Souls! Souls! Mystics, as you

Souls! Souls!

Mystics, as you all know, do not live in the realm of foggy visions and unrealistic daydreams. Recall the wonderful St. Teresa's advice to the Carmelites of her foundation, "If you think you are having visions, perhaps you should eat more." Practical, down-to-earth, and deeply in Love with God.

So too, I take from the writings of Cabrera de Armida (who by the way is not a Carmelite, but a lay member or associate of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (or so I infer from the introduction). We should not be surprised that what she says echoes so many great saints--as St. Thomas Aquinas points out, God is simple and there is only one such God to focus on.

from Before the Altar Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

Souls! Souls!

This is the cry of my heart whenever I approach your Tabernacle, O my Jesus! It is also the echo of your divine and loving Heart which is constantly resounding in mine. O my Eucharistic Jesus! My greatest suffering is at the thought that you asked me for these souls and that I haven't a million at my disposal to offer you.

All the things that I see, that I hear and that I touch all seem to repeat the cry for souls, souls! That cry awakens me at night. O Lord of my life. I have none to offer you but one which is my own, but which is ready to offer itself in sacrifice in order that millions of others may be saved and obtain your glory.

How hard it is for the heart that love you and is full of zeal for the salvation of souls to be unable to exercise it. What a cruel martyrdom.

O grief, above all other pains, to see my Jesus outraged, forsaken, wounded and despised by those souls ransomed by him!

We hear the same refrain for every mystic I have read, and I suspect from every true mystic. The love they enjoy is something they want to shower over the entire world. Often they are confined to little works in little places, but the outwardly expanding ripples from such work build to a rogue wave that can and does shake the entire world. Witness the power of a little Carmelite Nun from an obscure town in France who spent nine years in a convent and vanished from the world at the age of twenty-four. How many call upon her for help, and how many more does she help through her constant intercession, her constant seeking of souls?