On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you in God’s personal love for you, especially during times of desolation or darkness? If you answered less than 10, this book is for YOU 🙂
Conference 1: Love for Love
God loved us first so that we might love Him (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). “That is the explanation of it all: of the Creation, the Incarnation, Calvary, the Resurrection, the Eucharist” (4)… “unfathomable abysses of merciful love” (6).
“Jesus bought a twofold right on Calvary at the price of all His Blood: (1) the right, for Him, to love us in spite of, or even because of our sins, our unworthiness; and (2) the right, for us, to love Him, from the depths of our immense misery and to contemplate His divine attributes, including His justice, within His infinite mercy” (6).
“If you have been loved like this, you must love in return, give love for love” (13).
“Here on earth, love proves itself by a free choice. When a man loves, he chooses that which he prefers. Jesus wants to be chosen, to be preferred… How many times, in the course of the day, in the middle of temptations of various kinds, we have the occasion to give Him freely this love which He demands and which must extend to the gift of our freedom itself. Since in Heaven our beatitude will consist in being fixed forever in the choice of Him which we shall have made, let us use our time in exile to choose Him, preferring Him to everything else. What power we have against temptation if we are able to say, “I choose You, Jesus, because I love You.” It has been well said that religion is not something; it is Someone… it is Jesus, chosen and preferred” (16-17).
St. Thérèse of Lisieux is our teacher in exchanging love for love. She said, “I have said everything. Everything is accomplished. It is love alone that counts.” She knew the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, who said, “The smallest movement of pure love is worth more to the Church than all works put together.” For St. Thérèse, she was so confident in the love of God that she said, “In this evening of this life I shall appear before You with empty hands. It is just this – to find myself at my death with empty hands – that gives me joy, for, having nothing, I shall receive everything from God. “ Why does this show confidence in God’s love? Because “all our spiritual wealth, all our supernatural goods, all our life of holiness: all are Jesus and nothing but Jesus. He is ours, His merits are ours, the price of His Blood is ours; He is completely ours” (8).
For St. Thérèse, she had the wisdom to see that this love was not sensible piety. Emotions are not to be trusted as a measure of our love for God. St. Thérèse said that dryness was her daily bread. What is love then? Love is the uniting of our will to the will of God. It is abandoning ourselves totally into His hands, as a habitual disposition, even if we feel nothing.
My advice from the 1st Conference: (1) Meditate on the love of Jesus in Scripture. Place yourself in those scenes. Allow Him to love you, especially through the Gospels. (2) Meditate on the love of Jesus in your life, your own story; (3) Throughout the day and especially during temptations, say, “I choose You, Jesus, because I love You“; (4) Examine yourself on your love life with Jesus: How did Jesus labour to love you throughout the day? Did you fail to believe in Jesus’ merciful love and/or respond to it at any point in the day? (5) Pray with “empty hands”: Open your hands in prayer, place them on your lap, and visualize yourself before the judgment seat of God at the end of your life with “empty hands,” nothing to prove that you deserve Heaven, and yet fully confident that God will give you everything.
Conference 2: Humble Confidence
“You must believe in the love of Jesus for you. Love calls for love. How do you give Jesus love for love? Before all and above all, by your confidence in Him” (25).
This type of confidence is best called “humble confidence.” Why? Because it starts with a recognition that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (see John 15:5).
For St. Thérèse, the visual of this was a difficult staircase to Heaven. This is the illusion of self-effort. Imagine being a little child and the first step is almost taller than you! That’s the starting point of humility we need to take. She said, “I am too little to climb the rough stairway of perfection.”
Since humility is simply living in the truth, one element of that truth is the recognition that our misery attracts Jesus’ mercy. Isn’t that amazing? When you feel miserable, Jesus feels merciful! Wow. That is what mercy is, my friends. Mercy comes from the Latin word misercordia, which is broken down into three words: miseris cor dare = a heart which gives to the miserable. That is Jesus’ Heart towards us.
For St. Thérèse, the visual of this was an elevator. She said, “The elevator which must raise me to the heavens is Your arms, O Jesus! For that I do not need to grow; on the contrary, I must necessarily remain small, become smaller and smaller. O my God, You have surpassed what I expected, and I want to sing Your mercies.”
Another visual St. Thérèse gives us to inspire greater confidence in Jesus is that of a devouring furnace. St. Thérèse had so much confidence in Jesus’ mercy that she said, “You may truly say that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same confidence; I would feel that this multitude of offences would be like a drop of water thrown into a flaming furnace.” Isn’t that amazing, again!? “All possible crimes, a multitude of offenses, a drop of water in an immense furnace: that is the proportion” (30). And again, listen to the confidence St. Thérèse has in the merciful love of Jesus when she says, “Each moment this merciful love renews me, purifies my soul, and leaves on it no trace of sin.” And again, St. Thérèse said, “Since He has granted it to me to understand the love of the Heart of Jesus, I confess that He has chased all fear out of my heart. The memory of my faults humiliates me and leads me never to rely on my own strength, which is only weakness; but still more, the memory of them speaks to me of mercy and love. When, with childlike trust, we throw our faults into the devouring furnace of love, how could they not be completely burned away?”
One sign we are not in the arms of Jesus is discouragement. St. Thérèse said, “I am not always faithful, but I never get discouraged. I abandon myself into the arms of Jesus, and there I find again all that I have lost and much more besides.” Any discouragement is a warning sign that you’re placing confidence in yourself and not in Jesus.
The more humble confidence we have in Jesus, the more marvels He can work in us. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque heard Jesus say to her, “Do you believe that I can do it? If you believe it, you will see the power of My Heart in the magnificence of My Love.” When we are in the arms of Jesus, let us ask Him to do everything!
Fr. Jean states: “See what a life of love is established between Jesus and us in such a union. I need to have constant recourse to Him, but He is always there, and my need for Him is always satisfied. Jesus purifies us each moment, but we must desire it with an immense desire and believe in it” (44).
My advice from the 2nd Conference: (1) Pray with Gospel stories of those who had to express their confidence in Jesus for a miracle, like the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 (“Even the dogs eat the crumbs…”) & the centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 (“Lord, I am not worthy…”). Jesus often gives us the occasion to make even greater acts of confidence before He rewards our efforts. We should have even more confidence that these pagans, we who have been baptized and get to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion! (2) Pray with the images of the staircase vs. elevator @ the start of any prayer period to get in the right mindset of receiving everything from Jesus; (3) Go to Confession frequently, with great confidence in the devouring furnace of God’s merciful love to consume all of your sins.
Conference 3: Unshakeable Confidence
Confidence in the merits of Jesus: “So what then? He calls me just as I am? I can go to Him with all my miseries, all my weaknesses? He will repair what I have done badly? He will supply for all my indigence? Yes, provided that you go to Him, that you count on Him, that you expect everything of Him, that you say with St. Paul, “Omni possum,“: “I can do all things in Him who is my only strength and my only virtue” (cf. Phil 4:13)” (59).
Express your confidence in Jesus’ merits that He can repair what you have done badly, supply for what you have left undone, and multiply what you have done well! “Is this not worthy of adoration? I have a Jesus who does all that is in me and for me! And I am very sure – oh, yes indeed! – that He will never say to me, “You hoped too much of me.” I cannot imagine Jesus saying that” (59-60).
Confidence in the present moment of God’s love: “[W]e must live in a presently existing love. Too often, we make our life of love with God in us something to be realized in the future – some day we shall have made sufficient progress for that. The word sufficient makes me smile, because, after all, how could we ever establish this sufficiency? Right away, in the present moment, I say to Jesus that I know He loves me and that I love Him. His arms, His Heart, are always open, and I can take refuge there this instant, since my wretchedness, far from being an obstacle, is a springboard to propel me there” (61).
What would a husband think who, when asking his wife, “Do you love me?” received the response, “I have a great desire to love you; I shall work toward it; I hope one day to achieve it by dint of my efforts and generosity and sacrifice.” You are right to smile. But is this not the spiritual disposition many excellent souls adopt toward Jesus? Make rather the admirable response of St. Peter: “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (Jn 21:17). In spite of appearances, in spite of my coldness and my unworthiness, You know well that I love You. You know it better than I, and I do not want to wait until tomorrow to tell You, because love does not wait” (61-2).
Never get discouraged: “Convinced of that, we should never get discouraged. When we see ourselves to be so weak, so impotent, always falling into the same sins, we are tempted to say to ourselves, “Can it be possible that Jesus does not grow weary of this!” We have all had this temptation at one time or another. “I have promised Him so much, I have made so many resolutions, and I always fall again; it is impossible that He does not get tired of it.” It is a kind of blasphemy to say that, because it is to limit a mercy which has no limit. It is to doubt the patience, the indulgence, the untiring clemency of Jesus. It is not He who grows weary of us; it is we who grow weary of looking at our ugliness” (62).
“It is clear that we must examine ourselves in order to know and readily recognize our profound wretchedness in all its forms; to suffer bitterly from our sins, but never to give in to them, never to acknowledge ourselves vanquished, never to capitulate; to detest ever more what is not good, what should not be, what is forbidden. Yes, this is clear. Besides, the more we love Jesus, and the more we draw near to Him, the more we reject whatever does not belong to Him, whatever He condemns. Moreover, it is Jesus, growing in us and occupying a greater and greater place in us, who will cause us to detest evil and sin. Here is the problem: how can we detest our wretchedness more each day and at the same time love it? We do not love our wretchedness itself; we love the consequences of it—that is to say, we make use of it to immerse ourselves in humility, then to redouble our confidence and plunge ourselves into the ocean of mercy. Those things go together very well, very well indeed. Therefore, never be discouraged by your faults. Begin by not being astonished at them. A little child who does not know how to walk is not astonished at stumbling and falling with each step he takes” (64-5).
“Even a fall strengthens us if we repent of it, since Jesus brings good out of evil. Go to Him as to a fountain of living water, as many times as necessary, picking yourself up each time more humble and each time more overflowing with confident love. If you make each sin an occasion for you to kiss the wound of His Heart with repentance and confidence, each sin will become a rung in the ladder by which you ascend in love. From misery to misery we go from mercy to mercy” (65).
“I have already told you how little Thérèse understood, lived, and expressed this doctrine, but I come back to her again, for truly she is the one who taught it. She took pleasure in recounting her infidelities in detail to Jesus, thinking, in her bold abandonment, to attract more fully, to gain a greater hold on the love of Him who did not come to call the just, but sinners. She wrote to her sister Céline, “We would like to suffer generously, grandly, Céline, but what an illusion! We would like never to fall! What does it matter, my Jesus, if I fall every moment? It shows me my weakness, and it is a great gain for me. It shows You what I am capable of, and then You will be more tempted to carry me in Your arms. If You do not do so, it will be because it pleases You to see me on the ground” (66).
Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart asked Thérèse to tell her whether she could love Jesus as Thérèse did. Thérèse seized her pen:
“I am not at a loss to answer you.… How can you ask me if it is possible for you to love God as I love him? My desire for martyrdom is nothing. It is not that which gives me the limitless confidence which I feel in my heart. That desire is a consolation which Jesus sometimes grants to weak souls like mine, but when He does not give this consolation, it is a special grace.… Ah, I feel certain that it is not that at all which is pleasing to God in my little soul. What pleases Him is to see me love my littleness and my poverty. It is the blind hope which I have in His mercy.… There is my only treasure. Why should this treasure not be yours? Oh, my darling sister, I beg you, understand your little one. Understand that in order to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the weaker one is, with neither desires nor virtues, the more one is fit for the workings of this consuming and transforming love. The sole desire to be a victim suffices, but one must consent to remain always poor and utterly weak. Ah, let us stay quite far from all that shines; let us love our littleness; let us love to feel nothing, and we shall then be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us, however far away we are. He will transform us into flames of love. Oh, how I would like to be able to make you understand what I feel.… It is confidence and nothing but confidence which must lead us to love.”
“What a wonderful letter! And how hard it is not to quote the whole of it as I marvel once more at the extraordinary logic of the saints! Like all theologians, little Thérèse knew that divine love is a consuming and transforming love. Therefore, the weaker we are, the more fit we are for the workings of such a love. To have burning desires, to express them with eloquence, to feel ourselves full of enthusiasm, does not depend directly upon us. What we can always do, however, is to love, with our will, our littleness and our poverty; we can love our nakedness and our powerlessness and come to have nothing but a single treasure: our blind abandonment to mercy. That is a program for the interior life which is within your reach” (72-3).
Confidence in the justice of God: “We can go still further. We can base our confidence, not only on the mercy of God, but also on His justice, always following the example of little Thérèse. “To me,” she cries, “He has given His infinite mercy, and it is through this that I contemplate and adore the other divine perfections. Then they all appear to me radiant with love. Even justice itself, perhaps even more than anything else, appears to me clothed in love. What a sweet joy to think that God is just, that is to say, that He takes our weaknesses into account, that He knows perfectly the frailty of our nature! Of what, therefore, should I be afraid?’ And to her spiritual brother, Father Roulland: “I know that we must be very pure in order to appear before the God of all holiness, but I know also that the Lord is infinitely just and it is this justice, which terrifies so many souls, which is the object of my joy and confidence.… I hope for as much from the justice of God as from His mercy. It is because He is just that He is compassionate and full of gentleness, slow to punish and abounding in mercy, for He knows our frailty. He remembers that we are nothing but dust.” And climbing higher: “Since You have loved me to the point of giving Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I gladly offer them to You, begging You to look at me only through the face of Jesus and in His Heart burning with love.… In the evening of this life I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You to count my works. All our justices are stained in Your eyes. I want therefore to clothe myself in Your own justice and receive from Your love the eternal possession of Yourself.” Here is a sublime thought which I expressed to you in my first conference. All the merits of Jesus are mine. He covers me with His Blood. He fills my empty hands with His own virtues and transforms me into Himself. I present myself thus before the Father, and, in all justice, the Father receives me as His beloved Son. It is in this sense that little Thérèse said, “For the victims of love, it seems to me that there will be no judgment, but rather that God will hasten to reward with eternal delights His own love, which He will see burning in their hearts.” She knew that “the fire of love is more sanctifying than that of Purgatory.” The “little ones” who have surrendered themselves to love, living here below in the arms of Jesus, on His Heart, will find themselves, at the moment of death, in His arms, on His Heart” (76-77).
Confidence in times of desolation: “And when Jesus conceals Himself during grievous interior trials such as dryness, aridity, anguish in darkness, when all the words of love, confidence, abandonment say nothing more to us, do not touch us, do not reach us anymore, what then? What soul has not passed through these nights? It is then that we must push confidence to the extreme limits. These trials are graces, because they are occasions for pure faith. Pure love is realized in pure faith, and pure faith is realized in darkness in the same way as “strength is perfected in weakness.” Profit, profit from these dark hours when your nature grieves, when your heart is cold, when you believe, wrongly, that Jesus is very far from you and even, perhaps, that He is turning His eyes away from you, because you see yourself to be so imperfect and wretched; profit from them to make heroic acts of faith and confidence out of pure will. These are the most precious acts—they have immense merit because in those times they are acts of pure faith, without consolation and without sensible aid. That is the moment to say to Jesus, “You may sleep in my boat; I shall not awaken You. You are hiding Yourself, but I know well where You are hidden: You are in my heart. I do not feel it, but I know it. I believe in Your love for me and I believe in my love for You.” Throughout the last year of her life, little Thérèse endured this trial of faith and was thus consumed to the very last particle, in the fire of divine love. “I would like to be able to express what I feel,” she writes, “but alas! I believe that it is impossible. One would have to have traveled in this dark tunnel in order to understand the darkness. “When I want to rest my heart, fatigued from the darkness which surrounds it, in the memory of the marvelous country toward which I aspire, my torment redoubles. I believe I have made more acts of faith in the last year than during the rest of my life.” But she accepts not being able to enjoy Heaven on earth, in order that it may be opened, for all eternity, to the poor unbelievers. “Also,” she adds, “in spite of this trial, which takes all enjoyment away from me, I can nevertheless cry out, ‘Lord, You fill me with joy in all that You do.’ For is there a joy greater than to suffer for love?” She thought that Jesus would sooner grow weary of making her wait than she of waiting for Him” (77-79).
Confidence is the heart of the doctrine of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus since, “it is confidence and nothing but confidence which will lead us to love,” and love is everything. Engrave this in your souls and hearts in letters of gold and fire: immense confidence, unshakeable confidence in this King of Love, who is called Jesus—Savior” (80).
My advice from the 3rd Conference: (1) Pray the Morning Offering and really mean it! It expresses such great confidence in Jesus’ merits; (2) Live in the present moment of Jesus’ love. Tell Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You” (Jn 21:17); (3) Never get discouraged: Any time you feel discouragement coming, quickly run to Jesus’ merciful arms and thank Him for His great love. Ask His Sacred Heart to burn away all fear, all discouragement, all sin.
Conference 4: Abandonment to Jesus
Total abandonment is the logical consequence of complete confidence: “Since it is through Jesus that everything must be accomplished, the more I let Him do it (i.e. total abandonment), the more the work of grace will be beautiful and perfect. What is this work of grace? The transformation of our souls into Jesus through love. Our intelligence is no longer our intelligence, but His: we see things as He sees them. Our will is no longer our will but His: we will what He wills, and we reject what He rejects. Our heart is no longer our heart, but the Heart of Jesus: we love what He loves, and we detest what He detests” (82).
Abandonment includes everything: “Abandonment, rightly understood, includes everything. It requires a great humility, since it is submission of ourselves to creatures and events, seeing Jesus Himself in them. It requires an immense faith, confidence every moment, to tear open the veil of secondary causes, to break through the screen of creatures which too often prevents us from seeing Jesus behind them, who governs everything, since nothing—nothing—happens without His having willed or permitted it. Abandonment is nothing but obedience pushed to its extreme, since it consists of submission to everything within the limits of the possible and the reasonable, in order to obey God, who has foreseen and willed it all. Finally, it is in abandonment that our great desires find their perfect fulfillment” (84).
“Let Me do it.” When our Lord makes some reproach to the saints, to St. Gertrude, to St. Margaret Mary, for example, it is most often their lack of abandonment which He laments. St. Margaret Mary, shortly before her death, wrote that she had finally understood what He expected of her when He said to her, “Let Me do it.” “His Sacred Heart,” she wrote, “will do everything for me if I let Him. He shall will, He shall love, He shall desire for me and make up for all my faults” (85). Like St. Margaret Mary, you may hear Jesus a hundred times a day, saying to you, “Let Me do it.” In your difficulties, in your problems, in all those things in your daily life which are sometimes so difficult, so distressing, when you ask yourself, “What shall I do? How shall I do it!” listen to Him saying to you, “Let Me do it.” And then answer Him, “O Jesus, I thank You for all things.” And it will be the most beautiful dialogue of love between a soul and the all-powerful and all-loving God!” (86).
Remember, “Jesus always has His victory when He has your abandonment. He needs nothing more than that to bring about the divine wonders that His Heart has prepared for you from all eternity. What spoils everything, what paralyzes Him in His providential action on us, are not material difficulties. What can be a material difficulty for Him who created Heaven and earth? Not His enemies. He will reign despite His enemies. What makes things difficult for Him is lack of faith and abandonment on the part of those who call themselves His friends and who ought to be His faithful instruments. We thwart His plans by imposing our own views, our little plans to which we hold so tightly. And, quite often, why do we do it? Through fear of a cross, fear of humiliation, thirst for enjoyment, earthly ambition, and, above all, lack of confidence” (89-90).
Little Thérèse came in this way to the point of no longer having any other desire than to love Jesus to the point of “foolishness”: “I desire neither suffering nor death, yet I love both; but it is love alone which attracts me. Now it is abandonment alone which guides me. I have no other compass.” And again, “My heart is full of the will of Jesus. Ah, if my soul were not already filled with His will, if it had to be filled by the feelings of joy and sadness which follow each other so quickly, it would be a tide of very bitter sorrow. But these alternatives do nothing but brush across my soul. I always remain in a profound peace which nothing can trouble. If the Lord offered me the choice, I would not choose anything: I want nothing but what He wants. It is what He does that I love. I acknowledge that it took me a long time to bring myself to this degree of abandonment. Now I have reached it, for the Lord took me and put me there.”
“When someone asked little Thérèse to summarize her little childlike way, she answered, “It is to be disturbed by nothing.” Naturally this means not to be voluntarily disturbed, not consciously or deliberately disturbed, because nature always worries… The moment you realize you are worrying, make very quickly an act of confidence: “No, Jesus, You are there: nothing—nothing—happens, not a hair falls from our heads, without Your permission. I have no right to worry.” Perhaps He is sleeping in the boat, but He is there. He is always there. He is all-powerful; nothing escapes His vigilance. He watches over each one of us “as over the apple of His eye.” He is all love, all tenderness. It is really an offense against Him when we worry voluntarily about anything. That is what causes Him pain. That is what wounds His Heart more than anything else” (92-3).
Abandonment is a practical and actual application of an obsession: the will of God. That is why certain persons in the world, men of the people, this peasant on his farm, that worker in the factory, are true saints—because they have understood that the will of God is everything and they are disposed to prefer it to everything else. From the moment when I am in the will of God, everything is fine. This is where the supernatural indifference of the saints comes from: joy or pain, consolation or dryness, light or darkness, adulation or criticism, honey or gall, health or sickness, life or death. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”… That sums up the sanctity of the Blessed Virgin” (98). “The Magnificat which you sing in your disappointment, the “Thank you for everything” which you say in your humiliation, is the most beautiful of all successes, the most fruitful of all victories” (107).
Click here for the story of God’s providence with St. Monica’s prayers.
Each event brings Jesus Himself: “Remember that each event in your life brings you Jesus’ will, which is Jesus Himself. It is He whom you can embrace in everything that comes to you. I bless Him, therefore, however my nature may protest” (99).
We see only links in the chain: “We see only the links in the chain one by one, without seeing how they are interconnected. The day Jesus allows you to catch a glimpse of the whole golden chain, the marvelous succession of events, you will thank Him and bless Him. And what is incomparably more beautiful is to thank Him and bless Him before having seen—breaking through misleading appearances by these words alone: “I do not see, but I am sure of You. I believe because I know who You are; I know whom I have believed” (105).
Jesus is the pilot, we are the oarsmen: “Let Him do as He wills. He is the pilot. The oarsmen turn their backs to the goal while rowing; the pilot sees. He is the one who steers the boat. Let us row with all our strength and let Jesus guide us into port” (105).
Thank Jesus for everything: “Frequently make what I call the examination of the prayer “O Jesus, I thank You for everything.” It should be the fruit of your disposition of will, of heart, and of soul to bless Jesus for everything that He wills or permits for you, for everything that happens to you. Promise always to say to Him, “I thank You for everything.” “In this short and simple prayer there is at the same time humility, an immense confidence in merciful love, abandonment, and thanksgiving. How rich this little prayer is! How it glorifies Jesus, and how it pleases Him! Each time you say it, it reaffirms your disposition of love for Him in total abandonment. It sinks you into His Heart, for it sings of His love for you. It is nothing other than the gratias agentes semper pro omnibus: “giving thanks always for all things” of St. Paul. What St. Paul asked of the Ephesians, I can certainly ask of you. I have known persons for whom this prayer has become the breathing of their souls, and who have thus climbed very high in love. “O Jesus, I thank You for everything” (111-2).
Advice from the 4th Conference: (1) When you are going through difficulty, hear Jesus say, “Let Me do it,” & answer Him, “Thank You, Jesus.” (2) Gratitude prayer: Go through your day, your life, etc., and say, “Thank You, Jesus”; (3) Offer to Jesus your lack of confidence, or worry or fear, as soon as possible, whenever you notice it creeping up.
Conference 5: Great Desires, Humility, and Peace
Great desires
Jesus is a Man of great desires. Desiderio desideravi: “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Sitio: “I thirst” (John 19:28). Jesus thirsts for us, for our hearts, for our sanctification. Ignem veni mittere in terram: “I have come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled” (Luke 12:49).
In order to give Jesus love for love, we, too, must be souls of great desire. Nothing great ever comes about without great desires. We all know it is true for worldly success. Well, it is even more true for spiritual success! And how much more so should we be of great desires, we who strive for eternal success!
Once again, St. Thérèse is a model for us when she said: “God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.” And again, “I have a desire, a desire so great that I shall be unable to be happy in heaven if it is not realized.”
“The saints who have risen very high in Heaven arrived there on the wings of great desires. St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi had a vision one day of the glory of St. Louis Gonzaga. She was astonished: “How did this youth rise so high among the Seraphim!” It was revealed to her that he had attained this glory because, during his short life, he was consumed with the desire to love God and to be a saint” (117).
“I must add that to desire to love is already to love. A great desire to love is already a great love. In the same way that Jesus said to St. Augustine, “You would not seek me if you had not already found me,” He will say to you, “You would not have this great desire to love me if you did not love me already.” He cannot fail to fulfill, beyond even our greatest hopes, a desire that He himself has inspired” (117).
Humility
Along with great desires, keep a profound, convinced, sincere sense of your weakness and impotence. This is the “narrow gate” that all the saints entered. They prayed for humility and rejoiced in humiliations, for humiliations are truly a taste of death to self that allows to go through a death and resurrection experience with Christ.
On humiliations: “If we knew all we gain by humiliations, we would thirst for them” (124). “He who honestly puts himself in the last place is not astonished when others put him there, too” (124).
Think of Jesus’ humiliations when you go through any (especially His humility in the tabernacle that He endures until the end of time). Reflect on Christ’s loving obedience throughout His entire life and imitate Him. Remember, to die to your own will is the path of humility, especially to external authorities.
Once again, St. Thérèse is a model for us when she said: “Let us remain very remote from all that glitters. Let us love our littleness; let us love to feel nothing. Then we shall be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come seeking us, however far away we are. He will transform us into flames of love!”
Do not confuse your proud nature with being a proud person. It is consent that makes it a sin. “To have a proud nature and to be a proud person are not the same thing. Once again, the truly proud man is the one who takes pleasure in his pride, who sees no evil in it, who thinks he does not need mercy and refuses it. This is not the case with you, who do not consent to it, especially since you believe in Jesus, who repairs, who purifies, who permits evil only in order to draw from it a greater good; in Jesus, who cures and who saves; in Jesus, who loves you. It could be a very fruitful humiliation to recognize your pride without consenting to it” (135).
Peace
What will crown this humility, this confidence, this abandonment which I have preached to you up until now? The peace which Jesus came to bring upon the earth. Peace was Jesus’ first & last gift to men. Peace is found in the arms of Jesus.
Advice from the 5th Conference: (1) Pray my Litany of Holiness for great desires: click here. Ask Jesus to give you His desires for holiness! (2) Pray my Litany of Humility For Beginners: click here. (3) Read Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Philippe: click here for my summary.
Conference 6: Fraternal Charity
“Lord, that I may see!” (Luke 18:41). When you look at your brothers and sisters, think of their souls, made in the image and likeness of God. They are masterpieces of His love, wounded, disfigured by sin, but remade by the Redeemer, more beautiful than before – and at what a price! Focus on their good qualities. “Ask in your prayers to see the beauty of the souls which surround you. A soul in a state of grace is the dwelling place of the Father and of Jesus, the temple of the Holy Spirit. It participates in the intimate life of the three Divine Persons. If I could see the splendor of such a soul, I would die from the vision. Lord, increase my faith, so that, not stopping at externals but penetrating beyond them, I may know how to contemplate these divine realities” (144).
The goal is to see others as Jesus sees them. To do this, we must strive to go beyond the faults we see in others, and instead, look for the virtues. It is always best to err on the side of ascribing good intentions to others rather than bad.
St. Thérèse wrote:
“When I want to increase in myself my love of neighbour, especially when the Devil tries to put before the eyes of my soul the faults of this or that sister who is less appealing to me, I hasten to seek our her virtues, her good desires. I tell myself that if I have seen her fall one time, she may well have undergone a great many victories that she hides through humility, and that even what appears as a fault to me could very well be an act of virtue because of the intention. Ah, I understand now that perfect charity consists of enduring the faults of others, of not being at all astonished at their weaknesses, of being edified by the smallest acts of virtue which one sees them practice.”
Perhaps you recall having read the account she gives of her difficulties with Sister St. Peter, the good, elderly invalid whom it was necessary to lead from the choir to the refectory, which was no small affair, as she was very demanding. “It cost me a lot,” she writes, “to offer myself to render this little service, for I knew it was not easy to please her.” But in order not to miss such a beautiful occasion to exercise charity, she offered herself as her guide. “It is incredible,” she repeats, “how much effort that cost me!” You see that little Thérèse also had strong natural dislikes to overcome. But because of her many considerations and delicate attentions, she finally got completely into the good graces of the poor sister, especially because before leaving her she gave her most beautiful smile to her” (146).
“There are so many excuses to be found for the faults of others: their heredity, their education, their temperament, their interior trials, their physical state. Everyone, without exception, has virtues by which we can be edified. It is just and it is a joy to think about the goodness in our neighbor!” (149).
This is the wisdom of St. Paul, who said, “Bless those who persecute you… overcome evil by good” (Rom 12:14, 21).
On her sick bed, surrounded with cares, little Thérèse had compassion on suffering souls: “We must treat them, even the most imperfect, with precautions like those that are taken for bodily ills. Oh, very often people do not think about that; they wound them by inattentiveness, by tactlessness, although what they need is for us to care for them and comfort them with all our power. Yes, I feel that I must have as much compassion for the spiritual infirmities of my sisters as they have for my physical infirmities.” (149).
“Truly to love someone is sincerely to will good for him, whatever feelings we may have at the moment. See how important it is to make this distinction between our nature and our will borne by grace, between what we feel and what we will. I have already told you this, and tell you again with regard to fraternal charity, for it is one of the points upon which we are most tempted” (153).
If you fail in charity, pray to Jesus with confidence, “Jesus, repair what I have done badly. Bless this person even more than if I had never failed.” Have great confidence that Jesus can repair not only the evil you have done in yourself but also to those around you. Jesus already paid the price!
Say then, “Jesus, from this evil also which I have wrought around me, draw forth good. Even, I dare to ask You, draw a greater good from it than if I had not done the evil. I ask You this humbly, in my smallness, beating my breast and saying mea culpa, with a contrite heart, recognizing my fault. I ask it of You with an immense confidence, recognizing Your mercy and the limitless price You paid for our Redemption. Make reparation in me and around me.” We cannot always repair things ourselves. We cannot always ask pardon of those offended, make excuses, put things right—at least not immediately—and often the remedy would be worse than the evil. So say, “I would like to do it; I cannot, but You will do it Yourself, because of my confidence.” (154-5).
“His Redemption is superabundant. His reparation is universal. Nothing is ever irreparable with Him, and if He wills, He can repair immediately and totally. It is a matter of faith and hope, in humility and goodwill. You must believe that He will do it. He is touched by your bitter regret at having done wrong. He is touched by your pain. He is touched even more by your confidence, and that attracts even more His mercy on you. You must live with Jesus in charity, making your life one with His life, your King, your Friend, your Brother, who is always there to help you in the struggle, to pick you up again when you fall. How marvelous it is to have with you always Jesus, who saves you continually, who takes care of everything freely, provided that you believe that He does it because you ask Him humbly, recognizing that you merit nothing. What about your collaboration? You collaborate above all, once again, by means of the theological virtues which, truly lived, require so many sacrifices, the forgetfulness of self to the point of heroism. You see how hatred of sin, refusal to consent to evil, humility, confidence, charity, and peace all go together as they are all only one in the infinitely merciful Heart of Jesus” (155-6).
We must forget ourselves. A person who forgets himself brings joy to those around him. Acts of goodness birth more to more goodness around you.
Jesus gave us a commandment to love one another as He has loved us (Jn 13:34). In response to this call to love without limit, say to Our Lord, “Jesus, to love my neighbor as You love me is impossible with my poor heart so small, so narrow, so mean. Therefore, in giving me this precept, You must give me Your own Heart, to fulfill it.” How could He resist such logic—logic that must make Him smile?” (157).
“Charity covers a multitude of sins” ~ 1 Peter 4:8
Have you meditated on the Last Judgment, which will be based entirely on the virtue of charity? (Mt 25:34-40)
“Poverty, austerity, fasting, prayer, and the gift of miracles, without love of our brothers, all are pure illusions. To love Jesus without loving those whom He loved unto death is not to love Him. There is no true love of neighbor without beginning by loving Jesus; but the love of Jesus is accomplished, perfected, and consummated in the love of neighbor. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, give me Your Heart to love my neighbour” (159).
Conference 7: The Apostolate
“The charity of charities is the apostolate. “I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink.” It is urgent—oh, how urgent!—to give material bread to the two men out of three in this valley of tears who haven’t enough to eat, and thus to respond to the poignant Misereor super turbam (My Heart goes out to the multitude) of Jesus, heartsick with compassion as He was. But it is the “Bread of Life,” the “Water which wells up unto life eternal” which they need still more” (163).
“In speaking of the apostolate, I shall begin with a strong statement: in order to be a fruitful apostle, begin by being a saint—a soul of love. The only fruitfulness is holiness. Look at St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. The soul of every apostolate is the apostle’s intimate love and his immolation… Be a soul of love in order to become an apostle, and you will discover a very beautiful thing: that at the bank of love, the more you give, the richer you become. You must hear the continuous echo in your heart of the cry of sorrowful love, of great redemptive desire, the cry of anguish and at the same time of tenderness, the cry of Jesus on the Cross—Sitio: “I thirst.” “I thirst for your love; you upon whom I have showered my love, give me to drink. Treasure the spiritual riches I have given you without limit. Find for me hearts whose love will be like dew upon my burning lips on Calvary.” To be an apostle is to give Jesus to souls and souls to Jesus by making Him known in order to make Him loved, by filling yourself with Him in order to give Him, according to the beautiful definition of Father Mateo, “An apostle is a chalice full of Jesus which overflows onto souls.” Be such a chalice first of all, and even before acting, you will be an apostle. (164-6).
“Souls are on the way to perdition—what anguish! Think of these souls for whom the Savior has suffered so much, has poured out all His Blood. Such souls, made for happiness, risk being lost forever in Hell, being fixed, like Satan, in the hatred of Him who is nothing but love” (166).
“It depends upon us whether more or fewer are saved. The field of the apostolate is immense: there are so many who have been led astray by impurity, by the pride which leads to hatred. Think of the ignorance, the indifference of the masses who are without Christ, either in life or death—these multitudes without God. Think of the millions of pagans who cover the world in greater numbers each day, sheep outside the fold. Imagine the many baptized who lack a supernatural outlook—that, too, is a sorrow—who lack confident love and the apostolic flame, who call themselves the friends of Jesus yet are His friends so little. I thirst! Love is not loved. “Love and cause to be loved the Love which is not loved.” There, surely, is the most beautiful cry which could come from the lips of an apostle. It came from the heart of St. Francis of Assisi: “Love and cause to be loved the Love which is not loved.” (166-7).
“But you know, before the apostolate of word and action, there is the apostolate of prayer and suffering, without which the external apostolate would be nothing—nothing at all. Words and actions come only in the last place, after what I call the apostolate of silence in love, which was the great apostolate of Jesus and Mary at Nazareth for thirty years. Jesus did not preach in that silence except by what He was: the Incarnate Word of God. You also preach by what you are: children of God, confirmed in the Holy Spirit, and sharing the divine life through the Eucharist. He preached by His example; you also preach by your example, if you are the Christians you ought to be” (167-8).
Little St. Thérèse lived a life of silence and immolation for nine years. Shortly before her death, as she rested in her cell during recreation time, she heard one sister in the kitchen remarking, “My sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus will die soon, and I really wonder what our mother will be able to say about her after her death. She will certainly be at a loss, for this little sister, lovable as she is, has certainly done nothing which is worth the trouble to recount.”276 Even her own sisters distributed her robes, her linen (they were subsequently taken back in order to make relics of them), so ordinary and hidden was her life: nothing extraordinary on the outside, everything extraordinary on the inside. One could apply to her, in a lesser degree, what was said of Mary: Omnis gloria ejus ab intus: “All her glory was within.” Now Thérèse is patroness of missions, on a level with St. Francis Xavier who went to preach to the ends of the earth. She is secondary patroness of France, along with St. Joan of Arc, whose active public apostolate was so remarkable.
Click here for the story of the choice of little Thérèse as patroness of missions.
“What is the center and source of the life of the Church? The Host in the tabernacle, the little, silent Host, the praying Host, the loving Host. The apostles preach, but from the tabernacles of the world come forth rays of divine light, parts of the sun of love, which touch and enlighten souls. Be a praying and loving host, and you will send forth rays like the Host, and God will give you all those who “voyage” with you, your neighbors, all those whom you love and whose salvation you ardently desire” (174).
Bearing in mind the magnificent dogma of the Communion of Saints, you must never doubt that you are really an apostle, if you love, and only because you love. Jesus can hide it from you in order to increase the merit of your faith, but never doubt it. Thank Him every day for the souls which you save, without knowing it, by your acts of love. As I have already told you, it is beautiful to pray in this way: instead of saying to Jesus, “Give me souls,” say to Him, “I thank You for the souls which You give me simply because I am sure that You give them to me,” relying on His own words: “All things, whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you have already received them, and they shall come unto you.”280 Know how to unite yourself with the miracles He works in you continually, even when you do not realize and are not aware of it. “Jesus, I unite myself to the wonders You work in me. I know for certain that I love You today more than yesterday and that tomorrow I shall love You more than today, because I have opened my heart to Your grace, which is a torrent which ceaselessly engulfs me and continually transforms me into Yourself and spreads out to others… You thus oblige Jesus to do the thing for which you thank Him. Is that presumption? No, since hope does not deceive and He has promised great fruitfulness to those who have confidence” (175).
Carry a great apostolic spirit into your prayers. Pray to obtain mercy for souls. Jesus could have saved men without us. He did not will to do it that way. “The Creator of the Universe,” writes little Thérèse, “listens to the prayer of a very little soul to save others who are ransomed, as she is, by the price of all His Blood.”283 Some are astonished when they see the number of unbelievers, the number of pagans, of impious and impenitent sinners in the world, compared with that of the faithful. There is a surprising disproportion there which is hard to explain. One might wonder whether the Redemption has not failed after all. I think Divine Providence has permitted this (I purposely say permitted and not willed) in order that fervent souls may live the apostolic spirit in a better way, with a greater desire to save unfaithful souls, seeing how many there are, and that they may share even more the Sitio (“I thirst”) of Jesus on the Cross and His Misereor super turbam (“My heart goes out to the multitude”). And then, because His chosen souls, His privileged, His elect, will love Him with a greater love, Jesus Himself will have mercy on others. You see your responsibility! He told St. Margaret Mary, “A soul which loves can obtain pardon for a thousand criminals.” (176-7).
“Also do not ask only for the return of sinners, but that good people will become very good, and that the very good will become saints. Do not ask only for the conversion of souls, but for the perfection of souls, because Jesus not only thirsts to see sinners convert, but perhaps He thirsts even more to see the souls which He has chosen rise higher and grow in love, and unite themselves more intimately with Him. He needs truly loving souls, true hosts, truly transformed into Him by love. He needs such souls in order to save men” (178).
“Why did Mary remain on earth after the Ascension before going to be reunited with her Son in Heaven? I think it was in order to instruct the disciples, but also, and above all, to carry on the apostolate of silence in prayer, suffering, and love. While the Apostles ran in pursuit of souls, Mary prayed near the Host which the Mass of St. John left her. And when there were already many Christians, many victim souls, praying and loving for this hidden apostolate, then Mary was able to leave. Her role was continued—with much less perfection, of course, but with the same mission—on the part of the victim souls who offered themselves up, with Mary in their hearts” (179-80).
The apostolate of the Mass: “You know that the prayer of prayers is the Mass: perfect adoration, perfect expiation, perfect thanksgiving, it is also perfect supplication of the immolated Jesus; it is the dearest treasure of the apostolate. How much unhappiness there is in our perverted world, in the midst of the disorders caused by lack of religion, the current moral standards, divorce. How many husbands and wives, mothers of families, have come and sought me out because their spouses or their sons or daughters no longer practice the Faith. “Father, what anguish! What grief! All my efforts to lead them back to God are in vain. What shall I do!” First of all, pay the ransom by your Masses and your Communions, adding to the Blood of Jesus in the chalice the blood of your souls, which is your tears. Then keep your confidence in the infinite mercy of the Savior. Say, like one mother I know who was distressed by the conduct of her children, “Jesus, You love them too much not to save them.” Thank Him in advance for the Heaven which He is preparing for them because of your prayer, but—and this is very, very important—while you are suffering, wait in peace for the time of Jesus, the time chosen by Him to grant your request. He will perhaps make you wait a long time, precisely as a proof of your confidence. Do not disappoint Him; tell Him, whatever your trial, that with His grace nothing will make you lose your profound peace, because you are sure of Him. Add your sufferings to the apostolate of your prayers united to the prayer of Jesus, which is the Mass. He willed to save the world by suffering. In order to redeem souls with the Savior, you must suffer with Him and like Him. Your Mass, which is a memorial of Calvary, will be of much more value if you are there at the foot of the Cross, or better still, on the Cross” (180-1).
The apostolate of the sick and suffering: “These are the great riches of those who suffer, those who weep. Oh, if one could only see the very special look of tenderness which Jesus gives the poor and suffering! They have the greatest power to touch His heart and to obtain the graces they desire. Tell this to the sick. It will always do them great good. Tell them, “Jesus looks at you with more love than the others, because you suffer. Offer your sickness to save souls. He will listen to you because you are nailed to your bed, a little as He was on His Cross. He will listen to you, because He is moved with compassion for you.” I often tell this to the sick people whom I go to visit: “I come to collect from you because you are rich in the supernatural order. You amass by your accepted trial a great capital of graces, first of all for yourself, but also for others. I come to see my capitalist.” That makes them smile and gives them much courage. They are touched to see that someone considers them rich, for the idea never crossed their minds” (182).
“Who can tell the value of a suffering, of a contradiction, of a humiliation, accepted not only with resignation (I do not like this word, which seems to say that we accept because we cannot do otherwise), but accepted with joy by the will. A Magnificat sung on the cross, a smile in the midst of tears—what richness! When you suffer like this, tell Jesus in total abandonment, “If, by lifting my little finger, I could change my situation and be relieved immediately, I would not lift my little finger, because it is You who have chosen this for me. You are wiser than I; You love me more than I love myself; I will let You do it. All is well.” This is the prayer, I know, of many sick people at Lourdes: “Lord, if You will it, You can heal me, but let Your will be done before anything else.” Often they ask for others to be healed before themselves if it is the plan of the divine Savior” (184-5).
The apostolate of word and action: St. Thomas Aquinas says that if the active life does not harm the contemplative life, it is more perfect to unite the two, since light is made not only to shine, but to shine and illuminate. It is in part due to our weakness that the purely contemplative life is actually more perfect. It is so beautiful to lead others to contemplate what we have contemplated, and we find new themes of contemplation in action, in contact with others.
If you live this doctrine of total abandonment, of union with Jesus in faith, hope, and charity, as I have presented it to you, not only will you be available for all the activities which will be asked of you or proposed to you, but in your hearts a flame will rise up, a wind, if you will—the Holy Spirit—which will push you, as if in spite of yourself, to give yourself unreservedly to your neighbor. Caritas Christi urget nos: “The charity of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14). There is no danger of inertia when you love. When everything is done in love, everything becomes prayer, contemplation” (186).
“The active apostolate of the laity is not an optional thing, a luxury, but an obligation, an imperious necessity. When you think of the poor who die of hunger, of the victims of catastrophes and of murderous wars, your heart breaks and your pocketbook opens. And still more your heart must break when you think that souls are dying of spiritual hunger by the millions. Jesus thirsts for these souls. They cannot go to Him, for they do not know Him. He cannot go visibly to them, because He has condemned Himself to silence, hidden in the Tabernacle. He Himself needs others, because He wishes to use them as His instruments. He instituted the priesthood with a view to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but also in order to be able to use the feet of His priests to run after strayed lambs, to use their hands to dress wounds and to bless, their lips to speak the words of truth, consolation, and salvation” (187).
Have a missionary spirit like little Thérèse. Listen to her words: “A single mission would not be enough for me. I would like at the same time to announce the gospel on the five continents and unto the most remote islands. I would like to be a missionary, not only for a few years, but I would like to have been one from the creation of the world until the end of time.”
“You will find unsuspected joys in this active apostolate where you will not notice your pain, where you will not heed your fatigue and repugnance, where you will have forgotten yourself. It will be a gain for you, a fruitful experience, to adapt yourself to various situations, to various feelings, to the joys and pains of others… You will taste the joy of having spread joy, of having poured out on a wound the healing balm of the Heart of Jesus, of having brought forth a smile by giving someone confidence, of having commiserated, of having given peace and made your faith and love pass into the souls of others. If you know how to open hearts in this way, you will see hidden marvels, things which are confounding. You will see that there are actually few truly bad people, but many who are ignorant and weak. You will then know how to keep a just mean between pessimism, which is a lack of faith, and facile optimism, which does not see evil, danger, or unleashed Hell. Then how happy you will be in Heaven for having spent yourself to gain souls who will be there also for all eternity, thanks to you!” (190-1)
“Remember that each soul won wins others, and that you will be forever the spiritual father or mother of a multitude of elect who will come to seek you out upon your arrival at the door of Paradise, or whom you will receive when they arrive. This Heaven of which little Thérese says “that we will not meet indifferent looks there because all the elect will recognize that they are indebted among themselves to one another for the graces which shall haye merited the crown for them. As a mother is proud of her children, so shall we be proud of one another, without the least jealousy.”303 This is an entrancing scene, and no good theologian will deny the truth of it” (191-2).
Finally, I insist, hold fast, always with the same tenacity, hold fast to an immense confidence, in your apostolate. Often our Lord hides from the apostle the fruit of his work, of his fatigue, in order to keep him humble and to test his faith, by a wholly divine wisdom. Learn how to say, “I do not expect my reward here below.” Even if you do not see the result of your prayers, your supplications, and your efforts, believe, believe! (192).
Click here for St. John Vianney’s story of Mary saving a man who committed suicide.
Conference 8: The Cross
“You must realize that throughout your life, at each step, you will find the Cross of your divine Model, your King, crucified and crowned with thorns, Jesus. Humiliation is a bitter cross. Abandonment is a real crucifixion when it is rightly understood. Mass and Communion are inseparable from Calvary. There is no reparation without penance and sacrifice. In the apostolate, the money to buy souls is suffering, accepted with love. Suppress the Cross in your life, and everything crumbles. The Cross is the structure. As it bore the Savior, it bears salvation, and so it must bear us also, and all our works” (195).
“Never look at the Cross without Jesus. If I must bear the Cross all alone, I renounce it in advance. I do not want to touch the onerous burden with the end of my finger: I am too weak, too cowardly, too sensitive. It is too hard to suffer. I deserve a hundred times to suffer without You, Jesus, but it is with You that I want to suffer. With You, I accept all the crosses, all of them—if You will bear them with me. You can hide Yourself; You can make it look as though You are not there, as if I am bearing it all alone; I accept that on one condition: that You hide Yourself in my heart” (195-6).
“How can we be Christians, the subjects of a King crowned with thorns, baptized in His Blood, absolved so often by His Blood, receiving Communion every day at Mass, at His Sacrifice, and yet run away from the Cross? That would be to forget that the Cross is a marvelous invention of divine mercy which gives us the occasion to prove to Jesus that we love Him. What is a love that does not prove itself? I told you that love is a choice. What merit is there in choosing Jesus if we only have to follow Him on a path of roses? How would we know whether it was He or the roses on the pathway which we were following? He wants to be loved for Himself, not for His gifts” (196).
For all eternity He wants to be able to thank us for having chosen Him, in sacrifice, for having shared His Cross with Him. When He gives us something to suffer, said little Thérèse, it is because He wants a gift from us. What gift? A smile on the Cross. He begs for our love, proven by suffering, in order to be able to say, “It is you who remained with me in the trial.” How sweet it will be when we hear, for all eternity, these words from the lips of Jesus, or rather from the depths of His Heart: “And you are they who have continued with me in my temptations: and I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table, in my kingdom” (Luke 22:28-30). At His table! In His kingdom” (197).
“Another reason to love the Cross is that it was the lot of your Savior, and therefore you choose it as your own lot. Must we not find good what He chose for Himself and for His Mother? Can we desire that He choose something else for us? He does not want us to consider as an evil the means by which He saved us. Do two people love one another if one regards with horror what the other regards with love? When people love one another, they have the same tastes—and Jesus wants us to share with Him His taste for the Cross. When two persons love each other, they desire to resemble each other” (197).
Little St. Thérèse hid the wounds of her crucifix under roses and hid in the same way, we might say, her own interior trials under the roses of her smiles, and discovered “the hidden treasures of the Holy Face.”
“the Cross is a means for Jesus to lead back to Himself those who do not love Him, to bring closer those who do not love Him enough, and to consummate in Himself those who do love Him” (200).
“But—and I insist on this but—do not ever stop at the isolated idea of expiation by the Cross, without going further. Whether or not you are given the Cross in order to expiate, the Cross is always given in love. It is always presented by Jesus in a design of love. It is always an occasion to prove our love, and, if you take it that way, it will then acquire the greatest value of expiation. Therefore, with each of your crosses you can say, “Lord, I accept it especially as a proof of Your love for me.” That is the point to which your faith must go: to see the love of Jesus in all your crosses” (201).
See the Cross as preparation: Jesus is preparing you for future gifts. Jesus gives the Cross to us as a proof of His love, His friendship for us to participate in His apostolate of saving souls. Be confident that Jesus is already working out salvation through your cross. You are purchasing eternal bliss for souls.
Any time you get a cross, say to Jesus, “I do not fear this cross because I know that when a cross comes, You always come, too!” (204).
Do not ask for the cross. Little Thérèse, a few weeks before her death, said, “Oh, I would never wish to ask the good Lord for greater sufferings, for I am too little. They would become my very own sufferings; I would be forced to endure them alone, and I have never been able to do anything all alone.” But place great confidence in Jesus! “He will never let the Cross crush you; on the contrary, it will lift you up toward Heaven” (205).
We must not be afraid to say what Jesus said and to affirm it after Him. The Beatitudes are preached too little. Heaven is spoken of too seldom because Jesus said, “Blessed even on this earth, but especially in Heaven,” didn’t He? The only truly happy people are those who have chosen Jesus and His Cross on earth. They are the thieves of happiness, because they are already happy a hundredfold here below, and what shall this be for all eternity! To think of Heaven is not egoism; it is to plunge ourselves, with delight, into the infinite justice and love of God. (207).
“Remember that Jesus is filled with compassion for those who suffer. He has borne all our sufferings; He has endured them Himself at Gtheglorye and on Calvary; but He knows that they are necessary to us, so “He sends them to us as if with an averted gaze,” says little Thérèse,312 as if He did not have the courage to watch us suffer. But He sees at the same time the happiness it will merit for us, theglory it acquires for His Father, for Him, for us, and the graces it merits for souls; so in love, in mercy, in tenderness, He hesitates no longer to lay it upon our poor shoulders, while continuing to sustain it Himself, making Himself our “Simon of Cyrene.” (207)
Must we ask for the Cross? No. Must we look for it? No again. Live the doctrine of abandonment which I have preached at such length during this retreat. Accept with thanksgiving everything that happens to you. Say continually, “O Jesus, I thank You for everything.” That is enough. Do not ask for crosses, but know how to accept with joy those which Jesus has chosen for you. Besides, crosses will not be lacking. Sanctify yourself with the duties of your state in life, your daily life with all its thorns. Accept all the duties, all the responsibility, with a smile on your lips, a willing smile—a smile that is willed. The most beautiful smiles are those which shine through tears, that we give in spite of ourselves. (208-9).
Accept the unexpected crosses—they are the most painful: the sickness which immobilizes you, the feeling of being useless and a burden to others, of knowing that while you are needed you are being prevented from doing what you ought to do; the humiliations, contradictions, slanders, calumnies, ingratitude, bad will, criticisms, good intentions misunderstood, family quarrels, very sorrowful bereavements, separations, and reverses of fortune. Put up with yourself, with your thousand physical, intellectual, and moral miseries. Accept without complaint the anguish willed by God, as did the Curé of Ars. How many sufferings there are throughout our lives! (209).
Then there is the cross of having carried the cross badly. There is a very practical point here. How many times someone has told me, “I had made a resolution to be generous in suffering. Then a trial came. I balked, even rebelled. How many merits I lost!” Thus we add to our original cross that of having carried it badly. It is here that we return to the words of little Thérèse: “We would like to suffer generously. We would like never to fall-what an illusion!” See what a lack of logic this is: to moan about having moaned and then to go on moaning! No! Say to Jesus, “Now I accept the cross You have sent me, which I at first rejected, and I accept not having accepted it right away.” That is the great resource of humble confidence pushed to its extreme. (210).
You can always, in the present moment, throw yourself into the arms of Jesus, which are always open to receive you. It is the present moment which is so important. In that moment you can take leave of all the past by giving it to Him, in order to bury yourself at the bottom of His Heart. How many people in the world drag their crosses like a millstone! A beautiful apostolate to carry out among the people around you would be to teach them the price of the Cross, and joy in the Cross. Souls understand that—they understand all that is divine truth, since they are made, created, and modeled by God to understand it. But we must learn to show them this with great tact and compassion as well as conviction. (210).
Another great treasure of suffering is that it teaches us to be compassionate. When one has suffered himself, he understands much better the sufferings of others. (189).
Have a very great devotion to that extraordinary sign which has become too ordinary through routine—the Sign of the Cross. If, each time you make it, you will it and believe it, you bring upon yourself the infinite goodness of the Father of Mercies; the Spirit of love grows in your hearts, and you put on Jesus Christ again. You cover yourself instantly with His Blood, which liberates and purifies you. You make the Redemption yours. You unite yourself to the Lamb slain and raised to life, who is always living to make intercession for you in Heaven.You glorify the Holy Trinity. One gesture—it takes you a few seconds; you can make it a hundred times a day, and it plunges you each time into eternity. There is even a certain physical satisfaction in covering yourself with the Sign of the Cross (214).
So, learn to make joys of all your crosses. We have only a single, very brief life in which to suffer in loving and to love in suffering: let us not lose a minute of it. John XXIII said on his deathbed, “It is good to suffer in loving.” If we could regret anything in Heaven, it would be to have suffered insufficiently here on earth—the fruitful suffering, the glorious suffering, the Cross of Jesus. Ave bona crux! O crux ave, spes unica! “Welcome, good Cross! Welcome, our one great hope!” (215).
The Cross was “a conspiracy of merciful love between the Father and the Son. It is false to think that the Father was harsh in His treatment of the Son – it is inconceivable. “Sin is conquered by the love, “strong as death” (Song of Songs 8:6), of Jesus for His Father and for us. “St. Thomas says again that the death of Christ was not caused by sin, but by His love, on the occasion of our sins. It is our sins which crucify Jesus, but they crucify Him because He loves us with a merciful love. It is this love which redeems us and saves Jesus delivered Himself up out of love; God is love: the death of Jesus is the great revelation of that fact” (217).
Conference 9: The Eucharist
“Jesus and all the treasures of Heaven are ours on the altar. I have told you, we must make the merits of Jesus our own. Where do you find them? On the altar of the Mass, where you receive not only grace, but the Author of grace.” Every time the memorial of this Sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our Redemption is accomplished” (Secret of the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, Roman Missal)” (221).
“The Mass is the divine act around which the life of the Church gravitates and of which she is the radiance; the center from which she receives all impulses and toward which she is continually directed; the living source from which she proceeds and the ocean to which she returns. It is the Sacrifice of the Redemption, at once eternal and perpetuated in time, in Heaven before God and on earth among us” (221).
This infinite Love is Jesus, who offered it to his Father on the Cross and continues to offer it in the Eucharist. Unique Priest, unique Victim, immolated by a twofold love: thanksgiving to His Father and mercy toward us! He wills to satisfy His justice, but above all to content His Heart by a superabundant outpouring of love to compensate for the ingratitude of men. (223).
God created man by love and for His glory; He gave him intelligence that he might know Him, a heart that he might love Him, and a will that he might serve Him. We must contemplate the infinite majesty of God, who is, at the same time, our first principle and our last end; it is from Him that we receive all that we have and all that we are. We must submit to Him our spirit, heart, will, our entire self in adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and, because we are sinners, expiation. It is the Eucharistic Sacrifice which expresses these obligations and translates these sentiments. The value of the Sacrifice is measured by the dignity of the Victim and the sanctity of the High Priest. There is only one glorious Sacrifice to God: the Incarnate Word. The holy Mass is therefore perfect adoration, full thanksgiving, satisfaction of infinite value, all-powerful prayer. (224).
St. Paul sees the altar as the source of his confidence: “Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things as we are, without sin. Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid” (Heb 4:14-16). (226).
“Oh! let us not live like abandoned people. If you want to be a confident soul, love the Mass ardently. Our Lord has compassion on our miseries, on our weaknesses. He has compassion on all our sufferings. When we are sad at having been unfaithful, He consoles us for having caused Him pain. That is how far His merciful tenderness goes. Who will sound the depths of the goodness, the compassion, the condescension of our Savior for us? No, we do not have a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our weakness” (226).
Fr. Jean invites us to offer ourselves during the Sacrifice of the Mass as victims of love, like St. Thérèse.
Click here for a wonderful section of St. Thérèse’s offering herself as a victim to Jesus’ merciful love.
Jesus comes in the Eucharist in order to transform us into Himself. He will more than a union, more than a fusion; He will the unity of love: to be one with us. “The partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ does nothing other than to cause us to be transformed into that which we consume” ~ St. Leo the Great
Seek to be Eucharistic souls! Hunger and thirst to eat this living miracle; nourish yourselves with it! Never omit receiving Communion through lack of love, through scruples or fear. From the moment when you are in the state of grace, go to the holy table; go to receive Jesus! An act of humility and an act of love prepare you in an instant. If you cannot go for a reason beyond your control, it is all right; Jesus will supply, seeing your ardent desire to receive Him. (241).
“Be you therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). But how? By eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Him who alone is perfect as the Father and who transforms us into Himself.
Receive Communion not only for yourself, in order to have this immense grace, but for Jesus, in order to respond to His desire to come down into you, to give Him the joy of descending into your heart, which is a heaven for Him.
These words, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away sins,” and “I am not worthy, but speak only a word,” are the most beautiful, the most complete, and the most marvelous preparation for Communion. Here we see the incomparable richness and depth of the liturgical prayers. They say everything, as long as we recognize their full sense with faith and love. If you only knew how Jesus hungers for you, how He burns with desire to come into your heart, how impatient He is to come down to you, bridging all distance between you and Him! The day you miss a Communion is a great disappointment for Him. So go to Him; respond to His desire. Desiderio desideravi: “I have desired with a great desire to eat this Pasch with you. I thirst, I thirst for you to come to me; I thirst to come down into you.” Never deprive Him of this happiness through your own fault. (243).
This is not about sensible love. In itself, sensible love is nothing. It could be that before and after Communion you will be cold and distracted. But listen to little Thérèse:
I cannot say that I have often received consolations during my thanksgivings [after Communion]; that is perhaps the moment when I have had the fewest. I find that completely natural, since I have offered myself to Jesus, not as a person who desires to receive His visit for my own consolation, but on the contrary, for the pleasure of Him who gives Himself to me. It is not in order to remain in the golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but in order to find another heaven, the heaven of our souls, made in His image, the living temple of the adorable Trinity.
Throughout the day, and especially on days you cannot receive Holy Communion, live in a state of spiritual communion. Speak to Our Lord of your desire to live in a real and intimate union with Him.
Say like St. Margaret Mary, “Jesus, You know that I am ready to walk barefoot on a path of flames in order not to miss a single Communion.” Let this be the disposition of your heart even if you do not feel the ardor, the fervor, the desire. Let this be your disposition of soul: to be willing to do anything in order not to miss a single Communion. It is this disposition that Jesus sees in you, which delights Him and attracts Him into the heaven of your heart. On the day when St. Margaret Mary, not being able to receive Communion because she was sick, told Him of her immense desire to receive Him, in the words I have just quoted, Jesus said to her, “For you alone I would have instituted the Sacrament of my love.”
When you receive Holy Communion, tell Jesus how much you need Him and His merciful love and assistance. Hold nothing back.
“Let your Mass be the center of your day. Everything must flow for you from your daily Mass, and everything must culminate in it. Your day, because you will have willed it, must be a thanksgiving for the Mass you attended that day and a preparation for the Mass you will attend the next day. That does not mean you should think all day about your morning Mass or that of the next day; it means that you will have said to Jesus, making these words your disposition of soul, “I want all my life to be centered on the altar of the Mass, to depend on it, and to culminate in it, to be a thanksgiving and a preparation for my daily Mass-all my life, all my days, all the beatings of my heart.” (245).
As an apostle, never forget that your spiritual and supernatural fruitfulness will come always and above all else from the Mass, and then from your personal immolation united to that of the altar. Be an apostle of holy Mass and Communion. Do everything possible to facilitate daily Communion. Invite children to communicate as often as possible. Think of Jesus’ desire to descend into souls, of the happiness He finds there, of the eternal consequences for a single soul, to have received one more holy Communion during its passage on earth. Have an ardent desire for Jesus in the Host. (245).
St. Pius X was the promoter of daily Communion. In his saintly heart he realized what Mass and Communion are. Urge souls to come! Do everything in your power to see that the souls confided to your care have a Eucharistic life as complete and as total as possible. Reserve as many moments as you can to visit and adore the Blessed Sacrament. Adore te devote: “Devoutly I adore You.”
Click here for St. Thérèse’s insights on the importance of prayer.
How did men receive the Eucharist, this gift of incomprehensible love? On Holy Thursday Jesus went directly from the Cenacle to the Mount of Olives. There, as He sweat Blood, His greatest suffering—as He confided to St. Margaret Mary—was the ingratitude of men, especially their ingratitude toward the Sacrament of His love.
He saw in advance the long days, the long nights when He would be alone, forgotten, in thousands of tabernacles in solitary churches, the thousands of indifferent people who would pass each day before the churches without even thinking for an instant that He is there, those who would enter the churches to admire the windows, the architecture, yet not make even a little genuflection before the tabernacle. He saw the multitude of the baptized, whom He was to make His adopted children in His Blood, who would neglect even Sunday Mass, who would fail to receive Easter Communion. After delivering Himself up in the Host, as He did, what does He ask of us? An hour a week, on Sunday; one Communion each year. Could He have required less? He gives without counting the cost, asking a tiny return, and He is refused.
He saw in advance the sacrilegious Communions, the hatred with which He was to be pursued, especially in the Eucharist, by the impious members of diabolical sects. He saw all that in advance. He foresaw everything in Gethsemane, and He accepted it all, that He might descend into a single soul who loves Him. “For you alone I would have instituted the Sacrament of my love.” The model of the abandonment I have preached to you at such length is the Host. The priest puts it on the left; it remains on the left. He places it on the right; it remains on the right.
Those who profane it come, take Him from His tabernacle, and throw Him into the gutter; He lets Himself be thrown into the gutter. This is our lesson in perfect abandonment. He is not only the model, but also the source of it. You will not live this life of holiness, confidence, abandonment, and peace which I have preached to you so far, except in the measure to which you drink at the fountain of living water, the fountain which flows unto eternal life, the fountain of the altar.
The model & source of abandonment is Jesus in the Eucharist.
“Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you – for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart…don’t listen to the demon, laugh at him, and go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love… “Receive Communion often, very often…there you have the sole remedy, if you want to be cured. Jesus has not put this attraction in your heart for nothing…” “The guest of our soul knows our misery; He comes to find an empty tent within us – that is all He asks.” ~ St Therese
Conference 10: Jesus, Mary, and the Saints
Jesus has belonged to Mary since her fiat (“Be it done”) in Nazareth. It is her prerogative to give Him to you, and it is also through her that He wills to receive your gifts and especially your hearts. May she hide you in His Heart and keep you there forever. I would like to present to you in a few words five of the most beautiful jewels in the heart of Mary: her simplicity, her abandonment, her love for the Cross, her thirst for souls, and her love. (257).
Mary’s simplicity: “Mary is the most imitable of all the saints. If I search the catalogue of the saints for a model of the most humble and poorest of women on earth, I find not a single one who is more truly this model than Mary. Little Thérèse rediscovered this road of Nazareth. She approached this simplicity, but without equaling it—far from it… In our time Jesus also wants hidden saints like the “woman of Nazareth,” who distinguish themselves in nothing exteriorly, but who burn interiorly. Never, moreover, have there been more saints of this kind than in our day” (259).
Mary’s abandonment: Mary’s fiat is the great act of loving abandonment at the origin of our Redemption. “At the origin of the redemption of those souls whom God has resolved to save through you must be also your loving abandonment, your Ecce ancilla (“Behold the handmaid”), your fiat. He asks us to pronounce these words very often each day, which sometimes cost our feeble nature so much, with unreserved acceptance of the divine will, whatever it be—so often crucifying yet always to be held in adoration” (260).
Mary’s love for the Cross: Imagine “Calvary, when she witnessed with her eyes, with her broken heart, the full reality. She saw the soldiers strip Him of His clothes, tear to shreds the adorable flesh she had given Him, pound nails into the hands she had so often held in her own and kissed with adoration. What an exchange it was when Jesus gave her to St. John! “She received,” says St. Bernard, “the servant for the Lord, the disciple for the Master, the son of Zebedee in exchange for the Son of God!” He adds, “The thrust of the sword did not reach the soul of Jesus, for He was dead, but it reached the very depths of the soul of Mary.” But Mary said, without hesitation, in her spirit, in her will, in her heart, “Fiat, magnificat.” She knew that all these crosses were, in the divine plan, necessary for the salvation of men and the greatest proof of love which Jesus could give her” (262).
Mary’s thirst for souls: Mary is the Queen of Apostles. Every person saved is a child of hers. For Mary so loved the world that she gave her only Son (Jn 3:16).
Mary’s pure love: “The fifth jewel of the heart of Mary is her pure love. This is the diamond which flashes its splendor on all the others. It is more than a jewel of her heart—it is her heart itself. The love of Mary explains everything: the fiat of Nazareth, which made her the Mother of God; the fiat of Calvary, which made her our Mother” (263).
Always go to Jesus through Mary. Why? Not out of any fear of Jesus. No. But out of love. Allow Mary to present to Jesus all of our gifts, especially the gift of ourselves.
We must be borne up by love. It is impossible to be generous if we are not borne up by love. It is Jesus who must do things in me. He does thelabot the measure to which I am intimately united to Him. We must charge Him with everything, put our burdens upon Him. I have told you often during this retreat how necessary it is that Jesus be substituted for us. It is He who must do what we cannot do. We return here to the great cry of the Gospel about which I spoke to you the first day: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”
Love always says the same things, yet never repeats itself.
How necessary it is that Jesus be substituted for us. It is He who must do what we cannot do.
But you will not be intimate with Jesus unless you know Him well and know Him as He is. The story of John the beloved resting upon His Heart must be your story. Why was St. John so audacious with Jesus? Because it was he who knew Jesus best. On the breast of the Master he learned to know Him still better. The better he knew Him, the more he leaned upon His Heart; and the more he leaned upon His Heart, the better he knew Him. He certainly knew Him better than the others.
Be like St. John and say, Dominus est: “It is the Lord!” These are the intuitions of the heart. “It is the Lord!” St. Peter had not recognized Him, but St. John had. In the current of your daily life, in the course of your days, you also must say, “It is the Lord.” Whether a contradiction or a thorn comes: “It is the Lord!” Whether a joy or a pleasure: “It is He; I recognize Him everywhere! I see nothing anymore but Him: Dominus est! Jesus, You may hide Yourself behind secondary causes, behind creatures: You will not fool me. I shall always recognize You.”
How do you learn that God is love? By your intimacy with Jesus. Where do you learn to live in this intimacy? At the foot of the tabernacle, at the Mass, and in the Gospel. It is there that Jesus reveals Himself to us, in His words, in His acts, His whole Heart, and all the attributes of His love. It is there that we can understand with St. Paul and all the saints, the width, the breadth, the height, the depth of His infinite charity. Father Loew, in his admirable book entitled As if He Saw the Invisible, states forcefully, “The Christian life will never be anything other than a friendship of man with God”;405 and if there is a definition of charity to which we must constantly come back, as to the source of our youth and wonder, it is certainly that of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Charity is friendship with God.” (273)
Fr. Jean’s conclusion to the retreat: “There is nothing in the world of which I am more sure than I am of the love of Jesus for each one of us. There is nothing which I affirm with more assurance to a soul than the fact that Jesus loves each of us to the point of the foolishness of the Cross and the glory of the Resurrection. You must repeat again and again, to believing and unbelieving souls, in awaiting His return, that Jesus loves them. Repeat again and again the message of the Christmas angel: “I bring you tidings of great joy: a Savior is born unto you.” And finally, you must believe in Love” (280).
Prodigal Catholic 
As I have not read the book, I will assume this is your personal take on the personal retreat book. If so, this is a wonderful summary! Is there a way to adapt what you have written into a group retreat? By the way, you’re missing Conference 7. Also, is it possible to expand more on Conference 10? I’m from St. Anthony in Marpole. Friend of Fr. Justin, even if he denies me more than three times I am still his friend. Hahaha!
Hi friend! Just my personal note, yes. You’re welcome to use them. I didn’t include stuff I didn’t find helpful.