8/19 Fatima – Apparition of August 19, 1917

From the EWTN Website

Under the pretext of providing his personal automobile, so that the children could travel safely through the crowds pressing around their homes, the civil Administrator or Mayor of the district in which Fátima was located, arrived in Aljustrel on the morning of August 13th. A previous attempt on August 11th to obtain the “truth” from the children having been unsuccessful, Artur Santos, an apostate Catholic and high Mason, had devised a scheme by which he would take them into custody and force them to reveal all. With a show of good will he now offered to take the three and their parents to see the parish priest, whom he claimed wished to see them, and then to the Cova. At the parish house he abandoned this ruse, and the parents, taking the children alone from there to the district headquarters in Vila Nova de Ourem, some 9 miles away. Here he tried bribes, threats of death and locking them in a cell with other “criminals” in order to get them to recant their story. It was to no avail. Despite their ages, their belief in the Lady and their courage was unshakeable.

Meanwhile, in the Cova at noon on the 13th the characteristic external signs of the Apparition appeared for the benefit of the crowd, the greatest crowd to that time. After they ended the crowd dispersed, as yet unaware of the trickery of the government.

The “trial” of the children, however, continued for two days, to the consternation of their families. Finally, on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, the Administrator had them driven back to Fátima and deposited on the steps of the rectory. Here they were seen as the people, who had just come from Mass, were trying to determined from Ti Marto where the children were. Their anger was poured out on the driver, and on the Mayor when he arrived a little later, both of whom were no doubt glad to be rid of their little charges and to escape unscathed. It would effectively be the only serious effort of the civil authorities to interfere with the Lady of Fátima.

As it was the Lady’s plans were delayed slightly. On Sunday the 19th Lucia, her brother John, and Francisco, were grazing the sheep at a place known as Valinhos. It was located on the side of the same hillock opposite Aljustrel where the angel appeared twice, though a little farther north. At apout 4 o’clock, sensing that Our Lady was about to appear, Lucia tried unsuccessfully to get John to fetch Jacinta, until she offered him a couple pennies for the errand. As she and Francisco waited they saw the characteristic light. The moment Jacinta arrived the Lady appeared.

“What do you want of me?”

Come again to the Cova da Iria on the thirteenth of next month, my child, and continue to say the Rosary every day. In the last month I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.“What are we to do with the offerings of money that people leave at the Cova da Iria?”

I want you to have two ardors [litters to carry statues] made, for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I want you and Jacinta to carry one of them with two other girls. You will both dress in white. And then I want Francisco, with three boys helping him, to carry the other one. The boys, too, will be dressed in white. What is left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here.

Lucia then asked for the cure of some sick people.

Some I will cure during the year.”(looking sadly at them) Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.

Having said that she departed as she had on the other occasions.

THE SIX STEPS

The Six Steps

This prayer, derived from “The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will” can be recited every day, especially after receiving Holy Communion. It is repeated three times in honor of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

To You Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, following Our Lady’s lessons in union . . .

1.with Luisa I sacrifice my human will in honor of You God the Father. Amen.

2.with Luisa I empty myself of my human will in order to let the Divine Will have Principle of Life in my soul. Amen.

3.with Luisa I decide with a firm resolution to no longer give life to my human will. Amen.

4.with Luisa I give to you my God my human will as proof, giving my Fiat and my acceptance of Your test. Amen.

5.with Luisa I decide with a firm resolution to no longer give life to my human will, sacrificing it at the foot of the Divine Throne of God, for my entire life, without ever giving life to my human will. Amen.

6.O Most Holy Divine Fiat, in unity with Luisa allow my soul to take possession of all the Divine Qualities as much as possible and imaginable for a soul. With Luisa I ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen

BOOK OF HEAVEN

From the Writings of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will,

Luisa Piccarreta

8/10/31 – Vol. 29

 Ugliness of the human nature without the Divine Will; beauty of one who lives in It. The Smile of Heaven upon the earth.

Now, what good can the creature hope for, if she does not Live United with Our Divine Will, in Which the beginning of her creation was established? Oh! if all would comprehend this, how attentive they would be to let themselves be Dominated, Nourished, Raised by My Will, that, being the beginning of their existence, would Form in them all that is Beautiful, Good and Holy, and the great fortune of life down here, and then the great Glory of their life up there.”

After this, I continued my Acts in the Divine Will, and it seemed to me that These Acts done in It had the Virtue of Uniting Heaven and earth, and of Drawing all the celestial inhabitants to look at the creature that was letting herself be Invested by the Divine Volition to Give It the field of action in her acts. And my Sweet Jesus added: “My daughter (Luisa), there is nothing more beautiful, holier, more gracious, and that possesses an enrapturing force and virtue, than a soul who lets herself Be Dominated by My Divine Will. She is the smile of Heaven and of the earth; each Act of hers Forms a Rapture for her Creator, Who Feels the Sweet Force of His Will in the creature, and sweetly Lets Himself Be Enraptured. And all the Blessed Feel that, from the earth, there is someone who enraptures the Will of Heaven, to make it her own and to live in common with them. Oh! how they feel twice as happy in seeing that also on earth Reigns That Fiat that, while It Beatifies them and Forms their supreme happiness, Reigns at one point of the earth, Operating and Triumphant. Therefore, at that point of the earth appears a Nimbus of Heaven, a Divine Will Operating, a smile of the Celestial Fatherland, that draws the attention of the whole of Heaven on that point, to keep it defended and to enjoy that Smile that the Divine Will Forms in that creature. In fact, the Saints are inseparable from all the Acts of It and they enjoy and take part In Them according to their merits. More so, since the Acts done in My Divine Will are as many Chains of Love that Flow between Heaven and earth, and They Love all, without putting anyone aside; and because she loves all, she is well-liked by all.

From the Writings of the Little Daughter of the Divine Will,

Luisa Piccarreta

8/12/16 – Vol. 11
Glory of the souls who will Live in the Divine Will on earth.

I was fusing myself in the Most Holy Will, and my Sweet Jesus Told me: “My daughter Luisa, only by one who Lives in My Will do I Feel as though repaid for Creation, Redemption and Sanctification, and she glorifies Me in the way in which the creature Must Glorify Me. Therefore these souls will be the Gems of My Throne and will take within themselves all the contentment and the glory Which Each Blessed Will Have for himself alone. These souls will be as though Queens around My Throne, and all the Blessed will be around them; and just as the Blessed will be as many suns that will shine in the Celestial Jerusalem, the souls who Have Lived in my Will, Will Shine in My Own Sun. They will be as though Circumfused with My Sun, and these souls will see the Blessed from Within Me, because it is right that, having Lived on earth united with Me, with My Will, as they lived no life of their own, they have a place distinct from all others in Heaven, and they continue in Heaven the Life which they lived on earth – completely Transformed in Me and Immersed in the Sea of My Contentment.”

St. Hannibal Maria di Francia

“Little Son of the Divine Will”

5/30/2016 Posted By Luisapiccarretaofficial.org

The Saints meet on the streets of Providence.

The meeting of St. Hnnibal Maria Di Francia (1851-1927 Messina) with Luisa Piccarreta was caused by his presence in the diocese and city of Trani for the opening of the religious house of nuns of the Daughters of Divine Zeal in April 1910. From then until May 25 1927, a few days before the death of the saint from Messina, a deep spiritual relationship and a regular correspondence developed between them.

Luisa’s revelations about the Divine Will and her writings on the Divine Volition attracted St. Hnnibal so much so that he felt he had become a nothing before the great Mercy of the Lord, and the great deposit of the Revelations about the Divine Will, and they became constantly the object of his meditation. Especially in the last months of his life, when pleurisy had no way out, he felt a strong closeness to Luisa and a participatory analogy to her sufferings: “I suffer anguishing nights and you who were with Jesus the nights, remember me who spend them in agony”. Luisa offered to share St. Hannibal’s his nocturnal sorrows as well as confided in him great things regarding her spiritual life.

Besides being the extraordinary confessor of Luisa, in 1926 St. Annibale was designated by Archbishop Mgr. Giuseppe M. Leo as the Ecclesiastical Reviser for the publications of his three Dioceses Trani, Barletta and Bisceglie and jurisdiction over Luisa, “as far as your writings and their publication – that is, to handle you and to dispose the publication as I believe is right (his words)”.This responsibility kept him real busy, almost continuously to detach him from the founder commitments: “I want you to know that since I have totally dedicated myself to the great work of the Divine Will, I practically don’t concern myself at all with my institutes. I talk about it with spiritual people, I keep to this point with those who are able to listen and I promote it as much as I can, even in my institutes”.

Luisa’s trust in Saint Hnnibal was blind; she referred to him whether or not to print her manuscripts: “if you see that they are nonsense and that nothing good can do for souls please tear up and burn them”. She wrote that in reference to the delicate nature of the content, “things concerning many punishments, priests, so it is  a strong suffering for me to disclose them to others. I wrote them only for obedience and nothing else”.

And St. Hnnibal replied: “There are points which, though true and holy if looked at with the spirit and with holy simplicity, would yet clash with prudence to publish, and one would have to face the criticism of the Ecclesiastical Authority, which would cast a prejudice over the whole Work. There are a few chapters which must be left for when you are in Heaven”.

The Canon Saint from Messina had a great esteem for Luisa. In the Preface to the Hours of the Passion, he calls “sublime” the revelations which, always excepting the judgments of the Holy Church, we piously believe to have been given by Our Lord Jesus Christ to a soul, a dearest daughter and disciple of His, a privileged woman, at a mystical level, who wants to live solitary, hidden and unknown.

A most pure virgin, wholly of God, the littlest one that He found on earth with no education, endowed with an extraordinary familiarity with Jesus, the right person for a mission so sublime that no other can be compared to it – that is, the triumph of the Divine Will upon the whole earth, in conformity with what is said in the ‘Our Father’: Fiat Voluntas Tua sicut in Coelo et in terra. She is the spouse of Jesus Crucified, who spends the night in painful ecstasies and in sufferings of every kind, during the day, sitting on her bed doing her needlework – nothing appears. On the contrary, she appears as a healthy person, happy and jovial. She speaks, converses, laughs when appropriate, but receives few friends. She listens kindly and comforts, but never advances to make prophecies, never a word which might hint at revelations. The great comfort which she presents is always one, always the same: the Divine Will. Although she possesses no human knowledge, she is abundantly endowed with a Wisdom all celestial – with the Science of the Saints. Her words illuminate and console. In short she is the Firstborn Daughter of the Divine Will.

Luisa was deeply impressed by the wisdom, prudence and holiness of Di Francia that she called Father with an immense offspring for many poor and destitute orphans gathered and she assured him that Jesus will repay the many sacrifices an hundredfold, He will reward your generosity so much. She finally revealed prophetically: the Lord will reward you greatly  for the work of the 24 hours, and it is one of the most beautiful gems that will shine above your head.

It was St. Hannibal who asked Luisa to write the 24 Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ between 1913-14. Considering it a golden book for the current times, he arranged to give it the title and to cure four editions that went systematically snapped up in several thousand copies. The same fate happened to Childhood Memories: your lady which is Holy Obedience want you to write everything you remember of your childhood, infancy and youth as far as the blessed intimate relation with the Divine Lover, adding the beginning of illness which confines you to bed …. .The book began to be printed in Oria on July 1926.

The hardest work started by St. Hannibal was undoubtedly the correction and printing of the volumes on the Divine Will. His idea was to publish the work in Messina where he had the chance to keep everything under control especially as regards the proofreading. But as in Messina  they have many works, he transferred the work in Oria in his Anthonian typography, where there were “young typographers who, quickly and with great love, have appreciated very much the privilege conceded to them by Our Lord to publish these writings”. The typography was duly authorized to purchase a good assortment of typographical characters from the factories. Oh! if I were in the vigor of my strengths and of my mind, how I would wish to fly to Oria to dedicate myself to this divine enterprise! .

At the beginning of 1927 several sheets were in the course of being printed. The difficulties to make the work advance promptly were determined by the many things to read and correct, by the precarious state of his health and the diabolical struggles that he suffered: the infernal spirits would want to bewilder this  great Work,  F. Hannibal confessed to Luisa, “I won’t tell you how I feel the demon rage—or rather, many demons; this is why I often make exorcisms against Satan in the Name of Jesus”.

I tell you in the highest secrecy, that in order to destroy me the devil took the form of a person we know in order to bring me shocking news, because of which I was taken by a palpitation that was about to kill me – but then I discovered the deception. All this because it was a publication because of which Hell trembles so much…

The commitment by Saint Hannibal for the publication of Luisa’s writings was sacrosanct so much so that he said that if he should pass away, his priests would continue the work of the publication, because “we are already a Religious Order approved by the Holy Church, and therefore we can give greater guarantee than a simple individual”. His closest collaborator P. Pantaleone Palma who had realized the extent and the exceptional nature of such an undertaking, had not all the material time, having been confined to the Holy Stairs, where he died on September 2, 1935.

The last year of Father Hannibal’s life is characterized by a copious correspondence with Luisa. Besides issues related to the revision of the writings and the press, correspondence shows the true situation of St. Hannibal health. “For myself, I let you know that I am not in good health. I feel my strength exhausting, and I spend some nights sleepless. I had to suspend, in the middle of it, the work of the correction of the proofs… at the mere thought of the great work of all these publications, I feel as though frightened by a mental impotence!” .

Luisa had made him hope for a healing especially in order to attend to the publication of the writings on the Divine Will. S. Hannibal was happy and conscious: 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.

Di Francia’s confidence continued to be great: ask Our Lord, with faith and love, at least to be able to perform my miraculous healing. I ask you this for the sake of the 19 Volumes which are locked in the Archive of and for those which are now in process…. In my mind there is the whole plan and carrying out of the grandiose Publication. But things did not work out that way. In Volume 22 (June 1, 1927) Luisa noted: I had received the unexpected news of the death of Reverend Father Di Francia. He was the only one left to me, to whom I could open my poor soul. How well he could understand me – it was to a saint that I would entrust myself, who had very much comprehended all the value of what Jesus had told me about the Divine Will. He had so much interest in it that, with insistence, he had taken all the writings with himself in order to publish them,,, I did not want it, and only because he was a saint I had to surrender

The zeal for the mystery of the Passion of Jesus and the exercise of the Divine Will strengthened St. Hannibal to the point of fiddling with a little work about the Divine Will, the possibility of setting up a Spiritual Universal Pious Union, called ‘Children of the Divine Will’. It will be instituted in a very simple way. There will be neither registers, nor regulations, nor reunions, nor payments, nor obligations of conscience. With the help of the Lord we will print thousands of Cards on which there will be the recitation of the little chaplet of the Divine Will, formed, in two parts… I will present this Pious Union, with ecclesiastical approval, to the Sacred Congregation for the Indulgences in Rome, and I hope it will be enriched with holy Indulgences. It will serve to spread the publications and the knowledge of the Revelations about the Divine Will throughout the world…, these Cards will be translated into many languages and spread in many nations.. It is not about houses of Sisters dedicated as Daughters of the Divine Will that should be formed in the world….but  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…. There will not be registers for memberships, nor regulations, but men and women supporters to spread the Cards.

All his fervor, stubbornness and goodwill surrendered before the running disease:  I no longer review the proofs of the first printing, but my people do. And the Preface? Alas! I no longer have the mind to be able to dictate it! …Yet, if I am able to dictate it, the Preface will come out so simple and effective as to impress even the highest personalities of the Holy Church, including the Supreme Pontiff.

And in this he was truly prophetic.

The Saints not only meet on the streets of Providence, but they become the one for the other providential support in the development of mutual knowledge and dissemination of the respective charisma.

What St. Hannibal did over the last 17 years of his existence in favor of Luisa Piccarreta for the dissemination of the  great Work of the Divine Will, is now systematically repaid by Luisa herself through the singular phenomenon of amazing spread in all parts the world of her writings and spirituality of the Divine Will. They have become a catalyst that is helping enormously the Knowledge of the life and holiness of Hannibal Maria Di Francia, the apostle of prayer for vocations, father of orphans and the poor and … “Little Son of the Divine Will”.

di P. Angelo Sardone rcj