FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY
Taken from “Conchita, A
Mothers Spiritual Diary” (Blessed Conchita di Armida)
I want
to speak to you about Faith
"Today, I want to speak to your about faith.' I then felt myself flooded
and enraptured by a light in my understanding, enlightening my mind. In this
interior silence, I began to hear some divine and inexplicable things about
faith. I shall try to tell in so far as I can, being so miserable, the
beautiful things I heard.
"Faith is the foundation of holiness. It is a special light, coming from
heaven by which the soul sees God in this world. It is a ray of light,
illuminating God's countenance and making Him visible to the soul. It is the
life and force of the spirit, the sun which tears it, brightens it, ever making
it increase in perfection and in holiness. God so loves this virtue, a direct
emanation from His own divinity, that the soul which possesses it, disposes of,
it might be said, the will of God, inclining Him to grant it what it desires.
It is a virtue to which He grants all His power. There is question here of the
faith of a humble soul.
"Faith is the torch which illumines, with its light, the obscurity of the
spirit. It is solely by this light that the soul travels safely amidst the
difficulties of a life bent on perfection, so that a fully developed
supernatural faith is indispensable. It constitutes the capital point of the
soul which consecrates itself to the interior life. This supernatural faith
attains its perfection going beyond all that is natural and supernatural in the
soul, fixedly gazing on one point: God, never separating itself from Him, on
any occasion of life or death… If this faith sheds its light on souls and casts
on them its divine influence, it renders them spiritual, filled with delicacy,
elevating all their actions and movements higher above the earth, persisting in
these obscure regions and making them acquire great merit. Faith is a light but
it lives in obscurity, it is enveloped in its shadows and the soul rarely
perceives it. It radiates the soul by its clarity, in its very interior, making
it know and showing it the dangers and riches of the spirit. It only slightly
externalizes itself. This life of obscurity which purifies souls is what makes
them merit this beautiful title of martyrs of the faith, since, in truth, the
life of the spirit is an existence of martyrdom, that is, a life on the Cross
in the exercise of all virtues.
"Faith tears away the veil of mysteries. The soul which possesses this
virtue touches, experiences and at times contemplates real presence in the
Eucharist, the mystery of faith par excellence and the mystery of love. The
soul sees itself miserable in the light of this mystery of faith, and if it
does not as yet see the clarity of the beatific vision, face to face,
nonetheless in truth admires its splendor. Its ardor consumes it and, in the
vivacity of this faith, it annihilates itself before the love of a God it
contemplates so closely" (Diary, Oct. 31, 1895).
The Virtue of Hope
"The virtue of hope is one which does not linger to desire nothing or to
ask nothing of the earth, neither personal prestige, riches nor honors. It has
set its flight higher: it expects the possession of God Himself not due to
personal merit of the soul but on account of the superabundance of My infinite
merits. The souls which possesses holy hope, rejoices not for its own good
which will come about for it eternally. It goes beyond its personal, legitimate
and permissible good, but it rises higher, and it does not stop at its own
glory but at the glory which, through it, God Himself will receive. The virtue
of supernatural and perfect hope consists in yearning constantly for the
possession of the Beloved, not for itself but for the glory of God, working
efficaciously to obtain it, choosing and embracing the way of the Cross.
"Apropos of this, Jesus told me. 'Just as I am your hope, I am equally
your way. He who follows Me never walks in darkness but the way I represent is
the Cross. He who wishes to come after Me must deny himself, bear his cross and
follow Me setting his feet on My bloodstained tracks…' He assured me that the
Cross is the dwelling place of perfection, that it contains all the mysteries,
gifts and fruits of the Spirit" (Diary, Nov. 3, 1895).
Primacy
of Love
"Love is the soul of every life of prayer and of every good work. If they
are not accompanied by love, all of men's works are dead. Love is the fire
which inflames everything. When a soul possesses this holy love, it revives in
it faith and hope and urges it on to the practice of all the moral virtues.
"The soul which loves Me runs along the paths of perfection unconcerned
about the thorns it trod on. It then comes to fly without hindrance from the
thousands of obstacles it meets. It overcomes them by the interior ardor of a
living faith and a holy hope. The theological virtues have their seat and their
development in love. Charity communicates to them life and brings them up to
heaven. The world has no idea of the grandeur of these three theological
virtues which are founded on divine love.
"Some souls do not love Me. That is why they are lost. Among the souls who
love Me and call themselves Mine, how few there are who give Me
their whole heart! Almost always I receive but a part of their heart. All of
it, so rarely! Nevertheless I want them to love Me 'with all their heart,
with all their soul, with all their strength!' The human heart turns partly
toward creatures, toward the world, toward self. Self-love for the greatest
part fills it. It lives and breathes only for that. I demand a love which
surpasses everything. I have imposed this precept on them to render men happy
and to save them. Despite this, how few, I repeat, are the souls who carry out
My sovereign will to perfection! I wish them well and they resist. I present
them with a treasure and they despise it. I give them life and they run to
death. To love and to sacrifice oneself, therein is the eternal felicity in
heaven.
"To overcome vices and to practice virtues, it is necessary to sacrifice
oneself, but do so with love. The soul which does this, love Me wholeheartedly
and I will be its eternal recompense. Give Me a love like this, give Me souls
who love Me in suffering, who find their joy on the Cross. My Heart thirsts for
such a love. I want a pure love, an unselfish love, an expiatory, crucified
love, a sound love such as it may be said no longer exists on earth. Yet it is
the only true love, the love which saves, purifies and the love I require
through My commandments. All other apparent loves do not satisfy Me; all other
love is vain, artificial, often culpable, save the love which I have just shown
you.
"Love Me as I have loved you, in my interior Cross, after the very first
moment of my Incarnation. Love Me in suffering and in sacrifice out of love.
Love Me for I am God and solely to please Me. It is toward this love I aspire,
the love I desire. Happy the soul possessing it… I promise that on this earth,
that soul will begin to taste of the delights of heaven" (Diary, Sept. 11,
1900).
Divine Will and Total Self-surrender
The tableau of virtues and vices contains not only specifically distinct
virtues but also presents synthetic virtues, which are as it were a harmony of
many virtues. Thus, there is had the divine will and total
self-surrender.
Book of Heaven, Volume 2 - September 19, 1899
The fruits of Faith, of Hope and of Charity.
This morning I was a little disturbed, especially
because of the fear that it is not Jesus that comes, but the devil, and that my
state may not be Will of God. While I was in this agitation, my adorable
Jesus came and told me: “My daughter, I do not want you to waste time
thinking about this. You distract yourself from Me, and you cause the
food with which to nourish Me to be lacking. What I want is that you
think only of loving Me and of remaining all abandoned in Me, because in this
way you will offer Me a food very pleasing to Me – and not just every now and
then, as you would if you continued like this, but continuously. Would
this not be a greatest contentment for you – that your will, by being abandoned
in Me and by loving Me, be food for Me, your God?”
After this, He showed me His Heart, which contained
three distinct globes of light, which then formed a single one. And
Jesus, resuming His speech, told me: “The globes of light which you
see in my Heart are the Faith, the Hope and the Charity which I brought upon
earth to make suffering man happy by offering them to him as gift. Now,
to you also I want to give a more special gift.” And while He was
saying this, many threads of light came out of those globes of light, which
inundated my soul like a sort of net, and I remained inside of it. And
Jesus: “Here is how I want you to occupy your soul. First, fly
upon the wings of Faith, and in that light, by plunging yourself into it, you
will know and acquire ever more news about Me, your God; but by knowing Me
more, your nothingness will feel almost dissolved, and you will have no place
to lean on. You, however, rise more, and dive into the immense sea of
Hope, which is made of all my merits that I acquired in the course of my mortal
life, and of all the pains of my Passion, which I also gave to man as
gift. Only through these can you hope for the immense goods of Faith,
because there is no other way to obtain them. So, as you avail yourself
of these merits of mine as if they were your own, your ‘nothing’ will no longer
feel dissolved and sinking into the abyss of nothingness, but acquiring new
life, it will be embellished and enriched, in such a way as to draw the very
divine gazes upon itself. Then the soul will no longer be timid, but Hope
will administer to her courage and strength, in such a way as to render her
stable like a pillar exposed to all the intemperances of the air, which are the
various tribulations of life, and which do not move her a tiny bit. And
Hope will cause the soul not only to immerse herself without fear into the
immense riches of Faith, but to make herself the owner of them; and through
Hope she will reach such a point as to make God Himself her own. Ah, yes!
Hope makes the soul reach wherever she wants; Hope is the door of Heaven - only
by means of It can it be opened, because one who hopes for everything, obtains
everything. Then, after the soul has reached the point of making God
Himself her own, immediately, without any obstacle, she will find herself in
the immense ocean of Charity, and carrying Faith and Hope with her, she will
immerse herself in it and will form one single thing with Me, her God.”
Most loving Jesus continued: “If Faith is the king,
Charity is queen, and Hope is like the peacemaking mother who pacifies everything.
In fact, with Faith and Charity there may be disturbance, but Hope, being bond
of peace, converts everything into peace. Hope is support, Hope is
refreshment; and when the soul, rising by means of Faith, sees the beauty, the
sanctity and the love with which she is loved by God, and feels drawn to love
Him, but in seeing her insufficiency, how little she does for God, and how she
should love Him but does not, she feels discomforted, disturbed and almost does
not dare to draw near God – immediately this peacemaking mother comes out, and
placing herself between Faith and Charity, she begins to perform her office of
peacemaker. She makes the soul peaceful again, she pushes her, raises
her, gives her new strengths; and carrying her before king Faith and queen
Charity, she excuses the soul, she places a new effusion of her merits before
the soul, and she prays them to receive her. And Faith and Charity, with
their gazes fixed only on this peacemaking mother, so tender and compassionate,
receive the soul, and God forms the delight of the soul, and the soul the
delight of God.”
Oh, holy Hope, how admirable you are! I imagine
seeing the soul who is possessed by this beautiful Hope, like a noble wayfarer,
who walks in order to go and take possession of a land that will make his whole
fortune. But since he is unknown and he journeys through lands which are
not his, some deride him, some insult him, some strip him of his clothes, and
some reach the point of beating him and even of threatening to kill him.
And the noble wayfarer – what does he do in all these trials? Will he be
disturbed? Ah, no – never! On the contrary, he will deride those
who do all this to him, and knowing with certainty that the more he suffers,
the more he will be honored and glorified when he comes to take possession of
his land, he himself teases the people into tormenting him more. But he
is always tranquil, he enjoys the most perfect peace; and what is more, while
in the midst of these insults, he remains so calm, that while the others are
all alert around him, he keeps sleeping in the bosom of his longed-for
God. Who administers so much peace and so much firmness to this wayfarer
in continuing the journey he has undertaken? Certainly Hope in the
eternal goods that will be his; and since they are his, he will overcome
everything in order to take possession of them. Now, by thinking that
they are his own, he comes to love them – and here is how Hope gives rise to
Charity.
Who can say, then, what the light of blessed Jesus
makes me see? I would rather have let it pass in silence, but I see that
lady obedience, laying down her friendly guises of friendship, assumes the
aspect of a warrior and is arming his weapons to wage war against me and to
wound me. O please! Do not arm yourself so quickly – lay down your claws,
be quiet, for I will do as you say, as much as I can, and so we will always
remain friends.
Now, when the soul carries herself into the most
extensive
Who can say, then, how wounded the soul is by these
voices; how she begins to rave as though taken by a most ardent fever; how she
runs, almost made insane, and goes to plunge herself into the loving Heart of
her Beloved to find refreshment, and how she suckles, in torrents, the divine
delights? She becomes inebriated with love, and in her inebriation, she
makes canticles, all of love, for her most sweet Spouse. But who can say
everything that passes between the soul and God? Who can speak about this
Charity, which is God Himself?
At this moment, I see an immense light, and my mind
remains stupefied; it applies itself now at one point, now at another, and I
try to write it on paper, but I feel I stammer in expressing it. So, not
knowing what to do, for now I keep silent, and I believe that lady obedience
will forgive me this time, because if she wants to get huffy with me, this time
she is not so right. The wrong is all hers, for not giving me a more
fluent tongue to be able to express it. Have you understood, most
reverend obedience? We remain at peace, don’t we?
Lynne
Bauer, JMJ - Oct. 12, 2020
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