Page:Lifeofsaintcatha.djvu/34



The apparition of our Lord exerted such a powerful influence over the heart of this devout child, that the germs of self-love were destroyed, and it became inflamed with the sole love of Jesus Christ and of the glorious Virgin Mary. All besides appeared to her only misery and corruption, and her supreme desire was to be united to the Saviour. The Holy Spirit gave her grace to understand that purity of soul and body is necessary for pleasing the Creator, and she sighed after the treasure of perpetual virginity. She implored the Queen of Angels, and of virgins, to be so kind as to obtain from God, the lights which were necessary for accomplishing what would prove most acceptable to his divine majesty and the most conducive to her soul's salvation, expressing to her merely the extreme desire she felt of embracing on earth an angelic mode of life. At length heavenly prudence bade her no longer stifle the holy emotions produced in her soul by the Spirit of God, and being one day retired quite solitary in prayer, she knelt down and invoked the Blessed Virgin, concluding her prayer thus — " I promise thy Son, and I promise thee, never to accept any other spouse and to preserve myself to the best of my ability pure and unspotted."

Catharine did indeed obtain her divine Spouse, and was strictly united to him by her vow of virginity: the blessed Mother of Jesus Performed the nuptial ceremony