Transcription
A very good morning to everyone, and how wonderful it is to have you all back here with us. Thank you, Alejandra. 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 foreheads, to imprint the Holy Spirit upon them, and infuse us with light so that we may understand the truths and the good things found in these writings. Amen.
All right then. Good morning to you all, and it is truly such a wonderful pleasure that we can all continue together with these precious teachings of our Lord to all of us. So, recalling what we saw last time about the specific point on the long path to spiritual perfection and true holiness, which is essentially to focus on Jesus and to live by imitating him and uniting ourselves more and more to him, as if nothing else existed in our world. Also, that this happens little by little. And lastly, we talked about humility, and that's where we left off.
So, let's hope that we've had a bit more of that attitude of humility before God, because humility has these two sides, these two aspects. First, before God, normally we have the bad habit, humanly speaking, of comparing ourselves to one another. And the spiritual life is not about comparing ourselves to others, but about focusing on God and reflecting ourselves, comparing ourselves with him, seeing what we lack, what he wants from us, and moving forward in this way. So, we saw how Jesus teaches Luisa that attitude, an attitude of humility before him. So, the attitude of humility, in a nutshell, is this: to clearly understand who Jesus is, who he is, and who we are. Because sometimes, spiritually speaking, in these spiritual environments, as we become more familiar with him, we develop this flaw where we forget who we are dealing with. Then it's perfectly fine to treat him with familiarity, with trust, but that doesn't mean as equals, always being aware of who he is, the source of everything, wisdom itself, and who I am, right? Holiness itself, Jesus, perfection, and who am I? So, even if we have a lot of trust, let's not forget who we are and who he is. So, this will always keep us in that attitude of not believing that we act by ourselves. Not even in the Divine Will, because with practice and the confidence one gains, we might start to think, "I do these rounds, I understand this or that," etc. Always keep that reality present that before him, we will always be not only little but practically nothing.
So, we must remain in our nothingness, but not just stay there. Rather, it's so we can make the leap to take everything from him. Imagine if we just stay as nothing, simply recognizing that we are nothing and remain there. Well, that would lead us to the worst kind of depression, and we wouldn't do anything. And that's not it. I mean, it's about reaching that point, but being in that emptiness so we can be completely filled by him, rely totally on him, and act entirely with him, giving him all the space, not keeping a little space for ourselves, because that's where we insert our own will, our limitations, our human ways, and then that Divine Will, which is what we want to reach, doesn't fill us completely, right? That's what we want to reach.
Well, then the last thing Jesus left us is the task, the task of being with him like a little child, like a baby abandoned in its mother's arms. Always asking me to help you, to assist you, always confessing your nothingness to me. In short, expecting everything from me. So, Luisa says, "I tried to do as much as I could to please him. I made myself small. I humbled myself. And sometimes I went so far that I felt my whole being undone to the point that I couldn't act, nor take a single step or a breath if he did not sustain me." So, this seems like a step or a breath. It seems like she's talking about natural life. But remember to always apply it to spiritual life. I couldn't even say a small prayer, or a little "I love you," or do anything good unless I took it from Jesus. That is, well, as I was saying, our attitude should be the foundation of the attitude of living in the Divine Will. Otherwise, what sense does it make to want to live in the Divine Will and let it act in us if we believe that we can do it ourselves as well? So, first, we have to reach this point in order to be able to desire and make the decision to take everything from Jesus and from his Divine Will.
Now comes the second point. Let's see. Also, I saw myself as so bad that I felt ashamed to present myself before people, knowing myself to be the ugliest and worst, as in reality I still am. Well, surprising, isn't it, that Luisa would say this? We might say, "Was Luisa really that bad, that ugly in her soul?" Well, let's remember that she didn't compare herself to others. Right there, you can see her littleness, her humility, that she compared herself to Jesus. So, before Jesus, I think all of us, well, listen, if we're truly sincere, we'll realize that before him, we really are, or at least have been, bad. And Luisa says, "As in reality, I still am." I mean, if we saw how much Jesus loves us and how lukewarm our love is, how inconsistent, how many distractions we have sometimes, how many defects still, and so on. Well, we would recognize ourselves exactly like Luisa. So, let's remember not to compare ourselves with others, but always before God.
Also, I repeat this: "I saw myself as so bad that I felt ashamed to present myself before people, knowing myself to be the ugliest and the worst, as in reality I still am. So I deliberately kept my distance from them as much as I possibly could. And I repeatedly whispered to my own soul, 'If they only knew how truly unworthy and flawed I really am. And if they could actually see the divine graces the Lord is giving me, which I have told absolutely no one about, and that I am always remaining exactly the same. How deeply shocked and utterly horrified would they be of me?'" So, rather, she would say, "How many times has God done things for me, and I have not responded well to all of them, nor in the way he would have wanted me to respond?" So, that's why she still felt unworthy, right? She still felt she had a long way to go. Well, this attitude is something we need to learn. It's not a false humility either. We shouldn't fall into that false humility of always acting that way in front of others. "Ah, I think of myself like that, but on the outside I act as if I'm smaller than everyone else." No, no, it's not about pretending things on the outside either. It's an inner attitude. So, in this way, you see, I think we could never consider ourselves better than someone else, because we don't know the graces that have been given to others. We do know the ones that have been given to each of us, and surely they are many, many. In fact, sometimes we don't recognize or can't even see all the graces that God gives us. So, it's a good exercise to think about this. Everything that God has given us in our lives, the infinite patience he has had with us, the graces he has truly given us just to get us to this point. In Luisa's case, it's been a chain of graces, and sometimes not always reciprocated. Well, so that is exactly where we truly need to stay in order to constantly maintain this deep attitude of sincere humility before the presence of God. Sincere humility before others as well, even more so, because sometimes, let me say this, sometimes there's a spiritual defect, as I mentioned, in prayer groups and all that, where people start, let's say, getting puffed up. "I've already read this. I already know that. I've been doing this for so many years. I pray in such a way." And so there ends up being a kind of comparison with others, or even a certain disdain for others. Thank you. Or not understanding others. Anyway, well, you know what I mean? That little atmosphere that sometimes forms from spiritual defects in groups. So, that's obviously not God's will, and we have to work on it. We have to keep working on that. That's all. Keep moving forward.
Well, so when the very next morning arrived, Luisa says, "I went to receive Holy Communion once again. It truly seemed to me that when Jesus came to me, he celebrated with great joy at seeing me so deeply humble, that is to say, so greatly diminished in my own eyes." And then he would go on to tell me many other things about my state of self-abasement, but always in a completely different way than he had ever done before. I think it wasn't just once, but hundreds of times that he spoke to me. And even if it had been thousands of times, he would always have had different ways of speaking about the same truth. Well, throughout the volumes, we will see that this topic of humility comes up. And let's not say, "Oh, I've already read it. I'll just move on." We need to give it a read and ask God to enlighten us. Because, as I told you last time, there is always something new. And here Luisa says it, there is always something new. If he brings it up again, it's because he is going to give us a new light and because we need it. Oh, my Divine Master, how wise you are. At the very least, I should have responded to you. I remember that one morning, while he was speaking to me about the same virtue, he told me that because of a lack of humility, I had committed many sins. Because of a lack of humility, I had committed many sins. So, notice how the overwhelming majority of sins is, if not every one of them, is rooted in a deep and clear lack of humility. That is the opposite of humility is pride. A little bit of pride, which sometimes we don't even notice. Let's analyze it a bit. For example, we know that there is the commandment, "You shall not lie." And we say, "Oh, well, just a little lie. What could happen?" What's happening there is that you're taking on an attitude of spiritual pride, aren't you? Because God is saying, God is truth itself and rejects anything that does not align with the truth, any falsehood, any lie, anything against the truth. And we put ourselves on the same level as God and say, "No, no, it's not like that. It's like this." In other words, a little bit of lying is tolerated. So, deep down, it's spiritual pride to contradict what God says and what God is. And like that, we could analyze the Ten Commandments and by allowing ourselves to say about some of them, "This isn't so serious. I can do this." It's a spiritual pride, an attitude of arrogance, as if we think we know better than God about what he has said. That is precisely why pride is considered the very first of the seven capital sins, the primary vice. It is often called the foundational mother of all other vices and sins in existence. So, if we had only been more humble in our hearts and mind, things might have been different. We wouldn't have committed so many sins. But here, it's not so much about looking back. Let's look forward right now. Understanding this attitude of humility that we need to have will help us avoid many sins.
Luisa continues, "If I had been humble," that's what Jesus told her, "If I had been humble, I would have stayed closer to him and wouldn't have done so much wrong." He made me understand how ugly it was. Consider the nature of sin, that terrible offense which this miserable little worm had committed against our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the horrendous ingratitude, the immense impiety, and the profound harm it had caused to my own soul. Well, I want to emphasize very clearly here that Luisa herself never actually committed any mortal sins throughout her life. So, when she talks about sins, she's referring to venial sins, and I would say very minor ones. It's not that she deliberately committed venial sins, but sometimes they just happened that she wasn't attentive enough, especially in that early period of her life when she was still learning, right? So, someone once asked me, "Well, if Luisa didn't commit sins, then what did she confess or what did she say in confession?" Well, precisely because she didn't have the darkness of judgment that we have, since we still need to be enlightened more by the light of Jesus. But she understood. Right there, it says she understood the ugliness, the horror of committing even the slightest sin. When she says "sin," she's not referring to mortal sins. She means any sin, even the smallest one. We're already talking about an opposition to the will of God, even just not doing what God wants. So, she understood this, and for her, that was already something serious: not doing what God wanted me to do. In other words, God has already made it more than clear which path I should take, and yet I don't do it, whether out of weakness, distraction, or whatever the reason may be. So, she always continued going to confession throughout her entire life, but not for mortal sins. Not because she didn't have mortal sins would she stop going to confession. No, even the smallest imperfections and faults that go unnoticed by us, she would confess them. Why? Well, first, to receive forgiveness. Second, to increase grace. Third, as a sign of repentance, of a purpose of amendment, and so on. And also to receive a remember that confession not only gives us grace if we have lost it, but if we haven't lost it and it's only been slightly weakened, it makes it more alive in us and gives us the graces we need to remove even those tiniest and slightest sins. So, yes, Luisa continued confessing in this way, and especially now in the Divine Will, receiving that sacrament in the most perfect way in order to give to God what we all failed to give him with our own confessions. So, yes, she continued confessing until the very end. Her confessor, well, he's not a saint, Don Benedetto Calvi, who was her last confessor. When he wrote something about how Luisa died, he said that he gave her the last and useless absolution. In other words, he himself knew it was useless in terms of the forgiveness of sins. She no longer needed that at the end, right? But he gave it to her, and she received it in the Divine Will in order to give fullness and to receive all the fullness of the goods and graces she was going to receive, right? And to give her the fullness of fulfillment to that sacrament of confession that is lived in the best and most perfect way with the best dispositions and everything.
Here is the explanation of how of the attitudes we must always have and not neglect confession, the sacrament of confession. Even if we believe or see that we no longer commit grave sins, it doesn't matter. We must keep coming closer because our soul continues to receive graces. So, let's focus a little more, analyze. There are several elements here. He said it made me understand how ugly sin was. The ugliness of sin, even the smallest sin, is ugly. When I was young, I was a catechist, and I explained things to the children with many images. And so I remember telling them like this, "Look, sin is like a monster, a horrible thing that is." So they would understand that it's something ugly, right? And I would say to them, "Okay, if I let you choose, what would you prefer? A horrible monster, really big, ugly, that scares you a lot, or a tiny little monster, but it's also ugly, just smaller." And some of them would say, "Well, the small one." And I would say, "Do you really prefer a small one, or would you rather have none at all?" And they would say, "Oh, well, yeah, better none at all." So, that's how it is. It's not like we should say, "Oh, this one's tiny. It's just a little venial sin." No, you shouldn't choose either one because both are ugly. Even if one is big and the other is small, they're both ugly. They're horrible. They're bad. Well, so Jesus helped Luisa understand this with a divine light, right? But we have to use meditation so that Jesus can enlighten us. So, he made me understand how ugly sin was. The offense that this miserable little worm had committed against Jesus Christ. In other words, the magnitude of things, the horrendous ingratitude. Why ingratitude? Because at that moment, God is loving you and wants to give you graces. And instead of receiving that and loving him, you use that act to offend him, to turn against him. It's an act of ingratitude. You are using what he is giving you, your life, your abilities. Yes, even that very act he is giving you so that you may live it, and you are using it to turn against him. Of course, it is a horrendous ingratitude, an enormous impiety, in addition to the harm it has caused my soul, to be deprived in that moment of having done a good deed and instead to be in darkness, solid, and so on. "I was so dismayed that I didn't know what to do to make amends." So, here, when Luisa says "I was so dismayed," it means such a great pain, such a strong feeling of rejecting that how terrible. That is the repentance or sorrow for sins. That I didn't know what to do to make amends. So, it doesn't just stop at repentance, at rejecting sin, but something else arises in her. Well, aside from the intention to try not to fall again. I mean, if she already felt that rejection and understood how horrible it is, then obviously the next natural step comes. It's the intention of amendment, that is, to try not to fall into that again. But it doesn't stop there. There's still one more step: what can be done to make amends? In other words, she understood that this act was left completely empty. So, then comes the need to try to repair it, not just leave it as it is. So, from here comes that spirit of reparation by understanding the ugliness of sin and what it truly does to our soul. All these steps follow, including the spirit of reparation. So, how did she do it? At first, she practiced some mortifications, asked her confessor for others, but few were granted to me. In other words, remember that this is the spirit of penance. Why do they give us a penance at the end of confession? It's that spirit of making amends, of saying, "Well, to somehow compensate for the wrong I did," whether with a prayer or a good deed. So, it's that spirit of reparation that we need to learn more about or have a clearer understanding of where it comes from. As I said, I did these things, but everything seemed to me like mere shadows of reparation and mortification, and I did nothing but think about my sins, but each time I felt more united and closer to Jesus. Well, it doesn't say so here, but obviously Luisa went to confession. She mentions it later on. So, I had such a fear of distancing myself from him. Here's another one. The fear of God is exactly that. It's the fear of offending him and of losing his friendship again, or distancing oneself, or damaging the friendship in some way, weakening it, making it grow cold, of distancing myself from him. That is the fear of God and of acting worse than before, which I myself can't even explain. Whenever I was with Jesus, I did nothing but tell him the sorrow I felt for having offended him. Sorrow, pain. Yes, it's internal. Sometimes I want to explain this as well. The pain for our sins. Sometimes God grants us to feel a pain as such. But that doesn't mean that if you don't feel a very strong inner pain, then you don't feel sorrow for your sins. In other words, the pain isn't so much something you feel physically. Sometimes God grants it, but it's really more about the attitude of rejection, of sincere repentance out of love for God. So, sometimes you don't feel the pain in a tangible way, but it's about that attitude. When we talk about sorrow for our sins, that's what the Church means: perfect contrition. In other words, the attitude of "My God, I repent. It hurts me. I mean, I understand that what I did was terrible. I rejected with all my soul. Why? Because I offended you, who are so good, who loved me so much." See how Luisa here has that, that perfect contrition. She isn't repenting out of fear that she'll go to purgatory or that God will punish her in hell or because of any other consequence. No, she already mentioned earlier the offering that this miserable little worm had made to Jesus Christ, my horrendous ingratitude toward him, the immense impiety. So, it's that perfect contrition. Here, in serious spiritual life, we have to move, like we've already said, grace is never superfluous. In everything we must act, our motivation is love for God, even in the repentance of our sins. So, we shouldn't do it out of fear. Why? Because that's not how children act. That's not how good children, loving children of God, behave. Maybe rebellious and bad children do, right? But no, no, no. God wants us to be his children, to love him deeply, right? Because love is what will unite us to Jesus. Even if we still have flaws and shortcomings, it doesn't matter. What matters here is the love we have for Jesus. So, in light of this, consider how those sermons look when people are preached to about conversion, but out of fear of punishment. That's imperfect. None of that. "God is going to send a punishment, so convert." That's practically from the Old Testament. And if we pay attention to Jesus, that's not how it is. It's that God loves you so much, has been so patient with you, has a loving plan for you. Convert out of love for him. If you notice, that's how it is with Luisa. He doesn't go around threatening us. He calls us out of love for him and helps us understand his infinite mercy, his goodness, the graces he wants to give us. So, we too have to start conforming ourselves to Christ in this changing our ways, because sometimes we stay stuck in that mode. I call it the Old Testament mode, right? When people are going astray, we threaten them with punishments, hoping that maybe that way they'll convert. No, that's not God's way. At least from Jesus onward, that's not the way anymore.
Now, you might actually say, "Oh, but in many different places, the Blessed Virgin warns us about coming punishments." At least in the approved apparitions where we know for certain it is the Blessed Virgin. Let's take the example of Fatima. There, she did not come to threaten with punishments. She came to call for conversion for so many beautiful things. The first thing she did with the children was to show them how much Jesus was offended, precisely out of love. How? Well, humanity was going astray, but it was because they did not love Jesus, because they sinned a lot, because they were turning away from him. How did she teach them those prayers to love the Holy Trinity? You already know them, right? Well, to love him, to adore him. Um, for me, how did it go? "And for those who do not love you, do not believe in you, do not hope in you, and so on." In other words, the theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. At the end, she did say something about the war and said that a worse one was coming. Yes, but it wasn't a threat to make them convert. Rather, she taught them this whole spirit of how Jesus is offended and the blessings that are lost. Like, well, yes, one of the consequences is hell, but she really taught them the spirit of reparation, of offering the Body and Blood of Jesus present in all the tabernacles of the world in reparation for the offenses committed against him and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. So, all of this, let's say, is positive. All of this is loving. But unfortunately, I think as human beings, we're more drawn to the other things, and we pay much more attention to the little bit that was said about hell and the war of that time, and we focus on that, and we don't really focus on everything else she taught them, which was also a preparation for life in the Divine Will. I mean, someday we'll analyze Fatima as well. But what I'm getting at here is that the children of Fatima reached such holiness because they became saints and have been canonized. The first two who died, well, it was because of this whole spirit of love for Jesus, of reparation, of sacrifice, all of this that they had out of love for Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, precisely, and for everyone else. They prayed for the conversion of all, that is, that charity toward all other sinners. Well, so here we see that it follows these lines of charity, of love.
"When I was with him, I did nothing but tell him the sorrow I felt for having offended him. I always asked him for forgiveness, thanked him because he had been so good to me, and told him from my heart, 'Look, oh Lord, at the time I have wasted when I could have loved you in those actions.' Right? So I didn't know what else to say to him except the great wrong I had done." Well, before moving on to the next idea, I want us to reflect. Well, let's take a moment to reflect. See how in those few words, he is reinforcing for us what the Church teaches about the things, the five things for a good confession, which are not only useful for a good confession but I would even say for solving most of our problems. Look, the first thing is an examination of conscience. That is, with all humility and sincerity, to recognize where we have failed. That is the first thing. Luisa acknowledges this before the light of God. By the way, not before our own judgment. I repeat, why? Because our own judgment is often in darkness. That's why we have to do the examination of conscience based on the commandments, that is, in the light of God, according to what he wants. Not what I think is good or bad. Moreover, at the end of our lives, God will not judge us according to our own standards, but precisely in his light. That is where we will see Jesus, his light, his will, what he wanted, what is truly good, and what is not good. And that is where we might, or we will, truly and sincerely recognize where we have failed. So, why wait until the judgment? We should start doing it now in the light of God. Ask him for light and recognize everywhere we have failed.
Second, before that, before the light of God and before evil, that is our lack of love for him, the suffering we cause him, and so on. Then comes repentance, true sorrow for our sins, that attitude we talked about. Then comes, and naturally, the third point is the rejection and the desire not to do it again, which is the purpose of amendment. It's not exactly a promise or an oath. "I promise never to sin again," and then a little while later, out of weakness, we sin and feel like things are even worse. More than that, I'm saying this because someone asked me, it's not so much a promise. In other words, the Church always speaks of a purpose of amendment. That is the good will to want not to fall again with God's help. If out of weakness, distraction, or whatever reason we fall again, we shouldn't get anxious. We need to recognize our limits that we are still sinners and ask again, have the humility to acknowledge it and return. And sometimes God allows us that human weakness to exercise us in humility, or in some way we will make progress little by little, and also train ourselves in patience. So, we shouldn't despair, we shouldn't get anxious, nothing like that. Just keep going, acknowledging, making the resolution to amend. Well, repentance, the resolution to amend, and confession, which would be the fourth point, that sincere and direct confession of our sins without excuses, without blaming others. No, we have to acknowledge our own faults, regardless of whether the other person did or didn't do something. In other words, before God, what did you do wrong? So, then comes that direct confession without excuses. And then comes the effort to make amends in some way, which is penance. Well, as I said, this same process can help us to solve problems with other people. The steps are the same for any problem. That's how it is. First, recognize where I went wrong. Not the other person, me. Ask for forgiveness. That is, try not to do it again, which is the intention to make amends. Oh, right. Sorry. The remorse, that is, to regret having done something wrong. Intention to make amends. Confession. So, what does confession mean? Well, having the humility to apologize. "Hey, I'm sorry. I messed up here. I went too far there." With sincerity and humility and directly, without excuses, that heals a lot of relationships. And the next step is still to try to repair the harm you caused the other person, the damage, the pain, or whatever it was. Right? Look, with this, you can heal almost anything. The Church, God is very wise and teaches us the steps so that we can be well, even after making mistakes and committing sins. There is no other way. This is the way, and this is the remedy for sins. So, well, hopefully, if you have something unresolved out there pending with your neighbor, then follow these steps with God's help, and you'll see that things will start to get resolved.
Well, then here you can see how everything is in perfect harmony with the teachings of the Church, including confession. In short, Jesus says, "Until one day Jesus rebuking me said, 'I don't want you to think about this anymore.'" When a soul has humbled itself, again, he tells her the steps, has humbled itself, has become convinced of having done wrong, has acknowledged it, is convinced, has repented, has washed its soul in the sacrament of confession, and is willing to die rather than offend me. In other words, the complete purpose of amendment. She is willing to die rather than offend him again. Then it is an affront to my mercy, an obstacle to drawing her close to my love, to keep dwelling on it. In other words, you have to take those steps. And once you have done so with all the sincerity you can master at that moment, move forward. Don't get stuck or stay there, like Luisa was already doing, because this is also a spiritual temptation to get stuck and say, "What a sinner I was, what a terrible thing I did," and to remain discouraged and stuck there. Then we're no longer moving forward or doing the next good thing that God wants, right? So, once you've properly taken those steps, you've confessed with all, right, I won't repeat, with all the right dispositions, very good. Now, Jesus says, "I don't want you to think about this anymore." When a soul has humbled itself, has become convinced that it has done wrong, has washed its soul in the sacrament of confession, and is willing to die rather than offend me, it is an affront to my mercy to keep thinking about this. It is an obstacle to drawing it close to my love, because it seeks with its mind to wrap itself in the mud. In other words, by thinking about that bad thing again, it's as if it's wrapping itself once more in the mud of the past. And that keeps me from letting it take flight toward heaven. So, even confession and this whole process are just a means, not the end. We're not supposed to stay there. The goal is being set here. Thank you. To lift you up to heaven, to him, to his will. That is the goal. And he is going to help us precisely to take flight, to become light, to take flight toward heaven. Because with those thoughts, she always remains trapped within herself and doesn't move forward.
Also, look, "I don't remember anything anymore. I've completely forgotten it." Oh, how wonderful. Here you can also feel the love of Jesus. The only, you could say, the only love that is total, unlimited, infinite. "Me? Look, I don't remember anything anymore." That is truly, in confession, Jesus, a clean slate. Not just for us, he wipes away the sin from our soul, but for Jesus, too. It's a clean slate for him, and he doesn't remember anymore. Isn't that wonderful? "I don't remember anything anymore. I've completely forgotten it." Well, as creatures, we don't forget it. It lingers with us, and it's hard for us to let go and forget. But not for Jesus. He's the only one who loves us this way. "I don't remember anything anymore. I've completely forgotten it." Or do you see any trace of resentment from me toward you? Luisa would say to him, "No, Lord, you are so good." And my heart felt like it was melting with tenderness. Well then, if you've already done one. So, with all these steps from her past life, Jesus says the same to them, to us. Then Jesus keeps saying to her, "So, do you want to keep holding on to those things, those ugly things?" And Luisa says, "No, I don't want to." And he says, "Well, then let's focus on what we do want. That is, on loving each other and making each other happy." That's what God wants, for us to love him. And our life will be a life of loving Jesus, of getting to know him more, of acting together with him, of making him happy. And he never lets himself be outdone in love. That's for sure. Just like it said in the other chapter, in that other little part, right? "You have no idea what graces I'm going to give you." So, this is the point now: to leave our past behind. And every time it comes back to you, because it's not automatic, right? But every time that temptation comes to you, that turmoil of being stuck in the past, let it go. Remind yourself of this. It's so precious. Read it again. Look at it again. Uh, okay. Where am I going? Jesus doesn't remember anymore because I've already confessed with all the repentance I could muster. And so Jesus moves forward. I want to love you and reach heaven and to make you happy in everything and live together, to keep moving forward on this path.
From then on, Luisa says, "I didn't think about it anymore about that bad thing I had done, right? I did everything I could to make him happy, and I asked him to teach me himself how I should make up for the time lost in the past." In other words, Luisa continued with that desire and request. In other words, she was really asking Jesus, "How can I make amends?" This attitude, that request, was also what it was like a preparation so that later he could teach her how to make amends in the Divine Will. Not just for herself, but also for others, obviously, together with Jesus. Because here it's clear, how can one make amends for their own past? No matter how much you want to do yourself, tell me, can you go back and redo that sin or those sins and now fill them with love for God? Well, we can't do that. Here in the present time, we can do something. But in the end, you're only feeling that current act. Then how do you feel the past? Only with your goodwill, with the desire to do it. But in reality, we can't. We need Jesus in order to do it. Why? Because in him, there truly is the power to go back to the past and to be able to take the love and reparation that he made and repair our past. So, there's no other way. What does Jesus want? He wants you to keep moving forward, to keep getting to know him on this path of the Divine Will, in this life of the Divine Will. And there you will find the remedy for your entire past life. Absolutely. Let us have total trust in Jesus. Remember to be like that abandoned child in the arms of Jesus, and that he, like a little boat, will carry you along, and you will accomplish much more than if you had gotten out of his arms to take a few steps on your own. He will carry you all the way to heaven and help you do so many things that he did and that you could never do on your own. So, blessed be God who gives us these precious teachings.
So, to sum up, let's see, let's take a look. Uh, I remember now, I wrote it down here. Someone had asked me a question last time. What should we do or how should we talk to people who have already come to know Luisa's writings and unfortunately have fallen again into some serious sin or are in a state of serious sin or something like that. Look, first, we ourselves need to experience all this total love of God who forgives us everything, who forgets everything, so that we can pass it on to our brothers and sisters. Remember that he can forgive everything. And what to us seems like a terrible ingratitude, he can forgive it all. And for him, that's something easy because his love wants that, and he has already provided the remedies. So, invite them. Invite them like the prodigal son. Listen, not by threatening them. I repeat, as St. Francis de Sales used to say, right? "You catch more flies with a drop of honey than with a barrel of gold." So, it's the same thing. Just as God behaved with us or behaves with us, we too should bring them in through love. Look, God has something great in store for you. What are you doing there in sin? Take this up again, like the prodigal son. Return to your father's house to be the rich son of a rich father, of a king, and not be out there among the pigs and the mud. So, lovingly invite them to take this up again with full confidence that this is also what Jesus wants. Absolutely. God wants all of us to reach this, even if we've been ungrateful and haven't taken it seriously. Well, this knowledge, even that Jesus forgives. So, let's have complete trust.
So, to sum up, so we don't lose track, what did Jesus teach us today? Spiritual humility before him and before others, that inner attitude of always being humble and recognizing our own nothingness, which, by the way, let's also remember is part of the spiritual childhood of St. Therese. See how all Catholic Christian spirituality was already directed toward Luisa, that is, toward living in the Divine Will. All Christian spirituality was developing, for example, also in St. Therese. We already see all these foundations in her. Many people have also taken them from her. I know, Mary, for example, we know Sam, who comes from Carmelite spirituality, and I know more people like that who already have all this preparation in spiritual childhood, in doing everything out of love for Jesus, and so on. Right? So, these are the foundations. So, we saw spiritual humility, spiritual childhood, the nature of sin, its deeply harmful and lasting effects, sincere repentance born out of a pure love for Jesus, in other words, true and heartfelt contrition, and the profound spirit of reparation. We went over the five things for a good confession and the infinite love of God who forgets everything, not dwelling on the past, but rather looking at where we are going and continuing to move forward swiftly. Well, let's hope that's the case, that we put it into practice this week. Let go of all the burdens you're carrying if you still have any. And this week, make it your goal to leave them behind so you can continue swiftly along the path of the Divine Will.
All right, let's ask Jesus for that together with the Blessed Virgin. Dearest Jesus, our most beloved Jesus, we thank you for all the love you show us in these heavenly teachings, in which you want to free us from our human will and the harm it has caused us, so that swiftly and completely surrendered to you and unburdened, we may not only follow you but allow you to lead us along the straight path of the Divine Will all the way to heaven, to live heaven on earth with you, with the Blessed Virgin, in that little house of Nazareth, and never leave your paternal arms. So be it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I really want to thank you so much for everything. I am truly grateful for your help, and I sincerely thank you so much, Alejandra. Thank you so much. Thank you. With pleasure. Thank God.