Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: All
Vultus Christi

Put Nothing Before My Love for You

 on June 7, 2012 8:16 AM |
Batoni_sacred_heart.jpg

You have only to prefer My company
to every other companionship,
the love of My Heart to the love of every other heart,
and the sound of My voice in the silence of your soul
to every other voice.

I have called you to be for Me another John
and this vocation of yours remains My plan for you.
You have only to abide close to Me,
to seek Me before all else,
and to put nothing whatsoever
before My love for you
and the love I have placed in your heart
to love Me in return.

Love Me in this way
not only for yourself,
but for all your brother priests
whose hearts have grown indifferent and cold.
Love Me for them.
Take their place before My Eucharistic Face.

Persevere in loving Me and in adoring Me
for those poor priests of Mine
who no longer love Me
and who never adore Me.
They are many
and the sorrow of My Heart over such priests
is a sorrow that no human language can describe,
for it is a divine sorrow;
it is the grieving of a Divine Heart.
It is the pain of an infinite Love rejected again and again
by finite creatures who have become blind
in a terrible darkness of the spirit.

Love Me, then, and console My Heart
by adoring Me for them.
When I see you before Me,
I will see them,
and in seeing them,
I will be moved to show them pity,
and many of those who are far from Me
will return to My tabernacles;
and many of those who have spurned My Divine Friendship
will, in the end, surrender to the embrace of My mercy.
Do your part,
and I will fulfil all that I have promised.

There is no need to force your prayer
as if it were something of your own doing.
It is enough to remain with Me,
content to be in My presence
as I am content to be in yours.

Adore Me and trust Me to restore your energy,
your health, and your joy in My service.
Those who adore Me know that My presence
renews the soul and the body.
Experience this -- as you already did today --
and teach others to find in My presence
the rest for which they long,
the peace that the world cannot give,
the joy that renews the heart,
and the strength to follow Me in My sufferings,
even along the way of the Cross.

To adore Me is to demonstrate
that all your hope is in Me.
To adore Me is to show Me
that you count not on yourself nor on others,
but on Me alone.

To adore Me is to give Me the freedom to act
within you and upon you
in such a way
as to unite you wholly to myself
as you have asked Me to do:
My Heart to your heart,
My Soul to your soul,
My Body to your body,
My Blood to your blood.

The work of adoration is little understood,
even by those who claim to be My adorers.
There is no need to fill up the time of adoration
with thoughts and words,
as if it all depended on your doing something.

It is sufficient to speak to Me
as the Holy Spirit gives you to speak,
to listen to Me with the ear of your heart,
and to abide in the light of My Face
for those who languish in the darkness of sin
and in the refusal of My love, My truth, and My life.

There is no work more precious than this work.
In My presence, you are ministering to souls in every time and place.
In My presence, I am using you to accomplish
all that My Heart desires to communicate to souls,
and, first of all, to My priests.

I have not called you to build nor to organize,
nor have I called you to speak much,
nor have I called you to appear much in the sight of men.
I have called you to a life as hidden
as is My life in the Sacrament of My Love.

Consent to be hidden.
Let Me hide you
as you hide Me in the tabernacle.
My Heart is your tabernacle,
and you are My host.

From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest


30 posted on 06/07/2012 3:37:22 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies ]


To: All
Regnum Christi

Self - Donation
| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time



Father Edward McIlmail, LC
Listen to podcast version here.

Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I come before you humbly. As one who has frequently fallen into sin, I am aware of my weakness. Your great love, though, assures me that your grace can keep me on the path to holiness.

Petition: Lord, help me live according to the New Testament.

1. Getting Beyond Myself: A scribe asks Jesus a pointed question and assumes that there is only a one-step answer. In fact, Jesus goes beyond a one-step response and links love of God with love of neighbor. "Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness" (2 John 1:9). Christianity is not strictly a me-and-Jesus affair; such a faith can fall into self-centeredness and disdain for the world. We are called to be leaven in the world, to bring light to the darkness. Jesus wants us to be his arms and legs and voice in the world. Am I content to say prayers and make weekly Mass ― but to do little else? Might God be asking me to get more involved in the parish? In the school? In some kind of charity work?

2. The Gift of Self Is the Greatest Gift: The scribe senses that burnt offerings are not enough. Burnt offerings are something external to us. We let go of things (money, used clothes, old furniture) much faster than we let go of our time, our way of thinking. We give things but not ourselves. Am I loathe to give more of my time to help the Church? Why?

3. Fear of God’s Demands: The scribes understood that Jesus was raising the bar on religious observance. Sacrificing a sheep or a goat wasn´t enough anymore. Christ wanted them to give of themselves ― and that left them uneasy. The Old Testament sacrifices were giving way to the New Testament sacrifice ― the very sacrifice of self. That´s what Jesus wanted; that´s what Jesus himself gave. He gave himself up to a cross to confound our self-love. Does it scare me to die to myself? To my whims? What is Jesus asking of me that makes me uneasy?

Conversation with Christ: Lord, you know it´s costly for me to let go of my own way of thinking, to give of my time. Help me realize that this may be the more perfect offering that you seek from me.

Resolution: I will offer to do a favor that is costly in personal terms.


31 posted on 06/07/2012 3:42:02 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson