17 Lessons/Revelations on How to Love

“I shall make use of thee to communicate Myself to My creatures, and to make known to them My Will.”
– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata Ferrero

How to Love God (How to be Holy)

*The following revelations are taken from incredible biography of Sr. Benigna Consolata:

https://archive.org/details/sisterbenignacon00como

Look at Jesus

1. “Keep thy eye fixed on God.”

Imitate Jesus

2. “Now, in what does sanctity consist ? In becoming as far as possible the living image of thy Spouse. Copy Me, copy Me constantly, and therefore have the eyes of thy soul ever fixed upon thy Jesus.”

God’s Word

3. “They should live off the Gospel, as they live on the air, on light, on food…”

Docility

4. “I know what is good for thee; let Me act.”

Abandonment

5. “Thou art walking in obscurity, it is true; but thou art not alone, I am with thee; abandon everything to me then, like a poor blind person who trusts in the guide with perfect confidence.”

Confidence in God

6. “Confidence in thy Jesus, who loves thee so much, a loving confidence, a boundless confidence.”

Recollection

7. “Have an affection for recollection, silence and solitude; every beginning is difficult, especially when there is question of practicing virtue; but do not be afraid; thou shalt become strong through My grace, provided thou bury thy littleness in My Mercy.”

Charity in Words

8. “Let thy words be a perfume of sweetness.”

Perseverance

9. “One Ave Maria said without sensible fervor, but with a pure will in time of aridity, has much more value in My eyes, than an entire Rosary recited in the midst of consolations. Write this for the comfort of souls.”

The Cross

10. “The most precious gift I can make to My friends is that of the Cross. I send to the soul what costs it most, what it dreads most; this is the best means of making it advance.”

Annihilation

11. “My Benigna, I am going to explain this great word, annihilation. Annihilation means death. A thought comes which pleases thee ; banish it, forget it, and it is the death of that thought; sacrifice a desire, and it is the death of that desire; when thou hast a will to do something and renouncest it, it is the death of that will; every act of death is an act of life, because the moment thou diest to nature thou livest to God.”

Humility

12. “Humility will lead thee never to judge anyone; humility will lead thee to regard thyself as the servant of all; humility will lead thee ever to accuse thyself. When a soul has been introduced by Love into this profound abyss of humility, she walks securely and makes progress, for nothing can stop her.”

Repentance

13. “My Benigna, thou knowest a little thorn may make a great rent, but if one is careful to take it out immediately, it leaves scarcely a trace. When thou art afraid of having displeased me, say at once; My Jesus, if I have offended thee in anything, grant me the grace to repair it; and deign to enlighten me that another time I may better accomplish thy will.”

Praise

14. “Praise God always for all the benefits I have bestowed upon thee.”

Love

15. “Elevate thy heart to God by continual acts of love.”

Purity

16. “Intention most pure of pleasing God in all thou doest, in all thou sayest, in all thou thinkest, in all thou desirest.”

Sacrifice

17. (On June 13, 1915, the Feast of the Sacred Heart) Sr. Benigna Consolata writes: ‘He said to me in a sweet, sad tone: “My Benigna, give me souls!” The plaintive words of my Adorable Master moved me profoundly. — How shall I give Thee souls, my Jesus? — “By sacrifices,” He responded.’

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A “Challenge for Lent” from God Himself!

These beautiful, beautiful words are taken from the revelations of Servant of God Sr. Benigna Consolata Ferrero (d. September 1, 1916, on a First Friday), titled ‘Vademecum Proposed to Religious Souls.’ 

“How ravishing and consoling are the pages of the Vade Mecum,
first of the writings dictated by the Pious Author [Jesus], whom we invoke
by saying: Pie Jesu! The Canon Saudreau, our acknowledged Master
in Mysticism, writes me that he recognizes the accent of Our Lord,
as we recognize the accent of a traveler from a foreign land.”

– from her biography

It is my great pleasure to share these inspiring words with you on what is the 100th anniversary of the death of Sr. Benigna Consolata, my dear “little sister.” Ask for her intercession and you will come to love her; she is another Seraphic soul, like St. Gemma, St. Catherine of Siena or St. Francis of Assisi.

I pray that God will one day raise Sr. Benigna to the Altars! Please join me! Thy Will be done!

(Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the day after the Feast of the Holy Face!)

Challenge for Lent

“If this Challenge, says Jesus, is practiced with love and a real desire to please and console Me, it will cause in the souls of My spouses no little progress in intimate converse with My Sacred Heart, and will lead them to a closer union with Me.

In the Order of the Visitation a Disfida or Challenge is a schedule of practices of virtue, given by the Superior to the Sisters at certain seasons, as Lent, Advent, and at the approach of great Feasts, as Christmas, Pentecost.

It will be the duty of My dear spouses, their sweetest duty, during Lent to keep Me special company in My Passion, by meditating more frequently on My sufferings, the price of the Redemption of man. Above all, they should be at this time so many other Veronicas destined by love to wipe My Divine Face.

Every Religious House, every one of My spouses, shall be as a studio, where in the solitude of her heart she shall keep the eyes of her mind, especially those of the heart, fixed upon My Divine Features. This will be a study made as much as possible in silence and recollection. The religious soul will be the linen, on which, according to her devotedness, I will stamp My Divine Lineaments. But to come to a more precise
understanding, continues Jesus, I will say that it is My intention to make of My dear spouses so many of My living photographs, so that each soul shall see in her Sisters, even in the exterior, this work of grace.

The Challenge will be concerned for the most part with interior practices, because it is chiefly the work of the heart; but to these you will add exterior practices also, especially those of charity, gentleness and humility, virtues which unite hearts most closely.

1. It is My desire that hearts should let themselves be penetrated with the salutary thought of My Passion just as a material is penetrated with oil which you drop softly upon it. This is an invitation of Love, without obligation; but it will please Me if the Meditation on My Passion is made at least once a day. For My spouses the thought of My Passion ought to be a bouquet of flowers, borne always upon their hearts.

2. I desire that each soul should keep Me loving company the whole day long, habituating herself to accompany Me in thought. It would be well to choose for this purpose two or three thoughts at the close of each meditation; these one may often recall and so the more easily maintain her union with Me.

3. As love is not satisfied to contemplate but longs also to imitate, therefore each religious soul should determine upon a practice for Lent, to which she shall devote herself with particular care, by seeking to copy Me more faithfully. For example, if she wishes she may take silence.

4. Now let us commence the exterior practices :

(a) To make every Friday of Lent the Via Crucis [Way of the Cross], or recite the little Crown of My Sacred Wounds. If this can be done in common, at least once, it will give Me pleasure.

(b) In order to wipe My Face, like so many other Veronicas, My spouses shall perform their actions in the best manner possible, not alone with the interior disposition, but also with exterior perfection. Purity of intention will be the whiteness of the linen, and fidelity and love in execution will be its delicate softness.

(c ) They will take away the thorns from My Head by trying with exquisite charity to spare their neighbor all the little thorns of difficulty and little inconveniences, taking these for their own portion as much as lies in their power.

Whoever would show Me more tender love will make it her duty to heal the wounds her
neighbor may have received on occasions, and this by some kind words full of the sweet balm of charity. As to the practice of humility and gentleness, let it be this: to imitate Veronica in her courage in passing across the soldiers to come near Me; the soul most generous in humiliating herself, especially in public, will be the one on
whom I shall more quickly and clearly impress My Divine Features.

Religious Soul, does this Challenge please thee? It is a gift of My Love, not only to the Religious Community, but also to other souls who live in the midst of the world, because it is equally in their power to observe it in some points.”

 

“All those who honour My Holy Face in a spirit of reparation, will, by so doing, perform the office of the pious Veronica.”

– Jesus to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre (Sr. Mary of St. Peter), October 27, 1845

Union With God: “An Anticipated Paradise”!

“… the sweetness of My Divinity surpasses incomparably all the pleasures of the flesh and the senses… all earthly and corporal pleasure is but as a drop of dew to this great ocean.”

– Jesus to St. Gertrude

Our Lord continues: “… And yet these sensible pleasures often draw men away irresistibly, though they know how they endanger, not only their bodies, but even their souls. How, then, should a soul penetrated with the sweetness of My Divinity be able to hinder itself from being carried away by the attractions of a love which will constitute its eternal felicity?”

The purpose of this article is to inspire us with a greater desire for intimate union with God. Although mystical contemplation is an unmerited grace that God bestows on whom He wills, we may all aspire to the interior life. The joys of the interior life, such as those experienced by the saints, far surpass any earthly pleasure. It would be wrong to seek these gifts as ends in themselves, but as we grow in love of God we will naturally find greater delight in His presence.

God invites us ALL to intimate union with Him

“My happiness is to reproduce Myself in the souls that I created through love.

The more a soul allows me to reproduce Myself truly in itself, the more happiness and repose I feel in it.

The greatest joy a soul can give Me is to let Me raise it to the Divinity.”

– Jesus to Bl. Dina Belanger

How do we nourish our Interior Life?

“If a soul desires to become interior quickly, and to preserve and increase this treasure, she ought:

(1) To love silence;

(2) To practice continual mortification;

(3) To surrender herself wholly to the authority of Love, like a straw on the water;

(4) To keep herself as much as possible in the sanctuary of her heart, to enjoy God, to speak to God, to listen to God, and to give herself to God.”

– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

 What hinders the Interior Life?

 “The touchstone of sanctity is mortification; and the love of comforts is the ruin of sanctity.”

– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

God calls us to be saints, not merely for our own sake and for God’s glory, but for the salvation of immortal souls:

“Souls are not saved if nothing is done for them. I died on the Cross to save them—I ask of thee no great thing—only a word withheld, a look repressed, a pleasant thought banished, in a word all that restrains and mortifies nature. These little things, united to My infinite merits, acquire a great value.” – Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

“Why is it that so few souls walk with a resolute step in the way of Love? It is because few enter with generosity into the way of sacrifice.”

– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

 Fruits of the Interior Life

“THE LIFE OF UNION WITH GOD IS AN ANTICIPATED PARADISE: IT IS HEAVEN ON EARTH, THE HEAVEN OF THE INTERIOR SOUL. 

The more a soul loves purity of heart, the better is she fitted for converse with God.

God acts with the pure of heart as a mother acts with her little babe.

Purity of heart, humility of heart, detachment, gives all (to God) but especially it gives oneself; it is this God seeks in a soul that He may communicate Himself to her with a most intimate and loving communication.”

– Jesus to Sr. Benigna Consolata

“Penance brings light to the soul. It consumes and causes to disappear all in it that is purely material. It raises him higher and higher above the earth, making him taste of delights hitherto unknown and pure. But this penance should be the daughter of reverence and exist in the soul, hidden from all humans.”

(Conchita’s Diary, Sept. 24, 1895)