After purgatory

It was Saint Vincent de Paul who tells us that when St Jeanne de Chantal died, he saw her soul rising like a globe of fire, and, coming down from above, another and larger globe [St Francis de Sales] in which the first was lost. So, God showed his approval of this wonderful friendship, as he received the two souls eternally united to each other.

– W R Ainsworth sdb, St Francis de Sales: the gentle saint.

For those who have shed pettiness

and animosities and reached saintliness,

they will, like Saint Vincent,

have a capacity for visions.

And like St Jeanne de Chantal,

be ready for a union that is immortal.

Like St John Bosco, who was creative and heroic,

they will be able to project

images of themselves to earth.

Then, with other saints in the universe,

pass beyond description;

guesses and speculation

suggest they may exist without form,

though whole, in the mind of the creator,

part of the light which outshines night.

Reg Naulty