Weakness(es), powerlessness
See also: [...] "He said to me: 'My Grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that the power of the Christ may dwell in me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."[1]
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
Failings
- Hear the other promise and rejoice: “And I show mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” To the thousandth generation of the good and to the thousandth weakness of the poor sons of men, who fall not through malice but through carelessness and the snares of the demon.[2]
Fragility, Weakness
- (Jesus to Mary Magdalene): You are a strong Soul, and I want to make you very strong. I excuse weaknesses in others, but in you, I do not tolerate them.[3]
- I have loved and I love littleness and weaknesses provided that the will to love Me and to follow Me is found in them, and from these "nothings" I make my privileged ones, my friends, my ministers. I always use them, and it is a continual miracle that I perform in order to lead others to To Believe in Me, to not kill the possibilities of miracle.[4]
- Repentance is a form of love. The one who repents says to God through his repentance: "I cannot remain under the threat of Your wrath, for I love You and I want to be loved." [5]
- There is no sin that God does not forgive if the sinner is truly repentant.[6]
- Even grief for an error committed, which afflicts you because by this error you displeased God, must be peaceful, comforted by humility and trust. Self-pity and self-reproach are always the signs of Pride, and thus even of distrust.
If someone is humble, he knows he is a poor man subject to the miseries of the flesh which sometimes triumphs. If someone is humble, he trusts not so much in himself but in God, and remains calm even in defeat, saying: "Forgive me, Father. I know You know my weakness which sometimes prevails. I believe that You have mercy on me. I firmly trust that You will help me in the future even more than before, God whom I give so little satisfaction to."
And do not be indifferent nor stingy with the goods of God. Give of what you have in wisdom and virtue. Be active in spiritual matters as men are for matters of the flesh.[7] - I even tell you that you must not and will not be scandalized by your weakness.[8]
Incapacity
- To his aunt Mary of Alphaeus, Jesus said: Now, your Heart hurts too much and you cannot understand the justice of My powerlessness.[9]
- Recognizing your nothingness is preparing yourself for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, Paraclete...[10]
In other works of Maria Valtorta
The Notebooks of 1943
- Catechesis of November 6: Jesus says: "I know you are weak and that all around you there are snares. I know it and I take it into account when judging you. I would no longer be a just God if I did not take into account your weakness and the works of the Evil One. (...)
How great will be my mercy toward those who fall while wanting the opposite and who repent of their fall! One, two, ten, a hundred falls without malice do not wound Love to death. They are mutual scratches that your tears and my love heal. You say to Me: ‘Pity, Lord’ and I say to you: ‘Come to the Father, my poor child’." [11] - Catechesis of June 18: But in addition to being poor, you are sick, weak, not only from that weakness caused by lack of food which ceases when one is fed, but weak because of the illnesses that exhaust you. What diseases your Soul has! What microbes the Evil One inoculates in you to provoke these diseases! The weak and sick needs not only bread, but also wine.
In my Eucharist, I left you the two signs of what your poor nature and your weakness as the sick need: the bread that nourishes, the wine that strengthens.[12]
In fundamental Christian texts
In the Bible
- [...] "He said to me: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."[13]