Coming of the Kingdom

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DIVINE WILL SNIPPET
(Extracts from the Book of Heaven by Luisa Piccarreta)
Compiled by Ann Ellison

July 23, 2021

THIS SNIPPET IS IN HONOR OF THOMAS M FAHY’S 82ND EARTHLY BIRTHDAY

God is Everywhere, but What is He Doing Wherever He is?
…for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts: 17, 18)

God is in all the galaxies spread throughout the vastness of the space that He created to place them in. God is in every star, nebula, quasar, planet, moon, comet, asteroid, the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. What is He doing in them? God is in every place: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Earth, in every mountain, valley, plain, river and sea. He is in every grain of sand, in every tree, flower and shrub, in every mammal, bird, fish, amphibian, reptile, insect, and crustacean—and all else, whatever it may be and wherever it may be. But what is He doing in all these things and places?

Only God could tell us all that He is doing in all the things and places He brought into existence but let us just say a few things that He is doing. First, He is continuing to be the Eternal God that He is and always in possession of his Kingdom—the Kingdom of the Divine Will, which is shared equally and forever among the Three Divine Persons in their One Only Supreme Being; and this would be true whether anything other than God existed or not. But concerning what He is doing in all these created things, we know that He created them, that He conserves them in existence with all the natural qualities that He gave them and that He continuously supplies prime motion to all their movements, even down to the movements of the tiniest parts of every atom. And, of course, God is distinct from all that He created, and nothing created is part of God or ever was part of God.

The Kingdom of the Divine Will, which is inseparable from God, because It is his very Essence—an operating Essence, shared mutually among the Three Royal Persons of the Trinity. So, wherever God is, his Kingdom of the Divine Will is always with Him and always belongs to Him, and He only shares this Kingdom with creatures endowed with intelligence and free will—but only with those whom He chooses, when He chooses according to his eternal decrees, and only if those persons are properly disposed. And it seems, from the writings of Luisa Piccarreta, that this Supreme Kingdom of the Divine Will was destined only for human beings to possess within the parameters of time and faith. Beyond time and faith, in the reward of the Beatific Vision in Heaven, all possess and live in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, which includes Angels and humans. In Heaven the Blessed enjoy forever the Father’s Kingdom of eternal Happiness, but there is no more merit, and the Blessed can add nothing new to the Glory of God, nor can they multiply their acts.

Now to the essential question of Man. What is God doing in human beings? What is He doing in an unborn baby? What is He doing in a new baby not yet baptized? What is he doing in a baby after Baptism? What is He doing in a person with whom He wants to share the Kingdom of his Divine Will—the very purpose for which He created mankind?

An unborn baby: “For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Ps 139, 13). By the power of his Divine Will, God creates the baby. God and his Will are operating in the baby. God conserves the baby’s existence, and God provides prime motion to all the baby’s movements as it grows in its mother’s womb. But the Kingdom of the Divine Will belongs to God and not to the unborn baby, nor does the baby possess Sanctifying Grace. Because it is a human being, it has a living soul with will, intellect and memory—the image of God. But his image is not like it was in Adam when he was created. The image of God in this unborn baby is dark and distorted, and its likeness to God is barely perceptible.

The newly born, un-baptized baby: By the power of his Divine Will, God has created this baby. God and his Will are in the newly born baby. God conserves the baby’s existence, and God provides prime motion to all the baby’s movements such as sucking its thumb. But all this is in the natural order of things. Nothing supernatural has been added to the baby’s life. Yet, God will provide actual graces to lead this creature of his to the supernatural life through the Sacrament of Baptism or through “baptism of desire or of blood.” The Kingdom of the Divine Will is in God who is in the baby; but It belongs to God and not to the baby. The Divine Will gives natural life to the baby but does not communicate to it the supernatural life of Sanctifying Grace. The baby is not an adopted child of God nor a friend of God, nor is it eligible for Heaven. As in the unborn baby, its soul’s image of God is still dark and distorted, and its likeness to God is still barely perceptible.

A baptized baby: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”(Mt: 28, 19) God still continues what He has been doing at the natural level with the baby before Baptism: Having created the baby, He preserves it in existence, provides prime motion to the baby’s movements, etc.; BUT NOW SOMETHING NEW AND SUPERNATURAL has begun in God’s working in this baby. God is now, by the power of his Will, creating Sanctifying Grace and communicating that Grace and the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity to the baby’s soul, elevating the baby’s soul from the purely natural plane of human operation to the supernatural plane, whereby the baby becomes an adopted child and friend of God, eligible for Heaven. Finding something supernatural and divine in the baby, finding friendship and filial relationship with Him, God the Holy Trinity now begins to indwell in the baby’s soul, and God will provide the actual graces needed for the baby to remain in the state of Grace when it matures to the age of reason. God will provide the actual graces for the child’s growth in Sanctifying Grace by means of the Sacraments and the cross. And if this adopted child should ever lose Sanctifying Grace by mortal sin, God will give the necessary actual graces to recover the lost Sanctifying Grace, provided this person cooperates with these actual graces. The image of God in its soul is now significantly brightened and is beginning to lose its distortion. Its likeness to God is becoming more noticeable to the gaze of its Creator. But with all these supernatural advantages this child still does not possess and operate in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, even though its infantile acts are divinized by absorption in the Childhood of Jesus. The Kingdom of the Divine Will is present with God in the baptized child, but It still belongs to God and not to this child!

A son or daughter of the Divine Will: All that was said above about the baptized child and the Trinity indwelling in the child can be also said of the son or daughter of the Divine Will, but SOMETHING VASTLY GREATER AND MORE WONDERFUL can now be added! The Kingdom of the Divine Will, which is always present everywhere, including being present in the unborn child, the un-baptized child, and the baptized child, and which had belonged to God and not to the child, NOW BECOMES THE POSSESSION OF THIS CHILD! The newly formed son or daughter of the Divine Will has been given God’s GREATEST GIFT. The Kingdom of the Divine Will now belongs also to this child of God. God has begun to share the Kingdom of the Divine Will with his creature, so that his creature can begin to live the same Life that God lives—the divine and eternal Life of the uncreated Trinity—no longer the mystical life of God alone, through Sanctifying Grace, but the REAL LIFE of God, which is the eternal fountain of Life, Grace, and all that exists, including the processions within the Holy Trinity—the Father generating his only-begotten Son, the Father and Son breathing forth the Holy Spirit.

The creature now is elevated to the status of Legitimate Child of God and shares in common with God the Real Life of the Trinity, doing together with each Divine Person what each Divine Person does!! The image and likeness of God in the creature’s soul is no longer dimmed and distorted but bright, beautiful, integral and worthy of God’s enchanted and fascinated gaze.

Therefore, the Essential Thing is: What God is doing wherever He is present!

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The Value of Spiritual Abandonment
(In my own words, based on my studies and research of Luisa’s writings)

The most beautiful act, most pleasing to God is abandonment to the Divine Will. The soul must consider that everything for her is Divine Will. Completely abandoning one’s self to the Divine Will destroys self and makes possible the acquisition of the Divine Being and all his goods.

Great abandonment in Jesus is necessary for the soul who wants intimate union with her God. Such abandonment fills the soul with Jesus and moves Him to do in her all that He wants of her. And the Saints, observing such a soul, celebrate with astonishment the enchanting beauty of this soul.

Restlessness and disturbance mean that the soul is not abandoned in Jesus and forms the nighttime of the soul; whereas abandonment brings rest and calm to the soul, forming daylight for the soul who no longer thinks of herself but lets Jesus arrange everything for her good.

Not abandoning oneself in Jesus is like usurping his divine rights. Jesus does not like disturbance in souls. He wants that abandonment which brings calmness and peace.

Abandonment to the Divine Will is balm for the soul, and a soul who is abandoned to the Divine Will is balm for Jesus.

The soul, who is abandoned to the Divine Will while experiencing sufferings, difficulties and rejections, will say, “The Kingdom of the Divine Will is mine. No one can take It away from me. My sufferings will make my Kingdom more invincible, and my crown in Heaven will be more beautifully adorned.”

When the soul abandons herself in the Divine Will she flies with wings in the Divine Will but loses those wings when she ceases her abandonment. Remaining abandoned, she enters in the midst of the Trinity and shares in their secrets and happiness.

To live fully in the Divine Will, complete abandonment in Jesus is necessary for the soul, for the Divine Will does not care to have a place within It for human miseries but wants the soul beautiful as it came forth from Its bosom. Lack of this abandonment brings disparity between Creator and creature—sorrow to God and unhappiness to the creature.

Complete and total abandonment to the Will of God can bring the soul to experience a new heaven, a new life, and a divine atmosphere within her being.

Full abandonment in the arms of our Heavenly Father brings the soul to no longer feeling her own life but that of God, and it is the truest way of living in the Divine Will.

In most of the souls with whom God has made extraordinary bonds of union, He has provided states of abandonment toward the end of their lives.

Finally, for now: The more the soul abandons herself in the Divine Will and receives Its reflections, the more she advances in this Kingdom, the more she learns and understands the ways of this Kingdom, and the more she possesses the inheritance of Its eternal goods.

—End—