Faith, hope and charity

 FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY

Excerpts taken from “Conchita, A Mothers  Spiritual Diary” Blessed Conchita di Armida

"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 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.”  (Diary, Nov. 3, 1895)

"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.

"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).

Faith, hope and charity, Excerpts taken from Volumes 1 and 2, Book of Heaven:

“In order to obtain, one must believe. Just as for the head without the sight of the eyes, everything is darkness, everything is confusion, so much so, that if one wanted to walk, he would stumble now at one point, now at another, and would end up falling completely, the same for the soul without Faith – she does nothing but go from precipice to precipice. But Faith serves as the sight of the soul, and as the light which guides her to eternal life. Now, what is this light of Faith nourished by? By Hope. Now, what is the substance of this light of Faith, and of this nourishment of Hope? It is Charity. All of these three virtues are grafted to one another, in such a way that one cannot be without the other.

In fact, what good comes to man from believing in the immense riches of Faith, if he does not hope for them, for himself? He will look at them, yes, but with indifferent eye, because he knows that they do not belong to him. But Hope provides the light of Faith with wings, and by hoping in the merits of Jesus Christ, he looks at them as his own, and he comes to love them.”

“Hope”, Jesus said, “provides the soul with a garment of fortitude, almost of iron, in such a way that, with all their arrows, the enemies cannot wound her; not only this, but they cannot cause even the slightest disturbance. Everything is tranquility in her, everything is peace. Oh! It is beautiful to see this soul invested with beautiful Hope, all cleaving to her beloved, all distrustful of herself, and all trustful in God. She challenges the fiercest enemies, she is queen of her passions; she regulates all of her interior, her inclinations, desires, heartbeats, thoughts, with such mastery that Jesus Himself remains enamored, because He sees that this soul operates with such courage and strength. But she draws it from Him, and places all her hope in Him, so much so, that in seeing this firm hope, Jesus cannot deny anything to this soul.”

Then He continued: “If Faith makes one believe, and Hope makes one hope, Charity makes one love. If Faith is light and serves as the sight of the soul, and Hope, which is the nourishment of Faith, provides the souls with courage, peace, perseverance and all the rest - Charity, which is the substance of this light and of this nourishment, is like that most sweet and fragrant ointment which, penetrating everywhere, relieves and soothes the pains of life. Charity makes suffering sweet, and makes one reach the point even of desiring it. The soul who possesses Charity diffuses fragrance everywhere; her works, all done out of love, give off a most pleasing odor. And what is this odor? It is the odor of God Himself. The other virtues render the soul solitary and almost unrefined with creatures; Charity, on the other hand, being substance that unites, unites the hearts. But where? In God. Being a most fragrant ointment, Charity spreads everywhere and with everyone. Charity makes one suffer the most ruthless torments with joy, and one reaches the point of not being able to be without suffering. And when she sees herself deprived of it, she says to her spouse Jesus: “Sustain me with the fruits, which is suffering, because I am languishing with love; and where else can I show You my love other than in suffering for You?” Charity burns, consumes all other things, even the virtues themselves, and turns them all into itself. In sum, it is like a queen who wants to reign everywhere and does not want to surrender to anyone.”

Lynne Bauer, JMJ

Adam, before the fall

 

ADAM BEFORE THE FALL

Book of Heaven, April 24, 1915:  “How can those words spoken by Me in creating man, ‘Let Us make man in Our Image and Likeness’, be explained? How could the creature, so incapable, ever resemble Me and be my image? Only in my Will could he arrive at this, because by making It his own, he comes to operate in a divine manner; and through the repetition of these divine acts, he comes to resemble Me - to become my perfect image.” 

Book of Heaven, Jan. 3, 1922:  …in creating man, We infused Our image and likeness in him so as to overwhelm him with Our happiness and be reflected and delighted in him.”

 “…the Divine Will and the human will, which the creature shattered even from the terrestrial Eden. And the soul who knows no other life but the Life of my Will, rebuilds It, binds It again, returning to It all the relations which the creature had broken - relations of creation, of origin of existence. These were bonds of union between Creator and creature - relations of likeness, sanctity, science, power. Everything I contain I placed in relationship with man - relations in the order of all created things, and to him I gave primacy over everything.”  

Book of Heaven, Sept. 10, 1928: “Now, you must know that, indeed, Adam possesses a glory in Heaven which is given to no one else, as holy as he may be, except for my Celestial Mama, because no one else possesses even one act in the unity of my Divine Will. It was just and decorous for Our Divine Majesty that the first creature that came out of Our creative hands possess more glory than all the others; more so, since the first period of his life was carried out as We wanted. One can say that it was Our life, Our Will and Our works that flew within him. How could We destroy this first period of the life of Adam, since it was more Ours than his? It is useless even to think about it; whatever is done in Our Divine Will remains untouchable – no one can touch it, because these acts enter the divine and infinite order. And even though Adam slipped and fell, his acts done up to that moment remained intact and beautiful, just as he did them. He was the one who remained wounded, ill, Our image disfigured in him, because Our Divine Will, which had taken on the commitment to keep him beautiful, fresh, strong, holy, completely in order with Us, just as We created him, was no longer in him, because Adam himself had rejected It. But his works done up to the moment in which he had the misfortune to fall, and which possessed the unity of Our Fiat, suffered no change, because We too were jealous of these acts which had glorified Us so much. They had put Us in feast, as We saw that man, Our son, elevated himself up to Us in order to absorb within him Our divine manners, Our likeness, and to bring Us joys, happiness’, the return and the smile of all created things in the unity of Our Will. We were enraptured in seeing Our dear son, the work of Our hands, live in Our Will as in Our home; taking from Our own, he was able to bring Us new happiness’ and joys without end.

So, by virtue of the first period of his life, innocent and carried out all in the unity of Our Fiat, Adam possesses such glory and beauty that no one can equal him. At the mere sight of him, all of the Blessed recognize how beautiful and majestic the creation of the first man was, enriched with so much grace. In looking at him, they can see, in him, the incalculable good of the Divine Will in the creature, and the joy and happiness that the creature can possess. In him alone, as though within a mirror, the Blessed can see how man was created, the exuberant love that We had for him, the abundance with which We enriched him. We gave him everything, as much as a creature could contain, to the point of overflowing outside and being able to flood the whole earth. If it were not so – if the whole magnificence of Our creative hands could not be seen in Adam – then the great things We did in the Creation, and that which the creature does and can do in Our Divine Will would not be known even in Heaven. It is Our love that demands this, and also Our justice that wants to keep, in Heaven, the reality of that image, as man was created – and not another man, but the very one who came out of Our creative hands, so that, if the earth does not know him, Heaven may know him. They look at their origin in Adam, and, grateful, they thank Me and pray that my Fiat may come to reign upon earth, and form more images, more beautiful than Adam, because he was not a complete work in my Divine Will, but a period of life. Only the Sovereign Queen possesses complete life and works in my Fiat, therefore there is no one who can equal Her. My Will wants to make more complete lives in It, so as to repeat what It did in the Creation, to make known to the earth the way and the order in which the creature was created, and the great, beautiful, holy things that my Divine Will can do in her.

Moreover, you must know that, up to now, I have not manifested to anyone either the great qualities of Adam, or his sublimity, greatness and sanctity as he lived his first period of life in the unity of my Will; and by virtue of his acts done in It, the great glory that he enjoys in Heaven. Many, on the contrary, believed that since he slipped into sin, he could at most have a glory common to all the other Blessed, or perhaps even less than the others. But wanting to restore again the Kingdom of my Divine Will, I feel within Me a necessity of love to manifest the first epoch of Creation, and the first period of the life of Adam - all of Divine Will - as well as the glory which he enjoys in Heaven by virtue of It, so that, as the other creatures come to know a good so great, they may dispose themselves and long for the Divine Fiat on earth as It is in Heaven.”

Lynne. Bauer, JMJ

A New Pentecost

 

A NEW PENTECOST

Excerpts from CONCHITA - A Mother's Spiritual Diary

"On sending to the world a new Pentecost, I want it inflamed, purified, illuminated, inflamed and purified by the light and fire of the Holy Spirit. The last stage of the world must be marked very specially by the effusion of the Holy Spirit. He must reign in hearts and in the entire world, not so much for the glory of His Person as for making the Father loved and bearing testimony of Me, although His glory is that of the whole Trinity" (Diary, Jan. 26, 1916).

"Tell the Pope that it is My will that in the whole Christian world the Holy Spirit be implored to bring peace and His reign into hearts. Only this Holy Spirit will be able to renew the face of the earth. He will bring light, union and charity to hearts.”

"The world is foundering because it rejects the Holy Spirit, and all the evils which afflict it have therein their origin. The remedy is found in Him. He is the Consoler, the author of all grace, the bond of union between the Father and the Son and the supreme conciliator since He is charity, uncreated and eternal Love.”

"May the whole world have recourse to this Holy Spirit since the day of His reign has arrived. This last stage of the world belongs very specially to Him that He be honored and exalted.”

"May the Church preach Him, may souls love Him, may the whole world be consecrated to Him, and peace will come along with a moral and spiritual reaction, greater than the evil by which the world is tormented.”

"May all at once this Holy Spirit begin to be called on with prayers, penances and tears, with the ardent desire of His coming. He will come, I will send Him again clearly manifest in His effects, which will astonish the world and impel the Church to holiness" (Diary, Sept. 27, 1918).

"Ask for this renewal, this new Pentecost, for My Church has need of priests sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The world is foundering in the abyss since it lacks priests who will help it from falling in; priests who bear the light to shine on the paths of good; pure priests to pull out of the mud so many hearts; priests afire who will fill the entire universe with divine love.”

"Ask, supplicate heaven, that all may be restored in Me by the Holy Spirit" (Diary, Nov. 1, 1927).

"I want to return to the world in My priests. I want to renew the world of souls by making Myself seen in My priests. I want to give a might impulse to My Church infusing in her, as it were, a new Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, in My priests" (Diary, Jan. 5, 1928).

"To obtain what I ask, every priest must make a consecration to the Holy Spirit, asking Him, through Mary's intercession, to come to them as it were in a new Pentecost, to purify them, to fill them with love, possess them, unify them, sanctify them and transform them into Me" (Diary, Jan. 25, 1928).

"One day not too far away, at the center of My Church, at Saint Peter's there will take place the consecration of the world to the Holy Spirit, and the graces of this Divine Spirit, will be showered on the blessed Pope who will make it.”

"It is My desire that the universe be consecrated to the Divine Spirit that He may spread Himself over the earth in a new Pentecost." (Diary, March 11, 1928).

Lynne Bauer, JMJ