The Way of Divine Love

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CHAPTER VIII - THE LENT OF 1923

HOLY WEEK March 25th–April 1st, 1923

“You will adore Me, you will humble yourself to the dust, you will comfort Me, and all this in a spirit of zeal to obtain that many others may do the same.” (Our Lord to Josefa, March 25th, 1923)

WHILST Josefa was in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on Palm Sunday, March 25th, Our Lord showed Himself to her. He came to outline all He expected of her during the great week about to begin, the crowning of so many graces received during Lent.

“This,” He said, “is My wish:

“You will devote these days to adoring My divine Person outraged by the torments of the Passion. I will keep you constantly in My presence. I will manifest Myself to you, now with the Majesty of the Deity, again with the severity of a Judge, and oftenest covered with wounds and the ignominies of My Passion. Thus in your adoration, profound humility, and reparation of every moment, I shall find relief for My great sadness and bitterness.”

Hardly had a few minutes elapsed than Josefa witnessed this triple manifestation of Jesus: as God, as Judge, as Saviour.

“I suddenly saw Him again,” she wrote, “unchanged as to features, but surrounded with such Majesty that my soul was crushed with extreme reverence and confusion. I wanted nothing so much as to hide myself, and disappear from His presence. After renewing my vows, I begged Him to purify me that my nothingness might bear the sight of His Majesty. He replied to me in tones that were grave and awe-inspiring:

“ ‘Humble yourself before the Majesty of your God, and repair thus the pride of human nature, which is so often rebellious against the rights of its Creator.’ ”

Then Josefa felt, weighing her soul down to the very earth, the pressure of Divine Justice, and filled with terror she prostrated herself at His feet.

“I reminded Him,” she wrote, “that He is my Saviour, my Father, and my Beloved, and that He can, if He so wills, forgive all my sins and consume my wretchedness. Jesus, when answering me, spoke kindly but with great authority. ‘You speak rightly. I am your Saviour, your Father and your Beloved, and it is My intention to consume your miseries in the burning flame of My love. But I wish you to understand, Josefa, how greatly you must humble yourself, annihilate yourself, and retire into nothingness in your will and whole being, so that God’s Will may reign and triumph, not only in your person, but in many other souls. They must acknowledge their sinfulness and misery, and they, too, must humble themselves by yielding entirely and wholly to the Divine Will.

“ ‘That is what I expect of you this week; you will adore Me, you will humble yourself to the dust and will comfort Me and do all this in a spirit of zeal to obtain that many others may do the same.

“ ‘Adieu. Later on I will tell you what I want of you.’ ”

These holy days thus dawned on Josefa’s attentive soul. Step by step her Master would lead her through the rugged ways He had assigned her, and in which she was to follow Him.