Then the flesh that has been mortified shall triumph more than if it had always been pampered in delights. Then will a strict life and a hard penance be more pleasing than all the delights of the earth.
-Bk. I, ch. xxiv.
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After having, like Jesus Christ, passed through this life doing good; after having been overlooked, misunderstood, as He was, the Saint was to scale a hard and painful Calvary. As the Prioress was used to seeing her carryon bravely in spite of illness, she allowed her to keep the observance, although she found some of the Community exercises very tiring. At the end of the day, when she went upstairs unaided, she had to wait at every step to take breath, and reached her cell so exhausted that she sometimes took an hour to undress. When at length she went to bed, it was on a hard straw mattress that she took her brief rest.
She passed very bad nights, but when asked if she did not need some attention, she answered: "Oh! no, I am glad to have a cell at some distance from the others, as they cannot hear me. I prefer to suffer alone; as soon as I am petted, I no longer enjoy myself."
-The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme).
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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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