A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Spirit of the World

MARY: You live in the world and you cannot withdraw yourself from it materially, but you must be there without living in its spirit. What a turbulent whirlwind is the world! It lives on egotism because it lives with a fixation on pleasure. No ideal lifts it up beyond that of the material and even when it seems to have an ideal, it seeks only itself in vainglory and applause, in other words in the sensory satisfaction of a passion. From whence is born duplicity, fraud, lies, injustice, showing off, pride, impurity … Hence the world is like a sea during a storm, which knows no peace; he who falls into this sea feels all of the cold of its waves and is knocked around by its swirling motion until it gets smashed against the reefs of sin!

Everything in the world is vile and full of anguish; everything degrades man and makes him a slave, drying up in him the most beautiful life which is the life of the soul: fashions, make-up, vanity, infatuations, entertainments are thorns that prick and miseries that degrade! Here is the one whom you renounced in Baptism. Does it not seem to you a great grace to trample on all the rottenness of the world and to be propelled into the simplicity and peace that lead to God?

It is not a sacrifice for you to renounce the world, but a joy!

To renounce the world you don’t have to enclose yourself in a hermitage, you must only be truly Christian and live as the branch united to the vine, in the intimacy of union with Jesus Christ, into whom you have been incorporated by holy Baptism.

Look at the glorious army of the saints, that is to say those who have renounced the world. You will find them in every condition: there are faithful spouses, upright mothers, innocent virgins, young people who lived in the fresh innocence of their age; there are the little, the humble and also kings and the great. Look at the glory with which they are clothed …

At the same time, look from on high at the world with its lies, its delusions, its forms of slavery, its complications, its struggles and consider how it is for you a great good and a noble thing to renounce the world and to cleave to the truth and to God! … This renunciation is not a sacrifice for you; it is a grace.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, grant that I may live in you and fly the delusions of the world.

LITTLE WORK: If you encounter some attachment in your life to the trifles of the world, to its fashions, to its vanities, break it immediately and energetically as unworthy of you who are Christians.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Holy Baptism

MARY: The grace of God has enriched you from your birth. You came into the light crying. You were very tiny, but your soul had need of God. A humanly insurmountable barrier was interposed between you and God. You were a slave of the original fault. You were born with the curse that the first man passed on to you as a sad inheritance. This original fault deprived you of a great good: friendship and familiarity with God.

The Lord gave you back a new life, incorporating you into Jesus Christ, you, a creature of Adam, became a creature of the Redeemer, a child of the new Adam from whom you inherited the blessing.

The saving water of Baptism descended on your forehead … the heavens opened, the kiss of God’s mercy renewed you; you were thus purified and emerged holy and innocent because you found yourself united to Jesus the Redeemer, who with his Blood had washed away all sin. How many angels came around your crib to contemplate the sublime beauty of your soul made innocent and a little child of God!

Always remember with gratitude that grace which God conferred on you. You will be able to gauge it only in eternity.

With Baptism Jesus incorporated you into himself, but preserved intact your freedom and your state of being an exile and a pilgrim. For that reason you made promises to the Lord that were like the consecration of your freedom to God.

With Baptism you were elevated to a superior state and thus you renounced all that is low and vile that the world gathers together or offers as pasturage to your lower nature, and the demon. You renounced the world, the flesh and the devil and offered yourself to God, to the Redeemer and to the Holy Spirit whose living temple you became.

When you feel pulled toward the earth and hear the suggestions of the world, of the flesh and of the devil, remember your promises and do not further desecrate the grace of Baptism. Remember that you are a Christian and you must not dishonour this Baptismal character with a material and disordered life.

Because you are incorporated into Jesus Christ, you must glorify him in your life and being as his fragrance.

THE SOUL: O my Mother, how many bitter tears should I shed at the remembrance of my Baptism! I was beautiful and innocent; I was dear to God and yet I have degraded myself with so many sins! Lift up the weakness that so many wounds have caused and grant that I may wash away my sins with the tears of the most lively sorrow! How many times have I been ashamed even of being Christian and have lived completely immersed in the spirit of the world! How many times have I soiled the garment of my innocence! O Immaculate Heart of Mary, receive me into yourself and have pity on this poor little flower, so often broken, so many times stripped of its leaves by the hurricane of evil.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, make me truly Christian, make me faithful to the promises made in Holy Baptism.

LITTLE WORK: Reflect that the world is a deceiver and only knows how to give bitterness even when it promises pleasures and triumphs.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

The Channels of Grace

MARY: In his mercy God did not want to make the flow of his grace to you difficult and he gave you a channel through which you can enrich yourself with it in the holy sacraments.

A sacrament is a sensible sign, instituted by Jesus Christ, through which grace is conferred. These sensible signs are like titles that give you a true right to the grace of God since he instituted them for this specific purpose. What treasure there is in the holy sacraments! How shortened the way of perfection remains because of them and how easily one attains to God!

Among the works of piety, always give the first place to the sacraments because the other works can yield the fruit of grace and mercy, while the sacraments certainly do so, being grounded on the merits of Jesus Christ.

You always complain about your spiritual weakness and yet you have in hand the most secure means to be purified and strengthened.

Without the sacraments the soul is abandoned to itself and cannot live the higher life which, you realize, flows from the Heart of Jesus.

THE SOUL: How many times, O Mary, have I not been lost in delusions of a false and superficial piety? I’ve been careless in receiving the holy sacraments because I haven’t appreciated their value. Confession and Holy Communion have become for me a rather bothersome routine while I have given myself to the caprice of so many sterile and empty practices of piety in which I sought my tastes and my satisfaction. I repent bitterly for having lost so much time and for having reduced myself to being like a barren fig tree, full of leaves, but without fruit.

You, who are the Mother of mercy and channel of every grace, obtain for me from Jesus forgiveness for so much ingratitude and the grace to appreciate the holy sacraments. Make me docile to grace when I receive them so that, like a humble little plant sprouting at the foot of the Cross, I may receive the vital fluid which flows from the Heart of Jesus.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, give me the grace to receive the sacraments well in life and at the hour of my death.

LITTLE WORK: If you experience repugnance at performing some service at home, master yourself for the love of God without complaining and without showing others your discomfort.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Mary’s Grace

THE SOUL: Hail, O Mary, full of grace! … From the wretched earth where I am, I raise up my glance to you to admire you and I see you resplendent, beautiful, clothed in glory … Hail, O Full of grace! How the little things of this world seem vile next to you who by grace have reached the highest summits of perfection … Hail, Mother of God, my Mother! You are the most beautiful work of the Lord’s hands, you are a monument of divine mercy, you are the glory of his love … Hail, O Spouse of God!

You are the creature who loved God so much, who overcame the poverty of human nature, and flew directly to the Infinite without ever deviating. The grace of God lent you these wings of love and you were pure, immaculate, all beautiful, all-holy … Hail, O Mary!

I admire you, O Mother; the Angels pay homage to you and exalt you; the human generations call you “blessed” and raise up monuments of thanks and love to you … you are the all-holy … Hail, O Mary!

Oh! Who could have imagined that a flower so beautiful could be born of the pitiable stock of Adam? … You entered into this world full of grace: Hail, O Mary! I am small, but I am happy because I am your child. You look after me, you guide me, you lift me up. In you I have found support and life because you are the inexhaustible channel of divine mercies: Hail, O Mary!

Hail, O Mary; your sweet glance lifts me up and makes me live because your glance is full of mercy! Take into your heart my soul as a little flower, and, if instead of finding fragrance, you find parasites, cleanse it with your hand full of goodness.

Hail, O Mary! You are my life, my sweetness, my hope, O full of grace, O Immaculate Virgin. Amen.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, my hope, to you I entrust my soul.

LITTLE WORK: Abstain during the day from innocent acts of curiosity.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Tenth Day
The Grace of God

MARY: The mercy of God never abandons you, little creature; it has a way of overcoming your wretchedness and encompasses you with grace.

Grace is a supernatural gift of God with which he penetrates hearts, renews them, elevates them, transforms them into himself. What water is to the arid earth grace is for your heart. The Holy Spirit, who is the substantial love of the Father and the Son, consumes your misery with his gifts if only you cast it into those divine flames and thus he transforms you into a new being.

Grace is the support of human freedom because it is its guide, its help, its lifting up … Your soul is well established when it is under the influence of this divine grace.

Do you feel drowsy in your spirit? Lift your eyes up to God, call upon the Holy Spirit and beg him to awaken you to life and to divine love.

Do you feel depressed and disheartened? Call upon this infinite love in order to be lifted up; thus you will become accustomed to live in a spirit of continual offering and you will touch with your hand what is impossible to you, but very possible to the grace of God!

You see me so rich and great. You are astounded at this, yet all of this greatness was the work of the grace of God; you say this to me yourself in your greeting: Hail Mary, full of grace.

The grace of God is not frugal or stingy because it is the expansion of love.

You must, therefore, distrust yourself and trust much in the grace of God … Come to me, little flower of Jesus; I will rearrange your little leaves, I will revive you, I will immerse you in the mercy of Jesus. God has made me the channel of that grace which must enrich and enliven you.

ASPIRATION: Mary, Mother of grace, have pity on me.

LITTLE WORK: Recite five Hail Mary’s to beg from the Heart of Mary a treasure of graces.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

My Soul

THE SOUL: I must not only know God in order to love him, I must also know myself. The careful examination of my misery makes me annihilate myself in the sight of God and makes his compassionate mercy lower itself even to me. O Lord, how wretched I am! I’m always seeking myself, full of egotism, following my whims, full of defects and strange traits … I find myself worm ridden and I am ashamed. Tell me, Mary, my extreme wretchedness doesn’t obstruct the path of God’s goodness to me, does it?

MARY: Your misery does not separate you from the mercy of God when you recognize it and humble yourself: He never disdains a heart contrite and humbled! God even takes delight in his poor creature when it lifts its heart up to him and sheds tears full of confidence and love at his feet. Do not fear. Embrace the cross which you have; rest yourself on my motherly Heart, which is full of love and mercy, and never let yourself worry when you perceive your misery, but lift your voice to me so that I may present you before the throne of God!

THE SOUL: … Myself; here is the most treacherous enemy which I have! It is a hidden enemy because it comes out in the open seldom; it is a dangerous enemy because it lives with me and because I naturally resist fighting against it; it is an astute enemy because it deceives me with false illusions of good.

O Mary, is it not true that I always seek to excuse all of my wretchedness? … I get easily upset if someone points out one of my flaws; I seek praise and am pleased with it; I consider others worse than me when in reality no one is worse than me. I criticize; I react in anger … I am a heap of faults … and yet I can hardly recognize the nothing that I am, so great is my pride!

I beg you, O Mary, to have pity on me and to teach me a little of that holy humility which made you so great so that I may recognize myself for what I am and humble myself profoundly before God. Amen.

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, deliver my soul from the delusions of evil.

LITTLE WORK: Deprive yourself of something at table.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Jesus

MARY: I present Jesus to you this morning; he is my Son and he is the Son of God! He is the flower, the admirable, the prince of peace! Let your glance meet with his, … and tell me if he is beautiful, if he is lovable! … Do you not see Jesus? Jesus is Jesus because no beauty equals his, no love can describe him outside of his own love! … Kiss this divine Heart, daughter; I give it to you so that you may love him, so that you may love him in greater depth! …

Rest on this adored Heart … I give it to you so that it may appease your misery, so that it may eliminate it! Submerge yourself in this sea of mercies; I present it to you so that it may cancel your fearfulness and render you full of courage, with him. Do you not see Jesus? He is your divine gardener; it is he who loves you, who lovingly cares for you, who forgives you.

Do you not hear how many words of love that he makes you hear from that Heart?

You have contemplated him disfigured, dripping with blood, full of bitterness … has he not undergone this for your love?

You have admired him glorious and triumphant outside of the tomb … did he not triumph in order to be your resurrection and life?

Jesus, Jesus … is your spouse! He binds you with bonds of love that can never be broken; he has offered you to his Father as part of his Heart … do you not love your Jesus?

THE SOUL: O Mary, the very name of Jesus makes me melt with love … O how gentle and mild you are, O lovable Heart of Jesus! My fearfulness cannot endure before you because you are goodness … O how I love you, Jesus! You are the God-man who became man for my love and precisely to stoop all the way down to me and to save me!

Therefore expand your wounds, O Jesus; I want to heal my miseries in them! Open to me your divine Heart; I want to obtain from you love and virtue! I love you, O good Jesus, I love you and you gaze on me with eyes of mercy!

O Mary, teach this poor heart of mine unlimited trust, total abandonment to a God so good! …

Jesus! how sweet your name is, how gentle is your love, how great is your mercy!

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, I offer you my heart and my life; my Jesus, mercy!

LITTLE WORK: Call upon the holy name of Jesus during the day and for the sake of his love deprive yourself of something you really like at table.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

God

MARY: If you must have trust in God and hide yourself in him alone, it’s necessary to meditate on him. His infinite greatness could oppress you, even while it ought to be the most beautiful subject of your trust.

What is God? He is the most pure and most perfect spirit, the Creator and Master of all things.

He is a spirit; he, therefore, being infinite, embraces all, understands all, without even minimally having to work or force himself to embrace all. Nothing escapes from the tenderness of his providence: he cares for the atom as for the giant, forgives evil, exalts virtue; he loves, he loves and is infinitely good! Such is his infinite goodness that he despises no creature. He loves all of them as a father; he regards all with pity, he watches over them, welcomes them, favours them … And if he cares with such love for all creatures, how much more does he care for you, made in his image and likeness? You see him as the great God, and yet there is no moment when he does not stoop down to you, you even live, move and are in him!

“How lovable you are, O my God! Even I am your creature … you loved me even before the ages … I was nothing and already your goodness was raising me up in your eternal designs! From the kiss of your heart I came forth pure and immaculate … from your mercy I attained the strength to conquer the infernal enemy … I am Mary because you are the God of infinite goodness! If you were not God, you would not have lifted me up with such goodness and mercy!”

Your mother, my daughter, is for you the living proof of that divine greatness which is infinite, yes, but is also the loving refuge for the smallest creatures! Hide yourself, then, in the heart of your God … don’t worry about the little things of this world. LOVE GOD!

THE SOUL: How can you wish that I experience no sense of bewilderment before a God so beautiful, so holy, so good, that I have so often offended? Obtain for me, then, the pardon of my so many faults and show me that same mercy, you who are the Mother of mercy. Into your hands I entrust my soul; clothe me with yourself; present me to God because only with you my trust becomes great, in spite of my so many sins.

ASPIRATION: O my God, I thank you that you created me and that you are always near me.

LITTLE WORK: Think often during the day of the great blessedness of your soul in living under the glance of God and offer him an act of love.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Trust

MARY: You must hide yourself in God; but precisely in order to do this, you must trust in him alone. God must be the true life of your soul, the profound peace of your heart. Hiding oneself doesn’t mean being despondent; hiddenness is true when it is trusting. Often you see nothing around yourself but duplicity and deception; you see the insufficiency of the help of others, the poverty of your powers, your weakness …

Trust, trust, and, as a fragile little child, throw yourself into the arms of your heavenly Father, who is your life, your riches, your peace! You must be hidden in God; you must please him alone; you must rest on him alone!

Trust in him: your faults he looks on with pity and forgives, if you repent of them with trust in his mercy. Your miseries he eliminates, if you offer yourself entirely to him. In your battles he comforts and sustains you, if you lean on him.

THE SOUL: I’m almost ashamed to speak with you, Mary, so far am I from this trust! Up to now I have trusted only in creatures, in my powers, in the good will of the great ones of the earth and for this I loved to make myself noticed, admired and praised. What a sad experience I’ve had with creatures! What a sad experience I’ve had with myself! Therefore, I beg you to hide me in God and to help me to trust in him alone.

ASPIRATION: O Mary, my hope, expand the trust in God in my heart.

LITTLE WORK: When an act of virtue seems difficult, trust in God, and, filled with this trust, do it promptly … Go, thus, and perform an act of courtesy for the person you find most disagreeable.

A Month with Mary

A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary

Hiddenness

MARY: Do you know what is the real cause of the life and the beauty of a flower? … You see its brilliant shades, smell its delicate fragrance and yet you don’t recognize that all of this buds forth from those humble roots which are hidden in the barren and often muddy earth. It is the humble earth that secures the vital part of a flower and in it that the roots are hidden and these cannot give life to the flower if they are not hidden! Virtue is always born from an intimate and profound hiddenness! Flowers must certainly be seen for Jesus says: “Let your good deeds be seen by others”, but the seeds from which they bud, the life of the heart must remain concealed and hidden.

How many times do you not love to appear virtuous before those who see you and seek the vain praise of others? Then you remove the root from being hidden, it unhappily dries up and also the flower wilts and dies. The paid gardener cuts the flower and ties it to an artificial stem so that it may be admired … but in doing this he kills it! When you seek human praise, you cut the flower of virtue and you place it on an artificial stem … After empty praise it is nothing more than a mass of withered leaves. Therefore love hiddenness and desire that only God sees you and reads the secret of your heart.

THE SOUL: O Mary, open your humble Heart to me as a refuge so that I may hide myself in it! Human praise disturbs me, agitates me, makes me so ugly and I recognize that I get worse after praise. I’m full of pride and I can’t free myself of it except by hiding myself in God! O Mary, give me the strength to flee human praise and my vanity!

ASPIRATION: O Mary, give me humility of heart.

LITTLE WORK: When something redounds to your praise, don’t say it for the love of holy humility. and praise you.

A Month with Mary