“My daughter, my state is ever more painful. If you love Me, keep your gaze fixed on Me, to see if you can offer some relief to your Jesus; a little word of love, a caress, a kiss, will give respite to my crying and to my afflictions. Listen my daughter, after I gave eight excesses of my love, and man requited them so badly, my love did not give up and wanted to add the ninth excess to the eighth. And this was yearnings, sighs of fire, flames of desire, for I wanted to go out of the maternal womb to embrace man. This reduced my little Humanity, not yet born, to such an agony as to reach the point of breathing my last. But as I was about to breathe my last, my Divinity, which was inseparable from Me, gave Me sips of life, and so I regained life to continue my agony, and return again to the point of death. This was the ninth excess of my love: to agonize and to die of love continuously for the creature. Oh! What a long agony of nine months! Oh! How love suffocated Me and made Me die. Had I not had the Divinity with Me, which gave Me life again every time I was about to finish, love would have consumed Me before coming out to the light of day.”
Then He added: “Look at Me, listen to Me, how I agonize, how my heart beats, pants, burns. Look at Me – now I die.” And He remained in deep silence. I felt like dying. My blood froze in my veins, and trembling, I said to Him: ‘My Love, my Life, do not die, do not leave me alone. You want love, and I will love You; I will not leave You ever again. Give me your flames to be able to love You more, and be consumed completely for You.’
Fiat!
Permanent link to this article: https://luisapiccarreta.com/1224-christmas-eve-end-of-the-christmas-novena/
It’s a story of hope for modern man; a glimmer of light in the midst of the darkness of the 20th century that suggests perhaps we won’t end up destroying ourselves after all.
I’m talking about the famous Christmas Truce of 1914. You (hopefully) know the basic story: in the midst of World War I, German and British soldiers throughout Europe called unofficial cease-fires on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, ventured into “no-man’s land” between the sides, and enjoyed conversation, caroling, and even games of football.
But did you know about the part the pope played in it?
British and German soldiers during an unofficial truce / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
World War I broke out in July of 1914. The pope at the time, Piux X, was sick and dying and unable to adequately respond. He died in August, and by September a new pope was elected, Benedict XV. Right away, Benedict made trying to bring peace to Europe one of the main tasks of his pontificate. He famously called the war “the suicide of civilized Europe.”
In early December, he suggested that all warring parties agree to at least have a cease-fire on Christmas day of that year. In the least the cease-fire would allow soldiers on all sides to keep the holy day. And perhaps the respite would make everyone re-evaluate why the were fighting the war in the first place. But the real hope was that the temporary cease-fire would give the warring parties a chance to put together a permanent truce to end the war for good.
He implored “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.”
Unfortunately, his proposal was officially rebuffed by leaders on all sides. But then, when Christmas came, truces sprang up unofficially throughout the continent anyway.
What caused the truces? It’s hard to know exactly, particularly since they were apparently uncoordinated and spontaneous. But it’s hard to think the Pope’s courageous pleas for peace didn’t have some effect on what ended up happening. (Remind anyone of something from our own times?)
So may we all remember Christ’s words, “blessed are the peacemakers,” and continue to pray and work for peace in our world today. You never know the effect you may have on the world.
Permanent link to this article: https://luisapiccarreta.com/1223-the-famous-christmas-truce-of-1914-and-the-pope-behind-it/
Lessons from the Letters of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta,
THE LITTLE DAUGHTER OF THE DIVINE WILL
Luisa Letter 91.
To Mother Cecilia
Fiat
My good and reverend Mother…
Here I am to give you my wishes for Holy Christmas. And what better wish to give you than to send you little Jesus, so that He may make you be born together with Him? Oh, how He longs for it, and comes to the point of crying, because He does not want to be alone, but wants the creature to be born and live together with Him.
The dear Baby will say to you, to the ear of your heart: “My daughter, let me live in you; do everything together with Me, and I will give you my Sanctity to make you a saint, my Beauty to embellish you, my Wisdom so that everything may be order within you. Then I will give you the great gift of my Will to let you breathe, palpitate, love, together with Me.”… He will tell you: “Only then will I be content, when I see that you look like Me in everything.”
My dearest Mother, let us make Jesus content; let us be reborn with Him and live together with Him. He is newly born, and does not want to be alone; He feels the need of the company of someone to kiss Him and to dry His tears. My Mother, this is my wish; I believe that your Maternity will be content… More so, since every additional act we do in the Divine Will is a new birth for us. We are reborn in Jesus, and He in us. In this way we will make little Jesus happy. Leaving you to be reborn together with Jesus, I kiss your right hand.
The little daughter of the Divine Will
Permanent link to this article: https://luisapiccarreta.com/1223-christmas-greetings-from-the-letters-of-luisa-piccarreta/
Preparation for Holy Christmas The Nine Excesses of Love in the Incarnation of the Word Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will
Meditation Theme Day I Excess of Love Trinitarian Love December 16 II Excess of Love Constrained Love December 17 III Excess of Love Devouring Love December 18 IV Excess of Love Operative Love December 19 V Excess of Love Lonely Love December 20 VI Excess of Love Imprisoned Love December 21 VII Excess of Love Unrequited Love December 22
VIII Excess of Love Supplicating Love December 23
IX Excess of Love Agonizing Love December 24
Holy Christmas – The Birth of Jesus December 25
***
Book of Heaven
12/17/03 – Vol. 6
The adoration that the Most Holy Virgin did when She encountered Jesus carrying the Cross. The true spirit of adoration.
Continuing in my usual state, for a few instants a saw blessed Jesus with the Cross on His shoulders, in the act of encountering His Most Holy Mother; and I said to Him: ‘Lord, what did your Mother do in this most sorrowful encounter?’
And He: “My daughter, She did nothing but a most profound and simple act of adoration. And since the simpler the act, the more easily it unites with God, Most Simple Spirit, in this act She infused Herself in Me and continued what I Myself was doing in my interior. This was immensely pleasing to Me, more than if She had done any other greater thing. In fact, the true spirit of adoration consists in this: the creature dissolves herself and finds herself in the divine sphere; she adores all that God does, and she unites with Him. Do you think that when the mouth adores but the mind is somewhere else, it is true adoration? That is, the mind adores but the will is far away from Me? Or, one power adores Me, and the others are all disordered? No, I want everything for Myself, and everything I have given her, in Me. This is the greatest act of cult, of adoration, that the creature can do for Me.”
Permanent link to this article: https://luisapiccarreta.com/1216-today-1216-is-the-start-of-the-christmas-novena-the-nine-excesses-of-love/
British and German soldiers during an unofficial truce / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
