February 26, 1844. “0ur Lord,” writes she to the Mother Superior, “desires most ardently that the work of Reparation be established, as he has given me to understand. I seemed to hear my Divine Jesus from the recesses of the tabernacle address us these words: ‘O ye, my friends and my faithful children! behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow! My Divine Father and my cherished spouse, the Holy Church, are despised, outraged by my enemies. Will no one rise up to revenge me by defending them against those enemies? I can no longer remain in the midst of an ungrateful people: behold the torrents of tears that flow from my eyes! Can I find no one to dry them, by making reparation of honor to the glory of my Father, begging of him the conversion of the guilty? Such are the sentiments, reverend mother, with which God fills my soul, causing it to experience this interior pain which the Heart of Jesus glorified can no longer suffer. If a king or even an ambassador be despised or set at naught by a foreign nation, his countrymen fly to arms, the honor of the king must be avenged; troops are levied and the death of thousands is counted for naught. And yet, the most holy and terrible Name of the God of armies, of the King of kings is despised and blasphemed; his holy Day profaned by an infinite number of sinners, and no one is concerned, no one thinks of avenging him! But behold! Our Lord Jesus Christ, the ambassador from the kingdom of heaven, demands reparation of honor for his Divine Father, or proclaims war against us, for he has threatened France with his wrath. Shall we hesitate in our choice?”
After perusing these soul-stirring apostrophes, these burning ejaculations, we are over awed and we ask, what would have become of France, if the desire, communicated to the servant of God, had been publicly manifested and immediately fulfilled? Would the entire world have witnessed the misfortunes with which we have since been deluged? Would we have had to fear the evils which still menace us to-day?
The sister, in terminating, begs that the archbishop of Tours be informed of all that has taken place since the feast of St. Louis, concerning the work of Reparation. “Would you please permit me,” she writes to the mother prioress, “if our reverend ecclesiastical superior consent, to address the archbishop, for I have such an ardent desire to inform him of these things! I most humbly beg of you to grant me this permission. Then I shall have performed all that lies in my power toward the accomplishment of the work which has been revealed to me, notwithstanding my unworthiness; but I shall write to his Grace, only when I feel my soul under the influence of the Holy Ghost, for I desire to make no use of my own convictions, being incapable of anything good; I shall beseech him to guide my pen.”
Life of Sister Mary St. Peter Carmelite of Tours by M. Labbe Janvier p.185-187
Here, our Lord echoes the words of Lam 1:12 (Douay-Rheims) “O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow. Our Holy Mother Church is a gift to us, purchased by His death, & the subsequent piercing of His most Sacred Heart with a lance, so that from therein, blood & water spilled out and mystically became the Sacraments of our Church. Our Lord says that we His children are so ungrateful, that it has caused Him to weep copiously! We indeed have been guilty of shopping on Sundays, been minimalists in our Sunday worship, prioritizing our children’s extra circular activities that have fallen on Sundays, as well as our brunches, been indifferent to arriving at Holy Mass early to prepare our hearts in love to receive Him in the Eucharist, rushed home to cut the lawn that looks scruffy and cannot wait an extra day, etc., etc. Enough is enough, Lent is the time to repent, and just say “NO” to what the culture is dictating and dry those precious tears of our Lord one by one. If we want to survive whatever may be coming down the pipe, it is time to get serious with our interior lives!! Nunc coepi – “now I begin,” to say “no” to unnecessary work on Sundays, “no” to shopping for unnecessary items on Sunday or spending money unnecessarily, “no” to prioritizing anything else ahead of worshiping the Lord at Holy Mass. Let us be counter cultural and God strong by saying “yes” to worshiping Him first on Sundays, spending time getting to know & love Him better in prayer (especially reparatory), study & solitude, so that we can recognize the voice of our King speaking to us, and then also spending beautiful time with our loved ones in leisure activities that please Him. Let’s make our Lord’s Day holy again!
the littlest wren
