“Let us be crystal clear that “Catholics for Choice “ is absurd.
The Murder of an unborn child is a sin that no Catholic can justly choose.”
A full page ad placed in the San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News on Monday, September 12, by so-called “Catholics for Choice” attempted to mis-lead the public by claiming that they are a legitimate voice of the Catholic Church. I applaud my brother bishops in those dioceses who quickly and clearly disavowed this group and made it crystal clear that they do not speak for Catholics in any legitimate way.
Although I am thankful that this group did not deem the Tyler market to be one that was worth their effort, I still felt I should speak out.
The teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the sanctity of life in the womb is ancient and clear. Certainly not every Catholic embraces this truth as fully as I would hope. But it is truly absurd and diabolical for a group which embraces the pro-choice, pro-death agenda, and denies life to countless human beings simply because they haven’t yet been born, to attempt to co-opt the term Catholic. As a Catholic Bishop, I often find myself ranting at the television in response to the latest statement of a politician, actor or other public figure, but I must remind myself that ranting at the television does no good.
As the November election approaches, let us all reflect deeply on the ills of our society and how we can find our way back to the truth. I believe we must start with the basics. When we choose a candidate for whatever level of public office, we MUST inquire as to their stand with regard to the life of the unborn. Of course it is not the only question, but the questions don’t get more basic than that. Our vote is very often the only voice we have and we MUST VOTE NO to abortion, to the selling of the body parts of aborted children, to the further erosion of the moral teachings that flow from the Gospel and to all the threats to the “Sanctity of Life” that our society faces.
I am well aware that very often we are unable to find a candidate who upholds the Sanctity of Life in all of its dimensions, but I believe we must begin with the most basic issues If a candidate for whatever office callously demands the slaughter of unborn children as a so-called right and vigorously supports organizations that profit from the multi-billion dollar abortion industry, then how can any other human right they may champion be truly meaningful?
Our beautiful Catholic faith, guided by the Holy Spirit teaches the world that human life begins at conception. In order to re-build our fractured human family, we must return to that precious beginning and stand tall for the Sanctity of Life. Let us pray that we may re-learn the beautiful truth that the conception of a child through the sexual union of a man and woman in Holy Matrimony is our most wondrous human act and that the child conceived is God’s most precious gift to the world.

Bishop Strickland

September 13, 2016

[pdf-embedder url=”http://luisapiccarreta.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/9f8e2b_b68505df72a24291962e315d0a8bbf98.pdf”]

[pdf-embedder url=”http://luisapiccarreta.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Corpus-Christi-Procession-in-a-Concentration-Camp-004.pdf” title=”Corpus Christi Procession in a Concentration Camp (004)”]

Sr. Claire Ferchaud, Loublande / France:

Jesus said that; “His Heart was broken and slashed by the sins of mankind.  But He had an even deeper wound, that people do not believe in God.”

The following are the Promises of Our Merciful Savior to Sister Claire Ferchaud, of Loublande, France:

“I come not to bring terror among you; I am the God of love, the God who forgives and wants to save you all.”

“My grace will work with great power on sinners who, without contrition, kneel before the picture of My broken Heart, so that they will arise converted.”

“I will forgive their sins, even before the absolution, to those who with a true love kiss the picture of My broken Heart.”

“My glance will touch the hearts of the indifferent and will inflame them with favor so that they will practice goodness.”

” Only an act of love with the plea for forgiveness towards this picture will be enough for Me to open heaven to the soul which in the last hour must appear before Me.”

“When some refuse to believe in the truths of religion, one can put the picture of My broken Heart in their room (dwelling) without their knowledge. It will bring, through the wonder of graces, sudden and supernatural conversions.”

This is what is said to have transpired when Jesus appeared to Claire.  “He bared his sacred heart, and told her that God was on the side of France, and would lead the country to victory – so long as the country confessed its sins and rediscovered its true faith. Jesus pointed towards the wound on his heart, and explained “This signifies the official atheism of France.” Since the revolution, the French had denied their faith and substituted secular laws for the Gospel.”

Pope Francis pronounce the official Formula of Canonization, raising Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the honours of the altar:

Ad honorem Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis,
ad exaltationem Fidei Catholicae
et vitae christianae incrementum
auctoritate Domini nostri Iesu Christi,
beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra,
matura deliberatione praehabita
et divina ope saepius implorata,
ac de plurimorum Fratrum Nostrorum consilio,
Beatam Teresiam de Calcutta
Sanctam esse decernimus et definimus,
ac Sanctorum Catalogo adscribimus,
statuentes eam in universa Ecclesia
inter Sanctos pia devotione recoli debere.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.

English translation:
To the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity,
for the exaltation of the Catholic faith
and the increase of the Christian life,
by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and of Ourselves,
after mature deliberation
and frequent prayer for the Divine assistance,
with the advice of Our venerable brethren,
We decree and define
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint,
and We place her name in the catalogue of Saints,
decreeing that in the universal Church
she is to be venerated among the Saints with pious devotion.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, celebrated the Mass of Thanksgiving on Monday for the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
In his homily for the Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Cardinal Parolin recalled several key moments of her life and the thirst for God which drove her every action:

‘Caritas Christi urget nos: the love of Christ compels us’ was the recurring theme of Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s homily for the Thanksgiving Mass.
These words, he said, summed up the flame of love which compelled the now-St. Teresa of Calcutta during her life and which compel us to follow her example.
Cardinal Parolin revisited several of the key events of Mother Teresa’s life, including her self-definition as ‘a little pencil in God’s hands’.
‘Mother Teresa,’ he said, ‘was a clear mirror of the love of God and an admirable example of service to our neighbor, especially to the poorest, most derelict, and most abandoned of people.’
He also recalled her constant fight for the rights of the unborn, which he said grew out of her recognition that the worst form of poverty is ‘to feel unloved, unwanted, scorned’.
He said, ‘This recognition brought her to identify unborn children whose very existence is threatened as the “poorest of the poor”. Each of them depends, more than any other human being, on the love and care of the mother and on the protection of society.’
Cardinal Parolin went on the recall Mother Teresa’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in 1979, in which she said, ‘It is very important to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him.’
He said these words ‘are like a doorway through which we enter into the abyss, which surrounded the life of the Saint.’
Cardinal Parolin concluded his homily remembering the two simple words she had posted in every house of the Missionaries of Charity: ‘I thirst’.
‘I thirst,’ he said, ‘a thirst for fresh, clean water, a thirst for souls to console and to redeem from their ugliness to make them beautiful and pleasing in the eyes of God, a thirst for God, for His vital and luminous presence. I thirst; this is the thirst which burned in Mother Teresa: her cross and exaltation, her torment and her glory.’
‘St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!’

Official Association Luisa Piccarreta

 Official Website News

XXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

Evangelical consistency
9/2/2016

Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!
The Gospel of Luke, in the passage of Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem, presents to us some messages that mean to descend into peoples’ heart. Jesus sees a lot of people who follow Him and therefore He turns back and explains what Christianity involves. Jesus is achieving a great fame and many people are attracted to Him but, as it often happens, the amount of people does not correspond to the quality and transparency of the life style. Jesus speaks openly and says that whoever does not carry his cross and follow Him cannot be His disciple.

Then He piles it on when He says to hate loves one because of the Gospel. The context makes us understand that to hate must not be interpreted in the sense of going against the fourth commandment, but it actually means “to love less than” or “to put behind”.

Jesus says that it is not easy to follow Him because you have put Him in first place always, so not even family links can impede God’s lordship over man.

Then Jesus mentions two parables taken from the Jewish context, but they refer to all times.

The first parable concerns a builder and the second a king, with a similar message: before starting any endeavour, you have to pause and reflect and to consider whether you are able to complete the work. The architect and the king accomplish this kind of effort, why doesn’t the Christian work in this perspective?

Jesus, at the end, reiterates the saying of being peoples capable of giving up all our possessions to gain eternal life.

Sometimes we take these passages lightly, or we say that they are too challenging.

But if we go down deep, we can see that we must grow and that it is important to make choices consistent with our belief. The radicality of the evangelical choice invites us not only to assert some ideas, but to accomplish them, even if we are aware of the cost of that choice. If we are called to choose between Jesus and money, pleasure or a career lived in such a way to destroy other people, we must undoubtedly choose Jesus. He invites us to meditate and consider if we want to become Christians or not , avoiding the risk of being tepid people or keeping a foot in both camps.

The Gospel seems to tell us to empty ourselves of all that is human, so that our will may rise up to Heaven and the Divine Will descend upon earth

Nothing enters into Heaven to live communal life with God, if it not completely divinized and transformed completely into Him; nor can His Divine Will descend upon earth and carry out Its Life as within Its own center if It does not find the human will emptied of everything, so as to fill it with all the goods which God’s Will contains.

So the human will be nothing other than a most thin veil, which will serve Him to cover Himself and to dwell inside of it, almost like a consecrated host, in which God forms His Life, He does all the good He wants, He prays, He suffers, He enjoys. And the host does not oppose – it leaves Him free; its office is to be there to keep Him hidden, and to comply in mute silence to preserve His Sacramental Life.

This is the point we are at: our will entering Heaven, and God’s Will descending upon earth. Therefore, our will must no longer have life – it must have no reason to exist.

The same happened to Jesus’ Humanity: though It had a human will, this will was all intent on giving life to the Divine Will. It never arbitrated itself, not even to breathe on its own, but its breath also it would take and give in the Divine Will. This is why the Eternal Will reigned in His Humanity on earth as It does in Heaven, It lived Its terrestrial Life in It, and Jesus’ human will, fully sacrificed to the Divine, impetrated that, at the appropriate time, the Divine would descend upon earth to live in the midst of creatures, just as It lives in Heaven.

Jesus entrusts Luisa an important task – to live in the midst of the Most Holy Trinity and to make all that is theirs hers own, and to give it to Them on behalf of her brothers; so that, drawn by what is Theirs, They may be bound to the human generations, and give them, once again, the supreme kiss of the union of their will with God’s Will, which He gave man in Creation.”

Today we have changed the order of values, so what is necessary has become superfluous; having, appearances and power have become the criteria of our life, and we have lost the sense of simplicity, of listening, of dialogue, of silence, of reflection.

We are full of things, but empty of meaning and hope. This is the greatest poverty that we are experiencing today. May the Lord grant us the strength to put into practice these teachings through clear choices to be lived in faith, even at the cost of paying personally.

Fiat!
don Marco

---

The spiritual works of mercy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Luisa in the world

The last farewell to Don John Olin Brown

Monday, August 22, 2016, in the Parish of Mater Gratiae, Oasis of Nazareth in Corato the last farewell was given to don John Olin Brown.

His funeral rite was presided by His Excellency Archbishop Giovan Battista Pichierri, with the presence of Mons. Savino Giannotti, Vicar General of the Archdiocese and part of the diocesan clergy.

John Olin Brown was ordained a priest in Trani on November19, 1994. It was the deacon Vincenzo Dileccedi who traced his memory, by reading some of don John’s autobiographical thoughts:

He was born in 1952 in a small town near Dallas, Texas. He graduated in philosophy in 1974. He came from a family that was rooted in the Evangelical Church. He had a brother and an aunt who were Pastors of the Methodist Church. His family was considered sufficiently religious. In his country there was not even a Catholic Church, and he never supposed he could to convert to Catholicism.

He received a very rigid moral education from his father. Since he was a child, he felt a special attraction to the Lord, however his vocation, developed over time. After being admitted to the university, he began to feel more strongly the vocational problem and he tried to focus on the philosophical study thinking that in the future he could become involved in the Methodist Church. Meanwhile, he postponed his choice and went back to the “ranch” to work with his father as a cowboy.

After his father’s death he felt free to go back to that “fixed idea” of a God that was tormenting him. During a vacation in Minnesota he met a Jesuit priest who fascinated him with his speech on the Catholic Church, he remained with him for a long period of time, after which he converted to Catholicism. Since he was attracted by the monastic life he lived for a year at a Trappist monastery in Iowa. At that time he learned about the writings of Luisa Piccarreta well known in America, Canada and Mexico,  and they were as a completion of his conversion.

Therefore, he came to Italy, he arrived in Corato to visit the Association of Luisa, where he was welcomed by President Sister Assunta Marigliano and the Ordinary of the place, Mons.. Giuseppe Carata who suggested he finish his theological studies he had begun in Rome. The writings of Luisa, full of high spirituality, managed to give him an existential response that he was unable to find either in philosophy or in several Catholic spiritual currents. His stay in Corato coincided with the period in which the association got, thanks to His Excellency Archbishop Mons. Carmelo Cassati the “non obstare” from the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints to open the process of the Cause for the Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta..

At Corato, he was amazed at the lack of knowledge by people about the figure of Luisa that instead was well known abroad and, at the same time, he was impressed by the generosity and affection of the people of Corato. He considered himself fortunate to have been formed in the priesthood in the spirituality of Luisa, because what the Servant of God did in her life, embraced and embraces the spirituality of all priests: sanctify themselves for the Kingdom of God. This was also the yearning that Don John always had.

After the proclamation of the Word of God, His Excellency Mons. Pichierri further described the figure of father John: after an absence of about twenty years, he returned to our diocese, where he had become a priest and in which he had exercised the first steps of his ministry, celebrating his first solemn Mass right in the sanctuary of Madonna delle Grazie, on November 20 1994 ( the day when the diocesan inquiry on the servant of God Luisa Piccarreta opened)

The archbishop recalled that during a talk he had this year with Don John on his return, he felt in his heart Don John’s great desire not to “fly” over and to stay forever in the land of Luisa Piccarreta, the little creature, the littlest among all people of Corato, towards whom he felt a deep gratitude. Due to a severe lung infection he was hospitalized at first in the hospital of Corato and then in Trani, in intensive care, where he died.

He became a priest in Trani, and he died in Trani on August 20.

The Archbishop pointed out that for our Diocese, welcoming the mortal remains of father John is to be considered a special grace because it allows us to accomplish one of the corporal works of mercy: to bury the dead.

The archbishop also reiterated that the Diocese undertook to establish contacts with his native land, speaking with some of his relatives who immediately expressed their wish to have him there, but given the bureaucratic hurdles and Don John’s desire to stay in the land of Luisa, it was decided to bury him in the cemetery of Corato.

The Archbishop stated: “For me, Father John is a beautiful testimony on the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, we must therefore be able to preserve the memory of this priest  non only as priests,  but also as people.”

Don John was no longer the handsome giant of the early days, now he appeared meek as a lamb, always able to say thanks to all those  people who approached him to help him.

His conversion is the fruit of the love of God, a God that John had found in the Catholic Church, he served as a priest the Church and announced the Kingdom. Then, the Archbishop exhorted the brothers priests to serve with joy the people that Christ has entrusted to them to walk together towards the eternal Kingdom, that Kingdom where the first creature who was assumed into Heaven has become the Queen of Heaven and earth with our King Jesus Christ.

Don Jon felt this intensely, since he had begun to follow the little daughter of the Divine Will.

Let’s pray that he will be received by the Father and could be considered a small son of the Divine Will.

Jesus says ”the children of the Kingdom of the Divine Will will be those that will render Her the honors of Queen and transforming themselves into suns they will form for Her the most beautiful crown” , may also Don John offer his life turned into sun as a proof of honor and glory.

It is very remarkable that his funeral was celebrated on the day in which the liturgical calendar of the Church commemorates the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoked under the title of Queen.

As each soul enters into Heaven through Mary and by virtue of her motherhood and her pain, we hope that the Blessed Virgin welcomed him and handed over to her Son.

After the Mass, in an atmosphere of sadness and feelings shared by all, the coffin, which was carried on the shoulders by some brothers priests was placed in the hearse.

 

Did Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophesy about the condition of (many parts of) our Church today?

 

 

 

 

“[Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the [Catholic] Church … It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content.”

We are living in the days of the Apocalypse, the last days of our era. The two great forces – the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of the anti-Christ – are beginning to draw battle lines for the catastrophic contest.

The False prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church.

Christ’s Church the Catholic Church will be one; and the false Prophet will create the other.

The False Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association.

A world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all Divine content, it will be the mystical body of the anti-christ. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the false prophet. Satan will recruit him from our Bishops.

The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as “I am Who am,” and the Devil as “I am who am not.”

Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as “the Prince of this world,” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect–and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?

The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves …

The third temptation in which Satan asked Christ to adore him and all the kingdoms of the world would be His, will become the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion–one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s.

In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ …

But the twentieth century will join the counterchurch because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.

(Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West [Bobbs-Merril Company, Indianapolis, 1948], pp. 24-25)

Please make plans on Tuesday to attend Holy Mass, receive Communion, and then go to the Sacrament of Confession – eight days before or after Aug. 2

The conditions to obtain the Plenary Indulgence of the Forgiveness of Assisi is (for oneself or for a departed soul) is as follows:
The Portiuncula Indulgence is a grace not to be missed—not only for yourself but for the many suffering souls in Purgatory. …
Sacramental Confession to be in God’s grace (during eight days before or after.) …
Participation in the Holy Mass and Eucharist …
Recitation of The Apostles Creed, Our Father and also a prayer for the Pope’s Intention (such as an Our Father, Hail Mary, etc.).
Mark your calendar for the Feast of Our Lady of the Angels beginning at Vespers (Noon) on the First of August to August 2nd at Midnight. Tell everyone of the magnitude of this gift. Once again, we see the unfathomable Divine Mercy of God.

Vol. 14 – July 10,1922
Now it is necessary that you Luisa to rise (to Heaven)
and carry with you Luisa, My Life, My Divine Will,
so that My Volition of the earth and that of Heaven May Fuse Together,
and you Luisa, may Live for some time in the womb of the Divinity (in Heaven),
where your volition shall be acting in Mine,
in order to expand it as much as a creature can be capable of.
Then, you Luisa, shall descend again upon the earth,
bringing the Power and the Prodigies of My Divine Will on earth,
in such a way that the creatures shall be Shaken,
they shall Open their eyes,
and many shall Know what it means to Live In My Divine Will
– to Live In The Likeness to their Creator.
This shall be the Beginning of the Coming of My Kingdom upon earth,
and of the Final Fulfillment of My Divine Will.

---

Volume 36 – July 18, 1938

“My daughter, 

all created things await you Luisa, 

but do you know why?

Because, Thanks to My Fiat which Animates all, 

they feel their Union with you Luisa, 

their inseparability from you Luisa;

and since the creature Luisa has the Supremacy, 

they all await you Luisa in their midst,

so that together with the creature Luisa 

they can Glorify and Love Us, The Triune God,

each one according to the Office assigned by Us.

Each created thing Possesses the Fullness of its own Good.

The Sun possesses the fullness of the light,

and each act of light it produces,

each effect and good it unleashes from its womb of light,

is like a continuous little sonata of glory and love that it gives to Us.

But it doesn’t want to give it alone, rather, it wants the one,

Luisa, for whom it has been created.

Only then are We Truly Loved and Glorified:

when the creature Luisa animated by Our Divine Will,

Flows into that Act of Light,

Loving and Glorifying Us with the Love and Glory of Light.

So We feel Our Purpose – the Reason for which We created light

– when We find the creature Luisa,

hidden inside that light, Loving us with the Fullness of the Light and Heat.

We find in her (Luisa’s) Love that Wounds Us,

Love that Sweetens Us,

Love that says,

Always, ‘Love.’

Therefore We placed the Sun in the Power of the creature Luisa, to Love Us.

But if We don’t find the creature Luisa in the created things, We are not Happy.

They remain like instruments with no sound or life;

at the most We Love and Glorify Ourselves,

but it is not the creature Luisa Loving and Glorifying Us.

So our purpose fails.

Fiat!

You are gods (Jn 10:34)

PUBLISHED JULY 23, 2016 • WRITTEN BY DEACON GUADALUPE RODRIGUEZ
FILED UNDER: FAITH

Jesus says, “You are gods.” (Jn. 10:34) How is this possible?

At baptism, we become “partakers of the divine nature,” (CCC 1265 or 2Pt.1:4) or as St. Athanasius states that we are, “becoming by grace what God is by nature.” The Catechism quotes St. Athanasius to explain this teaching, “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God,” (460) and furthermore it explains, “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made man, might make men gods.” (CCC 460)

For most of us, the concept that “You are gods.” (Jn. 10:34) or that we are being “divinized” is difficult to grasp so let us first look at Jesus’ baptism when the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and the Heavenly Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17) Likewise, the Holy Spirit also descends into our souls at baptism, and we, too, become His sons and daughters as the Psalmist states, “You are ‘gods’; you are all sons of The Most High.” (82:6) The Heavenly Father’s words also apply to us as when St. Faustina hears Him say, “You are My delightful dwelling place; My Spirit rests in you.” (Diary 346)

St. Paul reminds us that we are temples of God, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1Cor.6:19) and “For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.” (CCC 1988) Divinization also mans that the Holy Spirit makes us, “a new creature.” (CCC 1265) However, it is not just the Holy Spirit that dwells in our souls, but it is also the Holy Trinity. The Catechism explains that baptism is the “entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity,” (1239) and we become “the indwelling of His Presence in us” (2781).

St. John Paul II enlightens us that “‘Divinization’…occurs through the admission into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life”, (Novo Millennio Ineunte no. 23) as when the Holy Trinity speaks in the soul of St. Faustina, “‘You are Our dwelling place.’ At that moment, I felt in my soul the presence of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I felt that I was the temple of God. I felt I was a child of the Father,” she said. (Diary 451)

St. Faustina says, “Divinize me so that my deeds may have supernatural value,” (1242) but she remains a meek and humble student of the indwelling Presence. She accepts to be molded regardless of her sins and frailties. Jesus explains to St. Faustina what He can do despite our faults and failings, “Your heart is My constant dwelling place, despite the misery that you are. I united Myself with you, to take away your misery and give you My mercy.” (Diary 723) She learns to worship the Holy Trinity within her soul so well that the Blessed Virgin Mary appears to her explaining the divinization going on in her soul, “You are a dwelling place pleasing to the living God; in you, He dwells continuously with love and delight. And the living presence of God, which you experience in a more vivid and distinct way, will confirm you, my daughter, in the things I have told you.” (Diary 785)

St. Faustina continues to plead with God, “Divinize me that my deeds may be pleasing to You,” (Diary 1289) so the Blessed Virgin Mary gives her instruction on how to live continually with the indwelling Presence, “My daughter, strive after silence and humility, so that Jesus, who dwells in your heart continuously, may be able to rest. Adore Him in your heart; do not go out from your inmost being. My daughter, I shall obtain for you the grace of an interior life which will be such that, without ever leaving that interior life, you will be able to carry out all your external duties with even greater care. Dwell with Him continuously in your heart. He will be your strength. Communicate with creatures only in so far as is necessary and is required by your duties.” (Diary 785)

 

Divinization is difficult to understand due to the way we view ourselves, “we hold this treasure inearthen vessels,” (2Cor.4:7) but Instrumentum Laboris instructs us that the “Eucharist is the summit of the Church’s life, since communion with the Lord leads to the sanctification and “divinization” of the person.” (1) Similarly, to help St. Faustina comprehend, Jesus tells her that as she sees Him outside so He is within, “I am dwelling in your heart as you see Me in this chalice.” (1820) But, why is all this relevant or important to us now? Because “The hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.” (John 4:23)

Yes, the hour is coming very soon when there will be no physical Church to worship in as Pope Benedict XVI explains in the year 2010:

“This passage in chapter 4 of John’s Gospel is the prophecy of a worship in which there will no longer be any temple, but in which the faithful will pray without an external temple in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Gospel, in communion with Christ; where what is needed is no longer a visible temple but rather the new fellowship with the risen Lord. That always remains important, because it signifies a major turning point in the history of religion as well.”

(Light of the World, pages 16-17)

Finally, believe and understand that He wants to divinize us not by the “counterfeit divinization of eros,” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est no. 4) as when the serpent says, “you will be like gods,” (Gen.3:5) but by being humble, intimate, and living temples of God as when Jesus states, “We will come into him, and make Our dwelling in him.” (Jn. 14:23) Therefore, in these turbulent times trust and have confidence that His loving indwelling Presence is always with us day and night to divinize us as Jesus tells St. Faustina, “You are my dwelling place and my constant repose. For your sake I bless the earth.” (Diary 431) ST FAUSTINA PRAY FOR US.