At the conclusion of this year

Upon completion of this year I want to raise my eyes to you. You who live in heaven and you are always present on Earth. You, who are the only reason for my life, my life, my history and my vocation.Raised his eyes to Thee Heavenly Father, Father of mercies and God of all comfort. But most eyes lift up my heart. My heart filled with immense gratitude, so that words can not describe. Today is a wonderful day. And I know my God, eternal and true, I know that today is yesterday, ie tomorrow, ie forever. Yes, always, always, always, because they are always spilling your grace in abundance in all your children, even in those who are not even aware of it by. What grace! Much love! Much heaven on Earth! What a mercy! True eternal God is it time to take a test? Is it time to take stock of my life? Is it time to come face to face with? And an enlarged heart, enlarged and pounding to feel immensely loved by you. With a love that hurts to the core of the bowels. A love that calcined with a flame that is not extinguished and that is becoming more intense, more intense, more intense.My God! all I see, all I know is all I feel your loving presence I see the ocean of your Holiness and discover my sin and my poverty. The more you stare at your beauty, Your holiness, Your sovereignty and Your humility, the more I discover the immense need I have of you. Lord and my God! Sweet love of my soul! I fully realize that there is absolutely nothing in me that can attract your eyes, your love, your mercy and compassion, than the immense love I have, but my sin, my poverty, my lack of love make me unworthy You. However, it has been your goodness and compassion that has filled me with every grace and every gift. Today I can only say: thanks for the gift of each day. Thank you for my life, thank you for my death, thanks for my vocation, thanks for my brothers, thank you for the gift of so many people who profess no merit me a love, a love and a closeness that I speak of Thee Oh Lord Almighty . Thanks for the daily bread, your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for the food item that restores my strength and I prepared for combat. Thanks for the penalties that have been a source of joy. Thanks for making me discover that I'm just a poor instrument in your hands and that you and only you can do great and wonderful things. Thank you for my family. Thanks for all my friends, relatives, benefactors and acquaintances. Thanks for every one of those this year have crossed my path, and santifícalas Lord bless them. Thank you for the sun, moon, stars, rain, wind, snow and cold. Thank you for your love my God and my Lord. Amen!

He follows me everywhere

 
Dec. 31
I fully realize that there is nothing in me that can attract the attention of our sweet Jesus. It was only his goodness that has filled my soul for many goods. He almost never loses sight of me, he follows me everywhere enlivens my life poisoned by sin; dissipated in dense clouds me where my soul is wrapped after sin. As soon as, closing my eyes, I see down the veil of the night, I see heaven opened before me, and happy with this vision, I sleep with a happy smile on my lips and a total calm in the face, waiting for my small childhood companion come to wake up, and so sing together the praises morning the beloved of our hearts.
Oh, my father, if my knowledge of reality awakens in you a thought that is not compassion, route it, I beg you, on my behalf, my beloved, as evidence of recognition and gratitude.
  (October 14, 1912, Father Agustin de San Marco in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 306)

Jesus receives his embrace, a kiss that sanctifies you and save you.

Dec. 27I encourage you to join me and me closer to Jesus for his embrace, a kiss that sanctifies us and save us. Listen to that effect to the holy King David, who invites devoutly kiss the Son: "Kiss the Son", for this son of the royal prophet speaks here is none other than that of which the prophet Isaiah said: "A child has born, a son given to us: Puer Natus Est Nobis, filius datus est nobis. "This child, Raffaelina, is one loving brother, that our souls beloved husband, the wife of the sacred Song, faithful soul figure, the company sought and longed for his kisses divine 'you would give me a brother My, you look and kiss you. Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth. " This son is Jesus, and how to kiss without betrayal of clasp him in our arms without trap him how to give the kiss and the embrace of grace and love, waiting for us, and we promise to return, is, according St. Bernard, serve with true affection, holy deeds done in their heavenly doctrines, we profess with words.Let us not, therefore, to kiss that way to this divine Son, because if you are like the kisses that we give now, he will, as promised, full of mercy and love, come to take her in his arms, to give the kiss of peace in the last rites at the time of death, and so end our life with the Lord's holy kiss; admirable kiss of divine condescension, in which, in the words of St. Bernard, not about face to face, mouth to mouth, but mutually bind for all eternity with the creature creator, man with God.
 (March 30, 1915, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 482)

The Lord and the Blessed Virgin ever make you worthy of eternal glory

Dec. 22
I wish you happy holidays again the Holy Child with all your precious family. The Lord and the Blessed Virgin ever make you worthy of eternal glory. With this faith and with these sentiments, I wish you all happy holidays from the beautiful Holy Child Jesus' birth, and fervent hope that I can repeat for as long as possible in life, and always growing charity, which is the queen and mother of all virtues.
Oh, how sublime is the beautiful virtue of charity that brought us the Christ Child! Everyone should carry in your heart, and especially those who profess holiness. This holiness the Lord, without any merit on your part, called you, and if it is true that I see you on track in charity, why not leave to invite you to follow continuously advancing every day in it.
  (December 22, 1914, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 280)

Children welcome my poor prayers

 
Dec. 21

For the holidays of Holy Christmas and New Year, with a heart full of appreciation and affection than filial, I send my warmest congratulations, asking the child heavenly spiritual and temporal happiness.No doubt, the father of your child does comply, as it allows its smallness, its duty to our common father, with the firm hope of seeing their wishes fulfilled. Embrace the child to be born poor and weak my prayers, that you turn these days, with the most holy insistence, by Order, superiors, the province and the entire Church.Hear how curious phenomenon is occurring in me for some time, and, on the other hand, it is worrying. In prayer happens to me that I forget to pray for those who have been entrusted to me (not all, is true) or those for whom he intended to pray. Before I pray, I try to commit, for example, to this or that person, but my god, as soon as I walk in prayer, my mind is more complete in a vacuum and in it there is not the slightest trace of what they desired.Other times, however, being in prayer, I am moved to pray for those who never had any intention of praying and, what is more wonderful, sometimes in favor of those who have never met, or seen, or heard, and that never have been entrusted to me, even through others.And sooner or later, the Lord always hears these appeals. May the Lord make you aware of the true meaning of this new phenomenon as strange as, and if God wants you after I appear, please do not deprive me of it.
 (December 20, 1910, Father Benedict of San Marco in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 442)

God comes to meet us

 
Dec. 20
My beloved father, Holy Christmas approaching, I find that a duty of conscience urges me not pass up without deseársela full of all those heavenly comforts you desire in your heart. Although I have always prayed for you, that person was and is very dear to me, these days I will certainly redouble my prayers to the heavenly Child, deign to preserve him from all disgrace in this world, especially the misfortune to lose Child Jesus.
My poor health continues its course with his best and worst moments. I suffer, it is true, and I suffer a lot, but I'm happy because, even in the midst of suffering, the Lord never ceases to make me experience an indescribable joy.
  (December 20, 1910, Father Benedict of San Marco in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 208)

My spirit has felt like being reborn into a new life.

 
Dec. 17
At the beginning of the holy novena in honor of the holy child Jesus, my spirit has felt like being reborn to new life: the heart feels like quite small to hold the celestial, the soul feels faint in the presence of all of this our God made flesh for us.What to do to resist not always love him with new ardor?! Oh, let us approach the infant Jesus with blameless heart, and what we taste is sweet and gentle love.
I will not ever, let alone in these holy days, to implore the Divine Child for all men, especially for you and everyone you love. We pray that wants to make you partaker of all the gifts so generously poured and poured every day in my mind.
  (December 17, 1914, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p.273)

My God, take me to repentance

 My God, you know it, send to less light to guide me to discover what I can not find: the true source of many evils in your creature. I never had my faculties as unable and closed.What is this suffering for the will, memory and understanding! I think, for a will that seeks and desires at least willing good, is harsh and unconscionable suffering this penalty.
And similarly, for whom, enriched with many memories of God's greatness in their attributes and rights, and in relation to itself, of its obligations and the veneration due to its creator, death is suffering from an inability to understand what is discovered after mysteriously. [...].
The understanding is as crushed under the die, and, although it has a lot of knowledge, is blind, blind as a painful experience that only those who may say something true about it. And above all, so it seems to me, is absolutely unbearable suffering to an understanding that, from the beginning of its activity, the tests have become more clever and then wins the luminosísimos ray contrast of true life.
My God, take me to repentance, Make me a sincere contrition and conversion firm my heart to you.
  (September 5, 1918, to Father Benedict of San Marco in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 1071)

I am immersed in an ocean of fire

Dec. 15

I am immersed in an ocean of fire wound again I was open, bleeds and bleeds forever. It would suffice to cause me one thousand and sometimes death. Oh, my God, why do not you die? Or do you not see that, for you have wounded soul, until life is torment him? So cruel you are to remain deaf to the cries of those who suffer, and not confortas? But what do I say? ... Forgive me, Father, I'm beside myself, I do not know what I'm saying. Too much pain that I caused the wound that is always open, makes me furious against my will makes me leave me and leads to delirium, and I find myself unable to resist.Tell me, father, clearly: offend the Lord in these excesses that fall? What should I do to not displease the Lord, if the cry is impetuous and no force able to resist?My God! ... soon ... I leave the physical life, as they are useless all efforts to escape from spiritual death. Heaven, I believe, has been closed for me, and all efforts and cries turn against me, like arrows, to mortally wound my poor heart. My prayer seems useless to me and my broken spirit, the first attempt to rediscover the exit, he meets who deprives him of all courage and power, desanimándolo in utter helplessness and nothingness, in order not anything risking follow, and if it is true that when you venture again, it is reduced to impotence.
 (September 5, 1918, to Father Benedict of San Marco in Lamis - Letters. I, p. 1071)

Consumete to please God

Dec. 14
Continued consumiéndote in that ardent desire to please him: and he that is so good and not look too closely, reward those holy desires, making you grow and advance in his paths holy.
Experience all to himself, away from you forever all those useless thoughts that fill the heart of vanity and confuse and obfuscate the understanding.
In all your actions, even in the most indifferent, looking earnestly perform them with the right intention of pleasing God, rejecting even the smallest desire of the good itself. What most valuable asset for the soul that please the Lord?
In relation to yourself, always have a humble attitude, convinced that all the services that the soul can offer to God, even if they are many, are always little, and if achieved honor and merit, it is by the grace of the Lord.
(September 12, 1915, to Anita Rodote - Letters. III, p 98).

And will spend the winter you eternal spring

Dec. 11
The longing to be in eternal peace is good, is holy, but must temper it with complete resignation to the will of God. It is best to do the will of God on earth to enjoy in heaven. Suffering and death, was the desire of Saint Theresa. Purgatory is sweet when suffering for love of God.
The tests, to which God subjects and I submit, are all signs of divine favor and jewelry for the soul. Will, my dears, winter and spring come the endless, the richer the more harsh beauties have been storms. The darkness that you are experiencing is a sign of the nearness of God to your souls.
(December 11, 1916, the sisters Ventrella - Letters. III, p. 548)

Remember me in your prayers

Dec. 10
Continue, my good sisters and daughters, reminding me the treasure of your prayers, especially at this time when I'm going through a tough test, and be assured that I will continue to want strongly and spiritual health to the body, in addition to that grace you already know.In my poor, yes, but also repeated prayers, I will not forget you or how many I make it I do love you. Jesus and the Blessed Virgin will be worthy to grant eternal glory. With this faith and hope, I wish you all the goods of heaven.Now go to your spiritual needs. These perplexities of mind that are going to experience malignant wiles of the tempter, and God allows them, not because they hate you, but because he loves you. It is reprehensible feeling, but consent. And I encourage you in the sweet Lord to be quiet, as neither offend you in the Lord and that the Lord hides to punish your infidelities, which I declare in the name and in virtue of holy obedience, you are not given in at least made with full knowledge and strong will.
(December 11, 1916, the sisters Ventrella - Letters. III, p. 548)Persons engaged in the "things of God" and the establishment of His Kingdom, co often suffer from the attacks of the enemy for the good they do in God's Name. The frustrations, pain, suffering, misunderstanding and loneliness are eaten every day for the chosen souls. How valuable is the soul that aspires to perfection and that force of the blow of the hammer on the sincel is being left increasingly to sculpt the likeness of the Master, Lord and Sovereign God. He himself is the architect and sculptor of his magnificent work that we are each and every one of those who are left modeling, mold, pet and love for Him, even at the cost of pain and suffering with the full assurance that He will be our joy and fulfillment. So always pray and not lose heart for whom He has chosen as heralds, prophets, peacemakers and sanctifying his people. We all need your prayers.

Fight as brave and have the prize of strong souls

Dec. 7
Remember, my brave daughter, that God can reject everything in a creature conceived in sin and bearing the indelible imprint inherited from Adam, but in no way can reject the sincere desire to love. So if for other reasons can not be sure of heavenly mercy to you, and do not want to believe me that I speak in the Lord, you should at least be safe for that reason.
In conclusion, you can and should be calm and happy. Believe me that I speak on behalf of God. Take away those fears, those shadows away with the demon is obscuring your soul to haunt you in and out, if possible, of frequent communion and the way of perfection.
I know the Lord allows these assaults the enemy, because his mercy makes you welcome him and wish him asemejes you in the throes of the desert, the garden and the cross, but you must defend yourself away and neglecting their malignant insinuations. Have I explained? Courage, then, and always forward. Fight as brave and have the prize of strong souls.
(December 6, 1916, Herminia Gargani - Letters. III, p. 659)

Be humble, patient and resigned to the will of God

December 6Go ahead and convince yourself that God is pleased with you and that you found in your peaceful abode. Do not expect to Tabor to see God as you contemplate, without you noticing, in Sinai. I think yours is not disturbed and unable inner like the good, cause they can desire no more than the highest good in itself and not in their gifts. The reflections of the mind, involuntary distractions, temptations, etc.., Are products offered by the enemy, but, because they are rejected by you, in them there is nothing wrong. When the devil gets noise is good sign, is a sign that he wants your will and therefore that it is outside. What should frighten you, my dear sister and daughter, is their peace and harmony with the human soul.In periods of aridity of spirit, be humble, patient and resigned to the divine will, and do not neglect anything you used to do in times of spiritual joy, because true love is not experience many comforts to serve God, but a will always ready to do whatever God wants to send us to our spiritual growth and His glory.Always create all this, and do not mind the effort and believe with suffering of the soul, without you see the reasons for it. Also believed suffering martyrs. The more beautiful the Creed pronounced making the sacrifice and violence.
(December 6, 1916, Herminia Gargani - Letters. III, p. 659)

Not abandoned but love what God shows

December 5
Not abandoned but love that shows you the sweetest Jesus. In no way is it true that you, in this state of dryness and desolation of spirit that made ​​you the most loving Savior, offend God, because his grace guard you very well preserved for such offenses.
Therefore, if, as is true not offend God and, conversely, what you love in this situation dear to him, what made you to distress?, Why do you have to grieve? Resumes, then you rise to the cross, lie about it and be patient with yourself, because your patience - he says the divine Teacher - save your soul. And this situation will be more durable is the less mixed with worries and concerns.
(December 6, 1916, Herminia Gargani - Letters. III, p. 659)

God perfects your life to the extent that you let him

December 4
With repeated blows of sharp chisel and work diligently to polish them, usually the divine artist preparing the stones must enter the building eternal. So the Church sings the anthem of the office of the dedication of a church, and so indeed. In the long and varied test yours by choosing your state of life, the Lord, in his infinite goodness, adds the spiritual fear and trembling, with a complement of desolation.
Thank him, then, to treat you like a choice to follow Jesus closely in the ascent to Calvary. I contemplate with joy and excitement of spirit thus act of grace on thee, dearest daughter of my heart. If you do not look so shaken, not be so happy because you would see that the Lord gives less jewelry. That is why I, who strongly desire holy charity with your progress and joy and I am increasingly thinking of this situation.
(December 6, 1916, Herminia Gargani - Letters. III, p. 659)

Renew the concern of your heart

December 3
St. Augustine said it well: "May our heart is restless until it rests on the object of his love."
But you know very well that perfect love is reached when you own the object of this love, but the object of this love only possess when, not through veils, but face to face, as St. Paul says, the soul see how it is, when you know how we know ourselves, and this can not be achieved but when opening the doors of our prison.
From this you can deduce the great suffering which should mean the soul that God has found some of its treasures in heaven, be still on the road, in the land of exile.
(April 4, 1915, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 403)

Become a friend of God and be at peace in your heart

Nov. 30
Remember that peace of mind can be maintained in the midst of the many storms of this life, you know very well that is essentially in harmony with our neighbors, wishing you all well, which is also in friendship with God through sanctifying grace , and the test of being united to God is the moral certainty that we do not have mortal sin that weighs upon your soul. In short, peace is to have gotten the victory over the world, and the devil's own passions.
So, tell me, is it not true that this peace brought by Jesus can keep well, not only when our spirit is in abundance of consolations, but when the heart is immersed in bitterness because of the grunts and screams of enemy?
(October 10, 1914, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 185)

Aviva in you the gift of faith

 
Nov. 29

Avivemos above all our faith and we present the resounding victory that speak the sacred letters, which got the people of Israel on the Midianites. At the heart of the night, it reads, while the immense throng enemy, leaving the trenches, and encamped in the plain, without suspecting it, was quietly surrounded by only three hundred warriors of Gideon, all with the trumpet in one hand and in the other a pitcher containing inside a burning torch. The signal from the captain, loudly break the pitchers, is sounded the trumpets and, after each touch, hear the battle cry: "The Lord and Gideon."Given the tremendous shouts, the sound of trumpets, the immense glare of torches, a huge horror invaded the enemy camp, and everyone began to run rashly, still half asleep, while the trumpets kept its mournful sound, and enemies, in the indescribable confusion of the hurried flight, many killed each other, leaving corpses in the field in droves.This victory secured the Israelite people, as we have seen, not with arms, but with a particular war strategy.Well, we too, while we live, we must sustain a pretty tough fight. Overpowering this war with that singular strategy used by Gideon. Let's make this fight go ahead in light of good works, the virtue of the knowledge of God, the burning desire of the word of God. Then we also fight them to the sound of hymns, psalms and spiritual songs, singing and raising strong voice to the Lord, and so we will achieve victory worthy of our Lord Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power for ever.
(October 14, 1915, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 514)

In the silence of your heart worships God

Nov. 27
I say that because of your spirit drowsy, distracted, fickle, miserabilísimo, which often bind physical discomfort, you do not get to stay in the church more than an hour and a half. Do not worry about this, just give them the opportunity to avoid them, striving to overcome any discomfort and boredom all, and not tire your spirit proudly with very long and continuous prayers, when the spirit and not the head for it.
Meanwhile, attempts throughout the day to be alone, as you can and, in the silence of your heart and loneliness, offers praise your Father in heaven, your blessings, your contrite heart and your whole person . And so, while most of the creatures, creatures made in his image, forget the kindness of the divine Spouse, we, with such withdrawals and such practices, we have always near.
(September 19, 1914, to Raffaelina Cerase - Letters. II, p. 174)

Pray and offer yourself for everyone, especially for those who do not want to become

Nov. 26
Not all are called by God to save souls and spread his glory through the high apostolate of preaching, and you must know that this is not the one and only means to achieve these two great ideals. The soul can spread the glory of God and work for the salvation of souls by a truly Christian life, constantly praying to the Lord that "His kingdom come," his most holy name "be holy," that "we do not drop into the temptation "that" deliver us from evil. "
This is what you should do well, fully and continuously offering to the Lord for this purpose. Pray for the wicked, pray for the lukewarm, pray also for the earnest, and pray in a special way by the Supreme Pontiff, by all spiritual and temporal needs of the Holy Church, our very loving mother, and raises a special prayer for all those who work for the salvation of souls and for the glory of God in missions, so many people unfaithful and incredulous.
(April 11, 1914, to Raffaelina Cerase - Ep. II, p 68.)

God loves your soul love like yours

Nov. 17
I know you will not be convinced that you will not see clear, you will not experience the comfort of this great truth, during this test, but due to indications of who God loves your soul like yours and just loves. "I wish - I repeat the words God said one day to the holy virgin Gertrude - want to be convinced my chosen this truth: that I like much your prayers and good works when I serve at the expense of their own suffering. Serve at the expense of own means suffering, not feeling any joy delicious satisfaction, are faithfully performing their prayers and devotions in the best way, and hope that I willingly accept all of my goodness. "Then the Lord added these significant words: "Know, Gertrude, that most pious people are such that, if I gave satisfaction and spiritual consolation, they do not serve for salvation and, far from increasing its merits, the lost. "
And this, unfortunately, yes, I can prove it by the long experience of a soul very close to me. So, my daughter, live in peace, that there will come a day when the Lord, you, too, you will know the truth of what you are told, or rather, it will give you convince yourself, because you manage to know that tells you the truth, because nobody wants to deceive, but you fail to convince.
(March 30, 1917, to Mary Gargani - Epistolary. III, p. 269)

Leave it freely to this Divine Physician

Nov. 16
Be assured that your present situation is not imposed by God as punishment but for purification of your spirit, to prepare for higher communication. Believe me when I tell you that your situation is not at all deplorable, but worthy of envy. Leave act freely to this divine physician, and estate will sure everything for the glory of God and for your sanctification. As for fears of offending God and not knowing what to do to please him, I pray and I beg you moderate your anxieties. Create the assertions of authority, that tells you that by God, in whatever way you act, if not with full clarity discover that your actions are contrary to God's law and the mandates of legitimate authority, Jesus is always happy with you, provided that such acts be directed to the glory of God.
With this safe standard of conduct must act without question, must continue to act without hearing the voices of your fears. Look, my good daughter, I use the word listen, that is, to ignore, attention, etc.. I'm not saying feel them, because it is impossible not to feel them, but they should not be ignoring. Go ahead with this course of action, as if to ignore the barking of a dog that lies along the street. These small, empty and untimely certainly heard barking, but far from giving importance, one laughs at them and just.
(March 30, 1917, to Mary Gargani - Letters. III, p. 269)