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Consecration to the Holy Angels

As we begin;

COME DIVINE WILL, COME PRAY IN MY PRAYING,

AMEN

O Holy Angels of God, here, in the presence of the Triune God and in the love of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer, I, N.N., poor sinner, want to make a covenant with you, who are his servants, so that in union with you, I might work with humility and fortitude for the glory of God and the coming of his Kingdom. Therefore, I implore you to assist me, especially – in the adoration of God and of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, – in the contemplation of the word and the salvific works of God, -in the imitation of Christ and in the love of his Cross in a spirit of expiation, – in the faithful fulfillment of my mission within the Church, serving humbly after the example of Mary, my heavenly Mother, your Queen. And you, my good guardian angel, who continually behold the face of our Father in heaven, God entrusted me to you from the very beginning of my life. I thank you with all my heart for your loving care. I commit myself to you and promise you my love and fidelity. I beg you: protect me against my own weakness and against the attacks of the wicked spirits; enlighten my mind and my heart so that I may always know and accomplish the will of God; and lead me to union with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
approved this Consecration prayer
on May 31, 2000 for use in Opus Angelorum.
© 2000 Congregazione dei Canonici Regolari della Santa Croce – Roma

Divine Worship and Communion

In the last circular we explained that a Consecration to the holy angels is a special statement of devotion which is founded on the baptismal grace. The communion of the faithful in Christ comes through Baptism. This communion of grace in Christ is the foundation for the devotion and Consecration to the holy angels. The Second Vatican Council teaches: “In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members…has honored with great respect the memory of the dead… The Church has always believed that the apostles and Christ’s martyrs…are closely united with us in Christ; she has always venerated them, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels, with a special love, and has asked piously for the help of their intercession” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 50). This communion finds its perfect statement in the celebration of the liturgy, for “in her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 335; cf. Heb 12:22). “With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a hymn of glory to the Lord” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium 8), and “it is especially in the sacred liturgy that our union with the heavenly Church is best realized” (Lumen Gentium 50). This communion evidently also embraces the angels, for they, too, have Christ as their Head and are members of his Mystical Body (cf. Eph 1:20-23; Col 2:10; Summa Theol. III.8,4,c).

The Consecration to the angels aims at consolidating and cultivating this communion. In the Consecration prayer, we turn to the holy angels in order to make a covenant with them. In this covenant-relationship, we primarily wish to venerate God in union with the holy angels. Additionally, we also wish to honor the angels, giving them thanks and imploring their help for us and for the Church. Given that angels and men are both ‘fellow servants’ of the Lord (cf. Rev 19:10; 22:9), we, too, in the measure of our modest forces, wish to contribute in collaboration with them to the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Since this mission is common both to angels and men, devotion to the holy angels, by its very nature, gives impetus to the common praise of God and to a joint effort for the salvation of souls. Hence, in the history of the Church, there have been numerous confraternities in honor of the angels. Even though the members may be physically separated from one another, they live in the awareness of being united in spirit, for the Consecration is a covenant, and a covenant builds community. Consequently, we, too, wish to live this covenant in the community of the Work of the Holy Angels, giving one another support, help, and encouragement. The Consecration to the holy angels involves a serious obligation. Therefore, it should only be made after an adequate preparation, and normally, it is combined with the admission into an ecclesiastically recognized association of the Opus Angelorum, as for example, into the Confraternity of the Guardian Angels.

The Consecration to the holy angels has a twofold structure. In the first part, the spirituality of the OA is laid down as the governing principle for the covenant with the angels and our strivings. Only those who are determined to pursue this lofty goal should consider making this Consecration. In the second part, we address our own guardian angel within the scope of the mission entrusted to him by God, namely, the mission of educating and sanctifying his charge. This second part is also suited as a private Consecration to the guardian angel for those who seek to foster their union with him.

In order that the prayer and the inherent covenant with the angels become fruitful in the spiritual life of the members of the OA, we now wish to reflect on the content of this Consecration and also to expound why the holy angels themselves earnestly want to enter into a covenant with us.

Relation between Consecration and Covenant

The Consecration to the holy angels as a covenant corresponds to the Biblical theology of the covenant: It is a sacred contract, a solemn promise, in which our mutual relations and obligations are stipulated and agreed upon.

In Sacred Scripture the covenant existed above all between God and the people. Joshua mediated the renewal of this covenant. God promised blessing and salvation and the people, in turn, consented, saying: We will serve the Lord. Then Joshua said to the people: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him.” And they said: “We are witnesses” (Josh 24:21-22, 24-25). Covenants were also established between the people and the king: the people made a covenant with David before Yahweh, and they anointed him king (cf. 1 Chron 11:1-3). Further, covenants were made between individuals: Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul (1 Sam 18:3). Later, David recalled their bond and referred the covenant ultimately to God: Deal kindly with your servant, for you [Jonathan] have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you (1 Sam 20:8).

The agreement established between Tobit and Raphael is also suggestive of a covenant with the angel, who willingly accompanied his son Tobias on his successful journey (cf. Tob 5:6,15-17). Tobias, after returning from his journey, indicates, at least indirectly, the fruit of this covenant and says to his father: It would do no harm to give him half of the possessions brought back with me (Tob 12:2). The mutual relationship which arose from the covenant did not exhaust itself merely in the fulfillment of certain obligations, but also demanded friendship, love, and fidelity.

In this covenant with the holy angels, we strive after a more intimate union with them in love for God; in union with them, we also hope to be able to work more efficaciously for the glory of God and the coming of his kingdom. For “God willed the diversity of his creatures and their own particular goodness, their interdependence and their order” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 335).

Communion of Angels and Men

We endeavor to live this sacred bond with the angels in a fourfold way: in adoration, in contemplation, in expiation, and in the apostolate. These are at the same time the four fundamental bearings of the spiritual life in the Work of the Holy Angels.

1) Assistance in the Adoration of God

First of all, we hope for the holy angels’ assistance, so that, as true worshipers of the Father (cf. Jn 4:23-24), we might reverently conduct our lives in the presence of God. In particular, we hope for their assistance in the celebration of the liturgy and in the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. We wish to strive to perform these exercises in a conscious communion with them.

Pope John Paul II instructs, “‘The angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in Heaven’ (Mt 18:10). ‘To see the face of the Father always’ in this way is the highest manifestation of the adoration of God. One can say that this constitutes the ‘heavenly liturgy’ carried out in the name of all the universe, with which the earthly liturgy of the Church is incessantly joined, especially in its culminating moments. Let it suffice here to record the act with which the Church, every day and every hour, in all the world, before the beginning of the Eucharist Prayer in the center of the Mass, makes appeal ‘to the Angels and Archangels’ to sing the glory of the thrice-holy God, uniting herself thus to those first adorers of God, in the worship and the loving knowledge of the unspeakable mystery of his holiness” (General Audience, August 6, 1986, emphasis mine).

The perfection of this communion of prayer is represented already in the Book of Revelation when the twenty-four Elders, together with the angels, offer in the presence of the Lamb the sacrifice of praise, which are the prayers of the Church (cf. Rev 5:8-9). Through the Lamb, the heavenly and the earthly liturgy are truly joined into a single liturgy; heaven and earth are united in Christ’s sacrifice of praise, Who has seated himself at the right hand of God in Heaven. This adoration of the Lamb is also accomplished in the Eucharistic adoration on earth, likewise in communion with the holy angels.

Before the Incarnation, the angels sang God’s praise in heaven. Even though they were utterly filled with pure and ardent love for God, their creaturely song of praise did not suffice to pay God due homage because his majesty is infinite. Only when the Word of the Father descended and became Flesh and as our High Priest raised his voice in praise of the Father, did a song of praise that was truly worthy of God ascend to heaven for the first time. The angels, too, descended in order to ascend again to heaven in the Gloria in excelsis Deo, in the praise of Christ. This was the beginning of the common, never-ending song of praise by angels and men united in Christ.

2) Assistance in the Contemplation of the Word of God

The holy angels are instruments (ministers) and witnesses to the words and saving works of God in the history of salvation. They were, for example, present at the birth of Christ, at his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. They communicate to us in the measure of our receptivity the light of these mysteries, which they perceive in a more perfect way than we do.

How is this mediation of grace achieved in us? St. John of the Cross describes this ministry of the angels, saying: “[The divine wisdom] descends from God through the first hierarchies unto the last, and from these last unto men. It is rightly and truly said in Scripture that all the works of the angels and the inspirations they impart are also accomplished or granted by God. For ordinarily these works and inspirations are derived from God by means of the angel… This communication is like a ray of sunlight shining through many windows places one after the other…[E]ach window communicates this light to the other with a certain modification according to its own quality” (Dark Night, II, 12:3). This is why the communication of grace by the angels and saints always has a personal character. Thus, for example, the help rendered by St. Michael the Archangel has a different nuance than that of St. Gabriel the Archangel.

The angels also contribute substantially to our progress and joy in the spiritual life. For through the light of meditation, which they communicate, spiritual joy comes to us; conversely, when we neglect meditation, this may give rise to aridity, desolation, and lethargy. St. Thomas explains the reason why: “It is written (Ps 38:4): ‘In my meditation a fire shall flame out.’ But spiritual fire causes devotion. Thus, meditation is the cause of devotion!” (Summa Theol. II-II.82,3,sc). Elsewhere, he shows that the task of all the angelic hierarchies consists in making us like unto Christ, by purging, illuminating, and leading us to union with God (cf. De Div. Nom. IV,1 § 286). Thus, they help man to become configured to Christ. The more we ask for this grace and actively cooperate, the more efficacious their help will prove itself to be in our lives.

The angels rejoice for Christ’s sake when they can help a soul on its path to perfection. It is also a special joy for them personally, for as St. Thomas writes, “The ministries of the holy angels are useful to the beatified angels inasmuch as these are a certain part of their beatitude, for it pertains to the very idea of perfection to pour this out over others. Their joy increases over the salvation of those who are saved through their ministry, as we have it in Lk 15:10: ‘There is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents'” (Summa Theol. I.62, 9, 2m, and 3m).

3) Assistance in the Imitation of the Crucified Savior

While the angels, by reason of their spiritual nature and heavenly beatitude, are far ahead of us in the first two fundamental bearings of adoration and contemplation, we have, in a certain way, an advantage over them in the imitation of the Crucified Lord. For the Son of God assumed our nature, and only man can participate in his redemptive suffering. Accordingly, St. Therese of the Child Jesus says that if the angels could envy us in some way, it would be our capacity to suffer for and with Jesus (see letters n. 83; poems n. 10)

Just as the angels ministered to the Lord after the temptation in the desert (cf. Mk 1:14) and just as an angel offered the chalice of strength to Our Lord in his agony in the Garden at the commission of the Father (Lk 22:43), so we also may be confident that the Father will send us the angels as helpers and assistance in the hour when we are put to the test and have to carry the Cross.

Though Mary and the angels intervene in our behalf even without our calling on them because they have this mission directly from God, it is still important that we ourselves should ask for this angelic help, last but not least, so as to be receptive to it. St. Alphonsus Liguori teaches that the grace of petition is the first grace which is bestowed upon us before all other graces. Further, petitioning makes man humble. The more humbly we beg for help, the more efficacious grace will be and the more copiously it will flow, for he who has will be given even more: This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them (Ps 33:7-8).

In this third fundamental bearing of expiation, we learn the science of the Cross at the hand of the angels, namely, that love which bears suffering is the greatest and most noble force and that this love alone can gather in the harvest for God and gain the victory for him. The angels are especially concerned that we offer our prayers and sacrifices on behalf of priests, since priests, by virtue of the power of their sacramental ordination, mediate far greater graces to the souls than the angels.

4) Assistance in the Mission and Office in the Church

Each member of the Body of Christ has its own proper mission or task to fulfill for the welfare of the Church. Preeminent is the concern to proclaim and propagate the Kingdom of God. What St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Doctor of the Church, says concerning the duty of a preacher can also be applied to the duty of the faithful: “Preaching, therefore, is a duty that is apostolic, angelic, Christian, divine. … It [the Word of God] is the source of faith, hope, charity…” (Office of Readings of July 21).

We are to confess our faith in word and deed; the angel, in turn, will let his light shine and offer his help. Faith, as St. Paul underscores, comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ (Rom 10:17). But this will not be realized without the light of the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 12:3). The faithful have the duty to proclaim the Word of God. The proclamation, however, remains futile without the grace of illumination. Along these lines, St. Thomas teaches that the communication of the truths of faith comes principally “by the angels, by whom Divine things are revealed to men. Hence, the angels have some part in the enlightenment of faith” (Summa Theol. I.111,1,1m).

St. Francis de Sales made this truth his own by invoking the angels of his listeners before every sermon for help. Consequently, he is known to have helped more than 70,000 individuals return to the Catholic faith.

The mission of spreading the Kingdom of God is a joint work of angels and men, whereby man is the visible servant of Christ. The Christian confesses the faith by his words and his life. Even in the faithful and humble fulfillment of minor duties, after the example of Mary and at the hand of the holy angels, we can satisfy this duty. For it is not the many words that convince but the lived example. It is not so decisive what we do but how we do it, for it is Divine Love that will transform and save the world. Only where humility reigns can our fellow-servant, the angel, shed his light upon us and our neighbors, for the glorification of God and in witness of the truth. In this way, we can understand in a broader sense the word: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16).

When we consider that God’s grace is made perfect in weakness, we will be able, like the holy Apostle Paul, to boast of our weaknesses, knowing that this is the way that leads to salvation (cf. 2 Cor 12:9). In the awareness of this frailty, we are more inclined to call on the holy angels for help. With this angelic help our work and mission will become a building stone for the Kingdom of God on earth.

Why the Holy Angels want the Covenant

The angels were not only created for their own sake but also for man’s sake (cf. Col 1:16). At the beginning of creation, the holy angels assented to this plan of Divine wisdom in all humility, thereby becoming like unto the Son of God, Who came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28). Moreover, they “accompanied him in the fulfillment of his salvific mission in regard to mankind” (John Paul II., General Audience of July 30, 1986). The principal reason, however, why they want to enter into a covenant with us lies in the Divine counsel to unite all things in and under Christ (cf. Eph 1:10 and Col 1:20).

So it is a joy for the angels to make a covenant with us, and what great benefits will we enjoy when we are allowed to share in their love and Divine worship!

Special Bond with the Guardian Angel

The guardian angel is a special gift of God’s love. Were we given the opportunity to choose among all the holy angels a special companion and helper, we could not find a better companion than the one whom God in his infinite wisdom and love has already chosen for us. God alone knows the secret of our life. He alone, our Creator and Redeemer, knows all our strong points and weaknesses, our vocation and our trials, our Cross and the glory intended for us. Foreseeing all this, he chose our guardian angel from all eternity him for us and us for him. The Lord tells us: Behold, I send my angel to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared (Ex 23:20, reading of the feast of the Guardian Angels).

Thus, the guardian angel is for us the door to the world of the angels and in a certain sense a porter of heaven. Appointed by God for us, the words of St. Thomas, referred to in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, are particularly true of him: “The angels take part in all our good works” (Summa Theol. I.114,3,3m, cf. CCC 350). He is our best and most faithful friend, the only one who, besides Jesus and Mary, continuously accompanies and guards us throughout our whole life. His first solicitude, his first intercession is always for his charge, who is the ‘talent’ entrusted to him, which he would like to return to the Lord with a hundredfold ‘profit’ at the end of our life. Day and night, he is indefatigably concerned about our welfare and eternal salvation. He works unflaggingly to achieve our purification, illu-mination, and perfection. Concerning these three hierarchical activities of the angels, St. Bonaventure writes: “Purification leads to peace; illumination to truth; perfection to charity. Once the soul has perfectly achieved these three, this will make its beatitude; insofar, however, as it is now walking along this way, it will obtain the growth of its merits” (De Triplici Via, prologue 1).

The guardian angel is a most fitting help against the evil spirits, who tempt and oppress us, for already at the beginning, our guardian angel, under the command of St. Michael the Archangel, had his share in the victory over the evil spirits. As a spiritual being, he can easily discern the tempter and drive him away in the force of grace. But when God permits the enemy to sift us like Job (1:12 2:6), like Peter (Lk 22:31) or like Paul (2 Cor 12:7-8), we are not deprived, for all that, of the strengthening assistance of the holy guardian angel. With his help, we are always able to remain faithful to God.

How much we owe our guardian angel! Who could actually afford to pay him an adequate wage? Such faithful love can only be requited by fidelity, love, and trust. Therefore, we gladly commit ourselves to him and promise him our love and fidelity. When we are weak, he who continually beholds the face of our Father in heaven (Mt 18:10) is firmly and immutably anchored in God. He wishes to impart this firmness to us, in helping us, by means of the light of grace given to him, to believe more firmly in God, to trust more confidently in his help and to love God and our neighbors more selflessly.

For all eternity we shall be united with our guardian angel in intimate friendship and reign with him in the Kingdom of God. Thus we can understand the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: “A guardian angel is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer. When, however, he arrives at the end of life he no longer has a guardian angel; but in the kingdom he will have an angel to reign with him” (Summa Theol. I.113,4c).

Fr. William Wagner, ORC

Luisa Piccarreta

and

The Angels

From the Writings of

The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta

The Little Daughter of the Divine Will

Luisa and the Angels

Biography Luisa Piccarreta – Childhood Memories by Padre Bucci

Padre Bucci: “But her (Luisa’s) writings can’t reveal everything about Luisa’s life, because it was far more complex”.

“That’s true” Padre Bucci’s Aunt Rosaria answered. “I could tell of many things that no one knows“.

Padre Bucci: “So why do you insistently refuse to speak?”

Padre Bucci’s Aunt Rosaria: “If Luisa had wished them to be known she would have written them down, or the Church would have ordered her to write them; it is clear that certain phenomena which occurred, which I and others witnessed, do not serve for the sanctification of souls. The Lord permitted to be known all that is of use to the Church and to souls, the rest serves no purpose. In speaking of these things I feel as if I were profaning the intimacy that was built up between God and Luisa, human beings would not understand. The message bequeathed by Luisa exceeds her very person. Luisa wanted the Lord alone to have all the honor and glory, and she was to disappear into nothingness; this is why she loved solitude and silence, and showed great distress when she noticed that she was the object of people’ veneration, for she considered herself only a poor sick person, in need of everything. I and others knew very well that Luisa had no need of anything, and that we had to be the custodians of her mystery. How often in the morning did I find Luisa all tidy and the altar already prepared for Holy Mass with the candles lit“.

Padre Bucci: “And how did this happen, if Luisa never set foot out of bed for about sixty years? Are you sure of what you say?”.

Padre Bucci’s Aunt Rosaria “Absolutely certain! Because I was the only one who entered her room”

Padre Bucci: “Did you never wonder what the explanation was?”.

Padre Bucci’s Aunt Rosaria “I thought that Angels served her, especially her guardian Angel, to whom she was deeply devoted. Her room was often found full of fragrance“.

Volume 1 Luisa’s Received the Obedience to Write

Most Holy Virgin, lovable Mother, come to my aid, obtain for me from your sweet Jesus and mine, grace and strength in order to do this obedience. Saint Joseph, my dear protector, assist me in this circumstance of mine. Archangel Saint Michael, defend me from the infernal enemy, who puts so many obstacles in my mind to make me fail this obedience. Archangel Saint Rafael and you, my guardian Angel, come to assist me and accompany me, and to direct my hand, that I may write nothing but the truth.

Volume 1 Luisa’s Mystical Marriage

Now, while He was crowning my forehead, Jesus told me: “Most sweet spouse, I place this crown upon you so that nothing may be missing in order to make you worthy of being my spouse; but then, after our wedding is finished, I will take it with Me to Heaven, to keep it for you at the moment of your death.” Finally, He took a veil and covered me completely with it, from head to foot; and He left me in that way. Ah! it seemed to me that there was a great meaning in that veil, because the demons, in seeing me all covered with that veil, were so frightened and had such fear of me, that they fled, terrified. The very angels were around me with such veneration, that I myself was confused and all full of blushing.

On the morning of the aforementioned day, Jesus made Himself seen again all affable, sweet and majestic, together with His Most Holy Mother and Saint Catherine. First, the angels sang a hymn, while Saint Catherine assisted me, Mama took my hand, and Jesus put the ring on my finger. Then, we embraced and He kissed me, and so did Mama also. Then we had a conversation, all of love – Jesus told me of the great love He had for me, and I also told Him of the love I had for Him. The Most Holy Virgin made me comprehend the great grace I had received, and the correspondence with which I was to correspond to the love of Jesus.

Volume 1 Luisa’s Marriage of the Cross

While Jesus was saying this, that cross which I had seen the other times made itself present before me. I took it and I laid myself on it. As I was in this way, the Heavens opened and Saint John the Evangelist came down, carrying the cross that Jesus had indicated to me. The Queen Mother and many Angels, when they arrived near me, lifted me from that cross and placed me over the one which they had brought me, which was much larger. Then, an Angel took the cross I had before and took it to Heaven with him. After this, with His own hand, Jesus began to nail me to that cross; Queen Mama assisted me, while the Angels and Saint John were handing the nails. My sweet Jesus showed such contentment, such joy in crucifying me, that just to be able to give that contentment to Jesus, I would have suffered not only the cross, but yet more pains. Ah! it seemed to me that Heaven was making new feast for me, in seeing the contentment of Jesus. Many souls were freed from Purgatory and took flight toward Heaven, and quite a few sinners were converted, because my Divine Spouse let everyone participate in the good of my sufferings. Who can tell, then, the intense pains I felt while being stretched so well over the cross, and pierced through by the nails in my hands and feet? But especially the feet – the atrocity of the pains was such that they cannot be described. When they finished crucifying me and I felt I was swimming in the sea of pains and sufferings, Queen Mama said to Jesus: “My Son, today is a day of grace – I want You to let her share in all of your pains. There is nothing left but to pierce her heart through with the lance, and to renew for her the crown of thorns.” So, Jesus Himself took the lance and pierced my heart through; the Angels took a crown of thorns, well thickened, and handed it to the Most Holy Virgin – and She Herself drove it into my head.

What a memorable day that was for me – of sufferings, yes, but of contentments; of unspeakable pains, but also of joy. It is enough to say that the intensity of the pains was such, that for that entire day Jesus did not move from my side, but remained close to me in order to sustain my nature, which was failing at the liveliness of the pains. Those souls from Purgatory who had flown up to Heaven, descended together with the Angels and surrounded my bed, cheering me with their canticles, and thanking me affectionately because through my sufferings I had freed them from those pains.

Volume 2 – May 6, 1899 Luisa looks for Jesus amid the Angels.

This morning, Jesus hardly made Himself seen; I was feeling my mind so confused, that I almost could not understand the loss of Jesus, when I felt surrounded by many spirits – maybe they were Angels, I cannot tell with certainty. While I was in their midst, every now and then I would investigate – who knows, I might feel at least the breath of my beloved; but as much as I did, I found nothing that would reveal the presence of my loving Good. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a sweet breath coming from behind my shoulders, and immediately I cried out: ‘Jesus, my Lord!’

He answered: “Luisa, what do you want?”

‘Jesus, my beautiful One, come, do not remain behind my shoulders for I cannot see You. I have been waiting for You and investigating for the whole morning – who knows, I might see You amid these angelic spirits that surrounded my bed. But I could not, therefore I feel very tired, because I can find no rest without You. Come, for we will rest together.’ So Jesus placed Himself near me, and sustained my head.

Those spirits said: “Lord, how quickly she recognized You. Not even at your voice, but at your mere breath, immediately she called You.” Jesus answered them: “She knows Me, and I know her. She is so very dear to Me, like the pupil of my eyes.” And while He was saying this, I found myself in the eyes of Jesus. Who can say what I felt, being in those most pure eyes? It is impossible to manifest it with words. The very Angels remained astonished.

Volume 2 – August 15, 1899 Charity orders all virtues. The Virgin Mary assumed into Heaven. The ‘Hail Mary’ together with Jesus.

….I said to Him: ‘My sole and only treasure, You didn’t even let me watch the feast of our Queen Mama, or listen to the first canticles that the Angels and the Saints sang as She entered Paradise.’

And Jesus: “The first canticle that they sang to my Mama was the ‘Hail Mary’, because in the ‘Hail Mary’ there are the most beautiful praises, the greatest honors; and the joy which She felt in being made Mother of God is renewed. Therefore, let us recite it together to honor Her, and when you come to Paradise I will let you find it as if you had recited it together with the Angels and the Saints for the first time in Heaven.”

So, we recited the first part of the ‘Hail Mary’ together. Oh, how tender and moving it was to hail our Most Holy Mama together with Her beloved Son! Each word He said carried an immense light, through which one could comprehend many things about the Most Holy Virgin. But who can say them all – especially because of my inability? Therefore I let them pass in silence.

Volume 3 – May 17, 1900 Power of the victim souls.

I continue in the same state of privation and of abandonment. As I was outside of myself, I saw a flood of water mixed with hail, such that it seemed that several cities were flooded with considerable damage. While seeing this, I was in great consternation because I wanted to prevent that flood, but since I was alone – more so, since I did not have Jesus with me – I felt my poor arms too weak to be able to do it. Then, to my surprise, I saw a virgin coming (it seemed to me that she was from America) and, she from one point, I from another, managed to prevent in great part the scourge that threatened us. After this, as we reunited, I saw that virgin with the insignia of the passion, and crowned with the crown of thorns, just as I was, and a person who seemed to be an Angel, saying: “Oh, power of the victim souls! That which is not given to us Angels to do, they can do with their sufferings. Oh, if men knew the good that comes from them – because they are there for the public and the individual good – they would do nothing but implore God to multiply these souls upon earth.” After this, having said to each other that each of us should commend the other to the Lord, we separated.

Volume 4 – March 8, 1901 It was the Cross that made Jesus recognized as God. The cross of pain and the cross of love.

Continuing in my poor state, and with the silence of blessed Jesus, this morning, as I was oppressed more than ever, on coming, He told me: “My daughter, it was not my works, nor my preaching, nor the very power of my miracles that made Me recognized with clarity as the God I am, but when I was put on the Cross and lifted up on It as though on my own throne – then was I recognized as God. So, the Cross alone revealed Me to the world and to the whole of hell for Who I really was. All were shaken and recognized their Creator. Therefore, it is the Cross that reveals God to the soul, and makes known whether the soul is truly of God. It can be said that the Cross uncovers all the intimate parts of the soul and reveals to God and to men who she is.”

Then He added: “Upon two crosses do I consume souls – one is of pain, the other is of love. And just as in Heaven all nine choirs of Angels love Me, though each one has its distinct office – as for example, the special office of the Seraphim is love and their choir is positioned more in the front in order to receive the reverberations of my love; so much so, that my love and theirs, darting through each other, correspond continuously – in the same way, I give to souls on earth their distinct offices: some I render martyrs of pain, and some of love, as both of them are skillful masters in sacrificing souls and in rendering them worthy of my satisfactions.”

Volume 4 – October 2, 1901 Jesus takes her to Heaven, and the Angels ask Him to show her to the peoples. She swims in God and tries to comprehend the interior of God.

This morning my adorable Jesus came and transported me outside of myself, in the midst of the peoples. Who can tell the evils – the horrors that could be seen? Then, all afflicted, He told me: “My daughter, what a stench emanates from the earth! It was supposed to be one with Heaven, and since in Heaven they do nothing but love Me, praise Me and thank Me, the echo of Heaven was to absorb the earth and form one only; but the earth has rendered itself unbearable. Therefore come, and unite yourself with Heaven, and in the name of all come to give Me a satisfaction for them.” In one instant I found myself amidst Angels and Saints. I am unable to say how, but I felt an infusion in me of what the Angels and Saints were singing and saying; and I, like them, did my part in the name of the whole earth. After this, all content, my sweet Jesus said, addressing everyone: “Behold an angelic note from the earth! How satisfied I feel!” And while saying this, almost to repay me, He took me in His arms, He kissed me and kissed me over and over again, showing me to the whole Celestial Court as an object of His dearest satisfactions. On seeing this, the Angels said: “Lord, we pray You, show to the peoples what You have operated in this soul with a prodigious sign of your omnipotence, for your glory and for the good of souls. No longer keep the treasures poured in her hidden, so that, as they themselves would see and touch your omnipotence in another creature, this might be cause of emendation for those who are evil, and of greater spur for those who want to be good.”

On hearing this, I felt myself caught by a fear, and annihilating myself completely, to the point that I saw myself like a tiny little fish, I threw myself into the Heart of Jesus, saying: ‘Lord, I want nothing but You and to be hidden in You – this is what I have always asked of You, and this is what I pray You to confirm in me.’ Having said this, I enclosed myself in the interior of Jesus, as though swimming in the most extensive seas of the interior of God. Then Jesus said to all: “Have you heard that? She wants nothing but Me and to be hidden in Me; this is her greatest contentment. And I, on seeing an intention so pure, feel more drawn to her; and seeing her displeasure if I were to show my work to the peoples with a prodigious sign, so as not to sadden her, will not concede what You have asked Me for.” It seemed that the Angels were insisting, but I did not pay attention to anyone any more; I did nothing but swim in God to comprehend the Divine interior. But, no – I seemed to be like a little child who wants to clasp in his little hand an object of immeasurable magnitude, such that, as he grabs it, it escapes from him, and he can barely manage to touch it. So, he is unable to tell either how much it weighs, or how large that object is. Or like another child who, not knowing all the depth of studies, says with yearning that he must learn everything in a short time, but he can barely manage to learn the first letters of the alphabet. In the same way, the creature can say nothing but this: “I have touched It, It is beautiful, It is great, there is no good It does not possess. But, how beautiful is It? How much greatness does It contain? How many goods does It possess? This I am unable to tell.” That is, of God she can tell the first letters of the alphabet, leaving the whole depth of studies behind.

So, even in Heaven, my dearest brothers, Angels and Saints, being creatures, do not have the capacity of comprehending their Creator in everything. They are like many containers filled with God, which, if one wants to fill them more, overflow outside. I believe I am speaking much nonsense, therefore I stop here.

Volume 4 – September 5, 1902 Jesus, the Angels and the Saints incite Luisa to go with them; the confessor is opposed.

I continued to feel ill, and the confessor continued to be resolute – even more, to get upset because I was not obeying him with regard to not dying, and to praying the Lord to make my suffering cease. On the other hand, I felt incited by blessed Jesus, by the Saints and by the Angels to go with them, and I would find myself now with Jesus, now with the celestial citizens. In this state I felt tortured, not knowing, myself, what to do; however, I was calm, fearing that if He should take me, I might not be ready to go speedily with Him, so I abandoned myself completely in His hands. Now, while I was in this position, I saw the confessor and others praying that I would not be allowed to die; and Jesus told me: “My daughter, I feel I am under a violence – don’t you see how they do not want Me to take you?” And I: ‘I too feel I am under a violence – truly they would deserve a penalty for putting a poor creature in this torture.’ And Jesus: “What penalty do you want Me to give them?” And I, not knowing what to say before that inexhaustible fount of charity, said: ‘My sweet Lord, since sanctity brings sacrifice with itself, make them saints, so that, if nothing else, they will obtain their intent of keeping me with them, and I will obtain the intent of seeing them saints, as they would have the patience to feel the pain which sanctity brings with itself.’ On hearing me, Jesus was all pleased, and He kissed me telling me: “Brava my beloved, you were able to choose the optimum, for their good and for my glory. So, for now we must surrender, and I reserve for Myself another occasion to take you quickly, giving them no time to do violence to us.” Then Jesus disappeared, and I found myself inside myself, with my suffering mitigated for the most part, and with new vigor, as if I was born again. But God alone knows the pain, the torment of my heart. I hope at least that He may want to accept the hardness of this sacrifice.

Volume 4 – November 22, 1902 Luisa is about to die, but obedience is opposed.

On November 22, as I kept feeling ill again, blessed Jesus came and told me: “My beloved, do you want to come?” And I: ‘Yes, don’t leave me on this earth any longer.’ And He: “Yes, I want to content you once and for all.” As He was saying this, I felt my stomach and my throat close, in such a way that nothing could enter any more; I could barely pull in a breath, feeling suffocated. Then I saw that blessed Jesus called the Angels, and said to them: “Now that the victim is coming, suspend the fortresses, so that the peoples may do what they want.” And I: ‘Lord, who are they?’ And He: “They are the Angels that keep the cities. As long as the cities are assisted by the fortress of divine protection communicated to the Angels, they can do nothing; but once this protection is removed due to the grave sins they commit, and they are left on their own, they can make revolution and any sort of evil.”

Volume 5 – October 7, 1903 The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity.

I had asked the confessor to leave me in the Will of Our Lord, withdrawing the obedience that, whether He wanted or not, I should continue to remain in this state of victim. At first he did not want it, but then he consented, as long as I would assume the responsibility of answering before Jesus Christ for what could happen in the world; and he said that I should think about it first, and then answer him. I wanted to tell him that I did not want to oppose the Divine Will; only, if the Lord wants it, I want it; if He does not want it, I do not want it – so, why this responsibility? And he: “Think about it first, and tomorrow you will answer.’ So, as I was thinking about it in my interior, He told me: “Justice wants it, Love does not.”

Then, finding myself in my usual state, I saw Him for just a little, and He told me: “The Angels, whether they obtain something or not, always do their office; they do not withdraw from the work entrusted to them by God, of the custody of souls. Even if they see that, almost in spite of their continuous cares, diligences, industries and assistances, souls are miserably lost, they are always there, at their places. Nor do they give greater or lesser glory to God if they obtain or do not obtain, because their will is always stable in carrying out the work entrusted to them. The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity, and whether they obtain or do not obtain, they must not cease their work, unless they were assured about it from on high.”

Volume 6 – 7th August, 1904 How Suffering Divests Divine Disdain.

Being in my usual state, I found myself surrounded by Angels and Saints who told me: “It is necessary that you suffer more for the events that are about to happen in the Church. If they are stayed and take place at a later time, they will be milder and less offensive to God.

Volume 11 – **October 13, 1916 (one year prior to Fatima)*How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.***

I was doing the Hours of the Passion, and blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, in the course of my mortal Life, thousands and thousands of Angels were the cortege of my Humanity, gathering everything I did – my steps, my works, my words, and even my sighs, my pains, the drops of my Blood – in sum, everything. They were the Angels in charge of my custody, and of paying Me honor; obedient to my every wish, they would rise to and descend from Heaven, to bring to the Father what I was doing. Now these Angels have a special office, and as the soul remembers my Life, my Passion, my Blood, my wounds, my prayers, they come around this soul and gather her words, her prayers, her acts of compassion for Me, her tears and her offerings; they unite them to Mine, and they bring them before my Majesty to renew for Me the glory of my own Life. The delight of the Angels is so great that, reverent, they listen to what the soul says, and pray together with her. So, with what attention and respect must the soul do these Hours, thinking that the Angels hang upon her lips to repeat after her what she says.”

Then He added: “After the so many bitternesses that creatures give Me, these Hours are sweet little sips that souls give Me; but for the many bitter sips I receive, the sweet ones are too few. Therefore, more diffusion, more diffusion!”

Volume 14 – April 25, 1922 Thousands of Angels are the guardians and custodians of the acts done in the Divine Will.

Continuing in my usual state, I felt all immersed in the Divine Volition, and my sweet Jesus told me: “My daughter, just as the Sun does not leave the plant, but caresses it with its light, fecundates it with its heat until it produces fruits and flowers; and then, jealous, it makes them mature, it keeps them with its light, and only then does it leave the fruit when the farmer picks it to make of it his food, the same for the acts done in my Will: my Love, my jealousy toward them is such that Grace caresses them, my Love conceives them, fecundates them and matures them. I place thousands of Angels as custodians of one single act done in my Will. In fact, since these acts done in my Will are seeds so that my Will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven, everyone is jealous of these acts. Their dew is my breath; their shadow is my Light. The Angels remain enraptured by them and, reverent, they adore them, because in these acts they see the Eternal Volition, which deserves all their adoration. Only then do they leave these acts, when I find souls who, picking them as divine fruits, make of them food for their own souls. Oh, fecundity and multiplicity of these acts! The creature herself who does them cannot count them.”

Volume 15 – December 8, 1922 On the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary.

… as soon as they all felt the dominion of this excelling Virgin, who, almost as their sister, never wanted to know her own will but only That of God, not only did they make feast, but felt honored to have their Queen, and thronged around Her to court Her and pay tribute to Her – the moon, by placing itself as footstool at her feet, the stars as crown, the sun as diadem, the Angels as servants, men as though in waiting… Everyone, everyone honored Her and paid to Her their obsequies. There is no honor and glory that cannot be given to our Will – whether It is acting in Us, Its own residence, or dwelling in the creature.

But do you know the first act of this noble Queen when, coming out of the maternal womb, She opened her eyes to the light of this low world? As She was born, the Angels sang ditties to the Little Celestial Baby, and She remained enraptured; her beautiful soul left her little body, accompanied by throngs of angels, and went around Heaven and earth, gathering all the Love that God had spread through the whole of Creation, and penetrating into Heaven, She came to the foot of our Throne and offered Us the return of the love for all Creation, and pronounced her first ‘Thank You’ in the name of all….

Volume 17 – September 17, 1924 How one who does the Divine Will is wounded by God and wounds God.

Afterwards, my sweet Jesus gathered all the books written by me on His Divine Will; he united them together, then He pressed them to His Heart, and with unspeakable tenderness, added: “I bless these writings from the heart. I bless every word; I bless the effects and the value they contain. These writings are part of Myself.”

Then He called the Angels, who prostrated themselves, their faces to the ground, to pray. And since two Fathers, who were to see the writings, were there present, Jesus told the Angels to touch their foreheads to impress in them the Holy Spirit, so as to infuse in them the light in order to make them understand the truths and the good contained in these writings. The Angels did that, and Jesus, blessing us all, disappeared.

Volume 17 – October 30, 1924 Why the angels are angels, and how they maintain themselves in the Prime Act in which they were created.

Then, I was thinking to myself about what had passed through my mind – that is, it seemed to me as if I had my Angel near me, instead of Jesus; and I said to myself: ‘And why the Angel and not Jesus?’

At that moment I felt Him move in my interior, saying to me: “My daughter, do you want to know why the Angels are such? Because they maintained themselves beautiful and pure, just as they came out of my hands; because they have always remained still in that first act in which they were created. Therefore, being in that prime act of their existence, they remain in that single Act of my Will, which, not knowing succession of acts, does not change, nor decrease or increase, and contains within Itself all possible imaginable goods. And the Angels, maintaining themselves in that single Act of my Will through which I delivered them to the light, remain immutable, beautiful and pure. They have lost nothing of their primary existence, and all their happiness is in willingly maintaining themselves in that single Act of my Will. They find everything in the circuit of my Will; nor do they want, in order to be happy, anything other than what my Will administers to them.

But do you know why there are different choirs of Angels, one superior to the other? There are some which are closer to my Throne – do you know why? Because my Will manifested Itself in Its Act – to some with one single extension of knowledges and qualities, to some with two, to some with three, to some with four; and so on, up to nine choirs. And in each additional thing of the Act which my Will manifested, some became superior to others, and the first ones, more than the others, became able and more worthy to be close to my Throne. Therefore, the more my Will manifests Itself in them, and they remain in It, the more they are raised, embellished, made happy and superior to others. See, then, how everything is in my Will. And from the ability of the Angels to maintain themselves, without ever leaving, in that same Will from which they came, and from the greater or lesser knowledge of the divine science of my Supreme Will, come the different Choirs of Angels, their distinct beauties, the different offices, and the whole celestial Hierarchy.

If you knew what it means to have a greater knowledge of my Will, to do one more act in It, to maintain oneself and to act in that Will of Mine which is known, the level at which the creature is constituted, and the office, the beauty, the superiority of each creature – oh, how much more would you appreciate the different knowledges which I manifested to you about my Will! One more knowledge about my Will raises the soul to such sublime height, that the very Angels remain stupefied and enraptured, and they profess Me, incessantly: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Volume 18 – August 15, 1925 All created things walk toward man. The Feast of the Assumption should be called Feast of the Divine Will.

…Therefore, the true cause of this feast is the Eternal Will operating and fulfilled in my Celestial Mama. It operated such prodigies in Her as to astonish Heaven and earth, chain the Eternal One with indissoluble bonds of love, and enrapture the Word, even from Her womb. The very Angels, enraptured, repeated among themselves: “From where comes so much glory, so much honor, such greatness and prodigies never seen before – in this excelling Creature? Yet, she is coming from the exile!” Astonished, they recognized the Will of their Creator as life operating in Her; and, trembling, they said: “Holy, Holy, Holy! Honor and glory to the Will of Our Sovereign Lord! And glory to Mary, trice Holy, She who let this Supreme Will operate!”

Volume 19 – February 28, 1926 Every time the soul occupies herself with herself, she loses one Act in the Divine Will. What it means to lose this Act. (It is enough to enter the Divine Will, in order to form with It one single Act, and to take part in everything It contains).

I continued among my usual fears, and my always adorable Jesus, making Himself seen, all goodness told me: “My daughter, do not lose time, because every time you occupy yourself with yourself, you lose one Act in my Will; and if you knew what it means to lose one single Act in my Will…! You lose a Divine Act – that Act which embraces everything and everyone, and which contains all the goods which are in Heaven and on earth; more so, since my Will is a continuous act which never stops Its course, nor can It wait for you, when you stop with your fears. It is more convenient for you to follow It in Its continuous course, than for It to wait for you, when you place yourself on the way in order to follow It. And not only do you lose time, but having to appease you and to raise you from your fears in order to place you on the way of my Will, you force Me to deal with things which do not regard the Supreme Volition. Your very Angel, who is near you, remains on an empty stomach, because every act you do in It, as you follow Its course, is one more unexpected beatitude which he enjoys being near you; and it is a redoubled Paradise of joys which you offer him, in such a way that he feels happy of his destiny of having you in his custody. And since the joys of Heaven are communal, your Angel offers the unexpected beatitude he has received from you – his redoubled Paradise, to the whole Celestial Court, as the fruit of the Divine Will of his protected one. All make feast and magnify and praise the Power, the Sanctity, the Immensity of my Will. Therefore, be attentive; in my Will one cannot lose time – there is much to do. It is convenient for you to follow the Act of a God, which is never interrupted.”

Volume 20 – January 1, 1927 The will of the soul as a Christmas gift for Baby Jesus. How all of His life was a symbol and a call of the Divine Will. The knowledges are the means in order to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of His Will.

See, when I came upon earth, I wanted to give many examples and similes about how I wanted the human will to end. I wanted to be born at midnight, so as to break the night of the human will with the refulgent day of Mine. And even though at midnight the night continues and does not finish, it is yet the beginning of a new day; and my Angels, to honor my birth and to point out to everyone the day of my Will, from midnight on, enlivened the vault of the heavens with new stars and new suns, such as to turn the night into more than daylight. This was the homage that the Angels gave to my little Humanity, in which dwelled the full day of the sun of my Divine Will, and the call of the creature into the full day of It.

Volume 21 – April 3, 1927 Effects of a love which loves freely, and effects of a forced love. How the acts done in the Divine Will are full, complete and exuberant.

…Afterwards, I felt all immersed in the Eternal Fiat, and my beloved Jesus added: “My daughter, in my Will, all acts are done in the fullness of light, therefore they are acts filled with all goods. These acts are complete acts, in such a way that nothing must be missing; and they are so exuberant as to overflow for the good of all. See, as you were calling – in my Will – my Celestial Mama, the Angels and the Saints to love Me, I felt the love of my Mama, the love of the Angels, the love of all Heaven, being repeated in you. As you were calling the sun, the heavens, the stars, the sea, and all created things around Me in order to give Me the love and the glory of my works, I felt everything I did in creating the sun, the heavens, the stars, the sea, as well as all the love I released in the whole creation, being repeated in you. Therefore, the soul who lives in my Will is the repeater of my acts, and by bilocating them, she gives Me all that I have given to her. Oh, how your Jesus enjoys receiving from the littleness of the creature, the honors, the love and the glory of His own acts – which are full, complete and exuberant.”

Volume 21- May 18, 1927 The value of the acts done in the Divine Will. How one who lives in It possesses the source of goods. How God does not know how to leave things half-done. Victory on both sides.

I was following the Divine Will, going around the whole creation; and while I was doing my acts, my sweet Jesus made Himself seen in my interior, gathering these acts on my lap, which were all made of light, one more refulgent than the other – one more beautiful than the other. He called the Angels and gave them knowledge of some of these acts, and they competed among themselves to receive them, carrying them in triumph up to Heaven.

And Jesus, all goodness, told me: “My daughter, the value of the acts done in my Will is so great that the Angels consider themselves fortunate to receive them. They see the creative virtue in them; they hear the echo of the Divine Fiat in these acts, which, while being light, are Divine voices, and while being voices, are melodies, beauties, beatitudes, sanctity, Divine science. And since my Will is virtue of Heaven, the Angels yearn to bring the acts done in It into their celestial residence. Everything that is done in my Supreme Will cannot remain on earth; at most, they can be made at the bottom, but then my Will Itself, like a magnet, draws them back into their source, and delivers them into the Celestial Fatherland.”

Volume 23 – February 28, 1928 Just as God has the hierarchy of Angels in Heaven with nine distinct choirs, so will He have the hierarchy of the children of His Kingdom with nine more choirs. Condition of the late confessors, and how the memory of father Di Francia will not be extinguished in this work.

I was thinking about the Holy Divine Volition, and a thousand thoughts crowded my poor mind. They seemed like many stronger lights that were arising, which then unified themselves within the same light of the eternal Sun of that Fiat which knows no setting. But who can say what I was thinking? I was thinking about the many knowledges spoken to me by Jesus on the Divine Will, and how each of them brings a Divine Life into the soul, with the imprint of a rarity of beauty, of happiness – but distinct from one another, which It places in common with one who has the good of knowing It and of loving It. So, I thought to myself: ‘One knowledge more or one less – there will be great difference between one soul and another.’ So, I felt sorrow in remembering my late confessors, who had had so much interest in making me write what blessed Jesus would tell me on the Divine Will. I felt sorrow for venerable father Di Francia, who had made so many sacrifices in coming from far away, meeting expenses for the publication; and just when things were moving forward, Jesus brought him to Heaven with Himself. So, since these did not possess all that regards the Fiat, they will not possess all the lives and rarities of beauty and happiness which these knowledges contain.

But while my mind was wandering amidst many thoughts, such that if I wanted to tell them all I would be too long, my sweet Jesus stretched out His arms within my interior, and spreading light, He told me: “My daughter, just as I have the hierarchy of Angels, with nine distinct choirs, so will I have the hierarchy of the children of the Kingdom of my Divine Fiat. It will have Its nine choirs, and they will distinguish themselves from one another according to the varieties of beauties which they have acquired by knowing, some more, some less, the knowledges that pertain to my Fiat. Therefore, each additional knowledge about my Divine Volition is one new creation which It forms in creatures, of happiness and of unreachable beauty, because it is a divine life that runs within it, bringing within itself all the shades of the beauties of the One who manifests them, and all the keys and sounds of the joys and happinesses of Our Divine Being.

Volume 25 – October 7, 1928 The opening of the House of the Divine Will in Corato. Simile of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. My entrance into it. The eucharistic lamp and the living lamp of one who does the Divine Will. The prisoner near the Prisoner. Jesus’ delight at this company.

My Jesus, Life of my poor heart, You who know in what bitternesses I find myself, come to my help! Overwhelm the little newborn of your Divine Volition into your flames, that You may give me, again, the strength to be able to begin another volume, and your Divine Fiat may eclipse my miserable will, that it may have life no more, and your Divine Will may take over, and It Itself may write, with the characters of Its light, that which You, my Love, want me to write. And so that I may make no mistake, act as my prompter; and only if You commit Yourself to accepting to be my word, thought and heartbeat, and to lead my hand with yours, can I make the sacrifice of returning to write what You want. My Jesus, I am here, near the Tabernacle of love. From that adored little door which I have the honor to gaze at, I feel your divine fibers, your Heart palpitating, emitting flames and rays of endless light at each heartbeat; and in those flames I hear your moans, your sighs, your incessant supplications and your repeated sobs, for You want to make your Will known, to give Its life to all; and I feel myself being consumed with You and repeating what You do. Therefore I pray You, while You gaze at me from within the Tabernacle, and I gaze at You from within my bed, to strengthen my weakness, that I may make the sacrifice of continuing to write.

Now, in order to be able to say what Jesus told me, I have to make a brief mention – that here in Corato a House has been founded, which was wanted and started by the venerable memory of father canonical Annibale Maria di Francia, and which his children, faithful to the will of their founder, have executed and given the name of House of the Divine Will, as the venerable father wanted. And he wanted me to enter this House; and on the first day of its opening, by their goodness, his sons and daughter, the reverend mothers, came to take me and brought me into a room which is such that, as the door of this room is opened, I can see the Tabernacle, I can listen to Holy Mass, I am just under the gazes of my Jesus in the Sacrament. Oh! how happy I feel, that from now on, if Jesus wants me to continue to write, I will write always keeping one eye on the Tabernacle and the other on the paper I write on. Therefore, I pray You, my Love, to assist me and to give me the strength to make the sacrifice that You Yourself want.

So, as this House was about to be opened, one could see people, nuns, little girls – people coming and going, all in motion. I felt all impressed, and my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, this group of people whom you see all in motion for the opening of the House of my Divine Will is symbolic of that group of people when I wanted to be born in Bethlehem, and the shepherds were coming and going, to visit Me, a little Baby. This pointed out to all the certainty of my birth. In the same way, this group of people, all in motion, points out the rebirth of the Kingdom of my Divine Will. Look at how all of Heaven echoes my birth, when the Angels, celebrating it, announced Me to the shepherds, and putting them in motion, made them keep coming to Me, and I recognized in them the first fruits of the Kingdom of my Redemption. So now, in this group of people, of little girls and nuns, I recognize the beginning of the Kingdom of my Divine Will. Oh! how my Heart exults and rejoices, and all of Heaven makes feast. Just as the Angels celebrated my birth, so do they celebrate the beginning of the rebirth of my Fiat in the midst of creatures. But, look at how my birth was more neglected, more poor – I had not even one priest near Me, but only poor shepherds. On the other hand, at the beginning of my Volition, there is not only a group of nuns and little girls from out of town, and a people rushing up to celebrate the opening, but there is an archbishop and priests representing my Church. This is symbol and announcement to all, that the Kingdom of my Divine Volition will be formed with more magnificence, with greater pomp and splendor than the very Kingdom of my Redemption; and everyone, kings and princes, bishops and priests and peoples, will know the Kingdom of my Fiat and will possess It. Therefore, you too, celebrate this day in which my sighs and sacrifices, and yours, to make my Divine Will known see the first dawn and hope for the Sun of my Divine Fiat to soon rise.”

Volume 29 – April 16, 1931 Courage is of resolute souls. Six Angels with Jesus at the head of them. How the acts done in the Divine Will are pledges of infinite value, eternal bonds, chains not subject to breaking.

My life continues under the empire of the Eternal Fiat, which envelopes me, inside and outside of me, and makes me feel Its infinite weight; and I, like atom, remain enveloped by this infinity that has no limits, and as much as I love It and long for It, I feel vividly the pain of my human will, crushed and almost dying under the empire of a Divine Will, immense and eternal. My Jesus, help me, and give me strength in the painful state I find myself in. My poor heart bleeds and seeks a refuge in so many pains – You alone, my Jesus, can help me. O please! help me, do not abandon me…. And while my poor soul was pouring itself out in sorrow, my sweet Jesus made Himself seen in my interior – crucified, with six Angels, three on the right and three on the left of His adorable Person. Each of these Angels held a crown in his hands, studded with most refulgent gems, in act of offering them to Our Lord.

I remained surprised in seeing this, and my beloved Jesus told me: “Courage, my daughter – courage is of souls resolute to do good. They are imperturbable under any storm; and while they hear the roaring of the thunders and lightnings to the point of trembling, and remain under the pouring rain that pours over them, they use the water to be washed and come out more beautiful; and heedless of the storm, they are more than ever resolute and courageous in not moving from the good they have started. Discouragement is of irresolute souls, which never arrive at accomplishing a good. Courage sets the way, courage puts to flight any storm, courage is the bread of the strong, courage is the warlike one that knows how to win any battle. Therefore, good daughter, courage, do not fear. And besides, what do you fear? I gave you six Angels for your custody; each of them has the task to guide you through the interminable ways of my Eternal Volition, so that you may requite with your acts, with your love, what the Divine Will did by pronouncing six Fiats in Creation. So, each Angel is entrusted one Fiat and what came out of this Fiat, to call you to requite each of these Fiats, even with the sacrifice of your life. These Angels gather your acts and form with them a crown, and, prostrate, they offer it to the Divinity as requital for what Our Divine Will did, so that It may be known and form Its Kingdom upon earth. But this is not all; I Myself am at the head of these Angels, guiding you and watching over you in everything, and forming in you the very acts and that love which is needed so that you may have sufficient love to be able to requite so many great works of Our Supreme Volition. Therefore, do not stop, you have much to do – you have to follow Me who never stops; you have to follow the Angels, because they want to fulfill their task entrusted to them; you have to fulfill your mission of daughter of the Divine Will.”

Volume 30 – December 6, 1931 Good of the prolixity of the time. How God counts the hours and the minutes in order to fill them with graces. Who does the Divine Will breaks the veil that hides her Creator. Kingdom of light that the Divine Will gives.

… “My daughter, how many things these veils hide of our divine qualities, but it is given to no one to break these veils if not to one who does and lives in our Volition. She alone is the fortunate creature who doesn’t see her God veiled but as he is in himself. Since we are not recognized (for) what we are in ourselves, they have ideas so base and perhaps also twisted of our Supreme Being, and this is because not having our Will in themselves they don’t feel in themselves the life of He who has created them; they touch our veils, but not that which there is inside, and therefore they feel our power as oppressive, our light as eclipsing as in the act of removing them from us and putting them at a distance. They feel our veiled sanctity that makes them ashamed, and disheartened they live immersed in their passions, but the guilt is all theirs. Because there is a sentence said by us in the terrestrial paradise: ‘Here she doesn’t enter. This place is only for one who does and lives in our Will’, and hence the first creatures were put out, we put an angel at watch so that he might prevent them from the entrance. Our Will is paradise of creatures, terrestrial in earth and Celestial in heaven, and one can say that an angel is put at watch over it; to one who doesn’t want to do and doesn’t want to live in his arms and have common life in his residence, she would be an intruder if she would do this, but she can not even do it, because our veils make themselves so very thick that she would not find the way in order to enter there. And as one Angel forbids them the entry, thus another Angel guides and gives the hand to one who wants to live of our Will.

Volume 34 – March 1, 1926 Prodigies of the Incarnation of the Divine Word. How the Heavens are astonished and the Angels remain mute from it. Prodigies when the Divine Will works in the creature. The Divine Trinity called in counsel. How God in creating puts forth a dose of his love in the creature.

I am beneath the press of the privation of my sweet Jesus, I feel pressed, undone, as if my life might want to finish, but the Divine Volition triumphs over my little being rising in my soul, and calls me to make my day in his Will, it seems to me that while I feel myself die without dying, He forms his victory and it is his triumph, and his life re-arises over my dying will more beautiful, all full of Majesty and double love. Oh! Divine Will, how much you love me, you make me feel death in order to centralize your life all the more in me.

Whence I continued my day in his divine acts and arrived at the incarnation of the Word such love was felt, as to feel oneself burn, consumed in his Divine flames. And my Highest Good Jesus, as drowned in his flames of love said to me:

“My blessed daughter, my love was so much in incarnating myself in the bosom of my Celestial Mother that Heavens and earth could not contain it, the act of incarnating myself happened in one act of love so intense, so strong, so great, that it was more than enough to burn everything and everyone with love. You should know, before incarnating myself my Celestial Father looked in himself and in the enthusiasm of his love not being able to contain it seas of love went forth from himself in torrents, in this enthusiasm of love he looked at his Son, and I found myself in the same flames of love and I commanded myself that I might incarnate myself, I wanted this, and in an impetus of love, without my Father leaving, nor the Holy Spirit, the great portent of the incarnation happened. I remained with my Father, and at the same time descended in the bosom of my Mother. The three Divine persons we were inseparable, nor subject to separate ourselves. Therefore I can say: I remained in Heaven, and descended in earth, and the Father and the Holy Spirit, they descended with me in earth and they remained in Heaven. Hence in this act so great our Divine Being overflowed so much in love, that the Heavens were stupefied and the Angels surprised and mute, everyone wounded in our flames of love. The incarnation was none other than an act of our Divine Will, what doesn’t he know how to do and can do[?] everything; with his power and with his infinite love he arrives, even to work the prodigy not ever heard of, nor done, of making us remain in Heaven and descend in the prison of the Maternal bosom. Thus our Will wanted thus it was done.

Volume 35 – December 25, 1937

Jesus remained silent, and I continued to think about the birth of Little Baby Jesus. And He added: “Little daughter of my Will, the feast of my birth was the feast – the beginning of the feast – of my Divine Will. As the Angels were singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest Heavens, and peace on earth to the men of good will,’ all Angels and the Creation assumed a festive mode and, while celebrating my birth, they celebrated the feast of my Divine Will. In fact, with my birth, our Divinity received true glory unto the highest Heavens; and men will have the true peace, when they will recognize my Will, giving It dominion and allowing It to reign. Only then, they will feel my Will as good – will they feel the divine strength; only then, will Heaven and earth sing together: ‘Glory to God in the highest Heavens, and peace on earth to the men who will possess the Divine Will.’ All will abound in these men, and they will possess the true peace.”

Letter No. 9

The “Fiat” will give you strength

My good daughter,

Here I am. As to nature, I feel compassion for your painful state; but as to the soul, you would be worthy of envy from the very Angels… You know, as many pains as you suffer, as many tears as you shed, so many are the Angels around you, gathering, full handed, the pearls which you form with your sufferings, and bringing them to Jesus as pledges of your love. However, I beg you not to cover these pearls with the mud of your laments, or of not being perfectly resigned to the Most Holy Will of God. Therefore, be tranquil; let’s hope that everything goes well for the soul and for the body.

Father Bernardino Giuseppe Bucci

Parish Priest Cappuccino

Immaculate Church – Trinitapoli (Foggia)

Divine Providence was leading this child along these mysterious paths, in such a way that Luisa knew no joy other than God and His Grace. In fact, one day the Lord will say to her: “Listen, I went around the earth, over and over again; I looked at all creatures, one by one, in order to find the littlest of all. And among them all I found you, the littlest of all. I liked your littleness, and I chose you. I entrusted you to my Angels to guard you, not to make you great, but to preserve your littleness. Now I want to begin the great work of the fulfillment of my Will. You will not feel greater because of this; on the contrary, my Will will make you smaller, and you will continue to be the little daughter of your Jesus – the little daughter of my Will” (Vol. 12, 3-23-1921).

One day, being assailed by the evil spirit, terrorized, Luisa turned to her Celestial Mama, who benignly spoke to her: “Why do you fear? Your Angel is by your side, Jesus is in your heart, and your Celestial Mama keeps you under Her mantle. Why do you fear then? Who is stronger? Your guardian Angel, your Jesus, your Celestial Mama, or the infernal enemy? Therefore, do not run away, but stay, pray, and do not fear.” At that instant everything disappeared; serenity invaded her, and nothing else happened to her.

APPENDIX

The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta was born in Corato in the Province of Bari, Italy on April 23, 1865 and died there in the odor of sanctity on March 4, 1947.

Luisa from her very birth was given a Mystical life, for example, at the age of 17 she received the Mystical Union that Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Catherine of Siena received right before they died. After this Mystical Union Jesus asked Luisa if she would stay in bed and because of her “Fiat!,” He taught Luisa about the Life of the Divine Will forming It first in her.

For the next 64 years until her death Luisa stayed in bed basically not eating, drinking or sleeping. Luisa was nourished by receiving the Most Holy Eucharist during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass daily said in her room. This special blessing was given by Pope Saint Pious X and Pope Leo XIII his predecessor. Luisa also lived on the food of the Divine Will, which Jesus said in the Gospels, “a food that you do not know of….”

During that time through great sufferings and a sublime call to holiness Jesus taught Luisa about the fulfillment of the Our Father, the prayer that Jesus taught His Apostles.

Jesus taught Luisa that now is the time for the Kingdom of God to reign on earth as in Heaven. Jesus dictated 36 Volumes of the doctrine of the Divine Will, which He gave the title “The Kingdom of the Fiat in the Midst of Creatures. Book of Heaven — The Recall of the Creature into the Order, to Its Place and into the Purpose for Which He was Created by God, to teach Luisa how to “Live” in the Divine Will, this is different than the devotional life of the Saints which is “doing” the Will of God.

These Volumes were basically dictated in three sections: In the first section, Volumes 1-10, Jesus shows Luisa how to become a Divine Mirror of Jesus Himself. In the second section, Volumes 11-19, Jesus shows Luisa how to “Live” in the Divine Will through the Power of the Holy Spirit. In the third section, Volumes 20-36, Jesus shows Luisa how to receive the Divine Inheritance of the Father.

In humble obedience Luisa under the constant direction of the Church faithfully wrote all that Jesus Himself wanted her to put down on paper. This would be not only for herself but for those who would read it, so that they too could “Live” in the Divine Will as Luisa learned how to “Live” in the Divine Will by putting into practice these “Truths” taught by Jesus and Mary.

In addition to the 36 Volumes Jesus dictated the book, “ The Hours of the Passion” and Our Lady dictated the book, “Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will” to Luisa. Jesus told her Confessor, Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia, through Luisa that these 36 Volumes are to be called: “The Book of Heaven.”

Pope John Paul II canonized Saint Annibale and declared him to be the Saint for our time to pray to for Vocations. Yet, Saint Annibale himself stated in Messina on February 14, 1927:

…Know, that I no longer occupy myself with almost anything of the other things of my Institutes, since I dedicated myself completely to the great Work of the Divine Will. I talk about it with people of (docile) spirit; I engage in conversation about this topic with whomever I best can; I promote it as much as I can, even in my Institutes.

On June 4, 2005 a letter was sent from the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie–Nazareth by His Grace, Mons. Savino Giannotti stating that:

“The “Divine Will” has guided the Archdiocese, in this last decade, for the completion of the works regarding the process of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. The Diocesan Postulation announces having completed this journey” (and will be handed over to the Vatican.)

Fiat!

Current Events

2005 – Archbishop Giovanni Battista Picchierri, current Archbishop of Trani. It is he who requested that the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta be continued.

ARCHDIOCESE

Trani – Barletta – Bisceglie – Nazareth

70059 TRANI – VIA BELTRANI, 9 – TEL.0883-583498

Trani, June 4, 2005

COMUNIQUE

The “Divine Will” has guided the Archdiocese, in this last decade, for the completion of the works regarding the process of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta. The Diocesan Postulation announces having completed this journey. It communicates that on the days of the 27th, 28th, and 29th of October 2005 it will celebrate the 2nd International Congress with the conclusion of the diocesan process.

The Pious Association Luisa Piccarreta Little Children of the Divine Will*, in Corato, has been charged with performing the job of Secretary for the celebration and welcome of guests. Later the program of the celebration will be published in a definitive way.

May Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist guide us as He has guided His Servant Luisa.

The Vicar General

(His Grace Mons. Savino Giannotti)

* Pious Association Luisa Piccarreta Little Children of the Divine Will

Referent: Sister Assunta Marigliano

70033 Corato (BA) – Via Nazario Sauro, 27 – Tel. +39.080.8982221

luisalasanta.com – e-mail : pia.ass.luisalasanta@libero.it

Come Holy Spirit, Come Supreme Will,

down to reign in Your Kingdom on earth

and in our hearts!

Come Holy Spirit, Come Supreme Will,

down to reign in Your Kingdom on earth

and in our hearts!

Come Holy Spirit, Come Supreme Will,

down to reign in Your Kingdom on earth

and in our hearts!

Opus Sanctorum Angelorum Englewerk

Translated text

Volume XV (1999) Columns 147-148Author: Kind of hitting a corner Sauser

BITTERLICH, the Gabriele: Mystikerin, * 1896 in Innsbruck, † 1978 in Innsbruck. – low-pious Tirolerin, which according to own statements their son, who priest H. opposite Bitterlich well-known that they stand their protection gel for the first time with hardly four years “in person before itself” saw. In the years around 1930 and these mystischen experiences accumulated themselves up afterwards. All this reached its peak point at the night of 24. on 25 April 1949 in Innsbruck. At that time it is to have received the order of the angel after its own testifying to write these visions down. After this 25 April 1949 visions followed within twenty nights, from which the first writings of the famous-notorious angel work developed. – H. Bitterlich reports on it: “by twenty nights through the gentleman showed night into the world of the angels and in the other night the realm of the Daemonen.” Also right notices novel Hanig in its important article: “the daemonische hierarchy of the angel work:” How strong in the circles of the angel work the faith in the alleged revealing of the Gabriele Bitterlich was, exemplarily the conviction of their son shows, with their God a new welfare-historical phase had begun.” H. Bitterlichs words themselves to this phenomenon read: “we see the singular rather in the fact that the gentleman set its tools a new welfare-historical phase by this, by revealing the world of the holy angels and their personale variety nnd to order of the holy church around a Einung between angels and humans to construct as fulfilment of his end time plan.” – it is not to be misjudged that straight was given by the shape of these Innsbruckerin some important impulse to a theological new meditation regarding the very much neglected world of the angels. However: These suggestions were hushed up by the theological world, first the theological faculty in Innsbruck, in the reason, so that the “tirolische angel effort” came far away into the theological offside and drove “blooms” there, which have to do nothing more now indeed with faith and angel world. Thus also the “angel work”, which has its seat on the castle Peter mountain with Silz in the upper Inn valley in Tirol, came ever more into discredit, although in the start times of this community bishop Paulus Rusch of Innsbruck much around an understanding for it strove. His successor, bishop Reinhold Stecher could not apply this effort and understanding unfortunately any longer, so that the importantness of Gabriele Bitterlich came ever to more into oblivion. Beside its priesterlichen son still special meaning attained its daughter Roswitha Bitterlich from their family. It became a highly gifted artist, who created Tiroler neo-gothic style of pictures of intimate zartheit in the kind.

Lit.: H. Bitterlich: It looked the angels. Nut/mother Gabriele Bitterlich 1896-1978. Life and order. Gold oh, 1990; – H. Gstrein: Grace, cross and victory. Nut/mother Gabriele Bitterlich – lives and working. Pc. Andrae Woerdern 1992; – R. Hanig: The daemonische hierarchy of the angel work, in: Munich theological magazine 1998, H. 3, 245-246.

Kind of hitting a corner Sauser

Literature addition:

Werner Krebber, the angel work, in: Voices of the time 113 (1988) 709-712; – Heiner Boberski, the angel work – a secret federation in the catholic church? Salzburg 1990; – Ders., the “angel work” – the strange theories and practices of a “catholic” secret federation, in: Herder correspondence 44 (1990) 384-389; – Josef Sudbrack, the angel work. To two new books, in: Spirit and life 63 (1990) 314-319; – Friederike Valentin, the angel work – a work of the angels?, in: Diakonia 21 (1990) 350-353; – Heiner Boberski, the angel work – theory and practice of the Opus Angelorum. Salzburg 1993; – novel Hanig, the daemonische hierarchy of the angel work, in: MThZ 49 (1998) 241-271.

Last change: 22.02.2003

Bitterlich Gabriele, geb. Goehlert
Mystikerin and foundress of the angel work

Translated text

Geb. Vienna, 1.11. 1896
Gest. Peter mountain, Tirol, 4.4. 1978

Origin, Verwandtschaften:
Gabriele Bitterlich becomes on 1 November 1896 in Vienna in the Belvederegasse in 4. District as a daughter of the lawyer Bernhard Goehlert and the Friederike van Aken Aken-Quesar born. 1900 are shifted the father, who is active in the k. k. administration, vocationally after Czernowitz in the Bukowina and pull with its family there. For health reasons the father is shifted 1903 after Meran.

Training:
In Meran Gabriele Goehlerts school time in the Pensionat that English Ms, with them begins remains her her whole life long connected. Later it visits the school of the Ursulinen in Innsbruck. After the Matura with the Ursulinen Gabriele Goehlert at the University of Innsbruck occupies the fan Germanistik and history.

Career:
The end of the First World War experiences it in South Tyrol. On 23 May 1919 Gabriele Goehlert marries the brother of a friend, the lawyer Hans Bitterlich. He is Sudeten German origin and member the “academic singer shank of the Skalden”, a liberal, German national, antiklerikalen Burschenschaft in Innsbruck. In the same year Hans Bitterlich is sent after Bregenz in of the Tiroler federal state government also managed Land of the Federal Republic Vorarlberg as a national secretary. In the bregenzer city hall road 37 the married couple Bitterlich lives until 1921. On 24 April 1920 its daughter Roswitha Bitterlich is born. But Hans Bitterlich does not feel in Bregenz strangely and there he in Innsbruck employment gets, accepts he a position as a director of a velvet factory in Schluckenau, a small district city in the northeast Boehmen, the close border to the Saxonian Oberlausitz. This position is it seven years long to hold in Schluckenau comes at the 4.Mai 1923 the second child of the married couple Bitterlich, a son named Hansjoerg, to the world and in the October of the following yearly the third child of the family Bitterlich, the son tungsten. In September 1928 the family moves to Innsbruck into the emperor Franz Joseph road 5, where they remain 25 years. In this dwelling Bitterlich live still the nut/mother and the aunt of Hans Bitterlich, difficult and conflict-laden living together except the recent family, which leads 1930 to a nervenzusammenbruch of Gabriele Bitterlich. The material situation of the family is precarious, Hans Bitterlich tries its artistic gift for the maintenance of the family to use; first in the sculpture Linser in Innsbruck, later by the sales of its works in art actions in Vienna. A financial success did not stop itself and the small pension Hans Bitterlichs is not sufficient for living costs. In this time the oldest daughter, provides Roswitha Bitterlich, with the painting of picture postcards for a regular financial income of the family.

>>>>During the Second World War Gabriele Bitterlich becomes heart ill, in addition it suffers 1946 at brain skin inflammation and jaundice. Despite her diseases and the bad supply situation in the last war years and the post-war period Gabriele Bitterlich accepts three orphan girls fled before the Russians and has a achtkoepfige family to thus supply. The son returned from the war, Hansjoerg Bitterlich, does not take up his scientific studies begun before the war, but becomes a priest student at the Innsbrucker seminar. For the joy of its parents it is geweiht on 30 May 1952 to the priest. The visions of Gabriele Bitterlich, which should form the mental basis of the angel work (Opus Sanctorum Angelorum), increase starting from the thirties. Gabriele Bitterlich had already before angel visions, so for example as a small girl of her protection gel or with the birth of their first son, but now these visions become ever more frequently. It receives 1949 from the Innsbrucker Dioezese the order their visions aufzuschreben. Develops a religious diary, which becomes the basis for the book “the realm of the angels”. Up to 32 a lateral book with the title “consequence me”, who appeared with pressure permission of the Dioezese Graz Seckau 1962, by the Gabriele Bitterlichs writings anything one did not publish, although it left allegedly 80,000 manuscript sides over its Engebungen Diese recordings is only the members of the Opus Angelorum accessible. The place, at which Gabriele Bitterlich had her visions of angels and also her fights against Daemonen expenditure-fenced have, was a small area in their Innsbrucker dwelling in the emperor Josephs road. There it makes also in the dark its recordings. Thus it comes that their family experiences only 1951/52 of the mystischen experiences of the “nut/mother Bitterlich”. Religious support and bishop DDr.Paulus Rusch and Mons has the collection of her recordings. Professor Dr. Walter Waitz taken over. The at the beginning of the organization of the “angel work” can be dated on 1961. On 20 April 1961 bishop Rusch for the Administratur Innsbruck Feldkirch approves “protection yellow rudder shank”. In the same year, on 13 June 1961 Hans Bitterlich dies. The angel work removes the castle Peter mountain in the following years to its first kloesterlichen seat. Gabriele Bitterlich spends there starting from 1974 her last lebensjahre. It dies on 4 April 1978 and with the burgmauer is buried. The Opus Angelorum is meanwhile over many countries common, particularly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil and Portugal is its trailer. Innnerhalb of the catholic church are disputed the visions of the Gabriele Bitterlich and the Opus Angelorum, which developed from it.

Deduction, archives, sources:
Tagblattarchiv/AK (person briefcase)

Work data:
Consequence me. Graz 1962.

Literature:
Bitterlich, Hansjoerg, you looked the angels, 1990, St. Peter mountain
Boberski, Heiner, the angel work. A secret federation in the catholic church?, 1990, Salzburg
Cramer, Winfried, the manual of the angel work, 1961, Innsbruck
Gstrein, Heinz, “angel work” or devil work. Background over a gray area of church activities: New welfare or internal-church sparkling wines, 1990, Mattersburg Katzelsdorf
Soden Fraunhofen, Heinrich, observations to the angel work, 1985, Munich
A wagner, Renate, Heimat are you large daughters. The Austrian in the course of the centuries, 1992, Vienna Authoress of the Biografie: Karin Nusko

Angel work. Corpus Operis Angelorum, COA.

Translated text

Gabriele Bitterlich is born 1896 in Vienna. Already as a child it is to have possessed the gift to see their own protection gel. In the possession of the Matura she lives at present the first revealing of the so-called soul with their man and six children in Innsbruck. 1947 get Bitterlich of its Beichtvater the advice to write a kind religious diary over the received revealing. 1949 are to have received it from an angel the order, its first book “the realm of the angels to write part of A”. In the following years follow at least 13 further books, in addition allegedly 80,000 manuscript sides and different circulars. 1961 create it the angel work, to which at the beginning of a circle of catholic priests belongs, from which in the year after some the angel and Suehneweihe placing. The angel work develops to a member-strong movement. 1961 pull Bitterlich to me their closest circle into the castle pc. Peter mountain in Silz in the Tirol. In the same year the establishment the protection yellow rudder shank takes place. About Bitterlich is said, it recognizes each sin, can geweihte communion wafers from others differentiate and is Traegerin of the Wundmale Christi. It dies 1978; their successor becomes George Blaskò. 1979 succeed to attain it the angel work of the Vatikan the revival of the medal of the Regularkanoniker from the holy cross to. Abbott becomes Hansjoerg Bitterlich, son of the foundress of the work.

The strictly guarded and partially secret writings of the Bitterlich form the basis for the theory of the angel work. Each humans have personal protection gel, which he weiht himself and several escort angels, who away-help over difficult life situations. Bitterlich describes names, appearance, attributes and tasks of over 300 angels. The angel crowd divides it into nine choirs, which are arranged into three hierarchies in each case. Each angel has a daemonischen opponent. After Bitterlich we live in a time of the apokalyptischen fight between angels and Daemonen. Satan already penetrated into the catholic church. Humans find his welfare only, if he connects himself with his prersoenlichen angel by means of a Weihe and so a mystische combat community is received. Only together they form the true image of God. Also an angel is assigned to each place, each profession, each community, each day and each part of the holy fair. Similarly to the realm of the angels Bitterlich describes the realm of the Daemonen. Particularly sensitively to Daemonen are among other things midwives, farmer’s wives, gypsies, old rachsuechtige farmers, black cats, black hens, glatthaarige dogs, pigs, rats and queues. Each Daemon has a certain sphere of influence, like for example certain cities or Jewish dealer accomodation. Are to be practiced to Exorzismusgebete regularly.

The career/development of a member runs in five steps: Protection gel promise (a kind engagement with the personal angel), Schutzengelweihe (on time and eternity), admission in the aid circle, Engelweihe (after three years, to all angels) and Suehneweihe. The Suehne has an important meaning in the angel work. Therefore daily Beichte and coming union belong to the life of the member. Each week is thought in expanded prayer times suffering Jesu, in order to promote the Suehnebereitschaft. The fairs are usually in latin and the transformation words in Aramaeisch held. The mouth coming union is maintained. The angel work knows a Arkandisziplin, i.e. an obligation and a breed for the secrecy of certain things. The members are faithfully devoted the Pope and the theory of the church.

Center of the angel work is the castle pc. Peter mountain in Silz (Tirol). The main base lies in Anapolis (Brazil), where priests are trained and the writings and letter are printed. The communities and organizations within the angel work are numerous: Protection yellow rudder shank, priest community, medal of the Regularkanoniker of the holy cross, Kongregation of the sisters of the holy cross, community of the work aids, action of fraternal assistance, social aid work, Sanitas e.V., association of the brothers of Bélem, priest community Maria Vesperbild e.V., aid work in the cross medal e.V., circle of recent mission acres, catholic pathfinder shank of Europe, priest in emergency. The angel work finances itself by donations, donations and Inkassierung of pensions. It possesses world-wide various locks, houses and properties.

The Vatikan already forbade, likewise and strengthened since 1992 the use of the writings to 1983 the use of the not-Biblical angel names, the Engelweihen and the being silent promises. The private revealing is not recognized.

Main point of criticism at the angel work is the alleged private revealing of the writings at Gabriele Bitterlich, which would exhibit gnostische courses and a except-Christian tradition continues, which decrease/go back on old-Persian dualism and to the Jewish Kabbala. The representation of the angel hierarchies and the visions of the writings are incompatible with the theory of the catholic church, their theology are erring teachings. A Weihe at angels cannot be waited. Christ was practically displaced by Maria. In addition the angel work helps theology students, to who by the Dioezesen the suitability was denied, to a Priesterweihe. Young persons, which join the work, were isolated from their members and treated like body-own. They were shifted by exaggerated prayer obligations and a life-hostile moral into diseased fear. The financial and organizational structures are extremely obscure. The secrecy of the writings and the impossibility to visit addresses or talk with members, would suggest rather a secret federation a renewal movement.

Statistics: 1 of million members world-wide, among them approximately 50 of bishops and several cardinals

Magazine: Angelus, various circulars

Petra Bleisch, 1998

The angel work

Translated text

“beside the churches” religious special communities with strange teachings and practices on itself do not only make attentive, but also within the large churches some seek to be established, there occasionally with sparkling wineful strategies and forms, which deviate from the reflected faith bases substantially. In addition belonged in the catholic church sucked. Angel work (Opus Angelorum), in the following OA mentioned.

In the development of this work a circle of priests, legally organized, plays a central role for the organization and propagation. For teachings and Spiritualitaet the alleged private revealing of the “Seherin” Gabriele Bitterlich, in many writings laid down, deliver the bases.
Gabriele Bitterlich, born 1896 in Vienna, 1978 died and in one, 1965 by the angel work acquired castle buried, is called in circles of the OA “nut/mother”. It was already high-stylized by the internal line circle during lifetimes as myth for the OA.

To the teachings and Spiritualitaet Heinrich count von Soden Soden-Fraunhofen, Weihbischof and Bischofsvikar in the region north of the ore diocese Munich leads and freesings, in a contribution out: “with the representation of an rich-arranged angel hierarchy around the throne of a God remaining in unnahbarer distance to go the visions of the writings of the angel work the far beyond church theory. The origins of such first binaryistic teachings came from the Persian one, entered over the Jewish sparkling wines of the Essener into the latemedieval Mystik, the Kabbalistik, and from there opinions of the rose cruisers and the freimaurer. The good and the pleased angels face each other in push-pull groups and tasks and begin in this apokalyptischen end time to the last battle around the rule of God. Mankind is referred into this final fight, as each particular commits itself to a good or bad spirit…. From our himmlischen father and his son, our brother Jesus Christ, is not the speech. The theology of the angel work places an error by expressum (erring teachings) dar1.

In June 1992 the Roman Glaubenskongregation took position in a decree to the angel work:

I. The theories about the world of the angels, their personal names, organizations and functions, originating from the alleged revealing the Gabriele Bitterlichs, may be taught in the organization and around scaffold of the angel work as well as in the cult, in the prayers, in the religious education, in the public and private Spiritualitaet, in the Seelsorgedienst or in the Apostolat neither nor be used in possibly a way explicitly or implicitly. This arrangement applies also to every other Institut or every other combination, who is church recognized.

The use and the spreading of books or other writings, which called the obenge theories contain, are forbidden outside of as within the combination.

II. The different forms of the “Engelweihe”, which are practiced in the angel work, are forbidden.

III. In addition both the so-called “remote donating” the Sakramente and the insertion of texts, prayers and rites, which refer directly or indirectly to the theories mentioned, are into which eucharistische Liturgie or the hour prayer forbidden.

IV. Exorzismen may be through led exclusively after the standards and the discipline of the church to this question and under use of the church approbierten formulas.

V. Of Delegat with special authority, appointed by the holy chair, in the contact with the bishops the application of the standards stated above will examine and for it will penetrate. He will strive to clarify and regulate the relations between the Opus Angelorum and the medal of the adjusted Kanoniker from the holy cross to.

The holy father Johannes Paul II. has in the process that the signed Praefekten granted to audience the available decree, which had been decided at the statutory meeting of these Kongregation, approved and arranged its publication.

Rome, at the seat of the Glaubenskongregation, 6 June 1992

Joseph Card. Ratzinger, Praefekt
Alberto Bovone, Titularerzbischof of Youks les Bains, secretary

	Literature recommendations
	Short information: “catholic fundamentalism” – Haereti groups in the church? – hrsg. of wolf course Beinert, Friedrich Pustet publishing house, Regensburg 1991

1 here: Article “the angel work” 20 sides, quotation, page 130/131

Detailed information:
With documents, referring to medium reports and overviews of the development of the OA in: “the angel work – a secret federation in the catholic church?”, Heiner Boberski, petrol Mueller publishing house, Salzburg 1990, 288 sides.

Paper world view questions and sparkling wines in the diocese Trier
Behind the cathedral 6
54290 Trier
Tel. 0651/7105 526 fax: 0651/7105 405
email: sekten@bgv trier.de
Conditions: 4/96

6 june 1992
With letter sended to the apostolic center in date 1 December 1977, cardinal Joseph Höfner, archbishop of Colony and president of the German episcopal Conference, asked that angelorum (Engelwerk was proceeded to a examination approximately the Opus association ) and its doctrines and practical particular drawers origin from presumed received private detections from mrs. Gabriel Bitterlich.

VATICAN

Translated text

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
Litteris decree diei

RE: The association “Engelwerk”

L ‘ “ Opus angelorum “, particularly diffused in Austria and Germany in the more conservative wing of the Catholicism, is made up of many distributions, between which an association for the priests (diffused in beyond 50 dioceses), a male congregation (“ Order of canonical the regular ones of the Saint Croce “) and feminine (“ a feminine Fraternità of the Croce Saint “), Other important centers of the “ Opus angelurum ” are to Rome, in Portugal, Brasi them and India. In the Handbook of the Opus angelorum , that it collects part of the 80,000 sheets of per diem of the veggente G. Bitterlich, the names of 400 angels and 200 demons are recensiti.

******
With letter sended to the apostolic center in date 1 December 1977, cardinal Joseph Höfner, archbishop of Colony and president of the German episcopal Conference, asked that angelorum (Engelwerk was proceeded to a examination approximately the Opus association ) and its doctrines and practical particular drawers origin from presumed received private detections from mrs. Gabriel Bitterlich.
Completed such examination, species approximately written containing the aforesaid doctrines, the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith communicated em.mo the pregannets, with letter of the 24 september 1983, the following decisions, approved of previously from the Holy Father in the audience of 1° the July (cf. AAS(1984), 175-176):

The Work of the angels in the promotion of the devozione towards knows angels to you must obey to the doctrine of the church and of it knows fathers and doctors to you.
In particular it will not diffuse between its members and the faithfuls a cult of the angels who servant of “known names” from presumed private detection (attributed to mrs. Gabriel Bitterlich). It will not be lawful to use those same names in no prayer from part of the community.
The Work of the angels will not demand from its members and so-called “promise of Hush” (“the Schweige-Versprechen “will not propose they it), even if is legitimate to guard an just discretion approximately the inner things of the Work of the angels, that it convene to the members of institutes of the church.
The Work of the angels and its members will observe with rigor all the liturgiche norms; especially those regarding the eucaristia. This is worth particularly for the so-called “repairing communion”.
Later on the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith has been able to examine coming from others written from the same source and also to assess that its previous decisions have not been interpreted and executed correctly.
The examination of these written others has confirmed the judgment that was to foundation of the previous decisions, that is that the own angeologia of the Opus angelorum and sure deriving practical from it are strangers to the S. Scrittura and the tradition (Cf. BENEDICT XIV, Doctrine de beatificatione servorum Of ET de canonizatione beatorum , lib. IV. Pars II, c. XXX. De angels ET eorum cultu , Venetiis, 1777) and therefore cannot serve from base to the spiritualità and the activity of associations approved of from the church.

Therefore the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith has perceived the necessity riproporre such decisions completing them with the following norms:

The coming from theories from the presumed detections received from mrs. Gabriel Bitterlich approximately the world of the angels, their personal names, their groups and functions, cannot neither be taught neither in some way used, explicitly or implicitly, in the organization and the operating structure (“ Baugerüst “) of the Opus angelorum , therefore like in the cult, the prayers, the spiritual formation, the public and private spiritualità, the ministry or apostolate. The same disposition is worth for whichever other institute or association, recognized from the church.
The use and the spread, to the inside or the outside of the association, the books or others written containing the aforesaid theories are prohibit to you.

The various shapes of consacrazione to the angels (“ Engelweihen “) practiced in the Opus angelorum are forbidden.

III Moreover, the so-called administration at a distance (“Fernspendun “) of the sacramenti, let alone the insertion in the eucaristica liturgy and the Liturgy of the hours of witnesses, prayers are forbidden or rituals that directly or indirectly refer to the aforesaid theories.

The exorcisms can be exclusively practice to you second to the norms and the discipline of the church in matter and with the use of the formulas from it approved of.
A delegate with special faculties, name from the Sede Saint, will verify and urge, in contact with the bishops, the application of the norms over established. It will strive itself in order to clear and regolarizzare the relationships between the Canonical Opus angelorum of the regular ones of the Saint cross.

I add pontefice Giovanni Paul II, in the course of the audience come to an agreement to the undersigned prefetto, has approved of present the decree, decided in the ordinary reunion of this congregation, and of it it has ordered the publication.

Rome, from the center of the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith, 6 june 1992.

+ JOSEPH card. RATZINGER , prefetto
+ ALBERTO BOVONE arciv. tit. of Cesarean section of Numidia, secretary

St. Peter mountain – Silz (Tirol)

Translated text

The castle pc. Peter mountain lies west of Silz on a hill. It was established of the Welfen as central base of the administration of its Tiroler possessions (1196 as “new house” mention for the first time documentary). Over different further owners she came into the possession of the counts von Tirol. 1228 arise for the first time the name Peter mountain . My hard II. let the castle develop generously and made it a court and an administrative seat for the Inn valley between Roppen and Rietz, the Mieminger plateau and the Oetztal . From there also landed property of Peter mountain were administered. The meaning of Silz today still shows up as seat of the district court , although it since that 17. Century in the local centre is accommodated. 1893 acquired emperors Franz Josef I. after a fire the ruin and let it again develop, it served among other things as convalescent home and military hospital. 1965 were converted the castle of the protection yellow rudder shank (medal of the Regular Kanoniker of the holy cross) to a medal house. Since that time the angel work, a conservative, disputed religious community, has in Peter mountain its seat.

Mother house, with seat of the general line, has the Dioezesanbischof the Monastery of the Sisterhood of the Hl. Cross in 6424 Silz, pc. Peter mountain 40,

(Tirol)

Decree of the Glaubenskongregation

De consociatione “Opus Angelorum”

The combination “angel work”

Translated text

Decree “Litteris diei” the Kongregation for the faith teachings
over theory and practices of the so-called community “angel work” from 6 June 1992,
signed of Joseph cardinal Ratzinger, Praefekt, and Alberto Bovone, secretary.

Latin text: CARRION 84 (1992) 805 f. German text: Documents for the renewal of the Liturgie, Bd 3,
hg. v. Martin Kloeckener, Kevelaer – Freiburg/Switzerland 2001, NR. 347, Rnn. 6701-6710.

With letters from 1 December 1977 to the Apostoli chair cardinal Joseph Hoeffner, archbishop of Cologne and chairman of the German bishop conference requested, an examination of the combination Opus Angelorum (angel work) and its special teachings and practices, which have their origin in before-bleached private revealing of Mrs. Gabriele Bitterlich.

After conclusion of this examination, in particular the writings, which contain the mentioned teachings, communicated Mr. Erzbischof with letters good-been called from 24 September 1983 the following the Kongregation for the faith teachings to the high-worthiest decisions, those from the holy one father in the audience from 1 July before was (see CARRION 76 [ 1984 ] 175-176):

The angel work must obey in the promotion of the devotion to the holy angels of the theory of the church as well as the holy fathers and teachers.
In particular spread it among his members and under the Glaeubigen no cult of the angels, who admitted themselves from before-bleached (Mrs. Gabriele Bitterlich attributed) the private revealing of “names” served. It is not permitted to use these names in any from the community to used prayers.
The angel work may not require the so-called “being silent promise” of its members and not suggest it them, even if it is legal, concerning the internal interests of the angel work that form from Diskretion to to protect, which is the members of institutes in accordance with the church.
And its members all liturgical standards will consider the angel work strictly, particularly those, which concern the Eucharistie. That particularly applies to the so-called “Suehnekommunion”.

Later the Kongregation for the faith teachings could examine other writings which are due from the same source; it stated with the fact that their decisions were not correctly laid out and implemented.

The examination of these other writings confirmed the judgement, which was the basis the previous decisions that those are strange to the Opus Angelorum own angel teachings and certain practices of the holy writing and the excessive quantity originating from it and therefore not when basis for the Spiritualitaet and activity of church recognized combinations can serve.

Therefore the Kongregation for the faith teachings saw the necessity to submit the earlier decisions again and to supplement it by the following standards.

The theories from before-bleached the revealing received from Mrs. Gabriele Bitterlich about the world of the angels, their personal names, their groups and tasks, may be taught neither nor be used in any way, explicitly or implicitly, in the organization and in the execution structure (“scaffold”) of the Opus Angelorum as also in the cult, in the prayers, in the religious figuration, in the public like private Spiritualitaet, in the office or Apostolat. The same applies to every other Institut or every other combination, which are recognized by the church.

The use and the spreading of the books like also different writings, which contain the aforementioned theories, are forbidden within and outside of the combination.

The different forms of Weihen to the angels (“Engelweihen”), who in the Opus Angelorum are practiced, are forbidden.

III. Furthermore the so-called remote donating of Sakramenten is forbidden, in the same way inserting texts, prayers or rites, which refer direct or indirect to the theories specified above, into the eucharistische Liturgie and into the hour prayer.

The Exorzismen may be made regarding its subject exclusively after the regulations and the discipline of the church and using by their good-been called formulas.
Of Delegat with special authority, appointed by the holy chair, in contact with the bishops the application of the standards specified above will test and on their observance urge. He will strive to clarify and regulate the relations between the Opus Angelorum and the medal of the Regularkanoniker from the holy cross to.

Pope Johannes Paul II. has in the signatory Kardinalpraefekten granted to audience the available decree, which had been decided in the statutory meeting of these Kongregation, good-been called and to publish arrange

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part I

Introduction to the Catechism on the Holy Angels

Our Church led by our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has called us to prepare ourselves for the Millennium Jubilee Year 2000. Invoking the Holy Spirit, our Pope has suggested a preparation of prayer and catechesis beginning in 1997 focusing on “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Today, Now and Forever”; the year 1998 on the “Holy Spirit, Giver of Life and Love”; and for the year 1999 – “God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all things – seen and unseen.”

This is part one of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the
Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience

Our Holy Father offers us an appropriate resource for reflection for this coming year with his catechesis on the Holy Angels, a six-part series (General audiences July/August, 1986).And so we begin – Part 1: God, Our Father … Creator … of all things – seen and unseen.

1. We cannot conclude our catechesis on God, Creator of the world, without devoting adequate attention to a precise item of Divine Revelation; the creation of purely spiritual beings which Sacred Scripture calls “angels”. This creation appears clearly in the Creeds, especially in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things (that is, entia or beings) “seen and unseen.” We know that man enjoys a unique position within the sphere of creation: by his body he belongs to the visible world while, by his spiritual soul which vivifies the body; he is as it were on the boundary between the visible and invisible creation. To the latter, according to the Creed which the Church professes in the light of Revelation, belong other beings, purely spiritual, therefore not proper to the visible world even though present and working therein. They constitute a world apart.

2. Today, as in times past, these spiritual beings are discussed with greater or lesser wisdom. One must recognize that at times there is great confusion, with the consequent risk of passing off as the Church’s faith on the angels what does not pertain to it, or vice versa, or neglecting some important aspect of the revealed truth. The existence of spiritual beings, which sacred Scripture usually calls “angels”, was denied already in Christ’s time by the Sadducees. It is denied also by materialists and rationalists of every age. But, as a modern theologian acutely observes, “if one wishes to get rid of the angels, one must radically revise Sacred Scripture itself, and with it the whole history of salvation.” (A. Winklhofer Die Weir der Engel, Ettal 1961, p. 144 note 2; In Mysterium Salutis, II, 2, p 726). The whole of Tradition is unanimous on this point. The Church’s Creed is basically an echo of what Paul writes to the Colossians: “for in Him (Christ) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or principalities or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16). That is to say, Christ, who, as the Son – Word eternal and consubstantial with the Father, is the First-Born of all creation (Col 1:15), is at the center of the universe, as the reason and cornerstone of all creation, as we have already seen in the previous catechesis, and as we shall see later when we shall speak more directly of Him.

3. The reference to the “primacy” of Christ helps us to understand that the truth about the existence and activity of the angels (good and bad) is not the central content of the Word of God. In revelation, God speaks first of all “to men … and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into His own company”, as we read in the Constitution Dei Verbum of the Second Vatican Council (DV, 2). Thus “the most intimate truth … both about God and the salvation of man” is the central content of the revelation which “shines forth” more fully in the person of Christ (cf. DV,2). The truth about the angels is in a certain sense “collateral”, though inseparable from the central revelation, which is the existence, the majesty and the glory of the Creator which shines forth in all creation (“seen” and “unseen”) and in God’s salvific action in the history of mankind. The angels are not therefore creatures of the first order, in the reality of Revelation, though they fully belong to it, so much so that sometimes we see them carrying out fundamental tasks in the name of God Himself.

4. All this that pertains to creation enters, according to Revelation, into the mystery of Divine Providence. Vatican I, which we have quoted several times, states it in an exemplary concise manner: “All that God created, He conserves and directs by His providence ‘reaching from end to end mightily and governing all things well’ (cf. Wis 8:1). ‘All lies bare and exposed to His eyes (cf. Heb 4:13), even what will take place through the free initiative of creatures” (DS, 3003). Providence then embraces also the world of pure spirits, which are intellectual and free beings still more fully than men. In Sacred Scripture we find important references to them. There is also the revelation of a mysterious, though real, drama concerning these angelic creatures, without anything escaping Divine Wisdom, which strongly (fortiter) and at the same time gently (suaviter) brings all to fulfillment in the Kingdom of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We recognize above all that Providence, as the loving Wisdom of God, was manifested precisely in the creation of purely spiritual beings, so as to express better the likeness of God in them who are so superior to all that is created in the visible world including man, who is also the indelible image of God. God, who is absolutely perfect Spirit, is reflected especially in spiritual beings, which, by nature, that is by reason of their spirituality, are nearer to Him than material creatures, and which constitute as it were the closest “circle” to the Creator. Sacred Scripture offers abundant, explicit evidence of this maximum closeness to God of the Angels, who are spoken of figuratively as the “throne” of God, as His “legions”, His “heavens”. It has inspired the poetry that represent the angels to us as the “Court of God”.

Compiled by: Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, 2495 – Fatima, Portugal

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part II

CREATOR OF THE ANGELS WHO ARE FREE BEINGS

This is part two of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the
Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience, July 23, 1986. And so we continue…

1. Today we continue our catechesis on the angels whose existence, willed by an act of God’s eternal love, we profess in the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen”.

In the perfection of their spiritual nature the angels are called from the beginning, by virtue of their intelligence, to know the truth and to love the good which they know in truth in a more full and perfect way than is possible to man. This love is an act of a free will, and therefore for the angels also freedom implies a possibility of a choice for or against the Good which they know, that is, God himself. It must be repeated here what we already mentioned earlier in regard to man: by creating free beings, God willed that there should be realized in the world true love which is possible only on the basis of freedom. He willed therefore that the creature, constituted in the image and likeness of his Creator, should be able in the greatest degree possible to render himself similar to God who “is Love” (1 Jn 4:16). By creating the pure spirits as free beings, God in his Providence could not but foresee also the possibility of the angels’ sin. But precisely because Providence is eternal wisdom which loves, God would have been able to draw from the history of this sin, incomparably more radical inasmuch as it was in the sin of a pure spirit, the definitive good of the whole created cosmos.

In fact, as Revelation clearly states, the world of the pure spirits appears divided into good angels and bad ones. This division is not the work of God’s creation, but is based on the freedom proper to the spiritual nature of each one of them. It is the result of choice, which for purely spiritual beings possesses an incomparably more radical character than that of man, and it is irreversible given the degree of intuitiveness and penetration of the good wherewith their intelligence is endowed.

In this regard it must also be said that the pure spirits were subjected to a test of a moral character. It was a decisive test regarding first of all God himself, a God known in a more essential and direct way than is possible to man, a God who granted to these spiritual beings the gift of participating in his divine nature, before doing so to man.

A radical and irreversible choice
3. In the case of pure spirits, the decisive choice regarded first of all God himself, the first and supreme Good, accepted or rejected in a more essential and direct way, than could happen within the scope of action of human free will. The pure spirits have a knowledge of God incomparably more perfect than that of man, because by the power of their intellect, not conditioned nor limited by the mediation of sense knowledge, they see to the depths the greatness of infinite Being, of the first Truth, of the supreme Good. To this sublime capacity of knowledge of the pure spirits God offered the mystery of his divinity, making them thus partakers, through grace, of his infinite glory. Precisely as beings of a spiritual nature they had in their intellect the capacity, the desire of this supernatural elevation to which God had called them, to make of them, long before man, “partakers of the divine nature” (cf. 2 Pt 1:4), partakers of the intimate life of him who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of him who in the communion of the three Divine Persons, “is Love” (1 Jn 4:16). God had admitted all the pure spirits, before and to the eternal communion of love.

4. The choice made on the basis of the truth about God, known in a higher way because of the clarity of their intellects, has divided also the world of pure spirits into the good and the bad. The good chose God as the supreme and definitive Good, known to the intellect enlightened by Revelation. To have chosen God means that they turned to him with all the interior force of their freedom, a force which is love. God became the total and definitive scope of their spiritual existence. The others instead turned their backs on God contrary to the truth of the knowledge which indicated him as the total and definitive good. Their choice ran counter to the revelation of the mystery of God, to his grace which made them partakers of the Trinity and of the eternal friendship with God in communion with him through love. On the basis of their created freedom they made a radical and irreversible choice on a parity with that of the good angels, but diametrically opposed. Instead of accepting a God full of love they rejected him, inspired by a false sense of self-sufficiency, of aversion and even of hatred which is changed into rebellion.

5. How are we to understand such opposition and rebellion against God in beings endowed with such profound and enlightened intelligence? What can be the motive for such a radical and irreversible choice against God? Of a hatred so profound as to appear solely the fruit of folly? The Fathers of the Church and theologians do not hesitate to speak of a “blindness” produced by the overrating of the perfection of their own being, driven to the point of ignoring God’s supremacy, which requires instead an act of docile and obedient subjection. All this summed by concisely in the words: “I will not serve” (Jer 2.20), which manifest the radical and irreversible refusal to take part in the building up of the kingdom of God in the created world. Satan, the rebellious spirit, wishes to have his own kingdom, not that of God, and he rises up as the first “adversary” of the Creator, the opponent of Providence, and antagonist of God’s loving wisdom. From Satan’s rebellion and sin, and likewise from that of man, we must conclude by accepting the wise experience of Scripture which states: “In pride there is ruin” (Tob 4:13).

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part III

CREATOR OF THINGS UNSEEN: THE ANGELS

(General audience: July 30, 1986)

1. In the previous catechesis we dwelt on the article of the Creed in which we proclaim and confess God as creator not only of the whole visible world, but also of the “things unseen”, and we treated of the question of existence of the angels who were called upon to make a decision for God or against God by a radical and irreversible act of acceptance or rejection of his salvific will.

According to Sacred Scripture the angels, inasmuch as they are purely spiritual creatures, are presented for our reflection as a special realization of the “image of God”, the most perfect Spirit, as Jesus himself reminds the Samaritan woman in the words: “God is spirit” (Jn 4:24). From this point of view the angels are creatures closest to the divine exemplar. The name given to them by Sacred Scripture indicates that what counts most in Revelation is the truth concerning the tasks of the angels in regard to man: angel (angelus) in fact means “messenger”. The Hebrew malak, used in the Old Testament, signifies more precisely “delegate” or “ambassador”. The angels, spiritual creatures, have a function of mediation and of ministry in the relationships between God and man. Under this aspect the Letter to the Hebrews says that Christ has been given a “name”, and therefore a ministry of mediation, far superior to that of the angels (cf.Heb 1:4).

Care and solicitude.
2. The Old Testament emphasizes especially the special participation of the angels in the celebration of the glory which the creator receives as a tribute of praise on the part of the created world. The Psalms are in a special way the interpreters of this voice, when, for example, they proclaim: “Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him all his angels…” (Ps 148:1-2). Similarly in Psalm 102 (103): “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word!” (Ps 102 [103]:20). This last verse of Psalm 102 indicates that the angels take part, in a way proper to themselves, in God’s government of creation, as “the mighty ones who do his word” according to the plan established by Divine Providence. To the angels in particular is entrusted a special care and solicitude for people, whose requests and prayers they present to God as mentioned, for example, in the Book of Tobit (cf. especially Tob 3:17 and 12:12). Psalm 90 proclaims: “For to his angels he has given command about you…upon their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (cf. Ps 90[91]:11-12). Following the Book of Daniel it can be said that the tasks of angels as ambassadors of the living God extend not only to individual human beings and to those who have special duties, but also to entire nations (Dan 10:13-21).

3. The New Testament highlights the role of the angels in Christ’s Messianic mission, and first of all in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, as we observe in the account of the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist (cf. Lk1:11), of Christ himself (cf Lk 1:26), in the explanation and orders given to Mary and Joseph (cf.Lk 1:30-37; Mt 1:20-21), in the indications given to the shepherds on the night of the Lord’s birth (Lk 2:9-15), in the protection of the newborn child from the danger of persecution by Herod (cf. Mt 2:13).

Further on the Gospels speak of the presence of the angels during Jesus’ forty days of fast in the desert (cf. Mt 4:11) and during the prayer in Gethsemani. After Christ’s resurrection there will also be an angel, appearing under the form of a young man, who will say to the women who had hastened to the tomb and were surprised to find it empty: “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has rise, he is not here…go, tell his disciples…” (Mt. 16:5-7). Two angels were seen also by Mary Magdalene, who was privileged with a personal apparition of Jesus (Jn 20:12-17; cf. also Lk 24:4). The angels appears to the Apostles after Christ’s ascension, to say to them: “men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11). They are the angels of him who, as St. Peter writes, “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him” (1 pet 3:22).

4. If we pass to the Second Coming of Christ, in the Parousia, we find that all the Synoptic Gospels note that “the Son of man…will come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels” (thus Mk 8:38; as also Mt 16:27; and Mt 25:31 in the description of the Last Judgement; and Lk 9:26; cf. also St. Paul in 2 Thess 1:7). It can therefore be said that the angels, as pure spirits, not only participate in the holiness of God himself, in the manner proper to them, but in the key moments they surround Christ and accompany him in the fulfillment of his salvific mission in regard to mankind. In the same way also the whole of Tradition and the ordinary Magisterium of the Church down the centuries has attributed to the angels this particular character and this function of Messianic ministry.

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part IV

ANGELS PARTICIPATE IN HISTORY OF SALVATION

General Audience: August 6, 1986

In his general audience of August 6th, Pope John Paul II noted that the modern mentality does not see the importance of angels. Yet in the encounter with the world of angels, man comes to see his own being not only as body but also as spirit.

In the recent catecheses we have seen how the Church, illuminated by the light that comes from Sacred Scripture, has professed throughout the centuries the truth about the existence of the angels as purely spiritual beings, with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and has confirmed this in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), whose formulation was repeated by the First Vatican Council in the context of the doctrine on creation:

“God at the beginning of time created from nothing both creatures together, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the earthly, and thus He created human nature as having both, since it is made up of spirit and body” (Constitution De Fide Catholica, DS 3002).

In other words, God created both realities from the very beginning: the spiritual reality and the corporeal, the earthly world and the angelic world. He created all this at one and the same time(simul) with a view to the creation of man, constituted of spirit and matter and set, according to the biblical narrative, in the framework of a world already established according to His laws and already measured by time(deinde).

Together with their existence, the faith of the Church recognizes certain distinctive characteristics of the nature of the angels. Their purely spiritual being implies first of all their nonmateriality and their immortality. The angels have no “body” (even if, in particular circumstances, they reveal themselves under visible forms because of their mission for the good of men), and therefore they are not subject to the laws of corruptibility which are common to all the material world.

Jesus Himself, referring to the condition of the angels, will say that in the future life, those who are risen “cannot die any more, because they are equal to the angels” (Lk 20-36).

As creatures of a spiritual nature, the angels are endowed with intellect and free will, like man, but in a degree superior to him, even if this is always finite because of the limit which is inherent in every creature. The angels are therefore personal beings and, as such, are also “in the image and likeness” of God.

Sacred Scripture refers to the angels also by using terms that are not only personal (like the proper names of Raphael, Gabriel, Michael), but also “collective” (like the titles: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, powers, dominions, principalities), just as it distinguishes between angels and archangels. While bearing in mind the analogous and representative character of the language of the sacred text, we can deduce that these beings and persons, as it were grouped together in society, are divided into orders and grades, corresponding to the measure of their perfection and to the tasks entrusted to them. The ancient authors and the liturgy itself speak also of the angelic choirs (nine, according to Dionysius the Areopagite).

Theology, especially in the patristic and medieval periods, has not rejected these representations, seeking to explain them in doctrinal and mystical terms, without, however, attributing an absolute value to them. St. Thomas preferred to deepen this researches into the ontological condition, the epistemological activity and will and into the loftiness of these purely spiritual creatures, both because of their dignity in the scale of beings and also because he could investigate more deeply in them the capacities and the activities that are proper to the spirit in the pure state, deducing no little light to illuminate the basic problems that have always agitated and stimulated human thought: knowledge, love, liberty, docility to God, how to reach His Kingdom.

The theme which we have touched on may seem”far away” or “less vital” to the mentality of modern man. But the Church believes that she renders a great service to man when she proposes sincerely the totality of the truth about God the Creator and also about the angles.

Man nurtures the conviction that it is he (and not the angels) who is at the center of the divine Revelation in Christ, Man and God. It is precisely the religious encounter with the world of the purely spiritual being that becomes valuable as a revelation of his own being not only as body but also as spirit, and of his belonging to a design of salvation that is truly great and efficacious within a community of personal beings who serve the providential design of God for man and with man.

Let us note that Sacred Scripture and Tradition give the proper name of angels to those pure spirits who chose God, His glory, and His Kingdom in the fundamental test of their liberty. They are united to God by the consummate love which flows from the beatific vision, face to face, of the most Holy Trinity.

Jesus Himself tells us this: “The angels in Heaven always see the face of my Father who is in Heaven” (Mt 18:10). “To see the face of the Father always” in this way is the highest manifestation of the adoration of God. One can say that this constitutes the “heavenly liturgy”, carried out in the name of all the universe, with which the earthly liturgy of the Church is incessantly joined, especially in its culminating moments.

Let it suffice here to record the act with which the Church, every day and every hour, in all the world, before beginning the Eucharistic Prayer in the center of the Mass, makes appeal “to the angels and archangels” to sing the glory of the thrice-holy God, uniting herself thus to those first adorers of God, in the worship and the loving knowledge of the unspeakable mystery of His Holiness.

According to Revelation, the angels who participate in the life of the Trinity in the light of glory are also called to play their part in the history of the salvation of man, in the moments established by divine Providence. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to possess salvation?”, asks the author of the Letter to the Hebrews(l:14).

This is believed and taught by the Church, on the basis of Sacred Scripture, from which we learn that the task of the good angels is the protection of people and solicitude for their salvation.

We find these experiences in various passages of Sacred Scripture, like for example, Psalm 90 which has already been quoted several times: “He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”(Ps 90:11-12). Jesus Himself, speaking of children and warning against giving them scandal, refers to “their angels” (Mt 18:10). Besides this, He attributes to the angels the function of witnesses in the last divine judgement about the fate of those who have acknowledged or denied Christ: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of man likewise will acknowledge him before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (Lk 12:8-9;cf.Rev 3:5).

These words are significant because, if the angels take part in the judgement of God, then they are interested in the life of man. This interest and participation seem to be accentuated in the eschatological discourse, in which Jesus has the angels appear in the Parousia, that is, in the definitive coming of Christ at the end of history (cf. Mt 24:31; 25:31-4).

Among the books of the New Testament, it is especially the Acts of the Apostles that show us some facts that bear witness to the solicitude of the angels for man and for his salvation.

Thus the angel of God liberates the Apostles from the prison (cf.Acts 5:18-20) and first of all Peter, when he was threatened with death at the hands of Herod (cf.Acts 12:5-10). Or he guides the activity of Peter with regard to the centurion Cornelius, the first pagan to be converted (Acts 10:3-8, 11:1-12), and analogously the activity of the deacon Philip along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:26-29).

From these few facts which we have cited as examples, we understand how the Church could come to the conviction that God has entrusted to the angels a ministry in favor of people. Therefore the Church confesses her faith in the guardian angels, venerating them in the liturgy with an appropriate feast and recommending recourse to their protection by frequent prayer, as in the invocation “Angel of God”. This prayer seems to draw on the treasure of the beautiful words of St. Basil: “Every one of the faithful has beside him an angel as tutor and pastor, to lead him to life” (cf.St.Basil,Adv.Eunonium,III:cf.also St. Thomas, Summa Theol, I,q,11,a.3).

Ministering Spirits
Finally, it is appropriate to note that the Church honors the figures of three angels with a liturgical cult; these are called by name in Sacred Scripture.

The first is Michael the Archangel (cf. Dan 10:13-20; Rev 12:7; Jude 9). His name is a synthesis that expresses the essential attitude of good spirits. “Mica-EL” in fact means: “Who is like God?”. In this name, therefore, we find expressed the salvific choice thanks to which the angels “see the face of the Father” who is in Heaven.

The second is Gabriel: a figure bound especially to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God (cf.Lk 1:19-26). His name means: “my power is God” or “power of God”, as if to say that the culmination of creation, the incarnation is the supreme sign of the omnipotent Father.

Finally, the third archangel is called Raphael. “Rafa-EL” means: “God heals”. He is made known to us by the story of Tobias in the Old Testament (cf. Tob 12:15-20, etc.) which is so significant for what it says about entrusting to the angels the little children of God, who are always in need of custody, care, and protection.

If we reflect well, we see that each one of these figures, Mica-EL, Gabri-EL, and Rafa-EL reflects in a particular way the truth contained in the question posed by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to possess salvation?” (Heb 1:14).

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part V

THE FALL OF THE REBELLIOUS ANGELS

(Pope John Paul II, General Audience: August 13, 1986)

1. Continuing the theme of the previous catecheses, which were dedicated to the article of the faith that concerns the angels, God’s creatures, we shall begin today to explore the mystery which some of them have turned against God and his plan of salvation for mankind. As the evangelist Luke testifies, when the disciples returned to the Master full of joy at the fruits they had gathered in their first missionary attempt, Jesus utters a sentence that is highly evocative:” I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning”(Lk 10:18). With these words, the Lord affirms that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is always a victory over the devil, but at the same time he also reveals that the building up of the Kingdom is continuously exposed to the attacks of the spirit of evil. When we consider this, as we propose to do with today’s catechesis, it means that we prepare ourselves for the condition of struggle which characterizes the life of the Church in this final time of the history of salvation(as the Book of Revelation asserts:CF.12:7). Besides this, it will permit us to clarify the true faith of the Church against those who pervert it by exaggerating the importance of the devil, or by denying or minimizing his malevolent power.

The preceding catecheses on the angels have prepared us to understand the truth which Sacred Scripture has revealed and which the Tradition of the Church has handed on about Satan, that is, the fallen angel, the wicked spirit, who is also called the devil or demon.

2. This”fall”, which has the character of rejection of God with the consequent state of “damnation” , consists in the free choice of those created spirits who have radically and irrevocably rejected God and his kingdom, usurping his sovereign rights and attempting to subvert the economy of salvation and the very order of the entire creation. We find a reflection of this attitude in the words addressed by the tempter to our first parents: “You will become like God” or “like gods”(cf. Gen 3:5). Thus the evil spirit tries to transplant into man the attitude of rivalry, insubordination and opposition to God, which has, as it were, become the motivation of all his existence.

3. In the Old Testament, the narrative of the fall of man as related in the Book of Genesis, contains a reference to an attitude of antagonism which Satan wishes to communicate to man in order to lead him to sin(Gen 3:5). In the Book of Job, too, we read that Satan seeks to generate rebellion in the person who is suffering(cf. Job 1:11; 2:5-7). In the Book of Wisdom(cf. Wis 2:24), Satan is presented as the artisan of death, which has entered man’s history along with sin.

4. In the Fourth Lateran Council(1215), the Church teaches that the devil (or Satan) and the other demos “were created good by God but have become evil by their own will”. In fact, we read in the Letter of St. Jude: “… the angels who did not keep their dignity, but left their own dwelling, are kept by the Lord in eternal chains in the darkness, for the judgment of the great day”(Jude 6). Similarly, in the second letter of St. Peter, we hear of “angels who have sinned” and whom God “did not spare, but…cast in the gloomy abysses of hell, reserving them from the judgement”(2 Pet 2:4). It is clear that if God “does not forgive” the sin of the angels, this is because they remain in their sin, because they are eternally “in the chains” of the choice that they made at the beginning, rejecting God, against the truth of the supreme and definitive Good that is God himself. It is in this sense that St. John writes that “the devil has been a sinner from the beginning…”(JN.3:8). And he has been a murderer “from the beginning”, and “has not persevered in the truth, because there is no truth in him”(Jn 8:44).

Satan: cosmic liar and murderer
5. These texts help us to understand the nature and the dimension of the sin of Satan, which consists in the denial of the truth about God, as he is known by the light of the intellect and revelation as infinite Good, subsistent Love and Holiness. The sin was all the greater, in that the spiritual perfection and the epistemological acuteness of the angelic intellect, with his freedom and closeness to God, were greater. When, by an act of his own free will, he rejected the truth that he knew about God, Satan became the cosmic “liar and the father of lies:(Jn 8: 44)”. For this reason, he lives in radical and irreversible denial of God, and seeks to impose on creation-on the other beings created in the image of God, and in particular on people-his own tragic “lie about the good” that is God. In the Book of Genesis, we find a precise description of this lie and falsification of the truth about God, which Satan(under the form of a serpent) tries to transmit to the first representatives of the human race: God is jealous of his own prerogatives and therefore wants to impose limitations on man(cf.Gen3:5). Satan invites the man to free himself from the impositions of this joke, by making himself “like God”.

6. In this condition of existential falsehood, Satan-according to St. John-also becomes a “murderer”, that is , one who destroys the supernatural life which God had made to dwell from the beginning in him and in the creatures made “in the likeness of God”: the other pure spirits and men, Satan wishes to destroy life lived in accordance with the truth, life in the fullness of good, the supernatural life of grace and love. The author of the Book of Wisdom writes:”…death has entered the world through the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it”(Wis 2:24). And Jesus Christ warns in the Gospel:”…fear rather him who has the power to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna”(Mt. 10:28).

7. As the result of the sin of our first parents, this fallen angel has acquired dominion over man to a certain extent. This is the doctrine that has been constantly professed and proclaimed by the Church, and which the Council of Trent confirmed in its treatise on original sin. (cf. DS 1511):it finds a dramatic expression in the liturgy of baptism, when the catechumen is asked to renounce the devil and all his empty promises.

In Sacred Scripture we find various indications of this influence on man and on the dispositions of his spirit (and of his body). In the Bible, Satan is called “the prince of the world” (cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and even “the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4). We find many other names that describe his nefarious relationship with man: “Beelzebul” or “Belial”, “unclean spirit”, “tempter”, “evil one” and even “Antichrist” (1Jn 4:3). He is compared to a “lion” (1 Pet 5:8), to a “dragon” (in Revelation) and to a “serpent” (Gen 3). Very frequently, he is designated by the name “devil”, from the Greek diaballein (hence diabolos), which means: to “cause destruction, to divide, to calumniate, to deceive”. In truth, all this takes place from the beginning through the working of the evil spirit who is presented by Sacred Scripture as a person, while it is declared that he is not alone: “there are many of us”, as the devils cry out to Jesus in the region of the Gerasenes (Mk 5:9); and Jesus, speaking of the future judgment, speaks of “the devil and his angels” (cf. Mt. 25:41).

8. According to Sacred Scripture, and especially the New Testament, the dominion and the influence of Satan and of the other evil spirits embraces all the world. We may think of Christ’s parable about the field (the world), about the good seed and the bad seed that the devil sows in the midst of the wheat, seeking to snatch away from hearts the good that has been “sown” in them (cf. Mt 13:38-39). We may think of the numerous exhortations to vigilance (cf. Mt 26:41; 1 Pet 5:8), to prayer and fasting (cf. Mt 17:21). We may think of the strong statement made by the Lord: “This kind of demon cannot be cast out by any other means than prayer” (Mk 9:29). The action of Satan consists primarily in tempting men to evil, by influencing their imaginations and higher faculties, to turn them away from the law of God. Satan even tempts Jesus (cf. Lk 4:3-13), in the extreme attempt to thwart what is demanded by the economy of salvation, as this has been pre-ordained by God.

It is possible that in certain cases the evil spirit goes so far as to exercise his influence not only on material things, but even on man’s body, so that one can speak of “diabolical possession” (cf. Mk 5:2-9). It is not always easy to discern the preternatural factor operative in these cases, and the Church does not lightly support the tendency to attribute many things to the direct action of the devil; but in principle it cannot be denied that Satan can go to this extreme manifestation of his superiority, in his will to harm and lead to evil.

9. To conclude, we must add that the impressive words of the Apostle John, “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19), allude also to the presence of Satan in the history of humanity, a presence which becomes all the more acute when man and society depart from God. The influence of the evil spirit can conceal itself in a more profound and effective way: it is in his “interest” to make himself unknown. Satan has the skill in the world to induce people to deny his existence in the name of rationalism and of every other system of thought which seeks all possible means to avoid recognizing his activity. This, however, does not signify the elimination of man’s free will and responsibility, and even less the frustration of the saving action of Christ. It is, rather, a case of conflict between the dark powers of evil and the powers of redemption. The words that Jesus addressed to Peter at the beginning of the Passion are eloquent in this context: “…Simon, behold, Satan has sought to sift you like wheat: but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:31).

This helps us understand how Jesus, in the prayer that he taught us, the “Our Father”, that is, the prayer of the Kingdom of God, terminates almost brusquely, unlike so many other prayers of his era, by reminding us of our condition as people exposed to the snares of evil and of the evil one. The Christian, appealing to the Father with the Spirit of Jesus and invoking his Kingdom, cries with the power of faith: let us not succumb to temptation, free us from evil, from the evil one. O Lord, let us not fall into the infidelity to which we are seduced by the one who has been unfaithful from the beginning.

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part VI

Christ’s victory conquers evil

(Pope John Paul II, General Audience of 20 August 1986)

The Holy Father concluded his catechesis on God as the Creator of “the things that are unseen” by speaking of the victory of Christ over the spirit of evil.

1. Our catechesis on God, the Creator of the things “that are unseen”, have brought fresh light and strength to our faith concerning the truth about the evil one, or Satan; he is certainly not willed by God, who is supreme Love and Holiness, and whose wise and strong Providence knows how to guide our existence to victory over the prince of darkness. The Church’s faith, in fact, teaches us that the power of Satan is not infinite. He is only a creature – powerful, in that he is pure spirit, but nevertheless always a creature, with the limits proper to creatures, subordinated to the will and dominion of God. If Satan is at work in the world because of his hatred of God and of his Kingdom, this is permitted by Divine Providence which directs the history of man and of the world with power and goodness (fortiter et suaviter ). It is certainly true that Satan’s action causes much damage, both of a spiritual kind and also indirectly of a material kind, to individuals and to society, but he is not able ultimately to neutralize the definitive end towards which man and all creation tend. the Good. He cannot block the construction of the Kingdom of God, in which at the end there will be the full realization of the righteousness and the love of the Father for the creatures who are eternally “predestined” in Jesus Christ, his Son and Word. Indeed, we can say with St. Paul that the work of the evil one cooperates for the good (cf. Rom 8:28) and that it helps to build up the glory of the “chosen” ones (cf. 2 Tim 2:10).

Total salvation
2. Thus, the whole history of humanity can be considered as serving total salvation which means the victory of Christ over the “prince of this world” (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). “You shall bow down only before the Lord your God, you shall adore him alone” (Lk 4:8), says Christ eternally to Satan. At a dramatic moment of his ministry, when he was openly accused of casting out the demons because of his alliance with Beelzebul, the chief of the demons, Jesus replied with these words that are at once severe and comforting. “Every kingdom that is divided falls into ruins, and no city or family that is divided can stand upright. Now if Satan drives out Satan, then he is divided in himself. How then can his kingdom stand upright?… And if it is by the power of the Spirit of God that I cast out the demons, then it is certain that the Kingdom of God has come among you” (Mt 12:26-26, 28). “When a strong man, well armed, guards his palace, all his goods are secure. But if one stronger than he comes and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils” (Lk 11:21-22). The words which Christ speaks about the tempter find their historical fulfillment in the cross and resurrection of the Redeemer. As we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ became a sharer in human nature even to the cross “in order to reduce to powerlessness, by means of death, the one who has the power over death, that is, the devil… and thus to free those who… were held in slavery” (Heb 2:14-15). This is the great certainty of the Christian faith: “the prince of this world has been judged” (Jn 16:11); “the Son of God has appeared, in order to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8), as St. John bears witness. It is therefore the crucified and risen Christ who has revealed himself as that “stronger one” who has overpowered “the strong man”, the devil, and has cast him down from his throne.

The Church shares in Christ’s victory over the devil, for Christ has given to his disciples the power to cast out demons (cf. Mt 10:1 and parallels; Mk 16:17). The Church uses this victorious power through faith in Christ and prayer (cf. Mk 9:29; Mt 17:19ff.), which in particular cases can take the form of exorcism.

3. It is to this historical phase of the victory of Christ that the announcement and the beginning of the final victory, the Parousia, belongs: this is the second and definitive coming of Christ at the close of history, and it is towards this that the life of the Christian is orientated. Even if it is true that earthly history continues to unfold under the influence of “that spirit who now is at work in rebellious men”, as St. Paul says (Eph 2:2), believers know that they have been called to struggle for the definitive triumph of the Good. “for our battle is not against creatures made of blood and of flesh, but against the Principalities and Powers, against those who hold dominion over this world of darkness, against the spirits of evil that dwell in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).

Definitive victory
4. As the end of the struggle gradually draws nearer, it becomes in a certain sense ever more violent, as Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, shows in a special emphasis (cf. Rev 12:7-9). But it is precisely this book that emphasizes the certainty that is given to us by all of divine Revelation, that the struggle will finish with the definitive victory of the good. In this victory, which is contained in anticipation in the paschal mystery of Christ, there will be the definitive fulfillment of the first announcement in the Book of Genesis, which is significantly called the Proto-Evangelium, when God admonishes the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman” (Gen 3:15). In this definitive phase, God will complete the mystery of his fatherly Providence and “will set free from the power of darkness” those whom he has eternally “predestined in Christ” and will “bring them over into the kingdom of his beloved Son” (cf. Col 1:13-14). Then the Son will subject even the whole universe to the Father, so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).

5. Here we finish the catecheses on God as the Creator of “the things that are visible and invisible”, which are united, in our structuring of the catecheses, with the truth about Divine Providence It is obvious to the eyes of the believer that the mystery of the beginning of the world and of history is joined indissolubly to the mystery of the end, in which the finality of all that has been created reaches fulfillment. The creed, which unites so many truths in such an organic manner, is truly the harmonious cathedral of the faith.

In a progressive and organic way, we have been able to admire, struck dumb with wonder, the great mystery of the intelligence and love of God, in his action of creation, directed to the cosmos, to the human person, and to the world of pure spirits. We have considered the Trinitarian origin of this action and its wise orientation towards the life of man who is truly the “image of God”, called in his turn to rediscover fully his own dignity in the contemplation of the glory of God. We have been enlightened about one of the greatest problems that perturb man and characterize his search for truth: the problem of suffering and of evil. At the root, there is no mistaken or wicked decision by God, rather his choice – and in a certain manner the risk he has undertaken – of creating us free, in order to have us as friends. Evil too has been born of liberty. But God does not give up, and he predestines us with his transcendent wisdom to be his children in Christ, directing all with strength and sweetness, so that the good may not be overcome by evil.

We must now let ourselves be guided by Divine Revelation in our exploration of the other mysteries of our salvation. We have now received a truth which must be profoundly important for every Christian: that there are pure spirits , creatures of God, initially all good and then, through a choice of sin, irreducibly separated into angels of light and angels of darkness. And while the existence of the wicked angels requires of us that we be watchful so as not to yield to their empty promises, we are certain that the victorious power of Christ the Redeemer enfolds our lives, so that we ourselves may overcome these spirits. In this, we are powerfully helped by the good angels, messengers of God’s love, to whom, taught by the tradition of the Church, we address our prayer: “Angel of God, who are my guardian, enlighten, guard, govern and guide me, who have been entrusted to you by the heavenly goodness. Amen”.

Luisa and the Angels

Volume 1 Luisa’s Received the Obedience to Write

Volume 1 Luisa’s Mystical Marriage

Volume 1 Luisa’s Marriage of the Cross

Volume 2 May 6, 1899
Luisa looks for Jesus amid the Angels.

He answered: “Luisa, what do you want?”

Volume 2 August 15, 1899
Charity orders all virtues. The Virgin Mary assumed into Heaven. The ‘Hail Mary’ together with Jesus.

Volume 3 May 17, 1900
Power of the victim souls.

Volume 4 March 8, 1901
It was the Cross that made Jesus recognized as God. The cross of pain and the cross of love.

Volume 4 October 2, 1901
Jesus takes her to Heaven, and the Angels ask Him to show her to the peoples. She swims in God and tries to comprehend the interior of God.

Volume 4
September 5, 1902
Jesus, the Angels and the Saints incite Luisa to go with them; the confessor is opposed.

Volume 4
November 22, 1902
Luisa is about to die, but obedience is opposed.

Volume 5 October 7, 1903
The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity.

Volume 6 7th August, 1904 How Suffering Divests Divine Disdain.

Volume 11 October 13, 1916
How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.

Volume 14 April 25, 1922
Thousands of Angels are the guardians and custodians of the acts done in the Divine Will.

Volume 15 December 8, 1922
On the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary.

Volume 17 September 17, 1924
How one who does the Divine Will is wounded by God and wounds God.

Volume 17 October 30, 1924
Why the angels are angels, and how they maintain themselves in the Prime Act in which they were created.

Volume 18
August 15, 1925
All created things walk toward man. The Feast of the Assumption should be called Feast of the Divine Will.

Volume 19 February 28, 1926
Every time the soul occupies herself with herself, she loses one Act in the Divine Will. What it means to lose this Act. (It is enough to enter the Divine Will, in order to form with It one single Act, and to take part in everything It contains).

Volume 20 January 1, 1927 The will of the soul as a Christmas gift for Baby Jesus. How all of His life was a symbol and a call of the Divine Will. The knowledges are the means in order to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of His Will.

Consecration to the Holy Angels

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith approved this Consecration prayer on May 31, 2000 for use in Opus Angelorum. © 2000 Congregazione dei Canonici Regolari della Santa Croce – Roma

Divine Worship and Communion

Relation between Consecration and Covenant

Communion of Angels and Men

1) Assistance in the Adoration of God

2) Assistance in the Contemplation of the Word of God

3) Assistance in the Imitation of the Crucified Savior

4) Assistance in the Mission and Office in the Church

Why the Holy Angels want the Covenant

Special Bond with the Guardian Angel

Fr. William Wagner, ORC

Volume 1 Luisa’s Received the Obedience to Write

Volume 1 Luisa’s Mystical Marriage

Volume 1 Luisa’s Marriage of the Cross

Volume 2 – May 6, 1899 Luisa looks for Jesus amid the Angels.

Volume 2 – August 15, 1899 Charity orders all virtues. The Virgin Mary assumed into Heaven. The ‘Hail Mary’ together with Jesus.

Volume 3 – May 17, 1900 Power of the victim souls.

Volume 4 – March 8, 1901 It was the Cross that made Jesus recognized as God. The cross of pain and the cross of love.

Volume 4 – October 2, 1901 Jesus takes her to Heaven, and the Angels ask Him to show her to the peoples. She swims in God and tries to comprehend the interior of God.

Volume 4 – September 5, 1902 Jesus, the Angels and the Saints incite Luisa to go with them; the confessor is opposed.

Volume 4 – November 22, 1902 Luisa is about to die, but obedience is opposed.

Volume 5 – October 7, 1903 The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity.

Volume 6 – 7th August, 1904 How Suffering Divests Divine Disdain.

Volume 11 – October 13, 1916 (one year prior to Fatima)How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.

Volume 14 – April 25, 1922 Thousands of Angels are the guardians and custodians of the acts done in the Divine Will.

Volume 15 – December 8, 1922 On the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary.

Volume 17 – September 17, 1924 How one who does the Divine Will is wounded by God and wounds God.

Volume 17 – October 30, 1924 Why the angels are angels, and how they maintain themselves in the Prime Act in which they were created.

Volume 18 – August 15, 1925 All created things walk toward man. The Feast of the Assumption should be called Feast of the Divine Will.

Volume 19 – February 28, 1926 Every time the soul occupies herself with herself, she loses one Act in the Divine Will. What it means to lose this Act. (It is enough to enter the Divine Will, in order to form with It one single Act, and to take part in everything It contains).

Volume 20 – January 1, 1927 The will of the soul as a Christmas gift for Baby Jesus. How all of His life was a symbol and a call of the Divine Will. The knowledges are the means in order to hasten the coming of the Kingdom of His Will.

Volume 21 – April 3, 1927 Effects of a love which loves freely, and effects of a forced love. How the acts done in the Divine Will are full, complete and exuberant.

Volume 21- May 18, 1927 The value of the acts done in the Divine Will. How one who lives in It possesses the source of goods. How God does not know how to leave things half-done. Victory on both sides.

Volume 25 – October 7, 1928 The opening of the House of the Divine Will in Corato. Simile of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. My entrance into it. The eucharistic lamp and the living lamp of one who does the Divine Will. The prisoner near the Prisoner. Jesus’ delight at this company.

Volume 29 – April 16, 1931 Courage is of resolute souls. Six Angels with Jesus at the head of them. How the acts done in the Divine Will are pledges of infinite value, eternal bonds, chains not subject to breaking.

Volume 30 – December 6, 1931 Good of the prolixity of the time. How God counts the hours and the minutes in order to fill them with graces. Who does the Divine Will breaks the veil that hides her Creator. Kingdom of light that the Divine Will gives.

Volume 35 – December 25, 1937

Letter No. 9

The “Fiat” will give you strength

Father Bernardino Giuseppe Bucci

Parish Priest Cappuccino

St. Peter mountain – Silz (Tirol)

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part I

Introduction to the Catechism on the Holy Angels

This is part one of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience

Our Holy Father offers us an appropriate resource for reflection for this coming year with his catechesis on the Holy Angels, a six-part series (General audiences July/August, 1986).And so we begin – Part 1: God, Our Father … Creator … of all things – seen and unseen.

Compiled by: Opus Sanctorum Angelorum, 2495 – Fatima, Portugal

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part II

CREATOR OF THE ANGELS WHO ARE FREE BEINGS

This is part two of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience, July 23, 1986. And so we continue…

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part III

CREATOR OF THINGS UNSEEN: THE ANGELS

(General audience: July 30, 1986)

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part IV

ANGELS PARTICIPATE IN HISTORY OF SALVATION

General Audience: August 6, 1986

In his general audience of August 6th, Pope John Paul II noted that the modern mentality does not see the importance of angels. Yet in the encounter with the world of angels, man comes to see his own being not only as body but also as spirit.

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part V

THE FALL OF THE REBELLIOUS ANGELS

(Pope John Paul II, General Audience: August 13, 1986)

CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ANGELS, Part VI

Christ’s victory conquers evil

(Pope John Paul II, General Audience of 20 August 1986)

The Holy Father concluded his catechesis on God as the Creator of “the things that are unseen” by speaking of the victory of Christ over the spirit of evil.

Luisa and the Angels

Volume 1 Luisa’s Received the Obedience to Write

Volume 1 Luisa’s Mystical Marriage

Volume 1 Luisa’s Marriage of the Cross

Volume 2 May 6, 1899 Luisa looks for Jesus amid the Angels.

Volume 2 August 15, 1899 Charity orders all virtues. The Virgin Mary assumed into Heaven. The ‘Hail Mary’ together with Jesus.

Volume 3 May 17, 1900 Power of the victim souls.

Volume 4 March 8, 1901 It was the Cross that made Jesus recognized as God. The cross of pain and the cross of love.

Volume 4 October 2, 1901 Jesus takes her to Heaven, and the Angels ask Him to show her to the peoples. She swims in God and tries to comprehend the interior of God.

Volume 4 September 5, 1902 Jesus, the Angels and the Saints incite Luisa to go with them; the confessor is opposed.

Volume 4 November 22, 1902 Luisa is about to die, but obedience is opposed.

Volume 5 October 7, 1903 The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity.

Volume 6 7th August, 1904 How Suffering Divests Divine Disdain.

Volume 11 October 13, 1916 How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.

Volume 14 April 25, 1922 Thousands of Angels are the guardians and custodians of the acts done in the Divine Will.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
approved this Consecration prayer
on May 31, 2000 for use in Opus Angelorum.
© 2000 Congregazione dei Canonici Regolari della Santa Croce – Roma

Volume 11 – **October 13, 1916 (one year prior to Fatima)*How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.***

This is part one of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the
Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience

This is part two of a six part series on the Catechism of the Holy Angels given by the
Holy Father, John Paul II, at St. Peter’s Square, Rome to the General Audience, July 23, 1986. And so we continue…

Volume 2 May 6, 1899
Luisa looks for Jesus amid the Angels.

Volume 2 August 15, 1899
Charity orders all virtues. The Virgin Mary assumed into Heaven. The ‘Hail Mary’ together with Jesus.

Volume 3 May 17, 1900
Power of the victim souls.

Volume 4 March 8, 1901
It was the Cross that made Jesus recognized as God. The cross of pain and the cross of love.

Volume 4 October 2, 1901
Jesus takes her to Heaven, and the Angels ask Him to show her to the peoples. She swims in God and tries to comprehend the interior of God.

Volume 4
September 5, 1902
Jesus, the Angels and the Saints incite Luisa to go with them; the confessor is opposed.

Volume 4
November 22, 1902
Luisa is about to die, but obedience is opposed.

Volume 5 October 7, 1903
The victim souls are human angels who must repair, impetrate, protect humanity.

Volume 11 October 13, 1916
How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.

Volume 14 April 25, 1922
Thousands of Angels are the guardians and custodians of the acts done in the Divine Will.

Volume 15 December 8, 1922
On the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary.

Volume 17 September 17, 1924
How one who does the Divine Will is wounded by God and wounds God.

Volume 17 October 30, 1924
Why the angels are angels, and how they maintain themselves in the Prime Act in which they were created.

Volume 18
August 15, 1925
All created things walk toward man. The Feast of the Assumption should be called Feast of the Divine Will.

Volume 19 February 28, 1926
Every time the soul occupies herself with herself, she loses one Act in the Divine Will. What it means to lose this Act. (It is enough to enter the Divine Will, in order to form with It one single Act, and to take part in everything It contains).