Mother Louise Margaret Claret - The Book of Infinite Love: The Needs of Our Time - A Little Treatise of Infinite Love

The Book of
Infinite Love

The Needs of Our
Time a Little Treatise
of Infinite Love

Mother Louise
Margaret Claret De La
Touche

Imprimi Potest:

JACOBUS,

Episcopus Femensis.

Nihil Obstat:

JACOBUS BROWNE,

Censor Deputatus.

die la Februarius, 1948.

Originally published by Fr. Patrick O'Connell and the Irish members of "The Priests' Universal Union of the Friends of the Sacred Heart."

Copyright 1979 by TAN Books

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-90488

ISBN: 0-89555-129-2

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com
1979

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DECLARATION

When giving these new pages to our venerated confreres in the Priesthood and to the public, we have no intention of pronouncing on the nature of the mystic communications which they contain; we conform ourselves to the established discipline, and declare that we submit filially and entirely to the judgment of Our Mother, the Holy Church .

OFFICE OF SECRETARY FOR STATE OF HIS HOLINESS

July 11, 1928

MOST HONOURED MOTHER SUPERIOR,

The Holy Father Pius XI has deigned to accept the new collection of writings of Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche united under the title The Book of Infinite Love .

His Holiness thanks you for this proof of filial veneration, and wishing that these pages may contribute to communicate to priests and through them to all souls the sacred fire which Jesus Christ brought on earth, he sends to you, as well as to all your Religious family a special Apostolic Blessing.

Please accept, Very Honoured Mother Superior, the assurance of my religious devotedness.

Signed : P. C ARDINAL G ASPARRI.

FOREWORD

The early death of Mother Louise Margaret in 1915 prevented her from putting the finishing touches to The Book of Infinite Love . However, she left the plan and the materials for its completion. After her death, Benedict XV directed that the unfinished portions be completed by embodying unchanged those quotations from her writings which she had indicated. The book was published in 1928 during the reign of Pius XI with a letter of introduction from his Cardinal Secretary, Cardinal Gasparri, on his behalf.

The present translation was made in China for the use of priests and religious in the Far East. It has since been revised and compared with the Italian translation. A short introduction follows giving fuller details about the origin and history of its composition. The translator tenders his thanks to the many friends in China and in Ireland to whom he is indebted for valuable assistance.

PATRICK O'CONNELL.

October 1 st , 1947

CORRECTION: In lines 14 and 15, page vi of the introduction to The Book of Infinite Love, " during the Octave of Corpus Christi " should read: " on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1902, and during the seven following daysnow the Octave."

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE L IFE OF M OTHER L OUISE M ARGARET C LARET DE LA T OUCHE, AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH

The Book of Infinite Love WAS COMPOSED.

Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche was born at St. Germain de Laye in France on March 15th, 1868. Almighty God had designs on her soul from her youth; at the tender age of eleven she made a vow of virginity with a promise to become a Religious if God gave her a vocation. She entered the Convent of the Visitation at Romans in France in the November of 1890, and was professed on October 17th, 1892.

Early in her religious life she began to enjoy special favours from our divine Lord of a similar nature to those which St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received. Her life resembled in many respects that of St. Margaret Mary, especially in sharing in Our Lord's suffering life and in being chosen to be the bearer of a new message of love to the world from His Sacred Heart. The substance of that message (which she received during the Octave of Corpus Christi 1902) was that Our Saviour had made a new donation of His Sacred Heart to priests that they might become filled with the love which It contains and might communicate it to the world, and that He wished that a new worldwide organization for priests should be formed that would unite the bishops and priests of the world to promote devotion to His Sacred Heart.

She continued to receive special lights during prayer, and communications from Our Lord till the time of her death. These she committed to writing in accordance with Our Saviour's commands, and submitted them to her Superiors and to her Director. They were examined by competent theologians and afterwards by the Holy See, and were found to be in conformity with the teaching of the Church in every detail. These notes formed the subject matter of The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood which she wrote under obedience and of which she said that it contained none of her own ideas, but "that Jesus was the Author of it."

T HE ORIGIN OF The Book of Infinite Love

For reasons of prudence, however, both Mother Louise Margaret and Father Charrier deemed it advisable to publish The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood anonymously and without saying anything that would indicate that its contents were derived from private revelation. It was intended later on, when the reasons for this reserve had disappeared, to give the full facts. " If this little book," she wrote, " of which Jesus is the sole Author, makes its way in souls we shall see about giving more information later on." The book did make its way, it was translated into most of the European languages, and was received with a unanimous chorus of approval. A knowledge of the circumstances under which the book was written is necessary, not only for the full appreciation, but even for the full understanding of the book. The Book of Infinite Love will help greatly towards this double end, while the three volumes of the other writings of Mother Louise Margaret under the title, In the Service of Jesus Priest , an English translation of which is due to appear soon, will furnish a complete commentary.

Throughout The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood , especially in the fourth part, Mother Louise Margaret had been using the term Infinite Love to designate God Almighty; her great mission was to convey to priests and through them to the world, Our Divine Lord's further lights on the love of His Sacred Heart, by revealing It as the Tabernacle of Infinite Love; while as a result of this, her Intimate Notes were full of references to Infinite Love and of lights on the adorable mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Accordingly, Monsignor Filipello, and the others who had read her notes, urged her to write a little book on Infinite Love, in which she would put those lights which she had received on this sublime subject into the form of a treatise, as she had done so beautifully for those which she had received on the Priesthood.

The following few quotations from her letters and notes give us the reasons which prompted Monsignor Filipello to put her under obedience to write this book.

In October, 1911, she wrote to Mgr. Filipello: " Our Saviour has an incomparable desire to communicate His grace, His virtue, His Infinite Love to the world, but principally to His priests. They are the channels which will carry this life to souls, this life of love without which faith is dead; it seems to me that some priests penetrated with Infinite Love would be sufficient to operate immense good."

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