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Father Snow wrote later:
"Both Father Powell and myself were convinced that the soul was no other
than her own but knowing that it was our Lord's own secret were silent when she
spoke of it." And so it came about in the mysterious designs of Providence
that Teresa learnt humility from the vision of her own sanctity, and that her
mighty prayers, so pleasing in the sight of God, were offered, all unconsciously
to herself, for the perfecting of her own soul.
Teresa had mentioned that St. John speaks of the Devotion to the Sacred Head as
the Seat of Divine Wisdom, and Father Powell asked her for reference. She
replied:
"In obedience to your wish I asked our dear Blessed Lord where St. John had
said anything in reference to the Sacred Head as the 'Seat of Divine Wisdom,'and
He gave me to understand that it was the chapter to which you referred without
telling me which one it was in particular, and He said that as by the cunning
and deceit of the devil man first fell from God in Paradise and incurred
darkness of intellect and death - so in these later days of darkness, self
indulgence intellectual pride and conceit, the brightness of eternal light into
which no defiled thing cometh shall shine out more glorious and brilliant than
ten thousand suns, and the image of God's goodness and majesty and power shall
be seen in this unspotted mirror of truth, purity, knowledge and love.
"Oh my Father do we not see the depth of that divine Wisdom in the time
that He has reserved for the manifestation of His adorable Will in this respect?
He each time also shows me the great blessings and graces He has in store for
all who shall further His divine Will to this end, and makes me tremble with
terror at the dread punishments. He has in store for all who shall hinder, or
try to hinder the furtherance of this heavenly devotion, for their jaws He says
shall be locked as those of the lions in the den into which Daniel was cast,
they shall be shattered and become as naught. And the twelve Fruits of the Holy
Ghost that sparkle so beautifully in this divine Wisdom are, as it were the
foundations to this city of the Lord which He has dug deep in humility. For He
humbled Himself becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the
Cross."
Again, a few days later she said:
"After holy Communion this morning I asked our B. Lord in what particular
place St. John referred to His Sacred Head as the Seat of Divine Wisdom and He
did not tell me what text or words. He gave me to understand that it was spoken
of in the two last chapters of Revelations and with this mark were sealed the
numbers of His elect."
On Ascension Day, our Lord once more appeared to her in glory and three times
asked her: "What wilt thou?"
"Oh my Lord and my God what will I but Thy holy Will in all things? Lord
what wilt Thou have me to do? Teach me to do Thy holy Will for Thou art my God!
Oh my Father I know not how I live. Who would not be annihilated in the presence
of such awful majesty, such overpowering and unspeakable glory and power as I
beheld in Him Who is the Wisdom of the Father our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Who could tell the dread and fear that came upon me? For I cannot express what I
felt, and if it were not by a miracle of His power I should die as I sink into
the abyss of my own nothingness and misery.
"What I have mentioned above happened on Thursday morning early and all my
bodily strength seemed to leave me and I have been very weak ever since. I was
going to say I saw our dear Blessed Lord in His glorified humanity, but I
suppose it is not right to say so, but I feel very certain of it which appeared
in greater majesty and glory than I have ever before seen Him and He addressed
me, saying "What wilt thou?" I was crushed and humbled as God only can
humble and at first a great inexpressible fear came upon me, but our dear Lord
seemed to behold me with such loving tenderness and compassion that by degrees
the fear passed off and I felt amazed and astonished at the marvelous
condescension of our dear Blessed Lord and lost in His mercy and Love. Oh with
what confidence those words inspired me, though I feel that in them too He was
asking me to do some great thing for Him of which at present I have not the
remotest idea, but my misery is such that it gives me greater confidence that
whatever He wishes to do in me or through me He will do Himself. I give myself
and all that I have and am (which is nothing) into His Sacred Hands to do with
me whatever He shall please, without thought of pain, humiliation or feelings .
His holy Will is my only pleasure and if I can loose or suffer anything for Him
He knows I shall consider it as a great gain. Oh my God with Thee I make an
oblation of my whole being to Thy Eternal Father, my character, ect saying Lord
I am Thine, my love is all for Thee, do with me what Thou wilt now and forever
Amen. Holy Mary be a Mother to me. St. Joseph and all the angels and saints of
God pray for me.
She again refers to this vision in a later letter where she says: "Oh my God how shall I find words to express the glory the majesty and beauty of that countenance before which the Seraphim and Cherubim fall in mute admiration and adoration and I like the apostles on Tabor cannot sustain this flush of glory, this stream of the Divinity, and in amazement I prostrate myself to the ground and with trembling reverence adore what mortal eyes are not able to behold or human tongue able to describe - O magic wand of obedience that changes all things into purest gold, oh Rod of Aaron which opens a passage into the depths and riches and knowledge of God: oh key which unlocks the secrets of the Divinity and the world to come; oh power which lays mountains low and overcomes every obstacle and makes every way easy and straight - oh flower which ever blooms in the Sacred Heart; in You I will write what I am able to say of those things which I have beheld.
It was very early on Ascension morning that I beheld our Blessed Lord in the way
I have above described and I think He is represented in pictures of the Sacred
Heart, only that around His Sacred Head shone a light of indescribable
brilliancy and beauty: as it were a sun in which sparkled twelve magnificent
crystal stones reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. And in the Head I saw
as it were an ocean of fathomless depth, smooth and clear, and the brightness of
the sun's rays penetrated to its very depths, and in it were reflected all the
beauties of the sun and twelve stones like diamonds in which were reflected the
green, yellowish green purple red ect and all the colors that sparkled in the
sunny rainbow, and nearly in the centre of this was an eye as I have drawn on
the other side. The awful majesty which overpowered me left me unable to move
for hours and although it is now ten days since I have not regained my natural
strength and it is with difficulty that I go about at all. The human mind is too
weak and the intellect too dull to understand comprehend or describe the awful
grandeur of the Divinity and I think it is a miracle we live after a glimpse of
it. Oh how terrible will be the lot of the reprobate at the sight of this
overwhelming majesty, this crushing power and here we see with what reason the
devils trembled at the descent into Limbo -
But I am again wandering. Light streamed from every part of His Sacred Person
and I saw flames of fire bursting from His Sacred Heart which was surrounded by
thorns and surmounted by a cross,and I saw a silvery light in the form of a Dove
hovering over it as I have shown and Our Lord addressed me in these words:
"What Wilt Thou? as I have told you before.
On May 27th 1880 Our Lord again showed Himself to her in all His glory:
"This morning at Holy Mass when the Sacred Host was raised at the
elevation, I saw as it were the whole court of heaven in prostrate adoration;
then all was lost in the excess of light which shone forth in effulgent splendor
from the Sacred Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ Whom I beheld as I have before
described, but with a sun of transcendent beauty and brilliancy shining around
His Sacred Head and and lightening up the very depths of His Sacred Heart. And
He made me see very clearly that the time is at hand when He will make known to
the world the desire (which has been consuming Him as it were) which He has to
have His Sacred Head adored and worshiped as the Seat of Divine Wisdom.
Later in the same day she wrote in further explanation of the words of St. John
in the Apocalypse: While making a short visit to our dear Blessed Lord in the
most Holy Sacrament of His Love, those things which I asked you to read for me
this morning were represented in the soul and impressed very clearly in my mind,
and I saw how admirably they corresponded and how beautifully the comparisons
described the Sacred Head as the Seat of Divine Wisdom, for if you call to mind
those things which I have written regarding what our dear blessed Lord has shown
me and helped me to narrate respecting His Sacred Head, you will see how He
Himself represented to me in the Sacred Head (as the mind) a transparent sea of
light, in which were twelve beautiful precious stones in which sparkled and
reflected all the splendor of that sun which overshadowed it and in which too
were twelve other crystal stones all of unspeakable beauty and magnificence and
in which gleamed all the colors of the rainbow. And I think I mentioned a
resplendent light of greenish hue I see having the glory of God and the light
thereof like unto a precious stone, as it were a jasper, as crystal.