Love, love, and again, love

"There is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes, and that is love of God; love, love, and once again, love. Nothing can compare with a single act of pure love of God." -St Faustina

When you look upon your own misery, upon all of your sins, do not despair of ever pleasing Him. Know that there is something that has infinite value in the eyes of God-- love. Strive to act always with love, to better know love and to love better. This will be more pleasing to Him than all the penance you can muster.

Freedom

Unlike so many earthly parents, who upon discovering displeasing behavior in their children put them in lockdown, God does not have a control mode. God is willing to risk everything, that we may choose to know Truth and choose to love Him!

Win the heart

The Apostolate is not a battle of the mind, but of the heart. We must always seek to win the heart before the mind, for it is in the heart that God works. The mind will follow, by realizing what the heart has come to know, but it is much harder the other way around. The mind will not be open to learning that which the heart does not know or love.

We are not introducing souls to an intellectual institution. We are introducing souls to the person of Jesus for whom they ache, that they may fall in love and be transformed into their Lover.

If you despair after a fall

"If [after falling] he yields to anger and despairs of advancing on the way of virtue, it is evident that he placed his confidence in himself and not in God. The greater the anxiety and despondence, the greater is the certainty of his guilt." --Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

If you despair after you fall and find yourself upset and confused, be confused no more. You relied on your own strength and forgot what you are: dust, and to dust you will return.

God is not you

"Do not measure God with your limitations." -Fr. Lanteri

So you cannot forgive, cannot love purely, cannot be merciful, patient or kind. What does this have to do with God? He is Love and Mercy. Do not presume that He does not forgive you because you cannot forgive your friend. Do not presume that He does not love you with your faults, because you cannot love your friend who irritates you. God is infinite Goodness. We cannot fathom Him. What a pity you take a page from the world and insist that He can be no better than you.

Leading and the Authentic Woman

What is a woman to do when a man abdicates his leadership role, or tries to lead her down the wrong path? How is she to correct him and save him, without falling into the fault of Eve, and stepping into His role as leader and initiator?

The man's predominant quality in decision making is logic. This provides him the gift of focus and reducing large issues into something about which a decision can be made, as well as offering a rational solution. His danger, however, is that this reduced state is not reality. The world is big and complicated and the possibilities and perspectives limitless. Thus he may make a very "rational" decision that is based in unreality, and is harmful to all involved.

The woman's predominant quality in decision making is intuition. This provides her the gift of seeing the big picture as well as the painful, infinite details and perspectives. This intuition allows her a better grasp of reality. Her danger, however, is to be overwhelmed by this infinite gulf of emotions and facts and perspectives, such that she cannot make a decision at all, or if she does, it can never take into account all of her intuition and is always biased and emotional, and therefore often harmful to those involved.

The authentic woman will never demand a leadership role for her intuition. However she will demand that it be heard. She will insist that it be heard, because the man will often deny its very existence, as it falls outside of his narrow-minded logic. However, she must never insist upon an outcome. Think of Mary at the Wedding Feast of Cana (John 2). She does not tell Jesus what to do, but rather points out the facts: "They have no wine." When Jesus asks her "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come" Mary insists on her intuition, but leaves the decision and action to Jesus: "Do whatever he tells you." Follow Mary's example. You are dealing with a man who is fully human, not God, but there are many reasons that God came as man. He is meant to be head and the woman heart.

When the man abdicates his role as leader and decision maker, or if he makes a poor decision, the woman's duty is to tell him. She must lovingly but firmly point out to him where and why it is wrong, and explain to him the wider world outside his line of logic. But then she must leave it up to him to decide to change his direction and act upon his decision. In this she becomes his helpmate: she shows him what he does not see, that he may perform his role to perfection.

Statement of Faith

Little soul, before you commune with your Lord, make a statement of faith. Let Him know that you believe He is there with you, that He sees you and hears you. This is like the greeting of a loved one: you must enter into their presence with all of you, or you will not be able to understand each other at any depth.

Reality of Evil

Do not doubt that Satan is real, and that he will do anything in his power to keep you from God.

Do not doubt that Christ is King, and that He has already done what is necessary to bring your soul to divine union with Him in heaven. All you must do is cooperate with His grace and accept His mercy.

God can reach anyone

"Never judge anyone as invulnerable to the mercy of God." -Fr. Lanteri

Not even the most hardened criminal is invulnerable to God's love and mercy. Do not turn from a sinner because you presume that his heart cannot be reached. Perhaps you are not the one who has been given the task of harvesting, but this does not mean that he will not be harvested as the finest of wheat! The key into the heart is mercy. After all, our souls were made for union with God, and He is Mercy!

God is not grandfather

God is not your grandfather. He will not pamper you and spoil you and let you eat candy for dinner.

God is your Father. He will discipline you and give you good nourishment. He will not cry when you fall, but firmly stand behind you and say "Get up. Go on." He will have you do as much as you possibly can on your own, and let you fail that you may grow strong and wise. But He is also always there with loving wisdom, and no matter what you do He has you under His protection and love.

Engagement Ring

How wise the first man who gave his betrothed a ring! How her heart needs this constant, ever available, concrete reminder that he loves her and has chosen her above all other maidens to be his own. How her heart needs the reminder that this is reality, and not something which will disappear tomorrow!

And consider how wise that the man not have a ring- as a constant reminder to him that his betrothed is not yet his wife. She is promised, but not given. He must then continue to take appropriate steps to guard her and bring her into his home honorably in the eyes of God.

Wounding our Lord

Soul: "What purpose does it serve for me to wound You so greatly?"

Lion: "What does it matter? I made you."

Little soul, you have fallen again and greatly wounded your Lord. You are confused, you do not understand. You are thinking as human beings do, not as God, for you are not God but human. Leave it in His hands. Know that He suffers that you may be joined to Him. Know that He made you and this world you live in, and that He is Wisdom. Leave it be and love your Lord.

Purgatory

When a lover sees that his beloved has a deeper purity than himself, he will strive to become more pure in order to achieve the more perfect union that his heart longs for. Likewise will the beloved strive to become more pure if her lover is more pure. It is obvious to them that in order to be more perfectly united, they must achieve a more perfect purity, and have a like purity between themselves.

This is what a soul experiences after death. It will long to be, and need to be, purified until it is holy as its Lover is holy, that it may have perfect union with the Divine. Thus, this soul will willingly undergo the suffering of Purgatory in order to achieve this union.

Are you well stacked?

Make sure that all of your devotions are well stacked on the firm foundation of Christ. If your pile is teetering, adjust! Lest with the winds of change they come crashing down upon you.

Make sure you are devoted to God, not your pious acts!

Without blemish

Do you doubt, little soul, that you can be without blemish?

Look at Jesus on the cross. See His chest heaving for each painful breath, bloodied and bleeding from His many wounds, stretched upon the cross. He gave Himself for you while you were blemished, that He may join us to Himself in heaven as His spotless bride. He does not just forgive sins, but takes them away, that we may be holy as His Father is holy.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Make sure that your prayers of thanksgiving are truly giving thanks to God. How often do these prayers turn into a prideful pat on our own back? Learn from Mary when you say your own Magnificat, and turn all praise truly to your God, acknowledging that apart from Him you can do nothing.

Holiness

Soul: "Lord I wish to be without blemish even now here on earth!"

Lion: "Patience, my child."

Holiness for God

Do you long for holiness for yourself, or for God?

If you wish for His grace to keep you from falling because you wish to avoid suffering, then it is for your self love that you ask. And that is something that God will never feed.

How right it is that you be allowed to fall should you love the law more than God! He will take away the law from you that you might learn to love Him because you have nothing else.

Bridezilla

How common it is today to see Bridezillas. They are everywhere! Brides-to-be who are so self-centered and so concerned with what they themselves want that they are a nightmare to all who come in contact with them. How fitting, in an age of divorce! For what sort of preparation is this for a vocation of perpetual servanthood? Just when she most needs to grow spiritually to be able to give of herself completely, to lay down her life for her husband and be under his mission, she grasps at all for herself and is only concerned with her own mission!

Let God sanctify you

Be not afraid, little soul, when you encounter how miserable and infinitesimal you really are.
Be not afraid, little soul, when you shriek for mercy at the tiniest prick of suffering.
Be not afraid, little soul, when you encounter joy and love, that you will not gain heaven.

Let God sanctify you. He does not save you from falling? Trust in Him. He has died that you may be His spotless bride. He does not give you the strength to carry great burdens? He does not send you great sufferings? Trust in Him. He has created you to suffer as He needs you to suffer in order to sanctify you.

Offer your everything to Him: your joy, your sorrow, your ho-hums, your successes, your horrible failures, your mediocrity. He is your Creator. He is your Savior. He is your Lover. He will bring you to Himself.

We are the crippled and lame

Recall the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven with the man who invited many guests to his dinner. Each of his guests, when called by his servant, refused his invitation on account of some business or family matter. So the man told his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame." And when there was still room in his banquet hall, he again sent forth his servant, "Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled." (cf. Luke 14: 15-24)

If you find yourself feeling prideful or worthy of the Lord, recall this passage. If you are dining at His table, it is either because you are crippled, blind, or lame, or because you were very far away from Him. He brought you in because those who were worthy would not accept His invitation!

The Poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." --Matthew 5:3

Little soul, do you fear that you will never reach heaven as you look upon your miserable self? You fall again and again and are so covered with filth to be unrecognizable.

Be not afraid: Jesus has promised to you who are poor in spirit the kingdom of heaven.

Failure

The only failure in life is to not become a saint.

God is giving you His grace- cooperate with it! Jesus came to call sinners, not the righteous. No matter what you have in your past, Jesus calls you now to begin again. And when you fall again? Begin again. What pride you have that you think you are too great a sinner even for God to transform! Do not limit God's power.

Nunc coepi! Now I begin!

Hidden Treasure

Woman: you have a hidden treasure, buried deep in your most secret garden. This treasure is your mystery; it is the infinite depth of your beauty in which we image our God. It is infinite, because it is our soul; it is finite because it is revealed in our body. We must be master of our mystery. We must ask our God to romance us and whisper to us the value and beauty of our secret treasure.

When the man who courts you has won your heart, you will feel the very depths of your being aching for him to delight in your precious treasure. Oh, how you will ache! But, my sisters, you must hold onto your heart; he may have won your heart, but it is not yet promised to him. And when it is promised to him, he has not yet come to collect and take ownership nor given his own as ransom! Do not marry him in your heart if you are not married to him in the eyes of God, or you will not be able to guard your treasure from him.

Solution to sin

Sin has a solution: Christ. In Christ we see that evil and death is defeated through acts of self-giving. In Christ, we see God giving us His only Son, His very self. In Christ's life and death we see complete self-gift conquering our sin and Love achieving victory over death.

The only thing that can keep you from Him is lack of repentance, for this is the refusal to receive His gift and give yourself to Him. If you are willing to give yourself to Him, then you have joined yourself to the solution of sin.

Our sufferings and joys, failures and successes, when given and joined to those of Christ, become acts of love which defeat evil.

Acknowledge your sins

When we look upon our sins, and acknowledge our failings, then God can work on us. We must give them to Him, for He will not wrest them from our grasp. He asks us to give them to Him that He may cast them as far as the east is from the west. If you have tied your faults to your wrist, He cannot without casting you away as well! And He will never cast you from Himself. If you have tied them, then offer to Him the strings for Him to cut, that He may cast the sins from you and keep you for Himself.

Consumed with zeal

So you are consumed with zeal for the Lord- good! Now temper it with intelligence. Watch the fruits of your work, for they will reveal to you its true nature. If you find that your zeal is lighting fires of the Holy Spirit in others and attracting them to Jesus, then your zeal is wisely spent. But if your zeal is closing hearts, then you must rethink. It is not your zeal, but the way in which you enact it which is the problem. Run to Jesus. He will teach you if you climb into the chambers of His heart.

Generous is our God!

God can never be outdone in generosity. Why do you doubt that He will answer your prayer? Why do you doubt that He will provide for you? His gifts are beyond your wildest dreams!! He created the world in all its abundance. How much more abundant are those things you cannot see?

God does not do things by halves. He will always complete His work. If you doubt this, look at Christ's passion! He remained until He could say "It is finished."

Goodness

The devil wishes for us to despair of goodness. He does all he can to convince us that God is not goodness; if that fails, then he does all he can to convince us that we ourselves cannot contain nor obtain goodness.

But these are lies from the pits of hell. God is the very Essence of Goodness, and we are made in His image. Do not listen to the whispers of hell.

Do the ordinary

Sanctity does not consist of doing the extraordinary, but rather in doing the ordinary extraordinarily well. God alone can know the importance of each act you do; do not try to judge the value of your actions. Your life has infinite value and that is the value God places on everything that you give to Him. Even when you brush your teeth, or walk across a street, offer it to Him! Who knows what He can do with it?

You can be a saint

Believe with all your heart that God made you in His goodness; He would not create a soul that could not join Him in heaven the moment it passed from the earth.

Believe in His wisdom and goodness, and cooperate with His grace with all that He gave you.