FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   >>   >|  
han any attempt to fight against it. Not for one moment could she doubt that our Lady, in answer to Hugh's impassioned prayers, had chosen to make plain the Divine will, by means of this wonderful and most explicit vision to the aged lay-sister, Mary Antony. When, having left Mary Antony, as she supposed, asleep, the Prioress had reached her own cell, her first adoring cry, as she prostrated herself before the shrine, had taken the form of the thanksgiving once offered by the Saviour: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." She and the Bishop had indeed been wise and prudent in their own estimation, as they discussed this difficult problem. Yet to them no clear light, no Divine vision, had been vouchsafed. It was to this aged nun, the most simple--so thought the Prioress--the most humble, the most childlike in the community, that the revelation had been given. The Prioress remembered the nosegay of weeds offered to our Lady; the games with peas; the childish pleasure in the society of the robin; all the many indications that second-childhood had gently come at the close of the long life of Mary Antony; just as the moon begins as a sickle turned one way and, after coming to the full, wanes at length to a sickle turned the other way; so, after ninety years of life's pilgrimage, Mary Antony was a little child again--and of such is the Kingdom of Heaven; and to such the Divine will is most easily revealed. The Prioress was conscious that she and the Bishop--the wise and prudent--had so completely arrived at decisions, along the lines of their own points of view, that their minds were not ready to receive a Divine unveiling. But the simple, childlike mind of the old lay-sister, full only of humble faith and loving devotion, was ready; and to her the manifestation came. No shade of doubt as to the genuineness of the vision entered the mind of the Prioress. She and the Bishop alone knew of the Knight's intrusion into the Nunnery, and of her interview with him in her cell. Before going in search of the intruder, she had ordered Mary Antony to the kitchens; and disobedience to a command of the Reverend Mother, was a thing undreamed of in the Convent. Afterwards, her anxiety lest any question should come up concerning the return of a twenty-first White Lady when but twenty had gone, was completely set a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Antony

 

Prioress

 

Divine

 

Bishop

 

prudent

 

vision

 

completely

 
Heaven
 

twenty

 

offered


revealed

 

childlike

 

simple

 

turned

 

sickle

 

humble

 
sister
 

attempt

 

points

 

loving


unveiling

 

receive

 

decisions

 

ninety

 

pilgrimage

 

length

 
coming
 

conscious

 

arrived

 

devotion


easily

 

Kingdom

 

Afterwards

 

anxiety

 

question

 

Convent

 

undreamed

 

Reverend

 
Mother
 

return


command
 
disobedience
 

Knight

 
intrusion
 

entered

 
genuineness
 

Nunnery

 

intruder

 

ordered

 

kitchens