Following Jesus
See also: Disciples, Faith, conviction.
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Following Jesus is a demanding choice and an uncompromising path that requires a gift of one’s whole self, a renunciation of human affections to allow God to completely reshape our Soul in His image.
In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"
- To abandon everything to follow Jesus.[1]
- Following Jesus: You, like plants in spring, adorn yourselves with good intentions, affectionate feelings [...] But, as if burned by drought, you will see Satan coming who will dry you out with his envious breath [...] But will everything then be lost? No. I sow and cultivate while it is my time, then there will be growth and maturation on you; if you keep watch well.[2]
- It is only in the proportion of one in a thousand that the world will want to know me, and in the proportion of one in ten thousand that it will truly follow me. And still, I exaggerate. I will not even be known by my closest." – "But if they are close to you, they will know you." – "Yes, Judas. They will know Me, Jesus, the Israelite Jesus. But they will not know me for Who I am. Truly I tell you that I will not be known by all my close ones. To know means to love with faithfulness and virtue... and there will be someone who will not know me."[3] (speaking of His future betrayal by Judas)
- The Virgin Mary and Mary of Alphaeus decide to follow Jesus from now on.[4]
- Mary Salome, mother of the apostles John and James, mother of John and James, decides to follow Jesus.[5]
- The love of Christ, to follow Him.[6]
- No one, after having put their hand to the plough… ([7]) and[8]
- Heroism to follow God is always proof of strong spiritual preparation.[9]
- But do you know what it means and what it demands to come after Me? : "Whoever loves father, … life more than Me" – "To carry one’s cross" – "Whoever wants to build a tower…" ([10] - [11]) and [12]
- The Lord will speak to you if it is useful for you to follow Him. For it is good for you to know that, though He rejects no one, we have within us tendencies that repel the Light. Now, he who has so much of it as to not only be saturated but penetrated by it and attached to it as to the flesh of his person, then it is better that he abstain from coming, unless he destroys himself to recreate himself anew.[13]