January 3—“Never mind if you haven’t kept your word, or if you have fallen lower than yesterday. If you despise yourself and tell Me so in sorrow, you needn’t be afraid to believe that you are in My heart. This heart, so great and good, so little like the hearts of men.
“I am compassion, not malice. I carried you as a mother when I carried My cross. Then you can imagine what tenderness I feel when I hear you telling Me of your shortcomings, what eagerness to forgive you. . . .
“Oh, the tenderness of a Savior—who could ever fathom it? Who could even hear about it without being scandalized? So from time to time, be glad to be counted as nothing; to look at all that you lack, at the good that you failed to do; to see yourself in the faults you didn’t want to commit but committed after all. You may be sure you don’t see them all. I alone know the number and the weight of them. And yet, I love you. I am love.
“Don’t offend Me by being afraid and running away. That’s what hurts love. Enter into My immensity like a little child who joyously seeks to drink and sleep on its mother’s breast. Rest. Take strength for yourself. Take joy. Everything is in Me. For you.
“Renew your trust and come back to your humble path ever nearer to Me. You know that your spiritual house is not firmly built and that its only foundations are in Me. When it topples down, I take the debris and build a new temple more beautiful than the last because you have humbled yourself. Think of this; it will help you to take pleasure in humiliations. Wasn’t I Myself intimately acquainted with humiliation during My entire life on earth? I—God. What company, My child!
“You see, what pains love is indifference, apathy, stagnation. When it comes to Me, many people act as though I were still dead. But My child, I am alive and I’m near them, in them, waiting for them to talk to Me, to smile at Me. Waiting for their heart to beat a little for Me.
“I require so little, am so readily pleased. I only ask to be invited, and I look after the banquet.”
January 10—Holy Hour.
“Don’t you love this hour when we come close to one another in such intimacy that My thoughts seem to be yours? It’s as though our souls were one inside the other. And how can My joy be described? The joy of your Christ who yearns so much for oneness with His children that He invented the Eucharist in order to merge with them. Oh, new Spirit, freeing God’s people from the old yoke of fear!
“Because I came to earth, everything has been changed. Because I died, you have received life. And life is love. There is no other life, my little girl. Simplify everything in love. Let love be the mainspring of all your actions. Believe and hope with your heart. You will comfort Me for all the hatred. And the more you love, the more you will want to love. Set aside a quarter of an hour a day for love, for nothing else but love.
“When you were little you did exercises in French. Now that you are grown, give yourself to divine exercises, either during the day in the secret of your heart, or at night, if you wake and seek Me. Wake up loving Me. Hunt for Me, and I’ll let Myself be caught. You will win, and we’ll begin the game again and again until, tired out, you remain asleep on My heart. It will be another way for Me to keep you ‘very close.’ You remember the keynote for this year?”
January 19—(With tender intimacy.)
“When the moment of death comes for My friends, you believe, don’t you, that I come gently, with all the delicate touches that you know, to take their souls into My kingdom? You would do the same if you were taking someone into one of your beautiful homes. You would want to feel the joy of their surprise, wouldn’t you? Then I, God, who love more and own more, how could I fail to be interested in the passing of My friends from time?
“Nothing that you may possibly have imagined of the love of My heart comes anywhere near the reality. Remember that I wanted your joy so much that I came down to earth to know suffering. And when I see you suffer, and suffer for Me, I gather each of your sufferings with great love, as though yours were greater than Mine, and had a value that My heart would like to make infinite. And this is why, when you allow Me to do so, I merge your life with Mine.”
January 22—“I am the God of every moment of your life, since I am the Soul of your soul.”
Holy Hour.
“Would You like us to talk about Your love, Lord?”
“I am like a shy person, I prefer you to discover it yourselves, fearing that by speaking about it I seem to force it upon you. There again, you are free. But what is not My joy when of your own free will you seek ways of multiplying our meetings and deepening our intimacy. I let you be the one to come, to call. I hide Myself to increase your desire for Me. And when you think you are lost, there I am with all My gifts!
“My very feeble children, what you lack is the assurance of faith, this faith that is like a second sight—the strongest—the one that helps you to see the things of the earth with My eyes and evaluate them accordingly.
“Do you want to practice faith? Do you understand what an élan this would give to your prayer, your Communion, your every day interior life? Would you like to try? You may be sure that your hope and love would grow in the same proportion. And to grow is to come close to Me.”
January 26—Surrounded by people.
“When you smile at them, you give them the communion of thought.”
January 29—Holy Hour.
“Believe that I am happy to spend a whole hour with you. Why don’t you believe? Yes, of course, it’s your extreme poverty that is like an invitation to Me to stay. I live in you and I make you whiter than snow. Your faculties become filled with Me. Your memory, your understanding are made pure by My direct contact. Your will is placed in Mine. I want to be always at home in you.”
“I should be so happy if You were, Lord. Perhaps you don’t get many invitations?”
“And yet you are My creation—My children. Your life should be one continual thanksgiving for all that I have done for you. You should keep your souls like the garden of Eden where I could come down to walk and talk with you as I did with the first man and woman. What a prelude of silence! What joyous awaiting! They were quite sure that I was coming to add the bliss of My presence to all their other happiness. Have the same certainty yourself—now, since I have not changed. Does a God who is all-love change? Your name is not Eve, but you are her daughter. And I love you with the same powerful love of those first mornings. Then don’t be afraid to talk to Me about yourself, to blossom in My sight, to let Me look at you just as you are. Even though I know you, I like you to express yourself. It creates new longings and desires in you. You must have secrets to confide in Me. Aren’t there always secrets in any intimate friendship?”
February 12—“Lord, I want to be always near You. It’s only my thoughts that run away.”
“Call them back gently, without getting angry, since I am not angry. I know you, and I love your goodwill. It was for this—the peace that the angels sang when I came to make the world new again.
“I am often more indulgent toward you than you are yourself. Believe this and you will give Me joy.”
I had arrived from Paris, and in the solitude of the country I felt Him so close that I did not know how to thank Him.
“Don’t be surprised when My presence takes hold of you as though to possess you. Act in faith, My child. My little companion, I ask this of you: get used to My Presence. Your joy is in this, since it is a way of being together always. So lose yourself in Me and feel the wonder of it. Say to yourself, ‘He has come. May He live in me since it is He who will carry me off.’ You know how the eagle swoops down.
“These matters are so great that they astonish the angels, and yet I speak so simply to you about them. You see how I stoop to the level of My children, for love wants to explain itself and suffers at not being understood. Yet My love draws your attention to itself during the day by the blessings and delicate attentions you notice. And you don’t always see them either. . . . Sometimes one offers a present without a word. Often I think, ‘They will guess. . . .’ Alas! How many take them and pay no attention to the giver. It is not My honor that suffers but My love. You, My child, who know better, never make love suffer.”
February 19—“Humble yourself for your shortcomings.
“It is your faults, My children, that make you unhappy. Recognize when you are in the wrong. Let your thoughts probe to the depths of your misery. Look at your shortsightedness. Your cowardice and laziness in making any effort to improve. Your willingness to stagnate in your usual petty ways. Your negligence in studying the model of My life. Your vain self-satisfaction no matter what your condition may be. The almost contemptuous attitude some of you have toward My sacraments. Do any of you have the loving desire to be made whiter than snow through repentant sorrow? Do you try to quicken your desire for My Eucharist of love that wants to help you along your way? Don’t you live as though you were all going to remain on earth forever? You so seldom give even a furtive glance at the life beyond, at your residence of tomorrow, when your heart should already be there, thanking Me, praising Me, adoring Me every day and in every action of the day. . . .
“You, at least you, child, is your soul filled with Me? Do you breathe for Me alone? Do you still put your interests before Mine, or in your earthly pilgrimage do you carry Me before you like a lantern? Have you made My anxieties yours? Have you taken your part in the conversion of the world? Near My martyrs, can you say ‘I was there,’ even if only in desire?
“Who will help Me, if you, My communicants, don’t keep close?”
February 26—I was celebrating my birthday with a group of friends.
“Lord, You are first among My invited guests.”
“I have the right. I created and redeemed you, and with what love! Who can weigh this love of Mine? Who can comprehend it? When will My poor love, My immense love be recognized by man?
“Can’t you say on your birthday, ‘Everything in me is You, Lord, except sin’? Be full of joy to have been a thought in My mind. Thank Me. Serve Me. Love Me. Remember that you are one of My members and that in placing you on the earth, I have mapped out a path for you alone. Promise Me again to follow it as the one you cherish the most, since I planned it for you and because coming from Me it brings you to Me. This is the beautiful highway, the direct route. Each one has his own, but few follow it. Many invent paths according to their own whims, paths beset with danger and loss. Simplify your pilgrimage to follow My will alone so as to be sure of fulfilling it faithfully, even to the very smallest details. Fidelity places more value on small opportunities than on big ones. These are the little love-tokens, like the small coins that add up to a fortune.
“Since you have recognized the road I have marked out for you, don’t turn aside from it. Your birthday made you feel how near you are to the end of it. That’s where your great friend is going to appear. He has hidden so long only to reserve a greater bliss in rest and possession. Do you firmly believe what I say?”
March 5—“Haven’t I prepared everything in your life, in your homes, for a solitude for two? Wouldn’t even the nuns envy you? What or who is lacking to help you contemplate Me without interruption? What powers do you not spoil from Me, fortunate little one? You are like another person now. You aren’t even aware of yourself—like a shrub that thinks it’s holding up its prop.
“Never forget that you are nothing without Me. What would you write if I didn’t dictate for you.
“I must travel the roads of the earth still for I have messages to give. Others speak on the radio. I use a very little soul made in My image and likeness and bound to Me by love. Don’t you think that the best way for this soul to give Me to others is to bring Me forth. You know how a fragment of a mirror can reflect the big mirror, and if the little one were conscious, what joy it would have in giving back a perfect reflection of the big one.
“My child, all people are invited to bring Me forth. My invitations are sent out at Baptism and again in My sacraments. It is for you to respond even though imperfectly. I am there, anxiously wondering what progress you will make from the cradle to the grave, ready to help you at your first cry. Don’t ever get the idea that I’m far away, My dear little ones so often exposed to danger. Your humble voice is balm to Me.”
March 11—Holy Hour.
“Consider Me. I have so many faces. A man, as you know, has his sadnesses and his joys in the little events on the earth. A Man-God is the same, but His look is longer because it is eternal, and His heart is multiple because it holds all yours within it. And this is not at all figurative, My child. I really carry each soul in Me, enfolding it in such all-encompassing love. You don’t see that I’m carrying you, and you don’t know that all-encompassing love. Yet the sufferings of my passion are the proof.
“Take a long look at My face full of pain. Have you the time? You can think about it a little, can’t you? This would be like the soft cloth that Veronica held out to Me. With one hand I placed it on My face, leaving the imprint of My features on it. That’s what I’ll do with your mind when you offer it to Me. I’ll print My own upon it so that you may give it to others, and in this way all this treasure in you will enrich your brothers too.
“The more you give, the more I give you. Every day find new people to inherit the legacy that you receive in the morning. You will then see My joyous face.
“When the apostles came back happy to give Me an account of their mission and said such things as, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God; or ‘To whom Lord, should we go?’ My joy was great. And when hearts are transformed so that they humble themselves before Me, adore My happy face. During this day, think about the lights and shadows that passed over My features in My own days on earth. Adore them. Keep watch for the feelings of your great friend.”
March 15—Coming back from Mass I was thinking of sinners. It was cold and I was walking barefoot.
“Perhaps, Lord, You will give me two for my two feet?”
“Two what? Two thousand?”
And He made me remember that He had granted six thousand conversions for one of St. Teresa of Avila’s prayers.
March 17—“I am thirsty. I have only what one gives Me. I take nothing.”
March 18—On the street in the morning among the laborers going to work, I said, “I too am going to my day’s work living for You.”
“Do you realize how many sinners you can save in a single day? Think of My dazzling power, riches, and generosity. Who could hinder Me from giving you souls if I wish to do so?
“For the earth, My justice is shackled by My mercy, moved to pity by the prayers of those I love. So count more on My generosity both for you and for all those you commit to Me. Dare to hope more than you have ever hoped before, as you come to believe in the divine openhandedness. We aren’t on the same plane: then expect the extraordinary. You have already experienced it. It will strengthen your faith and hope in a way that you don’t suspect. For it is I Myself who come, and can I come other than as God?
“My love is the source of everything. Did you think it was My pity? My pity, yes, but moved by this love of Mine that is greater than all other loves. I can only teach you about it little by little, because you are so fragile. For you would faint like the beloved in the Song of Solomon if more vehement words from My heart fell upon your ear, and if, as in beautiful books, I added pictures. You’re thinking, ‘He’s talking to me again about love.’ And I’m thinking, ‘When can I begin to talk to her about it?’ ” . . .
April 1—Le Fresne.
“I have risen from the dead. Who could restrain your joy? Won’t you honor Me in this new way, in this joy for My joy? And if there is joy in you, how can you stop it from brimming over on others? Do you think I find very much joy in many hearts? People don’t think of this perfect way of praising Me and yet it brings Me such balm. Don’t I share all your emotions just as all true lovers share? You remember how when you were leaving someone dear to you, you said, ‘Promise me you’ll be happy!’ as though it were your heart’s need. Mine takes delight in your joy. Learn to be joyous for My sake, even in times of trial. Live entirely for Me, My child. What depths of joy! And no one can ever rob you of it. Don’t you feel the charm of it? What else can be compared with this?
“During the day, tell Me again and again that you are one with Me. But don’t let it be a burden to your mind—just a simple happy élan. You used to climb the steps to the veranda often to give your dear mother a hasty kiss in the midst of your little doings. It’s simple and yet it’s everything. You didn’t realize what joy this kiss gave your mother, and you don’t know My joy either. Even so, don’t deny Me, My little girl.”
April 8—“Have you thanked Me for all I did for you, for mankind, for the angels, for My mother? What a concert of blessings, My child! Gather them all as though they were yours and join in the symphony of thanksgiving. Sing your part in the choir of numberless voices, and I’ll know it from all the others. Are there two voices alike in the whole world? Aren’t you struck by the diversity in human creation? In heaven too, each saint differs from the other, and if you are enchanted by the variety of colors in your garden, you may be sure that paradise flashes with a myriad, many-splendored things, all for My glory. There too, I know the voices, for I know you all. My children, I atoned for all of you and I know My redeemed ones.”
“Lord, who will teach me to thank You and what words should I use?”
“The most simple—straight from your heart. Say them to Me at Mass. Say them again after your Communion when we are only one. Once more it will be I who give them to you. How I love to act for Myself in you. Can you believe that? I feel at home, and I feel you are Mine. Be very much Mine . . . I was going to say, ‘Be your Christ before the Father, before others. Be the gentlest and the smallest.’ ”
April 17—“Lord, I should so love to live Your words, and I am always myself, still my old self.”
“Is it so difficult to think of your Lord? Is it so difficult to talk with Him and to keep Him company?
“When you meet someone in a waiting room, don’t you instinctively approach that person and in a kindly way do your best to make the time pass pleasantly for him? And if he were a poet, or a scholar, or someone great in the eyes of the world, wouldn’t you go even further and show more joy?
“My child, it’s a God who is waiting at the door of your heart, a God who is all yours and who is in you. You open to Him when you talk to Him, when you look at Him, when you try to take your thoughts off the things around you so that you may turn them to Him with the utmost tenderness.
“Don’t think that this is a fable I’m telling you. It is the simple reality. But as it’s all happening in the shadowland where everything is imperfection, you find it difficult to believe, and you are slow in acting upon it. That is why I am like that person in the waiting room. If only you could approach Me more often with all your kind charm, you might suspect My long yearnings. You might think, ‘He’s waiting for the world.’ Yes, My little child, for everyone, and for such a long, long time. . . . I came to Bethlehem to seek them and I shall go on seeking them right to the end of the world.
“This is the patience of God. This is His love. Then how could you ever understand? Yet it would be very sweet to believe, wouldn’t it? So quicken your faith by telling Me about it often. More often. Don’t get weary: you will hope more and love more. It’s your great God who wants you greatly, My very frail little girl.”
April 19—Leaving for Paris.
“One step ahead. One step in your attentive will. One step in your faithfulness. Up until now you have lived for Me, by you. Now, live for Me, by Me. One step forward . . .”
April 26—Returning from Paris, I had the surprise of finding that a family of nightingales with the loveliest song in the world had a nest above a window looking out on the avenue of lime trees.
“Nothing could make you happier, could it? I too know how to make surprises. Some people don’t see them. I’m so glad that you guessed. On earth you always have to guess. I’m always hidden behind the door. Sometimes you haven’t seen Me: do you remember? . . .
“See Me in everything, for I am everywhere for all of you. . . . Oh, that look of yours that I love: you understand? It’s like a declaration of love from you, as though you gave Me a little of your soul. And I take it right away, carefully watching for a chance to pick you up like a collector of works of art who jealously hides his discoveries so that no one may steal them from him.
“Tell Me that you are really and truly Mine from now on. You say, ‘You know that, Lord.’ But don’t deprive Me of the joy of hearing you say it again. Any words at all . . . you can say them to Me. But with others, get to love silence. I mean by that a silence of goodness. You will find Me there. I shall hear all the words that you don’t say. You will keep them for Me, for My sake. You will ask Me for the strength, and these silences will be like cut flowers. I’ll offer them to Myself in a bouquet. Right now would you like to begin this silence with others, this silence that will speak so eloquently to My love?
“I ask you for this new way of pleasing Me. I need all your ways. How could I not want your entire being when I know that you are free.”
April 29—“You think that you are the richest person in the world because you have a nightingale in your trees and its pure, strong voice enchants your evenings and your nights. But what is this poetic wealth compared with the pure, strong voice that you hear in the secret gardens of your soul? It doesn’t command attention like the voice of the bird. It waits for you to try to arouse it so that the words it speaks are like invited guests who enter your heart, where you will welcome them. The voice is never late. It is so eager to speak, knowing the good that will come and having so much love to reveal. . . . But it wants you to be the one to call. Then it comes with more joy.
“ ‘As a man speaks, so he is,’ you say. What do you think of the sincerity and forthrightness of the words? Don’t they express your deepest feelings when you dare to share them with the one dearest of all to you?
“My little girl, listen to Me as My love flows to you directly. And may it be an ever new enchantment for you, like those treasures old and ever new spoken of in the gospel. These are the inexhaustible riches that the heart of your Lord wanted for you—a never-ending beginning again of the joy of hearing Him.
“And since you are approaching the door leading out of this life, since you want to start leaving behind this world of the senses in order to live more often and more silently in My intimacy, keep on rereading My words. Let them sink deep into your heart. Pray that they may be food to a great many others—to all people.
“Then, like a very little worker, her day ended, you will disappear from this life—humble, because everything comes from Me; happy, simply because you have obeyed. You have been a nothingness to whom I have given the desire for My glory.”
April 30—After Communion.
“Keep watch on your thoughts; they control your words and actions. Dwell upon My thoughts, so full of kindness and compassion, and you will do My deeds.”
May 11—I invited the angels of the terrace to come and sit before the magnificent panorama of the peaceful Loire and its islands in their May time greenness.
“My child, heaven is not far from the earth when you ask it to come. Live more with the saints. They can all help you to love Me more, now that they know. Oh, this science of love! Are you sure that you delve deeper and deeper into it every day even if only for a quarter of an hour?”
“Lord, be my teacher. What should I do?”
“Look at Me in My gospels. There you will find My history, My life-story. You follow Me; you see Me comfort, heal, suffer, obey My Father for all of you. There you see Me denying Myself, keeping silence and speaking; seeking solitude, followed by the crowds; teaching, contradicted. Full of courage in defending truth, in rebuking the mighty, in taking the part of the little ones. Filled with compassion for the humble, the repentant, the oppressed. Thinking only of My people not of Me; for you and against Myself. . . .
“You remember the other day in Paris when you found yourself in a broadcasting studio filled with noisy bold people, you thought, ‘What am I doing here?’
“When I came from heaven to earth, I might have asked Myself the same question if I had not come to suffer, to prove My love for you all along the path of My life . . . longer than the road to Calvary.
“How could you ever count My sacrifices? The stars witnessed My nightly prayers; the cold, My frozen limbs; the earth, My broken feet.
“Who could have guessed at My ardor for My Father, the intensity of My love for you, you of every age and race, right to the very end of time. . . .
“You have noticed how sometimes you get others to follow you without saying a word? I wanted to leave all of you My example; it said, ‘Follow Me; this will be your response to love.’ Do you think there were many who heard and followed? My sweat of blood in Gethsemane was for that. For that the tears that disfigured My face so much that Peter, James, and John had difficulty recognizing Me.
“Oh, little flock of My most faithful friends, come to meet Me every day in a passage of the gospels. Look for My heart there and give Me yours.”
May 13—“Wasn’t that a good idea to ask you to live with My grandeur today? You saw it in My power, and this gave you hope in your matchless friend who can do everything. How you reveled in the feeling of your littleness, in the poverty of your knowledge, completely abandoned to My knowledge, trusting in My infinite tenderness. You were reminded of the big butterfly holding a flower captive between its wings. My darling child, how short your day seemed to you!
“Couldn’t you grow to love this habit of placing one of My divine qualities in your thought like a kind companion in your pilgrimage. It would be a new way of watching for Me. Oh, the soul that wants to lay hold upon its Savior, how it varies its ways of running after Him! And He finds a thousand excuses for letting Himself be caught. If you only knew!
“All of these things belong to that secret life that you call ‘interior’—a life beyond the world’s dimensions. These are the trial flights, the first freeings. You remember the little swallow that seemed to dart right up into the sun the very first time it left the nest? Take care of your hidden life. Love it, since I love it. . . .”
As I had just held back an unkind word:
“Offer Me that cut flower.”
May 14—After Communion.
“Don’t let your thoughts run wild. Call to mind the uncultivated Sahara and then picture your well raked terrace dotted with roses.”
May 20—“Look at Me. Do you trust Me? Do you hope in Me? Unwaveringly, unreservedly? The hope I want you to have transcends death, since I am all in all to you; haven’t you told Me that?
“You look for Me in the beauty of the rose, in the voice of the nightingale on the terrace, in the song of the cuckoo from the island that comes winging its way to you over the Loire, in the brilliant stars of a May night, and even in the far-off twittering of birds in the marshlands.
“But am I not first of all in souls created in My image? In these human beings whose brother-Savior I am? And wouldn’t this be an incentive for you to reach Me through them? They will not even be aware that you have sighted Me, but they will find consolation by it. And I will add to their consolation.”
May 27—Corpus Christi.
“Lord, I want so much to work for Your desires.”
“Take your place near Me where John is as I institute My Eucharist. Look at My happiness. I seem to forget even My fearful passion that is about to begin, so completely am I engulfed in the love of man. Not just the Eleven, but all the people to come, even to the very last at the end of time. You understand, it’s as though I took everyone—all of you—in My body, promising you to be members of it. The thirst for union with you is so great that I want to be consumed by you in order to merge our minds, our beings. I want to be your thinking and your doing.
“Such love amazes you, and yet you can guess at only a very faint part of it. Does the flame of a torch give any idea of a conflagration?
“There, near Me, in John’s place, are you aware of My deep joy at having found a way of remaining among you—all of you who were not there that evening at the Last Supper. You whom I already love so much that I am ready to die a shameful death for you. You whose entire life will be accompanied by My Hosts, and whose death will be the sweeter for them.
“And from your place—John’s place—see how the apostles have already become new men—gentle and fervent. They believe. They possess Me. I already act in them as I shall act in you.
“Can I be present and not make your cup of blessings overflow? Who is as rich as I? Who could desire your highest good more than I? Then help Me to fulfill this desire by asking the Father that all people allow Me to have My own way in them. If only they would consent to let Me come in. They are afraid to be seen. They have no time for anything but business; they have none for Me. They don’t believe and they don’t think about these things. They are scornful. Others believe, but hate Me and basely persecute all that they can in the ciborium.
“You, My faithful friends, surround Me; adorn My tabernacles; comfort Me; respond to love, in life, in death; wish to remain longer on earth in order to love Me the longer there. Others will come after you, but who will replace you? For Me each of you has a face, a path.
“Keep your face before My face and hasten along your path.”
June 3—Holy Hour.
(I had just returned from Paris—from the rue du Bac where I had admired the chapel full of Vincentian nuns in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.)
“You saw My doves? It gave you joy to see them surrounding Me with their love. Unite with them, very little as you are. In your desire to be one with Me, join more often with the saints on earth and the saints in heaven. You will be stronger; alone, you are so little. You see, then you are part of the bouquet and I’ll be tempted to give the entire reward to you alone.
“Remember how I loved oneness: ‘When two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.’ Because union, too, is love. And I am love. Don’t be afraid to lose your personality; you benefit from all the others. These bouquets, these baskets of flowers around My altars are but faint and far-off images of the people united together to love Me.
“In your thoughts, place those you have commended to My care near My tabernacle, and I’ll draw them to Me. How could My heart fail to bless those in your care? Would that be like the measure of My love?
“During this octave of Corpus Christi, love with all men, adore with all men, hope with all men, and yearn.”
“When will you come to get me, my dear love? I am ready to go without any regrets, so that I may be with You.”
“Be united with all those who have called for My kingdom to come and My day to dawn within them. Be spent with loving enthusiasm for My house. Act as though I had entrusted the victory to your littleness. What wouldn’t you do to be equal to your task? Let the fire of your zeal consume you. May I not expect this of you? You ask and I fulfill. You see, once again this is oneness?”
In the evening, the nightingale had ceased to sing.
“He has finished his little day. But you, child, will sing to Me throughout all eternity.”
June 9—Holy Hour.
“My love, how many Holy Hours will I have kept in my life?”
“Don’t you think that they have made Me forget a good many other hours of yours? You don’t like to be late for your friends, do you; nor to be ungrateful. Then for the one who loved you before you loved Him, for the one who ransomed you . . . Oh, My child, humble yourself for doing so little, even though all you do for Me gives Me such joy. Keep going. Increase. Hunt for new surprises in these little sacrifices that charm Me. And yet it is the Spirit who inspires you to make them. It’s like a proposition where your will consents. It is this act of the will that goes straight to My heart like the stab of ecstasy in the Song of Solomon: ‘Oh, exquisite wound!’
“That fills you with wonder because you cannot fathom the meaning of the words, ‘God is love.’
“In our relationship don’t be afraid of your littleness, for this is what touches My compassionate heart. And don’t have any fear of meeting Me too often, since I’d be happy if you never left Me. Try to believe Me if you cannot understand. A child believes its father. A woman believes the one she loves. So won’t you believe Me?
“You must practice joy in order to open wide your hearts. And yet how easy to be joyous when you know that you are loved boundlessly by a good God. To know that you are happy about it would increase My own happiness. When you see, when you know, you will be ready to come back to earth to complete what you have only just begun. Then don’t be afraid to love Me, to tell Me about your love, to wait for Me, and to call Me. It’s so simple. When one loves, everything is simple, even to die.”
June 24—Holy Hour.
At home, looking at a bust of Christ.
“I am the Head. You are My arms raised toward the Father. Let us glorify Him together My child. Put your whole heart into it; I mean your will. And you will be exalted. And your union with Me, the Head of the Body, will give you undreamed of power. All that is good in you is I Myself. So make room for Me.
“Long for My consciousness to take over yours. Let yours go as you assume Mine. I don’t make, as it were, official use of My instruments in you at every moment. But at every moment it should be your joyous privilege to have them in readiness for Me.
“You remember the story of the little maid whom the King condescended to employ and who charmed him so much by her faithful service that he raised her to the rank of his most intimate friends? So united did they become that her one and only desire was to remain with him forever.
“Gabrielle, what name does your love invent for Me?”
“Lord, I find no name worthy of You.”
“Then just love Me without giving Me a name.”
July 1—Nantes. Holy Hour.
“Love Me. You see, I ask this of many, of everyone. How few stop to listen to Me. Some hear without wanting to understand.
“You know what is My enemy? Money. People think only of money. They live for it and nothing else. And it hardens the heart without filling it.
“Try to grasp this: I alone give joy. I alone. They imagine that I crush My people with sacrifices, whereas it is the sacrifices that give you wings. My child, you know that My yoke is gentle? Then tell them about it; they won’t listen to Me. See that you mention My name often in your conversations. You did this today, didn’t you, and you noticed that it was like sunlight. It was so simple and yet so deep. Above all, don’t count on yourself; count on Me in you.
“When you went into that cafe to collect the rent and the men surrounded you for a chat, you noticed how, right away they spoke of God, of the life beyond, of death. Was this your influence? No, it was I in you. Poor people who think only of the pleasure of drinking and so becloud this thought that would rise to Me to love Me a little.
“A little . . . big things begin that way. Love seizes. Love carries off without a moment’s warning, without waiting, without asking. And if you surrender and let the Spirit flow in, you give joy to the saints in heaven and glory to the Father because you have begun to understand His love. Oh, My child, give the Father the best of yourself.”
July 10—Holy Hour.
“Read a few sentences from our conversations every day. You find a little strength and love in them, don’t you. Is it too much to ask you to do this once every morning and twice more during the afternoon? To keep us together—you understand? To discover Me in the sacrament of the words.
“Oh, how I long to give Myself to you, and how diffident I am to ask you to receive Me! You see there’s always this respect for your liberty.
“Talk to Me. Don’t be afraid to appeal to My feelings. Seek to console Me. Haven’t I consoled you many times? Tell Me the things that you think would bring Me balm. Of course, this is reality, not make-believe. I am the God-Man, sensitive to your marks of tenderness. Above all, believe this. Oh, if only you believed more . . . we should be more closely bound together, and you would experience great joy, since you would have come closer to bliss.
“You know, don’t you, that I am your bliss. Very few understand. Try to explain it to them. Speak for Me. I know that you don’t work for a reward but only to please Me.
“Oh, My child, create a climate of love within you. Unceasingly. There’s where I want to live in you, in all of you, right to the moment when you leave this life. Then you will leave it so serenely. You will breathe forth: that is the true description of the last of your gentle sighs.”
July 27—In my bedroom. It was three o’clock in the morning and I was thinking, “What prayer and what praise would be pleasing to Him in memory of His death?”
“Say, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ ”
July 29—Holy Hour.
“Aren’t there sentences that pierce you like an arrow when you reread our books? The words speak all over again. And with fresh meaning; the Christ-consciousness sheds new light on them. In the past you had not been fully aware. You were younger and the chalice of your mind was only partly filled. Now it’s as though the you of today met the you of yesterday. You see, the grace received and made fruitful fashions the new soul. You want to come nearer to Me, to be more understanding? Then open your soul to receive more. And when you have received, bear fruit like your well-watered trees. Nothing is lost of the care that you give your soul. You don’t see it, but heaven sees it all. That’s the only audience you should want to have.
“In a little way, humbly, practice the great art of the silent stage. The applause and the glory are for later on. Be strong enough to wait. Have a patient genius for work. Didn’t I have it with inimitable love? I may well have a little right to ask you for long courage—the courage to live, the courage to die. And if your faith paves the way with your devoted acts and generous words in this atmosphere of tenderness where I have placed you, how could you fail to find the way short? And how could I keep from going half way to meet you?
“When will you do Me the honor of expecting from Me much more than you ever ask or think? Since I am all-Power and since I love you. Weigh up your unworthiness. Can you weigh up My compassion?”
August 6—The Transfiguration.
“Do you remember when you were little you said to Me, ‘Be transfigured, be transfigured before my eyes, Lord.’ You trusted Me. Off you went to the mountain of solitude and you heard My voice. You saw Me then in another way. It was also love that transfigured Me before My apostles. Always see love at the source of everything that comes from God. There is love and there is hate—nothing else. Two roots: God and the devil. Man with his free will takes his choice of the fruit.
“Be on the watch for the motive of your actions and remember that I am stretching out a helping hand. And keep watch on your lower nature, the part that runs down your neighbor made in My image. Give the kind of affection that comforts. You know what I mean—the word, the glance. I am in all ways of loving, just as Satan is in all ways of wounding. You see the source? You see the fruit? Choose, and always be ready to choose Me. This is what it is to be always in love. It’s the direct route to Me. It passes through death and leads you into My arms.”
August 13—The old house is full of people.
“But you are Mine as though you were alone. You give yourself to everyone and you find Me there. It’s only your duty that changes. Your Master is the same gentle Master. And you have your nights. How well you know that the evening conversations are the most intimate, when your thoughts merge with Mine.
“When you find it difficult to talk about yourself, the Spirit interprets for you, but you’re not aware of that. You don’t know that your humble, childish stammerings become hymns of glory for Me. Haven’t you the intention of glorifying God? Prolong this intention throughout your whole life. Intensify it.”
August 19—In a moment of depression.
“Keep going. Be steadfast.”
September 6—In the empty house.
“I am always crucified before the Father, who sees all time in a single instant. I am always the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And since I am yours, why don’t you offer Me more often to heaven from the depths of your heart? It is always now. Didn’t you understand that when you were in Jerusalem and prayed on Calvary.
“Tenderly offer your sacrifice for the world. Aren’t there others weaker than you? Can they rise up without Me? If you wanted to save a person very dear to you and this beloved person refused your help, how much you would suffer! I want to help the world, and the world refuses My help. Speak to the Father about His Son on the cross, so that He will let Himself be touched and send light to these hardened ones who do not even look at Me. You know how one speaks to a father who is watching his son die? Won’t this father hasten to carry out his child’s last wishes? Remind Him of the words ‘Forgive them for they know not what they do.’ It is always now.
“And if He forgives, what will He not do? Do you know the outpouring of any love like His? A love as vehement, as faithful, as all-consuming, as full of delicate and incomparable sweetness. A love that is all readiness. This love is now. It is always now.”
September 9—“Lord, I rack my brains to find ways of loving You and I don’t succeed.”
“I am all simplicity. Love Me simply.
“When you think about Me, feeling sorry at not being able to do better, you love Me. When you act rather from duty than from inclination, you love Me. When you belittle yourself in your own eyes and before others, you love Me. When you want to pray and you deplore the distractions that make your thoughts wander, you love Me. When you hunt for words without being able to express your desires, you love Me. When you forgive a wounding remark; when you give pleasure for the sake of giving Me pleasure; when you cease to think of yourself in order to try to reach Me; when you attempt to leave everything as though it were the day of your death; when in thought you join the angels and saints, like one who arrives ahead of time; and when, in the evening, you welcome your tomorrow morning that will unite us, you love Me.
“It’s all very different from what you thought you ought to do in order to love Me. Oh, My little girl, simplify yourself sweetly in My Presence, your love wide awake. You know very well that I am always there.”
September 16—“My little girl, nothing exists but your Christ. Then could anything keep your heart from Me? Could you yield it to a mere nothing? Don’t you feel that since I am all perfections I should attract you right to the very inmost depth of your being created for immortal beauty? Unwind yourself from your self. Fall in love with your God—this glorious Reality. And if you are in love with Him, you will think about Him more often. It is this remembrance of Me that I want in you, this desire to please Me, this fear that people offend Me, this joy in My kingdom. I want to reign over each one of you. Keep your heart yielded, not by force but by love that fuses two wills. Learn to meet Me the livelong day. And can you meet Me without greeting Me with love?
“When a lonely stranger travels through a distant country, he sometimes finds it painful not to see an affectionate recognition anywhere but to go on his way as one among the dead. I am this stranger when no remembrance of Me passes across your souls, when they are sealed and lifeless. But I call you by events, by some circumstance.
“‘That’s chance’ they say.
“Who will say, ‘That is He’?”
September 30—Coming back from a magnificent autumn walk, I was admiring the clouds in the form of gigantic animal heads. “Lord, they are as beautiful as if they were Your first Creation.”
“But each day is a first creation. Not one is like another. I never stop creating. And it is all for all of you. If I didn’t hold you up, you would cease to exist. Will you love Me enough to thank Me for it?
“This continuous creation of your body and your power of thinking comes from My everlasting love. So sing praises to Me. Sing with your body and your mind, as though you had begun this song at your birth and meant to continue it right to the moment of your death, only to take it up again for all eternity.
“You saw the expression of that father’s face as he listened to the song composed for him by his child. He was smiling at the little one, longing to put his arms around her. That was only a human father; he hadn’t given his child her soul. Your Father in heaven is the life of your soul. He is your soul. You are My breath. I give it to you with every second that passes. And My breath is My love. Breathe Me with great eagerness to this one end: that you may live only to love Me.
“Pray for those who receive My gifts without wanting to know Me, to love Me, and to serve Me. They too would cease to exist were I not holding them up. So I wait for them. Pray that they may seize every opportunity of returning to Me. I am always thirsty for them. Let them come to Me and like little children say, ‘Forgive. I won’t do it again.’ All will be forgotten. And immediately there will be great rejoicing in heaven. If they only knew . . . ! The feast of My heart will be even greater. Ah! The tenderness of a God!
“I am at the bottom of the stairs of your life and I’m listening. Will your feet approach or will they go away forever?”
October 4—“Today you will contemplate My beauty. Already this morning you saw that deep flush of color arrowing the eastern horizon, and as you passed under the trees you stopped to admire the long October spider webs festooned from branch to branch and spangled with drops of dew like rows of pearls in open necklaces. Then as the sun rose, the crickets that had been vocal all night long in your cherry tree suddenly ceased their singing; the Loire mirrored one hue after another in a rich medley of unearthly colors. And the herons passed over, streaking the violet sky.
“If you have eyes to see, every hour of the day holds its splendor. It comes from Me, from a fragment of Me. For you, of course—so that you may learn the lure of praise, the joy of adoration, the love of love. And I vary my spectacles every morning to rejuvenate your hearts.
“Have you anyone else so ingenious in his ways of pleasing you? You have someone to carve the clouds into the shapes you love, haven’t you? And an engineer to swell the tide so that the water reaches the wall of your terrace? What tradesman placed the birds in your trees and so many butterflies around your flowers? And this morning, was it a dealer in tulle who unfolded that chiffon scarf of mist right across your island, turning it into two storeys.
“Whose hand plucks the yellow leaves of your linden trees with such grace while your strawberry plants offer you their long rest for the fruit of future years.
“Open your eyes wide and look at love. It is He who is passing by.”
October 7—Holy Hour.
“After living through these glorious autumn days, these days with My grandeur and My power, would you like to live with My extreme kindness? You can come across it in each of your days, can’t you? Again this morning you met just the one you needed most at that moment. And when the mail arrived, didn’t you receive the letter necessary to encourage you to continue the good work you had begun? Once more this was I.
“And yesterday, at that social gathering when the conversation begun by you unexpectedly opened out into a topic of general interest to everyone—one that held them spellbound—you were aware of My help, weren’t you? Your words flowed so effortlessly.
“This joy too, that sometimes comes to you in little gusts, this refuge that you find up above the earth, as though you escaped from the life below, this rest, this blissful peace, this comfort that you draw both for yourself and others, doesn’t your faith tell you that it is I? . . .
“Tell Me that at last you believe in My immense love ever-present in you, that you are always sure of it. My grace would increase in proportion, even to the point of a miracle, for what is a miracle but a token of love’s simplicity? Believe that I love what you give Me, when you think of giving it to Me. Of course, it is I who put the gift into your hands. But it is you, a beggar maid, who has offered Me something. Thank you for having thought of Me.”
October 14—“Stay with Me even if you go out into the world. Stay with Me.” (I was going to a reception at a friend’s home.)
“Stay with Me all the way there, and when you are inside the house, abide with Me still in the depths of your heart, so that you will give Me the joy of knowing that you are more at home with Me than with them. If your hearts sometimes experience this pride of having a friendship for yourselves alone, an almost exclusive friendship, don’t you believe that I hope to be the one above all others for you at all times, I whose love is always greater?
“And for fear that you may get away from Me in these worldly distractions, I would gladly throw the fowler’s net over you to hold you captive, as in a spell, in the stillness of the Christ-consciousness.”
October 21—The priest who had directed me for part of my life had just died and I felt the touch of his blessing still.
“Believe that in Me My children remain united together. Members of one Body have only one heartbeat. There are spiritual heritages held out across the walls of the tomb, and everything comes through Me for the glory of the Father.
“It is because they all belong to the same family and the same home that this oneness between the living and the dead is so great. The home is My Father’s, and the same Blood—Mine—flows in all the children.
“Stay very close to your departed ones. They are close to all of you. Increase your trust. Venture out beyond the little earthly dimensions and take up your residence in the womb of God. There’s nothing in this world that can hold you back, so lose sight of the world more often. You’re traveling to eternity. Oh, My child, when you know! That’s when you’ll understand the hymns of praise sung by the all-joyous ones and their exultant cries of thanksgiving.
“Win the right to see Me. Let this secret longing be your constant thought. I say ‘secret’ because it is still feeble. Ask Me to make it grow in you, so that it may be light and warmth to those who come near you; and they too will understand that I am the End. The End of every beginning day.
“And when at last you close your eyes, hope that they open only to see Me, your very gentle, your most loving Savior.”
October 27—Holy Hour.
At the Angelus they sang, “He has lived among us.”
“I always make My home among you. You see My house—the tabernacle? I wait for all of you. In the world you have a day ‘at home’ when you receive guests. Every day is an ‘at home’ for Me. And nothing is lacking in My home; you know that, don’t you? Neither the banquet, nor the Spirit, nor the affection, nor the gifts of My graces, and you don’t have to wait to be received. I am the one who waits. I know some who have never come. I don’t mean who have never come to My feet to confess their sins; I mean that they have never even come to greet Me.
“Others come for certain ceremonies, but without the slightest thought that I am there waiting for them. They leave as they entered. Nothing in them has been stirred. My eyes follow them sadly . . . with My sadness of Gethsemane. . . .
“You who come every day to My house, speak to Me for them so that before they come for the last time carried in a coffin, they will give Me their living bodies, their faculties, their entire being. With what warmth I shall receive them and respond to their trust!
“I have another temple—your soul in a state of grace: a state of Me-in-you, since grace is your Christ. Who can ever know the joy it gives Me to be loved there, even if the love is feeble. Do you know what it is to feel at home in a soul? To be the one waited for, the most loved, the most understood, the head of the household even though I am so ready to fulfill the desires of this one who lives for Me alone.
“Beloved friend, ever joyous and ready to please Me, eager to listen to Me, eager to deepen the love that it finds so fleeting, poor, uncertain, and fragile; so fearful of falling into the same faults as yesterday . . . Let us close up all the portals of our home so that we shall no longer hear the howling of the wolves. Let us forget the earth and its little things, and in the innermost sanctuary, which is within your own heart, let us speak our language. Without words.”
November 4—“I knock at your door. You don’t believe that I need My children, do you? And yet My God-love needs your love. That’s how it is. Always.
“You remember My words, ‘I thirst’? I am always thirsty. If you knew this thirst, more intense than the thirst of men, you would devise every means in your power to quench it. That is why I knock at your door.
“Do you remember the heat of the Sahara? The desert burns less than I. Can you understand My thirst for your awareness of Me, for your desire to be pleasing to Me, for your gratitude for My pitiable sufferings, your compassion for all the disgrace, the filth, and the hatred I received during the night before My crucifixion and on the morning of My death? And for the blows and the torture of My body and mind. Do you sometimes think of it?
“Can you measure this love that made Me give Myself up when I could have escaped into the invisible? It was My love that went out to meet the torture.
“Don’t you believe that I paid for the right to have at least your friendship? You recall what the thief said: ‘Remember me when You come into Your kingdom’? And I say to you, ‘Remember Me during your life.’ Place Me as a lighthouse in the center of your mind, not just a lighthouse that illumines, but one that gives warmth.
“Where can you be where I am not? When you are hunting for Me, I am already there, and when you love Me, I love Myself in you.
“I am your source. Give everything back to Me in joy and simplicity. So few stop to think about this.
“Then tell Me now, do you want Me to knock at your door?”
November 11—Holy Hour.
“Practice being more attractive for love’s sake. You could do immense good with an affectionate look and a smile. If you keep yourself for yourself, you are your own slave. But if you go to meet people with delicate thoughtfulness, you bring peace and rest; you give the balm of Gilead. How a smile from you would have soothed X this morning if you hadn’t shut yourself up in your ivory tower. There is a demon called the spirit of contradiction; he fraternizes with the spirit of self-seeking.
“Remember that love is not puffed up with pride and that it will never pass away. What you do for yourself will perish miserably. What you do for others, for the love of Me, will go on re-echoing throughout all eternity.
“Have you tried to see Me in others? Have you understood that I live in that old crippled woman on the ‘sunken road’ and all others like her? Couldn’t you bring Me a little wood for this winter, and some clothing? Won’t you give Me something to eat? Suppose she is bitter and doesn’t thank you, what difference does it make? Since I am the one who receives, and I am rich.
“Don’t be shy when you give. Be daring in goodness.”
I was thinking that I should be ashamed to wheel a barrow with wood in it right to that place.
“Perhaps. But I shall not be ashamed of you at the last judgment. Don’t run away any more from what costs you something, and you will be among the happiest of people. Besides, I’ve done so much for you . . . You are free though. You will not even commit a fault by not going. I’ll just have the sadness of wanting something without getting it.”
“Lord, I’ll go.”
November 18—Holy Hour.
I was thanking Him for having given so sweet a perfume to a palm branch that I was bringing from the garden.
“You may be sure that it is for you that the Father Creator made all these things that charm you in nature. His goodness is exuberant in creating for His children. Who ever thinks of thanking Him? And yet if He has prepared such magnificence in nature for all His children, He has also done so for each one, just as if each one were His only child. Oh, this love for everyone and for one alone! God knows all the ways of loving and all are adorable. Thank Him for His way of loving you, for His special thought for you, for what He has put in your heart and not in the heart of another: for having chosen you; and for all the favors that you must recognize as coming from Him. Isn’t it a favor that He has watched over you from all eternity? Doesn’t it make you feel more than ever His child and happy to have such a Father?
“What could ever harm you? You are God’s child and Christ is your brother. Isn’t that a wellspring of joy? Escape from yourself. Forget all earthly cares. Return unceasingly into the eternal womb that bore you. Give yourself to the Spirit. He will quicken you. He will interpret you to the Father. You can’t understand this; so knowing that you know nothing, give yourself all the same, and the smaller you are the more the Spirit will exalt you. Go over your deficiencies. You would like to fly and you do not even know how to walk.
“Then hold out your arms and the Spirit will take hold of you.”
November 19—“And my faults and failings, Lord, so many of them!”
“Weep in your heart for them. People don’t cry enough over their faults. Some make a show of them. But My friends know what they cost Me, and they are sad for My immense sadness. They despise themselves, and from this their love is born, a love eager to make amends. After that all their poor little actions are meant to repair the wrong so that I may forget. As for Me, I use the ugliness of these tear-stained sins to make soul-splendors.
“Believe in the matchless beauty of a humble soul that shows Me its wounds and hopes in Me alone. I clothe it with My merits. How could I ever do otherwise?”
November 23—After Communion.
“You remember in the gospel it is written that only to touch the hem of My robe brought healing.
“And you feed upon Me; you possess Me utterly. What is not My power in you to heal you, change you, completely transform you in a single instant? Believe that. Do you really believe it?”
November 25—“Lord, I am here before You like the dry ground upon which the prophet called down the dew.”
“I am the prophet and I am the dew. My Word is meat and drink, have you noticed? It offers itself to you; you accept it and immediately it begins to grow. This is the dew that falls from heaven. What a banquet, My child! What new transports of delight!
“Set off again. You understand: no halting place. Run straight to God as you used to run along the road to meet your father. How happy he was, this earthly father. . . . Your Father in heaven is more so, for eagerness is also love—love, faith, and hope. Do you think that God would turn a deaf ear to the calls of His darling child? He will multiply His gifts, for His treasures are as great as His desire to bestow them.
“Poor little ones, you have such a false idea of your Savior. Do you think He would redeem you and then abandon you?
“Don’t set limits to your confidence. He sets no limits to His favors. Hunger for God and you will receive. If you don’t call Him, how can He come? Do you go to see people who don’t want you?”
“Never stop coming, Lord, I never stop wanting You.”
“And when you call Me, believe that I come.”
December 3—“Have you taken a long look at My goodness? Have you seen the details in your soul, in your possessions, even among those around you—because they are around you? It is the quality of goodness to diffuse light. And if it shines on any point, everything that touches that point lights up.
“Don’t compare the goodness of God with man’s goodness which is nothing but a rough sketch. But try to equal the boundless goodness of God. Have you fathomed My favors? You notice how delicate they are. Then imitate this.
“This morning someone came to ask you for information and you cheered him. Don’t you find that I often give the impression that you are all part of my family, part of the Holy Trinity? Then why not give others the impression that they are part of your family? Isn’t this a reality? Aren’t you all God’s children? But what a long way there is to go, My child, before this feeling of brotherhood reigns in the world. Be on the watch for opportunities of showing it. Do good below the surface—in hearts—and the good will be done to Me. Doesn’t that thought alone encourage you?”
“Lord, where will I find the means of intensifying my zeal?”
“In Me, your Lord and God. Ask, just as one does within one’s family. Let Me live where you live, every moment. Let nothing carry you away, and may nothing ever cause Me to be estranged from you. Keep Me in your center like the sun at the zenith, and your days will be divine.”
December 9—In my bedroom.
A cloud that had caught the sun’s rays lit up the entire room. “Beloved Lord, help me to reflect You.”
“Lay hold of God. What are you without Him but nothingness? Give Him all the room. Whether you think or speak or act, take care of Him only and He will take care of you.
“Your time on earth is so short, so evanescent; at least may it be all for Him. Didn’t I live for you—in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, during My public life, and at its distressing close. Place Me before each one of your actions. What is your goal? Is it I? What is the object of your love? Be sure that it is not you yourself, poor little finite one. And if you are filled with Me as a sponge submerged in living water, how could you fail to decrease in order to increase Me—to give Me to others. You will decrease by sacrificing your withdrawal into yourself, your silent solitude, your life of seclusion, your preferences for what is exclusive.
“I often say to you, ‘Get outside of yourself.’ Be outgoing for others. If you approach them without affection, you fall short of your purpose. But if you act in a heartwarming manner, you win them. And to win someone for Me . . . do you realize just what may come of this?
“Spare nothing. Don’t keep anything back. Look at Me, always drinking My cup of suffering to the very lees. And be joyous. Joy is the hallmark of love.
“Go, My child; walk with your head in God. And your heart? Are you in love with yourself or with Me?”
December 21—I was coming back from Paris and I thanked Him for a grace.
“Wasn’t this what you asked Me for every morning when you offered Me all your actions? I, too, know how to give pleasure. Learn every kind of thoughtfulness from Me.”
“Lord, my faults deserved punishment instead.”
“Imitate Me. When you correct others don’t humiliate them. Show them new tenderness; then they will humble themselves. In everything imitate your God. Ask Him to help you to understand Him better. Until your soul leaves your body you will not have seen God, but you will have come to know Him better than by sight, and from this knowledge will be born an immense yearning to possess Him. Oh, be possessed of this eagerness to possess Me! Let it be like a glory that you offer Me or like a play of the light of your love flashing back the fires of My own. People believe so little in My love. Do you always believe, My child? Some think it’s a weakness to do so. Blessed weakness! How it rejoices My burning heart! So don’t be afraid to believe too much. Don’t be afraid to love Me too much. Go still further, as though you had done nothing up till now, and I, who have loved you boundlessly, shall begin all over again like a new proof of infinite love. Oh, My child, learn to love love! Love to learn love.”
December 22—After Communion.
“You see, in the past there was the law of fear. Now it is the law of love. Doesn’t the beautiful Feast of Christmas make you feel this deeply? From now on, won’t everything in you be love—above all, your sorrow for your sins? Use your faults as a springboard to love Me better. And don’t think this is a small thing. Love is never small. Love is transfiguration . . . You carry it with you from morning till night like a beacon, and each of your thoughts and feelings and actions becomes light that mingles with the light of heaven. Aren’t you one with those who live in eternity? Aren’t you one family, the children of the Father? And isn’t there joy in union? Draw freely on the common treasury of merits while you are still on earth: you will not be alone then.
“Love is not selfish. Love never calculates. It hastens to help. In heaven there is nothing but love. And I bring it to the earth, whereas the Evil one sows hatred. There are two camps—choose. And if you choose love, don’t remain shy and on the outskirts, as it were. Enter into the arena with the strong ones.
“Look at the cycle of My life. What have you loved the most? My humble birth, My hidden life, the public revelation, or My shameful death? Wherever you look, can you see any other hallmark than love? Love for My Father, for My children, for you, My child. So be full of joy. Respond to the avalanche of My gifts.”
December 30—Holy Hour.
I was entirely occupied in taking in the Christmas rents.
“When you come close to Me in thought, see that you put away every little earthly worry so that you can be really all Mine. And if you often repeat this loving effort of your mind, you will gain the habit of living more with your Creator than with any created thing, more with the unseen than the seen. You will get to the point where you use the things of earth and relations with people only for the love of God’s kingdom and for His glory. That, My child, is pure love—never to think of oneself but of God and how best you can please Him. Oh, this loving gesture of a generous heart in a direct ascension!
“You know very well that everything that is of time is short-lived. So stretch out your arms to eternity. Long for eternity. This puts you on a higher plane, your heart forging ahead to this unknown, undreamed-of country. This is the way to get a close-up aim at the goal.
“As the hunter cautiously and silently approaches his prey, close in on your remembrance of God. Silence your memory of the earth and let your prayer fly straight upward. I, your Lord, tell you this. I shall not resist the arrows that you shoot with all the strength of your will. I shall fulfill your longings, for I alone know how to satisfy.
“To be completely at peace, ask yourself at this close of the year: ‘Have I hurt someone?’ This ‘someone’ is My image. So go to that one, and speak as a sister. If his face displeases you, look at Mine through his.”