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You Need a Theology of Delayed Gratification!

This is something many of us were taught and practice and we have to remember to pass it on to the next generation.

“When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we confess a Christ without a Cross, we are no longer disciples of the Lord. We are mundane. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, everyone, but we are no longer disciples of the Lord…do not be afraid of suffering.” Pope Francis I – given at his 1st Holy Mass as Pope

“Rational natures are poised between alternatives. God moves the human spirit to good; nevertheless, it could resist. It is God’s doing, then, that a man prepares himself to receive grace. If he lacks grace, then the cause of the failure lies in him, not in God.” Saint Thomas Aquinas

You Need a Theology of Delayed Gratification!

 

By Dr. Taylor Marshall

Learn to wait and delay good things…

Did you know that there is a connection between your child waiting for the prayer of blessing before meals and his ability to avoid premarital sex?

It has to do with delayed gratification:

When we sit down at a meal, it is just and right that we first thank God and ask His blessing upon the food that we are about to enjoy. Then, and only then, do we pick up our forks and eat.

Little children are usually tempted to sneak a bite from their plates while mother is turned around getting the last dish on the table. It’s the duty of parents to stop this. The children must learn to wait. Why?

Well one day their appetites will include not only food for preservation of the human body, but they will have an intense appetite for the preservation of the human race. Will they be allowed to nibble a little bit here and there before the blessing? In case you’re not following the analogy:

hungry child > dinner blessing > fulfillment of hunger appetite

young person > matrimonial blessing > fulfillment of sexual appetite

You see if Timmy learns that he can eat before the family is assembled and father leads in the religious blessing, well then, Timmy will not likely wait to have sex until after his family is assembled at church and Father has pronounced the religious blessing on Timmy’s bride and Timmy at the altar.

Are you following this?

Delaying Good Things for Good Reasons:

And this isn’t just about family meals. It’s about everything. School, jobs, Advent, Lent, the Eucharistic fast, fish Fridays, penance, sacramental preparation, childbearing, childrearing, illness, natural death, and so on and so on.

Catholicism is the religion of delayed gratification. This life is a test run to determine our eternal gratification. If we live only to have pleasure in the now, we won’t have beatitude in the future. Christ has instituted His Catholic Church to provide us with small mini-trials every day.

The Eucharistic fast is one obvious example. Humbling one’s self in the confessional before receiving the Holy Eucharist is another. It’s learning how to do something difficult or inconvenient for some other greater good.

Let’s go back to Timmy. If Timmy learns to break the Eucharistic fast or cheat his resolutions during Lent, what will he do in other areas of life? He’ll push the boundaries, but ultimately he’ll fail because he does not understand that all success derives from delayed gratification – both temporal and eternal.

Look at all these hipsters in America. They have college degrees. They vote. They are somewhat intelligent. They even own an interesting collection of vinyl records. Yet they do not have jobs.

It’s now being reported that our college educated hipsters are becoming dependent on state subsidies. They hang out in coffee shops discussing Renoir, Radiohead, and Rousseau, but they buy their groceries with food-stamps! It looks like they’ve fallen for the hipster trap.

What’s going on here?

These young people have been raised to reject delayed gratification. They are the products of society that glorifies immediate gratification  They want meaningful jobs…right now. They want to be art gallery directors, professors, CEOs, non-profit directors, film-directors, Facebook creators, authors, actors, and poets.

What they don’t see is that it takes a helluva lot of hard work to ascend to these professions.

This is why we must realize the value of Catholicism for our culture. Catholicism, in this regard, helps us in two ways: The first way is supernatural and the second way natural, temporal, and social.

  1. First, the Catholic theology of waiting confirms that the honors and accolades of this world are vanity of vanities. The Faith is what led the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to resign his power and live his remaining days in an obscure monastery. The smaller natural pleasures of this life are not worth trading for the enormous supernatural beatitude to be attained in the next. This life itself is a prolonged wait for something better and beyond.
  2. Secondly, the theology of waiting or delayed gratification is not one of passivity. You are active and waiting. Unlike the ideology of hipsters smoking hand rolled cigarettes and complaining about those faceless stiff-shirts belonging to the “one percent,” the theology of waiting calls for sacrifice now for something better later. So if you want a meaningful job, get up off your skinny jeans and produce something. Contribute. Nobody cares about your thoughts and feelings unless they contribute to something. If you’re an artist, it may take you 20 years to actually sell something. If you can’t accept that, then don’t throw a tantrum and complain about the world. Learn a little delayed gratification. Write down your goals and realize that it takes a long time to reach important goals.

Contraception and Delay:

Contraception is the perfect example for our society’s desire for instant gratification. Contraception is the idea that you can have lots and lots of immediate pleasure (feels really awesome!) without committing to one person (a sacrificial act), and without committing to a pregnancy (a hugely sacrificial act), and without committing to raising a human person for eighteen years (an immensely sacrificial act).

Back to Timmy for one last time. From the time Timmy is born, he will be maintaining his “threshold for waiting.” He will observe the “threshold of waiting” in his parents. Do they live on a whim? Do they go into debt to have fun now? Are they penitential? Are they religious hypocrites? Then he will begin to see how the standard for the “threshold of waiting” is applied to him. Is he allowed to throw temper-tantrums when he is not immediately gratified. Will he persevere in household tasks? Will he finish homework? Will he keep the Eucharistic fast or will he sneak a cookie before Mass? Will he maintain simple customs such as not eating before the Blessing? You get the idea.

If Timmy does not learn this Catholic principle of delayed gratification, what will he become? He’ll become a contracepting hipster with a B.A. waiting for that $60,000 job to fall into his lap. Regrettably, he’ll be a nothing. Worst of all, he won’t live the abundant life that Christ promised for those who would take up their cross and follow Him.

Of course, it’s not easy to assume this theology of waiting. It is the most difficult teaching of Catholicism. As the Blessed Virgin Mary said to Saint Bernadette: “I promise to make you happy, not in this world, but in the next.” Those words terrify me. However, it is a sure promise. None of us will be perfectly happy in this life. It’s just not going to happen.

C.S. Lewis once speculated that if God gave us perfect happiness in this life, it would be unjust since we would then stop seeking after God Himself. Saint Thomas Aquinas would say it is impossible to find happiness anywhere else since our Summum Bonum is none other than God Himself.

So don’t get down in the mouth about delayed gratification. It’s delayed…not never. Life won’t be perfect. Embrace this truth. There is freedom in it. There is joy in realizing it. Here the verse that wraps it all up nicely:

“But if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” (1 Peter 4:13)

And another:

“But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

Godspeed,
Taylor R. Marshall

Aquinas. Please also explore Taylor’s books about Catholicism at amazon.com.

The post You Need a Theology of Delayed Gratification! appeared first on Taylor Marshall.

 

 

 

 

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Dedication of St. John Lateran

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Transformation in God in the Holy Divine Will

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The Patriarchs of the Old Testament and the Divine Will

FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

 V21 – April 8, 1927 – “My daughter, the greatest figures of the Old Testament, while being images that veiled the future Messiah, enclosed also the gifts, the image, and symbolized all the gifts that the children of the Supreme Fiat would possess. When he was created, Adam was the true and perfect image of the children of My Kingdom. Abraham was symbol of the privileges and the heroism of the children of My Will. And calling Abraham to a promised land flowing with milk and honey, making him the owner of that land, a land so fecund as to be enviable and aspired to by all other nations—everything was symbol of what I would do with the children of My Will.

“Jacob was another symbol of them; in fact, as the twelve tribes of Israel would descend from him, from their midst the future Redeemer was to be born, who was to bind again the Kingdom of the Divine Fiat to My children. Joseph was symbol of the dominion that the children of My Will would have; and just as he did not let many peoples—and also his ungrateful brothers—perish of starvation, so will the children of the Divine Fiat have dominion and be the ones who will not let the peoples perish that will ask for the bread of My Will from them. Moses was the image of the power; Samson, symbol of the strength of the children of My Will; David symbolized the reigning of them. All the prophets symbolized the grace, the communications, the intimacies with God that, more than they did, the children of My Divine Fiat would possess.

V28 – February 22, 1930 – “My daughter, by withdrawing from My Divine Will, man gave death to the goods that My Divine Volition would have made rise in him, had It not been rejected. As he went out, so died the continuous act of the Divine Life in man; died the sanctity that always grows, the light that always arises, the beauty that never stops, always to embellish; the untiring love that never says enough, that always—always wants to give. More so since, by his rejecting My Divine Will, died the order, the air, the food that was to nourish him continuously. See, then, how many Divine Goods man caused to die within himself by withdrawing from My Divine Will.

“Now, wherever there has been the death of good, the sacrifice of life is required in order to make the destroyed good rise again. This is why, justly and wisely, whenever I wanted to renew the world and give a good to creatures, I have requested the sacrifice of life, as I asked of Abraham the sacrifice of sacrificing to Me his only son, as indeed he carried out, and, prevented by Me, he stopped. And in that sacrifice, that cost Abraham more than his own life, the new generation rose again in which the Divine Liberator and Redeemer was to descend, who was to make the good that had died in the creature rise again. With the passing of time, I allowed the sacrifice and the great sorrow of Jacob for the death of his beloved son, Joseph; and even though he did not die, it was for him as if he had died in reality. This was the new call that made the Celestial Liberator rise again in that sacrifice, whom it called to make the lost good rise again.

“Furthermore, I Myself, by coming upon earth, wanted to die; but with the sacrifice of My death I called for the rising again of many lives, and of the good that the creature had caused to die. And I wanted to rise again in order to confirm the life for that good and the resurrection for the human family. What great crime it is to make good die—so much so, that the sacrifice of other lives is required in order to make it rise again. Now, with all My Redemption and the sacrifice of My Death, since My Divine Will does not reign, not all good has risen again in the creature. My Will is repressed and cannot carry out the sanctity It wants; good suffers from intermittency—now it rises, now it dies; and My Fiat remains with the continuous sorrow of not being able to make rise all the good It wants in the creature. And this is why I remained in the little Host as Sacrament; I departed for Heaven, but I remained on earth in the midst of creatures, to be born, live and die, though mystically, in order to make rise in them all the good that man rejected by withdrawing from My Divine Will.

“And, united to My Sacrifice, I asked for the sacrifice of your life, to make Its Kingdom rise again in the midst of the human generations. And from each tabernacle I am as though on the lookout to accomplish the complete work—Redemption and Fiat Voluntas Tua on earth as It is in Heaven—content with sacrificing Myself and dying in each Host in order to make the Sun of My Divine Fiat, the New Era, and Its full triumph, rise again. Upon departing from the earth, I said: ‘I go to Heaven, and I remain on earth in the Sacrament. I will content Myself with waiting for centuries. I know it will cost Me much—unheard-of outrages will not be lacking, maybe more than in My very Passion; but I will arm Myself with Divine Patience, and from the little Host I will accomplish the complete work: I will make My Will reign in the hearts, and will continue to remain in their midst to enjoy the fruits of so many sacrifices I have been through.’ Therefore, together with Me, be united to the sacrifice for a cause so holy, and for the just triumph that My Will may reign and dominate.”

  • Paragraph 2592 – ARTICLE 1 IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
    2592 The prayer of Abraham and Jacob is presented as a battle of faith marked
    by trust in God’s faithfulness and by certitude in the victory promised … CCC
  • Paragraph 1961 – II. The Old Law
    1961 God, our Creator and Redeemer, chose Israel for himself to be his people
    and revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of … CCC
  • Apocalypse (Revelation) 21:12 – And it had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
  • 3 Kings (1 Kings) 18:31 – And he took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying: Israel shall be thy name.

V29 – May 19, 1931 – “…I, Jesus, want to tell you, Luisa, what regards the part of creatures toward Her, (the Celestial Mother).

“My daughter, the Celestial Creature was poor, Her natural qualities were apparently common, nothing extraordinary appeared on the outside. She takes a poor artisan as Her spouse, who earns his daily bread with his humble work. Suppose that it had become known before, to the great ones of the world, to the doctors and the priests, that She was the Mother of the Word—that She was the One who was the Mother of the future Messiah; they would have waged a fierce war against Her—no one would have believed Her. They would have said: ‘Is it possible that there have not been, and that there aren’t women in Israel, such that this poor one was to be the Mother of the Eternal Word? There has been a Judith, an Esther, and many others.’ So, no one would have believed Her, and they would have placed countless doubts and difficulties. If they placed doubts on My Divine Person, not believing that I was the longed-for Messiah; and many reach the point of still not believing that I descended upon earth, in spite of the fact that I made many miracles, such as to induce the most incredulous to believe Me—ah! when hardness, obstinacy, enter into hearts, they render themselves incapable of receiving any good; the truths, the very miracles, are for them as though dead and without life—well then, much more so for the Celestial Mama, as nothing miraculous appeared in Her exterior…”

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2015/11/08/the-patriarchs-of-the-old-testament-and-the-divine-will/

Giving and Receiving opens the Conversation between Creator and Creature

FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

V23 – January 6, 1928 – “My daughter, in creating the whole Creation with such order and harmony, We gave of Our own and were to receive nothing from It. But, in creating man, while giving of Our own, We gave him the capacity to give Us Our very gifts as goods belonging to himself, in such a way that We were to give always; so much so, that a contest was to arise between him and Us—We, in giving, and he, in receiving; he, in giving to Us, and We, in lavishing Our gifts yet more abundantly upon him.

This giving and receiving, receiving and giving, opened the feasts, the games, the joys, the conversation between Creator and creature. So, in seeing the littleness of the creature celebrate with Our Supreme Height, amusing itself, rejoicing, conversing with Us, We felt such joy, such emphasis of love in creating man, that all other created things seemed nothing to Us compared to the Creation of man. And if all of them seemed beautiful to Us and worthy of Our works, and Our Love ran in all created things, it was because they were to serve Us to abound in gifts toward man, and from him We awaited the requital of love of all created things.

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Promises of God

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The Power in Thanking God

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God’s Currents of Love were to Run in man

Trinity_lightenedFROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

V14 – November 20, 1922 – I was thinking of how My sweet Jesus suffered many pains when He was in the Garden – but not on the part of creatures, since He was alone, or rather, abandoned by all, but on the part of His Eternal Father. There were Currents of Love between Him and the Celestial Father, and in these Currents all creatures were placed. In these Currents there was all the Love of a God for each one of them, and all the Love that each of them owed God. And since this was missing, He arrived at suffering such pains as to surpass all other pains, to the point of sweating Living Blood. And My sweet Jesus, pressing me to His Heart to be relieved, told me: “My daughter, the pains of Love are the most excruciating. See, in these Currents of Love between Me and My Father there is all the Love that all creatures owed Me, and therefore there is betrayed Love, denied Love, rejected Love, unknown Love, trampled Love, etc. Oh, how piercingly it reaches My Heart, to the point that I feel I AM dying!

You Must Know that in creating man I fixed many Currents of Love between Me and him. Having Created him was not enough for Me, no; I was to place so many Currents of Love between Myself and him that there was to be not one part of him in which these Currents would not Flow. Therefore in the intelligence of man ran the Current of Love of My Wisdom; in his eyes ran the Current of Love of My Light; in his mouth, the Current of Love of My Word; in his hands, the Current of Love of the Sanctity of My Works; in his will, the Current of Love of Mine; and so with all the rest. Man was made to be in Continuous Communications with His Creator; and how could he be in Communication with Me if My Currents would not run in his?

With sin he broke all these Currents, and remained separated from Me. Do you know how this happened? Look at the sun: all of its light hits the surface of the earth and invests it so much as to make it feel its heat, so alive and real as to bring fecundity and life to everything which the earth produces. So, one can say that the sun and the earth are in communication with each other. Oh, how much tighter are the communications between man and Myself, True Eternal Sun!

Now, if a creature could have the power to break, between the earth and the sun, the current of light that hits the surface of it, what harm would he not do? The sun would withdraw all the current of light into itself; the earth would remain in the dark, without fecundity and without life. What penalty would he not deserve? Man did all this in Creation, and I Descended from Heaven to earth in order to reunite all these Currents of Love, but – oh, how much it cost Me! And man continues with his ingratitude, and returns to break the Currents Repaired by Me!”

 

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2015/11/04/gods-currents-of-love-were-to-run-in-man/

Helping the Souls in Purgatory

Purgatory_MassLUISA DESCENDS TO PURGATORY TO SUFFER  PAINS IN ORDER TO FREE A SOUL AND RELIEVE A SOUL THERE

FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

V3 – November 28, 1899 – “Here is Purgatory, and many souls are crammed in this fire.  You will go to this place to suffer in order to free the souls I choose, and you will do this for love of Me.”

Though trembling a little, immediately I said to Him:  ‘Everything for love of You, I am ready, but You must come with me, otherwise, if You leave me, You do not let Yourself be found any more, and then You make me cry quite a bit.’  And He:  “If I come with you, what would be your Purgatory?  With my presence, those pains would change into joys and contentments for you.”  And I:  ‘I do not want to go alone, but as we go into that fire, You will remain behind my shoulders, so I will not see You, and I will accept this suffering.’

So I went into that place filled with thick darkness, and He followed me from behind.  For fear that He might leave me, I grabbed His hands, holding them tightly upon my shoulders.  As I arrived down there… who can describe the pains that those souls suffered?  They are certainly unutterable for people clothed with human flesh.  But as I entered that fire, it would be destroyed, and the darkness would be dispelled, and many souls would come out, and others would be relieved.

V3 – August 30, 1900 – “…the Queen Mama said to me (Luisa):  “Do you want to come to Purgatory to relieve the king (king of Italy) of the horrible pains he is in?”  And I:  ‘My Mama, as He wants.’  In an instant She took me, and flying She transported me into a place of atrocious torments, all mortal; and that miserable one was there, going from one torment to another.  It seemed that for as many souls as had been lost because of him, so many deaths was he supposed to suffer.  Then, after I went through several of those torments myself, he was relieved a little bit.  Again, the Queen Mama took me away from that place of pains, and I found myself inside myself.

LUISA’S PARENTS AND PURGATORY

V7 – May 9, 1907Now, since I do not remember everything distinctly, I will tell of the past, all together and confusedly, starting from where I left when I was praying that He would take my mother to Paradise without her touching Purgatory. Then, on March 19, the day dedicated to Saint Joseph, in the morning, while I was in my usual state, my mother passed from this life into the sphere of eternity; and blessed Jesus, allowing me to see her as He was taking her, told me: “My daughter, the Creator takes his creature.”

At that moment, I felt I was being invested, inside and out, with a fire so alive that I felt my bowels, my stomach and all the rest burning; and if I would have something, it would convert into fire, and I would be forced to bring it up immediately after I had swallowed it. This fire consumed me and kept me alive. Oh, how I understood the devouring fire of Purgatory which, while consuming the soul, gives her life! The fire does the office of food, of water, of death and of life; but I was happy in that state. However, since I had only seen that Jesus had taken her, but He had not showed me where He had taken her, my happiness was not full, and from my very sufferings I would draw concern, since those would be the sufferings of my mother if she was in Purgatory. And seeing blessed Jesus, who in these days has almost never left me, I would cry and say to Him: ‘My sweet love, tell me – where did You take her? I am content that You have taken her away from us, because You keep her with Yourself; but if You do not have her with Yourself, this I do not tolerate, and I will cry so much until You content me.’ And He seemed to enjoy my crying; He would embrace me, He would sustain me, He would dry my tears, and would say to me: “My daughter, do not fear, calm yourself; and once you have calmed yourself I will let you see her, and you will be very pleased. Besides, you can have the certainty that I have contented you from the fire that you feel.”

But I would continue to cry, especially when I would see Him, since I felt in my interior that something was still lacking to the beatitude of my mother; so much so, that the people who surrounded me, who had come because of the death of my mother, in seeing me cry so much, thinking that I was crying because of the death of my mother, were almost scandalized, thinking that I had moved away from the Divine Will, when, more than ever, I was swimming in this sphere of the Divine Will. But I do not appeal to any human tribunal, because it is false – only to the divine, which is full of truth. And good Jesus was not condemning me; on the contrary, He would compassionate me, and in order to sustain me, He would come more often, almost giving me a reason to cry more, because if He would not come, with whom was I to cry to impetrate what I wanted? The people were right because they judged from the outside; and then, after all, since I am so very cattiva [bad], it is no wonder that the others would be scandalized by me.

Then, after quite a few days, as good Jesus came, He told me: “My daughter, be consoled, for I want to tell you and show you where your mother is. Since before and after she passed away, you have suffered continuously that which I earned, did and endured for her good in the course of my life, she partakes in what I did and enjoys my Humanity. Only the Divinity is concealed from her, but It will shortly be unveiled to her as well, and the fire you feel, and your prayers, have served to exempt her from any other pain of senses, which all must have, because my justice, receiving satisfaction from you, could not take it from both.” At that moment, I seemed to see my mother within an immensity which had no boundaries, and in it there were many delights and joys – for as many words, thoughts, sighs, works, sufferings, heartbeats…; in sum, for everything that the Most Holy Humanity of Jesus Christ contained. I understood that It is a second Paradise for the Blessed, and in order to enter the Paradise of the Divinity, all must pass through this Paradise of the Humanity of Christ. Therefore, the fact of having touched no other purgatory had been a most singular privilege for my mother, reserved for very few. However, I understood that even though she was not amid torments, but rather, amid delights, her happiness was not perfect, but almost halved.

I continue by saying that only about ten days had passed from the death of my mother, when my father fell gravely ill, and the Lord made me understood that he too would die. I gave him to Him as a gift in advance, and I repeated the same pleas which I made for my mother – that He should not let him touch Purgatory. But the Lord showed Himself more reluctant, and would not listen to me. I feared greatly, not for his salvation, because good Jesus had made me a solemn promise almost fifteen years before that, of my family and of those who belong to me, no one would be lost; but I feared very much about Purgatory. I kept praying, but good Jesus would hardly come. Only on the day my father died, that is, after about fifteen days of illness, did blessed Jesus make Himself seen, all benign, clothed in white, as if He were in feast, and He told me: “Today I AM waiting for your father, and for love of you I will let Myself be found, not as a judge, but as a benign father. I will welcome him in my arms.” I insisted about Purgatory, but He did not listen to me, and He disappeared. After my father died, I did not have any new suffering as had happened with my mother, and from this I understood that he had gone to Purgatory. I prayed and prayed again, but Jesus would make Himself seen flashing by, without giving me time; and what’s more, I could not even cry because I had no one with whom to cry, and the One who, alone, could listen to my crying, would run away from me. Adorable judgments of God, in His ways.

Then, after two days of interior pains, while I was seeing blessed Jesus and asking Him about my father, I felt he was behind the shoulders of Jesus Christ, as though bursting into tears and asking for help; and then they disappeared. I was left lacerated in my soul, and I kept praying. Finally, after six days, as I was in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, inside a church, and there were many purging souls. I was praying to Our Lord that He would at least let my father come inside a church to make his purgatory, because I could see that the souls in the churches receive continuous reliefs from the prayers and Masses that are said, and much more, from the real presence of Jesus in the Sacrament; it seems that that is a continuous refreshment for them. At that moment, I saw my father, venerable in his appearance, and Our Lord let me place him near the Tabernacle. So it seems I was left less lacerated in my interior.

How Luisa (and the souls linked with Luisa) Help the Suffering Souls in Purgatory

V12 – March 28, 1917 – Jesus, as though breathing on me, said: “I Love you”; and it seemed that everyone and everything would receive new life from that ‘I Love you’. I repeated: ‘Jesus, one more word.’ And He: “I could not tell you a more beautiful word than ‘I Love you’. This ‘I Love you’ of Mine fills Heaven and earth. It circulates through the Saints, and they receive New Glory; it descends into the hearts of the pilgrim souls, and some receive grace of conversion, some of sanctification; it penetrates into Purgatory, and pours upon their souls like beneficial dew, and they feel refreshed by it. Even the elements feel invested by new life in fecundating, in growing. All perceive the ‘I love you’ of your Jesus. And do you know when the soul attracts one of my ‘I love you’s’? When, fusing herself in Me, she assumes the divine attitude and, dissolving herself in Me, she does everything I do.”

V12 – May 16, 1917 – Then, I found myself outside of myself. I was in the midst of many souls – they seemed to be purging souls and Saints – who were speaking to me and mentioning one person known to me, who died not too long ago. And they said to me: ‘He feels happy in seeing that there is not a soul who enters Purgatory without carrying the mark of the Hours of the Passion. Surrounded by the cortege of these Hours and helped by them, the souls take a safe place. And there is not a soul who flies into Heaven, without being accompanied by these Hours of the Passion. These Hours make a continuous dew pour down from Heaven to earth, into Purgatory, and even into Heaven.’

On hearing this, I said to myself: ‘Maybe my beloved Jesus, in order to keep the word He had given – that for each word of the Hours of the Passion He would give a soul – is allowing that there be not a saved soul who does not benefit from these Hours.

Afterwards, I returned into myself, and as I found my sweet Jesus, I asked Him whether that was true. And He: “These Hours are the order of the Universe; they put Heaven and earth in harmony, and restrain Me from sending the world to ruin. I feel my Blood, my wounds, my Love and all I did, being placed in circulation; and they flow over all to save all. As souls do these Hours of the Passion, I feel my Blood, my wounds, my anxieties to save souls, being put in motion, and I feel my own Life being repeated. How could creatures obtain any good if not by means of these Hours? Why do you doubt? This thing is not yours, but mine. You have been the strained and weak instrument.”

V14 – March 10, 1922 – “My daughter, everything that one does in my Will is like Sun that diffuses to all; and as one prays in My Will, offering My Blood, My pains, My wounds, these convert into as many Rays of Light which diffuse to all. They descend rapidly into the deepest prison of Purgatory and turn their pains and darkness into Light…”

V14 – April 21, 1922 – (Jesus Speaking): “…come into My Divine Will together with Me; let us rise between Heaven and earth and adore together the Supreme Majesty. Let us bless It and give It homage for all, so that Heaven and earth may be filled with adorations, homages and blessings, and all may receive their effects.”

So I spent the morning praying together with Jesus in His Will; but – oh, surprise! As we prayed, one was the word, but the Divine Volition diffused it over all created things, and its mark remained on all of them. It brought it into Heaven, and not only did all the Blessed receive its mark, but it was for them cause of new beatitude. It descended to the bottom of the earth, and even into Purgatory, and all received its effects. But who can say how it was to pray with Jesus, and all the effects that it produced?

V22 – July 4, 1927 – I was doing my thanksgiving for I had received Holy Communion, and I was thinking to myself that I wanted to offer It to all and to each inhabitant of Heaven, to each soul in Purgatory, to all the living who are and will be.

V30 – June 29, 1932 – O! how beautiful it is to see the creature who, for as many times as she does her acts in My Volition, so many times makes herself the conqueror of It, and makes It set out for Heaven, for Purgatory, into the midst of terrestrial creatures—wherever she wants.

November 3, 1926
The more the soul has done the Divine Will on earth, the more paths she has formed for herself in order to receive suffrages in Purgatory. The more the soul possesses of the Divine Will, the more value her prayers, works and pains contain.

I continue to live all abandoned in the adorable Will; and while I was praying, I thought to myself: “How I would like to descend into the prisons of the purging souls to release them all, and in the light of the Eternal Will, bring them all to the Celestial Fatherland.”

At that moment, my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, the more the souls who have passed to the next life have been submitted to My Will, and the more acts they have done in It, the more paths they have formed for themselves in order to receive suffrages from the earth. So, the more they have done My Will, forming for themselves the ways of communication of the goods that are present in the Church and that belong to Me, there is no path formed by them that does not bring, to some a relief, to some a prayer, to some a diminution of pains. The suffrages walk within these royal paths of My Will, to bring to each one the merit, the fruit and the capital that one has formed for oneself in My Will. Therefore, without It, there are no paths and no means in order to receive suffrages. Even though the suffrages and everything that the Church does always descend into Purgatory, they go, however, to those who have formed paths for themselves.

“For the others, who have not done My Will, the paths are closed or do not exist at all; and if these were saved, it is because at least at the point of death they have recognized the supreme dominion of My Will, they have adored It, and have submitted themselves to It—and this last act has rescued them; otherwise, they could not even be saved. For one who has always done My Will, there are no paths to Purgatory—his path goes straight to Heaven. And one who has recognized My Will and has submitted to It, not in everything and always, but in great part, has formed for himself so many paths and receives so much, that Purgatory sends him quickly to Heaven.

“Now, just as the purging souls had to form their paths to be able to receive suffrages, in the same way, the living, in order to send suffrages, must do My Will in order to form their paths, so as to make their suffrages ascend into Purgatory. If they make suffrages, but they are far away from My Will, since the communication with My Will is missing, that alone unites and binds everyone, their suffrages will not find the way in order to ascend, the feet to be able to walk, the strength in order to give relief. They will be suffrages without life, because the true life of My Will is missing, that alone has the virtue of giving life to all goods.

“The more the soul possesses of My Will, the more value her prayers, her works, her pains, contain; and so she can bring more relief to those blessed souls. I measure and give value to everything that the soul can do, according to how much of My Will she possesses. If My Will runs in all of her acts, the measure I take is immense; even more, I never stop measuring, and I put so much value into it, that its weight cannot be calculated. On the other hand, if one does not care much about My Will, the measure is scarce and the value of little importance. And if one does not care at all, as much as the soul may do, I have nothing to measure, nor any value to give. Therefore, if they have no value, how can they bring relief to those souls who, in Purgatory, recognize nothing, nor can they receive anything, but what My Eternal Fiat produces.

“But do you know who can bring all reliefs, the light that purifies, the love that transforms? One who possesses the life of My Will in everything and in whom It dominates triumphantly. This soul has not even need of paths, because by possessing My Will, she has the right to all paths. She can go to all points, because she possesses within herself the royal path of My Will in order to go into that deep prison, to bring them all reliefs and liberations. More so since, in creating man, We gave him Our Will as his special inheritance, and We recognize everything he has done within the boundaries of Our inheritance, with that We endowed him.

“Anything else is not recognized by Us—it is not Our thing, nor can We allow anything to enter Heaven that has not been done by creatures either in Our Will, or at least in order to do It. Since Creation came out of the Eternal Fiat, Our Will, jealous, allows no act to enter the Celestial Fatherland that has not passed through Its Fiat Itself. Oh! If all knew what Will of God means, and how all works, even those that appear to be good, but are empty of It, are works empty of light, empty of value, empty of life; and works without light, without value and without life do not enter into Heaven. Oh! how attentive they would be to do My Will in everything and forever.”

Paragraph 1032 – III. The Final Purification, or Purgatory

“Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: (958, 1371, 1479) CCC

Proverbs 15:27 – By mercy and faith sins are purged away: and by the fear of the Lord every one declineth from evil.

History of Gregorian Masses

Gregorian Masses derive their name from St. Gregory the Great, the first Benedictine Pope who ruled the Church from the year 590 to 604. Gregorian Masses are offered for thirty (30) consecutive days for the repose of the soul of a particular person.

St. Gregory was the first to have a series of Masses said for a departed soul. The event that started this pious practice took place while he was abbot of St. Andrew’s monastery in Rome, prior to his election to the papacy.

In the fourth book of his Dialogues, St. Gregory relates how one of the monks of his monastery, named Justus, did not keep his vow of poverty very well. When Justus died, St. Gregory feared that the good monk might have to spend a long time in Purgatory because of his failures with regard to poverty. He therefore ordered that the Holy Sacrifice be offered up for Justus for thirty consecutive days without a break. On the thirtieth day, Justus appeared to a brother monk telling him that he was now freed from his sufferings because of the thirty Masses St. Gregory had caused to be said for him.

Pious Custom

Following St. Gregory’s example, Catholic people throughout the ages have continued the pious custom of having thirty Masses said for their departed relatives and friends.

The Sacred Congregation on Indulgences has declared that “the offering of Gregorian Masses has a special efficacy for obtaining from God the speedy deliverance of a suffering soul, and that this is a pious and reasonable belief of the faithful.”

Gregorian Masses may be offered only for the dead. They can be offered only for one particular person. The Masses must be said on thirty consecutive days, and if the series is broken, the priest who assumed the obligation must start all over again.

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The Church and the Light of the Divine Will

FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

V16 – February 10, 1924 – “…Do you see how necessary it is to make them understand that complete abandonment is needed in order to Live in My Divine Will? And you say it is not necessary to write about it? I feel compassion for you, because you do not see what I see, and that’s why you take it lightly. Instead, in My All-seeingness, I see that these Writings will be for My Church as a New Sun which will rise in her midst; and men, attracted by its radiant Light, will strive to transform themselves into this Light and become Spiritualized and Divinized, and therefore, Renewing the Church, they will Transform the face of the earth.

The Doctrine on My Will is the Purest, the most Beautiful, not subject to any shadow of the material or of interest, either in the supernatural or in the natural order. Therefore, just like the sun, It will be the most Penetrating, the most Fecund, and the most Welcomed and appreciated. And being Light, It will Make Itself Understood and will Make Its Own Way. It will not be subject to doubt or suspicions of error; and if some words will not be understood, it will be because of too much Light, which, eclipsing the human intellect, will not allow them to understand the whole Fullness of the Truth. However, they will not find one word which is not True. At the most, they will not be able to comprehend it fully.

Therefore, in view of the Good which I see, I push you to neglect nothing in writing. One saying, one effect, one simile on My Divine Will can be like beneficial Dew upon the souls, just as dew is beneficial on the plants after a day of burning sun, or like a pouring rain after long months of drought. You cannot understand all the Good, the Light, the Strength contained in one word; but your Jesus knows it, and knows the ones whom it will Serve and the Good it will do.”

Now, as He was saying this, He showed me a table in the midst of the Church, and all the Writings on the Divine Will placed on it. Many venerable people surrounded that table and were transformed into Light and Divinized; and as they walked, they communicated that Light to whomever they encountered. Then Jesus added: “You, Luisa, will see this great Good from Heaven, when the Church will receive this Celestial Food, which will Strengthen Her and Make Her Rise again to Her Full Triumph.”

 

Permanent link to this article: https://bookofheaven.org/2015/11/02/the-church-and-the-light-of-the-divine-will/