May 7, 2019
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children, with a motherly love I am calling you to respond to the great love of my Son, with pure and open hearts, with complete trust. I know the greatness of His love. I carried Him within me, the Host in the heart, the light and the love of the world. My children, also my addressing you is a sign of the love and tenderness of the Heavenly Father-a big smile filled with the love of my Son, a call to eternal life..." (May 2, 2019)
Our Lady speaks beautifully of the love and tenderness of our God. Her words inspire confidence in us to fall in love with the Lord. She tells us that Jesus' love is great, worthy of all trust. She tells us to see her presence among us as a sign of the love and tenderness of the Heavenly Father! And the Holy Spirit is the "big smile filled with the love of Jesus!" Mary is drawing our attention away from the works of the enemy and directing them to Heaven, to our loving God. Don't we need this redirection?
It seems that Mary is calling us to really fall in love with God. Not just worried love, needy love, but complete love of God. And it is a love that can be understood in terms of friendship. She wants us to become friends of God.
I have collected five passages from the Diary of St. Faustina that reveal something of her friendship with God. I think they might be helpful for us as we pray to understand the love and friendship of the Lord for us. We might use them as meditations before the decades of the Rosary. Here they are:
1st Decade:
"O Jesus concealed in the Host, my sweet Master and faithful Friend, how happy my soul is to have such a Friend who always keeps me company. I do not feel lonely even though I am in isolation. Jesus-Host, we know each other - that is enough for me." (Diary 877)
2nd Decade
Jesus, Friend of a lonely heart, You are my heaven. You are my peace. You are my salvation, You are my serenity in moments of struggle and amidst an ocean of doubts. You are the bright ray that lights up the path of my life. You are everything to a lonely soul. You understand the soul even though it remains silent. You know our weaknesses, and like a good physician, You comfort and heal, sparing us sufferings - expert that You are. (Diary 247)
3rd Decade
+ Hail to You, Eternal Love, my Sweet Jesus, who have condescended to dwell in my heart! I salute You, O glorious Godhead who have deigned to stoop to me, and out of love for me have so emptied Yourself as to assume the insignificant form of bread. I salute You, Jesus, never-fading flower of humanity. You are all there is for my soul. Your love is purer than a lily, and Your presence is more pleasing to me than the fragrance of a hyacinth. Your friendship is more tender (147) and subtle than the scent of a rose, and yet it is stronger than death. O Jesus, incomprehensible beauty, it is with pure souls that You communicate best, because they alone are capable of heroism and sacrifice. O sweet, rose-red blood of Jesus, ennoble my blood and change it into Your own blood, and let this be done to me according to Your good pleasure. (Diary 1575)
4th Decade
Jesus: Here, soul, are all the treasures of My Heart. Take everything you need from it.
Soul: O Lord, I am inundated with Your grace. I sense that a new life has entered into me and, above all, I feel Your love in my heart. That is enough for me. O Lord, I will glorify the omnipotence of Your mercy for all eternity. Encouraged by Your goodness, I will confide to You all the sorrows of my heart.
Jesus: Tell me all, My child, hide nothing from Me, because My loving Heart, the Heart of your Best Friend, is listening to you. (Diary 1486)
5th Decade
Jesus: My child, do not be discouraged. I know your boundless trust in Me; I know you are aware of My goodness and mercy. Let us talk in detail about everything that weighs so heavily upon your heart.
Soul: There are so many different things that I do not know what to speak about first, nor how to express it.
Jesus: Talk to Me simply, as a friend to a friend. Tell Me now, My child, what hinders you from advancing in holiness? (Diary 1487)
May we open our hearts to the love and friendship of Jesus, who is our Lord and brother. May we live out of this friendship all our days. Jesus, we love you, may we be your friends!
In Jesus Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2019
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