Msgr. Leonardo D’Ascenzo, the Archbishop of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie
From website on 1/17/2018
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On Sunday January 14,  2018, at 4:30 p.m., at the sports hall “S. Bandinelli “in Velletri, there was the Eucharistic Celebration for the Episcopal Ordination of Msgr. Leonardo D’Ascenzo who was elected Archbishop of our Diocese (Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie).

The celebration was presided by Msgr. Vincenzo Apicella, bishop of Velletri-Segni (the main officiator) and by numerous bishops of Lazio and Puglia, including the Archbishop of Bari, Msgr. Francesco Cacucci and the bishop of Anagni-Alatri Msgr. Lorenzo Loppa, serving as co-consecrators.

All the liturgy of ordination was sober, authoritative and full of emotions, and after the imposition of hands and the prayer of ordination, Msgr. Apicella oiled Msgr. Leonardo with the Sacred Chrism and with great emotion by all there was the delivery of the Gospel, of the ring, of the miter, and of the pastoral.

The rite ended with the first blessing of Msgr. Leonardo, who with great amazement and general emotion, made himself small among us climbing up the terraces of the sports hall to symbolically embrace all of us.

“The harvest is plentiful. This is the expression that I chose as my motto after the announcement of my appointment as archbishop of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie. It is the expression that more than any other recurs in pastoral work for vocations, the area that characterized in particular my priestly ministry. It is the expression that marked my whole story”. Those were the first words of thanksgiving that the newly ordained Archbishop Leonardo D’Ascenzo said in his greeting at the celebration.

“You can imagine how I was deeply surprised – Msgr. D’Ascenzo continued – when I learned that the readings of tonight would have been those that are considered texts with an evident vocational content.  Reflecting on this Word of God, I was able to get some of my similarities with the biblical character of Samuel in particular his ability to return to sleep at least three times after being awakened during the night. Like him, I’m very good at sleeping, I think I look like him. I hope to be like him in the availability to the call, in the capacity to grow and not to let a single Word of the Lord fall into emptiness”. Archbishop D’Ascenzo stole a smile and applause with a frank and reassuring air that convinced the more than 1500 participants in the celebration at the sports hall.

Moreover, also Bishop Apicella in his homily mentioned the theme of vocation. He recalled that “the inscrutable mystery of the Trinity is the divine act par excellence. So for us Christians to transmit the Spirit of God, with the power of the Father and the Son in the inscrutable mystery of the Trinity, is the correct meaning of “tradition”.

That was the wish for don Leonardo, rector of the Seminary of Anagni, now called to lead the new community of Puglia. Bishop Apicella continued: “we often get confused between voices and bells: we seek the first places, the greetings in the squares, the titles, the honors, but we forget that Christ is the center, and that we as disciples must make us small, servants, and occupy the last place. It is an apprenticeship that lasts a lifetime. Precisely in the logic of the parish, Don Leonardo could experience that the logic of service is the meaning of life”. Bishop Apicella concluded: “Don Leonardo is a true man, that is, he loves the truth, even if it is inconvenient, he tells the truth, he does the truth. We are sure that he will be a true shepherd for the people who is awaiting him and we wish him in his presbytery as many priests as those he educated in the Seminary of Anagni. ”

“We will walk together, in communion, in search of what God has in His heart for us, a portion of His people at the school of the Gospel. Supported by the Eucharist, we trust in the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of Graces, to be the beginning of a renewed experience with Jesus”. The  new ordained archbishop concluded with those words taking leave of the assembly.

At the end of his episcopal ordination, Msgr. D’Ascenzo greeted his community of origin and all those who had been close to him in these years, his whole family, in particular his father Giairo. Almost all the 19 bishops of Puglia were present, about 700 representatives of the Church of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie, as well as civil authorities and mayors. Archbishop D’Ascenzo will officially enter the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie on January 27.

The celebration, thanks to the descent of the Holy Spirit, was enriched with love. It gripped the new Bishop and his faithful in an embrace so rich in love that we cried with joy.

We thank the Lord for this great gift that He has given us. May He bless, enlighten and protect our Shepherd in sharing his life with ours.

It is our necessary duty, as sons and daughters of the Divine Will, to commit ourselves to pray for our new Archbishop Leonardo, so that he can, as his predecessors did  (Bishops Carata, Cassati and Pichierri), accompany the last stretch (we hope) of the journey for the beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. We are aware that God, in order to carry out His work, uses His ministers so that the Kingdom of the Divine Will  can spread and build up His Church, just as Jesus Himself told Luisa on January 18, 1928: “My daughter, all of my works hold hands, and this is the sign that they are my works – that one does not oppose the other; on the contrary, they are so bound among themselves, that they sustain one another… With my coming upon earth, I did not destroy Sacred Scriptures; on the contrary, I supported them; and my Gospel, which I announced, opposed them in nothing; on the contrary, they sustained each other in an admirable way. And in forming the new nascent Church, I formed the new priesthood, which does not detach itself either from Sacred Scriptures or from the Gospel. All are intent upon them…Now, that which I manifest on my Divine Will, and which you write, can be called ‘the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Divine Will’. In nothing does It oppose either Sacred Scriptures or the Gospel which I announced while being on earth; on the contrary, It can be called the support of one and of the other. And this is why I allow and I call priests to come – to read the Gospel, all of Heaven, of the Kingdom of my Divine Fiat, so as to say, as I said to the Apostles: ‘Preach It throughout the whole world.’ In fact, in my works I make use of the priesthood; and just as I had the priesthood before my coming in order to prepare the people, and the priesthood of my Church in order to confirm my coming and everything I did and said, so will I have the priesthood of the Kingdom of my Will…

And I enjoy that more of my ministers get to know that there is this treasure so great, of making known the Kingdom of my Divine Will; and I use this to form the first priests of my coming Kingdom of my Fiat. My daughter, it is a great necessity to form the first priests; they will serve Me like the Apostles served Me to form my Church; and the ones who will occupy themselves with these writings in order to publish them, putting them out to print them – to make them known, will be the new evangelists of the Kingdom of my Supreme Will… Therefore, in these circumstances I expand the circle, and, like a fisherman, I catch those who must serve Me for a Kingdom so holy. Therefore, let Me do, and do not be worried.”

“WELCOME AMONG US,  HIS EXCELLENCE!”

Fiat!

Giuseppina Ferri

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DURING the French Revolution of the late 18th century, priests and religious were persecuted and often had to go into hiding in order to administer the Sacraments and keep their vocation and apostolates. This is what happened with the Ursuline nuns of the Convent of Pont-Saint-Esprit. One of the nuns, Agathe Gensoul, who could no longer use her religious name, Mother St. Michel, still lived her vocation, starting a school with another Ursuline, Sophie Ricard. Agathe had a cousin who was an Ursuline also, but who lived in America, in New Orleans, which had been at that time under Spanish domain, but had been taken back by the French. Fearing French persecution, the Spanish Ursulines there went back to Spain, which left the convent in need of more nuns.

So Agathe or Mother St. Michel, applied to the bishop for the transfer to New Orleans, who refused her request because of the trouble in France. He told her that the Pope would have to approve her move. He, however was under house arrest. The situation was near impossible. But this did not discourage Agathe, who immediately wrote a letter to Pope Pius VII, but after three months, she was still without means to send it.

One day, while praying before a statue of Mary, she was inspired with this prayer:

“O Most Holy Virgin Mary, if you obtain a prompt and favorable answer to my letter, I promise to have you honored in New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.”

She not only found a way to send the letter a few days later, but the Pontiff replied within a month! He granted his permission, blessing her new undertaking, which surprised the bishop who asked to bless the statue that Mother St. Michel had carved to take with her to New Orleans.

The statue was enshrined in the Ursuline convent there on December 30,1810. Two years later, another miracle would be attributed to the Virgin under this title. A terrible fire ravaged the city in 1812, and the wind was rapidly driving it in the direction of the convent of the Ursulines. One of the nuns, Sister St. Anthony, placed a small replica of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in her window that faced the approaching fire, while Mother St. Michel prayed aloud, asking Our Lady for help. Immediately the wind changed direction of the flames.

Mary’s help has been sought from the shrine ever since, both in time of war [the Battle of New Orleans] and during the threat of hurricanes, a persistent peril on the Gulf Coast.

Her Feast is January 8.

What a beautiful time to pray The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary

Flight into Egypt

Book of Heaven
The Call of the Creature to the Order, the Place and the Purpose
for which He was Created by God
Volume 23 – February 9, 1928

The Sovereign Queen of Heaven, reflector of Jesus.  Pleasures of Jesus when one asks for His Fiat. 

The Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta the Little Daughter of the Divine Will:

Continuing to follow the Acts of Jesus done in His Divine Will when He was on earth, I (Luisa) was following Mother and Son when they fled to Egypt, and I thought to myself:  “How beautiful it must have been to see the dear little Baby in the arms of His Divine Mama.  Though He was so little, enclosing the Eternal Fiat within Himself, He enclosed Heaven and earth; everything came out from Him, as the Creator, and everything hung upon Him.  And the Sovereign Queen, transfused in the little Jesus by virtue of the same Fiat that animated Them, formed the reflector of Jesus, His echo, His very Life.  How many hidden beauties they possessed; how many varieties of heavens, more beautiful than what can be seen above our horizon; how many more refulgent suns They contained.  And yet, no one could see anything; nothing appeared other than three poor fugitives.

“Jesus, my Love, I want to follow, step by step, the steps of my Celestial Mama; and as She walks, I want to animate the blades of grass, the atoms of the earth, and make You feel my ‘I love You’ under Her soles.  I want to animate all the light of the sun, and, as it shines on Your face, I want it to bring You my ‘I love You’; all the waves of the wind, its caresses—let all say to You:  ‘I love You.’  I (Luisa) am the one who, in Your Fiat, brings You the warmth of the sun to warm You, the waves of the wind to caress You, its whistling to speak to You and say:  ‘Dear little One, let everyone know Your Divine Will; let It come out from within Your little Humanity, that It may take Its dominion and form Its Kingdom in the midst of creatures.’”

But while my mind was wandering after Jesus—and I would be too long if I wanted to say everything—my highest and only Good, Jesus, moved in my interior, and all goodness told me:  “My daughter, My Mama and I were like two twins born of the same labor, because We had but one Will that gave Us life.  The Divine Fiat placed all Our Acts in common, in such a way that the Son was reflected in Her, and the Mama was reflected in the Son.  So, the Kingdom of the Divine Will had Its full force, Its perfect dominion within Us; and as We were fleeing to Egypt, We carried the Divine Volition as though strolling throughout those regions, and We felt Its great sorrow for It was not reigning in creatures; and, looking at the centuries, We felt the great joy of Its Kingdom that It was to form in their midst.

“And, oh! how pleasing to Us did your repeated refrains in the wind, in the sun, in the water, under Our steps, reach Us upon the wings of Our Fiat:  ‘I love You, I love You—let Your Kingdom come.’  It was Our echo that We could hear in you, as We wanted nothing but the Divine Will to reign and be the conqueror of all.  Therefore, even from that time We (Jesus and His Blessed Mother) loved Our tiny little one (Luisa), who asked for and wanted but what We Ourselves wanted.” …

Book of Heaven
Vol. 4 – 1/4/01

After going through most bitter days of privation and of disturbance, I felt a mystical hell within me. Without Jesus, all my passions came out to the light and, each one casting its own darkness, obscured me in such a way that I no longer knew where I was. How unhappy is the state of a soul without God! It is enough to say that, without God, the soul, while still living, feels hell within her. Such was my state; I felt my soul tortured by infernal pains. Who can say what I went through? So as not to make it too long, I move on.

Then, this morning, having received Communion, as I was at the summit of my affliction, I felt Our Lord move within me. In seeing His image, I wanted to look to see whether it was of wood or alive in flesh. I looked, and I saw it was the Crucified alive in flesh, who, looking at me, told me: “If my image within you were made of wood, the love would be only apparent, because only true and sincere love, united to mortification, makes Me be reborn alive, crucified in the heart of one who loves Me.” On seeing the Lord, I would have wanted to withdraw from His presence, so cattiva [bad] did I see myself, but He continued, saying: “Where do you want to go? I am light, and wherever you go, my light invests you everywhere.” At the presence of Jesus, at His light, at His voice, my passions disappeared – I myself don’t know where they went. I remained like a little girl, and I returned inside myself, completely changed. May everything be for the glory of God and for the good of my soul.

Blessed Mother Expecting Unborn Jesus

***

26.  To Mother Paolina

J.M.J.

Fiat – In Voluntate Dei!

My good and reverend Mother Paolina,

(…) Now let’s come to us, my good mother.  I delayed writing you in order to let Holy Christmas draw near and then send you my poor wishes.  But what can I, poor little ignorant, wish to you?  So I ask dear Baby Jesus that He Himself bring you my sincere wishes.  During these days, you will prepare your heart in order to form it as a host in which the Divine Infant will come to be reborn in you, and will bring you, as a wish and a gift, the heartbeat and the word of the Fiat, His baby tears, His tender moans and wails, in order to be consoled and to receive your tender love in return.  My Mother, welcome Him soon, soothe His crying, warm Him, and be attentive so that He may always remain with you.  This is what the Celestial Baby wants:  He comes to remain with you.  I am sure that you will not send Him back, and He will make of you His Royal Palace, His little Paradise.  This is the wish I am sending you; I believe you will be content.

Now, this wish of mine – I extend it to my dear daughter, sister Remigia; I recommend that she be attentive so as to form the little paradise to the Little God.  And I beg, I implore, sister Salette, sister Amelia and the whole community – each to form, not a star, but a Royal Palace for the dear Baby, and make Him a little fire, and the life of His Will.  Oh, how happy will He feel in finding many royal palaces for His birth!

I send to all the greetings of the Divine Fiat, so that It may invest you with Its Light, cover your miseries with Its Love, and, if some of you are in pain, bring you balm and strength in order to convert everything into Will of God.

Now I expect your wishes and your prayers.  Most dear Mother, I leave you in the Divine Volition to make yourself a saint and to enjoy the Christmas holidays.  I kiss your right hand, and with respectful regards, I say,

the little daughter of the Divine Will

Corato, December 10, 1936