Abide in My Love

Happy Solemnity of the Sacred Heart! 

Therese and Marcel have a special surprise for us today. They're spending this glorious feast hanging about the coattails of Fr. Almire Pichon, S.J., the Martin family's spiritual director, and they've brought us some priceless words of his on the Sacred Heart.

Father Pichon was first the director of Therese's oldest sister Marie, who became Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (and that's an awesome story for another day), but like often happens to us, Marie had a hard time staying in close contact with a priest friend who was THAT holy and that much in demand. She once complained:
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"He wrote me fatherly letters from time to time, but, overwhelmed by his correspondence and his retreats, . . . he sometimes left me for a long period without a letter. I have written him as many as fourteen times before receiving a single word in reply . . , In 1884 Father Pichon was called to Canada and the good God alone knows how I suffered over his departure."

To make matters worse, Father Pichon was definitely a declutterer, and he burned (or otherwise disposed of) all the letters her received from Marie's famous little sister Therese! But then again, what's Heaven for, if not to read everything we don't get a chance to read here in exile? 

I admit others quite convincingly might argue that Heaven is actually not for reading, but for doing more simply what we try to do by reading: namely for finally getting to know Jesus, our Love! This makes sense to me because it also explains why Heaven must be eternal: we're so slow on the uptake that even with His Divine Help, we're likely to need endless age upon age to begin to know the reality of His ardent love for us! The wonder, though, of Fr. Pichon was his ability - which he seems to have transmitted to his spiritual daughter Therese - to show us the Truth of Jesus' Love through his words (and His words) even now, before time becomes an ancient memory. 

The Sacred Heart was a big deal for Father Pichon (as for all good Jesuits), and so he wrote to Therese on August 16, 1989:

My dear Child in Jesus Christ,

How good it is for me to find you again in the Sacred Heart, or rather to feel that our souls are inseparable there. Your beloved little pages open doors and windows to me and Jesus grants me this joy of reading your soul well . . .

* * *

Not only did Fr. Pichon read her soul well, he formed her soul well, but then later when she was in Heaven, she had the joy of returning the favor and continuing to form his soul even better than it had been heretofore by all those long years of Jesuit training!

And so our brother and sister have for us on this solemnity a conference Father Pichon gave to help us better understand the Sacred Heart and stop being such ninnies, constantly afraid of our Best Friend instead of madly in love with Him! I found this talk in Seeds of the Kingdom, a book originally published in English by the Newman Press in 1961. Thank You, tireless Jesus, for books that tell us of Your Love and work on chipping away that silly load of fear we carry. Please grant, little Jesus, through the intercession of your servant Father Pichon that we might listen to his sweet words and finally obey the order to burn our strait-jackets in a conflagration of love! Little Flower, in this hour, show your power!

On a personal note, I learned that last bit about "Little Flower in this hour" from an ardent disciple of the Sacred Heart who is married to an ardent author on the Sacred Heart whose awesome book you can find HERE (by clicking on HERE!). From both of them, through their younger sister, as well as from a wonderful Jesuit of their acquaintance, I learned about the Sacred Heart and remained for my 4 years of college under His gaze in the image at the top of this post (thanks to yet another of their sisters!) . . . and so, in gratitude and in the hopes of stoking the fire of their love for Jesus even more, I'm going to do my best to use my speed-typing skill (we know from Napoleon Dynamite that skills are valuable!) all for the glory of God to get this beautiful conference onto the internet for posterity . . .

Guardian angels, you behold the Heart of Jesus in its fiery passion - help us to understand His love and abandon ourselves without fear into His adorable arms!

***

From Seeds of the Kingdom

A conference on the Sacred Heart by Father Almire Pichon, S.J. 

"Abide in My Love"

Our Lord, speaking of those devoted to His Divine Heart, said to St. Margaret Mary, "I will give them the gift of touching the most hardened hearts," another promise that arouses a holy emulation. Is not this promise for you also? Your vocation - is it not eminently apostolic? With this devotion you will be all-powerful over rebellious temperaments, hard characters. Honor the Sacred Heart; He will keep His word and will give you the gift of touching the hardest hearts.

There are various dissimilar types of spirituality in the Church. The saints do not resemble one another. Of each one, the Church chants: "He has no equal." Each saint has his own moral physiognomy, his own spiritual character.

St. Francis de Sales was visited from time to time by St. Vincent de Paul. Both were holy, but they differed greatly, nonetheless. The spirituality of the one was not that of the other. St. Jerome lived in the time of St. Augustine. They practically pulled one another around by the hair, as is revealed by their argumentative letters. They had no mutual understanding of one another. St. Jerome, who had lived a lifetime without soiling his baptismal robes, was stricken to the marrow of his bones when he thought of the Day of Judgment. St. Augustine, who, on the other hand, had led a sinful life, reposed upon the sentiments of love that filled his heart. . . 

St. Bonaventure remarked that spiritual directors are divided into two categories. One is more attentive to bringing about the death of self, the other to fostering life and love. The first brings a man's thoughts back to himself; the second causes souls to repose upon the breast of Jesus. 

Here is a saintly director to whose feet comes a soul just emerging from a life of sin. Before admitting him to frequent Holy Communion, the director requires his penitent to undergo a long and painful labor to correct his defects. This method does not touch the heart. The director says: "Later, we shall see. For the moment be attentive to correcting your faults."

The other director, wishing to draw a soul from habitual sin, introduces him to the Heart of Jesus. Once the sinner becomes enamored of the love of God, it is comparatively easy for him to conquer his faults. The latter was the system of St. Francis de Sales, who so insisted upon this method that he almost lost his reputation as a spiritual director. It was bruited about that he was not a safe director, that he understood nothing of the direction of souls, because he admitted to Holy Communion two or three times a week persons who were still addicted to vanities, who even brought their fashions and furbelows to the Holy Table.

This was remarked to the saint. "What of it?" he asked. "At the moment I am engaged in setting fire to the house. When it is well-lighted, then will be the time to throw the furnishings out of the window." Permit me to say that of the two systems, I give the preference to the one in which love predominates; love expands, dilates the heart. A holy religious had this to say: "As for me, I shall always desire that God be the God of my heart."

Some of you have been serving God long enough, with might and main, in a kind of nervous tension, calling upon your conscience in a spirit of fear. Begin now to serve Him with your heart, through generosity, through love. To serve God through love is far more in accord with the Heart of God as well as with our own. The good can never equal the excellence of the best - love. Love eclipses everything else.

Were I to say to a person, "I esteem you, I venerate you," I would be saying a great deal. But is there not something more that I could say? Have I exhausted the human language in these words? No. I can say, "I love you." There is no word that can be added to that. Human language has then exhausted its resources. It can go no further because the human heart can go no further. 

"Love is the triumph of God in man," said Pere Eymard. Even under the ancient law, the law of fear, do you know what God prescribed above all else? Love. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your heart." God is love - Deus caritas est. We can only respond to love with love. Since when is the heart content with respect? Love asks only to be loved. That was true under the old law, the law of fear that made Israel tremble. It is even more true under the law of grace. 

"The goodness of God has appeared unto us; He has banished the strong by the strength of His arm." He knows only how to bless. He no longer employs thunder, nor even lightning, to express His majesty. But all that He has lost in majesty, He has gained in love. "My Saviour is little and amiable to excess." Is it to command our respect, extort our admiration? Oh, no, no, it is to win our hearts! That little Child I hold in my arms, I press Him to my heart. What? Do I see you trembling with fear, like a slave, even at Bethlehem? You are, then, of the ancient law.

Our Lord taught us only one prayer - one unique prayer. He did not commence it by saying, "God, all-powerful, infinite Majesty!" No, No. "Our Father," these words contain a whole revelation. At the moment when you say "Our Father," do you tremble, filled with fear and terror? Poor child. You, then, have had a cruel father. You are afraid of your Spouse? You have made a poor alliance? Ah, you have never, then, seen within the heart of your Spouse. You do not know Him. You have never penetrated the secrets of His love.

Our Lord, on the eve of His death, said to His apostles: "I no longer call you servants . . . but My friends." Be to Him, therefore, a friend, a spouse, a tender spouse. Bring to Him the homage of your hearts.

St. Paul cried out to the first Christians: "You have not received the spirit of servitude, but that of adopted children, who cry, Abba, Father." How happy would be the Heart of Jesus if He found among you not a single servant, but only His dear children! Up to now, you may have remained at His feet. For the future rest upon His Heart.

St. Teresa of Avila said, "He who receives Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist through fear and trembling is less welcomed than he who presents himself with confidence and love." How, then, can we pass our lives trembling at the feet of our Lord?

Our Lord wants no convicts in His service. He puts no one into a strait-jacket to force an unwilling compliance. If He asks a sacrifice, it is from a free and generous heart that He desires it to be made. Please, please, take off your strait-jackets and make a fire of love out of them! Our Lord will rejoice.

Do you know what is the distinctive mark of true religion? It is love! False religions betray themselves by jealousy of their rights. They arm themselves with brute force to make their laws obeyed. They seek to inspire fear through threats and chastisements. That is because all false religions come from the demon who said of himself: "I am he who never loves."

"The teaching of religion are nothing if they do not tend to inspire love," said Abbe Perreyve . . .

Some serve God with gloves on, so to speak. They respect Him; they fear Him; but they do not love Him. For this reason they marvel when they see a layman or woman rise from bed in the midst of winter to go to an early Mass. They are amazed. They ask, "Is that necessary in order to be saved?" "No," the layman will reply, "it is not necessary. I do it out of love." Love does not fear to go beyond the precept. Others are even more astonished when they see a young girl leave her family, sacrifice a promising future, and enclose herself within a cloister, to renounce her freedom of action. They cannot understand. "What does it signify?" they inquire. "Are you obliged to make such sacrifices to gain heaven?" they want to know. Ah, they know only the religion of fear, of conscience. Love does not count its gifts. It is never satisfied. Its ardor carries it to excess, to folly . . .

Ozanam was at the point of death. The priest who prayed beside him said, "My son, have confidence. God is good." Ozanam replied, "Why should I fear? I love Him too much."

"Father," you say, "I have misgivings. Is the religion of love really for me? Am I not condemned to remain in Egypt?" Mary Magdalen, at her first meeting with our Lord, was highly culpable. Instead of condemning her to fear, our Lord said, "My daughter, you have offended Me. Give Me your love. You have offended Me greatly, therefore love Me greatly. You have offended Me more than all others: love Me more than all others." Upon St. Peter, for his triple denial, our Lord only imposed a triple protestation of love: "Peter, lovest thou Me? Peter, lovest thou Me? Peter, lovest thou Me more than all the others?"

How cold is respect! The homage of our fears can never respond adequately to the love of our Lord. When shall we give Him, at long last, all of our hearts? At the Last Supper our Lord said to His apostles, "Abide in My love." He was not unknowing of what enormous sins, of what strange ingratitude, they would be guilty, yet He repeated, "Abide in My love." What a magnanimous religion! Come, then, to the Promised Land. Leave the dark fears of Egypt . . .

Away with strait-jackets! We have within us a marvelous resource of incomparable energy - our hearts. It is love that gives impetus to our hearts; the heart and the emotions inspire the activities of the individual. Love is a lever superior to all others. The heart is a fulcrum by which God elevates the world of souls. 

Therese of the Child Jesus said: "I am of such a disposition that fear makes me draw back. With love, I not only advance, I fly."

Love alone can command the heart; then the heart does all the rest. St. Teresa of Avila, toward the close of her life, said, "The more I learn, the more I see that everything should be done through love. I no longer govern with the same rigor as formerly." Had anyone attempted to take this saint by force, he would have wasted his time. She would have resisted. She would have rebelled. "That would have been natural for me," she wrote, "but with the least good will shown me, people can do with me what they will."

St. Augustine said, "Love, then do what you will." What a beautiful device is that of the Canadian Zouaves: "Love God and go on they way," "All for love; nothing by constraint," said St. Teresa of Jesus.

The soul which hopes to attain the summit of love must be, from the beginning, well established in love. Love renders sweet all that it commands; light, all that it endures; precious, all that it touches. All is little without charity; with it all is great . . .

Do I have to insist upon the truth that love makes all things easy? How many times have you not experienced this in your own lives? Something may be naturally repugnant to us. One day, moved by love, desiring to give pleasure to a beloved friend, we see all our repugnances vanish. What appeared impossible before now becomes easy, even welcome. Nothing costs love too dearly when it seeks to give satisfaction to the beloved. Love faces all difficulties with courage.

"When I have succeeded in expanding a heart, I have gained it," said Pere Poulevoye. "On the contrary, the demon constrains, narrows souls. When I have been able to release a heart that he has bound, I have gained that soul. Love is winged."

How is it possible to soar when the soul is compressed within the vise of fear? The capacity to love is the capacity to be happy. He who loves really lives. He who loves knows how to serve. He who loves is happy. "One atom of love placed in a balance against the universe will outweigh it as easily as a tempest carries away a straw," said Lacordaire. Love goes farther than fear. Love opens before us horizons of far distances. Love is limitless; its confines are the infinite. Love never says, "Enough." Love is the friend of "Too much."

"Am I obliged to do this?" Words of the cowardly. Go on dragging yourself in a rut if you must. "Am I obliged?" For myself, I love and I want to show my love. Poor souls, made anemic by a religion of fear, you live feebly, far from the sun of love! Have you never heard these words of your Lord: "Abide in My love?" Not through duty, not through respect, but "in My love." Establish there your dwelling place; raise there your tabernacle.

How many souls there are to whom but one thing is lacking to their perfection: confidence! "What would you do if the good God were to forbid you to love Him?" was once asked of a child. "I would love Him in secret," was the touching reply.

Do you know what is the greatest obstacle to a religion of love? It is our ignorance. We are just not acquainted with the Heart of Jesus. We learn about His majesty, yes; His power, yes; His justice, yes; oh, above all, we learn about His justice. But His love? His Heart? No, we do not know His Heart. 

St Augustine said to God: "Too late have I loved Thee because too late have I come to know Thee." At the tribunal of God where it will be granted us to plunge our vision into the loving Heart of our Lord, what cries of astonishment will arise. "Oh, had I but known!"

A quite general malady is that of discouragement. A severe malady it is, a kind of spiritual anemia, arising from a lack of confidence. God permits us to call Him Father. We are, therefore, His children. Do you think a father would feel flattered to see his children constantly trembling before him? Falsity! 
 Oh how little do you know the Heart of God! St. John reposed upon the breast of Jesus. He penetrated into the secrets of that adorable Heart, and ever thereafter he could only speak of love. He never spoke one word of fear.

The way to reach this fruitful region, vivified by the great Sun of Love, is through devotion to the Heart of Jesus. This devotion is a divine remedy for the coldness of these times. Providentially, devotion to the Heart of Jesus was revealed to the modern world just at the time that the heresy of fear was making such ravages among souls of good will. The Sacred Heart is, par excellence, the devotion of love.

"The Heart of Jesus," said St. Margaret Mary, "is a good Master who will teach you to love with all your heart. The Heart of Jesus is an abyss of confidence and love. Abandon yourself to Him. He will teach you how to make fear give place to love."

Amen!

Draw me, we will run!

And Happy Solemnity from Marcel, Therese, and all of us here at Miss Marcel's Musings!