Tribute to Eugénie Signorile and Leo Madigan (5)

ALEXANDRINA, I WANT TO LEARN FROM YOU!

A short synthesis of practical passages from Alexandrina’s work

By C.E. SIGNORILE

Chapter IV

ALEXANDRINA AND THE EUCHARIST

Let’s hear Jesus!

Jesus says:

One who is far from the tabernacle is far from heaven, far from Jesus.
I want souls, many truly eucharistic souls.
The tabernacle, the tabernacle, oh, if the tabernacle was fully understood!
The tabernacle is life, the tabernacle is love, the tabernacle is joy and the peace.
The tabernacle is a place of pain, it is a place of confrontation, a place of suffering:
The tabernacle is despised. Jesus of the tabernacle is not understood! S (11-09-53)

I heard Him saying:
My daughter, my daughter, eucharistic light and star (...)
I chose you as a victim so that you might continue my work of redemption.
I put love in your heart, unquestioning love for the Eucharistic.
It is through you, it is with the light of this fire that you light many souls. Guided by this star which has been chosen by Me, and transported by means of your example, the light will be transformed into burning souls, truly eucharistic souls. Poor world, without the Eucharistic! Poor world, without my victims, without the hosts continuously immolated with Me!
I want, my daughter, say that I want a new world, a world of purity, an entirely eucharistic world. (05-01-52)

Spiritual Communion

It did not let a day pass without praying to the Blessed Sacrament, meditating, whether in the church or at home, even on the road, ever making a spiritual Communion like this:
“O my Jesus, come to my poor heart! (…) I join myself to You! (…) I do not want any good but You! (…)
I thank You, Eternal Father, for having left Jesus to me in the Blessed Sacrament. I thank You, my Jesus, and finally ask for Your holy blessing!
May the Blessed and most Divine Sacrament of the Eucharist be praised at each moment” A (p.8)

I am always keeping Him company and often receiving Him spiritually; as the hours pass, how many times do I receive Him!
My insatiable love is the Eucharist. C (01.10.40).

O my beloved Jesus, I join myself in spirit, at this moment and from this moment forever, to all the holy Hosts of the earth, in each place where you live sacramentally. There I want to pass all moments of my life, constantly, day and night, glad or sad, alone or followed, always consoling You, loving You, praising You and glorifying You. A (p.30).

Jesus says to her:

Tell souls that love Me to live close to Me during their work.
In their homes, either by night or by day, tell them to kneel many times in spirit and, with head inclined to say:
“O my Jesus,
I adore You in all the places where You live in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
I keep You company in place of those who despise You;
I love You in place of those who do not love You.
I make reparation for those who offend You. Come into my heart”.These will be moments of great joy and consolation for Me.
How many crimes are committed against Me in the Eucharistic! S (02-10-48).

Awaiting the Longed-For One

Many times Alexandrina had the grace of a priest to celebrate Holy Mass for her in her room:

Holy Mass has begun. All the time I had to force myself not to leave my bed. I seemed to be all immersed in Jesus as I contemplated with joy the sacred Hosts that were on the altar. What a joy: one of them would be food for my soul! C (30-05-41).

What a great grace! He came down from Heaven to earth for my love!
At the moment of receiving Him, I felt impulse to abandon myself to the sacred Host, to hug it, to devour it. C (31-10-41).

When the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was being celebrated, my soul experienced a peace, a well-being, a sweetness.
I offered myself to Jesus, through the hands of the Heavenly Mother, to be immolated with Him. C (30-10-40).

At the elevation I felt an impulse to raise myself and to fly to the Jesus-Host.
I controlled myself and waited for the moment in which He came to me. (...) C (30-10-40).

This morning, when I was preparing myself to receive my Jesus, I felt in my soul a so great emptiness that the entire world would be unable to fill. I was hungry: I wanted to fill myself.
But my hunger was not for bread nor for things of this earth: my heart yearned and longed for Jesus. S (07-02-48).

This morning I had made my preparation to receive Jesus, and my parish priest arrived. He placed the Longed-For One of my soul on the table,. After lighting the candles, he said to me: - Here you have Our Lord to keep you company for a little while. Fr Umberto will come later and give Him to you (Fr Leopoldino had to leave urgently).
As soon as he left, a force coming from I know not where, compelled me to rise (she was paralyzed, but, when she relived the Passion she left her bed and made the movements of one carrying the Cross. However, after 1942 she relived the Passion interiorly which was very painful, but precluded her rising from the bed. (Here we are in 1944).I knelt before Jesus, I leaned on Him: my face and my heart never had been so close to Him before.
What happiness I felt! To enjoy so closely my overpowering love!
I whispered many things to Him, requests for all those who are dear to me, and for the entire world.
I felt that I was burning in those divine flames. Jesus spoke to me, too:
- Love, love, love, my daughter! Have no other concern but to love Me and give Me souls. Where God is, is everything: there is the triumph, there is the victory. I asked the angels to come to praise and to sing to Jesus with me; I always sang, until I was obliged by Rev. Father to go to my bed.
Imprisoned and on fire with the divine love, I received the Holy Communion. S (12-10-44)

Sacramental Communion

A number of the many ecstasies, in which Alexandrina relived the Passion, mention the Last Supper, with the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus told her that the Eucharist was “the greatest of my Sacraments, the greatest miracle of my wisdom”.  Alexandrina expresses something of its deep and vast meaning:

What a night, what a holy night! The greatest of all nights.
The night of the greatest miracle, the greatest manifestation of the love of Jesus. S (08-03-45)
I saw sweet Jesus blessing the bread that would become our Eucharist. S (11-04-47).

(I saw Jesus) with His eyes fixed on Heaven, and His Face inflamed in such a way that He seemed to have in Himself the life of Heaven rather than our earthly life.
He did not seem to be man, but only God: love, only love! S (30-04-48).

It was such a light, such a love that encompassed all: Jesus, the apostles and me. S (15-11-46).

And, at that moment of unparalleled love and wonder, I felt that I was in another world: Jesus gave Himself in food: he had left for Heaven and He stayed there.
That love was extended to all humanity. S (02-08-46).

How much Jesus loved! How much He loves!
His desire is that we live through Him and for Him. S (20-05-49).

He who loves wants his love reciprocated! Look at what Jesus says to Alexandrina:

My daughter, my dear spouse, tell souls that I wish to be loved and consoled, and that I desire reparation to be made to Me in the Eucharist.
And, then, He proposes a particular devotion, with a promise:
In my name tell all those who receive Holy Communion with sincerity and humility, fervour and love, for six consecutive first Thursdays, and pass one hour of worship, uniting their soul with Me before the tabernacle, that I promise Heaven. This is to honour my holy Wounds through the Eucharist, primarily that of my sacred shoulder so little remembered.
Those who do this, who unite the pains of my Blessed Mother to the holy Wounds, and in their name ask for graces, be they spiritual or corporal, I promise to grant all requests if they are not a danger to their souls.
At the moment of the death I will come to defend them, and bring my Blessed Mother with Me. S (25-02-49).

In the following fragments Alexandrina tries to describe what she experienced, as soon as she received the One so longed for.

The feelings are diverse according to the moment, her situation at the time, and the will of Jesus. Some can help us as examples, when we find ourselves in similar situations, others as a consolation.

After Holy Communion, I felt a great union with the Lord and, later, a strong heat and a force that enveloped me. Thus I passed some moments and finally our Lord spoke to me:“I come to you so that you will unite your whole self to Me. Why are you so pusillanimous?” C (25-06-35).

This day started very grievously for me. When I received Jesus, my pain was alleviated, the sadness disappeared. C (02-11-40).

At the end of Holy Communion, how well I felt with Our Lord! What a great union!
I said to my beloved Jesus:
How comforting is your peace! How comforting it is to love You!
And thus I passed some time with my Jesus. C (18-07-35).

The way as I received Him today causes me sadness and pain. I soon forgot His divine visit. I do not have love for Him! C (29-09-40).

I received Jesus with ice, an ice that freezes everything!
My heart and my soul twist and untwist with affliction. C (28-12-39).

I felt Jesus flooding my soul with His real presence, giving me the strength during the afternoon to walk, to sing and to pray. C (02-05-41).

Jesus came at last, lowered Himself to my poor and unworthy heart, and soon made me feel that it was He.
He filled me; my heart became so great! It seemed not to fit in my chest: I was as if I had in me the entire vault of the Sky. S (06-09-47).

The holy Guest entered without looking at so much misery and indifference. He did not turn back, He entered my heart. Moments later, I was transformed: Heaven inclined towards me, it became united to the Earth, it absorbed me into itself.
My soul was illuminated: I was great, great like God.
Jesus in my heart spoke to me:
“My daughter, my daughter, you are plunged, absorbed in the love of Jesus”. S (04-08-51).

We must always remember a baffling truth: the Communion transforms us into That which we receive. This is known as St. Augustine’s invocation:

“O Father, may the participation in Your Sacrament insert us as living members in the Christ, Your Son, so that we are transformed into the One we receive”. (Prayer after the Sacred Communion, in St. Augustine’s Mass).
My Jesus came. As soon as He entered into me, He dispelled the darkness: all my interior was illuminated with His love, with His peace. I was someone else. Now I could surely say: “It not me who lives, but surely Jesus.” S (01-03-47).

Let us remember the well-known statement of St Paul: “It is no more I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2,20).

Let us conclude with two excerpts as evidence that not only the soul longs for union with the Beloved, but that even Jesus experiences love’s anxieties and longs to be united to His creature, to possess it’s soul entirely. Once the Eucharist had been taken to her unexpectedly.

The joy that I felt is unutterable, and at the same time, confusion.
Joy at the arrival of the Longed for One in my soul and confusion over so many gifts received.How good is Jesus! He does not refuse to come to my nothingness, to my misery!
As soon as He entered my heart, He spoke to me thus:
“My daughter, my daughter, I cannot live without the dwelling of your heart.
It is true that I live always in you, but now I come in a greater reality, in body and Spirit.” C (12-09-41).

I received Him in my heart and soon He comforted me with these words:
“What a love, what a love, what an excess of love, what a prodigy of love I have towards you, my daughter!
You were panting to have Me in your heart, and I was longing to possess you completely”. C (12-09-41).