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Calm Dignity Amidst Great Adversity
Lourdes Pinto, 4/15/21
Calm Dignity, Message of 3/16/21
The time is quickly approaching in which you will be judged as My followers. Do not be afraid, My little one, for I have walked this path before you. You too will approach your persecutors with “calm dignity.” The time draws near for the great sifting of mankind. All will have to choose to believe and follow Me or forsake Me and walk away. The few that remain faithful to their God and Savior will usher in the Eucharistic Reign of My Kingdom, but before this takes place, much blood will be shed. My little one, prepare My mustard seed for the great shake-up so that my remnant of followers can give Me testimony through their calm dignity amidst great adversity. Know that I am with you, guiding you and filling you with My life. Continue to persevere as My prophet of these end times…
A Reflection on Jesus’ Calm Dignity:
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Anne Catherine Emmerich
"He (Jesus) would have been perfectly unrecognizable even to her (Mary’s) maternal eyes, stripped as He was of all save a torn remnant of His garment, had she not instantly marked the contrast between His behavior and that of his vile tormentors. He alone in the midst of persecution and suffering looked calm and resigned, and far from returning blow for blow, never raised His hands but in acts of supplication to His Eternal Father for the pardon of his enemies." (p.187)
"The brutal guards dragged our Lord up the marble staircase and led Him to the end of the terrace, from whence Pilate was conferring with the Jewish priests. The Roman governor had often heard of Jesus, although he had never seen Him, and now he was perfectly astonished at the calm dignity of deportment of a man brought before him in so pitiable a condition." (p.194)
Jesus is entirely abandoned in His Father. He lives consumed in the Father’s love—receiving His love fully and fully returning love to the Father. This divine embrace is the Holy Spirit, the fire of consuming love, the zeal of Jesus’ Heart. He knows the Father’s love and His perfect plan of Salvation.
Jesus knows who He is as the Father’s Son. He also knows His purpose as the Son of Man: to fulfill the Father’s will through His death and resurrection. In this act of love, He glorifies the Father by making Him known to us so that we be saved.
This consuming love is His driving force to complete His mission. His consuming desire is to draw each of us to Himself when He is lifted up on the Cross so that we can become a new creation. This fills Him with calm dignity.
His calm dignity is expressed in His silence, a silence that holds within an intense and consuming love, a silence that is an expression of His agonizing prayer of intercession for us before the Father. His silence is His perfect Fiat to His Father and complete commitment to our Salvation.
Through His silence, in His calm dignity, we can see and enter His gaze. It’s as if, His silence and calm dignity force humanity to enter His gaze, which draws us into His Heart, to be touched by Mercy.
Jesus’ calm dignity during His passion reveals to humanity how He lives the commandment He gave His apostles during the Last Supper.
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34-35)
This new commandment to love is placed in John's Gospel between Judas’ foretold betrayal and Peter’s denial. Jesus is teaching us, His disciples, that we must choose love as He did, in our most extreme pain, betrayal, and abandonment.
The love of God will stretch your love beyond your physical capacities. The expansion of the tent of your hearts is a most painful process. You have to choose to love th

The Virtue of Poverty VI
Poverty of Persecution
Holy Week 2021
Lourdes Pinto and Fr. Jordi Rivero
We have a Choice
The rich young man, we read, “went away sad.” He had good reason to be. He had been loved by Christ, sought out by Him. He had received from Christ a silent declaration of love, in a single glance: “looking at him, Jesus loved him” (Mk10:21). His wealth prevented him from receiving it. (Poverty p.52)
The choice is still open. The living, risen Christ is still walking by and calling people. It is up to us to choose between the two destinies: that of the rich young man or that of the apostles. (Poverty, p.53)
“You cannot serve God and wealth.”
In the account of Jesus’ birth, we see two starkly contrasting worlds: one symbolized by the inn, the other by the stable where He is born. The first world is all light, comfort, and activity; people are eating, drinking, enjoying themselves. Rich people dressed in lavish clothes, with heavy purses on their belts, dismount from their horses and come and go at will. In the Second World, on the other hand, all is poverty, darkness, cold, and discomfort. A young woman, silently accompanied by her husband, is about to give birth to her first child. They are forced to share bed and board with the animals. (p.59)
Christmas is a mystery. His presence alone reveals two different worlds. And we are called to take a stand, to decide which of the two worlds we wish to belong to. (p.60)
The Gospel never condemns earthly goods and riches in themselves. One of Jesus’s friends is Joseph of Arimathea, “a rich man” (Mt 27: 57). What Christ condemns is attachment to money and goods, trust in them as if “one’s life depended on them” (Lk 12: 15). Such wealth is variously called “deceptive” (Mt 13: 22), “foolishness” (Lk12: 20), an obstacle that brings the threat of “woe” (Lk6: 24). (p.62)
An English businessman wrote: “Money is a tainted thing, and the only way in which I will not be tainted by it is to use it honestly and generously. I must see it as a means to do good for others and not as the foundation of my own happiness and security. I am only a steward called by God to use the talents and wealth that he has loaned me to build his Kingdom here on earth. I shall be judged for my stewardship and not for my wealth. I cannot use money to pay for a better lawyer, nor to bribe the judge. I can only use it to lay up treasure for myself in heaven by every little act of love and unselfishness towards the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters whom he sent to me for help.” (p.70)
We must live the virtue of poverty and let it challenge and judge us.

Spiritual Poverty of “First World”
“You say: ‘I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing” (Rv 3:17) Today, behind that “you” lies an entire civilization glorying in its breathtaking technological achievements. It too is tempted to think of itself as rich, in need of nothing, not even God. This is why the risen Lord’s reply is for our world to: “you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked” (Rv 3:17). This is exactly the spiritual poverty of our so-called “First World”! (Poverty, p.85)
· 5/31/2010 Memorial Day
Prophecy for USA/ Missionaries of the Cross
You, My nation of the USA, have forsaken Me, your God. You have made materialism your god. You have made yourselves your own God. You have slaughtered My innocent little ones and their precious blood cries out to Me. You have turned your face from Me. Now I will turn My face from you during the time of the great chastisement. My daughter, raise up My army of holy ones. You must speak My words of warning, for I, your Lord and your God, loves you. You must tell them to open their eyes to Love Crucified, to unite themselves to Love Crucified, for it is only in this way that the power of My Cross

The Virtue of Poverty V
“Follow the naked Christ in nakedness”
5th week of Lent 2021
Lourdes Pinto and Fr. Jordi Rivero


1/30/18 Diary of a MOC, “Mission of the 12”: Mt 10:1-24
My disciples wear My yoke – the wood of the Cross, united to Me. I am their All.
Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, Poverty:
Poverty and the Cross
Poverty has followed Christ even unto the cross. It was here that He really “espoused” poverty. Henceforth one cannot choose the one without the other: neither Christ without poverty, nor poverty without Christ. (p49)
If we observe the lives of the greatest lovers of poverty in the history of the Church, we see at once that love for Christ- the desire to “follow the naked Christ in nakedness”- as The Imitation of Christ says- lies at the heart of everything. (p50)
In the light of all this, poverty appears not so much as a virtue or a council, or an aesthetical ideal, or even only as a charism, but as an intimate sharing in the mystery of the person of Christ, and by that very fact, in the mystery of His Bride, the Church. (p50)
96. As a Spouse, Your Life Must Be Lived to Console Him —Diary of a MOC. p.269
During the Consecration of the Mass, I felt God the Father speak in my soul. He said, “Are you now ready to become My Son’s sacrifice of love? …You can no longer be concerned about what others think of you nor your reputation; you can be concerned only with pleasing My Son. You are no longer His handmaid but His spouse. As His spouse, your life must be lived to console Him and to be faithful out of love to His desires.” (2/19/11)


Poverty, the treasured Pearl
· “the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in the field which someone has found … he goes off joyfully, sells everything he owns and buys the field” (Mt 13:44). Jesus says that the man sold everything, not in order to look for treasure, but because he had found it. Poverty is not the price we must pay in return for the Kingdom. It is the effect, not the cause, of the Kingdom’s arrival. (P.44, Poverty)
· I have found the Pearl of great value- poverty.
Jesus Christ, our God, becomes poor. The perfect expression of His poverty is his obedience unto the Cross. He is crucified naked. His nakedness is the ultimate expression of his poverty. He voluntarily allows Himself to be stripped of all his glory and power. The poverty of his nakedness reveals our pride, vanity, sensuality, self-love…


When the treasured pearl of poverty is found in Jesus crucified, the soul must be willing to sell everything in order to possess this pearl. I must allow and cooperate with the Holy Spirit to strip me of everything that is mine – material things as well as the more difficult interior things: desires, expectations, securities (worldly as well as talents…), opinions, plans, reputation, knowledge, a total abasement. This can only happen through the burning flame of the Holy Spirit.
– St John of the Cross calls spiritual poverty “nakedness,” which he defines as the renunciations of those goods which can remain in the soul, such as desires, appetites, and consolations. (p113, Poverty)
– 2nd Nail of Purification: Simple Path To Union With God
* Now we no longer feel His consolations as we used to, and we must walk in the darkness of faith in perfect trust. We still have emotions, but now, having experienced profound intimacy with God, our union is no longer contingent on consolations (2nd degree of poverty). (p.209)
* You now live in peace in the darkness of faith without My sweet consolations… (Simple Path # 67, p.209)
* 69. Desolation United to Me —Diary of a MOC.
In times of desolation, your life has the greatest power and is most fecund. In My desolation on the Cross, My life shone most brilliantly the love of God the Father. My desolation made My faith in My Father radiate its perfection.
–Throug

The virtue of Poverty IV
Lourdes Pinto, 1/30/18
Diary of a MOC, “Mission of the 12” (Mathew 10:1-24)
My little one, I have chosen you to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God on earth. The mission is not easy, for the ways of God are never the ways of the world. All who are chosen by God to fulfill His plan on earth are hated by some, rejected by others, ill-treated, persecuted, for I came upon the earth to set one against another, for the ways of God will never be accepted nor appreciated by those who live for the things of this world. You have been asked by God to bring Him victim souls. A victim soul must fix his eyes on Christ, must desire with all his being to become one with his Master, must be willing to learn from Him and imitate Him. He must be willing to fight against all his disordered desires. This requires certain disciplines for my disciples:
1) “take no gold, nor silver, nor copper”- that means detached from the riches of this world, trusting that God will provide.
2) “no bag for your journey” –that means that My disciples must allow My spirit to detach them from all disordered attachments. (my Lord how do we know what a disordered attachment is?) Anything that weakens your desire for Me, distracts you from loving Me, takes your gaze from Me.
3) “nor two tunics”– My disciples must live simply as I did, poor, never in excess.
4) “nor sandals”– a life dedicated to sacrificial love, penance, renunciation.
5) “nor a staff”– My disciples lean on Me; I become their support; I lead the way.
My disciples wear My yoke-the wood of the Cross, united to Me. I am their All. My disciples are the men and women consumed in love and desire for Me. They choose to live this way of life for love of Me and the consuming desire to be made perfect- which is to become Love. Only in this way will My disciples reflect the face and light of God in the world. These are my victim souls that possess the power of God on earth.
Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, POVERTY
The Old Testament introduces us to a God who is open “for the poor,” while the New Testament shows us a God who Himself becomes poor. Only the gospel tells us About God who makes Himself one of them, choosing weakness and poverty for Himself: “Though he was rich, Jesus Christ became poor for your sake” (2 Cor.8:9).


The two essential components of the ideal of biblical poverty are now made clear: to be “for the poor” and “to be poor.” John Paul II combined both aspects in his catechesis on poverty: “The Church feels ever more strongly the impulse of the Spirit to be poor among the poor, to remind everyone of the need to conform to the ideal of poverty preached and practiced by Christ, and to imitate Him in His sincere and active love for the poor.” (p27)


Poverty in the Life of Christ (p36)
- “Although (Christ) was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.” ( 2 Cor 8:9)
- St Thomas comments: “He endured material poverty in order to give us spiritual riches.”
Christ’s poverty is an aspect of His self-abasement in the Incarnation.
- “became a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21)
- Blessed Angela Foligno explains Christ’s three kinds of poverty:
“Christ’s poverty was of three kinds: Christ, the way, the guide of our souls, exemplified the first degree of the most perfect poverty by choosing to live poorly and to be poor, bereft of all earthly possessions. He kept nothing for Himself: no house, vineyard, coins, money, estate, dishware, or any other possessions. He neither accepted any earthly goods nor wanted to accept anything but a life of extreme bodily neediness, with scarcity, hunger, thirst, cold, hard labor, austerity, and hardship … The second degree of poverty, greater t

TESTIMONY of Lilian Giraldo
February 25, 2021
JESUS VISITS MY HEART
VIRTUE OF POVERTY
In the fourth week of our 2020 Lenten retreat, I had an enlightenment of sorts. I woke up one morning with great clarity about my wounds, took a notebook, and wrote sheets and sheets of them all. I was able to name each one and write down the lies and tendencies that stemmed from them. One wound, in particular, came to me with its disordered desires included.
Before going into it, I would like to comment that the Lord has healed me a lot in this wound because I no longer react from the flesh but in His Love. I react from compassion and charity, knowing that my parents were also wounded and their parents too, and so on. God desires to restore humanity wounded by sin, and through this process, He has not only healed me, but He has also healed them. The Lord is doing wonderful work in my parents, and my soul moves in love and much gratitude to our Lord for it.
This is the wound: It is called “I lost my voice.”
Description of the wound: I experienced abandonment, neglect, rejection, violence, fear of being unprotected, and insecurity. I grew up as a very quiet child, adolescent, and young woman who could not express my feelings, worries, frustrations, and fears. I learned to live my pains in silence and solitude.
The lies that stemmed from this wound are: No one listens to you, you have nothing important to say, no one cares about you, fend for yourself, be strong, don’t complain, don’t cry, you have to be someone in life, so you don’t depend on a man or anyone.
Tendencies from the wound: It bothers me that they don’t value what I do, that they ignore me, that they reject me, that they don’t recognize me, that they don’t listen to me, that they ignore my look when I talk to them.
Related disordered desires: I desire to be admired, recognized, seen, flattered, noticed, applauded.
In that same Lenten retreat in 2020, the Lord let me know that he was crucified for me. It was very painful and revealing. It was a very real and personal experience. The knowledge we have of this was really embodied in me.
During one of the retreat talks, Lourdes and Father Jordi spoke to us about Envy and Pride. I remember thinking “pride yes”; in fact, many times I have confessed it, but “envy no!” and when we were taught to all the unpleasant things that came out of it, I thought that I could suffer from it much less.
These are the things we were told that a person feels in whom envy dwells in his heart:
· Envy is a hidden reservoir of ingratitude and resentment that secretly applauds the downfall and sorrow of others.
· The envious person becomes resentful if he perceives that his peers receive preferential treatment.
· He attacks others through slander or gossip.
· Brings tension in families or communities.
· It pits the person against God’s will.


So, after hearing this, I said to myself: no, not envious! And here, the Lord was beginning to show me my false identity.
The Lord has taught us that we have all made ourselves into someone we are not and that “The Simple Path to Union with God” leads us to find the truth of who we are.
I was then receiving the gift of deep self-knowledge in this regard. And here I would like to share the following from pg. 45 of The Simple Path to Union with God - volume I:
“The soul that receives the gift of self-knowledge and sees the hardness of its heart comes to a decisive point: it accepts this gift, or it remains in darkness. Receiving the gift of self-knowledge hurts; it feels like a sting.”
Well, it took me almost a year more to accept this deep self-knowledge. The Lord continued to dig subtly in my heart, and in a recent accompaniment, he enlightened my companion so that we could deepen our understanding of Identity, and I heard from her this phrase: “The p

Lourdes Pinto
Growth in true poverty must involve both the works of mercy and the purification and emptying of our hearts. This reflection focuses, through the Gospel of Mathew 6:1-18, on the difficult process of the purification of our desires and the hypocrisy which lies hidden in all of us.
Virtue of Poverty II
2/18/21
Poverty brings forth chastity, and chastity brings forth obedience, which is the essence of Love. (Simple Path #66, p.204)
I. 63. THE PURIFICATION OF YOUR DESIRES —DIARY OF A MOC. P.187
The purification of your desires is the first stage of purification in My Sacred Heart. You begin to move only according to My desires and not yours. You no longer do what you want to do, nor go where you want to go, but now, you go only where I take you. You choose to live each day according to what is most difficult, not what is easiest. This will require a greater discipline of your will, greater silence, and stillness of soul in Me.
• Saint Augustin- Our heart longs for God:
- The entire life of a good Christian is, in fact, an exercise of holy desire.
- By desiring heaven, we exercise the powers of our soul. Now, this exercise will be effective only to the extent that we free ourselves from desires leading to infatuation with this world. Let me return to the example I have already used of filling an empty container. God means to fill each of you with what is good, so cast out what is bad! If he wishes to fill you with honey and you are full of sour wine, where is the honey to go? The vessel must be emptied of its contents and then be cleansed. Yes, it must be cleansed even if you have to work hard and scour it. It must be made fit for the new thing, whatever it may be.


•The virtue of poverty requires SACRIFICE because we must be willing to RENOUNCE to many things our flesh desires.
– Example: 1st level of poverty - buying clothes and then returning them…
– “Poverty consists in large measure in sacrifice. It means knowing how to do without the superfluous. And we find out what is superfluous not so much by theoretical rules as by that interior voice which tells us we are being led by selfishness or undue love of comfort.” (Interview with Saint Josemaria Escriva on the virtue of poverty)
– “Detachment is the key. Are we attached to the material things we have, or do we entrust our riches totally to the Lord, knowing that He gives and He takes away? Practicing virtue requires hard work and sacrifice. Practicing poverty as a virtue does not necessarily mean ridding ourselves of everything we own of which we’re fond, but it does require a deep inward dive to ask an honest question: how would I respond if this phone, cherished book, painting from a child, picture of a deceased loved one, treasured necklace, workshop, car, house, etc. were taken away? We might think the Lord would only ask us to spare the things we have in surplus – clothes, books, toys, the extra-full pantry – but He often asks us to give or let go of that which is precious.” (Embracing the Virtue of Poverty in Your Own Life, By Kenzie Key)
• 110. SPIRIT OF POVERTY —DIARY OF A MOC. P. 303
The spirit of poverty is lived when you allow the Holy Spirit, My Blessed Mother, and Myself to strip you of everything interiorly: your desires, expectations, plans, attachments, securities, consolations in friendships, even consolations from Me so that you are left completely empty. It is a soul that has been stripped of everything, that is empty and can be filled with My life…
• “We have to learn to live every virtue, and perhaps this is especially true of poverty. We have to learn to live; otherwise, it will be reduced to an ideal about which much is written but which no one seriously puts into practice.” (Interview with Saint Josemaria Escriva on the virtue of poverty)


II. Desires and Attachme