How To Act When Finding Jesus

Hello, brothers, sisters, and Heartdwellers family.

The past couple of days I have been battling through a trial. I had no desire to pray. I felt dry and weary. I just cried out to the Lord for help and strength—that I really needed Him. I was being tormented with so many thoughts and imaginations in my mind. Lofty arguments that were causing resentment and frustration in my heart.

The Lord played the song, Ava Maria. I just so happened to look at “The Imitation of Mary” book and I felt M.O.M. had a word. I opened up and the title was How to Act When You Find Jesus. This is taken from when Jesus was lost, and She and Joseph found Him in the temple. These are the sentiments of a believer who has gone astray a bit and has now found Him. I then realized the Lord had heard my cry. As I read I felt so humbled, contrite, and repentant for my attitude these past few days. I felt this would be a blessing and a Rhema message to many who have done the same. So I want to share the reading with you.

This is a conversation between Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and us, the Believer, when we too, find Jesus after we have lost Him.

The Believer began,

“Mary, immediately after finding Jesus, you took Him back to Nazareth. What happiness for You! Even the angels envied you. With what motherly care you watched over this priceless treasure! With what greater concern than ever you guarded His life and person!”

Mary,

My child, it is indeed a great honor to find Jesus, since again, we should omit no care to retain possessions of Him.

The Believer,

“Holy Virgin, teach me what I ought to do, that I may not find myself again deprived of this supreme good.”

Mary,

“My child, look closely at the reason why Jesus departed from you and how you managed to lose His grace and turn Him into an enemy. Did you not begin to grow lukewarm in His service and to commit many faults that made Him unhappy with you? Through repeated neglect, you gradually built up a wall of separation between Jesus and yourself.

“Did you not grow fond of some dangerous passion and fail to extinguish it as soon as you saw its first spark appear in your heart?

“When God asked you to sacrifice some overly human attachment and affection, did you not refuse?”

(Hmm that pierced my heart, again of how I had made human affection and idol, superior to the Lord’s affection. Lord, please forgive me.)

Mary continued

“When we refuse the sacrifices the Lord asks of us, we remove ourselves from a quiet special providence that safeguards us against wandering far from Him.”

“If you recognize that one of these faults or some other took you away from Jesus, look for the source of the evil. If you are to remove the effect, you must remove the cause.

“Watch over yourself more carefully. Watch over your heart with all possible care and never go outside it. The heart cannot be influenced without danger to you; the very life of the soul depends on you guarding your heart.

“Be faithful in little things lest you become unfaithful in great things. Neglect of little faults leads gradually to serious defects. Jesus does not want a heart that is divided. He has made your heart entirely for Himself and wants to possess it in its entirety.

“My child, the little faults for which you like so many paltry souls, pardon yourself so easily and gradually take you away from Jesus and Him from You.

“They do not cause a break with Him, but they prepare for such a break. The Lord looks on them as so many proofs of your coldness, and such coldness lessens the number of His graces.

“Fidelity maintains the exchange of affection between the heart of Jesus and the heart of the upright man. Live with Jesus as you want Him to live with you. You want Him to pour out on you the riches of His love; then open your heart to Him without reserve.

“Reserve toward Him shows a mean heart. The love you have for anything else makes Him jealous. The least word spoken to Him by one who loves Him is well received with the same dispositions of faithful love. You should in turn receive the inspirations of Jesus, whether He is suggesting through His grace some means of avoiding sin or suggesting means of deepening your virtue.”

The Believer,

“Holy Virgin, you know perfectly what love and fidelity are! Help me, with the grace of God to derive profit from your instruction. But weak as I am, shall I not have the misfortune of losing Jesus again and forever?”

Mary,

“My child, it is right that you should fear; if you did not, I would try to inspire you with fear. But this fear should not be accompanied by disturbance and disquiet of soul but should instead be moderated by confidence. On your part, do everything that depends on you to persevere your love of Jesus, and expect from His goodness the grace of perseverance”.

The Believer,

“My dear Mother, what a terrible uncertainty for the soul that fears nothing so much not persevering, when God leaves it ignorant of whether or not it will persevere!”

Mary,

“My child, that is the lot of all who are still in this life. God has determined that is should be so, lest you be shipwrecked on the reef of presumption. The uncertainty should keep you humble. Inspire you with a holy strictness of yourself and make you work out salvation in fear and trembling. Only in heaven can we be free of all fear and enjoy the happy certainty of being always with Jesus.”

That was the end of Mary the Mother of Jesus’, message to us.