al-maslub 5

She was only thirteen... 

and was now on her own. 

At first, she supported herself by working as a domestic servant. An Arab Christian family named Najjar hired her to work for them. They gave her food, room and a small salary. 

She lived as one of the poor, with just one dress, and gave her salary to the poor, except for a few piastres to provide oil for the little lamp that burned before an icon of the Blessed Virgin. 

Her spare time she devoted to the less fortunate.

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Hoping to see her brother... 

and also desiring to walk in the footsteps of the Lord and visit His holy places, after about a year she left, and joined a caravan that was heading for Jerusalem.

One day, in the streets of Jerusalem... 

a young man, very handsome, and with an air of sincerity, came up to her and began a conversation. She was fifteen years of age. The conversation was one of great delicacy, the young man spoke to her in praise of her perfect chastity. 

Some days later, he met her again, said his name was John George, and offered to show her the way to the Holy Sepulchre. 

Having arrived at the holy place, she promised her mysterious guide that she would take a perpetual vow of virginity, if he would do the same. 

And thus it was, that at the sacred edifice, on the very place of the glorious tomb of the risen Lord Jesus, these two young people became "children of the Resurrection" by pronouncing the definitive vow of chastity.

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Before taking leave of Mariam... 

John George recalled to her the main stages of her life... 

as the Blessed Virgin had sketched them for her in the grotto of Alexandria. 

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Ten years later, at Mangalore, India, Mariam was to see her "spiritual brother" again, this was shortly before her perpetual profession in Carmel. 

The young religious then understood, that John George was an angel that the Lord had sent her, to help guide her, as he had in former days to the young Tobias.

[bron]