THE CHURCH AS GOD'S TEMPLE OF WORSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP OF LOVE

MY FATHER'S HOUSE IS A HOUSE OF PRAYER

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there.

He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves, He said, "Take these out of here, and stop making My Father's House a marketplace." His Disciples recalled the Words of Scripture, "Zeal for Your House will consume me."

At this the Jews said to Him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years and you will raise it up in three days?" But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His Body. Therefore, when He was raised from the dead, His Disciples remembered that He had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. (Jn 2:13-22)

It is our sacred duty to worship God, and to worship Him not only in our heart, but also externally and in union with others, for we are made of soul and body and are social beings. This is one of the reasons why places of worship exist.

Places of worship have been and are constructed for the practical purpose of creating a “prayerful ambiance” that encourages and enables the faithful to pray better. They inspire the faithful to seek and establish an intimate communion with the Deity through that thoughtful array of decorations, lamps, candles, flowers, incense, statues, music; which vary from religion to religion and from place to place.

For us Christians our churches are not just buildings that enable us to pray better. Many of them are also expressions of our gratitude to God for certain special favors we have received from Him. Some recall historical events in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, such as his birth or death, or different episodes in his life. This is the case of many churches in the Holy Land.

Other churches are meant to honor Mary Most Holy and other saints; others commemorate certain apparitions and miracles. Still others recall the martyrdom of brave believers, from the very beginning of the Christian era to our own time. Most of the ancient churches are eloquent witnesses to the faith of our ancestors. As such, they are also an encouragement and a challenge for us to be worthy of them.

And since churches and other places of worship are directly related to God, it is just spontaneous and perfectly understandable that those who plan and build them should try to make them as worthy of God as they can. This is the area where devotion and art forge a “Holy Alliance,” the result of which are majestic constructions, statues, paintings and other forms of artistic creation which form the object of admiration of millions of people. This is where artistic creativity and religious fervor merge into one and bring about the realization of structures that are monuments not only to a deep religious faith but also to the versatility and aesthetic dimension of human genius.

But this is also an aspect of these religious buildings and works of art that may lead to exaggerations, and even aberrations. Some of these places of worship may become also manifestations of, and monuments to, human pride. Some may even create false assurances about God’s special favor that is too closely linked to, and almost totally identified with, the material building or objects themselves.

This happened to the Jews in reference to their Temple in Jerusalem – something against which prophets like Jeremiah raised their voices. This can still happen to us Christians who may be tempted to forget that the most important and precious asset of the Church is not its sacred buildings (no matter how artistic and majestic they may look), but people, especially those in need. The essence of Christianity is neither institutions nor buildings but LOVE – a love patterned after the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.

This is something we should reflect on very seriously, especially when certain church leaders or devotees are tempted to compete with worldly institutions in terms of material constructions and artifacts, including religious buildings and various forms of artistic creations.

We should never forget that at the end of our life and at the end of time, we will be judged by Jesus Christ. At that moment, what will determine our eternal happiness or unhappiness will be neither the number nor the splendor of the places/objects of worship we have created, but the acts of charity and justice toward our neighbor that we have performed (or failed to perform) in our earthly life.


EUCHALETTE 9 November 2008
Word and Life Publications
MCPO Box 1820, Makati City 1258, Philippines

WE HAVE A FATHER WHO IS INFINITELY GOOD, INFINITELY RICH AND GREATLY MERCIFUL

July 1, 1932

My hour has come! I must be known, loved and honoured by men, so that, having created them, I can be their Father, then their Saviour and finally the object of their eternal delight.

Until now I have talked about things that you already knew. I wished to remind you of them so that you would be more and more convinced that I am a very good Father, not a fearsome one, as you believe; and also that I am the Father of all those living now and of those whom I shall create until the end of the world.

Know, also, that I wish to be known, loved and, above all, honoured. May everyone recognize My infinite goodness towards all men, and especially towards sinners, the sick, the dying, and all those who suffer. Let them know that I want only one thing: to love them all, to give them MY grace, to forgive them when they repent and, most of all, to judge them not with My Justice but with My mercy, so that all may be saved and numbered among My elect.

To conclude this brief account, I make you a promise which will have an eternal effect. It is this: Call Me by the name of Father, with confidence and love, and you will receive everything from this Father, with Love and Mercy.

I wish My Son, your Spiritual Father, to be able to work for My glory and to set down, sentence by sentence, what I have dictated to you, so that men may find it pleasing and easy to read an account of what I wish them to know, without any additions.

Day by day I will talk to you about My wishes for men, about My joys, My sorrows, and most of all, I will show men My infinite goodness and My tender and compassionate love.

I would also like your superiors to allow you to spend your free time with Me, so that you can console Me and love Me for half an hour each day. You will thereby ensure that men's hearts, My children's hearts, are well disposed to work for the spread of this devotion which I have just revealed to you, so that you may achieve great confidence in this Father who wants to be loved by His children.

So as to permit this work to be extended among all nations as quickly as possible, without allowing those entrusted with its propagation to commit the slightest imprudent act, I ask you to spend your days in a spirit of recollection. You will be happy not to talk much to others. In your heart, even when you are among them, you will talk to Me and listen to Me.

This is what I want you to do also: when sometimes I talk to you, you will write My confidences in a special little diary. But through it I intend to talk to everyone: I live with them more intimately than a mother with her children.

Since man's creation, I have never for one moment stopped living beside him. As his Creator and Father, I feel the need to love him. It is not that I need him, but My love, as Father and Creator, makes Me feel this need to love man. Thus I live close to man, I follow him everywhere, I help him in all things, I supply everything.

I can see his needs, his toils, all his desires, and My greatest happiness lies in helping him and saving him.

Men believe Me to be a terrifying God Who is going to cast all mankind into hell. What a great surprise it will be when, at the end of time, they see so many souls they believed lost, enjoying eternal bliss among the elect!

I wish all My creatures to be convinced that there is a Father Who watches over them and Who would like them to enjoy, on earth, a foretaste of eternal happiness.

A mother never forgets the little creature she has brought into the world. Is it not even more wonderful that I remember all MY creatures?

So if a mother loves the little being I gave her, I love him more than she does, because I created him. Even if it happens that a mother loves her child less because of some defect, I, on the contrary, will love him still more. She may later on forget him or think of him rarely, especially when because of his age he is no longer in her care, but I will never forget him. I will always love him, and even if he no longer remembers Me, His Father and Creator, I will still remember him and love him.

I have already told you that I want you to enjoy eternal happiness even here, on earth, but you still have not understood the real meaning of what I said. It is this.

If you love Me and call Me by the sweet name of Father, you will begin to live, here and now, in the love and the trust which will make you happy in eternity and which you will sing in heaven in the company of the elect. Is this not a foretaste of the happiness of heaven, which will last for ever?

I therefore desire man to remember often that I am right there, where he is, that he could not live if I were not with him, living just as he is. In spite of his unbelief, I always remain close to him.

Oh, how I wish to see this plan of mine realized! Until now man has never thought of giving God, his Father, the pleasure I am about to speak of. I would like to see great trust established between man and his heavenly Father, a true spirit of familiarity and delicacy at the same time, so as not to take advantage of My great goodness.

I know your needs, your desires, and everything in your hearts. But how happy and grateful I would be if I saw you coming to Me and confiding in Me your needs, like a son who has total trust in his Father. How could I refuse you the smallest or biggest thing if you asked Me? Even if you do not see Me, do you not feel Me very close to you in the things that happen to you and around you? How you will he rewarded, one day, for having believed in Me, even without having seen Me!

Even now that I am here, in person, among you all, talking to you, repeating ceaselessly, in every way, that I love you and want to be known, loved and honoured with a special devotion, you cannot see Me, apart from a single person, the one to whom I am dictating this message! Only one among all of humanity! Yet I am talking to you, and in her whom I see and to whom I am talking I see you all and am speaking to each and every one of you, and I love you as if you could see Me!

I want men to be able to know Me and to feel that I am close to each one of them. Remember, 0 men, that I wish to be the hope of humanity. Am I not already? Man would be lost if I were not his hope. But it is necessary for Me to be recognized as such, so that peace, confidence and love may enter men's hearts and put them in contact with their Father in heaven and on earth!

Do not think of Me as that frightening old man whom men depict in their pictures and books! No, no, I am neither younger nor older than My Son and My Holy Spirit. Because of this I would like everybody, from the youngest to the oldest, to call Me by the familiar name of Father and Friend. For I am always with you, I am making Myself similar to you so as to make you similar to Me. How great would be My joy to see parents teaching their children to address Me often by the name of Father, as indeed I am! How I would like to see infused into these young souls a trust and a filial love for Me! I have done everything for you; will you not do this for Me?

I would like to make My home in every family, as in My domain, so that all can say with absolute assurance: "We have a Father Who is infinitely good, infinitely rich and greatly merciful. He thinks about us and is close to us. He looks after us, supports us. He will give us everything we need if we ask Him. All His riches are ours, we will have everything we need." I am there precisely in order that you should ask Me for what you need. "Ask and you will receive." In My Fatherly Goodness I will give you everything, provided that all regard Me as a true Father, living among His family, as I indeed do.

I also desire that every family prominently display the picture I will later show to My "little daughter". I wish every family to be able to place itself under My special protection in this way, so that they can honour Me more easily. There, every day, the family will share with Me its needs, its work, its sorrows, its sufferings, its desires, and also its joys, because a Father must know everything that concerns His children. I do know it of course, because I am there, but I love simplicity. I know how to adapt Myself to your condition. I make Myself little with the little ones, I make Myself an adult with adults, and the same with the elderly, so that all may comprehend what I wish to tell them for their sanctification and My glory.

Do you not have the proof of what I am saying in My Son, Who made Himself small and weak like you? Do you not still have it now, seeing Me talking to you here? And have I not chosen a poor creature, like you yourselves, so that I can talk to you and make you understand what I wish to tell you? And now, am I not making Myself like you?

See, I have laid My crown at My Feet and held the world to My Heart. I have left My glory in heaven and come here, becoming all things to all men, becoming poor with the poor and rich with the rich. I want to protect the young people as a tender Father. There is so much evil in the world! These poor, inexperienced souls are letting themselves be seduced by the attraction of vice which, little by little, leads to total ruin.

You who especially need someone to take care of you in life, so that you can avoid evil, come to Me! I am the Father Who loves you more than any other creature will ever be able to do! Take refuge close, very close to Me, confide in Me your thoughts and your desires. I will love you tenderly. I will give you graces for the present and bless your future. You can be sure I will not forget you after fifteen or twenty-five or thirty years, having created you. Come! I see that you greatly need a sweet and infinitely good Father like Me.


GOD THE FATHER MESSAGE
Part 1 B of 4 Parts
Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio
theworkofgod.org