7/11 Feast Day of St. Benedict, Abbot

Blessed Wishes on the Feast Day of St. Benedict to

BOOK OF HEAVEN

Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta,

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

VOLUME 35

August 9, 1937

 Prodigies of Love in the Divine Volition. How the Divine Will Redoubles Its Love, in order to be Loved with Its own Love.  How the Queen will form the New Hierarchy in Her Inheritance.

My flight continues in the Divine Volition. He awaits me with so much Love that He takes me in His arms of Light and says:  “My daughter (Luisa), I Love you (Luisa), I Love you (Luisa).  And you (Luisa), tell me that you (Luisa) love Me, so I can place My big ‘I Love you’ on your little ‘I love You’ and, spreading it in the Immensity of My Fiat, I make everyone and everything Love you (Luisa), while you (Luisa) love Me for everyone and everything.  I am the Immensity and I like to give to creatures and to receive from them My Immense Love.  I give and receive the harmonies, the various notes, the sweetness, and the enchanting and enrapturing sounds contained in My Love.  When My Will Loves, the heavens, the sun, the whole of Creation, the Angels and the Saints—all of them Love together with Me.  They are all attentive in waiting for the ‘I Love you’ from the One to whom they directed their ‘I love You.’  So, on the wings of My Will, I send your ‘I love you’s’ to all, so as to repay them for their love for you (Luisa), united to My Love.  If one loves, it is to be loved in return.  Not having love returned is the hardest pain—a pain that makes one delirious.  It is the most transfixing nail, which can be pulled out only by the medicine—the balm of returned love.”

Then, I was thinking to myself: “My God, who could ever repay You for Your great Love?  Ah, maybe only the Queen of Heaven can claim the merit of having repaid Her Creator in Love… And I?  And I…?”  I felt oppressed.

And my always adorable Jesus, making His short little visit, all Goodness said: “Daughter of My Will (Luisa), don’t worry.  For the soul who Lives in My Will there is Perfect Harmony in Love.  By possessing Its Life in the creature, My Will Redoubles Its Love; so when It wants to Love, It Loves within Itself and within the soul, since It possesses her life.  In My Will, Love is in Perfect Harmony—Joys and Happiness of Pure Love are always in full force.

“Our Paternal Goodness for the soul who Lives in Our Will is so Great that We count her breaths, heartbeats, thoughts, words and movements, to return them with Our Own and fill them up with Love. In Our Emphasis of Love we say to this creature:  ‘She loves Us and We must Love her.’  And while We Love her We show off such Gifts and Graces as to astonish Heaven and earth.

“We did the same with Our Queen; We displayed so much… but do you (Luisa) know what this showing means? We are looking at Ourselves, and We want to give all that We are and all that We possess.

“Dissimilarity would cause Us pain. The creature, seeing herself dissimilar from Us, would not be with Us with the trust of a daughter, and with that confidence that comes from sharing the same Goods and the same Gifts.  This disparity would be an obstacle to forming One Single Life and Loving each other with One Single Love.  On the other hand, to Live in our Divine Will is exactly this: One Single Will, One Single Love—common Goods.  In all that may be lacking within the creature We give of Ourselves to compensate her in everything, and to say:  ‘What We want, she wants too.  Our Love and her love are One Single Love—and as We Love her, she Loves Us.’

“My daughter (Luisa), is it that We lack the Strength to elevate the creature to the level of Our Image—to make her possess Our Goods so that she may Live in Our Will? My Celestial Mother, from the moment She existed, possessed the Life of My Divine Fiat.  We Love each other with One Love, and We Love the creature with a twin Love. 

“Our Love for Her is such that, just as We have Our Hierarchy of Angels in Heaven as well as the various orders of Saints, the Great Lady—Celestial Empress and Owner of the Great Inheritance of Our Will—will call Her own children to possess Her Inheritance when Our Kingdom will be established on earth. We will give Her the Great Glory of having Her form the New Hierarchy that will be similar to the nine choirs of Angels.  So, She will have the choir of Seraphim, of Cherubim and so forth, as well as the New Order of the Saints who Lived in Her Inheritance.   After She will have formed them on earth She will take them to Heaven, surrounding Herself with the New Hierarchy, the Newborn in the Divine Fiat, Reborn in Her own Love—those who Lived in Her Inheritance.

“This will be the Fulfillment of the Work of Creation—Our ‘Consumatum est.’ We will have the Kingdom of Our Will among creatures, thanks to the Celestial Heir who wanted to give Her Life for each of them, to make It Reign. How glorified and Happy We will be, because the Sovereign Queen will have Her own Hierarchy just as We keep Ours; even more so, since Our own Hierarchy will be Hers too, while Hers will be Ours, because all that is done in Our Will is inseparable.

“If you (Luisa) knew how much this Celestial Queen Loves the souls. She, faithful copy of Her Creator, looks inside Herself and finds Her Seas of Love, Grace, Sanctity, Beauty and Light; then She looks at the creatures and wants to give all of Herself with all Her Seas, so that creatures may have their Mama with all Her Riches.  Having to see Her children poor, while their Mother is so rich—and only because they do not Live in the Inheritance of their Mother… it is such a Pain… She would like to see them inside Her Seas of Love, Loving their Creator as She does, hidden inside Her Sanctity, embellished by Her Beauty, filled with Her Grace.  But not seeing them there—if She wasn’t in the state of Glory, in which pains cannot have place—She would die of pure Pain for each creature who does not Live in the Divine Will.  Therefore, She prays unceasingly.  She places all Her Seas in Prayer, to beseech that the Divine Will be done on earth as It is in Heaven.

“Our Love is such that, by the virtue of Our Will, She Bilocates Herself within each creature, to prepare the interior of her soul, synchronizing her with Her Maternal Heart, squeezing her in Her Arms, to dispose her to receive the Life of the Divine Fiat. O, how much She prays, in every single heart, to Our Adorable Majesty, saying:  ‘Hurry up.  My Love can no longer be contained.  I want to see My children Living together with Me in that same Divine Will that forms all of My Glory, My Richness, My Great Inheritance.  Trust me, and I will know how to defend My children and Your own Will, which is also Mine.’

“The Love of this Celestial Queen and Mother is Insuperable. Only in Heaven will creatures know how much She Loves them and how much She has done for them.  Her most exuberant, magnanimous and Greatest Act is in wanting them to possess the Kingdom of My Will as She possesses It.  O, what wouldn’t the Celestial Lady do to obtain this Purpose!  You too, unite with Her, and pray for a Purpose so Holy.”

BOOK OF HEAVEN

Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Servant of God,

Luisa Piccarreta, The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

 VOLUME 34

 March 14, 1937
The Divine Will is Life, and as Life It forms the Generation of Its Life in the acts of the creature who will Live in It, and forms the long Generation of the children of Its Divine Fiat.

The Divine Volition never leaves me. It seems to me that in order to greatly Confirm me and make me long to Live in It—and not only me, but all those who will want to Live in It—It wants to tell New Things and what one additional act that one can do in Its Most Holy Will means.

And my sweet Jesus, who acts as Spokesman for a Volition so Holy, visiting my little soul, told me: “My blessed daughter (Luisa), I need to still tell you (Luisa) what Good one additional act that the creature does in My Volition encloses. My Will is Life, and It does not know how to Operate, nor do anything, except Generate Life—nor can It do less than this.  Now, in every additional act that she does in It, the Generative Act that It possesses becomes enclosed. The creature, by doing her act, lends It the veil for where to form and hide this Divine Birth.  As the act is completed, so My Will goes around through the entire world in order to find the more disposed souls, and It deposits Its Generated Birth and forms there a child of Its of the Kingdom of Its Fiat.  See, therefore, what one additional act means:  to form one more child in My Kingdom.  In fact, however many more acts are done in It, so much more will the Kingdom of My Volition be populated. 

“My daughter (Luisa), it is a delirium of Our Supreme Being that We have, that We want that the creature Live in Our Volition. We use all the astutenesses of Love in order to obtain this Purpose.  How Beautiful it is to see that Our First Children of the Fiat will make use with their acts of forming the New Generation of the Life of Our Will in the creature. Our Love is so much, that We take the occasion of their act to give this Great Good that encloses Heaven and earth.”

While He said this, my sweet Jesus made seen that He held in His Divine Heart all the acts done in His Volition, also including those of the Celestial Mama, that were many. And within each act He Generated the Life of the Divine Will, as if He could not contain It anymore.  He took the step in order to go around through all the generations, and where He found some soul more disposed He drew near, He embraced her, He spoke to her in her ear, He breathed on her, as if He would want to Renew the New Creation, and then, as if in feast, He deposited together with the Act the Life of His Volition.  He did not want to separate the Act from Its Life, because being the Primary Act where He had Generated His Life, He did not want to separate It, wanting to use It as Custodian of Its same Life. 

I, in seeing this, remained amazed, and worried I said to myself: “Is all this possible?  It seems to me that it gives of the incredible.”

And my sweet Jesus, resuming His say: “Daughter (Luisa), why do you (Luisa) marvel?  Perhaps My Will cannot do what It wants?  It is enough It wants it, that everything is done.  And then, the sun, that can be called the shadow of My Fiat, does it.  As it finds the flowers, the plants, with the touch of its light it generates the color, the fragrances, it matures the plants and generates the sweetnesses in the fruits, and so many colors and such diversity of sweetnesses for however many flowers and fruits it touches with its light and warms with its heat.  But if the sun does not find either flowers or fruits, it does not invest anything with its light and with its heat, it gives nothing, all the goods that it possesses it retains in itself.

“Such is my Will. More than sun, as It finds the creature who wants It, It calls her into Its Act, It descends into the depth of the human act, It Invests it, It warms it, It Transforms it, and since It possesses Life, It Generates Life and forms a Divine Portent there.  And like the sun, if It does not find one who wants to Live in My Volition and form her acts there, of the so many Divine Lives of Mine that I could give, they remain in It, waiting with Invincible and Divine Patience for the one who lets Me Generate My Life in her acts.

“My Will is like a tender mother who feels in herself the Long Generation of her Lives that she wants to put forth to the Light in order to form the Long Generation of her Children who would form her Kingdom. And therefore It goes finding the one who lends her acts to It.  But do you know why It goes to find the acts of the creature?  Having to descend into the depth of the human acts in order to form Its Life, It wants to make Its Way in their midst in order to give Its own Life to the creatures.  More so because life does not form itself on the outside of people, but always within, otherwise the necessary things, the vital humors in order to form a life, would be lacking.

“In the same way My Will cannot form Its Life from Heaven, nor outside of the creature, but It must descend within them, and the human will must cede the place to the Divine, it must be concurring, because We do not want forced things. And when We have found her, who can tell you what We do, the Graces that We pour, the Good that We want for her?  It is not dealing with works, but Our Life that We must grow.  So We do not spare anything, and only in Heaven will what We have done be known.  Therefore be attentive and always Live under the rain of My Volition, so that Investing all your acts, It animates them with Its Life, and in this way you will give Me as many children for however many acts you will do.”

Each Kingdom Requires a Lord — Whose Will Reign?

By Genevieve Kineke on July 7, 2016 Catholic Life, Featured

A few pages of Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, by Pope Benedict XVI, has highlighted for me some troubling trends in the Church. He sifts carefully through Catholic thought as it differed historically from extra-ecclesial trajectories, but what must concern today’s reader is that many influential leaders in the Church have accepted non-Catholic premises in their views of the world.

In his explanation of the Kingdom that Jesus preached, Benedict reminds us that Origen had two basic thoughts on the topic. First was that Jesus himself is the “autobasileia, that is the Kingdom in person … the Kingdom is not a thing, it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kingdoms” (p. 49). In this way, those who come to know Christ Jesus come to know God who dwells among them, and who wishes his divine will to prevail.

Origen didn’t stop there, though. He insisted that not only does God dwell with his creatures, but He dwells in them. In a mystical way, it is understood that “man’s interiority [is] the essential location of the Kingdom of God”. And Benedict quotes from Origen’s On Prayer:

“Those who pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God pray without any doubt for the Kingdom of God that they contain in themselves, and they pray that this Kingdom might bear fruit and attain its fullness. For every holy man it is God who reigns … So if we want God to reign in us, then sin must not be allowed in any way to reign in our mortal body … Then let God stroll at leisure in us as in a spiritual paradise and rule in us alone with his Christ” (p. 50).

The two images are not contradictory, but layered, so that Jesus is the kingdom, and Jesus is in the man of virtue, so as that man grasps the grace offered through the passion of Christ, he is both more Christlike and the garden where Christ can reign.

Subsequently, Benedict shows that traditionally there is a third image of the Kingdom, which is the Church:

To be sure, neither the interpretation in terms of man’s interiority nor the connection with Christ ever completely disappeared from sight. But nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theology did tend to speak of the Church as the Kingdom of God on earth; the Church was regarded as the actual presence of the Kingdom within history (p. 50).

Then Benedict explains that the Enlightenment sparked specific trends that proved antithetical to this traditional understanding. There was the radical individualism championed by Adolf von Harnack, and the corollary belief that morality was more important than ritual. Others preferred to see the kingdom in more communitarian terms, pitting ethics against sheer grace, and all of these efforts were upended by Albert Schweitzer’s book, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. His thesis was still tied firmly to the notion of God and the saving work of Christ, but it was far more eschatological in the sense that it was “a proclamation of the imminent end of the world, of the inbreaking of a new world where, as the term kingdom suggests, God would reign” (p. 52).

Surely the trauma of the First World War led many believers to wonder what place such massive blood-letting among Christians meant in the unfolding of world history, but the accompanying trains of thought went wildly off-course from that point.

Since that time, a secularist reinterpretation of the idea of the Kingdom has gained considerable ground, particularly, though not exclusively, in Catholic theology. This reinterpretation propounds a new view of Christianity, religions, and history in general, and it claims that such radical refashioning will enable people to reappropriate Jesus’ supposed message (p. 53).

Previous shifts of emphasis were not nearly as dangerous theologically as that final lie, which carries the sympathetic soul from a generic theocentrism to regnocentrism without God. And yet that is where we are today in much of the world, ‘where peace, justice, and respect for creation are the dominant values” (p. 54). How many times have we bit our tongues not to “proselytise” (the name of Jesus being so “divisive,” or the boundaries of the Church appearing so threatening)? Benedict acknowledges the temptation:

This sounds good; it seems like a way of finally enabling the whole world to appropriate Jesus’ message, but without requiring missionary evangelisation of other religions. It looks as if now, at long last, Jesus’ works have gained some practical content, because the establishment of the “Kingdom” has become a common task and is drawing nigh (p. 54).

But Benedict ultimately decries this utopian approach which removes God from the mission. The politicisation of the kingdom has marginalised religion, which already must genuflect to the state in so many settings. “This post-Christian vision of faith and religion is disturbingly close to Jesus’ third temptation [in the desert]” (p. 55).

We must keep this in mind as we consider how we approach all government promises in the near future. We see clearly the dangers of hoping that “princes” will advance our pet causes, for those power-brokers can turn on a dime and leave the Christian empty-handed. We must also recognise the dangers of ecumenical endeavors that rejoice in works that are mute about the faith that motivates them. We’ve attempted to baptise so much in the name of tolerance and compassion that we run the risk of losing the meaning of the very names in which we baptise.

Benedict summarises:

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting. He is telling us: “God exists” and “God is really God,” which means that he holds in his hands the threads of the world … “Kingdom of God” is therefore an inadequate translation. It would be better to speak of God’s being Lord, of his lordship (pp. 56-57).

In an upside world where androgyny is to be preferred to man and woman, and “toxic masculinity” is thought to be at the heart of all our woes, we would do well to remember that Lordship has its place–both in the Son of God and those particularly called to live in persona Christi. Kingship carries within it many layered meanings, but primarily the understanding that hierarchy is preferred to mob rule, that sin corrodes the community, and a material kingdom is not what we seek. We cannot allow either the language to be diluted or the mission to be derailed, for Christ must be Lord, now and forever. Amen!

Genevieve Kineke is the founder of Canticle Magazine and the author of The Authentic Catholic Woman. She writes at feminine-genius.com.