Blessed Alain de la Roche (1) lamented the lukewarmness with which he recited his rosary, in a Dominican church in Paris, during the octave of All Saints 1465. Suddenly, Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by several virgins:

“Don't run away, my son! she told him. If you have any doubts, either about me or about my companions, make the sign of the cross over us.

If we are visions of hell, we will suddenly disappear; if, on the contrary, we are visions of Heaven, we will remain, and the brighter still will be the radiance that springs from each of us. »

Alain makes his sign of the cross. The light of the apparition becomes more intense.

“O my son, have no more doubts! I am your virgin bride, the apparition told her; I still love you, and I still care about you.

But know that no one is without pain in this world; neither I, nor my Son, nor any of the saints here below have been without suffering. There is more: covered with the weapons of faith and patience, prepare yourself for trials even more difficult than those you have had to go through so far.

Because I didn't choose you to make you a soldier on parade, but to see you fight bravely and as a hero under the flag of Jesus Christ and under my own banner.

As for the dryness and the aridity which you experienced during the space of a few days, do not worry about it; it was I who wanted you to go through this ordeal; bear it as a pain and as a chastisement for your old faults; and also, receive it as a means of making progress in patience and in view of the Salvation of the living and the dead. »

(1) Alain de la Roche, born around 1428 near Plouër-sur-Rance in Brittany (France) and died in 1475 in Zwolle in the Netherlands, was a 15th century Dominican Breton monk. He is celebrated on September 9.

From Father René Laurentin