The feast of the Annunciation, in which we celebrate the beginning of the life of the Word made Flesh, is the anniversary of the first solemn exposition among the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration (25 March 1653). On that occasion, according to a contemporary account:
Statue of Our Lady Abbess at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle
‘During the High Mass on the happy day of this first Exposition, Mother Mectilde was enraptured in spirit at the time of the Consecration; she saw, at the elevation of the Sacred Host, the holy Mother of God presenting this new Institute and all the souls who were included in it to Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to obtain His blessing, so that by means of it this little number of victims might be multiplied a hundredfold. Our Lord was pleased to accept this offering from the hands of the Holy Virgin, and told her that He would find His delight in this establishment.’
Around this time, Mother Mectilde pronounced the following act of offering, expressing her desire to be united with our Eucharistic Lord in the humiliation and ‘en-nothingment’ of His Passion:
‘My God, I sacrifice myself once again and totally to Thee, in Jesus and with Jesus and through Jesus. And as the offering of myself is already made, and thus, I hope, accepted by God in His great mercy, I remain in expectation of the accomplishment of His designs over me as a victim of divine justice for sin,1 and even in an extreme desire for the lovable hour of the sufferings by which it shall please God to consume me and to en-nothing me [anéantir] as a victim on the cross of Jesus.
‘Prostrate at the feet of my God, all infinitely worthy of adoration in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, I choose today by Thy mercy the grace to be in opprobrium and abjection among all creatures, and this for Thy love and in union with Thyself, and solely because it pleases Thee, and in obedience to Thy pure divine will over me. I accept humiliating death and in Thy love I desire it. I do not want to have a part in any creature, but rather to be treated as one who is abominable and excommunicated.2 This is the resolution which Thy pure grace has placed in my soul, not being able to do anything except by the power of Thy Spirit.’
(Quotations translated from Véronique Andral, OSBap, Itinéraire spirituel,pp. 82-83)
FOOTNOTES:
1Mother Mectilde’s description of herself as a victim for sin is inspired by the words of Psalm 39 placed on the lips of Our Lord in Heb 10:5-7: ‘Holocaust and sin-offering have not pleased Thee, and I said: Behold, I come…’
2In a similar way, St Paul expressed the desire to be ‘anathema’ for the sake of his Israelite brethren (Rom 9:3).
The feast of the Annunciation, in which we celebrate the beginning of the life of the Word made Flesh, is the anniversary of the first solemn exposition among the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration (25 March 1653). On that occasion, according to a contemporary account:
FOOTNOTES:
