LIVRO DIVINA VONTADE

 DIVINE WILL PRAYER BOOK Writings, Meditations and Prayers on the Gift of Living in the Divine Will Luisa Piccarreta The Little Daughter of the Divine Will Ad Usum Privatum All English trans. from the Italian text, introductions, annotations and theological presentations: Rev. Joseph Leo Iannuzzi, STD, Ph.D. Introductions, Annotations and Theological Presentations © MHT, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS i I. Devotions, Writings and Life of Luisa Three Appeals ................................................................... 1 Luisa’s Autobiography: Notebook of “Childhood Memories” ...................................................................... 21 Luisa’s Christmas Novena: Nine Excesses of Love ..... 39 Christmas Reflections .................................................... 54 How to Begin Every Day in the Divine Will ................ 63 Morning Offering in the Divine Will ............................ 65 The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.. 69 The Hours of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ .. 283 The Rounds of the Soul in the Divine Will ................ 533 The Holy Rosary in the Divine Will ........................... 611 The Stations of the Cross in the Divine Will ............. 663 The Chaplet of the Divine Will ................................... 691 Good Morning to Jesus ................................................ 693 Good Evening to Jesus ................................................. 697 Consecration to the Divine Will .................................. 700 Prayer for the Beatification of Luisa .......................... 703 TABLE OF CONTENTS ii II. Theology of the Gift of Living in the Divine Will Manual: Instructing the Faithful on the Gift of Living in the Divine Will ......................................................... 705 Who is Luisa Piccarreta .............................................. 708 The Fulfillment of the “Our Father” Prayer ..............719 THREE APPEALS The following appeals were written by Luisa. The first appeal is from God; the second appeal is from Mary and taken from “The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will” in 1930; the third appeal is from Luisa which she wrote as a preface to her volumes in 1924. Luisa’s first 19 volumes received the nihil obstat from Hannibal di Francia, and the imprimatur from Bishop Joseph Leo. The Hours of the Passion and the The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will received these seals of approval as well. The Divine Appeal Jesus the divine King, along with his Father and the Holy Spirit, appeal to mankind to enter into the Kingdom of the Divine Will [God the Father reveals:] “My dear and beloved children, I come among you with My Heart consumed entirely with flames of love. I come as a Father to be with My children, for I love You so very much. My love is so great that I come to remain with you so that we may live together with one single Will and with one single love.” [God the Son reveals:] “As I come to you, I come bearing My pains, My Blood, My works and even My very THREE APPEALS 2 death. Look at Me: Each drop of My Blood, each one of My sorrows, steps and indeed all of My acts compete with each other for love of you, as they seek to bestow upon you My Divine Will. Even My death seeks to beget anew the life of My Will in you. I have prepared everything for you in My humanity, and I have implored and obtained graces, assistance, light and strength for you to receive such a great gift. On My part I have done everything; now I am waiting for you to do your part. Who would be so ungrateful as to turn Me away and not welcome this gift I am bringing to you? Know that My love is so great that I will forget about your past life, including your sins and all your evil deeds, and I will bury them in the ocean of My love which will burn them all away. In this way we will begin a new life together, entirely of My Will. Who would have the heart to refuse Me and send Me away without accepting this visit of Mine, so replete with a Father’s love? If you welcome Me, I will remain with you as a Father1 with his children. So we must be in the greatest accord and live together with one single Will. Oh, how I yearn for this! How I moan and weep, even to the point of delirium2 , for I want My dearest children to gather around Me and live with My very own Will. 1 While neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit experience suffering, but only the Incarnate Word of God, the Father here speaks intermittently through his Son, the Word of the Father. 2 The expression of the Incarnate Word of God becoming “delirious” often recurs throughout Luisa’s text. This Apulian expression conveys the overwhelming effects of Christ’s divine love upon his human nature when confronting and overcoming the sins of mankind. THREE APPEALS 3 It has been almost six thousand years that My humanity – desiring that My children come back and live together with Me – has offered up many sighs and shed many bitter tears. I desire to have My children around Me; I want to make them holy and happy again. But I weep time and again as I call to them to return to Me. Who would not be moved to compassion over My tears and love which go so far as to stifle My breath, even to the point of choking Me? Among sighs and agonies of love, I go about repeating: ‘My children, where are you? Why don’t you return to your Father? Why do you leave Me? Why do you want to wander about poor and filled with so much misery? Your poor condition creates wounds in My Heart. I am weary from waiting for you.’ And since you do not return to Me, I come in search of you, for I can no longer contain the love that consumes Me. I come bringing to you the great gift of My Will and oh, I entreat you, I plead with you to have pity on My many tears and ardent sighs!” [God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit reveal:] “I come to you not only as a Father, but also as a Teacher among his disciples. I desire that you listen to what I reveal, as I will be teaching you surprising things, lessons of heaven that will contain light that shall never be extinguished and a blazing love that shall endure forever. My lessons will give you a divine strength, heroic courage and a holiness that continuously increases. These lessons THREE APPEALS 4 will light the way for your steps and guide you along the way to your heavenly homeland. I come as a King to live with his people, but not for the purpose of levying taxes and heaping burdens upon you – not at all! I come because I want your will, your misery, your weakness and all of your evils. My sovereignty consists precisely in this: I want everything that distresses you and causes you to be unhappy and restless, so that I may conceal it within My love and burn all of it away. As a beneficent, pacific and magnanimous King I wish to exchange My Will with yours and fill you with My most tender love, with My riches and happiness, with My peace and My purest joy.” [God the Son reveals:] “If you will give Me your will, all will be done just as I have said; you will make Me happy and you will also be happy. I long for nothing else than for My Will to reign in you. Heaven and earth will be smiling at you. My Heavenly Mother will be a mother and a Queen to you; she knows the great good that the Kingdom of My Will shall bring about in you. In order to satisfy My ardent sighs and put an end to my weeping, she will love you as her true children by traveling to people throughout the world to dispose and prepare them to receive the dominion of the Kingdom of My Will. She was the one who prepared mankind for Me so that I could descend from heaven to earth. And now I am entrusting to her – to her maternal love – the task of disposing souls to receive such a great gift. THREE APPEALS 5 So please listen closely to what I wish to tell you. I beg you, My children, to read very attentively these pages that I have set before you. If you will do this, you will acquire the desire to live in My Will, and I will be standing right beside you when you read, touching your mind and your heart, so that you may understand what you read and truly desire the gift of My Divine ‘Fiat’.” The Mother’s Appeal The appeal of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her children to enter into the Kingdom of the Divine Will (taken from, The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will) Dearest daughter, I feel the irresistible need to come down from heaven to offer you my maternal visits. If you assure me of your filial love and faithfulness, I will remain always with you in your soul to be your teacher, your model, your example and most tender mother. 3 I come to invite you to enter the Kingdom of your tender mother – the Kingdom of the Divine Will – and I knock at the door of your heart that you may invite me in. You know it is with my own hands that I bring you this book as a gift. I offer it to you with my maternal care so that, in reading it, you in turn may learn to live by the life of heaven and no longer by that of earth. 3 Throughout her text, Luisa refers to Mary as her “mum” (“Mamma). The Italian expression, “mamma”, is here translated as “tender mother”. THREE APPEALS 6 This book is of gold my child. It will form your spiritual fortune and also your happiness on earth. In it you will find the fount of all goods: If you are weak, you will acquire strength; if you are tempted, you will achieve victory; if you have fallen into sin, you will find the compassionate and powerful hand to raise you up; if you feel afflicted, you will find comfort; if you are dejected, you shall discover the surest path to rekindle hope; if famished, you shall enjoy the heavenly bread of the Divine Will, and you will lack nothing. You will no longer be alone, for I, your tender mother, will provide you with the sweetest company and, with all of my maternal care, I will take on the commitment of making you happy. I, your heavenly Empress, shall take care of all your needs, provided you agree to live united with me. If you knew my longing, my ardent sighs and the tears I shed for my children! If you knew how this Heart of mine is set ablaze in desiring that you listen to my lessons imbued with heaven, so that you may learn how to live in the Divine Will! In this book you will read of amazing things, you will find a mother who loves you so much that she willing to sacrifice her own beloved Son for you in order for you to live of the same life she lived on earth. Do not inflict me with the sorrow of you rejecting me, but accept this gift of heaven that I am bringing you. Welcome my visit and my lessons. Know that I will go throughout the world, imparting my lessons to each individual and to all families – to religious communities, to every nation and to all peoples; if necessary, I will do so for entire centuries until, as their Queen, I have formed my THREE APPEALS 7 people and, as their mother, my children, so that they may know the gift of Living in the Divine Will, and allow it to reign everywhere. Such is the purpose of this book. Those who will welcome it with love, will be the first fortunate children to belong to the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat and, with gold characters, I will inscribe their names in my maternal Heart. Have you understood, my child? That same infinite love of God, who chose me in the work of Redemption as the instrument through whom the Eternal Word should descend to earth, choses again to avail himself of me, by entrusting to me the difficult yet sublime task of forming the children of the Kingdom of his Divine Will on earth. Therefore, with maternal care I set out, preparing for you the way that will lead you to this happy kingdom. For this purpose I will impart to you sublime and heavenly lessons; I shall teach you new and special prayers, through which you will exercise dominion over the heavens, the sun, the acts of all the saints and over all creation – indeed over the very life of me and my Son – so that in your name these may implore for the adorable Kingdom of the Divine Will to come and reign on earth. These prayers are the most powerful of all, as they exercise dominion over the divine work itself. Through these prayers God will feel disarmed and won over by the soul. With confidence in such aid, you will hasten the coming of this most happy kingdom and, with me, you will obtain, according to the desire of the Divine Master, the realization of the Our Father prayer: the fulfillment of his THREE APPEALS 8 Divine Will on earth as it is in heaven. Have courage my child; make me happy by not refusing me this honour, and I shall bless you. The Daughter’s Appeal The appeal of Luisa, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, to you, to the Church and to all mankind My sweet Jesus, behold me in your arms, as I implore your help. Oh, you know the anguish of my soul – how my heart bleeds; how I experience great repugnance in making known all that which you have told me about your Most Holy Will. 4 But holy obedience imposes itself, and you, Jesus, will it. And though I should be crushed, I am constrained by a supreme power to carry out this sacrifice. But remember, my beloved Jesus, you yourself have called me the newborn child of your Most Holy Will, and a newborn child can barely stammer. So, what shall I do, if not barely stammer about your Will while you do the rest. Will you not agree to this, my beloved Jesus? Or better, grant that I may completely disappear, so that your Will – in dipping its pen in that Eternal Sun5 – may write with divine, indelible and golden letters the concepts, the value, the power and the effects of your Supreme Will. May your Will write of how the soul who lives in it, as in its center, 4 “Repugnance” indicates Luisa’s desire to remain anonymous. 5 “Εternal Sun” signifies the Trinity’s unending light that engenders life in all things. THREE APPEALS 9 becomes divinized and ennobled; how your Will does away with its human attachments, and enables the soul to rediscover its origins, whereby vanquishing all of its misery, it regains its primordial state: Beautiful, pure and perfectly ordered to the likeness of its Creator, just as the soul emerged from his creative hands. Write on this paper the long history of your Will, Jesus, your pain in seeing yourself spurned by souls and thwarted back, as it were, to your heavenly regions. And though rejected, like the sun on high, you unleash your rays of grace throughout all human generations. Since you desire to come down and reign among us, you issue forth the rays of your sighs, groaning, tears, and intense and eternal pains on account of us having exiled you, and of our having ruptured the union of your Will with our human will. Whence you await us to bid you return among us to be our triumphant King, so that you may reign on earth as in heaven. Descend, O Supreme Will! I am she who is the first to call out to you. Come and reign on the earth! You who created man to only carry out your Will – which Will he ungratefully broke from by rebelling against you – come to reunite this human will to yourself, so that heaven and earth and all creatures may be re-ordered in You! Oh, how I would give my life for your Will to be known! I would take flight from this earth in the interminable expanses of your Will in order to bring to every creature its eternal kiss, its knowledge, its blessings, its value and your inexpressible groans. Since you desire to THREE APPEALS 10 come and reign on earth, may all come to know you in order to receive you with love and, with rejoicing, allow you to reign! O Holy Will, may your luminous rays unleash the arrows of your knowledge! Reveal to all your desire to come and make us happy – not with a purely human happiness, but with a divine one – to give us the selfmastery we once possessed, but that we had lost, and the interior light that reveals to us the true blessing we receive in possessing your Will, as it renders us stable and strong with a divine strength and stability, and the true evil that comes from rejecting it. Unleash the currents of your Divine Will within our human will and, within our souls, reveal with the brushstroke of your creative hand all the divine lineaments we had lost by withdrawing ourselves from your Will! Your Will shall infuse in us the freshness which never grows old, the beauty which never fades, the light that is never overshadowed, the ever-increasing grace and the ever-burning love that cannot be extinguished. Oh Holy Will, prepare the way; prepare the way to make yourself known; reveal to everyone who you are and the great good you desire for us all, so that attracted and enraptured by such a blessing, we may all invoke your Will and, by this means, you may freely reign on earth as in heaven. Wherefore I beseech you to write through my hand all the knowledge you have revealed to me on your Divine Will. May every word, expression, effect and knowledge that derives from it, be to those who read, loving darts and THREE APPEALS 11 arrows that, wounding them, may make them fall at your feet to receive you with open arms and allow you to reign in their hearts. Of the so many miracles your Will has wrought, work this one miracle of making them know you, so that they may not be the cause of you having passed on, no; rather, may they open the doors of their will to you, to receive you and allow you to reign. This newborn little child of your Will asks this of You. Since You have with so much insistence asked of me the sacrifice of conveying [to others] the secrets of your Will that you reveal to me, I, in

turn, ask a sacrifice from You: May your Will work the miracle of making itself known to the world so that it may assume its rightful place of triumph among souls, and reign in the hearts of those that have invited it and know it. This alone I ask of you, my beloved Jesus. I ask nothing else of you, but for the requital of my sacrifice. May your Will be known and reign among us with its full dominion. You know, my love, how great my sacrifice has been, my interior struggles to the point of feeling myself die. But for love of you, and to obey your representative on earth, I have submitted myself to everything. Therefore, I desire a great miracle: As souls who read these revelations come to know of the teachings on your Will, may they be more enraptured, enchained and attracted by them than by a powerful magnet, and may they make your Divine “Fiat”, which you greatly love and desire, reign on earth. And if it pleases you, my life, before these writings are made know, grant that, before they pass through the THREE APPEALS 12 hands of your and my brothers and sisters, I beseech you to call this newborn little child of your Will into your heavenly homeland. Oh, spare me the sorrow of witnessing the public diffusion of our secrets. If you have not spared me the first sorrow of these writings being diffused to others before my death, spare me this second sorrow of our secrets being diffused before my death, but as always: “Not my will, but your Will be done.” And now a word to all you who shall read these writings: I entreat you, I beseech you to receive with love that which Jesus wants to give you, that is, his Divine Will. But in order for him to give you his Will, He desires your will, otherwise his Will cannot reign in you. If you only knew with how much love my beloved Jesus desires to give you the greatest gift that exists both in heaven and on earth, namely, his Divine Will! Oh how many bitter tears he sheds in seeing you living according to your own will, in seeing you groveling on the ground sickly and impoverished. You are not capable of maintaining a good resolution. And do you know why? Because Jesus’ Will does not reign in you. Oh, how Jesus weeps and sighs over your plight; sobbing, He entreats you to allow his Will to reign in you. He wants to change your plight from being sick to being healthy, from being impoverished to becoming rich in his divine treasures, from being weak to becoming strong, from being mutable to becoming immutable, from being a slave to becoming a king. It is not great penances He desires, nor long prayers or other such things; rather He desires that his THREE APPEALS 13 Will reign in you, and that your will no longer have a life of its own. I implore you, listen to him! I am ready to give my life for each one of you, to the point of enduring any pain, provided you open the door of your soul and allow the Will of my beloved Jesus to reign in you, and triumph over all human generations. And now I extend an invitation to all of you: Come with me into Eden, where our origin had its beginning, where the Supreme Being created man, and making him king, gave him a kingdom in which to exercise dominion. This Kingdom was the whole universe, but his scepter, his crown and his power to command came from the depths of his soul, in which the Divine “Fiat” dwelled like a reigning king. This Fiat constituted in man his true royalty: His garments were royal, more refulgent than the sun; 6 his acts were noble and his beauty enrapturing. God loved him so much that He delighted in him, He called him, “my little king and my son.” Everything was bliss, order and harmony. This man, our first father, by doing his own will apart from the Divine Will, betrayed himself – he betrayed his kingdom and embittered his Creator who had highly exalted and loved him; he lost his kingdom – the Kingdom of the Divine Will, which contained everything that he had received; the doors of the kingdom were cut off from him 6 Jesus reveals to Luisa that Adam’s body was literally clothed with a garment of divine light (L. Piccarreta, volume 20, December 12, 1926). THREE APPEALS 14 and God withdrew within himself the kingdom he had given man. Now I must tell you a secret: God, in withdrawing within himself the Kingdom of the Divine Will, did not say: “I will no longer give it to man”; rather, He kept it in reserve, awaiting future generations in order to overwhelm them with surprising graces, and with such dazzling light as to eclipse the human will that caused mankind to lose such a holy kingdom; He awaited until now to overwhelm us with such attractions of admirable and stupendous knowledge of the Divine Will that it makes us feel the earnest desire to put aside our own will which makes us unhappy, and cast ourselves into the Divine Will, our permanent kingdom. Therefore the kingdom is ours, so have courage! The Supreme “Fiat” awaits us, beckons us and urges us to take possession of it. Who would be so bold, who would be so obstinate as to not listen to its call, and not accept the great happiness it offers? All we have to do is cast off the miserable rags of our will, the mourning garment of our slavery in which our will has cast us, to clothe ourselves as queens and adorn ourselves with divine ornaments. Therefore, I appeal to all of you. I don’t believe you do not wish to listen to me. Have you not understood that I am but a tiny little child, the lowliest of all? And yet, bilocating myself7 in the Divine Will along with Jesus, I am 7 Throughout her text, Luisa’s penchant for “bilocation” is predicated on the human soul’s ability to transcend time and space. Throughout her text, Luisa employs the expression “bilocation” to indicate the THREE APPEALS 15 able to come onto your lap as a little child and knock at your heart’s door with sighs and tears to ask you, as a little beggar, for your rags – for your mourning garments, your unhappy will – that you may offer it to Jesus, whereby he may consume it all in his divine love. And he will then restore to you his will, and confer upon you his kingdom, his happiness and his white royal garments. If you only knew what the Will of God can do! It contains heaven and earth. If we are united with God’s Will, everything is ours, everything hangs upon our every action. Conversely, if we are not united with God’s Will, everything turns against us, and anything we may enjoy we rob from of our Creator, surviving by means of fraud and plunder. So, if you wish to know God’s Will, read these pages. In them you will find the ointment for the wounds that the human will has cruelly inflicted on us; you will inhale a new and completely divine air, and experience a completely heavenly life. You will feel heaven in your soul; you will see horizons, engender new spiritual suns, and you will often discover bathed in tears the countenance manner by which God empowered her soul to impact all things of the past, present and future. The soul’s ability to bilocate is further exemplified in God’s being (footnote 180, p. 535), in the lives of Adam and Eve (footnote 178, p. 534), in Jesus (pp. 321-322, 596, 639), in Mary (p. 203), and in Luisa (footnote 7, p. 14; footnote 178, p. 534; pp. 286, 552, 569, 656). For a theological presentation of the soul’s ability to bilocate, cf. chapter 2 of the ecclesiastically approved doctoral dissertation, entitled, “The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta – an inquiry into the early ecumenical councils, and into patristic, scholastic and contemporary theology”. THREE APPEALS 16 of Jesus, as He desires to give to you his Will. He weeps because while He desires to see you happy, He finds you unhappy. Whence He sobs, sighs and prays for the happiness of all of you, his children; He does so in order to free you from your unhappiness. He asks you for your will and He offers you in exchange his Will as the confirmation of the gift of his kingdom. Therefore, I appeal to all of you, and I make my appeal together with Jesus, with his own tears, with his ardent sighs, with his Heart set ablaze in desiring to give you his “Fiat.” From within his “Fiat” we have all emerged, for it has given us life. It is just, it is our obligation and duty that we return from whence we came, to our dear and unending inheritance. In the first place, I appeal to the highest Church authority, to his Holiness the Roman Pontiff who is the representative of the Holy Church, and therefore the representative of the Kingdom of the Divine Will. At his holy feet, this tiny lowly child places this kingdom, so that he may exercise dominion over it and make it known, and with his paternal and authoritative voice, he may call his sons to live in this ever-so holy kingdom. May the sun of the Supreme Fiat imbue him and form in its representative on earth the first sun of the Divine Will, for in forming its primary life in him who is the head of all members of the Church, it shall spread its interminable rays throughout the world, eclipsing everyone with its light, and forming one flock and one shepherd. THREE APPEALS 17 The second appeal I make is to all Priests: Prostrate at the feet of each one of you, I pray, I beseech you to apply yourselves to know about the gift of Living in the Divine Will. May your first gesture, your first act emerge from it. Or better, immerse yourselves in the Fiat, and you will feel how sweet and dear its life is. Draw from it all of your undertakings; you will experience a divine strength in you and an unceasing voice that utters to you admirable things never-before heard. You will feel a light that will eclipse all of your evils and, eclipsing the people also, it will give you divine authority over them. If there is much effort you expend without fruit, it is because the life of the Divine Will is lacking. If you have broken bread for the people without the leaven of the “Fiat”, in eating it, they will find it hard and nearly indigestible, and not having been nourished, they will not submit to your teachings. Therefore, eat this bread of the Divine “Fiat”! In this way, you will have enough bread to administer to the people. Thus you will form with everyone, one single life and one single Will. The third appeal I make is to all of you – to the entire world, for you are all my brothers, sisters and my children. Do you know why I am calling upon all of you? Because I want to give to you the life of the Divine Will. This is more than the very air that we all breathe. It is a like the sun from which we all receive the blessings of light; it is like a heartbeat that wishes to beat in the hearts of all. And, as a little child, I desire and yearn for you to take the life of the “Fiat”. Oh, if you all knew how many goods you would receive, you would all abandon your lives so that it might reign in you! This tiny little child wishes to tell you THREE APPEALS 18 another secret that Jesus has confided to her, and I tell you this so that you may heed me and give Jesus your will, who, in exchange, will give you the Will of God that will make you happy both in soul and body. Do you want to know why the earth is not productive? Why in various points of the earth the ground opens frequently with earthquakes and buries in its bosom cities and people? Do you wish to know why the wind and water form storms and devastate everyone, and why there occur so many other evils with which you are familiar? Because created things possess a Divine Will that dominates them and, therefore, they are submissive to the powerful and dominating Will of God. Inasmuch as they are submissive to the Divine Will, they are nobler than us. We, on the other hand, are dominated by our human will and on this account we have become degraded, weak and impotent. If, for our fortune, we will put aside our human will and will receive the life of the Divine Will, we too will be strong and exercise dominion; we will be brothers in harmony with all creatures, which will not only cease to trouble us, but they will give us dominion over them, and we will be happy in time and in eternity. Does this not make you happy? So don’t waste any time. Pay heed to this poor little child who loves you very much, and you will make me happy and able to say that all of my brothers and sisters are kings and queens, because they all possess the life of the Divine Will. So, have courage, all of you, and heed my appeal. I yearn all the more for all of you to respond together to this appeal because it is not I alone who call you, who beseech you, but THREE APPEALS 19 united with me is my sweet Jesus who calls you with his tender and moving voice. Many times he even cries, saying to you: “Receive My Will as your life, and enter its Kingdom.” The first one to pray to the Heavenly Father – that his kingdom come and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven – was Our Lord when he prayed the “Our Father”. And in conveying to us this prayer of his, He appealed to all and implored that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. In wanting to give you his Kingdom, his “Fiat”, Jesus’ love is so great that every time you recite the “Our Father,” He runs to you to say it together with you, and He says: “My Father, it is I who ask this of you on behalf of my sons. Do not delay!” Therefore, the first one who prays that God’s Will be done is Jesus himself, and then you, who also ask this in the “Our Father” prayer. Now, do you wish to allow such a great blessing to pass you by? I now wish to convey to you one last word: This little child sees the yearnings, the sighs and the earnestness of Jesus, who desires to see you all in his Kingdom, in his “Fiat”. So great are this little child’s yearnings, deliriums and solicitousness to see you completely happy in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, that if my prayers and tears fail to persuade you, I shall win over Jesus with my persistence on your behalf so that he may persuade you, and in this way Jesus will be happy. So listen to this tiny little child everyone; if you do, you will spare me many sighs! Please tell me that you will THREE APPEALS 20 do as I ask. May it be so, and together may we all say, “We desire the Kingdom of the Divine Will.” Luisa, the little daughter of the Divine Will Corato, Bari (Italy) 1924 NOTEBOOK OF “CHILDHOOD MEMORIES” Introduction On July 15, 1926 Luisa penned her Childhood Memories, in which she relates, “I have written down such things without specifying the chronology of events, that is, [I wrote them down without being certain] whether a particular event occurred before or after a certain age…” Because Luisa did not begin writing until February 28, 1899 (at the age of 33) in obedience to her confessor Rev. Gennaro Di Gennaro, she admittedly failed to recall the “chronology of events” and “dates” of the interior experiences and many events that occurred in her teenage years. Therefore to map out Luisa’s spiritual progression in the Divine Will from childhood and adulthood is by no means simple. This notwithstanding, a progression in the virtues and in performing divine acts that are part and parcel of the gift of Living in the Divine Will, may be traceable to her personal letters, to written testimonies of ecclesiastical authorities and to corresponding events in her youth. In her Childhood Memories Luisa writes of a new period in her life at the age of twelve that marks the beginning of locutions from Jesus, especially during Communion, on how to exercise the “virtues” and how to perform her “acts”. While this stage marks the beginning of a progressive journey into her teenage and adult years, Luisa quickly moves from locutions to visions of the holy family whom Jesus exhorted her to “fix her gaze on”. Said written testimonies reveal that after having begun to experience locutions, Luisa began to experience CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 22 the sensible graces of visions and apparitions from Jesus and Mary, interspersed with physical sufferings. On one occasion, while at the family house in the countryside, Jesus placed his crown of thorns upon her head and communicated to her his pains that caused her to lose consciousness, and the ability to open her mouth to take food for two to three days. Every time she tried to eat, her body rejected the food. This peculiar condition devolved to the point where she could no longer ingest food except the Eucharist. Furthermore, in 1882, after having written her Christmas Novena at the age of 17, Luisa had an unexpected vision of the infant Jesus who invited her to aspire to a higher level of grace and love. He exhorted her to meditate each hour of the day upon the corresponding 24 hours of his Passion and death on the Cross. She did this on a daily basis, and 31 years later – in 1913 and 1914, Luisa was placed under obedience to write down these meditations, now known as, “The Hours of the Passion”. In light of the preceding, it is evident that already at the age of 17 Luisa was doing her Hours of the Passion in which Jesus was praying and acting in her – she was performing divine acts. 8 Indeed, Jesus assures Luisa that 8 In the writings of the mystical doctors of the Church one discovers that their union with God is not a sudden and unprecedented event, but a progressive reality. Such progression is ever-increasing in degrees, and it culminates with a confirmation or espousalship of a new state. In her first three mansions, Teresa of Avila speaks of prayer in the human mode (modo humano), that is still somewhat discursive. The last four mansions take up about 70 percent of her text, and it is at this stage of development that “the natural is united with the supernatural” and the mingling between the human and divine modes of praying and acting occurs. The same dynamism applies to Luisa in her reception of the gift of Living in the Divine Will. Initially Jesus instructed Luisa on how to exercise the virtues in the divine mode and how to perform her divine acts in the new eternal mode of God’s one eternal operation; he CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 23 the soul that does these Hours, offers reparations that “extend and multiply to infinity”, and assumes his own humanity.9 Also, in various undated entries of volume 1 (that encompassed Luisa’s teenage years) and in volume 2, it is evident that Jesus’ was imparting lessons to Luisa on the virtues, 10 he was speaking to her of his own virtues,11 and he communicated his own virtues to her, whereby they shined through all of her acts.12 Luisa’s acts then transformed into “acts of praise, honour and homage to did so by operating in her, whereby she advanced from progression in degrees in this new eternal mode to the possession of this mode, which constitutes the attainment of a new state. Similarly, Christ’s redemptive divine acts in the womb of the Virgin Mary progressively expanded the created soul of his humanity, and culminated with his Passion, death and Resurrection. Indeed, from her teenage years Jesus trained Luisa to advance in degrees of holiness in the eternal mode of his own operation through the repetition of her divine acts, and yet it was not until she was 24 (September 7, 1889) that she arrived at the attainment of the possession of the state of this eternal mode, which constitutes the gift of Living in the Divine Will. It was at the age of 24 that Luisa successfully established within her soul a divine kingdom made up of many divine acts, which made this new eternal mode accessible to all other souls who should desire it. Much like the Blessed Virgin Mary who had to establish a divine kingdom in her soul in order for Christ to come to earth (cf. L. Piccarreta, volume 16, December 6, 1923; volume 18, November 12, 1925), Luisa had to establish a divine kingdom in her soul in order for the gift of Living in the Divine Will to be communicated to others who, like her, are conceived in sin (cf. L. Piccarreta, volume 24, July 19, 1928; volume 26, May 12, 1929; volume 20, January 16, 1927). And even after Luisa established this divine kingdom in her soul, she continued to advance in unending degrees of holiness in the unchanging state of God’s eternal mode of operation. 9 L. PICCARRETTA, volume 11, April 10, 1913. 10 Ibid., volume 1 [undated entries] and volume 2, April 3, May 7, May 19, May 23, 1899, etc. 11 Ibid., volume 2, February 28, 1899; volume 4, February 22, 1903 12 Ibid., volume 2, August 27, 1899. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 24 God”13 and enjoyed the same effects of Jesus’ own mode of operation. 14 After allowing her to experience his own mode of operation, Jesus’ lessons to Luisa on performing divine acts assumed a more explicit character on September 4, 1901. 15 For many years to follow Luisa would continue to advance in unending degrees in the newly actualized state of God’s one eternal mode of operation that God had established in her soul on September 7, 1889. + Rev. J. L. Iannuzzi, STD, Ph.D. 13 Ibid., volume 1, August 21, 1899. 14 Ibid., volume 4, October 8, 1901; September 10, 1901. This passage in which Jesus affirms that Luisa’s acts enjoy the same effects of his own acts comes about 3 years after her spiritual marriage on earth and 2 years after her spiritual marriage in heaven. This does not suggest that prior to this passage her acts did not enjoy said effects, as on numerous occasions Jesus actualized in Luisa certain interior graces and gifts months or years before informing her of them. Such was the case with Mary who, since her Immaculate Conception, was endowed with a maternal and universal love for all souls many years before God revealed to her that he chose her from eternity to be the Mother of God and of all souls. 15 Ibid., volume 4, September 10, 1901. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 25 (Luisa’s Autobiography, July 15, 1926 - Corato, Italy) Jesus, my love, my Heavenly Mother and sovereign Queen, come to my assistance and take my poor heart in your hands. Don’t you see how it bleeds on account of the arduous task of having to start all over again and recount the story of my poor existence, of my childhood? At any cost would I would prefer to avoid this most painful and difficult sacrifice, which is all the more dolorous precisely because it is unexpected. Yet I am summoned anew by obedience which re-emerges to inflict torture on my poor and insignificant existence. Beloved Jesus, my mother, come to my aid, lest I my own will reemerge and exercise its own way of life and express a curt “No” to the one16 who commands me. O Jesus, after having kept my will bound at your feet for so long and with so much jealousy as my gift to you and as the triumph of your little daughter, should you allow me to have me exercise my own will apart from your Will? They asked me to pray to you Jesus to know whether or not I should recount my life’s story, and instead of you taking on my side, you instead tell me: “This story of yours will serve to reveal to others the clay17 that the sun of My Will had to illuminate so that I might form in her its Kingdom”. O Jesus, what do I care about making this little clay of myself known? Should you not rather see to it yourself that your Will is revealed; or is this not what you prefer, O 16 Luisa’s confessor. 17 Luisa is the clay. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 26 Jesus? But Jesus kept silent and disappeared. Then with all the intense bitterness of my soul, I said, “Fiat! Fiat!”, and so, I begin to write. Let me therefore start by recounting what my family told me. I was born on the morning of April 23, 1865, on Sunday in albis. The evening of that same day I was baptized. My mother said that I was born upside down, and she did not suffer at all during my delivery. In fact, in the encounters and circumstances of my poor existence it is my custom to say, “I was born upside down, so it is only fair that my life should be upside down when compared to the life of others.” I remember that during the tender age of three or four, up to about the age of ten, I was of fearful temperament, and the fear was such that I could neither be alone nor take one step by myself. But the reason for this was that from the age of three, at night I always had frightening dreams. I dreamt of the devil who so frightened me that I would tremble. Many times I dreamed of him wanting to take me with him to hell, of him pulling me strongly, and of me making every effort to escape. In this dream I would break out into a cold sweat, hide and run into the arms of my mother. Then, the following day I would remain with the impression of those dreams, and with such fear that I felt as though the devil was coming towards me from all sides. Now, I believe that this was a good experience for me, because from that age onward I recited many “Hail Mary’s” and “Our Father’s” to all the saints whose names I CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 27 knew; I did so to obtain the grace of having no more dreams of the devil. And if anyone mentioned the name of a saint I was unfamiliar with, I immediately included that saint in my prayers by adding an “Our Father” if the saint was a man, or a “Hail Mary” if the saint was a woman. And I was concerned that if I did not honour all of these saints, they would allow me to continue to have dreams of the devil. I recall that from that age, I would always recite the seven “Hail Mary’s” to the Sorrowful mother, so you see, I had a great length of “Our Father’s” and “Hail Mary’s”. And while other little girls and my little sisters would be playing, I would either remain a short distance from them, or together with them, as I was scared. And I did not participate in their innocent games on account of my wanting to recite my long series of “Hail Mary’s” and “Our Father’s”. I also remember that sometimes I dreamed of the Virgin Mary who would cast the devil away from me. One time she said to me: “Weep, my daughter, for my Son is dead.” Although I was shaken and felt compassion for her, the experience made me unhappy. When I reached a more capable age in which I was able to meditate and read, I could not be alone because of the fear I had, and so I could not do what I wanted. Now, after I became a daughter of Mary at the age of eleven, one day, as I wanted to pray and meditate, I was caught up by fear and was about to run to my family, when I felt a strength in my interior holding me back. In the depth of my soul I heard a voice telling me: “Why do you fear? Your angel is by your side, Jesus is in your Heart, and your Heavenly Mother keeps CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 28 you under her mantle. So why do you fear? Who is stronger, your guardian angel, your Jesus and your Heavenly Mother, or the infernal enemy? So, do not flee, but stay, pray, and do not fear.” This voice in my interior gave me so much strength, courage and resolve that the fear went away. And every time I would be seized by fear, I would again hear this voice in my interior, and I felt I was being carried by the hand by my angel, by the sovereign Queen and by my sweet Jesus. In the company I felt triumphant, so much so that I acquired such courage that all fear was vanquished. What is more, those frightening dreams completely ceased. So I was able to be alone, walk alone and go to the garden by myself when we stayed at the farm house, whereas before, if I did go and so much as saw a tree branch move, I would flee, as I thought that the devil would be up in the tree. I remember that one day, recalling the fear of my young age, the many dreams about the enemy, which rendered my childhood unhappy, I said to Jesus: “What’s the purpose, my love, of having passed my youth with so much fear, with so many bad dreams that made me tremble, sweat and embittered at an age so tender? I could understand nothing, nor did I think the enemy had any purpose – given that I was of such a young age? Whence Jesus said to me: “My daughter, the enemy had an inkling about your mission. He knew that I would use you in some way for My great glory, and that he would in turn receive a great CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 29 defeat, unlike any defeat he had received before. Moreover, because he had this insight, despite his greatest efforts, he could not make any affection or thought less than pure penetrate you – as I closed off to him any access to you – and seeing that he had no way of entering you, he grew enraged and, unable to do anything, set out to terrify you with nightmares of fear and fright. Furthermore, since he could not understand the reason for my great designs over you, which would ultimately serve for the destruction of his kingdom, he attentively sought out the cause, hoping to be able to harm you in some other way.” Our Lord has been very good to me, for he gave good parents who were very careful to not let us children hear so much as one word of blasphemy, or that was less than honest. They loved me, but with a dignified and serious love. I remember that when I was a little child, my father never took me in his arms, and that I never gave or received kisses from him. I do not remember having kissed my mother either. But when I was grown up and bedridden, when she had to go to the farm house and be absent for many months, on taking leave of me she would motion as if wanting to kiss me, and I, in seeing this, kissed her hand before she would do so, and so she abstained from that ever-so maternal expression. My dad and mum were angels of purity and modesty. They were generous with their employees: Fraud and deceit had no place in our house. They were so protective that never did they entrust us to strange people, but kept us always with them. I hope that Blessed Jesus CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 30 rewarded their abundant virtue by bestowing upon them the heavenly homeland. I also remember that I was of a shy temperament. When relatives or other people came to visit us, I would run upstairs so as not to be found, or I hid behind a bed and prayed. And I would come out only when they called me to tell me that they had left. When my mum went to visit some relatives and wanted to take me with her, I cried because I did not want to go. So, I and one of my little sisters, of almost the same temperament, were happy to remain alone, locked up inside instead of going out. This shyness prevented me from participating in anything – either festivities or amusements, even innocent ones which were usually among families. I was the victim of my own shyness, and if my parents exhorted me to partake of such innocent amusements, I felt crucified on account of the shyness that caused me to lose interest in all such things. As I recall all such things that in some way rendered my childhood unhappy, my sweet Jesus said to me: “My daughter, even the shy nature with which I cloaked you in your tender age was one of My greatest loving jealousies toward you. I did not want anyone to influence your interior, neither people nor the world; I wanted to detach you from everything. I did not want you to partake of anything inordinately, or that anything should be inordinately pleasing to you. Having from that time established that I should form the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat within you, and that you were to partake in its feasts and joys, it was only right that you should enjoy no other CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 31 feast, and be spared all earthly pleasures and amusements. Aren’t you happy?” (July 15, 1926). Although I was shy and fearful, I was of lively and happy temperament: I ran, I jumped, and even did some mischievous things. Then, at about the age of twelve, a new period of my life began: I started to hear interiorly the voice of Jesus, especially when I received him in Communion. I made my First Communion at the age of nine, and on that same day I received the Sacrament of Holy Confirmation. It was not uncommon for Jesus to make himself heard in my interior when I received Holy Communion. After Communion, sometimes I remained kneeling for several hours, almost motionless, and I heard his interior voice speaking; he would sometimes reproach me if I had not been good and attentive; sometimes during the course of the day if I had been a little distracted, oh, how his voice reprimanded me, whereby he would conclude with: “Yet, you say that you love Me; and where is this love of yours?” Upon hearing this I felt so bad that I could almost die, and I would promise to be more attentive, whence he added: “I will see, I will see if this is true... for Me words alone are not enough; I desire deeds.” Communion became my predominant passion; on it I centered all of my affection. At Communion time I was certain to hear Our Lord speaking, but how much it cost me to be deprived of his voice when I was forced by my family to go with them to the farm house, where for many months I was without Mass and without Communion. How many CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 32 times I burst into tears upon seeing trees, flowers, all of creation, for I would say to myself: “The works of Jesus are around me; only Jesus is not with me... Please, speak to me little flower, speak to me sun, you heavens, you crystalclear waters flowing in our little pond – speak to me of Jesus. For you are the works of his hands, so tell me something of him...!” And it seemed as if all things would speak to me of Jesus: Each created thing spoke to me about each quality of Jesus. Whence crying on account of not being able to receive the One whom all created things loved, things which could narrate so well the beauty, the love and the goodness of Jesus – I wept to the point of feeling ill. Also during meditation I would hear the voice of Jesus, though sometimes he would not speak. However, at Communion time, he would always speak. And there were many times that while meditating I would remain two or three hours without being able to break away. While meditating I would read a passage of spiritual literature and stop, I heard the voice of Jesus in my interior, who, acting as a teacher, explained the meditation to me. Since that time in my interior beloved Jesus would impart to me lessons on the Cross, on meekness, on obedience, on his hidden life... With regard to his hidden life, I recall him once having told me: “My daughter, your life should be lived with us in the home of Nazareth. When you work, pray, eat or walk, be sure to lend one hand to Me, the other to our mother and your gaze should be fixed on Saint Joseph. In acting thus, CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 33 you will be able tell whether or not your acts are patterned after ours and, if they are, you will be able to say: First, I take for My model the actions of Jesus, the Heavenly Mother and Saint Joseph, and then I follow them. In patterning your actions after this model, which you come to exemplify, I want you to repeat what I did in My hidden life. And I want to find in you the works of My mother, those of my dear Saint Joseph and My own works.” I was confused and said to him: “My beloved Jesus, I don’t know how.” And He: “My daughter, have courage, don’t lose heart; if you do not know how to do something, ask Me to teach you, and I will quickly do so. I will tell you of our ways – My intentions, the continuous love among the three of us, how I, the sea, and they, the little rivers, were always filled to such repletion that [the love of] the one overflowed into that of the other, to the extent that we were so absorbed in love that we had little time to talk to each other. Do you see how much you are lagging behind? You have much to do to reach us. Much silence and attention would serve you well, for I do not wish for you to lag behind, but to live among us.” So whenever I didn’t know what to do, I’d ask Jesus, and He would instruct me interiorly. I always tried to withdraw from my family as much as I could, to be alone and maintain silence. I would even take my work and ask my mother for permission to go upstairs, and she allowed me to do so. So my mind was in the house of Nazareth – where I would first look [and observe] one member of the CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 34 Holy Family, then look [and observe] another member, whereby I felt edified in seeing them so attentive in their humble works and so absorbed in the flames of [consuming] love, which rose so high that their works remained inflamed and transformed into love. And I, astonished, thought to myself: “They love so much, and what is my love? Can I say that my works, my prayers, my eating, the steps I take are flames which rise to the Throne of God and form a river which overflows into the sea of Jesus? Upon seeing that it was not so, I felt so afflicted, whence Jesus in my interior Jesus said to me: “What is it? Do not afflict yourself; little by little you will make it. I will be watching over you, and you are to follow me, but do not fear.” If I wanted to say everything that occurred in my interior during my childhood, it would take too long. Moreover, I was told that it did not matter if I could not recall or write down the order of events corresponding to my age, that is, whether something occurred before or after a certain age, but what mattered was that I wrote down in the first volume what occurred in me. Indeed, after so many years it is difficult for me to recall the order of the events that had occurred in my interior. So, I have written down such things without specifying the chronology of events, that is, [I wrote them down without being certain] whether a particular event occurred before or after a certain age – whether I was younger or older. But, as asked, I have written about God’s crafting of grace in the depths of my soul. To avoid revisiting this matter, I now continue with my story. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 35 I remember that, as a girl, I had almost an unstoppable yearning for becoming a nun. And since I went to school where the nuns instructed us, I felt an especially pronounced affection for them. I loved them because I wanted to be just like them. However, in my interior I felt reproached because of this inordinate affection. And while I promised to love no one else but Jesus, I once again failed in my intent, and Jesus returned to reproach me bitterly. This inordinate affection for the nuns was the only affection I recall having ever entertained in my life in a special way, as afterwards I no longer felt an inordinate love for anyone. I have since realized what tyranny a natural affection may be for the poor human heart, even for something as innocent as in my case! Because such internal reproaches had transfixed me to the Cross, I recall them with great horror. Indeed, it seemed to me that this inordinate natural affection of mine kept Jesus crucified, and that Jesus, in return, crucified me. So I did not enjoy true peace, as the nature of inordinate human love is to wage war on the poor human heart. I believe that for one to have peace and to entertain an inordinate love for people in a particular way – either for motives that are holy or indifferent – is not possible in this world. And if it were possible, it would be because that individual is without a conscience. But Blessed Jesus soon put a stop to such indiscretions in me, and this is how. One morning I asked my mum to allow me to visit the mother Superior, and eventually I obtained this visit, but not without with CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 36 hardship and sacrifice. Upon arriving, I asked for the mother Superior and, after a while, I got the answer that she was busy and could not come. On hearing this I was so hurt. I went to church and poured out my pain before Jesus, who availed Himself of the occasion to make me overcome this, spoke to me of his love, of the inconstancy of the love of humans, and of how He absolutely wanted me to put an end to my complaints, telling me: “When a heart is not empty, I refuse it, and I cannot begin the crafting I had intended in the depths of its soul.” But who can recount everything He said to me in my interior? I recall that He put an end to all of my indiscretions and that my heart became resolutely courageous – no longer willing to entertain inordinate love toward anyone. [Now, before the above episode of my having been turned away from the convent,] it was my custom to entreat Jesus to let me become a nun, and when I felt him in my interior I often asked him whether my religious vocation was going to be fulfilled. And Jesus would reassure me with the following words: “Yes, I will make you happy; you will see that you will become a nun.” I was so happy that Jesus had reassured me of this, and I tried to convince my family of this and obtain their consent, but they were opposed, especially my mother. She even cried and said to me that she would have been alright with the idea of me becoming a cloistered nun, but to be an active nun was out of the question. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 37 However, in all honesty, I wanted to become an active nun because the active nuns were the ones who instructed me in my faith. But then eventually there came this long illness of mine, 18 which put an end to my vocation. I recall on many occasions I had complained to Jesus, saying to him: “But you lied to me; you made fun of me, promising that I was going to become a nun.” And many times Jesus would reassure me that He had spoken the truth, saying: “I can neither deceive you nor make fun of you. The vocation I have given you is more special indeed. Who, in becoming a nun, even a nun of the strictest religious observance, can neither walk, nor go out on their own for a breath of fresh air, nor enjoy anything of this world? And yet how many times do the members of religious orders let the little world in, and amuse themselves in no small measure while leaving as though pushed aside? Oh, My daughter, when I call someone to a [holy] state, I know how to fulfill the call. The place to where I call someone means little to me;19 when a person enters religious life and in the substance of her soul is what she ought to be, her religious garb means less.20 Therefore 18 The “illness” Luisa refers to is her inability to walk. 19 The “place” Jesus here refers to is the cloistered Community of the Poor Clare Nuns of Saint John, where Luisa initially desired to live out her vocation. While in Luisa’s time almost nothing was said on the importance of the lay “Consecrated Life”, Pope John Paul II’s 1996 encyclical “Consecrated Life” underscores the importance of laypersons who choose to live in the world while being consecrated to God through his Church with vows. 20 Jesus’ words are here intended for Luisa at a time when she desired both life in the cloistered convent and the wearing of the religious habit. Jesus reassures her of her vocation to the lay Consecrated Life and not the Religious Life. CHILDHOOD MEMORIES 38 I tell you, you are and will be the true little nun of My Heart.” CHRISTMAS NOVENA The Nine Excesses of Love of the Incarnation of the Word of God At the age of seventeen Luisa composed the following Christmas Novena, which she refers to as, The Nine Excesses of Love. She never ceased to recite this novena until her death. Let us prepare ourselves as she did with this novena in the nine days preceding Christmas. May God grant us many graces from it, and may he bestow on us the gift of Living in Divine Will. In the following nine excesses of love, Luisa often uses her “imagination” to envision our Lord’s condition in the womb of his Virgin mother. We too can use our imagination in these meditations.21 Indeed, St. Bernard tells us: “The Word was made flesh and even now dwells among us. It is by faith that he dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our 21 St. John of the Cross affirms that when God infuses in the soul contemplative prayer, the soul should abandon its “active” imagination and adopt a “passive” imagination. John writes, “It should be known that the practice of beginners is to meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination…But… God begins to wean the soul, as they say, and place it in the state of contemplation… It is God who in this state is the agent; the soul is the receiver. The soul conducts itself only as the receiver and as one in whom something is being done…” John adds that at this juncture the soul should “lay aside its natural active mode” of imagination and adopt “the passive loving attention” mode of imagination, by “remaining very passive and tranquil without making any act unless God would unite himself with it in some act” (John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, arts. 32, 34). In essence, it was God who produced in Luisa the images she contemplated in this novena. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 40 imagination. What concept could man have of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, he was invisible and unthinkable, but now he wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of” (From a Homily by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Sermo de Aquaeductu: Opera Omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 5 1968, 282-283) is used in the Roman Catholic Office of Readings for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of October 7). + Rev. J. L. Iannuzzi, STD, Ph.D. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 41 (From Luisa’s 1st volume) Luisa writes: “I prepared myself for the Feast of Holy Christmas at the age of about seventeen with a Christmas Novena, which consisted in the exercise of various acts of virtue and mortification. I especially honoured the nine months that Jesus spent in his mother’s womb with nine hours of daily meditation, always pertaining to the mystery of the Incarnation.” DAY 1 The First Excess of Love [of the Most Holy Trinity] To offer an example, with my mind I brought myself to Paradise for one hour, and with my imagination envisioned the Most Holy Trinity: The Father sending the Son to earth; the Son promptly obeying the Father’s Will, and the Holy Spirit consenting to the Son’s Incarnation. In contemplating such a great mystery my mind was perplexed: For I beheld a love so requiting, so consistent and so powerful among the three of them and toward mankind that I was overwhelmed. Then, I beheld the ingratitude of men, and especially of my own country. I would have remained there not for one hour, but for the whole day, but an interior voice told me: “This is enough for now. Come and behold other greater excesses of My love.” CHRISTMAS NOVENA 42 DAY 2 The Second Excess of Love [of the Son of God] Then, my mind brought itself into the Virgin Mary’s womb, and in considering Jesus, I was left completely speechless upon beholding a God so great in heaven, and yet now so utterly helpless, restricted and constrained that He hasn’t the ability to so much as move or where he can barely breathe. The interior voice then said to me: “Do you see how much I have loved you? Oh please, make a little space for Me in your heart; remove from yourself all that which opposes Me and, in this way, you will allow Me to breathe and move more freely in My mother’s womb.” With my heart enflamed I asked Jesus’ forgiveness, and promised him that I would give myself completely over to him. I wept profusely, but – I say this to my embarrassment – I would then go back to behaving as I did with my usual defects. O Jesus, how good you are with this wretched soul! CHRISTMAS NOVENA 43 DAY 3 Third Excess of Love [of the Son of God] As I proceeded from the second to the third meditation, an interior voice said to me: “My child, place your head upon the womb22 of My mother, peer deep within and behold My little humanity. My love devoured Me: My divine flames, divine oceans and divinely immense seas of love inundated Me, completely consumed Me and unleashed flames that were so high that they overwhelmed and enveloped everyone – all human generations, from the first to the last man. My little humanity was devoured by My divine flames. Compelled as I was by the divine flames of My eternal love, do you know what it is that I set ablaze? Ah, souls! I was satisfied only after I had conceived all souls within [Me at the moment of] My Conception and enveloped them in My divine flames of love. I was God, and if I was to operate as God, I had to set all souls ablaze. My love would have afforded Me no peace had I excluded so much as one soul. Ah My daughter, peer well into the womb of My mother, fix well your eyes on My conceived humanity, and you will find your soul conceived within Me and the flames of My love enveloping you. Oh, how much I loved you, and love you still!” I was completely overwhelmed in the face of so much love, and unable to detach myself from it, when a 22 Throughout her text, Luisa often refers to the belly of the Virgin Mary in whom Jesus is dwelt the “womb”. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 44 voice called me loudly, saying: “My daughter, this is nothing; cleave to Me more tightly and give your hands to My dear mother so that she may press you to her motherly womb. Behold anew My little humanity that has just been conceived, and behold the fourth excess of My love.” DAY 4 Fourth Excess of Love [of the Son of God] “My child, now that you have contemplated My devouring love, behold My operating love. Each soul that I conceived within My Conception brought me the burden of its sins, its weakness and its passions, whence My love compelled me to take up the burden of each one of them. My love conceived not only souls, but the sorrows of each soul, as well as the satisfaction each soul is [required] to offer My Heavenly Father. So My Passion was conceived along with My humanity. Fix your eyes well on Me in the womb of My Heavenly Mother. Oh how tortured My little humanity is; take a good look at My little head, surrounded with a crown of thorns which, pressed tightly around my temples, made rivers of tears pour out from My eyes; I am unable to move in the slightest way to dry them. O Please, unite yourself to My Passion; you, whose arms are free, dry My eyes from so much crying. These thorns are the crown of the many evil thoughts the fill human minds. Oh, how they pierce Me more than thorns the earth produces. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 45 Oh, behold the long crucifixion of nine months in which I can move neither My hands nor feet; I cannot so much as move a finger. I remain continuously immobile, as there isn’t any room for Me to make the slightest motion. What a long and hard crucifixion. What is more, there [here with Me] are all the evil works of souls that assume the form of nails which continuously pierced My hands and feet.” Jesus continued to narrate one sorrow after another – all the martyrdoms of his little humanity were so many that if I wanted to tell them all, it would take too long. Whence I burst into tears, and heard in my interior: “My daughter, I wish to hug you, but am unable to do so, as there is no room for Me to move; My immobility restrains Me from doing so. I want to approach you, but I am unable to walk. For now, you may approach Me and hug Me. Later, when I emerge from My mother’s womb, I will approach you”. But as I hugged him and pressed him tightly to my heart with my imagination, an interior voice told me: “This is enough for now, My child. Proceed to consider the fifth excess of My love.” CHRISTMAS NOVENA 46 DAY 5 Fifth Excess of Love [of the Son of God] The interior voice continued: “My child, do not distance yourself from Me; do not leave Me alone. My love seeks your company. This is yet another excess of My love: In not wanting to be alone, do you know whose company it is that I seek? I seek the [company of the] soul’s love. Behold all souls along with Me in the womb of My mother – conceived together with Me – and I am here for them in the form of pure love. I wish to tell them how much I love them; I wish to speak with them, to tell them of My joys and sorrows. I wish to tell them how I have come to dwell with them to console them and make them happy; that I will remain with each and every one of them as their little brother to convey to them at the cost of My life, all of My blessings and My Kingdom. I wish to offer them My kisses and My loving finesses. I wish to delight in them. But, alas, how many sorrows they cause Me! Some flee from Me, while others play deaf and force Me into silence; some despise My blessings and care not of My Kingdom, while others requite My kisses and loving finesses with indifference, and become completely estranged to Me. This is how souls change My playful invitation into bitter tears. Though I am among so many, oh how lonely I am; oh, how much this loneliness weighs upon Me. I have no one with whom to share one word, with whom to pour Myself out, not even in love. I remain continuously downcast, without anyone with whom to CHRISTMAS NOVENA 47 speak, for if I do speak, I am ignored. Alas My daughter, I beg you, I implore you, do not leave Me alone in such utter loneliness. Grant Me the pleasure of allowing Me to speak by listening to Me; lend your ears to My teachings. I am the Master of masters. How many things I wish to teach you! If you only listen closely to what your tender mother wishes to tell you, you will stop to My crying, and I will rejoice in you. Do you not wish for Me to rejoice in you?” As I abandoned myself in Jesus, uniting myself to his Passion in his state of loneliness, the interior voice continued: “Εnough, enough for now. Proceed to consider the sixth excess of My love.” DAY 6 Sixth Excess of Love [of the Son of God] “My child, come and entreat My dear mother to set aside a little space for you within her motherly womb, so that you may see for yourself the sorrowful state in which I find myself”. And in my mind’s eye, it seemed as if our Holy Queen Mother made a little room for me in order make Jesus happy, and she placed me in her womb. But the darkness was so thick that I could not see him. I could only hear his breathing, while He continued to say in my interior: “My child, behold yet another excess of My love. I am eternal light. The sun is but a pale shadow of My light. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 48 And do you see where My love led me? Do you see in what a dark prison I am?23 There is not a glimmer of light; it is always night for me, but a night without stars or rest, and I remain always awake... What pain! The narrow confines of this prison keep Me from making the slightest movement, they keep Me in thick darkness. Even my breathing is impaired, as I breathe through the breathing of My mother, and how laboured it is! And this is compounded by the darkness of the sins of souls. Each sin is a night for Me which, when joined together, form an abyss of darkness without boundaries. What pain! Oh the excess of My love: it compels Me to go from the immensity of light and space into an abyss of thick darkness that is so narrow that I haven’t the freedom to breathe – and all this, for love of souls.” As He was speaking, He moaned, but his moans were stifled because of the lack of space, and He wept. I was immersed in weeping. I thanked him and offered him my compassion. With my love I wanted to offer him some light, as He had asked me to. But who can recount all that which had transpired? Then, the same interior voice added: “This is enough for now. Proceed to consider the seventh excess of My love.” 23 When referring to his immaculate mother’s womb as a “prison”, Jesus wishes to reveal “the kind of prison into which the human will casts the poor creature” (The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 17). Unlike the perfect laws that governed all of nature in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve’s bodies radiated light, the wounded environment of this present earth in which the Virgin Mary was immaculately conceived is “enslaved to corruption” (Romans 8:19- 21). Subsequently, her body (and womb) experienced the effects of the wounded laws that govern this imperfect planet, e.g., darkness. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 49 DAY 7 Seventh Excess of Love [of the Son of God] The interior voice continued: “My daughter, don’t abandon me amidst so much loneliness and in so much darkness; don’t leave the womb of my mother. Remain and behold the seventh excess of my love. In the womb of My Heavenly Father I enjoyed complete bliss – there was no blessing that I did not possess: Joy, enthrallments – everything was at My disposal. The angels adored Me reverently, hanging upon My every word. Oh, the excess of My love! I could say that such an excess made Me change my destiny: it led Me to the point of being restrained within this gloomy prison; it stripped Me of all My joys, bliss and blessings, and clothe Me with the whole gamut of soul’s poor plight – and all this in order to requite souls by giving them My destiny, My joys and My eternal bliss. But this would have been nothing if I did not find [and expiate] in souls their great ingratitude and obstinate betrayals. Oh, how shocked My eternal love was before so much ingratitude, and how I wept over mankind’s callousness and betrayals. Ingratitude was the sharpest thorn to pierced My Heart from [the moment of] My Conception to the last moment of My life. Look at my little Heart: it is wounded and pours forth Blood. What pain! What torture I experience! My daughter, do not be ungrateful to Me. Ingratitude is the greatest sorrow for your Jesus – it is closing the door in My face and leaving me outside numb in the cold. And yet, My love did not stop CHRISTMAS NOVENA 50 in the face of so much ingratitude, but assumed the role of interceding, imploring, moaning and begging for love, which forms the eighth excess of My love.” DAY 8 Eighth Excess of Love [of the Son of God] “My child, don’t abandon Me, but place your head upon the womb of My dear mother and you will hear, even from the outside, My moans and supplications. In seeing that neither My moans nor supplications of love move souls to offer Me any solace, I behave like the poorest of beggars who, stretching out his little hand, asks out of pity at least alms for [the good of] their [own] souls, for their affections and [the love in] their hearts. My love wants to win over the heart of man at any cost. In seeing that after seven excesses of My love, man was still reluctant [in corresponding to My love] – he played deaf and neither cared for Me nor wished to give himself over to Me – My love excelled. My love should have ceased to pour itself out, but no, it wanted to overflow from its boundaries more abundantly. And so from the womb of My mother, My love extended My voice to every heart in the most insinuating of manners, with the most fervent prayers and with the most penetrating words. And do you know what I said to souls? ‘My child, give Me your heart. I will give you everything you desire, so long as you give Me your heart in exchange. I have come down from heaven to CHRISTMAS NOVENA 51 seize this heart of yours. Oh please, do not deny Me this! Do not dash my hopes!’ In seeing man reluctant – to the point of many turning his back to Me – I then began to moan. Joining my little hands, and weeping with a voice stifled by sobs, I added: ‘Oh! I am but a little beggar, and you do not wish to give Me your heart, not even as alms? Is this not a greater excess of My love – that the Creator24, in his desire to approach man, should take the form of a little babe to avoid striking fear in him?; that He should ask for man’s heart at least as alms and, in seeing him refuse, implore, moan and weep?” Then I heard him say: “And do you not wish to offer Me your heart? Or perhaps you too want Me to moan, beg and cry for you to give Me your heart? Do you wish to deny Me the alms I ask?” And as He was saying this I heard him as though sobbing. Whence I said: “O my Jesus, do not cry; I give you my heart and my entire being.” Then, the interior voice continued: “Proceed further; continue onto the ninth excess of My love.” 24 To Luisa Jesus reveals that he, the second Person of the Trinity, cocreated with the Father. In her volumes Luisa affirms that while each of the three divine Persons operates respectively in the Fiats of creation, Redemption and sanctification, the other two Persons “concur” in that operation (cf. L. Piccarreta, volume 25, December 25, 1928; volume 15, December 16, 1922). CHRISTMAS NOVENA 52 DAY 9 Ninth Excess of Love [of the Son of God] “My child, My state is increasingly sorrowful. If you love Me, keep your gaze fixed on Me to see if you can offer your Jesus some relief. A little word of love, a caress or a kiss will console Me in My crying and in My afflictions. My child, after I offered to man My eight excesses of love, and he requited them so badly, My love did not cease, but strove to add to the eighth a ninth excess. And this ninth excess are the yearnings, the sighs of fire and the flames of desire that caused Me to emerge from My mother’s womb and embrace man. These [surgings of love] overwhelmed My little humanity, not yet born, to such an agonizing state that I reach the point of breathing My last. And as I was about to breathe My last, My divinity that is inseparable from My humanity, infused in Me small inhalations of life. And so I regained life to continue My agonizing state, and return again to the point of death. Such is the ninth excess of My love: to agonize and to die of love continuously for souls. Oh, what a long agony of nine months! Oh, how love smothered Me and made Me die. Had I not possessed the divinity within My humanity, which infused life in Me every time I was about to die, love would have consumed Me before coming into this world.” Then He added: “Look at me, and listen closely: How I agonize, how My Heart throbs, pants and burns. CHRISTMAS NOVENA 53 Look at me: In this moment 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 and my life, do not die, do not leave me alone. You desire love; I will love You. I will not leave You ever again. Offer me your divine flames so that I may love You more, and be completely consumed for love of You.”