Table of Contents July 2023

(36 pages)

Saint Louis et Saint Zélie Martin, Spouses according to the Heart of God  …Page 167

Zélie Martin: Wife, Mother, Saint:  Perfect union – A Christian mother – Educator – Unfailing faith – The ascent of Calvary

Louis Martin, the “Incomparable Father”:  Ora et labora – Professional life – The power of example – An incomparable father – First oblations – A new Abraham – “Our great treasure” – “Heaven!”

Our cover:

Louis and Zélie Martin with their daughters, at Alençon

I will not mention anything, beloved Mother, about the exceptional family in which God placed my cradle, but I consider it the greatest grace of my life to have had Christian parents and to have received from them a virile education that left no room for the pettiness of vanity.  In our home, I never saw anyone yield to human respect; there was no altar set up for anything but God, and if sometimes the sacrifices seemed austere, the hour always sounded when I relished their pleasant fragrance.

Therefore Jesus’ first blessing for me was to have driven the dangerous fires of bad example away from me, even before I was able to flee from it by a free act.  How many young plants would reach maturity if, like me, they were preserved from the contagion of vices, if the sap circulating in their delicate stems were as pure as that which gave birth to me and made me grow!  Oh!  I can understand why the devil, bent on ruining souls, would attack the family.  Like those gnawing worms that attack the roots, he undermines the base, and by corrupting the domestic home, spoils the most beautiful hopes at their source.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to God for having placed angels at my side who, understanding their mission, surrounded my childhood with the delicate care upon which all life depends.