‘The Kingdom of The Divine Will in the midst of creatures.  Book of Heaven. The call of the creature to the Order, the Place and the Purpose for which he was created by God’

 “The fragrance of Love”

Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta,

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

VOLUME 9

 July 8, 1910

For Jesus, the body is like the Tabernacle, the soul is like the pyx.

 Being very afflicted because of the privation of my highest Good, and having received Communion, in receiving the holy host, it stopped in my throat, and as I suckled it in order to push it down, I suckled a sweet and delicious humor. Then, after suckling very much, it went down, and I could see the host changed into a baby, who said: “Your body is my Tabernacle, your soul is the pyx that contains Me; the beating of your heart is like the host that serves Me in order to transform Myself into you (Luisa), as if within a host; with this difference: that in the host, as it is consumed, I am subject to continuous deaths; while the beating of your heart, symbolizing your love, is not subject to be consumed, and so my Life is continuous. Therefore, why so much affliction about my privations? If you (Luisa) don’t see Me, you (Luisa) feel Me; if you (Luisa) don’t feel Me, you (Luisa) touch Me… and now with the fragrance of my perfumes which diffuse around you (Luisa); now with the light with which you (Luisa) feel invested; now by making a liquor that cannot be found on earth descend into you (Luisa); now by just touching you (Luisa); and the many other ways which are invisible to you (Luisa).”

Now, in order to obey, I will write these things that Jesus says happen to me often, and also while being fully awake. These fragrances – I myself am unable to tell what kind they are – I call ‘the fragrance of love’; and I feel it at Communion, if I pray, if I work, especially if I have not seen Him, and I say to myself: ‘Today He has not come. Don’t You know, O Jesus, that without You I cannot be, nor do I want to be?’ And immediately, and almost suddenly, I feel as though invested by that fragrance. Other times, as I move, or if I move the bed sheets, I feel that fragrance coming out, and in my interior I hear Him say: “I am here”. Other times, while I am all afflicted, as I go about raising my eyes, a ray of light comes before my sight. However, these things I take into no account, nor do they satisfy me. That which, alone, makes me happy is Jesus; all the rest I receive with certain indifference. I wrote this only to obey.

‘The Kingdom of The Divine Will in the midst of creatures.  Book of Heaven. The call of the creature to the Order, the Place and the Purpose for which he was created by God’

The day of Jesus in the Eucharist.

 Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta,

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

VOLUME 29

September 12, 1931 

The day of Jesus in the Eucharist.

 ….After this, I continued to pray before the tabernacle of Love, and in my interior I said to myself: “What do You do, my Love, in this prison of love?” 

And Jesus, all goodness, told me: “My daughter (Luisa), do you (Luisa) want to know what I do? I do My day.  You (Luisa) must know that My whole Life, spent down here, I enclose within one day.  My day begins by being conceived and being born; the veils of the sacramental accidents serve Me as swaddling clothes for My tender age.  And when, because of human ingratitude, they leave Me alone and try to offend Me, I do My exile, left with only the company of some loving soul who, like a second mother, cannot detach herself from Me and keeps Me faithful company. 

“From the exile I move on to Nazareth, doing My Hidden Life in the company of those few good who surround Me. And continuing My day, as creatures draw near to receive Me, I do My Public Life, repeating My evangelical scenes, offering to each one My teachings, the helps, the comforts that are necessary for them; I act as Father, as Teacher, as Doctor, and, if needed, also as Judge.  So, I spend My day waiting for all and doing good to all.  And—oh! how many times I have to remain alone, without a heart that would palpitate near Me.  I feel a desert around Me, and I remain alone—alone praying.  I feel the loneliness of My days that I spent in the desert down here, and oh! how painful it is for Me—I, who am heartbeat for all in each heart; jealous, I guard everyone—feeling isolated and abandoned. 

“But My day does not end with the sole abandonment; there is not one day that ungrateful souls do not offend Me and receive Me sacrilegiously, and make Me complete My day with My Passion and with My Death on the Cross.  Ah! it is sacrilege the most ruthless death that I receive in this Sacrament of Love. So, in this Tabernacle I do My day by carrying out everything I carried out in the thirty-three years of My mortal Life.  And just as in everything I did and do, the prime purpose, the prime act of life, is the Will of My Father—that It be done on earth as It is in Heaven—so in this little Host I do nothing other than implore that one be My Will with My children.  And I call you (Luisa) in this Divine Will, in which you (Luisa) find My whole Life in act; and you (Luisa), by following it, ruminating it and offering it, unite yourself with Me in My Eucharistic day, to obtain that My Will be known and reign upon earth.  And so you (Luisa) too will be able to say:  ‘I do my day together with Jesus.’”

April 5 A.D. 2016 – Saint Vincent Ferrer

 St. Vincent Ferrer is the patron saint of builders because of his fame for “building up” and strengthening the Church:

through his preaching, missionary work, in his teachings, as confessor and adviser.

 At Valencia in Spain, this illustrious son of St. Dominic came into the world on January 23, 1357. In the year 1374, he entered the Order of St. Dominic in a monastery near his native city. Soon after his profession he was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy. On being sent to Barcelona, he continued his scholastic duties and at the same time devoted himself to preaching. At Lerida, the famous university city of Catalonia, he received his doctorate. After this he labored six years in Valencia, during which time he perfected himself in the Christian life. In 1390, he was obliged to      accompany Cardinal Pedro de Luna to France, but he soon returned home.

When, in 1394, de Luna himself had become Pope at Avignon he summoned St. Vincent and made him Master of the sacred palace. In this capacity St. Vincent made unsuccessful efforts to put an end to the great schism. He refused all ecclesiastical dignities, even the cardinal’s hat, and only craved to be appointed apostolical missionary. Now began those labors that made him the famous missionary of the fourteenth century. He evangelized nearly every province of Spain, and preached in France, Italy, Germany, Flanders, England, Scotland, and Ireland.

 Numerous conversions followed his preaching, which God Himself assisted by the gift of miracles. Though the Church was then divided by the great schism, the saint was honorably received in the districts subject to the two claimants to the Papacy. He was even invited to Mohammedan Granada, where he preached the gospel with much success. He lived to behold the end of the great schism and the election of Pope Martin V. Finally, crowned with labors, he died April 5, 1419.

 His feast day is April 5.

NOTE: When she was eighteen, Luisa became a Dominican Tertiary taking the name of Sr. Maddalena. She was one of the first to enroll in the Third Order, which her parish priest was promoting. Luisa’s devotion to the Mother of God was to develop into a profound Marian spirituality, a prelude to what she would one day write about Our Lady.

At Luisa’s death a sort of bib was placed on Luisa’s breast, with the letters FIAT and the cross of the Dominican Tertiaries”.

The cross of the Dominican Tertiaries which belonged to Luisa Piccarreta and is now in Fr. Bernardino’s possession

 Book of Heaven – November 11 A.D. 1899

 Obedience prevents her from conforming to Justice.

As I was in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, and I seemed to be going around the earth.

 Oh! how inundated it was with all sorts of iniquities! It is horrifying to think about it! Now, while going around, I arrived some place and I found a priest of holy life, and in another place a virgin of unblemished and holy life. We gathered, the three of us together, and we began to converse about the many chastisements that the Lord is sending, and about the many others that He keeps prepared. I said to them:

 ‘And you, what do you do? Have you perhaps conformed to Divine Justice?’ And they: “Seeing the strict necessity of these times, and that man would not surrender even if an apostle came out, or if the Lord sent another St. Vincent Ferrer who, with miracles and prodigious signs, might induce him to conversion; on the contrary, seeing that man has reached such obstinacy and a sort of madness, such that the very power of miracles would render them more incredulous – invested by this most strict necessity, for their good, in order to arrest this rotten sea that inundates the face of the earth, and for the glory of our God, so offended, we have conformed to Justice. Only, we are praying and offering ourselves as victims, so that these chastisements may turn out for the conversion of the peoples. And you, what do you do? Have you not conformed with us?” And I: ‘Ah, no! I cannot, because obedience does not want it, even though Jesus wants me to conform; but since obedience does not want it, it must prevail over everything, and I am forced to be always in contrast with blessed Jesus, and this afflicts me very much.’ And they: “When it is the obedience, surely one must not adhere.”

 After this, finding myself inside myself, I saw dearest Jesus for just a little, and I wanted to know where that priest and that virgin were from, and He told me that they were from Peru

St. Faustina Kowalska

Saint Faustina Kowalska, in her diary on Divine Mercy, wrote that Our Lord said to her: “I desire that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy. On that day the very depths of my tender mercy are open.” (Source: Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1987, Sister M. Faustina Kowalska)

Jesus emphasized to Saint Faustina that the depths of His Mercy were already open on that day, long before official recognition of the Feast by His Church. With the birth of Luisa Piccarreta on the day which would eventually be proclaimed the Feast of Divine Mercy, Jesus left a special sign of the unique importance of Luisa’s Mission, which her special confessor, Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia, described as “the triumph of the Divine Will in the entire universe.”

Father Sopocko Told Faustina: ‘Write a Diary’

Friday, February 15, 2013

The following is from Divine Mercy: A Guide from Genesis to Benedict XVI (Marian Press), by Robert Stackpole, STD. In this excerpt, Dr. Stackpole discusses the role played by the Rev. Michael Sopocko — St. Faustina’s confessor and spiritual director — in putting the Lord’s requests to Faustina into action. Father Sopocko was beatified Sept. 28, 2008. His feast day is Wednesday, Feb. 15. The more that Fr. Sopocko read St. Faustina’s Diary, as it flowed from her pen week by week, the more impressed he became by this message. However, he was still not entirely convinced of the authenticity of her revelations. After all, Fr. Sopocko was a well-trained theologian, and some of the things that Sr. Faustina wrote were so striking that he wondered whether they were entirely orthodox. First, Faustina claimed that Jesus had insisted that God is not only merciful to sinners — in fact, in a sense, He is even more merciful to sinners than to the just. Faustina wrote:

All grace flows from mercy … even if a person’s sins were as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest (Diary, 1507).

Jesus said to her:

Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. … Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask (Diary, 1146).

Clearly, the message of Christ to Sr. Faustina was a message of extravagant love: He said He pours out a veritable ocean of graces upon contrite souls who come to Him with trust — even more than they ask. In fact, He has a special compassion for the worst sinners, because they are most in need of His mercy. Jesus also promised to Sr. Faustina that the message of Divine Mercy, and its spread throughout the world, would be a harbinger of His Second Coming to the earth to bring the final triumph of the kingdom of God:

Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice. … You will prepare the world for My final coming (Diary, 848 and 429).

Jesus said all this not to frighten Faustina and those who would read these messages, but to convince them of the urgency of this evangelistic work of mercy. Jesus had promised in the Gospels that the good news of God’s merciful love would first be preached throughout the whole world before the end times would come (see Mk 13:9). The spread of The Divine Mercy message seems to play an important role in the fulfillment of that prophecy:

Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy. … I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation (Diary, 1588 and 1160).

In His messages to St. Faustina, Jesus elaborated on another prophecy He had made in the Gospels about the end times: the prophecy about the “sign” that would appear in the heavens just prior to His return (Mt 24:30). Jesus told her it would be a final sign of mercy for the world, a final call to repentance and forgiveness before the Day of Judgment:

Write this: Before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort: All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day (Diary, 83).

Further, all of this should be considered in the broader scriptural context of how we will be judged on the Last Day, based on how we have shown mercy to others out of love for Jesus (see Mt 25:31-46). As Jesus told St. Faustina, “I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me” (Diary, 742). Father Sopocko was most amazed, however, by one of our Lord’s messages to Sr. Faustina above all the others. Consequently, he made it the final testing-ground of the authenticity of all her revelations. This testing-ground was the claim that “mercy is the greatest attribute of God.” Jesus had actually said this to Faustina several times, but one time he said it in a message that was intended directly for Fr. Sopocko — which certainly made him pay close attention! Jesus said to her:

I desire that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy. Ask of my faithful servant [Fr. Sopocko] that on this day, he tell the whole world of My great mercy; that whoever approaches the Fount of Life on this day will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment. Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy. … My Heart rejoices in this title of Mercy. Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy (Diary, 300).

Father Sopocko’s response to this message is found in his own recollections, written some years later. He wrote:

There are truths of the faith which we are supposed to know and which we frequently refer to, but we do not understand them very well, nor do we live by them. It was so with me concerning the Divine Mercy. I had thought of this truth so many times in meditations, especially during retreats. I had spoken of it so often in sermons and repeated in the liturgical prayers, but I had not gone to the core of its substance and its significance for the spiritual life; in particular, I had not understood, and for the moment I could not even agree, that Divine Mercy is the highest attribute of God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. It was only when I encountered a simple holy soul who was in close communion with God, who, as I believe, with divine inspiration told me of it, that she impelled me to read, research, and reflect on this subject. … I began to search in the writings of the Fathers of the Church for a confirmation that this is the greatest of the attributes of God, as Sister Faustina had stated, for I had found nothing on this subject in the works of more modern theologians. I was very pleased to find similar statements in St. Fulgentius, St. Idelphonse, and more still in St. Thomas and St. Augustine, who, in commenting on the Psalms, had much to say on Divine Mercy, calling it the greatest of God’s greatest attributes. From then onwards, I had no serious doubts of the supernatural revelations of Sister Faustina (Tarnowska, p. 167, 201).

With all reasonable doubt removed, Fr. Sopocko began putting the Lord’s requests to Faustina into action. First, he commissioned an image of The Divine Mercy to be painted. Then, for the Sunday after Easter in 1935, he had this image displayed over the famous Ostra Brama gate to the city of Vilnius, and in the nearby church, he preached the message of mercy to the Catholic populace. Sister Faustina was given permission to be there, too. And toward the end of the service, when the priest took the Blessed Sacrament to bless the people, she saw the Lord Jesus Himself, as He is represented in the Image of Mercy, and Christ Himself gave His blessing while the rays from His Heart extended over the whole world. This event marked the beginning of the spread of the great devotion to The Divine Mercy, a devotion that is now having a profound impact upon the Church in our time. However, at first it did not spread rapidly. Rather, it spread slowly and steadily all over Poland, assisted by the grace of God in the hearts of the people. Father Sopocko saw very little of Sr. Faustina after that great exposition of the Image at the Ostra Brama gate. She remained in Vilnius for another year, but then she was transferred to Cracow. Nevertheless, she remained in contact with Fr. Sopocko, and continued to write her Diary: not so much for him, but as Jesus said, she was to be the “apostle” and “secretary” of His mercy for the whole world. Sister Faustina lived for only two more years. Her body was gradually ravaged by tuberculosis, and she was not spared any of the terrible sufferings caused by that disease in its final stages. The last chapter in her life became one of extreme suffering. She offered up all her sufferings in union with Christ’s Passion for mercy upon all lost sinners, and especially those near death. She prayed: “Transform me into Yourself, O Jesus, that I may be a living sacrifice, and pleasing to You. I desire to atone at each moment for poor sinners” (Diary, 908). And Jesus responded to her prayers:

Know, my daughter, that your silent, day-to-day martyrdom in complete submission to My will ushers many souls into heaven. And when it seems to you that your suffering exceeds your strength contemplate My wounds (Diary, 1184).

Father Sopocko visited her in late September 1938, just 10 days before she died. He always brought her news of the printing and dissemination of the Image, and of the spread of the devotion. But this time she had very little to say. As he later recalled, she was just too busy “communing with her heavenly Father.” Sister Faustina died on October 5, 1938, but her mission was far from over. In fact, it was only just beginning. “My mission will not come to an end upon my death,” she had said in her Diary, “[for] I will draw aside for you the veils of heaven to convince you of God’s goodness” (281).

+ + + Robert Stackpole, STD, is director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy. You can order Divine Mercy: A Guide from Genesis to Benedict XVI (Marian Press) through our online gift shop.