Be happy like St. Therese, who said of her own dryness, Instead of being troubled about it, this only gives me extreme pleasure. Be happy like Therese, who was rejoicing at her aridity. Be happy like Therese, who knew' that Jesus loves her, even when hes sleeping (and so, we dont have to constantly prod him for proofs of his love). ISBN-13 : 9781596143456 Here, we see that Therese docs not want to rely on her own merits but, rather, on those of Jesus. 53-54,75, 81-83, 87. Almost everyone else has abanJ^/doned him, but Mary is here with you. Be the first one to, 33 days to merciful love : a do-it-yourself retreat in preparation for consecration to divine mercy, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, urn:lcp:33daystomerciful0000gait:lcpdf:8ddf0574-35b1-4ac3-828f-023e4a27408d, urn:lcp:33daystomerciful0000gait:epub:f1f06049-bcf0-46bd-b1d1-f375385e2458, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). [Each day this week, you will (1) read the appropriate day from 33 Days to Morning Glory, (2) pray the Magnificat, and. (126 pages.) 112-13. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in die days of His mortal life: What soever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!" 159 The following passage from the Diary of St. Faustina provides the origin of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and reveals its power: In the evening, when I was in my [room], I saw an Angel, the executor of divine wrath. Well hear about that terrible trial tomorrow. (400 pages. ) Or, dont blame the devil, blame Abraham, our father in faith. Yes, in the midst of an ordinary, mundane life, she had extraor dinary faith, hope, and love that are accessible to us all. Think of it! Lets just say it didnt take much for me to get discouraged and de pressed. March 14 - Day 3 3/33. Especially bless those who visit our home may they experience your mercy here. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. Her presence there helps us to understand the catch that comes with being a victim soul to Merciful Love. Its the Good News that Jesus has the Heart of the Good Shepherd who will even leave behind the 99 to go in search of the one lost sheep. Rather, it sent them racing to the heights. I Myself will defend it as My own glory (48). 71-83. According to the greatest pope of the 20th century, theres a secret that reveals the mystery of Mary! Although this may not seem scary to others, its making me nervous. Now, of course, as we learned on Days 20 and 21, St. Therese has already composed such a marvelous prayer. The certainty of victory comes from Jesus own words, If only you are willing to fight, know that the victory' is always on your side (ibid., 1560). since the happy day, it seems to me that Love penetrates and surrounds me, that at each moment this Merciful Love renews me, purifying my soul and leaving no trace of sin within it, and I need have no fear of purgatory. Even if I were the biggest sinner in the world, I would still go to him with a contrite heart and receive his mercy! The day of your offering FINAL FIVE DAYS: Synthesis and Review 125 is just around the corner! We give it back to God as an exhaled magnificat. He Calls Us ''Friends." Well, she actually would be if she were telling us we can expect to go straight to heaven without sorrow for our sins and without making a firm purpose of amendment. I fainted from fright, and even though I know the depth of Gods mercy, I was surprised that God allows humanity to exist. Knowing that we all have a distorted image of God as a result of original sin (see Day 1), Jesus wants to heal that distortion by giving us a true image of his mercy for our time. Alright, so lets now express our efforts, our trying, by getting ready to consecrate ourselves to Merciful Love. Although God does not need us, he chose to become one of us out of love: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Jn 3:16). 1511 The spirituality of offering ourselves along with Christ during the Through him, and with him, and in him supercharged moment of the Mass also provides us with an opportunity to simplify our prayer for others. To use Thereses own words, her teaching set me full sail upon the waves of confidence and love.1 18 33 DAYS TO MERCIFUL LOVE With this book, I now want to share those amazing treas ures that gave me hope in the seminary and inspire me still. Todays Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. After your soul has filled, after your lungs have filled, you linger at the end of the fiat moment as you simply enjoy and take delight in his Merciful Love. Well, thats what were going to do today. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the scepter of Your Cross. How you grieve me! Well, let me begin to answer that by first telling you an amazing secret: According to St. John Paul II, theres a kind of key which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary.12 Imagine that. In other words, after he flattens us with his overwhelming love, God then lifts us up and fills us with his love so we actually can love him as he loves WEEK FOUR: Into the Darkness 99 ns. So whether you want to deepen your love of Divine Mercy or have a devotion to St. Thrse, 33 Days to Merciful Love is the book for you. Mk 3:21 -35) that day by day there was fulfilled in her the blessing uttered by Elizabeth at the Visitation: Blessed is she who believed.20 Alright, but what was it that Mary believed specifically as she lived under the same roof with Jesus and during his public life? And then, in the next para graph, she also throws in the merits of the saints, angels, and the Blessed Mother.119 (Why not?) On her deathbed she said to me one day: T often repeat my act of consecration. As soon as I heard Fr. }si Now, in their efforts to live all this hidden and extraordinary faith, hope, and love, little souls are in good company. Michael Gaitley shows us the power of just such an offering to Merciful Love in the lives of the greatest saints of our time, methodically prepares us to follow their lead, and reveals what it can mean to us and the men and women of our time if and when we do. I thank You, O my God! May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here there must go forth the spark which wall prepare the world for his final coming (see Diary, 1732). In fact, their aim is to do little things withgreat love. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in hisgoodness6 So, according to the Catechism, its all about trust. Well, in a certain sense, yes, because it in creases our longing for God. But what was die nature of this suffering? But what does wound Jesus, Therese explains, is only when his friends, ignoring their continual indelicacies, make a habit out of them and dont ask forgiveness for them (cited in ibid., p. 189). So whether you want to deepen your love of Divine Mercy or have a devotion to St . God is so good. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure and St. Claude de la Colombiere and translated by Paul Garvin (Rockford, Ill.: TAN Books and Publishers, 1984), we read the following, which also ties in with Thereses idea that well learn on Day 21, namely, that the Offering to Merciful Love causes one to become a martyr of love: [I ]t is the teaching of great masters of the spiritual life that a person who, at the point of death, makes an act of perfect conformity to the will of God [i.e., an expression of unshakable trust] will be delivered not only from Hell but also from Purgatory, even if he has committed all the sins in the world. For instance, the Lords moving words from the Gospel of Luke come to mind: I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! (12:49). I believe, he also and especially wants to pour out his mercy on families. 92 Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD, I Want to See God: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, trans. 83 Ibid. Having explained the meaning of the three words ecce, fiat, and magnificat, now Im going to apply them to the three moments of our breathing: empty, in, and out. And what is the Gospel? Mother Agnes replied, Oh, no, never; she constantly repeated it, and her whole life revolved around it. After all, such a luxury would have gone against his ideal of follow ing the poor Christ, who had nowhere to lay his head. (Of course, for others, accepting such an inheritance would not necessarily be sinful.) They all replied in unison, [L]onging for God. We, too, will want to sing out, Magnificat! In the last section on one act of perfect love, I pointed out that the best way to console the Heart of Jesus is to trust him. We need only fear becoming one who sins but does not repent, one who tires of asking for forgiveness and ends up believing that he doesnt need to ask for it any more. Apart from falling into the evil habit of corruption, Therese would say that there is no reason to be afraid. Having said that, I will also include some of the teach ings of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, another great saint of mercy whose mission was closely related to that of St. Therese? 177 See Ahern, p. 84. It can be so because Gods ways are not our ways, and he delights in lifting up the lowly and making the greatestfrom the littlest and perhaps no sinner is more lowly and little than Therese of Lisieux. DAY 9 Discovery of the Little Way Yesterday, we learned that Therese Martin was a little soul, indeed. But is he giving such a gift? She sang a song of praise, her famous Magnificat, that glorious proclamation of Gods mere), which begins: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant (Lk 1:46-48). Here, Therese speaks of suffering as a grace. 33 Days To Merciful Love A Do It Yourself Retreat In Preparation For Divine Mercy . The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commenting on die first sin of Adam and Eve, gets to the heart of it all: Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his free dom, disobeyed Gods command. aint Friend: A Source of Hope. Its to hope against hope that the Lords Merciful Love goes out to us not because were perfect, strong, and without sin, but because were imperfect, weak, and sinful. Let me put it this way. 1 am Love and Mercy itself (1273). Well feel as if all is lost, that God no longer loves us, that he has abandoned us. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hes a perfect Family of Love, and we can add nothing to his greatness, glory, or happiness. 25 Story ofa Soul, p. 188. Indeed, amid the foul and stuffy Jansenist atmosphere, Therese's discovery of the Little Way came as a breath of fresh air, leading her to pray, O my God, You surpassed all my expectation. Next, imagine that this ocean is held back from emptying out onto the earth by a giant floodgate. - Additional DVD from Episode 2 of the acclaimed Catholic documentary, Divine Mercy in the second greatest story ever told based on the book, 33 Days Moreover, by striving to quench his thirst for love, by loving him in return, we have mercy on him. Mary' said, Behold (Ecce), I am the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38). Blessed is she who believed that God was able to raise men even from the dead (Heb 11:19). Finally, it is to he worried about nothing, and not to he set on earning our living. 'ilni :l> ' It:.'! In times of darkness, when youre tempted to think that God and heaven do not exist remember that smile. Let me explain. What youve just experienced (inhaling) illustrates what happens when we say fiat." Its the Good News that Gods love is like water, which always goes to the lowest place. While I already shared how it happened in the book Consoling the Heart ofJesus, I think its worth repeating this week as we ponder the question, What is trust? and on this day, specifically, as we reflect on Marys Song of Faith. First, 1 learned the connection between praise and trust during a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, when I was a seminarian. May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Tour Merciful Love. 35 Full quote: [Therese] is very sensitive; when shes said a word too many, or when shes made a mistake, she notices it immediately and, to make up for it, the poor baby has recourse to tears, and she asks for par dons which never end. 138 Story ofa Soul, p. 259. Because while the sins of the world are finite, the mercy that flows from the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is infinite. No. Jesus is so fatigued with always having to take the initiative and to attend to others that He hastens to take advantage of the repose I offer to Him. Todays Prayer: Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. So, what can it tell us about trust? 80, a. Susan Conroy (New York: Alba House, 1998), p. 12. I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! When we compare, then, the mystery of Gods infinite, burning love for us with our own weak efforts to love him in return, it humbles us, lowers us, reduces us, and crushes us to the dust but it doesnt destroy us. 155 Actually, according to the testimony of St. Faustina, in this time of great mercy, the Lord wants to make us saints not just to save the world but also to prepare it for bis final coming. And so, for Therese, saints like the great Teresa of Avila were like eagles, soaring on the heights of holiness; whereas, she simply saw herself as a weak little bird without strength and unable to fly. How We Can Console Jesus Saint Therese frequently wrote about her desire to console Jesus, and as we learned on Day 20, that was her main motivation in making the Offering to Merciful Love. Although the reality' of Gods mercy for sinners is beyond the power of words to express, St. Faustina does try to lift the veil of the mystery in the following passages from her Diary. The saint herself describes it as follows: I was enjoying such a living faith, such a clear faith, that the thought of heaven made up all my happiness, and I was unable to believe there were really impious people who had no faith. You will grant my desires ; i know, O my God Therese! That he has abandoned us especially bless those who visit our home they. Days 20 and 21, St. Therese has already composed such a marvelous Prayer, but Mary is here You. Take much for me in Your Kingdom 20th century, theres a that... To think that God and heaven do not exist remember that smile now express our efforts, our,! 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