God So Loves Me
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Feast of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
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Father Patrick Butler, LC
John 3: 13-17
Jesus said to
Nicodemus: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come
down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who
believes in him may have eternal life." For God so loved the world that
he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Introductory Prayer:
Your word in the
Gospel reveals to me the beauty of the mystery of the Cross. I open myself
now to You with a believing heart. Your love for humanity is so present in
what You say. You give me hope that the world can be changed by Your message
of love. I want to be more like You, a lover of the Father, a lover of my
brothers and sisters to the point of giving my life for them.
Petition: Lord, exalt the cross in my mind and my
heart, that I might see it as an instrument of love.
1. Jesus’ Identity: Nicodemus comes to Jesus to find out who
this miracle worker is. Jesus tells him that he is the Son of Man and God’s
Son. He has come down from heaven and will return there. Now that he has
identified himself, he has gotten Nicodemus’ attention and mine. His answer
to the first question does not satisfy us because it has brought up several
other questions. How can he claim to be the Son of God when there is but one
God? If he is truly God’s Son, why has he come down to earth? What does he
want or expect from me?
2. A Savior Greater
Than Moses: Moses had, at God’s
command, led Israel out of slavery in Egypt. When the people rebelled in the
desert, they were punished by fiery serpents that bit them with poisonous
venom. Moses intervened on their behalf, making a bronze image of a serpent,
placed on a post; those who looked at it were saved. Jesus saves humanity
from its rebellion, not by a symbol raised on a stick, but by sacrificing
himself as he was raised on a cross. He saves me not from temporal death, but
from eternal death. He is indeed a Savior greater than Moses.
3. The Degree of
God’s Love: How much does the
Father love me? If we could measure love on a thermometer, God’s infinite
love would send the mercury out the end. His love is boundless. What would he
withhold from me if he has already given his son to save me? My sentiments
upon contemplating the immensity of God’s love for me should be gratitude,
praise and a reciprocating love towards him.
Conversation with
Christ: Lord, I am moved when I discover how much You love me. You came down from heaven, becoming the Son of Man so that I
could know, love and imitate You. You loved me to the extreme of offerinYg ourself up on the cross to save me from sin and death. I want to love You in
return to the point of giving my life for You.
Resolution: I will contemplate the cross as a symbol of love, making it a
symbol that says something to me whenever I see it. I will try to bear my
cross today with love.
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Excerpts from the DIARY of
Saint Faustina Kowalska
156 +Once, l desired very much
to receive Holy Communion, but I had a certain doubt, and I did not go. I
suffered greatly because of this. It seemed to me that my heart would burst
from the pain. When I set about my work, my heart full of bitterness, Jesus
suddenly stood by me and said, My daughter, do not omit Holy Communion
unless you know well that your fall was serious; apart from this, no doubt must
stop you from uniting yourself with Me in the mystery of My love. Your minor
faults will disappear in My love like a piece of straw thrown into a great
furnace. Know that you grieve Me much when you fail to receive Me in Holy
Communion.
178 Today we are beginning the third
probation. All three of us met at Mother Margaret's, as the other sisters were
having their probation in the novitiate. Mother Margaret began with a prayer,
explained to us what the third probation consists of, and then spoke on how
great is the grace of the perpetual vows. Suddenly I began to cry out loud. In
an instant all God's graces appeared before the eyes of my soul, and I saw
myself so wretched and ungrateful toward God. The sisters began to rebuke me,
saying, "Why did she break out crying?" But Mother Margaret came to
my defense, saying that she was not surprised.
At the end of the hour, I went before the Blessed Sacrament and, like the greatest and most miserable of wretches, I begged for His mercy that He might heal and purify my poor soul. Then I heard these words, My daughter, all your miseries have been consumed in the flame of My love, like a little twig thrown into a roaring fire. By humbling yourself in this way, you draw upon yourself and upon other souls an entire sea of My mercy. I answered, "Jesus, mold my poor heart according to Your divine delight."
At the end of the hour, I went before the Blessed Sacrament and, like the greatest and most miserable of wretches, I begged for His mercy that He might heal and purify my poor soul. Then I heard these words, My daughter, all your miseries have been consumed in the flame of My love, like a little twig thrown into a roaring fire. By humbling yourself in this way, you draw upon yourself and upon other souls an entire sea of My mercy. I answered, "Jesus, mold my poor heart according to Your divine delight."
186 +Today Jesus said to me, I
desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls,
and you will understand this when you meditate upon My Passion. Call upon My
mercy on behalf of sinners; I desire their salvation. When you say this prayer,
with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him
the grace of conversion. This is the prayer:
187 "O Blood and Water,
which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust
in You."
229 +At the beginning of the
retreat, Jesus told me, During this retreat, I myself will direct your soul.
I want to confirm you in peace and love. And so the first few days passed
by. On the fourth day, doubts began to trouble me: Is not this tranquillity of
mine false? Then I heard these words, My daughter, imagine that you are the
sovereign of all the world and have the power to dispose of all things
according to your good pleasure. You have the power to do all the good you
want, and suddenly a little child knocks on your door, all trembling and in
tears and, trusting in your kindness, asks for a piece of bread lest he die of
starvation. What would you do for this child? Answer Me, my daughter. And I
said, "Jesus, I would give the child all it asked and a thousand times
more. "And the Lord said to me, That is how I am treating your soul. In
this retreat I am giving you, not only peace, but also such a disposition of
soul that even if you wanted to experience uneasiness you could not do so. My
love has taken possession of your soul, and I want you to be confirmed in it.
Bring your ear close to My Heart, forget everything else, and meditate upon My
wondrous mercy. My love will give you the strength and courage you need in these
matters.
267 Jesus told me that I please Him
best by meditating on His sorrowful Passion, and by such meditation much light
falls upon my soul. He who wants to learn true humility should reflect upon the
Passion of Jesus. When I meditate upon the Passion of Jesus, I get a clear
understanding of many things I could not comprehend before. I want to resemble
You, O Jesus,-You crucified, tortured and humiliated. Jesus, imprint upon my
heart and soul Your own humility. I love You, Jesus, to the point of madness,
You who were crushed with suffering as described by the prophet [cf. Isaiah
53:2-9], as if he could not see the human form in You because of Your great
suffering. It is in this condition, Jesus, that I love You to the point of
madness. O eternal and infinite God, what has love done to You?...
278 At the feet of the Lord. Hidden
Jesus, Eternal Love, our Source of Life, Divine Madman, in that You forget
yourself and see only us. Before creating heaven and earth, You carried us in
the depths of Your Heart. O Love, O depth of Your abasement, O mystery of
happiness, why do so few people know You? Why is Your love not returned? O
Divine Love, why do You hide Your beauty? O Infinite One beyond all
understanding, the more I know You the less I comprehend You; but because I
cannot comprehend You, I better comprehend Your greatness. I do not envy the
Seraphim their fire, for I have a greater gift deposited in my heart. They
admire You in rapture, but Your Blood mingles with mine. Love is heaven given
us already here on earth. Oh, why do You hide in faith? Love tears away the
veil. There is no veil before the eye of my soul, for You yourself have drawn
me into the bosom of secret love forever. Praise and glory be to You, O
Indivisible Trinity, One God, unto ages of ages!
279 God made known to me what true
love consists in and gave light to me about how, in practice, to give proof of
it to Him. True love of God consists in carrying out God's will. To show God
our love in what we do, all our actions, even the least, must spring from our
love of God. And the Lord said to me, My child, you please Me most by
suffering. In your physical as well as your mental sufferings, My daughter, do
not seek sympathy from creatures. I want the fragrance of your suffering to be
pure and unadulterated. I want you to detach yourself, not only from creatures,
but also from yourself. My daughter, I want to delight in the love of your
heart, a pure love, virginal, unblemished, untarnished. The more you will come
to love suffering, My daughter, the purer your love for Me will be.
531 November 24, 1935. Sunday, first
day. I went at once before the Blessed Sacrament and offered myself with Jesus,
present in the Most Holy Sacrament, to the Everlasting Father. Then I heard
these words in my soul: Your purpose and that of your companions is to unite
yourselves with Me as closely as possible; through love You will reconcile
earth with heaven, you will soften the just anger of God, and you will plead
for mercy for the world. I place in your care two pearls very precious to My
Heart: these are the souls of priests and religious. You will pray particularly
for them; their power will come from your diminishment. You will join prayers,
fasts, mortifications, labors and all sufferings to My prayer, fasting,
mortification, labors and sufferings and then they will have power before My
Father.
542 Postulancy. [108] Age of admission: any person between the
ages of fifteen and thirty. Firstly, the spirit with which the candidate is
imbued and her character are to be taken into consideration, whether she has a
strong will and the courage to follow in Jesus' footsteps with joy and
gladness, as God loves a cheerful giver. She must despise the world and
herself. The lack of a dowry will never be an obstacle to admission. All
formalities concerning the candidate must be clear; no complicated cases should
be admitted.
Melancholy persons, those disposed to sadness, those suffering from contagious diseases, those of an unstable character and those who are inclined to be suspicious of others are not adaptable to the religious life and must not be admitted. Members should be selected with greatest care, as one ill-fitting member is enough to throw the whole convent into confusion.
Melancholy persons, those disposed to sadness, those suffering from contagious diseases, those of an unstable character and those who are inclined to be suspicious of others are not adaptable to the religious life and must not be admitted. Members should be selected with greatest care, as one ill-fitting member is enough to throw the whole convent into confusion.
570 On one occasion, I saw Jesus in
a bright garment; this was in the greenhouse. [He said to me,] Write what I
say to you. My delight is to be united with you. With great desire, I wait and
long for the time when I shall take up My residence sacramentally in your
convent. My spirit will rest in that convent and I will bless its neighborhood
in a special way. Out of love for you all, I will avert any punishments which
are rightly meted out by My Father's justice. My daughter, I have inclined My
heart to your requests. Your assignment and duty here on earth is to beg for
mercy for the whole world. No soul will be justified until it turns with
confidence to My mercy, and this is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be
the Feast of Mercy. On that day, priests are to tell everyone about My great
and unfathomable mercy. I am making you the administrator of My mercy. Tell the
confessor that the Image is to be on view in the church and not within the enclosure
in that convent. By means of this Image I shall be granting many graces to
souls; so let every soul have access to it.
576 O Holy Trinity, Eternal God, my
spirit is drowned in Your beauty. The ages are as nothing in Your sight. You
are always the same. Oh, how great is Your majesty. Jesus, why do You conceal
Your majesty, why have You left Your heavenly throne and dwelt among us? The
Lord answered me, My daughter, love has brought Me here, and love keeps Me
here. My daughter, if you knew what great merit and reward is earned by one act
of pure love for Me, you would die of joy. I am saying this that you may
constantly unite yourself with Me through love, for this is the goal of the
life of your soul. This act is an act of the will. Know that a pure soul is
humble. When you lower and empty yourself before My majesty, I then pursue you
with My graces and make use of My omnipotence to exalt you
580 On a certain occasion, the Lord
said to me, I am more deeply wounded by the small imperfections of chosen souls
than by the sins of those living in the world. It made me very sad that
chosen souls make Jesus suffer, and Jesus told me, These little
imperfections are not all. I will reveal to you a secret of My Heart: what I
suffer from chosen souls. Ingratitude in return for so many graces is My
Heart's constant food, on the part of [such] a chosen soul. Their love is
lukewarm, and My Heart cannot bear it; these souls force Me to reject them.
Others distrust My goodness and have no desire to experience that sweet
intimacy in their own hearts, but go in search of Me, off in the distance, and
do not find Me. This distrust of My goodness hurts Me very much. If My death
has not convinced you of My love, what will? Often a soul wounds Me mortally,
and then no one can comfort Me. They use My graces to offend Me. There are
souls who despise My graces as well as all the proofs of My love. They do not
wish to hear My call, but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these
souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow. God though I am, I cannot help such a soul
because it scorns Me; having a free will, it can spurn Me or love Me. You, who
are the dispenser of My mercy, tell all the world about My goodness, and thus
you will comfort My Heart.
1701 I asked the Lord today that He
might deign to teach me about the interior life, because of myself I can
neither understand nor conceive anything perfectly. The Lord answered me, I
was your Teacher, I am and I will be; strive to make your heart like unto My
humble and gentle Heart. Never claim your rights. Bear with great calm and
patience everything that befalls you. Do not defend yourself when you are put
to shame, though innocent. Let others triumph. Do not stop being good when you
notice that your goodness is being abused. I Myself will speak up for you when
it is necessary. Be grateful for the smallest of My graces, because your
gratitude compels Me to grant you new graces...
1702 Towards the end of the Way of
the Cross which I was making, the Lord Jesus began to complain about the souls
of religious and priests, about the lack of love in chosen souls. I will
allow convents and churches to be destroyed. I answered, "Jesus, but
there are so many souls praising You in convents." The Lord answered, That
praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from convents. Souls
without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls
full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls
who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this. All
the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I
cannot stand them, because they are neither good or bad. I called convents into
being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame
of love and sacrifice should burst forth. And if they do not repent and become
enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this
world...
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through...
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through...
1703 When I tried to intercede for
them, I could find nothing with which to excuse them and, being at the time
unable to think of anything in their defense, my heart was seized with pain,
and I wept bitterly. Then the Lord looked at me kindly and comforted me with
these words: Do not cry. There are still a great number of souls who love Me
very much, but My Heart desires to be loved by all and, because My love is
great, that is why I warn and chastise them.
1743 + God's Infinite Goodness in
Creating Mankind.
God, who in Your mercy have deigned to call man from nothingness into being, generously have You bestowed upon him nature and grace. But that seemed too little for Your infinite goodness. In Your mercy, O Lord, You have given us everlasting life. You admit us to Your everlasting happiness and grant us to share in Your interior life. And You do this solely out of Your mercy. You bestow on us the gift of Your grace, only because You are good and full of love. You had no need of us at all to be happy, but You, O Lord, want to share Your own happiness with us. But man did not stand the test. You could have punished him, like the angels, with eternal rejection, but here Your mercy appeared, and the very depths of Your being were moved with great compassion, and You promised to restore our salvation. It is an incomprehensible abyss of Your compassion that You did not punish us as we deserved. May Your mercy be glorified, O Lord; we will praise it for endless ages. And the angels were amazed at the greatness of the mercy which You have shown for mankind...
God, who in Your mercy have deigned to call man from nothingness into being, generously have You bestowed upon him nature and grace. But that seemed too little for Your infinite goodness. In Your mercy, O Lord, You have given us everlasting life. You admit us to Your everlasting happiness and grant us to share in Your interior life. And You do this solely out of Your mercy. You bestow on us the gift of Your grace, only because You are good and full of love. You had no need of us at all to be happy, but You, O Lord, want to share Your own happiness with us. But man did not stand the test. You could have punished him, like the angels, with eternal rejection, but here Your mercy appeared, and the very depths of Your being were moved with great compassion, and You promised to restore our salvation. It is an incomprehensible abyss of Your compassion that You did not punish us as we deserved. May Your mercy be glorified, O Lord; we will praise it for endless ages. And the angels were amazed at the greatness of the mercy which You have shown for mankind...
+ God's Infinite Goodness in
Redeeming Man.
1747 God, You could have saved
thousands of worlds with one word; a single sigh from Jesus would have
satisfied Your justice. But You Yourself, Jesus, purely out of love for us,
underwent such a terrible Passion. Your Father's justice would have been
propitiated with a single sigh from You, and all Your self-abasement is solely
the work of Your mercy and Your inconceivable love. On leaving the earth, O
Lord, You wanted to stay with us, and so You left us Yourself in the Sacrament
of the Altar, and You opened wide Your mercy to us. There is no misery that
could exhaust You; You have called us all to this fountain of love, to this
spring of God's compassion. Here is the tabernacle of Your mercy, here is the
remedy for all our ills. To You, O living spring of mercy, all souls are drawn;
some like deer, thirsting for Your love, others to wash the wound of their
sins, and still others, exhausted by life, to draw strength. At the moment of
Your death on the Cross, You bestowed upon us eternal life; allowing Your most
holy side to be opened, You opened an inexhaustible spring of mercy for us,
giving us Your dearest possession, the Blood and Water from Your Heart. Such is
the omnipotence of Your mercy. From it all grace flows to us.
1754 Consider, My daughter, Who
it is to whom your heart is so closely united by the vows. Before I made the
world, I loved you with the love your heart is experiencing today and,
throughout the centuries, My love will never change.
1758 My daughter, consider the
life of God which is found in the Church for the salvation and the
sanctification of your soul. Consider the use that you make of these treasures
of grace, of these efforts of My love.
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-156, 178,
186-187, 229, 267, 278-279)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II 531, 542, 570, 576, 580)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1701-1703, 1743, 1747, 1754, 1758)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II 531, 542, 570, 576, 580)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1701-1703, 1743, 1747, 1754, 1758)
http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS10.shtml
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