Alexandrina Maria da Costa

1. Alexandrina Maria da Costa Writing with flowers

2. ALEXANDRINA LIKED FLOWERS SO MUCH! • Part I came about in this way. • Alexandrina liked flowers so much! • So perhaps this tribute “Writing with flowers” is an appropriate tribute to her. • The desire to inspire souls with some of the spirituality of this Beata, suggested that phrases be taken from her writings and illustrated with drawings of flowers in the hope that the imagination of the reader is moved by its beauty, and that its sentiments go deep into their hearts. • In Part II, which follows, the drawing reflect a spiritual moment of Alexandrina and also her mission to souls. The thoughts here are those of the compilers. • The Signoriles • 13th October 1990 • Alexandrina’ Feast Day

3. A FLOWER THAT DIDN’T FADE • Sometimes, while visiting famous places, • I place among the leaves of my notebook • the petal of a flower; • it dries, it loses its fragrance, • and the only witness is the date that I wrote there. • I went to Balasar one day. • Then I went back one second time • and carried away, • among the leavesof the Book of Hours of my poor life, • a souvenir petal. • But this didn’t wither, • this did not lose its fragrance: • it was the vision of an angelic soul, through pure eyes, • the like of which we can no longer find in this sinful land. • And it was the painful and immaculate souvenir of • Alexandrina da Costa’s Calvary, • that I remember." • D. Gabriel de Sousa, O.S.B., Abbot of Singeverga

4. Writing with flowers Part I

5. From the age of 6 I spent much time seeing countless coloured flower petals fall all over me : they seemed like a fine rain. This happened many times. I saw those petals falling, but did not understand. Perhaps it was Jesus inviting me to contemplate His largesse.

6. I was homesick for my little garden because I so love the flowers. Sometimes, carried by my sister, I went to see the garden to kill this homesickness. Jesus, may my sister have somewhere to pick the flowers to decorate your altar on Saturdays! Oh Jesus, all the flowers are for You!

7. Our Dear Mother put into my hand a beautiful olive branch and said to me: - My daughter, here it is: here I place in your hands an olive branch, the symbol of peace.

8. “Your chaste body, decorated with the richest and most precious of virtues, are like the petals of the iris, in their purity and fragrance. They grow beautiful and delicate. They open their petals and, in the surrounding air, they spread their perfume abroad."

9. In His hand my Jesus brought an iris, an amaryllis and a palm. He put them in my right hand and crossed my hands over my chest. “The iris and amaryllis Are emblems of holiness and purity; The palm is an emblem of martyrdom: those are the symbols that Jesus offers you."

10. “The divine wisdom in you ascended, ascended to the highest height; and you, with your soul humbled, remained as small and as hidden as the violet."

11. The joys of this world For me are as withering roses, already decaying, so that I cannot see their colors. Withering roses, but always with many piercing thorns.

12. "I would like your life, beloved spouse, to spread rapidly, and reach the ends of the world, like a shower of beautifulroses falling from the sky. A rain of graces, a balm of salvation for souls"

13. “Your thorns on this earth are transformed into fragrant roses in Heaven.”

14. Where abysses had been, a garden appeared full of flowers. How pretty, how beautiful! Among them shone rays, many rays glowing brighter than gold. “The flowers of this fragrant garden are your heroic virtues; the rays are your love; the abyss, the perdition of souls."

15. In the field round my tomb is a flower garden. Inside there is death and darkness; but outside, plants grow, irises, amaryllises: life springs up and continues to flourish.

16. I want my tomb to be encircled by Passion Flowers to show that just as I loved them in life I shall love them after death. Interlace with the Passion Flowers I want small climbing roses, but the sort that has many thorns. All this is to show that it is with the thorns and with the Passion that we resemble Jesus, that we console His Sacred Heart and that we save souls - children begot of His Blood.

17. Writing with flowers Part II

18. Alexandrina, humble little flower, inclines herself in devout submission to God’s will. Then she opens herself to Heaven asking : - Fill me entirely with Yourself!

19. Her heart, • consisting entirely • of flames of love, • burns among • all manner of excruciating trials. In her simplicity, she opens herself; her heart, which is already consumed by suffering, is fixed on Jesus...

20. Her yearnings are always directed towards heaven; she never, for a moment, inclines towards the earth. Her simple, luminous soul is encased in a mantle of pain as she contemplates humanity.

21. Alexandrina is taken to Heaven by her Jesus. Finally she is confirmed in celestial union with her divine Spouse.

22. Alexandrina also draws us with aspirations of joy towards heaven... ... always in celestial ascent...

23. ... in the wake of the Holy Spirit towards the fullness of Life.

24. ALEXANDRINA MARIA DA COSTA Balasar (Braga), 30/3/1904-13/10/1955 Humble daughter of the fields, exuberant and sensible, at the age of 14 she leapt from a window to preserve her chastity and as a consequence a gradual paralysis left her bed-ridden for 30 years. In a sea of pain, she slowly learned the redemptive value of suffering accepted with love and became a powerful soul-victim and great mystic. She was also chosen by Jesus to mediate with the Church for the consecration of the world to Our Lady. From 1938 until her death she relived Christ’s Passion each Friday, in her body, in her heart and in her soul. From 1942, she suffered the martyrdom of a total fast, sustained only by the Eucharistic Jesus. She not only imitated Christ in suffering but also in loving: she radiated the divine life and attracted multitudes of visitors, whose lives were transformed.

25. This “Writing with Flowers" is none other than the beautiful book Anima pura cuore di fuoco that the Signoriles edited 16 years ago. As in that volume, the writing is attributed to the Blessed Alexandrina. José Ferreira, 22/3/06.