CHAPTER 12

Reparation for the fall of a host, which it was feared had been consecrated.

IT HAPPENED one day that, in preparing for Mass, a host fell from some fold, and all were in doubt whether it had been consecrated or not. The Saint had recourse to God; and having learned that the wafer had not been consecrated, she rejoiced much that no irreverence had been committed. Yet, as all her care was to promote the glory of God, she said to Him: “Although Thy infinite goodness has not permitted that Thou shouldest receive so great an outrage in this place, and in the Sacrament of the Altar—nevertheless, O Lord of the Universe, because Thou wert treated with a like indignity and irreverence, not only by Thy enemies the heathen and the Jews, but alas, even by Thy most faithful friends, whom Thou hast redeemed by the price of Thy most Precious Blood, and, I weep to say it, sometimes even by priests and religious, I will not make it known that this host was not consecrated, in order that Thou mayest not be deprived of the satisfaction that will be offered to Thee.” Then she added: “O Lord my God, make known to me what satisfaction is most agreeable to Thee for each offense which is committed against Thee, because I will try to accomplish it for love of Thy honor and glory, even if I consume my whole strength in doing it.” Our Lord then made known to her that He would accept the recital of the Lord’s Prayer two hundred and twenty-five times, in honor of His sacred Limbs; and of as many acts of charity toward her neighbor, in thanksgiving to Him who has said: “So long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25), and in union with that love which made God become Man for us; and that she should deprive herself as many times of the vain and useless pleasures of earth, and occupy herself only with the zeal and true pleasures of the Divinity.

Oh, how great and ineffable is the mercy and kindness of our most loving God, which accepts and rewards as offerings what we should deserve most just punishment for if we omitted!