THE HEART OF OUR LADY
3. Even Selfishness.
Rightly understood, even selfishness is a virtue. We say that charity begins at home and certainly, in matters of salvation and sanctification, we are bound to look after our soul more than we do after the others. That is a holy selfishness, nay it is a necessary, a compulsory selfishness. This should also embrace the precious devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In fact the fruits promised are so excellent. Remember the promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary. I promise you that My Heart will be so enlarged as to share the wealth of this divine love amongst those who honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus and invite others to do likewise. And that wealth is infinite.
Certainly the greatest reward is love itself. We cannot be better paid than by the Sacred Heart of Jesus admitting us to His love and allowing us to enter into It. What better could we expect than to love Him and to be loved by Him? Yet the Lord has enhanced His condescension with such valuable promises that, indeed, out of selfishness we should run to the practice of this devotion. And if you have not so far done so, by whom are you prevented except by your enemy the devil?
Examine the cause of this apathy and this cowardice of yours in a business of such importance, and reflect that perhaps your failure to have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is because you have not gone through the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother. Consider that the Sacred Heart of Jesus will give you all He has promised, through the Heart of His Mother. Go to Mary then. Take shelter in Her Heart, abandon yourself there. Those who are lost in the Heart of Mary are bound to find themselves in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
3. Even Selfishness.
Rightly understood, even selfishness is a virtue. We say that charity begins at home and certainly, in matters of salvation and sanctification, we are bound to look after our soul more than we do after the others. That is a holy selfishness, nay it is a necessary, a compulsory selfishness. This should also embrace the precious devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In fact the fruits promised are so excellent. Remember the promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary. I promise you that My Heart will be so enlarged as to share the wealth of this divine love amongst those who honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus and invite others to do likewise. And that wealth is infinite.
Certainly the greatest reward is love itself. We cannot be better paid than by the Sacred Heart of Jesus admitting us to His love and allowing us to enter into It. What better could we expect than to love Him and to be loved by Him? Yet the Lord has enhanced His condescension with such valuable promises that, indeed, out of selfishness we should run to the practice of this devotion. And if you have not so far done so, by whom are you prevented except by your enemy the devil?
Examine the cause of this apathy and this cowardice of yours in a business of such importance, and reflect that perhaps your failure to have devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is because you have not gone through the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother. Consider that the Sacred Heart of Jesus will give you all He has promised, through the Heart of His Mother. Go to Mary then. Take shelter in Her Heart, abandon yourself there. Those who are lost in the Heart of Mary are bound to find themselves in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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