Bl. Ida of Louvain

As a child, Ida, of Louvain, Belgium, loved the Hail Mary so much that she recited it up to a thousand times daily, genuflecting or prostrating herself before a picture of the Blessed Virgin each time she repeated it. Ida became a nun of the Cistercian convent of Roosendael. Devotion to the Eucharist permeated her spiritual life. Once, while kneeling in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament reserved at the altar, Ida offered this salutation to the Eucharist: “Hail, benign, merciful, and kind Jesus: you who longed for our redemption, and redeemed us from the bonds of perpetual death with your precious blood.” On another occasion, she altered the route of a journey she was making in order to visit the Blessed Sacrament along the way, praying, “Hail, merciful, holy, and sweet Jesus, who for our redemption, desired the yoke of the cross.” Another time, longing for heaven as she meditated before the Eucharist, she pleaded, “O hope, O love, and every desire of my heart! How long shall you suffer me to be detained in this prison of flesh?”