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Chapter VII

Of Some Miracles Obtained By Catharine, For The Life Or Health Of The Neighbor.

I intend now to relate a circumstance amazing indeed, in our time, and yet very easy to Him, with whom all things are possible. Lapa Catherine's mother, was very simple and very kind, but not very desirous of invisible goods; she always had a great terror of quitting this life. After the death of her husband she also fell ill, and soon excited serious anxiety. Catherine, had recourse as usual to prayer, and entreated the Lord to deign to relieve her mother. It was answered her that Lapa would be saved if she died then, and that, thus, should avoid many heavy trials which menaced her. Catherine went to her mother and made the sweetest exhortations in order to prepare her, if God were to call, by engaging her to a complete submission to his holy will; but Lapa, too deeply attached to earthly things, was horrified at the thought of leaving them; she conjured her daughter to plead with our Lord for her cure, and not to mention death. The Spouse of our Lord saw with pain these dispositions, and prayed in anguish that our Lord would not permit her to die, before she was perfectly submissive to his will. God complied with Catherine's prayer; the malady of Lapa became more alarming, but death was still averted. Catherine intervened between God and her mother, by her prayers and exhortations; she entreated God not to take her kind mother from the world, without her own