To Imitate Me, Resemble My Mother

Jesus

My brother, children generally resemble their mother. I resembled Mine more than any child of man ever resembled his.

Born of her alone, My features, My looks, My walk, My gestures, My whole exterior, recalled My virginal Mother. Whoever saw Me recognized Me at once as the Son of Mary.

Greater still than our physical resemblance was the resemblance between our souls. My Heavenly Father had modeled Mary according to My likeness in order that like a true Mother she might form Me according to her likeness. And by constantly applying herself to observe Me, to ponder in her heart all that I did and said, she succeeded in reproducing all My dispositions with incomparable perfection.

In every matter, we had therefore the same thoughts, the same sentiments, the same will. Her spirit had passed into Me and My spirit into her.

2. Strive to resemble My Mother as I resembled her.  Resemble her exteriorly by your modesty. When seeing you, may people experience something of the same reverence and calmness of spirit which they felt when looking upon My Mother.

3. Resemble her above all interiorly. Copy her virtues. They are incomparably sublime and at the same time incomparably simple. For the life of Mary was similar to yours. It is easy for you to understand or to surmise how she acted or would have acted in your place. Like her, begin by studying all virtues as they are found in Me. Then think of your Mother and see how she reproduced them. You will learn your lesson from Me, but you will understand it much better once your Mother has explained it to you.

4. Be pure, in order to be a worthy child of the Virgin of virgins.
Be humble and simple, forgetful of self, as was the Handmaid of the Lord.
Be recollected in God, and, like your Mother, ponder on all that has been revealed to you about Me.  Be strong in your faith, believing the Word of the Lord despite any appearances to the contrary, as she believed.  Be submissive to all that God wills, and know only one answer to give Him: “Behold the son of Thy handmaid, be it done unto me according to thy word.”  Be full of charity to your neighbor, devoting yourself to him as did Mary in the house of Elizabeth, at the wedding-feast of Cana, and especially on Calvary. Apply yourself to imitate in particular that one of My Mother’s virtues which you lack most and which is most necessary for you.

5. Imitate not only her virtues but also her dispositions toward those who were nearest and dearest to her: toward her beloved parents, Joachim and Anne; toward John, My favorite disciple and My substitute with her; toward Joseph especially, her husband and My virginal foster father, toward whom she manifested unutterable affection, veneration, and gratitude for all that he was to Me and to her. You would not be her true child if you did not apply yourself to love and venerate one who was so dear to her.

6. Imitate, above all, her dispositions toward Me. Mary was created only for Me; she breathed, worked, and suffered only for Me. From her you will learn to live for Me alone and to sacrifice yourself entirely for My cause. And this you will learn quickly and perfectly, for the contemplation of My Mother’s dispositions toward Me will exercise a singular power of attraction and transformation in you—a power made up at once of strength and of tenderness, of intelligence and of love, and also of a very special grace.
At her side, on account of that sympathy which exists between mother and child, you will experience what she experienced in My company. Will it be at all astonishing if, in her presence, you easily come to adopt My dispositions?

7. Following her example, you will also enter into closer relations with My Father, whose privileged daughter she knew herself to be from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, and with the Holy Spirit, who had chosen her for His infinitely beloved Spouse.

8. The imitation of My Mother will inspire you with still another disposition—that of immense love for souls. Of this she will speak to you herself.

The Faithful Soul:
O Jesus, make me resemble Your Mother that she may make me resemble You.