The Most Powerful Enemy Destroyed

"Be faithful to the time spent in prayer and make sure that at least half of your prayer is spent in silence. This will bring you closer to Jesus. If you deepen your prayer life you will grow in holiness and obtain many graces for the souls entrusted to your care. Deepen your love for one another by praying for each other and by sharing thoughts and graces you have received in prayer and reading."

— Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I offer this that came to me after reading the Liturgy of the Hours.  It all came together as I was lead to read from the Book of Heaven after this reading.  For your discernment:

June 14,, 2018 – Liturgy of Hours First Reading – Joshua 5:13 – 6:21

The most powerful enemy city is destroyed

When Joshua was near Jericho, he raised his eyes and saw a man standing there before him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, ‘Are you with us or with our enemies?’ He answered, ‘No, I am captain of the army of the Lord, and now I come…’. Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped him and said, ‘What are my Lord’s commands to his servant?’ The captain of the army of the Lord answered Joshua, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy.’ And Joshua obeyed.  (obedience)

  Now Jericho had been carefully barricaded against the Israelites; no one came out, no one went in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Now I am delivering Jericho and its king into your hands. All you fighters, valiant warriors, will march round the town and make the circuit once, and for six days you will do the same thing. But seven priests will carry seven trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day you will go seven times round the town and the priests will blow their trumpets. When the ram’s horn rings out (The shofar, made of rams  horn is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the very end of Yom Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah), when you hear the sound of the trumpet, the whole people must utter a mighty war cry and the town wall will collapse then and there; then the people can storm the town, each man going straight ahead.’

  Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests are to carry seven trumpets of ram’s horn in front of the ark of the Lord (carried the ten Commandments in it).  He said to the people, ‘Forward! March round the town and let the vanguard march before the ark of the Lord.’ All was done as Joshua ordered the people. Seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram’s horn in front of the Lord moved onwards and blew their trumpets; the ark of the covenant of the Lord came behind them, the vanguard marched in front of the priests with their trumpets, the rearguard followed behind the ark; the men marched, the trumpets sounded.

  Joshua had given the people the following order: ‘Do not shout, do not utter even a word; let nothing be heard from you till the day when I say: Raise the war cry. Then you are to shout.’

  At Joshua’s command, the ark of the Lord went round the town and made the circuit once; then they returned to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua rose early and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Bearing the seven ram’s horn trumpets, the seven priests walked before the ark of the Lord sounding their trumpets as they went, while the vanguard marched before them and the rearguard behind the ark of the Lord, and the march went on to the sound of the trumpet.

  They marched once round the town on the second day and returned to the camp, and so on for six days. On the seventh day they rose at dawn and marched seven times round the town in the same manner. Only on that day did they march round seven times. At the seventh time the priests blew their trumpets (the number seven denotes completeness or perfection) and Joshua said to the people, ‘Raise the war cry, because the Lord has given the town into your hands.

  ‘The town and everything inside it must be set apart for the Lord under a ban; only the life of Rahab the harlot is to be spared, with all who are in her house, since she hid the messengers we sent. But beware of the ban yourselves; do not be covetous and take anything that is under the ban; that would lay the whole camp of Israel open to the same ban and bring disaster on it. All the silver and all the gold, all the things of bronze and things of iron are consecrated to the Lord and must be put into his treasury.’

  The people shouted, the trumpets sounded. When they heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a mighty war cry and the wall collapsed then and there. At once the people stormed the town, every man going straight ahead; and they captured the town. They enforced the ban on everything in the town: men and women, young and old, even the oxen and sheep and donkeys, massacring them all.

“the wall will collapse” - 

Luisa:  “I could see my littleness, the nonentity of my being, and I was stunned at how daring I had been, wondering from where had I taken that courage to offend a God so good, who, in the very act in which I was offending Him, assisted me, preserved me, nourished me. And if He had any rancor with me, it was for the sin I committed, which He greatly hated, while He loved me immensely, He excused me before divine justice, and was all occupied with removing that wall of division between the soul and God, which sin had produced. Oh! if all could see who God is, and who the soul is in the act of sinning, they would all die of sorrow, and I believe that sin would be exiled from the earth.”  Vol. 1

“the ark”

“…the fugitives drew around Me, surrounding Me like a crown; and with tears and sighs, they asked for my forgiveness for they had so cravenly abandoned their Master, and had run away from Him. I welcomed them maternally in the ark of refuge and salvation of my Heart; I assured all of them of the forgiveness of my Son, and I encouraged them not to fear. I said to them that their destiny was in my hands, because He had given them all to Me as my children, and I recognized them as such.  (The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will)

 “the sound of the trumpet” - 

“See now, how necessary it is that my Will be known in all relations - in the prodigies, in the effects, in the value - what I did in this Will for the creatures, and what they must do. And this will be a powerful magnet in order to draw creatures, to make them receive the inheritance of my Will, and make the generation of the children of light come out into the field. Be attentive, my daughter; you will be my  spokesperson - the trumpet, to call them and to gather this generation, so beloved and longed for by Me.”  Book of Heaven, Oct. 27, 1922

               “This is why many times I have recommended to you that you omit to write nothing of what regards my Will – because knowledge is the way, and its light serves as trumpet to call those who are listening, to make itself heard; and the more the trumpet sounds – and it sounds more for as many more knowledges as it has, to be manifested – the more people will rush up. Knowledge takes the attitude now of pulpit, now of teacher, now of compassionate father and excessive lover; in sum, it has all the ways in its power in order to enter the hearts, to conquer them and to triumph in everything. And the more knowledges it contains, the more ways it has in its power.”  Book of Heaven, January 23, 1924

“All the silver and all the gold, all the things of bronze and things of iron” –

“Now, you must know that my Will is most pure gold; and so that the thread of your will may become most pure gold - in such a way that, as the thread of your will is braided with Mine, one would not be able to distinguish which one is yours and which one is Mine - it takes only sacrifice and pains. Consuming the thread of your human will, they substitute it with the golden divine thread which, identifying itself with mine, forms one single thread, and braiding the whole great wheel of Eternity, extends everywhere and finds itself in every place. But if my Will is gold and yours is iron, you will remain behind, and Mine will not lower Itself to be braided with yours. If you take two objects of gold, though each one may have its own different shape, by melting them, you will be able to form one single object, and would no longer be able to distinguish the gold of one from that of the other. But if one object is of gold and the other of iron, one will not stick to the other, and it will be impossible to form one single object of gold. So, only sacrifice changes the nature of the human will.”  Book of Heaven, Aug. 12, 1922

“..saw a man standing there before him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, ‘Are you with us or with our enemies?’ He answered, ‘No, I am captain of the army of the Lord, and now I come…’”

Saint Michael the Archangel

“My beloved, the most pleasing and most consoling words for my Mother are: ‘Dominus Tecum’ [‘The Lord is with Thee’]. In fact, as soon as they were pronounced by the Archangel, She felt the whole of the Divine Being being communicated to Her, and therefore She felt invested with divine Power, in such a way that, in the face of the divine Power, Her own dissolved; and so my Mother remained with the divine Power in Her hands.”   Jan. 10, 1903

Luisa’s prayer: Archangel Saint Michael, defend me from the infernal enemy, who puts so many obstacles in my mind to make me fail this obedience. Archangel Saint Rafael, and you, my guardian Angel, come to assist me and to accompany me, to direct my hand, that I may write the truth alone.

Lynne Bauer, JMJ - June 14, 2018