24th October, 1910
Letter from Mother
Christine, put in a sealed envelope to be opened after her
death.
"It is in order to obey, that I am writing for the
Solitude what I wrote to Our Mother General. […] I
had just been converted (15 October 1910) when I went back
into retreat for a day or two at Tres Rios; there were three
of us. It was in the little Chapel, in the evening, I was
alone, on 24 October, I was making a Holy Hour, in the Garden
of Olives, when, well, how can I put it? My eyes saw nothing,
but my soul saw Our Lord in agony, but in such a terrible
agony.[…]. I understood that by giving us the Eucharist,
he had delivered himself up and exposed himself to anything.
I felt that I should not conti
nue
in the same life, that I needed a life that was more hidden,
more recollected, more mortified. I reflected on the need
to leave Sion, you can understand what it was like…"
Origin of the contemplative Branch
"I asked God for light, and one evening, in the chapel
of the choir-loft in San José, I received the answer
in these words, very often repeated afterwards: "Sion,
my Sion of prayer and reparation, it is not too late to
think about it."* Calm and peace returned immediately.
How could I not have thought for one moment about this
contemplative Sion, that Our Father had foreseen in the
Constitutions? No: the idea had not come into my mind, the
good God was doing everything on his own. […]
From that time on, all my aspirations were directed towards
the hope of this contemplative branch, so strongly did I
feel that the graces I had received then were not, strictly
speaking, "for me". However, Mgr Stork held me
back a long time in my desire to write this to Our Mother
General.."
From 12 June 1884, the feast of 'Corpus Christi' was the
patronal feast of the house of San José.
