What Jesus asks, on telling us to live, "shut off from the world," is shut off from its pleasures, its works, its pomps, its vain desires. That is why He says: "Attentive to My voice." Attentive to His voice, that is: listening to His divine complaints that, because of the sins of the world, He bears and wants to show to us. He wants to share them with us, to share with us. . .His sorrows. Indeed! Jesus thirsts for souls to confide in, souls with whom to converse. Go to the Tabernacle, then, not to waste time, not thinking you are there alone and bored. . .no!. . .because He is there and He awaits you with ardent desire and love! Talk with Him! Tell Him, if you like, of your many concerns. . .but, above all, listen to Him! Tell Him you are attentive to His voice, and to let His Heart overflow into yours! That you want to feel in your human heart His intimate sorrows; that you want Him to complain to You; that you want to console Him with your words, with your promises, but, above all, with your works, in accord with His holy Law, for pure love of Him and for His divine interests!

Oh. . .indeed. . .let us unite ourselves with Him!

"You will console Me with your words. . ." Indeed! He asks it. Tell Him that you love Him as much as others have ceased to love Him and as much as others hate Him. Jesus wants us to tell Him that we love Him because He knows that, by virtue of our telling Him so, we will come to know Him and we will love Him. Let us make acts of love constantly. Let us recite aspirations full of faith and fervor, of affection, of tenderness. . . of love. . .to Him.

Do you see how He asks it of us? "It pleases Me," He says, "when the love of My beloved ones overflows from their mouth. Then I will place My Heart next to their lips so their love may not be lost, so that, having become loving words, it may fall as a balm on My Heart."

Oh. . .what beautiful expressions Jesus has revealed to us! Let us meditate on the very profound meaning of these words. He says that, "it pleases Him," when we say loving words to Him because to Him this will be as if we were to let our hearts overflow from our mouth. And then He will put His Heart next to our lips, so our love may not be lost. Because this love, on becoming words presented as a gift to Him, will be saying precisely what is in our heart and this, He adds, will be for His Heart, as a balm.

Oh, the unspeakable folly of the love of a God made man that comes to place its joys in things of such little value: the words from our lips, when a heart that beats with affection for Him dictates them! Are we to deny this to Jesus?. . .if it is not denied, at times, to a friend and even to a stranger when we intend to sweeten their lives by some words of fraternal tenderness, of affection or of compassion. . .?

Let us unite ourselves and live solely for that. Let us live meditating on the afflictions and the desire of the Heart of this adorable Jesus. . .this Victim Heart so forgotten by men.

And, by virtue of meditating on it, these love words He awaits from us will flow from our hearts and spring from our lips so His Heart may have some drops of balm that may soothe It, that may refresh His Heart! Let this be our pursuit! In this let our lives pass: in loving Him, in consoling Him, and in conversing with Him; in listening to Him, in speaking words of love and tenderness to Him until we succeed in truly loving Him and compensating Him thus for the lack of love He suffers from the majority of His loved ones. . .from so may souls who live only for the things of the world and for themselves and those who live solely to offend Him. . .or the lukewarm who give themselves only by halves, only in part, but not totally!

On saying these words of love to Jesus, let us try to make them sincere, to make them the expression of what we have in our hearts. Let us not lie to Him! For we know that "He detests the lying man." For the "deceitful man the Lord will abhor," according to the words of the Psalmist (Ps. V, 7).

Do we love Him? Then, let us tell Him so. Let us not only feel it; let us not only harbor these affections we feel. Let us tell Him of them!

He desires it. He asks for it: "It pleases Me when the hearts of My beloved ones overflow from their mouth." And let us spread our love, not simply expressing it with words, but with works. Let our works be the most eloquent language of our love and let this language speak to Jesus all the love with which our heart is inflamed. But also, with words, let us tell Him of it!

O Jesus of my love, I love You! I love You with all the tenderness, with all the passion, of my soul and of all my being! You are my only love! And, inasmuch as this is true, we will be truly united to Him.

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