The Flame of Zeal

Mary

You are resolved to be my apostle, but you wonder how in your present situation you can be one. If you are not invested with the priesthood, you have received no mission to preach.

2. Look about you, my son. Do you see those propagators of revolutionary doctrines who periodically succeed one another in the world and who win over millions of followers in a few years? With what priesthood are they clothed? Who gave them the mission to preach? Many of them have had to brave insults, persecutions, imprisonments, sometimes even the scaffold or the firing-squad, in order to attain their purpose; but they had become passionate apostles of an idea, or rather of a diabolic lie—and they succeeded. And you, the apostle of Christ and of His Mother, you wonder how you can succeed.

3. Do not argue that these apostles of falsehood have it easy, since they have but to flatter the passions, and men will applaud. You have means of success that are much more powerful. To satisfy the profound aspirations of men, you have the doctrine of the truth which makes them free, the secret of happiness which satisfies them, the knowledge of the Unknown God whom they long for, and as support you have the all-powerful assistance of God.

4. Did the first preachers of the Gospel flatter the passions of the pagans and the Jews? Did they not rather preach painful sacrifices and the obligation of being ready to suffer persecution, imprisonment, fire, and the sword? Yet they converted countless multitudes with amazing rapidity, and all because there burned in them the sacred flame of apostolic zeal! Ah! had that flame burned as intensely in the hearts of their successors, the name of my Son would have been preached to every creature centuries ago.

5. It is this flame that you must kindle in your soul. How? Come, follow me to Calvary. Place yourself next to me and look at Jesus Crucified. See His body trembling under those frightful tortures. Above all, see His soul a prey to agony a thousandfold more frightful. What is it that fills Him with that infinite desolation? It is, to a great extent, the vision of countless men for whom He is shedding His blood in vain. In vain, doubtless, because they will resist the call of grace; but in vain also, because those who should continue the saving work of the Redemption in their behalf will neglect their charge.

6. Listen! Jesus is speaking: “Woman, behold thy son; behold thy Mother.” It is to me and to you that He speaks. O my son, sound the depths of my sorrows. Why did I have to undergo this martyrdom? Because of the torments that racked the body of Jesus, but especially because of the agony of His soul. For, together with Him I was contemplating the multitudes of men to whom I was giving birth and who, I foresaw, would simply rush on to eternal perdition.

7. “Woman, behold thy son! He will aid you to save your children— children who without his help would be eternally lost. He will lead those poor erring creatures back to you. He will help you in your apostolic mission and bring consolation to us both.” Have you grasped the desires of Jesus? Oh! may the spectacle of Calvary haunt you, pursue you relentlessly! May the cry of the dying Christ and the sighs of your suffering Mother resound night and day in your ears! Then you will really get to be an apostle.

8. Listen again! “I thirst! I thirst in My body; I thirst above all in My heart. Will he who replaces Me at My Mother’s side, give Me the souls I crave?”

The Faithful Soul:
O my Mother, never allow me to forget my three loves: Jesus, Mary, and souls!