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Dear Readers (Priests, Nuns, other Religious, and Laity),
I have not sent out any “Messages of Gold” for a while, due to doing a great amount of research, and trying to organize it for printing. This new research involves historical facts, Warnings from Heaven, the predicted, present state of human society, and the coming, enormous acts of purification, as God prepares a great and glorious Resurrection of His Church on earth.
The purpose I have in mind is to provide solid, credible information on those topics, which can be of help to many and a possible aid to help some of the younger generations to grasp the realities of our times and possibly bring some comfort to their parents.
I can only guess when this proposed document will be completed or if it will be completed.
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The Two Important Attachments
One of the attachments is a talk given in the city of Loreto, Italy, some years ago, which can provide a lot of insights into the Mystery of the Divine Will as It regards Mary and Her role as Mother of God, especially for those who are new to the knowledge of the Gift of the Divine Will.
And it seems that it will be a good means of refreshment in key aspects of living in the Divine will for many who are already acquainted with the knowledge of the Gift of the Divine Will.
Note: This attachment about the Divine Will and the Immaculate Conception is 14 pages long. Therefore, it would be good to read the first seven pages, then consider possibly reading the last seven pages later.
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The other attachment was sent to me by some friends this morning, and I found it very valuable, because it relates what Jesus told St. Catherine of Sienna about Reverence for Priests both good and bad! It will be very, very helpful to our soul as we all suffer and pray through the present, great crisis in the Church.
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We are working on our Website (comingofthekingdom.org) to use it not only for the Reign of the Divine Will, but to provide helpful information for our souls about the days of societal purification ahead.
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Look forward with joy to the coming Great and Glorious Resurrected Catholic Church and the happy and holy new times, even if you have to learn about it from Heaven! (Just be sure to stay on the road of the Divine Will.)
— Thomas Fahy
Divine Will and The Immaculate Conception – Loreto Talk
St Catherine of Siena and the Reverence Due to Priests
The Divine Will and the Immaculate Conception
Introduction
Many Saints have held a special place in their hearts for Mary the Mother of Jesus, and several of these Saints like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Louis De Montfort, St. Maxilmilian Kolbe and Ven. Mary of Agreda have written very beautiful things about Her. But nowhere in Christian Literature has there be seen such extra-ordinary and glorious insights into the marvels of divine workmanship and privileges in Mary as are discovered in the writings of Luisa Piccarreta, namely her works: The “Book of Heaven” and “The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.” Jesus told Luisa that only He can speak worthily about his Mother, because He is the Creator of his own Mother.
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In 1854, Pope Pius IX, supported by Scripture and Tradition as well as the great majority of Catholic Bishops, defined ex cathedra the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary with these words:We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.
—Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854
Four years later, in 1858, Our Lady appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France. During the 16th apparition on March 25, 1858, Bernadette asked the Vision who She was. Our Lady answered, “I am the Immaculate conception.”
The Franciscan Friar, St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941)[ in Italian ;”San Massimiliano Maria Kolbe”], martyr of charity and founder of the Knights of the Immaculata (Militia Immaculatae), was intrigued by the title, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” that Our Lady make known to Bernadette. He pondered this title for several years and wrote on paper his thoughts and insights.
In St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Mariolgy, he says that in Mary occurs a mirace of the union of God with a creature. He calls attention to the fact that this title of spouse of the Holy Spirit stresses the intimate union between the will of Mary and the unique Will of the three divine Persons and that we can at least say that the Holy Spirit and Mary are two persons who live in such intimate union that they have but one sole life and that her life is the very life of the Holy Spirit in her. St. Maximilian adds: “We are not dealing here with the ordinary, natural presence by which God created her and preserved her being. Nor are we dealing with the special presence of God which makes every baptized person share, by grace, in God’s own nature. What we are concerned with here is a new sort of presence of the Holy Spirit, who unites her to Himself in a manner proper and personal to Himself…” (References are from “Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit” by Fr. H. M. Manteau-Bonamy, O.P.)
We see that the insights of St. Maximilian Kolbe about Mary living one sole life with God have a remarkable kinship with the writings of Luisa Piccarreta. Luisa wrote not only about Mary living one same life with God but also about how God is now calling souls, born with original sin, to this same type of extraordinary union and shared life with God.
Before presenting the unique and marvelous discoveries about the Immaculate Conception of Mary that are found in the writings of Luisa Piccarreta, it seems proper to speak a little about the Original State and the Original Sin of Adam. St. Paul tells us that by one man, sin entered the world (Rm: 5, 12).
The first human being, Adam, was created directly by God, who formed his body from the clay of the earth in the form of a beautiful statue with all the organs, nerves, bones and muscles; and then God breathed into Adam a living soul filled with the Divine Will enabling Adam to live a Divine Life in common with the Holy Trinity. Adam was immaculate and was animated by the Divine Will at the moment of his creation and had the responsibility to maintain himself as his Father in Heaven had created him with the shining resplendency of God’s image in the faculties of his soul—will, intellect and memory, and with the original likeness of God that allowed Adam to imitate his Creator by doing the Will of God as God does It, and doing with God what God does.
Note: The Fathers of the Council of Trent affirmed that they did not know the Original State of Adam, but that it was permitted to say with St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Anselm that Adam had Sanctifying Grace, integrity, the promise of immorality if he remained faithful, and that he probably had infused knowledge.
Now with the writings of Luisa, the Church has at her disposal great clarity concerning the orignal state of Adam, which in essence is the state of possession of the Divine Will and the very Life of the Trinity Itself operating freely in his soul and body, which gave Adam his original integrity. We also learn from Luisa’s writings that Adam received a steady abundance of infused knowledge, enabling him to know how to develop his life in the Divine Will as well as all the arts and sciences proper to human existence on earth.
Adam, head of the human family, lost all this when he failed the TEST that God required of him, by doing his own will. He disobeyed his Creator by taking and eating the fruit of the only tree in Paradise that God had forbidden him to touch or eat, when it was presented to him by Eve, who had been formed from the rib of his side. This disobedience was the Original Sin. It was an acutal sin of Adam, but all humanity would inherit the loss of the incredibly wonderful gifts and prerogatives of his Original State. His sin deprived humanity of the Gift of the Divine Will, of Sanctifying Grace in their souls; and the loss of Integrity affected human nature’s relationship between the senses of the body and the governance of the rational soul. In essence, man became weak, inconstant, vacillating, disordered and prone to evil. So both the body and soul are greivously affected by Original Sin. The weaknesses in the flesh are transmitted from Adam and Eve to their children and to all generations through the procreative act of the parents. The souls of each person are created by God at the time of conception and infused into the body, but without the Gift of the Divine Will or Sancitfying Grace. Baptism removes that stain of Original Sin and infuses the soul with Sanctifying Grace, but does not restore the Original State of Adam with the Gift of the Divine Will, or with Integrity, or with Infused knowledge or the original fullness of Likeness to God.
The one exception is the Immaculate Conception of Mary whose parents were Saints Joachim and Ann. Mary began her earthly existence in the womb of St. Ann. She also began her existence in the Divine Will, in the divine order—fulfilling the purpose for which God created humanity. Her Immaculate Conception and her possession of the Divine Will are two distinct operations of God, but they occurred simultaneously. The Immaculate Conception, alone, was insufficient to provide Her with the necessary qualities and the divine fecundity to become the Mother of God. It was the Life of the Divine Will that animated Her and worked Its divine marvels in Her that provided Mary the proper qualities and power to become the Mother of the Word at the time of the Annuciation of the Angel Gabriel. All was the work of the Divine Will.
END OF THE INTRODUCTION
Note: In the first six chapters of the book, “The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will,” Mary explains to Luisa the marvelous secrets of her Immaculate Conception.
Jesus explains these same secrets, in more detail, in various Volumes of the “Book of Heaven.”
In this presentation, I have chosen passages that Jesus gave to Luisa which are found in the Volumes of the “Book of Heaven.”
How Orignal Sin was Prevented in the Immaculate Conception:
Jesus: My daughter, the seed with which the Heavenly Sovereign Queen was conceived was taken from human stock, because She too had Her human life as do all other human beings, and as I had, too. However, she enjoyed this great privilege—not granted to any other creature—that, before Her beautiful soul was conceived, My Fiat, by Its almighty power, focused Its rays upon this human seed, and with Its light and heat It annihilated the evil that it contained, making it die, purifying the seed completely, and making it pure, holy, and exempt from original sin. And then the immaculate Baby was conceived in this seed.
In this way, the whole marvel of the Immaculate Conception was achieved by My Divine Will. It did not make a different human seed, nor did It destroy it, but It purified it. With Its heat and light It removed all the humors that this seed had contracted from the sin of Adam, and It restored in Her the human seed, just as it had come forth from Our creative hands. That is why, as the little Virgin Queen was conceived, the Kingdom of My Divine Will was conceived in Her and in the human generations—because in forming and giving amazing graces to one soul, in Her We see the humanity of the whole human family, as if it were only one. So, realize that, as the Virgin was conceived in this seed free of every stain—which was all work of the Divine Fiat—Its Divine Kingdom was conceived again within mankind. And, as the immaculate little Virgin was born, the right to possess that Kingdom was restored to humanity.
Now, when I came down to earth to take on human flesh, I used the seed of the Sovereign Queen of Heaven, and one could say that We worked together to rebuild this Kingdom of Ours in the generations of men. Now nothing remains but to know It so as to possess It. This is why I am revealing what pertains to My Kingdom and to My Divine Will, so that man may walk in Its ways, follow Our steps, and take possession of It. And with Its light and warmth My Divine Will shall repeat the prodigy of removing the bad humors that man’s seed possesses. And for safety’s sake, It will plant the seed of Its light and heat, making Itself the life-force of that seed. In this way, they will exchange possessions—My Divine Will shall take hold of the seed to make Its life of light, heat and holiness within it; and the soul shall return to take possession once again of the Kingdom of My Divine Fiat.
See, then, My daughter, everything is ready—nothing else is needed but to make It known. And this is why I so much desire that all that concerns My Divine Will become known—to plant within men the desire to possess so great a blessing, so that My Will may be drawn by their desires to concentrate Its luminous rays and with Its heat perform the prodigy of giving them back the right to possess Its Kingdom of peace, happiness and sanctity. (V-24: 9-16-1928)
NOTE: These last two paragraphs explain how the Divine Will brings the soul back to the Original State of Adam.
The Holy Trinity and the Immaculate Conception. The First Acts of the Immaculata:
Jesus: My daughter, the Immaculate Conception of my beloved Mama was wondrous and marvelous in every way—so much so, that Heaven and earth were astonished and made merry. All Three Divine Persons tried to outdo Each Other: The Father brought forth an immense sea of power; I, the Son, an infinite sea of wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, an immense sea of eternal love. All of these merged into one single sea; and in the middle of this sea We brought forth the conception of this Virgin, the Elect of the elect.
Indeed the Divinity provided the substance of this conception, and this divine sea not only formed the life-center of this admirable and unique creature, but it remained around Her—not only to defend Her from anything that might taint Her, but to give Her, in every instant, new beauties, new graces, power, wisdom, love, privileges, and every good thing. In this way, her little nature was conceived in the center of this sea, and was shaped and grew under the influence of these divine waves. This was so true that, as soon as this noble and unique creature was formed, the Divinity did not want to wait as It usually does with other creatures—It wanted her embraces, her kisses, her loving response—and to enjoy her innocent smiles.
That is why, as soon as She was conceived, I gave Her the use of reason, I infused her with the knowledge of all sciences, and I made Her aware of Our joys and Our sorrows over Creation. Even from her mother’s womb, She would come to Heaven, to the foot of Our Throne, to give Us her hugs, her loving response to Our love, her tender kisses; and, as She threw Herself into Our arms, She would smile at Us with such joyful gratitude and thanksgiving that She would make Us smile.
O how beautiful it was to see this innocent and privileged creature, enriched with all the divine qualities, coming into Our midst full of love, full of trust, and without fear. (Indeed, sin alone separates the Creator from His creature, shattering love, dissolving trust, and inspiring fear.) In this way She would come into Our midst as a Queen who loved Us with the same love We had given Her, and so She mastered Us, enraptured Us, made Us merry, and seized even more of Our love. And We would let Her do it, rejoicing in the love that enraptured Us, and establishing Her as Queen of Heaven and earth.
Heaven and earth rejoiced and made merry with Us, to receive their Queen after so many centuries. The sun smiled with its light, and considered itself blessed to serve its Queen by giving Her light. The sky, the stars, and the whole universe smiled with joy and made merry, because they had to delight their Queen, showing Her the harmony of the spheres and all their beauty. The plants smiled—whose job it was to feed their Queen—and the earth, too, smiled and felt honored to be required to provide a home for its Empress and to be trodden by her feet. Only hell wept and felt its strength slipping away because of the reign of this Sovereign Lady.
But do you know the first act that this Heavenly Creature did when She found Herself before Our throne for the first time? She recognized that all man’s evil flowed from the rupture between his will and that of his Creator. She trembled, and without hesitating She bound her will to the foot of My throne, without even wanting to know it. And My Will bound Itself to Her and made Itself the center of Her life, so much so, that currents, bonds, and communications of all kinds opened between Her and Us, and there was no secret that We did not entrust to Her. To give over her will to Us—never to know it again was the most beautiful, the greatest, and the most heroic act that She did—an act which seemed to leave Us enraptured, and which made Her Queen of all creatures. So, do you see what it means to bind oneself to My Will and not to know one’s own?
Her second act was to offer Herself for any sacrifice out of love of Us.
Her third act was to give Us the honor and glory from the whole Creation which man had stolen from Us by doing his own will. Even from her mother’s womb She wept for love of Us, to see Us so offended; and She wept for sorrow over guilty man. O how these innocent tears moved Us, and hastened the longed-for Redemption! This Queen mastered Us, bound Us, and snatched infinite graces from Us. She forced Us to favor mankind so much that We could not resist, nor did We know how to repel Her repeated petitions. But whence did She gain so much power, and so much influence over the Divinity Itself? Ah! you have understood: It was the power of Our Will acting in Her which mastered Her while making her the Mistress of God Himself.
And besides, how could We resist so innocent a creature, possessed by the power and sanctity of Our Will? It would be as if We resisted Ourselves. We could see in Her Our divine qualities. The reflections of Our divine ways, of Our sanctity, love, power, and other qualities, poured over Her like waves. And Our Will which formed her center brought with It all the reflections of Our divine qualities, and made Itself the protector and the crown of the Divinity living within Her. If this Immaculate Virgin had not possessed the Divine Will as her life’s center, all the other prerogatives and privileges with which We had enriched Her so greatly would have been nothing in comparison. It was this that confirmed and preserved for Her so many privileges; indeed, It multiplied new privileges at every moment.
Here, then, is the reason why We made Her the Queen of the universe; because when We work We do so with reason, wisdom and justice: Indeed, She never gave life to her human will, but Our Will was always intact in Her. How could We say to another creature: ”You are the Queen of the heavens, of the sun, of the stars, and everything,” if instead of having Our Will as her ruler, She were ruled by her human will? All of the elements, the heavens, the sun, and the earth, would have withdrawn from the reign and rule of this creature. All would have cried out in their mute language: ”We do not want Her. We surpass Her—because we have never gone out from Your eternal Volition. As You created us, so we are.” So also would the sun have cried out with its light, the stars with their twinkling, the sea with its waves, and everything else.
Rather, as soon as they all experienced the reign of this most excellent Virgin, who was almost like their sister but who never wanted to know her own will—only God’s—not only did they make merry, but they felt honored to have her as their Queen, and they ran around Her to form her cortege and to pay Her homage. The moon placed itself as a footstool at her feet; the stars as a crown, the sun as a diadem, the Angels as servants, and men as though in waiting. Everyone—everyone honored Her and paid Her homage. Indeed, all honor and glory can be given to Our Will—whether acting within Us, in Its own home, or dwelling in a creature.
But do you know the first act that this noble Queen did when She came out of her mother’s womb and opened her eyes to the light of this lowly world? As She was born, the Angels sang lullabies to the heavenly baby, and She lay enraptured. Her beautiful soul went out of her little body, accompanied by choirs of angels, and went around Heaven and earth, gathering all the love that God had spread throughout all Creation. Then, penetrating into Heaven, She came to the foot of Our throne, offered Us love on behalf of all Creation, and pronounced Her first “Thank You” in the name of everyone. O how happy We felt on hearing the “Thank You” of this little baby Queen. And We confirmed Her in all gifts and graces, so as to make Her surpass all other creatures together.
Then, throwing Herself into Our arms, She rejoiced with Us, swimming in the sea of all delights, being adorned with new beauty, new light and new love. She pleaded once again for mankind, begging Us in tears to let the Eternal Word come down to save her brothers. But as She did this, Our Will let Her know that She should go down to earth, and, immediately She left Our joys and delights, and departed—to do what? . . . Our Will! What a powerful magnet Our Will was, dwelling on earth in this newborn Queen! No longer did the earth appear strange to Us. No longer did We feel like striking it, making use of Our justice. We faced the power of Our Will in this innocent child, which blocked Our arms, smiled at Us from the earth, and with a sweet smile turned justice into graces; so much so that the Eternal Word could not resist this sweet enchantment and hastened His course. O the wonder of My Divine Will! To You everything is due, through You everything is achieved, and no greater wonder exists than My Will dwelling in a creature. (V-15: 8-Dec 1922)
Continuing Themes about the Divine Will and the Immmaculate Conception:
Jesus: “[You ought to know that the greatest prodigy worked by Us [the Trinity] in this creature so holy, and the greatest heroism of this so beautiful creature that no one will ever equal? Her life began in our Will. She followed It and fulfilled It. Thus it can be said that She fulfilled It from the moment She began, and She began from the moment She fulfilled It. And our greatest prodigy was that in each of her thoughts, words, breaths, heartbeats, movements and steps our Will poured Itself out upon Her. And She offered us the heroism of an eternal, divine Heartbeat working in Her.
This elevated Her so high that what We are by nature, She is by Grace. All her other prerogatives, her privileges, her Immaculate Conception itself, would have been nothing in comparison to this great prodigy. Moreover, this was what confirmed Her and made Her stable and strong during her entire life. My continuous Will poured Itself in Her and made Her a participant in the Divine Nature. And Her continuous reception of It made Her strong in love, strong in sorrow, and different from everyone. It was our Will operating in Her that drew the Eternal Word to earth and formed the seed of the Divine Fecundity so that a God-man could be conceived without human operation. This made Her worthy of being Mother of her very own Creator.” (V-17: 8 Dec. 1924)
Jesus: “I wish to honor my Celestial Mother, and I want to narrate the story of her Immaculate Conception. I alone can speak of it, because I am the Author of so great a prodigy. Now, my daughter, the first act of this conception was a Fiat of ours, pronounced with such solemnity and with such fullness of graces as to enclose everyone and everything. We centered everything in the conception of the Virgin. In our Divine Fiat, where past and future do not exist, is held ever present the Incarnation of the Word. The Divine Fiat conceived Her and incarnated Her in the very Incarnation of the future Redeemer, that is, in my own ever present Incarnation. My Blood, as though it were actually being shed, sprinkled Her, adorned Her, confirmed Her, and continually fortified Her in a Divine manner.
“But this was not enough for my Love. All her acts, words, and steps were first conceived in my own acts, words, and steps and then took life. My Humanity was the refuge, the hiding place, the incorporation of this Heavenly Creature. Thus, if She loved Us, her love was incarnated and conceived in my Love; and, oh, how her love loved Us! It enclosed everyone and everything. I can say that She loved as a God knows how to love. She loved Us and all creatures with our own follies of Love, which loving once, loves — loves always, without ever ceasing. Her prayer was conceived in my prayer and, therefore, had an immense value, a power over our Supreme Being.
Who could deny Her anything? Her sufferings, her sorrows, her martyrdoms, which were so many, were first conceived in my Humanity; and She then experienced within Herself the life of sufferings and agonizing martyrdoms, all animated by a divine force. And so, it can be said that She was conceived in Me and that her life went forth from Me. All that I did and suffered was arrayed around this Holy Creature to court Her, to flow continually upon Her; and I was able to say to Her: ‘You are the Life of my Life; You are all beautiful; You are the first redeemed. My Divine FIAT has formed You; It has breathed You forth; It has conceived You in my works and in my very Humanity.’
“Now, my daughter, the conceiving of this Heavenly Creature in the Incarnate Word, was brought about by Us with the greatest Wisdom, with unnarratable Power, with inexhaustible Love, and with a decorum proper to our works. I, Word of the Father, having to descend from Heaven to incarnate Myself in the womb of a Virgin, her virginity and exemption from original stain alone would not have been sufficient to the Sanctity of my Divinity. Therefore, it was necessary to our Love and our Sanctity that this Virgin be first conceived in Me; with all those perogatives, virtues, and beauties that the Life of the Incarnate Word should possess. And, therefore, I could then be conceived in the one who had been conceived in Me.
And so I found in Her my Heaven, the Sanctity of my Life, my own Blood that had generated and sprinkled Her so many times. I found in Her my very Will, which, communicating to Her Its Divine fecundity formed Its Life in hers and in the Son of God. My Divine FIAT, to make Her worthy of being able to conceive Me, kept Her invested and under Its continuous dominion. My Divine FIAT possesses all acts, as if they were a single act. In order to give all to Her, It called into act my foreseen merits, all my life and poured it continually within her beautiful soul.
“Therefore, I alone can tell the true story of the Immaculate Conception and her entire life because I conceived Her in Me, and I am abreast of everything. If the Holy Church says anything about the Celestial Queen, they can say only the first letters of the alphabet about her sanctity, her greatness, and the gifts with which She was enriched. If you knew the contentment I experience when I speak about my Heavenly Mother, who knows how many questions you would ask Me, in order to give Me the joy of letting Me speak about the one whom I love so much and who has loved Me.” [Vol-34, 8 Dec. 1936]
Jesus: My good daughter, to make the Heavenly Queen live in the Divine Fiat was the greatest, most heroic, most intense act of love that Our Supreme Being ever did. And no matter how immense and innumerable Our blessings are, We could not give a soul anything more or add anything to the gift of Our Will living within Her—because with It We gave Her everything, and She formed within Herself the fount and the wellspring of all the divine blessings, as much as is possible for a creature.
Now as the sovereign little one grew, by growing with Our Will She formed in her soul, heart, works and steps, so many speaking suns, that spoke to Us with voices of light and irresistible love. They spoke to Us so much of love and of Our very Divine Being; and they spoke to Us of mankind. Her steps spoke to Us. Her little hands, the heartbeats of her Heart that, with voices of light, reached even into Our divine bosom and spoke even within Us. Her speaking never ceased. Since Our Will lived in the Heavenly Queen, She possessed Its eloquent being, that always had something to say—not with human voices, but with mysterious and divine voices. It is never exhausted. Even more, because the Divine Fiat is the Word—and the acting and creating Word—how could she ever stop speaking if She had It in her power?
Indeed, her speech laid siege to Us, enraptured, surrounded and engaged Us on all sides, so that She made Herself irresistible and invincible, so that We had to give Her what She desired. Her word was powerful, and it made Our power give way. She was gentle and sweet, and made Our justice yield. She was light, and imposed Herself over Our Supreme Being, over Our goodness and Our love. In short, everything of Ours sweetly yielded to the powerful voices of this heavenly creature.
Luisa: But while my sweet Jesus said this, He made me see the heavenly Queen, from within whose Heart a sun went forth, filling the whole heavenly court and the whole earth. And its rays were formed of the most brilliant light—with eloquent voices that spoke to God, to the angels and the saints, and to all the creatures of the earth. Indeed, my heavenly Mama still possesses Her ceaseless speech. her speaking sun, so that with voices of eloquent light She speaks about her God, and She loves and glorifies Him divinely. She speaks to the saints, and She acts as a beatifying Mother and as a bearer of joy to the whole heavenly court. She speaks to the earth—and as Mother She makes a way for us, to conduct us to Heaven. (V-32: 6-Aug-1933)
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Luisa: I continued my round in the Divine Will, and when I came to the moment of the Immaculate Conception, my sweet Jesus stopped me.
Jesus: My daughter, I want to let you penetrate more deeply within the Immaculate Conception of My Most Holy Mother, into her prodigies—to see how much She loved her Creator, and how for Our love She loved all creatures.
In the act of being conceived, the little Queen began her life with the Divine Will, and that is why, with her Creator, She felt all the strength, immensity, and ardor of divine love, and this love was so great that She felt Herself lost, drowned, by that love, so that She did not know how to do anything but love Him who loved Her so much. The Creator felt Himself being loved, but to such a degree that He even gave His Will into her power—to have It as her own life. And this is why It can be called God’s greatest love, the most heroic love, the love that alone can say: “I have no more to give you, I have given you everything.” And the little Queen made use of this life to love Him as much as She was loved. She did not spend a moment without loving Him, and She sought to be like Him in the way that She loved Him.
Now, Our Divine Will that has the power to see all things hid nothing from Her. It made present to this holy creature all the human generations, each sin that they had done and that they would do. And even from the first instant of her conception, the tiny Celestial One who knew no other life than the Divine Will, began to be sorrowful with divine sorrow for the sins of mankind—so much so that around each of their sins She brought forth a sea of divine love and sadness.
My Will does not know how to do little things: in her beautiful soul It produced seas of sorrow and love for each sin and for every creature. That is why the little Holy Virgin, from the first moment of her life, was Queen of sorrow and of love—because Our almighty Will gave Her so much sorrow and love that if It had not sustained Her with Its power, She would have died a death for every sin, and been consumed with love as many times as the number of souls that would exist. And by the power of Our Will, Our Divinity began to experience divine sorrow and divine love for each and every soul.
O how satisfied We feel—and repaid for everything—and through this divine sorrow and love We feel kindly disposed toward everyone. Her love was so great that It over-whelmed Us, and She made Us love those whom She loved, so much so that when this sublime creature came to light, the Eternal Word ran after man, to seek and save him. Who can resist the animating power of Our Will in man? And what can’t She do and obtain, no matter how much She wants? O if only everyone knew the great blessing that We gave to the generations of mankind by giving them this Heavenly Queen! It was She who prepared the Redemption, who conquered her Creator, and who bore the Eternal Word on earth. O everyone would crowd around her motherly knees to ask Her for the Divine Will whose life She possesses. (V- 33, 12 Apr 1935)
Jesus: You have seen the conception of our Sovereign Queen, and being in my Will, you found yourself conceived within her Maternal Heart. See the great difference for those who live in my Will: the Immaculate Conception was an unprecedented wonder. My Will, which no one can escape, animated this con-ception, and called all the creatures to be present, that they might be conceived within her virgin Heart and receive her maternity, her aid and her protection, finding shelter and support in this Heavenly Mother.
Now, one who lives in our Will finds herself in the act of being conceived. She is like a daughter whose will spontaneously looks for her Mother and takes her place, shutting herself within her Maternal Heart to have the Heavenly Queen as her mother. And so the creature will partake of the wealth of the Sovereign Queen, of her merits and love, and will feel her nobility and holiness, because the creature knows to whom she belongs and God shall allow her to partake of the infinite goods and the exuberant love that He had when he conceived this Holy Creature. And so for all our works: just as the creature looks for them and calls them into our Will in order to know them and love them, so We call our works to become operative and place the creature in their center, allowing her to feel and experience all our love and the power of our creating force, and her smallness receives and reaches her fill until she overflows. (V-34: 21-Apr-1936)
Jesus: My love did not die with the fall of man, but burned even more strongly. And if my justice rightly punished him and condemned him, My love, while kissing My justice, and without hesitating a moment, promised the future Redeemer. And I said to the deceiving serpent: “You have used a woman to tear man away from My Divine Will. And I through another woman who shall have in her power the strength of My Fiat shall destroy your pride—and with her immaculate foot She shall crush your head.” (V-29: 19 May-1931)
My daughter, terrible indeed was the moment of Adam’s fall. As he rejected Our Divine Will to do his own, Our Fiat withdrew from the heavens, from the sun and from all Creation to reduce It to nothing—because the one who had rejected Our Divine Will no longer deserved to have Our Fiat maintain the continuous act of creation and preservation in all Creation, which had been made for love of man and given to him as a gift from his Creator. If the Eternal Word had not offered His foreseen merits as the future Redeemer—offered them to preserve the Immaculate Virgin from original sin—everything would have gone to ruin: the heavens and the sun would have withdrawn into the Source of Our Being; and if Our Divine Will withdraws, all created things would die. But when the Incarnate Word presented Himself before the Divinity and brought forward all of His foreseen merits, then all things remained in their places, and My Fiat continued His work of creating and preserving, waiting to give it as a legitimate and well-deserved gift to My Humanity—so much so, that a solemn promise was given to man after his fall: that the future Redeemer would come down to save him, so that man would pray and dispose himself to receive Him. (V-27: 7-Oct-1929)
Jesus: Though beautiful and pure, her Immaculate Conception was always a little light. It would not have had enough power or light to be able to produce seas of light and sanctity if Our Divine Will had not filled that little light to change it into a Sun, and if the little light, which was the will of the Heavenly Sovereign Lady, had not been happy to be dissolved into the Sun of the Divine Fiat and to let It reign over Her. This was the great wonder—the Kingdom of My Divine Will within Her. With My Will, everything that She did became light. She fed on light; and nothing came forth from Her that was not light—because She had the Sun of My Divine Will in Her power, and It was so great that She could draw from It as much light as She wanted to take. And since the property of light is to diffuse itself—to dominate, illuminate, make fruitful and warm—that is why the exalted Sovereign Queen (with the Sun of My Divine Will which She possessed) diffused Herself in God, prevailed upon Him, and, having prevailed upon Him, persuaded Him to come down to earth. She was made fruitful by the Eternal Word, and She illuminated and warmed mankind. One could say that She did everything by the power of the Kingdom of My Will which She possessed. All of Her other prerogatives can be called adornments of this Queen Mother; but the substance of all of her good qualities—of her height, beauty, greatness and sovereignty—was that She possessed the Kingdom of My Will. That is why only the smaller things are said of her, and nothing is said of the greater things. And this shows that they know little or nothing about My Will—because they are almost completely silent about It. (V-23: 8-Dec-1927)
Jesus: My daughter, My Heavenly Mama possessed My Will; She was so full of My Will that She overflowed with light—so much so that her waves of light rose up into the bosom of Our Divinity. And, making Herself a conqueror by the power of Our Divine Will that She possessed, She conquered the Heavenly Father, snatched the light of the Word into Her light, and made Him descend even into Her womb—within the same light that She had formed by the power of My Will. I could never have come down from Heaven had I not found Our own light in Her, Our own Will reigning in Her. Had it not been so, from the first moment it would have been like going down into a stranger’s house. But I had to go down into My own house. I had to find the place where I was to lower My light, my Heaven, and My countless joys; and, by possessing My Divine Will, the Heavenly Queen prepared this dwelling for Me—this Heaven, which resembles the Heavenly Fatherland in every way. Could anything else than My Will produce the Paradise of all the Blessed? (V-23: 18-Dec-1927)
Jesus: My blessed daughter, you ought to know that there is no beauty, nor value or wonder that can compare to the Immaculate Conception of this Heavenly Creature. My all-powerful Fiat made of Her a new creation. O how much more beautiful and wonderful is She than the first Creation! My Divine Will has neither beginning nor end in Itself, and Its greatest prodigy was Its apparent rebirth in this creature. What is more, My Will grew in her every instant, act, and prayer; and, as It grew, My Will multiplied Its wonders infinitely. (V-34: 8 Dec-1935)
Jesus: While We admirably created the Universe and maintain it under the imperial dominion of our creative and preserving act, without adding anything more, in this Virgin We maintain the creating act, the preserving act and the increasing act. This is the prodigy of prodigies, for the Life of our Will was reborn in the Virgin and kept increasing with each of her acts. To be reborn in Her, our Fiat spoke, pronouncing Itself in the act of her conception. And when It speaks, our act is so noble, sublime, lofty, immense, and powerful that it gathers each and every creature into the net of its love, putting no one aside, allowing every creature to take from the good of our operative Fiat, except those who do not want to do so.
In seeing our Will as if reborn in this holy creature, our Divinity allowed Her to share in our divine rights, so that She was mistress of our love, our power, our wisdom, our goodness, and Queen of our Fiat. With the increasing act of our Will in Her, She enraptured Us, loving Us so much that She even loved Us for each and every creature. (Vol 34: 8-Dec-1935)
Luisa’s Offering
Luisa: I felt myself leave my body, and I found myself with my sweet Jesus, but clinging so tightly to Him, and He to me, that I could hardly see his Divine Person. I don’t know how, but I said: ”My Jesus, while I am clinging to You, I want to prove my love for You—my gratitude, and everything that a creature has the duty to do—because You have created our Immaculate Queen Mama. You have made her the most beautiful one, the holiest one, a prodigy of Grace, enriching Her with every gift, and making Her our Mother also. And I offer this in the name of all creatures, past, present and future; I want to seize each act of each soul—each thought, word, step, and heartbeat—and I want to tell You, in each one of them, that I love You, I thank You, I bless You, I adore You—for all that You have done in your Heavenly Mama and mine.”
Jesus enjoyed my offering–and so much that He said to me: My daughter, I was anxiously awaiting this act of yours in the name of all generations. My Justice and my Love felt the need of this response, for great are the graces that descend upon all creatures because I endowed my Mama with such gifts. Yet, souls never have a word, not even a ”thank You,” to say to Me. (V-12: (18-DEC-1920)
St. Catherine of Siena and the Reverence Due to Priests
Maura Roan McKeegan
When I first read St. Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue several years ago, its contents impressed me in many ways. One message, though, etched itself on my memory more firmly than the others. To this day, when I think of this book, it is this message that I remember most: “The sins of the clergy should not lessen your reverence for them.” (Dialogue 116)
Like many Catholics, I have had wonderful encounters with saintly priests and tense encounters with their opposites. I have been tempted to share my stories of injustice, hoping for sympathy and understanding from listeners who know how dreadful it is to be slighted by a priest. Reading The Dialogue helped me to realize how important it is to pause in these times of temptation and resist any impulse to speak badly of a priest.
St. Catherine lived during a tumultuous time in the Church, when many priests were leading immoral lives and causing scandal for their flocks (although many holy priests lived during that time, too). She wrote The Dialogue in the fourteenth century, after having a profound mystical experience. In the book, a soul (St. Catherine) has a conversation with God and asks Him several questions, which He answers in great depth. One of St. Catherine’s requests is that God would reveal to her the sins of the clergy, so that she might intensify her “sorrow and compassion and restless longing for their salvation.” (108)
Because St. Catherine’s motive is love and not judgment—she wants only to be stirred to deeper prayers for the souls of the clergy—God grants her request and reveals to her the evil that His ministers are doing. First, though, He reminds St. Catherine of the sublime dignity of the priesthood, and the reverence due to priests, by virtue of the sacrament of the altar which they alone have received the power to celebrate. He says:The reverence you pay to [priests] is not actually paid to them but to me, in virtue of the blood I have entrusted to their ministry. If this were not so, you should pay them as much reverence as to anyone else, and no more. It is this ministry of theirs that dictates that you should reverence them and come to them, not for what they are in themselves but for the power I have entrusted to them, if you would receive the sacraments of the Church….
So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me and to this glorious blood made one thing with me because of the union of divinity with humanity. And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence, for I have already told you that you must not reverence them for themselves, but for the authority I have entrusted to them. Therefore you must not sin against them, because if you do, you are really sinning not against them but against me. This I have forbidden, and I have said that it is my will that no one should touch them. (116)
Sadly, derision of priests is not something that ended in St. Catherine’s time. It is still rampant today, and often, the criticism seems to come more from within the Church than without. The advent of social media has magnified the problem. Clergy from parish priests on up to the Vicar of Christ are publicly accused of being too traditional, not traditional enough, too weak, too heavy-handed, too ecumenical, too doctrinal, too charismatic, or a host of other criticisms which the critics believe are justified.
But The Dialogue says such criticism is never justified:
For this reason no one has excuse to say, “I am doing no harm, nor am I rebelling against holy Church. I am simply acting against the sins of evil pastors.” Such persons are deluded, blinded as they are by their own selfishness…. It is me they assault, just as it was me they reverenced. To me redounds every assault they make on my ministers: derision, slander, disgrace, abuse. Whatever is done to them I count as done to me….
By not paying me reverence in the persons of my ministers, they have lost respect for the latter and persecuted them because of the many sins and faults they saw in them. If in truth the reverence they had for them had been for my sake, they would not have cut it off on account of any sin in them. For no sin can lessen the power of this sacrament, and therefore their reverence should not lessen either. When it does, it is against me they sin. (116)
The Part of the Faithful: Tears and Prayers for Mercy
This sin of persecuting priests and denying them due honor, God tells St. Catherine, is “more serious than any other,” because those who do this are persecuting and dishonoring the blood of Jesus.
If all the other sins these people have committed were put on one side and this one sin on the other, the one would weigh more in my sight than all the others. (116)
That does not mean God is letting priests off the hook. On the contrary, He tells St. Catherine that priests who do evil and lead their flocks astray are devils.
Their dignity in being my ministers will not save them from my punishment. Indeed, unless they change their ways, they will be punished more severely than all the others, because they have received more from my kindness. Having sinned so miserably, they are deserving of greater punishment. So you see how they are devils, just as I told you that my chosen ones are angels on earth and do the work of the angels. (121)
Because “things can be better known by looking at their opposites” (110), God tells St. Catherine of His faithful ministers who serve His people in humility and virtue, extolling them as “precious stones” whom God has set with the “greatest honor in everlasting life,” and the sight of them makes Him “gloriously happy.” (119)
At the same time, He laments the many sins of faithless clergy, including promiscuity, lying with prostitutes, selling graces, usury, gluttony, avarice toward the poor, vanity in seeking high offices, greed for worldly riches, and, as He tells St. Catherine, many more sins far worse than what He describes. He tells her how abominable these sins are in His sight, and how deeply these ministers offend Him. Yet He makes it clear to St. Catherine that His people must give reverence to His priests no matter how sinful the priests may be, and leave the judgment to God.
Reverence neither is nor should be given them for what they are in themselves, but only for the authority I have entrusted to them. The sacramental mystery cannot be lessened or divided by their sinfulness. Therefore your reverence for them should never fail—not for their own sake, but because of the treasure of the blood. (118)
The virtuous must not lessen their reverence, even should these ministers fall short in virtue. And so far as the virtues of my ministers are concerned,…[they are] stewards of…my Son’s body and blood and of the other sacraments. This dignity belongs to all who are appointed as such stewards, to the bad as well as to the good. (120)
The part of the faithful, God tells St. Catherine, is to weep over the sins of clergy who do not follow God’s will, and to call upon His mercy for them.
You should hold [these sinful ministers] out to me with tears and great desire, so that I in my goodness may clothe them with the garment of charity… Indeed, I have appointed them and given them to you to be angels on earth…as I have told you. When they are less than that, you ought to pray for them. But you are not to judge them. Leave the judging to me, and I, because of your prayers and my own desire, will be merciful to them. (120)
The more you offer me sorrowful and loving desires for them, the more you will prove your love for me. For the service neither you nor my other servants can do for me you ought to do for them instead. Then I will let myself be constrained by the longing and tears and prayers of my servants, and will be merciful to my bride by reforming her with good and holy shepherds. (129)
As the Year of Mercy comes to a close, may God grant us the grace to pray for the Church, especially for fallen clergy, in the words of St. Catherine:You said, eternal Father, that because of your love for your creatures, and through the prayers and innocent sufferings of your servants, you would be merciful to the world and reform holy Church, and thus give us refreshment. Do not wait any longer, then, to turn the eye of your mercy. Because it is your will to answer us before we call, answer now with the voice of your mercy. (134)
By Maura Roan McKeegan
Maura Roan McKeegan is the author of a series of children’s picture books about biblical typology, including: The End of the Fiery Sword: Adam & Eve and Jesus & Mary; Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb: Jonah and Jesus, and, most recently, Building the Way to Heaven: The Tower of Babel and Pentecost (Emmaus Road Publishing; available spring 2018). Her articles have appeared in publications such as Catholic Digest, The Civilized Reader, Franciscan Way, Guideposts, and Lay Witness.