Deep peace stole into her heart, as she knelt in absorbed communion in this sacred place, where, for the first time, in her religious life, she had found herself with “Jesus only.”

“Ah, blessed Lord!” she cried at length, “Thou Who knowest the heart of a man, and canst divine the heart of a woman, grant unto me this day a true vision; a vision which shall make clear to me, without any possibility of doubt, what is Thy will for me.”

CHAPTER LIV

THE UNSEEN PRESENCE

The world was a new and a wonderful world as, leaving the chapel, Mora turned her steps homeward.  She had been wont to regard temptation itself as sinful, but now this sacred fact “in all points tempted like as we are” seemed to sanctify the state of being tempted, providing she could add the three triumphant words:  “Yet without sin.”

As she walked, with springy step, down the grassy paths among the heather, the Unseen Presence moved beside her.

It seemed strange that she should have found in the world this sweet secret of the Perpetual Presence, which had evaded her in the Nunnery.  Often when her duties had taken her elsewhere in the Convent, or during the walk through the underground way on the return from the Cathedral, or even when walking for refreshment in the Convent garden, she would yearn for the holy stillness of the chapel, or to be back in her cell that she might kneel at the shrine of the Virgin and there realise the adorable purity of our blessed Lady’s heart; or, prostrating herself before the crucifix, gaze upon those pierced feet, then slowly lift her eyes to the other sacred wounds, and force her mind to realise and her cold heart to receive the mighty fact that the Divine Redeemer thus hung and suffered for her sins.

Transports of realisation had come to her in her cell, or when she kept vigil in the Convent chapel, or when from the height of the Cathedral clerestory she gazed down upon the High Altar, the lighted candles, the swinging censers, and heard the chanting of the monks, and the tinkle of the silver bell.  But these transports had resulted from her own determination to realise and to respond.  The mental effort over, they faded, and her heart had seemed colder than before, her spirit more dead, her mind more prone to apathy.  The greater the effort to force herself to apprehend, the more complete had been the reaction of non-realisation.

But now, in this deep wonder of new experience, there was no effort.  She had but waited with every inlet of her being open to receive.  And now the power was a Real Presence within, revealing an equally Real Presence without.  The Risen Christ moved beside her as she walked.  Her eyes were no longer holden that she should not know Him, for the promised Presence of the Paracletos filled her, unveiling her spiritual vision, whispering within her glowing heart; “It is the Lord!”