GOD IS CALLING ME

A Lazarist missionary, who died in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, was preaching a spiritual retreat to a group of young women in Constantinople at the very time when cholera was devastating that unfortunate city.

Early on the morning of the third day, one of the retreatants came to him and said:

“Father, I wish to make my confession and receive Holy Communion this morning. After Mass I will tell you why.”

She received Holy Communion with remarkable devotion. After her thanksgiving, she returned to the priest and said:

“Father, I spent the whole night awake. I had the impression that the moment of my death had come and that my soul, separated from my body, was being led by my Guardian Angel before the judgment seat of the Sovereign Judge.

“He was no longer the Savior, so good and merciful, of whom the priests so often speak to us, but an inexorable Judge.

“From every part of the world countless souls were arriving. Many were going to hell, many to purgatory, and only a very few went directly to heaven.

“Filled with fear and trembling, I raised my eyes—and oh, what happiness!—my good Mother, the Immaculate Virgin, was there, looking upon me with infinite tenderness.

“Encouraged by that sight, there rose from the depths of my heart the prayer I had so often repeated on earth:

‘Good Mother, Mother of Perpetual Help, help me! Save me!’

“I stood before the tribunal of God, and my eternal destiny was about to be decided.

“Suddenly I heard a melodious voice unlike any voice on earth:

‘My Son, this is my daughter.’

“Then Our Lord turned toward His glorious Mother and, with a tenderness beyond all human expression, said to her:

‘If she is Yours, then You judge her.’

“And the whole judgment consisted in this: the Queen of Saints opened Her arms to me, and I took refuge in them.

“I was happy for all eternity...”

The young woman fell silent.

Her face shone as though she were still contemplating that heavenly vision.

The missionary, much more deeply moved than he allowed others to perceive, preached that morning on the necessity of always being prepared for death.

He had scarcely finished when he was urgently summoned.

One of the young women attending the retreat had suddenly been struck down by cholera.

In that frail body, writhing in agony under the violence of the disease, he immediately recognized the young woman who had related the vision.

She looked at him calmly and said:

“Father, I told you so: God is calling me!”

Two hours later, with a heavenly smile upon her lips, her soul departed for eternal glory, repeating for the last time her favorite aspiration:

“My Mother, Mother of Perpetual Help, help me! Save me!”