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Temptations, Discernment, and Spiritual Warfare

Page 57 of 67

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 197.2 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«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

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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.»

Detail

Jesus went to see some lepers.

GRM 200.3 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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…»

Detail

Aglaia, a former sinner, meets the Lord and weeps before him. Jesus speaks up and tells her not to weep.

Annotation

Everything you told me in Hebron has come true. In EMV 77.

GRM 200.4 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«And who will speak to me of God again?»

«Your risen soul, for the time being…»

«Will I see You again?»

«Never again in this world. But before long I will have redeemed you completely and then I will come to your spirit to prepare you to ascend to God.»

«How will my complete redemption take place if I do not see You again? How will You give it to me?»

«By dying for all sinners.»

«Oh! no! You must not die!»

«To give men the Life I must give Myself to death. That is why I came as a human being. Do not weep… You will soon join Me where I shall be after My sacrifice and yours.»

«My Lord! Will I die for You, too?»

«Yes, but in a different way. Your flesh will die hour by hour and because your will wants that. It has been dying for almost one year. When it is completely dead, I will call you.»

Detail

Jesus talks to Aglaia, a converted former sinner, who is going to isolate herself from everything.

GRM 203.5 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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.

Detail

About the Lord's Prayer.

GRM 203.6 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

“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 triple 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 onto 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 created 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.

GRM 203.11 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

“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 neighbour, 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.

GRM 203.12 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

“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.

Annotation

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 204.5 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Owing to the instinctive need of men to search for the truth, you have also realised that man is not only flesh and that there is something immortal in his perishable body. And that is the consequence of the incentive of the soul, which is alive and present also in heathens, and suffers in them, as it is disappointed in its desires, because it is famished longing for the True God Whom it remembers in the body in which it dwells and which is guided by a pagan mind.