The season of the Great Fast is a special time for mortification and penance, both internal and external.   Because this spiritual struggle lasts a longer time, it often happens that we begin the first days or weeks of fasting with great zeal and resolution, but then gradually we become physically and spiritual exhausted, weakened and discouraged.  Holy Church knowing well the weakness and instability of our human nature, places before our eyes a glimpse of the transfigured Jesus – a scene to encourage us during the trials of life and during this Lent.

Book of Heaven
3/22/27 – Vol. 21

Effects of the rising of the Sun of the Divine Will in the soul.

. . . After this, I 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.”

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ASSOCIATION LUISA PICCARRETA

Little Children of the Divine Will CORATO

DAYS OF LIGHT

 February 28 – March 4, 2021

122nd anniversary since Luisa Piccarreta began to write her Diary in obedience to her confessor DonGennaro De Gennaro, parish priest of the Church of St. Joseph in Corato

74th Anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta

PROGRAM

2:30 p.m.

Let’s pray together from the House-Museum Luisa Piccarreta

You Tube Live:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA

4:30 pm

Holy Mass presided by His Excellency Msgr. Leonardo D’Ascenzo, Archbishop of Trani – Barletta – Bisceglie

Church of S. Maria Greca

You Tube Live:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA

7:00 p.m.

Food for thought: “The Light of the Divine Will”

Don Sergio Pellegrini, Ecclesiastic Assistant of the Association

You Tube Live:

_{https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA}

5:30 p.m.

Eucharistic Adoration and Holy Mass

Mother Church

March 3, 2021

7:30 p.m.

Film showing “Dawn of a Mystery”

 Introduction by Mrs. Vincenza Arbore, President of the Association

You Tube Live:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA

2:30 p.m

Holy Rosary on the Tomb of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, with international connection Introduction by Sister Assunta Marigliano

You Tube Live:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA

7:30 p.m

Holy Mass presided over by Don Giuseppe Lobascio, Episcopal Vicar

Mother Church

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuzpdUwSj3RxZA1eUNxBkxA

La Redazione

(Click here for The Hours of the Passion) 

In this third hour of Gethsemane, Jesus asked for help from Heaven; and His pains were so many that He also asked for the comfort of His disciples.  And we—do we always ask for help from Heaven in any painful circumstance?  And if we turn also to creatures, do we do this with order, and with those who can comfort us in a saintly way?  Are we at least resigned, if we do not receive those comforts that we were hoping for, using the indifference of creatures to abandon ourselves more in the arms of Jesus?  Jesus was comforted by an Angel.  And we—can we say that we are the angel of Jesus by remaining around Him to comfort Him and share in His bitterness?  However, in order to be as a true angel for Jesus, it is necessary to take sufferings as sent by Him, and therefore as Divine Sufferings.  Only then can we dare to console a God so embittered.  Otherwise, if we take pains in a human way, we cannot use them to comfort this Man-God, and therefore we cannot be His angels. 

In the pains that Jesus sends to us, it seems that He sends us the chalice in which we must place the fruit of those pains.  And these pains, suffered with love and resignation, will turn into a most sweet nectar for Jesus.  In every pain we will say, “Jesus is calling us around Him to be His angel.  He wants our comforts, and so He makes us share in His pains.”

My Love, Jesus, in my pains I look for Your Heart to rest, and in Your pains I intend to give You shelter with my pains, so that we may exchange them, and I may be Your consoling angel.

(Click here for “The Hours of the Passion” Book)

In the second hour in Gethsemane, all sins from all times, past, present and future, present themselves before Jesus, and He loads upon Himself all these sins to give complete Glory to the Father.  So, Jesus Christ Expiated, Prayed, and felt all our moods in His Heart without ever ceasing to Pray.  And we, do we always pray, in whatever mood we may be—cold, hard, tempted?  Do we give Jesus the pains of our soul as reparation and as relief in order to copy Him completely within us, thinking that each mood of ours is a pain of Jesus?  As a pain of Jesus, we must place it around Him to compassionate Him and relieve Him.  And if possible we must say to Him, “You have suffered too much.  Take rest, and we will suffer in Your place.”

Do we lose heart, or do we remain at the feet of Jesus with courage, giving Him all that we suffer, so that Jesus may find His own Humanity in us?  That is, are we His Humanity for Jesus?  What did the Humanity of Jesus do?  It Glorified Its Father, Expiated, and Pleaded the salvation of souls.  And we—do we enclose within ourselves these three intentions of Jesus in everything we do, so as to be able to say, “We enclose within ourselves all the Humanity of Jesus Christ?”

In our moments of darkness, do we place the intention of making the light of truth shine in others?  And when we pray with fervor, do we place the intention of melting the ice of many hearts hardened in sin?

My Jesus, in order to compassionate You and relieve You from the total exhaustion in which You find Yourself, I rise up to Heaven and make Your own Divinity my own; and placing It around You, I want to move all the offenses of creatures away from You.  I want to offer You Your Beauty to move the ugliness of sin away from You; Your Sanctity to move away the horror of all those souls who make You feel repugnance, because they are dead to grace; Your Peace to move the discords, the rebellions and the disturbances of all creatures away from You; Your Harmonies to relieve Your hearing from the waves of many evil voices.  My Jesus, I intend to offer You as many Divine Acts of Reparation for as many offenses as assault You, almost wanting to give You death.  And I intend to give You Life with Your own Acts.  Then, O my Jesus, I want to throw a wave of Your Divinity upon all creatures, so that, at Your Divine Contact, they may no longer dare to offend You.

Only in this way, O Jesus, will I be able to offer You compassion for all the offenses that You receive from creatures.

O Jesus, Sweet Life of mine, may my prayers and my pains rise always toward Heaven, so as to let the Light of Grace rain upon all, and absorb Your own Life in me. 

Reflections and Practices from the Twelfth Hour: From 4 to 5 AM

In this hour Jesus is in the midst of the soldiers with imperturbable courage and iron constancy. God as He is, He suffers all the strains which the soldiers inflict upon Him, and looks at them with so much Love that He seems to invite them to give Him more pains. And we—are we constant during repeated sufferings, or do we lament, get irritated and lose peace; that peace of the heart which is necessary to allow Jesus to find a happy dwelling within us?

Firmness is that virtue which makes us know whether God really reigns in us. If ours is true virtue, we will be firm in trial, with a firmness that is not inconstant, but always balanced. And it is this sole firmness that gives us peace. The more we become firm in good, in suffering, and in working, the more we enlarge the field around us, in which Jesus will expand His graces. Therefore, if we are inconstant, our field will be small, and Jesus will have little or no space. But if we are firm and constant, as Jesus finds a very extensive field, He will find in us His shelf and support, and the place in which to extend His graces.

If we want our beloved Jesus to rest in us, let us surround Him with His own firmness, with which He operated for the salvation of our souls. Being sheltered, He will remain in our heart in sweet rest. Jesus looked with Love at those who mistreated Him, and do we look at those who offend us with the same Love? And is the love we show to them so great as to be a voice for their hearts—so powerful as to convert them to Jesus?

My Jesus, boundless Love, give me this Love and let each pain of mine call souls to You.

(Click here for The Hours of the Passion) 

Before taking food, let us unite our intentions to those of our Lovable and Good Jesus, imagining having the mouth of Jesus in our mouth, and moving our tongue and cheeks together with His.  By doing this, we will not only draw the Life of Jesus Christ into ourselves, but we will unite to Him in order to give to the Father complete glory, praise, love, thanksgiving and reparation owed by creatures, and which the Good Jesus Himself offered in the act of taking food.  Let us also imagine being at the table near Jesus Christ, and now looking at Him, now praying Him to share a bite with us, now kissing the hem of His mantle, now contemplating the movements of His lips and of His Celestial eyes, now noticing the sudden clouding of His Most Lovable Face in foreseeing so much human ingratitude!

Just as Loving Jesus spoke about His Passion during supper, as we take our food, we will make some reflections on how we meditated the Hours of the Passion.  The Angels hang on our words, to gather our prayers, our reparations, and take them before the Father in order to somehow mitigate the Just Indignation for the so many offenses received from creatures—-just as they carried them when Jesus was on earth.  And when we pray, can we say that the Angels were pleased; that we have been recollected and reverent, in such a way that they were able to joyously carry our prayers to Heaven, just as they carried those of our Jesus?  Or did they rather remain saddened? 

While afflicted Jesus was taking food, He remained transfixed at the sight of the loss of Judas; and in Judas He saw all the souls who were going to be lost.  And since the loss of souls is the greatest of His pains, unable to contain it, He drew John to Himself in order to find relief.  In the same way, we will remain always close to Him like John, compassionating Him in His pains, relieving Him, and giving Him rest in our heart.  We will make His pain our own, we will identify ourselves with Him, to feel the heartbeats of that Divine Heart, pierced by the loss of souls.  And we will give Him our own heartbeats in order to remove those piercings; and in the place of those piercings we will put the souls who want to be lost, so that they may convert and be saved. 

Every beat of the Heart of Jesus is one “I Love you” which resounds in all the heartbeats of creatures, wanting to enclose all of them in His Heart in order to receive their heartbeats in return.  But Loving Jesus does not receive it from many, and therefore His heartbeat remains as though suffocated and embittered.  So let us pray Jesus to seal our heartbeat with His “I Love you,” so that our hearts too may live the Life of His Heart and, resounding in the heartbeats of creatures, may force them to say, “I love You, Jesus!”  Even more, we will fuse ourselves in Him, and Loving Jesus will let us hear His “I Love you,” which fills Heaven and earth, circulates through the Saints, and descends into Purgatory.  All the hearts of creatures are touched by this “I Love you”; even the elements feel New Life, and all feel Its effects.  In His breathing too, Jesus feels as though suffocating for the loss of souls.  And we will give Him our breath of love for His relief; and, taking His Breath, we will touch the souls who detach themselves from His arms in order to give them the Life of the Divine Breath, so that, instead of running away, they may return to Him, and cling more tightly to Him. 

And when we are in pain and almost feel that our breath cannot come out freely, let us think of Jesus, Who contains the breath of the creatures in His own Breath.  He too, as souls become lost, feels His breath being taken away.  So, let us place our sorrowful and labored breath in the Breath of Jesus in order to relieve Him; and let us run after the sinner with our pain, so as to force him to enclose himself in the Heart of Jesus. 

My beloved Good, may my breath be a continuous cry at every creature’s breath, forcing her to enclose herself in Your Breath. 

The first Word that Loving Jesus pronounced on the Cross was a Word of Forgiveness, to justify all souls before the Father, and turn Justice into Mercy.  And we will give Him our acts to excuse the sinner, so that, moved by our apologies, He may not allow any soul to go to hell.  We will unite with Him as sentries of the hearts of creatures, so that nobody may offend Him.  We will let Him pour out His Love, willingly accepting all that He may dispose for us—coldness, hardness, darkness, oppressions, temptations, distractions, slanders, illnesses and other things, so as to relieve Him from all that He receives from creatures.  It is not by Love alone that Jesus pours Himself out to souls, but many times, when He feels the coldness of creatures, He goes to the soul and makes her feel His cold, to release Himself through her.  And if the soul accepts it, Jesus will feel relieved from all the coldness of creatures, and this cold will be the sentry to someone else’s heart, to make Loving Jesus loved. 

Other times, Jesus feels the hardness of hearts in His own, and unable to contain it, He wants to pour Himself out, and comes to us.  He touches our heart with His Heart, making us share in His pain.  And we, making His pain our own, will place it around the heart of the sinner in order to melt his hardness, and take him back to Him.

My beloved Good, You suffer greatly for the loss of souls, and out of compassion, I place my being at Your disposal.  I will take Your pains and the pains of the sinners upon myself, leaving You relieved, and the sinner clinging to You.

O my Jesus, O please, let my whole being be melted in love, so that I may be of continuous relief to soothe all Your bitternesses.

 (Click here for The Hours of the Passion) 

Jesus promptly departs from His Mother, although His Most Tender Heart undergoes a shock.

Are we ready to sacrifice even the most legitimate and holy affections in order to fulfill the Divine Volition? (Let us examine ourselves especially in the cases of separation from the sense of the Divine Presence or from sensible devotion).

Jesus did not take His last steps in vain.  In them, He glorified the Father and asked for the salvation of souls.  We must place in our steps the same intentions that Jesus placed—that is, to sacrifice ourselves for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls.  We must also imagine placing our steps in those of Jesus Christ; and as Jesus Christ did not make them in vain, but enclosed in His steps all those of the creatures, repairing for all their missteps, to give the glory due to the Father, and Life to all the missteps of creatures so that they might walk along the path of good—so we should do it in the same way, placing our steps in those of Jesus Christ with His own Intentions.

Do we walk on the street modest and composed, so as to be an example for others?  As the afflicted Jesus walked, He talked to the apostles every once in a while, speaking to them about His imminent Passion.  What do we say in our conversations?  When the opportunity arises, do we make the Passion of the Divine Redeemer the object of our conversations?

In seeing the apostles sad and discouraged, Loving Jesus tried to comfort them.  Do we place in our conversations the intention of relieving Jesus Christ?  Do we try to do them in the Will of God, infusing in others the Spirit of Jesus Christ?  Jesus goes to the cenacle.  We must enclose our thoughts, affections, heartbeats, prayers, actions, food and work in the Heart of Jesus Christ in the act of operating; and by doing this, our actions will acquire the Divine Attitude.  However, since it is difficult to always keep this Divine Attitude, because it is hard for the soul to fuse her acts continuously in Him, the soul can compensate with the attitude of her good will, and Jesus will be very pleased.  (See May 27, 1922 from Volume 14 below) He will become the vigilant Sentry of her every thought, of her every word and of her every heartbeat.  He will place these acts as cortege inside and outside Himself, looking at them with great Love, as the fruit of the good will of the creature.  Then when the soul, fusing herself in Him, does her immediate acts with Jesus, Good Jesus will feel so attracted toward that soul that He will do what she does together with her, transmuting the work of the creature into Divine Work.  All this is the effect of the Goodness of God, which takes everything into account and rewards everything, even a tiny act in the Will of God, so that the creature may not be defrauded of anything.

O my Life and my All, may Your steps direct mine, and as I tread the earth, let my thoughts be in Heaven! 

***

Book of Heaven
Volume 14; May 27, 1922

The prevenient act and the actual act.

I was thinking to myself: “If one act done in His Will is so great, how many of them, alas, do I let escape!’ And my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, there is the prevenient act and the actual act. The prevenient act is when the soul, at the first rising of the day, fixes her will in Mine, and decides and confirms that she wants to live and operate only in my Volition. She anticipates all of her acts and makes them all flow in my Will. With the prevenient will, my Sun rises, my Life remains duplicated in all of her acts, as though in one single act; and this makes up for the actual act. However, the prevenient act can be shaded – obscured by the human ways, by one’s own will, by self-esteem, by negligence and other things, which are like clouds before the Sun, that render its light less vivid on the face of the earth.

On the other hand, the actual act is not subject to clouds; on the contrary, it has the virtue of dispelling the clouds, if there are any, and it makes many more suns rise, in which my Life is duplicated, with such vividness of light and heat as to form as many new suns, one more beautiful than the other. However, both of them are necessary: the prevenient act gives the hand, disposes and forms the plane for the actual act; the actual act preserves and expands the plane of the prevenient.”