ny person avoid suffering when even the end
of this little finger is in pain? We are all one body in Christ.' 'By the
goodness of God,' said her friend, 'you are now once more somewhat at ease.'
'Not for very long, though,' she replied with a smile; 'there are other
persons who want my assistance.' Then she turned round on her bed, and
rested awhile.

A very few days later, she began to feel intense pain in all her
limbs, and symptoms of water on the chest manifested themselves. We
discovered the sick person for whom Anne Catherine was suffering, and
we saw that his sufferings suddenly diminished or immensely increased
in exact inverse proportion to those of Anne Catherine.

Thus did charity compel her to take upon herself the illnesses and
even the temptations of others, that they might be able in peace to
prepare themselves for death. She was compelled to suffer in silence,
both to conceal the weaknesses of her neighbour, and not to be regarded
as mad herself; she was obliged to receive all the aid that medicine
could afford her for an illness thus taken voluntarily for the relief
of others, and to be reproached for temptations which were not her own;
finally, it was necessary that she should appear perverted in the eyes
of men; that so those for whom she was suffering might be converted
before God.

One day a friend in deep affliction was sitting by her bedside, when
she suddenly fell into a state of ecstasy, and began to pray aloud: 'O,
my sweet Jesus, permit me to carry that heavy stone!' Her friend asked
her what was the matter. 'I am on my way to Jerusalem,' she replied, 'and I
see a poor man walking along with the greatest difficulty, for there is
a large stone upon his breast, the weight of which nearly crushes him.'
Then again, after a few moments, she exclaimed: 'Give me that heavy
stone, you cannot carry it any farther; give it to me.' All on a sudden
she sank down fainting, as if crushed beneath some heavy burden, and at
the same moment her friend felt himself relieved from the weight of
sorrow which oppressed him, and his heart overflowing with
extraordinary happiness. Seeing her in such a state of suffering, he
asked her what the matter was, and she looking at him with a smile,
replied: 'I cannot remain here any longer. Poor man, you must take back
your burden.' Instantly her friend felt all the weight of his affliction
return to him, whilst she, becoming as well again as before, continued
her journey