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Consoling the Heart of Jesus Publisher: Marian Press
Endorsed by EWTN hosts Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, and Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, this do-it-yourself retreat combines the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with the teachings of Sts. Therese of Lisieux, Faustina Kowlaska, and Louis de Montfort. The author, Br. Michael Gaitley, MIC, has a remarkable gift for inspiring little souls to trust in Jesus, The Divine Mercy. As Danielle Bean, editorial director of Faith & Family magazine, puts it, "The voice of Christ in these pages is one that even this hopelessly distracted wife and mother of eight could hear and respond to." Includes practical helps an in appendices.
Paperback
First published February 19, 2009
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About the author
Michael E. Gaitley
18 books237 followersFather Michael Gaitley, MIC, is a member of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. Prior to his ordination to the priesthood, he received a Masters Degree in Theology and a Licentiate Degree in Moral Theology.
After his ordination to the priesthood, Fr. Michael succeeded Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, as the director of the Association of Marian Helpers, a spiritual benefit society with more than 1,000,000 members. As director, he has launched a new pastoral initiative called Hearts Afire: Parish-based Programs for the New Evangelization (HAPP).
He frequently appears on EWTN and preaches retreats throughout the country on topics such as Divine Mercy, Consoling spirituality, and Marian Consecration.
When he is not preaching missions and retreats, Fr. Michael lives and works on Eden Hill in Stockbridge, Mass., home of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
After his ordination to the priesthood, Fr. Michael succeeded Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, as the director of the Association of Marian Helpers, a spiritual benefit society with more than 1,000,000 members. As director, he has launched a new pastoral initiative called Hearts Afire: Parish-based Programs for the New Evangelization (HAPP).
He frequently appears on EWTN and preaches retreats throughout the country on topics such as Divine Mercy, Consoling spirituality, and Marian Consecration.
When he is not preaching missions and retreats, Fr. Michael lives and works on Eden Hill in Stockbridge, Mass., home of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
January 18, 2014
I would love to find a small group of women, 4 or 5, who ardently desire to become saints, true saints, with holy lives of heroic virtue, who would spend a weekend retreat with this book.
UPDATE: Am now working through this book with 4 other gals who do love the Lord and desire to walk with Him more closely and to know and love Him more every day. Thanks be to God! (Jan 17, 2014)
UPDATE: Am now working through this book with 4 other gals who do love the Lord and desire to walk with Him more closely and to know and love Him more every day. Thanks be to God! (Jan 17, 2014)
March 29, 2014
March 27, 2014: We finished our 10 week retreat using this book and I’m so glad I stuck it out. It’s been a roller coaster ride at times, as are most retreats—well the effective ones anyway—those which draw us closer to Jesus. As with any relationship, but even more so when it comes to God, the loving must precede the knowing, so He allows the pain that we can truly understand Him. This is not to say He is a God who only desires our misery, or even wants us to be unhappy. On the contrary, He wants joy for us, total joy in Him and not for selfish reasons but because He knows He is what we truly hunger for; He is our destiny. It is usually our choice to seek something less than joy and to look for it somewhere other than in Him. Therefore He meets us in our own suffering and helps us draw good from it. He does this by drowning the drop of our pain in the ocean of His Passion.
Our group was smaller (by 2) than when we began and we had endured a number of tragedies, such as the accidental death of one member’s 4 year old cousin, the break-up of another member’s significant relationship, not to mention minor illnesses and other less obvious life changes. Even so we were ready to sign our pledge to do all we can (in prayer, word and deed) each day thus bringing consolation to Our Lord in response to His own great outpouring of Mercy to His Suffering World.
A beautiful experience overall and one I hope to repeat again in a few years. There are a number of appendices to this book which merit owning a copy and keeping it nearby for easy reference, especially those for discernment of spirits. I cannot recommend this retreat or this book enough.
===================
February 21, 2014: Last night as I was listening to Fr. Gaitley (on the DVD which accompanies this book) it seemed that in learning to love Jesus as taught in this retreat, I'm simply learning to really keep the First Commandment. How does one, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'? I've always wondered what such total love looked like, and how it could be lived out by a little soul such as myself. Difficult theological books depress me because I can't understand them or figure out how they apply to ordinary life. I can't hope to impress God with my knowledge, and who else is worth impressing? Great saints often discourage me with their incredible sacrifices and heroic virtues. Fr. Gaitley says Jesus understands all this and doesn't expect or want us to be to be other than we are. In fact, He loves little souls for their very littleness, because in them He can demonstrate His own Greatness as our God. He wants us exactly as we are, where we are. But He wants us to come to Him in trust and to be with Him constantly assured of His greatest attribute, His Mercy.
January 16, 2014: Rereading this as part of a group retreat...
March 10-15, 2013: Consoling the Heart of Jesus is subtitled a ‘Do-It-Yourself Retreat’ inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola but in fact also includes the spirituality found in Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Our human appreciation of Divine Mercy, in turn, grew out of the Church’s traditional understanding of Our LORD’s revealed treasures contained with His Sacred Heart. Here, in this book, these three beautiful spiritualities are braided together to form a new way of developing a deeper and more responsive relationship with Jesus. It offers many helpful insights into common fears, objections and pitfalls to which we are all prey—whether we are cradle Catholics of many years, new Christians, going through some form of spiritual ‘Dark Night’ or even intimate friends of Our LORD, very familiar with the art of prayer.
The ‘retreat’ itself can be done as a retreat or read as any other book. It is also neatly divided into short segments perfect for short meditations on a myriad of topics beginning with a very user-friendly explanation of the Spiritual Exercises themselves. Less than ½ of the book is the narrative; the second part consists of very useful appendices including rules for discernment of spirits and relevant selections from Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. For this reason I plan on purchasing my own copy of this book. It’s one of those books I’m certain to refer to often!
Interestingly I had been asking the question – part to myself part in prayer – what return do I, sinner that I am, make to Our LORD in return for all the many Graces He bestows on me? ... when I picked up this book and found the answer to my question. Praise be to Him!
More information about this book is available at here
Our group was smaller (by 2) than when we began and we had endured a number of tragedies, such as the accidental death of one member’s 4 year old cousin, the break-up of another member’s significant relationship, not to mention minor illnesses and other less obvious life changes. Even so we were ready to sign our pledge to do all we can (in prayer, word and deed) each day thus bringing consolation to Our Lord in response to His own great outpouring of Mercy to His Suffering World.
A beautiful experience overall and one I hope to repeat again in a few years. There are a number of appendices to this book which merit owning a copy and keeping it nearby for easy reference, especially those for discernment of spirits. I cannot recommend this retreat or this book enough.
===================
February 21, 2014: Last night as I was listening to Fr. Gaitley (on the DVD which accompanies this book) it seemed that in learning to love Jesus as taught in this retreat, I'm simply learning to really keep the First Commandment. How does one, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'? I've always wondered what such total love looked like, and how it could be lived out by a little soul such as myself. Difficult theological books depress me because I can't understand them or figure out how they apply to ordinary life. I can't hope to impress God with my knowledge, and who else is worth impressing? Great saints often discourage me with their incredible sacrifices and heroic virtues. Fr. Gaitley says Jesus understands all this and doesn't expect or want us to be to be other than we are. In fact, He loves little souls for their very littleness, because in them He can demonstrate His own Greatness as our God. He wants us exactly as we are, where we are. But He wants us to come to Him in trust and to be with Him constantly assured of His greatest attribute, His Mercy.
January 16, 2014: Rereading this as part of a group retreat...
March 10-15, 2013: Consoling the Heart of Jesus is subtitled a ‘Do-It-Yourself Retreat’ inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola but in fact also includes the spirituality found in Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Our human appreciation of Divine Mercy, in turn, grew out of the Church’s traditional understanding of Our LORD’s revealed treasures contained with His Sacred Heart. Here, in this book, these three beautiful spiritualities are braided together to form a new way of developing a deeper and more responsive relationship with Jesus. It offers many helpful insights into common fears, objections and pitfalls to which we are all prey—whether we are cradle Catholics of many years, new Christians, going through some form of spiritual ‘Dark Night’ or even intimate friends of Our LORD, very familiar with the art of prayer.
The ‘retreat’ itself can be done as a retreat or read as any other book. It is also neatly divided into short segments perfect for short meditations on a myriad of topics beginning with a very user-friendly explanation of the Spiritual Exercises themselves. Less than ½ of the book is the narrative; the second part consists of very useful appendices including rules for discernment of spirits and relevant selections from Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. For this reason I plan on purchasing my own copy of this book. It’s one of those books I’m certain to refer to often!
Interestingly I had been asking the question – part to myself part in prayer – what return do I, sinner that I am, make to Our LORD in return for all the many Graces He bestows on me? ... when I picked up this book and found the answer to my question. Praise be to Him!
More information about this book is available at here
March 1, 2019
As the title states, this is a do-it-yourself retreat, which I have done more than once. This is one of my favorite spiritual books. It is incredibly inspiring and gives great encouragement for God's love for each of us and the importance of each person. It also gives great suggestions of how to live out your faith. I can't recommend this enough.
September 30, 2012
Life transforming. Amazing. Buy this for everyone you know or at least yourself. My only objection is that the subtitle is "A Do it yourself retreat" and that can be intimidating! Just pick it up and start reading where ever. Doesnt matter, it is all good.
July 15, 2017
Love.
This book stole my heart all spring. I was so sad to finish it because it really spoke to me.
"Oh Jesus, your sacred heart must be so sorrowful because so many people neither love you, nor trust in you. Behold, Lord- here I am. I love you! I trust in you!"
This book stole my heart all spring. I was so sad to finish it because it really spoke to me.
"Oh Jesus, your sacred heart must be so sorrowful because so many people neither love you, nor trust in you. Behold, Lord- here I am. I love you! I trust in you!"
April 27, 2020
An annual read for sure.
April 27, 2015
I've had "going on a retreat" on my "to do" list for years, but I couldn't make it fit in my family schedule. When I saw this book as a do-it-yourself retreat, it fit in at a perfect time! I'm sure this book is one I'm going to enjoy reading again and again.
This book was amazing. It pulled together SO MANY of the BIG IDEAS that we've learned over the last 6-8 years. And it did so in such a conversational, invitational, natural way.
This sounds strange, it also made me feel comfortable getting "close" to Jesus, maybe for the first time. As a friend. I think I had the head-knowledge but not the heart-belief of this before this.
And I know now what "consoling the Heart of Jesus" really means, why He wants and needs to be consoled by us (which is a crazy concept to accept on the surface!), and how to do it in a way that is natural, and works in a realistic, busy schedule.
It was like the author was in my head as he spoke through the words of the book. He anticipated my next thought or objection and addressed it. Again and again this happened.
These are some of the things that this book pulled together for me, weaving a picture of how they work together to form a powerful whole:
Sr. Faustina, Divine Mercy devotion, image, & chaplet, the 3:00 hour devotion, and "Jesus, I Trust in You" <-- and likewise, what Jesus really meant when he said "I THIRST!"
I still don't "like" the Divine Mercy Image... I have the feeling so much was lost when it was translated to oil & canvas... but I appreciate it much more.
St.Therese, the little way, the elevator of Jesus' heart and arms, removing obstacles to desire becoming a saint <-- it sure has done this!
St. Louis de Monfort's total consecration to Jesus through Mary <-- I thought I understood this, but his summary of it is AMAZINGLY HELPFUL
All for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, all through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary... <-- previously I think I understood these words much more in my head than in my heart
Spiritual Communion <-- we covered this idea in POH and it frequently comes to mind, and now is interweaved with everything else
The Culture of Death <-- the idea that our culture doesn't just cause physical heart attacks, it causes spiritual heart attacks
Mercy in deed, word, and prayer <-- wow this book opened these wide open and integrated them into the whole
Morning Offering (for Consolers) <-- I've had this on my desk and have used it for the last 6-8 months just because it "clicked" with me. Word for word as written in the book. No idea where I got it. Now I realize I didn't really even fully understand it. In a way, this book took this morning offering I've been saying and broke it down to the next several layers of understanding.
Examen of Consciousness - received a few months ago by my Spiritual Director, also sitting on my desk. I've found it a helpful exercise in the past, but now I see how it fits into a much larger whole! (and I like his formula for it even better than the one I have been using)
St. Ignatius First Principle and Foundation (part of his Spiritual Exercises) <-- wow, nothing has quite struck a chord like this did when I read it!
How I'm living my life, trying to put the First Principle first, but not quite getting it. It's like God has been preparing me for this for the last 5 years. Preparing me to really understand and appreciate the contents of this book. Maybe more...
This book was amazing. It pulled together SO MANY of the BIG IDEAS that we've learned over the last 6-8 years. And it did so in such a conversational, invitational, natural way.
This sounds strange, it also made me feel comfortable getting "close" to Jesus, maybe for the first time. As a friend. I think I had the head-knowledge but not the heart-belief of this before this.
And I know now what "consoling the Heart of Jesus" really means, why He wants and needs to be consoled by us (which is a crazy concept to accept on the surface!), and how to do it in a way that is natural, and works in a realistic, busy schedule.
It was like the author was in my head as he spoke through the words of the book. He anticipated my next thought or objection and addressed it. Again and again this happened.
These are some of the things that this book pulled together for me, weaving a picture of how they work together to form a powerful whole:
Sr. Faustina, Divine Mercy devotion, image, & chaplet, the 3:00 hour devotion, and "Jesus, I Trust in You" <-- and likewise, what Jesus really meant when he said "I THIRST!"
I still don't "like" the Divine Mercy Image... I have the feeling so much was lost when it was translated to oil & canvas... but I appreciate it much more.
St.Therese, the little way, the elevator of Jesus' heart and arms, removing obstacles to desire becoming a saint <-- it sure has done this!
St. Louis de Monfort's total consecration to Jesus through Mary <-- I thought I understood this, but his summary of it is AMAZINGLY HELPFUL
All for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, all through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary... <-- previously I think I understood these words much more in my head than in my heart
Spiritual Communion <-- we covered this idea in POH and it frequently comes to mind, and now is interweaved with everything else
The Culture of Death <-- the idea that our culture doesn't just cause physical heart attacks, it causes spiritual heart attacks
Mercy in deed, word, and prayer <-- wow this book opened these wide open and integrated them into the whole
Morning Offering (for Consolers) <-- I've had this on my desk and have used it for the last 6-8 months just because it "clicked" with me. Word for word as written in the book. No idea where I got it. Now I realize I didn't really even fully understand it. In a way, this book took this morning offering I've been saying and broke it down to the next several layers of understanding.
Examen of Consciousness - received a few months ago by my Spiritual Director, also sitting on my desk. I've found it a helpful exercise in the past, but now I see how it fits into a much larger whole! (and I like his formula for it even better than the one I have been using)
St. Ignatius First Principle and Foundation (part of his Spiritual Exercises) <-- wow, nothing has quite struck a chord like this did when I read it!
How I'm living my life, trying to put the First Principle first, but not quite getting it. It's like God has been preparing me for this for the last 5 years. Preparing me to really understand and appreciate the contents of this book. Maybe more...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2018
This is DEFINITELY one of my top favorite Catholic spiritual books. As a Catholic teen, this was just what i needed to understand how to grow in faith and strive for holiness. So many of his points just hit the spot for me and it is just packed with treasures from beginning to end. I am almost done reading it for the second time this year, but I know I will definitely read it again and again. I highly recommend this book.
March 19, 2020
I liked parts of this book, and found spiritual value in some of it, but overall found it to be fluffy, and run-on. I felt it could have been much shorter.
Unrelated to the content, but very much related to it at the same time: the back cover has an endorsement from one of the catholic church’s most infamous serial sex abusers, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. I found this to be extremely off-putting and disturbing.
Unrelated to the content, but very much related to it at the same time: the back cover has an endorsement from one of the catholic church’s most infamous serial sex abusers, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. I found this to be extremely off-putting and disturbing.
November 6, 2022
So beautiful. I didn’t expect to like it so much since i don’t consider my spirituality very imaginative or “flowery”, but after years of sitting on my shelf i finally picked it up and made it as a weekend retreat (which i definitely recommend)!
November 28, 2021
This book is BEAUTIFUL. I highly recommend it!
May 13, 2018
Fan into flame your desires for holiness.
“Whoever is a little one let him come to me.”The elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, oh Jesus. I had to remain little and become this more and more. St Therese
Trust Jesus to take us into his arms and carry us to holiness.
Listen to his words from the cross, “I thirst.” He is speaking to you: he thirst for you. Beg him for the grace of thirsting for him.
He wants your help in bringing everyone back home to the father. Many refuse the gift of the mission he wants to give them. He wants to share his mission with you. Say yes to his will for your life even if you don’t know the details.
Beg the father and the Holy Spirit to give you a thirst for Jesus, to give you a burning desire for the one who burns with love for you.
He offers unprecedented graces to make you holy. He speaks: I see your weakness, don't be afraid. Just trust me. I will do it. Let me make you into a saint.
Jesus, I thirst for you. Help me to thirst for you more. Use me, Jesus. Form me into a saint. Make up for all my faults. I trust in you. With Mary’s help, I give you my yes.
St Ignatius of Loyola: man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord. Things are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Beg for the grace to know the Lord more intimately, love him more deeply, and follow him more closely. The first principle and foundation is to keep first things first. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you as well.
The Jesuits spearheaded the counter reformation that saved the church
We’re made to live a life of praise reverence and service to God by using things on the earth only as they can help us live the first thing if. If the second thing becomes an obstacle to living out the first thing, then we need to rid ourselves of it. St Ignatius instructed us to make ourselves indifferent to created things.
Saints are those who console Jesus most. Thus, Jesus longs for saints and is more than willing to help those who aspire to sanctity.
St Margaret Mary, Jesus said to her: “Behold this heart which loves so much yet is so little loved. Do me the kindness, of making up for all their ingratitude, as far as you can.”
The center of our lives ought to be the Eucharistic heart of Jesus, the source and summit at the Christian life. The Eucharistic heart of Jesus can unleash a torrent of love and us.
Jesus’s desire can best be described as a thirst. He thirsts that all humanity be brought into his communion of love with the father and the Holy Spirit. For us to share in this communion, though, we have to come to love him. Thus, Jesus thirsts for our love.
Look at Jesus’s sorrowful heart and say, “Here I am Lord I come to console you.” Your principal and foundation is to console the heart of Jesus which is sorrowful, because so few love him.
The best way to deal with suffering is to accept it, uniting it to Christ in his suffering.
Ask Jesus to choose for us the suffering that will form us into saints and then accept what he sends.
When we offer up our little sufferings, we’re giving consolation to Jesus. When we unite our suffering with those of Jesus, we have the further joy of knowing that grace and mercy is poured out on others. For, when we unite our sufferings to the Lord’s, they truly are redemptive.
Col 1:24 There is a “lack” in Christ’s suffering in the sense that not everyone accepts his grace and mercy. It’s in such situations where people reject or don’t fully accept God’s grace that our sufferings and prayers can “complete what is lacking.”
St Therese: What pleases him is that he sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in his mercy. That is my only treasure. I want to be his victim of love. The weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is for the workings of this consuming and transforming love. Let us remain far from all that sparkles, Let us love our littleness.
Her only treasure was her blind hope in God’s mercy; not her virtues, sacrifices, commitments or anything else, simply her blind hope in God’s mercy. It’s her trust, her humble confidence in God’s mercy. We should strive to remain little and trusting.
We're always stumbling and falling. We are to have the attitude of the repentant child who jumps into her father’s arms with great confidence in his mercy. This is what most pleases the Lord, that we go to him with confidence despite, our sins, weaknesses, and attachments.
Jesus says: when you give me your sins, you give me the joy of being your Saviour.
When sin weighs down on us, remember Jesus’s love for us and the longing of his heart to forgive.
Come to Me in the Blessed Sacrament, by Father Vincent Martin Lucia: Jesus transforms everything to good in the fire of his divine love, drawing good out of evil, drawing a greater good out of a greater evil, consuming even our very faults and failures (like straw thrown into a burning furnace) and using them to make us more humble and to bring us even closer to his divine heart. In my weakness, I find my strength.
Dear Jesus, by the power of your infinite mercy, I trust that somehow you can fix not only the evil I’ve done but bring an even greater good out of it.
We console Jesus by giving him our sins. The primacy of contemplation means that if we stay fixed on the goodness and glory of the Lord, we will automatically and with a certain ease let go of our attachments, we’ll begin to have an attitude of indifference without having to force it.
This attitude of going to the Lord as we are is a surprisingly effective way to console Jesus and progress in holiness. Go to Jesus as you are. He loves it when we’re completely open with him. The more open we are with him, the more deeply he can heal us, and this is especially applies to his being able to heal us of our attachments.
Jesus is always pleased when we go to him humbly just as we are.
One of God’s great mercies to little souls who trust in him is he gently and imperceptibly changes their desires.
Slowly, as we’re standing in his gaze, the strings of our attachments begin to break, but we may not even realize it.
In His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, he fills us with his love and peace, and loosens our grip on our attachments. Trust the Lord and go to him. He’ll help us become detached with a certain ease.
What hurts Jesus most is a lack of trust. What consoles him most is our trust.
You live trust by praise and thanksgiving in all things.
Mother Theresa wrote about the importance of accepting everything with a smile, with praise and thanksgiving.
The best way to console Jesus’s heart is to trust him and the best way to live trust is with an attitude of praise, thanksgiving, and trustful acceptance of God‘s will. This is the spirituality of trustful acceptance.
Living joyful, trustful acceptance isn't complicated. One simply offers himself to God with confidence and then accepts everything with praise and thanksgiving, seeing all is coming from God’s loving, fatherly hands, striving to let nothing disturb us and to continually praise and thank God for everything.
When God sends (or permits) things that make it difficult to praise and thank him (crosses) we strive to praise and thank him for those too. The focus is on joyful, trustful acceptance. We trust God to gently send us crosses that will most benefit us, and then we strive to accept them with a smile. Instead of wasting energy trying to choose penances, the spirituality of trustful acceptance focuses on accepting well the crosses God chooses for us. Divinely chosen crosses are just the right ones: not too happy and not to light.
Crosses are necessary to help heal us of our selfishness. They are part of the healing process that’s meant to make us healthy and strong. Living joyful, trustful acceptance is the best way to console Jesus.
Jesus told St Faustina: there is more merit in one hour of meditation on my sorrowful passion then there is an a whole year of bloody scourging; the contemplation of my painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings me great joy.
We cannot endure a passion equal to his, but we can be with him by means of prayer as he suffers his out of love for us. He gives primacy to our prayerfully being with him as he endures his passion over our putting ourselves through self-made suffering. This is what it means to meditate on his sorrowful passion.
Jesus ask that we be with him as he suffers his passion, especially in his abandonment on the cross. He desires that we keep him company amid his pain and sorrow. He asks that we go to him, be with him in his passion, and joyfully accept (and offer in union with his passion) the relatively little crosses he allows us to carry. He wants our trustful smile as we spiritually sit at the foot of the cross while accepting our own small sharing in it.
Our trust gives his heart the most relief.
“Jesus, I trust in you." This is what consoles him best in his suffering. This is what relieves the agony of his heart.
Strive to console Jesus in the best possible way by joyfully accepting his will for us.
Jesus said to St Faustina: your great trust in me forces me to continuously grant you graces.
A trusting soul consoles Jesus so much. In such a soul, Jesus has free reign to live and work. He’s free to live his life of love through its deeds, words, and prayers. The Lord can do a lot with a little.
Jesus says, you worry only about loving me, and I will take care of everything else to the smallest detail.
We can focus on him by visiting him in the most Blessed Sacrament or simply by being mindful of his true presence in our hearts through grace.
Since Jesus gave Mary to be our mother from the cross her task has been to give spiritual birth to Christians, to feed and nurture them with grace, and to help them grow to full stature in Christ. Mary’s job is to help us grow in holiness. It’s her mission to form us into saints. Everyone is invited to rest in the womb of Mary and be transformed there, by the power of the Holy Spirit, more perfectly into Christ’s own image. Yes, if we want to become more fully Christ, then we need to belong more fully to Mary. Our yes gives her the freedom to complete her work in us, to form us into great saints. Marian consecration basically means giving Mary our full permission to complete her motherly task in us, which is to form us into other Christs. “Mary, I want to be a saint. I know that you also want me to be a saint and that it’s your God-given mission to form me into one."
We always console him as long as we keep trying.
The offering of merciful love is to see the heart of Jesus is sorrowful because so many people reject his merciful love. Then, for the purpose of consoling Jesus, it’s to give him permission to fill us with all the mercy others have rejected. This gives him great relief primarily because someone has chosen to receive his mercy fully, and secondarily because the mercy that fills such a soul begins to overflow to others. At its core, the offering to merciful love is simply to receive Jesus’s rejected mercy.
People who live the offering to merciful love begin to experience greater heartache. They acutely feel this sorrowful reality that Jesus is not loved as he ought to be, that Jesus suffers terribly because so many people do not know and love him.
The offering to merciful love consoles Jesus, it overflows to the good of others, and gives us a deeper sensitivity to Jesus’s sorrow. Those who live the offering to merciful love need not fear purgatory because love is more sanctifying then the fire of purgatory.
St Thomas Aquinas wrote that a person who fervently makes a prayer for spiritual communion can receive the same grace as one who fervently receives sacramental communion. See the Eucharist (even spiritually received) as being the channel through which Jesus pours out the super abundance of this rejected mercy.
We console Jesus’s heart when we go to him just as we are. It breaks his heart when we don’t.
Each inhale can be a spiritual communion. It becomes one if, when we inhale, we make it our intention to receive God’s rejected and merciful love into our emptiness. If we live this breathing exercise as a prayer, then we can constantly be making a spiritual communion, renewing the offering to merciful love, and living praise and thanks.
To live trust means to praise and thank God for everything.
A hard heart is the opposite of mercy. Insensitivity is the primary sound of man against God and neighbor. Only the love of God that reaches as far as the cross can open a breach in our hardened hearts.
Mercy has a great deal to do with being sensitive to the suffering of others. Mercy is love that feels compassion for those who suffer and reaches out to help them.
We can sooth the heart of Jesus not only when we trust him but also can we show mercy to our neighbor.
The culture of death threatens to kill our hearts, to kill our ability to love, to kill our true humanity.
Reflecting on the passion of Jesus, seeing his suffering heart, and hearing his cry from the cross softens our hearts.
Jesus told St Faustina: Your compassion for me refreshes me. By meditating on my passion, your soul requires a distinct beauty. I give great graces to souls that meditate on my passion
Meditating on his passion has the potential to heal our hearts more than anything else. When we prayerfully reflect on the passion, God’s grace works in our hearts to help us experience compassion and healing. Meditating on the passion enables our hearts to see the suffering of others better and be moved by their sufferings. Contemplating Christ’s passion does much to heal our hearts.
Compassion in action produces even deeper compassion. That’s one of the laws of mercy.
Ask God to help me to see the areas in my life that harden my heart and make me insensitive to the suffering of others. Ponder Christ’s passion with true feelings, that my heart may be renewed, that I may respond to my neighbour’s suffering with deeper compassion and more generous mercy.
The attitude judgement is a diabolical attitude that stems from pride.
The catechism says I am to interpret, insofar as possible, my neighbour’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favourable way.
If we have even the slightest bit of goodwill, the Lord’s mercy is there for us. Have I asked Jesus for the grace to forgive? Do I reflect on how often Jesus has forgiven me? Do I realize my sins crucified him?
We resemble God most when we forgive our neighbors.
Jesus gives us three ways of exercising mercy toward our neighbor: by deed, by word, and by prayer.
You made us for yourself, oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. St Augustine
Pascal said the worst torture for modern man is to be quiet and alone in his room. Why? Because solitude brings out the beast of our loneliness. Christ tells us we don’t have to numb the pain of our loneliness. He calls out to us, “I can quench your thirst I can give your hearts rest.”
The merciful outlook is a way of giving drink to the thirsty in our pilgrimage through this desert of life to the ocean of love, the holy Trinity.
To be a member of Christ’s body is truly to be Christ. The member of Christ’s body is Christ. This outlook aims to discover the other person as a unique member of the body of Christ. It shows an utterly unique facet of the mystery of Christ. A Christian ought always to be eager to have more of Christ, that is, to know him more fully so as to love him more deeply. Each and every human being is given a vocation to manifest by his redeemed existence a facet of the beauty of Christ in a way that no other being in the cosmos is capable of doing. A saint is someone who most perfectly fills this location. A saint manifest the unique face of Christ here she just called to be. The Saint helps reveal Christ to us, and Christ is so beautiful and his saints. To know and love Christ is not only to know and love Christ the head but also to know and love his members. Those other people are him.
Why do I need other people to show me Christ? Christ is like the sun. His brightness is so great that we may only be able to gaze on his full glory for a short while. Yet, just as we can easily take in the sun's marvelous light as it bathes the beauties of creation and thus have a better appreciation and gratitude for the gift of the sun, so also we can easily see the marvelous beauty of Christ and his saints and thus have a better appreciation, knowledge, and love of Christ. The beauty of Christ and his members gives us limited beings even more ways to take in and contemplate his infinite riches.
Christ is glorious not only in himself but in his members. The glory of God and the beauty of Christ fills all creation. This is the challenge of living the merciful outlook. It takes practice. It takes grace. For the person who receives the merciful outlook from another sees reflected in the eyes of the other the words, “You are great.” However, these words are also a call to greatness.
Another person’s conscience is sacred space the Lord himself guards. If we try to enter it with our rash judgments we pay a heavy price. We pay the price of losing some, if not all, of our ability to exercise the merciful outlook, and our own hearts harden. When we look at others with the judgmental outlook, we abandon our part in the Lord’s patient and loving strategy. In each person there’s an invaluable treasure, a facet of the face of Christ that can’t be found in anyone else.
The merciful outlook doesn’t pretend that sin and annoyances aren’t there. It makes a strategic choice to go past them to what St Ignatius called “the greater good.” It chooses mercy over justice and trust in the power of mercy to bring an even greater good out of evil.
The merciful outlook is to delight in each person we meet. People have an amazing beauty that comes from being the unique members of the body of Christ they are or are called to be. There’s no exhausting the richness.
Great saints are the people who do you give tremendous consolation to the heart of Jesus.
I will live consoling Jesus, with Mary, by giving him my trust and acts of mercy. I will be sensitive to the suffering of the heart of Jesus. It begins by hearing his sorrowful words, “Behold this heart which loves so much yet is so little loved.” I will hear him say, “I thirst.”
I will live with praise and thanksgiving not only for the things that are easy, the blessings, but also for the things that are not easy, the crosses. I will have a trustful attitude knowing that God the father lovingly watches over me because I am little. I will strive to accept everything from his loving hands with trust, praise and thanksgiving.
There is no problem that God‘s mercy can’t fix.
The merciful outlook is to delight and each person we meet as the unique face of Christ he presently is and is called to be. I will show mercy to my neighbor through my deeds, words, and prayers, remembering that by consoling others I am consoling Jesus.
An examination of conscience is the most effective tool for being formed into a contemplative-in-action, that is, a person who can easily find God in all things. Get into the habit of praising and thanking God like this everyday during our examen, and we’ll begin to better recognize the blessings of our day and thus develop a continual attitude of gratitude.
When we confess our sins in the sacrament of confession, we receive sacramental grace is to overcome them. St Paul John Paul II said “Jesus waits for us in the sacrament of love."
“Whoever is a little one let him come to me.”The elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, oh Jesus. I had to remain little and become this more and more. St Therese
Trust Jesus to take us into his arms and carry us to holiness.
Listen to his words from the cross, “I thirst.” He is speaking to you: he thirst for you. Beg him for the grace of thirsting for him.
He wants your help in bringing everyone back home to the father. Many refuse the gift of the mission he wants to give them. He wants to share his mission with you. Say yes to his will for your life even if you don’t know the details.
Beg the father and the Holy Spirit to give you a thirst for Jesus, to give you a burning desire for the one who burns with love for you.
He offers unprecedented graces to make you holy. He speaks: I see your weakness, don't be afraid. Just trust me. I will do it. Let me make you into a saint.
Jesus, I thirst for you. Help me to thirst for you more. Use me, Jesus. Form me into a saint. Make up for all my faults. I trust in you. With Mary’s help, I give you my yes.
St Ignatius of Loyola: man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord. Things are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Beg for the grace to know the Lord more intimately, love him more deeply, and follow him more closely. The first principle and foundation is to keep first things first. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you as well.
The Jesuits spearheaded the counter reformation that saved the church
We’re made to live a life of praise reverence and service to God by using things on the earth only as they can help us live the first thing if. If the second thing becomes an obstacle to living out the first thing, then we need to rid ourselves of it. St Ignatius instructed us to make ourselves indifferent to created things.
Saints are those who console Jesus most. Thus, Jesus longs for saints and is more than willing to help those who aspire to sanctity.
St Margaret Mary, Jesus said to her: “Behold this heart which loves so much yet is so little loved. Do me the kindness, of making up for all their ingratitude, as far as you can.”
The center of our lives ought to be the Eucharistic heart of Jesus, the source and summit at the Christian life. The Eucharistic heart of Jesus can unleash a torrent of love and us.
Jesus’s desire can best be described as a thirst. He thirsts that all humanity be brought into his communion of love with the father and the Holy Spirit. For us to share in this communion, though, we have to come to love him. Thus, Jesus thirsts for our love.
Look at Jesus’s sorrowful heart and say, “Here I am Lord I come to console you.” Your principal and foundation is to console the heart of Jesus which is sorrowful, because so few love him.
The best way to deal with suffering is to accept it, uniting it to Christ in his suffering.
Ask Jesus to choose for us the suffering that will form us into saints and then accept what he sends.
When we offer up our little sufferings, we’re giving consolation to Jesus. When we unite our suffering with those of Jesus, we have the further joy of knowing that grace and mercy is poured out on others. For, when we unite our sufferings to the Lord’s, they truly are redemptive.
Col 1:24 There is a “lack” in Christ’s suffering in the sense that not everyone accepts his grace and mercy. It’s in such situations where people reject or don’t fully accept God’s grace that our sufferings and prayers can “complete what is lacking.”
St Therese: What pleases him is that he sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in his mercy. That is my only treasure. I want to be his victim of love. The weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is for the workings of this consuming and transforming love. Let us remain far from all that sparkles, Let us love our littleness.
Her only treasure was her blind hope in God’s mercy; not her virtues, sacrifices, commitments or anything else, simply her blind hope in God’s mercy. It’s her trust, her humble confidence in God’s mercy. We should strive to remain little and trusting.
We're always stumbling and falling. We are to have the attitude of the repentant child who jumps into her father’s arms with great confidence in his mercy. This is what most pleases the Lord, that we go to him with confidence despite, our sins, weaknesses, and attachments.
Jesus says: when you give me your sins, you give me the joy of being your Saviour.
When sin weighs down on us, remember Jesus’s love for us and the longing of his heart to forgive.
Come to Me in the Blessed Sacrament, by Father Vincent Martin Lucia: Jesus transforms everything to good in the fire of his divine love, drawing good out of evil, drawing a greater good out of a greater evil, consuming even our very faults and failures (like straw thrown into a burning furnace) and using them to make us more humble and to bring us even closer to his divine heart. In my weakness, I find my strength.
Dear Jesus, by the power of your infinite mercy, I trust that somehow you can fix not only the evil I’ve done but bring an even greater good out of it.
We console Jesus by giving him our sins. The primacy of contemplation means that if we stay fixed on the goodness and glory of the Lord, we will automatically and with a certain ease let go of our attachments, we’ll begin to have an attitude of indifference without having to force it.
This attitude of going to the Lord as we are is a surprisingly effective way to console Jesus and progress in holiness. Go to Jesus as you are. He loves it when we’re completely open with him. The more open we are with him, the more deeply he can heal us, and this is especially applies to his being able to heal us of our attachments.
Jesus is always pleased when we go to him humbly just as we are.
One of God’s great mercies to little souls who trust in him is he gently and imperceptibly changes their desires.
Slowly, as we’re standing in his gaze, the strings of our attachments begin to break, but we may not even realize it.
In His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, he fills us with his love and peace, and loosens our grip on our attachments. Trust the Lord and go to him. He’ll help us become detached with a certain ease.
What hurts Jesus most is a lack of trust. What consoles him most is our trust.
You live trust by praise and thanksgiving in all things.
Mother Theresa wrote about the importance of accepting everything with a smile, with praise and thanksgiving.
The best way to console Jesus’s heart is to trust him and the best way to live trust is with an attitude of praise, thanksgiving, and trustful acceptance of God‘s will. This is the spirituality of trustful acceptance.
Living joyful, trustful acceptance isn't complicated. One simply offers himself to God with confidence and then accepts everything with praise and thanksgiving, seeing all is coming from God’s loving, fatherly hands, striving to let nothing disturb us and to continually praise and thank God for everything.
When God sends (or permits) things that make it difficult to praise and thank him (crosses) we strive to praise and thank him for those too. The focus is on joyful, trustful acceptance. We trust God to gently send us crosses that will most benefit us, and then we strive to accept them with a smile. Instead of wasting energy trying to choose penances, the spirituality of trustful acceptance focuses on accepting well the crosses God chooses for us. Divinely chosen crosses are just the right ones: not too happy and not to light.
Crosses are necessary to help heal us of our selfishness. They are part of the healing process that’s meant to make us healthy and strong. Living joyful, trustful acceptance is the best way to console Jesus.
Jesus told St Faustina: there is more merit in one hour of meditation on my sorrowful passion then there is an a whole year of bloody scourging; the contemplation of my painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings me great joy.
We cannot endure a passion equal to his, but we can be with him by means of prayer as he suffers his out of love for us. He gives primacy to our prayerfully being with him as he endures his passion over our putting ourselves through self-made suffering. This is what it means to meditate on his sorrowful passion.
Jesus ask that we be with him as he suffers his passion, especially in his abandonment on the cross. He desires that we keep him company amid his pain and sorrow. He asks that we go to him, be with him in his passion, and joyfully accept (and offer in union with his passion) the relatively little crosses he allows us to carry. He wants our trustful smile as we spiritually sit at the foot of the cross while accepting our own small sharing in it.
Our trust gives his heart the most relief.
“Jesus, I trust in you." This is what consoles him best in his suffering. This is what relieves the agony of his heart.
Strive to console Jesus in the best possible way by joyfully accepting his will for us.
Jesus said to St Faustina: your great trust in me forces me to continuously grant you graces.
A trusting soul consoles Jesus so much. In such a soul, Jesus has free reign to live and work. He’s free to live his life of love through its deeds, words, and prayers. The Lord can do a lot with a little.
Jesus says, you worry only about loving me, and I will take care of everything else to the smallest detail.
We can focus on him by visiting him in the most Blessed Sacrament or simply by being mindful of his true presence in our hearts through grace.
Since Jesus gave Mary to be our mother from the cross her task has been to give spiritual birth to Christians, to feed and nurture them with grace, and to help them grow to full stature in Christ. Mary’s job is to help us grow in holiness. It’s her mission to form us into saints. Everyone is invited to rest in the womb of Mary and be transformed there, by the power of the Holy Spirit, more perfectly into Christ’s own image. Yes, if we want to become more fully Christ, then we need to belong more fully to Mary. Our yes gives her the freedom to complete her work in us, to form us into great saints. Marian consecration basically means giving Mary our full permission to complete her motherly task in us, which is to form us into other Christs. “Mary, I want to be a saint. I know that you also want me to be a saint and that it’s your God-given mission to form me into one."
We always console him as long as we keep trying.
The offering of merciful love is to see the heart of Jesus is sorrowful because so many people reject his merciful love. Then, for the purpose of consoling Jesus, it’s to give him permission to fill us with all the mercy others have rejected. This gives him great relief primarily because someone has chosen to receive his mercy fully, and secondarily because the mercy that fills such a soul begins to overflow to others. At its core, the offering to merciful love is simply to receive Jesus’s rejected mercy.
People who live the offering to merciful love begin to experience greater heartache. They acutely feel this sorrowful reality that Jesus is not loved as he ought to be, that Jesus suffers terribly because so many people do not know and love him.
The offering to merciful love consoles Jesus, it overflows to the good of others, and gives us a deeper sensitivity to Jesus’s sorrow. Those who live the offering to merciful love need not fear purgatory because love is more sanctifying then the fire of purgatory.
St Thomas Aquinas wrote that a person who fervently makes a prayer for spiritual communion can receive the same grace as one who fervently receives sacramental communion. See the Eucharist (even spiritually received) as being the channel through which Jesus pours out the super abundance of this rejected mercy.
We console Jesus’s heart when we go to him just as we are. It breaks his heart when we don’t.
Each inhale can be a spiritual communion. It becomes one if, when we inhale, we make it our intention to receive God’s rejected and merciful love into our emptiness. If we live this breathing exercise as a prayer, then we can constantly be making a spiritual communion, renewing the offering to merciful love, and living praise and thanks.
To live trust means to praise and thank God for everything.
A hard heart is the opposite of mercy. Insensitivity is the primary sound of man against God and neighbor. Only the love of God that reaches as far as the cross can open a breach in our hardened hearts.
Mercy has a great deal to do with being sensitive to the suffering of others. Mercy is love that feels compassion for those who suffer and reaches out to help them.
We can sooth the heart of Jesus not only when we trust him but also can we show mercy to our neighbor.
The culture of death threatens to kill our hearts, to kill our ability to love, to kill our true humanity.
Reflecting on the passion of Jesus, seeing his suffering heart, and hearing his cry from the cross softens our hearts.
Jesus told St Faustina: Your compassion for me refreshes me. By meditating on my passion, your soul requires a distinct beauty. I give great graces to souls that meditate on my passion
Meditating on his passion has the potential to heal our hearts more than anything else. When we prayerfully reflect on the passion, God’s grace works in our hearts to help us experience compassion and healing. Meditating on the passion enables our hearts to see the suffering of others better and be moved by their sufferings. Contemplating Christ’s passion does much to heal our hearts.
Compassion in action produces even deeper compassion. That’s one of the laws of mercy.
Ask God to help me to see the areas in my life that harden my heart and make me insensitive to the suffering of others. Ponder Christ’s passion with true feelings, that my heart may be renewed, that I may respond to my neighbour’s suffering with deeper compassion and more generous mercy.
The attitude judgement is a diabolical attitude that stems from pride.
The catechism says I am to interpret, insofar as possible, my neighbour’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favourable way.
If we have even the slightest bit of goodwill, the Lord’s mercy is there for us. Have I asked Jesus for the grace to forgive? Do I reflect on how often Jesus has forgiven me? Do I realize my sins crucified him?
We resemble God most when we forgive our neighbors.
Jesus gives us three ways of exercising mercy toward our neighbor: by deed, by word, and by prayer.
You made us for yourself, oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. St Augustine
Pascal said the worst torture for modern man is to be quiet and alone in his room. Why? Because solitude brings out the beast of our loneliness. Christ tells us we don’t have to numb the pain of our loneliness. He calls out to us, “I can quench your thirst I can give your hearts rest.”
The merciful outlook is a way of giving drink to the thirsty in our pilgrimage through this desert of life to the ocean of love, the holy Trinity.
To be a member of Christ’s body is truly to be Christ. The member of Christ’s body is Christ. This outlook aims to discover the other person as a unique member of the body of Christ. It shows an utterly unique facet of the mystery of Christ. A Christian ought always to be eager to have more of Christ, that is, to know him more fully so as to love him more deeply. Each and every human being is given a vocation to manifest by his redeemed existence a facet of the beauty of Christ in a way that no other being in the cosmos is capable of doing. A saint is someone who most perfectly fills this location. A saint manifest the unique face of Christ here she just called to be. The Saint helps reveal Christ to us, and Christ is so beautiful and his saints. To know and love Christ is not only to know and love Christ the head but also to know and love his members. Those other people are him.
Why do I need other people to show me Christ? Christ is like the sun. His brightness is so great that we may only be able to gaze on his full glory for a short while. Yet, just as we can easily take in the sun's marvelous light as it bathes the beauties of creation and thus have a better appreciation and gratitude for the gift of the sun, so also we can easily see the marvelous beauty of Christ and his saints and thus have a better appreciation, knowledge, and love of Christ. The beauty of Christ and his members gives us limited beings even more ways to take in and contemplate his infinite riches.
Christ is glorious not only in himself but in his members. The glory of God and the beauty of Christ fills all creation. This is the challenge of living the merciful outlook. It takes practice. It takes grace. For the person who receives the merciful outlook from another sees reflected in the eyes of the other the words, “You are great.” However, these words are also a call to greatness.
Another person’s conscience is sacred space the Lord himself guards. If we try to enter it with our rash judgments we pay a heavy price. We pay the price of losing some, if not all, of our ability to exercise the merciful outlook, and our own hearts harden. When we look at others with the judgmental outlook, we abandon our part in the Lord’s patient and loving strategy. In each person there’s an invaluable treasure, a facet of the face of Christ that can’t be found in anyone else.
The merciful outlook doesn’t pretend that sin and annoyances aren’t there. It makes a strategic choice to go past them to what St Ignatius called “the greater good.” It chooses mercy over justice and trust in the power of mercy to bring an even greater good out of evil.
The merciful outlook is to delight in each person we meet. People have an amazing beauty that comes from being the unique members of the body of Christ they are or are called to be. There’s no exhausting the richness.
Great saints are the people who do you give tremendous consolation to the heart of Jesus.
I will live consoling Jesus, with Mary, by giving him my trust and acts of mercy. I will be sensitive to the suffering of the heart of Jesus. It begins by hearing his sorrowful words, “Behold this heart which loves so much yet is so little loved.” I will hear him say, “I thirst.”
I will live with praise and thanksgiving not only for the things that are easy, the blessings, but also for the things that are not easy, the crosses. I will have a trustful attitude knowing that God the father lovingly watches over me because I am little. I will strive to accept everything from his loving hands with trust, praise and thanksgiving.
There is no problem that God‘s mercy can’t fix.
The merciful outlook is to delight and each person we meet as the unique face of Christ he presently is and is called to be. I will show mercy to my neighbor through my deeds, words, and prayers, remembering that by consoling others I am consoling Jesus.
An examination of conscience is the most effective tool for being formed into a contemplative-in-action, that is, a person who can easily find God in all things. Get into the habit of praising and thanking God like this everyday during our examen, and we’ll begin to better recognize the blessings of our day and thus develop a continual attitude of gratitude.
When we confess our sins in the sacrament of confession, we receive sacramental grace is to overcome them. St Paul John Paul II said “Jesus waits for us in the sacrament of love."
Read
October 13, 2024I did this “retreat” with a church group in 2021, but just finished reading the appendices. I couldn’t count it as read until I’d read those!
January 28, 2013
Consoling the Heart of Jesus: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat by Br. Michael E. Gaitley, MIC is a great read. It reminded me of talking to good friends who have lots to say, only the book is organized. He weaves in the different ideas of Saints Ignatius, Faustina and Therese de Lisieux with the theme of mercy and trust underpinning it all. When Gaitley transitions from teaching to praying he tells you. He makes little jokes in the text. He encourages you to do what you can and not worry about the 'right' way of doing this retreat; the idea is to do it, on a weekend, in little pieces of time, whatever fits into your lifestyle and schedule. The best part of the book was the conclusion. Not because I was done reading but because of the great ideas as to how to add prayer in your daily life. His breakdown of St. Ignatius's examen is one of the best I have read. Br. Michael includes two appendices; one on the Rules for Discernment of Spirits (for Little Souls) and the other is selections from the Diary of St. Faustina. He includes an extensive Reference and Notes section as well.
If I were to use one word to describe this book it is accessible. Doing this retreat would be a great way to start the new year or Lent. Don't pass this up if you are looking for a way to give a boast to your spiritual life.
If I were to use one word to describe this book it is accessible. Doing this retreat would be a great way to start the new year or Lent. Don't pass this up if you are looking for a way to give a boast to your spiritual life.
February 22, 2014
I enjoyed most of this book, and I will definitely be re-reading it in the future. However, with that said, I believe the book contained unnecessary repetition and I got very bogged down in Appendix 2 (which gives substantial quotes from St. Faustina's Diary). I find it difficult to comprehend how Fr. Gaitley believes -- as he writes in the book -- that one can do this retreat in one weekend. There is too much material to digest thoroughly. Even if one has no other responsibilities -- and very few people in the 21st century fit this category -- I don't believe it is possible to do this retreat in a weekend. I also did not see the connections Fr. Gaitley tried to make between Ignatian spirituality and Saints Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux. Perhaps another reading or two of this book will help that become clearer to me, or perhaps I'm simply a purist and prefer concentrating on one saint's spirituality at a time.
April 30, 2015
I honestly didn't want to put this book down, wow! Everybody Catholic who want's to be a saint needs to have this book! Seriously. Great prospective! Total change of heart and mind on Suffering, and so much more. I absolutely love this book! it's definitely precious, heart to heart knowledge,that will bring you closer to our Lord & Savior himself. I feel so blessed now that I know this info and I plan to carry it with me forever. Something the Catholic Church needs to share with all of Christianity and the world. This book is so awesome! God bless whoever takes the time to read it beginning to end, it's all worth it. Such a blessing to read the saint's spiritual exercises,and insight. and for Fr. Michael's words as well, who put this book together. I thought it would take me forever to finish, but took me about a week or less.
September 10, 2019
Full disclaimer, I've loved Fr. Gaitley's work ever since I saw him at a retreat in person. I read this book along with the video series as part of a weekly women's group and while you don't need the videos to get value from the book, he has great stories and analogies to flesh out his chapters.
This truly is a great book for doing a self-guided retreat on deepening your relationship with Jesus. There is a heavy focus on Divine Mercy and the retreat portion only consists of half the book. The second half are appendices filled with great additional spiritual material and chapter notes. My favorite part of the retreat was on the Ignatian practice of the Examen. It really brought home the reason this particular practice should have major importance in my life.
Fr. Gaitley promises his retreat can be done at home in a single weekend, excellent if you're looking for a quick read!
This truly is a great book for doing a self-guided retreat on deepening your relationship with Jesus. There is a heavy focus on Divine Mercy and the retreat portion only consists of half the book. The second half are appendices filled with great additional spiritual material and chapter notes. My favorite part of the retreat was on the Ignatian practice of the Examen. It really brought home the reason this particular practice should have major importance in my life.
Fr. Gaitley promises his retreat can be done at home in a single weekend, excellent if you're looking for a quick read!
October 15, 2016
This may be a great, inspiring encouragement for some and I did get much from my reading it but because it is exclusive to the Catholic faith and tradition, the opinions and suggestions can not be applied to every Christian's walk with Christ. So I found it only okay.
The repeated and stressed idea of keeping Christ crucified on the cross and not as Who He is, victorious over death, and as He appeared to the apostles and church for some time after that terrible day is too sadistic and cruel for me.
Still, because much of this is good and it can be read it less than three days, I will read it again. Skipping to what works for me and what I know is true!
Regretfully, I can not recommend this for everyone.
The repeated and stressed idea of keeping Christ crucified on the cross and not as Who He is, victorious over death, and as He appeared to the apostles and church for some time after that terrible day is too sadistic and cruel for me.
Still, because much of this is good and it can be read it less than three days, I will read it again. Skipping to what works for me and what I know is true!
Regretfully, I can not recommend this for everyone.
February 28, 2021
Wonderful. My husband and I read this "together" (separately, but around the same pace) over many weeks. It's designed that you can read the whole thing in a weekend, but we found it to be perfectly fine to do gradually. Not overwhelming, but lots of practical advice mixed with theology to help "little souls" on their journey of holiness. It also contains an extensive appendix if you want to read more in-depth information about topics contained in the retreat portion. I enjoyed this one so much I purchased his other two retreat books and immediately started one. Fr. Gaitley definitely appeals to both intellects and "feelers," a combination that I greatly appreciate in spiritual reading.
June 27, 2017
Michael Gaitley's writing style is near perfection. Such a pleasure and a comfort to read anything by him. Even though this is meant to be a retreat that can be done (read) over a weekend, it took me nearly three weeks to complete it. Even if I didn't have a full-time job, it would be a stretch to finish this over one weekend. It's Gaitley's fault! His writing style just drew me in to the point where I didn't want to rush it, wanting to soak in every word, feeling, and detail. This will be read again and again. It's that good. I truly do wish to console the heart of Jesus. You, Michael Gaitley, are blessed in many ways.
September 3, 2013
While this book can be read over a weekend - and is actually organized to be completed from Friday night to Sunday afternoon - I didn't have the luxury to get away. That did little to take away from the immense beauty of this book. Fr. Gaitley writes just as he speaks. The approachable language embraces the richness of the Catholic faith while peeling back a layer of loving Jesus I have never before considered. Catholic or Christian, this book is a MUST READ!
November 8, 2012
Within these pages one will find a formula for spiritual growth, accessible to even the busiest among us. Gaitley's skillful synthesis of the writings of St. Ignatius, the "little way" of St. Therese of Liseux, and the revelations from Our Lord to given to St. Faustina (Divine Mercy), forms a beautiful patchwork of prayer and works to which even the "littlest" soul can attain.
August 7, 2017
To read this is one weekend seems crazy to me! Reading the book in a month was a challenge enough. While I got a lot out of this book, and it certainly helped me in my faith life, it was at times too wordy for me, and also didn't really feel like the Spiritual Exercises at all. I much prefer the format of his month long books.
March 13, 2013
I loved this. If you are new to faith, coming back to your faith or just want to learn more about how to recharge your faith this is for you. Very down to earth way to bring the Lord closer to you. Can be read in a weekend or as I said little bites when you have time.
July 5, 2012
The best spiritual book I have read other than the Bible.
August 19, 2013
just read it you don't have to do it as a retreat, father is awesome!
January 12, 2013
love. I have read this book twice and both times i couldnt put it down.
April 5, 2013
I love Father Gaitley's writing style. He writes about religion and theology in a way that I can understand what he is talking about and it means something to me.
June 5, 2013
Awesome everyone should read it!
August 12, 2013
For busy Catholics who want to learn how to turn their everyday life into an active prayer offered to Jesus :) The busy person's guide to holiness.
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