BRO. MARCEL VAN: SPOUSAL LOVE 1
The ideas presented here come from the dialogues Bro Marcel Van had with the Lord Jesus, with the Blessed Mother, and with St Therese of the Child Jesus (it is indicated who is speaking or sending the message) with whom he enjoyed spiritual conversations. Brother Marcel’s holy life did not rest on these conversations but rather on his deep love for God, his obedience to his will, and his commitment and service to others. He died as a “confessor of the faith” – one who lived his faith heroically in the midst of trials – in a North Vietnamese Communist prison where he strived to bring joy and faith to his companions, Catholic or not.
2. Spousal love
a. infinite love
Jesus: The words that I address you here are far from expressing all the love I feel for souls. I do not know what human language to use to translate all the intimacy of my love. The intimate words that I address to you and to other souls, I borrow from the language that people usually use to express their feelings. […] Little child of my love, you can never measure my love. My love for you, my child, and for souls is still hidden, it is not possible for me to manifest it totally in this world. There is only the day when we will see love, where we will be eternally united to love that we can understand it clearly. Did not your sister Thérèse teach you in the past that “only my love remains forever?”
Jesus: Little friend of my love, when I contemplate your soul, I am delighted with its beauty. What name do you want me to give him? I will call it “my little flower”. And this little flower, I will warm it to the sun of love and I will bring down on it the dew of grace. O my little flower, exhale your perfume before my throne. When I look at you in your freshness, what joy for me, and how I wish all souls to be like yours.
Jesus: My child, I love you, I press you on my heart, I cover you with kisses and caresses, I do everything to get you drunk with my only love …
Jesus: Now write these words to which I hold dear: “As soon as a soul possesses a little true love for me, it draws to it all the fire of the love that burns in my heart, and thus transformed into a burning home, it will be consumed and purified … It becomes so intimately united to my love that it only forms one heart with me … Impossible to separate myself from this heart so closely welded to mine. Can you understand, my child, the immense love that I carry to souls …”
Jesus: Little apostle of my love, the words that I dictate to you here, do you find them beautiful? … As for me, I find them very beautiful because they come from a heart overflowing with love.
Jesus: Marcel, are you happy now? Are you happy with me? Do you want me to give you a kiss? Tell me, “Little Jesus, I love you.”
Jesus: Little child of my love, do you know why Magdalene was delighted at my feet and found so much pleasure with me that she even forgot to help her sister Martha? My child, listen. The reason is that at that moment I only sent her words of love as I am doing with you now. Magdalene was so charmed by these that she forgot even the reproaches of her sister. But supposing that she was not at the height of her joy, she would have quarreled with her sister at once. […] If Magdalene, when she listened to me, had written what I told her, those words of love would have been manifested to the world.
Jesus: Love loves infinitely, he is infinitely just. It is because he is infinitely just that he loves infinitely, and it is because he loves infinitely that he is infinitely fair … It is enough of a simple look of confidence thrown on me to snatch the sinful souls of the claws of the demon.
