News - March 2020

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Let him never cease from prayer who has once begun it, be his life ever so wicked; for prayer is the way to amend it, and without prayer such amendment will be much more difficult.

Remember, God does not pay us for results, but for effort.

My only work is to suffer. He gives to me everything only after having weighed and measured them.

Always and everywhere the Gospel will be a challenge to human weakness. But precisely in this challenge lies all its power.

This is the business of our life. By labor and prayer to advance in the Grace of God, till we come to that height of perfection in which, with clean hearts, we may behold God.

If your were more handsome and richer than all others, and even if you could work wonders, such as putting demons to flight, all these things are hurtful to you, and none really belongs to you, and you cannot glory in any of them.

If we are cruel in crucifying the flesh, you by sparing it are far more cruel.

Truth suffers, but never dies.

Those who suffer are no burden to others, but with their suffering contribute to the salvation of all.

Faith is a dark night for man, but in this very way it gives him light.

While in heaven He is also with us; and we while on earth are with Him. He is here with us by His divinity, His power and His love. We cannot be in heaven, as He is on earth, by divinity, but in Him, we can be there by love.

True joy, genuine festival, means the casting out of wickedness. To achieve this, one must live a life of perfect goodness and, in the serenity of the fear of God, practice contemplation in one’s heart.

Physical condition or advancing of age are not obstacles to a perfect life. God does not look at external things but at the soul.

“For if this is what is done to green wood, what will be done when the wood is dry?’ Luke 23:31

The Lord compared Himself to green wood. Green wood also stands for those who follow Him, His Divine Life flows in them. Dry wood stands for those who separate themselves from God, the source of Divine Life, by a life in sin. Green wood could also stand for bodily sufferings in this world, and dry wood can stand for sufferings in the world to come. If the Lord and His followers suffer in this world, we can imagine how terrible will be the sufferings for those who refuse to repent of their sins! During this season of Lent, let us take these words which our Lord spoke to the women of Jerusalem while on His way to Calvary very seriously indeed - let us truly repent of all our sins, may we suffer as green wood and not as the wood that is dry.

What really matters in life is that we are loved by Christ, and that we love Him in return. In comparison to the love of Christ Jesus, everything else is secondary.

“If the world hates you, you must realize that it hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18

Jesus came into the world as the true light, and yet many hated Him - they preferred to remain in the darkness of their sins. The Lord challenges us to follow Him by being a light for the world and to boldly rebuke it by the witness of a holy life lived according to God’s commandments and principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth. If we truly do this, we will experience that the world will start to hate us too. But let us not be discouraged! We remember the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, that our enemies are our “benefactors” - they give us the opportunity to suffer for Christ, by which we gain a great reward in heaven.

The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through.

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He Himself bore our sicknesses away and carried our diseases.” Matthew 8:17

Every human being came into this world to live; but Jesus came to die. We long to be free, healthy, rich and powerful, but He but He was freely willing, out of love for you and for me, to be a slave, sick, poor and weak. Jesus Christ is truly the only Healer for the whole of humanity, the Divine Doctor to Whom all those afflicted by sin and sickness must go if they wish to be healed. The medicine He offers is all powerful - it is His Flesh that He offers for the life of the world.

Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.