“Lord,
truly, how much time do You stay with us after Communion?”
I
suppose that the Lord must have laughed at my silliness, because He
answered: “All the time that you want to have Me with
you. If you speak to Me all day long, offering Me some words during your
chores, I will listen to you. I am always with you. It is you who leaves
Me. You leave the Mass, and the day of obligation ends. You kept the day
of the Lord, and it is now finished for you. You do not think that I
would like to share your family life with you, at least that day.”
“In
your homes, you have a place for everything and a room for each
activity: a room to sleep, another to cook, another to eat, etc. Which
place have you made for Me? It should not be a place where you only have
an image, which collects dust all the time, but a place where at least
five minutes a day the family meets to give thanks for the day and for
the gift of life, to ask for their needs of the day, to ask for
blessings, protection, health. Everything has a place in your homes,
except Me.”
“Men
plan their day, their week, their semester, their vacations, etc. They
know what day they are going to rest, what day they will go to the
movies or to a party, or visit grandmother or the grandchildren, the
children, their friends, and to their amusements.
How many families say at least once a month: `This is the day for
our turn to go and visit Jesus in the Tabernacle,' and the whole family
comes to talk to Me? How many sit down in front of
Me and have a conversation with Me, telling Me how it has been since the
last time, telling Me their problems, the difficulties they have, asking
Me about what they need, making Me part of these things? How many times?
“I
know everything. I read even the deepest secrets of your hearts and
minds. But
I enjoy your telling Me about your life, your letting Me participate as
a family member, as your most intimate friend. Oh, how many graces does
man lose by not giving Me a place in his life!”
When
I remained with Him that day and on many other days, He continued to
give us teachings. Today I want to share with you this mission that He
has entrusted to me. Jesus
said:
“I
wanted to save My creature, because the moment of opening the door to
Heaven has been impregnated with too much pain...”
“Remember that not even one mother has fed her child with her
own flesh. I have gone to that extreme of Love to communicate My merits
to all of you.
“The
Holy Mass is Myself prolonging My life and My sacrifice on the Cross
among you. Without the merits of My life and My Blood, what do you have
with which to come before the Father? Nothing, misery and sin...
“You
should exceed in virtue the angels and archangels, because they do not
have the joy of receiving Me as nourishment like you do. They drink a
drop from the spring, but you that have the grace of receiving Me, you
have the whole ocean to drink.”
The
other thing that the Lord spoke about with pain concerned
people who encounter Him out of habit, of those who have lost their awe
of each encounter with Him. That routine turns some people so lukewarm
that they have nothing new to tell Jesus when they receive Him. He also
said that there were so many consecrated souls who lose their enthusiasm
of falling in love with the Lord, and have made their vocation an
occupation, a profession to which nothing more is given, except that
which is demanded of one, but without feeling...
Then
the Lord spoke to me about
the fruits that must come from each Communion that we take.
It does happen that there are people who receive the Lord
daily but do not change their lives. They spend many hours in prayer and
do many works, etc., but their life does not go on transforming, and a
life that does not transform cannot bear true fruits for the Lord. The
merits we receive in the Eucharist should bear the fruits of conversion
in us and fruits of charity toward our brothers and sisters.
We
the laity have a very important role in our Church. We do not have the
right to be silent, because the Lord has sent us out, as all the
baptized, to go forth and announce
the Good News. We do not have the right to absorb all this
knowledge and not share it with others, and to allow our brothers to die
of hunger when we have so much bread in our hands. Katya Rivas, Bolivia