(c) Mateo Ivankovic 2017
J.M.J.
February 13, 2017
Dear Family of Mary!
Dear children! You who are striving to offer every day of your life to my Son, you who are trying to live with Him, you who are praying and sacrificing – you are hope in this peaceless world. You are rays of the light of my Son, a living gospel, and you are my beloved apostles of love. My Son is with you. He is with those who think of Him – those who pray. But in the same way, He is patiently waiting for those who do not know Him. Therefore, you, apostles of my love, pray with the heart and with your works show the love of my Son. This is the only hope for you, and this is also the only way to eternal life. I, as a mother, I am here with you. Your prayers directed to me are the most beautiful roses of love for me. I cannot but be where I sense the scent of roses. There is hope. Thank you. (February 13, 2017)
“…you who are trying to live with Him,”
Our Lady wants us very much to try to live with Jesus. She wants Him to be everything for us, the One whom we seek with all our hearts. St. John of the Cross is the great lover of Christ who lived with Him every moment. He wrote beautifully about this relationship with Christ. Here is a short excerpt from “The Spiritual Canticle.”
It should be known that the Word, the Son of God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is hidden by his essence and his presence in the innermost being of the soul. Individuals who want to find him should leave all things through affection and will, enter within themselves in deepest recollection, and let all things be as though not. St. Augustine, addressing God in the Soliloquies, said: “I did not find you without, Lord, because I wrongly sought you without, who were within.” God, then, is hidden in the soul, and there the good contemplative must seek him with love, exclaiming: “Where have you hidden?”
Oh, then, soul, most beautiful among all creatures, so anxious to know the dwelling place of your Beloved so you may go in search of him and be united with him, now we are telling you that you yourself are his dwelling and his secret inner room and hiding place. There is reason for you to be elated and joyful in seeing that all your good and hope is so close as to be within you, or better, that you cannot be without him. Behold, exclaims the Bridegroom, the kingdom of God is within you [Lk. 17:21]. And his servant, the apostle St. Paul, declares: You are the temple of God [2 Cor. 6:16].
It brings special happiness to a person to understand that God is never absent, not even from a soul in mortal sin (and how much less from one in the state of grace).
What more do you want, O soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfaction, fullness, and kingdom – your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with him, for you have him so close to you. Desire him there, adore him there. Do not go in pursuit of him outside yourself. (The Spiritual Canticle. Stanza 1, 6-8)
Of course, knowing that Jesus is living in our hearts is just the beginning of a search for Him that will not end until Heaven. But we can live with Him there, through faith. We can trust Him within us, and speak to Him, and desire Him, and just spend each day with Him, through faith. He will not disappoint us. We just have to try, as Mother says!
May we try to live with Jesus today!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2017
