“It was through the blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world” — St. Luis Marie deMontfort
The divinity, speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary; “Our beloved daughter, your love binds Us, your tears extinguish the fires of Divine Justice; your prayers draw Us to souls, to the point where we can no longer resist. Therefore We confide to you the task of safeguarding the destiny of mankind. You will be Our agent among men. To you We entrust all souls. You will defend Our rights that have been ignored on account of their sins. In the middle, between Us and souls, you will intercede on their behalf to restore Our mutual relations. In you We feel the heroic power of Our Divine Will that intercedes and weeps through you. Who can resist you? Your prayers are commands; your tears govern Our Divine Being. Wherefore We encourage you to continue in your effort!”—The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom Day 8, Page 129 Divine Will Prayer Book (Green Book), Rev. Joseph Leo Iannuzzi, STD,Ph.D.
“Therefore, if we fail to allow the Divine Will to take up its life in our human will, we reject the blessings we received from God at the time of man’s creation, and we reject the natural rightful claims that accompanied His creation” — Blessed Virgin Mary ( The Virgin Mary In The Kingdom)
Mary’s Decalogue:10. Not only pray to Mary, but imitate her!
“Now have come the salvation…” (Apoc 12:10)
We can consider this page of the Book of Revelation as the end of our journey that showed us the Decalogue of Mary, the “ten words” that accompanied the life of the Virgin Mary, putting them in parallel with the path of Luisa. All of us, looking at this path, have a model to follow on our own path to know and live the Divine.
Chapter 12 of Revelation shows the image of the woman and the dragon that symbolizes the battle between good and evil in the history of salvation. A great sign appeared in heaven” (Rev 12.1 to 6): it is a great sign that it is not a miracle, but a message to be deciphered; it is “great” and transcendent (it appears in heaven).
The sign is a woman clothed with the sun. In the Old Testament the sun (it indicates the divine splendor) is a privileged creature of God with which He clothes the woman. The moon (it regulates the progress of time), under her feet, manifests the full dominion of the woman; The crown of stars (the majesty) expresses the final victory already realized
The stars are twelve as the tribes of Israel and the apostles of the Church who, overlapping, highlight the unity of the old and new people. The woman overcomes history in progress and represents both Israel and the mother of the Messiah and of the faithful
“She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains” (12.2); the abrupt passage from heaven to earth indicates that the sign becomes history. The glorious woman is described in the suffering of a difficult birth, an image that is deeply rooted in the Jewish faith: the messianic community is represented as woman in labor (Is 26,17) and the birth of Israel is compared to that of a Child (Is 66.7 to 9). The woman is Israel, She generates the Messiah, and the church is persecuted, but protected and already saved by God.
The dragon (12.3-4) is opposed to the woman, but the strength of God and the defeat of the dragon are announced. This is also a sign “in heaven”, but it still acts in history. The Son is the Messiah who is projected into the future of the end time: Christ will triumph over evil at the end of the history of salvation.
The text of the Apocalypse, through a multiple symbolism, shows the Christological, ecclesial (the witness of the Church) and Mariological dimension. First, the narrative is Christological:Christ triumphant appears at the beginning through his birth and ascension. Christ’s victory shows that history is totally in God’s hands, therefore, we must not fear evil, which is still present and threatens the world.
The woman (unnamed) refers to Eve, to Israel and to the Church: the struggle of the woman recalls that of Eve with the serpent (Gen 3,1-5). The woman, who generates the Messiah and is the mother of faithful, sums up the whole people of God of the old and new covenant.
But our text also presents the Mariological dimension, because the woman–church (Mother of the Messiah and of the faithful) symbolizes the woman–Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church. And lastly, because Mary lived in John’s church, the Evangelist extended her mission and applied it to the Church. Therefore, ecclesiology and Mariology are complementary: the Church without Mary would not have a strong reference or qualifying dimension..
The book of Revelation explains us the final battle between good and evil between God and Satan and show us also the result of this conflict, the victory of Christ and the salvation of man. But what is this salvation? What effect has it for the life of all men? And, above all, what is the role of Mary in all this?
Here Jesus Himself helps us, when speaking with Luisa, He indicates where the triumph of Christ is: in the soul who lives in the Divine Will. There we find the fulfillment of the salvific work of God, the result of the battle with evil: the return to the original state, in Adam’s condition before sin.
Luisa, as always, feels to be in default in writing what Jesus says to her, because the content is so great and divine that words can not express everything in full, and Jesus, through Luisa, uses some beautiful images to be understood.
The light of the Divine Will continues to envelop Luisa; and her little intelligence, while swimming in the immense sea of this light, can just barely take a few drops of light and a few little flames of the so many truths, knowledges and happinesses that this endless sea of the Eternal Will contains. And many times she cannot find the right words in order to put on paper that little bit of light; she says little compared to the much she leaves out, because her little and poor intelligence takes as much as is enough to fill her – the rest she has to leave out.
It happens as to a person who dives into the sea: he becomes all wet, water flows everywhere on him, and maybe even in his bowels; but as he goes out of the sea, how much of all the water of the sea does he carry with himself? Very little – indeed almost nothing compared to the water that remains in the sea. And by having been in the sea, can he perhaps say how much water, how many species of fish and quantities of them there are in the sea? Certainly not; but he will be able to speak of the little he has seen of the sea. Such is her poor soul.
But here that Jesus intervenes. He with patience and kindness leads her slowly towards the knowledge of the great gift of living in the Divine Will..
Jesus tells Luisa that what she experienced is the unity of the light of His Will, and so that she may love It more and more and be confirmed more in It, He wants to make known to her the great difference which exists between one who lives in His Will, in the unity of this light, and one who resigns and submits himself to His Will.
The sun, being in the vault of the heavens, spreads its rays over the surface of the earth.
Between the earth and the sun there is a sort of agreement – the sun touches the earth, and the earth receives the light and the touch of the sun. Now, by receiving the touch of the light, submitting to the sun, the earth receives the effects which the light contains, and these effects transmute the face of the earth; they make it turn green again, they make it flower – plants develop, fruits mature, and many other wonders which can be seen on the face of the earth, always produced by the effects contained in the Sun light. But by giving its effects, the sun does not give its light; on the contrary, it jealously preserves its unity, and its effects are not lasting, and therefore one sees the poor earth, now all flowery, now all stripped – it changes almost at each season, and undergoes continuous mutations. If the sun gave to the earth effects and light, the earth would change into sun and would have no more need to beg for the effects, because, containing the light within itself, it would become the owner of the source of the effects which the sun contains.
Such is the soul who resigns and submits to the Divine Will: she lives of the effects contained in It. Not possessing the light, she does not possess the source of the effects contained in the Sun of the Eternal Volition, and therefore she looks almost like the earth – now rich in virtues, now poor; she changes at every circumstance. Even more, if she is not always resigned and submitted to God’s Will, she would be like an earth that does not want to let itself be touched by the light of the sun. In fact, if the earth receives its effects it is because it lets itself be touched by its light, otherwise it would remain squalid, unable to produce a single blade of grass. So remained Adam after sin; he lost the unity of the light, and therefore the source of the goods and effects which the Sun of the Divine Will contains.
He could no longer feel the fullness of the Divine Sun within himself; he could no longer see within himself that unity of light which his Creator had fixed in the depth of his soul, and which, communicating His likeness to him, made of him His faithful copy. Before sinning, since he possessed the source of the unity of light with his Creator, each little act of his was a ray of light which, invading the whole Creation, went to fix itself in the center of his Creator, bringing Him the love and the return for all that had been made for him in the whole Creation
He was the one who harmonized everything and formed the note of accord between Heaven and earth. But as soon as he withdrew from God’s Will, his acts no longer invaded Heaven and earth like rays, but they shrank, almost like plants and flowers, within the little circle of his field. So, losing the harmony with all Creation, he became the clashing note of all Creation.
Now, we can comprehend that the living in the Divine Will is to possess the source of the unity of the light of God’s Will, with all the fullness of the effects contained in It. So, light, love, adoration… arise in each act of the creature, which, constituting itself act for each act, love for each love, like the sun light invades everything, harmonizes everything, centralizes everything within itself; and like a shining ray it brings to her Creator the return for all that He has made for all creatures and the true note of accord between Heaven and earth.
So, there is a great difference between one who possesses the source of the goods which the Sun of the Divine Will contains, and one who lives of the effects of It! It is the difference that exists between the sun and the earth.
Before sinning, Adam possessed the unity of light, but he could no longer recover it during his life; it happened to him as to the earth that turns around the sun: not being fixed, in turning around, it opposes the sun and forms the night. Now, in order to render him firm again so that he might sustain the unity of this light, a repairer was needed, and this repairer was supposed to be superior to him; a divine strength was needed in order to straighten him up. Here is the necessity of Redemption.
Mary, the Celestial Mother, also possessed the unity of this light, and this is why, more than sun, She can give light to all. It was never nighttime, nor was there ever a shadow between Her and the Supreme Majesty, but always full daylight. Therefore, in each instant, this unity of the light of God’s Will made the whole of the Divine Life flow within Her, which brought Her seas of light, of joys, of happinesses, of divine knowledges, seas of beauty, of glory, of love.
And She, as though in triumph, brought all these seas to Her Creator as Her own, to attest to Him Her love, Her adoration, and to charm Him with Her beauty; and the Divinity made flow yet more and new beautiful seas. She possessed so much love that, as though naturally, She could love all, adore and make up for all. Her littlest acts done in the unity of this light were superior to the greatest acts and to all the acts of all creatures together.
Therefore, the sacrifices, the works, the love of all other creatures can be called little flames before the sun, little drops of water before the sea, compared to the acts of the Sovereign Queen; and this is why, by virtue of the unity of this light of the Supreme Volition, She triumphed over everything and conquered Her very Creator, making Him a Prisoner in Her maternal womb.
By losing this unity of light, Adam turned himself upside down and formed night, weaknesses, passions, for himself and for the generations.
By never doing Her own will, this excelling Virgin remained always straight, and facing the Eternal Sun; therefore it was always daylight for Her, and She made the day of the Sun of Justice arise for all generations. If this Virgin Queen had done nothing else but preserve the unity of the light of the Eternal Volition in the depth of Her immaculate soul, this would have been enough to give God back the glory of all, the acts of all, and the requital of love of all Creation. Through Her, by virtue of the Divine Will, the Divinity felt come back to Itself, the joys and the happiness which It had established to receive through Creation. Therefore She can be called the Queen, the Mother, the Foundress, the Base and the Mirror of the Divine Will, in which all can reflect themselves to receive Its Life from Her.”
It is the triumph of Mary, it is the triumph of Luisa and will be the triumph of humanity.
Fiat!
“Triumphant Sovereign,
into your hands of Mother do I place my will,
so that You Yourself, as Mama, may purify it and embellish it for me,
and bind it together with your own to the foot of the Divine Throne,
that I may live not with my will,
but always – always with that of God”.
(from The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will)
Don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue:9.Ascending to serve
“To the upper room” (Acts 1:13)
Here is an image of the Apostolic Church of Jerusalem, the cenacle, or upper room, where they gathered, as indicated by the list of names almost as if to determine who the first recipients of this mission were.
The first place is occupied by Peter, the chief of the apostles who was rehabilitated after the events of the passion; there are then John and James, the two witnesses of the miracle in the house of Jairus, of the transfiguration and of the Garden of Gethsemane; Then there is the list of the other apostles, waiting to associate the future Matthias to replace Judas who commited suicide.
Afterwards, the passage gives emphasis to life in the community, affirming that the apostles were “persevering with one accord in prayer”. The word “accord” means walking the “same path” together, above all in communal prayer. Unity within the community begins with an invocation to God, which rises up to the sky
The apostolic community is accompanied by several women, disciples of the Lord who remained anonymous. The entire community is united around the “Mother” of Jesus, Mary, and her family. Mary becomes the “icon” of the missionary Church, “Mother of the Lord’s community”, awaiting the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
The page highlights the portent of the community’s “witness”. In this time of hope, the role of Christ’s witness is crucial: “you will be My witnesses”. This is the spiritual plan of the Apostolic Church that continues its path of evangelization through the centuries. In this regard, it is necessary to stress the importance of giving witness in the world.
The “Mother” is also acknowledged, as she continues to give her full testimony as a member of the first Christian community. The Virgin Mary is the only true witness of the life of Christ and His saving mission. Only she knows what happened from the beginning (the Annunciation), in the hidden life in Nazareth and in the mission culminating in the resurrection. In her resides the mysterious treasure of God’s love bestowed upon the world through the Son.
The presence of Mary is hidden. She appears briefly, as if she were in the last place, but actually she is placed ahead of everyone and leads the Apostles to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit; the same Spirit that guided her in the path of her life. Mary “ascended to the upper room” with the Apostles to be at the service of the work of salvation.
Jesus also tells Luisa that as the littlest of all, she is place ahead of all generations, even before Adam and Eve were created, so that, before they would sin, she may prepare, ahead of them, the act of reparation to the Divine Majesty, because in the Divine Will there is neither past nor future, but everything is present.
Moreover Jesus says to Luisa that in the Divine Will the little ones must be ahead of all; even more, inside His womb. One who must plead, repair, unify God’s Will, not only with her own, but with those of all, must be near Him and so united with Him as to receive all the reflections of the Divinity in order to copy them within herself. She must have a thought which may be the thought of all; a word, a work, a step, a love, which may be of all and for all. And since the Divine Will envelops everyone, may that her thought, which in the Divine Will be the thought of all, that act, that love, shine in each thought, word and act of all generations, and in the power of God’s Will, may they become antidotes, defenders, lovers, operators, etc.
So, God feels the glory, the joys, the amusements of the purpose of Creation come back to Him. This is why it is necessary that Luisa comes before all; and after she has come forward, she will make a turn in the Divine Will, and will go behind everyone; she will place them as though on her lap, and will bring them all into the womb of the Trinity. And They, in seeing them covered with Luisa’s acts done in the Divine Will, will welcome them with more love, and will feel more disposed to bind God’s Will with those of creatures, so that It may return to Its full dominion.
Jesus invites Luisa not to be discouraged as the little ones get lost in the crowd, and this is why it is necessary that Luisa comes forward in order to fulfill the mission of her office in the Divine Will. In the Divine Will, the little ones have no thoughts for themselves, nor their own things, but everything in common with the Celestial Father. Therefore, just as everyone enjoys the sun, as they are all inundated by its light, because it was created by God for the good of all, in the same way, all enjoy the use of the acts done by the little daughter of the Divine Will, which, more than sun, dart over all, so that the Sun of the Eternal Volition may rise again with that purpose for which all generations were created.
Therefore, do not get lost in the crowd of your miseries, of your abjection, of self reflections, but think only about your office of little one of Our Will, and be attentive on fulfilling your mission.”(Jesus to Luisa)
Dogmatic constitution on the Church LUMEN GENTIUM of the Second Vatican Council (Chapter VIII, n. 59)
But since it has pleased God not to manifest solemnly the mystery cf the salvation of the human race before He would pour forth the Spirit promised by Christ, we see the apostles before the day of Pentecost “persevering with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren”,(296) and Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation. Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all guilt of original sin,(12*) on the completion of her earthly sojourn, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory,(13*) and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully confimed to her Son, the Lord of lords(297) and the conqueror of sin and death.(l4*)
The Decalogue of Mary: 8. To respond to the “second call”
“Here is your mother!” (Jn 19:27)
At the wedding feast in Cana Jesus revealed His divine glory, and this happened in the presence of His Mother. Like the supreme manifestation of Christ on His royal throne of the cross took place in Mary’s shadow, so did the initial revelation of the divine Messiahship of Jesus under the Virgin’s maternal gaze. In these two scenes, which make up a large part of the fourth Gospel, Mary’s role doesn’t appear to be identical because on Calvary the Mother of Jesus does not act or speak but rather plays a passive role; instead, at Cana she takes the initiative and unconsciously induces her Son to reveal His divine glory
At Mary’s request, Jesus responds by calling His Mother “woman”. This expression is also used in the scene at the foot of the cross. The singularity of this expression is reflected in the image of Mary as the “new Eve” and in association with the new Israel. As Israel declared to Moses that it would do all that the Lord had said and obey His commands, Mary also ordered the servants to obey the Word of the Son, who is the Son of God. The biblical tradition often links the figure of the chosen people with the image of a “woman” (Hosea). Here, the Mother presents and somehow “personifies” the community of the faithful and its openness to the mystery of Christ crucified. At Cana and at the cross Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents the Messianic Zion who sees her children gather around as disciples, the image of the new people of God.
In Jesus’ hour, Mary realizes that a new motherhood is beginning. She will be the Mother of those who believe in Jesus; through faith in him they will have the life that flows from the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Lifted up from the earth on the cross, He will draw all to Himself. The beloved disciple, though a historical figure, becomes the archetype for all of Jesus’ disciples. Mary is called and revealed as the Mother of those who become the children of God through the working of love accomplished by Jesus on the cross and the gift of life for His sheep. Only Jesus could reveal Mary’s new maternal role, being the only revealer of the Father’s love. Only Jesus lifted up from the earth, who had loved His own up to the “fulfillment”, could make Mary the mother of all who become brothers of Jesus, children of God in the Son.
The Evangelist says that “from that hour” the disciple welcomed her in his life. The presence of the two words “woman” and “hour” places the episode of the cross side-by-side the wedding at Cana and allows to interpret Jesus’ entire mission as a gradual process of “revelation” of His person and of the Father’s plan.
The Virgin has been fully embedded in the plan of salvation, sharing the Son’s hour. She is the “woman”, the object of the prophetic oracles in which Zion is presented as the fertile woman, the mother of God’s people. In the expression “Here is your son”, Jesus intends to declare Mary as Mother of the Church. At the hour of the Son strikes the hour of the “Mother”.
Mary under the cross, understood and accepted her second mission, that is to be the Mother of those who believe. God, in His plan to manifest the Kingdom of the Divine Will, entrusted a further mission to Luisa too, beside that of Mary.
Just as in Heaven there are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, inseparable from One Another but distinct among Themselves; in the same way, on earth there will be three persons who, because of their missions, will be distinct and inseparable among themselves: the Virgin, with Her Maternity which veils the Paternity of the Celestial Father and encloses His power in order to fulfill Her mission of Mother of the Eternal Word and Co-Redemptrix of mankind; Jesus’ Humanity, for the mission of Redeemer, which enclosed the Divinity, and the Word, without ever separating from the Father and from the Holy Spirit, manifested His celestial wisdom and Luisa, for the mission of The Divine Will, as the Holy Spirit will make display of His love, manifesting to Luisa the secrets, the prodigies of His Will, the goods It contains, to make happy those who will give themselves to knowing how much good this Supreme Will contains, to love It and to let It reign in their midst, offering their souls to let It dwell within their hearts, that It may be able to form Its Life in them.
These three missions are distinct and inseparable. The first two have prepared the graces, the light, the work and with unheard-of pains, for the third mission of the Divine Will, to then fuse themselves all in It without leaving their office, so as to find rest, because God’s Will alone is celestial rest.
The itinerary of Mary’s faith can be sketched by the arc of two great cycles or annunciations. Every annunciation is a call by God to the fullness of life, and in the life of Mary we encounter two important calls: i) the God of Israel turns to the girl from Nazareth; and, ii) Jesus, “God with us” (Mt 1:23), calls his mother. The first annunciation will culminate with the birth of the God-Man, the second with that of the perfect disciple—Mary. In the first annunciation, God, unheard by the priests in the Temple (Lk 1:20), turns to “that which the world despises” (1 Cor 1:28), a married woman from backwoods Nazareth (Jn 1:46), and asks her to become the mother of His Son (Lk 1:26-38). Fully trusting in God, Mary accepts the proposal which the divine messenger made to her and her acceptance is the profound formulation of life that was inside her and which now can liberate and cause growth.
The second call arrives in a highly dramatic climate: among the entire family who had characterized Jesus as demented (Mk 3:21-35). From the perspective of the religious leaders, the Galilean presents himself as one sent by God (Lk 4:18-21), and comports himself as an enemy of God, by transgressing the most sacred precepts and commandments (Mk 3:5-22; 7:15-23), while the religious authorities grill him as a heretical blasphemer and demon possessed (Mt 9:3), according to the people he is only a crazy person to throw stones at (Jn 8:59).
In Nazareth, the Virgin was entrusted with the invitation extended by the Lord and through her acceptance the Messiah of God was born. In this second annunciation, more heartfelt and mature, Mary responds again with a Yes to the invitation to the fullness of life, which comes from the God-Man and which generates a new birth: her own.
She will now be the mother reborn by her son—a new birth that comes “from above” (Jn 3:3), from He who, lifted up on the cross, will transform his mother into a faithful disciple (Jn 19:25-27). The first annunciation was crowned with the beatitude with which the gospels open: “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1:45); the second annunciation finds its formulation in the beatitude with which the gospels conclude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29).
Mary is also the one who obtained mercy in a particular and exceptional way, as no other person has. At the same time, still in an exceptional way, she made possible with the sacrifice of her heart her own sharing in revealing God’s mercy. This sacrifice is intimately linked with the cross of her Son, at the foot of which she was to stand on Calvary. Her sacrifice is a unique sharing in the revelation of mercy, that is, a sharing in the absolute fidelity of God to His own love, to the covenant that He willed from eternity and that He entered into in time with man, with the people, with humanity; it is a sharing in that revelation that was definitively fulfilled through the cross. No one has experienced, to the same degree as the Mother of the crucified One, the mystery of the cross, the overwhelming encounter of divine transcendent justice with love: that “kiss” given by mercy to justice. No one has received into his heart, as much as Mary did, that mystery, that truly divine dimension of the redemption effected on Calvary by means of the death of the Son, together with the sacrifice of her maternal heart, together with her definitive “fiat.”
(St. John Paul II, Encyclical Dives in misericordia, V,9)
Don Marco
The decalogue of Mary:7 Being in God’s Family
“The will of the Father” (Matt 12:50)
11/23/2016
The Gospel passage to which we refer (Mt 12.46 to 50) is present in all the synoptic gospels (Mark 3:31-35; Lc 8:19-21). In the version of Matthew and Mark, “doing the will of God” is highlighted while in the version of Luke, “listening to the Word”.
The analysis of the text helps us to correctly understand the episode. In fact, the objective of this account is a positive one; it aims to present the brotherhood of discipleship as being a true “family of Jesus”, which does not rule out the natural family.
This is not an “anti-Marian” reading. On the contrary, the presentation of the “Mother” takes place in relation to the dynamics of discipleship and of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The three Synoptic Gospels rewrite the story, emphasizing the value of listening to the Word of God and of fulfilling the Father’s Will. The figure of the mother is an exemplary witness of listening and obedience.
From the perspective of Matthew’s Gospel, presenting the ideal of discipleship as a “condition” for living the Gospel of the Kingdom does not exclude the Mother and her family, but presents both as the “model” of one who hears the Word and puts it into practice.
Again, in the context of the passage, Matthew highlights the difference of place among those who are “inside” with Jesus and the family members who were “outside.” The “outside”, that is not a simple spatial indication is explained in relation to the “inside”, where there are those who hear the Master: In thus case, Jesus appears as the “center” of an inner circle, of a new family, which is different from all those who are outside, including his relatives.
Faced with the rhetorical question “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Jesus responds with a clear educational and revealing intent. A gesture of Jesus is added to this: He stretches out his hand toward his disciples (v. 49) and not to the entire crowd present. We can notes the intention of the gesture: to show the present crowd, the group of disciples who are not related to Jesus by a “scholastic” relationship, but by a real “family” relationship, as it was the relationship with his mother and his kinship of Nazareth.
Jesus says: “Here are My mother and My brothers!” (v. 49). It is a new family that extends beyond the boundaries of historical knowledge and human affections. In verse 50 Jesus gives the reasons: “For whoever does the Will of my Father who is in Heaven is my brother, sister and mother”. The new family is founded on listening to the Word of Jesus as the concrete expression of the Will of the Father, and stands out from, or is even opposed to, all those who are outside, even if they are family members. This natural relationship is not enough to enter the Kingdom.
One day, Luisa was thinking about the Supreme Fiat, and was praying Jesus to give her the grace, so great, of making her fulfill His Most Holy Will entirely and completely, and of making It known to the whole world, so that He might be reintegrated in the glory which creatures deny Him.
Luisa wants it because God wants it. Like Him, she want it, so that the divine order and His Kingdom may be established on earth. She wants it, so that the human family may no longer live as estranged from God, but it may be bound once again to the Divine Family, from which it had its origin.’
And Jesus, sighing, added that her purpose and His are one. When a son has the same purpose as his father, he wants what his father wants, he never dwells in somebody else’s home, he works in the fields of his father, and if he finds himself with people, he speaks of the goodness, of the ingenuity, of the great purposes of his father. It is said of this son that he loves his father, that he is the perfect copy of him, that it shows clearly from all sides that he belongs to that family, that he is a worthy son who carries within himself, with honor, the generation of his father.
Such are the signs that one belongs to the Celestial Family – to have the same purpose as His, to want His same Will, to dwell in It as in one’s own home, to work in order to make It known. And if one speaks, one can say nothing but what is done and wanted in Our Celestial Family. This creature is recognized in clear notes, and from all sides, and with reason, and with justice and by right, as a daughter who belongs to Them, as one from Their Family, who has not decayed from her origin, who preserves within herself the image, the manners, the bearings, the life of her Father – of the One who created her.
So – Jesus says – Luisa is one from His Family; and the more she makes His Will known, the more she is distinguished, before Heaven and earth, as a daughter who belongs to Them.
On the other hand, when one does not have Their same purpose, little he dwells, or not at all, in the royal palace of God’s Will; he keeps going around, now to some house, now to some vile hovel; he keeps wandering about in the outdoors of passions, doing acts unworthy of his family. If he works, it is in foreign fields; if he speaks, the love, the goodness, the ingenuity, the great purposes of his Father never resound on his lips. So, in all his bearing, he can not be recognized at all as one who belongs to his family
And if he came from it, he is a degenerate son, who has broken all the bonds and relations which bound him to his family. Therefore, only one who does God’s Will and lives in It can be called His child, a member of His Divine and Celestial Family. All others are degenerate children, and as though foreign to Their Family.
And so, when we occupy ourselves with the Divine Fiat, if we speak, if we go around in It, we put the Heaven in feast, because God feels that it is one who belongs to His family – He feels that it is Their daughter that speaks, that goes around, that works in the field of the Divine Will. And for one’s own children, doors are left open – no apartment is closed for them, because what belongs to the Father belongs to the children, and in the children is placed the hope of the long generation of the Father.
In the same way, in Luisa Jesus placed the hope of the long generation of the children of the Eternal Fiat.”
The disciple is the one who does the Will of the Father, he is part of the “new family” that is not born of human bonds, but of the reception of the kingdom, which replaces that natural of Jesus. The accent falls on the Will of the Father, as it requested in the prayer of the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:10), and, above all, in living this Will. A profession of verbal faith or a charismatic or official endowment is not sufficient, but it is necessary to receive the Word and enter into communion with the Father, through the mediation of Jesus.
The disciple is the one who does the Will of the Father, he is part of the “new family”” that was born not from human bonds, but from the acceptance of the kingdom, it takes the place of Jesus’ natural family. The accent falls on the will of the Father, as it requested in the “Our Father” (Mt 6:10), and especially on living this will. Not just a verbal profession of faith or a charismatic and official investiture, but it is necessary to accept the Word and enter into communion with the Father, through the mediation of Jesus.
We understand how ecclesial brotherhood (the central theme in Matthew’s Gospel) is not a result of human effort, nor is it a private and closed circle, but is born from a relationship of faithfulness to Christ as a priority. In this view, it is also necessary to understand the community dynamics of the “Church”. The Virgin Mary is at the center of this dynamic. In her we must see the model of the “disciple”, the example of a woman of faith, the precursor of the mother of the church, whose task will be accomplished at the foot of the cross.
Mary, then, is the one who has the deepest knowledge of the mystery of God’s mercy. She knows its price, she knows how great it is. In this sense, we call her the Mother of mercy: our Lady of mercy, or Mother of divine mercy; in each one of these titles there is a deep theological meaning, for they express the special preparation of her soul, of her whole personality, so that she was able to perceive, through the complex events, first of Israel, then of every individual and of the whole of humanity, that mercy of which “from generation to generation” people become sharers according to the eternal design of the most Holy Trinity.
(St. John Paul II, Encyclical Dives in misericordia, V,9)
Don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue
Once a woman, taken by enthusiasm for Jesus, raised her voice in the crowd and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!”. But Jesus said: “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:27-28). At first, with this reply it seems that Jesus wanted to hush this woman’s enthusiasm, as if she had said something excessive, inviting her to be quiet.
Jesus also tells Luisa several times to hush, as in the passage of November 8, 1923, where as she is writing she complains about her continuous privations of Jesus; at the most, He comes as fleeting lightning, so that while it seems He wants to bring her light, He instead leaves her in greater darkness than before. And while Luisa was immersed in the bitterness of her privations Jesus made Himself be seen in her interior all busy writing, and not with a pen but with His finger sending out rays of light. He needed that light as a pen to write in the depths of her soul. Luisa wanted to tell Him many things about her poor soul, but Jesus would bring His finger to His lips hinting to her to be quiet and that He did not want to be disturbed.
Why did Jesus do this? He should have been glad that Luisa noticed Him, and for His presence (in regarding the woman) and absence (from Luisa). Instead He sought to silence everyone! Why?
Because Jesus was operating and working wonders; the noise of our words distract Him from His divine doings.
Jesus was writing the “Law of the Divine Will” in Luisa’s soul and the good that It brings. First, He wanted to write It in her soul, and then little by little explain It.
To live in the Divine Will means that It must first be written in the heart. God accomplished this first in Mary, then in Luisa, and is doing it now in us.
The call for all of us is to allow Jesus to write the law of the Divine Will in our soul, and by observing the Virgin Mary and Luisa learn to understand It in order to be able to live It in our lives through Its observance.
In the same passage of November 1923, Jesus tells Luisa that when He came upon earth He wanted to perfect the laws. At the same time, He did not exempt Himself from observing the laws. In fact, He observed them in the most perfect way. But, having to unite in Him the old and the new, He wanted to observe them to fulfill the ancient laws and give substance to the new law that He came to establish on earth – the law of grace and love, enclosing all sacrifices within Himself, He who was to be the true and only sacrificed one.
Now, wanting to transform Luisa into His most perfect image and begin the work of such a noble and divine holiness, which is the “Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in coelo et in terra,” Jesus concentrates in Luisa all the dispositions of the souls that have ever existed on their path to holiness by having her begin to live them in His Will, so that He can bring them to fulfillment, crown them and beautify them, putting His seal on them, because everything must attain to His Will.
Jesus invites Luisa to give Him free rein, and to repeat His life in her and what He did in the Redemption with so much love. And now, with more love He wants to repeat it in her, to begin diffusing the knowledge of His Will and Its laws. But in order for all this to happen, Jesus wants Luisa’s will united to and lost in His Will.
This, then, begins the series of meditations that we will publish weekly: through Sacred Scripture and some passages of Luisa’s Writings, by writing “Mary’s Decalogue” – the “Ten Words” that accompanied Her entire life lived out fully and deeply in the Divine Will, and lastly (and this is our task), to find deep within ourselves our own Decalogue and also begin living, like Jesus wants, in the Divine Will.
Some might now say that this is impossible … to answer them we will avail of Jesus’ same words in the Gospel: “All things are possible to him who believes!» (Mk 9:23).
The key words of “Mary’s Decalogue” help us to grasp Mary’s greatness in the theological message of the New Testament. Fixing our gaze on the identity and mission lived out fully by the Virgin Mary we can see all of salvation history fulfilled, the fruit of God’s mercy.
It all begins with the words “Here I am” (I), when the unpredictability of God suddenly erupts into the simple life of a young woman of Nazareth. From that “Fiat” pronounced, Maria begins her journey of fidelity and service and is called “Blessed” (II) by her cousin Elizabeth. In his Gospel, St. Luke presents the account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, revealing the joyful wonder of Joseph and Mary, who “kept” (III) all the events of God in her heart. At the presentation of the Child in the Temple, the aged Simeon prophesies the greatness of Jesus’ mission and announces to His Mother that “a sword will pierce” (IV) her soul. The joy of Jesus’ birth is intertwined with everyday life, its toil and worries. The episode where Jesus is lost in Jerusalem and then found in the Temple is a testimony of the responsibility entrusted to Joseph and Mary towards the Child. We understand the Mother’s words of concern after her frantic search for the Child and His finding in the Temple: ” We were looking for You” (V). At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Cana of Galilee, great trust in divine providence shines forth. The Mother is not afraid to present to her Son the need for new wine; during the wedding feast the young couple is in difficulty because “they have no more wine” (VI).
The Gospel accounts depict the new style that Jesus uses during His public ministry. After having left His family of origin, the Lord forms a new family. It is no longer flesh and blood that ensure the communion bond, but listening to the Word of God and the fulfillment of the “Will of the Father” (VII). The Virgin Mary becomes the perfect model of how God’s Word is to be accepted and fulfilled. The silent Mother is at the cross of her Son, together with the women and the beloved disciple. The “Here I am” of the Annunciation is fulfilled in her presence during the Passion – from Nazareth to Golgotha – Mary does not cease trusting in God and repeating her “Fiat” even during the last act of love of the Son toward the disciple: “Behold your mother” (VIII). The community of disciples does not remain alone or orphaned after Jesus’ ascension: the Mother sustains the journey beginning from the place of the Eucharist, the cenacle represented by the “upper room” (IX) that will be filled with the wind of the Spirit. In the Apocalypse, the vision of the woman who gives birth to the child evokes the sufferings of the Christian communities that are persecuted and called to give witness to the world that even “now salvation has come” (X).
In the words of the prayer by Germanus I of Constantinople (634-733; Patriarch of Constantinople from 715 to 730, venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church), we contemplate the mystery of Mary, entrusting to her intercession all who seek God’s Will and wish to cooperate in building the Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth.
Oh Mary,
oh my only solace,
divine dew,
refreshment for my thirst,
rain falling from God upon my parched heart,
lamp shining in the darkness of my soul,
my guide along the journey,
support in my weakness,
clothing for my nakedness,
richness for my extreme poverty,
medicine for my incurable wounds,
the end of my tears and groans,
deliverance from every evil,
relief for all my pains,
freedom from my enslavements,
hope of my salvation …
So be it, my Lady;
So be it, my refuge,
my life and my succor,
my defense and my glory,
my hope and my fortress.
Grant me to enjoy the unspeakable
and incomprehensible goods of your Son in the heavenly homeland.
You possess, in fact, and I know well,
a power that is equal to your will,
because you are the Mother of the Most High;
that is why I dare and I trust.
Let me never be disappointed in my expectations, or most pure Queen.
(Germanus I of Constantinople)
don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue: 1. Answering the call
“Fiat mihi, secundum verbum tuum” (Lc 1,38)
In the first word of “Mary’s Decalogue” is where we find in a passage from Luke’s Gospel the account of the Annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:26-38).The story synthesizes God’s entire movement toward us and the model of man’s response to God’s plan, given to us through Mary. From this exemplary passage of the Gospel we understand the greatness of the mystery of vocations (God’s calling) and the mercy of God who chooses the little and the last to accomplish His plan of love.
The first word that begins the dialogue is “rejoice” (v. 28), and the last words with which the Virgin seals her encounter is “Here I am” (v.38).
Thus, we can say that the vocation of every Christian proceeds from “rejoice” and extends to “Here I am “because the Lord is with you, because He has filled you with His Grace, and because He has filled you with His love to your reply “Here I am”: the call and the response, a proposal from God and man’s consent -an encounter of two freedoms that come together in a single plan of love.
God never acts alone, He doesn’t want to act alone! He takes the initiative, but to fulfill His plan He needs man’s cooperation.
All of salvation history tells us that it is God who calls, but only with man’s positive response can the salvific plan be accomplished in the history of mankind.
God did not even impose anything on Luisa, and her total obedience to Him is simply the fruit of freedom given out of love.
God enters the life of man bringing the prophetic joy of His transforming Word. Everything that happens to us, whether it be anxiety, enlightenment, helplessness, signs, confirmation, or reassurance and an invitation to “fear not”, is part of the experience that each one of us makes upon discovering God’s plan. When the Lord decides to enter and make His dwelling place in our home, the consequences can somehow be described in the feelings of the Virgin of Nazareth. It is she who teaches us to begin each day with our “Fiat”, as was repeated in Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth, in Jerusalem, the flight into Egypt, in returning to the house of Nazareth, along the path of the Lord’s preaching of the Kingdom, in Cana of Galilee, and up to and under the cross of her beloved Son.
Together with Jesus, Mary comes to dwell in our lives and becomes our guide in our search for God. That is why in following the Son, the Virgin leaves her home in Nazareth and sets out on the “path of the Gospel”, living as the first disciple of her Master while His disciples “go up” to Jerusalem.
With her “Fiat”, Luisa also walked the path behind Jesus. She walked in complete conformity to Christ by fusing her human will with the divine, and by following Jesus even to being crucified with Him.
Thanks to her “Fiat”, Mary has become the “Mother” of a house that is no longer defined as a place, but where time and the city of men dwell, a mother that listens to their expectations and shares in their hopes. Just like the Upper Room, where the faces and names of the apostles “in one accord in prayer” with Mary and the disciples are remembered, so too our house has faces and names that today share the adventure of the Gospel and the wonders of God’s mercy.
This house is a symbol of the Church, of the community of the redeemed of which the Virgin is the first fruit. And so the journey of the Risen One continues along the streets of our world among men and women who live and work to build up the “family” of God. Mary continues to be the Mother of our ecclesial home and the one who, by accepting Jesus, became with her body the “house of God”. With her motherly presence she continues to live in the community of the faithful until the fullness of time.
After hearing the revealed Word, Mary responds fully with a “Yes” to the Will of God. The answer begins with “Here I am” (the expression used by many who are called by God). This “Fiat” spoken by Mary is where the New Testament begins. In this “FIAT” humanity welcomes the coming of the Son in human flesh. In Mary the advent of God is sealed. In her is fulfilled the day of salvation!
This great event is explained by Jesus to Luisa and is mentioned in a passage of January 10, 1921. Here Jesus speaks of the first and second “Fiat” pronounced by the creature in response to the “Fiat” pronounced by her Creator.
Jesus asked his Mother for the first “Yes” to the “Divine Fiat”. As soon as the “Divine Fiat” encountered Mary’s “Fiat”, one will was formed; the “Divine Fiat” raised Mary up, divinized her, and without human assistance conceived the Son of God.
God’s call and the response of the creature are no longer two realities facing each other; rather when the creature gives her consent everything fuses sin to a single reality.
The mystery of the Incarnation, which is a purely divine operation, was made possible by the consent that a docile creature, beautiful and pure like Mary, was able to give.
Only in the “Divine Fiat” was Mary able to conceive Jesus. The “Divine Fiat” communicated immensity, infinity and fecundity in a divine way, and for this reason it was able to conceive Immensity, Eternity, and the Infinite. As soon as Our Lady pronounced the “Fiat Mihi”, she not only acquired possession of Jesus but also overshadowed all creatures and all created things together; she felt within herself the lives of all creatures. Since then she has began to act as Mother and Queen of all.
Now, Jesus asks Luisa for a second “Yes”, and though trembling, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will pronounces hers. This “Yes” offered in the Divine Will reveals itself in manifestations and comes to fulfillment in a divine way. Let us follow Jesus and Luisa and immerse ourselves in the immense sea of the Divine Will, and He will take care of everything. Mary did not consider how God would be conceived in her, she only said “Fiat Mihi”;it was God who worked out the manner in which He was to be conceived. Luisa did the same … and so are we called to do!
Everything began with the words “Here I am”, when the unpredictability of God suddenly erupts in to the simple life of a young woman of Nazareth: this is the first word of “Mary’s Decalogue”, which is presented to us as a model to follow so that in our lives, too, God can do marvelous deeds.
LUMEN GENTIUM– Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council (Chapter VIII, no. 56)
The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by the acceptance of her who was predestined to be the mother of His Son, so that just as a woman contributed to death, so also a woman should contribute to life. This holds true in an outstanding fashion in the mother of Jesus, who gave to the world Him who is Life itself and who renews all things, and who was enriched by God with the gifts that befit such a role. It is no wonder then that it was customary among the Fathers to call the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.(5*) Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the radiance of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is greeted, on God’s command, by an angel messenger as “full of grace”,(286) and to the heavenly messenger she replies: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word”.(287) Thus Mary, a daughter of Adam, consenting to the divine Word, became the mother of Jesus, the one and only Mediator. Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and unimpeded by no stain of sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of mankind’s salvation through faith and obedience. For, as St. Irenaeus says, she “being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.”(6*) Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly assert in their preaching, “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”(7*) Comparing Mary with Eve, they call her “the Mother of the living,”(8*) and still more often say: “death through Eve, life through Mary.”(9*)
don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue: 2. Mary’s humility
“For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.” (Lk 1:48)
The second word of “Mary’s Decalogue ” is taken from the text of the “Magnificat”, a chronicle of salvation history, which develops through a mosaic of Biblical citations and allusions. God is celebrated as the Savior who has worked wonders for His people, manifesting Himself as the Lord of history.
Mary’s words, “Henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Lk 1:48), express one of the most admirable prophecies of Holy Scripture. Mary will be praised and blessed until the end of time for her divine motherhood, because she is the mother of Jesus.
In this verse a contrast becomes evident: humility and lowliness on the one hand, and blessedness and glorification on the other. Humility-lowliness and blessedness refer to each other by way of contrast and in a proportional manner: the greater Mary’s lowliness is, the greater is her blessedness. The ultimate cause for this correlation rests solely in the gaze of God. It is God who elevated Mary to such greatness.
Mary rejoices in and magnifies God and magnifies His name, because He has looked upon her lowliness; this gaze of God will cause her to be blessed by all generations.
What do we really mean by humility? The truest sense of humility is in recognizing one’s condition as a creature radically dependent on the Creator in which we all live, move and have our being. It is the condition of a human being in her lowliness, expressed as human mortality, extreme poverty and the littleness and lowliness of a servant and slave before the Lord. However, this condition and Mary’s blessedness proceed from God’s gaze, beginning with Elizabeth’s prophetic proclamation and continuing down through the ages until the end of time (“from now on all generations shall call me blessed”).
During Jesus’ public life, a woman is heard calling out to Him with this blessing, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” (Lk 11:27). Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11:28).
In April of 1899, Jesus speaks to Luisa of humility calling it the smallest plant that can be found, but its branches are so high that they reach up to the heavens, circle around the throne of God and penetrate deep into His heart. This little plant is humility and the branches stemming from its trunk are “trust”. And so, for Jesus one cannot give true humility without “trust”; humility without “trust” is a false virtue.
When we make ourselves lowly and humble, but with falsehood, we create an enormous distance between God, because we consider Him as being too lofty for us. We create our lowliness in order for God to remain distant and unreachable, bearing in our hearts only sadness and anguish.
But when we experience true humility, we realize that the exact opposite occurs. We do not seek to be distant from God, but rather seek union with Him, who takes our lowliness and makes it great.
Humble is he who welcomes God, who humbled Himself even to our likeness and became poor to enrich us through His poverty. St. Augustine exclaimed: “Listen brother, God is very lofty. If you climb high, He will go higher, but if you lower yourself, He will come down to you …”. True greatness does not reside in what man searches for through human means, but in that which is acknowledged by God.
If the first word of “Mary’s Decalogue” was the “Fiat” of the Virgin in reply to God’s call, while the second word that characterized Mary’s life in the Divine Will was “humility”.
God seems to deprive the creature thus making her small, but in reality He pours forth great abundance. In a passage of November 8, 1921, Luisa says that one day Jesus made her see that He was taking away a light from inside her heart, and she complained to Him because in this way her soul would be left in darkness. Jesus, in all sweetness, told her He was taking away that light to replace it with His. That little light in Luisa’s soul was none other than her will, which placing itself next to God’s received Its reflection, and Jesus wanted to take her away with Him to show her around.
He wanted to bring her to Heaven as the rarest and most beautiful object, because it was the human will that received the reflection of the Will of the Creator.
He wanted to bring her among the Divine Persons so that she could receive the reflections of Their honor and adoration found in her humble soul.
He wanted to show her to the Saints, so that they too could receive the glory reflecting from the Divine Will in the human will.
Finally, He wanted to take her all over the earth so that everyone could take part in this great prodigy.
While Luisa listened to Jesus’ words she saw the light of her soul in His hands receiving all the reflections of His divinity and forming another Jesus. And every time her will repeated acts in the Will of God, just as many Jesus would be multiplied. This is what it means to live in the Divine Will: to multiply the life of Jesus as often as desired and repeat all the good that the divine life contains.
God takes our lowliness unto Himself, as He took the lowliness of Luisa and Mary, to make it share in His divinity and to allow God to live in the creature. In short, we can say that God shows how it is possible for everyone to live united and fused with His Will. However, one condition is necessary: to live humility as Mary and Luisa did.
“Blessed are you and all generations shall call you blessed.
My arm will perform mighty works in you;
you will be the divine reflection
that filling the whole earth will obtain for Me from all generations
the glory that they deny Me.”
(Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta)
“I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever”.
These words of the Church at Easter re-echo in full their prophetic content in those that Mary uttered during her visit to Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah: “His mercy is…from generation to generation.” At the very moment of the Incarnation, these words opened up a new perspective of salvation history. After the resurrection of Christ, this perspective is new at both the historical and eschatological level. From that time onwards, there is a succession of new generations of individuals in the immense human family in ever-increasing dimensions; there is also a succession of new generations of the People of God, marked with the Sign of the Cross and of the resurrection and “sealed” with the sign of the Paschal Mystery of Christ, the absolute revelation of the mercy that Mary proclaimed on the threshold of her kinswoman’s house: “His mercy is…from generation to generation.”
“The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace,” as the Second Vatican Council explains, “lasts without interruption from the consent which she faithfully gave at the annunciation, and which she sustained without hesitation under the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. In fact, being assumed into heaven she has not laid aside this office of salvation, but by her manifold acts of intercession she continues to obtain for us the graces of eternal salvation. By means of her maternal charity she takes care of the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth, surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home” (St. John Paul II, Encyclical Dives in misericordia, V,9).
Don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue: 3. Living the ordinary in an extraordinary way
“Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19)
The context of this third word of “Mary’s Decalogue ” is the birth of Jesus, when Mary and Joseph are visited by the shepherds. Mary is astonished by this event and does not understand what is happening. Luke here emphasizes the attitude of the Mother of the Savior, who “treasured these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).
The Virgin Mary is presented in the attitude of keeping in her heart and meditating on all the events that took place with a sense of deep wonder and gratitude. Luke assigns a very special role to the Madonna, especially in this story.
At first, we see Mary as the “interpreter” of the events that are occurring. In her we discern the model of the believer who receives the Word, is willing to serve, gives birth to the Word made flesh and carries within the mystery of the Child.
We are told of the luminous event of the “glory” of the angels and, at the same time, the call of the “shepherds” to contemplate the newborn Child. Heaven and earth meet!
In Luke’s presentation of the angelic appearance to the shepherds at night the Evangelist creates a link between the transcendent “glory” of God to man’s condition of humility and simplicity – the heavenly light that shines in the darkness of the world. It is said that the shepherds “kept watch all night ” (Lk 2:8), while an angel shone light upon them announcing: “Fear not: behold, I announce to you a great joy, which shall be to all people” (Lk 1:10).
Jesus is the Evangelizer of salvation; He is the Savior of the world. His coming represents novelty and joy for mankind. It is the experience of man encountering God through the Holy Spirit. The joy and fruit of the Spirit’s vitality must eliminate the fear of God as “judge”, which through Adam’s sin man has always held onto; they must invade the hearts of the shepherds as light putting to flight the darkness of night.
The storyline of Jesus’ birth intertwines human history, which is made up of the powerful of this world (Augustus, Quirinius …), with the “story of God” written in the humble folds of the poor and simple (inhospitable homes, poverty, the simplicity of the shepherds, etc.).
The storyline of Luisa’s life reproposes this interweaving. Who was Luisa? An unknown woman who lived in a foreign country (Corato, Italy), but during events that determined the history of the last two centuries: the unification of Italy with all the ensuing problems (including the “Southern issue”), the emergence of the great dictators in Europe and the two world wars. In this historical context so tormented and painful God wanted to make manifest His great desire to make creatures live united to Him in the Divine Will through this simple and unknown woman.
And, lastly, there is the story of our lives, where the same intertwining is repeated between human history, with all its contradictions, and the history of God, who wants to fill ours with novelty, transform it, and unite it more and more to His.
It is the manifestation of the wonders that God constantly works in people’s lives. Only those who open their hearts to God can recognize these admirable acts. Luisa would very often remain ecstatic, especially when pondering the mystery of the Incarnation. Even she could not understand how God could reveal all His power in hiddenness and humility. The answer that Luisa received from Jesus disarmed her and she was left contemplating the extraordinary power of God’s love, which at first had operated in the life of Mary and now wished to fulfill itself in hers.
On March 16, 1922, Jesus taught Luisa that Mary’s life externally was nothing extraordinary. In fact, she apparently did less than others. She lowered herself to perform the most ordinary acts of life like spinning, sewing, sweeping, and lighting the fire. Who would have ever thought that She was the Mother of a God? Her external acts indicated nothing of this. Yet, when She carried Jesus in Her womb, containing in Herself the Eternal Word, Her every motion and human act won the adoration from all of creation. From Her came forth life and the preservation of all creatures. The sun depended on Her and waited for the preservation of its light and heat; the earth, for bringing forth life in plants; everything revolved around Her, Heaven and earth were at Her beck and call . . . yet who could see anything? No one. All Her greatness, power and sanctity, and the immense seas of goods that came out of Her were from within Her interior. Her every heartbeat, breath, thought and word became an outpouring to Her Creator. There were continuous currents between God and Her, which She would receive and give. Nothing would come out from Her that did not touch Her Creator and by which She was not touched by Him. These currents expanded Her, raised Her and made Her suprass all things, but no one saw anything. Only Jesus, Her God and Son, was aware of everything. A current ran between Him and His Mother such that Her heartbeat would run in Jesus’ and His in Mary’s; their lives were blended together. In Jesus’ eyes this is exactly what distinguished Her as His Mother. External actions do not gratify Jesus, nor do they please Him unless they come from an interior whose life is formed by Him.
Turning to Luisa, Jesus asks why she wonders at seeing her exterior life seem so ordinary. Jesus usually endows His greatest works with the most ordinary things so that no one notices and He is free to operate; and once He has accomplished everything He is capable of surprises and manifests them to all amazing everyone.
The work that Jesus wants to operate in Luisa is great. He wants her acts to run in the current of the Divine Will and that the current of the Divine Will run in her acts, and that while these currents flow they create a single act with all the acts of creatures, making the Divine Will flow over all.
Jesus becomes the Actor of each of Luisa’s acts lived in the Divine Will, substituting all human acts in one divine act, in love, in reparation and in divine and eternal glory. He operates so that the current of the human will is in continual contact with Divine Will and the one pours out into the other.
In our journey each one of us is also called to live our acts in the Divine Will. But what must we do? What extraordinary deed must we perform to live united to Jesus? The answer is: nothing extraordinary! It is Jesus Himself who makes our ordinary acts extraordinary, like He did with Mary and Luisa.
And so the third word of this Decalogue is: living the ordinary in an extraordinary way, allowing God to work in the depths of our being and letting ourselves be loved and transformed by His presence in our lives.
Even in this Gospel passage of the shepherds’ visit, St. Luke wants to help us grasp the meaning of our life stories: our origins, our journey in search of God’s Will, the effort to believe in and live ordinary everyday life in an extraordinary way, and through Mary he shows us the way: she “kept” all these things in her heart and “pondered” them. A mother’s heart lives of the joy of childbirth. The motherhood of Mary and the mystery of salvation. In our lives she is the “servant” of the Word that became flesh. And now she is the witness of the wonders of God in history.
Dogmatic constitution on the Church LUMEN GENTIUM of the Second Vatican Council (Chapter VIII, n. 56)
The Sacred Scriptures of both the Old and New Testament, as well as ancient Tradition, reveal the role of the Mother of the Savior in the economy of salvation in an ever clearer light and draw attention to it. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared. These earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in light of a deeper and full revelation, bring the figure of the woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light. If seen from this perspective, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin.(284) Likewise, she is the Virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name will be called Emmanuel.(285) She stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from Him. With her, the exalted Daughter of Zion, and after a long expectation of the promise the times are fulfilled and the new Economy is established, when the Son of God takes human nature from her, that He might free man from sin through the mystery of His flesh.
Don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue: n 4.Suffering together with Jesus
“And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:35)
Jesus is presented in the Temple. It is the first time that Jesus enters the great Temple of Herod, the center of Israel’s spiritual life. The presentation of the firstborn to God foresaw an offer. For wealthy families it was the sacrifice of a large animal, while for poor families the offer could consist of pigeons or turtledoves (Lev. 12:1-8). This commercial activity was known around the Temple of Jerusalem, and it is precisely this “commercial” mindset that Jesus will attack and contest, reaffirming the sanctity of the Temple. Burnt offerings and sacrifices will no longer characterize the relationship between God and man; it is rather the new offering of the Son given once and for all for the salvation of mankind.
Joseph and Mary take the infant Jesus to fulfill “the law”, while the Holy Spirit inspires the heart of the elder, Simeon, to meet with the Holy Family. The main character of the action is the Holy Spirit. Throughout the Gospel of Luke the action of the Holy Spirit is reflected in: the power of the Spirit overshadowing Mary at the Annunciation (Lk 1:35), Elizabeth’s child leaping during the Visitation (Lk 1:41), confirming Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan (Lk 3:22) and its leading Him into the desert to His test (Lk 4:1). The same Spirit consecrates the Son for evangelization (Lk 4:14) from the first public appearance in Nazareth (Lk 4:18) and makes Him rejoice and bless the Father (Lk 10:21), Who gives the Spirit to those who pray (Lk 11:13).
Through the words of Simeon, Luke indicates in the child Jesus, presented in the Temple, the Almighty’s plan: the revelation to Israel and the world of light and salvation. This first revelation relates to the next prophecy that the elderly priest reveals to the parents who are “astonished and amazed” (v. 33). After blessing them, the elder’s revealing words are directed toward Mary: Jesus is “here” in this hour of the history of the world to fulfill the plan of redemption. The mission-plan is the “fall and the resurrection of many in Israel”. This is the prophetic role of Christ’s mission: He will announce the Word of salvation to those who welcome the gift of revelation and life. For those who reject God’s message there will be downfall and ruin.
Jesus is described as “a sign of contradiction.” This is the most mysterious and poignant definition of Simeon’s prophecy. Jesus will be the prophet of the nations and “more than a prophet” (Lk 7:16): he is the Savior of the world. And Mary will be called upon to partake in the gift of salvation by “offering herself” in suffering. Simeon’s words are mysteriously allusive to the drama of the violent death of the Son: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (v. 34). The Mother is uniquely associated with the fate of the Son: the maternity of the Virgin will be fulfilled at the foot of the cross, in suffering offered for the salvation of the world.
Let’s try for a moment to put ourselves in Mary’s shoes while she listens to the prophetic words of Simeon. It is one word of Simeon’s that fills her heart with concern; she is destined to suffer profoundly for the death of her only Son. Mary becomes aware of the pain that she must suffer.
In a passage of July 4, 1899, while Jesus renewed the pains of His crucifixion, Luisa was together with Our Lady and heard Jesus speak of his Mother’s grief, saying that His Kingdom was present in the heart of his Mother, and that’s because Mary’s heart was never disturbed, even though she was immersed in a sea of suffering caused by the Passion of her Son. Her heart was passed through by a sword, but was not in the least disturbed. This is the reason why Jesus was able to extend His Kingdom in her without finding any obstacle, because even though she suffered Mary was filled with peace, and there God could reign freely.
Living in the Divine Will does not mean living in a parallel world, where everything is beautiful and without a trace of suffering. Instead, it means living as Mary did, uniting her suffering to Jesus’, and all this gives peace to the heart even while it suffers.
It is the power of the “Fiat” that performs this miracle, the power of a love that can sustain the most excruciating pain like that of a mother who sees her son die.
In another passage dated March 23, 1923, once again Jesus describes to Luisa what Mary experienced when she saw Him die on the cross. Mary’s sorrows were none other than the reverberations of Jesus’ sorrows, which being reflected in her made her participate in the sorrows of the Son, and piercing her, filled her with such bitterness that She felt Herself dying at each reverberation of His sorrows. But love sustained and restored her life.
Therefore, it was not the sorrows that constituted Mary as Queen, but the “Almighty Fiat” that interwove Its every act and pain giving life to each of Her sorrows. Jesus’ “Fiat” was the first act that formed the sword, giving Her the intensity of pain It wanted. The “Fiat” of Jesus could place all the sorrows It wanted in that pierced Heart, adding piercings upon piercings and pains upon pains without a shadow of the slightest resistance from Her.
Jesus now asks, who will be the souls in whom He can reflect the reverberations of His sorrows and of His very life? Certainly those who have His “Fiat” as life. This Fiat will make them absorb the reflections of the divine life of Jesus, and Jesus Himself will be generous in sharing with them that which His Will operates in Him.
In His Will Jesus waits for all souls in order to give them true dominion and complete glory for every pain that they may suffer. Jesus does not recognize operating and suffering outside of the Divine Will. Sometimes even doing good or suffering without the Will of God can be miserable slaveries which then degenerate into passions, while only the Will of God gives true dominion, true virtues and true glory, such as to transform the human into the divine.
Holy Mother, in Your pierced heart I place all my sorrows,
and You know how they pierce my heart.
I pray thee, be a Mother to me and pour into my heart the balm of Your pains
to suffer the same fate as Yours,
and to use my sorrows as many coins
for conquering the Kingdom of the Divine Will. Amen
(Luisa Piccarreta)
LUMEN GENTIUM – Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council (Chapter VIII, no. 57)
This union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to His death. It is shown first of all when Mary, arising in haste to go to visit Elizabeth, is greeted by her as blessed because of her belief in the promise of salvation and the precursor leaps with joy in the womb of his mother. This union is manifest also at the birth of Our Lord, who did not diminish His mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it, when the Mother of God joyfully showed her firstborn Son to the shepherds and Magi. When she presented Him to the Lord in the temple, making the offering of the poor, she heard Simeon foretelling at the same time that her Son would be a sign of contradiction and that a sword would pierce the mother’s soul, that out of many hearts thoughts might be revealed. When the Child Jesus was lost and they had sought Him sorrowing, His parents found Him in the temple, taken up with the things that were His Father’s business; and they did not understand the word of their Son. His Mother indeed kept these things to be pondered over in her heart.
don Marco
Mary’s Decalogue 5.Being about the Father’s business
“Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (Lk 2:48)
Our journey along “Mary’s Decalogue” continues with the scene of Jesus’ loss and His finding in the Temple of Jerusalem.
We must consider this page as being emblematic of St. Luke’s Christology. In fact, the episode evokes numerous themes which are found in the Gospels: the relationship with the fatherhood of God, the pilgrimage (Exodus) toward Jerusalem, the Holy City and its Temple, evangelization in the form of teaching, and the submissive obedience to parents.
From Nazareth to Jerusalem: This is the path that Jesus will walk during his public mission and that to some extent is anticipated and explained in this episode. “Walking” along the roads of the people, the great pilgrimage of the Gospel marks the novelty of salvation and the joy Christ brings. Here, Jesus sets off with his family, the caravan of relatives and friends who live the Paschal pilgrimage in the Holy City. During His public ministry, Jesus walks with His “new family”, the disciples who are called to follow Him up to the fulfillment of the Paschal Mystery.
This passage describes Joseph and Mary’s great surprise when they notice after a day’s journey that their Son is missing. The scene brings to mind the concerns all families have for their children. The same searching is found in the garden of the Resurrection by the women on Easter morning (Lk 24:5). The temporal annotation is allusive to the Easter event: “After three days of searching”, Joseph and Mary find Him in the Temple, “sitting” in the midst of the teachers. The scene of the two anguished parents is very significant: the Child is the “Master” and the “masters” who listen to Him “are like children”, becoming little in order to enter the Kingdom. This is the first time that Jesus encounters the doctors of the Law, a sign of the new wisdom that has entered the world. During His public life, the Lord will meet other masters, especially when He arrives at the Temple to teach at the height of His mission.
In the book “The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will”, a collection of dialogues between Luisa and Mary about Her entire life lived in the Divine Will. Mary Herself tells Luisa about when Jesus was lost and at the Temple. It is really interesting to see how the Virgin Mary lived this difficult and tragic moment. Jesus was Her Son, but He was also the Son of God, and so His pain was experienced in full by the Virgin Mary in the divine order; in other words, it was so powerful and immense as to surpass all other possible torments put together. If the ‘Fiat’ that Mary possessed had not continually supported Her with Its divine power, She would have died of shock. Meanwhile, having searched for the Child in vain, Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem. After three days of bitter sighs, tears, anxieties and fears they entered the Temple. The Heavenly Mother was all eyes and looked everywhere when suddenly, at last, she found her Son, who was among the doctors of the Law! He spoke with such wisdom and majesty as to ravish and amaze His listeners. At the sight of Him Mary felt life coming back to Her and immediately understood the reason for having lost Him.
Jesus wanted to give His Mother a sublime teaching. Could it ever be that Jesus ignored what Mary suffered? On the contrary … because Her tears, Her searching and Her raw and intense pain reverberated in Her Son’s Heart. Yet, during those hours so very painful Jesus sacrificed His Mother to the Divine Will, the one whom He loves so much, to show how even Mary one day would be called upon to sacrifice Her own life to the Supreme Will. We could say that this event served to prepare Mary to live Her entire life as a continuous offering to the Will of God and to understand the meaning of the future loss of Her Son seeing Him die on the cross. In this unspeakable suffering Mary does not forget Luisa: this sorrow will have served Luisa as an example so that at the appropriate time, she would have the strength to sacrifice everything to the Divine Will, especially when finding herself in situations where the risk of coming out of God’s Will would have been very high.
The experience of losing the Child Jesus is an experience that we also live, and very often, unfortunately, we see it as an act of abandonment on the part of God. This Gospel passage, however, as Mary teaches Luisa and us, helps us understand how “losing Jesus” can help form us and make our lives an offering to God’s Will, sharing with Mary our grief and our loss. In her diary Luisa many times describes her sufferings caused by the continuous “privations” of Jesus. She feels life failing her and falls into a state of deep confusion and suffering. Jesus repeatedly intervenes, saying that all this serves to form her soul to desire to live ever more united with her beloved spouse.
The pain that Mary felt in losing Jesus at the Temple was ever so intense, yet to this one still another was added, namely, that of losing Luisa. In fact, anticipating that she would have strayed from the Divine Will, Our Lady felt deprived not only of Her Son but also of Her “little daughter”, and therefore Her motherhood suffered a double blow.
Mary invites Luisa, and us, to be careful when we come close to doing our own will instead of God’s. Abandoning the “Divine Fiat” will bring us to the verge of losing Jesus and His mother and of falling into the realm of miseries and vices. If we remain indissolubly united to Her, She will grant us the grace of never letting ourselves be dominated again by our will, but only by Divine Will.
Knowledge of Jesus is not meant to be taken for granted. He does not enter into our mental schemes, nor can we frame Him within our preconceptions. Jesus is always different from what we may think. He asks us to take part in “the Father’s business”.
Holy Mama,
grant that I may lose my will forever,
and live only in the Divine Will. Amen.
(Luisa Piccarreta)
Misericordiae Vultus, Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (no. 24)
No one has penetrated the profound mystery of the incarnation like Mary. Her entire life was patterned after the presence of mercy made flesh. The Mother of the Crucified and Risen One has entered the sanctuary of divine mercy because she participated intimately in the mystery of His love. Chosen to be the Mother of the Son of God, from the outset Mary was prepared by the love of God to be the Ark of the Covenant between God and man. She treasured divine mercy in her heart in perfect harmony with her Son, Jesus.
Don Marco