These end times require greater attentiveness, silence, and surrender. Our Lord calls us to be "transformed by the renewal of our mind" —transformed into Him. Only then can we be His witnesses.
HOPE and the MIND — Part III
February 1, 2024
Zilkia Jimenez
Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.—Romans 12:2
For the past two weeks, we have been speaking about the mind and how it affects our emotions, our actions, our choices, our behaviors. We have spoken about how the mind works so that we can learn to take control over our thoughts.
We learned from Dr. Leaf last week that we are able to do our own “brain surgery” when it comes to controlling our thinking. This type of brain surgery, as Dr. Leaf calls it, is not swift or easy. I recently read a quote that says, “Your mind is a battlefield.” And indeed, it is. I would like to quote from Dr. Leaf one last time because I would like to address a comment Fr. Ron made last week at the end of the cenacle. Fr. Ron rightly reminded us that we must distinguish between the lies of our enemy and our own thoughts. Dr. Leaf offers us help here:
It is through the senses that we receive Satan’s lies, but–and this is important–we don’t have to believe those lies. If we do believe them, we process them into physical realities…that form the substance of the nerve networks upon which we act. This means that if we listen to and believe the Enemy’s lies, we actually choose to process them into physical realities inside our brains. In doing so, we create the evil and act upon it. But we do not have to believe Satan’s lies. —page 129.
We must do the work in discovering our wounds, digging deep within ourselves, and facing those very difficult wounds in order to bring them to the light, so that our Lord can provide the healing necessary.
Let us return to the definition of hope… it is a seeking and pursuing… Hope draws out a person’s use of free will, and it requires effort.
This lesson on the mind is very important, especially as the world continues to plunge into darkness. We really cannot be His witnesses in a dark world if we are not renewed and transformed. Again, let us remember what our Lord told us on Good Friday, on 4/7/23: “It is impossible to be My witnesses if you have not been transformed into Me by the Spirit so that we are ONE, no longer two.” We cannot live through persecution, which is the Third Nail of Crucifixion, if we are not people of hope. I am reminded again of this message. The last sentence now seems more urgent:
Begin to forget about yourself, and try to think only of Me and My passion of love. As I continue to suffer present in the Eucharist, I think only of souls and pleasing My Father. My gaze never leaves you, My little one. Try to mortify your flesh so that, more and more, you think only of Me and pleasing our Father as one with Me in the cloister of Mary’s Heart. This practice will help you greatly during the time of great suffering that approaches quickly. 11/2/23
A mind that has Jesus and pleasing our Father in Heaven at the center is like the saints. Pope Benedict, in his encyclical Spe Salvi, quotes Saint Josephine Bakhita as an example of someone who held hope in the midst of great tragedy. She truly captured every thought and allowed only hope in the Lord to enter her heart and mind. Pope Benedict quotes and then comments:
I am definitively loved, and whatever happens to me, I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.’ Through the knowledge of this hope, she (Josephine Bahkita) was ‘redeemed,’ no longer a slave, but a free child of God (SS #3).”
The purification of our emotions starts with the purification of the mind because thoughts lead to emotions. Our emotions are driven by our way of thinking. If our minds are preoccupied, worried, angry, or distracted, we cannot trust nor hope in God. The Lord has told us that “life as you know it will cease to exist.”[i] We must allow the Holy Spirit to fully possess our minds, hearts, and faculties so that it is He who speaks and acts through us in times of difficulty and so that it is in Him, with Him, and through Him that we live in the world. We must be people of hope during these end times.
Pope Benedict XVI, again in his encyclical, writes:
If we cannot hope for more than is effectively attainable at any given time, or more than is promised by political or economic authorities, our lives will soon be without hope.
In other words, governments are not always for the people. We cannot look to them to provide for us that which only our Lord can provide. As we look around the world today, this seems more true than ever.
It is important to know that I can always continue to hope, even if in my own life, or the historical period in which I am living, there seems to be nothing left to hope for.
Doesn’t that seem very accurate today? More and more, we hear about conflicts between countries, conflicts within families, a secularism seeped in darkness, we see governments acting in a tyrannical manner, and even within our Holy Mother Church, we see turmoil. The Holy Father here is telling us there is always reason to hope.
Only the great certitude of hope that my own life and history in general, despite all failures, are held firm by the indestructible power of Love, and that this gives them their meaning and importance, only this kind of hope can then give the courage to act and to persevere (SS35).”
Pope Benedict reminds us here that hope is what will help us persevere in times of difficulty, no matter the difficulty. It is hope that will give us the courage to move forward, trusting in the Lord. This applies to the difficulties and persecutions that are to come in the world and those that come from our own circles… our families, our jobs, our friendships. The transformation of the mind and the heart are necessary for all situations. Most importantly because the Lord has called us to be His victims of love in the world, no matter the situation. The Lord has given us a certain territory of souls to care for through our prayers, through our way of life, by suffering all with our Beloved, asking for graces on their behalf.
Our Beloved Jesus has told us very clearly:
10/17/18: My gaze desires transformed souls
I need you to incarnate Myself in you so that I can touch, embrace, bless, love, and penetrate My people. Receive My gaze of the consuming fire of My Sacred Heart. My gaze desires transformed souls, souls in which it is I who live. This is My Light in the world.
Tell My little mustard seed to receive My gaze of desire for them to be emptied of self so that My Blood can fill them, and I, with the Divine fire of the Spirit, can bring new life… My desire is consuming Me in agony because I find hardly any souls willing to receive the desire of My Sacred Heart. Allow Me to empty you, and I will renew the face of the earth through you. Receive the gaze of My desire tonight and RESPOND to My call.
Our Lord desires us to be emptied of ourselves! Again and again, I am reminded of the “twelve forms of silence” that we learned about and have been studying since our last retreat. Entering this deep silence will allow the Lord to work in our souls, in our hearts, and in our minds so that we are transformed, and therefore, He can be incarnate within each one of us so that we can go out into the world, into our families, walk into any kind of persecution or difficulty, with Him and in Him, thus allowing Him to be made present in the world in a tangible way and help to transform the souls He has entrusted us with. We are called to offer our little lives as a sacrifice of love, united to Love Himself and together with our Blessed Mother in the Cloister of Her Immaculate Heart for all those They have asked us to care for.
This message above reminded me of a dream I had long ago, in which our Blessed Mother Mary said that we in Love Crucified are like little shining bright stars that have been strategically placed in the world. And I remember her saying, “Shine, my little star, shine.” The Lord tells us in the message above that He lives in a transformed soul, which is His Light in the world. We are called to allow His light to flow through each one of us.
We can look to our Blessed Mother as the perfect example of a bright light of hope in the world and ask for her intercession as we move through our own transformation. Again, Pope Benedict speaks to us:
With a hymn composed in the eighth or ninth century, thus for over a thousand years, the Church has greeted Mary, the Mother of God, as “Star of the Sea”: Ave maris stella. Human life is a journey. Towards what destination? How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him, we also need lights close by—people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us? With her “yes” she opened the door of our world to God himself; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom God took flesh, became one of us, and pitched his tent among us (cf. Jn 1:14). (SS49)
As I have prayed through this teaching, I thought about Our Lady of Hope! This Vatican-approved apparition, also called Our Lady of Pontmain, took place on January 17, 1871, in Pontmain, France. It happened during the Franco-Prussian War and after the French Revolution. In a short video from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Father Joe Roesch MIC explains that during and after the French Revolution, many priests had been killed, the clergy was divided, and people were not going to Church...they were very secular. Much like today! And then our Lady appeared to six children. As people began to find out what was happening, a crowd formed to witness what was taking place. However, only the young could see her, not the adults. This serves as a good reminder that we must be like little children, hoping and trusting in the Lord. One of the children said, “She has a blue dress with golden stars, gold-ribboned slippers, a golden crown widening towards the top with a red band around it, and a black veil.” It is so beautiful to think that our Blessed Mother’s mantle in the image of Our Lady of Hope is full of little bright stars, and I think back to what I just mentioned above regarding what She placed in my heart… that we are like little stars strategically placed in the world, to bring the Light of Christ to others.
As in some of her apparitions, our Blessed Mother was silent. However, as the image developed, a banner appeared at her feet that read, “But pray my children. God will hear you in a short time. My Son allows Himself to be moved by compassion.” It is said that those words were in response to the cry of the people who were saddened by the idea that war was imminent.
There is a point in which the crowd began to sing: “Mother of Hope, Whose name is so sweet, Protect our land of France. Pray, pray for us.” Our Blessed Mother’s response was a simple smile. Their prayers for their country pleased our Blessed Mother. In the same way, we should continue to pray for our countries! We must pray for our countries and for all that is happening in the world. Our Lady and our Lord have called us to do this, and they are listening.
Later in the apparition, our Blessed Mother held a red Crucifix with the name Jesus Christ across the top. In the end, as the Prussian army was making their way into France, they were able to see our Lady in the same way the children were able to see Her, and when they saw her, they retreated. A few months later, a peace treaty was signed, and the war ended. And what was our Blessed Mother’s message to the people? “My Son allows Himself to be moved by compassion.” Our God hears the cry of the poor! These are the words the Lord Himself has given our community in a message from June 6, 2020.
6/6/20
First Saturday of June, MOC Cenacle
Jesus spoke these words in my heart to all the MOC:
“The time has come in which the principalities of darkness will consume the earth, the terrible day of the Lord. The demons have no power over you (plural) and My followers. My mothers (MOC) must remember that during these dark times, your prayers lived with perfect trust in Me have the power to aid in the protection and salvation of many souls otherwise destined for hell. The battle is fierce, but My little one, you hold the Sword of the Spirit. Your hearts purified, emptied, and formed as My victims of pure love, one with My Mother of Sorrows, is the power of God to cast into hell the principalities of death. Give yourselves to prayer and silence as My warriors preparing and saving souls, for the moment of judgment is upon the world. Do not waste time with any frivolity, for the decisive battle has begun. Pray, pray, pray, pray unceasingly, for your prayers, as one with My Mother’s, have great power before the throne of our Father. He hears the cry of the poor.”
There is more to the apparition of Pontmain, but the point is that our Lady appeared at a time of much turmoil to bring the people hope and to remind them to pray. The people gathered together, they prayed, and She assisted them. Our Lady shows up to us today, as we too gather in prayer weekly, to tell us that God hears our prayers and that He “allows Himself to be moved by compassion.” Jesus is with us, and He allows Himself to be moved by our prayers!!! This ought to fill us with great hope! Let us think back to the definition of hope: the confident desire of obtaining a future good that is difficult to attain. We are His little mustard seed–His little ones–His little children! Do we believe that we have the power to move the Sacred Heart of our Beloved? Do we believe that He allows Himself to be moved by our prayers? This ought to give us great hope!!!
We must have faith, and we must live in hope. Our Lord hears the cry of the poor!!!
8/1/23
Faith in the power of your sorrows lived with Christ and the Mother of Sorrows
My little one, I have heard the cry of your soul, and I, your Beloved, come to bless and strengthen you. I have received your sorrows. My little one they are a participation in the sorrows of God, who loves you (pl). Remain immersed in the sorrows of your heart with perfect faith and hope in the God who loves you.
–(My beloved, I feel my sorrows have lost faith and hope. Please tell me the condition of my heart. What
virtues am I lacking?)
You are lacking faith in the power of your sorrows lived through Me, with Me, and in Me, as one with My Mother of Sorrows.
–(Please, my Lord, increase my faith.)
Trust and hold tight without wavering to the promises I have made. Go in peace to live with patient endurance.
As we come to the close of this three-part teaching, I was moved to look for a message or messages to our Community that perhaps could have been given on the same date of the apparition of Our Lady of Hope. There might be more, but I found one message.
1/17/11
Abandon yourself into my crucified embrace
My little one, I see how nervous and insecure you are because you are relying on yourself. Abandon yourself into My crucified embrace. Look in the depth of My eyes and contemplate the sorrow of your Beloved. Will you, too, My little one, forsake Me? Do you not see how few souls I have completely abandoned in My Divine Will? I seek daughters and sons to be My instruments, to be My voice in the world, but I find very few willing to leave all to follow Me. Who am I to send, My little one, to help My people? My sons are steeped in self-love. It is only the humble, pure love of a mother that can touch their hardened hearts. Will you speak on behalf of My Mother? Our desires are the same. We are One Heart because My Mother was fully abandoned to the Will of the Father, as I was and continue to be. I desire you to speak to My sons with all the passion of your motherly heart. Trust in all that I have placed in your heart. Do not fear to shock them with your courage and frankness in speaking the truth. It is your love and humility that they will see….
This is a call for each one of us…a call to remember all our Lord has taught us and done for us. It is a call to reaffirm our fiat to be victims of love, to live in the Cloister of the Immaculate Heart of our Mother, and it is also a message to encourage us to continue to live intentionally the virtue of hope.
