A story for every day...

The divine Savior was pleased to visit often His beloved servant, Saint Angela of Foligno, and He came to a stunning familiarity with her. Here is how the Saint herself speaks of these favors:

“One day being in prayer, I was rapt in ecstasy, and I heard my God speaking to me words full of love. I looked, and He was willing to allow me to see Him. If you ask me what I saw, I will answer that I saw Himself; I cannot say more than that, unless I add that I saw a fullness, a clarity of which I felt completely filled. I saw nothing corporeal, because He was as if in Heaven; nevertheless His beauty was so ravishing, that I could say that I had seen the sovereign beauty which contains all good. This vision, which was quite long, seemed to me to have lasted only an instant. As I looked on, seized with admiration, I heard Him address these words to me: “My sweet and most beloved daughter, all the Saints of Paradise have a special love for you, My Mother also shares it, and I will introduce you into their society.”

I was too busy with Him to be very sensitive to this language, and the impression made on me by His incomparable beauty, made me so happy, that I thought nothing of looking at the Angels or the Saints; I understood, moreover, that all that they have of love, they borrow from Him, and that His adorable Heart is the source from which emanates all that is good and beautiful in creatures. He said to me again:

“My daughter, I have an immense love for you, but I hide it instead of showing it to you. – Lord, I said to Him, how can You love so much a creature so ignoble, and whose whole life has been used to offend You? – My love for you, He continued, is so great that although I see all your faults, I have as if lost the memory of them; I only consider in you the rich treasure that My Heart has placed there.” I had the confidence to ask Him why He was hiding His love from me.

“I am hiding from you, He replied, that which in My love is out of proportion to your weakness. – But, I said to Him, if You are the Almighty God, can’t You strengthen me so that I can bear it? – If I did that, My daughter, you would be satisfied, and then you would no longer be hungry for Me: that is why I do not want you to feel all My tenderness. I want, on the contrary, that during your mortal life you should not be able to appease the hunger that presses you, that you should desire Me and long for love.”