*1 JOHN 4:19*
“We love because he first loved us.”
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*PICCARRETA:*
Oct. 21. “Love calls for more love. The more we believe He loves us, the more we feel like loving Him; and Jesus, seeing Himself loved, loves us more.”
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BOH VOL 8 Dec. 27, 1908
_What passed between Baby Jesus and His sweet Mama when She would feed Him from Her breast. The “I love You‟ of the creature is requited by the “I love you‟ of the Creator._
I was meditating on when the Queen Mama would give Her milk to Baby Jesus. I was saying to myself: “What must have passed between the Most Holy Mama and little Jesus in this act?‟
At that moment, I felt Him move in my interior, and I heard Him say to me: “My daughter, when I suckled milk from the breast of my most sweet Mother, together with milk I suckled the love of Her Heart – and it was more love than milk that I suckled. While suckling, I would hear Her say to Me: “I love You, I love You, O Son‟; and I would repeat to Her: “I love You, I love You, O Mama.‟
And I was not alone in this; at my “I love You‟, the Father, the Holy Spirit and the whole of Creation – the Angels, the Saints, the stars, the sun, the drops of water, the plants, the flowers, the grains of sand, all of the elements, would run after my “I love You‟, and repeat: “We love You, we love You, O Mother of our God, in the love of our Creator.‟
My Mother could see all this, and would remained inundated. She could find not even a tiny space in which She would not hear Me say that I loved Her. Her love would remain behind and almost alone, and She would repeat: “I love You, I love You….‟ But She could never match Me, because the love of a creature has its limits, its time, while my love is uncreated, unending, eternal.
The same happens to any soul when she says to me, “I love You‟; I too repeat to her, “I love you‟, and with Me is the whole Creation, loving her in my love.
Oh, if creatures comprehended what good and honor they procure for themselves even by just saying to Me: “I love You‟! This alone would be enough – a God beside them who, honoring them, replies: “I love you too.”
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*PRAYER OF THE DAY:*
“Oh, Love without end, I feel like drawing back before such immensity of love, and I see that in order to enter into love and to comprehend it, I should be all love! O my Jesus, I am not so! But since You want my company, and You want me to enter into You, I pray You to make me become all love.
And so I supplicate You to crown my head and each one of my thoughts with the crown of love. I implore You, O Jesus, to scourge my soul, my body, my powers, my feelings, my desires, my affections – in sum, everything, with the scourge of love; so that, in everything, I may be scourged and sealed by love. Oh endless Love, let there be nothing in me which does not take life from love.”
*Fifth Hour – Hours of the Passion*