Become saints. Throw yourselves into becoming friends with Christ, into His love alone, into divine eros.
The whole secret is faith without doubts, gentle, simple and artless: in simplicity and artlessness of heart. It is not a question of ‘will power’ or ‘mind over matter’. A fakir can display this kind of ‘will power’. It is a question of having faith that God loves us with infinite love and wants us to become His own. That is why He allows illnesses, until we surrender ourselves in trust to Him.
If we love Christ, all things will change in our lives. We do not love Him in order to receive some reward such as health. Rather we love Him out of gratitude, without thinking of anything, only of the love of God. Nor should we pray with any ulterior motive and say to God: ‘Make such-and-such a person well, so that he may come close to You.’ It is not right to point out ways and means to God. How can we presume to say to God, ‘make me well’? What can we tell to Him who knows everything? We will pray, but God may not wish to listen to us.
A person asked me a little while ago, ‘When will I get well?’ ‘Ah,’ I told him, ‘if you say, “When will I get well?” then you never will get well. It’s not right to entreat God about such things. You entreat anxiously for God to take the illness from you, but then the illness lays even tighter hold on you. We must not ask for this. Nor should you pray about this.’
He was taken aback and said, ‘Do you mean I shouldn’t pray?’ ‘Not at all,’ I answered.
On the contrary, pray a great deal, but for God to forgive your sins and to give you strength to love Him and to give yourself to Him.
Because the more you pray for the illness to leave you, the more it adheres to you, winds its tentacles around you and squeezes you, and becomes inseparable from you. If, of course, you feel an inner human weakness, then you may humbly entreat the Lord to take the illness from you.’
Let us abandon ourselves in trust to the love of God
When we surrender ourselves to Christ, our spiritual organism finds peace, with the result that all our bodily organs and glands function normally. All these are affected. We become well and cease to suffer. Even if we have cancer, if we leave everything to God and our soul finds serenity, then divine grace may work through this serenity and cause the cancer and everything else to leave.
Stomach ulcers, you know, are caused by stress. The sympathetic system, when it is subjected to pressure, is constricted and suffers harm and so the ulcer is created. With stress, pressure, distress, anxiety, an ulcer or cancer comes about. When there are confusions in our soul, these have influence on our body and our health suffers.
The most perfect way is not to pray for our health, not to pray to become well, but to become good - Holy. That is what I pray for myself. Do you hear? I don’t mean to be good in the sense of virtuous, but in the sense of acquiring divine zeal, of abandoning ourselves in trust to God’s love, and of praying rather for our soul. And we mean our soul as it is incorporated in the Church, whose head is Christ, along with all our fellow men and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And I open my arms and pray for all people. When I am about to receive Holy Communion, as I am standing before the Holy Chalice, I open my soul to receive the Lord, and I bow my head and I pray for you, for this person and that, and for the whole Church. You should do the same. Do you understand? Don’t pray for your health. Don’t say, ‘O Lord, make me well.’ No! Rather say, ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’, with selflessness, with love and without expecting anything. ‘Lord, whatever Your love desires...’ Only in this way will you act from now on, loving Christ and our brothers and sisters. Love Christ.
Become saints. Throw yourselves into becoming friends with Christ, into His love alone, into divine eros.
Isn’t perhaps this what is happening to me, since I feel this zeal and adoration? Even though I feel that my body has rotted away, I don’t succumb to my illness, not even to my cancer, I shouldn’t speak, but my love for you and for the whole world doesn’t allow me to remain silent. I am obedient to God’s will, to my illness. I suffer without complaint and... with annoyance at myself because no one is devoid of uncleanness. My mind is sorely wounded, my body has grown enfeebled, my spirit is sick, my speech has lost its power, my life is brought to death; the end is at the door. And so, O wretched soul of mine, what will you do when the Judge appears before you to investigate your deeds?
If you want to enjoy good health and live for many years, then listen to what Solomon the Wise has to say:
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the counsel of saints is understanding; for to know the law is the mark of a sound mind, for in this way you will live long and years of your life will be added to you.’
This is the secret: for us to acquire this wisdom, this knowledge, and then everything functions smoothly, all things are put in order and we will live with joy and health.
Glory to Thee our God.
+ Glory to Thee for All Things +
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