Eloquence of the Light

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

“And he said to his friars: "I have done my duty; may Christ teach you yours.’”

“O, he was truly the most Christian of men,

“When the hour of his passing was approaching, he had all the friars who were there called to him and, consoling them for his death with words of comfort, he exhorted them with fatherly affection to love God. He long continued speaking about practicing poverty and patience and about keeping the faith of the Holy Roman Church, and he recommended the Gospel to them before any other rule of life. While all the friars were sitting around him, he extended his hands over them, crossing his arms in the form of a cross-for he always loved this sign-and he blessed all the friars, both present and absent, in the name and power of Christ crucified. Then he added: "Farewell, all my sons, in the fear of the Lord; remain in it always! Temptation and tribulation are coming in the near future, but happy are they who will persevere in what they have begun. I am hastening to God, to whose grace I commend you all." When he finished this gentle admonition, the man beloved of God ordered the book of the Gospels to be brought to him and asked that the Gospel according to John be read to him from the place that begins: "Before the feast of Passover" (John 13:1). He himself, insofar as he was able, broke out with this psalm: "I have cried to the Lord with my voice, with my voice I have implored the Lord" (Ps. 141:2); and he finished it to the end: "The just will await me until you have rewarded me" (Ps. 141:2, 141:7).”

“At last, when all of God's mysteries were fulfilled in him and his most holy soul was freed from his body to be absorbed in the abyss of the divine light, the blessed man fell asleep in the Lord. One of his brothers and disciples saw his blessed soul under the appearance of a radiant star being carried aloft on a shining cloud over many waters on a direct path into heaven. It shone with the brightness of sublime sanctity and was full of the abundance of heavenly wisdom and grace by which the holy man had merited to enter the place of light and peace where forever he rests with Christ.”

“Francis,

Let’s pray for the Holy Father’s intention for the month July