12/1 The Liturgical Year – Is Christ Living and Active
For us the festivals of the Liturgical Year, according to the Church, should not be mere commemorations of past historical events, but should rather be opportunities, here and now, to re-live these events and participate in them as though they are just now taking place. The person of Jesus Christ in whom the whole cycle of the Ecclesiastical Year is centered is not a dead person, who once lived, worked, and passed into history. Jesus Christ is eternally alive and active. Just as He once did on earth, so He does now. He teaches and admonishes us, sanctifies and forgives us, offers Himself up for us, saves us, and draws us to Himself by His example. “Jesus Christ,” says St. Paul, “is the same today as He was yesterday, and as He will be forever.” (Heb. 13,8) The Liturgical Year, then, is a continuation of Christ’s life, work and doctrine among us today. It is the mystical repetition of the mysteries of Christ’s life in the hearts of the faithful.
In his encyclical letter of November, 1947, “Mediator of God”, Pius XII wrote: “The Liturgical Year devoutly fostered and accompanied by the Church is not a cold and lifeless representation of the past, nor a simple, bare record of a former age. Rather, it is Christ Himself who is ever living in His Church. Here He continues that Journey of immense mercy which He lovingly began in His moral life ‘going about doing good’ with the design of bringing men to know His mysteries and in a way live by them. These mysteries are ever present and active … they are shining examples of Christian perfection as well as sources of Divine grace.” (§165) Similarly, the decree of the Second Vatican Council on the “Constitution on the Liturgy” states that: “Recalling thus the mysteries of redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all times, and the faithful are enabled to lay hold upon them and become filled with saving grace. (§102)
Book of Heaven
3/24/14 – Vol. 11
Continuing in my usual state, I (Servant of God, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreata) was lamenting with Jesus who had not come yet. Finally He came and told me: “My daughter, my Will hides my very Humanity within Itself. This is why, sometimes, I hide my Humanity from you as I speak to you about my Will. You feel surrounded by Light; you can hear my voice but cannot see Me, because my Will absorbs my Humanity within Itself, since my Humanity has its limits while my Will is eternal and without limits. In fact, when my Humanity was on earth, It did not cover all places, all times or all circumstances; however, my interminable Will compensated for It and arrived where my Humanity could not reach.. So, when I find souls who live completely from my Will, they compensate for my Humanity – for the times, for the places, the circumstances and even for the sufferings, because they live in my Will and therefore I can use them just as I used my Humanity. What was my Humanity, if not the organ of my Will? Such are those who do my Will.”