Thy Will Be Done: Divine Will

The Lord be with you always
and may you be with him always
and in every place”

- Blessing of St. Clare…From: The Poor Clare’s of Galway

Prayer: Ideas for busy people

Prayer is the life of the soul. Just as our bodies need nourishment, so too, our souls, which hunger for God, need to be nourished by prayer. Much of the stress that many people experience nowadays comes from the fact that they neglect to nourish their souls. Our bodies, minds and souls make up a unit. Our society is becoming more and more geared to looking after the body and the mind, but unless some harmony is restored by bringing these three together, it is inevitable that people will experience anxiety.

St. Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”.

Surely, a lot of the anxiety that people experience in their busy lives could be alleviated if they gave some time to prayer and the search for God. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and we cannot hope to have peace within ourselves unless we draw life from the source. Prayer essentially, is a dialogue with God, speaking to Him who created and loves us, and listening to what He is trying to say to us. …

…And don’t think that prayer is only for priests and religious. Certainly they pray, but prayer and holiness (which is essentially having our whole being in harmony within and with the plan of God) is for everyone in every situation. We will never achieve true happiness as long as we continue to search for it outside the very source of love, which we know is God Himself, who we are told in Scripture, is love. (1 John 4:16).

As Pope John Paul II suggests in his letter on the dawn of the new millennium, why not “start afresh from Christ“. You won’t regret it!

A few preliminaries

Jesus tells us when we pray to “go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done is secret will reward you” (Mathew 6:6). “One does not pray only when one has the time. One makes time for the Lord”. (Catechism of the Catholic Church - i.e. CCC 2710) It is important that when we come to pray we give the Lord “quality time”. Our prayer is a relationship, so we need to work on it. We are human and prone to distractions, so we should avail of supports to prayer that are available. Things like creating a suitable atmosphere - a quiet room, candles etc. We don’t have to go to a set place for prayer, but it can be helpful. Sometimes, you may be able to visit a chapel - this has the added advantage that if the Blessed Sacrament is there, you are actually physically in the presence of the Lord. You should always begin with a little prayer to the Holy Spirit, to help you to be open to His inspirations. Scripture says, “The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words.”1 You could invoke His help in your own words, or use a prayer in common use, such as this one by Cardinal Mercier:

O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul
I adore you.
Enlighten me, guide me,
strengthen me and console me.
Tell me what I ought to do
and command me to do it.
I promise to be submissive in everything that you ask me to do
and to accept everything that you permit to happen to me.
Only show me what is your will
And give me the grace to do it. Amen.

Thoughts from the Catechism on prayer

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a wonderful resource. Part 4 is completely devoted to prayer. For those seeking to explore varied forms of prayer, it is well worth reading. We quote just a few sections here, to whet your appetite!

“Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man”. (CCC 2564)

“The heart is the dwelling place where I am, where I live; the heart is the place ‘to which I withdraw’.” (CCC 2563)

“The life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him.” (CCC 2565)

“Abraham’s heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God’s will, is essential to prayer, while the words used… count only in relation to it.”

Copyright Information

We would like people to feel free to download any of the texts. All original material on this website may be used without permission. From the Poor Clare’s of Galway

Gratitude

In our modern world, we have become accustomed to having everything we want on demand. So many people have all the latest gadgets that come on the market and yet, dissatisfaction is a common occurrence. To develop a ‘gratitude attitude’ is a wonderful antidote to this. We have been given so much and have so much to be grateful for. Most of what we take for granted (our health, our families, our talents and creation itself) is a free gift of God. We just need to think more about this and acknowledge it with gratitude.
As St. Paul says to us, “Learn to be grateful.” (Col 3:15). It is not difficult to work on this. However, it does require a change in our outlook. To decide to be grateful, is to look at the positive and helps to dispel the negativity within us. We will find, too, as we go on, that as we see all the gifts that have been given to us and begin to notice how the Lord has been looking after us all along, we become more hopeful. This is an antidote to the despair which is so prevalent nowadays. St. Francis epitomizes this way of looking at things. At one of the bleakest times in his life, when he was wracked by pain and almost blind, he wrote “The Canticle of Brother Sun”. At the time, he was in darkness and could not bear the sunlight as it caused so much pain to his eyes, yet, instead of turning in on himself, he recognized all that he had been given was a gift from God, and so he burst out in praise. Thus was composed what has become one of the most beloved prayers of all time. St. Clare too, on her deathbed, looked back in gratitude for all that the Lord had achieved in her life, and she could say “Thank you Lord for having created me”. This type of prayer is often found in the Scriptures, particularly in the psalms. For instance, in Psalm 138(139) we find the verse “I thank you for the wonder of my being”

Examples of Prayers in the Divine Will:

1) Our Prayers Divinely give glory to the Father as if all creatures had received Holy Communion. For Example: (Sept.8,1916) Our Lord says: I embraced all and gave Myself in Communion to all. Then seeing that many had not taken part in this Sacrament, and seeing the Father offended because they did not want to partake of Life, I gave glory as all had received Holy Communion. Repeat everything, giving Me to all as I wanted to give Myself to all.

Communion in Your Will. Lord, I give You to all as You wanted to give Yourself to all and I wish to give You the glory as if all had received Communion, at every Mass that should have been said, has been said, is being said now and will be said. Amen. Fiat. (Vol 12, Pg 39)

2) Our Prayers remain in a continuous ongoing act in the Divine Will i.e. to infinity.

(Dec. 6, 1919) (N.B.) Your Prayer remains a continuously ongoing act in My will, i.e., to infinity.

(N.B.) Acts done in the Divine Will enter into eternity and have supremacy over all human acts.

Our Lord says to Luisa: While you prayed My Mercy softened; and My Justice lost its harshness – and not only in present times but also in future times – because your prayer will remain in act in My Will. Moreover; in virtue of this, My softened mercy will flow more abundantly; and My Justice will be less rigorous. Not only that, My heart will feel a special tenderness of love toward you in finding in you the love that other souls should have given Me, and I will pour in you the graces I has prepared for them.

Soul:

My love, in Your Will I find all generations; and on behalf of the entire human family I adore You, I kiss You and I make reparation for all. I give Your wounds and Your blood to all, so that all will find their salvation. Although the lost souls can’t receive any benefits from Your most holy blood, nor can they love You, in their place I take Your blood and do what they should do. I do not want Your love to be disappointed by creatures in any way and on behalf of all I want to respond, to make reparation, to love You and to adore You…From the first man to the last that will exist. Amen. Fiat

3) Jesus: (N.B.) (Vol. 12, Pg 246) Your acts will fill heaven and earth, will multiply with the acts of Creation and Redemption, and they will make themselves one alone. All this will seem surprising and incredible to some, and then they will place in doubt My Creative Power. Moreover, when it is I Who want it, Who gives this power, every doubt ceases. Am I perhaps not free to do what I want and to give to whom I want?

Soul:

OMNIPOTENT FIAT: I want to form so much love, so many adorations, so many benedictions and so much glory to my God that I compensate for everyone and everything. Amen. Fiat.

Jesus I love You with Your Will!

Jesus: …“Substituting your self in the name of the whole human family, try as much as you can, to make reparations to Me for everyone. If you only knew how much good the world receives when one soul – without a shadow of personal interest, but only for My Love – elevates herself between Heaven and earth and unites with Me to bring into balance the reparations of everyone!” (Vol. 12, Pg 180)

Further, when the soul wants to attest her love to Me with her pains, she can take pains suffered in other times, which stay in act, and give them to Me to duplicate her love and satisfactions toward Me. (Vol. 12, Pg 19)

Soul: Jesus I want to give You my previous sufferings and duplicate my love and reparations towards You. Amen. Fiat.

4) (Vol.14, Pg 69) Jesus: “ The Uncreated Intelligence desires to rest Itself in the created intelligence. But in order to find complete repose, It must find in your intelligence all the glory and all the satisfaction that all other intelligences owe Me.” Jesus blew upon Luisa’s intelligence and it became bound to all created minds that emerged from the hands of our Creator by as many threads of light; and every thread of light said the prayer below.

“Glory, adoration, honour, love, thanksgiving to my three times Holy God. Amen. Fiat.”

Oh, Your Will, how amiable, admirable and powerful You are! Your beauty enamours the Heavens and forms the continuous enchantment that enraptures the entire celestial court. Oh, with what enchanting beauty that enraptures all, enraptures the earth, and, with sweet enchantment, enchants all creatures, so that one will be the Will of everyone, one the Sanctity, one the Life, one the Kingdom, one Your Fiat, as in Heaven, so on earth! Amen. Fiat.

This faithful portrait of the Lord becomes the portent of God in His very bosom. It personifies the permanent memory of all His works, as well as the unfolding of the Divine Life in the Creature.

…By doing acts in My Will, they undergo an incredible transformation which is not even given to the angels to understand. Only I can measure the just value of these acts done in My will. They are the triumph of My Glory, the outlet of My Love, and the compensation for Creation itself.

Adela Maria: Each and every weekly Blog posted under Divine Will has acts of love, adoration, wisdom, reparation, thanksgiving, etc…that can be renewed in God’s Divine Will. None of it is of me…it is of holiness, struggle, pleadings, crosses. (past history) Just think of how you can multiply the acts of the already sainted in Heaven by giving each of them over to His Divine Will; and, renewing their holiness in His power to multiply and renew their sanctities for the salvation of souls. Blessed Mother Mary and Jesus say…”Give us souls”! Think…impetrate the minds’ eye with the Throne of Heaven… receiving these gifts; to be offered and renewed over and over again; creating new acts of holiness to glorify God! Jesus and Mary do this in our name to glorify the Father in His Creation; to adore the Son in His Redemption; to thank and love the Mother for Her Fiat; and to sanctify the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all of humanity. Now do you understand what Divine Will is? It’s giving back to the Creator all the glory that was due to him; but, denied because of human free will. Adam had both a human and a divine will. We need to divinize our human free will. To do this is simple and immense: You say “Jesus, I love you in and with your divine Will”. You give up your human free will and replace it with the Divine Volition…do whatevah He asks of you; and, you consecrate yourself to this Will of God; by loving Him with all that is good and great and wonderful in you, Our smallest everyday natural acts become sanctified. He has, with Joseph and Mary, sanctified all daily living in His thirty three years on earth. Just Imagine…the God-Man…the Man-God…Jesus! O My God…How He has suffered.

Here is another example to think about. For example: at Communion time, I baptize with the spirit of desire; with the Blood of Jesus; with the Tears of Mary…all the unbaptized of the world in the present moment…I enter these souls of all humanity…in the innocence of their childhood; into “Thy Chalice O Lord”; Jesus, “fill us up”. I see living hosts…Jesuses…flowing all the way to the Heavens. Does it happen as I see it? I believe it does. Jesus is working in me…my will is His Will.

The key ingredient is peace and complete openness. Listen with your heart. See things with your soul. Feel and hear His love with your mind. Become One with God without thinking each moment…”Am I doing it right”? Mother Mary will guide you. Love and Blessings. From: My Heart

THE DIDACHE

The Didache or “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” is a manuscript which was used by 2nd century bishops and priests for the instruction of catechumens. Many early Christian writers have referenced it making this document relatively easy to date.

“Let no one eat and drink of your Eucharist but those baptized in the name of the Lord; to this, too the saying of the Lord is applicable: ‘Do not give to dogs what is sacred’”.

-Ch. 9:5

Let us devote ourselves entirely to knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we want to know Him. Since love is generally measured by knowledge, the deeper and more extensive the knowledge, the greater will be the love. And if our love is great, we will love Him equally in pain and consolation.” - Brother Lawrence

From the book “Practice of the Presence of God”, translated by Salvatore Sciruba, OCD
ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Rd NE, Washington, DC 20002

16. “I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANS”

O my child, son of the Cross and of my Heart: your father and mother may fail you, but I will never abandon you!

Even at my death I did not leave my children orphans, for day and night they can find me on their altars.

With the tenderness and gentleness of a thousand mothers, the Last Supper came to sweeten the bitterness of Calvary; for I knew that in the Holy Eucharist you would always have with you a father and a mother, and would never be alone while on earth…

And, therefore, although my Passion caused me excessive sufferings, yet I found consolation and relief in the thought that I was to leave myself to you in the Holy Eucharist.

I wished, my beloved child, that my body, which was crushed under the burden of the cross, and my blood, which was shed for all mankind, should be, within the Sacrament, your consolation and joy.

I wished it… my dearly beloved child. In those supreme moments of indescribable anguish, the thought that you would be happy in the possession of the Holy Eucharist increased my strength during My passion, and lessened My fear. And that is why the Institution of this Holy Sacrament immediately preceded My greatest sufferings.

It could not be otherwise, my dearly beloved child, than that the thought of always living by your side would lessen and alleviate My sufferings.

It was this thought that caused me to sing the song of thanksgiving with joy as I walked with my Apostles to the Garden of Olives. And during the painful moments of my Passion, I had continually before my mind those sweet hopes which had been with me during the Last Supper.

When my body was being scourged cruelly… and when my blood was pouring on the ground, I rejoiced, my dearly beloved son. I rejoiced at being ground like wheat in the mill and pressed like grapes in the winepress, thus making myself the bread and the wine to nourish you at the Eucharistic banquet.

Before death had taken me away from men, I had disposed and arranged to multiply my life upon their altars.

Do you not see then my child, that even in dying I have not left you as an orphan; for every day and at every moment of the day, from one end of the world to the other, these words of my Priests rise to Heaven: “This is My Body. This is My Blood”; and I rejoice at being a constant victim for love of you.

O Jesus, O my beloved Jesus! O Jesus hidden here beneath these Sacramental veils! Grant that at every moment of my life I may return gratitude and love to you for your great love for me!

O Mary, my Mother, our Lady of the Eucharist! Help me to offer thanks to Jesus, and always to prepare myself perfectly to receive Him with a love like yours. Amen.

From the book “Before the Altar”, by Concepcion Cabrera de Armida
Permission received by Fr. Gustavo Garcia-Siller M.Sp.S (Missionaires of the Holy Spirit)

From: www.therealpresence.org.