Teresa Helena Higginson (Servant of God, 1844-1905)
…as the Reason or Intellect in us in that part of the soul that is nearest to God - is in a special manner the Image of God, nay, is the very light of God in the soul, in which we see God as He is, and ourselves as we are, and are capable of judging right from wrong, and as the head is the seat of the reasoning powers, and the faculties of the mind repose therein, so from the Sacred Head shine forth in a blaze of resplendent light all knowledge, wisdom, understanding and a guiding power to direct and govern the Will and Affections of the Sacred Heart.......The soul pervades every part of the body, but as the reasoning powers are the highest faculties of the soul, and as the head is said to contain or be the Shrine of these faculties in a special way, and the memory is said to exist in the brain, so the reason (intellect) guides and directs the will and love or affections of the human heart. The head is the highest and noblest part of man, but I do not mean that the soul is divided, no, these three powers (memory, intellect, and will) though really distinct, cannot be separated any more than the Person of the Adorable Trinity could be separated - they form together but one soul which is immortal and perfect in its powers when filled with sanctifying Grace as is the Holy Soul of Jesus.”
(“It is in the intelligence that God places the image of the Most Holy Trinity. Book of Heaven, Vol. 35, 8/29/37)
“....at present I feel as though I had not to run after God as it were, but that I possessed Him and was more closely united to Him than my soul is to my body, that He is the soul of my existence and that I feel and live in Him, and He does all and that I do nothing.” (from a letter to Fr. Snow in 1887)
“I feel as though I had no heart of soul, but that God Himself is my soul and there He shines and rules all in such wonderful wisdom and peace. His glory and holy Will are all I desire.”
Pope Pius XII - Encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi
["On the Mystical Body of Christ"] June 29, 1943
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit Therefore, Our most learned predecessor Leo XIII of happy memory, speaking of our union with Christ and with the Divine Paraclete who dwells within us, and fixing his gaze on that blessed vision through which this mystical union will attain its confirmation and perfection in heaven says: "This wonderful union, or indwelling properly so-called, differs from that by which God embraces and gives joy to the elect only by reason of our earthly state." In that celestial vision it will be granted to the eyes of the human mind strengthened by the light of glory, to contemplate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in an utterly ineffable manner, to assist throughout eternity at the processions of the Divine Persons, and to rejoice with a happiness like to that with which the holy and undivided Trinity is happy.
Pope Benedict XVI speaks of placing the human will within the Divine Will
"We must learn to entrust ourselves more and more to divine Providence , to ask God to conform our wills to his," the Pontiff stated. "It is a prayer that we must make daily, because it is not always easy to entrust ourselves to God's will, to repeat the 'yes' of Jesus, the 'yes' of Mary."
The Holy Father reflected on Jesus' own struggle, as he -- unlike Adam and Eve -- "draws the human will back to its full 'yes' to God. [...] His human will is drawn into the 'I' of the Son, who abandons himself totally to the Father."
"Thus," the Pope said, "Jesus tells us that it is only in conforming one's own will to the divine will that the human being attains his true greatness, that he becomes 'divine'; it is only by going out of himself -- only in his 'yes' to God -- that the desire of Adam and of us all is fulfilled -- that of being completely free. This is what Jesus accomplishes in Gethsemane : by placing the human will within the divine will the true man is born, and we are redeemed."
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen
The last words of Mary that were spoken in Sacred Scripture were the words of total abandonment to the will of God. ‘Whatsoever He shall say to you, that do ye.’ As Dante said: “In His Will is our peace.” Love has no other destiny than to obey Christ. Our wills are ours only to give away…the power of filling belongs only to God. Hence, all perfect love must end on the note: “Not my will, but Thine be done, O Lord.”
Pope Pius XII, Fidei Donum 1957
In union with Christ take your stand as suppliants before the Heavenly Father and allow that prayer to rise to Him from your lips again and again…Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Only then shall we be influenced solely by the honor of God and by zeal to give Him greater glory, when we earnestly desire the restoration of His Kingdom, the Kingdom of justice, of love and of peace throughout the world.
