7/25/15 – Vol. 11

 Almost sobbing, He (Our Lord Jesus Christ) added: “My daughter, in these times I feel like a poor unfortunate. I feel unfortunate together with the one who is wounded on the battlefield; unfortunate for the one who dies in his own blood, abandoned by everybody; unfortunate with the poor who feels the weight of his hunger. I feel the misfortune of many mothers, whose hearts bleed for their sons in battle… Ah, all misfortunes weigh upon my Heart, and I remain transfixed! And in the face of all these miseries, I see the Divine Justice which wants to put more Divine fury on the field against creatures, unfortunately rebellious and ungrateful. Further, who can tell you how unfortunate I am in love? Ah, creatures don’t love Me, and my great Love is repaid with repeated offenses.

My daughter, in the midst of so many misfortunes, instead of consoling others, I want to be comforted. I want around Me the souls who love Me, who keep Me faithful company, and who offer all their pains as a relief for my misfortunes and in order to plead grace for the poor unfortunate ones. Depending on whether the souls are faithful to Me in these times of scourges and misfortunes, when Divine Justice will be appeased, It will reward the souls who remained faithful to Me and who took part in my misfortunes.”

 
Maria Bambina

7/19/28 – Vol. 24

Then, while my mind was making present the Conception of the Sovereign Lady, I (Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta) said to myself: “Immaculate Queen, this little daughter of the Divine Will comes to prostrate herself at your feet, to celebrate your Conception and to give you the honors of Queen. And together with me I call the whole Creation to surround you like a crown—the Angels, the Saints, the heavens, the stars, the sun and everyone, to recognize you as our Queen, to honor and love your height, and to declare ourselves your subjects.

“Don’t you see, oh Celestial Mother and Queen, how all created things run to be around you to say to you: ‘We hail you, our Queen. Finally, after so many centuries, we have been given our Empress.’ The sun hails you as Queen of light, the heavens as Queen of immensity and of the stars, the wind as Queen of empire, the sea as Queen of purity, strength and justice, the earth hails you as Queen of flowers. All hail you, in chorus: ‘You are the welcome one, our Queen—you will be our smile, our glory, our happiness. From now on we will all hang upon your wishes.’”

But while I was saying this, I thought to myself (certainly some of my usual nonsense): “I am celebrating my Celestial Mama, and She does not give a thought to celebrating the little daughter of the Divine Will? I would like no other than the feast of Her keeping me on Her lap like a little child, to feed me the air, the breath, the food, the life of the Divine Will.”

But while I was thinking of this and other things, my sweet Jesus moved in my interior and told me: “Little daughter of My Will, one who lives in My Divine Fiat is celebrated by all and is the feast of all. Do you want to know why you celebrate, from Her very Conception, the state of Queen of My Mama? Because She began Her life in the Divine Will, and the Divine Will makes present to you Her glorious state of Queen, and It makes you celebrate Her with all created things, just as She was celebrated at Her Conception.

“The feasts begun in the Fiat are perennial—they never end; and one who lives in It finds them present and celebrates along. And even though the little Queen of Heaven, from Her very Conception, perceived that all revered Her, smiled at Her, longed for Her, and that She was the well-liked of all, yet, She did not know from the beginning the mystery that She was to be My Mother—of Him whom She Herself longed for, as She knew it when the Angel announced it to Her—however, She knew that Her royalty, Her empire and the many shows of obsequies came to Her because in Her reigned My Divine Will.

“Now, you must know that as you celebrate the Mama and Her Sovereignty, the Mama celebrates the daughter, the newborn of that Fiat that She loved so much as to keep It as Her life; and in you She celebrates what you yourself do not know for now, but will know later. Don’t you know that She longs for the little queens, which are the little daughters of My Will, to make for them the feast that She receives?”

Book of Heaven
8/9/05 – Vol. 6

Continuing in my usual state, I was feeling a little disturbed, and blessed Jesus, on coming, told me:  “My daughter, the soul who is at peace and whose whole being tends completely into Me, drips with drops of light which fall upon my garment and form my ornament.  On the other hand, the soul who is disturbed drips with darkness, which forms the diabolical ornament.  Not only this, but disturbance impedes the course of grace and renders it unable to operate good.”  Then He added:  “If the soul becomes disturbed over everything, it is a sign that she is full of herself.  If she becomes disturbed with something that happens to her, but does not with something else, it is a sign that she has something of God, but there are many voids to be filled.  If, then, nothing disturbs her, it is a sign that she is all filled with God.  Oh! how much harm disturbance does to the soul – to the point of rejecting God and of filling her completely with herself.”

Dominican Cross of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta

When she was nine, the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta received Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist for the first time and Holy Confirmation, and from that moment learned to remain for hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament. When she was eleven she wanted to enroll in the Association of the Daughters of Mary – flourishing at the time – in the Church of San Giuseppe. At the age of eighteen, Luisa became a Dominican Tertiary taking the name of Sr. Maddalena. She was one of the first to enroll in the Third Order, which her parish priest was promoting. Luisa’s devotion to the Mother of God was to develop into a profound Marian spirituality, a prelude to what she would one day write about Our Lady.

3/22/27 – Vol. 21

After this, I (Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta) was thinking about the great good that the Divine Will brings to us; and while I was all immersed in It, my sweet Jesus added: “My daughter, when the sun rises, it dispels the darkness and makes the light arise. It changes the humidity of the night, with which the plants have been invested, in a way that they lie there, oppressed, torpid and melancholic; but as the sun rises, it turns that humidity into pearls, pearling everything—plants, flowers; and over all nature its silvery aura brings back gaiety and beauty, taking away the torpor of the night; and with the enchantment of its light, it seems to take all nature by the hand, in order to vivify it, embellish it, and give it life. The sea, the rivers, the springs, strike fear during nighttime, but as the sun rises, the sun’s rays dispel the fear, and investing them down to the bottom, it forms in them a golden and silvery bed, it crystallizes the waters, and forms in them the most beautiful enchantment. So, all nature rises again by means of the sun; if it were not for the sun, it could be called a work without life.

“My Will is more than sun. As It rises in the soul, It clothes her with Light; all of her acts are pearled with Divine Light, in such a way that they convert into more than most refulgent diamonds and precious ornaments. Before the Sun of My Will rises, they are like night dew, that oppresses the plants and gives them no tint of beauty; but with the rising of the sun, that dew forms the most beautiful ornament for all plants, and gives to each one of them its tint of beauty, and makes the variety and the vividness of their colors stand out.

“In the same way, as My Will rises, all the human acts become invested with light, they take their place of honor in My Will; each one of them receives its special tint of beauty and the vividness of the Divine colors, in such a way that the soul becomes transfigured and enveloped with an indescribable beauty. As the Sun of My Will rises, It puts to flight all the evils of the soul; It takes away the torpor that passions have produced; even more, before the light of the Divine Fiat, passions themselves lap up that light and aspire to convert into virtues, to pay homage to My Eternal Will. As It rises, everything is gaiety, and even the pains that, like seas at nighttime, strike fear in the poor creatures, if My Will rises, It puts to flight the night of the human will, and taking every fear away, It forms Its golden bed in those pains, and with Its light, It invests the bitter waters of the pains, and It crystallizes them into a sea of sweetness, in such a way as to form an enchanting and admirable horizon.

“What can My Will not do? It can do everything, and It can give everything; and wherever It rises, It does things worthy of Our creative hands.”

THE FOURTH LUMINOUS MYSTERY – THE TRANSFIGURATION

Reflection:

Through the knowledges and truths on the living in the Divine Will, Jesus manifests His Divinity to the soul; He manifests how His Divine Will operated with His human will, He manifests the interior life of the Incarnate Word, He transfigures Himself before her eyes – and not just to give her simple news, but to let her share in His very Divinity, to transform her and transfigure her within Himself.  And the soul who lives in His Will is not frightened as were the disciples in hearing the voice of the Father; she does not need to descend from the high mountain of the Divine Will, because the Divine Will dwells within her; she cannot keep quiet about this manifestation, but will proclaim and effuse the Divinity of Christ through each of her acts; and the tent which she prepares as permanent dwelling for Jesus and the whole Celestial Court is her very being.

From the Writings:

(Jesus)  “…It is my usual way to do minor things first, as preparation for greater ones – these, being the crowning of the minor things….  I maintained this order also in Redemption.  My birth was without glamour, rather, it was neglected; my childhood was without splendor of great things before men; my life in Nazareth was so hidden that I lived as if ignored by all; I adapted Myself to do the smallest and most common things of human life.  During my public life there were a few great things, but still – who knew my Divinity?  Nobody, not even all of the Apostles.  I passed through the crowds like any other man, so much so, that anyone could approach Me, talk to Me, and if needed, even despise Me.”  And I, interrupting Jesus’ speaking, said:  ‘Jesus, my Love, how happy those times were, and even happier those people who, just by wanting it, could come close to You, talk to You, and be with You!’  And Jesus:  “Ah! my daughter, only my Will brings true happiness.  It alone encloses all goods within the soul, and making Itself crown around the soul, constitutes her queen of true happiness.  Only these souls will be the queens of my throne, because they are a birth from my Will….”  (April 15, 1919  Volume 12)

(Jesus) “…My love wants to pour itself out; it wants to make known the excesses which my Divinity operated in my Humanity for the creatures – excesses which greatly surpass the excesses that my Humanity operated externally.  This is also why I often speak to you about living in my Will, which I have not manifested to anyone until now.  At the most, they have known the shadow of my Will, the grace and the sweetness of doing It.  But to penetrate inside of It, to embrace immensity, to be multiplied with Me and – even while being on earth – penetrate everywhere, both into Heaven and into the hearts, laying down the human ways and acting in divine ways – this is not yet known; so much so that not to a few will this appear strange, and those who do not keep their minds opened to the light of the Truth will not understand a thing.  But little by little I will make my way, manifesting now one truth, now another, about this living in my Will, so that they will end up understanding.

“Now, the first link which connected the true living in my Will was my Humanity.  My Humanity, identified with my Divinity, swam in the Eternal Volition, and kept tracing all the acts of creatures in order to make them Its own, to give to the Father a divine glory on the part of creatures, and to bring the value, the love, the kiss of the Eternal Volition to all the acts of creatures.  In this sphere of the Eternal Volition, I could see all the acts of creatures – those which could be done and were not done, and also the good acts done badly – and I did those which had not been done, and redid those done badly.  Now, these acts which were not done, except by Me alone, are all suspended in my Will, and I await the creatures to come to live in my Volition, and repeat in my Will that which I did.  This is why I chose you as the second link of connection with my Humanity, a link which becomes one with mine, as you live in my Volition and repeat my own acts.  Otherwise, on this side my love would remain without its outpouring, without glory from the creatures for all that my Divinity operated within my Humanity, and without the perfect purpose of Creation, which must be enclosed and perfected in my Will.  It would be as if I had shed all my Blood and suffered so much, and nobody had known it.  Who would have loved Me?  Which heart would have been shaken?  No one; and therefore in no one would I have had my fruits – the glory of Redemption.”

Interrupting Jesus’ speaking, I said:  ‘My Love, if there is so much good in this living in the Divine Will, why did You not manifest it before?’  And He:  “My daughter, first I had to make known what my Humanity did and suffered externally, to be able to dispose souls to knowing what my Divinity did inside.  The creature is incapable of understanding my work all together; therefore I keep manifesting Myself little by little.  Then, from your link of connection with Me, the links of other souls will be connected, and I will have a cohort of souls who, living in my Volition, will redo all the acts of the creatures.  I will receive the glory of the many suspended acts done only by Me, also from the creatures – and these, from all classes:  virgins, priests, lay people, according to their office.  They will no longer operate humanly; but rather, as they penetrate into my Will, their acts will multiply for all in a way which is fully divine.  I will receive from creatures the divine glory of many Sacraments administered and received in a human way, of others which have been profaned, of others sullied with interest, and of many good works in which I remain more dishonored than honored.  I yearn so much for this time; and you, pray and yearn for it together with Me, and do not move your link of connection with Mine, but start – as the first one.”  (January 29, 1919  Volume 12)

Prayer:

Oh! my Sun, my beautiful One, I want to enter right into the center, that I may remain submerged completely within this most pure light.  Oh Divine Sun, let this light precede me, follow me, surround me everywhere and penetrate into every intimate hiding place of my interior, that my terrestrial being may be consumed, and You may transform it completely in your Divine Being.

Oh! my all and beautiful Jesus, if You communicate so much peace in the few moments You manifest Yourself in this life – in such a way that one can suffer the most painful martyrdoms, the most humiliating pains with the most perfect tranquillity – what will it be like in Paradise?

Oh! how beautiful You are – all beautiful, oh my sweet Jesus!  (Volume 1)

(Jesus:) “My daughter, as the sun, when it rises, makes the darkness flee, so it brings with it the dawning of the light which replaces the dampness of the night which has so invested the plants that they have become oppressed, numbed, and dejected. As the sun rises, that dampness changes into pearls making everything glisten: plants, flowers, and all of nature. It’s silvery brilliance restores joy and beauty as it removes the stupor of the night; and with its enchantment of light it seems as if it gives a hand to all of nature to vitalize her, make her beautiful, and give her life. The sea, the streams, and the springs become all armed and enlarge the diversity and vivacity of the colors.

Pope Francis prays at ancient Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome

Basilica St. Mary Major

Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome

 THERE are in Rome three patriarchal churches, in which the Pope officiates on different festivals. These are the Basilics of St. John Lateran, St. Peter’s on the Vatican Hill, and St. Mary Major. This last is so called because it is, both in antiquity and dignity, the first church in Rome among those that are dedicated to God in honor of the Virgin Mary. The name of the Liberian Basilic was given it because it was founded in the time of Pope Liberius, in the fourth century; it was consecrated, under the title of the Virgin Mary, by Sixtus III., about the year 435. It is also called St. Mary ad Nives, or at the snow, from a popular tradition that the Mother of God chose this place for a church under her invocation by a miraculous snow that fell upon this spot in summer, and by a vision in which she appeared to a patrician named John, who munificently founded and endowed this church in the pontificate of Liberius. The same Basilic has sometimes been known by the name of St. Mary ad Præsepe, from the holy crib or manger of Bethlehem, in which Christ was laid at His birth. It resembles an ordinary manger, is kept in a case of massive silver, and in it lies an image of a little child, also of silver. On Christmas Day the holy Manger is taken out of the case, and exposed. It is kept in a sumptuous subterraneous chapel in this church.

(Taken from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler)