13. The great goal of sanctity
August 24, 1973
“Your life is so precious, son, that you must not waste it even for an instant. Therefore train yourself to remain in Me, in my Heart, and to always act with Me: to think with my mind, to see things with my eyes, to touch them with my hands, and to love them with my Heart.
There are moments when you are particularly aware of this, and this is when you are in prayer with Me: it is then that you feel that you are truly a child upon the Heart of its Mother and thus your soul tastes these moments of paradise, which I reserve jealously for my beloved sons. When you come from prayer, it seems that everything else becomes tiresome and boring. This is another gift which I am giving to you.
Even when you are not at prayer, you must always be in the attitude of prayer, and you truly are if you live habitually in Me. So then even when you are talking, or amusing yourself, or taking a trip, you always remain in Me, because you do everything with Me…
I want all the Priests of the Marian Movement of Priests to be like this. They must be: my Priests! I say it again: Mine! From the time that they are consecrated to my Immaculate Heart they can no longer belong to themselves. Their life, their soul, their mind, their heart, their possessions, even the wrong they have done and the defects they possess: all is mine, all belongs to Me. My Immaculate Heart is a furnace of most pure fire; it burns all, it consumes all, it transforms all.
Because these Priests are mine, they must become accustomed to letting themselves be guided by Me: with simplicity, with abandonment. My joy is that of leading them, as a Mother, to the great goal of sanctity. I want them to be fervent, I want them to have great love for my Son Jesus, I want them ever faithful to the Gospel.
They must be docile in my hands for the sake of the great plan of Mercy; and through them I will save an immense number of souls.They will be my joy, the most beautiful crown of my Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart which still wants to be the means of salvation for the Church and for humanity.”
Some Thoughts:
God didn’t create humanity only to abandon us until we all return to Him in heaven (which was opened to us through Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross). He has provided an access to all the heavenly help that we may need right here and now, to enable us to fulfill our mission (a holy life). He’s provided helpers for the journey; the angels, saints and most importantly The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (<–click on this heading to read more. It’s really worth your effort.)
2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.
2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, “since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:”50
- Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.51