light in the night the true face the mystery of faith of ...€¦ · the true face of the church...
TRANSCRIPT
Mother
The true faceof the Church
brimful and saturatedwith Divinity
My songof love
to the Church
The true faceof the Church
brimful and saturatedwith Divinity
My songof love
to the Church
CollectionLight in the night
The mystery of faithgiven with loving wisdom
No. 1
The true faceof the Church
brimful and saturatedwith Divinity
My songof love
to the Church
MOTHER TRINIDAD DE LA SANTA MADRE IGLESIASÁNCHEZ MORENO
Foundress of The Work of the Church
14-11-1959
THE FACE OF THE CHURCH
Church of mine, how beautiful You are…!You are all-beautiful, Daughter of Jerusalem.
“Your eyes are doves,”1 because Your gaz-ing is with the same gazing of the Father.
Your mouth is all sweet, soft, because Yourmouth is the Word Incarnate Himself Who,breaking into Word, comes forth and is scat-tered over us through You in a divine singingof eternal and infinite perfections.
My Church, You are kindled. “Your cheeksare like halves of pomegranate,”2 reddened bythe very fire of the Holy Spirit.
You are an “army in battle,”3 a queen withYour queenship received from God’s very be-ing, strong with the same strength of the “Lyonof Judah.”4
O, Church of mine! all-beautiful, bedeckedwith Divinity Itself that penetrates You, fillsYou, ennobles You, extolling You with such
3
1 Sg 1: 15.2 Sg 4: 3.
3 Sg 6: 4 = Jl 2: 5.4 Rv 5: 5.
Nihil Obstat: Julio Sagredo, CensorImprimatur: Joaquín Iniesta Calvo-Zataráin
Vicar GeneralMadrid, 6-6-2002
4TH EDITION
Offprint of the published books of Mother Trinidad de laSanta Madre Iglesia Sánchez Moreno:
“LA IGLESIA Y SU MISTERIO” (“The Church and hermystery”) and
“VIVENCIAS DEL ALMA” (“Experiences of the soul”)
© 2011 LA OBRA DE LA IGLESIAFirst Spanish edition published: November 1999
LA OBRA DE LA IGLESIA (The Work of the Church)MADRID - 28006 ROMA - 00149C/. Velázquez, 88 Via Vigna due Torri, 90Tel. 91.435.41.45 Tel. 06.551.46.44
E-mail: [email protected]
www.clerus.org Holy See: Congregation for the Clergy(Library-Spirituality)
Legal deposit: M. 18.443-2011
Printed in Spain by: Fareso, S. A.Paseo de la Dirección, 5. 28039 Madrid
14-11-1959
THE FACE OF THE CHURCH
Church of mine, how beautiful You are…!You are all-beautiful, Daughter of Jerusalem.
“Your eyes are doves,”1 because Your gaz-ing is with the same gazing of the Father.
Your mouth is all sweet, soft, because Yourmouth is the Word Incarnate Himself Who,breaking into Word, comes forth and is scat-tered over us through You in a divine singingof eternal and infinite perfections.
My Church, You are kindled. “Your cheeksare like halves of pomegranate,”2 reddened bythe very fire of the Holy Spirit.
You are an “army in battle,”3 a queen withYour queenship received from God’s very be-ing, strong with the same strength of the “Lyonof Judah.”4
O, Church of mine! all-beautiful, bedeckedwith Divinity Itself that penetrates You, fillsYou, ennobles You, extolling You with such
3
1 Sg 1: 15.2 Sg 4: 3.
3 Sg 6: 4 = Jl 2: 5.4 Rv 5: 5.
Nihil Obstat: Julio Sagredo, CensorImprimatur: Joaquín Iniesta Calvo-Zataráin
Vicar GeneralMadrid, 6-6-2002
4TH EDITION
Offprint of the published books of Mother Trinidad de laSanta Madre Iglesia Sánchez Moreno:
“LA IGLESIA Y SU MISTERIO” (“The Church and hermystery”) and
“VIVENCIAS DEL ALMA” (“Experiences of the soul”)
© 2011 LA OBRA DE LA IGLESIAFirst Spanish edition published: November 1999
LA OBRA DE LA IGLESIA (The Work of the Church)MADRID - 28006 ROMA - 00149C/. Velázquez, 88 Via Vigna due Torri, 90Tel. 91.435.41.45 Tel. 06.551.46.44
E-mail: [email protected]
www.clerus.org Holy See: Congregation for the Clergy(Library-Spirituality)
Legal deposit: M. 18.443-2011
Printed in Spain by: Fareso, S. A.Paseo de la Dirección, 5. 28039 Madrid
deserve. You have to be known as You are,and the Father alone contemplates You ade-quately in all Your beauty, because You, in YourHead, are His Word.
And nor is there a word which can sing You,Church of mine, beloved Church, because, bynot knowing You, who will be able to expressYou? Who will be able to spell out the idyll ofinfinite love that God accomplished in You andwith You, like a Bridegroom in love, O Heaven-ly Jerusalem! on the day of Your bridals in per-petual and eternal marriage, according to thepromises of He Who Is, announced to human-ity from the beginning of time?
But yes, for You Yourself, in Your RoyalHead, sing and express Yourself, since He isthe fruitful Word Who comes forth singing fromthe Father’s bosom, beautifying You with Yourroyal crown of glorious Divinity as the Bride ofthe Immaculate Lamb; sealing You in Your fore-head with His divine Blood, shed on the altarof the cross, which takes away the sins of theworld; and bejeweling You with all the gifts,fruits and charisms of the Holy Spirit, Who atPentecost made You break into fiery word byHis loving impulse.
O, Church of mine…! Who will be able tolove You as You deserve? There is no createdlove, my Church, Word of the Father… So won-derful You are, that the Infinite Love Himself,
fruitfulness, that You, Church of mine, are theselfsame Word Incarnate Who comes forth fromthe Father’s bosom breaking into Word andburning in the Holy Spirit. That is Your RoyalHead, my Church!
How beautiful You are with the beauty ofthe Most High and Most Holy God Himself! AllYour Bridegroom’s Divinity truly spills out fromYou through all Your living members…!
Church of mine, You are Mother with thesame heart of the Father. The one and onlywhite Dove which contains in Her bosom thewhole adorable Trinity.
O, Church of mine! All dove’s innocence Youare… Your perfumes spread throughout all theends of the earth. You are a “sachet of myrrh”5
lying in the very bosom of the Most High; andso loving, that the Father Himself, Who takesno other delight than in Himself, in His Sonand Their common Holy Spirit, rejoices overand takes pleasure in You, because Your Headand Your Crown is His very own Begotten SonIncarnate.
Church of mine, where is Solomon to singYou in his poems…? Where all the poets to singsomething of the beauties of my Church…? Butno, there is no poet who can sing You as You
4 5
5 Sg 1: 13.
deserve. You have to be known as You are,and the Father alone contemplates You ade-quately in all Your beauty, because You, in YourHead, are His Word.
And nor is there a word which can sing You,Church of mine, beloved Church, because, bynot knowing You, who will be able to expressYou? Who will be able to spell out the idyll ofinfinite love that God accomplished in You andwith You, like a Bridegroom in love, O Heaven-ly Jerusalem! on the day of Your bridals in per-petual and eternal marriage, according to thepromises of He Who Is, announced to human-ity from the beginning of time?
But yes, for You Yourself, in Your RoyalHead, sing and express Yourself, since He isthe fruitful Word Who comes forth singing fromthe Father’s bosom, beautifying You with Yourroyal crown of glorious Divinity as the Bride ofthe Immaculate Lamb; sealing You in Your fore-head with His divine Blood, shed on the altarof the cross, which takes away the sins of theworld; and bejeweling You with all the gifts,fruits and charisms of the Holy Spirit, Who atPentecost made You break into fiery word byHis loving impulse.
O, Church of mine…! Who will be able tolove You as You deserve? There is no createdlove, my Church, Word of the Father… So won-derful You are, that the Infinite Love Himself,
fruitfulness, that You, Church of mine, are theselfsame Word Incarnate Who comes forth fromthe Father’s bosom breaking into Word andburning in the Holy Spirit. That is Your RoyalHead, my Church!
How beautiful You are with the beauty ofthe Most High and Most Holy God Himself! AllYour Bridegroom’s Divinity truly spills out fromYou through all Your living members…!
Church of mine, You are Mother with thesame heart of the Father. The one and onlywhite Dove which contains in Her bosom thewhole adorable Trinity.
O, Church of mine! All dove’s innocence Youare… Your perfumes spread throughout all theends of the earth. You are a “sachet of myrrh”5
lying in the very bosom of the Most High; andso loving, that the Father Himself, Who takesno other delight than in Himself, in His Sonand Their common Holy Spirit, rejoices overand takes pleasure in You, because Your Headand Your Crown is His very own Begotten SonIncarnate.
Church of mine, where is Solomon to singYou in his poems…? Where all the poets to singsomething of the beauties of my Church…? Butno, there is no poet who can sing You as You
4 5
5 Sg 1: 13.
How much my One Trinity loves Its HolyChurch…! It loves Her so much, that It madeHer a repository of Its divine life so that Shemight fill with Divinity all of Her children; insuch a way, that my Mother Church is the heartof God on earth, the singing expression of theInfinite, the manifestation of Eternal Love in Hisbeing and in His persons.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit lovethe Church with eternal charity, since God,when He loves, does so with all His being inTrinity of Persons.
All that the Father knows, is expressed bythe Word and loved by the Holy Spirit. All thatthe Father is by His being, so the Word and theHoly Spirit are.
And thus, when the Father loves His Church,He does so so wonderfully, that He tells Her– as though in an idyll of unprecedented ten-derness and infinite mercy in an outpouring ofHis eternal love – all that He is, so perfectly,that with the same Word that He has in Hisbosom to express Himself to Himself, He ex-presses it to me in my Holy Church, and Heexpresses to me all that He is and such as Heis, so, standing in being of Himself and havingso of Himself ever been, without beginning andwithout end in eternal subsistence and self-suf-ficiency, in His immutable act of familial andTrinitarian life.
is the one who suits You, and loves You andweds You in eternal marriage. And, burningYou in His flames, unites You “in justice and intruth”6 with the Word of Life, in such a way that,between Your Head and Your members, LoveHimself works such a great mystery in such aconsummate perfection, as an image of theIncarnation, that as the human and divine na-ture join together in one sole Person, Who isthe Word, so, between the whole Mystical Bodyand His divine and Royal Head, such an inti-mate and divine union comes into being whichis the Whole Christ;
the Royal Head, Who crowns You, HolyChurch, with righteousness, peace and love; en-nobling You with the infinite and coeternal Truthof Trinity Itself Who, in You and through You,manifests to us, donates to us and gives to us“all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledgeof God”7, which are given to us by Christ andthrough Mary in Your Mother’s bosom, full andbrimming over with Divinity; to inebriate, andfill, whoever drinks from the torrential affluentsof the eternal Fountains, that spring forth fromthe Father’s Bosom, through the open side ofChrist, and overflow from Your Mother’s bosomto humanity, with a Father’s heart, a Word’s song,and a Holy Spirit’s love.
6 7
6 Hos 2: 21. 7 Col 2: 3.
How much my One Trinity loves Its HolyChurch…! It loves Her so much, that It madeHer a repository of Its divine life so that Shemight fill with Divinity all of Her children; insuch a way, that my Mother Church is the heartof God on earth, the singing expression of theInfinite, the manifestation of Eternal Love in Hisbeing and in His persons.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit lovethe Church with eternal charity, since God,when He loves, does so with all His being inTrinity of Persons.
All that the Father knows, is expressed bythe Word and loved by the Holy Spirit. All thatthe Father is by His being, so the Word and theHoly Spirit are.
And thus, when the Father loves His Church,He does so so wonderfully, that He tells Her– as though in an idyll of unprecedented ten-derness and infinite mercy in an outpouring ofHis eternal love – all that He is, so perfectly,that with the same Word that He has in Hisbosom to express Himself to Himself, He ex-presses it to me in my Holy Church, and Heexpresses to me all that He is and such as Heis, so, standing in being of Himself and havingso of Himself ever been, without beginning andwithout end in eternal subsistence and self-suf-ficiency, in His immutable act of familial andTrinitarian life.
is the one who suits You, and loves You andweds You in eternal marriage. And, burningYou in His flames, unites You “in justice and intruth”6 with the Word of Life, in such a way that,between Your Head and Your members, LoveHimself works such a great mystery in such aconsummate perfection, as an image of theIncarnation, that as the human and divine na-ture join together in one sole Person, Who isthe Word, so, between the whole Mystical Bodyand His divine and Royal Head, such an inti-mate and divine union comes into being whichis the Whole Christ;
the Royal Head, Who crowns You, HolyChurch, with righteousness, peace and love; en-nobling You with the infinite and coeternal Truthof Trinity Itself Who, in You and through You,manifests to us, donates to us and gives to us“all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledgeof God”7, which are given to us by Christ andthrough Mary in Your Mother’s bosom, full andbrimming over with Divinity; to inebriate, andfill, whoever drinks from the torrential affluentsof the eternal Fountains, that spring forth fromthe Father’s Bosom, through the open side ofChrist, and overflow from Your Mother’s bosomto humanity, with a Father’s heart, a Word’s song,and a Holy Spirit’s love.
6 7
6 Hos 2: 21. 7 Col 2: 3.
Let us see if there is anything that my HolyChurch has not told me! Let us see what secretis hidden in the recondite recess of God which,revealed to His Church, She does not manifestto me…! “Because God has revealed it to usthrough the Spirit, for the Spirit scrutinizeseverything, even the depths of God.”9
Let us see! Is there anything that the Wordhas not told us within the bosom of the HolyMother Church, founded by Christ, the Messiahpromised to our Father Abraham, in whose de-scendants “all the communities of the earth shallfind blessing”10; announced by the Holy Prophetsand entrusted to Her Apostles, as a New andCelestial Jerusalem? “Because I have told youeverything I have heard from my Father.”11
The Divine Word is the infinite Utterance inGod, and when He speaks, He manifests theheart of our Divine Family, and He has mani-fested it within His Church.
How marvellous God is! So much so, thatHe gives us His only begotten Son to show usthe love He bears for us, and, in an excess ofthat same love, He gives Him to us defenselesson the cross, singing to us, in His bloody can-ticle of Divinity, the heart of the Infinite One.“God so loved the world that He gave His only
O, Infinite Love…! Neither a Prophet nor anAngel, burning in Your divine love, were suffi-cient for You to tell me what You are, butrather, breaking into speech from Your bosomwithin my Church, O my Father God! You giveme Your singing Word, Your infinite Word, thesame one You have in You to tell Yourself Youreternal being. It is Your Word, Your only De-light, Your Explanation, the one You have gi-ven me within Your Holy Church; the one Who,“making His dwelling among us,”8 tells us thedivine, recondite and arcane secret of theSancta Sanctorum of the unfathomable mysteryof Trinitarian life.
Like this did the Father love His Church!There is nothing however infinite, mysteriousand perfect it may be, that the Father, willingto reveal it to us, has not told my Church. Hewilled to tell Her everything, and for that, Hegave Her His Word, His eternal and infiniteUtterance Who, turning towards me, expressedto me, in an idyll of love, the loving wisdomwhich, in an infinite concert, my Father God is.
O Holy Church! You are all-beautiful be-cause You have within Yourself the wisdom ofthe Father, that in divine and human expres-sion, He lays it for You in Your Motherly bo-som.
8 9
8 Jn 1: 14. 9 1 Cor 2: 10. 10 Gn 12: 3. 11 Jn 15: 15.
Let us see if there is anything that my HolyChurch has not told me! Let us see what secretis hidden in the recondite recess of God which,revealed to His Church, She does not manifestto me…! “Because God has revealed it to usthrough the Spirit, for the Spirit scrutinizeseverything, even the depths of God.”9
Let us see! Is there anything that the Wordhas not told us within the bosom of the HolyMother Church, founded by Christ, the Messiahpromised to our Father Abraham, in whose de-scendants “all the communities of the earth shallfind blessing”10; announced by the Holy Prophetsand entrusted to Her Apostles, as a New andCelestial Jerusalem? “Because I have told youeverything I have heard from my Father.”11
The Divine Word is the infinite Utterance inGod, and when He speaks, He manifests theheart of our Divine Family, and He has mani-fested it within His Church.
How marvellous God is! So much so, thatHe gives us His only begotten Son to show usthe love He bears for us, and, in an excess ofthat same love, He gives Him to us defenselesson the cross, singing to us, in His bloody can-ticle of Divinity, the heart of the Infinite One.“God so loved the world that He gave His only
O, Infinite Love…! Neither a Prophet nor anAngel, burning in Your divine love, were suffi-cient for You to tell me what You are, butrather, breaking into speech from Your bosomwithin my Church, O my Father God! You giveme Your singing Word, Your infinite Word, thesame one You have in You to tell Yourself Youreternal being. It is Your Word, Your only De-light, Your Explanation, the one You have gi-ven me within Your Holy Church; the one Who,“making His dwelling among us,”8 tells us thedivine, recondite and arcane secret of theSancta Sanctorum of the unfathomable mysteryof Trinitarian life.
Like this did the Father love His Church!There is nothing however infinite, mysteriousand perfect it may be, that the Father, willingto reveal it to us, has not told my Church. Hewilled to tell Her everything, and for that, Hegave Her His Word, His eternal and infiniteUtterance Who, turning towards me, expressedto me, in an idyll of love, the loving wisdomwhich, in an infinite concert, my Father God is.
O Holy Church! You are all-beautiful be-cause You have within Yourself the wisdom ofthe Father, that in divine and human expres-sion, He lays it for You in Your Motherly bo-som.
8 9
8 Jn 1: 14. 9 1 Cor 2: 10. 10 Gn 12: 3. 11 Jn 15: 15.
vered Himself, joyfully and blissfully, for Her, onthe cross.
My Church is all-beautiful, She is all be-decked and bejeweled with Deity Itself, sinceIt pours over Her in cataracts of being and inTrinity of Persons.
It is the Father’s will that the Word becomesflesh to tell men the recondite secrets of theTrinitarian life. And at the moment when thegreat mystery of the Incarnation comes into be-ing, the priestly posture of Christ’s soul, turn-ing towards the Father, is like saying: “Behold,I come to do your will, O God.”14 You havewilled me to come to sing to men Our infiniteperfections and “your law is in my heart.”15
Behold I come as Word to tell what You are,O Father, what I Myself am and what Our com-mon Holy Spirit is. And I will do this by lay-ing all our treasure in the Church’s bosom, sincethe Three of us have only one life, only onebeing, and willing to pour Ourselves forth overHer, We bedeck Her by communicating to Herthe whole secret of our intimate life.
Like this does the Word love His Church: ful-filling the Father’s will to tell Her all that He is.And not happy with expressing it to Her throughan Infinite canticle of joyful jubilation, He alsotells it to Her in the most sorrowful agony at
Son, so that everyone who believes in Himmight not perish but might have eternal life.”12
My Holy Church is the Trinity on earth indivine and human expression.
My Church is the Speech of God to men.
My Church is my God with a Mother’s heart.
My Church is my Mother with God’s heart.
O Church of mine! I cannot even look atYou… Because You are so beautiful, so muchso! that I will never be able to tell the eternaljoy of the infinite happiness that is containedin Your bosom. You are a precious amphorabrimming over with Divinity; the spring throughwhich divine Wisdom gives Himself to men ina bloody Song of infinite Love; the uniquerepository of God’s whole secret to His chil-dren. In You is havened “the Mystery hiddenfrom ages past in God who created all things,so that the manifold wisdom of God might nowbe made known through the Church. This wasaccording to the eternal purpose that he ac-complished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”13
How much does the Word love His Church…!He loves Her so much, that, sent forth by theFather and driven by the Holy Spirit, He deli-
10 11
12 Jn 3: 16. 13 Eph 3: 9-11. 14 Ps 39: 8 = Heb 10: 7. 15 Ps 39: 9.
vered Himself, joyfully and blissfully, for Her, onthe cross.
My Church is all-beautiful, She is all be-decked and bejeweled with Deity Itself, sinceIt pours over Her in cataracts of being and inTrinity of Persons.
It is the Father’s will that the Word becomesflesh to tell men the recondite secrets of theTrinitarian life. And at the moment when thegreat mystery of the Incarnation comes into be-ing, the priestly posture of Christ’s soul, turn-ing towards the Father, is like saying: “Behold,I come to do your will, O God.”14 You havewilled me to come to sing to men Our infiniteperfections and “your law is in my heart.”15
Behold I come as Word to tell what You are,O Father, what I Myself am and what Our com-mon Holy Spirit is. And I will do this by lay-ing all our treasure in the Church’s bosom, sincethe Three of us have only one life, only onebeing, and willing to pour Ourselves forth overHer, We bedeck Her by communicating to Herthe whole secret of our intimate life.
Like this does the Word love His Church: ful-filling the Father’s will to tell Her all that He is.And not happy with expressing it to Her throughan Infinite canticle of joyful jubilation, He alsotells it to Her in the most sorrowful agony at
Son, so that everyone who believes in Himmight not perish but might have eternal life.”12
My Holy Church is the Trinity on earth indivine and human expression.
My Church is the Speech of God to men.
My Church is my God with a Mother’s heart.
My Church is my Mother with God’s heart.
O Church of mine! I cannot even look atYou… Because You are so beautiful, so muchso! that I will never be able to tell the eternaljoy of the infinite happiness that is containedin Your bosom. You are a precious amphorabrimming over with Divinity; the spring throughwhich divine Wisdom gives Himself to men ina bloody Song of infinite Love; the uniquerepository of God’s whole secret to His chil-dren. In You is havened “the Mystery hiddenfrom ages past in God who created all things,so that the manifold wisdom of God might nowbe made known through the Church. This wasaccording to the eternal purpose that he ac-complished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”13
How much does the Word love His Church…!He loves Her so much, that, sent forth by theFather and driven by the Holy Spirit, He deli-
10 11
12 Jn 3: 16. 13 Eph 3: 9-11. 14 Ps 39: 8 = Heb 10: 7. 15 Ps 39: 9.
to deliver to us His Word telling us His eternaland divine secret, and inflames the Word, inHis infinitely loving fire, so that He may die onthe cross giving Himself up for the Church, asan expression of the eternal love that the Trinitybears for Her.
“If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprin-kling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those whoare defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, howmuch more will the blood of Christ, whothrough the eternal spirit offered Himself un-blemished to God, cleanse our consciences fromdead works to worship the living God.”17
It is the Holy Spirit the one Who performsthe great mystery of the Incarnation within themost pure bosom of Our Lady, all-Virgin, Whowould conceive and give birth to a son, whomShe would name Immanuel: “Therefore theLord Himself will give You this sign: the virginshall be with child, and bear a son, and shallname him Immanuel, which means ‘God is withus’ ”18; although, whenever God looks out-wards, the three divine Persons act jointly, eachone of them doing so according to His ownpersonal physiognomy.
And thus, the Father, beginning and sourceof uncreated life, gives us His Word so that Hemay uncover to us His eternal secret; the Word
Gethsemane, in a bloody bursting forth of love,in a total destruction of His human nature, Whosings to us by dying on the cross, the infinitelove of our Father God.
Let us see what is there in the bosom of myHoly Trinity that the Infinite Word has not man-ifested to us within His Church?! “No one hasever seen God; the only Son, God, who is atthe Father’s side, has revealed Him.”16
O, my immaculate Bridegroom…! Grant meto know how to sing the joy of my Trinity-Love,to tell the riches that are contained within myChurch, to discover the mystery of Your mostholy soul, to proclaim Your Immaculate Mother,knowing how to repay such a great gift with atotal commitment in a response of love.
How dearly the Holy Spirit loves my MotherChurch…! The three divine Persons have onesole will, one sole desire, which on being out-poured over Their creature, They give Her allthe riches of Their infinite love.
It is the Holy Spirit the Love Who, withinthe Trinity, wraps and penetrates this sameTrinity.
It is the Holy Spirit the infinite and person-al Charity that, in loving will, moves the Father
12 13
16 Jn 1: 18. 17 Heb 9: 13-14. 18 Is 7: 14.
to deliver to us His Word telling us His eternaland divine secret, and inflames the Word, inHis infinitely loving fire, so that He may die onthe cross giving Himself up for the Church, asan expression of the eternal love that the Trinitybears for Her.
“If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprin-kling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those whoare defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, howmuch more will the blood of Christ, whothrough the eternal spirit offered Himself un-blemished to God, cleanse our consciences fromdead works to worship the living God.”17
It is the Holy Spirit the one Who performsthe great mystery of the Incarnation within themost pure bosom of Our Lady, all-Virgin, Whowould conceive and give birth to a son, whomShe would name Immanuel: “Therefore theLord Himself will give You this sign: the virginshall be with child, and bear a son, and shallname him Immanuel, which means ‘God is withus’ ”18; although, whenever God looks out-wards, the three divine Persons act jointly, eachone of them doing so according to His ownpersonal physiognomy.
And thus, the Father, beginning and sourceof uncreated life, gives us His Word so that Hemay uncover to us His eternal secret; the Word
Gethsemane, in a bloody bursting forth of love,in a total destruction of His human nature, Whosings to us by dying on the cross, the infinitelove of our Father God.
Let us see what is there in the bosom of myHoly Trinity that the Infinite Word has not man-ifested to us within His Church?! “No one hasever seen God; the only Son, God, who is atthe Father’s side, has revealed Him.”16
O, my immaculate Bridegroom…! Grant meto know how to sing the joy of my Trinity-Love,to tell the riches that are contained within myChurch, to discover the mystery of Your mostholy soul, to proclaim Your Immaculate Mother,knowing how to repay such a great gift with atotal commitment in a response of love.
How dearly the Holy Spirit loves my MotherChurch…! The three divine Persons have onesole will, one sole desire, which on being out-poured over Their creature, They give Her allthe riches of Their infinite love.
It is the Holy Spirit the Love Who, withinthe Trinity, wraps and penetrates this sameTrinity.
It is the Holy Spirit the infinite and person-al Charity that, in loving will, moves the Father
12 13
16 Jn 1: 18. 17 Heb 9: 13-14. 18 Is 7: 14.
You are, my Holy Spirit, my Immaculate Bri-degroom, the Love that drives forth the Fatherand the Word towards us as a gift, and theCharity that enwraps, penetrates, ennobles andfills my Holy Church to the brim.
You are the Love by Whom the Father throughthe Word, both burning in You, on looking out-wards, bring about creation.
Through You, the divine Persons look to-wards man again and, through Your infinitecharity, in an excess of Trinitarian love towardsfallen humanity, the soul of Christ and Mary be-come creation.
Your love stirs forth the Word from the bos-om of the Father into the womb of the Lady,so that, breaking into fiery Word, the divineWord on earth may tell all of us God’s childrenthe Trinitarian warmth of the Divine Family.
Through You, my infinite Spirit, in an unima-ginable and inconceivable token of love, theIncarnate Word joyfully dies, offering Himselfup for the Church, and the glorious Father,burning in Your eternal charity, in donation andgift of love, hands Him over to the immaculateChurch.
Through You, on the day of Pentecost, myHoly Church is bejeweled and filled with wis-dom, having all Your gifts in plenitude, and
sings it to us on the cross; the donation of theFather being along with the bloody canticle ofthe Word the demonstration of the infinite char-ity that the Holy Spirit has for His Church. Likethis does the Trinity love my Church of mine!
O, Holy Spirit! eternal Love Who bedecksMother Church, infinite Charity Who shroudsmy Holy Church, loving Kiss Who anoints andpenetrates all the members of my Church; grantme to be, with all my dear souls, a generouskiss of reciprocation within the bosom of theTrinity, that I may kiss each one of the Personsat the instant in which, as a sign of love to-wards man, They deliver Themselves as a giftto my Church.
Holy Spirit, You are the one Who, by pour-ing Yourself forth over the Church, enriches Herwith all Your gifts and charisms.
It is through You, Infinite Love, throughWhom, the day of Pentecost, that first gather-ing burst into fiery word, into an infinite ex-pression of Divinity.
Through You the members of the MotherChurch, penetrated by Your eternal charity, arebeing enriched with the gifts that You, as a giftof love, have laid in Her in order to bejewelHer; in such a way that She, as Mother andLady, distributes with a Motherly heart all thetreasures of Your heart to all of Her sons.
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You are, my Holy Spirit, my Immaculate Bri-degroom, the Love that drives forth the Fatherand the Word towards us as a gift, and theCharity that enwraps, penetrates, ennobles andfills my Holy Church to the brim.
You are the Love by Whom the Father throughthe Word, both burning in You, on looking out-wards, bring about creation.
Through You, the divine Persons look to-wards man again and, through Your infinitecharity, in an excess of Trinitarian love towardsfallen humanity, the soul of Christ and Mary be-come creation.
Your love stirs forth the Word from the bos-om of the Father into the womb of the Lady,so that, breaking into fiery Word, the divineWord on earth may tell all of us God’s childrenthe Trinitarian warmth of the Divine Family.
Through You, my infinite Spirit, in an unima-ginable and inconceivable token of love, theIncarnate Word joyfully dies, offering Himselfup for the Church, and the glorious Father,burning in Your eternal charity, in donation andgift of love, hands Him over to the immaculateChurch.
Through You, on the day of Pentecost, myHoly Church is bejeweled and filled with wis-dom, having all Your gifts in plenitude, and
sings it to us on the cross; the donation of theFather being along with the bloody canticle ofthe Word the demonstration of the infinite char-ity that the Holy Spirit has for His Church. Likethis does the Trinity love my Church of mine!
O, Holy Spirit! eternal Love Who bedecksMother Church, infinite Charity Who shroudsmy Holy Church, loving Kiss Who anoints andpenetrates all the members of my Church; grantme to be, with all my dear souls, a generouskiss of reciprocation within the bosom of theTrinity, that I may kiss each one of the Personsat the instant in which, as a sign of love to-wards man, They deliver Themselves as a giftto my Church.
Holy Spirit, You are the one Who, by pour-ing Yourself forth over the Church, enriches Herwith all Your gifts and charisms.
It is through You, Infinite Love, throughWhom, the day of Pentecost, that first gather-ing burst into fiery word, into an infinite ex-pression of Divinity.
Through You the members of the MotherChurch, penetrated by Your eternal charity, arebeing enriched with the gifts that You, as a giftof love, have laid in Her in order to bejewelHer; in such a way that She, as Mother andLady, distributes with a Motherly heart all thetreasures of Your heart to all of Her sons.
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It is my Church, through the Holy Spirit, theone Who has opened in me insatiable longingsfor the Infinite One. It is the Church Who,through the Sacraments, communicates to menthe divine powers of the Son of God Incarnate:“Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you for-give are forgiven them, and whose sins you re-tain are retained.”22 Therefore the Church is theone alone Who has the power to bind andloose in Heaven and on earth: “Amen, I say toyou, whatever you bind on earth shall bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose onearth shall be loosed in heaven.”23
What can my Holy Church be lacking thatmy God has not given Her? The Sacramentshave made me capable of possessing theEternal One. The gifts of the Holy Spirit by pu-rifying me and sanctifying me – “be holy be-cause I am Holy”24 – enable me to live on earthin wisdom and love, savouring Divinity Itself.“ ‘Let anyone who is thirst come to me anddrink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripturesays: Rivers of living water will flow from with-in him’. He said this in reference to the Spiritthat those who came to believe in Him wereto receive.”25
penetrating through You into the infinite WordWho, “coming down from the everlasting hills”19
told us in a bloody song the loving and secretmystery of Deity. “The Spirit of truth will guideyou to all truth. He will not speak on his own,but he will speak what He hears, and will de-clare to you the things that are coming. He willglorify me, because he will take from what ismine and declare it to you.”20
Let us see if there is anything in God that,willing to communicate it, the Holy Spirit hasnot given to my Mother Church…! Let us seeif there is anything in God that the eternal Lovehas not given to my Church…! Let us see ifthere is anything in God, in His infinite Trinityand in His eternal being, that my Holy Churchknows not how to spell out to me with aMother’s heart and with a Holy Spirit’s love…!
I am God’s daughter, sharer in divine life,God by participation, heir to the Trinitarian lifeof the Infinite one. And all this because my OneTrinity, burning in the fire of the Holy Spirit,poured Itself forth over my Church, so that thelatter, with infinite majesty, would give me allthat man by himself could never dream of, norpossess, not even fancy, for not understanding“what God has prepared for those who loveHim”21.
16 17
19 Ps 75: 5. 20 Jn 16: 13-14. 21 1 Cor 2: 9.
22 Jn 20: 22b. 23.23 Mt 18: 18.
24 1 Pt 1: 16.25 Jn 7: 37-39a.
It is my Church, through the Holy Spirit, theone Who has opened in me insatiable longingsfor the Infinite One. It is the Church Who,through the Sacraments, communicates to menthe divine powers of the Son of God Incarnate:“Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you for-give are forgiven them, and whose sins you re-tain are retained.”22 Therefore the Church is theone alone Who has the power to bind andloose in Heaven and on earth: “Amen, I say toyou, whatever you bind on earth shall bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose onearth shall be loosed in heaven.”23
What can my Holy Church be lacking thatmy God has not given Her? The Sacramentshave made me capable of possessing theEternal One. The gifts of the Holy Spirit by pu-rifying me and sanctifying me – “be holy be-cause I am Holy”24 – enable me to live on earthin wisdom and love, savouring Divinity Itself.“ ‘Let anyone who is thirst come to me anddrink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripturesays: Rivers of living water will flow from with-in him’. He said this in reference to the Spiritthat those who came to believe in Him wereto receive.”25
penetrating through You into the infinite WordWho, “coming down from the everlasting hills”19
told us in a bloody song the loving and secretmystery of Deity. “The Spirit of truth will guideyou to all truth. He will not speak on his own,but he will speak what He hears, and will de-clare to you the things that are coming. He willglorify me, because he will take from what ismine and declare it to you.”20
Let us see if there is anything in God that,willing to communicate it, the Holy Spirit hasnot given to my Mother Church…! Let us seeif there is anything in God that the eternal Lovehas not given to my Church…! Let us see ifthere is anything in God, in His infinite Trinityand in His eternal being, that my Holy Churchknows not how to spell out to me with aMother’s heart and with a Holy Spirit’s love…!
I am God’s daughter, sharer in divine life,God by participation, heir to the Trinitarian lifeof the Infinite one. And all this because my OneTrinity, burning in the fire of the Holy Spirit,poured Itself forth over my Church, so that thelatter, with infinite majesty, would give me allthat man by himself could never dream of, norpossess, not even fancy, for not understanding“what God has prepared for those who loveHim”21.
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19 Ps 75: 5. 20 Jn 16: 13-14. 21 1 Cor 2: 9.
22 Jn 20: 22b. 23.23 Mt 18: 18.
24 1 Pt 1: 16.25 Jn 7: 37-39a.
created for Himself. He does not give Her less,He is not satisfied with less.
Mary, the Lady, is God’s gift to His Church.My Father God did not will that anything wouldbe lacking in the royal crown of my HolyChurch, and as He willed Her to be adornedwith all His gifts, He also gave Her His Motheras Mother, so that She would not lack anything.
Like this does the Father love His Church,giving Her His Daughter as Mother; the Son,giving Her His Mother as Mother; and the HolySpirit, giving Her His Bride as Mother!
Mary is the great gift of the Trinity to ItsChurch, being the Virgin the means throughwhich the Father tells Her His Word, the HolySpirit hands Her over to Her and the Word diescrucified for Her; since, by divine will, on in-troducing Her into the plan of Redemption, theVirgin was the means that God chose forHimself to deliver Himself to His Church. There-fore, the Virgin, Mother of the Divine Grace, isthe one to “blame” for all men being filled withgrace and able to go to God.
Mary gives Her donation to the Church Whois Her Son and the Only Begotten Son of theFather. She also gives us the divine Word sothat He may tell us the Infinite One’s Canticle!Nor is She happy with less than giving us HerSon, the Word of the Father, so that He may
It is the Church, in Her Liturgy, the canticleof the Word, and the One Who spells out tome the divine message enclosed in Her Mother-ly heart.
Also, O Church of mine, the Infinite Lovehas willed to give You a Mother as a gift. Andfor this, He created for Himself His own Mother,Mary Immaculate, to give Her to You as a giftand as a present of His Fatherly heart.
God created, looking on His Church and lov-ing Her, a Mother for Himself and for His HolyChurch, and gave Her all that He would lay inthe Church; in such a way that all the donationof the Trinity to Its Church, before being hand-ed over to Her, He laid it down in the Motherof the Church, by the mystery of the Incarna-tion, through Her divine and universal Mother-hood, so that She might give it to the Church,with a Mother’s heart, a Word’s song and a HolySpirit’s love.
Love willed to give a Mother to His HolyChurch, and in order to give this Mother to Heras He Himself needed, first He made Her forHimself, to be able to give us His own Mother.
Like this God loves His Church! In such away that, when He wants to give Her a Mother,He gives Her the same one that He Himself
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created for Himself. He does not give Her less,He is not satisfied with less.
Mary, the Lady, is God’s gift to His Church.My Father God did not will that anything wouldbe lacking in the royal crown of my HolyChurch, and as He willed Her to be adornedwith all His gifts, He also gave Her His Motheras Mother, so that She would not lack anything.
Like this does the Father love His Church,giving Her His Daughter as Mother; the Son,giving Her His Mother as Mother; and the HolySpirit, giving Her His Bride as Mother!
Mary is the great gift of the Trinity to ItsChurch, being the Virgin the means throughwhich the Father tells Her His Word, the HolySpirit hands Her over to Her and the Word diescrucified for Her; since, by divine will, on in-troducing Her into the plan of Redemption, theVirgin was the means that God chose forHimself to deliver Himself to His Church. There-fore, the Virgin, Mother of the Divine Grace, isthe one to “blame” for all men being filled withgrace and able to go to God.
Mary gives Her donation to the Church Whois Her Son and the Only Begotten Son of theFather. She also gives us the divine Word sothat He may tell us the Infinite One’s Canticle!Nor is She happy with less than giving us HerSon, the Word of the Father, so that He may
It is the Church, in Her Liturgy, the canticleof the Word, and the One Who spells out tome the divine message enclosed in Her Mother-ly heart.
Also, O Church of mine, the Infinite Lovehas willed to give You a Mother as a gift. Andfor this, He created for Himself His own Mother,Mary Immaculate, to give Her to You as a giftand as a present of His Fatherly heart.
God created, looking on His Church and lov-ing Her, a Mother for Himself and for His HolyChurch, and gave Her all that He would lay inthe Church; in such a way that all the donationof the Trinity to Its Church, before being hand-ed over to Her, He laid it down in the Motherof the Church, by the mystery of the Incarna-tion, through Her divine and universal Mother-hood, so that She might give it to the Church,with a Mother’s heart, a Word’s song and a HolySpirit’s love.
Love willed to give a Mother to His HolyChurch, and in order to give this Mother to Heras He Himself needed, first He made Her forHimself, to be able to give us His own Mother.
Like this God loves His Church! In such away that, when He wants to give Her a Mother,He gives Her the same one that He Himself
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Son She hands over to us the Father and theHoly Spirit, according to the thought of God;Who created us solely and exclusively to pos-sess Him, by making us His children, sharersin divine life and heirs to His glory.
Mary is “the pride of Jerusalem, the glory ofIsrael, the honour of our People”26, because forHer sake “the Mighty One has done greatthings” and for this “from now on will all agescall Her blessed.”27
A royal cloak of blood shrouds my MotherChurch; a royal cloak that Her Bridegroom,Christ Jesus, on the wedding day put on Her,since, driven crazy with love for Her, gave Heras a gift all His divine Blood with which Shecould forgive, penetrate and divinize all Her chil-dren. “You have approached Mount Zion andthe city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa-lem, and countless angels in festal gathering, andthe assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,and God the judge of all, and the spirits of thejust made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of anew covenant, and the sprinkled blood thatspeaks more eloquently than that of Abel.”28
How beautiful my Mother Church is! In Heris contained, concealed in the white Host, the
tell us in an idyll of love the whole secret ofour One Trinity!
Mary cooperated through Her fiat, on the dayof the Incarnation, with the donation of theThree divine Persons to the Church, to such ex-tent that the Three were expecting Her ‘yes’ inorder to give Themselves. Driven by the HolySpirit, the Word was handed over as a gift bythe Father to the Mother of the Church, and fromHer womb, through Her maternal will, theretook place the donation of God to men, therestoration of humanity and the grafting of menonto God.
It is wonderful to contemplate the Lady, asMother of the Church, while receiving, togeth-er with all Her children, the great gift of Godto man through the Word; and it is wonderfulto contemplate the Lady in the divine plan closeto the Incarnate Word, in order to give life tomen, from God’s side.
Mary is introduced into the whole divineplan, so much so, that if She had not cooper-ated in one same will with God on this plan,the eternal plans for the Church and the worldwould not have been fulfilled.
Therefore Mary, introduced into God’s plan,on the day of the Incarnation, and later on theCross, gave Her Son to the Church and, togetherwith Him, She delivered Herself; and with the
20 21
26 Jdt 15: 9. 27 Lk 1: 49. 48. 28 Heb 12: 22-24.
Son She hands over to us the Father and theHoly Spirit, according to the thought of God;Who created us solely and exclusively to pos-sess Him, by making us His children, sharersin divine life and heirs to His glory.
Mary is “the pride of Jerusalem, the glory ofIsrael, the honour of our People”26, because forHer sake “the Mighty One has done greatthings” and for this “from now on will all agescall Her blessed.”27
A royal cloak of blood shrouds my MotherChurch; a royal cloak that Her Bridegroom,Christ Jesus, on the wedding day put on Her,since, driven crazy with love for Her, gave Heras a gift all His divine Blood with which Shecould forgive, penetrate and divinize all Her chil-dren. “You have approached Mount Zion andthe city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa-lem, and countless angels in festal gathering, andthe assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,and God the judge of all, and the spirits of thejust made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of anew covenant, and the sprinkled blood thatspeaks more eloquently than that of Abel.”28
How beautiful my Mother Church is! In Heris contained, concealed in the white Host, the
tell us in an idyll of love the whole secret ofour One Trinity!
Mary cooperated through Her fiat, on the dayof the Incarnation, with the donation of theThree divine Persons to the Church, to such ex-tent that the Three were expecting Her ‘yes’ inorder to give Themselves. Driven by the HolySpirit, the Word was handed over as a gift bythe Father to the Mother of the Church, and fromHer womb, through Her maternal will, theretook place the donation of God to men, therestoration of humanity and the grafting of menonto God.
It is wonderful to contemplate the Lady, asMother of the Church, while receiving, togeth-er with all Her children, the great gift of Godto man through the Word; and it is wonderfulto contemplate the Lady in the divine plan closeto the Incarnate Word, in order to give life tomen, from God’s side.
Mary is introduced into the whole divineplan, so much so, that if She had not cooper-ated in one same will with God on this plan,the eternal plans for the Church and the worldwould not have been fulfilled.
Therefore Mary, introduced into God’s plan,on the day of the Incarnation, and later on theCross, gave Her Son to the Church and, togetherwith Him, She delivered Herself; and with the
20 21
26 Jdt 15: 9. 27 Lk 1: 49. 48. 28 Heb 12: 22-24.
who lives in the state of grace has by partici-pation what God has by nature, as He made us“sharers in His divine nature,”30 each one in themeasure of their being Church, which is that oftheir transformation into God.
My Church, You have within Your bosom allthe attributes and perfections of God’s being,Who in infinity of nuances, pours Himself overYou bedecking You and beautifying You withHis same beauty, You being like the Womanclothed in sun of the book of Revelation.
My Church, You are the truth, the holiness,the union, the charity, the fatherhood; becauseYour royal Head is the Word Himself Whocomes forth from the Father’s Bosom. And Youare so simple, that this Word, when He creat-ed You, clothed Himself in a human nature, andwilled to entrust You and perpetuate in You Hismission of evangelizing the poor, “having be-come poor He who is infinite Richness, to en-rich us with His poverty”31.
You, with Christ and through Christ, are theMother of all souls. They have all been creat-ed to enter into Your bosom, to be Your mem-bers; they are all called by God to contemplatethe Word that comes forth from the Most HighGod Himself, manifesting Himself through Your
Infinite Word Himself, expressing in every ta-bernacle on earth, in an incomprehensible si-lence, the eternal love that for my motherChurch Her divine Bridegroom had, Who, will-ing to remain with Her until the end of time,conceals Himself under the appearance of asmall piece of bread, so that She can give to allHer children the same eternal Word that She haswithin Her bosom as food and drink: “Whoevereats my flesh and drinks my blood remains inme and I in him. Just as the living Father sentme and I have life because of the Father, soalso the one who feeds on me will have life be-cause of me.”29
The Church is the Incarnate Word, with Hismost Holy Mother, with all the Apostles, theMartyrs, the virgins, the Saints…
But the Church, on being so beautiful andso fruitful, is not only Church in all Her livingand life-giving members, Who contemplateswith the Father, sings with the Word and burnswith the Holy Spirit; She is not only the join-ing together of all Her members who, united,form the Whole and mystical Christ, but rather,each one of those who live their being Churchshares all the beauties which spring up in in-finity from the Father’s Bosom. Because, byvirtue of their being Church, every Christian
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29 Jn 6: 56-57. 30 2 Pt 1: 4. 31 Cfr. 2 Cor 8: 9.
who lives in the state of grace has by partici-pation what God has by nature, as He made us“sharers in His divine nature,”30 each one in themeasure of their being Church, which is that oftheir transformation into God.
My Church, You have within Your bosom allthe attributes and perfections of God’s being,Who in infinity of nuances, pours Himself overYou bedecking You and beautifying You withHis same beauty, You being like the Womanclothed in sun of the book of Revelation.
My Church, You are the truth, the holiness,the union, the charity, the fatherhood; becauseYour royal Head is the Word Himself Whocomes forth from the Father’s Bosom. And Youare so simple, that this Word, when He creat-ed You, clothed Himself in a human nature, andwilled to entrust You and perpetuate in You Hismission of evangelizing the poor, “having be-come poor He who is infinite Richness, to en-rich us with His poverty”31.
You, with Christ and through Christ, are theMother of all souls. They have all been creat-ed to enter into Your bosom, to be Your mem-bers; they are all called by God to contemplatethe Word that comes forth from the Most HighGod Himself, manifesting Himself through Your
Infinite Word Himself, expressing in every ta-bernacle on earth, in an incomprehensible si-lence, the eternal love that for my motherChurch Her divine Bridegroom had, Who, will-ing to remain with Her until the end of time,conceals Himself under the appearance of asmall piece of bread, so that She can give to allHer children the same eternal Word that She haswithin Her bosom as food and drink: “Whoevereats my flesh and drinks my blood remains inme and I in him. Just as the living Father sentme and I have life because of the Father, soalso the one who feeds on me will have life be-cause of me.”29
The Church is the Incarnate Word, with Hismost Holy Mother, with all the Apostles, theMartyrs, the virgins, the Saints…
But the Church, on being so beautiful andso fruitful, is not only Church in all Her livingand life-giving members, Who contemplateswith the Father, sings with the Word and burnswith the Holy Spirit; She is not only the join-ing together of all Her members who, united,form the Whole and mystical Christ, but rather,each one of those who live their being Churchshares all the beauties which spring up in in-finity from the Father’s Bosom. Because, byvirtue of their being Church, every Christian
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29 Jn 6: 56-57. 30 2 Pt 1: 4. 31 Cfr. 2 Cor 8: 9.
Your Mother’s bosom, to vivify all of us, givingus the food broken into small pieces, accord-ing to the times, races and capacity of each oneof Your children.
My Church, how beautiful You are…! “Youare an enclosed garden, sister of mine,”33 con-taining within Your fence all of God’s being,which, gushing forth into You, divinizes all thesouls that enter into Your Sheepfold; “a foun-tain sealed”34 with the seal of the living Godand of the Lamb, which adorns and bedecksYour Queenly forehead.
My Church, You are always singing the Songthat the Word has laid into Your bosom. Youare singing, my Church, the divine life in everycorner of the globe, which is the great missionfor which the Word became flesh and that hasbeen entrusted to You by Him.
And this Church of mine which is so beauti-ful, so fruitful, such a Lady, such a Queen andso divine, is the pride of my Church-soul. I haveno other joy nor happiness than to be a daugh-ter of the Church, because She alone makes medaughter of God, sharer in and heir to His glory!
I see, in the bosom of this Holy Mother ofmine, some open caverns, not healed, bleeding,
mouth, burning in the gladdening flames of theHoly Spirit.
O, my Church, how the Word of the Fatheris singing within Your bosom…! Everywherethe Word is singing in the Eucharist in a silentcanticle of loving expression; that selfsameWord Who in the bloodless Sacrifice of theAltar, perpetuation of the Incarnation, life, deathand resurrection of Christ, is offering Himselfas a victim in a bloody cry of eternal and infini-te love.
Word of the Father, how You sing in YourChurch…! The whole Church is burning in theimpetuous fire of the Holy Spirit, She is clothedin royal purple by the Blood of the Lamb ofGod which, welling up in torrents, is outpouredthrough the sacraments over all the childrenwho want to be soaked in that divine Blood.
My Church, You are Christ, and with Him,through Him, and in Him, Priest, Victim andAltar; perennial Sacrifice that is offered “so thatthey may know the Father and the one WhomHe sent, Jesus Christ.”32 You have the marvelousand divine mission of singing, burning in thefire of the Holy Spirit, His infinite Song, as thefruit of Your contemplation with the Father. Youare the One Who has to give us the living dog-ma, in loving wisdom, which is contained in
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32 Cfr. Jn 17: 3. 33 Sg 4: 12. 34 Sg 4: 12.
Your Mother’s bosom, to vivify all of us, givingus the food broken into small pieces, accord-ing to the times, races and capacity of each oneof Your children.
My Church, how beautiful You are…! “Youare an enclosed garden, sister of mine,”33 con-taining within Your fence all of God’s being,which, gushing forth into You, divinizes all thesouls that enter into Your Sheepfold; “a foun-tain sealed”34 with the seal of the living Godand of the Lamb, which adorns and bedecksYour Queenly forehead.
My Church, You are always singing the Songthat the Word has laid into Your bosom. Youare singing, my Church, the divine life in everycorner of the globe, which is the great missionfor which the Word became flesh and that hasbeen entrusted to You by Him.
And this Church of mine which is so beauti-ful, so fruitful, such a Lady, such a Queen andso divine, is the pride of my Church-soul. I haveno other joy nor happiness than to be a daugh-ter of the Church, because She alone makes medaughter of God, sharer in and heir to His glory!
I see, in the bosom of this Holy Mother ofmine, some open caverns, not healed, bleeding,
mouth, burning in the gladdening flames of theHoly Spirit.
O, my Church, how the Word of the Fatheris singing within Your bosom…! Everywherethe Word is singing in the Eucharist in a silentcanticle of loving expression; that selfsameWord Who in the bloodless Sacrifice of theAltar, perpetuation of the Incarnation, life, deathand resurrection of Christ, is offering Himselfas a victim in a bloody cry of eternal and infini-te love.
Word of the Father, how You sing in YourChurch…! The whole Church is burning in theimpetuous fire of the Holy Spirit, She is clothedin royal purple by the Blood of the Lamb ofGod which, welling up in torrents, is outpouredthrough the sacraments over all the childrenwho want to be soaked in that divine Blood.
My Church, You are Christ, and with Him,through Him, and in Him, Priest, Victim andAltar; perennial Sacrifice that is offered “so thatthey may know the Father and the one WhomHe sent, Jesus Christ.”32 You have the marvelousand divine mission of singing, burning in thefire of the Holy Spirit, His infinite Song, as thefruit of Your contemplation with the Father. Youare the One Who has to give us the living dog-ma, in loving wisdom, which is contained in
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32 Cfr. Jn 17: 3. 33 Sg 4: 12. 34 Sg 4: 12.
heart-rendingly, sconsolately and bitterly throughChrist’s Vicar on earth: “Unity, Unity…!”
Let those children come, who, separatingthemselves from the Father’s house, left theMother Church torn asunder, crying for their ab-sence…!
And the Church, with Her merciful bosom,outpouring Herself in the love of the Holy Spirit,goes on clamouring, ready to forgive with theBlood of the Lamb those children who, on leav-ing the Sheepfold of the Good Shepherd, leftHer covered with a mourning cloak, with whichShe covers, and hides, the vast open woundsthat those children left open when they aban-doned Her, crying with the Prophet: “They haveforsaken me, the source of living waters; Theyhave dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns”36;and with Christ: “Let anyone who thirsts cometo me and drink, I will give him a gift of life-giving water, that springs to eternal life!”37
The Church is crying out through the HolyFather: Unity! She is crying out, as though witha cry of alarm: Unity! Because She sees with Herdivine look that the devil is confusing souls, scat-tering the little sheep of the Good Shepherd’sFlock. “Tell me, you whom my heart loves,where you pasture your flock, where you give
awaiting to be filled with the return of somechildren, who, when they went away, left Herwounded, tearing Her loving bosom apart. Andthey went away because they did not know theirMother the Church, because, although they wereChurch and perhaps teaching Church, they didnot know their being Church well. If they hadknown what being Church is, and the infiniteand fruitful truth that is havened in the bosomof this Holy Mother, and how the Church lovesthem and waits for them, and how She has beentorn, and how deeply they have left Her wound-ed, shattered and mutilated, these children, whowere most favoured children of Her loving andcosy bosom, would not have gone away fromthe Father’s House “wandering after the flocksof their companions”35!
They have left Her Mother’s bosom becausethey did not know the infinite happiness thatlies in Her bosom, and because we, those whoare Church sheltered under the See of Peter, bynot living profoundly Her riches, have disfig-ured with our faults, heedlessness, lukewarm-ness, cowardice, and even betrayals, the beau-tiful face of this Holy Mother.
And now the Church is like the father of theprodigal son, going out to meet him and look-ing out from Her divine height, clamouring
26 27
35 Sg 1: 7. 36 Jer 2: 13. 37 Jn 7: 37; Rv 21: 6.
heart-rendingly, sconsolately and bitterly throughChrist’s Vicar on earth: “Unity, Unity…!”
Let those children come, who, separatingthemselves from the Father’s house, left theMother Church torn asunder, crying for their ab-sence…!
And the Church, with Her merciful bosom,outpouring Herself in the love of the Holy Spirit,goes on clamouring, ready to forgive with theBlood of the Lamb those children who, on leav-ing the Sheepfold of the Good Shepherd, leftHer covered with a mourning cloak, with whichShe covers, and hides, the vast open woundsthat those children left open when they aban-doned Her, crying with the Prophet: “They haveforsaken me, the source of living waters; Theyhave dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns”36;and with Christ: “Let anyone who thirsts cometo me and drink, I will give him a gift of life-giving water, that springs to eternal life!”37
The Church is crying out through the HolyFather: Unity! She is crying out, as though witha cry of alarm: Unity! Because She sees with Herdivine look that the devil is confusing souls, scat-tering the little sheep of the Good Shepherd’sFlock. “Tell me, you whom my heart loves,where you pasture your flock, where you give
awaiting to be filled with the return of somechildren, who, when they went away, left Herwounded, tearing Her loving bosom apart. Andthey went away because they did not know theirMother the Church, because, although they wereChurch and perhaps teaching Church, they didnot know their being Church well. If they hadknown what being Church is, and the infiniteand fruitful truth that is havened in the bosomof this Holy Mother, and how the Church lovesthem and waits for them, and how She has beentorn, and how deeply they have left Her wound-ed, shattered and mutilated, these children, whowere most favoured children of Her loving andcosy bosom, would not have gone away fromthe Father’s House “wandering after the flocksof their companions”35!
They have left Her Mother’s bosom becausethey did not know the infinite happiness thatlies in Her bosom, and because we, those whoare Church sheltered under the See of Peter, bynot living profoundly Her riches, have disfig-ured with our faults, heedlessness, lukewarm-ness, cowardice, and even betrayals, the beau-tiful face of this Holy Mother.
And now the Church is like the father of theprodigal son, going out to meet him and look-ing out from Her divine height, clamouring
26 27
35 Sg 1: 7. 36 Jer 2: 13. 37 Jn 7: 37; Rv 21: 6.
“Your kingdom come,”42 through the lovingknowledge of the treasure of my Church, whichis the Father and the Holy Spirit with Christ andMary dwelling in Her, with all the gifts andcharisms that the Trinity Itself laid in Her bos-om the day It wedded Her “in justice and love.”43
“Your will be done on earth”44 of unity, in theimage of Your divine unity, of all those who,having left the Church’s bosom, feel somehowthey are Church, and desire to live, although dis-persed from the Father’s House, the mystery ofChrist, Who gives Himself to us in all His divinereality in the precious amphora, filled to the brimand saturated with Divinity, of the Holy MotherChurch, Catholic, Apostolic and under the Seeand shelter of Peter; who, as a good Shepherd,become one with “Christ, and Him crucified,”45
has to “lay down His life for His sheep.”46
O, my Church, these separated children arethose who have Your bosom torn apart withYour vast open wounds, those vast woundswhich nobody but they can fill, and that willremain open without healing until their return.
You have other children who, living withinYour own bosom, are wandering dead, floating
them rest at midday, lest I be found wanderingafter the flocks of your companions.”38
Unity! The Word is crying out in the Bosomof the Father and in the bosom of His Churchthrough Peter, to whom He Himself said onfounding Her: “You are Peter, and upon thisrock I will build my Church. I will give you thekeys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever youbind on earth shall be bound in heaven; andwhatever you loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven.”39 “I have prayed that your own faithmay not fail; and once you have turned back,you must strengthen your brothers.”40
And this Peter, who is the Holy Father, iscrying out from God’s bosom together with theWord: Unity of all the little sheep and all theshepherds in His Sheepfold…!
Unity! The Church cries out, praying to theFather.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be yourname,”41 known, loved and spread out through-out all the boundaries of earth, lived in its plen-itude by all the little sheep of the Good She-pherd’s Sheepfold, and sung and manifested toall souls.
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38 Sg 1: 7.39 Mt 16: 18a. 19.
40 Lk 22: 32.41 Mt 6: 9.
42 Mt 6: 10.43 Hos 2: 21.
44 Mt 6: 10.45 1 Cor 2: 2.
46 Jn 10: 15.
“Your kingdom come,”42 through the lovingknowledge of the treasure of my Church, whichis the Father and the Holy Spirit with Christ andMary dwelling in Her, with all the gifts andcharisms that the Trinity Itself laid in Her bos-om the day It wedded Her “in justice and love.”43
“Your will be done on earth”44 of unity, in theimage of Your divine unity, of all those who,having left the Church’s bosom, feel somehowthey are Church, and desire to live, although dis-persed from the Father’s House, the mystery ofChrist, Who gives Himself to us in all His divinereality in the precious amphora, filled to the brimand saturated with Divinity, of the Holy MotherChurch, Catholic, Apostolic and under the Seeand shelter of Peter; who, as a good Shepherd,become one with “Christ, and Him crucified,”45
has to “lay down His life for His sheep.”46
O, my Church, these separated children arethose who have Your bosom torn apart withYour vast open wounds, those vast woundswhich nobody but they can fill, and that willremain open without healing until their return.
You have other children who, living withinYour own bosom, are wandering dead, floating
them rest at midday, lest I be found wanderingafter the flocks of your companions.”38
Unity! The Word is crying out in the Bosomof the Father and in the bosom of His Churchthrough Peter, to whom He Himself said onfounding Her: “You are Peter, and upon thisrock I will build my Church. I will give you thekeys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever youbind on earth shall be bound in heaven; andwhatever you loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven.”39 “I have prayed that your own faithmay not fail; and once you have turned back,you must strengthen your brothers.”40
And this Peter, who is the Holy Father, iscrying out from God’s bosom together with theWord: Unity of all the little sheep and all theshepherds in His Sheepfold…!
Unity! The Church cries out, praying to theFather.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be yourname,”41 known, loved and spread out through-out all the boundaries of earth, lived in its plen-itude by all the little sheep of the Good She-pherd’s Sheepfold, and sung and manifested toall souls.
28 29
38 Sg 1: 7.39 Mt 16: 18a. 19.
40 Lk 22: 32.41 Mt 6: 9.
42 Mt 6: 10.43 Hos 2: 21.
44 Mt 6: 10.45 1 Cor 2: 2.
46 Jn 10: 15.
which are called to be continuers of the mis-sion of Christ, choke with their feeble and sicklife the expansion of the divine beats of YourMother’s heart, which wants to launch theproclamation of eternal love, that Your Bride-groom is continuing through You all times en-during, so that all Your children, living their di-vine filiation, united with their Head, ChristJesus, and Mary, the Mother of the Church,forming the Whole Christ, may give to all soulsthe infinite life that burns in the bosom of theTrinity.
Dear Mother, Daughter of Jerusalem, whowill be able to relieve Your grief…?
You are “Rachel mourning her dead chil-dren,”49 those lost children who left the Father’sHouse; and in Your Gethsemane, You alsoweep for the coldness, lukewarmness and love-lessness of Your consecrated souls.
My Church, New and Heavenly Jerusalem,You stand on the cross celebrating Your peren-nial Mass which You offer for all souls to spreadout “the knowledge of the Lord throughout allthe earth as waters cover the sea,”50 and You aresuffering the lovelessness of many of Your con-secrated souls… of Your priests…; and even,sometimes, of some of the Successors of Apos-
corpses, who deeply injure Your maternal bos-om, and they are, Mother of mine, those who,being Your children through baptism and faith,live in mortal sin.
You also have other children who, being inthe state of grace, do not live on the infinitelife which is contained in Your bosom, and aresick and paralytic members.
Dear Mother, I see that You have a legionof souls which are the chosen people, thebeloved portion of the Good Shepherd’s flock.These are Your priests and consecrated souls;those who, in an eminent manner, “ran attract-ed by the scent of your perfumes, for youranointed oils are delicate and your name spo-ken is a spreading perfume; that is why maid-ens love you.”47 Those on whom Jesus set allHis hope and on whom He mainly laid thetreasure and the mission of Your Mother’s bos-om; that treasure which lies in launching to allsouls the infinite life that God our Father wantsto give us through Your face, O Church, as con-tinuer of the same mission for which YourBridegroom became incarnate.
These children of Yours, many times, myChurch, are “a resounding gong.”48 Because thevoluntary imperfections of many of the souls
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47 Sg 1: 2-3. 48 1 Cor 13: 1. 49 Jer 31: 15. 50 Is 11: 9.
which are called to be continuers of the mis-sion of Christ, choke with their feeble and sicklife the expansion of the divine beats of YourMother’s heart, which wants to launch theproclamation of eternal love, that Your Bride-groom is continuing through You all times en-during, so that all Your children, living their di-vine filiation, united with their Head, ChristJesus, and Mary, the Mother of the Church,forming the Whole Christ, may give to all soulsthe infinite life that burns in the bosom of theTrinity.
Dear Mother, Daughter of Jerusalem, whowill be able to relieve Your grief…?
You are “Rachel mourning her dead chil-dren,”49 those lost children who left the Father’sHouse; and in Your Gethsemane, You alsoweep for the coldness, lukewarmness and love-lessness of Your consecrated souls.
My Church, New and Heavenly Jerusalem,You stand on the cross celebrating Your peren-nial Mass which You offer for all souls to spreadout “the knowledge of the Lord throughout allthe earth as waters cover the sea,”50 and You aresuffering the lovelessness of many of Your con-secrated souls… of Your priests…; and even,sometimes, of some of the Successors of Apos-
corpses, who deeply injure Your maternal bos-om, and they are, Mother of mine, those who,being Your children through baptism and faith,live in mortal sin.
You also have other children who, being inthe state of grace, do not live on the infinitelife which is contained in Your bosom, and aresick and paralytic members.
Dear Mother, I see that You have a legionof souls which are the chosen people, thebeloved portion of the Good Shepherd’s flock.These are Your priests and consecrated souls;those who, in an eminent manner, “ran attract-ed by the scent of your perfumes, for youranointed oils are delicate and your name spo-ken is a spreading perfume; that is why maid-ens love you.”47 Those on whom Jesus set allHis hope and on whom He mainly laid thetreasure and the mission of Your Mother’s bos-om; that treasure which lies in launching to allsouls the infinite life that God our Father wantsto give us through Your face, O Church, as con-tinuer of the same mission for which YourBridegroom became incarnate.
These children of Yours, many times, myChurch, are “a resounding gong.”48 Because thevoluntary imperfections of many of the souls
30 31
47 Sg 1: 2-3. 48 1 Cor 13: 1. 49 Jer 31: 15. 50 Is 11: 9.
mankind through the Incarnation of the Word tobe outpoured upon man and to associate himwith Itself in such a manner, that the wholeChurch is the Christ of the Father, burning in thelove of the Holy Spirit; therefore Divinity delightsin Its Church, even though She is dark owed tothe sins of Her children who have left Her likethat: “You are dark but lovely, O daughter ofJerusalem,”53 “your eyes are doves,”54 enlight-ened by the sapiental light of the Holy Spirit.
The Church, by being Christ, is the speechof God to men, and what She has to tell themis the explanation of the Word Himself Who,through His humanity, manifests Himself to usin an idyll of love in divine and human speech.Therefore, when I look on my Holy Church, Isee Her grafted onto Divinity Itself through theWord, Who by His humanity, has joined all mento Himself, making out of all of them the WholeChrist.
God wills to give Himself to man and cre-ates a humanity onto which all His children aregrafted, and unites it to Himself in a personalunion, and This is the Whole Christ, Head andmembers.
God, in Himself, is a donation of infiniterichness that gives Himself to the Word, and
tles, to whom Jesus entrusted the shepherdingof His Church –“Go into the whole world andproclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoeverbelieves and is baptized will be saved; whoev-er does not believe will be condemned. Theywent forth and preached everywhere, while theLord worked with them and confirmed the wordthrough accompanying signs”51–; since there areamongst Your Shepherds, Holy Church, thosewho, because they do not know You well, donot take from Your bosom the mission that theWord laid in You to be continued throughout alltimes; and those who, like Judas, are salariedshepherds, “ravenous wolves in sheep’s cloth-ing”52 and meek lamb, these ones becoming arock of scandal and ruin of souls.
God willed to give Himself to man and HeHimself became flesh. And through this mystery,a great wonder has come into being betweenGod and His creature, and it is that the Peopleof God has become so divine, that one of themis God; Christ being the representative of all Hisbrethren, and He is, by His Divinity, the OnlyBegotten Son of the Father. And by this it is un-derstood that Christ is the Head of the wholeChurch and that all of Her is called “the WholeChrist.” Since Divinity has been united with
32 33
51 Mk 16: 15-16. 20. 52 Mt 7: 15. 53 Sg 1: 5. 54 Sg 1: 15.
mankind through the Incarnation of the Word tobe outpoured upon man and to associate himwith Itself in such a manner, that the wholeChurch is the Christ of the Father, burning in thelove of the Holy Spirit; therefore Divinity delightsin Its Church, even though She is dark owed tothe sins of Her children who have left Her likethat: “You are dark but lovely, O daughter ofJerusalem,”53 “your eyes are doves,”54 enlight-ened by the sapiental light of the Holy Spirit.
The Church, by being Christ, is the speechof God to men, and what She has to tell themis the explanation of the Word Himself Who,through His humanity, manifests Himself to usin an idyll of love in divine and human speech.Therefore, when I look on my Holy Church, Isee Her grafted onto Divinity Itself through theWord, Who by His humanity, has joined all mento Himself, making out of all of them the WholeChrist.
God wills to give Himself to man and cre-ates a humanity onto which all His children aregrafted, and unites it to Himself in a personalunion, and This is the Whole Christ, Head andmembers.
God, in Himself, is a donation of infiniterichness that gives Himself to the Word, and
tles, to whom Jesus entrusted the shepherdingof His Church –“Go into the whole world andproclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoeverbelieves and is baptized will be saved; whoev-er does not believe will be condemned. Theywent forth and preached everywhere, while theLord worked with them and confirmed the wordthrough accompanying signs”51–; since there areamongst Your Shepherds, Holy Church, thosewho, because they do not know You well, donot take from Your bosom the mission that theWord laid in You to be continued throughout alltimes; and those who, like Judas, are salariedshepherds, “ravenous wolves in sheep’s cloth-ing”52 and meek lamb, these ones becoming arock of scandal and ruin of souls.
God willed to give Himself to man and HeHimself became flesh. And through this mystery,a great wonder has come into being betweenGod and His creature, and it is that the Peopleof God has become so divine, that one of themis God; Christ being the representative of all Hisbrethren, and He is, by His Divinity, the OnlyBegotten Son of the Father. And by this it is un-derstood that Christ is the Head of the wholeChurch and that all of Her is called “the WholeChrist.” Since Divinity has been united with
32 33
51 Mk 16: 15-16. 20. 52 Mt 7: 15. 53 Sg 1: 5. 54 Sg 1: 15.
Father, as a gift of response to His donation forthe sake of our souls.
Children separated from the Church, come toHer “Mother’s bosom which is a precious am-phora, that will never lack for mixed wine; andHer womb is a heap of wheat encircled withlilies”55; listen to the voice of the Good Shepherdwho is crying out: “Unity.” Expression of thatinfinite union of the three divine Persons. “Thatthey may all be one, as You, Father, are in meand I in You, that they may also be in us, sothat the world may believe that You sent me.”56
All you Catholics, hear the voice of YourHoly Mother Church Who calls you to fullycommunicate with Her, to live on Her divinelife. Hear “her voice which is sweet”57 and gen-tle to God’s palate; since Her voice is the infi-nite Song of the Father, spelled out in an idyllof unprecedented tenderness towards fallen hu-manity, so that this one might return itself tothe Infinite Love and fulfill the end for whichwe have been created, being children of God,heirs to His glory and “sharers in divine life.”58
Hear the voice of the Only Begotten Son ofGod, Incarnate, that resounds in the infinite can-
This One gives Himself in return to the Fatherin the infinite love of the Holy Spirit; the lifeof the three divine Persons is thus a commu-nication of donation and reciprocation amongThemselves. God Himself in Him, through Himand for Him, in eternal subsistence of Trinita-rian life, by being donation, demands an infi-nite response, being totally rested in His ownbosom, in His need of communication.
The fruit of the Father’s look is the Word;that is why when He looks into Himself inwardsthe Word responds, burning in the love of theHoly Spirit, to the whole donation that theFather gives Him, having compiled the infinitedonation of the Father in Himself.
The Father looks outwards and gives us thefruit of His looking, which is the Word. But, asHis donation has to be requited, and the Wordis the infinite Response of the Father, the Wordgives Himself to us in the Incarnation, compilesin Himself all creation and, in the love of theHoly Spirit, gives Himself in return as responseto the Father. Here too is contained the greatmystery of the Incarnation with all its prolon-gation, which is the Whole Christ, Who has toadhere in all His members to Its Head Who isthe fruit of the Father’s look, and with Christ,through Him and in Him, burning and em-braced in the love of the Holy Spirit, to givethemselves in return to the infinite Look of the
34 35
55 Sg 7: 3.56 Jn 17: 21.
57 Sg 2: 14.58 2 Pt 1: 4.
Father, as a gift of response to His donation forthe sake of our souls.
Children separated from the Church, come toHer “Mother’s bosom which is a precious am-phora, that will never lack for mixed wine; andHer womb is a heap of wheat encircled withlilies”55; listen to the voice of the Good Shepherdwho is crying out: “Unity.” Expression of thatinfinite union of the three divine Persons. “Thatthey may all be one, as You, Father, are in meand I in You, that they may also be in us, sothat the world may believe that You sent me.”56
All you Catholics, hear the voice of YourHoly Mother Church Who calls you to fullycommunicate with Her, to live on Her divinelife. Hear “her voice which is sweet”57 and gen-tle to God’s palate; since Her voice is the infi-nite Song of the Father, spelled out in an idyllof unprecedented tenderness towards fallen hu-manity, so that this one might return itself tothe Infinite Love and fulfill the end for whichwe have been created, being children of God,heirs to His glory and “sharers in divine life.”58
Hear the voice of the Only Begotten Son ofGod, Incarnate, that resounds in the infinite can-
This One gives Himself in return to the Fatherin the infinite love of the Holy Spirit; the lifeof the three divine Persons is thus a commu-nication of donation and reciprocation amongThemselves. God Himself in Him, through Himand for Him, in eternal subsistence of Trinita-rian life, by being donation, demands an infi-nite response, being totally rested in His ownbosom, in His need of communication.
The fruit of the Father’s look is the Word;that is why when He looks into Himself inwardsthe Word responds, burning in the love of theHoly Spirit, to the whole donation that theFather gives Him, having compiled the infinitedonation of the Father in Himself.
The Father looks outwards and gives us thefruit of His looking, which is the Word. But, asHis donation has to be requited, and the Wordis the infinite Response of the Father, the Wordgives Himself to us in the Incarnation, compilesin Himself all creation and, in the love of theHoly Spirit, gives Himself in return as responseto the Father. Here too is contained the greatmystery of the Incarnation with all its prolon-gation, which is the Whole Christ, Who has toadhere in all His members to Its Head Who isthe fruit of the Father’s look, and with Christ,through Him and in Him, burning and em-braced in the love of the Holy Spirit, to givethemselves in return to the infinite Look of the
34 35
55 Sg 7: 3.56 Jn 17: 21.
57 Sg 2: 14.58 2 Pt 1: 4.
pierced His soul when, through the Gospel,painfully complains and cries out: “You do notknow me, nor do you know my Father,”62
“Righteous Father, the world has not knownYou!”; “He came to what was His own, but Hisown people did not accept Him”63?
But, how will you be able to achieve this, if,by Your scarce life of prayer, you know not theintimacy with the Divine Friend, Who is everwaiting for you? Dear soul, if at least you wouldlisten to Him, would love Him and would knowhow to receive Him…!
Let us be the intimate ones of Jesus, so that,by receiving Him lovingly, He may not be ableto tell us, maybe after a long time of priestly orconsecrated life: “I have been with you for sucha long time and you still do not know me?!” Don’tyou know that “whoever has seen me has seenthe Father”64…? “The Father and I are one.”65
You priest, consecrated soul, do you knowthe intimate heart beats of the soul of yourChrist, Who, palpitating within the soul of yourChurch and tearing it apart, is crying out: Unity!?Lean therefore, like Saint John, on His chest,for “he who rests on him will be preacher ofthe divine’s.”66
ticle of the Church, Who lovingly invites you bysaying: “Come to take from my myrrh and mybalsam, to eat from the honeycomb’s virgin hon-ey, to drink from my wine and from my milk,come and inebriate yourselves with me, mydearest.”59
All you consecrated souls, priests of Christ,who, anointed by the mildest oil, symbol ofDivinity, like the oil which, anointing Aaron’shead slid along his face spilling down to theedge of his vestments, you ought to be verymild oil that, as overabundance of your priest-ly anointment, may give to all souls this lifewhich Christ came to bring to us, as He said:“I came so that they might have life and haveit abundantly”60; “And this is eternal life, thatthey should know You, the only true God, andthe one whom You sent, Jesus Christ.”61
Do we know, priests of Christ, you all con-secrated souls, living and life-giving membersof the New People of God by our being graft-ed onto Christ, that it is us, through our life ofcommitment, of self-denial, of self-oblivion,and especially through our life of prayer, whoought to enter, living more intimately our be-ing Church, into a profound intimacy with thatFather of ours Whom Jesus Christ came tomanifest to us, and pull out the deep thorn that
36 37
59 Sg 5: 1. 60 Jn 10: 10. 61 Jn 17: 3.
62 Jn 8: 19.63 Jn 17: 25; Jn 1: 11.64 Jn 14: 9.
65 Jn 10: 30.66 Cfr. Evagrius of Pontus.
pierced His soul when, through the Gospel,painfully complains and cries out: “You do notknow me, nor do you know my Father,”62
“Righteous Father, the world has not knownYou!”; “He came to what was His own, but Hisown people did not accept Him”63?
But, how will you be able to achieve this, if,by Your scarce life of prayer, you know not theintimacy with the Divine Friend, Who is everwaiting for you? Dear soul, if at least you wouldlisten to Him, would love Him and would knowhow to receive Him…!
Let us be the intimate ones of Jesus, so that,by receiving Him lovingly, He may not be ableto tell us, maybe after a long time of priestly orconsecrated life: “I have been with you for sucha long time and you still do not know me?!” Don’tyou know that “whoever has seen me has seenthe Father”64…? “The Father and I are one.”65
You priest, consecrated soul, do you knowthe intimate heart beats of the soul of yourChrist, Who, palpitating within the soul of yourChurch and tearing it apart, is crying out: Unity!?Lean therefore, like Saint John, on His chest,for “he who rests on him will be preacher ofthe divine’s.”66
ticle of the Church, Who lovingly invites you bysaying: “Come to take from my myrrh and mybalsam, to eat from the honeycomb’s virgin hon-ey, to drink from my wine and from my milk,come and inebriate yourselves with me, mydearest.”59
All you consecrated souls, priests of Christ,who, anointed by the mildest oil, symbol ofDivinity, like the oil which, anointing Aaron’shead slid along his face spilling down to theedge of his vestments, you ought to be verymild oil that, as overabundance of your priest-ly anointment, may give to all souls this lifewhich Christ came to bring to us, as He said:“I came so that they might have life and haveit abundantly”60; “And this is eternal life, thatthey should know You, the only true God, andthe one whom You sent, Jesus Christ.”61
Do we know, priests of Christ, you all con-secrated souls, living and life-giving membersof the New People of God by our being graft-ed onto Christ, that it is us, through our life ofcommitment, of self-denial, of self-oblivion,and especially through our life of prayer, whoought to enter, living more intimately our be-ing Church, into a profound intimacy with thatFather of ours Whom Jesus Christ came tomanifest to us, and pull out the deep thorn that
36 37
59 Sg 5: 1. 60 Jn 10: 10. 61 Jn 17: 3.
62 Jn 8: 19.63 Jn 17: 25; Jn 1: 11.64 Jn 14: 9.
65 Jn 10: 30.66 Cfr. Evagrius of Pontus.
tles, and enlightening them, He inflamed themin the fire of the Holy Spirit, Who made thembreak into fiery word. And on that day of Pente-cost, the three divine Persons, springing forthtowards Their nascent Church, bejeweled andbedecked Her.
My Church, how beautiful You are…! “Drawme! We will follow you eagerly! Bring me, Oking, to your chambers. With you we rejoiceand exult, we extol your love; it is beyondwine.”71
How beautiful You are…! “As a lily amongthistles, so is my love among the maidens.”72
“Her Beloved has taken Her to the banquet halland His emblem over Her is an emblem oflove.”73
O, my Church! We say to You with the Bri-degroom: “Show us your face, let us hear yourvoice”74; for Your voice is gentle, because it isthe Word’s voice, and Your face is lovable, be-cause it reflects Divinity Itself. “Your eyes aredoves”75 whose divine beams, from the heart ofYour Apostles, glared in all souls with the samelight and love which is God.
My Church, beloved Mother, joy and delightof God Himself, advance triumphally! You are
You, at least, are you a flowery garden, anenclosed orchard, who by living in intimacywith Christ, have no other movements in yoursoul than those of His most holy soul, pene-trating the painful beats which lacerated itdeeply? Do you know that Jesus, by being theWord of the Father, all He essentially does, be-cause of His Person, is to express within thebosom of the Church the infinite secret of di-vine life?
He, by dying on the cross, bursting intoblood, let out the loudest possible cry of infi-nite love.
And His bosom was painfully torn apartwhen He saw the lovelessness of souls, because“the Light came to the darkness and the dark-ness did not receive it”67; and amongst them,many of His consecrated souls, therefore Hecried out: “I thirst”68; for communicating divinelife to them “in abundance…”69! And depositingin His Catholic and Apostolic Church, foundedon the Rock of Peter, the mission for which Hebecame incarnate, He let out the supreme cryof eternal love towards the Father and towardsmen clamouring: “All is accomplished.”70
Returning to the Father, whence He hadcome out, He poured Himself over His Apos-
38 39
67 Jn 1: 5.68 Jn 19: 28.
69 Jn 10: 10.70 Jn 19: 30.
71 Sg 1: 4.72 Sg 2: 2.
73 Sg 2: 4.74 Sg 2: 14.
75 Sg 1: 15.
tles, and enlightening them, He inflamed themin the fire of the Holy Spirit, Who made thembreak into fiery word. And on that day of Pente-cost, the three divine Persons, springing forthtowards Their nascent Church, bejeweled andbedecked Her.
My Church, how beautiful You are…! “Drawme! We will follow you eagerly! Bring me, Oking, to your chambers. With you we rejoiceand exult, we extol your love; it is beyondwine.”71
How beautiful You are…! “As a lily amongthistles, so is my love among the maidens.”72
“Her Beloved has taken Her to the banquet halland His emblem over Her is an emblem oflove.”73
O, my Church! We say to You with the Bri-degroom: “Show us your face, let us hear yourvoice”74; for Your voice is gentle, because it isthe Word’s voice, and Your face is lovable, be-cause it reflects Divinity Itself. “Your eyes aredoves”75 whose divine beams, from the heart ofYour Apostles, glared in all souls with the samelight and love which is God.
My Church, beloved Mother, joy and delightof God Himself, advance triumphally! You are
You, at least, are you a flowery garden, anenclosed orchard, who by living in intimacywith Christ, have no other movements in yoursoul than those of His most holy soul, pene-trating the painful beats which lacerated itdeeply? Do you know that Jesus, by being theWord of the Father, all He essentially does, be-cause of His Person, is to express within thebosom of the Church the infinite secret of di-vine life?
He, by dying on the cross, bursting intoblood, let out the loudest possible cry of infi-nite love.
And His bosom was painfully torn apartwhen He saw the lovelessness of souls, because“the Light came to the darkness and the dark-ness did not receive it”67; and amongst them,many of His consecrated souls, therefore Hecried out: “I thirst”68; for communicating divinelife to them “in abundance…”69! And depositingin His Catholic and Apostolic Church, foundedon the Rock of Peter, the mission for which Hebecame incarnate, He let out the supreme cryof eternal love towards the Father and towardsmen clamouring: “All is accomplished.”70
Returning to the Father, whence He hadcome out, He poured Himself over His Apos-
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67 Jn 1: 5.68 Jn 19: 28.
69 Jn 10: 10.70 Jn 19: 30.
71 Sg 1: 4.72 Sg 2: 2.
73 Sg 2: 4.74 Sg 2: 14.
75 Sg 1: 15.
13-1-1970
EVEN THOUGH I HAVE SEEN YOU SAD
Even though I have seen You sad,dark-skinned and contorted,in hiding for Your mourningand slapped while lying on the ground;beyond Your sadness and anguish,beyond Your torn innermost being,I perceive in Your pupils,in Your profound gaze,Such an infinite lightthat it leaves me enthralled.
It is the gaze of the Wordthat, in sparkling flames,through Your pupils bursts forthinto sapiential words;expressing in a concertof melodies sacred,the perfections eternalof He Who in Your bosom rests.
Even though sometimes, in my prayer,I see You so offended,
“a tower of strength against the enemy,”76 Youare “a sealed fountain, an enclosed garden, aflorid garden.”77 You are “like an army in bat-tle,”78 ready to drive God crazy with love.
Go forth! For we, united to Your visibleHead, will sing the eternal joy of Your Mother’sbosom, entering through You into the bosomof our Father God, and in Him we will live onChrist Jesus, Who, through Mary, sang to us Hislove and Yours in Your maternal arms; andburning all souls in the fire of the Holy Spirit,we will let out a cry of Unity! living so that“one only Flock and one only Shepherd”79 maybe formed.
My Church! How beautiful You are…! Howmuch I love You!
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76 Ps 60: 4.77 Sg 4: 12.
78 Sg 6: 4.79 Jn 10: 16.
13-1-1970
EVEN THOUGH I HAVE SEEN YOU SAD
Even though I have seen You sad,dark-skinned and contorted,in hiding for Your mourningand slapped while lying on the ground;beyond Your sadness and anguish,beyond Your torn innermost being,I perceive in Your pupils,in Your profound gaze,Such an infinite lightthat it leaves me enthralled.
It is the gaze of the Wordthat, in sparkling flames,through Your pupils bursts forthinto sapiential words;expressing in a concertof melodies sacred,the perfections eternalof He Who in Your bosom rests.
Even though sometimes, in my prayer,I see You so offended,
“a tower of strength against the enemy,”76 Youare “a sealed fountain, an enclosed garden, aflorid garden.”77 You are “like an army in bat-tle,”78 ready to drive God crazy with love.
Go forth! For we, united to Your visibleHead, will sing the eternal joy of Your Mother’sbosom, entering through You into the bosomof our Father God, and in Him we will live onChrist Jesus, Who, through Mary, sang to us Hislove and Yours in Your maternal arms; andburning all souls in the fire of the Holy Spirit,we will let out a cry of Unity! living so that“one only Flock and one only Shepherd”79 maybe formed.
My Church! How beautiful You are…! Howmuch I love You!
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76 Ps 60: 4.77 Sg 4: 12.
78 Sg 6: 4.79 Jn 10: 16.
Church, how beautiful You are…!like a bedecked Bride,surrounded by the childrenwho, coming in the morninginto God’s eternal day,flatter You in His banquet.And “there,” without mourning veil,without Your contorted face,without Your weeping gaze,with Your crowned temples,I see You overflowing with Lightof bursting cataracts,resting and being aflameon the breast of the One You love.
Your cheeks are bright starsthrough which the Sun is outpoured,like a kindled volcanoof cooling flames.
I see You full of children,as a wedded virgin,palpitating and overflowing,like a Bride in love,with the infinite springof the bliss that flows forth into You.
Church, You are the same…!Even though I see You cast down,even if You ask me for help…
And even though You hide Your face from me,
I always glimpse in Your lifethe richness that overcomes You,the Springs that flood You,when I look on You in Your gaze.
Church, how I see You…!As divine as You are human!for it is the Word Who expresses Himselfas You proclaim Your song;while I contemplate Youin Your being fully soakedin eternal wisdomby Your divine Word;full of infinite giftsand brimming with charitywhen I gaze on You in Your depths,though You hide Your face from me.
And even if You want to show Yourselfto my being so offended,cast to the ground and tearful,panting and bent over,You know that I know You;and that, no matter how humiliatedYou appear before meI see in Your silent griefthe Bridegroom Who, on Your bosom,resting, is havened.
Since, even though I know You are sadand in Your members exiled,I also know that You are gloriousin the Feast of the One You love.
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Church, how beautiful You are…!like a bedecked Bride,surrounded by the childrenwho, coming in the morninginto God’s eternal day,flatter You in His banquet.And “there,” without mourning veil,without Your contorted face,without Your weeping gaze,with Your crowned temples,I see You overflowing with Lightof bursting cataracts,resting and being aflameon the breast of the One You love.
Your cheeks are bright starsthrough which the Sun is outpoured,like a kindled volcanoof cooling flames.
I see You full of children,as a wedded virgin,palpitating and overflowing,like a Bride in love,with the infinite springof the bliss that flows forth into You.
Church, You are the same…!Even though I see You cast down,even if You ask me for help…
And even though You hide Your face from me,
I always glimpse in Your lifethe richness that overcomes You,the Springs that flood You,when I look on You in Your gaze.
Church, how I see You…!As divine as You are human!for it is the Word Who expresses Himselfas You proclaim Your song;while I contemplate Youin Your being fully soakedin eternal wisdomby Your divine Word;full of infinite giftsand brimming with charitywhen I gaze on You in Your depths,though You hide Your face from me.
And even if You want to show Yourselfto my being so offended,cast to the ground and tearful,panting and bent over,You know that I know You;and that, no matter how humiliatedYou appear before meI see in Your silent griefthe Bridegroom Who, on Your bosom,resting, is havened.
Since, even though I know You are sadand in Your members exiled,I also know that You are gloriousin the Feast of the One You love.
42 43
and the little ones get scaredat the deceitful doctrine!
Uncover yourself soon, Church!and with Your power seizethe simple hearts;at the same time that You crushthe pride of the haughtywith Your Word divine…!
Stand up, Church! Delay not!today my soul begs You!for if You ask me for help,all my being is on guard,waiting for God to speakand to tell me His word.
I will go wherever He commands,I will run with no delay,but I do not want to see Youwith Your contorted face,cast to the ground and tearful,panting and bent over…!
Throw away Your mourning veil!Come on, Church, beloved Mother!and show me againthrough Your infinite Wordthe riches of the Sublime One,the beauty that overwhelms You,as the Bride of the living GodWho speaks to me behind Your nights…
enshrouding Yourself in Your cloakas an abandoned woman,I know how to look into Your anguishthe beauty which overwhelms You,the beauty of the living GodWho, behind Your nights, speaks to me.
Therefore, when I look on Youon this tarnished earth,and they want to dethrone You,although they will never succeed,my soul bursts into cryingoverwhelmed by Your pain,due to the love I bear for Youand the union which joins me to You,in the midst of darknessof gloomy dense nightsand full of painin which my soul gazes at You…
Church, stand up!and uncover Your face!Throw away Your mourning veil!reveal Yourself brimmed!and crush with Your power,with the light of Your gaze,the pride that spits Youon Your sacred cheeks…!
Stand up, Church! soon!for confusion advances
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and the little ones get scaredat the deceitful doctrine!
Uncover yourself soon, Church!and with Your power seizethe simple hearts;at the same time that You crushthe pride of the haughtywith Your Word divine…!
Stand up, Church! Delay not!today my soul begs You!for if You ask me for help,all my being is on guard,waiting for God to speakand to tell me His word.
I will go wherever He commands,I will run with no delay,but I do not want to see Youwith Your contorted face,cast to the ground and tearful,panting and bent over…!
Throw away Your mourning veil!Come on, Church, beloved Mother!and show me againthrough Your infinite Wordthe riches of the Sublime One,the beauty that overwhelms You,as the Bride of the living GodWho speaks to me behind Your nights…
enshrouding Yourself in Your cloakas an abandoned woman,I know how to look into Your anguishthe beauty which overwhelms You,the beauty of the living GodWho, behind Your nights, speaks to me.
Therefore, when I look on Youon this tarnished earth,and they want to dethrone You,although they will never succeed,my soul bursts into cryingoverwhelmed by Your pain,due to the love I bear for Youand the union which joins me to You,in the midst of darknessof gloomy dense nightsand full of painin which my soul gazes at You…
Church, stand up!and uncover Your face!Throw away Your mourning veil!reveal Yourself brimmed!and crush with Your power,with the light of Your gaze,the pride that spits Youon Your sacred cheeks…!
Stand up, Church! soon!for confusion advances
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16-11-1964
PILGRIM IN STRANGE LAND
Pilgrim in strange landI go through life suffering,at everyone smilingand within my soul sadness.
My country is not exile,in God alone my being rests,and waiting for Him day and nightmy soul is breathless,longing to be at lastnow and for ever in my Home.
Come on, Church, delay not!for my soul is zealousfor the glory of the Coeternal Oneand of His offended Bride;and if You ask my soul for help,with its militia it is on guard!
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16-11-1964
PILGRIM IN STRANGE LAND
Pilgrim in strange landI go through life suffering,at everyone smilingand within my soul sadness.
My country is not exile,in God alone my being rests,and waiting for Him day and nightmy soul is breathless,longing to be at lastnow and for ever in my Home.
Come on, Church, delay not!for my soul is zealousfor the glory of the Coeternal Oneand of His offended Bride;and if You ask my soul for help,with its militia it is on guard!
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NOTE:
I strongly advise that in all that I express bymeans of my writings, because I believe it isGod’s will and for fidelity to all that GodHimself has entrusted to me; when in the trans-lations into other languages something is notunderstood well or a clarification is desired, re-course be had to the Spanish text which I havedictated, and is the authentic one; since I havenoticed that some expressions in those transla-tions do not express my thought properly.
The authoress:
Trinidad de la Santa Madre Iglesia
Mother
The true faceof the Church
brimful and saturatedwith Divinity
My songof love
to the Church
The true faceof the Church
brimful and saturatedwith Divinity
My songof love
to the Church
CollectionLight in the night
The mystery of faithgiven with loving wisdom
No. 1