Apostolate of the New Evangelization
The Passion
Reflections that Jesus makes on the mysteryof His suffering and the value it has on the Redemption.
Cochabamba — Bolivia
Spanish Edition: 1997
English 1st Edition - March 2000
Words of the Archbishop of Cochabamba
Imprimatur of the Archbishop of Cochabamba
Translated from the original Imprimatur in Spanish:
Archdiocese of CochabambaCasilia 129Cochabamba - BoliviaTel: 042-56562 / 3 Fax 042-50522
IMPRIMATUR:
We have read Catalina's books and we are sure that their only objective is to guide us all on a journey of authentic spirituality, founded on the Gospel of Christ. The books likewise highlight the special place occupied by the Blessed Virgin Mary, our role model in loving and following Jesus Christ, our Mother to whom we should offer our complete trust and love.
In renewing the love and devotion to the Holy Catholic Church, the books enlighten us on the actions that should characterize a truly committed Christian.
For all this, I authorize their edition and distribution, and recommend them as texts of meditation and spiritual orientation, with the purpose of answering Our Lord's calling to save many souls, showing them that He is a living God, full of love and mercy.
+ Mons. René Fernández ApazaArchbishop of Cochabamba April 2, l998
ANE Decree by the Archbishop of Cochabamba
The following is translated from the originalofficial document in Spanish:
ARCHDIOCESE OF COCHABAMBA
Casilla 129-Telfs.: (042) 56562 (042) 56563Fax (042) 50522-Cochabamba, Bolivia
ARCHBISHOP’S DECREE 1999/118
MONSGR. RENÉ FERNÁNDEZ APAZAARCHBISHOP OF COCHABAMBA
CONSIDERING THAT THE FOUNDERS OF "THE APOSTOLATE OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION" (A.N.E.) HAVE APPLIED WITH THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION FOR FORMATION AS A PRIVATE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.
THAT THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF "THE APOSTOLATE OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION" CONCUR WITH THE DIRECTIVES FOR THE LAY APOSTOLATE AS PER THE SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MAGISTERIUM.
THAT ACCORDING TO THE CODE OF CANON LAW THE RIGHTFUL CHURCH AUTHORITY TO FORM AN ASSOCIATION OF A PRIVATE NATURE FOR THE FAITHFUL AND TO GRANT IT LEGAL SOLICITORSHIP IS THE DIOCESAN BISHOP WITHIN ITS TERRITORY (C.312).
WE DECREE
ARTICLE 1. TO APPROVE THE CONSTITUTION OF "THE APOSTOLATE OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION" (A.N.E.) AS A PRIVATE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION, WITH ECLESIASTIC LEGAL SOLICITORSHIP IN ACCORDANCE TO THE CODE OF CANON LAW (CC. 113-123, 298-329) AND OTHER STANDARD APPROPRIATENESS.
ARTICLE 2. TO CONSIDER REVIEWED THE STATUTE OF "THE APOSTOLATE OF THE NEW EVANGELIZATION," ATTACHED TO THIS DECREE.
WE STRONGLY URGE THE FOUNDERS, DIRECTORS, AND MEMBERS OF THE A.N.E. TO FAITHFULLY COMPLY WITH THE GOALS OF THE ASSOCIATION AND TO PROMOTE THE NEW EVANGELIZATION UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE CHURCH MAGISTERIAL AND ITS LEGITIMATE PASTORS.
GIVEN BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF COCHABAMBA ON THE FIRST DAY OF MAY, 1999.
[seal of Archdiocese]
/signed/
MONSGR. RENÉ FERNÁNDEZ A.ARCHBISHOP OF COCHABAMBA
BY ORDER OF THE ARCHBISHOP
ENRIQUE JIMENEZCHANCELLOR
Copyright© 2000 by The Great Crusade of Love and Mercy. All rights reserved. This book is published in coordination with The Apostolate of the New Evangelization.
Permission is granted to reproduce this book as a whole in its entirety with no changes or additions and as long as the reproduction and distribution is done solely on a non-profit basis.
This document is available at no cost online and can be downloaded and printed from the following Web Sites:
in English at: www.greatcrusade.org
and Spanish at: www.grancruzada.org
Printed copies of this book are also available. Please see the information at the end of this document.
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This document was formatted with the specific intent that it could be photocopied and further disseminated to people who may be blessed by these words. Please allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read these words, which can change your life and the lives of others.
Dedication:
… To my husband, my parents, my children, and my brothers: “look at the poor rejected Christ and follow Him.”
… To Carlos, Neiza, and Betty, beautiful instruments of the Lord.
… To Lili, who stirred up my love of the Cross.
… To Silvia, my sister in the sweetest pain.
… To Inés and Charo, for their love of evangelization.
… To Mary Queen of Peace Center, in their true and wonderful way towards the Lord, through Mary.
… To Marcos, Stanis, and Ricardo: mentors, companionways, and beams of this poor secretary of the Lord.
Catalina
“Love Him totally, He who totally surrendered Himself for your love.”
Clare of Assisi
1
My little daughter, let yourself be embraced by My most ardent desire that all souls come and purify themselves in the water of penance, and that the feeling of confidence, and not fear, may penetrate them, because I am a God of Mercy and I am always ready to receive them in My Heart.
Thus, day-by-day we shall be uniting ourselves in our secret of love. A tiny spark and then a great flame… Only the real Love is not loved today! Make Love be loved! But before that, pray little daughter, pray a lot for the consecrated souls who have lost their enthusiasm and happiness in the service. Pray also for those priests who accomplish that miracle of miracles on the altar and whose faith is weak.
Lose yourself in Me like a drop of water in the ocean… When I created you, I kissed your forehead signing you with the sign of My predilection. Look for souls, because there are few who love Me; look for souls and imprint in their minds the vision of the pain in which I consumed Myself. Men, without knowing it, are about to receive great gifts.
When you do what I ask, I am near you; it is as if you quench that flaming thirst which on the Cross dried even My lips.
I will make Myself present each time that you invoke My Passion with love. I will permit you to live united to Me in the pain that I experienced in Gethsemane when I knew the sins of all men.
Be conscious of that, because I call few creatures to this type of Passion, but none of them understand the predilection I have placed on them by associating them to Me in the most painful hour of My earthly life.
There are souls who consider My Passion, but very few who think about My preparation for My public life: My loneliness!
The forty days which I spent by the side of the hill were the most distressing hours of My life because I spent them completely alone, preparing My Spirit for that which would come. I suffered hunger, thirst, discouragement, and bitterness. I knew that for those people My sacrifice would be useless, for they would deny Me. In that solitude I understood that neither My new doctrine nor My sacrifices and miracles could save the Jewish people who would become God-slayers.
Nevertheless, I had to do My duty, the Divine Mission. I had to first leave My seed and die later. How sad this is, looking at it from the human point of view!
I was also a man and felt sadness and anguish. I found Myself very alone! I mortified My Body by fasting and My Spirit by prayer. I prayed for all humanity that would deny Me, that would sacrifice Me so many times…
I was tempted as any other mortal, and Satan was never more curious to know who the man was that remained in such loneliness and abandonment.
Think about everything that I had to go through to save man, to be able to reign in his heart, to make possible his entrance into My Father’s Kingdom.
Now let us go to the story of My Passion… The story that shall give glory to the Father and holiness to other chosen souls…
The night before I was betrayed was a night full of joy because of the Paschal Supper, the inauguration of the Eternal Banquet at which human beings must sit to feed themselves of Me.
If I were to ask Christians, “What do you think of this Supper,” surely many would say that it is the place of their delight but few would say that it is My delight… There are souls who take Communion, not for the joy that they experience but for the joy that I feel; they are few because the rest only come to Me to ask for gifts and favors.
I embrace all the souls that come to Me because I came to Earth to expand the Love in which I embrace them. And since love does not grow without sorrows; little by little I take away the sweetness, to leave the souls in dryness. Thus, they fast from their own joy to make them understand that their focus should be on another desire: Mine.
Why do you talk about dryness as if it were a sign of a diminishing of My Love? Have you forgotten that if I do not give happiness, you must taste your dryness and other sorrows?
Come to Me, souls, but know that it is only I who wills everything and who incites you to look for Me. If you only knew how much I appreciate unselfish love and how it will be acknowledged in Heaven! O, how the soul who possesses it shall rejoice!
Learn from Me, dear souls, to love only to please the One who loves you… You shall have sweetness, and much more than what you leave; you shall enjoy so much of whatever I have made you capable. It is I who prepared the Banquet. I am the nourishment! How then, can I let you sit at My table and let you fast? I promised you that whoever feeds on Me shall not go hungry again… I serve Myself as these things to reveal My Love to you. Listen to what My priests say, for they use this Paschal feast to lead you to Me, but do not stop at that which is human, otherwise, you shall nullify the other purpose of this feast.
Nobody can say that My Supper has become their nourishment when they only experience sweetness… For Me, love grows in as much as they deny themselves.
Many priests are so because I wanted to make them My ministers, not because they truly follow Me… Pray for them! They should offer My Father the sorrow that I felt when in the Temple I knocked down the benches of the merchants and I reproached the ministers of that time for having turned the house of God into an assembly of moneymakers.
When they asked Me under what authority had I done that, I felt an even greater sorrow in proving that the worst denial of My Mission came precisely from My ministers.
For that reason, pray for the priests that treat My Body with a sense of habit and, therefore, with very little love.
You will soon know that I had to tell you this because I love you and because I promise the remission of all temporal punishment owed those who pray for My priests. There shall be no Purgatory for those who grieve for the lukewarm priests, but rather they will go to Paradise immediately after their last breath.
And now, let Me embrace you again in order for you to receive the life that I, with infinite joy, made you part of.
That night with infinite Love, I washed the feet of My Apostles because it was the culminating moment in which to present My Church to the world.
I wanted My souls to know that even when they may be weighted down with the greatest sins, they are not excluded from graces. They are with My most faithful souls; they are in My Heart receiving the graces that they need.
I felt such sorrow at that moment knowing that, represented in Judas, My Apostle, there were so many souls gathered at My feet and cleansed so many times with My Blood, yet they were to be lost! At that moment, I wanted to teach sinners that just because they have sinned, they should not distance themselves from Me thinking that there is no recourse and that they will never be loved as much as before they sinned. Poor souls! These are not the feelings of a God who has poured out all His Blood for you. Come to Me all of you and do not be afraid, because I love you. I shall cleanse you with My Blood and you shall be as white as snow. I shall drown your sins in the water of My Mercy and nothing will be able to snatch from My Heart the Love that I have for you.
My beloved, I have not chosen you in vain, respond to My election with generosity. Be faithful and firm in the faith. Be meek and humble so that others may know the greatness of My humility.
Nobody really believes that I perspired blood that night at Gethsemane, and few believe that I suffered much more in those hours than in the Crucifixion. It was more painful because it was clearly revealed to Me that the sins of everyone were made Mine and that I should answer for each one. Thus I, being innocent and pure, answered to the Father as if I were really guilty of dishonesty and of all the impurities committed by you, My brothers. You dishonor God who created you to be instruments of the greatness of Creation and not to stray from the nature given you with the purpose of gradually taking that nature to lead you to behold the pure vision of Me, your Creator.
Therefore, I was made thief, murderer, adulterer, liar, a sacrilegious person, blasphemer, slanderer, and rebel to the Father whom I have always loved.
It was precisely this contrast between My Love for the Father and His Will that caused My perspiration of blood. But I obeyed until the end and for Love of everyone, I covered Myself with the guilt so that I could do My Father’s Will and save you from eternal damnation.
Consider how many more than human agonies I had that night and, believe Me, nobody could alleviate such anguish because, on the contrary, I was seeing how each one of you devoted yourself to making my death cruel at every moment that was given to Me because of the offenses whose penalty I have paid in full. I want it to be known once again how I loved all men at that hour of abandonment and sadness without name….
The desire that all souls be clean when they receive Me in the Sacrament of Love, led Me to wash the feet of My Apostles. I also did it to represent the Sacrament of Penance, in which the souls that have had the misfortune of falling into sin, can wash themselves and regain their lost purity.
By washing their feet, I wanted to teach the souls that have apostolic tasks to humble themselves and treat with tenderness the sinners and all the souls who have been entrusted to them.
I wrapped Myself in a cloth to teach them that, in order to be successful with souls, one has to girdle oneself with mortification and self-denial.
I wanted them to learn mutual charity and how the faults they observe in their neighbor should be purged, concealing them and always forgiving them without ever disclosing their faults. The water that I poured over My Apostles’ feet was a reflection of the zeal that consumed My Heart in desiring the salvation of men.
At that moment the Love that I felt for men was infinite and I did not want to leave them orphans… In order to live with you until the consummation of time and to show you My Love, I wanted to be your breath, your life, your support, your All! Then I saw all the souls that, in the course of time, would be nourished by My Body and Blood, and I saw all the divine effects that this nourishment would produce in many souls…
That immaculate Blood would engender purity and virginity in many souls; in others, it would light the fire of love and zeal. Many martyrs of Love gathered at that hour before My eyes and in My Heart! Many other souls, after having committed many and serious sins and weakened by force of passions, would come to Me to renew their strength with the Bread of the strong!
How I would like to make known the feelings of My Heart to all souls! How much I desire that they know the Love I felt for them at the Cenacle when I instituted the Holy Eucharist. Nobody could penetrate the feelings in My Heart during those moments - feelings of love, joy, tenderness… But greater was also the sorrow that invaded My Heart.
Are you perhaps good ground for the construction of a magnificent building? Yes and no… Yes, because of the gifts that I have given you since birth; no, because of the use that you have made of them. Do you think that your ground is of suitable proportion to the structure of the building that I raise? O, it is paltry! Then, in spite of all the opposing elements that exist in you, My calculations will not fail because it is My handicraft to choose that which is poor for the intent that I set Myself. I never make a mistake because I use artistry and love. I construct actively without your realizing it. Your own desire to know what I am doing serves Me to prove to you that you cannot do or know anything without My desiring it… It is time to work, do not ask Me for anything because there is someone who thinks about you.
I want to tell My souls the sorrow, the tremendous pain that filled My Heart that night. Even though My joy was great in becoming the Divine Nourishment of souls and man’s companion till the end of time, and of seeing how many would render Me homage of adoration, love, and reparation, great was the sadness that caused Me to contemplate all those souls that were to abandon Me at the Tabernacle and the many that would doubt My presence in the Holy Eucharist.
O, how many hearts stained, dirty, and torn by sin I would have to enter! And how My profaned Flesh and Blood, would become the reason for the damnation of so many souls! You cannot understand the way in which I contemplated all the sacrileges, offences, and tremendous abominations that would be committed against Me… the many hours that I would spend alone in the Tabernacles. So many long nights! How many men would reject the loving calls that would be directed to them.
For love of souls, I remain prisoner in the Holy Eucharist, so that in your sorrows and sadness you can go to console yourselves with the most tender of Hearts, with the best of Fathers, with the most loyal friend. But that Love, which is consumed for the good of mankind, is not going to be returned.
I live amongst sinners to be their salvation and life, their doctor and medicine; yet they, in return, in spite of their sick nature, will distance themselves from Me. They offend Me and scorn Me.
My children, poor sinners! Do not distance yourselves from Me. I wait for you night and day at the Tabernacle. I will not reproach your crimes; I will not throw your sins in your face. What I will do is to wash you with the Blood of My wounds. Do not be afraid, come to Me. You do not know how much I love you.
And you, dear souls, why are you cold and indifferent to My Love? I know you have to attend to the needs of your family, your home, and of the world that constantly calls for you. But, do you not have a moment to come and give Me proof of your love and gratitude? Do not let so many useless worries pull you away; reserve a moment of your time to visit the Prisoner of Love. If your body is sick, can you not find a few minutes to look for a physician to cure you? Come to He who can give you the strength and health of the soul. Give alms of love to this Divine Beggar, who calls you, wants you, and waits for you.
These words will produce the effect of a great reality in souls. They will penetrate in the families, schools, religious congregations, hospitals, prisons, and many souls will succumb to My Love. My greatest pains come from the souls of priests and nuns.
At the moment that I instituted the Holy Eucharist, I saw all the privileged souls that would be nourished with My Body and Blood and the effects produced in them.
To some, My Body would be a remedy to their weakness. To others, a fire that would succeed in consuming their miseries, inflaming them with love. Ah!… Those souls gathered before Me will be an enormous garden in which every plant produces a different flower, but all delight Me with their scent. My Body will be the sun that brings them back to life. I shall come to some to be consoled, to others to hide, in others I will rest. If you only knew, beloved souls, how easy it is to console, to hide, and to give rest to God.
This God, who loves you with infinite Love after freeing you from the bondage of sin, has planted in you the incomparable grace of the religious vocation. He has brought you in a mysterious way to the garden of His delights. This God, your Redeemer, has become your spouse. He Himself nourishes you with His Body so pure, and with His Blood, He quenches your thirst. In Me you shall find rest and happiness.
O, little daughter! Why is it that so many souls, after having been filled with so many blessings and caresses, have to be the cause of such sadness in My Heart? Am I not always the same? Have I changed for you? …. No! I will never change, and I will love you with predilection and tenderness till the end.
I know you are full of miseries, but this will not keep from you My most tender looks and I wait for you anxiously, not only to ease your miseries, but also to fill you with My blessings.
If I ask for your love, do not deny it to Me. It is very easy to love He who is Love itself. If I ask for something dear to your nature, I give you both the grace and the strength necessary so you can be My comfort. Allow Me to come into your souls and, if you do not find in them anything that is worthy of Me, tell Me with humility and with confidence: “Lord, you can see the fruit that this tree produces. Come and tell me what to do, so that from now on it may bear the fruit that You desire.”
If the soul tells Me this with a real desire of proving its love, I shall answer: “Dear soul, allow Me to cultivate your love…”
Do you know the fruits that you will obtain? The victory over your character will repair offences; it will atone for faults. If you are not upset when you are corrected and you accept it gladly, you will bring about a change in those souls blinded by pride who will humble themselves and ask for forgiveness.
This is what I will do in your soul if you allow Me to work freely. The garden will not flourish immediately, but you will give great comfort to My Heart.
All this passed before Me when I instituted the Eucharist and I was ignited with desire to nourish the souls. I was not going to stay on Earth to live with perfect beings, but rather to hold the weak and nourish the children… I would make them grow, invigorate their souls, and rest in their miseries, and their good desires would console Me.
But within My elected ones there are souls that cause Me sorrow. Will they all persevere? This is the scream of pain that escapes from My Heart; this is the moan that I want the souls to hear.
The Eternal Love is looking for souls who may say new things about the old truths already known. The infinite Love wants to create in the bosom of humanity a tribunal of pure Mercy, not of Justice. That is why the messages are multiplying all ov...
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