simplicity



The Kingdom of God isn’t a “show” or a “carnival,” it doesn’t like publicity and prefers to grow “hidden,” said Pope Francis during the Mass he celebrated at Santa Marta in the Vatican on November 16, 2017
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Commenting on the Gospel of the day (Luke 17:20-25), the Holy Father noted the “doubt” and the “curiosity” that drives men regarding the “Kingdom of God.” This Kingdom, he explained in his homily reported by Vatican Radio, grows “hidden”, “in humility.”

“Who makes this seed grow, who makes it germinate?” he asked. God, the Holy Spirit, who is within us. And the Holy Spirit is spirit of sweetness, spirit of humility; He is spirit of obedience, spirit of simplicity. It’s He who makes the Kingdom of God grow from within, not from pastoral plans, great things…No, it’s the Spirit, secretly…then the moment arrives and the fruit appears.

The Kingdom of God is always a “surprise,” because “it’s a gift given by the Lord,” continued the Pontiff. “The Kingdom of God doesn’t come in a way to attract attention…It’s not a show or…a carnival…The Kingdom of God doesn’t show itself with sufficiency, pride, it doesn’t like publicity: it’s humble, hidden, and grows thus.”

“We are all called to take this path of the Kingdom of God,” he stressed. “It’s a vocation, it’s a grace, it’s a gift, it’s free, it’s not purchased, it’s a grace that God gives us. And all of us, baptized, have the Holy Spirit within us.”

Pope Francis concluded by inviting to an examination of conscience: “How is my relationship with the Holy Spirit?…Do I believe in Him; do I really believe that the Kingdom of God is in our midst, that it’s hidden, or do I prefer a show?”

The Pontiff wished for Christians the grace to have germinate “in us and in the Church, forcefully, the seed of the Kingdom of God so that it becomes big, so that it gives shelter to numerous persons and bears fruits of holiness.”

Pope Francis on the Kingdom of God



This simplicity and it's importance is repeatedly emphasized in the Volumes and without simplicity there is no sure place for his truths to find a home.

Then He showed me many religious people and, among them, priests - even of holy life.  But as good as they were, they lacked that spirit of simplicity in believing in the many graces and the many ways the Lord uses with souls.  Jesus said to me:  “I communicate Myself both to the humble and to the simple, because they immediately believe in my graces and take them into great consideration, though they may be ignorant and poor.  But with these others you see, I am very reluctant, because the first step which draws the soul near Me is belief; and it happens that these, with all of their science and doctrine, and even holiness, never come to experience a ray of celestial light – that is, they walk along the natural way, and they never arrive at touching, even slightly, that which is supernatural.  This is also the reason for which in the course of my mortal life there was not one learned, one priest, one man of power, among my followers, but all ignorant and of low condition – because these were more humble and simple, and also more disposed to make great sacrifices for Me.” 

Vol. 2, May 19, 1899 

But one knows, that my truths find post more in the simple hearts than in the learned hearts.  This happened in my Redemption, with my sorrow not one learned one followed Me; but all the poor, ignorant and simple ones.  You should know that my truths are seeds that I the Celestial Farmer continue to sow in souls, and if I make my seeding(,) with certainty I must gather the fruit.  Many times it happens to Me as to the poor sower that casts his seed in the earth, which for lack of moisture the earth doesn’t hold the strength to eat the seed in order to digest it and to convert it in earth and give the substance that it has absorbed from the seed and give the ten, the twenty, the one hundred of the seed that it has eaten.  Other times while he casts the seed, for lack of rain the earth is made hard over the seed and the substance of the seed that it encloses doesn’t find the way in order to make life go forth, and the poor farmer must have patience to receive the harvest of his seeds.  However with having sowed the seed he has already done a thing and can have hope of who knows that a rain might give moisture to the earth, which possessing the substance of his seeds, it will put forth that which he has sowed, or else taking away the hardness and shifting it forms the ways in order to let his seed reproduce.  So that the sower in spite that the earth doesn’t produce immediately, the multiplicity of the seed that it received, the time, the circumstances, the rain, can produce a most abundant harvest that he didn’t expect.  Now if the farmer in spite of all the difficulties of the earth, can hope to receive an abundant harvest, more so I, Celestial Farmer, having put forth from my Divine bosom, so many seeds of Celestial truths, in order to sow them in the depth of your soul, and from the harvest I will fill the whole world. 

Vol. 31, February 24, 1933




Just as we must be simple to allow the light of God's truth, his seed to enter us we must also be simple working with a purity of intention and detached from all that is not God in order to enter the narrow door to Jesus.

Assuming a more afflicted air, He added:  “My daughter, what will happen to so many works, even good, done without purity of intention, out of habit and self-interest?  What shame will not fall upon them on the Day of Judgment, in seeing so many works, good in themselves, but made rotten by their intention, such that, their very actions, instead of rendering honor to them, as they would to many others, will give them shame?  In fact, I do not look at the greatness of the works, but at the intention with which they are done.  Here is all my attention."

Jesus kept silent for a little while, and I kept thinking about the words He had spoken to me while I was meditating within my mind, especially on the purity of intention, and on the fact that, when creatures do good, they must disappear, making the creature one with the Lord Himself, as if creatures did not exist.

Then Jesus continued, saying to me:  "Yet, it is so.  See, my Heart is so very large, but the door is very narrow.  No one can fill the void of this Heart but souls who are detached, naked and simple.  In fact, as you see, since the door is small, any hindrance, even the slightest – that is, a shadow of attachment, an intention which is not upright, a work done without the purpose of pleasing Me – prevents them from entering to delight in my Heart.  Much love of neighbor enters my Heart, but it must be so united to mine as to form one single love, in such a way that one cannot be distinguished from the other.  But as for the other love of neighbor which is not transformed into my love – I do not look at it as something that belongs to Me."

Vol. 2,  May 7, 1899


Early in the Volumes Luisa received four rules by which to live by so as to become detached from all that is of this earth, from others and even from herself.  In effect He taught her how to become simple and in knowing herself more for what she lacks she would learn to trust Jesus more and more.  This is what leads to the purity of intention.  In knowing one's own nothingness one depends and trusts only God's Will with the desire to only act together and in union with Him.

Jesus gives four rules of life to the soul.
Jesus gave me new rules of life, to make me live more intimately united to him, following him more perfectly than I have in the past.  ...  

1          So, I say that first of all Jesus directed me to totally detach myself from all creation, and even from my own self, almost as though I was to live in perfect forgetfulness of all things.  With this, my interior would become disposed to have his sweet memory ever present to me, and a living and beating affection of love toward him, so that, being pleased with all my acts, he might form his permanent dwelling in my heart.  Outside of him, he said, I was no longer to know anyone:  not friends, not even my own self.  Only in him was the memory of everything and of everyone to be reawakened, since the creature necessarily can be found in him.  To achieve this, he added that I was always to act with holy indifference, mindless of what may be happening around me.  In other words, I was always to act uprightly and with the greatest simplicity, not keeping account of the pros and the cons of creatures.

“In practice then, if at times I didn’t do all this, my dear Jesus, scolding me severely, said, “If you do not achieve not only effective detachment, but affective as well, you cannot become entirely clothed in my light.  If, on the contrary, you strip yourself of every earthly affection, you will become like a most clear crystal that lets all the light go through it.  Then my divinity, which is light, will enter you in its entirety.”

2          “In the second place, he said I was to no longer live in myself, but only and entirely in him, that is to say, I was to live detached from myself.  I was always to take care to clothe myself in the true spirit of faith, by which I was always to strive to know myself better – in order to distrust my own ability, being incapable of doing anything by myself, and to always come to know my Jesus more, to be able to trust in him more and more.”

“After you have come to the knowledge of yourself and of who I am,” he said to me, “as a consequence, very often you will go outside of yourself to cast yourself into the immense sea of my providence.  Then, as a little bride of whom the bridegroom is so jealous that he does not want to let her take the least pleasure with others, you will always keep close to me.  And just as she is always facing her spouse so that he cannot have any doubts about her, so too, you will give me absolute dominion over yourself – whether I want to caress you, enrich you with charisms, kisses and love; or strike you, oppress you and put any suffering on you.  You will have to subject yourself to everything for my love, always in the full freedom of your will, because we will share both pains and joys.  Indeed we will compete to see which of us can take more pains upon ourselves, for the sole purpose of pleasing and contenting the other.”

3          “In the third place, not your will but mine alone must be in you.  It must be there and rule as a king in his royal palace.  Otherwise, the disagreements of an unsatisfactory love will make themselves heard at once, from which dark shadows will appear, giving rise in you to those discords and that dissimilarity of actions unacceptable to the mutual nobility which absolutely must reign between you, my spouse, and me.  This nobility will reign in you if, from time to time, you try to enter your nothingness, that is, if you come to the perfect knowledge of yourself – but not to remain there.  Once you have known your nothingness, without delay you must do everything in your power to enter into the infinite power of my Will.  From there you will draw all the graces you need in order to raise yourself up into me and do everything with me, with no regard to yourself; for I want you to completely disappear in me.”

4          “In the fourth place, from now on between you and me, I don’t want that ‘you’ and ‘I’ to exist.  Therefore, it will no longer be said ‘you will do,’ ‘I will do,’ but ‘we will do.’  Also, that ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ must disappear.  Instead, we will say ‘ours,’ of al things, since you, as my faithful spouse will share with me and will guide the destiny of the world.  All the redeemed by my blood have become my children and brothers; and just as they are mine, so too will they be children and brothers of yours.  As children, you shall love them as true mother.  It is true that these brothers and children will cost us numerous pains because for the most part they have become very unrestrained, extremely self-willed, and many even perverted.  Even so, after my example, you will take upon yourself the pains they deserve, and at the cost of the most painful sacrifices you will try to save them.  Then you will bring them to my heart covered by the merits of the pains you have suffered and all sprinkled with your blood and mine.  In view of this, not only will my heavenly Father have mercy on them and forgive them; but furthermore, if they are perfectly contrite, many of them, like the good thief, will very quickly take eternal possession of paradise.

             “Finally, in the measure that you have detached yourself from everything that is not purely mine, you will find yourself ever more immersed in my absolute Will; and in it, thanks to the knowledge of my essence, which will become more lively in you day by day, you will acquire the fullness of my love.  Then (just as one sees images in a mirror at the rebounding reflection of the light), so too, more than ever, you will find all creatures having a spirit of intelligence and of love, really ordered in me in such a way that at a single glance you will see them all and will know the state of conscience of each.  Then, for this reason, more than as loving mother, in the true spirit of mercy – which is my spirit and that of my mother – you will make the maximum sacrifice, offering yourself in sacrifice for them  This sacrifice will be like a mantle that will completely cover you, as my true imitator and faithful spouse.”

Vol. 1

 

 
 
It is only in the emptying of ourselves from ourselves and our disordered attachments that we can turn to God who can fill us completely with himself.  It is often through dryness that He begins this process in us and then we through humility and obedience continue it.

And He:  “I am not making fun of you; you yourself cannot comprehend that when not everything is dry in the soul, complacency is a humor, satisfaction is a humor, one’s own taste is a humor, self-esteem is a humor.  On the other hand, when everything is dry and the soul operates, these humors have no place from which to arise, and the Divine Fire, finding only the soul naked, as dry as she was created by It, with no other extraneous humors, since it is something that belongs to It, it is extremely easy for It to convert her into Its very Divine Fire.  And after this, I infuse in her a garment of peace, and this peace is preserved by interior obedience, and kept by external obedience.  This peace gives birth to the whole of God within the soul – that is, to all the works, the virtues and the ways of the Humanate Word – in such a way that one can see in her His simplicity, His humility, the dependency of His infantile life, the perfection of His adult virtues, the mortification and the crucifixion of His dying.  But it always begins from this:  one who wants the whole of Christ must give everything to Christ.”

Vol. 4, April 29, 1902




 It is through simplicity that we can come to most closely resemble God who is most pure and simple Spirit and bypass doors and obstacles and not become stained by the earth's ugliness.  She becomes like light which can communicate itself to all.  With this virtue she can come to participate in the other divine qualities as there are no obstacles for the work of Divine Grace in her. 

“My daughter, simplicity is to virtues as condiment to foods.  For a simple soul there are neither keys nor doors to enter into Me, nor are there for Me to enter into her, because from all sides she can enter into Me, and I into her.  Even more, to better say it, she finds herself in Me without entering because, by her simplicity, she comes to resemble Me, who am most simple Spirit, and only because I am most simple I am present everywhere and nothing can escape my hand.  A simple soul is like the light of the sun – in spite of any fog, or of the fact that its rays pass through whatever rubbish, it remains always light, it gives light to all, and it never changes.  In the same way, a simple soul, no matter what mortification or displeasure she may receive, does not cease to be light for herself and for those who have mortified her.  And if she sees evil things, she does not become stained, but remains always light; nor does she change, because simplicity is that virtue which most resembles the Divine Being.  Only through this virtue can one participate in the other divine qualities, and only in the soul who is simple are there no impediments or obstacles for Divine Grace to enter and to operate.  In fact, since both one and the other are light, one light easily unites and transforms into the other.”

Vol. 7, July 31, 1906



Simplicity is the mark of the Trinity.  Simplicity is the fruit of  Justice and Truth.  Truth is the child of Justice and when this mark is present in the soul the soul sees clearly and can not be deceived.  She recognizes  the absence of peace and recognizes deceit turning away from it.  With processing the mark of simplicity she can penetrate into all that is good and this mark is so beautiful before God that it wounds His Heart and makes her the admiration of both angels and men.

“The daughter of justice is truth.  Just as I am the eternal Truth, and I do not deceive, nor can I deceive, in the same way, the soul who possesses justice makes truth shine in all of her actions.  Therefore, since she knows by experience the true light of truth, if someone wants to deceive her, since that light which she feels within herself is missing, she immediately recognizes the deceit.  And so it happens that with this light of truth she deceives neither herself, nor her neighbor, nor can she be deceived.  The fruit produced by this justice and by this truth is simplicity, which is another quality of my Being – being simple; so much so, that I penetrate everywhere; there is nothing that can prevent Me from penetrating inside of it.  I penetrate into Heaven and into the abysses, into good and into evil; but my Being, which is most simple, by penetrating even into evil, does not get dirty; even more, it does not receive the slightest shadow.  In the same way, through justice and truth, gathering this beautiful fruit of simplicity within herself, the soul penetrates into Heaven, she enters into hearts to lead them to Me, she penetrates into everything that is good; and if she finds herself with sinners and sees the evil that they do, she does not get dirty because, being simple, she immediately brushes it off, without receiving any harm.  Simplicity is so beautiful, that my Heart is wounded at one gaze alone of a simple soul.  She is the admiration of angels and men.”

Vol. 2, August 10, 1899 



We with our human natures tend to complicate matters and we think that things of God are complex but the opposite is true.  The sign that God is working in the soul is the mark of simplicity and the sign of the reign of God's Kingdom will be also simplicity.  That which complicates, that which is overly intellectualized should be met warily and is more likely coming from man rather than God.

“My daughter, my Divine Will simplifies the creature, It empties her so much of everything that does not belong to It, that nothing else is left of the human being but a complex of simplicity. Simple the gaze, the word, the manners, the steps; the mark of the divine simplicity can be seen in her as though in a mirror. Therefore, when my Divine Will reigns on earth, pretense, lie, which can be called origin of every evil, will not longer exist; while simplicity, as origin of every true good, will be the true characteristic that will point out that here reigns the Divine Will.

Vol. 27, November 6, 1929 


Truly the Shakers glimpsed this truth when they wrote their hymn Simple Gifts.