CARING FOR MY INTERESTS
This now brings us to the second part of the consecration. "You will care for my honour
and my interests."
Do you know what my interests are? I have only one: souls. These are my interests, my treasure,
my love. I desire, as I told my servant Margaret Mary "to establish the Kingdom of my love in all hearts." My kingdom has
not yet come. Externally it has spread to a certain extent, but that interior Kingdom by which my love and my wishes will
be the true law and rule of conduct for all has spread but little in mens hearts. It is not through lack of soil. Numerous
souls are prepared for my Kingdom and their number goes on increasing from day to day. but there is a lack of apostles. Give
me a heart inflamed by my Divine Heart and you will see how soon other souls will become inflamed in their turn.
How easy it is to be my apostle! No sex, no age, no state of life is excluded. There are many
ways of doing the work.
(i). PRAYER. That is, to be constantly asking heaven for the
spread of my Kingdom, to ask it of my Father, of myself, of my holy mother, of my saints; to ask in the church, at home, in
the streets,, during your daily work: " Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come!" This is the prayer which must be on your
lips the whole day long.
Repeat it then, twenty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred times a day until it becomes a habit with
you. Seek out ways and means of keeping it before your mind. Who cannot be an apostle in this way? How really wonderful is
this apostolate of short prayers! Give me a number of my friends constantly shooting these little arrows up to heaven and
tell me if they will not meet sucess! It is the little droplets of water that evaporate, go up into the air, form the clouds
in the sky and then pour down again as the rain fertilizing the earth.
(ii). SACRIFICE. In the first place the passive sacrifice of acceptance.
How many inconveniences, troubles and sorrows, sometimes small, sometimes great, come your way every day, as they came also
to me, to my holy mother and to my saints.
If you could bear all this in silence, with patience, even with joy if possible, and offer it
all up that I may reign, what a rich apostolate you would be practising! The cross is of supreme value: that is why it costs
so much. How many crosses are wasted by men; and they are so precious. Then , in the second place, there is the active sacrifice
of self-denial. Try to aquire the habit of constantly overcoming yourself in small things. That is an excellent practise of
the spiritual life. You are walking along the street and feel an urgent desire to look at such and such an object; then
don't look at it. You would like to taste such and such a delicacy; then don't taste it. You would like to make some comment
to or about someone. Don't make it. You are innocently accused of some small thing or other, and silence will not cause any
great harm; then keep silent. And so on in similar cases, offering everything, that I may reign. If you feel urged to
it by your generosity, you could also undertake even greater penances. You see what magnificent scope there is here for the
apostolate! And an apostolate such as this works wonders.
(iii). WORK. Some people say they cannot work for the Kingdom
of Christ because they are always too busy; as if the very duties of their state and walk in life could not be converted into
works of the apostolate by being accomplished well! Everything depends on the intention with which they are done.
During your daily round of work, strive to raise your eyes frequently to me, to take pleasure
in doing everything well for love of me. You must also strive, but quietly to become better every day. For the better
you are the more effective will your works be for my glory.
(iv) PROMOTION. You might be able to persuade others to consecrate
themselves to me as you have done yourself. You may find it hard to talk about the subject: not so a pamphlet or little book.
Try and spread the literature, either by distributing it yourself, or else by bringing it to the notice of others; use some
remark such as: "This may interest you."
There are then countless ways possible of working for the spread of my Kingdom. If you remain
inactive, then you cannot plead lack of equipment as an excuse. There is not a moment of the day in which you cannot
do something that I may reign. It is very easy to be my apostle, and what a wonderful calling! your whole life will be
suffused and illuminated by a noble ideal: Every work of the day will be stamped with the seal of apostleship, of the great
apostleship of love. Every work converted into the gold of charity! What a great consolation it will be at the hour of
death to look back on five, ten, twenty years, or even more, of 365 days each, all spent in this way.
(v). REPARATION. Do you really wish to love me? Love includes
two things: procuring for the loved one all the good he lacks, and freeing him from evil which oppresses him. By means of
the apostolate, you procure me th egood, you give me souls; by reparation you free me from evil, you wash my Divine Heart
clean of the stains which have been inflicted on it by sin. And how much could you not give me, not only for your own sins,but
also for the the innumerable sins committed every day!
I do not wish to burden you with many practices; the same prayers, sacrifices, daily works and
enthusiastic propaganda which are excellent ways of apostolate, are also very useful for reparation if done with this intention:
" that You may reign, forgive us our trespasses" - " that You may reign and in reparation for the times we have offended
You," are aspirations which should always be on our lips, my life had a twofold function in the world: that of the apostle,
to establish the Kingdom of God, and that of the Priest and Victim, to expiate the sins of men. I should like you to
fulfil both, too. By devotion tomy Sacred heart, I hope to make everyone into an exact copy of myself. What a sublime and
wonderful thing for you!
