THE WAY OF DIVINE LOVE
By Sister Josefa Menendez
A True Catechism of the
Holy Roman Catholic Church
given to us from the Divine Lips
of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Our Redeemer, Himself
By Sister Josefa Menendez
A True Catechism of the
Holy Roman Catholic Church
given to us from the Divine Lips
of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Our Redeemer, Himself
Sister Josefa Menendez was a Spanish girl who, in
the year 1920, entered a French Convent of the Order of The Sacred Heart
of Jesus, which was founded by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat. Sister
Josefa died on December 29, 1923, at the age of 33, at the Convent of Les
Feuillants, Poitiers, France. She lived as a Sister in the Society of the
Sacred Heart only four years, and in so hidden a way that the world ought
never to have heard of her, and even in her own community she should soon
have been forgotten. This was a large Convent that had both a boarding
school and a day school so there were many Nuns and children around all
the time. Sister Josefa was not a teacher; she was a seamstress
and made school 
uniforms
with the help of others. She also helped with the regular work
of the House. None of the things that made up her daily life were
of any value or interest in the eyes of the world but during her four years
there she had many visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Holy Mother,
Mary. (She also had visisons of St. Madeliene Sophie Barat, founder
of this Sacred Heart Order which she belonged to, and also St. John the
Apostle. It is very significant that St. John wrote the Book of the
Apocalypse.) None of those who lived with her knew anything of the mysterious
visions that she had with the Sacred Heart and His Mother, except the Mother
Superior and the assistant Mother Superior, and and her director, Father
Boyer, O. P. After her death when those who lived with here were asked
to recount all they could recall about her there was very little they were
able to say. She had passed unnoticed and hidden, simply and
faithfully doing her duty. Our Lord veiled from all the special graces
which He gave her and day by day His designs of love were so hidden from
human eyes that no exterior sign revealed the secret of which God Himself
was the Guardian.
One of the marvels of her life was that the exterior
and visible was such a contrast to the inner and invisible life that she
led. "She always followed common life and seemed in no way different
from her sisters and yet she bore on her soul the weight of the most extraordinary
and momentous graces of Divine predilection which at one moment delivered
her over to the onsets of excruciating physical pain, and again held her
captive under the Hand of God. There was a twofold current of love
between Him and her; Love Divine, which like the eagle precipitates itself
upon its prey, and whose velocity none can stay, and a love frail yet ardent--that
of Josefa--whose constant endeavor was to hold herself ever ready to accept
all the urgent requirements of God's plan." This book is drawn from
Sister Josefa's notes, written day by day, under obedience, its accuracy
confirmed by the very exact reminiscences of the witnesses of her life,
namely the Superior and Mother Assistant of the Convent and Father Boyer,
O.P.
This is one of the most interesting books that God
has given to our modern world. It is truly "a Cathechism of the of
True Holy Roman Catholic Church", given to us from the Divine Lips of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Himself. It appears to be the culmination
of the preparation of His Mystical Body of which He seems to have begun
preparing for a number of years which could have started with the Miraculous
Medal visions. He always prepares His Church well ahead of time for anything
that He asks Her to suffer, and from this great preparation, He seems to
be preparing Her for some extraordinaryly great and serious suffering and
events..
From what has been happening in the Church and the
world for the past thirty plus years and the revelations of this book,
the great happening could very well be "the reign of the antichrist that
St. Paul speaks of in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians, or something
very similar.
Sister Josefa appears to be a figure of the Church just as St. John the
Apostle was at the foot of the Cross at the Crucifixion. In the book
on Monday, 28th of May, it states, quote: "It was the work of Love
being realized in her person before being carried out in the world."
While reading the book if one puts the Church in place of Sister Josefa,
what has happened in the Church becomes more understandable.
God also seems to want to associate these visions with the visions of Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal because it states in this book that three years after Josefa's death her youngest sister entered the Carmelite Convent at Loeches, Spain, where she took the name of Madeline Sophie of the Sacred Heart. She was later sent to Portugal, where the Order was to be restored at Coimbra. Sister Lucy of the Fatima visions also came here in 1948 and she took the name of Sister Mary of the Immaculate Heart. This appears to be very significant and perhaps gives the answer to "the third secret of Fatima" which has not been released as yet. Sister Lucy has always said that the secret is in the Bible.
Following are excerpts from the "Introduction" section of the book:
Sister Josefa's Mission
"Only very gradually did Our Lord unfold it to her;
several times He had told her that He meant to make use of her to 'carry
out His plan', for the saving of many souls that had cost Him so dear.'
'On the night of February 24, 1921, He gave her a yet more explicit call
during her Holy Hour. 'The world does not know the mercy of My Heart,'
He said to her. 'I intend to enlighten them through you. . . . I
want you to be the apostle of My love and mercy. I will teach you
what that means; forget yourself.' And in answer to the fears she
expressed: 'Love and fear nothing. I want what you do not want,
but I can do what you cannot.' 'It is not for you to choose, you
have only to resign yourself into My Hands.'"
"A few months later, on Monday, 11th June
1921, a few days after the Feast of the Sacred Heart, when she had received
many graces, He said: 'Remember My words and believe them. My Heart
has but one desire, which is to enclose you in It, to possess you in My
Love, then to make of your frailty and littleness a channel to convery
mercy to many souls who will be saved by your means. Later on, I
will reveal to you the burning secrets of My Heart and many souls will
profit by them. I want you to write down and keep all I tell you.
It will be read when you are in Heaven. Do not think that I make
use of you because of your merits, but I want souls to realize how My Power
makes use of poor and miserable instruments.' And as Josefa asked
if she was to tell Reverend Mother even that, He answered: 'Write it; it
will be read after your death.'"
"So by degrees Our Lord unfolded His plan: Josefa
was chosen by Him, not only to be a victim for souls, especially for consecrated
ones, but that through her Christ's Message of love and mercy might reach
the world. A twofold mission--Victim and Messenger--and between the
two missions there is a close connexion. If Victim then Messenger,
and because Messenger, necessarily Victim."
Josefa as Victim
"To be a victim necessarily implies immolation,
and as a rule atonement for another. Although strictly speaking one
can offer oneself as a victim to give God joy and glory by voluntary sacrifice,
yet for the most part God leads souls by that path only when He intends
them to act as mediators: they have to suffer and expiate for those for
whom their immolation will be profitable; either by drawing down graces
of forgiveness on them, or by acting as a cloak to cover their sins in
the face of divine justice. It stands to reason that no one will
on his own initiative take such a role on himself. Divine consent
is required before a soul dares to intervene between God and His creature.
There would be no value in such an offering if God refused to hear the
prayer."
"If, then, Jesus Christ wishes to associate other
victims with Himself, they must be closely united to Him, and share His
feelings, in order to enter fully into His sacrifice; hence they can only
be human beings, endowed with intelligence and will.
He Himself chooses these persons, and because they
are free He asks them for their voluntary co-operation. Those who
accept put themselves at His mercy, and He then makes use of them as by
sovereign right."
"The Passion of Christ being our sole salvation,
if we are to be purified and saved, we must of necessity com into contact
with the Blood shed by the Lamb. The great cry of the dying Christ
is a pressing invitation to the whole human race to hasten to the
Saviour's fountains from which all graces flow.
This contact with Christ's Blood is immediately
secured by souls that answer His appeal. Others, and alas!
they are many, voluntarily keep aloof. It is these that Christ will
seek to reach through other souls whom He makes use of as channels of His
mercies. They are the most fruitful of all the branches of the mystic
vine. Loaded with the sap flowing from Christ Himself, and completely
one with Him, by their solidarity with the sinner they stand liable for
his sins; so being one with him and one with Christ, in them and by them,
grace is communicated. They are victim-souls."
"How intimate must be their identification with
the Crucified if they are to carryy out their part of the contract fully!
Full union with Him is implied, whilst He on His part imprints on their
souls, hearts, and bodies the living image of His sorroful Passion.
"All His sufferings are renewed in them: they will
be contradicted, persecuted, humbled, scourged, and crucified; and what
man fails to inflict, that God Himself will supply by mysterious
pains, agonies, stigmata, which will make of them living crucifixes.
How great must be the power of mediation of such
souls! How efficacious their intercession, when they implore divine
mercy, pardon and salvation for their brethren; when in them and through
them, the Precious Blood of Christ, infinitely more powerful than that
of Abel, cries to the Father!"
"God allowed trials of every kind to rain down upon
her. If illness was not one of them (yet who knows, for she never
complained), nor persecution from men (for unlike a Margaret Mary, both
her religious and family life appear to have been exempt from these), yet
on the other hand, more than many another, she was given over to the fury
of Satan. And this is not surprising.
There are few saints in whose lives his rage is
not apparent. Christ in the glory of Heaven is beyond the reach of
Satan, who as His personal enemy spares no pains to thwart the spread of
God's kingdom on earth. The more he knows a soul to be beloved of
Christ, the fiercer are his attacks; this, no doubt, in the hope of increasing
the number of his unfortunate dupes, but above all, in the perverse hope
of snatching from Christ the souls He loves and for whom He has paid so
high a price in the shedding of His Precious Blood. Satan, therefore,
choses saints and consecrated souls whom he longs to besmirch, seduce and
dishonor, and flings himself on them. Above all, he abhors victim-souls,
so Josefa was particularly hateful to him."
"The devil is a reality, and in his dealings with
God's saints he shows himself in the undisguised perversity of his vicious
and corrupt nature. What must his cruelty be to those souls that are damned
and are his forever, if he is so pitiless with those over whom, after all,
he has but limited sway? Who would dare affirm that such a lesson
is without its use, especially in our days?
God also confounds the pride of the spirit of
of darkness, who in spite of all his power and rage makes no headway, but
meets with constant defeat, which greatly enhances God's glory.
So it was with Sister Josefa. The devil tried
by every possible means to delude and beguile her, disguising himself as
an 'angel of light,' even going so far as to assume the very features of
Jesus Christ Himself. Most often however, he tried to turn her from
her chosen path by inflicting on her grievous bodily harm.
When Satan, in all his strength, and a frail human
being meet in mortal combat, God interposes His power in the conflict and
invests the soul with superhuman endurance. He bestows on it unconquerable
energy and makes it overcome all temptations and every suffering.
The devil's power broke on the frailty of Josefa's resistance, who (though
'nothing and misery', as Our Lord called her0 with divine help triumphed
over the 'strong man armed'. But God alone knew what is cost her."
The Message.
"It is one of love and mercy. Nowhere is it
fully stated, but it is found in fragmentary form all through the book.
Its chief points were often reiterated, and with little verbal change.
The Sacred Heart and the overwhelming charity
of Jesus Christ for mankind are brought out in a striking way.
It might almost be called a new revelation of the Sacred Heart, confirming
and in certain matters completing and perfecting that previously given
to Saint Margaret Mary.
"...He reaffirms that there is no mistake, that
it is indeed His Heart of flesh, pierced by the lance that He offers mankind;
His Heart so full of love and so little loved in return, and of which the
gaping Wound cries out how immense is His tender affection for man.
Like all true love, His is consumed in desire for
a return in kind, all the more, that only so can man attain happiness here
below, and everlasting beatitude hereafter. Let those who reject
His love realize the horror of hell to which they will be condemning themselves.
. . . This was the appeal that, through Josefa, Jesus Christ sent out to
the whole world.
That men may be attracted (and herein lie the novelty
and force of the Message) . . . the Sacred Heart manifests through her
His infinite mercy. He loves them every one, just
as they are, even the most despicabled, even the greatest sinners, one
can almost say, especially the most miserable and sinful. He does
not ask for their good qualities or virtues, but only for their wretchedness
and sins. Far from being an obstacle, their very faults are thus
an encouragement to draw near Him."
"Such is the gift God asks of His beloved sinners,
on the one condition of a true repentance, and a readiness to turn away
from their evil ways out of love for Him.
His Heart is there waiting for His erring sons with
all the impatience of true love. He assures them beforehand of a
free pardon. 'It is not sin that most grievously wounds My Heart,'
He said, 'but what rends and lacerates It is that after sin men do not
take refuge in It once more."
"What He wants and ardently desires is their trust
in His infinite goodness and mercy."
"To consecrated and therefore specially loved
souls, Jesus offers a share of His redemptive life. He would
like them to act as intermediaries for the saving of souls, and that is
why He asks of all the spirit of sacrifice in love.
As a rule, no great sufferings are to be born, but He inculcates the importance
of ordinary actions however insignificant, if done in union with
Him, in a spirit of sacrifice and love. He lays stress on the value
of the tiniest offerings, which not only can lead them far on in sanctity,
but will effect the salvation of many souls. On the other hands,
He reminds them of the danger of slackening in their efforts in little
ways, which as a sloping gradient may lead to greater infidelity
and finally expose them to hell-fire, where their sufferings will greatly
exceed those of less-favored souls.
So what the Heart of Jesus demands of His own is
humility, trust, and love. "
"So the work of consecrated souls is to enter into
the Passion of Christ and, by personal sacrifices, to pass on its fruits
to other souls for whom they pray and immolate themselves."
The last lines of the final message were written
on Thursday, December 6, 1923. "Josefa noted down what her
Master wished her to communicate from Him to the Bishop of Poitiers, whom
she was expecting shortly, then she laid down her pen. A few instants
passed in love's embrace . . . God's secret. . . . How solemn was the
hour which marked the termination of Our Lord's Appeal to souls."
"It is a never-to-be-forgotten date in the
annals of Infinite Love. It is a new light thrown, in our time, on
the 'unfathomable riches of the Heart of Jesus, it is a turning-point on
the road of Redemption. It is the hidden source from which a torrent
of mercy will, before long, overwhelm the iniquities of the world.
It is a volcano from which the flame that
is to give new life and spirit to the world will issue.
It is the beginning of the dawn, before the
sunrise that is to shine on the 'great day of the Divine King.'
"
The Opportuneness of the Message.
"How striking is its actuality today!
Everywhere sin is increasing to an appalling degree.
The pride of man leads him to discard his God and attempt to make a paradise
of earth. He has so far succeeded only in making it a vestibule
of hell, where impiety, immorality, and the worst passions have free scope;
wars rage that are more terrible than any yet heard of, the majority of
mankind suffers poverty and slavery, and all without the comfort which
faith alone can impart.
The Heart of God inclines in pity towards His forlorn
children and He points out to them the way of happiness, peace, and salvation.
The message is not only transmitted by Josefa, but
reproduced in her life through Christ's operations in her soul, for facts
are more calculated to move than are mere words.
If anyone wants to realize the love of the Heart
of Jesus for souls, let him read the pages in which Josefa notes down how
she listens to the Heart-beats of her Master. 'Every heart-beat is
an appeal to a soul,' He told her.
Surely we cannot doubt the reality of
His love, when the flames issuing from His Heart are seen to kindle Josefa's
with a love so valiant and intrepid that she braves the sufferings of hell-fire
to save the souls He loves. Nor can we doubt the immensity
of His love, when for the same purpose she accepts unutterable
tortures and she who knew tells us that her love, 'her poor love,' is as
nothing beside that of her Master, just as the torments she undergoes are
but a shadow of those of the Passion. 'Help Me,' He would say,
'help Me to make My love for men known, for I come to tell them that in
vain will they seek happiness apart from Me, for they will not find it.
Suffer, Josefa, and love, for we two must win these souls'."
"We get an inkling of the intense love of the Sacred
Heart from that of Josefa for these same souls; it was so real and true
that it could have been inspired only by Him."
The Authenticity of the Message.
"We have been enabled to realize how the Message
consists not only in the words entrusted to Josefa, but in her whole life.
By her very existence, this soul, so beloved of Jesus, speaks to all who
will listen, and her life stands as evidence of the divine action upon
her.
She alone heard the words of Our Lord, and so is
the sole witness; but her life testifies to the truth of the Message, and,
moreover, she was closely followed up by qualified observers, who testify
to the undeniable virtue of the obscure little messenger of infinite love,
and to the reality of her supernatural states, of which tangible proofs
were not wanting. All who had to do with her attested her very real
virute; not that she shone in a striking manner, for she was ever more
imitable than admirable, but all felt the unconscious influence she exercised
around her. No self seeking, but rather self-denial in everything,
unquestioning obedience, gentleness, and patience: all the result of true
humiliy."
"It was by the express command of Our Lord and of
Our Lady that she kept her Superiors informed of all that passed: 'You
must write,' said Our Blessed Lord to her. This, no doubt, was meant
to secure that none of His Words should be lost, but also His divine purpose
may have been that all Josefa's actions should be controlled and witnessed
from start to finish. In all she wrote there never occurs a useless
word, nor anything false or equivocal; nothing that could be regarded as
self-praise or that betrays a shadow of vanity. All it true, reasonable,
moving, and holy."
"The same control was exercised over her supernatural
states. When she was carried off into hell, or when she returned
to consciousness after an ecstasy, her Superiors were present; they watched
with solicitous and maternal eyes her gradual return to life's interests,
noting carefully words that escaped her in those impressive moments."
"So her writings and her life confirm each other
as evidence that all that took place in her was divine in origin.
Even the most extraordinary happenings have an aim and significance. There
are no useless details, no record of revelations that do not bring out
in clearer light and force some dognatic truth, giving us deeper insight
into the Heart of Our Lord, His love, the value of souls, the happiness
of Heaven, the irreparable loss of the damned.
Everything in Josefa's life is grace-giving and
profoundly moving. The writings of this unassuming Sister, regarded
as ingnorant in the world's eyes, will, no doubt, be scrutinized and pondered
over by theologians and masters of the spiritual life, and as in the case
of Saint Therese of the Child of Jesus, numerous books will be written
to develop the profound doctrine contained in these writings, and to make
known the mysteries of Love. But better still the mere reading will
bring numberless graces and lead many to conversion and holiness.
The world may be astonished at the great things that come from a life so
simple; but it is precisely in her nothingness that the overwhelming proof
of the authenticity of her Message lies.
In very truth it was countersigned by a Hand that
was nothing less than divine."
"Digitus Dei est his
(Signed) H. Monier Vinard, S.J."
One thing that really stands out in this wonderful book is, that God works through every day events. Also a day is like a thousand years to God and a thousand years is like a day. God's ways are not like our ways and our ways are not like God's ways. When reading and studying this book a person can learn a lot about God's ways. God does His greatest work in the silence and secret of men's hearts.
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