Presentation

(From The Hours of the Passion.  Click here for book)

This book (The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ) is a translation of the Italian book, L’Orologio della Passione di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo, written by Luisa Piccarreta, “The Little Daughter of the Divine Will,” about the year 1914, in obedience to the ecclesiastical authority at that time, the now Saint Annibale Maria di Francia.  This presentation was taken largely from the preface of the fourth edition, which Saint Annibale Maria di Francia had written for the original Italian.

Luisa was seventeen years old (she relates these facts in the first of thirty-six volumes which she wrote by order of holy obedience).  On the last day of a Christmas Novena which Jesus Himself prompted her to do, He surprised her with an unusually vivid experience of the marvelous Mysteries of His Love.  And He told her He wanted to lavish New and Greater Graces on her, manifesting to her other, even more lofty Excesses of His Immense Love, and inviting her to continue giving Him uninterrupted company during the twenty-four hours of His Sorrowful Passion and death.

Much later, after Luisa had already been Living these Hours of the Passion intensely in her interior for more than thirty years, the now Saint Annibale di Francia, who was the ecclesiastic delegate on matters concerning Luisa’s writings and who had come to know about this practice of hers, gave her the obedience to write these Hours down.  This, then, is how the book, The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ began.

It was then that Saint Annibale di Francia published it for the first time.  To this edition, there followed seven others:  five in Italian and two in German—always with the proper ecclesiastical permissions.  It was recently published in English and Spanish as well.

When Luisa had finished writing the Hours of the Passion, she wrote a letter which she gave to Saint Annibale together with the book, who included it in the book’s preface when he published it.  From this letter, we come to appreciate how pleased Jesus is, and how many benefits are lavished upon the soul, when it practices these Hours on a daily basis, as Bread without which one cannot live.  Here is the letter.

“I am finally sending you this hand-written copy of The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  May it all be for His greater Glory.  I have also enclosed a few sheets on which I have described the Effects and the beautiful Promises which Jesus makes to all those who meditate these Hours of the Passion.

“I believe that if whoever meditates on them is a sinner he will convert; if he is imperfect he will become perfect; if he is holy he will become holier; if he is tempted he will find victory; if suffering he will find strength, medicine and comfort in these Hours; if weak and poor he will find a spiritual food and a mirror in which to look at himself continually, and so become beautiful and similar to Jesus, our Model.

“Jesus’ Joy is so immense when someone meditates on the Hours of the Passion, that He would like to see at least one copy of these meditations being used in every city and town.  Because then it would be as if Jesus were hearing His own Voice and His own Prayers which He raised to His Father during the twenty-four hours of His painful Passion.  And if this is done at least by a few souls in each town and city, He Himself promises that the Divine Justice will be appeased in part, and punishments will be lessened.

“Reverend Father:  You make an appeal to everyone.  Bring this little work to completion, which my Loving Jesus has had me do.

“I would also like to add that the purpose of these Hours of the Passion is not so much that of recounting the story of the Passion, since there already are many books which deal with this pious subject, and it would not be necessary to write another one.  Instead, its purpose is to make reparation:  to unite ourselves to Jesus in each of the different moments of His Passion, and with His own Divine Will, make a worthy reparation for each of the various offenses He receives, and compensate Him for everything that all creatures owe Him.

“From this there derive the different ways of making reparation in these Hours.  In some instances, the soul blesses Him, in others it sympathizes with Him, in others it praises Him, it comforts suffering Jesus, it compensates Him, it begs, prays and asks Him, and so on.

“So, I entrust to you the task of making known the purpose of these Hours to those who will read them.”

Therefore, in every city, town and nation, let us form so many cenacles, in which these twenty-four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord are meditated and lived.  Like so many living clocks, let them faithfully mark the hours of each day, to keep Jesus company with our love, our reparation and our gratitude, for He is not loved as He deserves.  Indeed, His own children offend Him and crucify Him again in their hearts, by closing the doors to Grace, to the Divine Will.

It happened that on one occasion, Saint Annibale di Francia went to Luisa’s house and recounted what had taken place on one of his visits with the Pope (being an intimate friend of Pope Saint Pius X, he was frequently received by him).  While with him, he wanted to introduce him to the book, The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which he had been spreading.  So, St. Annibale read a few pages of it to the Pope, specifically, from the Hour of the Crucifixion.  At a certain point, the Pope interrupted him, saying:

“Father, this book should be read while kneeling:  It is Jesus Christ who is speaking!”

11/4/14 – Vol. 11

I was doing the Hours of the Passion and Jesus, all pleased, told me: “My daughter, if you knew what great satisfaction I feel in seeing you repeating these Hours of my Passion – always repeating them, over and over again – you would be happy. It is true that my Saints have meditated my Passion and understood how much I suffered, melting in tears of compassion, to the extent of feeling consumed for love of my pains; however, not in this continuous manner, always repeated and in this order. Therefore, I can say that you are the first one to give Me this taste, so great and special, as you keep fragmenting within you – hour by hour – my Life and all that I suffered. I feel so attracted that, hour after hour, I give you this food and I eat the same food with you, doing what you do together with you. Know that I will reward you abundantly with new Light and new graces even after your death. Each time the souls on earth will do these Hours of my Passion, in Heaven I will clothe you with ever new Light and glory.”

Novena for the 70th Anniversary

of the Passing into Eternity
of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will Luisa Piccarreta

Divine Providence led the Little Daughter of the Divine Will down paths so mysterious that she knew no joys other than God and His Grace. One day the Lord said to her:
“Listen, I went round the earth over and over again; I looked at all creatures, one by one, in order to find the littlest of all. Among many I found you – the littlest of all. I liked your littleness and I chose you. I entrusted you to My Angels, so that they might keep you, not to make you grow, but to preserve your littleness. And now I want to begin the great work of the fulfillment of My Will; nor will you feel greater because of this; on the contrary, My Will shall make you even smaller, and you will continue to be the little daughter of your Jesus – the Little Daughter of My Will.” (3/23/21 – Vol. 12)
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day One:
12/15/21 – Vol. 13
As I was in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus, on coming, told me: “My daughter, reorder yourself in Me. And do you know how you can reorder yourself in Me? By fusing all of yourself in my Will. Even the breath, the heartbeat and the air you breathe must be nothing but fusion in my Will. So does order enter between Creator and creature, and she returns to the origin from which she came. All things are in order, have their place of honor and are perfect, when they do not move from the origin from which they came. Once they move from the origin, all is disorder, dishonor, imperfection. Only the acts done in my Will give themselves back to the origin in which the soul was created, and take life within the sphere of Eternity, bringing to their Creator the divine homages and the glory of their own Will. All other acts remain down below, waiting for the last hour of life, each to undergo its own judgment and the pain it deserves, because there is no act done outside of my Will, even good, which can be called pure. The mere lacking aim at my Will is to throw mud over the most beautiful works; and then, the mere moving from one’s origin deserves a penalty. Creation was delivered on the wings of my Volition, and on those same wings I would want it to return to Me – but I wait in vain. This is why everything is disorder and confusion. Therefore, come into my Will to give Me, in the name of all, reparation for such great disorder.”

Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Two:
3/22/38 – Vol. 35
…Then, He (Jesus) added: “My daughter, the moment of death is the time of disillusion. In that point, all things present themselves, one after the other, to say: ‘Good-bye, the earth is over for you; now Eternity begins for you… It happens to the creature just as when she is locked inside a room and someone says to her: ‘Behind this room there is another room, in which there is God, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell; in sum—the Eternity.’ But she cannot see anything of these things. She hears them being asserted by others; but those who say them cannot see them either, so they speak in a way that is almost not credible; not giving great importance to making all their words believed as reality—as something certain.
“So, one day the walls fall down, and she can see with her own eyes what they had told her before. She sees her God and Father, Who Loved her with Great Love; the Gifts that He had given to her, one by one; and all the broken Rights of Love that she owed Him. She sees how her life belonged to God, not to herself. Everything passes before her: Eternity, Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell—the earth running away; the pleasures turning their back on her. Everything disappears; the only thing that remains present to her is in that room with fallen walls: the Eternity. What a change for the poor creature!
“My Goodness is such, wanting everyone saved, that I allow the falling of these walls when the creatures find themselves between life and death—at the moment in which the soul exits the body to enter Eternity—so that they may do at least one act of contrition and of Love for Me, recognizing My Adorable Will upon them. I can say that I give them one hour of Truth, in order to rescue them. O, if all knew My Industries of Love, that I perform in the last moment of their life, so that they may not escape from My more than Paternal Hands—they would not wait for that moment, but they would love Me all their life.”
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Three:
4/15/38 – Vol. 36
…But while I was feeling drowned in the Divine Will, the thought of my poor state was troubling me—the fact that I had to succumb to a sort of death every night, for fifty years and more, until someone would come to get me out of that state. My God, I feel such pain, You know how much pain and how much it costs me. Only the fear of displeasing You and not doing Your Will holds me on. Otherwise, who knows what I would do not to be submitted to this.
And my sweet Jesus ran toward me and squeezing me tight in His arms told me: “My good daughter, be of good cheer. Don’t be too worried; I don’t want you worried. It is your Jesus who wants this painful state for you—this succumbing as if you were losing your life. I suffer it together with you, since True Love cannot deny anything to the loved one. And then, this state of yours, so painful—as if losing your life, was necessary and wanted by My Divine Will. It wanted to find in you the return and reparation for the many deaths that creatures inflict upon It when they reject It, not giving It Life within themselves. Submitting yourself for so long to these pains of death repaid My Divine Will for the many deaths given to It, and called It to kiss the human will—to make Peace. It is thanks to this, I could speak so much about My Will.
“You must know that anything the creature does in My Will runs to give and form Life within It; otherwise, not receiving It, My Life dies for her. Do you think it’s nothing for Me, this Great Pain of seeing so many of My Divine Lives dead for the creatures? Therefore it was necessary to find one who, in some way, would re-ignite My Yearning to form My Life in them
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Four:
7/12/37 – Vol. 34
…“Now, I (Jesus) 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.”
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Five:
7/14/07 – Vol. 8
Continuing in my usual state, blessed Jesus came for a little while, and without thinking, I asked: ‘Lord, yesterday I went to confession; if I had died, since confession remits sins, would You not have brought me straight to Heaven?’
And He: “My daughter, it is true that confession remits sins, but the surest and most certain thing to be exempt from Purgatory is love. Love must be the predominant passion in the soul. Love – her thought, her word, her movements… everything, everything must be enveloped by this love. In this way, finding her all love, the Uncreated Love absorbs the created love within Itself. In fact, Purgatory does nothing but fill the voids of love that are present in the soul; and once It has filled these voids, It sends her to Heaven. But if these voids are not there, it is not something that belongs to Purgatory.”
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Six:
4/29/28 – Vol. 24
…Then, I don’t know how, a thought came to me: “If I died and went to Purgatory, what will I do? If while being here imprisoned in my body, caged more than in a narrow prison, my poor soul feels it so much when Jesus deprives me of His adorable presence that I don’t know what I would do and suffer to find Him again—what would happen if, when the prison of my body is broken and my soul, free and loose, takes its rapid flight, I did not find my Jesus, the center in which I must take refuge, never to go out again; and instead of finding my Life (referring to “Jesus” as “my Life”), the center of my rest, I found myself flung into Purgatory? What would be my pain and my torment?’
Now, while I was feeling oppressed by these thoughts, my Beloved Jesus clasped me all to Himself, and added: “My daughter, why do you want to oppress yourself? Don’t you know that one who lives in My Will has the bond of union with the heavens, with the sun, with the sea, with the wind—with all Creation? Her acts are fused in all created things, because My Will has placed them all in common as Its own things, in such a way that all of Creation feels the life of this creature.
“And if she could go to Purgatory, they would all feel offended, the entire universe would rebel, and they would not let her go alone to Purgatory. The heavens, the sun, the wind, the sea—all would follow her, moving from their places and, offended, they would say to their Creator: ‘She is Yours and ours—the life that animates all of us animates her. How is this—in Purgatory?’ The heavens would claim her with their love; the sun would speak up with its light, the wind with its lamenting voices, the sea with its tumultuous waves—all would have a word to defend she who has lived common life with them.
“But since one who lives in My Will absolutely cannot go to Purgatory, the universe will remain in its place, and My Will will have the triumph of bringing to Heaven the one who has lived in It on this earth of exile. Therefore, continue to live in My Will, and do not want to make your mind gloomy and to oppress yourself with things that do not belong to you.”
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Seven:
1/6/02 – Vol. 4
…But a little later He (Jesus) came back, and I also saw many people who greatly feared death. On seeing this, I (Luisa) said: ‘My lovable Jesus, it must be a defect in me, this not fearing death. I see that others fear it so much, while to me, instead, thinking only that death will unite me with You forever and will put an end to the martyrdom of my hard separation, the thought of death not only gives no fear, but is of relief; it gives me peace and I make feast, disregarding all the other consequences which death brings with itself.’
And Jesus: “Daughter, in truth, that extravagant fear of dying is foolishness, when one has all my merits, virtues and works as passport in order to enter Heaven, since I made a donation of it to everyone. Those who have added from their own, then, profit even more from this donation of Mine; and with all this substance, what fear can one have of death? Rather, with this most safe passport the soul can enter wherever she wants, and out of regard for her passport, everyone respects her and lets her pass. As for you, then, your not fearing death at all comes from your having dealt with Me, and having experienced how sweet and dear is the union with the highest Good. Know, however, that the most pleasing homage that can be offered to Me, is desiring to die in order to be united with Me. This is the most beautiful disposition in order for the soul to be purged and to pass straight on, with no interval, through the way of Heaven.” Having said this, He disappeared.
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Eight:
7/26/27 – Vol. 22
…Then, afterwards, He added: “My daughter, all human actions—working, taking food, sleeping, the pains, the encounters, now of sorrow, now of joy—are nothing other than straw. Now, wheat cannot be formed without the straw; on the contrary, the straw defends the wheat from frost, from the burning rays of the sun, from the waters, from all the intemperances of the air. Like a garment, it covers the wheat and grows with it, and only when it has formed the wheat and given life to it—then does it detach from it; and the poor straw performs and receives this detachment by dint of threshing, after it has served the wheat and given life to it.
“Such are the human actions: from the littlest to the greatest, they are all straws, and if one lets the wheat of My Will flow within them, they serve in an admirable way to hide and preserve the wheat of My Divine Volition; and the more the straw, the more wheat can one hope to possess. It is an enchantment, My daughter, to see a human action enclosing within itself the most pure wheat and the refulgent gold of My Divine Will. Like straws, it seems that they have primacy over the wheat, and they can boast, saying: ‘It is true that we are straws, but we hide within ourselves a Divine Will that is more than wheat. We remain at Its service and give It the field, that It may be formed in our action.’ On the other hand, if My Will does not flow within them, the human actions remain as straws, worthy of being burned, because they have not formed within them the pure wheat that serves the Celestial Fatherland.
“Now, just as the straw is detached from the wheat by dint of threshing, in the same way, the human actions are detached from the pure wheat of My Divine Will by means of death that, knocking down what is human, crushes the garment that kept the gold wheat of My Will clothed, and letting it out, it manifests whether it was wheat or straw that the soul possessed. Therefore, it is not the human actions that indicate the value of them, but the will by which they are animated. How many actions, apparently beautiful and holy, will be found as full of mud, if done for the purpose of interest; full of wind, if done for the purpose of esteem and personal glory; full of rot, if done to please creatures; full of smoke, if done out of attachment to what is human.
“How many things do the straws of the human actions hide; but on the last day of life, when the threshing comes and crushes the straws, it will make known everything they kept hidden inside.”…
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

Day Nine:
6/29/25 – Vol. 17
I was feeling oppressed, and a thought wanted to disturb the serenity of my mind: ‘What if you were at the moment of death, and doubts and fears about the way you behaved during your life, arose within you, to the extent of making you doubt about your salvation – what would you do?’
But as I was thinking about this, my sweet Jesus gave me no time to reflect any further, or to answer my thought. Moving in my interior, He made Himself seen shaking His head, and as though saddened by my thought, He told me: “My daughter, what are you saying? To think about this is an affront to my Will. No fears, doubts or dangers enter into It. These are things which do not belong to It; rather, they are the miserable rags of the human will. My Will is like a placid sea which murmurs peace, happiness, safety, certainty; and the waves It unleashes from Its womb, are waves of joys and of contentments without end. Therefore, in seeing you think about this, I was shaken. My Will is not capable of fears, of doubts, of dangers, and the soul who lives in It becomes estranged to the miserable rags of the human will. And then, what could my Will fear? Who can ever raise doubts about Its work, if before the Sanctity of my operating Will all tremble and are forced to bend their forehead, adoring the work of my Will?
“Even more, I want to tell you something which is very consoling for you, and of great glory for Me. It will happen with you, at your death in time, just as it happened with Me, at my death. During my life, I worked, I prayed, I preached, I instituted the Sacraments, I suffered unheard-of pains, and even death itself; but I can say that my Humanity saw almost nothing, compared to the great good It had done, nor did the very Sacraments have life as long as I remained on earth. As soon as I died, my death sealed all my works, my words, my pains, the Sacraments; and the fruit of my death confirmed all that I did, and placed my works, my pains, my words, the Sacraments which I instituted, as well as the continuation of their life until the consummation of the centuries, in the act of rising again to life. So, my death put all my works in motion, and it made them rise again to perennial life. All this was right, since my Humanity contained the Eternal Word and a Will which has no beginning and no end, and which is not subject to perish. Of everything It did, nothing was to perish – not even one word; rather, everything was to have continuation until the end of the centuries, in order to pass into Heaven to beatify all the Blessed, eternally.
“The same will happen with you. My Will which lives in you, speaks to you, makes you work and suffer in It, will let nothing perish – not even one word of the so many truths which I have manifested to you about my Will; rather, It will put everything in motion, It will make everything rise again. Your death will be the confirmation of all that I have said to you. And since the living in my Will is such that everything the soul does, suffers, prays and says, contain the Act of the Divine Will, all this will not be subject to perish, but will remain in the world, like many Lives – and all of them in the act of giving Life to the creatures. Therefore, your death will tear the veils which cover all the truths which I spoke to you; and they will rise again like many suns, such as to cast away all the doubts and difficulties with which they seemed to be covered during your life. Therefore, as long as you live in this low world, you will see little or nothing in others, of all the great good which my Will wants to do through you. But after your death, everything will have its full effect.”…
Come Divine Will to Reign soon on earth as in Heaven
through the intercession of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, Luisa Piccarreta!

THE LAST WORDS OF LUISA PICCARRETA, HER SPIRITUAL TESTIMONY March 4, 1947
“Now I die with greater contentment, because the Divine Will has consoled me more than usual with Its presence in these last few moments of my life.
“Now I see a long, beautiful and spacious road, all illuminated by an infinite number of resplendent suns – Oh, yes, I recognize them! They are all my acts done in the Divine Will!
“This is the road that I must now take; it is the road that the Divine Will has prepared for me. It’s the road of my victory: it’s the way of my glory, which will unite me with the immense happiness of the Divine Will.
“It’s my road; it’s the road that I have prepared for you. It’s the road that I will keep reserved for all the souls who will ever want to live in the Divine Will.”

Fiat!
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