Accessibility Tools

Return to REFLECTIONS ON THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

Reflections On Firmness-The Greatest Virtue

Reflections On Firmness – The Greatest Virtue

From The Writings Of Luisa Piccarreta

“The Little Daughter Of The Divine Will”

VOL. 12 – March 4, 1918

Firmness produces heroism.

Continuing in my usual state, I was lamenting to Jesus about my poor state, and He told me: “My daughter, courage, do not move in anything. Firmness is the greatest virtue. Firmness produces heroism, and it is almost impossible for one not to be a great saint. Rather, as she keeps repeating her acts, she forms two bars – one to the right, and the other to the left – which serve her as support and defense; and as she reiterates her acts, a fount forms in her, of new and increasing love. Firmness strengthens grace, placing on it the seal of final perseverance. Your Jesus does not fear that His graces may remain without effects, and therefore I pour them in torrents over a constant soul. There is not very much to expect from a soul who works today, and tomorrow does not – who now does some good, and now some other. She will not have any support, and will be bounced now to one point, now to another. She will die of starvation, because she will not have the fount of firmness, which makes love arise. Grace fears to pour itself, because she will abuse it, and use it to offend Me.”

VOL. 17 – November 27, 1924

On the immutability of God and the mutability of creatures. The cause of this mutability is the will of man.

I was thinking about the immutability of God and the mutability of creatures. What difference! Now, while I was thinking of this, my always benign Jesus moved in my interior, saying to me: “My daughter, look: there is not one point in which my Being is not present. I have no place to oscillate, either to the right, or to the left, or behind. There is not one void which is not filled with Me. Not finding one point in which I am not present, my firmness feels unshakable: this is my Eternal Immutability. This immense Immutability renders Me immutable in pleasures: what I like today, I like always – immutable in loving, immutable in ruling, in wanting. Once I have loved, enjoyed, wanted something, there is no danger that I may ever change. In order to change, I would have to restrict my Immensity – which I cannot do, nor do I want to. My Immutability is the most beautiful halo which crowns my head, extends under my feet, and pays eternal homage to my Immutable Sanctity. Tell me: is there perhaps one point in which you do not find Me?”

As He was saying this, this divine Immutability made itself present before my mind. But who can say what I understood? I fear I may say nonsense, so I move forward. In speaking, then, about the mutability of the creature, He expressed Himself in this way: “Poor creature! How tiny is her little place! And as tiny as it is, her place is not even stable and fixed: today she is at one point, tomorrow she is thrown to another. This is also the reason for which today she loves, she likes one person, one object, one place; tomorrow she changes and maybe even despises what yesterday she liked and loved. But do you know what renders the poor human creature mutable? Her human will renders her fickle in love, in pleasures, in the good she does. The human will is like an impetuous wind which moves the creature at every blow, like an empty reed – now to the right, now to the left. This is why, in creating her, I wanted her to live of my Will – so that, arresting this impetuous wind of the human will, It might render her firm in good, stable in love, holy in working. I wanted to let her live in the immense territory of my Immutability. But the creature was not content: she wanted her little place, and so became the amusement of herself, of others, and of her own passions. This is why I pray – I supplicate the creature to take this Will of Mine, to make It her own, that she may return into that immutable Will from which she came, and so that she may no longer be fickle, but stable and firm. I have not changed: I wait for her, I long for her, I want her always in my Will.”

VOL. 17 – December 24, 1924

Daughter, this is the nature of true Love; this is to work as God: firmness, and not to withdraw at the cost of any sacrifice. This firmness in my works is my victory – the greatest one of my glory; and this is the sign to know whether the creature works for God: firmness. The soul looks to no one in the face – neither to pains, nor to herself, nor to self-esteem, nor to creatures. Even though it may cost her own life, she looks only at God, for love of Whom she set herself to work; and she feels victorious in offering the sacrifice of her life for love of Him.

Not being firm is of the human nature and of the human way of working. Not being firm is the work of passions, and with passion. Mutability is weakness, it is cowardice, and it is not of the nature of true love. Therefore, firmness must be the guide in working for Me. So, in my works I never change: whatever the events may be, when a work is done once, it is done forever.”

VOL. 19 – April 9, 1926

On the other hand, in the human will there is not a creative power which, if one wants to exercise the virtues, might be able to create patience, humility, obedience, etc.  This is why one feels hardship, fatigue, in order to be able to practice the virtues:  because the divine strength that sustains them, the creative power that nourishes them and gives them life, is missing.  And so inconstancy appears, and one passes easily from virtues to vices, from prayer to dissipation, from church to amusements, from patience to impatience – all this mix of good and evil produces unhappiness in the creature.  On the other hand, one who lets my Will reign within herself feels firmness in good; she feels that all things bring her happiness and joy.  More so, since all the things created by Us carry the mark – the seed of the joy and the happiness of the One who created them; and they were created by Us so that all of them might bring happiness to man.  Each created thing has the mandate from Us to bring to the creature the happiness and the joy it possesses.  In fact, what joy and happiness does the light of the sun not bring?  What pleasure do the blue heavens, a flowery field, a murmuring sea, not bring to one’s sight?  What enjoyment do a sweet and tasty fruit, some very fresh water, and many – many other things, not bring to one’s palate?  All created things say to man in their mute language:  ‘We bring you the happiness, the joy of our Creator.’  But do you want to know in whom all created things find the echo of their joy and happiness?  In one in whom they find my Will reigning and dominating, because that Will which reigns in them as whole, That which God Himself possesses, and That which reigns in the soul, become one and make seas of joys, of happiness and of contentments overflow into one another.  Indeed, it is a true feast.

VOL. 19 – September 12, 1926

Therefore, remove these thoughts that I might leave you, because it is not something that my Will produces or that belongs to It.  My Will is firmness and indissoluble bond.  It seems unseemly for one who possesses my Will as life to occupy herself with anything else; rather, you should remain firm on how to expand the boundaries of Its Kingdom, so that It may triumph, It may be formed in you, and you may transmit It to the poor generations which are now wriggling about and forming the current of the chasms into which they will be swept.  But the chastisements also are necessary; this will serve to prepare the ground so that the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat may form in the midst of the human family.  So, many lives, which will be an obstacle to the triumph of my Kingdom, will disappear from the face of the earth, and therefore many chastisements of destruction will take place; others will be formed by creatures themselves to destroy one another.  However, this must not worry you; rather, pray that everything may take place for the triumph of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat.”  Having said this, He disappeared.

VOL. 20 – January 13, 1927

And my most sweet Jesus, all moved, said to me:  “To my little daughter who takes to heart so much the rights of my Divine Fiat, and who uses Its very power in order to open her way to my Heart, everything will be granted.  How not to content you, my daughter?  To you everything will be given; even more, we will adjust together that which regards my Will and that which regards the creatures.  Aren’t you happy?  Look, my daughter – from the moment my Will entered the field in Creation, It has always been firm and unshakable in doing good, in spite of the many moodinesses and offenses of the creatures.  Triumphing over all, It has followed Its usual course – doing good, always.  See, in order to make the creature ascend again into the firmness, into the perennial good, into the unshakability of my Will, I want to establish my Kingdom in their midst.  See then, at what point I have placed you – in the firmness and unshakability of the Fiat, to allow you to extend this Kingdom of Mine within It.  And just as my Will triumphs over everything with Its firmness, so will you triumph over everything with Its firmness and in the unshakability of Its acts, and you will reorder the divine order between the two wills – the Divine Will will be reintegrated in Its glory, and the human will will place itself once again in the order established by God.”

VOL. 21 – March 5, 1927

And Jesus, compassionating me, told me:  “My daughter, do not fear, I am here with you.  What I want is that you never go out of My Will, and that you continue your acts—always, without ever moving from the boundaries of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat.  And this will give you the firmness that will make you be like your Creator, for once He has done an act, that act has continuous life, without ever ceasing.  An act ever continuous is only of God, who suffers no interruption in His Acts.  This is why Our Firmness is unshakeable, and extending everywhere with Our Immensity, it renders Our Acts uninterrupted; and whatever place We lean on, We find Our Firmness, that gives Us the greatest honor—it makes Us known as the Supreme Being, Creator of everything, and it renders Our Being and Our Acts unshakeable.  In fact, whatever place We want to lean on, We find Our Firmness that sustains everything.

“My daughter, firmness is of Divine nature and a Divine Quality, and it is right that We give this participation and quality of Divine nature to one who must be daughter of Our Divine Fiat and must live in Our Kingdom.  So, your continuing your acts in It, without ever interrupting them, reveals that you are already in possession of the quality of Our Firmness.  How many things firmness says:  it says that the soul moves only for God; it says that she moves with reason and out of pure love—not with passion and out of self-interest; it says that she knows the good she does, and therefore she remains firm in it, without ever interrupting it.  Firmness says, with indelible characters:  ‘Here there is the finger of God.’  Therefore, be firm in your acts, and you will have Our Divine Firmness in your operating.”

VOL. 22 – July 26, 1927

I was lamenting because of the privation of my sweet Jesus, and pouring out my intense sorrow, I said to myself:  ‘How hard His abandonment is – I feel as though I am under a press, squeezed drop by drop.  Oh, Jesus! where are your promises?  Where is your love?  Where is the triumph of your Divine Will in my poor soul?  I feel as though betrayed by You.  How bitter my end is.  It is not the beginning that one must look at – it is the end that says everything!’  But while I was pouring myself out, my beloved Good, moving in my interior, told me:  “My daughter, my Divine Will has Its triumph in you, and this is why It squeezes you, drop by drop, under Its divine press, so that not even a drop of your will may be left in you.  Poor daughter, it is a Divine and unshakeable Will that works you in order to lay Its Kingdom in you, even in your littlest acts.  Therefore, patience, do not lose heart.  My Divine Will has two characters:  unshakeable firmness and incessant act.  This is why, when the soul has given herself to It, Its work is incessant.  Don’t you feel Its continuous motion within yourself?  And when I manifest to you a truth about It, with a mastery which is all Its own and divine, It places Its incessant motion in attitude, and It repeats it continuously within you; and while repeating it, It triumphs, because It does in you what It does within Itself of Its own nature.  Is this not, then, the triumph of my Will?”

VOL. 22 – August 4, 1927

“My daughter, yet, everything you used to feel before in your interior entered into the order of ordinary grace.  Fervors, sensibilities, are ordinary grace, which I give to all according to their dispositions, and which are subject to interruptions – to now rising and now dying, and therefore they constitute neither life nor solidity of sanctity.  On the other hand, in my Will I have invested you with extraordinary grace, which is firmness in good and incessant act – virtues which are exclusively divine.  Do you think that your continuous round in the works of your Creator is something trivial or ordinary?; as well as the firmness of your will in Mine, only to follow the acts of my Eternal Will?  In the face of my Will, fervors, sensibilities, have nothing to do with It; they are like little lights before the great sun, which have no reason to exist; and if they do exist, it is for doing nothing.  My Will absorbs everything and makes the soul become all of God, who wants to make of her another Sun.  One who is Sun wants everyone to become sun.  It would not be something worthy of It to form little lights – It would go out of Its nature.  And you are there crying over the little lights and do not think that a Sun invests you, giving you firmness and unshakeability.  More so, since when my Will reigns in the soul, It is like the beating of the heart, which has the primary act of life in all the members; It is like life, motion, strength, heat – everything comes from the heartbeat.  If the heartbeat ceases, life, motion and everything else cease.

VOL. 23 – October 10, 1927

My daughter, exile means circumference of space without being able to go out, stripping of goods, hard labor with no way of getting out of it.  My Divine Will does not know how to do these things, and, you can see, you can touch with your own hand how your soul has no circumference of place or space, but brings herself everywhere – into the sun, into the heavens, and a few times you have even made your little escapes up there into the celestial regions.  And how many times have you not immersed yourself into the very endless light of your Creator?  Where are not free to go?  Into the sea, within the air – everywhere; even more, my Will Itself delights in it, It pushes you, It gives you the flight to go around everywhere.  It would feel unhappy to see one who lives in It without freedom and as though hampered.  Instead of stripping, my Divine Fiat fills the soul up to the brim with Its goods; It gives her dominion over herself, It converts passions into virtues, weaknesses into divine strength.  It gives innumerable joys and happinesses, It gives by grace that which It is by nature – firmness, perennial unshakeability.  The exile is for one who is tyrannized by passions, without dominion over himself, without being able to move around within his God; and if he thinks of some good, it is mixed with and surrounded by darkness.  So, the virtues of the poor exiled one are strained, inconstant; he is a slave to his own miseries, and this renders him unhappy.  All the opposite for one who lives in my Divine Will.  Nor would I have tolerated keeping you alive for so long knowing that you were in exile; your Jesus loves you too much – how could He have borne keeping you exiled?  And if I tolerate, it is because I know that, as little daughter of my Will, my Will keeps you not in the conditions of exile, but in Its own properties, in Its light – free and dominating, with the only purpose of forming Its Kingdom within yourself and of impetrating It for the human family.  And you should be happy about this, knowing that all the desires, the yearnings, the sighs of your Jesus are for the Kingdom of my Will upon earth; my complete glory I expect from the Fiat Voluntas Tua on earth as It is in Heaven.”

VOL. 25 – January 20, 1929

Wherever my Divine Will is present there is perennial life, harmony, order, unshakeable firmness, such that no event can move them from their place, and all are happy in the office which each possesses.  Such would man have been if the human will had not snatched him away from my Will – a beautiful army, all ordered, and each one happy in his office, and always in the act of glorifying Me; and while glorifying his Creator, he would remain glorified himself.  This is why I want my Divine Fiat to return to reign in the midst of creatures – because I want my army, all ordered, noble, holy, and with the imprint of the glory of their Creator.”

VOL. 26 – September 20, 1929

After this, I continued my acts in the Divine Will, and my lovable Jesus added:  “My daughter, one who lives in my Fiat will have the great good of possessing a Divine Will on earth, which will be for her the bearer of imperturbable peace, of immutable firmness.  My Fiat will raise her in a divine manner; in each act she does, It will give her a sip of Our Divine Being, so that there might be no quality of Ours which is not centralized in this creature.  Not only this, but my Volition will delight in enclosing in her my Divine Will-bearer of happiness, with which It makes all the Blessed happy, so that not even this may be missing in one who lives in It; in such a way that, when she comes into Our Celestial Fatherland, she will bring her paradise of joy and of happiness, all divine, as the triumph of her having lived in Our Fiat.  And while she comes to find yet more surprising beatitudes, because my Will is never exhausted and has always something to give, the creature will find her own joys and the happiness which my Will enclosed in her when she was on earth.  Therefore, rise ever more in It, expand your boundaries, because the more of Divine Will you take on earth, the more Our Life will grow in you, and the more happiness and joys you will enclose in your soul.  And the more of them you will bring, the more you will be given in Heaven, in Our Celestial Fatherland.”

VOL. 27 – October 18, 1929

Then, I felt afflicted because of many things which it not necessary to say on paper; and my adorable Jesus added:  “My daughter, courage, I do not want you to afflict yourself.  I want to see in your soul the peace and the joy of the Celestial Fatherland; I want your very nature to give of fragrance of Divine Will, which is all peace and happiness.  It would feel uncomfortable in you, and as though jeopardized in Its light and happiness, if perennial peace and happiness is not in you.  And then, don’t you know that one who lives in my Divine Fiat forms two arms for herself?  One is immutability, the other arm is firmness in operating continuously.  With these two arms she keeps God clasped, in such a way that He cannot free Himself from the creature; not only this, but He enjoys her keeping Him clasped to herself.  Therefore, you have no reason to afflict yourself, whatever the circumstances might be, when you have a God who is all your own.  So, let your thought be to live in that Fiat that gave you life to form life in you, and I will take care of the rest.”

VOL. 28 – March 24, 1930

Then, I continued to follow the acts in the Divine Fiat, and I thought to myself:  ‘I am always back to the start, repeating – always repeating the long story of my acts in the Divine Volition, the long singsong of my ‘I love You’.  But what are the effects of it?  Oh! if I could obtain that the Divine Will be known and reign upon earth, at least it would be for me so much the better.’  But while I was thinking of this, my beloved Jesus clasped me to His Divine Heart, and told me:  “My daughter, firmness in asking forms the life of the good that is asked for; it disposes the soul to receive the good that she wants, and moves God to give the gift that is asked for.  More so, since with the many repeated acts and prayers that she has done, she has formed within herself the life, the exercise, the habit of the good that she asks for.  God, won by the firmness of her asking, will give her the gift; and finding in the creature, by virtue of her repeated act, as though a life of the gift that He is giving her, He will convert the good asked for into her nature, in such a way that the creature will feel herself as the possessor, and victorious in feeling transformed into the gift she has received.  Therefore, your asking incessantly for the Kingdom of my Divine Will forms in you Its Life; and your continuous ‘I love You’ forms in you the Life of my Love.  And since I have given you the gift of both one and the other, you feel within yourself as if your nature felt nothing other than the vivifying virtue of my Will and of my Love.  Firmness in asking is the assurance that the gift is yours.  And asking for the Kingdom of my Divine Will for all, is the prelude that others can receive the great gift of my Supreme Fiat.  Therefore, continue to repeat, and do not tire.”

VOL. 28 – October 7, 1930

Firmness, faithfulness, unshakeability in good and in asking for the good known, can be called divine virtues, not human, and therefore it would be like denying to Ourselves what the creature asks from Us.  Now, the same in the Kingdom of the Divine Will:  We want to find a faithful soul in whom We can operate, who would bind Us everywhere and in every part of Our Divine Being with the sweet chain of Her faithfulness, in such a way that We may find no reason not to give Her what She asks from Us.  We want to find Our firmness, the necessary shelf to be able to enclose in Her the great good that She asks from Us.  It would not be decorous for Our divine works to be entrusted to souls who are inconstant and not disposed to face any sacrifice for Us.  The sacrifice of the creature is the defense of Our works, and it is like putting them in a safe place.  So, once We have found the faithful creature, and the work comes out of Us to take its place in her, everything is done, the seed is already sown, and, little by little, it geminates and produces other seeds, such that, as they diffuse, whoever wants to, can procure for himself that seed to make it germinate in his soul.

Does the farmer not do the same?  If he has the good of having one single seed, which can be his fortune, he sows it into his field.  That seed, by germinating, can produce ten, twenty, thirty seeds, and the farmer no longer sows only one of them, but all those which he has reaped, and he returns to sow them, over again, until he is able to fill all his field; and he reaches the point of being able to give to others the seed of his fortune.  Much more can I do, Divine Farmer, as long as I find a creature with the field of her soul prepared, in which I can sow the seed of my works.  That seed will germinate, and little by little it will make its way; it will make itself known, loved and desired by few, and then by many, that the celestial seed of my Divine Will be sown into their souls.

Therefore, my daughter, be attentive and faithful; allow that I may sow this celestial seed in your soul, and I may find no hindrance to let it germinate.  If there is the seed, there is the sure hope that, in germinating, it can produce more seeds.  But if the seed does not exist, all the hopes cease, and it is useless to hope for the Kingdom of my Divine Will; just as it would have been useless to hope for Redemption if the Celestial Queen had not conceived Me as the fruit of Her maternal womb, the fruit of Her faithfulness, of Her firmness and sacrifice.  Therefore, let Me do, and be faithful to Me, and I will take care of everything else.”

VOL. 33 – July 8, 1934

“The same for the creature, if she does not cede the place of her whole interior to My Will, she will not be able to posses Its Love that is never extinguished, the Divine Sweetnesses and Tastes, and everything that composes the Life of My Will.  Therefore do not keep back anything of yours for yourself, and you will give Us the great glory of having a Life of Our Will on earth, veiled by your mortal covering, and you the Great Good of possessing It.  You will feel flow in your covering, as rapid sea, the Happiness, the Joys, the Firmness in Good, the Love that always Loves, the sweetnesses, the taste.  The Conquests of your Jesus will also be yours.  Your coverings will continue the Office of sufferings down here, but they will have a Life of Divine Will that will sustain them, and it will serve to develop the Life of Its Divine Conquests and Victories in the human coverings.  Therefore, always forward in My Will.”

VOL. 33 – October 21, 1934

But while my mind blundered, my sweet Jesus, my dear Life, making His brief little visit, because it seemed that He took enjoyment in listening to me, told me:  “My little daughter, the love, the acts, the spontaneous sacrifices, without force, that the creature makes Me are so pleasing to Me, that in order to enjoy them more I enclose them in My Heart.  And so much is My Contentment that I am always repeating:  ‘How beautiful they are, how sweet is her love.’  Ah! I find in them My Divine Way, My spontaneous sufferings, My Love that always Loves, without anyone forcing Me or praying to Me.  You must know that one of the most beautiful characteristics, and as Its legitimate property and virtue by Nature that My Divine Will possesses, is Spontaneity.  Everything is Spontaneous in It.  If It Loves, if It Operates, if with One Single Act It gives Life and Conserves everything, no one forces It, nor does it make Itself prayed to by anyone.  Its motto is:  ‘I want and I do,’ because force says necessity, and We do not have need of anything, nor of anyone.  Force says lack of power, while We are
Powerful by Nature and everything depends on Our Power, and in one instant We can do everything, and in another instant, if We want, We can knock everything down.  Force says lack of love, while such and so much is Our Love that it gives of the incredible.  This is why We Created everything without anyone praying to Us, or saying anything to Us.

“And in the Redemption Itself, there was not one law over Me.  No one could obligate Me to suffer so much even to dying.  But My Law was Love, and the Operative Virtue of My Divine Spontaneity, so much so that the sufferings first were formed in Me, I gave them Life, and then investing creatures they re-gave them to Me, and I, with that Spontaneous Love with which I had given them Life, received them in the same way.  No one would have been able to touch Me if I had not wanted it.  In fact, everything Beautiful, Good, Holy, Great, is in operating with Spontaneous ways.  While one who operates and loves by force, loses the most Beautiful, and they can be called, and they are, works and love without Life, and as a consequence subject to changing—while Spontaneity produces firmness in Good.

“Now, My daughter, the sign if the soul Lives in My Divine Will is to love, to operate, and even to suffer spontaneously; force does not exist.  My Will, that has her with Itself, communicates Its Spontaneity to her in order to have her with Itself in Its Love that runs, in Its Works that never cease.  Otherwise it would be annoying to have her in Its Womb of Light without the characteristic of Its Spontaneous way.  Rather the creature is all eyes to look at My Divine Fiat because she does not want to remain behind, but she wants to run together in order to Love with Its Love and in order to find herself in Its Works so as to exchange It, and to praise Its Power and Creative Magnificence.  Therefore, run, always run, and let your soul, without force, plunge itself into My Divine Volition in order to cross together Its ways Loving and full of stratagems for Love of creatures.”

VOL. 34 – November 3, 1936

“Therefore, listen to the Greatest Excess of the Love of My Volition.  As the creature decides with immutable firmness to want to Live of My Will, letting It Reign and Dominate in her, Our Infinite Goodness is so much, Our Love that does not know how to resist a true decision of the creature—more so because It does not want to see acts dissimilar from Ours in her—listen to what It does.  It covers everything that she has done up to then with My Will.  It molds them, It Transforms them into Its Light in a way that everyone sees, with the Prodigy of Its Transforming Love, that everything is Its Will in the creature.  And with Love all Divine, It continues to form Its Life and Its Acts in the creature.  Is this not an Excessive and Amazing Love of My Volition?  And together with this, of letting everyone decide, even the most ungrateful, of letting My Will Live in them, knowing that It wants to set everything aside, and cover and supply for what is lacking of My Will in them?

“This also absolutely says that Our Will wants to Reign in the midst of creatures, that It does not want to pay attention to anything, nor to what is lacking in them, wanting to give to them not as pay that It goes finding out if it is merited or not, but as Gratuitous Gift of Our Great Liberality, and as Completion of Our own Will.  And the Completing of Our Will, is everything for Us.”

VOL. 34 – July 12, 1937

“Now, I want to tell you another consoling surprise.  So much is Our Pleasure when the creature decides with immovable firmness to Live in Our Volition, that what We must do at the point of death, of Confirming her in the Good in which she finds herself, because you must know that everything that she has done in life—prayers, virtue, sufferings suffered, good works—these serve to form Our little Divine Life in her soul, not one Blessed enters into Heaven if she does not possess this Divine Life, according to the good that they have done, and if they have Loved Me and fulfilled My Will more, so they will have It, some lesser, some greater, because the True Happiness, the True Joys, must be possessed within.  In fact, each one will have inside and outside of them their God, who will always give them New Joys, so much so that if souls, dying, are not filled up even to the brim with Love and with My Will, I Confirm them, yes, but they do not enter into Heaven.  I send them to Purgatory to fill these voids of love and of My Will by way of sufferings, of anxieties, and of longings.  And when they are filled with everything, in a way that one sees in them that they are already completely Transformed into My Love and into My Will, then they take flight toward Heaven.

“Now, for one who does not want to do her will anymore but only Mine, We do not wait for that point.  With an Irresistible Strength Our Love brings Us to anticipate the Confirmation of the Good, and to convert into nature Our Love and Our Will, so that she will feel that My Love, My Volition, is hers.  She will feel My Life more than her own, but with the difference that of those who are Confirmed at the point of death, they will not grow anymore in good, their merits are finished.  On the other hand, in these My Life will always grow, the merits will never end, rather, they will have the Divine Merits.  As they continue to admire and to Live of My Will, so they will know Me more, and I Love them more and increase their Glory.  I can say that I run in her every act in order to give her My kiss, My Love, in order to Recognize her, that she is Mine, and give her the Value, the Merit as if I were to have done it.  Ah! you cannot understand what We feel for one who Lives in Our Volition, how We Love her.  We want to make her content in everything, because in her We find the Purpose of Creation Realized and all the Glory that all things must give Us Centralized.  And then, Our Completed Will is everything for Us.”

VOL. 35 – September 6, 1937

Then, I continued to think about the Divine Will.  I felt completely Invested by It and I prayed my dear Jesus to help me and keep me locked inside His Heart so that I could Live and know nothing other than His Will.  And He, coming back, continued:  “My daughter, all the goods of the creature are tied to My Will.  If she unties herself from It, all her goods are finished.  You must know that every single time she does her human will, she loses the Divine Will with all Its Goods; so she loses all that is Beautiful—all that is Holy and Good.  This is an incalculable loss.  The poor creature is thrown into the most wretched misery; she loses her rights over all Goods, and she is invested by such unhappiness as to leave her constantly restless.

“Even if it seems that she may have some goods, these are only apparent:  they end up torturing her completely.  On the other hand, every time that she decides to do My Divine Will in total firmness, she loses her human will—the miseries and the passions.  She loses all the evils, the miserable rags, and the filthy clothes that the human will had formed.  What a happy loss!  Losing evils and miseries is Glory and Victory, it is Honor.  But losing the Goods is cowardice and dishonor.  See then:  if the creature wants, she can recover from the great loss of My Will—loss that she suffered by doing her own will; more so, since she will receive the help of Our Power, Our Love and Our own Will.  By acquiring again the rights over all Goods, all will defend her in order to recover from the lost game.”

VOL. 36 – April 25, 1938

Then He added: “On top of the Unceasing Love, there is another sign that the soul Lives in My Will. This sign Reigns inside the soul:  the Immutability—never moving from good to evil.  This can only be of God:  a firm, constant character, hard to change in its action; the Constancy that only a Divine Patience can have—always to repeat an act without ever getting tired; never being bothered—never regretting.  It is only of God.  Now, one who Lives in Our Fiat feels her Immutability and is Invested by such Firmness that she would never change her action—not for Heaven and earth.  She would rather die than stop doing and redoing what she does.  Furthermore, everything she does with a firm heart—without ever changing, had its origin in God; so she feels God in her act, and in repeating it, she feels that act flowing and her action animated by God Himself.  How can she ever stop doing what she started together with Our Supreme Being?  She would have to get out of Our Will to change action.  Our Will is Unchanging in Its Works, and It renders so, whoever Lives in It.  O! When one does not Live in It, how clearly it shows.  Today she wants to do something, tomorrow something else; one time she likes to make a sacrifice, another time she runs away from it.  One can’t trust her.  She is like a stem that bends following the wind of her passions.  The mutability of human will is such that it reaches the point of making the creature its own toy and perhaps even a toy for the demons themselves.

“This is why I call the creature to Live in our Will:  to be sustained and strengthened, so that she can give honor to Our Creative Work, since only man is voluble, while all Our other Works never change. Heaven’s place is always fixed, never tiring of its extension.  The sun always runs its course and never changes action in giving light to the earth.  The air is always ready to be breathed; all things stay the same and keep doing the same action, the way We Created them.  Only man, by not wanting to Live in Our Divine Will, clashes with the modes of his Creator; he can’t finish his works, so he can’t love or appreciate them—neither can he receive credit for them.”

VOL. 36 – December 8, 1938

Then dear Jesus kept silent.  I remained thinking of what He had just said, and I could really see how everything Jesus had done and suffered became Bearer of the Divine Volition.  Then He continued: “My good daughter, it wasn’t only My Humanity that—though in a more special way—was hiding My Divinity and My Will; all created things and the very creatures are veils that hide Our Divinity and Our Adorable Will.  Even Heaven is a veil that hides Our Immense Divinity, Our Firmness and Immutability; while the variety of stars hides the multiple effects that Our Immensity, Firmness and Immutability possess.  O! If man could see Our Divinity revealed under that blue vault without the veil of that blue that covers Us and hides Us, his littleness would remain crushed under Our Majesty.  He would walk trembling, feeling continuously upon him the gaze of a Pure, Holy, Strong and Powerful God.  But since We Love man, We veil Ourselves, lending Ourselves secretly to all that is needed.

 

Fiat!!!

Permanent link to this article: https://luisapiccarreta.com/reflection-from-book-of-heaven/reflections-on-firmness-the-greatest-virtue/