Valeria – Become Like Children Again

From Jesus, “Your Good God”, to Valeria Copponi on May 5th, 2021:

If you do not become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 18:3). Yes, my children, you see the spontaneity, the joy, the grace, the goodness of little ones — all riches that belong to those who have a pure heart. I say to you again, blessed and pure, for theirs will be the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
Little children, when growing up, instead of trying to be more perfect in love, you allow yourselves to be taken over by jealousy, envy and malice of all sorts; you do not resist temptation, and thus these weaknesses of yours make you lose the good and healthy habits that used to allow you to live in peace among you and above all with God. Therefore, in these dark times, seek to put God back in the first place. I am reserving a place for you; do not lose it because of your disobedience towards your Creator and His Word.
 
My dearest children, be humble, for humility is the virtue that makes you rich. Not with the richness that you covet, but that which pleases your God, Creator and Lord of the whole earth. Therefore, my dearly beloved little children, from today, start going back to being like children, and I will give you back the joy that you have lost over the course of your lives. [1]“nel passare i vostri giorni”, literal translation: “in passing your days” I want you all to be children, trusting only in the goodness and greatness of your Father.
 
Pray and make others pray, so that your brothers and sisters would go back to desiring the virtue of humility. I bless you from on high with My goodness: be worthy of My salvation.
 
Your Good God.

 
To “become like children” in the Christian ethos is not to return to juvenile immaturity. Rather, it is to enter into a state of absolute trust in God’s providence and abandonment to His Divine Will, which Jesus says is our “food” (John 4:34). In this state of surrender — which is really the death of one’s own rebellious will and the sinful inclinations of the flesh — is “resurrected” the fruits of the Holy Spirit that were lost by Adam through original sin: 
 
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ [Jesus] have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal 5:19-24)
 
The question is how to return to this state? The first step is to simply acknowledge the “works of the flesh” in one’s own life and sincerely repent of these in the Sacrament of Reconciliation with the intention of never repeating them. The second is, perhaps, even more difficult: to “let go” of the control over one’s life, insofar as one is “seeking first” his or her own kingdom rather than the Kingdom of Christ. Few know that Our Lady of Medjugorje requested that, on each Thursday of the week, we meditate on the following passage of Scripture. Given all that is happening in the world, and about to happen, this Scripture will soon become the lifeline of many Christians, particularly in the Western World, as the present order collapses. The antidote to the fear of that reality is to become like little children!
 
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matt 6:24-34)
 
Hard to let go? Yes. That, in fact, is the Great Wound of original sin. The first sin of Adam and Eve was not taking a bite of the forbidden fruit — it was not trusting in their Creator’s Word. Henceforth, the Great Wound that Jesus came to heal was this breach in childlike trust in the Holy Trinity. That’s why Scripture tells us: 
 
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God… (Eph 2:8)
 
Today is the day to return to that childlike faith, no matter who you are. In this seedling of faith is the “tree of life”, the Cross, upon which is hung your salvation. It’s that simple. Eternal life is not that far out of reach. But it demands that you enter into this childlike faith that, in turn, is proven — not by an intellectual exercise — but by the works in your life. 
 
…if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing… So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (1 Cor 13:2, James 2:17)
 
In truth, though, we get so tangled in our sin and that of others that it can become very hard to enter this state of abandonment. So we want to recommend to you a most beautiful and powerful novena that has helped countless souls not only find a childlike heart, but find healing and help in the most impossible situations. 

—Mark Mallett

 

Novena of Abandonment 

by Servant of God Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo (d. 1970)

 

A novena comes from the Latin novem, which means “nine.” In Catholic tradition, a novena is a method of praying and meditating for nine days in a row upon a certain theme or intention(s). In the following novena, simply reflect on each meditation of Jesus’ words as if He is speaking them to you, personally (and He is!), for the next nine days. After each reflection, pray with your heart the words: O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

 

Day 1

Why do you confuse yourselves by worrying? Leave the care of your affairs to Me and everything will be peaceful. I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to Me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 2

Surrender to Me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope, nor does it mean offering to Me a worried prayer asking Me to follow you and change your worry into prayer. It is against this surrender, deeply against it, to worry, to be nervous and to desire to think about the consequences of anything. It is like the confusion that children feel when they ask their mother to see to their needs, and then try to take care of those needs for themselves so that their childlike efforts get in their mother’s way. Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in My care, so that only I act, saying “You take care of it”.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 3

How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to Me, looks at Me and says to Me; “You take care of it”, then closes its eyes and rests. In pain you pray for Me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to Me, instead, you want me to adapt your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to. So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the our Father: “Hallowed be thy Name,” that is, be glorified in my need. “Thy kingdom come,” that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with your kingdom. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” that is, in our need, decide as you see fit for our temporal and eternal life. If you say to Me truly: “Thy will be done”, which is the same as saying: “You take care of it”, I will intervene with all My omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 4

You see evil growing instead of weakening? Do not worry. Close your eyes and say to Me with faith: “Thy will be done, You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed. Do you see that the sick person is getting worse? Do not be upset, but close your eyes and say “You take care of it.” I say to you that I will take care of it, and that there is no medicine more powerful than My loving intervention. By My love, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 5

And when I must lead you on a path different from the one you see, I will prepare you; I will carry you in My arms; I will let you find yourself, like children who have fallen asleep in their mother’s arms, on the other bank of the river. What troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts and worry, and your desire at all costs to deal with what afflicts you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 6

You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse—to men themselves, trusting in their intervention—this is what hinders My words and My views. Oh, how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from My protection and to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. So, trust only in Me, rest in Me, surrender to Me in everything.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 7

I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to Me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever performed miracles, not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So don’t think about it any more, because your mind is acute, and for you, it is very hard to see evil and to trust in Me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs, do this all of you and you will see great continual silent miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 8

Close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of My grace; close your eyes and do not think of the present, turning your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation. Repose in Me, believing in My goodness, and I promise you by My love that if you say “You take care of it”, I will take care of it all; I will console you, liberate you and guide you.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)

 

Day 9

Pray always in readiness to surrender, and you will receive from it great peace and great rewards, even when I confer on you the grace of immolation, of repentance and of love. Then what does suffering matter? It seems impossible to you? Close your eyes and say with all your soul, “Jesus, you take care of it”. Do not be afraid, I will take care of things and you will bless My name by humbling yourself. A thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender, remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this.

O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!


 

Related Reading

Why Faith?

An Invincible Faith in Jesus

On Faith and Providence in these times

The Sacrament of the Present Moment

 

 
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Footnotes

Footnotes

1 “nel passare i vostri giorni”, literal translation: “in passing your days”
Posted in Messages, Valeria Copponi.