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His love of and for God

But how shall I speak of you, O divine Love, since no one can grasp you. O source of love, come to the aid of my powerlessness and make the hearts feel what reason cannot comprehend. The Heart of Jesus has loved us without limit, let us love him then without limit. O God of Love, my heart, strengthened by your mercy, will burn of love for you.

If you are loved by God, try to answer his Love and try to love him in truth. The greater our desire to love God, the more our heart will be enabled to do so.

Most loving Heart of Jesus, since you ask for my heart, here it is. I give it to you. You are the only one worthy of it, and you alone can make it happy. I give it to you so that you might heal it of all wounds of pride, selfishness, attachment to myself, lack of love for my neighbour, in a word, of all my wounds. Do not leave a single one except the wound that your love has caused. Jesus Christ, my God, I desire one thing only – a place in Your heart.

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Pray and meditate, for remember that a religious without the spirit of prayer is like a soldier without weapons, a bird without wings, a city without ramparts, a body without spirit or soul. Firmly resolve not to waste a single moment of prayer time.

In the sacrament of charity (the Eucharist), Christ’s love shines almost even more than in the mystery of his incarnation. In his incarnation he seemed to withdraw from his divinity, like in the holy sacrament he seems to abandon his human condition. By his incarnation he turned himself into the shape of a slave but in the Eucharist he is hidden under the guise of bread.

Mary has for us a mother’s heart, a heart full of love, a heart full of tenderness, always ready to help us. Among all the prayers the rosary is the prayer she loves best. While you are working like slaves or resting or sleeping there are thousands of holy and just souls who, at the same time, are fervently saying the holy rosary for you and for themselves. She is indeed a Mother of Mercy especially at the hour of death. The one who prays the rosary with devotion is like a spiritual bee alighting on the most beautiful flowers, in others words, on the principal mysteries of the life of Jesus in order to draw from them the honey of piety.

Those who are called to the active life must commit themselves to it with great fidelity! To act otherwise would upset the order established by Providence, but they must be careful to avoid illusion. They will deceive themselves if they do not have fixed times for the spiritual exercises of the contemplative life. The more one is exposed to the distractions inherent in one’s work, the more one should approach God through recollection so that one is constantly united with Him in charity.

 

His love for the neighbour, the poor person in particular

We shall nurse the sick humbly and respectfully, seeing them as though they were Jesus suffering. If certain diseases repel you, then you must rely on your strong faith, and see Jesus himself in the person before you. With the eyes of faith we shall serve the sick zealously and fervently. It is true that people have a natural aversion to the fulfilment of this task. But love should take nature’s place. Love should give us the power to banish all those feelings of sadness and revulsion. Love gives us the power nature cannot provide.

You resemble God through your love and charity; you share in the mission of Jesus Christ. And because you recognize in them the person of Jesus Christ suffering, they recognize in you the person of Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Consoler. You cannot imitate Jesus Christ more perfectly than by coming to the aid of those who live in misery.

Call me whenever you want and do not spare me, do not be afraid of disturbing me. I am happy when, in imitation of Jesus Christ, my Master, I can sacrifice for you my rest, my health, and even my life.

The Sisters will keep in mind that they are servants of the poor, and that they must serve Jesus in the persons of the poor mentally and physically ill. They will fulfil their task humbly, in all simplicity, carefully, attentively, loyally, and affectionately. Also of the most difficult patients they will take good care.

It is an honourable vocation to nurse and serve the sick. As you fulfil this service, you become a helper and a servant of God’s Providence regarding the sick. You must also realize that it is Jesus Christ himself whom you are serving when you serve the sick. It is He who benefits from your kindness, from your help. It is His limbs that you nurse with your hands.

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We must keep our hearts pure when serving the sick, and we must not tolerate that any other thoughts enter our minds. It is our duty to serve the sick at all times, but it is just as much our duty to raise up our hearts to the Lord continuously, and to render God present.

It is thanks to this spirit of love that we are capable of serving the sick with so much gladness; that we are capable of helping them in everything, of consoling them and easing their pains so that they might truly believe that we serve them with all our hearts and genuine zeal. We shall approach the sick patiently. Christ inspires us with zeal so that we might be capable of facing up to all the difficulties and the revulsion that the task of nursing the sick entails sometimes.

Treat everyone with gentleness and graciousness. Try to serve and please all as much as possible. Help the sick and the poor with the greatest care and the greatest possible attention. By your gentleness, kind words and responses make up for what you cannot possibly do for or give them.

You know, alas, the sad state of the miserable poor and sick people who never enjoy a day of happiness. Giving life to such people; providing them with clothes with which they cover their limbs; preparing medicine with which their affections, true enough, cannot be fully cured but, at least, be alleviated; distributing food so that their hunger is stilled; giving and making their beds on which they can rest their wounded and sick body; granting them another more agreeable existence by cleaning and nursing their dirty, smelly and putrefying wounds. Is this not resurrecting them and waking them from the dead, making the sun shine for them, creating for them a new earth?

As a result of this privileged choice, you are called to follow the Lord in his difficult and painful life, in his zeal for the glory of his celestial Father and the salvation of souls; as also to imitate his affability, his compassion for those who are in need, every type of sick and infirm who came or were brought to Him and whom He cured, if they or those who brought them to Him had faith in Him.