Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 196.5 · Volume 3
It is difficult indeed to go back to the sources. Man has been stuck in mud for thousands of years, and those sources are so high up on the summits! The first one, above all, is a source that comes immense from an immense height: God… But I will take you by the hand and lead you to the sources. I know where they are…
GRM 197.5 · Volume 3
This is the most solemn hour of the day. There is another one in the morning but this one is even more solemn. The morning is the beginning of the day. It is right that man should bless the Lord to be blessed during the day, in all his deeds. But in the evening it is more solemn. Light fades, work ends, night falls. The fading light reminds us of the fall into sin and in fact sinful deeds are generally accomplished during the night. Why? Because man, no longer engrossed in his work, can be more easily entrapped by the Evil One who avails himself of his allurements and nightmares. It is therefore right, after thanking God for protecting us during the day, that we should implore Him to deliver us from night phantasms and temptations. Night, sleep… the symbols of death. Blessed be those who after living with the blessing of the Lord go to sleep in a bright dawn and not in darkness. The priest who offers incense does so on behalf of us all. He prays for all the people, in communion with God, and God entrusts him with the blessing for the whole people of His children. See how great the ministry of a priest is?»
GRM 199.4 · Volume 3
They shout: «Jesus, our Saviour, have mercy on us!» and they stretch out their deformed or ulcerated hands. «Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!»
«What do you want Me to do for you?» asks Jesus looking towards their misery.
«We want You to save us from sin and from this disease.»
«Your will and repentance will save you from sin…»
«But if You wish, You can cancel our sins. At least those, if You do not want to cure our bodies.»
«If I say to You: “Choose either one or the other”, which one would you prefer?»
«God’s forgiveness, Lord. To be less desolate.»
Jesus has a gesture of approval. He smiles brightly, raises His arms and shouts: «Let it be granted. I want it.»
Granted! The grace might be granted for their sins, or for their disease, or for both, and the five unhappy people remain uncertain. But the apostles have no uncertainty and they can but shout their hosannas when they see the leprosy disappear as fast as a flake of snow that falls on a fire. The five then understand that the full grace has been granted to them. Their shouting resounds like a cry of victory. They embrace one another and throw kisses at Jesus, as they cannot prostrate themselves at His feet. They then turn to their companions saying: «And you still refuse to believe? What miserable wretches are you?»
«Good! Be good! Your poor brothers need time to think. Say nothing to them. Faith is not imposed, it is preached with peace, kindness, patience and perseverance. That is what you will do after your purification, exactly as Simon did with you. After all, the miracle preaches by itself. You who have been cured, will go to the priest as soon as possible. You, who are still ill, wait for us this evening. We will bring you some food. Peace be with you.»
Jesus went to see some lepers.
GRM 199.4 · Volume 3
«And you still refuse to believe? What miserable wretches are you?»
«Good! Be good! Your poor brothers need time to think. Say nothing to them. Faith is not imposed, it is preached with peace, kindness, patience and perseverance.»
Jesus has just healed some lepers. There are still others, who have not asked for the miracle, but have seen their colleagues healed. They are then asked why they do not yet believe in the Messiah.
GRM 200.3 · Volume 3
Aglae puts down the little bag she was carrying on her shoulder, then she kneels down at Jesus’ feet and bursts into tears. She prostrates herself on the floor, her head resting on her arms crossed on the floor.
«Do not weep thus. This is not the time for tears. You should have wept when you were hateful to God. Not now that you love Him and are loved by Him.»
But Aglae continues to weep…
«Do you not believe that it is so?»
She manages to speak through her sobs: «I love Him, it is true, as best I can… But although I know and believe that God is Bounty I cannot possibly hope to be loved by Him. I have sinned too much… Perhaps one day I will be loved… But I still have to weep so much… For the time being I am alone in my love. All alone… It is not desperate solitude of past years. It is a solitude full of longing for God, so it is no longer hopeless… but it is so sad…»
«Aglae, how little you still know the Lord! This longing for Him is the proof that God is replying to your love, that He is your friend, Who calls you, invites you and wants you. God is incapable of remaining insensitive to the desire of a creature, because He, the Lord and Creator of all creatures, excited that desire in that heart. He excited it because He loved with privileged love the soul that is now longing for Him. The desire of God always precedes the desire of the creature, because He is Most Perfect and therefore His love is by far more eager and ardent than the love of the creature.»
«But how can God love my filth?»
«Do not endeavour to understand with your intelligence. He is an abyss of mercy, which human intelligence cannot understand. But what the intelligence of man cannot understand, the intelligence of love, the love of the spirit does. It understands and confidently penetrates the mystery, which is God, and the mystery of the relationship of the soul with God. Enter, I tell you. Enter, because God wants it.»
«Oh! My Saviour! So I am really forgiven? I am really loved? Must I believe it?»
«Did I ever lie to you?»
«Oh! no, Lord! Everything You told me[1] at Hebron came true. You saved me because Your Name is salvation. You looked for me, a poor lost soul. You gave me the life of this soul, which I was carrying dead within me. You told me that if I had looked for You I would find You. And it was true. You told me that You are wherever man needs a doctor and medicine. And it is true. Everything, everything You told poor Aglae, from the words on that
morning in June, to the other words at the Clear Water…»
«So you must believe these too.»
«Yes, I believe, I do believe! But say to me: “I forgive you”!»
«I forgive you in the name of God and of Jesus.»
«Thank You…»
Aglaia, a former sinner, meets the Lord and weeps before him. Jesus speaks up and tells her not to weep.
Everything you told me in Hebron has come true. In EMV 77.
GRM 203.1 · Volume 3
See: I proceed among continuous frictions and disappointments. Disappointments for you. You must convince yourselves that I am never disappointed, because I have not been granted the gift of ignoring… That is another reason why I advise you to agree to be guided by Me. If I allow this or that thing, do not hinder it. If I do not interfere to put an end to something, do not endeavour to do it yourselves. Each thing is to be done at the right moment. Trust Me, in everything.
Jesus talks about the trials the apostolic group is going through, and urges the apostles to trust in God.
GRM 203.4 · Volume 3
«There is another reason, Simon…»
«Tell us, Master. I will be happy to change my mind about my companion.»
«Judas is jealous. He is agitated because he is jealous.»
«Jealous? Of whom? He is not married, and even if he were, and went with women, I think that none of us would be rude to a fellow disciple…»
«He is jealous of Me. Just think: Judas changed after Endor and after Esdraelon. That is, when he saw that I was taking care of John and of Jabez. But now that John, above all, John, will be going away, as he will be leaving Me and staying with Isaac, you will see that Judas will become merry and good once again…»
«Well!… But You are not going to tell me that he is not possessed by a little demon. And above all… No, I will say it! And above all You will not tell me that he has improved during these last months. I was jealous as well, last year… I would not have liked anybody except the six of us, the first six, do You remember? Now, now… Let me invoke God just this once as witness to what I am going to say. Now I say that the more the disciples increase in numbers around You, the happier I am. Oh! I would like to bring all men to You and I would also like to have all the necessary means to help those who are in need, so that misery may not hinder anyone from coming to You. God sees whether I am telling the truth. But why am I thus now? Because I let You change me. He… has not changed. On the contrary… Yes, Master… A little demon has possessed him…»
«Do not say that. Do not think that. Pray that he may be cured. Jealousy is a disease…»
«Of which one can be cured beside You, if one wants to. Ah! I will put up with him, for Your sake… But, how difficult it is!…»
«I gave you a prize for that: the boy. And now I will teach you how to pray…»
Peter is surprised by Judas' attitude and Jesus explains that he is jealous. Simon of Jonah then recounts that he too was jealous last year, but that he has now changed.
GRM 203.5 · Volume 3
It is so perfect a prayer that neither the storms, 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. Practise 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.
Jesus speaks of the Lord's Prayer.
GRM 203.5 · Volume 3
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.
About the Lord's Prayer.
GRM 203.9 · Volume 3
“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.