TIMOR DOMINI – GIFT OF HOLY FEAR
The gift of Fear fills us with sovereign respect for God, and makes us dread nothing so much as to offend Him by sin. It is a fear that arises, not from the thought of hell, but from sentiments of reverence and filial submission to our Heavenly Father. It is the fear that is the beginning of wisdom, detaching us from worldly pleasures that could in any way separate us from God. “They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and in His sight will sanctify their souls.”
Come, O Blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set Thee, my Lord and God, before my face forever; help me to shun all things that can offend Thee, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Thy Divine Majesty in Heaven, where Thou livest and reignest in the Unity of the ever Blessed Trinity, God world without end. Amen.
FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN
I was feeling all concerned about the many Truths that blessed Jesus has told me on His Divine Will; and while I felt in me the Sacred Deposit of His Truths, I also felt a holy fear of how I kept them in my poor soul, and many times badly exposed, without that attention that befits Truths that contain Infinite Value. And O! how I would like to imitate the Blessed, who, while they know so much about the Divine Will, don’t say anything to any of the pilgrim souls—they keep them all with themselves; they are Beatified, they are delighted, but from up there they send not even one word to make known a single Truth of the many they know.
But while I was delirious because of His privation, I thought to myself about the Divine Will, and I feared that Its Dominion, Its Life, might not be in me, and therefore my Eternal Love Jesus leaves me, hiding Himself, and does not take care of me. And from the heart I asked Him pardon.
My God, I feel such pain, You know how much pain and how much it costs me. Only the fear of displeasing You and not doing Your Will holds me on. Otherwise, who knows what I would do not to be submitted to this.
