Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/136

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grazed her mantle, was burned and caused me considerable pain."

A month later she appeared to the same Superior to announce her deliverance.


CHAPTER XXXIV.

Matter of Expiation — Negligence in Holy Communion — Louis of Blois — St. Magdalen de Pazzi and the Departed Soul in Adoration.

To tepidity is allied negligence in the preparation for the Eucharistic Banquet. If the Church unceasingly calls her children to the Holy Table, if she desires that they communicate frequently, she always intends that they should do so with that fervour and piety which so great a mystery demands. All voluntary neglect in so holy an action is an offence to the Sanctity of Jesus Christ, an offence which must be repaired by a just expiation. Venerable Louis of Blois, in his Miroir Spirituel, speaks of a great servant of God who learned in a supernatural manner how severely these faults are punished in the other life. He received a visit from a soul in Purgatory imploring his aid in name of the friendship by which they had formerly been united. She endured, she said, horrible torments, for ' the negligence with which she had prepared for Holy Communion during the days of her earthly pilgrimage. She could not be delivered but by a fervent Communion which would compensate for her former tepidity.

Her friend hastened to gratify her desire, received Holy Communion with great purity of conscience, with all the faith and devotion possible; and then she saw the holy soul appear, brilliant with an incomparable splendour, and rise towards heaven.[1]

  1. Mem., 44.