THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS TEACHES US IN AFFLICTION TO HAVE, RECOURSE TO PRAYER

THE VOICE OF JESUS. - My child, when I entered the Garden of Olives, when the earth was silent all around, behold, there rush­ed and pressed upon Me, on the one hand, all the sins of the world, on the other, the fright­ful tortures of My Passion; and with such violence did they crowd upon My Heart that although It is the strength of them that are weak, It began to fear, to grow weary, sad, disconsolate.

But when I beheld distinctly that, by the great sufferings taken upon Me with so much love, and offered up with so great a mercy for the salvation of all men, not a few would refuse to be saved, and would, by a wilful hard­heartedness, misuse them for their deeper des­truction, and return Me at last nothing except the blackest ingratitude - then, My child, My Heart, growing faint with anguish, forced Me to exclaim: My soul is sorrowful, even unto death?

However, having withdrawn from My disciples and advanced a little, kneeling down, I prayed. Meanwhile, by the struggle between the su­perior and inferior part of My Heart, My sor­rows increasing to such a degree that My sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground, I fell down on My face, and being in agony I prayed the longer.

And as My agony, on account of that inward struggle, continued, I persevered in prayer; Father, if You will, remove this chalice from Me; pet, not My will but Yours be done. Yes, My Father, Your will be done!

Then, sent from heaven, an angel appeared, not to take away the chalice of My Passion, which My Father willed Me wholly to drain, but to strengthen Me; that when joy was sent before Me without My Passion, despising the shame, I might voluntarily endure the cross.

Reflect, My child, how painful a struggle My Heart underwent that night; a struggle the like of which is not found; a struggle on the result of which hung the salvation of the world.

My Heart fought, laboring, wrestling, resist­ing even unto blood; but it conquered in prayer. Behold, My child, behold a source of varied consolation for you: My heart, struggling with death, and praying: fighting by love; triumph­ing by love. To what extent I felt the hardship of My sufferings, to what extent I tasted their bitterness! And all this, My child, to teach, to relieve, to encourage you.

Re not, then, cast down, nor wonder when you feel a repugnance to suffering. For if My Heart, although holy and perfect, felt its pains to such a degree, what wonder if your heart feels them likewise?

But never shall you experience, never shall you feel, so much as My Heart felt. Where you to endure at once in your Heart whatever you shall have to suffer during your whole life, it would be no more than a little drop from the chalice that My Heart drained in the Garden.

Whatever may be the reluctance that you experience in yourself, follow My example; yield not to opposing nature, but go counter to it.

To this end, in every difficulty, in every an­guish, hasten without delay to prayer.

If when you are troubled you have recourse to prayer, distress will ever prove gainful to you. By prayer, you shall either be delivered from it with merit, or you shall be helped to endure it for your good.

Come, then, My child, and with knees bent or with your heart at least humbly prostrate, pray like Myself; pray that, if it be the divine will, the cup of your affliction may pass away; yet not so that yours, but the divine will be done.

Pray, if this chalice may not pass away, that you obtain grace to be resigned, to submit your­self to drink it.

Be of good cheer, My child under no circum­stances shall you ever have afflictions that will require you to struggle as much, in order to be resigned, as I had. You shall never have a contest that will cause you a bloody sweat.

Whatsoever, difficulty you may have, exert yourself, wrestle, fight with yourself, to over­come your feeling. Struggle again and again, pray, and pray the longer, until you have ren­dered your heart conformed to the divine will, and have prepared it, in spite of nature, to follow Me through every hardship that may be sent it from above.

It is a great misfortune for you, that you are wont to have recourse to prayer ra­ther slowly, and first to try human skill; that you suffer the unwearied enemy of your salva­tion, and the ill-regulated propensity of na­ture, to obtain too great a sway over your heart.

Hearken not to the suggestions of the devil or of any passion whatsoever. For, by false reasoning they seek to deceive, to injure you. Forbidding yourself all reasoning, all intercourse with them, come forthwith to My heart; here is your counsel, here is your help, here is your comfort.

Even were an angel sent down from heaven, you should not be left without consoling aid, if you prayed, as it behooves you.

And if despite your pious efforts, you con­tinue to feel an opposition within yourself, be not on that account dejected. Provided you will be resigned to the divine will, this repugnance felt, indeed, but pot willed, far from doing you harm, shall, on the contrary, if you struggle against it, be of greatest advantage to you.

It is the characteristic of an heroic disciple of My Heart to pray and endeavor with all his strength to overcome himself completely in those things from which nature shrinks, as well as in those to which it is prone.

When you pray in affliction you ought to pray that you are willing to be resigned -  whether you obtain relief, or, - in its stead, receive something else - which is better for you, because more conformable to the divine will, or whether you taste sweetness or experience bitterness.

For that prayer is not the best, in which the greatest consolations are felt; since what is sweet is not always useful, nor is that which is bitter always hurtful. In man's present state, sweetness is wont to do harm, bitterness to be advantageous.

The best prayer is that which you resort to with greater humility and greater charity, and of which you feel well disposed, that in order to do the good pleasure of God, you are willing to do against whatever is displeasing in it.

How pitiful a sight before God and angels and men, to see persons who daily pray long and much, go and carry nothing away with them but faults of negligence and abuse of grace, or a more delicate pride and self-love. having in no wise become better inclined towards their duties, not abler to bear the defects of their neighbor, nor to curb their own inclina- tions. You, My child, do you pray better, as taught by My example? Pray and overcome nature; pray and resign and conform yourself to the divine good pleasure.

These arduous efforts shall not long be needed, Yet a little while, and you shall no longer pre­pare yourself for tribulations, nor encourage yourself in them; but you shall sing glad and glorious triumphs with the Saints, who all have come out of great tribulations, and who now in their reward, are enraptured by the unbroken excess of rejoicing, and exult forevermore.

THE VOICE OF THE DISCIPLE. - Thanks to You, most compassionate Jesus, true comfort­er of all who are in trouble; thanks to You, that You console me so disinterestedly and so gently, amid all the repugnance I am wont to feel in regard to sufferings; and for that, at so great a cost to Yourself, You did open for we a source of remedies in every affliction.

O sweet Jesus, my love and my every good! I beg and implore You, bestow upon me the grace always and everywhere to repose with You in the divine will, and to continue thus with You forever.