
This section is designed to help you both understand and grow into that mature spiritual state as a foundation for living the Flame of Love of Mary’s Immaculate Heart and participate in the apostolic works or the Movement.
Here, you will find:
- Weekly Agenda, our apostolic works for the propagation of the Flame
- Flame of Love Testimonials
- Flame of Love Blog, inspirations from voices in the Movement
- Daily Meditations
- Consuming Fire Meditations by Val Parisi
- Information about how to order Our Lady’s Pilgrim Statue and adopting the traveling devotion in your area.
At its core, the Flame of Love is not a devotion, but a way of life. Yes, there are promises, prayers and specific sacrifices asked of us, such as fasting on bread and water for 6 meals a week, but all of the spiritual exercises are designed with one purpose: to assist Our Lord and His dear Mother in saving as many souls as Divine Mercy will allow, since so many souls are in danger of being lost forever!
The Flame of Love devotion cannot be understood without understanding the underlying mature Christian spirituality. The Spiritual Diary reflects a remarkable spiritual maturity. Elizabeth’s experiences are often reminiscent of Saint Teresa of Avila. Without understanding the depth of sacrificial love called for in this mature spiritual state, the devotion and the Diary can seem harsh and off-putting.
St. Therese of Lisieux was also gifted with this understanding of being a victim of Merciful Love: “… in order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necessary that Love lower Itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire… Jesus, I am too little to perform great actions, and my own folly is this: to trust that Your love will accept me as a victim.”
The Requests: Our Lady also had certain expectations for Elizabeth (and for us). Our Lady expects: 1. goodness of life 2. generous amounts of time given to prayer 3. frequent reception of Holy Communion and Confession 4. simplicity of life 5. fasting on Mondays until 6:00 PM on bread and water 6. Eucharistic Adoration 7. Some withdrawal from worldly entertainments.
So, what are the specific actions and the intensified efforts now requested in order for us to claim objectively that we are completely devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? They are as follows:
- Make, renew and live daily your Consecration to Jesus through Mary (www.MYCONSECRATION.ORG)
- Pray the Rosary daily with the Flame of Love Petition
- Continue to make the First Saturdays of Reparation every month
- Wear the Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal
- Offer your daily duty with and through Mary for souls
- Join or start a Flame of Love prayer group (which prays the Rosary and reads from the Diary)
- Fast on bread and water for souls on the designated times which are explained in the Diary. See MONDAY of the Weekly Agenda
- Make night vigils of reparation for souls, also explained in the Diary. See Basic Series on Night Vigils
If you are only doing one or several of these exercises of love, do not be concerned nor disheartened. Simply pray: “Lord, I want to love our Mother as You do; Mary, I want to love Jesus as you do. Mary, I beg through the Flame of Love of your Immaculate Heart that you will reorient my time to increase my number of loving exercises, so I may quickly grow in love for the Holy Trinity, and that you will cause me to know and desire that love requires sacrifice as you and Jesus constantly sacrificed for us. May the Holy Spirit completely fill my soul with the Seven Gifts, and may these be the Gifts I desire from this day forward, which will allow me to desire and obtain the Greatest Gift of Holiness, so I may live completely with the Will of God as you did, through the Flame of Love of your Immaculate Heart! Fiat!