BOOK OF HEAVEN

From the writings of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta,

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

Volume 20

January 1, 1927

The will of the soul as present for Baby Jesus.  How His whole life was the symbol and the calling of the Divine Will.  How the knowledges are the means in order to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of His Will.

(I was meditating on the old year that was setting, and the new one that was rising.)

My state continues in the flight of the light of the Divine Will, and I was praying the pretty little Baby that, just as the old year was dying never to be born again, so He would make my will die and live no more; and as present for the new year, He would give me His Will, just as I gave Him the gift of mine, so as to place it as footstool at His tender little feet, that it might have no other life but His Will alone.

Now, while I was saying this and other things, my sweet Jesus came out from within my interior, and told me: “Daughter of My Will, how I love, want—yearn that your will may end in you.  Oh, how I accept your present!  How pleasing it will be for Me to keep it as soft footstool at My feet.  In fact, as long as it remains in the creature, outside of its center which is God, the human will is hard; but when it enters again into the center from which it came, serving as footstool at the feet of your little Baby Jesus, it becomes soft, and I use it to amuse Myself.  Is it not right that, little as I am, I have an amusement?  And that in the midst of so many sorrows, privations and tears, I have your will to make Me smile? 

“Now, you must know that one who puts an end to her will, returns into the origin from which she came, and the new life, the life of light, the perennial life of My Will, begins in her. See, when I came upon earth, I wanted to give many examples and similes of how I wanted the human will to end.  I wanted to be born at midnight, so as to break the night of the human will with the refulgent day of Mine.  And even though at midnight the night continues, it does not finish, it is yet the beginning of a new day; and My Angels, to give honor to My birth and to point out to everyone the day of My Will, from midnight on, gladdened the vault of the heavens with new stars and new suns, such as to turn the night into more than daylight. 

“This was the homage that the Angels gave to My little Humanity, in which resided the full day of the Sun of My Divine Will, and the calling of the creature into the full day of It. Still little, I submitted Myself to the so very cruel cut of circumcision, that made Me shed bitter tears for the pain—and not only Me, but with Me cried My Mama and dear St. Joseph.  It was the cut of the human will that I wanted to make, so that creatures might let the Divine Will flow within that cut, and so that a broken will might have life no more—but only Mine, that had run within that cut in order to begin Its life again. 

“Still little, I wanted to flee to Egypt.  A tyrannical and iniquitous will wanted to kill Me—symbol of the human will that wants to kill Mine; and I fled, in order to say to all:  ‘Flee the human will, if you do not want Mine to be killed.’  My whole life was nothing other than the calling of the Divine Will into the human.  In Egypt I lived like a stranger in the midst of that people—symbol of My Will, that they keep as though estranged within their midst; and symbolizing that whoever wants to live in peace and united with My Will, must live as though estranged from the human will.  Otherwise, there will always be war between the two of them—they are two irreconcilable wills. 

“After My exile, I returned to My fatherland—symbol of My Will that, after Its long exile of centuries upon centuries, will return to Its dear fatherland, into the midst of Its children in order to reign. And as I went through these stages in My Life, I kept forming Its Kingdom in Me, and I called It with incessant prayers, with pains and with tears, to come to reign in the midst of creatures.  I returned to My fatherland and I lived hidden and unknown.  Oh! how this symbolizes the sorrow of My Will that, while living in the midst of the peoples, lives unknown and hidden.  And with My hiddenness, I impetrated that the Supreme Will be known, that It might receive the homage and the glory that are due to It.  There was nothing I did that did not symbolize a sorrow of My Will, the condition in which creatures put It, and a call I made in order to return Its Kingdom to It.  And this is what I want your life to be:  the continuous calling of the Kingdom of My Will into the midst of creatures.”

Then, after this, I was going around through the whole Creation in order to bring the heavens, the stars, the sun, the moon, the sea—in sum, everything, to the feet of little Baby Jesus together with me, so as to ask Him, all together, that the coming of this Kingdom of His Will upon earth might come soon. And in my desire, I was saying to Him:  “See, I am not the only one who is praying You, but the heavens are praying with the voices of all the stars; the sun, with the voice of its light and of its heat; the sea, with its murmuring—they are all praying You that Your Will may come to reign upon earth.  How can You resist listening to so many voices that pray You?  It is innocent voices—voices animated by Your very Will, that are praying You.” 

Now, while I was saying this, my little Jesus came out from within my interior to receive the homage of all Creation, and to listen to their mute language; and squeezing me to Himself, He told me: “My daughter, the easiest means in order to hasten the coming of My Will upon earth are the knowledges about It.  The knowledges bring light and heat, and form within themselves the Prime Act of God, in which the creature finds the first Act on which to model her own.  If she does not find the first Act, the creature does not have the virtue of forming the Prime Act; therefore the acts, the things that are most necessary in order to form this Kingdom, would be missing. 

“See then, what one additional knowledge about My Will means. By carrying the Prime Act of God within themselves, they will bring with them a magnetic force, a powerful magnet, in order to draw creatures to repeat the Prime Act of God.  With their light, they will bring the disillusionment of the human will; with their heat, they will soften the hardest hearts to bend before this Divine Act; and creatures will feel captivated to wanting to model themselves on this Act. 

“Therefore, the more knowledges I manifest about My Will, the more quickly is the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat drawn upon earth.”

12/28 On this day in 1938 the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta writes the last chapter of Volume 36. The obedience to write ceases.

December 28th, A.D. 2016 – Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Calendar for the Traditional Roman Rite

In the second chapter of the Book of Matthew is recorded the story of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents, an event which recalls the Pharaoh’s instructions to midwives during the time Israel was enslaved in Egypt:

Exodus 1:15-16, 22:

And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua, Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive…

…Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river:

whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive. Moses was saved from this murder when his mother placed him in a little ark and floated him in the river. Moses’s sister watched from afar as the Pharaoh’s daughter found the child (Exodus 2).

The massacre from which Moses was spared is a type, a foreshadowing, of the massacre of the holy innocents that took place soon after Christ was born.

As to the slaughter of the Innocents in the New Testament, first some background: Herod the Great, the Governor of Galilee, was an Idumean Jew whom History describes as an extremely cruel man: he was a man who killed several of his wives and his own sons when he suspected they were plotting against him. Challenges to his power were met with a swift and final response, and he even tried to ensure that his cruel campaigns survived him when he arranged that on the day he went on to his eternal reward, hundreds of men in the area would be killed so that there would be mourning at his funeral.

Though this arrangement was never carried out, it speaks well of Herod’s nature. And during this tyrant’s reign, the Magi — whose adoration of Baby Jesus is remembered on the Epiphany (6 January) and its Eve (Twelfthnight) — saw the Star of Bethlehem and went to Jerusalem, asking where the new King of Jews may be found. Herod heard of their asking around about the newborn King and, calling the high priests to find out about this this Child, was informed that it was prophecied that the Child would be born in Juda. Threatened by this prophecy, he sent for the Magi to find the Child and report back so he could go and “worship,” too.

The Magi found Jesus but, knowing Herod’s heart after having it revealed to them in a dream, didn’t go back to tell Herod of His wherabouts. Meanwhile, the Holy Family, warned through St. Joseph who was visted by an angel in a dream, makes their flight into Egypt. Herod became enraged at the Wise Men’s “betrayal,” and killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger.

The fourth day of Christmas commemorates these baby boys, who are considered martyrs — the very first martyrs (St. Stephen, whose Feast was commemorated 2 days ago, was the first martyr of the Church Age). As Bethlehem was a small town, the number of these Holy Innocents was probably no more than 25, but they are glorious martyrs who died not only for Christ, but in His place. Vestments will be red or purple in mourning, and the Alleluia and Gloria will be supressed at Mass.

12/27 Feast Day of St. John

From the Writings of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta,

the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

Volume 4

 December 4, 1902
Jesus manifests the reasons of His operating.

I was thinking in my mind about this obedience, saying: ‘They are right in commanding me this way; besides, it is not such a great thing that the Lord would allow me to obey in the way wanted by them. So they say: either He should let you obey, or He should tell the reason why He wants the confessor to come to make you come round from that state.’ While I was thinking of this, my adorable Jesus moved in my interior, telling me: “My daughter, I wanted them to find the reason of my operating by themselves, because in my life, from the moment I was born up to my death, everything can be found, since the life of the whole Church is enclosed in it. When compared to some step that can be conformed to my life, the most difficult matters are solved, the most tangled situations are unraveled, and in the most obscure and abstruse ones, such that the human mind almost becomes lost in that obscurity, one finds the clearest and brightest light. This means that they do not have my life as the rule of their operating, otherwise they would have found the reason. But since they have not found the reason themselves, it is necessary that I speak and manifest it.”

After this, He stood up and with empire – but so much that I became fearful – He said: “What is the meaning of that ‘ostende te sacerdoti’ [‘show yourself to the priest’]?” Then, becoming sweeter, He added: “My power extended everywhere, and from any place I was I could operate the most sensational miracles; yet, in almost all my miracles I wanted to be personally present. As for example, when I resurrected Lazarus, I went there, I had them remove the sepulchral stone, then I had him released, and then, with the empire of my voice I called him back to life. In resurrecting the young girl, I took her by the hand with my right hand, and I called her back to life; and in many other things which are recorded in the Gospel, and which are known to all, I wanted to be there with my presence. This teaches the way in which the priest must behave in his operating, since the future life of the Church was enclosed in mine. And these are things that pertain to you, though in general; but your specific circumstance they will find on Calvary. I, priest and victim, lifted up on the wood of the cross, wanted a priest to be present, to assist Me in that state of victim – and he was Saint John, who represented the nascent Church. In him I saw everyone – Popes, bishops, priests and all the faithful together; and while assisting Me, He offered Me as victim for the glory of the Father and for the good outgrowth of the nascent Church. The fact that a priest assisted Me in that state of victim did not happen by chance, but everything was a profound mystery predisposed ab aeterno [from eternity] in the divine mind, intending that when I choose a soul as victim for the grave needs present in the Church, a priest must offer her to Me, assist her for Me, help her and encourage her to suffer. If these things are understood – fine, they themselves will receive the fruit of the work they offer; just like Saint John: how many goods did he not receive for having assisted Me on Mount Calvary? If then they are not understood, they do nothing but put my work amid continuous contrasts, diverting my most beautiful designs.

In addition to this, my Wisdom is infinite, and when It sends some cross to a soul for her sanctification, It does not take that soul alone, but five, ten… as many as I please, so that not one alone, but all others together may be sanctified. In fact, on Calvary I was not alone; in addition to having a priest, I had a Mother, I had friends and also enemies, and on seeing the prodigy of my patience, many of them believed in Me as the God I was, and were converted. Had I been alone, would they have received these great goods? Certainly not.”

But who can say everything He told me, or explain the most minute meanings? I said this the best I could – the way I was able to say it in my roughness. I hope that the Lord will do the rest, by illuminating them so that they may comprehend what I have not been able to manifest well.