"After Communion, I saw our Lord most
distinctly close beside me; and He began to comfort me with great
sweetness, and said to me, among other things: 'Thou beholdest Me
present, My daughter,—it is I. Show me thy hands.' And to me He
seemed to take them and to put them to His side, and said: 'Behold
My wounds; thou art not without Me. Finish the short course of thy
life.' By some things He said to me, I understood that, after His
Ascension, He never came down to the earth except in the most Holy Sacrament to
communicate Himself to any one. He said to me, that when He rose again
He showed Himself to our Lady, because she was in great trouble; for
sorrow had so pierced her soul that she did not even recover herself at once in order to have
the fruition of that joy. By this I saw how different was my piercing. But what must that of the Virgin
have been? He remained long with her then because it was necessary to
console her."
- St. Teresa of Avila, On the graces received at Salamanca at the end of Lent, 1571, from Relation IV.
Picture: "The Entombment" by Rubens, Flemish, about 1612, photo by me. Museum information.
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