I admit to you that there is nothing that I like less than to see that people dream so much about miracles. The Son of God made hardly any of them except by force and did not like to make any more after he had made those that were necessary to establish his mission. He loved only speaking divine words and wished that men no longer had concerns for miracles which are only for non-believers.
The miracles of the new law are the movements of penitence and charity that grace produces in the heart. Other miracles belong to the old law especially when they do not bring with them the grace to change souls and do not go beyond the body and are only for its cure. Do not amuse yourself with miracles and remember the words that Jesus spoke to the Apostles: do not delight in making miracles but rejoice because of the the knowledge that your names are written in heaven. We should strive to make certain in heaven our eternal calling by good works. As Saint Peter writes, “...brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure”.
Today is the day of the transfer of the body of Saint Monica from the port of Ostia where she died, seven leagues from Rome, to Rome by Pope Martin nearly 700 years after her death. Saint Augustine did not think of transferring his mother’s body to Africa, which would have been easy by sea, to the city where he was a bishop. No other Pope had the thought up till then of transporting it to the church of Saint Augustine in Rome.
God gives exterior honors to saints when he wishes. They consider themselves very happy to be in the temple of heaven praising God and honored on earth in the hearts of true Christians which are the true temples of the saints as they are also even of God and of his Holy Spirit.
I would like to be certain of having the least place in heaven even if here in this world I passed for being the most wicked man up till the day of judgement.
Miracles are only for those without faith and virtues for the faithful.
I have an unspeakable joy because of the great miracle that it pleased God to produce in the soul of this girl. If he had changed the old age of the most decrepit man into a flourishing youthfulness, he would not seem to me to have done anything compared with having led this girl to this end. I have no words to express to you my joy and I have no doubt that if I had a thousand gold pieces to recognize this favor by giving them to the poor would I have done it with a transport of joy. It is to these miracles and not to the others that God wishes that we pay attention.
If Monsieur her father and Madame her mother are as touched by this grace as I, they will not feel anything from their present pains. Joy will occupy them completely.
I am even afraid of such great graces because they commit us to a much larger gratitude and compel us to bear witness to it to God by a perpetual desire for his grace.
Translated from the French by Daniel McNeill
amazon.com/author/graceisall
The United States of the World, The End of All Beginnings, The Theater of the Impossible, books by Daniel McNeill, are for sale at:
No comments:
Post a Comment