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| Christ in his divinity equal to the Father |
Christ
in his Divinity is equal to the Father; but He is also human, inferior and
composed of body and soul as we ourselves are. In this sense therefore Christ
confessed and extolled the immensity and infinitude of the eternal Father,
praying for the whole human race saying:
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| Inferior part of Christ as human confessing and extolling the immensity of the Eternal Father |
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“My Father and eternal God, I confess, praise and exalt thy infinite essence
and incomprehensible Deity, in which I am one with Thee and the Holy Ghost,
engendered from all eternity by thy intellect, as the figure of thy substance
and the image of thy individual nature (John 10, 30; Ps. 119, 3; Heb. 1, 3 In
the same nature, which I have assumed in the virginal womb of my Mother, I wish
to accomplish the Redemption of the human race with which Thou hast charged Me...
“...Impelled
by this boundless love, Lord and Father, I ordain, that from now on men may re-enter
into thy full friendship and grace through the sacrament of Baptism, and
that they may do so as soon as they shall be born to daylight; and their desire
of renascence into grace, which they cannot in their infancy manifest on their
own account, shall, with thy permission, be manifested for them by their
elders. Let them become immediate heirs of thy glory; let them be interiorly
and indelibly marked as children of my Church; let them be freed from the stain
of original sin; let them receive the gifts of faith, hope and charity, by
which they may perform the works of thy children: knowing Thee, trusting in
Thee, and loving Thee for thy own Self. Let them also receive the virtues by
which they restrain and govern disorderly inclinations and be able to
distinguish, without fail, the good from the evil. Let this Sacrament be the
portal of my Church, and the one which makes men capable of receiving all the
other favours and disposes them to new gifts and blessings of grace. I ordain
also, that besides this Sacrament, they may receive another, in which they shall
be confirmed (Sacrament of confirmation)
and rooted in the holy faith they have accepted, and become courageous in its defence
as soon as they shall arrive at the use of reason. And because human frailty
easily falls away from the observance of my law and since my charity will not permit
Me to leave them without an easy and opportune remedy, I wish to provide the sacrament of Penance. Through it men,
by acknowledging their faults and confessing them with sorrow, may be
reinstated in justice and in the merits of glory promised to them. Thus shall
Lucifer and his followers be prevented from boasting of having so soon deprived
them of advantages of Baptism.”
“By
the justification of these Sacraments men shall become fit to share in the
highest token of my love in the exile of this their mortal life; namely, to
receive Me sacramentally under the species of bread and wine in an
ineffable manner. Under the species of bread I shall leave my body, and under the species of wine, my
blood. In each one of them I shall
be present really and truly and I institute this mysterious sacrament of the
Eucharist as a heavenly nourishment proportioned to their condition as
wayfaring men; for their sake shall I work these miracles and remain with them
until the end of the coming ages (Matth. 28, 20).
For
the strengthening and defence of those, who approach the end of their lives, I
moreover appoint the sacrament of Extreme
Unction, which shall at the same time be a certain pledge of the bodily
resurrection of those thus anointed. In order that all may contribute
proportionately to the sanctification of the members of the mystical body of
the Church, in which by the most harmonious and orderly cooperation all must
have their proper position, I Institute the sacrament of Ordination to distinguish and mark some of its members by a special
degree of holiness and place them above the other faithful as fit ministers of
the Sacraments and as my chosen priests. Although they derive all their powers
from Me, I nevertheless wish that it should flow from Me through one of their
number, who
deposit
the keys of heaven and him all upon earth shall obey. For the further
perfection of my Church I also establish the last of the Sacraments, Matrimony, to sanctify the natural
union of man and wife for the propagation of the human race. Thus shall all the
grades of my Church be enriched and adorned by my infinite merits. This,
eternal Father, is my last will, whereby I make all the mortals inheritors of
my merits in the great storehouse of grace, my new Church.”
This
prayer Christ our Redeemer made in the presence of the Apostles, but without
any exterior manifestation. The most blessed Mother, who from her retreat observed and followed Him, prostrated Herself
upon the floor and, as his Mother, offered to the eternal Father the same
petitions as her Son. Although She could not add anything to the merits of the
works of her divine Son.
