he breasts
of your consolation." Mid-Lent Sunday is consequently a day of rejoicing;
and you may likewise remember that, in the gospel of this day, the
Church relates how our Lord fed five thousand men with five loaves and
two fishes, of which twelve baskets of fragments remained, consequently
we ought to rejoice.'

She likewise added, that our Lord had deigned to visit her on that
day in the Holy Communion, and that she always felt especial spiritual
consolation when she received him on that particular day of the year.
The friend cast his eyes on the calendar of the diocese of Munster, and
saw that on that day they not only kept Mid-Lent Sunday, but likewise
the Feast of St. Joseph, the foster-father of our Lord; he was not
aware of this before, because in other places the feast of St. Joseph
is kept on the 19th, and he remarked this circumstance to Sister
Emmerich, and asked her whether she did not think that was the cause of
her speaking about Joseph. She answered that she was perfectly aware of
its being the feast of the foster-father of Jesus, but that she had not
been thinking of the child of that name. However, a moment after, she
suddenly remembered what her thoughts had been the day before, and
explained to her friend that the moment the feast of St. Joseph began,
her vision of the sorrowful mysteries of the Passion ceased, and were
superseded by totally different scenes, in which St. Joseph appeared
under the form of a child, and that it was to him that the words we
have mentioned above were addressed.

We found that when she received these communications the vision was
often in the form of a child, especially in those cases when an artist
would have made use of that simile to express his ideas. If, for
instance, the accomplishment of some Scripture prophecy was being shown
to her, she often saw by the side of the illustration a child, who
clearly designated the characteristics of such or such a prophet, by
his position, his dress, and the manner in which he held in his hand
and waved to and fro the prophetic roll appended to a staff.

Sometimes, when she was in extreme suffering, a beautiful child,
dressed in green, with a calm and serene countenance, would approach,
and seat himself in a posture of resignation at the side of her bed,
allowing himself to be moved from one side to the other, or even put
down on to the ground, without the smallest opposition and constantly
looking at her affectionately and c