Manifestation and Expression of the Virtue of Hope

From her early childhood, the Servant of God turned to God to bring before Him her request for a life of perfection. When she saw a Sister pass, she expressed this wish as a prayer: “Good God, grant me the grace to serve You one day like this sister”.
Still very young, she says again and again to God: “I want to love You […]. Won’t You grant me the grace to love You, good God?”
Conscious of her weakness before God, she confesses her unworthiness turning to God: “Who am I, oh good God, that You have the goodness to visit me and remain with me?”
But she was so touched, so penetrated, by the goodness and mercy of the Savior of the world, that she firmly hoped that through His grace He would complete what was deficient in the inclination of her heart.The virtue of hope found a significant expression in the midst of various difficulties.
During the period of aridity which the Servant of God experienced during her first illness, she was haunted by the thought that all her exercises of piety had lacked the necessary qualities to make them meritorious, and that they also were sin in the eyes of God. She imagined she had become an object of aversion, of hatred and curse and that consequently her salvation was no longer assured. Feeling quite helpless she made efforts to approach God and said: “Even if You have abandoned me, I will not abandon You. I do not want to do anything that displeases You”. Assailed with doubts about divine goodness and mercy, she turned to Jesus: “Oh my Jesus, I believe in You, I hope in You and I want to love You”. And she recited the acts of faith, hope and love.
At the time of the foundation of the Congregation, she was often scared by her misery and weakness. Father Reichard says about this: “[…] She was always absolutely convinced that she has to rely completely on the holy will of God as far as the Order is concerned. She immerses herself in prayer to the Divine Heart, to ask everything of Him. […] She is incessantly expecting God’s help, trusting in His mercy.” She also communicates this trust to others. Father Reichard says in a letter to Bishop Raess: “Her sole trust in the divine mercy is the same trust which she communicates to whomever she talks to.” Her instructions to her Daughters are full of exhortations to trust: “Place all your trust in the divine mercy and in the merits of Jesus Christ, our Divine Redeemer”.
Her trust in God in difficult matters was one of the main characteristics of her high virtue. In spite of difficulties of all sorts, she persevered in her trust and prayer. She even vowed that she would not seek consolation from anybody but her Divine Spouse.
“Oh my Jesus,” she said, “I want to do everything You tell me, but always come to help me through Your grace, I trust in You.” Through her trust she resisted the tangible attacks of the devil.