This page contains a selection of Teachings that Elizabeth Wang received from the Lord in prayer over many years. They are in chronological order. For other selections please see the main TEACHINGS page here.
Note about formatting:
[NB - the distinction between large and small capital letters has unfortunately been lost in the web version of the text]
LARGE CAPITAL LETTERS are used for the titles which indicate where Christ is introducing or re-introducing a particular subject into His long programme of instruction, as different subjects are more and more deeply woven together.
Normal type is used for Christ’s clear but soundless prayer-time instructions, here ‘translated’ into my own words.
Italic type is used for words which were ‘given’ to my soul by God: by Father, Son or Holy Spirit, although the words were not spoken.
‘Italic type with speech marks’ is used for words which were spoken to me by God: by Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, yet which were spoken only within my soul, during prayer.
SMALL CAPITAL LETTERS are used for the silent yet powerful teachings which I have received from God our Father. I have ‘clothed’ these vivid but soundless teachings in my own words - and have placed them at the centre of the page. Italic type has been inserted, wherever - in the same teaching - God’s own words have been received, either ‘given’ or spoken. (See above).
Bold type is used for teachings which were delivered with especial emphasis or especial glory.
PART ONE STABILITY
[1993 - continued.]
INTERDEPENDENCE.
T:1265 #1 Keep on praying faithfully for all the people you know, both living and departed.
T:1265 #2 Don’t worry about good friends of Mine, when they die. Their good work continues. You can be sure that even when a faithful departed soul who is rising up to Heaven - which is still far away - seems to be traversing an enormous precipice, in semi-darkness, she is drawing with her by her unseen prayer a number of other people who are clinging to one another. They are all closely bound together by their love of Me, their Saviour, Whom they long to see. (WC:1265)
T:1265 #3 Never think that your prayers for the faithful departed are ‘wasted’. By your prayers for this woman, and by her prayers for you and for others you lift one another closer to My Heart.
T:1265 #4 See how important are a good life and a sincere preparation for death; many souls have to undergo what seems like a long journey, after death, before they can see Me face-to-face. Those of My friends who have not made great efforts to draw close to Me whilst they live on earth will find that - after death - they are a long way from My Heart.
T:1266 #1 Be glad that you have been given a new opportunity to imitate Me by accepting a new trial. My Glory only shines out through a wounded heart. My Glory can blaze out through a heart which has been wounded willingly, either through acts of penance - above all, by the surrender of your own will and your own desires - or by the reparation which you offer to the Father. The sufferings and humiliations which you have accepted in union with Me serve as a powerful means of reparation.
T:1266 #2 Look upon your union with Me as something which - in every circumstance - is truly powerful and fruitful. You can be sure that through your pains and prayers, united with the pains and prayers which I offered in My holy Passion, others can be healed. Here in your own life, even perpetual heart-ache, accepted, opens the heart as a perpetual channel for My grace, if you continue as at present in a perpetual though joyful repentance.
T:1267 Reflect upon the way in which I have guided you towards this moment. At last, My plan for you can come to fruition. At last, and by My grace, your self-offering to Me can be made worthily - even though you are imperfect - since it is offered with no longing in your heart except the longing that I shall be known and loved and glorified.
T:1268 #1 Continue to pray with Me, at the Holy Mass, for the needs of My Church. Beg your Heavenly Father, fervently, for sanctity - for yourself and for all who love Me, His Son. Ask for faith to be given to those who don’t yet know Me.
T:1268 #2 Remember that sanctity does not consist of a life-time of great achievements, although whatever good you achieve - out of love for Me - is praiseworthy. Sanctity consists of self-emptying, out of love for Me, so that My Will, and not your own, might be done in everything. A soul which is empty of all selfish ambitions is a channel for My Glory. Such a soul remains its unique self, yet is penetrated and surrounded by the Light of the Glory of My grace.
T:1268 #3 Accept the fact that My glorious Light and grace - within the soul - might be visible to others, who will therefore think that such a person is holy. Yet remember that all holiness is from Me. No-one ought to be proud of his good deeds, evident virtues, or visible graces, since it is I Who make them possible.
GATHERED BEFORE THE ALTAR.
T:1269 Realise what you are doing, during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as I, Jesus - Who am dazzling in My Glory - stand in front of you all, but facing away from you, My arms outstretched towards the invisible Father. It is as if I am standing at the top of a great hill, surrounded by Light; and you who cluster about Me on that hillside - some close to Me and some, hesitant, standing at a great distance - are touched by My Light.
During the Holy Mass,
you who make the Offering
in union with Me are
clinging to Me in My Sacrifice,
sheltered by My Glory,
dependent on My holiness, My merits,
and My Divine Reparation.
Everything worthwhile you do
flows from this one Offering, and
all that is done by you
is offered to the Father,
through Me, here,
during the Holy Sacrifice,
as you are gathered before the altar.
T:1270 #1 Be grateful that - by My grace and your response - you have once more repented of all your failings. You are drawn further into the Father’s Heart, the more you relinquish all sins and vanities.
T:1270 #2 Place before Me, in trust and repentance, everyone who concerns you, with all regrets, wounds, painful memories, and sins and attachments.
T:1270 #3 Unite all heartache, regret and sense of failure to My pain on the Cross. You can rejoice that because of your own sufferings - in the words of your Heavenly Father -
“Through this wound, grace will flow.”
No sorrow, offered to the Father, is wasted. By your acceptance of sorrows, in union with Myself, it is as if you make a ‘channel’ within your soul through which My grace can flow from yourself to others.
T:1271 #1 Be grateful for your faith - and for your presence at My Holy Sacrifice. My wonderful Act of Redemption, proclaimed by My Church, is now taking place before you, as I offer My One Sacrifice in your midst. By the ‘eyes’ of faith you can see that My One, redeeming Sacrifice of Calvary - which is powerful and effective - is offered from the altar. It is a true and a living Sacrifice, once offered by Myself as I hung on the Cross, and now offered in your presence by Me, your Risen Lord. (WC + OIL:1271)
T:1271 #2 Take part, worthily, in the Holy Mass. Join in My work. No-one offers My Sacrifice to the Father wholeheartedly who does less than I, that is, who is unwilling to offer his life to the Father in union with Myself, in the Father’s service.
T:1271 #3 Accept encouragement from the Saints whose friendship you treasure. Listen to St. Bernadette who commends, as “a good prayer”, your pleas for her help, as you try to love and serve Me with great love and great patience.
T:1272 #1 Follow My inspiration and dedicate your work, once more, to your Heavenly Father, for His Glory. Be determined to work for His Glory, not for your own.
T:1272 #2 Imitate the Saints, and pray their prayer of praise. Each one is saying - in a whole-hearted attitude of self-offering: “All Glory to You, O Father, through Christ.”
SANCTITY.
T:1272 #3 Don’t imagine that the Saints are monotonously alike! Each of My Saints in Heaven differs from the others in gifts, in tasks, and in the sort of life-experiences undergone, and in length of life and in manner of life. Yet it is true to say that they resemble one another now in their worship of Me in Heaven, since each one is blissfully happy and holy, and each one praises Me with great fervour.
T:1273A #1 Continue to entrust yourself to My care, whatever seems to be ahead. “I hold you in the palm of My hand,” whether you’re experiencing health or sickness. My Love for you is unceasing.
T:1273A #2 Always bear in mind - as you make new acquaintances - the hidden glory of My “little ones”, who are the sick, the awkward, the toothless, the bowed-down or the inarticulate. Honour each person just as you try to honour Me in My Passion.
T:1273B #1 Follow My inspiration, and aim to love Me with a pure and a wholehearted love. Resolve not to accept My Will grudgingly, nor to submit to My Will painfully, nor to resign yourself to My Will despairingly. Choose My Will, freely and gladly! By My grace, you can, more frequently, adore and delight in My holy and loveable Will.
T:1273B #2 Make an act of faith - in every circumstance - in the Infinite Wisdom of My Divine Providence.
T:1274 #1 Accept the various gifts with which I have clothed you. Everything good in you is worthy of admiration, and is a cause for gratitude. Yet remember that it is My Divine Life in you which is your true Life. There is nothing good in you which has not been received from Me. Furthermore, My grace and power - at work within your soul - are more precious than any natural talent or spiritual adornment.
T:1274 #2 Beware of ever becoming proud about My power and action within your own life. My Divine Life - as it pours within and through your soul - is like a torrent of deep water which is rushing downstream; it is full of life and energy, light and power; it sparkles with a special clarity; it surges along a familiar channel. Therefore, when you become proud because of My gifts to you, it is as if a small part of the almost-submerged bank of this river of grace were to say: “I am the river” - as if saying: ‘this power, energy and beauty are mine!’ Such a ‘river-bank’ would only reveal its foolishness. (WC:1274)
T:1274 #3 Yearn to be a true channel of My grace, so that you can bring My living water to others. Yet understand, too, that you can ‘channel’ gifts even to your Heavenly Father. What a gift you make to Him, when, in Holy Communion, you offer Him My Divine Life, from within your soul! You can turn to your Father, saying: “I offer You Jesus’ Glory,” and thus you can give Divine Glory to the Father even from within your frailty and weakness.
PENANCES, UNCOUNTED.
T:1275 #1 Don’t give in to the temptation to look back upon your failures and to believe that your life has been useless. You are right always to give thanks to Me and to trust in Me, and to rely on the merits of My Sacrifice which you offer so frequently. It was I, Jesus, Who drew you into My Church so long ago, and My work in you has not been fruitless.
T:1275 #2 Rejoice - after your sins and failures - that because you have not denied your wrong-doing but have done penance in sorrow for your sins, you have done a great work, though only by My grace and mercy. I assure you that you have drawn more persons with you towards the Father than if you had never sinned. Your penances - uncounted - have ‘counted’ for others, too, and have been accepted as their reparation.
T:1276 #1 Be grateful for the gift of contemplative prayer, which you can recognise, gratefully, as something not only blissful but powerful.
T:1276 #2 Consider the state of your soul before Me, in the prayer of contemplation.
In true contemplation,
a soul is like a lamp, burning.
The flame - which is your heart, in prayer -
has heat, power, light and movement, yet
is silent and calm, wrapped in My tranquillity.
I see - within each contemplative soul
where the flame which is My Divine Life is burning -
‘heat’: which is fervour,
‘light’: which is My gift of wisdom, and
‘movement’: which is unending praise and intercession.
T:1277 #1 Continue to entrust your life to Me and to ask for patience in every situation.
T:1277 #2 Follow Me as a child follows its mother. You know how - when a little child is toddling along unsteadily, learning to walk - a good mother is bending down before the child and is walking backwards, beckoning, thus encouraging the child to go forward. That mother is all tenderness as her child takes its difficult steps; and so it is with you and Myself. It is I, Jesus, Who am beckoning and showing you the Way, a Way which is difficult and ‘unsteady’ - like the toddler’s way - because it leads you at present through more pain than delight, and there is little sense of progress.
T:1277 #3 Accept and follow My Way with a peaceful heart, content to let Me reveal My Will for you from moment to moment. In imitating Me, you behave like a trusting “child of God”. (WC:1277)
T:1278 #1 Put your trust in Me, and believe in My Love. You know that “it is the heart that counts; and yours is entirely Mine;” and since your whole aim is to please Me, you can be sure that your every effort delights Me, and that - strengthened by the Sacraments, and reconciled - you can leave behind despondency.
T:1278 #2 Pray before the Father as if you are side-by-side with Me, Jesus, consciously united with Me in your heart’s intentions, praying the One Prayer in My Name and interceding for My Church.
T:1279 #1 Offer your life and your time to Me, as you fulfil your duties. Have a sincere intention of pleasing Me in everything, and so offer Me the best possible homage and praise. The entire collection of good events and acts and thoughts of your day can be seen as being like a huge bag of gifts which you have prepared for Me. (WC:1279)
T:1279 #2 Understand the importance of a good intention; it is by your good intention in prayer - and through My power - that you are now ‘pulling’ towards Me a large collection of gifts, gifts which are the activities and events of your daily life. Through your intention, you can offer them all to Me, for My Glory.
GUIDANCE.
T:1279 #3 Turn to Me for guidance, ever more frequently; yet open your eyes to see that My care of you is continuous. “Am I not guiding you already?” Consider how much I already help you in ordinary and simple ways, whether through other people or through your common-sense , as well as by good ‘promptings’ or inspired ideas.
T:1279 #4 Don’t waste time waiting for extraordinary clarification, when it seems as though you have a decision to make. You already know that you should keep the Commandments and should allow yourself to be guided by My Church; so in decisions about these little matters of discipline, of work or of other things, pray sincerely for help, then do whatever seems truly right and reasonable. I cannot fail to guide those who have put their trust in Me and who live with Me in a real friendship.
T:1279 #5 Remember, when you seem to be without guide-lines, guidance, or promptings, that you who obey My Commandments should not become distressed as you try to make choices about these minor matters. Realise that the ‘right thing’ is sometimes that you should wait, that perhaps you should be patient and should refrain from acting, for the moment.
T:1280 #1 Continue with your faithful intercessions; yet try to imitate my total abandonment to the Father’s Will, since the soul which most resembles Me, Jesus , in suffering - lovingly-borne - and in self-offering, is most truly one with Me in My prayer to the Father; and so that person’s petitions are more certain of being granted.
T:1280 #2 Don’t be afraid to pray for things which seem impossibly grand; yet never forget that your prayer is fruitful only because of the merits of Me, your Saviour, and because of your union with Me.
T:1281 #1 Be glad that you have had the humility and the grace to go to Confession and to be reconciled. You can be sure that - within your shame and turmoil - you moved very close to Me.
T:1281 #2 Be ever-grateful for the Sacraments. I am powerfully at work - through My priest - in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It was through My grace, and also through your contrition and obedience, and through your presence in the confessional and through your willingness to listen to My priest that you met Me, your beloved Saviour - as if face to face - in a moment of intimate conversation and infinite Love!
T:1281 #3 Find out even more about My earthly life and Gospel teachings, in your longing to grow closer to Me. But realise that it is neither by study nor by thought that you truly come to know Me in person, or come to know what I am really like - although both study and thought are good. Rather, it is by true contrition and self-less worship that you break open the life-less image of Myself in your mind, as if you are watching a hollow statue fall apart into two halves. Then you can see that a real Person is standing in front of you, smiling in welcome! Thus, you meet Me, the true, living and radiant Saviour Whom you had kept ‘trapped’ within some of your misconceptions. (WC + OIL:1281)
THE PRESENT MOMENT.
T:1282 #1 Use well the present moment. It is the only moment in which you can turn towards My Divine Light; and it is only in this very moment that you can show My Love to others.
T:1282 #2 Realise more surely that past and future are closed to you, in the sense that they are like dim regions where you are powerless to act; yet it is true that you My friends are ‘involved’ in past and future as you try to make amends for what you have done wrong in past times, and as you strive - by trusting in Me - to be hopeful about the future.
T:1282 #3 Don’t try to dwell in either past or future, which must be seen as cul-de-sacs, or dark cupboards, through which there is no doorway to Heaven. (WC + OIL:1282)
T:1282 #4 Focus your attention upon My wishes at every moment, at least indirectly, as you go about your work. By the Light of My Wisdom - in your thoughts and in your prayers, at each ‘present moment’ - you can realise that I await you in the eternal present. I am calling to you, now, through this moment of prayer, through your present duties, through the voice of My Church today, and in these particular circumstances.
T:1282 #5 Avoid the darkness of prolonged nostalgia, or of unhappy memories. Avoid the airless trap of imagined future events or unrealistic dreams. Such obsessions lead nowhere. My Divine Life cannot flourish within any soul which - with remorseless determination - locks itself away in this manner.
T:1282 #6 Look for My Will in the present moment. To do so is to walk towards My Light and My Love as if through an open doorway, instead of fruitlessly searching for a ‘way through’ to Me from another direction.
T:1282 #7 Understand the significance of the very tiny things which you are doing right now. If you realise that this present moment is the only moment in which you can really ‘touch’ Me, you will realise, also, that the way in which you are doing things is extremely important - whatever those things might be. If you are acting out of love for Me - whether you are shopping on your ‘scooter’, praying at a funeral, or remaining cheerful in sickness - and if you are trying to do each task graciously, then every single willing act is as important and as fruitful as the grand things which you are unable to do but which, in your own mind, you label as ‘important tasks’.
DOING MY WORK.
T:1283 #1 Believe that your recent efforts to please Me were worthwhile. “You did well” in being patient, thoughtful and courteous for My sake. I delight in every tiny good thing which you do out of love for Me, even at apparently worldly events, as when - for My sake, and at grand dinners - you are being attentive and sociable with people whom you might never even meet again, on earth.
T:1283 #2 Trust that I can ‘use’ your faith and your loving efforts in every circumstance.
T:1283 #3 Avoid the temptation to think that only in certain circles or at certain places or through certain events can you do My work and help others. No place on earth lies outside My ‘area’ of influence.
T:1283 #4 Don’t think that it is by great talent or by great exploits that you can show Me, Jesus, to others, although I sometimes inspire or use My children’s extraordinary gifts. My graces and blessings pour out lavishly towards others through any soul which - out of love for Me - is empty of vain desires, and has been made ready - as if made transparent - for My grace and action. When such a person acts out of love for Me - in whatever circumstances - My graces flow out upon every good thought, word, deed or impulse of that person. All the little gestures and offerings of love and attention to others are holy, and they convey My grace to others. Thus do I act through you.
T:1283 #5 Follow My example of self-emptying. It is usually through self-emptying and self-sacrifice that My ‘talents’ or virtues, and My graces, can freely pour through your weakness and can reach those who are in need of My help.
T:1283 #6 Approach Me with confidence, in Holy Communion, since I am delighted by the smallest effort which you make to prepare your soul and to become worthy to receive Me. The ‘clearing’ which you voluntarily offer out of love for Me - a clearing-out of sin and selfishness - does, of itself, give Me Glory, since I have prompted your heart to that clearing and repenting; and so your response to My prompting is a glorious act!
T:1283 #7 Believe in My Love! Believe that I love you now, at this precise moment. I admire your little efforts to be worthy of My Love; so don’t give in to the temptation to think that I will begin to love you one day in the future, when you are more ‘worthy’ of Me, or that I will lavish My Love upon you only if you become perfect! My Love is constant and unchanging.
T:1283 #8 Delight in the Glory with which I sometimes fill your soul in Holy Communion. This Glory, as you can see, is like a blazing Fire of Love and praise; it is a pure and holy Light; and this Fire is yours to offer to the Father above. This Fire is to serve as your own praise of the Father: a wordless praise which - since it is Mine - is of infinite worth.
T:1283 #9 Turn - with Me, in Holy Communion - to your Heavenly Father, to pray very simply. From My radiance, and through your union with Me, offer Him “Glory, for Your Glory!”
THE CHURCH IN ACTION.
T:1284 #1 Examine your responsibilities towards others, and do so in an ever-greater awareness that even your little faults can prevent Me from ‘touching’ certain hearts, when I might have ‘touched’ them through your presence. I delight in your efforts to please Me, yet I delight, too, in your frank admission of tactlessness - and therefore of uncharity - towards that person yesterday. You
cannot ‘bring’ Me to others if you are uncharitable and therefore ‘un-Christian’.
T:1284 #2 Realise how important it is that your behaviour towards others is perpetually kind, thoughtful, patient and charitable, in every ‘area’ of life, whether at simple meals or at luxurious dinners, and whether you are amongst friends, acquaintances or strangers.
T:1284 #3 Consider the privileged work which I offer to you as you meet people in various walks of life: it is because you live in union with Me that I send you out to love and help others in places where - by My Will - I “cannot” go at present. My grace can penetrate everywhere, but My bodily and visibly-human presence, which is now established in Heaven, can usually only be as if seen or touched in this world wherever one of you My friends can be seen and touched. I want to see you conveying My joy and comfort, and My smile, My graces and My wisdom to others, as you go ‘bodily’ to meet them - going to them in the normal course of events, and going according to the state of the world or the various limits which are placed upon contact with others.
T:1284 #4 Always speak and act with truth, purity and simplicity.
T:1284 #5 Don’t underestimate the importance of the good that you can do through sincere and loving personal contact. Some amongst you bring Me to others in the Blessed Sacrament; yet all who love and serve Me can ‘convey’ Me to others, in one sense, through both words and gestures. Whatever you say and do in My Name is as though said or done by Myself for others! It is through your union with Me and through the intention of your heart that you can act “in Christ’s Name” even when the work or the subject of conversation is seen as un-religious, as when it is scientific, social, or domestic. You who act in My Name are the Church in action, the Church acting for others. So your every word and gesture ought to be ‘Christ-like’.
T:1284 #6 Remember that self-sacrifice is the key to fruitful work and to friendship with Me. The more completely you have let go of your own ambitions, and the readier you are to follow My Spirit’s promptings, the more grace can therefore flow through you, to others.
T:1284 #7 Strive for complete self-abandonment to Me and a constant readiness to do My Will, since it is in this way that you can penetrate hearts which I Myself wish to reach, in places to which I wish to go “in” you. I will send you to hospitals - whether as a patient or a visitor - and to dinner parties, or to homes of the sick, or even to restaurants. If you are willing, I can send you to any place where human beings gather, or rest, or sit alone; and thus I will ‘touch’ others through you, and will change hearts and lives.
T:1284 #8 Remind yourself that the Gospel is needed in all sorts of places. What a marvel it is that I smile at others through you. I console them, thus. I encourage them - through you - to move towards what is good.
T:1284 #9 Search, always, to know My Will for you - though don’t be grim or anxious. Your acceptance of My Will for you is extremely important, since I, Jesus, have a mission for you to a place which I have chosen.
T:1284 #10 Be alert. Be ready to notice other peoples’ needs, to do your duty and to recognise My Will for you in every situation. Even if, at present, you seem to be walking along in ignorance of My plans, you can be sure that I alone see perfectly clearly all of the needs of My children, and that I alone know where I am needed at each moment. Furthermore, I can only send - to those who need Me - those who are ever-alert, listening for the promptings of My Holy Spirit, and who are willing to go because of their love for Me.
T:1284 #11 Don’t be anxious about the effects which your good actions or works have upon others. Trust that My grace is at work through you in a way willed by Me. You can be light-hearted, knowing that you have surrendered your will to Me, and that you are trying to act charitably; and another cause for joy is your certainty - which springs from faith - that I do not abandon My Church!
T:1284 #12 Acknowledge that your task will be different from the tasks which other people undertake. Others, who are very different from yourself in their ways of working, and in their gifts, and in their methods of being Christ-like, ought to be honoured by you, since I am at work in them too. I am doing through them whatever - because of your differences - I cannot do for others through yourself.
MEN AND WOMEN, REVEALING MY GLORY.
T:1285 #1 Follow My inspiration and unite all your prayers and sacrifices to My One Sacrifice, uniting them thus by the love of your heart and by acts of the will. One who - in this way - is made transparent for My grace not only shows out My Glory to others, but does so in a unique way. For example, a woman who lives in a true union with Me will show to others what will seem like a ‘woman-shaped Christ’. A man will resemble Me, too, but differently. You can be sure - of men and women who love Me - that each person will ‘reproduce’ Me for others in his or her own way, whilst reproducing, also, My care, and My Mission of Salvation of souls.
PRIESTHOOD.
T:1285 #2 Understand My wishes - about priesthood. You have accepted the teaching of My Church, so plainly given through the instructions of the Holy Father. You have not questioned Me. Yet listen to Me now, as I explain - for the sake of others - that “My Church does not have women as priests: it is not My Will; it is not seemly; it is not necessary.”
T:1285 #3 Understand that My Will is a Sovereign Will. I, the Lord, am not bound to explain or justify My wishes. See, therefore, that since My holy Church does not have women as priests since it is not My Will no further explanation is required. That is sufficient reason.
T:1285 #4 Consider how gracious and tender I am, Who now desire - out of Love - to explain My wishes more fully. Know this, about the priesthood: it is not seemly for a woman to attempt to represent Me in that special task and office; and in saying ‘not seemly’ I mean that it is unfitting for women, for a number of reasons. It is not My Will that women exercise a true spiritual headship over men, in either Church or family life; you can see, therefore, that women must not attempt to preside over the celebration of the Holy Mysteries. It is not My Will that women preach during the Liturgy, nor that they listen to the sinful thoughts of mens’ hearts in private Confession; it is not My Will that women live and travel unprotected, unnecessarily, in efforts to be Fathers to My flock; and since it is not My Will that even women who are vowed religious should hope to be priests, how much less is it My Will that wives and mothers be distracted from their prime responsibility, which is the care of the needy members of their families.
T:1285 #5 Understand - in order to explain to others - that it is not necessary that women attempt to represent Me through priesthood, since women do represent and show Me to others in daily life, in many ways, already. You can see, in the lives of women who love Me, that their good actions ‘display’ Me, and their silent union with Me draws graces upon others.
FAMILY RESEMBLANCE.
T:1286 #1 Praise and thank your Heavenly Father, Who ensured that I, the Christ-child, on earth, and My holy Mother, were so well cared for by Saint Joseph.
T:1286 #2 Realise that My Mother’s love for Saint Joseph was unfeigned. Listen to her explaining to you that during her life on earth: “It was a joy to be near such a man. I was delighted to be the wife of one so good and holy.”
T:1286 #3 Marvel at My plans; Saint Joseph gave My holy Mother the protection and care which I, the Lord, required for her; and since Saint Joseph acted with a true and intelligent love - with both kindness and thoughtfulness - how could she fail to be grateful to Me for such a husband and such a foster-father to her child?
T:1286 #4 Understand a little more of the influence which Saint Joseph had upon Me in My childhood. You can see a resemblance between us, yet it is a resemblance which owes nothing to inheritance - since I had no earthly father; Saint Joseph and I are very alike in manner and gestures, outwardly. Since I modelled Myself, as a youth, on My foster-father, I copied his speech, his way of working, his stance, his gait, his way of telling a story and even his way of sitting, relaxing, with friends. However, My features are like those of My holy Mother, who gave Me her flesh when she conceived Me in her womb.
T:1286 #5 Admire and emulate My example of obedience to My Heavenly Father if you would imitate Me most surely. Relish His Will, whether you are asked to remain hidden away in an insignificant life, or to come forward in plain view of others in order to speak about Me. In either case, you can say, of your wholehearted abandonment to the Father’s Will, that: this is true freedom!
T:1287 #1 Rejoice that you have been given the grace of repentance. Your trusting admission of faults causes you not only to merit a reward from Me, but to see Heavenly truths more clearly, from the very moment of your repentance. Your faith is enlarged by humility.
T:1287 #2 Take a step ‘backwards’, away from every sort of pride, conceit, self-satisfaction or self-seeking. Thus, as you struggle to serve Me in the world, you will become closer to Me, and more joyful. You can understand that someone who stands gazing at a small stretch of the horizon, and at the sky above, cannot see as much as the man who steps backwards so that he can lie down and gaze at the whole breadth of the Heavens above, and gaze more steadily. So it is with you, in the spiritual life; if you remain ‘low down’ in humility, you shall see further, through the eyes of faith, and your gaze will be steadier and less easily distracted. (WC:1287)
T:1288 #1 Look upon My Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the ‘summit’ of your life, where you give perfect praise to the Father, through Me, as if at the top of a mountain. Here, earth’s gloom gives way to Heaven’s Light, and you have “access” to the Father. (WC:1288)
T:1288 #2 Keep in mind the reason for the intrinsic perfection of your worship during the Holy Mass, no matter how drab or noisy might be your surroundings. By My Sacrifice - which is offered in your presence - you ‘break through’ to the Father. It is because you are united with Me, in one prayer before Heaven, that you are enabled to touch Him Who is the Summit of your life and the goal of all your struggle and of all your worship: your invisible, Almighty Father.
T:1288 #3 Realise that I have a unique relationship with each one of you whom I visit in Holy Communion; and realise, too, that your friendship with Me is not static, even if you yourself detect no change. I Who am Love and Life am therefore active; I am at work in your souls. My Light - within you - is spilling over your particular faults and regretted failings; and thus My Divine Light creates within you - each one of you - a different and beautiful glorious pattern, a pattern of sanctity which would not be seen, were it not for your faults!
T:1288 #4 Marvel at My work. No-one’s ‘pattern’ of sanctity is the same as another’s. It is through the ‘pattern’ which is made by the marks upon the soul of various repented sins - when combined with My holiness - that each holy person’s soul has a unique holiness and beauty.
T:1288 #5 Be glad that you are reconciled to Me. Since every repented sin contributes to a soul’s beauty, you can see how your past repented sins have become a genuine cause for rejoicing, and no longer a cause for remorse or self-pity.
T:1288 #6 Never see contrition and confession as dues owed to a hard task-master. See them, rather, as gifts due to Me, Jesus, Who - through them - can adorn you with beauty and joy! But of course, I cannot form patterns of sanctity within your souls with the marks of your repented faults unless you have let those faults be exposed - albeit painfully - in My clear purifying Light, through confession and Reconciliation.
MY HANDIWORK, MY BEAUTY.
T:1289 #1 Don’t be afraid to admire the good things which I have created. Don’t be afraid to question Me - with praise and reverence - about the beauty of the tulips which you have placed in a vase, on your kitchen table. I delight in your thoughts about the Mystery which is Heaven, and about whether you will see beautiful flowers in Heaven! Listen to your Heavenly Father:
“The tiniest spark
of My beauty
is resting upon, or gracing,
the flowers which I have created.
But
the pure, infinite, perfect Beauty
from which this beauty is drawn
is seen by you
when the soul sees Me
in Heaven.”
T:1289 #2 Believe that the soul which possesses Me in Heaven will therefore “possess” everything that is good, beautiful or holy. Believe, also, that every good thing which - out of love for Me - someone sacrifices during earthly life, can be found “in” Me, in Heaven! (WC + OIL:1289)
ABANDONING DREAMS.
T:1290 #1 Follow My inspiration and reveal to Me every silly and embarrassing fault. Such trust and frankness honours to Me, yet achieves something else, too; it affects every aspect of your spiritual life, even your intercessions. This is because you draw closer to Me when you trust in My mercy; and since I do the will of one whose will is bound closely to Mine, your prayers are thus granted more surely!
T:1290 #2 Abandon your dreams. A channel of grace between your soul and Mine is kept ‘unblocked’ when you give up, utterly, your own plans and dreams for the sake of following My wishes. By such a union of wills, you live very close to Me, Who therefore hear your smallest ‘whisper’.
T:1291 Be glad that you are learning to be docile, learning to follow Me as I lead you first into obscurity, and now, towards clamour. I am drawing you out of your hiddenness in order to take you to the bosom of My Church, where you must encourage others to be faithful.
T:1292 #1 Believe in My forgiveness. Believe in My Love for you.
T:1292 #2 Long for holiness; but don’t become disheartened. Don’t imagine that sanctity is a state of life on earth in which people are at last entirely free from faults and failings. Sanctity is a “being-wholly-open”, by self-emptying, to My Love and My Will and My presence, so that My holiness pours through the soul like light through an open window.
T:1292 #3 Realise that your little imperfections need not mar your joy in our friendship. My action can banish your faults as easily as when someone wipes a window-frame which is festooned with cobwebs. The important thing is that the ‘window’ is open, or that your soul is ‘open’ to Me - through trusting prayer, and through surrender to My Will - so that My Light can constantly pour in.
T:1292 #4 Beware of letting your soul ever become like one of those windows which has a highly-polished frame, but which is half-obscured by window-shutters - which are also highly polished. Just as that sort of darkened window allows very little light to pass through it, some souls are dangerously ‘obscured’. Some people fulfil many religious duties and spend much time in prayer, yet deliberately avoid My Will. It is as if they are polishing and painting the window frame and the shutters of their souls - even polishing the glass - whilst keeping the shutters half-shut. They allow very little of My Divine Light to penetrate within them.
T:1293 Be grateful for My inspirations, which lead you to greater expressions of gratitude in prayer. You do well to unite your pains to the pains which I bore in My Passion, and also to thank My holy Mother for ‘bearing’ My sufferings through her faithful vigil beneath the Cross. My Mother has a special fondness for all who comfort Me in My Passion, or who try to serve Me in any way.
T:1294A #1 Be prepared to follow in My Way of suffering. I Who invite you to drink from the cup of My Precious Blood, through Holy Communion, invite you, also, to drink My cup of humiliation and suffering.
T:1294A #2 Unite yourself to Me and follow in My path, obedient to the Father’s Will. But don’t be anxious; My Way leads to Heaven!
T:1294B Never fear that I have ‘left’ you! I, Jesus, your Light, am awaiting you in Holy Communion, always loving you. Whenever you allow anything to weary or to pre-occupy you, you must remember that it is only the ‘eye of the soul’ which is dimmed. Remember that I am Present within your soul, as loving and as generous as ever, awaiting your attention!
A WORK OF ENCOURAGEMENT.
T:1295 #1 Don’t be bashful. Accept the truth of your vocation, which is that I chose you long ago so that you might do My work of encouragement. Nothing which I have planned for you or asked you to do has arisen from any whim or accident. With Divine wisdom, I have trained you for the task which I invite you to undertake. I am in control of all things, though you have had real freedom in choosing to respond to My invitation.
T:1295 #2 See how marvellously I work in and through your life, treating you with tremendous respect and love. I don’t give you gifts to use, then go away and leave you alone; nor do I act powerfully upon you as a man uses a machine. The work which you are doing for Me is truly a work of co-operation.
T:1295 #3 Keep in mind the way in which I want you to move forward to work with Me to help others: from now onwards you shall go quietly forward. You will be side-by-side with Me, I in My strength and Glory and you in your inadequacy; yet you will be trusting in Me, and - together - we will work as One!
T:1296 Don’t see My heart-ache and physical sufferings as something which must go unassuaged. Even as I suffered so dreadfully in Gethsemane, I knew, then, that you long to comfort Me during My fear; and if - in your daily life - you “comfort everyone who is frightened” you can delight Me. By loving and helping others, you prove your love for Me, and do My work.
T:1297 #1 Be ever-grateful for your union with Me. I Who live in Heaven also stand close to you, within your soul, during prayer. It is as though Heaven is touching earth. You and I are speaking together as if side by side, in intimate conversation.
T:1297 #2 Share your knowledge of Me with others, despite meeting puzzlement, hostility or embarrassment.
T:1297 #3 Speak the truth, like a child. Say to others, with great simplicity: ‘Yes, I have seen Jesus in prayer. He has been teaching me. He wants you to give up sin and to be reconciled. He wants you to love and serve Him.’
T:1298 Accept the Heavenly joy which I sometimes offer to you - over and above your usual joy and peace! You are right to seek My Will, yet you must remember that My Will for you is that you have joy, eternal bliss, and contentment! You sometimes overlook this when you turn to Me; you ask Me to give you courage in your sufferings; but secretly, you expect nothing but further suffering!
SAINTS, TO HELP YOU.
T:1299 #1 Turn to My Saints when you need help or encouragement. They are joyful in Heaven, and they long to see you joyful too. They are delighted when you turn to them and are always pleased to help you. Listen to St. Peter who is saying so tenderly: ‘What can I do for you, my child?’
T:1299 #2 Be child-like in your trust of Me and in your trust of My Saints, who are My greatest friends.
T:1300 #1 Follow My inspiration and ‘abdicate’. Give up all your own plans. Live only for My Glory and for the fulfilment of My plans. I, Jesus, love to do the will of those who treasure My Will. When you have surrendered your soul to My influence, you can be sure that “now I can get to work ... !”
T:1300 #2 Treasure the gift which you have received from Me - the great gift which is faith. Faith is so precious that it should not only be accepted with gratitude. As you have realised, it should be cherished, defended, and valued so much that people beg Me for even more faith.
T:1301 #1 Be grateful that I have shown such patience, as I have waited for you to consent to do My work, and as I have taught and guided you throughout your training.
T:1301 #2 Count it an honour to be allowed to speak of Me to others, even if it means risking all sorts of unpleasantness and difficulties.
T:1302 #1 Surrender all your fears to Me, and all your remaining ambitions. By such a surrender you are enabled to fulfil My ambitions for you, and you begin to do so in child-like joy and trust.
T:1302 #2 Understand your title, which is ‘the Children of God’. You can be like children in the sense of being carefree and joyful, trusting in My Love, as you wait to join Me in Heaven. You can give yourself wholly to My care, happy to be working or suffering or resting, always patient and serene as you go wherever I lead you.
DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.
T:1303 #1 Learn the truth about the Father’s nature by studying Me, Jesus Christ His Son. Through My Church, I ‘unfold’ and explain and teach the truth about Him. Through My Spirit, I teach you in prayer about Myself; and when you study My words and actions - as recorded in the Holy Scriptures which have been gathered by My Church, and venerated - you can learn even more about Our Divine nature.
T:1303 #2 Aim to move closer to the Father both through love and through knowledge. It is through knowledge of Me, Jesus Christ, that you can understand something of the nature of the Most Holy Trinity: of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I wish you to understand and be glad that:
“I am
God.
I am
like an ‘eye’
by means of which
you see the attributes of God.
If you would understand
God’s mercy,
look at Me, Christ, in action,
being merciful.
If you would understand
true compassion,
see My compassion, and also
My longing to teach,
since Love longs to share.
See the wrath of God
in My fierce purity.
See My Love of My little ones.
Look at Me, Christ,
to see God’s justice, power and Glory.
Look at Me, Christ,
to see My Spirit of service, prayer, and
utter self-sacrifice.
You see all of this, of God the Holy Trinity
when you look
at and through Me,
Jesus Christ your Lord.”
ENTERING YOUR WORLD.
T:1304 Rejoice and give thanks for the marvels which I do because of My great Love for you.
When you enter the church,
greet Me.
I am
Really Present.
I, Jesus, do truly enter your world, from Heaven,
in the Most Holy Sacrament of My Body and Blood,
at the Consecration;
and I am truly with you, from Heaven,
in My continued Presence, after Mass,
in the tabernacle.
T:1305 #1 Continue to unite your sufferings with My sufferings, as an act and a prayer of reparation. As you do this, and as you offer your life to Me, you can be confident that your efforts are worthwhile. In such a union with Myself of both love and will, in sacrifice, each tiny suffering or sacrifice is of Divine worth, though this is only because of your soul’s union with Me your Divine Redeemer.
T:1305 #2 Keep Me firmly in your gaze.
T:1305 #3 Believe in the extraordinary value of the contemplation into which you have been drawn. This prayer of contemplation is a gift from Me, yet you would not have received it had you not already paid devoted attention to Me.
T:1305 #4 Marvel at My beauty: the beauty of Me, Jesus, both in My Divine perfection and in My glorified humanity. Marvel at the gift which I am sharing with you; let Me explain that:
Whenever I draw you into
the true prayer of contemplation,
I enable you who are so frail and imperfect
to offer My beauty
as a gift to your Heavenly Father!
My beauty, in its perfection,
is a Divine Praise of the Father
from within the soul which shuns selfish thoughts
and which keeps Me at the centre.
T:1306 #1 Be patient. Whenever a feeling of dread oppresses you - sometimes even after Reconciliation and forgiveness - don’t search for reasons. My holiness is so great that it can be experienced as something which seems to crush or to burn your soul. Yet I love you, always. I know that you love Me. “How precious you are”! You can rejoice that we are reconciled. You can be confident that your little weaknesses don’t spoil our friendship.
T:1306 #2 Think about My Love for you. It is so great that even when none of you is worthy to speak for Me - nor even to speak about Me - I give you, nevertheless, wonderful work to do in partnership with Me, and a union of your soul with Mine: a union of extraordinary intimacy.
T:1306 #3 Turn to Me with child-like trust and honesty in everything. I delight in such an approach, and draw you even closer to Myself.
MY HOLY MOTHER, HONOURED.
T:1307 #1 Never fear that My holy Mother and I are indifferent to your efforts to please us. Here, in My presence, as you are praying, My Mother is smiling with delight at the great honour which you have paid her, first, by painting her picture, and secondly by putting your trust in her help - as when you named this picture: “Our Lady of Harpenden”, and asked her, under that title, for help for yourself and for others.
T:1307 #2 Realise that I very much like to see My holy Mother honoured with the same great devotion in every place and every age, even though that devotion be offered under new names or titles.
T:1308 #1 See it as a great grace that you can admit how unworthy you are to speak about My Mother; yet what a great grace is the faith which you have, as you trust in the power of My Holy Spirit, by Whose work you can be changed. He will help you to become more loving, and to fulfil your task amidst your many weaknesses.
THE WORK OF MY SPIRIT.
T:1308 #2 Remind yourself that My Holy Spirit is the Source of all graces. As an example of the greatness of His power, and of the way in which His Divine power has been at work, consider the life of My holy Mother. Listen to My Spirit, Who is saying, of Mary:
“I prepared her.”
He is speaking of her Conception, and of His special work - through which she was conceived immaculate.
T:1308 #3 Realise that My Spirit is assisting and changing everyone who loves Me:
My Holy Spirit is at work
in different people in different ways,
distributing the gifts and graces
which are appropriate for the tasks
to which We call Our friends.
The Most Holy Spirit - through the merits of My Sacrifice:
My Sacrifice on the Cross,
a sacrifice which was to come later -
earlier prepared the soul of Mary
with dazzling purity and beauty,
so that she might be fit to undertake
- with her consent -
the task for which she was most fitted:
the task of the Motherhood of Myself,
Jesus Christ the Son of God.
T:1308 #4 Be confident.
Put your trust in Me.
Receive the help of My Holy Spirit
in your own life and work.
That same Spirit Who was at work in My holy Mother
can and does inspire and prepare you
for your task,
just as He prepares others for their tasks,
and leads you onwards
- in the work which We Will that you do -
step by step, whatever the difficulties,
through whatever changes and further tasks
We Will
that you experience or undertake.
T:1308 #5 Understand something of the work of My Holy Spirit;
that same Spirit leads you
not only by direct suggestion, but
by drawing the soul to choose
whatever seems best at each moment, when
the soul does then choose ‘correctly’ since
- marvellous to consider -
it is in a state of longing to do Our Will
and to bring Us Glory!
T:1308 #6 Trust in Me. I work with the same Love
in the life of everyone who tries to love and serve Me,
from the greatest to the least.
Speak with confidence of My work.
I created the Blessed Virgin Mary;
I prepared her; and
furthermore, I am ever at work,
preparing and helping people in many ways.
You can be sure, of your own life, that
whatever is praiseworthy in it stems from Me, since
I give gifts;
I cause them to be used.
By My own Will, I hide or reveal
the gifts of the one who received them.
There is no cause for concern.
T:1308 #7 Be at peace,
since I am most certainly at work in your life.
Here in Harpenden,
I, “God-in-Christ”, prepared you,
gave My Holy Mother to visit you, and then
led you to paint her picture: one of many daily acts
in which you try to keep your promise
of living for My service and Glory.
CELEBRATION AND GLORY.
T:1309 #1 Understand that your worship at the Holy Mass is not only an Act of Sacrifice; it is also an occasion of celebration at which My Church, gathered together, rejoices in My triumph over death and in My glorious Ascension to Heaven. My Sacrifice and My Resurrection and Ascension are intimately connected, and it is through the Offering and the celebration of the whole of My life that the Father is glorified.
T:1309 #2 Be especially reverent and grateful whenever you attend My Holy Sacrifice, which is awesome in its holiness. Just as the Father was glorified and Heaven rejoiced at the instant of My triumphant return to the Father at the end of My earthly task, so the Father is glorified - to the same degree as then - and Heaven rejoices - with as much awed gratitude and admiration as then - at My sacrificial Offering, today, as it ascends from the altar!
T:1309 #3 Realise one of the causes for joy, at the offering of My Holy Sacrifice: not only am I Really Present amongst you, and not only do I offer the Sacrifice which I once offered on Calvary, offering it in your presence to help the living and the departed; when you join in My Sacrificial Offering at the Holy Mass, you are present to My One Triumph, by which the Father is glorified eternally.
A LIVING FLAME.
T:1310 #1 Follow My inspiration and renew your determination not to waste time. Love, pray, and work wholeheartedly, in order to please Me.
Your task, in prayer,
is to be “as a flame”,
- a Living Flame -
on fire with the “Light of Christ”,
burning with Glory here,
silent before the Father,
for the honour of the Most Holy Trinity,
One God, Eternal, All-Holy.
T:1310 #2 Pursue the truest way of being a ‘Living Flame’ before Me. Live for love! Renounce all of your own desires and ambitions so that you might resemble Me, Jesus, and so that My one ambition - of glorifying the Father - might be yours.
T:1311 Don’t be anxious. You know that you are trying to please Me at every moment. I Who can see within your heart can reassure you, as you gaze towards the altar, and towards the Blessed Sacrament:
“It is I, Jesus, Really Present:
the whole Person, Who loves you!
It is good to pray well and sincerely,
with reverent words;
but your love of Me
is the best gift to Me, with
your sorrow for faults,
your longing to love more deeply, and
your longing to serve Me.”
ETERNAL TORMENT.
T:1312 Continue to offer fervent prayers for the souls of the departed. But realise more fully, and warn others, that one who utterly rejects Me, forever, is like one who hurtles upside down, in near-darkness, into infinite depths. After death, one who rejects Me ‘falls’ like a stone past the Immensity of My Being, into those infinite depths; and since there is no place where I am not, the soul which rejects Me never ceases to feel the power of My holiness; and since it would shun My holiness - and rejects that holiness with all of its power - yet is present to it, its torment is eternal beside the infinity of My Being, and is unimaginably terrible.
YOUR HEART’S INTENTION.
T:1313 #1 Take your place, gladly, at My Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By your presence at My Offering, you are present to My Resurrection and also present at the moment of My Ascension to Glory!
T:1313 #2 Continue to put your trust in Me and in the merits of My Sacrifice. I, Jesus, am your gift to the Father! I am your Intercessor, Friend, and Redeemer. You are right to unite yourself - by your heart’s intention - with this marvellous Sacrifice, which My priest offers to the Father from the altar. As you fix your heart and your thoughts on Me, and on Heaven and on the Father, you can be sure that My Offering here - in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - is My eternal appearing before the Father in self-offering and Love, in your presence!
T:1313 #3 Take the fullest possible part in My Holy Sacrifice. You can offer yourself with Me. You can offer your heart and life to the Father, in loving service and obedience.
T:1314 #1 Continue to trust Me, as you prepare your heart for prayer.
Entrust to Me every worry,
and every fear or longing.
Turn - with Me - to the Invisible Father.
A true embrace with Me takes place
- in whole-hearted prayer -
when no corner of the heart is hidden,
when no thought is ‘kept’ from My gaze,
when all that you have in your heart and mind
is revealed, willingly, to Me your Saviour.
T:1314 #2 Reach up in prayer.
Receive the great benefits which flow
when you bravely reveal
every thought, and every yearning.
When you have opened your heart to Me,
I purify you further by the very Love which
you have permitted Me, thus,
to pour into your heart.
Welcome this Love.
Accept the pain of purification.
It is a great grace to receive it.
You can be glad that - through it - I am making you holy.
T:1315 #1 Continue to trust in My holy Mother. You are right to thank her for My life; but don’t strain at showing her an artificial devotion or reverence. You need not try to imitate every style of piety used by others, since the substance of your devotion is the same. Since you long to pay her the honour which is due to her and which is encouraged by My Church, you can be sure that she is happy to see you sitting beside her in prayer and obedience, as you continue trusting quietly in her warm and motherly love.
T:1315 #2 Consider how unnecessary is any sort of anxious self-justification in prayer. When you turn your heart towards My Mother, you need not attempt to convince her of your love for her! All who offer her sincere thanks and courtesy have thereby proved their love for this beloved woman: this true mother.
MY SPIRIT’S ACTION.
T:1316 #1 Consider the infinite power of My Holy Spirit Whose action you are celebrating today at Pentecost. He is Divine, pure and Holy; He is Fire, Light, Power and Joy, and therefore you owe Him both adoration and loyalty.
T:1316 #2 Know - of My Most Holy Spirit - that He is your Comforter and Teacher. His action upon you is more like a ‘cradling’ than a steering; and He carries you, during this cradling, towards the Father.
T:1316 #3 Recognise the work of My Holy Spirit. All of these people who are doing good, and who are moving towards Me, have responded to My Spirit’s prompting, even if they don’t yet know Us.
T:1316 #4 Realise, about your own life, that My Spirit ‘carries’ a beloved friend like yourself throughout your journey, in such intimacy, only because everything good in your life is done through Me, Christ your Lord; and I am walking ‘within’ your life at every moment because of the friendship which I offered to you long ago, and which you accepted.
THE SACRED PRIESTHOOD.
T:1317 #1 Treat every human being with tremendous love and respect, yet accept that you owe a special reverence and courtesy towards those who have been set apart as My ‘icons’ on earth.
T:1317 #2 Never speak carelessly or flippantly to My priests about their work. Repent of your discourtesy to one who shares My priesthood. Remember that “My priests are sacred”; and although your fault, today, was due to carelessness and not to irreverence, it was nevertheless the cause of your heart-ache as you stood within My scorching Light, in prayer, accepting your purification.
T:1318 #1 Follow My inspiration and - by My grace, and of your own free-will - accept and welcome all insults and criticisms, as being not only what you deserve, but as a gladly-undertaken penance. Offer them to Me as a gift: as a token repayment for all the humiliations and pains which I once suffered for you.
T:1318 #2 Allow me to ‘mine’ great depths within your soul, by humility. Every trouble which oppresses you can be offered as an ‘excavation’ by which I can create a great space within your soul. From that space, My Glory can then expand and shine out, for the good of others, and for the Glory of the Father.
T:1318 #3 Renounce all hopes and plans except My plans for your life. By such a surrender you can hope to be ‘good soil’ from which you will allow everything good of your own to be taken and used; and thus, I will be producing good fruit from within your life - and will be causing that fruit to grow ever richer and sweeter.
T:1319 #1 Obey Me, and do My plain Will for you, even when at times it leads you towards greater-than-usual temptations.
T:1319 #2 Brush aside your worries. “You are doing My work,” and therefore you can bear with a quiet conscience the attention which is being focused upon you. You have not sought special notice in this matter, and it is inevitable that you will be noticed, if you please Me by revealing My teachings.
T:1319 #3 Don’t be despondent about little failings. All that is imperfect in your thoughts or behaviour is a cause for contrition and change; yet these are really trivial matters; and I can see that your heart’s effort is directed, at every moment, towards the fulfilment of My Will.
LOVE DROVE ME.
T:1320 #1 Understand the reason why I came to earth to save you; I came because I love you! I left behind My power and Glory and - as if carried on a wave of My Divine grace and power - I leapt through the ‘bars’ of Heaven and came to live on earth amongst you.
T:1320 #2 Have faith in Me, your Saviour Who - by an extraordinary union - am a Divine Person of Immense Majesty now united with frail humanity. I, Jesus, Who once walked upon earth with My Apostles and Who now am glorified, unite the fullness of My Divinity with My human nature - a human nature drawn from My holy and Virgin Mother, Mary.
T:1320 #3 Humble yourself before such a Love as My Love for you. What a weight and a burden I bore in My humanity! What infinite Love drove Me to come down to you in such intimacy, made the same as you in fragile flesh, and like you born of a woman! I came down to earth so that, side by side with you, I might call out to the Father on your behalf. (WC + OIL: 1320)
T:1321 #1 Realise the importance of humility - both for the good of your soul and for the giving of greater Glory to the Father. By your voluntary acceptance of humiliations, and by self-effacement, you can make a ‘space’ in your soul from which My Glory can shine out; and thus you can cause the Father to be praised even more than at present.
T:1321 #2 Learn to hope for humiliations and for opportunities for self-abasement, if you truly love Me, and if you wish for My Glory more than you wish for anything else.
T:1321 #3 Remember that you can do great good even when you are not physically active and helping others. This is My Divine economy of Love: that some people pray for others who, being thus strengthened, suffer patiently because of their love for Me, and even support others too. You can see that each one of you can be affected not only by the visible actions of others, upon earth, but also by their invisible actions. I want to prepare you for Heaven partly through the kindness of other people; and you in your turn can help others to move towards Me and towards Heaven’s everlasting joy.
T:1321 #4 Always remain aware that you are bound in various ways to the whole human race. No-one can hope to reflect upon his own life and then to work towards his Salvation whilst failing to consider the welfare of other human beings.
T:1321 #5 Treasure the great blessing which is yours: union with Myself, through which you can feed on Me, and lean on Me for rest - as you leaned on the Cross for many years. You can act as one with Me, since - through My goodness - I am beside you in prayer, and also beside you in daily life as you try to please Me at every moment.
PART TWO
GREATER LIGHT
A GREAT PRIVILEGE.
T:1322 Rejoice that you now come into My radiant Presence in Holy Communion. The intimacy and Light which you now enjoy are a great privilege. They alone come into My Presence, thus, who have no ambitions of their own, who think only of My Glory - of doing My Will at all times rather than their own - and who live to serve Me. They are most able to plead with Me - before the Father, for this generation - who suffer wounds and bear burdens patiently in union with Myself, bearing the Cross with Me in this century, and bearing it even through accepting the ordinary trials of daily life, including sad experiences and sickness.
T:1323 Remember to give the Glory to Me, whenever you do good things for My sake. Humility is extremely important, in the life of all who wish to please Me; and when you take no credit for your good works you are standing on the ‘firm ground’ which is humility; it is as if you are standing on the ‘rock’ where a sensible man built his home - in My Gospel story.
T:1324 #1 Follow My inspiration and expel from your heart and soul every breath of conceit or self-satisfaction.
T:1324 #2 Take heart from the knowledge of the wonderful consequences of your grace-filled efforts; whenever you repent of pride, it is as though a door opens within your heart, to reveal yet another long-darkened ‘area’ where - at last - My Glory might now pour its Light within!
T:1325 #1 Follow My inspiration and make a firm resolution to keep on fighting against pride. All the Glory which you refuse, thus, is given to Me!
T:1325 #2 Renew your self-offering to Me. The best prayer which you can make to Me is the total offering of yourself, an offering of your whole life and service.
T:1326 #1 Rejoice in your privileged place. I have drawn together many people - you amongst them - gathering them in My Name before the Father, making them One People, ready for the Eternal ‘gathering’ when, at the end of time, My victory will be revealed.
PRAYER “IN CHRIST”.
T:1326 #2 Understand more about the power of your prayer “in Christ”. You have seen how frequently your requests are granted; and this is through My Divine Intercession and through your union with Me; yet your prayer can become ever more confident and powerful, for this reason: that the more ‘rooted’ you are in humility, then the more profound is your prayer.
T:1326 #3 Understand the perfection of any sincere prayer which you make ‘in Christ’, whilst seeing why your prayer can be made with an ever-increasing confidence: it is true that any offering, from your heart, of My perfect prayer to the Father, is a perfect offering; for example - when you praise the Father in My Name your praise is worthy of Him and is accepted. But when you pray and make your petitions, you ought to realise that the less of yourself is ‘intruding’ into the ‘prayer-in-Christ’ which you are offering to the Father as you pray in My Name, and the fewer are your selfish desires, selfish hopes or needless distractions, then the more surely and fully can you yourself offer, to the Father, My ever-perfect prayer and offering.
T:1327A #1 Believe that I love you, and that I delight in your gratitude for favours. “I shall do even greater things!” One who trusts in My Merits can hope that all of her prayers will be granted.
T:1327A #2 Surrender the self-consciousness and embarrassment which sometimes accompany the good acts which I enable you to do for Me. Thus, you can break up the ‘concrete’ which is self-concern; and My grace and Light will be able to pour out more lavishly from within your soul, towards others.
A PROCESSION OF PILGRIMS.
T:1327B #1 Look upon My Church as being like an enormous procession of weary people which wends its way towards the horizon, and towards Heaven. It is as though I am walking in the midst of My People, and a great Light is shining from Me. I am strolling along with a sick child - a Downs child - on My shoulders. The closer you are to Me, the more Light there is to see your footsteps, and the brighter is the path. This great procession of pilgrims moves steadily forward, clinging onto its sick and frail ones, and its bewildered family members. (WC + OIL:1327B)
T:1327B #2 See what a great cause you have for celebration, here in My Church, where ‘Downs Children’ are of equal importance to independent adults. Well and joyful or tired and in need of help, each person has a place in My ‘caravan’, which is My straggling army of believers, as it draws closer to the Father.
T:1327B #3 Be confident about your journey. Here in My Church, you have drawn very close to Me, Jesus, Who am your Saviour, Companion, Helper, Comforter, Guide and Light. Within My Church, as you hope for Salvation and long for eternal joy and peace, you can be sure that I know the way to Heaven and that I am showing you the way. I am the Way, as I unfold the route and sustain you.
T:1327B #4 Keep on trying to help My brothers and sisters within the Church who are walking beside you towards Heaven. What marvellous help you can offer one another, because you are all travelling in the same direction, guided by Me, Jesus. I remain amongst you all the while, through My Word, My Spirit, and My present-day Apostles, and through My sacraments, and through My Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
T:1328A #1 Believe that your efforts will be fruitful. Through My grace, and through your co-operation, the pains which you accept and suffer are like the labour-pains before a birth; yet the labour which you are enduring is for the birth of souls into Heaven!
T:1328A #2 Be grateful for every experience which I permit you to undergo, even for difficulties. The pain which you are now enduring - with the purer abandonment to Me which you have learned because of this pain - is like a dress rehearsal for your real dying and death. Perhaps it seems as though you are even now on the brink of death; yet I am permitting you to look carefully at your life, to see what regrets remain, or what tasks still have to be done.
T:1328A #3 Make careful preparations for the moment when there will be no ‘return from the brink’ of death, nor time for further preparation, work or regrets, nor time for further nurturing, on earth, of friends and family.
DANGERS.
T:1328B #1 Consider how tremendously lacking in grace is the soul for whom you have been praying. Truly, she has isolated herself. How dangerous it is for human beings to reject My truth and My graces, preferring their own opinions and their own will, and therefore keeping Me “outside” the soul.
T:1328B #2 See what your Father shows you in trusting prayer: that there are some who do not praise Him.
T:1328B #3 See how isolated is a grace-less soul; it is like a military bunker which you can see high up on a cliff-top, cut off from living contact. What rigid steel doors have some souls who will not admit My Holy Spirit within. They remain trapped by their own wills in their “coffins of self-loving”, that is, trapped within their own selfish souls which are like private kingdoms where I do not reign. (WC:1328B)
T:1329A #1 Follow My inspiration and be bold in prayer; turn to your Heavenly Father and ask for the great gifts which will bring faith and hope to thousands of souls and Glory to the Father.
T:1329A #2 Don’t imagine that you are struggling alone. I am looking on tenderly, encouraging you. My Saints and I are watching you as you do My work, thank Me for My gifts and try to be faithful and courageous. I love to reward those who put their trust in Me.
T:1329B #1 Continue to subordinate all of your wishes to My Will. In activity, in prayer, or in sacrifice, a true offering of self makes the soul into a gaping channel through which a ‘river’ of My grace can flow out towards others.
T:1329B #2 Remember that I cannot be out-done in generosity. I greet you, saying “Welcome back”, after these few days in hospital when you tried to bear your sufferings with patience in order to please Me. My Saints, too, cluster round; they are joining in My greeting, and they are showing you the meaning of ‘Communion’! Truly, you have friends in Heaven, as well as on earth.
T:1330 #1 Transcend your limited ideas about the Holy Mass, and about My Presence amongst you. The reality - known by a pure and vigorous faith - is more marvellous than you have ever realised, since, during My Holy Sacrifice, you are present, here in this church, to the whole life of Me, Jesus, Who am Present with you! You are present to the Mystery of My Holy Incarnation, to My Life, My healings, My teaching, and to My death, Resurrection and Ascension - and more. (WC + OIL:1330)
T:1330 #2 Ponder the significance of My Real Presence. I, Jesus, am both God and man, and I have come amongst you in order to offer My Holy Sacrifice for the Glory of the Father, and to feed you on My Holy Body and Blood. Yet there is no end to the blessings to be reaped from My Presence: Just as I, Jesus, am ‘entirely’ with you, during My Holy Sacrifice, so I invite you to share, mysteriously, in My entire Life! Truly, in these Holy Mysteries of My Church - as you kneel in My Presence - and through the sacred feasts and seasons, you touch Me in a thousand different and life-giving ways.
PRIESTHOOD: ORDINATION.
T:1331 Be aware of the marvel which is ordination, when a man whom I Myself have chosen makes a total self-offering to Me for a special work. At today’s celebration - at this ordination to the priesthood - vast numbers of My Holy Angels are gathered as if for a feast; and I Myself appear in majesty amongst you, at the Consecration. High Priest amongst My priests, and robed in white, I bear on My breast an image of the Crown of Thorns. It is a symbol of humility and self-sacrifice; it is a badge of Glory. (WC + OIL:1331A)
A KINGDOM OF LIGHT.
T:1332A #1 Remember that only by self-abnegation is the best work for Me, within your own life, made possible.
T:1332A #2 Follow my inspiration and turn to your Heavenly Father to declare that you will welcome His Will for you, in everything, with not the least hope or ambition of your own remaining in your heart.
T:1332A #3 Listen to your Heavenly Father, Who reassures you, about your offering:
BY A TRUE SELF-OFFERING
a great space is made before you
WITHIN YOUR SOUL,
a space which can be entirely filled with My work,
My Light, My marvels and My Glory.
THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU GIVE YOUR CONSENT:
by consenting to self-abnegation.
T:1332A #4 BE CONFIDENT THAT YOUR SURRENDER OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE AND SOUL TO ME
IS PRODUCING WONDERFUL RESULTS.
Everyone in your soul is bathed in Light,
the Light of the Glory of the part of your life
which is given entirely to Me.
As they ‘stand’ in that Light,
AND AS YOU PRAY WITHIN MY CHURCH,
RECONCILED, TAUGHT AND FED BY ME, AND CHERISHING MY HOLY WILL,
you are a ‘new child’ in My Kingdom.
You stand in a ‘corner’ of the Kingdom of Light
WHICH I HAVE ESTABLISHED.
T:1332A #5 LOOK UPON MY CHURCH
AS BEING LIKE A BRILLIANTLY-LIT GARDEN
- A WALLED GARDEN -
WHERE THOSE WHO LIVE IN OBEDIENCE AND CHARITY
CAN EXPERIENCE AN EXTRAORDINARY SORT OF JOY AND A SENSE OF SAFETY
WHICH ARE UNKNOWN TO THOSE WHO LIVE IN DARKNESS.
DON’T FORGET THAT MY HOLY CHURCH IS GREATER
THAN THE VISIBLE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON EARTH.
Only a small part of My Kingdom now lies upon earth;
AND IN THIS SMALL ‘AREA’ OF EARTH WHICH IS HOLY
I, YOUR GOD AND FATHER, REIGN HERE
through Jesus Christ your Lord.
THE REST OF MY KINGDOM STRETCHES UP INTO HEAVEN,
WHERE IT IS POPULATED BY MY SAINTS AND MY HOLY ANGELS,
AND BY THE HOLY SOULS WHOM I SHELTER, THOUGH THEY ‘HIDE’, STILL,
FROM MY GLORY.
IN THIS KINGDOM, IN MY INFINITE GLORY,
I reign.
(WC + OIL:1332A)
T:1332A #6 Treasure your privileged place. You know that by your free act and by My goodness towards you, your life is already glorious and fulfilling, no matter how quiet or lonely it might appear to be, to those who are ignorant of the blessings of membership of My Church and who are ignorant, too, of the great number of wonderful companions who share your spiritual journey - My Saints and My holy Angels.
T:1332B Give up every remaining private or selfish longing. The less there is of yourself - of your own plans and ambitions - mixed up in your efforts to do My Will, then the more firmly can My Will and My grace be given full space and first place in the ‘Great Outpouring’ later on, when you act as a channel for My grace to others.
T:1333A #1 Be glad that you have the privilege of being present at My Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where you unite yourself with the worship of My whole Church of earth and Heaven. When you join in My Holy Sacrifice, and pray to Me at the ‘Agnus Dei’ - saying: ‘Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world’ - you join a great throng, a throng of thousands who love Me: My Saints of Heaven, and also the Holy Souls now being purified, and My People on earth.
T:1333A #2 Give thanks that you belong to My Church on earth, which can be seen as a procession of joyful people: people who are weary but who are moving triumphantly towards Heaven. (WC:1333A)
DELIVERANCE.
T:1333B #1 Do everything in your power to be worthy to join the Saints and the Holy Angels, as you prepare to unite yourself with My Offering from the altar. They are thrilled by your deliverance from the danger of sin, and they rejoice in your new beauty, in a renewed life of grace, after your repentance and Reconciliation.
T:1333B #2 Give thanks for the great grace of repentance. At your true repentance, the action of My grace upon you leaves you like a new child of the Kingdom. Everyone who repents and is forgiven is like a child whose sin drags behind him like a discarded shroud as he emerges from a chasm of evil and darkness; and that ‘shroud’ falls away and is soon forgotten. (WC:1333B)
T:1334 #1 Don’t be ashamed to rejoice at the marvellous work which I am doing within your soul. I am making you holy!
T:1334 #2 Reflect upon the holiness of one of My great Saints; look at St Mary Magdalen who is now peaceful and holy. She has no mark of sin on her, nothing to indicate that this one was notorious. Like all sinners who reach Heaven, this holy Saint is glorious now, and innocent, and joyful. Her sins are not only forgiven but forgotten, and thus it is with your own sins which have been taken away through confession and Reconciliation.
T:1335 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer fervent thanks for My graces: for Holy Communion and for the help of My Saints, and for your Redemption - which has been achieved only through My suffering and death on the Cross.
T:1335 #2 Look upon your prayer of gratitude for My gifts as a prayer which delights Me; but “go higher” still. “Pray the Great Prayer” which is the highest kind of praise, by offering, through Me, a sincere praise of the Father’s Glory! When you praise the Father, in My Name, and when you praise Him not only for His gifts but for Him-as-He-is-in-Himself, by which I mean for His own Being, since He is worthy of all praise, honour and admiration; and when you say to Him: “Father, I praise you for Your Glory!” you delight My Heart.
T:1336A #1 Live in hope. You who have been brought into a true Communion with the Father through the grace of Me, His Son, Jesus, can have a sure hope of salvation. You can hope, too, for the salvation of all the people whom you ‘carry’ in your hearts.
T:1336A #2 Understanding the power and influence which are yours through your union with Me. If you belong to Me, so too do those in your hearts ‘belong’ to Me, through the ‘channel’ of your loving! You can hope that I am touching these people through you, even if - for the moment - some of them are not consenting to receive My Love.
PRIESTHOOD’S GLORY.
T:1336B #1 Honour all of My priests, for their priesthood. Great honour is due to the Glory in which I have clothed them all by mean of My Bishops. I give to each new priest - as he is truly changed at his ordination - the Glory which is due to sanctity, although he has still to make that sanctity his own.
T:1336B #2 Be grateful that I pour such marvellous blessings upon My holy Church. At every priestly ordination, Heaven accepts the sacred offering of a man’s life into the dignity of the priesthood. Holy Angels stand in awe, gazing at the Glory of the new priest, whose soul is radiant with My Light.
PRIVATE PRAYER.
T:1337 #1 Don’t become anxious about the normal distractions and weary thoughts which arise in prayer whenever there is a great amount of chatter and bustle at home, for example, when guests are coming and going. Such little obstacles in prayer, which arise from charitable activities, are not sinful, though they might prevent complete union for the moment between ourselves. But they are temporary and blameless.
T:1337 #2 Remind yourself that I never change. I am always the same loving Lord Who loves you now, and Who am with you, as you approach the Blessed Sacrament. You can be sure that I Who am sacramentally Present here am greeting you with delight.
T:1337 #3 Try to ‘carve out’ even more little episodes of private prayer from your quieter times at home, if you can. This would not be to fulfil an obligation, so don’t be anxious about it. You already fulfil your obligations by other periods of prayer; and - as you know - your duty in any further free time is to be charitable towards family and visitors.
T:1337 #4 Try to approach Me even more frequently, but do so in order to let Me give you joy! I wish to increase your heart’s joy and comfort; and it is when you turn to Me that you allow Me to console you.
T:1337 #5 Don’t think about prayer as being mainly a duty. Remember to fulfil the duty of prayer, and encourage others to pray, since none of you can hope to be happy unless you turn to Me; but remember to Whom you pray. Whenever you give up time in order to turn to Me you are turning to a beloved friend: to Me, Jesus, Who love you dearly.
T:1338 #1 Follow My inspiration and prepare your heart for the Holy Sacrifice by praying fervent prayers even before you set out for the church.
T:1338 #2 Repent of your carelessness, which causes you to arrive for the Holy Mass at the last moment - or even late - when careful planning would have given you more time for reverence and recollection.
T:1338 #3 See how you lessen your own joy by a careless preparation for the Holy Mass and for Holy Communion. It invariably means that you spend the whole hour fighting distractions, when you might have given your whole attention to Me, your Lord, Who am Present amongst you. Also, if you neglect appropriate prayers and acts of penance and preparation before you set out for the church, you lessen the likelihood of an instant and true and glorious Communion.
T:1339 Remember that all of your sincere efforts to be charitable are rewarded. For example, when you sacrifice your own desires in order to help a neighbour, your little offering is - as usual - combined with My own Love and Sacrifice; so you can see that through your little, kind gesture, a torrent of love leaps upwards towards the Father - albeit through My merits - and gives Him Glory.
T:1340 #1 Take heart from knowing that your efforts are worthwhile. “I delight in you”, and in your free and willing surrender to My wishes and to My influence. Such a surrender is important not only for your soul’s welfare, but for your progress in prayer.
T:1340 #2 Consider the best preparation for the gift of contemplation; it is to live a life dedicated to My service and to have a heart which has surrendered all selfish ambitions. The heart which has been cleared of its own desires is a place cleared for the blaze of My Divine Glory in contemplation. In such a heart - whether in your own heart or in the heart of a vowed religious who has made sacrifices to that end - in true contemplation, the Father is praised worthily, through Me, Jesus, and others are helped.
TRUE LOVERS, EQUAL.
T:1341 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer your little efforts once more to the Father, saying: ‘Here is the rest of my life for You.’ Be prepared to serve Him in any way He wishes and to do His work no matter where He leads you.
T:1341 #2 Realise what a great grace it is that I have led you to reveal every thought, desire and anxiety to Me in prayer. To be able to confide in Me is a sign of great trust. Realise, further, that:
Love is reciprocal.
True lovers are bound to be equal, and therefore
when you share your thoughts and desires and anxieties with Me
in sincere trust and friendship,
revealing and giving so much of yourself,
I do the same for you:
from My Godhead to your humanity!
Consider My great Love for you.
Such is My tenderness towards My friends, and
so great is My desire
to draw you all into ever-more intimate friendship,
that I lavish my gifts upon you.
Almost like a blood transfusion
by which life or the properties needed for life are given,
a great gift is given to you in Holy Communion,
a gift by which the Divine Life within you is strengthened.
My gift to you in Holy Communion is My very Self, and so
I give to the soul just what is needed
for the union of the soul with Myself
in an equality of love!
I give to the soul - as if adorning you with Divine gifts -
Love, knowledge, Divine Life, and beatitude,
thus making your soul equal to Myself
in Love, intimacy, eternal Life, and bliss.
T:1341 #3 Rejoice in our friendship. Truly, I exist, I am loving, and My Love for you is real, tender and compassionate. Yet remember that no-one, of himself, is worthy of the intimacy and joy of Holy Communion, which is given only because of My great generosity.
T:1341 #4 Strive to be ever more generous in My service. Since you long to serve Me - and especially since you offer the rest of your life to Me in a sincere attempt to be more loving - you can be confident that I am responding to your prayer. Your prayerful self-offering prepares the soul for action.
T:1341 #5 Picture your willing soul as being like a vast ‘space’ - rather like a huge and deserted airfield - which has been cleared of the debris of selfishness and which is now brilliantly-lit with Divine Light, since there is now enough room upon it for My Glory to shine out. Into this brilliantly-lit ‘area’, others may now be drawn, so that they can benefit from My influence within your life. But they will be influenced further as your soul becomes more tender-hearted and charitable.
MIXED REACTIONS.
T:1342 Be prepared for mixed reactions, as you offer other people the ‘Light’ which is My teaching. Some will ‘bathe’ in the Light, rejoicing. Some will declare the Light too bright to endure - or will secretly think so - and so will not accept your friendship or teaching. Others will claim to be so repelled by your weaknesses - thoroughly revealed in this Light - that they will say that they are unable to accept what you say about Me, and about My Church, and about the spiritual life.
T:1343 #1 Co-operate with Me in helping others to remain in My friendship. You do well to entrust to My loving care all the people you cherish. Yet remember that your contact with these people in everyday life is one of the ways by which I pour My graces upon them.
T:1343 #2 Remember how great is My generosity; My Divine grace is like a torrent of Light which is pouring downwards upon a dark place on earth. Yet realise that if someone who might have remained faithful to Me and to My grace is walking away from that torrent, not seeing - or not caring - that to move away from My grace is to move away into impenetrable darkness, I desire that a generous person come to his help; and you can be that generous person.
T:1343 #3 Bridge the gap which exists between those who ignore My grace, and Myself, the
Source of all grace and Light. You know that My grace never ceases to be poured out for needy people; yet My grace does not ‘reach’ anyone who resolutely walks away from Me; and - by My Will - I allow you who live only to serve Me to assist Me in My work of Salvation! A soul wholly given to Me can be a channel of grace from Myself to others.
T:1343 #4 Picture My Divine Light and Life as being like a torrent of water which is falling down from Heaven, upon the earth below. If you remain close to Me and to My graces, and if you are generous, you can be like someone who stretches out one hand to touch that torrent whilst stretching out her other hand towards passers-by. You can act as a channel through which My graces can pour upon others, (WC:1343).
T:1343 #5 Consider how important is your co-operation with Me in My work. Whenever - through your presence, or your prayer, and your work - you touch a rebellious soul, and bring My Light to his life, you are keeping him from great danger. Anyone who is walking past the torrent of My Heavenly graces - whether from blindness, from carelessness, or from self-will - is walking into even deeper darkness, leaving behind My help and My Glory; so your influence is of tremendous value.
T:1344 #1 Be grateful for the faith which causes you to greet Me fervently at the Consecration. Where I am Present in the Blessed Sacrament, and when My priest holds up the Sacred Host so that you can see and adore Me, it is as though a fine white cloth is hanging down from behind that Host. This cloth hangs down as far as the altar steps, and lies in folds before you; and thus I am reminding you that I, your Lord, have spread a banquet before you by inviting you to this Holy Communion. (WC + OIL:1344)
T:1344 #2 Look upon Me as a great Benefactor Who has spread a feast before you upon a pure white cloth. I, Jesus, am the Divine Host Who invites you to take part in this feast, through Holy Communion. I draw up towards Heaven - as though wrapped in this immaculate cloth - those who have eaten the Divine Food at this feast.
T:1344 #3 Hope for Heaven. You ‘touch’ Heaven, in Holy Communion; but you can hope to enter Heaven for ever. There, glorious and holy friends await you. There, you can hope to see, at last, My holy Mother and Myself - with Saint Joseph - all wrapped in the flames of Love which spring from the Consuming Fire which is My Divine Light, Life and Glory.
CHOSEN FOR MY WORK.
T:1345 #1 Take courage from the kindness of My holy Mother and from her example. You have so many thanks to offer her, and I desire so fervently to remind you of her virtues, that I have brought her into your presence. You can thank her in person.
T:1345 #2 Follow the example of My holy Mother, who has been wholly obedient to My wishes. Just as she waits quietly - as you can see - until she receives My invitation to undertake a particular work or a special journey, so, in your work and witness from now on, you must take care never to be aggressive or thrusting.
T:1345 #3 Leave to Me the responsibility for seeing My plans achieved in your life. You are happy to work hard and to be obedient to Me, and therefore I will make it plain where you ought to go to do My work. You need only go where I wish you to go, when I wish you to go, and meanwhile, to do your usual work in peace.
T:1346 Be grateful for the grace by which I enabled you - recently - to accept a moment of humiliation. You long to imitate My virtues; and that longing and those efforts will not be unrewarded. On the contrary, vast and marvellous joys await those who bear humiliations out of love for Me, your Saviour. I assure you that Heaven’s joys are so great as to be beyond anything which you might imagine.
T:1347A #1 Cast off your anxieties. Continue to bring before Me in prayer every one of your problems. Show Me all your worries and weaknesses. Show Me the people who are in great need of help.
T:1347A #2 Understand the importance of honesty before Me in prayer. I want to see you living in real freedom; yet every worry to which you or anyone might cling only chains you to earth and prevents you from offering whole-hearted praise to the Father. By My encouragement of you I am leading you into pure worship - ‘unchained’ - for the Glory of the Father.
T:1347B #1 Have confidence in the role which I Myself have chosen for you. Out of My great Love and mercy I permit many people to work for My cause and My Kingdom - to assist Me in working for the Salvation of souls and for the Glory of the Holy Trinity. Yet though many are called, few are chosen; and by this I mean that many are called
to work for Me but few are chosen - specially invited - to be priests or ‘prophets’; and you must have no doubt that I have chosen you to do a special task.
T:1347B #2 Continue with your work, confident that I will sustain you. If you are patient and loving and fruitful, others will know, one day, that I am the source of all these teachings. Only a very foolish person would dare thrust himself forward attempting to be a priest or a ‘prophet’ without having been chosen by Myself, and not only chosen but therefore led and trained by Myself, adorned with My gifts and ‘vouched for’ in an appropriate way. I Myself know the difference between those who set themselves up as teachers of truth and those like yourself whom - though you are wholly unworthy - I have chosen, nevertheless, to speak on My behalf.
T:1348 #1 Put your trust in Me. I stand before you during the Holy Mass, clothed as a priest and holding up My arms in prayer to the invisible Father. I offer Myself and My prayer to Him, speaking on your behalf. (WC:1348)
T:1348 #2 Understand how powerful are the prayers which you make in My Name. Understand the importance of uniting your intentions with Mine, as you pray, and of trusting in Me, Jesus, your true Priest and Intercessor. “This is the reason why your prayers are heard”: your prayers are accepted because of your union with Me, Jesus, Who am the One true Mediator between God and mankind.
T:1348 #3 Intercede for others, and do so with confidence. When you are united to Me in Holy Communion, you can be sure that our union is fruitful. When I am Present within your soul - Present sacramentally - it is as if the people whom you carry in your heart are ‘burnished’ and swept along in the torrent of My Glory as it streams upward to the Father.
T:1348 #4 Believe in the power of your prayer “in Christ”. None of the prayers which you offer in My Name deprives anyone of his freedom. All the beloved people whom you carry within your soul are free to resist My grace, as it pours upon them through our Communion. Yet it is true that great strength is needed to resist My Light and to refuse My powerful and purifying Love.
MARY, THE HOLY HOUSE.
T:1349A #1 Rejoice in your faith, which has brought you here to Walsingham, and which has caused you to bow your head, obediently, as you proclaim in the Creed that I was “born of the Virgin Mary.”
T:1349A #2 Banish your sadness at the evidence of destruction at the shrine where My holy Mother was honoured, long ago. The people of Walsingham once treasured what was truly a Holy House of worship; but in your own day you can worship with just as much joy and gratitude, since My Mother and I are even now alive in Heaven, joyful, and delighted by your reverence.
T:1349A #3 Let Me console you during your pilgrimage, today, here in Walsingham. As you honour My Incarnation, and as you mourn the desecration of this shrine, go to the heart of this Mystery; nobody can undo My work of Redemption, and nothing can damage the great love which binds together Myself and My holy Mother; therefore, let nothing diminish your joy. Let Me assure you that:
“Mary is the Holy House!”
From the Father in Heaven, I came to her keeping.
She who bore Me in her womb
can never cease to be ‘The Holy House’
within which I, Jesus the Christ-child, have lain.
She is privileged, holy, eternally sacred, and
eternally to be honoured.
For her, your Father in Heaven is to be praised.
(WC + OIL: 1349A)
T:1349A #4 Remember that although shrines and holy places are sometimes destroyed, nothing and no-one can ever destroy the holy Virgin whom I chose to be My Mother.
T:1349A #5 Let nothing persuade you that My holy Mother had only a minor role in My plan of Salvation, whatever others might say about her, and no matter how grievously they have insulted or neglected her.
T:1349A #6 Remain always grateful for your Heavenly Mother: for what and who she is, and for what she has done for you. Here she is, now, consoling you, tenderly.
T:1349B Don’t worry about past failings. Trust, simplicity and a new repentance can be seen as appropriate for the beginning of the next stage of your task for Me - and for England - and for the next stage of your life.
VOCATIONS.
T:1350 #1 Be confident that I am responding to your prayers that I help this young woman who is making her vows as a religious. I always respond to your faith; so when you turn to your Heavenly Father, praying in My Name, asking Him to help her, you can be certain that He gives His Divine and powerful help.
T:1350 #2 Listen to your Heavenly Father, who is speaking to you, reassuring you about this young woman’s vocation:
“It is not I
Who have been drawing her to Me?!”
CONSIDER THE MEANING OF LOVE, AND JUSTICE.
THINK ABOUT MY TENDER LOVE FOR MANKIND
AND MY ESPECIAL HELP
FOR THOSE WHO TRY TO SERVE ME.
Do I not guide, help and adorn
one whom I call and make My own,
WHETHER IN RELIGIOUS LIFE OR IN ANOTHER VOCATION?
How can I fail to help
one who is acting out of love for Me?
T:1350 #3 CONSIDER THE PATTERN OF EVERY VOCATION.
SEE THE UNCHANGING AND FERVENT LOVE
- THE DELICATE, GRACEFUL TOUCH -
BY WHICH I YOUR CREATOR
CALL YOU, MY CHILDREN.
This is the progression of My calling:
first - the Vocation,
next - the Dedication,
then - the Blessing and the gifts.
THIS IS THE MEANING:
I, THE LORD, CALL FROM HEART TO HEART.
A WILLING SOUL RESPONDS TO ME
BY MAKING AN ACT OF DEDICATION,
PERHAPS IN DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS OF FAITH.
YET HOW CAN SUCH FAITH GO UNREWARDED?
I MYSELF SHALL BLESS, AND SHALL ADORN WITH MY GIFTS,
EVERYONE WHO TURNS TO ME IN SUCH NAKED TRUST.
I REWARD, BLESS AND ADORN EVERY SOUL
WHO PRAYS A SINCERE PRAYER TO ME
AND WHO MAKES A SINCERE SELF-OFFERING
OUT OF LOVE FOR ME, AND OUT OF LOVE FOR MY SUFFERING PEOPLE:
PEOPLE WHO - WITHOUT SUCH SPECIAL HELP - WILL NOT REACH SALVATION.
DIVINE ACTION.
T:1350 #4 Realise that I am at work in your soul, as you pray. Your own prayer reflects My real Will and action, in this sense: it is because of My Love for a person who is in need of the help which prayer brings that I have stirred your own heart - through the promptings of My Holy Spirit - to pray for that person and, therefore, to help her. I, your God, welcome your prayer. It was prompted by My Spirit, yet by your free will, you responded; and by your free act you pleased Me!
T:1350 #5 See how closely is your own life intertwined with the lives of other people on earth. Make every effort to obey My commandment of love, and to copy My example. I, your Saviour, yearn to see you helping one another as generously as I have helped you.
LOVE, LIKE A CLOAK.
T:1351 #1 Be ever-grateful for the faith which causes you - time after time - to thank Me for your baptism and to repent of your sins with renewed fervour. But keep in mind the cause of your forgiveness and of your hope of Heaven. Yes, truly, I was crucified and I died on the Cross to save you; but - as the Father now tells you:
“It was the Love, the Love of Christ that saved you.”
It was not the torment itself which saved you; you were saved by the Love with which I endured that torment as I prayed to the Father for your salvation, offering My life on your behalf.
T:1351 #2 Look towards the Cross which stands before you.
See how - My right hand free -
I, your beloved Saviour, hang upon the Cross.
See how I reach out, vigorously,
as if to draw a veil across the heads of all the people
who are clustered about Me in My Sacrifice,
a veil of pure Charity,
drawn from My Heart
as I hang on the Cross, dying.
See My Love, like a cloak,
thrown out from My Heart,
sheltering you who believe in Me,
you who - with bowed heads, and repentant -
have approached My Cross. Your sins are forgiven.
My Love for you threw out its infinite plea to the Father,
cloaking your sins.
I suffered on the Cross for the sins of mankind
as the Love in My Heart caused Me to say:
“Father! Listen to Me, Your only Son, Your Divine Son!
Forgive My brothers and sisters,
Your children, who - repentant -
cluster about Me.”
My Love for the Father had brought Me to the Cross,
as a witness to the Truth, to the end.
Truly, I love you,
Truly, I am one of you,
Truly, I died for you.
The Father’s great Love for you caused Him
to send Me, His Son, to this earth,
to lead you from darkness into Light, to lead you
at first, by My teaching and example, and then
by My Sacrifice of Myself on the Cross, since
that is where Love led Me, or
that was My inevitable end,
if I witnessed to the Truth.
One who speaks truth, acts truth, and ‘lives’ truth
will - by the clear light of his life -
scorch the hearts of those who shun truth
and who live in darkness.
So, I, Jesus, your Lord and Saviour,
came down from the Father.
I leapt to earth for the sacrifice of My life,
first, all the lesser sacrifices, and then the Great One,
when I was stripped of My bodily covering, dignity,
and then of life itself.
I, your Lord, hung upon the Cross:
Truth, crucified by Its enemies.
(WC + OIL:1351A)
T:1351 #3 Consider the horror of My crucifixion.
Imagine, if the Father were to weep over Me, His Son,
saying: “How, for My justice’ sake,
shall I deal with those who have dealt so horribly
with My Gift to mankind,
receiving the Divine Son - awaited for so long,
foretold by the Prophets - not with reverence,
but with mockery and torture?”
The Father might weep - almost - for the cruelty
which one ‘mere’ man inflicts upon another, since
each is precious beyond telling.
Yet what an appalling insult
was thrown out by man to God,
as I, the Divine Son, hung on the Cross, in agony!
T:1351 #4 Consider My thoughts, as I was dying.
Did I, on the Cross, call down punishment
on those who had caused all My loving efforts
to end in such pain?
Did I call for vengeance on the whole human race
which lived in darkness,
in rebellion against its Creator? No!
With my Divine Love, I, Jesus Christ - true man -
loved, divinely, My true flesh and blood,
My fellow men and women.
In solidarity with My own people on earth,
I threw out towards My Father the infinite Love of My Divine Heart,
by My Divine compassion cloaking and covering
the sins of the whole human race.
T:1351 #5 Consider My Love and My patience,
when I hung on the Cross, uncomplaining, in torment,
looking up to the Invisible Father.
It was as though I said, on Calvary:
“Father! Out of My infinite Love for You,
I came to earth to teach and - inevitably - to suffer.
Now, out of My infinite Love for my brothers and sisters,
I accept and offer to you all these torments,
in an infinite reparation for all their offences against You,
offences which merit their destruction,
since - so terrible a thing is sin, which is
rebellion against You - that
at one deliberate sin the Heavens shudder.
Here, in My sufferings, I willingly bear a punishment
which Justice might demand for the sins of all Mankind!
And I bear it, above all, for a crime as enormous
as this, one which has no equal:
the cruelties inflicted upon Myself, Who am Your Son:
the Divine Son of the Almighty, Holy and Eternal Father.”
(WC + OIL:1351B)
T:1351 #6 Consider the marvel of My Love for mankind.
Consider the triumph which was
My life on earth, and My Passion and Death,
My Resurrection and Ascension.
By the Father’s Will, and by His
foreknowledge, plan, consent and justice,
I suffered there on the Cross, and died in agony;
and then leapt up to My Father,
in the power and Light of My Holy Spirit,
drawing in My wake
all who would recognise Me, thank Me, and
follow in My Way to Heaven.
(WC + OIL: 1351C)
T:1351 #7 Put your trust in Me.
You who believe in Me
and acknowledge Me as the Divine Son
and as mankind’s Saviour
- and who gratefully live in obedience
to Me and to My teachings -
can hope to rise up to the Father.
You can hope to rise
from the darkness which is earthly life to the Glory of Heaven.
You can hope to leave behind all suffering, forever.
T:1352 #1 Offer your life to Me. Offer Me every aspect of your life: your heart, your time, your energy - and even life itself. A sincere offering like this, when it is truly lived, is true conformity to the Cross.
T:1352 #2 Imitate My example of total abandonment to the Father.
One who wishes to imitate Me,
and who wants to do so at every moment,
and who wants, furthermore, to be wholly united to Me
at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice, will imitate My offering of
My whole heart for the Father’s service,
My whole Will, for the fulfilment of the Will of the Father,
My time, in the service of the Gospel,
My energy, spent on the Father’s work, spent in
loving and helping My neighbours,
My total offering of My life, whenever I would be led,
even to adulation at one moment, and
to mockery and crucifixion at the next, and
My hopes and longings,
which were fulfilled in perfect and selfless obedience.
THE DOOR TO ETERNITY.
T:1353A #1 Try to give Me your full attention in prayer, if you can, but don’t worry if you seem to be slightly ‘turned away’ from Me because of certain little problems and distractions.
T:1353A #2 Don’t imagine that I am waiting for your attention as if annoyed by your imperfection. I want to see you gazing towards Me so that I can give you the joy in which I wish to immerse you!
T:1353A #3 Turn your heart to Me at every moment. At this very moment, as you speak of your love for Me and prove it by your sincere prayer, you are drawing closer to Me. How important it is that you live ‘in’ the present moment. Indeed, this “‘Now’ is the Door to Eternity.” Only through the present moment can anyone ‘touch’ Me and My Love.
T:1353A #4 Seize every moment as an opportunity by which you can draw closer to Heaven. It is through the “now” which is the “entrance to Glory” that you can follow Me, your Way, to the Father.
T:1353B Follow My inspiration and pray fervent prayers, daily, for the Holy Father in Rome, who endures great suffering for My sake.
T:1353C Continue to pray for others - that they might learn about My goodness and My Glory, and that they will accept comfort and Salvation. But be patient. You will be able to do further work for Me only “when you are ready, Lizzie,” after further preparation and greater spiritual progress.
THE DIVINE MEASURE.
T:1354 #1 Persevere in fervent prayer, and in greater efforts to become holy.
T:1354 #2 Follow My inspiration, and pray to be given a more loving heart; your prayers are even now being answered. My Holy Spirit now tells you, of Himself, and of His Divine nature, which is Love, that:
“I am the Measure.”
Divine Love is the true measure beside which you must examine all your little efforts to imitate Me, Jesus, as you strive to love your neighbour and to prepare for Heaven.
T:1354 #3 Let Me teach you!
Here I am,
Love Himself, to greet you.
Follow Me in prayer, wherever I lead you.
You asked to be given a more loving heart;
truly, your prayer is being answered.
This is My response, by My Spirit’s power:
to overwhelm you with kindness,
to delight your heart,
pouring out around you
extraordinary peace, heart-aching joy,
for a brief flight, a moment
of infinite tenderness, limitless consolation!
Let Me teach you about love, by My loving!
My Love is a free gift
to My open-hearted children.
My Love is pure and holy.
This pure Love enfolds you now, wholly!
My Love is heart-warming, blissful and tender.
I am
consoling, simple, encouraging,
forgiving and gentle.
My embrace is light, not demanding,
neither burdensome nor goading.
MY INVITATION.
T:1354 #4 Delight in this gift:
this enfolding Love, with
My purity and bliss!
By our embrace, and
in My loving
of your bruised and weary heart,
I invite Love to grow in your soul
where, before, there was little.
I encourage the small ‘fire’
in your soul
- the small fire of Love -
to reach out and become One with
the Great Fire,
the Three Flames,
the Divine Love which is Ours: Love of
Father, Son and Spirit.
This is Our aim:
to wrap you
in the full and everlasting embrace
of your God, One Lord - Ourselves -
in the eternal bliss which is Heaven.
T:1354 #5 Never forget this moment!
Never forget this Gift!
The knowledge of My Love, with
the gratitude which followed
- which I stirred within your heart -
will keep you in humility.
Listen to My words, and remember:
My nature is Love.
I am your God and Redeemer, Who has sent you
My Holy Spirit:
Divine Lord, infinite, uncreated.
Listen, now:
He says, of Our infinite, Divine Love:
“I am the Measure.”
That which - today -
you experienced in prayer
is My Divine outpouring
of Love and kindness.
My Divine Love is the true measure
of any self-giving.
Your little efforts
to imitate Me your Saviour,
to love your neighbour, and
to prepare for Heaven,
can now be examined clearly
in the Light of My Perfection.
SELF-EXAMINATION.
t:1354 #6 Can you become self-satisfied
about your small acts
of compassion and forgiveness?
Can you be satisfied
with a less-than-perfect love
of your neighbour?
Compare your love with the great Love which
I am,
which I reveal to you
through My Holy and Loving Spirit!
Remember:
the Divine Love which you experienced today
is the Love which I would pour
into your heart, for others.
See how pitiful is your love, until now,
when compared with My Divine Measure!
Hope to be loving, pure and holy,
for the sake of your neighbours,
your present-day life, and
your special work
- entrusted by Me your Saviour -
of sharing Our Teachings.
How urgent is your need
of a deeper understanding
of love’s meaning.
T:1354 #7 Make every effort to imitate Me.
A Christ-like love is kind, and
extraordinarily caring: it
wishes to see others blessed
with Heavenly gifts, and it
weeps, almost, at another’s dangers,
does all in its power to deter from sin
those who are tempted and in danger,
respects another’s freedom, yet
steers and encourages everyone
- each beloved friend -
towards holiness.
Know, of My Love, therefore
- Divine Love -
It is powerful and holy:
It is wholly unearned,
a free Gift
from your God to His children:
to you, among them,
dear daughter.
Know that all pure and true love
- whenever it is found -
has its origin in
My Divine Spirit:
true God,
infinite Light, and infinite Love:
All-Holy.
MY ELOQUENCE.
T:1355 #1 Put your trust in Me. Have faith in Me, and have faith also in the power and beauty of My prayer. Whenever you pray a sincere prayer “in Christ”, your longings about Myself and about your neighbour are fulfilled. I mean that I Myself, on your behalf, say - to your Heavenly Father - all the lovely things which you would say, were you eloquent enough! I speak your loving prayers to Him in the Offering which I make during My Holy Sacrifice, and, also, I offer Him your prayerful petitions.
T:1355 #2 Respond to My ‘promptings’, in prayer. Whenever I call you to leave behind your own thoughts, words and pleas, and when you give your consent and when you therefore soar - in My prayer - to the Father, a wonderful work is being done. When I draw you upwards in contemplation, I am also drawing up - by My great power - everyone for whom you pray, and whom you cherish in your heart. It is as if - when you ‘rise up’ in this way, closer to Heaven - you are pulling along a large net which contains all of these beloved people. (WC:1355)
A GREAT CHANGE.
T:1356A #1 Don’t worry about the work which you are doing for Me. I am at work in your life, as I am at work in the lives of all who love Me. My Divine power can help you to change, and it can change, also, those to whom I am sending you.
T:1356A #2 Consider My power, which is at work at the Consecration of the bread and wine, when they have been brought to the altar. By My Divine power, these gifts are changed into My Sacred Body and My Precious Blood. Understand that it is by this very same power that I make changes in the lives and hearts of those who love Me. They are changes of a different sort; nevertheless you can be sure that - because of My Divine power - another great change takes place whenever I am permitted to work in you My friends, since, by a miracle of grace, I am turning sin to purity, timidity to strength, and darkness to joy.
T:1356B #1 Be grateful for My gifts and for opportunities to spread the Gospel. “You have done well” in speaking truth, boldly, in public, in order to encourage others to cherish their faith and to give Me their wholehearted loyalty and obedience.
T:1356B #2 Don’t be afraid to admit that I have showered you with gifts and have led you to do good things for Me. You who are My ‘mere children’, and who have no splendid qualifications, can still witness to thousands. To have a true faith in Me, and therefore to ‘have’ My Mind, and to be able to pass on to others the teachings of My holy Church, should be a cause for great gratitude both in the one who has faith and in those who benefit from it.
T:1357A #1 Praise Us - the Holy Trinity, your God - for Our goodness.
T:1357A #2 Never fear that your prayers are inadequate. Your praise - offered through Me, Jesus - is as wide as Heaven, by which I mean that your praise - when it is offered “through” Me your Divine Saviour - is wholly ‘joined up’ to My praise of the Father. Therefore, because of My Divine power and My perfection, our united praise - yours with Mine - is infinitely powerful, beautiful and holy, and therefore it perfectly ‘embraces’ and perfectly honours the Godhead.
T:1357B #1 Follow My inspiration and simplify your thoughts and activities.
T:1357B #2 Use your intelligence in the Light which comes from faith. In order to serve and therefore to please Me, you can think more carefully about priorities. Spend each day doing the essentials, trusting in My plans, and clinging to Me from moment to moment, no matter how superficially overwhelmed you feel by work or by pain, and by your heart’s turmoil.
T:1358 Understand the reason for the great favour which you received from My holy Mother, when - on that special occasion, nearly three years ago - she came to your room to console you and to help you to conquer your fears; it is because the work which you are doing is so very important that I asked her to visit you. The task was worthy of her visit, not yourself. The task must and will succeed, for the sake of many souls; yet My Mother loves you, truly, despite your failings, as indeed, do I, your beloved Saviour.
EMPTY HANDS.
T:1359 #1 Be grateful that you have been led to see how profound is your spiritual poverty, and how great is your need of My Divine graces. It is through your acceptance of Truth, and through the sincere and contrite prayers which you have offered in My Name that you are close to your Heavenly Father, who has something to teach you:
HOW TRUE IT IS
THAT YOU COME TO ME WITH EMPTY HANDS,
THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER
TO ME
EXCEPT CHRIST MY SON, AND THE MERITS OF HIS SACRIFICE.
“That is what I wanted you to learn,”
SO THAT, LIKE A CHILD,
YOU CAN LIVE AT LAST IN THE TRUTH!
IT IS WHEN YOU KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT YOURSELF
THAT YOU CAN HOPE FOR TRUE HAPPINESS.
HOW FOOLISH ARE THOSE
WHO TRY TO RELY ON NATURAL GIFTS
TO DO MY WORK.
T:1359 #2 NEVER RELY ON YOUR OWN ABILITIES:
ON ABUNDANT WORKS, OR ON FLUENT SPEECH OR CHARM,
OR ON ANY OTHER GIFTS.
You can rely, only, on the Merits of Christ:
on the graces which He has won for you
and which He chooses to give to you
moment by moment.
ACCEPT THE TRUTH:
It is only through His graces
that you are enabled to help other people,
though I can use you, out of ‘need’,
USING YOU
as a good Carpenter uses a rusty implement.
IN THIS ‘NEED’ OF HELP
I MEAN ONLY
THAT IT IS MY WISH THAT MY WORK IS ADVANCED
THROUGH THE CO-OPERATION OF MY FRIENDS.
YET HOW FEW ARE WILLING TO ASSIST ME.
INDEED, HOW FEW ARE ABLE TO ASSIST ME.
HOW CAN ANYONE WHO LACKS FAITH
‘HELP’ ME, HIS GOD?
T:1359 #3 PERSEVERE IN PRAYER.
DON’T BE AFRAID,
BUT REMEMBER:
Only because of Christ’s Wounds and Christ’s pleas
do I, your Father, grant your poor prayers.
CHRIST, ALONE, IS WORTHY OF BEING HEARD,
AND YOU,
IF YOU BELONG TO HIM.
T:1359 #4 THINK ABOUT YOUR DAILY LIFE:
ABOUT THE GIFTS WHICH I HAVE GIVEN TO YOU,
AND ABOUT YOUR VOCATION.
PUT YOUR TRUST IN ME,
BUT REMEMBER:
YOU HAVE NOTHING OF YOUR ‘OWN’.
Only through the graces
won by Christ’s suffering on the Cross
do I, your Father, ‘grace’ you sufficiently
to do My Work on earth.
TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
T:1360 #1 Rejoice that you are willing to undergo change, in order to become more like Me - more loving - and that you have prayed with great confidence for the help of My Holy Spirit.
T:1360 #2 Listen to My Spirit, as He invites you to reflect upon things with His Mind and therefore to see how you can imitate Us most surely. Listen to Him speaking about the Consecration:
“See how I work, to effect this momentous change.”
That which you believe is true. The bread and wine which have been taken to the altar during the Holy Mass are changed into My Sacred Body and My Precious Blood; and this change is brought about through the words used by My priest, and by the power of My Spirit. During this Consecration, there is no physical evidence of My Spirit’s action or power, yet His Divine power is at work in an action which is silent, swift and invisible; and here is one of the reasons for this long explanation: that just as, through My Spirit, I can change bread and wine so astonishingly, I can also work astonishing changes in human hearts - if I am ‘allowed’, by people who wish to become more loving; and I make those changes in the same way, in the sense that when I am at work through My Spirit, that work is swift and silent, yet is powerfully effective.
T:1360 #3 Imitate My work and My action, if you wish to be more loving. Your loving acts need not be effusive, noisy or noticeable. Your loving acts ought to resemble Mine. Therefore you shall do kind things quietly yet confidently, without drawing attention to yourselves, and then silently going on your way.
T:1361 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer your whole life to Us once more, for Our Glory, keeping no ambitions of your own, and longing only for the fulfilment of Our plan. Listen to your Father in Heaven, Who now tells you:
REJOICE THAT YOU FOLLOWED THE PROMPTING
OF MY SPIRIT.
This is what you are born for:
you are born so that you might offer your whole lives to Us.
THE GIFT WHICH YOU HAVE JUST OFFERED TO ME
THROUGH CHRIST MY SON
- THE GIFT OF YOUR WHOLE LIFE, FOR MY PURPOSE -
is the greatest gift of your own that you could offer to Me.
FURTHERMORE,
such an offering of one’s life and energy springs from wisdom,
FOR WHAT MORE PERFECTLY WISE THING CAN YOU DO
THAN ENTRUST YOURSELF, ENTIRELY, TO ME, YOUR CREATOR?
A GENEROUS SELF-OFFERING TO US DRAWS UPON THE SOUL THE GREATEST JOY,
SINCE IT IS THROUGH SELF-GIVING
THAT YOU ARE DRAWN INTO TRUE UNION WITH US;
IT IS IN UNION WITH US - YOUR GOD - THAT YOU CAN FIND
THE GREATEST POSSIBLE JOY!
T:1362A #1 Hope for Heaven. You can draw encouragement, during your current struggles, from the knowledge that I Myself am thanking all of My friends who have persevered to the end; furthermore, you can be confident that this is so, because it happens in your presence, at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice! Whenever My priest - in the prayer of the Church - utters words of praise to the Father for the lives of the Saints who are now in Heaven, you can be sure that he is speaking on My behalf; and whenever My Holy Sacrifice is offered to the Father from the altar you can remember - particularly on My Saints’ feast-days or memorials - that I Myself, Who am Really Present, am praising the Father for His Glory, and am honouring My beloved Saints for their holiness!
T:1362A #2 Delight in the joy which My Saints are now experiencing in Heaven, where I Myself praise them for having remained faithful.
T:1362B #1 Follow My inspiration and unite with My Holy Sacrifice all the little ‘deaths’ which you experience, such as the distressing reactions which sometimes arise when you speak truth in order to please Me. I Who am Truth am even now supporting and encouraging you as you turn to Me in prayer.
T:1362B #2 Cherish Truth! Cherish Me, Who am Truth; and cherish the truth which is in your heart at this moment; voice your true thoughts to Me; confide your longing for great sanctity. Confide your burning desire to give Me Glory and to comfort and help My People.
T:1362B #3 Count on the friendship of the Saints, as you go about your usual activities. Even during your earthly difficulties, you can believe that - through conversation and worship - you enjoy a real companionship with My friends in Heaven. They are drawn, joyfully, towards all who, like them, unite themselves to Me in My total self-offering to the Father.
EFFECTIVE PRAYER.
T:1363 #1 Never regret having offered every aspect of your life to Me, in your new efforts to serve Me. Truly, it is a privilege to be able to serve Me. It can only be, ultimately, a cause for rejoicing.
T:1363 #2 Put your trust in Me, and believe that I am faithful. Usually unseen at the Consecration, I am nevertheless Really Present in power and glory. I, Jesus, Whom you know so well from prayer, am truly Present amongst you. I, your Lord and your God, your Saviour, Guide, Lover and Friend, am Really Present, worthy of your loyalty and worship.
T:1363 #3 Unite your intentions to Mine, whenever you pray. Aim to be of one heart and mind with Me, your beloved Saviour. Since you belong to Me, you should resemble Me.
T:1363 #4 Pray in My Name to the Invisible Father in Heaven. By the power of My prayer - powerful because of the Sacrifice which I, the Divine Son, have offered on your behalf - your prayers, when united to Mine, are always powerful and effective.
T:1363 #5 Be ever-grateful for your privileged place. You who pray in My Name are as if standing close beside Me in prayer, bathed in My Divine Light, whereas one who knows nothing of Me stands as if in darkness; he has not been enlightened by My revelation of your Heavenly Father, and so cannot be certain of how to please Him; nor does he pray with the divine power of My Holy Spirit; and therefore - unlike yourselves, My adopted brothers and sisters - he does not enjoy the certainty of being heard. (WC + OIL: 1363)
T:1363 #6 See how much you need Me! One who is praying without Me, Jesus, is as though calling out into the dark, uncertain of being heard; yet the prayer of one who prays in union with Me is glorious, powerful and effective.
RENUNCIATION.
T:1364 #1 See how much encouragement is given, when you turn with Me to your Heavenly Father. We want you to bear in mind - as you ask Me to work through you - that there is a direct correlation between a soul’s generosity in self-giving and the amount of good which I can do through that soul. It is also by the renunciation of desires that a soul prepares itself for My work. So those who are both generous and self-less permit Me to pour My graces and blessings through their lives, upon others.
T:1364 #2 Understand the value of self-sacrifice. When it is faith that has urged you to offer sacrifices to the Father - in union with My Offering - and to renounce even good things out of love for Him, that sort of self-giving “opens” your soul to the action of His purifying Love, and so makes you fit to do His work. (WC:1364)
T:1364 #3 Don’t believe that any self-inflicted pain is - of itself - pleasing to the Father. Only a faith-filled, loving and purposeful self-sacrifice can be united to the Self-Offering which I have made for sinners.
T:1365 #1 Never be afraid of starting again, in a more profound determination to serve Me well. “Whenever you like, Lizzie,” you can make new efforts to be more thoughtful and charitable. You can count on My Love and My patience. I am always inviting you to accept My gifts and to draw even closer to Me.
T:1365 #2 Consider some of the consequences of humble perseverance in the spiritual life. Every little, true, and new determination on your part to make greater efforts to please Me and to shun all that draws you away from Me draws upon you a marvellous grace, a grace which is a lamp to your feet, during your spiritual journey, a grace which enables you to continue on your path more surely guided, and thus a grace which is giving you greater peace and safety.
PRAYER AS PURGATORY.
T:1366 #1 Be glad that - long ago and many more times since - you have been brought to repentance. You have seen what joy it has brought you, through My grace working within you, and your humility.
T:1366 #2 Be grateful for the purifications through which I have been leading you for so many years. Only through your contrition have you been enabled to walk the path of purification.
T:1366 #3 Look upon your purification - a ‘scouring’ which has been worked through remorse, penance, spiritual darkness and the sufferings of earthly life - as a priceless gift. Through this scouring, I have been preparing you for Heaven; and through the peace and the trust which have arisen within your soul, you have begun to pray to your Heavenly Father - in My Name - with increasing confidence and gratitude. Listen, as He reassures you that your trials have been worthwhile:
HERE I AM
TEACHING YOU.
DON’T BE AFRAID.
REPENTANCE HAS LED YOU TO JOY,
BUT FOR YOUR GREATER JOY,
I AM SHOWING YOU THE PURPOSE OF PURIFICATION,
FOR THE SOULS OF ALL WHO HUMBLY ACCEPT THE PAIN
OF SEEING THEIR SINFULNESS.
True repentance is like this:
WHEN YOU REPENT SINCERELY,
AND WHEN YOU PERSEVERE IN PRAYER,
BRAVELY BEARING YOUR SHAME,
AND PRAYING IN THE NAME OF MY SON,
JESUS,
it is as though - VOLUNTARILY - you approach Me,
your God, your Father,
walking towards Me
- YOUR SOUL ‘naked’ -
through the Fire of My Glory.
Yet as you approach Me, repenting,
naked in that Fire,
yet strong in the Life of Christ,
all sin bursts into flame.
Yet the ‘Fire’ does not touch your flesh;
and when your sins are at last consumed
you shall be like a child in My presence:
pure, newly-born, unashamed, naked and innocent;
and I will clothe you for the Wedding Feast.
THUS
- in this life, and in prayer -
some are invited - you amongst them - to walk through their Purgatory.
(WC:1366)
T:1367 #1 Gladly and freely confess to Me in prayer that, yes, you are a sinner. This is the truth. Yet don’t grasp and analyse every minuscule failing. Let Me lift your heart, soul and mind away from self, to lead you towards the Father and the Father’s Glory.
T:1367 #2 Be glad that you have made new efforts to abandon yourself wholly to My Love and to My plans. “This is freedom!”
T:1367 #3 Liberate yourself further by accepting - as a sacrifice for the ‘altar’ of your heart - all future events which I permit, and all the results of your actions, including misinterpretations.
T:1367 #4 Shoulder criticism, whilst continuing to praise Me for everything good which stems from your work.
This is freedom: not to be tied,
not to be tied by other longings,
not to be tied to so-called holy ambitions,
except for the one ambition of living for My Glory,
hoping to see Me glorified, in Heaven.
T:1368 #1 Do your duty, contentedly, as you fulfil the task which I have entrusted to you. Don’t enquire about whether or not people have been helped by your gift; you can be sure that as you help others, and pray for them in peaceful simplicity, you are like a true child who is held in My care; and I bring you very close to your Father in Heaven.
T:1368 #2 Be content not to know the full significance of your work. Yet be assured that it is extremely important. As you distribute My gifts to others - first, the graces which are drawn upon others through your prayer, and secondly, the ‘teachings’ which I have given to you - you are like a child who is sitting on her front step, greeting passers-by; like a child, you are handing out pearls from a basket, unaware of their great worth, yet seeing their beauty, knowing that My gifts are yours to give away, glad to distribute them to others for as long as you are ‘held’ there - held by duty -until you are called to do the next task, when - like a dutiful child - you go ‘indoors’. (WC:1368)
T:1368 #3 Rejoice in the faith which drives you to do My work, even before you understand My plans and the manner of their fulfilment.
T:1368 #4 Rejoice that you can see, at last, the beauty of the virtues of docility and obedience, through which a soul remains poised, ready to love My Holy Will and to do it.
T:1369 Rejoice that - because of My graces and your goodwill - you can give Me joyful thanks, from within your sufferings, for all that is good. It is a marvellous thing, and a work of grace, when thanks and not complaint ascend to Me from the human heart, in every circumstance; and I Myself offer your prayer of thanks to your Heavenly Father.
CLOTHED AND ADORNED.
T:1370 #1 Be grateful for your task, without worrying about not being worthy of this work. It is true that you are not worthy; nevertheless I have chosen you, with all your faults.
T:1370 #2 Accept My Will, in simplicity. Share My teachings. Let nothing deter you from this task.
“It is your task.
I gave it to you
not because of your worthiness
but as My choice.
Others have other tasks.
This is yours!
I clothe you and adorn you for the task.
I make you fit.
I train you, and give you the gifts you need.
You are poor,
but I give you all you need
to bring riches to others.”
T:1370 #3 See how simple is My call: I pour My graces upon those who consent to serve Me; whenever I Myself ask someone to do special work for Me - of whatever sort - I never fail to give special gifts to suit the role and the aim.
T:1371 #1 Look upon the work which you do for Me as the work which a little errand-boy might be doing for a great King! In this way, you will be less tempted to become vain or boastful, and you will be less upset when people are annoyed or embarrassed at hearing about My teachings.
T:1371 #2 Look upon your work for Me as a privilege. It is just as if a King who is touring side streets in one of His busy cities asks an urchin for help in recovering valuables which have been lost in the bustle and confusion. As the child runs through the streets, calling out on behalf of the King, whom it is an honour to serve, he finds that some people object to his cries, or attempt to stop him running around and crying out. They prefer to remain undisturbed. You can see that I am that King, and you are that ‘errand-boy’; and the treasures which have been ‘lost’ in these times are faith, trust, and a spirit of penance.
T:1371 #3 Remember that even when you have exhausted yourself in My service, you will only have done your duty; and remember, too, that - although I am rewarding you now for your efforts, and shall reward you even more lavishly later on - it is the King Who is glorious, not the errand-boy!
T:1372 Reveal your weaknesses to Me, in prayer. The more fully you do so, then the more lavishly - and by the same amount - is My grace poured upon you, to help you.
T:1373 #1 Continue to offer fervent praise and thanks to the Father in My Name. Through My beloved Mother, I came to earth to save you; and now - through My perfection and through My perfect prayer - I give thanks and glory to the Father on your behalf. When you unite yourself with My Offering to the Father in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, you can be sure that you are offering perfect homage to the Father; this is because My Glory is so great that it ‘embraces’ the Infinite God, and embraces also all the Saints and the holy Angels.
T:1373 #2 Have faith in the power of My Sacrificial prayer, here at the Holy Mass. Believe in the Love which I your Divine Saviour have for you. The Glory which I offer here even spills over to bathe and to surround you and everyone else who - whether by will, presence, faith or desire - offers My Sacrifice to the Father as an Act of praise and thanksgiving. (WC:1373)
T:1374 #1 Follow My inspiration and ask for courage, so that you can do what you see as your plain duty, no matter how weak you are, nor how fearful. Turn with Me to the Father.
T:1374 #2 Try to obey My Holy Will in every detail. By every obedience to My Will a way has been cleared, a way for the fulfilment of the Will of the Father. You yourself - assisted by My grace - can clear away many of the obstacles which prevent His Will from being fulfilled most surely.
T:1374 #3 Take delight in the knowledge that by every act of obedience, you please Me, whether you nurture the smallest charitable thought or whether - for My sake - you do an act of heroism.
T:1374 #4 Live for love. But live constantly on fire with love. How much better than sporadic and separate ‘bursts’ of charity is a steady service of Myself, a steady service which, like a lamp, glows constantly for others. This is how souls and bodies are most surely helped, and hearts warmed.
PRAYER: A ‘BREATHING’ OF PRAISE.
T:1375 #1 Reflect upon your work: not just the work which you are hoping to do, if I permit this. Look carefully at the work of prayer which already occupies so much of your heart and your time. It is extremely valuable, and praiseworthy.
T:1375 #2 Look upon the constant work which you take for granted. Your Father in Heaven delights in your longing to please Him. Listen to His teaching:
YOUR PRAYERS ARE PRECIOUS.
YOUR ALMOST-CONTINUOUS PRAYERS
CAN BE SEEN AS BEING REGULAR ‘WORK-FOR-GOD’.
THEY ARE LIKE A CONSTANT ‘BREATHING’ OF PRAISE TOWARDS US.
By day-long and continuous prayers,
You are offering adoration to Me, through Christ my Son.
You are offering Him in thanksgiving.
You are offering His Sacrifice in reparation for sin, and
you are offering His prayer and plea as your own.
THUS YOU CAN SEE THAT
YOUR DIFFERENT PRAYERS
ARE LIKE A SUCCESSION OF ‘WAVES’ OF PRAYER,
FROM GLORY TO PETITION, STEADY AND FRUITFUL!
T:1376 #1 Follow My inspiration and repent of every failing. You serve One Who is pure and holy. I, the Lord, have called you to do My work. By My Will and plan, and by your consent, this work will be fruitful; and I am holding and embracing you in all your weakness, giving you the necessary graces.
T:1376 #2 Remind others - by your courageous speech and through My teachings - that I am still encouraging those whom the Sacred Scriptures describe as the ‘poor and needy’. They shall never lack spiritual nourishment, sure teaching, and tender devotions, nor shall they lack encouragement to persevere in prayer, in penance and in obedience.
T:1376 #3 Beware of those in My Church who deny the ‘water’ of devotion to the thirsty: who discourage the works once offered out of reverence for Me, Jesus, the wounded Christ Who died on the Cross to save you, and out of reverence for Mary My holy Mother, through whom I was given to you.
T:1376 #4 Delight in your role. You, amongst others, I have planted within My Church as a ‘cedar tree’ so that others can shelter in the shade of My unchanging teaching. You shall proclaim truth in season and out, speaking - as I direct you - about sin and forgiveness, good and evil, Heaven and hell: My ways and the world’s ways.
PERFECT LOVE: SACRIFICE.
T:1376 #5 Look up, at the time of the Consecration. Gaze upon the Sacred Host, as I Myself am calling out to you, saying: “This is My Body!” I am here before you. You are present to the One Holy Sacrifice which I offered on Calvary; and I am Really Present with you - here at the altar - pleading on your behalf to the Father.
T:1376 #6 Look up, to see Me hanging on the Cross as My Blood was poured out for you. You have touched my heart by your repentance and devotion; and although I am wounding your heart by speaking of My Love for you, I want you to listen, and to understand the reason:
“This is My Body!
This is what true Love means:
being wholly given up for you.
Not content with giving you
words of Love, from Heaven,
for you, I gave up My Body,
giving it
not in ploughing fields like a family man
proving his love by toil,
giving it
not in sexual love, but
giving it
wholly, most perfectly,
in Sacrifice,
allowing others to take My life.
I did this for you, to pay your debt.
See how much I love you!
May this be a cause for joy
and not for sadness.”
(WC + OIL: 1376)
T:1376 #7 Consider the work of the prophets who prepared the world for My holy Incarnation. It was through them that I sent ‘words of love from Heaven’: words of pleading, reminder, promise, warning and anticipation. Their work was the prelude to the main theme of My action, which was My revelation of My Love for you: shown out through My Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.
T:1377 #1 Remind yourself that I cherish My friends. From Love, I gave My life in sacrifice and suffering, to save you. You can be sure - of the Passion which I suffered on your behalf - that “I would have done it a thousand times, Lizzie,” for you and for all of My precious brothers and sisters.
T:1377 #2 Never forget how deeply I long to save you.
T:1378 #1 Follow My inspiration and unite your heart even more fervently to Mine, as I offer My Holy Sacrifice for the Glory of the Father. He delights in your love; listen to His teaching:
DON’T BE AFRAID.
I DELIGHT IN YOUR PRAISE
YET
ONLY THROUGH CHRIST CAN YOU REACH OUT
TO OFFER PRAISE WHICH IS WORTHY OF MY GLORY.
This is what you were born for:
to be close to Me, your Father, and to praise Me
BOTH NOW AND FOREVER.
This is what you shall do forever,
in the instant of Eternity:
you shall be with My Son
Jesus,
giving Glory
to Me your Father.
T:1378 #2 NEVER FEAR THAT MY WILL FOR YOU
IS NOT WHOLLY DIRECTED TO YOUR PERFECT HAPPINESS.
I AM
YOUR LOVING FATHER.
MY WILL FOR YOU IS “always benevolent.”
PUT YOUR TRUST IN ME.
My Goodness cannot harm you.
If you should have to suffer
- IN A SINFUL WORLD, AMONGST SINFUL PEOPLE -
My Goodness draws you through it.
T:1379 #1 Unite yourself - heart, mind and soul - with the great Action which takes place in your midst on the altar, as I offer Myself and My holy and sacrificial prayer, in praise of the Father.
T:1379 #2 Don’t let minor distractions annoy you during the Holy Mass. The pure Fire of My Presence and My prayer is lighting up the sanctuary. Ignore the irreverent chatter or careless devotions which are sometimes evident, nearby; they should be seen as insignificant.
T:1379 #3 Follow My inspiration and turn to your Father for help in your weakness, amidst distractions. Pray for those who disturb the Celebration, but pray for yourself - for increased patience; and listen to Your Heavenly Father:
DON’T BE AFRAID,
BUT
BE PATIENT.
How could anyone, considering this Glory
- THE GLORY OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE ALTAR
AND THE GLORY OF CHRIST,
REALLY PRESENT -
how could anyone with real faith
be distracted from such Glory by a little noise?
T:1380 #1 Put your trust in Me even in moments of apparent failure. Don’t be upset by an apparent lack of ‘success’ as you do My work. I will win a place of honour - through My work in you - even in places which are now ‘wastelands’ without faith.
T:1380 #2 Entrust every aspect of your life to Me, if you wish to share in My Mission. Entrust even past actions and memories.
REPENTANCE AND PEACE.
T:1380 #3 Remember that there is no part of your heart or your life which cannot be touched by My grace, if you will allow it.
T:1380 #4 See how tenderly I treat the human heart, never forcing anyone to speak with Me about that which he wishes to keep hidden. Even though I Who am your Lord and Creator see everything, I wait patiently for hearts to open to Me, freely.
T:1380 #5 Understand the meaning of true prayer; it consists of showing Me the whole truth of the heart, in real sorrow, with faith in forgiveness, and then leaping onwards to union, joyfully, when at last the one who prays no longer looks at herself but at Me, her Saviour.
T:1381A #1 Notice that I teach you in many different ways. I teach you, for example, through your experiences in prayer. When it has seemed that I have kept your soul at a distance, briefly, I have only permitted that impression - after your little fault - for the sake of your soul, in order to teach you once more about repentance. Yet here I am, now, pouring My Love into your heart, consoling you.
T:1381A #2 Claim everything of Mine as your own, even more frequently and fervently. Repent of your little failings, yet turn confidently to your Heavenly Father, before My Holy Sacrifice is offered. Say: ‘Father, all that Jesus has is mine; I offer You His praise, and His reparation for sins, as my own.’
T:1381A #3 Be happy to repent. The proud soul feels pain at repenting, but one who accepts such pain - as you yourself have done - will therefore find peace.
T:1381A #4 Consider the benefits of frequent repentance: it is the best preparation for Holy Communion; it brings only joy, when it is offered to Me with faith in My forgiveness and faith in My Love for you all; and something more marvellous happens; a ‘site’ is cleared within the soul by repentance, since repentance involves a clear admission of wrong. In only a moment, pride is swept aside; and when a soul has been emptied thus, and purified, it serves as ‘firm ground’ upon which My work can be ‘built’, at last.
T:1381B #1 Follow My inspiration and abdicate from the throne of self-dominion. Through Me, offer all your hopes and ideas to the Father so that His ‘idea’ for you may be fulfilled. Let no speck of selfish ambition intrude upon the Glory which streams to the Father from My prayer: the prayer to which all your sincere prayers are united, as I praise the Father from within your soul in Holy Communion.
T:1381B #2 Imitate Me, your Saviour. Share My virtues. “All I have is yours”. I long to help you to grow in faith and love and to give Glory to the Father.
T:1381B #3 Approach Me with confidence. I will give you all the graces, virtues and helps which are necessary in order for you to become holy, and fit for Heaven.
T:1382 Don’t imagine that you struggle alone. Take comfort from the knowledge of the presence of the Holy Company which worships with you. High above the sanctuary, My holy Angels are present for the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. You offer your prayers, below, as they offer their unending prayer of praise to the Father. (WC:1382)
THE POWER OF PRAYER.
T:1383 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer My Glory to the Father, during this Celebration. You are right to trust in My Divine power, My prayer, and My Sacrifice.
T:1383 #2 Don’t underestimate the power of the prayers which you and your brothers and sisters offer in My Name. Prayers which are made “in Christ” have an extraordinary glory, first, because I, the Divine Son, offer them to the Father, and secondly, because you offer them as members of My holy Church on earth.
T:1383 #3 Rejoice, on this feast of My Nativity, that your Father in Heaven is speaking of the marvel of My Incarnation, and of the glorious praise which is offered by My holy Church:
HERE I AM,
ACCEPTING THE GLORY WHICH YOU OFFERED TO ME
THROUGH CHRIST.
LISTEN AND LEARN: ABOUT WORSHIP:
Consider how marvellously - as never before - was I your Father
glorified
from upon Earth
when Christ lived on earth during His Incarnation.
UNDERSTAND, THEREFORE,
ABOUT EVERY ERA SINCE THEN
- AND ABOUT YOUR OWN TIME -
how marvellously am I praised
whenever, by grace, members of My Holy Church
- “as Christ” -
offer, through Christ, just such homage, thanks and submission.
Thus, Christ’s Light still pours from Earth to Heaven
- THROUGH YOUR PRAISE AND HIS, UNITED -
until the Moment Chosen,
WHICH IS THE MOMENT OF HIS RETURN TO EARTH IN GLORY.
T:1384 #1 Be grateful for the gifts which you have so far taken for granted. A small shoot of faith was planted in your soul in childhood. It was rooted in the ‘rich soil’ of a devout family life, and in Christian worship, and in the words of the Holy Scriptures.
T:1384 #2 Continue to unite your prayers and sacrifices with Mine, as you offer My Sacrifice to the Father. Say: ‘Father, here is Jesus’ perfect prayer.’ But don’t imagine that you can pray well only in church! Listen to your Father’s teaching:
OFFER CONFIDENT PRAYERS IN THE NAME OF MY SON: THE NAME OF JESUS.
You are not limited to the daily Offering at the altar.
You can make the same prayer at each moment of the day,
AS YOU LIVE “IN CHRIST,” YOUR HEART TURNED TOWARDS ME.
You are not always before the altar
where the Holy Sacrifice is offered, yet
Christ’s intention is always the same, and
He Who is now in Heaven - Jesus your Saviour -
pleads eternally before Me; and
SINCE YOU AND HE ARE ONE IN LOVE,
by your union with Him, FROM BAPTISM,
His prayer is yours,
and can be offered
in its fullness and divine power
at every moment of your life
by a little movement of your heart!
T:1384 #3 Consider how good I am, and delight in My goodness. What great gifts I give to frail humanity.
THE HOLY TRINITY: ONE FIRE.
[1994]
T:1385 #1 Follow My inspiration and abandon your heart and your life to the fulfilment of My Divine Will.
T:1385 #2 Rejoice in your security. You who are willing to do My Will and not your own are walking along a path which leads towards eternal Life with Us - with the Most Holy Trinity - in Heaven. Yet even during your life on earth you are wrapped in Our Love.
T:1385 #3 Believe that even now you are led by Me, Jesus, that you are directed by My Spirit, and that you walk towards the Father. It is as if your footsteps have led you - on your path to Heaven - to step into the centre of a great Light which stretches across the ground in front of you; and that Light has risen up to enfold you; you can see that the single great Light consists of three huge flames, which, intertwined, hold you within their warm and peaceful embrace. At every instant, you live at the Heart of the Holy Three - One God - Who almost carry you, it seems, as you walk towards Heaven. We Three Divine Persons are like three great flames of Love, yet We are One Fire, in Whose unchanging Light you already live, even before you reach Heaven’s perfection. (WC:1385A)
T:1385 #4 Consider the wonder of Our union, the unity of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly, you share Our Life: the life of the Father Who waits before you, the life of Myself, Jesus your Lord and daily Companion, and the life of My Holy Spirit Who leads you onwards; and you have learned that none of Us Three Divine Persons lacks anything, yet None is ever ‘without’ the Others. Each perfect and Divine Person can be seen as wholly flame and wholly fire. Yet We Three, together, are One Flame or One Fire in which three ‘flames’ are distinct yet united. This One Fire of Love - Our Godhead - is simple yet three-fold. It is - I am - bright, pure, perfect and everlasting: One God, unrivalled. (WC:1385B)
THE SACRED TRADITION.
T:1386 #1 Rejoice in your security. Have confidence in My guidance. I Myself have brought you into My holy Catholic Church; and here within My Church, you have found a Way upon which you can walk safely through the wilderness which is life on earth; and as you travel, you can invite others to join you and to enjoy the Light which I pour upon My People.
T:1386 #2 Look upon the Sacred Tradition as something which is firm yet which is still ‘unfolding’.
Within My Church, the Sacred Tradition
- your Way - is like a firm road
which is made through rough ground,
made by the army of believers, united,
who, together, mark and make plain
the direction of the road at each moment,
as it winds across life’s hilly terrain.
My faithful friends are at work;
they excavate this roadway in obedience to My plan.
They put down hard-core, and
fill in the excavated space more firmly,
packing down the layers beneath the surface
with staves; and these ‘layers’ represent
the works, inspirations, prayers and virtues
of the Saints of each age.
Thus, My People - with their labour -
are preparing to place the final ‘surface’
upon which all are invited to walk.
This firm and durable ‘surface’
is like the united witness - in each era -
of all true and holy believers,
the greatest and the least, who are united
with one another in One Body.
This road is like Sacred Tradition.
It is the Way of My One People.
It is the safe road, leading to the Father.
It is made by My Church.
It is firm and trustworthy.
It is trodden by thousands of the faithful.
On it, Holy Scripture held aloft,
walk the Teachers: My Bishops and priests.
With all the people
they are loving the “Word of God”.
They are bright with My joy and My radiance.
Their feet are firmly planted on the Sacred Way
marked out by My own People, My Body.
(WC:1386A. WC + OIL:1386B)
T:1387 Be grateful for the priest who serves the local Church, and for his priestly power of intercession. Wonderful Divine gifts are drawn upon you by his mediation, as he does My work in your midst during the Liturgy. As My priest recites certain words about forgiveness, during the Holy Mass, solemnly addressing the Father on your behalf, he draws down upon you - as if drawing down a silky white veil from Heaven - the grace and Light which I have won for you through My Holy Sacrifice. (WC:1387)
EVERY MYSTERY, EVERY FEAST.
T:1388 #1 On this Vigil of My Epiphany, ponder the marvel of My Presence with you. But enter more deeply into My Life and into these Holy Mysteries. Whenever you are close to Me, Who am Really Present with you, you are not remote from any of the events of My earthly life. You are not remote even from that first ‘showing out’ which we call My Epiphany.
T:1388 #2 Explore, with Me, the meaning of our friendship, which has a dimension far greater than that which is discovered in any merely earthly friendship. Through our loving union, in prayer and in the Blessed Sacrament, you can ‘touch’ both My Divine Life and My earthly existence. You can ‘touch’ Me, the ‘Jesus-Who-am-shown-out’ in My first Epiphany! Because of My Real Presence before you, it is as though you can approach the dim cave where - vaguely seen - a Woman sits with her child in her lap; you are peering at My holy Mother, with her ‘Christ-child’, just as the wise men peered so long ago; and as you pause, awed and hesitant, I - the undying Christ - greet you, just as I greet you at every Feast and in every Mystery. (WC:1388)
T:1388 #3 Realise the marvel of the depths of our friendship.
You are not limited to story and speech
in your friendship with Me.
You can be with Me,
with Me, ‘Jesus-now-shown-out’ in My Epiphany.
I am here, now Present with you at the altar.
I am here, the same Person
Who received visitors in My infancy.
You who are truly close to Me, the Divine Saviour,
by your presence with Me now
during the Holy Sacrifice
are present also to the Person Who is held
in Mary’s arms, as she shows Me
to those who have searched for Me
in My infancy.
So it is, also, with all of the events of My life.
By your presence beside Me,
here, at the Holy Sacrifice,
where I am Really Present with you,
you are touched by the grace
of all of My life’s Mysteries,
which are unravelling before you
as feast follows upon feast.
T:1389 #1 Live in hope. I delight in your longing to please Me by praying in My Name to the Father, as you ask Him: ‘What is Your Will?’ Listen to His answer:
MY WILL FOR YOU
IS SIMPLE.
MY WISH IS TO SEE YOU WALKING TOWARDS ME
LIGHT-HEARTED AND FULL OF JOY,
AND TO SEE, IN YOU,
gaiety,
NO MATTER HOW MANY YOUR DIFFICULTIES.
REJOICE IN YOUR FAITH, BUT PERSEVERE.
“Will you reject the Way?”
BE BRAVE
AS YOU FOLLOW THE PATH
WHICH LEADS YOU THROUGH ILLNESS AND DEATH
TO MY LIGHT AND GLORY.
T:1390 #1 Let Me encourage you, in Holy Communion. I can teach you to be more straightforward and simple. I can bring you to a truer repentance. Yet it is by your response, vigour, hard work and acceptance of humiliations - and by My grace - that a child-like clarity is appearing within your soul.
T:1390 #2 Continue to co-operate with My grace and to make greater efforts to please Me. In this way the ‘window’ which separates My Heart from yours, in prayer and in daily life, is further cleared and lightened, to reveal Me before you: very near.
T:1391 #1 Offer your whole life to Me once more. Offer Me all of your actions and thoughts, your work, your reparation, and your hopes for the future.
T:1391 #2 See how richly I reward your self-offering:
Whenever a soul is empty of selfish desire, the soul
- wholly ‘empty’, because it is at last given to Me alone -
is therefore wholly filled by Myself, the Lord,
in this Holy Communion.
T:1392 Accept My gifts.
My Love for you is tremendous.
I cannot fail to reward one who lives for My Glory.
I, Jesus your Lord, am here, in Holy Communion;
and one who gives the whole self to My service,
whole and entire,
is therefore ‘emptied’ to receive
Love.
PRIDE: A DANGER.
T:1393 #1 Strive to be virtuous, for My sake. But don’t stop at avoiding pride. Cultivate humility.
T:1393 #2 Consider the effects of humility and pride. When you are humble, you not only please Me, but you can see more clearly how to please Me and why you ought to do so. You see your duties plainly. You see the plain reasons why you can be joyful. You believe in My Love for you, My goodness towards you, and your hope of Heaven. But if your soul is ‘submerged’ in pride, it is submerged in a spiritual darkness where little can be seen. You cannot even ‘see’ the heart-warming and joyful things of faith, such as: how greatly you are loved.
T:1393 #3 Don’t imagine that you must be able to experience the warmth of My Love in order to know that it is real; it is faith that counts. I want you to believe in My Love even during certain times when you might not ‘feel’ it.
T:1393 #4 Look upon pride as a great danger for this reason, also: that it darkens the soul, causing the Light of faith to grow dim; and so the proud and foolish soul grows less sure of My Love, and therefore becomes dangerously reckless about defying Me. Attempts at self-sufficiency bring only grief.
T:1393 #5 Do everything in your power to shun self-satisfaction and conceit.
T:1394 #1 Continue to pray for others, that their hearts might be opened to My influence. Yet see how My Holy Spirit can be kept ‘out’ by one who does not love My Will. I, the Lord, Who am Sovereign, am ‘One’ in My Will; My Divine Will and I cannot be ‘separated’. Whoever truly loves Me therefore loves My Holy Will; and, conversely, whoever does not love My Will does not truly love Me.
T:1394 #2 Don’t imagine that I am not loved by those who - in weakness - struggle to be obedient to Me. When I say that one who does not love My Will does not truly love Me, I mean that one who has not surrendered his heart and his will to Me and who
does not truly want to please Me is therefore by his own will separating himself from Me through his own obstinacy, blindness or disobedience.
T:1395 #1 Persevere in faith and in sacrifice. I look tenderly upon all who comfort Me in My Passion through bearing their sufferings patiently out of love for Me.
T:1395 #2 Believe in My Love. You don’t struggle alone. I have noticed every occasion on which you have risked or borne ridicule or loss of friendship rather than betray Me or refuse to do My known Will. Though you rightly thank Me for dying for you on the Cross, “I thank you for ‘dying’ for Me, Lizzie”, by all the little ‘deaths’ which you have endured out of love for Me - all the hurt, embarrassment, silence and
exasperation which you have ever experienced because of your faith in Me and in My Church.
A PRECIOUS CHILD.
T:1396 #1 Be confident in prayer. No sincere prayer, offered through Me, is greeted by the Father with anything but great delight in your trust.
T:1396 #2 Delight in your closeness to Us. You have turned - with Me - to the Father; and He delights in your prayer. Listen to His teaching:
WELCOME!
WHENEVER YOU PRAY,
KNEELING REVERENTLY BEFORE ME,
YOU WHO TRUST IN ME ARE CLOSE TO HEAVEN’S BORDER.
HEAVEN LIES JUST ‘ABOVE’ YOUR HEAD,
IT SEEMS,
AND I AM HERE.
I, YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER,
AM WAITING AT THE ‘EDGE’ OF HEAVEN.
I AM WAITING
TO LISTEN TO YOUR PRAYER.
THE LITTLEST PRAYER, THE BRIEFEST WHISPER
TO ME
YOUR FATHER
IS WELCOMED, HEARD, VALUED AND REWARDED.
IT IS AS THOUGH I AM STROKING THE NECK,
LOVINGLY,
OF MY OWN DEAR CHILD, YOURSELF:
A PRECIOUS SUPPLICANT
WHO TRUSTS IN ME AND CONFIDES EVERY NEED.
REJOICE
IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT, AT EVERY MOMENT,
I LOVE YOU,
AND THAT YOU CAN TURN TO ME WHENEVER YOU PLEASE,
IN TRUSTING PRAYER
(WC + OIL:1396)
T:1396 #3 Trust Me. How can I fail to help you, when it is I Who have entrusted this work to you!
MISSION, AND DANGER.
T:1397 #1 Continue to ask for courage in doing My work. Yet consider the degrees of self-giving through which any missionary must pass if, obeying my invitation, he would venture out into the world to speak of his faith. A brave man might first reach the stage where he can speak about Me within his own community. He might learn how to speak boldly to others; he might, at last, generously give away all he can in his efforts to let My Light shine out from his life. He might even expose himself to ridicule, and draw close enough to others to risk injury. Yet for as long as his heart is not wholly willing to sacrifice everything in his life - even life itself - for the sake of My work, that work is hampered. It is as though he is speaking to others from behind a metal grille which he himself is holding in place because he is frightened of losing either his life or his reputation in the world. You must understand that I am speaking only about ‘active’ missionaries, not about those whom I have called to an enclosed and hidden contemplative life and who, out of their great love for Me, fulfil My Will by offering prayers and secret sacrifices behind bars, thus joining in My work of reparation. (WC:1397)
T:1397 #2 Think about the most perfect degree of self-offering that might be found in someone who goes out and about in the world, spreading My Gospel through speech and physical encounter as well as by prayer. The most perfect degree would consist of a total self-offering, in which a generous person is prepared for sacrifice, and is prepared for any reaction, no longer clinging to shreds of hope that his life will remain unchanged.
T:1397 #3 Strive to remove the barrier of fear which still remains in your own heart.
PERFECTION IN PRAYER.
T:1398 Aim for perfection in prayer. Such perfection springs from the soul’s union with Me in the ordinary events of daily life, combined with union with Me in prayer before the Father. See how lavishly He is rewarding your efforts to please Him; listen to His teaching:
ONE WHO UTTERLY ACCEPTS ANY AND EVERY SUFFERING,
OUT OF LOVE FOR CHRIST MY SON,
DOES OFFER PERFECT REPARATION TO ME, FOR SIN,
though only through HER union with Christ,
WHOSE PERFECT REPARATION OF CALVARY SHE OFFERS.
A person who offers thanks - THROUGH CHRIST - in every circumstance,
NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT,
offers perfect thanks to Me, HER FATHER,
by the free and willing union OF HER HEART with Christ’s perfect prayer of thanksgiving;
and that person, asking for anything, trustingly, in Christ’s Name,
is heard;
and that one’s praise is indistinguishable - TO ME - from Christ’s praise,
through that soul’s union with Christ
IN CHRIST’S PERFECT PRAISE OF MY GOODNESS.
T:1399 #1 Meditate on the difficulties of My earthly life, whenever you are tempted to be discouraged.
T:1399 #2 Reflect upon these two questions, as you try to bring good news about Myself to
others, and so necessarily endure suffering for My sake. First, do you count your task difficult - the task of presenting yourself as one with messages from your God and Saviour - when in My earthly life, and amongst relatives and friends, and through obedience to the Father, I gradually revealed My Divinity!? Secondly, can you imagine the chasm of ignorance and misunderstanding to be bridged by Myself in My own lonely task, during My earthly life?
T:1399 #3 Be consoled by the knowledge that I, too, have endured all sorts of misunderstandings and embarrassed silences.
T:1400A #1 Rely on Me, even now in your extreme weakness. If you cling to Me, your Saviour, Who have made you My own and have sealed you with My Sign, in baptism, I will let nothing take you away from Me.
T:1400A #2 Have faith in My power. No torrents of evil - neither temptations nor attacks of any kind - can wrench away from Me one who is utterly determined to be faithful.
T:1400A #3 Beware of misinterpreting the signs of My work within your soul. The flashes of fire which you feel in your heart as you consider My holiness and your frailty are not expressions of My wrath. They are flashes of My purifying and scorching Light; I am still at work, scouring your soul and making you worthy of My friendship.
T:1400B #1 Delight in your friendship with Me. I, your Lord, delight in revealing My plans to those who trust in Me entirely; and therefore you can accept this reassurance, now, that you need not worry about your work or its consequences. My Church herself will reassure and console you.
T:1400B #2 Never worry about your unworthiness to serve Me. “I do not choose you because you are worthy, Lizzie!” Yet I do choose you. I choose you, still, at every moment, to do a special work for Me. Just as I do not change, so My choice does not change; and you can rejoice in the security of knowing that I shall not cease to choose you.
T:1400B #3 Realise how different are My ways from the world’s ways, in that I don’t search the streets for someone with special qualities, and then employ him. No, I invite someone to do a particular task for Me, and then - if he is willing - I train him.
T:1400B #4 Consider your own task, of sharing My teachings and speaking of our friendship. The work which I invite you to do has no connection with your state-of-soul, nor with My “attitude” towards you. My “attitude” is always one of Love, unchanging. I always prepare and adorn each one whom I call to do a particular task for Me on earth, even drawing that person through great changes, at his consent.
RIDICULE AND OPPOSITION.
T:1401 #1 Let today’s reminder of the work of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius - as you
celebrate their feast-day - encourage you in your mission. “You have made a good start, Lizzie,” in your own work; so don’t become disheartened by trials.
T:1401 #2 Don’t be surprised to meet ridicule and opposition from certain people who will oppose our work; and don’t let yourself be hampered, as you go forward, by belongings or activities which are irrelevant to your task.
T:1401 #3 Simplify your life, as you become even more involved in mission.
T:1401 #4 Believe in the power of your prayers and sacrifices, when they are united to My great Sacrifice. It is as though - because of your love for others and your longing to save sinners - our united offering keeps open a ‘channel’ which stretches from Heaven to earth, a channel through which Heaven’s Light can pour down upon the needy. (WC:1401)
T:1401 #5 Remember the cause of all outpourings of Divine grace upon earth: I, Jesus your Saviour, ‘won’ all graces for mankind by My death on the Cross. All the good results of the work that you and I do together stem from My self-offering of Calvary.
T:1401 #6 Consider the reason why your life can affect others, and why someone weak like yourself can help others to draw closer to the Father: if you stand before Heaven in prayer, as if crucified, with your arms outstretched in gratitude, self-offering and pleading, you begin to resemble Me; and by your willing imitation of My self-giving, and by our union, Heavenly grace and Light pour down upon earth more lavishly than was possible without your love of Me and your loyalty.
T:1401 #7 See how important are obedience and love. My friends can imitate any or all of My different ways of self-giving - for example, My prayers and sacrifices, My service of others, My healings, My teaching, My tender and encouraging conversations, and My endurance of pain for the sake of My Work of Salvation. Your own imitation of My offering will be acted out in various ways; yet every good effort you make reproduces My example of obedience and love; and therefore every such effort pleases the Father, helps your brothers and sisters and brightens earth’s darkness!
T:1402 Make a way from earth to Heaven through which I can pour down My Divine Light. Such a Way is cleared by your small daily sacrifices. Such a Way is made through the merits of My holy Passion, and through your faith in Me; it is swept clear and kept ever-open by your fervent efforts to please Me and to remain faithful.
T:1403 #1 Have pity on the faithful souls who have not yet entered Heaven. They need your help; and also, your Heavenly Father delights in hearing such charitable prayers.
T:1403 #2 Consider the state of faithful souls who are now being purified, after death. These holy souls are as if wholly immobile, as they await the fulfilment of My Holy Will. They are motionless, docile and obedient, after all the mental and physical activity of earthly life. Some are very close to Heaven and thus are very close to My Light; others, however - though not lost - are horribly unprepared to look upon My face. They are as if suspended in near-darkness. (WC:1403A)
T:1403 #3 Help the Holy Souls who, in their purification, are ‘waiting’ for complete union with Me. They yearn for Me; they are in great need of your prayers.
T:1404A Be grateful for the grace which has impelled you to offer Me your time, in My service, and your life, for the Glory of the Father. Truly, life is given so it might be used in loving service of your Creator; yet how few do anything much beside squander most of that given time pursuing their own ambitions.
ASSAULT BY THE EVIL ONE.
T:1404B #1 Cling to Me at every moment, in your efforts to complete My work. You have found, from experience, how powerful are the holy names of My beloved Mother and Myself. By fervent prayers to ‘Jesus!’ and ‘Mary!’ - and by the prayers of the holy Rosary - you have been enabled to endure an assault by the evil one. Truly, he is powerless to harm the souls of you who shield yourselves with My Name, My image - on the crucifix - and My Sign, which is the sign of the Cross. You do well to bless yourself with holy water, as you call upon the Holy Trinity.
T:1404B #2 Consider the sheer malice of the evil one who - unsuccessful in his attempts to deter you from My work by temptations, sickness and mishaps - now attempts to terrify you. He does so solely because you have frustrated his wishes.
T:1404B #3 Be on your guard against spiritual assaults. But wrap yourself in the protection of constant prayer.
T:1404B #4 Have faith in Me. You belong to Me, and - by My power - you can remain faithful in every danger.
DESERTED BY MY FRIENDS.
T:1405 #1 Console Me for the Sacrifice which I bore on your behalf. You are right to ponder the sorrow which I experienced during My Passion. Yes, so it was; heartache and humiliation and helplessness were the worst of My sufferings, as I hung on the Cross, deserted by many friends.
T:1405 #2 Consider the attitude of My present-day disciples. Although many people throw themselves into great works, truly bearing even great suffering in their efforts to do good, how few bear humiliations for My sake. How few are prepared to make fools of themselves before others, in order to speak Truth and to preach the Gospel.
T:1405 #3 Turn your thoughts to My Passion, as you pray, during the Holy Mass. Look towards the altar, and see - with the eyes of faith - the Sacrifice which I offer to the Father in your presence. Truly, the Sacrifice once offered on Calvary is offered here, in the sanctuary. (WC:1405)
T:1405 #4 Consider how fervently I plead for sinners. Long ago, I died to save sinners; and in your own time I offer that same Sacrifice to the Father, through My priest, in your presence; yet many of the very people who should repent of their sins are ignoring the graces which the Father pours out towards them because of My prayer.
A FAITH-FILLED ROUTINE.
T:1406 #1 Examine the way in which you now approach Me in prayer. See how I have led you into a faith-filled routine which steers your weary soul firmly towards Heaven. How easy is prayer, when you put into practice that which I have taught you! List these easy instructions, for the sake of other people:
Turn to Me in your heart, or
turn to Me in the Blessed Sacrament.
Joyfully greet Me.
Express true sorrow for your failings.
Make an act of trust in Me.
Turn away from distractions.
Proceed through Me to the Father.
T:1406 #2 Never doubt the value of your sincere prayers.
T:1406 #3 Don’t give in to the temptation to think that when your prayers are brief, distracted or infrequent, they are not ‘good’ enough to be heard. It is your Father in Heaven Who has inspired every good prayer that you pray. He has invited you to turn to Him, and has lifted you towards Himself.
T:1406 #4 Realise the marvellous gift which is yours, as one of My children: the marvellous gift of prayer. Whenever you pray, it is as though you are putting out your hands towards the Father in Heaven; you are giving your consent to His work; you are allowing Him to lift you from darkness to Light.
T:1406 #5 Don’t be afraid. Rejoice in the teaching of your Heavenly Father:
TREASURE MY GIFT OF CONTEMPLATION.
WHENEVER YOU RESPOND TO MY INVITATION
YOU LEAVE BEHIND EVERYTHING FAMILIAR
AS YOU SURRENDER, IN PRAYER, YOUR HEART AND MIND: YOUR WHOLE BEING!
YET WHAT PEACE, KNOWLEDGE AND SATISFACTION ARE YOURS,
AFTER SUCH A SELF-OFFERING.
I WELCOME YOU WARMLY,
SO GREAT IS MY LOVE FOR YOU AND FOR ALL OF MY CHILDREN.
YOUR PRAYERS ARE SO PRECIOUS TO ME THAT, WHENEVER YOU SPEAK,
IT IS AS THOUGH I LEAN OVER YOU, FROM HEAVEN,
REACHING OUT TO YOU, JOYFULLY: TEACHING AND REASSURING.
I TREASURE THE BRIEFEST MOMENT LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO ME
BY ONE OF MY CHILDREN: EVEN TWO MINUTES OF TRUST OR CONTRITION.
With what delight do I greet the briefest moment,
the merest whisper of a true prayer,
as though I count Myself honoured by your love and attention.
SUCH IS MY LOVE!
(WC + OIL:1406)
HELPING OTHERS.
T:1407 #1 Continue to respond to My promptings, whenever I invite you - at different moments of the day - to pray for needy people. See how many prayers you pray, thus, for the sick, the lonely and the departed, and for many others.
T:1407 #2 Listen to your Father’s teaching:
I DELIGHT IN YOUR PRAYERS.
BY MY OWN WILL
I am ‘dependent’
on persons calling down help upon others
THROUGH FAITH-FILLED PETITIONS.
T:1407 #3 CO-OPERATE, MORE FERVENTLY, IN THE WORK TO WHICH I HAVE CALLED YOU,
WORK WHICH I WISH YOU ALL TO UNDERTAKE
IN UNION WITH CHRIST:
the work of intercession.
How important and how marvellous are your prayers,
and how urgently-needed are any of your prayers for others,
NO MATTER HOW BRIEF.
EVERY PRAYER WHICH YOU OFFER TO ME IN CHRIST’S NAME IS HEARD;
I NEVER FAIL TO OFFER HELP TO THOSE FOR WHOM YOU PLEAD,
EVEN THOUGH THAT HELP IS SOMETIMES REJECTED.
T:1408 #1 Believe that you are already doing good work for Me, even before you are perfect! You would be astonished if you saw how many people are dependent on your prayers, so great is their need of help, and so surely are you able to help them because you have put your trust in Me.
T:1408 #2 Consider My Incarnation; it was as though my Heavenly Father sent me downwards into a dark ‘pit’, which represents earthly life. It is as though I have been lowered on a rope into the darkness so that I can rescue people who are trapped far from Heaven’s Light. You yourself were rescued, long ago! I support you now. Yet you, in your turn, are reaching out your hand whilst clinging to Me with the other; and together we are rescuing many other people. (WC:1408)
T:1408 #3 Be humbled by the honour which I accord you. My plans for mankind will be fulfilled partly through the co-operation and good work of all My obedient children.
T:1408 #4 Believe, whenever you pray, that I am holding you, and that you are clinging to Me, and that others are clinging to you. Many other people are relying on your work and on your faithfulness!
THE GREAT FLAME OF PRAYER.
T:1409 #1 Follow My inspiration, and resolve to love and to serve Me more fervently, to work for My Glory, and to do so at every moment for the rest of your life. Don’t waste the time which remains.
T:1409 #2 Treasure your union with Me - and your union, therefore, with My holy Mother. “I have brought My Mother” here, today, in order to teach you about the power and the value of your prayer to the Father, when it is united as usual with the prayers of My Mother and Myself. (WC:1409A)
T:1409 #3 Realise how powerful is the tiniest prayer offered in My Name, the Name of Jesus.
As you pray with Me, and with My holy Mother,
your little “flame” of prayer
is part of My great Flame of Glory
which is ascending from earth
to the Father.
All who join in My prayer
- all who pray in My Name, with and through Me, Jesus -
can be sure that their prayers arise
as One, with My prayer to the Father.
How feeble would be your prayer, without Me.
The One prayer, or One ‘Flame’ arising from earth
seems to be very fragile in the darkness,
in the immense distance
between Heaven and sinful creatures.
Only by the power of My prayer
- My ‘Flame’ of prayer -
does your prayer ascend as far as Heaven
and stay ‘alight’.
That flame of prayer, which is
My prayer and yours, united,
is like an umbilical cord
by which grace and Life are given
to those within its reach on earth,
and through which is made
a living connection with Heaven.
Without My Light, My Sacrifice, My prayer and My help,
you My children would be living
in darkness, uncertainty and fear.
(WC + OIL:1409B, and WC:1409C)
T:1410 #1 Turn your heart towards Heaven, even during your sufferings. Let your heart and mind be glad at the thought of My Glory even while you suffer on earth for My sake. I your beloved Saviour am already triumphant.
T:1410 #2 Rejoice in Love’s victory. Live in hope. The outcome of the war against sin and death is not something uncertain. I have fought and won. Triumph exists now, not just in the future.
T:1410 #3 Remind yourself of Our nature. We, the Most Holy Trinity, are even now wholly glorious, light, ever-blissful and triumphant, unconquerable and supremely loving. You need never lack hope, if you will hope in Us.
T:1410 #4 Achieve greater peace of mind - and please Me - by living as if you are truly ready to depart from earthly life at any moment.
T:1410 #5 Tidy all the ‘loose ends’ in your life. For example, you can pay every debt, real or metaphorical. Do those tasks which have been put off for another day but which you know I wish you to complete. Revitalise - where necessary - worthwhile but neglected relationships amongst your friends and family, but cast off whatever is unnecessary or time-wasting in your present way of life.
YOUR WORK IN MY CHURCH.
T:1411 #1 Raise your sights, in prayer. There’s no need to remain timid and only half-hopeful of being heard, when you pray in My Name. Prayers offered through Me are powerful.
T:1411 #2 Ask Me for greater love, faith and hope. Work to increase them. The closer towards Me you grow, and the more you treasure My friendship, and the more firmly you believe in My Gospel, the higher do I Myself lift you - as if from one rung to the next - up a spiritual ladder. Thus, your prayers become more confident.
T:1411 #3 Let me lift you to the top of the spiritual ‘ladder’. By your co-operation, and through My grace, and when you are firmly united to Me in prayer, it is as though I am holding you up in My arms, lifting you by My power to a great height. You can therefore speak to your Heavenly Father like a confident child, wholly supported by Me, your Friend and Teacher. (WC + OIL:1411)
T:1412 #1 Follow My inspiration and renew your self-offering. Whenever one of My friends says ‘Yes’ to Me - ‘Yes’ to My action in her soul or in her life - I achieve good work within that life, after a certain amount of preparation.
T:1412 #2 Keep in mind the truths of the spiritual life; even someone’s hidden acts have a tremendous influence upon the world, whether for good or for evil; but by your self-offering to Me, you can cause My Divine Light to illuminate a darkened earth as surely as if a doorway were opening in your breast to let My Light pour through your life upon others. My Light - streaming through you - can fall upon all of the earthly concerns, people, places and institutions which feature in your life and in your prayers. (WC:1412)
T:1412 #3 Realise that you have an important role within My Church, even if that role should be hidden and be achieved through self-sacrifice. As you offer to serve Me, that ‘Yes’ to Me opens a door for My work and My Will to be accomplished in My Church through you, and to be accomplished lavishly! I act in many ways and through many people, and you are amongst them if you continue to give your consent.
FULL COMMUNION.
T:1413A #1 Have faith in Me. Persevere in your prayers, even about matters which seem not to have been answered. Your prayers are never ‘wasted’.
T:1413A #2 Continue to pray that others will accept the gift of faith. Truly, your Father in Heaven hears your prayer. Listen to Him speaking:
DON’T BE AFRAID.
DON’T DOUBT THAT I CHERISH THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM YOU ARE PRAYING.
“They are invited”
- AS MANY OTHERS ARE INVITED -
TO BELIEVE IN ME AND IN THE TEACHINGS OF MY CHURCH.
YOU CAN BE SURE THAT I AM DRAWING THEM TOWARDS MYSELF;
HOWEVER, I AWAIT THEIR FREE CONSENT TO MY PLANS AND TO MY PROMPTINGS.
CONTINUE TO HOLD THEM BEFORE ME
IN PRAYER.
T:1413B #1 Continue to pray with especial fervour and affection for those of your spiritual brothers and sisters who are not yet in full Communion with My Church. Pray that they will accept the grace to repudiate the disobedience, ignorance and false teaching bequeathed to them by their ancestors.
T:1413B #2 Pray that your spiritual brothers and sisters who are now separated to some degree from My Church might offer praise to the Father once more in the way which He Himself has recommended: through the praise which I, His Son, offer from the altar in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
T:1414 #1 Be glad that I have given you such faith in Me, and such faith in My Name. As you pray to the Father in My Name, offering My Precious Blood as your prize, your token, and your plea, you can be sure that the Father hears you. It is as though He is leaning towards you through the clouds which hide Heaven from your sight. He is greeting you, His newly-forgiven child, as you emerge from the waves of a sea of Precious Blood and rise up towards Him; yet from that sea you emerge clothed in a beautiful white garment, which is a sign of your soul’s forgiveness and purification. Thus, worthily-clothed, you gladly hold out your arms, to praise the Father and to embrace Him. (WC + OIL:1414)
T:1414 #2 Be confident in prayer. Believe in the Father’s Love for you. He sent Me to shed My Blood for you so that you and all who believe in Me could be made His children - My brothers and sisters.
T:1414 #3 Understand and delight in your status as one who is now faith-filled, repentant, reconciled and forgiven and who now prays to the Father in My Name: the Name of Jesus. As you pray, thus, your prayer is worthy of being heard. Because of My Sacrifice on your behalf, and the Blood which I shed for you, you are now washed in My Precious Blood. You are now - through that ‘washing’ - clothed in the white garment which I showed you, long ago; and you are prepared and made fit both to pray in My Name on earth and to enter Heaven.
T:1414 #4 Ask for the Father’s help in every circumstance. I shed My Blood so that you who are children of earth can be treated - even whilst still living upon earth - as children of Heaven! So you can pray in My Name with confidence. You yourself can ask, of the Father, simply, truly, in the Name of Myself, Jesus, Who shed that Blood: ‘Father, hear my prayer!’
T:1415 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer thanks to the Holy Trinity on this feast of the Annunciation. Thank your Heavenly Father for creating My Mother Mary for her special task. Thank Me, His Son, for joining you in your humanity and in earthly life; and thank My Holy Spirit for effecting My holy Incarnation.
T:1415 #2 Share the joy which you experience as you meditate on My Incarnation; thank My holy Mother for accepting the invitation to co-operate in the Father’s plan; thank the prophets for preparing My People to receive Me in their midst; and thank the Saints now in Heaven who have believed in Me and who have persevered in love.
PREPARATION AND ACTION.
T:1415 #3 Don’t worry. You are in Our care - the care of the Holy Trinity - as you do Our work almost ‘blindly’. Through My grace, and because of your trusting prayer, your Father in Heaven, Who does not act impulsively or hastily, is pouring His Light and Wisdom into your heart. Listen to Him:
DON’T BE AFRAID.
I AM HE
WHO BRINGS ABOUT GREAT GOOD, UPON EARTH, AND DEFEATS EVIL.
That which I Will should happen
does happen,
YET HAPPENS as the culmination
of a long period of preparation.
So, for Christ’s Holy Incarnation of the Blessed Virgin, Mary,
there was a preparation
- over many centuries -
of My Chosen People,
UNTIL
MARY STOOD READY TO BE CHRIST’S MOTHER:
READY FOR THE HOLY BIRTH,
AND PROTECTED BY JOSEPH.
So, too, in your lives!
PREPARATION IS ESSENTIAL
IN THE LIVES OF ALL WHO ARE WILLING TO SERVE ME.
LOOK PLAINLY AT THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR LIFE AND MY TEACHINGS:
YOUR WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN A PREPARATION FOR A SPECIAL WORK:
WORK FOR ME WHICH YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN.
My Will for you, enacted,
does not consist of single, startling, recognisable incidents,
but consists of all the moments and acts
which I Will
in a whole process, or
in innumerable processes,
all of which lie before Me now,
PLAINLY SEEN.
I know and see
everything past, and everything still to come.
Now, I Will
- BY MY DIVINE WILL -
that the Teachings shall be made known, widely,
exactly when I Will,
AFTER A LONG PREPARATION
OF PERSONS, PLACES AND MATERIALS,
and made known in a particular way,
for the benefit of My Church and People.
THEREFORE
how foolish are you if you try to ‘hurry’ events,
WHEN I WHO SEE EVERYTHING KNOW TO THE VERY SECOND,
AT WHAT POINT IN HISTORY
AND IN WHAT PLACE AND AMONGST WHICH PERSONS
AN EVENT WILLED BY ME OUGHT TO TAKE PLACE
FOR MY GREATEST POSSIBLE GLORY.
TRULY,
EFFORT IS NEEDED, ON YOUR PART.
WHERE MY WILL IS PLAIN, YOU OUGHT TO DO IT.
YET THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANXIETY.
I KEEP MY PROMISES TO YOU.
I AM FAITHFUL.
T:1416 #1 Let Me help you to live happily in lowliness. I want to see you trying to do My Will minute by minute, happy to leave in My hands everything which flows from your activities. I would like to see you indifferent both to the praises and to the disapproval of others, genuinely unconcerned about whether you and your work are helped or thwarted.
T:1416 #2 Be content to live in humility, living close to Me even if you are overlooked, pitied or scorned by others. As you proceed in this wise and simple way, it is as though you are following a narrow quiet road across a vast and dimly-lit plain to the place where I Myself await you at the far side; and there, at the end of your journey - where the Light is shining, in Heaven - I shall greet you.
T:1416 #3 Pity the man who, foolishly longing for glory and wishing for immediate fulfilment, builds a high tower - a tower of proud self-love and self-assertion - to reach above the clouds, so that he can place a ladder against that tower and run up it; he hopes to stand in the Light. Such a man is careless of the storm clouds around him, and is blind to the true pathway to Light: blind to the narrow pathway far below him which leads to Me, and to Heaven. (WC:1416)
T:1417 Try to turn away from distractions, during prayer, but don’t be anxious about succeeding. It is not in your power to be able to banish them all by an act of the will. Only by My power and Will are you sometimes enabled to pierce distractions swiftly and unhesitatingly and - thus empowered - to ‘pierce’ Heaven in effortless, God-given prayer. When you ‘pierce’ Heaven in this special way - through My gift of this special prayer - it is as though you are soaring upwards to the Father whilst being held in My arms, as My holy Angels look on. (WC:1417)
T:1418 Realise that no day is passed without opportunities for you to give Me Glory and to increase your love for Me. It is through the acceptance of unavoidable humiliations and pain that you can draw up such wonderful results. As you strive to be more loving, obedient and uncomplaining, because of your love for Me, and as you welcome such occasions of unavoidable suffering - welcoming them fully, and frequently - your soul is ‘enlarged’ in this way by your generous love; it is enlarged for an influx of Divine grace; and so even greater glory is given to the Father during the prayers which you offer to Him in union with Me, Jesus. It is because your soul has been ‘enlarged’ in this way that My own Glory now shines out more abundantly, from within your soul, in daily life and in Holy Communion.
T:1419A #1 Look towards the altar, during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. That is where I your Saviour - powerful and prayerful - offer My Sacrifice to the Father; and the Father delights in your faith and confidence when you turn to Him and ask: ‘Listen to Jesus’ prayer!’ He delights in seeing you silence your own thoughts and pleas so that you can offer My truly perfect prayer to Him: a perfect prayer which you are entitled to offer as your very own. (WC:1419A)
DAY-TO-DAY EFFORTS.
T:1419A #2 Continue to unite your intentions with Mine, before the altar; and try to live wholly united to Me at every moment of your life. Your heavenly Father is assuring you:
I DELIGHT IN YOUR PRAYER
AND IN THE PRAYERS OF ALL WHO LOVE MY SON
JESUS,
AND WHO PRAY IN HIS NAME.
I DELIGHT IN MY “CHILDREN”:
IN EVERY ‘CHILD OF GOD’ WHO SURRENDERS SELFISH DESIRES AND AMBITIONS
OUT OF LOVE FOR MY SON,
MANKIND’S REDEEMER.
“Thus does someone become
another Christ on earth.”
PEOPLE RESEMBLE CHRIST MOST TRULY
WHEN THEY RESEMBLE HIM IN HIS COMPLETE READINESS
TO KNOW AND TO DO MY WILL AT EVERY MOMENT.
T:1419B Continue to pray with reverence, at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When I was nailed to the Cross, so long ago, My Precious Blood poured from My wounded feet, poured down upon the earth as if to spread across the whole globe. It is through My Blood, shed for you, that your sins have been forgiven; so you are right to pray, today, with heart-felt gratitude, as I offer My perfect prayer and perfect Sacrifice to the Father, on your behalf and in your presence (WC:1419B)
PIOUS DREAMS.
T:1420 #1 Turn to your Heavenly Father, in prayer, and renounce even the least pious ‘dream’ of your own. Renounce not only human hopes about earthly ambitions, but even private and pious hopes about the way in which these ‘teachings’ might be used to help other people.
T:1420 #2 Entrust your work to My care. Accept with love all the ways in which My Will is achieved through your work and witness.
T:1420 #3 Offer to Me, once again, all of the rest of your life: every day, and every moment.
T:1420 #4 Be glad that you recognise your weakness, and that you freely reveal that weakness to Me, in prayer. “That is why I feed you!” It is by humility that you draw My gifts upon yourself.
T:1420 #5 Delight in your weakness. Through your confession of weakness, you draw down upon yourself My marvellous graces. You have been ‘graced’ with My help, in the Eucharist, through My own Holy Body and Blood; and you have been ‘graced’ by My help in these ‘teachings’, through which I am strengthening you and others.
T:1421 #1 Follow My inspiration and be determined to become more loving. Ask My Holy Spirit to fill you with the Divine Love with which you can love others.
T:1421 #2 Welcome the bliss which My Spirit pours within your heart, as I encourage you towards a greater love for your neighbour. The love which you must show to others should be unconditional, warming, generous and forgiving. It should be the very same Love as that which I am now lavishing upon your needy, undeserving but beloved soul!
T:1421 #3 Follow My inspiration and continue to ask Me humbly for advice about prayer. Your longing to please Me draws great graces upon you, as I open your eyes to further spiritual truths.
A GIGANTIC TASK.
T:1421 #4 Realise that your soul’s ‘enlargement’ for Divine Love leads to an increased influence upon others, through prayer. Through My grace and through your co-operation your soul is slowly expanding, ‘enlarged’ by our work; and your heart is being lifted up high in prayer, to leave behind many local and personal concerns. Yet this is not so that you will neglect your friends or relatives, or grow luke-warm about their needs; it is so that you can ‘embrace’ in your prayer, also, very many people whom you will meet in the future, in circumstances which are hidden from you at present. (WC:1421)
T:1421 #5 Look at the huge crowd of people which I am unveiling before you, in prayer. You will meet these people, through our work. Understand how gigantic is the task which I have led you to undertake. By My Will, your life is touching and affecting many others.
T:1421 #6 Never forget that to be like Me and to be wholly loving you must therefore be wholly merciful and forgiving.
T:1421 #7 Realise, of others, that he who is not merciful and forgiving is not loving.
YOUR DIVINE INSTRUCTOR.
T:1422 #1 Follow My inspiration and offer a complete sacrifice to Me of every private dream about how you hope to share My teachings and spread My encouragement amongst others. If you long for My Will to be done in your life, you will banish all personal ambition, even about pious and worthy matters.
T:1422 #2 Believe that your acts of faith delight Me. It is true that I am bringing good out of episodes of apparently needless suffering; and you can understand this better if I explain that the training-in-faith through which I have led you, partly through the sufferings which I have permitted, is almost identical to the training which a gymnast undergoes. Whenever you have made an act of faith in My Love, in order to endure suffering and to persevere in a time of darkness, you have acted like a gymnast who learns, by repeated and humiliating practice, short pieces of an eventual lengthy and agile routine. Only through practice and training do any of you develop agility, flexibility and mastery in either bodily skills or spiritual achievements.
T:1422 #3 Consider how much help is needed, during early formation in the spiritual life, whether from parents, teachers or priests, or from My Saints in Heaven! Through My Providence you can hope to receive as many helps for your soul as a gymnast might hope to receive from an earthly instructor. As I train you in the spiritual life, I am giving you encouragement and firm teaching. I provide a guiding hand, since I am the Instructor, in the life of everyone who prays to Me. I provide stout physical supports; just as a gymnast expects to find firmly-anchored boxes and rails for use in practice and in demonstrations, so you can find in My visible, strong and united Catholic Church - with its Sacraments and it structures of government - stout supports upon which your spiritual life can be developed. (WC:1422)
T:1422 #4 See how effective is the work which I, the spiritual Instructor, can achieve within a willing soul. Through a thorough and lengthy training, one who loves Me and who follows My guidance is enabled at last to act confidently, even in the darkness of faith. He can therefore ‘succeed’ in his work for Me, in his special task within My holy Church. One who has been fully trained by Me can respond to My invitation to do apparently impossible tasks, or to endure apparently wasteful sufferings or to accept or draw upon himself - according to My Will - apparently needless humiliations. Of course, he ‘succeeds’ in his efforts only through My merits and graces.
T:1422 #5 Compare a well-trained soul who ‘succeeds’ in both work and prayer with the practised gymnast who flies from mat to bar, and back again, and over! Each one moves and acts surely and professionally. Both are matter-of-fact, and are capable of steady and difficult work. They are unconcerned about the opinions of others, since their standards and goals are so great that they will accept weakness and degradation in order to achieve them. They are unworried about the outcome, since the tasks before them, although difficult, are nevertheless ‘routine’. They both reach out calmly for what is not seen; the faithful soul reaches out for My help, knowing from faith that it will be given, just as the gymnast reaches out to grasp a bar, knowing from past experience and skilful practice that it will be there to grasp, even if it is briefly out of his line of sight.
T:1422 #6 Be glad that you who live to love and serve Me have such a patient and powerful Instructor! You can be certain of the success of My plans; and you have the joy of being able to endure every moment of ‘training’ because of your great love for Me. As you know, I don’t compel you to persevere; love drives you. You know that without belief in My Love, a fearful soul would long ago have abandoned the task and the training.
T:1422 #7 Don’t be ashamed to admit that a longing for rewards from Myself, or for approval from people on earth whom you respect, has been ‘mixed-in’ with your hopes as you have struggled to please Me by being faithful. You can see - in My Presence here today - that any initial longing for human encouragement or for swift rewards is eventually overcome; and near the end, nothing can compare with the marvellous reward of knowing that you have pleased Me, your beloved Saviour, the One Who has planned and sustained the whole course of training.