Wretched? Wretched is good.
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"If I had been able to find a creature more miserable than you" Our Lord said to Saint Margaret Mary, "I should have chosen her. "
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Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menendez: "If I could have found a more wretched creature, I should have chosen her for my special love, and through her revealed the longings of My Heart. But I have not found one, and so I have chosen you" (7th june 1923).
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"Do you not know that the more wretched a soul is, the more I love her?"
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"The fact that I have chosen a soul does not mean that her faults and miseries are wiped out. But if in all humility that soul acknowledges her failings and atones by little acts of generosity and love, above all, if she trusts Me, if she throws herself into My Heart, she gives Me more glory and does more good to souls than if she had not fallen. What does her wretchedness matter to Me, if she gives Me the love that I want?" (20th October 1922).
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I read that Michael Voris has a few issues with the term wretch as it is used in the song, Amazing Grace. What I find really amazing is the lack of self knowledge we Catholics frequently suffer from. I also think we all need to avoid partaking too much in the cult of self-esteem.
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"I know a man who kept no long strict fasts, no vigils, did not sleep on bare earth, imposed on himself no other specially arduous tasks; but, recollecting in memory his sins, understood his wretchedness and, having judged himself, became humble - and for this alone the most compassionate Lord saved him; as the divine David says: 'The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit' (Ps. 34:18). In short, he trusted the words of the Lord and for his faith the Lord received him." - St. Simeon the New Theologian
