The Twelve Days of Christmas

 

 

 

 

In the Church bulletin the other day there was a little section which talked about the hidden meaning behind the song of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  Now I don't think I ever knew about this so thought I'd pass it on.  There is a nice site on the internet which talks about this:  The History of the Twelve Days of Christmas.   This song goes back to Catholics trying to survive in a Protestant England and was a way to teach some of the fundamentals of the Catholic faith in code.

 

 

 

The partridge in the pear tree represents Jesus because that bird is willing to sacrifice its life if necessary to protect its young by feigning injury to draw away predators.

The two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments
The three French hens stood for faith, hope, and love.
The four calling birds were the four gospels.
The five golden rings represented the first five books of the Old Testament.
The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit-----Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit-----Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience [Forbearance], Goodness [Kindness], Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency [Chastity].
The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful Apostles.
The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in The Apostles' Creed.
Original Source: Fr. Calvin Goodwin, FSSP, Nebraska
Printed with permission from Catholic Tradition.



So I hope everyone has a Blessed Christmas season and is drawn closer and closer to a deeper relationship with God.

 

 



Our Lady and Mother

On this feast of the Immaculate Conception and the beginning of this Jubilee of Mercy I wanted to take a moment to see what it is that Jesus Himself says about Our Lady as only He can do justice to Her.  In the Poem of the Man God there is a scene where Jesus reveals to some of his Apostles and disciples the mystery of Mary.

"I listened to you apostles, disciples and relatives speak, and I heard your impressions, your recollections and your statements concerning My Mother.  I will transfigure all that, which is admirable although still very human, into a supernatural knowledge.  Because My Mother is to be transfigured, before Me, in the eyes of the most deserving, to show Her as She is.  You see a woman.  A woman different from other women, because of Her holiness, but in actual fact you see Her as a soul wrapped in a body, just like all women Her sisters.  But now I wish to reveal to you the soul of My Mother.  Her true and eternal beauty.

 

Come here, Mother.  Do not blush.  Do not withdraw shyly, sweet dove of God.  Your Son is the Word of God and He can speak f You and of Your mystery, of Your mysteries, O sublime Mystery of God.  Let us sit down here, in the pleasant shade of the trees in blossom near the house, near Your holy room.  Thus!  Let us lift this fluttering curtain, so that waves of holiness and Paradise may come out of this virginal room, to saturate us all with Your virtues...  Yes.  Me as well.  That I may smell of You, O perfect Virgin, so that I may be able to bear the stench of the world, in order that I may see purity after saturating My eyes with Your Purity...  Marjiam, John, Stephen come here, and you women disciples, stand directly in front of the open door of the chaste abode of the most Chaste amongst women.  And you, My friends, stand behind.  And You, My beloved Mother, here, beside Me.

 

A little while ago I said to you:  "the eternal beauty of the soul of My Mother."  I am the Word, and thus I can make use of words without erring.  I said:  eternal, not immortal.  And I deliberately said to.  He is immortal who, after being born, does not die.  Thus the souls of the just are immortal in Heaven, the souls of sinners are immortal in Hell, because a soul, once it has been created, does not die but to grace.  But a soul has life, it exists from that moment that God thinks it.  It is in the Thought of God that creates it.  The soul of My Mother was thought by God from everlasting.  It is therefore eternal in its beauty, in which God poured every perfection to receive delight and comfort from it.

 

It is written in the Book of our ancestor Solomon, who foresaw You, and can thus be called Your prophet:  "God possessed me from the beginning of His works, from the very beginning, before Creation.  From everlasting I was firmly set, from the beginning before the Earth came into being.  The deep was not yet, and I was conceived.  There were no springs to gush with water, the mountains were not yet settled on their hug mass, and I already was.  Before the hills I came to birth.  He ha not yet made the Earth, the rivers, or the poles of the world, and I already existed.  When He prepared the sky and Heaven I was present.  When with inviolable law He closed the abyss under the vault, when He fixed firm the celestial vault and He suspended there the sources of water, when he assigned the sea  its boundaries and He ordered the water not to pass its limit, when He laid down the foundations of the earth, I was by His side arranging everything.  I was always joyfully at play in His presence.  I played in the universe."

 

Yes, Mother, with Whom God, Immense, Sublime, Virgin, Uncreated, was pregnant and carried You like a most sweet burden, rejoicing at feeling You stir within Him, when with Your smiles he created the Universe!  He laboriously gave birth to You to give you to the world, most gentle soul, born of the Deity to be the "Virgin," the Perfection of Creation, the Light of Paradise, the Advice of God, Who looking at You forgave Sin, because You alone, by Yourself can love as all Mankind put together cannot love.  In You is the Forgiveness of God!  You are the Treatment of God, You are the caress of the Eternal Father on the wound that man inflicted on God!  In You is the Salvation of the world, Mother of the Love Incarnate and of the granted Redeemer!  The soul of My Mother!  Merged in Love with My Father, I looked at You within Me, O soul of My Mother!...   And Your splendor, Your prayer, the idea of being carried by You comforted Me forever and ever for My destiny of sorrow and inhuman experience of what the corrupted world is for the most Perfect God.  Thank You, Mother!  When I came I was already full of Your consolation, I descended perceiving You alone, Your perfume, Your song, Your love...Joy, My joy!

 

Now that you know that one only is the Woman in Whom there is no stain, that one only Human Being costs the Redeemer no injury, listen to the second transfiguration of Mary, the Elect Daughter of God.

 

It was a clear afternoon in the month of Adar and the trees were in bloom in the silent kitchen garden, and Mary, Joseph's bride, had picked a flowery branch to replace the one that was in Her room.  Mary, taken from the Temple to adorn a house of saints, had recently come to Nazareth.  And with Her soul divided among Temple, house and Heaven, She was looking at the flowery branch, considering that by means of a similar branch, which had bloomed in an unusual manner, a branch cut off in this garden in the depth of winter and had bloomed as if it were springtime before the Ark of the Lord - perhaps the Sun-God beaming in His Glory had warmed it - God had revealed His will to Her...  And She was thinking also that on the day of their wedding Joseph had brought Her other flowers, but never like the first one on the thin petals of which It was written:  "I want You united to Joseph"...  She was thinking of many thing...  And while thinking She ascended to God.  Her hands ere busy with distaff and spindle and were spinning a yarn that was thinner than the hair of Her young Head...

 

Her soul was weaving a carpet of love, moving quickly, like a shuttle on a loom, from the earth to Heaven.  From the needs of the house, of Joseph, to those of the soul, of God.  And She sang and prayed.  And the carpet was forming on the mystical loom, it rolled off from the earth to Heaven, it ascended to get lost up there...  Formed with what?  With the thin, perfect strong threads of Her virtues, with the flying thread of the shuttle, which She thought was "Hers," whereas it was God's:  the shuttle of the Will of God, on which was rolled the will of the little, great Virgin of Israel, Unknown to the World, Known to God, rolled and made one with the Will of the Lord.  And the carpet was adorned with the flowers of love, of purity, with palms of peace and palms of glory, with sweet-smelling violets, with jasmines...  Every virtue flowered on the carpet of love, which the Virgin of God unrolled invitingly from the earth to Heaven.  And as the carpet was not sufficient She thrust Her heart singing:  "let My Beloved come into His garden and eat the fruit of His trees...  Let My Beloved come down to His garden, to the bed of spices, to pasture in the gardens and gather lilies.  I am My Beloved's and My Beloved is Mine.  He pastures among the lilies!"  And from infinite distance, among torrents of Light, a Voice came that human ear cannot hear and human throat cannot utter.  And it said:  "How beautiful You are, My love!  How beautiful You are!... Your lips distil wild honey...  You are a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain, My sister, My promised bride..."  and the two voices joined together to sing the eternal truth:  "Love is stronger than death.  Nothing can quench or drown 'our" love."  And the Virgin was thus transfigured when Gabriel descended and called Her back t the Earth, with his ardor, and joined Her soul to Her body again, so that She might hear and understand the request of Him, Who had called Her "Sister" but wanted Her to be His "Bride."

 

And the Mystery took place there...  And a modest woman, the most modest of all women, Who was not even aware of the instinctive incentive of the flesh, fainted before the Angel of God, because even an angel upsets the humbleness and modesty of the Virgin, and only when She heard him speak She calmed down, and She believed, and She said the word, whereby "their" love became Flesh and will defeat Death and no flood will be able to quench it or wickedness to submerge it..."

 

Jesus bends gently over Mary Who has slid to His feet, almost ecstatically, in the recollection of the remote hour; shining with a special light, which seems to issue from Her soul, and He asks Her in a low voice:  "Which was our reply, Most Pure Mother, to him who assured You that by becoming Mother of God, You would not Lose Your perfect Virginity?"

 

And Mary, almost in a dream, slowly, smiling, Her eyes shining with joyful tears:  "I am the handmaid of the Lord!  Let It be done to Me according to your Word" and She reclines Her head on the knew of Her Son, adoring Him.

 

Jesus covers Her with His mantle, concealing Her from everybody's eyes and He says:  "And it was done.  All will be done until the end.  Until Her net transfiguration and the one after that.  She will always be the "Handmaid of God." She will always act according to what "the Word" says.  My Mother!  That is My Mother.  And you ought to begin to become fully acquainted with Her holy Figure...  Mother!  Mother!  Raise Your face, My Beloved...  Call Your devout admirers back to the Earth, where we are for the time being..."  He says uncovering Mary after a little which, during which no nose was heard except the humming of bees and the gurgling of the little fountain.

 

Mary raised Her face wet with tears and whispers:  "Why did You do that to Me, Son?  The secrets of the King are sacred..."

 

"But the King can reveal them whenever He wishes.  Mother, I did it, so that the words of the Prophet may be understood:  "A Woman will enclose the Man in Herself," and the words of the other Prophet:  "The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son/"  And also that My disciples, who are struck with horror at too many things that they consider degrading for the Word of God, may have, as counterbalance, many other things confirming them in the joy of being "Mine."  Thus they will no longer be scandalized and will conquer Heaven..."

 

In the Volumes Jesus repeats this refrain of how Mary called God down to the Earth.

In addition to Myself, there is my Celestial Mama, who was given the unique mission of Mother of a Son-God, and the office of Co-Redemptrix of mankind. For Her mission of Divine Maternity, She was enriched with so much grace, that all that belongs to the other creatures, both celestial and terrestrial, united all together, will never be able to equal Her. But this was not enough to draw the Word into Her maternal womb; She embraced all creatures, She loved, repaired, adored the Supreme Majesty for all, in such a way as to accomplish, Herself alone, all that the human generations owed God. So, in Her virginal Heart She had an inexhaustible vein toward God and toward all creatures. When the Divinity found in this Virgin the requital of the love of all, It felt enraptured, and formed in Her Its Conception. And as She conceived Me, She took on the office of Co-Redemptrix, and She took part in, and embraced together with Me, all the pains, the satisfactions, the reparations, the maternal love toward all. So, in the Heart of my Mother there was a fiber of maternal love toward each creature. This is why, when I was on the Cross, in truth and with justice I declared Her the Mother of all. She ran together with Me in the love, in the pains - in everything; She never left Me alone. If the Eternal One had not placed so much grace in Her as to be able to receive the love of all from Her alone, He would never have moved from Heaven to come upon earth to redeem mankind. Here is the necessity, the befittingness, that, having the mission of Mother of the Word, She embrace and surpass everything.

Vol. 17, May 1, 1925

 

And again in the Volumes he expounds on the supremacy of our Queen and Lady and Mother.

 

 

 

“But the one who surpasses all is my Celestial Mama.  She is the new heaven, the most refulgent sun, the brightest moon, the most flowery earth; She encloses everything – everything within Herself.  If each created thing encloses the fullness of its own good received by God, my Mama encloses all goods together, because, since She is endowed with reason and my Will lived wholly in Her, the fullness of grace, of light, of sanctity, grew in every instant.  Every act She did was suns and stars that my Will formed in Her.  So, She surpassed the whole Creation; and my Will, whole and permanent in Her, did the greatest thing and impetrated the longed for Redeemer.  This is why my Mama is Queen in the midst of Creation - because She surpassed everything, and my Will found in Her the nourishment of Her reason, which made It live as whole and permanent in Her.  There was highest accord, they held each other’s hand, there was not one fiber of Her Heart, or word or thought, over which my Will did not possess Its Life.  And what can a Divine Will not do?  It can do everything.  There is no power It lacks, or thing It cannot do.  Therefore it can be said that my Mama did everything; and everything that all others together could not do, nor will be able to do, She did by Herself.

“Therefore, do not be surprised if I point out to you the Creation and the Sovereign Queen, because I must point out to you the most perfect examples in which my Will has perennial life, and has never found an obstacle to Its field of divine action, in order to be able to operate things worthy of Itself.  My daughter, if you want my Supreme Fiat to reign as It does in Heaven – which is the greatest thing that is left for Us to do for the human generations – let my Will have the place of sovereign in you, and live as whole and permanent.  Do not be concerned about anything else, be it your incapacity, or the circumstances, or the new things which may arise around you, because as my Will reigns in you, they will serve as raw material and nourishment so that my Fiat may have Its fulfillment.”

 

Afterwards, I was thinking to myself:  ‘It is true that my Queen Mama made the greatest of sacrifices, which no one else has made - that is, not even wanting to know Her own will, but only that of God; and through this She embraced all sorrows, all pains, up to the heroism of sacrifice, sacrificing Her own Son in order to do the Supreme Will - but once She made this sacrifice, everything She suffered afterwards was the effect of Her first act.  Nor did She have to struggle as we do, in different circumstances, in unforeseen encounters, in unexpected losses… It is a constant struggle, to the point of making our hearts bleed for fear that we might surrender to our own belligerent human wills.  How much attention one must have, so that the Supreme Will may always keep Its place of honor and Its supremacy over everything; and many times this struggle is harsher than the pain itself.’

But while I was thinking of this, my lovable Jesus moved in my interior, telling me:

      “My daughter, you are wrong.  The maximum sacrifice of my Mama was not only one, but they were so great and so many - for as many as were the sorrows, the pains, the circumstances and the encounters to which Her existence and Mine were exposed.  Pains were always doubled in Her, because my pains were Hers - more than Her own pains.  Besides, my wisdom did not change direction with my Mama; in each pain She was to receive, I always asked Her whether She wanted to accept it, in order to hear that ‘Fiat’ being repeated to Me in each pain, in each circumstance, and even in each heartbeat of Hers.  That ‘Fiat’ resounded so sweet, gentle and harmonious to Me, that I wanted to hear It being repeated in every instant of Her life.  This is why I would always ask Her:  ‘Mama, do you want to do this?  Do you want to suffer this pain?’  And my Fiat would bring Her the seas of the goods It contains, and would make Her understand the intensity of the pain She was accepting.  This understanding, through divine light, of that which, step by step, She was to suffer, gave Her such martyrdom as to infinitely surpass the struggle which creatures suffer.  In fact, since the seed of sin was missing in Her, the seed of the struggle was missing, and so my Will had to find another device, that She might not be inferior to the other creatures in suffering, because, having to acquire by justice the right of Queen of Sorrows, She was to surpass in suffering all creatures together.

“How many times have you yourself not experienced this – that while you felt no struggle within you, as my Will would make you understand the pains It inflicted upon you, you would remain petrified by the intensity of the pain; and while you were undone in that pain, you were the tiny little lamb in my arms, ready to accept yet more pains to which my Will would want you to be submitted.  Ah, did you not suffer more than in the struggle itself?  The struggle is a sign of vehement passions, while my Will, if It brings suffering, gives intrepidness; and with the knowledge of the intensity of the pain, It gives one such merit that only a Divine Will can give.  Therefore, just as I act with you – that in everything I want from you, first I ask you whether you want it, whether you accept it – so I did with my Mama.  This, so that the sacrifice may be always new, and may give Me the opportunity to converse with the creature, to be with her, and my Volition may have Its field of divine action in the human will.”

Vol 19, April 28, 1926




Our Heavenly Mother is the Queen of all and possess the fullness of all grace, beauty and virtue but she is not just the Mother of all of us she is even the Mother of all and each of our acts.  Jesus says that this is one of the greatest graces ever given to man but so many refuse her Maternity and making all that she would want to give futile.

“Now, you must know that as my inseparable Mama extended her maternity inside and outside of my humanity, thus I constituted her and confirmed her Mother of every single thought of the creature, of every breath, of every heartbeat, of every word, and I made her maternity extend in the works, in the steps, in all their sufferings.  Her maternity races everywhere; in the perils of falling into sin, she races, covers them with her maternity, so that they don’t fall, and if they have fallen, she leaves her maternity as help and defense in order to have them rise again; her maternity races and extends itself over the souls that want to be good and holy as if she might find her Jesus in them, she does as Mother to their intelligence, she guides their words, covers and hides them in her maternal love in order to raise so many other Jesus’s.  Her maternity makes (a) display over the beds of the dying, and making use of the rights of authority of Mother from me she gives (to) them, she says to me with (an) accent so tender that I can not deny her:  ‘My Son, I am Mother, and they are my children, I must put them into safety, if you don’t concede this to me my maternity goes (swept) under/(is undermined) by it’; and while she says this, she covers them with her love, hides them in her maternity in order to put them into safety.

            “My love was so much that I said to her:  ‘My mother, I want that you be the Mother of everyone, and that which you have done for me you will do to all creatures; let your maternity be extended in all their acts, in a way that all I will see is covered and hidden in your maternal love.’  My Mama accepted and remained confirmed that not only should she be Mother of everyone, but to invest every act of theirs with her maternal love.  This was one of greatest graces that I did to all the human generations, but how many sorrows doesn’t my Mama receive?  They arrive to not want to receive her maternity, to refuse to acknowledge her...
Vol. 36, December 28, 1938

The Transformative Power of Grief

Our Lady of Sorrows



No one can go through life without encountering grief in one form or another.  The loss of a loved one, a beloved pet, property, freedom, even of our own perceived abilities which we often consider our own, until we lose them.  Those sorrowful dry periods where we feel deprived of God himself is also a grieving.  Grief has a role in the divine plan.  It's a tool which shapes us, matures us.  It is a pale echo of the grief which God experiences himself.

Jesus relates that the Apostles did not become true Apostles until they felt the pain of being deprived of their Master, Jesus in his Ascension.  The pain of loss sharpens the recognition of what we had and increases our love for the lost one.  Jesus states that this transformation into Apostles was not possible with his long presence with them but only through the painful loss.



 

 





“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.

Vol. 16, May 29, 1924

Adam also grieved in his loss, in recognizing the difference of his innocent state with his fallen state.  He lost the presence of God in his every act, he lost the ease of living in the Divine Will which he had before taken for granted.  Now with this loss he could finally appreciate all that he had and how foolishly he had thrown it all away.  From this loss his love for God grew and he aspired to love him in what ways he had left to him even if it might only be in endeavoring to do the little good that he now could do.  It formed in him long perseverance.  But without the Divine Will he could only form little lights through grace.

It was precisely this that drew all Our tenderness and Our paternal goodness toward Adam. He had comprehended what living in Our Divine Will meant, and with his littlest acts, just as with the greatest, he ran inside Our creative virtue, and they were invested by the Sun of the eternal Fiat which, being Sun, had the virtue of being able to form as many suns as he wanted. And in seeing himself emptied of this creative strength, he could no longer form suns; and so - poor one - he tried as hard as he could to form little lights; and in seeing the great difference between his original act and that after sin, he felt such grief as to feel himself dying at each act of his. The Supreme Being felt touched, and admired the industriousness of poor Adam who, no longer able to form suns, did his best to form little lights with his acts; and because of this, He kept for him the promise of the future Messiah.”
Vol. 23, November 2, 1927

God himself grieves in the loss of his relationship with man and the lost intimacy.  Having to enforce his Justice on man at any time is a sorrow for God himself.  But his eyes are set on a long range prize.  Man was not created to remain isolated from God but to be an ever unfolding work in his hands.  If he chastises now it is only to regain in safety the creature for their mutual joy.

“Oh man, how much I have loved you!  If you knew how I grieve in having to chastise you!  But my Justice forces Me to this.  Ohh man, Ohh man! How I cry and grieve over your lot.”  Then He would burst into tears and, again, He would repeat those words.

Vol. 2, March 14, 1899 

...the chastisements were to serve as a recall to the creature, to be a speaking voice, sentinels that would have shaken them from the sleep of sin, and urge them to get on the right path; they were to be light to lead them.  Thus they were also means to help them receive the goods of the Redemption, and I did not want to destroy these aids.  Therefore by My coming to earth, people were not entirely exempt from the chastisements that they merited.

“Now, my daughter, you think that I would have done more if I had freed the people from the chastisements that are so necessary in these times, and seeing that this request is not conceded you, you become bored with life and would like to come to Heaven.  Poor daughter, how childish you are in the knowledge of the goods which are great, incalculable, and never - ending, and so different from those that are small and finite.  Is it not greater to form the Kingdom of my Divine Will so that It be made known, to prepare the way for creatures to enter into It, to form the light of Its knowledges, to lead them, to give once again the happiness, the original state of creation, to enrich them with all the goods that a Divine Will contains, compared to the goods they would have gained by your freeing all the people from chastisements?  This would be nothing compared to the first, before the great good that comes from the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat; so if you find yourself in My same position, of having to content yourself to form the Kingdom of the Divine Volition - which is far greater - or send chastisements, you must be content that [the chastisements] at least partially run their course.  This is especially true because I am keeping you on earth for the Kingdom of my Will:  this is your special mission.”

Vol. 21, May 12, 1927



We are not meant to live isolated from God and God created us to be a continuous company to Him.  He longs to love, to give and to be loved in return but he can not obtain any of this unless the creature lives in the safety of the Divine Will.

“I didn’t create the creature so that she might remain isolated at all, it was my work and hence I had to unfold my work in order to form worthy work of me.  Therefore if she doesn’t live in my Will I don’t find the first matter in order to form and grow my life, we live as distant, as isolated, and the solitude grieves me, the silence weighs on me; not being able to unfold my work, I give into manias of love and I feel myself rendered the unhappy God apart from creatures.

Vol. 36, September 11, 1938




Grieving enflames and confirms one in the love of the loved one.  It strengthens and matures one for the journey.  Luisa suffered frequent privations from Jesus.  At first she felt she could grieve and sorrow over these separations but it got to the point where she would feel the pain of the separation without being able to give vent to it by grieving which was even worse for her. 

I continue my abandonment in the Divine Volition, with the almost continuous torment of the privation of my sweet Jesus. Oh! God, what terrible pain. Oh! how I miss my past, His sweet smile, His affectionate kisses, the gentleness of His voice, His enchanting and enrapturing beauty, His chaste embraces, His tender heartbeats which, with so much love, He let palpitate within mine, divinizing me and transforming His life into myself. Each act of Jesus, each word and each gaze, were as many more paradises that He formed in His little daughter. And now, as I remember them, they are wounds, sharp darts, burning arrows of intense sorrow, of martyrdom and of continuous death. But my sorrow is not all here; maybe grieving would have been a relief, because my grief would have told me in clear notes that my love toward the One whom I loved and who had loved me so much, formed my torment. But not even this is conceded to me, because as the wounds are about to bleed, the darts to shoot, the arrows to burn me, the light of the Holy Divine Volition flows in them, and eclipsing all the intensity of my hard martyrdom, It makes peace, happiness, beneficial dew, flow over my poor soul. So, I can not even have the good of grieving over a loss so great. Oh! if I could grieve as before, I believe that my highest good, Jesus, would not take so long to come back. But this is not in my power; I am at the mercy of the Divine Fiat, which leaves not one void in me, and wants to lord even over my sorrow of the privation of Jesus.
Vol. 23, January 13, 1928 

This pain without pain, sorrow without grieving was the same condition that Jesus found himself in in his Humanity.  The Divinity is incapable of suffering.  It is in fact a type of relief to be able to suffer.  So there is a type of disconnect, a sorrow without the accompanying pain which causes spasms.  Jesus states that it is a divine suffering which is incomprehensible to the created mind and can not be fully expressed.   It is only reproduced in a soul which fully lives in the Divine Will and produces the same effects as that which Jesus suffered in these conditions.

I felt I was under the nightmare of an infinite weight. My poor mind moaned with suffocated moans, without the vent of being able to release them because of the privation of my sweet Jesus. And while I felt consumed by the harrowing pain of being deprived of my Life and my All, that very pain, making me intrepid, destroyed in me the life of the pain. So, while I felt immersed in pain, incapable of expressing myself, it was yet pain without pain, sorrow without sorrow; and in my bitterness I thought to myself: ‘Why am I not able to grieve? I feel an infinite pain in me, as infinite as the One who left me; yet, as I try to penetrate into a pain so just and holy – being deprived of my Jesus – so as to water my poor soul, the pain escapes me, and I remain without the life of the pain. My Jesus, have pity on me – do not leave in a state so unhappy.’
But while I was thinking of this, my lovable Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, one who lives in my Will enters the divine order. And since Our Divinity is incapable of suffering, anything, (not) even the slightest thing, can in the least shade Our perennial and infinite happiness; and as much as creatures offend Us, the pain, the offenses, remain outside of Us – never within Us. And if pain could enter into Us, it would immediately lose the nature of pain and would convert into happiness. In the same way, for one who lives in my Will pain cannot enter her soul; more so since, in feeling the light, the strength, the happiness of the nature of my Divine Will within her, she already feels in possession of that Jesus of whom she seems to be deprived.  How can she grieve if she already possesses Him? Therefore, pain remains outside of the soul – that is, in the human nature – and while the soul feels all the spasm of my privation and the weight of an infinite pain, which is the privation of Me, because she is invested by the Divine Fiat she seems incapable of grieving. And so she feels pain without pain, sorrow without sorrow, because pain and sorrows cannot enter the sacrarium of my Will – they are forced to remain outside. The soul feels them, sees them, touches them, but they do not enter into her center. And if they did, my Will would lose Its happy nature in you, which cannot be.

It happens as to the Sun, which in incapable of darkness. All of the human strengths cannot make one atom of darkness enter into its light; however, darkness can extend outside of the light. But the Sun loses nothing, either its heat, or its admirable effects; it is always triumphant in its state of light – darkness can neither make it go down, nor take anything away from its light. However, if the Sun could grieve, It would feel bad at being surrounded by darkness, even though it can cause no harm to Its center, nor to Its happy state.  But this is a pain that surpasses all other pains, because it is a pain of divine order. How many times my Humanity felt it! It felt crushed – all pains weighed upon Me, but inside of Me the Divine Will was untouchable by all of my pains, and possessed immense happinesses, beatitudes without end. It can be said that there were two natures in Me – one opposed to the other: one of happiness, the other of pains. Oh, how my human nature felt the pains more vividly than the immense joys of my divine nature!
This is why you are incapable of expressing yourself – because these are pains of divine order; and if before, when I would hide from you, you felt that everything would turn into pain within you, it was because the life of my Will, in Its wholeness, was missing in you. Therefore, those voids were filled with pain, and you would feel sensitivity to the pain which rendered you, not imperturbable and peaceful as today, but agitated, without that firmness which gives of the divine. And I would immediately run to sustain you, because I did not see all of the indelible characters of my Will. In fact, that which my Will places is never erased, and I, feeling confident about It, leave the task to my Divine Fiat.”

Vol. 24, May 10, 1928

But when Jesus acts it is a life that he produces and therefore his grieving is over a divine life.



How different is my operating from that of creatures. If they speak, teach, operate, they do not leave their life in the word and in the work, therefore they do not grieve too much if their words and works do not obtain their fruits. On the other hand, I grieve very, very much, because it is life that I make run in what I manifest.”
Vol. 23, November 6, 1927


All the lives he's deposited in the Creation and in the Redemption who's purpose is to bring about their goods and life to the creature, remain frustrated and as impotent.  This is the Divine grief that God undergoes constantly and he is even constrained by love to preserve the creature in it's chosen life of "mud" when it always holds at the ready the gift of eternal, royal life.

The Creation is stuffed with our creative works.  The redemption is a boundless field of our actions, done because they brought the life and the good that they contain to creatures.  So that we are surrounded by the magnificence of our works.  But we hold the sorrow that these works do not become taken, and many (are) not even known by the creature, and hence they are for them as dead.  Because they bring life and produce fruits of life as much as [creatures] make use of them, and to hold so many vital works compromised, as so many of our properties without producing the fruits that they contain, and more so to see the creature poor, weak and without the life of true good, it grieves us so much, that you can not understand in what condition of sorrow creatures put us in. 
Vol. 29, April 24, 1931

“My daughter, if you knew how many sorrows my Will receives, you would cry with me. In all Creation my Will has Its motion and Its continuous act; It encompasses everything, and in all created things It holds out Its incessant act to each creature. But not finding Its own Will in them in order to give Its act – on the contrary, It finds human wills as though covered with mud - It is forced to place Its act in order to preserve them. It feels tortured by the sorrow of placing in the mud the nobility, the sanctity, the purity of Its divine acts. It does not find the cortege of Its own Divine Will in Its act which It deposits in the creature, and It suffers intensely; and I feel Its sorrow in each of Its acts, as well as in each act which It allows the creatures themselves to do. If the creature speaks, operates and walks, it is my Divine Will that makes Itself primary motion of her word, work and step; and yet, It is not looked at, It is put aside as if my Volition were extraneous to her, while It holds the vital and essential part of her act. Oh! how It grieves in each act of creatures, in seeing Itself neither recognized, nor loved, nor looked at. There is nothing in Creation which my Will does not do: in the sun It does Its act of incessant light in order to give light to creatures, and It looks for Its own Volition in them in order to receive the cortege and the glory for Its light; and not finding it, It grieves, because It does not find in them that which matches Its light - on the contrary, It finds in them darkness and coldness which offend Its light and Its heat. What sorrow! My Volition does Its continuous act in the air, and breathing in It, It forms a vital act in the air, such that, as creatures breathe it, they receive life. But while It gives life, It does not find in them the breath of Its own Divine Volition which, breathing together with the creature, would form Divine Life in her. What sorrow – to give life, and not to be able to form it in them. My Will forms the food, It keeps so many elements in exercise – the earth, the wind, the sun, the air, the water, the seed – in order to form this food and give it to creatures, so as to find Its own Will in them. But – no, it is in vain, and Its sorrow becomes more intense.
Vol. 22, August 28, 1927

Jesus states that God is like an unimaginable rich king who would like to go out among his people and share his riches with them.  But his people reject him and reject his gifts.  But he will not stop until he finds souls who will take his every last cent.  Until then he will grieve and sorrow.

In sum, for each misfortune he sees in his kingdom, he has a sorrow, a tear; and he grieves over his million which the ingratitude of his people rejects.  However, the goodness of this king is so great that, in spite of all this ingratitude, he does not withdraw this million; he lets it continue to circulate, hoping that other generations may take the good which the others have rejected, so that he may receive the glory of the good which he has done for his kingdom.

           “So I do:  I will not withdraw my Love which has been released - It will continue to go wandering.  Its sobbing will last still, until It finds souls who would take this Love of Mine down to the last cent, so that my crying may cease, and I may receive the glory of the dowry of Love which I issued for the good of creatures.  But do you know who are the fortunate ones who will make the sobbing of my Love cease?  The souls who will live in my Will.  They will take all the Love rejected by the other generations; by the power of my Creative Will, they will multiply It as much as they want, and for as many creatures as have rejected It.  Then will my sobbing cease, and the sob of joy will take its place; and Love, satisfied, will give to these fortunate ones all the goods and the happiness which the others did not want.”
Vol. 14, February 4, 1922

With a soul living in the Divine Will God can use these voids that grieving forms in us to create.  It is the place in which he can create new life.  He requires a void, a place where to place his new life, his creative work.  Grieving, sorrow is an emptying of oneself and creates that void.  It is a pattern which God has been repeating from the very beginning of time.




1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ² the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3



These privations suffered by Luisa formed and prepared the field, the womb even to receive the new creation.  When suffered in the Divine Will this death produces not just a maturity or a strengthening or an increase in love but Life, Divine Life.

The pain of my privation prepares the place for my new life, and disposes your soul to listen to and to comprehend the important truths on my Divine Fiat. If I did not deprive you of Me so very often, you would not have had the new surprises of your Jesus, His many teachings. Have you yourself not seen how, after you have been without Me and you thought that everything was over for you, my life would rise again in you and, all love and festive, I would set about giving you my lessons? So, when I deprive you of Me, I remain hidden in you and I prepare the work to give you, and my new life to rise again. I too suffered the pain of death, to make all creatures rise again in the pain of my death. Death, suffered in the divine order and in order to fulfill the Divine Will, produces Divine Life, so that all creatures might receive this Divine Life. And, after having suffered so many deaths, I wanted to really die - how many goods did my resurrection not produce? It can be said that with my resurrection all the goods of my Redemption rose again, and, with it, all goods rose again for creatures, as well as their very life. Therefore, be attentive, and let Me do.”

Vol. 25, December 13, 1928



And Jesus encourages Luisa to always remain guided by the Divine Will in all things so that grief may change into victory.

“My good daughter, courage.  Allow yourself to be guided by the light of my Divine Will, which will know how to convert sorrows, sufferings, my privations themselves into perennial peace, and into divine conquests.  The nature of his light is eclipsed, strengthened, fortified; and where his light arrives, sorrow loses strength; he is life, and changes it into conquests and into joys, because the strength of his light excels, and where he takes his post all other things lose life.

Vol. 31, August 7, 1932





Jesus has made it so that this might be ready to release on this memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.   In her we can try to gain a little understanding in what this divine grieving achieves.  She grieved over the all the offences given to God.  But because she was animated by the Divine Will this grieving did more than just confirm and strengthen it produced in her an unending fount, and endless sea of grace which she can use for the glory of Heaven, the relief for the souls in Purgatory and for the benefit for us still making our way on earth.

“My daughter, even before knowing that She was to be my Mother, my dear Mama had Her sea of sorrow, and this sea was the pain because of the offenses given to Her Creator.  Oh! how She grieved.  And then, this pain of Hers was animated by a Divine Will, which She possessed, and which contains the virtue of a fount:  It has the virtue of changing everything that is done in It – the littlest things, the drops of water - into unending sea.

Vol. 20, November 4, 1926

“My daughter, courage along the way of sorrow.  See, these seven suns which come out from within my Heart are my Seven Sorrows which produced much glory and splendor for Me.  These suns, the fruits of my sorrows, dart continuously through the throne of the Most Holy Trinity which, feeling wounded, sends Me seven channels of grace continuously, making Me their owner; and I dispense them for the glory of all Heaven, for the relief of purging souls, and for the benefit of pilgrim souls.” 

Vol. 6, December 21, 1903

God wants to love and to be loved in return.  He wants to be known and understood by his creature.  He wants to enrich his children with his own riches, with Divine Lives in their each and every act.  It is only when a creature arrives to live in his Divine Will that all of his sorrow ceases and he can love as he wants.  Until that point the creature will always remain isolated and estranged and God will remain unable to be the God and Father that he truly is.

“Therefore we love so much that the creature live in our Volition, because we want to give, we want that she understand us, we want to populate all the human acts with our divine lives, we don’t want to remain enclosed, repressed, in our divine circle.  To be able to give, and not give, how much it grieves us, and even to such that she won’t live in our Volition the creature will be always the little ignorant one of our supreme being, incapable of even learning the vowels of how much we love her and of how much we can give her. They will be always the dissimilar children from us, that maybe don’t even know us, degenerates from their Father.”

Vol. 36, August 21, 1938        

“I didn’t create the creature so that she might remain isolated at all, it was my work and hence I had to unfold my work in order to form worthy work of me.  Therefore if she doesn’t live in my Will I don’t find the first matter in order to form and grow my life, we live as distant, as isolated, and the solitude grieves me, the silence weighs on me; not being able to unfold my work, I give into manias of love and I feel myself rendered the unhappy God apart from creatures.

Vol. 36, September 11, 1938 

“I have done everything for you, come to enjoy and possess all that which with so much love I have created for you, do not make yourself estranged from all that which belongs to you nor make ours and your possessions isolated and deserted.  Come and make your voice echoed, so that it resounds in all our created things.  Make us feel the sweet stamping of your steps.  Solitude grieves us, company puts us in feast and gives us the sweet surprises of the joys that our beloved creature can give us.”

Vol. 30, April 23,  1932