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November 15, 2010 Dear Family of Mary!"Dear children! With motherly perseverance and love I am bringing you the light of life to destroy the darkness of death in you. Do not reject me, my children. Stop and look within yourselves and see how sinful you are. Be aware of your sins and pray for forgiveness. My children, you do not desire to accept that you are weak and little, but you can be strong and great by doing God's will. Give me your cleansed hearts that I may illuminate them with the light of life, my Son. Thank you."
I am still learning so much from St. Therese in combination with the November 2 message. Again, when Our Lady tells us that we do not desire to accept that we are weak and little, it resonates so clearly with Therese's little way. Here is another selection from the book, The Little Way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, by John Nelson, this time about accepting our weakness: "I understand very well why Saint Peter fell. Poor Peter, he was relying upon himself instead of relying only on God's strength. I conclude from this experience that if I said to myself: 'O my God. You know very well I love You too much to dwell upon one single thought against the faith,' my temptations would become more violent and I would certainly succumb to them. "I'm very sure that if Saint Peter had said humbly to Jesus: 'Give me the grace, I beg You, to follow You even to death,' he would have received it immediately."I'm very certain that Our Lord didn't say any more to His Apostles through His instructions and His physical presence than He says to us through His good inspirations and His grace. He could have said to Saint Peter: 'Ask me for the strength to accomplish what you want.' But no, He didn't because He wanted to show him his weakness, and because, before ruling the Church that is filled with sinners he had to experience for himself what man is able to do without God's help. Before Peter fell, our Lord had said to him: 'And once you are converted, strengthen your brethren' (Luke 22:32). This means: Convince them of the weakness of human strength through your own experience." (Said to Mother Agnes of Jesus, August 7, 1897)
It is essential that we understand how weak we are. If we don't, we will blunder into the enemy's camp, completely unarmed and unable to defend ourselves. We will attempt works that are far beyond our strength and be dismayed, like Peter. Peter wanted to follow Christ to Calvary, but he was completely unable to, of his own strength. Not until he understood this, and he experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, was he able to lay down his life for his sheep. We, too, must understand our fundamental weakness, in the depths of our souls, so that we will rely only of God. Then and only then will we be ready to serve Him.
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