How a Saint Approaches Death.

In a previous post I showed how a saint, Gemma Galgani, approached Holy Communion. Now we will see how this same saint approached her death. Born in 1878 in Italy, she lived into the twentieth century, passing to her reward in 1903 at the youthful age of only 25. Following are excerpts from her biographer and spiritual director, Fr. Germanus, taken from the final chapters of his book.

It was to be expected that a life wholly spent with Jesus Crucified would end on the Cross with Him. Gemma had participated one by one in all the sufferings of the Man God—in His agony of soul and external torturings; in His Sweat of blood, His scourging and His wounds; in the piercing of the Crowns of Thorns, the dislocation of His bones and the lacerating of His flesh by the nails. In order to perfect her likeness to Jesus there only remained to be accomplished the last agony and death in an ocean of pain, and He would not deprive her of this. As Gemma’s delicate body was certainly not capable of so much pain, He compensated for its intensity by its duration, keeping her on the Cross for several long months.

“Poor Martyr!” they wrote to me from Lucca; “poor victim of Jesus! she suffers without cessation and feels as if her bones were being disjointed; it is evident that she is tortured in every part of her body, and is being dissolved in hopeless agony. For the last twenty days she has lost her eyesight; her voice has become so weak that she can scarcely articulate, so that it is impossible to catch what she says; she is a living skeleton that seems to waste more and more, and to behold her is to be filled with pain and dismay.”

And yet all these sufferings so great in themselves were a mere nothing compared with those inflicted on the poor patient by the powers of hell. The Holy Ghost has said that in our last moments Satan will use desperate efforts in tempting us, knowing that little time is left him to effect our ruin. Imagine then his last hellish assaults on Gemma against whom during her whole life he had nurtured a hatred so deadly and waged such a relentless war. I read of other Saints who at the end of their days had to sustain fiendish assaults that were more or less lengthened and fierce, but they were intermittent. With Gemma the siege was continuous with only momentary intervals. 

That which more than all agonized this angel were the violent efforts of the enemy to tarnish her purity. This spirit of uncleanness knew very well with what love and care she had guarded this treasure during her whole life and with what heroism she had always fought and defeated him in her determination to defend it. Now his aim was, if not to gain a victory which he knew was impossible, to be at least avenged against her by embittering the last days of her spotless life.

From tormenting her soul he passed to torturing her body. Who could enumerate his artifices for this purpose? Her difficulty to take food had somewhat lessened, so they began to give her a little nourishment; but in vain. No sooner was it put before her than the fiend caused it to appear covered with disgusting insects and with the most repulsive things imaginable. As a natural consequence her stomach sickened immediately so that everything had to be taken away. Horrible and fetid animals, whether real or imaginary, came into her bed, crept over her limbs and tormented her in various ways so that the dear child had no means of relief. More than once full of terror she said to the Sister in attendance that she felt a serpent winding around her from head to foot and striving to crush her.

From time to time Our loving Lord came to encourage and reassure her, and, allowing her to feel His presence He spoke Divine words to her: “Why my child instead of being intimidated by those attacks of thine enemy, do you not increase thy hope in Me? Humble thyself beneath My potent hand and let not temptation weary thee. Resist always, never yield and if the temptation lasts, continue thy resistance; and thus the battle will lead thee to victory.” On other occasions it was her Angel guardian who came to comfort her.

 

This saintly girl did not even bestow a thought on all that concerned the bodily pains and discomforts of her malady. She never showed that she was annoyed or weary, nor displayed the least sadness of countenance, but was always smiling and contented. She never seemed alarmed at the many varied crises in her sickness; nor did she ever allow those groans or sighs to escape her that excessive pain forces from the bravest sufferers even without their knowing it.

Recourse was had to the good nursing Sisters of St. Camillus de Lellis, and these with their usual charity took every care of the invalid and remained with her to the end. This is how one of these Sisters speaks of the extraordinary patience of the Servant of God: “During all the time that I had the consolation of assisting dear Gemma in her last illness I never heard her complain. I only heard her at first repeat occasionally this ejaculation: ‘My Jesus, it is more than I can bear.’ And when I had reminded her that with the grace of God everything is possible, she never again used those words; but when any of her visitors moved to pity happened to say: ‘Poor child, it is more than she can bear,’ she instantly replied: ‘O yes I can still bear a little more.’”

Once the Sister attendant said to her: “And if Jesus were to give you your choice what would it be; to go at once to Paradise and cease to suffer or remain here to suffer when this would give greater glory to God?” She answered with animation: “Better to suffer than to go to Heaven when the pain is for Jesus and to give Him glory.”

Before losing her sight she used to read occasionally. Once her Aunt seeing a book in her hand asked: “What are you reading, Gemma?” “I am reading, Aunt, the Preparation for Death. O Aunt, why don’t you also read it, for you are old? At all events I am preparing for death!” “But tell me, Gemma,” continued her Aunt, “do you regret to die?” “Oh no,” she answered, “I have no longer any attachment to anything in this world.” [The book Gemma was reading, Preparation for Death, almost certainly refers to the famous work of that title by St. Alphonsus Liquori.]

We have come to Wednesday in Holy Week. Gemma seems in ecstasy, she raises her eyes from time to time and fixing her gaze on Heaven, cries with an expression of intense yearning: “Jesus! Jesus!” Then at a given hour she is rapt in ecstasy just as happened so often during her life; but only for a short time.

Towards ten o’clock in the morning of Holy Thursday, the lady friend who was with her, feeling that she herself was growing faint from fatigue and loss of sleep, resolved to go to her house close by to rest a little, but Gemma said to her: “Don’t leave me until I am nailed to the Cross, I have to be crucified with Jesus. He has said to me that His children have to be crucified.” She remained, and behold soon after the suffering child entered into full ecstasy, opened her arms by degrees and remained thus until nearly half past one. Her appearance was a mixture of grief, love, desolation, and tranquility. She never spoke, but yet her silence was most eloquent. She was in agony with Jesus Crucified.

She continued to suffer the agony of death during the whole of that day, and on Good Friday, and then Saturday morning. It seemed as if she would expire from moment to moment, submerged in an ocean of excruciating torments in her body, and much more so in her soul. About eight o’clock on Holy Saturday morning she received Extreme Unction in the full exercise of all her faculties, following all the prayers of the sacred rite with singular devotion, and striving her best, though with weak voice, to repeat the answers.

The greatest suffering of Our Lord in His Agony on the Cross was, according to the Saints, His apparent abandonment by His Eternal Father; add that abandonment, too truly real, by men. Of all this He Himself complained from the Cross, and Gemma in this also had to be like Him. It would naturally be asked with some surprise, why our dying Saint in her moments of greatest need was abandoned by her confessors and directors, and spiritual guides, and that only a few pious women stood by her moved rather by charitable sympathy at the sight of so much suffering than by the desire to be of assistance to her. But it was so; because God so willed in order to put a climax to the martyrdom and merits of His faithful Servant.

As soon as her last sickness had taken a violent form she asked to have me called by telegram; but on its being made known to her in spirit that God asked this additional sacrifice at her hands, she said no more about it. And when others reminded her of me, having shown by a modest smile that she bore me in her mind, she replied: “I seek for nothing more; I have made the sacrifice of everything and of everyone to God; now I prepare to die.”

God in His turn withdrew, and allowed not a ray of light to enter His Martyr’s mind nor a spark of consolation to move her heart. In fine wasted by the violence of her disease; crushed under the weight of immense desolation; tormented in all her faculties of soul and body by the ministers of hell; without comfort from Heaven or earth, this innocent soul raised her feeble voice and said: “Now it is indeed true that nothing more remains to me, Jesus, I recommend my poor soul to Thee . . . Jesus!”

It was the Consummatum est and the In manus tuas of Our Savior dying on the Cross. These were Gemma’s last words. The victim was offered, and nothing now remained but to breathe her last breath in completion of her sacrifice. Gemma seems absorbed in peaceful thought. Then quite suddenly, while all eyes are fixed on her angelic face still beautiful despite the ravages of such a sickness, she smiled a heavenly smile, and letting her head drop on one side ceased to live—just as the Gospel tells of Our Redeemer on the Cross. No one perceived that she was really dead; for besides having no specific agony, she underwent no muscular strain in breathing her last. There was no sigh of oppression or suffocation; her last movement was like a smile of salutation and nothing more, a bidding farewell to her innocent body. In a word, her death was truly the “sleep of the just” her birth to eternal life.

This blessed death happened an hour after midday on Holy Saturday, the 11th of April, 1903. Gemma had once said to her Aunt: “I have asked Jesus to let me die on a great solemnity: what a delightful thing to die on a great Feast!”

 

From The Life of Gemma Galgani, by Fr. Germanus of St. Stanislaus, Passionist, pp. 288-290, available from the Spirit Daily book store.

View my Catholic books Here.

How a Saint Approaches Holy Communion.

“It is a question of uniting two extremes; God Who is everything and the creature who is nothing; God Who is light and the creature who is darkness; God Who is holiness and the creature who is sin”

 

St. Gemma Galgani (1878 – 1903) exhibited in her short life of only 25 years almost every possible mystical and charismatic gift. She suffered the Passion of Christ from Thursday through Friday, received the stigmata, the crown of thorns, shoulder wound, bloody sweat, tears of blood, and levitated while in ecstasy. She frequently and familiarly spoke to and saw Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, her guardian angel and saints. The following is from the biography written by her spiritual Director, Father Germanus, who was a witness to many of these phenomena:

 

Let us examine more closely the culminating point of Gemma’s devotion—Holy Communion—in which precisely the Mystery of the Love of Jesus is accomplished. Would that she who so often disclosed to me the secrets of her soul on this subject would now enable me to relate adequately and exactly what she then told me of the fire that the Divine Spouse enkindled in her heart at the Holy Table.

 

It was her hunger and thirst for Holy Communion that made this young girl hover like a butterfly near the Tabernacle. Her heart longed for this Divine Food only. And we have seen that even when quite a child her ardent desire to make her first Communion almost brought her to death’s door. Now I add that this hunger and thirst, far from being satisfied by her daily Communion, kept on increasing until they consumed her whole being. 

 

“Every morning,” she said to me, “I go to Holy Communion; the greatest and only comfort I have, although I am in no wise provided with what is needed to worthily approach Jesus. The loving treatment that Jesus bestows on me every morning in the Holy Communion excites within me an unutterable sweetness and draws to itself all the weak affections of my miserable heart.” And then she exclaimed, “Behold O Lord, my heart and my soul; come Lord, I open my breast to Thee. Send in Thy Divine Fire; burn me, consume me, come and delay no longer; I would fain be the dwelling of all Thy fires.”

 

This desire grew stronger every evening, and, increasing every hour, sweetly tormented her all the night so as even to make her faint. Let us hear her describe it: “Last night and the night before while thinking of Holy Communion, I felt myself growing faint, and my heart was in commotion. Yesterday evening also before going to supper I said some prayers, among others this ejaculation: Grant, O Lord, that from this small supper, I may pass to enjoy Thy immense supper (the Blessed Eucharist) I stopped a few minutes to think of this and there and then, I felt forced towards Jesus”—(that is, rapt in ecstasy). The same thing happens to me whenever I think of Jesus, particularly when He invites me to receive Him, and when He tells me that He is coming to repose in my heart.”

 

This went so far that her confessor, in order that she might have a few hours’ sleep, and that her health might not suffer, felt bound to forbid her stopping willfully during the night to think of her Communion of the following morning. 

 

She was so strongly impressed by the greatness of the action to be performed at the Altar that every other thought vanished from her mind. That will explain why she prepared so carefully for it. “It is a question,” she said, “of uniting two extremes; God Who is everything and the creature who is nothing; God Who is light and the creature who is darkness; God Who is holiness and the creature who is sin. It is a question of taking part at the Table of the Lord. There cannot be then enough preparation for it.”

 

Such thoughts made Gemma tremble; so much so, that if her great faith had not given her courage, although full of burning desires she would never have approached the Divine Table. In time of spiritual desolation as well as of heavenly unction, and even in the midst of the most intimate communication of the Divine Lover, this struggle agitated her incessantly, causing her intense suffering so that she even complained of it lovingly to our Lord:

 

“Yes, I know, Jesus, it is better to receive Thee than to look at Thee, but I am afflicted because I feel that were I to prepare myself for years and years like the Angels, yet I should never be worthy to receive Thee. O Jesus, it is sweet to confess my misery before Thee. Help me, O Lord! Ah! I can still cast myself at Thy feet. I still love the Faith, and a thousand times I repeat and will continue to repeat, it is always better to receive Thee than to look at Thee.” 

 

From The Life of Gemma Galgani, by Fr. Germanus of St. Stanislaus, Passionist, pp. 288-290, available from the Spirit Daily book store.

 View my Catholic books Here.

 

Pope Francis Falls Into His Own Trap

 

Here are some excerpts from a communication of July 22 from the Superior General of the SSPX, Fr. Don Davide Pagliarani. This letter is not long and is worth taking a few minutes to read. In it he explains, in the third excerpt presented below, why I believe that Pope Francis has fallen into his own trap. In his attempt to marginalize the Ancient Tridentine Mass, demoralize its supporters, and to foster its extinction, he has only made its adherents stronger and more committed. Of course the Missal of 1962 used by the SSPX is not truly the Tridentine Mass, but it is close enough as far as the progressivists are concerned.  

Full text of letter Here.

“First of all, we must remember that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the continuation in time of the most bitter struggle that has ever existed: the battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. This combat culminated at Calvary in the triumph of Our Blessed Lord. It was for this struggle and it was for this victory that he became incarnate. Since Our Lord's victory was through the Cross and through His Precious Blood, it is understandable that its perpetuation will also be marked by conflicts and contradictions.”

“This battle that has been waged for the past fifty years, which has just seen a highly significant event on July 16th is not a simple war between two rites: it is indeed a war between two different and opposing conceptions of the Catholic Church and of Christian life - conceptions that are absolutely irreducible and incompatible with each other. In paraphrasing Saint Augustin, one could say that the two Masses have built two cities: the Mass of All Times has built a Christian city; the New Mass seeks to build a humanist and secular city.”

“Since Almighty God has allowed all this, it is certainly for a greater good. Firstly for ourselves, who have the undeserved good fortune of knowing the Tridentine Mass and who can benefit from it! We possess a treasure with a value we do not always appreciate, and which we perhaps preserve too much out of simple habit. When something precious is attacked or scorned, we begin to appreciate better its true value. May this "shock", provoked by the harshness of the official texts of July 16th serve to renew, deepen and rediscover our attachment to the Tridentine Mass!”

“It is to Our Lady of Sorrows that we entrust these intentions. It is to her that we address our prayers, since no one has penetrated deeper than Our Blessed Lady, the mystery of the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of His victory on the Cross. There is no one greater than Mary who has been so intimately associated with His sufferings and His triumph.”

Menzingen, July 22nd, 2021
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen
Don Davide Pagliarani, Superior General 

 

 

View my Catholic books Here.

 

The Ten Commandments of the Great Reset.

Sometime around 1979 or 1980, a “small group of loyal Americans,” whose identity remains unknown to this day, commissioned a granite company in Elberton, Georgia, to build a monument reminiscent of Stonehenge. Called the “Georgia Guidestones, they are comprised of five granite slabs almost twenty feet tall, which are capped by another large slab. Written on the slabs in eight contemporary languages are ten rules, or guidelines, which some contend are the basis of the New World Order. (See online Smithsonian article from 2013). Here are the guidelines, which one conspiracy theorist describes as the outline for a “totalitarian tribal government.”

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. Guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule passion—faith—tradition—and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite.

    10. Be not a cancer on the Earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

The monument has recently been in the news, at least in Italy, when on June 2 an Italian language website reported that none other than Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano cited them in a talk, describing them as the new ten commandments for the “Great Reset.” Referring to the first guideline, the article reports this about Vigano’s speech (thanks to Google Translate:)

“And in this regard he mentions the "Guidestones", the monument of the New World Order in Georgia, in which the new "10 commandments" are written. The first point is in fact engraved: "Keep humanity under 500 million inhabitants". Viganò miming states: "Does this remind you of something?", Evidently referring to the widespread theory that that elite would have in mind to decimate humanity with ongoing experimental gene therapies of which no one is able to explain the adverse events in the medium and long term term. And he cites again in the introduction the famine with which Stalin exterminated millions of Ukrainians.”

I find it interesting that there is no direct mention of God in these rules, other than a brief reference to “the infinite” in number nine, which is nothing but New-Age-speak. And number two, what else is it but a program of Darwinian eugenics, so that only the fittest and the best survive. Number four buries faith under the dominion of reason, which is contrary to Catholic teaching which holds that "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth." --Pope St. John Paul II.

The secularists can make their own Godless rules for life if they wish, but they are destined to become empty, useless, and even damaging. One can do nothing without the Lord, for in John 15:5, Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Further, Our Lady at Fatima promised that her Immaculate Heart will Triumph. So don’t fear the Great Reset or whatever else is planned, it will fail! 

 

View my Catholic books Here.

Converted at the mere sight of St. Bernadette of Lourdes.

I hope this selection will touch you with grace as it did me. It is from one of the earliest books about St. Bernadette and Lourdes, and was written and compiled by the Sisters of the Mother House of her Order where the Saint was cloistered: the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers, France. In the book, one of St. Bernadette’s close friends from Lourdes relates the story of the time she herself personally witnessed a conversion effected by the mere sight of Bernadette.

 

“It was in 1862; we had staying at our hotel an English Catholic family. Their man-servant, a Catholic himself, was married to an Irish Protestant. The husband, a fervent believer, desiring above all things the conversion of his wife, went immediately upon his arrival at Lourdes to see Bernadette, and asked her prayers to this end. He had previously told me of his desire and asked my prayers for the same intention. One day he came to introduce his wife to me. She was a charming person, very ladylike, and having apparently received an education superior to her station.

“Having made her acquaintance, I invited her to take a walk to the Grotto with myself and the servants. She made no difficulty about accepting my invitation. When we arrived at the sacred rock, we all of us knelt in prayer, herself excepted. I purposely appeared to take no notice of her attitude, but when when we were on the point of leaving, I offered her some of the water to drink. She refused politely, whereupon I said: ‘If you do not care to drink, at least dip your finger in it and make the sign of the cross.’

“ ‘Please do not insist,’ she replied; ‘for I should be sorry to have to refuse a second time.’

“These words were spoken with such decision that I thought it prudent to press the matter no further.

“On our way home we were caught in a terrible thunderstorm; the rain fell in torrents, and we could find no shelter, for, at the time of which I write, there was no habitation on the road leading to the Grotto. ‘Madame J.’ said I, ‘you will be the recipient of a shower of graces no less abundant than the rain which is now falling on us.’ I was then bold enough to tackle the religious question, and reproached her gently for having refused to drink at the Grotto and even to make the sign of the cross. After having raised sundry objections, she added: ‘Mademoiselle, I am seeking for light. I promise you that when I see it, I shall not voluntarily shut my eyes.’

“On the following day it was commonly reported in town that Bernadette was at the point of death and that she had already received the Last Sacraments. As I desired intensely that Madame J. should see her, I proposed that she should accompany me to the Hospital to pay her a visit. She refused absolutely to do so, saying: ‘I have not the slightest desire to see Bernadette; she may be already dead, and, what is more, I have no time to spare; I have to leave almost immediately for Pau.’

“ ‘You may have no desire to see Bernadette,’ I replied, ‘but I have no hesitation in telling you that I am extremely anxious for you to do so; If you wish to do me a favour, you will consent to accompany me.’

“Her natural politeness, or perhaps it would be wiser to say the grace of God, got the better of her opposition and we set out for the hospital with her husband.

“The patient had been strictly forbidden to receive visitors, but the dear Sisters had not the heart to turn me away. We reached the dormitory at the very moment when Bernadette was seized with a dreadful spasm.

“Two sisters were supporting her and she had every appearance of being on the point of expiring, for she could no longer breathe. ‘Come,’ said Madame J., ‘let us go, you can see very well that she is no longer in a condition to speak.’ ‘No matter,’ said I, ‘if we cannot speak to her, we can at least see her.’ So saying, I led her to the foot of the sufferer’s bed, where she remained as if rooted to the spot.

“As soon as Bernadette was a little recovered, I went and kissed her. As I left her side, I saw my friend spring forwards and throw herself on her knees at Bernadette’s side. There she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands as if she were ashamed to betray her emotion.

“Bernadette, who up to that moment had said nothing, turned her head and said encouragingly: ‘Oh! Madame, please get up and stop crying; I cannot bear to see you so distressed.’

“I drew up a chair and begged Madame J. to take it, which she did, covering her face with her hands and continuing to weep bitterly.

“ ‘I should love,’ said Bernadette, ‘to give our friend a little souvenir; pass me my crucifix and my medals: now make her choose what she would prefer.’ My poor friend, distracted with grief, had paid not attention to what had been said. ‘Madame,’ said I, ‘Bernadette wishes to give you a souvenir and asks you to choose the object you wish.’ She rose abruptly, and falling again upon her knees, exclaimed: ‘No! No! I want nothing; I don’t deserve anything; I am not worthy of it.’ ‘Surely,’ said I, ‘you do not desire to hurt her feelings by refusing what she is so glad to offer you.’ ‘If I must accept,’ she replied, ‘let her choose for me.’

“Bernadette selected a cross and a medal, and with a tenderness that no words can render, added: ‘The cross is for you, Madame; the medal is to remind you constantly of me.’

 

“My friend’s tears and sobs began afresh. Taking advantage of her deep emotion I reminded her of her words of the day previous. ‘You are seeking light, it is now shining clearly before your eyes; do not close them, but open your heart to the action of grace which has so markedly singled you out. Yesterday you refused to join with me in prayer; will you now consent to go down to the chapel with the Sisters? We are all going to pray for you.’ ‘Ah! Mademoiselle,’ was her reply, ‘I can refuse you nothing: I am ready to do whatever you wish.’

“We took leave of Bernadette, who was greatly affected; the poor child did not suspect what God had accomplished through her agency.

“Not long after the young Irishwoman abjured Protestantism and became a fervent Catholic. Two years later God called her to Himself.

“In heaven, where she now is, she must bless the day which witnessed her meeting with Bernadette on earth, for it is certain that God employed the favorite Child of Mary as the instrument of her conversion.”

From Bernadette of Lourdes, first English edition 1914; St. Pius X Press Inc., 2012; pp. 170-173.

View my Catholic books Here.

The Unceasing Act of Love

The call of the Lord to offer Him an unceasing, life-long act of love was the foundation of the spirituality of the Venerable Sister Consolata Betrone. He taught her the now well-known prayer, “Jesus Mary! I Love You, Save Souls!” Recently, another religious sister, whose identity remains anonymous, wrote of her experiences as she lived this prayer, in a book entitled I Will Think of Everything. You, Think Only of Loving Me, published with Imprimatur in 2017. The title of this book emphasizes one of the key parts of the ceaseless act of love – that as we concentrate our prayer and attention on loving Him, He will take care of everything else in our lives. It was this promise that attracted our anonymous sister to immerse herself in the teachings that our Our Lord presented to Venerable Consolata.

Our Lord had said to Sister Consolata: “I will think of everything, even the tiniest things; you, think only of Me, I’m thirsty for your love. All of it. Don’t add a single stray thought, it would be a thorn in My head.”

The sister who authored the book is a member of the Children of Mary community; it is based in Ohio, and dedicated to the apostolate of spreading love for our Eucharistic Lord. She tells the story of how she came to find out about the teachings of Jesus to Sister Consolata, or more correctly, how these teachings found her. She offers personal examples of the way the Lord ‘thought of everything,’ as she let go and let Him resolve many practical difficulties, while she instead concentrated on making endless acts of love for God.

Although the ceaseless act of love is greatly facilitated by praying "Jesus, Mary I love You! Save Souls!" as taught by Our Lord, this is just one of many ways of constantly loving Jesus. In harmony with the goal of her religious community, our anonymous sister shows the reciprocity between loving Jesus through Eucharistic Communion and adoration, and persevering in prayer to love Jesus, Mary and souls. This is the fulfillment of the commandments to love God and our neighbor. Our neighbor is in some way God made visible to us.

Her book is interspersed with quotes from the only other book in English about Sister Consolata and the prayer of love, Jesus Appeals to the World, by Fr. Lorenzo Sales. It is a translation from the Italian of the work of Fr. Sales, and first appeared in 1955. (My post about that book is Here.) Her book also often quotes from, no surprise, The Tremendous Lover, by Fr. Eugene Boylan; and also cites Fr. John Hardon, St. John of the Cross, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Catherine of Siena, papal documents, and other sources.

Those who regularly pray, “Jesus Mary I Love You! Save Souls!” as an offering to Jesus, become part of a movement which He termed The Littlest Way of Love. The very first Littlest One to consecrate herself to making the ceaseless act of love during the lifetime of Sister Consolata, was an 85 year-old lay woman named Giovanna Compaire. The Lord foretold that over the course of centuries to come throughout the world, “The Littlest Ones will not merely be counted by the thousands, but by millions and millions. They will not belong exclusively to the feminine sex; there will also be men; yes, there are many Little Souls even among men.”

This Littlest Way can be summarized in three sentences: Make an internal, ceaseless act of Love. Say a cheerful “Yes” to everyone since it’s Jesus we see and deal with through others. Say a grateful “yes” to everything that God asks of us. This act of love becomes a “virginal act of love” when it is not intermingled with any other thought. While centering on this love, one should avoid all useless speech unless it is required by Christian charity; one should resist inquisitiveness about the events of the world or about the affairs one’s neighbor.

A surprise bonus in the book is a question-answer catechism on the Littlest Way of Love written by Fr. Lorenzo Sales. Comprising 99 questions and almost as many pages, Fr. Sales deals with all aspects of the unceasing act of love. It can almost be called a “Catechism of Divine Love”.

The Lord told Sister Consolata that the prayer “Jesus, Mary, I love You! Save Souls!” includes everything: the souls in purgatory, as well as those in the militant Church; the innocent soul as well as the guilty one, the dying one, the atheist, etc., all souls. However, the unceasing act of love is not an escape or a bed of roses. In the above mentioned catechism we read, “Jesus didn’t present the ceaseless act of love to Sr. Consolata as a solace, but as a cross, upon which she was to live her vocation as a victim of love, upon which she was to complete her holocaust of love and suffering for souls.”

I Will Think of Everything. You, Think Only of Loving Me is available at Amazon Here. The website of the author’s Children of Mary Community is Here.

You may view my Catholic books Here.

Revelations to Luisa Piccarreta on Love

"Love alone is what surpasses everything, and leaves everything behind.  So one who loves much, not the one who does much, will be more pleasing to the Lord."

 

December 27, 1908 (Vol. 8)
What passed between Baby Jesus and His sweet Mama when She would feed Him from Her breast. The ‘I love You’ of the creature is requited by the ‘I love you’ of the Creator.

I was meditating on when the Queen Mama would give Her milk to Baby Jesus. I was saying to myself: ‘What must have passed between the Most Holy Mama and little Jesus in this act?’ At that moment, I felt Him move in my interior, and I heard Him say to me: “My daughter, when I suckled milk from the breast of my most sweet Mother, together with milk I suckled the love of Her Heart – and it was more love than milk that I suckled. While suckling, I would hear Her say to Me: ‘I love You, I love You, O Son’; and I would repeat to Her: ‘I love You, I love You, O Mama.’ And I was not alone in this; at my ‘I love You’, the Father, the Holy Spirit and the whole of Creation – the Angels, the Saints, the stars, the sun, the drops of water, the plants, the flowers, the grains of sand, all of the elements, would run after my ‘I love You’, and repeat: ‘We love You, we love You, O Mother of our God, in the love of our Creator.’

My Mother could see all this, and would remained inundated. She could find not even a tiny space in which She would not hear Me say that I loved Her. Her love would remain behind and almost alone, and She would repeat: ‘I love You, I love You….’ But She could never match Me, because the love of a creature has its limits, its time, while my love is uncreated, unending, eternal. The same happens to any soul when she says to me, ‘I love You’; I too repeat to her, ‘I love you’, and with Me is the whole Creation, loving her in my love. Oh, if creatures comprehended what good and honor they procure for themselves even by just saying to Me: ‘I love You’! This alone would be enough – a God beside them who, honoring them, replies: ‘I love you too.”

 

October 16, 1906 (Vol. 7)
How each good is a distinct melody in Heaven.

Having neglected to write what follows, obedience commanded me to do it.

I seemed to be outside of myself, and it seemed that there was a special feast in Heaven, and I was invited to this feast. It seemed I was singing with the very Blessed, because, up there, there is no need to learn, but one feels as though an infusion in one’s interior, and whatever the others sing or do, one is able to do as well. Now, it seemed to me that each Blessed is a key, that is, a melody himself, but all are in harmony among themselves, though each one is different from the other. One sings the notes of praise, one the notes of glory, one of thanksgiving, one of blessings, but all these notes reunite into one single note, and this note is Love. It seems that one single voice reunites all those voices and ends with the word ‘Love’. This cry, ‘Love’, is such a sweet and strong resounding that all other voices remain as though extinguished in this canticle, ‘Love’.

It seemed that all the Blessed were made ecstatic, drowsy, awake, inebriated by this cry or chant, ‘Love’, high, harmonious, beautiful, which deafened the whole of Heaven; they participated – one could say – in one more Paradise. But who were the fortunate ones who cried out more loudly, who made this note, ‘Love’, resound in everything, and who brought great happiness into Heaven Itself? They were the ones who had loved the Lord more when they lived on earth. Ah, they were not the ones who had done great things, penances, miracles… Ah, no – never! Love alone is what surpasses everything, and leaves everything behind. So, it is one who loves much, not one who does much, that will be more pleasing to the Lord. It seems I am speaking nonsense, but what can I do? It is obedience’s fault. Who doesn’t know that the things from up there cannot be spoken down here? So, in order not to speak more nonsense, I stop here.

July 14, 1907 (Vol. 8)
Everything in the soul must be love.

Continuing in my usual state, blessed Jesus came for a little while, and without thinking, I asked: ‘Lord, yesterday I went to confession; if I had died, since confession remits sins, would You not have brought me straight to Heaven?’

And He: “My daughter, it is true that confession remits sins, but the surest and most certain thing to be exempt from Purgatory is love. Love must be the predominant passion in the soul. Love – her thought, her word, her movements – everything, everything must be enveloped by this love. In this way, finding her all love, the Uncreated Love absorbs the created love within Itself. In fact, Purgatory does nothing but fill the voids of love that are present in the soul; and once It has filled these voids, It sends her to Heaven. But if these voids are not there, it is not something that belongs to Purgatory.”

October 29, 1907 (Vol. 8)
True love and sacrifice.

. . . Then He added: “My daughter, love is that which ennobles the soul and gives her possession of all my riches, because true love tolerates no division of any kind, even though one may be inferior to the other. ‘What is mine is yours’: this is the language of two beings who really love each other, because true love is transformation. So, the beauty of one removes the ugliness of the other, and renders him beautiful; if one is poor, I make him rich; if ignorant, I make him learned; if wretched, I make him noble. One is the heartbeat, one the breath, one the will in two beings that love each other; and if any other heartbeat or breath wanted to enter into them, they feel suffocated, breathless and torn, and they become ill. So, true love is health and sanctity, and one breathes a balsamic and fragrant air, which is the breath and the life of love itself. But it is in sacrifice that this love is more ennobled, more strengthened, more confirmed and expanded. So, love is the flame, sacrifice is the wood. Where there is more wood, the flames are higher, and the fire is always greater.

What is sacrifice? It is to empty oneself out in the love and in the being of the beloved; and the more one sacrifices himself, the more he is consumed in the being of the beloved, losing his own, and acquiring all the features and the nobility of the Divine Being.

February 9, 1908 (Vol. 8)
The way the soul must be with Jesus. Necessity of love for Jesus.

. . . Ah, yes! Love Me for all, satiate Me with love! There are no passions in Me, but if there could be any passion, it would be only this and this alone: love. But love in Me is more than passion – it is my life; and if passions can be destroyed, life cannot. See the necessity of being loved in which I find Myself. Therefore, love Me, love Me.”

Visit my Catholic books Here.

Jesus, Mary, I Love You! Save Souls!