Frances Vernhes

Frances Vernhes was blind from birth and died at forty-five. She loved teaching catechism and could recite it from memory. One dark winter night, walking through mud and dangerous forest paths with her aunt, she insisted that she should lead because she saw a light before her showing the way. Later she was called in Paris.

The medium’s hand begins writing...

AllanWill you tell us what the light was that guided you that dark night, and that only you could see?

Frances VernhesIs it possible that people like you, who are in regular contact with spirits, still need an explanation for something like that? It was my Guardian Angel who guided me.

AllanWe thought so, but we wanted your confirmation. At the time, were you aware that your Guardian Angel was leading you?

Frances VernhesNo. And yet I believed it was heavenly protection. I had prayed so often for God to take pity on me. It is dreadful to be blind. Yes, very dreadful. But I admit that it is perfectly just.

Frances VernhesThose who sin through the eyes must be punished through the eyes, and the same is true of every ability people misuse. Do not imagine that the many pains of the human race come from any cause other than the real one: atonement. And atonement is useless unless it is accepted calmly. Still, it can be made less painful if, by prayer, you draw to yourself the spiritual influences that protect the inmates of Earth's great place of correction and pour hope and comfort into afflicted hearts.

AllanYou gave yourself to teaching catechism to poor children. Did your lack of sight make learning and teaching difficult, especially after the catechism changed?

Frances VernhesThe other senses of the blind are generally sharper. Their memory is often like an ordered cabinet where lessons are stored and kept. Since outside things disturb that faculty less, it can develop strongly through education.

Frances VernhesBut that was not really my case, because I had almost no education. I learned the catechism by heart, and I understood it well enough to fulfill the mission of devoted service to children that I had accepted. In that way I made reparation for the bad example I had given them in a former life.

Frances VernhesEverything in life can become serious study for Spiritists if they look around them and seek explanations in the light of the doctrine, instead of wasting time with the false philosophies of certain spirits who amuse themselves at their mediums' expense with pompous nonsense that flatters vanity and explains nothing.

AllanWe gather from your language that your mind is as advanced as your conduct on Earth showed your heart to be.

Frances VernhesI still have much to learn. But many on Earth seem ignorant only because their intelligence is veiled by atonement. At death, that veil falls, and those who seemed uneducated are often found to know more than those who despised them.

Frances VernhesBelieve me, pride is the touchstone that reveals what people are made of. Those whose hearts are open to flattery, who are too sure of their own knowledge, are on the wrong road. They are not sincerely devoted to truth. Remember the words of Christ: whoever humbles himself will be raised up.

Frances VernhesBe humble like Christ, and like Him carry your cross with love, so that you may enter the kingdom of heaven.