E-mail from Heaven: Is your computer on?
Jesus wishes the salvation of all men. But that doesn’t diminish the evil of sin or mean salvation is automatic. One unrepented mortal sin sends a soul to hell for all eternity. The offense to God’s justice is massive! However, none of us knows God’s final judgment, even of those dying in grave sin. We only know they are in danger. As Mary said at Fatima, “Many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray for them.” Our first priority is to conform our wills to God’s so we might be saved and then help save as many other souls as possible. Pray and make reparation for yourself and other sinners.
Blessed Francisco: From Francisco of Fatima: Our Lady’s Little Shepherd by Fr.Fernando Leite, S.J. – “The words spoken by the Angel in the third apparition, ‘Console your God,’ made a deep impression on Francisco….At other times he exclaimed: ‘I love God so much! But He is very sad because of so many sins! We must never commit any sins again.’….Shortly before he died, he said: ‘It won’t be long now till I go to heaven. When I’m there, I’m going to console Our Lord and Our Lady very much.’” Let us imitate Francisco’s zeal to comfort Jesus and Mary by atoning for sin.
St. Therese of Lisieux: St. Therese desired the will of God above all things. In her Autobiography she writes, “I understood that to become a saint one had to suffer much, seek out always the most perfect thing to do, and forget self. I understood, too, there were many degrees of perfection and each soul was free to respond to the advances of Our Lord, to do little or much for Him, in a word, to choose among the sacrifices He was asking. Then, as in the days of my childhood, I cried out: ‘My God, “I choose all!” I don’t want to be a saint by halves, I’m not afraid to suffer for You, I fear only one thing: to keep my own will; so take it, for “I choose all” that You will!’” Therese also recognized the power in littleness and once advised a novice who lamented her weakness, “And suppose God wishes to have you as feeble and powerless as a child? Do you think that would be less worthy in God’s eyes? Consent to stumble, or even to fall at every step, to bear your cross feebly; love your weakness. Your soul will draw more profit from that than if,sustained by grace, you vigorously performed heroic deeds which would fill your soul with self-satisfaction and pride.” Therese imitated Christ on the cross in His zeal for souls. She wrote, “The cry of Jesus on the Cross – ‘I am thirsty’ – rang continually in my heart and set me burning with a new, intense longing…with a thirst for souls. I was concerned not with the souls of priests but with those of great sinners which I wanted to snatch from the flames of hell.”Let us imitate Therese’s by praying and sacrificing to save souls.
St. Louis de Montfort: If you want to defeat sin most effectively draw close to Mary. In True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin St. Louis says devotion to Mary will be especially necessary in the “latter times” when the elect “will consecrate themselves entirely to her service as subjects and slaves of love….[who] will become in Mary’s powerful hands, like sharp arrows, with which she will transfix her enemies….They will carry the gold of love in their heart, the frankincense of prayer in their mind and the myrrh of mortification in their body. They will bring to the poor and the lowly everywhere the sweet fragrance of Jesus, but they will bring the odour of death to the great, the rich and the proud of this world….They will thunder against sin, they will storm against the world, they will strike down the devil and his followers and for life or for death they will pierce through and through with the two-edged sword of God’s word all those against whom they are sent by almighty God….They will carry the crucifix in their right hand and the rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart.” St. Louis exhorts us to become the “loving slaves of our Blessed Lady in order to become more perfect slaves of Jesus Christ” who wants to use us as humble instruments to defeat the devil.
Ven. Louis of Granada: Ven. Louis warns sinners to avoid the sin of presumption by stressing God’s goodness. “The greater you represent God’s goodness the more heinous are your crimes against Him. Nor will these offenses remain unpunished, for God’s justice, which protects His mercy, cannot permit your sinful abuse of it to remain unavenged…. You say God’s mercy is great; but if you presume upon it you show that you have never studied the greatness of His justice….Without the fear of God the soul is like a ship without ballast....in continual danger of being wrecked on the rocks of temptation, if she be not stayed by this ballast of the fear of God. Therefore… continue in this salutary fear.