Gifts of Heaven · Volume 2 · Chapter 264

Domestic soul-care – A Word for Name Day

19th November 1842, morning

O dear good Father, who is holy, over holy! Would it not then be pleasing to you to give me a little word only for the wife of Ans. H.-W.? – She has surely been looking forward to it for a long time and will perhaps be all the more pleased today, since she certainly expects something on the day of her name! – As You have always heard my request for something in Your most holy name, so I hope with confidence that You, O Holy Father, will hear me this time too. – But as always, so also this time Your most holy will be done! Amen.

[1] What kind of word do you want, a sweet, a fine, a good, a French one? or a gentle, a soft, a flattering, a lively one; or a declaration of love, an order, a message, a truth, a letter of wishes? – See, these are just little words! So explain to yourself what you want more clearly! Because I don't see any certainty in your spirit.

[2] What should I give you if you do not express yourself what you want? – If you have no bread, ask for bread and you will get it. Whoever wants a wife should ask for a wife, and it should be his. Whoever wants wisdom, ask for wisdom, and it should be given to him. And what someone asks for, with full confidence, with a very definite heart, should be given to him, if it is not more foolish or disorderly.

[3] But if you are asking for a vague word, what shall I give you for one? – you say: it will be the best for everyone, what I am giving you always! – This is true – but the best is not always pleasant to hear. Therefore, even from my side, a reproof is better than a soporific consolation. And yet everyone would rather hear a sweet consolation than a somewhat harsher rebuke! – Therefore now declare more definitely what you want, otherwise I give you nothing!

[4] Very well, you want both! – So I will give you both. – And so say then in My name to the wife of Ans. H.-W. that I will have her told on her day:

[5] Spiritual occupations, such as reflections on how I guide people in love and on my fatherly care, are better and by far worth much more than an uninterrupted domestic thread industry!

[6] For this reason, I would also prefer if my dear Elise H. would sometimes decide to urge her daughters just as diligently to make a pair of spiritual socks and stockings, shirts, chemisettes, dresses and the like for me – as she sometimes urges them quite strictly to make a material dress or something like that!

[7] See, my dear daughter, I do not want to reproach you with this. Better to work than lazy. But this is also true that it is much better to do more for the spirit than for the body.

[8] For whoever works for the Spirit will also reap for the Spirit, which will live forever. But whoever works more for the body will one day be stuck in great spiritual (*1) poverty. Because on the other side everyone will only have what he has spiritually acquired here, and no more and no less.

[9] Therefore you too, My dear daughter, in the future, for yourself as well as for your daughters, be first and foremost and more anxious for what they have done in one day more for the spirit than for the body, and you will gather riches for yourself and your daughters for eternity

[10] Behold only briefly and temporarily is all the world's gain, and bad and bitter is on top of it. But if you work for Me in your heart and in the hearts of your daughters according to your ability, you will have an exceedingly great and everlasting reward for even the little ones. – Such things I

tell you today and always. Receive it loyally in your heart and live by it, and I will always have great joy in you and yours! – I, your dear, good father! Amen.