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About this Picture

Union with God, then is the spiritual height God calls everyone to achieve―"everyone," not only Religious, but "any pearl of great price, who specializes in "yes" constantly to God and the Holy Ghost. Witness Catherine of Sienna, the ecstatic household drudge; and Joan of Arc, the unlettered soldier-heroine, the savior of her people; Elizabeth of Hungary, the (P.65) contemplative of the royal courts; and countless others―beggars, and peasants, and merchants, and princes. If these out in the world have attained this exalted degree of friendship with God, with what greater reason does He not expect the same of us who are specially consecrated for this one end, no matter what the external service may be.

What was it that Our Lord said to Benigna Consolata? "The reason that there are so few contemplates among the Religious is because there are so few mortified souls. I long to pour out My graces upon these My chosen one, My Spouses, but I cannot, for their hearts are far from Me." Is this not about the same thing as He said four centuries previously to Teresa of Avila? "I have travelled all over the world," He said, "seeking souls on whom to lavish My graces, but nobody wants them, so I am going to pour them all out on you." Evidently the world has not changed much. Back in the early fifteenth century Thomas of Kempis wrote "And this is the reason why there are found so few contemplative persons, because there are few who know how to sequester themselves entirely from transitory and created things." (Imit. 3/31). No, the world has not changed since the crushing fall in Eden―it was the same yesterday, is the same to-day, and will be the same till time shall be no more.

Start at the Very Beginning!