Jesus said to Sister Consolata Betrone: Look, Consolata, he who wants to go to hell.... Think how foolish is your fear of condemning yourselves, after I have shed my blood to save your soul, after having showered you with graces and more graces during a long existence. At the last moment of life, when I am about to gather the fruit of redemption, and this soul is already in a position to love Me eternally. I, who in the holy Gospel have promised to give her eternal life and that no one will be able to snatch her from my hands, will I let her be stolen from the devil, from my worst enemy? But, Consolata, can you believe such a monstrosity?
No, it is not the multitude of sins that condemns the soul, because I forgive them, if she repents; but the obstinacy in not wanting my forgiveness, in wanting to condemn herself.
Dimas, on the cross, makes a single act of trust in Me and, although his sins are many, in an instant he is forgiven and on the very day of his repentance, he enters into possession of My kingdom and is a saint. Look at the triumph of My mercy and of the trust placed in Me
No, Consolata, my Father who has given me souls, is greater and mightier than all the demons and no one can snatch them from my Father's hands.
Oh, Consolata, trust, trust always; believe blindly that I will fulfill all the great promises I have made to you, because I am good, immensely good and merciful and I do not want the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.
One Sunday don Garneri told me of the death of don Gusmano, inviting me to pray for him. I felt a strange helplessness in my soul and I could not pray. The only thing that came out of my heart was the act of love. Then I thought: "Perhaps don Gusmano is suffering for my sake because of those communions he imposed on me out of obedience". Jesus allowed don Gusmano to come personally to visit me. He said to me: "Consolata, why do you offend the Heart of Jesus in this way, doubting that He condemned me for those communions? Don't you know that this offends Him? He believes that I am in heaven. You know that I offered myself for your vocation as a victim. In heaven I will continue to protect you. You love always. Now let us thank Jesus. Suddenly I found myself in His divine presence, but more than than thanking Him, the thought of having offended Him with my mistrust pained me and I prayed the act of contrition. Don Gusmano obediently pronounced "I absolve you of all your sins" and then disappeared. I remained with Jesus full of joy and divine peace.
On December 15, 1935, Jesus said to him: "Many times good souls, pious souls and sometimes even souls who are consecrated to Me wound the depths of My Heart with a phrase of mistrust and say: "Perhaps I will be saved". Why did the insult come: perhaps I will be saved, if in the Gospel I have assured them that no one can snatch a soul from Me and that to this soul I give eternal life? Believe me, Consolata, to hell goes he who wants to go, that is, he who truly wants to go, because if no one can snatch a soul from my hands, the soul, using the freedom granted to it, can flee, can betray me, deny me and consequently pass into the hands of the devil of its own free will.
A love that distrusts is not love, but fear; and all anguish caused by distrust does not honor, but wounds the Heart of God.
Never, never, never, never have the slightest doubt that because of your unfaithfulness, My promises will be weakened, never. Are we? Otherwise you would wound My Heart in the most intimate part.
Imitate the children who, at the slightest scratch on a finger, run to their mother to have it sold. Always do the same. Do not forget that I will erase and repair your faults, imperfections and infidelities, as the mother sells the real or imaginary sick finger. And if that child, instead of the finger, were to break his arm or his head, tell me, are you capable of describing the tenderness or gentleness, the affection with which his mother would cure him and bandage him? So will I do with your soul, if I should fall, even if I were to conceal it. Do you understand? Never, never the least shadow of distrust. Distrust hurts me in the most intimate part of my heart and makes me suffer.
And Consolata refers to a personal experience: One afternoon I stopped for a few moments in the orchard and sat down on a bench. The chicks, taking me for their good provider, surrounded me at once, taking my lap by storm and then all lined up on the edge of the back of the bench. Thinking of my Father St. Francis, I let them do what they wanted, then I felt the need to lend them my heart so that they too could love as I so much desired. I tried to caress one of them, who had remained on my lap, but he became intimidated and his little heart began to beat very loudly. I wanted to calm him down, so I held him close to my heart until he calmed down. He liked it, he stayed there very still, but I let him go to join his companions and returned to the choir to adore Jesus.
I was no longer thinking about this insignificant fact, when divine grace came to illustrate it to me: if Consolata had compassion for that poor little chick, only because she found it frightened and felt the need to hold it close to her heart to reassure it, how much more did the Heart of Jesus, which is a human heart, feel compassion for my poor soul and felt the need to hold it close to His divine Heart! And as in the morning I had committed a fault against charity, considering myself therefore unworthy of it, another thought comforted my spirit. What merit did that chick have whom I held close to my heart and caressed? None. It was simply compassion that impelled me to do so. That same compassion impelled Jesus towards my poor soul. "Jesus, I am your little chick!". And it seems natural to me to go up to His Heart and to continue to love Him".
He said to me: Give me always the joy of trusting in me, even in the darkness of death. Give me always the joy in any dark hour in which you find yourself of a Jesus I trust in you, I believe in your love for me and I trust in you. And Jesus emphasized to her on one occasion: In the Heart of the Church you will be the confidence.
Fr ANGEL PEÑA O.A.R.
SISTER CONSOLATA BETRONE
AND THE UNCEASING ACT OF LOVE