God's gifts in the Christian life

« (...) There is only One and True God.»

«So… He is up there, in His Olympus, all by Himself? And what does He do if He is alone?»

«He is Self-sufficient and takes care of everything in creation. I have just told you that God is also present in the buzzing of a mosquito. He does not get bored, do not worry. He is not a poor man, the master of an immense empire in which he feels he is hated and lives trembling with fear. He is Love and lives loving. His Life is continuous Love. He is Self-sufficient because He is infinite and most powerful, He is Perfection. So numerous are the things created that live because of His continuous will, that He has no time to grow weary. Tedium is the fruit of idleness and vice. In the Heaven of the True God there is neither idleness nor vice. Soon, in addition to angels which now serve Him, He will have a great crowd of just people rejoicing in Him and the crowd will grow greater and greater with the future believers in the True God. »

«Are the angels genii?» asks Lydia.

«No, they are spiritual beings like God Who created them.»

«What are genii, then?»

«As you imagine them, they are falsehood. They do not exist, as you imagine them. But 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. And the same applies to towns and nations. And thus you believe, you feel the need to believe in “genii”. And thus you give yourselves an individual genius, a family, a town, a national genius. You have the “genius of Rome”, the “genius of the emperor”. And you worship them as lesser deities. Come to the true faith. You will become acquainted and friendly with your angel, whom you will venerate, but not worship. Only God is worshipped.»

• Angels
• Genie (djinn)
• God
• God's love
• Guardian angel
• The righteous
• Who is God?

One sins when one consciously rebels against the order given by God and says: “I know that what I am doing is wrong. But I want to do it just the same”. God is just. He cannot punish one who does the wrong thing thinking that he is doing the right one. He punishes those, who being able to tell Good from Evil, choose the latter and persist in it.

• Discernment
• Examination of conscience
• Free will
• Freedom
• God's justice
• God's punishment
• Good and evil
• Mal
• Punishment
• Retribution
• Revolt - Rebellion
• Sin
• Words of wisdom

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.

• God's gifts
• Intelligence
• Poison
• Words of wisdom

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.

• Confession - Sacrament of reconciliation
• Conversion
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Mercy and forgiveness
• Pain and suffering
• Pride
• Silliness

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.

• Fighting temptation
• God's blessing
• Nuit de la foi - Abandoning God
• Reward
• Test
• Union with God and Jesus - Living with God

One must always keep the dress clean through humility. It is so easy to dim the purity of the heart. And those

whose hearts are not pure cannot see God. Humility is like water that washes. A humble man soon notices that he has darkened his robe, because his eyes are not dimmed by the fumes of pride and thus he runs to his Lord and says: “I have stained the purity of my heart. I weep at Your feet to be cleansed. Oh! my Sun, purify my heart through Your benign forgiveness and Your paternal love!”

• Cleanliness
• Coming to God and Jesus
• Confession - Sacrament of reconciliation
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Humility
• Prayers from the EMV
• Pride
• Purity
• Repentance and contrition
• Sin
• Tears - Crying

“I have stained the purity of my heart. I weep at Your feet to be cleansed. Oh! my Sun, purify my heart through Your benign forgiveness and Your paternal love!”

• God's love
• Prayer of contrition asking God for forgiveness

Oh! the freshness of a heart! Children have it by gift of God. The just have it by gift of God and through their own will. Saints have it by gift of God and through their will elevated to heroism. But will a sinner, whose soul is torn, burnt, poisoned and disgraced, ever be able to have a fresh robe? Oh! of course he will. He begins to have it the moment he looks at himself with disgust. He increases its freshness when he decides to change life. He brings it to perfection when through penance he washes, detoxicates, cures and recomposes his poor soul. And with the help of God, Who does not refuse assistance to anyone who asks Him for holy help, and through his own will elevated to super-heroism — because it is not necessary for him to protect what he has, but to rebuild what he destroyed and thus he must work twice, three times, seven times as much — and with untiring penance, relentless against his sinful ego, he will take his soul back to the freshness of a child’s soul. A new freshness, made precious by experience, which makes him the master of other people who were once like him, that is, sinners.

• Children - Innocents
• Contempt - Disdain
• Conversion
• Fishermen
• God's gifts
• Heroism
• Innocence
• Jesus Christ's words to a sinner
• Penance
• Purity
• Saints and blessed
• Soul
• The righteous
• To be like a little child - To have the soul of a child
• Will

Humility! I said: “When you pray or do penance, do not let the world see you”. In the Wisdom Books it is written: “It is right to keep the secret of the King”. Humility is the candid veil worn to defend the good we do and the good God grants us. We must not be proud of the privileged love granted to us by God, nor seek foolish human glory. The gift would be taken away at once. But from the depth of our hearts we must sing to our God: “My soul proclaims Your greatness, o Lord… because You have looked upon Your lowly handmaid”.

• Acting in secret
• Bible - Book of Tobit
• God's gifts
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Humility
• I'm a useless servant: I've only done my duty
• Penance
• Praise and acclaim
• Prayer

A soul must weave its daily garland of virtuous deeds, because nothing withered or slovenly looking is to appear in the presence of the Most High. I said daily. Because a soul does not know when God-Bridegroom may appear and say: “Come”. Therefore you must never tire renewing the garland. Be not afraid. Flowers wither. But the flowers of virtuous wreaths do not wither. God’s angel, whom every man has at his side, picks up these daily wreaths and takes them to Heaven. And they will be there in the throne for the new blessed soul when it enters the nuptial house as the bride.

• Acts - Actions
• Eternal crown
• Guardian angel
• Heaven - Paradiso
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Perseverance
• Saints and blessed
• Union with God and Jesus - Living with God
• Virtues
• Words of wisdom