Be calm! And pray “Jesus, Mary, I love you! Save souls!” This should be part of a continuous, unceasing act of love. The Lord taught this prayer to Venerable Consolata Betrone, who was a spiritual daughter of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Jesus also said to Consolata: “If the soul can keep calm, then she will remain master of herself; but if she is perturbed, then it is easy for her to fall. . . Never let yourself become perturbed, never never! For when you become perturbed, the devil is content; then his victory will be assured.”
The beautiful prayer “Jesus, Mary I Love You! Save souls!” was revealed through locutions to Sister Consolata, who received her heavenly reward in 1946. In 2019 the Church declared her Venerable Maria Consolata Betrone. She considered herself a spiritual daughter of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, of the Child Jesus, the “Little Flower.” In 1929 she entered a convent of the Poor Clares at Torino, Italy, where she began to hear the voice of Jesus. The Lord told Consolata that in her He has found someone even more little than St. Thérèse, who in her diary had referred to an “even smaller one” than herself. St. Thérèse had written: “I feel that if you found a soul weaker and littler than Mine, you would be pleased to grant it still greater favors, provided it abandoned itself with total confidence to your infinite mercy.”
The Lord told Consolata, “Well, I have found that still weaker soul who has abandoned herself with complete faith to My infinite mercy: it is you, Consolata, and through you I will perform marvels which will far exceed your fondest desires!” She progressed along the Little Way of Love, pointed out by St. Thérèse, the way of spiritual childhood. Often, in the intellectual visions by which she was favored, Jesus would press her to His heart, and she would see herself as a very young child.
She felt called to increase her love for Jesus, and would try to think and act with this end in mind. However, sometimes she would lose herself in trifles. But the Lord told her: “You trouble yourself about many things; but only one thing is necessary, to love Me.” In 1931 Jesus asked her to make a vow to offer him a continuous act of love. In her diary, she wrote, “I promise Thee to live for love from today on and until my last breath, offering Thee one unceasing act of love, accomplishing everything with love, and searching for nothing but love!” And also, “Yes, an unceasing act of love! That alone and nothing else; for love is everything, and in the practice of this love all other virtues are practiced.”
But the enemy of souls was not asleep. One day a voice pretending to be divine foretold that she would have to endure pains, sorrows and sufferings, and accused her of having done nothing for souls. She was overcome by a violent emotion, but she rejected that voice, abandoned herself to the divine will, and regained her inner peace. “I soon discovered the enemy's trick by which he had hoped to draw me away from my simple way of love.”
On the feast day of St. Joseph in 1935, Consolata was made privy to a great revelation concerning the sanctity of the foster father of Our Lord, which astounded and deeply moved her. But she humbly turned to Jesus, and asked Him why He tells her these things, she who can do nothing. Why does he not reveal them to great personages who might be able to do so much? Jesus simply replied, “To the little ones I tell everything. Do you understand Consolata? . . . I tell everything to little souls; they deprive Me of nothing; they direct all praise, honor, and glory to Me alone”. He also told her, “To little souls I concede everything! You deny Me nothing, so I deny you nothing!”
As to her diary, He told her “And besides, you are so little that you are content to write it all down, and it is My wish that you should put everything in writing, and so I can tell you everything.” A little later He added, “If I ask you to write it down, it is because My words will bear much fruit. My reasoning may at times seem childish to you, but that is because I adapt My words to you who are so little; but remember that any word of Mine is spirit, is light!”
Regarding chastisements, He told Consolata, “Do not think the sorrowful conditions on earth do not move Me; but I love souls; I wish them to be saved; and in order to achieve My end, I am constrained to be severe; but believe Me, I do it out of mercy! During times of abundance souls forget Me and are lost; in times of distress they turn to Me and save themselves. That is indeed the way it happens!” Another time He said, “The world is going to its ruin, but I wish to save it. . . Satan also swore he would ruin the world, and I vowed I would save it; and I will save it through the triumph of My mercy and My love. Yes, I will save the world through My merciful love! Write this down!” He added: “Do not make Me out a God of rigor, whereas I am naught but a God of love! . . . You see, My Heart needs to be comforted; it wishes to dispense mercy, not justice.” This is precisely the mission of Consolata, to point out to the world the limitless mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to all souls.
The saying, “honor God with your confidence” was repeated many times by Jesus and also by the heavenly Father, in their instructions to her. If confidence is lost, the soul will become perturbed in trials; instead of doing battle, the soul will retreat instead of advancing. “If the soul can keep calm, then she will remain master of herself; but if she is perturbed, then it is easy for her to fall. . . Never let yourself become perturbed, never never! For when you become perturbed, the devil is content; then his victory will be assured.” The Lord did not want Consolata to place any limits on her confidence in Him. He told her never to fear anything, but to trust solely and completely in Him. She wrote: “I repeat that a bridge has been thrown across from this maiden to the Heart of God: limitless confidence!”
But it was her love that He desired most of all. “Consolata, love Me on behalf of each and every one of My creatures, of each and every heart that exists. I thirst so much for love!” He told her that when she loves Him continuously, He enjoys heaven in her heart. He implored Consolata, “Ask from Me love, the triumph of My love over you and over every soul who is now on earth or who will ever exist until the end of time. By means of unceasing prayer, prepare for the triumph of My Heart and of My love throughout the earth!” The coming of His love would be like a new Pentecost, to cleanse humanity from its sinfulness. “Consolata, love Me on behalf of all, and through your prayer and your immolation, prepare the world for the coming of My love!”
On the prayer of love, Consolata writes, “At the beginning it was: Jesus, I love Thee! Later He desired me to add: Jesus, Mary, I love you! And finally He wanted it completed thus: Jesus, Mary, I love you! Save souls!” The Lord told her: “You must live in self-effacement and enveloped in one single and continual 'Jesus, Mary, I love you! Save souls!' Nothing else! No one and nothing else must exist for you, only the act of love!” He asked her to observe a rigorous silence, and not to speak a single sentence unless it was necessary to make a reply. Jesus would take care of everything in her daily life, she had only to concentrate on making the continuous act of love.
This unceasing act of love was the cross that Jesus gave to Consolata. “I give you as your cross never to lose one single 'Jesus, Mary, I love you! Save souls!' But I also give you the grace to carry this cross faithfully until your dying day.” “You must know that it is a very fruitful one – the cross of love is more fruitful than any other cross for Me and for souls.” All that was left was for Consolata to offer herself as a victim of love, and she did so at the request of the Lord. On the eve of First Friday in December, 1935, He prepared her for her consecration as a victim soul. “You must love Me always and accept all consequences, but never interrupt the act of love! I know that this will gradually consume and immolate My Consolata . . . That is what it means to be a victim of love!”
The next morning, Jesus carried out this consecration. “This day do I consecrate you as a victim of love. I do not wound you with a dart, but I inflame you in silence. Now you can no longer interrupt your act of love even if you wished to. What time is left you to live from today to your last hour, is united with this unceasing act of love. Believe Me, with that you give Me everything!”
Sister Consolata attained her heavenly reward on July 18, 1946, at the age of only 43, afflicted with tuberculosis.
The facts in this post are from Jesus Appeals to the World, by Fr. Lorenzo Sales, I.M.C.
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