“Do Not be Afraid, Little Flock.”

An overview of a chapter from Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God. 

 

Jesus is on a hill near the western edge of the Sea of Galilee, teaching his apostles and disciples. He continues to speak to them while they take some food and rest in a thicket. He says that man should only worry about becoming rich in virtues rather than in worldly goods, progressing without anxiety or fearful haste. If he makes an error, he should remain peaceful; being angry with oneself is a symptom of pride and lack of confidence. Be humble and serene, even if defeated by some weakness. Be active in spiritual matters the way worldly people are with their bodies. 

 

In fact, as far as your bodies are concerned, do not imitate those who are always trembling about their future. They worry about being taken ill, about dying, about losing their goods to enemies, or about lacking things that are superfluous. Do not be anxious about what to eat or drink or wear and other necessities of life. The spirit is more important than the body, and the body is worth more than the garments that clothe it. The mortification of your bodies will help your souls to attain eternal life. Only God knows how long He will let your souls remain in your bodies, and until the hour of separation He will provide for what is necessary. 

 

He does so even for crows, which eat the carrion of dead animals. And their reason for being is to remove such putrefying matter. These impure birds have neither larders nor granaries, yet God takes care of them. So how could God neglect you, even in the matter of clothing? The lilies of the valleys perform no work except to raise their pleasing scent to the Most High, yet the Lord gives them growth and garbs them more beautifully than any of the robes of Solomon [Luke 12:27]. 

 

On your own, you cannot add a tooth to a toothless mouth, or lengthen a shortened leg by even an inch, or make an eye see brighter. If you cannot do such things, how can you think that by yourselves you can hold back miseries and disease, or turn the dust of the earth into food. No, you cannot do such things, but do not be lacking in faith, because you will always have what your need. 

 

So stop worrying like worldly people, who only strive to satisfy their pleasures. Your Father in Heaven knows what you need. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you [Luke 12:31; Matt. 6:33].

 

Do not be afraid, little flock. Our heavenly Father has been pleased to call you to His kingdom. Therefore, aspire to it, and assist Him with your good will and holy deeds. Thieves cannot break into heaven, and its treasures and purses never fail. Wood-worms cannot reach them. Keep heaven in your hearts, and your hearts in heaven, near your true treasures. 

 

Jesus is silent for a moment. Peter has been listening so intently as to forget to finish his food. He takes advantage of this silence to ask the Lord if this teaching is for everyone, or just the apostles and disciples. The Lord responds that while it is for everybody, it is primarily for those who have been chosen as stewards of the Master. They are to be twice as vigilant, both as stewards and as simple believers.

 

The more one is aware of the will and the mind of his Teacher, the more one is expected to fulfill it faithfully. Much is asked of him who has been given much. The more that is entrusted to his care, the more he must return. The stewards of the Lord will be held to account even to the soul of an hour-old infant. 

 

Jesus explains that to be His follower does not mean relaxation in the cool air of a flowery wood. He has come to bring fire upon the earth, and what else does He desire except that it be ignited. This is why He tires Himself, and wants His followers to also tire themselves, even until their death, until the entire earth is a “celestial bonfire!” He is to be baptized with a baptism, such that He is distressed until it is accomplished. But through it He will be able to make His followers and stewards fire-bearers and yes, agitators, who will act in and against every social stratum, to make of it one thing only, the flock of Christ. 

 

Truly, it is not restful to serve the Lord, according the worldly meaning of that word. Heroism and unwearying effort are required. But at the end it will be He Himself who will gird His waist and serve His disciples. He will sit with them at the eternal banquet where all labors and sorrows are forgotten. 

 

An overview of part of Chapter 275 of the Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. 

 

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When Jesus Bilocated

Popular writings of the mystics of the Church on the life of Jesus and Mary propose many additional details on their lives. For example, in the The Life of Jesus Christ by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich we read that on the way to Calvary, Jesus fell or collapsed a total of seven times, not just three. The Mystical City of God by Venerable Maria Agreda states that Mary was taken up to the empyrean Heaven right after her birth, and Luisa Piccarreta reports this occurred even while Mary was in St. Anne’s womb.

Perhaps the most thorough life of Christ and Mary written by a mystic is Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God, which asserts that Jesus often bilocated. It should come as no surprise that our Lord bilocated during His earthly life. Quite a number of Catholic saints, most notably Padre Pio, have received this gift, and Jesus is the “Saint of saints.”

In the visions she received for the third year of Christ’s public life, Valtorta describes what she saw and heard on the day Jesus read, to some of His apostles, a letter He received from a fervent disciple. This letter from Antioch (written on a scroll) was relayed by a trusted follower to the Lord in Judea. The writer was an aged disciple known as John of Endor. He had been a murderer and was an escaped convict from a Roman prison. He had been forced into exile from Israel by fear of the Sanhedrin Pharisees, who were persecuting Jesus for consorting with unsavory characters and non-Israelites. Joining old John in his exile was a young Greek girl, also converted by the Lord, who had formerly been pressed into slavery. Both were doing what they could to spread the message of Jesus, the message of love, forgiveness and mercy, to the unbelievers in the area of Antioch.

John was very weak and knew that death was approaching. One of his greatest desires was to have Jesus present to comfort him as he passed away. Jesus in fact had promised that He would be present at the man’s death. Nevertheless, John had been despairing, and had begun to doubt that this would be possible since he was an exile in Syria, while the Lord was preaching the Gospel in Israel. But in the letter, he now rejoices that his doubt has gone. He writes that he truly knows that distance is no obstacle to Jesus. Neither seas nor mountains can prevent Him from giving the comfort of His “tangible presence” to those whom He loves. He knows the Lord will be there when he breathes his last, and asks Him to come soon to lead him to peace!

After Jesus finishes reading John’s letter to the Apostles, they bombard Him with questions regarding His presence to John. They wonder whether it is possible, how is it possible, and did the woman who was exiled with John know anything?

But the Lord proceeds to unroll the scroll sent by the Greek woman, whose name is Syntyche. She is still young and healthy and has been looking after the ailing John of Endor. She writes that upon returning from visiting a sick person, she found John transfigured and in ecstasy, and heard the words he was speaking to someone she could not see. Yet she prostrated herself, realizing that it was Jesus Who was present. She writes that she does not regret that she did not see Him, since everything He does and gives is good and sufficient. It is right that old John has Jesus visibly, while she has Him in her soul only.

About a day later, when some of the Apostles were alone with Jesus, they resumed their questioning about this mysterious event. Simon Peter said that he had been thinking about the extraordinary grace given to John, but not to the Apostles. He told Jesus that it would have been a great comfort to them when they were sent out into the world – to have even a word from Him, to clear up doubtful points. But why does He appear to him and not to them? Peter would like to know three things: why is it granted to John; whether it is a grace for him only; and whether one day it can happen to the Apostles – to see Him miraculously and be told what should be done?

In answer to the first question, the Lord explained that John of Endor is a willing spirit, but because of his past adventures and life he has some weaknesses hidden in his flesh, in his interior. He had been penetrated by the poisons of the world for years, and though his spirit is strong, his body is debilitated. He needs help in his purification, and for his resistance over his resurgent past. John’s suffering is bitter, and He solaces him the best He can, because he deserves it.

Peter is satisfied with this answer, and proceeds to the second question, does He appear to John only? The Lord answers no, there are others, even far away, who are laboring to build up their holiness all alone. As to who they are, there is no need to know that.

James (the Lesser) asks what about the Apostles – when they are harassed and tormented by the world, will they be helped by His presence? The Lord replies that they will be sent the Paraclete. Simon Peter objects that he does not know Him and will never succeed in understanding Him, since Peter considers himself such a blockhead. This Paraclete is too difficult for a poor fisherman, He will be a passing whiff, and who will perceive Him? Peter begs the Lord to promise the Apostles that He Himself will appear to them as He is in flesh and blood, so that they may see and hear Him.

But Jesus warns that He might appear in order to reproach them. The Apostles John and James, concur with Peter that it does not matter, at least they will know what is to be done. The Lord then promises them that He will appear, to tell them to be ready for this or that, or to do this or that. Although he feels better now, Peter pleads with Jesus to come often, otherwise he will be like a poor, lost child, and he almost begins to weep.

Overview from The Poem of the Man-God, Chapters 365 and 368.

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Thirty Days Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Thirty Days’ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary in honor of the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I recently came upon this wonderful and powerful prayer in an old missal and prayer book dated 1928. Powerful, because it is based on the merits of the suffering Christ, and wonderful because it is so thorough. I have been unable to determine any information about the author or history of this prayer. But it was definitely composed by someone who was devoted both to the Blessed Virgin and to the Cross of her Son. The following is transcribed just the way it is written in that old missal.

Meet Sister Josefa, the Original Apostle of Divine Mercy.

Before Sister Faustina, there was Sister Josefa Menendez. The Lord said to Josefa: “I want you to be the Apostle of My goodness and mercy.” And also: “My one desire is to reveal to souls the love, the mercy, and the pardon of My Heart, and I have chosen you to do it for Me, wretched as you undoubtedly are. But do not be anxious, I love you, and your misery is the very reason for My love.” Josefa’s communications with Our Lord and His Mother lasted until her death in 1923; St. Faustina was still a layperson at that time.

Sister Josefa Menendez was such a hidden and humble woman that during her four years as a nun, she never got past the stage of being a simple Novice (she was finally Professed on her death-bed). Although she was Spanish, she was sent to a convent in France belonging to the order of the Society of the Sacred Heart. During this time she diligently wrote down, at the command of the Lord, the heavenly messages she received. An abbreviated version of Josefa’s writings was published in 1938 by the Apostleship of Prayer, with the blessing of Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII), who at that time was the Cardinal Protector of her religious order.

The reception the work received was so laudatory that a larger and more complete collection of the messages was published five years later. By 1949 the first English language edition was available, entitled The Way of Divine Love – the Message of the Sacred Heart to the World. The excerpts from Sister Josefa’s writings that follow are taken from the TAN Books edition of 1973. (By contrast, the original Polish edition of St. Faustina’s popular Diary was not published until 1979.)

On the night of February 24, 1921, sister Josefa wrote: “In the evening, during Holy Hour, I was thinking of sinners and of how many there are – but also of how much greater His mercy is; suddenly He stood before me, and with a voice of great majesty, as might be a king’s, He said to me: ‘The world does not know how merciful I am; I am going to use you to make it known.’

Fear took hold of Josefa, and she cried out: “But dear Lord, do not forget how weak I am, and that the smallest obstacle makes me fall.” As if He had not heard, Jesus continued: “I want you to be the Apostle of My goodness and mercy. I will teach you what this means. Forget yourself.”

A few months later He said to her: “I will reveal to you the burning secrets of My Heart and many souls will profit by them. I want you to write down and keep all I tell you.” Josefa faithfully followed the Lord’s wishes, and wrote down all that she experienced during visits from Jesus and Mary, other heavenly visitors, and souls in Purgatory. No one in her convent was aware of these graces, except her Superiors and Confessor.

On December 5, 1922 Josefa wrote these words spoken by the Lord: “My heart is not only an abyss of love, it is also an abyss of mercy; and knowing as I do that even My closest friends are not exempt from human frailties, I will that each of their actions, however insignificant, be clothed through Me with immense value for the help of those in need and for the salvation of sinners.

“All cannot preach nor evangelize distant uncivilized peoples, but all, yes, all, can make My heart known and loved. All can mutually help one another to increase the number of the saved by preventing the loss of many souls – and that, through My love and mercy.

“I will tell My chosen souls that My love for them goes further still; not only shall I make use of their daily life and of their least actions, but I will make use of their very wretchedness, their frailties, and even of their falls, for the salvation of souls. Love transforms and divinizes everything, and mercy pardons all.”

Josefa’s mission was actually two-fold. Not only was she the apostle of Divine Mercy and love, but she was also a victim soul, suffering so that others would correspond to the graces of salvation. Her sufferings encompassed the Crown of Thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the pain of the nails; however, none these favors had visible consequences and they were unknown to her peers. In addition, she was one of the very few mystics in the history of the church to have been dragged down to hell itself by the demon. In a series of terrible trials permitted by God, she was forced into the bottomless pit over 100 times!

On November 22, 1922, Jesus told her: “Fear not Josefa, for in spite of your littleness and occasional resistance, My work is going well, both in you and in souls.” Josefa replied, “Lord, I do not understand what You mean by this work to which You so often allude.”

Then Jesus, as if recollecting Himself, spoke gravely and with force: “You say you do not know what my work is? Josefa, it is one of love. I want to use you who are of so little account to disclose to the world the mercy and love of My heart. That is why I am glorified when left free to do with you and in you what I choose. Already your littleness and sufferings have saved many souls.

“But later on the words and wishes that I transmit through you will fire the zeal of many others and prevent the loss of a multitude of souls, and men will get to know ever more how inexhaustible is the love and mercy of My Heart. I do not ask much from them, but I do ask their love.”

On a day in the month of June, 1923: Josefa went up to the altar-rails, and when the Sacred Host was held before her, she renewed her beloved vows, then received communion and returned to her place. Then Jesus once more manifested Himself to her and with overwhelming love said: “Josefa, you have just told me that you love Me alone, that you have voluntarily despoiled yourself of everything for My sake, that you will never have any other liberty or will than Mine. My will is yours, your will is Mine. I shall be master of your thoughts, or your words, and of your actions. If you have nothing, I will provide everything for you. I will live in you, speak in you, love you, and forgive you.”

Taking up each of these words, Our Lord made His thought clear: “I will live in you and you in Me. I will speak in you, and My words will reach souls and will not pass away. I will love you, and by that love souls will discover my love for them. I will forgive you, and souls will recognize my mercy by that with which I have wrapped you around.”

“Many believe in Me, but few believe in My love, and among those who do, too few rely on my Mercy. Many know Me as their God, but how few trust Me as their Father. I will manifest Myself, especially to those who are the objects of my predilection. I will show them through you that I ask nothing of them that they do not possess. But I do ask that all they have they should give Me, for all is Mine.

“If they possess nothing but miseries and weaknesses, these I desire; even if they have only faults and sins, I desire them also. I beg them to give them to Me. Give them to Me, yes, give all to Me and keep nothing, but trust My Heart. I forgive you, I love you, I will sanctify you Myself.”

The Way of Divine Love – the Message of the Sacred Heart to the World, Sister Josefa Menendez, TAN Books and Publishers, 1973.

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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.

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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.

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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 

 

 

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