Our Lady of America

The Divine Indwelling

Sister Mildred wrote on the evening of August 5, 1957, “Our Lady spoke to me about the Divine Indwelling. It was her life and she lived it perfectly always conscious of His presence, never forgetting that all her greatness came from within, from Him who dwelt there, working, loving, and doing good through her. This is what Our Lady means when she speaks of reformation, renewal. It is this about which she is so concerned, namely sanctification from within. . . . She seemed anxious to impress me with some idea of the greatness of this gift of God to us, namely, His Divine Presence within our souls through sanctifying grace.”

On March 18, 1958, St. Joseph appeared to Sister Mildred and said, “Through you, small one, the Trinity desires to make known to souls Its desire to be adored, honored, and loved within the kingdom, the interior kingdom of their hearts.”

On November 23, 1957, Our Lady revealed herself to Sister Mildred “as she really and truly was, the Immaculate Tabernacle of the Indwelling God.” She wore “on her breast, as through a veil, the Triangle and the Eye, which is often depicted as the symbol of the Divine Indwelling.” This image is now on the reverse side of the medal of Our Lady of America so that we can wear the image as she did. She revealed her title, “I am Our Lady of the Divine Indwelling, handmaid of Him who dwells within.”

The triangle and eye on the reverse side of the medal are similar to that on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States which is printed on the back of the one dollar bill. The equilateral triangle on the medal symbolizes the Most Holy Trinity (three equal divine persons) with the all-seeing eye of the one true God looking out from it.

The Great Seal shows the triangle and eye beneath the Latin words Annuit Coeptis over an unfinished pyramid with the Roman numerals for 1776 at its base. Beneath that, appear the Latin words Novus Ordo Seclorum. According to the United States Department of State, “Symbolically the seal reflects the beliefs and values of the Founding Fathers of the United States that they attached to the new nation and wished to pass on to their descendants.” This reverse side, the Department says, “sometimes referred to as the spiritual side of the seal, contains the 13-step pyramid with the year 1776 in Roman numerals on the base. At the summit of the pyramid is the Eye of Providence in a triangle surrounded by a Glory (rays of light) . . . heralding the beginning of the new America era in 1776.”

The only official explanation of the Great Seal is by Charles Thompson, its principal designer, on June 20, 1782. He said, “The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: the Eye over it and the motto allude to the many interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause. The date underneath that is the Declaration of Independence and the words under it signify the beginning of the new American Aera, which commences from that date.” It seems as if Our Lady of America hopes for the continuation of the United States in “strength and duration” under the eye and providence of the Most Holy Trinity.

On February 11, 1958, Our Lady told Sister Mildred, “There is only one true way to the Father, my child, only one way to eternal union. It is the way of the divine humanity. It is through my Son, the only-begotten of the Father, that souls attain perfect union with the divinity, as perfect as human nature is capable of, aided by divine grace.” Towards evening Our Lady said, “I am the Mother of the sacred humanity, and it is my special work as Co-Redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach the sanctity of the Father in eternal union by showing them how to put on Christ, to imbibe His Spirit, and thus become one with Him.”

Our Lady made known to Sister “that she is particularly interested in the youth of our nation. It is they who are to be the leaders of this movement of renewal on the face of the earth. . . . But the youth must be prepared, and this must be done by instilling into them, not only the knowledge of the Divine Indwelling, but a serious study of It, living It in such a way that the Divine Presence becomes, as it were, an intimate and necessary part of their life and daily living. From this will flow a great love, a conflagration that will envelop the world in the flames of Divine Charity.” (Diary 16).

So let us learn and study the Divine Indwelling! It is not a new teaching by Our Lady of America. The Church has always taught it and Our Lady of America is reminding us of it. The teaching has its source in Sacred Scripture and is taught by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Sacred Scripture

What is this Divine Indwelling of which Our Lady of America speaks? God lives in us! The Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one God, dwell in us by their free gift of grace of which we are not worthy. “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.” (CCC 1996). The Fathers of the early Church said that “the Son of God became a man, in order that men might become sons of God.”

“In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:26-28). “God is love and he who lives in love lives in God and God [lives] in him.” (1 Jn. 4:16). “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God.” (1 John 4:15, 16). “All who keep His commandments live in Him, and He in them.” (1 Jn. 3:24). Jesus said, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word and my Father will come to him and make His home in him.” (Jn. 14:23). God really makes His home within us. (See 1 Cor. 3:16; Jn. 14:23; Rev. 3:20).

Since God makes His home in us, we are then, as St. Peter tells us, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4) and, as St. Paul says, “partakers of Christ” (Heb. 3:14) and “partakers of the Holy Spirit.” (Heb. 6:4). We are God-like, in fellowship with the Father and the Son (see 1 Jn. 1:3) by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is recognized in the Mass when the priest prays, “By the mixing of this water and wine, may we share in the divinity of Him who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”

St. Paul is very clear about the reality of the Divine Indwelling. This is the mystery of the Gospel, he says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” he tells the Galatians. (Gal. 2:20). He asked the Corinthians, incredulously, “Do you not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5). Likewise, he says, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. (2 Tim. 1:14). “God gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Cor. 1:22), and has “sent the Spirit into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father.’ ” (Gal. 4:6). Of course, Father-union, Christ-union and Holy Spirit-union is the same as the Divine Indwelling of the Holy Trinity since you can’t have one person without the others.

The Mystery of the Divine Indwelling

How does this Divine Indwelling happen? Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, with the Holy Trinity is conceived (infused is more accurate) in us through our Baptism by the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit through the mediation of Mary our mother. Christ is “formed within us,” as St. Paul says, (Gal 4:19) by Mary’s mediation. She who mediated Christ’s formation and Divine Indwelling in herself, also mediates His Divine Indwelling in us by God’s grace. As Jesus’ human nature was conceived in her, so our share in the divine nature is conceived in us by her mediation. Our Lady of America said, “I am the Mother of the sacred humanity.”

The Holy Trinity lives in us as a Father, Friend and Sanctifier. We are divinized by grace and share in the divine nature. As St. Paul tells us, we are adopted children, sons of God and heirs of His Kingdom. (See Rm. 8:15:17).

“Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us ‘co-heirs’ with Christ and worthy of obtaining ‘the promised inheritance of eternal life.’ ” (CCC 2009).

How does God live in us? We don’t know. It is a mystery beyond our powers of human understanding. The fact remains, however, that the Holy Trinity is present not in the ordinary way in which God is omnipresent in all things by His power, but in a special way from the moment that sanctifying grace is infused into our souls at Baptism. God transforms us inwardly, giving us a share in His own intimate divine life by His grace. Sister Mildred said that Our Lady of America “was anxious to impress her with the idea of the greatness of God’s gift of His Divine Presence within our souls through sanctifying grace.”

“Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an ‘adopted son’ he can henceforth call God ‘Father,’ in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.” (CCC 1997).

This “life” that we share with God is not natural biological life but supernatural divine life. This is the “life” that Jesus referred to when He said, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10). It is a real participation in the divine life in Christ. “Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself.” (CCC 1999; 2 Cor. 5:17-18).

“This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for He alone can reveal and give Himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.” (CCC 1998).

The sources of Divine Indwelling are the sacraments and prayer and fasting, through which we receive sanctifying grace. This makes us really the children of God because it makes us partakers of His nature. We cannot be sons of God by nature, as Jesus is, but we are really sons of God by grace and by adoption.

Divine Indwelling begins with our Baptism when we receive the seed of divine life and grace; it is nourished by the Eucharist, prayer and fasting; strengthened by Confirmation; lost by sin and regained by Penance. The life of grace that we receive in Baptism and which is nourished by the Eucharist, is the seed of eternal life. From this proceeds the infused theological and moral virtues, the greatest of which is love, and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit to bring us finally to the fullness of eternal life.

Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (Jn. 17:4). He also told us how we receive this eternal life. “Whoever believes has eternal life” and “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day [and he] remains in me and I in him.” (Jn. 6:47, 54, 56).

So, if we believe in Him with a living faith, loving God and our neighbor, we have the seed of eternal life already begun, a seed of the divine nature that will grow into the fullness of eternal life in heaven, just as the acorn, the seed with an oak’s nature, grows into the fullness of a mighty oak tree. So too, we will grow in grace until the fullness of eternal life when we see God unveiled, as He is, face to face.

How do we daily live the Divine Indwelling as Our Lady of America requested? Thomas à Kempis wrote in his Imitation of Christ that we should prepare our hearts for the Divine Indwelling.

“The Kingdom of God is within you,” says the Lord. Turn, then, to God with all your heart. Forsake this wretched world and your soul shall find rest. Learn to despise external things, to devote yourself to those that are within, and you will see the Kingdom of God come unto you, that Kingdom which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, gifts not given to the impious. Christ will come to you offering His consolation, if you prepare a fit dwelling for Him in your heart, whose beauty and glory, wherein He takes delight, are all from within. His visits with the inward man are frequent, His communion sweet and full of consolation, His peace great, and His intimacy wonderful indeed. Therefore, faithful soul, prepare your heart for this Bridegroom that He may come and dwell within you; He Himself says: “If any one loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.”

Renowned spiritual writer Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange wrote in his Three Stages of the Interior Life that we begin to live the Divine Indwelling when we stop talking to ourselves and begin to talk to God in prayer:

As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him.

Our Lady of America asked us to live the Divine Indwelling “in such a way that the Divine Presence becomes, as it were, an intimate and necessary part of [our] life and daily living.” Jesus explains His invitation to the intimacy of the Divine Indwelling, which awaits our free welcome. He said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20).

If you live with someone, you pay attention to him. You are present to him, talk to him, listen to him, keep him company. This is how we live with God and, since He is God, we do what He tells us to do. (See Jn. 2:5). So we live the Divine Indwelling by seeking first the Kingdom of God, seeking God in everything, practicing living in His presence in an intimate way with friendly conversation with Him, and a determined focus on contemplative, internal prayer rather than external actions, which we transform into prayer by offering them to God.

Lazarus’ sister Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to Him while her sister Martha waited upon Him and complained to Jesus that Mary had left her alone to do the serving. Jesus told Martha, “You are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Lk. 10:41-42). Prayer is the better part. Good works are secondary to prayer.

Prayer

Pope John Paul II said in his Apostolic Letter, The Coming of the Third Millennium, “Inasmuch as contemporary culture, even amid so many indications to the contrary, has witnessed the flowering of a new call for spirituality, due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever that our Christian communities should become ‘genuine schools of prayer.’ ”

Likewise, Pope Benedict XVI stressed in his first Encyclical Letter, God is Love, the “importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work.” Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed.

Pope Benedict mentioned Blessed Mother Teresa three times to stress that the roots of effective Christian service and charity is in prayer:

In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service.

Our Lady has asked us to pray the Rosary daily. “But the most important reason for strongly encouraging the practice of the Rosary,” wrote Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter, The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, “is that it represents a most effective means of fostering among the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery which I have proposed in the Apostolic Letter The Coming of the Third Millennium as a genuine ‘training in holiness’: ‘What is needed is a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer.’ ”

Pope John Paul II elaborated on this in his Apostolic Letter, At the Beginning of the Third Millennium:

We have to learn to pray: as it were learning this art ever anew from the lips of the Divine Master himself, like the first disciples: “Lord, teach us to pray!” (Lk.11:1). Prayer develops that conversation with Christ which makes us His intimate friends: “Abide in me and I in you.” (Jn. 15:4). This reciprocity is the very substance and soul of the Christian life, and the condition of all true pastoral life. Wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, this reciprocity opens us, through Christ and in Christ, to contemplation of the Father's face. Learning this Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer and living it fully, above all in the liturgy, the summit and source of the Church's life, but also in personal experience, is the secret of a truly vital Christianity, which has no reason to fear the future, because it returns continually to the sources and finds in them new life. . . . Yes, dear brothers and sisters, our Christian communities must become “genuine schools of prayer”, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly “falls in love”.

Our prayer should not be limited to petitions to God and meditation on His Word. “This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with Him.” (CCC 2708).

We are enabled to live in Him daily through sanctifying grace. “Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by His love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.” (CCC 2000).

Good Works

Without the Divine Indwelling, we cannot perform any meritorious acts. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5).

Pope John Paul II emphasized this. He wrote in his Apostolic Letter, At the Beginning of the New Millennium:

There is a temptation which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan. God of course asks us really to cooperate with His grace, and therefore invites us to invest all our resources of intelligence and energy in serving the cause of the Kingdom. But it is fatal to forget that “without Christ we can do nothing.” (See Jn. 15:5). It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with Him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness.

It is God who begins our good works by helping us to will them and it is He who completes His work in us. “He who completes His work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it.” (CCC 2001). Of course, we also work, but we are really only collaborating with God who works, because, as Jesus said, without Him we can do nothing. Since God lives in us and we can do nothing without Him, we are called to co-operate with Him and be Christ-bearers like Mary, in whom Jesus Christ literally divinely indwelled. Mary is our model for living the Divine Indwelling.

Mary called herself “the handmaid of the Lord.” (See Lk. 1:38; 48). Our Lady of America called herself “the handmaid of Him who dwells within.” She told Sister Mildred that the Divine Indwelling “was her life and she lived it perfectly always conscious of His presence, never forgetting that all her greatness came from within, from Him who dwelt there, working, loving, and doing good through her.”

We should imitate her and become “other Marys”. We should live the Divine Indwelling in humility like Mary, who called herself a handmaid; who trusted in the Lord (see Lk.1:45); who manifested Him to the shepherds and the magi (see Lk.2; Mt. 2); who kept His word (see Lk. 11:28) and who “pondered these things in her heart.” (Lk. 2:51).

We should, like Mary, tell the people, “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn. 2:5) and magnify Him (see Lk. 1:46) by our good works. St Francis of Assisi summed this up when he said, “We are mothers of Christ when we carry Him in our hearts and our bodies through divine love and pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to Him through holy works, which should shine as an example before others!”

Temples and Tabernacles of the Divine Indwelling

Those who daily live the Divine Indwelling and, like St. Francis, who “carry Him in our hearts and our bodies” are temples of the Holy Trinity. St. Paul asks, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own. For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your in your body.” (2 Cor. 6:19-20). As such, we should live as St. Paul urges us by glorifying God in our bodies, the temples of the Holy Spirit.

Souls who live the Divine Indwelling are like the Jewish temple in Jerusalem which had its Holy of Holies since souls contain the presence of the living God as did the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and only on one day each year. Likewise, only Jesus Christ, our Victim-High Priest, can enter our Holy of Holies and dwell there in our temple of the Holy Spirit. Satan cannot enter, he can only stand at the door and try to get us to close it through his temptations and distractions. Unlike the yearly entrance of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies, Christ’s indwelling can be prolonged for a soul in the state of grace and, with the reception of the Eucharist, the indwelling is of the real, glorified, risen, living Christ.

Today’s Holy of Holies are also all of the tabernacles throughout the world that house the Blessed Sacrament, the real presence of the living God, just as the Holy of Holies housed His presence in the temple. By Our Lady of America’s appearance as “the Immaculate Tabernacle of the Indwelling God”, she makes the analogy that we are tabernacles that house the Indwelling God. Like Mary, we are called to be living tabernacles for the Divine Trinity indwelling within us by our faith and God’s grace. The Holy Trinity becomes the soul of our soul.

The Divine Indwelling is a real divinization in the being and powers of the soul, which grows with prayer, fasting and the sacraments through the whole of the person in cooperation with the graces received by God to live a holy and virtuous life. The human result of this process is called a saint. St. Faustina Kowalska recognized the Divine Indwelling. She wrote in her Diary, “My soul is touched by God and wholly absorbs itself in Him. . . . Permeated by God to its very depths, it drowns in His beauty.” (Diary 767).

Practicing the Presence of the Divine Indwelling

Our Lady of America told Sister Mildred that the Divine Indwelling “was her life and she lived it perfectly always conscious of His presence.” How do we practice the presence of the Divine Indwelling on a daily basis? How can we do this in our technological age with the noise of radios, televisions, cell phones, computers and Ipods? We must have a site, silence and solitude. These are the three requisites of regularly practicing the presence of the Divine Indwelling on a daily basis. We also need method and discipline.

Site. We try to bring ourselves to meet Jesus daily for at least ten minutes at our site “in a desert place”. (See Mk. 6:31). We don’t have to look for real deserts in nature and we don’t have to go to convents, monasteries or churches. Our “deserts” are states of mind and heart. We can find our “desert” in our daily environment whether at home, work or at play. At home we can have a place that is set aside as a “desert” – alone in a quiet room or corner, the attic or the basement, etc. “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt. 6:6).

We can also find our “desert” in nature. “We can pray perfectly when we are out in the mountains or on a lake and we feel at one with nature. Nature speaks for us or rather speaks to us. We pray perfectly.” (Pope John Paul II, The Way of Prayer).

If we don’t have the luxury of a site and time for a ten minute meeting with Jesus in a “desert” we can still daily practice the presence of the Divine Indwelling in smaller “deserts of time” by a quick word, a glance or an awareness of Him. True spousal lovers accept these little acts of awareness. Love isn’t practiced only in the bedroom, but also by looking into one another’s eyes, holding hands or hugging. It’s the same way with practicing the presence of the Divine Indwelling. We can find these opportunities while walking, waiting in lines at stores, in automobiles, in housework or yard work or while taking a bath. We can find our “desert” within and pray interiorly by little ejaculations and movements of our hearts praising, adoring and thanking God within.

We should remember that the Kingdom of God is within us. St. Joseph told Sister Mildred that the Holy Trinity has a “desire to be adored, honored, and loved within the kingdom, the interior kingdom of their hearts.” “Do not forget your prayers. These may be as short as you wish if you find long prayers too hard, but do not forget them. Even a sign can be a prayer.” (Pope John XXIII, A Joyful Soul).

A good way of praying in these “deserts of time” during our ordinary activities is to make frequent “spiritual communions” with Jesus. These spiritually nourish us throughout our day and help us to become more aware of His presence at all times as our most intimate friend. We can make these spiritual communions by lifting up our hearts and minds to Him for a moment in a prayer like this: “Jesus, I believe that you are really and truly present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. I love you above all else, and I ardently desire to receive you into my soul through your Divine Indwelling. But since I cannot receive Communion at this moment, please come spiritually into my heart. Remain with me Lord and let me never turn away from you!”

Solitude and Silence. When we have a regular “desert” site, we should go there in solitude and silence and practice contemplative prayer. “What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: ‘Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.’ Contemplative prayer seeks Him ‘whom my soul loves.’ It is Jesus, and in Him, the Father. We seek Him, because to desire Him is always the beginning of love, and we seek Him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of Him and to live in Him.” (CCC 2709).

Ten to thirty minutes alone in silence in a quiet place can be enough to bring ourselves into the presence of the Divine Indwelling to meet God dwelling within our temples of the Holy Spirit in the depths of our souls. We should go to our site alone, sit down and relax our bodies, quiet our minds, wills, thoughts and emotions. Jesus said, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (Mk. 6:31). “Be still and know that I am God.” (Ps. 46:10). As the prophet Elijah learned, God is not in the noise of wind, earthquake and fire but in “the still, small voice.” (See 1 Kings 19:12).

Pope John Paul II said, “In an oasis of quiet, especially before the wonderful spectacle of nature, one can easily experience how profitable silence is, a good that today is ever more rare. The many opportunities of relation and information that modern society offers sometimes run the risk of robbing time for recollection, to the point of rendering persons incapable of reflecting and praying. In reality, only in silence does man succeed in hearing in the depth of his conscience the voice of God, which really makes him free. It is an indispensable interior dimension of human life.” (Pope John Paul II, Address July 11, 2004).

Method and discipline. In the silence, we can speak interiorly and intimately with Jesus as with a close friend, expressing our love, adoration and thanks for Him and our own joys and sorrows, successes and failures and daily worries and troubles. After that, we can become quiet and come to an interior silence, stop talking to Him and begin to listen to Him. We probably won’t hear His voice but we will predispose ourselves to His communication with the deepest part of our souls. Remember, if we open the door, He will come in and have supper with us. (See Rev. 3:20).

We stop talking to ourselves and to Jesus. We stop thinking about Jesus and about what He said and did. We stop pleading with Him for help for ourselves and for others. What we do is make a gift to Him of a little bit of time by simply practicing alone in silence, His presence in the Divine Indwelling.

The silence is an interior silence as well as exterior. We can bring ourselves to this interior silence by repeating short prayer words such as, “Father I am yours,” “Come Holy Spirit” or “Jesus.” We can use these “prayer words” to help bring our attention back when we become distracted. Distractions will come, but we choose to let the thoughts and images go by rather than to give them any attention.

We try to silence the interior noise, and, in the solitude of our being, in the depths of our soul, beyond the senses, we accept in faith the infinite mystery of the Divine Indwelling and adore Him. We use discipline, persevere in patience and, in pure naked faith, we let go and let God do the rest. We try to practice the presence of the Divine Indwelling in faith, but we don’t let ourselves become frustrated if we experience nothing. We are patient and wait upon the Lord.

“The choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will, revealing the secrets of the heart. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty and in faith.” (CCC 2710).

Through the practice of the presence of the Divine Indwelling, we will attain the necessary balance between interior recollection and actions required by our state in life and avoid an exaggerated activism.

Through the practice of the presence of the Divine Indwelling, we will begin to live abandoned and full of confidence in His hands, free of worry and anxieties, as Jesus asked us. We will come to His promised peace that is beyond all understanding.

Through the practice of the presence of the Divine Indwelling, we will notice almost imperceptible small improvements in our spirituality: a little more patience, a little more kindness, a little more peace, etc. We must be patient with ourselves. God takes His time with us. We must allow Him to improve us at His pace and not ours. Eventually, we will be able to say with St Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20).

Through the practice of the presence of the Divine Indwelling, Jesus will use our arms and feet, He will speak through our mouths, His face will shine through ours and we will bring His peace to all.

Through the practice of the presence of the Divine Indwelling, we will open the doors of our heart to God's plan and we will grow in holiness, which is God’s will for everyone. “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Th. 4:3). “Be holy, for I am holy.” (Lev. 11:44-45). “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48). Then we will become saints of the Divine Indwelling.

Saints of the Divine Indwelling

The Divine Indwelling was recognized by Carmelite saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. A thousand years before them, St. Augustine said, “I found Thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking Thee without who were within.” St. John of the Cross recognized this and later said, “God then is hidden within the soul, and there the good contemplative must seek Him with love.”

St. Teresa sought Him there with love. She wrote in her Way of Perfection:

Remember how Saint Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually finding Him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven? . . . We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.

St. John of the Cross wrote of this mystery in the beginning of his Spiritual Canticle:

Come, then, thou soul, most beautiful of all creatures, that so greatly desirest to know the place where thy Beloved is, in order to seek Him and be united with Him; . . . thou thyself art the lodging wherein He dwells, and the chamber and hiding-place wherein He is hidden. . . .What more desirest thou, O soul, and what more seekest thou without thyself, since within thyself thou hast thy riches, thy delight, thy satisfaction, thy fullness and thy kingdom, which is thy Beloved, Whom thy soul desires and seeks? Rejoice thou and be glad in thy inward recollection with Him, since thou hast Him so near.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity was a modern witness of the Divine Indwelling. She contemplated the beauty of this mystery and wrote to a friend, “It seems to me that I have found my heaven on earth, for heaven is God, and God is in my soul. . . . May He make of your soul a little heaven in which He can rest happily. Remove from it all that could offend His divine gaze. Live with Him. Remain constantly with Him. Enter into the interior of your soul; you will always find Him there, longing to do great things for you.” She prayed to the Divine Indwelling:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

This prayer is quoted verbatim in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (CCC 260). On November 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II beatified Elizabeth of the Trinity. In his homily at the beatification, the Pope presented her to the Church as one “who led a life ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3),” and as “a brilliant witness to the joy of being 'rooted and grounded in love.’ ” (Eph. 3:17).

Let us too be witnesses to the joy of being rooted and grounded in love by recognizing and living daily the Divine Indwelling and practicing the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. In His last prayer, Jesus recognized the Divine Indwelling and prayed that we would be one in the Holy Trinity. He prayed, “I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” (Jn. 17:20-21).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that our ultimate unity in the Holy Trinity begins now with the Divine Indwelling. “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.’ ” (CCC 260).

Our Lady of America confirms this teaching of the ultimate unity. She said, “It is my special work as Co-Redemptrix of the human race to help souls reach the sanctity of the Father in eternal union by showing them how to put on Christ, to imbibe His Spirit, and thus become one with Him.”

In the temple of the living God with the Divine Indwelling, we praise, honor, adore, glorify and bless God as did the Jews in the Jerusalem temple and as a foretaste of the saints’ prayers in heaven. In the ultimate end of the whole divine economy, those living with the Divine Indwelling will join the saints in heaven and “stand before God’s throne and worship Him day and night in His temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:15-17).

Sister Mildred’s Prayer to the Indwelling
Most Holy Trinity

O my Love, my only Good, Most Holy Trinity, I adore You, hidden in the depths of my soul. To You, to Your honor and glory, I dedicate my life. May every thought, word and deed of mine be an act of adoration and praise directed towards Your Divine Majesty enthroned in my heart.

O Father, Infinite Goodness, behold Your child, clothed in the likeness of Your Son. Extend to me Your arms that I may belong to You forever.

O Son, Divine Lord, made man, crucify me with Yourself that I may become, in union with You, a sacrifice of praise for the glory of Your Father.

O Holy Spirit, Fire of Everlasting Love, consume me on the altar of Divine Charity, that at the end of life, nothing may remain but that which bears the likeness of Christ.

O Blessed Trinity, worthy of all adoration, I wish to remain in spirit on my knees, to acknowledge forever Your reign in me and over me, to Your everlasting glory.

Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the pure heart of St. Joseph, I consecrate my life to Your adoration and glory.

At the moment of death, receive me, O my Triune Love, that I may continue my adoration of love through all eternity. Amen.