Source: Praying the Presence of Our Lord for the Holy Souls:
COME AWAY WITH ME AND REST AWHILE***
Voice of our Soul: We thank You, Lord for that inevitable ordeal – death; it renders without pity all beings… Cold and unstoppable it tears from us all those You have confided to our love… Recall Your sadness, Jesus, as You drew near the house in Bethany where Your friend, Lazarus, no longer awaited You; happily, Jesus, the source of those tears You shed over the death of the friend of our heart is not yet dried up… Yes, Your divinely-beautiful eyes still seem wet with the tears of the Man-God who wished to love with all the emotions and tenderness as well as with all the weakness of our heart of flesh… And this, Jesus, is You present in the Host, Whom we adore here, on our knees…
Look at us from the depths of the Tabernacle, and look at those who no longer walk with us along the way; they were like the very fibers of our heart… Now they are gone from us; they have left us… What separation is as cruel as the separation of Death!
You wept at the tomb of Lazarus though You knew You were about to raise him from the dead… Likewise, in spite of the lively faith with which we accept the crosses You send us, You allow our souls to be lacerated when we see our dear ones leave, never to return… When we have loved deeply, these wounds can be soothed; but as You well know, Jesus, they can never be healed completely… Jesus, come fill the empty place which pitiless death has made, with Your permission, in our hearts and homes.
Come to give calm and resignation to us who survive that we may pray at their grave… Come, Master let us pray together for our dead so dearly loved…May the brightness of Your eternal light shine on them… May they rest in peace… in the heaven of Your heart!
Accept, Lord as a bouquet of myrrh, the remembrance of our beloved dead… Bless them, for they have left us only in answer to Your divine call.
Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Accept the tears of resignation we have shed on the tombs of those dear to us… Remember particularly little children and families in mourning.
Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Come dearest Savior, to make up for the loss of our loved ones who have gone before us. They have left an empty place that only you can fill.
Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Voice of the Master: Children of My love, how sweet and consoling this hour has been which you have shown Me the deep hurts, which torture your souls… while I have let you penetrate the ever bleeding Wounds of My Sacred Heart… Ah! what a happy similarity of suffering! How we resemble each other when we mourn on earth the bitter afflictions of earth! That is how Gethsemane becomes for you, as well as for Me, a sanctuary of prayer and perpetual redemption… Oh! let us love each other, O My friends, that our hearts may meet on the sorrowful way… Let us love each other, O My little children in the Cross!
Come unto Me, you who are in mourning, who weep the loss of a son, a mother, a spouse, a brother… Come, without delay, to My Tabernacle, all you whose dwelling has been marked by the cross of death and tears…
Come lift up your hearts, for time is only a passing shadow, and heaven is eternal; arise, then, with courage and take the living Bread, My Eucharist, to fortify you in the struggle; come and I will reward you in the Paradise of My Heart which loves you!
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ETERNAL COURTS OF HEAVEN**
Do pray! Pray for these poorest of the poor. Do it, My Child, in order also greatly to comfort My Sacred Heart , to me Me the joy of soon seeing them in My heaven. This beautiful act of Christian charity will bear abundant fruit for you, not only during your earthly sojourn, not only at the hour of your death, but also — and especially – when you yourself must languish in the chastening flames of love. But the richest reward you will get from Me, as soon as you come to Heaven.
Scarcely will you have passed through the gates of heaven, when I will hasten to meet you. But I will not be alone: a large number of the blessed will accompany Me… You will recognize them at a glance; your dear ones will be there, those that you loved so much and mourned so deeply. And with them will be many other souls. They will surround you in grateful love; for you helped them. With your prayers and good works you extinguished the flames that enveloped them.
Their faces will be transfigured and resplendent with glory! Souls bright with the splendor of beauty immortal.
And when are you going to see them again? When will the day break and the shadows flee away? … My child, that day is nearer than you think! In heaven above, the souls of your dear departed may be preparing for your reception even now… for you. Yes… yes, the procession that is to receive you is forming even now… The days and the weeks pass so swiftly in the rapture of heaven, you know. A little more patience, My child… Yet a little while upon the cross of your earthly exile… and then… then heaven’s pearly gates will swing open…
So leave your unconsolable sorrow to those who have no hope… Let your glance rise above gloomy graves… Let your heart soar aloft … up and ever up … higher and ever higher… to the very stars and beyond… up to God and His Heaven.
Listen! Do you not already hear the familiar accents, O the sweet voice that so long was as music to you, until death caused it to die away? Hark! It is calling you… It is pleading that you be pious and true, that heaven may surely be yours… Today it is but a clear sweet voice…And tomorrow? … Ah! Tomorrow will bring a dear sweet voice… and a loving heart… and two welcoming arms stretched out to embrace you?
Yes, tomorrow… there will be happy homecoming of the dear ones in the eternal courts of heaven! Forever!
