Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 196.4 · Volume 3
A father and mother, who are such in a wholesome and holy way, do not only feed and caress the body of their child, but they also give nourishment and love to the mind and the spirit of their creature.
GRM 197.2 · Volume 3
«I feel like a stranger in the House of the Father… I have abandoned it for too long…»
«You are coming back to it led by the hand by Me Who am the Son of the Father. If I am taking you up to the altar, it means that I know that everything has been forgiven.»
John of Endor sobs deeply and says: «Thank You, my God.»
«Yes, thank the Most High. (...) You are Mine, you belong to God, you are a disciple and thus a future priest of your Lord in the new era and in the new religion, which will be called after Me. (...) »
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 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 203.10 · Volume 3
“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, and he 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 gone to a true friend and if he insists, he will receive what he asks for. He would receive it even if he went 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 favour, 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.
I've already said it: in EMV 172.7.
Gospel of Matthew 7, 7-11
Mt 7, 7-11 : "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; to him who knocks, it will be opened. Or: Which of you will give his son a stone when he asks for bread? Or will he give him a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Gospel of Luke 11, 1-13
Lk 11, 1-13 : It happened that Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John the Baptist also taught his disciples."
He replied, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us the bread we need for each day. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive all those who wrong us. And lead us not into temptation."
Jesus said to them again, "Imagine that one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to ask, 'My friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived home from a trip, and I have nothing to offer him.'" And if, from inside, the other replies, "Don't come bothering me! The door is already closed; my children and I are in bed. I can't get up to give you anything." Well, I tell you, even if he doesn't get up to give out of friendship, he'll get up because of this friend's shamelessness, and he'll give him whatever he needs.
I say to you: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; to him who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, when his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or will he give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
GRM 203.10 · Volume 3
When you are in Heaven, God alone will be your nourishment. Beatitude will be your food.
GRM 203.12 · Volume 3
“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 passions, I beg you to pray thus. Pray with humbleness that God may avert temptations from you. Oh! humbleness! 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.
The man (...) asked me, less than a year ago: "How? You asked not to be tempted and to be helped in temptation against itself? "Maria Valtorta notes: "Note: this argument aroused astonishment and a... let's say strange not to say calculated scandal towards the author of this work, as if by saying this he had blasphemed Christ.... We refer them to page 229 of "Così sìa (Ainsi-soit-il)" by Rev. P. (Luigi) Pazzaglia O.S.M., approved book ..." (1946, L.I.C.E. Berruti Torino).
We were the two of us, alone... and I answered. In EMV 69.5 to Judas.
Another time, there were four of us in a lonely place, and I answered again. In EMV 80.8/10 to Simon and John.
GRM 204.8 · Volume 3
«How can we make room, clearance and elevation for our souls?»
«By demolishing the useless things you have in your “ego”. Clear it of all wrong knowledge, and with the debris make the elevation for the sovereign temple. A soul is to be carried higher and higher, on the three steps. Oh! you Romans love symbols. Look at the three steps in a symbolic light. They can tell you their names: penance, patience, perseverance. Or: humbility, purity, justice. Or: wisdom, generosity, mercy. Or, finally, the splendid trinomial: faith, hope, charity. Look also at the symbol of the ornate strong enclosure which encircles the area of the temple. You must surround your soul, the queen of the body, the temple of the Eternal Spirit, with a barrier which may protect it without obstructing light or oppressing it with ugly sights. An enclosure that must be safe and free from the love and desire of what is inferior: flesh and blood, and must aim at what is superior: the spirit. The chisel of freedom is your will-power, which will smooth corners, and remove clefts, stains and flaws in the marble of your ego, so that it may be perfect around your souls. And at the same time, the enclosure protecting the temple is to be used by you as a merciful shelter for the more unhappy people who do not know what Charity is. The porches: they are the effusion of love, of piety, of your desire that more people may come to God, and are like the loving arms stretched like a veil over the cradle of an orphan. And beyond the enclosure: the most beautiful and most scented trees are a homage to the Creator. The trees, planted on a soil previously barren and subsequently cultivated, symbolise all kinds of virtues and form the second living flowery enclosure around the sanctuary; and among the trees, that is among the virtues, there are the fountains, a further effusion of love and another purification before approaching the propylaeum near which one must sacrifice one’s carnality and repudiate all forms of lust before ascending the altar. And then you may proceed further, to the altar and lay your offer on it and finally, crossing the vestibule, you may approach the cell, where God is. And what will the cell be like? Abundance of spiritual wealth, because you can never adorn God too much. Have you understood? You asked Me how Faith is built. I said to You: “Following the method used to build temples”. You can see that it is true.
GRM 205.3-7 · Volume 3
«Listen. It is a beautiful parable that will guide you with its light in many cases.
A man had two sons. The elder was a serious, affectionate, obedient worker. The younger was more intelligent than his brother who was actually somewhat dull and preferred to be guided rather than tire himself making decisions by himself, but he was also rebellious, absent-minded, fond of luxury, pleasure loving, a squanderer and idle. Intelligence is a great gift of God. But it is a gift to be used wisely. Otherwise it is like certain medicines that, when taken in the wrong way, kill instead of curing. His father, as it was his right and duty, used to recall him to a more sensible life. But it was all in vain, the only result was that he answered back and became more obstinate in his wicked ideas.
Finally one day, after a fierce quarrel, the younger son said: “Give me my part of the estate. So I will no longer hear your reproaches and my brother’s complaints. Let each have his own and no more about it”. “Be careful” replied the father, “because you will soon be ruined. What will you do then? Consider that I will not be unfair to favour you and I will not take a farthing off your brother to give it to you”. “I will not ask you for anything. You may be sure. Give me my part”.
The father had the estate and valuables assessed, and since money and jewels were worth as much as the real estate, he gave the elder brother the fields and vineyards, the herds and olive-trees, and the younger one the money and jewels, which the young man changed immediately into money. And after doing that in a few days, he went to a distant country where he lived like a lord, squandering all his money on a life of debauchery, making people believe that he was the son of a king, because he was ashamed to admit that he was a countryman and thus he disowned his father. Banquets, friends, women, robes, wines, games… he led a loose life. He soon saw that his money was coming to an end and that poverty was in sight. And to make matters worse, the country experienced a severe famine, which compelled him to spend his last penny.
205.4
He would have liked to go back to his father. But he was proud and decided not to. So he went to a wealthy man of the country, a friend of his in his happy days, and he begged him saying: “Take me among your servants, remembering the days when you enjoyed my wealth”. See how foolish man is! He prefers the lash of a master rather than say to his father: “Forgive me. I made a mistake!”. The young man had learned many useless things with his bright intelligence, but he did not want to learn the saying of Ecclesiasticus: “How ill-famed is he who deserts his father and how accursed of the Lord is whoever angers his mother”. He was intelligent, but not wise.
The man that he turned to, in exchange for the grand time he had enjoyed with the foolish young man, sent him to look after his pigs, because it was a pagan country and there were many pigs. So he was sent to pasture the herds of pigs in the farm. Filthy, in rags, stinking and starving — food in fact was scarce for all the servants and particularly for the lowest ones and he, a foreign ridiculed herdsman of pigs was considered such — he saw the pigs glut themselves with acorns and sighed: “I wish I could fill my stomach with this fruit! But they are too bitter! Not even starvation can make them palatable”. And he wept remembering the sumptuous banquets when he acted the “grand seigneur” only a short while before, laughing, singing, dancing… and then he would think of the honest substantial meals at his far away home, of the portions his father used to make impartially for everybody, keeping for himself the smallest one, happy to see the healthy appetite of his and he remembered the helpings his just father gave the servants and he sighed: “My father’s servants, even the lowest, have plenty of bread… and I am dying here of starvation…”. A long meditation, a long struggle to subdue his pride…
205.5
At last the day came when his humility and wisdom revived and he got up and said: “I will go back to my father! This pride of mine is silly, as it deprives me of my freedom. And why? Why should I suffer in my body and even more in my heart when I can be forgiven and receive comfort? I will go back to my father. That is settled. And what shall I say to him? What has matured in my heart here, in this abjection, in this filth, suffering the pangs of hunger! I will say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy of being called your son; treat me therefore as the least of your servants, but bear me to stay under your roof. That I may see you moving about… I cannot say to him: ‘… because I love you’. He would not believe me. But my behaviour will tell him and he will understand and before dying he will bless me once again… Oh! I hope so. Because my father loves me”. And when he went back to town in the evening he gave up his job and begging along the way he went back home. And he saw his father’s fields… and the house… and his father supervising the work… he was old, emaciated by grief but always kind and good… The guilty son seeing that ruin caused by him stopped frightened… but the father, looking around, saw him and ran to meet him, because he was still far away. And when he reached him, he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. Only the father had recognised his son in the dejected beggar and he was the only one to be moved with love.
The son, clasped in his father’s arms, with his head resting on his father’s shoulder, whispered sobbing: “Father, let me throw myself at your feet”. “No, son! Not at my feet. Rest on my heart, which has suffered so much because of your absence, and now needs to revive feeling your warmth on my chest”. And the son, crying louder, said: “Oh! father! I have sinned against Heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called son by you. But allow me to live among your servants, under your roof, seeing you, eating your bread, serving you, and you will be the breath of my life. Every time I take a morsel of bread, every time you breathe, my heart, which is so corrupt, will change and I will become honest…”
But the father, embracing him all the time, led him towards the servants, who had gathered together watching in the distance and he said to them: “Quick, bring the best robe, and basins of scented water here, and wash him, spray him with scents, clothe him, put new sandals on his feet and a ring on his finger. Bring a fattened calf and kill it. And prepare a banquet. Because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life, he was lost and has been found. Now I want him to find the innocent love of a child once again, and my love and the celebration of the household for his return, must give it to him. He must realise that he is always my dear last-born child, as he was in his childhood a long time ago, when he used to toddle beside me making me happy with his smile and his prattling”. And the servants did so.
205.6
The elder son was out in the country and he did not know anything until his return. Coming towards the house in the evening, he saw that it was brightly lighted and he heard the sound of instruments and dancing coming from it. He called a servant who was bustling about and asked him: “What is happening?”. And the servant replied: “Your brother has come back! Your father had the fattened calf killed because his son has come back to him safe and cured of his wickedness and he ordered a celebration. They are only waiting for you to start”. But the first-born was angry because he thought that such a feast for his younger brother was unfair, as he was not only younger, but had also been wicked. And he did not want to go in, on the contrary he was about to walk away from the house.
But the father, informed of the situation, ran out and reached him and endeavoured to convince him, begging him not to spoil his joy. The elder brother replied to his father: “And you expect me not to be upset? You are unfair to your first-born and you hold him in contempt. I have served you since I was able to work, and I have done that for many years. I have never disobeyed an order of yours, not even a simple desire. I have always been near you, and I have loved you for two, to make you recover from the wound inflicted on you by my brother. And you have not even given me a lamb to have a feast with my friends. You are now honouring my brother and you have killed the best calf for him, who offended and abandoned you, and has been a lazy spendthrift and has now come back because he was driven by starvation. It is really worth while being a hard honest worker! You should not have done that to me”.
The father then, clasping him to his heart, said: “Son! Can you believe that I do not love you, because I do not celebrate your behaviour? Your deeds are holy by themselves, and the world praises you because of them. Your brother, instead, needs to be rehabilitated both in the eyes of the world and in his own. And do you think that I do not love you because I give you no visible prize? But day and night, in every moment of my life, you are present to my heart, and I bless you every moment. You have the continuous reward of being always with me, and what is mine is yours. But it was fair to have a feast, a celebration for your brother who was dead and has come back to good life, who was lost and has come back to our love”. And the first-born yielded to his father’s desire.
205.7
And that, My friends, is what happens in the House of the Father. And whoever feels that he is like the younger son of the parable must believe that if he imitates him in going to the Father, the Father will say to him: “Not at My feet. But rest on My heart, which has suffered because of your absence and is now happy because you have come back”. He who is in the situation of the first-born and without any fault against the Father, must not be jealous of the Father’s joy, but must take part in it and love the redeemed brother.»
Book of Sirach 3, 16
Si 3, 16 : He is like a blasphemer who forsakes his father; he is cursed by the Lord who angers his mother.
Gospel of Luke 15, 11-32
Lk 15, 11-32 : Jesus said: "A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, "Father, give me my share of fortune." And the father divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered up everything he had and left for a distant country, where he squandered his fortune by living a life of disorder. He had spent it all, when a great famine occurred in that country, and he began to find himself in need. He went to work for a local, who sent him to his fields to tend the pigs. He would have liked to fill his belly with the pods eaten by the pigs, but no one would give him anything.
So he turned inward and said to himself: "How many of my father's workers have plenty of bread, and I'm starving here! I'll get up, go to my father and tell him: Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your workers." He got up and went to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was seized with compassion; he ran to throw himself around his neck and covered him with kisses. The son said to him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Quickly, bring the finest garment to clothe him in, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, fetch the fatted calf, kill it, let's eat and feast, for my son here was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and is found." And they began to feast.
Now the eldest son was out in the fields. When he returned and was near the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling one of the servants, he asked what was going on. The servant replied, "Your brother has arrived, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has found your brother in good health." Then the eldest son became angry, and refused to enter. His father went out to beg him. But he replied to his father: "I've been in your service for so many years without ever transgressing your orders, and you've never given me a kid to feast on with my friends. But, when your son here returned after devouring your property with harlots, you had the fatted calf killed for him!" The father replied, "You, my child, are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. You should have feasted and rejoiced; for your brother here was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!""