Transcription
Good morning everyone. Here we are today on this Thanksgiving Day in the Divine Will with Alejandra for Volume 1. Let's begin with our prayer.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Most Holy Trinity, recognizing our nothingness, we want to offer you our whole life, our worries and sufferings, our entire being, body and soul, our intelligence, and especially our will, so that we may unite ourselves to your eternal and Divine Will, the source of all good, and give you the glory and joy of fulfilling the purpose of our lives to carry out all our actions in your Divine Will and thus live in it.
Come Divine Will with all the angels and saints, especially with our sweet Mother and with Luisa, to touch our forehead, to imprint upon it the Holy Spirit, to instill in us the light so that we may understand the truths and the good things found in these writings. Amen. Fiat.
Remembering what we saw last time. Thank you. Remember that it was about learning to love people in God, for God, because we are very used to loving people for themselves, for their own sake. And that is disorder. We are disordered, precisely. Order is the first commandment: to love God above all things and, in God, to love everything that God gives us and everyone. So here, in Luisa, she teaches us all of this.
I was asked to elaborate a bit more, to make this point more practical, because it is a very fundamental point. How can we, in daily life, see people in God and love them in God? We can, as always, use our imagination. He is always giving us images so that we can place them precisely in our imagination and in this way help ourselves. In this case, how can we do it? Well, when we have to do a mental exercise, for example, the people around you, your family members who are your closest neighbors, how do you see them in God? Well, with our imagination, we can help ourselves to see that person. I see, I don't know, my wife, my children, my mother, and so on, right? But with my imagination, I am going to see that Jesus is right behind them, radiant, and He is guiding absolutely everything that happens. He is allowing everything. So, instead, let's fix our gaze on Jesus. On Jesus, who is smiling at us, who is watching what is happening. Or if it's something from the past that we still need to work through. We tend to see it like this: we always see the person, "this person did this to me," "that person said that to me," and so on. No, let's imagine that behind that person is Jesus, radiant, shining, loving, and He is allowing that situation. So, from now on, we are going to turn much more to Jesus than to the person, and we are going to love and forgive that person if they did something wrong to us, or thank them as well to that person, but above all, looking at Jesus. "Thank you, Jesus," or "I ask for your help, Jesus," "I offer it to you, Jesus." In other words, that relationship with Jesus, even in our interactions with other people.
In this way, we will have that living faith that everything is coming from God, from the hands of Jesus, from His loving will, that everything will be for our good, and we can use it for our benefit. Even in the most painful circumstances, when we might say, "How is it possible that God allows this to happen to me or to others?" Then we can see that there, once again, with faith, Jesus is present. He is not only allowing it because of people's free will, which does not mean He approves of it. It's different. Because allowing these things, for example, let's suppose a murder, it's not that God wants murder. God cannot desire evil. He allows it because of people's freedom. He is suffering because of that evil act, undoubtedly, but He is there. So, because of that Divine permission, not only is He there, and you can see Him and ask for His help, but He truly already has the remedies in His hands. Imagine Him with cotton in His hands, suffering because of that situation, but saying, "It doesn't matter, even in this, my love is greater, my power is greater, and here are the remedies." So, to have that faith and begin to relate much more with our Lord in those painful circumstances.
I repeat, if those moments have already passed, then it's an exercise we can do mentally. Here, we also need to consider something. Almost always, we put ourselves in the role of the victim. "Others have done things to me. Others have treated me badly." But we also need to turn it around. And how many times have we treated our neighbor badly? Here it comes. So, to also keep things balanced, right? It's not just that we're the victims, "how terrible, how much we suffer because of others," but we've also made others suffer because of our own limitations, our bad inclinations, for not knowing how to control ourselves with our neighbor, right? So, there too, it means we need to recognize, to be very honest in acknowledging this. And Jesus was there too. So, we also made Him suffer along with our neighbor. Maybe not with all the malice in the world, right? But because of our human weakness, right, and our limitations. So, that's also an exercise that will help us to purify ourselves, to recognize, and to ask Jesus for forgiveness in those situations where we have also failed our neighbor.
But well, going back to the other point, in the most extreme case, let's say, when our neighbor has left us with deep and painful wounds that we still truly need to heal with God's Divine help. What can we possibly do? Is this exercise enough? Well, this specific exercise helps a lot. But let's use the illustrative example of wounds, specifically physical wounds. When we have a painful wound on our body, how exactly do those physical wounds begin to heal themselves? Well, first, as we know, you have to clean them with some kind of solution, let's say a medicinal one, right? A solution that cleans. Many times, you have to take some medication, yes. And sometimes you have to apply it directly to the wound to clean it and everything. After you do that treatment, you leave it and go on with your life, eating healthily and moving forward. It's not like you're applying the remedy all day long. Why? Because then it doesn't heal either. See, it's about applying the remedy and letting it work while you go on with your life, eating well so your body can also respond. And maybe twice a day, three times a day, or sometimes it's enough to do that treatment just once a day. That's it. But not irritating the wound all day long.
So, let's apply this spiritually. Spiritually, that medicine will always come from God. What is the medicine that cleanses the wound? Well, it's asking God to give us the ability to forgive. Forgiveness removes resentment, the things that infect wounds and make them worse. So, remove all of that. Purify that wound. If it still hurts, if it was something someone did to you that caused that spiritual wound, but you have to remove all the bad germs with God's help. That is little by little. If you don't feel capable of forgiving right away and forgetting, you can ask, "My God, please give me the ability to forgive, to start forgetting, to, in short, right, to cleanse this wound." And then, well, love is like that medicine that will gradually cleanse it. That love for Jesus, that love of charity, let's call it love of charity because it's the supernatural love for God and for our neighbor. But first, we have to love Jesus. The more we love Jesus, the more we will be able to love our neighbor and Jesus.
So, after having done that healing, that is, that mental exercise, as I was saying, to say, "My God, help me to forgive. I give it to you. It hurts, you know, but please help me. I mean, you are the doctor. You are going to help me heal it very well." You've already handed all of that over. You've shown your goodwill to do your part. You set it aside and continue with your spiritual life, nourishing yourself with these things, plus the sacraments, plus everything we already know, prayer, etc. And you don't need to spend all day thinking about those wounds or trying to forgive. Why? Because often you just end up getting irritated and stuck there, and that's not how those wounds will heal. You need to nourish yourself more and keep moving forward in your spiritual life. At the time of communion or during your evening prayer, if that thought comes back to you, well, you do that quick healing again without going into too much detail. In other words, you do that mental exercise of saying, "Jesus, help me to forgive. Help me with this. I offer it to you." And to that person who hurt me, if you've already managed to forgive them, that's great. Then move on to the next step. I ask you for her, for her salvation. Surely, just as I make mistakes because of my own limitations, that person also made mistakes due to human weakness, disordered passions, bad inclinations, temptations, and so on. Please help her to convert. So, use that same thing for the good of others. And if it's too hard for you, just set it aside for a while and keep moving forward. You see? So, in this way, Jesus and you are working together on that healing because healing, like everything in the spiritual life, is between two, between God and the soul. It will never be just on God's part because God made us free and wants our will, our cooperation in everything. He is not going to take away the part that is up to us because that's exactly what He wants us to do together with Him. You see? So, we have to keep working on this.
As I said, in this way, if you want to do it faster so you're not stuck with the wound and hurting more, then go ahead, do it quickly. And as time goes by, if you keep moving forward in this, in this knowledge, in these, it's not just the exercise of healing that wound. But you'll see here in the Divine Will, we'll see, well, that it's not just our wound, right? That there are so many brothers and sisters, or really everyone, who has so many wounds, right? So, also to go and help heal the wounds of our other spiritual brothers and sisters, asking for the blood of Jesus, the necessary graces, all the acts of Jesus, bringing them to these people, and so on. It can also be seen as an opportunity to pray and bring spiritual goods and spiritual medicines to all our other brothers and sisters. That is also why God sometimes allows it for us to have those wounds so that we may have a vision and compassion for all our brothers and sisters. This love of charity towards everyone, and in this way, we will cooperate with one another in that mystical body, right, healing it together, all of us. That is true charitable love.
Well, then I think with this, we can begin to understand. In Luisa's case, it says that Jesus also helped her. As we read the other day, that one day Jesus told her something specific. There in Volume 1, it doesn't say exactly what happened. However, in the Childhood Memoirs, which is another little notebook she wrote later on by order of St. Hannibal, she included more specific things from her childhood, from when she was still a little younger. And there she recounts that what had happened was that she felt a human love, not a bad one. I mean, it wasn't bad toward a nun. She felt, well, as if she was drawn to love her. You know, she admired her a lot, cared for her, looked up to her, wanted to be like her, a nun. And so, she felt that special human affection toward that person. Again, not that it was human or sinful or anything like that. I mean, not that it was a sin. It wasn't a sin. It wasn't something bad. However, it was something human and separate from God, from the love of charity. It was simply a human affection. And there, Jesus wanted her to experience this disappointment. So, what happened was that one day she went to look for the nun to talk with her and spend a little time together, and the nun sent word that she was busy and couldn't see her. And so, Luisa, in her heart as a child or young girl, felt a kind of rejection, a disappointment, a sense of abandonment of not being considered, just as we have so often felt with human affections. And it was from this that Jesus took the opportunity to tell her that she should not love anyone in that way, but only in Him. And so, Luisa also suffered her own disappointments. So, this shows us how all of that is God's work for us. Even if we don't understand it at the time. Sometimes what we want is to understand the reason. "Why is this happening? Why have you allowed it?" We shouldn't try to understand the reason. We should live with faith and trust in Jesus. If we know that it is for our own good, that He already has the remedies for us, and that if He allowed it, it's because He is working in our soul and it is for something good, then we don't need to know the reason. Just trust fully in Jesus. And I can tell you that later on, as you progress in your spiritual life, like Luisa, you then look back at your spiritual life, well, your life, and you say, "Ah, that's why." It's like, as time goes by, God shapes you more in that spiritual wisdom. And so many times, you say, "That's why God allowed it because it truly was for my good." How many, because of those pains, how many souls have drawn closer to God and taken significant steps in their spiritual lives thanks to those crosses of disappointment, as Jesus calls them. So, it will always be a gift. It's just that, as humans, it's hard for us to understand. So, the ones who need to work on ourselves are us. And all of this will bring us peace as we move forward.
Well, I hope this helps us to have greater trust in Jesus and a greater willingness to forgive and to understand others as well. In short, all this love for God and love for our neighbor applied to difficult situations. And may God help us little by little to heal. Even though we shouldn't focus our attention on healing either, because if God sometimes allows us to keep feeling pain, it's so that we can use it for good. In fact, our attention should be on that: using everything for good, to do spiritual good for others, to love Jesus, to call on Him more, to ask for His help, to be more attentive to our inner actions. That's the point that concerns us.
Moving forward from there, after that specific point about love for one's neighbor, Luisa goes on to explain, "I shall now continue with the vivid recollections and memories from my early childhood years that during meditation, many times as Jesus spoke to her, she would sometimes remain for two or even three hours without being able to interrupt the meditation." What was the meditation like? Jesus did everything for her. The teaching. No, look at how the meditation that Luisa did at that time was in the beginning. She says that when she read a spiritual book, she would come across a point and stop there. Then she would hear the voice of Jesus within her, taking on the role of teacher, explaining the meditation to her, and He helped her to apply it in her life. That is what it means to meditate. In other words, we already have Luisa's books, right? We also have the Holy Scriptures and any spiritual book we might have for reading. So, when reading, it's not just about going quickly. Here she is teaching us how to do it so we can benefit from it. Read, and after about a sentence or an idea, pause and think. Let's see, what is it saying? How does this help me? What lesson is it giving me? How do I apply it in my life? In short, that's where Jesus helped Luisa. She says, "Taking on the role of teacher, He explained the meditation to me. Ever since that moment, deep within my soul, kind Jesus would frequently give me lessons about the heavy cross, about the virtue of meekness, about the necessity of obedience, and about the mysteries of His hidden life."
So, here she is saying that Jesus, He didn't just speak to her about the Divine Will. In fact, at first, He didn't speak to her directly about the Divine Will. He spoke to her about all these things, which are the dispositions needed to later be able to live in the Divine Will. It's true that for many of us, well, for many, news of the Divine Will, of living in the Divine Will, comes first, and one might start to learn about this directly. But that doesn't mean that we no longer have to pay attention to what came before. No, because those are the dispositions that allow that knowledge to truly become life within our soul. Remember that Jesus accomplished His complete work in Luisa. If you wanted to leave all these teachings as well, about virtues, about the sacraments, about advice for spiritual life, in short, about grace, it's because we also have to put them into practice. With the distinction that here, in Luisa, notice what the difference is compared to our other saints. Here, everything is always directed toward living in the Divine Will. Whereas in other saints, it can remain only at the level of virtue. For example, in other saints, we see the virtue of obedience, the virtue of poverty, the virtue of penance and mortification. And it seems as if that is their goal, to obtain that virtue more and more and to practice it ever more perfectly. With Luisa, it's not virtue for virtue's sake, but virtue as a means to arrive at living in the Divine Will. Why is that? You cannot live in the Divine Will or perform acts in the Divine Will in vices. You have to have the virtues. In other words, it's either vice or virtue. So, you need to acquire the virtues because that is God's will in order to give life there to the Divine Will concretely, right? So, for example, either you are lustful or you have some sins of lust, or you acquire chastity and purity. You can't, in an act of lust, say, "Come, Divine Will." You see? So, thank you. To live in divinity, you need to have purity, chastity, to keep purifying ourselves. So, here, it's not just about having purity and developing it more and more, or chastity or continence, etc., all this group of virtues, but rather it's about giving life to the Divine Will within us by having these virtues because the Divine Will is not going to descend into vice. Divine Will and sins do not go together. They cannot coexist. You see? The same goes for any virtue, like the virtue of obedience, which we will also gradually look at. Obedience to legitimate superiors, to the Church, that is, to what God has established in the order that God has said. Not the abuse of obedience where now, in the name of obedience, people follow anyone, even if they are not the legitimate superior. In fact, I can say this, even priests, thank you, who are not properly connected with the Church, and they say, "No, I have to obey him." But why? If he has no connection with the Church, for example, or he is in disobedience? So, no, you have to know whom you are obeying and to what extent. But at the same time, we shouldn't be disobedient to legitimate authority, for example, to the Pope, to our bishop, and so on, right? So, why is that? Well, because otherwise, you can't live in the Divine Will. Disobedience. That's what it says in Luisa's writings, right? And it's clear. You have to do God's will in that regard as well, in order to be able to say, "Come, Divine Will," and for it to come and live in you. If you are in disobedience or committing acts of disobedience, the Divine Will cannot dwell there. Even if you say, "Come, Divine Will," it actually doesn't come because the Divine Will and sin cannot coexist.
So, here in Luisa's writings, it's also about developing these dispositions. As you read and say, "I want to do it in order to reach the point of living in the Divine Will." The goal is to come to live in the Divine Will because there, in the group, in the forum, we were discussing the topic of dispositions. So, all these first volumes are about dispositions. Sometimes it's not possible to make a true summary of all the dispositions, but they're already present in Luisa. So, as you read them, Jesus and you will be working together to develop all those dispositions. And God's work is gradual. There's no need to rush or become anxious. Yes, as you begin to understand, that's when you have to offer your will, your fiat. Yes, Jesus, I also want to change or modify this or already have this attitude, and so on. So, Jesus begins to shape our soul as well, through our goodwill to want to do it well. So, Jesus talks to her about all these things. And here, Luisa is going to talk about her hidden life, which she also mentioned in the previous chapter, about her life in Nazareth. That's why now we're going to focus on this aspect of the hidden life.
Regarding her hidden life, "I remember that He would say to me, 'My beloved daughter, your precious life must truly be here among us in the house of Nazareth.'" Look, here is another teaching we can use, one in which we can use our imagination. "Your life must be among us in the house of Nazareth." So, let's imagine that He is inviting us. "Come on. Look, you should live from today, from this moment on, with us. Not just with me, but with my Mother and with St. Joseph in the house of Nazareth." Let's use our imagination. When you wake up in the morning, say, "Oh, wow. I'm waking up in the house of Nazareth." What's the first thing? Ah, greet Jesus. Greet the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, right? So, start the day. "Jesus, good morning. I'm here. I want to be very attentive today. What you do, what everyone here in the house of Nazareth does, and they are united with... I don't want to be a discord and not... no, I want to start learning from you and to live in union with you and with the inhabitants of this house," and so on, right? Well, I gave an example, but each person with their own imagination, which is why God gave it to us. It's the best use we can give to our imagination, you know, that is, to begin our life in the house of Nazareth.
Regarding His hidden life, "He told me, 'My daughter, your life should be among us in the house of Nazareth. If you work, if you pray, if you eat, if you walk, and in all the other acts of daily life, you should place one hand in Mine, the other in Our Mother's, and keep your eyes on St. Joseph, so you can see if your actions match ours.'" So, in every act, how does Jesus do it? How do they do it in that house? "I want to do it like them, and I want to do it with them." So, look, why doesn't He just say, "You see it and you do it yourself"? You don't put your hand, meaning you join us and do it together with us, together with Mary, together with Jesus. "If you work," I repeat this last phrase, "if you work, if you pray, if you eat, if you walk, and do all the other daily activities, you should place one hand on Me, the other on Our Mother, and your gaze on St. Joseph, so you can see if your actions match ours." So that you can say, "First, I shape my model on what Jesus, Our Heavenly Mother, and St. Joseph do, and then I follow it." Well, there is our model. This is our interior exercise. Always ask yourself, "How did Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, the saints, in this case St. Joseph, do things?" and try to do the same.
Look, right here, we can also take a moment to reflect deeply on something else entirely. When it comes to taking Jesus and the Blessed Virgin as our models, notice how we first have to start by the example of how they did things in the external sense, in terms of what was visible, what we could perceive, right? Or what we can perceive with our mind, our imagination, our meditation. And then it will show us not only the external aspect but also the interior aspect of their actions, that is, the intention, the motivation, so that our actions may be completely modeled after those of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin. So, why is this? Because our actions have these two aspects. Look, even we ourselves are made up of these two aspects, aren't we? We have a material body that can be seen, and we have an inner spiritual soul that cannot be seen. So, all the actions that come from us have these two characteristics, these two aspects: the external part of our actions, which can be seen, and the internal part, which cannot be seen, which is the intention. To be like Jesus, who is our model, we have to work on both, on both aspects. That's why here, the outward part is like virtue, and the inward part is the intention, and doing it in the Divine Will, little by little.
So, let's see how this works. "I," says Luisa, "would be kind of confused, and I would say to Him, 'My beloved Jesus, I don't know how to do it.'" And He would say to me, "Take heart, my daughter, do not be discouraged. If you don't know how to do it, ask Me to teach you, and I will teach you right away. I will recount for you the specific manner in which we did it, my deepest intentions, and the everlasting, unwavering affection of the three of which I, much like the vast and endless sea, and they like the winding rivers, were always overflowing, so that one would naturally flow into the other. And yet, we had such a tragically brief amount of time to speak to each other, so deeply and completely immersed were we in our love." Here, He already begins to tell her His intentions, the love, the love for St. Joseph and for the Virgin, like this, not only the love for God and the love for everyone. So, He says, "You see, you have much to do to reach us. You need a lot of silence and attentiveness. I don't want you behind us, but with us, among us."
Here I connect with Volume 1, what we had already read last time, to complement what we were seeing about the little house of Nazareth. "Try to imitate Me when I was living in the quiet family house of Nazareth. At that time, my entire mind was completely occupied with absolutely nothing else but the eternal glory of My Heavenly Father and the ultimate salvation of all human souls." Let's see here. What is Jesus talking about? Especially the inner part of His actions, the intention, right? "My mind was occupied with nothing but the glory of My Father and the salvation of souls." So, even from here, that double aspect of charity is already present: first of all, to God, everything referred to God, to the glory of the Father. Later on, He will explain that it encompasses everything, it includes reparation, satisfaction, adoration, love, obviously, praise, etc., gratitude, all of that is the glory of His Father. And at the same time, or within it, for all souls. Here they say the salvation of souls. Later on, He will say that it is not only salvation but also the glory of His Father, all the graces, as well, to live in the Divine Will. That is perfect charity toward all souls, toward all of us. So, in every act, Jesus had this double intention, or rather, two sides of the same intention, which is love. "My mouth spoke of nothing but holy things." With my words, that is, first outwardly, holy conversations. Then, with my intention, I tried to repair the offenses against my Father with my words. And I tried to pierce, to strike the hearts, and draw them to my love, and first of all, my Mother and St. Joseph. In a word, everything spoke of God. Everything was done for God, and everything referred back to Him."
Can you do the same? This is what it means to live among the Holy Family. It's not just something sentimental, like, "How nice, I'm going to live with Jesus." No, it's something practical, shaping ourselves according to Jesus. Let's say, in the outward part of our actions, which are the virtues of doing God's Will, and in the inner part, which are the intentions of doing it as Jesus did in the Divine Will. So, we must also unite ourselves to that and do everything, everything with this double aspect: first for the Father, and then for all humanity. Always embracing this double aspect so that we may shape ourselves according to Jesus.
"I was left speechless and completely confused. So, I tried to be alone as much as I could. I confessed my weakness to Him and asked for help and grace to do what He wanted, because on my own, I only knew how to do wrong." Well, Luisa's attitude is always to highlight that spiritual littleness. She never said, "Ah, of course, I can already do it." That is always in that littleness, saying, "My God, maybe if I can do anything, it's because of You. But really, I always fall short to be able to do it the way You want me to do it." So, if we focus our attention on Jesus, we will always see what we are lacking. We really are lacking, no matter how much we have already read. I think that if we focus our attention on Jesus, we will see that there are still actions of ours that are not like those of Jesus. So, we need to keep working on all of this.
Let's see. Let's continue here to see how Luisa keeps applying this in other actions. "If during the day my mind was occupied with thinking here we had already seen this about people I cared about," then Jesus is already at work there too, not just in outward actions, but also in thoughts, in desires, in everything that is directed first toward loving God and then our neighbor, you see, and so on.
So, what else can we highlight about this life in Nazareth? Well, that Jesus wants our model to be not only Himself but also the Blessed Virgin Mary and even St. Joseph. Why? Because each one of them can help us better understand how to do God's Will. In a way, we can say that sometimes the Blessed Virgin is more of an example for women, and St. Joseph more for men. Yes, in some respects, undoubtedly. Yes. And we need to reflect on that and put it into practice, right? Put it into practice. But also, as souls, St. Joseph teaches all of us something. The Blessed Virgin teaches all of us something, and Jesus, well, obviously, teaches all of us as well. So, we should take those examples and foster that union with Jesus, but also with the Blessed Virgin, with St. Joseph, and with the saints. In other words, here in the Divine Will, it's not about leaving everyone else aside. No, it's about finding them in God and giving them their place here.
I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that St. Joseph was indeed the adoptive father of Jesus, and He chose him for that role. And notice the place he always holds in Jesus' life in Nazareth, in His hidden life, which was the longest period of His life here on earth, the 30 years of His hidden life. So, we too can place him in our spiritual life as a father, as a protector, as a guardian, just as Luisa did. We already saw at the beginning how it was always Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. So, we should always include him because, just as he helped Jesus as his adoptive father, he also fulfills that. He has that mission with us too, to be like our spiritual father. So, well, let's keep him in mind. And as for the Blessed Virgin, we already know she is our Mother who will always be helping us in everything.
What else can we highlight here about the life in Nazareth? Well, that Jesus wants us to practice not only personal virtues, just you and Jesus. Yes, but that always has to be seen as you and your family, you and your neighbor too. The virtues, as the Church says, the domestic virtues, which in the end are Christian virtues but applied to family life. Sometimes people have told me, "Yes, but my husband or my children don't want to know anything about this, about life in the Divine Will, etc." That doesn't take anything away from you. God is calling you, at least you first, or as the first one. So, start living in this way, like the family of Nazareth, also with your other relatives. Then begin to reflect those virtues towards others. That, well, let's say that life in the Divine Will has those two aspects, yes, on the inside, but it also has to be reflected on the outside, right? So, that will also attract your family members, and later on, you will see the fruits in them. So, we have to practice this, this life of Nazareth. As we said last time, what Jesus wants is for us to live in ordinary daily life. He doesn't come to say, "Now I'm taking you away from your family, and now you're going to do other things." No, it's within your family that you will begin to live in the Divine Will. And that's why the example is the Holy Family, the little house of Nazareth.
Later on, Jesus will give her some teachings about His life in Nazareth. Each time broader, deeper, but always about the life of Nazareth. For example, He says to her, "I could not have done more good for humanity than with my hidden life." In other words, after my passion, the hidden life is a treasure that we have not taken hold of. We don't give it enough importance. And here, in the Divine Will, we come to take it very much into account in our daily lives. As I said, it's one of the first teachings to Luisa, and it continues throughout her whole life in the Divine Will. So, we are going to gradually discover more so that we also understand how this teaching of Jesus to Luisa is to live well, to come to live in the Divine Will. He takes a topic, for example, here, the hidden life, then other topics, other virtues, other things, other spiritual advice. He moves forward and then returns to those topics, maybe not in the same order, but He addresses them again more deeply later on, and so on. He brings up more topics and again and returns to them. So, it's like a spiral, let's say, to reach higher and higher, but always touching on all those topics. It's not that it's just a treatise on one subject. Spiritual topics are like this too. It's not that He talks about the Blessed Virgin in one volume and then never mentions her again. No, in every volume, He says something about the Blessed Virgin, and each time in a higher way. And it's the same with Adam, and the same with creation, and as I said, the sacraments as well. He begins to address them from the very first volume, and each time He gives them more light, more depth in the Divine Will, and in the later volumes, He continues to address them. So, that's how the spiritual life is, or the way Jesus teaches Luisa. For what purpose? So that little by little, we may also begin to live them through one topic or another, assimilate them, and then when He brings them up again later, we can learn more and go deeper into them. In short, little by little, we are going to advance in all this knowledge, covering all the topics.
What additional insights can we reasonably conclude and summarize regarding this specific subject matter? To summarize, I think that covers everything for this topic because in our very next session, we will move on to the next subject. All right. Thank you.
So, to wrap up, we can emphasize a bit more that first phrase. He also said that Jesus is like a teacher. As you can see here in the writings, Jesus becomes the teacher of all of us. Yes. But also a personal teacher. As you read it, you will also personally see the insights that Jesus will give you. Just like He did with Luisa, reading, pausing, reflecting, and God will give everyone insights. It's not that only those who have read a lot can have those insights. No, it's that each person has to learn it for themselves. Remember that Jesus wants to become your personal teacher. In other words, don't forget that God created you for Himself. You cannot entrust your soul, your spiritual life, to another human being, not even if they are a priest. Many people can help us, priests or lay people, to move forward on this journey. You are going to consecrate yourself to God. You belong to God, not to another human being. So, a true brother who is helping you must be very respectful of that, of your intimate relationship with God. He cannot come between you and God and say, "Now everything has to go through me. I become your owner, and I will tell you everything you should or shouldn't do, or how you should do it." Because sometimes that happens. It's very common for that to happen in spiritual life. And they think that's what it means to be a spiritual director. They put themselves between the soul and Jesus, and then the soul ends up following that human person. And that's not how it is. St. John of the Cross says so. It's not just me saying it. A true spiritual director is not someone who puts themselves between God and the soul, wanting the soul to obey them in everything and do everything as they say. No, rather, it's about stepping aside, accompanying the soul, and also accompanying the Holy Spirit, Jesus, as He works in the soul, and to support God's action in that soul, helping the soul to understand God's work within it, and leading it toward that personal relationship between the soul and Him, with the director simply as a companion, so that the soul doesn't go astray, so that ultimately it can continue following this path by not getting in the way of that relationship.
So, I'm telling you this because there are many people who already have their small groups, and it's very beautiful to share this. Undoubtedly, what we want is for more people to join in and experience this spiritual richness. But we must be very careful not to take on attitudes that usurp God's place in people's souls, or to adopt an imposing attitude, saying, "And man, it must be this way, otherwise, that's it," or setting those guilt trips on the soul, saying, "And if you don't do it this way, you're wrong." And there are people who even say, "And if you're not with me, if you leave, you're betraying me, goodbye, and you're going to go to hell." Things that are already extreme, right? And yes, these things are used. I'm telling you, they really are used. No, that's not how it is. That's what we call spiritual abuse. Spiritual abuse. So, we shouldn't be like that. But we also shouldn't allow someone else to do that to us. You belong to God, not to a human being. Okay? So, free yourself. If you're dealing with something like that, free yourself, and you won't go to hell. On the contrary, you'll put your spiritual life in order and put Jesus at the center, which is where He should be. Together, and all the rest of us are just companions along the way. So, put your inner self in order at this point to avoid those spiritual abuses that have happened and are very common nowadays, as I mentioned in other groups, but also in the groups of the Divine Will. So, let's get ourselves in order with charity and everything, but also with clarity. The only owner of your soul is God. He is the master of your soul and the one who is working in your soul.
Well, my dear brothers and sisters, let's finish with a prayer, asking Jesus and the Blessed Virgin to help us do just that.
My dearest Jesus, who loves me so much, who has given me this immense treasure of knowledge to put into practice because You want to work in my soul and for me to work together with You to renew myself, to purify myself, to heal myself, but above all to live in Your Will, to fulfill the purpose for which You created me, to fill myself with all the spiritual goods and treasures You want to give me, and to be happy together. You in me, and I in You. Oh, my most beloved Mother, I beg You to help me to dwell and live among You in that humble and small little house of Nazareth, within which I truly want to create from now on, and which will be like my eternal heaven here upon this earth. My little house in Nazareth with You. All my actions, shaping us, shaping them, forgive me, with You and doing them together with You. Together with St. Joseph and all of Heaven, that also protect me, help me, guard me. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Until next time.