Opera Omnia

15. FAITH AND TRUST

Rome, March 7, 1947

While visiting your house at Milan, I saw the figure of the Divine Master which stands out in the chapel. It is nice and devout; it seems to be calling and awaiting all the (P) Disciples so as to clothe them with his light, to fill them with graces, blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I want now to recommend these to you: faith and trust!
Once the soul has abandoned itself to the care of the Heavenly Father, of Jesus, once it has entrusted itself to the action of the Holy Spirit, it believes and with great trust allows the Lord to work, following him with great docility.
To abandon oneself to the infinite Wisdom, to the infinite Goodness and Love of God, then allowing him to make arrangements, to guide us, to work in us, without our being disturbed, upset and bewildered. Nothing, ever, must upset the soul that has entrusted itself to God, in order to be completely his.

You have given yourselves to Jesus as his Brides. He takes care of you and he loves you more than the love you have for yourselves. Have you ever gone to the trouble of counting the hairs of your head? And yet, your Bridegroom has numbered them all¹ and not one of them falls to the ground without his consent.² Therefore, much more so will such care and protection be extended to the events of greater importance. What could ever happen to you without the Lord wanting it or allowing it?

There is still little, much too little faith in God's wisdom, in his goodness and in his love!
The Lord needs and seeks out souls who believe and trust in Him, who abandon themselves to him; he shall think then, about their holiness and their reward.

You are the constant object of divine attention and pre-dilection. Nothing happens by chance, not even those things that seem insignificant. The encounter with that Sister, an indisposition, a cold, the changes in the weather, every minimum circumstance is guided and ordered by the infinite goodness of God.
Nothing happens by chance. Our life is woven with small threads which form a wonderful cloth, under the direction of the most wise hand of God.
How holy you would become if you know how to correspond to God's every slightest wish!

Live by faith. Allow ourselves to be guided by God. Oh, how much less would our human talks be and how much more with God! How fewer vain and empty discourses would there be and how many more intimate communion with the Most Holy Trinity whom you bear in the heart!

Let us consider ourselves the children of the Heavenly Father, the object of love of the Divine Providence. Some persons would restrict this divine providence to the pots, to the bag of flour...it is much, much more extensive and gets to the very small details of our life!
Ask for the grace to understand the nature of Divine Provi-dence, to walk in its light, to let yourselves be guided by what it wills for you.

To consecrate oneself to the Lord in the religious life means to arrive at a more intimate union with him and to expend one's whole life for him alone.

If the novitiate did not lead you to understand and live in a greater spirit of faith, then it was not made well.

When the person makes the profession of her religious vows, Jesus commits himself to make her holy. Therefore, he devises a thousand inventions of love so as to make the soul reach that union with Him, that he himself has fixed and desires. Sudden changes, contrasts, difficulty, pains, joys, wavering of the spirit - all these are nothing but the efforts of the Bridegroom to embellish the soul of the Bride.
Oh, how providential are certain obscurities, loneliness, lack of understanding! It is Jesus who allows the trial, coldness, temptation.

Let us know how to praise the Lord when everything goes well, but let us also know how to be grateful and to bless him even when things go contrary to what we want.
Do you have to bear a little sorrow? If Jesus is pleased to take you up with him on the cross, should you not thank him? The Heavenly Father sees in you then, his suffering Divine Son.
Do you have joys, consolations? The Father in heaven permits them to show you his goodness, to make your exile less painful, to let you catch a glimpse of the heavenly Homeland. Accept them humbly and be thankful.

What meritorious days could be spent living in a spirit of faith!
If we would have true faith, as much as a mustard seed, we can move mountains,¹ according to the expression of the Divine Master!
There is little faith even in the religious souls, who in the con-trary should have so much faith and must radiate it to others.
Do not allow yourselves to be taken by too natural principles, too much human talks and worldly reasoning. Do not ever communicate to others who discuss with you certain ways of judging, thinking and seeing, which are contrary to faith. Poor spiritual lives, deprived of foundation!
Faith and trust! Know how to recognize and interpret God's wisdom, his love and goodness in all things, always.

Since religious profession on your part indicates the commit-ment to tend towards perfection, God on his part gives you¹ a hundredfold of grace, gifts and the promise of a hundredfold of glory.
When you enter to become part of God's family, you are enrolled among those who search and yearn for God alone. The Lord takes care of you with such particularity and intimacy, that if you would listen to and follow well the voice of God, you would in six or seven years reach such a profound union with him, an intimacy so stable, that nothing or nobody would succeed to disturb you, upset you, flatter you or make you lose your way.

Such a serene and stable union is an anticipation of the peace that is to be enjoyed in Paradise. That is not all. The person who so trustingly allows herself to be led and who follows God's action with docility, especially in the things of the inner life, shall not pass through purgatory. Purgatory is there in order to purify, to get rid of that which is wanting in love, trust, purity and in the perfect union with God. However, the souls who abandon themselves in his love, have already reached such union in this world and in death, shall be reunited with Him in the perfect intimacy of Heaven. If something remained that has to be purified, God disposes that the soul will atone for everything in this world.

Like your soul, your Institute also is in the hands and guardianship of the Heavenly Father. Put your trust in him.
I am afraid that there is too much human reasoning that results in distress, wasted energy and a diminishing of merits.

May the Lord bring about and accomplish in you all that he desires: your sanctification. May you attain a high degree of perfection and after death, immediately in Paradise!

Make reparation with acts of faith. Now with the intention of making reparation, let us recite The Divine Praises ¹ to make up for the many times we lacked faith.

Grow in the spirit of faith. Since faith is the root of every sanctification, the other virtues cannot exist without it.
Ask for an increase of faith; faith which is practised in small and big occasions; faith every day, at every moment.
Always, in everything, everywhere, discern and believe in the presence of that God who loves us so much!