‘In my love, I have taken possession of you. You are mine!’ (Inner Word).
We know a similar phrase in Sacred Scripture: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Is 43:1). And St Paul exclaims: “Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).
“Never lose heart. God is with you and will never leave you” (Inner Word).
There is no doubt that we Christians are called to fight a battle, and it is coming to a head in an increasingly anti-Christian world, with its politics and mentality. But it is not only visible tribulations that we face. As St Paul tells us, our struggle is against “the principalities and powers” (Eph 6:12), that is, against the spirits of evil, the fallen angels, whom we must fight with the power of the Lord. To this battle are added various inner afflictions that come from our soul, as well as the experience of our own weakness and all kinds of limitations and trials.
‘Never let yourself be confused and keep your heart anchored in me’ (inner word).
Often the attacks of the evil one want to lead us away from the right path. But as we know, God uses all his machinations to anchor us even more deeply in Himself.
“I understand that someone suffers or is afflicted, but why worry if God is there?” (Venerable Anne de Guigné).
These words come from the mouth of a very young saint. It was Anne de Guigné herself who said: “Nothing is difficult if you love God”. Here we find a saintly simplicity that just assimilated the teachings of the Lord and allowed them to penetrate her soul. In this way they became a natural reality for Anne.
‘My God, Most Holy Trinity, be my dwelling place and my refuge; the Father’s house I never want to leave’ (St. Elizabeth of the Most Holy Trinity).
A soul in love with God expresses in her letters what the Heavenly Father offers us again and again in the message to Mother Eugenia: the most intimate relationship of the soul with her Creator and Saviour. All the books in the world cannot fully describe this love. We need to read more in that book of which Saint Joan of Arc spoke: to listen attentively to the Heart of God and to know our Father as He is.
“Listen attentively to the Heart of God. This is more important than reading many things” (Inner Word).
No time is ever wasted in listening attentively to the Heart of our Father. On the other hand, we waste a lot of time if we do not take advantage of His invitation and let these moments pass us by. Often we are so immersed in our tasks and so used to them that we do not really notice the precious moments of silence in our lives. Yet it is precisely these moments that mark us the most and make us inner persons.
“Oh, my good Lord, if only my soul could be called your beloved” (Blessed Henry Suso).
This exclamation comes from a mystic inflamed with love, Blessed Henry Suso, who experienced the fire of the Holy Spirit in his inner encounter with the Lord, awakening him to the love of God. There is such a profound awakening to the love of God that the soul longs for union with the Beloved and yearns with increasing intensity for an encounter with Him. It suffers a ‘sweet sorrow’. On the one hand, it is sweet because it fills the soul with the bliss of God’s incomparable love; on the other hand, it is painful because it awakens in her an ever-increasing hunger for love which cannot be fully satisfied in this life and is only comforted by the prospect of eternity.
“Do not go outside, come back inside: within man dwells the truth” (St. Augustine).
How often we seek outside, in the world, in events, in the media, in encounters and in other people, that which in reality we can only find within ourselves! We often forget that, if we live in a state of grace, the Trinity Herself has established Her dwelling place in our soul and has erected in it Her temple of truth. In this inner temple we can withdraw at any time and enter into an intimate dialogue with God within ourselves.
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“Do not go outside, come back inside: within man dwells the truth” (St. Augustine).
How often we seek outside, in the world, in events, in the media, in encounters and in other people, that which in reality we can only find within ourselves! We often forget that, if we live in a state of grace, the Trinity Herself has established Her dwelling place in our soul and has erected in it Her temple of truth. In this inner temple we can withdraw at any time and enter into an intimate dialogue with God within ourselves.
“From the cross of this world, which causes so much suffering, raise your gaze with me to the Father” (Inner Word).
The immense suffering He endured on the Cross of Calvary brought us Redemption. Jesus did everything with His eyes fixed on the Father in order to fulfil His will. As Saint Paul suggests, we too are called to share in the sufferings of this world: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24).
