In Volume 6 it is explained to Luisa that in order to enter Heaven the soul has to lose all of her own tastes in order to take on the divine tastes. If she were to keep something of her own she would always have a cause for bitterness or fears.
“My daughter, courage, the beginning of eternal beatitude is to lose every taste of one’s own. In fact, as the soul keeps losing her own tastes, the divine tastes take possession of her, and the soul, having undone and lost herself, no longer recognizes herself; she finds nothing else of her own – not even spiritual things. Seeing that the soul has nothing else of her own, God fills her with all of Himself and replenishes her with all the divine happinesses. Only then can the soul truly be called blessed, because as long as she had something of her own, she could not be exempt from bitternesses and fears, nor could God communicate His happiness to her. No soul that enters the port of eternal beatitude can be exempted from this point – painful, yes, but necessary; nor can she do without it. Generally they do it at the point of death, and Purgatory does the last job.
Vol. 6, December 6, 1904This is further elaborated elsewhere in Volume 6. Luisa meets a priest who is in Purgatory and he explains that his sufferings originate from the attachments he had in life to his family, friends and other earthly matters.
Now, while wandering about, I found myself in Purgatory, and my sorrow and my crying seemed to increase the sorrow of those poor souls deprived of their life, God. Among them there seemed to be quite a few priests, one of whom seemed to be suffering more than the others; and he said to me: “My grave sufferings come from the fact that in life I was very attached to family interests, to earthly things, and I had a little attachment to some people. This produces so much evil for the priest as to form an iron shell, covered with mud, that enwraps him like a garment, and only the fire of Purgatory and the fire of the privation of God - which is such that, compared to it, the first fire disappears - can destroy this shell. Oh, how much I suffer! My pains are unutterable. Pray, pray for me.”
Vol. 6, July 30, 1904Whereas another religious, also in Purgatory, suffers from what we might think of as simply neglecting to receive communion when she could have. But to God this is a severe sin, not for the act in itself but because it is an affront to his love that someone chooses earthly things over desiring him above all else. Jesus loves us to unimaginable excess and yearns constantly to pour out that love to us and in us in the blessed sacrament. This not loving him back is the sin which requires Purgatory to expiate.
I saw a soul from Purgatory who, upon seeing us, hid and shunned us, and the blushing she felt was such that she was as though crushed. I was surprised that instead of running to the Baby, she would run away. Jesus disappeared, and I drew near her asking the reason for it. She was so ashamed that she could not utter a word, but as I forced her, she told me: “Just Justice of God, for having sealed upon my forehead confusion and such fear of His presence that I am forced to shun Him. I act against my own will, because while I am consumed with yearning for Him, another pain inundates me, and I shun Him. Oh, God – to see Him, and to shun Him – these are mortal and unutterable pains! However, I have deserved these pains, distinct from those of other souls, because in conducting a devout life, many times I made abuse by not receiving Communion because of trifles, temptations, coldnesses, fears, and sometimes even in order to be able to bring reasons to my confessor and let him hear that I was not receiving Communion. Souls hold all this as nothing, but God judges it most severely, giving it pains which surpass the other pains, because these are defects more directed to love. In addition to all this, Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament burns with love and with the desire to give Himself to souls. He feels Himself dying continuously with love, and when the soul can draw near Him to receive it, but does not – or even more, she remains there indifferent with many useless pretexts – the affront and the displeasure He receives are such that He feels restless, burning, and cannot give vent to His flames. He feels as though suffocated by His own love, finding no one with whom to share it, and almost gone mad, He keeps repeating: ‘The excesses of my love are neglected – even more, they are forgotten. Even the ones who call themselves my spouses have no yearning to receive Me and to let Me pour Myself out with them at least. Ah, in nothing am I requited! Ohh! Ohh! Ohh! I am not loved! I am not loved!’ And so, to have me purged of this defect, the Lord has made me share in the pain which He suffers when souls do not receive Him. It is a pain, it is a sorrow, it is a fire, such that it can be said that the very fire of Purgatory, compared to it, is nothing.”
After this, I found myself inside myself, all stupefied, thinking about the pain of that soul, while here with us neglecting Communion is really held as nothing.
Vol. 7, October 14, 1906
In fact we are not only meant to return love to God but all of our acts need to be done with love of God and with the intention of pleasing him. If not, even though it might appear to be a good act, it only brings with it darkness.
“My daughter, all human actions, even holy, done without a special intention for Me, come out of the soul full of darkness, while if they are done with an upright and special intention to please Me, they come out full of light, because the intention is the purge of the action.”
Vol. 6, July 21, 1906We are not only obligated to love God in return for all the love he gives us but we are also responsible to encourage others to love God as well. When we steal affections or the attention that others should be giving to God we rob these affections from God putting ourselves in his place.
Continuing in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus made Himself seen afflicted, and was lamenting because of the many who steal from Him the affections and the hearts of creatures, putting themselves in His place within souls. And I said to Him: ‘My Love, is this vice so ugly that it saddens You so much?’
And He: “My daughter, it is not only ugly, but awful. It is to turn upside down the order of the Creator, putting themselves on top and Myself below, and saying to Me: ‘I too am good at being God.’ What would you say if someone stole a million from someone else, and rendered him poor and unhappy?”
And I: ‘Either he should give it back, or he would deserve condemnation.’
Every time the creature chooses something other than God to love whether people or pleasures or interests or things, she empties herself of divine love/charity and she forms a void in herself which can only be purged and filled with the fires of Purgatory.
I understood that as God creates us, this attribute of charity pours into us and fills us completely of itself, in such a way that if the soul corresponded, being filled with the breath of the charity of God, her very nature should be transmuted into charity toward God. But as the soul keeps diffusing herself in the love of creatures, or of pleasures, or of interests, or of any other thing, that divine breath keeps going out of the soul; and if the soul arrives at diffusing herself in everything, she becomes empty of divine charity. But since the soul cannot enter into Heaven if she is not a complex of most pure charity, fully divine, if the soul is saved, this breath which she received in being created, she will acquire again by dint of fire in the purging flames, and only when she comes to the point of overflowing with it, then will she go out. So, who knows what an extremely long stop she has to make in that expiatory place!
Vol. 4, October 14, 1901
Vol. 4, October 14, 1901
Only when the soul is all transformed into love can the soul enter into Heaven. The proof of this is when there is only love and no passions remain when exposed to mortifications.
After going through various days of privation, today, as I was about to do my meditation, my mind was distracted in something else, and by means of light I comprehended that in going out of the body, the soul enters into God; but since God is most pure love, only when the soul is a complex of love - then does she enter into God. In fact, God receives no one into Himself if she is not completely similar to Him, and on finding her similar, He receives her and shares all of His qualities with her. So, we shall be in God beyond the Heavens, just as we are inside our rooms here. Now, it seemed to me that this could be done also during the course of our lives, so as to spare the fire of Purgatory the toil, and ourselves the pain, and therefore be introduced immediately, with no interruption, into our highest Good, God. It seemed to me that the nourishment of fire is wood, and the sign to be sure that the wood is reduced to fire is that it no longer produces smoke. Now, the beginning and the end of all our actions must be the fire of the love of God; the wood which must nourish this fire is the crosses, the mortifications; the smoke that rises in the midst of wood and fire is the passions, the inclinations which often peep out. So, the sign that everything is consumed into fire within us is that our passions remain in their place, and we no longer feel inclination toward all that does not regard God. It seems that, with this, we will pass freely, with no obstacle, to dwell inside our God, and we will come to enjoy, even here below, paradise in advance.
Vol. 4, September 14, 1901
This is so true that Jesus says early on that humiliations need to not only be accepted but loved. This acts to purify the soul while still on earth with celestial fire.
“Humiliation must not only be accepted, but also loved; so much so, as to chew it like food. And just as when a food is bitter, the more one chews it, the more he feels the bitterness, in the same way, humiliation, when it is well chewed, gives rise to mortification. And these – that is, humiliation and mortification – are two most powerful means in order to get out of certain hitches and obtain those graces which are needed. While it seems to be noxious to the human nature, just like the bitter food which seems to do harm rather than good - so with humility and mortification. But it is not so. The more the piece of iron is beaten on the anvil, the more it sparkles with fire and is purged. The same for the soul: the more she is humiliated and beaten on the anvil of mortification, the more she sparkles with celestial fire and is purged - if she really wants to walk along the path of good. If then she is false, it happens all the opposite.”
Vol. 3, December 30, 1899If there is even the slightest void in the soul of the love of God then she must go to Purgatory to empty herself of her own things and fill herself with Divine Love and Will
Now it is our decree that no one enters into Heaven, if her soul is not filled even to the brim, all with our Will and with our love, it is enough a little void of this, that Heaven is not opened for her, behold therefore the necessity of Purgatory, in order to empty herself by way of sufferings and fire, of all that which is human and to fill herself by ways of anxieties, longings and martyrdoms, with pure love and with Divine Will, in order to be able to enter into the Celestial Country and without acquiring with so many sufferings, neither merit, nor great glory, but only for the conditions that they want to be admitted to the Celestial sojourn.
Vol. 33, March 10, 1935
As an interesting side note Sr. M. G. asked Sr. M. de L. C. in An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory where Purgatory was located and if the earth itself and our time on it counted as Purgatory.Where is Purgatory situated?
It is in the center of the earth, close to Hell, as you saw one day after Holy Communion. The large number of souls there are confined to a limited space. There are thousands and thousands of souls there. But then what space does a soul occupy? Each day thousands of souls come to Purgatory and most of them remain thirty to forty years, some for longer periods, others for shorter. I tell you this in terms of earthly calculations because here it is quite different. Oh, if people only knew and understood what Purgatory is and what it means to know that we are here through our own fault. I have been here eight years and it seems to me like ten thousand. Oh my God!
An Unpublished Manuscript on PurgatoryIs not the earth itself a Purgatory?
Amongst the people who dwell there some, by voluntary or accepted penance, do their Purgatory on earth because it is truly a place of suffering, but these souls, not having sufficient generosity, go to the real Purgatory to finish what was begun on earth.
An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory
And now to get back to the actual substance of this post, the reason behind these dry periods. Luisa suffered many periods which she referred to as privations or as being deprived of God. She would say how she would long for God but couldn't find him and of how she would try to pray and do her rounds but felt she failed utterly. As has already been discussed any moment in a creatures life which is not filled with the love of God is considered a void which requires Purgatory to cleanse and repair. Jesus tells Luisa, however, that in order to reduce the suffering the soul would normally undergo, God allows the soul to experience dry periods. She can never restore those acts empty of love but when God allows a soul to be deprived of him for a time it serves to enflame her love for him more so that she might then continue onward with double love for the rest of her life. So these dry periods we suffer are actually a mercy shown to us by God. A chance to renew our love for him and increase it so as to repay him for all the empty acts we may have done in the past, sparing us the greater suffering we'd encounter in Purgatory. So when we correspond and accept these sufferings our time on earth can indeed be used as our Purgation.
All confused, I said: ‘Lord, what a difference between my love and Yours. Not only does mine have a beginning, but as for the past, I see some voids in my soul of not having loved You.’ And Jesus, all compassion for me, told me: “My beloved, there cannot be conformity between the love of the Creator and that of the creature; however, today I want to tell you something which will be of great consolation for you and which you have never understood: know that each soul, during the whole course of her life, is obliged to love Me constantly, with no interval; and if she does not love Me always, she leaves as many voids in her soul for as many days, hours or minutes in which she has neglected to love Me. But no one will be able to enter Heaven if he has not filled these voids; and one will only be able to fill them by loving Me twice as much for the rest of his life; and if he does not arrive at doing this, he will fill them by dint of fire in Purgatory. Now, when you are deprived of Me, the privation of the beloved makes love double, and by this, you come to fill the voids that there are present in your soul.”
Vol. 4, July 16, 1901Jesus confirms this again telling Luisa that these privations increase the souls desire of God which in turn causes God to breathe the soul igniting the fire of love and enflaming it more. This is in fact a Communion, a pure spiritual Communion which is not limited to time, place and circumstance but a Communion which can be continuous. Being of spirit it is more perfect and is of the most pure love.
“My daughter, poor daughter, courage, the privation of Me excites the desire more, and in this excited desire the soul breathes God; and God, feeling more ignited by this excitement of the soul, breathes the soul. In this breathing each other - God and the soul - thirst for love ignites more, and since love is fire, it forms the purgatory of the soul, and this purgatory serves her, not as just one Communion a day, as the Church allows, but as a continuous communion, just as the breathing is continuous. But these are all communions of most pure love – only of spirit, not of body; and since the spirit is more perfect, as a consequence, love is more intense. This is how I repay, not one who does not want to receive Me, but one who cannot receive Me, depriving himself of Me to content Me.
Vol. 6, December 5, 1903These privations also serve to make the creature turn away from the distractions of earthly things. She finds no contentment, peace or satisfaction from anything and so turns her attention to God until she becomes totally purged of anything earthly or of hers so that she might receive all of God.
“My daughter, the cross unites the soul ever more closely to Me. These privations that you suffer make you fly above yourself, because not finding the One whom you love in you, life becomes boring to you, all the things that surround you annoy you, and you have nothing on which to lean. The One on whom alone you used to lean seems to be missing in you, and therefore the soul keeps flying and flying, until she is purged of everything, to the point of being consumed; and in these consummations your Jesus will give you the final kiss and you will find yourself in Heaven. Aren’t you happy?”
Vol. 9, November 6, 1909And when the soul desires God above all else to the point where even death holds no fear in it, no regrets or anxiety but is seen only as a way to unite oneself with God. Jesus states that this lack of fear of death is a pleasing homage to him and purges the soul allowing her to pass straight on to Heaven.
‘My lovable Jesus, it must be a defect in me, this not fearing death. I see that others fear it so much, while to me, instead, thinking only that death will unite me with You forever and will put an end to the martyrdom of my hard separation, the thought of death not only gives no fear, but is of relief; it gives me peace and I make feast, disregarding all the other consequences which death brings with itself.’ And Jesus: “Daughter, in truth, that extravagant fear of dying is foolishness, when one has all my merits, virtues and works as passport in order to enter Heaven, since I made a donation of it to everyone. Those who have added from their own, then, profit even more from this donation of mine; and with all this substance, what fear can one have of death? Rather, with this most safe passport the soul can enter wherever she wants, and out of regard for her passport, everyone respects her and lets her pass. As for you, then, your not fearing death at all comes from your having dealt with Me, and having experienced how sweet and dear is the union with the highest Good. Know, however, that the most pleasing homage that can be offered to Me, is desiring to die in order to be united with Me. This is the most beautiful disposition in order for the soul to be purged and to pass straight on, with no interval, through the way of Heaven."
Vol. 4, January 6, 1902
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