November 18th is the Feast Day of seven Blessed Visitation Nuns who were martyred for their faith during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and beatified in 1998.
Theirs was a Martydom of Love- the logical outcome of what the mystic among them, Sr. Teresa Maria Cavestany VHM called ” the little immolations…which the Divine Heart asks of us. “(from a letter to her sibling, Amalia)
Blessed Maria Teresa’s words can stir up in each of us a strong desire to imitate her loving immolation,especially during this year that Pope Benedict XVI has designated a Year of Faith.
In the letter already cited the Blessed stresses that ..” THE LIFE OF FAITH is the life of the just here on earth…The sweet Guest of the soul(Jesus Our Lord) cannot leave without consolation one who lives by faith, offering that peace “deep as the abysses of the sea…” as she abandons herself like ” a child into the arms of its mother…she is so sure of Him.”
Blessed Teresa Maria further tells her sister that we should lose ourselves like “little drops of water in the ocean of His infinite love” ( ie. His Sacred Heart.)
So, like this Visitandine mystic, when we move through any DARK NIGHT of discouragement and perhaps even persecution for our belief in Christ, let us do as she did and LIVE BY FAITH, moving, like her, toward our final union with our Beloved in the open and all-embracing Heart of Our Lord.
Source: And They Gave Their Lives, by Sr Marina Lopez, R. A. 1985
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