Memory, Intellect and Will

 Excerpts taken from Mother Angelica’s – Three Keys to the Kingdom and His Will and Mine

We are made in God’s Image:

Our Memory – resembles the Father – as the Father knows Himself, we know ourselves through our Memory.

Our Intellect (understanding) – resembles the Son – as the Son is the perfect Image of the Father, so our Understanding is the exterior image of what we remember.

Our Will – resembles the Spirit – As the Holy Spirit is the Love and Power that proceeds from the Father and the Son, so our Will is motivated by love and accomplishes what the Memory and Understanding give it to desire.

 LIVING IN HIS WILL

The first step in our efforts to glorify God is to know God's will. The second step, however, is the most important and that is: how do we live in that Will—how do we fulfill it—how do we accomplish that Will with joy?

To do this we must look at the life of Jesus. Jesus saw in every facet of His life, the Will of His Father. He seemed preoccupied with it.

Perhaps the most helpful comment Jesus made about the Father's Will was when He said it was His food. Though each person's state in life is different, each one's work and mission are different, the one common goal we should all desire is that of living in His Will—not just accomplishing it—but, like Jesus living in it. It should be the food and nourishment of our souls.

Life should not be a battle of Wills—His and mine. Life is a never ending call to love and an opportunity to respond with the same love—a call to sacrifice our dearest possession just as the Father sacrificed His dearest possession—an opportunity to say, "l love you, Father, more than myself." Love then, is the axis on which the Will revolves. If our love is selfish, our Will is geared toward self-gratification. If our love is unselfish, our Will is directed toward the Glory of God and the good of our neighbor.

We cannot separate love from the Will, for love decides what direction the Will takes. Even those who reject God possess a kind of love—a love for evil—evil deeds—evil company. Eventually, an eternal hatred is born from this love for evil. Pride is a misdirected love and if unconquered during life, turns inward with such force, its back is turned away from God forever. This is the great sin which is difficult to repent of— not admitting error and not accepting dependence on God.

 

To Change as We Share His Nature

 MEMORY – To keep our Memory free of resentment, to substitute good emotions for bad emotions, to forgive and forget, to realize our own weaknesses.

UNDERSTANDING – To admit our limitations, to realize His Transcendence, to accept His Revelations, to think as He thinks.

WILL – To have strength to do His Will, to see things as He sees them, to prefer Him to ourselves, to do everything for Him.

Uniformity With God’s Will – St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: “Charity is the bond of perfection.” (Col. 3:14); and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s. The principal effect of love is so to unite the wills of those who love each other as to make them will the same things.  It follows then, that the more one unites His will with the Divine Will, the greater will be his love of God.  Mortifications, meditation, receiving Holy Communion, acts of fraternal charity are all certainly pleasing to God – but only when they are in accordance with God’s Will, He not only finds no pleasure in them, but He even rejects them utterly and punishes them.

From the Book of Heaven, (Luisa Piccarreta) Sept. 26, 1904:

“…the greatest good that the creature has received from God was being created in His image and likeness, and endowed with three powers – intellect, memory and will – and there is no sin that the creature commits in which these three powers do not concur. So, she stains and disfigures the beautiful divine image that she contains within herself, using the gift to offend the Giver.

 

O, Father, may your Will, made known in Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reign in us through Mary!

Holy Spirit, Mother Mary, unite us to Jesus, that together we may live in the Bosom of the Father – in the Heart of the Trinity – in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen