I really never gave the Christmas Novena much thought before. It was something that Luisa did as a child as a precursor to all of the lessons that she received on the Divine Will. It was something that we did for the nine days before Christmas each year but I never looked much beyond that and to be honest it was something I rushed through to get back to the lessons on the Divine Will. Firstly I'd like to say that this novena is not just a nice little devotion that should only be considered just prior to Christmas. For everyone who lives in the Divine Will Christmas is not just once a year but it is always present, even to being renewed in every act. This is so with all of Jesus' life, death and resurrection but for now I'd like to look more into this little Christmas Novena of Luisa.
“My daughter, for one who does my Will it is always Christmas. As the soul enters my Will, I am conceived in her act; as she goes on performing her act, I carry out my Life; as she completes it, I rise again, and the soul remains conceived in Me, carries out her life in Mine, and rises again in my own acts. See, then, how Christmas holidays are for those who prepare themselves and place themselves in my grace once a year, and so they feel something new about my birth within themselves. Bur for one who does my Will it is always Christmas - I am born again in each one of her acts. So, would you want Me to be born in you once a year? No, no, for one who does my Will, my birth, my Life, my death and my resurrection must be a continuous act, never interrupted; otherwise, what would be the difference, the immeasurable distance, from the other sanctities?”
Vol. 16, December 26, 1923The Christmas Novena began as a way that Luisa wanted to honor Jesus and the nine months that he spent in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This was done under the guidance of Jesus. It prepared Luisa for all the future lessons that she received on the Divine Fiat in order to form His Kingdom. Each time this Novena is repeated Jesus' love is renewed, redoubled to overflow again and it disposes other souls to receive the lessons on the Divine Will. These simple meditations are full of life, love and of grace. When Jesus speaks, His word creates and by rereading them Jesus not only renews His love in the Incarnation but creates new love in order to conquer creatures with His love. It may appear simple on the surface but they come from the depth of the fount of God's love and contain life, strength and such tenderness as to move all but those dead to grace.
I was doing my meditation, and since today it was the beginning of the Novena of Baby Jesus, I was thinking about the nine excesses of His Incarnation, which Jesus had narrated to me with so much tenderness, and which are written in the first volume. I felt great reluctance at reminding the confessor about this, because, in reading them, he had told me that he wanted to read them in public in our chapel.
Now, while I was thinking of this, my little Baby Jesus made Himself seen in my arms, so very little, caressing me with His tiny little hands, and saying to me: “How beautiful is my little daughter! How beautiful! How I must thank you for having listened to Me.” And I: ‘My Love, what are You saying? It is I who must thank You for having spoken to me, and for having given me, with so much love, acting as my teacher, so many lessons which I did not deserve.’ And Jesus: “Ah, my daughter, to how many do I want to speak, and they do not listen to Me, reducing Me to silence and to suffocating my flames. So, we must thank each other – you thank Me, and I thank you. And then, why do you want to oppose the reading of the nine excesses? Ah! You do not know how much life, how much love and grace they contain. You must know that my word is creation, and in narrating to you the nine excesses of my love in the Incarnation, I not only renewed my love which I had in incarnating Myself, but I created new love in order to invest the creatures and conquer them to give themselves to Me. These nine excesses of my love, manifested with so much love of tenderness and simplicity, formed the prelude of the many lessons I was to give you about my Divine Fiat, in order to form Its Kingdom. And now, by their being read, my love is renewed and redoubled. Don’t you want, then, that my love, being redoubled, overflow outside and invest more hearts, so that, as a prelude, they may dispose themselves for the lessons of my Will, to make It known and reign?” And I: ‘My dear Baby, I believe that many have spoken about your Incarnation.’ And Jesus: “Yes, yes, they have spoken, but those have been words taken from the shore of my love, therefore they are words which possess neither tendernesses, nor fulnesses of life. But those few words which I have spoken to you, I have spoken from within the life of the fount of my love, and they contain life, irresistible strength, and such tendernesses, that only the dead will not feel themselves being moved to pity for Me, tiny little One, who suffered so many pains even from the womb of the Celestial Mama.”
Vol. 25, December 16, 1928
Each of the nine excesses of love of Jesus is a sea without boundaries which contains all souls. These seas act as life, guide, defense, food, bed, palace and homeland. Outside of these seas of love there is only death. And Jesus' cry over these lost souls makes His seas of love swell, boil and forming great waves they roar to make His cries of love and sorrow heard by all.
The novena of Holy Christmas continues, and continuing to hear the nine excesses of the Incarnation, my beloved Jesus drew me to Himself, and showed me how each excess of His love was a sea without boundaries. And, in this sea, gigantic waves rose, in which one could see all souls flowing, devoured by these flames. Just as the fish flow in the waters of the sea, and the waters of the sea form the life of the fish, the guide, the defense, the food, the bed, the palace of these fish, so much so, that if they get out of the sea, they can say, “our life is ended, because we have gone out of our inheritance – the fatherland given to us by our Creator”; in the same way, these gigantic waves of flames which rose from these seas of fire, by devouring the creatures, wanted to be the life, the guide, the defense, the food, the bed, the palace, the fatherland of creatures. But as they go out of this sea of love, all of a sudden, they find death. And little Baby Jesus cries, moans, prays, shouts and sighs, for He wants no one to go out of these devouring flames of His, because He does not want to see anyone die. Oh! if the sea had reason, more than tender mother it would sadly cry over its fish which are snatched away from its sea, because it feels a life, which it possesses and preserves with so much love, being snatched away from itself; and with its waves, it would hurl itself at those who dared to snatch away from it so many lives which it possesses, and which form its richness, its glory.
“And if the sea does not cry, I cry” – Jesus says – “in seeing that, while my love has devoured all creatures, ungrateful, they do not want to live life in my sea of love, but wriggling free from my flames, they exile themselves from my Fatherland, losing the palace, the guide, the defense, the food, the bed, and even the life. How can I not cry? They came out of Me – they were created by Me, and were devoured by my flames of love which I had in incarnating Myself for love of all creatures. As I hear the nine excesses being narrated to Me, the sea of my love swells - it boils; and forming huge waves, it roars so much, that it would want to deafen everyone, that they might hear nothing but my moans of love, my cries of sorrow, my repeated sobs, saying: ‘Don’t make Me cry any more, let us exchange the kiss of peace; let us love each other, and we will all be happy – the Creator and the creature’.”
...
the seas of love that you saw are nothing other than my Will operating. When my Will wants to operate, the seas of my love swell, boil, form their gigantic waves which cry, moan, shout, pray, deafen. On the other hand, when my Fiat does not want to operate, the sea of my love is calm, it only murmurs quietly, its course of joy and of happiness, inseparable from it, is continuous. Therefore, you cannot comprehend the joy I experience, the happiness I feel and the interest I take in illuminating, in offering my very word, my very Heart, to one who occupies himself with making my Divine Will known. My interest is so great, that I envelop him within Myself and, I Myself overflowing outside of him, I take the floor, and I Myself speak about my Will operating in my love.
Vol. 25, December 21, 1928
The Divine Will, by mandate of God's love for man, maintains the whole universe. It not maintains the universe but also the very life of each man and each act of each man, such that the Divine Will is the life and God's love is the nourishment. God makes Himself life and nourishment, both inside and outside of each soul but the creature remains blind to the one who loves her so much.
So, while following Its divine acts, I could touch with my own hand how much It loves us, because, in each of Its acts, seas of love came out for the creatures. And my always lovable Jesus, showing His Heart invested by ardent flames for love of creatures, told me: “My daughter, my Love toward creatures is so great, that It does not cease to love them for one single instant. If I ceased to love them for one instant alone, the whole machine of the universe and all creatures would resolve into nothing, because the existence of all things had the first act of life from my Love - full, whole, complete, interminable and incessant; and so that my Love might have all Its fullness, I released from Myself, as act of life of the whole universe and of each act of creature, my Divine Will. So, my Will is life of everything, my Love is continuous nourishment of all Creation. Life without nourishment cannot live; nourishment, if it does not find the life, has no one to whom to give Itself, nor anyone to nourish. So, the whole substance of all Creation is my Will, as life, and my Love, as nourishment; all other things are superficial, and as ornament. Therefore, Heaven and earth are full of my Love and of my Will; there is not one point in which, like mighty wind, They do not pour Themselves toward the creatures; and this, always – always, without ever ceasing. It is always in the act of pouring upon creatures; so much so, that if the creature thinks, my Divine Will makes Itself life of her intelligence; and my Love, by nourishing it, unfolds it. If she looks, It makes Itself life of her eye; and my Love nourishes the light of her seeing. If she speaks, if she palpitates, if she walks, my Will makes Itself life of the voice; my Love, nourishment of the word; my Divine Will makes Itself life of the heart; my Love, nourishment of the heartbeat. In sum, there is not one thing that the creature might do in which my Will does not run as life, and my Love as nourishment. But what is not Our sorrow in seeing that the creature does not recognize Who it is that forms her life, and Who nourishes all her acts.”
Vol. 28, July 16, 1930
God's seas of love for man hold Heaven and earth together and constantly refresh it in every moment. Now the act of the incarnation, a triune act of God, formed in the conclave of the most Holy Trinity, was so great with love that Heaven and earth couldn't contain it and it was so great as to be able to burn everything and everyone. The seas of His love burst forth in torrents as to stupefy all of Heaven. This triune act is repeated in every act that the creature would do in the Divine Will such that the Divine Will puts forth it's working, communicating, transforming and operative act to invest the creature's act. The Triune God both remains in Heaven and incarnates His Divine act within the creature just as He did in the incarnation. He gives everything into the power of one who lives in His Will even His very self such that that one can give everything back to God, even God.
“My blessed daughter, my love was so much in incarnating myself in the bosom of my Celestial Mother that Heavens and earth could not contain it, the act of incarnating myself happened in one act of love so intense, so strong, so great, that it was more than enough to burn everything and everyone with love. You should know, before incarnating myself my Celestial Father looked in himself and in the enthusiasm of his love not being able to contain it seas of love went forth from himself in torrents, in this enthusiasm of love he looked at his Son, and I found myself in the same flames of love and I commanded myself that I might incarnate myself, I wanted this, and in an impetus of love, without my Father leaving, nor the Holy Spirit, the great portent of the incarnation happened. I remained with my Father, and at the same time descended in the bosom of my Mother. The three Divine persons we were inseparable, nor subject to separate ourselves. Therefore I can say: I remained in Heaven, and descended in earth, and the Father and the Holy Spirit, they descended with me in earth and they remained in Heaven. Hence in this act so great our Divine Being overflowed so much in love, that the Heavens were stupefied and the Angels surprised and mute, everyone wounded in our flames of love. The incarnation was none other than an act of our Divine Will, what doesn’t he know how to do and can do[?] everything; with his power and with his infinite love he arrives, even to work the prodigy not ever heard of, nor done, of making us remain in Heaven and descend in the prison of the Maternal bosom. Thus our Will wanted thus it was done.
“Now my daughter, every time that the soul wants to do my Will, my Celestial Father first looks inside of himself, calls as in counsel the Sacrosanct Trinity, in order to fill that act of our Will with all the possible and imaginable goods, then he issues it forth from himself and makes it invest the creature by his working, communicating, transforming Will, and as in the incarnation the three Divine Persons they remained in Heaven, and descended in the bosom of the Immaculate Virgin, thus my Will with his power transports with himself in his operative act the Divine Trinity in the creature, while he leaves him in Heaven, and forms there in the human will his Divine act.
“Now who can tell you the wonders that become enclosed in this act of our Will? our love rises and diffuses itself so much as to not find where to put itself, and when it has filled everything, it retires into our source, our sanctity feels honored with (the) Divine act from our same working Will in the creature and diffuses itself with surprising graces, in order to communicate his sanctity to all creatures, they are unreachable prodigies that He completes, when the creature calls him to work in her. Therefore make everything disappear in my Will, and we will give you everything in your power and you will be able to give us everything, even ourselves.”
Vol. 34, March 1, 1936
But how should we respond to so great a love that can't even be contained? How to respond to His long nine months of being consumed in the seas of His love for mankind. Our Mother Mary gives the example that we should follow and even better that we should join ourselves to her seas of love, her rounds and the feast that she made for her Son/God. She is the Full of Grace who can return to God all that is of God for herself and for all of her children. She is the one who can perfectly reciprocate God for all His unrequited love. She does this for all of Creation, all souls, and each individual soul. She teaches us how to do it and she calls us to do it together with her.
“My daughter, do you know? my Mama prepared for me the feast in my birth, do you know ever how? She was to light of the seas of love, that descended from Heaven in the descent of the Eternal Word, she felt the continuous cry of God, that wanted to be re-loved, our anxieties, the ardent sighs, she felt my moans in her bosom, often she felt me cry and sob, and my every moan was a sea of love that I sent to every heart in order to be loved, and not seeing myself loved, she/I cried, even to sob, but every tear and hiccup doubled my seas of love in order to conquer creatures by way of love. But what, they converted these seas for me into sufferings, and I made use of the sufferings, in order to convert them into other seas of love for how many sufferings they gave me. Now my Mama wanted to make me smile in my birth and to prepare the feast for her Baby Son. She knew that I can not smile if I am not loved, nor take part in any Feast if love doesn’t race. Therefore loving me as true Mother, and possessing in virtue of my Fiat seas of love, and being Queen of all the Creation, she involved the Sky with her love, and sealed every star with the ‘I love you oh Son’, for me and for everyone, she involved the Sun in her sea of love and she impressed in every drop of light, her ‘I love you oh Son’, and she called the Sun to invest with its light its Creator and warming him he might feel in every drop of light the ‘I love you’ of his Mama. She invested the wind with her love and in every breath sealed the ‘I love you oh Son’, and then she called it so that, with its puffs it caressed him, and he might feel in every breath of wind ‘I love you, I love you oh my Son’. She involved all the air in her seas of love, so that breathing he might feel the breath of love of my Mother. She covered the whole sea with her sea of love, every wriggle of fish, and the sea murmured ‘I love you oh my Son’, and the fishes quivered ‘I love you, I love you’, there was no thing that she didn’t invest with her love, and with her empire of Queen, she commanded everyone that they might receive her love, in order to re-give her Jesus the love of his Mama.
“Hence every bird, some trilled love, some chirruped, some warbled love, even every atom of earth was invested by her love, the breath/[fiato] of the beasts came with the ‘I love you’ of my Mother, the hay was invested by her love, therefore there was no thing that I might see or touch, that I might not feel the sweetness of the love of Her. With this she prepared for me the most beautiful feast, in my birth, the feast all of love, was the exchange of my great love, that made me find my sweet Mother, and it was her love that quieted my weeping, warmed me while in the manger I was numbed by the cold; more so that I found in her love the love of all creatures, and for every one she kissed me, squeezed me to her Heart, and loved me with (the) love of Mother for all her children, and I feeling in every one her Maternal love, I felt myself love them as her children and as my dear brothers.
“My daughter, what can not love do, animated by an Omnipotent Fiat? It makes itself magnet and attracts there in an irresistible way, removing every dissimilarity, with its heat it transforms and confirms He whom it loves. Then it embellishes in an incredible way, as to feel Heavens and earth enraptured to love. To not love a creature that loves us proves impossible, all our Power and Divine strength, are rendered impotent and weak before the winning strength of whom loves us. Therefore you also give me the feast that my Mother gave me in being born, involve Heaven and earth with your ‘I love you oh Jesus’, let nothing escape you if your love doesn’t race, make me smile, because I was not born one single time, but I am always reborn, and many times my rebirths are without smile and without feast and I remain alone (with) my tears, the hiccups, the whimpers and a cold that makes me tremble and numbs all my members.
“Therefore squeeze me to your heart in order to warm me with your love and with the light of my Will, form for me the attire in order to dress me, thus you also will make for me the feast and I will make it for you, with giving you new love and new knowledge of my Will.”
Vol. 34, January 1, 1937
Jesus longs for the reciprocation of His seas of love. He longs for the feast that His Mother made for Him in His birth to be repeated in each of His births in the acts of His children of the Divine Will. I've become convinced that I can not do this properly. It is true that the Divine Will supplies for all and even makes up for all that which we can not consciously do but I can't help but want to give Him the perfect response. The response that only His Mother was and is able to give Him. So more and more I ask our Blessed Mother to help.
"O Mother, please cover me with your mantle, supply for all that which I lack, repair all that which I have done poorly and make me whole and presentable to your Son Jesus and as you do this for me let us do this for everyone."
Here is the Christmas Novena as recorded in Volume One from two different sections.
Beginning of the narration: The Christmas Novena.
I begin. With a Novena of Holy Christmas, at the age of about seventeen, I prepared myself for the Feast of Holy Christmas, by practicing various acts of virtue and mortification; and, especially, by honoring the nine months which Jesus spent in the maternal womb with nine hours of meditation each day, always concerning the mystery of the Incarnation.
First Hour: Jesus in the Bosom of the Father. Decree of the Incarnation
As for example, during one hour, with my thought, I brought myself to Paradise, and I imagined the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, sending the Son upon earth; the Son, promptly obeying the Will of the Father; the Holy Spirit, consenting. My mind was confused in contemplating a mystery so great, a love so reciprocal, so equal, so strong among Themselves and toward men; and then, the ingratitude of men, and especially my own. I would have remained there, not for one hour, but for the whole day; but an interior voice told me: “Enough – come and see other greater excesses of my love.”
Second Hour: Incarnate love in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Then, my mind brought itself into the maternal womb, and remained stupefied in considering a God so great in Heaven, now so annihilated, restricted, constrained, as to be unable to move, and almost even to breathe. The interior voice told me: “Do you see how much I have loved you?” O please, make Me a little space in your heart; remove everything which is not mine, so you will give Me more freedom to move and to breathe.” My heart was consumed; I asked for His forgiveness, I promised to be completely His own, I poured myself out in crying; but – I say this to my confusion – I would go back to my usual defects. Oh! Jesus, how good You have been with this miserable creature.
Third Hour: Devouring love.
3 As I moved on from the second to the third meditation, an interior voice told me: “My daughter, place your head upon the womb of my Mama, and look deep into it at my little Humanity. My love devoured Me; the fires, the oceans, the immense seas of love of my Divinity inundated Me, burned Me to ashes, and sent their flames so high as to rise and reach everywhere - all generations, from the first to the last man. My little Humanity was devoured in the midst of such flames; but do you know what my eternal love wants Me to devour? Ah! Souls! And only then was I content, when I devoured them all, to remain conceived with Me. I was God, and I was to operate as God - I had to take them all. My love would have given Me no peace, had I excluded any of them. Ah! my daughter, look well into the womb of my Mama; fix well your eyes on my conceived Humanity, and you will find your soul conceived with Me, and the flames of my love that devoured you. Oh! how much I loved you, and I do love you!”
I felt dissolved in the midst of so much love, nor was I able to go out of it; but a voice called me loudly, saying: “My daughter, this is nothing yet; cling more tightly to Me, and give your hands to my dear Mama, that She may hold you to her maternal womb. And you, take another look at my little conceived Humanity, and watch the fourth excess of my love.”
Fourth Hour: Operating love, which from the start makes Jesus suffer the pains of his passion over and over again.
4 “My daughter, from the devouring love, move on to look at my operative love. Each conceived soul brought Me the burden of her sins, of her weaknesses and passions, and my love commanded Me to take the burden of each one of them. And it conceived not only the souls, but the pains of each one, as well as the satisfaction which each one of them was to give to my Celestial Father. So my Passion was conceived together with Me. Look well at Me in the womb of my Celestial Mama. Oh! how tortured was my little Humanity. Look well at my little head, surrounded by a crown of thorns, which, pressed tightly around my temples, made rivers of tears pour out from my eyes; nor was I able to make a move to dry them. O please! be moved to compassion for Me, dry my eyes from so much crying - you, who have free arms to be able to do it. These thorns are the crown of the so many evil thoughts which crowd the human minds. Oh! how they prick Me, more than thorns which sprout from the earth. But, look again – what a long crucifixion of nine months: I could not move a finger or a hand or a foot. I was always immobile; there was no room to be able to move even a tiny bit. What a long and hard crucifixion, with the addition that all evil works, assuming the form of nails, continuously pierced my hands and feet.” So He continued to narrate to me pains upon pains – all the martyrdoms of His little Humanity, such that, if I wanted to tell them all, I would be too long.
I abandoned myself to crying, and I heard in my interior: “My daughter, I would like to hug you, but I am unable to do so - there is no room, I am immobile, I cannot do it. I would like to come to you, but I am unable to walk. For now, you hug Me and you come to Me; then, when I come out of the maternal womb, I will come to you.” But as I hugged Him and squeezed Him tightly to my heart with my imagination, an interior voice told me: “Enough for now, my daughter; move on to consider the fifth excess of my love.”
Fifth Hour: Love abandoned and alone.
5 And the interior voice continued: “My daughter, do not move away from Me, do not leave Me alone; my love wants your company. This is another excess of my love, which does not want to be alone. But do you know whose company it wants? That of the creature. See, in the womb of my Mama, all creatures are together with Me – conceived together with Me. I am with them, all love. I want to tell them how much I love them; I want to speak with them to tell them of my joys and sorrows - that I have come into their midst to make them happy and to console them; that I will remain in their midst as a little brother, giving my goods, my Kingdom, to each one of them at the cost of my life. I want to give them my kisses and my caresses; I want to amuse Myself with them, but – ah, how many sorrows they give Me! Some run away from Me, some play deaf and force Me into silence; some despise my goods and do not care about my Kingdom, returning my kisses and caresses with indifference and obliviousness of Me, so they convert my amusement into bitter crying. Oh! how lonely I am, though in the midst of many. Oh! how loneliness weighs upon Me. I have no one to whom to say a word, with whom to pour Myself out - not even in love. I am always sad and taciturn, because if I speak, I am not listened to. Ah! my daughter, I beg you, I implore you, do not leave Me alone in so much loneliness; give Me the good of letting Me speak by listening to Me; lend your ear to my teachings. I am the master of masters. How many things do I want to teach you! If you listen to Me, you will stop my crying and I will amuse Myself with you. Don’t you want to amuse yourself with Me?”
And as I abandoned myself in Him, giving Him my compassion in His loneliness, the interior voice continued: “Enough, enough; move on to consider the sixth excess of my love.”
Sixth Hour: Love suffocated and confined to the darkness of sin and ingratitude.
6 “My daughter, come, pray my dear Mama to set aside a little space for you within her maternal womb, that you yourself may see the painful state in which I find Myself.” So, in my thoughts, it seemed that our Queen Mama made me a little room to make Jesus content, and placed me in it. But the darkness was such that I could not see Him; I could only hear His breathing, while He continued to say in my interior: “My daughter, look at another excess of my love. I am the eternal light; the sun is a shadow of my light. But do you see where my love led Me - in what a dark prison I am? There is not a glimmer of light; it is always night for Me – but a night without stars, without rest. I am always awake…what pain! The narrowness of this prison - without being able to make the slightest movement; the thick darkness…; even my breathing, as I breathe through the breathing of my Mama – oh, how labored it is! To this, add the darkness of the sins of creatures. Each sin was a night for Me, and combined together they formed an abyss of darkness, with no boundaries. What pain! Oh, excess of my love - making Me pass from an immensity of light and space into an abyss of thick darkness, so narrow as to lose the freedom to breathe; and all this, for love of creatures.”
As He was saying this, He moaned - moans almost suffocated because of the lack of space; and He cried. I was consumed with crying. I thanked Him, I compassionated Him; I wanted to make Him a little light with my love, as He told me to. But who can say all? Then, the same interior voice added: “Enough for now; move on to the seventh excess of my love.”
Seventh Hour: Love is left unanswered and wounded by ingratitude.
7 The interior voice continued: “My daughter, do not leave Me alone in so much loneliness and in so much darkness. Do not leave the womb of my Mama, so you may see the seventh excess of my love. Listen to Me: in the womb of my Celestial Father I was fully happy; there was no good which I did not possess; joy, happiness - everything was at my disposal. The Angels adored Me reverently, hanging upon my every wish. Ah, excess of my love! I could say that it made Me change my destiny; it restrained Me within this gloomy prison; it stripped Me of all my joys, happinesses and goods, to clothe Me with all the unhappinesses of creatures – and all this in order to make an exchange, to give them my destiny, my joys and my eternal happiness. But this would have been nothing had I not found in them highest ingratitude and obstinate perfidy. Oh, how my eternal love was surprised in the face of so much ingratitude, and how it cried over the stubbornness and perfidy of man. Ingratitude was the sharpest thorn that pierced my heart, from my conception up to the last moment of my life. Look at my little heart - it is wounded, and pours out blood. What pain! What torture I feel! My daughter, do not be ungrateful to Me. Ingratitude is the hardest pain for your Jesus; it is to close the door in my face, leaving Me numb with cold. But my love did not stop at so much ingratitude; it took the attitude of supplicating, imploring, moaning and begging love. This is the eighth excess of my love.”
Eighth Hour: Begging, lamenting and pleading.
8 “My daughter, do not leave Me alone; place your head upon the womb of my dear Mama, and even from the outside you will hear my moans and my supplications. In seeing that neither my moans nor my supplications move the creature to compassion for my love, I assume the attitude of the poorest of beggars; and stretching out my little hand, I ask - for pity’s sake, and at least as alms - for their souls, for their affections and for their hearts. My love wanted to conquer the heart of man at any cost; and in seeing that after seven excesses of my love, he was still reluctant, he played deaf, he did not care about Me and did not want to give himself to Me, my love wanted to push itself further. It should have stopped; but no, it wanted to overflow even more from within its boundaries; and from the womb of my Mama, it made my voice reach every heart with the most insinuating manners, with the most fervent pleas, with the most penetrating words. And do you know what I said to them? ‘My child, give me your heart; I will give you everything you want, provided that you give Me your heart in exchange. I have descended from Heaven to make a prey of it. O please, do not deny it to Me! Do not delude my hopes!’ And in seeing him reluctant – even more, many turned their backs to Me – I passed on to moaning; I joined my little hands and, crying, with a voice suffocated by sobs, I added: ‘Ohh! Ohh! I am the little beggar; you don’t want to give Me your heart - not even as alms? Is this not a greater excess of my love; that the Creator, in order to approach the creature, takes the form of a little baby so as not to strike fear in him; that He asks for the heart of the creature, at least as alms, and in seeing that he does not want to give it, He supplicates, moans and cries?”
Then I heard Him say: “And you, don’t you want to give Me your heart? Or maybe you too want Me to moan, beg and cry in order to give Me your heart? Do you want to deny Me the alms I ask of you?” And as He was saying this I heard Him as though sobbing, and I: ‘My Jesus, do not cry, I give You my heart and all of myself.’ Then, the interior voice continued: “Move further; pass on to the ninth excess of my love.”
Ninth Hour: Love in the continual state of agony and death.
9 “My daughter, my state is ever more painful. If you love Me, keep your gaze fixed on Me, to see if you can offer some relief to your Jesus; a little word of love, a caress, a kiss, will give respite to my crying and to my afflictions. Listen my daughter, after I gave eight excesses of my love, and man requited them so badly, my love did not give up and wanted to add the ninth excess to the eighth. And this was yearnings, sighs of fire, flames of desire, for I wanted to go out of the maternal womb to embrace man. This reduced my little Humanity, not yet born, to such an agony as to reach the point of breathing my last. But as I was about to breathe my last, my Divinity, which was inseparable from Me, gave Me sips of life, and so I regained life to continue my agony, and return again to the point of death. This was the ninth excess of my love: to agonize and to die of love continuously for the creature. Oh! what a long agony of nine months! Oh! how love suffocated Me and made Me die. Had I not had the Divinity with Me, which gave Me life again every time I was about to finish, love would have consumed Me before coming out to the light of day.”
Then He added: “Look at Me, listen to Me, how I agonize, how my heart beats, pants, burns. Look at Me - now I die.” And He remained in deep silence. I felt I was dying. My blood froze in my veins, and trembling, I said to Him: ‘My Love, my Life, do not die, do not leave me alone. You want love, and I will love You; I will not leave You ever again. Give me your flames to be able to love You more, and be consumed completely for You.’
