They rejoice without end in the presence of God, beholding His glory face to face; and bring transformed from glory into the glory of the incomprehensible Deity, they taste the Word of God made flesh, as He was from the beginning, and as He remaineth for ever.
When I call to mind these wonders, even every spiritual comfort becomes grievously tedious to me; because, as long as I behold not my Lord openly in His glory, I make no account of whatsoever I see and hear in the world. Thou art my witness, O God, that not one thing can comfort me, nor anything created give me rest, but only Thou, my God, whom I desire for ever to contemplate.
-Bk. IV, ch. xi.
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We had placed a picture of the Holy Face which she much loved beside her bed, for the feast of the Transfiguration.
"How wise Our Lord was to have lowered His eyes when He left us His portrait!" she said to me. "As the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if we had caught a glimpse of His soul we should have died of joy. Oh! how much good the Holy Face has done me during my life! My devotion to the Holy Face, or rather my piety itself, has been inspired by these words of Isaias: There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: despised and the most abject of men, his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not (Is. liii, 2, 3).
I also wished to be without beauty or comeliness, and to tread the winepress alone (ibid. lxiii, 3), unknown by all.
-Novissima Verba.
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For more information, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
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