2015 – Seeking Omega

The “Our Father” Explained

Jesus speaks:

«Listen. When you pray, pray thus: “Our Father, Who are in Heaven, may Your name be held holy, Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven, and may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us, and do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.

Nothing else is required, My friends. Everything man needs for his spirit and his flesh and blood is contained in these words as in a golden ring. With this prayer you ask for what is useful to the former and the latter two. And if you do what you ask for, you will gain eternal life. It is so perfect a prayer that neither the storms of heresies nor the course of ages will undermine it. Christianity will be split by Satan’s bite and many parts of My mystic body will be torn off and separated, forming independent cells in the vain desire to form a body as perfect as the mystical Body of Christ will be, which is the one formed by all the faithful believers united in the apostolic Church, the only true Church, as long as the earth exists. But those separated little cells, devoid of the gifts, which I will leave to the Mother Church to nourish My children, will always be denominated Christian, because of their worship of the Christ, and in their error they will always remember that they derive from the Christ. Well, they will pray with this universal prayer as well. Remember it carefully. Meditate on it continuously. Practice it in your actions. You need nothing else to sanctify yourselves. If one were alone, in a heathen place, without churches, without books, one would already have all the knowledge to meditate on in this prayer and a church in his heart for this prayer. One would have a safe rule of sanctification.

“Our Father”. I call Him: “Father.” Father of the Word, Father of the Incarnate. That is how I want you to call Him because you are all one with Me, if you remain in Me.
Once man had to prostrate himself with his face on the ground to whisper, trembling with fear: “God!” He who does not believe in Me and in My word is still in such paralyzing fear… Watch the interior of the Temple. Not God, but the very remembrance of God is concealed from the eyes of the faithful by a treble veil. He who prays is separated by remoteness and veils, everything has been devised to say to him: “You are mud. He is Light. You are contemptible. He is Holy. You are a slave. He is King.” But now!… Stand up! Come near Me! I am the Eternal Priest. I can take you by the hand and say: “Come.” I can grasp the veils and draw them, and thus throw open the inaccessible place closed so far. Closed? Why? Closed by Sin, yes. But even more closed by the dispirited thought of man. Why closed if God is Love, if God is father? I can, I must, I want to take you not into the dust, but into the azure; not far, but near; not as slaves, but as children on to the heart of God. Say: “Father! Father! .” And never tire repeating this word. Do you not know that every time you say it, Heaven shines because of God’s joy? If you said with true love no other word but that one, you would be saying a prayer pleasing to the Lord. “Father! Father!” the little ones say to their fathers. It is the first word they say: “Mother, father.” You are the little children of God. I begot you from the old man you were and whom I destroyed by means of My love to give birth to the new man, the Christian. Call, therefore, the Most Holy Father Who is in Heaven, with the first word that little children learn.

“May Your Name be held holy.” Oh! Name, which is holier and sweeter than any other name and which the fear of the guilty taught you to conceal under a different one. No, no longer. He is God. He is the God Who in an excess of love created Mankind. And Mankind, from now onwards, with lips cleansed by the purification that I am preparing, should call Him by His Name, awaiting to fully comprehend the true meaning of the Incomprehensible One, when the best children of Mankind, united to Him, will rise to the Kingdom that I have come to establish.

“Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.” Desire its coming with all your strength. If it came, it would be the joy of the earth. The Kingdom of God in hearts, in families, among citizens and nations. Suffer, work, sacrifice yourselves for this Kingdom. Let the earth be a mirror reflecting the life of Heaven in each individual. It will happen. All this will happen one day. Centuries of tears and blood, of errors, persecutions, of darkness relieved by flashes of light radiating from the mystical Light of My Church will precede the moment in which the earth will possess the Kingdom of God. Oh! My Church: although a boat, it will never be sunk, as it is also a cliff unshakeable by breakers and will hold high the Light, My Light, the Light of God. And it will then be like the intense blazing of a star which, having reached the perfection of its existence, disintegrates, an immeasurable flower of the ethereal gardens, to breathe its existence and love at the feet of its Creator, in a rutilant throb. But it will most certainly come. And then there will be the perfect, blessed eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

“And may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” The submission of one’s will to the will of another person can be accomplished only when one reaches perfect love for that creature. The submission of one’s will to God’s can be achieved only when one achieves possession of the theological virtues in a heroic degree. In Heaven, where everything is faultless, God’s will is done. You, children of Heaven, must learn to do what is done in Heaven.

“Give us today our daily bread.” When you are in Heaven, God alone will be your nourishment. Beatitude will be your food. But here, you still need bread and since you are the children of God, it is only fair to say: “Father, give us some bread.” Are you afraid He will not hear you? Oh! no! Just think: If one of you has a friend and, if he finds out that he has no bread to offer another friend or relative, who has arrived in the middle of the night, goes to his friend saying: “Lend me three loaves, because a guest has arrived and I have nothing to give him to eat”, can he possibly hear his friend answer him from inside the house: “Do not bother me, I have already bolted the door and my children are already sleeping beside me. I cannot get up and give you what you want”? No. If he has applied to a true friend and if he insists, he will receive what he asks for. He would receive it also if he applied to someone who was not a very good friend. He would be satisfied because of his insistence, as his friend, of whom he asked the favor, will hasten to give him what he wants, so that he may no longer be bothered.
But when you pray the Father, you do not turn to a friend of the earth, but you apply to the Perfect Friend Who is the Father of Heaven. That is why I say to you: “Ask, and it will be given to you, search, and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to You.” For the one who asks will receive, the one who searches always finds, the one who knocks will have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a roasted fish? A father who did that to his own children would be a criminal. I have already told you and I will repeat it to convince you to be good and trustful. As a sound-minded person would not give a scorpion instead of an egg, with what greater bounty will God give you what you ask for! Because He is good, whereas you are more or less wicked. Ask, therefore, the Father for your bread with humble filial love.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us.” There are material debts and spiritual ones. There are also moral debts. The money or the goods that one has received as a loan and must give back, are a material debt. Esteem extorted and not given back and love wanted and not returned are a moral debt. To obey God, from Whom one would exact much giving Him very little, and to love Him are a spiritual debt. He loves us and is to be loved, as a mother, a wife, a son, from whom so much is exacted, are to be loved. A selfish man wants to receive, but does not give. But an egoist is poles apart from Heaven. We are in debt to everybody. From God to a relative, from a relative to a friend, from a friend to our neighbor, to a servant, to a slave, because they are all beings like ourselves. Woe to him who does not forgive! He will not be forgiven. God, out of justice, cannot remit the debt of a man who is in debt to Him, the Most Holy One, if man does not forgive his fellow man.

“Do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.” The man who did not feel the need to share the Passover supper with us, asked Me, less than a year ago: “What? You asked not to be tempted and to be helped against temptation?”. There were only the two of us… and I replied. Later we were four, in a lonely area, and I replied once again. But still to no avail, because when dealing with an unyielding spirit it is necessary to open a breach by demolishing the evil fortress of his stubbornness. And I will, therefore, repeat it once, ten times, one hundred times until everything is accomplished. But since you are not hardened by strange doctrines or by even stranger pass- ions, I beg you to pray thus. Pray with humility that God may avert temptations from you. Oh! humility! To know oneself for what one is! Without losing heart, but to know oneself! Say: “I may give in, even if I do not think I could do it, because I am but an imperfect judge of myself. Therefore, Father, if possible, deliver me from temptations by keeping me so close to You as not to allow the Evil One to harm me.” Because, remember, it is not God Who tempts you to evil things, but it is the Evil One who tempts you. Pray the Father that He may support your weakness so that it may not be led into temptation by the Evil One.>>

Source: Maria Valtorta, “Poem of the Man-God”

Easter Sunday – What Happened?

shroud-full-image

According to Faith:

“[…] In the clear sky, where to the east there is now a completely rosy zone, which is spreading out more and more widely, but where, however, there are no sunbeams as yet, a very bright meteor appears, coming from unknown depths, and it descends like a sphere of fire of unsustainable splendor, followed by a glowing trail, which perhaps is nothing but the persistence of its brightness in our retinae. It descends at a very high speed towards the Earth, shedding such an intense phantasmagoric light, frightful in its beauty, that the rosy light of dawn vanishes, outshone by such white incandescence.

The guards, astonished, raise their heads, also because with the light comes a mighty, harmonious, solemn rumble that fills the whole of Creation with its roar. It comes from heavenly depths. It is the alleluia, the angelical glory that follows the Spirit of the Christ, which is returning to His glorious Flesh. The meteor clashes on the useless closure of the Sepulcher, tears it off, throws it on the ground, and it strikes with terror and noise the guards placed as jailors of the Master of the Universe, producing with its return to the Earth a new earthquake, as it had caused one when this Spirit of the Lord fled from the Earth. It enters the dark Sepulcher that becomes all bright with its indescribable light, and while it remains suspended in the still air, the Spirit is infused again into the Body motionless under the funereal bandages. All this takes place not in a minute, but in the fraction of a minute, so fast have been the appearance, descent, penetration and the disappearance of the Light of God…

The «I want» of the divine Spirit to its cold Body is noiseless. It is uttered by the Essence to the immobile Matter. But no word is perceived by the human ear. The Flesh receives the order and obeys it with a deep sigh… nothing else for some minutes. Under the Sudarium and the Shroud, the glorious Body is recomposed in eternal beauty, it awakes from the sleep of death, and it comes back from the «nothing» in which it was, it lives after being dead. The heart certainly awakes and gives its first throb; it propels the remaining frozen blood through the veins and at once creates the full measure of it in the empty arteries, in the immobile lungs, in the dark brain, and brings back warmth, health, strength, thought.

Another moment, and there is a sudden movement under the heavy Shroud. It is so sudden that, from the moment He certainly moves His folded arms to the moment He appears standing, imposing, splendid in His garment of immaterial matter, supernaturally handsome and majestic, with a gravity that changes and elevates Him, and yet leaves Him exactly Himself, the eye has hardly time to follow the development. And now it admires Him: so different from what the mind remembers, tidied up, without wounds or blood, only blazing with the light that gushes from the five wounds and issues from every pore of His skin.

When He takes His first step – and in the movement the rays emanating from His Hands and Feet halo Him with beams of light: from His Head haloed with a garland, made with the countless little wounds of the crown, but they no longer bleed but only shine, to the hem of His tunic, when, opening His arms, that were folded across His chest, He uncovers the zone of very bright luminosity that filters through His tunic inflaming it like a sun at the height of His Heart – then it is really the «Light» that has taken a body. Not the poor light of the Earth, not the poor light of the stars, not the poor light of the sun. But the Light of God: all the heavenly brightness that gathers in one Being and grants Him its inconceivable azure as eyes, its golden fire as hair, its angelic whiteness as garment and complexion and all that exists, but cannot be described by human words, the super eminent ardor of the Most Holy Trinity, that outshines with its ardent power every fire in Paradise, absorbing Him in Itself to generate Him again at each moment of the eternal Time, Heart of Heaven that attracts and spreads His blood, the countless drops of His incorporeal blood: the blessed souls, the angels, everything there is the Paradise: the love of God, the love for God, all this is the Light that is, that forms the Risen Christ.

When He moves, coming towards the exit, and the eye can see beyond His brightness, two most beautiful brilliances, but similar to stars compared with the sun, appear to me, one on this side, the other on the other side of the threshold, prostrated in the adoration of their God, Who passes by enveloped in His light, beatifying with His smile, and He goes out, leaving the funereal grotto and going back to walk on the earth, that awakes out of joy and shines in its dews, in the hues of herbs and roseries, in the countless corollas of apple-trees, that open, by a wonder, to the early sun that kisses them, and to the eternal Sun Who proceeds under them.

The guards are there, shocked… The corrupt powers of man do not see God, whereas the pure powers of the universe – the flowers, herbs, birds – admire and venerate the Mighty One, Who passes by in a halo of His own Light and in an aureola of sunlight. His smile, His eyes that rest on flowers, on dead branches that look up at the clear sky everything becomes more beautiful. And more soft and shaded than a silky rosery are the millions of petals forming flowery foam on the head of the Conqueror. And brighter are the diamonds of the dew. And of a deeper blue is the sky reflecting His refulgent eyes, and more joyful is the sun that with gladness paints a little cloud blown by a light wind, that comes to kiss its King with scents stolen from gardens and with caresses of silky petals.

Jesus raises His Hand and blesses and then, while the birds sing more loudly and the wind carries its scents, He disappears from my sight, leaving me in a joy that cancels even the slightest remembrance of sadness and sufferings and hesitancy for tomorrow…” […]

“The Magdalene, is just on the border of the path that takes one to the kitchen garden of Joseph of Arimathea, when she is caught in the powerful and also harmonious roar of this heavenly sign, while, in the faint rosy light of dawn, that is advancing in the sky, where to the west a persistent star still resists, and that makes fair the so far greenish light, a very bright light appears and descends like and incandescent wonderful globe, cutting the calm air in a zigzag course. Mary of Magdala is almost grazed and thrown on the ground by it. She bends for a moment whispering: «My Lord!» and then she straightens up like a stalk after the wind has passed by, and she runs towards the kitchen garden even faster. She enters it quickly, and goes towards the Sepulcher in the rock as fast as a bird that is chased and is looking for its nest. But, no matter how fast she runs, she cannot be there when the heavenly meteor acts as a lever and as a flame on the seal of lime, placed as a reinforcement for the heavy stone, or when with the final crash the stone door collapses, causing such a shake that joins the one of the earthquake, which, although of a short duration, is so violent that it knocks the guards down as if they were dead.

When Mary arrives, she sees the useless jailors of the Triumpher thrown on the ground like a sheaf of mown corn. Mary Magdalene does not associate the earthquake with Resurrection. But looking at the spectacle, she thinks it is a punishment of God for the desecrators of Jesus’ Sepulcher, and she falls on her knees saying: «Alas! They have stolen Him!» She is really disconsolate and weeps like a girl who has come, being sure that she would find her father whom she was looking for, and instead finds the house empty.

She then stands up and runs away to go to Peter and John. And as she thinks of nothing but of informing the two, she forgets to go and meet her companions and remain on the road, but as fast as a gazelle she goes back the road she came, she passes through the Judicial Gate, and flies through the streets, which are a little more crowded, and she rushes against the door of the hospitable house and knocks at it furiously. The mistress opens the door to her.

«Where are John and Peter?» asks Mary Magdalene panting.

«There» says the woman pointing at the Supper-room.

Mary of Magdala enters and as soon as she is in, standing before the two astonished men, and in her voice, kept low out of pity for the Mother, there is more anguish than if she had shouted, she says: «They have taken the Lord away from the Sepulcher! I wonder where they have put Him!» and for the first time she staggers and is unsteady, and in order not to fall, she holds on whatever she can.

«What? What are you saying?» ask the two.

And panting she replies: «I went ahead… to buy the guards… so that they would let us go. They are there like dead bodies… The Sepulcher is open, the stone is on the ground… Who? Who did it? Oh! come! Let us run…»

Peter and John set out at once. Mary follows them for a few steps. Then she goes back. She seizes the mistress of the house, she shakes her, violent in her far-sighted love, and she shouts in her face: «Mind you do not let anybody go to Her (and she points at the door of Mary’s room). Remember that I am your mistress. Obey and be silent.» Then she leaves her aghast and joins the apostles, who are striding towards the Sepulcher…

[…] John, who runs faster, is the first to arrive at the Sepulcher. The guards are no longer there. Neither is the angel there anymore. John, timid and sorrowful, kneels down at the open entrance to venerate and get some indication from the things he sees. But he only sees, heaped on the floor, the linen cloths placed on the Shroud.

«There is really nothing, Simon! Mary has seen accurately. Come, come in, look.»

Peter, who is breathless after so much running, goes into the Sepulcher. On the way he had said: «I will never dare to approach that place.» But now he thinks only of finding out where the Master may be. And he calls Him also, as if He might be concealed in some dark corner. At this early hour in the morning it is still very dark in the deep Sepulcher, which receives light only from the opening of the entrance, where John and the Magdalene now cast a shadow… And Peter finds it hard to see, and has to help himself with his hands to ascertain what the situation is… He touches, trembling, the table of the anointment, and feels that it is empty…

«He is not here, John! He is not here! Oh! Come here! I have wept so much that I can hardly see in this poor light.»

John stands up and goes in. And while he does so, Peter discovers the sudarium in a corner, folded diligently and within it the Shroud rolled up carefully.

«They have really abducted Him. The guards were not here for us, but to do that… And we have let them do it. By going away, we have allowed that…»

«Oh! where will they have put Him?»

«Peter, Peter! This… is really the end!»

The two disciples come out looking annihilated. «Let us go, woman. You will tell the Mother…»

«I am not going away. I am staying here… Somebody will come… Oh! I am not coming… There is still something of Him here. The Mother was right… To breathe the air where He was is the only relief left to us.»

«The only relief… Now you also can see that it was nonsense to hope…» says Peter.

Mary does not even reply to him. She crouches on the ground, close to the entrance, and weeps, while the others go away slowly. She then raises her head and looks inside, and through her tears she sees two angels, sitting at the head and at the foot of the anointment stone. Poor Mary is so stupefied in her fiercest struggle between hope that is dying and faith that does not want to die, that she looks at them like one whose mind is completely blank, without even being surprised. The strong woman, who has resisted everything like a heroine, has nothing left but tears.

«Why are you weeping, woman?» asks one of the two shining young boys, because they look like very beautiful adolescents.

«Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have put Him.» Mary is not afraid to speak to them. She does not ask: «Who are you?» nothing. Nothing amazes her any more. She has already suffered everything that can astonish a human being. Now she is only a broken thing that weeps without strength or reserve.

The angelical youth looks at his companion and smiles. And so does the other. And in a flash of angelical joy they both look outside, towards the garden all in bloom with millions of corollas that have opened at the first sunshine on the closely planted apple trees of the orchard.

Mary turns round to see who they are looking at. And she sees a Man, most handsome, and I do not know how she does not recognize Him at once. A Man Who looks at her pitifully and asks her:

«Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?»

It is true that Jesus is dimmed out of pity for the woman, whom emotions have exhausted and who might die from sudden joy, but I really wonder why she does not recognize Him. And Mary sobbing says:

«They have taken my Lord Jesus! I had come to embalm Him while awaiting His resurrection… I gathered all my courage, my hope and my faith around my love… and now I cannot find Him any more… Or rather, I put my love around faith, hope and courage to defend them from men… but all in vain! Men have abducted my Love and with it they have deprived me of everything… O my lord, if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him. And I will get Him… I will not tell anybody… It will be a secret between you and me. Look: I am the daughter of Theophilus, Lazarus’ sister, but I am on my knees before you to implore you, like a slave. Do you want me to pay you for His Body? I will do so. How much do you want?

I am rich. I can give you as much gold and as many gems as it weighs. But give it back to me. I will not denounce you. Do you want to strike me? Do so. Until I bleed, if you wish so. If you bear Him a grudge, let me expiate it. But give Him back to me. Oh! don’t make me wretched with this misery, my lord! Have mercy on a poor woman!… Do you not want to do it on my behalf? Then, do it for His Mother. Tell me! Tell me where my Lord Jesus is. I am strong. I will take Him in my arms and I will carry Him like a child to safety. Lord… lord… you can see it… for three days we have been struck by the wrath of God for what was done to the Son of God… Do not add Desecration to Crime…»

«Mary!» Jesus shines in calling her. He reveals Himself in His triumphant brightness.

«Rabboni!» Mary’s cry is really the «great cry» that closes the cycle of death. With the first one, the darkness of hatred enveloped the Victim with funereal bandages; with the second, the lights of love increased His brightness.

And Mary stands up as her cry fills the garden, she rushes to Jesus’ feet and would like to kiss them. Jesus moves her away, hardly touching her forehead with the tips of His fingers: «Do not touch Me! I have not yet ascended to My Father in this appearance. Go to My brothers and friends, and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and yours, to My God and yours. And then I will come to them.» And Jesus disappears, absorbed by an unsustainable light.

Mary kisses the ground where Jesus was and she runs towards the house. She goes in like a rocket, because the main door is half open, to let the master pass, who is going to the fountain; she opens the door of Mary’s room and drops on Her breast shouting: «He has risen! He has risen!» and she weeps happily.”

Source: Maria Valtorta

2. According to Science:

It is estimated that 34 trillion Watts would be needed to recreate the image on the Shroud in laboratory. Today’s technology can only generate up to a few billion Watts.

Click here for the video.

Click here for the newspaper article.

Click here for the research paper.

That mellow, persuasive, friendly voice you hear sometimes when you need to decide between good and evil.. That’s the devil’s poison trap

Jesus says in response to some of my thoughts: “Lucifer is intelligent as well as cunning. Uses cunning to undermine, but intelligence to think about whether and when and how to give Me pain and ruin a creature. Believe Me that he never wastes his time unnecessarily.

So, given that, as he is ubiquitous on earth, has much to do with the many men who inhabit the globe. Man’s little attention and resistance to do good, make the power of Lucifer, which is already big, even bigger. However, I say to you, he must still calculate his time well and not lose a moment to work with profit. With his nefarious purpose that is to fatten his hell of stolen treasures to God: souls. He is truly a tireless worker. In Heaven, the Tireless works in your best interest. In Hell, the tireless works evils against you. And I say to you that he has more luck than God: his conquests (Editor: of souls), are more numerous than mine. But, you can well understand from My premise, that, being cunning, intelligent, and busy, He cannot afford the luxury of dealing with all souls equally. And he does not. Oh! His evil is an ascetic idea that he pursues, all voted to it, and he does not get distracted, nor by transactions, nor fatigue! If just you, men, pursued the good with the same intensity with which Satan pursues the evil! But you don’t.

Lucifer, as a human being starts growing in intelligence, initially cares very little, it only looks at them as probable future goats of its infernal flock; as a creature starts to know how to think, that is when older than seven years, it increases its attention and begins its teaching. The angelic ministry instructs and leads spirits with words of light. The satanic ministry instructs and instigates spirits with words of darkness. It is a struggle that never ends. Winner or loser one, winner or loser the other, the angel of light and the angel of darkness fight around a spirit to the last mortal blow, to tear him away from the other, returning that soul to his Lord, in the light, after he has had her in protection all of earthly day, or drag her into darkness if it was the other to eventually win. But between the two that fight, there is a third and the most important character. There is the man for whom the two fight. The man, who is free to follow his own will and is endowed with intelligence and reason, has the incalculable force of Grace that Baptism has given him and that the Sacraments maintain and increase.

Grace, you know that, is the union of the soul with God. So it should give you a lot of strength and make you unbreakable and incorruptible to satanic pitfalls and corruptions, because the union with God should make you like semi-gods. But to remain as such, one must want it. You need to tell Satan and to yourself: “I belong to God, and I want to belong to God only”. Thus obedience to precepts and counsels, thus continuous effort to follow and chase and achieve the good, and an ever growing good, thus absolute loyalty and constant vigilance, thus heroism to win themselves and the outside in the seductions of threefold concupiscence and its multiple faces. Few, very few, too few souls know how to do these things. So? So to these souls, so easy to take whenever he wants, so inert to escape when they have been taken, Satan gives little care. He does like the cat with the mouse. He takes them, strangles them a little, stuns them and then lets them go, then simply gives them another hit and bite if they show signs of a timid escape. Not more than that. He knows that they belong to him and does not waste much time with them, nor much intelligence.

But with “My” people! Oh! With my own he is different! They are the prey that most tickles his livid hunger. They are the impossible to take. And Satan, like an experienced hunter, knows that there is merit in capturing a difficult prey. They are the “joys” of God. And Satan makes great party when he can give pain to God, and make Him feel hurt and disappointed. He lives of hatred. Just like God lives of love. He is Hatred. As God is Love. Hatred is his blood. Like Love is mine. Here he is then, multiplying care and monitoring around a soul that is “mine.” Entering into a fortress which is already dismantled is a child’s play. He, the fierce king of hell, does not want that. He wants God’s strongholds, the clean and smooth fortresses, clear as crystal, strong as steel, which on all sides show the most holy Name: God, carved deep into its recesses – indeed it is as fluid that leaks out from the recesses, which emanates from the inside to the outside. The name they love, serve, speak with the spirit of adoration, with every beat of their heart. Pick them up, pick you up, tear you away from Me, erase from your threefold being of spirit, flesh and reason, that Name; make you, flowers of My garden, uncleanness for his hell; and laugh, throwing his blasphemous laughter against the divine throne, laugh for his victory against men and God. This is Satan’s joy.

The closer you are to Me, the more he ranges to make you his. And since you are constantly alert and your will is strong, he, the cunning, does not pursue you with the same method used for the others. Instead, he assaults you treacherously, with longer and longer distances in time, at the most unexpected moment and the most unthinkable reasons. He takes advantage of pain, need, abandonment, disappointment, and leaps like a panther on your amazed, heartfelt weakness of the moment, hoping to defeat you then and make up for all the times you’ve defeated him.

Which means does he use? Countless. Which method? Just one. That of a benevolent, liar gentleness, a rational and peaceful word, an appearance of friendship that helps, that wants to help.

Have you been assaulted? And you’ll still be, and many times, and in more and more cunning ways. Oh! What hatred he has for Me and for you! You will have increasingly more assaults; and so cunning as to mislead even the most alert. Alert humanly speaking, though. Because, smile soul whom I love, because simplicity in God, and which is kept as such, is impenetrable to every subtlety. He will scratch you on the outside. But it is an honor for a soldier the scar that marks the flesh and says: “This sign is proof of manly battles”. And the more scars a soldier has, the more the world gives honor to the brave. The same thing happens in spiritual battles. And your wounds, which do not affect the spirit, but only scratch that which is housing of the spirit-king, are your honor. And because of them, you will be honored in Heaven.

In truth I tell you that you call “martyrs” only those who were killed by tyrants. But all my saints are martyrs. Because, to be saints, they had to suffer persecution of Satan and remain faithful. Glory to the winner! Palms are for you in Heaven.

Source: “Notebook #32”, Maria Valtorta

Why good works not done in a state of grace are not profitable for eternal life

Jesus speaks: “Do you not know, dear daughter, that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this life, are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done to Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction? However, I wish that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this life are given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son when he offends; though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be expiated by the desire of the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through the finite pain endured, but through the infinite desire; because God, who is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite grief. Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are joined to Me by an affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or see Me offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but, inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their pain is held worthy. Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and if I knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and have not love, it would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that finite works are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without the condiment of the affection of love.”

Of the evils which proceed from the blindness of the intellect; and how good works not done in a state of grace are not profitable for eternal life. “[…] Their virtues are dead because all their works are dead, having been performed in mortal sin, and without the light of Faith. They still have the form of holy baptism, but not its light, of which they deprived themselves, through the cloud of sins they have committed, through self-love which has covered the pupil of their eye. To such as these is it said, Those who have faith without works are dead. Wherefore as the dead do not see, neither can such a man see, because the pupil of his eye has been darkened, as I have told thee, nor does he know that he remains in the sins which he has committed. He does not recognize in himself My goodness, whence he has received being and every other grace that he possesses. Therefore, not recognizing Me in himself, he does not hate his own sensuality, but rather loves it, seeking to satisfy his appetite, and so brings forth the dead offspring of many mortal sins.

He does not love Me, and not loving Me, does not love what I love, that is to say, his neighbor, and does not delight in doing what pleases Me, wherein consists true and real virtue, which it pleases Me to see in him, not because such virtue profits me, for nothing can profit Me, I being He without whom nothing is done except sin (which is nothing, inasmuch as it deprives the soul of grace and of Me, Who am Every Good.) It is rather on account of their own profit that the virtues of men please Me, for I have the wherewithal to reward them in ever lasting life. Thou see, then, that the faith of these wretches is dead, because it is without works, those which they perform not meriting for them eternal life, because they are deprived of the life of grace.

Nevertheless, a man should not leave off doing good, either with or without grace, for, just as every sin is punished, so is all good rewarded. The good which is done in a state of grace merits eternal life, and the good done out of grace is rewarded in various ways, as I told thee above; for sometimes I lend them time for repentance, or put into the hearts of My servants to continue intercessions for them, by means of which they often escape from their sins and miseries.

Sometimes, through the disposition of My grace, they receive neither prayers nor time, but are rewarded with temporal things, being treated like animals that are fatted for the slaughter. Therefore such as these, who, having always kicked against My goodness, nevertheless do some good, not in a state of grace, but in sin, and have not profited in their works either by time, or by prayers, or any of the other ways in which I have called them, being reproved by Me for their sins, (My goodness wishing nevertheless to reward their works, that is, that little service which they have done), they are rewarded by Me with temporal things on which they fatten, and, not correcting themselves, they come to eternal punishment.

See, then, how they deceive themselves! Who deceived them? Themselves, because you have taken away the light of living faith, and go on as blinded, groping and clinging to what they touch. And since they do not see that with the blind eye and have placed the affection in transitory things, so are deceived, and do as fools, who look only to gold [Scorpion] and not to the poison.

Know therefore that the things of the world, all its delights and pleasures, if they have them taken, acquired and held, without me, with disordered self-love. They rightly remind of scorpions, that carry the gold in front and behind the poison. There is no poison without gold nor gold without poison; but the first to be seen is the gold, so that no one defends himself from the poison except who is illuminated by the light of faith.”

Source: “The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena”

On Gossip

Jesus says:”You must be able to tell the difference between an idle word and a useful one. A word is idle, and sin generally flourishes in idleness, when one speaks of other people’s faults with someone who can do nothing about them. Then it is plainly lack of charity, even if what one says is true. As it is lack of charity to reproach someone more or less sharply without giving advice at the same time. And I am referring to just reproaches. The others are unfair and they are a sin against our neighbour. But when one sees one’s neighbour commit sin, and one suffers because that person offends God and injures his soul, and one realises that one cannot estimate the gravity of someone else’s sin, neither does one feel wise enough to speak words that may work a conversion, and then one applies to a just and wise person confiding one’s anxiety, then one does not commit sin, because one’s disclosure aims at putting an end to a scandal and at saving a soul. It is the same as if one had a relative suffering from a shameful disease. One will certainly try to conceal it from people, but one will go secretly to a doctor and say: “My relative is suffering from so and so and I do not know how to advise and cure him. Please come or tell me what I must do”. Does one in that case lack love for one’s relative? No. On the contrary one would lack love if one feigned not to notice the disease and allowed it to progress and bring about death, through a mistaken feeling of prudence and love.”

Source: Maria Valtorta, Poem of the Man God

How Temptation Works

Jesus is Tempted in the Desert by the Devil.

I see the solitary land which I already saw on my left-hand side in the vision of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. But I must be some way inside the desert, because I neither see the beautiful, blue, slow flowing river, nor the green strips of vegetation which coast its banks, and are nourished by its waters. There is nothing here but solitude, stones and such a parched earth that it has become a yellowish dust, raised now and again by the wind in small eddies, which are so hot and dry that they seem to be the breath of a feverish mouth. And they are very troublesome because of the dust penetrating nostrils and throats. There are a very few small thorny bushes, strangely surviving in so much deslolation. They look like small forelocks of surviving hair on a bald head. Above, there is a merciless blue sky; below, arid land; around, stones and silence. That is what I see as far as nature is concerned.
Leaning against a huge piece of overhanging rock which, because of its shape, forms a kind of grotto, there is Jesus sitting on a stone that has been taken into the cave. That is how He protects Himself from the scorching sun. And my internal adviser informs me that the stone, on which He is now sitting, is also His kneeling-stool and pillow, when He takes a few hours rest, enveloped in His mantle, under a starry sky in the chill air of the night. Near Him, there is a haversack which I saw Him take before departing from Nazareth. It is all He has. And from the way it is folded, I realise it has been emptied of the little food Mary had put into it.
Jesus is very thin and pale. He is sitting with His elbows resting on HIs knees, His forearms foreward, His hands joined and His fingers interlaced. He is meditating. Now and again He looks up and around, then looks at the sun, almost perpendicular in the blue sky. Now and again, particularly after looking around and at the sun, He closes His eyes and leans on the rock sheltering Him, as if He were seized by dizziness.

I see Satan’s ugly face appear. He does not show himself in the features we imagine him: horns, tail, etc. He looks like a bedouin enveloped in his robe and in a large mantle that resembles a domino. He is wearing a turban on his head and its white flaps fall along his cheeks, down to his shoulders protecting them. Thus only a very small dark triangle of his face can be seen, with thin, sinuous lips, very black hollow eyes, full of magnetic flashes. Two eyes that penetrate and read into the bottom of your heart, but in which you can read nothing, or one word only: mystery. The very opposite of Jesus’ eyes, also so magnetic and fascinating, which read in your heart, but in which you can also read that in His Heart there is love and bounty for you. Jesus’ eyes caress your soul. Satan’s are like a double dagger that stabs and burns you.

He approaches Jesus: “Are You alone?”
Jesus looks at him, but does not reply.
“How did You happen to be here? Did You get lost?”
Jesus looks at him again, and is silent.
“If I had water in my flask, I would give You some. But I have none myself. My horse died, and I am now going on foot to the ford. I will get a drink there, and I will find someone who will give me some bread. I know the road. Come with me. I’ll take You there.
Jesus does not even look at him.
“You are not answering? Do You know that if You stay here, You will die? The wind is already beginning to blow. There will be a storm. Come.”
Jesus clenches His hands in silent prayer.
“Ah! It is You, then? I have been looking for You for such a long time! And I have been watching You for so long. Since You were baptized. Are You calling the Eternal? He is far away. You are now on earth, in the midst of men. And I reign over men. And yet, I feel sorry for You, and I want to help You, because You are so good, and you have come to sacrifice Yourself for nothing. Men will hate You because of Your goodness. They understand northing, but gold, food and pleasure. Sacrifice, sorrow, obedience are words more arid for them that the land around us here. They are more arid for them than this dust. Only snakes can hide here, waiting to bite, and jackals waiting to tear to pieces. Come with me. It is not worthwhile suffering for them. I know them better than You do.”
Satan has sat down in front of Jesus and he scrutinizes Him with his dreadful eyes, and smiles at Him with his snakelike mouth. Jeus is always silent, and is praying mentally.
“You don’t trust me. You are wrong. I am wisdom of the earth. I can be Your teacher and show You how to triumph. Then, once we have imposed ourselves and we have enchanted the world, then we can take them wherever we want. But first, we must be as they wish us to be. Like them. We must allure them, making them believe that we admire them and follow their thoughts.
You are young and handsome. Start with a woman. One must always start from her. I made a mistake inducing her to be disobedient. I should have advised her differently. I would have turned her into a better instrument, and I would have beaten God. I was in a hurry. But You! I will teach You, because one day I looked at You with angelic joy, and a fraction of that love is still left in me, but You must listen to me, and make use of my experience. Find yourself a woman. Where you do not succeed, she will. You are the new Adam: You must have Your Eve.
In any case, how can You understand and heal the diseases of the senses, if You do not know what they are? Don’t You know that that is where the seed is, from which the tree of greediness and arrogance sprouts? Why do men want to reign? Why do they want to be rich and powerful? To possess woman. She is like a lark. She will be attacted only by something sparkling. Gold and power are two sides of the mirror that draw woman, and are the causes of evil in the world. Look: in a thousand different crimes, there are at least nine hundred that take root in the lust of possessing a woman or in the passion of a woman, burning with a desire that man has not yet satisfied, or can no longer satisfy. Go to a woman if You want to know what life is. And only then, You will be able to cure and heal the diseases of mankind.
Women, You know, are beautiful! There is nothing nicer in the world. Man has brains and strength. But woman! Her thought is a perfume, her touch is the caress of flowers, her grace is like wine, pleasant to drink, her weakness is like a hank of silk, or the curl of a child in a man’s hand, her caress is a strength which is poured over our own strength, and inflames it. Sorrow, fatigue, worries are forgotten when we lie near a woman, and she is in our arms like a bunch of flowers.
But what a fool I am! You are hungry and I am talking to You of women. Your energy is exhausted. That is why that fragrance of the earth, that flower of creation, the fruit that gives and excites love, seems without any value to You. But look at these stones. How round and smooth they look, gilded by the setting sun! Don’t they look like loaves? Since You are the Son of God, all You have to say is: ‘I want’ and they will become sweet-smelling bread, just like the loaves housewives are now taking out of their ovens for the supper of their families. And these arid acacias, if You only wish so, will they not be filled with sweet fruit and dates as sweet s honey? Eat your fill, Son of God. You are the Master of the earth. The earth is bowing down to put itself at Your feet and appease Your hunger.
Don’t You see that You are turning pale and unsteady at the mention of bread? Poor Jesus! Are You so weak that You cannot even work a miracle? Shall I work it for You? I am not Your equal, but I can do something. I will do without any strength for a whole year, I will gather it all together, but I want to serve You, because You are good, and I always remember that You are my God, even if now I have forfeited calling You so. Help me with Your prayers, that I may…”
“Be quiet! Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
The devil starts with anger. He grinds his teeth, and clenches his fists. But he controls himself, and turns his grinding into a smile.
“I understand. You are above the necessities of the earth and You are disgusted at making use of me. I deserved it. But come, then, and see what there is in the House of God. You will see how even priests do not refuse to come to a compromise between the spirit and the flesh. After all, they are men, and not angels. Work a spiritual miracle. I will take You up to the pinnacle of the Temple and You will undergo a transfiguration and become most handsome. You will then call the cohorts of angels and will tell them to form a footrest for Your feet with their interlaced wings, and to let You down, thus, into the main yard. So that people may see You, and remember that God exists. One must show oneself now and again, because man’s memory is so weak, particularly with regard to spiritual matters. You can imagine how happy the angels will be in forming a protection for Your feet and a ladder for You to descend!”
“It is said: ‘You must not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
“You understand that Your apparition would not change anything and the Temple would continue to be a market full of corruption. Your divine wisdom is aware that the hearts of the ministers of the Temple are nests of vipers, that tear and are torn to pieces for the sake of prevailing. They are subdued only by human power.
Well then, come. Adore me. I will give you the earth. Alexander, Cyrus, Caesar, all the great rulers, past or present, will be like the leaders of miserable caravans as compared with You, as You shall have the kingdoms of the world under Your scepter. And with the kingdoms, all the wealth, all the beautiful things on earth, women, horses, armies and temples. You will be able to raise Your Sign everywhere when You are the King of kings and Lord of the world. You will then be obeyed and respected both by the people and by the priesthood. All classes will honor and serve You, because you will be the Powerful One, the Only One, the Lord.
Adore me for one moment only! Appease this thirst of mine for being worshipped! It ruined me, but it is still left in me, and I am parched by it. The flames of hell are like a fresh morning breeze as compared to this fierce ardor burning inside me. It is my hell, this thirst. One moment, one moment only, Christ. You are so good! One moment of joy for the eternally Tortured One! Let me feel what it is like to be god, and I will be a devoted, obedient servant for all Your life and all Your enterprises. One instant, one instant only, and I will no longer torture You!” And Satan falls on his knees. imploring.
Jesus, instead, stands up. He has lost weight because of the long days of fast, and He now looks taller. His face is terribly sever and potent. His eyes are two burning sapphires. His voice is like thunder: it reverberates in the cave of the huge stone, and spreads over the stony, desolate plain when He cries: “Be off, Satan. It is written: ‘You must worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone.’ ”
Satan, with a cry of fearful torture and indescribable hatred, springs to his feet, a dreadful sight in his furious, smoky figure. And he disappears with a last cursing yell.

Jesus is tired, and sits down, leaning back with His head resting on the stone. He looks exhausted. He is perspiring. But angels come to blow gently with their wings in the closeness of the cave, thus purifying and refreshing the air. Jesus opens His eyes, and smiles. I do not see Him eat. I would say that He is nourished by the aroma of Paradise, and is reinvigorated by it.
The sun has set in the west. He takes His empty haversack and in the company of the angels who, flying above His head, emit a mild light while it is getting dark very rapidly. He starts walking eastwards, or rather north-eastwards. He has resumed His usual expression, His step is steady. The only remaining sign of His long fast is a more ascetic look on His pale, thin face and in His eyes, enraptured with a joy which does not belong to this world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesus says: (to Maria Valtorta)
“Yesterday you had no strength, which is My will, and you were, therefor, half-alive. I let your body rest and I made you fast the only way which is burdensome for you: depriving you of My word. Poor Mary! You kept Ash Wednesday. You tasted an ashen flavor in everything because you were without your Master. I did not let you perceive Me, but I was there.
This morning, as our anxiety is reciprocal, when you were half asleep, I whispered to you: ‘Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem’ and I made you repeat it many times and I repeated it to you many times. You thought that I was going to speak about that. No. First there is the subject which I showed you and upon which I will comment for you. Then this evening I will illustrate this other one.
As you have seen, kindness is always Satan’s disguise when he presents himself. He looks like an ordinary person. If souls are careful, and above all, if they are in spiritual contact with God, they percieve the warning that makes them cautious and prepares them to fight the devil’s snares. But if souls are distracted, separated from God by an overwhelming sensuality, and are not assisted by prayer, which joins them to God and pours strength into hearts of men, then they seldom perceive the snares hidden under the innocent appearance and athey fall into the trap. It is then very difficult for them to free themselves.
The two most common means adopted by Satan to conquer souls are sensuality and gluttony. He always starts from material things. Once he heas dismantled and subdued the material side, he attacks the spiritual part.
First the morals: thoughts with their pride and greed; then the spirit, obliterating not only its love–which no longer exists when man replaces divine love with other human loves–but also the fear of God. Then man surrenders his body and soul to Satan, only for the sake of enjoying what he wants, and enjoying it more and more.
You saw how I behaved. Silence and prayer. Silence. Because if Satan performs his work of seducer and comes round us, we must put up with the situation without any foolish impatience or cowardly fears. We must react with resolution to his presence, and with prayer to his allurements.
It is useless to debate with Satan. He would win, because he is strong in his dialectics. Only God can beat him. And so you must have recourse to God, that He may speak for you, through you. You must show Satan that Name and that Sign, not so much written on paper or engraved on wood, but written and engraved in your hearts. My Name, My sign. You should answer back to Satan, using the Word of God, only when he insinuates that he is like God. He cannot bear that.
Then after the struggle, there comes victory and the angels serve and defend the winner from Satan’s hatred. They restore him with celestial dews, with the Grace that they pour with full hands intothe heart of the faithful son, with a blessing that caresses his soul.
One must be determined to defeat Satan, and have faith in God and in His help. Faith in the power of prayer, and in the Lord’s bounty. Then Satan can do no harm.

Go in peace. This evening I will gladden you with the remainder.
(Maria Valtorta, “Poem of the Man God”)

How Jesus Looked Like

Says Maria Valtorta: “I was [praying] and contemplating Jesus lying on the marble stone of anointing with alongside the weeping mother kissing His pierced hands, I noticed and wondered why the face of Jesus who had just died, and put on that stone, seemed more like the face of Jesus when he was still alive, for thinness and beauty, than how it was instead on the way to the Calvary, on the Cross, and how it appears on the Holy Shroud.

Jesus replied: Because on the way to Calvary I was hot, swollen, with veins protruding from the effort and already with a principle of swelling for the retention of urea, caused by the atrocious lashing. On the Cross, it became even more so. After death, the spasm stopped and, emptied in part from liquids both naturally and because hit by the spear, swelling of the face decreased suddenly. Also being washed by my mother’s tears was enough to make my face look more like before. But on the Shroud it appears the face of one dead for more hours. Therefore it had already begun the usual edema process, which is much stronger in those who are killed with torture equal to mine. It is the serum that transudates and that makes you say that the dead looks like when was alive. It is the great peace that death gives also to the most tortured faces. Further consider that the image appears on a shroud and fixed on it for a process of natural aromas and salt. You know that any stain that appears on a shroud tends to expand. But in reality the traits of my face in the morning of the Resurrection, that is, when I ceased to be covered by the Shroud, were so swollen. Life has returned to the Living “.

Jesus says: “Keep in mind that Galilee was not a big place and that the Galileans were relatively few, they almost always married among themselves and therefore there were two or three types of physical features that for centuries could be found on their facs. It would not be wrong to say that in all the small countries, if you went back to the origins, there would be two or three original family roots, who married or remarried among themselves, giving a pronounced physical character across the Galilean race. That John [the apostle] also had a physical resemblance with Me should not come as a surprise. He was a blond Galilean. That was a more rare type than the darker Galilean, but it existed. But his resemblance with Me was even more marked in regard to the spirit.”

Describes Maria Valtorta: “And I got lost contemplating His face (of Jesus) and observing the smallest details. And I repeat them once again. Hair parted in the middle of the head and falling in long locks to the shoulders. Wavy for a good palm, then ending in true curl. Shiny, thin, well combed, a blonde color that especially in the final curl has decided shades of copper. Very high forehead, beautiful, smooth as a band, the slightly sunken temples on which the blue veins bring slight indigo shadows showing through the white skin, of the special white of certain individuals of red-blond hair, a white milk just a shade tending to ivory but with a faintest touch of light blue, delicate skin that seems made of petals of white camellia, so fine that the lighter thin vein shows through and so sensitive that every emotion shows with more intense pallor or redness.

But Jesus I have seen more and more pale, just a little tanned by the sun taken freely in his 3 years of preaching through Palestine. But Mary is white because she was more withdrawn at home, and is a more pinkish white. Jesus is an ivory white with a slight hint of the blue. Nose long and straight, with just a slight curve upward toward the eyes, a beautiful nose thin and well shaped. Eyes received, beautiful, the color that I have so often described as very dark sapphire. Eyebrows and eyelashes thick, but not too long, beautiful, shiny, dark brown but with a tiny spark of gold at the top of each hair. Those of Maria are of a very light brown, thinner and more sparse. Perhaps they appear so because they are more clear, so clear as to be almost blond.

Smooth mouth, tending to small, well-shaped, very similar to that of the Mother, from the lips of the right size, neither too thin to appear like a snake, not too pronounced. At the center are rounded and are accentuated in beautiful curve, the sides almost disappear, making the mouth appear smaller than it is. The mouth is of a beautiful healthy red that opens onto the teeth which are regular, strong, rather long and very white. Mary’s teeth are small, but also regular and equally spaced.

Cheeks thin but not skinny. An oval very narrow and long but beautiful, not too high cheekbones nor too elusive. The beard, thick chin and bisected into two curly tips, surrounds, without covering, the mouth up to the lower lip and then goes shorter and shorter to the cheeks where, at the height of the mouth’s corners, it becomes very short, simply putting as a shadow of dusting copper on the pallor of his cheeks. It is, where it is thick, of a dark copper color: blond-red. And so also the mustache, which is not very thick and kept short, so that it barely covers the upper lip between the nose and the lip, and is limited to the corners of the mouth. Small ears well shaped and very united to the head. They do not protrude at all”.

(Maria Valtorta, “The Notebooks of 1944”).

After the Bible, The One Book That Can Change Your Life

“I have dictated to Maria Valtorta, a victim soul, a marvelous work. Of this work I am the Author. You yourself, Son, have taken account of the raging reactions of Satan…. You have verified the resistance that many priests oppose to this work. This also proves, Son, that he who has not sensed in the Poem the savor of the Divine, the perfume of the Supernatural, has a soul encumbered and darkened. If it were — I do not say “read” –but studied and meditated, it would bring an immense good to souls. This work is a well-spring of serious and solid culture…. This is a work willed by Wisdom and Divine Providence for the new times. It is a spring of living and pure water. It is I, the Word living and eternal, Who have given Myself anew as nourishment to the souls that I love. I, Myself, am the Light, and the Light cannot be confused with, and still less blend Itself with, the darkness. Where I am found, the darkness is dissolved to make room for the Light.” (Father Ottavio Michelini, “Confidences of Jesus to a Priest”)

Free pdf available for download here: https://archive.org/details/Volume1OfThePoemOfTheManGod

Do Not Be Afraid

“I will come to you as a thief.” So I said, not to scare you, but out of love, so that you may always be ready and live each moment like you would have liked to live it at the time of your rebirth to Heaven.

If men looked at their life like in the rearview mirror of death, they would give it its true meaning. You should not think of death with terror, but with confidence, and understand the full value of the meritorious phase of this existence.

Live on earth as if coming from heaven. Be down here as the man who came back from the beyond. You are a deferred dead. You should have come into eternity from a long time now, and now on earth who would ever talk about you?

I’ll leave you on earth for some more years, so that you may lead a life full of nostalgia for heaven, in which some light from the sky may filter through.

Have I not showed you, several times, how I care about you? So, what are you afraid of? I am always present and always close to you, even when everything seems to collapse, and especially at the time of death. Then you will see how it feels when my arms close to hold you and keep you on my heart. And you see the people that have been helped by your work and your sufferings. You’ll thank me for having guided you as I did, keeping you safe from numerous physical and moral dangers, leading you through paths unexpected to you, sometimes baffling, making your life an experience of profound unity in the service of your brothers.

You will thank me, better understanding the behavior of God towards you and other people. Your song of thanksgiving will grow, as you discover the mercies of the Lord for you and for the world.

There is no forgiveness without bloodshed. My blood cannot carry his precious mission of atonement, if not to the extent that humanity accepts with love to mix a few drops of his blood with the blood of my Passion.

Offer me the death of men, that they may live of My life.

Think of how it will be our meeting in the light. For this you were created, you have worked, you have suffered. There will come a day when I will welcome you. Think about it often and offer me in advance the time of your death, uniting it to mine.

Think of what it will be like the after-death, the endless joy of a soul inundated with light and love, who lives in fullness the offer of her whole being through Me to the Father, and getting through Me from the Father, the richness of the divine youth.

Yes, look at death with confidence and take advantage of the end of your life to prepare it with love.

Think of the deaths of all people your brothers: 300,000 every day. What power of co-redemption they would have if they were offered. Do not forget: oportet sacerdotem offerte. It’s up to you to offer on behalf of those who do not think about it. This is one of the most effective ways to enhance my sacrifice of Calvary and to enrich your daily Mass.

(Father Gaston Courtois, “When The Lord Speaks To The Heart”)

Love Jesus as You Are

“I know your misery, the struggles and tribulations of your soul, the weaknesses and infirmities of your body; I know your cowardice, your sins, and nevertheless I say: Give me your heart, love me as you are…If you wait to be an angel to start loving, you will never love. Even if you are weak in the practice of virtue and duty, if you fall often in those faults that you would like not to commit anymore, I do not allow you to not love me. Love me as you are.

In any instant and in whatever situation you are, in fervor or aridity, fidelity or infidelity, love me… as you are… I want the love of your poor heart; if you wait to be perfect, you will never love me. Could I not transform every grain of sand into a seraph radiant of purity, nobility and love? Am I not the Almighty? And if I prefer the poor love of your heart, am I not the master of my love?

My son, let me love you, I want your heart. Of course I want to transform you over time, but for now I love you as you are… and I want you to do the same; I want to see from the slums of misery come love. I love you even in your weakness, I love the love of the poor and miserable; I want a cry to continually rise from your rags: Jesus I love you.

I want only the song of your heart, I do not need your knowledge, nor your talent. Only one thing I care about, to see you work with love. It is not your virtues that I want; if I gave you any, you are so weak that they would just feed your pride; do not worry about it. I could assign you to great things; no, you will be the unprofitable servant; I’ll take away even the little you have… because I created you only for love.

Today I stand at the door of your heart like a beggar, I am the King of Kings! I knock and wait; hurry up to open the door. Do not worsen your misery; if you knew perfectly your indigence, you would die of pain. What would hurt my heart is to see you doubting me and lacking confidence.

I want you to think of me every hour of the day or night; I want you to do even the most insignificant action only for love. I rely on you to give me joy…Do not worry about not having virtues; I’ll give you mine. When you have to suffer, I will give you the strength. You gave me love, I will make you able to love beyond what you can dream…

But remember… Love me as you are…I gave you my Mother: make everything go through her heart so pure.

Whatever happens, do not wait to be a saint to abandon yourself to love, or you would never love.”

(Mons. Lebrun)