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profound humility. These virtues, practised to a heroic degree,
canonize the soul, acknowledging her a saint, not on earth, I
mean, where genuine saintliness is more often taken for
madness, foolishness and mental illness, but in Heaven,
where there is no shadow of error. I mean to say, in the sight
of God who is Wisdom and Truth incarnate. Indeed, God
himself will sanctify the soul and he will then canonize her as a
saint before the whole of Heaven’s Court, presenting her to all
the Blessed as the dearest object of his joy, rejoicing over her
and taking delight in her in the sight of the whole Court of
Heaven, and she is by all the Blessed admired and loved as a
most cherished companion and a most beloved sister. It is true
that the Blessed love all of us still in life’s journeying as images
of God, in whom is all their bliss. But they love much more
those who, they know, are more greatly loved by God, and it is
these souls who love so deeply that they desire to have
among them. And so it must be a great happiness for a soul to
be treated here on earth as the refuse of the world, but in
Heaven, where truth prevails, to be regarded as a dear sister.
A thousand times welcome, then, are humiliations that will turn
into eternal happiness! ... The soul must remain in an
unbroken awareness of God, submerged and sunken, as it
were, in the infinite abyss of his love, made manifest to us in
the Incarnation of the Divine Word, the greatest work that
Almighty God himself could do, a Mystery that leaves the most
highly-intelligent beings of Heaven amazed and lost in
admiration. This can be clearly seen in the Heavenly
Messenger, when he announced the Incarnation to the
Blessed Virgin Mary, she asked in profound humility:
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