THE
FATHER
The essence of the spirituality of Father Félix is his love
of and devotion to each of the three Persons of the Most
Holy Trinity. This is very logical, since the end of the
Spirituality of the Cross is God the Father, to whom we
constantly offer two gifts: the principal one, which is
Christ, and with Him ourselves, moved by the Holy Spirit
through Whom Jesus offered Himself constantly to the Eternal
Father.
In this chapter we will present excerpts from the writings
of Father Félix about devotion to the Most Holy Trinity and
especially to the Eternal Father.
"The principal characteristic of the missionary of the Holy
Spirit is his great devotion to the Most Holy Trinity: to
each of the Divine Persons." (1)
"I have just spent two months with the novices and gave them
the morning meditation every day. I emphasized the devotion
that is most characteristic of our Congregation: to the Most
Holy Trinity, each of the three Divine Persons." (2)
"I want to love the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit,
with all my soul, and see to it that everyone loves these
Divine Persons. May my love for you, Oh, Most Holy Trinity,
grow every moment and may my only reward be to love you
more." (3)
"It is true that the three Divine Persons are inseparable,
but they really are DIFFERENT PERSONS, infinitely different,
because in God everything is infinite. The Father is the
beginning, He who receives the life of the Father from all
eternity and loves Him with infinite love and receives from
the Father the same infinite love. The Holy Spirit is that
love, which proceeds from eternity from the Father and the
Son and Who is a person, as are the Father and the Son. If
God were ONE but not a TRINITY, He would be forever alone,
because He could never give or receive divine love in all
its fullness. Creatures could not dispel His solitude,
because all being that is not God is infinitely distant from
God." (4)
"Being LOVINGLY ATTENTlVE
TO GOD, is being in love with God; it is a strong
passion, which consists of not being able to forget either
the Father, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit." (5)
"The life of a missionary
consists of copying that of our beloved Jesus, living with
Him in the Father: 'I am in the Father and the Father in
me."' (6)
“Union with Jesus to go to
the Father under the impulse of the Spirit is the center of
all our spiritual life. But let us not lose sight of the
fact that it is the Father who first leads us to Jesus: 'No
one comes to me if my Father does not bring him.'" (7)
"That is why our devotion
to the Father unites us more and more to Jesus by the gift
of His Spirit. Like Jesus, let us constantly repeat: 'I love
my Father' (Jn. 5:30 and 12:50). Jesus' contemporaries saw
only the exterior: the worker who labored among them, who
suffered from tiredness, hunger and thirst like everyone
else did. But Jesus was always with the Father, always calm,
indescribably happy in His love. Here we have the perfect
image of what a missionary of the Holy Spirit ought to be."
(8)
"The great secret to
become saints is hidden in these words of our beloved
Teacher: 'If anyone loves me, my Father will love him and we
will come to him and will make our abode with him. '" (Jn.
14:23). So we are the temple of the living God. (2 Cor.
6:16). And I am convinced that the reality of the three
divine persons living in us is the central, fundamental
dogma, on which we must feed at all times. That is why
Sister Isabel de la Trinidad used to say in all truth:
'Since I found THE GREAT SECRET, since I became aware that
the words of Christ and St. Paul about GOD IN US were
to be taken literarily, because they are a reality, since
then I have made this reality the center of my life.'”
"Let us all make this
reality the center of our life. This is what I have preached
to you in the novitiate a thousand and one times, and this
is what the BEING LOVINGLY ATTENTIVE TO GOD is about. This
is the substance of the contemplative life, from which we
ought not to separate ourselves, even in the midst of
intense apostolic activity."
"Work to make yourself
aware of the active presence of these three Divine Persons
in you."(9)
"My daughter, you are
never alone. When that temptation assails you, think that it
is only your imagination, because it is false. It is a truth
of faith that the three Divine Persons dwell in all the
souls that find themselves in the grace of God. Jesus
assures us of this: 'If someone loves me, my Father will
love him, and we will go to him and make our abode with
him.' (Jn. 14:23). These are the words of our Lord. They are
among the most consoling words He told us, and they are
documented in the Gospel." (10)
"Give thanks to the
beloved Father for so many gifts. He sent Jesus to us, and
He sent us the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:24 and 16). We owe
everything to the Father, whom we will never love in this
world as we shouId. He also gave us Mary, Our Mother. And He
gave us the gift of our vocation, and with it so many other
favors."
"Oh, Father, Good Father, Holy Father, Merciful Father,
Eternal Father, Heavenly Father, Father from whom comes all
that is good, Father from whom all Fatherhood comes, Father
of Jesus Christ, most beloved Father, Our Father: make us,
your children, love you passionately." (11)
"I want and beg of Jesus
what I am asking of Him, for my sons and for myself: That we
truly love the Divine Father as He loved Him, without
measure and unto the Cross." (12)
"Only Jesus can teach us
what the Father is for us and what we are for Him. But the
Christian revelation about our relationship to the Father is
summarized in this name which Jesus gives Him: 'He is my
Father and your Father' (Jn. 20:17). He who begets the Word
from all eternity, the Father of Jesus Christ, is also OUR
FATHER." (13)
"After dinner I went to
see Mrs. Concepción Cabrera de Armida, who is very sick. She
is suffering from very strong and constant pain. I was going
to say 'cruel', but no, nothing is cruel, because everything
comes from our Father, and especially to those who serve
God. He is the Father who is infinitely attentive to each of
His children and does everything for our good, although
sometimes we do not understand it, but we are certain of it
and this is the greatest consolation in our sorrows." (14)
"Every day that goes by I
feel more attracted to the Father. And this has been so for
a long time. I believe this is how I am imitating Jesus."
“I have no doubt that it
is the Holy Spirit who leads me more and more towards the
Divine Father, because the Holy Spirit it is who makes each
of us, little by little, a copy of Jesus." (15)
"The Father is life,
tenderness, mercy, forgiveness, promise. His Fatherhood
embraces alI. Let us go to the Father, to the Father of
Jesus and our Father. It is impossible to call on the Father
without receiving an abundance of spiritual gifts because He
is the beginning and source of every gift, in heaven and on
earth." (16)
One day, a novice asked
Father Félix:
- Why don't you write a
book for us on the devotion to the Father? In this way we
would have in writing everything you have preached about
this subject, which you consider to be the most important...
Father Félix answered:
- That is not necessary,
my son, that book is already written; it is called the
Gospel.
"And how true this is! The
first recorded word of Jesus refers to the Father: "Why were
you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be about my
Father's business? ( Lk 2:49). He told His disciples: "My
food is to do the will of my Father and do the things He has
commanded me to do" (Jn. 8:34). And on another occasion He
summarized His life saying: “I always do what pleases my
Father." (Jn. 8:28). Whenever He prayed, He addressed the
Father and the only prayer He taught us was the Our Father.
(Mt.6:9). At the Last Supper with His disciples He made a
long prayer to the Father and then He told them: "So that
the world can see how much I love my Father, arise and let
us go." (John 14:31). And He led them to the place where He
was to be taken prisoner and put to death. In the Garden of
Olives He again prayed to the Father: "Father, you can do
all things. If it is possible, let this chalice pass from
me, but not my will but yours be done." (Mk. 14:36). And His
last words on earth, His last thought, His last act of love
was for the Father: "Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit." (Lk. 23:46).
"Really, can we call
ourselves disciples of Jesus if our love is not for the
Father? And really, do we need another book besides the
Gospel to learn this truth?
"With great pleasure I
started to pray today and right away the presence of the
Father enveloped me in an atmosphere of joy. And I
understood that His gaze is love and my prayer was my loving
gaze responding to His. Look for look and love for love, an
exchange of looks and love! Oh, most beloved Father! I
promise to fix my eyes only on You forever and to have You
as my only possession... I promise to consult you on
everything and to always do your will with all my love."
(17)
"Loving attention consists of gazing on God our Father. But
when we look at Him, He also looks at us; and today I would
like to write something for you about this gaze of the
Father:
"This gaze has been on me forever, because it is the gaze of
God and it will be over me for all eternity. That gaze fills
me with joy, fortitude and confidence, it gives me strength
and sustains me. It tells me: Love! Come! Climb to where I
am and talk to me, because you are my beloved son! Other
times it tells me: Silence! Be quiet! Listen to me! Other
times it says: Be humble, be little in my sight. And it
invites me, and accompanies me and never leaves me alone.
That gaze is my heaven on earth: it warms me, it refreshes
me, it gives me life, it kills me and resurrects me at the
same time. It is the gaze of God Himself, who takes me from
this world and attracts my soul to follow in His wake. And
if I yield to small temptations, that gaze pricks me like a
thorn and purifies and cleanses me, because it is LOVE. And
my soul remains closer than before to the heart of God, who
wants it all for Himself. Oh, gaze of the Father, gaze of
love, do not turn from me and my brothers! Make us pure,
loving, happy and saintly!" (18)
Father Félix also wrote
these thoughts, with which we will close this chapter:
“I put myself in Your
presence, most beloved Father, and I saw that ETERNAL River.
Did I see it? Or was it my imagination? Was it You? The
fountain of the divine? I wish to be all yours and love you
passionately, in time and in eternity; because I am a drop
of that River ... Because I am truly your son, aren't I,
Father?" (19)
“I began my prayer as
always: Most loving Father, I adore you, I adore and love
you... But then I felt surrounded on all sides, and could
only say: YOU, YOU, YOU... and I felt happy with that
plenitude and the YOU changed to YOURS... and
my surrender was total once more..." (20)
“I began my hour [of
adoration] with very good will, dedicated to the Father of
my soul, to the Love of my life, to my most beloved Father.
But many distractions came to me. I begged my beloved Father
to take me for His own and I told Him that within me was
both a wanting and not wanting... With distractions and all
I completed my hour. God be praised!" (21)
“I was anxious to go with
my Beloved Father, but I was not free until 10 a.m. Charity
towards my brothers forced me to move back an hour my "hour
of love". I left all the mail in disarray, although it is
urgent. My Father is first. He arranges everything for me
later.
"Before my Father, I united myself spiritually with all men
and women in the world and in the name of all His children I
told him: Most beloved Father, I adore You, I love You, I
ask your pardon... Save me, enlighten me, take me to Jesus,
because only You can do it" (22)
"The work of the day was tiring. I slept for a while and
then, at 11 p.m., I began my prayer to my beloved Father,
with all good will... Then I slept again until after
midnight. I was ashamed of my laziness...I should have stood
so as not to go to sleep; that at least would have been an
act of love towards my most beloved Father. That is
what I will do the next time" (23)
"Father, forgive me! You know my poor life...much worse than
poor. Forgive me! I have so many faults... from the smallest
to the largest. Forgive so many sins, so many omissions, and
the abuse of your grace. Forgive so much
forgetfulness and so much coldness. I don't want to be like
that, I don't! I want to live in intimacy with You. But
first, your forgiveness. Oh, Father, forgive and purify me!"
Yours, Félix" (24)
SOURCES
1. Letter to Rome August 15 , 1936.
2. Ibid. February 11, 1934.
3. To the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, January 12, 1924.
4. Magazine La Cruz, November, 1927.
5. To the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, June 14, 1924.
6. Jn. 14:10
7. Jn. 6: 44
8. Letter to Rome, January 23,1932.
9. Letter to Fr. Alvarez, December 19, 1920.
10. Letter to a Daughter of the Holy Spirit, Undated.
11. Notes 1 pp. 123.
12. Talk to the Students, April 18, 1924.
13. Magazine La Cruz, December 1927.
14. Notes, March 31, 1935.
15. Notes, June 16, 1925.
16. Talk to the Novices, June 24,1932
17. Notes. Undated.
18. To the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, October 1924.
19. Undated.
20. Undated.
21. Undated.
22. Undated.
23. Undated.
24. Undated.
