Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be His people and God Himself will always be with them (as their God) (Rev 21:2-3).

    As we continue our meditation on the Little Way of Expiation, the theme for this year in Opus Angelorum, we want to place before our eyes the final goal, which sheds light on all the suffering and struggles and efforts we encounter on this way: Vitam eternam! Eternal life! In the Catholic Catechism we read,

Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, “the holy city” of God, “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens Himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion. (CCC 1045)

This is the goal, this is the answer to all our “why’s” in the midst of this vale of tears, this is our driving force! All our choices have consequences; those that are aimed at eternal life have an eternal dimension and assuredly contribute to our eternal destiny. The Heart of Jesus has opened for us as the gate to eternal beatitude. He has taken upon Himself all our sins and guilt, our rejection of God, expiating for it on the Cross. Now His Heart, opened for our sake, is the new way to the Father. And the pierced Heart of Mary calls us to enter through Him. What joy awaits us, what love! But how many souls have lost the way, have passed by this door of their own accord? How can we help, how can we open their hearts and eyes to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary? And Our Lord answers, “Expiation—expiation—that is the hook that God casts out through His Angels in these days” (Mother Gabriele, The Little Way of Expiation).

The burden of expiation

    All of us have our “problem child”, the soul or souls for whom we beg God’s mercy and grace. In expiation, we concern ourselves not only with the burden of our own sin, but take upon ourselves also the sufferings which others have merited by their sins, in order to give them the relief and strength to return to God. This path, no doubt, will be burdensome to us. We feel the weight of the Cross, we feel as if forsaken by God, and are tempted to ask, “Why, Lord? Why must I suffer this?” But today, we want look to the heavenly Jerusalem, where all tears will be dried (cf. Rev 21:4) and where we will live together in eternal beatitude with our God: our Life, our Love, our All! And we will live there with those we love and who have been saved. Would it not be a shame that someone be missing, whom we might have helped to save, had we prayed more?

Our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us at the end of His great way of Expiation by taking up all unredeemed suffering, every ‘why’ of the earth, into His cry: MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME! …And since then all the sufferings of the earth can be redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, by the God-forsakenness of our Lord on the Cross. For, in the final analysis, is not every suffering, every ‘why’ raised against the Creator based on the experience (feeling) of  being forsaken by the blessing, by the grace, by the help of God, on the awareness of having been abandoned by God’s help? (Mother Gabriele, The Little Way of Expiation, p. 31)

Being in a state of grace, we are not actually forsaken by God. But just as Jesus allowed Himself to feel the abandonment by God in His great way of expiation, so too, He allows us to participate in His abandonment in our little way of expiation, for the sake of those for whom we offer ourselves, those who have lost the presence and peace of God through grave sin, that is, through the rejection of God and His law.

The battle of the End Times

    It is becoming ever more evident that we are in the Last Times, the era of the final battle of the spirits over the souls of men. The threat of world war on an unimaginable scale, the breakdown of law and order, the loss of moral standards and unbridled license of man in all areas are all signs pointing to the coming end. The battle for souls is becoming more intense, more urgent. How many souls were seen falling into hell in the vision of the Fatima children? And in our days, how much greater is the moral decay?

There is a creaking and cracking at all the structural joints of the world. Standards and orders and laws are shifting, falling, shattering—slowly or quickly; mankind must adapt itself to the standards of the End Time, to the standards of the spiritual battle that is being waged ever more manifestly on all sides with unparalleled force and intensity.

“Whoever is not with Me, is against Me!” Thus it is like a Menetekel before the eyes of all men. There can be no more hide-and-seek. Whoever does not grasp and reach out for the hand of God’s saving help and that of His Angels and Saints, shall grasp emptily in all directions and fall. (ibid.)

Just as the final battle of each individual soul is the most crucial and decisive—it is won either for heaven or for hell—so also is the final battle for all humanity the most imperative and decisive. After the vision of hell, Jacinta of Fatima could not get it out of her mind.

[She] often sat thoughtfully on the ground or on a rock, and exclaimed: “Oh, hell! Hell! How sorry I am for the souls who go to hell! And the people down there, burning alive, like wood in the fire!” Then, shuddering, she knelt down with her hands joined, and recited the prayer that Our Lady had taught us: “O my Jesus! Forgive us, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.”  (Sr. Lucia, Fatima in Lucia’s own Words, p. 125)

The Angels are sent to humanity as a wake-up call, calling us to expiation: your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, your spouses, even your priests are being lost! Each has been given free will as a talent, but also as a responsibility: we can either use it to love and serve God, or abuse it in self-deification. Mother Gabriele gives a moving image of the state of the world:

Upon this stretch of the way, the soul sees men moving along as if on a sieve. Whoever does not take care falls through the holes in the sieve into the devil’s lap. The soul wants to cry out for sheer anxiety, she wants to warn them, but she is mute. The Angel is mute. God is mute. Knowledge [of God and His will] hangs over humanity, it cannot be overlooked. The light of God hangs over humanity, it is bright. Free will rests as a gift from God in the breast of every man; each has eyes and ears, hands and feet; each can think and speak and freely decide for himself. And God speaks: “Do you see now how necessary it is that upon earth the one supports and holds the other, that no one abandons the other and leaves him alone, that the one lays himself down over the evil one’s points of attack, these holes, for the other, for the weaker one, for the one more blind; do you see how necessary it is that one catch these attacks with his own body, his own soul, in order to be the secure ground upon which the other can walk toward God?” (The Little Way)

The Lord pleads with us, He asks His faithful to thirst and battle with Him and His Angels for souls.

How long have I already been calling you to expiation? How often have I told you, do not deprive yourselves of the mighty help of your Angels? Behold how the devil is stretching out his nets (this sieve), so that the holes in between grow larger and larger? Soon you will no longer be able to cover them; you must have your Angels lie over them.” (ibid.)

The help of the Angels

    For those who want to make expiation, the help of the Angels is indispensable. Through the Angels we can contemplate God as through a telescope and recognize His transcendent majesty and greatness. At the same time, we will recognize our duty to know, love and serve Him, to adore and thank Him, to make expiation for our own sins and for the sins of others. The Angel can remind and spur us on to expiation, to offer up the difficulties of daily life out of love for God and for souls. Making the conscious intention to “give to God out of love”, our trials and sacrifices take on meaning and purpose, and our love for God will grow exponentially! St. Therese would say, “Merit does not consist in doing or giving much. It consists in loving much” (Letter 142, to Celine). Love is our weapon in the battle for souls. The Angel does all in his power to lead and save the soul in his charge. We can consciously join forces with the Guardian Angel of a dear one who has lost the way, of a priest in danger, and together with the Angel work more effectively. Mother Gabriele writes:

Were it not for the Angel, the last times would cause men to despair of God, of themselves, but especially of love. But no Guardian Angel ever lets the heart of man come completely to rest, but in the voice of conscience he directs man, again and again—as long as there is the least bit of good will,—to the knowledge of God, to the fundamental principles of “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not.” With what inferior clay the Angel must so often toil, with the oily, foul, sandy, revolting, stony, withered, self-deifying hearts of men! But he always has the love of God at hand, ready to forgive, to forget, to help and to give. (The Little Way)

    The Angel leads us by example on the way of expiation, and this is the way of love, the way of the imitation of Christ who gave Himself up for His own out of love. So too does the Angel love his charge selflessly. He does not draw back in disgust when we continue to wallow in the mire of our sins; rather, he does all in his power to lure and lead us back to the path to God. For the Angel saw his brothers in the Angelic world fall. Now he wants to do all in his power to save man from the same false step.

He stands here for the “non serviam” of those [Angels] who like him also came forth from God and are now no longer in the light of grace. He can no longer arrest their fall into the depths, but still, he does not want to indifferently accept as something that “simply happened”, this “non serviam,” which eternally hangs like a mark on the heavens of the world of spirits, as well as on the heavens of man’s world. Rather, he mobilizes all his angelic power for humility in the depths, for obedience in the depths, for adoration in the depths, for the Passio in the depths. And in fact, GOD gives each Angel this opportunity in his Guardian Angelship. Do you understand, O man, that Guardian Angelship is also a grace for the Angel?

Now the Angel is doubly dear to us. Now he draws even much closer to us. Now we can pour out our woes to him much better. He no longer circles about us, only at the command of God, like some other type of being that is more sunk in adoration than in sympathizing with our stumbling. How good You are, O God! The bond of love binds the Angel indissolubly to man, and consequently the Angel, the Angel of grace, the Guardian Angel, also shares in the imitation of Christ. (ibid.)

Growing in true love

    So, too, do we learn true love for God and neighbor when we walk this path of expiation with and in imitation of the Guardian Angel. Giving to God out of love, with burning zeal for souls, our daily life becomes a love song, a loving, hidden exchange between God and the soul in every moment, in our daily chores and in every sacrifice: “This is for You, Lord! Because I love You!”

True love always has a great depth and outwardly…one rarely sees anything. True love is a spectacle for the holy Angels; it is always a romance with God, ever new and ever different. You recognize it only and in particular in the things of daily life, even as one recognizes, for example, a true mother by the way she cuts the bread, by the way she prepares the meals and sets the table for her children, by the way she makes the sign of the Cross upon the forehead of her dear ones. The exchanges of God’s love are also most intense in the depths of daily life. Follow the ways of God, brother, sister, reflecting how God is beholding you from the Tabernacle when you pass by a church door on the street, how He draws you to Himself, yes, often tugs you to Himself, when, after a long separation on account of an illness, you have not been able to assist at Holy Mass for days… (ibid.)

Thus the little way of expiation is not a way of pain and drudgery. It is a way of love and joy, of loving dialogue and self-gift, of being a carefree child in the Heart of the Father and under the charge of the Angels.

Expiation as our own path to heaven through the Sacraments

    In expiation we not only help others on their path to God, but we also walk with sure steps toward our own salvation. “You only need to love, to love with faith, to love with hope, to love as an offering [of self to God] in the most simple fashion, without complicated prayers or devotions or works of penance” (ibid.). To love is not always easy, especially with difficult persons or situations in life. But Our Lord also provides us the strength, especially in the Holy Sacraments. “Cling to the Holy Sacraments, they are the heavenly ladder for you in the most beautiful sense of the word! Holy Baptism is the lowest rung; Extreme Unction, the uppermost. And the more simply you have accepted everything, the easier it will become for you now at the end of your way of expiation” (ibid.). Among the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation assist us on our little way of expiation.

    In the daily Sacrifice of the Holy Mass (if possible), we participate in the great way of expiation of Our Lord on the Cross. He gives us the strength to follow Him, to unite the sacrifice of our day and life to His Sacrifice of Redemption. In the Catechism we read,

In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of His Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with His total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ’s Sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with His offering….  In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the Cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ. (CCC 1368, 1370)

    Receiving frequently the Sacrament of Reconciliation for even venial sins not only reconciles our own souls to God, but also strengthens the whole Church, and those for whom we want to make expiation.

[For] sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion. The Sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members. Re-established or strengthened in the Communion of Saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland. (CCC 1469)

In every sacramental Confession, we place ourselves before the Judgment of God, with faith and confidence in His loving mercy and forgiveness. We are freed from our day-to-day faults, find peace and great consolation and strength for the daily struggle. Moreover, we “burn off” a little of our purgatory by loving contrition and by performing the penance received.

Whoever offers himself to God in expiation never comes free again! He is fixed to the hook of God and will be cast out ten or a hundred times to fetch home the errant souls, and each time he himself is brought home from the depths of his own guilt, and each time he is transformed by a portion of his invisible purgatory toward heaven. What a grace it is to be allowed to expiate! (Little Way)

The last stretch of our way

    The conscious practice of expiation, of offering everything: joys and sorrows, sacrifices and gifts to God out of love transforms us to such an extent, that the way of virtue becomes level and smooth for us.

Do you realize, brother, sister, that your little way of expiation runs like a golden thread, like a light-beam from earth to heaven? That which men find difficult, having to subordinate themselves, your love overcomes playfully. That which turns men cold: money, riches, has never oppressed you; giving has rendered you warm. That before which men tremble, the Judgment, you know already, for so many times you have already submitted yourself to the judgment of God and to the justice of God. You have already become a regular guest there, and know that love overcomes even the judgment, that true contrition always gains forgiveness and heavenly happiness. And the anxiety of men before death you cannot share. Death is for you the springing open of the door, at which you have already knocked so many times with your cross, with your tears, the tears of longing, with your ardent heart full of urgent love. (ibid.)

We want to ask our Angel to remind us constantly to make the offering, to consciously give everything to God out of love. From this we will be transformed and given the strength to overcome all the little trials of this world. We will learn to stand above things, free and detached.

    Further, once having reached the other shore of eternity, having walked the little way of expiation is our greatest hope for a merciful Judgment. For expiation is love and Christian perfection is love. It is love that opens the gates of heaven to us.

Judgment is justice, yes, most certainly! But the justice of GOD is always love of God! …If you have made the way of expiation, then from the very beginning you are sure to receive a merciful judgment, indeed, the most merciful judgment, for expiation out of love for God is holy mercy. It is a holy clothing of the nakedness of others, a holy offering of bread and wine, a holy ransom of captives. And ponder this on your knees, brother, sister, that the Lord will say: “You clothed Me in that individual, you consoled Me, you redeemed Me…” And then, most deeply moved, we shall say: “Lord, we are nothing and have done nothing to be worthy of You.” But God will say: “You have done everything, because you did everything out of love.”

Even in the other world, we will not let our prey go, those, namely, who are still walking the paths on earth. We will continue to long for and intercede for their salvation. Having entered the Heart of Jesus, we will burn with His love, thirst with His Thirst, until the Last Day and recapitulation of all things in Christ.

Plans of mercy

    Just as the Angel of Fatima encouraged the shepherd children on their way of expiation, so too his words speak of the “designs of mercy” for all who follow the little way: “Pray! Pray very much! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.” The call to expiation for the support of priests and the salvation of souls is a great grace, a grace which transforms us into instruments of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. And our reward will be to be eternally one with those burning Hearts!

Soul, who follow the way of expiation to the end in the depths of daily life, in the depths of the hidden life, in the depths of your own nothingness, you have now finished the course, have preserved the faith, and brought love like a sheaf before the countenance of the Living God.

What God gives you as a reward, that remains hidden from the eyes of all. Remain small, remain blind, remain the last one here. You will never have measured the land of love out to the end, nor exhausted the view into the Kingdom of God to the end, nor gone the way of Jesus Christ and His Mother and His Angels and Saints to the end.

    On the other side of eternity, we will only want to confess our poverty and littleness, and to praise and thank and adore God for His infinite mercy, for having led us on this path with all His Angels and Saints, and with our Blessed Mother!        (SMB)

Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church

Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church

    On the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ took the sins of the whole world, of all times and places, upon Himself. “By sending His own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity (cf. Phil 2:7) on account of sin, God ‘made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor 5:21)” (CCC 602). If we consider the great mounds of sin humanity has piled up in our own time, even in just the last two or three years, what then is the sum of the sins of all times and places? All this the Lord took upon Himself, making expiation for mankind on the Cross – out of love. Into the great darkness of sin and hate and selfishness, Our Lord Jesus brought the light of love, the light of purity and self-giving service. This is the Great Way of Expiation, which He alone has traveled, through the great love and mercy of God.

    Yet the Lord does not will to save the world by Himself, He asks for our loving cooperation. He asks us to share in His love for God and our fellow men. “The way we came to know love was that He laid down His life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16). Jesus wants to see His light and His love burning in our hearts, too, that we too may bring light and love into the darkness of the world around us. “O soul, how long will it take you, until you burn with love?” (Mother Gabriele, Little Way of Expiation). While Our Lord walked the Great Way of expiation on Golgotha, He calls us to follow Him on the little way, the little way of expiation in everyday life.

Looking to God

    Sometimes we forget the greatness of the Lord’s love for us in the Most Holy Eucharist, the greatness of His Self-emptying in order to remain with us day and night, at all times! Are we conscious of the suffering of Our Lord, of His thirst for us precisely in this Sacrament of Love?

Out of Divine love, He wills to exclude Himself from nothing, neither from feeling or living like us, nor even from the experience of dishonor, coldness and indifference. Thus, He lies veiled as the Sacrificial Lamb in the Tabernacle and on the paten. Thus, as One bound He delivers Himself over to our power over Him, not as a likeness, not as one transfigured over the bridge of eternity, not as a corpse, but as One who is living with all His senses. One day men shall realize with horror how much they let Our Lord in the Tabernacle divinely hunger for us, let Him divinely freeze in the face of our coldness of heart, while divinely interceding for us as on the Cross, “FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.” If we had a living faith in Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle, in this hungering, thirsting love, it would make our way to Him easier, the way of love and expiation. (Mother Gabriele, Little Way)

    Thus, if we want to follow the Lord on this way of love, we must first set our sights straight. God should be at the center of all our striving and seeking, God and His love, God and His thirst for souls. All our love, all our fidelity and sacrifice should have Him as its source and goal. But in order to fix our gaze on God, we must first detach it from ourselves.

Look away from yourself, whether you are esteemed; look away from your possessions, which make your vision narrow and small; look away from the bonds of the earth, as if there were nothing else but these! Rather, look up through your Angel to God, your Lord! This is where your path leads, this is your goal, this is where your gaze should remain fixed. Do not ask your ego what it wants, rather, ask God what He wants. Do you not hear His call, “I thirst for souls, help save souls!”? By saving souls for the Lord, you save yourself into the mercy of God.

Not “I” first, but God first! “What do You want from me, O Lord?” asks the soul that is ready to love, to obey, to be silent, to burn and to abandon everything out of love. And the Lord, crowned with thorns and yet wearing the thorns victoriously like a royal crown, will bend down and beckon to His Angels: “Go with her on the little way of expiation.” (ibid.)

Walking with the Angel

    It is the Angel who leads on this little way, enlightening our mind to see the meaning and the need for expiation, along with all the little opportunities for expiation, the little steps we can take to our own sanctification and for the good of souls.

We must will what God wills of us: to take little steps in love, because the world takes big steps and stumbles the while. We must take little steps because we are supposed to draw those along with us who do not want to take any more steps at all, because they have grown indifferent for having stumbled so often. We must take little steps in the folly of the Cross and in our own certitude that of ourselves we are utterly incapable of taking any big steps towards God. We must take little steps in the integrity of childhood before God. Moreover, we do not want to take anything but very little steps, lest we step out of the hand of God which holds us. (Little Way)

    The Angel strengthens our will to follow this path with fidelity, to say yes to all trials and situations, with joy! “Maintaining joy when no great obstacles arise is easy; but radiating joy in the midst of pain and weariness, in the face of pressing cares, is only possible with the ‘ECCE’, with the ‘SANCTUS’, with ardent love” (ibid.). The Angel protects us from the insinuations of the evil one who continually wants to discourage or deceive us: “Why should you step back in silence? Why should you be the one to help? Do you think this sacrifice will accomplish anything? This is simply too much!” Without the Angel, we would in no way be capable of walking this path. He says to us rather:

“Only little steps, sister soul! Know that expiation is love. Love proceeds most carefully! Rejoice, rejoice always! Love is grace, and being permitted to expiate is a great grace! Throughout the day offer holy joy to God as expiation. Promise to do everything with interior joy, which is reflected even outwardly. Expiate in love, rejoice over it!” (ibid.)

    Yet the Angel’s help does not come automatically. He strives to awaken our desire to offer up in expiation. “He waits for our least act of will, for the sake of which he may hasten immediately to our aid. He never imposes himself, although we would desire this so very much in order to be protected against ourselves” (ibid.). Let us ask our Angel every day, therefore, to accompany and lead us on this little way of expiation and love. Let us thank him also daily for all his solicitous care and help.

Holy Angel of God, you who by the will of God are my protector, give me your eyes, so that I learn to see and to discern God and all that is good; give me your ears, so that I learn to hear and to discern God and all that is good; give me your hands with the proper weapons against myself and against everything that is opposed to God. Amen. (ibid.)

The ECCE in daily life

    The little way is not a way of great deeds and visible victories, but a way of hidden love and of the little steps in everyday life. “The little steps are the steps of Mary in daily life, which she took before, at the side of and behind her Son. And this is the principal reason why we should walk in this way. Every step an ‘ECCE’, every step a ‘SANCTUS’!” (Little Way). By the light of the Angel, we must learn to recognize all the little opportunities we can offer to the Lord out of love, for all those who forget the Lord, forget to pray, forget their duty to adore and serve Him – especially for His priests and consecrated souls. Thus, with every sorrow, Ecce; with every inconvenience or difficult situation or relationship, Ecce. With our own weakness, weariness or incapacity, Ecce – and this with joy, without tiring, without becoming discouraged. In blind faith and blind hope, we must learn to trust God and His loving Providence which guides and directs every moment of our lives. Do we not “know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Although suffering can be bitter like myrrh, we know that God is using it for our own good and for the good of souls. But…

The soul is still whimpering. It hopes that the little jug of myrrh will soon be empty. Ah, but this is a little jug “ever-full.” The “ECCE” comes well enough and also the “SANCTUS,” but the joy is on the verge of drowning in this little jug. Does not all prayer and expiation appear to be in vain? Is there no Angel who can protect against the penetration on every side by the creeping poison of the infernal forces?

“Have no fear,” says the Angel with the crown of thorns, “and do not stop. When you stop, you fall back. Cling to the sober love of God. When it strikes, it heals. When it is bitter, it clarifies. When it denies you something, it leads you to the goal. The sober love of God is far-sighted and providing. It does not allow itself to be influenced, and forges straight ahead. It provides for the proper nourishment of the soul, and for the proper rest. It is full of measure and wisdom. It opens the hand of God at the proper time, and closes it again at the proper time, in giving and taking.” (Little Way)

    The call to expiation is a vocation and a grace! It is a call to draw nearer to Jesus in His work of the Redemption, to love more, to give more, and to bring along as many souls as we possibly can. On this path, we will grow most quickly in the spiritual life. But we must always remain humble and recognize we are but poor sinners. The Work of the Holy Angels is a work of sinners for sinners.

Soul, do not forget your “ECCE,” your “SANCTUS,” do not forget blind faith, blind hope, blind love, and unshakeable trust! Do not forget, soul, to love doubly, to be twice as faithful, to step forward with double courage when God calls on you to speak out for His honor and that of His own. Also, do not forget to be humble and to consider yourself truly worse than those who cause you tribulation. Do you not have to be trampled into the ground in order to become a supporting ground for those you love? Are you not truly worse, when you consider the many squandered graces and manifestations of God’s love which you failed to use? (ibid.)

Even the greatest of Saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi, considered themselves in truth the worst of sinners precisely for this reason. If others had received the same graces, they maintained, they would have made much better use of them. Thus, we must remain always humble and acknowledge, any good we do is a gift of God and His loving Providence. It is not our Work, but His, and the Work of His Angels.

The Fiat Mihi

 With our “Ecce”, we say “yes” to God and submit ourselves to His holy will. But as we grow in the spiritual life, the Lord expects more of us. He awaits our “fiat mihi”, “let it be done unto me according to your word”. He expects not only submission to His will, but also that we embrace His holy will for us, even in pain and suffering, and offer it to Him as a gift.

The thorn causes pain, it pierces the heart, so that other hearts might heal, once they are opened and broken before God. Behold, the crown of thorns about the heart is far less visible than the crown of thorns about the head, and still, it is far more painful. Accept it calmly, this crown, and tell yourself, “this is the bridal crown of hidden souls and of the least ones. You can easily hold it with two hands. How good God is that HE gives me only such a little measure. Now I have nothing more to do than to answer, “Fiat mihi” in order to be led wherever HE wills. (ibid.)

    The Lord sends us trials and difficulties as an opportunity to love, to prove our love for Him, to imitate His Divine love which sent His Only-Begotten to die on the Cross for us. “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another” (1Jn 4:10-11).

The little way of expiation continues in the midst of cooking and eating and washing and ironing, and all the little things of daily life, from day to day and from night to night, and it gets more and more difficult and, perhaps for this reason , slower. A relaxed look at things, time for a relaxed prayer and a deep breather for the soul have not been possible now for a long time already. But in their stead comes an ever more intensive inclusion of all, even the least things, into the adoration of God. The desk lamp’s light must help in giving praise, the humming flies, and the sore, aching tooth; the care for those afar… (Little Way)

    In these inconveniences, we must learn not to look at self in self-pity or grumbling, but to give it to the Lord as a gift. The greater the sacrifice of our own will, the more it becomes a gift of our very selves. For the will is our greatest possession, what we identify with our “self”. When we renounce our own will and offer it to God out of love for Him and His holy will, in blind faith and blind trust, we give our very selves to Him in a “nuptial gift” of our whole being.

In the case of a great pain dwelling within, it is natural to look at oneself, yes, to veritably meditate oneself. But this must be quickly changed along the little way of expiation. Pain comes from the Lord, and returns with our good will and all our love to the Lord. Pain is only the servant inviting us to the wedding feast. There, where the servant wants to lead us, is where we must look, to God, to the end of pain with Him to the sanctification of pain through Him, to the union of His Cross with our cross, which means love. Our “fiat mihi” ought to be even much more love than our “ECCE,” because it is a greater renunciation of the will than the latter, because it is already an immersion into the Divine will. It is not a weakening, but rather a conscious wedding gift. (ibid.)

    Usually the Lord sends us not one great trial, but many little trials every day. If we accept and offer these sacrifices over a lifetime, they become one great hymn of praise to the Lord, one great gift of self. We go with our little shovel and, scoop for scoop, remove the mounds of sin and guilt piled up by the world. We take very little steps, but sure steps in the right direction of love, fidelity and obedience to the will of God for us. And by these little steps, we will reach the goal. By God’s grace, the world will be transformed and conquered by an army of these little souls at the hand of the Angel. Therefore, we want to be vigilant, listening for and obeying the lead of the Angel, not letting any opportunity pass us by. “Lord, let us praise You in all the little things of daily life! Let us thank You through all the little things of daily life! Let us love You in all the little things of daily life!” (ibid.).

Imitating the Guardian Angel

    On this little way of expiation, we will learn to understand our own Guardian Angel and his difficult task more and more. When we bear the burden, the guilt of others, bearing the Cross which they have cast aside, we ourselves will become “Guardian Angels” for those entrusted to us. Fasting for a wayward son or spouse, offering up silent sacrifices for a priest in danger, being helpful to all those around us, so that a depressed or suicidal grandchild may receive the grace of healing… In all these ways, we become a Guardian Angel for the other, hiddenly supporting and carrying their Cross of guilt in prayer and loving expiation.

Kneel down by the Cross, soul, before your Lord and God, and pray for the grace to be allowed to expiate. Whoever raises the expiatory burden to his shoulder like a Cross assumes the function of a human Guardian Angel. He will learn to see and hear and feel what a Guardian Angel has to silently go through with his charge, without being allowed to call out, shake the person up or strike a blow. He will learn to recognize much more clearly the exigencies of God towards himself. He will be allowed to love and serve silently, and like his Guardian Angel, he will never again withdraw his face from the face of God. Henceforth, the assumption of expiation should never again be a “You should not come without your brother,” but should already be the answer, “Lord, I do not want to come before Your Face without my brother.” (ibid.)

    Meditating in this Lenten Season on our Lord on the Cross and on Mary suffering and interceding beneath the Cross, we will also come to understand ever better the hidden, silent suffering of our Guardian Angel. These are our models, Mary and the holy Angel, who pray and sacrifice and expiate in silence and hiddenness, looking not to themselves, but to the Lord on the Cross.

During this night the soul was granted the understanding of the great grace as well as the great burden of spiritual Guardian Angelship. Only now is the soul learning to grasp what a Guardian Angel does. It is like a reflection of the Passion, but as experienced by Mary. Mary also saw and looks on how the Lord is trodden into the dirt, is scorned and crucified by us—yet she is silent, and expiates and loves. And notwithstanding, she accompanies us as our intercessor, as the faithful one. Similarly, the Angel is a faithful intercessor and helper. He is silent, loving and waiting. Likewise our expiatory task should be carried out in silence, helpfulness, charity and fidelity in which we never abandon our charge. (ibid.)

    The more faithful and preserving we are in this little way of expiation, the more we will experience the Cross as our Guardian Angel experiences it. We will feel our weakness and helplessness, and will be tempted to think, all our sacrifice and effort is not changing anything. But God and the Holy Angels see things differently.

Each day, soul, you should begin anew this little way of expiation with new eyes. Behold, here on earth this way appears very small, but there on the other side of the bridge, it is great in the eyes of the Angels. And yet, O soul, you are so little, so little in comparison with the Angels! When your steps through your daily duties and troubles seem little to you, how little then must they be for the Angel who accompanies you? Still, he keeps pace with you, although he is accustomed to other standards than you. The same thing happens to him as to you: You apply yourself in a spirit full of love for your charge and he does not care in the least about you—this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. Indeed, if your charge saw you, he would say very mockingly: “Thank you, I can take care of myself well enough alone.” Yes, this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. And you can only silently sign your charge with the love of God, with the waking call of God, with the light of God, and all the while, it is as though all your efforts were too weak—behold, this is exactly what happens to the Guardian Angel. You lift your face and hands up to God: the Guardian Angel does the same. You let the entire force of patience, long-suffering and Divine mercy flow through you to your charge, you draw it down for him, just as the Guardian Angel does. (ibid.)

But in our incapacity and weakness, we are strong, if we surrender this very weakness to Him. For here God Himself can step in and accomplish what we cannot. His Blood in us becomes the expiation for our charges. He will save where we cannot. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:22-24).

Lord, I want to offer You this weakness of soul and body as my sacrifice, more than this, I have not. And I want to implore You for all those who are much better than I, that they might come even closer to You. I want to implore You for all those for whom I ought to stand in and who, indeed, are standing in for me to lift me up and get me going again. And the little way of expiation should be like this: that for my weakness and for my failings I offer You Your own Blood, which You shed for me; and Your wounds, which You are always offering me as a place of refuge, so that through the hands of the heavenly Mother, I may let Your own Heart render expiation for all that I ought to do and cannot, for all that I ought not to do, yet did. And in this wee daily life, may every second, every breath, every hand motion of this least of men be in advance an irrevocable praise for You, my God! (Little Way)

    Jesus has already walked the Great Way of Expiation for us. He has won for us the grace and invites us now to walk with Him on the Little Way of Expiation. He, in and through us, will make the expiation. We need only to remain little and faithful, to share His thirst for souls, and to set out on this way with Mary and the holy Angels, with courage, trust and great love! Jesus Himself will win for us the victory – even if we only come to realize it in eternity – and then there will be: Easter joy!       (smb)

Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church

“While quiet stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your Almighty Word leaped down from heaven’s royal throne, as a fierce Conqueror into the midst of the doomed land.” (Wisdom 18:14-16)

    As we kneel before the warm and almost nostalgic nativity scene at Christmas, it is easy to forget the heights from which this holy Child has plunged in order to raise up a fallen humanity from the sin, poverty, fear, darkness and misery which held it captive. From “heaven’s royal throne”, the Eternal Word, being one in nature with God in the fullness of light and power, “emptied Himself, taking on the form of a slave” (cf. Phil 2:7-8). The Logos came into the darkness and narrowness of human existence, even into all the helplessness and vulnerability of a Child, shivering in a manger. He came to bear our burden, to expiate our sins by taking the punishment upon Himself on the Cross. And He descends even lower every day on our altars into the impotence and defenselessness of the Most Holy Bread, in order to feed and sustain us on our journey! What does this mean?! Are we still amazed by this wonderful love and condescension of God?

    All humanity is poor. God comes to save us, the poor ones, you and me. Moved by compassion, God chose to become poor Himself—bitter poor—in solidarity with His creatures in order to expiate our sin, “for God so loved the world…” (Jn 3:16). In his first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te [I have loved you], Pope Leo XIV writes of this incomprehensible love:

God is merciful Love, and His plan of love, which unfolds and is fulfilled in history, is above all His descent and coming among us to free us from slavery, fear, sin and the power of death. Addressing their human condition with a merciful gaze and a Heart full of love, He turned to His creatures and thus took care of their poverty. Precisely in order to share the limitations and fragility of our human nature, He Himself became poor and was born in the flesh like us. We came to know Him in the littleness of a Child laid in a manger and in the extreme humiliation of the Cross, where He shared our radical poverty, which is death. (Dilexi te 16)

God does not simply forgive our sin and forget; no, He wanted to manifest to mankind His merciful, selfless love by sending His Son, who “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).

    There has always been, so to say, a “soft spot” in the Heart of God for the poor and He wants us, too, to share in His “preferential option” for the poor, for those even worse off than ourselves.

…This “preference” never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups, which would be impossible for God. It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in His Heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and He asks us, His Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest. (Dilexi te, 16)

Thus Pope Leo reminds us of our calling and responsibility as members of Christ, as His Body, to love and care for the poor and the oppressed, and those enslaved by sin.

Poverty in the service of Redemption

    The mission of Jesus is continued by His Church and all her members. The more closely we are united with Jesus, the more we will share in His voluntary poverty in the service of the Redemption. “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who…emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave…” (Phil 2:5-7). In the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus applies the prophet’s words to Himself saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18; cf. Is 61:1). Pope Leo comments,

He thus reveals Himself as the One who, in the here and now of history, comes to bring about God’s loving closeness, which is above all a work of liberation for those who are prisoners of evil, and for the weak and the poor. …He opens the eyes of the blind, heals lepers, raises the dead and proclaims the good news to the poor: God is near, God loves you (cf. Lk 7:22). …And the Church, if she wants to be Christ’s Church, must be a Church of the Beatitudes, one that makes room for the little ones and walks poor with the poor, a place where the poor have a privileged place. (Dilexi te 20-21)

“You did it to Me…”

    It is true, that the spiritual liberation and salvation of souls is the first and primary mission of Christ and His Church. But this is no excuse to forget or ignore the plight of the poor, the sick, the lonely and the suffering in the world around us.

…In hearing the cry of the poor, we are asked to enter into the Heart of God, who is always concerned for the needs of His children, especially those in greatest need. …On the wounded faces of the poor, we see the suffering of the innocent and, therefore, the suffering of Christ Himself. (Dilexi te 8-9)

And though the first and greatest commandment is love for God, nevertheless, this love cannot be separated from love and service toward our neighbor.

Love for our neighbor is tangible proof of the authenticity of our love for God, as the Apostle John attests: “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us” (1 Jn 4:12). …The two loves are distinct yet inseparable…. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40). (Dilexi te 26)

    This love of neighbor is to be both concrete and effective. St. James writes of living faith working through charity saying, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:14-17). And in the words of St. John, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” (1 Jn 3:17). Thus, through serving those who are in need and not expecting a return, we prove the genuineness of our faith in and love for God and are gradually freed from our own selfishness and hardness of heart. God teaches, purifies and transforms us—we learn and grow—through our service of the poor, “so that we may all become an image of Christ and His mercy towards the weakest” (Dilexi te 27).

Reading the Gospel aright

    Though each of us rightly lives according to our state in life and calling, nevertheless, we are not to live like the people “of this world”, hoarding up goods to satisfy our own greed, pleasure-seeking or desire for well-being, comfort and social status, dismissing all concern for the poor with the thought, “They should help themselves!”

…In a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people. This means that a culture still persists—sometimes well disguised—that discards others without even realizing it and tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings. (Dilexi te 11)

We as followers of Christ, however, are to have a heart of compassion—the Heart of God Himself—for the poor, the suffering, the weak and the oppressed. Pope Leo exhorts,

The fact that some dismiss or ridicule charitable works, as if they were an obsession on the part of a few and not the burning heart of the Church’s mission, convinces me of the need to go back and re-read the Gospel, lest we risk replacing it with the wisdom of this world. The poor cannot be neglected if we are to remain within the great current of the Church’s life that has its source in the Gospel and bears fruit in every time and place. (Dilexi te 15)

    It is true that much of the conditions of poorer communities and lands are beyond our power to change, stemming from unjust political and economic systems, waste, war, corruption and basic fallen human nature. And it is certainly more helpful to give a poor person a job than simply a handout. But on a day to day basis, making great changes in the world situation is mostly beyond our means. Almsgiving, however, is always possible—helping this person here and now, who is sitting on the street and begging for an alms, is within my reach. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can love only one person at a time. I can feed only one person at a time. Just one, one, one.” And as Pope Leo XIV so beautifully explains,

Almsgiving at least offers us a chance to halt before the poor, to look into their eyes, to touch them and to share something of ourselves with them. In any event, almsgiving, however modest, brings a touch of pietas into a society otherwise marked by the frenetic pursuit of personal gain. …Remaining in the realm of ideas and theories [of solving world poverty], while failing to give them expression through frequent and practical acts of charity, will eventually cause even our most cherished hopes and aspirations to weaken and fade away. For this very reason, we Christians must not abandon almsgiving. It can be done in different ways, and surely more effectively, but it must continue to be done. It is always better at least to do something rather than nothing. Whatever form it may take, almsgiving will touch and soften our hardened hearts. It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility. (Dilexi te 116, 119)

In his Exhortation, Pope Leo goes on to cite examples of the Saints and Christian communities of every age, beginning with the first Christians. We encourage you to download Dilexi te from the Vatican website and let yourself be inspired by these examples, especially in this season of Advent.

On the path to Bethlehem

    Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives and loves and acts in and through His faithful by His divine Love. Yet His faithful ones will also share in His poverty, His self-emptying, as a manifestation of the totally selfless, self-giving Love of God that is to animate their lives. We think first of our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, who conveyed Jesus to His birth and surrendered their whole lives to His Person and mission. Mother Gabriele describes the poverty they accepted and offered with love during this journey, in a Way of the Cross for Christmas Eve. Here we cite just a few stations.

    “Mary comes to a marketplace. People are haggling and bargaining. It is crowded. St. Joseph has trouble clearing a narrow path for Mary along the houses. Here and there he catches a curious glance; this afflicts him, for a woman should no longer show herself before giving birth. Mary pulls her veil down lower. She does what God wills, no matter how difficult it may be for her. Look at Mary, O man of this earth, when on your Way of the Cross God demands of you self-denial (self-emptying) to the very end. God alone knows why it must be so. …

    “The Soul of JESUS looks through His Mother, far beyond the city. He senses the opposition that comes…from the consequences of sin: the wealth of the property owners, who are closed in hard-heartedness to all need—and the poverty of the beggars along the roadside, who have no home, no shelter, no secure future through possessions. But behold: the poor man shares his bread with someone even poorer. So he still has love, a readiness to help, compassion, and mercy; and with that he resolves before God the opposition that comes from sin; for on account of his charity, God places him among those who are truly rich before God. This is where your path leads, Mother Mary, to the poor, the lowly, because they are still receptive and open for God. This is also where your Way of the Cross leads, brother, sister—in the direction of love and mercy….

    “Shepherds point to an empty stable, used only by passing herds. A few animals graze outside; in the stable there is straw and some hay. O most bitter poverty! No mother, no soft bed, no helping woman’s hand awaits Mary here. God has made her truly destitute. Like the poorest beggar on the roadside, she must seek shelter for her hour here. This station is that of the deepest impoverishment; it is also the holy touchstone of fidelity. Stripped of all earthly possessions, abandoned by men, St. Joseph lays the tired Mother on the hard-packed earth, on which he spreads the few blankets they had brought with them. Silently and patiently, both surrender themselves to the Most Holy Will of God.” (Mother Gabriele Bitterlich, Mary’s Way of the Cross on the Vigil of Christmas).

    Though later the conditions improve for the Holy Family (the Magi entered the house and no longer the stable—cf. Mt 2:11), nevertheless, God requires of His closest friends again and again that they be ever ready to abandon all, that they rely only on Him rather than worldly support and security, that they surrender to His holy Will in every situation with great trust and fidelity, realizing that our true and eternal happiness lies only in Him. This is at the same time a trial of faith and expiation for the so many who are turned only to this world. And the Holy Family goes before us on this way as an example of the ultimate obedience and fidelity, of extreme detachment from the goods and values of this world—out of love for God and souls. Pope Leo expounds:

The Gospel shows us that poverty marked every aspect of Jesus’ life. …Jesus was born in humble surroundings and laid in a manger; then, to save Him from being killed, they fled to Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-15). At the dawn of His public ministry, after announcing in the synagogue of Nazareth that the year of grace which would bring joy to the poor was fulfilled in Him, He was driven out of town (cf. Lk 4:14-30). He died as an outcast, led out of Jerusalem to be crucified (cf. Mk 15:22). …He experienced the same exclusion that is the lot of the poor, the outcast of society. …He presented Himself to the world not only as a poor Messiah, but also as the Messiah of and for the poor. (Dilexi te 19)

Though He might not ask such radical poverty of us, nevertheless, every follower of Christ must be ready to choose God over the goods of this world when the situation demands it of him.

Jesus says of Himself: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58). He is, in fact, an itinerant teacher, whose poverty and precariousness are signs of His bond with the Father. They are also conditions for those who wish to follow Him on the path of discipleship. In this way, the renunciation of goods, riches and worldly securities becomes a visible sign of entrusting oneself to God and His Providence. (ibid. 20)

This poverty and entrusting of self to God is a sign in that we point to “a better homeland, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:16). For while they can be good and useful, the goods of this world are only relative and can never satisfy, as St. Augustine writes, “My heart is restless until it rest in You!” and St. Teresa of Avila, “God alone suffices.” It is this truth which also inspired the rich young Francis of Assisi to embrace radical poverty with joy and burning love for God in service of the Church, of sinners and of the poor, while the rich young man of the Gospel “went away sad” (Lk 18:23). Which rich young man am I?

Poverty of the Guardian Angel?

    There are others at our side, whom we do not see nor ever imagine as “poor”, yet who are intimately involved in the Redemptive mission of Christ, and thus share deeply in His messianic poverty: the holy Angels—in particular, our own good Guardian Angel! Mother Gabriele explains this “poverty” of the Guardian Angel and his sharing in the Passion of Christ in a Way of the Cross of the Guardian Angel:

The first station begins for the blessed Angel above, before the throne of GOD, when he is called to the office of Guardian Angel. This service is for him a special call and election, because it is a participation in the work of Redemption. He gives thanks with joy, even though he recognizes the depth and darkness, indeed, the horror and narrowness into which he must descend on earth. But did not God’s Son, His Lord, also leave the throne above all the heavens and enter into the same depths and darkness, indeed, into an even greater narrowness, into the womb of a human being, and take on the restricted mortal nature of a human being with all its needs?

In the second station, the Angel descends in obedience into the depths. The light-flooded glory of heaven remains behind and on earth he is received by dark faith, dark hope, dark love; these are now his walking stick and support. He does not know the future of his protégé, he does not know how he will decide, he does not know whether he will be able to save him and bring him Home.

In the eighth station, the Angel sees [in his particular case] how other Guardian Angels take joy in their protégés and can guide them easily. But he must recognize ever more clearly with anxious concern that his protégé is resisting the Church and God, that he prefers to chase after the delusive light of unbridled freedom and craving for life, that he is falling deeper and deeper into darkness because of the many delusive lights.

In the ninth station, his protégé slips away from him [namely, into self-will or even serious sin]. And yet the Angel is bound to him and now enters upon the active imitation of Christ. What man must suffer physically and in his soul in all kinds of crosses, and what the Guardian Angel must endure spiritually in this imitation of Christ in renunciation and shame, Our Lord has taken all this into His PASSION – and unto the end of time. Here, from this ninth station onwards, the Lord and His faithful ones, Angels and humans alike, whom He calls upon to work for the salvation of the world, each at his place and in his task, are one. And at no other point can the Angel come so close to the God-man Jesus Christ in His redemptive work on earth as in this final phase of the struggle for the immortal soul of man, for the salvation of the whole man for eternity….

We see, then, that even the Angel accepts his powerlessness by God’s will and becomes poor in order to work with Christ for the salvation of souls. He becomes poor to help the poor: his protégé living in the darkness of this world. Like our Angel, we too want to be poor, at least in spirit, to empty ourselves and give ourselves in service of souls—by loving expiation—and of the poor, by generous material giving. “I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry” (Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te 7).

Getting concrete

    There are many forms of poverty and many ways of serving the poor; much depends upon our means and state of life. While in the Work of the Holy Angels we serve the poor sinners through our consecration of expiation, for example, for an overburdened Bishop, a straying priest or religious—which is a consecration of love and sacrifice, like the self-giving poverty of the Guardian Angel—as Christians we should also be practicing service of the material poor. Our Guardian Angel will show the way, if we are open and vigilant.

    Concrete suggestions? How about visiting a nursing home and spending time, praying or just chatting with someone who has no family—and don’t forget the flowers! Bringing an extra sandwich along and a miraculous medal when we visit a big city, where we inevitably encounter a beggar—and ask his name! Making meals for a family welcoming a new child or grieving the loss of someone—with dessert! Praying and/or counseling before an abortion mill, or volunteering at a pregnancy aid center. Teaching catechism at our parish or joining a soup kitchen team. Visiting the sick or an orphanage, or praying with the dying. Joining the Legion of Mary, the Knights of Columbus or the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Prison ministry. Being near to someone struggling or feeling unloved in our own homes, for charity begins at home! None of the above? Everyone can pray and make sacrifices: for victims of natural catastrophes or the persecuted Christians. We want to be creative and walk with open eyes and ears!

    We should be humbly aware, however, that both the spiritually and materially poor give to us perhaps even more than we give to them—especially through the slow transformation of our hearts into hearts of flesh. And possibly more important than the material help is that we also become a sign for the poor, a spiritual experience for them of God’s nearness and love.

By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic: it works miracles and knows no limits. It makes what was apparently impossible happen. …Through your work, your efforts to change unjust social structures or your simple, heartfelt gesture of closeness and support, the poor will come to realize that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to each of them: “I have loved you” [“Dilexi te”] (Rev 3:9). (Dilexi te 120-121)

Before the manger we want to remember that we ourselves are the poor ones, whom God has come to save, to free, to enrich with His love and grace! And we want to renew our commitment to follow Him, to love and serve Him, especially in the most vulnerable and suffering, the poor through material help, and the poor sinners through expiation. “How much we have to thank before the manger, and to promise! Let us take it seriously, our life, our mission, our promise!” (Mother Gabriele, Children’s letters, Dec 18, 1963)               smb

Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church

On September 7^th, Pope Leo XIV canonized two young Italian laymen, both co-patrons of youth, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati who died in 1925 at the age of 24, and St. Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 at the age of only 15 years old. St. Pier Giorgio was from a noble and well-known family; his father was a senator, ambassador and founder of the newspaper, La Stampa, which still exists today. Pier Giorgio, however, had other interests. He was involved in Catholic Action and the St. Vincent’s de Paul Society, serving the poor and advocating especially for the rights of miners. He encouraged his friends and classmates to live the faith and openly witness to it without fear, at a time when fascism under Mussolini was becoming popular and violent in Italy. He passionately loved horseback riding, rock climbing, skiing and mountaineering, but always in a spirit of faith and charity, cheerfully bearing the heaviest burdens of the trip and inviting his companions to prayer. Further, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a daily communicant, prayed the Rosary without fail even late into the night, made frequent and prolonged Eucharistic adoration and spent his free time and monetary resources helping in the poor quarter of the city, unbeknownst to his family. It was there that he probably contracted polio, from which he died a painful and lonely death.

Among his many friends was even the Cardinal Archbishop, who had learned to esteem his faith and courage, and wanted to come to anoint him, but his family prevented it for fear of contagion. At his funeral, 10,000 people from far and wide filled the streets to venerate his remains and pay their respects, so broadly had the fame of his charity spread. Only then did his family learn of his charitable works. His last note was to the pharmacy, asking them to fulfill a subscription for a poor invalid, which he had forgotten, and to put it to his account. Pope St. John Paul II called him a “man of the Beatitudes” because he lived not the values of this world, but the contradiction of the Cross, where the poor and the persecuted gain the Kingdom, those who mourn are comforted, and the meek inherit the earth (cf. Mt 5:3-12).

St. Carlo Acutis was also from a wealthy, non-practicing family, and found his way to the faith and a great love for God through Catholic schools and his grandparents. At the age of four, he had his first deep encounter with the Eucharist and, as he himself said, his Guardian Angel inspired him with a great desire to receive First Holy Communion, which he did at the age of 7 (early, by Italian standards). He was always open and ready to share his faith in a non-judgmental way, converting or “reverting” a significant number, including his parents and housekeeper. He was generous with the poor and homeless, living in simplicity and a spirit of poverty, so as to be able to give more, even to the point of giving away the shoes from his feet. He was known for his gentleness and considerate solicitude for his friends and schoolmates, and also for gently correcting those who were walking a dangerous path. He had a great love for Jesus in the most Holy Eucharist and for Eucharistic Adoration, which he called “his highway to heaven!” This love inspired him to design a website and placard-exhibition on Eucharistic Miracles from all over the world, completed already at the age of 14. At that time, he contracted Leukemia, from which he died in the hospital shortly thereafter, having prophesied his death beforehand to his mother. He said, “I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God.”

The desire for holiness

How is it that these young men reached such great sanctity at such an early age? Undoubtedly, in the plan and Providence of God, they had a special call and grace, and also a mission for our times. Yet God does not work alone. These young men cooperated with the call and grace of God with determination and constancy, and above all, with love. God also has a plan for each of us, a beautiful, merciful and wonderful plan. Do we want to fulfill it, or do we have our own plans, our own priorities? (A good career, a nice house, a comfortable life?) At Baptism we received the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity along with the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We received an initial holiness as the seed for our growth in supernatural love. But while God initially sanctified us without our cooperation, He wills that we collaborate (work, together with Him!) toward our perfection in charity and in His work of Redemption, saving as many souls as we can! (cf. St. Augustine in CCC 1847).

This pertains to our dignity as persons, free and intelligent beings, who are capable of choosing and loving whom we will. Thus, God wants us to freely choose to serve and love Him, to seek Him and His glory – for His sake! On the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (Jn 21:15). This is His question to each of us, Do you love Me? Do you choose Me over all created things, over yourself, your ego, your reputation, your desires? As St. John warns us, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols!” (1 Jn 5:21), from letting anything take the place of God in our lives. Similarly, we read in the Catechism,

The Beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement – however beneficial it may be – such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love. (CCC 1723)

Jesus taught us to pray the Our Father as a lesson on what we are to ask of God as well as on the order of the goods we are to ask (cf. St. Thomas, Sum.Th. II-II, 83, 9). The first petition is, “…hallowed be Thy Name”, that is, may You be glorified Lord, in all that I am and do! Beyond doubt, we will certainly only gain from seeking first God and His glory (cf. Lk 12:31) – great peace, happiness, joy, love – for there is no greater joy than to love and be loved by God. But true and perfect love for God seeks first and foremost to give Him glory, to please Him, not one’s own advantage. God has loved us with this selfless love first; we need only to look upon Christ Crucified (cf. 1 Jn 4:9-10)! Do we not want to love God in this way in return, that is, for His sake? Do we not want to correspond to all the love He has showered upon us from our birth? Do we not want to fulfill His plan for our lives, to renounce our own plan if it is not according to His will – out of love for Him? All this lies behind the question, do we want to become holy?

God calls and desires each of us to reach holiness, to become Saints, and He gives us all the graces needed to do so. “By the working of grace, the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in His work in the Church and in the world” (CCC 1742). By faith we are united with Christ, and He calls us to follow Him. He walks with us and gives us the light and strength through His Spirit.

He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and of doing good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness… (CCC 1709)

Mother Gabriele Bitterlich, a spiritual master who received the charism of Opus Angelorum, has many teachings on the spiritual life and the path to holiness, her little way of love. Pondering a few of her simple counsels for a soul whom she guided, we want to let ourselves be inspired, guided and inflamed in our zeal for God and our determination to strive for holiness.

Joy in God and thanksgiving!

When we awake in the morning, we want to begin our day with joy in God! “May the first praise of the day be dedicated to You, O Most Holy Trinity!… I wish to give YOU thanks for having given me this earthly life and for the call and capacity to serve You” (99 Prayers). Even under the weight of the Cross, we want to learn to “smile through our tears” in the certitude that “for those who love God, everything works out for the good” (Rom 8:28). Thus, with this supernatural hope we want to love and thank God for His solicitous love at every moment of our lives! Mother Gabriele writes,

God teaches us to be thankful through the light of little everyday things. Should we not be thankful when the first ray of sunshine gilds the clouds and makes us bright and cheerful? Should we not be thankful for the light of certainty that our good Angel kneels with us to adore God? Should we not let our thanks accompany us the whole day as our good companion? If only we always had clear and open eyes, how much we would have to thank GOD every day, even in the gray, difficult everyday life – and then immediately this everyday life would no longer be gray, but golden in the certainty of intimate contact with the Lord, His Mother, His Angels! (The Support, Aug. 9, 1956)

Giving thanks, we will grow in love, and through love, we will come to joy!

The most beautiful light of the Holy Spirit is love, and the most beautiful and delicate radiance around it is joy. Those who love must also be able to be joyful, for love is not only the strength to overcome all things, but also the strength to rejoice in all sincerity and simplicity over everything, even the smallest things that God gives or shows to us.

This joy in the Holy Spirit must be like a little bell before the Lord on the steps of the altar of our heart, which with every movement of love or thanks right away rings joyfully. Remember, dear, dear soul, a holy person is always loving in God, always calm in God, always joyful in God. From these three windows, he looks into the world. (Dec. 11, 1955)

Discipline and continual prayer:

If we are to become Saints, we have to work at it! St. Teresa of Avila speaks again and again of the “firm determination” necessary to grow in the life prayer and holiness. St. Paul lived in a culture like our own, where athletic competition was highly regarded. Thus, he uses this theme to motivate the young Church to self-discipline. “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we, an imperishable one. Thus…I drive my body and train it” (1 Cor 9:24-27). Mother Gabriele builds on this theme, pointing to the need for continual prayer:

Whoever enters into a competition, must train hard beforehand; he must bring his spirit as well as his body to ever stricter discipline and submission, so that they both obey the will ever more quickly and unresistingly. Are we not, at the hand of our Angels, engaged in a competition far greater than any chess or sports championship? And how lightheartedly we take this training – how quickly we are satisfied with a small partial success – and yet, we should actually be training, practicing and improving our agility in the battle against ourselves and the snares of the evil one more and more. Why don’t we do it? Because we don’t think about it, because we are always distracted by everyday life. How can we counteract this? By walking in the presence of GOD, by fixing our face on the Face of GOD. How will we be reminded of this? By really trying to practice continual prayer. Let us resolve to say calmly one little prayer over and over again, a hundred times, a thousand times, e.g., “My GOD and my All!” – or: “My JESUS, mercy!” …Ever more from day to day, we will feel the blessing resulting from this, how our soul finds GOD ever more agilely, right away! (Dec. 17, 1955)

Suffering and sacrificing generously

When St. Therese of Lisieux was a child, her elder sister one day came with a basket of doll clothes and other items to give away. After Celine picked out a woolen ball, Therese simply said, “I choose all!” and took the whole basket. She drew a lesson from this regarding the generosity of love.

Later on, when the way of perfection was opened out before me, I realized that in order to become a Saint one must suffer much, always seek the most perfect path, and forget oneself. I also understood that there are many degrees of holiness, that each soul is free to respond to the calls of Our Lord, to do much or little for His Love – in a word, to choose amongst the sacrifices He asks. And then also, as in the days of my childhood, I cried out, “My God, I choose everything, I will not be a Saint by halves, I am not afraid of suffering for You, I only fear one thing, and that is to do my own will. Accept the offering of my will, for I choose all that You will.” (Story of a Soul, A 23)

If we want to grow in love, to be a Saint, we too must gear ourselves for suffering, without fear, but with great trust and generosity. In this life, before we get to heaven:

Love and suffering belong together as intimately as the two edges of a sword, as the two hands of a body, as day and night. If a person only wants to experience the light of the sun and nothing else, then he must die at nightfall. And if a person wants to experience only love and nothing else, then this love is like a mayfly that soon disappears. Who can speak of love if he has never suffered? But if in suffering we let ourselves be filled with love, then we already bear Easter morning within. (The Support, Dec. 19, 1955)

Jesus walks before us on the way of the Cross: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:9-10). He gives redemptive meaning to all our suffering, when united with His own.

When, O Lord, did You not suffer during Your life on earth? …You have taught us to be happy in suffering in view of its power of expiation and redemption. You have taught us to say “yes” to the Cross, to the will to sacrifice out of love, in conformity to the will of the Father, who requires the sacrifice. You have taught us the ultimate, most holy love, exemplified it and redeemed us through it. You always go before us, You always have patience with us, You wait for us. You say with such infinite love, “Come!” (March 30, 1956)

Thus, Mother Gabriele taught that making expiation is not beyond our strength, we need only to pray more, to seek union with Jesus. In the face of suffering and the Cross, the Mother repeatedly advised not to ask why, but to respond yes, Lord.

How many “why’s” are there in our lives, great and small? And how many will never be answered here on earth. God always leaves one last thing unanswered in our lives and along our way of the Cross. For here lies the mystery. Holy faith is not only a grace, rather indeed a mystery. No psychiatrist can unravel the causes and effects of grace and scientifically incorporate it into the course of life as a human process. The same can be said of love. We will never fathom the mystery of why God loves us so much that He became Man, that He shed His last drop of Blood for us, that for our sake He subjects Himself as BREAD to so many blasphemies until the end of time. And this is such a wonderful thing, that God draws us into this mystery. Everything counts before God, every silent sigh touches this ultimate mystery of love: YOU and me! (Aug. 21, 1956)

Not to ask why is not the same as to suppress our suffering, so that later it comes up again and again as an open wound festering in our soul. Rather, through love we can learn to transform our suffering into a gift, a gift of love: “…for love of You, Lord!”

The Angel points to a tall figure. This one simply swallowed her Cross – so that it cannot be seen from without. “No one needs to know about it.” But the Lord again shakes His head lovingly and says, “This is not yet the right way.”

If you swallow a hard piece of food that remains hard inside of you, then it injures you and you will die from it. Your soul is also very soft inside. If you swallow your Cross before having softened it, you will bleed to death interiorly from it. Let your Angel counsel you!

Then, having been called by the Lord, the good Angel kneels down and says, “The good God gives the oil of healing to everyone who asks for it. The oil of healing is called: FOR LOVE OF YOU, MY LORD! First anoint your Cross five times a day in honor of the five Holy Wounds with this oil, “For love of You, Lord!”, and make sure that you do not leave a single spot on the Cross without oil. In this way, the cross will become every day softer and every day smaller. And finally, you can peacefully entrust it to your soul, for love will eventually resolve it completely. (March 7, 1956)

The Holy Angel, our Guide to Holiness

Mother Gabriele shows again and again how the Angel leads and guides us on the path to holiness. He is given to us by the immense love of God as our “bridge” to the supernatural, to eternal values. “The bridge that the Angel builds for us is a bridge of light. Indeed, he himself is light. God created him as a spirit, as a light figure, therefore light is the image and distinctive mark of his being” (Jan. 3, 1956). Above all, it is our Guardian Angel who is given to us as our guide to heaven.

The first time the Angels draw near to us is through our Guardian Angel. His light awakens in us the striving for the good, for God, the longing for love for God. Knowing that he is near brings us comfort and security. Of course, we often fail to hear his admonitions. But if we train ourselves to listen for his voice, then he will first of all teach us is reverence for God, then obedience to God and His Church, and finally, merciful love for our neighbor. Only then does he teach us the active battle against the evil one, for which we must first be armed. (Jan. 9, 1956)

Childlike Trust, Silence and Peace of Heart

In order to follow the Angel, we must have the heart of a child, believing and trusting. “Unless you turn and become like this child, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God” (Mt 18:3). A child is not afraid, because he relies not on himself, but on the wisdom, strength and love of his Father.

For there are often stones on [the soul’s] path that loom menacingly from afar, as if to say: “You will not get over us! That is beyond your strength. We will fall on you and destroy you!” But the Angel of courage only smiles and says to the soul, “Just look through me!” And through the Angel, the soul looks at God, and there God is, so great and these stones become so small, that she says to herself, “What can keep me from running to meet God like a child? These little stones? What are they compared to You? And she runs and looks to God and – the stones are already lying behind her; she has neither fallen nor been crushed. Rather, she is happy. (May 13, 1956)

Thus, while the enemy tries to agitate and fill us with fear on our path to God, the Angel teaches us silence, trust and peace of heart.

Let us consider the Seraphim with their eyes turned outward and inward, that is, they see God around them and within them; this is an example for us. Do not look inward at your own self; rather, look inward at God, the Prisoner of our love, who is waiting for us to speak with Him about everything, to ask Him for advice, to nourish Him, so to speak, with our love and let Him become ever more powerful – in the silence of our secret love, our dearest secret. (July 29, 1956)

Thus, at the essence of genuine silence is the secret of learning to “rest in God”, to speak with Him in all faith and trust.

Holiness in Everyday Life

Holiness is not accomplishing great and wonderful things, it is a state of being, and for most of us, it is gained in everyday life, in the little victories over self which escape the notice of our surroundings. The trick is to learn to recognize and gain from all these little occasions, which are worth their weight in gold.

My God! Let me see the little things of everyday life that show me the way to You, that speak of Your wonderful love for me, that make me holy in the midst of everyday life! Let me go out of myself every day and through these little lights which You have placed for me along my path to You, become interiorly silent, wide and full of longing, desiring to prove to You my love in everything, not wanting to push anything aside because it is unpleasant to me. For precisely when we say to ourselves, “This is insignificant, it’s not that important, he or she just takes him or herself too seriously…”, precisely here is a lightless space where we, yes, we should set up a light of love, help, prayer, kindness, forgiveness and taking the needs of others seriously. …We need to shut out the whisperings of the evil “counsellor” and listen to what the Cross, what the Blood of Christ, what the hands of Mary have to say to us! Your Blood, O Lord, speaks to us; we want to be fixed on Your Eyes. (Aug. 13, 1956)

And so with renewed courage and determination, let us walk this little way of love at the hand of our holy Angel, under the protection of Mary and with Jesus in our hearts. He will make Saints of us, if only we truly and actively want it, in His time, according to His will, and in His love.

Sr. Maria Basilea

Christ’s Priests united with the Holy Angels in the Church