The love of a father is the spiritual womb of the child. There it is formed spiritually, nourished by his loving wisdom as it is helpless in itself, just as the little embryo is nourished by its mother's blood in the intimacy of her warm body. This spiritual love of the father, forming his child to his spiritual likeness, is at once the most perfect manifestation of the Bosom of the heavenly Father, eternally bringing forth His beloved Son, and the essential bridge to that Father in heaven. It is the child who knows this selfless love of a human father who cries out with spontaneous affection: "Our Father Who art in heaven!" O, if fathers only understood their responsibility, and their power in Me!

Truth, You Who are the Being of everything that is, I adore You! Be like my Being - all - and dissolve every lie, which is my being outside of Yourself, so that I may know You and love You with Your Whole Being - even as You know me.

When My Spirit of Truth, within you, moves you to see that there is something you should do, you realize very frequently at the same time that you are not able to do what I am asking of you. It is in fact that same Spirit of Truth Who shows you this too.

He also shows you how you have failed miserably in the past. And the reason for this is that We want you to come to Me and ask for everything you need. This disposition, to receive everything from Me, is the reason and purpose of Our inspiring you to feel the obligation to do what of yourself you know you are unable to do. Because Our purpose is to form you in the likeness of My Son, Who receives everything from Me. In this way We would teach you that your very weakness is your strength, in your trust, as Paul has told you of himself (2Cor 12:9f) - and it is also the very heart of My Therese's Little Way.

But if you look into yourself honestly and simply, you will see that almost always, when you feel a moral obligation to what is not in your strength to do, you fail to understand that this is an inspiration from My Paternal Love, whereby I would open you a little more to Myself, make you a little more in the likeness of My Son Who has nothing which He has not received from Me. (Jn 5:19f;8:28f) No! You do not understand this Infinite Paternal Love, and as a result you become mistrustful of My Love by the very things which express it. And then you begin to look for ways of finding peace of conscience in yourself, apart from Me, straining after the gnat all the while you are swallowing the camel (Mt 23:24) of an intolerable self-sufficiency, the great lie of your own virtue and strength - in which you yourself do not believe. I cannot tell you how many evils befall your soul as a result of this, not the least of which is an almost continuous agitation of spirit, in which state Satan would do what he wants with you - it is only the Arm of My Merciful Love that restrains him.

So, my dear little children, ponder this lesson very carefully, and learn to understand the meaning of your weakness which My Spirit would teach you at almost every moment, that your weakness in yourself is your strength in Me. Then you will rejoice My Paternal Heart, because then I will see, more and more, nothing but Myself in you. In this too you may learn how to examine your conscience. For when you are receiving everything from Me in the way you should, you will be experiencing a peace and joy in your soul, a joy which is not opposed to suffering, to your suffering for Me, but which, on the contrary, is necessary if you are to suffer rightly - for Me. And so, to examine your conscience correctly - you have only to go through the interval of time since your last examen and ask yourself at what points you lost this joy and peace in Me. Do this carefully in order to acquire the disposition of hating your own soul with a holy hatred. For in this way your mind and your heart will be opened to the Immensity of My Paternal Love for you, and then you will see how spontaneously you will respond with your love to Mine.

The Kiss of my Father, now,
Is the peace of my soul in Mary,
In Him His little creature knows no bitterness.
He smiles on me
And in the Strength of His Love
Melts the hardness of my being,
The miseries of the past and the cares of the future
Flow away - all,
And now in Him
I become a lily of the valley,
In my Father, in Mary,
I adore my brothers and sisters,
And they adore me
In Jesus,
As the Father feeds among us,
Taking His delight among the children of men:
Our delight, each in the other
Is the delight of the Father in His Beloved Son
In Whom He is well pleased

Each now, in Jesus,
Is the death of the now, now past,
(Let the dead bury the dead)
My resurrection with Jesus
Now!

© 2007 All Rights Reserved Laura Jones