Mary to Sister Josefa Menendez: “The WORK of Jesus must be founded on much pain and love”

Josefa Menendez (1890-1923) was a Spanish Catholic nun and mystic who lived in France for almost four years, from February 5, 1920, until her death on December 29, 1923. She received many messages from Jesus and Mary, which she faithfully compiled in a book which is published in English under the title of The Way of Divine Love. This book received the blessing of the future Pope Pius XII. The cause for Sister Josefa's beatification has been opened in Rome.

On January 21, 1923, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in the chapel in the evening and emphasized the merit of her act: "Because you overcame your aversions out of love," she told her, "Heaven was opened today for eternity to a soul whose salvation was in danger. If you only knew how many souls can be saved by these small acts!" She is so good and so motherly, that I was emboldened to confide many things to her... and she answered me: "Jesus wishes His words to remain hidden as long as you live. After your death, they will be known from one end of the earth to the other, and in their light many souls will be saved through confidence and abandonment to the merciful Heart of Jesus.”

And as Josefa, always apprehensive about receiving these revelations, expresses to this incomparable Mother all her anxieties, Mary replied tenderly: "My daughter, do not be afraid, the WORK of Jesus must be founded on much pain and love.... Do not be afraid, Jesus is almighty, and it is he who acts. He is strong, and he will sustain you. He is merciful and he loves you!" Then, warning her, as it were, of the tribulations which she would have to endure: "He reads the depths of all hearts and it is he who permits circumstances to be as they are. If his plans often seem to you to be hindered, it is because he wants to keep you very humble and very lowly. (...) Let your only ambition be to win many souls for him, to give him much glory and much love." I asked her to bless me. She traced the Sign of the Cross on my forehead with her two fingers, saying: "Yes, with all my heart I bless you." And she vanished.

Excerpt from The Way of Divine Love