On the
Morning of May 13, 1944, after Communion in Honor of the
Immaculate Heart, the
Blessed Virgin said to Maria Valtorta:
"I
want you to understand my joys better. You will say the Franciscan
[crown] rosary more willingly [Maria was a Third Order Franciscan.]”
The
Annunciation:
"In the first one, I was not happy because of my glory and joy,
but because the time had come for man's redemption and God's
forgiveness of man.
The
Visitation:
"The second one made me happy not because of the praise offered
me by my cousin, but because I had begun redemption by sanctifying
the Baptist by taking my Jesus, your Redeemer, to him.
The
Birth of Jesus:
"The blessedness of the third one was not exclusively because I
had become a mother, without pain or the staining of my virginity, or
because of the grace of being able to kiss God, my Son, either. But
because the Earth now had the Savior.
The
Adoration of the Magi:
"What made me happy the fourth time was that in the three Magi I
saw all of those who, from everywhere in the world and in all periods
of the earth, from that moment on, would come towards the Light,
towards my Lord, and would proclaim Him to be their King and their
Savior and God.
The
Finding of Jesus in the Temple:
"The joy of the fifth event did not come exclusively from my
love as a Mother who ceases to suffer because her lost Son is found
again. It would have been selfishness. But it was inexpressible joy
to hear the 'Gospel' echoing forth for the first time and to
understand that a few years in advance it was falling into some
hearts and sprouting there into an eternal plant. I rejoiced over
these people instructed in advance.
Jesus
Appears to Mary after His Resurrection:
"The sixth joy was an even greater love for you, redeemed
creatures. The Risen One told me that the Heavens were open and
already inhabited by the holy ones of the Lord who had been awaiting
that hour for centuries and that in those Heavens the seats of all
the saved were ready. And for me, your Mother, to know that your
dwelling was ready was a joy of incalculable depth.
Mary’s
Assumption and Coronation:
"Finally, the seventh joy was not because of my glory. But
because, having been made the Queen of the Heavens
by the goodness of God, as the Queen I could concern myself with you,
my beloved ones, and, chosen as I was to sit at the right hand of
God, I could speak, pray, and obtain graces directly for you, with
powerful entreaty.
"No
joy was for me alone. Selfishness, even the most just and holy,
destroys love. Every joy came to me through perfect love and was
spurred towards an even more perfect love.
"I
am now blessed. I could not be more so because I am surrounded by the
Triune embrace of God. But I still use my blessedness out of love for
you. Even here I apply the law: I love God with my whole self and my
neighbor as myself.341
Myself, not because I am Mary, but because Mary found grace before
the Lord and is loved by Him; she is thus a holy creature in Him and
of Him, part of Him.
"Oh,
my theology! It has only one key word: 'Love.' I am Queen of the
Heavens because I have understood this theology as no other creature
has.
"Love.
You will be saved. Love. Love in words or in silence. Love in action
or immobility. Love in fervor or in the suffering of aridity. Love in
joy and in pain. Love in victory and in weakness. Love in temptation
and in freedom from the Enemy. Always love.
"Let
there be a point in you, the deepest one, which, in the midst of a
whole wounded, stricken, agonizing being stupefied by pain, exhausted
by the devil's assaults, nauseated by life events, and tossed about
like a ship in a storm, is able to remain still and alive in love. A
point in you which has this one mission – to love – and fulfills
it for your mind, heart, and flesh. And
let that point be your sanctuary. Let the altar be there with the
lamp which is always lit, with
flowers which are always fresh, and with praise which is always
resounding.
"Whether
you weep or laugh, hope or doubt, are exhausted or not, let the
holiest part of your spirit, the one living in that point consecrated
for worship of God, always be able to say:
Gloria
tibi, Domine. Gloria! Laudamus Te! Benedicimus Te! Adoramus Te!
Glorificamus Te! Quoniam Tu solus Sanctus, Tu solus Dominus, Tu solus
Altissimus. Cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et
Dominationibus, cumque omni militia caelestis exercitus, himnum
gloriae tuae canimus, sine fine dicentes: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus!
Glory
to you, Lord. Glory! We praise you! Thank you! We adore you! We
glorify you! Because You are the only Holy One, You are the only
Lord, You alone are the Most High. With Angels and Archangels, with
Thrones and Dominions, with all the militia of the heavenly host, we
sing the hymn of your glory, saying without end: Holy, Holy, Holy!
Glory
to you, Lord. Glory! We praise you! Thank you! We adore you! We
glorify you! Because You are the only Holy One, You are the only
Lord, You alone are the Most High. With Angels and Archangels, with
Thrones and Dominions, with all the militia of the heavenly host, we
sing the hymn of your glory, saying without end: Holy, Holy, Holy!
[Glory
to you, Lord. Glory! We praise you! We Thank you! We adore you! We
glorify you! Because You are the only Holy One, You are the only
Lord, You alone are the Most High. With Angels and Archangels, with
Thrones and Dominions, with all the militia of the heavenly host, we
sing the hymn of your glory, saying without end: Holy, Holy, Holy!]
"Before
the Elevation comes praise. Before the Consummation comes praise. Be
able to say your
Mass.
Every victim is a priest. [Maria Valtorta was a victim soul.] But one
is not a priest if one does not know how to celebrate Mass. In all
its parts.
"Look
at my Jesus. Before being elevated and consummated, He gave praise to
the Father.343
And He already knew what awaited Him.
"O
Maria, let your heart sing. Let it sing even if tears rain down from
your eyes. [Maria was then suffering the abandonment of Gethsemane.]
Let song cover your moan and the voices of Satan, who wants to
convince you to mistrust yourself to keep you from following your
mission, who wants to convince you that God does not hear you to keep
you from praying, who wants to convince you that you are lost in
order to destroy you.
"No.
You are not. Persevere. A day or an hour of faithfulness at this
moment is worth more than the ten years spent in physical pain and
penance, but with peace in your heart and God perceptible at your
side. Persevere. 'Whoever perseveres until the end will be saved.'344
My and your Jesus says so. And I tell you so. Suffer in peace. I will
come soon."
Maria
Valtorta, The
Notebooks 1944,
May
13 1944. Order
her books Here.
View
my Catholic books Here.
An
astonishing revelation and meditation on the theological virtue of
Faith. From
the Church approved Volume Two of Luisa Piccarreta’s Book
of Heaven; Nihil
Obstat, St. Annibale Di Francia; Imprimatur, Archbishop G. M. Leo.
~ ~ ~
Now,
while seeing the confessor, I remembered he had told me that I was to
write about Faith in the way in which the Lord had spoken to me about
this virtue. While I was thinking of this, in one instant the Lord
drew me so much to Himself, that I felt myself outside of myself, in
the vault of the heavens together with Jesus; and He told me these
exact words:
“Faith is God.”
But
these two words contained an immense light, such that it is
impossible to explain them – but I will say what I can. In the word
“Faith”, I comprehended that Faith is God Himself. Just as
material food gives life to the body so that it may not die, so does
Faith give life to the soul – without Faith, the soul is dead.
Faith vivifies, Faith sanctifies, Faith spiritualizes man, and makes
him keep his eye fixed on a Supreme Being, in such a way that he
learns nothing of the things of down here; and if he learns them, he
learns them in God.
Oh!
the happiness of a soul who lives of Faith – her flight is always
toward Heaven. In everything that happens to her, she always looks at
herself in God; and so, just as in tribulation, Faith raises her in
God and she does not afflict herself, nor does she lament, knowing
that she is not to form her contentment here, but in Heaven; in the
same way, if joy, riches, pleasures, surround her, Faith raises her
in God, and she says to herself: “Oh! how much more content and
rich will I be in Heaven!” So, these earthly things are a bother to
her, she despises them, and tramples them underfoot.
It
seems to me that to a soul who lives of Faith, it happens as to a
person who possessed millions upon millions of coins, and even entire
kingdoms, and someone else wanted to offer him a penny. What would he
say? Would he not disdain it? Would he not throw it in his face? I
add: and what if that penny were all muddy, just as earthly things
are? Even more: what if that penny were only lent to him? Now, this
person would say: “I enjoy and possess immense riches, and you
dared to offer me this miserable penny, so muddy, and only for a
short time?” I believe he would immediately remove his gaze from
it, and would not accept the gift. So does the soul who lives of
Faith with regard to earthy things.
I
will espouse you in the Faith.
Now
let us go back again to the idea of food: by taking food, the body is
not only sustained, but shares in the substance of the food, which is
transformed with the body itself. The same for the soul who lives of
Faith: since Faith is God Himself, the soul comes to live of God
Himself; and by feeding herself with God Himself, she comes to share
in the substance of God; and by sharing in Him, she comes to resemble
Him and to be transformed with God Himself. Therefore, it happens to
the soul who lives of Faith, that, just as God is holy, the soul is
holy; powerful God – powerful the soul; wise, strong and just God –
wise, strong and just the soul; and so with all the other attributes
of God. In sum, the soul becomes a little god. Oh! the blessedness of
this soul on earth, to then be more blessed in Heaven.
I
also comprehended that those words which the Lord says to His beloved
souls – “I will espouse you in the Faith” – mean nothing less
but that the Lord, in this mystical marriage, comes to endow the
souls with His own virtues. It seems to me that it happens as to two
spouses: as they join their properties together, the belongings of
one can no longer be distinguished from those of the other, but both
of them become the owners. However, in our case, the soul is poor –
all the good comes from the Lord, who lets her share in His
possessions. The life of the soul is God, Faith is God, and the soul,
by possessing Faith, comes to graft all the other virtues into
herself, in such a way that Faith is like a king in her heart, and
the other virtues remain around It, as the subjects that serve Faith.
So, without Faith, the virtues themselves are virtues that have no
life.
It
seems to me that God communicates Faith to man in two ways: the first
is in holy Baptism; the second is when blessed God, by unleashing a
particle of His substance into the soul, communicates to her the
virtue of making miracles, like raising the dead, healing the sick,
stopping the sun, and the like. Oh! if the world had Faith, it would
change into a terrestrial paradise.
The
soul who lives of Faith.
Oh!
how high and sublime is the flight of the soul who exercises herself
in Faith. It seems to me that by exercising herself in Faith, the
soul acts like those timid little birds which, for fear of being
caught by hunters, or of some other snare, establish their dwelling
at the top of the trees, or in high places. Then, when they are
forced to take food, they descend, take the food, and immediately fly
back into their dwelling. And some of them, more cautious, take the
food and don’t even eat it on the ground, but in order to be safer,
they carry it up to the top of the trees, and there they swallow it.
In
the same way, the soul who lives of Faith is so timid with earthly
things, that for fear of being snared, she doesn’t so much as
glance at them. Her dwelling is up high – that is, above all the
things of the earth, and especially in the wounds of Jesus Christ;
and from within those blessed rooms [wounds] she moans, cries, prays
and suffers together with her Spouse Jesus over the condition and the
misery in which mankind lies. While she lives inside those holes of
the wounds of Jesus, the Lord gives her a particle of His virtues,
and the soul feels those virtues within herself as if they were her
own. However, she realizes that, even though she sees them as her
own, her possessing them is given to her, for they were communicated
by the Lord.
It
happens to her as to a person who has received a gift that he did not
possess. Now, what does he do? He takes it and makes himself the
owner of it; however, every time he looks at it, he says to himself:
“This is mine, but it was given to me by so and so.” So also does
the soul whom the Lord transmutes into Himself, by unleashing from
Himself a particle of His Divine Being. Now, this soul, just as she
abhors sin, also feels compassion for others, and prays for those
whom she sees walking on the path of the precipice. She unites
herself with Jesus Christ, and offers herself as victim in order to
placate Divine Justice, and to spare creatures the deserved
chastisements. And if the sacrifice of her life were necessary –
oh! how gladly she would make it for the salvation of one soul alone.
Luisa
Piccarreta, Book
of Heaven,
Volume Two, entry for February
28, 1899.
View
my Catholic web site Here.
They
did not waver in their resolve to resist the lures of paganism. They
did not bend their principles, and refused to even burn some incense
before the idols of Rome. They refused to show any veneration to the
false gods and religions paraded before them, if they would only
renounce the Lord Jesus. They would not participate in any pagan
worship ceremonies, which would have allowed them to escape death in
the arena for being Christians.
They
did not waffle on their moral code; the virgins would not submit to
those who enticed them defile their purity. There was no thought of
compromising their faith, which was firm and rigid like a rock, like
that rock upon which the true Church is built. It was that very
strength and rigidity of their faith in the face of tortures and
martyrdom that led to the collapse of paganism, as explained below.
If
you have been graced with, or are open to, appreciating
the sublimity and truth of Maria Valtorta’s revelations, read what
the Lord Himself said about the fruits of that firm faith of those
first Christian martyrs:
“You
also fear persecutions. You no longer have the fiber
of
old. It’s true. But I am always Myself, children. You must not
think that I can’t give you an
intrepid heart in the hour of trial. Without my help, no one, even
then, could have remained steadfast
in the face of so much torture. And yet old men and children, young
girls and mothers, and spouses and parents were able to die,
encouraging others to die, as if they were going to a celebration.
And it was a celebration. An eternal celebration!
“They
died, and their dying was a breach in the dike of paganism. Like
water which goes on eroding and eroding and slowly but inexorably
breaks man’s sturdiest works, their blood, issuing forth from
thousands of wounds, gnawed at the pagan wall, and like many brooks,
scattered into Caesar’s militias, Caesar’s royal palace, into the
circuses and spas, and among gladiators and animal keepers [...],
and the cultured and common folk – everywhere, unstoppable
and invincible.
“The
soil of Rome soaked up this blood, and the city rises – I might say
it is cemented – with the blood and dust of my martyrs. The few
hundred martyrs you are familiar with are nothing compared to the
thousands and thousands still buried in the entrails of Rome, and the
thousands and thousands of others who, having been burned at the
stakes in the circuses, became ash scattered by the wind, or, after
being torn to pieces and devoured by beasts and reptiles, became
excrement which was swept up [...]
as manure.
“But
if you do not know these unknown heroes of mine, I know them all, and
their complete annihilation, even of their skeletons, has been what
has fertilized the savage soil of the pagan world more than any
manure and made it become capable of bearing the heavenly Wheat.
“Now
this soil of the Christian world is becoming pagan again, and poison
germinates, not Bread. And that is why you are afraid. You have
become too estranged from God to have the fortitude
of old in you.
“The
theological virtues are dying in the
places where they are not already dead. And you don’t even
remember the cardinal virtues. In not having charity, it is only
natural for you to be unable to love God to the point of heroism.
In not loving Him, you do not hope in Him and do not have faith in
Him. In not having faith, hope and charity, you are not strong,
prudent and just.
In not being strong, you are not temperate, you love the flesh more
than the soul and tremble over your flesh.
"But
I can still work the miracle. Believe, too, that in every persecution
the martyrs are able to be such through my aid. The martyrs – that
is, those who still love Me. I then take their love to perfection and
make them athletes in faith. I come to the aid of those hoping and
believing in Me. Always. In any circumstance.
“The
little martyr […] with
his hands clasping the chalice, even beyond death, teaches you where
strength is. In the Eucharist. When someone feeds on Me, as Paul
states,204
he no longer lives through himself, but Jesus lives in him. And Jesus
was able to endure all torments, without
bending. Whoever lives by Me will thus be like Me. Strong.
“Have
faith.”
Maria
Valtorta, The Notebooks
1944, Feb.
29, p. 185. Available from the “Maria Valtorta’s Readers’
Group,” https://www.valtorta.org.au/
View
my Catholic books Here.
