CONTENTS.

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PART I.

TRIAL AND CONFLICT.

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AND FIRST COMMUNION.

Influence of the French nation for good and for evil. Many special devotions due to France ; especially to its women. Marie-Enstelle an instance of this. ; Her humble origin and destined renown. Character of her parents. The intelligence and sensitive nature of the child. Her sweetness of disposition. Talent for ornamental work. Tendency to self-conceit ; for which she afterwards reproached herself. Preparation for first communion. Serious reflection. An act of self-denial. General change of demeanour. She makes her communion on the feast of Corpus Christi, page 3

CHAPTER II.

DECLENSION AND CONVERSION.

First fervours. Desire for the religious life. Beginning of apprenticeship. Frivolous companions. Self-love and self-flattery. Love of pleasure; especially of dancing. Abatement of piety. Mental struggles. A momentary fault repaired. Increasing disquiet and conflict. Pleadings of grace. Temptation to despondency. A victory over human respect. Promise made in confession. She breaks it. Distress of conscience. Disrelish for worldly amusements. A good confession and devout communion. Thankful remembrance of this in after years, page 22

CHAPTER III.

EFFECTS OF ONE GOOD COMMUNION.

Marie-Eastelle receives a special gift of fortitude. Her regularity in devotional exercises. Renunciation of earthly attachments. Freedom from sinful inclinations. Fidelity to grace. These effects due in her to the Holy Eucharist. She is allowed to communicate once a fortnight ; and then every Sunday. Her increasing desire for more frequent reception. A sacrifice of personal vanity. Delight in prayer. Growing love of solitude, page 41

CHAPTER IV.

FREQUENT COMMUNION.

The love of God especially exhibited in the Holy Eucharist. Marie-Eustelle's confidence therein, as the chief source of the Christian's strength. Her earnestness in urging frequent reception. Expostulations with timid, scrupulous souls. Effects of her admonitions and encouragements. Recommendation of frequent communion as the sovereign means of acquiring sanctity. Instance of her own zeal and self-sacrifice. Her conduct and practice supported by the highest sanctions, page 52

CHAPTER V.

PERSECUTION AND PERSEVERANCE

Every Christian has his appointed path. Marie-Eustelle's that of love ; and love of the Holy Eucharist. The world at Saint-Pallais. Marie-Eustelle becomes the butt of its scorn. Religious people take against her. Their pertinacity and spitefulness. They assail her through her parents ; and through her confessor. Singular list of charges. Her patience, firmness, and charity. Injurious imputations against her character. An impertinent visitor. Trying injunction of her confessor. Deprivation of all human support. Her efforts to obtain great purity of heart, page 62

CHAPTER VI.

THE LOVE OF JESUS AND THE LIFE OF LOVE.

Device of Marie-Eustelle for obtaining two communions a week. End of her apprenticeship; failure in procuring sufficient work. Her parents urge her to go into service. Reasons of her reluctance. Description of her personal appearance and demeanour. She obtains employment at a boarding-school ; but gives it up. Sudden influx of work. Constant attendance at early Mass. Her docility to grace a model to persons living in the world. Practice of mental prayer. Attraction to the tabernacle. Attention to the voice of Jesus within her. Absorption in God. Answers to inquiries how to acquire the gift of prayer. Her zeal for the House of God. Instance of this. Cardinal Villecourt's reflections thereon, page 79

CHAPTER VII.

MORTIFICATION AND INTERIOR TRIALS.

Necessity of self-denial. Marie-Eustelle's austerities. Her use of the discipline. Control and mortification of the senses. The different ways in which holy persons have regarded or disregarded the beauties of nature. Marie-Eustelle's spirit of detachment ; especially in the matter of the affections. Depression of eagerness, and surrender of her own will. Interruption of interior peace. Distractions in prayer. Assaults and suggestions of the evil one. Obscurity and perplexity of mind. Sense of dereliction. Temptations to vanity, blasphemy, despair. Scruples. Dryness and languor in prayer. Bewilderment of memory. Horrible visions ; followed by peace of mind and sentiments of self-abasement. Sudden alternations of joy and despondency, page 99

CHAPTER VIII.

FRUITS OF SUFFERING AND SPECIAL VOCATION.

Marie-Eustelle's spirit of love and gratitude. Amidst all her trials she rejoices ; and sings. She never asks for their cessation. Her confidence rises with the conflict. An interval of rest ; during which she receives a secret and peculiar illumination. Her passion for the Cross. Marvellous combination of joy and sadness. A vision of the Man of Sorrows. Abiding sense of God's presence. Tender devotion to Mary. Constant cheerfulness. Power of consoling others. Pitying charity and sympathy. Attraction to the contemplative life. She is advised by M. Jouslain, her confessor, to enter religion. Order of Notre Dame de la Charite. Opposition of her parents. Cloistered life not her vocation. Her deep submission, page 124

CHAPTER IX.

VOW OF CHASTITY AND ITS FRUITS.

M. Jouslain persists in his opinion: Marie-Enstelle's consequent embarrassment. He is removed to another parish. True sacrifice for God only. God's requests the measure of His gifts. Marie-Enstelle desires to make a vow of virginity. Her confessor withholds his consent for two years. Her desire fulfilled. Fresh outpouring of graces. Gradual abatement of temptations. Increased manifestation of the love of Jesus. Stronger attraction for recollection and solitude. Increased love of contemplation. She has no director in the art of prayer. Her rapid progress. Minute self-abnegation. Assiduous cultivation of all the virtues. More absorbing love for the Divine Eucharist. She is allowed to communicate three times a week ; and afterwards daily. Her real vocation disclosed to her : our Lord reveals to her that He would have her specially honour Him in the Blessed Sacrament. Heavenly consolations, page 142

CHAPTER X.

WORKS OF MERCY.

Marie-Eustelle sets up in business for herself. Her solicitous care for her apprentices. Effects of her salutary counsels. Her zeal in reclaiming sinners. Her loving compassion. Armand Guerin, the young Seminarist. Marie-Eustelle invites him to join with her in worshipping before the tabernacle. She magnifies the dignity of the priesthood ; and exhorts him to be faithful to his vocation. Her envy of the priestly office. Her numerous letters. Their character and contents. Therein she recommends abiding confidence in God, and childlike freedom from anxiety ; traces disquietude to its source in self-love ; insists on the cultivation of the lowly virtues ; inculcates humility and self-distrust ; and immolation of self in small and repeated sacrifices. Her watchfulness against spiritual pride. Remarkable absence in her letters of all expressions of mere natural affection. Her exalted idea of Christian friendship, page 159

CHAPTER XI.

VOW OF POVERTY AND SELF-DETACHMENT.

Jesus requires all from chosen souls. Marie-Eustelle makes a vow of poverty. Her complete detachment. She strips herself of her little possessions ; and even of devotional objects. Her conduct in the matter of dress. She strives to hide her destitution. Never applies for payment of debts. Corresponding bounty of onr Lord. The strictness of His requirements. Her perfect obedience thereto. Family trials. Her happiness amid privations. Ever-deepening devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, page 181

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

EUSTELLE AND ANASTASIA.

Cessation of interior trials. Sister Anastasia Marie-Eustelle's sole confidante. Value of her record. Divine intimations. Supernatural effects of heavenly love. Marie-Eustelle's sensibility to spiritual things. The saintliness of her aspect. Confidences with her friend. Transports of divine love. A spiritual conversation in the fields, page 199

CHAPTER II.

THE SACRISTY AND THE ALTAR.

Marie-Eustelle is entrusted with the care of the altar. Her delight in the occupation. Her grief at the destitution of churches. Her labours for their adornment. The lamp of the sanctuary. She is allowed to have the key of the church of Saint-Pallais. Her nocturnal adoration before the tabernacle. Love for the sacristy. Devotion to the duties of her office. She accompanies the Blessed Sacrament to the sick. Makes preparations for the reception of the Divine Guest at their houses. Her description of one of these visits, page 217

CHAPTER III.

THE THREE DIRECTORS.

Marie-Eustelle's first director, a Cure of Saint-Pallais ; pious but inexperienced. The esteem in which he held her calculated to be a snare to her humility. Her earnest desire of a competent guide in the spiritual life. She finds such a one in her second director, M. Briand. She lays open her whole interior to him. Consequent relief and quietude of mind. M. Briand's solemn testimony to her virtues and merit. Letter of M. de Laage, Cure of Saint-Pallais, to the Bishop of La Rochelle. Marie-Eustelle's first interview with that prelate. His prudence and caution. The bishop's account of her visit. Her ardent aspirations after the virtue of humility. He permits her to make a daily vow of practising it. Her letter to Mgr. Villecourt ; and the bishop's reply. He prohibits her wearing a hair-shirt or fasting. His instructions on the subject of corporal austerities. He rebukes her for an exaggerated sentiment to which she had given utterance. Forbids her reading certain spiritual books, page 230

CHAPTER IV.

THE TWO ATTRACTIONS.

Marie-Eustelle's love of solitude the effect of her love of God. Her corresponding spirit of self-sacrifice for others. Patience in concealing her sufferings. Charitable condescension. Tender regard for the feelings of others. Marvellous silence. Devoted zeal for souls ; exhibited in her letters to the Cure of Saint-Pallais; combined with an ardent love of Jesus ; increasing as her end draws near. This double attraction to be satisfied only in heaven, page 255

CHAPTER V.

SECRETS OF THE INNER LIFE.

Visit of an inquisitive lady. Marie-Eustelle's delicate reserve. Her success in hiding the operations of grace within her. Letter to her former director. She consoles him under his spiritual trials. Confides to him a vision of the Sacred Heart with which she had been favoured. Her fervent intercessions and longing desires to promote the glory of God. She hears Jesus saying to her, "I thirst." Her visions mostly connected with the Eucharistic Presence. She receives an extraordinary favour of a very high order. Remarkable visions of the Sacred Heart ; of Jesus offering Himself in the Mass ; and of the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice in heaven. Frequent ecstasies. She feels herself reposing on the Heart of Jesus ; and sees Him resting in her soul. Vision of the union of her own heart with the Heart of Jesus. Result of these manifestations an everdeepening humility and increase of divine love, page 269

CHAPTER VI.

EXCESSES AND MARTYRDOM OF LOVE.

The transports of saints. Marie-Eustelle's "extravagances" the effect and expression of her exceeding love of Jesus. Neither sanctioned nor forbidden by her directors. Her own confessions on the subject. Her extraordinary emotions in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Her ardent aspirations. The hunger of her soul for the Eucharistic Banquet; ever increasing in intensity. Her spirit of reparation and love of suffering. She desires to die for love of Jesus. Her sufferings from the coldness and ingratitude of Christians towards Him. She offers the sacrifice of her life for the sanctification of priests and the increase of devotion to the Holy Eucharist, page 291

CHAPTER VII.

EUSTELLE AND HER BISHOP.

Failing health; Marie-Eustelle's conformity to the Divine will. Visit of Mgr. Villecourt to Saint-Pallais ; her exertions on the occasion. M. Briand proposes that she should record in writing God's dealings with her soul. Her hesitation and ultimate consent. She is confined to her room by illness ; her pain in being deprived of daily communion. On her recovery she resumes the duties of her office. She resolves to consult the Bishop of La Bochelle. M. Briand endeavours to dissuade her ; his apparent motive for doing so. Visit to the Convent of La Providence. Her forgetfulness of self. Mgr. Villecourt preaches at Saintes. Marie- Eustelle's reverence for the word of God. She writes to the bishop begging permission to speak with him. Account of her first interview. He enjoins her to write an account of her spiritual life. The bishop more reserved in the second audience : warns her of the danger of self-love. Her respectful submission. Reason of the bishop's precautions, page 310

CHAPTER VIII.

EUSTELLE'S SPIRIT AND CHARACTER.

Grace reconstructive in different natures. The variety in unity of God's works. Contrast between Marie-Eustelle and the Cure of Ars. The beauties of her style and language. Cardinal Villecourt's opinion thereof; confirmed by M. Leon Aubineau and M. Auguste Nicolas. Her poetic turn of mind. Refined taste. Appreciation of the humorous. Freedom from affectation and constraint. Thoughtful kindness, Affectionate disposition. Testimony of her own family to her freedom from faults. Her confidence in the Blessed Virgin. Example of this. Her devotion to the saints. Her spirit singularly winning and attractive. Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacred Heart the great devotion of these times, page 335

CHAPTER IX.

THE LAST DAYS OF EUSTELLE.

Her pain at being no longer able to visit the Blessed Sacrament. Her submission to the will of God. Satan's last assault ; the Blessed Virgin comes to her aid. Her perfect serenity and holy indifference. Her deep thankfulness to Jesus, and patience under sufferings. Her longing desire for communion. Its restorative effects. A conversation with Sister Anastasia. Her farewell letter to the Cure of Saint-Pallais. An unexpected communion; her ecstatic joy. Her carefulness not to distress her parents. She receives the last sacraments. Her one sorrow. Her farewell letter to M. Briand. Her dying moments, page 356

CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION.

Eagerness among friends to obtain relics of Marie-Eustelle. Marked devotion at her funeral. Publication of her writings with the authorization of Mgr. Villecourt. Numerous visits to her room and grave. M. Briand's two requests : conversion of an old officer ; discovery of the tomb of St. Eutropius. Spiritual favours granted through her intercession. Belief from mental anxiety. Remarkable instance of personal devotion to her. Testimonies to the effects produced by her writings. Singular benefit accorded to a priest. Influence of her example in the amendment of young girls. Marie-Eustelle's life sublime in its simplicity, page 371

ERRATUM.