Page:Lifeofsaintcatha.djvu/134

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The sweets which then filled her soul were so excessive, that she believed she would really suffer death from their exquisiteness, and when her Confessor asked her to describe what she experienced, she replied to him that it would be impossible for her to give him to understand it

There also happened to her a circumstance quite wonderful, in the same year, on the feast of Saint Alexis: while she was in prayer the night preceding the festival, and sighed interiorly to receive holy Communion, it was revealed to her that she should receive on the morrow. She was often deprived of this favor, through the neglect or fault of the Brethren and Sisters who at that time directed the Congregation. As soon as she had received this promise, she supplicated our Lord to condescend to purify her soul, so as to render it more worthy of so great a Sacrament.

Immediately, she felt descending on her soul, as it were, a rain of blood mingled with fire, and this rain washed her soul so completely that it penetrated to her very body, and banished not only the stains but even the first principles of evil. When daylight dawned, the sickness which she was enduring at that moment was so aggravated, that it appeared unreasonable to think of taking a single step. But Catherine aware of what had been promised her, put her trust in God, arose and directed her steps towards the Church, to the great astonishment of every one.

When she arrived there and had taken a place in a chapel beside the Altar, she remembered that her Superiors had not allowed her to receive the Communion indiscriminately, from the hands of all those who might celebrate Mass: she therefore desired that her Confessor might come to say his Mass at the Altar where she was praying. God showed her how much he took pleasure