At Thy Word I Will Let Down the Net

Mary

You are beginning to understand by what means you may carry on your apostolate, but you are far from understanding with what confidence you should go about it. Sometimes, as you think over how weak you are and how difficult the task confided to you is, you start to ask yourself, “What can I really do?” What can you do? By yourself, nothing. With me, wonderful things. Was it not because He who is mighty looked upon the nothingness of His handmaid that He accomplished great things in her? Have you never read that “the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong”?

2. Listen to my words and meditate upon them. I want you to understand two truths which will give you an invincible faith in the success of your mission, a faith which will move mountains. To begin with, remember that your apostolate is my apostolate, and that your interests are mine. It was to me, not to you, that God confided the mission of crushing the Serpent’s head and of establishing the kingdom of my Son in this world; you only participate in my mission. I am the commandress-in-chief of the army of Christ; you are merely my soldier. It is my children, not yours, who must be saved. Does not a mother desire the salvation of her children much more ardently than a stranger would? Does not the general wish for victory much more intensely than the mere private does? Are not the interests of Jesus infinitely more precious to me than to you? Even if you were indifferent to your success, surely I could not remain indifferent, for it is my Son, Jesus, and all my other children who are at stake. Now, I am all-powerful through the omnipotence of God, and I can confer this omnipotence on those who act in my name.

3. Secondly, call to mind and apply to your apostolate the words of Jesus about the unlimited confidence you should have in prayers: a) I have a loving intention regarding each of your apostolic enterprises. b) This intention always surpasses in perfection any which you could imagine. For, I love you more than you love yourself, and I love Jesus and souls more than you could ever love them. c) This intention is always perfectly realizable. d) It will be realized infallibly in proportion as you act in my name. Hence, whatever the obstacles, you can always succeed beyond your expectations provided you act in my name.

4. Yet, in order to win these marvelous victories, it is not enough that you work hard; you must work in my name. The Apostles had wearied themselves fishing all night, and had caught nothing. Yet scarcely had St. Peter said to Jesus, “At Thy word, I will let down the net,” when they made a miraculous draught of fishes. How often have you not spent yourself in apostolic work, but all in vain! The reason was that you started without saying to me: “In thy name . . .” Working in my name means working according to my intentions and with a consciousness that you are sharing in my mission and in my omnipotence.

5. Offer your prayers and sufferings to Jesus through my hands so that my intentions for your apostolate may be realized. Before starting anything, pray to me and see what my intentions may be, so that you may act as my instrument. Begin with supreme confidence in your success, because it is I who am working through you. Be careful not to let your ideas take the place of mine. How often you begin by protesting that you are acting only for me, but soon you allow yourself to be directed by your own interests! You will be certain of success only if you persevere in the disposition of acting according to my intentions. Peter, in the midst of the storm, started across the water with a firm faith in Jesus, who had commanded him to come. Then he thought of the waves and of himself, and began to sink. Often you have begun to accomplish wonderful things only to have them end in failure. The reason was that you had lost the sense of being my instrument.

6. You cannot indeed, be thinking of me at every moment, yet you can remain constantly under the influence of my spirit. You can attain to such a disposition that if someone would ask you, “In whose name are you working?” you could answer: “In the name of my Mother.” You will not acquire such a disposition until you have made many an effort. At least renew your intentions from time to time, and rectify them whenever you find that you have substituted your own views for mine.

7. If, after the work is done, you feel you have succeeded, thank God. If you seem to have failed, examine yourself: either you have not acted in my name and your failure is real; or you have tried to conform to my intentions and to rely on me, and success is merely delayed. It will come in God’s good time and will be all the more glorious, because it will have cost greater effort and demanded more confidence. Thus our Lord will be glorified, your Mother honored, and souls rescued from damnation. Without me, you cannot succeed. With me, you cannot fail.

The Faithful Soul:
O my Mother, I believe in you and in the mission which Jesus has confided to you. I believe that in leaning upon you I shall be all-powerful. Make me fail quite noticeably each time that I act for myself, in order to compel me to act only for you. Then shall I effectively help you lead many souls to Jesus, and the prayer which I love to repeat every hour of the day and every time that I awake during the night will come true: “May the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost be glorified in all places through the Immaculate Virgin Mary.”