Friday, October 16, 2020

The Reign of the Holy Spirit - Bl. Conchita di Armida

 


"'It is time that the Holy Spirit reign.' Very moved, the Lord told me this. He went on, 'and not a remote reign as something very sublime, even though it be so and there is nothing greater than He since He is God united and consubstantial with the Father and the Word. But it is necessary that He reigns, here, right close, in each soul and in each heart, in all the structures of My Church. The day on which there will flow in each pastor, in each priest, like an inner blood, the Holy Spirit, then will be renewed the theological virtues, now languishing, even in the ministers of My Church, due to the absence of the Holy Spirit. Then the world will change, for all the evils deplored today have their cause in the remoteness of the Holy Spirit. Then the world will change, for all the evils deplored today have their cause in the remoteness of the Holy Spirit, the sole remedy. Let the ministers of My Church react, through the medium of the Holy Spirit, and the whole world of souls will be divinized. He is the axis around which revolve the virtues. There is no virtue without the Holy Spirit. The decisive impulse for raising up My Church from the state of prostration in which she lies, consists in reviving the cult of the Holy Spirit. Let His place be given Him, that is, the first in intellects and wills! No one will be lacking anything with this heavenly wealth. The Father and I, the Word, We desire an ardent and vitalizing renewal of His reign in the Church.'"

Conchita:  "Lord, yet the Holy Spirit reigns in the Church, why do You complain?"

Jesus: "Woe to Her were it not so!  Certainly the Holy Spirit is the soul of this so dearly loved Church! But that about which I am complaining is that there is such little consideration for this gift of heaven, and to Him there is not accorded the importance due. His devotion in hearts is routine and languishing, indifferent, secondary. This brings about countless evils not only in the Church but in all souls. That is why the Works of the Cross have just come to renew devotion to Him and to extend it
throughout the earth. May the Holy Spirit reign in souls, and the Word will be known and honored, the Cross taking on a new force in the souls spiritualized by divine Love.

"To the extent the Holy Spirit will reign, sensuality, which today invades the earth, will disappear. The Cross will never take root unless beforehand the soil is made ready by the Holy Spirit. That is why He appeared to you first even before the vision of the Cross. It is because of this He is at the summit of the Cross of the Apostolate.


"One of the main fruits of the mystical incarnation is the reign of the Holy Spirit which must bring about the disappearance of materialism"
(Diary, Feb. 19, 1911).

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

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, 916).

"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

Monday, October 12, 2020

Jesus speaks of Faith, Hope and Charity

 

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 sea of Charity, she experiences ineffable delights, and enjoys joys which are unspeakable to mortal soul.  Everything is love; her sighs, her heartbeats, her thoughts, are as many sonorous voices that she makes resound around her most loving God.  These voices are all of love, calling Him to themselves, in such a way that blessed God, drawn and wounded by these loving voices, requites them, and it happens that His sighs, His heartbeats, and all of the Divine Being continuously call the soul to God.

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

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Adam - before the fall

 


 '…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'   “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, April 24, 1915

“…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, Jan. 3, 1922

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.”

Ask - Seek - Knock

 "Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you."  MT 7:7

ASK:

 "My daughter, it is always our love that, with irresistible strength, pushes us toward the creature to say, in the attitude of asking as if we needed her: 'You loved me, and I love you. You gave yourself to me and I give to you.' Now, you must know the extent of our love: every time we ask for her will and she gives it, she also gives us lives for as many times as she gives us her will. So, to give her the opportunity and credit, we remain always in the act of asking her to give us her life - not once but as many times as we ask her. Do you think it's nothing that the creature can then say, 'I gave you many lives; not once but thousands of times - for as many times as you asked me?' And we not only love her with twofold love for each time she gave us her will - deserving it again every time - but we feel more glorified and loved, for as many lives as she gave us. This is nothing other than the exuberance of our love - the keenness, the stratagems, excesses and follies of our operating love - which just can't stop finding ever new ways to deal with the creature; to be able to say: 'this many times we asked for her will and she never denied it. We can we refuse her nothing.' Isn't this an insuperable sign of love, which only a God can make? Further, our love never stops." Book of Heaven, Vol. 36, May 2, 1938

SEEK:

"My daughter, how my Heart is wounded by the prayer of one who seeks only my Will! I hear the echo of my prayer, which I did when I was upon earth. All my prayers were reduced to one single point – that the Will of my Father be perfectly fulfilled, both upon Me and upon all creatures. This was the greatest honor for Me and for the Celestial Father: to do His Most Holy Will in everything."  Book of Heaven, Vol. 17, Feb. 22, 1925

KNOCK:

“See then, the divine order:  all asking for one thing.  Among these who ask there are some who want to do my Will, others who do It.  All this is braided together, and they knock at the doors of my Divine Will - they repeat the knocking, and some knock strongly, some slowly.  However, there is always someone who knocks and asks that the doors be opened, so that my Will may descend to reign upon earth.  And since everything is established and ordered by the Divinity, It waits for the one who must give the strongest knock which, forcing the doors with invincible strength – the very strength of my Divine Will – will open wide the doors, and with her sweet chains of love, will bind the Eternal Will to make It come and reign in the midst of creatures.”   Book of Heaven, Vol. 24, May 26, 1928

Lynne B.

Sunday, October 4, 2020

I AM WHO AM

 

I AM WHO AM

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Prov. 1:7

 

Our Lord to St. Catherine of Siena:  “Do you know, my daughter, who you are and who I am?  If you have this two-fold knowledge you will be happy.  You are she who is not, I am He who is.  If you keep this truth in your heart, never will the enemy be able to deceive you.  You will escape his snares.  Never will you consent to commit an act which is against My Commandments, and you will readily acquire all grace, all truth, all clarity.”

 Ven. Conchita de Armida (Diary, August 8, 1896):  “…I can but lower myself into the bottomless abyss of my nothingness.  I close my eyes, I believe, and I adore...!  I believe there is no better lesson of humility than this.  How can anyone believe, before God and in the presence of such grandeur, that he is something of grandeur, miserable atom that he is?  How can he think he is something good in comparison with this goodness without limits?  How can he declare himself perfect in the presence of such a light on these infinite perfections.  How can he esteem himself pure, in the face of this eternal Truth?  Oh what fools we are, we others, poor beings of this world, when we believe we are something or consider ourselves capable of the least thing!  In truth, after I touched God and had an imperfect notion of His Being, I wanted to prostrate myself, my forehead and my heart in the dust and never get up again!” 

Ven. Conchita de Armida (I AM, Eucharistic Meditations on the Gospel): “I am Who am,” and nobody can understand all the meaning within these sublime, divine words that could only be pronounced by God Himself.

 “I Am Who am,” that is, I am the One Who is eternally infinite, the One Who has no beginning, the One Who will have no end; the Almighty, Immense, Uncreated, God of love.  Who is holy by essence, the Creator of all that exists or can exist, the wholly Unique One, the Sovereign Who created everything for Himself, the God of Kindness,

Who possesses Himself and gives Himself without measure.  He Who is!  More cannot be said.

 Conchita: “He is everything, I am nothing.  He is eternal in His perfections, I am limited.  He is merciful, I am in misery.  He humbled Himself for my love; I am proud, hard, insensitive to so much tenderness.”

 

Excerpts from the Book of Heaven: 

Volume 1

        You must be like an infant in swaddling bands who, unable to move by himself, even to walk or move a hand, must rely on its mother for everything.  In that way, I want you to remain near Me—like an infant—to always ask for my help and assistance, acknowledging your nothingness and expecting everything from Me.”

        With this type of talk I became little, and I annihilated myself to the point that I sometimes felt my whole being dissolved and dismembered—incapable of taking a step or a breath without the sustenance and assistance of Jesus.  I therefore tried my utmost to satisfy Him in everything by becoming humble and obedient.

 Volume 1

        He gave me other new insights regarding self—annihilation saying, "You are not, and should not consider yourself more than a shadow that quickly passes by and eludes you as you try to catch it.  If, therefore, you want to see something in yourself that is worthy of Me, consider yourself nothing; and I, pleased with your true debasement, will pour my All into you." Saying this, my good Jesus impressed on my mind and heart a self—annihilation of such magnitude, that I wanted to hide myself in the deepest abyss.  Knowing how impossible it was for me to hide my shame from Him as I continued the destruction of my self-esteem, He would say, "Get closer to Me, lean on my arm.  I will support you and give you strength to always work for Me and do all for Me."

 Volume 1

        Luisa: Have You forgotten that I am wicked and that without You I can do no good?

        And Jesus sweetly and calmly answered; “I do this so you will understand what you are without Me.  Do not despair.  I am doing this to you for your greater good, to prepare your heart to receive the new graces I shall bestow upon you.  Until this time I have helped you visibly; but now, invisibly, I will make you feel your nothingness with your own hand.  I will cause you to sink into the most profound humility; and I will endow you with my graces—the best ones—to prepare you for the high levels to which I want to raise you.  So instead of despairing, be joyful with Me and thank Me, because the quicker you traverse this stormy sea, the quicker you will reach the harbor of salvation.  The severer the tests I will subject you to, the greater the graces I will bestow upon you.  Have courage, therefore, for soon I shall come to console you in your sorrow.”

 Volume 2, May 26, 1899

“Contempt of yourself is praiseworthy when it is well invested by the spirit of Faith; but when it is not invested by the spirit of Faith, instead of doing you good, it can harm you. In fact, in seeing yourself as you are, unable to do anything good, you will be discouraged, disheartened, without daring to take one step on the path of good. But by leaning on Me – that is, by investing yourself with the spirit of Faith – you will come to know and despise yourself, and at the same time, to know Me, confident of being able to do anything with my help. And here is how, by acting in this way, you will walk according to the truth.”

Luisa: “How much good these words of Jesus did to my soul! I comprehended that I must enter into my nothingness and know who I am, but I must not stop there. Rather, immediately after I have known myself, I must fly into the immense sea of God, and stay there, to draw all the graces that my soul needs; otherwise, my nature remains weakened and the devil will look for means in order to cast it into discouragement.”

 Volume 2, June 2, 1899

        This morning my sweetest Jesus wanted to make me touch my nothingness with my own hands.  In the act of showing Himself, the first words that He directed to me were, "Who am I and who are you?"  In these words I saw two immense lights.  One contained God, and in the other I saw my misery, my nothingness.  I saw myself to be nothing but a shadow as that shadow projected by whatever object illuminated by the sun, shadow that ceases to exist when the sun passes to other points.

        Thus my shadow, thus my being, depends upon the mystical sun, God, Who in a mere instant can dissolve this shadow that the Lord has given me, it not even being mine.  It causes horror to think of it.  Smelly, putrid and all wormy, yet in this so horrid state I was constrained to be together with a God so Holy.  Oh, how I would have been content if it were given to me to hide myself in the darkest abysses!

        After this, Jesus said to me, "The greatest favor that I can do for a soul is to make it know itself.  The knowledge of self and the knowledge of God go hand in hand.  For as much as you shall know yourself, this much shall you know God.  The soul that has known itself, seeing that by itself it can work nothing of good, transforms the shadow of its being into God and it happens that in God it does all its operations.  Then it happens that the soul is in God and walks with Him, without looking, without investigation, without speaking.  In a word, it is as if it were dead, for, knowing in depth its nothingness, it does not dare to do anything by itself but it blindly follows the influences of the operations of the Word.  It seems to me that to the soul that knows itself, it happens as to those persons who go by train.  Who, while they pass from one point to another, without taking one step by themselves, make long trips, but all in virtue of the train that transports them.  Thus the soul, placing itself in God, as the persons on the train, makes sublime flights in the way of perfection, knowing fully that it is not of itself but in virtue of that blessed God Who carries it in Himself.  Oh, how the Lord favors, enriches and concedes the greatest graces to that soul that attributes all, not to itself, but to God!"

 Volume 2, June 12, 1899

…Jesus seemed to clothe my soul with the garment of Faith, of Hope and of Charity, and in the very act of clothing me, Jesus whispered to me the way I was to exercise myself in these three virtues. Now, while I was doing this, unleashing another ray of light, Jesus made me understand my nothingness. Ah! I seemed to be like a grain of sand in the middle of a most extensive sea, which is God; and this little grain went to disperse itself inside that immense sea – but it was lost in God. Then He transported me outside of myself, carrying me in His arms, and kept whispering to me various acts of contrition for my sins. I only remember that I have been an abyss of iniquities. Lord, oh, how many awful ingratitude I have had toward You!

 Volume 3, January 31, 1900

    Jesus:  “What is the passport to enter into the kingdom of grace? It is humility. Through humility, by always looking at her nothingness and seeing that she is nothing but dust or wind, the soul will place all her trust in grace, so much so, as to make of it her master. And grace, taking dominion over all of the soul, leads her along the path of all virtues, and makes her reach the summit of perfection.”   

Luisa:  What would a soul without grace be like? It seemed to me that she would be like the body without the soul, which becomes stinking and spews worms and rot from all parts, so much so, as to become an object of horror to the human sight itself. In the same way, without grace, the soul becomes so abominable as to be horrifying to the sight – not of men, but of God Trice Holy. Ah, Lord, free me from such misfortune, and from the abominable monster of sin!

Volume 3, February 5, 1900

      “My daughter, sometimes the soul feels an encounter in some virtue, and plucking up her strength, the soul overcomes that encounter; and then, that virtue becomes more resplendent and rooted in the soul. However, the soul must be very attentive in order to avoid that she herself might provide the little rope to let herself be bound by lack of confidence; and she will do this by always restricting herself within the circle of truth, without ever leaving it, which is the knowledge of her nothingness.”

 Volume 3, May 20, 1900

     “My daughter, all things have their origin from nothing. If this very machine of the universe which you are admiring with its great order had been full of other things before I created it, I could not have put my creative hand to make it with such great mastery and to render it so splendid and adorned. At the most, I could have undone everything that might have been there, to then redo it according to my liking. But we always come to this: all of my works have their origin from nothing, and when there is a mixing with other things, it is not decorous for my majesty to descend and operate in the soul. But when the soul reduces herself to nothing and rises to Me, and takes her being within Mine, then I operate as the God that I am, and the soul finds true rest. And here is how all virtues, from humility to the annihilation of oneself, begin.”

 Volume 3, June 20, 1900

      “As for the rest, I do not want you to think about it, because the most perfect, the most sublime humility is that of losing every reason and of not discoursing on ‘why’ and ‘how’, but of undoing oneself in one’s own nothingness. And while the soul does this, without realizing it, she finds herself dissolved in God, and this produces in the soul the union most intimate, the love most perfect toward her highest Good. This, however, to the greatest advantage of the soul, because in losing her own reason, she acquires divine reason, and in losing every discoursing about herself – whether she is cold or warm, whether the things that happen to her are favorable or adverse – she will be interested in and will acquire a language fully celestial and divine. In addition to this, humility produces a garment of safety in the soul, in such a way that, wrapped in this garment of safety, the soul remains in the most profound calm, embellishing all of herself in order to be pleasing to her dearest and beloved Jesus.”

 Volume 3, June 27, 1900

      “My daughter, what I want from you is that you no longer recognize yourself in yourself, but that you recognize yourself only in Me. So you will no longer remember yourself, nor will you ever again have recognition of yourself, but you will remember Me, and un-recognizing yourself, you will acquire the recognition of Me alone. According to how much you will forget and destroy yourself, so will you advance in the knowledge of Me and will recognize yourself only in Me. Once you have done all this, you will no longer think with your mind, but with mine; you will not look with your eyes, you will no longer speak with your mouth, nor will you palpitate with your heart, work with your hands, or walk with your feet, but will do everything with mine. In fact, in order to recognize herself only in God, the soul needs to go to her origin and to return to her beginning – God, from whom she came - and to conform all of herself to her Creator. And anything which she keeps of herself and which is not conformed to her beginning, she must undo and reduce to nothing. Only in this way, naked, undone, can she return to her origin, recognize herself only in God, and operate according to the purpose for which she was created. This is why in order to conform to Me completely, the soul must render herself indivisible with Me.”

 Volume 3, August 3, 1900

      “My daughter, why do you look for Me outside of yourself, while you could find Me more easily within yourself? When you want to find Me, enter into yourself, go deep into your ‘nothing’, and there, without yourself, in the most tiny circle of your ‘nothing’, you will see the foundations that the Divine Being laid within you, as well as the factories It raised in you. Look and see.”

      I looked again and I saw solid foundations and very high walls that reached up to the heavens; but that which stupefied me was to see that the Lord had done this beautiful work upon my nothing, and the walls were all walled up, with no openings. One could see only one opening in the vault, which corresponded only to Heaven, and in this opening dwelled Our Lord, upon a stable column that rose out of the foundations, formed over nothing. Now, while I was looking, all stupefied, blessed Jesus added: The foundations formed over nothing mean that the Divine Hand operates there where there is nothing, and It never mixes Its works with material works. The walls without openings around mean that the soul must have no correspondence with earthly things, in such a way that there may be no danger that even a little bit of dust may enter, because everything is walled up well. The only correspondence that these walls allow is with Heaven – that is, from nothing to Heaven, from Heaven to nothing; and this is the meaning of the opening made in the vault. The stability of the column means that the soul is so stable in good that there is no contrary wind that can move her. And my dwelling upon it is the sure sign that the work done is fully divine.”

Volume 4, November 11, 1900

       “Ah, my daughter, do not go out of my Will, because by going out of my Will, you come to lose the knowledge of Me, and not knowing Me, you come to lose the knowledge of yourself. In fact, only in the reflections of the light can one distinguish with clarity whether there is gold or mud; if everything is darkness objects can easily be confused. Now, the light is my Will, which gives you the knowledge of Me, and in the reflections of this light you come to know who you are; and in seeing your weakness, your pure nothingness, you cling to my arms and, united with my Will, you live with Me in Heaven. But if you want to go out of my Will, first you would come to lose true humility, and then you would come to live on the earth and would be forced to feel the earthly weight, to moan and sigh like all the other unfortunate who live outside of my Will.”

 Volume 4, December 24, 1902

        “My daughter, one who believes himself to be something before Me and before men, is worth nothing.  One who believes himself to be nothing is worth everything – first, before Me, because if he does something, he does not think he does it because he can do it, having the strength and the capacity, but rather, because he receives from God the grace, the helps and the lights; therefore it can be said that he does it by virtue of divine power, and one who has divine power with him is already worth everything. Second, before men, because this acting by virtue of divine power makes him operate in a completely different way, and he does nothing but send forth the light of the divine power he contains within himself, in such a way that the most perverted ones, without wanting it, feel the strength of this light and submit to his volition; and here is how he is worth everything also before men. On the contrary, one who believes himself to be something, in addition to being worth nothing, is abominable to my presence, and because of his ostentatious and particular manners - for he believes he is something and makes fun of others - men keep him pointed out as an object of derision and of persecution.”

 Volume 8, November 18, 1907

       Luisa:  ‘My sweet life, how bad I have become – I feel I am reduced to nothing. I no longer feel anything in me, everything is empty; I just feel an enchantment in my interior, and in this enchantment I wait for You, so that You may fill me. But in vain do I wait for this filling; on the contrary, I feel I always return to nothing.’ And Jesus: “Ah, my daughter! And you afflict yourself for you feel reduced to nothing? Rather, I say to you: the more the creature is reduced to nothing, the more she is filled with the All. And if she left even one shadow of herself, that shadow would prevent Me from giving all of Myself, completely, to the soul. Your constant returning to nothing means that you are dissolving your human being to reacquire the Divine.”

Volume 9, December 22, 1909

I felt my very nature being consumed and melted into nothingness. Those seeds of strength, of light, of knowledge which I seemed to feel – everything turned into nothing. I felt I was dying; yet, I live. In the meantime He came back, and taking me in his arms, He seemed to sustain this nothingness of mine, telling me: “Do you see, my daughter, how, as the little seed of your strength, the little lamp of your light, the little knowledge of Me that you have, and all of your other little qualities dissolve, my strength, my light, my wisdom, my beauty and all of my other qualities take over and fill this nothingness of yours? Aren’t you happy?”

 Volume 11, Good morning to Jesus

       Jesus, Jesus, may our will be one; one our love, one our contentment. Never leave me alone, for I am a nothing, and the nothing cannot be without the All.

 Volume 11, 4th July, 1912

       “My daughter, what is the matter? Do you want to waste time? Do you want to go out of your nothingness? Stay in your place - in your nothingness - so that the All may keep Its place in you. Know, however, that you must die completely in my Will: to suffering, to virtues - to everything. My Will must be the tomb of the soul; and just as in the tomb one’s nature is consumed to the point of disappearing completely, and through that very consummation it will rise again to new and more beautiful life - in the same way, the soul, buried in my Will as though inside a tomb, will die to suffering, to her virtues, to her spiritual goods, and will rise again in everything to Divine Life.”

 Volume 12, June 14, 1917

“My daughter, the more the soul strips herself of herself, the more I clothe her with Myself. The more she believes she can do nothing, the more I act in her, and I do everything. I feel all my love, my prayers, my reparations, etc. being placed in act by the creature; and to give honor to Myself, I listen to what she wants to do. Love? I go to her and love together with her. Does she want to pray? I pray together with her. In sum, her stripping and her love, which is mine, bind Me and force Me to do with her whatever she wants to do. And I give to the soul the merit of my love, of my prayers and reparations; and to my highest contentment, I feel my Life being repeated, and I make the effects of my operating descend for the good of all, because it is not of the creature, who is hidden in Me - but it is mine.”

 Volume 12, December 6, 1917

“So, how could other things, outside of my Will, ever please Me, as beautiful as they might be? They are always low, human and finite acts. Instead, the acts in my Will are noble, divine, without end, infinite - as it is my Volition. They are similar to mine, and I give them the same value, love and power of my own acts; I multiply them in everyone; I extend them to all generations, to all times. What do I care if they are small? They are always my acts being repeated, and that’s enough. And then, the soul places herself in her true nothingness - not in humility, in which she always feels something of herself. And, as a nothing, she enters into the All, and she operates with Me, in Me and like Me - completely stripped of herself, not caring about merit or self-interest, but all intent only on making Me content, giving Me absolute lordship over her acts, without even wanting to know what I do with them. Only one thought occupies her: to live in my Will, praying Me to give her the honor. This is why I love her so much, and all my predilections, my love, are for this soul who lives in my Will. And if I love others, it is by virtue of the love which I have for this soul, and which descends from her - just as the Father loves the creatures by virtue of the love He has for Me.”

 Volume 12, December 26, 1919

“…And besides, what do the Sacraments do if not unite the soul with God? What is to do my Will? Isn’t it perhaps to unite the will of the creature with her Creator? To dissolve oneself in the Eternal Volition - the ‘nothing’ ascending to the ‘All’, and the ‘All’ descending into the ‘nothing’. It is the noblest, the most divine, the purest, the most beautiful, the most heroic act that the creature can do.

 Volume 14, March 3, 1922

“My daughter, now it is appropriate that I set to work again, to work the soil of your soul, so as to be able to sow the seed of my word in order to nourish you. I act like a farmer when he wants to sow in his field: he forms little trenches, makes some furrows, and then sows in them the seeds, and again he covers with earth the little trenches and the furrows in which he has sown the seeds, so as to keep them sheltered and give them the time to germinate, to then harvest them increased a hundredfold, to make of them his food. But he is careful not to put too much earth over them, otherwise he would suffocate his seeds and would make them die under the earth, and he would run the risk of remaining on an empty stomach. Now, so I do: I prepare the little trenches, I form the furrows, I enlarge the capacity of her intelligence to be able to sow my divine word, and therefore form the food for Me and for her; then I cover the little trenches and the furrows with earth - which is humility, nothingness, the annihilation of the soul, some little weakness or misery of hers. This is earth, and it is necessary that I take it from her because I lack this earth; and so I cover everything and I wait with joy for my harvest. Now, do you want to know when too much earth is placed over my seed? When the soul feels her miseries, her weaknesses, her nothingness, and she afflicts herself. She thinks about it so much as to waste time; and the enemy uses this in order to cast her into disturbance, discouragement and despondency. This is all earth in excess over my seed. Oh! how my seed feels itself dying – how it struggles to germinate under this earth. Many times these souls tire the Celestial Farmer, and He withdraws. Oh! how many are the souls such as these.”

 Volume 16, November 10, 1923

“My dear little one, I have chosen you little, because the little ones let one do with them whatever he wants. They do not walk by themselves, but let themselves be guided; even more, they are afraid to place one foot on their own. If they receive gifts, feeling incapable of keeping them, they place them on the lap of their mama. The little ones are stripped of everything, nor do they care about whether they are rich or poor; they are concerned with nothing. Oh! how beautiful the tender age is - full of grace, of beauty and of freshness. Therefore, the greater is the work I want to do in a soul, the littler I choose her. I like childlike freshness and beauty very much; I like it so much that I preserve these souls in the littleness of the nothingness from which they came. I let nothing of their own enter into them, so as not to let them lose their littleness, and therefore preserve the divine freshness and beauty from which they came.”

 Volume 19, April 16, 1926

“My daughter, everything you experienced – your full abandonment in the arms of our Celestial Father, no longer feeling your own life – is the image of the living in my Will.  In fact, in order to live in It, the creature must live more of God than of herself; even more, ‘the nothing’ must give life to ‘the All’, to be able to do everything, and to have her act at the top of all the other acts of each creature. Such was the life of my Divine Mama. She was the true image of the living in my Will. Her living in It was so perfect, that She did nothing but receive from God, continuously, all that She was to do in order to live in the Supreme Volition. So, She received the act of supreme adoration, to be able to place Herself at the top of every adoration which all creatures were obliged to do for their Creator. In fact, true adoration has life within the Three Divine Persons. Our perfect concord, Our reciprocal love, Our one Will, form the most profound and perfect adoration within the Sacrosanct Trinity. Therefore, if the creature adores Me, but her will is not in accord with Me, it is vain word – not adoration.”

 Volume 20, May 8, 1930

“My daughter, one then feels the true life in herself, when she enters in my Divine Will, because in Him the creature sees with clarity her nothing(ness) and how this nothing feels the need of the All, that is of He who drew her from the nothing in order to live; and as she recognizes herself, the All fills her with himself. This nothing feels the true life, she finds in him the immediate contact of sanctity, of goodness, power, love and divine wisdom; she recognizes in herself the power of the creative work, his palpating life and the extreme need of this divine life, otherwise she feels as if in herself there might not be life. It is only my Will that makes her true nothing(ness) recognized by the creature and [my Will] goes continually blowing on this nothing in order to maintain the divine life always inflamed in her, in order to make her grow as a worthy work of our creative hands. Instead without our Will the creature feels as if she might be something and the All remains outside of the nothing.”

 Volume 19, May 27, 1926

 “My daughter, feeling your nothingness more does not oppose the living in my Will; on the contrary, it is a duty of yours. All of my works are formed over nothing, and this is why the All can do what He wants. If the sun had reason, and someone asked it: ‘What good do you do? What are your effects? How much light and heat do you contain?’; it would answer: ‘I do nothing, I just know that the light given to me by God is invested with the Supreme Will, and I do whatever It wants. I extend wherever It wants, and I produce the effects It wants; and while I do so much, I remain always nothing and the Divine Will does everything in me.’ The same for all my other works - all their glory is to remain in their nothingness in order to give the whole field to my Will, to let It operate. Only man wanted to do without the Will of his Creator, he wanted to make his nothingness operate, believing himself to be good at something; and the All, feeling Himself placed after the nothing, went out of man, who reduced himself from superior to all, to inferior to all. Therefore, let your nothingness be always at the mercy of my Will, if you want the unity of Its light to operate in you and call the purpose of Creation back to new life.”

 Volume 19, June 15, 1926

…I felt full of defects and totally bad; therefore, as blessed Jesus came, I told Him: ‘Jesus, my life, have pity on me – look at how full of defects I am, and how much badness there is in me.’ And He, all goodness and tenderness, told me: “My daughter, do not fear, I am here, watching over you and keeping your soul in custody, so that not even the slightest sin may enter into your soul. And where you or others see defects and badness, I find none; rather, I see that your ‘nothing’ feels the weight of the ‘All’. In fact, the more I elevate you intimately to Me and I make known to you what the ‘All’ wants to do with your ‘nothing’, the more you feel your nothingness and, almost frightened and crushed under the All, you would want escape from manifesting and, even more, from writing on paper that which the ‘All’ wants to make of this ‘nothing’ of yours. More so since, as much reluctance as you feel, I always win and make you do what I want.  This happened also to my Celestial Mama, when She was told: ‘I hail You, Mary, full of grace; You will conceive the Son of God.’ On hearing this, She was frightened, She trembled, and said: ‘How can this happen?’ But She ended up saying: ‘Fiat Mihi secundum verbum tuum.’ She felt all the weight of the All over Her nothing and, naturally, She was frightened. So, when I manifest to you what I want to do with you, and your nothing is frightened, I see the fright of the Sovereign Queen being repeated; and compassionating you, I lift your nothing, I strengthen it, that it may endure sustaining the All. Therefore, do not be concerned about this, but rather, think of letting the All operate in you.”

 Volume 20 January 25, 1927

“How beautiful is the Kingdom of my Will – the nothing dissolved in the All, and the All fused in the nothing; the lowliness of the creature rising into the Divine height, and the Divine height descending into the depth of the creature. They are two beings bound together, inseparable, transfused, identified, such that it can barely be recognized that they are two lives palpitating together. All the magnificence, the sanctity, the sublimeness, the prodigies of the Kingdom of my Will, will be exactly this: the faithful copy of the soul in God, and the copy of God, whole and beautiful, in the soul. Therefore, the children of the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat will be as many images of little Gods in my Kingdom.”

 

 Lynne Bauer, JMJ 

Aug. 8, 2014

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