that is so true news. we need the association of people who have understood the truth. if they are older and can convince younger people by their association then it is good.
the poor saint I was thinking of Mary spoke to her and told her she would never be happy in this world. at first this other nun thought she was just out for attention, but this priest believed her after a while, because she spoke of the immaculate conception and that was a new topic to the priest himself so he wondered how a layperson could hear of it, especially a girl, but that is what Mary said.
So she suffered. Imagine the pain when she knew she was only going to see Mother Mary a certain number of times. Once Mary didn't come at all. One time Mary told her to drink from the spring so she started digging in the ground, people laughed and thought she was crazy. She may have even eaten earth but she managed to drink some water and from there sprang a miraculous well. But she was not to be cured by the well. She suffered and died.
But what was the pain of her leg compared to the pain of not ever being able to see Mary again in this lifetime? O how that had to have hurt! For someone who had seen Mother Mary to not be able to see her ever again! And Mary told her right from the beginning practically. She must have cried for the rest of her life.
O Mary! Mary! What I wouldn't give for a moment of your grace? To be blessed by you. I would gladly eat earth also. Would I be able to tolerate the austerities of the convent? Of a leg so diseased it causes an early death? Of a sister who doubts my simplicity and punishes me for nothing I did wrong myself?
O Mary please I pray for your mercy. I am most fallen and sinful. "Pray for us sinners". You pray for sinners, and I am the most sinful, therefore my claim is first. If you are praying for the sinful and I am the most sinful then you are praying for me first. No I don't mean it proudly, that "I am the MOST sinful!". I mean it sincerely. There is no one as sinful as I am, because I should know better than to sin yet I still do it. Who knows better than me not to? I have been privaleged to have read some of the greatest books on religion and philosophy in this modern age, and some from the past.
Please help me mother Mary, please help me, I am the greatest sinner. I don't know what I will do without your mercy, your blessings, your benedictions. You are so beautiful. When the girl saint saw you she said she had seen the most beautiful lady. She never said it was Mary, but people guessed it must have been her. She just stared at where the lady was because only she had been given the divine vision to see her with. She manifested symptoms of ecstasy such as becoming stunned, madness, not feeling connected with her body when a man burned her with a candle, and predictions and hearing Mary say build a church and drink from the stream and other people becoming cured for years afterwards.
These stories are real, and when one person hears such things and comes to understand them they can tell the stories to someone else, and that is how faith develops.
In traditional society in the past, the elder people would live at home and were respected for their wisdom and knowledge and would tell stories they had heard throughout their lives and were thus a valuable contribution to society. But now they are placed into an old age home and the relatives hope they die quickly so they can get some of the money that might still be left from these useless old people. At least that is how some people feel towards their own mothers and fathers. I have seen it.

Of course News, that is their function. One of the most important things we can do is to associate with saintly personalities.
Imagine being in that nun's order, the nun who was a girl at the time she saw Mary, and this young girl arrives, full of effulgence and purity!
She was only asked to speak once about what happened, in the beginning, in order to satisfy the curiosity of her sisters. Years later how they would have wished they had recorded exactly what she had spoken, after she had manifested further symptoms of detachment from the body and spiritual realization at the end. What a community to be able to join? I don't even remember her name, this girl, but she felt herself to be just an ordinary girl. The sad part to me was that she wanted to get married. But the sisters and the church upper echolon decided that just would not look good for a saint to do. And they had already decided she was going to be remembered in that way.
She saw Mary once again at the end of her life, in front of the other sisters, in front of the one who had doubted her, but by then had no doubts in her whatsoever. She said,"She is coming for me. I see her!" if I remember correctly. Her face lit up with a halo, a spiritual effulgence, and a priest was there, the one who doubted her at first as well, the one who heard her use the term "I am the Immaculate Conception" in regards to what her lady had told her was her name.
No, she didn't feel special, she felt humble. She didn't feel she deserved any praise for herself. But how could they doubt her lady? She stood there not touching the ground, just looking at her. She spoke to her without moving her mouth. She understood her thoughts. She prayed on her beads. Didn't they both do it? Yes, young and old these types of communities of saintly persons do function in an intergenerational manner. But who is it that is fortunate enough to believe? Who is it that is ready to hear the saints' messages? This is why the saints come, even to this day. We NEED their association desperately! How can we live without it? How can we really live life?

Wise people need attention. Not for themselves! If you see a person flying a kite on a rooftop and they are about to fall off won't you say something to them to try and stop them? Yes!
Joan of Arc heard directly from God. He spoke to her in her prayers. He told her what the King's personal prayers were to Him and when she told the King of that region he understood that only God knew those particular prayers so he knew she had heard from God. She didn't have to just pray and cry for the rest of her life. She also was blessed to hear from the Lord from an early age, but she got to fight!
Like the other saint she only ate some vegetable soup and some bread crusts. She grew up simply.
Among one of her astounding feats was when the British had captured her and were going to rape her she threw herself down from the tower and was not harmed. She tried to kill herself in order to protect the chastity of the body. God told her she would be captured. She looked upon a picture of Lord Jesus while she was being burned and chanted, "jesus....jesus....jesus..." at the time of death, like a true saint. That is when some realized they had made a grave mistake. She never was a witch. She is the patron saint of France.
The wise need no attention for themselves. They have compassion for others and cannot help but speak out. But those who are less advanced need to seek out such advanced association and hear from them.
I don't know whether that concept exists in Catholicism, but it must. There are three ways to associate with spiritual people. If someone is more advanced than we are we should hear from them and serve them, like an altar boy might serve his priest for example. If someone is equal we can make friends with them. And if one is less advanced we can teach them, but in a friendly manner, like if the altar boy goes to school he can speak about what he has heard to his friends who haven't been as fortunate as he has about what he has heard. If a child is lucky enough to hear from realized people often enough something might take hold in his heart and he might gain some interest in the church. The church can help one because even though God is everywhere it is much easier to understand Him in a community of like minded people with varying levels of spiritual advancement and degrees of knowledge. We must hear from realized persons.

My favorite intergenerational experiences happened when I met with pure devotees of the Lord, modern saints. It only may take one moment's association with such people in order for us to get the benefit. I met with one very famous female devotee and just by her looking at me I felt I had become impregnated with bhakti, just as God is said to impregnate the universe with living entities merely by His glance and not by physical means.
Yes she is a pure devotee I felt it in my heart. And my guru. Jesus Christ is our guru, but I also have another one. And when my guru looked through me I felt the pierce of his spiritual glance like a sharp instrument. Those two are both a generation or two older than me, but those two moments association are so dear to me to this day.
It was not so much the quantity of the time I associated with them as the quality. It is said that one moments association with a pure devotee can award one liberation, because they start you on your spiritual journey. And when they recommend you to God, He listens to them out of the love He has for them.