Paschaltide, extending from Easter Sunday to Saturday after Pentecost, commemorates the three glorious mysteries of the Resurrection of Our Lord (celebrated during forty days), of His Ascension (during ten days) and of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (during the Octave of Pentecost); they are Easter (the Resurrection), Ascension Day and Pentecost.

The First Mystery of Paschaltide:
The Resurrection 

The triumph of Christ, the Vanquisher of death, is the central event of the whole of history, the culminating point of the Church’s life in her liturgical cycle, the most glorious event in His whole earthly course, the most striking proof of His Divinity, and the foundation of our whole Faith.

For the Pasch of Christ, that is His passage form death to life and from earth to heaven, finally sealed the victory which He had gained over the devil, the world and the flesh.  It was for this that the Word became Incarnate, suffered and died.  The power of this holy mystery is at work in the faithful through their whole life and more especially at Easter, to make them pass from sin to grace and later on from grace to glory.  For if God became man (Christmas) it was to make us gods (Easter).   Just as at Christmas it was necessary for us to be born with Christ to His new life, so at Easter our souls must follow Him in the glorious life which He is beginning.

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Book of Heaven
Volume 20; January 25, 1927 

… Afterwards, He (Jesus) made Himself seen as a little child, staring at me so much, as to remain as though impressed within me; and He wanted me to look at Him, but so much as to remain impressed in Him.  Then, all love and tenderness, He told me:  “My daughter, this is the true image of the living in my eternal Will:  the soul copies the Divine Will within herself, and the Supreme Will copies the soul, in such a way that your Creator keeps the copy of your image impressed within His womb.  He holds her so dear, because He sees her exactly as He released her from her origin; she has lost nothing of her freshness and beauty.  His paternal features are impressed in this copy; and this copy, in the paternal womb of God, sings for Him the praises of all Creation with all His works, and whispers continuously to His ear:  ‘You made everything for me.  You loved me so much, and still do, and I want to convert everything – everything into love for You.’  This copy is the portent of God in His womb; she is the memory of all His works.

This is the copy of the soul in God, and the copy of God in the soul, and the carrying out of the Divine Life within the creature.  How beautiful is the Kingdom of my Will – the nothing dissolved in the All, and the All fused in the nothing; the lowliness of the creature rising into the Divine height, and the Divine height descending into the depth of the creature.  They are two beings bound together, inseparable, transfused, identified, such that it can barely be recognized that they are two lives palpitating together.  All the magnificence, the sanctity, the sublimeness, the prodigies of the Kingdom of my Will, will be exactly this:  the faithful copy of the soul in God, and the copy of God, whole and beautiful, in the soul.  Therefore, the children of the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat will be as many images of little gods in my Kingdom.”

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Further, Easter Week was the Feast of the Baptized, when the Church concentrating all her maternal care upon those whom St. Paul calls “her newborn babes”, strengthened them by giving them for seven days, together with the Holy Eucharist, instructions bearing upon the Resurrection, the model of our supernatural life.

Paschaltide bears the character of a time of renewal.  Corresponding to the Fort Days after Our Lord’s Resurrection during which He built up His Church, it reminds us more especially of the infant Church herself; which is the reason why at this time, the Acts of the Apostles are read int he Epistles at Holy Mass.

Every year the Easter Cycle calls up the memory of our Baptism, our First Communion and our Confirmation, and ought to penetrate us more and more with this new life.  Paschaltide is a reflection of heaven; and the Church, who at Passiontide wept over Our Lord and over sinners, has now a double reason for rejoicing, for Chirst is risen, and to herself many children reborn.

This Easter joy is a foretaste of our own resurrection and of our entry into the heavenly country where the Master is gone to prepare a place, and whither the Holy Spirit, whom He has sent to  us, will lead us.

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Book of Heaven

Volume 15; February 16, 1923

…  “Oh! how much will creatures love Me (Jesus), when they come to know what my Humanity did in the Divine Will, and what It made Me suffer for love of them.  My Cross was not of wood – no; It was made of souls.  It was them that I felt palpitating in the Cross on which the Divine Will laid Me – and It let none of them escape Me, It gave a place to each one, and in order to give a place to all, It stretched Me in such a harrowing way, and with pains so atrocious, that I could call the pains of my Passion little, and reliefs.  Therefore, hasten, so that my Will may make known all that this Eternal Volition operated in my Humanity.  This knowledge will win so much love, that creatures will bend to let It reign in their midst.”

Volume 7; September 14, 1906

… As I (Luisa) continued to see Him, no longer as a child, but crucified, I said to Him (Jesus): “My adorable Good, since when You suffered the crucifixion all souls had a place in your Humanity, what was my place?”

And He (Jesus): “My daughter, the place of the loving souls was in my Heart. As for you (Luisa), then, in addition to keeping you in my Heart, since you were to cooperate in Redemption with your state of victim, I kept you in all of my members, as help and relief.”

Volume 30; December 21, 1931

… “Therefore, let Me (Jesus) do, and I will dispose things in a way that My Word will not be a dead word—but Alive, that will give Life with all its Admirable Effects.  More so, since these Celestial Fields and Seas of Ours will act as Mothers to the fortunate souls who would want to Live in them; they will educate them in a Divine Manner, they will nourish them with delicious foods taken from the Celestial table, and will raise them in a noble and holy way, such that in all their acts, steps and words, it will appear, written in clear notes:  ‘They are similar to their Creator.’

“God will hear the melody of His Voice in their Word, His Power in their Works, the sweet motion of His Steps that runs after everyone for He wants them with Himself, in their Steps; and as though enraptured, He will say:  ‘Who is it that is like Me?  Who can imitate My Sweet, Harmonious, Powerful Voice, as to be able to Shake Heaven and earth?  Who possesses such Strength as to capture Me into her works to make Me Operate together with her?  Who is it?  Who is it?  Ah! it is one who Lives in Our Divine Fields.  It is right that she be like Us in everything, as much as it is possible for the creature.  She is Our Daughter, and that’s enough.  Let Us allow her to imitate Us—to be like Us; she will be Our Glory of Our Creative Work, the longed-for one of her Celestial Father.’  These souls will form the New Hierarchy of the Celestial Fatherland, where there is a place reserved for them, that to no one else is it given to occupy.”

Divine Mercy Novena

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia

From the Letters of St. Di Francia to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

16.                                         J.M.J.A.

Messina, March 4, 1927

Most Esteemed one in the Lord,

I received your second letter.  The first one I gave to read to Mother Superior also and to some of the Old Sisters, and all of us have remained consoled – also my Priests, because the rumor has spread in our Institutes that the Lord, by His infinite goodness, has destined me to start up to a good point, the publication of the Divine Will, and therefore all of them hope for my healing – and I do too.

In truth, it seems that the Lord wants it, both because He has placed all of the writings – that is, the great deposit of His Divine Revelations – in our power, and also because of the special enlightenment that the Lord has given me on how to regulate the publication, which you will see rather soon in the first booklet that is being printed in Oria; and also because of the great means and equipment that are necessary, as well as labor – and of all this, the Lord has given us, and gives us, a unique abundance.

If these works were to be published in an external press, it would be an expense of hundreds of thousands of lira – and it would even reach the million.  Another sign is the terrible war that the devil has been waging against me in order to destroy me – by divine permission, so that I myself may begin the practice of the Divine Will.

Only my sins would make me fear that the Lord would withdraw such infinite Mercy from us.

Now, for this, I commend myself to your fervent prayers.

I spent last night awfully, but today, from 3pm on, I got up from my rest almost like in the days of my good health, and I feel as if I were on the way to recovery.

In my afflictions, I have kept in mind that everything is the love of Jesus that operates.  Your advice and suggestions are most dear to me, but I am still a baby in this great Science of the Divine Will.  I thank you very much for your holy encouragements.

As far as the Pious Universal Union of the Children of the Divine Will, I have not conceived it in the way you understood, that is, with many houses that should be formed in the world of Sisters dedicated as Daughters of the Divine Will.  In this way the Institution would not be universal, nor could it develop rapidly.  In the way I conceived it, all Religious Houses of men and women, and all lay categories, and any person in the entire world, can become son or daughter of the Divine Will, by simply accepting the Card, and reciting every day, with no obligation of conscience, 5 decades of the ejaculatory prayer:  “Fiat, Domine, Voluntas Tua – Sicut in Coelo et in Terra.  Amen”, alternating with the Glory Be, and with the premise of a Pater, Ave and Gloria.  There will not be registers for memberships, nor regulations, but impetrators – men and women, to spread the Cards.

As far as our House in Corato, it is understood that our Sisters and all of the internal and external personnel will be Children of the Divine Will.

Our Msgr. Archbishop prays, and has made others pray, for the healing of my miserable self; and he wants me to pray the Adorable Heart of Jesus to heal me, though always submitted to the Divine Volition.  However, he ignores the sublime Mission of the Divine Will that was given to us, and for now I will not let him know, nor is it necessary.

This Mother Superior thanks you for your gentle manners.

March 8, 1927

P.S.  I must add that I suffer gravely of breathlessness if I make movements.

The origin of it – a pleurisy which the doctors have discovered recently in me; because three years ago, in Rome, I has a bronchial pneumonia, a sort of Spanish fever.  I recovered, but I incubated the pleurisy.  However, the doctors give assurance of a sure recovery, yet not this Winter, but in the Spring (let us hope in Jesus).  I suffer most anguishing nights; and you, who spend the nights with Jesus, remember me, who spend them in agony.  The doctors are not concerned at all about my sufferings; they say that it is the nervous system that is altered.  But I feel I am dying.

I answer to your letter.

The proofs are being reviewed by my people.  As far as the writings, don’t worry.  If I should pass away, my Priests have received from me all the lights that the Lord has given me, and they will continue the work.

I apologize to dear Father Calvi, but we are already a Religious Order approved by the Holy Church, and therefore we can give greater guarantee than a simple individual.  And then, how could Fr. Calvi manage to improvise press, labor, means, etc. etc. etc.?

Therefore, let us follow the Divine Will.

Pray, pray for miserable me, who am crucified day and night…

You will receive the first prints as soon as possible – hopefully this month.

I bless you, and, at night, pray Jesus for me.  I see everything closed – Jesus, the Most Holy Virgin, the Saints, etc. etc.

I bless you again, and please distribute my usual regards.  But my letters for you are secret, except for that which you must relate, and which it is good to manifest.

Messina March 8, 1927

Canonico Di Francia

I am sending you the letter you asked for.  Talk about it with the Divine Spouse, and may He not look at my sins!…

Divine Mercy Novena

On Wall In Chapel at St. Anthony’s Orphanage in Corato, Italy
(“Soul, Help Me”)

Book of Heaven
Volume 6; April 11, 1905

How perseverance is seal of eternal life and development of divine life.

Being very afflicted because of the privation of my adorable Jesus, I was saying to myself:  “How cruel He has become with me – I myself cannot understand how His good Heart can reach the point of doing this.  And then, if persevering pleases Him so much, yet, my persevering does not move His good Heart.”

While I was saying this and other nonsense, all of a sudden He came and told me:  “Indeed, that of the soul which pleases Me (Jesus) the most is perseverance, because perseverance is seal of Eternal Life and development of Divine Life.  In fact, just as God is ever old and ever new and immutable, in the same way, through perseverance, by having exercised it always, the soul is old, and by her attitude of exercising it, she is ever new; and each time she exercises it she is renewed in God, remaining immutable, and without realizing it.  Since through perseverance she continuously acquires Divine Life within herself, by acquiring God she is sealed with Eternal Life.  Can there be a seal safer than God Himself?”

Divine Mercy Novena