Maria Ignacia was, as St. Josemaria used to call her, the first "expiation vocation". She was gravely ill, suffering from tuberculosis. She was admitted to the King’s Hospital (Hospital del Rey - also known as “the incurables’ hospital”). She died offering all her pains for the work.
 |
| Maria Ignacia Garcia Escobar |
<She offered all her sufferings for the apostolate that St. Josemaria was doing with young people. The disease was no longer confined to her lungs but was eating away her bones and her organs. Father Josemaria spoke to her about death and assured her that she would work more effectively for Opus Dei from heaven than on this earth. He even suggested a number of intentions that she could ask of Jesus and Mary when she got to heaven, especially for vocations.
Maria Ignacia not only maintained her peace of soul despite terrible pain, but, as Father Josemaria wrote, “She contemplated death with the joy of someone who knows that when she dies she will go to her Father.” “I know,” she wrote in a letter, “that I am suffering through Jesus and for Jesus. Are there any words on earth to compare with these? Blessed is the soul to whom our Lord grants such a favor if it knows how to take advantage of it! Help me with your prayers to achieve the most intimate union with Jesus. To love him madly is my only ambition on this earth. If he doesn’t want me to be aware on this earth that I do love him, that doesn’t matter. It is enough for me that he knows.”
Announcing Maria Ignacia’s death to the other members of the Work on September 13, 1933, Father Josemaria wrote: “Prayer and suffering have been the wheels of the triumphal chariot of this sister of ours. We have not lost her. We have gained her. We want the natural pain that we feel on learning of her death to be transformed promptly into the supernatural joy of knowing that we now certainly have more power in heaven.”
Maria Ignacia was the third member of the Work to die in the space of a year and a half. In addition, during that same time, some others in whom Father Josemaria had placed his hopes left the Work. He felt their loss sharply. Nonetheless a small nucleus of members was beginning to form who would stay the course and help him develop the Work. With their help, it would soon be possible for Opus Dei to open its first center.> (Taken from www.josemariaescriva.info)
Maria Ignacia not only maintained her peace of soul despite terrible pain, but, as Father Josemaria wrote, “She contemplated death with the joy of someone who knows that when she dies she will go to her Father.” “I know,” she wrote in a letter, “that I am suffering through Jesus and for Jesus. Are there any words on earth to compare with these? Blessed is the soul to whom our Lord grants such a favor if it knows how to take advantage of it! Help me with your prayers to achieve the most intimate union with Jesus. To love him madly is my only ambition on this earth. If he doesn’t want me to be aware on this earth that I do love him, that doesn’t matter. It is enough for me that he knows.”
Announcing Maria Ignacia’s death to the other members of the Work on September 13, 1933, Father Josemaria wrote: “Prayer and suffering have been the wheels of the triumphal chariot of this sister of ours. We have not lost her. We have gained her. We want the natural pain that we feel on learning of her death to be transformed promptly into the supernatural joy of knowing that we now certainly have more power in heaven.”
Maria Ignacia was the third member of the Work to die in the space of a year and a half. In addition, during that same time, some others in whom Father Josemaria had placed his hopes left the Work. He felt their loss sharply. Nonetheless a small nucleus of members was beginning to form who would stay the course and help him develop the Work. With their help, it would soon be possible for Opus Dei to open its first center.> (Taken from www.josemariaescriva.info)
Don Alvaro mentioned in a gettogether: “The ‘Hospital del Rey’ was for people with tuberculosis and other contagious illnesses. Back then, almost none was curable. The number of sick people was so high, that they had to put the beds very close to each other, without room for not even a bedside table between beds. Our father was 29 or 30 when he used to attend that hospital, and never left anyone to die without the sacraments. Because the beds were so close together, to hear confessions he had to lower his head to the patient’s pillow and speak to their ear. He did it without fear of contagion. In that hospital came up the first expiatory vocation as our father used to say. That first, Maria Ignacia Garcia Escobar, died in extreme pain, but also with extreme joy. Before dying, she used to say: “Very big must The Work be, given that God asks so much suffering from me”. She died on the 13/9/1933.
No comments:
Post a Comment