Saturday 29 August 2015

835 Especially now, while I am in this hospital, I experience an inner communion with the dying who ask me for prayer when their agony begins.


God has given me a wondrous contact with the dying! Since this has been happening more frequently, I have been able to verify it, even to the exact hour. Today I was awakened suddenly at eleven o‟clock at night and clearly felt the presence near me of some spirit who was asking me for prayer. Some force simply compelled me to pray. My vision is purely spiritual, by means of a sudden light (219) that God grants me at that moment. I keep on praying until I feel peace in my soul, and not always for an equally long time; because sometimes it happens that with one “Hail Mary” I am already at peace, and then I say the De Profundis and pray no longer. And sometimes it happens that I pray the entire chaplet and only then feel at peace. I have also discovered that if I feel constrained to pray for a longer time; that is to say, I experience interior unrest, the soul is undergoing a greater struggle and is going through a longer final agony. This is how I have verified the exact time: I have a watch, and I look to see what time it is. On the following day, when they tell me about that person‟s death, I ask them about the time, and it exactly corresponds, as does the length of the person‟s last agony. They say to me, “Such and such a person died today, but she passed away quickly and peacefully.” It sometimes happens that the dying person is in the second or third building away, yet for the spirit, space does not (220) exist. It sometimes happens that I know about a death occurring several hundred kilometers away. This has happened several times with regard to my family and relatives and also sisters in religion, and even souls whom I have not known during their lifetime. O God of fathomless mercy, who allow me to give relief and help to the dying by my unworthy prayer, be blessed as many thousand times as there are stars in the sky and drops of water in all the oceans! Let Your mercy resound throughout the orb of the earth, and let is rise to the foot of Your throne, giving praise to the greatest of Your attributes; that is, Your incomprehensible mercy. O God, this unfathomable mercy enthralls anew all the holy souls and all the spirits of heaven. These pure spirits are immersed in holy amazement as they glorify this inconceivable mercy of God, which in turn arouses even greater admiration in them, and their praise is carried out in a perfect manner. O eternal God, how ardently I desire to glorify this greatest of Your 211 (221 ) attributes; namely, Your unfathomable mercy. I see all my littleness, and cannot compare myself to the heavenly beings who praise the Lord‟s mercy with holy admiration. But I, too, have found a way to give perfect glory to the incomprehensible mercy of God.