Conformity to the Will of God

One day when the guardian angels of the children of men were gathered near the throne of God, Satan appeared there with them. And the Lord said to him, “Where do you come from? – The Spirit of Evil answered, “From walking the earth. – Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no man like him on earth: he is upright and upright, serving his God and keeping away from evil. – Do You believe, says the jealous Satan, that Job serves You for Yourself?” Then God allowed the Spirit of evil to test His servant. But in the midst of his worst trials, the holy man Job said, “God gave me everything, God has taken everything away from me. Blessed be His holy name!

Fighting for the Reign of God

The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and only the violent prevail. The violent ones are the courageous, the energetic, those who do violence to themselves, and who know how to resist everything that opposes God, both in them and around them. My wish for this year is that each one of us leads the good fight, through fidelity to all that the good Lord asks for, both in the small things and in the big ones.

Father John Gregory of the Trinity

Lord Jesus,
Teach me to be generous,
To serve You as You deserve,
To give without counting,
To fight without worrying about injuries,
To work without looking for rest,
Spending myself without expecting any other reward
That of knowing that I am doing Your Holy Will.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

God will not leave without reward even the slightest pain that one has suffered for His sake. So be ready to fight if you want to win. The crown of patience cannot be obtained without a fight, and to refuse to fight is to refuse to be crowned. If you desire the crown, fight bravely, suffer with patience. You cannot rest without work, nor without fighting for victory.

Imitation of Christ, Book III, chap. 19

My dearest brothers and sisters, know that Our Lord Jesus, who came down to this world, Himself suffered pains without number. Through His sufferings He established His Church, which must also grow in the midst of crosses and tribulations. From the time of the Apostles to this day, the Church has always grown in the midst of a thousand persecutions, but no matter what the world does to attack and destroy it, it will not be able to defeat it. – Let us therefore follow the holy will of the Lord, and taking the side of our leader Jesus, let us always fight the world and the devil. – In this time of turmoil and unrest, like valiant soldiers, let us put on our armor, and like on a battlefield, let us fight and be victorious. Above all, do not forget mutual charity, help one another, and wait for God to have mercy on you and answer your prayers. – Do not let yourselves be frightened by calamities, do not lose heart, and do not back down in the service of God, but rather, following in the footsteps of the Saints, increase the glory of the Church and show yourselves the true soldiers and subjects of the Lord.

Saint Andrew Kim, letter to the persecuted Christians of Korea

We must not fall asleep, we must act energetically: it is for the good cause that we are fighting, do not back down in front of the enemies. Everyone wants the good, but no one takes the means.

Blessed Melanie Calvat

Every day we must fight against the world, against ourselves, against the devil, against all obstacles to our salvation and sanctification, against all obstacles to the reign of God. We must fight the battle, make war, be soldiers of Jesus Christ, courageous. It is at every moment that we must have weapons in our hands. Our weapons are prayer, faith, trust in the Blessed Virgin who wants to help us, the Holy Eucharist, which is Jesus Himself, who wants to strengthen us.

Father John Gregory of the Trinity

Dark workers of this great work, let us work in silence and hope; let us pray, it is the condition of success; let us make reparation, because the supreme pain is that God is outraged and blasphemed; let us suffer, struggle, die if necessary! Surely there is a Providence that watches over us; an Almighty Power that assists us and that will conquer; a Kindness that counts for everything, and an Infinite Love that bows down towards us to lead us to His divine ends. We are of the race of Mary, whose perpetual enmity God Himself announced against the race of Satan, and to whom He gave the triumph through Jesus Christ, but without dispensing us from the toil, nor depriving us of the honor and merit of the struggle. Hope, then! Confidence and fearless action! But what will we do, weak souls?…. What will we do? We have just said it, we will pray, we will repair, we will love, we will suffer!

Blessed Mary of Jesus Deluil-Martiny

It is through love and mercy that Jesus became the King of so many souls, so let us fight with the same weapons!

Mother Agnes of Jesus, o.c.d.

The Church continues through time the life of her crucified Spouse… Like Him, she suffers before sharing His glory… Likewise all Christian souls. The struggle between good and evil has been of all times and will not cease until the last day. Circumstances change, but the struggle remains: all those who have fought well will be defeated, those who have worked in faith, hope and charity, however defeated they may have appeared on earth, will be defeated forever.

We have Jesus with us, and however weak we may be, we are strong with His invincible strength.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

It is not enough to pray: in times of war one must fight, fight, fight; and fighting is praying in truth.

Blessed Melanie Calvat

Life is a struggle and a cross. It will be so until the end of the world. The good grain will always be mixed with the chaff, the good fish with the bad. Let us pray, suffer and work, so that the Name of God may be sanctified, His Kingdom may come, His Will be done, every spirit may praise the Lord: let us serve and give our lives for the redemption of souls, as the One Model…

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

“O my Jesus, I will fight for Your love until the end of my life. Since You did not want to taste a rest on earth, I want to follow Your example; I am burning to fight for Your glory; I beg You, strengthen my courage, arm me for the fight!”

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus…

“When I don’t feel anything, when I’m dry, unable to pray, unable to practice virtue, I look for small occasions, for nothing, to please my Jesus: for example a smile, a kind word, when I would like to keep quiet and show boredom. If I don’t have opportunities, I at least want to repeat to Him often that I love Him…”.

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

“On this earth where everything changes, only one thing remains stable, and that is the conduct of the King of Heaven towards His friends. Since He raised the standard of the Cross, it is under His shadow that all must fight and win.”

Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus

Holy Communion

The first Christians, exposed to so much persecution, drew from Holy Communion the courage to brave the death of martyrdom; they never exposed themselves to danger without having received Holy Communion, because they knew that they would have lacked strength if they had not received the Holy Eucharist beforehand.

Saint Cyprian

Prayer

Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a lightning rod for the nations. The purpose of perpetual adoration is to ensure uninterrupted prayer for the Church, for the homeland, for the world.

Father Mathurin of the Mother of God

Prayerful souls are the greatest workers in God’s Work. So if, my brothers and sisters, you can no longer, either because of your age or your health, devote yourselves to physical activities, do not think that you are handicapped. Through prayer, you are the most useful people in God’s Work. It is necessary and indispensable that young people, those who have strength and health, devote themselves physically; we need their arms. But prayer is superior to everything, for all our human activity would produce no good effect if it were not supported by prayer. Read the lives of the Saints: you will see that the Saints all attached great importance to prayer; they were souls of prayer.

Father John Gregory of the Trinity

Animate your courage, Christian, and never despair of your salvation. Ask with faith for your conversion. Do not say that it is impossible: when your sins are as heavy as the weight of a mountain, pray and Jesus will give way to prayer: Believe firmly that you will get what you ask for and it will be given to you. – If you have faith and do not hesitate, you will get everything, even to the point of throwing mountains into the sea. And I tell you again: Whatever you ask in your prayer, believe that you will receive it and it will happen to you. Jesus Christ makes use of these extraordinary comparisons to show that everything is possible for the one who prays.

Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

If two of you agree together, something they ask My Father for, it will be granted to them, says Jesus. Oh, what we ask Him to do is to work for His glory, to love Him and to make Him loved! How could our union and prayer not be blessed?

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

While the Pharisee prays arrogantly, the publican humbly beats his chest. God resists the superb and gives His grace to the humble.

I Epistle of St. Peter 5:5

Sacrifice

I said inwardly: “Blessed are those who gave their blood for God”…. And He said to me: “Blessed are those who make the sacrifice of their lives continually for My Love, because this sacrifice makes a path of perfumes for Me… If a soul silently suffers the small daily contradictions, the least thing it does is more pleasing to Me than the mortifications of the ancient Fathers and Patriarchs.”.

“Oh how easy it is to double one’s merits: one bumps one’s arm, one pricks one’s finger, one puts one’s foot in a puddle… quickly, quickly, a “Thank you, my God!”… How this “thank you” deliciously rejoices the Heart of Our Lord!… This little word, coming from a heart broken by suffering, can erase years of sin.”

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

The souls of Purgatory

Revelation to Saint Catherine of Genoa.
– The souls in purgatory are calling to the friends of the world:

What can I not cry out, in a language strong enough to be heard by all men: “O wretched creatures, why are you so blinded by fleeting things that you make, as you will see at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will fall upon you?

“You take shelter under the hope of the great divine mercy, which you exalt unceasingly, not seeing that your resistance to this sovereign goodness will be your condemnation. His goodness should incline you to do His will, not encourage you to persevere in yours. Since His justice cannot yield, it must necessarily use means to be satisfied.”

St. Catherine of Genoa, Treatise on Purgatory, ch. XV

I see that paradise has no gates and that anyone can enter it, for God is all mercy and His arms are open to receive us in glory. But the divine Essence is so pure that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would throw itself into a thousand hells rather than appear defiled in the presence of the divine Majesty. Knowing then that purgatory is instituted to purify it, it rushes into it of its own accord and finds there that great mercy: the destruction of its faults… And I know that the greatest suffering of these souls is to see in them what is displeasing to God and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they have consented to it.

St. Catherine of Genoa, Treatise on Purgatory, ch. VIII

Surrender to God, who fulfills His purposes in spite of hell.

All the powers of evil have conspired to destroy and massacre Jesus: they have succeeded in killing the incarnate Son of God! The demons rubbed their hands with complacency. When Satan realized that they had carried out God’s Plan, he bit the dust: it was his greatest defeat. The death of Jesus on the cross was the salvation that God had intended from the beginning. It was the plan He had decreed for the salvation of mankind…

Father Mathurin of the Mother of God

Union with God

Blessed is the soul that hears the Lord speaking to it inwardly, and receives from His mouth the word of comfort. Blessed are the ears that are always attentive to the divine breath, and deaf to the noises of the world. Blessed are the eyes which, closed to external things, look only at the inner ones. Blessed are those who penetrate the mysteries that the heart conceals, and who, through daily exercises, try to prepare themselves more and more to understand the secrets of Heaven. Blessed are those whose joy is in caring for God, and who free themselves from all the troubles of the age.

Imitation of Christ, Book 3, ch. 1

The Blessed Virgin Mary

This beautiful day of the Assumption reminds us of the ascent of the Blessed Virgin to Heaven, the crowning of Her life as Mother of God, in the accomplishment of God’s will. The life of the Blessed Virgin was a perpetual, continuous fiat. She was able to say as Her divine Son: My food is to do the will of the One who sent me (St. John 4:34), that is, the will of God. This complete conformity of Mary to God’s will is what made Her greatness. It is not only the fact of having been the Mother of God that made the Virgin Mary so great, it is Her obedience to God.

Let us also ask to realize, following the example of our good Mother, all God’s plans for us. May we pass over the earth doing good, as She herself did. Let us prove our devotion to Mary by imitating her in everything.

Father John Gregory of the Trinity

Mary had Her day of trials; She also had Her day of triumph!… God gives consolation in proportion to the suffering, and since the Lord wanted to appear with such tender eagerness to His Mother’s holy companions, who could doubt that His first apparition from the tomb was for His Mother herself?

Fr. Theodore Ratisbonne

The Rosary, a solution to all problems

“Father,” Sister Lucia told me again, “let’s not wait for a call to penance from the Holy Father for the whole world to come from Rome. Nor should we expect it to come from our bishops in their dioceses, nor from religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already used these means many times and the world has not taken notice. That is why now it is necessary that each one of us begin his own spiritual reform. Let each of us think of the enormous responsibility he has to save not only his own soul, but also all the souls that God has placed on his path.”

Interview of Sister Lucia, seer of Fatima, with Father Augustine Fuentes, December 26, 1957.