Heroism, hero
File:Saint Sébastien Les vies des saints pères & marTyres par Godescard Hopwood.jpg
Saint Sebastian - "The Lives of the Holy Fathers & Martyrs" by Godescard Hopwood.
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
- Improve yourselves hour by hour, with patience, with firmness, heroically. And who says that becoming good is not painful? I even tell you: it is the hardest work. But Heaven is the reward and it is worth exhausting oneself in this effort.[2]
- Purified by natural selection, strengthened by a supernatural drink, you, the best, will become my heroes: The heroes of Christ.[3]
- Repent, be patient, be constant, heroic, and then, oh sinners, I promise you that you will be your own liberators. Truly I tell you that there is no Baptism of value, nor rite that serves, if there is no repentance and the will to renounce sin. In truth I tell you there is no sinner so great that he cannot bring back to life, through tears of repentance, the Virtues that sin has torn from his Heart.[4]
- Heroism to follow God is always proof of strong spiritual preparation.[5]
- It is not enough to have the heroism of the one who must be converted, it is also necessary for the one who converts. And in fact it is the latter who must precede the other for souls are saved only by our sacrifice.[6]
- Those present, with a good intention, or with a hardness that is not, silence those who grieve for losing a parent. I compare this attitude with the gentleness of Jesus who compassionates the suffering of the orphan and does not expect from him a heroism that would not be natural...[7]
- Comments on the resurrection of Lazarus: "Heroism is not reserved only for those who must experience martyrdom. The Christian life is a perpetual heroism because it is a continual Struggle Against the world, the devil and the flesh. I do not force you to follow me, I leave you free, but I do not want hypocrites."[8]
- About Longinus, the Roman officer at Calvary: "Good is Longinus who, less powerful than the Praetor (Pontius Pilate) and less defended, in the middle of the way, surrounded by few soldiers and a hostile multitude, dares to defend me, help me, grant me rest, comfort me with the pious women, and be aided by the Cyrenean and finally to have the Mother at the foot of the Cross. He was a hero of justice and thus became a hero of Christ."[9]
- Longinus brings the lance tip to Mary on Holy Saturday. As she speaks to him about her Son’s Church, presently struck but which will be reunited anew, he replies: "I will come. A Religion, which has for chief such a hero, can only be divine. Ave, Domina!"[10]
In other works of Maria Valtorta
The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950
- Catechesis of February 18, 1947: Truly, I tell you that when a creature has attained the heroism of virtue, or as Paul says, when the creature "has been armed with strength in the Lord, with His almighty strength"[11], then it is appropriate to wear "the armor of God to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.″[12]