Words of Hope

Revelations of Our Lord to Saints Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Genoa, Gertrude the Great and Margaret Mary Alacoque

Craig Turner

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781618906106
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Words of Hope recounts the words of Christ spoken to four great saints—Saint Gertrude the Great, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque—who dared to receive the eternal message of Our Lord.They lovingly and faithfully listened to His message, repeated through the centuries. It is a message of suffering, and yet it is overflowing with hope. Through the words these four holy souls received, we can see Christ's message of peace and hope born out of suffering written anew.Through these intimate words of Jesus and the example of the saints within these pages, the reader will be renewed and rejuve­nated with the hope and comfort of Christ in times of suffering.

Words of Hope

Abandonment to God’s Will

“My goodness is such that when anyone has the will to perform a good action, I count it as done and recompense it as if it were accomplished, even if human frailty prevents its accomplishment.” (GG)

“I require nothing from you but to come to Me empty, that I may fill you, for it is from Me that you receive all which makes you agreeable in My sight.” (GG)

“What bride would complain of the time spent adorning herself for her bridegroom, or regret occasions of increasing his love? For after death the soul cannot [gain] merit, nor can it suffer anything for God.” (GG)

Saint Margaret Mary prayed that Our Lord would never let anyone see what she had written in her journal about her spiritual experiences. He responded: “Abandon everything to My good pleasure and let Me accomplish My designs. Do not interfere in anything, for I will take care of it all.” (MMA)

As Saint Gertrude prayed for someone, that he might receive the full reward of his troublesome labors for the temporal good of the community. Our Lord said to her: “His will is so entirely submitted to Mine that I am always the principle cause of his actions, and for this reason he will merit an inestimable recompense for all his thoughts, his words and his works. If he applies himself to each action with a still greater purity of intention, he will increase his merit even as gold exceeds silver in value. If he endeavors to refer all his thoughts and anxieties to Me with a yet purer intention, they will become as much more excellent as refined gold is in comparison of that which is allowed with a baser metal.” (GG)

“Even as the body is composed of many members united together, so also the soul consists of affections, such as fear, grief, joy, love, hope, anger, modesty, [etc]. In the exercise of each, the more [a] man acts for My glory, the more he will find in Me that incomprehensible and ineffable joy, and that secure delight, which will prepare him for eternal happiness.” (GG)

Jesus said: “When a bridegroom conducts his bride into a garden of roses to gather them for a bouquet, she takes so much pleasure in his sweet conversation that she never pauses to inquire which of the roses he would wish her to gather, but she takes whatever flower her bridegroom gives her and places it in her bouquet. So also the faithful soul, whose greatest pleasure is the accomplishment of My will and [who] delights in it as in a garden of roses, is indifferent whether I restore her health or take her out of the present life, because, being full of confidence, she abandons herself entirely to My paternal care.” (GG)

“He who is constantly suffering and still conforms himself to the decrees of Providence offers Me gold enriched with very rare and precious stones.” (GG)

“I am the only true Friend who in dire necessity will console the afflicted with the merit and glory of all the good works they have practiced during their whole life, whether by thoughts, words, or actions. These shall appear scattered over My vestments like roses and lilies; while this delightful vision shall revive in the soul its hopes of eternal life, to which it beholds itself invited in recompense for its good works.” (GG)

Saint Gertrude prayed for someone who said she did not seem to receive any fruit from her prayers. The Lord told her: “Let her confide in My wisdom and My divine mercy, since I am her father, her brother and her spouse, and I will obtain what will be advantageous for her body and soul with far more care and fidelity than she would for any relative. I will preserve carefully the fruit of all the prayers and desires which are addressed to Me for her until a suitable time comes to permit her to the enjoyment of them; then I will commit them to her entirely when no one will be able to corrupt them or to deprive her of them by their importunities. This is far more useful to her than to pour into her soul some sweetness which might, perhaps, be an occasion of vainglory to her or become tarnished by her pride, or than to grant her some temporal prosperity which might prove an occasion of sin.” (GG)

“When anyone has lost, or fears to lose [by death] a faithful friend, if they offer Me this affliction and would rather My will should be accomplished than their friend should live, they may be assured if they form this desire in their hearts even for a single hour that I will preserve their offering in the same beauty and freshness as it was presented to Me. All those griefs and inquietudes which overwhelm man through the weakness of his human nature will only serve to make place in their souls for divine consolations after the offering of which I have spoken. I will bestow on them as many consolations as they have suffered afflictions. There is nothing which can be renounced in this life, however great, which will not be restored a hundredfold in this life and a thousandfold in eternity.” (GG)

“If anyone desires, for love of Me, to undertake any painful work by which he fears to be hindered from his devotions, if he prefers the accomplishment of My will to his soul’s good, I will so esteem the purity of his intention as to consider it as if it had really been carried into action. Even if he never commences what he has undertaken, he will not fail to obtain the same reward from Me as if he had accomplished it and had never committed the least negligence in the matter.” (GG)

“If you desire that I should act as I will with you, give Me the key of your heart, that I may leave or take away whatever I please.” “And what is this key?” inquired Saint Gertrude. [Jesus] answered: “It is your will.” (GG)

Once, Our Lord said to Saint Gertrude: “If I granted you at the moment of your death the accomplishment of all the holy desires which you have entertained, it would be little in comparison with the grace I am about to confer on you. Choose whether you will die now or suffer a long sickness first, that you may know something of the infirmities of a protracted illness. The saint replied: “Lord, do Your holy will.” He answered: “You do right to submit to My decision, and if you consent, for My love, to remain longer in the body, I will establish My abode in your heart as a dove in its nest; and at the same time I will hide you in My Heart from whence I will lead you forth to eternal joys.” (GG)

After resolving to die rather than again abandon her desire for a religious life, Saint Margaret Mary heard her divine spouse ask her, “whether, considering my weakness, I would agree to His taking possession and making Himself master of my liberty. I willingly consented, and from that time forth He took such firm hold of my liberty that I never more enjoyed the use of it.” At a later date, Jesus told her, “I will make you understand hereafter that I am a wise and learned director, who knows how to lead souls safely when they abandon themselves to Me and forget themselves.” (MMA)

Jesus said to Saint Margaret Mary: “Let Me do everything in its time. For I will have you now to be the sport of My love, treating you according to its good pleasure, as children treat their play things. You must, therefore, abandon yourself blindly and without resistance, allowing Me to please Myself at your expense. You will lose nothing thereby…. Be ever ready and disposed to receive Me, for henceforth, I will make My abode in you that I may be able to hold familiar converse with you.” (MMA)

Saint Margaret Mary wrote: “Moreover, He willed that I should receive everything as coming from Him without procuring anything for myself; that I should abandon all to Him without disposing of anything … that I should thank Him for suffering as well as for enjoyment … that on the most painful and humiliating occasions I should consider that I not only deserve these, but even greater ones … that I should offer the pain I experienced for the persons who afflicted me … that I was always to speak of Him with great respect, of my neighbor with esteem and compassion, and of myself never, or, at least, briefly and with contempt, unless for His glory He should make Me do otherwise … that I was ever to attribute all the good and the glory to His sovereign greatness, and all the evil to myself; never to seek consolation out of Him, and even when He granted it to me, to renounce and offer it to Him. I was to cling to nothing, to empty and despoil myself of everything, to love nothing but Him, in Him and for the love of Him, and to see in all things nothing but Him and the interests of His glory in complete forgetfulness of myself.” (MMA)

After making her annual confession, Saint Margaret Mary seemed to see and to feel herself stripped and, at the same time, clothed with a white robe, while hearing these words: “Behold the robe of innocence with which I clothe your soul, that you may henceforth live only the life of a man-God—that is to say, that you may live as no longer living, but allow Me to live in you—for I am your life, and you shall no longer live but in Me and by Me. My will is that you should act as no longer acting, leaving Me to act and work in you and for you, and abandoning all to My care. You must henceforth have no will, letting Me will for you in everything and everywhere as though you had none.” (MMA)

After Jesus had said this, she wrote that He continued His discourse by saying: “‘O children of the earth! How long will you be hard of heart?”’ (MMA)

Jesus said [to Saint Teresa] that “I should examine one thing in myself: whether I was totally surrendered to Him or not [and] that if I was, I should believe He would not let me go astray.” (TA) Once, when Saint Teresa was anxiously desiring to help her order, the Carmelites, Jesus said to her: “Do what lies in your power. Surrender yourself to Me and do not be disturbed about anything. Rejoice in the good that has been given you, for it is very great. My Father takes His delight in you and the Holy Spirit loves you.” (TA)

“On the feast of the Presentation while praying to God very intensely for a person, it seemed to me it was still unbecoming the great sanctity I desired for this person that he have his freedom and an income. I considered his poor health and the abundant light he gave to souls, and I heard: ‘He serves Me very much, but it is a great thing to follow Me stripped of everything as I was on the cross. Tell him to trust in Me.’” (TA)

“I find in him nothing which is contrary to Me but the free will which I have given him, and this I am always combating through love until he yields it to Me. And when I have accepted it I reform it little by little by My secret operations and loving care, and never abandon him until I have conducted him to his appointed end.” (CoG)

Answered Prayer

Teresa of Avila wrote: “Once while I was imploring the Lord to give sight to a person to whom I was obligated and who had almost completely lost his vision, I was very grieved and feared that because of my sins the Lord would not hear me. The Lord appeared to me as He did at other times and began to show me the wound in His left hand, and with the other hand He drew out a large nail that had been embedded there. It seemed to me that when the nail was pulled out, His flesh was torn out along with it. The sharp pain was clearly evident, and I felt great pity [for Him]. He told me that He who had suffered that for me should not be doubted, but that in a better way He would do what I had asked Him; that He had promised me there wasn’t anything I might ask Him that He wouldn’t do; that He already knew I wouldn’t ask for anything other than what was in conformity with His glory; and that thus He would do what I was now requesting; that I should consider that even when I wasn’t serving Him there wasn’t anything I asked for that He didn’t grant, and in a better way than I knew how to ask for; that how much more He would grant my petitions now that He knew I loved Him; and that I shouldn’t doubt this. I don’t think eight days passed before the Lord gave sight back to that person.” (TA)

“Once I [Teresa of Avila] felt severely troubled because I knew that a person to whom I was very much obligated desired to do something serious against the honor of God, as well as his own. He was already very determined about the matter. My anxiety was so great I didn’t know what to do. It no longer seemed there was any remedy to make him give up the idea. I begged the Lord with all my heart to provide a cure for him, but until seeing this cure I wasn’t able to find any alleviation in my affliction. Being in such a state, I went to a secluded hermitage (for we have them in this monastery), and while in the one with the painting of Christ at the pillar, and begging Him to grant me this favor, I heard a very gentle voice speaking to me in a kind of whistling sound. My hair stood on end, for the voice frightened me. I wanted to understand what it was saying, but I couldn’t because it passed very quickly. When my fear was gone, for it went away quickly, I felt such quiet and joy and interior delight that I marveled that just hearing the sound of a voice could effect so much in the soul. For I heard it with my bodily ears and without understanding a word. In this experience I realized that what I had asked for would be accomplished. As a result it happened that my affliction left me completely even though the prayer was not yet answered. The pain went away just as it would had I seen the prayer answered as it really was afterward.” (TA)

“I [Teresa of Avila] knew a person who had resolved to serve God very earnestly and had devoted some days to prayer in which His majesty granted him many favors. Because of some occasions of sin that he was in, he gave up prayer and did not withdraw from these occasions, and they were indeed dangerous. This pained me deeply since he was a person I loved very much and to whom I owed a great deal. I believe it was more than a month in which I didn’t do anything else but beg God to bring this soul back to Himself. One day, while in prayer, I saw a devil at my side who very angrily was tearing to shreds some papers he had in his hands. This gave me great consolation, for it seemed to me that what I had been asking for had been accomplished. And so it was, for afterward I learned that this person had made his confession with great contrition and returned to God so sincerely that I hope … he will always make progress. May God be blessed forever. Amen.” (TA)

“It often happens that Our Lord draws souls away from serious sin and also that He leads others to greater perfection because of my beseeching Him. The Lord has granted me so many favors by freeing souls from Purgatory and doing other noteworthy things, that I would tire myself and tire whoever reads this if I mentioned them all. He has granted much more in regard to the health of souls than He has in regard to the health of bodies.” (TA)

Charity

“Charity not only covers sins, but, like a burning sun, consumes and annihilates the slightest imperfections and overwhelms the soul with merit.” (GG)

“She who wearies herself in exercises of charity has a right to repose peacefully on the couch of charity.” (GG)

“Toward persons who spoke evil of me, not only did I feel I bore no harsh feelings, but it seemed to me I gained a new love for them. I don’t know how this came about. It was a blessing given by the hand of the Lord.” (TA)

“… It seemed to me I knew clearly in an intellectual vision that the entire Blessed Trinity was present. In this state my soul understood by a certain kind of representation (like an illustration of the truth), in such a way that my dullness could perceive, how God is three and one. And so it seemed that all three Persons were represented distinctly in my soul and that they spoke to me, telling me that from this day I would see an improvement in myself in respect to three things and that each one of these Persons would grant me a favor: one, the favor of charity; another, the favor of being able to suffer gladly; and the third, the favor of experiencing this charity with an enkindling in the soul. I understood those words the Lord spoke [and] that the three divine Persons would be with the soul in grace, for I saw them within myself in the way described.” (TA)

Chosen Souls

“You cannot find Me in any place in which I delight more or which is more suitable for Me than in the Sacrame...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Abandonment to God’s Will
• About the Author
• Tan Books