FROM THE LETTERS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, LUISA PICCARRETA

124.

My good daughter in the Divine Volition,

I recommend that you never move away from the Divine Will.  Live always in Its maternal arms, like a baby in the arms of her mother.  Place your sufferings in Its maternal hands, that It may use them to make you a saint and to do good to all creatures.  How happy you will feel, thinking that your sufferings serve to save souls, to console Jesus, to kiss His wounds, to tell Him that you love Him!  In every pain you suffer, tell Jesus to bring you His Love.  Love Him always, and Jesus will be wounded by your love and will love you more… Think that every pain you suffer is an “I love you”, a kiss, an affection, a hug that Jesus sends you.  In this way you will feel strength in your sufferings, and the joy which the pains suffered for Jesus bring.  May the Divine Will be your dwelling, your food, your life.  May the continuous word on your lips be:  “I want to do your Will and live in It!”  In this way you will feel strengthened, and the pains you suffer will be sweetened.

I leave you in the Divine Will to make yourself a saint (…)

Corato, November 13, 1943

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

Fourteenth Hour

From 6 to 7 AM

Jesus before Caiphas again, who confirms

His condemnation to death and sends Him to Pilate

My sorrowful Jesus, You are now out of the prison; You are so exhausted that You stagger at each step. I want to place myself at your side in order to sustain You, when I see that You are about to fall.

But I see that the soldiers take You before Caiphas; and You, O my Jesus, reappear in their midst like a Sun, and even though disfigured, You spread light everywhere. I now see that Caiphas is overjoyed in seeing You reduced so badly. At the reflections of your Light, He becomes more blinded, and in his fury, He asks You again: “So, are You really the true Son of God?”

And You, my Love, with supreme majesty, with the grace of your word, and with your usual sweet and moving tone, such as to enrapture the hearts, answer: “Yes, I am the true Son of God.”

And your enemies, though feeling all the power of your word within themselves, suffocating everything, wanting to know nothing else – in one voice, cry out: “He is guilty to death, he is guilty to death!”

Caiphas confirms the sentence to death, and sends You to Pilate. And You, my condemned Jesus, accept this sentence with so much love and resignation, as to almost snatch it from the iniquitous Pontiff. You repair for all the sins committed deliberately and with all malice, and for those who, instead of afflicting themselves because of evil, rejoice and exult over sin itself, and this leads them to blindness and to suffocating any enlightenment and grace. My Life, Jesus, your reparations and prayers echo in my heart, and I repair and pray together with You.

Seventeenth Hour

From 9 to 10 AM

Jesus is crowned with thorns. Presented to the people:

“Ecce Homo!”  Jesus is condemned to death

…But under those thorns and that Blood, your Most Holy Face appears, radiant with sweetness, with peace, and with love. And the executioners, wanting to complete the tragedy, blindfold You, place a reed in your hand as scepter, and begin their mockeries. They hail You King of the Jews, they beat You on the crown, they slap You, and say to You: “Guess who hit You!”

…With this reed You hold in your hand, You repair for so many works – good, but empty of interior spirit and also done with evil intentions. In the insults and the blindfold, You repair for those who ridicule the holiest things, discrediting them and profaning them; You also repair for those who blindfold the sight of their intelligence in order not to see the light of Truth. With this blindfold, You impetrate that the blindfolds of passions, of riches and of pleasures may be removed from us.

 Eighteenth Hour

10 AM to 11 AM

Jesus is stripped and crowned with thorns for the third time.

“My child, how much souls cost Me! This is the place where I wait for everyone in order to save them, where I want to repair for the sins of those who arrive at degrading themselves lower than beasts, and are so obstinate in offending Me as to reach the point of not being able to live without committing sins. Their minds remain blinded, and they sin wildly. This is why they crown Me with thorns for the third time.

Nineteenth Hour

11 AM to 12 PM

Second Part: Jesus Crucified. With Him we disarm Divine Justice.

“Holy Father, here I am, loaded down with all the sins of the world. There is not one sin which does not pour upon Me; therefore, no longer unload the scourges of your Divine Justice upon man, but upon Me, your Son. O Father, allow Me to bind all souls to this Cross, and to plead forgiveness for them with the voices of my Blood and of my wounds. O Father, do You not see how I have reduced Myself? By this Cross, by virtue of these pains, concede true conversion, peace, forgiveness and sanctity to all. Arrest your fury against poor humanity, against my children. They are blind, and know not what they are doing. Look well at Me, how I have reduced Myself because of them; if You are not moved to compassion for them, may You at least be softened by this Face of mine, dirtied with spit, covered with Blood, bruised and swollen by the so many slaps and blows received. Have pity, my Father! I was the most beautiful of all, and now I am all disfigured, to the point that I no longer recognize Myself. I have become the abject of all; and so, at any cost, I want to save the poor creature!”

Laetare Sunday

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Catholic Encyclopedia

The fourth, or middle, Sunday of Lent, so called from the first words of the Introit at Mass, “Laetare Jerusalem” — “Rejoice, O Jerusalem“. During the first six or seven centuries the season of Lent commenced on the Sunday following Quinquagesima, and thus comprised only thirty-six fasting days. To these were afterwards added the four days preceding the first Sunday, in order to make up the forty days’ fast, and one of the earliest liturgical notices of these extra days occurs in the special Gospels assigned to them in a Toulon manuscript of 714. Strictly speaking, the Thursday before Laetare Sunday is the middle day of Lent, and it was at one time observed as such, but afterwards the special signs of joy permitted on this day, intended to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, were transferred to the Sunday following. They consist of (like those of Gaudete Sunday in Advent) in the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Vespers; rose-coloured vestments also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dalmatics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent. The contrast between Laetare and the other Sundays is thus emphasized, and is emblematical of the joys of this life, restrained rejoicing mingled with a certain amount of sadness. The station at Rome was on this day made at the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven chief basilicas; the Golden Rose, sent by the popes to Catholic sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time, and for this reason the day was sometimes called “Dominicade Rosa”. Other names applied to it were Refreshment Sunday, or the Sunday of the Five Loaves, from a miracle recorded in the Gospel; Mid-Lent, mi-carême, or mediana; and Mothering Sunday, in allusion to the Epistle, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because formerly the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church on this day. This latter name is still kept up in some remote parts of England, though the reason for it has ceased to exist.

FROM THE HOURS OF THE PASSION

Eighteenth Hour

Jesus embraces the Cross.

My tortured Good, with You I repair, with You I suffer. But I see that your enemies hurl You down the stairs; the people await You with fury and eagerness; they make You find the Cross ready, which You long for with many sighs. And You – with love You gaze on It, and with firm step You approach It and embrace It. But, before that, You kiss It, and as a shiver of joy runs through your Most Holy Humanity, with highest contentment You gaze on It again, measuring Its length and breadth. In It, already, You establish the portion for each creature. You dower them all, enough to bind them to the Divinity with a bond of marriage, and make them heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then, unable to contain the love with which You love them, You kiss the Cross again, and say:

“Adored Cross, finally I embrace you. You were the longing of my Heart, the martyrdom of my love. But you, O Cross, have delayed until now, while my steps were always toward you. Holy Cross, you were the goal of my desires, the purpose of my existence down here. In you I concentrate my whole being, in you I place all my children, and you will be their life, their light, defense, custody and strength. You will assist them in everything, and will bring them gloriously to Me in Heaven. Oh Cross, Pulpit of Wisdom, you alone will teach true sanctity; you alone will form the heroes, the athletes, the martyrs, the Saints. Beautiful Cross, you are my Throne, and since I have to leave the earth, you will remain in my place. To you I give all souls as dowry – keep them, save them; I entrust them to you!”

 FROM THE LETTERS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, LUISA PICCARRETA

46.  In Voluntate Dei!

Most esteemed one in the Lord,

I assure you my poor prayers.  Have great confidence, which conquers God, Who surrenders to your needs.  Offer some Holy Masses to plead for what you want.  Then put everything with filial abandonment into the hands of God and of the Queen – They, who love us so much and want to be loved.  All that will happen will be always the best for you and for poor Jesus.  Crosses make us be reborn to a new life of sanctity and of Grace; therefore the crosses which are borne with true resignation make us like Jesus and are our rebirths in good, in Love and in the Divine Volition, which wants to be our life.  So, let us make everything flow in the Holy Will, if we want It to perform Its prodigies of love in our soul…

I commend myself to your prayers, and from the heart I will do it for you.  And sending you the greeting of the Divine Volition, that may bring peace to you and balm to your pains, I say,

most affectionately yours,

the little daughter of the Divine Will

15.  To Mrs. Copparo La Scola from Termini Imerese, Palermo.

In Voluntate Dei!

Most esteemed and blessed daughter in the Divine Volition,

Here I am to make you content.  I believe that the Queen of Heaven and the great King of sorrows will reward you for your great goodness and charity, and will be generous to you with celestial favors, as you interest yourself so much in promoting His Passion and that which regards His Divine Will.  Greater love cannot be given to the Lord.

Now let’s come to us.  You say you have many crosses.  Good sign, my daughter.  Crosses are divine jealousies and little coins that our Lord gives us.  His jealousy is the great love He has in making of us saints; He takes everyone away from us and He Himself, God, Maker and Martyr, with little crosses and with His own hands, works our souls and makes of them His images.  What love for us, as we can say, through little and large crosses,  “I am similar to my dear Jesus”!

But do you want to know why you feel the weight of your miseries?  Because many times you do not try to be together with Jesus and to convince yourself that He is already with you, and you do not unite the pains of Jesus with yours.  Before the pains of Jesus, yours lose hardness, empty themselves of their weight, become small, and almost smile, because they love to adorn our souls with the same ornaments as those with which we see Jesus being adorned.  What pleasure, what joy, to be able to say:  “You have suffered for me, and I for You”!  Together with Jesus, pains change their look, miseries disappear; and from pains, miseries and weaknesses the most beautiful conquests, celestial riches and the strength of God arise, and the very Angels and Saints envy our lot.

Therefore, my daughter, here is the secret to becoming a saint:  be together with Jesus, never deny Him anything, and in everything you do, even in necessary things of life – in the pains you suffer, in the prayers you say, in the work, in the food, in the sleep, say to Him from the heart:  “Jesus, I want to do always your Will.”  In this way, you will always keep the Fiat on your lips, in your mind, and in your heart.

If you do this, you will form the joy of the Heart of Jesus, and He will not be able to deny you anything, not even the sanctity of your children… It seems that you are very much concerned for them.  Do not fear; place them in the hands of Jesus and on the lap of the Celestial Mama.  Advise them to read often the book of the Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, and you will see the great things the Lord will do with them.

I finish by recommending that you never lose peace… Be careful not ever to be disturbed, not even for your miseries, and not even for the illness of your husband.  Let us adore the judgments of God, just and holy, Who disposes everything for our good and to make us holy.

I commend myself to your prayers, and from the heart I will do it for you and for all those who buy the book, so that all may become saints.  I leave you in the sea of the Divine Volition, and with a thousand regards, I say,

most affectionately yours,

The little daughter of the Divine Will

Corato, November 25, 1934

From the Hours of the Passion

The Eighteenth Hour

From 10 to 11 AM

Jesus takes up the Cross and walks toward Calvary,

where He is stripped

My Jesus, insatiable love, I see that You give Yourself no peace, I feel Your fidgets of Love, Your Pains. Your Heart beats strongly; in every heartbeat I feel bursts, tortures, violences of Love; and unable to contain the Fire that devours You, You pant, moan, sigh, and in each moan I hear You say: “Cross!” Each drop of Your Blood repeats: “Cross!” All Your Pains, through which You swim as though in an interminable sea, repeat among themselves: “Cross!” And You exclaim: “O Cross, beloved and longed for, You alone will save My children, and I concentrate in You all My Love!”

Letters from the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta

2.  To Sister Giovannina.

Fiat

To my dear Sister M. Giovannina, in memory of her vows, always with Jesus.

The mind toward Heaven, the gaze to the Cross, the heart loving Him, the arms always in the act of hugging Him, the steps calling Him, the words saying always “Fiat”.  In each thing never escape from acquiring a degree of sanctity.  Make yourself a saint; Jesus wants it, make Him content.

The little daughter of the Divine Will

Corato, May 14, 1932

4.  “For the good Sister Giovannina”.

J.M.J.
Fiat

Blessed daughter,

Thank you for your wishes; as for my wishes, I send you the Crucifix, so that you may look at Him and copy Him, love Him and enclose Him in your heart.  And to console Him, may you place your will into His Hands, so that He may Reign in you, and form His Heaven of Love and of Perennial Peace.

Pray for me.

Mgr. Fulton J. Sheen

Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948)

“[Satan] will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the [Catholic] Church. . . . It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content.”

Quote:

The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as “I am Who am,” and the Devil as “I am who am not.”
Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find warrant for the popular myth of the Devil as a buffoon who is dressed like the first “red.” Rather is he described as an angel fallen from heaven, as “the Prince of this world,” whose business it is to tell us that there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so much like Himself that he would deceive even the elect–and certainly no devil ever seen in picture books could deceive even the elect. How will he come in this new age to win followers to his religion?
The pre-Communist Russian belief is that he will come disguised as the Great Humanitarian; he will talk peace, prosperity and plenty not as means to lead us to God, but as ends in themselves. . . .
. . . The third temptation in which Satan asked Christ to adore him and all the kingdoms of the world would be His, will become the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion–one that renders unto Caesar even the things that are God’s.
In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, he will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counterchurch which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .
. . . But the twentieth century will join the counterchurch because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.

(Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West [Bobbs-Merril Company, Indianapolis, 1948], pp. 24-25)

Why God Loves us

Archbishop Fulton Sheen 

‎“God did not love me because I am lovable. I became lovable because God poured some of His goodness and love into me. I then began to apply this charity to my neighbor. If I do not find him lovable, I have to put love into him as God puts love into me, and thereby I provoke the response of love. Now, my personality is restored and I make the great discovery that no one is happy until he loves both God and neighbor.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen

 An Act of Hope and Confidence in God

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

THE WOMAN I LOVE

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Mary

The World’s First Love

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen