Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

Thus shall the spiritual thirst of Christ be quenched. This is his thirst: his love and longing for us that goes on enduring until we see the Day of Judgement. For of us who are to be saved and be Christ's joy and bliss some are alive now, while others- are 'yet unborn; and so it will go on until that Day. His thirst and loving longing is to have us all, integrated in him, to his great enjoyment. At least, so I see it (…) Because he is God he is 'supreme blessedness, and never has been nor ever shall be other. His eternal blessedness can neither be increased nor diminished (…) Because he is human - this too is known by the creed, and by the revelations - it was shown that he, though God, suffered pain, passion, and death, for love of us and to bring us to blessedness (…) Since Christ is our Head, he must be both glorious and impassible. But since he is also the Body in which all his members are joined (Eph 1:23), he is not yet fully either of these. Therefore the same desire and thirst that he had upon the cross (Jn 19:28) - and this desire, longing, and thirst was with him from the very first, I fancy he has still, and shall continue to have until the last soul to be saved has arrived at its blessedness. For just as there is in God the quality of sympathy and pity, so too in him is there that of thirst and longing. And in virtue of this longing which is in Christ we in turn long for him too. No soul comes to heaven without it. This quality of longing and thirst springs from God's eternal goodness just as pity does (…); and this thirst will persist in him as long as we are in need, drawing us up to his blessedness.

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"How many times I yearned to gather your children together"

Julian of Norwich (1342-after 1416)

"How many times I yearned to gather your children together"

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