Symbol of The Most Holy Trinity

I had meant to have this out for this past Sunday, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity but now it is a bit delayed.  I wanted to start this post with the beautiful symbol that is described in the Volumes of the Trinity.  There will again be other posts to follow on this topic but just this one symbol is enough for one post and is something which I often return to contemplate on.





          While I am outside of myself, and I find myself in the height of the heavens, I seem to see God within a light. He Himself seems to be light, and within this light there is beauty, strength, wisdom, immensity, height, depth - endless and boundless. Even in the air we breathe is God present, and we breathe Him; so, each one can make Him his own life, as indeed He is. Nothing escapes Him, and nothing can escape Him. This light seems to be all voice, though it does not speak; and all operating, though it always rests. It is present everywhere, though it occupies no space; and while it is present everywhere, it also has its own center. Oh, God, how incomprehensible You are! I see You, I feel You, You are my life, You restrict Yourself within me, but You remain always immense and lose nothing of Yourself. Yet, I feel I am stammering, and it seems I can say nothing.

          In order to explain myself better, according to our human language, I will say that I see a shadow of God in the whole creation, because in the whole creation – someplace He has cast the shadow of His beauty, someplace His fragrances, someplace His light, as in the sun, in which I see a special shadow of God. I see Him as though concealed within this sphere, as the king of all other spheres. What is the sun? It nothing but a globe of fire. One is the globe, but its rays are many; from this we can easily understand how the globe is God, and the rays are the immense attributes of God.

          Second. The sun is fire, but it is also light and heat. Here is the Most Holy Trinity veiled in the sun: the fire is the Father, the light is the Son, the heat is the Holy Spirit. However, the sun is one, and just as one cannot separate fire from light and heat, so one is the power of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who in reality cannot be separated from one another. And just as fire produces light and heat at the same time, in such a way that fire cannot be conceived without light and heat; in the same way, the Father cannot be conceived before the Son and the Holy Spirit, and vice versa, but all Three of the Them have the same eternal beginning.

          I add that the light of the sun diffuses everywhere; in the same way, God penetrates everywhere with His immensity. However, let us remember that this is but a shadow, because the sun cannot reach where it cannot penetrate with Its light, while God penetrates everywhere. God is most pure Spirit, and we can represent Him with the sun, which makes its rays penetrate everywhere, and no one can grab them with their hands. Moreover, God looks at everything – the iniquities and the evils of men – but He remains always as He is, pure, holy and immaculate. A shadow of God is the sun, which sends its light over rubbish, but remains immaculate; it spreads its light in the fire, but is not burned; in the sea and in the rivers, but is not drowned. It gives light to all, it fecundates everything, it gives life to all with its heat, but does not become poor in light, nor does it lose any of its heat. Even more, while it does so much good to all, it needs no one, and remains always as it is – majestic, shining, ever immutable. Oh, how well one can see the divine qualities in the sun! With His immensity, God is present in the fire, but is not burned; in the sea, but is not drowned; under our steps, but is not trampled. He gives to all, but does not become poor, and needs no one; He looks at everything – even more, He is all eyes, and there is nothing He does not hear. He is aware of each fiber of our hearts, of each thought of our minds, but, being most pure Spirit, He has neither ears nor eyes, and no matter what happens, He never changes. The sun invests the world with its light, and it does not tire; in the same way, God gives life to all, helps and rules the world, and He does not tire.

          A man can hide or place shelters so as not to enjoy the light of the sun and its beneficial effects, but he does nothing to the sun – the sun remains as it is, while all the evil will fall upon man. In the same way, by sin, the sinner can move away from God and no longer enjoy His beneficial effects, but he does nothing to God – the evil is all his own.

          The roundness of the sun also symbolizes the eternity of God, which has no beginning and no end. The penetrating light of the sun itself is such that no one can restrict it in his eye; and if one wanted to stare at it in its midday fullness, he would remain dazzled; and if the sun wanted to draw near man, man would be reduced to ashes. The same for the Divine Sun: no created mind can restrict It in its little mind so as to comprehend It in all that It is; and if it wanted to try, it would remain dazzled and confused; and if this Divine Sun wanted to display all Its love, allowing man to feel It while he is in his mortal flesh, he would be reduced to ashes.  

          So, God has cast a shadow of Himself and of His perfections over the whole creation; it seems that we see Him and touch Him, and we are touched by Him continuously.

Vol. 2, Feb. 28, 1899



Each time I return to this image I seem to gather new insights.  The Father being the fire the source and the power over all.  Fire which consumes and transforms all into more fire.  The Son represented by the light, that which we can see, the visible form of the Father and the manifest Truth, the spoken word.  The Holy Spirit, the heat which fecund and the passionate love which sanctifies and purifies as only heat can.

And how many cultures and peoples throughout the ages have worshipped the sun.  It is as if they recognized the power in the image but lacking the knowledge of the greater truth behind and within the sun, that it is but an image of God, they stopped there and missed the mark.  This knowledge is supposed to bring us closer to God, to know him better and therefore love Him more, instead they settled for the cold shadow of the Divinity in the sun and missed the real embrace of the Triune God in all his glory.

The sun is untouchable, immutable by us as creatures.  So God is immutable and untouchable by us, so far above us in being.  Able to give always without ever diminishing and even one who might hide and refuse to place himself in the light of the sun is still dependent on the effects of the sun to live in the food that he eats, the air that he breaths, all effects of the heat and light of the sun.  Even the gravity which keeps all firmly and safely on the earth, an effect of the rotation of the earth around the sun.

What a beautiful lesson in the sun of the beauty, power, wisdom of our God and how all his attributes are the mirrored in all the effects which the sun brings about.

 

Generation of the Divine Will and Abortion of Divine Life by the creature.

In the last post it ended with an entry which spoke about how the Divine Will forms his life within the acts of creatures;

“My Will is as a tender mother, that feels in himself the long generation of his lives, that he wants to go forth to the light, in order to form the long generation of his children, that should form his kingdom, and therefore he goes finding one who lends her acts to him, but do you know why he goes finding the acts of the creature? Having to descend in the depths of the human acts, in order to form his life, he wants to make himself through means of them a way in order to give his same life to creatures, more so that life can not be formed outside of persons, but always within, otherwise it would lack the necessary things, the vital humors, in order to form a life. Thus my Will can not form his life from Heaven, nor outside of the creature, but must descend inside of them, and the human will must surrender the place to the Divine, must be concurrent, because we don’t want forced things.

Vol. 34, March 14, 1937


Jesus continues to clarify this in several places in the Volumes.  He explains how an act can either be of Divine Life or Human life, eternal or perishing.

“My daughter, what [a] great difference there is between an act done in My Will and an act - even a good one - done outside of It.  In the first act there is a Divine Life flowing through it, and this life fills Heaven and earth, and that act receives the value of a Divine Life.  In the second there runs the act of a human life, and this is limited, restricted, and many times its value finishes when the act is finished.  If there is value in this act, it is human value, subject to perishing.”

Vol. 21, April 18, 1927


Again he asserts that these acts done in the Divine Will truly are Divine Lives which go forth for the good of all creatures.

“My daughter, love is life, and when this love goes forth from the soul that lives in my Will, it holds the virtue to form in God himself the life of love; and since the substance of Divine Life is love, hence the creature with her love forms in God another Divine life, and we feel in ourselves our life formed by the creature.  This life that [the creature has formed] with her love united to our Will, because it is He that administers the power (so) that the creature can arrive to form the same divine life all of love in God, this life is God’s triumph and the triumph of the creature; and in the act of triumph we take this divine life that the creature has formed in ourselves and we give him to (the) good of all creatures, as precious gift that the little daughter of our Volition makes to everyone, and with anxiety we await that with her love she comes to form other divine lives in our Supreme Being.  My daughter, our love is not sterile, rather it holds the germ/seed to generate continuous life.  So that as you said:  ‘I love you’ in my heartbeat, in my breath, thus I generated another heartbeat, another breath, and so on with all the rest, in a way that I felt in myself the new generation of your ‘I love you’ that formed the new life of my love, and oh, how happy I felt thinking that my daughter was forming inside of me my own life in me, all of love!  If you might know how moving this act of the creature is that she gives God to God with her love!  Oh, how it enraptures us!  And feeling ourselves enraptured we give other love in order to have the contentment to have her repeat our new lives of love.  Therefore love, love a great deal and you will make your sweet Jesus more happy.”

Vol. 29, Feb. 15, 1931


In Volume 2 Luisa remarks on how much the sin of  abortion afflicts Divine Justice.

The very grave sin of abortion.  Union of sufferings and of prayers.

I spent this morning very anguished because of the many offenses which I saw Him receive from men, especially because of certain horrendous dishonesties.  How much the loss of souls grieved Jesus!  More so, since it was a newborn baby that they were going to kill, without administering holy baptism to him.  It seems to me that this sin weighs so much on the scale of Divine Justice, that it is the one that most cries out for revenge before God.  Yet, these sorrowful scenes are renewed so very often.  My most sweet Jesus was so afflicted as to arouse pity.  Seeing Him in such a state, I did not dare to tell Him anything, and Jesus just told me:  “My daughter, unite your sufferings to mine, your prayers to mine, so that they may be more acceptable before the majesty of God, and may appear not as your things, but as my own works.”  Then He continued to make Himself seen other times, but always in silence.  May the Lord be always blessed.

Vol. 2, June 9, 1899




In Volume 13 Jesus affirms that acts done in the Divine Will are children and for one who does not live in the state of the Divine Will and therefore does not resemble God it is as if they abort these children.

“You must know that as you think in my Will, as you speak, as you work, as you love, etc., you deliver to my Will as many children for as many thoughts as you make, for as many words as you say, for as many works and acts of love as you emit. These children multiply to the infinite in my Will and go around throughout Heaven and through the entire earth bringing new joy, new glory and contentment to Heaven, and new grace to the earth; going through all hearts, carrying my sighs, my moans, the pleas of their Mother who wants them saved, and who wants to give them Her Life.

“Now, these children, birth of my Will, in order to be recognized as my children, must resemble and have the same manners as the Mother who delivered them. If they look melancholic, they will be put out of Heaven, being told: ‘Melancholy cannot enter our dwelling’. They will not breach their way into creatures, because in seeing them melancholic, creatures will doubt that they are true legitimate children of my Will. Besides, one who is melancholic does not have the grace to insinuate into others, to conquer them and dominate them. One who is melancholic is not capable of heroism, and of giving himself for the good of all. Many times these children are aborted, dying during labor, without coming out to the light of the Divine Will.”

Vol. 13, Aug. 13, 1921



Jesus states that the Most Holy Trinity is always in the state of needing to generate themselves.  Without the creature lending her acts done in the Divine Will there is no place to bring these lives into the light of day and they therefore remain repressed.

“My daughter, our desire is great, that creatures might live in our Volition.  We find ourselves in the condition of a poor mother that feels the need to bring forth her birth and is not able to, she doesn’t have (a place) where to put it, nor one to whom to entrust it, nor one who receives it, poor mother, how much she suffers!  Thus our supreme being finds itself, we feel the need to generate ourselves and where to put ourselves?  If our Will is not life of the creature there is no place for us, we don’t have one to whom to entrust ourselves, nor one who feeds us, nor the cortege that is needed (by) us (for) our adorable majesty.  And since our Most Holy Trinity is always in (the) act of generating, these births of ours remain repressed in ourselves, while we want to generate our Divine Trinity in creatures; but since they don’t live in our Volition, there is no one who receives our divine generation.  What sorrow to see us conceal in ourselves without being able to unfold the great good that our eternal generation can do in the creature!  Our Will embraces everything, and one who lives in him, as she forms her acts, thus she makes herself the bearer of everyone; if she loves she carries the love of everyone to us, if she adores she carries the adoration of everyone to us, if she suffers she encloses the satisfaction of everyone.  One act in our Volition must surpass, enclose, embrace everyone and everything; and it arrives even to make itself bearer of our supreme being, because we never go out from our Volition, and one who lives in him can enclose us in her every act in order to bring us where she wants, to creatures in order to make us known, to all the creation in order to say to us:  ‘How very beautiful are your works!’; to ourselves, in order to say to us:  ‘You see how much I love you, that I arrive even to carry yourself to you.’

Vol. 36, Nov. 30, 1938



Each act not done in the Divine Will is a "theft", a conversion of light into darkness and he states that the Divine Mother agonizes over each as a death of a child.

Each act which does not depend upon Its Volition is a tearing, a theft made against Its light; and in seeing Itself being robbed of Its light, converted into darkness, It agonizes more than a mother who sees the fruit of her womb being snatched away from her – not to give him life, but to kill him!  So, the losses that my Will suffers when the creature is not united to Its center and does not live of the Volition of Its light, are divine losses, and of infinite value.  The evils for creatures, the ugliness they acquire, are incalculable and indescribable:  my Will remains without Kingdom in the creatures, and they remain stripped, without inheritance, with no right to any good whatsoever.  Therefore, there is nothing more important, nothing greater, which will establish the balance, the order, the harmony, the likeness between Creator and creature, than my Will.  This is why I want to make known what the Divine Will and the human will are – so that we may reconcile, and my Will may acquire Its Kingdom, and creatures may be given back all the goods they lost.”

Vol. 19, Sept. 7, 1926



This is a true abortion, a sorrow for God but it is the creature which suffers all the resulting effects of it.  The Divine Life can not be destroyed but reenters God.

“My daughter, when the light of my Fiat wants to manifest itself and the soul does not take it into consideration, the birth which It wants to deliver in order to communicate it to creatures is aborted, and they do not receive the light of this birth of light from Us – and if you knew what it means to cause Our light to be aborted…!
You must know that when Our Fiat wants to manifest a truth, It places all of Our Being in activity, and overflowing with love, with light, with power, with wisdom, with beauty and goodness, It forms the birth of the truth It wants to deliver. And since all of Our qualities place themselves in the act of rising, We cannot contain it, and so We release this birth from Us to give it to the creature as gift. And if she does not take it into consideration, she causes Our love and Our light to be aborted; she causes Our power, wisdom, beauty and goodness to be aborted, making them die at birth. She loses this dear birth from Us, and does not receive Our life, which We wanted to give her by means of that truth; and We are left with the sorrow of having aborted, and feel the good which We wanted to give to the creatures enter into Us again. In fact, if the creature aborts, she loses that birth, while We do not lose It; rather, it reenters Us – it is for the creature that it is aborted. Therefore, be attentive when you feel that the sea of light of my Fiat forms its waves to overflow outside and deliver the birth of its truths.”
Vol. 24, April 22, 1928

It seems to me that all Christian faiths recognize the horror of the sin of abortion in the killing of an innocent by one who should love and protect and value that life.  Who however has ever thought of the greater sin that our physical abortions on earth represent so much so that they are only a shadow of the truth.  We are all called to do our acts in the Divine Will and therefore give God the fruit of these acts, Divine Children.  We are all called to love, protect and value these children for the gift they are to us.  Since the fall of Adam and Eve with original sin we lost that ability to bear these children and no one is guiltless of this greater sin of abortion excepting the Virgin Mary who was conceived without original sin and therefore all her acts from the first moment were done fully in the Divine Will. 

"My life was all of Divine Will; from the first instant of my Conception, I was molded, warmed and placed into Its light, which purified my human seed with Its power, in such a way that I was conceived without original sin.  Therefore, if my Conception was spotless and so glorious as to form the honor of the Divine Family, it was only because the Omnipotent Fiat poured Itself upon my seed, and I was conceived pure and holy.  So, if the Divine Will had not poured Itself upon my seed more than a tender mother, in order to prevent the effects of original sin, I would have encountered the sad destiny of the other creatures, of being conceived with original sin.  Therefore, the primary cause was, entirely, the Divine Will; to It be honor, glory, thanksgiving, for my having been conceived without original sin."

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 1

It is only by living in the Divine Will that these Divine Births can come to the light of day and bring with them all the goods that they hold for all creatures.  And anyone who has the privilege and the calling to live in the Divine Will will find that, as Jesus says in the passage above (Vol. 29), "this life is God’s triumph and the triumph of the creature."  It seems to me that there are not sufficient words to describe what great good a creature living in the Divine Will acquires or with the reverse what great harm is done in rejecting the Divine Will and living of our own thereby aborting a Divine Child.

 

Divine Will, true Mother

On this day where we recognize Mothers and all they do I had thought that I might post something on the Virgin Mary but in pouring through the Volumes I found that even before Mary's motherhood the first recognition must go to the Divine Will.  In order to begin to understand the important role of a mother Jesus gives an example of what a creature is like without a mother and what would become of them if separated from her.


“Beyond this you should know that the soul without my Divine Will is like a flower gathered from the plant. Poor flower! They have taken away (it’s) life because it is not tied to the root anymore, and detached it does not receive the vital humors(,) that as blood circulated and maintained it alive, fresh, beautiful, fragrant, because it has lost the root that as mother loved it, fed it and held it pressed to its bosom. And while the root remains under earth as buried alive in order to give life to the flowers, its children, and to make them beautiful in appearance, so much so as to attract the human attention with its sweet enchantment(,) but as [the flower] becomes gathered from the plant(,) as if it might have lost the mother(,) it seems that it becomes melancholy, loses its freshness and finishes by withering.

“Such is the soul without my Divine Will. She has been detached from the divine root that more than mother loved her, fed her; and while [the Divine Will] lives as buried, he lives in all her acts and in the depth of her soul in order to administer the divine humors, that as blood circulates in all hers acts in order to maintain her fresh, beautiful, perfumed by his divine virtues, as to form the most beautiful and sweet enchantment to the earth and all heaven. Hence as [the soul] becomes detached from my Divine Will she loses her true Mama, who guarded her with so many maternal cares, held her pressed to his bosom, defended her from everyone and from everything, and she finishes with disfiguring herself and withering to all that which is good, and [souls] arrive to feel the sad melancholy because they live without He who has generated them, without life, the caresses of their Mama, so that they can be called poor abandoned little orphans without guardianship, and maybe in the hand of enemies and tyrannized by the passions in themselves. Oh, if the root might have reason, how many excruciating cries of sorrow wouldn’t it emit in seeing the life of its flowers torn away, and that they have constrained it as a sterile mother to remain without the crown of its children! But if the plant doesn’t cry, my Will cries in seeing so many of his children orphans, but voluntarily orphaned, who feel all the sufferings of being orphaned, while their Mother lives and does none other than to lament and to call the crown of his children around himself.”

Vol. 30, Nov. 9, 1931


So even though the Divine Will may go as unseen he acts as more than a mother to creatures and it is only through this mother that the creature receives life, is fed, made beautiful and as perfumed, guarded and preserved.  This is the example of what a creature loses by withdrawing from the Divine Will to rely upon it's own.  But where a plant or an earthly  mother might not have the power to do more than mourn her loss the Divine Will has the power to act, save, redeem and restore her child.

“My daughter, so much is my love toward one who lives in my Volition, that I do, as a mama, that might have her child crippled and that might hold (the) power to give to her child the rarest beauty; the mother extends herself over him, warms him with her heat, and by way of kisses and embraces re-gives to the child the use of (his) members, makes him beautiful; and watching him she feels happy, as fruit of her maternal love; but the mama doesn’t hold this power, and therefore she will be always unhappy with her child.

 “But that which the Mother doesn’t hold (the power of) I myself hold it; my love is so much that, as one enters into my Will, I extend myself over her I warm her with my love in order to call her to new life, I kiss her, re-kiss her, I tie her to my heart in order to remove from her whatever evil that might be able to overshadow her and re-move (in) her the freshness and divine beauty; then I blow (on) her, I send my regenerative breath to her in order to generate her to new life and to give back to her the rarest beauty.  I am not yet content, I form the throne of all my works and put there upon it my Volition as king on his throne, reigning and dominant in this creature; I can say:  ‘What else could I do and didn’t I do?  Could I maybe love you more and have I not loved you?’
Vol. 36, July 6, 1938



The lengths to which this Divine Will goes and the depth of his love to accomplish all and restore all are beyond human comprehension.  Where a mother might tour the whole world Jesus states the Divine Will tours not only all the world but all centuries to put forth what remedies are needed.  But what are these remedies?  He states that they are the manifest knowledges on his Divine Will that will bring about the healing of all his children.




“My daughter, my Will is the gatherer of all his works. In his light he hides everything, with his light he defends them and puts in safety all his works. How much doesn’t this light do in order to put the creature in safety, the most beautiful work of our creative hands, and in order to make her return beautiful, specious as we brought her forth? He gathers you in his womb of light and casts there so much light above in order to make all the evil disappear. If she is blind, by way of light he gives her sight; if she is mute, by way of light he wants to give her the word. The light takes her from all sides, and gives her hearing if she is deaf; if lame, he straightens her; if ugly, by way of light he makes her beautiful. A mother doesn’t do as much as my Divine Will does in order to make his creature beautiful and restored; his weapons are of light, because there is no power that the light doesn’t hide and good that it doesn’t possess. What wouldn’t a mother do that having given to the light a beautiful child that enraptured her with his beauty, and the mother felt happy in the beauty of the child. But a misfortune strikes him and he becomes blind, mute, deaf, lame; poor mother, she looks at her child and doesn’t recognize him anymore. The dulled eye that looks no more, his silver voice that made her start with joy in feeling herself called mama, she listens to it no more; his little feet that raced in order to put themselves in her womb, with difficultly are dragged along. This child is the most transfixing sorrow for a poor mother; and what wouldn’t she do if she might know that her child might be able to return anew to his first features? She would turn the whole world if she might be able to obtain this and it would be sweet for her to put forth her own life, provided that she might be able see her child beautiful as she gave him forth to the light. But poor mother, it isn’t in her power to be able to restitute the first beauty to her dear child. And it will always be her sorrow and the thorn most transfixing for her maternal heart.

“Such has become the creature with doing her will: blind, mute, lame; our Will laments with tears of ardent light of our love, but that which the mother can not do for her crippled child, my Divine Will does not lack the power (to do). He more than mother will put at (her) disposition his capitals of light, which possess the virtue to restitute all the goods and beauty of the creature. He, tender Mother, lover and vigilant of the work of his hands, that more than dearest child he brought forth to the light, he will turn not all the world, but all the centuries, in order to prepare and give the powerful remedies of light, that revive, transform, straighten and embellish; and then he will stop when he will see (her) in his maternal womb, beautiful as she went forth, the work of his creative hands, in order to remake her from the so many sorrows and to enjoy himself with her forever.

“Are not perhaps the so many knowledges on my Will remedies? Every manifestation and word that I say is a fortitude that I put around the weakness of the human will, it is a food that I prepare, it is a bait, a taste, a light in order to make her reacquire the lost sight. Therefore be attentive and do not lose anything of that which my Will manifests to you, because in his time all will be served, nothing will be lost. Do you believe that He doesn’t hold account even of one single word of that which he says? All numbered and nothing lost; and if in your soul he has formed his chair/seat in order to deposit his truths, however the primary chair\seat holds it reserved in itself as the greatest treasure that belongs to him, in a way that if you disperse some word or manifestation that belongs to him, already the original is conserved in oneself, because that which regards my Divine Will is of infinite value and the infinite can not be nor is it subject to disperse; rather jealous he conserves his truths in the divine archives. Therefore you also learn to be jealous and vigilant and to appreciate his holy lessons.”

Vol. 30, Jan. 12, 1932



But he has need of the cooperation of the creature in order to accomplish this.  Each act done in the Divine Will is a Divine life that he has held within himself as a birth waiting to come forth only lacking the safe place, the correspondence of a creature who recognizes the value and calls his Divine Will to reign in her.

“My Will is as a tender mother, that feels in himself the long generation of his lives, that he wants to go forth to the light, in order to form the long generation of his children, that should form his kingdom, and therefore he goes finding one who lends her acts to him, but do you know why he goes finding the acts of the creature?  Having to descend in the depths of the human acts, in order to form his life, he wants to make himself through means of them a way in order to give his same life to creatures, more so that life can not be formed outside of persons, but always within, otherwise it would lack the necessary things, the vital humors, in order to form a life.  Thus my Will can not form his life from Heaven, nor outside of the creature, but must descend inside of them, and the human will must surrender the place to the Divine, must be concurrent, because we don’t want forced things.  And when we have found her, who can tell you that which we do?  the graces that we pour forth, the good that we want, it doesn’t deal with works but our life that we must raise, hence we don’t spare anything and one will know that which we have done only in Heaven.  Therefore be attentive and live always under the rain of my Volition, thus investing all your acts he animates them with his life, and thus you will give me so many children for how many acts you will do.”

Vol. 34, March 14, 1937



In this way we also become mothers, and brothers, and sisters of Jesus.


²¹ But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” Luke 8:21

³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Mark 3:35

Happy Mother's Day

The Pain of the Ascension

I'd often wondered why the Ascension was always celebrated as a feast with so much joy on the part of the Church.  I mean, I understand that it is a victory and the crowning act of the Redemption with the promise for all of us, but it and the Assumption, have always left me feeling sorrowful.  Again I found the confirmation of what I was feeling in the Volumes and that I wasn't alone in this sorrow.

The pain of the Apostles when they saw Jesus ascend into Heaven. The good which this pain produced. Lesson to Luisa about the pain of the privation of Jesus.

 

I was thinking of when my sweet Jesus went back to Heaven in His glorious Ascension, and therefore of the sorrow of the Apostles in remaining without such a great good; and my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: 

           “My daughter, the greatest sorrow for all of the Apostles, in their entire lives, was to remain without their Master. As they saw Me ascend to Heaven, their hearts were consumed with the pain of my privation; and much more was this pain sharp and penetrating, since it was not a human pain, something material that they were losing – but a divine pain: it was a God that they were losing. And even though I had my Humanity, as It resurrected, It was spiritualized and glorified, therefore all the pain was in their souls; and penetrating their whole beings, it caused them to feel all consumed with grief, to the point of forming in them the most harrowing and painful martyrdom. But all this was necessary for them. It can be said that until that moment, they were nothing but tender babies in virtues and in the knowledge of divine things, and of my very person. I could say that I was in their midst but they did not really know Me, nor love Me. But when they saw Me ascend into Heaven, the pain of losing Me tore the veil, and they recognized Me with such certainty as the true Son of God, that the intense sorrow of no longer seeing Me in their midst gave birth to firmness in good and strength to suffer anything for love of the One whom they had lost. It gave birth to the light of divine science; it removed from them the swaddling clothes of their infancy, and it formed them as intrepid men - no longer fearful, but courageous. The pain transformed them and formed in them the true character of Apostles. What they could not obtain with my presence, they obtained with the pain of my privation.

           Now, my daughter, a little lesson for you. Your life can be called a continuous pain of losing Me and a continuous joy of acquiring Me. But between the pain of the loss and the joy of acquiring Me, how many surprises have I not given you? How many things have I not told you? It was pain and the painful martyrdom of losing Me that prepared you and disposed you to hear the sublime lessons on my Will. In fact, how many times it seemed to you that you had lost Me, and while you were immersed in your harrowing pain, I would come back to you with one of the most beautiful lessons on my Will, and I would make the new joy of acquiring Me come back, to dispose you once again to the piercing pain of my absence? I can say that the pain of remaining without Me has given birth in you to the effects, the value, the knowledges, the foundation of my Will. It was necessary that I conduct Myself with you in this way – that is, coming to you very often, and leaving you prey to the pain of being without Me. Since I had established that I would manifest to you, in a way all special, many things about my Will, I had to leave you prey to a continuous divine pain, because my Will is Divine, and only upon a divine pain could It establish Its throne and lay Its dominion; and assuming the attitude of teacher, It communicated the knowledge of my Will, as much as it is possible for a creature. Many will marvel in hearing of the continuous visits I made to you – which I have not done with others – and of your continuous pain of my privation. Had you not seen Me so many times, you would not have known Me nor loved Me so much, because each one of my visits brings an additional knowledge of Me and a new love; and the more the soul knows Me and loves Me, the more her pain is redoubled. And I, in coming, kept provoking your pain more intensely, because I want my Will not to lack the noble cortege of pain, which constitutes the soul firm and strong, so that my Will may form my stable dwelling in her, and give her new and continuous lessons on my Will. Therefore, I repeat to you – let Me do, and trust Me.”

Vol. 16 May 29, 1924



The sorrow of the privation of Jesus for the Apostles is what truly transformed them into Apostles and gave them the graces needed for their mission to sow the Kingdom of the Redemption on the earth.  So what appears as sorrows to the creature is how God prepares the ground for his work and the deeper he plows the greater the work and harvest.

Oh! how beautiful it is to see this field of the soul all covered with many drops of light, and as they gradually grow, many suns will form. This sight is enchanting; all Heaven is enraptured at the sight of it, and they are all attentive on looking at the Celestial Farmer who cultivates this field with such great mastery, and who possesses a seed so noble as to convert it into sun. Now, my daughter, this field is mine and I do with it whatever I want. Once these suns have formed, I collect them and take them to Heaven, as the most beautiful conquest of my Will, and then I return to the work of my field. So, I put everything upside down, and the little daughter of my Will feels everything ending, everything dying within her. In the place of the suns, so refulgent with light, she sees the drops of light which I am sowing, and she thinks that everything is perishing. How you deceive yourself - this is the new harvest that must be prepared; and since I want to make it more beautiful than the previous one, and make it larger so as to be able to double my harvest, at first sight the work seems to be more difficult, and the soul suffers more. But those pains are like strokes of the hoe into the ground, which make the seed sink deeper down so as to make it germinate more safely, with greater fecundity and beauty. Don’t you see, when a field is harvested, how squalid and poor it remains? But wait until it is sown again, and you will see it more flowery than before. Therefore, let me do; and you, by living in my Will, will always be at work with Me; we will sow the little drops of light together, and we will compete to see who sows more. So, we will amuse ourselves, now in sowing, now in resting – but always together. I know, I know what your strongest concern is – that I might leave you. No, no, I do not leave you; one who lives in my Will is inseparable from Me.”

Vol. 16, Oct. 20, 1923

 

 

Now I know all of this does not change the sorrow or the dryness that we feel at the time but I find for me it does help by giving the hope that allows faith to see beyond the present pain to the promised good, plus I get the reassurance that it's part of God's plan and not necessarily my fault.