What Jesus Wills

Whosoever fears God and keeps his commandments, is the servant of God. And in this service is not perfection, but the righteousness which leads to adoption. For this cause the prophets also and the apostles, the holy band whom God chose, entrusting to them the apostolic preaching, by the goodness of God the Father became prisoners of Christ Jesus. For Paul says, "Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle" (Eph 3: 1, Rom 1: 1): so that the written law works with us in a good servitude, until we are able to master every passion, and to become perfect in the good ministry of virtue through the apostolic state.

For if a man draws near to grace, then Jesus will say to him, "I will no longer call you servants, but I will call you my friends and my brothers: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (Jn 15: 15). For those who have drawn near, and have been taught by the Holy Spirit, have known themselves according to their intellectual substance. And in their knowledge of themselves they have cried out and said, "For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom 8: 15): that we may know what God has given us - "If we are sons, then we are heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with the saints" (Rom 8: 17).

My dear bretheren and joint heirs with the saints, not foreign to you are all the virtues, but they are yours, if you are not under guilt from this fleshly life, but are manifest before God. For the Spirit enters not the soul of one whose heart is defiled, nor the body that sins; a holy power it is, removed from all deceit.

Truly, my beloved, I write to you as to reasonable men, who have been able to know yourselves. For he who knows himself, knows God: and he who knows God, is worthy to worship him as is right.

-Saint Anthony

Saint Anthony (356) was a hermit and a great counselor to clergy, monks and lay people.

Why We Can Reform

Our helper is God, and he is such that no one can withstand him. As long as we continue to look to this strong loving helper, we cannot be weakened by the thought of our own frailty. It seems this is what that dear lover Paul saw when he said, "I can do all things in Christ crucified, who is in me and strengthens me." For when Paul felt the annoyance and pricking of the flesh, he found strength not in himself, because he knew he was weak, but in Christ Jesus. It was because of Christ Jesus and that fine strong armor God had given him, his strong freedom, that he could say, "I can do all things." For neither the devil nor anyone else can force me to commit a single deadly sin against my will. We can never be overcome unless we give up this armor and turn it over to the devil by our willing consent. The temptations and wiles of the devil, the flesh, and the world may come shooting poisoned arrows - the flesh with ugly thoughts and sensations, the devil with his assorted temptations and deceit and trickery, the world with its pretentiousness and pride. But unless lady freedom consents to these disordered suggestions, she never sins, because sin is in the will alone. And God has given us this as a favor, not as our due.

-Saint Catherine of Sienna

Saint Catherine of Sienna (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, a stigmatist, and papal counselor.

Joy Made Complete

Who thinks it possible to describe the special kind of submission you showed? Who can describe your soul's feelings, O Virgin most blessed? On the one hand, you see a little child born of you, on the other you perceive the immense God! On the one hand, the creature; on the other, the creator; a weak being and the mightiest of beings; one who needs nourishment and one who nourishes; one who dos not speak and one who teaches the angels!

I say again: who is able to draw back the veil from the mystery hidden in your bosom? How did your spirit manage to endure both thoughts when you held in your arms God himself and the Son of man, and now adored your God, now kissed your little son? Who could fail to be dumbstruck by such an indescribable miracle? Who could fail to be speechless?

A young girl gives birth to her creator and the creator of all; a young girl carries him who rules her and everyone! What a marvelous sight! Not only human nature but even the nature of the angels is left astounded!

-Saint Ambrose Autpert

Saint Ambrose Autpert (778) was a Frankish Benedictine monk who became abbot of San Vicenzo in southern Italy.

The Great Light

In the Holy Scriptures there are many names and titles which are applied to our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  He is said to be the Word; he is called Wisdom, Light and Power; right hand, arm and angel; man and lamb, sheep and priest.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; a vine, Justice and Redemption; bread, a stone and doctor; a fount of living water; peace and judge and door.  Yet, for all these names - which are to help us grasp the nature and range of his power - there is but one and the same Son of God who is our God.

These, then, are his names; but what are the meaning of these names?  He is called the Word, first, to imply that he was begotten of the Father with no more passivity or substantial diminution in the Father than there is in a person who utters a spoken word; second, for the obvious reason that God the Father has always spoken through him both to men and angels.  The name Wisdom tells us that in the beginning all things, through him, were ordered wisely.  He is the Light, because it was he who brought light into the primordial darkness of the world and who, by his coming among men, dissipated the darkness of their minds.  Power is one of his names, since no created thing can ever overcome him.  He is a right hand and arm, for through him all things were made and by him they are all sustained.  He is called an angel of great counsel, because he is the announcer of his Father's will.  He is said to be the Son of man, because on account of us men he deigned to be born a man.  He is called a lamb, because of his perfect innocence; a sheep, to symbolize his passion. 

-Niceta of Remesiana

Niceta of Remesiana (414) was a bishop, a theological author, and a hymn-writer to whom the composition of the Te Deum is attributed.  

Follow Me

From faith springs that obedience to God in his Church and the merit accruing to your souls, for which you can never be sufficiently thankful. This filial obedience to which the apostle exhorts us, "Let us serve, pleasing God with fear and reverence," our Redeemer himself has made the crowning proof of all his disciples; the sure bond of membership with his mystical body, the Church; the witness of union with him who is our head, our life, our salvation. For he has said - and are there any words of the Holy Writ more worthy of being written in letters of gold, or which should be more familiar to Christians? - "If you love me, keep my commandments. He that has my comandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. If any man loves me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make an abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my words. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do remain in his love. You are my friends, if you do the things I command you" (Jn 14: 15-24; 15: 10-14).

Such was the language, such were the thoughts of Jesus Christ on that last evening, when as the God-Man turning once more to his heavenly Father with the words "that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given me commandment, so I do: arise, let me go hence." He bent his steps to the garden of Gethsemane, there to pour forth his prayers, his tears, his blood; and the next day to die on the cross of Calvary. Oh! How profitably may man draw near and with all the powers of his soul attend and learn obedience from an Incarnate God who for our example is obedient unto death, even death of the cross.

-Saint John Neumann

Saint John Neumann (1860) was born in Bohemia. He moved to America, joined the Redemptorists, and was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852.

Beholding the Lamb of God

O Father, the first rule of our dear Savior's life was to do your will. Let his will of the present moment be the first rule of our daily life and work, with no other desire but for its most full and complete accomplishment. Help us to follow it faithfully, so that doing what you wish we will be pleasing to you.

Lord Jesus, who was born for us in a stable, lived for us a life of pain and sorrow and died for us upon a cross; say for us in the hour of death, "Father, forgive," and to your Mother, "Behold your child." Say to us, "This day you shall be with me in paradise." Dear Savior, leave us not, forsake us not. We thirst for you, Fountain of Living Water. Our days pass quickly along, soon all will be consummated for us. To your hands we commend our spirits, now and forever. Amen.

-Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1821) founded the American Sisters of Charity and was the first American-born canonized saint.

Joseph the Just Man

Saint Matthew says that because Joseph was a just man, he did not wish to defame Mary but was willing to take upon himself the suffering and to put her away. This is one of the proofs of true justice, which is always accompanied by mercy, as is the justice of God himself. God's own law put the knife in Joseph's hand, but Joseph renounced the right which he had before God. He chose to be merciful rather than rigorous, for he desired to be what he himself would wish God to be...

Joseph realized how great was the blessing which God had bestowed upon him, a poor carpenter, in decreeing that from his house and family should come the hope and salvation and remedy of all generations and that he should be guardian and putative father of the Savior and the spouse of his blessed Mother. In addition to all this, the angel revealed the eminent sanctity and excellence of the Virgin and so changed Joseph's mind that he now held in the greatest reverence her whom he had suspected of evil.

When a heart so pure and holy sees itself enclosed and inundated by such mysteries, what must it feel? How astonished and enraptured it must be amidst such marvels and blessings, especially since the Holy Spirit usually gives to the just an experience or taste proportionate to the knowledge which he gives them. Since the Holy Spirit is substantial love proceeding from the Father and the Son, he is as much concerned with the will as with the intellect, and he moves it in conformity with the light which he gives to the intellect. Consequently, as nature does not make members that are out of proportion to each other, so that divine Spirit usually arouses acts of the will which are proportionate to the light in the intellect. This being the case, what must have been the state of Joseph's will when his intellect was enlightened concerning the great marvels and mysteries?

-Venerable Louis of Granada

Venerable Louis of Granada (1588) was a Spanish Dominican priest and a good friend of Saint Charles Borromeo.

United with the Holy Ones of the Genealogy

Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like him in this life, and glorious like him in the next.

It is certain that growth in holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake must lead you toward that end. Otherwise you are resisting God in not doing the work for which he created you and for which he is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving his grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.

Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God.

-Saint Louis de Montfort

Saint Louis de Montfort (1716) was a great French missionary preacher especially renowned for fostering devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.