Showing posts with label resignation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resignation. Show all posts

Friday, September 20, 2024

The Wicked Tenants












The parable of the wicked tenants is well known and I have listened to it in the past feeling it was an assurance that I was on the right side of things.  Certainly this parable is only about those people who do not recognize Jesus as the Christ, Savior and Redeemer, the Son of God.  A parable to the Chief Priests and Pharisees who connived to have Jesus killed or now for those who spitefully reject Him and His Church?  A light came to me while listening to this gospel reading during mass that this parable, like so many things that come from God, has another deeper meaning as well.



33 “Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower.  Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.  34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’  39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.  44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.  46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Matthew 21: 33-46




In fact we, ourselves, are the fields of God.  All of our acts/fruits are His by right and when we act of our own will instead of His we are denying Him His due.  

Further in the Bible from this Gospel St Paul writes to the Corinthians telling them that he and Apollos are merely servants of God doing His work, planting and watering.  But we are the fields of God where they work but all the growth is of and from God Himself. 




What then is Apollos?  What is Paul?  Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:5-9





In the Volumes the land and earth are common images of the humanity of the creature, even the name Adam means red/fair earth.  An even clearer example is found in the book, The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, where she speaks of her birth, the earth of her Humanity and all the flowerings  and prodigies that came from it, meaning her acts in the Divine Will.





'Child of my Heart, my birth was prodigious; no other birth can be said to be similar to mine.  I enclosed within Myself the Heaven, the Sun of the Divine Will, and also the earth of my humanity - but a blessed and holy earth, which enclosed the most beautiful flowerings.  And even though I was just newly born, I enclosed the prodigy of the greatest prodigies:  the Divine Will reigning in Me, which enclosed in Me a Heaven more beautiful, a Sun more refulgent than those of Creation, of which I was also Queen, as well as a sea of graces without boundaries, which constantly murmured:  “Love, love to my Creator.” '
The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 10




Now Mary was immaculate from the moment of her conception and all her acts came from the fount of the Divine Will.  She did not contain the stain of original sin or it's effects denying life to her human will from the moment of her conception.  And these divine acts formed fruit in the manner of suns.   Lights that give to all and give eternally.  These are the types of fruitful acts that we were originally created to do, that should come forth from humanity, that God is still owed, but because of original sin and it's effects we are then prevented from doing them as was intended by God.




"You must know that I knew my human will only to keep it sacrificed in homage to my Creator.  My life was all of Divine Will; from the first instant of my Conception, I was molded, warmed and placed into Its light, which purified my human seed with Its power, in such a way that I was conceived without original sin.   Therefore, if my Conception was spotless and so glorious as to form the honor of the Divine Family, it was only because the Omnipotent Fiat poured Itself upon my seed, and I was conceived pure and holy.   So, if the Divine Will had not poured Itself upon my seed more than a tender mother, in order to prevent the effects of original sin, I would have encountered the sad destiny of the other creatures, of being conceived with original sin.  Therefore, the primary cause was, entirely, the Divine Will; to It be honor, glory, thanksgiving, for my having been conceived without original sin. 
The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 1



Such is one who operates in my Will.  Her acts acquire the continuity - they are always repeated without ever ceasing.  They are the true Sun which, from the moment It was created by God, has given Its first act of light - but so great, as to fill Heaven and earth with one single act.  And It repeats this act always, without ever ceasing, in such a way that all can take Its act of light, though one was the act that constituted itself act of perennial light for all.  If the Sun could repeat Its act of light, one would see as many Suns for as many acts as It could repeat; but since the act of light that It did is one, one sees only one Sun and no more.  But what the Sun did not do the Sovereign Queen did, and one who operates in my Will does also:  as many Suns for as many acts, and these Suns are fused together, though distinct among them in beauty, in light, in the glory that they give to their Creator, and in the universal good that they make descend upon all creatures.  These acts have a divine power; by virtue of these acts the Most Holy Virgin could obtain the coming of the Word upon earth, and by virtue of these acts my Kingdom will come upon earth.  One act repeated incessantly in my Fiat has a conquering, enrapturing and enchanting virtue before Our Divinity.  That continuous repetition in the Divine Volition is the strength of the soul, the invincible weapon that debilitates her Creator and conquers Him with weapons of love, and He feels honored to let Himself be conquered by the creature.”
Vol. 24, June 25, 1928




This manner of acting, of producing fruit, that is, Divine eternal suns is possible not just to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, but now in the fullness of time it is opened to all who would live of the Divine Will.  Meaning wanting Him to reign in us, act in us and never giving life to our own will again.  When the Divine Will sows He sows seeds of light, which germinate in the field of the soul to produce Divine suns.   We will only see the fullness of these fruits/suns in Heaven.



“Good daughter, the great good of living of a Divine Volition is surprising and almost incomprehensible to the human creature.   You should know that all that which one does of good, of sanctity in my Divine Will, they are none other than seeds that germinate in the field of the soul, putting forth as so many seeds of Divine light, that put forth a beginning that won’t have an end, because all that which one does in my Divine Will is sowed, germinates, grows in an admirable way, upon the earth while she lives, but the completion will be formed in Heaven, the ultimate development, the variety of beauties, the tones, the most beautiful and specious tints, will be given in the Celestial Country.
Vol. 21, June 8, 1931




While on earth we may never fully realize the beauty and delight of Jesus' work and harvest in our souls.  We may even feel the weight and the seeming abandonment of Jesus but these sufferings are akin to the field of our souls being worked and tilled to ready it for another sowing.





  “My daughter, why do you afflict yourself so much?  Abandon yourself in Me and let Me do; and when it seems to you that everything declines and dies, your Jesus will make everything rise again, but more beautiful and more fecund.  You must know that the soul is my field in which I work, sow and harvest; but my favorite field is the soul who lives in my Will.  In this field my work is delightful; I do not get muddy when I sow, because my Will has converted it into a field of light.  Its ground is virgin, pure and celestial, and I amuse Myself very much in sowing little lights into it, almost like dew which forms the Sun of my Will.
"Oh! how beautiful it is to see this field of the soul all covered with many drops of light, and as they gradually grow, many suns will form.  This sight is enchanting; all Heaven is enraptured at the sight of it, and they are all attentive on looking at the Celestial Farmer who cultivates this field with such great mastery, and who possesses a seed so noble as to convert it into sun.  Now, my daughter, this field is mine and I do with it whatever I want.  Once these suns have formed, I collect them and take them to Heaven, as the most beautiful conquest of my Will, and then I return to the work of my field.  So, I put everything upside down, and the little daughter of my Will feels everything ending, everything dying within her.  In the place of the suns, so refulgent with light, she sees the drops of light which I am sowing, and she thinks that everything is perishing.  How you deceive yourself - this is the new harvest that must be prepared; and since I want to make it more beautiful than the previous one, and make it larger so as to be able to double my harvest, at first sight the work seems to be more difficult, and the soul suffers more.  But those pains are like strokes of the hoe into the ground, which make the seed sink deeper down so as to make it germinate more safely, with greater fecundity and beauty.  Don’t you see, when a field is harvested, how squalid and poor it remains?  But wait until it is sown again, and you will see it more flowery than before.  Therefore, let me do; and you, by living in my Will, will always be at work with Me; we will sow the little drops of light together, and we will compete to see who sows more.  So, we will amuse ourselves, now in sowing, now in resting – but always together.  I know, I know what your strongest concern is – that I might leave you.  No, no, I do not leave you; one who lives in my Will is inseparable from Me.” 
Vol. 16, Oct. 20, 1923



The soul participates in the Divine work by lending her acts to Jesus as earth in which He can place His divine seed.  He will never leave such a precious soul alone but will keep producing more and more beautiful harvests and conquests in her.   Jesus says that in such a one He is able to germinate the Divine Being in them so that one who does and lives in the Divine Will reproduces her Creator and He resides within her.



“Blessed daughter, it is I who forms the celestial atmosphere inside and outside of the creature, because no sooner than she enters into my Divine Volition than I put myself to watch of the act that she goes doing, and she forms the ground with her acts, and I form the divine seed in order to cast in the act of the creature.  So that her acts serve as earth, and I, Celestial Farmer, by filling her with my seeds I make use of it to gather the harvest of the works that are done in my Will.   Do you see therefore what the continuations of the acts done in the Divine Will serve to?   They serve to give me the labor and the occasions to never leave the creature, because she always gives Me to do.   And I don’t want nor can I leave empty a ground so precious, formed in my Will and exposed to the vivifying rays of the Divine Sun.  Hence He calls you to the work in my Volition and you call me, and oh, how very sweet it is to work together in my Fiat!  It is a labor that doesn’t tire; rather it is bearer of rest and of the most beautiful conquests.”
Vol. 30, July 14, 1932




"More so that every act done by the Divine Will in the act of the creature is a divine seed that germinates in it.  The act prepares the earth where my Will casts his seed in order to make it germinate into (a) divine plant, because according to the seed that is cast in the bosom of the earth, that plant is born.  If the seed is of flowers, the flower is born; if the seed is of fruit, the fruit is born.  Now my Divine Will in every act of the creature casts a distinct seed:  there he casts the seed of sanctity, there the seed of love, in others the seed of goodness, and so on.  How many more acts [the creature] does in Him, so much more earth is prepared where my Volition prepares his distinct seed in order to fill the earth of these human acts.  Whence one who lets herself be dominated by my Divine Will, is beautiful, is specious; every act of hers, containing the variety of divine seeds, is a note of her Creator:  one act says sanctity, another mercy, others justice, wisdom, beauty, love; in short one sees a divine harmony, with such order, that shows the finger of God working in her.  Do you see therefore the necessity of the act of the creature, in order to be able to try the earth where to enclose our divine seed?  Otherwise where do we cast it?  We don’t hold any earth.  Therefore there is [earth] formed with her acts, in order to be able to germinate with our seeds our Divine Being in the creature.  Therefore one who does and lives in our Divine Volition can be called She who reproduces her Creator and lodges in herself He who has created her.”
Vol. 30, Nov. 16, 1931



Jesus tells Luisa that it is God's aim to form, grow and mature completed acts in the creature but this can only occur in a creature living in the Divine Will.  When we don't live in the Divine Will we break his acts and they remain incomplete and as handicapped.  When we operate with our own will we frustrate the plans of the owner of vineyard from his designs on it.  Jesus clearly states that the earth represents his creatures and the ungrateful servants are our own human volitions which frustrate his works and kill his designs.
 



“My good daughter, only my Volition maintains and conserves intact, with a continuous act, the beginning of the Creation of the creature.  Our Supreme Being gave the beginning and animated her life with the power of our divine breath; this breath should not ever be broken, more so that when we give and we do an act we never withdraw it, and this serves in order to form the completed work of the being that we put forth to the light.  This first act of ours, while it serves to give beginning and to form the life, the continuation, it serves in order to make of the creature a completed act of ours, and as we breathe (in) her thus we form in her our continuous acts in order to complete our divine life.  Our breath, as we give it, forms sip by sip the growth of this life of ours in the creature.  Our breath, as it gives itself, thus it forms our completed act of sanctity, of beauty, of love, of goodness and so on, and when we have filled her so much, in a way that we don’t have anywhere more to put our act in the creature, because she is limited, our breath ceases and her life finishes in earth, and in order to immortalize our breath in Heaven, we transport our fully grown life in her, our completed act, into our Celestial Country as triumph of our Creation.  There is no more beautiful rarity than these lives and completed acts of ours in the Celestial sojourn, they are the narrators of our power, of the enthusiasm of our love, they are speaking voices of our omnipotent breath, that alone could form the divine life, our completed act in the creature.  But do you know where we can form this life and this completed act of ours, for how much it is possible and imaginable for a creature to receive from her Creator?  [In] the soul that lives in our Divine Will and lets herself be dominated by Him.  Ah! only in her can we form the divine life and develop our completed act; our Volition disposes the creature to receive all the qualities and divine colors, and our breath not ever interrupted, as expert brush/(artist), paints with admirable and inimitable mastery the most beautiful tones and forms there the images of our Supreme Being; if it might not be for these images there would not have been that great work of the Creation, nor great work of the power of our creative hands, creating the Sun, the Sky, the stars and all the universe would have been a beautiful nothing for our power.  But instead all our power, the art of our divine arts, the indescribable excess of our intense love, it is to do our completed act in the creature with forming our life in her and so much is our gratification, that we ourselves remain enraptured in our act that we develop. For us to do a completed act it is the greatest glory that glorifies us most, it is the most intense love that praises us most, it is the power that praises us continually.  But alas! for one who doesn’t live in our Volition, how many broken acts of ours, without conclusion, how many divine lives of ours hardly conceived or at the most born without growing.  [Creatures] break the continuation of our work and bind our arms without being able to go ahead; they put us in the impotence of a master who holds his earth and is prevented by his ungrateful servants from doing the work that he wants to in his earth, to sow it, to plant the plants that he wants; poor proprietor, to hold sterile earth, without the fruit that he could receive, for reason of his iniquitous servants.  Our earths are creatures and the ungrateful servant is the human volition, which opposing ours with hers puts us in impotence from forming our divine life in them.  Now you should know that in Heaven one doesn’t enter if one doesn’t possess our divine life, or at least conceived or born, and such will be the glory, the beatitude of the blessed, for how much growth has been formed of our life in them.  Now what will be the difference for one who has hardly let him be conceived, be born or grown with little proportions, from one who has let us form complete life?  So much will be the difference, that it is incomprehensible to the human creature.  Those will be as the people of the Celestial kingdom, instead our images will be as princes, ministers, the noble court, the regal army of the great King.  Therefore one who does my Divine Will and lives in Him can say:  ‘I do all and I also belong from this earth to the family of my Celestial Father.’”
Vol. 29, October 12, 1931



So all of us are guilty in one way or another of being a wicked tenant.  Everyone except for the Virgin Mary, who has been born with original sin, have done acts that originated from our own wills thereby denying God his due.  But now we have been given, by the mercy of God, the chance to return to Him all the fruit that He is owed.  All the praise, honor, glory, adoration, love and thanksgiving that is His by right, not only for ourselves but for everyone else too.  We have been given the opportunity to live in His Will, just as Mary did by grace and Jesus did by nature.  His glory is our joy.  At best those of the past have only achieved hard won resignation to the Will of God in the practice of the virtues.  But God will never be satisfied with half measures and until He achieves His desired goal of children whole and legitimate living in His Will, complete and beautiful as He intended He will not quit His work.  If you are reading this and can understand this call it is to you.  How many will never listen to or understand the intimacies that God desires of them.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Flowing with Milk and Honey






I really like this image of a person looking out over a beautiful valley.  It evokes the longing of looking for the beautiful promised land.  How the Jewish people must have rejoiced to have finally reached it, after such a long journey, spanning both time, space, and generations.  A land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.  People interpret it to be a land of prosperity and abundance, even a second Eden.  But like most things there is another meaning here and as mush as the Jewish people longed for the promised land God's longing for His promised land in us is even greater.  

Now the requirement for the Jewish people to enter this land was to cast off the old gods and idols and to be faithful to the one true God.



Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
Exodus 32:13


Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob—making myself known to them in the land of Egypt—I swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God.  On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.  And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
Ezekiel 20:5-7



But milk and honey, in the Old Testament, have other meanings as well besides abundance and prosperity.  Jesus explains in the Volumes that honey refers to sweetness and love and milk to a state of peace.  In the Old Testament they are spoken of as a state of near intoxication of love in the Song of Songs.  It refers to a land of abundance, a place being in a state of peace and fraternal love where the one is required to receive the other.






How sweet is your love, my sister, my bride!
how much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
Your lips distill nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue;
the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.  
A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a garden locked, a fountain sealed.

Song of Solomon 4:10-12





I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh with my spice,
I eat my honeycomb with my honey,
I drink my wine with my milk.

Eat, friends, drink,
and be drunk with love.

Song of Solomon 5:1




Jesus states in the Volumes that Abraham is a symbol of the privileges of heroism of those who will  live in the Divine Will who will inherit a rich land, "flowing with milk and honey," of which all nations will be envious.




Abraham was a symbol of the privileges of heroism of the children of my Volition, and as I called Abraham to a promised land flowing with milk and honey, making him lord of that land which was so rich that all the other nations were envious and wanted it, it was all a symbol of that which I would have done for the children of my Will.  

Vol. 21, April 8, 1927





In the early Volumes Luisa reports that Jesus would give her milk which produced in her the sweetness of love for Jesus and gave her the satiety of peace.  This happened on more than one occasion.


 

He continued:  “Come, come to Me.  Today is the New Year, I want to give you a present.”  (That morning was precisely the first day of the year).  So, He drew His most pure lips to mine and poured a most sweet milk; He kissed me, He took a ring from within His side and said to me:  “Today I want to show you the ring I have prepared for you, for when I espouse you.”  Then He told me:  “Tell the confessor that it is my Will that you continue to stay in bed, and as a sign that it is I, tell him that there is a war between Italy and Africa, and if he gives you the obedience to continue to suffer, I will not do anything on either side – they will reconcile.”

In the very act of these words being spoken, I felt surrounded by sufferings as if by a garment, and I was unable to free myself by myself.  I thought to myself:  ‘What will the confessor say?’  But it was no longer in my power.  That milk which Jesus had poured into me produced in me such love for Him, that I felt languor; and I felt such satiety and sweetness, that after the confessor came and I came round from that state, and the family brought me food, I felt so full that the food would not go down.  But in order to do the obedience, which wanted it so, I took a little bit, and I was immediately forced to bring it up - but mixed with that sweet milk that Jesus had given me.  And Jesus, almost jokingly, told me:  “What I gave you was not enough?  You are not content yet?”  I blushed all over, but immediately I said to Him:  “What can I do? It’s the obedience.’

Vol. 1, Luisa resists Jesus when he wants her to suffer, because the confessor’s consent is lacking.  Finally, Jesus imposes himself, communicating the state of suffering to her; and as proof to the confessor that this is his Will, he announces the outcome of the war between Italy and Africa.



Now, since I too felt my mouth bitter from the bitternesses He had poured into me, I felt like I wanted to suckle from the breasts of Jesus, but I did not dare to.  But Jesus invited me to do it, and so I plucked up courage and I began to suckle.  Oh, what sweetness of paradise came from that holy breast!  But who can express it?  Then I found myself inside myself, all inundated with sweetnesses and contentments.

Vol. 2, June 8, 1899




The sweetness of love which Jesus poured into Luisa in these early days was necessary in order to bind and order all the virtues in her.




This morning my most sweet Jesus came all festive, carrying a bundle of most graceful flowers in His hands; and placing Himself in my heart, now He would surround His head with those flowers, now He would hold them in His hands, amusing and delighting His whole self.  While He was celebrating with these flowers, and it seemed He had made a great gain, He turned to me and told me:  “My beloved, this morning I have come to place in order all virtues in your heart.  The other virtues may remain separate from one another, but Charity binds and orders everything.  Here is what I want to do in you – to order Charity.”

I said to Him:  ‘My sole and only Good, how can you do this since I am so bad and full of defects and imperfections?  If Charity is order, aren’t these defects and sins disorder that keeps my soul all messy and upside-down?’  And Jesus:  “I will purify everything, and Charity will put everything in order.  Besides, when I let a soul participate in the pains of my Passion, there cannot be grave sins; at most, some venial involuntary defects, but my love, being fire, will consume everything that is imperfect in your soul.”  So it seemed that Jesus purified me and ordered all of me; then He poured as though a rivulet of honey from His Heart into mine, and with that honey He watered all of my interior, in such a way that everything that was in me remained orderly, united and with the mark of Charity.

Vol. 2, August 15, 1899



When Jesus gives He also wants to receive.  In giving Luisa His milk of sweetness and peace He also wants to receive milk from Luisa.  She gives back to Him that which she has received from Him. 




Jesus seemed to accept my poor offerings with great pleasure, but that which He enjoyed the most was the confidence with which I had offered them.  Then He said to me:  “Confidence has two arms:  with one it embraces my Humanity, and it uses my Humanity as a staircase in order to ascend to my Divinity; with the other it embraces the Divinity and draws celestial graces in torrents, in such a way that the soul remains all inundated within the Divine Being.  When the soul is confident, she is certain to obtain what she asks.  I let my arms be bound, I let her do whatever she wants, I let her penetrate even into my Heart, and I let her take, by herself, that which she has asked from Me.  If I did not do so, I would feel Myself in a state of violence.”  While He was saying this, many rivulets of a liqueur (I call it ‘liqueur’, but I can’t really tell what it was) came out from the breast of the Baby and of the Mother, which inundated my soul completely.  Then the Queen Mother disappeared.

After this, together with the Baby I went out into the vault of the heavens.  I saw that His gracious face was sad, and I said to myself:  ‘Maybe He wants milk, this is why He is sad.’  So I said to Him:  ‘Do You want to suckle from me since the Queen Mama is not here?’  But before doing this, I became concerned that it might be the devil; so, in order to be reassured, I signed him several times with the cross and I said to him:  ‘Are you really Jesus the Nazarene, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Son of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God?’  And the Baby assured that He was.  Therefore, being assured, I placed Him to suckle from myself.  The Baby seemed to revive, assuming a merry appearance, and I saw that He was suckling part of those rivulets with which He Himself had inundated me.  And while He was doing this, I felt my heart being pulled, as it seemed that that milk which Jesus was drawing from me was coming out from it.  Who can say what passed between me and Baby Jesus?  I have no tongue to be able to manifest it, no words to be able to describe it.

Vol.3, January 6, 1900




Jesus tells Luisa in the early Volumes how perfect resignation is as sugar and honey which unites us to God, but even a small resistance to God's Will will cause separation.  So resignation is not enough.  The soul must have the firm knowledge that her greatest good and what glorifies God is to always do God's Will.  This knowledge only comes through humility.



Perfect resignation to my Will is wax which melts our wills and forms a single one; it is sugar and honey. However, at a small resistance to my Will, the wax separates, the sugar becomes bitter, and the honey turns into poison.

Now, it is not sufficient to be resigned, but the soul must be convinced that the greatest good for herself and the best way to glorify Me is to always do my Will.  Here is the necessity of the signature of humility, because humility produces this knowledge. 

Vol. 3, April 16, 1900 




We can see that Jesus wants our reciprocation. He wants our love, but He wants love that is worthy of Him, complete acts, which can only come from acts done in the Divine Will. This is the fruit that He is looking for from His creatures, His earths which He works tirelessly in to make them productive.



for one who doesn’t live in our Volition, how many broken acts of ours, without conclusion, how many divine lives of ours hardly conceived or at the most born without growing.  [Creatures] break the continuation of our work and bind our arms without being able to go ahead; they put us in the impotence of a master who holds his earth and is prevented by his ungrateful servants from doing the work that he wants to in his earth, to sow it, to plant the plants that he wants; poor proprietor, to hold sterile earth, without the fruit that he could receive, for reason of his iniquitous servants.  Our earths are creatures and the ungrateful servant is the human volition, which opposing ours with hers puts us in impotence from forming our divine life in them.  Now you should know that in Heaven one doesn’t enter if one doesn’t possess our divine life, or at least conceived or born, and such will be the glory, the beatitude of the blessed, for how much growth has been formed of our life in them.  Now what will be the difference for one who has hardly let him be conceived, be born or grown with little proportions, from one who has let us form complete life?  So much will be the difference, that it is incomprehensible to the human creature.  Those will be as the people of the Celestial kingdom, instead our images will be as princes, ministers, the noble court, the regal army of the great King.  Therefore one who does my Divine Will and lives in Him can say:  ‘I do all and I also belong from this earth to the family of my Celestial Father.’”

Vol. 29, October 12, 1931


Mary, who is the only creature who has lived in the fullness of the Divine Will since her conception, narrates how she enclosed within herself all of creation so that her own humanity was the earth.  We are each an earth to our God and thereby each of us has the potential to be His promised land.



'Child of my Heart, my birth was prodigious; no other birth can be said to be similar to mine.  I enclosed within Myself the Heaven, the Sun of the Divine Will, and also the earth of my humanity - but a blessed and holy earth, which enclosed the most beautiful flowerings.  And even though I was just newly born, I enclosed the prodigy of the greatest prodigies:  the Divine Will reigning in Me, which enclosed in Me a Heaven more beautiful, a Sun more refulgent than those of Creation, of which I was also Queen, as well as a sea of graces without boundaries, which constantly murmured:  “Love, love to my Creator.” '

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 10



The soul needs to be like Jesus who showed nothing but milk and honey flowing out of Him, that is peace and sweetness. This is the sign of the finger of God which can win over hearts. If the soul is not sweet and peaceful in all things it's a sign that her passions are out of order.



Now, while I was fidgeting, He came out, in passing, from within my interior, and He said to me: “What is the matter with you? Calm yourself, calm yourself; here I am - not only with you, but in you. And then, I do not want this restless heart. Everything in you must be sweetness and peace, in such a way that it may be said of you that which is said about Me: that nothing but milk and honey flows within Me, symbolizing sweetness with honey, and peace with milk. I am so filled and soaked with them, that they pour out from my eyes, from my mouth, and from all of my works. And if you are not likewise, I feel dishonored by you, because, while the One who is all peace and sweetness dwells within you, you do not honor Me by showing even the slightest shadow of a resentful and restless heart. I love this sweetness and peace so much, that even if it were about something great concerning my honor and glory, I do not want, I never approve, resentful, violent, fiery manners, but rather, sweet and peaceful manners. In fact, sweetness alone is that which binds hearts like a chain, in such a way that they cannot unbind themselves. It is like pitch that sticks to them and they cannot free themselves, and are forced to say: ‘In this soul there is the finger of God, for we cannot act otherwise.’ And then, if I do not like a resentful manner, not even creatures will like it. If one speaks about or deals with things, even of God, with manners that are not sweet and peaceful, it is a sign that he does not have his passions in order; and one who does not keep himself in order, cannot order others. Therefore, be careful with anything which is not sweetness and peace, if you do not want to dishonor Me.”

Vol. 7, December 3, 1906



Jesus wants souls to be in perennial peace and He, out of His love for them, makes miracles in order to keep them in peace so that He can lean on them and so be able to reduce the chastisements.  Without them everything would be cast into ruin.



 

As I was feeling oppressed, I was almost about to be surprised by the poisonous waves of disturbance.  My lovable Jesus, my faithful sentry, immediately ran to prevent disturbance from entering into me, and scolding me, told me:

 

“Daughter, what are you doing?  The love and the interest I have to maintain the soul at peace are such and so great that I am forced to make miracles in order to keep the soul at peace; and those who disturb these souls would want to confront Me and prevent this miracle of mine, all of love.  So, I recommend to you – be balanced in everything.  My Being is in full balance in everything, and yet I see and feel evils, and bitternesses I do not lack.  Nevertheless, I never become unbalanced, my peace is perennial, my thoughts are peaceful, my words are honeyed with peace, the beating of my Heart is never tumultuous, even in the midst of immense joys or interminable bitternesses; the very operating of my hands in the act of scourging flows over the earth as enveloped in waves of peace.  So, if you do not maintain yourself at peace, since I am in your heart I feel dishonored, and my way and yours are no longer in accord; I would feel hindered in you from carrying out my ways in you, and therefore you would render Me unhappy.  Only peaceful souls are my staffs on which I lean; and when the many iniquities snatch scourges from my hands, by leaning on these staffs I always do less than what I should do.  Ah! if – may it never be – I lacked these staffs, in lacking my supports I would send everything to ruin.”

Vol. 11, May 18, 1914





The Promised Land for the Jewish people was the promise of a safe place of super abundance and peace where they could live their lives in the freedom that God was calling them to live it.  Jesus as well is looking to find His home in each creature, where He can be free to enrich them, love them and be loved, to form them as He Wills.  As we saw earlier, even perfect resignation can leave an opening were there can be disunity.  Only by living in the Divine Will can we give to God that promised land, that home, that He is longing for.



“You should know that when I elect a soul, I form there my residence, and I want to be free in my house to do that which I want, and to remain as pleases me, nor do I want restrictions from the part of the creature; I want absolute liberty, otherwise I would become unhappy and impeded in my way of acting.  It would be the greatest misfortune, even to the poorest (person), to not enjoy liberty in his little hovel, and I would incur the misfortune of a poor individual, that having formed a residence with so much love, when he has equipped it and put it in order he enters in order to live there, but with his sorrow there becomes made impositions and restrictions for him; it is said to him:  ‘In this room you can not sleep, in this one you can not receive, in this other one you are not able to pass.’  In short he can not remain as he wants nor do that which he wants, so that the poor little one feels unhappy, because he has lost his liberty, and he has repented of the sacrifices that he has made (in order) to build this residence.  Such am I; how many labors, how many sacrifices, how many graces have I not poured out in order to adapt one creature for my residence, and when I take the possession of her, more than everything I love and want liberty in my house, and when I find now the repugnancies, now the restrictions, instead of the residence adapting itself to me, I must adapt myself to her, hence I can’t develop either my life or my divine ways, nor is it given to me to complete the purpose for which with so much love I selected this residence.  Therefore I want liberty, and if you want to make me happy leave free to do that which I want.”

Vol. 29, May 4, 1931



When a soul lives in the Divine Will, God is free to give to us as He would and we are able to give to Him as well.  We have life in common, giving and receiving.  God gives us the liberty to grow in Divine life as much as we want and we give God the liberty of being able to give unrestrained and to receive love back.  In this way both God and man truly find their Promised Land.  



“My daughter, the Creation of man was the center where our Divinity centralized all the goods that should rise in the creature, we put in her Divine Life and Divine Will, human life and human will; human life should serve us as residence, and the two Wills fused together should make life in common with highest accord, indeed the human will should take from ours in order to form her acts, and ours should remain in the continuous act to give of his, in order to make that the human will might remain modeled and all informed in the Divine Will.  Now, there is no life, as much human, spiritual and divine, that doesn’t have need of food in order to grow, in order to become stronger, to embellish and to felicitate himself.  More so that we put our Divine life in man, [and] because he was incapable of receiving the whole fullness of our Divine Being, we put in him how much he could contain of our life, giving him the liberty to let him grow how much more he could and wanted.  Hence our life in man for growth had need of food, behold the necessity to put in him a Divine Will; our Divine life would not have adapted himself to foods of the human will.  Behold therefore all the acts of the creature done in virtue of and in our Divine Will, would serve to feed and to make our Divine Life grow in her, in a way that as soon as she went doing her acts in our Fiat, now she took our love and fed us, now she took our fortitude, now our infinite sweetness, now our Divine joys in order to feed us.  What order, what harmony put between him and us in creating man between him and us, even to ask of him our own foods through his means, not because we had need, no, but in order to maintain the enthusiasm of love, the correspondence, the inseparable union between him and us.  And while he occupied himself with us, we occupied ourselves with feeding him and with conserving our dear residence, not only, but making him other more beautiful gifts in order to render him more happy, to love him more and make ourselves more loved.  But do you want to know what are our most beautiful gifts that we make the creature?  To manifest to her a knowledge of our Supreme Being, a truth that pertains to us, one secret of ours is the most beautiful gift that we make her; each of these gifts is one more bond that we put between Her and us, our every truth is a property that we put in her soul.  Behold therefore that in the soul where our Will reigns we find our Divine foods, our property for how much it is possible for a creature, our residence, hence we find ourselves in our house, in our center, in the midst of our properties. 

Vol. 29, Aug. 3, 1931