Mystical Experience of Blessed Mariam Thresia Active Purification of the Soul

CHAPTER – 6

ACTIVE PURIFICATION OF THE SOUL

Before the soul can grow in grace, all the hindrances to growth must be
eliminated and purified. No one has emphasised this more than St. John of the Cross.
He named this purification of the soul as ‘dark night of the soul’. In the book, The
Ascent of Mount Carmel, he has given three reasons for calling this purification for
the journey toward the union with God a ‘night’. “The first has to do with the point of
departure, because the individual must deprive himself of his appetite for worldly
possessions. This denial and privation is like a night for all his senses. The second
reason refers to the means or the road along which a person travels to this union. Now
this road is faith, and for the intellect faith is like a dark night. The third reason
pertains to the point of arrival, namely God. And God is also a dark night to man in
this life. These three nights pass through a soul, or better, the soul passes through
them in order to reach divine union with God.”1 In this chapter the active night of the
senses and the active night of the spirit are considered.

1. Active Night of the Senses

The first and foremost norm that St. John of the Cross recommends for
purifying the senses is to imitate Jesus. “First, have habitual desire to imitate Christ in
all your deeds by bringing your life into conformity with His. You must then study
His life in order to know how to imitate Him and behave in all events as He would.”2
It is the love for Jesus that enables a person to mortify the sensible pleasures and do
everything for the honour and glory of God.3 Two principal means of mortifying the
senses are 1) to renounce anything that may produce unlawful pleasure and also
curtail even lawful pleasure as one’s spiritual needs require 2) to practise positive
mortification by means of bodily self denial.4

Thresia entered into active night of the senses through the severe practice of
penance and mortification from a very tender age.

1
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 1, 2, 1.
2
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 1, 13, 3.
3
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 1, 13, 4.
4
Aumann, Spiritual Theology, 180.

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Mystical Experience of Blessed Mariam Thresia Active Purification of the Soul

1.1 Penance
“Penance is defined as a supernatural virtue, allied to justice, which inclines
the sinner to detest his sin because it is an offence against God and to form the firm
resolve of avoiding sin in the future, and of atoning for it.”5 Child Thresia had an
extraordinary awareness regarding the malice of sin. At the age of six she said: “I
knew what sin is and that I wanted to make my confession.”6 She never wanted to
offend God by committing even a venial sin. Owing to her continued insistence she
was allowed to make confession before the customary age. For the atonement of her
sins and of others she was practising severe penance. Thresia has recorded in the
autobiography that as a child: “I used to recite a full rosary at midnight, meditate on
the sorrows of Blessed Mother, discipline myself with whip, meditate on the passion
of the Lord for an hour with arms outstretched and wake up many times during the
night to say the prayers.”7 As she grew up, with the permission of the spiritual father
she observed some more severe acts of penance, such as wearing always a chain of
thorns around the waist, taking discipline daily, kneeling on pebbles spread on the
floor, kneeling on the palms or with hands stretched out to pray, wearing tight inner
garment of hair etc. During the season of Lent she fasted four days a week and
observed abstinence on other days.8 In the midnights while meditating on the passion
of the Lord with hands stretched out, to keep the hands in position for three hours, she
used to tie the hands with a rope up somewhere.9

Fr. Vithayathil has recorded in detail the severity of the pain Thresia endured
of wearing the thorn chain around the waist. From Thursday night to the whole of
Friday she tightened the chain of torment. Once due to inflammation there was
swelling around the waist and pus came out. The pain also became very acute. She
had suffocation, fever and sometimes loss of consciousness. The putrid flesh
produced a foul smell. She did not want to apply any medicine. Then an angel
appeared and told her to put powdered salt in it. With the permission of the spiritual
father when she was about to apply the salt, the angel appeared and prevented her

5
Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, 341.
6
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 29.
7
M. Threia, ‘Autobiography’, 28.
8
Vithayathil, Biography of Rev. Mother Mariam Thresia, 60; Vithayathil, Diary, 31; M. Thresia,
‘Autobiography’, 26.
9
Vithayathil, Diary, 114.

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from doing it saying that it was a test of obedience. After a few days the festering and
inflammation healed by itself. Flesh covered the chain of thorn and no portion of it
could be seen outside. Inside this instrument of torment was constantly torturing her.10

When Thresia got a little relief from severe pain or got special graces she
asked the spiritual father for permission to observe more penance as a token of
gratitude to the Lord.11 If she felt that she had done any mistakes she would ask for
penance or for some reproaches.12 Though Thresia did severe acts of penance, she
never demanded her followers to practise so; instead she insisted on their practising
mortification of self will, concentration of mind, custody of senses and silence.13

Fr. George Manalel who made a psychological evaluation of the extraordinary

experiences of Mariam Thresia for the cause of beatification has appreciated her acts
of penance and acknowledged Thresia as a woman of healthy, balanced and mature
personality.14

1.2 Mortification
Mortification is defined as “the struggle against our evil inclinations in order
to subject them to the will, and the will to God.”15 If anyone is to reach perfect union
with God through his/her will and love, he/she must obviously first be freed from
every appetite and he must not give consent of his will knowingly to an
imperfection.16 In the book of Exodus, God gave Israel Manna, the bread of the angels
only when they were exhausted of the food that they had brought from Egypt (Ex.16:
3,4,15). In the New Testament Jesus said: “He who does not renounce all that he
possesses cannot be my disciple” (Lk.14: 33). A person’s ascent to God necessarily
demands a habitual effort to renounce and mortify the appetite.

Thresia was a child with special graces. Pondering on the passion of the
crucified Jesus which was imprinted in her by her mother, she was filled with a deep

10
Vithayathil, Diary, 166; Vithayathil, Biography of Rev. Mother Mariam Thresia, 61.
11
Vithayathil, Diary, 54.
12
M.Thresia, ‘Letters’, 60.
13
M. Thresia, ‘Exhortations’, 118, 119, 132.
14
Positio, ‘Summarium’, 524.
15
Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, 364.
16
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 1, 11, 3.

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Mystical Experience of Blessed Mariam Thresia Active Purification of the Soul

desire to love Him and imitate Him.17 From her tender age she never tried to satisfy
her desires. Instead, she mortified everything for the love of Jesus. Not to enjoy the
physical comforts, she was in the habit of lying on the floor without a mat, with her
head resting on a stone, and on pebbles and broken glass pieces strewn on the floor.18
To Control her appetite for food, in the Lent season she fasted four days a week and
on other days observed abstinence from meat. Every Saturday she fasted in honour of
Blessed Virgin Mary.19 The special food given for her health by her mother was given
away to someone else with no one to notice it. To mortify the taste she added bitter
herbs in the food.20 Later in her youth Thresia used to have only rice and gruel. She
willingly gave up nourishing food like meat, ghee, milk and bread.21

2. Active Night of the Spirit

Active purification of the spirit consists in the purification of spiritual faculties.
According to traditional psychology there are only two spiritual faculties, intellect and
will. A few mystical authors including St. John of the Cross speak of three faculties,
intellect, memory and will. According to St. John of the Cross the purification of
these faculties consists in bringing them to seek God alone by means of three
theological virtues – faith, hope and charity respectively. God created the world. The
creatures carry a certain relationship with God, yet God has no relation or essential
likeness to them. No creature can serve the intellect as a proportionate means to the
attainment of God.22 He says that “everything the intellect can understand, the will
experiences and the imagination picture, is most unlike and disproportioned to
God.”23 Hence the only means to meet God as He is in Himself are the theological
virtues. For these virtues are divine, and they do not seek God in creation but lead the
soul to God uniting it to Him without intermediaries.24

Thresia’s autobiographical notes and other writings give substantial proofs of

her entering into the darkness of the spirit by living the theological virtues of faith,
hope and charity in a heroic manner.

17
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 25; Nedungatt, Crucified with Christ for All, 7.
18
Vithayathil, Biography of Rev. Mother Mariam Thresia, 16.
19
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’,25, 26.
20
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 26, 28, 34; Vithayathil, Diary, 2.
21
Vithayathil, Biography of Rev. Mother Mariam Thresia, 60.
22
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 11, 8, 3.
23
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, 11, 8, 5.
24
D’Souza, (trans.) The Spiritual Doctrine of Saint John of the Cross, Manglore: (Carmel hill, ‘n.d.’), 44.

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2.1 Purification of the intellect- Deep Rooted Faith

Intellect is the spiritual faculty by which one apprehends things in an immaterial
way. The active purification of the intellect requires the removal of all the obstacles that
hinder the virtuous use of this faculty. For this soul must reject all useless thoughts and
ignore unnecessary imaginations, overcome ignorance by studying the truths of faith
and avoid excessive attachments to one’s own ideas and opinions, especially in matters
of faith. To know God and the divine things, the soul must keep aside all that it has
learnt about God by means of intelligence and concentrate only on what faith teaches
about Him. It is faith alone that teaches of God as He is in Himself. The more intense is
the faith the closer will be the union with God. The soul gets accustomed to interpreting
all created reality in the light of faith. Even sufferings, hardships, temptations, sickness,
trials etc. are seen as willed by God.25

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw
near to God must believe He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Heb.
11:6).To attain union with God, St. John of the Cross recommends the belief in the
God’s being.26 From the childhood Thresia expresses her deep faith in God’s being.
As a child of three and a half years old, the existence of the Holy Trinity, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit got imprinted in the depth of her heart through the
instrumentality of her devout mother.27 The basic Christian faith that God the Father
sent His only Son Jesus to the world as the saviour of the world for the atonement of
her sins and for the sins of the world (1Jn. 4: 10) which was implanted in her tender
heart grew up strongly as she grew in age. Thresia was consumed by the intense
desire to love this God who suffered and died on the cross for her.28 She did not make
a difference of Father, Son or Spirit. The Being of God, the One God, was the Father,
Son and Spirit for her. The love for this God who endured suffering and died on the
cross triggered in her a journey of sharing the sufferings of this God.

Child Thresia was deeply aware of a God who is always awake and living and
ever present to her. Thresia’s mother noticed that she got up in the night several times

25
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, II, 9, 1; Aumann, Spiritual Theology, 187-
190; D’Souza, The Spiritual Doctrine of St. John of the Cross, 44, 45.
26
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, II,4, 4.
27
Chacko, Mother Mariam Thresia, 45.
28
M.Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 25.

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to pray and do penance. So she asked the child to sleep by her side. The child’s
answer to her request is astonishing. “It sounds childish. The age of lying by your side
was over at the age of two and a half; so please, don’t ask me to do that again. … You
ask me to sleep; does our God ever sleep.”29

Thresia’s faith surpasses her reasons. Once seeing Thresia’s deteriorating

health, her mother started giving her an Aurvedic treatment which only worsened her
health. Mother was panic stricken. Thresia’s response was unusual for an ordinary
child. She said: “Hasn’t God given me good health? Is it not because you opposed His
will, that I am sick again? Therefore let us place our trust in God”. Hearing the child’s
consoling words the mother acknowledged her lack of faith: “I don’t have the kind of
courage you have.”30

Thresia had deep faith in the sacraments and exhibited great enthusiasm in the
religious matters. The ardent desire to be united with whom she loves gave her the
courage to go against all the obstacles and get her wish fulfilled. She could make
confession and receive Holy Communion before the customary age.31 Thresia was a very
intelligent child. She learnt religious matters very fast. Her performance in the catechism
class spoke of her talents and also the way she accepted negative experiences.

On Sundays, while the priests were teaching catechism in the church, they
used to avoid me and ask questions to others. I would feel very sad about not having a
chance to say a good word. When the small children could not learn the prayers, my
spiritual father would ask me to teach them. Many used to find fault with him, and
ridicule me for this. Even my family members did the same. From my part, however, I
would offer all these for the glory of God.32

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen
(Heb.11:1). Faith affirms what cannot be understood by the intellect. If the things are
manifested there would be no faith. In the language of St. John of the cross, faith
brings certitude to the intellect, but it does not produce clarity, only darkness.33 Some
of Thresia’s letters are a manifestation of her entering into the darkness of the intellect.

29
M.Thresia, ‘Autobiography’,28, 29.
30
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 29.
31
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 26.
32
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 27, 28.
33
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, II, 6, 2.

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In letter 11, she expresses her joy while she was undergoing great pain only
because she could see the greatness of the invisible God. “On account of this
wretched sinner, people speak all kinds of things against you. When I come to know
that, I feel like my heart being pierced. When I think of God’s intervention in this, I
feel joy too. Isn’t God God?” 34 The question ‘Isn’t God God’ reveals her deep faith
in the Being of God. These types of expressions where she exclaims her faith in God’s
being are seen in a few other letters too. In Letter 34 she wrote: “I trust that God is
God.”35 On another occasion she said “If God is God, He will reward you aptly for
your trouble.”36

In the declaration of Bishop James Pazhayattil, the first Bishop of Mariam

Thresia’s diocese, he strongly acknowledges her deep faith: “Her spirit of love and
strong faith in Jesus could never be defeated by sufferings. She was able to accept all
events of life and experiences whether painful or joyful, whether favourable or
unfavourable, in a spirit of love and faith.”37 Her deep rooted faith was radiant in all
the walks of life. Her intense faith brought her close to union with God.

2.2 Purification of Memory- Hope against Hope

Memory enters into the dark night by the theological virtue of hope. Memory
is the store house of the past. To purify the memory everything in the memory should
be emptied except the things that are related to ones duties and obligations. The soul
enters into the dark night of the memory by forgetting the past and looking forward to
the future of life guided by hope. St. John says that a soul must renounce all
possession of the memory in order to reach union with God in hope, for if hope is to
be centred entirely on God, nothing that is not God should reside in the memory.
Whatever is grasped by memory is not God. Therefore the soul must live in the
nakedness and forgetfulness of distinct form and knowledge about God, to have union
of the memory with God in perfect hope.38 Due to the absorption of memory in God,
the person may show many deficiencies in the exterior behaviour. But when the soul
is in the habit of union with God, it will possess greater perfection in action which is
34
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 55, 56.
35
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 77.
36
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 85.
37
Positio, ‘Summarium’, 528.
38
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, III, 11, 1, 2; D’Souza, The Spiritual
Doctrine of St. John of the Cross, 47.

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necessary and fitting.39 In the measure that a soul dispossesses its memory of forms
and objects which are not God and preserves it empty, it will fix upon God in the hope
that God will fill it.40

“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and
eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on
our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.”41 Thresia was gifted
with a high degree of hope in God right from her girlhood. This was very
convincingly manifested while she was sick. At the age of nine she had an attack of
high fever and asthma. Physician left her without hope. But suddenly her hope in God
cured her. About the cure she wrote: “People were standing around me to witness my
death, but then suddenly I felt better and I got up telling them that I was not going to
die. I praised God.”42In another instance (already mentioned before) when Thresia’s
health was deteriorating even with expensive treatment, she objected to the treatment
and advised her mother ‘to keep trust in God’.43

When Thresia reached at the crossroad of choosing a vocation, her intense

love of God inspired in her dreams of living a life of solitude. But when her girlish
dreams of running away to a forest or joining a convent or working as a maid in a
convent were shattered, she was not puzzled. She kept her hope in God. Obeying the
instructions of the parish priest she stayed at home. Realising that it was the will of
God, she wrote: “I continued to stay home peacefully, spending the time in prayer and
doing everything according to the personal guidance of my spiritual father.”44 As
mentioned earlier when the memory is in the darkness, the soul may suffer
deficiencies in its external behaviour; but if it is habitually united with God, the soul
possesses great perfection; and therefore Thresia while at home, did everything with
great perfection. She has explained it in her own words: “My father and mother were
very happy about the household work I did at home and for the interest I took in
teaching the little children, reading books, saying the prayers and making my
meditation without wasting my free time. But then, in order to appear not too good
39
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, III, 2, 8.
40
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, III, 15, 1.
41
CCC, 344.
42
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 32, 33.
43
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 29.
44
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 31, 32.

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before them, occasionally I did some harmless mischief and walked around telling
jokes.”45Thresia’s mother died when she was twelve years old. Hence this proves that
Thresia was in the path of union with God before she was twelve.

Thresia’s letters to the spiritual father are a great evidence for her hope in the
promises of God. When she was tempted severely she felt it was due to her sinfulness.
She wrote to her spiritual father: “I do have the hope that God will save even the
worst sinners. I am waiting hopefully that He will save me too.”46 In many of her
letters to her spiritual father she expresses her great hope in God’s eternal reward,
especially to those who help the poor and destitute. A few extracts from the letters
revealing her hope in this regard are given below:

“God will grant eternal reward to those who convert a sinner and bring him to
the right path, and to those who help the destitute.”47

“I trust in the Lord that God will give you Father, perseverance to the end,
divine grace, health of body, strength of spirit, and His blessings, everyday and every
moment as a reward for your service.”48

In the letter 38 Thresia says that not only the person is rewarded for the
service but his/her family too: “It is my hope that God will grant the gift of
perseverance to the end, fortitude, strength of spirit, and health of body to those who
would convert a sinner and bring him to the path of righteousness, to those who help
the destitute and the poor. God will shower His mercies and blessings on their
families too.”49

There are letters in which Thresia requests her spiritual father to have
confidence and hope. In the letter 29, she recommends him to have special trust in God:
“When we are afflicted with grief and sorrow, we must have a special trust in God.”50

45
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 34.
46
M.Thresia, ‘Letters’, 49.
47
M.Thresia , ‘Letters’, 50.
48
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 58.
49
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 81.
50
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 72.

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In the letter 34 she is asking him to empty the memory with the hope: “I trust
that God is God. If, for any reason you, Father you feel worried or afraid, please get
rid of it immediately in the name of God. Our God is our hope.”51 While Thresia was
undergoing great sufferings she expressed her hope in God: “I do strongly believe that
God will not ask us to suffer anything beyond our capacity.”52

Thresia had great hope in the providence of God. She was never worried about
the future. Mr. Mathai Valiaveetil, a contemporary from her parish, acknowledges:
“No instance has come to me where she expressed despair and disheartedness. On her
sick bed she had to suffer greatly … Never had I heard any word of complaint uttered.
She had great hope in the Lord even on such occasions.”53

After the foundation of the Congregation, Mariam Thresia had to think of the
daily bread, education expenses and the various maintenances of her followers. There
was no capital or source of regular income. Sr.Thresia, who lived with her, testifies:
“Even when the convent stores were empty and the cultivation in the compound
yielded nothing, Rev. Mother put all her trust in the providence of God. Her optimism
and trust in God were extraordinary.”54 Justice Joseph Vithayathil also testifies to her
extraordinary hope: “An ordinary person would have lost hope in the future in the
midst of great trials and troubles she had to pass through. It was her hope that
sustained her.”55

Thresia’s heroic hope reminds us of the words of prophet Habakkuk: “Though the
fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the
fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18).

2.3 Purification of the Will – Conformity to the Will of God

The will enters into active purification through the practice of the theological
virtue of charity. The proper object of the will is the good proposed to it by the

51
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 77.
52
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 82.
53
Positio, ‘Summarium’, 69.
54
Nedungatt, Crucified with Christ for All, 168.
55
Positio, ‘Summarium’, 106.

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intellect. The proper act of the will is love. To attain mystical union, one is required to
subject the will to God by means of a total submission and conformity to His divine
will. One cannot achieve this without getting detached from excessive love to created
things and from self centred love which stands against the demands of charity.56 The
will must renounce the enjoyment not only of the natural, material and spiritual goods
but also the supernatural goods that are inferior to the supreme mystical union.57 The
soul is filled with love of God in the measure that it empties itself of attachment to
creatures. The will which is purified by the virtue of charity is capable of 1) loving the
One and the Triune God who abides in the human hearts, 2) loving God with the same
love as He has, 3) loving Him not for personal benefits but for what He is, 4) loving
Him, accepting and doing His holy will in all things.58

According to St. Teresa of Avila, a person in the beginning stage of prayer

with all possible diligence has to bring his/her will into conformity with the will of
God. She adds that this comprises the very greatest perfection which can be attained
on the spiritual road.59 The author of The Cloud of Unknowing has the opinion that
whoever directs his will toward God’s will, will certainly enjoy something of the
heaven’s joy in this life and fully in the next. 60 When the will directs everything
toward God, turning away from all that is not God, it loves God with all its might
(Deut. 6:5). Conformity to the divine will unites a soul more intimately and directly to
Him who is the source of all perfection. The degree of perfection corresponds to the
extent to which one conforms to the will of God.61

Mariam Thresia with all her might tried to direct her will toward God in every
walk of life. From her childhood she was eager to fulfil only the will of God. She has
recorded two interesting experiences of seeking the will of God. One was seeking the
will of God in giving a massage for a swelling on her back. The swelling was caused
by a hit by her brother. She had taken it as the will of God and decided to suffer the
pain. Her mother insisted on applying a massage. Her response was: “I told them that
I had to get permission from my spiritual father. My mother objected to my asking
56
Aumann, Spiritual Theology, 190-192.
57
Parente, The Ascetical Life, 109.
58
D’Souza, The Spiritual Doctrine of St. John of the Cross, 48.
59
St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Caastle, 51.
60
Johnston William, (ed.) The Cloud of Unknowing, New York: (Doubleday & Co., 1973), 50.
61
Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, 232; St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, III, 16, 2.

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permission for treating an injury. When I approached him for permission he asked
who advised me to do this, saying that it was good that I asked. But he did not give
me permission for this treatment. I felt very happy about it and returned home
thanking him.”62

In the second case Thresia dropped her desire when she learnt that it was not
His will to run away to the woods to be alone with her Lord.63

In her letters to the spiritual father, more than forty times she has expressed
her desire to be united with the will of God on various occasions. A few such
instances are:

In physical illness: While Thresia was undergoing great agony that no one
would take care of her in her sickness, she accepted it as the will of God.64 In the
letter 37 she wrote: “Father, I am not well. I don’t know what exactly to say if you ask
me what my illness is … Pray for me that I may be able to bring my will into
conformity with God’s will.”65

In moments of anguish: “I don’t know to explain to you where exactly and

how much I feel the pain. To put it in one way, my pain is like a tempestuous Sea.
God so willed it for me.”66

During misunderstanding and mordant criticism: When she was very badly
criticised by her own relatives and misunderstood by the people and ecclesiastical
authorities, she would say: “May be it is God’s will that people must speak ill of me. I
do resign myself to it totally… I have no complaints whatsoever. Praise be to God.”67

In helpless moments: In the midst of trials and temptations she felt helpless.
She wrote: “This trial troubles me a lot. What shall I do? I feel awful … I have to
overcome this trial with God’s grace. I don’t know anything. I desire so much that
God’s will and mine be one and the same.”68

62
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 34.
63
M. Thresia, ‘Autobiography’, 32.
64
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 90.
65
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’,79.
66
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 57
67
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’,.81
68
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 85.

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In moments when others were being accused because of her: “On account of
this wretched sinner, people speak all kinds of things against you. When I come to
know that, I feel like my heart being pierced. When I think of God’s intervention in
this I feel joy too, Isn’t God God? Then we who are sinners cannot complain. Let
God’s will be the same in everything.”69

In moments of sharing the sufferings of Jesus: Her certainty that she should
share the cross of Jesus is revealed in this letter: “God’s holy will. Crosses are
manifold. I feel sorry about my weakness. Let the cross of our Lord be with me.”70

In prayer and offering: To offer a patient to Mother Mary, she seeks God’s
will: “My desire is that we should offer the patient to Blessed Mother. Then let it be
according to God’s will.”71

To visit a Patient: Thresia wanted to visit a patient for his good. She gives the
reasons why she wanted to visit him and know the possibilities of reaching there
easily. To discern the God’s will, she leaves the final decision to the spiritual father:
“But only if it is in your will and God’s will, and not at all in mine for sure.”72

Acceptance of punishment: Bishop ordered Thresia not to receive Holy

Communion every day. It was very painful for her. Her attitude in the acceptance of
the order is revealed in the Letter 29: “Is it not God’s will that I should not receive
Holy Communion? There is no need of blaming others.”73

During unexpected delays: When her letter was not sent in time: “It has been
four days since I wrote this letter. I didn’t get a chance to send it. Let God’s will be
done.”74

In joyful moments: When she is fine she accepts it from God. “Everything is
fine. Let it be according to God’s holy will.”75
69
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 56.
70
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 54.
71
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 62.
72
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 96.
73
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 72.
74
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 86.

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Mystical Experience of Blessed Mariam Thresia Active Purification of the Soul

When some special graces are given: Thresia accepts her unworthiness to
receive special grace from God: “I feel there is no good at all in me. God willed so.”76

During her last moments: When Thresia felt that her death was at hand, she
consoled her daughters: “If it be the will of the heavenly groom that I leave you so
soon in order to accept His invitation, let it be fulfilled!”77

According to St. John of the Cross, “God communicates Himself more to the
soul more advanced in love that is, more conformed to His will. A person who has
reached complete conformity and likeness of will (to that of God) has attained total
supernatural union and transformation in God.”78 Thresia’s will is purified with the
love of God as she fulfilled His will always. From her experiences one can conclude
that she was on the path of union with God from her very childhood.

The one who is guided by the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity
seeks only the will and glory of God. The love one had for the creatures and for the
self gradually vanishes in the darkness of the spiritual night. Then the soul will
experience the first genuine encounter with the Beloved.

75
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 89.
76
M. Thresia, ‘Letters’, 52.
77
M. Thresia, ‘Exhortations’, 138.
78
St. John of the Cross, ‘The Ascent of Mount Carmel’, II, 5, 4.

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