Transcription
Very well. Up to this present moment, we have been diligently looking at the truly magnificent wonders that Almighty God has graciously accomplished in the lives of the saints, his devoted followers. The wonders that God has worked in them. We have also seen the incredible wonders that the Almighty God miraculously performed in the life of Louisa. So many truly great things that God did in them.
But now, truly, the time has indeed come for each of us to seriously ask ourselves deeply. Each of us must ask ourselves this question: What am I going to do? Where am I going to start? Where should one begin to live this divine will? What are the essential dispositions we must possess or acquire in order to truly live in this sacred divine will? How do we prepare ourselves for this spiritual life? What are the first steps we must take?
The steps that must be followed are the same ones that Jesus took with Louisa. It makes sense that this is indeed the absolute best way, or perhaps the most perfect and ideal way, to lay a truly solid and enduring good foundation. And these steps that must be followed are contained in the first volumes of Louisa.
Here, we can easily recall the well-known parable from the holy gospel of the Bible about that foolish person who built his house on sand. The waves of the sea came and knocked it down. The strong winds came and completely destroyed it because it did not have a solid foundation. It was not built on solid rock. That is to say, powerful passions and strong temptations indeed came, many significant and various distractions. You see, self-love, and it can destroy it, can put an end to this life.
These essential steps that absolutely must be carefully followed are comprehensively contained, more or less, within the extensive collection of volumes, specifically from volume one all the way through to volume seven of Louisa's profound and spiritual writings. And the essential steps to truly follow, more or less, are a complete detachment from all worldly things and material possessions. A profound love for the sacred cross, for enduring suffering, and for the deep pain that comes with it. For a life of interior and exterior silence. Profound love for deep spiritual prayer and meditation. Love for the sacraments. Also, knowledge of one's own nothingness.
So, right now, we truly now begin with, uh, with a chapter from Louisa to see how Jesus began to speak to Louisa about these steps. I am going to read you the first chapter that Louisa wrote that our Lord, that is how our Lord was leading her to this detachment. It is from volume one.
"I am your everything, your entire world, who truly deserves to be loved by you with the very same unwavering constancy as the deep and abiding love I genuinely have for you. Look, indeed, if you steadfastly refuse to completely remove from yourself this intricate and often distracting little world that perpetually surrounds you, that is to say, all your fleeting thoughts, your deep-seated affections, and your vivid imaginings that are constantly directed toward various earthly creatures and worldly concerns, then regrettably, I find myself unable to fully and completely enter into the innermost sanctuary of your precious heart, and truly make my permanent and eternal dwelling there forevermore, as I so earnestly desire to."
For this is indeed the very first and foundational thing that Louisa writes that our Lord is guiding her through with divine wisdom and profound love: to distance ourselves completely from that small, fleeting world that constantly surrounds us, that incessantly takes up our precious time, that thoroughly fills our inner selves with countless things that ultimately come to an end and are transient. And as a result, we end up losing our focused attention, our inherent abilities, and our spiritual discernment by using them on things that do not end, which are the important ones.
"This constant noise in your mind, this constant noise in your mind keeps you from clearly hearing my voice and prevents me from pouring out my graces upon you and making you fall completely in love with me. For I am a spouse absolutely jealous."
So, our Lord wants us to leave behind all those things that distract us. Here, he is not just talking about bad things, about sin. There are many lawful things that also distract us, that take up our time. So, we also need to remove those things from our hearts. Our hearts must be emptied of everything in order to be filled completely with God, with this divine will.
I'm going to read another chapter from volume 5 because the more the soul, this is Jesus speaking, the more the soul strips itself of natural things, the more it acquires supernatural and divine things. The more one strips oneself of self-love, the more love for God one acquires. The less one clings to and exhausts oneself ambitiously in trying to truly know the human sciences and genuinely enjoy the many pleasures of life, the greater and more profound knowledge one acquires of heavenly things and their inherent virtues, the more deeply one will truly delight in them. In short, these things are proportional.
So that if almost one does not feel the supernatural, if the love of God is extinguished in the soul, if one knows nothing or very little about virtues or heavenly things and finds no delight in them, the reason is clear. We are filled with things here, it says, natural and temporal. And he gives the example of self-love, the example of human sciences and the pleasures of life. Because the more the soul immerses itself in earthly things, the more it distances itself from and loses appreciation for eternal goods.
Now, in these current times, we are very absorbed in earthly matters. For example, it could be said that we make a god out of study just to have a career, a degree. It doesn't matter if families are torn apart. The child goes off to study who knows where. And then, as families become divided, they start to develop a taste for earthly things and they lose their taste for eternal things. We prepare ourselves to live here as if this were eternal life. We prepare ourselves very well. We dedicate all our youth, all our abilities, our attention. And yet, it will all come to an end.
But when it comes to eternal things, right now, well, the things of the divine will, if I have time, I'll read a little when I get the chance. And those are the most important things. So, the more we can distance ourselves from all that noise, all those things that distract us, the more we'll be able to understand to live in intimacy with God, to gain greater knowledge about the divine will. And so, we can see how our Lord truly wants us to leave all that behind.
I am now going to read to you another complete chapter. This particular one is taken from volume 8, which is specifically dated September 7th in the year 1908.
"My beloved daughter, please understand that the more earthly things the soul willingly deprives itself of here on this earth, the more abundant spiritual treasures and blessings it will undoubtedly possess and enjoy in the eternal realm of heaven."
In the previous part, we saw that the more we strip ourselves of things from here on earth, the more we acquire supernatural and divine things here on earth. But in this other chapter that I'm starting to read to you, it also talks about what we will acquire in heaven. The more earthly things the soul deliberately deprives itself of here on this earth, the more abundant and glorious rewards it will truly have in the eternal heavens. So, consequently, the poorer one is in material possessions on earth, the infinitely richer one will ultimately be in the spiritual realm of heaven. The more profoundly deprived one is of earthly comforts, fleeting pleasures, engaging entertainments, exciting trips, and cherished friendships on this terrestrial sphere, the more abundant and profound delights and eternal pleasures one will ultimately discover and truly find in the divine presence of God.
So, whoever gives up earthly things gains heaven, even in the smallest matters. Because sometimes we think, well, what's the harm? This is just a little thing. It's not bad. I can allow myself this. I can indulge in it. But if we thought more about this, I think we would offer God almost everything we have, well, everything we have, all our actions. We would deny ourselves more, as the gospel says, right? "Whoever wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross," which is the mortification of our own will in every act, and follow me.
Then Jesus ends this chapter by saying, "But despite this, among mortals, who is there that thinks of depriving themselves of something on earth in order to have it eternally in heaven?" Almost no one.
And here, as we have already clearly seen in our previous insightful talks, it is not just simply about depriving ourselves of various things to acquire them in the glorious heaven above, but it is profoundly about truly filling ourselves here on this beautiful earth with the divine will. So, we should pay more attention to this, to being generous with God. Well, this is what it means to be generous, right? To give him our nothingness, our miseries, so that he may give us his everything, which is the divine will.
So, continuing with the detachment from earthly things, a quote from St. Paul comes to mind that profoundly says, "Because of the profound knowledge of Christ, I willingly left absolutely everything else behind, and now I consider it all as dung. What I used to value no longer attracts me. Now my life is Christ."
Now, I'm also going to read you a chapter from Louisa to continue with detachment. It's from a significant volume, specifically volume 6, which is officially dated February 7th in the year 1904.
"My daughter, it is truly true that there are many good and kind souls who do much for me. But it is indeed very difficult to find someone who truly gives me everything without reservation, so that I can give everything."
Here we see that living in the divine will asks us for a very, very high degree of spiritual perfection. We have to completely strip ourselves of absolutely everything that we have deep inside us, so that Jesus can freely give his whole self completely to us, fully. Who, Jesus continues, who truly holds back from their own personal self-love and well-being? Oh, self-esteem. Who? An affection for a person, even a holy one. Who? A little vanity. Oh, a bit of attachment to the earth. Who? To self-interest. In short, some individuals hold on to one particular little thing, while others cling to another specific detail. But all of them keep something for themselves.
"And this truly hinders everything within them from being truly divine."
Yes, Manuel. We must strip ourselves to completely empty ourselves of our own selves, so that our Lord Jesus Christ may truly have a sacred dwelling in us, may come to make his eternal home within us.
I can give an example of a fortunate person who has a comfortable house with a garden full of various furniture, of many chairs, and of numerous tables, and a very, extremely rich person arrives. Is a noble man, a person of high social standing, who wants to make his home in that house. It would not be fitting for him to live in that beautiful old house. So, it would be absolutely quite necessary indeed for the owner to first completely empty the entire house in order to truly turn it into a magnificent palace where the wealthy and influential nobleman could comfortably live and reside in his grand estate. It has to be completely emptied of everything so that the Lord can once again put, can once again truly furnish the entire house with very beautiful and very fine, exquisitely crafted furniture for his honor.
Also, regarding detachment, I want to take this opportunity to say a few words to the priests, because priests are the ones who must also set an example of detachment. I am going to read a short chapter from Louisa as well. It's directly from the official volume 6, specifically July 30th, 1904.
Louisa writes, "I found myself in purgatory, and I saw several priests, one of whom appeared to be experiencing significantly more suffering than the others present. And he said to me, 'My severe and profound sufferings come from the fact that during my earthly life, I was very much attached to family interests and also to my own personal interests, to earthly things, to the vast expanse of human knowledge, and even to certain specific people.' And this causes so much harm to the priest. It forms a thick, impenetrable, muddy iron armor around him, completely enveloping and wrapping him tightly like a protective yet suffocating garment. And only the intense purifying fire of purgatory and the agonizing, profound fire of being utterly deprived of the divine presence of God can truly and completely destroy this formidable armor. Oh, how very much I truly suffer. My pains are indeed countless. Please pray for me."
In this profound and essential matter of complete detachment, of truly dying to one's own personal will and desires, our Lord Jesus Christ meticulously led Louisa Picareta from the very lowest and most humble point imaginable. At the very beginning, we carefully read in her profound life story how our beloved Lord explicitly told her, "The ultimate victim I truly want to be, always sacrificed within you with complete devotion, will undoubtedly be your own personal will, surrendered entirely to me."
And our Lord even told her the most practical and effective way to truly learn this is when, for example, you are given food you don't like, well, you actually eat it in order to mortify your own personal will. Our Lord also told her, "If you are walking down the street, try not to let your eyes wander." And so, these are simple things that we can all do. If we don't do that, if we don't kill our will in the little things, then how can we later say that I live in the divine will?
I've even read up to chapter 19, or I don't know. No, it's in the everyday things where we have to die to our own will. Look, when Louisa, when our Lord had already promised her the mystical betrothal, Louisa was already bedridden. She had already offered herself as a victim. She had renounced everything, acted only for God, and had detached herself from human affections, from human things. Well, well, despite all that, our Lord kept talking to her about detachment and did not carry out the mystical betrothal. And Louisa would say to him, "Lord, tell me what else I lack, what else I need to detach from."
Well, one day Jesus gave her a ray of light and he made her understand that she should remove a little gold ring she had. With the crucifix, Louisa wore it to remember our Lord. It wasn't out of vanity. And from that moment, Louisa understood and took it off. The words that our Lord said to Louisa at that moment were these: "Everything that is earthly must be removed. Everything. Everything. Not just from your heart, but also from your body."
Well, I think this is especially for women. Well, I repeat, everything that is earthly must be removed. Everything. Everything. Not just from your heart, but also from your body. You cannot understand how harmful even the slightest earthly shadow is, and what an obstacle this is to my love.
See how our Lord also pays attention to the smallest things, to the details that we don't consider important. Now, we can do this right now. I mean, how can we know if we are detached from everything, or what we are still attached to? Well, our Lord gives in one chapter the sign to know if the soul is detached from everything. This chapter is from volume 7.
"My daughter, to truly know if a soul is completely detached from everything worldly, it is enough to simply observe if, when any desires or even fleeting thoughts arise within her, whether they are indifferent or indeed profoundly holy, she is genuinely willing to sacrifice them all to the divine will with a profound sense of holy peace and serene acceptance. But if she becomes disturbed, if she gets restless, it means she is still holding on to something for herself."
Right now, we could reflect on that. Let's think: if our beloved Lord were to ask me right now, at this very moment, for my family, my husband, that I offer them to him. Let's imagine that right now he wanted us to, I don't know, to leave them completely. My children, would we give them to him in holy peace? Our work, our businesses, or would we become a little disturbed? Would we get restless? Even as it says here, even holy things. Let's see. If our Lord asked us to leave the prayer group I attend, the ministry I'm involved in, would I be able to offer that to God in holy peace? If not, it means we're also attached to holy things and not to God. We become attached to the gifts but not to the giver.
I would like to express this to everyone, especially to the wonderful young people who are listening, that we shouldn't be like worldly people, drawn to temporary things that come to an end, but rather we should let go of that and learn to value what truly matters, eternal things, things that never end. We truly need to live a heavenly life even while we are still on this earthly plane, which is precisely what Louisa's profound message is all about.
Here, then, we are led to seek happiness in the things around us, and this is understandable because we were made for happiness, but a truly divine happiness. So, the very important things to feel. And here we find all happiness. Our intelligence will always discover new sciences to learn, moving from a lesser science to a greater one. Our will shall no longer be left wanting. It will let go of itself, which is the source of its own torment, in order to find eternal and divine happiness. And our entire inner being will be engaged in activity, the very activity of Christ.
And to finally finish up, we are going to carefully read a chapter from the Beloved series from volume 17, starting from June the 25th, 1925.
Louisa writes, "My dear Jesus, my precious life indeed, it seems to me that complete sacrifice is needed of both soul and body to do your will and to live in it." Here are the two elements that my father already spoke about in the previous conference: to truly do your divine will and to fully live in it. What at first glance seems like a very small, insignificant thing, but then in practice, it seems difficult. One must always remain steadfastly firm and genuinely joyful in the face of any internal or external suffering or hardship to human nature. It seems like something that is far too serious and truly painful indeed. And being so, how can souls actually come to truly live and reside within your divine will with the total and complete sacrifice of absolutely everything?
Then Jesus said to me with great solemnity, "My daughter, everything lies in understanding the great, the ultimate good, the true good that truly comes from consistently doing and actively engaging in my own personal will and truly living within it completely and fully. It is this unwavering will that truly requires such immense and profound sacrifice. For this supreme will does not readily adapt to being thoroughly mixed with or indeed coexisting harmoniously with a very low, exceedingly small, and ultimately finite will. For it truly wants to make the profound acts of the human soul eternal, infinite, and truly divine in every conceivable way that wishes to live in my will. And how can it do this? If it wants to insert its breath of human will, even in holy things, as you say, really, even truly, it is always a finite will. And so, living in my will would no longer be a reality, but simply a manner of speaking. No, the role of my will is total dominion. And it is only right that the tiny atom of human will loses its field of action within my will. I have completely and thoroughly covered and hidden you deep within me so that you may have absolutely no other eyes but to perceive and see only my divine will and graciously give it full and free reign to act powerfully within your very soul."
Rather, here is Jesus's profound answer to Louisa's earnest question. In fact, the truly difficult part will truly be understanding what it truly means to genuinely live in accordance with my will, and not merely the personal sacrifice itself. Because when souls truly understand the immense, great good that comes to them from living and abiding in my divine will, when they understand that from being poor, they become rich. That from being slaves to weak and destructive passions, they will become truly free and truly dominant over themselves. That from being servants, they become masters. That from being unhappy, they become happy, even amid the sorrows of this poor life, they will fall in love with all the blessings that exist in my will, and the total and complete sacrifice of absolutely everything will be an immense honor for them, something they profoundly long for, truly desire, and deeply yearn for with all their hearts. This is precisely why I earnestly urge you so very much to fully reveal what I am telling you regarding my final will and testament, because everything truly depends on profoundly knowing it, deeply understanding it, and genuinely loving it with all your heart. This is the most important thing. It's a final piece of advice, and I want to emphasize it because absolutely everything truly depends on deeply knowing it, thoroughly understanding it, and genuinely loving it with all your heart and soul.
Well, something truly significant about what Pablo is saying right now: to truly know it, deeply understand it, and genuinely love it. Don't think that we need to gather in groups to learn about this. If we have the opportunity, that's great, but it's not essential. That's what Louisa's writings are for. Each person, at home or wherever they are, in recollection, can learn. Jesus will speak to you through the writings. That's where we will learn.
Just one last thing. I'm going to read you something about recollection. The Blessed Virgin lived all her youth, well, her youth, part of her youth, in the temple, in silence, in recollection. When she married St. Joseph in Nazareth, she also lived in recollection. Don't think that just because she was married, she was out partying, as we say in Mexico. In other words, going from one house to another with friends. No, she lived in recollection. And to Louisa, the Blessed Virgin says something about recollection in The Queen of Heaven.
"My beloved daughter, from my cherished time in the sacred temple, please learn deeply how truly precious and invaluable the virtue of recollection is. Oh, how I profoundly wish all souls would truly love and diligently practice this profound virtue, living far away from the numerous dangers and alluring spectacles of the modern world, which so very often lead to their ultimate ruin. If they were more recollected and contemplative, they would cherish and love prayer more profoundly and deeply, and would feel peace much more completely and fully. They would not be a source of annoyance to anyone, and the earth would be increasingly populated with more and more saints."
How many significant family problems are truly due to the unfortunate lack of recollection in mothers, in fathers, and even in their children? And the earth would be increasingly populated with more and more saints. Right now, something else comes to mind. With all that we've said, just imagine raising children like this from a young age, teaching them sacrifice, self-denial, and right intention. Well, they will end up living well in the divine will, or at least trying to live in the divine will, following the example of their parents. And don't think it's something difficult. Just as we grew up learning about religious things, we were taught as something natural that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of God. It doesn't seem like something out of this world to us. Nor do the great dogmas seem overwhelming. It feels natural to us because we were taught this way from childhood. So, children should be educated in the same way so that the kingdom of the divine will can truly spread within families.
The Blessed Virgin continues, "But with great sorrow I observe that many souls, due to a lack of recollection, are restless. They cannot find peace, and thus they themselves create their own cross and that of their families." Oh, how much I wish I could make them understand the good that would come to them if they had truly modeled themselves after my exemplary example, for I never ever left the confines of my cherished home. And if I ever did venture out, it was solely out of an extreme and pressing necessity and to faithfully fulfill the sacred divine will.
Just to finish, a few final words. Let us pay attention to all the steps that Jesus took in Louisa, because they are necessary to establish the life of the divine will in each one of us. That's all.