Why the Catholic God is Evil and Unjust. Why Hell is Evil. Why All Souls Will be Saved in the End!

If you want my immediate response, see below his question. And yes, I condemn God, Hell and also prove why all souls will be saved in the end. In short: The injustice of God (i.e., Hell) was only a test to see who would follow their conscience (of not just being God's slave by allowing him to do anything (such as eternal evil)), and who would not (i.e., those who would follow their conscience (and the golden rule of wishing good upon others as upon themselves) which says that they do not want their own children to be damned and hence, they don't want eternal damnation to exist or that anyone should be damned.)

St. Bridget's Revelations ch 41

Eli: Have you read Book 3 Chapter 26? I'm going to paste half of the chapter here in the email for the sake of convenience and highlight what I personally think are kind of problematic for EENS. It's confusing because in the same chapter our Lord affirms EENS multiple times. I would really like to know what your take on this is.

Bold: borderline heretical

Underlined: EENS

However, now I can complain that I am little praised and unknown to many people, because everyone is following his own will but few follow mine. Be you steadfast and humble, and do not exalt yourself in your mind if I show you other people's trials, and do not betray their names unless you are instructed to do so. Their trials are not shown to you to shame them but in order that they may be converted and come to know God's justice and mercy. Nor should you shun them as condemned, for even if I should say today that a certain person is wicked, should he call on me tomorrow with contrition and a will to improve, I am prepared to forgive him. And that person whom I yesterday called wicked, today, due to his contrition, I declare him to be so dear a friend of mine that if his contrition remains steadfast, I forgive him not only his sin but even remit the punishment of sin.

You might understand this with a metaphor. It is as though there were two drops of quicksilver and both were heading toward each other in haste. If nothing but a single atom remained to keep them from joining, still God would be powerful enough to prevent them from coming together. Likewise, if any sinner were so rooted in diabolical deeds that he was standing at the very brink of destruction, he could still obtain forgiveness and mercy, if he called upon God with contrition and a will to improve. Now, given that I am so merciful, you might ask why I am not merciful toward pagans and Jews, some of whom, if they were instructed in the true faith, would be ready to lay down their lives for God. My response is that I have mercy on everyone, on pagans as well as Jews, nor is any creature beyond my mercy. 

Edit: This I interpret as lesser punishment, not salvation.

With leniency and mercy I will judge both those people who, learning that their faith is not the true one, fervently long for the true faith, as well as those people who believe the faith they profess to be the best one, because no other faith has ever been preached to them, and who wholeheartedly do what they can.

Edit: This also, lesser punishment, not necessarily salvation.

You see, there is a double judgment, namely the one for those to be condemned and the one for those to be saved. The sentence of condemnation for Christians will have no mercy in it. To them will belong eternal punishment and shadows and a will hardened against God. The sentence for those Christians to be saved will be the vision of God and glorification in God and goodwill toward God.

Excluded from these rewards are pagans and Jews as well as bad and false Christians. Although they did not have the right faith, they did have conscience as their judge and believed that the one whom they worshipped and offended was God.

But the ones whose intention and actions were and are for justice and against sin will, along with the less bad Christians, share a punishment of mercy in the midst of sufferings due to their love of justice and their hatred of sin. However, they will not have consolation in the service of glory and of the vision of God. They will not behold him due to their lack of baptism, because some temporal circumstance or some hidden decision of God made them draw back from profitably seeking and obtaining salvation. If there was nothing that held them back from seeking the true God and being baptized, neither fear nor the effort required nor loss of goods or privileges, but only some impediment that overcame their human weakness, then I, who saw Cornelius and the centurion while they were still not baptized, know how to give them a higher and more perfect reward in accordance with their faith.

Edit: this could be interpreted as God will supernaturally supply baptism.

One thing is the ignorance of sinners, another that of those who are pious but impeded. Likewise, too, one thing is the baptism of water, another that of blood, another that of wholehearted desire.

Edit: This is where my main gripe with the chapter lies.

God, who knows the hearts of all people, knows how to take all of these circumstances into account. I am begotten without beginning, begotten eternally from the beginning. I was born in time at the end of times. From the commencement I have known how to give individual persons the rewards they deserve and I give to each according as he deserves. Not the least little good done for the glory of God will go without its reward. This is why you should give many thanks to God that you were born of Christian parents in the age of salvation, for many people have longed to obtain and see that which is offered to Christians and yet have not obtained it.”

Jerome: It seems as it speaks of baptism of desire. The Church has always spoken in favor of this doctrine, and Popes, Catechisms, Code of Canon laws, Doctors of the Church, Saints, and all Theologians, etc. have all confirmed this doctrine. Yet, along comes MHFM and denies it, and many follow their lead. I personally incline to the majorities' position, and I haver started to distance my self from positions which contradicts the majorities' position.

I can understand the argument that to think they have all been wrong - is heretical. It is prideful.

Just as protestants misinterprets the bible, so it is easy to understand that people such as MHFM misinterprets dogmas etc. Or do you think they know better then all Saints, and all Theologians? It does not matter if their arguments seem strong or sound, because protestants argument also seem strong and sound. Even so, one can believe in baptism of desire and blood without being a heretic, since this position is allowed by the Church (since it is thought in the Church!), therefore, it is evil to condemn others for adhering to this doctrine.

That is why I have started to embrace baptism of desire and blood, since it leads to more souls being saved. Hence, one can be converted at the point of death and receive the faith, if this is needed, and be saved. So pagans, atheists etc. both can and will be saved, provided they have a good will in seeking God in their heart, as this Revelation indicates.

By the way, eternal hell is evil, and since Vatican II teaches that almost all are saved, I have also started to be inclined to this position. I can honestly believe that Vatican II is not an apostasy, but enlightenment. Do you not see how utterly evil and stupid it is to call "salvation" apostasy, heresy and evil? There are bad fruits of Vatican II, but that almost all people shall be saved are not one of them. So the pre-Vatican II Church which condemns almost the whole world (if one must be Catholic in the strict sense) was good, but Vatican II which opened up salvation for the entire human race, was evil? So good is evil and evil good?

There can be nothing more evil then Hell, and to think that a "good" God created it, or sends his own children there to suffer always, is itself a mortal sin and a heresy. - This just made me think of Gnostics and their belief that God is evil. Not that I agree that he was evil for the arguments they used, but rather, it is easy to see that God is evil because of the Hell he allows to exist. Had the Gnostics condemned God because he condemns souls (because he do evil and breaks the golden law -- i.e., do good unto others as you wan't others to do good unto you) they would have won the day. I mean, how can an honest soul argue that there is justice with eternal torments? Only mislead and brainwashed souls that do not follow a justice above God's "justice", would believe that. Human justice is way more just than God's justice in many ways, and that is why God's will shall be done on earth as well as in heaven.

Who is God? He who also follows the human laws, obviously, and who is not a dictator. Hence, the God we think is God is probably not God, or was undeserving of this title. Or perhaps this true God that is truly just has not come to existence yet, or is hiding, in order to see who wants to be truly just and not just being a slave. Perhaps Mary is God, or will become God, since she already receives her will always from God. It is not heresy to call Mary God, with the belief that the "God" we think is God is already evil and undeserving. If God can do all things, then he could even loose His Godhood and give this to another being. Even human justice would strip God of all his powers and imprison him, so that he never - for all eternity - could hurt another human beings/souls again.

Believe it or not, but I have had revelations about that Hell will cease to exist (or that it has already, since the Blessed Virgin Mary willed this in cooperation with all those who also wanted this), and that God will humble himself eventually, admitting that he was evil in creating it and sending humans, souls, even small children there to be tormented always (so God is also a child abuser and child murderer! really, you cannot think enough evil of a "God" who damns souls, and you commit no sin even for condemning and hating him and the evil he has done, rather, if you don't condemn him, you may sin and become a coward, since you know in your conscience he deserves condemnation). If it is one point worthy to be condemned for, or to be called heretical for, is the position that all souls shall be saved, or that atheists or pagans shall be saved etc.

So someone condemns you for wanting souls to be saved, such as by an evil God and brainwashed Church? What an honor! We do more good than they, yet they condemn us? Hypocrites! Stop being brainwashed! Stop follow a dictator! That is why we must follow our conscience. God is also in our conscience - perhaps there is some truth to collective consciousness, or whatever those other religions teach. I can understand Vatican II's teaching that there is truth in other religions. All truths have not been understood yet, such as who the true God is. "Catholic" he is though, but only because he is truly universal! which the Catholic God is not! - Yet, I condemned Francis for making this statement, even though I now clearly see that he was right (I have much to correct on our homepages).

"Our" Catholic God is not Catholic, since he only cares about his own in the end. Why else does he not save them (the "damned"), or forgive them even if they died in a "deadly sin"? If I was God, I would do all in my power that no one would be damned, even if they died in "deadly sin". I mean it! What would be a simple solution that the criminal God did not do? He could simply look the other way and say or think to a soul: "You did not die in a deadly sin, because I do not judge the sin to be deadly in a way to deserve eternal punishments." If someone deserves punishment because they truly did evil, they could go to purgatory, which is temporal. If only a person wants, he could think of several reasons as to why God would not have to damn a soul, and why that soul could be excused instead. Yet, the dictator God did nothing of it because of his stupid own "justice", which he thinks precedes or exceeds eternal or human justice. Wrong! As on earth so in heaven! And human justice do not judge as you do.

Would you want an atheist to be damned just because he was an atheist? Or a pagan, just because he was pagan - even if he was evil? You know the truth in your conscience - you do not want this, since you do not want this evil against yourself or your own children.

There is no justice with eternal hell, and Christians have only been brainwashed to look the other way since they fear God or don't want to be damned themselves. Honor to the man that condemns God in his face and calls him evil, and that prays to Mary with all their heart that there shall be no Hell and that all shall be saved. Why does God teach that Mary always gets her Will? Because she is more merciful, and hence more just! That is why Catholic examples of souls being saved is attributed to the Virgin Mary, and not to God or Jesus, since Jesus rather often receives the eternal shame spot of having wanted to damn the soul Mary wished to save! Hence, if we pray that there will be no Hell, she will have Her Will (which is our will), even if God does not want it. Even if God is evil, The Virgin Mary is not. If God don't want the damned as his children or forgive them, we will, and we will have them as our own and they will be forgiven!

There is an honor to live one's life hating and condemning God for his evil doctrine of Hell, and not a shame. Rather, it is a shame to live one's life thinking that there is a Hell and that people deserve it, or that there is justice in it. No judge on earth would ever condemn someone to such an unjust punishment, yet God is allowed to be an eternal and evil dictator? No, won't happen. God will fall in the end, and we (who hate God because of his Hell but still wants to love him and forgive him) and the Virgin Mary will have Our Will, and She will have all her children as she desires, in happiness and salvation. That is why God gave Mary all men as her children, since God himself was unworthy of this. That is why God himself admits in his evil bible (which contains a lot of evil such as hell but also good such as golden rules which he himself don't follow) that he don't look upon the damned as his children. They where not his to be since he wanted them evil. Even on earth bad parents are deprived of their children, so we can see a justice in that God suffers a loss of not having them as his own, even though he must be loved, since without love there will only be evil.

Even you know in your conscience that I have spoken true with all what I have said above, yet if you fear, you must be led astray by the bible, and the Church to excuse God (a true and evil dictator - and who is worse than satan himself - who condemns his own children to insufferable torments for all eternity) and believe that eternal torments is just and hence condemn men. At least desire all men and souls to be saved even if you are unsure if this will be the case, and you will be doing a good deed and have a good thought.

It is evil to think that someone deserves Hell, or that there is justice in it. This is the mystery with the last judgment, that God will not have his will, but Mary will rather, and those of Her children that wanted Her will - to save all of her Children. Origen thought correct, there will be universal salvation in the end.

I hope you understand. It is an honor to be condemn by God, by the Church and the Bible over something as unjust as Hell. Think of it yourself. You fought with God and his Bible and his Church in this life because you wanted souls to be saved, and even strove to eradicate this heresy and to apply universal salvation for all, even to the most evil and "undeserving" (note: nothing can be more undeserving than eternal punishments, especially in torments, and no one deserves such punishments, since a person, however evil, needs love to become good), yet, when you come before God, you will be "damned" because you wanted more good then him? Can't you see that this is a contradiction? and that it will be God himself who will fall before your feet since you have become more just and good on this point then him! All can see that it would be evil for you to be condemned, and Mary would not allow it, because you wanted souls to be save and because you condemned an unjust God.

Follow your conscience. Your conscience do not want a Hell, or that someone deserves such a punishment (yet according to blind Saints and the evil Bible, almost all souls are damned and yet no one has ever thought anything about it but that it is just in some way, because God said so! That is why souls who blindly follow God, do not follow their conscience and why they lost on this point; and even though God made them saints, they will not be saints on this point for failing to follow their conscience). Your conscience also says that it is evil to damn and punish too much, hence, God is evil if he really hold these positions of eternal torments and insufferable torments that is so severe (according to his saints) that not even all punishments on earth can give an indication of them.

It is easy to see and believe that the doctrine of Hell was taught by God as a test to see who dared to condemn him for once and follow their conscience and not just being his slave allowing him to do and believe in anything he wills however evil, such as eternal torments for dying in even one "deadly sin", such as masturbation (if they believed it was a deadly sin, that is...) Otherwise, masturbation is not a deadly sin if you do not believe it is a deadly sin. That is how conscience works. But then there is disobedience if you don't follow the rules of the Church, if you consider yourself Catholic, since they disallow masturbation. But again, disobedience is neither a deadly sin, unless you believe it is, because men have a free will for a reason, and they can make choices to follow their free will with a good conscience.

Eli: Almost every line in this email [above] contradicts you're website. I don't know where this sudden change in heart came from but I pray that you be delivered from whatever is blinding you.

Jerome: So it is blindness to want souls to be saved? But to embrace positions which damns most souls, is to see clearly?

No, my friend, it is you do not have the courage to break free from this enslavement system that is blinding you. Vatican II is more right than you think, and in due time, they might even teach that there is no Hell or that all will be saved absolutely.

I have expressed myself clearly. The change in my heart happened because I know in my conscience that Hell is the most evil that has ever existed. A true God, a good God, cannot have created a Hell or obstinately choose to send souls there for all eternity. That is why I have come to understand that this God, is not actually the true Catholic God, since he is not universal. The true God is in our consciences, and God wants us to follow our conscience.

What happens when we follow our conscience? Then we desire good upon others, such as that all souls shall be saved. A person who follows his conscience will see that Hell is evil, and that there is something wrong with this doctrine. A person who follows his conscience, and the Golden Rule (do good unto others as you want them do unto you) will see that God, who damns souls or allows them to be damned eternally, is evil if he does not change his position, and that Hell is unjust, and that it must cease to be.

I have been told many times that the God we thought was God (or was God) has lost his Godhood place in Heaven due to this injustice and that someone more just will take his place, and that Hell has already ceased to be and that all souls will be saved, although with different degrees of glory. That all people can live like one happy family is the ultimate goal and happiness, and if even one soul would be damned, there would not be perfection.

You also understand that it is evil to condemn one's own child, and you would not do this. Yet you excuse and defend a God who obstinately damns billions of souls without reason, other than that they died in his displeasure? If I was God, I would forgive all men, and make them love. If we have all eternity, even the most evil will be converted in the end. One can always learn to love with love, but one cannot learn to love with hate and torments. That is why Hell is unjust, since it takes away all chances of being converted.

If God does not want the damned or forgive them, let me have them! I will forgive them, and save them, and let them live in happiness in my soul if God rejects them. But I am sure Mother Mary will save them, as in fact, she already has. May we all live in her Holy Womb!

https://www.cathinfo.com/general-discussion/why-the-catholic-god-is-evil-and-unjust-why-hell-is-evil

[After posting the above [first] post in CathInfo, a small discussion ensued before I was finally banned. The responses posted here, or the post above in its entirety, cannot be seen in the above thread link.]

Stubborn: Very screwed up OP. :facepalm: I will just say that hell lasts forever because God, being eternal, lasts forever. Therefore, if hell did not last forever, then sinners would have beaten God, sinners would be getting away with offending God if they were to ever be let out.

Jerome: It is ironic how you call me "screwed up" because I advocate salvation for my brethren and sisters. What is screwed up with that? No, rather, what is screwed up is to defend an evil God who condemns his own children.

Did you read my post? Probably not! Read it, and see what it says, then come back with some arguments.

The argument that God wants damnation and that's it, and therefore, we must accept it, is ridiculous because you don't even want damnation to exist. You only believe in it through force.

The argument that hell lasts forever because God lasts forever is also irrelevant. I mean, what is that for excuse for damning anyone? If God don't want to forgive the damned or let them live in happiness, let me have all the damned, let me forgive them, and let them live in my soul in happiness.

Just because God lives forever, does not mean an eternal injustice must be!

Sinners have not beaten God if Hell does not exist. Rather, God would have beaten himself up if Hell exists forever, since that would mean God would be unjust. Not even one just judge on earth would damn anyone to eternal punishment for whatever crime on earth. To think that God should be a dictator and damn souls only because he wishes so - is evil to the max. No one who is just would agree with his judgment, but rather try to depose him. That is why Mary will overrule God in the end, since she will have her will.

Sinners that have been forgiven from Hell and that have become good (or if there were no Hell) will have their just punishment even without an eternal Hell, such as loss of glory in Heaven or lesser rewards than those more just. However, since Heaven exists forever, everything should be able to be gained back, and more glory should be able to be attained. Therefore, no Hell needs to exist. Even a temporal punishment, such as purgatory, would be enough, instead of a Hell.

You say God would be offended if there was no Hell and his "damned" children were released? What offense is worse, that your own children, mom or dad or best friend are condemned to Hell (as they could be), or that God would be kind and forgiver sinners from Hell? If God forgave all sinners and they become good in the end and all were friends, no offense would be taken. So you see an offense that does not exist, only because you blindly and shamelessly want to defend God and his evil hell doctrine. If you follow your own conscience (that does not wish eternal evil on anyone) however, you would be following the true God. (Saints and Theologians teach God is in our conscience. I can understand why.)

The only offense would be if there was a Hell and if people where there. Think of yourself, stubborn, what if you where damned, or your mom, or dad, or best friend, or wife or children? That is an offense. You would not wish this eternal offense on anyone, much less on those you love or know, yet you still readily acknowledge Hell without actually thinking about the consequences, or whom might end up there.

If you where damned in the end (even if you where a "sinner"), I am sure you would wish to get out and be forgiven, since you would not want to be separated from those you love or live in insufferable pain eternally. Similarly, you would not wish your own parents, wife or children to be damned. So how would God be offended if they got out of Hell, if this would be the greatest happiness in reality, since it not only makes you eternally happy and gratuitous, but also makes God happy (if they could be saved and not be unjust, even according to his own laws? since he wants all to be saved, even if they don't according to his laws).

That is why this false God will fall in the judgment and the true hidden God take his place who wants men to follow their conscience, and all damned be saved, and why Origen and others like whim who taught universal salvation will be made right. The Virgin Mary will not let this injustice of eternally damning her and our children, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers etc. be going on, and when she understands she can have Her will on this point, she will, and God will fall. There is a reason why God obeys Mary on every point, and why God gave Mary power even over himself.

Already, there is no Hell, as I understand it, but even if there is, Hell will cease to exists at the last judgment, as others teach.

One thing is clear from your post, stubborn, and that is that you do not follow your conscience but rather breaks it by excusing God and by remaining a slave to an evil brainwashing system and doctrine that you know is evil and unjust - for Hell is certainly unjust, as all judges on earth readily would admit (excluded from this are those judges who are forced to believe in Hell by being Christians, but even so, they would never have condemned anyone themselves to such a punishment, since they know it is eternally unjust).

Stubborn: God is not evil, men are evil. Every man is born into this world bent on evil due to being born with original sin. This is elementary Catholic doctrine. As Fr. Wathen puts it: [You need to] look at things as they are and stop all this liberal star gazing and wishful thinking and return to hard reality. Last week in what we style a sermon you probably perceive that I was laboring and I felt ill at ease because I could not find the words to say what I had thinking for a number of weeks and have a little more success said in other places. The bishops are going to have to recognize that the fundamental premise and the farfetched hope and the basic inspiration of the second Vatican council were altogether false and insubstantial.

They are going to have to recognize that liberalism is intrinsically false and will not work, because beneath liberalism, the philosophical basis of liberalism, is what we call naturalism. Naturalism proclaims, among other heresies, that there is no such thing as original sin, that man is basically good, that he means well and if you let him grow up, he’ll grow up good, he’ll grow up moral, he’ll grow up to be a good fellow.

But Catholic doctrine says that man is not basically good, that he comes into the world bent on evil and if you leave him to himself, he’ll become a savage, he’ll become amoral. He’ll not only do most wicked things but he will try to justify them.

We have to recognize that this is the error of liberalism, that it wants to treat all men as if they really are not bad and that the only reason they are bad is that they are misguided, that they’re victims of circumstances and of their environment.

That they are bad because their mother, or their father, or their parents mistreated them, or because they were deprived of something, or because they didn’t get a chance to go to school with white folk and all that kind of thing. And we say that no, a man is bad because of original sin and he doesn’t mind being bad, he chooses to be bad. In other words, he cannot blame his wickedness on Adam only, because with every day that passes, he confirms the evil within himself.

At the second Vatican council they tried to say that "men are bad, that men are anti-Catholic because the Church has not treated men correctly, and if the Church approached them kindly, and with understanding and you might say with intelligence, modern public relations - they would have come into the Church instead of opposing it" and being against us in every way and distrusting it and even engaging in efforts to destroy it."

And the bishops are going to have to recognize that original sin is operative in every soul and it always will be, and that all men have to be disciplined, they have to acknowledge that by themselves they will do wicked things. And Almighty God in the Church established an authority over them and they may not like to be told what to do but they must be told what to do and they must be warned of the consequences of not doing it, and the consequences ultimately are hell fire...

Jerome: If God truly wants souls to be eternally damned, then yes, he is evil on this point, just as I would be if I choose to torment my children while living on earth with insufferable torments just because they offended me or "died" in my displeasure. All judges would condemn such an evil father, and even you would hate him (the evil he did) and the world would hate him and be shocked at how evil he was.

Even if every man on earth is bent on evil, that does not justify an eternal punishment for failing to live up to God's standard.

Stubborn, you don't want yourself, or your mom or dad or wife or children to be damned, hence, you don't even like this doctrine but only believe in it through force. Hell is evil, hell is unjust, hell is illogical. Only love can heal, not hate and eternal punishments.

Stubborn, have you even read my posts at all?

The only one I find honest so far have been Matto, who also understand that hell is sad, tragic and evil. That is why he addressed the point somehow by admitting that God could be hated for this doctrine. All others here have only looked the other way around, ignoring the points, excusing God. That is because you have been brainwashed! Instead of following your conscience, and the Golden Rule, which teaches that one wishes good upon others and that all shall be saved, you excuse God and Hell and claim this unjust punishment is somehow just, when it clearly is not.

Only when or if you yourself are damned, or those you love, will you see your folly. Not that you should be damned or will be, since no on will damned in the end, but if you where damned or someone you loved, you might quickly change position and not think God so holy or innocent anymore, if he simply allows them to stay their when you desire their salvation.

What a hypocrite God would be if he himself lived an earthly life without him knowing he was God and he ended up damned! I can only see it just that God himself must live an earthly life (and Jesus is not the same, since he knew he was God) to see whether he would succeed or fail in this earthly test, otherwise he is a hypocrite. And if he was damned, yet remain in Heaven as God, he would be an even worse hypocrite since the "damned" can't be in Heaven according to him. Even if God would have been saved does not change the point that Hell is evil and that God is unjust for not having taken steps to prevent souls from being eternally damned. Any father or mother on earth knows in their conscience that they want their children well even if they are evil or disobedient. No parent want their children to live in eternal torments. That is natural. Yet God is so unnatural, contrary to human nature, that he wants to damn his own children for all eternity... This only shows that human nature and justice is more reasonable and just than spiritual "reason", "nature" and "justice", which seems rather governed by pride, self-love and excessive love for punishing.

God's plan in the end will fail. The Blessed Virgin Mary will look into it and have Her will.

CathInfo: Sorry unknown, you are banned from using this forum! Banned for explicit blasphemy against God, and heresy. This ban is not set to expire.

Jerome: So I was banned for wanting to save souls, and God was being defended once more for condemning souls.

THE INCREDIBLE EFFICACY AND POWER OF THE ‘HAIL MARY’ – ONE HAIL MARY

Hail Mary
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among women,
and Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Millions of Catholics often say the Hail Mary. Some repeat it hastily not even thinking on the words they are saying. These following words may help some say it more thoughtfully. 

“One Hail Mary well said fills the heart of Our Lady with delight and obtains for us indescribably great graces. One Hail Mary well said gives us more graces than a thousand thoughtlessly said.”

St. Jerome tells us that “the truths contained in the Hail Mary are so sublime, so wonderful that no man or Angel could fully understand them.”

The Hail Mary is like a mine of gold that we can always take from but never exhaust. 

Is it hard to say the Hail Mary well? All we have to do is to know its value and understand its meaning.

Will you Praise God by honouring Our Lady and pray one “Hail Mary” today? Just one my friend, just one “Hail Mary devoutly said…”

Note: Dear friends I encourage you all to please pray one “Hail Mary” every time you see this post. So you will obtain great graces from Our Lord through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, who is the channel of Divine Graces. You never know how happy she is for that “single Hail Mary devoutly prayed in her honour”.
God Bless you All!

“To Jesus through Mary.”

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St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, “the wisest of Saints and holiest of wise men,” as Leo XIII called him, preached for 40 days in Rome on the Hail Mary, filling his hearers with rapture.

Father F. Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit, declared when dying that he would willingly give all the many learned books he wrote, all his life’s labors, for the merit of one Hail Mary prayerfully and devoutly said.

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A “Hail Mary” said with your heart and all your being has more power than ten Rosaries said by those who recite their prayers in a merely routine fashion.
~ The Virgin Mary to Catalina Rivas (from the Book “Praying the Rosary”)

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Satan and hell tremble when I repeat “Hail Mary”.
~ Thomas a Kempis (Author of the book “The Imitation of Christ”)

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“Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was, it would be my end.” — The devil said during an exorcism

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“One day Saint Gertrude had a vision of Our Lord counting gold coins. She summoned the courage to ask Him what He was doing. He answered: “I am counting the Hail Marys that you have said; this is the money with which you can pay your way to Heaven.”

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— A Testimony —

Blessed Alan says that a nun who had always had a great devotion to the Holy Rosary appeared after death to one of her sisters in religion and said to her: “If I were allowed to go back into my body, to have the chance of saying just one single Hail Mary – even if I said it quickly and without great fervor – I would gladly go through the sufferings that I had during my last illness all over again, in order to gain the merit of this prayer.” This is all the more compelling because she had been bedridden and had suffered agonizing pains for several years before she died.

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St. Mechtilde, who loved our Lady very much, was one day striving to compose a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her, with the golden letters on her breast of: “Hail Mary full of grace.” She said to her: “Desist, dear child, from your labor for no prayer you could possibly compose would give me the joy and delight of the Hail Mary.”

A certain man found joy in saying slowly the Hail Mary. The Blessed Virgin in return appeared to him smiling and announced to him the day and hour that he should die, granting him a most holy and happy death. After death a beautiful white lily grew from his mouth having written on its petals: “Hail Mary.”

Cesarius recounts a similar incident. A humble and holy monk lived in the monastery. His poor mind and memory were so weak that he could only repeat one prayer which was the “Hail Mary.” After death a tree grew over his grave and on all its leaves was written: “Hail Mary.”

These beautiful legends show us how much devotion to Our Lady was valued, and the power attributed to the Hail Mary devoutly prayed.

Each time that we say the Hail Mary we are repeating the very same words with which St. Gabriel the Archangel saluted Mary on the day of the Annunciation, when she was made Mother of the Son of God. Many graces and joys filled the soul of Mary at that moment. Now when we say the Hail Mary we offer anew all these graces and joys to Our Lady and she accepts them with Immense delight. In return she gives us a share in these joys.

Once Our Lord asked St. Francis Assisi to give Him something. The Saint replied: “Dear Lord, I can give You nothing for I have already given you all, all my love.” Jesus smiled and said: “Francis, give Me it all again and again, it will give Me the same pleasure.”

So with our dearest Mother, she accepts from us each time we say the Hail Mary the joys and delight she received from the words of St. Gabriel.

Almighty God gave His Blessed Mother all the dignity, greatness and holiness necessary to make her His own most perfect Mother.

But He also gave her all the sweetness, love, tenderness and affection necessary to make her our most loving Mother. Mary is truly and really our Mother.

As children when in trouble run to their mothers for help, so ought we to run at once with unbounded confidence to Mary.

St. Bernard and many Saints said that it was never, never heard at any time or in any place that Mary refused to hear the prayers of her children on earth.

Why do we not realize this most consoling truth? Why refuse the love and consolation that God’s Sweet Mother is offering us?

Is it our lamentable ignorance which deprives us of such help and consolation.

To love and trust Mary is to be happy on earth now and afterwards to be happy in Heaven.

Dr. Hugh Lammer was a staunch Protestant, with strong prejudices against the Catholic Church. One day he found an explanation of the Hail Mary and read it. He was so charmed with it that he began to say it daily. Insensibly all his anti-Catholic animosity began to disappear. He became a Catholic, a holy priest and a professor of Catholic Theology in Breslau.

A priest was called to the bedside of a man who was dying in despair because of his sins. Yet he refused obstinately to go to confession. As a last recourse the priest asked him to say at least the Hail Mary after which the poor man made a sincere confession and died a holy death.

In England, a parish priest was asked to go and see a Protestant lady who was gravely ill, and who wished to become a Catholic. Asked if she had ever gone to a Catholic Church, or, if she had spoken to Catholics, or if she had read Catholic books? She replied, “No, no.” All she could remember was that------when a child------she had learned from a little Catholic neighbor girl the Hail Mary, which she said every night. She was Baptized and before dying had the happiness of seeing her husband and children Baptized.

St. Gertrude tells us in her book, “Revelations” that when we thank God for the graces He has given to any Saint, we get a great share of those particular graces.

What graces, then, do we not receive when we say the Hail Mary while thanking God for all the unspeakable graces He has given His Blessed Mother?

------With Ecclesiastical Approval

“. . . One Ave Maria [Hail Mary] said without sensible fervor, but with a pure will in a time of aridity, has much more value in my sight than an entire Rosary recited in the midst of consolations.”

--------The Blessed Mother to Sr. Benigna Consolata Ferrero

“The holy and learned Jesuit, Father Suarez, was so deeply aware of the value of the Angelic Salutation [Hail Mary] that he said that he would gladly give all his learning for the price of one Hail Mary that had been said properly.”

--------St. Louis De Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, p. 48

Letters and Sayings of Father Paul of Moll

I encourage all my readers to read the letters and sayings of Father Paul of Moll in order to grow in their love of God. Fr. Paul was really a soul in love with God and this is clearly seen in his letters and sayings.

Source: https://archive.org/details/TheVeryRevFatherPaulOfMoll

Preliminary Remarks by the Author.

We have shown how very busy the Rev. Father Paul was. From morning till night he received a crowd of visitors, or went to visit those who called for his assistance. He heard confessions sometimes until eleven o'clock at night, and as he could not neglect the divine office, nor the many prayers which he had promised to his wards, one asked where he found time for his voluminous correspondence: every day he answered about thirty letters! Did he sacrifice his night's rest for that purpose? It is probable.

There is likewise a very great number of souvenirs or pious pictures, on the back of which he had written in Flemish charming verses, nearly all treating of the love of God. Father Paul, a born poet, wrote verses with the most astonishing facility. There exist a few pious treatises which he had printed, also some manuscripts treating of the love of God, which he perhaps intended to publish.

Father Paul has truly been called the singer of divine love. In his conversations, his letters, his sermons, everywhere he drew attention to the love of God. This divine love with which his heart was inflamed seems to have dictated the following letters, addressed to one of his penitents, an ecstatic.

Most of Father Paul's letters are headed and closed by a pious expression of love for Jesus. In the original Flemish we find these words at the head of the letters: "Uyt liefde tot Jesus," the French equivalent of which is "Par amour pour Jesus," in English literally "With love for Jesus." At the end of these letters he writes in Flemish, "Uyt liefde van Jesus," French, "Par amour de Jesus," which in literal English means, "With love from Jesus." In the English pamphlet this distinction has been overlooked; we prefer the literal translation. Translator's Note.

LETTERS OF FATHER PAUL.

With Love for Jesus!

DEAREST SISTER IN JESUS CHRIST,

I have not been able to reply sooner to your New Year's greetings. I also wish you a happy and salutary New Year, a year of love, a heart of love; let all your actions be love; all your words, love; all your thoughts, love; all your sensations, love; all that you see, love; all that you hear, love; all that you desire, love of God.

O love! O infinite love! Yes, I may well say so, for the love of God is a boundless ocean of love, one drop of which is sufficient to set man's heart on fire with love.

May I not then say, O love! O infinite love? The love of God for man is so great that God forgets, so to say, His infinite justice, in order to be able to show His infinite love.

May I not then say, O love! O infinite love? A mother knows how dearly she loves her children, but what is the love of a mother in comparison with the love of God for us? Less than nothing.

May I not then say, O love! O infinite love? Before man was created, God already loved him with so tender a love that he said, I will give him My flesh.

My blood, My divinity; I shall dwell in Him with all My perfections, for love of him.

May I not say then, O love! O infinite love? O my God! O God of infinite love, I thank Thee and I ask of Thee that I may be able to love Thee ever more and more; that I may be able to love Thee with a burning love!

I have not been able to reply sooner: so many letters are waiting for an answer. Do everything for the love of God; say, "Every thing that I shall do this year, O my God, I shall do for love of Thee!"

In your sufferings, no matter how great they may be, do not complain so long as you are able to love.

God of infinite love! give me a heart of love! I shall ask it for you.

I pray much for you that you may become more and more inflamed with the love of God.

Here is my name: Praised be Jesus Christ!

With love for Thee, Jesus.

With Love for Jesus!

DEAREST SISTER IN JESUS CHRIST,

O God, behold my heart in desolation, Bereft of love, it is in bitterness; My heart so steeped in sadness and dejection. Fulfil its longing by the gift of love divine.

One sigh of love is of more value than the whole world, so that for one sigh of the love of God you may renounce the friendship, the honor, the glory and the riches of the world. Therefore, never be sad if I do not write to you or speak to you of love; give one sigh of love for God, and think that you then possess more than all the world can give you. If you suffer, think that God, who is infinite love, wills it, and say, O love! O infinite love!

Live alone with God, that is to say, live apart from the world, but near to God; reveal to no person the intimate sentiments of your heart, only to God alone, and show Him how your heart sighs for His love. Be hidden to men, after the example of the saints. I shall ask for you much love. Always recall to yourself the presence of God, burning with a love greater than the ocean; be convinced that he desires ceaselessly to communicate to you His love. His burning love, in order that you, also, inflamed with love, be transformed into His love. Desire as much as possible to love God more and more. God imparts His love sometimes in peace, and sometimes also in misfortunes or in sufferings; we must praise and thank God for all He does, whether it be pleasing to us or not.

Thank God that He has made known to you His love, yes, that you are able to possess that love, that you are a child of the love of God.

Be so good as to ask love for me, I shall also demand the love of God for you.

With love for Jesus, I am . . .

O love! O infinite love of God!

You may write to me always, I shall reply to you by a short or a long letter, according as it may be possible for me.

(We have rarely seen Father Paul's letters dated. )

With Love for Jesus!

SISTER IN JESUS CHRIST,

How astonishing is God in His infinite love! We ought to cry out ceaselessly with the greatest enthusiasm, with all our force, with our whole soul, O love! O infinite love! O astonishing love of God!

When the most beautiful angels contemplate the sanctity of God, they sing with one voice and with the greatest astonishment. Holy! Holy! Holy! is the God of all eternity! And, at sight of that astonishing love, they cry out in the same manner three times, O infinite and eternal love of God!

A great number of the children of love, see Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. They have seen Him first in Antwerp. They see our Lord in the great host exposed at the benediction, and they see Him differently at the same time; as a shepherd carrying a lamb on His shoulders or in His arms; in His passion, bleeding; or in the form of a white dove.

As for myself I have seen Him, Oh! I do not know how. M. J. has seen Him often already, under different forms, and she is in ecstasy over it.

They see Jesus distinctly in such a manner that there can be no doubt.

M. J. and two other young ladies have seen the same prodigy in Eecloo.

Several persons from Watervliet went to Eecloo last week, but have seen nothing.

With love from Jesus.

With Love for Jesus!

Sister in Jesus Christ, I prostrate before the infinite love of Jesus, imploring an ocean of love for God. I am sad, God alone with His love can console me.

The fear of not going to heaven, you must consider as a suggestion of the devil. You complain that no one speaks to you of the love of God and you even dare almost to complain that I do not write to you of the love of Jesus.

Few persons have had the great happiness that you have had in being instructed in the love of Jesus. You are like those who have made their studies to become a priest, lawyer, or doctor, they know enough in order to follow their profession. Thus I have taught you of the love of God all that is necessary, in order to advance unceasingly in love.

The devil will do all in his power in order to turn you aside from the love of Jesus. Mary, the Mother of beautiful love, will defend you, all the saints will help you, and I shall pray for you in order that you may always remain a child of love, and make great progress in the love of Jesus.

With love from Jesus, Your humble servant,

D. P.

With Love for Jesus! Dearest Penitent,

O love! O infinite love of Jesus! O excess of love! When shall I be able to love Thee enough, when shall my will be inflamed with love for Thee, O boundless ocean of love? When shall all my desires be desires of love, so that I may be able to love Thee and to love nothing else but Thee and Thee alone, O my God, O infinite love? I shall seek until I shall find Thee, I shall knock until Thou shalt open for me, I shall pray until Thou shalt give me an ardent love and shalt suppress in me all other sentiments.

Love surpasses incomparably, both in value and in beauty, all satisfaction. God, by His nature, is infinite love, and it is with this infinite love that He loves man so much.

To understand, or, at least, to get an idea of His infinite love, think of His infinite perfections. If you wish to have an idea of the love with which He loves man, see with what love God loves Mary.

He has given so much to Mary that she is called the Mother of beautiful love. This great love was granted to her as Mother of God. Mary being truly our Mother, how could God love our Mother so much without loving her children? If God reserved that ardent and great love for Mary, our Mother, this love would not be fully agreeable to her because Mary, as Mother, would not be happy to see that her children did not share that true happiness. What does a mother desire, if not to see her children share her happiness? God Himself, the infinite Love, has not thought differently, for see what an incomprehensible love He has for the children of Mary!

Is it not for the children of Mary that Jesus suffered so much? It was in order to prove His love for the children of Mary. Jesus did not suffer for Mary, for she never was guilty in the eyes of God, she never had to render an account; but, through sin, her children have made themselves culpable before God, and it was in order to satisfy for sin that Jesus came. But Jesus has done much more than was necessary: all that He suffered more, He endured for the love of man in order to prove to him His love.

Every time you see a crucifix you may say, O excess of love! Every time Jesus scourged comes into your mind you may say, O love! O infinite love! When you see Jesus carrying the cross you may say, O excess of the infinite love of Jesus! God has given so much love to Mary that she is called with reason the Mother of beautiful love, and all the children of Mary are equally children of beautiful love, and those who are not, have rejected that right through sin. That right lost can be restored through the infinite merits of Jesus, merits which He has acquired for us in His love for us.

When then you see Jesus in His passion, you see Him at the same time in His excess of love. Often contemplate Jesus enduring outrages, humiliations, mockeries, derision, and say, O love! O infinite love of Jesus! When you think of the Most Holy Sacrament, when you receive Jesus or when you make spiritual communions, or when you adore Jesus, you may say, O infinite love of Jesus!

Have an ardent desire to be a child of the love of Jesus. The love of Jesus is a great treasure beyond comparison.

I wish you a good and happy year, a year of love, so that you, also, may be a child of beautiful love as your Mother Mary is the Mother of beautiful love.

With love from Jesus.

With Love for Thee, Jesus!

Dearest Sister in Jesus Christ,

I should wish to write you a long letter, but I have no time; I must preach the Lenten sermons, preach at the Masses and teach catechism to the children.

Love! O infinite love of Jesus! I give Thee my heart, to Thee alone, not once, but throughout eternity.

On the days when you have but little or no love, do not murmur against Jesus, do not speak to anybody of it; you can tell it to me. In heaven you will be able to live without being separated from the love of Jesus, but not so on earth. Only say, O Jesus of infinite love! I feel, or, I have no love, but be it according to Your desire, I accept it for love of You and in the hope that You will grant me more. See, however, I experience the hunger and thirst for Your love, I long for You as the fish longs for the water out of which it has been taken; You cannot nor would You abandon me, You only wish to try me; You act very well, but do not make me languish without Your love; I make the resolution never to love anything but You.

I ought to tell you yet much on the subject of poor sinners, who do not know God or who do not love Him; I must yet very much exhort you to praise and thank God, but I have no time.

During the time of Lent often take into your hand the chalice of bitterness. O love! O infinite love, would that you could set on fire all hearts!

With Love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Dearest Penitent,

O love! O excess of the love of Jesus! I give Thee my heart, to Thee alone, not once, but always, unto eternity, and with so great a love as no person ever has done. The excess of the love of God is not contained within the infinite perfections of God, but that love is found wherever it is possible. It is found in the souls in purgatory, it is found upon earth. I cannot say that upon earth, it is less brilliant than in purgatory, for can we see that love more clearly than in the Holy Sacrament of infinite love, and in the passion of Jesus?

Jesus allowed Himself to be so horribly scourged as thereby to become unrecognizable. Jesus, so beautiful, behold how disfigured He with blood and wounds is now, so that one cannot recognize Him except by His love: to those who did not know His love He became completely unrecognizable.

In purgatory, His infinite love is known, although the souls are not as yet fully satiated with it; but in heaven, they will be eternally filled with it; love will satiate them in a manner incomprehensible. There the souls see the infinite grandeur of God; unceasingly they see and receive continual effusions of love, resembling the torrents of a boundless ocean of love.

The grandeur of God is incomprehensible, and it is as if He were great and powerful only to show His love, to bestow love and to receive the love of man in order to unite Himself always with man through love.

What is the Holy Sacrament of love if not a union of the love of God with man? Therefore it is that I encourage all children of love to the constant practice of spiritual communion and sighs of love. They unite us equally to God through love, much less, it is true, than real Communion, but yet they help to receive Jesus with so much greater love in Holy Communion.

I desire most ardently that this love may be known by the hearts of all men that they may be inflamed with love for God. The incomprehensible and burning love of God continually fills man, that God may reign in his heart; but mortal sins constantly push back that love. God Himself says, "I do not want the death of sinners, but I want them to live that I may love them, and be united with them through love."

Those who are in the state of grace, but do not know His love, God loves with an incomprehensible love because God loves everything that is good; but we shall never understand the love that God bears towards His children of love, and how much He desires to unite Himself with them by love.

It is on account of this love for man that Jesus had the will to suffer, with great patience, all outrages, contempt, and pain. With what satisfaction can we not suffer, and desire to suffer to show our love for Jesus!

If it is given you to take part in the love of Jesus, then take part, also, in His dolorous passion. If Jesus often comes to console you with His sweet love, take likewise and joyfully your part of pity for Jesus in His excess of suffering, as was done by the sorrowing women.

How can one contemplate Jesus in the excess of His suffering, for the love of man, without being touched and saying, I want to give my love to Jesus!

I recommend to you again the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. O Sacred Heart of Jesus! O Sacred Heart of Jesus! O ocean of love!

I do not know as yet if the love for Jesus will make me depart from here. I shall demand for you love for Jesus.

With love from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I am your humble servant in Jesus,

D. P. relig.

With Love for Jesus!

Dearest Sister,

O love! O infinite love of God for man! How astonishing God is in the love with which He loves man! For all that you see He has made in His infinite love. Look at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and you will hear Jesus tell you, "Behold the heart that has loved men so much." Look at the Most Holy Sacrament. What is the Most Holy Sacrament? It is an excess of love. Look at the holy Face, that holy Face says to you, "O love! O infinite love of Jesus!" Look at Jesus crucified, and must you not cry out, "O love! O infinite love of Jesus! Is it possible, that love can go so far?"

Was His love held up by the cross? Ah, no, this Jesus with His Sacred Heart, and in the Most Holy Sacrament and crucified, went to heaven. There He is seated upon a throne of infinite glory; from there, He pours forth His infinite love into all the hearts open to His love. Every sigh of love, every desire of love is a new opening of your heart, allowing the love of God to penetrate.

Unite yourself to God through love, and rejoice in such great happiness; thank God for this great benefit, and be so much the more ardent in the love of God.

I am overburdened with work, it happens sometimes that I am unable to write more, do not expect it of me.

With love from Jesus, I am.

With Love for Jesus!

Sister in Jesus Christ,

O love! O infinite love of God for man! One word escapes from my lips and plunges me into the greatest astonishment, O love! O . . .

It is not given to any man to tell what the infinite love of God is, not even to make any comparison of it. All that can be said about it is still nothing.

Imagine all the love of one hundred thousand mothers for their children. It is nothing in comparison with the infinite love of God. One may say that a drop of water is a portion of the ocean; but all the love we can imagine cannot give us an idea of the least part of the love of God for man.

I wish you would allow me never to say more than, O love! O infinite love of God! I can hardly say anything more or anything better, for these words contain all that is necessary to induce us never to do anything except for the love of God; they are sufficient to satiate us with the love of God, and make us desire Him more and more.

When meditation becomes impossible for you, think of the love of God.

God, the saints and the souls in purgatory are my sole occupation.

Pray for me and the souls in purgatory, I will pray for you.

With love from Jesus,

D. Paul, relig.

With Love for Jesus!

Sister in Jesus Christ,

With the grace of God, I must tell you that nothing occupies my heart more than the love of God. I wish to love the God of most tender and amiable love, and I cannot desire or wish anything better to others, yes, to all persons of the world.

For this reason the devil persecutes me much and, as happens very often in a similar case, the instruments of which he makes use are the very ones who owe me the greatest gratitude, thus rendering the humiliation still more painful.

I thank you for your good wishes. I wish you likewise a beautiful and happy year, a year of love; for that end I recommend to you three inexhaustible sources of love: —

1. The Most Holy Sacrament.

2. The sorrowful passion of Jesus Christ.

3. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, there to establish your dwelling and nourish yourself with the infinite love of God.

Your humble servant,

O love! O infinite love of God!

With Love for Jesus!

Sister in Jesus Christ,

Cry out and repeat a thousand times, O love! O infinite love of God for man! For God is infinite love, and to man alone He has given a heart of love in order to love God and be loved of Him. For this reason we ought to have a high regard for all men; if they are not already children of love, they may become so.

This obliges me to give an impressive notice to all the children of love; be prudent, for not every one is as yet a child of love, nor does every one understand what it is to be a child of love.

For this reason the impossible will be attempted to hinder the children of love from going where they can nourish themselves with love. Alas! if one knew the love of God, one would not act contrary to it. It is my duty to cry out: Do not go to such and such a place, for love is in danger there. Help me to nourish the children of love; if they say or do anything against you, pass on and say: What does it matter? It is a child of love.

With love from Jesus, I am,

D. Paul, relig.

With Love for Jesus!

Dearest Sister in Jesus Christ,

For the love of Thee, Jesus, I demand of Thee, I pray Thee, I beseech Thee to inspire me in this writing; give me to know Thy holy will. O love! O infinite love! I give Thee my heart, to Thee alone, not once, but continually and for eternity. We shall never be able to proclaim nor admire worthily the infinite goodness of God. God is infinitely great and has an incomprehensible love for miserable man, so inclined to evil and so indifferent towards God. When a man, the greatest enemy of God, truly contrite, asks pardon of God by going to confession, the love of God is so great that He gives Himself at once, soul, body, and divinity, and wants to love that man, love him always more and more. No matter how miserable he may be, provided he is no longer in the state of mortal sin, God loves him with an incomprehensible love.

How can one despise or not love one whom God loves so tenderly, so paternally? What a great crime to do evil to one whom God loves so much?

Why is there more joy in heaven over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just? Because in heaven they see the joy which the fact of being able to love that man once more, procures for the heart of the infinite love of God.

The heavenly spirits are absorbed in the abyss of the infinite love of God, and they see much better than we are able to understand, what an inexpressible joy it is for the infinite love of God to be able to love again a man who, by mortal sin had rejected the love of God.

What can there be more agreeable to the heart of the infinite love of God than to pray for the conversion of those who are in the state of mortal sin? To be a child of love, is to sacrifice oneself to the love of God for the conversion of sinners.

I rejoice at the one word, the conversion of sinners! If we had to pray hundreds of years in order to have a man brought back to the love of God, we would have reason enough to rejoice on account of it.

God demands now that you be and remain a true child of love, and that your love grow greater unceasingly. Ask God that all your actions, from the beginning of your existence, be actions of love for God, performed in union with the sorrowful passion of Jesus.

O Jesus! my Well-beloved, do You permit Yourself to be ill-treated so frightfully? Is it to give proofs of Your love? O Jesus! You have already given sufficient proofs; no person can ever say that You have not given enough pledges of Your love. O Jesus! grant me the joy of being able to prevent You being ill-treated so much.

Holy blood! O blood of love! would that I could imitate Thee!

I had no time to answer you sooner.

With love from Jesus, I am . . .

Praised be Jesus Christ!

With Love for Jesus!

Dearest Sister in Jesus Christ,

O love! O infinite love of my God! O love without beginning and without end, how great you are, how sweet, how agreeable!

O love of my God! You are great, because you are infinite; you are sweet, because whoever has tasted you is famished with love. The more one has of it, the more one desires; always more and more inflamed with love; never satiated with love; for the more one tastes of it, the sweeter it is, the more intense is the desire for love, the ardent love for God.

Love is agreeable, for from the moment one knows it, one can scarcely love anything else but the love of God. Therefore, St. Augustine has said, "Lord God, if I had known Thee sooner, I would have loved Thee sooner." Love is so agreeable that whoever knows the love of God, scarcely loves anything but that agreeable love. Why should it not be agreeable to the heart of man, since God Himself has said, “I shall be all things to you,” that is to say, all the good we can imagine to ourselves, such as all sweetness, all harmony.

Does not a son enjoy the riches of a good father? How agreeable it is for a child to enjoy with his father his great riches! Which are the riches of God? They are His infinite perfections, and the ability to be loved by an infinite love, and to be able to love.

So then, when you have some love for God, you may esteem yourself happy on account of it, according to the degree of your love for God, and in that case, you may consider all other things as nothing, such as riches and pleasures, persecution and sufferings, outrages and contempt; and suffer all, because then you have a chance to prove your love for Jesus.

It is easy to show one's love for Jesus in prosperity and good fortune; but to show a beautiful love in bitterness [is not as easy] . . . With you it is not as with many others who seem to have much love as long as everything turns out according to their wishes, but whose love is all eclipsed in the time of adversity.

From the moment a man knows God, his first action is to love Him, to give Him his love, and that need of loving is so much the greater the better he knows his God.

Never shall one know God well, so long as one is attached to men and the world: we must not attach ourselves to them except in so far as they lead us to the knowledge and love of God.

If Adam had not sinned, love would be the sole desire of man; but sins have diminished and obscured in man his desire for the love of God. We may revive that desire by prayer, by ardent and earnest prayer, by detachment, by a perfect life, and thus arrive at ardent love for God.

Hence, never become discouraged if it costs you much to have a little of the love of God; for one sigh

of love is of more value than all that the world can procure.

With love from Jesus.

Extracts from Letters.

Addressed by the Rev. Father Paul to a lady of Audenarde.

God is impenetrable. His wisdom is infinite. Jesus has shown His love for us by incomparable sufferings. It is the divine will that we show our love for God throughout everything and in everything, but especially in our sufferings.

In suffering one recognizes true love. One suffers, but it is for the love of Jesus.

An act of love for God in suffering causes the astonishment of the angels; an act of love for God in suffering is formidable to the demon; an act of love for God in suffering will shine in heaven for all eternity.

If one could understand the value of an act of love for God in suffering, one would experience the greatest grief at being obliged to pass a single moment without being able to make this meritorious act. Happy is he who, in suffering, makes acts of love!

Madam, I recommend you to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, you and your whole family. Often say with devotion: O Sacred Heart of Jesus of infinite love and mercy without end, give me a heart of love, and give Thy grace to poor sinners, that they may be enabled to know Thee and love Thee.

I shall commence a novena for you on Wednesday, and from now on, I shall give you my blessing twice a day, at half past five in the morning and towards eight in the evening. You may always write to me, without fear of troubling me.

God is infinitely good and wise. He shows His goodness towards you by sending you crosses. The more bitter your pains, the more meritorious they are.

Every cross is a blessing from heaven, a blessing which surpasses all the happiness of the world. If one were able to understand the full value of crosses, it would be a terrible torment to be deprived of them.

I shall pray that God may make you know the value of crosses, so that you may appreciate them all the more, and I shall demand for you great patience. Suffer everything, henceforth, in thanksgiving for this special grace. In heaven you will see how true is all that I tell you.

Extracts from Letters of the Rev. Father Paul.

To a member of his family.

I wish you particularly the grace to see what God is in His infinitive love, in order to love Him with your whole heart, during your whole life, and to be hereafter united with Him for all eternity. We cannot comprehend how much God loves us, and all that He does to show His great love to men: but we comprehend still less what He will do in heaven for His children of love.

If it were given you to see one little ray of His great love, you would never be able to say anything else but, "O love! O infinite, O beautiful love of God!"

God does not demand of you, in order to be a child of love, that you should do more than you are able to do, but all He says to you is, "My child give me your heart!" And I add thereto, "Do everything for love of Jesus."

Often say, before all your work, "For love of Thee, Jesus." Often think of the love of God, and principally of three things wherein He has shown His great love, in the Most Holy Sacrament, in His sorrowful passion, and in His Sacred Heart.

When you communicate, recall His great love, then unite yourself with God through love, give your heart to God, demand a heart that will love Him always more and more; above all think of the sorrowful passion of Jesus, principally on Friday; and when you have to suffer anything, consider with what love He has suffered, that you also may suffer everything for the love of Jesus in His Sacred Heart, the source of infinite love.

At my next visit we shall again talk of the infinite love of God. Love to go to Holy Communion and often make spiritual communions. Never attach yourself to the world, but flee from it . . .

The love which God devotes to man, and that with which he is loved ought to be considered the greatest treasure He can give us. In order to understand this, it would be necessary for us to be able to know God, a thing impossible, because God is infinitely perfect. It is the same with regard to His love, the more you were to consider the love of God, the more you would have to say, "O love! O infinite love of God!"

Unite yourself often with God through love, at your morning and evening prayer, and say, "I shall do everything for the love of God that all my actions may be acts of love." Ask for that love through the intercession of Mary. Suffer and endure everything for the love of Jesus, as Jesus has suffered everything for love of us.

I wish you an ardent love for God, it is the richest and most beautiful treasure you can wish or desire. All other treasures will disappear like smoke; but the treasure of love shall remain forever in heaven.

Ask God for this beautiful treasure, for it must come from Him; men cannot procure it for you. For this reason often ask God for a heart of love that you may love Him ever more and more, and like a child of love. Add to your morning and evening prayers, "All that I shall do today, or tonight, I shall do for the love of God, so that all my actions may be actions of love. I unite myself today, or tonight, with all the acts of love made to God, both in heaven and on earth." Say quite often during the day, when you commence to do something, were it only moving a chair, opening or shutting a door, or any other action, "For love of Thee, Jesus."

When you have to suffer anything say, "I want to suffer it for the love of Jesus, just as Jesus has suffered all for love of me."

Have a great devotion to the Most Holy Sacrament of love. Communicate as often as you can, and never say, "I am not worthy to do so!" Nobody is sufficiently worthy of it, but the great love of God calls you. Often have a desire of receiving Jesus.

[Have a great] Devotion to the sorrowful passion of Jesus.

[Have a great] Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Everywhere we can find the great love of God, at home, in the fields, in the street, in the convents, in good health, in sickness, in adversity, in poverty, everywhere except in the riches, the honor, the glory and the pleasures of the world.

I shall ask for you also a share of the love of God.

Pray much for the souls in purgatory.

Other Extracts from Letters of the Rev. Father Paul.

The love of God is my desire, my riches, my joy, and my best food, yes, all!

O God of infinite love! Give me two wings to fly towards Thee, that I may rest in Thee and be satiated with Thy beautiful love; a wing of love, to draw me without ceasing toward Thy beautiful love, and a wing of confidence in order to help me to perform all my actions, all my steps, all my prayers for the love of God.

Who shall ever be able to understand the love, infinitely great, wherewith Thou, O God, lovest man! We should wish to express, to describe that love; one word only escapes our powerless lips: O love! O infinite love of God! O sweet love, sweeter than honey! O ocean of love! inflame my heart with the sacred fire of Thy holy love!

My name is Love.

O love! O infinite love of Jesus! O Jesus give me a mouth of love so as to entertain all men with Thy infinite love! Give me a heart of love so that nothing else may come forth from it but for Thy beautiful love. Give me eyes of love that I may see nothing else but Thy love in all things, even in my sufferings and in everything that goes against me. Give me a taste of love, that I may taste Thy love in everything I eat and drink. Give me hands of love that I may write of Thy beautiful love to all the children of love. Give me feet of love that I may go and entertain those who suffer, with Thy beautiful love and Thy ignominious and painful death, so that they may not complain any longer of their crosses.

O love! O infinite love of God! Thy love, O my God, is my nourishment, my treasure, my consolation, my life! I do not need any one but those who speak to me of Thy beautiful love. O love of Jesus! Thou art my consolation, my all. Nothing against Thee, everything for Thee!

O love! O infinite love of Jesus!

Thus my name is written.

1. I offer up this day (or this night) for the greater glory of God. Everything that I shall do today (or tonight) I shall do for the love of God, that all my actions may be acts of love.
2. I unite myself today (or tonight) with all the acts of praise and thanksgiving that are elicited in heaven and on earth.
3. I unite myself with all the acts of love that are made by the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
4. I unite myself with all the sentiments of pity that ever have been felt and ever will be felt for Jesus in His pains. I make the intention of saying each time when God or His holy name is blasphemed: "My God, be Thou praised and blessed forever and ever! Thy holy name be praised and blessed forever and ever!"
5. I consign myself today (or tonight), body and soul, into Thy hands.
6. I unite myself with all the acts of adoration and love that are made in the Most Holy Sacrament of infinite love.

During the day make frequent spiritual communions, when entering or leaving the church, when retiring and in other circumstances.

Unite yourself often with God by ejaculatory prayers, and elevate your heart to God. Think often of the passion of Jesus, and suffer everything for the love of Jesus, the same as Jesus suffered everything through love for you.

As often as I shall recite seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Marys, I resolve to say, "In honor of the drops of blood shed for us by Jesus! and to obtain the graces which Jesus has attached thereto, and to complete the number thereof."

When going out I say at the door, "Through love for Thee, Jesus!" And when I am alone I recite five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys for the conversion of sinners, and the six Our Fathers, six Hail Marys and six Glory be to the Father etc., connected with the blue scapular, and I consign the indulgences into the hands of Mary.

Letter of Rev. Father Paul.

To a working woman of Thielt.

O love! O infinite love of God! How astonishing, beautiful and amiable is God in His love! O God of infinite love! I ask Thee for the grace to be able to write to Mathilde of Thy love.

Exclaim then anew with myself and with all the children of love, and also with Sister Luitgarde, "O love! O infinite love of God! Give me a heart to love Thee, O my God! and to love Thee with an immense love."

A sigh of love for God, brought forth with devotion, is of more value than the whole world; the world will perish completely, but the sigh of love for God is for eternity. If it were given you to heave [to raise up], with devotion, but one sigh of love for God in your whole life, you would still be obliged to say, "An eternity even were too short to thank God for it sufficiently."

Offer your sufferings to God for the love of Jesus, as Jesus has suffered all for the love of us.

I hope you will not die yet; but if God wills it, die with love for Jesus, the same as Jesus has died with love for us: be then without fear.

You are still able to say, "I want to suffer everything for the love of Jesus, as Jesus has suffered everything for love of us, in order to obtain the pardon and expiation of my sins, and to be able, at once after my death, to unite myself with Jesus through love and for all eternity."

Sister Luitgarde may read this letter and I will have her admitted among the children of the beautiful love of Jesus.

With love from Jesus,

D. Paul relig.

A Few Recent Favors Obtained through the Intercession of Father Paul.

San Antonio, Tex. The St. Benedict's Medal that had touched Father Paul's relic and which you sent to the sick lady, has done wonderful work here; but the good lady had to part with it, to save the life of a dying man, who had not approached the sacraments since he made his first Holy Communion. After it was placed on his neck and dipped into water for him to bathe in, he immediately became better. There was a lady here who had not been to confession or Mass for twenty years. Some one gave her a St. Benedict's Medal to put on last Tuesday and on Saturday she went to confession.

Ohio. A priest writes: Father Paul's life is one of the most interesting lives I ever read. Through his intercession I have received some marked favors recently. The devotion to St. Benedict and Father Paul is rapidly increasing in this parish. Spiritual and temporal favors have been granted through their intercession. A wonderful, religious spirit is manifesting itself all about the parish. I have received great blessings through the intercession of Father Paul during the past year and I wish to show my gratitude by distributing a few copies of his life.

Mt. Vernon, Ohio. A Protestant lady came to me two weeks ago. She had a large, angry looking lump on the upper eyelid. I told her to go to the doctor at once; but she did not like the idea. So I said: I will give you a Medal of St. Benedict, to use on your eye and to wear on your neck. Last Thursday she sent me word that the evening before, as she was sitting before the grate-fire the lump fell off in her lap. She was so thankful and intends to wear the Medal all her life. I feel sure of her conversion. As she wanted to read something about the Saint that cured her, I gave her the life of Father Paul to read.

Detroit, Mich. I asked the intercession of Father Paul of Moll in a very serious matter and I promised to have a holy Mass said in his honor for the repose of the poor souls, if my request were granted. I am more than grateful to say that my prayer was indeed heard in a very extraordinary manner. It goes to show, how great is the power of the saintly monk.

San Francisco. Father Paul of Moll has been a good Father to me in the past year, he has obtained for me a number of favors, one special great one, the cure in a serious illness.

Sacred Heart Convent, N. Dak. I will mention to Father Paul's honor what he did for us. Last November I fell and broke my shoulder in three places; the physicians said I could never use that arm again; I made two novenas to St. Benedict and Father Paul. Now I have the use of this same arm (right one) as I had before the accident.

Iowa. Another priest from Iowa writes: — Father Paul has been a striking revelation to me. I have read the wonderful book twice and am treasuring up the heavenly light that shines in it and the divine wisdom of his sayings. When the world at large will know completely of Father Paul, he will become a new St. Anthony of Padua and countless blessings he will obtain for those who call upon him in their distress.

Missouri. A Redemptorist Father writes: — Our aged Father. . . . has great confidence in the intercession of Father Paul of Moll. Whenever he suffered from a pain in his head, he invoked Father Paul and was at once relieved. Later on he invoked him, when suffering from a long-standing, intermittent pain in the left side. He was suddenly cured after invoking him and the pain has not returned since.

Newport, Ky. Our one year old baby took very sick with bronchitis, then pneumonia, then inward convulsions. His heart got very bad. His temperature at times would be over 103. He took vomiting and diarrhea. He was indeed a very sick baby. Besides our doctor we had a specialist. We prayed to the Sacred Heart, to the Blessed Virgin and to St. Anthony. The nurse was a Protestant. At night she would read the book of Father Paul of Moll for pastime. One evening the nurse said, "Why don't you make a novena?" I said, "My goodness, Ida, I have prayed so much, let God's will be done!" However, she insisted on starting a novena that night; she would help us pray. A queer remark for a Protestant. We started a novena that night to Father Paul of Moll and on the tenth day the baby was pronounced out of danger.

SAYINGS OF FATHER PAUL.

Preliminary Remarks.

A conversation with the Rev. Father was always a real treat to his intimate friends. His advice and counsels were given with surprising precision and appropriateness.

The Rev. Father showed himself well informed on all subjects, and solved the most difficult questions in a few words. He gave his friends instructions on a multitude of subjects, God, the angels, the saints, religion, the future life, human sciences, art, everything in fact, as though he possessed infused knowledge and wisdom.

What pleasant and consoling remembrances! But, also, what a pity that all his precious communications were not at once written down for future reference!

We have recalled to mind, and gathered up some of these sayings and conversations, and the brief specimens which we give will, we hope, induce all the friends of Father Paul to record likewise their own personal recollections concerning this matter.

Sayings of Father Paul.

Father Paul attributed the wonders which he worked to the intervention of his holy Father Benedict.

"As for me," he would say, "I am only the doorkeeper of St. Benedict."

They say that St. Benedict is minister of heaven. We must often speak to him."

St. Benedict is our Father, he is obliged to take care of us."

I have no need of any one, the Blessed Virgin and St. Benedict are sufficient for me."

Some one reminded Father Paul that, according to tradition, people obtained all that they demanded from a certain saint on his feast day.

"Every day," he replied, "is the feast of St. Benedict."

A friend from Oostcamp once complained of a pain in his eyes, and said he had consulted a physician.

"All right!" replied Father Paul; "but have you already addressed St. Benedict? He is the best physician."

To show the great power of the medal of St. Benedict, Father Paul maintained that one medal was sufficient to put out a conflagration.

The death of a young lady brought sorrow to a numerous family. They spoke of it to Father Paul who showed himself deeply effected and said, —

"A medal of St. Benedict would have cured her."

"Lightning and the noise of thunder have always been the cause of terror to me. When it thunders I tremble like a leaf," said a man from the country to Father Paul.

"Here is a medal of St. Benedict," he replied; "Wear it around your neck, you will not be afraid any more, and will have nothing to fear from lightning."

In the beginning of his residence at Steenbrugge, Father Paul said to his friends, "St. Benedict is not well enough known."

When I have a visit to make, I do not trust to myself for what I have to say, and I do not get my speeches ready; but I pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten me, and aid me."

"Parents in heaven intercede unceasingly with God in behalf of their children on earth."

"By their prayers and good works, children augment the accidental glory of their parents who are in heaven."

"The souls in purgatory are aware of the discord of the members of their families on earth, and this knowledge increases their sufferings."

Speaking of the soul of a lady deceased, Father Paul said, "She remained only one hour in purgatory, and she did not stay there any longer because she brought up her children so well." He added that by a special privilege, this lady had undergone the hour of her purgatory on the chair in which she had expired [i.e., through her suffering before death].

A lady having died after a long and painful sickness her daughter went to Steenbrugge and asked Father Paul if he thought that her mother went straight to heaven, after so many sufferings.

"Madam," he replied, "Your mother would be already in heaven, if she had not spoiled her children so much. She is still in purgatory pray hard for her."

"A good means of avoiding a long stay in purgatory is to die entirely resigned to the holy will of God,"

A lady had met her death in a terrible railway collision near Ghent. Father Paul said that her soul had gone straight to heaven because, at the last moment, the lady cried out, "Lord, may Thy will be done."

A person from the village of Ursel complained to Father Paul that an ecstatic had told her that her father, who had died a short time before, was in purgatory.

"I became angry with this girl," she said, "because my father was an excellent Christian and died completely resigned to the will of God, I cannot believe that his soul is still in purgatory!"

Father Paul sweetly replied, "Why do you refuse to believe what this ecstatic girl asserts? Of course, you are not obliged to do so. Your father was very good, but are you quite certain that he died entirely resigned to the will of God? . . . For the rest, do not be so anxious; it is not sure that your father has to suffer in purgatory. A great many souls endure no other suffering than the delay of their admission to heaven; and to many of them permission is given to hover in the church before the Most Holy Sacrament."

"In order to go straight to heaven, one must make a close acquaintance with the Queen of Heaven."

A young girl from the country asked Father Paul to say a Mass for the success of a certain affair. "Rather have that Mass said for the repose of the soul of your mother who is deep down in purgatory," he replied.

Father Paul used to relate that the soul of a sister appeared to him and said, "Oh, my father! purgatory is more terrible than you have described!"

"The cold which certain souls endure in purgatory is as terrible as fire."

A subscriber to an irreligious journal having died at Saint-Michel, his wife would not give up the paper, although she refrained from reading it.

Father Paul maintained for certain that the widow would have to remain long in purgatory, for having tolerated the introduction of a journal of that kind into her house.

"There are souls condemned to stay in purgatory till the end of the world."

Father Paul often asserted that the souls in purgatory who were delivered by his prayers came to thank him.

Sometimes, at the request of the relatives of those that had died, Father Paul told them how long the souls of these departed ones had to stay in purgatory. But usually he avoided letting them know when they were delivered, because, as a rule, he said, the friends then cease to pray for their souls, and yet the prayers offered up for them increase their accidental happiness in heaven.

He also said that a great number of suffering souls continually came to him to ask his prayers for their deliverance, and that at night, his bed was surrounded by suffering souls.

In the confessional Father Paul said to one of his penitents, "If you were to die now, you would have three days of purgatory, and I could diminish your punishment by only one day."

"None of my near relatives are any longer in purgatory."

Father Paul said to a Carmelite nun, "You can avoid passing through purgatory, if you carefully observe the Rule of your Order."

Father Paul said that he gave himself the discipline every day for the following intentions: —

1. The perseverance of the just.

2. The conversion of sinners.

3. The holy Church.

4. The souls in purgatory.

5. The happiness of his friends and benefactors. He used to say that a great many suffering souls would then appear to him and cry out, "For me, if you please! For me! For me!"

"On each of her feasts, the Blessed Virgin descends into purgatory, consoles all the suffering souls, and delivers many of them."

A Beguine from Antwerp having died suddenly, her servant was deeply grieved. As Father Paul was visiting a lady acquaintance of his, she spoke to him of the servant's grief.

"Oh!" said the Father, "She ought not to be sad, her old mistress will be in purgatory only for eight days, and she does not suffer there."

A merchant was on the point of having recourse to a banker, but he thought it best to consult Father Paul first.

"For my part," he replied, "I would rather address myself to the souls in purgatory than the banker, for these souls are always grateful when we pray for their release, and they then obtain from God all we ask and even more."

Father Paul was always on the lookout for an opportunity of enrolling members in the Confraternity of the Blue Scapular, and advised the new members to gain every day, as far as possible, all the plenary indulgences applicable to the suffering souls.

The members of this Confraternity can gain a great number of plenary indulgences for the souls in purgatory, as often as they recite six Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory be to the Father, etc., and this without the necessity of approaching the sacraments.

At Termonde, in 1894, a man was the victim of a terrible accident which cost his life. Father Paul spoke of this unhappy case as follows: "He had no religion and never went to church, but his soul is not lost because, at the last moment, he offered up his life in expiation of his sins. All the same, he will stay a long time in purgatory."

A lady from Antwerp writes: "Very often we had the happiness of having the good and saintly Father Paul at our house. During the evenings, in the intimacy of a holy friendship, he would entertain us with pious topics, and when he spoke to us of the love of God, it was with the burning words of a seraph, he would go on repeating: —

"O love of God! Love so little known! so little loved! Who can describe the love of God for us? No, the love of all the mothers united to the love of all the angels and saints is only an atom compared to His divine love!"

"When he spoke to us of the passion of our Savior he shed abundant tears, and his face was, as it were, transfigured.

"He told us once that his sermons had been criticized because he never failed to speak of the love that God has for us.

"And then," he said, "I took some notice of these remarks; but God gave me to understand that I had not done right, and He commanded me to speak, at each sermon or conference, of His great love for man."

The souls in purgatory had a great comforter in Father Paul. "One day," he told us, "I was very sick in my cell, and leaning with my elbow on the back of my chair, I heard quite close to me, groans and lamentations. I turned around and beheld a soul enveloped in flames and completely tied up with chains. This soul asked me to remember her in my prayers, and especially in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I said to her, "Pray for me; I shall pray for you." At that very instant the soul disappeared and I found myself cured. Shortly afterwards this soul was released and came to thank me."

Father Paul related one of his visions to a person from Knesselaere in the following manner: —

"The Blessed Virgin appeared to me, holding the Divine Infant in her arms; he was crying bitterly and did not cease to complain. I asked Mary what was the cause of the sorrows of the little Jesus, and she replied, 'it is because priests do not remind the faithful sufficiently of the love of God for man, and of the passion of our Savior.'

"Thereupon I promised to treat of these two subjects in my next sermon, and immediately the sadness of the Infant Jesus was changed into great joy. He threw His little arms round the neck of His Mother, and embraced her tenderly."

A lady acquaintance from Knesselaere paid a visit to Father Paul and found him very ill, his head, and left arm and leg were much swollen. Father Paul explained the cause of his condition in these terms: —

"I had great pains in my head and suffered so intensely from them that I complained to Jesus. He replied to me, 'How insignificant your sufferings are, compared with the martyrdom I suffered, when crowned with thorns!'

"Then I asked Him that I might experience the pain of only one of those thorns and, at the same instant, the torture became so great that I fainted."

From a letter to the Mother Superior of a convent: "it is by love that one can overcome the All powerful God; He is so sensitive to love that He can refuse us nothing."

Extracts from Letters from Father Paul.

To a Lady in Knesselaere.

"God is astonishing in His love. The more we love Him, the more He loves us. He pays us back in tenfold love, the love which we have for Him."

"Man will be all the more glorious in heaven, the greater his love for God has been on earth."

"The love of God is as beautiful for men who love Him, as it is terrible to the demons and the damned."

"The more a man loves God, the more beautiful he grows in the eyes of God."

"God being infinite love, we can always love Him more and more."

"O love! O infinite love! O eternal love! O sweet love of God!"

"Man finds his greatest consolation in faithfully keeping the commandments of God and the holy Church, and in having a great devotion to Mary."

Father Paul once said to a person in Antwerp, "I never cease saying, 'O love! O great love! O infinite love of God!' If men knew how pleasing this is to God, they would repeat it without ceasing; several persons have become saints in this way."

Father Paul once said to a lay sister, a penitent of his: "When you enter the church in the morning it will be like a burning furnace; fire everywhere, the fire of the love of God to welcome you. You will not see this fire, but the whole church will be full of it."

"A sigh of love for God is worth more than a whole year of penance" (penance performed habitually or in our own will).

"God will not ask, 'Have you done much?' but, 'Have you worked for the love of God?' Quantity is not sufficient, it is quality that is necessary."

"On rising in the morning, many persons offer to God all the actions of the day saying, 'All for the glory of God!' But they should say, 'All for the love and glory of God!' because love surpasses all."

Very early one morning. Father Paul seeing a peasant who had come a long distance through a terrific snowstorm, to hear Mass in the church at Steenbrugge, said to him: "If you could see the immense merits which your courage has procured for you, you would be astonished, and you might yet increase them in a measure incredible, by saying, "All for the love of Jesus.'"

To a servant girl in Antwerp Father Paul said, "Before eating, sleeping, opening or closing a door, or any other action, always have the intention of doing all for the love of Jesus. In this way you will continually reap a rich harvest for heaven."

"The devil can promise everything, but can give nothing."

"Humility renders men great in the eyes of God."

"When making the Way of the Cross, try to have compassion for the sufferings of Christ; for all those who took part in His sorrows became saints as, for example, Simon of Cyrene, Veronica, the good thief, the holy women and so many others."

"The power of the demons and their allies among men is not very terrible, because their activity is quickly rendered sterile by want of harmony in their camp, where the troops always end by fighting among themselves."

"The devil cannot go any farther than the length of his chain will allow." (In Flemish: De duvel kan toch maer loopen zoo verre alz zijin keten lang is.)

"The devil becomes still more active at the approach of great festivals; and you will observe that then, especially, he stirs up dissensions in families."

"When a demon suggests a bad thought, it is easy to resist the temptation; but if one does not immediately repel it, a second demon comes at once to help the first. Afterwards, in proportion as resistance is delayed, still other demons come and combine their efforts, and when one has to battle against seven devils all at once, it is very difficult not to succumb."

To pregnant women, Father Paul gave the advice to go to the priest and ask him to recite over them the prayers appointed for that purpose in the ritual, so as to guard themselves, as well as the children to be born, against all possible misfortune.

"It is before and at the moment of birth that the Evil One is most intent upon doing mischief to human beings, and consequently there is some risk in not having recourse to the special prayers of the Church."

One day Father Paul was seen with a large wound on his forehead. He explained that it was the effect of a blow which the devil had given him.

Father Paul said that one day, after hearing a man's confession, he was forcibly lifted up by the devil to the ceiling of the confessional; at the same time he heard a voice crying out to him, "I am. ..." (giving here the full name of a certain person).

Father Paul once said to a friend, "I have just seen our Savior and immediately afterwards there flied past me a large troop of men on horseback, all clad in armour, like cavaliers of the Middle Ages: they were so many demons! When anything good happens, the devil at once interferes."

There was a talk in the presence of Father Paul of sorcerers and sorceresses, of diabolical Sabbath meetings and interferences of evil spirits. Asked to express his opinion, Father Paul said, "in our days the action of the evil spirit is less to be feared than formerly. His power diminishes with the ever increasing number of priests; for the almost continual offering of the holy sacrifice of the Mass victoriously neutralizes the efforts of Satan."

During a storm that was accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and the deafening crash of thunder, Father Paul said; "At the last judgment the sentence pronounced against the reprobates will crash like this over their heads, but with a noise a thousand times more terrible."

A young lady writes, "One day at Steenbrugge, Father Paul exhorted me to pray daily in union with the anguish of Jesus crucified and the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the cross. The Rev. Father said that he did it also, and to these prayers he attributed the great number of sinners who came to confession to him; and for that reason the devil had vowed a special hatred against him."

"One night," he added, "the devil came to my cell and leaped on my neck with an indescribable rage, in order to strangle me."

"But, Father!" I exclaimed, "how did you get rid of him?"

"Oh, well, my child, I invoked Jesus in His love and said, 'O love! O infinite love! O ocean of love! How great was your goodness for men to allow Yourself to be tempted in the desert by Satan!' And immediately the devil fled, grumbling in a horrible manner and filling my cell with a pestilential odor. He often comes to torment me."

Father Paul told a sister in Antwerp that the devil gave him volleys of blows, and in a thousand different ways, often handled him very roughly.

"But one must not complain of it," he added, "for if you knew how beautiful heaven is, you would ask to suffer everything in order to get there."

He told her also that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him very frequently; and when he spoke of heaven which, he said, he saw in ecstasy, he would never come to an end.

To another person Father Paul said that on a certain Christmas night, he had never seen the heaven of the elect look so beautiful as on that occasion.

"Last night," Father Paul said to a farmer, "the devil lifted me violently from my bed and threw me rudely on the floor." "Although I am not naturally timid," the farmer replied, "I assure you that, in a similar case, I would tremble in all my limbs. And were you not afraid?"

"Not at all," Father Paul answered, "what we ought to fear far more is the world where devils swarm, and where the devil reigns supreme."

"It is useless to seek perfection among men; perfection is found in heaven alone."

"In the case of ecstatics, if they give into the slightest thought of pride, the devil at once interferes with their actions."

Someone complained to Father Paul about an ecstatic. "Then do not believe," he said, "that these saintly souls have no faults. No saint in this world is exempt from faults."

"The devil cannot endure humility; it is his great enemy; as soon as he perceives its presence anywhere, he becomes helpless and runs away."

"A good way of finding out for sure whether an apparition is diabolical, is to ask the blessing of the being that has appeared; for the devil has no power to impart a blessing."

During a conversation in which Father Paul spoke of the great power of holy water which, through ignorance, is not sufficiently appreciated, some one said to him: —

"Once when I had warts on my hand, a friend assured me that an excellent means of getting rid of them was to plunge these warts into holy water and then make the sign of the cross with that hand. He said I should do this once a day for three days in succession. I followed his advice and the warts disappeared. This remedy received the approval of the Rev. Father.

Father Paul was not pleased to see people enter the church without taking holy water. To a gentleman who did not stop to bless himself he said,

"Take holy water; there at least, the devil is not present."

October 14, 1881, a furious hurricane swept over a building in course of construction, belonging to the Marais Congregation in Bruges. The building was completely overturned so that hardly a stone remained upon a stone. The roof was taken off by one blast, then the solid walls of the grand building were entirely overthrown. This catastrophe astonished even the contractors and builders, and the architect when informed of this misfortune, was so terribly shocked that he died soon after. Father Paul explained the cause of the disaster in these words: —

"This is quickly done. Satan places a demon against each stone and at the first signal, the whole collapses!" The Rev. Father also recommended that one or several medals of St. Benedict be placed within the material of the new building, in order to protect it.

During one winter there was continual bad weather. Now, with the least blast of wind one or more panes of glass were broken in a convent, situated not far from the monastery of Steenbrugge; the glazier alone enjoyed the benefit of these mishaps.

The proper thing to do in this case was to complain to Father Paul; people had to live at a great distance in order not to have recourse to him in every vexatious circumstance. So the sisters went to Father Paul and he said, "I saw a demon in your garden; it is he who makes use of the wind to break your windows. Here is a medal, fasten it to your door on the inside, and fear no more." From that time forward the glazier lost his job of putting in new windows at the convent.

"The Liberals are the devil's sorcerers: they will cut a droll figure once when they arrive in the other world."

"The Nihilists of Russia are a scourge, like the grasshoppers: the more that are imprisoned, the more come."

"Socialism here is but a passing wind. The Jews have their paradise on earth."

"People complain of socialism, but it will spread a great deal more, and this, because people do not sufficiently venerate the Most Holy Sacrament."

On the morning after the elections for the legislature, by which the late "liberal" ministry in Belgium was defeated, Father Paul said, "The liberal party has lived. Now there are but two parties, the Catholics and the Socialists."

"The perfections of God are infinite. In heaven the saints will see the divine perfections succeed each other without ceasing: every moment a new perfection will be revealed to them, and so it will be through all eternity."

A country girl having told Father Paul that she had been warned against the book known as "The Prayers of St. Gertrude," he replied that it was a great mistake and added, "Of all prayer books, this is the most beautiful."

"If it were permitted to one of the elect to live again in this world, he would submit with joy to all the sufferings that men have ever endured here below, in order to add to his merits that which he would acquire by the recital of one Ave Maria."

Father Paul related the following vision to a young lady of Knesselaere: —

"I am in the habit of reciting daily the rosary of our Lady of the Seven Dolors; but one day, when I was on a journey, I unwillingly omitted this pious exercise. The following night the Blessed Virgin appeared to me, her heart pierced with the seven dolors; her eyes were bathed in tears, nor did she utter a word. Having made the sign of the cross, I set out at once to say my rosary, and noticed that the Blessed Virgin joined her hands. Having finished the meditation and prayers of the first group of seven beads, one of the seven dolors of Mary emitted a celestial light. And as I recited the following groups of seven beads, the other six dolors were also illumined with the same splendor.

"Having finally recited three Hail Marys in memory of the tears of the Blessed Virgin, I saw the tears of Mary dissolving into a heavenly smile; the divine Mother greeted me, blessed me and disappeared."

A person living in Thielt reports the following stories as told by Father Paul: —

"'One evening, in 1895, after our spiritual exercises, I was walking through the cloister in the abbey, reciting, according to my custom, three Hail Marys in honor of our Lady to obtain her maternal blessing, when all at once I saw this good Mother clothed in a robe of dazzling white. She approached and made a little cross with her thumb on my forehead. The emotion which I felt is indescribable, and if the apparition had lasted two minutes longer, Father Paul would be no more of this world; for I would not have been able to support this brilliancy any longer.'

"After Father Paul had told me the above, he fell into an ecstasy which lasted about five minutes."

Here are two other visions related by Father Paul to the same person: —

"One day while I knelt in adoration before the Most Holy Sacrament exposed, I saw Jesus standing before me. He wore a white garment, and was of dazzling beauty."

Again: "A very pious young girl was saying the rosary in our church, in honor of the nine choirs of angels. I saw above her head nine silver strings which continually moved up and down. This symbolized the joy felt by the angels of the nine choirs at the homage which was paid to them."

"Father Paul loved to propagate this devotion to the nine choirs of angels."

From a young lady of Heusden (Ghent) we heard the following story:

"At a visit to Father Paul, in 1895, he said to me,

"If I were to tell you something, would you believe me?"

"Yes, Father."

"The Blessed Virgin appeared to me, and before disappearing she placed her hand upon my shoulder."

"He also said to me, 'There are souls in the fire of purgatory who ask your prayers for their deliverance. You knew these persons well, and now they are forgotten by their children.'"

"He also told me that my father is in heaven."

In the confessional, Father Paul said to a friend from Oostcamp: —

"From the time of the Ascension of our Lord, the most Blessed Virgin communicated every day and by a special privilege, the host remained intact within her up to the moment of the next Communion, so that Mary always guarded, in her interior, the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ; and thus was able to keep up a continual conversation with her Divine Son."

Father Paul said to a person from Oostcamp, "In an ecstasy, a saint has seen the body of St. Joseph preserved intact in a tomb, the site of which is yet unknown. The more the glorious Spouse of the most Blessed Virgin is honored, the sooner will the finding of his body take place, which will be a day of great joy for the Church."

"At the time when the Church is most persecuted, God raises up in the world the greatest number of saints."

To a Trappist lay brother Father Paul once said, "a single act of humility is worth more than fasting a hundred years on water and bread; for humility always remains a virtue, whilst fasting is often accompanied with pride."

"Never has there been so much faith as at the present day."

Some one remarked to the Rev. Father that our generation was not so good as the preceding one. "You cannot say that!" he replied.

"When God works miracles in our favor, He is pleased most often to produce them in a manner which seems quite natural."

"Every communication coming from the Father of Lights is made in clear and very concise terms, leaving no place for doubt or double meaning."

Once when Father Paul was sick, he said, "I cannot ask for my recovery, but others can ask it for me. I can ask everything for others."

Speaking of certain persons whose faithful friendship for himself he praised highly, Father Paul gave the assurance that these friends would never suffer any misfortunes.

"During the consecration of the three Masses on Christmas I obtain everything I asked for."

"In order to be heard, it is not always sufficient only to pray oneself, one should also ask the prayers of others."

The Mother Superior of a convent complained to Father Paul that he came so seldom to help the community with his counsels.

"I am so often in the midst of you without your seeing me," the Rev. Father replied.

The following extract we copied from the letter of Father Paul, addressed from Termonde, Aug. 30, 1894, to a person in Ghent whom he had visited that day: —

"I arrived home safe, without seeing or hearing anything on the way. While you were still looking at me, I was already at home."

Are not these lines calculated to suggest the idea of bilocation?

"It is better to make novenas in the morning than in the evening."

Father Paul advised a countryman to make a novena to St. Benedict.

"I shall have to wait a few days," he replied, "for I have commenced a novena to St. Joseph."

"Nothing prevents you from making the two novenas at the same time, in heaven, there is no jealousy among the saints."

Father Paul blamed those very much, who habitually spent part of the night in work or in pleasure. He said: "The night belongs to God."

Father Paul sometimes made use of pleasantries in order to make people remember his advice. He asked a farmer who went to him to confession, "Until what hour do you stay out in the evening?"

"That depends; when I amuse myself, I do not come home till eleven or midnight."

"How many commandments of God are there?"

"Ten."

"There you see! If it were good not to come home till eleven, there would be eleven commandments . . . Believe me, go to bed at ten, and you will feel much better for it."

In the presence of Father Paul, some one made fun of an absent person who was very scrupulous.

"Scrupulosity," he said, "is one of the saddest maladies. Be very careful not to make fun of scrupulous persons, for you may one day become scrupulous yourself."

A very scrupulous person asked for a way out of her scruples. Father Paul laughingly replied, "Well, then, don't be scrupulous any longer!"

"The good God is not pleased with scrupulous people."

"It is the saints who have to endure the greatest temptations in this world."

The good and saintly Father Paul loved cheerful dispositions. "You will see," he said to some religious, "That in convents and everywhere the persons who are sad are always the least to be recommended. They keep their eyes cast down and give themselves the air of a "Saint-don't-touch-me;" being full of restlessness, nothing gives them pleasure. Always the last where duty calls, they go there without fervor, but with their false air of habitual compunction. Whilst with persons who are always gay and full of joy, work becomes easy and brings forth good and salutary results."

Father Paul opposed making vows. "This often causes trouble later on," he said, "it is preferable to say, 'I resolve to do this or that.'"

A friend asked for prayers to obtain a certain favor. Father Paul replied, "I shall ask for what you demand when Our Lord comes."

Regarding these divine visits Father Paul once said to another friend, in a most suggestive tone of voice, "Have you read how familiarly St. Mechtild conversed with our Lord?"

"The remedy for cancer exists, but is not yet known."

"The physicians know the streets, the places and the houses of the human body quite well, but they do not know their inhabitants."

"When I have to take medicine, I never fail first to dip a medal of St. Benedict into it."

One day in summer, when the Rev. Father was in the garden with his friends, some one cut off a few small branches of a fruit tree and said jokingly, "The tree won't complain of it, it does not feel these cuts."

"You know nothing about it," replied Father Paul in a very suggestive tone.

"Must then everything that has life on earth be subject to the law of suffering?"

"Very often those who retain the goods of others die without making restitution."

"If a sinner were, for a single moment, to see the state of his soul, he would at once die of fright."

To a lady whom he had cured, Father Paul said, "Will you be kind enough to induce all your friends and acquaintances who are sick to come to see me? I shall cure them all!"

"I can obtain nothing for those who have the habit of blaspheming."

Father Paul said that he gave his blessing to his friends three times every day.

"All those who shall have suffered on my account will be associated with me in my glory."

"People will publish the good which I have done, but will be silent as to what I have suffered. . ."

"Only at the last judgment will it be known how much I have suffered," Father Paul said to a friend.

"The simplicity of the just is turned into ridicule," says St. Gregory, and so it was with the good and saintly Father Paul. He was conscious of the raillery, at times very bitter, of which certain people made him.

Expressions of this sort have appeared strange to some readers of the First Edition, and appear to be little in accord with the humility of a saint. But history furnishes many examples of similar expressions from the lips of canonized saints. To cite but one example, the numerous authors who during many centuries have written the life of St. Godelieve of Ghistelles unanimously mention this prediction of the illustrious martyr: "A day will come when I shall be raised above all the women of Flanders," How often have not the saintly souls of this world been, as it were, the mouth-pieces of God? And have not the prophets of the Old Testament been the inspired and docile instruments of which the Almighty made use in order to announce and foretell to the nations His immutable and eternal decrees?

The object, and most probably he also foresaw the injuries which would be heaped on his memory by some of his implacable enemies. Be that as it may, his friends love to recall a very suggestive remark of his, — "My friends will be the last to laugh, and nothing will prevent them from laughing forever."

The good and saintly Father Paul was often calumniated and persecuted. He remarked one day to a friend, —

"Those who dig a pit for me, will themselves fall into a deeper one."

About the year 1888, Father Paul said to a person at Watervliet, that God had decided to punish the whole world with terrible chastisements; but that finally He had spared mankind, in answer to the prayers and penances of one single religious.

Father Paul did not tell the name of this religious.

In the confessional, an ecstatic said to Father Paul that in a dream she had seen the Rev. Father's soul carried to heaven by angels and there placed near the choir of angels. He replied simply, "Yes indeed, my place is there." Then he asked, "Do you know your place in heaven?"

"No."

"Well, I know it."

We may here remark that other ecstatics of our country likewise say that the Rev. Father Paul has a high place in heaven, and that he is a very powerful protector. But the Church alone has the authority to confirm these assertions.

To a friend Father Paul said, "Oh! we all know our places in heaven!"

"It is wrong to imagine heaven as a place whose inhabitants enjoy the same happiness. Heaven is a dwelling place where every work of charity, ("werk van liefde,") enjoys an eternal recompense."

In the confessional. Father Paul said to a servant girl from Thielt at the very beginning, "I know everything that you are going to confess, but, nevertheless, you have to tell it yourself."

As an ecstatic was making her confession to Father Paul, he interrupted her, saying, "Do you not see our Lord?"

"No."

"But I see Him, He is at your side."

To an ecstatic Father Paul said, "You will not work any miracles during your life-time, but you will after your death."

A short time before his departure from Steenbrugge, on a Sunday at Mass, Father Paul addressed the congregation from the pulpit as follows: —

"I shall not stay here much longer. Let all those who are suffering, or whose hearts are suffering, come to see me; I shall help them all!"

To one of his penitents Father Paul said, "Always obey me blindly, I shall be your guide during my life and after my death."

One day this same person said to the Rev. Father that, if he died, she would deserve to be pitied very much.

"On the contrary," he replied, "it will be so much better for you, when I am in heaven; for then you may ask me continually and my power will be still greater."

To a poor working girl of Thielt Father Paul said, I will protect you all my life, and much more so after my death."

To another poor woman he said, "I will give you a loaf of bread which will never get mouldy, and a cup which will never be drained."

As Father Paul was visiting the wife of a blacksmith in Steenbrugge whose child was about to be buried, he said to her, —

"If I had been allowed to come, your child would not have died."

After a day of consultation, Father Paul was on the point of leaving Antwerp when some one spoke to him of a mother whose child was sick. He replied, "it is a great pity that this child was not brought to me, for all the sick children that came today have been cured."

Surprise was once expressed in the presence of Father Paul at the great number of children he cured.

"It is not surprising at all," he said, "these children have not yet done evil."

Married couples who were desolate because they had no children, also applied for help. But in order to have their wishes granted, the Rev. Father insisted that these couples should come to him in person and ask his prayers.

A friend of Father Paul failed to obtain a good photograph of an artistic object. Having lost patience, he wrote to the Rev. Father and received the following reply: —

"If you think that the devil is interfering in this matter, put a medal on the object that is to be photographed, and all will go well."

Do not forget to attach a medal to your easel, said Father Paul to an artist painter.

While Father Paul was visiting a chateau in the neighborhood of Bruges, he was informed that a friend had met with a railway accident. Father Paul remarked,

"This gentleman had a medal of St. Benedict in his pocket-book: if he had worn it about his neck, he would not have had this accident."

A friend having demanded the prayers of Father Paul for a relative living in Paris, the Father gave him a medal to be sent and earnestly advised him to tell the patient not to put the medal in his pocket-book, but wear it around his neck, as also his scapular, as that was the only proper way of doing to experience the effect of blessed objects.

The friend found out later that the patient in Paris carried his scapular in his pocket-book.

Father Paul strongly disapproved of the manner in which blessed objects, such as scapulars and medals, are sometimes worn around the neck in a covering completely closed. He said that the covering should be open at the lower end; and when he was asked, why this should be so, he simply replied, "That is a mystery."

When Father Paul visited some farmers in Oostcamp, a young lady who was sick asked him to cure her.

"Make use of your medal of St. Benedict and you will get well."

"I don't know where it is. . . "

"What? don't you wear the medal? And I, a religious, would not dare to be without the cross and the medal about my neck; and you, a simple lay person, do not wear it!"

When we arrive up there, St. Peter will ask, "Have you suffered much on earth? If you have, enter; if not, there is no room for you here."

A young girl from Scheepsdaele complained to Father Paul that she had very little time for her devotions, and even the few prayers she did say were said with many distractions.

"Oh! in that case," Father Paul replied, "you can remedy the matter by saying, in the evening, 'May all my imperfections of this day be changed into perfections!'"

A good country woman from Lichtervelde went to Steenbrugge to see Father Paul. He said to her, "You find it very difficult to pray, don't you?" "Yes, Father!"

Well, then, look here: when you wish to pray, place your hand on your heart and say, 'Good Jesus, You know very well what that means!' That is enough, for it says everything.

"When you say the Our Father, say it with the intention of obtaining the highest place in heaven."

A servant girl said to Father Paul, "I am sometimes afraid of going mad."

"No, no!" the Rev. Father replied, "you will never go mad: you are not proud enough."

Father Paul did not read any newspapers. "What's the use," he said. "What they print today is denied tomorrow." And showing his crucifix, he said, "This is my newspaper."

Without the murderous attack of which he was the victim, the President of the French Republic, Carnot, would never have been converted.'"

A young girl inquired if the misfortunes that befell her family were divine punishments.

"No," replied Father Paul, "they are trials which the good God sends you in order to make you a little more like Him." Thereupon the girl asked what would become of her.

"An angel in heaven," he said.

To a friend from Oostcamp he once said, "Ik weet alles regtstreeks van onzen Lieven Heer." "I get all my information directly from our dear Lord."

Conversing with some friends. Father Paul asked them what they would do to protect themselves against a mad dog. After every one had declared his plan. Father Paul, in his turn said, "As for me, I would take a medal of St. Benedict in my hand, and would pass on quietly, without troubling myself: the mad dog would not come near."

We may remark here that at the celebrated basilica of St. Hubert, in Luxemburg, which is frequented by people bitten by mad beasts, medals of St. Benedict are distributed.

Apropos of the great St. Hubert is it not strange to see of late so many people of Belgium and the north of France, when bitten by dogs, have recourse to the Pasteur treatment which does not guarantee a cure? Numerous cases prove that. Whereas the experience of twelve centuries conclusively shows that the cure ("la taille") at St. Hubert works infallibly!

A young man having told Father Paul that he had been sent in ridicule a sarcastic caricature, because, when invited to a feast on a fast day, he had abstained from forbidden meats, the Rev. Father replied that this derision would merit for him and his family great honor in the other world.

Entering a convent. Father Paul asked the Mother Superior, "Have you already thanked the good God for all the pains which He has sent you? . . . No? Well, then, I shall do so for you."

A young man wrote to Termonde, asking that his mother be cured. Father Paul replied: "in answer to the prayer which I have offered, your mother ought to be completely restored by this time."

Here is another proof of the goodness and patience of Father Paul. Speaking of a family in Antwerp, he confided to a friend that these good people consulted him in all their affairs, and added, "They would not change a nail in their house without asking me if I approved of the change."

When Father Paul refused to be interested in an affair, it was a bad sign. Whilst the Count of Chambord was still living, a visitor spoke to him of that pretender to the throne of France, hoping to receive some light as to his chances of success. Father Paul coldly remarked, "I do not occupy myself with this matter."

The New Year's letters which Father Paul sent to his friends always contained, under the guise of good wishes, real seasonable gifts; for all the good things he wished were realized. To give but one example. Writing to business people in Contich, Father Paul said, "I wish you the payment of all bills outstanding." These people had, in fact, debtors of long standing, but had given up all hope of ever receiving payment. However, soon after receiving the good wishes of Father Paul, the old debts were unexpectedly paid.

A religious was preaching a retreat at Thielt, and a servant girl had been present at the opening sermon in which the preacher said that the souls going to heaven were as few in number as the leaves that remain on the trees in winter. This remark caused so great a displeasure to the woman that she stayed away from the rest of the sermons. When she mentioned this occurrence later on to Father Paul, he said,

"You did right, for in making such a statement the preacher outraged the infinite goodness of God."

Father Paul was an excellent patron of the post office. The number of letters which he answered is incredible. There are many friends of the Rev. Father who have saved three, four or five hundred of his letters. Generally, a letter of the Rev. Father contained from twenty to thirty small lines written in a style as concise as it was familiar. He made use of odds and ends of all kind of paper, seldom using an entire letter sheet, and wrote standing; or, as he himself once told the sisters in a convent, he would kneel on the floor on one knee and write upon the other. . .

A friend seeing him overwhelmed with business, offered to act as his secretary.

"Impossible!" Father Paul replied, "it is a question here of heavenly affairs."

A young man who wished to marry a Parisian, asked Father Paul if he considered her a suitable choice from a religious and moral point of view. The Father replied, "T' is eerste klasse voor Parijs." "It is first class for Paris."

A young man besought Father Paul to tell him who the person was that he ought to marry. "The good God never tells that beforehand," he replied.

A rich young lady was praised very much for her great devotion to good works. Father Paul simply remarked, "Zy moet wel!" "It is her duty!"

It was one of the dearest wishes of the good and saintly Father Paul to crown the series of his works by the foundation of a beautiful Abbey at Antwerp. All the necessary means had been abundantly provided, and his numerous friends of that wealthy commercial metropolis hoped to see him soon establish his residence in their midst; they already calculated the immense good which the presence of the celebrated Benedictine would procure for their city. But a determined opposition on the part of the secular clergy caused the failure of that beautiful project. Father Paul resigned himself with humility, although, as he himself said, he could have overthrown all opposition by one word.

As a matter of fact; speaking of this project to his friends from Antwerp, the Rev. Father told them that all he needed to do, was to apply directly to the Pope, Leo XIII. He added:—

"I know His Holiness, and he knows me. . . . The Pope is a saint."

Speaking once, in detail, of facts referring to the first centuries of the Christian era, and wishing to impress upon his hearers how he came to know these facts, Father Paul said, "This is not difficult; for God, there is neither past or future, everything is present to Him."

Father Paul generally declined to answer useless requests or those that were too worldly. He related one day that he received a letter from America with a request for prayers that the writer might win a big prize in a lottery. The letter remained unanswered.

Father Paul said to a friend from Oostcamp, "It has never happened to me that I prayed for a recruit who recommended himself to me, without having obtained for him freedom from military service."

A friend wrote to the Rev. Father asking him to obtain a good Dumber for a recruit. Father Paul replied that the person must himself ask him for it.

But sometimes a request made through a third party was favorably received.

Speaking of France, Father Paul said that this country was going to be purified by great chastisements. In Flemish, "Dat nest moet gezuiverd worden."

Speaking of the end of the world, Father Paul said, "I think that our Lord came to redeem mankind in the middle of time."

If this opinion is prophetic, the world would yet exist for about two thousand years.

In his prophecies which have already been fulfilled. Father Paul most frequently employed this expression "I think that...."

"The Bible," Father Paul said, "contains no error, but. . . men know nothing."

To preachers he said, "It is necessary to return to the simplicity of the Gospel."

"There are no two angels alike in heaven. How great then must the power of God be to have been able to create, in a single instant all these innumerable legions of heavenly spirits!"

In Antwerp, Father Paul said of a young girl who was recommended to him in her sickness, "I can do nothing for her because she consults a fortune-teller."

As Father Paul was once quizzed about the lamentable state of his old hat, he remarked with a smile, "I put up with this one, in order to have a fine one in the other world."

During a visit paid by Father Paul to some good friends of his, a young man inadvertently overturned a beautiful porcelain vase which broke into a hundred pieces. At the very moment Father Paul said to the young man in a low voice, "Ask now that the vase be restored to its former state."

But as the attention of the young man was turned elsewhere he neglected the Father's obliging invitation. Later on, when they recalled the words of the good religious, they regretted very much not to have seized the occasion of seeing the performance of a miracle.

A young lady visiting Father Paul was invited by him to go to the church, saying that she would see our Lord in person in the sacred host which was exposed. But as she did not take his suggestion seriously, she replied that she had no need of seeing such a wonder, in order to believe in the Real Presence.

"Very well," Father Paul said, "Your faith causes me great joy."

After the death of the Rev. Father, this young lady, hearing of the great number of persons who had received a like invitation from Father Paul and had actually seen our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, cried out with most keen regret, "Oh I if I had only known!"

"When I distribute Holy Communion," Father Paul said to a friend from Oostcamp, "it is the Infant Jesus in person, that I see in the host."

On the day of his death. Father Paul, literally exhausted, was hardly able to reply by a feeble sign to the questions that were put to him.

A lay-brother said to him, "When you are in heaven, ask that I may join you soon." Making a supreme effort, the good Father found strength enough to reply slowly, "You cannot demand such a thing."

"But at least," the lay-brother said, "Will you demand that I may be near you in heaven?"

"Yes."

Father Paul once said, I have been persecuted during my life... and I will still be persecuted after my death!"

"We must not want to penetrate the mysteries of religion, because that awakens pride. The bad angels did so, and they ended by saying: "We shall be like unto the Most High!"