The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the IncarnationAnonymous
Religion
The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation
Anonymous
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America; Marie de l'Incarnation, mère, 1599-1672
end of her life, or even die a thousand deaths, if that could be, than
prove herself thus unfaithful to her vocation and ungenerous to her God.
Fidelity to her calling had been the watchword of her existence, and now
that her time of merit had nearly run, no close observer could fail to
see that this undeviating fidelity had produced rich fruits. To analyse
her character as a religious, would be simply to attribute to her every
virtue which, belongs to a perfect one. Our Lord once showed her her soul
under the figure of a very beautiful and strongly-fortified castle, and
He warned her to watch cautiously over its external approaches, promising
that He would guard the interior of the edifice. In compliance with this
direction, she resolved to surround the mystic castle with the deep
trenches of humility, and so well did she succeed, that unfeigned
contempt of self breathed at last in every act and thought of her life,
inspiring a love and desire of humiliation which secured for those who
tried her, the warmest gratitude of her heart, and the most devoted of
her services. Not satisfied with mediocrity in any virtue, she carried
mortification to an absorbing love of the cross; charity, to the
sacrifice of every natural feeling; obedience, to child-like submission,
spiritualized by faith; reverence for the rule, to most minute observance
of its least prescription. She also attained an eminent degree of prayer
and union with God.
For more than four years before her happy death, she had to endure the
two-fold martyrdom of anguish of soul and great physical suffering. Yet
while the wearing fever of prolonged consumption slowly undermined her
life, so wonderfully did her great courage sustain her, that she seldom
kept her bed, or relinquished her work. If sometimes compelled to yield
to exhaustion and pain, she received the attention of her Sisters with so
much humility and gratitude, that all felt it a happiness to render her
any service. Far from complaining, she was confused when others showed
compassion for her, and in return for their offers of kind offices, was
always ready to remark that they themselves required indulgence more than
she did. She learned at last to rejoice in the sufferings which she
looked on as precious pledges of the love of her Divine Spouse, and that
she should lose no part of her treasure, she desired to suffer without
consolation or relief, indemnifying herself by practices of voluntary
mortification for the occasional alleviations forced on her by charity.
Towards the end, dropsy was added to her complicated maladies, and so,
for the last two months, she was compelled to yield to the claims of
utterly worn-out nature. Let us visit her in the humble lodging where
those two closing months of life were passed, and we shall feel
constrained to own, that the scene before us is one very grand and
beautiful in the eyes of faith, whatever may be its aspect in those of
the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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