February Reflection
Love, since it is God, has no limit. It is expandable. So, by extension, if they are still around and near, love your grandparents, your relatives... your neighbors, friends, classmates, community, society, church, etc.
Love, taken step by step, will grow. It will be our platform in the resurrection to new life. If we love, surely someone will remember to pick us up. With love, we will no longer rely just on hypothesis. It will be God who is real and true. He does not forget nor renege in His promise.
Jesus Christ died for us sinners. However, on the third day, He was resurrected. God knows humans have defective short-term memory. We easily forget Him. So, He came back to Life to be with us in time. He came back to life not only for Himself, but for us, for all of us who He loves dearly. In turn, since we know that we are loved by Him, we want to do good. We want to do good because we want to live and we want the people whom we most love to live as well. We want to continuously share with them our love. The dead are already unresponsive. They can no longer appreciate our love for them. It is too late for them, so we want to do it now while they are still around and are alive.
With love, we will not die, but rather live forever.
Reflection About Our Lady
How do we respond to the love of this good heavenly Mother? Do we desire to honor her with gratitude? Have we sentiments of love for her as our Mother? Are we, like true children, striving to be like her? "Behold, thy Mother!" (Jn 19:27). According to Pope Paul VI, if Our Lady is our Mother, it is clear then that "the Church's devotedness to the Virgin Mary is an intrinsic element of the Christian Religion," and that we "cannot be Christians without being Marian."
The more Marian we are, the more Christian we become. The more fully we belong to Our Lady, the more Jesus will claim us as His own. The more we resemble the Mother of God, the more we will resemble our divine Brother, Jesus, "Son of the virginity" of Mary, as noted by Saint Ambrose. Becoming true images of Jesus in Mary is the genuine fruit of devotion to Our Lady (cf. Rom 8:29).
As Saint John the Evangelist, in receiving Our Lady, "took her into his own" (Jn 19:27), so may it be granted to us to welcome Our Lady in the dwelling of our hearts.
Reflection About Divine Will
The following is from a book titled "When the Divine Will Reigns in Souls" - Book of Heaven - by Luisa Piccarreta. This particular page was written in 1909.
The first paragraph is Luisa's thoughts, the second paragraph is Jesus speaking to her, and the one that
is most profound.
January 30, 1909
The Why
Continuing in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself; and I seemed to see a soul from Purgatory whom I knew; and I said to her: "Tell me, what is my state before God? I am so afraid, especially for the state in which I find myself." She said to me: "You need to know very little, to know if you are in a good or a bad state: if you value suffering, you are in a good state; if you do not value it, you are in a bad state. Because he who values suffering, values God; and valuing Him, he can never make Him unhappy. For the things that are valued are esteemed and guarded with care, more than oneself. And can it be possible that one would wish himself evil? So then, by valuing God, it is impossible for you to make Him unhappy."
After this, Blessed Jesus came and said to me:
"Daughter, in almost all the events that happen, creatures repeat and always say: And why? And why? And Why? Why this sickness? Why this state of soul? Why this punishment? And so many other why's. The explanation of the why is not written on earth but in Heaven, and there all shall read it. Do you know what the why is? It is egoism which gives continual food to self-love. Do you know where the why was created? In Hell. Who was the first to pronounce it? A devil. The effects that the first why produced were the loss of innocence in Eden itself, the war of the implacable passions, the ruin of many souls and all the evils of life. The history of the why is very long. It is sufficient to tell you that there is no evil in the world that does not bear the mark of the why. The why is the destruction of Divine Wisdom in souls. Do you know where the why will be buried? In Hell, to make all the lost souls restless forever, without ever giving them peace. The artful ingenuity and deceptiveness of the why is to wage war against souls, without ever giving them rest."
“When the Divine Will Reigns in Souls”, “Book of Heaven” Luisa Piccarreta