Angelic Company
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September 29, 2018.
Feast of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Raphael, archangels
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John
1: 47-51
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and
said of him, "Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in
him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus
answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the
fig tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do
you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will
see greater things than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I
say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I approach this time of prayer
earnestly. I believe that You have called me to be faithful and loving in
Your service. I thank You along with Mary, the saints and the holy angels for
the marvelous works of creation. I will humbly try to reflect Your greatness
to all I meet today by honestly fulfilling my duty.
Petition: Lord, help me be an instrument of Your peace and love.
1. Honesty Is the Best Policy: Once as Jesus spent the whole night in
prayer, he searched for apostles that would be honest and sincere. Jesus took
a liking to Nathanael when he discovered an Israelite without guile in his
heart. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here
is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him. It seems that Jesus
admired this angelic trait in men. As soon as he saw Philip bringing
Nathanael forward to meet him, Jesus immediately noticed the virtue Nathanael
lived. If I want to be highly thought of by Jesus, then I need to be sincere
in mind and heart.
2. The Holy Angels: The Church venerates today the holy service
of three of the archangels. They stand out for their honest love for God’s
most holy will. With such fidelity, St. Gabriel faithfully delivered the most
important messages of human history to Zacharias and Mary. St. Michael wrestled
with Lucifer and cast him out of heaven. St. Raphael came to the aid of
Tobias in the Old Testament. In these angels there isn’t any duplicity of
heart. God asks them a favor and they truly fulfill it. Wouldn’t it be
wonderful to implement our talents and gifts toward a service of this nature?
Wouldn’t it be great to be honest instruments of God’s infinite love like
these three archangels?
3. The Lord’s Gaze: Jesus looks into the heart and doesn’t judge
by appearances. Christ’s gaze penetrated Nathanael on this occasion. Jesus
penetrates the motives of my heart even though they are kept hidden from the
others. Jesus is the first one to know if I am true to the faith I have
received. If I am faithful to the dictates of my conscience and obey God’s lead,
in private or in public, then I have nothing to hide and nothing to lose. If
on the other hand, I am dwindling in my surrender to Christ by boredom and
monotony, then it is about time I sought renewal. Christ needs me! How many
are dying and fading away because they lack Christ and his love? I, in turn,
have been graced by many special spiritual favors! Jesus gazes into my eyes
and dreams of my fidelity and love.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank You for the example of these
three archangels and of the holy apostles. The holy apostles ended up
shedding their blood for You and the holy angels aid us on our journey
towards You. Lord, seeing so many lacking the faith, I resolve to be Your
tireless instrument, like them, so that many may come to praise You for all
eternity.
Resolution: I will visit the Eucharist (if this is
impossible, then kneel before the crucifix) and repeat confidently, Lord I
wish to be your instrument – help me!
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
365 My spiritual director replaced it with an interior
mortification; namely, throughout Holy Mass I was to meditate on why the Lord
Jesus had submitted to being baptized. The meditation was no mortification
for me, for thinking about God is a delight and not a mortification; but
there was a mortification of the will in that I was not doing [simply] what I
like, but what I was told to do, and it is in this that interior
mortification consists. When I left the confessional and started to recite my
penance, I heard these words: I have granted the grace you asked for on
behalf of that soul, but not because of the mortification you chose for
yourself. Rather, it was because of your act of complete obedience to My
representative that I granted this grace to that soul for whom you interceded
and begged mercy. Know that when you mortify your own self-will, then Mine
reigns within you.
366 O my Jesus, be patient with me. I will be more careful in the future. I will rely, not upon myself, but upon Your grace and Your very great goodness to miserable me. 367 +On one occasion, Jesus gave me to know that when I pray for intentions which people are wont to entrust to me, He is always ready to grant His graces, but souls do not always want to accept them: My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces they do not want to accept. In this way you will console My Heart. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces. So I turn to you, you-chosen souls, will you also fail to understand the love of My Heart? Here, too, My Heart finds disappointment; I do not find complete surrender to My love. So many reservations, so much distrust, so much caution. To comfort you, let Me tell you that there are souls living in the world who love Me dearly. I dwell In their hearts with delight. But they are few. In convents too, there are souls that fill My Heart with joy. They bear My features; therefore the Heavenly Father looks upon them with special pleasure. They will be a marvel to Angels and men. Their number is very small. They are a defense for the world before the justice of the Heavenly Father and a means of obtaining mercy for the world. The love and sacrifice of these souls sustain the world in existence. The infidelity of a soul specially chosen by Me wounds My Heart most painfully. Such infidelities are swords which pierce My Heart.
378
Once as I was talking with my spiritual director, I had an interior
vision-quicker than lightning-of his soul in great suffering, in such agony
that God touches very few souls with such fire. The suffering arises from
this work. There will come a time when this work, which God is demanding so
very much, will be as though utterly undone. And then God will act with great
power, which will give evidence of its authenticity. It will be a new
splendor for the Church, although it has been dormant in it from long ago.
That God is infinitely merciful, no one can deny. He desires everyone to know
this before He comes again as Judge. He wants souls to come to know Him first
as King of Mercy. When this triumph comes, we shall already have entered the
new life in which there is no suffering. But before this, your soul [of the
spiritual director] will be surfeited with bitterness at the sight of the
destruction of your efforts. However, this will only appear to be so, because
what God has once decided upon, He does not change. But although this
destruction will be such only in outward appearance, the suffering will be
real. When will this happen? I do not know. How long will it last? I do not
know.[89] But God has promised a great
grace especially to you and to all those... who will proclaim My great
mercy. I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And
even if the sins of soul are as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My
mercy he gives Me the greatest praise and is the glory of My Passion. When a
soul praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very
bottom of hell.
379 During one of the adorations, Jesus promised me that: With souls that have recourse to My mercy and with those that glorify and proclaim My great mercy to others, I will deal according to My infinite mercy at the hour of their death. My Heart is sorrowful, Jesus said, because even chosen souls do not understand the greatness of My mercy. Their relationship [with Me] is, in certain ways, imbued with mistrust. Oh, how much that wounds My Heart 1 Remember My Passion, and if you do not believe My words, at least believe My wounds. 380 I make no movement, no gesture after my own liking, because I am bound by grace; I always consider what is more pleasing to Jesus.
384
When I stayed for adoration from nine to ten o'clock, four other sisters
stayed; too. When 1 approached the altar and began to meditate on the Passion
of the Lord Jesus, a terrible pain immediately filled my soul because of the
ingratitude of so many souls living in the world; but particularly painful
was the ingratitude of souls especially chosen by God. There is no notion or
comparison [which can describe it]. At the sight of this blackest
ungratefulness I felt as though my heart were torn open; my strength failed
me completely, and I fell on my face, not attempting to hide my loud cries.
Each time I thought of God's great mercy and of the ingratitude of souls,
pain stabbed at my heart, and I understood how painfully it wounded the
sweetest Heart of Jesus. With a burning heart, I renewed my act of
self-oblation on behalf of sinners.
385 With joy and longing I have pressed my lips to the bitterness of the cup which I receive each day at Holy Mass. It is the share which Jesus has allotted to me for each moment, and I will not relinquish it to anyone. I will comfort the most sweet Eucharistic Heart continuously and will play harmonious melodies on the strings of my heart. Suffering is the most harmonious melody of all. I will assiduously search out that which will make Your Heart rejoice today! The days of my life are not monotonous. When dark clouds cover the sun, like the eagle I will try to brave the billows and make known to others that the sun is not dying out. 386 I feel that God will let me draw aside the veils [of heaven] so that the earth will not doubt His goodness. God is not subject to eclipse or change. He is forever one and the same; nothing can contradict His will. I feel within myself a power greater than human. I feel courage and strength thanks to the grace that dwells in me. 1 understand souls who are suffering against hope, for 1 have gone through that fire myself. But God will not give [us anything] beyond our strength. Often have I lived hoping against hope, and have advanced my hope to complete trust in God. Let that which He has ordained from all ages happen to me.
723 + Today, I heard these words:
The graces I grant you are not for you alone, but for a great number of other
souls as well... And your heart is My constant dwelling place, despite the
misery that you are. I unite Myself with you, take away your misery and give
you My mercy. I perform works of mercy in every soul. The greater the sinner,
the greater the right he has to My mercy. My mercy is confirmed in every work
of My hands. He who trusts in My mercy will not perish, for all his affairs
are Mine, and his enemies will be shattered at the base of My footstool.
724 On the eve of the retreat, I started to pray that the Lord Jesus might give me just a little health so that I could take part in the retreat, because I was feeling so ill that I thought perhaps it might be my last. However, as soon as I had started praying I felt a strange dissatisfaction. I interrupted the prayer of supplication and began to thank the Lord for everything He sends me, submitting myself completely to His holy will. Then I felt profound peace of soul. + Faithful submission to the will of God, always and everywhere, in all events and circumstances of life, gives great glory to God. Such submission to the will of God carries more weight with Him than long fasts, mortifications and the most severe penances. Oh, how great is the reward for one act of loving submission to the will of God! As I write, my soul is enraptured at the thought of how much God loves it and of the peace that my soul already enjoys, here on earth.
731 On the initial day of the
retreat, I was visited by one of the sisters [143] who had come to make her perpetual vows.
She confided to me that she had no trust in God and became discouraged at
every little thing. I answered her, "It is well that you have told me
this, Sister; I will pray for you." And I spoke a few words to her about
how much distrust hurts the Lord Jesus, especially distrust on the part of a
chosen soul. She told me that, beginning with her perpetual vows, she would
practice trust. Now I know that even [some] souls that are chosen and
welladvanced in the religious life or the spiritual life do not have the
courage to entrust themselves completely to God. And this is so because few
souls know the unfathomable mercy of God and His great goodness.
732 + The great majesty of God which pervaded me today and still pervades me awoke in me a great fear, but a fear filled with respect, and not the fear of a slave, which is quite different from the fear of respect. This fear animated by respect arose in my heart today because of love and the knowledge of the greatness of God, and that is a great joy to the soul. The soul trembles before the smallest offense against God; but that does not trouble or darken its happiness. There, where love is in charge, all is well.
734 I see that Jesus himself is
acting in my soul during this retreat. And as for me, I try only to be
faithful to His grace. I have submitted my soul completely to the influence
of God. This Mighty Ruler of Heaven has taken entire possession of my soul. I
feel that I am being lifted up above earth and heaven into the inner life of
God, where I come to know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but always
in the unity of majesty.
742 My daughter, if I demand
through you that people revere My mercy, you should be the first to
distinguish yourself by this confidence in My mercy. I demand from you deeds
of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to
your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to
excuse or absolve yourself from it.
I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first-by deed, the second-by word, the third-by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy. Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works. O my Jesus, You yourself must help me in everything, because You see how very little I am, and so I depend solely on Your goodness, O God.
1601
The Lord has given me to know how much He desires the perfection of chosen
souls.
Chosen souls are, in My hand, lights which I cast into the darkness of the world and with which I illumine it. As stars illumine the night, so chosen souls illumine the earth. And the more perfect a soul is, the stronger and the more far-reaching is the light shed by it. It can be hidden and unknown, even to those closest to it, and yet its holiness is reflected in souls even to the most distant extremities of the world. 1602 Today the Lord said to me, Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-365-367, 378-380, 384-386)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-II-723-724, 731-732,734, 742)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1601-1602 )
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