soul to thee said our Divine Saviour, it is to awaken in thee a more inflamed desire of promoting the salvation of souls, in proportion to the grace that I have given thee."
Catherine thanked our Lord with effusion of heart, and humbly entreated him to deign in future to show her the beauty of the soul? who might have relations with her, so that she could become more devoted to their salvation. God granted this favor, saying: " Because you have despised the world, to attach thyself wholly to me, who am the perfect Spirit; because you have prayed with faith and perseverance for the salvation of that soul; behold I endow thee with supernatural light, which will show thee either the beauty or the deformity of all the souls that thou wilt meet. Thy interior sense will perceive the condition of minds, as thy exterior senses perceive the state of the body. And that will take place not only in respect to persons present, but for all those whose salvation may form the object of thy solicitude and thy prayers, even though they be absent and thou hast never as yet seen them." The efficacy of that grace which God granted her was such, that from that moment, she actually saw more distinctly the souls than the bodies of persons who approached her.
One day I rebuked her in private for not preventing those who approached her from bending the knee before her, she thus answered me; " God is my witness that I frequently do not perceive the actions of those who surround me; I merely occupy myself with their souls, without passing any attention to their bodies," Then I said to her: "Do you perceive their souls ?" "Father," answered she, "I acknowledge that my Saviour deigned to accord me that grace, when he heard my prayers, on withholding from eternal flames, a soul that was precipitating
