Rays of hope…

Well, who doesn’t need messages of hope these days? Here is a passage from the Volumes and a recommended podcast that were a balm to my weary heart.

Whatever passes, God surpasses! Take that! Fiat!

Volume 6, October 24, 1905
The miseries of the human nature serve to reorder in it the order of all virtues.

While considering my misery, the weakness of human nature, I felt I was an object so very abominable to myself, and I imagined how much more abominable I am before God; and I said to myself:  ‘Lord, how ugly the human nature has become.’  Now, coming for just a little, He told me:  “Nothing has come out of my hands which is not good; on the contrary, I created the human nature beautiful and striking, and if the soul sees it as muddy, rotten, weak, abominable, this serves the human nature like manure serves the earth.  One who does not understand what it is all about, would say:  ‘This one is crazy, for he smears the earth with this filth’; while one who understands, knows that that filth serves to fecundate the earth, to make the plants grow, and to render the fruits more beautiful and tasty.  So, I created the human nature with these miseries to reorder in it the order of all virtues; otherwise it would remain without the exercise of true virtues.”  Then I saw in my mind the human nature as though full of holes, and in these holes there was rot, mud; and from within them branches loaded with flowers and fruits were coming out.  So I comprehended that everything is in the use we make, even of miseries themselves. (Luisa Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 6, October 24, 1905)

I am really enjoying Volume 6 and this passage really surprised and delighted me. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Fiat!

If you can, please listen to Fr. Iannuzzi’s podcast from October 6, 2018. Even if you find the theology a bit sticky in places, stay the course and you will be uplifted. God be praised!

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Yeshua…

You may recall me highlighting Harpa Dei’s beautiful chant for Advent. They have just put up this piece that gloriously repeats the name of Jesus, in Hebrew, 1000 times, as prayer for the soul of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. It breathes Divine Will. Fiat!

Here is their introduction followed by the link:

Pope Benedict died on 31 December with these words: “Jesus, I love you”. In the Catholic Church there is a tradition of reciting the Name of Jesus 1,000 times on May 3rd, the Feast of the Invention (Finding) of the Cross. Today, when we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, we want to adopt this tradition by chanting “Yeshua” (Jesus in Hebrew) 1,000 times. With this act, we want to accompany Pope Benedict XVI and also invite you to sing with us for him, so that he may soon be able to behold God in all His glory, as he so longed for. At the same time, we also offer it as thanksgiving for all that he did for the Lord and for the Church.

New Year’s Resolution 2023: “Never get annoyed about anything…”

To be honest, I don’t have a good track record with New Year’s Resolutions and gave up making them long ago. However, these two passages from Volume 6 of the Book of Heaven pierce to the bone. They go far beyond the “low world” stuff of trendy resolutions that focus on the self. In the Divine Will, our focus is not on the self, for we are nothing and how do you focus on nothing? No, our focus is on the All. Dying to self is a cross we take up daily, not just once a year. And these stunning passages contain straightforward teachings on what we need to purge once and for all (pun intended).

Volume 6, July 22, 1905
God does not look at the work, but at the intensity of love in working.

I was feeling annoyed for being unable to make certain mortifications, as it seemed to me that the Lord abhorred me, and therefore He would not permit me to do them.  And blessed Jesus came and told me:  “My daughter, one who really loves Me never gets annoyed about anything, but tries to convert all things into love.  For what reason did you want to mortify yourself?  Certainly for love of Me.  And I say to you:  ‘For love of Me mortify yourself, and for love of Me take the reliefs; and both one and the other will have the same weight before Me.’  The weight of any action, be it even an indifferent one, increases according to the dose of love it contains, because I do not look at the work, but at the intensity of love that the working contains.  Therefore I want no annoyance in you, but always peace; because in annoyances, in disturbances, it is always the love of self that wants to come out to reign, or the enemy to do harm.” (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 6, July 22, 1905)

Volume 6, August 9, 1905
Effects of peace and of disturbance.

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.” (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 6, August 9, 1905)

If I may be so bold as to lump us all into the same fallen human condition, almost everyone is annoyed these days, ourselves included. But keep in mind that we are all being sifted like wheat. We need to stay in our nothingness and not get sucked into the controversies and disturbances that surround us. We should write this on the bathroom mirror: The soul who is disturbed drips with darkness, which forms the diabolical ornament.

This low world is passing away. Our only safety is our nothingness and the Church. One of the main dangers of our age is not outside the Church but within it. It is those seeking to undermine the primacy of Pope Francis, and they are getting louder. Like him or not, agree with him or not, Pope Francis is God’s anointed. Fr. Iannuzzi addresses this in his September 8, 2018 podcast (48:40 and following), at a time when these dissenting voices were just starting to grow bolder. He says bluntly that it is “dangerous” to listen to them and gives the reasons why. I strongly encourage you to listen to at least that section, although the first 48 minutes of the podcast are equally important as he  details the status of the writings of Luisa (as of that date).

I also encourage you to listen to this homily by Fr. Matthias of the Franciscans of the Immaculate titled, “Francis an Antipope?“

But I don’t want to end on a low note; Luisa’s writings are nothing if not hopeful. To pull us out of the “low world” as Jesus calls it, I want to leave you with a favorite passage of mine from Volume 30:

Volume 30, January 3, 1932
Certainty of the Coming of the Kingdom of the Divine Will upon earth.  How all difficulties will melt like snow before a burning Sun.  The human will is the dark room of the creature.

My abandonment continues in the Divine Fiat, but I felt worried by the thought:  “How will this Kingdom of the Divine Will ever be able to come?  Sin abounds, evils get worse, it seems to me that the creatures are not disposed to receive such a Great Good; so much so, that there is not a soul, as good as they may be, who truly wants to occupy himself with making known what regards the Divine Will.  If God does not Operate a Prodigy of His Omnipotence, the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat may be in Heaven, but as for the earth, it is useless to think about it.” 

But while I was thinking of this and other things, my beloved Jesus, making His usual visit to my soul, told me:  “My daughter, everything is possible for Us.  The impossibilities, the difficulties, the insurmountable obstacles of creatures melt before Our Supreme Majesty like snow in front of a burning Sun.  Everything is in whether We want it; all the rest is nothing.  Did the same not happen in Redemption?  Sin abounded more than ever; only a small group of people was awaiting the Messiah, and in the midst of this group, how many hypocrisies, how many sins of all kinds—they were often idolatrous.  But it was decreed that I was to come upon earth.  In the face of Our Decrees, all evils cannot prevent what We want to do.  We are glorified more by one Act alone of Our Will than We are offended by all the evils and sins committed by creatures, because Our Act of the Will is Divine and Immense, and in its Immensity it embraces all eternity, all centuries, it extends to all.  Therefore, it is not of Our Infinite Wisdom not to give Life to even just one Act of Our Will because of the evils of creatures.  We place Ourselves on Our Divine Side, and We do what We have to do; and the creatures We leave by their human side; and acting as Sovereigns, We Lord it over everything and everyone, even over evil, and We put out Our Decrees.

“Now, just as My Coming upon earth was Our Decree, so is Our Decree the Kingdom of Our Will upon earth; even more, it can be said that one and the other are one single Decree, and having carried out the First Act of this Decree, We are to carry out the Second.  It is true that We pace Ourselves according to the good disposition of the creatures in order to give the great Good that an Act of Our Will can produce, and therefore at most We take time, and We make Our Way in the midst of their evils in order to dispose them.  It is true that the times are sad; the peoples themselves are tired, they see all the ways closed to them, they can find no way out even for the necessary natural means; the oppressions, the demands of the leaders are unbearable—just penalty, since they have elected as leaders godless men, of evil life, without a just right to be leaders, who deserved a prison more than the right of regime.  Many thrones and empires have been overthrown, and those few that are left are all vacillating and about to be overthrown.  So, the earth will remain almost without kings, in the hands of iniquitous men. 

[…]

“But this does not prevent the Kingdom of My Supreme Fiat from coming; this is all creature’s stuff, of the low world, that My Power knocks down and disperses whenever it wants, and it makes the most serene Sky and the most refulgent Sun arise from the storm.  On the other hand, the Kingdom of My Divine Will is from on high, from the Heavens, formed and decreed in the midst of the Divine Persons—no one can touch It or disperse It.  First We will deal about It with one creature alone, forming the First Kingdom in her; then with few; and then, making use of Our Omnipotence, We will divulge It everywhere.  Be certain, do not worry because evils get worse; Our Power, Our Winning Love that has the virtue of always Winning, Our Will that can do everything and, with Invincible Patience, knows how to wait even for centuries—but what It wants and has to do is worth more than all the evils of creatures—in the face of Its Invincible Power and Its Infinite Value, their evils will be like little drops of water, like many trifles that will serve for the Triumph of Our Love and for the greater Glory of Our Fulfilled Will.  (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 30, January 3, 1932)

The Lord is near dear friends! May His kingdom come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Fiat!

Prince of Peace…

Blessed Christmas in the Divine Will, dear brothers and sisters!

In the Divine Will, every day is Christmas. But in the human will, sometimes even Christmas isn’t Christmas. Sometimes family celebrations are a source of dread, heartache, and pain. This is not the kind of Christmas God wants for any of us.

There are many passages in the Volumes that can help us to maintain our peace in the Divine Will, not just on Christmas, but every moment. I find that just reading them re-calibrates my spiritual compass to True North, the Divine Will. Here is one such passage, with links to two other blog posts that may help your compass to remain firmly oriented to True North.

With the Love of Jesus, Mary, Luisa, and St. Joseph, I wish you and yours the perennial Peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Fiat!

Volume 6, May 23, 1905
In order not to feel disturbance the soul must found herself well in God.

This morning I found myself outside of myself and I felt someone in my arms, with his head leaning on my shoulder.  I could not manage to see who he was, so I pulled him by force, saying to him:  ‘Tell me at least who you are.’  And He:  “I am the All.”  On hearing Him say He was the All, I said:  ‘And I am the nothing.  See Lord, how right I am that this nothing must remain united with the All, otherwise it will be like a handful of dust which the wind scatters away.’  In the meantime I saw someone who was doubtful, and was saying:  “How is it that for every slightest thing, one feels so much disturbance?”  And I, through a light that came from blessed Jesus, said:  ‘In order not to feel disturbance, the soul must found herself well in God, tend to God with all of herself as though to one single point, and look at the other things with indifferent eyes.  But if she does otherwise, in everything she does, sees or hears, she will feel her soul invested with a disquiet, like those slow fevers that make the soul all worn-out, disturbed, unable, herself, to make head or tail of anything.” (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 6, May 23, 1905)

Blog post: Let Nothing Disturb You

Blog post: Docility, Passions, and Peace

Luisa’s Christmas Novena…

Blessings in the Divine Will dear friends.

If you want to participate in Luisa’s Christmas Novena online, Divine Will Era YouTube Channel will be running it starting this evening. The Novena will be led by Larry, a secular Carmelite and spiritual director with decades of experience with Divine Will spirituality. If you can’t catch it live, it will continue to be available on the Divine Will Era site for your convenience and edification. God be praised that we can pray this together wherever and whenever we are able, all in God’s eternal now!

And on December 23, Divine Will Era will be hosting their second annual Christmas Party live with appearances from Fr. Dr. Iannuzzi, Peter from Mary’s Hill, Bob from Elijah’s Cloak, Queen of Light Cenacle, Martha’s Fiancé, and viewers from their homes. I will be sharing a Christmas miracle that happened to me 20 years ago. This event will also be available on the channel after the event.

TIMES: All stated times are EST (Eastern Standard Time). If you click the “Notify me” button for each event it will adjust to your time zone, but you may have to be subscribed for this to work. Or you can use a time zone converter like this one: https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter.

He is near dear friends! Alleluia!

The Era of Peace…

God’s abundant blessings upon you dear friends as we anticipate the imminent glorious celebration of Christmas!

This is going to be a short blog post as I just want to highlight some edifying podcasts from Fr. Iannuzzi. I’m really loving those older podcasts of his. Today I want to feature the August 4, 2018 podcast on Radio Maria in which, among other things, he describes the characteristics of the Era of Peace, what it is, and what it isn’t, based on Scripture, the writings of the Church Fathers and approved mystics including, of course, Luisa.

Don’t miss this one! And he said he’d continue in the August 11, 2018 podcast, which I have not yet listened to but do not hesitate to recommend anyway!

God bless you dear friends! The Lord is near and coming! Fiat!

Divine Will Cornucopia…

Photo by Jill Wellington: https://www.pexels.com/photo/flowers-and-fruits-on-a-table-5832735/

In the Divine Will, every day is Thanksgiving. Below is a cornucopia of podcasts that recently set a rich table for my soul.

Our first course…The two quotes that follow are from a very rich video where Fr. Iannuzzi speaks to some Australians including two priests: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NYSfuuCtrI5PV83jtT1hclpnXXTJYIr8/view

This quote is from the 1:06:00 mark, on prayers and devotions in the Divine Will:

“All the devotions you’ve been taught since you  were a child, were pre-ordained by God. All the good devotions…rosary…chaplet of Divine Mercy, stations of the Cross, personal pious prayers, all these are good, don’t stop them! I’ve heard people say wrongly, ‘when you learn of Divine Will, stop all your devotions.’ That is wrong! The Divine Will does not burn bridges. When Jesus came, Who lived in the Divine Will, what did he say about the old Law? I did not come to undo the old law. I came to perfect it.  So Jesus didn’t do away with the Law, he perfected it. Same thing with the Divine Will that reigns in Christ and reigns in us. We perfect all these old devotions, we don’t get rid of them, including the petitions we did, the prayers we did before we learned about the Divine Will. So now we can do the rosary in a trans-temporal manner. Now the rosary doesn’t just impact my family, my loved ones, it impacts Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Joseph, the Old Testament, all the future people not yet conceived, the angels, the saints, the souls in purgatory. Same with the Chaplet of Mercy. Same with the Mass. Everything now becomes eternal. So we don’t have to really just create prayers that say Divine Will necessarily. We can use the existing prayers and introduce to it this one eternal act of God’s Divine Will in everything we think, say, and do.”

This excerpt begins at the 1:15:26 mark, on saving souls:

“So even though Christ took upon himself all the suffering of mankind, we have to participate in that ongoing suffering to become worthy of our Spouse, and in the process, it does two things. We become sanctified and we save souls from hell. The Virgin Mary opened up the ground in 1917 before Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia. She said, See these damned souls in hell? Many are here because there are not enough souls to pray and make sacrifices for them. Which suggests that our sufferings, our sacrifices not only perfect us but save souls from hell. So this is why we also suffer on earth.”

In our second course, we present the November 27, 2022 podcast of Mother Gabrielle Marie and The Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will audio on Fiat Radio. Their podcasts are always edifying, insightful, and delightful.

Our third course serves up a rich and meaty discussion between Sister Francesca of the Benedictine Daughters of the Divine Will, Ken Johnston, and Peter DePalma on the In His Sign radio program. Go to the November 30, 2022 podcast at https://fiatradio.org/what-the-world-needs-now-live-radio-program/

To round up the feast, from the archives of Fr. Iannuzzi’s podcasts on Radio Maria we are present the July 7, 2018 podcast where he explains the steps through which his doctoral dissertation had to move to attain the high level of Church approbation it enjoys, and why this helps us to have confidence in the writings of Luisa. He goes on to speak about the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in the writings of Luisa.

The beauty of partaking in a Divine Will feast is that there are endless voids to be filled with the delicacies our Lord serves up. We are never uncomfortably full, but always have room for more!

God of all goodness, I love you and I thank you with your own Divine Will for the unimaginable riches you continuously lavish on us! All glory and praise to you, Lord of glory and love!

Reparation, Voids, and Kintsugi…

Blessings in the Divine Will dear friends. Recently a reader asked a question about praying for a relative who was not Christian and had no intention of ever being one. She wondered if she should increase her prayers for this soul.  Don’t we all wonder that? The answer is, sort of. In the Divine Will, we don’t increase the quantity of our prayers, but the quality by praying the in a Divine way as Jesus teaches us through Luisa.

Along with her question, this friend also sent me the answer in the following passage from Volume 11, October 20, 1916:

[Luisa:] I was fusing myself in the Divine Will and the thought came to me of commending to It various people in a special way; and blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, specificity goes by itself [follows] even if you should not place any intention. In the order of Grace it happens as in the natural order: the sun gives light to all, yet not everyone enjoys the same effects; however, this is not because of the sun, but because of creatures. […]

Then He added: “My daughter, I love the creature so much, that I Myself have placed Myself as sentry of each heart to watch them, to defend them and to work their sanctification with my own hands. But to how many bitternesses do they not subject Me? Some reject Me, some do not care about Me and despise Me, some lament about my surveillance, some slam the door in my face, rendering my work useless.  And I not only placed Myself to act as sentry, but on purpose do I choose the souls who live of my Will. In fact, since they are present in all of Me, I place them with Me as a second sentry of each heart. These second sentries console Me, repay Me for them [the souls who do not care about God], and keep Me company in the loneliness into which many hearts force Me; and they force Me not to leave them [the souls who do not care about God]. Greater grace I could not give to creatures [the souls who do not care about God], by giving them these souls who live of my Will, who are the portent of portents.”

The Lord is making ten points in this passage: 

If we 1) live in His Will, we 2) are present in all of Him in all times and places with access to all souls of all time. He 3) places us as second sentries with Him in order to 4) console Him for the souls who do not care about Him, 5) repay or make reparation to Him for them, and 6) keep Him company in the loneliness into which many hearts that do not care about Him force Him. 7) In doing this we “force” Him not to leave those souls. 8) Greater grace God could not give the souls who do not care about Him, than to give them these souls who 9) live of His Will, which is the only thing he has ever asked us to do. 10) If we do so He does all the rest and we become the portent of portents, which is as great a prodigy as any!

But this passage is not primarily about us. Neither is it about that broken soul. The subject of this passage is God Himself. To be clear, it is not wrong to pray for a single soul, but by living in the Divine Will and doing our acts and rounds in It, with the sole intention to love God, console Him, make reparation to Him for all souls of all time, and keep Him company in his loneliness, He makes us true and necessary participants in the salvation of these souls, conduits of His extreme, merciful love and grace. And we feel nothing at all, because it is ALL HIM!

So, when we are worried about a relative or friend, let it serve as a reminder to offer consolation to Our Lord for all those who do not care about Him. He will take our prayers and multiply them to the infinite, doing unimaginable good to all souls of all time.

As I was mulling over this blog post, the Holy Spirit reminded me of something I learned about years ago, the ancient Japanese art called Kintsugi, where broken pottery is pieced back together and repaired with gold. It really is a beautiful representation of what God is doing for all the broken souls of all time through the unimaginable Gift of Living in the Divine Will. Our acts, rounds, and reparations in the Divine Will are the gold God uses to put the soul back together, to fill in the voids in the soul. It is stunning to contemplate! Just Google the word Kintsugi and see what souls can become when we cooperate with God in the Divine Will. Glorious! Fiat!

(Photo by Riho Kitagawa on Unsplash)

I have been listening to a few of Fr. Iannuzzi’s archived podcasts from 2018 (the earliest ones listed in the Radio Maria Archive). For a wonderful teaching on the “voids”, please listen to the podcast by Fr. Iannuzzi dated June 9, 2018. Then, in the June 16, 2018 podcast, he gives an important teaching on reparation, especially through meditation on the Hours of the Passion. Both are powerful. Here is a passage from the Volumes that mentions both voids and reparation.

Volume 6, December 22, 1903

He disappeared, but after a little while He came back in the act of His Passion when He was covered with opprobriums, with ignominies, with spit – and I said to Him: ‘Lord, teach me what I could do to move these opprobriums away from You, and give You back honors, praises and adorations.’  And He said to me:  “My daughter, around my throne there is a void, and this void must be filled with the glory that Creation owes Me.  So, one who sees Me despised by the other creatures, and honors Me, not only for herself, but for others, makes honors for Me arise again in this void.  When she sees Me unloved, and loves Me, she makes love for Me arise again.  When she sees that I fill creatures with benefits, while they are not grateful to Me and do not even thank Me, and she is grateful to Me as if those benefits were given to her, and she thanks Me, she makes the flower of gratitude and of thanksgiving arise again for Me in this void; and so with all the rest that Creation owes Me, but denies to Me with awful ingratitude.  Now, since all this is an overflow of the charity of the soul, who gives Me not only what she herself owes Me and what overflows from herself, but she does it for others – since this glory and these flowers that she sends to Me into this void around my throne are the fruit of charity, they receive a more beautiful shade, which is pleasing to Me.” (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 6, December 22, 1903)

Here is a selection of prayers of reparation that I came across recently. But if you’re short of time, just pray from the heart, e.g., “Father, I’m so sorry this is happening to You! I love you and repair you for all in the name of all. Save souls!”

Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

From the Sixth Hour:

Luisa: And now, O my Jesus, let my poor heart draw life from your Heart, that I may live only with your Heart; and in each offense You will receive, let me be ever ready to offer You a relief, a comfort, a reparation, an act of love, never interrupted.

Reflection by St. Anibale di Francia:

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. I intend to give You life with your own acts. Then, O 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 which 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.

Gethsemane…

Dear friends, fair warning: you may find this blog post challenging. Ponder and pray as you read. May God’s Will alone be done.

For the first 13 years of our marriage, my husband and I, with our growing family, moved every year or two to a new small town, every move marking an advancement in his career. Whenever a move was announced, I checked the phone book (no internet back then) to see if there was a Catholic church in our new location. If there wasn’t, I checked neighboring towns to see how far I would have to drive on Sundays. I came to appreciate the blessing that a Catholic church is to a town—it certainly was to me!

I counted that church a blessing even if it was a small, humble, mission church, if the hymns were led by someone who was trying their best with no musician, if there was little opportunity to talk to the priest, if confession was not offered on site because the priest had to rush in and rush out to get to his other missions, if there was never adoration.

No matter what it was like—or unlike—it was still a blessing because it was still God’s House. Jesus was there in the Eucharist just at truly as he was in the humble home of Nazareth.

I live in a city now, churches galore! I know how tempting it is to seek for a parish that has a holy priest with stirring homilies, that has vibrant liturgies, that represents my vision of parish life. Driving a few blocks further is no trouble at all, I’ve noticed. But given my past experience and my current studies on the writings of Luisa, I have had to ask myself, is where I worship my choice, or is it God’s?

Who doesn’t love the story of little Zaccheus the rich but despised tax collector who climbed a tree to get a better look at Jesus as he passed by. To his amazement, Jesus stopped under the tree and looked up at him. Did he say, “Zaccheus, meet me at the Temple at 5:00 and we’ll talk about your sinful life”? On the contrary! Scripture tells us: “When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’” (Luke 19:5)

Jesus never avoided sinners, including us. Jesus wants us to come down so he can stay in our house, the lowly manger of our soul. And what about us, do we want to stay in his House? Or when it fails to measure up do we go seeking a finer one?

Whatever is lacking in some parishes, priests, homilies, parishioners, Communions, music, etc., every Catholic Church is God’s House and Jesus is truly present there in the Eucharist. Whatever may be painfully wrong there, Jesus endures it without rest, and it undeniably pains him more than it does us.

It pains him because it is His House and he is often treated as an unwelcome interloper. He scours the pews for anyone who might be able to offer reparation—particularly in the Divine Will. He laments because he has arranged for a little child linked to Luisa to live nearby, but in seeing that they have gone elsewhere, his pain is redoubled.

This is something each of us must ponder and pray about. Every parish has a territory assigned to it by God and the Church. If you are in that territory, God has placed you in it for a reason and, I daresay, a responsibility, especially in the Divine Will.

Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with shopping for a parish that is the “right fit”. But by abandoning the nearest parish in search of the “right” parish, might we who are called to live in the Divine Will be leaving Jesus to suffer in Gethsemane alone?

In the Hours of the Passion, we begin to appreciate how much our Blessed Mother did to comfort Jesus in Gethsemane. It is stunning to read. And the Apostles? Even faithful St. John slept in the Garden and fled when things got out of hand.

What about us? Will we flee like the Apostles, or will we imitate Mary, offering Jesus comfort and relief in the Divine Will by participating in his agony in the Gethsemane of his churches, counting, with Our Mother, every bloody drop and tear, returning all to him with our I love you, I thank you, and I bless you. No one can comfort Jesus like a faithful soul who lives in the Divine Will.

While we may have good reasons to abandon a parish for one further afield, it seems to me that in the Divine Will we are being called to something infinitely more radical. What has been unfolding for me recently is that if someone living in the Divine Will were to regularly attend Mass at one such parish for love of God, no matter how distasteful it might be for them, the parish would be transformed.

You may have read a post I wrote a few months back called In the Trenches, where this actually happened to someone I know, in a very dramatic way. There was a glow so bright behind the priest that she had to look away. I invite you to read the whole glorious story.

When we accept the Gift of Living in the Divine Will, we become conduits of the Lord’s transforming rays of Divine Light wherever we go, without being aware of it. Jesus wants to go to that parish, to that Mass, nestled in the lowly manger of our little l souls. Think of the joy it will give him to hear us say in that place in the name of all, “Jesus, fused into you, I desire with your own Divine desire to receive you with your own Divine receiving, united to your Humanity, your Divinity, and your Will. I love you and I thank you, Blessed Jesus, for me and for all. I offer this Communion in reparation for all that scourges you in your Church and in this parish.” (Just an example. See also prayers below.)

In the Divine Will we are called in a radical, complete way to let go of our own desires in favor of God’s, for the salvation of souls in the Church and in the world. One person living in the Divine Will in a Parish really is enough to transform it. If we desire it, he will do it. Let us give him our nothingness and let him do!

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One of the online adoration chapels I visit often is the one pictured here, located at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Niepokalanow, Poland. Once, as I was meditating and praying to Jesus with Mary in this monstrance, it occurred to me what a beautiful artistic depiction it is of someone living in the Divine Will. Read here what came to me.

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From The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 23

[Mary speaks:] With My Sorrows, I acquired the little coin to pay the debts of My children … even those of the ungrateful children … In your sufferings, in the painful encounters … never lose heart … let the Divine Will assume Its Royal Place in your pains, so that It may convert them into little coins … with which you will be able to pay the debts of your brothers –  to ransom them from the slavery of the human will, and make them enter … into the Kingdom of the Divine Will.” 

Rounds in the Divine Will, One with Luisa
foreword by Sr. Assunta

Nineteenth Hour

The soul follows Jesus, step by step, in Gethsemane, and is present during the three hours of agony in the Garden.

My Jesus, I want to relieve You by making my “I love You, I adore You, I bless You” flow in each drop of your Blood. My afflicted Jesus, You are entering into the sea of your Passion. Your steps are directed to the Garden of Gethsemane. I see that You prostrate Yourself to the ground, and You pray; but as You pray, pant, sigh, agonize and sweat Blood, everything comes before You – all pains and all sins, each of them carrying the mark of the deadly weapon of the human will that wages war against a God. Ah! yes, it is the human will that, with its weapons, puts the Divine Will into agony; it has kept It so for many centuries, and it still does. My agonizing Jesus, my poor heart cannot bear seeing You cast to the ground and wet with your own Blood; and because of this Blood, I ask You for the Kingdom of your Divine Will upon earth. Therefore, before You leave this Garden, give me your word – content this little child of Yours, and tell me that the triumph of your Divine Will will come.

“This agony of my Will is so painful, that my Humanity, which wanted to suffer it in the garden of Gethsemane, reached the point of seeking the help of my very apostles – but not even that I obtained; and the spasm was such that I sweat living blood. Feeling like succumbing under the enormous weight of the agony of my Divine Will, so long and terrible, I invoked the help of my Celestial Father, saying to Him: ‘Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass from Me’. In all the other pains of my Passion, as atrocious as they were, I never said: ‘If it is possible, let this pain pass’. On the contrary, on the cross I cried out: ‘I thirst’ – I thirst for pains…” (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 20, November 19, 1926)

The Twenty-Four Hours of The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

First Hour

[Luisa prays:] Jesus, Mama, keep me close to You; give me your love, your Will. Dart through my poor heart, hold me tightly in your arms; and together with You, O sweet Mother, I want to follow, step by step, adored Jesus, with the intention of giving Him comfort, relief, love and reparation for all.

Reflection by St. Anibale di Francia:

…If we do all this in the Will of God which contains all sweetnesses and all contentments in immense proportion, we will give to Jesus large sweet sips, so as to mitigate the poisoning which other creatures cause Him, and to console His Divine Heart.

Second Hour

[Luisa:] And now, O my Jesus, let my poor heart draw life from your Heart, that I may live only with your Heart; and in each offense You will receive, let me be ever ready to offer You a relief, a comfort, a reparation, an act of love, never interrupted.

Reflection by St. Anibale di Francia:

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. I intend to give You life with your own acts. Then, O 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 which 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.

“Those who are closest to Me are the purging souls…”

Dear friends, let the following passage spur us to take seriously the daily act of charity for the purging souls that the Holy Church presents to us from November 1-8. The requirements are described very clearly on this parish website.

Volume 4, January 16, 1901
Jesus Christ explains to (Luisa) the order of charity.

As I continued to see Him a little indignant with the world, I wanted to occupy myself with placating Him, but He distracted me by saying to me: “The charity most acceptable to Me is toward those who are closest to Me, and those who are closest to Me are the purging souls, because they are confirmed in my grace and there is no opposition between my Will and theirs. They live continuously in Me, they ardently love Me, and I am forced to see them suffer within Myself, impotent to give themselves the slightest relief on their own. Oh, how tortured my Heart is by the position of these souls, because they are not far away, but close to Me – not only close, but inside of Me! And how pleasing to my Heart one who interests himself with them. Suppose you had a mother or a sister who lived with you in a state of sorrow, incapable of helping themselves on their own, and then someone else, foreign, who lived outside of your house, also in a state of sorrows, but capable of helping himself by himself. Would you not be more pleased if someone occupied himself with relieving your mother or your sister, rather than the foreign one who can help himself on his own?” And I: ‘Certainly, O Lord!’

Then He added: “The second charity most acceptable to my Heart is for those who, though living on this earth, are almost like the purging souls – that is, they love Me, they always do my Will, they interest themselves with my things as if they were their own. Now, if these are oppressed, in need, in a state of sufferings, and someone occupies himself with relieving them and helping them, this is more pleasing to my Heart than if it were done to others.”

Then Jesus disappeared, and as I found myself inside myself, it seemed to me that those things did not go according to the truth. So, on coming back, my adorable Jesus made me understand that what He had told me was according to the truth. There was only something left to say about the members separated from Him, which are the sinners – that if one occupied himself with reuniting these members, this would be very acceptable to His Heart. The difference that exists is this: that if a sinner were oppressed, in the midst of a misfortune, and one occupied himself, not to convert him, but to relieve him and help him materially, the Lord would be more pleased if this were done for those who are in the order of grace. In fact, if these suffer, it is always a product, either of the love of God for them, or of their love for God; while if sinners suffer, the Lord sees in them the mark of guilt and of their obstinate will. This is how I seemed to understand; after all, I leave the judgment to those who have the right to judge me, whether this goes according to the truth or not. (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 4, January 16, 1901)

I was a little surprised when I first read this passage. There is much to masticate in it. The Church in her wisdom gives us a beautiful opportunity to please the Lord in our charity for the purging souls he loves so much.

In this next passage Luisa’s late confessor thanks Luisa for a certain prayer she prayed on his behalf after he passed.

Volume 12, March 14, 1919
Effects of a suffrage done in the Divine Will for a soul in purgatory

While I was in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, and I saw a late Confessor of mine. A thought flashed into my mind: ‘Ask about that thing which you have not told the Confessor, whether you are obliged to tell it and therefore write it, or not.’ I asked him, telling him what the thing was, and he said to me: ‘Of course you are obliged.’ Then he added: ‘Once you did for me a beautiful suffrage. If you knew the good you did to me, the refreshment that I felt, the years that I paid off!’ And I: ‘I don’t remember. Tell me what it was, and I will repeat it for you.’ And he: ‘You immersed yourself in the Divine Volition, and took Its Power, the immensity of Its Love, the immense value of the pains of the Son of God and of all the divine qualities. Then you came to me and poured them upon me; and as you poured them, I received the bath of the Love that the divine power contains, the bath of the Beauty, the bath of the Blood of Jesus, and of all the divine qualities. Who can tell you the good you did to me? They were all baths which contained a divine power and immensity. Repeat it for me, repeat it for me!’ (L. Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 12, March 14, 1919)

Here is the prayer extracted from original text. I think it makes a very good daily prayer, not just in November!

I immerse myself in the Divine Volition, and take Its Power, the immensity of Its Love, the immense value of the pains of the Son of God and of all the divine qualities, and pour them upon all souls from Adam to the last, and especially all the souls in purgatory, that they may receive the bath of the Love that the divine power contains, the bath of the Beauty, the bath of the Blood of Jesus, and of all the divine qualities, all baths which contain a divine power and immensity. I repeat this an infinite number of times for the love and glory of God. Amen. Fiat!

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord!