Marthe Robin lived in the presence of the Virgin Mary, her “great teacher”

Through God’s grace, one day of December 1928, during a parish mission in Chateauneuf-de-Galaure (southeastern France), at the moment of receiving the sacraments, Marthe Robin (1) experienced a life-changing encounter with the Heart of Jesus on the Cross.

She was filled with a new life, in her body and her heart. Everything became clearer, and began making sense: the illness that was slowly destroying her person on different levels paradoxically became the "opportunity" to experience another, different life. "After years of anxiety and despair, after many physical and moral trials, I dared to choose Jesus Christ.” She learned from the Heart of Christ on the Cross the meaning of her life as a sick person: united to that of Christ, it could become fruitful for the Church and for the world.

Marthe Robin chose to live her life in conformity with the Crucified Love of Jesus: "The Heart of Jesus on the Cross is the inviolable dwelling place that I have chosen on earth." Her parish priest, Father Faure, witnessed this event and accompanied her on this new journey.

Her spiritual and mystical life now developed within her life of sickness, which became a means of union and communion, a place of offering and abandonment. It was the beginning of many graces.

She lived in the presence of the Virgin Mary, her great teacher and beloved Mother. She now lived the Word of Jesus: ''My flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink'' (Jn 6: 55). The desire for apostolate, a requirement of Love, seized her: "I am really greedy, I am really hungry to work for the Love and the Glory of God."

Excerpt from: "Marthe Robin and Father de Montfort", a talk by Father Dominique Bostyn presented during the International Meeting of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in 2004.

(1) Marthe Robin (1902-1981) was a French Catholic mystic, founder of the Foyers de Charité, a visionary and stigmatist who nourished herself only on the Eucharist.