This is the desert of Magdalene. She enters
into it as a homage to Jesus and to the hidden life of Jesus. She enters by a
divine command that wants to draw her to that place to speak to her heart. She
enters there guided by an instinct of marvelous love that draws and guides her
more than an instinct of penance. Permit me to say without diminishing the
honor due to such virtue that this happy penance is only love. In such a way
has love strongly taken possession of her that all she has and all she is
nothing else than love!
Her penance is love. Her exile is love. Her
cross is love. Her melancholy is love. And her death is love. I see only love
and Jesus in her desert. She lives and she lives hidden in Jesus, in the hidden
life of Jesus, in the secret trials of the love of Jesus.
Oh desert! Oh Magdalene! Oh mountain more
valuable for the Magdalene than the other in which St Peter said to Jesus “Let
us build three tents here, one for you, another for Moses, and another for
Elijah (Mt 17:4). For also in this withdrawn and elevated mountain to which
Jesus draws and guides Magdalene to, I likewise see three tents. But the three
are for Jesus and not for any other. The three are not constructed by the hand
of man but by the Spirit of God. The three serve as a retreat for Magdalene.
Holy retreat and holy tents in which she dwelt for such a long time, in which
she lives and hides herself, in which she passes unknown to all except to her
love. We can say that the first tent is personally Jesus himself since it is
His life and His dwelling. She dwells in Him much more than her soul dwells in
its body and more than her body dwells in the desert. The second is Jesus in
His state of hidden and unknown life since she is also hidden, withdrawn into
this state. She adheres to this life and participates in it, in a divine and
precious way. The third is also Jesus since Jesus is the dwelling and retreat
of this soul and it lives in Him according to the different conditions and
states that He possesses and He has deigned to communicate to her.
Thus, the third tent of Magdalen in this
holy mountain is Jesus in the grandeur of her spirit and her love since the
spirit and the love of Jesus are something absolutely exceptional in heaven as
well as on the earth. They constitute an order and a sacred name which is above
every other name (according to St. Paul) be it in this age or in the age to
come. In this holy tabernacle, Jesus wants to try this soul in the most secret
trials of love. And she incessantly supports the sublime operations of the
Spirit of Jesus that wills to work marvels worthy of Himself in a soul so pure,
so holy, so sublime, so separated from everything and so united to Him. Happy
he who knows this soul and penetrates in its thoughts. Happy he who
participates of its secrets and even happier than if he participated of all the
greatest and wisest secrets of the universe. Happy he who has had access to
these three tabernacles and is willing to penetrate deeply into this desert in
this spirit and this sanctuary.
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