GRM 26.8
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
We love ourselves so much that we think we are perfect even when we are not. Can we therefore not love our neighbour simply because we think he is faulty?
Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 26.8
We love ourselves so much that we think we are perfect even when we are not. Can we therefore not love our neighbour simply because we think he is faulty?
GRM 26.8
Unrestricted Charity. A charity that knows how to forgive, that wants to forgive, and forgive in advance wholeheartedly excusing the imperfections of our neighbours. It is necessary to forgive immediately, accepting every extenuating circumstance.
Mary sets out the essential conditions for pleasing God and welcoming his continual coming into our hearts.
GRM 27.5
Love is not the satisfaction of one’s senses and utility. To love is to satisfy him whom we love, beyond senses and utility, giving him the help he needs so that he may always be able to keep his wings open in the skies of hope and peace.
GRM 27.6
Trust summarises the theological virtues. Those who trust have faith. Those who trust hope. Those who trust love. When we love, we hope, we believe in a person, we trust. Otherwise we do not. God deserves our trust. If we trust poor men who may fail, why should we not trust God Who can never fail?
Mary explains trust in three points: trust is love, trust is humility, trust is obedience.
GRM 27.7
No event can happen unless God allows it. Are you powerful? You became so, because God permitted it. Are you a subject? You are such, because God permitted it. Endeavour, therefore, powerful one, not to turn your power to your own detriment. It would always be ‘your detriment’, even if at the beginning, it may appear detrimental to others. Because if God allows, He does not over-allow, and if you go beyond the mark He will strike you and crush you. Endeavour, therefore, o subject, to make of your condition a magnet that will draw the protection of Heaven upon you. And never curse anyone. Leave that to God’s care. It is for Him, the Lord of all, to bless and curse His creatures.
GRM 32.7
(...) Generally, as It is an orderly Spirit, as God is Order in each Person and way of acting, It inspires and speaks (...) where It sees the ‘goodwill’ to deserve such effusion.
How is such will exerted? With a life devoted, as far as possible, entirely to God: in faith, obedience, purity, charity, generosity and in prayer. Not in practices: in prayer. There is less difference between night and day than there is between practices and prayer. The latter is communion of the spirit with God, from which you emerge with fresh strength and a decision to belong more and more to God. The former are common habit exerted for various purposes, which are always selfish, and they leave you exactly as you were, on the contrary, they aggravate your burden with the faults of falsehood and sluggishness.
Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, who pours out where there is good will, and he says:
GRM 35.9
Those who make themselves ‘small’ are great in My Kingdom. Those who wish to be ‘great’ in the eyes of the world are not suitable to reign in My Kingdom. They are straw for the beds of the demons. Because the greatness of the world is the antithesis of the Law of God.
The world calls ‘great’ those who, by means which almost are always illicit, know how to get the best positions and to do so, they use their neighbour as a stool on which they then climb, crushing him. The world calls ‘great’ those who know how to kill in order to reign, and they kill materially or morally, and they usurp positions and countries and fatten themselves, bleeding both individuals and communities. The world often calls ‘great’ criminals. No. ‘Greatness’ is not to be found in criminality. It is in goodness, in honesty, in love, in justice. You can see which poisonous fruit your ‘great ones’ offer you, fruit which they have picked in the wicked devilish garden inside them!
Matthew 20:25-28: Jesus called them together and said, "As you know, the rulers of the nations rule over them, and the great ones make their power felt. But among you it shall not be so: whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. So the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:41-45: Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the nations command them as masters; the great make their power felt to them. But it must not be so among you. Whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant. Whoever wants to be first among you will be slave of all: for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Luke 22, 25-27: But Jesus said to them, "The kings of the nations rule over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But not so with you! On the contrary, let the greatest among you become like the youngest, and he who commands like he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at table or he who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
GRM 36.8
True love is not selfish. And true love is always chaste, even if it is not perfect in chastity as the love of the two virgin spouses. Chastity united with charity yields a suite of other virtues and therefore two people who love each other chastely become perfect.
GRM 36.9
Food is good, rest is serene, hearts are happy, when you have worked well and you enjoy the resting time between one job and the next one. Neither in the houses nor in the minds of those who love work, can various vices arise. And, in its absence, love, esteem, mutual respect prosper and tender children grow in a pure atmosphere and they thus become the origin of future holy families.
GRM 36.9
Humility reigns in that house. What a lesson of humility for the proud. Mary, from a human point of view, had a thousand reasons to be proud and to be adored by Her spouse. Many women are proud only because they are a little better educated, or of nobler birth, or of a wealthier family than their husbands. Mary is the Spouse and the Mother of God, and yet She serves — and does not expect to be served — Her consort, and She is full of love for him. Joseph is the head of the family, judged by God so worthy of being the head of a family, as to be entrusted by God with the guardianship of the Word Incarnate and the Spouse of the Eternal Spirit. And yet he is anxious to relieve Mary of Her work, and he takes care of the most humble jobs in the house so that Mary may not get tired, not only, but whenever he can he does his best to please Her and make Her house more comfortable and Her little garden more beautiful.
Maria has just seen a vision of the Holy Family in Egypt.