Entrust Our Fears to the Holy Spirit

Some people have asked us for text versions of Fr. John Mary’s homilies, so we are sharing this AI generated transcript. It has not been reviewed by the Fr. John Mary. The AI is very accurate, but not one hundred percent. If something seems significantly wrong, please consult original audio and let us know if there is a problem. 

Also, it is good to keep in mind that this homily was intended to be listened to, not read. It was preached from notes, and there was no original written document. Nuance can be lost when it is only read. 

Lastly the headings are not original but AI generated.

Introduction: The Promise of the Paraclete

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows Him. But you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.”

The Gospel today is from The Last Supper, and Jesus knows all that He and His apostles will be facing within hours: the extreme trial, the terrible attacks and darkness. Yet He also knows the designs of the Father and how this will lead to His victory, His Resurrection. And so He is wanting to prepare His apostles for what is coming.

Just a little bit before this, He tells them that He will send His Holy Spirit. And just a little bit before that, He says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me.” So often He has told them not to be afraid. It’s a phrase which is repeated so often throughout Scripture, and now it is especially important for them, because there is going to be a great temptation to fear. He is alerting them to what is coming, not to frighten them, but so that they be aware, and also to help them live it with courage and with peace, to not give in to fear. And for that, He is going to give them the Holy Spirit.

This is very relevant for us today, because the Lord, in so many ways, has been speaking in many prophetic messages—messages that our community has received, and many others as well—beginning already in Scripture, speaking about the great trials that we would be living, that we are living right now, that have already begun. But He doesn’t do this to cause fear, but on the contrary, to invite us to trust.

A Message Given to the Community

I wanted to share with you a message that the Lord gave our community. This was a private message given about three years ago. It was June 19, 2023, and our community was making our annual five‑day retreat.

I want to share this with you because I think that since you have responded to the messages, you are part of this reconquest, part of what He calls His “luminous army.” So I think this message is also for you. It is striking to be reading this now, because this message came just a few days—less than a week—before I would sense that the time was coming for us to begin publicizing the messages. And that is what would cause so many problems—the problems we are going through now, where we are being threatened with excommunication and so forth. We knew that there would be those very grave consequences.

I didn’t realize that when we got this message, but as I said, it was just days before I sensed that call. I didn’t know what was coming, but of course, the Lord did.

One of the main points of this message from the Holy Spirit is that He is asking us to offer Him our fear—our greatest fear—and not give in to fear. He speaks about the difference between what we can sense, what we are aware of, even in ourselves, and what the Holy Spirit is doing in us beyond what we are aware of. He also speaks of the great hunger in us for God.

Another thing He says, which is very helpful, is that the words He gives are more for our heart and soul than for our mind. So even if we don’t remember all the words, even if we don’t understand them all, we can still receive these graces if we receive them with an open heart.

The Voice of the Holy Spirit: The Gardener of Souls

Here is the message:

“My beloved community, it is I, the Holy Spirit, who speaks to you today.”

He speaks of how we might not feel His action in this retreat, but He is acting. He says:

“I am never inactive, and during these days, as in previous retreats, I am very active in your souls, like a gardener that loosens the soil, removes rocks and dead branches, makes sure there is no disease or pest spreading over the plant of your soul, watering it deeply, giving nourishment at the roots to protect the growth of the plant and to let it grow and mature and give fruit.

What I need from you these days is your trust and abandonment. Each of you has areas in which this trust in Me is put to the test, situations that cause you pain and anxiety, uncertainty, doubt, fear. It is in these things, My little ones, that I need your efforts to trust Me. I need your efforts to trust Me.

How else can you withstand what is coming—the tremendous onslaught of fear that will come upon My children and that you will need to bear and withstand for the sake of My little ones? I need you courageous and strong.”

Key Call: Offer Your Greatest Fear

“Offer to Me your greatest fear, and make an effort to let it go and abandon it into My hands.”

Let me read that once again, because that’s a key phrase:

“Offer to Me your greatest fear, and make an effort to let it go and abandon it into My hands.”

Let’s take a moment to do that right now.

The message continues:

“Can you protect yourself from it? No. Can you overcome it alone? No.

By your vows to Us”—here He is speaking of the religious vows that we make—“by your vows to Us, veiled in such simple human language, you have given yourselves up completely to Us. You belong to Us, and you are only ‘useful’ to Us, to your missions, if you entrust yourselves willingly and wholeheartedly to Us, submitting to Our will in all things, so as to defeat all human fears in you.

The feelings of fear and trepidation may remain, but the strength to obey Me, no matter what, will fill you. But I need your cooperation. I need your efforts.

You do not feel like you have progressed. I know. But I am at work—hidden, mysterious, effective. I hide you from yourselves, that you might not be too elated”—

Here Sister put two smiley faces because she senses a smile. We don’t always put those in a public message. She sometimes senses that the Lord is smiling, but it seemed like that bothered some people, kind of scandalized some people, to see a smiley face in a message. So we don’t put that in messages, but she sometimes senses a special seriousness and sometimes a special smile.

“—that you might not be too elated and to protect you from unnecessary attacks of the enemy.

You are My hidden quiver, My hidden arrows, and I will let you loose at the proper time to quell the lies and deceit of the ancient serpent, the father of lies. But I am still sharpening you, smoothing you, tempering you, that you may pierce through every barrier, every deceit, every lie.

Let your heart call out to Me. Yes, I hear your cries of pain and frustration, but I also need your cries of hunger for Me. Cries of hunger for Me.

It is this abiding hunger of your soul for Me that is at the root of all the cries of your soul. Give it to Me, My little ones.”

The Deep Hunger and Groaning of the Spirit

Here Sister added a note. She said she was not quite sure what this means, but the image or words that came to her mind as He was saying this was of something very deep down being let loose, being unleashed, letting it go up to heaven, as if that something has a very powerful pull to heaven but is tied down, so that when it is freed, it shoots up to heaven. Then she added, “I’m sure this explanation makes it all perfectly clear.”

I want to add my own little commentary to that, because in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 8, St. Paul says:

“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us.”

The Spirit Himself intercedes for us. How does the Spirit intercede? With beautiful hymns of praise? That is maybe what we would expect, but that is not what St. Paul says. What he says is something surprising. He says the Spirit intercedes in us:

“with groans, with sighs too deep for words”—

it is translated either way—

“with groans too deep for words.”

I think that is what the Lord is referring to here: this deepest longing in us, the hunger of our soul for God.

Just before that, St. Paul has said that all creation has been groaning in labor pains together until now, and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So this groaning expresses what the Holy Spirit is speaking of here—what is deepest within us, even when we are not aware of it: this hunger of our soul for God.

The message continues:

“My children, you are surrounded by such hatred, such darkness, such attack, that it is only by My grace that you remain standing. You do not see, and I spare you the sensing of the full extent of it, so that you can continue on. But I see, and I know.

That is why I do not require much external effort during these days, only the continual effort to become more and more Mine through faith, obedience, and humility.”

Notice what He is saying: that we are under such attack, far beyond what we are even aware of. And so what He is asking of us is not so much external acts, but this trust in Him.

Words for the Soul More Than the Mind

He goes on:

“Do not worry if your minds cannot fully understand these words, if they feel dull, dense. They are not meant for your mind, but for your spirit. I make use of the mind when it is needed, but My action and My words are to be received by your souls. Only then will there be light for your mind, if it is necessary for your missions.

This is a sacrifice and a great freedom. It is a sacrifice for your humanity and your ego, always keen to have control, always fearing not understanding, fearing losing power over yourselves and the situations around you.

And it is also a great freedom for your soul. For when, through trust in Me, you can abandon yourselves and all situations around you to Me, then I can act. And there is no limit to what I can do in you and around you.”

So these words are more than for our minds; they are for our souls. That is a sacrifice for us, but it is also a great freedom.

Final Exhortation and Blessing

Then comes the conclusion:

“My beloved ones, during these days of retreat, examine yourselves and give Me your greatest fear, your greatest struggle, and begin to let go of it into My hands. I will take care of you.

Your God will keep His promises. He always has and He always will. He cannot lie to Himself. And as We have sworn on Ourselves that We will fulfill all Our promises, so We will.

We have made a covenant with you, and We will keep it. God is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.

I bless you, each of you, My little ones, My very little ‘puñadito’”—that’s the Spanish: ‘puñadito,’ My little handful—“come and cast all your fears into the furnace of My love. I will consume them so that My fire can burn unimpeded in your souls.

My beloved ones, I love you. The most Holy Spirit of God, who is Love, who loves each one of you so much. Amen.”