CHAPTER XLV.

Of certain sufferers, who were attached to the Servitor by special ties of friendship and affection.

IN a certain town there were two persons of eminent holiness, both intimate friends of the Servitor. The one stood in high repute before the people, and abounded in divine sweetnesses. The other was held in no esteem, and God exercised him continually with sufferings.

After they were both dead, the Servitor wished much to know what was the difference between their rewards in the next world, inasmuch as the roads by which they had been led in this life were 235so unlike. Early one morning, the one who had been held in such esteem here below appeared to the Servitor, and told him that he was still in purgatory; and when asked how this could be, he replied, that the only sin for which he had to suffer was a certain spiritual pride which had assailed him, through the high esteem in which he had been held, and which he had not driven away quickly enough. He added, that his sufferings would soon be at an end. The other, whose life had been full of humiliations and sufferings, passed at once without any hindrance to God.

The Servitor’s mother was all the days of her life a very great sufferer. This arose from the painful dissimilarity which there was between her and her husband. She was full of the Almighty God, and her whole desire was to live a spiritual life. But her husband was full of the world, and opposed her with great harshness and severity; and through this she had much to suffer.

It was her custom to cast all her sorrows into the bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ, and in this way to get the mastery over them. Before her death she confessed to the Servitor that for thirty years she had never assisted at Mass without weeping bitterly from heartfelt 236compassion for the torments of our dear Lord and His faithful Mother. She told him also that, from the excessive love which she felt for God, she had once fallen ill, and kept her bed for twelve weeks, longing and pining for God so ardently that the physicians clearly perceived it and were edified by it.

Once, at the beginning of Lent, she went to the Cathedral, where the taking down of the Lord Jesus from the cross is represented in carved wood over an altar. While she was before this image she experienced sensibly the great anguish which the tender Mother felt beneath the cross; and so intense was the agony which it caused this good woman, through compassion, that her heart became sick within her body, and she sank down fainting to the ground, and could neither see nor speak. She was helped home, and lay there sick until Good Friday at none, and died while the Passion was being read.

Her son, the Servitor, was at this time at Cologne, engaged with his studies. She appeared to him there in a vision, and said to him with great joy:—Ah, my child! love God and trust Him well, for He will never forsake thee in any trouble. See, I have departed from this 237world, and yet I am not dead. I shall live ever lastingly in the presence of the everlasting God. She kissed him in motherly fashion upon his mouth, and blessed him lovingly, and then disappeared. He began to weep, and cried out after her, saying:—O my, true-hearted holy mother, be true to me in God’s presence! and thus weeping and sighing, he came to himself again.

In his young days, when he was at the place of studies, God provided him once with a dear and holy companion. On one occasion, when they were alone, and had conversed together much and tenderly about God, the companion besought the Servitor by the sincerity of their friendship to show him the lovely Name of Jesus which was engraven over his heart. The Servitor was reluctant to do this; nevertheless, when he saw his companion’s great devotion, he granted his request, and drawing aside his habit where it covered his heart, let him look at this jewel of his heart as much as he would. The companion was not content with this; but when he saw the sweet Name standing out visibly in the middle over the Servitor’s heart, he put out his hand and face, and after passing his hand across it, laid his mouth upon 238it, and began to weep so heartily from devotion that the tears ran down over the heart. After this the Servitor covered up the Name, and he never would allow any one else to see it, save only one of God’s chosen friends, to whom this was permitted by the everlasting God; and this person also contemplated it with the same devout feelings as the other.

When these two dear companions had spent many years together in spiritual companionship, and the time was come for them to separate, they blessed each other lovingly, and made a compact between them, that whichever of them might die first, the survivor should, as a token of their mutual friendship, say for his departed friend two Masses weekly during a year; the one to be a Requiem Mass on the Mondays, and the other a Mass of our Lord’s Passion on the Fridays. Many years passed away after this, until at length the Servitor’s dear companion died before him; but the Servitor had forgotten the promise about the Masses, though, without reference to it, he faithfully remembered his friend’s soul to God. One morning, as he sat in ecstasy in his chapel, his companion appeared to him in a vision, and said to him very piteously:—Alas, friend, how great is thy unfaithfulness! 239How hast thou forgotten me! The Servitor answered:—And yet I remember thee every day in my Mass. His companion replied:—This is not enough. Fulfil what we promised about the Masses, that some of the sinless Blood may thus come down upon me and quench the severity of my purgatory. In this way I shall be soon set free. The Servitor accomplished this with affectionate fidelity, grieving much for his forgetfulness; and his companion was soon released.