+JMJ
It’s my birthday and the Lord continually blesses me abundantly! He has graciously allowed me to continue on the path towards Him, covered in His love and tender care. For this post I would just like to share a couple of journal passages from Holy People written on this date. One from Saint Ignatius and one from Servant of God Elizabeth Leseur. These passages are reminders to me of the beauty of divine consolation and the glory of the Cross.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Sunday, February 17, 1544
During the customary prayer, I could feel no mediators or any other persons. Is as coming to the end. I felt considerable relish and warmth. From the middle onwards, the tears were very copious, accompanied by warmth and interior relish; no intuitions; I considered the matter ended and it seemed to me to be acceptable to God Our Lord.
When I rose and turned to the preparation before mass, I thanked His Divine Majesty and offered Him the oblation already made. Neither devotion nor the impulse to weep was lacking. On going out to mass, preparing the altar, vesting and beginning mass, considerable tears: very intense and copious during mass, and such that very often I could not speak, especially during the whole of the long epistle of St. Paul, which begins, “Libenter suffertis insipientes:”* I felt no flashes of understanding or of distinctions, nor was I conscious in any way of any persons; may love was most intense and accompanied by warmth and great relish in divine things; my soul’s satisfaction increased greatly.
After mass, in the chapel, and later while I knelt in my room, when I wished to give thanks for so many gifts and graces received, I lost all desire to remake offerings of the oblation made (although I was ever doing so, and not without devotion,) considering the matter as settled; on the other hand, I felt drawn by the devotion I experienced to stay there enjoying the feeling.
Later I wondered whether to go out or not and decided with great peace in the affirmative; thereupon I felt special interior impulses and I wept. Although it seemed to me that I could have spent more time in tears, I rose, still weeping and with my soul very satisfied, and set out having decided to complete the matter tomorrow, before dinner-time at the latest- with thanksgiving, petition for strength, and repetition of the offering already made out of devotion for the Blessed Trinity, celebrating the mass in their honour.
Excerpt from the Spiritual Diary of St. Ignatius**
Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur
February 17, 1913
The Cross lies heavily upon my body and my soul. May all be as God wills, provided that I am heard. To love, suffer, and pray, always with joy that comes from Jesus.
Fiat!
Deo Gratias!
I want a to be a Eucharistic soul, a hidden apostle of the Divine Heart. To practice complete, confident, and loving abandonment. To go to God by means of the Cross, through the Heart of Jesus, under the sweet maternal protection of Mary. Whatever it may be, let the future be welcome, since it comes from the Heavenly Father and the one Friend. As the future becomes the present, it will bring me its own necessary graces. Until then and even afterward I must remember that “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” and that the present day is the one during which I can work and suffer for souls, for the glory of God.
Excerpt from The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur***
I love these insights into the interior lives of these Holy Ones. The rise and fall of consolation during St. Ignatius’s day, and the joyful reminder to carry the Cross shared by Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur.
May their words bless you as much as they bless me!
Thrive in Jesus, my Friends!
Do you have a favorite diary passage from a Saint? Leave me a comment and let me know!
*”For you gladly suffer the foolish.” From St. Paul’s epistle 2 Corinthians 11:19
**Ignatius, Munitiz, J., Endean, P., & Ignatius. (2004). Spiritual diary. In Personal writings: Reminiscences, spiritual diary, select letters including the text of the spiritual exercises (p. 80). essay, Penguin Books.
***Leseur, E., & Leseur, E. (2002). The Journal (1911-1914). In The secret diary of Elisabeth Leseur: The woman whose goodness changed her husband from atheist to priest (p. 131). essay, Sophia Institute Press.