‘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’

 PASSAGES ON THE DIVINE WILL FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

 AND THE GOSPEL

   Meaning of the forty days in the desert.

Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

 Gospel Lk 4:1-13

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

 BOOK OF HEAVEN 

VOLUME 22

 September 8, 1927

How all Creation is fixed in God and is the relater of the Supreme Being. The sorrow suffered in a Divine way in Jesus and in Mary.  Meaning of the forty days in the desert.

 I continue my flight in the Supreme Volition, that keeps all Creation as though in the palm of Its hand, and I am forced to hover from one created thing to another, to trace all that glory that I can give to my Creator through them, and to requite Him with my love for everything He has done for love of me and of all.

Now, while I was doing this, my beloved Jesus moved in my interior and told me: “My daughter (Luisa), when Our Divinity created the whole Creation, It left It all bound within Itself.  So, it can be said that the heavens keep their relation with God, are fixed in God, and from within God they spread their immensity.  The stars are bound in God, and from within God they adorn with gold the vault of the firmament.  In God is the sun bound, and from the Divine bosom it spreads its light that invests the whole earth.  There is not one created thing that does not have its links in God; and while they come out, they do not separate from God. 

“God is jealous of His Acts, and He loves them so much, that He does not permit that they be separated from Him. Therefore, He keeps them all fixed within Himself as perennial glory of His own Acts, as relaters of His Being to creatures, that, with mute voice, speak with facts of He who created them, and tell, with facts, that He is most pure and endless Light, Love that is never extinguished, Eye that sees everything, hears and penetrates everything. 

“The sun says this. Created things also say:  ‘Look at us, and, with facts, we will tell you.  This is why we do not speak—because facts are greater than words.  He is Power that can do anything, He is Immensity that envelops everything, He is Wisdom that orders everything, He is Beauty that enraptures everything.’  The Creation is the continuous narration of the Supreme Being, from whom It receives continuous life.  And as you go around from one created thing to another, you remain bound through them to your Creator, and you receive the relations of light, of love, of power, etc., that each of them possesses.”

On hearing this, I said: “My Love, the created things do not have reason—how can they give me their relations and give You so much glory?” 

And Jesus added: “My daughter (Luisa), created things are in relationship with Me and are bound to Me like the members to the head, and they act like members that receive life from the head.  See, you (Luisa) have hands and feet; these do not have reason, nor do they speak, but because they receive life from the head, the hands operate, the feet walk, remaining at the disposal of what the head wants, and forming its greatest glory.  Only if hands and feet are severed from the body—then would they have neither works nor steps, because they would lose the life that the head communicated to them. 

“So it is with the whole Creation: even though created things have neither reason nor speech, because they are united with God like the members to the body, they receive life from their Creator, and therefore all created things are operating, their acts are incessant, and are at Our disposal more than are your members at the disposal of your head.  And just as your hands have the virtue of communicating your works to other creatures, so do created things have the virtue of communicating the good they possess to creatures, and to one who lives in My Divine Will.  Because the Will that animates them is one with that of this soul, they feel that she belongs to the body of the whole Creation, and therefore they communicate to her all the relations that they have with the Head, and with great love they bind her to themselves. 

“Therefore, be constant in living in My Divine Will, if you (Luisa) want to live communal life with your Jesus and with all Creation, and give Me all the glory that all My works give Me incessantly.”

After this, I was following the Holy Divine Volition in the act in which my sweet Jesus separated from the Sovereign Queen to go into the desert; and while compassionating both one and the other, I thought to myself: “How could the Sovereign Queen separate from Her dear Son for as many as forty days?  She who loved Him so much—how could She endure being without Him?  I, who do not have Her love, suffer so much for a few days that He deprives me of Himself; what must it have been for my Mama?” 

Now, while I was thinking of this, my adored Jesus moved in my interior and told me: “My daughter (Luisa), We both suffered in separating from each other, but Our sorrow was suffered in a Divine way, not in a human way, and therefore it did not separate either from happiness or from imperturbable peace. 

“Happy, I departed for the desert—happy, the height of My Celestial Mama stayed. In fact, the sorrow suffered in a Divine way has no virtue of shading even slightly the Divine Happiness, that contains endless seas of joys and of peace.  Sorrows suffered in a Divine way are like little drops of water in the immense sea, the power of whose waves has the virtue of changing them into happiness.  The sorrow suffered in a human way has the virtue of breaking true happiness and of disturbing the peace; the Divine way—never. 

“More so, since My Queen Mama possessed the Sun of My Will by grace, and I possessed It by nature. So, the Sun remained in Her and remained in Me, but Its rays did not separate, because light is indivisible; therefore, in that same light She remained in Me and followed My Acts, and I remained in Her as Her center of life.  So, the separation, while true, was apparent; in substance We were fused together and inseparable, because the light of the Divine Will placed Our Acts in common as if they were one alone. 

“And besides, I went to the desert to call back that same Divine Will of Mine that, for forty centuries, creatures had deserted from their midst; and I, for forty days, wanted to remain alone, to repair for the forty centuries of human will during which Mine had not possessed Its Kingdom in the midst of the human family; and with My very Divine Will I wanted to call It back again into their midst, so that It might reign. Upon returning from the desert, I deposited It in My Mama, with all those acts of Divine Will that creatures had rejected and had kept as though in a desert, so that She might be the faithful depository, the Repairer and the Empress of the Kingdom of My Will.  Only the Sovereign Lady could possess this deposit so great, because She possessed within Herself the very Divine Will that could contain the Will deserted by creatures. 

“How could We occupy Ourselves with Our sorrow of being separated for forty days, when it was about reintegrating—about calling back Our Divine Will to reign in the midst of creatures? In Our sorrow We were more than happy, because We wanted to place the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat in safety, and the Celestial Queen was waiting with yearnings for My return, in order to receive the deposit of the new Sun, so as to requite with Her love all of Its acts, that the human ingratitude had rejected.  She acted as true Mama to My Divine Will, acting as true Mother also for creatures, impetrating for all the life, the happiness, the joy of possessing the Kingdom of the Eternal Fiat.

“My daughter (Luisa), the number of forty days is symbolic and significant in My Life down here. When I was born, for forty days I wanted to remain in the grotto of Bethlehem—symbol of My Divine Will that, while being present in the midst of creatures, was as though hidden and outside of the city of their souls.  And I, in order to repair for the forty centuries of human will, wanted to remain outside of the city for forty days, in a miserable hut, crying, moaning and praying, to call back My Divine Will into the city of souls, so as to give It Its dominion. 

“And after forty days I went out to present Myself to the Temple, and reveal Myself to the holy old Simeon. He was the first city I was calling to the knowledge of My Kingdom; and his joy was so great, that he closed his eyes to the earth to open them to eternity.  Forty days I spent in the desert, and then, immediately, I did My Public Life, to give them the remedies and the means in order to reach the Kingdom of My Will.  For forty days I wanted to remain on earth after My Resurrection, to confirm the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat and Its forty centuries of Kingdom that It was to possess. 

“So, in everything I did down here, the first act was the restoration of the Kingdom; all other things entered into the secondary order, but the first link of connection between Me and creatures was the Kingdom of My Will. Therefore, when it is about My Will, I hold nothing back, neither light, nor sacrifices, nor manifestations, nor happiness—they are seas that I release from Myself so as to make It known, to make It reign, and to make It loved.”

Limbourg brothers, “The Temptation of Christ,” between 1411 and 1416

Basilica of St. Mark, Venice, “The Temptation of Christ,” 12th century

Ivan Kramskoi, “Christ in the Desert,” 1872

‘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 tortured body of Jesus is the true portrait of the man who commits sin

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

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

  VOLUME 14

 February 9, 1922

The tortured body of Jesus is the true portrait of the man who commits sin. In the scourging, Jesus let His flesh be torn to shreds, and He reduced all of Himself to a wound in order to give life back to man once again.

Finding myself in my usual state, I was following the Hours of the Passion; and while I was accompanying my sweet Jesus in the mystery of His painful scourging, He made Himself seen all skinned. His Body was stripped, not only of His garments, but also of His flesh; His bones could be counted one by one. His sight was not only harrowing, but horrible to look at, such as to strike fear, fright, reverence, and love at the same time. I felt mute before such a harrowing scene. I would have wanted to do who knows what to relieve my Jesus, but I could do nothing – the sight of His pains gave me death; and Jesus, all goodness, told me: “My beloved daughter (Luisa), look well at Me, that you (Luisa) may know my pains in depth. My Body is the true portrait of the man who commits sin. Sin strips him of the garments of my grace; and I let Myself be stripped of my garments so as to give them back to him once again. Sin deforms him, and while he is the most beautiful creature that came out of my hands, he becomes the ugliest one – disgusting and repugnant. I was the most beautiful of men, and I can say that, in order to give beauty back to man, my Humanity took on the ugliest form. Look at Me – how horrid I am…! I let my skin be ripped off by dint of lashes, to the point that I could no longer recognize Myself. Not only does sin take beauty away, but it forms deep wounds, rotten and gangrenous, which corrode the most intimate parts of him; they consume his vital humors, so everything he does are dead – skeletal works. They snatch from him the nobility of his origin, the light of his reason – and he becomes blind. And I, in order to fill the depth of his wounds, let my flesh be torn to shreds; I reduced all of Myself to a wound, and by shedding my Blood in rivers, I made the vital humors flow in his soul, so as to give life back to Him once again.

Ah! Had I not had the fount of the Life of my Divinity within Me, which, since my Humanity died at each pain that they gave Me, substituted my Life – I would have died from the very beginning of my Passion.

Now, my pains, my Blood, my flesh which fell off in shreds, are always in the act of giving life to man; but man rejects my Blood so as not to receive life; he tramples upon my flesh so as to remain wounded. Oh, how I feel the weight of ingratitude!” And throwing Himself into my arms, Jesus burst into tears. I clasped Him to my heart, but He was crying strongly. What torment, to see Jesus crying! I would have wanted to suffer any pain so that He would not cry. So I compassionated Him, I kissed His wounds, I dried His tears; and He, as though cheered, added: “Do you (Luisa) know how I act? I act like a father who loves his son very much. This son is blind, deformed, crippled; and his father who loves him to folly – what does he do? He plucks his own eyes out; he cuts his own legs, tears his own skin off, and gives everything to his son, saying: ‘I am happier to remain blind, crippled, deformed myself, as long as I see that you, my son, can see, can walk, and are beautiful…’ Oh, how happy is that father, in seeing his son looking with his eyes, walking with his legs, and covered with his beauty! But what would the sorrow of the father be, if he saw his son, ungrateful, throwing away his eyes, legs and skin, contenting himself with remaining ugly as he is? So I am: I took care of everything, but men, ungrateful, form my most bitter sorrow.”

‘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’

Mortification is the sight of the soul.

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

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

 VOLUME 4

 August 5, 1901

Mortification is the sight of the soul.

 As I was in my usual state, my blessed Jesus was delaying in coming. I felt I was dying for the pain of His privation, when, all of a sudden, He came and told me: “My daughter (Luisa), just as the eyes are the sight of the body, so mortification is the sight of the soul. Therefore, mortification can be called ‘eyes of the soul’.” And He disappeared.

Redemptive Suffering: “Offering it Up”

Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes – 11th February

“Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vines: for our vineyard hath flourished” (Canticle of Canticles 2:15).

Ash Wednesday

As Catholics around the world gather for Mass and prayer services on Ash Wednesday, we are bonded by the physical and spiritual connection we share as followers of Jesus.

 Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday, either at Mass or at a special celebration, people of all ages receive ashes in the form of a cross on their foreheads. As the persons who are distributing the ashes make the Sign of the Cross, they say: Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel (adapted from Mark 1:15) or Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return (adapted from Genesis 3:19). The ashes are made of the palm remaining from the previous year’s Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

Blessed Ashes

The remains of the blessed palms from Palm Sunday of the previous year are burned for use on Ash Wednesday. After the ashes are blessed, priests place the ashes on our foreheads and say, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel,” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.”

Prayer for each day from Ash Wednesday to Divine Mercy Sunday

The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Promises of Jesus for Whoever Prays The Hours of the Passion

from the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta

Volume 11 – April 10, 1913

“Tell me, my Good, what will You give as a reward to those who will do the Hours of the Passion the way You taught them to me?”

And He: “My daughter, I will not look at these Hours as your things, but as things done by Me. I will give you the same Merits, as if I were in the act of suffering My Passion. In this way, I will let you obtain the same Effects, according to the dispositions of the souls. This, while on earth – and I could not give you a greater thing from My own. Then, in Heaven, I will place these souls in front of Me, flashing them with Lightnings of Love and Contentment for as many times as they did the Hours of My Passion – while they will flash to Me as well. What a Sweet Enchantment this will be for all the Blessed!”

Volume 11 – September 6, 1913

I was thinking about the Hours of the Passion which have now been written, and how they are without any indulgence. So, those who do them do not gain anything, while there are many prayers enriched with many indulgences. While I was thinking of this, my always Adorable Jesus, all Kindness, told me: “My daughter, one gains something through the prayers with indulgences. But the Hours of My Passion, which are My own Prayers, My Reparations and all My Love, came really from the depth of My Heart. Did you perhaps forget how many times I united Myself with you to do them together, and I turned chastisements into Graces over the entire earth? So, My Satisfaction is such that, instead of the indulgence, I give the soul a handful of Love, which contains Infinite Love of Incalculable Price. Further, when things are done for pure love, My Love finds Its Outpouring – and it is not inconsiderable that the creature can give relief and expression to the Love of her Creator.”

Volume 11 – October 1914

I was writing the Hours of the Passion and I thought to myself: “How many sacrifices in order to write these blessed Hours of the Passion, especially to put on paper certain interior acts which had passed only between me and Jesus! What reward will He give to me?”

Letting me hear His Tender and Sweet Voice, Jesus told me: “My daughter, as a reward for having written the Hours of My Passion, for each word you have written, I will give you a kiss – a soul.”

And I: “My Love, this is for me; and what will you give to those who will do them?”

And Jesus: “If they do them together with Me and with My own Will, I will give them a soul for each word they will recite, because the greater or lesser effectiveness of these Hour of My Passion is in the greater or lesser union that they have with Me. In doing them with My Will, the creature hides inside My Volition; and since it is My Volition that is acting, I can produce all the Goods I want, even through one single word. This, for each time you will do them.”

Another time I was lamenting with Jesus because, after so many sacrifices to write these Hours of the Passion, very few were the souls who were doing them. And He: “My daughter, do not lament. Even if there was only one, you should be happy. Wouldn’t I have suffered all My Passion even to save only one soul? The same for you. One should never omit good only because few benefit from it; all the harm is for those who do not take advantage of it. Just as My Passion made My Humanity acquire the Merit as if all were being saved, although not all are saved (since My Will was to save everyone, and I received Merit according to what I wanted, not according to the profit which creatures would have drawn), the same is for you: you will be rewarded depending on whether your will identified itself with Mine, wanting to benefit all. All the evil remains to those who, although being able to, do not do it.

“These Hours are the Most Precious of all, because they are nothing other than the repetition of what I did in the course of My mortal Life, and what I continue to do in the Most Blessed Sacrament. When I hear these Hours of My Passion, I hear My own Voice, My own Prayers. In that soul I see My Will – that is, wanting Good for everyone and wanting to Repair for all – and I feel moved to dwell in her, in order to do whatever she does within her. Oh, how I would Love that even one single soul for each town did these Hours of My Passion! I would hear Myself in every town, and My Justice, greatly indignant during these times, would remain partly appeased.”

Volume 11 – October 13. 1916

I was doing the Hours of the Passion, and Blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, in the course of My mortal Life, thousands and thousands of Angels were the cortege of My Humanity, gathering everything I did – My Steps, My Works, My Words, and even My sighs, My Pains, the drops of My Blood – in sum, everything. They were the Angels in charge of My Custody, and of paying Me honor; obedient to My every Wish, they would rise to and descend from Heaven, to bring to the Father what I was doing. Now these Angels have a special office, and as the soul remembers My Life, My Passion, My Blood, My Wounds, My Prayers, they come around this soul and gather her words, her prayers, her acts of compassion for Me, her tears and her offerings; they unite them to Mine, and they bring them before My Majesty to renew for Me the Glory of My own Life. The delight of the Angels is so great that, reverent, they listen to what the soul says, and pray together with her. So, with what attention and respect must the soul do these Hours, thinking that the Angels hang upon her lips to repeat after her what she says.”

Volume 12 – May 16, 1917

Then, I found myself outside of myself. I was in the midst of many souls – they seemed to be purging souls and Saints – who were speaking to me and mentioning one person known to me, who died not too long ago. And they said to me: “He feels happy in seeing that there is not a soul who enters Purgatory without carrying the mark of the Hours of the Passion. Surrounded by the cortege of these Hours and helped by them, the souls take a safe place. And there is not a soul who flies into Heaven, without being accompanied by these Hours of the Passion. These Hours make a continuous dew pour down from Heaven to earth, into Purgatory, and even into Heaven.”

On hearing this, I said to myself: “Maybe my Beloved Jesus, in order to keep the Word He had given – that for each word of the Hours of the Passion He would give a soul – is allowing that there be not a saved soul who does not benefit from these Hours.”

Afterwards, I returned into myself, and as I found my Sweet Jesus, I asked Him whether that was true. And He: “These Hours are the Order of the Universe; they put Heaven and earth in Harmony, and restrain Me from sending the world to ruin. I feel My Blood, My Wounds, My Love and all I did, being placed in circulation; and they flow over all to save all. As souls do these Hours of the Passion, I feel My Blood, My Wounds, My anxieties to save souls, being put in motion, and I feel My own Life being repeated. How could creatures obtain any Good if not by means of these Hours? Why do you doubt? This thing is not yours, but Mine. You have been the strained and weak instrument.”

Volume 22 – June 17, 1927

After this, I found myself outside of myself, and while looking for my Sweet Jesus I encountered Father Di Francia.  He was all cheerful, and he told me:  “Do you know how many Beautiful Surprises I found?  I did not think it would be so when I was on earth, though I thought I had done good by publishing the Hours of the Passion.  But the Surprises I found are Marvelous, Enchanting, of a Rarity never before seen:  all the Words regarding the Passion of Our Lord changed into Light, one more Beautiful than the other—all braided together; and these Lights grow more and more as creatures do the Hours of the Passion, so more Lights add to the first.

“But what surprised me the most were the few sayings published by me about the Divine Will:  each saying changed into a Sun, and these Suns, investing all the Lights with their Rays, form such a Surprise of Beauty that one remains enraptured, enchanted.  You cannot imagine how surprised I was at seeing myself in the midst of these Lights and these Suns—how content I was; and I thanked our Highest Good, Jesus, who had given me the occasion and the grace to do it.  You too, thank Him on my behalf.”

John Berney Crome, “Great Gale at Yarmouth on Ash Wednesday,” 1836

Carl Spitzweg, “Ash Wednesday,” 1855–1860

Pieter Brueghel the Elder, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” 1559