PURITY OF HEART
Sr. Sara Marie Kowal, sctjm
August 11, 2011
Lourdes, France
“Blessed are the Pure of Heart for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8). Of the beatitudes, this is the greatest of all. “For they shall see God.” There is no greater reward than this. For it is precisely that for which our hearts long, in which all our desires end. To “see God” speaks not of a physical vision, but of a knowing and a loving. It is eternal life. This knowing and seeing is not an abstract concept but a knowing as between a husband and wife: “Adam knew his wife Eve” (Gen 4:1). In Scripture, “knowing” refers to a deep intimate and personal bond between two people. Seeing and Knowing God will be the only thing which gives our hearts eternal rest, as St. Augustine so clearly tells us: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord.” The psalmist too expresses this deep desire of our hearts: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me” (Psalm 27:8). This beatitude concerning the “pure of heart” contains the long-awaited promise to see God “face to face.” Moreover, it also answers two fundamental questions of our very existence: What is our end? or What are we made for?; and, How do we get there? The beatitude tells us that our final and eternal home is to “see God” and the way to get there is purity of heart. Therefore, it is certainly of fundamental importance to understand this particular beatitude since it encompasses the very nature and reason for our existence. “They are the people that long to see his face.” Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Today, the Lord is calling us to be a “people who long to see his face.”
What is Purity of Heart?
First, we must ask, what does it mean to be pure of heart? To be pure means to be free from all stain or defilement; authentic; wholly itself; true. In Hebrew, the word for purity is emeth, which means truth. Pure water is only H2O, with no admixture of minerals or chlorine. Pure silver contains no trace of another metal. Purity of heart then, as aptly define by Kierkegaard, is “to will one thing.” One who is pure of heart is one who only wills or loves one thing: God alone. It is a “radical” heart which has no other love. The world may scorn this as “fanatical” but a true lover does not scorn this kind of love. As Peter Kreeft writes, “It is the greatest compliment a love can give: ‘I love you with my whole heart and soul. My love is not divided. You have no rival.’ Only love understands the rightness of this fanaticism, and through it the wrongness of all other, lesser fanaticism” (Back to Virtue, p. 173).
Very simply, purity of heart is the first and greatest Commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Love nothing more than me. Love nothing in place of me. Love only me and I will give you my love with which to love all others. This is why St. Therese tells us, “You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.” The pure of heart love and will only one thing: God. There is no such thing as “half-holiness.” Holiness is purity of heart, which cannot be divided. The first sin and every successive sin that has followed has been a consequence of a lack of purity of heart. Our hearts are divided. We are not faithful brides, who love their husband only. Instead, we have played the “harlot” and gone looking for other lovers. We come to understand that all suffering – a consequence of sin – comes from our lack of this foundational virtue. As Kreeft says, “If we did not have divided and impure hearts, we would love God wholly, and nothing bad can come from that. ‘Love and do what you will’, Augustine said” (ibid).
The Path to Purity of Heart
Jesus tells us that “He is the way.” Jesus is purity himself, God is Love, and this Love only “wills one thing”: to Love. Love only wills Love. Therefore, the way to purity is Christ alone. It is not something we can create or do in ourselves. It is a gift which must be bestowed upon us through grace. Neither water nor gold can purify itself. We are in need of purification from one who is purity incarnate, and that is Jesus Christ. The Father adopted us as his children and grafts our vine into the one True Vine, into the only true Body. We become pure by immersing ourselves into Christ, by becoming one with Him.
However, on this long and arduous path to purity of heart, Jesus gives a particularly luminous and efficacious guide, one who has already walked the path herself, one who lived her whole life willing only one thing: His Mother. Our Lady lived her whole life in a perfect and unstained purity of heart. Her heart never wavered from her one Love. Her Immaculate Heart willed only one thing: God alone. Therefore, we entrust ourselves into her maternal hands, for no one can better lead us down this path than she who knows it fully, than she who never lost her course upon it.
And what a powerful place to learn purity of heart in the School of Our Lady than the sanctuary of Lourdes. For this is place – above any other – is centered around the purity of Our Lady. It is in this place for the first time that Our Lady herself called herself the “Immaculate Conception.” It is here that she herself revealed to Bernadette that she is not simply pure, but is purity in human form. She did not say, “I am immaculately conceived.” But she called herself the Immaculate Conception. Her very being is to be the Immaculate One. She is not describing a quality she has but who she is in her person. Therefore, we must come to sit at the feet of the Immaculate Conception in order to learn how to be pure of heart.
Furthermore, it is in Lourdes where we find the pure water from the Fountain. This water cannot be stained or contaminated. It is miraculous water that can hold no disease, impurity or sickness. No matter what is put it, miraculously the water remains free from all impurity. Through the external miracle of the water, Our Lady is showing us her own internal purity of heart. Just as she invites us to immerse ourselves in the pure water of Lourdes in order to be healed of all that ails us, she invites us more so to “immerse” ourselves in the purity of her heart so that we may be cleansed of the sin that deforms, weakens, wounds and cripples us. Lourdes is a place in which our Mother has come to heal her infirm children. How does she heal us? Sometimes it is through physical miracles. But more often and more importantly it is an internal healing. She heals by teaching us the fundamental virtue of her own heart: Purity.
How are we Purified?
The very simple and obvious answer to this question is purification. Just as water must be taken through a distillation process, and just as gold is purified through fire, we too must undergo a process of purification: “just as gold is tested in fire, so are worthy men tested in the crucible of humiliation” (Sirach 2:5). However, only generous and willing hearts can do it, for purification hurts. The treatment – though it brings about healing – is never easy or pain free. And we must choose to accept it. Suffering will always come; we live in a “valley of tears.” However, if we do not allow it, if we run away from it, or if we rebel interiorly against it, the suffering can actually make us less pure; it can harden our hearts and block the process of purification that the Lord and Our Lady desire to do in us. We must choose to open our hearts and accept each moment as a moment of grace in which the Lord is carrying out the purification process within us.
We also must let the promise of the beatitude take root in our hearts: the pure of heart will see God. This also implies a contrary. The impure of heart will not see God. This is not because God decides to hold back himself from our eyes because He wants to punish us. Rather, it is simply not possible. Just as two plus two can never equal three, one who is not pure of heart simply is not capable of seeing God. Just as we can only see colors with eyes, purity of heart becomes the “eyes” with which we are able to “see” God. This is another reason why purgatory is a necessity and a gift, not a punishment. Those is purgatory are said to be in a state of great peace, even though they suffer because they know and fully understand they are neither capable or ready to see God in their still impure state. When we die in the state of grace, but are not fully pure, we still are not ready to see him. The process of purification has not reached its completion. Therefore, purgatory is God’s merciful answer that allows us to complete the process so that we can in fact see Him.
This is one of the most important reasons by which we are able to embrace suffering with open and generous hearts. We come to understand that suffering, rather than a punishment, has become path to holiness and purity of heart. In St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, he reminds us of the fundamental truth concerning purification: God is our Father, He loves us, and everything He allows is out of love. “You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: ‘My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.’ Endure your trials as ‘discipline’; God treats you as sons. For what ‘son’ is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards” (Heb 12:5-8). If we forget this, all suffering will be unbearable. If we remember it, all suffering can be accepted with joy. The Lord turns the greatest evil into our greatest good. St. Catherine of Siena confirms this: “Once we have seen and understood that God wants only our good, we see that it is God’s will and pleasure to follow Him on the way of the Cross. We rejoice and are content with whatever God permits…We rejoice and are glad in everything, and we see that God permits these things for our profit and protection.”
Abundant suffering in our lives does not mean God’s ill-will toward us. Instead, it is his greatest gift. For just like the diamond, the most precious of all stones, requires the greatest purification process, so do the Lord’s most precious treasures require the most purification. St. Teresa of Avila tells us: “We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.” Though it certainly does not seem like it at the moment, each moment of suffering is another jewel in our crown….if we allow it to be. Finally, this is why our Mother Foundress, Mother Adela, teaches that only sacrificial love can lead us to the heights of purity. Only when we embrace suffering and sacrifice with LOVE will we be purified and healed.
Our Value/Fecundity Comes from Purity
To understand the next truth concerning purity, we must understand a more fundamental one: only sin inhibits God’s work. There is nothing else that is able to “block” God – not weakness, not smallness, not a lack of talents or gifts. That is why St. Paul is able to say, “When I am weak then I am strong.” God is all powerful and does not need us to be too. He only needs us to open our hearts and lives to his presence; then He comes into us and imbues us with his very own power. Therefore, the only thing that prevents him from working in the world is a heart that refuses to let him in, or a heart that is so full of other things (impurity) that it does not have room for Him.
Therefore, the only thing that determines our “value”, the only thing that makes us truly fruitful and valuable is our purity, our lack of sin. For when we allow God to fully work in and through us, we are given His power, his fecundity. Imagine a glass of water. Water should be clean, without any dirt in order to do things, to be as it is meant to be; clean water allows the sun to shine through it without impediment. When we are pure of heart, we are like clean water, allowing the Light of God to shine through us and reach others. As well, when water is clean, it is able to clean and purify what is dirty. So too, when we are clean and pure. We are able to be a source of purification for others. We see that our spiritual fruitfulness in the lives of those around us depends on our purity – nothing else.
We see this in perfection in the Blessed Mother whose purity was as perfect as is possible; and therefore, so was her spiritual fecundity: she was so fecund that God became Man in her very womb. What purity! What fecundity! How perfectly did she only will and love one thing – God. So much so that God found no hindrance in her, nothing to prevent his fullness coming into the world. And He wants to do the same in us. He gives us Mary as a shining light for us to see our own call and vocation. We too are called to bear abundant life and fruit in the Church and in the world. We too are called to allow Christ to enter the world because we let him in. We too are called to change the world! But how do we do it? Is it through all the social service we do? Is it because we go to Mass daily? Is it because we are full of gifts and talents? No, it comes simply down to one thing only – our purity, our holiness, our lack of sin. The world teaches us that what we do is what counts. God teaches us precisely the opposite – who we are is what matters most. Then good works – what we do – will flow naturally from us since, “out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34). What we do certainly matters, but it is an effect of what is within, not a cause of it. Pope Paul VI made a very powerful yet subtle gesture to affirm this truth in 1975 with the promulgation of his encyclical, Evangelii nuntiandi. This beautiful encyclical – Evangelization in the Modern World – was promulgated on the December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This encyclical about “going out” to proclaim the Gospel – what we do – was given on the day in which we celebrate Mary’s purity. What was the Holy Father saying with this? That the force of our evangelization – our action – lies and is founded upon our purity, our holiness. This is what gives it its force and strength. We must “go out into the deep”; but it will only be effective if it is a going out that is an effect of our interior purity and sinlessness.
A shining example of this truth is St. Therese who was proclaimed Patroness of Missions for the entire continent of Europe. However, she never left the convent. What is the Church saying and demonstrating to us with this declaration? Only holiness is fruitful. Only holiness and purity change the world.
This is precisely why Mary is the most fruitful person ever to live. Not because of what she did. In fact, we see in Scripture, she was not particularly active according to the world’s standards. Scripture speaks nothing of her numerous gifts and talents. However, she was pure. And God became man through her. And she is so fruitful that she is Mother of all the Living. The extent of her purity is so great, so deep, and so profound that she is not only the Mother of God, but Mother of all the Living. And every grace in the world yesterday, today and always comes through her hands. What a great mystery. The Virgin is the most fruitful of all creatures. How much we see through Mary that “God’s ways are above our ways….That man’s thoughts are not God’s” (Is 55:8). It is the Heart of the Virgin that becomes the Mother of all. What a profound mystery concerning purity and holiness the Lord teaches us through Mary. Purity, rather than being that which prevents children, allows us to enter into a relationship with God that is life-giving and infinitely fruitful. Purity then is a not a renunciation, but a profound “yes” to something greater and more perfect.
To help us with this, imagine your funeral. I have been to many funerals. Some, despite the sadness of the loss, have been moments of joy. Why is this so? What I have witnessed at these funerals is a multitude gathered to celebrate a life well lived, one in which many children and grandchildren are present to honor a life that had a profound impact on them. For you see, at funerals people do not speak of your lifetime accomplishments or how much money you made. It is interesting because even though the world tells you money matters, even the most secular person on earth does not hold this to be true at a funeral. At funerals people speak of character and virtue and love. And crowded funeral are crowded because the person who has passed was a person who gave his life to many and who loved. This is what counts. The people present at a funeral represent the spiritual children of the one who has died – the ones who were given “life” through the life of this one now passed. If we were to die right now, who would be at our funeral and what would they say about us? How have we given life to those around us, to those we have never met?
In the final chapter of the book of Proverbs, we read a description of the perfect woman: “Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates” (31:31). Men and women alike must understand this verse as applying to them, for the Church in her essence is feminine in that all of us – both men and women – are the Brides that receive the seed of the Word and allow it to bear fruit for the world. Will we, like this verse, have our “works” – our spiritual children – to praise us at the gates as we enter heaven? Again, we read in Psalm 127, “Behold, sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate” (3-5). What will be our defense before the “Great Accuser” of our souls? What will be like arrows in our hands? Our defense, our arrows are our “sons”, our spiritual children, our fruit. This is what will meet us and defend us on the day of our judgment. We will be judged by our spiritual fruit, by our “children.” A powerful example of this is Jesus and barren fig tree. When Jesus encounters the barren tree, he curses it and it withers and dies. Why? Because a tree is supposed to bear fruit. And why is condemned? Because it does not bear fruit. So we too will be if we have no “figs” to present and defend us at the gates of heaven.
Ways we are not Pure
Therefore, it becomes essential to earnestly seek purity in our lives. We must be willing to tear out with violence all that is impure. Most simply, if we want to be pure, we have to be willing first to see that which is not pure, and then to have sorrow and contrition for all the ways we are not. This is only thing the Lord needs from us. We see a beautiful example of this in the good thief. Upon the recognition and sorrow for his sins before the Lord, he became the first person to enter heaven with Jesus. Although the good thief experienced an immediately purification, usually this purification is a life-long process, in which we must constantly and arduously work to wrench out all that is not pleasing to God. As much as we are willing to put our effort into this process, this will be the extent and rapid rate of our purification. Therefore, we must begin first with a “seeing.” What is in us that is not pure? In what areas do we need to be purified? This is the first essential step in being purified. We cannot apply medicine if we do not know where the wound lies. Therefore, let us commence with a brief examination of purity. (This “examination of purity” is based upon the writings and words of our Mother Foundress, Mother Adela Galindo.)
Purity of Intention
Why do we do the things we do? Is it for personal gain, pleasure, or to get our own way? Do we act always for the best of the other? Are we deceitful in our reasoning, our motivations or purpose of our actions? Do we manipulate by our words, by the way we say things, by using certain tones of voice or facial expressions? Do we have an agenda in our actions, words, conversation, questions, etc?
Purity of Heart
Do we seek anything beyond Jesus and his will? What else captures our heart and motivates us to act and love? Who or what do we love more that Jesus? How are we not “willing one thing”? Do we do everything for love of God and love of his will? Do we seek personal interests and desires or do we seek the common good?
Purity of Mind
Are our thoughts the thoughts of Jesus and Mary? Do we think like them? Do we evaluate situations, ourselves and others as they would? Or do we judge, criticize and assume things concerning other people and their actions? Do we insist on our point of view, our way of seeing things, our way of doing things? Are our thoughts disordered and stained by our sinfulness, whims, and superficialities?
Purity of Affections and Feeling
Do we love people in a detached manner that seeks their true good? Or do we find our emotional fulfillment in other people? Are we willing to evaluate our emotions and feelings and subject them to reason and love? Or do we act upon them simply because we “feel like it”? Are we slaves to our emotions?
Purity of Action
Do we act in accordance with our state in life? Do we fulfill our duties in life? Are we responsible, willing to fulfill our responsibilities no matter what the cost – even when we do not want to? Do we act and work with perfection or do we do things in a lazy and disordered manner simply to “get them done”? Do we give ourselves without reserve?
Purity of Word
Do we speak the truth? Do we speak in just measure – not minimizing or exaggerating in order to prove a point, to make someone laugh or to get our way? Are we charitable in our words? Do we use words to our advantage? Are we prudent or do we speak about things that do not concern us? Do we use moderation in our speech or do we simply speak just to speak? Do we edify with our words or do we destroy?
Bodily Purity
Are we modest in the way we dress, act, and carry ourselves? Or do we dress in such a way that draws attention, that leads others to be impure or that leads us to be impure? In our relationships with people of the opposite sex, do we respect one another with the realization that we are first children of God the Father and Temples of the Holy Spirit? Do we engage in lustful practices that degrade ourselves or others of the opposite sex?
The Israelites in the Desert
What happens if we are looking within ourselves right now and seeing that we are not so pure? Does that mean we are worthless in God’s eyes? Not at all. We can never lose our worth or God’s love. If we have seen that we are not the way that He desires us to be, this is not a time to despair or lose hope. In fact it is the opposite. It is a time to look toward the good thief and see in him our own hope based on Christ’s unending and merciful love. He longs to purify and perfect us. He longs to love us and help us. He longs to love us more and more. This is why we actually bring him great consolation when we see our sinfulness and then open our hearts to him with great confidence. Why? Because finally we give him entrance. And there is nothing that He desires more. Imagine a child who doesn’t want hugs or affection or for you to even be around. There is an anguish in your heart because you want to hug him and love him and heal his wounds. The Lord feels the same with us. He knows we are wounded: this is no surprise to Him. It is often a surprise for us, but never for Him. So imagine his chagrin when the child, upon seeing himself so miserable, runs away from the very Dad who can make it better. What a pain for the heart of the Father. So too with us: the child’s lack of responsiveness does not change your love for the child; in fact, it increases it. So it is with our Father.
What if it seems that the battle is too big for us? What if the monsters inside seem too large to overcome? Let us spend some time reflecting on a particular reading, with which the Lord desires to speak to us.
We take ourselves into the Old Testament, to the story of Moses and the Israelites in the desert. After receiving the Law, God commanded Moses to take the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land, to send scouts into the land, and then to come back and invade and capture the Land He had promised to them. This is what they said upon their return after scouting the land: “It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. However, the people who are living in the land are fierce, and the towns are fortified and very strong….We cannot attack these people; they are too strong for us…The land that we explores is a country that consumes its inhabitants. All the people we saw there are huge men, giants; we left like mere grasshoppers” (Numbers 13). The people began to murmur and become upset at Moses, and they spread this discord to the people. How dare he lead the people this far only to have them defeated and perish in the desert! It would have been better had they never left at all. What was the Lord’s response to this grumbling? Because of their lack of faith in Him, he punished them to wander 40 years in the desert. They could have entered the Promised Land months after their escape from Egypt. But they did not trust the Lord. They saw their own weakness, and they did not believe He could overcome it. What a profound lesson for us!
How many times, including maybe right now, do we feel overcome. We see the Promised Land of holiness and virtue and perfection that the Lord is calling us to. But we also see our smallness, weakness, and we see we are simply not capable of living it. So far, this is all true. We are not. We cannot. BUT THE LORD CAN. All we need to do is trust Him. He tells us to go, and for that reason alone, we know we can do it. “He who calls us is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thes 5:24). But we have to make the choice to go, to give it our all, to fight. If we complain and remain, we are destined to 40 years of difficult wandering. But if we have faith, we will go and we will conquer.
Forty years later the Israelites again entered the Promised Land, and this time they did trust the Lord; therefore, He brought about one of the most well known and miraculous victories in Bible history – the fall of Jericho. Joshua 6 recounts the story, of which we will simply point out one thing and then move on to another reading to reveal their full significance. The fall of Jericho was brought about by the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant around the city walls for 7 days. On the 7th day, the walls of the city miraculous fell upon the people’s shout, and the capture of the city was total.
Next we move onto Joshua 3, on which we will focus. We read again of the Israelites and their passage – after 40 years in the desert – into the Promised Land. The Lord commands the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant to the edge of the Jordan river, and there stand. The Lord says that “the Ark of the Covenant will precede you into the Jordan…when the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Ark touch the waters, the water flowing from upstream will halt.” Scripture continues: “No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters, which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest, than the waters halted.” Thus all the people crossed on dry ground.
On these two accounts of the Israelites passage into the Promised Lands, miracles were performed by the Lord in similar fashion: with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant in front of the people. What does this mean? We have come to understand, with the revelation of Jesus Christ, that Mary is the New Ark of the Covenant. Just as the old Ark bore the Law, the Bread of Manna, and Staff of Moses, the New Ark (Mary) carries the New Law, the Bread from Heaven, and the New Prophet and King of Israel. What then is the Lord trying to tell us about our entry and victory in the Promised Land? It will come through the Blessed Mother. Just as they were not able to go on their own the first time, the Lord sent his Ark to go before them, to miraculously provide for their passage. They only needed to follow the Ark and their victory was assured. So too today. We have been called to perfection and purity. It is the only way that we will see God. We have also seen that the task is humanly impossible. But the Lord gives us a way: His Mother. She, who is the very embodiment of purity, is a luminous Ark or Star that the Lord has placed before us and has asked to follow. It is she that will lead us across the dangerous and overflowing water. It is she that will bring the “walls of Jericho” down in our own hearts. Is the water too much for us? Is the wall too high? Yes. But the Lord sends us aid. His Mother. We only have to follow her. We only have to look to her own perfect, Immaculate and Pure Heart and we too will reach the Promised Land.
Our Mother Desires to Heal Us
It is worth sharing the words of our Mother Foundress on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (Feb 11, 2011). Just as much as they were for those present that night, they are for us here today.
“When we began the adoration and were singing in tongues to the Lord, I experienced a profound tenderness from our Mother towards us. It was like the Lord was allowing us to go be transported in our hearts to the grotto of Lourdes.
Then the Lord gave me an image. I saw each one of us on a stretcher. We were going to the grotto not as pilgrims but as those who are ill. It was an impressive and strong vision and moment in my heart. It was also a hard moment because I saw each one of us on a stretcher. Our Blessed Mother was the one who would get us close to Her Son and was the One who was pushing our stretchers. I could see some of our bodies with different types of wounds. Some were infected. Even though I have never seen leprosy, there was a type of illness that my heart perceived as leprosy. Then I saw others with old clothes, clothes that were torn. Some had their legs atrophied. I could not explain all the different types of illnesses that I saw. I knew that the Lord was revealing not only the illness of the body but also the illnesses of the heart that were infecting the bodies so that I could see the illness of the heart.
With all those calamities that are in our hearts, souls, our minds and in our bodies, our Blessed Mother was taking us, with so much love, to Her Son; with the love of a Mother who cares for Her children. When we were getting close to the Lord, He could see all of us, yet it was an individual action, a personal action. Our Blessed Mother was holding each one of us and would speak to Her Son about each one of us. I could see that She was asking the Lord to heal us. Then She would place Her hands, Her tender hands, Her luminous hands on those wounds. I could see how She would take out the puss of the infections. I could experience so much tenderness in my heart to see how She was looking at our illness with such a maternal compassion. As She would touch us, the Lord would heal us.
At that moment, the Lord reminded me of the Psalm 51, “I will make you whiter than snow.” I feel that the Lord has opened, through the hands of His Mother 150 years ago in a grotto, a fountain of healing for our souls and our bodies. He wants to do a great healing in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls, and in our bodies of everything that is torn, everything that is dirty, everything that is wounded, and everything that is infected. Let us allow Our Blessed Mother to place Her hands as She holds us and sees us with a profound maternal compassion. She is giving an immense grace that the Lord wants to bestow upon us tonight.
It is so difficult to explain to you the immense desire for us, Her children, to be healed. I think the mothers who have seen and suffered the sickness of her child could understand, in some measure, because a mother would do anything for the health of her children. The same way, the Blessed mother supplicates to Her Son. At the same time, she leads us to recognize that we are sick in our souls, our minds, in our sentiments, in our attitudes, and in our bodies. The Lord will give us the gift to experience a profound healing through the Immaculate and Maternal hands of His Mother. May she bring us on the stretcher. May she heal everything that is torn, everything that is wounded, everything that is oppressed, everything that is dirty, everything that is infected. It is an immense grace, brothers and sisters. Our Mother is supplicating to Her Son that we may be healed and that we may be healthy. Allow the Holy Spirit to let you see and understand how you are on that stretcher in the hands of Our Lady.”
She was offering that then, and she is offering this grace to now as well. The Lord gave this prophecy knowing that He would bring it to perfection on this day in us, even though we not have been present at the moment it was given. He knew we would one day read the words, and He reserves the graces for us as well. He called each one of us, specifically by name, so that He could carry out this work in us. All that is left to us is to let him.
