Click HERE for more information on Pierre Toussaint

***

Click HERE for the website these excerpts are from

Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian, came with his owner, John Bérard, and Bérard’s wife to New York in the 1780s. Toussaint spoke French very well. He even read and wrote and evidently had a very Catholic training. The Bérards established themselves in New York, and John Bérard sent Toussaint off to be trained as a hairdresser.

I hope Toussaint will be canonized, because it would be the canonization of someone who was a layman, a Black, a devoted husband, and a father to his niece.

Bérard went back to Haiti, where he died. He left his widow with Toussaint, who by then had a good-paying job that took him to the houses of the wealthy. He became the confidant of many of his customers. They liked him because he was French, very gentlemanly, and evidently exotic—a violinist with earrings in his ear. But this was also the guy who went to Mass every morning before he began his work.

He kept Madame Bérard alive. She didn’t know it, but all of the assets that her husband had were worthless and she was really living off Toussaint. At the same time he was supporting Madame Bérard, Toussaint engaged in all kinds of acts of charity. Eventually she freed him.

After Madame Bérard’s death, he bought the freedom of his future wife and that of his sister, who died and left her daughter, Euphémie, whom Toussaint raised as his own. He also took in a lot of homeless Black children and taught them how to play the violin. He nursed the sick. He was admired by everyone; many of the people who kept talking about him as a saint were Protestant.

When Toussaint died, there was a tremendous funeral, and everyone agreed that he had been a terribly holy man. He was buried next to Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where no Black people normally were buried. Toussaint practiced the gospel commands, lived an extraordinary life of religion and devotions, and helped both Black and white people at a cost to himself.

I hope Toussaint will be canonized…

“More fitting to be told, than the glorious account of Paradise, are the exploits of the Victorious who adorned themselves with the very Likeness of Paradise; in them is depicted the Beauty of the Garden.” – Hymns on Paradise – St. Ephrem

Volume 31; Jnauary 22, 1933
Our Lord:  “…You Must Know that your will, while being with you, is weak, insignificant; but as it gets into My Creative and Transforming Hands, it changes appearance; I render it Powerful, I Vivify it and enclose in it the Value-producer of Good, and I make use of it so as not to remain idle; and making Myself the Celestial Gardener, I work in this field of your will, and I make of it a Beautiful flowery field and a Garden of My Delights. So, what in your hands is insignificant and maybe even noxious, in Mine it changes its nature and it serves Me to amuse Myself and to have a little soil at My disposal in order to form the Most Beautiful Flowerings.”

Book of Heaven 
6/17/00 – Vol. 3

Since this morning blessed Jesus was not coming, I felt some shadows of disturbance arise in my interior about why He was not coming.  So, when He came, He said to me:  “My daughter, to contain oneself in God and not to go out of the boundaries of peace is all the same.  So, if you detect a little bit of disturbance it is a sign that you make a little exit from within God, because to contain oneself in Him and not to have perfect peace is impossible; more so, since the boundaries of peace are endless – even more, all that belongs to God is all peace.”  Then He added:  “Don’t you know that the privations serve the soul as winter does the plants, as they form deeper roots, and winter fortifies them and makes them become green again and bloom in May?”

After this, He transported me outside of myself, and after I commended various needs to Him, He disappeared from me, and I found myself inside myself, with a desire to remain always inside of God, so as to stay within the boundaries of peace.

 God the Father

1/10/38 – Vol. 35

The first Sermon that the little King Jesus preached to the children of Egypt.  How each of them had within his heart the Celestial Father, who Loved them and wanted to be Loved.

I was doing the round in the Divine Fiat—and O, how I yearned that no Act might escape me, of all that It has done, both in the Creation and the Redemption.  I feel that I lack something if I don’t recognize all that It did, loving it, kissing it, squeezing it to my heart, as if it were mine.  The Divine Volition would remained displeased if one who Lives in It did not know all of Its Acts, and if It couldn’t find the little ‘I love you’ from Its beloved one, in everything It did.  There is nothing It did not do for this creature.

So I arrived to follow the point when the Celestial Baby was in Egypt, in the act of taking His first steps.  I kissed His steps, I placed my ‘I love you’ in every step He took, and I asked Him for the first steps of His Will for all human generations.  I tried to follow Him in everything.  If He prayed, if He cried—I asked that His Will might animate all the prayers of the creatures, and that His tears might regenerate the Life of Its Fiat in the human family.

So, while I was attentive in following Him in everything, the little Baby King, visiting my poor soul, said to me:  “Daughter of My Will, how Happy I am when the creature does not leave Me alone!  I feel her behind Me, in front of Me, and inside all My Acts.

“Now, you must know that My exile in Egypt was not without Conquests.  When I was about three years old, from our little hovel I could hear the children playing and shouting in the street; and as little as I was, I went out in their midst.  As soon as they saw Me, they ran around Me, competing with themselves for who could get the closest to Me, because My Beauty, the Enchantment of My Gaze and the Sweetness of My Voice were such that they felt enraptured for love of Me.  So, they would throng around Me, loving Me so much that they could not detach themselves from Me.  I too Loved these children, so I gave My first little sermon to these little ones, adapting Myself to their tiny capacity—since when Love is True, It not only tries to make Itself known, but also to give all that may render one Happy in time and Eternity; more so, since, possessing innocence, they could easily understand Me.

“And would you like to know what My Sermon was about?  I said to them:  ‘My children, listen to Me.  I Love you very much and I want to make you know about your Origin.  Look up at Heaven.  Up there you have a Celestial Father who Loves you very much, and who was not satisfied to be your Father only from Heaven—to guide you, to Create for you a sun, a sea, a flowery earth to make you happy; but, Loving you with Exuberant Love, He wanted to descend inside your hearts, to form His Royal Residence in the depth of your souls, making Himself sweet Prisoner of each one of you.  But, to do what?  To give Life to your heartbeat, breath and motion.  So, as you walk, He walks in your steps; He moves in your little hands; He speaks in your voice… and because He Loves you very much, as you walk or move—now He kisses you, now He squeezes you, now He hugs you and carries you Triumphantly as His own dear children.  How many hidden kisses and hugs Our Celestial Father does not give you!  But since, being inattentive, you didn’t let your kiss meet His kiss, and your hugs meet His Paternal Embrace, He remained with the Pain that His children neither hugged Him nor kissed Him.

“‘My dear children, do you know what this Celestial Father wants from you?  He wants to be recognized within you, as having His own place in the center of your souls; and since He gives you everything—there is nothing He does not give to you—He wants your love in everything you do.  Love Him!  Let love be always in your little hearts, your lips, your works—in everything—and this will be the delicious food that you will give to His Paternity.                                       

“‘He Loves you very much and wants to be Loved.  Nobody can ever love you as He Loves you.  It is true that you have a father on earth, but how different from the Love of the Celestial Father!  Your father on earth does not always follow you, watch over your steps, or sleep together with you; neither does he palpitate within your heart, and if you fall, he may not even know anything about it.  On the other hand, your Celestial Father never leaves you.  If you are about to fall, He gives you His hand not to let you fall; if you sleep, He watches over you; and even if you play and do something impertinent, He is always with you and knows everything you do.  Therefore, love Him very, very much!’

“And, getting more excited, I told them:  ‘Give Me your word that you will always, always love Him!  Say together with Me:  “We love You, our Father who are in the Heavens. We love You, our Father who dwells in our hearts!”’

“My daughter, at My Words some children remained moved, some enraptured; some squeezed themselves to Me so much that they wouldn’t let Me go.  I made them feel the Palpitating Life of My Celestial Father inside their little hearts, and they rejoiced and made feast, because they no longer had a Father who was far away from them, but inside their own hearts.  And to make them firm and give them the strength to depart from Me, I Blessed those children, Renewing upon them Our Creative Power—invoking the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of Myself, the Son, and the Virtue of the Holy Spirit; and I told them:  ‘Go—you will return.’  So they left….

“But they would come back the following days, almost in a crowd—a throng—of children.  They set themselves to spy when I was about to go out, and to see what I was doing in our hovel.  And when I went out they would clap their hands, making feast and shouting so much that My Mother would come out the door to see what was happening.  O, how enraptured She would remain, in seeing her Son speaking to those children with so much Grace.  She felt Her Heart bursting with Love, and could see the first fruits of My Life down here, since none of these children who listened to Me—not a single one of them—was lost.  Knowing that they had a Father inside their hearts was like a deposit, to be able to own the Celestial Fatherland—to love that Father who was in Heaven as well.

“My daughter, this sermon that I, as a little Baby, gave to the children of Egypt, was the foundation—the Essence of the Creation of Man.  It contains the most Indispensable Doctrine and the Highest Sanctity.  It makes Love arise in every instant:  the Love between the Creator and the creature.  What Pain, in seeing many little lives that do not know the Life of a God within their souls!  They grow without Divine Paternity, as if they were alone in the world.  They do not feel and do not know how much they are Loved.  So, how can they love me?  Without love, the heart hardens and the life is degraded and—poor youth!—they give themselves to the gravest crimes…. This is a Pain for your Jesus, and I want it to be a pain for you as well, so that you pray for many, that they may be taught that I am in their hearts—that I Love and I want to be Loved.”

Our Father Who art in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy Will be done, on earth as It is in Heaven,

give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen

V35 – 1.10.38
“We Love You, our Father Who Are in Heaven.  
We Love You, our Father Who Dwell in our hearts.”

GOD OUR FATHER

(Click here for more information on the Consecration and Feast Day
for the Father of All Mankind)

A son honors his father, and a servant his master.
if then I am a father, where is my honor? (Mal 1:6)

***

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.  (Jn 4:23-24)

 ***

And for their sake I consecrate myself,
that they also may be consecrated in truth. (Jn 17:19)

 ***

Wouldn’t it be appropriate to consecrate ourselves and the world to the One we were created to return to-God Our Father?  Wouldn’t it be, equally appropriate to recite this consecration publicly and to renew it annually on a feast specifically celebrated for God Our Father–“The Father of All Mankind”?  Isn’t it time to cleanse, purify, and re-dedicate the Temple of God Our Father–individually and as the Body of Christ?

All God’s children are invited to use the following spiritual practices and format to consecrate themselves to God Our Father.  Although the consecration can be done at any time by setting aside an eight-day period (preferably Sunday to Sunday), it is suggested that (1) it be renewed formally each year on the proposed date (an octave ending on the first Sunday of August. The first seven days serve as preparatory steps leading to the final day of assembly and solemn consecration–The Feast of the Father of All Mankind.) and that (2) it be renewed informally each day by praying the chaplet.  In addition, the short prayer, “I love You, Father, and I give myself to You” can be prayed throughout the day to help us live our consecration more fully.