XIV. The Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin - Union with God

We have seen the Blessed Mary before Her glorious Assumption languish with love of Her Son and aspire to a union with Him in heaven with all the powers of Her soul. This union had already commenced. The absence of Her Dearly-Beloved had made no void in the heart of our holy Mother. With the eyes of the soul She still beheld Him who had ascended into heaven; She conversed mysteriously with Him; She poured forth Her heart upon His Sacred Heart: She was with Him, by Him, and in Him; She was one with Him.

Union with God is the fruit of the virtues we have been gathering, especially of charity. This is the reason it is so profound, so intimate, so constant in holy souls; so many and so great prodigies are seen in it that it can be ill-understood by the generality of men. Ecstasies, raptures, flights of the soul towards heaven, liquefactions, annihilations, mystical transformations - who is it that clearly understands all these? Nevertheless the most humble and unaspiring souls are permitted to prepare themselves for at least timid and humble advances in this direction.

Why does not charity effect in the Christian life that which human love effects in the natural life?

When absence or death takes away from us those whom we love affectionate memory keeps them near us still. Their image, the moment it is recalled, comes before us in immaterial light, although we cannot see them with the eyes of the body. They look upon us, and we upon them; they speak to us, and we to them; we believe that we enjoy their endearments, and we lavish upon them the marks of our affection. Love realizes their presence.

Is it true, O my God! that the love of our hearts is more forcible in uniting us to creatures than in uniting us with Thee? True indeed Thou art a "hidden God"; but the Christian soul, imbued with the great virtues of faith, hope, and charity, ought to rise to Thee and cling to Thee, not only sometimes, but always; that is to say, it ought to live in Thy presence, pour forth its love to Thee, and be penetrated by Thee.

What a comfort, a joy, and a glory it would be to be able to say: The world is no longer anything to me; I despise its goods and its caresses, its judgments and its persecutions; I am united to God!

I am united to God! Nothing now touches me, or pleases me, or troubles me, or affrights me. All the allurements of the world and all the furies of hell may conspire against me in vain. My pleasure and my trust is in God.

I am united to God! I see Him in all things. Creatures adorned with a ray of beauty reveal to me His infinite perfections. The miseries of my brethren recall to me the sorrows of His Son. In all that is against me I recognize His justice and adore it; in all that favors me I see and kiss His loving hand. I see Him everywhere, and He sees me. My thoughts, desires, and actions germinate and flourish under His benign and merciful care.

I am united to God! He speaks to my soul by those whom He has charged with my instruction and direction, and especially by the holy grace which revives in me the echo of His words. I listen to Him; He listens to me. I praise Him; I bless Him; I deliver myself up to His holy will. I give Him my joys, my sorrows, my consolations and trials, my glory and my humiliation, my leisure and my labors, my actions great and small, my spirit, my heart, my life. I am all His; He is all mine. "I live now, not I, but God my Saviour liveth in me."

I am united to God! He gives me an experimental knowledge of His goodness, His sweetness, His greatness, and the grandeur of His perfections. This knowledge has embraced my will; that embrace has produced joy; this joy has excited my desires; these desires have been rewarded with satiety; satiety has in turn caused gladness, and gladness unalterable sweetness; this sweetness brings repose, according to the word of the Lord in the mouth of the prophet: "My people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest." (Isaias 32)

I am united to God! Behold what I ought to say; but, alas! my miserable life has scarcely more relation to God than the life of one estranged from Him. He does not withdraw Himself from me, but I withdraw myself from Him to wander among creatures. Pardon me, O my God! and bring me back to Thee, and make me ever live by faith, hope, and charity in Thy blessed company until the striking of that happy hour in which I shall be so intimately united to Thee that nothing can separate us for ever.

- text taken from Fruits of the Rosary, by Father Jacques-Marie Louis Monsabre, O.P.