formulate the usual fear:
"But, Lord, what will happen if you don't let me work? ..."
Jesus responds with the great lesson of abandonment:
"- What does it matter if you are in my Heart!" Then penetrating with a look in the most intimate of the soul that sees overwhelmed by the pain:
"- Remember what I suffered in my passion and everything for you ..."
"The only thing needed is for you to be faithful to Me."
He thus keeps her prostrate at his feet until he has consented to his Will.
“- Get up and work - says then - I will be close to you. "
Then he adds:
"- Look at the fire in my Heart ... There are, however, souls so cold that this flame is not enough to heat them! ..."
"I asked how can it be that they do not become abrasive to the contact with your Heart?"
And that don't come close - he replied. ” Then, with a solemnity that imprints his every word at the bottom of his soul, Jesus discovers the secret of total generosity:
"- Love is not loved: think about it and you will refuse me nothing!"
Night falls quickly on those bright hours and, in the same afternoon, Josefa feels a new wave of disgust and fear rising in the face of these things.
It seems to him that everything is deceit and that Force takes this idea that his soul soon is reduced to the most extreme affliction.
“So I went from the 11th to the 17th of this month of December - she writes after having detailed the dark period. - That day, in the evening, I went to the chapel and with all my soul said to Jesus: Lord!
do not allow me to be unfaithful and put me in the depths of your Heart so that I die without ever separating from You. ”
At that very moment Our Lord appears to him.
Your Heart is open and all burned:
"- How do you want me to put you deeper, Josefa? ... When you think you are moving away from Me - he adds - it is then that I sink you deeper into the Heart, to keep you safe."
And, as if this guarantee was not enough for your Love, the very next day, Saturday, December 18, reveals to you the profound work done during the suffering. ”
After communion he appears. three souls rest on the Heart.
"He saw them as little children that he wrapped with his right arm."
"- What does it matter to you to suffer in the face of this! ... - he said."
“I didn't understand it well and then he continued:
“- I use your misery to save souls, Josefa. See the price of your sufferings! ”
"And he showed the three souls reclining on his Heart."
“- I want you to be a victim of this Heart - He continued. - Nothing refuses Me, console Me every time you need it and remember that I have spared nothing to prove my Love to you."
After such words, Josefa only needed the hand of her Heavenly Mother to guide her definitively in that generosity that refuses nothing and spares nothing for souls.
“- Daughter of my Heart,” she said, appearing moments later - refuse my Son nothing, I beg you. Not only your happiness, but that of many souls, depends on your generosity. If you are faithful and if you abandon yourself, many souls will benefit from your sufferings. If you knew what a soul is worth! ... I repeat: you are unworthy of so many graces, it is true, but if God wants to use your smallness, do you have the right to hesitate? ... ”
“Ask Him for blessing; She put her hand on my head and left. ”

THE APPEAL OF SOULS
December 19, 1925 - January 26, 1921

"I want to make use of your suffering for the salvation of many souls."

(Our Lord to Josefa - January 25, 1921).

Josefa had already worn the holy habit for five months. Our Lord worked his soul ceaselessly to make it malleable under his action.
He showed him the redeeming echo of his sufferings and struggles and also the repercussion of his fidelity on the salvation of souls.
~ From now on she will walk in that double light and will go further into the interests of the Heart of Jesus.
On Sunday, December 19, in the morning he hears the well-known voice of the Master:
"Josefa."
Look around and, not seeing Him, continue the task.
However, arriving at the foot of the stairs near the chapel, "I was attracted - he says -" and I went up to the Novitiate. There He was ... From the Heart a stream of water was pouring. "
"It is the current of Love, Josefa, because your martyrdom will be of love."
She who has no other ambition than to love Him and make Him loved, exclaims:
"O my God! to win souls to you, I will not refuse anymore. I will suffer as much as necessary, as long as you never let me leave your divine Heart. ”
"That's how you console Me," he replied fervently. "I don't expect anything else from you. If you're poor, I'm rich. If you're weak, I'm the Force itself. What I ask of you is that nothing refuses me. I will defend you, I will rise. I will never leave you alone. Abandon yourself and do everything. "
Then, drawing me to the Heart:
“Since you are ready to suffer, let us suffer together. It matters little your smallness, it is I who will support you. "
"Then your whole being is immersed in pain.
But Jesus, faithful to the promise, strengthens it, revives his courage and remembers that it is united to the divine Oblation.
"You are suffering in your soul and body - He says - because you are a victim, both of my Soul and of my Body. How will you not suffer in your heart if I chose you to be the victim of my Heart?"
And placing it before souls:
"Listen to the pulsations of this Heart ... it is for the souls that I am calling ... I hope them ... I call them again and until they answer I will wait for you. We will suffer, but they will return, they will return soon!"
Participation in the oblation and waiting for the Heart of Jesus continues throughout the day. In the afternoon Jesus brings the Crown, a pledge of divine fidelity that will always support her, and, putting it on her head:
"When two spouses really love each other - he says - one cannot suffer without the other. But don't forget that I am your Strength."
Thus the union is narrowing in this community of suffering.
Our Lord does not go long without reiterating his Desires and often, in the middle of work, he comes to surprise Josefa.
“I was in the dorm, making the girls' beds and telling Him that I love Him - writes on December 21, Tuesday - Suddenly, He came to fetch me with his face all bloodied.
"Come, I need you."
She went up to the small mansard where her bed is. Jesus was waiting for her. As in the previous day, a torrent escaped from the Wounds. He keeps it in silence, for some time close to Himself, then brings it closer to the Heart and communicates a little of his Anguish and of his Pain.
"I will still call those souls - he says at last - and we will not tire of waiting for them. My Heart is so painfully wounded by the loss of souls! Especially when they are my chosen ones!"
Josefa prays and suffers for a long time with Jesus, then picks up those serious words that are an order of Love:
“I want you today to offer yourself as a victim and for your whole being to suffer to win those souls from Me.
Humble yourself and ask for forgiveness. I'm with you."
Then, enveloping her in the fire of her Heart, she adds:
"Courage! Suffering is the best gift I can give you because it is the path I have chosen for Me. ” It seems that she understood the value of this gift and here the progress made since the day when Our Lord asked her: Do you love Me? "
Now you can say:
"Do you want to suffer?"
The next day, Wednesday, December 22nd she writes:
“After communion, I saw him with his hands tied and his head crowned with thorns. Drops of blood fell from His Heart through a small wound, others dripped from His wound.
“Look at what state I am in, Josefa. Do you want to suffer? ”
"Yes I want. Sir!"
Take the Crown and if you want to untie my Hands, look today for what it costs you and mortify and multiply acts of Love for Me.
"If souls knew this secret, how would they become others! ... How would they be dead to themselves and how would they comfort my Heart!"
“In the afternoon he returned - she continues - the Hands were untied and there was no trace of blood on his Face anymore. He approached me to the Heart and said:
"What you suffer is nothing if those souls come to Me."
For consecutive nights and days Josefa does not cease to offer.
"The only thing I ask - she writes - is fidelity and courage, because I don't want to enjoy on earth." Jesus answers his prayer:
"Nor do I ask you but one thing: love and abandonment."
And, explaining what you mean by that desire.
"I want you to be like an empty vessel that I will take care of filling. Let your Creator take charge of his creature. As for you, do not measure yourself."
That same afternoon, we are on December 24th - he reminds you of the reason for this “love without measure” that you want to count on.
"I was in the clothes and I heard the voice:
“Josefa! My wife!"
"I didn't see him but I said: What do you want. Sir?” He did not answer. Shortly after, in the chapel, during worship he called me again:
“Josefa! My wife!"
"Sir, why do you call me" wife "if I am only a novice?"
“Do you not remember the day when I chose you and you chose Me? ... That day I felt compassion for your smallness. I didn't want to leave you alone and we made an alliance forever. This is why you will have no other love than that of my Heart.
"I will ask you and give you what I like. You, however, never resist Me!”
This divine choice will be confirmed on Christmas Eve, where, for the first time, Josefa hears the Appeal that at a similar time led the shepherds to the crib. Like them, it is in the arms of their Mother that they contemplate that Little One.
During the midnight mass - he writes, on Saturday, December 25, - I was in the middle of the chapel to go to the holy table when I saw the Blessed Virgin coming for me. In her arms she carried the Baby Jesus covered by a white veil which she removed as soon as I received the communion. He was dressed in a white condom and had his hands crossed over his chest.
Then I didn't see Him again. When I arrived at my place the Blessed Virgin again approached very close.
He raised the little boy he was carrying in his arms. The Child Jesus opened his own and caressed the Mother. Then, with his right Hand, he seemed to ask for mine and I gave it to him.
He grabbed my finger and squeezed it in his hand. A delicious perfume, I don't know what, enveloped them both. The Blessed Virgin smiled and said:
"Daughter, kiss the Feet of the one who is your God and who will be your inseparable Companion if you do not repel him. Do not fear. Come closer, He is all Love."
“I kissed His Feet. He looked at me. Then he crossed the Bracelets over the Chest. Then the Blessed Virgin covered her with the veil, looked at me and asked Him for blessing. He gave me his hand over my head and disappeared.
“This time - explains Josefa, who never loses her seamstress instinct - the Blessed Virgin was dressed in a white tunic and a pale pink cloak, her veil also pink but with a thinner cloth. The Baby Jesus condom was made of a fabric I don't know. It was light as foam. he had a halo of light around Cabecinha and the Blessed Virgin too. ”
The irradiation of the Christmas feast extends over the following days and, after having associated it with his redemptive pains, Jesus makes her share in his joy as a Savior. The very next morning, she appears radiant with beauty, having supported the two souls that she had so long and ardently waited and called for.
“Look, my Wife - she said: We saved them!
Your sufferings have comforted My Heart. "'
Yet another proof of the predilections of that Sacred Heart awaits her. The date of 27 December twice will mark his short religious life of a private nature. It is a free relationship with St. John, the favorite disciple, whose heavenly visits will not be long in coming.
The form of your reports varies little. She notes that day - Monday, December 27, 1920 - the prayer that she keeps repeating: “After communion, she asked for love!” - a prayer to which Jesus always answers, even in the obscurity of faith. But today it is pleasing to the Master of Love to give you a proof of this, cumulating it extraordinarily.
“Jesus came - she says simply - I did not know how to look at him because I dare not look at His Face. he drew me to Him and I heard His Heart beat.
So I went into a sleep that I don't know how to explain. First I saw a very bright light, but it does not tire the view and an immense space whose entrance was small. There, it seems that all the senses find delight while the soul is surrounded by God.
I think I'm lost in it ... drunk for it. ..
I was like the first time, on June 5th at Wound of His Heart! He said nothing to me. My soul, however, was never more flooded with happiness. Then everything disappeared. ”
No transition transition. "That same afternoon Jesus left me alone."
Is it still necessary to highlight the divine method by which Our Lord abruptly detaches her from these supernatural and pure enjoyments? They are just, here on earth, like lightning destined to illuminate, for an instant, the abrupt path that leads to the summits.
“The next day - she continues - my soul was so cold and arid that I needed a great effort to say a few words to Our Lord.
He also tried to multiply acts of love and trust. But soon I was unable to overcome the temptations that oppressed my soul. ”
And he humbly reports, with all the details, the battles in the middle of which it seems that his courage will succumb. And in fact, although the devil's assaults do not vary as to the object, since all are directed against their vocation, however they take on such proportions that Josefa is shaken.
"So I went from December 27th to January 9th - she continues - suffering more than I can say. When I woke up that morning my first thought was that I couldn't continue such a fight.
The meditation took place in unspeakable anguish. ”
However, despite her affliction, she always seeks strength in obedience, the only thing that can defend her, and, with moving fidelity, tries to follow the advice that she would like to relieve, keeping it to God.
“I promised Our Lord,” she writes, “to do many acts of humility today to attract His Mercy on me, and at Mass, at the time of the Consecration, I repeated my act of offering with all the fervor I could.
Suddenly, before the Raising of the Chalice, I saw Jesus with a Face full of goodness, a very burning Heart. I went down to ask for his forgiveness and to humble myself before him. ” '.
"Love is never tired of forgiving." - he said.
And with unparalleled compassion he continued:
“But you have not offended Me, Josefa. As you say, the blind stumble ... Come, approach my Heart and rest in it. If you could understand how much you consoled Me these days! ... I would bring you so close to the Heart that you could not fall but into it! ”
And asking her why she allowed such a night and such temptations:
“It seems to me that you see nothing and that you are falling over the precipice - he replied - but, what need do you have to see, if you are guided? What is needed is for you to forget yourself, to abandon yourself and not resist my Plans. Thanks to the actions you have done through your suffering, many of those souls, which you will see later, have approached my Heart (1). They were far, far away; approached and soon they will come to Me! ” “I explained to him that when I am so tempted and isolated, I look for Him everywhere and I can't find Him anywhere.

(1) Our Lord speaks of the souls for which he had made his Heart beat in the preceding 19th day.

“When you are nowhere to be found, look for Me near your Mother. Abandon yourself to her, for she is the one who leads you to Me. That is why I gave it to you and you know that if you do what I say, you will please me as much as if you obey Me directly. Love. suffers and obeys. That way I will be able to accomplish my designs in you. ” That same afternoon, in a delightful lesson in things, as He pleases to give simple souls. Our Lord renews the recommendations most dear to your Heart.
While she prays in front of the tabernacle, she appears “bringing in her right hand,” she writes, “a chain of diamonds that gathered three small, golden and very beautiful keys.”
“Look - he says - one ... two ... three ... are gold. Do you know what these keys represent?
Each holds a treasure that I want you to possess. The first of the treasures is a great abandonment to everything that I ask of you, directly or indirectly, trusting, without ceasing, in the Kindness of my Heart that always takes care of you.
In this way you will repair the pride of so many souls who doubt my Love.
“The second of these treasures is a profound humility that will consist in recognizing that you are nothing, in lowering yourself before all the sisters and, when I tell you, also in asking your Mother to humiliate you.
You will thus repair the pride of many souls.
The third is the treasure of a great mortification in your words and actions.
“I want you to mortify yourself as much as obedience allows you and to receive with true desire the sufferings that I myself send you. In this way you will repair the immortification of a great number of souls and you will comfort Me in some way for the offenses that cause Me so many sins of sensuality and so many evil pleasures.
"Anyway, the little chain that holds the three keys is a burning and generous love that will help you live abandoned and surrendered, humble and mortified."
What an imperishable memory Josefa always kept from the symbolic keys! Our Lord more than once will still employ with her those very simple comparisons which are profuse in his Gospel and under which the most profound teachings are hidden.
The hours of rest, however, are spaced more and more. Since that time, they appear rare and brief.
Jesus does not cease to remind Josefa of the souls that he entrusted to him a month ago: they are waiting for their efforts to detach themselves from themselves and give themselves definitively to Him. This great work in Josefa's life must surpass all others.
"Don't get tired of suffering - repeat - If you only knew how much suffering benefits souls!"
And it will not be long before, in effect, demanding from her the suffering of suffering, which she already knows and whose experience will renew itself so often. Again, a violent storm of doubts and obsessions arises in his soul.
"I do not ask you to take this pain away," she writes, "but to give me strength."
His reports then become longer and more detailed, as if he found relief in hiding nothing from his faintness and weakness.
Friday, January 21, 1921, was one of those tremendous days like many others in his life.
His notes testified:
“I could no longer pray ... and if some cries still escaped my heart, that of Jesus was to say: Lord! why did you call me here if I cannot remain faithful?
The next day, when Mother took me to her cell - she writes to the Mother Assistant - she asked me where my love was. It seemed to these words that they took my soul, because, even in the most violent moments, the only thing I fear is to stop loving Him!
... So I decided to obey Mother, no matter what the cost, and although the temptation remained just as strong, I still had some light.
Two days still elapsed, in the middle of which, it was difficult, even for those who followed her closely to measure the distress of that soul. But as the storm suddenly appears, everything devastating to its passage, and disappears in the horizon as fast as it came, with the same unforeseen temptations rush in storm, pass and flee, in the sky of Josefa.
"On Monday, January 24 - he writes - throughout the day I begged the Blessed Virgin to release me ... Suddenly, during the afternoon worship I found myself in great peace."
This sudden peace is always, in her militant life, the foreshadowing of Mary. The Blessed Virgin is there, smiling with motherly kindness and holding her Son's crown in her hands.
"Here I am, daughter," she said. Do not tire of suffering. Take the crown, it is a jewel of your Spouse, receive it with great joy. ”
"Oh, Mother - exclaims Josefa - why are these temptations so strong? ... Don't you see how I suffer?"
“You have to suffer, Josefa. Jesus wants it that way.
Tell your Mother that one of the souls who entrusted you, gave herself entirely to Him, your sufferings obtained it. Now you must suffer for the others that will cost you dearly. But love and suffering can obtain everything. Do not let yourself fall, it is for souls! ”
The Blessed Virgin disappears, but her coming is an dawn over which the luminous presence of Jesus will soon appear. He reserved the care for himself to bring Josefa, not already the crown, but the certainty, even more precious, that nothing had changed between her and Him.
“Our Lord came at the beginning of the Mass - writes on Tuesday, January 25th. I asked Him if I hurt His Heart. He well knows that it weighs me most.
“No - he replied kindly - it is as if you have put sand in these Eyes that I have eyes on you. I love you with a fondness and in those past days I couldn't look at you to my liking. But I forgave you. ” Then he adds:
"Listen to this word:" Gold is purified in fire, so your soul is purified and strengthened in tribulation and the time of temptation is of great benefit to you and to souls. "
Encouraged by so much compassion, she entrusts her Master with her greatest anxiety, the most painful torment of these days of trial - "the fear," she says, "that such struggles will endanger my vocation."
“Who can doubt your vocation, Josefa, if you could resist these tribulations? ... "
And preventing the interrogation that reads in your soul:
"I allow them for two purposes," he says, "first to convince you that alone you are capable of nothing and that my graces have no other cause than my Kindness and the great Love I have for you."
"Second, because I want to use your sufferings for the salvation of many souls,"
Then he says again:
"You will suffer to win souls because you are a victim chosen by my Heart, but nothing will harm you because I will never consent" ...
To that promise of which she does not doubt, Josefa responds for the total offer of herself. The next day. Wednesday, January 26, He still insists on the need for suffering.
During the adoration, He came and approached me - she writes - he said nothing to me but he made me hear his Heart beat. I asked Him to keep me faithful, to teach me to love Him and not to allow me to ever hurt His Heart. He seemed to rejoice in this prayer and said:
“The soul that loves wants to suffer. Suffering increases love. Love and suffering closely link the soul to its God and make it one with Him. ”
And insisting on her weakness:
“Fear nothing. I am the Force itself.
“When the weight of the cross seems greater than your strength, ask my Heart for help.
Then - remember where to get your Heart:
“Don't you know where I am, Josefa and in complete safety? Let yourself be guided. I have my eyes on you, stare yours on Me and abandon yourself. ”

BURNING AND HIDDEN LIFE
January 21 - February 21, 1921.

"Tell me: what do you have to offer for souls?"

Our Lord to Josefa - February 20, 1921.

Lent is approaching and the Forty hours invite the house cos reumants to redoor with love and reparation. It is therefore the horizon that widens each. again before Josefa's soul. Until then Jesus had not stopped repeating:
"You are a victim of my Heart". And you will prove it. "
On the first Friday of the month, February 4, the anniversary of his arrival at the “Feuillants”, he recounts that great suffering had taken hold of my soul since morning, while the body was overwhelmed by the acute pains long known.
“After having washed the kitchen,” he says, “being unable to do so, I went up to the dormitory. I got down on my knees near the bed and offered myself to Our Lord to comfort Him. ”
As soon as he begins to pray, behold, Jesus appears to me and, Showing the burning heart:
“Every Friday - he said - and especially on the first of every month, I will make you share in the bitterness of my Heart and you will feel in a special way the torments of my Passion.”
Josefa is long annihilated in his presence and under the weight of the pain that oppresses her from all sides.
"I will make you a victim first - continues the Master - later a saint!"
Then he adds:
"In these days when the intern opens up to drag so many souls, I want you to offer yourself to my Father as a victim to save as many of them as possible."
He was silent for a moment and disappeared.
On the Sunday of the Forty Hours, February 6, he renewed the same Appeal. Early in the morning Josefa had offered to repair the sinners' offenses. At three o'clock in the afternoon I was in the chapel when Jesus approached
“It was pitying - she writes: - with the Face, the Arms, the Chest, covered with blows and dust; blood flowed from His Head, but the Heart was shining with light and beauty. ”
“There is a lack of love that hurts Me like that - he said - it is the contempt of men who run like mad to perdition.”
"Why then, Lord, despite the sins of the world, is your heart so beautiful and burning today?" Answered:
"My Heart is never hurt except by my chosen Souls!"
This word is deeply imprinted on Josefa's soul. discovering the most intimate pain that you must share and console. During those days, however, it was for the light and guilty world that I had to answer before the justice of God.
Pass before the SSmo. Sacramento exposed all the truces that work gives him and absorbs the thought of so many offenses done to the divine Majesty.
Jesus, who had put her in charge of this burden, will, however, revive her courage and on Tuesday. February 8, at eight o'clock at night, appears to him as if overwhelmed under heavy load.
“The sins that are being committed are so numerous and so serious that divine wrath would overflow if it were not stopped by the reparation and love of my chosen souls. How many souls are lost! ”
Terrified by this thought:
"So is the number of sinners so great, Lord?" exclaims.
"Yes," he replied painfully, "but a liei soul can repair and obtain mercy for many ungrateful souls."
It is a new recommendation from the redemptive mission to which Love had invited her since the first meetings.
But, little by little, another design is discovered and on Ash Wednesday, February 9, receives the first revelation of it. That morning, during the Mass at which the Master had associated her, the anguish of his Agony suddenly appeared and, opening the Heart:
Come - she said - come in here and rest for a while, because you are exhausted. ”
How to express what is for yours. this mysterious entrance into the Heart of Jesus? ”
“All suffering has disappeared - he says - and I was immersed in God!”
It was then that, for the first time, Jesus entrusted his Projects to him:
“The love I have for souls, and especially yours, is so great,” he said, “that I could not contain the flames to my ardent charity.
In spite of your indignity and misery, I will use you to fulfill my purposes. ”
This Call will gradually become clearer, showing the scope of the gift and abandonment that should correspond to it. But the Master now wants your consent and a tangible sign to seal it.
"Do you want to give me your heart?" He asks.
“I want, Lord, ... and more than my heart ... Jesus took it away - she says - took it and brought it close to His. How little he was beside that Heart!
Then he gave me a kind of burning flame. Since that moment I feel a very vivid fire in me and I have to make a lot of efforts to restrain myself from one that no one notices. ”
Josefa decides to keep this insignificant grace that is so simply a cell secret. But Jesus doesn't want a secret and on Thursday, February 10, he writes:
“I had some remorse for not telling you everything, Mother - she writes to Mother Assistant - and I was saying it to Our Lord when he came and asked me:
"Tell me what it costs you most?" "Sir! saying these * things and having to write them as they are. ”
“Listen Josefa - I don't want you to hide anything from your Mother. She is right, you must write. ” Two days later, February 12, he still insists on the importance of his total dependence.
"Always say everything to Mother" - he repeats.
And fearing her, however small, a shadow of secret complacency in talking about these things - Jesus interrupted with energy:
“Listen, Josefa, your silence, yes, it would be pride. Your confidence. your simplicity, here is humility. ”
Then he adds:
"Know that if I ask you one thing and your Mother another, I want you to obey her more than Me."
We find with that date, February 12, written by your hand, and in long brackets, the naive explanation of your 'attitude in each visit of Our Lord.
"To obey you, Mother, I will write what I feel every time Jesus comes. First, the great need to humiliate me always begins by asking Him for forgiveness for all my sins, because I see my soul full of stains ... and if not it was an irresistible movement that impels me to Him, I would not dare to approach or speak when I am in the divine Presence.
But I don't know what attracts me ... my soul rests ... the more I humiliate myself, the more he is pleased, I am. Sometimes I can say nothing, I am as if annihilated in adoration. At other times it is a torrent of consolation, even when it makes me suffer with Him.
It seems that my heart expands and is lost in God.
Other times it is as if there is a large brazier inside me.
Jesus burns me with the Fire of his Heart. It makes me, at the same time, see my smallness so much that I cannot understand how God can love me in this way! It increases my desire to love Him and to win souls from Him. It also gives me such horror of myself that I don't know what I would want to do to uproot my bad inclinations and repair my sins and ingratitude. My soul is as if torn from the earth and then my greatest effort is to have to take care of the things of this land.
If Mother saw what a pity I feel, finding myself again in my poor body, because in general when I am with Jesus I think it is forever ”.
Later on and always out of obedience, he explains how he got used to doing everything with Our Lord and entrusting everything to him.
“At noon - he writes - on Monday, February 14, I was serving in the cafeteria like every day. Missed the first dish. I went to the kitchen.
There was no more. I did not know what to do ... and as I am in the habit of telling you everything, I immediately said: my Jesus, there is nothing else to eat! when I left the cafeteria again, I saw Him suddenly ... so beautiful! He was in front of the sink, near the kitchen, with his arms open and he said to me smiling:
"Is it my fault Josefa, that there is nothing else?"
"He disappeared soon and I don't know how I could finish serving because it was so good, so beautiful, that you would say from heaven.”
“This is how I tell you everything that happens to me. If I'm sweeping and dropping anything: oh my Jesus! ... I woke you up with this noise!
If I lose my things, I ask: Where did I leave that, Lord?
Let's look together. When I am tired, I entrust myself to Me. If I am late in my task as I so often do, because I have many walks to do with everything I forget, I tell you: let's go.
Sir, we have to hurry today because it is already late and we have a lot to do, especially on Saturday with the Daughters in clothes and shoes to be distributed in the girls' dorms. Anyway, I tell you all my concerns. I don't always see Him, but I tell Him for sure that He is with me. There are days when I tell you everything that crosses my mind. Sometimes I wonder if it's not a lack of respect, but I don't think so, because my soul is so happy that I start my little stories again. ”
these spontaneous entertainments do not prevent Josefa from leading the simplest and most laborious life among the Sisters. After the postulancy, spent as a kitchen helper, he gave all the activity to the clothes for the students. There, he dedicates himself, from morning to night, in a very rudimentary installation, since the war and the “Feuillants” were left. occupied for a long time by an ambulance, only partially restored.
Many other works still fill his time without anything denoting God's dominion over real life that his dedication and self-forgetfulness also hide. It is in the obscurity of ordinary life and daily work that we must continue to follow it. A small fact, which relates to that date and which has its value, could not pass in silence. Josefa narrates it like this:
“I was in front of the tabernacle and I was praying for my mother and my sister, I was sad because of them, I wanted to be able to comfort them and I thought about what I would do if I were close to them and at that moment I didn’t have enough of Jesus_ he suddenly came with his heart flames and, in a deep and majestic voice,
"You, alone, what could you do for them?”
And, showing me the Heart.
"Look at your eyes here!”
And disappeared.
on February 20, the second Sunday of Lent. writes:
“During Holy Mass, after the consecration, Jesus came very beautiful, superlative, who likes to use it to talk about the beauty that overwhelms her and that she cannot define.
“Tell me, Josefa, what you have to offer Me for the souls that I have entrusted to you. Put everything in the Chaga of my Heart in order to give your offering infinite value. ”
"I told you that you can take everything, because everything is for souls"
"Tell Mo by kid."
“Then I enumerate everything: the Holy Hour, my sin in penances and mortifications, the pain of the crown of thorns. My breaths, my work, my fears, my weakness and my miseries, everything I think.
All for your love and for those souls, Lord, although it is very little! As I spoke, Jesus wove a thick gold thread between his fingers. He made a kind of skein. Then it disappeared. ”
“At the nine o'clock Mass, he returned, with his whole heart inflamed - she continues -. I approached his Wound and in the background I saw two souls.
“Look - I said - these souls are the ones I have been waiting for. They are now at the bottom of my Heart. "
“I didn't dare look or say anything.
He continued:
“Fear nothing. 'There are souls that I call a great union with me and when they do not respond to my Call and they withdraw, they hurt my Heart. That is why I use the smallest and most miserable ones like you to attract them to the degree of perfection in which I want them. ”
The next day, February 21 after communion, Jesus appears and, looking at her “with immense kindness” - she says - repeats her demands.
"I want you in such a forgetfulness of yourself and so abandoned, at my Will that I will not allow you the slightest imperfection without admonishing you. You must always bear in mind, your naaa a and an iaa, and my Mercy of another. Do not forget that it is from your nothingness that my Treasures will spring up. ”
On that Monday morning, while putting the girls' uniforms in order on Sunday, Our Lord is shown in the dormitory with his hands tied and the crown of thorns bloody on the sacred head.
"You love me V” - he asked fervently.
"I know that I answered Him - many things, because He knows that I love Him."
“Listen, Josefa, I want your thirst to grow, to save many souls_and that this desire consumes you!”

THE DESIGNS OF LOVE
February 22 - March 26, 1621

“The world does not know the Mercy of my Heart!I want to use you to make you known. ”

Our Lord to Josefa - February 24, 1921.

The time has come for the most solemn appeal that will sound to Josefa a second time. On Thursday, February 24, 1921, he noticed the Master's coming during the afternoon worship. She had already expressed her wish that every Friday would be a day of offering for her, more especially united to her Heart. Come and remind him.
“Tomorrow you will offer my Father all your actions together with the blood shed in my Passion. You will try not to lose sight of the divine Presence for an instant and rejoice as much as possible of everything you have to suffer. Don't forget to think about souls ... about sinners ...
Yes, I have thirst for souls! ”
“I offered to comfort Him and give Him souls. Lord, do not forget that I am the most ungrateful and the most miserable of all!
"I know well but I will work on your soul." “He left… I surrendered myself again to whatever file I wanted to do and I realized that I was taking it literally: oh my Jesus; I know you will pity me and you will give me strength ...
“At night, in the Holy Hour, he thought of sinners so numerous ... But his Mercy is even greater. ' He came suddenly, and in a majestic voice like that of a king, he said:
“The world does not know the Mercy of my Heart! I want to use you to make you known. "
Terrified, Josefa exclaims: "But sir! Do you forget that I am so weak and that I fall to the slightest obstacle?"
As if not listening, Jesus continues solemnly: “Whatever you are an apostle of my Goodness and of My Mercy. I will teach you what that means. Forget yourself ”.
"I begged Him," she writes, "to have compassion on me, to leave me without these graces to which I do not know how to respond, and to choose other souls more generous than I am."
Jesus answered only these words:
"Do you forget, Joseía, that I am your God?”
And disappeared.
Your Heart, however, is not offended. She knows very well that she belongs to the deepest part of her will and that her fears are but proof of her self-doubt, which always pleases divine Love. The very next day, Friday, February 25, during Mass, he returns full of kindness.
"I was deigned - she reports - and I begged me to leave me like all the sisters, a hundred nothing extraordinary, because I cannot live like this".
“If you can't, Joseía can do it!”
"It's just that I don't want to - he continues timidly - I wanted to be like everyone else."
"But I want me, isn't that enough?"
then he adds firmly:
"where is your love?”
It is one of those provocations that Josefa cannot resist - return to me with courage:
"Yes, sir! I love you! ... But, I beg you - insist - leave me without these graces - I will betray you, I will lose them ... and so many others would take advantage.
“Love and fear nothing. I want what you don't want But I can do what you can't. It is not for you to choose but to abandon yourself. ”
How many struggles will it cost Josefa's soul to accept Love's designs! God allows it, without a doubt, to attest with more evident guarantee the authenticity of its action and to isolate it in the eyes of all from what could be given to doubt, or simply to mistakes. j ^ oae-_and say, in truth, that josefa will never cease to fear such a mission and the three years that will follow will continually mark the painful alternatives between the abandonment she wants to practice and the apprehensions that terrify her. Two days after that memorable date of February 25, 1921, Jesus appears to me in the cape and asks me to transmit a recommendation to the Assistant Mother. Trembling, she retreats at the costly act and soon the temptation seizes her soul, stronger than ever.
“Jesus returned the next day, February 28th,” she said with a stern face.
“I love you with a predilection - I said and looked at you with my tenderest look. I want to entrust your misery and your smallness a treasure for you and for the sisters and you hurt my Heart! ”
"Then it disappeared."
It would be easy to measure Josefa's pain after such a game. Try to hide it. But the devil explores the silence of his soul.
Close her heart and lips and convince her that, from now on, everything will be useless, because everything is lost for her. The word “martyrdom”, which she uses, does not seem to be exaggerated to express the diabolical oppression that God leaves in such great freedom in those hours of darkness.
“Oh! Mother, what a martyrdom! - she writes a few days later - I couldn't anymore ... I don't know that I would have been able to do it if the faith had not preserved me.
Then he narrates in detail the humiliating struggle and continues:
“On the afternoon of March 3, when I was going to ask Mother for the forgiveness she had already asked Jesus for, I started to see everything differently…, I know that she will always forgive me, because I know her heart.
During Holy Hour (it was Thursday the 3rd, the week of Lent) I threw myself at His Feet ... I do not know that I said but I was relieved although my soul remained as cold as stone and from time to time I felt repelled by Him . ”
The next day, 1. Friday, March 4, in front of the peace and the light that comes back, the demon tries, an effort that I would like to be definitive.
Josefa is in the garden, picking flowers for the chapel of which she is a sacristan. Suddenly he feels violently pushed and falls on a glass frame that breaks under his weight. A flow of blood from the deeply injured right arm flows. Immediate care stops bleeding but the arm is immobilized for many days.
During that time, faithful to obedience, he dictates the notes he cannot write. It reads there on the date of Wednesday, March 9 (4th week of Lent): “In the midst of adoration came the Blessed Virgin, so good and compassionate, with open arms like a true Mother, I asked her forgiveness and did I express my desire to him if I can still comfort Jesus and win his souls? ”
It is certainly your first concern.
“Because - he adds - knowing his Heart, I cannot doubt forgiveness”.
“Yes, daughter, you are forgiven - the divine Mother replies. Hellish hatred prepares yet another scam. But courage. You will not succumb. ” "He gave me the blessing and disappeared."
That heavenly visit was renewed two days later, Friday, March 11.
“I was telling the Blessed Virgin how much I wished Jesus would deign to forget everything. When, suddenly, She came, so kind, with her hands crossed over her chest. I knelt down and immediately said:
"Yes. Tuna, Jesus loves you as before and wants you to give Him souls."
Then, alluding to the injured arm:
“If the demon could have killed you. But he has no power ”.
Jesus will soon come, in person, to show his daughter that nothing can change his Love or his Choice. The great fortnight of the Passion and Holy Week comes on purpose to offer Josefa the opportunity to make reparation and to participate in the redemptive sufferings to the Master.
“On March 14, Passion Monday, after communion, he came - he said. - Your look was as penetrating and compassionate as ever - that look made a big impression on me and told me so much! I approached the Heart that was so beautiful and inflamed!
let me hear your palpitations.
“I cannot resist your misery any longer! said.
After a moment of silence he continued:
"Do not forget that your smallness and your nothingness are the magnet that attracts my gaze on you".
"I was in that chapel that afternoon and always under the impression that that look of Jesus had caused me."
It is the first time you have explicitly noticed the Strength of the divine Gaze. “I had never looked at myself like that - she continues - I believe that her eyes showed me in an instant, everything he did to me ... everything I did for Him (how sad!) Responding to His Love with a thousand ingratitude!
But that Look also told me, that nothing matters to Him if I am determined to be faithful to Him because He is always ready to prove his Love to me and grant me new graces. All of that was present in my soul and I never stopped asking Him for forgiveness, repeating to Him my desire to never resist His Kindnesses.
"Suddenly, he came with a sad face and an oppressed heart."
-a Josefa! I am always interceding for souls and forgiving them. ”
“He looked at me in silence as in the morning.
But he said so much, without speaking! I also said nothing. After a moment he took the floor.
"Do you know what I did for you?”
“Then I saw again all your graces and all my ingratitude. I told Him, deep down in my soul, the will I had to do, not only what to ask of me, but everything I know that pleases Him and while I was talking, his Heart changed entirely, it expanded, flames burst from his Wounds the face was resplendent. He approached me and leaned over my heart. Then he said:
"In these days I will make you taste the bitterness of my Passion and in a way you will suffer the outrages that my Heart has received.
You will offer yourself to my Father to obtain forgiveness for many souls ”.
“He looked at me still with great love as if to give me confidence and left. After those failings Josefa did not cease to beg for forgiveness. It is a necessity of your soul, but it is also the tendency of your delicate heart and Jesus never resists that Call.
“On the 15th of March, the feast of the Five Wounds, and the Tuesday of the Passion, after communion I asked Him for forgiveness - she writes -. As lightning flashed before me, he stopped for a moment and said only:
"Love erases everything."
This lesson increasingly penetrates your soul. She lives in front of work. It was in the attic ..
“Preparing clothes for the laundry - he says - and since I have no other desire but to repair, I simply asked Our Lord to save as many souls as there were handkerchiefs to count. I offered my whole day in that intention, joining my sufferings to your Heart and your Merits ”.
In the afternoon, anticipating the general adoration homage for a few moments, I entered the chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, our lord appears to me:
“If you take care of my Glory - he said - I will take care of you. I will establish my Kingdom of Peace in you and nothing can disturb you. I will establish in yours the designs of love soul my Kingdom of Love and no one will be able to steal your joy. ”
"He approached me ... Wound opened up and let me in.
Then I saw a row of souls prostrated in adoration ... it made me understand that those souls were all the ones I stone for him in the morning. When I left the divine Chaga, he touched me again over the Heart and looked at me. Then he left me in great peace.
Thursday of the Passion March 17th, is the twentieth anniversary of his first communion retreat - a date that never goes unnoticed by Josefa's soul.
"Twenty years on - he writes in his notes - that Jesus chose me for Himself and I was never so unworthy of his love!"
It humbles itself, therefore, at the idea of ​​so many graces to which it seems to correspond so badly. But he adds:
I decided to change completely and while forming this firm purpose Jesus appeared before me with open arms. With a voice full of love he said:
"Yes, Josefa. I called you that day and since then I have never abandoned you, I kept you without ever separating from you. How many times would you have fallen if I hadn’t supported you! I repeat - I want you to be again. all Mine ... that you are faithful to Me, that you respond to my Love. In return I give myself to you as Spouse and I love you as the privileged wife of my Heart. I will do all the work you do not have to do anything other than love and love you. abandon. It matters little your nothing even your falls, My Blood erases everything, all you have to do is know that I love you.
However, it is always with the sight of souls that the divine, Predilection stimulates Josefa. On Holy Monday, March 21, after Communion, she. reviews Our Lord under that painful aspect that incited her to compassion and that will not cease to contemplate during Holy Week: the crown of thorns deeply buried in the head, the Face stained with blood, dust and bruises, the Hands tied and wounded, the Heart wide open and bloody.
“He looked at me - she writes - but I could say nothing, because in that state He always had the majesty of a God. So I could do nothing but humiliate myself in front of him. Seu Olhar seemed to ask me what I thought of seeing him asthma. So I begged him to tell me what I could do to relieve Him. mainly in the Hands, stuck in many small thorns, thin as needles and that should hurt so much ... He was silent. Now he was looking at me; sometimes he raised Eyes to the sky. Then he said:
"Now let's work; I'll go with you."
“I left the chapel and he followed me to the third floor where I was going to sweep the dorm. I was confused to see Him there and I begged Him with great respect that if it were an instant away ”.
“Why do you want me to go, Josefa? Do you think I don't like that? ”
“Then I continued until the end. From time to time I would get down on my knees to worship Him and at all times ask Him for forgiveness for the sins of the world. In exchange for a small mortification, I begged Him to untie the Hands and he agreed. Then, as I offered him all the movements as acts of love, the thorns fell from His Hands until there were no more. He then led me to the novitiate oratory and there I saw Him resplendent with beauty and surrounded by light.
The Crown of Thorns had disappeared as well as the blood that covered His Face. His gaze seemed to say that my little acts had pleased him; he put the crown on my head with his hands and said:
"Love and abandon yourself."
The next day, Holy Tuesday, March 22, after communion Jesus appears with open arms. Excited by what she calls the Master's immense kindness, “I wanted to ask many things, Lord!” she says, “You don't know, Josefa. what is written in the Gospel? Ask and you will receive! ”
Then she tells him about her mother and sisters who are always at the forefront of her intentions. Ask for the grace to be faithful, entrust the Society so dear to your love, list all your wishes for the Mothers and Sisters, their families, etc.
“I asked her - she continues - that we could soon reopen schools for the poor in France.
He smiled like a Father full of tenderness. My confidence grew more and more.
“I pleaded with Him to have compassion for the whole world and to burn him in the fire of his divine Heart.
“Ah! if they knew my Heart! Men do not know his Mercy and his Goodness, that is my most serious pain! ”
“I then pleaded with Him to inflame souls with the zeal of His Glory, and to multiply the priests to stir up many religious vocations ... After all, I stopped ... but in silence I still spoke to Him. How many things did your Eyes tell me! and how they gave me confidence!
Then he showed me his hands and gave me to kiss his wounds. Then it disappeared. ”
Are lines like these not enough to prove that the burning zeal of the Heart of Jesus already consumes that of Josefa? Souls have become the great horizon of his life and it is always them that he deals with in each of the divine Encounters.
During the prayer, on Holy Wednesday, March 23, while she asks Him for explanations of what He means by "saving souls."
“He came - he said - and looked at me with great love. Then he replied:
“Listen, Josefa. There are Christian and even pious souls to whom an attachment is sometimes enough to slow down the path of perfection. However, the offer that Me makes of actions linked to my infinite Merits obtains them to leave that state and resume their previous career. Many others also live in indifference and even in sin Helped by the same fear, they will regain grace and be saved one day.
"Still others, and quite numerous, are stubborn in evil and blinded by error. They would be lost if the pleas of a faithful soul did not obtain that grace touched their hearts after all. But so great is their weakness that they would risk fall into the life of sin; those I take without delay into eternity and thus save them. ”
I asked how I could save many souls.
"Unite all your actions to Mine, whether you work or rest. Unite my breaths and even your heart's palms to my Heart. How many souls will you win like this!”
The day is spent in that union to which Josefa adds the offering of everything that is done in the house: the work, the prayers, the actions of each of the Sisters. "Collect them, Lord," he says, "for they are for you."
In the afternoon, enjoying a moment of freedom, he heads to the Chapel.
He was waiting for me - he writes - so beautiful!
His Heart seemed to be engulfed in flames. ”
"How my souls comfort Me!" - said.
“I think he was talking about our home. Continued:
"During the afternoon today, with your small acts, your Sisters brought many souls to Me ... How much love I received here!”
"And disappeared."
The last days of Lent will even more closely associate Josefa with the sufferings of Calvary.
For the first time, she accompanies the Master step by step in her Passion and the day of Good Friday, March 25, keeps her endlessly in the painful Presence.
“After I finished sweeping - he writes - I went up to visit the Blessed Virgin of the Novitiate.
He had only entered when Our Lord came.
His hands were tied, his head was crowned with thorns, his face was stained with blood and bruises. He just looked at me with great sadness.
Then it disappeared. ”
Shortly after, she finds Him in the same state, in the basement where work calls her. Throughout the day it gives you to participate in the pains of your Soul and the torments of your Body.
“At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I saw him once more - he writes - he showed me Chaga do Lado and said to me:
"Look what Love did!”
The wound was opened and continued:
“It was for men that it opened ... for you! ...
Come, get closer and get in! "
“It made me come in and experience, I believe, something of the pain of the Carnations, of the Chagas, of their Anguish.”
The Mother of Sorrows confirms the graces of that day with a word that well reveals her Heart. At two o'clock in the afternoon Josefa is in the novitiate oratory:
“There, without saying anything, sitting at the feet of the Blessed Virgin she went over everything she had seen and understood today. Suddenly she came: Her tunic was a very dark purple, as was the long veil. In his Hands he held the bloody crown of thorns; showed me saying:
"On Calvary, Jesus gave me all men for children.
Come, because you are my daughter. Do you not know how much I am your Mother ”?
"I asked him for permission to kiss the crown; he gave it to me.
At the same time, putting his hand on my shoulder, he said to me:
"What a reminder of Him he left me, giving me souls!”
The dawn of Holy Saturday, March 26, 1821, completes that stage with a heavenly favor that leaves in Josefa's soul an indelible memory
"Do you know my intention, giving you my graces in such abundance?"
Our Lord asks, appearing to him during the prayer, with the wounds shining with clarity. And he repeats what he had said, and in almost the same terms, to Saint Margaret Mary:
“I want to make your heart an altar on which the fire of my Love burns continuously. That is why I want it to be purified and not to touch anyone who can stain it.
“It disappeared - Josefa continues - and I went down to the chapel to hear mass. After communion, I enjoyed the happiness of heaven! I saw on a shining throne three people dressed in white. all three equal and so beautiful! In their hands they held a large cross, intertwined with thorns, on which they scattered roses. My soul was on fire such that, without burning, it burns with happiness. Then everything disappeared. ”
That interior grace will be renewed next April 5th. In front of the three Persons, Josefa is inundated with an unspeakable peace. She tries to explain in some way what is happening in her, with simplicity that ignores the reach of such an insignificant favor.
Ordinarily - she says - the divine Presence surrounds me and even when I enter the Heart of Jesus, I am immersed in it. But these last two times, the moment of communion was like a great celebration that was celebrated inside my soul. Jesus entered me as in his Palace.
I can't explain ... and as I was determined to give myself entirely to him so that he could do everything he wanted to me, it was truly heaven. "
It is understood, after similar contacts with the divine guest, that violence Josefa has to use on herself to return to the work that awaits her.
That effort, difficult to calculate, is often the door through which the enemy will soon enter.

OPPOSITION OF SATAN
March 27 - May 31, 1921

"The devil will work hard to bring you down, but my grace is more powerful than all hellish malice."

Our Lord to Josefa - April 6, 1921.

The months following Lent of 1921 are marked, in effect, by the resurgence of the devil's efforts. Nothing is extraordinary, at first, its presence is discovered. Violent temptation deftly explores Josefa's attractions and disgust at the path along which the Master is taking her little by little.
The fidelity of that incomparable Master and the power of his Mother continue to intervene, to preserve, forgive and refer her again, for he has betrayed her more than once in his fragility. In the meantime, the lesson deepens to transmit it to us one day: Love has the secret of making use of even our faintness for the salvation of souls. Josefa's cost a lot the weight of divine graces through the laborious life she loves so much, and when Easter Sunday, March 27, arises radiantly, she wrote:
“This morning, in meditation, I complained a little to Our Lord, because if I continue to hold myself so attentive to Him, how will I apply to work? and there is so much to do! Wouldn't I be in my place elsewhere? ” He didn't even have time to finish the sentence, Jesus was there and, with a reflection of sadness on his face:
“Why do you complain, Joseía, since I attracted you to this beloved part of my Heart? If you only knew what this Society is for my Heart! ”
"He told me that with fervor and he disappeared."
She will wait for you for many days, keeping in her soul the memory of the sadness that she had read on her face.
“On April 6, Wednesday of Quasimodo, after communion, he came with arms outstretched, while expressing my desire to truly love him. He listened to me in silence as if he wanted me to repeat it. I asked for forgiveness saying: Lord, I give myself to You! He looked at me with great kindness and said: “The soul that truly surrenders to Me pleases me so much that, in spite of the miseries and imperfections, I make it a heaven where I like to remain. prevent me from working in your soul to accomplish my designs. ”
Then, responding to the anxiety that reads in it: "Yes, the devil worked with fervor to bring you down, but my Grace is more powerful than all the infernal malice. Trust my Mother, abandon yourself to Me, always be very humble and simple with your Mother. ”
Josefa understands the opportunity of that recommendation, as she senses the demon's proximity, prays and renews her offer:
“I begged him mainly - he writes on Thursday, April 7 - to teach me to humble myself and to abandon myself as He pleases. I think you like that prayer because it came suddenly:
“You can humble yourself in many ways,” he told me, “first by worshiping the divine Will, which, despite your indignity, wants to use you to spread its Mercy. Then, giving thanks for having placed you in the Society of my Heart without having deserved it. Never complain about that. ”
He recorded these words in my soul in such a way that I begged him never to remember that ingratitude and repeated the desire to repair the hurt that could have caused his divine Heart. ”
“You will console me, Josefa, by repeating this prayer often: O divine Heart! My Spouse's Heart! the most tender and delicate of hearts, I give thanks to you for choosing me despite my indignity to pour your divine Mercy on souls! "
"He looked at me still and disappeared."
In the afternoon, in the cell of Santa Madalena Sofia, where he had been pleading with every soul that would not doubt his desire to be his true daughter, Jesus came unexpectedly and, opening his Heart, introduced her saying to her once again:
"Here you will find forgiveness."
The Blessed Virgin's solicitude is alert watching over that daughter's inexperience.
“What I am most afraid of - comes to tell you on Saturday, April 9, before communion - is that you are not very expansive with your Mother and that the bonds of the enemy go unnoticed. Don't get caught, Josefa. Watch over your thoughts so as not to fall prey to temptation. And if you feel any complacency in yourself, say it immediately and humiliate yourself.
"I recommend you again a lot of simplicity towards your Mother. It is the only way to preserve yourself from the devil's cunning."
A few days later Jesus stresses the lesson. On Monday, April 11, during prayer, she repeats the prayer she learned the day before.
“It came immediately. Seu Olhar seemed to say that he was pleased to hear it and I repeated it again.
“Each time you say those words to me, I place them in my Heart so that they may pray to you and to souls a new source of grace and mercy. "
"I asked him, or rather, I begged him to have compassion on me because I am the first to need that mercy."
"If it is through you that I want to spread the treasures of my Kindness, Josefa, how can I not pour them first on you?"
Then he remembers the need to hide nothing from Mother to whom he was entrusted.
“You must learn to say what humiliates you the most and in the way that costs you the most - he said - If I didn't want to subject you to obedience - he adds firmly - I would have left you in the world. But I have led you to my Heart so that you do not breathe but to obey. ”

Two days later he was going to experience the grace always hidden in obedience.
“On Wednesday, April 13, - he writes - I received a letter from my sister and the idea that she will enter Carmelo leaving my mother alone, disoriented me.
However I do not cease to tell Jesus that I want to remain faithful to Him.
But the next day, the temptation was great, for I know that it is You, Mother, who gives me light. You said a word that was deeply imprinted in my soul: “The divine Heart loves my mother infinitely more than I can ever do.” I meditated and decided to give everything to God.
“The next day, during Thanksgiving, the One who knows my weakness, came full of goodness and said:
"If you abandon everything for Me, you will find everything in my Heart."
With this call to expect everything from him, Our Lord prepares her for the dark days that will gradually open up before her. Note on Friday, April 22 the efforts of the demon who seeks to take away his peace.
“My soul is tormented by the hideous things that it puts in my imagination. I went up to the oratory of the Blessed Virgin of the Novitiate, to plead with Him not to let me succumb. She came suddenly with maternal kindness and said:
Daughter, I want to teach you a lesson of great importance: The devil is like a dog, furious, but chained, that is, he only has a certain freedom. It can only deceive and devour the prey if it approaches; and to get hold of it, his usual tactic is to turn himself into a lamb. The soul that does not perceive this is approaching little by little and does not discover its malice until it is already within reach. When he seems far away, be sure to watch over yourself.
Your steps are silent and hidden, to go unnoticed. ” He gave me the blessing and left.
The temptation is close at hand, and this time Josefa will learn what the hellish strength is even when God leaves him but "a certain freedom." “Two or three days later - he says - I was alone and in desolation. All the demon's fury seemed to fall on me to blind me and tear my vocation from me. I suffered a lot until Saturday, May 7, while still asking Jesus and Mary Most Holy for help.
“In the afternoon of the same day, I was going to worship with all the Sisters, and, to help me, I started to read some of the words of Our Lord in the notebook in which I write them. But, instead of reassuring me, that reading increased my disturbance at the idea that such graces would be my undoing.
I tried, as I could, to repeat my first offer, but at the same moment a shower of blows fell on me.
Terrified, I left the chapel to put the notebook away and see if Mother Assistant was in the cell in order to tell everything. But when I reached the bottom of the cloister of S. Bernardo, I was violently grabbed by the arm and taken to the kitchen with the idea of ​​burning the notebook. I was going to do it but I couldn't lift the pot. A nun who saw me there said to throw it in the wood box where they would put it on the fire without delay. ”
Josefa crumples it in her hands, throws it into the crate and leaves relieved without realizing what she had done. Go get the iron. But little by little the gravity of the act appeared to him as if taken from him. What will happen, in fact, if the notebook, fallen into strange hands, reveals the secret that Our Lord so expressly wants to surround his Work?
“In other circumstances - he continues - I would have been desperate. Not that time, I prayed with all my fervor to be released and especially to obtain forgiveness. I went back to the kitchen hoping they hadn't burned the notebook yet, but it was too late! I didn't find him anymore, and I begged Our Lady to take charge of it herself. ”
The next day, Sunday, seems long to Josefa.
He does not dare discover the fara to Mother Assistant and seeks, without finding, the means of saying nothing. But when the afternoon came, and since she couldn't stand that restlessness on her own, she went to confess everything to Mother.
“When I saw her fear - she writes - I begged the Blessed Virgin to reassure her and to put the notebook in her hands. I waited with great confidence; not for me; but for her ”.
Can Mary be deaf to that filial prayer?
“On Monday, May 9, I swept the cell corridor, always thinking about the notebook ... But I had lost hope of finding it! "
Suddenly I hear the well-known voice of the Blessed Virgin:
"Go to the kitchen and find it."
“However - he said - I didn't want to pay attention and I continued to sweep, thinking I was losing my mind.
But I heard the same words again. Then I went up to the Novitiate oratory and for the third time the voice repeated:
"Go to the kitchen and you will find it!"
He quickly went down the stairs, arrived at the kitchen and in the firewood box he saw the notebook! ... It was wrapped in very white paper and set aside, close to the wall of the box. With what emotion he catches it and takes it with him!
Two days pass in thanks of mixed confusion in the face of so much kindness!
On Friday, May 13, in adoration, Jesus with open arms appears to him:
“I immediately asked your forgiveness - she writes.
"Leave it alone - says - my Heart erased everything."
Then he adds:
“Do not be discouraged, because it is in your fragility that my great Mercy shines best. "
So she begs not to be bored with her weaknesses ... nor with her falls! ...
“My Heart never refuses forgiveness to the soul that humbles itself - he replies, approaching, especially the one who asks for it with real confidence.
You understand well, Josefa. I will build a great building on nothing, that is, on your humility, your abandonment, your love. ”
The Blessed Virgin would have the last word.
The next day, Saturday, May 14, the daughter who ends the Way of the Cross appears. It is more beautiful than ever: silver reflections sparkle on the tunic, the face is radiant. It announces the entry into the blessed homeland of a soul for which I had asked him, for many years on end, prayers and sufferings.
"Then, as I was leaving, writes Josefa, I thanked him for the notebook. ''
"What were you going to do with him?" Asked the Blessed Virgin.
“With great pity I confessed the truth: unfortunately. I was going to burn it. ”
“It was I who stopped you, my daughter; when Jesus pronounces a word, all of Heaven listens with admiration! ”
Josefa, who increasingly understands the price of words coming out of the Master's lips, does not know how to express her hurt.
“I asked His forgiveness and I thanked Him for allowing the notebook not to be lost.”
“When you threw it in the box, I caught it. My Son's words - She would add a few days later - I only leave them here on earth for the good of souls; otherwise I'll take them back to heaven. ”
Josefa never tires of repeatedly thanking the Mother so compassionate that she never leaves her.
“I was wondering - she notes on Pentecost Tuesday, May 17 - how much She loves me and what kindness she dedicates to me.
"Air! Daughter - answers Our Lady - how can I not love you? My Son spilled the Blood for all men - all are my children.
But when Jesus stares at the gaze on a soul, I rest my heart in it. ”
Predilection unity between the Son and the Mother that Our Lord will confirm.
The next day, Wednesday, March 18, Josefa writes:
“After communion, my soul enjoyed such peace that I could not help saying: O Jesus! ... I know you are here. I'm sure - Before I finished I saw Him close to me. The Hands were open, the Face was overflowing with tenderness, the Heart escaped from His Chest, his whole Person radiated brilliant light. One might say that a brazier was burning inside him.
"Yes, here I am, Josefa!"
"I was beside myself ... but I dominated myself to ask for forgiveness and to repeat my miseries, my sins, my fears."
"If you are an abyss of misery, I am an abyss of Goodness and Mercy!"
Then, extending his arms to her, he added:
"My Heart is your Refuge."
Thus ended, in an outpouring of Mercy, the story of Josefa's notebook. The devil will try other means to suppress those manuscripts to which Our Lord attaches so much importance, but will never succeed.
Wednesday, May 25, brings the feast of Saint Magdalene Sofia, which in 1921 was only blessed. For the first time, Josefa sees Mother Foundress intervening in her life, whom she loves with such a filial heart.
It simply reports this new favor that delights and strengthens your soul.
“Today, the feast of our Blessed Mother, she often passes by her cell to say a word to her, and one of the times when she entered, standing up, in a work apron, she said only:
“ Oh Mother, again I ask you, make me so humble that I am truly your daughter. Do not nav: 'to anyone in the cell and this prayer escaped aloud from my heart, when, suddenly, I saw an unknown Mother before me. He held my head in his hands and squeezing it fervently, he said:
“Daughter, throw all your miseries into the Heart of Jesus, love the Heart of Jesus, rest in the Heart of Jesus; be faithful to the Heart of Jesus. ”
“I took her hand to kiss her. Then with two fingers he traced the sign of the blessing on my forehead and soon disappeared. ”
This first meeting would be followed by many others. Through the cloisters of the “Feuiliants”, so often walked by her, in her cell, in the shade of the tabernacle, in front of which Saint Magdalene fttilia had prayed, she will appear to her daughter with the lively and resentful physiognomy they once knew, but illuminated by the heavenly light . Josefa will speak to you like the Mothers of the land, with all simplicity and confidence.
You will listen to the recommendations, accept your advice and trust your difficulties. Under maternal projection Josefa felt assured in the grace of her vocation.
However, Jesus, wanting to teach her humility with the experience of her own misery, does not free her from the weaknesses of her temper.
Rather, it seems to take pleasure in seeing you confused and humiliated at your feet, to constantly remind you of the goodness of your Heart. The simplest comparisons serve the divine Master to inculcate his favorite lessons.
“I pleaded with Him,” she writes on the feast day of the Blessed Sacrament, Thursday, May 26, that would give me the strength to overcome me, as I still don't know how to humiliate myself as he wants. ”
Come during the morning Meditation and Our Lord appears to you right away:
“Don't worry, Josefa,” he says kindly. - If you throw a grain of sand into a full pot up to the edge, a little water will come out. If you throw another one, a few more drops will come out and as the pot fills with sand it will empty out of the water. Just as I enter your soul, you will be emptied of yourself. But that will only be done little by little. ”
Three days later on Sunday, May 29, expanding her thinking strengthens her in her long and painful work.
“Why are you afraid? I know what you are, but I repeat to you again ... I don't care about your misery! ” When a small child takes its first steps, the mother holds it by the hand; then release it to encourage it to walk, but it extends the arms to it so that it does not fall. Tell Mother that the weaker a soul is, the more it needs protection. What could be weaker than you? ~
“Then she made me rest on the Heart - she continues - saying in a more fatherly voice than ever:
“ My Heart finds comfort in forgiving. I have no greater desire or greater joy than to forgive 1. When a soul comes back to Me after a fall, the comfort it gives Me is a great profit, because I look at it with great love ”.
He added:
“Don't be afraid. Because you are only misery, I will use you. I will make up for what you lack. Let yourself be shaped ... let Me act on you. ”
this continuous exchange, of Mercy, on the one hand, of humble and generous love, on the other, is repeated on every page of this life and stands out in relief as the essential lesson. But he who gives it with such kindness and perseverance does not want Josefa to be absorbed in his own weakness: everything will have to serve souls.

IV - LOVE COMPANIES

THREE PRIEST SOULS - ONE SINNER - TWO CHOSEN SOULS
June 1st - July 1921

"Do you want to console Me?"

Our Lord to Josefa - 14th of June, 1921.

“Some time before the feast of the Sacred Heart, I no longer remember the date - writes Josefa - I flew Our Lord. He had three new wounds in his heart and a lot of blood was running from each one. ”
"Look what I want for my party!"
And when she expressed the pain that caused the Master's pain:
“There are three priests who hurt my Heart.
Offer for them everything you do. ”
“I told Him how poor I am so that I can supply what I lack. He replied with great love and kindness:
“The greater your misery, the more my Power will sustain you. I will make you rich with God. If you are faithful to Me, I will dwell in your soul and there I will take refuge when sinners repel Me. I will rest in you and you will have life in Me. Everything you need, search my Heart, even what I ask of you. Trust and love! "
Since then, multiple sufferings of soul and body have not left Josefa a respite until Friday, June 3, that feast of the Heart of Jesus that will reveal the power of prayer and the mercy that responds to it. "In prayer - she writes - she opened my heart to me."
"Get in here - he told me - and continue to trust me with everything I asked of you."
“It made me rest from all the anxieties of the previous days. Then he stood beside me, so beautiful and as if overflowing with joy. I spoke of the three priests. ”
“Ask my Heart for them. They haven't come back yet, but they're already getting closer. ”
Enchanted by that radiant beauty, Josefa talks about that party that, as she thinks, must give Him so much glory.
"The Heart burned Him at such words, I had never seen him like this."
“Yes, today is the day of my love. The souls, the souls that I love so much ... ... take my Heart, coming to seek Strength and medicine in this Heart that so ardently wishes to enrich them. This is what glorifies Me, this is what most consoles Me!
“He stayed until the end of the prayer and accompanied me to Mass. "
On that day, in the Society of the Sacred Heart, all women religious solemnly renew their vows before the Host, at the time of holy communion. Josefa does not know how to contain the emotion, hearing the renewal repeated with fervor by all the Mothers and Sisters.
“Oh! how happy I am in my dear society! ” - writes.
Then he continues: “Suddenly, I saw Your Heart!
first only. immersed in a fiery brazier; then as if some light clouds were moving away, Jesus appeared! He was charming - I don't know I told you ...
How can I thank everything you do for me? ”
“I will tell you, Josefa. Fear this Heart and offer it to your God. Through it you will be able to pay all your debts. You now know what I wanted to do by attracting you here. I wish that you correspond to my plan with your docility in allowing yourself to be shaped, in abandoning yourself to my Love, which seeks nothing other than to possess you and will not let you think but of my Glory and the good of souls. ”
Then, with fervent insistence, he adds:
“Now, implore Me, tell Me what you want, ask Me! - '
“I prayed for everything I desire - she writes - first for the Society, as is natural, at the same time that I offered all the acts of renewal for the three priests. Throughout the day I did not cease to pray for them. I do not know how many times I repeated: Lord, you said that today souls are taking your heart away and graces ... could we not win those three souls from you? Let them touch you! "
At three o'clock in the afternoon, he went up to the Novitiate Passing in front of the organ stand, he entered again, “to knock - she said - at the door of that Heart so that he no longer resists our pleas. ”He came right away and asked as if he hadn't heard me:
"What do you want? Tell Mo. ”
“But, my Jesus, don't you know? And your three Priests? I beg of You, since it is Your desire ... Only You can do it. ”
Then, with majestic solemnity and at the same time divine joy, Jesus, showing me the Heart, said;
“Josefa! They returned to my Heart! ”
Then, as if excited by great emotion, he continued:
"If they had repelled my Grace, they would have been responsible for the loss of many souls!"
And, while prostrate before the Master, he does not know what to say, such is his happiness, He adds;
“You will repeat these words every day:“ O my Jesus, through your loving heart, I beseech You to ignite with the zeal of your Love and your Glory all the priests of the world, all the missionaries, all those who are in charge of to announce your divine Word, so that, burned with holy zeal, they pluck souls from the devil and lead them to the asylum of your Heart, where they can glorify You without interruption. ”
“Then I saw in the place of the thorns a crown of red roses surrounding the Heart that was like a fire. His whole Person shone and the Face overflowed with goodness. "
The memory of that celebration of the Sacred Heart will never be erased from your memory. There he had experienced the infinite joy of the Heart of Jesus when the priests give him the totality of love that he expects of them. Since then, the prayer learned from the Master's own lips will remain his daily prayer and the priestly souls the first and greatest intention of his life.
A secret note until her dead, proves that even at that time Our Lord keeps her constantly facing this mission.
“It was the 11th of June, and I was always afraid that something around me would be noticed when Our Lord suddenly came. I expressed my fears to Him and with unspeakable tenderness replied:
“Remember my words and believe in them. My Heart's only desire is to imprison you within it, to possess you in my Love and then to make your smallness and your fragility a channel of Mercy for many souls who will be saved through you. Later I will discover the ardent Secrets of My Heart and they will serve the good of many souls. I want you to write and keep everything I tell you. Everything will be read when you are in heaven. It is not because of your merits that I want to use Me, but in order that souls may see how my Power uses weak and miserable instruments.
“I asked Him if he really had to say that - she notes naively: - Jesus replied:
"Write and it will be read after your death".
This is how he gradually discovered the great Plan of Love that is being prepared in the silence and toil of his days. There can be no lack of suffering for Josefa, who walks boldly towards humility, does not pass without encountering frequent temptations. The devil seeks to turn certain acts into obstacles that his love would simply practice in other times.
But the Blessed Virgin is always there to enlighten, guide and defend her.
"I was telling you everything that happened - she writes on Monday, June 13th, but I didn't expect her when, suddenly, she came as a real Mother, 'good!"
“Listen, daughter, don't listen to what you feel. Believe me: the greater your disgust, the more you deserve in the Eyes of my Son - Watch over these points that are those where the enemy of souls tries to make them believe: First, never let yourself be dominated by the scruples that I suggest you in order to get you away from communion.
“Secondly, when my Son asks you for an act of humility or other. do it with all love, repeating over and over: Lord, see how much it costs me ... but Yours before me. Thirdly, do not make the slightest case of diabolical cunning as it tries to persuade you that trust in your Mother diminishes something of your tenderness to Jesus.
“If the devil catches you this way, he will have won everything. Open your soul with confidence and love your Mother without fear, simply tell her everything that you think worries her, disturbs her. So Jesus wanted to love those who represented his Father on earth and is pleased to see you spontaneous and simple.
But don't forget, I recommend you again, never miss a communion ”.
Who will not admire the prudence and delicacy of such advice?
Following them is that Josefa will become, in the hands of the Master, the malleable and docile instrument that will be used by many redeeming companies.
“On Tuesday, June 14, in worship, Jesus came very beautiful - she writes. In his hand he wore the crown of e: pines and, with an expression of great kindness, asked;
"Do you want to console Me?"
“Naturally, I said yes! and he continued;
“I want you to work to bring a beloved soul to my Heart. Guide your intention in order to offer everything for it. Presents to my Father the Blood of my Heart at all times.
Kiss the floor to worship the Blood outraged and trampled by that sinner I love so much! If Mother allows, I will tell you what you can do today. I will not touch compliance with the Rule. ”
Eva the Master's attention to faithful observance will always keep you on a safe path.
“Are you excused from Mother? - asks again the next day, after communion.
"You know very well, Lord, responds Josefa, that she only wants to please You".
"Know. But you must first subject yourself to your Superior's will before doing what I ask of you. "
Then it outlines the plan of your offering days.
“When you wake up, enter my Heart right away and once inside, offer my Father all your actions together with the pulsations of my Heart. Also unite all your movements to Mine, so that you are not but you, but I who work in you.
During the Mass, she presents to my Father that soul that I want to save in order to spill on her the Blood of the Victim who immolates herself. When you receive communion, it offers you the divine Wealth you have to pay the debt of that soul. During prayer, stand by me in Gethsemane. Participate in my anguish and offer yourself to my Father as a victim ready to suffer everything your soul is capable of.
When you take food, think that it is Me who gives you that relief and, equally, whenever you find satisfaction, wherever you go ”.
“Do not separate yourself for an instant from Me.
“He kisses the floor frequently.
“Don't miss a single day on the Via Sacra.
“If I need you, I will tell you.
“Look only at my Will in everything you do and do it with great submission.
“Humble yourself deeply, always adding trust and Love to humility.
“Do everything for love, without losing sight of what I suffered for souls. During the night you will rest in my Heart. he will pick up your palpitations like so many acts of desire and love.
"This is how you will bring me that soul that offends me so much."
"I asked him to forgive me if something else is not as he wishes, because I have a good intention, but my weakness is great."
“In the afternoon, during worship, he came, bloody hands and feet, and looking at the sky he said to me:
"Offer the Father, for that soul, the divine Victim, offer the Blood of my Heart."
“He repeated the same words three times. I repeated my desire to console him and to do everything as he explained. ”
"Do not worry: you have my heart for all this."
Josefa will learn the price required to redeem a soul. For several weeks it will be associated with the Oblation and the Redeeming Sufferings and will follow, step by step, the path of conversion of that strayed soul,
On Friday, June 17, ask Our Lord if he would not be comforted with a small act that is entrusted to Him in secret. And as he expressed his joy to her:
"Why didn't you tell me earlier, Lord?"
“- Listen, Josefa. When your father is thirsty and asks you to drink, if you give him a glass of water, he will be grateful. But if he asks for nothing and you yourself remember to offer him to relieve his thirst, how happy he will be to see that his daughter is looking for herself, to comfort him!
“I already told you, whatever you do for my Love, however little it may be, it will give me much comfort and will be of great value to you and souls ... Now give me your heart, because I want to rest in it. When I need anything else I will ask you. Repeat Me that you love Me for the souls that offend Me. ”
This love Josefa will have to affirm, mainly with her courage in suffering. In fact, for many days, violent pain on the left side of his chest had joined the others that constantly overwhelmed her.
There are times when you can barely breathe. In vain he tried to relieve it and the medical visit found nothing unusual. But the fear remains in his heart that those pains will become an obstacle to religious life. He then turns to the Heavenly Mother to entrust his suffering and anxiety to her.
On Monday, June 20, she prays in the novitiate oratory, “when - she says - the Blessed Virgin came suddenly. And tenderly replied:
“Don't worry, daughter, and tell your Mother not to be afraid. This pain is a spark of my Son's Heart. When it becomes more acute, offers it well, it is a sign that at that hour a soul hurts Him deeply. Do not be afraid to suffer, it is a treasure for you and for souls. ”
"He gave me the blessing and disappeared."
That same afternoon, in the refectory, faithful to the Master's direction, I offered my food to Our Lord, as she taught me to do ”- she writes -“ He came suddenly and told me in a sad voice. ”
"Give me something to eat, because I'm hungry ... give me something to drink, because I'm thirsty!"
“It was like that all the time of the meal - continues Josefa -. Then he said:
"- Come with me ... don't leave me alone."
It is a path of ever greater pain that the Master calls her, manifesting herself during the thanksgiving of the following day, June 21st.
"Offer everything to my Father in union with my Sufferings - I said - Every day I will make you spend three hours in the agony and helplessness of my Cross, and it will be of great benefit to that soul."
Josefa does not hesitate in this painful path. She fears the favors whose responsibility she assesses, and is always ready to participate in the cross that will save souls. Our Lord knows this and multiplies the requests.
On Thursday, June 23, at Holy Mass he still appears:
“I want you to ask permission to do the Holy Hour. You will introduce that sinner to my Eternal Father, reminding Him that it was for this soul that I suffered the Agony of Getsemani. You will offer my Heart and your sufferings together with mine ... Tell your Mother that these sufferings are nothing compared to the joy that that soul will give me when it comes to Me. ”
“The night - continues Josefa - I woke up under the Violence of pain and shortly afterwards Jesus came crowned with thorns. "
"I come so that we can suffer together."
“He put his hands together and stayed in prayer for a long time.
If you saw, Mother, how beautiful it was! His eyes were turned upward, his face was filled with such beautiful sadness ... a clarity fell on His Face that seemed to be a reflection of the sky. ”
Days and nights follow ... Josefa notices the visits of the Master, who constantly expresses his Head and his Expectations. It can be said that she witnesses the loving persecution that runs after that soul in danger. Taking Josefa responsible for her before God, Jesus wants collaboration entirely disinterested. When she asks Him if the sinner is already letting go, he responds on Tuesday, June 28, approaching her during work:
“Listen to what I'm going to say: do you really want to please me? Do not concern yourself with anything other than suffering and giving Me everything I ask for without trying to know “how” and “when”.
“In the evening - she continues - on Wednesday, June 29 - at the time of going to bed I told Our Lord that He was always at your service. It was eleven o'clock, I believe, when I woke up as in the previous nights. I was immersed in a fire that I cannot explain, without finding any relief from the pain that with any movement increased. At two o'clock in the morning Our Lady suddenly came. In my hands I held a white veil that spread over my bed and the pain was gone. She was standing and looking at me with an expression of great sadness. As I said nothing, I told him about that soul myself, begging Him to ask Jesus herself to turn away from him the opportunity to sin and give Him the strength to get back on track. Her eyes filled with tears and she said:
“How low it fell! Let yourself be fooled like a lamb! But, courage! Do everything that my Son told you and ask Him to unload on you what the sinner deserves. Thus divine justice will spare you.
Do not be afraid to suffer. You will not lack the necessary strength and when you can no longer, I will give you courage and I will relieve you. I am the Refuge of sinners; that soul will not be lost ”.
The next day, Thursday, June 30, after communion, Jesus appeared to Josefa showing him the wounds on his hands and feet and teaching him to discover the invisible wounds of his love.
“Look at my Chagas - he says -; adores them, kisses them. It was not the souls who made it, it was Love. ”
And as Josefa doesn't know what to say, he repeats:
"Yes, it is the Love I have for souls, the Love of compassion I have for sinners ... Ah! if they knew! ”
Then, in the silence of her soul, Josefa lets the Master imprint on her that invisible wound that she has to share and relieve.
"The greatest reward I can give to a soul - he continues - is to make it a victim of my Love and my Mercy, making it similar to Me who am the divine Victim for sinners."
“He was sad as in the last times - he writes - but with a sadness that gives him a new beauty as I cannot explain ... because everything about him captivates! Look at the eyes in the sky and when you lower them to look at me they are wet with tears. I believe that tears are not of pity, but of love.
His hands are pierced and his feet too, it is he who extends them whenever he wants to kiss them and I believe that it comforts Him.
“Since he told me about that sinner, neither He nor the Blessed Virgin has come near me. It is suffering! ... But since fifteen or twenty days, my soul has been attracted to suffering. In the past everything made me afraid, and when Jesus told me that he had chosen me as a victim, my whole being shuddered. Now, it's the other way around. There are days, however, when I suffer so much that if he didn't support me I wouldn't be able to live like this, because I don't have a single member spared ... Despite this, my soul would want to endure much more for him, although not without resistance from the sensitive part . When I start to feel the pain, I tremble and fear instinctively. But in the will there is a Force that accepts, that wants, that really wants to suffer even more, so that if at that moment I was told to choose, or go to heaven, or continue to suffer, I would rather stay a thousand times to console your Heart, although consume me in desires to go for it. I feel that it was Jesus who made this transformation and that he cares for me with care. It overflows me with love and gratitude. ”
On the 1st of July, the feast of the Precious Blood, the first Friday of the month, Our Lady came to remind her daughter of the redeeming value of the Blood that she must use for the sinner.
“She adores the divine Blood of Jesus, daughter, and she begs Him to pour it on that soul, in order to move and forgive or purify it ... And besides, I add - this afternoon, at 6 and a half, trust your Guardian Angel and pray for her. ”
The next day, Saturday, July 2, in the afternoon, Jesus appears as in the last days, with his hands and feet torn:
“Her Face was wonderfully beautiful - granddaughter Josefa - and especially the Heart! How I suffer for not being able to approach him! But today, he didn't even allow me to kiss the Wounds. He only said:
"Are you ready to comfort Me?"
He looked at me inexpressibly. Your Eyes make me understand so much!
Then he added:
“You quench my thirst, Josefa ... you give me a drink. In the evening, for three hours, I will join you in my Agony. Now offer yourself to my Father so that he may discharge his just anger. ”
“When he finished speaking, he looked at the sky, hands folded, and after a moment of silence he left.”
That is how, day by day, he unveils his mission.
“Do not cease to unite your actions with Mine and offer the Father my precious Blood - repeats Our Lord. Do not forget that you are the victim of my Heart. ”
The horizon gives Josefa is not limited only to that sinner.
On Friday, July 8, he entrusts two other souls to whom he says:
“See how My Heart is pierced ... how My Hands are torn! ...
He returned during meditation ”, he writes.
“Look at my Heart. It is all love and tenderness, but there are souls who do not know Him! ”
"Then, before leaving, he added:
“I will return many times until those two souls are converted. When you suffer, I rest and my Heart is free to communicate to (d. Fear nothing; my Visits will not harm you, because you are in my Hands and I will keep you as long as nothing refuses Me. ”
One can calculate the sum of energy and generosity hidden in the effort that Josefa has to sustain in order to cope with the double movement of her life; on the one hand, days and nights in contact with the invisible and all that he requires of oblation; on the other, the fidelity that keeps her always attached to work and the Rule. This is why, with incomparable kindness, the Lord comes to comfort her, making her share in his Joy of Savior:
“He came during worship, very beautiful - he writes on Saturday, July 9, and said to me:
“You see, Josefa, one of the two souls finally gave me what I refused, but the other is very close to perdition if she doesn't recognize her nadai. "
Then Josefa asked Him if he was referring to the sinner who worried His Heart so much:
“No,” says the Master, “this is close to victory and will soon repel danger away. That's how I get good, even from the biggest falls. ”
From the following day, Sunday, July 10, Jesus comes to excite his generosity again. It appears to him after communion and resembles that of the two souls that still resist, to his Love and to whom pride is putting in grave danger.
"Yes; offer to obtain Forgiveness.
If a soul humbles itself, even after being carried away by the greatest sins, it will profit. Pride, however, irritates my Father's wrath, because he hates it with infinite hatred. I seek souls who know how to humble themselves in order to repair their pride - he repeats the following afternoon, July 11 - He tries to do many acts of humility without looking at what it costs you. If only you knew how much I like! ”
“Then he left adding:
"Don't forget that I want you to give yourself to my Heart."
Also writes on Tuesday, July 13:
“At four o'clock in the afternoon he returned, with a Face so sad and so beautiful, with a Heart wounded by a Chaga grax.
“Give me your heart, Josefa, that I may fill it with the bitterness of My day and offer you unceasingly to repair the pride of that soul. Nothing refuses Me, I am your Strength. ”
"Pareola ask for alms and I do not know that I would do it to console Him. I told Him a thousand things, I mainly offered Him my wishes and asked Him for the grace of never resisting Him. May you deign not to look at what I am ... Only misery. ”
"It does not matter! Your misery will comfort me. What I ask for is freedom to dispose of you. I don't need anything more in my souls but I abandon it and love ... yes, love for the Heart that consumes itself Love! ”
“Then I said looking at the sky:
“It is pride that blinds her! Forget that I am God and that without Me she is nothing! what is important to come up here on this land I want you to prostrate yourself all the time before my Father: offer him the humility of my Heart. Do not forget that without Me, the soul is an abyss of misery. I will exalt the humble ...
your weaknesses, even your falls, I don't care ... what I want is humility and love! ”
Weeks go by without Josefa being able to experience a single moment of rest, the pain on her side, the craroa, all her aching limbs, her soul under the weight of divine wrath, everything reminds her of the burden with which Love presented her. But the Blessed Virgin resuscitates her “because, she writes - I can't be in so much pain anymore!
"Daughter. - says that good Mother, answering. his call during the night of July 12-13; - you are suffering to rest the Beloved, is it not enough to give you courage? If you knew how to support yourself to never leave you alone!
Don't be afraid to suffer yet ... ”
Then when the night ended:
“It is now four o'clock. Sleep in the Heart of Jesus and in the arms of your Mother. I will not abandon you. Don't be afraid. ”
Josefa therefore had even more to suffer. In fact, in the following days, the upsurge of pain ...
The impotence to which she is reduced adds, to so much suffering, the penalty of not being able to cope with her usual work ... The devil explores her fear of being noticed and tries to persuade her that everything she suffers is useless because souls will not be saved ...
Thus, the days of obsession with painful nights follow, humiliating and diminishing it in your own eyes.
Then, as always, Mary comes to the rescue.
“It was three in the morning, I believe - he writes on Friday, July 22. She came suddenly and, putting her hands on her shoulders, said:
“'Daughter of my Heart! I come to support you because I am your Mother. Nothing that you are suffering is useless. You will still have a great test to go through to save that proud soul. As long as you feel the proximity of temptation, discover it soon. Then, obey, obey, obey! ”
"I told him that it is exactly what I am most costing now: to say and obey."
“Listen, Josefa, it is the right time to submit your judgment to obedience and it will be with acts of humility, in the strongest of temptation, that you will atone for the pride of that soul. While fighting, the devil's coercion is less powerful over her ... ”And, insisting even more strongly:" You must suffer for souls, you must be tempted, because, understand well, the devil fears fidelity. ...
but courage. ”
He gave me the blessing and left.
Confirming the words of Mother Jesus, he comes early in the morning of that painful night and shows himself to Josefa after a communion obtained by hardships with a baton.
“It was so beautiful; - writes - although he had the crown of thorns on his head and the bloody Wounds!
“Look at my Wounds and kiss them. Do you know who did it? love! Do you know who buried this crown for Me? Love. Do you know who opened my heart to Me?
Love. If I love you so much that I have refused nothing for you, tell me Josefa. you cannot suffer without refusing me. Abandon yourself! ”
It is with such words that Jesus holds on to Joseph's will more strongly than ever.
As soon as the following day, Saturday, July 23, he still shows himself to her after Holy Communion.
“If you only knew how many souls offend and hurt Me. This is why I am looking for victims who console Me and suffer for my Love. Pui I chose you! I am your God and you belong to me.
"You have abandoned yourself and since then nothing can you refuse Me ..."
“Shortly after midnight - she writes the same day - when the anguish and pain disappeared, I got down on my knees and kissed my Crucifix to show Him my joy at having suffered for him and my recognition, because once again had supported me.
I saw him close to the bed, very beautiful.
“The more generous you are to me, the more I will be to you.
That divine generosity, in effect, does not cease to support her and dispel the fears that still arise in her soul when she finds herself unable to cope with all her work.
“When you suffer, you are my comfort and my rest.
When you rest, it is I who keep you. I will not allow any of this to harm you, for you are in my Heart. "
The fruit of so much suffering has matured in long weeks of oblation and combat. Josefa will soon find out.
On Tuesday, July 25, the Master's Love asks you the same question:
"Are you ready to console Me ... Are you ready to suffer?"
recalls the mutual commitment of August 5, 1920.
“If you are faithful to Me, I will let you know the Wealth of my Heart. You will taste the Cross but I will comfort you as a most dear Bride ”.
Then he adds:
"I never fail my Word".
That same afternoon, news full of hope reached the convent indirectly.
“I didn't know how to give thanks - she writes, the next day, Tuesday, July 26, - all the more so when I was under the impression of what she had said.
"I never break my Word."
“He came - continues - and said to me:
“The work is not finished; I will also manifest my Kindness to that soul. The only thing I ask is that you are faithful to Me. ”
On Wednesday, August 3, at seven-thirty in the afternoon, Jesus appeared radiant and finally said:
“The sinner who made me suffer so much, Josefa, is now in my Heart.” the next day, it reminds him of the soul whose pride continues to hurt him so deeply:
"I want that soul to return to Me soon. Do you want to suffer for it? Offer everything you do today for this intention. I will return soon."
“In the afternoon, at 4 o'clock, Jesus gave me the feeling of His coming - she writes - and I went to the Novitiate's gallery. Right there it turned out. The Heart no longer had the wound it brought since it told me about the proud soul.
“Come,” he said, “approach and rest. That soul is in my Heart! ... But, - he adds - he will only live the time necessary to purify himself from his faults, because he is so weak that he would soon fall again. "
“As I am weaker than anyone, I begged Him to do the same thing for me, because if I cannot be faithful, I would rather die a thousand times. While I was saying this to him, he held me close to his Heart.
I asked Him why he so wanted that soul's salvation?
"Only that she herself saved many others who are now glorifying Me."
It was on Wednesday, August 14, that Our Lord definitely confirmed the salvation of those souls purchased at such a high price.
“The afternoon Jesus came, very beautiful, and said to me:
“That soul, which used to stay here on earth just to finish purifying itself, is now in heaven. As for the sinner, my Heart won a definite victory in him. You will comfort me from now on and run, ponder my Love.
“And you - continues the Master - do you love Me?
I have my designs on you and they are Designs of Love ... Nothing refuses Me ”.

A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

“I want to use you for a great Work!”

Our Lord to Josefa - July 25, 1921.

On that same date, August 1921, a repair company was also ending, to which the Lord had invited Josefa. It is necessary to follow her, day by day, to go back, on Tuesday, July 26, when, after communion, Jesus asked his wife:
"Are you willing to be faithful to Me?"
"I told him everything I fear about my weakness - she writes - but he knows my wishes well."
“I want to serve You for a great Work.
You must bring to my Heart a community that has departed. I want my Wives to come back here! ”
“And it showed the Heart. I asked him what he expected of me. "
“Continue to do everything I taught you for that sinner. Offer my divine Blood, whose price is infinite. ”
“He came back around noon, carrying a huge cross - she continues.
"I am coming to bring you my Cross," he said, "because I want to unload it on you."
Then he was left without a cross and I felt overwhelmed by such suffering that I could not endure if Jesus did not give me special strength.
“For this company,” continued the Lord, “I chose nine souls. I'm with you now. I will leave you and go to the other, so you will always be one of my Wives who consoles Me. "
He was silent for a moment; then, as if speaking to Himself:
“Yes, it is true, many souls hurt Me with ingratitude. But even more are those, in which I rest and which are my delight ”.
Under the weight of the cross, Josefa resumed work in the presence of the Master who says:
"He works for my company."
She is alone and, from time to time, kneels to worship Him and offer herself to Him.
"I want, not only, that you bring those souls to Me - explains Our Lord - but that you pay for them, so that they no longer have any debt before my Father".
It was four o'clock - she adds - when she said to me:
“Now I'm leaving. I'll be back when it's your turn again ”.
"He took the Cross and disappeared ... and I was without suffering."
Since then, the long hours of atonement will return exactly at the moment fixed by Our Lord, who goes from one chosen soul to another to entrust him with the Cross ”.
After communion, on Wednesday, July 27, Josefa shows herself.
“I come to rest in you,” she says, “I want you to forget yourself, to console Me, to think so much of Me, to love Me with such fervor, that only I occupy your thoughts and your desires.
Fear not to suffer. I am powerful enough to take care of you. ” 1
She tells you about the love company that started the day before.
“And as if 1 had reminded him of a great pain - she writes - she replied:
"Is. tepid and relaxed community ... ”“ Then he was silent and a moment later he continued:
“But they will be mine ... they will return to. my heart! It was to convert them that I chose nine victims. Nothing is more valuable than the suffering united to my Heart. Tonight I will bring you my Cross. I'll be there at midnight, which is the time corresponding to your turn ”.
That same afternoon the Blessed Virgin came to entrust to Josefa a soul in danger.
“Until tomorrow,” he said, “I wanted you to put all the ardor into saving a daughter I love. Jesus wanted it for himself and had given him the treasure of his vocation. She lost it through infidelity. He is going to die tomorrow and the thing that makes me most sorry is that he rejected my scapular. What a consolation for my Mother's Heart if that daughter is saved! He gave me the blessing and disappeared ”.
“I couldn't sleep at night, because I was anguished, thinking about that soul so close to death, not to mention the pain on my side, the crown of thorns and all the sufferings of each night.
“At midnight, Jesus came with the Cross. It stung beside me, but without the cross I felt weigh on my body like a burden that crushes it while my soul is overwhelmed with inexplicable pain. ”
In fact, the weight of that invisible cross he carries on his right shoulder folds it in half and seems to crush it. Breathing, already painful, because of the pain in my chest, becomes even more difficult, and it is useless to try to relieve it.
"Suffer with courage - says Our Lord - so that my Wives will allow themselves to be penetrated by the arrow of Love!"
And a spark of fire comes out of your Heart.
“Kiss my hands, kiss my feet too.
Repeat with me: Dad! Won't your Son's Blood have enough value? What else do you want? Your Heart, your Wounds, your Blood ... I offer you everything for the salvation of souls. "
“I used to repeat those words” - writes Josefa the next day - “He was silent for long moments. I think I was praying because my hands were folded and I was looking at the sky ... It was four in the morning when I said:
“Now I leave you, because another one of my Wives is waiting for Me. You know there are nine ...
the chosen ones of my Heart! I'll be back tomorrow at one o'clock and I'll give you the Cross again ... Goodbye! I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I will be your reward!
On Friday, June 29, at one o'clock in the afternoon, as I said, Jesus came with the Cross.
"Here I am," he said, "in order to let you share in the suffering of my oppressed and bitter Heart."
Give her the Cross and immerse her in the suffering she had experienced in the previous two days.
“A lot of blood was oozing from Chaga do Coração” - she writes.
“Repeat with me - he said: - Eternal Father, look at these souls bathed in the Blood of your Son Jesus Christ, of the Victim who offers himself to You incessantly. This blood that purifies, burns, consumes, will it not be powerful enough to move those souls? "
“He was silent for a few minutes. I repeated his words many times. Then I said with force:
Yes, I want you to come back to Me. I want you to burn with burning love, while I consume myself for them of painful Love! ”
“And he added sadly:
“Ah! if souls understood how ardently I wish to communicate to them! ... but how few understand! and how my heart is hurt! "
“Comfort Him as I could; I told Him to forget a little about the souls who offend Him and to think first of those who comfort and love Him. His heart seemed to expand at those words and said:
“I am the only happiness for souls. Why are you turning away from Me? "
"Lord, not all of them go away and if we fall it is because we are weak, you know!"
“I don't care about falls ... I know the misery of souls. What I want is for them not to be deaf to my call and not to refuse my arms when I extend them to lift them up. ” “So I spent from one o'clock to four in the afternoon, offering the Father his blood and all his merits and repeating the prayer he had taught me. ”In the silence that surrounds her, Josefa continues the work since Jesus retakes the Cross. But your soul does not abandon the painful intention from which it brings the secret.
On Saturday afternoon, July 30, your guard hour arrives.
“I was going to climb the boarding stairs when I met Him with the Cross. Said:
"I'm waiting for you."
After asking for permission to keep the work in hand:
“I went - she continues - to the place of my bed and found Him: she was waiting for me. Then she speaks of the soul unfaithful to the vocation that the Blessed Virgin entrusted to her.
Ever since the day before, when the demon's fury had befallen her, she knew from her Heavenly Mother that that daughter much loved by Maria had emerged victorious from the assaults of hell. But the night before, that soul had appeared to him immersed in the punishments of purgatory, begging him to intercede so that his suffering could be shortened. Very impressed with that first meeting in purgatory, Josefa confides her fear to the Master: “Lord, if it is so much the torment of a soul in the world, what will be the torment of a religious soul, who does not take advantage of the graces it is combined with?
"It's true" - he replies.
And comforting her with kindness:
“When one of my souls falls, I am always close to lift it as long as I humble myself with love. I care little about the misery of the soul whose only desire is to glorify Me and console Me. In its smallness, it obtains grace for many others. ” I like humility ... and how many get away from me out of pride! I want your sacrifices and your zeal to draw souls to my Heart and especially those that are consecrated to Me; May the desire to give me souls and to see Me loved consume you and may your love console me. ” Afterwards he remained silent for a long time - she continues - I told him a thousand things to comfort him and I told him about a soul that needs help. "
"If she doesn't look for Strength in my Heart - she replied - where will she find it? ... Love gives Strength, but it is necessary to forget yourself."
"Then I said to Him, Lord, forgive us, for we are so weak!"
“When a soul fervently desires to be faithful, Josefa, I support its weakness and its own downfalls cry out more strongly for my Goodness and my Mercy. I only ask that, forgetting herself, she humiliates herself and makes efforts, not for her own satisfaction, but for my Glory. ”
This promise of Mercy, always offered to weakness, Jesus leaves it at the time when Josefa will experience it once again.
Those long hours under the cross weigh, not on your courage, but on the desire for work and dedication that you always bring with you. He complains to the Master, unfortunately, and he disappears without returning to the announced time.
She is heartbroken because she has not calculated the consequences of the first movement. However, leaving her in distress, Jesus, who knows her, does not lose sight of her and sends her his Blessed Mother without delay.
“On the afternoon of Monday, August 2, at seven o'clock - writes - I went up to the oratory of the Blessed Virgin, in the Novitiate and asked her to deign, She herself to beg Jesus to forgive me ... because one day without It seems to me a century. She came suddenly, with a mother's tenderness:
"Is it true, daughter, that you no longer want the Cross of Jesus?"
"Oh Mother! You know that I cannot live without him! ”
"Then go down, because he is waiting for you." “I came down soon. Jesus was already there with the Cross. I don't know how I dared to ask Him. “He looked at me and said:
"Do you want my Cross freely?" “I begged Him to have mercy on me and give me that treasure that is my only happiness ...
Lord, ignore what I say when I am in temptation and deign not to leave me alone. ”
“I leave you alone, Josefa, so that you can see what little you can without Me! Now don't think about it anymore. Take my Cross and we will work for souls ”.
"Then he gave me the Cross and the Crown and stayed in prayer until the end of four hours".
It was that Wednesday, August 3, when Jesus, finishing the sinner's conquest, which had cost Josephus so much, appeared to him saying:
"The sinner? ... is now in my Heart".
That same afternoon, when she enters the dormitory, and raises the curtain of her alcove, there she meets the Master who is waiting for her with the Cross.
“Take my Cross - he says - I will come to rest in you If religious souls knew how much I love them and how much they hurt me with their coldness or lukewarmness! these souls do not understand the danger they are in, ignoring their miseries. They start with a little infidelity and end with relaxation. Today they give themselves a little pleasure; tomorrow they will let an inspiration of grace pass and, little by little, without realizing it, they will cool in love ”.
And to show you where the only safeguard of all faithfulness is found, Jesus gives you that lesson of great value;
"I will teach you, Josefa, how to open your soul to Mother with simplicity and humility." Then, after he went into the details of the confidentiality he demanded:
“I want you to be holy, very holy, and you will be only through the path of humility and obedience.
I will show you everything. little by little."
Then, before leaving it, he adds:
I recommend that you always have before your eyes, rooted in your heart, two convictions - First: if God looked at the Look in you, it is only to better manifest His Power, raising a great building over an abyss of misery.
“Second, if you want to lead Me to the right and you want to go to the left, your loss is certain. Finally, Josefa, the consequence of everything must be, in you, a more real knowledge of your misery and complete abandonment in the Hands of your God. ”
This lesson of trust and humility is so dear to the Heart of Our Lord that it will often insist to me in the same direction.
In the notes of Josefa, the following advice is carefully kept:
“I want to make you aware of the most delicate attractions of my heart. I have already told you with simplicity that you should entrust yourself to Mother and open your soul to her without keeping the smallest fold in which she does not penetrate.
“I want to recommend you today that you try not to miss even an occasion to humble yourself. When you are free to do or not do one of those costly little acts, go and do it. I want you to report faithfully to your Mother every fifteen days for the efforts you have made, the occasions you have used or lost. The more you know what you are. you better know what I am. Never take the rest of the night with any shadow in your soul; I strongly recommend this to you. When you make a mistake, fix it immediately.
“I want your soul to be pure as crystal.
“Don't be upset if you fall yet, more than once. It is disturbance and restlessness that draw the soul away from its God. Ask for forgiveness and I repeat, don't wait, tell Mother right away. "
"I want. small and humble and always smiling. Yes, I want you to live happily but always trying to be somehow executioner for yourself.
Choose often what it costs you, but keep yourself cheerful and jovial, because it is by serving Me with peace and joy that you will most glorify my Heart. ”
This clear direction keeps Josefa on the safe path and teaches her that this is also the only path that the workers of Redemption must follow after the Master.
And so the great “company” continues, as Our Lord called it. Josefa continues to carry the cross that Jesus goes on successively passing to his nine chosen ones, by the religious souls that he wants to bring back to his Heart. This work is, however, ending.
“During Mass - she writes on the 5th of August, Friday, she was resplendent with beauty.
“I want, he said to me - that you be consumed in my Love; I have already shown you that you will only find happiness in my Heart. I want you to love Me, for I am hungry for love ... but that you burn with the desire to see Me loved and that your heart has no other food than this desire. ”
“I told you a thousand things and Jesus continued:
“Every day, after communion, repeat with the greatest fervor possible: Heart of Jesus, may the whole world burn in your Love!”
It is certainly in this ardor that she spends that day "burning with desires" as she wrote.
At seven o'clock, she went up to the dormitory: Jesus was waiting for her.
"Take my Cross - said and we will suffer for souls."
After a moment of silence, he added:
"If my Wives meditated well that I am all Love and that my greatest desire is to be loved, why do they treat me like this?"
And, explaining the price that love gives to the smallest effort:
“When the soul does an act that is still very costly but out of interest or pleasure not out of love, little merit is achieved. On the contrary, a small thing, offered with great love. it consoles my Heart to such an extent that it leans towards it and forgets all its miseries. ”
“Yes - repeat - my ardent desire is to be loved. If souls knew the excess of my Love, they could fail to respond ... This is why I run in search of them and spare nothing to return to Me. ”
“He said all this in a moving way; it was a scream fe Love! He spent a long time in silence and prayer. At eleven o'clock in the evening he left saying:
“Suffers with a lot of love. constantly offers my Blood for souls ... And now give me my Cross. "
Three days go by, during which, to the mysterious pains associated with the Master's Cross, the sacrifice requested from the entire house of the “Feiulliants” is added: the usual changes for religious families then call for that of the Sacred Heart the exchange of the superior.
Josefa, like all Mothers and Sisters, participates in that worthy offering that Our Lord will use to finish his Work.
Monday, August 8, will be for the “Feuillants” Convent one of those precious days for the Heart of Jesus in which. Mother and Daughters, united in the same deep sacrifice, offer the separation.
After communion, Jesus appears to Josefa.
“I want souls to come to me without delay. Pray without ceasing that they will allow themselves to be penetrated by grace. Even if you cannot do anything but wish that I am loved, it is already too much. My Heart is relieved, because that desire is Love. Soon those religious souls will go into retreat. Offer yourself to let them be pierced by Love. ”
In the afternoon at seven o'clock, in the radiant splendor of his heart and his wounds, Jesus returns, but without a cross, Josefa does not dare to believe in the happiness he sees in the radiant countenance of the Master. Ask Him for the Cross.
'• No - he replies - those souls no longer hurt My Heart. And besides this - he adds - today I accepted the sacrifice of this house for them and found a lot of love here! Tomorrow that religious community will begin the retreat and will soon be, for my Heart, a refuge of great comfort. "
Thus ends that history of divine Mercies.
Josefa was also going to enter a new stage of her
life.

V - THE GREAT PROOF

FIRST THEFT
August 26 - October 1921.

“Don't be afraid to suffer.If you saw how many souls approached the Heart of Jesus during the time of temptation! ”

The Blessed Virgin to Josefa - October 24, 1921.

The admirable designs of God on Josefa's life are now entering a new phase.
Since the end of August 1921, his notes reveal the closest dependence imposed on him.
You will no longer be able to respond to the Call of the Master outside of ordinary prayer times® without prior permission.
Does this determination mean any doubt about it? ...
The new Superior of the “Feuillants”, made aware of everything, since her arrival, by express indication of Our Lord, owes to prudence the reservations of a wise slowness and of a circumspection that will examine everything before giving credit to the mysterious divine conduct.
Josefa submits herself with all her soul to the direction of obedience. He had known the Heart of Jesus very closely so that the smallest shadow would reach his confidence.
And, even better, you know what demands of fidelity the Master's plans require. No hesitation disturbs the ease, the simplicity, the supernatural confidence with which you embrace any decision of the Superiors,
But. how much will mature modesty cost! of his nature, so reserved in these matters, having to speak, explain, answer questions, put everything under the double surveillance of the two Madres and feel the target of even closer observation!
Everything, however, is divinely linked in this life. It is time that the Action of God will appear with evidence such that no doubt can already exist around it: and Jesus will give the authentic sign in the faithfulness of that obedience and that detachment that are always unalterable.
It is the hour when the devil will receive the terrible power to winnow the wheat of divine predilections; but Jesus will surround his Work with bulwarks that can withstand all the attacks of the enemy.
That is how Josefa opens up that new and surprising stage that will lead her to the Vows.
In the large house of the “Feuillants”, where the girls flock, in the midst of a large community, the oldest Sister of the little Novitiate, which grows little by little, will always be extinguished, hardworking and dedicated. Only the Superior and the Assistant will keep the secret of the Work that unfolds before them. And the support of Reverend Father Boyer, Prior of the Dominicans appointed at that time by Our Lord, will cooperate in his Purposes, will calm anxieties and will discover the devils' hoaxes.
Then, when all the guarantees and all the security guards surround Josefa, the Lord will send her to the night of the great test that would only end on the day of her religious consecration (July 1922).
It is the baptism of pain that dedicates her to the Redeeming Work of which she will have to be a witness and collaborator before being a messenger.
The time has come for the prince of darkness, and Josefa is going to face him. Since then, she has met him every step of the way.
But Jesus, who fights in it, prepares the enemy for the most humiliating defeat. It makes him feel the limit of his efforts, the uselessness of his means and the impotence of his devices. If he leaves the demon with the appearance of easy triumphs, Josefa abandons himself to that adversary who seems to overcome her, if he allows her to descend into the abysses where he can no longer love, he remains however in the depth of that soul that he chose as a victim and supports her with the fidelity of your Love. He will never have been more intimately present to you than in the hours of true martyrdom where only divine Action could compensate for trials and humiliations that escape human experiences. Through the fragility of the instrument, it is truly the struggle between God and Satan, between Love and hate, between the merciful Goodness that wants to show itself once more to the world and the enemy of souls that divines the divine side and raises against it the satanic fury. All the devil's effort during this long period of nine months is concentrated, in effect, against Josefa's vocation, while there is still time. He omits nothing to break his will: violent temptations, fear of responsibility, which the devil makes overwhelming, lying words that alarm his conscience, obsessions that unfold, so to speak, his soul and make her think what she does not believe, say and do what you don't want, without being able to discern the diabolic Force that dominates it; threatening or deceptive appearances, beatings, kidnappings, burns ... everything falls on the fragile creature like a storm in the middle of which it seems that it will settle down. She resists, however, with incredible energy. It is the fruit of his usual simplicity in carrying out his duty and, even more, of his faithfulness in allowing himself to be guided. It is above all the divine Force that sustains it, always present, although hidden at certain times, the Force of the Eucharist from which nothing will ever separate it.
The last days of the month of August also bring some heavenly visits that strengthen your soul for the struggles to come.
On Friday, August 26, at nine o'clock in the morning, faithful to the order received, Josefa enters the Superior's cell.
It is shrouded in recoil that makes you guess an invisible presence. In a nutshell, she asks permission to follow Our Lord for a moment, "because - she says - he is there."
He said it even better with his low eyes, his physiognomy, his attitude of prayer, the effort he makes to speak.
“When I left, Mother - she writes - said to Our Lord: I have a license.
“He walked beside me and took me to the podium, I started by saying what Mother recommended to me: if you really are the One I think of, Lord. deign not to offend You if I am obliged to ask permission every time, to listen to You and follow You - He replied:
“I am not offended at all; on the contrary. I want you to always obey and I will also obey. ”
“He looked like a poor man, saying that. Then he added:
“Your Mothers comfort me by making sure with so much fervor that I really am. Today I am united with my Heart and repair for many souls.”
Incomparable is the delicacy with which Our Lord consents to submit to the demands; that will then surround your visits. The fidelity of your Heart supporting that of your daughter is the divine seal that attests your presence. In those months of August and September, he changed his entertainment with Josefa and continued to ask, as before, for the help of his offerings to souls.
On Thursday, 1.? September, after communion, came, very beautiful - she writes -: when she started to speak, her Voice was sad.
“I want you to console Me,” he said. - The coldness of souls is great and how many fall into perdition! If I could leave you my Cross as before! ”
“Then, when I asked for permission, he took me to the St. Stanislaus oratory and told me:
“If I did not find souls to comfort Me and attract mine. Mercy, justice could not be contained. ”
“A little later, he continued:
“My love for souls is so great that I am consumed with the desire for their salvation. But how many are lost! Amounts also hope that sacrifices and oblations will obtain the grace to leave the state in which they find themselves ... I still have many souls who are mine and love Me. One of these obtains forgiveness for many others, ungrateful and cold.
“I want you to express yourself in the desire to save Me souls, to throw yourself into my Heart and to be concerned only with my Glory. I will return in the afternoon in order to calm this thirst that devours me and I will rest in you ”. “At the beginning of Holy Hour, he came back, in fact, and said:
"We will offer ourselves as victims to my Eternal Father."
"Let us bow with deep respect in His Presence ... Let us adore Him, let us present our thirst for His Glory ... Offer and repair in union with the divine Victim.”
“I said it very slowly. It was gone, just before the end of Holy Hour ”. A few days later, the Blessed Virgin appears to Josefa. Come and support her because the intimate struggles are not lacking for that daughter.
“I cannot tell you how much I, who am your Mother, wish you to be faithful - she says - but do not worry. The only thing that Jesus asks is that you abandon yourself to his Will. The rest He will do. ” “I explained to him how much it costs me to have to say these things not only to Mother Assistant but now to Mother Superior.”
"The more Jesus asks you, the more I should rejoice, daughter."
The Blessed Virgin responds: and as if to root her humble distrust of herself:
“Faced with a masterpiece - She continues - it is not the brush, but the artist's hand that you admire ... Also, Josefa, if it happens that great things are done through you, do not attribute anything to yourself, because it is Jesus who acts. It is He who lives in you and who uses you. Give Him thanks for so much Goodness! ... Be very faithful in small and big things, without looking at what it costs you. Obey Jesus, obey your Mothers and keep yourself very humble, well abandoned. Jesus takes care of your smallness and I am your Mother! ”
On Thursday, September 8, Our Lord reassures her by giving her the secret of courage:
"Do not worry but love Me: Love will give you strength."
But Love must keep it constantly occupied with souls.
“I have a soul that offends Me,” he says, appearing on Tuesday, September 13, and I come to console myself with you. You will ask permission to stay with me for a while; I will not occupy you for long. Do not be afraid if you feel helpless, for I will make you participate in the anguish of my Heart.
Poor soul ... how is it precipitating into the abyss!
“For three hours, on the night of the 14th to the 15th of September, he left me the Cross and the Rope - adds Josefa - A. the same thing in the following nights and for many days he cooperates thus for the return of the straying sheep. "
"You still have to suffer - repeats Our Lord on Thursday, September 22 - Offer all your actions bathed in my Blood and spare yourself nothing, because everything will serve that soul."
The nights go on under the cross and in the morning he starts working again without anything biting his exhaustion.
The Holy Mother Founder also comes to cheer you up: On Saturday, September 24, she appears “with a heavenly smile” - writes Josefa - and after having entrusted her with some recommendations:
“As for you, daughter, a lot of humility, a lot of obedience and a lot of love,” she says, putting her hand on his head. Then he adds: I keep this Poitiers house with a preference. ”
At the end of the night from 24 to 25, a terrible night of anguish and pain:
"Suddenly - Josefa still writes - all suffering disappeared. The soul invaded me, peace immersed. There was Jesus, beautiful, shining with light, the Tunic looked like gold and the Heart was like a fire."
"That soul - he said - we won it!" “I gave Him thanks and adored Him with great respect, for the Majesty of God was in him. I asked Him for forgiveness of my sins and I begged Him to keep me faithful, because I see myself as weak. However, he well knows that I want nothing more than to comfort and love Him. ”
"Do not worry about your misery" ... My Heart is the throne of Mercy where the most miserable sinners are the most welcomed, as long as they are lost in this abyss of Love.
I looked at you because you are small and miserable.
I am your strength!
“And now, let's win other souls!
"But first it rests a little in my Heart."
That rest would be short-lived and, “to win other souls”, Josefa was going to give more than ever.
On the same day, Sunday, September 25, the stage of terrible temptations begins, which will be first in the silent domain of the soul, but which will soon take over your spirit with a strange Force. Continuing to write the notes, you do not know how to express your pain:
“I have such horrible views in my imagination that I don't know what to do or think about. And what makes me suffer the most is that I never had this kind of temptation, nor did I ever want anything in the world but to be all of Jesus.
“I spent many weeks like this and lost peace in such a way that I no longer dared to receive Our Lord. However, obedience helped me and it is true that deep down in my soul I cannot resign myself to being without communion. ”
Days and nights go on like this in unspeakable anguish for that soul so pure, grappling with the sight of sin. The greatest torment is the fear of offending God and the disappearance of the crown of thorns, which he still felt around his head, increases his disturbance.
“During worship - he writes on Sunday, October 2, I did not dare to speak with Our Lord and I turned to his Mother so that She would ask Him for that crown that would reassure me a little.
"It came suddenly, so good! And said:
“Daughter, what does it matter if you don't have the crown on your head if you have it in your heart? Trust the devils with the devils well, because they will not leave you alone and you still have a lot to fight. ”
And, indeed, it is time for fierce battles. Faced with the demon's violent action, Josefa never ceases to repeat in his will: "Be faithful or die."
But soon after, she thinks she is abandoned and repelled by God.
Two or three times peace returns instantly to the memory of the Master's Words. In those rare minutes, his whole soul is revived by love so ardent that it finds no expression. Then one can find out to what extent that soul is sincere and what martyrdom suffers, how attached to the vocation that is so dear to him and that he loves above all!
At other times it is such a desolation that no human means can relieve it or pull it out from diabolical pressure. She is speechless and stunned by the pain. For her, communions are the price of effort and courage that only obtain victory at the last moment, because the devil, without achieving it, insists on depriving her of the Eucharist, whose desire consumes her. Thus a month passes without anything external, mind denoting the violence of the struggle. Despite the continuity of so much suffering, she invariably fulfills her duty and her religious life, and remains always silent and courageous in her post of dedication.
Meanwhile, the demon assaults redouble.
“I was kind of desperate - she writes on Monday, October 17 - It was a feast of Saint Margaret Mary and, after communion, I begged her to obtain from me the grace of being faithful and dying without ever separate from him. All day I was in that horrible temptation. At night, as I couldn't sleep, I prayed to Our Lady to give me light and strength, but a kind of furor came over me and decided to leave everything and go. ”
The next day she gets up under the pressure of that diabolical force whose intensity only the witnesses can judge.
"At the time of Mass, I went to sweep the cell corridor - she writes - when, suddenly, like lightning, I was invaded by peace at the same time that the thought was imprinted in my soul:" could I do without Him? "
"In the same instant everything disappeared as if I had never suffered, as if I had never had all those temptations ... I ran to the chapel and was able to receive communion!"
How often, through the assaults of hell, Josefa will recognize this sudden and total deliverance that can only come from God!
The devil will not let go of the prey for a little while. He prowls around her trying to discover any circumstance in which his will may fail. On the other hand, Our Lord, knowing the great battles she is preparing and that she cannot sustain alone, increasingly asks her for the simple and total confidence that will redouble her strength by keeping her in humility. But, at the same time, it does not hide the coming tribulations.
On Thursday, October 20. it appears to Him with a burning Heart; show him the cup in your hands? tells you:
“You only drank a part, Josefa. But I am here to defend you. ”
Alarmed at the prospect of so many trials. Josefa does not know how to resolve herself and it seems that her courage is going down for a moment.
It is only a fainting, but how painful for your love!
Four days pass in that anguish and it is the Blessed Virgin, as always, who brings peace with her presence. It appears to her full of tenderness, notes Josefa, on Monday afternoon, October 24.
“Poor daughter! she says - How you suffer! Why don't you call for Jesus? Do not be afraid to suffer - She adds - If you saw how many souls approached your Heart during the time of temptation! ”
And the Master, full of kindness and always close to those who suffer, responds on Monday, October 25, to his call:
"I come because you called me."
In the disorientation in which the demon leaves her. Josefa, who is always afraid of failing, asks what she could do to repair it?
“You know what to do: love, love!”
Love then becomes the first as the last word of the fight to be fought.

OPEN PERSECUTION
November 1921 - February 14, 1922

I will give you courage for all the suffering I ask of you. ”

Our Lord to Josefa - November 29, 1921.

For some weeks yet, Josefa faithfully continues to write her notes; an effort of obedience, the more meritorious the more sincere. Temptation has since taken on such a force on his soul that he can no longer distinguish what part of his responsibility falls in the failings of his will.
“From Friday, November 11th, onwards - she notes - I did not have another moment of peace and spent days and nights in intense suffering.”
The demon's sensitive persecutions are then highlighted.
She is beaten while praying or working; plucked from the chapel by an invisible force that stops it at the moment of following the novices.
Three times it tries to go ahead, three times it is violently repelled and only the intervention of obedience manages to free it.
At the same time, they redouble the pestering temptations against purity, perseverance and even faith, leaving it exhausted and as if helpless.
His love protests however and boldly repeats: "Lord, even if they kill me, I will be faithful to you."
"I was relieved - writes on Monday, November 21, for the contract they sent me to do with Our Lord, asking Him that all my breaths and all the palpitations of my heart be acts of love and repeat my desire to be faithful until death. That gave me a lot of peace. ”
On Tuesday. November 22, in the morning, Josefa, as usual, swept the rooms for which she was in charge.
“Suddenly,” she writes, “two hands were gently placed on my shoulders. I came back and saw Our Lady, so beautiful, so motherly that my Heart was impelled towards her. He said to me tenderly:
"My daughter! Poor thing!”
"I asked His forgiveness and I begged Him to intercede for me with Jesus." It is always the first movement of your delicate soul, for there is nothing to fear with more fear in the midst of your tribulations than to hurt the Master's Heart, even involuntarily.
“Fear nothing. Josefa - answers the Blessed Virgin - Jesus made with you a covenant of love and Mercy. You are completely forgiven and I am your Mother. ”
“I don't know that I answered him because he was overflowing with joy. She is a Mother, more and more! I thanked him and asked him to reach me for Jesus, again the crown. ”
“Yes, daughter. he will give it! If he is not himself, I will be the one to bring him. ”
“In the afternoon, during the adoration, Jesus came very beautiful - she narrates - He held the crown of thorns in his hand.
As soon as I saw Him, I asked His forgiveness and said everything I remembered most tenderly in order to have compassion on me.
“He approached me with kindness and, placing the crown over my head, said:
“I want you to deepen my mother's words well: I made a covenant of love and mercy with you. Love never tires and Mercy never ends! ”
The very next day, Wednesday, November 23, the Lord reminds him that there is no rest possible in the face of the destitution of souls. ”
"I want you to pull out of the wolf's throat a soul that is very dear to Me."
And asking Josefa what it was necessary to do:
“Love Me, humiliate yourself and let them humiliate you. Look at my Heart - he continues - only here can souls find happiness, and how many of them get away! ”
Two days later, after communion, Jesus appears “with the majesty of a God,” she writes on Friday, 25 November. ” He showed me his heart, all burned, the wound was opened to him and he said:
"See how my Heart of Love for Souls is consumed. You too must burn with the desire for their salvation. I want you today to go deep into this Heart and repair the union with him.
Yes, we have to notice - he repeats - I am the great Victim, you are a small victim. But, united with Me, you can be attended by the Father. ”
"He stayed there for a moment and disappeared."
On Saturday, November 26, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Josefa worked with the usual ardor in the girls' uniforms in the Novitiate workshop. Suddenly her Jesus approaches.
"It was so beautiful! ... she writes - but it looked a little sad."
“I want - he said - to ask Mother to leave me for a moment.” (1)

(1) One is quite a bit surprised by this text that is repeated two more times. Our Lord is Master and Sovereign, he does not have to ask anyone for permission to do with whomever he pleases. But if He liked to show so much deference to those who had authority over Josefa, is it not to teach the humble submission that she should always have to the Superiors? And he did nothing but confirm what he had said before (see page 198.) "I will also obey." The lesson was to penetrate deeply and bear fruit.
Josefa received it to transmit it to religious souls.

I ran to ask for it and then I went to the Chapel of Works where he asked to do everything he wanted to me, because he is my God and I want nothing more than to comfort and love Him. Jesus, full of kindness, told me in a voice that recorded in the depths of my soul. ”
“I have so many souls that abandon Me and so many that are lost! What is most painful to me is that they are my souls, the souls on which I looked at the eyes and which I showered with Gifts! In return, they have nothing but coldness and ingratitude for me. Ah! how few souls I meet that correspond to my Love! ...
He entrusts his Cross to him and disappears without adding anything. But the next day, Sunday, November 27, at the end of the Mass, he came back suddenly to say with a lively ardor.
“This is what I want: to involve you, consume you, annihilate. you in order to be me who lives in you. ” So, leaning on your Heart:
“Where, outside of Me, can you find the peace that I give you to savor? However, you still don't know the true sweetness. You will taste it when.
"There," writes Josefa, "the bell rang and Jesus left without ending."
On Monday, November 28, laconic note, lies the ordeal that will no longer leave her alone: ​​new power is given to the devil. For the first time she hears the diabolic voice that chases her through the corridors, in the Novitiate, in the workshop, in the dormitory ... You will be ours ...
yes we will tire you! We will beat you! ... ”That voice terrifies her but does not take away her courage.
In the afternoon of that day he writes:
“During worship Jesus came with the Cross. I asked for it and replied:
“Yes, I came to give it to you. I want you to rest Me and to repair what my souls refuse my Heart. How many are not what they should be! ” "He left the Cross for an hour and when he came to get it he said only:
"I'll be back soon."
At night, I think it would be 24 hours, I woke up suddenly. There he was.
“I bring it. my Cross and we will both repair it. ” She humbly confesses that she felt weak under the heavy weight that overwhelmed her.
"I begged you to help me - writes - because you know how small I am!"
“Don't look at your smallness. Josefa! See the power of my Heart that supports you. I am your Strength and the Repairer of your misery. I will give you courage for all the suffering I ask of you. ”
"Then he left me alone and by three o'clock he came back."
“Give me my Cross again. I will bring it back soon. ”
Early in the morning of Tuesday, November 29, during the prayer I brought it to you. It still weighs on Josefa's shoulder as he follows her to work and goes to Mass. After communion, Jesus reminds him of the secret of all generosity:
“You now have life in Me. I am your Strength.
Courage! Take my Cross! ”
I went to do my task with your Cross - she says simply.
But soon the devil's screams and screams torment her again. It seems to him that the forces suddenly abandon it and that it will fall.
“It scared me - she writes - and I begged Our Lord to come to my aid.
"I was ironing clothes when, suddenly, he came to be beautiful".
Then, regaining confidence close to him, he vented in the Sacred Heart the anguish of his Jesus, responding to him with kindness.
“When the enemy wants to bring you down, tell him that you have the One who sustains you with divine strength for you. "
"Since that day - she adds - the demon has tormented me a lot."
Until then, Josefa had only known the volley of blows that shook his whole body. No trace will be visible; however, she is exhausted after nights and days of torment, while the diabolic voice, now insinuating, now threatening, disturbs and torments her soul.
On Sunday night, December 4, he experiences new torture.
Violently uprooted from the bed, it is thrown to the ground, deprived of strength under the blows of the invisible enemy, who has wounded it with injuries and vomits the most abominable blasphemies against Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin.
So you spend long hours. The torment is renewed with more violence in the following two nights:
“At the end of one of those tremendous nights - she writes - on the morning of December 6, - not knowing what else to do, I got on my knees at the foot of the bed.
trying to forget the horrors that that hellish voice roared against Jesus and his Mother;
"Suddenly I heard a gnashing of teeth and a roar of anger. Then everything disappeared and I saw the most beautiful Blessed Virgin before me!"
“Don't be afraid, daughter, here I am!
"I told you how afraid I am of the devil, who makes me suffer so much!"
“He can torment you, but it won't hurt you. His fury is great because of the souls that escape him ...
souls are worth so much! ... If you knew the value of a soul! ... ”
“Then she gave me the blessing, adding:
"Do not fear anything."
"I kissed His hand and Eia was gone."
After that maternal recapitulation about the price necessary for the salvation of souls, Mother and Son disappear, for some time, from Josefa's painful path, while only the devil remains on the scene.
Nothing else will she write about these daily struggles through which, from suffering to suffering, the generosity of her love will strengthen and mature. The report of this stage was, however, written, day by day, as the facts unfolded. And that allows us to immerse ourselves in it to assess, at least in part, the poignant reality.
That Friday, December 6, leaving the chapel where he had just confessed. Josefa finds herself suddenly, and for the first time, before the infernal vision: a huge black dog, throwing flames through his eyes and through the gaping throat, hinders his passage and tries to throw himself on it. She does not retreat and, dominating the fear that suffocates her, takes the rosary and extending it in front of her continues the path.
Since then the demon appears to him sensibly.
After the threatening dog that chases her in the corridors, a snake rises in the middle of the ground. Soon, it takes the most terrible of all the human forms.
This is how it appears on Saturday, December 18, wrapped in light fogged with smoke. Terrified, she begins the heroic fight that day. The hideous creature will spare no effort to overcome the purity of the fragile girl strengthened by the One who promised to support her.
Such encounters will multiply through the days of Josefa without changing her, neither fidelity nor dedication, but at the price of what courage! However, the time comes when the trial, even greater, will demand more complete abandonment.
On Wednesday, December 28, at seven o'clock at night, returning from work with the Sisters, Josefa is suddenly seen in the presence of the enemy. With the speed of lightning he loads it and places it in an attic that is difficult to access at the other end of the house. Since that day Josefa will not know another moment of peace. The devil grabs it whenever and wherever he wants, mocking all precautions and evading any vigilance outside of God.
Such abductions have multiplied. Even under the maternal eyes of the Superiors, who try not to lose sight of her, she suddenly disappears without being able to say how, since it is always in the space of lightning. After a long search, she is found somewhere hidden in the house, where the demon had thrown her and is mistreating her. It is often rolled, tightened, almost crushed in some recess, or under beds in a place where you could not have been alone, sometimes you cannot find it in the vast home of the "Feuillants". Nights pass when it is necessary to leave it to God. but he, more than anyone, loves her and watches over her. He wants to show that he is the Owner and that he reserves divine vigilance for himself. Always intervene at the chosen time to assert your rights.
The devil has to let go of his prey and, with a blasphemy, annihilates himself in the presence of God ... Then Josefa freed gets up. Exhausted, but aware of everything, she creates courage, prays and begins to work. The enemy, in effect, will not be able to dominate the indomitable energy, of that fragile creature that Jesus invests with his own Strength and defends with his Love. It seems that the demon's rage has increased tenfold in the face of such unforeseen resistance. He seeks to unveil all the secrets surrounding his victim, but despite his efforts, no one notices Josefa's disappearances, no one, apart from the two Madres, finds out where she lies, sometimes long hours, under diabolical persecution.
Some stays come from time to time to shed some light on the dark path. Josefa, to obey, starts writing her notes again:
“On January 1, 1922, - he writes - during the nine o'clock mass, shortly after the elevation, I heard the voice of a little child who filled me with joy:
'• Josefa, my little one ... You recognize me ? ”
“I saw Jesus right before me! He was like a child of a year, perhaps a little longer, dressed in a white tunic, shorter than usual. The feet were bare, the hair of a burning blonde ...
It was beautiful! ... I recognized him right away and said: I certainly recognize you! You are my Jesus! But how small you are. Sir! .., he smiled and replied:
“Yes. I'm small! But my heart is big! ”
“When he said these words, he put his hand on his chest and I saw his Heart. I can't express what filled mine when I saw that! ... Oh! Sir. If You didn't have that Heart, I wouldn't be able to love You so much, but Your Heart enchants me! ”... With tenderness that cannot be explained, he said:
“ This is why I wanted you to know Him, Josefa, this is why I put you in the most depth of this Heart. ” "I asked Him if all suffering was over."
"No, you still have to suffer!"
Then he added:
"I need hearts that love, souls that repair, victims that immolate themselves, but above all souls that abandon themselves!"
Then she entrusts him with his greatest pity: the fear that his soul has lost something of its purity, at least of the old innocence, "because before I knew nothing of all those things with which the devil torments me ..." Jesus replied:
“Fear nothing, your soul is covered with my Blood and nothing of all this can stain you. "Then, alluding to the word that, more than once, in the preceding days had fortified her:
" Your Mothers are right - he said - The devil has no other power than that which comes from above. Tell him that I am above all. ”
Last recommendation for humility ends the lessons of the Divine Child.
“You see how I wanted to become small, Josefa. It is to help you stay very young too. If you wanted to humiliate Me at this point it is to teach you to humble yourself in turn. ” "He gave me the blessing with his little hand and disappeared."
Josefa's notes are still interrupted, and in the same afternoon the test starts again, more violent than ever.

Eleven days of growing persecution, kidnapping, beatings and outrages, fill his soul with pain, anguish, almost despair, without diminishing his courage.
On Wednesday, January 11, Father Director is called to hear and comfort you. But the devil at the moment, takes possession of it and already triumphs over his victory. After a long struggle, Josefa manages to escape that pressure and comes to himself, under the priestly blessing. The priest, who accompanies everything in those tragic hours, proposes that he immediately take the vow of virginity until the day of his religious consecration. On her knees, in heavenly joy, she promises Jesus fidelity until death. It offers that consecration in repairing the blasphemies with which the devil outrages the purity of the Immaculate Virgin.
That act, done with such spontaneity, fills her with peace. In the same afternoon, dressed in a new Force, she faced the assaults of the demon who seems to want to take revenge furiously. But he has “no other power than that which comes from on high” and once again Maria's virginal foot stops him saying:
“You will not go further.”
“On the morning of Thursday, January 12th, - the notes continue - at the moment when the devil was horribly mistreating me, suddenly the Blessed Virgin appeared and taking me by the hand, raised me up and said:
“ Daughter, enough for this time! Jesus defends you and so do I. Do you believe that he can abandon his wife? Fear not, Josefa. ”
"He gave me the blessing and disappeared."
A few moments later, during Thanksgiving, Jesus himself showed up and alluded to the vow of virginity the day before:
Josefa, my wife - says - do you know what your Superiors achieved with that vow? They forced my Heart to take care of you in a special way. Tell them that that act gave me much glory ”,
“ I asked Him if the trial was over. ”
I want you to abandon yourself to suffer or enjoy and to be always ready to endure the devil's torments as much as to receive my consolations. ”
It is therefore always on the same path of abandonment that Our Lord keeps her through everything. She must walk with her eyes closed, leaning on him, without any other guarantees. Reverend Father Boyer, who follows me closely, supports her on that same path of humility.
"He recommended me - she write - to make me very small, to put me below the whole world and consider me the most unworthy of creatures." Jesus also insists on this recommendation that corresponds to the desire of his own Heart.
“Josefa, did you understand well the advice that the Father gave you? Yes. I want you to be very small. I want - continued with Force - to be humiliated and crushed. Let them operate in you according to the plans of my Heart. ”
That same afternoon, for the first time, the Blessed Virgin makes you realize that your passage will be short here on earth.
Josefa expresses his desire to never revoke the sacrifice of his homeland.
“Yes,” says his Immaculate Mother, “you will die here in France, in this house in Poitiers; before 10 years you will already be in heaven (1).

(1) On the 21st of July of the same year, cheering up Josefa in the face of the mission whose difficult hours make her predict: “Before three years, - repeat - you will already be in Heaven. I tell you to give you courage.”

I believe - he writes a few days later - that it was on the 13th or the 14th of January that the devil began to torment me again. He seeks with increasing fury to lead me to abandon my vocation. He even tried to deceive me under the figure of Our Lord. ”
Here Josefa's notes stop again. Since Friday, January 13, the demon has invested again without being able to shake it and the response to the enemy's threats is heard.
"Well, kill me."
So, as she says, the devil turns into an angel of light and to better seduce her, she presents herself under the features of Our Lord ...
First she is bewildered but soon discerns the sham.
The words he hears do not carry the humble and great, strong and smooth character of those of the Master. His soul invincibly invades the vision that brings neither peace nor confidence. Countless times the same test will be presented. Josefa's humble distrust of herself, her confidence in her guides, her obedience to the direction given her, will save her from further danger. Second order of the Spiritual Father, since then, every appearance, whatever it may be, will renew the Vow of virginity awaiting religious vows. The devil's cunning will never endure that act of faith and love done in his presence. He changes his appearance and attitude, gets agitated, betrays himself and suddenly disappears with blasphemy like an impostor caught in the act of committing a crime. Later, to the renewal of vows, Josefa will add, by obedience, the Divine Praises, asking the apparitions to repeat with her. Jesus himself, his Immaculate Mother, the Holy Mother Founder, will paraphrase them with incomparable ardor. The prince of darkness will never be able to utter, with his cursed lips, words of praise and blessing, for he can no longer love.
Then, discovered, he redoubled his fury and violence. Now, the end of outrages for her not giving in to her threats, for not consenting to the sin that causes her or wanting to leave. Now, it takes hold of the spirit's most dangerous obsessions that still seem to drive it to the edge of despair. In the midst of that life of suffering, humiliation, trials, however - and it is precisely in this that the Spirit who guides her is revealed, it is Love that leads her - Josefa does not deviate from the Rule of ordinary life and her daily work.
Just after the Medication and Mass, he will sweep the rooms for which he is in charge, and, faithful to his office, we can see her ironing or cleaning the chapel of the works; all the rest of the time is given to sewing and patching. The small unforeseen services, which are not lacking at home, seem to fit him rightfully. She becomes precious, always active and intelligent at work and, above all, dedicated and forgetful of her own interests.
Throughout these two months - December 1921 and January 1922 - as in all those that will follow, nothing in their tasks is changed. Since the devil leaves her, although at the limit of her strength, she starts to work heroically brave, as if nothing has been abnormal. Seeing her like this, always the same one who could suspect what she had just suffered and what awaits her at every step? ... A great mystery continues to loom over her and, despite the devil's efforts, nothing unravels the painful path by which Our Lord decided to make it pass. That watchfulness of God is not the slightest sign to attest to His Presence and Action.
As always, it is up to the Blessed Virgin to cast a ray of peace on that night from time to time.
On February 3, the first Friday of the month, the Reverend Father Boyer, acceding to his desire, allows Josefa, to strengthen her in her vocation, to join the vow of Virginity to stay forever in the Society of the Sacred Heart as long as the Superiors want to keep it.
In this second commitment she finds new boldness that decides her to suffer and struggle as long as she pleases Our Lord.
On Sunday, February 12, after that morning when the devil had set everything in motion to overcome it in the afternoon, he is with all the Sisters in the chapel of the Works, where the Blessed Sacrament is given.
Suddenly, enveloped in light and right next to it Our Lady appears. Josefa shudders ... there was so much that the heavenly Mother had not visited her! Fears ... hesitates.
But the peace that does not deceive, accompanies the voice so soft and so known.
“Don't be afraid, daughter! I am the Immaculate Virgin, the Mother of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer and your God. ”
Josefa's whole soul feels impelled towards Her.
But faithful to obedience and to thwart the enemy's possible devices:
“If you are the Mother of Jesus - he says - allow me to renew the vow of virginity that I took before You until the day when I am happy to pronounce Vows in the Society of the Sacred Heart. I thus renew between your hands the vow I made to remain in this beloved Society until death and to die before I was unfaithful to my vocation. "
As he speaks, he does not take his eyes off the sweet sight that the ribbon tenderly holds. The Virgin extends her right hand over her daughter's head and continues:
"Fear nothing, daughter, Jesus is here to defend you and your Mother too".
Then he traces the sign of the cross on his forehead, gives him a hand to kiss and disappears.
That moment of heaven floods Josefa with peace and joy, the enemy is not yet unarmed. He spends the rest of the afternoon under blows that his fury doubles. Will you already know you are overdue? Josefa, however, although exhausted, is all confident in the luminous memory of the look and smile of her divine Mother. The race will end for some time. The very next day, Monday, February 13, 1922, she hears the Master's Appeal:
“Fear nothing, it's me!”
“I didn't know if it was him - the notes continue - I went to tell the Madres, then I went back to the podium.
He was already there.
"Yes, I am myself, Jesus the Son of the Immaculate Virgin."
The devil, despite his audacity, could never utter such words. "Sir! My only love!
- she replies - if you are, deign to allow me to renew the Vows I made for You in Your Presence. He listened to me complacently and when I finished he replied:
“Tell your Superiors that, as you have been faithful in doing my Will, I too will be faithful to You. Tell them that the test has passed and how much glory my Heart has received! You, Josefa - (there He opened his arms and approached me to the Heart), rest, in Me and in my Peace, just as I rested in your sufferings. ”
In the afternoon, however, the divine Master highlights the conditions of peace:
Leave Me all the freedom to act on you. ” Then, in a gesture of unspeakable love, she attracts herself and opens her heart.
"Come and rest here."
“He immersed me there - said Josefa - and made me taste a happiness that is already, I believe, from Heaven! It lasted almost an hour. Then he said goodbye:
"If you are faithful, you will live in my Heart without ever leaving."

ONE STAY
THE 40 HOURS
February 14 - March 3, 1922

"Do not believe that I have more love for you now that I comfort you than when I ask you for suffering."

Our Lord to Josefa - February 14, 1922.

An oasis of peace opens for Josefa, a stay of a few days, in a sky that is proclaimed, between two storms.
This is how the three weeks that run between February 12 and March 3, 1922 can be called.
Our Lord returns to divine condescension.
But will Josefa, so brave in the struggle, so full of abandonment in suffering, be enough in the face of the Master's Calls? Jesus often stops her in the middle of work and her inclination for ordinary life seems to increase each time she has to sacrifice it. In this is always the entrance of habitual temptations, but also the origin of humble contrition and generous resolutions, through which the Divine Heart wanted to teach souls the incomparable richness of his Forgiveness.
Let us take again the notebooks that chronicle the Heavenly Visits day by day. “On Tuesday, February 14, during Mass - she writes - I prepared myself for communion with a real hunger for Jesus. Shortly after the elevation I saw Him and said to me:
“If you are hungry to receive me, I am also hungry to be received by my souls. I am so happy to go down to them. ”
After communion he came, extending his hands to me.
"Come and kiss my Wounds."
Oh! My Jesus! It's too much happiness! ... ”
“All this sweetness is nothing, Josefa, compared to the balm you gave Me with your sufferings, your submission and your abandonment to my Will. Do not believe that I have more love for you now that I comfort you than when I ask you for suffering - he adds. ”
And after a moment of silence:
In fact, I cannot leave you without suffering. But your soul must be at peace, even in the midst of suffering. ”
"That same afternoon - she says humbly - I went into great temptation." The demon, defeated for a time, hovers around, trying to devour the prey. Josefa is invulnerable. The disgust facing his path is alive: he accuses them, detailing the weaknesses. Four days of struggle pass like this until Jesus, full of compassion, returns the light that accompanies forgiveness.
“Poor Josefa! - says, on Friday afternoon, 1? February, appearing while she humbled herself before the tabernacle ... What would you do if you didn't have my Heart? The more misery I find in you, the more tenderly I love you! ” “I begged Him to give me true love - she writes - the next day, Saturday, February 18th - because I believe that if I knew how to love, I would know how to overcome myself better. During meditation, Jesus came suddenly and said:
Yes, Josefa, may your food be love and humility. But don't forget that I also want you abandoned and always happy because my Heart takes care of you with tenderness. ”
So I explained to him how sorry I am for not knowing how to dominate myself or respond to so much kindness! ”
“Fear nothing. Throw yourself into my heart and leave. guide you ... that's enough. ”
The next day, Sunday 19, after the elevation, he shows you the radiant wounds of light.
“This is where I draw my souls to purify and burn them in the stream of Love!
This is where they will find true peace and it is from them that I expect true comfort. ”
I asked Him how to comfort Him, we who are so full of miseries and weakness! He replied showing the Heart:
“It doesn't matter, as long as they come here with love and confidence. I will supply what your fragility lacks. "
Carnival was approaching; those accumulated days of sinful amusements and offenses against God would not pass without bringing souls to the forefront of the Savior's daily pleas.
On Thursday, February 23, Josefa is ironing, among the Sisters, when Jesus suddenly appears and says:
"I wanted you to come with me."
Always faithful, she warns the Master that she needs to ask permission and he accompanies her to the Superior's cell.
“I hit twice - she writes - no one replied: I was leaving but he insisted:
"Knock again."
When I got a license I went to the podium. Jesus walked beside me. Along the way, I asked him for forgiveness for having neglected many small acts he desired and I promised to be very faithful in all those small ones; things that please you: if you want even more, Lord, tell me and I will do it. ”
“Love it, Josefa! Love consoles, love humbles, love is everything! ... During these days I am so offended, I want you to be my Cyrene. Yes, you will help Me to carry * my Cross. It's the Cross of Love! The Cross of my Love for souls! You will comfort Me and we will both suffer for them! ”
The very next day, the Blessed Virgin confirms the Appeal of the Son.
“I had spent all afternoon talking to Her - writes Josefa on Friday, February 24 - During the adoration I continued to ask her, for she is my Mother, to teach me to love Jesus and to comfort Him. I want nothing more, but my weakness is great ... and despite my resolutions, I fall so fast. I believe it is lacking in love. I was telling her all this when she suddenly came so beautiful and so motherly! Each time I see her it seems more beautiful and inspires me more confidence and peace. She said to me fondly:
"Yes, daughter, if you are docile and generous you will be the comfort of the Heart of Jesus and Mine - he will be glorified by your misery."
“Then, putting his hand on my head, he continued:
“See how your Heart is being outraged in the world! Don't miss the slightest opportunity to repair these days. He offers everything for souls ... and suffers with much love. ”
Not a day goes by without the world's offenses appearing to Josefa through the Master's pains.
On Saturday, February 25, at eight o'clock in the morning while he goes to close the window of the cell cloister, he sees, in the oratory of St. Stanislaus, Jesus carrying the Cross.
“I went in - she says - and Jesus said to me:
“Comfort me, Josefa, because souls are crucifying Me again, My Heart is an abyss of pain ... Sinners despise Me and trample me. There is nothing for them less worthy of esteem than their Creator!
"The Cross left me and disappeared."
"That night at ten o'clock - she continues - she came back with a heavy cross on her back, a crown of thorns on her head and a lot of blood on her face."
“Look at what state I am in. (1)

(1) Our Lord showed himself to Josefa as if he were currently clothed with the pain of today's sins. We know that your holy and glorious Humanity can no longer suffer. he updated before her, as he did for Santa Margarida Maria and many other privileged souls, the sufferings that caused the sins and offenses of souls today in Passion.
Josefa was not mistaken and the lucidity of her faith discerned the comfort that her participation in the Master's sufferings must have brought to the Heart of the One for whom everything was present at the time of his Passion.
"I got up quickly and begged Him to rest and give me something of His Pain."

“How many sins are being committed! How many souls are lost! This is why I come to seek some relief from the souls who live to console Me. ”
"He was silent for a moment with his hands folded.
It was sad, but so beautiful! His eyes spoke more than his lips. ”
“Then he said:
"Souls run to perdition and my Blood is useless to them!"
“I offered Him everything I could: the love, the deeds, the sufferings of the fervent souls of the" Society "of this house ... the love of Mary Most Holy ... in short, everything that seemed to me to be able to console!"
“Sinners shatter Me and fill Me with bitterness. The souls who love Me, immolate themselves and consume themselves as victims of reparation attract Mercy and save the world. "
“After a moment he added:
"Now I'm going to leave."
"I asked Him to stay for a while as he rests here."
“I have other souls who also comfort Me, but I will leave you part of my suffering. '*“ It has disappeared. Believe it would be one o'clock in the morning and I stayed with the Cross until four hours later. ”
The "Forty Hours" days appear on Sunday, February 26 ^ as an even more urgent appeal for reparation:
Jesus, exposed in the Blessed Sacrament, sees the whole house at his feet, succeeding in adoration of uninterrupted love, wanting to relieve and comfort Him by the outrages of the world. Josefa, unnoticed among the Sisters, joins her intentions and collects, on behalf of all, the Master's Confidences. During the nine o'clock mass - she writes on Sunday - Jesus came, the Heart shone - the sun would be said! ”
“This is the Heart that gives Life to souls - he said - the Fire of that Love is stronger than the indifference and ingratitude of men. This is the Heart that gives the chosen Souls the ardor to be consumed and to die if necessary, to prove their Love. ”
“Those words had a force that penetrated the soul. Then he looked at me and continued:
"Sinners excite divine wrath - he said - But don't you want, little victim that I chose, to repair so much ingratitude?"
"I asked him what he wanted me to do because he knew my smallness well."
“I want you today to go deep into my heart.
There you will find the strength to suffer. Do not think about your smallness, my Heart is powerful enough to support you. It's yours. Take everything you need from him. Eat yourself up in it. Offer to Heavenly Father this Heart, this Blood ... Do not live but of this life of love, suffering, reparation. "
“In the afternoon, at three o'clock, he came back and said:
"I come here to take refuge because my faithful souls are for my Heart like the ramparts of a citadel: defend Me and console Me!" “During worship he continued:
“The world runs to perdition. I look for souls to repair so many offenses done to the divine Majesty and my Heart is consumed in the desire to forgive ... Yes, to forgive, those dear children for whom I shed all my Blood. Poor souls, how many are lost ... how many rush into hell! ”
“In the face of this burning pain, Josefa does not know how to express the desire to suffer and repair.
“Don't worry. If you do not separate from Me, you will be strong with my own Strength and my Power will be yours. ”
"Then he disappeared, leaving. Me the Cross."
On Monday at forty, and the following night, the sufferings of the body and the anxieties of the soul that accompany the Cross of Jesus accumulate in it. On the morning of Tuesday, February 28, he is in the laundry as usual, but after a few hours "the pain in his side became so strong that he could hardly breathe - he writes."
He takes refuge in the small mansard where his bed is and which have already consecrated many sufferings and heavenly visits.
“Jesus came soon - she continues - always so beautiful with a burning heart!
“How souls offend Me! What shatters my Heart the most is to see them plunge themselves into perdition! Do you understand what I suffer, Josefa, seeing the loss of so many souls that cost me my life? This is my Pain: my Blood is useless to them! Come on, we both repair and relieve my Heavenly Father for so many outrages he receives. ” “So I joined your Heart by offering you my sufferings. "
She likes to note the pleading attitude of the Master: the mothers set, their eyes raised to heaven. his silence, everything in him speaks of the constant and divine Oblation to the Father.
“Tell your Mothers that this house is the Garden of my Delights - continues with kindness - I come here to console myself when sinners make Me suffer. Say that I am in fact Owner of this house and that my Heart rests in this beloved refuge!
"I do not seek or ask for great things: what I desire, what consoles Me is love, and my Souls give it to me."
In the afternoon, at the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus still appears surrounded by the light that flows from his Heart.
“A small group of faithful souls obtains mercy for a great number of sinners - he says - My Heart cannot be insensitive to its pleas. I was looking for someone to comfort Me and I found it. ”
The first days of Lent introduce Josefa even more deeply into the path of reparation.
On day 1.? March, Ash Wednesday, during the afternoon worship, Jesus appears with a bloody face and says :,
“There is not a single creature on earth who is despised and outraged by sinners like Me!
Poor souls! I gave them life and they try to give Me death. Those souls that cost me so much, not only forget me but make Me an object of derision and contempt. ”
After a moment of silence he continues:
“You Josefa, come, approach Me, rest in this Heart and share your bitterness: Comfort Him by giving Him love! So many souls flood you with pain! ”
“He brought me closer to his Heart and my soul was filled with anguish and bitterness that I cannot explain. What makes me suffer the most is not being able to comfort Him as I wanted because I feel my impotence. I try to unite with Him and offer Him His own Suffering to supply what I cannot do ... I spent a long time like this, without saying anything, worshiping, humbling myself and asking for forgiveness for souls. ”
Jesus then said to me:
"Yes, look for those who should do it and don't."
“Here - she continues - the bell rang the end of worship and left the chapel. Jesus walked beside me_ ”
"Go Josefa, go ask Mother if you will excuse me to stay with you while you work." “When I got a leave of absence, I went to the podium in an instant, then I took the job at the clothes shop, because I think that is what He likes most.
Jesus was there - From time to time he said:
“Ask for forgiveness for the sins of the world! How many sins! How many souls are lost! ... souls who know Me and who once loved Me! ... but who today prefer their joy and pleasure to my Heart ... Why do they treat me like this? Have I not often given you proof of my Love? They then responded. But today they put me on their feet, they cover me with disdain and my designs on them are frustrated - Where will I find solace! ” "I answered Him - here, Lord, in this house, in our souls ... There are still many souls everywhere that love You!"
“Yes, I know, but it is those souls that I desire; I love them without limits! ”
“I volunteered again to suffer for them and until they repent. Jesus was always there. From time to time he repeated:
“Collect the Blood I shed in my Passion. Ask for forgiveness all over the world - for those souls who know and offend Me and offer you reparations for so many outrages. ”
“He stayed until eleven o'clock at night, more or less.
Then he left, leaving me the Cross, the pain on my side and anguish in my soul. Just before three o'clock, everything disappeared and I fell asleep because I was exhausted. ”
Unfortunately, the hour of temptation is approaching. It seems that Josefa would never fail again after having known the Master's wounded Heart so closely - Jesus prefers to leave her in her weakness. It is the very clear purpose of Love towards her, it is the means chosen by Wisdom to keep her safe through so many graces and so many dangers, keeping her in the continuous experience of her baseness and her nothingness.
A new offensive of infernal power is already being guessed.
On March 2, the first Thursday of Lent, his notes bring the humble confession that, in the evening, at the request of the Master,
“I wanted you to console me”, had resisted Him in his soul ”, because - she said - I had not finished my task in the laundry, having had to sweep the chapel: ”
“ Go quickly, excuse me - insists the Lord - I need victims to comfort and repair Me and, if I do not find them here. where am I going to go? "
" I went to ask for permission but Jesus did not return. The cross and the crown also disappeared and I cannot say what anguish I was in ... because I fervently desire to comfort Him but my weakness is so great! "
The next day passes, first Friday, March 3, with great pity. During the whole day she begs Our Lord and especially Mary Most Holy to forgive her.
“Because,” she explains, “they know that my weakness is more than my will.”
Maria cannot resist her daughter's anxiety and comes to reassure her, when the Via Sacra is ending:
“Stay in peace, daughter. If you want, Jesus will continue to seek comfort in you; he wants so much!
But don't forget that your love is free! ” Then the confession of the greatest lack of his life continues, as he says.
“That evening, at dusk, Jesus came. It was beautiful as always, there was something sad about the Look.
“I bring you my Cross and my Crown, Josefa.
Rest Me! So many souls are lost ... those I love so much! ”
And as Josefa implored forgiveness and offered herself to his Desires:
“Yes - he says - Never refuse Me the comfort I expect from you. Listen, I have many souls who love and comfort Me, it is true, but none will be able to occupy the place I have reserved for you, because I looked at you in a special way. ”
In the face of these words, Josefa, who keeps in the depths of her soul an invincible fear of that extraordinary choice, feels the growing opposition, which is so hard to overcome, grow in her.
When you tell that painful moment later, you will call it “your ingratitude”.
Jesus, who sees the depths of souls, knows how to discern that fear that she will never be able to completely dominate and his Heart has of her the most divine compassion.
“If you measured the offenses that I receive, you would not refuse my Cross - he said then - You know what that Cross is ... It is the freedom that you must give Me to take you, when I need you, without looking at place, occupation, or time; enough. to know that I ask you for comfort and that I will defend you against everything that is said or thought of you. Don't you belong to me? If I am with you, does it matter that everyone is against you?
“There,” writes Josefa loyally, “I will say to my greatest confusion that I replied to him as if he had no right over me, pleading with me to leave me out of this way. he looked at me sadly and said:
“I cannot abandon you, because my love for you is beyond measure. But since you want it to be done according to your desire. No one can close the wound of my heart but you! ”
"He took the cross and the crown and disappeared."
Josefa adds a few days later: “I cannot say how much I have been suffering since that moment; it is a torment that nothing of this earth could cause. First, because I know that I have hurt Him, and then if he does not return, my life will be martyrdom because it was I who changed the Designs of His Love ”.
Josefa had not yet probed the depths of Mercy of the Heart of Jesus! Whatever your weakness, nothing has changed in the Design of that Love. They will develop on a different plane, foreseen by Wisdom, in which the date of May 3 will introduce us.

ENTRY INTO THE DARKNESS BEYOND TOMB
March 4 - April 15, 1922

"Do not forget, child, that nothing happens that does not enter into the designs of God."

(Saint Magdalene Sofia to Josefa - March 14, 1922).

The period that opens Josefa's dianite is perhaps the most mysterious of her life. It seems, at first sight, that the punishment that is due to her resistance to Our Lord's Appeal is weighing on her. But, on this obscure plot, another design is soon printed, unveiling the divine predilection that takes advantage of a moment of weakness to, in and through it, advance his Work with giant steps. While, new power is left to the devil and the very chasms of hell are opened before his eyes, Josefa discovers, immersed in sufferings hitherto never experienced, what is the loss of souls, and evaluates, with a more acute sense, the immolation total demand for redemption. Crushing her in pain, Jesus digs into her depths of humility, of faith, of abandonment, which no personal effort could carry out. The divine Master had reserved that work for himself. at the chosen time, and by means that bewilder any forecast.
Santa Teresa, in an admirable page, describes the passage through hell that left an indelible trace in her soul. Josefa, who had never read revelations from her patrician saint, wrote several times, out of obedience, the report of her long descents into the abyss of all pain and despair. This documentation, as exciting as it is simple, agrees, four centuries later, with the classic description of the great contemplative of Avila.
With the same tone of suffering, contrition, reparative love and ardent zeal, the dogma of hell, so often fought, or simply left in silence, for incomplete spirituality, to the detriment of souls, and even the danger of salvation, is divinely put in evidence.
Who can doubt the existence of the infernal power incarnate against Christ and his Kingdom, reading, in these pages, what Josefa saw, and suffered Who can also calculate the redemptive value of those long hours spent in the prison of fire? Josefa, who thinks she will be trapped there forever, witnesses the demon's bloodthirsty efforts to snatch souls from Jesus Christ forever, experiences the pain of pain: that of not being able to love anymore. Some excerpts from his writings may be useful to many souls. They will serve as an alarm call to those who have slipped down a slope. Even better, they will serve as an Appeal directed by Love to those who decide to spare nothing to pluck souls to perdition ...
It was on the night of Wednesday, March 16, that Josefa first met the mysterious descent into hell.
Since the first Monday of Lent, March 6, shortly after the disappearance of Our Lord, infernal voices impressed her painfully from time to time. Souls fallen into the abyss come, without her coming to censure her lack of generosity. She is upset.
Hear cries of despair like these:
“I am forever in the place where you can no longer love! How short the pleasure was! and the misfortune is eternal!
- What's left? ... hate with hellish hatred and forever! ...
“Oh - she writes - to know the loss of a soul and nothing more for it!
To know that, throughout eternity, there will be a soul cursing Our Lord and without remedy!
Even if I could suffer all the torments in the world ... what a terrible pain! A thousand times better to die than to be responsible for the loss of a soul! ”
She writes on Sunday, March 12, to her superior who is traveling in Rome for a few days:
“If you only knew, Reverend Mother, how sadly I will come to you! Since the 2nd of March, I no longer have any of my jewels (he calls the Crown of Thorns, and the Cross of Our Lord) because again I hurt Jesus, so good for me ... I hope, however, that again still, he pity me, but for now I am paying a lot, because since the night of the first Friday, instead of his visits, greater suffering. Anyway, Mother, when you return you will know what my weakness is! - And, how not to be sad? the Superior, adds with the usual delicacy, “How happy I am with the good days you spend at Casa Madre! Here, apart from me, everyone strives to comfort Jesus and his Heart finds what he expects from his Garden of delights.
As for me, I continue my life as before: an effort to be kind, faithful to say everything to Mother Assistant and the rest that you know. Pray, Reverend Mother, that the Blessed Virgin will extend her hands and obtain forgiveness from me. ”
This time it will be Santa Madalena Sofia, the ambassador of Jesus and his Mercy. On Tuesday, March 14, he appears in His cell. Listen to her humble confession, revive her confidence and encourage her with the following words:
"Do not forget, child, that nothing happens that does not enter into the designs of God."
Josefa entrusts her with the immense pity and pain that oppresses her when she calculates the consequences of her weakness, which she believes is irremediable:
“How can I not! daughter, you can notice - Santa Madre makes it right - if you take a lot of humility and generosity out of that fall. ”
“I asked if Jesus would never return. You want Him, call Him, for I cannot think that I will no longer see Him through my own fault. ”
“How can I not. daughter! Wait for Him; the desire and expectation of the Spouse are the glory of the Bridegroom. ”
That heavenly entertainment testifies that Love has not changed and that forgiveness does not tire. Jesus wanted to give it to Josefa, to show him, at the entrance of the great trial, that He is always the same with her.
“In the evening from Wednesday to Thursday, March 16, at ten o'clock - she writes - as in the last few days, confusing noise of screams and chains. I got up, got dressed and, shaking with fear, got down on my knees near the bed. The noise was approaching. I left the dormitory not knowing what to do, went to the cell of our Blessed Mother, then returned to the dormitory.
The same terrible noise always surrounded me. Suddenly, I saw the demon in front of me, who was screaming:
"Tie your feet ... tie your hands."
“At the same moment, I didn't see where I was anymore, I felt that they tied me up tightly and dragged me.
Other voices roared:
"It is not the feet that should be tied, it is the heart" - And the demon answered: "It is not mine!"
“Then they dragged me a long way, plunged into darkness. I started to hear hideous screams from all sides.
Through the walls of the narrow corridor, there were niches in front of each other, from which smoke was almost smoldering and with an intolerable smell.
From there, voices would utter all kinds of blasphemies and impure words.
Some cursed their own bodies, others their parents. Others reproached themselves for not taking advantage of such occasions or lights to abandon evil. It was a confusion of shouting, anger and despair.
“I was pulled through this kind of corridor that never ended. Then they gave me a violent push that pushed me, folded in half, into one of those niches. I felt as if I was crushed between burning boards and stuck side by side by burning needles. Before me, souls cursed and blasphemed. It was what made me suffer the most.
But what cannot compare with any torment is the anguish of the soul that finds itself separated from God.
“It seems to me that I spent many years in that hell - the notes continue, and in the meantime, it only lasted six or seven hours. Suddenly they took me violently from where I was and I found myself in a dark place, where the demon after beating me left me free ... I cannot say what I felt in my soul when I realized that I was alive and that I could still love God...
“To avoid that hell, and although I'm so afraid of suffering, I don't know what I'm ready to endure. I see clearly that all the sufferings in the world are nothing compared to the pain of not being able to love anymore, because there you only breathe hatred and thirst for the perdition of souls! ...
Since then, Josefa has often known that mysterious pain.
Everything is, in fact, a mystery in those long sessions in the dark world. She guesses them each time. by the noise of currents and distant shouts that approach, surround and overwhelm her. She tries to run away, to distract herself, to work, to escape the diabolical harassment that ultimately overwhelms her.
He has only time to take refuge in the small cell and soon loses track of his surroundings. He finds himself first in what he calls a dark place before the devil, who triumphs over her and seems to believe that he belongs to her forever. Violently orders them to be thrown into the place intended for her and Josefa. strongly bound, she falls into that chaos of fire and pain, anger and hatred.
She reports everything, simply and objectively, as she sees, hears, experiences. Outside, a slight shudder announces only the mysterious departure. At the same time your body is flexible and without resistance like someone who has just lost his life. The head, the limbs, are no longer supported, the heart beats normally. However, Josefa lives as if without living.
That state is more or less prolonged, according to the Will of God, who thus gives it to hell but keeps it in his very safe Hand.
At the moment determined by him, a new and almost imperceptible shiver, and the abandoned body resumes life. However, she is not immediately freed from the power of the devil who still holds her under his blows, in such a dark place where she sees only the one who outrages and threatens her before she escapes from power.
When he finally releases her, and she slowly comes to, the hours spent in hell felt like centuries.
Just little by little get in touch with the places and the people around you.
-Where am I? ... who's there ...
am i still alive?she asks - Her poor eyes try to recognize the picture of a life that seems to have gone so far in the past!
Sometimes thick tears flow silently, while the face is imprinted with unspeakable suffering. He has finally found the meaning of life today, and how to express the intense emotion that grips him, when he suddenly realizes that he can still love. He wrote this several times, in terms whose simplicity and ardor cannot be interpreted!
Sunday, March 19, 1922, third Sunday of Lent - I went down again to that abyss, it seemed to me that I had stayed there for many years.
I suffered a lot, but the greatest torment is to think that I would be forever unable to love Our Lord. So when I come back to life I feel crazy with joy. I think I love Him more than ever and to prove Him I am able to suffer whatever He wants. It also seems to me to love and cherish my vocation to madness. ”
He adds a few lines later: “What I see gives me immense courage to suffer. I understand the value of the smallest sacrifices. Jesus gathers them and uses them to save souls. It is great blindness to avoid suffering, even in the smallest things, because not only is it of great value to us, but it serves to preserve many souls from such great torments.
Josefa tries, out of obedience, some descriptions of the descents that are frequently renewed at that time.
Everything could not be translated, but a few more pages will serve as a precious teaching. Stimulating souls to dedicate themselves and sacrifice themselves for the salvation of those who, every day, at all hours, on the edge of the abyss, are at the mercy of the tragic struggle between love and hate, between despair and Mercy.
“When I get to that place - she writes on Sunday, March 26, I hear cries of anger and infernal joy, because one more soul was plunged into torment ...
At that time I have no memory of ever having gone down to hell; it always seems to me that this is the first time.
It also seems to me to be there for eternity, and it is what makes me suffer so much, because I remember that I knew and loved Our Lord ... that I was religious, that he had done me great graces and given me abundant means to help me. to save. So what did I do to lose so many assets? ... How could I be blind to this point? ...
There is no remedy now ... I also remember my communions, my novitiate. But what torments me most is that I loved the Heart of Jesus so much. I knew Him, he was my only treasure ... I only lived for him ... How to live now without Him ... Without loving Him, surrounded by blasphemy and hatred? My soul is so overwhelmed and overwhelmed that I cannot explain it, it is unspeakable! ” She also often watches the devil and her satellites' fierce efforts to uproot the souls they are about to take from Mercy. His sufferings seem to be, then, in God's plans, the rescue of those poor souls who owe him the victorious grace of the last moment.
“The devil - writes on Thursday, March 30 - is more enraged than ever, because he does not want to lose three souls. He shouted angrily to the others:
"Be careful that they don't escape ... there they go ... go, go with strength."
For two or three days straight she is a witness to that struggle.
“I pleaded with Our Lord to do everything I wanted as long as those souls were not lost - she writes, returning from the abyss on Saturday, April 1 - I also addressed the Blessed Virgin who gave me great peace, left her determined to suffer, whatever, to save them. I believe that he will not allow the demon to win.
On Sunday, April 2, Sunday of Passion, he writes again:
“The demon screamed,“ Don't let go! Pay attention to everything that can disturb ... that they do not escape! ... obtain that they despair! ...
“It was a confusion of howls and blasphemies. Suddenly, with a roar of anger, he shouted: '' It doesn't matter! there are still two left, take away their trust! ”
"I realized that one of those souls had just escaped him forever."
"Hurry, hurry ... - roar - that these two don't run away! grab them, let them despair! quickly! There they go! ”
"Then there was a gnashing of teeth and an indescribable furor in hell. The demon roared:" O Power ...
Power of that God! ... who has more Strength than me! One
left! ... This I will not let steal me! ”
“Hell became a single cry of blasphemy, in a tremendous confusion of complaints and groans. I realized then that the souls were saved. My heart was filled with joy, despite the impossibility of making a single act of love, despite the great need I feel to love.
However, I do not feel that hatred of Our Lord who have the unfortunate souls around me, and when I hear them cursing and blaspheming, it is such a pain that I would suffer, I don't know what, lest He be so outraged and offended. What makes me afraid is that in time I will become like the others. It is what makes me suffer, because I always remember how much I loved Him and how good it was for me! ”. “I suffered a lot - she continues - especially in the last few days. It was as if a river of fire entered my throat, crossing my entire body, at the same time I was crushed between two boards of flame as I said; I cannot express this pain, it is extreme! It seems that my eyes leave the orbits as if they were pulled out, the nerves distended, the body folded in half without being able to move, an infected smell penetrates everything. (1)

(1) This intolerable smell enveloped Josefa, when the sessions of hell ended, as well as when she was abused or kidnapped by the demon; odor of sulfur, putrid and burnt flesh that was felt around her, the witnesses say, for a quarter of an hour or half an hour, and from which she kept the painful impression for much longer.

And that is nothing, however, compared to the soul that knows the Goodness of God and finds itself compelled to hate Him, even greater suffering if she loved Him very much. ”
Other mysteries from beyond the grave will also be revealed to Josefa. At that same time, Lent of 1922, while for days and nights she carries the weight of so many persecutions, God puts her in contact with another abyss of pain, that of purgatory. Many souls then come to request suffrages and sacrifices in terms of profound humility. After the first fright, Josefa had become accustomed to the confidences of suffering souls.
Listen to them, ask their names; encourages them and confidently recommends their intercession. These are precious lessons to be learned. One of them, coming to announce his release, adds:
"The important thing is not entry into religion but entry into eternity."
"If religious souls knew how to pay here for all the little caresses we give ourselves - said another, asking for prayers."
"My exile is over, I will go up to the eternal Motherland."
A priest said:
“How infinite God's Goodness and Mercy are when it is worthy to make use of the sacrifices and sufferings of other souls to repair our great infidelities. How many degrees of glory could I have acquired if my life had been different. ”
A religious soul entering heaven entrusted Josefa:
“How differently we see things on earth when we move into eternity!
“Charges are worthless before God, only the purity of intention with which they were exercised, even the smallest things!
“How little is the land and all that it encloses! ... however as it is loved! ... As long as life is, nothing is compared to eternity! If only they knew what is an instant spent in purgatory! and how the soul is exhausted and consumed in the desire to see Our Lord! ”
There were also souls escaped, by the Mercy of God, to greater danger and who came to plead with Josefa to anticipate her release.
-I am here because of the goodness of God - said one of them - because my excessive pride had opened the doors of hell before me. I had a large number of people at my feet and now I would fall below the last poor man. Have pity on me and do acts of humility to repair my pride! That's how you can get me out of that chasm! ”
”I spent seven years in mortal sin - another confessed - and three years sick ... I refused to confess. I was well prepared for hell and I would have fallen there if today 's suffering had not gotten me strength to return to grace. I am now in purgatory and I beg you, since you were able to save me, get me out of this sad prison! ”
“I am in purgatory because of my infidelity, as I did not want to respond to the divine appeal - another came to tell him later.
“For 12 years I resisted my vocation and lived in great danger of condemning myself, because, to stifle my remorse, I had given myself over to sin. Thanks to Divine Goodness, who deigned to use your sufferings, I had the courage to return to God ... and now do me the charity to get out of here. "
“Offer the Blood of Jesus Christ for us - said another when leaving purgatory - which would be ours if there were no one to relieve us? ...
The names of those holy unknown visits to Josefa, carefully noted with the date and place of death, were more than once, without her knowing it was the subject of a thorough investigation. The certainty, thus acquired, of the reality of the facts, remains a precious testimony of its relations with purgatory.
Lent was going to end in the midst of those alternatives of pain and austere graces. How, without special help from God, could Josefa have sustained so many contacts with the invisible, while continuing her life always equal in toil and dedication? It was the spectacle that his heroic love reserved daily for the Heart of the one who sees secrets, whereas the bystanders could not suspect the value of their days all similar, outwardly in the simple fulfillment of duty.
Two facts still stand out in the last days of Holy Week:
In the afternoon of Holy Thursday, April 13, 1922, Josefa writes: “I was in the chapel by three-thirty, when I suddenly saw someone in front of me dressed as Our Lord, a little taller than him, very handsome and bringing attractive expression of peace on his face. His tunic was a dark reddish purple, he held in his hand the crown of thorns just like the one Jesus used to bring me.
"I am a Disciple of the Lord - he said - I am John the Evangelist and I bring you one of the most precious jewels of the divine Master."
"He gave me the crown and put it on my head himself."
Josefa, at first frightened by the unexpected appearance, gradually calms down, feeling the peace that invades her. She entrusts to Celeste Interlocutor the anguish that oppresses her in the midst of everything that the devil makes her suffer.
“Fear nothing. Your soul is a lily that Jesus keeps in his heart. ” replies the virgin Apostle.
Then he continues:
“I was sent to reveal to you some of the feelings that overflowed in the Heart of the Divine Master on this great day. Love was going to separate him from the disciples after baptizing Him with blood baptism. But Love forced Him to stay with them and that was what made Him invent the Sacrament of the Eucharist. What a struggle was fought in that Heart! How it would rest in pure souls! But his Passion would continue in the stained hearts! How his soul trembled with joy as the moment came when he went to the Father!
But how she was crushed with pain seeing one of the Twelve, chosen by him, deliver him to death and his useless Blood for the first time for the salvation of a soul!
“How your heart fell apart with love! But like the little correspondence of the souls he loved so much, he plunged Love itself into the deepest bitterness! and what about the ingratitude and coldness of so many chosen souls!
When those words were over, it disappeared like lightning. ”
That heavenly apparition comforted her for an instant, reminding her of the appeal for the reparation that rises from the Eucharist to consecrated souls.
But that “lightning bolt” of peace, just passed, in the middle of the storm. In the same afternoon the crown disappears, leaving her perplexed. Anguished question arises in his mind; isn't she being the target of illusion and lies? won't all those things from the Beyond be a mirage of your imagination ... things of an unbalanced nature or of unconscious suggestion?
these question marks are offered only to her.
There was nothing about that young woman that, even from afar, physically or morally, could lend itself to such hesitation. However, maximum prudence surrounds it, watching it closely and looking for any authentic sign that allows it to discern and affirm in it the direct action of the devil. God will give it and dispel all doubt.
On Hallelujah Saturday, April 15, at four o'clock in the afternoon, after having spent the last two days in the most painful fighting, listen, while you are sewing, the foreshadowing noises of hell. Sustained by obedience, she resists with the greatest energy, to escape the demon that finally subdues her.
So, as always, your body seems to lose its life. Kneeling beside her, the Mothers pray, asking Our Lord not to leave uncertainties about the mystery that passes before their eyes.
Suddenly, by the usual slight shudder, they recognize that Josefa regains contact with life.In his painful face, he guesses what he had just suffered.
Suddenly, holding his hand to his chest, he exclaims: "-Who's burning me?"
No source of fire there. The religious habit was intact. She quickly bursts. A smoke smell acrid, fetid spreads in the room. We
see then burning over her, his shirt and flannel. A long burn gets you close to the heart, as she says, attesting to reality in Satan's first attack. Josefa feels bewildered:
"I prefer to leave - she exclaims at the first moment - to be the devil's plaything."
God's faithfulness in manifesting diabolical power tangibly will remain the greatest source of comfort for months to come.
Ten times Josefa will be burned. She will see the devil vomit fire on her that will leave traces, not only on her clothes, but even more on her limbs. Live wounds will cost to close and your body will carry scars to the grave. Several pieces of clothing thus burned were preserved, attesting to the reality of hellish fury and the heroic courage that endured his assaults, to remain faithful to the Work of Love.

SOME CLEARS IN THE PROCELAIN
April 16 - July 8, 1922

"I will be the Light of your soul."

(Our Lord to Josefa - April 17, 1922).

Easter Sunday, April 16, 1922 appears and Jesus crushing the infernal powers with the victory of the resurrection, will rest his victim for some time.
PO- In the morning, during Mass, Josefa sees Him appear.
It is the first time since March 3, whose memory had remained in his heart like a painful thorn, although he had never doubted his Forgiveness and his Love. "She shone with beauty and light - she writes - but I told her that I had no license to speak to her."
“Don't you have a license, Josefa? ... respond kindly. And to stare at Me? ...
“I didn't know what to say. he continued:
“Look at Me and let Me look at you.
That is enough for us. "
“I looked at him and he looked at the Eyes on me too, with such love, that I don't know what went on in my soul. After a moment he said:
"When your Mother calls you, ask for permission to speak with me."
"And disappeared."
The obedient novice, although she meets the Superior moments later, waits, according to the Master's Word, to be called.
“At half past eleven - she continues - Mother gave me permission.
I went to the chapel and Jesus soon came. ”
"Here I am Josefa! ' Why would you want me to come back at least once? ”
“Oh! Lord, to ask Your forgiveness, for I have so much need ...
So I told Him all my weaknesses, all my miseries; and, with love that cannot be translated, he replied:
“He who never needs forgiveness is not the happiest, but he who has had to humble himself many times!”
Then, opening all her soul, she poured into the Sacred Heart all that had filled the past weeks with disturbance and obscurity.
It also counts your restlessness. Was he really the one who sent her the crown on Thursday to get it out so quickly?
Jesus reassures her:
“It was I who entrusted you with that precious treasure of my Heart. But it was too much comfort for you, Josefa, and you consoled me much more by accepting uncertainty than by wearing my crown on your head. ”
“Then I told him about Saturday's burn and told him that I am bewildered by becoming so a plaything of the devil.
“Where is your faith? If I allow you to be a plaything of the devil, you know that it is to give irrefutable proof of my Heart's Plans on you. ” the Easter dawn lasts for several days.
As before the troubled, discouraged Apostles, after the hours of the Passion, Jesus appears to him to repeat words that comfort, pacify, strengthen.
On Monday, April 17, she writes:
“Today the Gospel was that of the apparition to the disciples of Emaus. As I said: "Lord, stay with me because it is already evening", he came suddenly, very beautiful and said:
“Yes, I will stay with you. I will be the Light of your soul.
You're right. It is already evening ... Tell me what would you do without Me? ”
On Friday, April 21, after a night when the devil and the torments of hell had baffled his hopes, the notes continue:
“This morning, during Mass, Our Lord came. I thought that all the torments were over and I begged Him to leave me a little freedom to work. ”
Jesus replies with authority:
“Listen, Josefa. I already told you that I want to serve you as an instrument of my Mercy for souls. But if you do not give yourself completely to my Will, what do you want Me to do? There are so many souls who need my Per.
they give and my Heart wants to use victims to help Him repair the outrages of the world and pour out His Mercy. What does the rest matter to you if I support you? I never leave you. What can you want more? ”
The Easter week ends, therefore, in that recapitulation of the mission for which she will have to suffer a lot. And in fact, the devil does not abandon Josefa's path. The souls in Purgatory continue to ask for help from their sufferings. But Jesus, faithful to the Promise, stays with it and becomes the Light of his life.
“He came during Mass so beautiful! - writes on Saturday, April 22. - I renewed my vows and I believe that it pleased Him, because the Heart was burning Him. ”
She explains her anxieties about souls from the other world who come to ask for prayers and sacrifices.
Our Lord reassures her with his usual Goodness and makes her see the graces of salvation purchased with so many pains.
“If I let you know all these things - he says - so that you do not back down in the face of sacrifice or suffering.
Never doubt: when you suffer the most, then you comfort me the most, and it is when you can least perceive that the more souls you approach to my Heart. ”
And as he entrusted to the Master the exhaustion to which he had been reduced in those painful weeks:
“I don't need your strength, but your abandonment - he replied full of tenderness.
“The true Strength is in my Heart.
Be at peace and do not forget that it is Mercy and Love that work in you. ”
It is, therefore, in that Sacred Heart, which must draw the Strength that it does not cease to need to continue on the path of abandonment more and more its own.
“For many days - he writes on Monday, April 22, - that the devil drags me to hell at the same time to leave me there, each time, more or less the same time. It worries me, because I suspect that I am responsible for something. ”
It is then the first thing he exposes to Our Lord when he appears to him that morning after communion.
"Do not worry - he said - there is a soul that we need to pluck from the devil and it is precisely at a dangerous time. However, through suffering, we can save it. There are so many souls, exposed to perdition! ...
"But there are also many that comfort Me and return to my Heart."
"So - she says - I asked what we could do to obtain the conversion of a sinner who recommended our prayers and who is giving a lot of scandal."
“It is necessary to put my Heart between that sinner and the Eternal Father. Josefa. It is my Heart that will appease your wrath and will incline divine Compassion to that soul. Goodbye, consolate me with your love and your abandonment. ”
Days of trial are followed by days of grace, for the devil has increased his efforts to stir up more waves of disgust.
He also greeted her with all sorts of torments: she finds him everywhere; beats her, burns her, drags her to hell ... and on Friday, April 29, terrified by her threats, she dares not take communion. But the thought of lost communion remains like a gladius buried in the heart.
Those painful days are for the rescue of many souls without the comfort of knowing it.
On Tuesday, May 2, at ten-thirty, while sweeping the chapel of the Works, the Master suddenly appears in the midst of his luminous Beauty.
-I was standing between the benches - she writes. ”
“Josefa, do you want me to stay with you? I will not stop you from working. ”
"I renewed the Vows and said that I had to ask permission."
"Yes, it will…”
“He disappeared and I immediately went to tell Mother. When I returned to the chapel I saw Him through the open door. He was always in the same place, as if he were waiting ... so full of tenderness that I cannot say! ... It is a tenderness of Father. There are no words to express it.
I so wanted to come to you, Josefa, and would you want to refuse Me entry? ”
That question is an arrow that pierces your soul. She confesses her weakness in the face of the demon who insists on preventing her from approaching the holy table. "_
“Don't you know, Josefa, that he can torture you, but not harm? Who will be more powerful, him or Me? ”
"I promised to be generous, then I talked about the Madres' intentions, because I know all the difficulties and concerns they have to endure."
"My Heart is all of them," he replies kindly and adds:
“I take care of my Work. I keep My “Society”.
“He repeated those two words with burning love.
Then he brought me close to his Heart and made me hear the palpitations ... In the end I spoke of the Blessed Virgin because I haven't seen her for so long and I want her so much! ... ”
"Call her - she said.”
And disappeared.
“Since that hour, I have never ceased calling her, repeating to the most dear Mother that it was Jesus who sent me, because I need her.
During worship, suddenly, she came with open arms and said:
"What do you want, daughter!"
So Josefa confesses all her misery in those days of struggles, scares, diabolic assaults and Maria calms her maternally.
“Listen, daughter, you must abandon yourself as a little child in the arms of your God.”
“It's true, Mother! only, I am so afraid, not only of the devil, but also of myself! ”
"What can you fear if you have us to protect you?" "I told him then how happy I would be if I had at least the crown of thorns, but I don't know if Jesus wants to give it to me yet?"
“No, daughter, you will not give it now, because you are preparing another crown for Him; if you saw how many souls are formed! ... ”
“Then he added:
"Jesus looked at the Eyes on you and, despite your misery and even your ingratitude, he will not turn them away."
"He gave me the blessing and disappeared."
The visits of the Mother generally announce those of the Son, and on Wednesday, May 3, after communion, Jesus suddenly appeared:
"Josefa!"
"I asked Him for permission to renew the Vows and then, every time I see Him, I need to tell all my weaknesses."
“You cannot know - He replies - how much my Heart rejoices, forgiving faults that are of pure fragility. Don't worry. It is because you are so weak that I looked at you. ”
It is so good, so condescending, that she dares to express a burning desire to Him: she wanted the devil not to prevent her from being faithful to the common exercises ...
because it is always threatening ...
“Let Me dispose of you according to my Will - answers the Lord - because you are mine. Will I not, by chance, have all rights over you? ”.
“Who do you believe that ordinary life is more pleasing? You or Me?
"I take you when I need you but above all to teach you to submit to my Will".
Thus the Master of Abandonment does not cease, through so many vicissitudes, to continue his work in the soul of Josefa. It rests it, however, from time to time in the middle of the struggle and radiant pages like this one, still read in your notes:
“In the afternoon, during the worship and while the“ Crux Ave ”was being sung because it was the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, I felt a burning desire to kiss the Wounds of Jesus.
“I kissed my Crucifix and asked the Blessed Virgin to do it for me.
“She came, suddenly, with her hands crossed over her chest and said to me very sweetly:
"What do you want, daughter, what do you want?"
“Oh! Mom! kiss the Feet and Hands of Jesus and, if you allow - continue, hesitating a little, also kiss your hand. "
“You want to kiss her. daughter? Take it! ”
“And giving me his hand, he added:
"Did you want to kiss Jesus' Wounds?"
"He didn't even leave me time to answer ... Jesus was there, very beautiful ... with the scabs burned!"
"What do you want, Josefa?"
"Kiss your Wounds, Lord!"
"Kiss them."
“He showed me the Feet himself, as if to say: start there. I kissed them, then my hands. Then, extending his right arm, he approached me to the Heart and said:
"This wound is yours, it belongs to you."
"I can't say what went on in my soul ...
Jesus continued:
“You see how nothing I refuse you. And you, will you refuse me anything? ”
"I told you that you know my desire, but my weakness is greater than my will."
This is how she tries to express the disproportion she feels, at certain times, between what she wants and what she does.
“It is because I make Him so young the promise of nothing to refuse Him and then I don’t know how to keep it when the time comes… Right afterwards I feel cruelly the pity that I cause Him, who loves me so much and is so good for me."
“Yes, my Heart loves you and takes pleasure in your misery. Do you know how you can comfort Me? Loving Me and suffering for souls, with nothing to refuse Me. ”
Those predilectional graces are always for Josefa a prelude to near suffering and the devil, who has not lost his freedom over her, cruelly makes him understand in the following days. Before, however, abandoning it to the power of the enemy, Jesus insists on confirming again the Plans of his Love on her.
“I had told him how much I wanted to receive him - he writes on Thursday, May 11th, because I am hungry for him and the more miserable I see myself, the more I beg him to bring himself a remedy for so much misery.
He came after communion with open arms and approached the Heart ... I was lost for a moment in that happiness ”.
After having renewed the Vows of virginity and perseverance in the “Society”, she reminds Our Lord that soon it will be the Vows of Religion that will unite her to him.
“Well,” she says, “there are only two months left and you know, Lord, how much I wish for that day! What a joy when it will be yours forever! ”
“I, too,” he replies, “wish to imprison you whole in my Heart, for my Love is without measure.
“And in spite of your faults and your miseries, I will use you to make my Love and my Mercy known to many souls. There are so many who do not know the Goodness of my Heart! ... and it is my only wish that those souls I love should be cast and lost in the limitless abyss of my Heart. ”
It is the second time that Our Lord has discovered his near mission. And as he reads in the depths of the soul what he does not dare to express, he adds immediately;
"When you feel weak and fear invades you, come here to seek Strength."
"Lord, I don't see you always and there are times when I can't suffer alone".
“Do you not know where I am, Josefa? ... did I not tell you more than once? ... it is one of the most visible proofs that my Love has given you two Madres to love and support you. Look for Me in them. You will always find me there. Goodbye! ... ”
That Goodbye opens the last period that separates the Vows. Jesus disappears from his path and the devil enters as owner - All the tribulations of the past months come together to break his faith, his virtue, his faithfulness.
Satan's fury spares no effort against that vocation that he sees so fruitful for the salvation of souls.
Josefa seems to have become his personal enemy and, during those two months, there is a singular battle between the unbridled power of hell and that little creature, fragile by nature, it is true, but strong with the very Force of God.
Since then, days and nights have passed almost relentlessly, in struggle, whose violence surpasses everything she had suffered until then. It is a miracle that their forces are sustained, that their work has not been interrupted and that no glance will discover the mysterious ordeal.
Then she experiences all the anguish of the soul, her pure conscience is bewildered by the sight of evil, her will feels ready to faint.
The pain reaches paroxysm in the hours of obsession, when it suffers the violence of the Force that dominates it and under which it has the impression of succumbing. You will even know what despair is and will sometimes reach the bottom of the abyss. It is the most acute of sufferings, which only the Virgin of Sorrows will appease. The intercession of “Mary desolate”, so dear to Mother Founder of the Sacred Heart, will often overcome the devil. In the blink of an eye, when next to her they invoke the Blessed Virgin to intervene in the name of her pains, Josefa, impassive until then under diabolical domination, will kneel. The veil will fall from your eyes and your liberated soul, humiliated but confident, will protest to God your love that will come out stronger and more generous from the crucible of suffering.
Jesus and his Mother watch over her in the midst of stormy waves that break at the hour appointed by God.
On Friday, May 19, the canonical examination required for the issuing of religious vows takes place in the peace of a morning when the devil does not appear.
Josefa feels in full joy, being able to affirm her will to follow Our Lord and to be faithful to Him until death.
But the demon redoubles with fury.
The Ascension, on the 25th of May, Pentecost on the 4th of June, pass without the slightest light in the storm.
On Sunday, June 11, the third career of Casa Madre the happy news of the admission to the first vows.
He receives the participation of that very special grace with great joy and can hardly believe in the longed-for adventure.
The admission sheet reads: "Rome, June 5th."
Coincidence that fills her with admiration, since June 5 is the unforgettable date of the day when, two years ago, Jesus for the first time discovered her Heart. Those graces exasperate the demon whose fury increases; it does not stop crushing it, burning it; bring it down, repeating with frightening tenacity:
that day will not come to you ... I will exhaust you ...
torture ... to leave here ... ”
The feast of the Blessed Sacrament, Thursday, June 15, the Sacred Heart, Friday, June 23, with its privileged octave, does not bring any relief to so many pains.
In the midst of fierce fighting comes the month of July. The vow ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, the 16th, the feast of Nossa Senhora do Carmo and Josefa will go into retreat on Friday the 7th, the first of the month.
But on that powerful day, her powerful obsession takes hold of her spirit and throws her into the most tremendous crisis of despair that he had never gone through ... He will say later that he had never seen himself so close to the abyss. Hours of incredible suffering, but which cannot pull the need for God out of his soul. It belongs again to the Mother of Sorrows to annihilate Satan's plans.
The afternoon of that first Friday and the day of Saturday, July 8, undoubtedly mark the culmination of the diabolical attacks.
It's five in the afternoon. In the small cell where the terrible July 8 was spent, Josefa, exhausted, is sitting. He does not seem to hear the Ave Marias that multiply softly near her, reminding Our Lady of the power of her Sorrows and pleading with Him to come and help her daughter.
Suddenly, his contracted face stretches out to him, his lips part and, little by little, they murmur the same prayer.
Then, in the pacification that begins, the Mothers begin to reread some of the words of the Blessed Virgin, piously preserved.
To these words:
“Daughter, is it not true that you will never abandon my Son?”
"No, Mother, never."
Josefa drops to her knees, her face lights up before her liberated soul, the Immaculate Mother is there ...
In a transport of love, difficult to narrate, she fervently repeats: "No, Mother, never!"
Exciting moment, when the demon's power mi e disappears before the sovereign intervention of the Queen of the sky. By a telling coincidence of the delicacy of Our Lord, the Reverend. Father Boyer, director of Josefa, arrives at the same time at the “Sacred Heart”.
Josefa can welcome you and her words of courage and confidence have just cast her into the Arms of God.

VI: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

AURORA VOTES

“I repeat to you, Lord, I will never be separated from You. I will follow you wherever you lead me '.

(Notes from Josefa's Retreat)

Josefa had entered the silence of the Retreat. There are only eight days to go until July 16th and none will pass without the devil being obstinate in overthrowing his generosity. This struggle can be followed by the notes she entrusted to the retreat notebook. It reads mainly the love that keeps it rooted in the Will of God, so contrary to its attractions and so demanding in immolation.
“Sir - he writes on Saturday, July 8, in the afternoon of that day of distress - you know who I am. But I would rather suffer a thousand times than abandon you and be unfaithful to the appeal you made to me.
“I start this retreat without any desire; in the meantime, do with me and with me whatever you want. The only thing I ask of you is that you will tie me to your holy Will and that I will never do anything else on earth but your pleasure ... ”The day I was calling with such enthusiasm has now arrived, but what ice in my heart! .... I am without strength and without love ... and without Jesus what would become of me? - just go on - because I love Him without measure, even though I don't feel ...
“I will therefore allow myself to be led, I will do this retreat because it is your Will.
“I am sure that, even in the greatest darkness, he is preparing my soul to join me with Him.”
The first three days of the holy Exercises take place in relative peace.
The devil, often present before her, tries in vain to disturb and torment her in various ways.
Faithful, through everything, she continues, as soon as she can, to report the fruits of her meditations.
In these pages written just for you, the simplicity, the straightness, the balance of your soul are perfectly revealed.
“Jesus gave me the being, the vocation, the means to serve Him according to his Plan, - he writes. You have every right to me. I must abandon myself to your Will with the most complete submission. If the path costs me, it doesn't matter ...
The measure of my abandonment will one day be that of my happiness and I will always find true peace, doing the Will of God by completely renouncing myself ...
“In the meditation on Death, I found Strength to suffer, because it will be a great comfort, on the last day, to have suffered for God. You well know, Lord, my desire to join with You to never lose you again. For it is not death that frightens me, but life ... However, I am sure that you will not abandon me and, if you want me to suffer, I will be happy, as long as I can console you ... May my life be nothing but fidelity , so that my death is nothing but happiness!
“As the Predigo Son, I have a great desire to throw myself into your Heart. There I will deposit all my miseries! ... I am sure that I will be welcomed, because, however great my faults, the greater will be the Mercy and the Tenderness of your Heart! "
When the time comes when the purified soul stands before the appeal of the Master, in the meditation of the Kingdom, as Saint Ignatius calls him, Josefa finds himself plunged into an anxious night.
"Lord - she writes - See my affliction, however who can contemplate You in the first line of the battle without wishing to follow You? ...
“I will ignore the fear of my nature, but I will only look at the joy of walking on your tracks - Use me according to your desire, you are my King! ... I abandon everything to find everything ... I repeat. You: I will never be separated from You, I will follow You wherever you lead me.
“Incarnation meditation gave me courage, she continues. I see Jesus humble himself and do his Father's Will. This is how I must humbly submit to His, whatever ... love this dependence and this habitual subjection of doing everything, suffering everything, sacrificing everything to fulfill the Will God's. I want to live in absolute detachment so that He can accomplish His designs in me. ”
Contemplating the Nativity brings the joys of Christmas to your soul.
"Jesus, my life! could I wish for anything, seeing You in this extreme poverty? ... My little Jesus, how beautiful you are! I approach the straw where you rest, kiss your Pezinho and your little hand ... look at me with your charming eyes and tell me to fear nothing because you are my Savior and you love me with infinite love ... - Daughter, I want you to be all my!
- I already am. Lord, I am already and forever! ”
On Wednesday, July 12, Satan's shadow extends more and more over Josefa's path. It is suffering and desolation invades it. In the afternoon, a long descent into hell puts her in front of empty places where the devil, tormenting her, takes revenge, as he says, on the souls she has taken with her suffering. She returns to life exhausted, annihilated, but ready to suffer for the salvation of the world ... Such an offering is never made in vain and her soul will enter into new darkness.
Thursday, July 13, is painful par excellence. Since a few days ago her notes bear the stamp of the waves of suffering whose ebb and flow afflict her
"Jesus - she writes - come to my rescue! ...
look at the darkness where I am plunged ... do not leave me in the hands of my enemies. ”
After the Two Flags meditation:
“You know, Lord, that for many years I have wanted nothing more than to be Yours, to live for You and to love You. Now I'm about to fail. Oh! Look at me and everything will disappear, but look at me, Lord! There are only two days left ... if I do not find peace in You, where will I go to seek you? ... "
What a painful tone to remember your most ardent desires!
“You know what I wanted from this Retreat, from my Vows! and, behold, these are days of fear and disgust, of disturbance and suffering ... Why does the devil have so much freedom? ”
But, reviving his faith:
"Lord, I expect everything from your Heart, I want to be all yours and I say it to you in the most terrible moment I have known, because you know well what anguish I am immersed in!"
It seems to seek courage, reaffirming in itself the will to be faithful and entrusting to its notebook appeals I take this:
“Sir, where am I going? A. Who will I give myself to but you? I no longer have any desire or attraction but I want to stay faithful ... I am ready to do whatever you want, to suffer as much as you want, to follow You wherever you lead me, for the most complete and generous donation of myself, for you are my Lord and my God it was You who chose me ... O Heart full of Love and Mercy, have pity on me do not let me succumb, give me Strength to resist, constancy to preserve and love to suffer ... ”
The time has come for that cry of love to move the sky.
On the afternoon of July 13, kneeling in the oratory of Santa Madalena Sofia, the Holy Hour begins in indescribable anguish. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a wave of peace invades his soul. Jesus, once again manifests his power. In the unspeakable joy of that transformation. Josefa, freed, radiant, renews the Vows that linked her beforehand and for the eternity of the Heart of Jesus and her "Society". The demon is on the run!
And on the morning of Friday, July 14, he writes with all the expansion of his recognized heart:
“Jesus, I thank You for giving me light and peace! I am ready for everything you want from me ”. Then she adds as if talking to herself: “All my life I loved You, only You, but nobody knew that I was yours. Now heaven and earth will know that we love each other and that we are husband and wife for eternity ”.
The last two days of the Retreat are still wrapped in that peace. She cannot believe in such happiness.
But the work of his soul seriously continues, while the devil to the end seeks to rob him of his joy.
“Jesus in the desert was tempted - she writes - It allows the devil to dare to attack a God to give me courage and teach me that temptation is the crucible of virtue.
“During his hidden life, I don't know if Jesus experienced any temptation, but the moment he prepares for public life he wants to go through this trial.
“When God deigns to use a soul, he observes the same conduct: to strengthen it in the inner life, keep it hidden first, but then when the time for carrying out his plans approaches, he gives it over to temptation in order to fortify it and preserve it from vanity and make it by its own experience more useful to others.
“I must have confidence in that Heart that watches over me, and the measure of suffering, how many times has it not already made me understand! it will be later, that of consolation. ”
The sight of Our Lord under the weight of his Agony still strengthens it.
“What a lesson you give me here. Sir!:..
“In temptation and desolation it is prayer that I must resort to to ask for relief, but above all Strength, to do your Will.”
"How hard my heart would be if, in the face of Jesus' Passion, I did not decide to follow Him on the path he wants to take me, humiliation, renunciation, complete abandonment of myself".
On the same Friday, after contemplating Our Crucified Lord, he draws the following lines:
"Sir! Here you are on the Cross. You are going to die and your Heart will open for me. Heart of my Jesus, show me the passage and let me go to the bottom ...
My home is your Heart. There I will stay hidden: there I will work, suffer and lose myself. The smaller it is, the further down the chasm I can descend ...
What a joy to know this Heart and be your Wife ... ”
A little further on, he renews his promises with all the spontaneity of his fervor:
“I am not capable of great things, Lord! But I promise to follow your path. If I fail (and it will be more than once) I will not be discouraged but I will love You even more because of the tenderness you dedicate to me. You who love me as if I never offended you. Even if I fall, I will get up and go to your Heart ”.
On Saturday, July 15, the eve of the Vows; Josefa spends the day waiting for great happiness.
His joy is so fresh and so profound at the same time, that it must enchant the Heart of one who likes simplicity and ardor in love.
"A day of great peace for my soul, waiting for the hour that will join me - she writes - When she comes, nothing should find Her displeasing or embarrassing her entrance ... Purifying the home of my soul.
I will marry a King who brings wealth in superabundance. Put my poor judgment aside to think like him, to want like him, to subject myself to all his tastes.
Around noon the enemy makes another attempt but his power is running out. Josefa does not see him, only hears his voice: “It is still time, roars if you want to be happy, part, otherwise, I will burn you.
But that shadow does not reach his joy. In the afternoon she writes at length all that her heart contains of intentions and desires, “she says so many - that I will not have time tomorrow to say them all to Our Lord. I will place this letter on my heart and he will read it during my thanksgiving; I will have just finished pronouncing the Vows and he will not be able to refuse me. ”
That leaf was carefully preserved. 16 testimony of Josefa's pure affection for all the people she knows. He multiplies the names dear to his heart, and with ever narrower handwriting, he accumulates the intentions that overflow from his soul, Charity that extends to the ends of the earth and embraces the Holy Church, France, Spain, the whole world.
In that solemn hour of her life she feels powerful over the heart of Jesus and participates more and more in the unfathomable thirst ...
"As for me, she says, ending - I give myself entirely to You, body and soul , with no other desire than to glorify your Heart that I love so much! May the whole world know you ... and the souls that you are consecrated, love you more and more! ... Nothing will separate us between life and death.
Embrace me with your Love and give me no other comfort than to comfort your Heart! ...
“Receive this letter through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. Here on earth and for all eternity I am from now on:
Maria Josefa Menéndez de Jesus
The day ends with the radiance of Our Lord who is near and the night full of soft yearnings.
Everything is ready for the oblation to be carried out.

THE OBLATION
July 16 - August 7, 1922

“See how faithful I was to you...
now I will start my Work ... "

(Our Lord to Josefa - July 18, 1922).

It is a heavenly day that unfolds in the old monastery of the Feuillants.
In that house. in which the Dress and First Vows ceremonies are frequent, a renewal of fervor and joy always accompanies the happy privileged ones at the altar of oblation. the whole religious family joins them. The motto of the Sacred Heart is never so vivid ":" Cor unum et anima una in Corde Jesu. "
On the morning of July 16, 1922, no one suspected the wonders that took place at Little Sister Josefa Menendez. God holds her jealous mind the shadow of her face. She had done her work her. Had formed it.
Worked on it, grinding it to adjust He took her into his hands. He had guided her along her ways. She had put Satan's plans to dust. His Mercy triumphed over that misery and his Power over that weakness.
Today he himself leads it to the fulfillment of its Purposes.
The covenant that will be sealed in a few moments before heaven and earth, will consecrate you as your spouse, not to enjoy, but to help you in the Work of Love that will be between her and the divine Heart, the consummation of unity.
She is the only one elected that day. At eight o'clock in the morning, in the “Feuillants” chapel, all decorated with summer flowers and full of girls, he enters the middle of the Mothers and Sisters, with joyful recollection that is no longer from this land.
There, the beloved mother and mana from Madrid are also found. You know, Josefa, who are close to her and those “two loves of your heart”, as you say, are part of the offering. Her sister Mercedes, religious of the Sacred Heart, also joins her from the home of Las Palmas (Canary Islands). Nothing reveals, neither his attitude nor his radiant face, the mysterious proximity to the sky. In the silence of the prayer that liturgical songs interrupt from time to time, the ceremony develops its usual rites. After a few words from the celebrant, who calls attention to the austere happiness of religious consecration, Josefa approaches the communion table. Respond firmly to the celebrant's questionnaire and to the last question: "Is it freely and with all your heart that you take Jesus Christ for your Spouse?" his whole soul overflowed in these words: -Yes, Father,it is wholeheartedly. ” Receive the Cross “on which is set who will now be your Model and the only Object of your Love” and the black veil of which it is said: “Receive the Yoke of the Lord, for his Yoke is soft and his light weight , ”
Holy Mass begins. When the solemn moment of communion arrives, alone at the Holy Table. staring at the Host that the priest raises before her, Josefa slowly pronounces, with all the intensity of her will and love, the Vows that unite her forever to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ... a moving moment, for those who know at what price it was obtained, through which storms the little boat arrived at the port, and what miracles of love the Heart that delighted with its smallness lavished on it!
While human eyes rest on the simplicity of that oblation, another spectacle catches the attention of the sky.
Moments later, still in holy rapture, Josefa notes never to forget again, what she had pleased the Lord to do for her.
“After the sermon,” he writes, “I approached to receive the Crucifix of Vows and the black veil. Then I suddenly saw the Blessed Virgin, beautiful dressed in light. In her hands she held a veil, and when I returned to the kneel she personally held it out over my head.
Around it framing it, I saw a crowd of radiant little heads appear. Little children would be said to have eyes and faces lit up with joy.
With sweetness that I cannot express, she said to me:
“Dear daughter, while you were suffering, these souls wove the veil for you. all those you desired left Purgatory and are in heaven for eternity. They protect you from there. ”
“It was a charming picture: the Blessed Virgin looked like a queen, with a beautiful countenance, full of purity and tenderness, with a golden tunic, virgin hands, white and thin. And all those souls ... numerous little heads ... it was magnificent! ... I can't write the impression that all that made me. And as I also had that veil that enveloped me and my Crucifix, I didn't know what to say ... I let myself be flooded with happiness ... I couldn't do anything else! ... "when the Blessed Virgin finished speaking, the little heads disappeared one after the other. He gave me the blessing and it disappeared too. I thought I was in heaven ...
“Then came the time to read, with what emotion and with what joy! ... the formula of the Vows. Then I took communion ... Then I saw Jesus very beautiful. The Heart was burning, the Sore was open: a Force was coming out of it that attracted me, made me go to the bottom and I found myself lost inside your Heart! ”
“Now I'm happy - he said - because I have you trapped in my Heart. From all eternity I was Yours, from now on you are Mine, forever! You will work for Me. I will work for you.
Your interests are Mine. My interests are yours. See how faithful I was to you!
"And now I'm going to start my Work."
"And disappeared."
A few hours later, Retiro's notebook overflows, in the following lines, what goes on in his soul:
“Jesus came, the union was made! .. Oh! will he know how miserable I am and that in spite of my desire to please and love him, will I still hurt Him more than once? Yes, you know it better than me! but he loves ... and nothing matters to Him. You are ready in advance to make up for my faults, that's what you gave me your Heart for!
Then try to specify the commitments that connect you to this Sacred Heart:
“O Jesus: thank you for the incomparable grace of my Vows!
“My Vote for Poverty! what did I want with this vote? I know that from now on I am no longer entitled to anything: everything I use will be, alms given to me.
I also left everything I loved the most here: my mother, my sister, my home, my homeland to have nothing but Jesus Christ ... It is, however, above all of myself that I must strip myself. Jesus will be everything to me, I will have no desire or ambition for you; it is my Strength, my Peace, I want nothing but him, nothing but what to lead me to.
“My Chastity Vow! How happy I am in religious life! Who will take this treasure from me? The world does not exist for me, I am in a closed garden whose flowers are very different. I will always live in this garden among flowers reserved for the divine Gardener.
He cultivates me, I recreate him, he loves me I love Him!
Everything else is nothing to me, O pure Jesus! Spouse of the Virgins! I love You because you are Purity itself. It was what attracted my heart since my first years of life. "Jesus is the Spouse of the Virgins". This word was enough to make me taste the charms reserved for your Wives and since then my soul has been a flower that for you only exhales its perfume, O Jesus, make me never lose the whiteness of grace or the love of virginity.
“And my vote of obedience! - he adds - Connect me to my legitimate Superiors, making them see only You who give me to know your Will. My love must go further, not only must I obey all authority whatever, but also that voice that speaks to my soul and that sometimes I pretend not to hear, because it costs me to do what it tells me or to say what it sends ...
No, Lord, I will obey for love, without asking why or how, without murmuring, nor hesitating, because it is no longer my will but Yours that lives in me, and all this for Your sake!
“Throughout the day - he concluded - I was so happy that I did not know what to say to Jesus and his Mother.
It is indeed in heavenly peace that it seems involved.
It is steeped in God. But always good and attentive to everyone, she spends the day sowing happiness.
Take the kiss of peace to the sick and sick that he had not given in the chapel. Finding her was for each person a ray of joy and an expansion of charity.
The mother and the sister largely enjoy it in the hours that they dedicate to them, as they continue to be a daughter and older sister, full of delicacy and supernatural tenderness.
In the afternoon, in long adoration before the exposed Jesus, she finds again the silence that her soul is thirsty to repeat to the Spouse of the Virgins the offer that consecrated her to her Heart.
The following days confirm his oblation until the time when Jesus openly discovers the Plan of his Heart, thus carrying out the word heard on the morning of the Vows: "Now I will begin my Work."
“On Tuesday, July 18,” she writes, “at the bell of the afternoon I left my mother and sister to go to the chapel. On the way, I asked Jesus not to feel sorry for me not speaking to him so often during these days, but to receive as much for Him as I say to them, because it is true that everything is for His Love. ”
The moment he entered the oratory of Santa Madalena Sofia, Our Lord suddenly appears:
“Josefa, my Spouse, fear nothing. I receive as much comfort as if you were with me. See Me in them and live in peace. ”
On Saturday, July 22, at the beginning of the Mass, she came in very beautiful - she writes - With one hand she held the Heart and with the other she waved me closer:
“Look at the prison I have prepared for you from all eternity, - she said - in this Heart that you will live lost and hidden forever. ”
After communion he added:
“Josefa, my wife, let Me expand in you. My greatness will make your smallness disappear. From now on we will always work together. I will live in you. you will live for souls. ”
And as if it reminded her of her weakness.
-Let yourself lead! .. My Heart will do everything, my Mercy will act and my Love will annihilate your whole being. ”
Yesterday - she adds - the Blessed Virgin came in the morning, ”
That incomparable Mother watches as if she fears that her daughter will forget the dangers always hidden in her path.
“Be at peace, daughter,” she says, “Nothing reserves for you. don't worry about the present moment. Jesus will lead you and your Superiors.
Never separate yourself from them, stay faithful and submissive to my Son's Will, especially in difficult times.
After some recommendations:
"My divine Son wants to use that little instrument for his Glory and despite all the efforts of the enemy."
This is how she is informed by her Mother that the enemy has not disappeared for a long time, because if she was unable to take away her vocation, at least she will try until the end to collapse the plan of Love that is being printed in the pages of her life. Josefa is at first, bewildered by finding herself so weak again despite the grace of the Vows, in the face of temptations, whose painful experience she already knows.
On Wednesday, July 26, I was saying to the Blessed Virgin my great sorrow - she writes - I begged her to ask Jesus for forgiveness and to tell her how happy I am to belong to her and that my only desire is to love Him. But that you should deign not to forget my smallness! I spoke to him like this, to vent. when Jesus suddenly appeared ... He approached me and said:
“Fear nothing: I am your Savior, I am your Spouse.
Ah!How little do these two words understand souls! This is the Work that I want to do through you; my Heart's most ardent desire is for souls to be saved, I want my Wives and especially those of my Heart to know how easily souls can give me.
I will teach them through you, the treasure that they lose so often because they do not deepen the meaning of these two words: Savior and Spouse. ”
“Then he let me rest on his Heart and after a moment he lifted my head so that I could look at Him. How to express what his beautiful eyes say to me ... He continued:
“ Fear nothing, my Heart repairs your falls and those of all my souls.
"The only thing I ask is that they do not lose their confidence because I am Salvador and Spouse."
“Keep my peace, my Heart loves you and your smallness does not scare me. It was because of her that I stared at you and that I love you with the madness of a God. ”
It was the same lesson of confidence that the Blessed Virgin repeated to her on the following day, Thursday 27, showing herself to her at the hour of her last prayers:
“Dear daughter, do not worry about your falls. You will fall more than once, but Love will always lift you up because you are supported by the Spouse who loves you and who is your God. ”
A few days later, in the afternoon of Sunday, July 30, he announces the Cross of Jesus to his daughter.
"At night he will come to bring you the Cross."
And putting his hand on my shoulder - writes Josefa - he added:
"Don't look at your smallness, look at the Treasure that belongs to you because you are all of it and it is all yours."
Hours later, in the middle of the night, wrapped in radiant light, he brings her that cross that she had not carried in a long time.
"Josefa my Spouse, do you want to share the Cross of your Spouse?"
And, placing it on my right shoulder:
"Receive it with joy and carry it with love, for it is for the souls that I love so much.
" less heavy than before ... We are now united for eternity and nothing else will separate us. "
The faithful Friend, who lets her take care of her task during the day, enjoys the evening entertainment when nothing else disputes it and knows how to find it always ready for O Consolar.
"By the night of Saturday, 5, for Sunday, August 6, I was already asleep -" she writes - when her Voice woke me up.
"Josefa, my Wife!"
"I was beautiful with his Cross and surrounded by light. I got up quickly."
"I am coming to bring you my Cross."
“And he put it over my shoulder. I told him my joy in comforting Him despite my smallness. ”
"I bring it at night because during the day I give it to my Wives."
So Josefa tells him about souls and especially sinners because this is his constant concern:
“Yes, there are many souls who offend Me, many who are lost - he replies sadly - but the ones who hurt my Heart the most are the souls I love so much ! who always reserve something for themselves and don’t give themselves entirely to me.
“And yet, have I not given you enough proof of love? Do I not give you all my heart? ”
“I asked her for forgiveness for those souls and for me who so often make reservations in the Gift of myself - she continues humbly - I begged Him to receive in reparation the acts of love of those who wish to console Him and answered me with kindness:
"That's what I'm looking for: repairing the miseries of one with the acts of the other."
That night spent under the Cross is the immediate preparation that suits Sunday, August 6, 1922, a memorable date in Josefa's history because it opens up the perspectives of the Work that awaits her. But the divine Master, who can only act through nothingness in the instrument, wants to emphasize once again this demand of his Heart.
She writes:
“After communion, Our Lord came very beautiful ... The Heart was enlarged, the Wound wide open. He pinned me first: and then with great compassion he said:
"Misery and nothing! .. Here's your name.
... Small is still something and you, Josefa, are nothing!"
"Did he speak with such love that my soul opened up? He simply: it is true, yes, Lord, I am nothing. And I wanted to be even less because the" nothing "does not oppose you and does not offend you because it does not exist and I resist you ... I offend you ... "
" During the second Mass she returned and approached me, she continued to the Heart:
"Are you well convinced of your nothingness? ... From now on the words I say to you will never be extinguished."
“I
replied to him when I am afraid that his Work of Love will be put in my hands, for I am capable of the worst despite my good wishes. ” A fire poured out of His Heart that burned me ”.
"Small! Misery of my Heart! ... he said with kindness - Begin my Work clinging to my Mother's hand! Isn't it enough to create courage? ”
Josefa's heart skipped over that question; (in complete confidence in the Blessed Virgin who loves so much!
“Yes, Lord,” she replied spontaneously, “great courage and great confidence. Tell me what I can do to obtain from that dear Mother who will never let me betray your Work, who will always keep me faithful your designs, that protects me and that your heart supports me, because it is my only desire, ”
Then, after a solemn silence, Jesus responds as if retiring before uttering words of extreme importance.
Since my Heart wants to serve as vile instruments to make the greatest Work of His Love, this is what it will do as an introduction to this Work during the days preceding the Assumption of my Mother.
“To deepen the nothingness of the Instrument.
“To entrust yourself entirely to the Mercy of my Heart and to promise from the bottom of my soul that you will never resist my requests, however cruel they may seem.
“On Thursday you will make Holy hour to comfort my Heart from the resistances of the chosen Souls.
"On Friday, I will ask you for an act of reparation for the offenses and hurt that I receive from these souls."
In the afternoon, writing these lines, Josefa is excited, remembering the solemnity and gravity of the tone with which the Lord had spoken to her. He dares not continue, for fear of not remembering the words exactly and of betraying the Master's thought; he suddenly appeared and dictated, in Pessoa, the following:
“I don't care! When you write I will tell you everything. None of my words will be perceived. Nothing I tell you will ever be erased.
It matters little, however small and miserable you may be. I will do everything.
“I will make it known that my Work rests on nothingness and misery and that this is the first ring in the chain of love that I have been preparing for souls since all eternity. I will use you to show that I love misery, smallness and nothingness.
"I will make known to souls the extent to which my Heart loves and forgives them and how their own downfalls serve me as complacency ... yes, write that, complacency. I see the depths of souls, their desire to please Me, to Me consoling, glorifying Me and the act of humility that they are obliged to do when they are so weak, is exactly what consoles and glorifies my Heart. ”" Little is given to me by its smallness. I will make up for what they lack.
“I will make known how my Heart uses its own weakness to give life to many souls who have lost it.
“I will make it known that the measure of my Love and my Mercy towards fallen souls has no limits. I wish to forgive. Forgiving rest. I am always waiting with love for souls to come to Me! Don't be discouraged! Come on! ...
Throw yourself into my Arms! Do not be afraid!
I am your father! Many of my wives do not quite understand everything they can do to attract to my Heart souls who are plunged into an abyss of ignorance, without knowing how much I want to bring them closer to Me to give them Life ... the true Life.
“Yes, I will teach you my secrets of Love, Josefa and you will be a living example of my Mercy, because if I have so much love and predilection for you, that you are nothing but misery and nothing, that I will not do for other souls much more generous than you! ”
“He allowed me to kiss his feet and left thereafter, whenever he has to transmit the Message that the Heart of Jesus wants to transmit to the world, he, in Person, will be present. He will speak with an expanse of ardent love and Josefa will write, as they fall from His Lips, the divine Appeals.
You will underline these passages in red ink in your notebooks, to highlight their exceptional value.
“On Monday, August 7, after communion - she says - Our beautiful Lord came:
“ What do you mean, Josefa? ”
"Lord, to obey, I will renew the Vows in your presence."
(We remember the recommendation that had been made to him for several months to avoid the devil's hoaxes).
“While renovating them, he smiles happily. It was so beautiful! he looked at me with inexpressible tenderness and compassion! Then he opened his Arms and approached the Heart:
“Come now that you are nothing and enter my Heart It is so easy to get lost in this abyss of Love.”
"Then he made me enter your Heart." - Josefa writes that she feels unable to express anything of this mysterious favor.
When she finds herself out of the unfathomable abyss He says:
“I will thus consume your smallness and your misery. I will act on you, I will speak for you, I will make myself known through you. How many souls will find life in my Words! How many will create courage by understanding the fruit of their efforts.
A small act of generosity, patience, poverty ... can become a treasure and obtain for my Heart a great number of souls ... You, Josefa, will soon disappear; my words will remain ”.
'• Then I told him my fears, for I am always afraid of not being faithful. He looked at me with his eyes so beautiful with inexpressible kindness. He added:
“Don't be afraid. I will manage you in the way that best suits my Glory and the salvation of souls. "Give yourself to Love, let yourself be guided to Love and live lost in Love!" (1)
(1) Josefa would write a few days later the following words added by Our Lord and that her delicacy would not dare to communicate to the Mothers then:
“You will die soon. Shortly before your death I will warn you so that your Mother will tell the Bishop everything. Do not be afraid, because a few days later you will be with me in heaven ”.

SECOND BOOK

THE MESSAGE OF LOVE

(FIRST PART)

PRELIMINARY

As soon as Josefa pronounced the Vows, it became evident that she had been chosen only for a great purpose of love. all the grace of the vocation developed in her soul by divine predilections had shaped her for this Work.
Wife of the Heart of Jesus, she should be a living response of love ... and he had discovered the secrets of love that he expects from his "Society": - "the most tender and most generous Love."
- Wife of your Heart, she should penetrate Him in the Wound, measure its depth and associate itself with its pain in the face of the perdition of souls ... Repairman.
- Wife of his Heart, chosen by the Savior God to be an instrument of his Love and Mercy for souls so tenderly loved, she should participate in his unfathomable thirst ... and he had plunged her into the consuming fire of his Heart, offering you the whole world as the horizon of that mutual love.
The years of her religious formation were, therefore, for her to deepen that grace of vocation that calls every religious of the Sacred Heart to a life of wife, victim and apostle.
Jesus himself wanted to highlight, with his guidelines, each line of the Rule and thus give, at the dawn of that religious life, a moving testimony of his Thought about the “Society founded on Love”.
- as I would say once - “and whose life, and whose end is Love”. (1).
It was not, however, yet, but preparation for a broader design. Several times he had warned Josefa of his projects. Despite the fear and resistances of her soul, she had guided her firmly and gently towards the unconditional offer of herself, for a more defined mission.
On the day of the Vows, affirming your rights over the ei, had I not said that revealing word to you?
"And now I'm going to start my Work." (2)
This Work, which He himself will call “the greatest of His Love” (3) will, from now on, develop and materialize during the eighteen months that Josefa's fast passage will end here on earth.

(1) June 22, 1923.
(2) July 16, 1922.
(3) August 6, 1922.

The Hand that directs it, the Action that operates in it will keep it jealously, in their own eyes, as a vile and petty instrument, therefore chosen by God in preference.
This is why the Lord will allow her to experience her weakness in the daily struggle, while being faithful to the end: temptation, the devil, even hell, will remain at the forefront of her sufferings.
It is the counterweight that God requires to put in Josefa the feeling of his lowliness and his nothingness. It is also the stimulus that will not leave you for a single moment of rest, in the face of the sins of the world, the souls to be saved and the flame that consumes the Master's Heart.
Before embarking on the last and decisive stage of this life, it is advisable to pause for a moment, to take a look at the past that ends and the future that opens ... The rd divine year in this Work of Love stands out better then, in the double design that seems to summarize it, allowing, as Our Lord will say, that we admire all the details.
What first emerges from the teachings of his Heart and his Action on Josephus, is the doctrinal nature that highlights the guiding principles of our faith. Our Lord seems to have wanted to remind souls in divine Lesson of things.
The Creator's Sovereign Dominion over the creature, which it demands from dependence on its Will and abandonment to its divine Action, appears first as a solid basis of true love.
"Don't forget - Our Lord repeats to Josefa - that I have every right over you (1)," Let Me have you. " Let me do what I want with you. ” And the following words: "Let me act ...", "Let Me be free in you ..." come back continually to confirm the totality of your rights.
At the same time, Josefa's whole life is the story of Providence, who is never wrong in her ways. "It is necessary - he said one day -" that, being very small, let yourself be led and led by my powerful and infinitely strong fatherly hand. (2) "" I will manage you as befits my Glory and the benefit of souls. "(3)
“Do not be afraid, as I keep you jealous, as the most tender mother cares for her little boy” (4).
Magnificent definition of divine fidelity that can always tell us at the crossroads of our lives, as Josefa used to say: "I never fail in my Word" (5).
The Presence of grace that enlivens the soul, the foundation of its incorporation into Christ, is always remembered: “I am in it - says -“ I live in it, I am pleased to be one with it ”(6). But on the other hand, he asks you to never leave him alone ... to consult him in everything ... to sin him all ... to put on him, and disappear under his life: "The more you disappear, the more I will be yours Life (7). It does not seem like the comment of the word of São Paulo: “I live; no, it's not me anymore, but Jesus Christ who lives in me ”?
The value of vital union with Jesus is then highlighted, transforming the smallest human activities into “supernatural gold.”

(1) March 26, 1923.
(2) May 26, 1923.
(3) August 7, 1922.
(4) May 3, 1923.
(5) July 25, 1921.
(6) December 5, 1923.
(7) June 5, 1923.

Too many times, in a tangible way. Our Lord deigned to show Josefa what Love can do with the minimum actions united with Him. In such a way he wanted to revive in souls the happiness of believing in this wealth within the reach of all.
"How many souls will create courage - he said - understanding the fruit of his efforts (1) and what is not the value of a day of divine life!" (2).
Here we touch on the dogma that seems to be the knot of this magnificent teaching, that of participation in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. Our Lord often reminds Josephus of the power given to the baptized soul over the treasures of Redemption.
If you ask him to complete in her what his Passion lacks, to repair for the world and to satisfy the Father's justice, it is always with him, for him in Him.
“My Heart is yours, take it and repair it” (3).
Then those omnipotent offerings on His Father's heart spring from His lips, which Josefa collects and transmits to us: “Good Father, Holy Father, Merciful Father! Receive the Blood of your Son, your Wounds ... your Heart! ... See your Head pierced with thorns ... do not allow this Blood to be useless once more ... "(4) Do not forget that the the time for Justice has not yet arrived and we are in the time of Misericórdia! ”(5)

(1) August 7, 1922
(2) December 2, 1922
(3) October 15, 1923.
(4) September 26, 1922.
(5) February 11, 1922.

The great reality of the Communion of Saints finally appears as a canvas of Josefa's vocation, the foundation of the framework in which her life develops. The Blessed Virgin. Mediatrix of all graces and Mother of Mercy, it has an exceptional place in the center of that wonderful exchange of graces and merits, between the saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory and those who are military here on earth ... only hell is out. Josefa, a little member of the body of Jesus Christ, learns from Him the repercussion in the world of souls of fidelity, sacrifice, suffering and prayer.
But, in addition to these doctrinal lessons that already seem to be of great value, the direct Message that the Heart of Jesus will entrust to you to pass on to the world is an Appeal of Love and Mercy.
One day Josefa will ask the Master this question: “Lord! I do not understand what is this Work that you always talk to me about - “Do you not know what my Work is? - He will reply - It is of Love! ... I want to make use of you to make the Mercy and Love of my Heart even more known ... The words and desires that I transmit through you will arouse zeal in many souls, will prevent the loss of many others and will make it known, more and more, that the Mercy of my heart is inexhaustible (1).
“From time to time - I will say it again - I am thirsty to make a new Call of Love heard (2) ... It is true that I have no need for you ... but let Me through you, ask for love, manifest yourself Me once more to souls. ” (3)

(1) November 22, 1922.
(2) August 29, 1922.
(3) December 15, 1922.

This great Plan of Love was entrusted to Josefa, through the heavenly entertainments that will happen in the last months of her life.
On the appointed days and hours, Jesus will be punctual for the meeting in the tiny cell, where the Heart had opened Him so many times, handed him the cross. She will not be able to predict your calls. Now he will wish you to be available for days on end to write whatever he dictates, now he will interrupt, for several weeks, the continuation of the message. Now he will hastily dictate just a few lines: now, he will keep her on her knees for a long time to collect while He speaks the secrets of her Heart.
The book “Invitation to a Life of Love” has already grouped the Master's words into a set that best highlights their reach. Here, it is within the scene itself that they will be inscribed, day by day, with more accentuated relief.
However, it seems useful to precede them with a broad synthesis within which souls can better understand the significance of this new manifestation of the Heart of Jesus. he wants to reign through a more sure knowledge of his Goodness, his Love and his Mercy. It is the testimony he came to bear to his Father here on earth: “Deus caritas est” and it is what he wants souls to know about him.
he wants, through this new outpouring of his Heart, to obtain, not only the reciprocity of love, but also the answer of trust, which is even more precious to him, because it is the proof of the most tender love and the source of the most generous love . He wants to attract and regenerate souls through faith in the merciful Goodness that the world does not know enough and in which, above all, he does not believe enough. He wants to revive his chosen Souls in a more unshakable certainty in his Love, in a deeper experience of his Sacred Heart, whose traits he wants them to reveal to those who know him little, or do not know Him at all. He wants this Appeal to awaken sleeping souls ... to lift fallen souls ... to satiate hungry souls ...
to the ends of the earth.
It expresses this burning desire in such a positive way that we cannot remain insensitive to the call of Love. At the same time, he reminds his people that in the constant order of Providence, his Plans depend, in part, on the free cooperation of souls. This cooperation he asks of all those who penetrate the reach of his designs and the ardor of his longings, but also the sense of his redeeming Means. “When souls know my Desires - he said - then spare yourself nothing, neither work nor effort. nor to suffering. ” (1) This is how Josefa will understand that divine Thirst and Hunger that will consume her life in such a short time.

(1) December 5, 1923.

VII - THE PREFACE OF THE MESSAGE

THE FIRST REQUESTS
August 8 - September 30, 1922

"I need to make a new Call for Love heard!"

(Our Lord to Josefa - August 1929).

By the beginning of August 1922, three weeks had passed since the graces of July 16 and the following days, and nothing seemed to have changed in Josefa's life. He is always at work with the same fidelity and the same fervor as always. The black veil, perhaps, involves this work in a more expansive outpouring of charity, in a deeper recollection mainly, because very quickly he plunged again into the effacement that befits the secret life of his soul. In fact, God begins to dig the nothingness of the instrument and this very clear Design of His Love only asks to develop in the shade and in the silence.
On Thursday, August 10, 1922, Josefa writes:
"I do not know how this happened, but for eight days I have known myself to a degree that has never tingled, arrived. I see myself capable of all the worst and my heart full of bad inclinations. I cannot explain the sadness and the confusion that took hold of me in that sight and especially in the face of the Goodness of Jesus.
”“ Today, while sewing, this idea came to me: why am I so ungenerous always fearing - suffering? ... ”
Continues on Monday , August 14, eve of the Assumption:
"I realized that I don't look at him enough and still a lot on myself. I can't go on like this because my life will be short and soon I won't be able to work for his glory any longer. I asked for permission to do a Holy Hour to console him for my little one. generosity and a day of retreat to ask Him to teach me to fix my eyes on Him, on his Will, on his Glory in his Heart, without another look at myself. ”
On Thursday, August 15th, under the protection of the heavenly Mother, she entered on a day of solitude.
"Since I woke up - writes - I put myself very close to Jesus to ask him to teach me to love him with true love: it is my only desire."
Our Lord answered his prayer by plunging it into the sight of his nothingness. Reducing it to your own eyes keeps it annihilated before your Face.
“I pleaded with Him during Thanksgiving to give me as much confidence in His Heart as confusion with my faults. "
The Master of Love, however, wants her to descend even more deeply in the knowledge of her lowliness.
It will give you a very clear yet symbolic view of it. In the following terms Josefa tries to translate it:
“On the morning of August 15th, without realizing where I was, I suddenly found myself in front of a dark place enveloped in fog. It was like a small, damp, shady garden, full of weeds and thorn bushes whose leafless branches intertwined each other.
There was a faint light like a ray of sunlight, and I could see that disorder of brush and thorns, covering a muddy and fetid water.
Then everything disappeared. I didn't know what that meant, but I went to the chapel and didn't think about it anymore.
The only thing I ask of Jesus today is to love Him with true love and to fix your eyes on Him only Suddenly he came full of beauty. Intense light poured from his Heart and he said to me with great love:
"My beloved, I am the Sun of Justice that discovers your misery! The greater you see, the more your tenderness and your love for Me must grow. Fire from my Heart consumes your miseries.
"If your soul is an addicted land unable to produce any fruit. I am the gardener who cultivates it: I will send a ray of sunlight to purify it and my Hand will sow ... It is very small, very I am very big, I am your God, your Spouse and you are the misery of my Heart. ”
That day of the Assumption does not end without the Blessed Virgin also reminding her daughter that she is of this misery even though Jesus intends to use himself for his Work. While Josefa and her Sisters recite the rosary in the novitiate oratory, She suddenly appears, “dressed - writes Josefa - as in the te 'a of my Vows, with a diadem crowning the head, hands crossed over the chest and the ornate Heart with a wreath of white roses. ”
"These will become pearls of great value for the salvation of souls," said Eia, looking first at the novices kneeling around her image. "
And then turning to Josefa;
“Yes, souls! ... here's what ... Jesus likes the most! I love them too because they are the price of your Blood, and there are so many that are lost! ... Do not resist your designs, daughter. Nothing refuses Him. Give yourself totally to the Work of your Heart, which is none other than the salvation of souls.
After some personal advice, he adds:
“Don't be afraid, daughter. Jesus' will will be fulfilled. Your work will be done ”. 1 And disappeared.
This maternal affirmation that opens up to Josephus the perspective of the Work to which the Will of God is holding her little by little, awakens in her a world of apprehensions: submitting to the Plan that links her will always be a matter of combat.
On Saturday, August 19, while sewing, Jesus appears to her and calls her:
"Go excuse me".
Soon after, he approaches her in the cell where, kneeling, he renews the Vows. In the face of so much beauty, she does not know how to express her love to Him:
“Yes, repeat Me that you love Me - she replies - I don't care if you fall yet. I am pleased with your misery. "
And in explaining to him the disgust that he cannot overcome when he has to communicate to the Madres the desires that He manifests, Jesus says to him:
" Everything I send you to say, as hard as it may seem to you, Josefa, is for the good of souls ...
No one can know how I love souls! ... ”Then the Heart expanded and continued:
“ No one can know how much I love this house !. .
It was here that I fixed the Eyes. It was here that I found misery to make her an instrument of my love.
It was to this group of souls that I entrusted my Cross.
They are not alone to carry it because I am with them and I help them. Love is proved by works. I suffered because I love them; they have to suffer for Me's sake. ”
Two days later Our Lord reminds Josefa that only the look of faith will keep her on the safe branch of obedience. It seems that before entrusting you with the most ardent wishes of yours for the world, you want to highlight your authenticity with this dependence that will be until the end, demand and sign of your Presence.
“You understand it well,” he says on Monday, August 21, “it is I who direct all things and I will never allow you to be led on a path that is not Mine. Trust and look only to Me, to my Hand that guides you and my Tenderness that protects you with the Love of Father and Spouse. ”
Days pass, leaving Josefa waiting for the Master's dispositions.
On Thursday, August 24, during the prayer, he appears to you and only says these words:
"Ask me to speak with you."
Josefa obtains permission but Jesus does not return. Such an insight does not disorient her, however; for he gives himself up to the freedom of the one he desires without ceasing.
On Tuesday, August 29, in the morning, while sewing alone in the common room of the Sisters, a well-known voice suddenly makes her shiver.
"It's me!"
Kneel down. Jesus was there. Prostrate yourself, adore Him and let your heart overflow. “You, Lord! From the other day Vos had been waiting for her and was already beginning to fear that Vos would have hurt her with something. "
“No, Josefa. I rejoice when my souls await Me! ... There are so many who do not think of Me! ”
Words like these reveal the disappointments of Love, which always seeks some compensation for the forgetfulness and indifference of souls.
"Go to your cell - continues the Master - I will go too."
Josefa quickly finds herself in the small cell where Jesus preceded her.
“I asked if you would like me to renew my vows - she writes.
"Yes - replied loco - Each time you renew them I tighten the chains that unite you with Me more closely."
So I begged him not to let me ever resist his designs or that my miseries prevented him from doing his work. ”
"Your miseries will never drive me away, Josefa You know that they fixed my eyes on you."
Josefa no longer contains emotion and recognition. It expresses its weakness, its desires, its fears! ...
"He opened my arms to me - she writes - Out of his Wounds a torrent of water comes out".
"Get close to my Wounds - he said and drinks the true Force."
I thought I couldn't take such happiness ”.
"Pica still, until your soul has satiated and strengthened."
After a long moment of this mysterious contact, Our Lord again takes the floor: first he reveals to Josefa something of his predilections and plans about the "Society" of his heart. Then, with great solemnity, he adds:
"Now write how my Souls will make my Father's Heart known to sinners."
Then, while Our Lord speaks, Josefa, kneeling before the table, writes:
“I know the depths of souls, their passions, their attraction for the world and for pleasures. I know, from all eternity, how many souls will fill My Heart with bitterness and that for a great number my sufferings and my Blood will be useless! ...
(But, as I loved them so I love them ... It is not the sin that the more it hurts my Heart ...
"What shatters Him is that souls do not want to take refuge in Me after they have committed it.
" Yes, I wish to forgive and I want my chosen souls to make known to the world as my Heart overflowing with Love and of Mercy… awaits sinners. ”
"Here Josephus notes, I told Him that souls already know this and that He should not forget that I am nothing more than a wretch capable of hindering all his Plans."
“I already know that souls know it - he replies firmly and kindly - but from time to time I need to make a new Call for love. And now I want to come to You, little and miserable creature. You have nothing to do: love Me and remain abandoned to my Will.
“I will keep you hidden in my Heart.
Nobody will discover you. Only after your death will my words be read.
“Throw yourself into my Heart. I support you with immense Love ... I love you, don't you know? Haven't I given enough proof already? ... ”
And as Josefa still opposed this choice, her many weaknesses:
“I have seen them from all eternity - he replied simply - and that is why I love you. "
Two days later, on August 31, Our Lord declares precisely his Will:
"I want you to write, Josefa."
And he insists:
"I Want to speak. from the souls I love so much.
I want you to always find in my words a remedy for your illnesses ”.
The next day, however, it was not to write that the Master invited her. He proposed to his generosity one of those redemptive, long and painful companies as he had known before the Vows.
This Call is certainly part of the Message that the Lord wants souls to read through Josephus' own life.
It is therefore necessary to accompany in this month of September 1922 the story of the search for a “very loved” soul as Jesus himself calls him, a consecrated soul, a soul of a priest.
After Josefa, we will have to enter the unfathomable pain of the Heart of Jesus to understand the reparative love for which we yearn and the redemptive suffering it demands.
“On the night of the first Friday of the month, 1st of September - writes Josefa - when I went to bed I kissed the Crucifix of Vows, when, suddenly, Jesus came radiating beauty. It overflowed with tenderness this time even more than the others.
He said:
“Josefa, it is in your heart that I want to rest ...
in that heart full of misery, it is true, but also full of love.
“Naturally I got down on my knees, renewed the Vows and told him my only wish: to love Him and that other souls love Him!
“Then he spoke to me with great Love of Souls, and especially of the three who had entrusted us a few days ago, and, as if that thought suddenly overwhelmed His Heart, he said:
“ Two are still far, very far from Me ...
But the one that causes me the greatest torment is the third.
My Justice cannot act so rigorously on the first two because they know me less, but this is a consecrated soul, a priest, a religious ... a soul that I love ... It is opening the very abyss where it will fall, if it obstinate! "
On Sunday, September 3, after communion Josefa sees the Master again. It shines with beauty such that no term of this land will be able to express.
Lower your gaze on the religious women immersed in thanksgiving, your Heart burns and pronounces with fervor the following words:
"I am now on the throne which I myself have prepared. My souls cannot know to what extent my Heart rested, giving it entry into yours, small and miserable, without a doubt, more entirely mine ....
“I don't care about miseries, what I want is love. I don't care about weaknesses, what I want is confidence. “These are the souls that attract Mercy and Peace over the world; without them the divine Justice could not be contained ... There are so many sins ... "" So - says Josefa - her Heart seemed oppressed and soon it became all one Chaga!
... I tried to comfort Him, looked at Me sadly and continued:
“Yes. There are countless sins that are committed ... countless souls that are lost ... But what shatters my Heart and puts Him in this state are my chosen Souls ... It is that soul that offends Me ... I love her and she despises Me. My submission must reach the peak of descending on the altar to your voice ... of letting me touch you through those stained fingers ... and, despite the horrible state of your heart, entering that focus of sin.
Let Me hide Me in your heart, Josefa.
“Poor soul! Poor soul! Will you know the punishment you are preparing for eternity? ”
“I begged Him to have mercy on her, I reminded Her how much her Heart wants to forgive. I offered him the love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, of the Saints, of all the righteous souls on earth, those of the “Society” that he loves so much and also the sufferings of this house that are so many, now! ... He replied:
“My Justice will not act as long as I find victims who notice. ”
And he announces to Josefa that he will suffer the torments that hell has in store for consecrated and unfaithful souls.
"In order to stimulate your zeal - he says - and so that my Souls know later on the punishments they risk."
“After talking about himself to himself, he continued:
“Soul I love, why do you despise Me? Isn't it enough that the worldly ones offend me? But you, you who are consecrated to Me, why do you treat me like this? ...
Ah!what a pain for my Heart, to receive so many outrages from a soul chosen with so much love! ” It was on Monday, September 4, that Josefa knew, according to the Master's warning, the unspeakable pain of hell of religious souls.
Since July, he had had no contact with the abyss of desolation. This time, however, he was conscious of taking the mark of the Vows there, as a favorite soul.
"I cannot explain - she says - what this suffering was, because if the torment of a secular soul is already horrible, in comparison with that of a religious soul it is nothing". His pen refuses to write. Note between, so much so that continuously the three words: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, were imprinted in the depths of his soul as accusation and poignant remorse:
“You took your vows freely and in full knowledge of what they demanded ... You yourself are obliged. you wanted it yourself ... "and the soul's inexpressible torture is to respond without stopping:" I made them and I was free. I could not have done it, but I did it myself and I was free! ” He also writes:
“The soul remembers at all times that it had chosen its God for Spouse and that it loved Him above all… that by it it had renounced the most legitimate pleasures and everything that was most dear in the world. .. that at the beginning of her religious life she had tasted the sweetness, the Strength and the purity of divine Love and now, because of a disorderly passion ... she is forced to eternally hate the God who had chosen her to love Him .. .
"This need for hate is a thirst that consumes ... Not a memory that can give a minimum relief ...
“One of the biggest torments - he adds - is the shame that surrounds it. It seems that all the doomed souls that surround her are constantly shouting at her: “That we have lost ourselves, not having the same resources as you, will it be to admire? But you! ... what were you missing? You who lived in the King's palace ... you who ate at the table of the chosen! ... ”
“ Everything I wrote - she concludes - is just a shadow next to what the soul suffers, because there are no words that explain the same torment ”.
Josefa returns from that abyss more devoted to the redemptive task to which Our Lord linked her: It better measured the offense of souls consecrated to the Wound of the Heart of Jesus and the burning desire that consumes him to preserve from such flames so dearly dear souls.
On Wednesday, September 6, during Mass, the Master appears to her in a mixture of beauty and sadness that excites her. The Heart is largely wounded. He offers to console Him and he responds like a poor rue asks for alms:
“I ask only your heart to hide in it and forget the bitterness with which that soul overwhelmed Me, when I have to descend into it.
, May my chosen souls treat me like this: here is my Pain! ”
“After Holy Communion - she continues - she took to saying to me:
“ You that I love as the child of the Eyes, hide Me well in your heart. ”
-I replied with all the love that I am capable of, that went down to the bottom ...
My pity is to have such a small heart ... I wanted a very big one so that he could rest at ease. "
"If it's small, it doesn't matter. I'll increase it. What I want is for it to be all mine."
Then, slowly, pausing for long pauses, to immerse her in every desire of her Heart, Jesus teaches her to give thanksgiving.
"Comfort Me ... Love Me ... Glorify Me for my Heart. .. Notice for Him and satisfy for Him before divine Justice ... Present Him to my Father as the Victim of Love for souls ... in a special way, for those who are consecrated to Me ”.
Then he adds:
“Live with me, I will live with you. Hide yourself in me, I will hide in you. ”
And remembering the restorative union that he wants to achieve in his soul:
“We will comfort each other, for your suffering will be Mine and my Suffering will be yours”.
Would it not be the same understanding of the union of vocation that once made the burning prayer spring from the soul of the Holy Founder of the Sacred Heart:
"There is never another cross for the Wives of the Heart of Jesus than the Cross of Jesus"?
Every night, according to his custom, the Lord brings this cross and asks Josefa to carry it for the consecrated soul that hurts Him.
"Do you want my cross?" He asks.
And she offers to unload the divine shoulders.
On Friday afternoon, September 8, he came as a poor man who is hungry ”- she writes. This term expresses well the expression of supplication and sadness that surrounds the whole person of the Master.
“Yes,” he says, “it quenches my thirst to be loved by souls and especially by chosen souls.
“That soul forgets how much I love her,” he continues, alluding to the unfaithful priest. - It is your ingratitude that puts Me in this state ”.
“So I asked Him to receive all the little acts that are done here, the sufferings of the house and especially the desire that we have to console and please Him. May everything be done to be purified and transformed to give value to so little ”.
"I don't look at action, I look at intention," he replies - The smallest act done for love gets so much merit and gives me so much comfort! ...
I just look for love, I just ask for love! "
How could the Blessed Virgin be absent when it comes to running after a soul?
He comes to cheer up Josefa in the most painful hours and, appearing to her the following day, September 9:
"Suffer with courage and daughter energy - she says - It is thanks to suffering that that soul does not fall into an even more criminal sin."
This is how Josefa keeps herself offered to all the Master's Wills. Each morning, during Mass, he presents himself to him as a poor man, exhausted from fatigue and pain:
“Keep me well in your heart and share in the bitterness that consumes me - He repeats on September 12, during the thanksgiving - I can no longer endure the outrages I receive from that soul ... But I love it - it returns with fervor, after a moment of silence - I hope it ... I wish to forgive it!
“With what love will I receive you when you return to Me! As for you, Josefa, console Me, take part in my Suffering ”.
Jesus is silent again:
"It's time for my Pain - finally make it - Share that pain that is also yours".
On the afternoon of September 12 - says Josefa - the moment we got up from the table after the evening meal, I suddenly saw Our Lord.
“He was standing at the back of the cafeteria, resplendent with beauty, his white tunic stood out, luminous in the afternoon shade. His right hand was raised as if to bless us. He passed in front of me and said:
"I am here, among my wives, because I find comfort and rest in them."
She follows the Master to his cell where he repeated the same words to him adding:
“Courage! A few more efforts and that soul will come back to Me! ”
Other oblations also participate in that rescue: on the same date, the “Sacred Heart” of the Feuillants counted holy victims delivered to the cross of disease and immobility. It was alluding to them that Our Lord said on September 13:
“Many souls receive me cordially when I visit them with consolation, Many welcome me with joy in communion. But there are few who willingly open up to me when I knock on the door with my Cross. "When a soul is understood on my Cross and that soul is abandoned there, it consoles Me ... it is the closest to Me".
“It is because of my wives' suffering that that priest does not fall into any greater danger: but there is still a lot to suffer for him. “When he comes back to Me - he adds, so that Josefa never loses sight of his mission - I will let you know my Secrets of Love for souls, because I want everyone to know how much my Heart loves them.”
That Love from the heart that is wounded by Jesus will come to the Blessed Virgin to repeat it to Josephus on the feast of her Seven Sorrows, Friday, September 15, 1922. She is dressed in a pale purple tunic, her hands are placed on her chest, "So beautiful!" says Josefa.
“I asked Him to console, Our Lord herself, for although it is my only desire to love Him, I do not know how to do it and I need Her Heart to love and repair Him.”
“Daughter - the Virgin replied sadly - that priest breaks my Son's Heart. In the meantime, he will be saved - he adds after a few moments - but not without much suffering. It was not in vain that Jesus entrusted his wives to him ... Blessed are the souls upon whom he looked into the eyes, to entrust to them such a precious burden! ”
Days and nights will thus flow into the suffering of the body and soul that does not leave Josefa.
“Fear nothing, that soul will not be lost - makes Our Lord the 21st of September. It will soon return to my Heart, but to save a soul it is necessary to suffer a lot. ”
She experiences it, in fact. The diabolical assaults invest against it, as if the devil distrusted the redemptive role it played in favor of the dfa, a soul he already believes under his power. Descending to hell come to join painful atonements and, during the night, the Cross of Jesus weighs roughly on his shoulders.
On Monday, September 25, at the end of an even more tormented night, he just comes to himself and the Master appears to him.
"The Heart had no wound, it was radiant with beauty and light."
“Wife of my Heart - exclaims - look! ...
That soul returned to Me, grace touched her and her heart was moved. Love Me and refuse Me nothing to obtain the love of many other souls! ”
"Yes - he repeats the next day - that priest came to throw himself into my Arms and discharged his sin. He offers more suffering to achieve the grace to climb the slope again until the end."
A few days later, Jesus, overflowing with love, will add:
"That soul seeks me ... I wait for her with tenderness to present her with the most gentle favors."
After all, on the 20th of October, confirming that conversion bought so dearly:
“She is now in the depths of my Heart - he will say - all that remains is merit, as a painful reminder of her fall.”
Who, therefore, reading these lines can never doubt the Mercy full of delicacy for which the stray sheep is always the most beloved and the Prodigal son the most ardently expected and the most tender, found mind.
Our Lord, however, does not let Josefa rest for long. The mission, repairing the chosen souls o every day and every hour, as are the sins of the world and the danger of souls: this seems to be the lesson that the Sacred Heart continually invites Josefa to new conquests.
“On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 26 - she writes - I found Him near the chapel, with his head crowned with thorns, his face bloody but his Heart burning:
“ Josefa, don't forget to make the Way of the Cross ”.
“I went to ask for permission and when I finished he came back and said to me:
“ We have two souls to pluck out of danger! Put yourself in a state of victim. ”
And explaining what your Heart understands by such words:
"For that, let me do what I want with you." “My soul was soon filled with anguish and I suffered, and I did not know that I would have to offer to save those souls. "
He obtained permission to do some penances and did not cease to join the Redeeming Blood. In the evening Our Lord came to find her in his cell.
“She put her hands together - she writes - and looking at the sky. he said in a clear and grave voice:
“Eternal Father. Merciful Father! Receive the Blood of your Son. I received your Wounds. I received your Heart crowned with thorns. Do not allow your Blood to become useless again. See my thirst to give souls to you ... O Father, no, allow these souls to be lost ...
"But save them so that they may glorify You eternally. "
Then lowering his gaze so deep he said:
“Comfort me, my Wives ... unite. come to Me, give Me love! ”
And disappeared.
She spent the night in anxiety and prayer, for the thought of souls cannot leave Josefa.
Early in the morning of Wednesday, September 27, Jesus full of beauty, with a burning heart, appears to him during the thanksgiving. Faithful to obedience, she renews her Vows:
“Tell me again that you love Me! He said fervently. Then he continued: - I will also trust. a secret from my Heart. Listen, Josefa! It is madness that I have for souls! ... that do not get lost! ... Help Me in this Work of Love ”.
"Sir!- she replies, not knowing how to respond to that ardor - You know that I do not want anything else ... to give You souls!.,. that souls comfort You! ... that you are known and loved! ... But how can my smallness serve You? "
The Master explains:
“There are souls who suffer in order to obtain for others the strength not to give in to evil. If those two souls had fallen into sin yesterday, they would have been lost forever. The small acts you multiplied for them have given them the courage to resist. ”
Josefa is amazed by the great repercussion of so little things.
"Yes - continues Our Lord - my Heart gives divine value to these little offerings, because what I want is love."
And, with more insistence:
“It is love that I seek - he continues - I love souls, and I await the response of their love. This is why my Heart is hurt, because often instead of love I only find coldness! Give me love and give me souls! ... Unite your actions to my heart Stay with me because I am with you. Yes, I am all Love and I only want love. Ah!if souls knew how I wait for them full of Mercy!
I am the Love of loves! and I can rest only by forgiving! ”
That is how the repair and salvation companies end up at the end of September, through which it seems that Our Lord wanted to write personally The preface to his Message - “I will speak for you, I will act on you and make myself known through you” - had said (1). he who, during his terrestrial life, had started by acting before speaking, remains faithful to his Method.

(1) August 7, 1922.

Before dictating, and as he dictates, the revelations of his Love and Mercy, he wants them to be read one by one and day by day, in Josefa's ordinary life.
In this way, souls will better understand the lived history of their Pardons, the Message that their Heart is willing to transmit.

APPEAL TO THE SOULS CHOSEN
1. ^The October - 21 November 1922.

"Will my chosen souls know what treasure they deprive and deprive other souls of when they lack generosity?"

(Our Lord to Josefa - October 20, 1922).

As often happens in Josefa's redemptive life, the ordeal immediately follows the most illuminating hours when, following the Master, he had worked for the salvation of souls. In an upsurge of assaults and torments, the demon seems to take revenge on her. But such freedom does no more than enter into Divine Plans. In reality, it is the love that digs into Josefa new capacities of grace to unite her with the One who must exclusively possess and handle the instrument. The first days of October 1922 pass painfully. Josefa, however, during nights troubled by visions of hell and days of strenuous persecution of the enemy, continues in the usual routine. At that time, she was in charge of making school uniforms.
Her sewing skills had assigned her to this craft, without stopping her from taking part in the jobs that require everyone's dedication on certain days: laundry, general cleaning. The “Obras” chapel located at the bottom of a vast yard in a building separate from the rest of the house, is his favorite job. There, the most painstaking cleaning was carried out under the direction of the sacristan Mother who appreciates order and care. The cell of Santa Madalena Sofia, transformed into an oratory as well as the adjoining chapel of Saint Stanislaus where, from time to time, the Blessed Sacrament resides, are also objects of tender care. At the same time, and until the last days of her life, she had been entrusted with a venerable religious weakened by age. Take care of her, dress her, watch over her as you do your own mother, with respectful solicitude and the sick face forgets, next to her, the pain and subjection of her condition.
Is it not necessary to highlight this incessant, humble and very active work from time to time in order to be able to evaluate Josefa's continuous effort, while her secret life moves on a totally different plane? This is a better understanding of the generosity, sometimes heroic, that emerges in the midst of the affliction in which your soul feels immersed.
On October 6, the first Friday of the month, she writes in time of the most acute suffering.
“I was tired of suffering and I thought about the uselessness of all the descents to hell ... when, suddenly, I saw before me intense light like that of the sun that cannot be fixed and I heard the Voice of Jesus:
“The Holiness of God is being offended because his Justice demands satisfaction. No, nothing is useless Every time I make you experience the feathers of hell, sin finds atonement and Divine wrath is appeased. What would the world be without reparation for so many offenses committed?
... There are no victims ... there are no victims! ... "" How to repair, Lord - Josefa replies, exposing her own infidelities to the Master - I myself am full of miseries and shortcomings ".
"It does not matter! This Sun of Love purifies you and makes all your sufferings worthy to be made reparation for the sins of the world. ”
This affirmation strengthens your soul without diminishing the weight it carries before the Justice of God.
Ten days later, on Monday, October 16, it is the Blessed Virgin who comes to revive her courage by a grace of choice whose memory thus transcribes:
“This morning, at ten o'clock, I was sewing on the machine. I had put the rosary close to me and while I was working I was saying some Ave Marias .. - My soul was plunged in anguish as in the previous days and I felt exhausted by the headaches and the side ... I couldn't do it anymore and said about me for me: what am I going to do if everything continues like this? ... Suddenly I saw the Blessed Virgin, standing by the sewing machine. She was charming in beauty; with his hands crossed under and his chest ... With his left hand he took my rosary for the cross and, suspending it. slowly put it in the right hand. Then he touched the cross three times to my forehead saying:
"You can still, daughter ... it is for the souls who suffer and to console Jesus."
O wonder! At the moment when Our Lady made that maternal gesture, three beautiful drops of blood were printed in the place where, three times, the cross had touched the strip that covered Josefa's forehead. She didn't notice anything.
"Without leaving me time to answer, the Blessed Virgin placed the rosary on the board again and left my soul with great courage to suffer, it disappeared."
But, moments later, a novice who was sewing beside her noticed the drops of blood and prevented it. Frightened, she gets up and runs to her cell ... and in the confusion she wanted to make the unmistakable trace of heavenly favor disappear.
But she leaves him in the care of the Madres like everything else. The cap has on the outer face of the wide hem three spots of bright red blood, while the inside that touched the head is intact. His forehead, moreover, shows no sign of injury.
The next day, Tuesday, October 17, Our Lord will say to his privileged:
“You cannot understand how much I love you!
Remember what I did yesterday for you ... Yes, it is my Blood; keep it as my mother's caress. It is he who purifies you and embraces you. It is there that you will find strength and courage. ”
The cap would often manifest the power of the one whose sign it carried. The devil will not resist the blessing given in the name of the divine Blood and Josefa will often be freed from his ill treatment, from his domination, by contact with the precious drops.
One day, however, satanic fury will be able to seize that treasure locked under great surveillance.
On February 23, 1923 he disappeared. In vain was he sought until Our Lord personally came to reassure Josefa.
"Fear nothing - he said two days later, on Sunday, February 25 - It was the devil who took it away, but my Blood was not exhausted".
Then, responding to his fear in the face of threats from the enemy who boasts of being able to burn the notebooks in which he transcribed the Master's Words by obedience, he continues:
“Yes, diabolical cunning nourishes a thousand projects to make my Words disappear. But many souls will not find life in them until the end of the centuries. ”
The following afternoon of March 15 (1923) at the Five Wounds festival. Mary will renew to her daughter, dearly the gift of the three drops of her Son's precious Blood.
Yes, with the same gesture of the virginal hand, he will touch the cross of the rosary on Josefa's forehead:
"I offer you - she will say - to heal the wounds that cause her the sins of the world."
"Do you know what your heart is rejoicing when consecrated souls offer to console Him".
Once again, June 19, 1923, through his Mother. Our Lord will give Josefa the same testimony of his Kindness. The two caps thus marked with blood are religiously preserved, one in Poitiers and the other in Rome. The Holy Mother Founder will say the following day, referring to this remarkable grace:
“May the“ Society ”keep these two treasures as a reminder of the day when Jesus left him these precious relics. Later on they will be one of the tests that will attest the Kindness of your Heart towards this Work. ”
But after this anticipation, it is necessary to return to the end of October 1922, when Our Lord is preparing to officially begin his Work, entrusting to Josefa the first sayings of the Message.
On Friday, October 20, at seven o'clock in the evening, worship is ending before the Blessed Sacrament, when Jesus appears carrying the Cross.
Josefa, - says - sharing the fire that devours my Heart: I am thirsty for souls to be saved ... for my souls to come to Me! ... that my souls are not afraid of me! may my souls have confidence in Me! ”
And the Heart expands and burns Him as if it could not contain that fire:
“I am all Love - continues - and I cannot severely treat the souls I love so much! All of them are undoubtedly dear to my Heart. But there are a lot of favorites. Chosen to find my comfort in them and to flood them with my predilections. I care little about your miseries. ”
“I bring the cross because among my chosen souls there are many who oppose small resistances, which together form this cross ...
"Stay united with my Heart ... Do you want to share a little bit of my bitterness?" "He approached me and leaning against his heart filled mine with sadness.
“Do you know what is the cause of all these resistances? It is a lack of love ... Yes, a lack of love for my Heart ... excessive love of self. ” After a moment of silence:
“When a soul is very generous to give Me everything that collects treasure for itself and for souls and pulls them out in great numbers from the path of perdition.
“It is with sacrifices and love that the shrinking souls of my Heart are in charge of pouring out my graces on the world.
“Yes - Jesus continues, as if speaking to Himself the world is full of dangers. How many poor souls, drawn into evil, constantly need help visible or invisible.
Ah! I repeat, will my chosen Souls know what treasure they deprive themselves of and deprive other souls when they lack generosity?
“I do not mean that a soul is freed from its defects and its miseries by the simple fact that it was chosen by Me. That soul may fall, and it will fall more than once, but if you humble yourself and recognize your nothingness, if you try repair your lack with small acts of generosity and love, if you trust my Heart again ... it will give me more glory and do souls more good than if I had not fallen.
“It matters little about misery and weakness; what I ask of my souls is love! "
Our Lord will often insist on this great lesson that seems to be the key to his Message of Mercy.
"Yes - he adds - despite his misery, the soul can love Me to the point of madness ... Josefa understands well, however, that I only speak of falls due to inadvertence and fragility, not of deliberate and voluntary faults."
And as she asked Him to give to the Souls I chose, from that love that has no limits in trust and generosity:
“Yes, keep in your heart the desire to see Me loved - he replies - Offer your life, although so imperfect, so that all my chosen Souls may well understand the beautiful mission that they will be able to perform with their ordinary actions and their daily efforts. Never forget that I preferred them to so many others, not because of their perfection, but because of their misery.
“I am all Love and fire, which burns me, consumes all their weaknesses.”
Then, addressing Josefa directly, who repeats her fears in the face of so many graces and so many responsibilities:
“Fear nothing. If I chose you, you, so miserable, was so that, once again, we know that I am not looking for greatness or holiness. I seek love and I will do all the rest myself. “I will still tell you the secrets of my Heart, Josefa. But the desire that consumes Me is always the same; may souls know my Heart more and more.
Thus the first lines of the Message of Love were written on October 20, 1922. Heavenly sayings have alternated since then through Josefa's days, with the Master's direct lessons. They are like the theory of this lively and practical teaching.
Doesn't she need to make progress on the path of abandonment that Love wants to see her walk without desires or apesto?
"Do you want me to give you my Cross" - asks Our Lord the next day, Saturday. October 21st. She accepts and the Master, who reads in the depths of his soul, continues:
“Well then, the first thing I recommend to you is to sacrifice what you are thinking now. Put your desires on one side and my Will on the other and choose. ”
“I asked her for forgiveness - she writes loyally - because I was thinking about a certain point in common life that I wish very much: but, Lord, You know that I want what You want ... Then I spoke about souls ...
of so many souls that are lost!
“Painfully, He replied:
“Poor souls! Many don't know Me, it's true. But even greater is the number of those who know and despise Me in exchange for a life of pleasure.
“There are so many sexy souls in the world! And even among my chosen Souls, there are so many who seek to enjoy! ... They deviate, therefore, because my Way is made of suffering and of the cross.
"Only love gives you the strength to follow Me. This is why I look for love."
And while giving him the Cross:
“Comfort me - says - you that I love. And for being so small that you were able to enter my Heart. ” How carefully it will not be necessary to collect these small words that carry in them the “sense of Christ” that Saint Paul speaks about!
On Monday, October 23 'Our Lord came to associate her with her most intimate wound:
"There are very loved souls in my Heart who offend Me ... they are not faithful to Me precisely because they are the souls that I love the most that make Me suffer the most."
Such appeals fill Josefa with the need to repair and compensate.
“But, you see, Lord, what I am! ... I have nothing but desires and I never arrive at acts! ... With fervor that I cannot explain, you saw me:
“I bring you so close to my Heart, Josefa, that your desire is the same that consumes me for souls! ... My heart rests when it can communicate. This is why I come to rest in your heart when a soul hurts Me, and it is My desire to do you good that it passes to you and becomes yours.
"It is true that there are many souls who offend Me ...
but many also close to which I find solace and love.
Then returning those who hurt Him:
“When two people love each other,” he explains, “the smallest rudeness of one is enough to hurt the other. So it is for my Heart. So I want the souls who aspire to become my Wives to be well formed in order to later refuse nothing to Love ”.
Many days of suffering follow one another and Josefa offers them for unfaithful souls. The devil seeks to deceive her; multiplies tricks, threats and fills your nights with the tortures of hell. She hesitates to say everything that she sees and hears there that terrifies her soul. but after all she decides to do it and Our Lady, appearing to her on Wednesday, October 25, comes to guarantee that that act was in God's designs on her:
“Daughter, I come to tell you, in the name of Jesus, the glory you gave to your Heart today ... Understand well, everything he allows you to see, or suffer in hell is, not only to purify you but also to give you to know your Mothers. Do not think of yourself, but only of the glory of the Heart of Jesus and the salvation of souls. ”
The nights continue to pass under those torments and Josefa writes painfully on the 5th of November:
"I saw souls fall in compact groups ... There are times when it is impossible to calculate the number ...
You feel discouraged and exhausted at the same time.
"Without Special Force, I couldn't work or do anything." On Sunday, after a tremendous night of atonement, Our Lord appears to him.
Unable to contain her pain, she speaks to Him of the incalculable number of souls lost forever. Jesus listens to her with a face imbued with immense sadness.
And, after a moment of silence:
"You see those who fall, but you have not yet seen those who rise!"
“Then I saw a dense line of countless souls. They entered an unlimited space full of light and were lost in that immensity. ”
The Heart of Jesus burned and said:
"All these souls are those who have submitted with submission to the Cross of my Love and of my Will."
A few moments later returning to the part of the atonement and reparation that he intends to donate to Josefa, Our Lord explains his value as follows:
“As for the time when I make you experience the ailments of hell, do not believe it is useless or lost. Sin is an offense to the infinite Majesty, it demands infinite reparation and punishment.
“When you descend into that abyss, your sufferings prevent the loss of many souls; the divine Majesty accepts them in satisfaction for the outrages they receive from those souls and in reparation for the penalties their sins have deserved. Never forget
which is my great love for you and for the souls that allow it. ”
Josefa will not forget that in the midst of the storms that will follow this divine lesson. It seems to him to return to the cruelest days of the novitiate.
The infernal fury, which predicts the hour when the effusions of the Heart of Jesus will spread throughout the world, is discharged on the instrument whose smallness and whose confidence, however, it is unable to overcome.
“I hate you - he will say - as much as my hellish hatred can, and I will pursue you until you get out of that accursed house ... how many souls it tears out of me - confesses one day - and if now it is so, what will it be from now on? ... No ... I will prevent this Work, I will make these damned writings disappear ... I will burn it - I will use my power that is as strong as death! "
Josefa is unshakable.
"I found peace with my Mothers." - writes simply.
However, will it be possible to evaluate that effort of constant fidelity to duty during nights and days, in ever-increasing torments? ... Isn't the importance of the Work already beginning to begin, by the sudden resentment, raised to embarrass you? passage?...
Everything, however, is vain; before God's Plans.
On Tuesday, November 21, 1922, despite threats from the devil, Josefa officially renewed, for the first time, the vows she had taken four months ago.
The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin is one of the most dear to the Society of the Sacred Co deed. He recalls the first consecration of the Holy Founder of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every year. on that date, young religious women who are not yet professed renew their vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience before the Holy Host, on the day of their first oblation.
Josefa participates in this renewal. It is a flash that arose between the tribulations that it goes through. She rejoices with renewed joy, although the demon tried to subdue her until morning. It brings to Our Lord a clearer conviction of his weakness, but also a more complete testimony of his humble confidence.
It reads in his retreat notebook with that date: November 21, 1922 - “My Jesus, I made the Vows four months ago! ... How many times since that day have I been unfaithful to you! in me than in your Glory and souls! ... O Jesus! I say, My sorrow, with all my heart, I ask Your forgiveness because my happiness in being your Wife has not changed. I renew my vows today with even more joy than on the day I made them because I know you better, and you have forgiven me more often. Do not ignore me when I seem so ungrateful, because my will never ceases to love You, but the devil deceives me and I do not know how to resist him! However, my only desire is to be faithful to you until death! “After signing this protest, she writes:
"O Jesus, my Life! ... I wanted to be holy and love you very much, not for me, but to give you much glory and save you many souls!"
It is the pure flame that burns in your heart and the breath of Satan will do nothing but feed. Jesus knows this and his gaze rests tenderly on the weakness in which he discovers so much love.

THE REDEEMING MEANING OF EVERYDAY LIFE
November 22 - December 12, 1922.

"Love transforms and divinizes everything."

(Our Lord to Josefa - December 5, 1922).

Like dawn that appears after a dark night on the morning of Wednesday, November 22, just before Mass, Our Lord appears to Josefa. It is more beautiful than ever! The open Heart seems to escape from His chest. Hold the crown of thorns on your right hand.
“I immediately thought it was to give it to me - she writes naively - but I did not dare ask it.
I renewed the vows and repeated the divine praises (1).
(1) For several weeks, obedience demanded from Josefa that new guarantee against the demon who could never repeat after her such words of love and blessing.
Heavenly visits, on the contrary, repeated them and commented on them with fervor.

Jesus said looking at me with beautiful eyes:
“Josefa do you recognize Me? ... Do you love Me? do you know how much my heart loves you? ”
Questions like these are burning arrows whose Love strikes and burns your heart. “I know that He loves me - she writes - but I cannot understand how far!
I also want to love Him without measure even though I do not know how to respond to His Goodnesses ... I told Him my joy at having renewed my vows yesterday and I begged Him to keep me faithful, because I know what I am capable of! ”
“Fear nothing, Josefa: in spite of your smallness and even, sometimes, of your resistances, I do my Work in you and in souls.”
"Sir, I do not understand that this is the work you always talk about."
Then Jesus withdraws for a moment, and with firmness and gravity he replies:
“Don't you know what my Work is? For it is Love: I want this “Society”, which my Heart loves with a predilection, Save me many souls and I want to use You, who are neither worth anything, to make the Mercy and Love of my Heart even more known . This is why I am glorified when you give Me the freedom to do with you and in you what I want.
Only your smallness and your suffering already save many souls ... Later on, the Words and Desires that I transmit through you will awaken the zeal of many others and will prevent the loss of a great number, and will make known more and more, that Mercy and the Love of my Heart are inexhaustible ... I do not ask my souls for great things. What I ask of you is love. ”
-THE! - she continues - I begged Him to give me that love and I repeated my desire to abandon myself completely to him ”.
Then, with inexpressible kindness, he put the crown on my head, saying:
“Here! Misery of my Heart, Wife I love takes my crown! May she constantly remind you of your smallness ... I love you and I am so compassionate with you that I will never abandon you, love me. comfort Me and abandon yourself. ”
In the afternoon when he is making the Way of the Cross Our Lord appears to him at the eleventh station and, showing him his Cross:
“Josephus, Wife of my Heart! ... Here is the cross that I carried for your sake. Tell me yet again that by my Love you want to carry the cross of my Will. ”
The following day, November 23, Our Lord makes him understand what cross will be offered to his generosity:
“It is in my Heart - he begins - that souls who, through love, know how to renounce themselves but find true peace."
Then he adds:
"Ask the Matres to give you some time every day when you can write what I tell you."
It really denied the time to transmit the Master's Secrets to the world.
On Saturday, November 25, in the morning, He finds her in the cell. Josefa had knelt down to worship the divine Majesty and the Lord left her prostrate at his feet.
And after a moment of silence he says:
"I want you to renew your Vows, to offer yourself with complete submission. It is necessary that I be free and that I find no obstacle in my designs ... Now write ..."
Then she listens and transcribes the words that fall seriously and ardent of the divine Lips:
"I will speak first to my shrunken souls and to all those who are consecrated to Me. It is necessary that they know Me in order to teach those I entrust to them the Kindness and Tenderness of my Heart and to tell all that, I am an infinitely just God, I am also a Father full of Mercy. May my chosen souls, my Wives, my Religious, my Priests teach the poor souls how much my Heart loves them!
"All this, I will, little by little, teach you I will glorify in your misery, in your smallness and in your nothingness.
"I don't love you for what you are ... but for what you are not, I mean, for your misery and your nothingness, because that is how I found where to put my Greatness and my Goodness."
Jesus stops.
“Goodbye Josefa. Come back tomorrow, will you?
“I will continue to speak to you and you will pass my Words to souls with burning zeal. Let Me act because I glorify Me and souls are saved ... Remember that I want to be served in joy and do not forget the uselessness of the instrument. Only my Love can close its eyes on your weaknesses ... Love me with fervor in order to respond to my Goodness. ”
In the evening, Our Lord brings you the Cross.
“You, at least, comfort Me and repair so much ingratitude. How my Heart suffers seeing that everything I have done is useless for so many souls! ... Share that suffering ... Take the Cross and be united with Me because you are not alone. ”
Disappears, leaving the Cross to him. The hours of the night are drained under that weight to which are added multiple sufferings of soul and body, whose painful experience I have had for a long time.
At dawn Jesus returns. The Semblante is always impregnated with that sadness and that beauty that she cannot describe:
“Poor souls - she says - how many are lost forever ... how many will also return to Life!
You cannot calculate, Josefa, the reparative value of suffering.
“If you consent, I will often let you participate in the bitterness of my Heart. Thus you will console Me and many souls will be saved. Bye! think of Me, of souls, of my Love! ”
“When Our Lord asked the Mothers to give me a moment every day when I could write their Words - she notes - they told me to come to my cell in the morning, between eight and nine o'clock. The postulants are busy in their offices at that hour, so I will not be prevented from sewing or preparing a task for them. ”
True to that recommendation, she came to her cell every morning.
Cosia waiting for the Master. Sometimes she saw Him appear without delay, other times she was waiting in vain: he wants her docile and abandoned. If it wasn't until nine o'clock, she would go back to work.
On Sunday, November 26, although I had promised him the day before, Jesus did not come. Josefa is not disturbed and, as he recommended, she keeps thinking "about him, about souls, about his Love."
In the afternoon, when he was worshiping Him in front of the Tabernacle, he suddenly appeared with the Cross:
“My Wife, Josefa! I come to rest in you ... You cannot understand what the world is for my Heart. Sinners hurt Me without compassion and, not only sinners, but many souls constantly pierce me with arrows that cause Me great pain! ”
“I pleaded with Him to come to us because although we are so miserable (I am speaking for myself) we very much wish for love and comfort Him.”
“You know that I do it! Can't you see how here I come to rest my Heart? ...
“Listen - continue with kindness - when I ask you to rest and comfort, do not believe that you are the only one to give them. If you knew what joy my Heart feels when souls leave Me freedom and who, with their works, say to me: "Lord, you are the Owner". Do you believe that it does not console me? Do you believe that it does not glorify me? ”
“Take the Cross - continues file - but don't think you are the only one to take it. I rest and I glorify myself in you, but also in my souls ...
in those souls who, with much love and submission, receive and adore my Will with no other interest than nests Glory.
“Take the Cross, Josefa. Ask for mercy for sinners ... light for blind souls ... love for indifferent hearts ... Comfort Me, love Me, abandon yourself. An act of abandonment glorifies Me more than many sacrifices. ”
The next day, Monday, November 27, at eight o'clock, she is in her waiting and abandonment post.
"I wrote first everything that He told me yesterday - she notes - Then I put myself at your disposal."
And since Jesus did not appear, she is ready to leave, when suddenly, He shows himself:
“Go to work, Josefa. Tomorrow I will tell my souls that my Heart is an abyss of Love.
"Think about Me constantly. The $ souls glorify Me so much when they remember Me!"
Josefa leaves with the cross invisible to all eyes, but who feels a heavy burden on her shoulders, takes to work that burden that her generosity prefers to all softness.
In the early hours of Tuesday the 28th, Jesus is waiting for her in his cell. She falls to Her knees and, according to the usual tendency of her delicate soul, asks Him for forgiveness for everything that could, even without wanting to, hurt her divine Gaze.
“Fear nothing - he replies - I know you!
But I love you so much that no misery will look away from my Love. ”
Then with ardor that she can't seem to contain, she speaks and she picks up her inflamed Words.
In an admirable summary Jesus discovers to souls, through his redemptive life, the guiding thread of infinite Love:
“I am all Love! My Heart is an abyss of Love. ”
“It was Love that created man, and everything in the world, to put him at his service.
“It was Love that inclined the Father to give the Son for the salvation of the man lost through his own guilt.
“It was Love that caused a pure Virgin, almost a girl, renouncing the charms of the Temple life, to consent to become Mother of God and to accept all the sufferings that divine motherhood should impose on Her.
“It was Love that made me be born in the cold of winter, poor and without everything.
“It was Love that hid Me for thirty years in the greatest obscurity and in the most humble works.
It was Love that made Me choose solitude and silence ... to live unknown to all and voluntarily submissive to the orders of my Mother and my adopted Father.
“For Love has seen, in the course of time, many souls follow Me and put their delights in conforming their lives to Mine!
“It was Love that made Me embrace all the miseries of human nature.
“For the Love of my Heart goes further.
“I knew how many souls in danger helped by the acts and sacrifices of many others would recover Life.
“It was Love that made me suffer the most ignominious contempt and the most horrible torments ... to spill all the Blood and die on the Cross to save man and to rescue mankind.
“... And as many souls as I saw, Love in the future would also join my Pains and dye their sufferings and actions in my Blood, even the most ordinary ones to give me so many souls.
“I will teach you all this clearly, Josefa, so that you will know how far the Love of my Heart for souls goes.
"And now go back to your work and live in Me as I live in you."
Josefa then leaves the cell and hands over the precious pages she has just written to the Madres. Don't keep them. He knows that he is only a depositary and his detachment grows as he discovers the importance of what is entrusted to him. However, it carries in the depths of the soul the memory of the moments when it touched the depths of Love. It is as if invested by him and needs all the energy of his will to restart the work among the young Sisters who soon approach her.
It is the mystery of its entire path that runs its course.
The next day, Wednesday, November 29, while our Lord waits, working, his cell suddenly fills with soft light. It is not him, but the Apostle loved by his Heart ...
“I recognized him immediately - she writes - He was carrying the Cross of Jesus in his arms. I renewed the Vows and he said to me:
Beloved soul of the divine Master, I am John the Evangelist. I come to give you the Savior's Cross. It does not hurt the body but makes the blood of the heart spill ...
"The sufferings it brings alleviate the bitterness with which sinners flood our God and Lord ...
Be the blood of your heart delicious wine that makes known the many souls the sweetness and attractions of virginity.
“Unite your heart with that of Jesus in everything.
Guard these precious pawns of your Love. Fix your eyes on the sky, what is from this land is worthless.
“Suffering is the life of the soul and the soul that has understood the value of suffering lives on true Life.”
Josefa had already noticed, on Holy Thursday of 1922, the celestial expression on the face of Saint John.
The cross that leaves you today weighs heavily on your soul.
“Although in peace - she writes - my heart and soul are so oppressed and anguished:
“ The night from November 29 to 39 was of great suffering. The cross, the crown and the pain on my side prevented me from sleeping and forced me to spend the whole night sitting by the bed. ”
On Thursday, November 30, Jesus has been there since eight in the morning, faithful to his commitment.
"Write for my souls" said only. And without another preamble, he continued: “The soul that makes your life constant union with Mine, glorifies Me and works enormously for the benefit of souls. Is she doing work of little value ... if I bathe him in my Blood or unite him with what I myself did during my mortal life, what fruit will he obtain for souls! ... greater perhaps than if he were preaching to the whole world ! ... And that, whether you study, speak or write ...
whether you sew, sweep or rest ... provided, first, that this action is determined by obedience or duty and not by whim; second, that this
action is done in intimate union with me covered with my Blood and in great purity of intention.
“I so wish that souls understand this!
It is not the action itself that has value, it is the intention for which it is done ... When I swept or worked in the Nazaré workshop, I gave my Father as much glory as with my preaching in the course of my public life.
"There are many souls who, in the eyes of the world, have important burdens and obtain great glory for my Heart, it is true: but I have many hidden souls, who in their humble work are very useful workers in my Vineyard because it is Love that impels them and they know, bathing their small actions in my Blood, to cover them with supernatural gold.
“My Love goes so far that, out of nowhere, my Souls can take away great treasures. When, since the morning, joining me, they offer me their whole day with a burning desire that my Heart will serve them for the souls ... when, for love, they do their duty, hour by hour, and moment by moment, what treasures do not accumulate in one day!
"I will discover more and more of my Love for you ...
It is inexhaustible and it is so easy for the soul that loves to leave, to be guided by Love!”
Jesus is silent, Josefa leaves her pen and remains in adoration for a moment before the one whose Heart opens so wide to her.
"Goodbye - He says at last - go back to your work, love and suffer, because love cannot be separated from suffering. Abandon yourself to the custody of the best of Parents ... to the Love of the most tender of Spouses." It is always the lesson more dear to God the Savior.
His cross is an elite gift that goes beyond the most distinguished favors. In this first Friday of the month He leaves with Josefa that carry day and night.
On Saturday, December 2 , she notes only: “I was able to go to Meditation very costly because I no longer have the strength.”
At eight o'clock in the morning, however, he is at his post and Jesus comes in.
"Write to souls - say as before."
And taking her place, she kneels before the little girl near whom Our Lord will speak:
“My Heart is all Love and this Love burns all souls, but how could I make my chosen Souls understand the predilection of my Heart that they want to serve to save sinners and so many souls exported to the dangers of the world?
“I therefore want you to know how much the desire for your perfection consumes Me and how perfection consists in doing common and ordinary actions in close union with me. If you understand this, you will divinize your life and all your activity, through close union with my Heart; and how much a day of divine Life is worth! ...
“When a soul burns with the desire to love, nothing is difficult, but if it falls into coldness and loses its enthusiasm, everything becomes painful and hard ...!
"Then come to my Heart and build up courage! ...
Offer Me that dismay! ... Join it with the ardor that consumes Me and be calm because your day will be of incomparable value for souls. My Heart knows all human miseries and has immense compassion for them.
“I do not only wish, however, that souls should unite with Me in general, I want this union to be constant and intimate as is the union of those who love and live close to each other, because, if they do not speak constantly, at least they look at each other and have mutual attentions and delicacies that are the fruit of love.
“When the soul is at peace and consolation, it is undoubtedly easy to think of Me. But if her desolation and anguish take hold, fear not!
“One look at Me is enough! I understand that. And that look, by itself, will obtain from my Heart the most tender delicacies.
“I will still repeat to souls how much my Heart loves them! for I want you to know Me in depth in order to make Me known to those that My Love entrusts to you.
“I fervently hope that all the chosen souls will fix their eyes on Me and not turn them away… that, among them, there will be no mediocrity, which is ordinarily the result of a false understanding of my Love. Not!Loving my Heart is neither difficult nor hard, but soft and easy. It doesn't take anything extraordinary to achieve a high degree of love: purity of intention in action, small or large ... intimate union with my Heart and Love will do the rest! ”
Jesus stops. Then he leaned over to Josefa, who was prostrating at his feet:
“Go - say - and fear nothing. I am the Gardener who cultivates this flower so that it does not perish.
"Love Me in peace and in joy."
In the afternoon of that day, the first Saturday of the month, Our Lord responds to her anxieties because she fears the devil's snares, always ready to take away her peace, comfort her with the following words:
“Remember what I said one day to my disciples: because you are not of the world, the world hates you. ”
“I repeat to you today; because you are not of the devil, the devil pursues you. But my Heart keeps you and, in the midst of these sufferings, it glorifies itself.
"Love and suffer, Josefa, it is for a soul."
And yet again he entrusts him with one of those consecrated souls who fail in love and whose generosity he so desires, however.
"He left - she writes - leaving the Cross for me." That cross, with all the procession of suffering that accompanies it, will weigh on the days and nights that follow while Josefa's thought is stuck to the wound that divines in the Master's Heart.
Three days later, on Tuesday, December 5, He is already in the cell when Josefa arrives. It renews the Vows.
“Yes - he says immediately - I am that Jesus who loves souls with tenderness ... This is the Heart that does not cease to call them, to preserve them, to care for them! ... This is the Heart burning in the desire to be loved for souls, but mainly for chosen Souls ”.
Then, as if that fiery expansion had relieved Love:
“He still writes to them:
“ My Heart is not only an Abyss of Love, it is also an Abyss of Mercy! And, knowing all the human miseries that are found even in the most beloved souls, I wanted her actions, however small they may be; may be clothed through me, of infinite value for the good of those who need help and salvation from sinners.
“Not all can preach, not all can evangelize wild peoples from afar, but all yes, all can make My Heart known and loved, all can help one another to increase the number of elect, preventing the eternal loss of many souls ... and this because of my Love and Mercy.
“I will tell my souls that my Heart goes even further: not only does it use its ordinary life and its minimal actions, but it also wants to use, for the sake of souls, its miseries ... its weaknesses ... even its own falls.
"Yes, Love transforms and divinizes everything ... and Mercy forgives everything."
After a moment of silence, Jesus continues:
"Bye. I will still come back to tell you my Secrets. Meanwhile, carry my Cross with courage. If you love Me, I love you too. Do not forget me."
According to his Word, the return of the Lord will take many days under the cross. However, the feast of the Immaculate Conception does not end without the Blessed Virgin giving her daughter the certainty of her presence and help. Josefa had suffered a lot all day. Her heart is anguished and in the afternoon after the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, she calls her Mother from heaven to help her.
“I entrusted my soul to her - she writes - and I begged her to never stop holding me by the hand. It appeared suddenly, beautiful! The hands were crossed over the chest and the very white veil had gold reflections. ”
He just said these words to me:
“Daughter, if you want to give Jesus a lot of glory and save his souls ... let him do everything you want and give yourself to his love.”
"She gave me her blessing, made me kiss her hand and disappeared."
Josefa encouraged this abandonment, which requires so much immolation and suffering, to keep her faithful day by day.
However, it cannot dispel a concern. It seems to him that around her something is already being felt about the designios of which he is an instrument and his humility, his desire for erasure is alarmed.
“I wanted to tell Our Lord all this during the day before - she writes on Sunday, 1st of December - and as soon as I started, Jesus came.
“Josefa, why are you sad? tell Mo. ”
She renews the Vows and entrusts her anxiety to Him.
"I already told you that you will live hidden in my Heart, why do you doubt my Love? ... Let my Words go to the souls that need them."
Then plunging her even further into the feeling of her worthlessness:
"By the way, what do you have to do with all this?
" When a person speaks in front of a large empty space, his voice resonates to the heights. So it is with you: You are the echo of my Voice, but if I do not speak, what will you be, Josefa?
Such words deepen her conviction of her nothingness, while at the same time establishing her in trust and peace.
"Was it me, Lord, who prevented your coming? .. for you have not come for five days!
“No,” he replied with compassionate kindness, “you do not hinder my return, but I like that you desire and call Me. I will soon come to tell you about my Souls. In fact, if you displease Me in something, I will make you see your misery and your nothingness and will show you the sovereignty that I have over you.
"Bye! stay hidden in my Qur'an and let yourself be cultivated by the delicacies of my Love. "
Our Lord does not delay, in effect, to continue his confidences and on Tuesday, December 12, appears at the usual time. He insists on his promise:
“I already told you, Josefa: do not be sad because my Love takes care of you and I am in charge of hiding you deep in my Heart. I want you never to doubt my Love. Do not forget what I said to you more than once: you are nothing more than a miserable little creature that must be abandoned in the hands of the Creator with complete submission to the divine Will.
“And now - he continues - he still writes a few words for my souls. Love transforms their most ordinary actions, giving them infinite value, and even more:
“My Heart loves my chosen Souls so tenderly that it also wants to use its miseries, its weaknesses and even, many times, its own faults.
“The soul that finds itself full of misery does not attribute to itself anything good, and its own weakness forces it to put on a certain humility that it would not have if it were less imperfect.
“Therefore, when in his work or in his apostolic office, the soul vividly feels his incapacity ... when he experiences a certain disgust in helping souls in the tendency to a perfection that he himself does not have, it is then that he feels as if forced to humiliate and annihilate themselves.
“And if, in this humble knowledge of your weakness, you run to Me, asking for forgiveness from your little effort, and begs from my Heart Strength and courage, that soul cannot suspect how much love my Eyes are fixed on it and how fruitful makes your work!
“Other souls are not very generous in constantly making daily efforts and sacrifices. His life seems like a series of promises that never come to pass.
“With these, a distinction must be made: If such souls become accustomed to promising, without however making the slightest violence to their own nature, nor proving anything in their self-denial, and their love, I will not tell you anything other than this: Beware .ve, don't happen to catch all that straw that you gather in your barns, or that a gale will blow it up in an instant! ”
“But others, and this is what I speak of, start the day full of goodwill and also a real desire to give Me proof of love.
“They promise me selflessness and generosity in this or that circumstance ... But, when the time came, their character, their self-love, their health, what do I know? ... they prevent them from doing what, with such sincerity, they had promised a few hours before.
However, coming to their senses, they humble themselves, acknowledge their weakness and, full of confusion, ask forgiveness from Me and renew their promise. Ah!know that these souls please Me as much as if they had not fallen. ”(1)
He rang the bell for a religious exercise and Jesus, faithful to the first sign of obedience, left like a lightning bolt.

(1) Our Lord here makes a very clear distinction between venial faults usually consented or not combated, and faults of fragility, but repaired.
With these words he expresses that he is more comforted by voluntary “reparation” than he was offended by the fragility of the soul. In fact, the act of humility, trust and generosity that reparation supposes, requires a conscious and whole will, which only exists, partially, in the absence committed by fragility ”.

THANKS FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS
December 13 - December 31, 1922

"Did you understand the Love I have for souls?"

(Our Lord to Josefa - December 16, 1922).

The month of December 1922 was going to bring to the convent of the “Feuillants”, a visit that would be both a trial and a joy for Josefa.
One of the General Assisting Mothers of the Sacred Heart Society, coming from Rome, toured the houses of France. There was great joy in the religious family of Poitiers, welcoming the visiting Reverend who brought graces and blessings to souls and works.
Josefa's ardent heart would want to rejoice, without apprehension, with that family's joy, but she guessed that the Madres would submit to the visitator much about her and that she herself would have to answer an interrogation. The old fears seem to awaken in her although she does not lose her trust in the divine Master.
“I knew yet again - he writes on Wednesday, December 13 - Jesus' faithfulness in keeping his promises.
Our Mother Assistant General entertained me for a moment ... and received me with kindness that I would never dare to wait for. Our Lord had told me many times:
"If you are faithful to Me, I will not abandon you and nothing will ever harm you."
And I see this more clearly every day. ”
On the following Thursday, December 14, Jesus came to meet her in the silence of the small cell:
“See - he says - how I am a faithful Father and Spouse to you. Never fear anything, even when it seems to you that the storm is going to rush over you. ”
Then, with that ardor that Love cannot contain:
“Tell Mother that I glorify myself in abandoning my Society. That all circumstances are permitted or disposed by my Heart in view of my work ... that many souls will be saved through my Society ... that my Wives ... and that many other souls that do not appreciate the value of minimal actions done with love will find the source of graces and consolation.
And after having answered everything that still disturbed Josefa's soul:
“Goodbye - he says with incomparable kindness - abandon yourself to my guard and never doubt the Love of my Heart. It matters little that the wind shakes you more than once: the root of your smallness is embedded in the land of my Heart.
“I will speak again to my souls - he adds before disappearing - Now console Me.
Kiss my feet, if you want. Later I will give you my Cross. ”
It doesn't take long to come and bring it to you.
“I was sewing and waiting for Our Lord - she writes on Friday, December 15 - when at eight-thirty he came ... he brought the Cross, but no trace of sadness. Your Heart, your eyes were more beautiful than ever! ”
She doesn't know how to translate His admiration. his attitude, his tunic, bright white, the dark of his Cross standing out in that light, was of such beauty that he could not explain ...
“I knelt down renewing the Vows. I adored Him, asked Him to give me true love and said: Good, Lord! bring me your Cross! ”
"Do you want it?" soon became.
And how she offered herself for everything I expected from her:
“Take it and console Me. Take care of my interests because I take care of you. ”
Then, responding to the thought you read deep in your heart:
"Yes, it is true that I do not need anyone ... but let Me ask you for love and for you, Wife of my Heart, to manifest Me once more to souls." “Let my Heart open and rest, pouring Love on this group of chosen souls.”
“This time, I want the Society of my Heart to be the Messenger of my Love for souls ... I want all souls to know to what extent this Love seeks them, desires them and waits for them to flood them with happiness.
“Do not be afraid of my souls of Me!
sinners do not depart from Me ... come to take refuge in my Heart! I will receive them with the most tender and most fatherly Love.
“You, Josefa. love Me and fear nothing of your weakness because I will support you. You love me and I love you. You are Mine, I am yours. What can you want but? ” “He said all this with such kindness - she writes - that it left me as if lost in it. I cannot explain what happened in my soul ... I asked Him to teach me to love because it is the only thing I want on earth: to live to love Jesus, so good! "
The next day, Saturday, December 16, Our Lord teaches you the secret of true love:
“Josefa - says to her - since you are my wife, you know that the wife's duty is to comfort the husband ...
like the role, the Spouse is to support and support the Wife. ”
“I couldn't contain my heart - she wrote - and I repeated all my love to Him. Jesus listened to me with kindness that you cannot even suspect. ”
“Today, he continued, you are going to console Me: go deep into my Heart and present yourself to my Father with all the merits of your Spouse.
“Ask your forgiveness for so many ungrateful souls. Tell Him that you are ready, in your smallness to comfort Him and repair the offenses he receives.
"Tell him that you are a very miserable victim, but covered with the Blood of my Heart."
“You will spend the day like this, begging for forgiveness and repairing. I want you to join your heart to the zeal and ardor that consume Mine. Understand well the souls that I am your Happiness and your Reward!
“Do not depart from Me! I love them so much! ... all souls! But I especially want my chosen Souls to understand my Heart's predilection for them. "
Then after having spoken of the “Society” of his Sacred Heart, he added:
"And you, Josefa, did you understand the Love I have for souls?"
“How can I not, Lord! - she exclaims - You are always taking care of them! ”
"That's why I love my Society so much and why my Heart rests in it with such love."
“It is because she understood the value of souls and the glory of my Heart. Goodbye, Josefa, comfort Me and repair. ”
The Lord's farewells always leave the same love password. As the days and months elapse, the generous daughter increasingly realizes to what degree the life of reparation has to be hers and how the grace of her vocation chains her to the Savior's redemptive cross. It is exactly what Jesus makes a point of emphasizing in each entertainment. It does not lead it away from the very sure path of its vocation, but it impels it to the real consequences of total self-giving to the Sacred Heart.
On Sunday, December 17th, just before the nine o'clock mass, He went to find her in his cell:
“You consoled Me yesterday,” he said, “because you have not left me alone. There are so many souls who forget Me and so many others who take care of thousands of futilities and leave Me alone, for whole days! ... many others who do not even hear my Voice and yet I speak to them without ceasing ... but their hearts are attached to the creatures and things here on earth ...
“I will tell you all this later and show you the comfort that souls give me, especially chosen souls, when they do not leave Me alone! ...
You will continue to write so that you know how much my Heart loves you. Now go. I will come back! ”
"The nine o'clock mass was playing, she notes." Jesus, the most faithful lover of the Rule, was gone.
Five days pass. Every morning, Josefa waits for the Master who had said: "I will return." but it doesn't come back.
This sovereign freedom is not the least proof of his Action. He likes indifference, it is true, but he will not want more, to prove, by the uncertainty and the unforeseen of his visits, that he is truly his and that no doubt will be possible about it?
On December 22nd, she writes:
“Our Lord has not come for five days. In the meantime, he told me that he would return ... What worries me is not knowing if I disliked him in anything, because I no longer have the Cross or the crown! ”
She continues the notes:
“Before going to bed, I knelt down to say goodbye to Him like every night and added,“ Lord! I have called you for five days and you will not see! ”
The sentence was not over and Our Lord was already there, resplendent with beauty:
“You have been calling Me for five days, Josefa! And I, for how many years, I have called souls and they do not answer Me!
“When you call Me, I am not far from you, but on the contrary, very close! When I call souls, many do not hear Me ... many go away. You at least comfort Me by calling Me and wishing Me, Satisfy my thirst with the hunger you have for Me. ”
How many souls will read in these words, sprouted from the Heart of Jesus, the divine reason for the long and lingering Visits! How many souls will draw courage, and even joy, at the thought of quenching His thirst, offering Him their hunger for Jesus.
This period, which rooted Josefa in her reparative vocation and inaugurated the Message that she had to transmit to the world, ends at Christmas, with a scene full of charm. She transcribes it with all simplicity ... Her soul harmonizes more and more with the smallness of the Child God. But among them it is nothing more than the Redemption of souls: there is more than ever the bond that unites them. This narration should be translated without comment.
“Monday, December 25, 1922 - During the eve, I repeated my love for the Child Jesus because despite the great temptation of the previous days. He knows how to be my only Love, my King and my Treasure.
I can't live without it. It is my joy and my life.
I was talking like that when, suddenly, I saw Him little. He was supported by something that I didn't see and wrapped in a white cloth that only left his arms and feet bare. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes were so charming, so happy they seemed to speak. The hair was very short: everything about him, in short, was small. In a very tender and soft voice he said:
"Yes, Josefa, I am your King!"
"I want - continues the Child God - I want you to make Me a little tunic decorated with many souls ... those souls that my Heart loves so much!"
Then, back to the first thought:
“You see how small I am! Well, I want you to be even smaller. You know how ... With your simplicity, your humility, your readiness to obey. Also, Josefa, my Heart seeks the warmth of love and only souls can give it to Him. Give Me heat and give Me souls. I prepared a large number of them for you. Don't delay my Work!
“If you give me souls, I will give you my Heart.
Tell me, which one of us makes a greater gift? ...
"I'll be back soon. While you wait, start my tunic and give me souls with your love!
See how many get away ... don't let them escape ...
Poor souls! ... don't let them escape Josefa. They don't know where they are going! ”
“She said it all - she observes - in a voice full of tenderness. When he started talking, he opened his arms.It was so beautiful, so charming that it cost me a lot to not be able to kiss His feet, but I didn't dare tell Him.
It looked all on fire. Anyway, it was so beautiful that I can't write and I pronounced those words so sweetly that it's impossible to explain. ”
This charming Christmas party would have its extension.
"While I was preparing for Holy Communion - she continues - on Tuesday, December 26, I asked Our Lady to be the one to give me her Son and to teach me to love and console Him. as one speaks to a Mother, with great confidence and after having received communion, I begged Him to adore Him for me and to teach me to thank Him.
“Suddenly, she came dressed as she did two years ago, with a pale pink robe, the same color as the sky. He was standing and he had the Baby Jesus wrapped in a white cloth like yesterday, but not even his little head, nothing.
She was so good, so Mother, then she said to me:
Look, daughter, I bring you Jesus. ”
"And at the same time he discovered Him."
“Put it deep in your heart. See how cold it is! You, at least, warm Him with your love. he is so good and loves you so much! May he be the only King of your Heart. ”
"While she spoke to me, the Child Jesus was lying in the mother's arms, raised her eyes to see her and looked at me too, from time to time.
“I told the Blessed Virgin how I would like to love Him! But I am often not quite faithful to everything He asks of me, especially when I have to give a message on his part ... ”
It is always because of the resistance that she needs to repent.
Then Jesus in a sweet little voice, like that of little children, said:
“Mother, I asked Josefa to make Me a tunic adorned with many souls. There are so many that escape Me! ... And you know how many I entrust to the souls I love.
When they meet my expectations, it is the greatest consolation they can give to my Heart. ”
“And the Blessed Virgin continued also:
"Yes, give him souls, daughter and don't let them get away from him ... Look! ... He's going to cry!" because I let myself be deceived by the devil. ”
"Fear nothing, daughter, Jesus just waits for your good will. Do your best, and prove your love in that way. Do you know how to do it? Jesus wants you small, very small ... so small that you can fit here . ”
And with her hand she showed Josefa the empty space between her Heart and the Baby Jesus who was leaning on it.
“She smiled saying that - writes Josefa - and the Boy looked at her smiling too. "
"You don't know how well you would be here!" continued the Virgin. And Jesus waving his arms said:
"Josefa, try it ... and you will see! ..."
"As they are very good, both, I again asked for forgiveness for all my resistances ... for everything that crosses my mind at the moment of temptation ... The Blessed Virgin replied:
“Yes, it is true, there are times when you are very ungrateful. Know why? It is that you think more of yourself than of him. Do not look at what it costs you and give him proof of your love by doing everything you order. If I send you to speak, speak. If I tell you to shut up, shut up.
If I send you to love, love. What does it matter to you, if he takes care of you? ”
“I promised to obey Him in everything and as I started to cover the Child to leave, I asked Him for permission to kiss my feet.
"Yes, kiss them!"
“While he kissed them, Jesus passed his little hand over my head very sweetly ... I also kissed the hand of the Blessed Virgin. She covered the Baby Jesus saying:
“Goodbye, daughter! Don't forget the tunic! ... Warm Him and give Him souls! ”
"Then they both left."
The graces of this delightful visit with St. John, the friend of virgin souls, would end. Josefa tries this time to describe him in his own way, in the following lines:
“It came during my worship. He was of majestic beauty, his right arm extended, his left hand on his chest. Slender in shape, he is taller and stronger than Our Lord. His features are harder and more pronounced. His eyes are black, his face pale and his hair is dark brown. He is enveloped in very pure clarity and when he speaks it is so slowly and in such a low tone that the words penetrate to the depths of the soul. His voice is both soft and strong, like something heavenly.
“I renewed the Vows and he said immediately:
“ Soul, Wife of the Divine Heart, since the adorable Master wanted to find delights in pure souls, I come to revive in you the fire that will consume you of love for that divine Heart.
“It was he who first loved us. Match our love with his in gratitude, constancy, tenderness and generosity. Be pure and unmixed with self-interest. May the Goodness of that divine Heart always be present in our eyes.
“May it be the first reason for love that must seek only the good and the glory of the one he loves.
“Soul chosen with a predilection by the divine Master, fix your abode in his Heart.
“Let yourself be purified and intoxicated by the heavenly sweetness.
“May your passage over the earth be like that of a dove that barely touches the ground. Like a bee on a flower, may your soul rest in this life only to seek the necessary food. ”
"For the soul that loves the divine Master, the world is just a dark passage."
“He crossed his hands over his chest and was silent for a moment. It was so beautiful that it looked like an angel. I didn't dare speak. After all, I dared to ask if Our Lord was comforted in the midst of religious souls, he who loves virginity so much ...
“Saint John looked at the sky, his face lit up and he replied:
“ Virgin souls are abodes of love where the spotless Lamb rests.
“But among these, there are some that cause admiration for heaven.
"The celestial Spouse fixes his pure gaze on them and distills in them the soft perfume that emanates from his Heart."
“Then, extending his right arm, he blessed me and said:
“Let yourself be possessed and consumed by it. May all your solicitude and all your ardor be used in obtaining glory and love and may your Peace keep you. ” That afternoon, December 27, Jesus renewed Josefa the outstanding grace that two years earlier on the same date had granted him.
"By eight o'clock, it came full of beauty ... The Heart Wound was scorched and wide open."
“Come - he said - enter my Heart and rest. Later you will give me yours for me to rest in. ”
And mysteriously attracting her plunges her into that abyss.
“I thought it was heaven,” she writes, unable to continue the narration.
"It is impossible to explain what it is to enter that Heart!"
After more than an hour of that ineffable rest, Jesus, returning her to the earth reminds his wife of the aim to which all those favors are aimed.
"Don't forget - tell him - that the souls I have chosen must be victims."
Josefa cannot forget Him. This Design of the Master has already been deeply engraved in her soul, she knows that the union is only complete on the cross. And, the moment Jesus repeats it to him, he shows him, through a symbol, how he likes to express his thoughts, that it will always be the Love that will mark it with the Cross.
“While he was speaking, I saw - she says - a very white dove; the gray wings were open as if he wanted to take flight to the Heart of Jesus.
But it was repelled by a jet that left the Wound and that fell on the head of a bright whiteness.
He had a black cross printed just below his neck. "
Josefa makes no comment on the fact.
Later and until death you will see the same dove from time to time. But the Master will have explained the meaning of that vision, the image of his Soul.
As the light goes out. It is not yet time to take flight to the Heart of Jesus. A year of graces, struggles, sufferings, trials of all kinds separates her from the definitive entry into the lovely Heart.
But it is the fire of love that holds her captive from pain, to continue for her to reveal herself to the world.

VIII - LENT OF 1923

THE PAINFUL WAY
January 1 - February 17, 1923.

"Jesus' work must be founded on much suffering and love."

(The Blessed Virgin to Josefa - January 21, 1923).

The dawn of 1923 will end with the death of Josefa.
The last stage therefore opens before her: Josefa guesses it, Incidentally, on the 3rd of December preceding on the occasion of a confirmation ceremony in the chapel of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady had announced that she should transmit to the Bishop of Poiters the words of her Son. Then he adds: "You will see him three times before you die."
The sky hangs, therefore, on the horizon of Josefa and that hope revives his courage.
It needs it a lot, as several shadows are descending on its path and the first days of January already bring other trials. The demon enters the scene again and resumes his old attacks. Between beatings and threats, kidnappings and long hours spent in hell ... Jesus, who keeps her as a very dear Wife, carves her image and associates her in the same measure with the Work of Redemption.
This saves souls and prepares the way for the Message of Love. The satanic furor is exasperated in vain and sometimes he thinks he will triumph. At the moment determined by the Sovereign of heaven and hell, he vanishes with blasphemy ...
This is how Josefa wrote on Monday, January 8, 1923:
“I had it in my heart this morning. immense desire of Jesus. In these days when I am suffering so much, the moment of communion is a great relief.
“Today, after the dreadful night spent in hell, I awaited Him with even more desire! ...
“Coming back from the holy table I suddenly saw Our Lord; he walked in front of me and turned around, he said; "Come, Josefa, my Heart awaits you!"
"Soon I renewed the Vows and he repeated:
"Yes, my Heart awaits you."
“I renewed the Vows again and Jesus continued:
"You rested Me and it was my turn to give you rest."
"Then the Heart was opened and He let me in.” There are a few moments that Josefa calls “heavenly moments”, in that divine Abode - “When he let me out,” she writes, “I entrusted him with all my dread of the devil and his threats ... I begged him to never allow him to deceive -me."
Jesus replied:
“Why are you afraid? Don't you know that I am more powerful than he and all your enemies?
The devil with all his fury cannot do more damage than my Love allows - It is I who allow the suffering of the souls I love. this suffering is necessary for everyone and especially my chosen ones! he purifies them and I can thus use them to uproot many souls from hell. ”
And, alluding to the vain threats that she keeps hearing:
“Do not be afraid of them - repeat - and trust My Quran who keeps you all as the child of your children.Yes, Josefa, this house is very loved by my Heart ... although I often pour the bitterness of my Chalice into it ...
"I will return soon so that you write more secrets of my Love."
"While you wait, keep working on my tunic!"
And after that memory of the Christmas request, Jesus disappears and Josefa enters the dark storm that has to go through again.
Once again, the celestial light shines that night, on January 21st. Our Lady is always close to her daughter in painful hours.
As she has more time on Sunday morning, Josefa has just written her notes. It is a drudgery for your obedience, especially when you have to report what you saw and heard in the abyss that you so often descended at that time.
"I do this - she notes - to obey and prove to Jesus that I love Him."
The Blessed Virgin who appears to her in the chapel, in the afternoon guarantees the merit of that act:
"Because you have overcome your disgust for love, says - heaven has been opened forever to a soul whose salvation is in danger."
"If you only knew how many souls can be saved by small acts!"
“It is so good and so Maternal that I dared to trust You with many things ... and answered.
“Jesus wants your words to be hidden during your life. After your death, they will be known from one pole to another on earth and many souls with that light will be saved on the path of trust and abandonment to the merciful Heart of Jesus. ”
And as Josefa, always shy in the face of such great things, expressed to that incomparable Mother all her anxieties:
“Daughter - she says tenderly - don't be scared, the Work of Jesus will have to be founded on much suffering and much love.
“Do not be afraid, Jesus is all-powerful and he is the one who works. It is strong and it is who sustains you. He is merciful and he who loves you! ”
Then he warned her, so to speak, about the tribulations he was going to go through:
“he knows the depths of his heart and it is he who allows all circumstances. If more than once your plans seem upset, it is that he wants to keep you very humble and small. ”
Josefa reiterates her fear of obstructing her designs.
“It is true that you are very miserable - replies the Virgin with compassion - but it is precisely because of this misery that Jesus feels sorry for you and that he shelters you in the depth of his Heart, so that nothing can reach you. Humble yourself for your smallness and your misery, daughter, but trust him because he loves you and will never abandon you. May your whole ambition be to give you many souls, much glory and much love.
“I asked her for the blessing and she traced the sign of the cross with two fingers on my forehead saying:
“ Yes, I bless. wholeheartedly. ”
"And disappeared."
The sky seems to close again and the devil finds his power again to dispose of Josefa's days and nights.
However, on Thursday, February 1, Saint Magdalene Sofia appeared to her as a forerunner of peace.
Invite her to go to the cell she once sanctified with her prayer and holiness. Announces his entrance into heaven five of his daughters, whose names and gives you consecrate, as it were, their presence in the place of blessing, he adds:
"You can not assess what joy I see coming here my dearest daughters. From the top of the sky I bless them with the tenderness of a Mother and I pour out many graces on them ... My wish is that each one of them be for the Heart of Jesus a place of rest and love. ”
A few days later, on February 4, comfort her with the following words:
“Don't get tired of suffering. Souls who suffer for love will see great things, not in time, but in eternity. ”
He returns again on Monday, February 10, after many days of hard trials, announcing the next coming of Our Lord;
“Protect your Peace, your heart, daughter .... file will come soon, comfort Him with great confidence.
Do not forget that if you are your God, you are also your Father and, not just your Father, but your Spouse ... Do not be afraid and tell Him everything, as he is always ready to listen to you. It’s so good, our God!
And your Heart so compassionate ... ”
As it was the eve of the Forty Hours:
“ Comfort and love Him, add - Your Heart rests among you and your smallness Save many souls! ”
Then, insisting on the main thought of his life:
"Yes, comfort Him with your humility because where there is humility everything is fine, but where humility is lacking everything goes inside out."
And after having entrusted her with some maternal wishes:
"Goodbye - he said, blessing her. Nothing you refuse from your God."
In the afternoon, the devil is exasperated against the intervention of the saint and especially against her advice:
"This blessed one ruins all my power, only with her humility."
And as if I had to confess the infernal secret:
“Ah! - he roars with a blasphemy - when I want to grab a soul I just need to excite his pride ... if I want to lose it, just let me follow instinct of pride ...
“It is pride that operates my victories and I will not rest until I see it spill over into the world. I lost myself out of pride, I will not allow souls to be saved out of humility.
It is quite clear - he concludes in a cry of resentment - all the souls that reach the summit of holiness are those that have buried themselves in the deepest abyss of humility. ”
Josefa will transcribe this diabolic confession, with great emotion, and in the midst of many ailments, she will rejoice in her filial love in the face of this unexpected testimony given to the humility of her holy Mother Founder.
The Forty Hours era was always at the height of his reparative life. But this year is the last in the land where Our Lord invites her during such days of unbridled pleasures and unrestrained enjoyments, to carry with him the cross of souls that are lost.
Her love had grown a lot during the past year and now, as a Wife, she will participate in the bitterness of the Master's wounded Heart. She is waiting for Him, because Saint Magdalene Sofia had prepared her for the next meeting.
On February 11, Sunday of the Forty Hours, during Mass, Jesus suddenly appears. It had been a month since she had seen Him.
"Josefa - he says - do you want to console Me?"
She renews the Vows and expresses her ardent desire, not without some reticence, “because - she adds - I am afraid of myself, that I am more and more miserable.”
“Do not think about what you are - answers Our Lord - I will give you strength for everything I ask of you.
Don't forget, Josefa. that I allow all your miseries and your falls, so that despite the graces I give you, you are always in front of your nothingness. ”
Then his Heart ignites:
“And now we are going to take care of souls! ...
" Many are lost, it is true ... but we will be able to uproot many others from the path of perdition and my Heart will at least be comforted from the offenses it receives .
"you know, Josefa, as I tear sinners and how I need souls who will repair."
“This is why I come to rest among those that I myself have chosen. May these souls know with their faithfulness and their love, to heal the wounds I receive from sinners. How it is necessary for there to be victims to repair the bitterness of my Heart and relieve its Pain! How many sins!. ,, and how many souls are lost! ”
She pleads with Him to come among their Wives, for they do not want anything else, and to inspire them what they will do to console their pain.
“The only thing I want,” he says, “is love: sweet love that allows itself to be guided by the action of the one it loves ... Unselfish love that seeks neither its pleasure nor its own interest, but those of the Beloved .
“Zealous, ardent, devouring love, that overcomes all obstacles opposed by selfishness: this is true love, the one that pulls souls from the abyss in which they fall.”
Encouraged with such condescension, Josefa continues her naive questions.
“How is it - she writes - that we pray for a soul for months and the prayer seems to get nothing? ...
How can he, who so desires the conversion of sinners, not move their hearts so that so many prayers and sacrifices are not lost?
"... And I told you about three sinners out of two above all, for whom we have prayed here for so long!"
“When a soul prays for a sinner with the burning desire for his conversion - He condescendingly replies - he obtains, almost always. what he asks for, when not before, at the last moment, and always, my Heart finds in these supplications the reparation of the offense received.
“In any case, prayer is never lost, because, on the one hand, it repairs the injury caused by sin and on the other, it reaches mercy if not for that sinner, at least for others ready to collect the fruit of these supplications.
“There are souls who, during life and for eternity, are called to give Me the glory that belongs to them to give Me and to which other souls who have lost themselves should be given to me ... it is reached, for a
righteous soul can atone for the sins of many others.
“Let this be your constant prayer, Josefa:“ Eternal Father, who for the sake of souls delivered your Only Son to death, for his Blood, for his merits and for his Heart, have mercy on the whole world and forgive all the sins that are committed .
“Receive the humble reparation of your chosen souls and unite them with the merits of your divine Son.
O Eternal Father, have mercy on souls and do not forget that the time of justice has not yet come but that of Mercy. ”
“Do not refuse Me anything - he said before leaving - and do not forget that I need souls to continue my Passion to stop divine wrath. But - he adds, reassuring her - I will support you. ”
The entertainment in the morning ends in the evening: Josefa is in the chapel of the Works, of which she is a sacristan, when, suddenly, the Lord appears to her:
“You cannot know how to rest in yourself - I said - with kindness.”
"But, Lord - she replies - is it possible?"
- I do nothing extraordinary! "
"Don't be surprised! ... Despite so many offenses I receive from sinners, my Heart is comforted because I have many souls who love Me!
Yes, I certainly feel the loss of souls ... but this pain does not reach my Glory .
"Understand well, a soul that loves Me can repair the offenses of many sinners and relieve my Heart."
“I explained to Him that I would like to be one of those souls who love Him. What could I do to prove my Love to You? ...
... During Lent I wanted to be very simple, very docile ... and especially to console Him with my humility, as our Blessed Mother told me the other day; I just don't know what to do for that. ”
Then as a father leans over his daughter to explain the lesson, Our Lord tells her:
“The humility that your Blessed Mother speaks to you does not consist precisely in words, nor in outward acts, but is in the fidelity of the soul moved by grace, in adhering to all her inspirations, without being carried away by the suggestions of love. own. This does not, moreover, prevent the soul from resorting to external acts to acquire true and profound humility. That's what your Blessed Mother meant.
"And now, go on - here's what you will do to comfort Me from the sins of the world ... and especially from those of my chosen Souls."
“During Lent, you will recite the Miserere every day with true humility, adding an Our Father.
“You will prostrate yourself three times on the floor, during the space of an Ave Maria to ask for mercy and forgiveness in the name of sinners and you will do in the same intention the penances that are allowed.
“I also wish that three times a week, between eleven and midnight, you will be available to me, so that I can use you in complete freedom and that the two of us together, we can calm the anger of my heavenly Father and obtain forgiveness for souls. ”
She doesn't dare make that commitment, "because - she says - I don't know if they will leave me?"
“Submit this, like everything else, to the judgment of your Superiors - answers the divine Master. - And now - he continues - I will resume my Confidences.
"During this Lent, I will let you know ... also everything that I may dislike in your soul and I will use you to comfort my Heart whenever I need it."
"Goodbye, I'll be back soon .. Don't leave Me alone ... Don't forget Me. ”
This desire of the Heart of Jesus sustains her in the painful days that follow,
how could she leave Him alone ... while the sins of souls multiply and constantly request their reparative thought.
The Tuesday of the Forty Hours, February 13th, puts her in the presence of that great pain that she left, with all her heart: she is making the Way of the Cross with the Sisters when Jesus appears to her, her face bloody and sad, but the burning heart. Ask him to stay with him for a while. She asks for permission and finds him in the large chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed:
“Look at my Face, Josephus, it is sin that puts you in this state. The world is rushing to take in the pleasures.
“The multitude of sins that are committed is such that my Qur'an is as if drowned in a storm of bitterness and sadness.
"Where will I find relief for my Pain? ...
“This is why I come to take refuge here and seek love to forget the ingratitude of so many souls.” "I tried to comfort Him - she writes - and a moment later she returned:"
"Come with me to your cell. There we will repair so many offenses and so many sins! ..."
"I left the chapel; Jesus walked in front of me ... then he disappeared When I opened the cell door, I was already there; I got down on my knee "and he said:
" Prostrate yourself to the floor and worship the divine Majesty despised by men.
"Do an act of reparation and repeat with me:
" look God infinitely Holy! I adore you.
I humbly prostrate myself in your Presence and I beg You, in the name of your divine Son, to forgive so many sinners who offend You. I offer you my life and I want to repair so much ingratitude! "
"He still stopped ... and as I asked Him if those sinful souls hurt him:
" Yes - he said - those souls offend Me very much, but my chosen Souls comfort Me. "
"I spoke to Him like this from time to time, repeating my desire to console him. But - what can I do? ... so miserable and capable of so little ..."
"Without a doubt Jesus turned - but you don't know that misery matters little to me? ... What I want is to be the Owner of your misery. Don't worry about the rest ... My Heart transforms everything!
"Kiss the floor again and repeat with me:
"Dad! Holy and Merciful God, I received my desire to console You! I wish I could repair all the offenses of men ... But as this is impossible for me, I offer You the Merits of Jesus Christ, Redeemer of mankind, in order to satisfy your Justice. ”
"After a moment of silence, I asked Him if the devil would pursue me still that night or if I could do Holy Hour like everyone else at home?"
“Yes, I will let you spend that hour together with the feelings of my Heart that is consumed in the desire to attract souls to You, in order to forgive them.
“Poor sinners! how blind they are!
"I just want to forgive them and they just try to offend Me!"
"This is my greatest Pain: that so many souls are lost and that not all of them come to Me, so that my Heart may forgive them."
Then, taking advantage of the Goodness of Our Lord who seems ready to answer all his questions, Josefa multiplies them, with childlike simplicity.
"I asked him if he remembers our faults when we repented after our falls and asked him for forgiveness?”
"As long as the soul falls at my feet and begs for my mercy, Josefa, I forget all your sins."
“I asked Him if there will always be so many souls that offend him until the end of the world?”
"Yes, unfortunately! ... But until the end of the world I will also have souls that will comfort Me."
“I wanted to know if He does not make His Voice heard to souls who are immersed in sin to uproot them from that state, because I see what happens to me: when I am in temptation and I resist the voice of Jesus, I suddenly feel in myself something that makes me know the truth and I am filled with remorse ... Jesus replied:
“Yes, Josefa, I run after sinners… like justice after the criminals. But justice seeks them to punish them and I to forgive them! ”
Then, as she offered Him, to comfort Him, the desires of religious souls, more fervent these days than ordinarily, before disappearing, He added:
“My souls are the balm for wounds for my Heart. I'll be back later, ... Josefa continues to comfort me. ”
For now, he will consolá.Lo with his fidelity despite the pitfalls that the devil sows him under the steps and the disturbances that awakens in his soul. It is the means, painful par excellence, the one along which she no longer sees the path, does not discern her part of responsibility and reaches the limits of her weakness ...
How many times will she have to cross this darkness?
On Saturday, February 17, the Blessed Virgin, dispelling all shadows, brings you the most dear testimony of all: her Son's Crown of Thorns.
“It is for you, daughter - tell her - Do not worry anymore about what the devil puts in your imagination.
These are just lies that I want to disturb you with. ”
And as Josefa told her about her sadness at not knowing how to resist so many pitfalls, the Virgin discovers this great secret:
“Think of Jesus' Passion and Sufferings.
Then, placing the crown of thorns on the daughter's head:
“Here, say, blessing her. It is she who will keep you in the presence of my Son. ”
A few hours later, Jesus appears to him with his Peace:
"Come ... come," says Josefa, who hesitates, and promise Me that you will no longer be deceived by the enemy. "
She would like to promise but does not dare, as she feels her weakness vividly.
"It matters little, my Josefa ... if you fall I will lift you up."
Then she naively trusts the advice of her Immaculate Mother, who she tries to keep fixing her hourly thought about the Passion.
"Yes - the Lord responds kindly - think of my Sufferings."
And indicating the direction his Message will take, he adds:
"From now on, I will come every day to tell you about my Passion, so that it may be the object of your thoughts and my confidences for souls."

THE SECRETS OF PASSION: THE CENACLE
February 18 - February 28, 1923

"Josefa, Wife and Victim of my Heart, let's talk about my Passion so that your soul will feed on this memory and that my souls will find where to quench their hunger and quench their thirst."

(Our Lord to Josefa - February 22, 1923)

Passion, which is the great love story, will reveal itself to Josefa, step by step, from Cenacle to Calvary, during Lent of 1923.
The narration of facts should not be sought there: of these, the only official and authorized depository is the Gospel.
It was the depth of his Heart that Jesus determined to open, giving his Secrets, as a proof of confidence and testimony of his immense Pain, which he longs to be understood even in the depths.
This revelation is intended, therefore, for all souls that seek to penetrate the Sacred Heart, to know His Palpitations, to share His Feelings and to refuse anything to the demands of his Cross.
Josefa will be the first to follow this path according to the Master.
You will collect the willful Message of Love that manifests itself to the world while discovering it in the solitude of the small cell.
However, a few days elapse without the divine promise being fulfilled.
Our Lord shapes the instrument by delay and abandonment. But use the nights as you asked. Three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, Josefa is allowed to make herself available to the Master, before starting her rest.
Writes after Saturday night to Sunday, February 18th.
“Last night, I offered myself for everything Our Lord wanted and as I was afraid of falling asleep I asked Him for the kindness of waking me up.
“As soon as I left, I fell asleep ... I don't know what time I was awakened by his Voice calling me:
"Josefa!"
“I was ashamed and said,“ O my Jesus, forgive me. What time is it?"
"It doesn't matter, Josefa ... it's time for Love." “Jesus was beautiful. He brought the Cross. I renewed the vows, got up quickly and he continued:
“It is the time when Love comes to seek comfort and relief by leaving you the Cross. Let's beg for forgiveness and mercy for souls. Take the Cross and give me rest. ”
“He gave me the Cross, whose weight I felt with the pain on my side, at the same time that my soul was in great anguish ... I would like to console Him ... but I felt so unworthy to be beside him and carry your Cross! ...
“It does not matter - he said - my Cross will lean on your misery and I will rest in your smallness ... My Cross will strengthen you and I will support you.
“When a soul comes to me to seek strength, I do not leave it alone; I support it and if its weakness betrays it, I lift it up.
“Now, let us ask for forgiveness for souls ... let us repair the offenses made to the divine Majesty.
"Repeat with me:
“Holy God, just God! Father of infinite mercy and kindness, who created man out of love and that by the effect of that same love and kindness you made him heir to eternal goods, if he out of fragility, offended you and deserved punishment, I received the merits of your Son who offers as a Victim of atonement! For your divine merits forgive the sinful man and put him back in a state of earning eternal goods. my father! Pity and Mercy for souls! ”
“Josefa! I leave you my Cross so that you can relieve me. I am your Strength. Comfort Me. ”
“Then,” she says, “he left, leaving me with his Cross.
On Monday, February 19, she renews her offer at bedtime.
“I don't know - she writes - if it was her Voice or her Presence that woke me up at eleven o'clock ... Jesus was there with the Cross and he said to me:
"Josefa, do you love Me?"
"I did not dare to answer, I am so miserable that I do not know how to love ... I asked His forgiveness for having tormented me with little things that are worthless."
"Yes, take advantage of all those tiny occasions to save souls for me."
"Then, with his usual kindness, he continued:
“Take the Cross and we will both repair all the sins that will be committed during this hour. If only you knew how souls fall en masse to evil! ”
“He gave me the Cross and I humbled myself in His Presence ... I loved Him, because more than ever I saw my indignity before His Greatness. he put his hands together and said:
“We are going to adore the offended and outraged divine Majesty. We will repair so many sins.
“O God infinitely holy! Infinitely merciful Father, I adore you! I want to repair all the outrages you receive from sinners everywhere on earth and at all times of the day and night. But, above all, O my Father. I would like to repair the offenses and sins that are committed at this hour. For this, I present to you all the acts of adoration and reparation of the souls that love you and above all the continuous holocaust of your divine Son, immolating himself on the altar in every corner of the earth and at every moment of this hour. O tender and compassionate Father! Receive this divine and most pure Blood in reparation for all the outrages that men make to You and for Him, forgive their sins and use them mercifully! ”
“So we were silent. Jesus looked at the sky. My soul was in great anguish and my heart was heavy with pain ... After a moment he continued:
"Offer your whole being to repair so many offenses and to satisfy divine Justice".
"I repeated my indignity to Him, for I, too, am a great sinner."
“If your indignity and your great sins come to submerge you in the torrent, of the Blood of my Heart and let yourself be purified.
“Then generously accept all the sufferings that my Will sends you, in order to offer them to my heavenly Father. Let your soul burn with the desire to comfort an outraged God and take my merits to make amends for so many sins. ”
And as Jesus was willing to leave her; Josefa takes courage and reminds Him of the promise to speak of her Passion.
Yes, I will be back - he said - While you wait, console my Heart and repair. ”
Those great restorative nights will, from now on, take place without jeopardizing the work that she has started since dawn.
In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, February 22, it is still the Lord who awakens her, because tiredness had quickly put her to sleep.
"Here I am - says - I come to rest in you."
She rises at the same moment, renews the vows and offers to relieve the divine shoulders from the cross.
"Yes. I will give it to you, Josefa, and with it all the anguish of my Heart. ”
“Then - she continues - she gave me the Cross ... and I tried to comfort Him ... he continued:
“Tell Me: will there be a Heart that loves more than Mine and finds less correspondence to its Love?
'Will there be a Heart that, more than Mine, is consumed in the desire to forgive?
“And yet, as the price of so much Love, I only receive the most serious offenses.
"Poor souls ... Let's ask for forgiveness and make amends for them:
"O Father! Have mercy on souls. Do not punish them as they deserve, but have mercy on them, as your Son pleads.
“I would like to repair the offenses and give You the Glory that is due to You, O infinitely Holy God.
But look at your Son: it is the Victim who expiates so many sins. ”
"Stay united with Me, Josefa and accept with all submission the sufferings of this hour."
Jesus leaves and she is under an hour of suffering.
“Suddenly,” she writes, “the demon appeared to me and let out this cry of fury:
"It's my turn now."
The night ends under beatings, threats, blasphemies, and exhausted Josefa finds no strength to go to receive communion. The moment has come when, having reduced it to the end of its weakness and nothingness, Jesus will lean over it, lift it up, take it over and handle it as if it were an instrument perfectly adapted to the hand.
The same morning, Wednesday, February 22, while taking refuge in her cell, she rests for an instant.
transcribing the prayers he had learned last night, the Master suddenly appears.
“Josefa. Wife and Victim of my Heart - he said solemnly - Let's talk about my Passion so that your soul will constantly feed on this memory and my Souls will find where to quench their hunger and quench their thirst. ”
"I dared not interrupt him," she writes, "but in the meantime I asked him if he could renew the vows."
"Yes, renew it. I glorify myself when I tighten the bonds that unite you to Me and flood your soul with so many graces, which is not only renewed with the purity of the day of your Vows, but acquires a new degree of merits that make it most pleasing to my eyes.
“So it is for all souls that are united to Me by these close and sacred bonds. Each time they renew them, they take on new merits and come closer to my Heart, which they like.
"And now. Josefa I will begin by unveiling the feelings that filled my Heart when I washed the feet of my Apostles.
“See how I brought them together, to all the Twelve, without excluding any. There, indeed, were John, the beloved disciple, and Judas, who, shortly afterwards, was to deliver Me to my enemies.
“I will tell you why I wanted to bring them all together and why I started by washing their feet.
I brought them all together, because for my Church it was time to appear in the world and, for all ears, to have but one Pastor.
“I also wanted to show souls that I never refuse My grace to them, even when they are laden with the most serious sins, and that I do not separate them from those I love most. I keep them all in my Heart, to give each one the necessary help for their condition.
“But what was my pain when I saw, represented by the wretched Judas, so many souls, often gathered at my feet, washed in my Blood and still running to their eternal perdition!
“I wanted to make them understand that it is not because they are in mortal sin that they must turn away from Me. Do not think that there is no longer a remedy for them and that they will never be loved as they once were!.,. No, poor souls, these are not the feelings of a God who shed all his Blood for you!
“Come to Me and do not be afraid, because I love you! I will purify you in my Blood and make you whiter than snow. Your sins will be plunged into the waters of my Mercy and it will not be possible to tear the love that I have out of my Heart.
“Josefa, let the burning desire invade you that all souls come to be purified in the waters of penance ... that they surrender to feelings of trust and not fear, because I am God of Mercy and I am always ready to receive them in my Heart.
Here ends the first saying of Our Lord.
Josefa had written quickly for about twenty minutes. He speaks “with such fervor”, she says, who seems to pour out her Heart and expand with this expansion.
She picks up those fiery words interrupted only for a few moments of silence. (1)
Then He stops. Her gaze stares long at Josefa, who has dropped her feather and is on her knees at her feet. He leaves you a few words of goodbye and finally disappears.
She stands for a moment in front of the table and her notebook, still open, immersed in the thought of what she has just heard and written. He rereads nothing and gives it to the Superiors who are always present, then he returns to the workshop, where work awaits. The memory of the Savior's painful Confidences will be prolonged throughout the day.
(1) It is these ardent expansions of the Heart of Jesus, written by Josefa while the Master was speaking, and translated from Spanish, that will be found on the following pages. Our Lord did not dictate properly but spoke with warmth and Josefa transcribed the words to him as they fell from the divine Lips.

In fact, he himself does not leave her for long without asking for new reparations for souls in danger.
On the same afternoon of Thursday, February 22, at the moment when the Way of the Cross was ending, Jesus comes to remind him that he has it.
This time it is about three souls - "not only very loved, but preferred by my Heart." - says:
“It is for them that I come to take refuge here and seek comfort among you ... Take note, Josefa - he adds - what the devil said this morning is true; many souls here find life. ”
And needing your thought:
"You draw them to the truth, beloved souls of my Heart, with your miseries and with your love."
This term astonishes her:
“Yes - continues the Master - Here two things predominate: misery and love. It is because of the love that many souls find life here and is attracted by the misery that the Gaze of God has set on this group of souls. ”
The following afternoon, Friday, February 23, at the end of the Way of the Cross, which he has just done with all the Sisters, Our Lord shows himself.
"He was in front of the communion table - she writes - He carried the Cross and his Gaze involved us all."
“Souls dear to my Heart,” he said, “how much comfort you give Me! Ah! if you could see! how many wonders would you discover! ... How your prayers become a treasure for souls! ...
“So saying, he approached ... and gave me his Cross. I entrusted my fears to Him, because in these last nights the devil had not stopped insulting the house, the "Society" ... "
“Do not be afraid, Josefa, he can only threaten, because I keep you, I who am omnipotent. If he hates you it is because I love you. Ah! If you knew what important work is done in this house and how you work for souls and for my Heart ...
“But now - he continues after having vented his Love - my Heart is in an ocean of bitterness because of those three souls that I have entrusted to you ...
“As long as they offend Me, I will come to seek rest and comfort in you, who are the object of my predilections ...
"I entrust you with my Cross, do not leave Me alone." Then he added:
"Love Me and comfort Me."
Josefa continues to feel the painful weight of the cross entrusted to him, as the devil exploits with resentment the power he had received from on high at that time.
She is atoning for those “favorite souls” who let themselves be seduced and buys them, with day and night struggles, the light that will lead them back to the truth.
On Sunday, February 25, Jesus meets her in his cell in the morning. All night the devil had tried to convince her of sin and his soul was troubled and restless.
“Why do you fear - He said kindly - Do you not know that your soul is that dove that has the nest in my Heart? Your wings are still very gray, it is true, because you have many imperfections but they are not the sins that the devil accuses you of ...
“Yes, renew the Vows and kiss my Feet three times, increasingly tightening the bonds that bind you to Me.
“And now, Josefa, do not forget that you are nothing but a very useless and very miserable instrument.
“Kiss the floor and write ... because we are going to continue our love secrets.
“I will tell you why I wanted to wash my Apostles' feet before supper.
“It was first to teach souls how much I want them to be pure in order to receive Me in the Eucharist ...
“It was also to represent the Sacrament of Penance, where those who had the misfortune of falling into sin can always recover their lost whiteness ...
“I myself washed the feet of my Apostles so that, following my example, those who devote themselves to apostolic works, may know how to humble themselves before sinners and to treat them gently, as well as to all the other souls entrusted to them . Gird me with a towel to show you that the Apostle must gird himself with mortification and self-denial if he is to reach souls effectively. I also wanted to teach them about mutual charity, always ready to wash away the faults of others, hiding them and never divulging them.
“Finally, the water that I poured on the feet of my Apostles was the image of the burning zeal that consumed my Heart for the salvation of the world.
The hour of the Redemption of mankind was approaching. And my Heart could not contain its love for men or resolve to leave them orphans. So, to show them my tenderness and stay with them until the end of the centuries, I wanted to become their Food, their Protection, their Life and their Everything.
“Ah! how much I would like to make known to all souls the feelings of my Heart and to understand them from the love that burned me, when in the Cenacle the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted ...
“I have seen, through the centuries, all those that would feed on my Body, would be unaltered in my Blood and the divine fruits that they would reap from there ...
“In how many hearts would this Immaculate Blood be the seed of purity and virginity! ...
“In how many others, he would ignite the flame of Charity and zeal ... How many martyrs of love were grouped, in that hour before my Eyes and in my Heart! ... How many souls, weakened by numerous sins and by the violence of passions , they would return to Me and recover their vigor, nourishing themselves on the Bread of the Strong! ...
“Who can penetrate the feelings that overflowed on Me then? Feelings of joy, love and tenderness! ... But who can also understand the bitterness that invaded my Heart! ...
“I will continue, Josefa. Go in my peace, console Me and fear nothing; my Blood has not run out and it is he who purifies your soul. "
Jesus stops talking.
“Goodbye, kiss the floor. I'll be back. "
This return takes many days.
Each morning, Josefa is faithful to the commitment but has to leave without seeing the Master and the diabolical tribulations continue to disturb her.

THE EUCHARIST
March 1 to 11, 1923

“The Eucharist is the invention of Love.But how few souls correspond to this Love that is exhausted and consumed by them! ”

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 2, 1923)

On March 2, the first Friday of the month, at nine o'clock in the morning Josefa, diligent and active, goes to work.
He had waited long for the Lord in his cell, but he did not return that day. Slowly she writes:
"I had a lot to sew and I was very happy to have some free time ... because there are times when I get the idea that I do nothing and serve nothing, with all these things."
It is the usual temptation with which the devil continually seeks to explore his burning nature and is always willing to dedicate himself.
“Suddenly, under the stairs of S. Miguel, I found Jesus who stopped me and asked:
"Josefa, where are you going?"
"I'm going to the clothes shop, iron the uniforms, sir."
"Go to your cell - he continues - because I want you to write."
Josefa, suffocating in her soul the desire to advance her task, goes up to the cell. The Master there had preceded her.
"Who raised you, Josefa?"
asks as soon as she has just renewed her vows.
“You, Lord! "
“Who gave you more proof of Love than I did? Who has forgiven you as many times as I have forgiven you and am I still willing to forgive you? ... ”
Confused, Josefa prostrates at His Feet.
"Yes, humble yourself, Josefa, kiss the floor and do not resist Me anymore.
“I want to reveal to you how much bitterness filled my Heart at the time of the Supper. Because if it was my great joy to become the companion and divine food of men until the end of the age, and I saw how many would surround me with adoration, reparation and love ... my sadness at seeing so many others was no less They would abandon me in the Tabernacle, or they would not believe in my real presence!
“How many hearts, stained by sin, should I enter ... and how many times will my desecrated Flesh and Blood only serve as a condemnation for these guilty souls?
“The sacrilegies, the outrages and the nameless abominations that are committed against me, passed before my eyes in that memento ... I also saw how many hours, days, nights, I would be alone in the Tabernacle, and how many souls would repel the invitations that were given to them. would drive from this address!
“Ah! Josefa lets you penetrate with the feelings of my Heart.
“It is for the love of souls that I am a Prisoner of the Eucharist. I remain there so that they can come with all their sorrows to console themselves with the most tender and best of parents and the Friend who never leaves them.
“The Eucharist is the invention of Love! ... And this love that runs out and is consumed for the sake of souls does not find correspondence! ...
“I live among sinners to be Salvation, Life, Physician and at the same time Remedy for all diseases generated by corrupted nature. In return, they withdraw, outrage Me and despise Me! ...
“Ah! poor sinners! Do not depart from Me!
“Night and day, I wait for you in the Tabernacle ... I will not blame you for the crimes committed, I will not throw them at you. But I will wash them in the Blood of my Wounds ... do not be afraid and come! You do not know how much I love you! ...
“And you, dear souls, why are you so cold and indifferent to my Love? ... I know that the needs of your family ... of your home ... the demands of the world ... are constantly asking you. But won't you have a moment to give Me some proof of love and gratitude?
“Do not be swept away by a thousand useless worries and take the time to visit and receive the Prisoner of Love! ...
“When your body is weakened or sick, do you not find time to go to the doctor who will heal you ?, .. Come, then, to Him who can give your soul Strength and health and give alms of love to this divine Prisoner who awaits you, calls and wishes! ...
“All these feelings invaded Me at supper, Josefa. I haven't told you yet, however what my Heart felt, thinking about my chosen souls: my Wives, my Fathers ...
“I will say it later. Go now and don't forget that my Heart loves you ... And you, do you love Me? ”
With his courageous fidelity, even more than with protests of love, Josefa answers the Master's question. The next night, especially painful, she realizes in the midst of the blasphemies of hell that the three souls dear to the Heart of Jesus and for which she has suffered for fifteen days are about to return to God. Then feel comforted.
On the afternoon of the first Saturday of the month, March 3, she is in worship before Jesus exposed, when he appears with his heart all set on fire:
"Josefa - says with fervor - let Me rest in you, let my Heart communicate your joy to you: those three souls that I have entrusted to you have returned to Me!
And he continues:
“My Cross is heavy! ... This is why I come to rest here and share it among my souls.
My Heart looks for victims to lead the world to Love and I find them here. "
With what joy Josefa joins the joy of the Master! It offers you all the desires of the house that you know are sincere and ardent, in order to comfort your Heart and bring you many souls. And as the memory of the saying of yesterday did not leave her, she asked Him if He will not tell her, for her consecrated souls, what she expects of them in the Eucharist.
“Yes,” he replies, “I want you to know so that, through you, favorite souls, my Priests, my Wives learn it too. If his infidelities hurt me deeply, his love also takes my Heart so much that He forgets, as it were, the offenses of many souls. ”
He then spoke to me at length about this subject but, as we were in the chapel, I told him that I could not remember everything to write later ”.
“It matters little, let Me speak and unburden the Heart.
"The next night will be" our night "- he said when leaving it -" I will come and rest in you ".
Josefa must not forget that it is in suffering above all that He rests and that there are many ways to carry His Cross; the night goes on like the precedents under the power of the devil who pursues it with the most obsessive temptations until the afternoon of the following day. Exhausted though, and despite living disgust, she continues to protest her love and to offer herself to the Will of the Lord.
On Sunday afternoon, March 4, the Via Crucis is ending when Jesus suddenly appears;
"You are already forgiven, Josefa."
Before she had time to confess her weaknesses and her hurt.
“And if you want to console Me - continues the Master - this is the moment. Now, close by, there is a meeting in which I am greatly offended. Put yourself in a state of victim, so that you can repair the outrages of those souls. Poor souls! ... how they offend me! ... and then ... Ah!
How will they get out of there? ... ”
A few moments later, Jesus finds her in the cell, where he began to pray for those souls. Give him the Cross and direct the prayer:
"While those souls offend your sovereign Majesty and outrage with fury the Blood of your Son, let O my Father, which I will present this soul that is offered as a united victim to my heart to suffer and repair. Accept for those souls O Father of Goodness, this suffering united to my merits. "
Then he adds:
"Let Me immerse your soul in the bitterness of my Heart."
And disappears, leaving her distress and under the cross.
Down the night on the intense suffering that extends to the back of the Master.
“At ten o'clock - writes Josefa - he returned and said to me:
“Give me back the Cross. You comforted Me. ” "I thanked Him to know that 'had comforted a little and promised never resist Him ..."
"Yes, at the time and when I need you, come soothe the wounds that cause me sinners.
"You gave me a drink - he adds - I will give you a share in the Kingdom of Heaven."
After a few days of interruption, Jesus continues the Confidences, on Tuesday, March 6.
“Are you waiting for me, Josefa? - asks, meeting her at eight in the morning. ”
"I come find you the greatest Mystery of Love ... and Love for my chosen and consecrated souls. Start kissing the floor ...
"At the time of instituting the Eucharist saw all the privileged souls who had to feed my body and my blood and then find, some, remedy to their weakness; others, fire to consume their miseries and ignite them with love ...
"All together with the same purpose, would be like a closed garden, where each produce their flower and I would recreate with her perfume ... I would heat up the heat and they needed my sacred body would be the sun that animate.
Go to one to console Me; to others to hide from Me, and even to others, to rest ...
if you only knew, beloved souls too, how easy it is to console, to hide and rest a God!
"This God who loves you infinitely, after you free from slavery to sin and sowed in you the incomparable grace of his appeal and mysteriously attracted you to the garden of his delights: the God who is your Redeemer constituiu- if your Spouse .
"It feeds you, Himself, with her most pure body and you dessedenta with his blood.
"If you are sick, it is your doctor, come to him, will heal you-If you have cold, come to him;... Will you warm in Him shall find rest and happiness not away therefore Him who is Life and when you ask for solace, do not hurt Him with refusals ...
“Ah! that bitterness, to see so many souls flooded election due to become for my sadness motif Heart!
“Am I not always the same? Did I change for you ... No, my Love is immutable and until the end of the centuries I will love you with love.
"If you are full of misery, already I know and my most tender look not depart from you, on the contrary, I hope to urge you to come to me, not only to ease your miseries but to fill you new benefits.
"If you ask Love, hast not refuse: it's so easy to love the One who is Love itself!
"If I demand something that costs to your nature, I give you both the grace and the necessary strength to you vencerdes.
“I chose you to find comfort in you.
Let me, therefore, come into your soul, and if you sell anything that is worthy of me, say with humility and trust:. "Lord, you know the flowers and the fruits of my garden Come and tell me what I should do to let the flower that you desire grow now. "
"To the soul that thus I speak to real desire to give Me proof of your love, I will reply" Alma very expensive if you want that your garden produces a flower that I like, I let the till ... let me till this very land ... let me tear the roots that hinder me and that you do not have courage to take!
"If you ask you sacrifice your tastes or your character ... such an act of charity. Patience or self-denial, such proof of zeal, obedience or mortification, that is the fertilizer that fertilize the soil, allowing it to produce flowers and fruits: the victory you achieve over yourself will give light to a sinner, a bore endured with joy, it will heal the wounds that He has caused me, it will repair the offense and atone for the fault ... An observation accepted with peace and even with joy, will obtain for the souls blinded by pride, the grace to let light penetrate itself and humbly ask forgiveness.
“I will do this in your soul if you leave me free. Then, flowers will grow in it, quickly, and you will be the consolation of my Heart. I am looking for comfort and I want to find it in my chosen Souls ...
"Sir, you know that I was ready to leave Thee to make me all that pleased Thee ... But alas, do not know how I fell and Vos displeased! ... I still forgive him, I who am so miserable and can I do nothing? ...
"- Yes, dearest soul, the very serve your falls to console Me. Do not be discouraged, because the act of humility that the lack forced you to do consoled Me more than if you had not fallen. Courage! Forward ... let Me work on you. ”
"That is all I saw at the time to institute the Holy Eucharist. The inflamed Me Love in the desire to be food of these souls, because if I am with men is not only to live with perfect, but to support the weak and feed the young.
“I will make them grow and strengthen them. I will find solace in your good wishes and rest in your miseries.
“But among those souls, are there not some that will be a cause of suffering for Me? ...
And all persevere? ... This is the cry of pain that escapes from My Heart ... the moan that I want to listen to souls.
“But enough, for today. Bye. Josefa tu me consoles when you give yourself to Me with entire abandonment ... Let me tell you for souls, my secrets, because I can not speak to them every day as well. Let Me enjoy the days of your life. ”
The next morning, Wednesday, March 7, the painful complaint of his love so you hear:
"Humbly kisses the floor." tell him as always, she prostrates herself at His feet and then stands up. Jesus begins to speak:
"Write what suffered my heart at that time it may not contain the logo that consumes me, I invented this wonder of love which is the Eucharist. Then contemplate all the souls that would feed the divine bread, I saw at once the ingratitude of so many consecrated souls ...
so many priests ... and what a sadness for my heart! I have seen that little by little, they had to abandon the routine ... and worse ... the boredom, the boredom and warmth! ...
"And yet I am the tabernacle all night and I hope that soul ... I sincerely hope that I will receive ... that I expose his feathers, his temptations, his sufferings ... that I ask for advice and ask for the grace that you need for yourself or for others. Perhaps she is in charge or in your family of souls in danger and away from Me? ...
“Come, I tell you, speak to Me about everything with complete confidence. Interests you for sinners ... It offers you to repair ... Promise me that today there shall leave me alone ...
"... Then ask if my Heart doesn't want anything more from you to console Him ...
"This is what I hoped that soul and many others ... But to receive Me, I hardly say a word ... is distracted, tired, absorb in the business ... concerned the family .. . near the intrusive ... health ails ... and do not know what I mean ... it is cold, get bored and in a hurry to retire.
“This is how you receive Me. Soul that I chose and that I waited all night? ...
“Yes, I was waiting for her to rest and relieve her worries.
“I had prepared new graces for him; but she did not even want them! ... Nothing I asked nor counsel, nor strength ... complains, but without addressing me! ... It seems that only came to fulfill a formality or custom ... because no serious fault prevents her from coming ... It is not the love that drives her or the true desire to be intimately united with Me. No, this soul does not have the delicacies that my Heart expected of her.
“What about that Priest? Ah! what shall I say what I hope each of my priests ... clothe them with my in order to forgive the souls ... I put me at their disposal Power: I obey your word that made me come down from heaven to Earth! Give Me in their hands, I close down the Tabernacle or to give me communion ...
They are, so to speak, my Dispensers ... I trust them souls in order that the hearing by the direction and above all by the example to guide and lead the path of virtue.
"Does everyone correspond to this Call? ...
“Do they all fulfill their mission of Love?
"Today the altar, my Father knows me trust the souls that took charge? ... Repairing the offenses I receive and that he heard in confession? ... Ask Me strength to fulfill his holy ministry? ... zeal to work for the salvation of souls? ... you will know sacrifice themselves more today than yesterday? I will give me all the love-him hope, and could I stand it as the dear and beloved disciple? ...
“Ah! that sharp pain to my heart when I am forced to say: "The souls of the world hurt Me Hands and Feet and stain Me to Face. But the souls chosen, my wives, my Priests tear and rip my heart ... How many priests after they returned to grace many souls are themselves in a state of sin! ... How well celebrate, so I receive ... live and die like this!
"This was the pain that ran through me when supper when I saw among the Twelve, the first infidel Apostle ... and behind him, so many others, following the centuries! ...
“The Eucharist is the invention of Love. It is life and soul of the Force, remedy for all weaknesses, Viaticum to the passage of time to eternity.
"In it are sinners life for their souls ... the lukewarm, true heat ... ardent, rest and fullness to your wishes, the perfect wings to soar to greater perfection ... pure souls, most sweet honey and the most delicate food ...
"In the Eucharist, consecrated souls find their permanent home, his love and his life.
"Ali also seek the image of the religious vows, sacred and blessed ties that inseparably united to the divine Spouse.
"Yes, consecrated souls, you will find your perfect symbol of poverty Vote in the little round and thin Host, smooth and light.
So it must be the soul that made her vow of poverty no angles, that is, has no petty affections, not the objects that it serves, or the craft exercises or family or country. Always ready to leave, drop, change ... Nothing holds the earth, it is a free heart, no secret attachments ...
“This does not mean, however, that this heart must be insensitive, no! The more you love, the more fully you will know how to keep the Poverty Vow. The key to the religious soul is: First, he has nothing without permission or approval of the Superior; second, nothing have nothing to love without being willing to leave everything, all leave at the first sign.
"Dir thee the rest of Josefa again."
A few more days pass without any relief for his rough path. He often seems to give in to the enemy's objections and is afraid he has offended the Master.
"I even lost a communion" - he writes painfully.
On Sunday in Laetare, March 11, Jesus returned with the assurance of his forgiveness.
“Put my crown on and fear nothing - he says - God's Mercy is infinite and never refuses forgiveness to sinners, especially when it comes to a poor creature like you.”
Then, alluding to the fellowship she had lost:
"If you knew how you expect and how I wish it would hide me in your heart!"
Josefa finds no words to make Him forget that hurt.
"You'll notice - the Lord responds with unspeakable kindness - preparing you today with burning desire to receive me tomorrow.
My Heart will find comfort every time you repeat your wish. And then - he continues - a spirit of faith and blind obedience, always.
“But that's enough. You are already forgiven and my Heart forgets everything. Now continue to write for my Souls.
"Tell them that they can also discover in the little white Host perfect image of the Vow of Chastity. Under the species of bread and wine hides, is there a real Presence of God. Under that veil, I am whole, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
"So the soul consecrated to Jesus Christ for Virginity Vow should be covered with a veil of modesty and simplicity, so that, under human appearances, hide purity similar to the angels.
"And understand: well, souls who form the Court of the Spotless Lamb, the glory that surpasses incomparably well Me dais that I yield the angelic spirits. Because they did not know the weaknesses of human nature and have not had to fight not to win to retain pure.
"I aparentais you also to my Mother, deadly creature, yet pure undefiled; subject to all human miseries, and yet, immaculate in every moment of your life.
“She alone glorified Me more than all the heavenly spirits; and God Himself. attracted by this purity, it was made flesh and dwelt in its creature.
"Moreover, the soul that Me is consecrated by Vow of Chastity becomes like Me your Creator as much as is possible for the creature, for having Me coated human nature with its miseries, lived without the slightest taint of shadow .
"It is so, the Vow of Chastity, the soul becomes pure white Host incessantly giving glory to the Divine Majesty.
"Religious souls ye shall find at last in the Eucharist model for your vow of obedience."
“There, the greatness and power of a God are hidden and annihilated. Here you can contemplate Me as if lifeless, I who am the Life of Souls and Sustainer of the world. Then I am no longer able to go or stay, to be alone or surrounded: Wisdom, Power, Freedom, everything disappears under this ... Host Species bread are ties that linked together Me and the veil that covers Me. Thus the vow of obedience is for the religious soul the chain that holds and the veil under which should disappear in order not to have more nor will or judgment, or choice, or freedom but the good pleasure of God manifested by their superiors. "
Our Lord has, after all, after this long dictation and Josefa let speak the heart.
"In the morning there was the ceremony of First Communion - write - and reminded him of the consolation I should have found in shrines pure and innocent.
The Heart seemed to expand with this memory. ”
"Yes - he answered with kindness - these are souls and souls of my wives who take refuge to forget the sins of the world.
"Children are for my Heart as flower buds that seek shelter. As for my wives, hide me and rest them, because they are open roses defend me with their thorns and console me with your love.
", Josefa, fragílima florinha, give me this love, Prepare to accompany me to Gethsemane.
“There I will teach you to suffer and strengthen you with the blood sweat that the sins of souls have extracted from Me.
“For the time being, console Me with the desire to hide Me in your Heart. You will thus repair lost communion.
"Bye. Do not forget to me. You want me like I wish you ... Love me as I love you ... look for Me as I seek you .., I see that you never abandon.

GETSÉMANI
March 12 - 15, 1923

"... Stay by my side in Gethsemane and let my Blood water and strengthen the root of your smallness."

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 12, 1923.)

The following day, Monday, March 12, Our Lord invites Josephus to Gethsemane. But first he reassures her, because the enemy's threats had multiplied, all through the preceding night, against the communion so fervently desired the day before.
“- Fear nothing - repeat - The devil's power is not above Mine. I am pleased that you call Me and receive so much comfort that every desire in your heart is like a communion for so many souls who do not receive Me.
“Humble yourself, kiss the floor and then come to Me ... go to Gethsemane and fill your soul with the feelings of sadness and bitterness that flooded Mine.
“After I preached to the crowds, healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead ... after having lived three years among my Apostles to train them and teach them my doctrine ... I finally showed them with my example, to love and support each other, to practice charity towards each other, washing their feet and becoming their food.
“The time had come when the Son of God made man, Redeemer of mankind, would shed the Blood and give Life for the world.
“It was then that I wanted to pray to Me and give myself to my Father's Will.
“Dear souls! Learn from your Model that the only thing necessary, whatever the upheavals of nature, is to surrender and humbly sacrifice yourself with a supreme act of the will, to fulfill the Will of God, under any circumstances.
"Also learn from him that every important action must be preceded by prayer and made alive by it, because it is in prayer that the soul reaches strength for difficult times.
“It is through it that God communicates, advises and inspires, even without the soul feeling it.
“I retired to the Garden of Gethsemane, that is, to solitude. Thus the soul must seek its God, far from everything, within itself. In order to find Him, we must impose silence on all the agitations of nature, so often in the struggle against grace. The reasoning of self-love or sensuality must be silenced, which seeks to stifle the inspirations of grace and oppose the encounter with God ...
“I took three of my disciples with me to teach that the three powers of the soul must accompany us in prayer.
“Remember your perfections and the Benefits of your God, your Mercy, your Love, your Power, your Goodness. May your understanding look for ways to respond to so many wonderful graces that it has multiplied for you. May your will be strengthened by the desire to do more and better for Him ... to work for the salvation of souls, whether in apostolic work or in the silence and prayer of a humble and hidden life.
"Submit your will to His ... Adore his designs for you, whatever they may be ... and your whole being prostrate itself as it befits the creature before the Creator ...
“This is how I offered to do the work of the world's Redemption.
“In the same instant I saw all the torments of my Passion fall, slanders and insults ... the scourges and the crown of thorns ... the thirst ... the cross ... all these pains accumulated before the my eyes and at the same time the multitude of offenses, sins and crimes that would be committed over the centuries. Not only did I see them, but I felt_dressed with all these horrors ...
"And under this burden of ignominy, I presented myself to my Blessed Father to beg for Mercy. Then I felt the wrath of an offended and angry God plummeting over Me and offered Me as a guarantor. I, his Son, to placate his wrath and satisfy your Justice.
“But, under the weight of so many crimes, I experienced in my human nature such anguish and so deadly agony that my whole body was covered with a bloody sweat.
“O sinners, who make me suffer like this ... will this Blood give you salvation and life? or will it be lost to you? .., How to express my pain, thinking about this sweat, these anguish, this agony, this blood ... useless for so many souls! ...
We'll stop here today, Josefa. Comfort my Heart! Tomorrow we will continue.
"Bye! Stay by my side in Gethsemane and let my Blood water and fortify the root of your smallness ”.
How, Josefa, after effusions like these, from the Master's Heart, get back into ordinary life?We can see her, however, always the same, working from morning to night. Only an evident grace can keep it present for everything, while carrying the weight of divine confidences within.
On the night of 12 to 13 March, Jesus returns with the Cross. Use the rights confirmed by obedience. And while reminding him of his unworthiness, he entrusts him with the treasure of his union with him.
"Rest. In your smallness" - he says - but I also find comfort and relief in the midst of my Wives, because without them realizing it, I also entrust them with souls that are saved and return to Me! ...
"Guard my cross and tomorrow tell I love you my Secrets! ... ”
The night ends with the usual suffering of diabolic assaults and in the morning Jesus continues his narrative:
“Kiss the floor - recommends, right at the beginning, to your Messenger, because she likes to see it small at your feet.
- It is not your merits that attract Me, but the love of souls.
Yes - Jesus continues - here I am. I come to reveal to you the feelings of My Heart, but also to rest in your midst. Ah!what joy do souls give to me who know how to receive Me with joy ... because I visit them now to console them, now to seek comfort in them. But they don't always recognize Me, especially when they have to suffer.
“And now let us continue our prayer in Gethsemane.
“Approach Me and when you see Me submerged in an ocean of sadness, come with me to look for the three disciples that I left some distance away.
“I had chosen them to rest at their feet, associating them with my Prayer and my Anguish.
“How can I say what my Heart suffered when, looking for them, I found them asleep? What a grief for those who love, seeing themselves alone and unable to trust theirs! ...
"How many times does my Heart suffer from this pain ... and how many times seeking relief from your chosen Souls, finds them asleep! ...
" In vain do I try to awaken them, uproot themselves and personal concerns, useless and frivolous entertainment ... Very often they respond to Me, with acts, if not with words:
"Now I can't ... I have a lot to do ... I'm very tired ... I need a little rest".
“Then, gently insisting, I say to this soul:
“ Come a moment, come and pray with me, now I need you, do not be afraid to sacrifice this rest for Me, for I will be your reward ... And I receive the same answer !. .. Poor sleeping soul, who cannot watch an hour with me! ...
"Also learn here, dear souls, how useless it is and you will seek relief from the creatures.
Beside them, you will often find nothing but increased suffering, for they are asleep and do not respond to either your expectation or your love.
" then to my prayer, I prostrated myself again, I adored the Father and I begged Him for help ...
I did not say: “My God” but My Father ". When your heart suffers more, you must also call God your Father. I help you, exposing your sufferings ... your fears ... your desires ... and, with the groans of your pain, remind Him that you are his daughter.
"Tell him that your body is exhausted ...
that your heart is oppressed to death ... that your soul seems to experience the sweat of blood ... Pray with the confidence of a daughter and expect everything from your Father. He himself will comfort you and give you the strength necessary to cross the tribulation or suffering, be it yours or the souls entrusted to you.
My sad and helpless soul was going to suffer an even more deadly anguish, because under the weight of the iniquities of men and in exchange for so much suffering and so much love I only saw outrages and ingratitude.
“The blood that flowed through all my pores and that would soon flow from all my wounds would be useless for many souls ... many would be lost ... others, in greater numbers, would offend me ... and great crowds wouldn't even know Me. I would shed my blood for all and my merits would be offered to each one ... divine blood! Infinite merits! .., useless however for so many souls! ...
"Yes, for all I would shed my Blood and they would all be loved with great Love ... But for some how much more tender, more delicate, more ardent this love would be ... From these chosen souls I expected more comfort and love, more generosity and selflessness ... in a word, more correspondence to my Kindnesses ... Alas, how many I saw, at that moment, turn away from Me ... close one ear to my voice ... others hear it without following it. .. others, correspond for a while, with some generosity, to the Appeal of my Heart, then fall asleep little by little, and one day they come to tell me about their works: “I have worked a lot ... I have been faithful to the details of my obligations ... I dominated my nature ... I lived in selflessness ... now I need a little more freedom, I am no longer a child ... So many privations.,., so much vigilance,they are no longer necessary ... well I can drop such a thing that bothers me ... etc.
"Poor soul! Do you start to fall asleep? ...
Soon I will return and, in your sleep, you will not hear me! ... I will come to offer you my Grace and you will not receive it ... Will you ever have the strength to wake up ?. ..
It is not to fear that, having been without food for a long time, you will weaken and you will no longer be able to get out of your lethargy ...
Souls that I love, know that many were surprised by death in the midst of a deep sleep! ...
Where and how did they wake up? ... all this was before my eyes and my heart. what to do? ... refuse?
ask the father to deliver me from this anguish? ... represent the futility of my sacrifice for so many souls ? ... No! I submitted myself again to your most holy Will, I accepted the Chalice to exhaust it to the end.
“So I proceeded to teach you not to back down in the face of suffering. Never consider it useless, even if you do not see its result; submit your judgment and let the divine Will work and be fulfilled in you.
“I did not want to retreat or flee and, knowing that there, in that Garden, the enemies would come to arrest Me, from there I did not step foot.
“Tomorrow we will continue, Josefa. Stay at my disposal, so that I can find you awake if I need you ”.
An hour passed in the silence of the small cell.
Josefa, always on her knees, had written endlessly, stopped.
finally, and the Master
looks down on her: "Kiss my Feet - he says - and stay in my Peace.
I am always with you, even when you do not see Me".
He disappears, but not for long, and on the morning of Wednesday, March 14, without any preamble, he continues:
After being comforted by my Father's Envoy, I saw that Judas, one of my twelve Apostles, was approaching and behind him came those who would take over Me.
“They were armed with sticks and stones, they brought chains and ropes to hold and tie me.
“I got up and went to meet them, said,“ Who are you looking for? ”
“Then Judas, putting his hands on my shoulders, kissed Me! Ah!Judas, what are you doing and what does this kiss mean?
“How many souls cannot I say, too.
“What are you doing? Why do you betray me with a kiss? ”
“Soul that I love, that you have just received from Me, that repeats the protests of your love to Me ... as soon as you leave my presence, then give Me to my enemies ... You know that in this meeting that attracts you, there are conversations that Me they hurt and you, who received Me in the morning and you will receive Me perhaps the next day, lose the precious whiteness of My Grace there! ...
"Why do you carry on this business that blackens your hands? ... I will say the other: No do you know that it is not lawful how you acquire that fortune, how you rise to that position and how you seek that well-being? ...
“You receive Me and kiss me like Judas ... then, a few moments later, or at most, a few hours later, you are the one who gives the signal to my enemies to recognize me and take over Me!
“I also address you, Christian soul, who betray Me with this dangerous friendship. Not only am I chained and stoned, but you cause another to betray me as well. Why do you give Me this way? ... you who know Me! and that more than once you have gloryed in your piety and your charity? ... You could undoubtedly reap great merit with them, but in reality, what are they but a veil that covers your malice? ...
“Friend, why did you come? ... Judas! with a kiss you betrayed the Son of God, your Master and your Lord! He who loves you and is ready to forgive you yet! ... you, one of my Twelve! ... one of those who sat at my table and to whom I washed my feet myself.
“How many times can and should I speak to the souls most dear to my Heart! ...
“ Dear soul! Why do you let yourself be dragged by that passion? ... Why do you leave it free? ...
It is not always in your power to get rid of it, but I only ask you to fight it, fight and resist it ... What are the pleasures momentary? ... if not the thirty monies for which Judas sold Me and which only served to perdition?
“How many souls have sold Me and will still sell Me for the base price of a passing treat ... Ah! poor souls! ... Whom do you seek? ... Me? ... This Jesus you know and how loving?
“Let me say this word to you:“ Watch and pray! ”
“Yes, work tirelessly so that your defects and bad inclinations do not become habits.
“The grass in the fields must be harvested every year and even every season. It is necessary to plow the land to fortify and uproot it; weeds incessantly.
“In the same way, the soul must watch carefully straighten out its defective tendencies.
It is not always a serious fault that paves the way for worse disorders. The starting point of the biggest falls is often little: a small enjoyment, a moment of weakness, a consent, perhaps lawful, but little mortified, a legitimate pleasure in itself, but that does not suit ...
"All this increasing and multiplying -the soul is falling into blindness, grace is less prevalent, passion is strengthened and ultimately triumphs!
“Ah! How sad it is for the Heart of God, whose Love is infinite, to see so many souls callously close to the abyss!
“Let us stay here today, Josefa. Don't forget - it is not your merits that attract my Heart, but your misery and the compassion I have for you. ”
The next night is already early when Josefa wakes up to the Master's Appeal. He brings her the Cross, as he had agreed with her, and says only the following:
“Take the Cross and fear nothing. You will never surpass your strength, because I measured it and weighed it in the balance of Love. Ah!you know how much I love you and how much I love souls ... It is for them that I use you, for although you are very small and of little value, I use your smallness keeping you united to My Merits and my Heart.
"Stay with Queen Cruz and suffer for souls for the sake of Me."
The nocturnal suffering, as dear to the Heart of Jesus as to that of Josefa, continues until dawn. This is how the Lord prepares the meeting that he will not miss for many days in a row.
On Thursday, March 15, feast of the Five Wounds, as soon as she arrives at her cell, the Lord approaches:
“Kiss the floor and humble yourself”.
It is the act, which, on each visit, must place it between the divine Hands.
“I told you, Josefa, like the souls that seriously offend Me, deliver Me to their enemies, so that they may lead Me to death, or rather, they become enemies and the weapon they use against Me is sin .
"However, these are not always great falls ... There are also souls and souls of choice, who betray Me for their habitual faults, their uncontrolled evil inclinations ... their indulgence with immortified nature, their faults in charity ... of obedience ... of silence etc ... And if my Heart suffers from the sins and ingratitude of the world, how much more, if they are offenses from very beloved souls! ... If the kiss of Judas caused me so much pain it was precisely because I was one of my twelve and that from him, as from the others, I expected more love, more comfort, more delicacy!
“O you, who have chosen me as my resting place and garden of my delights, I also expect much more love, tenderness, delicacy from you than others that are not so intimately united to me!…
“ Be the balm that heals the my Wounds, wipe my stained and disfigured Face ... help Me to enlighten blind souls who, in the darkness of the night, arrest and tie Me to lead Me to death.
“Do not leave Me alone ... Wake up and come, because my enemies are approaching! ... When the soldiers advanced to arrest Me, I said to them:
"It's me! It is the word that I repeat to the soul about danger and temptation: "Yes, I am. It is I!" You come to betray Me and deliver me ". "Does not matter! Come then, I am your Father and if you want, you are still in time: I will forgive you ... And instead of tying Me up with your sins, I will be the one who will bind you with the bonds of my Love.
“Come, I am the One who loves you. He who shed all the Blood for you! ... I have compassion for your weakness and I await you with a burning desire to welcome you into my arms!, ..
"Come, soul of my wife, of my Priest ... I am the Infinite mercy, I will not punish you ... I will not repel you ... but I will open my heart to you and love you with even more tenderness ... I will
wash your stains in the Blood of my Wounds.
Your recovered beauty will cause admiration to heaven and my Heart will rest in you.
“Ah! what sadness, when after such an appeal to blind and ungrateful souls, they call me and lead me to death.
"After giving me the kiss of betrayal, Judas left the Garden, and understanding the scope of his crime, he fell into despair.
" Who will be able to calculate my pain when I saw my Apostle run to eternal perdition? ...
" The hour had sounded and, giving the soldiers complete freedom, I handed
myself over with lamb docility. “They immediately dragged me to Caifaz's house, where I was met with mockery and insults, where one of the servants gave me the first slap!
“The first slap! ... Understand this well, Josefa; Did it make me suffer more than the blows of the flagellation? ... No, but in this first slap I saw the first mortal sin of so many souls that had lived until then in my grace ....
"And then, from the first .. how many others! ... and how many souls, dragged by example to the same danger! ... Perhaps to the same disgrace: to the disgrace of dying in sin! ...
"Tomorrow, we will continue. While you wait, you spend the day repairing and praying, so that many souls will understand where the path they are following leads them ”.
The coming of the Blessed Virgin and the gift of precious drops of blood whose story has already been told above, completed the feast of the Five Wounds. However, that afternoon, Maria does not linger close to her daughter and, responding to a timidly expressed desire, says:
"I will come back and then you will ask Me whatever you want".

THE ABANDONMENT OF HIS
MARCH 16, 1923.

"I will make my complaint heard to the Apostles of that time, to the Souls elected by the bell."

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 16, 1923)

On the morning of Friday, March 16, the Lord precedes his Mother and Josefa thanks him for the remarkable favor of the day before.
“If you are faithful in loving Me,” he replies, “am I not going to be unfaithful in comforting you? I prepare you another proof of love. Yesterday you received a few drops of the Blood from my Heart, Josefa today you will participate in the pain of my Carnations ...
I will also leave you my Cross so that you may carry it throughout the day and that your Love may console me. I will support you, because I never cease to love you. See how much evidence I give you. I will give you even more, until the day I take you to heaven with me.
“Now continue to write for my souls:
'My Apostles abandoned me ... Only Peter, driven by curiosity, disguised himself among the servants.
“Around Me only false witnesses who accumulated lies about lies to lift the anger of the wicked judges. The same lips that once acclaimed my miracles, today become my accusers. They call Me disturbing, Sabbath defiler, false prophet, and the soldiery excited by these slanders utters screams and threats against Me.
“Here I will make an appeal to my Apostles then, to my chosen Souls today.
Where you were, Apostles and Disciples, witnesses of my Life; of my Teachings, of my Miracles? ... Ouch! of all those who owed me some proof of love, none is there to defend Me. I am alone, accused of the most abominable crimes surrounded by soldiers who, like voracious wolves, want to devour Me ... everyone mistreats Me ... one hits Me in the Face ... another spits on me his filthy saliva, that Other exposes Me to scorn! ...
"While my Heart offers itself to all these torments to free souls from the slavery of sin; Peter, constituted by Me, Head of the Church .. Peter who a few hours before had promised to follow Me to death ... Peter who has occasion - To testify about Me, he answers a simple question with a denial, and as the question is repeated and the fear grips him more and more, he swears that he never knew Me and that he had never been my Disciple! ...
"Ah! Peter, you swear that you don't know your Master! ... And not only do you swear, but for the third time you deny Him with horrible curses ...
Chosen souls. Did you think how painful it is for my Heart that burns and consumes Love to be disowned by His own? When the world revolts against Me and that so many souls despise Me ... They mistreat me, and they try to kill Me and that, turning to My Heart, only finds isolation and abandonment ... What sadness and bitterness.
“To you, as to Peter, I will say: Have you forgotten the proofs of Love that you have given ... the bonds that bind you to Me ... the promises with which you so often protested fidelity in defending Me to Death?
“If you are weak and fear giving in to human respect, come and ask Me for strength to win. Do not lean on yourselves, but turn to Me with confidence and I will support you.
“If you live in the middle of the world, surrounded by dangers and occasions of sin, do not voluntarily expose yourself to danger. Would Pedro have succumbed if, bravely resisting, he had not given in to vain curiosity? ...
“And you, who work in my Seara or in my Vineyard, if, at any time, you feel drawn to action by human satisfaction: run away.
But if you work purely out of obedience for my Glory and the salvation of souls, fear nothing: I will defend you and you will pass victoriously through danger.
“While the soldiers were leading me to the prison, I saw Pedro among the servants and my eyes looked at him. He looked at Me and wept bitterly for his sin.
“This is how I fix my eyes on the guilty soul. But will she ... ... look at Me? And will our eyes always meet? ... Ouch!
How many times does My vain seek hers! ...
The soul does not go from Me, it is blind! ... I insist sweetly, it does not hear Me! I call her by name, she doesn’t answer me ... I try to wake her up with some tribulation, she doesn’t wake up from her sleep ...
“Souls that I love, if you don’t look to heaven anymore, you will be on this earth as beings deprived of reason . Lift your head to your end ... to the homeland that awaits you. Seek out your God and you will always find Him with your eyes fixed on You, ... and in His Gaze, Peace and Life!
“Let's stop here, today; Josefa: tomorrow we will continue.
“Stay with My Cross and console Me. ”They drained three weeks after Our Lord began to reveal to Josephus the secrets of the Passion for souls.
You associate it with your feelings with such strength that it permeates your whole life and nothing can distract you. She goes, comes, works, dedicates herself, prays, without her soul leaving a single moment the memory of those pains that are imprinted on her every morning.
The nights of reparation are interspersed in her usual oblation, constantly reminding her that she was chosen, not only to convey a Message to souls, but to cooperate effectively in their salvation. Our Lord inscribes on each page of his life the unity of his mission under the double aspect, of victim and Apostle, this is the true meaning of his vocation.
On the same day, March 18, the Blessed Virgin, responding to the desire expressed the day before 'brings Josefa a new testimony of her maternal love.
“Did you want to ask for something? - says kindly, approaching in the evening, while Josefa sewed - “what do you want?
Josefa wanted to know how to pray to Jesus in the most pleasant way to her Heart.
"I will teach you - answers the divine Mother - Go up to your cell and write there."
As soon as she arrives, Our Lady approaches herself:
“What most pleases my Son - she says to begin with - is love and humility. He therefore writes:
“O sweetest and most lovable Jesus, if you were not my Savior I would not dare to come to You!
But you are my Savior and my Spouse and your Heart loves me with the most tender and the most ardent love, as no heart would be able to love.
“I would like to respond to the love you have for me, I would like to have for You, who are my only Love, all the ardor of the seraphim, the purity of angels and virgins, the sanctity of the blessed who possess You and glorify You in heaven .
“If I could offer you all this, it would be little to praise Goodness and your Mercy. That is why I present My poor heart as it is, with all its miseries, weaknesses and good wishes. I deign to purify it in the blood of your Heart, to transform it, to burn it with pure and burning love.
“Then the poor creature that I am, incapable of any good, capable of all evil, will love and glorify you like the most ardent seraphim in heaven.
“I ask you, finally, sweetest Jesus, to give my soul the very sanctity of your Heart or rather, immerse it in your divine Heart, so that in it I love You. Serve you, glorify You and lose me in it for all eternity!
“I ask you for this grace for all the people I love! ... May they surrender to You, for me, the glory and honor that my offenses' have deprived You! ...”
So Josefa is fretful and asks the 'A very good mother, a Jaculatory prayer that she can multiply in the middle of her work:
“Repeat these words to him that he will like:
"O my Spouse, who are also my God, make my heart a flame of pure love for You."
“And every night, before falling asleep,” she continues. - repeat the following prayer to him with great respect and confidence:
“You who knew my misery before you fixed your eyes on me; you did not turn your gaze away from this misery! ... but because of it, you loved me with even more tender and delicate love.
"I ask your forgiveness, for having so poorly responded to your Love today" ... I beg you to forgive me and purify my actions in your divine Blood. It weighs me painfully that I have offended you because you are infinitely Holy. of the soul and I promise you to do everything possible to not fall into the same faults again.
"Then, daughter, you can give yourself to rest, with tranquility and joy."
One day, Our Lord will respond to his Mother's delicacy. It is advisable to anticipate August 26, 1923 to complete the narrative of this divine Condescension:
“Josefa - Jesus will say that afternoon - is it true that you want some words that please my Mother? what I am going to say to you:
“And with a fiery and inflamed voice, even enthusiastic - she observes - she said the following prayer:
“ O tender and loving Mother, most prudent Virgin, who are Mother of the Redeemer, I come to greet You this day with love more filial with which You can love a daughter's heart.
“Yes, I am your daughter and, since my impotence is so great, I will take the ardor of the heart of your divine Son: with him, I will greet You as the purest of creatures, because you were formed according to the desires and attractions of God three Holy times!
Conceived without the stain of original sin without any corruption, you were always faithful to the movements of grace and your soul was accumulating so many merits that it rose above all creatures.
“Chosen for the Mother of Jesus Christ, You kept Him as a most pure sanctuary and the One who came to give life to souls took Himself life in You and from You received nourishment.
“O incomparable Virgin! Immaculate Virgin! Admired by angels and saints, you are the joy of heaven!
"Morning star, Spring flowering rose, White lily, Slender and graceful iris, Fragrant violet, Garden cultivated and reserved, for the delights of the King of heaven!
" ! You are my Mother, Refuge of sinners! I greet and rejoice at the sight of so many gifts that the Almighty made You and so many prerogatives with which You crowned You.
Be blessed and praised, Mother of my Redeemer, Mother of the poor sinners. Have mercy on us and cover us with your maternal protection.
“I greet you in the name of all men, all saints and all angels.
“I would like to love You with the love and ardor of the most ardent seraphim, and since this is still not enough to satisfy my desires, I greet and love You through your divine Son and the sanctity of the adorable Trinity. And it is through the divine Persons that I bless you and wish to yield to you eternally constant and pure filial praise.
“O incomparable Virgin! bless me, for I am your daughter ... Bless all men!
Protect them, pray for them to the Almighty that nothing can refuse You.
“Goodbye, tender and dear Mother! I greet you day and night during time and eternity! ”
Now, Josefa, praise the Mother with the words of the Son and the Son with the words of the Mother. ”
"Never - Josefa will say - had I seen your Heart so beautiful, nor heard your Voice so full of enthusiasm."

FROM PRISON TO FLAGELATION
March 17 - 21, 1923

"Look at my Wounds and see if there is anyone who has suffered so much to prove your love to you! ..."

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 21, 1923)

Twenty-two years ago today - writes Josefa on Saturday, March 17, 1923 - that Jesus, let me hear his Voice for the first time when I was preparing to go to the first communion.
“I told him about this memory during Thanksgiving, when, suddenly, it came very beautiful! His tunic looked like gold and his heart was so hot that I can't explain it! ”
"Josefa, I was already saying to you:" I want you to be all mine. " Today I can tell you: "you are all Mine." I used to prepare you to attract you to my Heart. Now you are trapped in this Heart.
Come, enter ... and rest in it, it is your home ”.
Then your Heart opens and Josefa enters! ...
"It was like in heaven - she writes - I thought I would not come here on earth anymore." These ineffable moments last bit and every time what she relishes them the strength and peace already know it's a rest between two journeys; This is the divine order. A few hours later she is at her post and Jesus approaches to guide her; further along the path of his sufferings:
"Behold Me in prison where I spent much of the night. There came the insult Me soldiers in word and deed, mocking me, outraging Me, hitting me on the head and on my body.
“Fed up with Me, they left Me alone and bound, in a damp and dark place. They gave me a stone per seat where my aching body felt numb from the cold. Let us compare prison here with the hearts of those who receive Me.
“In prison, I spent only part of the night. But in the tabernacle ... how many days, how many nights?
“In prison I was insulted and mistreated by the soldiers who were my enemies. In the tabernacle ... "How many times am not by souls who call Me Father ... but do not behave like children! ...
"In prison, I suffered cold and sleep, hunger and thirst, sorrow, shame and abandonment! ... And I saw over the centuries, many tabernacles where I miss the shelter of love ... so many hearts ice cream that would be to my body wounded , like the prison stone! ...
"How many days will hope that such soul or such other, come visit me in the tabernacle and receive Me in your heart! ... How many nights spent to wish his coming ... But she lets himself be dominated by their occupations by ... a cakewalk ... for fear of harming the health ... and not come! ...
I am waiting for you to quench my thirst and to console my sorrow, dear soul, and did not come!
"How many times do I have hunger of men ... from their allegiance ... to their generosity, they will know .. placate this burning hunger with that little victory over themselves, or that light mortification? Know relieve my sadness with their tenderness and compassion? ... know when he comes a more painful time to nature ... when they have to endure any suffering ... forgetfulness ... contempt ... a heart hurt or family ... tell me the soul of the background: "This will be to soothe your sorrow, to accompany You in your solitude."
"... Ah! if they knew join me, that peace would cross the difficulty ... as his soul would fortified there ... and how my heart would be comforted and relieved ... "
"In many prison uttered obscene words against me I had to cover confusion ... and the pain increased even reminding me that such words would fall a day of beloved lips!
"And while those filthy hands unloaded blows and slaps on my body, I saw me beaten and slapped the souls who receive Me without delicacy and Me acabrunhariam under repeated blows usual and consenting sins! ...
Then, when I pushed and I dropped to the ground, bound and helpless ... I saw fines souls prefer to Me their satisfactions and acorrentarem Me for their ingratitude, repel me and renew my painful fall prolonging my solitude ...
"O chosen souls, come forth unto your spouse in prison ... behold Him during this night of suffering ... and seal to extend the solitude of so many tabernacles and the coldness of so many souls! ...
"Will you ... give me proof of your Love? ...
Leave your heart to me to make my prison out of it ...
“Tie Me with the chains of your love.
"Cover Me with your delicacies ...
"Satisfy my hunger with your generosity ...
"Give me a drink with your zeal ...
“Comfort my sadness with the fidelity of your company.
"Take me this painful confusion with your purity and your right intention ...
"If ye that I rest in you, prepare me a bed with your acts of mortification ...
Submit your imagination and Be calm the riots of your passions. Then, in the silence of your soul, quiet sleep and you shall hear my voice saying softly:
"O my wife that now are my rest, I will be your eternity! ... Because, with devotion and love, I kept in the prison of your heart, my reward will have no limits ... and you never regret the sacrifices you made for me during your life! ...
“Let us stop here, Josefa, let Me spend today in the prison of your soul. There is her silence to hearken to my words and answering the wishes that I trust you. " Seep three days after this contemplation, not without bringing the grace of Josefa tribulations with which company will do the divine prisoner. She is unaware of this role that would appear, a priori, to be destined to only provide her with consolations.
But love required by the Master must always be the strong love that feeds with struggles, suffering and humiliation:
"It's good - you said once the Blessed Virgin - to love without the knowledge or you feel."
And the great lesson given throughout this story, Jesus and his Mother, to souls chosen in order to make them instruments of Misericórdia- infinite and redeeming love.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 20, while extending clothes in the yard, Josefa suddenly find our Lord that the tape with compassion:
"Go up to your cell - say - I want you to write." As soon as he arrives, Jesus appears. She wears the crown of thorns on her head and she begs him to give it to her.
"Yes, I give it to you with love ... Take it and we will write to my soul:
"Having spent most of the night in the damp prison, dark and filthy ... after having endured the insults and jeering servants curious about what would happen ... when I have my body was exhausted with so many torments listening Josefa, the burning desires of my Heart: what consumed Me with love and enlivened in me a new thirst for pain was the thought of many souls that I would later attract to follow in my footsteps.
-I saw them as faithful imitators of my heart, learning from me, not just gentleness, patience and serene acceptance of suffering and contempt, but by the love of those who persecute.
"I saw them come to the point of sacrifice for them, as I myself Me sacrificed for the salvation of those who abused me ...
"I saw them, supported by my Grace, respond to the divine call, embrace the state of perfection, immerse themselves in solitude, tie themselves-they same with love chains, forsake all who loved legitimately bear with courage the revolts of their very nature, allow themselves to be judge, accepting contempt, defamation and even being taken for mad! ... and keep after all, his heart closely united to their God and Lord.
"So, in the midst of outrages and infamous treatments, Love Me consumed in desires to fulfill the Will of the Father and my heart closely united to Him in times of loneliness and pain, offered to repair his glory. Also, religious souls who continue in prison chosen by Love and, more than once, ye shall the eyes of the creatures, as useless and perhaps harmful ... fear not: in times of loneliness and pain let rebel the world against you ... Unite your heart more closely to God, the only Object of your love, and repair his Glory outraged by so many sins!
“At dawn the next day, Caifaz ordered me to be taken to Pilate to pronounce the death sentence against Me.
“Pilate wisely interrogated Me, hoping to discover a real reason for condemnation, but, finding none, he immediately felt his conscience disturbed at the sight of the injustice he was about to commit. Then, to get rid of Me, he sent Me to lead Herod.
“Pilate is the type of soul who, swayed between the impulses of grace and those of passions, allows himself to be dominated by human respect and excessive love for himself. Do they find themselves in the face of temptation or a dangerous occasion? ... they voluntarily become blind and reason until they are persuaded that there is no harm or danger in it ... that they have enough judgment to decide, and do not need advice. .. They are afraid to look ridiculous in the eyes of the world ... they lack the energy to overcome themselves and, passing by the grace, they fall from one occasion to another and end up, like Pilate, surrendering Me to Herod.
“When you are a religious soul, there will perhaps be no occasion for serious offense. But in order to resist, one would have to accept humiliation, endure a setback ... And if, far from obeying the movement of grace and loyally discovering his temptation, the soul consults its own reason and convinces itself that there is no reason to withdraw such danger or refusing such satisfaction, she will soon fall into greater danger ...
"Like Pilate, she will blind her own eyes, she will lose the courage to act righteously and, little by little, if not quickly, she too will deliver Me to Herod."
Jesus stopped and, addressing Josefa:
“Stay in my Peace and in the feeling of your misery and your nothingness - he said. So little is enough to shake you! ... But fear nothing; my Mercy and my Love are infinitely greater than your misery, and your weakness will never exceed my Strength. ”
Such is certainly the doctrine that Our Lord will never tire of repeating. It is because He wants, through her, to make her understand the souls whose humble trust and courageous will enchant and attract her Heart.
He does not delay in proving to him that nothing can create obstacles to his Plans and that Josefa's weakness never gets in the way for just an instant.
At eleven o'clock at night he comes. It was one of the chosen nights, but he did not bring his Cross ... which worries Josefa because - she says - it is always with the Cross that He comes during the night and the Mothers only gave me leave to wait for Him to console Him ... I also do not want my rest, but his. "
Jesus read it all in his soul. He likes these simple and true protests of the love he knows well.
"Don't be afraid - he says - wherever I am the Cross accompanies me."
And suddenly Josefa feels the weight on her shoulder. Jesus continues:
"Load it with much respect and love, for the salvation of so many souls in danger."
Then, after a moment of silence, which he passes in an attitude of intense supplication, he slowly utters the following words to unite it with his Prayer:
“Offer my Eternal Father the torments of my Passion, for the conversion of souls. Tell Him with me:
“O my Father! O Heavenly Father! see the wounds of your Son and deign to receive them so that souls may be open to your grace!
“The nails that pierced your Hands and your Feet, pierce the hardened hearts, your Blood covers them and moves them to repentance.
“The weight of the cross on the shoulders of Jesus, your divine Son, obtain that souls discharge their crimes in the court of penance.
“I offer you, O Heavenly Father! the crown of thorns of your Beloved Son. Because of the pain it has caused you, let souls penetrate with true contraction of their sins.
“I offer you, O my Father! O God of Mercy! the abandonment of your Son on the cross, his thirst and all his torments, so that sinners may find comfort and peace in the pain of their faults.
“Finally, O God full of compassion, in the name of the perseverance with which Jesus Christ, your divine Son, begged you for those who crucified Him, I ask You and I beg You to grant souls the love of neighbor and perseverance in the good .
"And just as the torments of your beloved Son ended in endless Bliss, so also are the sufferings of souls who do penance eternally crowned with the reward of your glory."
“Now, keep my Cross and be united to my Sufferings and constantly present my Father's Wounds to my Father.”
Some moments still elapse and then Jesus disappears, leaving her alone under the Cross.
On the morning of March 21, Passion Wednesday, he returns to the subject of the day before:
“Continue to write, Josefa:
“ I answered nothing to all of Pilate's questions, but when he said to me, are you the King of the Jews? - then with gravity and in the fullness of my responsibility, I replied: “You said it, I am King, but my Kingdom is not of this world!”
“So the soul must respond with energy and generosity, when it presents itself an opportunity to win human respect, to accept some suffering or humiliation that it would be easy to escape.
"No, my kingdom is not of this world!" this is why I am not looking for the favor of men. I am going to my true homeland where rest and happiness awaits me. Here on earth I must not heed the opinion of the world but do my duty faithfully. If I need to go through humiliation and suffering for that, I won't back down; I will hear the voice of grace. If I am not able to do it on my own, I will seek help and ask for advice, because I know that self-love and passion try to blind the soul, to embark on the wrong path. ”
“Pilate, therefore, dominated by human respect and the fear of bearing such responsibility, ordered that they take Me to Herod. This was a wicked man who sought only to satisfy his disordered passions. He rejoiced to see Me appear at his court, hoping to have fun with my Words and my Miracles.
“Consider, dear souls, the repulsion that I experienced in the presence of that addicted man and whose questions, gestures and movements covered me with confusion.
“Pure and virgin souls, come and surround your Spouse. Listen to the false testimonies that are raised against Me ... See the relentless thirst of this crowd that is hungry for scandals and of which I became a plaything.
“Herod expects me to answer your sarcastic questions to justify and defend Me; but my lips are not parted and I keep the deepest silence before him. This silence was the greatest proof I could give him of my dignity. His obscene words did not deserve to meet My most pure ...
“During that time my Heart was intimately united with my Heavenly Father. It consumed Me in a desire to give, for the souls I love so much, my Blood to the last drop. The thought of all souls, who would one day follow Me, won over by my examples and my liberality, ignited Me in love!
“And not only did I rejoice during that terrible interrogation, but I wanted to run at the torment of the Cross!
“After having endured the worst ignominy in the most perfect silence, I let them treat Me like crazy and, covered in a white robe sign of mockery and irritation, amidst the crowd's cries, I was taken again to Pilate's court.
“See how stunned and terrified this man is! He does not know what to do with Me and to see if the thirst of that people who asks for my death calms, orders them to plague Me.
“So does the soul that does not have the courage and generosity to break energetically with the demands of the world, its nature or its passions. Instead of facing the temptation and cutting in the bud, as her conscience asks, what she knows does not come from the good spirit, now she gives in to a small whim, now she gives herself some slight satisfaction ... If she tries to overcome if, at one point, he capitulates to another that would cost him more effort ... If some desires are mortified, he hesitates at many others where he should, to be faithful to grace or obey the rule deprive himself of much that feeds sensuality and pleases the nature.
It grants itself half of a whim, half of what passion requires, and thus pacifies the remorse of conscience.
“Is it going to be, for example, to publicize a lack that she believes she will discover in the next? It is neither fraternal charity nor desire for good, but a hidden passion, a secret movement of envy that inspires this idea. Grace and conscience then send a cry of alarm within her and prevent her from the spirit that guides her and from the injustice that she will commit. There will certainly be a first moment of struggle in the soul, but the passion that she did not mortify deprives her briefly of light and courage to repel the diabolical idea. So you invent a way to just shut up some of what you know, but not all! and she apologizes to herself:
"You need to know ... I'll just say a word ..."
“That is how you abandon Me, like Pilate to be scourged! Soon, that passion will compel you to finish your work ... Do not think to calm your thirst like this ... Today you have taken a step, tomorrow you will go further! ... And, having given in on a small occasion, the more reason you will give in in the face of grave temptation! ...
"And now, behold, souls dear to my Heart, how I let myself be led with the meekness of a lamb, to the terrible ordeal of the scourging! ...
" Over my Body, ground with blows and broken with tiredness , the executioners unload cruelly, lie whips and whips ... all my bones are shaken with the most terrible pain ... endless wounds they shatter me ...
“From my divine Flesh there are pieces torn by the scourges… Blood gushes from all my limbs and soon I am reduced to such a pitiful state that I no longer look like a man.
“Ah! How can you contemplate Me in this ocean of bitterness without your heart being sorry for Me?
“It does not belong to the executioners to console Me ... but to you, chosen souls to relieve my Pain!
"Contemplate my Wounds and see if there are those who have suffered so much to prove their love to you!"
And, addressing Josefa, Jesus continues:
“Contemplate Me in that state of ignominy, Josefa. "
Then he is silent and she looks up at the Master ...
There he is, in front of her, in that pitiful state in which he had been flogged. he keeps it for a long time in the face of painful contemplation as if to impress it forever on his soul.
"Tell me - make the Lord at last - if my Wounds will not give you the strength to overcome and resist temptation?...
" Tell me, if you will not find generosity to sacrifice yourself and give yourself totally to my Will?
“Yes, look at Me, Josefa, and let yourself be guided by grace and the desire to comfort Me in this state of victim.
'“Don't be afraid. Your suffering will never equal Mine and my Grace will assist you in everything that I ask of you.
"Bye! so keep me in your eyes. ” Then the Lord disappears. Josefa remains motionless, with her eyes closed and an unspeakable emotion etched on her face. Impressive silence surrounds her: that was what happened in that tiny cell! Jesus had come to remind souls that "he had not come to laugh", that he had loved them and that his Love is a "terribly serious" love.
Little by little she comes back to herself, tears come from her eyes ... she cannot speak, but she knows that she is nothing more than an instrument of a message, a witness to the excesses of love and that souls are entitled to the Message of this Love without limits ... Take the pen again, and with a still shaking hand write the following:
“It showed itself in the state in which they left Him after the Flagellation, and this vision filled me with so much compassion that it seems to me that from now on I will have the courage to suffer whatever it is until the end of my life.
"No pain will ever come close to your pain ...
“What impressed me most were his Eyes, which are usually so beautiful and whose look speaks so much to my soul ... Today they were closed, very swollen and bloody, especially the right eye. His bloody hair fell over his face, eyes and mouth. I was standing but hunched over and tied to something, but I saw nothing but him. His hands were tied together at waist level and covered in blood, his body ridged with bruises and purple spots, with the veins in his arms swollen and almost black. From the left shoulder hung a piece of meat to stand out and also from several other parts of the Body. The robes were at his feet red with blood. A very tight rope held a piece of cloth so bloody that it couldn't be seen! ”
"I cannot say in what state I saw him ... I don't know how to express it."
The whole day takes place under that inexpressible memory that was marked on his face. Nothing else, however, externally denoted the consuming life of the interior. Who could suspect that on that Wednesday of the Passion, Our Lord deigned to manifest his Wounds to the most ignored of his Wives! ...
"Her divine gaze discerns already, after her, thousands of souls, who will read, in these lines, the proof of infinite Love, and who, awakening their faith in the face of so many pains, will draw, like Josefa, the courage to respond without fear of sacrifice.

OF THE CORONATION OF THORNS
March 22 to 25, 1923

"Souls I love, be aware of the suffering of my Heart."

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 24, 1923).

It had been many days since Our Lady had not intervened on Josefa's path. He then came to bring him the night cross from the 21st to the 22nd of March.
I woke up with a slight noise - Josefa writes - and then I saw her near the bed: bringing the cross against the right arm.
“Yes, daughter, it is I who come to entrust you with the Cross of Jesus. It is necessary to console Him because many souls offend Him! but one mainly floods His Heart with bitterness. ”
And once you have remembered that the first and great means of repair is to let Jesus be free to make it what you want:
"Now, say, guard this precious treasure and pray for souls ..."
The prayer started under the cross continues in the suffering of the infernal abyss where, for some time, each full night it "what is lacking in the Passion of Christ. "
On Thursday, March 22, at nine o'clock in the morning. Our Lord is approaching the moment she was going to leave the cell.
"Kiss the ground - ask - and lets you enter the words that my heart will trust you." Then she falls down and then collects with mild pity the confidences that spring from the divine lips as painful outburst.
“When the executioners got tired of hitting, they braided a crown of thorns, buried it in my Head and paraded before Me saying:“ King, we salute you! ” Some insulted me, others smote me on the head and each added new pain to those who have exhausted my body.
"Contemplate Me, souls who love, condemned by the courts, abandoned to the insults and the desecration of the crowd, delivered to suplicio flogging and, as if all this were not enough to reduce me to the most humiliating condition, crowned with thorns, covered with a purple cloak, hailed as a king of scorn ... and considered crazy! ...
"Yes I who am the Son of God, the Sustainer of the universe, wanted to pass the eyes of men as the last and the most miserable of all.
"Far from escape the humiliation, hugged her to atone for the sins of pride and draw people by my example.
“I allowed my Head to be crowned with thorns and to suffer to repair the sins of so many proud souls who refuse everything that demeans them in the eyes of creatures.
"I consented that I would cover the shoulders with a mantle of scorn and treat me like crazy, so many souls do not turn away from following Me on a path that the world vile and low judges and that seems to them unworthy of their condition.
"No, dear souls, any way, any situation is vile and humiliating when it comes to following God's will.
"You who you inwardly you feel drawn to such a state ... not resist ... not seek, with vain and proud reasons, make the Divine Will wanting to follow at the same time, your own will ... Judge not find peace and happiness in a more or less brilliant condition in the eyes of creatures. There you will find the but in submission to the Will of God and in full compliance with all to ask you ...
"There is also the world many souls who seek to establish here on earth your future ... Maybe one or the other feel inclination or attractive secret by someone discovers many qualities, honesty, faith, piety, professional awareness and understanding of family virtues. .. everything that matches your desire to love ... but suddenly pride invades his mind. Without a doubt the heart would be satisfied that side, but not the vain ambition to shine in the eyes of the world. Then the soul strays to look for someone who best appeals to you the attention of creatures, making it appear outwardly richer and noble ... Oh how this soul is taking willfully blind! ... There you will find surely the happiness you seek in this world and hopefully , after you have gotten yourself into such a dangerous situation, find it in the other!
"And what of so many souls that call to the way of perfection and love, and they do not like to hear my voice! ...
"How many in those illusions that I say they are willing to make me the will and unite to Me ... and yet bury my head the crown of thorns ...
"The souls that desire as wives, know them even the most intimate refolhos heart ... and loving them as love, with the delicacy infinta Attract where I see, in my wisdom, they will find the means to reach to holiness: there uncover them my heart, there they give me more love and more souls ...!
“But, how many resistances and disappointments! ...
How many souls blinded by pride and an exaggerated need for esteem, or the desire to satisfy nature with a petty ambition to become "someone" ... allow themselves to be invaded by vain reasoning and finally refuse to enter the path traced by Love!
"Souls that I had chosen, believe, perhaps, that after your taste, give me behold the glory that you expected? ... believe do my will, resisting my grace that calls you to this path that repels your pride? ...
“Ah! wish multiplicasses today acts of humility and submission to the divine will, for many souls will be guided on the path that I prepare them with so much love!
"Tomorrow we will insist on this essential point again."
On the morning of March 23, Friday of the Passion, Josefa waits for the Master, but it is slow to come. Sitting in front of the table where the notebook is open, she took the seam. Suddenly Jesus appears:
"Josefa, were you waiting for me?"
"Yes, sir" - she replies.
“I've been here for a long time, but you didn't see me. Kiss the floor and also my feet. We will continue to explain to souls how they are fooled by pride.
"Crowned with thorns and covered with purple robe, the soldiers led me to Pilate, acabrunhando Me at every step, with shouts, insults and mockery ...
"Not believing in me any crime worthy of punishment, Pilate asked me again and asked me why did not answer him, knowing he had all power over Me.
Then, coming out of my silence, I said:
You would have no power if they will be given you from above, but it is necessary to fulfill the Scriptures! " and closing his lips again, I abandoned Me ...
"Pilate troubled by the warning of his wife and bewildered among the remorse of conscience and the fear of seeing the rabble rebel revolt against him, refused my death, introduced me to the crowd at the sorry state that I had reduced and proposed give Me liberty and condemn Barabbas in my place, who was a renowned thief. But the crowd roared in chorus: "Die him! we want him to die and Barrabás to be released! ... ”
"O you who love Me, see how I compared to a thief ... or as I put down the most wicked criminal ... I heard the cries of hate blaring against me, asking for my death.
"Far from avoiding such an affront, by contrast, embraced her for the sake of souls and for your love ...
I wanted to show you that this love not only led me to death but also contempt, the contempt, the hatred of those for whom my blood would be shed in profusion.
"They treated me disturbing, foolish, crazy ... and I accepted it with the greatest sweetness and the deepest humility.
"Do not believe that but then stopped feeling disgust and pain ... On the contrary, I wanted my human nature to experience all that yourselves experimental, so that my example fortify you in all circumstances of your life. Also, when sounded to me that time most painful that I could so easily avoid, I hugged her lovingly to fulfill the Will of the Father ... repair his glory ... atone for the sins of the world and buy the salvation of many souls.
"Let us return to the souls that I spoke yesterday ... those souls called to the state of perfection and that often, however discuss with the voice of my Grace and thus respond to you:
"How resign myself to live in this still dark ... My family, my friends they will judge me ridiculous ... because I have capacity, and would be more useful elsewhere, etc ..."
"To these souls I will answer:" When I had to be born poor and ignorant parents ... away from my land and my house ... ... in a stable during the roughest season, the coldest hour and more dark night ... refused? did I falter?
"For thirty years I have known the rough work of the working life.I suffered with my father, São José, the contempt of those for whom I worked ... I did not find it unworthy of Me to help my Mother in the care of the poor home ... And in the meantime, I had no more talent than necessary to perform the job. modest craft of carpenter? I, who, at the age of twelve, had instructed doctors in the Temple? It was, however, that Will of my Heavenly Father, and that was how I could best glory Him ...
“From the beginning of my public life I could have made myself known by Messiah and Son of God to dominate the crowds and make them attentive to my teachings. I did not do it because my only desire was to fulfill my Father's Will in everything.
“And when the time came for my Passion, in the midst of the cruelty of some and the affront of others, the abandonment of Mine, the ingratitude of the people ... in the midst of the unspeakable martyrdom of my Body and the vivid disgust of my human nature , it was with even more love that my Heart embraced that Holy Will.
“And know, chosen Souls, that when you dominate natural disgust ... the opposition of your families, etc. ... the judgments of the world ... when you generously surrender yourself to the Will of God, then the time will come when, closely united with the Divine Spouse, you will enjoy the most ineffable sweetness.
“What I say to souls who are disgusted by the humble and hidden life, I repeat it also to those who, conversely, are called to lavish their lives at the service of the world, when their attractions would lead them to loneliness and obscurity.
“Understand, dear souls; to live known or unknown to men, to use or not the talents received ... to be little or highly esteemed ... to enjoy health or not ... none of this constitutes, in itself, your happiness ... You know the only thing that will you guarantee it? ... do the Will of God, embrace it with love, unite and conform you with all that it requires for your Glory, and for your sanctification ...
Let us stop here, Josefa; tomorrow we will continue. Love and joyfully embrace my Will, because you know that in everything it was traced by Love. ”
That same afternoon Josefa humbly confesses that this Master's recommendation was not useless. He wants her to obtain, with her own victory over nature's disgust, similar grace for many souls who need her. A great lesson that we learn from the following confidence made by his humility:
“I feel in myself, again, against this extraordinary kind of life, a kind of revolt that takes away my peace, because I wanted to work so much.”
Our Lord, however, ignores this revulsion, which cannot hinder either his Will or Josefa's and the very next morning, Saturday of the Passion, March 24, he is punctual to the meeting:
“Let us take care of my Passion. "
She says, as if to pull it out of itself. Is this not the means of excellence that love offers souls to forget themselves?
“Meditate for a moment on the suffering of my most tender and delicate Heart, when he found himself placed below Barabbas ... seeing me thus despised. I was pierced in the most intimate of the soul by the screams of the crowd that claimed my Death! How I remembered my mother's tenderness when I was close to my heart ... the tiredness and care that my adoptive Father had endured for my Love! ...
“How did he pass on the benefits so lavishly poured out on these people ... the sight of the blind ... health for the sick ... the crowds fed in the desert ... the dead themselves raised ... And now contemplate Me reduced to most despicable state ... object, more than any other of the hatred of men ... and condemned like an infamous thief! ... The crowd asks for my death, and Pilate pronounced the sentence! ...
"Souls I love, consider carefully the suffering of my Heart!
“After having betrayed Me in Horto das Oliveiras, Judas walked errant and fugitive without being able to drown out the motorcycles of his conscience that accused him of the most horrible sacrilege. When the death sentence pronounced against Me reached his ears, he fell into the most terrible despair and hanged himself.
“Who can understand the immense and profound pain of my Heart when I saw it plunge into eternal perdition, that soul that had spent so many days in the school of my Love ... that had collected my Doctrine ... learned my Lessons and so often heard from my lips fall forgiveness for the greatest sins!
“Ah! Judas, why don't you come and throw yourself at my feet so that I can forgive you too? ... If you don't dare to approach Me, for fear of those around me with such hatred, at least look at Me!
and soon you will find my eyes fixed on you.
“You, who are immersed in evil and who have been wandering for more or less time and have fled because of your crimes… if the sins you are guilty of have hardened and blinded your heart; if, in order to satisfy your passions, you have fallen into the worst scandals ... ah! when your soul recognizes your state, and the motives or accomplices of your faults leave you, do not let despair come over you. As long as man has a breath of life, he can still resort to Mercy and beg for forgiveness.
“If you are young and the disorders of your youth have already left you in a state of degradation in the eyes of the world, do not be afraid! ... even if the world treats you as a criminal, it despises you and leaves you ... your God will not allow you to your soul be prey to hell ...
“On the contrary, he desires, and fervently, that you come to him to forgive you- If you do not dare to speak to Him, direct your eyes and the sighs of your heart to him and soon you will see that his kind and paternal Hand leads you to the source of Forgiveness and Life!
“If you have voluntarily spent most of your life in wickedness or indifference and suddenly, as eternity approaches, despair tries to blindfold you ... eh! do not let yourself be deceived, it is still a time of forgiveness! ... Even if you only have one second to live, this second you can buy eternity!
“If your existence, more or less long, has gone into ignorance and error ... if you have been the cause of great evils for men, society and even religion and if for any circumstance you have come to know that you have been wrong ... no let yourself be overwhelmed by the weight of your faults and the evil of which you were an instrument. But let your soul, penetrated by the most regretful, fall into an abyss of trust and run to Him who always awaits you to forgive all the mistakes of your life.
"I will also speak to that soul who lived first in faithful observance of My Law, but which has gradually cooled down to the lukewarmness of a comfortable existence. She has forgotten her own soul, it can be said and also her high aspirations. God asked her more effort, but the usual defects blinded her and fell in the ice of warmth, worse than the sin, for consciousness, deaf and asleep, no longer feels remorse and does not listen more to the voice of God.
"Come one strong shaking that suddenly awakens her: her life then seems useless and empty for eternity ... She has lost countless graces ... and the devil, who does not want to let go of his prey, explores her anguish, plunges her into discouragement, in sadness, in despondency and, little by little, she is submerged in fear and despair.
“Souls I love, do not listen to this cruel enemy. Come quickly to throw yourselves at my feet and, penetrated with living pain, implore mine. Mercy and fear not. I forgive you. Begin your * life of fervor anew, you will recover your lost merits and my Grace will not fail you.
“Is it necessary, at last, to address myself to my chosen ones? There will be someone who has spent long years in the constant practice of the Rule and religious duties ... Yes, a soul that I favored with my graces and instructed with my advice, a soul, long faithful to the voice of grace and divine inspirations .
“Behold, for a small passion, an unavoidable occasion ... a satisfaction granted to nature, a relaxation in the necessary effort ... it gradually cooled down ... it fell into an ordinary life ... then vulgar ... tibia after all ! ... Ah! if, for one reason or another, you get out of your sleep one day, know that at the same moment the devil, envious of your goodness, will assault you in a thousand ways, try to persuade you that it is too late and that everything is useless, it will fear and disgust you to discover the state of your soul ... it will tighten your throat to prevent you from speaking and opening yourself to the light ... it will work to stifle trust and peace in you.
“Listen to my Voice first, telling you what to do: as long as grace touches you and before the fight is waged, run to my Heart; I asked him to pour a drop of his Blood on you. Yes, come to Me! ... You know that I am always in the paternal arms of your Superiors, whoever they may be ... There I am, hidden under the Veil of faith ... lift up that veil and tell Me with all confidence your suffering , your miseries, your falls. Receive my Word with respect and fear nothing for the past; my Heart submerged him in the abyss of grace. The memory of your dumbfounded life will be nothing but a reason to humble yourself and increase your merits and, if you want to give Me a greater proof of love, count on my Forgiveness and believe that your sins will never be able to overcome my infinite Mercy! ...
“Josefa, stay hidden in the abyss of my love and pray that souls let themselves be penetrated by the same feelings. "
The Passion week would end with a painful Call, in which we again discovered the theme and strong compassion of the Heart of Jesus for souls.
A few days had passed since the night of March 21, when Our Lady, carrying the Cross of Jesus, had said to Josefa:
"There are many souls who offend Him but one mainly, floods the Heart with bitterness." Such words never leave you indifferent. The concern of souls is always on the horizon of their prayers, their work and their sufferings. But when she knows that a soul hurts her Master's Heart, she cannot distract her from there and she no longer knows rest.
On Saturday, March 24 at eight thirty in the evening Our Lord appears to him the moment he leaves his cell and detains her, says to him:
"Josefa!"
"She carried the Cross - she writes - her face was sad but full of beauty."
"Do you want to console me for that soul that makes me suffer?"
Prostrate at his feet Josefa offers himself for everything he wants.
"Take my Cross - tell him - and help Me to support your weight."
Then he continues, giving it to her:
“Let us go to Heavenly Father and ask.
Let him give that soul a ray of light to enlighten him and help to ward off danger. Let us present ourselves as intercessors before him so that he may have compassion for that soul ... Let us beg him to help, enlighten, support him so that he does not succumb to temptation.
“Repeat with me these words:
“ O Most Loving Father! Infinitely Good God!
Look at your Son Jesus Christ, who has placed you between your righteousness and the sins of the world, begs your Forgiveness!
"O God of Mercy! pity the human frailty: enlighten astray spirits, lest they let themselves be seduced and dragged ... Give strength to souls so that they repel the scams that the enemy of salvation and return with new vigor to the path of virtue.
"O Eternal Father! look at the sufferings that Jesus Christ, your divine Son, endured during the Passion. See him before You, offered as Victim to obtain souls light and Strength, forgiveness and mercy! "
“Josefa, unite your pain to my Pain, your anguish to my Anguish and present them to my Eternal Father with the merits and sufferings of all righteous souls. Offer Him the pains of my Crown of thorns to atone for the thoughts of that soul.
"Repeat with me still:
"!. O Holy God to whose presence the angels are unworthy to attend forgive all faults that are committed by thoughts and desires
. Receive in expiation of these offenses Head pierced of your divine thorns Son Receive the Blood purest that gushes with such abundance! Purify stained spirits ... Enlighten and illuminate obscured understandings and may the divine Blood be for them Strength, light and life!
“Receive, O Most Holy Father! the sufferings and merits of all souls who, united with the merits and sufferings of Jesus Christ, offer themselves to you, with him and for him, so that you may forgive the world.
“O God of Mercy and Love! Be the strength of the weak, the Light of the blind and the object of love for souls. ”
So a long time passed - writes Josefa - From time to time He was silent the burden of his Cross still weighed on me with the great sufferings of body and soul. He then says:
“Repeat with me:
"God of love! Goodness Father! by the merits, sufferings and supplications of your most loving Son, clarify that soul, so that it has the strength to repel evil and embrace your Will with energy. Do not allow it to cause so great harm to you and to other innocent and pure souls!
The night went on and Jesus added:
"Now, keep my Cross, until that soul knows the truth and lets itself be enveloped and enlightened by the true Light."
"Then he left and I was suffering until morning."
Mysterious sufferings in their intensity! Josefa carries them humbly and courageously united to the Master.
He knows that only He gives them the divine Value that he repairs and the effectiveness that can reach and transform that soul.
All Palm Sunday is spent in these painful pleas and, while she offers herself as a Victim - O wonderful exchange of the Communion of Saints! - Jesus attracts, detaches, touches and takes possession of that soul he loves with such predilection. That afternoon your Heart will tremble with joy at the return of the prodigal son. Heaven will be overjoyed, because on his shoulders the Good Shepherd brings the lost sheep, won back by his Love.

THE HOLY WEEK
March 25 - April 1, 1923

"This is what I expect from you this week: you will adore Me, annihilate yourself and love Me, and all this in a spirit of zeal to get many souls to enter this same path."

(Our Lord to Josefa - March 25, 1923)

While Josefa is in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, on Palm Sunday afternoon. 25th March. Our Lord appears to you. Come and outline the plan for the great Week that will open and will crown the grace of Lent.
“I want, tell him, to devote these few days to worshiping my divine Person outraged by the torments of the Passion. I will keep you constantly in my Presence. I will manifest myself to you, now with the majesty of a God, now with the severity of a Judge and, more often, covered with the wounds and ignominies of the Passion. Thus I will find in your constant adoration, in your profound humility and in your reparations at all times, relief from such sadness and bitterness! ”
A moment later, the threefold manifestation of Jesus takes place before Josephus' eyes: God, Judge, Savior.
“I suddenly saw Him again,” she writes, “always the same, but with such majesty that my soul was overwhelmed by respect and confusion. I wanted to hide, disappear from his Presence! ... and after having renewed the Vows, I begged Him to purify me so that my nothing could withstand the sight of His Greatness. he answered me in a serious and solemn voice:
"Humble yourself before the Majesty of your God and repair the pride of human nature so often rebellious to the rights of its Creator."
So Josefa feels the burden of divine Justice weighing on her soul. Terrified, she prostrates at His Feet, reminding Him, she says, that He is my Savior, my Father and my Husband and that He can consume all my miseries and forgive all my sins. Jesus answered me and his Voice had a tone of kindness and at the same time of authority:
"Yes, you say it well. I am your Savior, your Father and your Spouse and I want to consume your miseries in the burning flame of my Love. But I also want, Josefa, that you understand how much you must humiliate, annihilate, disappear in your will and in all your being so that the Will of God may reign and triumph, not only in you, but in many other souls.
“It is necessary that they recognize their guilt and their misery and that they, too, humble themselves and surrender to the divine Will.
“Here's what I expect from you this week: you will worship Me, and you will annihilate. You will console me and love Me, and all this in a spirit of zeal to get many souls to enter the same path.
"Goodbye, I'll tell you later what I want from you." Thus, holy days emerge in Josefa's attentive soul. The Master will lead you, step by step, on the austere path that you have opened for her and where you will have to follow Him.

MONDAY HOLY: ON THE WAY TO CALVARY
March 26, 1923

“The procession is ahead, on the way to Calvary, Josefa, follow me, still.”

(Our Lord Josefa)

On the morning of Tuesday Saint, Josefa continues in the saying of the Master, the message interrupted the day before.
But first, it requires a delivery act of the divine will and in the silence of the small cell, she repeats the offer that the Lord deigns to teach you.
"My Lord and My God, here I accompanied read your divine Son who, despite my great unworthiness is also my spouse. I submit my will to Your and give myself completely to do or suffer all that Vos dignardes ask Me with the only purpose of giving glory to your infinite Majesty and of cooperating in the salvation and sanctification of souls. Receive in this intention the Merits and the Heart of Jesus Christ, your Son, who is my Savior, my Father and my Spouse. ”
Josefa kisses the ground and takes the feather:
“And now - says Jesus - let us continue the Work.
“Contemplate Me on the way to Calvary, carrying the heavy cross. Look, behind Me, Simon, who helps Me carry it, and considers two things:
"First, that man, though of good will, is a mercenary because if I attached and sharing the burden of my Cross, is to win the agreed amount. So when you feel tired, let outweigh the burden of the cross on my shoulders and that's why I fall twice more on the way.
"Secondly, this man was ordered to help Me carry a part of the cross but not all my Cross. let us come to the sense figured by the two circumstances:
"Simon was ordered, that is, he has right interest in the work to which it is bound.
"So it is with many souls who go after me. Accepted, yes, help me to carry the cross, but always willing to comfort and rest!
Consent to follow me and to this end, embraced the perfect life, without abandoning self-interest that remains their first concern. That is why they falter and drop my Cross when they feel very heavy. Seek mode to suffer as little as possible, calculate their selflessness, avoid certain weariness, certain humiliation, right and work, remembering perhaps with pen they left, try to get at least some pleasures. In a word, there are souls as self-serving, so that selfish, being arranged to follow Me, themselves more than me.
But they do not accept what they can not avoid or strictly forces ... These souls help me to carry little part of my Cross and so, it will get only the indispensable merits for their salvation. But in eternity, you will see how late they were on the way.
“On the contrary, there are other souls, and many, who, moved by the desire for their salvation, but even more so, by the Love of those who suffered for them, decide to follow Me on the path of Calvary. Embrace the perfect life and indulge in my service, not to take part of the cross, but to carry it all whole. Your only purpose is to give Me rest and comfort Me. They offer to all that my Will ask and do not seek but my liking. They do not think, or the reward, not the merits that they can acquire or tiredness, or the suffering that befalls there. Your only desire is to prove your love to Me and comfort my Heart.
"If my Cross is in the form of illness, or hide in a job contrary to their tastes and skills ... be taken forgetting appearances or opposition from the people around them, they will know to recognize it and accept it with all the submission your will is capable of.
"Sometimes, under the great impulse of love for my heart and true zeal for souls, do what they think best in this or that circumstance. But all sorts of punishments and humiliations match your expectation. Then the souls driven purely by love, discover my cross this failure, absolutely love it, abraçam- in and offer for my glory all the humiliation that befalls them.
“Ah! these souls are certainly the leading truly all the weight of my cross, no other interest or other paid but Love! they are the ones that rest my Heart and glorify it.
"Be convinced therefore that if your abnegation and your sufferings are slow to bear fruit or seem sometimes not bear fruit, neither were so vain and useless. One day the harvest will be abundant.
"The soul that truly loves, does not calculate what it does not weigh the suffering. Haggles not toil or work, do not expect reward but looking all that seems to give more glory to God.
“And because you act with loyalty, whatever the outcome; he does not seek to apologize or justify his intentions. And because it acts out of love, their efforts and their grievances will result always in the glory of God. So, do not stir nor restless ... and even less, lose the peace if, at some time to come thwarted and humiliated: the only reason for their actions is love, its only end "!
“These are the souls who do not seek wages and only seek my Comfort, my Rest and my Glory. They are the ones who took my Cross, and carry it with all their weight on their shoulders. ”
Do not expect Jesus to help him, really, under the Cross, these generous hearts who love Him with sincere, loyal, selfless love? ... If he deigned to draw the plan of such cooperation 'so dear to your heart, not was it not to awaken the love of many souls, those that Santa Teresa has defined these terms:
"A soul that you know to be all your ... a soul that surrenders to you, to follow you wherever you should go ... and even death of the Cross ... a settled soul to help Thee to carry your burden without ever leaving you alone to take your weight ”.
This blessed cross, Jesus comes to bring Josefa, when at night the silence surrounding the home of the "Feuillants" and He is in the gallery where you started Holy Hour.
"Josefa, are you here? ... Come and keep me company," she says, handing him the Cross.
"It puts you right next to me to protect me against the outrages and insults that I was victim in presence of Herod.
"Behold the shame and confusion in which I was immersed, heard the words of scorn and derision that man ...
"Give me ceaselessly worship testimony, repair and love.
"Bye! Guard my Cross ... Tomorrow I will prepare you for the great Day of my Love! ” The night ends under diabolical persecution. Our Lord had not taught again the most recognize his Cross and help Him carry it in any respect that presented itself?
She believes in His Love in the midst of all suffering.

WEDNESDAY HOLY: THE CRUCIFIXION
March 28, 1923

“Watch out, Angels from heaven, and you souls who love Me! ...”

(Our Lord Josefa)

On the morning of Holy Wednesday, March 28 is the Calvary the Lord conducts Josefa powders in Si ...
“Kiss the floor,” he says, approaching her in the small cell. - Humble yourself, for you are unworthy to gather my words ... But I love the souls and that's why they come to you quo.
“Behold, we are approaching Calvary. The people acted the while I can hardly walk ... and soon, exhausted with fatigue, I fall for the third time.
“My first fall will give sinners clinging to sin the strength to be converted.

"The second will encourage weak souls blinded by sadness and restlessness to rise up and continue with new zeal the path of virtue ... The third will help the souls to repent in the supreme hour of death.
“We have reached the end of the road. Look how eager these hardened men surround Me ... Some have taken hold of the cross and extend on the ground ... other pluck Me the Robes. My wounds make to open up ... the gushing blood again ...
"Consider, souls who love, what was my shame, seeing me so exposed before the people! ... What a pain to my body and confusion for my soul! ...
"The robe that I had put my mother from my earliest years, so carefully and delicately, and who had grown up with me, cruel ma soldiers tore and cast lots for it ...
Futuroscope the affliction of my holy Mother, contemplating the horrible scene! ... And see that desire would want to get that coat ink in my blood! ...
"It sounded time! ... The executioners me extended on the Cross They grabbed me arms and distended until my hands reach the previously drilled holes in the wood.
"Every shake my head is rocked from side to side and the thorns penetrate more deeply ... I heard the first hammer blow spiking my right hand! Resounds to the depths of the earth ... Hear still: are nailing My left hand ... the heavens tremble, and the angels prostrate themselves before this spectacle ...
"But I keep the most profound silence and no complaint escapes my lips.
"After they had me nailed hands, pull cruelly by my feet, the wounds open ... break up the nerves ... desconjuntam up the bones ...
the pain is intense ... the feet are pierced and my blood bathes the earth!
"Contemplate for a moment these hands and these feet torn and bloodied ... this body covered in wounds ... this head pierced by sharp thorns, dirty dust, awash in sweat and blood!
Admire the silence, patience and conformity with which I accept this cruel suffering.
“Who is the One who suffers like this. Victim of so many ignominy? ... Is Jesus Christ the son of God ... He who made heaven and earth and all that is ... The one who grows the plants and gives life to every being ...
"He who created man and whose infinite power sustains the universe ... There's still, despised, stripped of everything! ... But soon, a multitude of souls run him to imitate Him and follow Him steps ... all abandon: fortune, well-being, honor, family, homeland, to render him Glory and show him the love owed to it.
"And now, stay alert, angels of heaven, and you, souls who love Me! The soldiers will return to Cruz to strike the ends of the nails so that the weight of my Body does not pull them out ... This Sacred Body will give the peace kiss to the earth ...
Then the top of Calvary the most admirable presence of spectacles ... to the entreaties of my mother who, in their impotence, begs mercy of the Heavenly Father, Angels legions came down ... hold my lovely body so that not brushed on earth and not being crushed by the weight of the cross! ...
“And, while the hammer blows resound from east to west, the world trembles, the sky is silent in the strictest silence, all angelic spirits prostrate themselves in worship ... A God nailed to the cross!
"Stop, Josefa! Include your divine Bridegroom extended on the cross! It is no movement ... without honor, without liberty ... everything has been stolen! ...
"No one is apiede and compassion of your pain!
"Do not cease jeers and insults new, new pains are added to the torments that suffers.
“If you really have love for Me, will you not be willing to do anything to become like Me?
“What will you spare yourself to comfort Me? ? .. refuse to something my love ... And now prostrate to the floor and let me tell you a word:
“My Will triumphs in you!
“My love, destroy you!
"Your misery glorify me!"
Josefa is prostrate for a long time with her face to the ground. What would happen between her and the Master? ... To what depths of annihilation do you want to reduce it? ... and to what commitment does he invite her, who never speaks in vain and whose words is an act that his Omnipotence can instantly perform in the soul that offers itself to your action?
When she rose, Jesus was gone. At ten o'clock you head to the Chapel of Works to follow you on the Caminho do Calvário. Jesus awaits her:
"I accompany you - said in the morning - the state in which I thought, when I crossed beneath the cross, the streets of Jerusalem."
"He wore the white robe - she writes -. A red robe dirty blood and torn in several places The crown was buried his forehead ... The face furrowed with grief, bore stains strokes and blood ran down almost congealed.
“He approached me and said:
“Josefa, come and contemplate Me on the painful path of Calvary.
"I love my blood shed and offers Him to the Heavenly Father for the salvation of souls."
She gets up and follows Him. he walks in front of her and stops at each station. She bows down and kisses the ground to worship his blood, then listen to the outpourings of that Sacred Heart. It briefly reminds him of the significance of his pains and sends a cry of love to the souls he calls after himself. (1)

(1) Two days later, on the morning of Good Friday Our Lord will come again and dictate these confidences of the Via Dolorosa thus showing to what extent you want a word is lost.

All morning is spent in that atmosphere of pain and love that Josefa's soul is impregnated with. Could it be otherwise?
And yet, as you have always seen it, as you will see it to the end, it is given over to its daily duty without anything diverting it ... mystery of the divine Force that possesses and handles it at will, in the grace of the present moment.
On Holy Wednesday night, when everything sleeps in the big house, she goes to the podium where she has a license to do Holy Hour. As soon as he kneels, Our Lord appears to him in the splendor of his beauty.
Every sign of pain was gone and his burning heart seems to be engulfed in fire.
“Josefa - he says vehemently - tomorrow is the day of Love! Look at my Heart: you cannot contain the ardor that consumes Him to give, to surrender, to remain in the midst of souls.
Ah!how I hope that He will open your heart, that you will keep Me, and that the fire that devours Mine will strengthen and burn them. ”
"His Heart was expanding in the midst of the flames and it was so beautiful that I cannot explain it - writes Josefa. - I asked him to consume me also with the true Love that never resists Him. He continued:
" Let Me come into you, work in you, consume you and… destroy you so that it is no longer your will that works, but Mine in you.
"Look at how my Love trembles at the sight of all the souls who will receive Me tomorrow, who will leave dominate by divine Action and will be the consolation of my Heart.
“Yes, tomorrow Love will overflow, it will surrender. .. How this thought comforts Me and how this desire devours Me ... Give me to souls ... may they give themselves to Me. You, Josefa, give me all your heart, without fear of your smallness. Let Love possess you and transform you. ”
Saying these words Jesus disappears. The night ends for Josefa in remembrance of the divine ardor in which she measured, once again, the depth of that Heart that loved souls so much! ...

THE GREAT DAY OF LOVE
March 29, 1923

"Love humbles itself ... Love is given! ..."

(Our Lord Josefa)

“Josefa! This is the great Day of Love ...
This is your feast day! ... ”says Our Lord at the dawn of Holy Thursday.
She is in prayer in the cell and sees Him appear suddenly, as the day before, with the Heart wrapped in flames. Renew the Vows and prostrating him adores him.
Jesus continues:
“Yes! Here is the day when I give myself to souls in order to be for them what they want me to be: I will be Father, if they want Me for Father ...
Spore if they want Me as Spouse ... I will become their Strength if you need strength and want to give Me comfort, I will let Me comfort ... My only desire is to give Me and flood you with graces that my Heart prepares for you and that it cannot contain! ... For you, Josefa, what will I be?
"My Everything, Lord, because I have nothing!"
Jesus leans towards her with that divine Simplicity that only He can have:
“You say it well: Jesus, the Everything of Josefa ... Josefa, the misery of Jesus!”
It seems at this moment that Jesus cannot contain the burning effusion of his Heart. Then his Voice changes and adds gravely:
“And it is Love that will lead me to death. Then, looking at Josefa:
“ Today you are supported, comforted, fortified by Love. Tomorrow you will accompany Him and suffer with Him until Calvary! ”
The shadows of the Passion will indeed descend on this bright day. During the night, spent partly before the Lord, she found the treasures she had learned to cherish and take; the Cross, the Crown, the Master's anguish and pain. Around midnight he appears to her and calls her to share in the solitude of his prison. The white tunic is tattered and stained with blood. The Face bears marks of pain and mistreatment suffered.
"Josefa - says - You consoled Me ... I come to get my Cross."
Then, immersing her in that penetrating look:
“Now keep me company. Do not leave Me alone in prison ... when I look up to find you, find your gaze fixed on Me
.
"You who know the tenderness of my heart, you can calculate my pain in the midst of the enemies' outrages and the abandonment of mine!"
Jesus then disappears, leaving him as a farewell of love:
"I do not say goodbye to you because you are always close to Me."

FRIDAY HOLY: THE SEVEN WORDS
March 30-31, 1923

"Everything you see, write it down."

(Our Lord Josefa)

It is through a mutual presence that the Savior associates Josefa with his Passion at the dawn of Good Friday.
he will visibly manifest his pains that will be imprinted on his body and soul at the same time.
She will follow the divine footsteps, sharing her Mother's compassion, while the sequence of events will be represented hour by hour under her eyes.
Who will be able to calculate the intensity of this union and the reality of this configuration with the sufferings of Jesus Christ?
Josefa will try to describe something of what she sees, hears and suffers. The terms will always be powerless in your sentence. They are, however, an even more precious testimony because of their simplicity and therefore deserve conservation.
“At six in the morning, she reports, I saw Him in meditation, as in the night, but a red cloak was thrown over the white robe. He looked exhausted.
He said to me at once:
“Josefa, enemies will soon be carrying my shoulders with the cross that is so heavy! "
“I begged Him to give it to me because I wanted so much to relieve Him!”
“Yes, take it and let your love Ma soften a little.
“I made you aware of my Sufferings ...
follow Me in them ... accompany Me and take part in my Pain. "
Still in the morning, he returns to dictate to Josefa the Way of the Cross that he had done with her two days before.
“Her face was scratched - she writes - her eyes were swollen and bloody! He gave Me Feet to kiss in the seventh, eleventh, and thirteenth seasons. Before he left he said to me,
"The hour of the crucifixion is near ... when it sounds, I will let you know."
"About half a day and a half later, I saw Him again. waist.
"" This is the moment when the executioners are going to nail me to the cross, Josefa. Put your hands under my hands ... your feet under mine in order to unite closely with my pain ... that your members suffer with my Kindred and may my Cross be your cross. "
"Then - she writes - such a violent pain pierced my hands and feet that my whole body was shaken ... At the same time I heard the hammer blows, slowly repeated and that resonated in the distance ... With a dull voice, said the following words:
“This is the hour of the world's Redemption! They will lift me up off the floor and offer me a show of scorn in the eyes of the crowd ... but also to the admiration of souls! ... ”
“ A few moments later, I saw Him again. He was nailed to the cross and the cross raised:
“The world has found peace again! ... This cross, which was then an instrument of torment where criminals expired, became the light of the world and the object of the deepest veneration!
"In my Sacred Wounds, sinners will draw forgiveness and life ... My Blood will wash and erase all the stains ... In my Sacred Wounds the pure souls will come to quench their thirst and burn in love ... There, they will take refuge and they will fix their abode forever ...
"The world has found its Redeemer and the chosen souls the Model they must imitate ...
" And you, Josefa, these Hands are yours, to support you ... these Feet to follow you without ever leave you alone!
"Whatever you see, write it down."
Again Josefa tries to draw the portrait of the Savior, she
knows that it does not manifest itself to her but to souls and that she is only there to transmit the testimony of her pains. some.
“I was nailed to the cross. The crown had girded his head with great thorns that dug deep. One of them was longer than the others and went over the forehead and came out near the right eye, which was all swollen. The face, dirty and bloody, drooped forward on the left side. The eyes, though swollen and bloodshot, were still open and looked at the floor. all over the injured body, the stains of the blows were seen, which had even, in certain places, torn pieces of skin and flesh. Blood dripped from His Head and other Wounds. Her lips were purple and her mouth was slightly twisted, but the last time I saw Him, she was back to normal. This view inspires so much compassion that it is impossible to contemplate Jesus like this, without having a soul pierced with pain!What really hurt me was that he didn't even have the freedom to put his hand on his face. Seeing Him thus nailed, by the hands and feet, will give me the strength to abandon everything and submit to his Will, even at the most cost. What I also noticed when I saw Him thus crucified was that the beard had been plucked out of Him that gave His face so much majesty. The hair that is so beautiful and gives so much beauty to the countenance was matted and glued by blood and fell on His Face. ” It is understandable that such a show leaves her annihilated and as if lost in pain. The afternoon goes by in that small cell that witnesses so many graces and that today, by the mysterious will of God, resembles the summit of Calvary.even at my expense. What I also noticed when I saw Him thus crucified was that the beard had been plucked out of Him that gave His face so much majesty. The hair that is so beautiful and gives so much beauty to the countenance was matted and glued by blood and fell on His Face. ” It is understandable that such a show leaves her annihilated and as if lost in pain. The afternoon goes by in that small cell that witnesses so many graces and that today, by the mysterious will of God, resembles the summit of Calvary.even at my expense. What I also noticed when I saw Him thus crucified was that the beard had been plucked out of Him that gave His face so much majesty. The hair that is so beautiful and gives so much beauty to the countenance was matted and glued by blood and fell on His Face. ” It is understandable that such a show leaves her annihilated and as if lost in pain. The afternoon goes by in that small cell that witnesses so many graces and that today, by the mysterious will of God, resembles the summit of Calvary.”It is understandable that such a show leaves her annihilated and as if lost in pain. The afternoon goes by in that small cell that witnesses so many graces and that today, by the mysterious will of God, resembles the summit of Calvary.”It is understandable that such a show leaves her annihilated and as if lost in pain. The afternoon goes by in that small cell that witnesses so many graces and that today, by the mysterious will of God, resembles the summit of Calvary.
There, silence reigns and a silent prayer associates Josefa's soul with the Redeeming Oblation.
"At two-thirty in the afternoon - she continues - Jesus spoke in a broken voice." Then she picks up the seven Words that Jesus crucified amplifies in the ardor of the last effusion.
“O my Father,” he said, “forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.
"Not! They did not know the One who is their Life.
They poured out all the fury of his iniquity. But I beseech you, O my Father, unload all the strength of your Mercy on him! ”
"- Today, you will be with me in Paradise."
“... because your faith in your Savior's Mercy erased all your crimes ... it leads you to eternal Life.
"Woman, here is your son."
“O my Mother! behold my brothers ... guard them, love them ... You are no longer alone, O you for whom I gave my life! You now have a Mother that you can turn to for all your needs. ”
Here Josefa interrupts the narrative:
“I saw the Blessed Virgin standing near the cross and looking at Jesus. She was dressed in a purple tunic and wrapped in a veil of the same color. She said in a painful but firm voice:
See, daughter, how much love for souls has reduced you! The one you contemplate in such a sad and pitiful state is my divine Son: Love led Him to death! ... it is Love that impels Him to unite all men with the bonds of brothers, giving them all their own Mother. ”
Jesus continued:
“My God! ... Why did you abandon Me?
“Yes, the soul already has the right to say to its God: why have you abandoned me? Indeed, man, after the Mystery of Redemption was consummated, man became a son of God, a brother of Jesus Christ, heir to eternal Life. ”
"- I am thirsty!"
"my father! I thirst for your glory and ... behold, the time has come! ... From now on, by the fulfillment of my word, the world will know that you were the one who sent me and you will be glorified.
“I am thirsty for souls and, to appease this thirst, I gave every last drop of my Blood! ... So I can say:
" - Everything is finished! "
“Now the great Mystery of Love has been fulfilled, by which God gave his own Son to death in order to restore life to man.
“I came into the world to do your Will: my Father, it is accomplished.
"In your Hands I commit my soul and I entrust You with my Spirit.
" So the souls who have fulfilled my Will will be able to say with truth: "Everything is finished".
"My Lord and my God, I feared My soul, I put it ean your Hands. ”
"- Josefa, what you heard, write it. I want souls to hear and read what is written ... so that those who are thirsty and those who are hungry are cooled."
“When he finished these words, he disappeared:
“ The cross, the nails, the sadness of the soul, a suffering that I cannot explain ... I kept it all until six o'clock in the afternoon, when everything suddenly stopped, except the pains in the crown of thorns. ”
The lavishness of divine Visits ends on Good Friday afternoon.
The Hallelujah Saturday day elapses under the impression of the pains of the day before, from which Josefa cannot leave.
On Easter night, at two and a half hours in the morning, the Blessed Virgin appears suddenly, radiant with beauty:
“Daughter - just say - my Son, your divine Spouse, does not suffer! He has risen gloriously ... His Wounds are now the Source where souls will come to draw countless graces and the Abode where the most miserable will find shelter.
“Prepare, daughter, to adore the glorious Wounds!”
At the same moment the Blessed Virgin disappeared.
“I can't tell you how sorry I was,” writes Josefa, “seeing her go.
I wanted to fly after her so I wouldn't be alone! But I never saw her again! ”

IV - MARMOUTIER

LIFE OF FAITH
1. ^the April to May 2, 1923

"The ways of the Lord are impenetrable in the eyes of creatures."

(The Blessed Virgin to Josefa - April 19, 1923)

The Easter dawn appeared and Josefa was already preparing to worship the glorious Wounds of her God. But the other preparation had invited Our Lady, since only nine months separate her from entering the Kingdom, where the elect are forever intoxicated in the Fountains of the Savior.
Here on earth there will be no more than a few drops to drink in passing, necessary for the next day.
Jesus, who had opened His Heart to her widely, entrusting to her the souls, the meaning of their Sorrows, Jesus who strengthened her, associating her with her Passion, now leaves her on herself, as an unnecessary instrument for some time. Likes to reduce it to its own limits.
It is then that she continues, without her feeling it, the Work of her Love which is always work of destruction and crushing, to make room for her Life and the freedom of her Action. Josefa has faith in that Action, she is sure of that Love. He surrenders to his dispositions, but, delicate soul, he soon fears that he will be guilty of the Master's absence and silence.
"Every Easter week passed - she writes - without Jesus coming ... If I am putting an obstacle around you? ..."
Courageous and faithful to duty, as always, she gave herself entirely to work, in the clothes , where her helpers even during Lent, always found her present and ready to help.
This workshop, representing the center of his dedication in the year 1923, cannot pass without entering it. It is a vast room on the first floor of the Vieux Feuillants.
The windows of the two facades open on the chapel, separated only from that part of the building by a small interior courtyard.
For many months Josefa occupied one of the beds there, which once made that room a dormitory.
The place where Jesus often appeared to him with the Cross is venerated there. It was there that he suffered the first diabolic assaults in December 1921; there also that Our Lady presented her, for the first time, with the precious Drops of Blood of her Son (October 16, 1922). That somewhat isolated, clear and spacious room had become a sewing workshop when Josefa was in charge of making the students' uniforms. She then spends a large part of the day there, surrounded by the novices and postulants she is forming and guiding. From the beginning, she tried to make her little domain an oratory, where she prayed almost without interruption ... an extension of the tabernacle, where she taught her helpers to join in the perpetual oblation of Jesus-Host, .. a haven of peace and joy for the Heart of Jesus by being faithful to the Rule ...a paradise of delights, where the most delicate charity knew no shadows.
The whole world serves as a horizon for this "Sanctuary, since the intentions of the Heart of Jesus are continually evoked there and give the fingers new agility, souls a new impulse.
The fervent concern did not prevent Josefa to watch over the formation of her Sisters. In addition to the responsibility that he had, he appreciated the happiness of making them able to better serve the Sacred Heart Society. beginners, correcting or finishing the task with tireless kindness, demanding from everyone interest, care, perfection that must always accompany the job well done.
“We have never seen her lose her temper - says a novice at the time - and if any sewing seemed to be badly done, she simply said:“ One should not work like this for Our Lord ”. His firm and smooth authority was not disputed. They respected her, loved her and her presence, more than encouragement and encouragement, was a beautiful and constant lesson in religious life.
He liked the girls very much, especially the younger ones, this was evident in his work, when he dealt with them to try on the uniforms. They knew it was all dedicated to them. How many times, at night, passing through the dorms to check that nothing was missing, he stopped to sneak up on a tear from a clumsy girl, or to help a little girl in trouble.
Everything was done simply and without fanfare, like the most natural thing in the world. But the watchful teachers watched her with gratitude and the girls remembered the ideal of religious and selfless life that shone in their eyes on that humble sister.
Throughout the day I was all delivered to the service of the next, but I was just alone, without stopping the work I plunged with delight in the recollection. It was the penchant for his soul. A mother came in one afternoon, after the novices had left, to ask for a service. She sewed actively, but her attitude revealed the object of her thinking; it seemed lost in God.
The nun looked at her for a few moments with respect, then called her gently. She shuddered and, with an effort, gave the interlocutor a full look of Our Lord; then he got up with the usual deference, but his soul seemed to return from a long distance. Many nuns had occasion to be in contact with her, as Josefa always put her time, her needle, her skill, at the service of those in need. You could comfortably entrust him with a sewing machine, an object to finish or iron, a piece to cut ... and on party days he helped to fantasize the actors for the school's recreational sessions. On the occasion of the First Communion ceremonies, he put all his faith and love into the making of white dresses and veils. Right at the dawn of the big day, you could count on it:there was nothing missing in the “upper room” where the dear children found their trousseau carefully prepared, on white tables, decorated with flowers.
These details are worthless, one might say, but when it is our love that inspires them and multiplies them relentlessly, without rest, is it not a sure sign of total selflessness and complete gift?
Josefa's dedicated life doesn't just focus on her workshop. We have already spoken several times about the services she provides throughout the house; it is not worth repeating; but it is important, as we follow the extraordinary path it takes, that we never lose sight of the courageous energy and the invariable spirit of sacrifice that keep it, in spite of everything, in the bondage of daily duty.
It is within this scenario that Our Lord will continue his plan in the month of April 1923, without her seeing him and without being aware of him. In the secret of each of his days, Jesus hides the wonders of his divine action.
The Easter octave ended in anticipation and the following weeks brought dark hours. The roaring lion, which never ceases to prowl, looking for prey, never walks away from the slopes that Josefa has to climb. Therefore, he suddenly appears again, with all his power, and the darkness of the spirit, the doubts of the heart, the hesitations of the will, the sensitive persecutions of days and nights will try again to shake Josefa's faithfulness.
Her courage tempered by the Master's pains, intimately frequented during the weeks of Lent, will face the renewed assaults of the devil, but not without her still experiencing her fragility.
On the Friday of Quasimodo, April 13, a blessed soul who, from purgatory, had requested his suffrages a few weeks earlier, is sent from heaven to fortify her. He reminds him of his name and adds:
'I come from the one who is my eternal happiness and the only object of our love, to encourage you to continue, in suffering, the path that His Goodness has traced you for your good and that of many souls .
“One day you will contemplate the wonders of love that he reserves not for time, but for eternity, for the souls he loved most. Then you will understand the fruit of suffering and you will taste so much happiness that the soul could not endure here on earth!
"Courage! Peace will soon return. The work of Redemption does not accomplish you except at the cost of suffering. But suffering purifies and strengthens the soul, making it rich in merit in the eyes of God! ”
These words from an ambassador from heaven excited Josefa very much. However, she continues to suffer until Thursday, April 19, the day when the heavenly Mother comes, in person, to defuse the storm.
Josefa, who had not seen her since the dawn of Easter (March 23; shudders with joy) Trust her with a soul that knows she is in danger, because her interest and her prayer are much more focused on souls than on herself.
"Suffer! Suffer! ... responds to the Blessed Virgin. What has a lot of value is only bought at a high price."
“That soul will be saved. Offer all your sufferings for that purpose and abandon the result only to the glory of God! But I repeat, my daughter, that soul will not be lost! ”
Then, with kindness, but firmly, it opens up the prospect of an unexpected sacrifice.
"Jesus wants - she says - to make the sacrifice of this house."
Josefa is perplexed. Hadn't the Mother of Heaven told her one day that she would die in the "Feuillants"? ... And that she would be, without the help of the Madres that Our Lord had given her. she who felt so fragile? ... How could she alone take responsibility for the path she had to take? Your spirit is disturbed, your heart is moved.
“Don't be scared, daughter,” continues Maria in a soft, convincing voice that reassures her. - God's ways are impenetrable in the eyes of creatures ... fear nothing. This sacrifice is necessary, both for your soul and for many others ... Jesus loves you ... do not live except for Him. ” The following day, Friday, April 20, Our Lord confirms his Will - And as she exposed her fear to Him:
“Do you not always have Me, to trust Me and tell Me everything? When did I leave you alone? ... Your love for Me is nothing ... a shadow only in comparison to what I have for you.
“I want you to give Me this proof of love, my Work must pass through the crucible of suffering. Fear nothing. Nobody will discover the secret that surrounds you and my Work will shine more than ever ... because I will leave traces of my Passage there ”.
"A new phase of your life now begins. You will live in peace and love and, during this time, we will prepare for eternal union. Nothing can ever separate us from Josefa. You love me, I love you ... souls are saved; the rest , what does it matter?
"I want you to grow - he adds with a compassionate theme - because you are so small! ... But I will not leave you alone."
This Will of Our Lord, although unforeseen, coincides with that of the Superiors. That short religious life should not be deprived of the graces that bring about the frequent changes of the “Sacred Heart”. It is necessary that other people besides the usual witnesses of his life, can appreciate his simple and solid virtue, his detachment, his obedience, his faithfulness, his humble and total disinterest. Above all, the spirit that leads it must be tested, so that it can never be doubted. Such reasons for prudence and wisdom agree with the divine plan.
It is decided that Josefa will go without delay to Marmoutier (1) and that no indication of her extraordinary routes will precede her or accompany her to the Superiors to whom she will be delivered. God, who will open the way for her, will take care of her according to his holy Will. It belongs to you and is even more your work than your instrument. It must, therefore, be left to divine vigilance ...
The end of April finds Josefa calm and ready for whatever obedience decides about her.
(1) Marmoutier, near Tours - In 1923 home of the Novitiate of the Religious of SC

“Although it costs me a lot to leave this house and everything else I have so much affection for, little does she give me - she writes - I will go where Jesus wants, because it is only him I want to love and please!
Our Lord reads this with pleasure in the depths of his soul.
“Josefa, you comfort me,” she says on Monday, April 23, when she is noticing the subject of her private examination in the following terms: multiplying little acts of fidelity, without refusing Jesus.
“Yes, I like this exam. If you are faithful in all the delicacies of love, I will not let myself be overcome in generosity. Your soul will be flooded with peace. I will not leave you alone and, precisely in your smallness, you will be great, for I will live in you. ” Then he adds to give him courage:
“Love leads you, Love supports you. Yes, now you need to grow, you need to run until you reach the abyss of happiness that I prepare you with so much Love! ”
The day of departure is approaching. Josefa doesn't have much preparation to do, because what she takes is so little! Until the last night, he fulfilled the mysteries of his ordinary life, with serene simplicity. This is how it is, moreover, that sacrifices are made in the “Sacred Heart”, she knows it, she learned it by seeing the Mothers and Sisters. Your soul has no difficulty in embracing the Will of God.
But her heart suffers from the deeply felt separation and, even more, from the apprehension of finding herself alone under the weight she will have to carry in secret.
“Go - repeat the Master to him on Sunday, April 29. Go and there you will find me again. Don't be upset. I will tell you what you have to do and I will not abandon you! "
Wednesday, May 2, is the day of oblation. Since dawn Josefa joins her with that of Jesus-Host and, strengthened with communion, she will say goodbye to all places dear to her heart: the cell of Saint Magdalene Sofia, the oratory of the Blessed Virgin in the Novitiate, the chapel of the Works that she is so fond of ...
As soon as she left the doorway, she found Jesus:
“She came to me - she writes - with the crown of thorns. I had great joy, for I have not brought it for a long time now and what a consolation to leave with this treasure! ... Jesus put it on my head, saying:
"Take it and follow Me."
A few moments later he left the monastery of the “Feuiliants”.
“On the station platform I saw Him again, she writes in the notebook destined to preserve the words of the Master during the period that will begin.
He passed by and said to me:
"I walk ahead of you."
Repeat the same words a little later, when the train already takes the traveler to their destination.
“Yes, Josefa, I walk ahead of you and my Heart is glorified ... How many souls are going to be saved! and for you how many surprises I prepare! ”
“I didn't see him again,” she adds, “but I knew he was there and my heart spoke to him. I offered myself with all my soul to his Will, I renewed the Vows many times and asked Him to teach me to love Him more and more, because I do not seek and I love only him ...
“I surrendered myself completely to him and the trip ended with the great consolation of being able to offer him this sacrifice of the house and the Mothers for whom I have such affection.”

THE RISE IN LONELINESS
May 8 to 20, 1923

“It is Love that leads you! ...
It is He who will support you!"

(Our Lord to Josefa - May 2, 1923).

Marmoutier, the “great Monastery”! The distance traveler recognizes for his "Tower of the Bells" by his century XII gate and the imposing mass of the building.
At the laurel bottom of the Rougemont slopes, it stands out emerging from the valley of the Loire river that sometimes extends the waters to its gardens. Neighbor of the city of Tours, with which it used to communicate through an underground that passed under the river, it is linked mainly to the national and religious history of France, whose great dates can still be read on the stones aureolated by the Benedictine legend.
Marmoutier, is Gaul open to Christianity with S. Gatiano, S. Leobardo and S. Patrício, whose caves still have their names. It is the France of bishops and monks, with S. Martinho, its founder, S. Brício and the Seven Dormant, with their abbot commanders, a title that was still used by Riehelieu.
It is the painful France of 1791, with the expulsion of the Benedictines, the devastations of the “Black Bando”, the abandonment of the monastic ruins.
However, there is one thing that does not die and consecrates places forever - holiness. Santa Madalena Sofia felt the effluvia, when passing by on one of his apostolic trips along the Loire river and decided to make them live again. In 1847 he sent his daughters to that “Land of Santos”, so that Love would again flourish. To that treasure of spiritual life, accumulated there for many centuries, Josefa came to bring her little drop of love and some of the divine riches, of which she was Messenger by Will of the Heart of Jesus. He would spend only a month there, in the hidden and laborious life that was always his.
From the day of arrival, he gave himself wholeheartedly to his new family. Nothing would distinguish her except, in the words of the Mother who was then concerned with the sister Sisters “her fidelity in the smallest things, her kindness in rendering service in the most humble offices, her silence, her withdrawal and her kindness in the daily deal.”
However, none of this should be without merit, because Josefa's fine sensibility soon realized, under the charity full of delicacy that welcomed her, the doubt that the question mark hung over her, that no one asked but that gave her a certain opportunity. hesitation about the reasons for his coming.
Why had she left the “Feuillants? ... what she was going to do in Marmoutier where no need had called her?
“Here - said the Master that same afternoon - you will learn to love humiliation, Josefa, because she is waiting for you. But this is how your soul will grow and glorify Me. ”
And he insisted:
“Don't be afraid. It is Love that leads you. He will support you. She lives in love, in order to be able to die of love. "
The next day, she was appointed as an assistant at the entrance. New job for her, complicated by the ignorance of places and people.
Nothing in the meantime stops her in the desire to serve. the long corridors, often lost in them and taking advantage of the frequent passages in front of the chapel door to draw, in a fervent genuflection, the joy so recommended by Our Lord.
“Fear not,” he says, “I take care of you, like the mother of your little boy. I am the joy of your soul. You will suffer, but in peace ”,
With these words he summarizes the plan of his Heart. This period will mature Josefa's soul and at the same time bring a more evident proof of divine Action, which lays the foundations of the work of which it is an instrument.
From a distance, we can now clearly perceive the purpose of this determination, which had been all wisdom and love: deprived of the usual help found in her guides, Josefa knew then, not the loneliness of her heart, as she soon gave all of her to her new family and he already felt at home. but the isolation of the soul, under the weight of the secret it has to carry, alone before God. Always confident and simple towards the Superiors, he suffers for not being able to open his soul to them to the depth of graces and trials, which constitute the raison d'être of his inner life and which he cannot escape without betraying his vocation. Our Lord wants this test to strengthen his faith and, even more, to silence it the depths of detachment and purification, which will be invaded by his Love. His sovereign rule will be established without obstacle in the soul of Josefa.He, in Pessoa, will give her his guidelines and make her climb the peak of suffering and graces that will be for her the stay in the “land of the Saints”. It is necessary, to follow it, to take the same path. Jesus reminds her, in the first days, what her Heart is for her: her presence, she is all happiness ... her conduct, all security. He approaches her in prayer, passes her in the corridors like lightning.
At night, he suddenly appears, when the rest will begin. He hears words of confidence come out of his lips that his living faith had never doubted but to which current circumstances give new prominence.
"Speak to me - he says - I am with you ...
" You are not alone, even when you no longer see me ... And I see you ... I hear you ...
"Speak to me ... Smile to me because I am your Spouse ... your inseparable companion ... "
And, alluding to the" Feuillants ":
" Here, as well as there, you are in my Heart. "
On the first Friday of the month, May 4, since dawn , opens his Sacred Heart to him:
“Come, come here - tell him - here you will spend the day. You are in Me, Josefa, and that is why you do not always see Me. But I, see you and that is enough for us. ” Then he adds, summarizing the theology of his Presence by grace;
"You in Me, I in you. What closer bond can unite us? ”
“I see better every day - she writes - that he is my only happiness, my only Love !. I ask only strength to be faithful. ”
During Thanksgiving, she offers herself to that Presence that is everything to her.
"I saw Him right now, so beautiful and so Fatherly!"
That is how she tries to express the security that her look gives her.
“I am in you, Josefa, and I support you so that in the midst of suffering you may preserve that peace that surpasses all the pleasures of the earth and that nothing can take away from you: My Peace ... Yes, my peace will flood you with holy joy ... will strengthen you and sustain you in suffering. "
And as she asked him for help, "because - he writes - I wanted, first of all, to give him much glory and many souls." Jesus completes his idea:
“Love will purify you, consume your miseries and it is the very Strength of that pure and ardent love that will lead you to holiness: It is I who will do everything!”
On Saturday, May 5, Our Lord reminds you of the cooperation of love that your Heart awaits and how that cooperation is nourished with the divine pleasure hidden under the appearances of each present moment:
“I want you to learn to be generous - he says - because generosity is the fruit of love ... I'll explain it to you later, but here, I give you a practical lesson; you will find many circumstances through which you will look only at Me ...
"And when they manifest or tell you something that hurts you or that penalizes your heart, smile with generosity and love as if it were I who spoke to you ..."
And to encourage her, without hindering her work, she continues to appear you here and there, sowing evocations of your Love throughout the days.
“Suffering passes, deserving is eternal.
You are always in my Heart ... Do not lose sight of me ... Love leads you ... leave everything in my care. I am everything to you. ”
Our Lady would not be far from this most arduous path.
“It is my Son's,” she recalls, “thanking Him for making you tread with him ... You will often participate in the anguish of his Heart, (but in His Peace!”
"Do not be afraid to suffer - she recommends on Sunday, May 6 - as this is how you will attract new souls thanks ... But stay in joy and let everything outside be a reflection of the Peace of your soul."
On Wednesday, May 16, while Josefa rests at her feet the graces and trials of the ten months after her vows, that incomparable Mother will strengthen her again in confidence.
“Jesus knows you, daughter knows what you are and that's how he loves you. Your miseries will remain, so that you will always have to work and fight.
“Humble yourself, but without losing your courage. You already know, by experience, his Heart ... If he asks, if he wants misery and nothingness, it is to give opportunity to his Mercy and Goodness that they consume and transform everything. he is so good! ...
“Ah! if souls knew Him, how they would love Him more deeply! ”
And, blessing her daughter, she adds:
"Peace and joy, dear daughter, humility and love!"
Saint Madre Madalena Sofia accompanies her with vigilant protection, in that house that is dear to her heart and whose stones she knew all.
His cell, transformed into an oratory, is' over the 'portail de la Crosse' and there his daughters often resort to his maternal intercession ... Josefa quickly learns the way.
On Tuesday morning, May 8, she runs there in a moment of freedom.
“I didn't know how to do it - writes in his notebook - between Jesus' visits ... the questions that ask me about the reasons for my coming, if I'm sick ... if I'm going to stay here? etc ... I asked her to help me, when, suddenly, She appeared:
"You are here then, daughter!" It is so good, that Josefa expands with her with all confidence, and the holy Mother continues:
“I will say nothing but a word that you can savor throughout the day: love never encounters obstacles and, if it finds them, it transforms them in ways to feed the flame ... I'll explain this to you in depth later. Here, daughter, give yourself to your duty. Love, love, love! ... ”
On Monday, May 28, Josefa will see her again, on the day of her feast, postponed to that date in 1923. She will beg for compassion at the bottom of her misery and smallness that are always growing in her own eyes.
Saint Magdalene Sofia will not resist the call of that humble trust.
She will appear in the chapel and, drawing the sign of the cross on her forehead, she will say:
“Dear daughter! that's how I love you, small and miserable ... I was also small like you, but I found a way to use my smallness by giving it totally to Jesus who is Great! I surrendered myself to the divine Will and sought only the glory of his Heart. I tried to live in the knowledge of my baseness and my nothingness, and he took care of everything.
“Daughter, live in peace and trust. Be very humble and abandon yourself to that Heart that is all Love! "
It is necessary to go back to the second week of May, when Josefa embarks on a path that becomes increasingly steep.
For the questions she is asked, for the vigilance that she feels a target, she understands that a doubt has arisen in the spirit of the superiors.
Not that the kindness and delicacy I have with her has diminished, nor the so cordial charity of the Sisters.
But her soul is too delicate to miss the shadows, although light, down around him.
Nothing could be more painful to your heart ... Well ... Do not know the Master leaves persist and grow that anguish but to hasten the daughter of career for himself. you need it to rise only supported on God.
But to help the daily journey, it is worthy to enlighten it with a Desire from your Heart.
Each day, he will invite you to direct your efforts in the realization of these divine desires that, step by step, will lead you to the Cross.
Certainly in that Josefa, small and helpless, more faithful and courageous, Our Lord contemplated many souls, to whom, opening the horizon of the desires of his Heart, he discovered the secret of the generous forgetfulness of himself.
On Thursday, May 10, the Feast of the Ascension, comes, during the Thanksgiving, “Resplendent - she writes - with the Chaga radiating very clear light.
“How beautiful you are. Sir!"
"Here is the day when my holy Humanity entered heaven - tell him with fervor ... Do you want me to make your soul another heaven, where I will place all my Complacencies?"
So, she gets confused in her misery.
"It does not matter! Your misery will serve as my throne and I will be your King. My Kindness will erase your ingratitude. I will consume you and destroy you! Answer Me, Josefa, do you consent to give Me your heart, that I may make my heaven of rest in it?
How to express the totality of your donation?
"I replied - she writes - that my heart is his ... that my whole soul is giving him ... that he is enough for me ... that I love him and that, for him, I am ready to leave everything in the world".
Jesus seems to like this protest.
“Yes, I will always live in you, I will hide in your soul to forget the offenses of sinners ... and, each day, I will entrust to you one of the desires of my Heart that you will strive to fulfill.
"Today, my Wish is that you live from my Joy.
" You will pray, that souls may know how to despise the pleasures of the earth to acquire eternal goods. You will
rejoice at the sight of your Spouse, when entering as a Man in the Heavenly Motherland and, with him, many, many holy souls, who were anxiously waiting for the blessed Mansion to open for them.
"Farewell, keep Me and hide Me in your heart."
Josefa spends all day with her eyes fixed on the Master's Joy: the sky in which she triumphs forever ... her soul, that the divine presence is worth transforming into another sky that no cloud can obscure.
On Friday, May 11, thanksgiving does not end without Our Lord coming to express his new Desire.
"Are you here, Josefa?" He asks.
"I responded by saying that I need him more than ever."
"I was expecting you, too."
Then he continued:
“- Today is a day of Peace ... but in suffering ... And since you can't do much, it is I who will present you with multiple small occasions that you will take advantage of to offer Me, this afternoon, a bouquet of delicious perfume. Don't be scared. I am your Peace! and as a habitation and kingdom in you, you will also live on my Peace. ”
On the afternoon of that day, when Jesus, faithful to his Word, had spared neither difficulties nor sacrifices, she found Him in the dormitory, the moment she was going to rest.
“Come and rest in Me”, he says.
Then, reviving his exhausted forces:
“Everything passes ... and the sky will never end! Courage!
I am All to you and therefore your Strength ... Now, rest and sleep in my Peace !. ”
.. The stage continues, from communion to communion.
It is at that morning meeting that she receives the password for the day.
“Open your heart, so that the divine Prisoner may descend into it - tell him the next day, Saturday, May 12, when she will receive Him. Open your heart to Me, Josefa, and let Me in. ”
She does not know how to repeat that her heart is always open to Him:
'' I know - he replies tenderly - but I wish and I want that every day my entry into you will be more solemn and that you have so much desire, so much hunger for Me, that you faint ... If you knew how much I love you, If you could understand ! ... but you're too small! ”
Then, in the effusions of his burning Heart, he adds:
“Today, the day of Zeal ... I will pour into your soul the thirst for souls that devours my Heart. Ah!Souls! Souls! ”
that desire already inflames Josefa. Souls have all their thoughts, all their prayers, for they only live for this redemptive Work whose meaning drew from the very Heart of Jesus.
When he said those words to me - she writes
- I told him about the souls that concern me. and he replied:
“Yes, pray ... pray ... don't get tired, don't be afraid to be annoying, because prayer is the key that opens all doors: Day of zeal, Josefa ... Day of zeal for souls !. .. souls ... souls ... "
" And disappeared. "
That day, souls do not leave the horizon.
To quench the Master's Thirst, who wouldn't do it?
On Sunday, May 13, Our Lord invites you to the redemptive path par excellence:
"We will spend a day of Humility - tell him after communion. I will give you occasions myself, without looking for them ... Continue to pray for souls and humiliate yourself for them, then, in the midst of everything, smile Me without ceasing. ”
Josefa, she writes nothing that day, but in the afternoon, when she is worshiping Him in the tabernacle, Jesus, who reads in the depths of her soul, comes in Pessoa to answer the question she asked inside herself.
“You do not understand, Josefa, why Did I bring you here? I wanted to establish you in a complete abandonment to my Von ade, an absolute detachment from everything even what seemed most necessary to you ...
I also wanted to make you touch with your finger your need for protection, in order to destroy the last vestiges of pride forever in you ... For also for the souls who wanted the sacrifice of separation - he continues - and, in addition , I will make with him one of the fundamental stones that will form the building of my Work. "
She listens to the Master, adores his Love and his Wisdom in each of the words that fall from his Lips.
" Come on Josefa - says at the moment of leaving - Day of humility, but with joy! I am your joy ... what does everything else matter to you?
The next day, Monday, May 14, Our Lord explains to her for the second time but in a more ciaraic way, what she will have to do in near future for the Work of your Heart.
“You are all Mine, are you not? - ask Him during meditation. - Aren't you just looking for my Glory? ...
"Don't you have a single desire, that my Work be done? ..."
"With each question, I answered; "Yes sir!"
“Then _ Jesus continues solemnly - I will show you the Plan of my Heart ... I already told you that, before your death, you will see your Bishop three times (1). It is necessary, for the sake of my Work, that I give it to you, just before I die, because I wish that soon after your death my Words will be known. ”

(1) On the preceding 3 December (1922), during the Holy Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Poitiers in the Feuillants, the SSma. Our Lady had come to say to Josefa, on the part of Our Lord: - "It is to this Bishop that your Mother should transmit the words of my Son. You will speak to him three times, before dying". Three times, in fact, Josefa had to communicate a personal message from Our Lord to her Bishop. But she saw him several times outside of these meetings, so to speak Officials.

And Josefa, all trembling, gives some details that show her expressed Will:
“Fear not! Everything you have to say I will let you know ... But I want your soul to collect the merit of this costly act right now. ”
After Holy Communion, he comes to comfort her:
“Today, a day of Abandonment and Trust.
“I can refuse anything to the soul that expects everything from Me. Souls hardly know how I wish to help them and how they glorify me with their trust and abandonment. Josefa, expect everything from Me. Speak to Me ...
ask Me ... trust in my Heart, for I keep you. ”
The ascent of this great week will end with love: the love that explains and illuminates everything, but also the love that demands everything at the time determined by God. On Tuesday, May 15, in meditation, Josefa who cannot dispel a certain fear before from the perspectives outlined by the Master, ask Him for this love, as you well know that it is the only secret and the Strength for all oblations.
Jesus came suddenly - she writes - and, showing me the Heart in the midst of the flames:
“Josefa, contemplate my Heart, study it, and you will learn from it to love ... True love is humble, generous, selfless. If you want me to teach you to love Me, start by forgetting about yourself. Do not stop at sacrifices ... Do not look at what it costs you ... do not listen to your tastes. Do everything for love. ”
This is how Our Lord strengthens his wife's soul: today is a day of love; tomorrow, the sign of love, illuminating the horizon ... soon, the proof of true love! ...
On Wednesday, May 16, Josefa notices for the first time the appearance of the Cross on her way.
“It was Jesus' - she writes ... because, having carried it so often, I already knew it - It was all illuminated, as if a light from Heaven was reflected in it ...
For many days. the burning Heart of Jesus and his resplendent Cross alternately illuminate his steps, but in silence, without the Master showing himself to her.
On the morning of Pentecost, May 20, 1923, all meditation takes place in front of that cross that overwhelms your eyes and nourishes your love, not without awakening a question mark in your mind.
"Sir!why the cross in such a beautiful light and yet without You? ”
Jesus comes to answer that question in person during the thanksgiving.
“Josefa, don't you know that the Cross and I are inseparable? If you find Me, you will find my Cross, and when you find Cruz, it is Me that you find.
“He who loves Me loves the Cross, and he who loves the Cross loves Me! No one will have eternal Life without loving the Cross and embracing it willingly for my Love.
“The path of virtue and holiness is made of self-sacrifice and suffering. The soul that generously accepts and embraces the Cross walks in true light, follows a straight and safe path, and will not fear slipping on hillsides, because it cannot find them.
“My Cross is the door to True Life, this is why it is resplendent. And the soul that knows how to accept it as I gave it, will enter through it in the splendours of eternal life ... ”
“ You now understand how precious the Cross is! Do not be afraid ...
"Love her, because if I am the one who gives you, I will never leave you without the necessary strength to support you.
“See how I carried it for your sake. You carry it for My sake. "
Josefa will understand how to carry the Master's Cross. Until then, the divine Plan had raised, only once or again, the distrust of its superiors. Our Lord had foreseen and guaranteed himself, that safe and vigilant support in the extraordinary path that she should follow. The diabolical persecutions had demanded this help, which he had not lacked. The grace of the opposition is, however, too precious for God to deprive it of an especially loved soul. The time has come for Josefa to try it and the gentle and strong Hand of Our Lord will place that cross on her shoulders and bury it in her heart.

THE SCHOOL CROSS AND THANKS
May 20 to June 2, 1923

“As obscure as this hour seems to you, my Power dominates it and my Work will shine forth.”

(Our Lord to Josefa - May 20, 1923).

On May 20, taking advantage of Sunday's free time, Josefa prepares to write to Poitiers, which was allowed. This constitutes sweet joy and comfort for her, and she looks forward to it, although she cannot trust the letter with the secret of everything that has happened since her departure. But behold, suddenly, the Master intervenes and orders her to transmit an indication from him to the Mothers of the "Feuillants". Frightened by such an assignment, Josefa has a first refusal move. She declares that such communication will be impossible under the eyes of her current Superior, who suspects nothing of her extraordinary path.
Jesus insists:
"Why do you fear, when it is I who command you?"
She begs for compassion and begs Him not to demand from her an act that will certainly be noticed and that will increase the doubt that already weighs on her ... Wasn't He the one who wanted the secret ... and didn't promise to keep it himself? ...
But the Master is adamant this time, and his Will imposes on Josephus obedience and abandonment.
"Love - tell him - and you will have strength."
Josefa, in anguish, still hesitates and finds it difficult to accept that act whose consequences are easy to predict. But how to resist the Lord? ...
Finally he decides to obey and, in veiled terms, insinuates in the letter what Jesus expressly ordered him to say.
The afternoon passes without incident, but not without restlessness, and his fear was not in vain. The vigilant kindness of their Mothers is immediately awakened with those lines that have not escaped them and that seem to them, with reason, to surpass the competence of a humble coadjutor sister ... Suspecting something abnormal, they are alarmed by this path, which, At first glance it seems dangerous and reckless.
The following day, Josefa is summoned by the Superior, who asks her kindly at first, but then admonishes her about the danger of illusion, which will make her a plaything of her own exalted imagination. ..
She listens and humbly accepts the severe rebukes that try to prevent her against herself or the demon. But your soul is discouraged. It cannot contain some silent tears, as it awakens the old procession of fears and apprehensions, fear and disgust, for so long fought and so painfully submitted to the Will of God.
"I resisted this path for so long - she writes that afternoon - and my greatest temptations are still to escape it ... How happy I would be if I could walk the simple and common path of my dear religious life! How much unrest ... how much anguish ... how much struggle! ... oh my god! what to do? will i still have to resist you like i did so long? "
On the afternoon of that Pentecost Monday, May 21, after a day of painful uncertainty, she asks the Master to forgive her if she lacked prudence and if she deserved in any way the rebuke that, moreover, she accepted with all sincerity. your soul. It was in the chapel, before the Blessed Sacrament, that he sought an answer to this prayer and a softening to this anguish.
“Jesus came suddenly - he writes. - His heart was burning; with his right arm he held the resplendent cross, as I have seen it these last days. "
“You did nothing more than obey, Josefa - he said - fear nothing from your Superiors. Don't you see how I helped you today? Have I changed? I loved you before and I love you now, I am your Father, your Savior and your Spouse, but I am also your God and you belong to Me. The Creator is the Owner of his creature, this is why you are Mine. ”
And encouraging his faith:
“Do you believe that something can happen without Me allowing it? I have everything for the good of all souls and each one of them. As obscure as this hour seems to you, my Power dominates it and my Work will shine.
“I am everything to you, Josefa, fear nothing, for you are not alone. I did not lead you here to your doom, but out of love because everything should be this way.
These words pacify your soul, without diminishing your suffering. The Cross is on the horizon, but it has lost its light. Josefa embraces her, however, with all the love she is capable of. Nothing had changed in his outward attitude. Always simple and confident, there seems to be no shadow between her and the Superiors. Her perfect religious spirit already proves God's action in her. Months later, the Superior of Marmoutier will emotionally recount the supernatural impression that her daughter's humble attitude had given her, receiving with meekness the harsh words with which she thought she should rebuke her. And he will not be afraid to confess that, seeing her walk through his door, he felt, as if in a kind of intuition, that a divine predilection rested in that soul.
On the same days, the Sisters, who suspected nothing, could see her forgetting herself, helpful, in everything, kind in the playground where her growing virtue radiated.
The week of Pentecost has thus passed, in the suffering and intimate anguish that only God knows.
"Your heart has not yet suffered like Mine."
Our Lord comes to tell you on Tuesday, May 22nd And, as Josefa explained that there could be no comparison between her Heart and hers, “petty and miserable” ...
“However - Jesus answers - to the extent of your ability and of your strength, I want your heart to be a reflection of My ... Don't be afraid! I love you, and I will never abandon you! ”
Then, in the capacity thus expanded by humiliation, Jesus will launch a flow of Graces.
Josefa already knows the full force of her divine Fatherhood, but on the afternoon of May 25, Pentecost Friday, she received such certainty of this fatherhood, that her soul seems to have been confirmed in the spirit of childhood and firmly established in the attitude of security and abandonment, which are the fruits of that spirit.
"At night - she writes - when I started to rest, when I kissed the Crucifix, renewing the Vows with all the fervor of my heart, suddenly Jesus came, beautiful ... and even more fatherly!"
She doesn't know how to express what that word is really for her.
"Don't be afraid - says - I keep you ... I guide you ... I love you!"
There is the whole sense of the Fatherhood of God ...
"How good it is - Josefa continues - I called him" Father "and said all the tenderness I have for him." Then he responds with divine tenderness:
“I like that you call me that. When you name Me Father, my Heart feels obliged to take care of you. Here on earth, when the child starts to speak and pronounces this tender word, "Father", the parents overflow with joy, open their arms and hold it to their hearts with so much love, that all the pleasures of the world are nowhere near of such happiness. If the father and mother of the earth are like that, how can He not be the One who is at the same time Father, Mother, God, Creator, Savior, Spouse! The One whose Heart is unrivaled in tenderness and love?
“Yes, Josefa, dear, small and miserable soul! When you are distressed and oppressed, come, run to Me, call me "Father" and rest in my Heart.
“If you cannot, in the middle of your work, throw yourself at my feet as you would like, just repeat this:“ Father ”. Then I will help you, support you, guide you and comfort you.
"Now rest in peace ... Another day has passed, which will count for eternity."
This first grace will leave a deep crease in your soul; it is just a prelude to those who will follow you.
May 26, the eve of the Holy Trinity marks what we could call the height of divine predilection. Josefa narrates, however, that remarkable grace that is done to her, with a simplicity of expression, which reveals the extent to which she is ignorant of herself and humble.
These lines do not require comments:
“After communion - she writes - I saw Jesus close to me. He was like a poor man who dares say nothing. I renewed the Vows and asked Him why he was like this.
He held out his hand to me:
“What do I want? ... Don't you know? I want nothing more than your heart, Josefa. ”
“But Lord, you know that it is all yours. I gave it to you so long ago and I have no other love but you.
"He approached me and his Heart was on fire. Then, with fervor, he said:
" I know, but today I want to uproot you! ... and I will put in your place a spark of Mine that will devour and burn you without ceasing. "
And continuing with growing fervor:
“Yes, you will live on love, and your soul will suffer from an insatiable thirst to possess Me and glorify Me, to give Me souls!
"Your heart will be consumed in the Flame of Love ... this Flame will burn you with zeal for souls ... Then nothing else will hinder your career, on the path that my Heart prepared you with so much love ..."
Excited by the ardor with that Our Lord had spoken these words, Josefa guesses that something important is going to happen between Jesus and her. Always afraid and suspicious of herself in the presence of such graces, she writes:
"I replied that I want to love Him without measure, but I wanted so much to be like the little child, who loves without thinking that he is loving, without looking for occasion or proof, but always and in all simplicity. I wanted to be like this: to love Him and give Him souls, but in little things, so I would not have so much responsibility. ”
“Do not be afraid, Josefa, nothing is against this, because you will no longer act for yourself, but guided and moved by Me.
“ I, too, want you to be like a little child. But I want to use this smallness. It is necessary, precisely because you are small, that you allow yourself to be handled and led by my fatherly hand, powerful and infinitely strong. If there is anything good in you, do not attribute it to yourself, for little children know nothing and cannot. But if they are docile, if they surrender, it will be the Father who will lead them in their Wisdom and Prudence ...
"Come on, my Josefa, let Me rip your heart out!"
“Without giving me time to respond, Jesus pulled it out,” she says. I felt a violent pain and soon, taking a burning Flame of Fire from your Heart, it dropped on my chest. Ah!Lord, it's too much! ...
And while giving her that mysterious gift, the Lord continued:
“The Flame of my Love will serve you as a heart, but it will not stop you from loving or feeling. On the contrary! The stronger the love, the more delicate ...
“And now, let's go. Let us spend a day together of zeal, ardor and delicacy. Me for you and you for Me! ”
And he left - writes Josefa - taking my heart ... ”
What would have happened in that mystical exchange so simple and objectively narrated? ... In the same afternoon, Josefa, who cannot expand with anyone, tries to write something she feels. One should not look in the following lines for more than a loyal and unassuming testimony of this fact that she does not try to understand or explain:
“From that moment on, I feel such fire in my chest that it seems to me for a moment that I cannot bear it. And since then, everything seems insufficient!
I want to get out of myself ... I wanted to attract so many souls to that Heart! ... Give Him so much glory!
I am hungry for him and not possessing Him to be away from him is martyrdom! I cannot explain what is happening in me ... Now, more than ever, I have a burning, a flame that consumes me from the desire of my God ...
Ah!how I would like to love Him and see Him loved! ... ”She does not know how to express this exile from the earth, this emptiness that she had not yet known. It is necessary to carry the weight of that grace alone that annihilates her in adoration and love, and yet nothing denotes the flame that consumes her.
The next day. May 27, feast of the Holy Trinity. Our Lord adds another favor, such as that which he had experience during the Novitiate.
The three divine Persons manifested themselves to her in luminous beauty. They are all the same and the cross extended between his arms shines.
Jesus was in the center - she writes: - I met him. Because I had the Heart ... I renewed the Vows and said the Creed. ”
Then he hears the following words:
"The Father loves me - The Son loves me - The Holy Spirit loves me."
“Then the person who had pronounced this continues:
“ Three we are One in Holiness, in Wisdom, in Omnipotence, in Love ...
“the Father and the Spirit are one with the Son and through him, they communicate fully to souls, because the Son, uniting in his divine Person the two natures, divine and human, a bond was made between God and man, man, whose human nature is divinized by grace, receives the Holy Eucharist, identifies with Him and is lost in him . Thus God resides in the soul in which grace resides. It is home to the Holy Trinity, where the Three Persons rest and find delight. ”
"So - adds Josefa, after writing only what she heard - I can't say what happened: two rays of fire escaped, one from the Person on the right and the other from the one on the left, involving Jesus who was in the center, with blinding clarity ... and I only saw Him again ... Holding the cross and extending the Left Hand, he said, with his gaze turned to heaven:
"Worship men to the Father. Love the Son, leave to be possessed by the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Trinity resides in them. ”Then with gentle condescension, he lowers his gaze on Josefa and addresses her:
"Yes, while the Eucharistic Species remain in the soul. The Father there resides as God the Son as Man, the Holy Spirit as Spouse and the Three, being one God, deify the soul that allows itself to be possessed ... Ah! If you could contemplate the beauty of a soul in a state of grace! ... But what you cannot see with the eyes of the body Josefa, look with those of Faith and knowing the value of souls, consecrate yourself to give this glory to the Holy Trinity by winning -Souls where you can fix your address. ”
And, continuing to instruct her with simplicity:
“Every soul can serve as an instrument for this sublime Work - explains Jesus. - Big things are not necessary for that, the smallest ones are enough: a step taken, a straw picked up, a stare, a service rendered, a smile - kind ... all this offered by love is really of great benefit to souls, and attracts effusions of graces to them. It will be useless to remind you of the fruit of prayer, of sacrifice, of every action offered to atone for the sins of souls ... to get them to purify themselves and to become themselves, sanctuaries where the Holy Trinity lives. ”
So Josefa entrusts him with the apostolic Orders that work in this Work and asks that he burn them with zeal and bless their work and toil. Our Lord responds to this request, insisting on the disinterest of the workers in his harvest that makes them dear to his Heart:
“If someone - says - consecrates life directly or indirectly to the salvation of souls and reaches such detachment from himself that, without he neglects his own perfection, he forgets himself until he gives others the merit of his actions, prayers, sufferings ... that disinterested soul attracts abundant graces to the world.
"It rises itself to a high degree of sanctity, even greater than if it had sought its own progress."
Josefa carefully notes these certainties of faith.
Falling from the lips of Jesus, they take on a new highlight in their own eyes, which their heart appreciates to a high degree “Then he left - she continues. - Ah! how I suffer when I find myself alone on earth after such contemplation! ... I, so little, cannot stand this happiness! How little is worth here! .... and how indifferent I am to everything on earth! I can't explain it: I see in a very bright light what God is, that I find myself detached from everything.
“Today, after this communion, I renewed the Vows with all the fervor of my heart and gave myself up again. .. he already took my heart, but I renewed the gift of myself, with everything I love most: homeland, family, the Feuillants, everything! ... I just want him and, if my heart still has to suffer, I offer you that suffering. Ah!as I am thirsty for him! ... "
The loneliness and the pity. in which his soul has been immersed, for eight days now, make his thirst even more intense. He
continues to endure everything in religious silence.
It is certain that he cannot resist the predilections of the Master, but his obedience endeavors to enter the intentions of the Madres, with instant prayer and even more careful vigilance, if possible
, on Monday, May 28, postponed feast of Saint Magdalene Sofia Barat, great solemnity in all families of the Sacred Heart, Our Lord will respond to your fidelity, crowning the outstanding graces of the last days with anticipation of heaven.
“After Holy Communion, it seemed to me - she writes - that heaven was in my soul! ... Jesus appeared suddenly, most beautiful! ... the Heart was shining like the sun and surmounted by a cross of fire ... He said:
“The soul that eats my flesh has God, the Author of Life ... and eternal Life ... this is why it is my Heaven. Nothing can compare to it in beauty. The angels admire it and, as God is in it, they prostrate themselves and worship ... Ah! if souls knew its value! ...
"Your soul is my Heaven and every time you receive Me in the Eucharist, my Grace grows in it and its value and beauty increase even more!"
Josefa knows only how to humble herself at the Master's Feet, she confesses her sins, her miseries, her weakness. for he sees himself unworthy of that infinite Holiness, who lowers himself to the point of calling him and really taking him to rest.
"Sir!- she says - I give you my heart, my life, my freedom ... everything! ”
“Is it the only thing that I wish,” he replies tenderly, “that the rest of Me cares? —Your sins? Erase them! ... your miseries? I consume them! ... Your weakness? I support you! ... Let us be united. ”
God's Plan, about this period that he wanted and whose details he drew up, will end with the month of May. Josefa gave proof of true love: she was detached, separated, purified by loneliness where the Master's Will became her only support. She entered with the greatest docility the Design that led her, step by step to a new experience of the cross. He embraced the cross with all the loyalty of his spirit of faith and all the generosity of his love ...
Free in her, God poured on his creature the weight of the graces of choice that transform the soul and put him in a short time to a level that his efforts would never have reached. And the work of Love, taking place in it before continuing to make up for the world ...
The radiant light that illuminated the end of May seems to fade away little by little, like the twilight of a beautiful day. Only the cross appears from time to time on Josefa's horizon. But it carries you further into your whole being. Without ceasing to work wherever she claims her help, she suffers violent pains whose cause she does not seek, but which exhaust her. He never complains, used to enduring the limits of the possibility of suffering. Your soul is also alone under the cross.
“For me, that I love my Superiors so much and that I learned to have no secrets for them,” he writes painfully, “nothing I can now tell you is my greatest suffering ... If Jesus did not deign to support me, how could he endure it? ? But when the anguish is greater, I sacrifice everything and it strengthens me. ”
This total sacrifice of herself, of her reputation, of helping the Madres, of a possible return to Poitiers, Jesus knows her fullness and sincerity. In a gesture of love, he will restore everything to him ...
On the 1st of June he writes briefly:
I was told today that I would resume the path of Poitiers tomorrow. I gave thanks to Jesus, as I had already made the sacrifice and did not think to return there. "
A few moments later, Our Lord appears to him and confirms his Will:
“I accepted the sacrifice of everything you gave Me, Josefa. Today I'm refunded. And now I will start to manifest my Secrets again.
“The devil will assault you again and will often try to deceive and harm you! Nothing themes! I will defend you. Keep your heart in the Flame of Love and zeal in joy and abandonment !, ..
I love you, and I am everything to you. ”

BOOK THIRD

THE MESSAGE OF LOVE

PART II

X APPEAL TO THE WORLD

BACK TO POITIERS
Feast of the Heart of Jesus June 2nd to 10th, 1923.

“I will speak to you and my Words will go to souls, and they will not pass ... I will love you and souls will discover my Love in the Love I have for you.
I will forgive you and souls will know my Mercy for the forgiveness with which I will involve you! ... ”

(Our Lord Josefa - Feast of the Heart of Jesus, 1923).

On Saturday, June 2, Josefa saw the convent of the Feuillants again.
This return, which she no longer expected and which filled her with admiration and recognition, also brought great joy to the Poitiers family.
She was there dear as we want in religious life, but. moreover, something special surrounded her that no one could define, and which made her surroundings particularly festive ... She
found her former place in the circle of the Sisters and soon took a large share in her usual work.
The following Monday, the novices met her again in front of the workshop and it soon seemed to everyone that she had never left the Feuillants. However, the spiritual elevation to which the Heart of Jesus had led her, during that month of absence, strongly impressed the Mothers: Josefa returned marked with a new divine stamp.
“What work has Our Lord done in this soul, wrote her Superior to the Most Reverend Mother General ...
I would not be able to explain how far we found her ... and in such a short time! what a distance between her and us! ... We are amazed! It is a kind of consummation that began under the cloak of extreme simplicity, obedience and detachment, which must please our blessed Mother Founder. It seems that Our Lord continues this transformation with giant steps. She returned to her life of silence and humble work, but her body is exhausted by habitual suffering and, even more, by the inner fire that consumes her, and that Our Lord increases day by day ... ”Josefa writes on Monday Monday, June 4: “Since May 26, when Our Lord took my heart, I feel a constant burning in me ...
desires to love Him ... to console Him ... and to give Him souls ... Everything else seems so small that, despite the ease I have to love, I feel a kind of detachment from everything ... so great desire of Jesus who wanted to leave me to reach Him ... and I am as if imprisoned ... It is an inexpressible thing! ... "
Then, the sight of her smallness in the face of such graces, frightens her, and she she exclaims: “I am covered in confusion, seeing myself as I am… Who in the world, combined with these graces, would not already be a saint? and me, every day more miserable! more ungrateful and maybe - God knows!
- more sinful!
This thought is a very living regret that, without taking away my peace, makes me suffer a lot ... ”
As he writes this humble confession, kneeling in the small cell, where, out of obedience, he started taking his notes again, Jesus appears:
“Fear nothing, Josefa, - says to him kindly - I wish you were nothing, because then I will be everything!
“The smaller a thing is, the more easily we manage it. It is because you are nothing that I use you as I want. You know that I need nothing ... I only ask you for one thing, that you give yourself to Me. I don't care about your misery ... Stay in that nothingness, but look! and you will see what I, who am All, can do with your misery. ”
"Then," she adds, "I saw a multitude of souls passing by him that I could not count, so many there were, and Jesus said,
" All these souls will come to Me. "
On the night of the same day, June 4th. Our Lord renews for the first time the mysterious grace of May 26.
At the hour of last prayers, show him the Heart that seems to be immersed in a fire and, taking a flame from that brazier:
"This flame - he said - will replace the one that I have
already put in the place of your heart."
She assures the Master that the first is still burning her with such fervor to love Him, which is her greatest torment, because - she writes - I would like to ... and I believe I do not know how to love Him! ”
“Ah! Josefa, this is still nothing! I want to burn you up and consume you. "
At the same moment, dropping the flame on Josefa's chest, she disappeared. Only your Heart stings, for a few seconds ... a burning ray escapes from the Chaga.
"My God," she writes, "what suffering, I cannot love You as I would like!"
These distinguished graces mark the month of June 1923 several times. She relates them with equal simplicity, without being able to express the state of her soul consumed by the divine Fire.
“I don't know what pain I wouldn't be willing to suffer for Him - writes on June 5 - I feel immense peace in my soul and, in the meantime, I am hungry for something ...
I believe it is Jesus. never separating from him, loving him ... I don't know what it is, but at certain times, my soul cannot contain itself ... "
Tuesday, June 5, is the third anniversary of the day when the Heart of Jesus first appeared to him (June 5, 1920).
During meditation, show yourself to her and keep her for a long time in the fire that flows from the Chaga. Josefa feels faint under the radiance of that Love, who accompanies her to Mass.
“The more I see Him so good and so great, the smaller I feel - he writes. - Ah! I would never dare to approach him if I did not have Our Lady to help and guide me.
“After communion. I saw Him again, to Jesus, so soft, so Good and so Fatherly, that it is impossible for me to express! ...
Opening my Heart, I said:
“The more you disappear, the more will be your Life and, you my heaven. rest ... ”
“ It will be possible. Lord, how miserable am I?
"Don't you know, Josefa, that here on earth my heaven is the soul?"
Then, Josefa's apostolic heart trembles: “I asked you how we can get many souls to know Him, love Him, and burn in His love.”
“Pray Josefa. plead! Yes, ask that souls be burned by Love! ”
The Master of Love who draws her so close to his heart, however, wants to keep her very low in the living experience of her weakness. He continues to make her sensitive to the difficulties inherent to her nature and wants her to censor herself for the slightest imperfect impressions.
“Yes, I saw your misery,” says Jesus to him, that afternoon. when she accused herself, during the prayer of some inner movements that her heart had noted with sadness.
He told me all my faults, - she writes - and then continued:
"What are you, Josefa, if not a little dust that you blow on so that it disappears?"
And as she asked for forgiveness with all her heart:
“You know that I always forgive ... If I prevent you from your miseries it is out of love, so that you may disappear and that I may live in you.
“And now, I will change the flame of your heart to burn you again, and give new impetus to the great work of your destruction. "
“So - he says - he did as he did the day before and I was in great pain. My body is without strength and suffers everywhere, for some time now.
My soul is in a kind of oppression that even I do not understand, but that leaves me in peace deeper and deeper.
"I will return every afternoon - repeats Our Lord on the morning of Wednesday, June 6 - to consume your miseries and renew the flame that I myself have put in the place of your heart."
Faithful to the promise, the Master is there, on the same night, and after having listened attentively to the humble confession she makes to Him of her weaknesses:
“You know - respond kindly - that the property of fire is to destroy and burn. So, my Heart is to forgive, purify and love ...
Do not believe that I can stop loving you because of your miseries! no, my Heart loves you and will never abandon you. ”
Then, renewing the same divine gesture, Jesus takes ... the burning flame of his Heart and lets it fall on Josefa. Under the mysterious blow of Love that suddenly invades her, she shudders: she takes her hand to her Heart, as if to contain the burning heat. He no longer seems to be able to take a breath, while his eyes stare with expression of ineffable desires at the Sacred Heart, still visible for a few moments. Of these moving scenes, the tiny cell will be a silent witness for many days in a row.
So a quarter of an hour goes by. The two Madres surround Josefa in vigilant prayer and little by little she returns from ecstasy: her breathing calms down, her hands are joined and her eyes are lowered. Everything has disappeared, but his soul is immersed in the burning he consumes, and his body in pain that lasts until dawn.
It was the witnesses of these solemn moments that described them so.
But who can say that new capacities of love, of suffering, of union with the redemptive Work of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, dig up these divine invasions, in the soul of Josefa?
Thus, in the midst of exceptional favors, always involved in silence, the Triduum that preceded the feast of the Heart of Jesus had started two days ago in the great house of the Feuillants: days of recollection, of more intense prayer, where, without interrupting the apostolic work, the religious of the Sacred Heart are preparing for the renewal of their commitments.
On the night of the Vigil, Thursday, June 7, 1923, the Holy Hour gathered them at the feet of the Blessed Sacrament, and Josefa is there, lost among the Sisters.
Only the divine gaze discovers it and, in the silence that fills the chapel, Jesus leans down and manifests himself to his privileged one.
“I would like to console Him,” she writes the next day. - But the sight of my own miseries covered me with confusion and pity. I did my wishes again, since I dare not ask Him for forgiveness for the sins of the world, I who committed so many! ...
“Why are you afraid? Don't you know that my desire is to forgive? Do you believe that I chose you because of your virtue? I know you have nothing but miseries and weaknesses, but since I am a purifying Fire, I will wrap you in the Flame of my Heart and destroy you ...
“Ah! Josefa, haven't I told you many times that my only wish is for souls to give their misery to Me?
"Come ... and let yourself be consumed by love!" "Then a flame escaped from his Heart and, falling on mine, burned me as it did in the previous days."
She spends a moment in that ardor, which she knows well now, without being able to express it.
“Then - he adds - I prayed for many souls who need his help and Jesus replies:
“ When a king or a prince marries a subject's daughter, he undertakes to give her everything that demands the position to which he elevates her.
“It was I who chose you and committed myself to give you everything you lack ... I ask nothing more than what you have. Give me your empty heart, and I will fill it ... give it to me stripped of everything, and I will clothe it ... give it to me with all your miseries, and I will consume it ... I am your Supplement, your Light I will show you what you do not see. I am responsible for what you are missing. ”
“It gave me an understanding of how he helps souls who want nothing more than to please Him and how he supplies what they lack for this or that reason.”
Then he addressed Josefa because he likes to convince her more and more of his baseness and his nothingness:
“As for you - he says - if I could find the most miserable creature on earth, I would have fixed my gaze on him. Love and, for her, I would have manifested the desires of my Heart. But as I didn't find it, I chose you ... ”
" Then illustrating his thinking with a familiar comparison:
You know what happens to a flower without grace and perfume, born on a high-traffic road. It is soon trampled by passers-by who don't pay any attention to her and don't even see her.
“For you, Josefa, if I had abandoned you, miserable and fragile as you are, to the rigors of cold and heat to the power of the winds, death would soon catch you. But as I want you to live, I transplanted you to the Garden chosen from my Heart. There I cultivate you, myself, under the rays of the sun that animates and enlivens you, without ever your strength harming you.
“Ah! Josefa, give yourself to my care as you are. A. the sight of your misery confirms you in humility, but never reach your confidence ... ”Josefa says again her confidence and asks her to prepare her for the renewal of vows, purifying her in her divine blood.
“Ah! continues the Master with fervor - if your desire is so great, it will not be. Mine to your soul?
“I will wash you myself, and my love will cleanse you. If you know what glory I will receive tomorrow! "
" These words provoke a question and Jesus replies:
"Do you not know the value that my Heart gives to the total and public gift that the soul makes of itself? ...
" During this night - he adds - I will watch over you and you will rest in my Heart. Stay in my Peace and I live my Love ... ”
Since the dawn of the Feast of the Heart of Jesus, Friday, June 8, 1923, the divine Master is there .
in person, preparing the Bride for the act that will renew.
This renewal of solemn vow that you do before the Holy Host, at the time of communion is not, in the Sacred Heart, a commitment taken again.
The first Vows, as well as the last, are definitive, from the day we pronounce them, but this act of devotion is the renewed affirmation of the irrevocable gift until the last breath, which each one repeats in the joy of his soul.
Appearing to Josefa only the Heart, during meditation, Our Lord plunges her into the Flame.
“I pleaded with her - she writes - to give me real pain from my faults. The more graces he gives me, the more unworthy I find myself ... On the one hand, my soul finds itself impelled towards him, on the other, the awareness of my spots stops me and I dare not approach ... I asked Him with all my heart the ardor of the heart that would purify me, to renew the Vows so dear!
Shortly afterwards, when the Holy Sacrifice of Mass begins in the chapel in which the whole religious family is going to pronounce his oblation, Jesus shows himself to her, '
"Open your soul - tell her - and let Me in, which I myself I will cleanse you. ”
Then, in order for her to calculate the fullness of the oblation that he expects, she draws her attention to each of the Vows:
“Undress yourself from everything - tell him at first - in order to keep nothing from your desires, gestures, judgments Then, submit completely to the Will of the one you love. Let me do with you what I want and not what you expect. You have to reach such a point that my Will in you becomes yours. that is, to the total submission and union of your will to my Will and to my pleasure. You gave me all the rights with your Vote of Obedience.
“Ah! if souls understood perfectly that they are never as free as' surrendering entirely to Me and that I am never as willing to fulfill their desires as when I see them determined to fulfill my Will! ...
"Yes, kiss these chains that give you hold on to Me. Go and renew these Vows that preach to you at My Feet, and at My Hands and that bring you into my Heart. ”
Josefa goes to the holy table. Before the Host, who is going to receive, he renews his commitment of love, then returns to his place. Then Jesus reappears and, in a true outpouring of the Heart, pronounces the following words:
“Josefa, you yourself have just said that you love nothing but Me ... that you voluntarily strip yourself of everything for Me ... that you will have no other freedom, no other will than Mine ... My will will be yours. Your wanting, Mine. I will own your words and your actions. If you have nothing, I will give you everything. I will live in you, I will speak in you, I will love you and I will forgive you ”.
And, going back to each word, he explains his thinking.
"I will live in you and you in Me.
" I will speak in you, and my Words will go to souls, and will not pass ...
" I will love you, and souls will discover my Love in the Love that I have you.
“I will forgive you, and souls will know my Mercy for the forgiveness with which I will involve you.
"There are many who believe in Me, but few who believe in My Love ... and among those who believe in My Love, very few who count on My Mercy ...
" Many know Me as God, but few trust Me as Father.
“I will manifest myself ... to my Souls, especially to those who are the object of my predilection, I will make it clear in you that I ask for nothing that you do not have.
I just demand that they give me everything they have, because everything belongs to Me.
“Even if you only have miseries and weaknesses, I wish you ... even if you only have faults and sins, I beg you to give: Give, but give us all, and keep nothing but trust in my Heart: I forgive you , I love you and I will sanctify you. "
It seems that visits like this should forever tie Josefa's will to this Work of which she is a Messenger, as each day better verifies ... Her little notebook of personal notes nevertheless keeps recording the secret of intimate struggles, which will continue until end of life. Our Lord will allow this disgust at the path he chose for Josefa to awaken in her, continually, the generosity to adhere to the Will of God. And at the same time, keeping it in humility and constant effort, this disgust will be one of the surest signs of divine action.
“Yes, my Jesus,” he writes that same day, “I accept everything. I will do and say what you ask, without looking at my inclinations or my disgust.
I accept this path where you lead me, because I know it is your Will. I wholeheartedly renew your offer of my tastes, my inclinations, my person and my life ”.
How many times have they been. and similar protests will be written, full of loyalty. The Master collects them and calculates their value, since in each one he reads the whole fiery soul of Josefa. This soul has become malleable under your Hand. Your Heart will therefore retake the instrument and, through it, your Message to the world.
“Tomorrow,” he said on the afternoon of Saturday, June 9, “tomorrow I will tell you again my Secrets for souls, for I want you all to come to Me! Ah!souls! ... - continues with fervor.
“Pray, yes, pray for souls, you who are the privileged ones of my Heart ... you who are obliged, more than others, to comfort and repair Me! yes pray for souls! ”
A great lesson of love will serve as a conclusion to the graces of this octave.
Santa Madalena Sofia comes to give it to her daughter, reminding her and commenting on her, on Sunday morning, June 10, the slogan she had given her in Marmoutier:
“Love knows no obstacle.”
She appears during the mass and, blessing her, she says:
"Daughter, I am going to tell you today how to love without anything in you opposing true love.
“The fundamental basis of love is humility, because it is often necessary, in order to prove our love, that we sacrifice our personal inclination, our well-being, our self-love ... and this act of submission is nothing but an act of humility, that is. at the same time, self-denial, renunciation, generosity and adoration ... In fact, to prove this love in something that costs us, we first think like this: if it weren't for You, my God, I wouldn't do it. But it is for You, I cannot resist You; I love you and submit. It is my God who asks me, I must obey Him. I don't know why He asks me for this, but He does. And so, because of love, we humble ourselves and submit to doing even what we don't understand, which we don't like except with supernatural love, and only because God asks us to.
“Daughter, she loves, and the obstacles and difficulties that arise, convert them into humble and sacrificed, strong and generous love; may they become perpetual worship of the one God and Lord who is the Owner of souls. Never resist, don't argue, don't hesitate. Do what He asks of you. Say what He wants you to say, without fear, without omitting, without hesitation, He is Wise and Holy, he is the Master and the Lord, he is Love!
"Goodbye, my daughter."
This luminous lesson comes, just in time, just when Jesus is about to demand new sacrifices from Josefa in order to complete his mission on earth ...

WILL THE MEN KNOW?
June 10 to 14, 1923.

“This is my desire: to burn souls! burn the world! ... ”

(Our Lord to Josefa - June 12, 1923).

The moment has come when, by divine Will, Josefa will have to transmit to the Bishop of Poitiers the Desires of the Heart of Jesus.
With great solemnity, on Sunday, June 10.
Our Lord prepares the continuation of the Message.
It seems that he wants to surround his word with all possible guarantees and, at the same time, to reassure and strengthen the fragile instrument of his Designs.
“Jesus came, in the morning, while I was writing in my cell - notes Josefa. - Her Beauty was imbued with great majesty, and her sovereign power was manifested in the tone of the Voice.
“Josefa - he said - humble yourself and submit completely to the Will of God. "
“I fell down to the ground, annihilating myself before Him, and he continued:
“ Offer my Heart the tender and generous deep love of yours. ”
“I did it, from the bottom of my soul. Then Our Lord was silent, as if he wanted something more., “I renewed the Vows. I said again that I belong to you and I am ready for everything you want from me.
I believe it was what I expected, because then he went on:
“Since I have triumphed in your heart and in your love, you will refuse me, will you?
“No, Lord, I am yours, forever. "
"Then, tomorrow I will come and tell you what you will have to say to your bishop first.”
Josefa gets scared.
I couldn't hide it - she writes - and said how much this idea costs me! ”
"Do not be afraid," continues the Master. "My Heart keeps you and is for souls."
. This divine guarantee reassures your little one anxiety
"When I think I have to say all these things to the Lord Bishop, great is my anguish - she notes -. But I trust in Jesus, who will give me the necessary strength
" In the afternoon, when He came to consume my sins, I again told Him my fears. "
“It is necessary to suffer, yes, Josefa, but it is for souls; and did I not suffer first, to rescue and save them? ”
With these words, Jesus provokes the Bride's generosity, placing her before the Redemption of souls. It is the close union with the Sacred Heart that always gives it strength, to offer itself to all that this mission requires of it. A great week indeed begins. At dawn on Monday, June 11, Our Lord once again recalls the breadth of his designs.
It appears to you at the gathering of thanksgiving.
“Why are you afraid? —- she says. - Don't you know that I love you and watch over you? It is for souls! ... It is necessary for them to know Me ... to love Me more deeply! ... The children must make the Father known. You are my beloved daughters. This is why I chose you in order to reveal myself through you and thus glorify my heart ... fear nothing. I am the Force and I will communicate to you. I am Love and I will support you ... I will not leave you alone. ”
A few moments later, Our Lord finds her in the cell.
“What am I going to tell you. Josefa, this is the first thing you should show your bishop. Kiss the floor. ” She renews the Vows and prostrates herself at the Master's Feet. Then Jesus takes the floor and she writes:
“I am Love! My Heart can no longer contain the Flame that devours Him.
“I love souls so much that I gave my life for them. Because he loved them, he wanted to be a prisoner in the tabernacle.
“For twenty centuries, I have been there, night and day. veiled under the species of bread, hidden in the tiny host, enduring out of love, forgetfulness, loneliness, contempt, blasphemy, outrage, sacrilege ...
“For the love of souls, I wanted to leave you the Sacrament of Penance in order to forgive them, not once or twice. but as many times as they need to regain grace. It is there that I wait for them ... there I wish they would wash their faults, not with water, but in my own Blood.
“Over the centuries, I have revealed my Love to men in different ways: I have shown them how much the desire for their salvation consumes Me. I gave them to know my own Heart. This devotion has been like light shed on the world. Today is the means that most of those who work to extend my Kingdom are used to touch the hearts ...
“I want something more now; for if I ask for Love in correspondence to what consumes Me, it is not the only answer that I want from souls: I want you to believe in my Mercy, expect everything from my Goodness and never doubt my Forgiveness. I am God, but God of Love! I am a Father, but a Father who loves with tenderness and not with severity.
“My Heart is infinitely wise, but also infinitely holy, and as it knows human misery and fragility, it inclines to the poor sinners with infinite Mercy.
“I love souls, after they have committed the first sin, if they come humbly to ask for forgiveness ...
“ I still love them, when they cried the second sin and, if this is repeated, I don't say it a billion times. but millions of millions. I love and forgive them always, and I wash in the same blood the last as the first sin!
“I can't get enough of souls, and my Heart waits whenever they come to take refuge in it, however miserable they may be! Is not a father more careful with his son who is sick than with those who are in good health? Aren't the delicacies and their solicitude greater for this child? So also my Heart pours on sinners, with more liberality than on the righteous, their Compassion and their Tenderness.
“This is what I want to explain to souls: I will teach sinners that the Mercy of my Heart is inexhaustible: to cold and indifferent souls that my Heart is fire, and fire that wants to burn them, because it loves them; to godly and good souls.
that my Heart is the way to get ahead perfectly and safely reach the happy term. Finally, to the souls that are consecrated to me, to the priests, to the religious, to my chosen and preferred souls, I will ask once again that they give Me their trust and do not doubt my Mercy! It is easy to expect everything from my Heart! ”
Jesus stops. It gives Josefa some indications about the way in which the Father Director should put it; Bishop of Poitiers with everything and, as he reads in his soul the anxieties that assail him:
“Why? - insists kindly. Don't you know that I love you ?. Don't you know that it is for souls and for my glory?
“Don't worry about anything. Do with all that I have told you, and give Me all the time I ask of you. ”
The very next day, Tuesday, June 12, entering her cell, at eight o'clock in the morning, she finds the Master waiting there. After a few moments of worship, renew the Vows and offer them to your Will. Jesus continues yesterday's lecture.
“I want to forgive. I want to reign. I want to forgive souls and nations. I want to reign over souls, over nations and over the entire world. I want to pour my Peace to the ends of the world, but especially on this blessed land, the cradle of devotion to my Heart. Yes, I want to be your Peace, your Life, your King! I am Wisdom and Happiness, I am Love and Mercy. I am Peace, I will reign!
To erase your ingratitude, I will pour out a torrent of Mercy. To repair your offenses, I will find victims who will reach forgiveness ...
Yes, there are many generous souls in the world who wish to please Me ... There are also generous souls who will give Me everything they have, so that they may serve Me according to my Desires and my Will.
“To reign, I will start pouring out Mercy, because my Kingdom is of Peace and Love; this is the end I want to accomplish, this is my Work of Love! ” Then, with divine condescension, Our Lord explains, in order that Josefa transmits it to the Bishop, why would he deign to lower his gaze on the Society of the Sacred Heart and choose it as an intermediary of the Message:
“Founded on Love, your end is Love.
Your life is Love ... and Love is my Heart. ” says Jesus, thus marking the narrow bond that must devote the Society of his Heart to that Work, to which he had appointed it from all eternity.
“As for you - he continues, - I chose you as being useless and devoid of everything, so that it is only I who speaks, who commands, who operates.”
And, discovering the set of his designs:
“I address my appeal to all: to consecrated souls and those of the world, to the just and to sinners, to the wise and to the ignorant, to those who govern and to those who obey. I come to everyone to say: if you want happiness. I am Happiness. If you seek wealth I am infinite Wealth ... If you desire peace, I am Peace. I am Mercy and Love! I want to be the King! ”
Then, fixing his gaze on Josefa, who, on her knees, had just written these fiery words:
"There it is - says - what will you read to your bishop in the first place".
And, after adding a few words that she will have to communicate personally, she continues:
“Do not be surprised by him, in the face of the instruments that I want to serve Me, because my Power is infinite and it is enough for Himself, trust him in Me, I will bless your enterprises...
"And now, Josefa, I am going to start speaking directly to the world and, after your death I wish my words to be known. As for you, you will live in the most complete and deepest obscurity, but because you are a victim chosen by Me, you will suffer and overwhelmed in suffering, you will die! Do not seek rest or relief: you will not find it because it was I who determined it. But my Love will sustain you, and I will never fail you. " In those short moments, Jesus discovered to Josefa the path that remains for him to go: his encounter with the first authority, whose sanction will be the certainty of God's blessing ... the Message that will transmit to all »the thirsty souls of mercy, peace and happiness ... his mission as a victim, inseparable from the Message and that will fertilize it until the end ... obscurity will not cease to envelop the pains of his days and his nights ..,and finally death, overwhelmed with suffering. And all this will be arranged by him, down to the smallest detail, asking Josefa only for that total adhesion that, in such a short time, in her and through her, the Work of Love will end.
On the same night, renewing the gift of the Flame of your Heart:
“I come to consume you and burn you up - Jesus repeats it. - This is all my desire ... to burn »souls, to burn the world ... Alas! souls repel the Flame! But I will triumph, they will be mine and I will be their King! Suffer with me, so that the world knows Me and souls come to Me: suffering will give, trump to love. ”
On Wednesday, June 13, Our Pledge, as he had announced, goes directly to the crowd of whom he has compassion ... the crowd of those who are hungry and thirsty, who suffer and struggle, who cry without hope and without love. .. to the crowd that seeks, desires, waits, and does not find a safe answer on earth for the happiness it craves. to these Jesus opens the Heart.
“I want the world to know Him - he says. - I want the world to know my Love. Will men know what I did for them? ”
That's what you're going to explain.
It seems to us to go back to the time of the parables when, seated in the crowd, in the tranquil setting of the Galilean fields, the Lord Jesus kept her under the spell of his Word and, even more, under the luminous yoke of Truth. Then, little and big righteous and sinners, wise and ignorant, everyone listened to him: disturbed some to the depths of anguished souls, others rebellious, to the secret invitations of Love ... these enraptured by the simplicity of the narratives those overcome by the clarity of the Lessons . “The Sower went out to sow, he said, and the divine Seed, thrown in profusion, fell ... His Gaze followed her, as only He could do, and his Heart discerned in each soul the answer expected by Love! Today Jesus continues this great method of education and, by means of a parable, he will discover again the world the immensity of His Love.
“So Josefa writes:
“ A father had an only child. Powerful, wealthy, surrounded by numerous servants and everything that constitutes honor, well-being and the joy of life, nothing or any person was lacking in their bliss. The son was enough for the father, the father was enough for the son; both found their hearts in perfect happiness, noble and generous, inclined, full of charity, to the least misery of their neighbor.
“Now it happened that one day one of the servants of this good master fell ill. Her illness, in a short time, became so serious that. to uproot him to death, the only hope was the use of the most assiduous care and the most energetic remedies.
“But that servant lived in his house, poor and alone.
“You are alarmed by this situation. What to do? Abandon him? and vote him to death like that? ...
Your kindness cannot agree with that ...
"Send any of the servants to the unfortunate? ... But could your heart be at peace and quiet about the care provided more out of interest than out of affection?
“Filled with compassion, the Lord calls his son and entrusts his fears. It exposes the state of that poor man to the point of dying.
He declares that some attentive care and at all times could cure him still, and assure him a long life.
“The son, whose heart beats in unison with that of his father, offers himself, if that is the will of the same father, to take care of the servant, with all his dedication without sparing himself to pain, to fatigue, or to vigils , until you have restored your health.
'Then the servant, full of admiration for all that his Lord had done for him, asks how he will be able to witness his recognition and respond to such a wonderful and outstanding charity.
“The son advises him to go to his father and, since he is cured, to offer himself to him, to be one of the most faithful servants ever since.
"This man therefore presents himself to his Lord. Feeling how much he owes, he extols his charity and, what is even better, offers to serve him without the slightest shadow of interest, as he well knows that in the service of such The Lord does not need to be paid as a servant, who was treated and loved as a son!
"This parable is a pale image of the Love I have shown to men and the correspondence I expect from them.
" I will explain it little by little, so that everyone, at last, know my Heart ... "
Jesus is silent for a moment, then with fervor:
" Help Me, Josephus, help Me to discover my Heart to men! I come to tell you that in vain you seek happiness outside of Me, they will not find it ...
"Suffer and love, because we have souls to win!"
The day ends at work and in the fidelity that makes Josefa the same as all the Sisters. Your thinking cannot, however, be distracted from the Master.
The hour of rest, the exchange of Flame, still excites his ardent desires and Our Lord, before leaving, leaves this appeal to him:
“I have thirst! Yes, I am thirsty for a soul who will end life on earth tonight ”.
Josefa asks if he is a sinner to be saved. Not; he is a soul dear to his Heart.
"But I want - says - that your suffering supplies the graces that, due to fragility, I did not know how to take advantage of, so that it reaches, in these few moments of life, a higher degree of glory."
Who will not admire Our Lord's omnipotent Goodness towards the souls he loves, whose perfection he works until his last breath ... Who will not be moved by the delicacy he employs, opening this horizon to prayer and apostolic oblation? Sinners, no doubt, need intercession to save themselves at the last moment. Prayer, which surrounds holy souls about to leave the earth, is no less important cooperation for divine Action, since it is at this supreme hour that grace gives the last coat to the end of its work. The pains of the night then follow those of the day, until the moment when a light crosses his cell and Josefa suddenly feels great peace. His suffering had disappeared ...
"That soul entered heaven", Our Lady will say, the next day, at the time of thanksgiving.
Apostolic joys like this revive her courage and cling more and more to the Interests of the Heart of Jesus.
That same Thursday, June 14, at eight o'clock in the morning. Josefa waits for Him in his cell and he appears - she says - involved in great Majesty. ”
“Josefa. humble yourself to the ground. Adore your God to repair the offenses and contempt he receives from most men ... Love him to supply the ingratitude of souls.
"And now, keep writing."
Returning to the parable of the servant, Jesus begins to explain it to the world:
“God created man out of love. He placed him on earth in such conditions that he lacked nothing here for his well-being, until he attained eternal happiness in the hereafter. But, to be entitled to it, he must observe the gentle and wise law imposed by your Creator.
“The man unfaithful to this law, fell seriously ill: he committed the first sin. "The man" that is, the father and the mother. the origin of mankind.
All his posterity was therefore tainted with his same guilt. In it, the whole of humanity lost the right to the perfect bliss that God had promised it and, since then, it has been subject to grief, suffering and dying.
“Now, God, in his beatitude, no one needs it. Sufficient for Himself ... His glory is infinite: nothing can diminish it.
“However, being infinitely powerful, he is also infinitely good. Will the man created by Love thus suffer and die?
“On the contrary, it will give you new proof of this Love and, in the face of such serious evil, you will use medicine of infinite price: One of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity will assume human nature and will divinely repair the evil caused by sin.
“The Father gives the Son. The Son sacrifices his glory: he descends to earth, not as Lord, Rich and Powerful, but in the condition of Servant, Poor and Child. The life he led on earth, you all know it.
“You know how, from the first moment of my Incarnation, I subjected myself to all the miseries of human nature ...
“Child, I started to suffer from cold, hunger, poverty and persecution. In my life as a worker, I was often humiliated and disdained as the son of a poor carpenter. How many times, my foster Father and I, after having endured the weight of a long day at work, acknowledged, at night, that I had gained just enough to meet the needs of the family!
“And I lived like that for thirty years. Then, renouncing my Mother's care and sweet company, I consecrated myself to make my Heavenly Father known: to all I taught that God is Charity.
“I spent doing good for bodies and souls: I gave health to the sick; I gave life to the dead; to souls? ah!to these ... I gave them the freedom lost through sin, and opened the doors to their true and eternal homeland. Because the time has come when, in order to buy the salvation of souls, the Son of God wanted to give even Life itself.
“And how did he die? surrounded by friends ?.
acclaimed as Benefactor? No, dear souls, you know that the Son of God did not want to die like this:
“He, who had only spread Love, was the victim of hatred ... he, who brought Peace to the world, was the object of the most ferocious cruelty. he, who came to give freedom to the man, was arrested, tied, mistreated, slandered and finally died on a cross, between two thieves, despised and abandoned, poor and stripped of everything!
“That is how he gave himself up for man's salvation. That is how he carried out the Work for which he voluntarily left the Glory of his Father: man was sick and the Son of God came down to his aid. Not only did he die, he gave him life, but he deserved the strength and the means necessary to acquire on earth the treasure of his eternal happiness.
“How did the man respond to such a
favor? Following the example of the servant, did he offer himself at the service of his Lord, with no interests other than his own? ...
"At this point, it is appropriate to distinguish man's different responses to his God ...
" today. Stay in my peace, Josefa, and don't forget that you are my Victim.
"Love Me and leave Me everything else."

THE RESPONSE OF MEN
June 15-19, 1923

"My Words will have so much Strength and my Grace will accompany them in such a way, that the most obstinate souls will be overcome by Love."

(Our Lord to Josefa - June 19, 1923).

It takes place every Friday, June 15, without Jesus appearing. Josefa waited for him as he did every morning and “he didn't come” - he writes ... He asks his conscience, because he is always afraid of some weakness, and he accuses himself of a little resistance in the face of this always arduous path for his soul.
“Jesus gave me a very clear understanding that it was not only a hurt to his Heart, but also the cause why certain souls who hope for the grace of these little acts are not helped to approach him as he wished. So when he came, at night, I asked for forgiveness for my lack of generosity.
“With great kindness, he replied:
“ Yes. Josefa, let light into your heart. Nothing is small when done for love.
No, for my Love there are no small things, because the very Force of love gives them greatness. ”
It is always the same lesson that the divine Heart does not tire of repeating, so that souls will never tire of offering you the least efforts.
Since Marmoutier's return, Josefa no longer knows the night's rest. When Our Lord leaves her, after having given her the Flame of her Heart, she remains for a long time under the action of that fire that consumes her ... Then, the pains that invade her body and soul do not cease to remind her, for long hours, his role as victim chosen for the Master's Work. In the morning, however, she arrives punctually for meditation, is at Holy Mass with all the Sisters and then goes to work, with nothing to denote the mystery of the night. His energy remains invincible and his smile tries to hide the exhaustion that is sometimes read on his face.
“Today,” she writes on Saturday, June 16, “Our Lord came at eight and, showing the Heart, said:
“Look at this Father's Heart that is consumed in Love for all his children. Ah!how much I wish you would know Me! ”
And the Lord will, in Person, define the different responses to invitations and the Love of God.
"Some truly knew Me and, under the impulse of love, felt a burning desire within them to give themselves completely and selflessly to my service, which is that of my Father. They asked Him what they could do for Him, and my Father answered:
"Leave your home, abandon your possessions, renounce yourselves, then come after me and do whatever I tell you!
" Others felt their hearts move at the sight of what the Son of God did for their salvation .
Full of goodwill, presented themselves to him, looking like they could recognize their kindness and work for their interests, but without abandoning their own ...
“To these, my Father said,“ Keep the law that the Lord your God has given you. Keep his Commandments and, without turning to the right or to the left, live in the peace of my faithful servants. ”
“Others, little understood how much God loves them!
“However, they do not lack goodwill and live under his law, but without love, and are driven by the natural inclination towards goodness, which grace left in the depths of their souls. These are not voluntary servants, because they do not offer themselves to the orders of their God ... But since there is no ill will in them, an indication is enough for them, in many cases, to render themselves at your service.
“Finally, others, more out of interest than love, do not submit to God except to the extent strictly required so as not to lose the final reward promised for the observance of his law.
"But, are all men present at the service of their God? ...
" Aren't there also those who ignore the great Love of which they are the object and who will never correspond to what Jesus Christ did for them?
"There! if many have known and despised Him, many do not even know Him!
“To all, Jesus Christ will say a word of love:
“ I will speak first to those who do not know Me, yes, to you dear children, who, since your earliest childhood, have lived far from your Father! Come on! I will tell you why you do not know him, and when you know who he is; and what a loving and tender heart he has for you, you cannot resist his love.
“Doesn't it often happen to those who grow up far from their parents, to have little or no love for them? ... But if, one day, these children are revealed to be the sweetness and tenderness of a father and mother, no ? cling to them perhaps even more than those who, since childhood, never left home ...
"you who not only do not love me ,, but still you hate me and to persecute me, ask:
" Why this hatred so great? ... What did I do to make you mistreat me like that? ”
• Many have never asked themselves this question and today that I am asking myself, they will perhaps answer:
“I don't know”.
“For I will answer for you:
“If, since your childhood, you have not known me, it is because no one has taught you to know Me. And as you grew, so did the inclinations of addicted nature: the love of pleasure and enjoyment, the desire for wealth and freedom ...
“Then, one day, you heard about Me, did you hear that, to live according to my Will, it is necessary to love and support others, respect their rights and assets, submit and restrain nature itself; in a word, to live under the yoke of a law.
“And you who, since your early years, lived following the inclination of nature and perhaps the incitement of your passions, you who did not know what the law was about, protested loudly:“ I want to enjoy! I want to be free! I want no other law than my taste! ”
“That is how you started to hate Me and to persecute Me ... But, I, who am your Father, loved You. And while I saw you so blindly revolted, my Heart, more than ever, was filled with tenderness for you. Thus the years of your life have passed, many perhaps.
“Today, I cannot contain the impulse of my Love any longer! And, seeing that you live in open war against the One who loves you so much, I come to tell you who I am.
“Dear children! I am Jesus, and this Name means Savior. That is why my Hands were pierced by the nails that will bind me: to the Cross, where I died for your love.
“My Feet bear the trace of the same wounds, and my Heart is opened by the spear that passed through it after my death! ...
“This is how I present myself to you, to teach you who I am and what my Law is. Do not be afraid! it is the law of Love !. And when you know Me, you will find peace and happiness. It is sad to live in orphanhood: come, my children, come your Father.
“Let us stop here, Josefa; we will continue tomorrow. As for you, love your Father and live on that Love. "
So saying, Our Lord has disappeared. Josefa Rich, immersed in the recollection in which I had penetrated the divine Presence. Then, she gets up and hands the notebook to the Madres in which she quickly noticed the words collected from the Lips of the Lord ...
Soon after, she is seen in the workshop, always the same, in the active work that reveals nothing about the morning's secret.
Meanwhile, the exhaustion of forces is increasing. her Love sustains her, but suffers from the impossibility she finds herself at times. to master the bag. It censors this impression in itself with all the delicacy of conscience that is alarmed at the sight of the smallest shadows.
“Don't be afraid - says Our Lord on the night's visit. - If your misery is great, my Love for you is much greater and it is on your weakness that my Strength will work.
"Josefa, my wife," Jesus says, on Sunday morning, June 17, "tell me if you would not do everything to restore health to a patient about to die? ... However, the life of the body is nothing compared to that of the soul! and so many and so many souls will find you in the words that I entrust to you! ... Yes, do not think of yourself anymore ... "
And, returning to the subject interrupted the day before:
" Let us go to the poor souls that persecute Me because they do not know Me. I want to tell you what I am and what they are:
“I am your God and your Father! your Creator and your Savior! You are my creatures, my children, my rescued too, because it was at the expense of My Life and My Blood that I delivered you from slavery and the tyranny of sin. You have a great, immortal soul, and made for endless happiness, you have a will capable of good, a noble heart that needs to love and be loved.
“If you seek to quench this thirst for happiness and this need to love with earthly goods and passengers, you will always be hungry and you will never find food to satisfy you. You will live continuously in struggle with you, always sad, restless and disturbed.
If you are poor and your livelihood is work, the miseries of life will fill you with bitterness.
“You will feel hatred growing in you against those who are your bosses and. perhaps, you will go so far as to wish them disaster, so that they too may see themselves as you, subject to the most severe needs ... You will feel tiredness, revolt, despair falling on you, even because the road is rough and, finally, death is fatal! ...
“Yes, from a human point of view, all this is hard! But I come to show you life is a real aspect, very different from what you see:
“You, who are deprived of the goods of the land and forced to work under the command of a boss to live, are not, however, slaves but were created to to be free in eternity ...
"You, who seek love and who never see you are satisfied, you were made to love, not what passes but what is eternal ...
“You, who love your family deeply and who work to ensure your livelihood, your well-being and your happiness on earth, do not forget that if death one day separates you from it it will be for a short time ...
“ You , that you serve a boss and that you should work for him, love and respect him, take care of his interests and value them with your work and your loyalty, do not forget that this boss is not your boss for only a few years, because life passes quickly and will lead you to a place where you will no longer be workers, but kings for all eternity ...
“Your soul, created by a Father who loves you, not with any love, but with immense and eternal love , you will find a day in the place of endless happiness that this Father prepares for you, answer to all your needs.
“There you will find the reward of work whose weight you have borne here on earth.
"There, you will find the family that you loved so much the earth and for which you poured your sweat.
" There, you will live forever, because the earth is only a shadow that disappears and the sky will never pass!
“There, you will join your Father who is your God!
"If you only knew, and happiness awaits you ... ...
" But. listening to Me. you may be saying, “As for me, I have no faith! I don't believe in the other life! ”
"Have you no faith? ... So, if you do not believe in Me, poroue Me nersegu? ... Why do you rebel against my laws, and make war on those who love Me? ... and, if you want freedom for yourself , why don't you give it to others?
"Don't you believe in eternal life? ... Tell me if you live happily on earth and if you don't feel the need for something that you can't find here ... You look
for pleasure and, if you do get it, you won't be satisfied ...
“You are after wealth and, if you manage to acquire it, you never think you are quite rich ...
“ You need affection and. if you find it one day, soon you will be tired! ...
“No! none of these is what you want ... What you want, you will certainly not find it on earth! For what you need is peace, not the peace of the world, but that of the children of God, and how could you find it in the midst of revolt? ...
“That's why I come to show you where that peace is, where you will find that happiness, where you will quench this thirst that has been devouring you for a long time.
“Do not rebel, if you hear Me saying to you: All this, you will find them in compliance with my Law.
No, be astonished by this word, my Law is not tyrannical: it is a Law of love!
“Yes, my Law is of love, because I am your Father.
“ I come to teach you what that Law is and what - my Heart that gives it to you, that Heart that you do not know and that you have so often injured! You seek me to give Me death, while I seek you to give you life. Which of us will triumph? Will your soul be so hardened that if you do not surrender to the One who gave you his own Life and all his Love?
"Goodbye, Josefa. Love this Father who is your Savior and your God.”
It is not difficult for Josefa to express this love in the midst of all the details of her long day. The thought of so many souls who suffer in ignorance, error or ingratitude, without hearing the Savior's liberating call, does not leave her for an instant, and is in the uninterrupted prayer trying to get the rest of Sunday night Evil but lies, Our Lord appears to him suddenly..
she gets up and fell down at his feet, renewing the vows.
"his Wounds - she writes - they were wide open and flames escaped in them. He held the crown of thorns and nails in one hand: with the other he held the Cross.
"" Josefa, do you want me to tell you my Wishes?
“Look at my Wounds! I would also like to introduce sinners.
“Yes, tonight I want to attract many souls here. Take my Cross, my Carnations, my Crown. I will seek souls; when they are about to fall into the abyss, give them light, so that they find the true path.
"Take my Cross, keep it well! You know it is a great treasure!”
I soon felt the Cross weigh heavily on my shoulder:
"The Crown - and Jesus buried it in my head - I myself will gird your forehead and the wounds of the thorns will obtain light for the blind intelligences.
" Take my Carnations too! Guard them. See what proof of confidence I give you: they are my Treasures!
But as you are my wife, I am not afraid to leave you. I know you will keep them! And now I'm going to get souls because I want everyone to know Me and love Me! "
“Here, the Heart burned Him even more and continued with great fervor:
“ I can no longer contain the Love I have for you ... and Love is so strong that it will triumph from all resistance! We will attract them into my Wounds, I will look for them ... and when I have found them, I will come and get my Cross!
"Now, suffer for me, Josefa ... But first, let fall upon your soul to love arrow that cleanse, because it takes you to be pure and to be the victims."
"At the same moment a flame spurted of your Heart on my chest, like every night. So, I saw only the Sacred Heart and then everything disappeared. ”
Josefa stays long hours with unspeakable pains that cause him, on the head, hands, feet, all over his body, the crown, the nails and the weight of the Cross.
“The time seemed long - she writes - I thought that more than one night had passed.
“Suddenly, in the midst of great clarity, I saw Our Lord. Behind him, on each side, in the light of his Hands, came many souls. ”
“See those who came after Me! all these recognized Me! Poor souls! They would have been lost had I not been there ... But I was there to save them and give them light in the dark! Now, they will follow Me ... they will be my faithful sheep.
"Give me my Treasures again and rest on my Heart."
"He took the cross and the nails and left the crown for me."
It is with energy that Josefa returns, since dawn, to her usual life. No one suspects the splendours that, that night, had lit the tiny cell where she had kept the Master's Treasures, while he ran in search of souls. What grace must sustain it to supply the exhaustion of its Strength; physical! ... However, a new redemptive company awaits and it is for a soul that Our Lord comes looking for her in his cell on Monday morning, June 18 “I was like a poor man - she writes. - Sir, what do you have? Why are you like this? I renewed my vows with all possible fervor, and he said:
"Comfort Me What Afflicts My Heart is that I have to abandon a soul that was consecrated to me, a priest!"
“But Lord, it is impossible! Remember what you told me about sinners ... that you love them and are always ready to forgive them!
"Look at what state that soul has put my Heart in ... ... I will abandon it to its own strength!"
“I was so hurt, seeing his Heart all covered with wounds and, mainly, thinking that he could leave that soul alone, that he begs Him: remember his Mercy and his Love. Jesus said to me,
"If you can endure the suffering that this soul causes Me, I will trust you."
“Yes, Lord, if you deign to help me! So console Him as I could, offering Him the love of our home, of the world, of holy souls, of priests ...
I kissed the floor several times, recited the Miserere and since I didn't know what else to do, I begged Him to tell me what he could want ”.
"Yes: I will tell you: do not spare yourself to console Me, since that soul is deprived of nothing to offend Me."
“I continued to offer Him everything that I thought to please Him and, little by little, His Heart expanded and seemed less sad.”
"The obstinacy of a guilty soul deeply hurts my Heart," he said, "but the tenderness of a soul that loves Me, not only closes my wound, but it removes Justice from my Father."
Then he left, leaving me, in my soul and body, great suffering, which I endured all day. "
The following night will be one of those long and painful repairs to which Our Lord had accustomed Josefa, when a soul needed an atonement.
When Jesus appeared in his cell to consume his miseries, as he used to do every night, Jesus brought the Crown, the Cross and the Carnations.
“I want, not only to purify you - he says, - but also to burn you with the zeal that devours and consumes my Heart.”
Then, having enveloped her in the flame that sprouted from her Wound:
“Tonight, we will still have to suffer for that soul that flees from Me. Take my Cross, my Carnations, my Crown. So stay united with Me, I will go looking for her. "
" He left ... when he returned, a long time later, he laid my head on his Heart and said with great kindness:
"You suffer, Josefa, and that soul resists ... I call her, and she despises my Love!"
He was silent for a moment; and he continued, as if speaking of himself:
“It is not precisely the offense of the moment that hurts Me, it is the stubborn resistance of that soul!
If she becomes deaf to my Voice, how can I not abandon her? ...
"Rest, now, I will renew my appeal."
"The Cross took me. But how could I sleep, thinking of her Pain and that soul ? ...
At the time of Thanksgiving the following day, Tuesday, June 19, Our Lord appeared to you in his resplendent Beauty:
“That soul heard my Voice - he said - and although he has not yet made up his mind, he is already beginning to turn to Me ... You know that I have entrusted you, not only with salvation, but with her holiness. I want you to understand that all the goods here on earth are nothing for eternity ... It is necessary to obtain strength to embrace the austerity of the path in which I want it. Otherwise, she will be in great danger. Poor soul! You need light! ”
Josefa renews her offer of herself for that soul who thinks she is so precious to the Master's Heart.
Then, encouraged by his kindness, he entrusts to him what concerns his heart the most ... Since Jesus began to transmit the Message to the world. Josephus constantly asks, in prayer, whether souls, all souls will know how to receive it, listen to it, as he expects.
The thought that such an Appeal could be discouraged sometimes discourages her, and her love cannot accept such disappointment for him. For many days now she has brought this anxiety, without daring to expose it to Our Lord. Today, you can no longer hide it.
Then, with unspeakable strength; which she does not know how to translate, but which gives the Voice of the Lord something solemn and gentle at the same time, replies:
“Josefa, fear not. Don't you know what happens when a volcano opens? the power of the fire is so great that it is able to uproot the mountains and destroy them, and it is known that an irresistible Force passed through there ... So my Words will have such Strength, and my Grace will accompany them in such a way, that the most obstinate souls will be overcome by Love.
“Society is perverted, when those who govern it do not act according to truth and justice. But if the Chief knows how to direct it, no doubt. many will still follow tortuous paths, but the majority will come, en masse, to the light and the truth ...
“I repeat, my Grace will accompany my Words and those who make them known; Truth will triumph, Peace will rule souls and the world ... and my kingdom will arrive! ”
Josefa is excited by the vigor with which Our Lord spoke those words. She no longer doubts the fulfillment of the divine Promise, her heart strengthens and opens up to trust: nothing will be able to oppose the plan of love Whose amplitude He discovers to her more and more ... No opposition will be able to break that divine impetus of the torrents of Mercy that will soon flood the world! ... A few moments later, Our Lord continues to dictate his Aoelo to souls:
“Josefa, do you love Me?” asks her insistently, finding her in the cell.
"Sir, it is my only wish!" - Then, with unspeakable tenderness he replied:
“I also 'love you because your smallness is all mine!”
Then he said:
“He writes:“ Come now to learn. My children, what your Father asks of you, as proof of love: you know that discipline is necessary in the army, and regulation in a well-ordered family.
Also in the great family of Jesus Christ, a Law is imposed, but a Law full of gentleness.
“In the human order, children always use their father's name. without which they could not be recognized as their family. Thus, the children who are Mine use the name of Christian, which is given to them by the sacrament of Baptism, when they are born. You, who have received this name, are my children, you are entitled to all your Father's goods ...
“I know that you do not know Me or love Me, on the contrary, you hate and persecute Me.
But I, I love you with infinite love and I want to give you part of that inheritance to which you are entitled.
“Believe in my Love and in my Mercy!
"You have offended Me: I forgive you.
" You have persecuted Me: I love you!
“You have hurt Me with words and actions. I want to do you well and open my treasures to you!
“Do not think that I do not know how you lived until now: I know that you have despised my graces, perhaps even desecrating my Sacraments. For I forgive you!
“And now, if you want to live happily on earth and at the same time ensure your eternity, do what I will tell You:
“Are you poor? this work, which is imposed on you by necessity, do it with submission and learn that I too lived thirty years subject to the same law. because I was poor and even very poor!
“Do not look at your employers as tyrants.
Do not wish for his misfortune, but assert his interests and be faithful.
“Are you rich? Do you have workers, servants? Do not exploit your work ... Pay your labor according to justice and prove your affection and your kindness. For if you have an immortal soul, they also have it; if you received the goods you have, it was not only for your personal enjoyment and well-being, but so that, if you manage them with prudence, you can exercise charity towards others. After you have, both, accepted with submission to the law of labor, humbly acknowledge the existence of a Being that is above everything that is created. that Being is your God and, at the same time, your Father.
“Like God, he demands that you fulfill his Divine Law. As a Father, he asks you for filial submission to his Commandments. So, after having spent a whole week in your work, in your business, in your licit recreations, he asks you to give at least half an hour, to fulfill its precept. Is it too demanding?
“So go to your home, to the Church. there he waits for you day and night; and, on every Sunday or feast day, give him that half hour, watching the mystery of Love and Mercy that is called the Mass.
“During it, speak to Him about everything; your family, your children, your business, your desires ... Present your sorrows, your difficulties, your sufferings ...
"If you knew how he will listen to you and with what Love he will serve you! .. .
“You may say to me:“ I don't know how to attend Mass!
I haven't been in a church for so long! ”
“Do not be afraid. Come on! Just spend that half hour at my feet. Let your conscience tell you what to do, and do not close your ears to his voice. Open your soul ... Then my grace will speak to you ... It will show you, little by little, how you should proceed in every circumstance of your life, how you will behave with your family or in your business. How should you educate your children, love your inferiors, respect your superiors. She will tell you, perhaps, that you must leave this company, break that bad friendship, energetically distance yourself from that dangerous meeting.
“She will tell you that you hate such a person without reason, and that, on the contrary, you are another person that you frequent and love, you must separate and escape his advice ... Try it and, little by little, you will see how the chain is going on of my graces. Because it happens with good, as with evil, just start. The chain rings attach to each other. If you hear my grace today and let it work in you, tomorrow you will hear it better; later, even better, and so, day by day, the light will increase, peace will grow and you will prepare your eternal happiness!
“Because man was not created to stay in this world forever! It is done for eternity.
Being immortal, he must therefore live, not for what dies, but for what will remain. Youth, wealth, wisdom, human glory, all this passes and ends. Only God exists for all eternity.
“If the world and society are full of hatred and in continuous struggles, new against new, nations against nations and individuals against individuals, it is because: u and the great foundation of faith has almost disappeared. Let faith be revived, and peace will return and charity will reign! Faith does not harm civilization and is not opposed to progress. On the contrary, the more it takes root in individuals and in peoples, the lesser wisdom and science grow, because God is infinite Wisdom and Science. But where faith no longer exists, from: peace appears and, with it, civilization and true progress ... because God is not at war ... There is nothing but hatred among peoples, struggles of opinions among themselves , raising the classes against each other and, in the man himself, rebellion of passions against duty.
“Then everything that constitutes man's nobility disappears; there is revolt, insubordination, war! ...
Ah!let yourself be convinced by faith and you will be great! Let yourself be clarified by Faith and you will not die forever! ”
They have finished the last words of the Message to the world. Our Lord looks down on Josefa:
“Goodbye,” he says, “you know that I expect reparation and love from You. - Love is proved by deeds.
“Everything in you must show proof of love. Be Messengers of Love in the smallest things, as in the greatest. Do everything for love. I lived in love ”.
And disappeared.

XI IN THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST VOTES
June 20 to July 16, 1923

"Tell me again your joy at being my wife".

(Our Lord to Josefa - July 16, 1923).

The Lord's farewell will continue and the devil will recover his stunted freedom for some time. Now calculate everything that the divine Projects represent against the kingdom of darkness, more and more clearly outlined.
Hellish hatred for destroying them is in vain. God uses it to deepen the nothingness of the instrument.
On June 20, Josefa humbly notes that he had given in to the disgust that seems to him sometimes invincible, given the extraordinary path and everything he requires ... Jesus no longer appears ... and that absence awakens in his soul the evident conclusion of that he cannot escape that divine Will, to which he had given himself so completely. But, despite the hours of weakness, sincerely cried, she does not escape from her oblation.
The Master knows it and if he abandons it again in the grip of temptations, defend it and keep it in the depths of your Heart.
However, she has neither feeling nor comfort.
As the enemy rises as it once did, on its path, it suffers and struggles in the most complete desolation. The beautiful month of June, so bright at the beginning, is extinguished in a dark night.
The first days of July, however, bring back memories of the previous year. The anniversary of the Vows is approaching - July 16, 1920, - and it is a small flash that appears on the horizon of that dark tunnel.
Josefa fixes her eyes on the gift that she will prepare and offer again, with all the generosity of her confidence and courage. How glorious and moving the heart of Jesus should this burning desire that no tribulation will cool!
On the morning of Friday, July 13, after a night that is more tried than ever, Josefa finds herself suddenly in front of Mestre. You dare not believe in such unexpected fortune.
“Don't be afraid, Josefa. Come closer, ”says He, as if still
hesitating : “ If you dare not approach me, it is I who will approach you. You cannot know how much I love you ... and the greater the number of your miseries, the Mercy of my Heart is even greater! ”
You know, she cannot doubt Jesus.
"It is so good - he writes - that I begged him to forgive me, save souls and not allow me to be an obstacle to his designs and his work."
It is your first concern, in the midst of all that you can withstand temptations and suffering.
“You have long since been forgiven, Josefa and the graces I prepare for souls will not be lost! ... no, they will not be hidden and I will spread them over the world.
“As for you, nothing refuses Me. Let my Heart work in you and employ, to destroy you, all the necessary means, even the most energetic. Do and say everything I ask of you and fear nothing. I loved you before the ordeal and I love you always. My love doesn't change! ”
This certainty strengthens it divinely. Once again, the devil can harass her: her hatred will be broken against the rock of faith and love. In vain does he try to persuade her that the diabolical devices will know how to prevent the bishop from coming, and "prevent - as he says - this Work from taking a definitive step"; it does not undermine his confidence.
She comes back exhausted from the abyss in which she had mistreated her for long hours, as in the past, but she had given in to neither threats nor torture.
On Saturday; July 15; the Blessed Virgin presides. from the time of mass, to the vigil of recollection and promises that Josefa wishes to offer to Our Lord, to prepare the first anniversary of the Vows. It had been almost a month since I had seen her, and her joy is great.
However, the first movement is always to entrust your weakness to that dear Mother ... I would like to promise everything, so sincere and profound is her desire to be faithful to the Work of Jesus! ... But, that she will not have to fear of herself , especially when Jesus demands that he transmit his messages and indicate his wishes? ...
"Do not be frightened daughter - the Blessed Virgin replies with tender compassion - Jesus asks nothing without giving grace. And besides, to overcome your disgust, remember that everything that communicates to you is the result of your Goodness and your Love for souls. ”
“Josefa continues to tell him, the great fear that leaves me everything I see and hear in hell. Then discovering the meaning of those mysterious descents.
Our Lady explains her role maternally to her daughter in the Work of Love.
“Fear nothing - she says - Every time Jesus allows you to suffer those feathers, you must take out a threefold fruit:
“ First, great love and lively recognition towards the divine Majesty who, despite your faults, preserves you from falling eternally into the abyss ;
“Secondly, unlimited generosity and ardent zeal for the salvation of souls with a desire to save Him many, through sacrifices and the smallest actions, because you know that he is the one he most likes;
“Anyway, the sight of that incalculable number of souls prisoners for all eternity ... souls incapable, all of them, to formulate a single act of love! ... must cheer you up, you who can love!
to constantly raise the everlasting echo of your love to God to cover the cry of that endless blasphemy ”.
Then, summarizing her teaching in a few words:
"Great generosity for the salvation of souls and much love, daughter! ... Let Him do what he wants ... Let Him finish his Work."
“He blessed me, I kissed Her hand and She disappeared. "
It was in the line of generosity and love that that day of retreat continued. "I made my resolutions - writes Josefa - let's see if I am faithful until death."
Since then, the prediction of his death is very clear, note it explicitly in the notebook where he writes only to himself, period after period, his wishes and promises.
Dated July 15, 1923 it reads:
“The eve of the first anniversary of my Vows.
“I am the miserable creature that Jesus wanted to take for his Work of Love. It doesn't matter if it costs me, I owe you complete submission ... If you send me to write, I will write. If you send me to speak, I will speak, and so on ... Oh! Jesus, how sad to have your Love so badly returned! You are well aware, however, of my desires, but my weakness is greater, the devil deceives me and I do not know how to resist him! ” Then, with the usual impulse full of simplicity:
“I will correct myself and, with your grace, I will try to live the remaining months without ever letting me be disturbed or anything to refuse you. I will say whatever you want, immediately, even if I go to the Lord Bishop and I will do whatever you send me. This is my first resolution.
“The second will be to obey the Madres in everything, especially when I have to write, which always costs me.
“The third will be to immediately say my temptations and the threats of the devil, because it often starts with little and, when I don't say it, I end up being disturbed.
“The fourth will be to do many small acts of humility and kindness, because I know you like it.
You will see, my Jesus, how I will try to be faithful until death ...
four or five months will soon pass! and I hope you will take me to heaven, for Christmas or, at the latest, in Epiphany (1). I am glad to die, because the land is sad and I am also afraid of my misery.

(1) For some months, Our Lord continued to speak to Josefa secretly about the time of his death.

“Up there, I will still save you souls and help you. That's why I beg you today, with all my heart that those few months Look what was missing in my life, and as I am so small and You are my husband, take your heart and your merits for them to dive all my actions, in order to give them the value that you repair and that you can save many souls ”.
So, letting your heart overflow:
"Goodbye, my Jesus, ask whatever you wish and hide me in your heart until the moment that I conduzirdes to heaven. Do not forget my smallness and do not abandon me.
“Your little and miserable wife, Josefa.
Sunday, July 16, 1923, emerges over his humble and ardent desires.
I repeated before the Holy Communion, the rating formula as a year ago, wanting to be faithful until death, "- she writes.
A moment later Jesus appeared to her and showing her heart aflame:
"Josefa," she says, "and me? Did I ever stop being faithful to you?
Then, reading it in the depths of his soul, he continues:
"Fear not: your miseries, negligence, even your faults, it will supply, my heart is Repairer quintessential As there had to be for you.?
Josefa makes him tell his promises and begged Him to finish, despite its weaknesses, the Great Work for the salvation of the world.
"Even if I did not do because of you, Josefa, would finish it for the love of souls, because the love!"
"Nothing missing, no doubt, to my infinite Beatitude, but I need souls ... I thirst of souls and want to save them."
Be ye this divine Heart of Jesus gee up long communicated to his wife and intensifies more and more.
"I asked him if there were many saints, among the consecrated souls and the world ... many souls to the console and glorify. Ah! how I would like to be better in order to obtain this grace ”.
“Don't worry, Josefa, about what you can or cannot do. You know you can't do anything! But I am the One who wants and can. I will do everything, even what seems impossible to you. Just let Me serve You, in order to transmit My Words and My Desires to souls. As for the rest, I take care of everything. I will supply everything you don't have, everything you can't. Just give me your freedom.
As for me, I just need your will. It is the only thing I cannot supply, because the will is in the domain of each soul. ”
Then, leaning towards her:
“Your joy in being my wife, repeat to Me!”
How you express this happiness? ... Josefa does not find the word.
"However - continues our Lord - all this is nothing! True happiness has not yet proved. But it will come soon ... then you will possess it without fear of losing it. In the meantime, we will return to our confidences. ”
The prospect of the bishop's next visit looks like a cloud over Josefa's horizon. She begs the Master to help her, to explain everything she must say, as she cannot help but fear that hour.
“I will indicate everything you must do - responds Our Lord with kindness. - Fear nothing.
I will tell you everything and help you with everything. Let Me act! ”
Then - she writes - I repeated the resolutions made yesterday, at the month's retreat. He listened, highlighting each one, with a brief comment; then he said:
“I bless these resolutions, Josefa and if you sometimes feel powerless to comply with them. come to Me. Tell Me what disturbs you ... what you fear ...
I will give you strength, I will give you peace. Go açora, remain in my Love, all delivered to my Will. ”
This is how this bright day will flow, in the peace and joy of being all of Jesus:
“I'm so happy,” she writes. - I only have one wish, to spend these few months that I have left on earth without ever refusing Him anything. But I am afraid of myself and I never cease to ask for strength and love. ”
In the afternoon it brings you a new grace:
“At seven o'clock, I was in the oratory of our Blessed Mother when suddenly I saw her, always very simple and humble; I hadn’t finished renewing my vows yet and she said:
"Daughter, you made them a year ago!"
Josefa, whose trust in the Mother of her soul is second to none, exposes her happiness of belonging to Our Lord forever and her sadness for what she calls ingratitude, “so numerous”, she says.
“But you know, daughter, that the Heart of Jesus is Fire! And this Fire is to consume those in these miseries. Since Lhasa deliveries Jesus no longer remember them. In return, he has already given you so many graces and is ready to give you even more. Your Heart is an inexhaustible source: the more you give, the more you want to give. The more forgiving, most want to forgive. "
And as Josefa repeated her promise to be faithful until death, which, you know, will not be long, Holy Mother encourages her:
“Believe, daughter, Jesus no longer remembers your miseries or your resistances. But always keep in mind your good wishes in order to please them. Your Heart is an abyss of Mercy that never ends by forgiving. B an abyss of Wealth that never ends by giving. Love Him as much as you can. Don't ask for anything else. Acknowledge your smallness and remain submissive and abandoned to the will of God.
“Let Him rest in you and let Him rest in You. When you receive graces, you rest in Him. When he tries you in any way, it is he who rests in you.
Thank you, as you can, the singular favor that you made, choosing you as bride of his Heart. And although you feel unworthy of belonging to him, love the "Society" that is a chosen part of your Heart.
“... Goodbye, be very generous, very humble.
Don't forget that you are nothing. Only Mercy can love you like this, despite your misery. But, trust! And since nothing can, let you drive. Live in gratitude, peace and love. Goodbye, daughter. ”
He gave me the blessing, I kissed her hand and it disappeared.
Was there Our Lady to miss the meetings of this anniversary? Josefa did not dare to doubt, but night came and the hour for rest came. Alone in the tiny cell, kneeling before the Immaculate Mother of the image to give you the night and put his soul between her virginal hands. This goodbye is the strength of each night.
Today is full of hope.
Suddenly, the room floods with great clarity and Maria appears to her daughter.
“I am always with you - says:
And answering Josefa's prayer;
“Yes, you will be faithful, my daughter, if you never rely on yourself, but only on Jesus.
Josefa nothing can hide this incomparable Mother and leaving overflowing his soul, begged him not to leave his weakness, especially when you find before the demon and long trials in hell whose only idea fills her with dread.
"Remember what I told you your Blessed Mother - Blessed Virgin answers: - the suffering, it is Jesus who rests in you. So, what do you have to fear? Surrender to the divine Will. There can now calculate the joy that you will have for all eternity, the sight of so many souls saved, with your little acts and your sacrifices. Courage! Life is nothing, and your days will pass like a flash! Seizes and fills them with merit, giving your divine Heart Bridegroom to abandon yourself to glory entirely to his will and his will. He lives on his Peace and on his Love, lives under his Gaze and lets Him act. She held out her hand to bless me and soon disappeared ”.

DAYS OF TESTS
July 16 to August 24, 1923

"Do not be afraid: everything is prepared and governed by my love."

(Our Lord to Josefa - August 13, 1923).

Rarely, in Josefa's life, do luminous hours appear that do not announce painful periods. And, although the path of his privileged one is never exempt from suffering, Our Lord places, from time to time, some milestones in which the trial is more intense, so that the love is consummated there.
As the end of this life approaches, the invariable norm of divine conduct is increasingly confirmed. Josefa must hurry to complete in herself what the Passion of Christ lacks; it has to be a victim in the broadest sense of the word and the message that is intermediate between the Heart of Jesus and the souls pass to the world through their own pain. The demon, until the end. it will be an instrument of these pains. No opposition, no human persecution, better than diabolical ones, even with the same intensity and justness, could reach the depths that God determined to sanctify by suffering. Therefore, do not surprise us, the dark days that will pass. Enter the Designs of Love, as well as the graces that just flood the radiant weeks of May and June. Admire the secret paths where the Lord directs souls, without the feel, and prepares them, through the night, the splendors of the next dawn.
So it will be for Josefa, since the end of July 1923.
Mal had ended the anniversary of the first votes under the blessing of the Blessed Virgin suddenly in sharp turn, rises again the demon in your way. In fact, never left her for a long time, but during the period beginning, Josefa will see him, just as the holy Cure of Ars, in the form of gigantic dog, fearful, angry, throwing himself on it without being able however to win it .
Long expiatory sessions in hell fill him most of the night and again, his soul experiences all the pain. As if he were able to annihilate God's plans, the devil, with audacious emphasis, exposes his own to Josefa, against the intervention of the Bishop of Poitiers whom he knows nearby and whose importance he guesses.
Josefa, usually so fragile in the face of the enemy's lies, does not fail this time. And, as he promised Our Lord, he seeks strength and help in the humble confession of his weakness. The last days of July bring, however, comfort and even more confirmation that God continues his work and that keeps in his hand.
On Friday, July 27, St. John the Evangelist appeared to him as she prays before the tabernacle (1).

(1) St. John the Evangelist Appearances to Soror Josefa: April 13, 1922 - November 29, 1922 - December 27 1922 - July 27, 1923.

“It was all enveloped in majestic beauty - she writes. - As soon as I saw him, I renewed the Vows and he said:
“Soul dear to the divine Master, since the Lord has used you to make known to many souls his Mercy and Love, he prepares the way for his Coming.
“Your will be adamant and entirely submissive to your divine Will. The Flame of your Heart purifies and consumes you. And when he looks down on you, he receives his words with respect and love, for the One who speaks to you is the same one before whom the heavenly Court intones, without ceasing, the Song of Praise and Love ”.
And, joining hands:
"The Lord keep you and flood your soul with the heavenly Delights of your Heart".
“He disappeared - he continues - and, a moment later, I saw the Heart of Jesus, just ... His sore opened wide, dropping a flame on my chest, as it did when Our Lord came every evening to consume my miseries. .. This fire burns me and my soul has so much desire for it, that everything else looks nothing to me. ”
Two days later, it is the Blessed Virgin who comes on Sunday afternoon, July 29, to announce the return of the Lord. She holds the crown of thorns in her hand and, placing it on Josefa's forehead:
“Daughter, - tell her - I come to dress you with the jewelry of your Bridegroom, in order to prepare myself for her coming: As soon as you are finished worship, go up to your cell. he will be there. While you wait, prepare the way for Him with acts of humility of submission and love ”.
And as the maternal heart guessed the daughter's anxiety, thinking about what the Lord's return would demand of her:
“Goodbye - says blessing her. He will help you, because it is his Work. Trust and courage ... submission and humility of ... love and abandonment. ”
Josefa can no longer doubt the importance of the interview, prepared with such solemnity. A few moments later. Our Lord appears to him in his cell. She prostrates herself at her feet and offers herself that sovereign Will whose demands she loves beforehand.
“Yes,” says Jesus, “it is I. Do not fear, everything is arranged and governed by my Love. "
Then, in the impressive silence that surrounds her, Jesus dictates everything that must be done and said, so that the Bishop of Poitiers can be informed of his Desires without delay. Everything is foreseen with such clarity in every detail, that nothing will be left to chance and the grace of divine conduct shines in this occurrence, even more, if possible, than in all others.
“Fear nothing - makes Jesus, ending. - I will help you and guide you. Love me, trust my heart; I will never abandon you. ”
On Monday, July 30, in a very paternal audience given to Josefa's director. RP Boyer, OP, the Bishop of Poitiers received the first personal Message from the Heart of Jesus.
From now on, new security, the most precious of all, would surround the last graces and the last proofs of Josefa's life. As expected, this progress of the divine Work corresponds to the diabolical persecution in the upsurge of hatred. The demon had judged that he could do something against Omnipotence that scoffs at his cunning ... One could presume him, reading the pages in which Josefa, from July 30 to August 12, notes his multiple assaults and his lying statements, his certainty of winning it, to the Bishop of Poitiers and to the very Plan of God!
I am suffering so much! ... - writes - because although I prefer to die a thousand times to offend Our Lord, the fear of the devil, of everything he says to me, of the tortures with which I was overwhelmed, he disturbs me and leaves me without strength! .. .
Then the idea that I will soon die fills me with sadness ... However, when temptation does not come, my greatest joy is to know that in heaven I will no longer offend Our Lord and will never lose him again. "
It is thus, rocked by the storm, that Josefa now works for the Work of Love.
"You are not alone - repeats Our Lord, appearing to him on Sunday, August 12, - Do you not know that I am your Life, your Support, and that if I were not with you you could never bear that weight?"
The very next day, he returns to the details of everything that was to be transmitted from him to the Bishop of Poitiers. These words of the Lord, the advice he gives to his Messenger, the care with which he prepares the meeting, all of this denotes his importance in carrying out the Divine Projects. At the same time, she kindly reassures Josefa. The prospect of having to leave the obscurity that had surrounded her until then, to speak about what is the soul of her soul and, mainly, to communicate the Master's wishes, would be a test above all others, if Jesus did not give her grace exceptional strength and peace.
“Do not be frightened - says the Lord again before leaving. - Love will sustain and guide you always. I will tell you everything and help you. Fear not. I keep you in my Heart. I love you.
It is enough to give you courage. ”
The feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, Wednesday, August 15, 1923, opens bright brackets in the midst of daily struggles. It is a patch of blue sky, in the middle of the clouds that try to cover it.
On the afternoon of that glorious day, Maria Santíssima appears to her daughter in the splendor of her beauty. She listens maternally to everything she entrusts to her regarding the present tribulations, the apprehensions about the future and. mainly, their weakness and misery.
“Daughter,” he says immediately, “your weakness must not discourage you, confess it humbly, but do not lose confidence, for you can no longer doubt that it was because of your misery and your indignity that Jesus looked at you. Look ... A lot of humility, but a lot of confidence ”.
And, alluding to the devil's redoubled persecutions:
“Don't be afraid, he can only multiply occasions of great merit for your soul. I defend you and Jesus never leaves you ”.
Then, taking the thought away from herself, Josefa thinks only of the joy of the Immaculate Mother, whose entry into heaven the whole world celebrates. Maria seems to shudder. Before evoking the bliss that, for Ea, is an eternal present. He leans over his daughter and, opening his Heart, traces before Josefa the itinerary that led her, from the shadows and pains of the earth to the brightness of the endless Day.
"Yes - she says - it was truly on this day that full and unmixed joy began for me, because all my life, my soul was pierced by a gladius".
“I asked him - Josefa writes naively - if the presence of the Baby Jesus, so small and beautiful, had not given him many consolations.
“Listen, daughter, - continues the Virgin - from childhood, I was aware of the divine things and the hopes placed on the coming of the Messiah. When the Angel announced the Mystery of the Incarnation to me and I saw myself chosen as Mother of the Savior of men, my Heart, although in great submission to the Will of God, was plunged into a torrent of bitterness. For I well knew all that the tender and divine Child should suffer, and old Simon's prophecy only confirmed my maternal anxieties.
“You can, then, imagine what my feelings would be, contemplating my Son's charms, his countenance, his hands, his feet, his whole Being, knowing that they would be cruelly mistreated.
“I kissed His feet and contemplated them nailed to the cross. I took care of her beautiful hair, and I already saw it covered in blood, tangled in the Crown's thorns.
“I kissed His hands and felt that my lips were already soaked with the Blood that would one day flow from his wounds.
“And when, in Nazareth, he took the first steps and ran towards Me with open arms, I could not hold back the tears, thinking of the arms extended over the Cross. when he would die.
"When he reached his adolescence, he gathered in himself such a set of beauty that no one could contemplate Him without admiration ... Only my Mother's Heart was tight, thinking of the torments whose repercussions I already suffered in advance ...
" After the removal of the three years of Apostolic Life, the hours of Passion and Death were the most terrible martyrdom for me.
“When on the third day I saw Him resurrected and glorious, the trial changed, it is true, in aspect because he could no longer suffer. so painful and sad would the separation be! Consoling Him, repairing men's offenses, would then be my only relief.
What a long exile, however! What fervor rose from my soul to heaven ... How I longed for the hour of my eternal union! ... What a life without it! ... What a mixed light of darkness! ... What a desired union! ... and how late he was coming! ...
“It was when I reached seventy-three years that my soul passed like a lightning bolt from earth to heaven. At the end of the third day, the angels came to fetch my body, and transported it in triumph of joy, to gather it to my soul ...
“What awe, what adoration and what sweetness, when my eyes saw it, for the first time in Glory and Majesty, in the midst of the angelic army, my Son! ... my God! ...
“And what about, daughter, the admiration that excited me at the sight of my extreme lowliness crowned with so many gifts and surrounded so many acclaim! ...
'•' All mixture of sadness is over! Everything is Softness, Everything is Glory, Everything is Love! ...
The Blessed Virgin expressed herself with enthusiasm and will later say Josefa, however, a reflection of humility involved her every word.
She was silent for a moment, immersed in the memory of her magnificent entry into heaven. Then, lowering her deep gaze:
“Everything passes, daughter,” she says, “and the beatitude has no end. Suffer and love: my Son will soon crown your efforts and labors. Fear nothing. He and I love you!
And after a few more maternal recommendations:
“Always remain faithful to Him, refuse nothing. Make way for Him with your little acts. because he will come soon. Courage, courage! Generosity and love! The winter of life is short and spring will be eternal! ”
Josefa notes that she couldn't remember the very terms of that long outpouring.
“But on Friday, August 17 - she continues, - when I went to my cell to try to write something, suddenly, Our Lady appeared beautiful and shining with light. Smiling softly, he repeated everything he had said on the afternoon of his party, then he gave me a hand to kiss and disappeared ”.
That peace lasted a few days. On Monday, August 20, Josefa engaged in meditation on the following word: Jesus is the Light of the world ”.
"AND. suddenly - she says - I saw before me a large wooden cross all luminous. In the center, the Heart of Jesus, pierced and surrounded by thorns, shone. A lively flame was pouring out of the wound and I heard his voice saying:
“This is the Heart that gives life to the world. But give it from the top of the cross. Also, the souls chosen as victims to help Me spread light and life on the world, must leave with great submission that they pin the cross on the example of their Master and Savior ”.
The cross will continue to be, therefore, until the end, its light and its security. You know, Josefa offers himself to her.
That same afternoon, the Blessed Virgin returns to strengthen her generous will. It is in the novitiate oratory, where Josefa is kneeling before the image of Our Lady, that Mary suddenly appears to her.
“Yes,” he says, “give me your heart and I will keep it; give Me all your activities and I will transform them; give me your love, your life ... and I will pass everything to Jesus. ”
Then, approaching her and placing the virgin hand on her forehead:
"With all my Mother's Heart, I bless you.
This blessing gives you courage and generosity to fulfill all the Will of Jesus.
" What can you fear, daughter; if you trust Him?
Do you not know that He is all Mighty ... that is Well ...
what is all Love? ... "
Josefa knows it, but her soul cannot help but fear the mission she is in charge of. The days of the annual retreat are approaching, however, and she focuses her hopes on them. she entrusts to the Mother, asking for help, for she does not forget that this season of grace will open the last period of her life before her.
Mary answers her prayer with the following maternal advice:
“If you want your soul to take full advantage of these days of thanksgiving, you must prepare them, often repeating the prayer that my son Ignatius said with such fervor:
“ Take and receive, Lord, all my freedom, my memory, my understanding and all my will ”.
“Yes, offer everything to Jesus, so that he may take possession and use you as he pleases. Multiply your little acts of humility, mortification and generosity ...
“This is how your soul will be ready to receive, on these blessed days, the graces of the Lord. Do not forget that they are the last spiritual exercises of your life. So let Jesus work on you and prepare yourself, as He sees fit, for eternal union. ”
Then, remembering the secret of the most generous abandonment:
“Since you love souls, think about them and let yourself be crushed as it is necessary for them to be saved.” These last words made Josefa even more attentive. The Blessed Virgin looked at her for a long time, as if to prepare her for some new oblation.
“Remember, daughter - finally says - that you are completely unworthy of the favors of your God, but give thanks to Him for deigning to serve Your unworthiness and your nothingness to save much; souls; manifesting their Mercy to them ”.
Then, with all her maternal authority, Mary discovers to Josefa the near future that awaits her: she has to go to Rome in order to personally entrust to Mother Superior General the message that Our Lord keeps secret, and to communicate it directly his designs on the Society of the Sacred Heart and on the world. Josefa is appalled to hear these words. The prospect of an interview with the Bishop of Poitiers causes her deep apprehension, only dominated by trust in God. It will be necessary to come out even more of the obscurity and silence that has protected it until now ”Leaving far away; and above all to make known to you by voice those things that already cost you so much to reveal only to the Madres de Poitiers? ... Her soul is bewildered But the Virgin keeps her at her feet for a long time Her Look, which is for a while Strength and peace, calm the storm little by little. Josefa,at the heart of your will. adheres to God's. The powerful grace that triumphs from all its disgust, gives it, once more, with closed eyes, to this Work of Love that everything for; demand from her.
“Don't be afraid,” adds the Blessed Virgin at last. - Jesus, who loves you so much, I will tell you his Desires ... everything must be done simply and humbly ... What a grace for the Society and how happy you are, daughters, for being an instrument of this Work among the Hands of your God! "
Maria disappeared and Josefa for a long time is astonished in her oblation.
"How will this be done?" She doesn't even ask that question. The work of abandonment, which God works in her, had already taken giant steps. It is at this time that it is perceived. He transmitted the project of Our Lord to those entitled to it and, until the beginning, did not ask the least question about it. The revealing word of his life is inscribed today in his soul, as on the first day of his arrival in France, (and how much more deeply!): "God leads me."
On Friday, August 24, during Thanksgiving, Jesus confirmed it in that offering, which only love can explain and stabilize:
“Tell me, Josefa. everything you would say to Me if you didn't see Me. It is not always up to you to listen, I also like to 'and listen. ”
Then, she writes, I repeated my desire to love Him, to be faithful to Him, to refuse Him nothing. But, you know how weak I am! ... Jesus looked at me with that look so beautiful and so kind that it fills me with confidence ”.
“Yes, give me this proof of your love, because love makes everything easy. Follow the example of my Heart: I created souls for Love and I want to save them for Love! May souls in turn prove yours to Me! And if I desire so much to be loved by souls ... let alone by those who are my Wives.
“And you, Josefa! Do you know the madness of Love that I have for you, for your smallness and your misery?
"Pay me with your acts that are the currency of Love!"
“My actions, Lord! they are small, so miserable! ”
"It matters little, give me your misery, I will enrich it and, in exchange for every sacrifice you offer Me, I will pay you with the delicacies of my heart."
But, here on earth, divine Commerce operates on a different plane of our human plans, Josefa knows and will still learn it better. His living faith will know to discover, in the shadow increasingly dark cross, the evidence of Love endless strong mind and gentle heart of Jesus.
Indeed, before making the visit to Rome remains to go through a painful stage that will prepare her in God's way for that one.

SUFFERING RETREAT
August 25 - October 2, 1923

“I work in the dark, but my Work will come to light in such fear that one day one might admire all the details.”

(Our Lord to Josefa - August 30, 1923).

There are still nine days until the opening of the Retreat that she had so longed for! the last of his life! ... nine dials of troubles and suffering, for no light shines on the path that the devil seems to have taken over.
"I cannot say to what extent it torments me, night and day, body and soul - writes Josefa ... I suffered a lot until the 2nd of August, when the Spiritual Exercises begin for the Community".
These days of desolation so disturbed her that she barely had the strength to face a new effort. It reads in his intimate notebook:
“O Jesus, have you abandoned me? See how I am!
In the meantime I love You ... yes, I love You more than anything in the world ... I wanted to do everything You want from me, but I am not even sure what I will do in an instant! ... I am an abyss of pride and corruption! ... I feel my impotence more and more ... I don’t know what’s happening to me… it’s as if I don’t want anymore, because I do and say what I didn’t want to do or say, and I feel impelled towards evil ... ”O Jesus, I cannot answer for myself anymore!, ..
But I count on you, I abandon myself. I know that you will support me and that you will forgive me, I know that you love me! ”
“What anguish! - writes further. - You alone, my God, you know my affliction! The cross weighs me ... the road you take me seems superior to my strength ... Lord! come to my rescue, get up, enlighten me.
“This afternoon, Wednesday, August 29, - continues Josefa, a few lines down - Jesus came for a moment. I saw your Heart and understood that your Love for me has no measure, your Look told me.
I threw myself at his feet and poured my heart into his. "
" What mattered - he said - I am Rich, Powerful, Lover and Faithful. I have not told you, and how many times, that I love you because of your misery and yours believe in my Word and stay in my Peace! Take advantage of these days of Retreat to respond with great love to the graces with which I showered you. You will recite five Miserero every day, adding a Pater to honor each of my Wounds. -You are in them ... always be your refuge. Humble yourself and fear nothing, I am your protection, your life and I will always defend you ”.
“Ah! - he exclaims - how those words would be enough to make a saint other than me! ... And my soul is numb ... The whole day passed in horrible temptations. Oh my God! how I am suffering! ... You only know and in the meantime I wanted to love You ...
I cannot separate myself from You! ”
Can Jesus resist an appeal like this? ... At dawn on Thursday, August 30, she finds herself again:
“Here I am at your feet, as I am, Lord! Misery, sin, ingratitude, a being worthy of all contempt! But I see You, as You are: Love, Kindness and Mercy!
This double affirmation is one that enchants the Master's Heart. The humble confidence that does not doubt him attracts Him, compels Him to bow.
“It came suddenly - writes Josefa - very beautiful and very good! "
“Fear nothing. Don't you know that my Heart has no other desire but to consume your miseries and consume you? ... I know you and I love you! I will never bore you. ”
“The closer I get to him - she continues: the more I suffer because I don't know how to love Him and my only recourse is to ask Him for forgiveness.”
“You know,” he replied, “that I am ready to have forgiveness, not once, but each time your weakness succumbs. If you're weak, I'm strong.
If you are misery, I am the Fire that consumes. Approach Me with confidence and let Me purify your soul. ”
“Then, the Flame of Your Heart poured over my chest.
“And now, take the Crown. She will be a witness of my Forgiveness and my Love. Let yourself be guided, be very humble and faithful. I lead you and my Action will rule you. ”
“I thanked Him and begged Him not to allow me to be an obstacle to His Work.”
Jesus reassures her with words that can only come out of his Lips:
“Fear not! I work in obscurity, but my Work will come to light, so that one day one can admire all the details. "
Peace, in which the Master leaves it, is but an interval. Always simple and attentive to the present moment, Josefa tries to immerse herself in the meditations that take place in the early days of the holy Exercises. Continue to write down your wishes.
“I meditated on death - he writes on September 1 - and a certain fear came over me, thinking that it is so close. But I got up my courage and was even comforted by the thought of the final step I will take in four or five months. Why fear?
I have no merit, to be sure, but aren't Jesus' merits mine? You will not need to count on Him who can do everything and is all Merciful!
Yes. Jesus is Good, Merciful and is my Spouse.
If I live in it, I will die in it, to find Him without fear of ever losing Him! Oh!divine and eternal Union, come and come! I say it to you without even feeling that desire! because my nature is afraid ... I am afraid that my heart will betray me ... Oh! my God!You know that this heart loves and clings. But, I abandon everything to you. You alone, Jesus! Your Heart alone! ''
It is certainly time to rely on Jesus alone!
This Saturday, September 1st, he brought the warning that the next day, the Bishop of Poitiers, responding to the communication that had been made to him, would deign to come to the Sacred Heart to dedicate a short interview to him.
The silence of the retreat, which surrounds the entire house, will cover this episcopal visit. Thus, in the midst of human circumstances, the divine Master directs all the details of his Work and keeps at a distance, under the Force of his Will, the infernal powers whose irritation is stifled for some time.
“Don't be afraid. You are in my hands, ”Josefa repeats during Holy Hour. - Be very simple I will be with you and I will tell you everything ”.
“Today, September 2,” she writes after the Bishop's visit, “I spoke with Monsignor for the first time. I was very moved at first, but then, little by little, I acted as if I were speaking to Our Lord in person and my soul found so much peace with him that I cannot express it.
I told him all my disgust against this path, my temptations to avoid it, my little strength to resist, and the anguish that grips me sometimes, when I see my impotence to keep the resolutions. Monsignor said words to me so kindly that they greatly fortified and comforted me ”.
Josefa writes nothing more about this blessed hour of God and that it should have such repercussions for the Work of Love. He had faithfully observed the Master's detailed instructions, delivered the Message dictated only to him and which will remain secret. She had communicated the Lord's designs on the world to her and then, answering all the prelate's questions with simplicity, she had opened her soul, with the most respectful and filial abandonment, in the face of that paternity that, for her, was that of God himself, On the same day, the Superior of Josefa wrote to the Most Reverend Mother General:
“This morning's interview was simple, easy and comforting. Monsignor came alone. Holy Mass in the oratory of Saint Stanislaus, in the midst of the community in retreat, with a beautiful Polish chant of the novices and a few words from His Excellency was a true moment of grace. Then we carried out, point by point, the line of conduct drawn with so much love and clarity by Our Lord, whose Heart has been so faithful to us so far. Then, His Excellency, very paternal and benevolent, - already aware of everything through R. Padre Boyer - was left alone with Josefa, for about forty minutes ... The interview ended. Monsignor deigned to tell us how moved he was by the simplicity and candor of that daughter who spoke unpretentiously in picturesque French, but with a soul full of God.Monsignor took the words that had been addressed to him personally, on the 11th and 12th of June, asking us to pray a lot and saying that he was willing to enter into the designs of God.
S. Excia. will return perhaps before November. But what comfort and peace this first visit left! ”
"I will do everything", said Our Lord and once more his Word had been fulfilled. Josefa will often see His Excellency again. Monsignor de Durfort. Until the end, he will be the support and security of his path. He will read all his writings and dignify he will question her or support her. She will receive the Extreme Unction from her hands, and in front of him will pronounce the last commitments of the religious profession.
Often, in the last days of his life, he will talk to Josefa. And when she has finished her oblation and finished her career here on earth, the Bishop of Poitiers will make sure to give the supreme blessings of the Church to the humble privileged of the Heart of Jesus. But, for the time being, the divine Master is jealous of the humility and effacement of his Instrument. The hours of relief only lasted long enough in his mind to climb a serious and decisive slope. They did not go on; and as early as Monday, September 3, darkness invades Josefa's soul again; dryness, abandonment, desolation, temptation to despair ... nothing is spared her, not even the presence of the devil! ... it is in this chaos of suffering that she continues the exercises of the Retreat ... are a cry of anguish:
“Sixth day ... here I lost my Jesus. How have I done this retreat? ... Only God knows! ”
Yes, God knows. and it is in the midst of these unspeakable sufferings that Love works to perfect the Work and consummate the Victim. Let it touch the bottom of its own misery and crush it under the weight of divine rigor. It gives you the vivid impression of the approaching end, the emptiness of your own life, the responsibility of the squares in which you are immersed. At the same time, it condemns it to total impotence and consumes it with the insatiable thirst to love Him.
Josefa does not know how to translate this affliction, compounded by the painful physical exhaustion and nightly assaults of the tireless enemy.
Thus the month of September will end. Only a few stays will sustain their courage.
“On Friday, September 14 - she writes - I saw the Reverend. Father Boyer.
He put me back on the path of trust and although I suffer so much for not being able to love Jesus as I would like to be, I am calm because I expect everything, not from myself, but from his merits and his mercy ”.
That infinitely Good Heart, which supports her without her feeling it, suddenly appears to her, on the morning of September 18.
During Thanksgiving - she writes that day, Tuesday - I was adoring Him and loving her through the Heart of Mary Most Holy, because I am capable of nothing, when suddenly I saw, very beautiful, with the Heart all burned.
With unspeakable kindness he said:
“Josefa! come, approach this brazier of Love. Bring here all your miseries to consume them in this Fire. ”
“I asked Him to have compassion on me, for each day I am more unworthy, not only of his Graces, but of his Forgiveness and his Mercy.”
“Fear nothing! Come closer! The more misery I find in you, the more Love you will find in my Heart! ”
"Then he leaned against my heart and I told him all my wishes ... and also all my sins so that he would forgive us."
“I know your misery, Josefa, and I am in charge of repairing it. In return, console Me and repair for souls. ”
Convinced of her own indignity, Josefa is surprised that the Master still has her.
“Haven't I already told you - continues the Lord - that I am in charge of everything? I will repair for you, you will repair for souls. ”
And after having revived his confidence and directed his gaze towards the horizon of souls, he reminds him of the proximity of a new mission.
“And now,” he says, “listen carefully: I have many things to entrust to you for the bishop and Mother General.
"Without a doubt, you are not worthy to receive and transmit my words. But when I use you, do it for the love of souls.
" While you wait, - he adds - you know my tastes: I wish many small acts of humility. Let Love choose you with delicacy and generosity. ”
Twice more, on Fridays, September 21 and 28, - in the midst of the darkness that darkens your path, the Lord's clarity will suddenly shine.
He will come to send her to write, under his dictation, the direct Message, reserved for the Society of the Sacred Heart, which she will have to deliver to her Mother General.
“I want you to say it yourself '' - insists Our Lord.
These are solemn moments whose scope and gravity Josefa understands: the breadth of God's designs so far exceeds her own thoughts, her predictions and even her fears, that the nothingness of the instrument has become for her the most evident of realities.
There is nothing more to do to correspond to the divine Projects, but to abandon oneself in the faith: Josefa reaches that summit where the Master will fix it:
“Let yourself be led with your eyes closed - he said - because I am your Father and I have Mine open to you drive and guide you ”. September 18, 1923).

XIII ROME

CASA MADRE: DIVINE GUARANTEES
2 to 26 October 1923

“Just as the sun shines even more after a dark day, so, after this great suffering, my Work will appear in all its clarity”.

(Our Lord to Josefa - October 14, 1923).

For the second time, Josefa will leave the Feulllants and, this time, for a long journey. After our Lord, supporting the word of his mother (August 20, 1923), he had expressed the desire expressed that Josefa convey to Mother General a personal message about your heart work, many exchanges of correspondence, and prayers mainly prepared the realization of this design. By the way, that tilting hearts towards his mysterious ways, already had long inspired the Sacred Heart of the Superior General of the thought of knowing that daughter. Rome she followed her with maternal kindness is right, but also with the more cautious and far-sighted prudence. Now, this supernatural wisdom that always directs friends of God seeks, for the fulfillment of this project, the sign of providential circumstances.
Soon, a retreat will gather at Casa Madre a large number of superiors who will come from all over the houses of the Sacred Heart, in Europe, to unite them in the same spirit and in the same fervor. Is it not the sign of God? Couldn't Josefa accompany the Superior of the Feuillants who was also invited to Rome?
The Josefa-way will not find reason for the extra work that will bring the Mother House the influx of migrants? The trip is decided, the departure is announced. Enters the order of offerings that obedience often asks religious life without the heart never get used to them. The Josefa is too according to the Heart of Jesus, so that your delicate sensibilities do not feel strongly the sacrifice of all that loved us Feuillants: Mothers, sisters, blessed cell of the Mother Foundress, the chapel, runners, all dearest places that for her are the scene of so many distinguished thanks!
Will your goodbye be final? She believes it. A Mother who had been a dedicated assistant for almost two years will write, recalling this departure:
“I found her in front of the chapel of the Works she liked so much and came to say goodbye to. On the threshold of the Lord's house, where we had been together so often, we made a pact of prayer to stay united in his heart. "What will we ask for each other?" I asked him. And as Josefa was silent, I added: "May Jesus perfectly fulfill his designs on our souls".
- Yes, he answered right away, the Will of God; everything is in it. May He be perfectly free in us ”. He continued: "However great the suffering of each day, the grace of each day never fails to carry it."
From the look in her eyes, I guessed that intense suffering must at that moment be the expression of divine Von / ade and, at the same time, the current proof of her love.
“At the time of departure, she said to me: -“ I am happy to offer Our Lord the sacrifice of this house. It was hard for me to leave Spain; now it costs me to leave France; it is the homeland of my soul, the cradle of my religious life, but it is the Will of God ”.
On Tuesday, October 2, 1923, at noon, they left for Rome, Josefa and her Superior. Jesus in person would become divine companion of the first day: the evil train moves on, taken on full magazine, Josefa plunged in prayer. So many different emotions filled his heart that he could only calm down in silent contact with the inner Guest. It need not seek Him, the mind of the soul tends to that loneliness, that some outside noise can disturb. It was soon realized that she was absorbed in the Presence, which is everything to her.
Suddenly, Jesus appears to him. Who, among the travelers that surround her, come and go, come and go, would suspect what the humble Little Sister's closed eyes were contemplating? ...
- Look at my Heart - says Jesus, and burning sparks spurted from the Wound. - Souls do not know how to seek in this Heart the graces that I wish to pour out on them. There are so many who are not attracted by the divine magnet of my Love!
This is why I need chosen Souls.
I want you to spread this magnet all over the earth. You cannot know, Josefa how they glorify me and I will use you to pour my graces and my Love on the world ”.
Jesus disappeared ... but in the afternoon, just before arriving in Paris, he returned and confirmed his plans for this period of Josefa's life.
"I want to save the world - he said - and I want to serve.
Me unto you poor and miserable creatures, communicating to you my wishes, so that, for you, many souls know my Mercy and My Love "
And Josefa asking, once again, what would you do there, that "there" that meant to her anxiety of the unknown:
“Don't be afraid,” says Jesus. - I'll tell you. I lead you ... You will speak without fear, Josefa, because it is the means by which my Desires will begin to be fulfilled ”.
Then he insisted again:
Nothing fears. My footsteps are sometimes like on sandy soil, and at certain times my footprints seem to disappear. But it's not like that. As for you, be very docile. Don't worry about anything and don't worry about what can be said or thought about you. It is I who guide everything, and I know what suits my Work ”.
Excited by this paternal kindness, Joseía still dares to trust her with everything that moves and disturbs her:
“If you didn't have faith, I would understand - make Our Lord. - But if you believe in Me, why do you worry? Keep these words, Josefa! I work in the dark and though I am Light. Already more than once warned you it will come time when everything seems lost and destroyed my work. But today, I declare again: the light will shine again and with even greater intensity! ”
Affirmations like these clearly announce what Rama has in store for Josefa and the Work whose precious deposit is in his soul. You will need to suffer much, but stay right in support of Jesus. What suffering is this, so clearly predicted? Nothing gives the suspect when the travelers landed in Rome on October 5, 1923, first Friday of the month, by the twelve hours.
Many superiors had already preceded them; succeed each other arrivals and religious joy of so many meetings, the little sister that comes to help - at least, is what you think - disappears in the shadow so dear to his heart. Soon you will get lost in the midst of the Sisters and become familiar with the large building so well called: "Mother House". You immediately feel at ease, overflowing with joy and confidence. He wishes the mothers so much! ... The first interview with Mother General was further proof that Our Lord was opening the way for her. Her maternal kindness confuses her, her reception fills her with gratitude.
Josefa already appreciates in advance the pleasure of spending her forces to collaborate, as much as she can, in the work of the house, which will soon become an upper room.
Is there too many superiors and young religious who knows Spanish. Hearing her language, thus making contact with her country so dear, is a delightful surprise for her; there are no shadows in this simple and profound happiness, whose secret religious life know and gives us, from time to time Josefa enjoys simply and with all his ardent and gentle heart. It seems to her that the clouds have dissipated under the warm sun and that, for once at least, she is, nothing more, nothing less, than a humble help of the “Society” that she loves so much!
But God's designs are different and, without delay, he will remind his Messenger that she came, not to enjoy, but to suffer and help him in his Work of Love.
On Saturday, October 6, she makes an appointment because, - He explains - she needs to write her Heart's Wishes to Mother General.
Always faithful, it takes again the yoke of the divine requirements, as contrary to its appeal, and as the Mother House, two days before the opening of the retreat, filled with newcomers and joy, she gets in the silence of cell occupied by his Superior, the Message that Jesus comes, in Person, to dictate. The secret of these pages could not be published; is reserved for the Sacred Heart Society. But, placed like this in front of her mission, Josefa is frightened and feels the outbreak of her apprehensions never appeased.
During Thanksgiving, the next day, Sunday, October 7, Our Lord, responding to the anxiety of his soul, appears to him.
- Why are you sad? ” - question, as the disciples of Emmaus.
"Sir, - she says - I'm sad to see me this way as ex raordinário where it seems to me sometimes that I will lose."
"You do not know, Josefa, who never leave you alone? My only desire is to reveal to my souls the Love, Mercy and Forgiveness of my Heart. That's why I chose you, miserable as you are. Do not worry, I love you and your misery is precisely the cause of my Love. I wanted you for Me and, because you are miserable, I worked miracles to keep you carefully ... Yes, I love all souls, but with what I prefer those that are weaker and smaller! ”
And, firmly supporting the words:
“I loved you and kept you, Josefa. I love you and I keep you! I will love you and I will always keep you! Hide me in your heart with love. As for Me, I keep you in Mine with Tenderness and Mercy ”.
A few moments later, during the nine-hour mass, the Master still appears to him. Nothing denotes the divine Presence. Kneeling in the midst of the Sisters, after having renewed the Vows and worshiping the One who can only describe it by saying: “It has come very beautifully”, he collects the following words:
"I seek the love of my souls come and make them say what I want, I ask, which I beg you Give me: love, only love. As for you, Josefa, be faithful and docile well: tell thee all as they needed, and briefly bring thee into the light without end. Then my words will read it and my love will be known! "
By Sunday afternoon, Jesus, as he said, continues his message again. What silence, here as in the Feuillants, involves these wonders of Love!
In the cell in which Josefa meets her Superior, the Lord manifests himself, not for her, but for the “Society” he will deign to serve, to communicate the unfathomable riches of his Heart to the world.
Once it disappears, Josefa back to work, humble and simple as ever, giving to the wisdom of their superiors the secrets that are just weak and useless intermediary.
He will often personally take the pages on which he writes the Master's Designs to the Most Reverend Mother General. These visits, surrounded by complete secrecy, fill her with confusion. Josefa never departs from his usual reserve but forgotten herself, accompanying it with tender and respectful branch expansion.
In fact, Our Lord keeps his soul in a painful feeling of his own misery. It is the clear line of his action and what opposition, what humiliation of human order, could reach the depth of those annihilations to which God himself reduces his creature when He pleases? ...
Josefa lets herself be destroyed by that powerful Hand.
“But - he writes on Monday, October 8 - I was telling Our Lord, during Thanksgiving, how afraid I am of his judgment, when I find myself so close to death and my life empty before Him! ...
"He came suddenly very beautiful, and looked at me with immense kindness."
Josefa like to notice the look, which in itself is peace. How many souls, reading these lines, create mood with the certainty that look that penetrates and purifies, strengthens and peaceful, this look which the living faith leaves us no doubt . When Jesus' eyes scanned her to the bottom:
“All of this is true,” He says, “if you see nothing more than your works. But I will be I will present you before the heavenly court. Yes, I myself prepare the tunic with which I will dress you. It is woven with the precious linen of my merits and dyed with the purple of my blood. My Lips will imprint in your soul the kiss of Peace and Love. Fear nothing, I will not abandon you until I have led you to the country of eternal light ”.
“Jesus took away the fear that I had to die” - simply adds Josefa.
The same morning, Josefa, helping the sisters in the laundry feels a first symptom nothing led to predict: a small vomiting blood, she hides at first. The pallor of his face reveals, however, the accident. The doctor doesn't find anything disturbing. But after long examination, asking your age - thirty-three years - wonder is, "because, he says, your body thinks is so worn!" It was no wonder; the mystery of your nights and your painful days is enough to explain this premature exhaustion. But this cause is in God's domain. Josefa will be forced to rest for a few days, without completely abandoning neither work nor ordinary life. To one of the Reverend Mothers General Assistants who kindly informed her of her tiredness:
"Since I'm going to die," he replied naively, "I need to have something!"
Physical fatigue, however, is nothing compared to what awaits. Suddenly, the demon returns to the scene. That same afternoon, his infernal device manages to deceive Josefa. - Under the appearances of Our Lord, tries to distort the divine Plan, beginning with honeyed words, which soon become proud and arrogant statements. The very excess of diabolic cunning ends up being revealed, for it is not the first time that he disguises himself as an angel of light. It turns out then, aspect changes, threatening, blasphemous and disappears into the dark smoke, leaving Josefa, the first moment, overcome by the satanic power and then bewildered, terrified and uncertain.
“I entered - she writes shortly afterwards - in doubt so profound that I really believe I was the devil's plaything, from the beginning! I believe so firmly that everything seen so far was his work, which only left me beg our Lord to give birth to my superiors so that they know the truth. "
On Tuesday, October 9, he continues: “Always the same pain and the same anxiety!
The thought that all these things were never from Our Lord, but only from the devil, throws me into terrible anguish! I just ask for a grace, that the Mothers also understand that! ”
A flash of peace and truth illuminates the entrance to this great tribulation a little. On that day, Our Lady responds to her daughter's plea. Josefa is so distraught that does not believe in the reality of that presence.
But after having listened to the renewal of the Vows and having repeated the divine praises with her, Mary calms her down and says:
"Yes, child, I am the same, the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus who is the purity and eternal light. It is I, your Mother, who come to bring you peace.
"Do not be afraid, - he adds, - Jesus you will defend and so that the enemy's cunning is always discovery, each time you try to deceive you.
If you are in doubt, tell him boldly: "Get thee hence, Satan, I have nothing to do with you, you're just lying. I belong to Jesus who is the Truth and the Life. "
Fear nothing, my daughters, the Heart of Jesus loves you and will guide you to the end. I love you and I bless you, Josefa, be at peace! ”
Those words comfort her for a while. But the hour of darkness has come. The demon prints you so strongly in the spirit the conviction of having been deceived for three years, any other evidence, far from pacifying it, put it in greater anxiety because, beyond this painful certainly adds up to there , unwittingly, dragged to error all the people who supported it until then. This visit plunges her into such poignant agony that she never seems to have gone through similar affliction. Only God can judge this acute suffering that does not have to lean on ... but only it also calculates, at this time, the value of a faith and an abandonment that may touch the rays of heroism: Josefa only sought to be faithful in the truth . Her detachment from the path she had thought to be from God, the humility with which, in the midst of that dark night, she had accepted all the consequences of what she called "her disarray" ... the painful peace that binds her, despite everything, only to will of God, to deliver itself to the mysterious conduct whose traces no more sees the simplicity of obedience that only expects the security word from their superiors: it is not everything in it, authentic sign of God's Spirit?
While the devil employs the power granted to it and all your efforts seem to triumph of the Work of the Heart of Jesus, the watchful eyes who watch Josefa discern, through the storm, the action increasingly light that gives this daughter proves beyond doubt of its Presence and its Designs.
"Working in the dark, and though I am Light."
Never before has this divine declaration been realized. As for Josefa, judging themselves under no compassion and worthy of all the contempt humbly continues his work, despite the fatigue that overdrive.
The devil is constantly overwhelms her with lying charges, unable to exhaust him neither faith nor energy. She finds him in the corridors and on the stairs of that Casa Madre, where she supposed she was safe from his attacks. Not even nights escape diabolical pursuits. God does not allow the affirmations of the superiors to soothe his distress. It seems to have abandoned it; and his prayer, which is rather a cry for help, goes unanswered. So a long week goes by. No ray of hope appears on the horizon; Josefa carries, without bending, her cross and without anything externally denoting her intense suffering. But his face is drawn and his forces are exhausted. In vain, Mother General's kind compassion seeks some relief for her.
Mater Admirabilis, the miraculous Madonna of the “Trindade dos Montes”, will see her at her feet and hear her painful appeal. His Holiness Pius XI will bless you and give you the hand to kiss in a passing audience. Josefa's living faith will rest on this priceless grace. His daughter's soul tremble Cia Church of gratitude and haurirá strength to suffer without the cross ceases for a moment of roughly weigh on his shoulders. He whose Wisdom thus has everything, keeps the hour of liberation to Himself.
On Sunday, October 14, during Thanksgiving, Josefa is suddenly in the presence of the Master, who calm the waves and calm the storms. And he starts to hesitate, he fears, he wants to doubt and take away the vision that he thinks is misleading.
"Don't be afraid," Jesus replies, with that strong, soft voice that defies any diabolical device. Hey how, having renewed the Vows, Josefa vigorously persisted in her intention to resist all deception;
“Do not be afraid,” repeats the Master. - I am Jesus, I am the Spouse to whom you join the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience that you have just renewed. I am the God of Peace! ”
These words invade his soul with such power, such security, that it is useless to continue to resist.
As much as I didn't want to, - she writes - such a clarity entered me that I was convinced that it was Himself ”.
A few hours later the demon will try in vain to persuade you otherwise.
But in the afternoon worship,
“The one - she says - that I think is Jesus, came back.
I asked Him to repeat with me that He really was the Son of the Immaculate Virgin. Then, in the midst of the peace that radiated from the Semblant and the Voice, he said:
“Yes, Josefa. I am the Son of the Immaculate Virgin, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus, the Son of God, and God Himself, who clothed my holy Humanity to give my Blood and my Life to souls. I love them and I love you, Josefa. I am looking for them now to manifest my Love and Mercy to them and that is why I have bent down to you. Nothing fears. My power defends you ".
Then, with sovereign authority:
" No, you are not mistaken. "
The thick veil that involved Josefa dissipated with those words, and Jesus continued:
" Tell your Mothers that I want you to write.
And just as the sun shines even more, after a dark day, so too, after this great suffering, my Work will appear with all its clarity ”.
The storm surges, but not without some whirlwinds, as in a sea that has been agitated to great depths.
On Monday, October 15, as she passed in front of the oratory of Saint Magdalene Sofia, Josefa heard a well-known voice calling her. Always afraid, she runs away at first, but the holy Founder attracts her to peace and trust.
"I am your Mother - she says and, to give you assurance, she adds:
" I will only tell you that during my life I sought only the glory of the divine Heart. And now that I live in him and in him, the expansion of his Kingdom is more than ever, my only wish, so I ask that this small "Society" be for many souls the means of knowing and loving Him more and more.
“Nothing fears! If the devil seeks to harm her, it is because she is the object of predilection for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But the divine Master will not allow her to fall into the hoaxes that she owes her for the enemy.
“Go, daughter, go to your job. I bless you. ”
That same afternoon, in the silence of the retreat that had continued, while Josefa was experiencing such great ailments, the Lord came to continue the Message that had been painfully interrupted.
“Do not think that I am going to tell you anything other than my Cross. Through her. I saved the world; through it, I want to lead you back to the truth of Faith and the path of Love.
“I will express my wishes to you: I saved the world from the top of the cross, that is, through suffering.
“You know that sin is an infinite offense and requires infinite reparation; that is why I ask you to offer your sufferings and your works, together with the infinite merits of my Heart.
“You know perfectly well that my Heart is yours.
Take it and take care of it ...
“The souls you approach, inculcate love and trust. Bathe them in Love.
“Bathe them in confidence in the Goodness and Mercy of my Heart. And, whenever you can speak and make yourself known, always tell souls not to be afraid, for I am God of Love.
“I especially recommend three things to you:
“1. The exercise of the Holy Hour, because it is one of the means of offering God the Father, through Jesus Christ his Divine Son, an infinite reparation;
“2. The five Our Father's devotion to my Wounds, because it is through them that the world receives salvation.
“3. Finally, constant union, or rather the daily offering of the Merits of my Heart, because in this way you will give all your actions an infinite value.
“To continually use my Life, my Blood, my Heart ... to trust my Heart unceasingly and without fear: it is a secret that many souls do not know very well.
I want you, at least you, to know it and enjoy it. ”
And, after some requests clearly addressed to the “Society”, he adds:
“Stay in my Peace. I love you, guide you, defend you. Never doubt my Kindness. ”
Therefore, the dawn after the storm is purer, more radiant, and Josefa, always ignorant of herself, does not suspect that new guarantees of supernatural action pleased the Lord to impress on his Work through the storm. Mother General, who had closely followed her daughter's discouragement, was able to have tangible evidence of the seriousness of her virtue and the sincerity of her detachment from herself. Never had the imprint of the Spirit of God been more tangible nor had it seemed so authentic, as in those hours when, immersed in affliction, she accepted, with peace and total abandonment, the collapse of everything she had thought was the Work of Love, for which she sacrificed his life and gave up his whole being.
The stay in Rome is about to end; Our Lord had carried out his Plan there. There are still a few days of grace: on Friday, October 19, the Holy Founder reminds her daughter yet again of the role of the cross in the Work that is about to end.
“Don't be afraid,” he says, “it was he, it was the Sacred Heart that always governed and directed this little Society. But, sometimes it is difficult to recognize your Action. The world lacks faith and Jesus wants his Wives to repair this lack of faith with acts of trust. Don't be afraid and don't worry if you don't have light, Jesus will give it little by little. He will order that everything be fulfilled according to his designs. As for you, you just have to obey and abandon yourself. Yes, there are undoubtedly moments of darkness, it is the Cross of Jesus that rises before us and prevents us from seeing Him. But He himself tells us: "Do not be afraid, it is I". Yes, it is He who will guide and complete his Work to the end.
Fear nothing, be faithful and be at peace ”.
The Mater Admirabilis party, so dear to the Sacred Heart Society - on Saturday, October 20, does not pass without the Mother also coming to comfort her daughter's soul.
"I am your Mother, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of Mercy,"
says She, insisting to prove her identity. And as Josefa still confided to her the fears that she is not always able to overcome:
“Don't go back, daughter. Let Jesus glorify himself in your smallness and your misery. This is how their Power and Goodness will best shine. See how your Fatherly Hand led you and kept you here. Fear nothing. he will help you to the end. Keep it very simple, because you will have no other glory in heaven than that of your simplicity.
“Little children have no acquired merit. So it is with you. You are a beloved daughter of his Heart, without having done anything for it. But he was the one who did everything in you, who forgives you, who loves you. ”
The next day, Sunday, October 21, while she is in prayer, Jesus discovers her Heart “all burned” and says:
“Look at my Heart. And the book you should meditate on. I will teach you all the virtues, and especially the zeal for my glory and for the salvation of souls. Look at my Heart.
It is the home of the miserable and, therefore, yours; why where to find someone more miserable than you?
“Look at the bottom of my heart.
“It is the crucible where the most stained hearts are purified and are then ignited in love.
Come closer to this focus. Leave your miseries and your sins here. Have confidence and believe in Me that I am your Savior.
“Look at my Heart, Josefa: it is the source of living water. Throw yourself into it and drink until your thirst is quenched. I want and want all souls to come to this source to drink their refreshing from it. As for you. I placed you at the bottom of my heart. You are so small that you would not have been able to get there alone.
So take advantage and drink the graces I give you.
Let my Love work on you and remain small ”.
On the afternoon of that same day, the Holy Mother Foundress appears to her daughter and the maternal recommendations are in keeping with this burning desire:
"May Jesus be loved and glorified in a special way by the souls that make up the small" Society "of his Heart."
“I asked Him to bless me - I write Josefa - since she is My Mother. It was the last time I saw her in Rome. The following days pass in peace and in true joy for my soul.
On Wednesday, October 24, we left Rome and on the 26th we arrived in Poitiers. ”

LAST RETURN TO THE FEUILLANTS PURIFICATION
October 26 - November 30, 1923

“Until today my Cross rested on you, I want you to rest on it from now on”.

(Our Lord to Josefa - October 27, 1923).

Genoa ... Paris ... Poitiers!The quick journey that brings the humble Little Sister Josefa to the Feuillants ends on Friday, October 26; around five, and the big family opens its heart and arms to the two travelers. As in June, after the effusions of the reception and the narratives of the Roman stay with which Josefa cheerfully enlivens the first recess, the shadow falls over her again. It is the picture in which Jesus liked and will like until the end of hiding the predilections of his Heart and the last Messages, as well as the sufferings and trials that will end his Work. The final period will be short. Josefa knows well. The extreme tiredness that she brings in her whole being well says it, even more, the deep Appeal that does not deceive, that of the love that attracts, and detaches, the hurries irresistibly.
On Saturday, October 27, after a quiet night, she writes a filial thanks to Mother General. Simple and spontaneous lines, which must find a place here because they reveal the depth of this soul so fresh and naive of feelings, ignorant of everything that is far-fetched and affected in expression.
“My Most Reverend Mother,
And with great joy I write to you today, to thank you for all the goodness you have shown me! Jesus pay you for everything! ... I ask Him with all my heart. And to you, my Most Reverend Mother, I promise to do everything possible to be faithful in these three or four months of life that I have left ...
I will always do or say everything that Jesus says to me, and I will try to be a little more humble: I believe that it is the most difficult for me ... That is why I promise it to Our Lord with all sincerity and it is with these efforts that I will seek repair my past life a little. For now I am at peace and very happy, although I have not yet seen Jesus, nor the Blessed Virgin, nor our Blessed Mother.
I am very happy to be in Poitiers again. but I do not forget the days spent at Casa Madre and the maternal affection that I found there. I will also never forget you in my prayers and, especially, when I am in heaven, I will try to make many “regalitos”, (goodies) to the Maidens whom I so love and get them little joys in the things they need.
Bless me, my Most Reverend Mother. I am always your little and humble daughter in the Heart of Jesus, Josefa Menéndez. ”
The Lord's return is not long in coming. Jesus seems to be in a hurry to discover his plan for the last weeks of his life.
"He came very beautiful, with the crown of thorns in his hand," she writes, even in the afternoon of the same October 27th. - I had great joy, because I had not seen him since Rome. Then I told him everything that filled my heart and He he replied with great tenderness.
"Do you think Josefa, that I didn't know about your return here? ... I brought you.
“Don't be frightened - the fear of satanic hoaxes continues to read on his face - it's me. Jesus, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin, your Savior and your Spouse ”.
Then, in a tone of grave Kindness:
"To this day, my Cross has rested on you.
I want you to rest on it from now on. You know that it is the heritage of my Wives, but especially the Wives of my Heart."
How can I not give myself without reservation to this Love that asks for it? for suffering? ... Josefa offers herself ... and looking at the crown she so desired, she dares to ask the Master.
"Yes - answer - today. my crown of thorns, and soon, my crown of glory. -Operate me ... Let Me work in you and for you, for souls! I love you ... Love me ... ”
It is under this mysterious divine work that the Work of Love has been consummated.
The next day, October 28, Josefa returned to; his habits, which, incidentally, he had never entirely abandoned. In the evening, according to custom, she went to make the Way of the Cross in that chapel of the Works that she liked so much and which she was delighted to be in charge of again.
Jesus appears to her:
“Having finished - she writes - I recited the five Father Ours in honor of their Wounds and, as soon as the first had started, He came. He stretched out his right hand, 'then the left, and as I went on saying the five Father Ours, a ray of light streamed from each Chaga.
“I renewed the Vows and, in the end, He said:
“Yes, Josefa, I am Jesus, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin. Here are the open Wounds on the Cross to rescue the world from Eternal Death and give it Life. They are the ones who will obtain mercy and forgiveness for so many souls that irritate the Father's wrath. They are the ones who, from now on, will give Light, Strength and Love ”.
And, showing the wounded Heart:
“This wound is the divine Volcano wherever: my chosen Souls and especially the Wives of my Heart are burned. This Chaga, is theirs and all the graces that it contains from them are, so that they pour out on the world, on so many and so many souls who do not know how to come and get them and on so many others who despise them ”.
So - writes Josefa - I asked Him to teach these souls how to make him known and loved.
“I will give you all the necessary light, so that you may know how to use this treasure and not only become known and loved, but also to repair the constant outrages with which sinners overwhelm Me. Yes, the world offends Me, but it will be saved by repairing the chosen Souls.
“Goodbye, Josefa! Love, because love is reparation, and reparation is love ”.
The following days will correspond to this Call.
As the week begins, Josefa returns to the workshop that celebrates it. A lot of work was done without it during the month of October, as the opening of classes had multiplied the task of making uniforms. Josefa is happy to admire the efforts of her sisters, mainly proving that it will be well replaced and that it sounds like a departure for heaven will not leave the Madres in trouble. His assistants must be accustomed to no longer leaving him the responsibility of the service: therefore, in the long hours that he will devote to this expensive work, he will reserve for himself the most humble patches, leaving every initiative to his young substitute, who will no longer be guided. if not by some look of encouragement. The secondary place that detaches you from your beloved activity is precious to you. Your soul creates affection, your goodness becomes more supportive and your smile more radiant,despite the exhaustion that the countenance reveals. Through these last efforts, the Lord has just secretly sculpted the configuration of the instrument with his Passion and his Cross. In the first days of November, the devil tries to renew the fearsome trial that Josefa had known in Rome.
It appears to her with the features of Our Lord and lets her renew the Vows. But he refuses to repeat the divine praises and the statement that Jesus pronounces each time, with such fervor! "I am Jesus, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin!"
“Say it, that's enough,” replies the deceitful hell. In vain will he try to simulate the Master's words. Josefa, seeing no trace of a wound in his hands, does not allow himself to be seduced and repels him with indignation. But his soul is troubled and restless. The thought of the near death increases his distress and the days pass in painful anguish.
“It was like this - she writes - that from October 28 to November 13, I never saw Our Lord again. ''
The feast of Saint Stanislaus, patron of the Novitiate, on Tuesday, November 13, however, brings heavenly Clarity about the darkness of the path.
“This morning, after communion - she writes - Jesus came in very beautiful, the wounds were shining with flames and, even before I could utter a word, he said:
“ Fear nothing, I am Jesus, the Son of the Immaculate Virgin. "
And kindly condescending to repeat divine praises with her, he added to completely reassure her:
“Yes, I am Love! I am the Son of the Immaculate Virgin; I am Spouse of Virgins, the Strength of the weak, the Light of Souls, your Life, your Reward and your End!
"My Blood erases all sins, for I am the Reparator and the Redeemer!"
So much kindness encourages Josefa, entrusts to Master the sufferings of previous days, the extreme tiredness that no longer leaves him the strength to work and makes him feel the end of the end.
“Well, then, my Josefa - responds tenderly - do you not wish to possess Me and enjoy Me forever? As for Me, I desire you! I glorify myself in the souls that fulfill my Will always and in everything, and I chose you because of that.
Let Me do with you what I know suits my Glory and your good. The winter of this life passes ... and I am your Happiness! ”
Afterwards, Jesus makes an appointment in order to communicate to her what she must transmit, for the second time, to the Bishop of Poitiers.
A few moments later, He finds her in the cell and Josefa takes up her sentence again. Jesus speaks in principle to the bishop, because his Love wants to make him the first support of his Work. Then, widening the horizon, he adds:
“I want my Love to be the sun that shines and the heat that warms souls. For this reason, I wish you to make my words known ".
" I want the whole world to read my burning desire to forgive and to save, that the most miserable are afraid of nothing! ... that the most guilty do not run away from Me .. . come everybody!
“I wait for you as a Father, with your arms open.
to give them Life and true Happiness!
“For the world to know my Goodness, I need apostles who reveal my Heart, but who first know Him ... because it is possible to teach what is ignored?
“This is why I will speak for a few days to my Fathers, my Religious, my Religious.
Then one must see clearly what I ask: I want to form a league of Love between my consecrated Souls, so that they may teach and publish, to the ends of the world, my Mercy and my Love.
“I want the desire and the need to repair to awaken and grow among faithful and chosen souls because the world has sinned ...
“Yes, the world, the nations are stirring up divine anger at this moment. But God wants to reign for Love, and he addresses his chosen Souls, especially those of this Nation. Ask them to notice, first to obtain forgiveness, but mainly to attract new graces on this Earth that was the first, I repeat again, the first to know my Heart and to spread this devotion.
“I want the world to be saved ... peace and unity in it. I want to reign and I will reign for the reparation of my chosen ones and for a new knowledge of my Goodness, my Mercy and my Love ”.
"My Words will be Light and Life for an incalculable number of souls, all will be printed, read and preached, and I will give them special grace, so that they may clarify and transform souls." The Lord was silent. He had spoken so hard and so fervently that Josefa was thrilled. He loves that Will that. once again, he outlines his plans and whose divine security removes all fear.
"I asked his forgiveness for doubting yet," she writes, "but he knows the hoaxes of the devil!.,."
“Do you believe that I can leave you at the mercy of this cruel enemy? I love you, and I will never allow you to be deceived. Fear nothing, trust in Me, who am Love. "
How to admire that similar Messages can only be bought at a high price! ... The one who transmits them must be the first to pay for it with all his capacity to suffer. She knows it, and her oblation becomes more and more profound, in the face of the world that must be offered to these so great, so ardent, so urgent Projects of Mercy and Love!
Since the first days of November, during the nights mainly, physical pains seem to destroy his whole being little by little, intense pains, the origin of which is not found and which increase each Friday.
She had spent Friday, November 9, stretched out and with almost no movement possible, her head, chest, limbs shaken with violent suffering ... A new hemorrhage leaves her in extreme distress without the medical consultation finding out the cause.
On Thursday, November 15, at eight o'clock at night, she is going through a painful crisis that seems to lead her to agony and that is renewed during the night.
However, on Friday morning. IS, Our Lord visits her for Holy Communion and appears to her during thanksgiving: blessed moments; Josefa finds strength in them to continue the rough climb of Calvary.
“Do not be afraid - he says. - I am your Life and your Strength. I am Everything to you and I will never abandon you. ”
After having reminded him of the bishop's next visit:
“As for you,” he adds, “it remains at my disposal, so that I can occupy you whenever I need you, as I want to speak to my chosen Souls.
Leave Me all freedom. This is how I glorify myself ”.
It is above all through suffering that divine freedom is expressed at this hour. Even on the same Friday, the terrible crisis, which had overcome it the previous day, is renewed three times, at nine o'clock, at noon and between three and four o'clock, as if Jesus Crucified wanted to associate it closely with the Sorrows of his Cross.
But as soon as she creates some Force, she gets up and tries to work with energy. This is how, day by day, night by night, through mysterious sufferings that increase without ceasing, Josefa, offered to the One who sacrifices her, goes to its consummation.
On Wednesday, November 21, at the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, she publicly renewed her Vows in the midst of her young Sisters ... Her fervor prepares this celebration of oblation with a love that suffering never ceases to feed. He knows that this is the last time that his voice will repeat, in that chapel, the commitment that had linked him to the Heart of Jesus and his Work of Love. During Thanksgiving, the most faithful husband appears to her and says:
“I too, Josefa, renew the Promise that I made of loving you and being faithful to you. Although I make you suffer, do not believe that I love you less for that: I love you, and I will not stop loving you until the end. But, I need suffering to heal the wounds of souls! Goodbye, stay with me, just as I am with you ”.
A few days later, on Saturday, November 24, S. Excia. Mons.de Durfort, responding to Our Lord's Desire, sees Josefa again at length; this paternal visit is an immense grace that her faith receives with heartfelt gratitude and humble simplicity. It strongly impresses the venerable prelate with his ignorance of himself. It is only concerned with the interests of the Heart of Jesus. The part that she occupies in this Work, her own sufferings revealed by the downcast of her face, all this is worthless, for her in the face of the Master's Desires. It conveys them with objective clarity and precision, no detail is distorted by its incorrect language. Then, as simply as he had left the shadow for a few moments, plunged again into the painful and purifying path that is his most than ever.
Once again, at the end of November, Tuesday, the 27th, Our Lord shows himself to her as a Vision of Peace.
She describes it in the following terms:
“This afternoon, during the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I found nothing to say to Our Lord and, in order not to waste time, I slowly recited the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Then, as the hour had not passed, I began the invocations of the novena, from the first Friday (1), and when I arrived at this one: “Intimate union of the Heart of Jesus with the heavenly Father, I unite with You”, Jesus it came suddenly, resplendent: of beauty.
(1) These invocations that are said every month in the Convents of the Sacred Heart, in the form of a preparatory novena on the first Friday, are protests of union with feelings; and affections of the Heart of Jesus.

His tunic looked like gold, his Heart was like a fire, a blinding light poured from his Chaga.
I renewed the vows and asked for forgiveness for being so cold; at your feet. Looks. However, it was not a lack of love, because I love Him more than anything in the world. He listened to me and looked at me, then he said:
“Listen, Josefa, this prayer to Me is so pleasant and so valuable that it goes far beyond the most eloquent and most sublime prayers than souls; can offer Me. What, in fact, will be of greater price than the union of my Heart with the heavenly Father? ... When souls utter this prayer, they penetrate, as it were, into my Heart and adhere to the divine blessing, whatever it may be for them. they. They unite with God and it is the most supernatural act that can be done on earth, as they begin to experience something from the life of heaven, which consists of the perfect and intimate union of the creature with its Creator and its God.
“Go on, Josefa, go on with your prayer. Through it you adore, repair, deserve and love. Yes, continue your prayer. And I continue my Work ”.
“I entrusted Him with all my afflictions - she writes in, following this narrative - he replied:
“ Do not worry. I lead everything ”.
The hour is certainly one of living faith in the conduct of Love in the midst of so many obscurities. Josefa, overwhelmed by physical suffering, seems abandoned to her own strength. His soul is so low that his courage cannot overcome, and the devil exploits his weakness, reducing it to a kind of moral agony in terror and anguish. However, her faith does not doubt the one who allows such painful hours and gives herself over to the purifying action of Love, in whom she has absolute confidence.

XIII - IN FINEM DILEXIT! ...

THE SEAL OF GOD
 

"The Sign, I will give it to you."
 

(Our Lord to Josefa - September 20, 1923).

December 1923. It is the last month that Josefa spends here on earth. In a set of peace, order, wisdom, power and sovereign freedom that belongs only to Him, the King of Love will finish his Work through the fragility of his Instrument.
Isn't it time to take a look at Josefa's soul and look for the divine Seal that seems to authenticate her mission?
"The tree is known by its fruits". It is in the light of this evangelical principle, emerging from the lips of divine Wisdom, that all virtue is measured and that all supernatural action is confirmed here on earth. Responding one day to an instant and secret plea from Josefa's guides, Our Lord had said, we remember, to the humble Sister who did not suspect these perplexities: “Don't ask me for more signs, Josefa. The Token, I will give it to you ”. A divine answer that, in fact, was to be printed day by day in the four years of this short religious life, marking it with a crease that does not seem susceptible to deception.
The divine Seal is certainly in the SIMPLICITY of a child that makes her enter the kingdom of God. It is one of those small and very simple souls that snatch the King's Heart and reveal its secrets.
Her ignorance of herself, her confident docility, her outright spontaneity, immediately impress those who approach her.
There is no affect on your piety or complications in your life. The firm foundations of her faith preserve her against vain exaggerations and fleeting enthusiasms. Go right to God. This simplicity, which effortlessly puts her at the level of divine communications, leads her to go through trials without deepening their extraordinary reach, places her right afterwards, and without difficulties, on the normal plane of ordinary life.
The way in which he is accountable for his actions is that of an unpretentious child who, in a naive and candid form, but always respectful, reveals the inner gaze that only seeks God. Even the style and calligraphy of the notes left by Josefa reveal a limpid soul without pillings.
HUMILITY and CHARITY, a double feature of the Heart of Jesus that the Church recognizes as a sign, the hallmark of the holy founder of the Sacred Heart, are also one of the guarantees with which God marks the virtue of Josephus.
HUMILITY adds to its simplicity a certain maturity that came from its smallness verified in the light of truth. His brilliant and alive nature has long felt, it is true, how much the external acts that religious life imposes cost. Our Lord allowed it, perhaps, so that she would have to ceaselessly exercise her love in little things and, experiencing her weakness, could judge herself the last of all. But the sincerity of his humility can be assessed with other measures. Forgetfulness and the usual sacrifice of oneself are logical consequences of the conviction of your nothingness, a conviction that is so real and effective, and that was the origin of the struggles that cut your way.
She only accepts this path through heroic submission at times. to the divine Will, its own will being entirely opposite. Mistrust of herself, detachment from her own feeling, humble confidence in authority, mark each of her steps.

Soror Josefa's humility seems even more authentic, as it unfolds in CHARITY all supernatural that, day by day, expands his heart in the Heart of Jesus. A less solid virtue could take advantage of exceptional graces to keep out of its midst, to escape the path of others and to close itself in a certain self-indulgence.

None of this happened. The more the Heart of Jesus discovers its Secrets and fills it with his Life, the more new sources of charity open up that spring up at the slightest contact. Josefa, living so close to the invisible and immersing herself so much in the divine, seems more and more helpful and good in the midst of her Sisters. There is no limit to her gift of herself, her interest and her prayers, it is known around her. The whole world she wants to win for God has become her usual horizon ...
But at the same time, his attentive gaze does not miss any opportunity to give pleasure. In addition to the world of souls and the religious family, there is still a place in your heart for this other world, a reflection of the Father's Beauty and the gift of His Goodness, which we call nature: insect birds, flowers, the sky and the stars ...
He loves everything and embraces everything with this wide, strong, simple and naive affection that enchants the Master's Heart, for it is nothing else in Josefa but a manifestation of her love for Him.
OBEDIENCE is, however, the Sign of the signs and through it is that Our Lord shows his Choice. This obedience, noted several times by the witnesses of her daily life as characteristic of Josefa's religious soul, is even better confirmed in the supernatural Plan to which the Will of God fixed her. The examination of the Action and the Spirit that led her makes the admiration stand out admirably. his perfect submission of judgment and heart: Neither a desire, nor an attachment, nor a setback ... but always a total acquiescence to the line of procedure that was drawn to him, and a perfect detachment that never allowed him to examine the graces received to please them. Josefa, who wrote them out of obedience and with great disgust, never asked to be re-read those notes.
It was all handed over and abandoned to his superiors. From the beginning, Our Lord had taught him this absolute dependence on the path in which he wanted it: Just remember these words already quoted: Draw yourself to my Heart, he said, so that you breathe only to obey ... Stay knowing that if I ask you for one thing and your Mother another, I would like you to obey her rather than Me ”.
“Go and ask for permission”, insists the Master to keep her faithful to the direction received, and he, in Pessoa, explains to her to what degree and with what detail she should be frank and transparent, docile and malleable.
How many times, in one form or another, did you hear this great religious lesson:
"Look for Me in your Mother. Receive her words as if they fell from my lips ... I am in her to guide you." It was in this spirit of faith that Josefa always considered obedience.
THE LOVE OF THE RULE AND COMMON LIFE framed in it, the graces of God and defended it against the illusions and pitfalls of the devil. Josefa worshiped them, and proved it with her generosity.
This love of ordinary and ordinary life that, in the absence of a very clear proof of the Will of her Master, led her to abandon more than once the path traced by her Divine Heart, serves to affirm how tenacious she was in following the safe path of their religious life.
The Rule, which she observed with care and care, demanded from her, at certain times, a will and courage, whose boldness went unnoticed by those around her.
Under threats from the devil, despite the moral certainty of the struggles that awaited her, as soon as the bell called her, overcoming her natural shyness (and who would not tremble at the power of such an enemy!), Josefa did not hesitate: her love, going beyond the ordinary measure he faced everything to remain faithful.

It is not necessary to add that the divine sign seems to be seen also in the perfect AGREEMENT between the Rule so dear to Josephus and the lessons of the Heart of Jesus, between the Spirit that animates them and what the holy Founder bequeathed to her Daughters: Spirit of love, generosity, spirit of reparation and zeal, which will imprint in each member of the Society of the Sacred Heart the character of Wife, Victim and Apostle. Soror Josefa, who possessed this spirit in a high degree, was rooted in him by his own Master.
In the light of God, he never seems to have to confront the graces he received with that of his vocation, the direction of obedience and the security of the Rule.
The promised sign was therefore given on it; day by day the idea, hour by hour, in the details of his religious life, while silence hung over it and no one suspected the sum of generous love hidden under that obscurity.
There were, however, hours, days and even months, when his obedience and the spirit of duty, his courage and submission to the Will of God, his faith and abandonment to divine direction seemed to ascend to heroism.
How many times have the witnesses of these struggles and sufferings transposed human experience, been able to admire in that soul so simple, so ignored of itself and so faithful, the freedom and omnipotence of grace, engraving on the fragile instrument the stamp of a virtue that does not deceive! ...
The story of his life was finally going to close with the seal of God: that of death that He had predicted. Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary had announced this to him on several occasions and, although keeping her in abandonment, from time to time she uncovered the circumstances and the circumstances, so that no doubt could remain (1).

(1) January 12, 1922 - August 7, 1922 (note)
- March 14, 1923 - July 16, 1923 - August 20, 1923 - October 15, 1923 (note)

Josefa, relying on the certainty of that divine word, warned the Mothers that the last days of the year 1923 would no longer be spent on earth. death came, as only He can do it, to seal the Work of your Heart with His divine Hands.

COMPLETING THE MESSAGE
December 1 to 9, 1923

"I want to address myself now, to my consecrated souls."

(Our Lord to Josefa - December 4, 1923).

Advent emerges with the month of December, the last and solemn Advent, the most beautiful and significant of Josefa's life: waiting, in the true sense of the word. This happy perspective goes through the night that surrounds his soul from time to time. Then it vibrates, close to the eternal day, for which your soul feels impelled with such vehement desires, then to close the horizon again with darkness that seems thicker after a tear of light.
The last lines of the divine message will, at first, be registered during the first week of December, and on Monday, 3rd, Saint Magdalene Sofia prepares her daughter for the end of her mission.
"Come to my cell,"
says to her in the morning - Josefa goes: the holy Mother is there and reassures her:
"Yes, I am your Mother, the poor creature that the Lord deigned to make the first stone of this small Society".
And after this affirmation that pacifies the daughter's soul, she continues:
“Jesus is coming back! Expect Him with great humility, but also with joy and confidence. He is the Father of Mercy, always willing to pour out Kindness on all his Creatures, but especially on those who are the smallest and most miserable.
“Receive your Desires, your Recommendations, your Words, with great respect and the Society keeps them precious.”
Then, reminding this dear Society of God's authentic Sign:
“Do not fear her suffering, do not shy away from suffering and above all - it is the recommendation of my maternal heart - the graces with which it is combined never diminish in her the precious treasure of humility. The more humble you are, the more the Lord will favor you. ”
The time has come when Jesus will discover the last appeals of his heart to his chosen Souls.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 4, Josefa works, praying in her small cell, when, suddenly, the Blessed Virgin appears to her as the dawn before sunrise. Josefa renews the Vows and asks Him to repeat with her what the devil could never say: "My God, I love You and I wish that the whole world knows You and loves You". With maternal condescension and virginal ardor, Maria agreed to her daughter's request. He repeated the words - continues Josefa - and added:
“... because you are infinitely good and merciful.
“Yes, daughter, Jesus has compassion for small and miserable souls. Forgive them and love them.
His Kindness inclines him to the little ones and his Strength supports the weak. Let your smallness be lost in its greatness. Await Him with love.
It's coming ... ”
He disappeared and, moments later, Our Lord was there. I renewed the vows and he immediately said:
“Yes, Josefa, I am myself. Fear nothing. I am Love, Kindness and Mercy.
“I am the Son of the Immaculate Virgin, I am the Son of God and God in Person. "
After these guarantees, before which all hesitation disappears, Jesus speaks and she writes:
““ I want to address myself now to my consecrated souls, so that they can make Me known to sinners and the whole world. Many of these souls still don't know how to deepen my feelings. They treat Me as someone from whom they live apart, as someone they know little and in whom they do not trust enough.
I want you to revive your faith and your love, and live in trust and intimacy with the One you love and who loves you.
"In a family, in general it is the eldest son who best knows his father's feelings and secrets. It is in fact, in him, that the father trusts most completely, since the youngest are not yet able to be interested in business. serious or see more than the surface of things.
That is why it is up to the eldest to transmit the wishes and wishes of the father to his younger siblings when he dies.
“In my Church. I have older children: they are souls that I have chosen for Me. Consecrated by the Priesthood or by the Religious Vows, they are the ones who live closest to Me, who participate in my graces of choice, and to whom I entrust my secrets, my Desires. my sufferings too! They are the ones that I charge, through the holy ministry, to watch over my little children, their brothers, and, directly or indirectly, to instruct them, to guide them and to convey my wishes to them.
“If these chosen souls know Me well, they can easily make Me known, and if they love Me, they will make me love. But what are they to teach others, if they know little of Me? ... Now, I ask them: Can the One who knows himself badly be loved very much? speak with true intimacy The one from whom we live apart? or who do we have little confidence in?
“This is precisely what I want to remind my chosen souls. I don't say anything new to them, but they need to revive their faith, their love and their confidence ... I want them to treat me with greater intimacy, to seek Me within themselves, for they know that the soul in a state of grace is the abode of the Holy Spirit. And there, they must see Me as I am, that is, as a God of love.
“Have more love than fear, believe that I love you and never forget it. Many, in fact, know perfectly well that I chose them because I loved them. But when their miseries, perhaps even their faults, confuse them, then sadness invades them, because they think that my Love is no longer the same as it was before. ”
Josefa stops exhausted. He asks the Master for permission to sit and Jesus, compassionately, allows him.
It comforts her, as she knows how to do, always with a focus on souls, and disappears.
At the same time on Wednesday, December 5, he finds her in his cell. She takes the feather again and, always on her knees before her little table, writes, while Jesus continues:
“I said yesterday that these souls don't know Me. These souls do not understand what my Divine Heart is. It is precisely your miseries and your shortcomings that incline my Goodness towards them. And when, recognizing their impotence and weakness, they humble themselves and come to Me with confidence, it is then that they glorify Me many more than before they fell. The same is true when they pray for themselves or for others. If they hesitate and doubt Me, they do not honor my Heart; but when they wait with certainty what they ask of Me, knowing that I cannot refuse them but what is not suitable for the welfare of their soul, then they glorify my Heart.
“When the Centurion came to plead with Me for the healing of his servant, he said to Me with profound humility:
"I am not worthy for you to enter my home ..."
“But, full of faith and confidence, he added:
"However, Lord, say one word and my servant will be healed."
“This man knew my Heart. I knew that I cannot resist the plea of ​​a “soul that expects everything from Me ... This man gave me great glory, because in humiliation he added firm and complete confidence… Yes, this man knew my Heart. El. However, I had not manifested myself to him as I manifested myself to my chosen souls. It is by trust that they will achieve great thanks, not only for themselves but also for others. It is what I want you to understand in depth, because I want you to reveal my Heart to the poor souls who do not know Me. ”
Here, the Master interrupts the Message and says:
“I repeat again: what I am saying now is nothing new. But just as the flame needs food in order not to be extinguished, souls also need a new impulse to move them forward and a new heat to revive them.
Among the souls who are consecrated to Me, few are those who have true trust in Me, because few live in intimate union with me. I want you to know that I love souls as they are. I know that your fragility will cause you to fall more than once. I know that on many occasions you will not do what you promise Me. But their determination glorifies Me, the act of humility they did after the fall, the trust they place in Me honor Me so much that My Heart pours out torrents of graces on them.
I want everyone to know how much I desire to be revived and renewed in this life of union and intimacy. You must not be content with speaking to Me only when you are at the foot of the Tabernacle. I am there, it is true, but I also live in them and I am happy to live together with them.
It is necessary that they speak to Me of everything! ... Consult Me with everything! ... ask me for everything! ...
“I live in them to be your life, I live in them to be your Strength. Yes. I repeat, don't forget that I like to be united with them, remember that I am in them ... There I see them, I hear them, I love them. There.
I hope that they correspond to the Love that I have for you.
“There are many souls who pray every morning. But this is more of a formula than a love interview. They hear or celebrate Mass and receive Me in communion, but when they leave the Holy Place, do they not allow themselves to be absorbed by their occupations, to the point that they hardly think of saying a word to Me for the rest of the day? ...
“I am in this soul as in a desert, it says nothing to me, it asks nothing of me… And when it needs consolation, it will most often ask it from a creature that has to go looking for it, and not me, its Creator , that I am and live in it! ...
“Isn't this a lack of unity, a lack of inner life or, what is the same, a lack of love?
“I also want to repeat to the souls who are consecrated to Me, as I chose them in a special way so that, living in close union with me, they comfort and offer reparations for all those who offend Me. I want to remind you that you must study my Heart in order to share your feelings and fulfill your desires as much as possible.
“When a man works in the field that belongs to him, he applies himself to weeding all the weeds and he spares himself neither work nor fatigue until he succeeds. So I want my chosen souls, as long as they know my desires, to work with zeal and ardor in their fulfillment, not to retreat in the face of any effort, of any suffering, to increase my glory and repair the offenses of the world.
“I will tell you this tomorrow. Now, go with my Peace ”.
That day, Josefa's notes end with a very simple story.
“Yesterday after a day of great suffering of soul and body - she writes - I went through such anguish that I thought I was going to die. All the faults of my past life were presented to my eyes in an impressive way and I was unable to do the slightest act of trust and love. ”
She often experienced these impotences with which the demon tried to paralyze her and make her despair.
“The suffering was so alive that my life seemed to slip away. Suddenly in my cell, at a certain point, I saw a white dove with a head glowing with light. He was making efforts to take flight, but one of the wings, still a little dark, seemed tied. It stayed like that for an instant, then flapped its wings and flew ... I thought it was the one I had seen once and that Jesus had said to me: "This dove is the image of your soul”.
“But when he came this morning, I expressed wishes to die on the 12th of this month. The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (1), the anniversary of the birth of our Mother Founder and Wednesday, the day dedicated to Saint Joseph, my Patron Jesus with great kindness said to me:
"And what do we do with the wing that is still all dark?"
Josefa then exposes her fear of offending Him, of turning away from him, of giving in to the wiles of the demon who feels enraged against her.

(1) Patroness of Mexico invoked in the “Society of the Sacred Heart”, in favor of this oppressed nation, invocation dear to Josefa, like all invocations of the Blessed Virgin.

“Listen,” says the Lord. - It is necessary that you are still purified in Love. Abandon yourself with no other desire than to fulfill my Will. You know I love you. What can you want more?
This December 5th continues, as it did the day before. with the same soul anguish and black temptations as the devil. Courageous and docile, Josefa seeks to establish herself in faith and love. These dark hours that lead her, you know, quickly to the end, leave her discouraged and without strength. Obedience is her security and it moves to see how attached she is, even in the smallest recommendations.
On Thursday, December 6, he finds her in the small cell where the Master so often waits. he is faithful to the interview and listens to it kindly.
She cannot hide her hope of dying on December 12, under the protection of the three greatest loves of her religious soul.
"What did you do, Josefa, to deserve heaven?"
"Nothing, Lord, but You promised to give me Your Merits"
"Isn't it enough for you to live in my Heart?" - continues with kindness.
"Certainly - writes Josefa - but it doesn't take away my desire from heaven, because I'll always see Him there and I'll never offend Him again!"
impulses of love as these take the Master's Heart.
"The souls I chose to live in the Society of my Heart - he says - have already started to live in heaven."
“Only here on earth do they suffer and deserve. There in heaven they will enjoy without deserving. Let Me choose the time.
"And now, write to my consecrated souls."
It is the last time that Josefa goes to collect for them the burning Desires of the Heart of Jesus;
“I call them all: my Fathers, my Sisters, my Religious, to live in close union with me.
It is up to them to know my desires and share in my joys and sorrows. A, da ?, it is necessary to work for my interests, without sparing efforts or suffering.
“It is up to them to repair, with their prayers.
works and penances, the offenses of so many and so many souls! Above all, they must redouble their union with me and keep Me company ... and not leave Me alone! ... Ah! Many do not understand this and forget that: I am responsible for keeping me company and consoling Me! ..,
“They must, at last, form a League of Love and, uniting them all in my Heart, implore for souls the knowledge of the truth, the light and the forgiveness.
And when, full of pain, in view of the offenses I receive from all sides, they, my chosen souls, offer to repair and to work on my Work, it is necessary that all of them have complete confidence, because I cannot resist to your supplications and I will dispatch them in the most favorable way. Apply yourselves, therefore, all to study my Heart and deepen my feelings. Strive to live together with me, to speak to Me, and to consult Me.
“Let your actions be covered with my merits and covered with my blood. Consecrate your life to the salvation of souls and to the increase of my Glory. Do not slow down, considering yourself. But they enlarge the heart, seeing themselves invested with the power of my Blood and my Merits. Because if they work alone, they can never do much. But if you work with me, in my name and for my glory, then you will be powerful.
"Let my consecrated souls revive their desire to make reparation, and confidently ask that the day of the Divine King, that is, the Day of my universal Kingdom, be raised over the world! ...
“Do not fear, wait on Me, trust Me.
“Eat zeal and charity for sinners!
“Have compassion on them, pray for them and treat them with meekness!
“Narrate to the whole world my Goodness, my Love and my Mercy! In your apostolic works, arm yourselves with prayer, penance, and above all trust, not in your own efforts, but in Power, in the Kindness of my Heart that accompanies you!
"In your name, Lord, I will do this and I know that I will be powerful." This was the prayer of my Apostles, poor and ignorant, but rich and wise men of divine Wealth and Wisdom!
“I ask my consecrated souls for three things:
“Reparation: that is, life of union with the Divine Reparator: Work for Him, with Him, in Him, in a spirit of reparation, in close union with your feelings and your Desires.
“Love: I mean, intimacy with the One who is all Love and who puts himself at the level of his creatures to ask them not to leave Him alone and to give Him love.
“Trust: that is, security in those who are Kindness and Mercy, in those with whom I live day and night ... who know me and who I know ... who love me and who I love ... in whom they call in a way especially his chosen souls, so that, living with him and knowing his heart, they expect everything from him ”.
The last lines of the Message are written! Josefa also notes what the Master wants her to transmit on her part to the Bishop of Poitiers, whose visit, as you know.
it won't be long; then, put the pen down. A moment passes in exchanges of love that remain in the secret of God. What a solemn hour that marked the end of this Call to souls! ...
It is a remarkable date in the history of the tests of Infinite Love. It is a new opening in time, about the “unfathomable riches of Christ”.
It is a curve in the path of Redemption. It is the hidden fountain, from which the torrent of Mercy will soon escape that will submerge the iniquity of the earth. It is the volcano, from where tomorrow the Flame will flow that will warm the world.
It is the starting point, the dawn that will rise over the great “Day of the divine King!”
Jesus disappears. Josefa closed the notebook and took the needle ... There are still some pages to be written about those notebooks about to end.
On Friday, December 7, His Excellency Msgr. de Durfort deigned to come to the “Feuillants" and to receive the last words transmitted to him from the meagerness of Our Lord. With childlike simplicity, Josefa tells him of her ardent desire for heaven and of her near death. because, although her physiognomy brings grooves of suffering that exhaust her day and night, the ardent life of her soul animates her to the point that the outcome she announces is not yet close, however, she is very sure of it and says it again to the Bishop of Poitiers, with a conviction that his detachment makes it all the more impressive.
December 8th (Saturday) is spent in joy, Josefa gathers the last Forces to help prepare the traditional procession to the “Sacred Heart '’. How carefully the Virgin of the novitiate oratory dresses with festive ornaments. Her heart rejoices with the triumph of her Immaculate Mother.
However, she will not have the strength to participate in the procession of love, but, hidden in the angle of a corridor of the infirmary, she will join in the songs, prayers and will contemplate for the last time the alvinitente parade of the girls taking lilies to offer to the Virgin Pure.
In the afternoon, she writes her farewells to her mother and sisters, touching letters that will be kept as relics, and which she asks the Mothers not to send until after her death. It is not inopportune to quote them here, as they highlight the tender and supernatural affection that the Love of Jesus, far from destroying, transforms and enlivens!
He said to his mother: “I am happy to die, because I know it is the will of the one I love. And also my soul so desires to possess Him and see Him without the veil that hides Him here on earth! Don't cry and don't be sad, death is the beginning of life for the soul that loves and waits. Our separation will be short, as life will pass quickly and soon we will find ourselves together for eternity. From the top of the sky, I will take care of my mother and pray that she will have what is necessary and that she will die in the peace and joy of those who are our End, our Happiness, our God. Don't mourn me but pray hard that I will go to heaven. I don't know what the day of my death will be, but my wish is to die on the 12th of this month. Is this also the will of Jesus?
I am ready for everything He does. Don't think I'm sad! These four years of religious life were four years of heaven. The only thing I want my sisters to do is to be happy as I was, and to know that nothing gives as much peace as doing God's will. Do not think that I die of suffering or sadness, on the contrary; my death? ... I believe it is of love!
I don't feel sick, but I have something that makes me want heaven, because I can't live without seeing Jesus and Our Lady. ”
His sister Mercedes (1), religious coadjutor in the Society of the Sacred Heart, opened up more intimately: “I die happy and nothing gives me this joy but to know that I have done the Will of God. It has led me in ways that are completely contrary to my attractions and desires, but it rewards me in these last days when I find myself involved with a peace from heaven. You, too, my dear sister, I beg you to serve your divine Lord and Seriousness our Mother with joy and fervor, in the job he gives you and in the house in which you are placed, regardless of our Superiors, without looking. neither for your sympathies nor for your disgust.
Nothing gives more peace at the time of death than having renounced yourself, to do God's Will.

(1) Died at the Sacred Heart Convent of Montpellier, on November 19, 1942.

Do not be saddened by your miseries, Jesus is good and loves us as we are. I see him well from experience: trust in his Goodness, in his Love, in his Mercy. I die in happiness. The Society was a tender and true mother to me. Jesus gave me Superiors who surrounded me with the greatest delicacies. I cannot pay them on earth, but in heaven I will have Our Lady who will give me everything I ask for for them. I was very happy in France, it is the home of my soul and the Lord has given me many thanks here. "It ends with the following lines:
“We have always wanted each other so much, dear sister, and now this separation of a few years will unite us more intimately and even more strongly. Goodbye, I wait for you in heaven, where we will be united by our bonds of sisters and, even more, by our love of sisters ”.
These farewells, deeply felt, do not take away his strength in the meantime. After he has finished them, Josefa will deliver his oblation to the exposed Host in front of which he spends most of the afternoon. It was there that the Blessed Virgin was waiting for her to give her a foretaste of the eternal encounter. How was that incomparable Mother to resist her daughter's wishes today? Josefa will write what follows, and the last pages will be drawn in her notebook.
“This afternoon, when I was in the chapel, the Blessed Virgin came suddenly. He was standing on a crescent made of very light blue clouds. Only a long, very pale blue veil, which was lost in the clouds upon which his feet rested, was only touching his head. It was so beautiful that I dared not say anything.
My soul was lost, just looking at the beauty!
After all, I renewed the Vows and she said to me in a sweet and solemn voice:
“Daughter, the Church praises and honors me by contemplating my Immaculate Conception. Men admire the wonders that the Lord worked in me and the beauty with which he put on me, even before the original sin could reach my soul. Yes, the one who is eternal God, chose me for Mother and showered me with unique graces, with which he never favored any creature.
All the beauty that shines in me is a reflection of the perfections of the Almighty and the praises that are addressed to me glorify Him who, being my Creator and my Lord, wanted to become his Mother. The most beautiful title of my glory is to be Immaculate at the same time. that Mother of God. But I am especially pleased to join in this title the Mother of Mercy and the Mother of Sinners. ”
When these words were over, she disappeared and I didn't see her again! ”
Josefa's notes end definitely on this double affirmation of her Heavenly Mother. It is like the signature of the Blessed Virgin initialing the divine Message ... the echo of the Work of the Love of the Son in the virgin lips of her Mother ... the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of Mercy and Mother of the poor sinners, leading the world to Sacred Heart of Himself, Kindness, Love and Mercy. ”


UNION ON THE CROSS
December 9 to 16, 1923

“The eternal day will come soon”

(Our Lord to Josefa - December 12, 1923).

The last days of Josefa's life have arrived; twenty days still separate it from eternal union; twenty days of suffering, graces and trials through which his mission here on earth is completed.
She will no longer write but the Personal Messages dictated by the Master and the latest recommendations that Mother Founder will transmit to her daughters through her. But, until the end, a soul of obedience, after each visit of the Lord or the Immaculate Virgin, Josefa will faithfully entrust to her Superiors the secret of these interviews, whose words will all be kept. The fervor of her soul will be exhaled frequently, lying in simple colloquies collected without her realizing it. In this way, the riches of the Heart of Jesus hidden in that soul will continue to be recorded, day by day, through which the Lord was able to do such great things for the world.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception ended with a night of acute suffering. Under the Force of pain.
Josefa loses consciousness several times, a mysterious state, in fact, in which she keeps the awareness of that pain that is read in her altered features. So we will see you often during the past few weeks, with nothing to relieve it.
On Sunday morning, December 9, at great cost, he managed to get up to fetch the grace of Holy Mass and Holy Communion of which he is thirsty.
But on the way back, she had a long fainting spell and left her exhausted. However, the habit of suffering had made her so courageous that she still spent part of the afternoon in front of the exposed Blessed Sacrament: she said her farewells to the tabernacle of that chapel, witness of so many graces and so many oblations.
After the Blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, Josefa, exhausted, hands over her arms and is bedridden to not get up again. Then bouts of severe pain begin that last throughout the night. In the rare moments when he becomes aware of what surrounds him, he still finds Strength for smiling and kissing the crucifix he won't let go. You only speak with effort and you hardly hear it before you guess what it says. He painfully raises his hand, and waving three fingers, slowly articulates "Three days ... nothing more than three days!"
The hope of the next departure to heaven illuminates the rest contracted by the suffering.
- "Are you sure?"
- "No, but I have hope ... I hope ... Jesus is so good and it is rare that a single date brings together my three loves: the Blessed Virgin, our Blessed Mother, and Saint Joseph". And then shut up to suffer better.
At dawn on Monday, December 10, he is out of strength; meanwhile, he tries to rise up with heroic efforts, in the hope of a small communion. But he falls inert and the hunger of Jesus tears him.
He cannot speak, nor swallow a single drop of water, and he loses his senses every now and then ... Would the end be as close as she wished and expected? Will December 12th open heaven for you? One begins to believe it around it.
At the end of the morning, a slight improvement allows to call a priest who gives him holy communion. In fact, until the last day, the divine Master will arrange for Dara to never miss his little Victim's Eucharist. Could she, without this bread that gives strength, go through the shadows and the dangers of the last battles?
Today, during Thanksgiving, file appeared to him, and Josefa does not know how to express his recognition.
"Josefa," he said, "I personally come to prepare you to enter the heavenly Motherland."
"Will it be on the 12th, Lord? ..." he asks naively.
“If you want, I am willing to give you that joy - he replies. - But will you not be generous enough to give Me a few more days, which I need for souls? ”
Such questions are provocations to love, for which Josefa has no more desires.
"You well know that I am yours and that I have given you everything."
“Yes - continues the Lord with unspeakable kindness:
- I keep you, I take care of you. Let Me do my Will and choose the hour. ”
Then he adds:
"I'll be back this afternoon, and you'll write right here."
At two-thirty in the afternoon, the Master was there.
Leaning on pillows, because he is without strength, Josefa waits for Him.
“It came beautiful - she will say moments later - with the Heart open and all on fire.
"Look at the address I prepared for all eternity ... And you, Josefa, who are preparing Me?"
“Ah! Sir! my sins ... my miseries, my sorrow for having done so little for you. "
“What does it matter! give me everything and I will consume everything in the Fire of my Heart! Now write ”.
Dictated by the Master, she writes, with a trembling hand, the message that will be transmitted, after her death, to the Reverend Padre Rubio, S.J. spiritual director of her childhood.
"I'll be back tomorrow" - adds Our Lord who disappeared shortly after.
That same afternoon, in a moment of acute suffering, Josefa, being alone, feels her strength lacks and life escapes her. He no longer has a voice to call for help, but heaven watches: Santa Madalena Sofia suddenly appears to him, more maternal than ever, and holding her in his arms, comforts and supports her. Then, discovering something about Our Lord's Plan:
"No," he says, "you will not die on the 12th, but it is Jesus who will come to join you with closer ties for eternity!"
Then the Holy Mother communicates to her daughter that she will receive the last sacraments and make her religious profession on that blessed day.
"I come to tell you about him," she says.
Josefa must prepare with joy:
“It was Jesus who opened the way in this way - adds St Magdalene Sofia - and as difficult as that seems to the creatures, he orders everything in the way that best suits his designs.”
And, answering the daughter's question:
“Yes, I will come with the Blessed Virgin and Jesus who never leaves you alone ... We will be here, all three ... courage! Still a few days to spend on earth to deserve the heavenly homeland. But to live with Jesus is to live in heaven! Rest in peace, for I watch over you. ”
And disappeared.
A few moments of restful sleep follow this maternal visit, and although this truce is not long lasting, the remembrance of the graces so close, on December 12, involves in peace and abandonment the sufferings of the night and the next day.
Tuesday afternoon, December 11th. Our Lord, faithful to the Word of the day before, returns to Josefa. It is nara to dictate a last message to Mother General of the Sacred Heart this time and ends with these words:
“I love my Society and I will guide my Work.”
However, these celestial indications are not enough to determine the decisions that concern Josefa.
On the morning of Wednesday, December 12, a slight improvement in his condition brings a question mark.
Was she really in danger enough to be entitled to the graces of the Extreme Unction and the Profession “in articulo mortis?” Josefa herself is disoriented by the hesitations she guesses around her.
The Father Director reassures her by sending her, after Holy Communion, an act of total surrender of herself to everything that is decided about her. Meanwhile, the doctor is called. Once again, the Lord ratifies his Plans by human instruments, even though they are unaware of the role they play. Ignoring everything about the extraordinary graces that accompany his patient's life, the doctor, after conscientiously examining her, is uneasy at the illness he cannot define. Who would do it? However, the extreme weakness, the long meaningless ivy, inclines him to the affirmative and advises not to delay the reception of the last Sacraments by one more day. How can one not feel the Action of the one who leads everything, removes doubts and forces his creatures to take the course of their indications about, natural? The day goes by waiting full of recollection, fervor and peace. S. Excia. Mons. de Durfort had decided in person to preside over the ceremony that will consecrate Josefa doubly. the entire religious family, informed since a few days of her serious illness, had been invited to surround her with more immediate prayers, while everything was being prepared in the small cell. witness to so many divine favors.
The day declines when, at five o'clock in the afternoon, the touching ceremony begins. Josefa is beaming and collected. The nuns spread out in the corridor and in the rooms next to hers, too small for them to fit in there. Only S. Excia. Mons. de Durfort, Mr. Canon de Castries, chaplain of the “Sacred Heart”, and the Reverend Father Boyer there enter with the Mothers that surround the bed of Josefa
It seems to be in a sanctuary. Near the statue of the Blessed Virgin, the great candle of Profession burns; the Blessed Sacrament is placed on an improvised altar and, in the silence that reigns around it, Josefa with a firm voice humbly accuses herself of the faults of her religious life to ask for forgiveness from the Mothers and Sisters. Then, the bishop gets up and begins the prayers of the Extreme Unction. However, everything has already been erased in the eyes of the patient; the Blessed Virgin and Mother Founder appeared to her. E. while proceeding with the anointing, she is present at all the rites, but she sees only the Mothers of heaven dressing her in a white robe that the angels had placed in their hands.
“See, daughter,” says the holy Foundress of the “Sacred Heart” - what the Lord, in his infinite Mercy, did for his little Wife, not because of your merits but thanks to those of your Heart. ”
“And now that you are dressed in that very pure tunic - continues Our Lady - your Spouse will give you the kiss of Peace and Love. Give yourself totally to him; in your divine hands, you are safe. It is he who will accompany you to lead you to the eternal homeland and he will introduce you to the inhabitants of heaven! ”
The holy anointing ends: the bishop then addresses some words to Josephus full of fervor and delicacy.
But she doesn't even suspect it, she is plunged into deep ecstasy, as her attitude shows. The Veni Creator, the liturgical prayers with which the Church blesses the insignia of the Profession, the cross and the ring all this happens without Josefa leaving that recollection.
Jesus, approaching his Mother and Saint Magdalene Sofia, appears to her then, and in front of the three heavenly Witnesses, she answers with a firm voice the questions that the celebrant poses to the new one, Professor of the Sacred Heart, before handing her the double pledge of eternal union:
“Do you consent to take Jesus Christ crucified for you, the Bridegroom?
- “Yes, Father, I consent with all my heart.
"Therefore, I received this ring as a sign of the eternal Covenant that you will contract with them."
Then, handing over the tiny silver cross that will shine on his chest:
“Receive my daughter, this precious pledge of the Love of Jesus Christ and remember that, taking you as His Bride, you must, from now on, live in union and conformity with his divine Heart. Be your Beloved to you as a fascicle of myrrh, place it on your heart as a sign of Love and eternal Union. ”
Then, in the silence surrounding that bed, which looks more like an altar, the bishop approaches, holding the holy Host. Josefa reads aloud the formula of perpetual vows and communes. Our Lady and Saint Magdalene Sofia disappear, leaving her as goodbye:
“We will both come to get you to take you to heaven, Jesus, the divine Spouse, stay alone! ...
"Josefa, why do you love Me?"
"Sir, because you are good."
“And I, I love you because you are miserable and small.
That is why I clothed you with my Merits and covered you with my Blood, in order to present you thus to my Elect in heaven. Your smallness has left place for my Greatness ... your misery, and even your sins, my Mercy ... your trust, my Love and my Goodness. "
“Come, recline on my Heart and rest in it, since you are my wife. You will soon enter this address, never to leave again ”.
Josefa lets her soul overflow. Tell him all your happiness and above all your burning desire: that the Goodness of your Heart be known to the ends of the earth, because it is not enough.
“Yes, well you say: I’m Good! To understand it, souls only lack one thing: union and inner life.
If my chosen souls lived more united with Me, they would know me better ”.
"Sir," Josefa replies naively, "it's difficult ... because sometimes they have so much to do for You! ..."
“Yes, I know, and that is why, when they leave, I look for them to bring them closer to Me.
“Here is our work from above; teach souls to live together with Me, not as if I were far from them, but in them, because by grace I live within them and during the time of communion my holy Humanity, as it were, is incarnated in them.
“If my chosen Souls thus lived together with Me and knew Me in truth, what good could they do for so many poor souls who live far from Me and do not know Me!
When my chosen Souls join closely with my Heart, they will understand my Feelings. Then, they will comfort Me, they will repair and, full of confidence in my Goodness, they will ask for forgiveness and they will obtain grace for the world! ”
Jesus stops, as if to leave Josefa before these magnificent perspectives of Mercy and Salvation.
Then he says again:
"Josefa, why do you love Me?"
"Sir, you are good!"
“And I, I love you because you are small and because you gave me your smallness! I took care of you with tenderness. I have kept you faithfully! ... Fear not. Soon the eternal day will arise. To God, stay in Me. ”
And disappeared.
During this divine colloquium, the ceremony ended, the religious, after the. psalmody of the Te Deum, they sang one of Josefa's favorite songs, the priests withdrew. Only Mons. of Durfort in prayer, in that room that looked like a vestibule of heaven. Leaning back, eyes closed to the earth, clasping the crucifix in her hands, in a gesture of unspeakable ardor, her face smiling and placid. Josefa continues in ecstasy ... After having blessed her, the bishop withdraws, barely concealing the emotion that had seized him. The nuns dispersed, taking the memory of that hour whose mystery they had not noticed. Only the prayer of the two Mothers accompanies her now. A quarter of an hour passes and, when he returns to earth, he is in serene and radiant joy. that brightens up the rest of the afternoon.
The ring and the cross remain as legitimate pledges of the mutual love that was forever promised. In fact, the oblation will continue on the cross.
At night, crises of intense pain are renewed, leaving her apparently unconscious under the violence of pain. However, he can take communion on the morning of Thursday, December 13, and during Thanksgiving, the Lord appears to him. Show him, immersed in the flame of his divine Heart, the heart of Josefa, which seems so small.
“I took it, Josefa, you know, and with it all your affections; entrust them to me, because I love everything you love and I take care of everything you like here on earth. ”
So Josefa talks about her mother and sisters, the Sacred Heart Society and its Superiors, the house and the souls that are close to her. Jesus responds to everything with divine condescension. Then, before leaving it:
“Wait for me tied up for a few days, Josefa.”
And, alluding to the dove:
"You need to break the bonds that bind you to them," he says, "but it's pretty white now."
And disappeared.
This allusion comforts her in the midst of the sufferings that become more acute that morning. The joy of heaven is even greater and Josefa kisses, at the Crucifix, the Hand of Jesus, who, she says naively, will cut the ties and finally free the palomite ”.
The community that had not been able to express its union of feelings with it the previous day was invited to visit it during the day. The sisters succeed one another to the groups, and they all leave enchanted by those short moments.
Josefa had been little known because her fidelity and work had always involved her in silence. Today, they discover it so simple and so happy that it is good for those who approach it. The Kingdom of God radiates and appears in it. Once in a while he cannot master happiness and, when he is alone with one of his two Mothers, he expands without embarrassment. They are impulses of love and fervor, which were noted without her knowing it and which reveal too much her profound life and her childlike simplicity, not to be mentioned, at least in part;
"Jesus is waiting for me ... I'm ready to go, I'm at the station, on the platform ... the reserved tickets ... the registered luggage ... are the Merits of the Heart of Jesus."
"I know where I'm going ... nothing I fear, nothing desire ... I gave everything!”
And remembering the dove, he writes in pencil these "verses", as he said, in which he expands the freshness and poetry of his soul:
“Poor little dove, you're thirsty!
“But, the wing is tied and it cannot run to the source to quench its thirst.
“Jesus is so good that he came and he took it,
“She drank your Blood!
“Poor little dove, you can't fly! ...
"And Jesus said: You must wait ..."
“It conforms to what Jesus wants.
“But you’re afraid you’ll forget it,
“And without appearing, he murmurs in his ear:
“Come, my Jesus! Cut these ties so that the dove
"Can fly, to the flowering orchards ...
“Come and get it. His eyes are fixed on You!
“And the day and the hour that you release her,
"How happy he will be to behold You!"
This is how the afternoon goes, fortified by the visit of Reverend P. Boyer, who entertains her for a long time and leaves marveling at the work of God in that soul, so fully committed to his Action: it is a consummation that continues without obstacles.
The note brings an upsurge of pain, Josefa seems to be in agony again.
However, he can take communion the next day, and no day will he lack this grace.
Friday, December 14, continues to be illuminated with peace and joy which, despite acute suffering, seem more like heaven than earth.
Josefa keeps silence, prays, tries to avoid the slightest hurt, all the tiredness of the two Mothers who pray at her feet to never leave her alone! From time to time, his conversations continue to be so fervent and simple. It seems, rather, to think out loud. The memory of her entry into the Sacred Heart, of her novitiate of struggles to remain faithful to her vocation, fills her with gratitude.
Stop and retreat; kiss the crucifix, or, for a long time, contemplate the image of Our Lady who, before her bed, seems to watch over her, after having presided over everything that happened in that small cell. Then your thought continues out loud.
“I am very happy when I see myself worse, because I understand that the Will of God is being fulfilled.
There is nothing that gives peace and comfort like the Will of God
“I am going to die because it is your Will ... Since my entry here I have never done mine ... because all these things were not my choice! But what now gives me peace is to have fought and suffered to do God's Will and die faithful ”.
Many intentions were entrusted to him for heaven, vocations, sinners ...
Its fiery nature awakens:
“I enjoy working so much - he says. - I will go, and I will come from all sides to obtain many graces ”. And as they talked about France:
"Certainly - he replies - it is the home of my soul, it was she who gave me the religious life ... this house of our Blessed Mother Founder ... this little corner of land to live and die". Then, he goes back to what fills his soul at the moment. “If they knew ... they would look for nothing else on earth but the Will of God. Nobody can calculate this happiness ... it is the only thing that gives peace ... Ah! dying religious, in this Peace, makes up for a thousand times and even more, everything I suffered! ”
It is collected with this happiness:
"We must never worry because Jesus 0 Good! ... he supplies ..."
And, kissing the Crucifix: “The divine feet ... the fatherly hands ... yes, fatherly! Your Heart! ... as Jesus is Good! - repeats. - I understand how good Jesus is and is what gives me so much joy ... he forgives, notices, loves! ... As soon as I have something that hurts me, I feel that he says to me right away: “Don't be afraid, I am Good and I love you."
"He is so good because I am the smallest, the last, the most miserable ... I am glad that I am nothing ...
"Jesus is good! It is the word çue that fills my heart.
I could have remorse for my faults ... But no!
I am only grateful to have been forgiven!
"My Jesus! - he exclaims suddenly - for twenty-three years you said to me: "I want you to be all Mine ..." I loved Him without knowing Him! Oh yeah! I didn't know Him yet, but I already loved Him. He always had him with me ... I know what I am ... but I mainly know what He is ... He gave me his Heart, it is a reality! "
“My God,” he says after a long silence, “I make You the sacrifice of my life in union with the Heart of Jesus, with submission and joy, because I love You.
“I want everything he wants: if he wants me to live, yes; if you want me to die ... yes ... Thirty-three years ... years of grace, especially these four years of religious life. How happy I am ... to die with full knowledge, to know that the moment is coming ... What a joy! what a happy death! What a faithful husband! ”
The hours thus elapse. Reverend Father Boyer comes to visit her with fatherly kindness and renews her holy absolution. His door is open, and many women religious take the opportunity to recommend many intentions to him.
Her delicate charity still finds the strength to provide the help of her skill to the Sister who had succeeded her in the workshop, and, seated on the bed of pain, she carved an outfit with the usual dexterity. When the afternoon comes and the silence fills his cell with only his Mothers, he still replayes the stages of his life and, more than a conversation, these memories are a prayer of thanksgiving. However, his forces are declining, he can take nothing but a few drops of water at the price of living pain.
At dawn on Saturday, December 15, during Thanksgiving, Jesus appears:
“See how I never leave you alone - she says with unspeakable kindness. - I was your strength during your life, I am your comfort at the time of death. I will be so for all eternity! And as I found my delights in your smallness, you will find endless happiness in Me! ”
Josefa cannot contain the desire to go to heaven soon, to contemplate Him forever, and also - she adds with childlike simplicity - “I will have so many intentions to trust You, so many messages that they give me in these last days! "
“Yes, yes,” replied the Master, with fervent condescension. - We will make small surprises for them. What is called "petits plaisirs" here.
Rest in Me still, Josefa, soon I will rest in Me. To God! I'm with you!"
A few moments later, a violent crisis drives the dear patient to the extremity, she loses consciousness for a long time, but her contracted face preserves lines of acute suffering. When he comes to himself, his deep joy is not disturbed. Carefully caresses, on the Crucifix, the wound on his right hand, "the one" he says with an almost imperceptible voice - that will free the "palomite". And kiss the wound on the divine side with love.
“I was very happy on the day of the first Vows - he continues - but I didn't know if I would be faithful until death. Today Jesus joined me to Him forever and He will never allow me to lose Him! ”
In the same morning, the Most Reverend Father gives him the indulgence “in articulo mortis”, because Josefa seems so bad that everything is to be expected.
At ten o'clock, the holy Founder of the Sacred Heart appears to her. Come and entrust your daughter with the latest recommendations for Mother General and for the Society.
Although at great cost, Josefa still writes what she says. ,, which ends like this:
“All the members of this small Society live united to this Heart that gave itself to them for Love.
Work without rest and never forget that you are wives and victims!
"Now, one more soul will protect the" Society "of the earth, because the humble and the little ones find grace before God."
The afternoon starts in peace. But suddenly, her dear little sister seems to get worse, her face changes, her breathing becomes labored, her eyes open little by little, she enters the night of agony, although aware of everything around her. Will the End be near? .. Will the Blessed Virgin fetch her daughter this beautiful Saturday? The community gathers in the vicinity of the tiny cell. It is a spectacle from heaven. Josefa rejoices at the thought of this happiness. Her soul rejoices with a fervor that she can no longer contain. With his eyes closed to the earth, he is radiant with joy, he joins everything and asks him to recite his favorite prayers: litany of Our Lady, of the Sacred Heart, invocations of the novena of the first Friday, the “miserere”. the five Our Father to the holy Chagas, the Ave Marias to the Seven Sorrows of Mary Most Holy are succeeding each other, while she clasps her cross of the Profession on her chest in fire.
Shows desire to hear the favorite songs: “A la source benie qui jaillit de ton Coeur je viens puiser la vie ô mon Divin Sauveur ...
Cache-nans ta Blessure montre-nous sa profondeur ... ”
But he still prefers the song that, at that time, expresses all his desire.
"Jiraira la voir un jour ... Oui, jiraira voir Marie ...
Au ciel, au ciel, au ciel, j'irai la voir un jour ... ”
You have to say, "I will see you this afternoon," she says.
Reverend Father Boyer recites the prayers of the dying. Josefa interrupts them with simple and fervent reflections. His broken voice expresses the happiness of dying entirely from Jesus, his confidence without shadow, his joy at being so small, so poor of everything, his faith in Mercy, the certainty of Forgiveness and the Merits of the one whose Love is absolutely certain. Thus the hours pass, a burning fever burns, but the pain does not diminish his joy ... He speaks of heaven and of the holy souls that he will find there, he promises to deal with sinners, vocations, all the intentions that he has recommend ... They are fervent dialogues between her and the Father, between her and the religious who approach, one by one, dialogues that are so much simpler that her eyes are out of the way, she does not allow her to perceive the emotion and admiration of the people around her in small cell.
At five o'clock, an object that passes in front of her seems to follow with a veiled eye.
“Poor little dove! - says twice. - She is all white, without any stains - she quietly confides to the Madres. The cross shines on her breast, she tries to take flight but the wing is still attached with two strings. ”
Will we still have to wait long for release? ...
A few moments later, Our Lady appears to her daughter.
“Still, it's not the time, Josefa,” he says. - You have to suffer. Soon, there will be no more time.
Three hours have passed like lightning, and it is a pity that people leave this blessed place. Heavenly peace really takes hold of the souls who feel they are on the threshold of a mystery whose secret has not yet been revealed.
The whole house is under the impression of the graces of that afternoon.
In Josefa's room, it is Calvary after Tabor, an authentic sign of Love! ... Intense suffering follows the relative calm of the day and Josefa continues in agony.
He no longer seems conscious but of the pain and groans escaped him, broken by the wheezing. His eyes are always open, his poor body is shaken by fever, and sweat floods his face. So the night goes by without predicting the outcome.
Sunday, December 16, appears. It is the seventeenth month after Josefa's first vows. At six o'clock, she comes around and can swallow a few drops of water. This fills her with joy because it shows her that she can still take communion. Jesus, preceding the Eucharistic encounter, appears to his little Victim with all the effusion of his goodness. Will you come and get it?
"No," he replied; "you will not die before your superior has received the line from Mother General of conduct to be followed after your death. And - continues to preserve all the merit of abandonment - it will be neither today nor tomorrow. . ”
Josefa wonders if her moans would have hurt or perhaps even offended him.
“No - respond immediately with compassion. - I know what you suffer and I make your pain Mine.
“It falls on my Heart like a precious balm that heals my Wounds and on my Lips, like a honey that delights me.
“Palomita mia” is my love that binds you for your sake and for the sake of many souls!
"But it will also be Love that will soon inebriate you with pure and heavenly sweetness, Love will coat you with my merits and will give you to taste the bliss of virgin souls.
“Yes,“ beloved palomite ”, during your life I nourished you with wild flowers that I myself had sown for you. In eternity, I will feed you with pure flowers that embellish the bed of Virgins. Goodbye!
it is not for a long time that I separate from you, because you know that I find my delights in your smallness'.
And Jesus disappears, It is the last time that Josefa contemplates Him here on earth!

CONSUMMATUM EST!
December 16 - 29, 1923

From now on, the waiting will no longer have light. Still a few days of peace and soon afterwards the hideous darkness of hell will befall Josefa to try a supreme effort against her. But the hellish audacity of the devil will only serve for the victory of God and the last pains of the little victim will forever seal the eternal union. When the appointed hour sounds, Jesus, with the sovereign freedom of his Love, will come to break the last ties.
"Get up, my dove, and come! ...” he will say, And, in the solemn solitude of his last oblation Josefa will leave. The Work of Love will end here on earth! ...
But this consummation will be the new dawn of Infinite Love that will arise over the world.
The morning of Sunday, December 16, continues in great suffering that slowly subsides, after noon, when it slowly recovers into view. In the evening, her condition suddenly worsens and the Bishop of Poitiers, who deigns to visit her, finds her unconscious. He is kneeling for a long time in prayer at the foot of that bed that looks more like an altar on which a pure victim is offered. The night and the days that followed passed in alternatives of acute pain and intervals of relative rest. This keeps Josefa and the people around her in abandoning so dear to the Master's Heart.
It consumes her with a burning thirst, and in the meantime, every drop of water, which she swallows, burns and consumes instead of relieving it.
"It seems - he says - that this droplet of water falls into a burning and corrupted brazier." It is the painful impression he feels. Jesus associates it with the seat of his Cross and the gall that was presented to him. He no longer has any strength, and loses his breath at the slightest movement. Two or three people come together to lift it from time to time with infinite precautions. At certain times, a kind of general numbness dominates her without giving her the benefit of Sleep ...
At other times it suffers throughout the body without exception of a single member.
However, in the midst of these intense ailments he does not lose his delicate and expansive simplicity.
As soon as pain gives him a respite, the embalmed conversations of radiant peace continue.
"I am so happy - he says knowing what Jesus is preparing for me, because I have done nothing, everything will be the price of his merits and will make his Mercy shine. I cannot pray because I have no more strength but I tell Him only how happy I am to go for him". ,
A letter from Spain awakens in her the memory of the Mother and the sisters.
“In the past, - he says - family news touched me, but not now!
I am calm about them, I am sure because I know that Jesus is Good, loves them. guard them and comfort them. I know the! In the meantime I love you with all my soul - Mama, Mercedes, Angela - you can't know how much I love you! It is what leads me to understand how much the Heart of Jesus suffers, when he sees that souls do not know to what extent they are loved by him ”.
This thought still worries her on Wednesday * December 19th.
Souls do not understand how Jesus loves them - he repeats as if talking about himself. - The more they have lived in the obscurity of faith, he will say at another time - the more Jesus is obliged to help and reward them at the time of death.
“I've never been happier! my peace is so great, my joy complete ... not the slightest shadow ..,.
I am sure of the Forgiveness, of the Tenderness of Jesus ... I desire nothing ... I abandon myself to him ... I can no longer speak to Him with my lips, but with my heart I say that He is Good and that I love Him. "
The children's memory enchants her. During recess, the cheerful voices and the echo of the lively games rise up to her.
"How I like them," - he exclaims. He reveals his apostolic heart in the accent full of fervor. One feels that she is so interested in souls and so little occupied with herself.
On the afternoon of Thursday, December 20, His Excellency. Monsignor de Durfort sees her again. The interview is long, paternal, interspersed with prayers that His Excellency recites with her and with thoughts whose secret he carries with a visible emotion. Everything is peace from heaven, around this bed where so much pain accumulates, but also so much love! ... Josefa, in this waiting and abandonment, undoubtedly ends up paying here on earth the price of souls that her heavenly intercession will continue to win for the Heart of Jesus, “usque in finem”.
It is worth mentioning the testimony of the Sisters who care for her and visit her during these last days of her life.
“It was necessary to guess, writes the sister nurse, what could relieve her or what she liked. She had only one desire: heaven and the Will of God.
I was so grateful for the lesser service and paid special attention that the people who took care of it did not miss the punctuality of ordinary exercises. ”
“During the three weeks of illness she built me ​​up to a point that I will not be able to say, writes another. It was necessary that she be dead, to herself and very close to Our Lord in order to be so peaceful, happy, and all surrendered and abandoned to the divine grace. Never a word about his sufferings, he would never have asked to drink, and yet he must have been burning inwardly; he accepted what was offered, but he never complained.
The nun who had helped her in the chapel of the Works gives the following testimony:
“During the last days of her life, I once had the grace to see her. He welcomed me with an incomparable smile because I recalled the memory of his beloved chapel. “How do you understand,” she added, “when it comes to where I am, that God is everything and the rest nothing ... How quickly four years of religious life pass! It seems that I am just arriving here as a postulant ... then the novitiate ...
I suffered a lot during my novitiate! There is! how I suffered!
I thought I would have to leave and yet I loved the Society so much! ”
Hearing those words reminded me of the look of triumph on his Crucifix, on the morning of his Vows: that look and that gesture seemed to translate to an achievement, I could not forget them.
“Then she came back, as if naturally, to childhood memories.
“When I was a little girl - she told me - I wanted to give Jesus a lot of love ... I heard in Appeals to love and surrender to me. On the day of my First Communion, we were instructed on Jesus, Spouse of the Virgins ... I didn't understand everything, my heart was bursting ... the appeals were becoming more pressing ”.
“On the radiant afternoon of his Extreme Unction and also of his perpetual vows, recognizing mine. voice, called me close to you: "In heaven, I will pray for all your intentions." Then he added several times: “Our Lord is so Good! When we do what we can - almost nothing - He takes care of the rest. It doesn't matter if we don't feel that we have progressed perfectly. ”
The General Master of the Feuillants Boarding School, who died a few years later, - noted the memories of that end of December:
“The veil was removed from that beloved daughter that we had ignored until then.
“Her cell was more of an oratory than a ward room and, on the bed of agony, she seemed to us radiant with heavenly peace. Beside her and not yet knowing why, something very special and supernatural was felt. In the days that followed, I saw her again and again, recommended the girls' next retreat; “I want them so much! - she said - I am happy when I hear them playing and, even more, when I see them communing and I think that Our Lord is received in each one of them! Yes, I will pray and I will continue in heaven ... Our Lord - she says, as if speaking of herself - gave me a heart that loves so much! - I love the Society so much, all the Mothers, the Sisters, the girls! Oh! I have such a loving heart! ” It would be difficult to express the tone of sincerity and deep charity that accompanied these words.
“Oh! - he said the other day - how it is necessary that novices be fervent and energetic in their vocation! I had so many struggles that I sometimes seemed to be unable to persevere. Then I went to look for Mother Assistant and created Strength. I made a great sacrifice leaving Spain, it is true, but for my vocation I did not hesitate, I did it with all my heart ”. And he added; “What needs to be taught very well during the novitiate so that it is recorded forever is obedience. Oh! if the value of obedience was well understood by a spirit of faith! ”... And he repeated many times, withdrawing and as if reviewing in his own soul the security of his path;
"The value of obedience by a spirit of faith".
“Another day, when he seemed to suffer a lot:“ Our Lord wants us to suffer for a moment, and then he continued: I suffered a lot ... but - and here his voice took on an unforgettable firmness - we forget the suffering ... yes, we forget the suffering ... And now Our Lord is going to ... 'She broke off, as if scandalized by what she had said; oh! not! continued - oh! no, he will not reward me because I did nothing ... he ... will ... become blessed! ... ”She fell silent, as if touched by this happiness. Then he continued with fervor; “Our Lord is Good! It's really good ”and he seemed to taste this word that he repeated many times.” However, the hour of the Prince of Darkness will pass over this pure happiness, and Josefa will be crushed under satanic pressure like the grape in the winepress. For a time, the devil will judge to triumph definitively by subjugating her, her and God's plans for the world. The last assault, the most tremendous of all, will take place in your soul and body, which will be possessed and dominated by an invincible force.
On Friday, December 21, the shadow begins to descend. A sudden boredom of suffering invades Josefa 'who would like to die, but dominates himself by adhering to the Will of God; it is the deep attitude of your soul. On Saturday morning, 22, the letter, announced by Our Lord. she arrives from Rome and the blessing of Mother General fortifies the dear patient at the entrance of the dark tunnel that she already guesses. In the afternoon of that day, a terrible crisis leads to the last and takes away his conscience for a long time. What had happened on that mysterious night that his soul had entered? Josefa will tell you later; at that time she received the demon faculty to take so strong hold on Josefa's freedom that she feels that she is dominated by a strange and irresistible force that forces her to think, to want, to experience, even physically, what she neither wanted nor thought, nor want, nor try. A sudden conviction that does not come from it imposes itself on the spirit with such evidence that it can escape: its near death is nothing but the consequence of that extraordinary path. Who the strength to accept it? She can be faithful without submitting to such a path, which is not mandatory ... refuse it and she will be healthy. In the same instant and suddenly (Josefa will explain later, when the diabolic pressure has ceased) - all suffering disappears; a kind of physical well-being and enjoyment of life invades her. At the same time, her spirit is caged with the most tenacious obsession - which she has never known, an all the more distressing obsession; when the devil closes it in complete silence; which she only leaves to declare that she is healed and free from that path.
Josefa never suffers more than at that time, from such a kind of suffering.
In the depths of his soul, however, he never ceases to love the One who allows so hard a trial. For an instant, on Christmas Day, Tuesday, December 25th, she finds enough freedom to explain to Father Boyer what happened and is happening in her, a few minutes of painful relief that allow her to become aware of that state of diabolic obsession but that give the opportunity to R. Padre Boyer to fortify it as much as he can ... Besides, it was a lightning fugitive, and Josefa falls prisoner of that diabolical embrace again, and whose violence is difficult to calculate. The demon's action is so powerful, in fact, that if, on the one hand, a kind of fictitious health seems to have been restored to him, on the other hand his spirit is obscured and his will dominated to such an extreme that he can no longer do a single act abandonment.
From time to time, she realizes that the Force overwhelms her, and with this she suffers cruelly, because, in the deepest part of her soul, Our Lord, her Will remains her only Love without her even being able to say it.
At other times it is no longer the same and it seems, to those who approach it, that "another" possesses it: in the pleasure of judging itself cured, of escaping from this path, of reliving in freedom, of enjoying life. .. even in the tone of the voice, there is a certainty, an irony ... in the look, an expression so little of it that they discourage! ...
At certain moments, she herself becomes bewildered ...
his soul, so mortified, had never known that kind of impressions or spoken in that way.
One can guess the inner struggle that shatters it and makes its silence more poignant. How many prayers, supplications surround her without being able to clarify or release her.
Only suffering is effective at that time.
Christmas passes and Wednesday, December 26, slowly flows over that Calvary. The Most Reverend Father who closely follows the mysterious diabolical harassment utters the prayers of exorcism several times. But the devil does not let go of the prey and Josefa is insensitive to everything.
Faith in that Love is faithful and strong, trust in the intercession of Mother Street, are the only support of these tragic hours. How to doubt the Work that is about to end. .. of the divine Power that directs it ... of the Sacred Heart that cannot abandon its fragile instrument on the edge of the abyss?
In the name of his Mother's Sorrows, he will intervene at the appointed time; that Wednesday afternoon near the milk in which the devil keeps Josefa under his power in warm silence and a glacial attitude, the knee-length Mamas invoke the Pains of the Pure Heart, repeating Ave-Marias, one after another. They just pronounce it, but it does not excite even more the hatred of the demon that weighs on the whole being of Josefa. There is only a slight murmur in a low voice. But, what instances go up to the Virgin of Sorrows, to which nothing is ever asked in vain!
Suddenly, Josefa's face becomes serene, her eyes are lowered ... her hands are crossed ... her lips are lowered and, little by little, they see her murmuring the same prayer that was even more instant at her foot. A quarter of an hour passes in that emotion.
Then the Our Fathers succeed one another to the Ave-Marias.
"Your Kingdom come ... your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven ..."
Silent tears flow from his eyes and with all his soul he repeats, word for word, the prayer so dear to Saint Magdalene Sofia:
“Sacred Heart of Jesus, I run and come to You because you are my only refuge, my only, most secure hope. You are medicine for all my ills, relief for all my miseries, reparation for all my faults, supplement for everything I need, certainty for all my requests, infallible and inexhaustible source of light, Strength, constancy, peace and blessing.
I am sure that you will not tire of me and that you will not stop loving me from helping me and protecting me because, you love me with Infinite Love. So have mercy on me, Lord, according to your great Mercy and do whatever you want with me and in me, for I abandon myself to You with full and complete certainty that you will never abandon me. ”
In view of this affirmation of the most complete abandonment; the demon has fled forever! Under Maria's virgin foot, her power wiped out. Suffering invades all of Josefa's members again: she finds herself, again on the Cross of her Savior! Who could doubt the maternal intervention of the Blessed Virgin and the omnipotent fidelity of the Heart of Jesus, in the presence of such a sudden and tangible liberation?
The night is spent in thanksgiving, the intensity of which cannot be measured. Josefa is exhausted, but her soul is gradually getting in touch with the graces of that blessed pain ... with her Superiors, who do not leave her and to whom she cannot say anything except with her eyes, the feelings of humility, gratitude and of abandonment, which are awakening in her as the memory of those terrible days fades away.
Since the dawn of Thursday, December 27, she has been communing, with a peace that nothing else will disturb.
It was a feast of Saint John, the friend of virgin souls, who had often been an ambassador of the lovely Heart of Jesus. Josefa cannot forget it.
The spiritual director sees her again long after the thanksgiving ... Better than anyone else, "he could then calculate the diabolic power that had enslaved her. With clarity and admirable precision, Josefa, reports the mysterious state that he had crossed, keeping only the conscience of his own will, but neither being able to express or direct it, it seems that his soul had reached the abyss of affliction, but he had also experienced the depths of humiliation and annihilation that, in reality, are the depths of love!
All this passed ... Magnificat remains as the purest expression of those unforgettable hours and it is. repeated around Josefa's bed, radiant on his Cross. All the pains have returned, the fictitious forces of the last days have disappeared and the day passes without a cloud, in the happiness of suffering and abandonment, conquered again.
On Friday, December 28, the morning visit of R. Padre Boyer also brings absolution. Come and tell her, he thinks, see you soon, because he needs to leave for ministry outside the city and leave quietly, she will find peace and joy without a cloud.
- At one o'clock in the afternoon, a long and painful crisis seems to lead her to agony.
He is unconscious of his surroundings until three o'clock, overwhelmed with pain. However, in the afternoon, he regains some life. The emaciated body provokes compassion, moistens his lips with a few drops of water and one can hardly try to lift it to facilitate his breathing. But, always forgetting about herself, simple and smiling, she makes everything easy, I would like to save any inconvenience to those who care for her and never cease to express her gratitude.
The night, the last night, is spent in these alternatives, and on the morning of Saturday, December 29, Jesus Host comes to her for the last time. What would happen during this love interview so close to the eternal interview?
Undoubtedly, Josefa resented him, but his extreme delicacy, tuned by union and conformity with the infinitely delicate Heart of Jesus, would not have wanted to cause pity at the prospect of the separation so close ... The deepest recollection that surrounds her, his silence in the suffering that increases from hour to hour, seem to announce the end, but nothing yet gives him to foresee and the morning passes, as in the eve, in all heavenly peace.
A small statue of Jesus sleeping in the crib rests on the bed and Josefa looks at it with love and tenderness. He challenges the beads of the rosary and his gaze tells her what her strength can no longer express.
The afternoon continues in that abandonment. Leaning on the bed, he is suffering a lot, but nothing changes his serenity. He reads the tenth chapter of Imitation's third book again - his favorite chapter - and exchanges with his Superiors some words full of fervor and tender gratitude.
One feels that she is all busy with Jesus and souls, in the midst of the pain that only her face reveals. The day falls, the silence falls, involving Josefa's oblation more and more. The simplicity of that afternoon, so similar to the others, hides the eminence of sacrifice even in the eyes of their Mothers. Jesus thus allows to keep for Him the secret of this last preparation, this finishing, this supreme consummation.
It's night. At half past seven, Sister Nurse asks the dear patient if anything could relieve her. “Oh! Whatever you want, Sister ... I'm fine - she adds - I can be alone ", because the Ave-Marias play and she knows that the regular time calls the Community to the afternoon meal.
Mysterious conduct of God and his adorable Will! Due to a set of unforeseen circumstances, Josefa, whom her Mothers had never left, taking turns, night and day, since December 9, has been left alone! ...
And in that loneliness and abandonment that he wanted, the divine Master suddenly passes, imprinting the seal of the Supreme configuration with his Cross and his Death on his privileged soul, in the utmost devoid of everything! ...
When a few moments later, Sister Nurse returns to the small cell, Josefa had ceased to live! ... She is stretched out, with her head slightly tilted back, her eyes half closed, a painful expression contracting her face: everything in her seems to resemble Jesus crucified, dying in the abandonment of his Father.
"Let me choose the day and time," he had said.
"We will be here, both, to lead you to heaven," said Our Lady and Santa Madalena Sofia.
Would it not be the hundredth of that hour when, in the abandonment of the land, in solitude ... in distress, perhaps, the Word of Our Lord was carried out?
"You will suffer and, overwhelmed by suffering, you will die!"
Jesus wanted to reveal this passage from heaven in the small lonely cell with an evident sign, witness to his incomparable, delicacy: at eleven o'clock at night, when it came to dressing his dear little sister with the religious habit, what was the surprise of the desolate Mothers , verifying that “someone” had already taken care of her.
Under the covers, well stretched up and better than anyone could have done, Josefa, with her arms stretched out at her sides, is dressed in her gray petticoat tied at the waist and carefully stretched to her feet.
- When? - How? - Who had done that? ... To answer these questions ...
Nobody had entered his cell, as the neighbor in the ward and the dear sick person attest, incapable of the slightest movement and of any effort he did not know where that clothes were folded.
The fact - incidentally incontestable and agreeing with Josefa's virginal modesty that she had always feared to be touched after death - will not allow us to think that Our Lady and Saint Magdalene Sofia, faithful to her promise, had wanted, when they received her soul to take her to heaven, make this proof of maternal presence more effective than any other? The gray kilt was therefore left untouched and Josefa took him to the grave.
That is how the story of very faithful love ends on that Saturday, December 29, 1923.
Soon Josefa's face lit up with peace and serenity, while a supernatural impression of grace poured out throughout the house.
On the morning of Sunday, December 30, the sisters learned, with unspeakable emotion, the divine Secret of those four years, a secret that no one had suspected.
"It is right, Mother General had written, that they should be the first to collect the graces." The greatest discretion is imposed on them, since no one outside the Feuillants' house should have known anything about the favors and mission of which the humble little sister had been depositary. But what a breath of fervor excites souls to generosity and thanksgiving! ... The cell in which Josefa rests, surrounded by lilies, is a sanctuary. Heaven seems to be there, all the religious women are rushing, in veneration and prayer.
The beautiful countenance reflects the serene stability of eternity, with impressive majesty.
“It didn't seem to me to be in front of a funeral bed, writes a nun who had watched over it the following night, but before an all-white altar, around which palm trees and lilies were already singing the triumph of the little victim so beautiful that there it was extended, in a final attitude of oblation. During the quiet hours of the night, my prayer sought to echo yours. He embraced the world, souls, sinners, our dear Society and thanksgiving was mixed with supplication ”.
The Heart of Jesus already appeared to us, radiating through the remains of the little instrument so divinely hidden until then, and lifting the veil, beginning to discover to souls the burning appeals of His Love.
“On the night of her death, and not knowing it was worse, writes the Sister in charge of the kitchen, I saw her in dreams. It was very beautiful and rested on a bed full of flowers. He waved his hand for me to come over and said: "Oh! Sister, do not be afraid of suffering and do not lose even a portion of what Jesus sends you. If you knew what it was like to suffer for Him! You need to turn your work into prayer. .
Say to each thing, “My Jesus, it is for You, I offer it to you so that He sees that your will is to be with Him and to love Him. Oh! If Sister only knew! ...
he needs love so much! ” She emphasized each word strongly and this impressed me all the more vividly because, on Sunday morning when I went down to meditation, I knew I had left for heaven ".
On the afternoon of Sunday, December 30, the Bishop of Poitiers comes to pray in front of his remains.
It involves that last and long interview, solemn silence.
Afterwards, His Excellency again blesses the little Josefa entrusted to her paternal vigilance by the Heart of Jesus in Person, and her gaze at this moment moves away with great pity. When you leave it, you cannot contain the feelings that overflow from your soul. He signs the minutes of the Profession of Soror Josefa and promises to come and give absolution after the Mass of Requiem scheduled for Tuesday, January 1st.
The year 1923 ends, therefore, under the effusion of the graces that the humble cell seems to be a fruitful source. A supernatural attraction to it draws and retains souls there, and throughout Monday, December 31, the unanimity of thanksgiving, offering and supplication that is found there, should console and glorify the adorable Heart of Jesus. : it is already the Work of His Love that begins to be realized. At half past four Josefa is placed with veneration and love, in the white wooden coffin that will hide her from all eyes. His placid countenance always preserves that radiance of sweetness and peace that we have never tired of contemplating since the day before. We transported her through the cloisters of the “Feuillants” to the chapel, the same place where, eighteen months earlier, Jesus had said to her: '' See how faithful I was to you ', it is the last meeting of these two fidelities of love.
While the Community spends the night in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament displayed in the oratory of St. Stanislaus, to end that incomparable year at the feet of Jesus Host, Josefa is alone, on guard, before the tabernacle of her first Vows.On Tuesday, January 1, the burial took place. “I was afraid the Superior of Josefa wrote to Mother General, so close by thought and prayer to all those events, I feared that the Good Year celebrations, the absence of the girls on vacation, would leave the chapel very empty for the ceremony. This did not happen. Monsignor, visibly moved by six priests, occupied the sanctuary. Religious of various Orders, the little ones of the Good Shepherd, our protégés, the students of the semi-boarding school to which we had participated, the Daughters of Mary of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart, a good number of friends, behind all the Mothers and Sisters, formed the beautiful retinue of our so humble and so unknown Josefa ”,
The mass of “Requiem”, piously sung, ends in the gathering that everything contributes to make it more exciting. The bishop solemnly gives absolution and the procession begins, while the chant "in Paradisum" raises thoughts to the place where we must, from now on, contemplate the dear little Sister. It rains, and the gloomy weather of January 1st contrasts with the serene peace of souls.
We went down the alleys of the garden, passing not far from the oratory of São José, the solitude in which Santa Madalena Sofia took shelter during the Retreats. An unexpected stop of the car in front of the cross that dominates the crossroads of the avenues seems to put, for the last time, the daughter under the blessing of the Mother Founder; then you reach the great enclosure gate. Josefa leaves the Feuillants! How poignant is the emotion when the car crosses the threshold and disappears.
The grave of the Religious of the Sacred Heart is at one end of the city cemetery. There, a large concession encloses the numerous tombs around the cross. In front of the entrance gate, in the carefully prepared pit, a few weeks before her death, Josefa's precious remains are deposited. Her tomb is in no way different from that of the other nuns, but it seems to take shelter under Mary's virginal mantle, being close to a statue of Our Lady that dominates an ancient tomb.
There lies the humble privileged of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the one who, from now on, will be known as: "Messenger of his Work of Love".

CONCLUSION

It would not be up to me to conclude Our Lord's admirable entertainments with the coadjutor little Sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
However, I was invited (and with such insistence that I could not avoid it) to express my feelings about these new appeals of God's Mercy. May I be forgiven for bringing only a reply from "poor sinner". It will be wise to take it not as the judgment of an expert on the subject. but only as a testimony of gratitude to Jesus Christ, who was the Victim of his Love for us, and to the Society that did not keep to itself the most intimate thoughts of the Heart of Jesus.

I

It was with great pity, but not without forethought, that I resigned myself to leaving the sanctity of the Bride in shadow that Our Lord mysteriously associated with Himself.
The facts, reported with the most modest simplicity. the eminent virtues have already been sufficiently highlighted. In a Conclusion, it seems to be fitting that this daughter of predilection completely disappears - who will indeed have her glory on earth as in heaven.
- The main purpose of Jesus was not to propose it as an example.
He did not speak to her so abundantly to attract the admiration of the crowds. Soror Josefa was nothing but a voice. Nothing else. It existed only for the Message and the Message was not at all for her. It determined Christ that she be nothing. He never took her out of his nothingness. He worked to further annihilate that nothingness in the course of his days of light.
Lux lucebat in tenebris. Josefa wished above all the obscurity of her misery. If today it is still treated “like scum”, the happier it will be. The Message will thus have some opportunity to reach us without obstacles, as it hoped.
I will not hide that I felt, so to speak, overshadowed by the Presence of the Living Christ, when, faithful to the instructions of the Master and his Confident, I tried to completely forget the existence of Josefa Menéndez. I immediately had evidence that it was, in fact, Christ himself who spoke here.
There was no danger of illusion. The discernment of spirits became superfluous. It was enough to distinguish the voice of Jesus. I recognized it in the clearest clarity that souls perceive in the hours of grace and, above all, as the Gospel and the saints have given it to us over the centuries. It is impossible to deceive yourself, the timbre of the voice that entrusted to Soror Josefa the Secrets of the Merciful Heart of Christ is exactly the same as that of the Savior of the Gospel and of the God of Love of all eternity. Deus caritas est. Since the beginning of the centuries, God has invited us to Love.
Prior dilexit nos. If the law wants us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength (Deut. CS), it was He who first impelled us, with infinite perseverance, to respond to the immense Love that he had for each one. of us.
How many times has he repeated that he wanted us more than a mother.
It would be only yesterday's tender and seductive voice that made this foolish statement to us: You are my Wife and I am your Spouse! “Voices of joy and joy, voices of two Spouses who sing: Praise Iavé of the armies for He is Good and His Mercy endures forever”. (Jer. XXIII, II).
When Our Lord told the little sister that he loved us “madly”, we had already heard the Bridegroom par excellence repeat it in a language that all men of flesh could understand.
Your Mercy? we should know it, since God started talking to us; it surpasses all imagination: If my Lord "the earth is full of your Mercy", (Ps. 118, 64) your Holy Scripture overflows with goodness for sinners; the secret history of souls is the uninterrupted account of your extraordinary Pardons that nothing discourages.
More eloquent messages than Josefa's, how many has humanity already received is not right? When the miserable winemakers of the “house of Israel” wiped out the servants of the father of the family, beating one of them by killing the other, polishing the third, the Good Master sent other servants again, in greater numbers than the first, and they deal with them. same way.
Then he sent his Son to them, saying, "They will respect my Son."
But when the winemakers saw the Son, they said to each other: “Here is the heir; come, let us kill him and we will have his inheritance ”. Now, what was coming?
that beloved Son? That God was Charity that God so loved vineyard workers that he gave them his only Son. And behold, we crucify him because we understand nothing of his testimony. But, before dying and communicating his own Love to us (the Holy Spirit, who is the substantial bond of the Most Holy Trinity), the only Son revealed to us the depths of God. His Gospel overflows with goodness. It is truly, from beginning to end, the Gospel of sinners.
It is the exaltation of repentance. It is public and expresses a preference for the publican, for the prodigal son, for the straying sheep, for the sick, for the adulterous hello and for the humiliated and contrite Madalena. In this eternal letter of Mercy are the Beatitudes solemnly promised to the poor, to the persecuted, to the victims of injustice to the unfortunate who mourn their sins and their pains. Profusion miracles are distributed to all the maimed in life who, from the bottom of the abyss, call Christ for help. There are even more poignant and deeper cries than all that went up to the Savior's ears, for Jesus cries out in the crowd, in the public square, as if he were the most beggar of all the beggars who are hungry and thirsty for happiness. and justice.
“On the last day of the feast, which is the solemn day, Jesus, standing, said out loud:“ If anyone is thirsty, come to Me and drink; he who believes in Me, from his bosom, as the scriptures say, rivers of living water will flow ”. He said this from the Spirit, (this is from the love of the Father and the Son) that those who believe in him should receive, because the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified ”.
(Jo. VII. 37) He calls to Himself those who work and are oppressed: “Come to Me, all of you who are tired and overwhelmed, and I will give you rest”. (Mat. XI, 28). “I have come that you may have life and that you may be in abundance”. (Jo. X. 10).
And, before expiring under our blows, he also shouted anguish: “Sitio”; I am thirsty!
This cry that should fill all spaces and all times and resonate in the depths of all hearts, alas! how rare are those who heard Him as a personal appeal! Some said, in truth, not only with their lips, but with the testimony of their life and death: “Et nos credidimus caritati”: We believe in charity. But a large number of Christians and especially sinners were deaf to these Calls of Love.
After heralds of all conditions, doctors, martyrs, confessors, virgins, children, Josefa Menéndez addresses us, with a more touching accent than ever. It is heir to a secret that has not been hidden or altered over the centuries. This is the big CURRENT FACT that I wanted to highlight. - When I read your intimate conversations with Christ, I believe I hear, not only the Margaridas Marias who preceded her, but also the most illustrious doctors and the most classic saints, if I may so express it, from the New Alliance. Will Jesus' message be transmitted by a religious sister or by Saint Augustine? Only by its content could it be distinguished. For the great doctor of grace spoke to us, with an equally pure eloquence, more opulent and more inflamed, however, of God's Goodness and Mercy towards sinners: “O immense paternal tenderness! O priceless Charity! To free the servant, you gave the Son ... O Charity! O Father's tenderness! Who has never heard of such things? Who would not be astounded by your Guts of Mercy? Who would not admire your Kindness? Who would not sing the excessive Charity of your Choose? ” (1).
“I love You, O my God, I love You and I want to love You more and more. Give me the grace to desire You, to love You, as much as I want, as much as I must.
You are the immensity and you must be loved without measure, especially for us who loved without measure, who saved without measure, to whom you gave so many and such tests of Love! ” (2)
Passionate effusions that reach the delirium of a spirit intoxicated by grace, we find them even more in Saint Augustine than in any other mystical author. Whether we meditate on Saint Bernard's elevations on the love of God and his Commentary on Songs, or read the best-known works of the mystical monks of the Middle Ages; if, right after this Latin reading, we open the “Appeal to Love” of the little coadjutor of the “Sacred Heart”, we will not see, except superficial differences, as between a large and a small consecrated Host. It was certainly the same Heart of Jesus that loved, sought, called, forgave, filled the most miserable sinners with delicacies. It is he, I do not hesitate a second to believe it, it is he who has, for centuries, continued to propose an intimate union with you and the ineffable happiness of being Wives of the incarnate Word. I give just one example out of a thousand.
Josefa speaks to us, with a predilection, not only about the Passion of Jesus in general, but especially about the Five Wounds. “Here are the Wounds - says Our Lord one day - open on the cross to rescue the world from eternal death and give it life. They are the ones who obtain Mercy and Forgiveness for so many souls who irritate the Father's Wrath. They are the ones who, from now on, will give them Light. Strength and Love. This Wound of My Heart is the divine Volcano where I want my chosen Souls to burn ”. (3).

(1) “The immense pietas, the inestimabilis caritas! ut liberares servum, Filium tradidisti ... Caritas! the pietas! Did you hear talia? Did you want so much mercy viscera non obstupescat?
Wanted non miretur? Quis non collaetur propter nimiam caritatem tuam qua nos dilexisti ”. (Meditation, St. Augustine).
(2) “I love you, my God, I love you and magis until magis amare volo. Da mihi, ut desiderem te, ut amem te, quanturo debeo. Immense es et sine menses debes amari, praesertim a nobis, quos sic amasti, sic salvasti, quo quibus so much et talia fecistl ”. (Soliloquies).
(3) Appeal to Love. Cf. 1921: February 20, March 25, June 30. July, 22; - 1922: February 19th, May 14th.
August 29: 1923: March 30. 1st of April. June 17, August 29. October 5, October 28.

But Augustine had heard the same yearnings.
He wrote: “The wounds of Jesus Christ are full of Mercy, full of Tenderness, full of Softness and Charity. They pierced His Hands and Feet, opened His Side with a spear stroke; through these channels I am allowed to taste how soft the Lord my God is ... Abundant redemption is given to us in the Wounds of Jesus Christ, our Savior, a great multitude of sweetness, the fullness of grace and the perfection of virtues ”.
It is not once but a hundred times that the converted saint, the doctor of Mercy, invites sinful souls to trust, especially those whose crimes lead to despair.
And what pious soul has not read the pleading themes of Saint Bernard at least once in his life?
“In your desperation, never say: my iniquity is too great for me to obtain forgiveness Absolutely not. Absolutely not. On the contrary, greater is the paternal Goodness of God than all iniquity ”.
“As for me, full of confidence, what I lack, I take it into the heart of the Lord, because it overflows with Mercy and there are plenty of cracks through which the graces flow. His hands and powders have been swept away, the side has been opened. I can now, for these Wounds, take honey from the stone and oil from the very hard rock, that is, taste and see that the Lord only had thoughts of peace and I ignored it. .
Cry these nails, cry these Wounds - God is truly in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The sanctuary of this Heart opens to the brink, to which all the Wounds of his Body lead us. The great Sacrament of Love of the Father opens; The Mercy Entrances of us ~ God were wide open to our souls ...
“Aren't they visible to all of these Guts, through Wounds? Where would it be more evident than in your Wounds, the truth that You, Lord, are gentle and meek, rich in Mercy? No one has more pity than the One who gives his life for men who deserved death and who were condemned to perish. For this reason, my merit is in the Lord's Mercy ”.
My intention, in relating these beautiful texts, is to remember that there is an infinity of others in the spiritual treasure of the Church, as poignant, as encouraging as these, whose secrets are revealed to us today. We had taken the sad habit of forgetting them, as we have forgotten the dead. They revive our memory here.

The confidences of the humble Soror Josefa are literal echoes of the great divine Voice who, in each season with loving patience and condescension, wants to persuade us again that he is Love, Love infinitely liberal and infinitely disinterested, Love infinitely merciful, Love Love infinitely impatient to make all men one God in Christ. Will we believe it at all?
But, with this return to tradition, I am not only aiming to attest to the indisputable authenticity of the Message from the Heart of Jesus. It is not in favor of Soror Josefa that I come to bear witness, but against all of us. This perseverance of Christ accuses us of our spiritual deafness, our hardening, our lightness of spirit, our ingratitude, our lukewarmness, which are truly frightening and which should launch us into stupor. Through his Wife, the Heart of Jesus still groans today, for the hundredth time, about our indifference, as he had done about the incomprehension of the disciples of Emmaus: “O men without intelligence, whose Heart is slow to believe everything that the Prophets! ” (Luc. XXV, 25).
We should be deeply uneasy. It is not to be feared that, with some futile pretext - under the pretext, for example, that we should not rely too much on visionaries, nor on “vain sayings of women” (Luc. XXIV, 11) - under the pretext that private revelations do not they are of direct interest to faith, and that the imagination is always more alive than we think, - under the pretext that infernal apparitions make heavenly visions suspicious - under the pretext, in short, that we would not be able to discern the true from the false, in mystical phenomena - no is it to fear that some of you will hesitate to give generous words and worldwide reach to the divine Words presented by Soror Josefa?
The Samaritan soon ran to tell her compatriots what she had learned from the Good Master (Jo. IV 28). Magdalene hastened to announce to the Disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had given her a message (John XX 18). How could we delay in making souls aware of the unfathomable riches of the Heart of Jesus?
Let us not apologize by saying that there is nothing new in these private Revelations, for it is precisely because Christ has cried for many centuries, with the same cry of Love and Mercy, that we are obliged, today, much more than yesterday, not to tolerate that his shouts are drowned out by our superfluous doubts and discussions. To believe in the Love of Jesus, we will need to be invited to put ourselves a. hand on the wound on the side injured by the spear? Let us first hear Jesus' word: “Beati qui non viderunt et crediderunt”.

II

The strength of the Message transmitted by Josefa, however, does not come only from its perfect continuity with the eternal Revelation of the Savior's infinite Mercy: it also results from his manifest OPPORTUNITY.
I would like to emphasize it, once again, before the souls to whom this book reaches. Who would not be impressed with the perfect concordance of thought between the “Message from the Heart of Jesus” and the recent encyclical of the Holy Father Pius XII on the mystical Body of Christ. "Mystici Corporis Christi". The Message is from 1920-1923; the Encyclical, of June 29, 1943. In the course of the twenty years that separate them, the condemnations of modern heresies by Pope Pius XI appeared; war embraced the universe, Cardinal Pacelli was elected to the Chair of Peter. His Holiness Pius XII more than once condemned errors and clarified the faith of Christians. Now, what Christ said for his Vicar in 1943 evidently confirms the Desires that in the intimacy 5 and a convent, the same Christ had manifested in 1923 to his humble servant. Between the two forms of teaching, I perceive an understanding of harmony, a convergence of ideas that clearly allow us to discern the current direction of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Whether we meditate on the words transmitted by the ignorant religious, or study the doctrine of the Sovereign Pontiff, we feel invited, on both sides, to raise Christian civilization from the ruins, on the foundations of charity. It seems to me that there is a new fact there that gives the Message, capital importance. It is a true call for Christians to restore the world more perfectly. God wants to usher in an era of progress in the development of the mystical Body of Christ. I will be content to point out that agreement on some points.

1. First, Our Lord seems to recommend Devotion to the Sacred Heart more urgently than ever.
Paray's revelations had dispelled the heresies of fear and particularly those of Calvinism and Jansenism. It is known with what magnificent and incomparable Promises he tried to attract timid souls. There is no doubt that the Church has been gradually responding to this Call, throughout the universe. After two centuries of persevering efforts, the apostles of the Sacred Heart managed to make understood, savored, loved, that devotion that, for a long time, was considered suspect. How difficult it is for Jesus to become loved by men as he wishes! Today. Does the Heart of Jesus come to tell us that it is not yet satisfied with our very parsimonious adorations and sacrifices?
His thirst was not quenched. Far from it, it needs more and more, love and trust. He invites us to love Him with such passionate insistence that it can no longer be doubted that this devotion is ever more dear to Him, that Her Holy Trinity is particularly pleased and that she considers it as the most effective means of glorifying God. and save souls. What is new in the Message is the strength with; what; Christ insists on the revelation of his Love. No one has ever spoken to us with as much fire of what he held most dearly as Jesus, at this moment, speaks to us of his Mercy. Hence we must conclude that we are, unfortunately, very little in a hurry to draw from this Source of Life.
Today's Christianity is being dragged into the catastrophe that threatens to send the whole of humanity into a kind of despair. Who will save us? Who can assure us of the victory of faith? In these stormy hours, Christ, yet again, appears to pure hearts to say to us: Respond with confidence to the calls of the Heart of Jesus. Hence salvation will come.
Hence, victory.
In his Encyclical "Annum Sacrum" of May 25, 1899, Leo XIII, recalling the "Victory close and insignificant" that had predicted to Constantine the appearance of the cross in the sky, it was expressed: "Today. another divine symbol, a blessed omen, appears before our eyes: it is the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus surmounted by the cross and resplendent with an incomparable brightness amid flames; we must ask for the salvation of men, it is from him that we should expect it ”.
Also the Holy Father Pius XII declares to us, in his last Encyclical, that he “joyfully verifies” the progress of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the ardor that many spirits put in “to reflect more deeply on the unfathomable riches of Christ preserved in Church ”, because in it is all our hope.

2. ° Past times, however, also had their torments. Pedro's boat has always been about to settle down. What has happened in our time that the Lord has sent us an unprecedented Message?
It happened that the century in which we live is a century of iron that, attacking directly the virtue of Charity, wants to raise a new idol, not only that of Science, but that of Force.
Unrestrained propaganda attempts to convince men that they will be gods only with the power of arms; but that for that they must despise the charity that paralyzes them, depresses them and demeans them, and precipitates people and individuals to decay. Fortunately, the savage law advocated by modern humanity is not the law of God, as it would be very easy for the Omnipotent to expel men from peaceful lands as he once expelled his first parents from Paradise and condemned them to endless slaughter or hell. But the strength of God is in the love of stray men. He wants to pour out Mercy, to forgive them, to make them happy. It was what Josefa Menéndez was in charge of repeating to them on the eve of the disaster we fell so deeply into. Through his mouth, Jesus speaks to souls who no longer believe in Love. This is why you will repeat the same word hundreds of times: "Come to Me!" "Have confidence".
"I love you". "I am Mercy".
For his part, at the same time and for the same reasons, as an echo of the Voice of Christ, our Holy Father reminds us that charity is the supreme glory and the greatest power of man: “If love itself is an excellent thing, the source of true friendship, what about heavenly love; poured out by God Himself into our souls? God is charity and he who remains in charity, in God remains and God in him ”(Jn. IV, 16). Now this charity, according to the law established by God, has the effect of making it fall, through a reciprocity of love, on us who love him, according to the following words: “If anyone loves Me, my Father will also love him and we will come to he and in him we will establish an Abode ”(Jn. XIV 23).
That is the only way we will all be together, not only as gods - but one God with a file for Christ Jesus. And that is how we will win, not just some nations, but the whole world and even demons. Only then will we have, not just the strength of the superman. but that of the Holy Spirit. “It was in the ardor of that heavenly flame, continues the Holy Father, that so many children of the Church rejoiced to suffer opprobrium for Christ, to face everything, to overcome everything, until the last breath of life and the outpouring of their own blood.
“O admirable condescension of divine Tenderness towards us! Inconceivable design of the immense Charity!
The Message came at a critical time, to oppose Satan's seductions.
It invites us to imitate the Savior's Kindness for sinners, weak, wounded, sick, children to whom our Savior had a very particular love.
The Apostle's teaching repeats to us, the words of which the Holy Father quotes: “The members of the body that seem weakest are the most necessary, and those that we think are less honorable are those that most surround us”, (Cor., XII, 22 -23).
"Pius XII adds that this is a very serious affirmation, which, aware of the imperative obligation currently incumbent on us, we believe we must repeat, while, with deep distress, we see the crippled, the demented or those affected by hereditary diseases, as an unfortunate burden for society" . Jesus wants the law of Charity to govern the relations of men with each other and of men with God.

3. This is why, in the solemn moment when, on the rubble of this society destroyed to the foundations, the hope of a more beautiful, happier and more solid civilization is reborn in the children of God, it was urgent that Christ came to revive our faith through little sister Josefa. We needed to hear the “Appeal to Love”, in order to remember that the True Society of Men must be a “most glorious Society of Love” and that among the peoples, CHRISTIAN FRATERNITY should reign. International problems, social problems so numerous, so diverse, so complex, are not enough solutions of justice, which are obscure, inextricable, fragile, fallacious. There is only one solution to all questions, a solution that suppresses all difficulties: it is faith in Charity. It could be said that a single obstacle stands in the way of the workers 'fruitful and happy understanding' is bosses, races and homelands, selfishness. And selfishness is so powerful that it cannot be overcome except by the Love of Christ and the union of all members in one Body whose head is Christ.
“The love of the divine Spouse, Pius XII tells us, according to the Message of the Heart of Jesus - extends so widely that, without excluding anyone, embraces the entire human race in his Spouse. If our Savior shed the Blood itself, it was in order to reconcile all men with God on the cross, though they were separated by the nation and by the blood, and to unite them in one body ”.
And the Holy Father is not afraid to extend this Charity to the enemies of the Church.
“True love ... also requires that in other men, not yet united with us in the body of the Church, we must recognize brothers of Christ according to the flesh, called with us to the same eternal salvation. Undoubtedly, there is no shortage of people who, unfortunately, even today, proudly exalt struggle, hatred, envy, as a means of glorifying the dignity and strength of man. But we, who painfully discern the lamentable fruits of this doctrine, follow our peaceful King who taught us not only to love those who do not belong to the same nation or origin. (Luc. IV, 33, 37) but to love even our enemies (Luc. IV, 27, 35; Mat. V, 44-48).
Imbuing our souls with the gentle doctrine of the Apostle to the nations, let us celebrate with him the length, breadth, height and depth of the Love of Christ (Ephesians III-18): - Love that cannot break the diversity of peoples and customs , which cannot diminish the immense expanses of the ocean, nor can they break up wars and companies for any just or unjust cause ”.

4. But the Charity that will reconcile all men, even the most irritated among themselves, cannot act effectively except through the blood shed in a spirit of reparation. One of the essential points of the Message - the most important perhaps - is the Sacred Heart's Call to painful collaboration with his Passion, to complete what is missing from the fruits of his Sufferings.
Through Josefa, Jesus always returns to the need and the power of our reparation.
“To save a soul, you have to suffer a lot ...
souls run to perdition and my Blood is lost to them! But those who love Me and immolate themselves as victims of reparation, attract the Mercy of God. This is what saves the world !, ..
“Glorify Me for my Heart. It presents Him as a victim of Love for souls and, in a special way, for those consecrated to Me. Live with me, as I live with you ... Your suffering will be Mine, and My suffering will be yours. "
Hundreds of similar words are said to Josefa, as if such a speech were too easy to forget. If we consider carefully the words with which Jesus invites the little victim to immolate himself with Him for the rescue of the world, or for the salvation of certain sinners for whom the Sacred Heart seems to have entrusted it - these words, which come back all the time in divine confidences, they contain a fundamental doctrine that fervent souls would never meditate or divulge too much. We don't live, we don't suffer, we don't die to ourselves. Christ, who is our only head, has established among all the members of his Body, so close and so profound solidarity, so perfect "communication" of prayers and merits, that we can, if we wish, take advantage of Jesus' redemption, and every man, in turn, can, if he wishes, take advantage of the excess of Mercy and Graces that any voluntary Victim, united with the only Host of Calvary, has obtained by another.
This affirms the originality, the transcendence of Christianity. Now, the Sovereign Pontiff teaches us the same doctrine and allows us to hear the same pressing pleas. His Encyclical on the Mystical Body reminds us, after that of Pius XI, “Miserentis-simus”, that reparation is an urgent duty for the salvation of nations in war. He wants us to accept to walk on the bloody footprints of our King, to die with him, to live with him, to participate piously, even daily if possible, in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, to relieve the misfortunes of so many destitute, to dominate this mortal body by penance voluntary; in short, “that we may complete in our flesh what the Passion of Christ lacks for his Body, which is the Church”.
“For his Body, which is the Church”, that is, for all sinful souls, for this or that soul in particular, because there is none that, due to our mutual dependence, cannot be revised, restored, saved by those who suffer for it in Jesus Christ.

5. In the Message from the Heart of Jesus and the Encyclical on the Mystical Body, this same obsession that we should have of Reparation is combined with the same thought of a constant recourse to the Virgin Co-redemptor. This agreement is impressive and deserves to be remembered as a highly significant fact.
In the family dealings of Our Lord Jesus Christ with his Wife, Mary, he constantly intervenes to comfort Josefa when she is in desolation to reassure her when she is afraid, to prepare her when she is disoriented, to fortify her when she is intimidated, to encourage her when she is downcast with her weakness, to excite her confidence when the devil attacks her and, mainly to teach her to follow her on the path of Calvary when she is urged to compassion and reparation.
The Message of the Holy Quran, in short, gives us the lesson that the Word of God cannot bear fruit in a human soul except through the Blessed Virgin and with her maternal help. At all times, Mary's Mediation is necessary. Now, the Holy Father has become an echo of this divine Plan; If, in truth, we take to heart the salvation of the universal human family, rescued by the divine Blood, we must pass our vows through the hands of the Virgin Mother. "For many reasons, we can have full confidence in her intercession; it was She who, exempt from any personal or hereditary stain, always closely united to her Son, presented Him on Golgotha ​​to the Eternal Father, uniting the holocaust of her rights and her love of Hand, like a new Eve, for all the children of A, they are tainted with original sin, so the One who, bodily, was Mother of our Divine Head, became spiritually Mother of all her members, by a new title of suffering and glory. ”
The duty of Reparation becomes much easier for us when we are sustained by the example and prayer of the Mother of Jesus Christ.

6. Shouldn't all these teachings that current circumstances make so urgent should the Catholic Action Leaders and Militants meditate on? One of the reasons that the Sovereign Pontiff decided to publish, on June 29, 1943, an Encyclical on the “Mystical Body” - although the war threatened to burn Italy and Rome itself - was that among the faithful themselves “sometimes circulated , inaccurate or entirely erroneous opinions that dragged intelligences off the straight path of truth ”. Members of Catholic Action must be guarded against such spiritual deviations, since the sublime doctrine of the Mystical Body unites them more closely to all Christians with the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Sovereign Pontiff himself.
Catholic Action activists, who deeply understand the Message of the Sacred Heart, will be wonderfully prepared to understand modern errors and doctrinal truths, which the Encyclical has truly highlighted.
The increasingly confident devotion to the Merciful Heart of Jesus, the deep conviction that the charity of Christ is the source of all spiritual goods and that we must not rely on our own merits or despair of our miseries (for divine love explores even our faults for the extension of his kingdom, but is bound by our proud pretensions), the living faith in the power that builds charity to establish among all men a holy Society of Love - the unmistakable hope that one day all that it exists on earth and in heaven it will be led to the unity of the mystical Body, - the strength of the Holy Spirit that leads us to cooperate with our prayers. our sacrifices, our penance, our mortification, our selfless and generous efforts in the redemption of guilty humanity, filial piety towards the Mediatrix of all graces, all these feelings drawn from the meditation on the recent Words of Christ must preserve us from the false mysticism that, instead of humiliating man and glorifying Criso, he grants man “divine attributes that belong to Christ”, - the “false quietism” that only delivers to Christ the salvation of the world “excluding and neglecting a. cooperation of man ”,
- from “rationalism” that considers absurd what surpasses and dominates the forces of the human spirit, - from “naturalism” that bases its trust on the Church's legal and social strength and human action, and not on the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit. - finally, of all the systems that demean supernatural means
- such as prayer, confession, suffering, charity towards the poor - and which exalt the power of the means that man can dispose of without taking into account the communion of saints, and of all the members of the mystical Body of Jesus Christ.
The Message therefore contains the Antidote to ERRORS which - according to the Holy Father's warnings - most threaten the faithful. Don't you see our opportunity and its novelty? All who are blind, regarding the evils of our time will realize that the “Appeal to Love” is much more than an edifying biography. If we are not deaf to the Voice of Christ, we must set a date in the history of spirituality in France and the Catholic apostolate.
It remains for me to confess the secret thoughts that the Message of Soror Josefa Menéndez suggested to me regarding the future of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
When the Virgin visited in Pessoa, her cousin Isabel, she could not contain herself and launched a great cry: - “Exclamavit! you are great! ” Blessed are you - he said - among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ”
And she added the following words that were like that “prelude to the Magnificat”: blessed is she who believed! for the things that have been said to him from the Lord will be fulfilled.
"Beata quae credidisti, quoniam perficientur ea, quae dicta sunt tibi a Domino".
I certainly lacked faith if I was convinced that the Message inaugurates, for the Society of the Sacred Heart, a new era of holiness and apostolic fruitfulness. The will of God, it is clear, however liberal it may be, does not produce its effects of Mercy except under condition.
It is necessary that, first, we respond to their wishes with total generosity and confidence, if we do not want their firmest promises to fail.
But, who would hesitate to carry out the divine Program in the best possible way, designed with such Love by the Spouse of Souls, and whose main lines I tried to highlight? Ah! who would not love without measure the Heart that gave itself without measure?
Yes, these great words written in fiery letters in the Message:
“DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART, CHARITY, KINDNESS, TRUST, ABANDONMENT, TOTAL GIFT, HUMILITY, COMPASSION, REPAIR, SALVATION OF SOULS, MEDIATION OF MARY", how could they not be engraved in the heart of every religious of the Sacred Heart?
How could these virtues, which have always been the hallmarks of Holy Mother Magdalene Sofia Barat and her spiritual family, not be practiced with heroic fidelity? The mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart, in the Church and in Catholic Action, depends closely on your trust in the Heart of Jesus and, therefore, on the importance you attach to your Message.
Christ could have addressed souls through a contemplative. In order to better achieve his goal, he preferred to look for collaborators in an Order dedicated to the education of girls. Nobody will think that chance directed the election. I am convinced that a doctrine, a moral, a spirituality, cannot penetrate deeply into the body and soul of humanity if, through education, young generations do not assimilate their vigorous leaven. For the dough only grows by leaven. I think with immense gratitude for the grace that the Sacred Heart Society received to train Catholic Action activists and family mothers, who, - in this century of diabolical terror in which souls are both depressed by fear and exalted by presumption , - will have unshakable and victorious faith in the Love and Mercy of God, and will draw on this same faith. courage to rescue a multitude of souls through their reparative union with the pierced Heart of Jesus Christ. The Message is first of all entrusted to this Society. May it not underestimate its current importance, but make the seed bear fruit up to a hundredfold.

R. Padre Fr. Charmot, S. J.

SOME SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES OF JOSEFA ABOUT HELL

Soror Josefa wrote very soberly on this subject. He did so only out of obedience and to enter the designs of Our Lord, as the Blessed Virgin had said to him, on October 25, 1922:
"All he allows you to see or to escape from the feathers of hell is ... to let you know your Mothers, without thinking about you, but only in the Glory of the Heart of Jesus and in the salvation of many souls."
Some extracts from these notes have been cited in the present biography (Chapter V: “Entrance into the darkness of Beyond-grave”). Here are many others.
Note Josefa, first and often the greatest torment of hell: not being able to love.
“One of the damned souls shouted: - This is my torment ... wanting to love and not more power. I have nothing but hatred and despair.
If any of us who are here could do just one act of love, this would no longer be hell! ... But we cannot; our food is to hate and abhor! ” (March 23, 1922),
It is still one of those unfortunate souls who speaks:
“The greatest torment here is not being able to love the One we are to hate. The hunger for love consumes us, but it is too late ... You too will feel this same hunger: hating, abhoring and wishing the perdition of souls ... this is our only desire! ” (March 26, 1922).
Josefa writes the following, out of obedience, and despite the disgust of her humility:
“All these days when I am dragged to hell, when the devil orders others to martyr me, they reply:“ We cannot ... your members have already been martyred by Him ... (they designate Our Lord with blasphemy); then he orders me to drink sulfur ... and they answer:
“I also noticed that when they chain me up to take me to hell, they can never tie me up to the place where I used instruments of penance. All of this I write to obey ”(April 1, 1922).
Josefa also notices the accusations with which those unhappy souls are blamed. “Some roar at the martyrdom they suffer at the hands. I think that they stole it because they say: (Where is what you took? ... Damn hands! ... Why that ambition to have what was not mine, and that I could not keep ...
if not a few days? ... ”

“Others accuse their own tongues, their own eyes ... each one, what had been the reason for their sin:“ Well paid are now the delights you took, my body! ... and it was you who wanted it! ... (April 2, 1922).
"It seems that souls are mainly accused of sins against purity, of thefts, unjust business, and that the majority of those convicted of these causes are paying." (April 6, 1922).
“I saw a lot of people in the world fall into that abyss and it is impossible to explain or understand the scream that they released, and how they roared frighteningly.
"Eternal curse! ... I got engaged, I got lost ... I am here forever ... there is no medicine ... damn you!"
"Some blamed such a person, others such a circumstance, and all, the occasion of his own fall." (September 1922).
Today, I saw a great number of souls fall into hell, I believe they were people of the world. The demon screamed: "Now, the world is in the balance for me ...
I know the best way to grab souls! ... is to excite in them the desire to come! this is what guarantees me the victory, what brings them here in abundance! ” (October 4, 1922).
“I heard the demon to which a soul had just escaped, forced to confess its helplessness:“ Confusion! confusion! ... how do so many souls escape? they were mine! ... (and he lists their sins). I work without rest and, in the meantime, they escape me ... There is someone who suffers and notices for them! ” (January 1, 1923).
“Last night, I was not in hell, but I was carried to a place where there was no light, only a blazing red fire in the center. I was stretched and tied, unable to make a single move. Around me were seven or eight people without clothes, and the black bodies were lit only by the reflections of the fire. They were sitting and talking:
“One said:“ It is necessary to take great care so that they do not know our hand, as we are easily discovered. ”
“The devil replied:“ You can enter through the feeling of indifference ... yes, I believe that, by concealing yourselves so that they do not understand, you can make them indifferent to good and evil and, little by little, incline to your will to evil. Try these others with ambitions; that they only seek their own interest ... the increase in fortune, without worrying about whether or not it is legitimate. Excite in them the love of pleasure, sensuality. Blind them addiction! (So ​​he said obscene words.)
"Those others., Enter them, through their hearts ... you know where their hearts are inclined ... go ... go ... firmly ... that they love, fall in love ...
"Work without rest, without pity, it is necessary to lose the world ... do not escape these souls!"
“The others replied, from time to time:“ We are your slaves ... we will work without rest. Yes, many fight us, but we will work day and night without a break. We recognize your power ... etc. ”
“So everyone spoke and the one I believe to be the devil said horrible bad words. In the distance I heard a noise like glasses and glasses, and he shouted:
"Let them get drunk, then everything will be easy for us ... Finish your banquet, since you like to enjoy it so much ... It is the door through which you will enter."
“He added things so horrible that you can't even say or write. Then, as if plunging into smoke, they disappeared (February 3, 1923).
“The demon screamed with anger because a soul escaped him:
“Excite your fear! despair her. Ah! if she trusts the Mercy of that (and blasphemed Our Lord) I am lost! but not! fill it with fear, do not leave it for a moment and above all despair it. ”
“Then, hell was filled with a single cry of rage and, when the devil threw me out of the abyss, he continued to threaten me. Among other things he said:
"Is it possible? ... will it be true that weak creatures have more power than I am so powerful! But I will hide to pass unnoticed! ...
the smallest corner is enough for me to put a temptation: behind an ear, on the sheets of a book under a bed ... some don't pay attention to me, but I speak, I speak ... at the expense of speaking, some remain words ... Yes, I will hide in a place where they will not find me ”(7-8 February 1923).
Josefa also notes, returning from hell:
“I saw many souls fall. Among them, a fifteen-year-old girl who cursed her own parents, because they had not taught her the fear of God or that there was hell. She said that her life, although short, had been full of sins because she had granted herself all the satisfactions that her body and her passions demanded of her. He was mainly accused of having read bad books ”(March 22, 1923).
She also writes: "Certain souls cursed the vocation they had received and which they had not responded to ... the vocation they had lost, because they had not wanted to live hidden and mortified" (March 18, 1922).
“Once I went to hell, I saw many priests, men and women religious, who cursed their Vows, their Orders, their Superiors, and everything that could have given them the light and grace they had lost ...
"I also saw prelates ... One accused himself of having illegitimately used goods that did not belong to him" (September 28, 1922).
“Fathers cursed the very language they had consecrated, the fingers that touched Our Lord, the absolution they had given without knowing how to save themselves, the occasion that had led them to hell ... (April 6, 1922).
"A priest said:" I ate poison, I used money that did not belong to me ... "and he accused himself of having used the money they had given him for masses, without saying them".
"Another said that he belonged to a secret society in which he had betrayed the Church and religion and that, for money, he had facilitated horrible sacrileges and desecrations."
"Another said that he was condemned for having attended profane shows, after which he should not have celebrated Mass ... and for having lived seven years".
Josefa notices that most religious souls plunged into the abyss accused themselves of horrendous sins against chastity ... sins against the Poverty Vow ... illegitimate use of community goods ... of passions against Charity (envy, resentment, hatred etc.), carelessness and lukewarmness ... of comforts that they granted themselves and that dragged them to more serious sins ... of bad confessions for human respect, lack of courage and sincerity etc ...
Here, finally, is the full text of Soror Josefa's notes on "the hell of consecrated souls".
(See biography ch. VII, September 4, 1922).
That day's meditation was on the particular judgment of the religious soul. My soul could not take that thought away, despite the oppression I felt. Suddenly, I felt bound and overwhelmed with such weight that in an instant I realized, with more clarity than ever, what the Holiness of God is and how He hates sin.
“I saw, as if in a flash, my whole life before me, from my first confession to today. Everything was there: my sins, the graces I received on the day I entered religion, my habit-taking, my vows, the readings, the exercises, the advice, the words all the help of religious life. There is no expression that can say the terrible confusion that the soul feels at that time: “Now, everything is useless, I am lost forever.
As in the previous descents to hell, Josefa does not accuse herself of any sin that could have led her to such a disgrace. Our Lord just wants her to experience the consequences, as if she herself deserved them. He continues: “Instantly, I found myself in hell, but without being dragged along like the other times. The soul there hurry by itself, as if it wanted to disappear from the sight of God in order to be able to hate and curse him!
“My soul fell into an abyss whose bottom cannot be seen, for it is immense! ... I immediately heard other souls rejoicing seeing me in the same torments. Hearing those horrible screams is already martyrdom, but I believe that nothing is comparable in pain to the thirst for curse that takes over the soul, and the more we curse, the more the thirst increases. I had never experienced that. In the past, my soul was filled with pain in the face of those horrible blasphemies, although I could not produce even an act of love. But today, the opposite was true! “I saw hell as always, long corridors, fire cavities ... I heard the same souls screaming and blaspheming because - as I have written many times - although body shapes are not seen, torments are felt, as if bodies were present and souls recognize each other. They shouted: “hello, here you are! Like us! ... we were free to take those vows or not! ... but now ... ”And they cursed their vows.
"So, I was pushed into that inflamed niche and crushed as if between two burning boards, and as if irons and red-hot tips were stuck in my body."
Here, Josefa again describes the multiple torments that do not spare a single member. “I felt as if they wanted, without success, to tear my tongue out, a torment that reduced me to extremes of pain: the eyes seemed to come out of their sockets, I believe because of the fire that burned them so much! There was not a single nail that did not suffer horrible torment. You can neither move a finger to seek relief, nor change your position, the body is as if flattened and folded in half. The ears are overwhelmed with such shouts of confusion that they do not stop for an instant. A nauseating and disgusting smell suffocates and invades everything; it is as if rotting meat is burning with pitch and sulfur ... a mixture that cannot be compared to anything in this world. All this felt like other times and, although these torments were horrible, they would be nothing if the soul did not suffer. But he suffers in a way that cannot be described.
"Until now, when I went down to hell, I had intense pain because I thought I left religion and was condemned for it. But this time, no. I was in hell with a special sign of religious, and of a soul known and loved by God and he saw other souls of men and women religious who carried the same sign.
“I couldn't say how to recognize this sign; perhaps because the other condemned and the demons insult them in a special way ... many priests too!“I cannot explain what this suffering was, very different from what I experienced at other times, because if the torment of a soul in the world is terrible, it is nothing compared to that of a religious soul.
"Without ceasing for an instant, the three words: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience are imprinted on the soul as a poignant remorse".
"Poverty! You were free and you promised! Why then did you seek that well-being?
“- Why did you become attached to that object that was not yours? - Why did you give your body that convenience? - why did you take that freedom to dispose of things that were Community goods? - Didn't you know that you had no more right to own? that you had renounced this freely? Why those murmurs, when something was missing or seemed less well treated than others? Why?
“- Chastity! You made this Vow yourself, freely, and with full awareness of what it required ...
You imposed this obligation on yourself ...
You wanted it yourself. And then how did you keep it?
Why, then, have you not been in a state where you could give yourself enjoyments and pleasures? ”
“And the soul responds, without ceasing, with inexpressible torture:
"- Yes, I made that vow and I was free ... I might not have done it, but I did it myself and I was free". "There are no words that express the martyrdom of that remorse - writes Josefa - together with the insults of the other convicts". And keeps going:
“- Obedience! You yourself took on the obligation to obey your Rule, your Superiors, freely. So, why did you judge what they ordered?
Why did you disobey the regulation's voice? Why did you dispense with yourself from the obligation of ordinary life? Remember the softness of your Rule ... and you didn't want it ... And now the hellish voices roar, you must obey us and not for a day, not for a year, not for a century ... but forever ... for eternity ... it was you who wanted it: you were free! "
"The soul remembers without ceasing, that it had chosen its God for Spouse, that it loved Him above all ... that for Him it had renounced the most legitimate pleasures and everything that was most dear in the world, that in the beginning of the religious life she had tasted the sweetness, the Strength and the purity of that divine Love, now, for a disorderly passion ... she has to hate eternally, that God who had chosen her to love Him!
“This need to hate is a thirst that consumes it. Not a memory that can give you the slightest relief. “One of the greatest torments - adds Josefa - is the shame that surrounds her ...
It seems that all the evil souls that surround her scream at her, without ceasing:
“That we were lost, we who didn't have the same help as you, which is extraordinary? ... But you! What were you missing? You who lived in the King's Palace ... you who ate at the Table of the Elect ”. "Everything I am writing - she concludes - is nothing but a shadow beside what the soul suffers, because there are no words that can express similar torment". (September 4, 1922).
 

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

THE PURGATORY TEACHINGS

Josefa never went down to purgatory, but she saw and heard numerous souls coming to ask for prayers and some saying that, thanks to their sufferings, they had escaped to hell. These souls, in general, humbly accused themselves of the causes of their stay in purgatory (See bibliography chap. V “Entrance into the darkness of Beyond-Tomb”)
We add some details here: “I had a vocation and lost it with a bad reading. I had also despised and taken off my scapular ”.
(July 27, 1921).
“I was plunged into great vanity and about to get married. Our Lord used a very hard way to close the doors of hell to me ”.
(April 10, 1921).
“My religious life was long, but I spent my last years taking care of myself and satisfying myself more than loving Our Lord. Thanks to the merits of a sacrifice you made, I was able to die with fervor and it is still because of you that I am not in purgatory for long years, as I deserved it. The important thing is not to enter religion but to enter eternity ”. (April 7, 1922).
“- I have been in purgatory for a year and three months.
Without your small acts, I would still be there for many years. The people of the world have less responsibility than religious souls. How many graces do these receive, and what responsibility if they do not take advantage of them! ... The sisters hardly know how faults are atoned for here! ... The horribly tormented tongue expiates faults in silence, the dry throat expiates faults against charity, and subjection of this prison, the disgust to obey ... In my Order, there is little enjoyment and little comfort, but we can always get some smoothing ... and how it is necessary to atone here, the slightest lack of mortification !. .. Keeping the eyes to avoid a little curiosity, sometimes costs a lot of effort ... and here ... the eyes are tormented with the impossibility of seeing God! ” (April 10, 1622).
"- Another religious soul is accused of lack of charity and murmuring on the occasion of the election of one of its Superiors". (April 12, 1922).
“... I have been in purgatory until now ... because during my religious life I spoke a lot and with little discretion. I communicated to my child my impressions and my complaints and these communications were, for several of my sisters in habit, the cause of many faults in charity.
"- Take advantage of this lesson," added the Blessed Virgin, present at the apparition - because there are many souls who fall into that choise ".
And Our Lord also underlined this grave warning with the following words:
“This soul is in purgatory because of lack of silence, because this kind of absences drags many others; first, the Rule is missing; secondly, there are often, in these faults, sins against charity or the religious spirit, the search for personal satisfaction, outburst of heart that is not suitable for religious souls, and all this without mentioning that not only the person himself is guilty, but also drags with one, or several others. This is why this soul is in purgatory and is consumed in desires to approach Me ”. (February 22, 1922).

"- I am in purgatory, because I was not careful enough with the souls that God had entrusted to me, I did not know enough what souls are worth and what dedication requires such a precious deposit" (August 19, 1922).
“- I was in purgatory a little less than an hour and a half, to atone for some lack of trust in God. It is true that I have always loved Him very much, but with a certain fear. It is also true that the judgment of a religious soul is rigorous because it is not our Spouse, but our God who judges us. However, it is necessary, during life, immense confidence in his mercy and believe that he is good for us ... how many graces lose the religious souls who do not have enough confidence in him ”. (September 1922).
I am in purgatory, because I did not know how to treat the souls that Jesus entrusted to me with the care they deserved ... I let myself be carried away by human and natural feelings without seeing God in the souls that were entrusted to me, as the Superiors must always do; for if it is true that every religious should see, in her Superior, God Our Lord, the Superior should also see Him in her daughters ... ”
"- Thanks to you who contributed to get rid of the penalties of purgatory ..."
“- Ah! if the nuns knew how far an unruly movement can lead ... how they would work to dominate their nature and tame their passions ”. (April 1923).
“- My purgatory will be long, because I did not accept the Will of God, nor did I sacrifice my life with enough resignation, during the illness.
“The disease is a great grace of purification, it is true, but if we are not careful, it can also be an opportunity to get away from the religious spirit ...
to forget that we took the Poverty Vote. Chastity and Obedience, and that we were consecrated to God as victims. Our Lord is all Love, yes, but also all Justice! ” (November 1923).