Elements in the Christian life

Jesus says:

« (...) Those Wise Men from the East had nothing to assure them of the truth. Nothing supernatural. All they had was an astronomic calculation and their own considerations made perfect by a strictly honest life. And yet they had faith. Faith in everything: in science, in their own conscience, in God’s goodness.

Science made them believe in the sign of the new star, which could only be ‘the one’ expected by mankind for centuries: the Messiah. Because of their consciences they had faith in the voices of their consciences, which heard heavenly ‘voices’ saying to them: ‘That is the star announcing the advent of the Messiah’. Because of God’s goodness they believed that God would not deceive them, and since their intention was good, He would help them in every way to reach their aim.

And they were successful. Among so many people fond of studying signs, they were the only ones who understood that sign, because only their souls were anxious to know the words of God for an honest purpose, the main care of which was to praise and honour God immediately.

• Faith
• Praise to God
• Star of Bethlehem (Epiphany)

They [the Magi] have no human worry, when they decide on their journey. You would have had hundreds of problems: ‘How will I be able to make such a long journey in countries and among peoples speaking different languages? Will they believe me or will they put me in prison as a spy? What help will they give me to cross deserts, rivers and mountains? And the heat? And the winds of the highlands? And the malarial fever along stagnant marshes? And the floods and heavy rains? And the different food? And the different languages? And… and… and…’ That is your way of thinking. But they do not think like that. With sincere, holy daring they say: ‘You, o God, can read our hearts and You see the purpose we are aiming at. We trust to Your hands. Grant us the superhuman joy of adoring Your Second Person, Who has become Flesh to save the world’.

That is all. And they set out from the far away Indies. From the Mongolian chains of mountains which are the dominion of eagles and vultures, where God speaks with roars of winds and torrents and writes words of mystery on the immense pages of glaciers. From the land where the Nile rises and then flows with its green blue waters to the azure heart of the Mediterranean, neither mountains, nor woods, nor sands, dry oceans more dangerous than the seas, can stop them from proceeding. And the star shines upon them at night, preventing them from sleeping. When one seeks God, natural habits must yield to superhuman considerations and necessities.

• Abandon
• Restlessness - Preoccupation
• Travel

In Paradise, "only one language is spoken: God’s".

• Heaven - Paradiso
• Words of wisdom

When one seeks God, natural habits must yield to superhuman considerations and necessities.

• Chair
• Coming to God and Jesus
• Searching for God

Their souls were accustomed to meditation and each of them had a most sensitive conscience, refined by constant attention, and by sharp introspection, which made of their interior a mirror from which even the slightest faults of daily actions are reflected. Their conscience has become their teacher, a voice that warns and cries not at the least error, but at the least inclination towards errors, at everything human, at the satisfaction of one’s ‘ego’. Consequently, when they place themselves before that teacher and that severe clean mirror, they know that it will not lie.

• Acts - Actions
• Contemplation
• Examination of conscience
• Good conscience
• Meditation
• Vigilance
• Words of wisdom

‘Oh! How sweet it is to feel that there is nothing against God in us! To feel that He is kindly looking at the soul of His faithful son and blesses him. Faith, trust, hope, strength and patience are increased by such a feeling. The storm is raging just now. But it will pass, because God loves me and He knows that I love Him, and He will not fail to help me again’. That is how those speak who enjoy the peace that comes from an upright conscience, that is the queen of every action of theirs.

• Acts - Actions
• Examination of conscience
• Faith
• Force
• Good conscience
• Hope - Espoir
• Patience
• Trust
• Union with God and Jesus - Living with God
• Vigilance
• Words of wisdom

The eyes of their souls "know how to read in things the word not written by human hands, but engraved by God’s thought".

• Blessed are the pure in heart
• Soul

They [the Magi] feel they are a mere nothing as compared to the Most High God Who created the planet on which they live and He made it most varied. An Infinite Sculptor of boundless works, with a touch of His thumb, He placed a ring of hills here, the bone structure of mountain ridges and peaks there, like vertebrae of the earth, of this enormous body, the veins of which are the rivers, its basins the lakes, its hearts the oceans, its dresses the forests, its veils the clouds, its decorations the crystal glaciers, its gems the turquoises and the emeralds, the opals and the beryls of all the waters that sing, with the woods and the winds, the great chorus of praise to their Lord.

• Praise to God

34.17 A last, kind, important lesson.

It is Mary who takes the hand of Jesus, Who does not yet know how to bless, and She guides it in the holy gesture.

It is always Mary who takes Jesus’ hand and guides it. Even now. Now Jesus knows how to bless. But sometimes His pierced hand falls down tired and disheartened, because He knows that it is useless to bless. You destroy My blessing. It falls also indignant, because you curse Me. It is Mary then Who removes the disdain from My hand with Her kisses. Oh! the kiss of My Mother! Who can resist that kiss? And then, with Her slender, but lovingly irresistible fingers, She takes My wrist and forces Me to bless.

I cannot reject My Mother, but you must go to Her, and make Her your Advocate. She is My Queen, before being yours, and Her love for you makes such allowances that no one can possibly imagine or understand. And even without any word, but only with Her tears, and the memory of My Cross, the sign of which She makes Me trace in the air, She pleads your cause and exhorts Me: ‘You are the Saviour. Therefore save’.

34.18 That is, My dear children, the ‘Gospel of faith’ in the vision of the scene of the Magi. Meditate on it and imitate it. For your own good.»

• Coming to Jesus through Mary
• Coronation of the Virgin Mary in Heaven
• God's blessing
• Intercession of the Virgin Mary
• Love of the Virgin Mary
• Loving the Virgin Mary
• Rosary
• Sauveur
• The Virgin Mary
• The Virgin Mary - Co-Redemptrix

The Decalogue is the Law; and My Gospel is the Doctrine that makes the Law clearer for you and more loving to follow. The Law and My Doctrine would be sufficient to make saints of men.

• Decalogue
• Doctrine
• Holiness
• Word of God - Law of God
• Words of wisdom