REVELATION OF AUGUST 26, 1843

Sister Mary of St. Peter receives the first Revelation concerning the sins of blasphemy. To atone for this outrageous crime, the Saviour inspires the nun to recite often a prayer of praise to the Holy Name of God, which He dictated, entitled
"THE GOLDEN ARROW."

ON AUGUST 26, 1843 (the day after the Feast of St. Louis, the crusader against blasphemy), there was a terrible storm during which I felt the justice of an angry God as I had never before felt it in my life. Kneeling, so that my forehead touched the ground, I ceaselessly offered our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to His Eternal Father, for the expiation of my sins and for the needs of Holy Church.

Since one of the nuns in our convent experienced on that day the same emotion as I did, when the hour for evening prayer arrived, I placed myself in spirit at the foot of the cross, and approaching our Lord familiarly, I spoke to Him about the incident of the storm. After that I asked Him to tell me the reason why I felt so strongly on that day the roused anger of His Eternal Father.

Although recently I had experienced much aridity in prayer, now as soon as I had addressed our Saviour, He at once relaxed His manner towards me and said:

"My daughter, I have heard your sighs and your groans, and I have also witnessed your ardent desire to glorify Me, which desire does not spring from yourself, for it is I Who have given it birth in your soul."

Then gathering the powers of my soul, our Lord opened His Heart to me and said:

"My Name is everywhere blasphemed! There are even children who blaspheme!"

He then made me see that this frightful sin wounds His divine Heart more grievously than all other sins, showing me how by blasphemy the sinner curses Him to His Face, attacks Him publicly, nullifies his redemption, and pronounces his own judgment and condemnation.

Our Lord then made me visualize the act of blasphemy as a poisoned arrow continually wounding His divine Heart. After that He revealed to me that He wanted to give me a "Golden Arrow" which would have the power of wounding Him delightfully, and which would also heal those other wounds inflicted by the malice of sinners.

The following is the formula of the "Golden Arrow" which is an Act of Praise that our Lord Himself dictated to me, notwithstanding my unworthiness, for the reparation of blasphemy against His Holy Name:

THE GOLDEN ARROW

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven, on earth and in the hells, by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. AMEN.

Since I felt somewhat astonished at the words which our Lord used when He said to me, "in the hells," He made me understand that His Justice was also glorified there. I furthermore beg that notice be taken of this that our Lord did not say to me "in hell" (dans l'enfer), but He said, "in the hells" (dans les enfers), which can be understood to include also purgatory where He is loved and glorified by His suffering souls. Then too, the word "hell" applies not only to the abode of the reprobate, for faith teaches us that our Lord Himself after His death decended into hell, which was the place where the souls of the just awaited Him. Besides, does not Holy Church pray her Divine Spouse to deliver the souls of her children from the gates of hell? A porta inferi, erue Domine, animas eorum (Office of the Dead).*

After our Lord finished dictating this prayer which He called the "Golden Arrow" He added a warning:

"Be careful to utilize this grace because I shall demand an account of it from you," and at that moment I believe I saw streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, delightfully wounded by this "Golden Arrow," torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners. This vision encouraged me to address our Saviour as follows, "My Lord, are you then giving me charge of blasphemers?" But it was not then the will of the Saviour to disclose anything further to me on this subject.

After that, reflecting that God must indeed be angered because of the blasphemies of which men were guilty, yet at the same time feeling my weakness, and fearing also the demon, I begged the Blessed Virgin to take charge of the mission which her divine Son entrusted to me.

Ever since this revelation on the "Golden Arrow" I have felt my soul completely changed, and wholly occupied in glorifying the Most Holy Name of God. In addition to the "Golden Arrow" our Lord also inspired me to compose a little exercise of Reparation in the form of twenty-four Acts of Adoration to atone for the blasphemies uttered each hour of the day. Our Lord later had the goodness to reveal to me that this exercise of Reparation which I performed was agreeable to Him, and that He desired this devotion to be spread everywhere. The Saviour then made me share His own ardent longing to see the Name of His Eternal Father glorified. He further made me understand that just as the Angels sing, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, without ceasing, so must I apply myself to glorifying His Holy Name. By doing this, He assured me that I would fulfill the command which He had given me a short while ago when He told me to honor His Sacred Heart and also the heart of His holy Mother, for these two hearts were continually being wounded by blasphemy.

In addition, He also made me comprehend that this devotion would not hinder me from honoring Him in His Mysteries as I was accustomed to do, because in all the Mysteries of His life, His Heart has ever suffered from this crime of blasphemy.

I again forcibly understood, however, that the more agreeable anything is to God, the more bitter does the demon try to make it so that the soul may become discouraged, but that such obstacles only increase our merit if we are faithful and if we persevere to the end. Our Lord gave me all these instructions in order to sustain me in the trials which I would suffer from Satan on account of this Work of Reparation. In fact, our Saviour told me that Satan would do all in his power to crush and annihilate this Work but that all his efforts would prove in vain.