The Hours of The Passion (HoTP)

Luisa Piccarreta, at the age of 17, wrote her first novena of preparation for Christmas with 9 hours of meditation. After this, Our Lord invited her to meditate continuously on the last 24 hours that He suffered during the course of His Passion, commencing with the moment He leaves His Mother (5pm) and ending when He was buried (4pm).

Jesus to Luisa: “These hours are the most precious of all, because they are nothing other than the re-enactment of what I did in the course of my mortal life, and what I continue to do in the Blessed Sacrament. When I hear these Hours of My Passion, I hear My own voice, My own prayers. In that soul I see My Will – that is, wanting the good of all and making reparation for all – and I feel drawn to dwell in her, to be able to do what she herself does within her interior. Oh’ how I would love that even one single soul for each town did these Hours of My Passion! I would hear Myself in each town, and My Justice, greatly indignant during these times, would be placated in part.” Vol 11. Oct 1914

 

What are the benefits of meditating on the Passion?

Meditation on the Passion of Christ is one of the most rewarding means of furthering a more intimate union with Jesus and is a sure path toward holiness. In the history of the church there are countless examples of this in the lives of the saints, the Magisterium of the Church and also through Luisa’s writings. This little daughter of the Divine Will has written of the superior importance of meditating on His Passion, and not only meditating on it, but also living out continuously within our hearts all that Jesus suffered for us.

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By fusing with Jesus and meditating on each hour of the Passion means to be united to Him and to do everything that He did in each scene of His Passion. We make Jesus’ prayers, intentions and reparations our own, and together with and in Him, we offer them to the Father for His Glory, for the salvation of souls and for the coming of His Divine Will.

In a letter to St. Hannibal, her Spiritual Director, Luisa says the following: “I believe that if one who meditates on (the hours) is a sinner, he will convert; if he is imperfect, he will become perfect; if he is holy, he will become holier; if he is tempted, he will find victory; if he is suffering, in these Hours he will find the strength, the medicine, the comfort.”

Jesus also promises us, who pray the Hours whilst fused with Him, that He will give a soul for every word we recite, and for the sake of one soul praying the Hours, that he will spare a city of chastisement.

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Praying the Hours can be very appealing in the practical knowledge that one can save souls. However, please understand that the Divine Will is not a devotion. It is, in fact, a way of life, that of a life abandoned to the Will of God. This ‘Crown of Sanctity’ takes time to develop and, therefore, systematic study of the Book of Heaven Volumes is recommended. The two go hand in hand.

If you are not currently studying the Book of Heaven, perhaps I could encourage you to start reading the Volumes, or even to join a Divine Will group in your area. I find Frances Hogan excellent, she reads and explains the Volumes in everyday simple language on her website; https://franceshogan.com

 

The Divine Will Hours of the Passion Clocks

Following a prompt from the Lord in 2020, I set up the Hours of The Passion Clocks, also known as Living Clocks, under the protection of Our Lady of The Immaculate Conception. These commenced on Good Friday 2020 with 24 people making up one clock. Since then, the clocks have expanded to many countries around the world. They run weekly with each participant assigned a specific hour to pray daily (at a time of their own choosing) from Sunday until the following Saturday and changing to the following hour each Sunday and so on.

The reason I run them weekly is when I received a prompt to start them, that prompt also included some thoughts about the French mystic, Marthe Robin. 

She founded the Foyer of Charity silent retreats and I have been on quite a few. I find them excellent and love the silence aspect. When she was setting them up, Marthe complained to Our Lady that people would not be able to keep silence for a whole week as she had requested, and suggested perhaps a weekend instead. In reply, Our Lady said it takes 5 days of silence to reach a soul.

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In running the clocks weekly it allows us to enter into that silence of the Passion. On the first day I read the allocated hour, get a sense of what it is about, and then over the following days, allow the Holy Spirit to draw me ever deeper into the silence of the interior sufferings of Jesus in that particular Hour. 

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I frequently find, if I am faithful and attentive to praying the Hour ( not merely reading it ) that towards the end of the week - the 5th or 6th day - the Lord will bless me with a particular grace or insight. That grace then takes root in my soul and will bear fruit in its own time, provided I hold it in silence and nurture it.

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Feedback from those already praying the Hours on these clocks is of having a sense of being united with a common purpose under the mantle of Our Lady, bringing deep peace to oneself and into one’s family, gaining a deeper understanding of Divine Will, knowledge of how to turn one’s sufferings to the highest good, a much deeper awareness of Jesus’ great love for mankind. An almost constant awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding one's thoughts and actions.The list goes on…

I keep in touch with everybody by a weekly email and will provide any guidance needed. I also include a short reflection to help members better understand Divine Will.

 

There are 4 main points to keep in mind in our meditations on the Passion:

(1) The clocks run through 7 days from Sunday until the following Saturday. You remain on the same hour each day, and then move forward to the next hour on each Sunday.

(2) You do not need to pray the Hours at the time they occur. Anytime throughout the day is ok.

(3) You do not have to read all of the hour at once. If it is a long one, feel free to break it up over the days or the week. Or sometimes if you are very busy, you may only have time to pray a paragraph or two. This is ok, Jesus understands us.

(4) There is no need to spend a full 60 mins praying the Hour. Some of them are quite short.

The important part is to fuse with Him, and then united with, and in Him, repeat whatever He is doing at the time, with the same intentions of Jesus. Take your time and give it time. 

Perhaps you feel called to this very worthwhile undertaking and would like to unite with other Divine Will members throughout the world, helping to envelop it through prayer and reparation, whilst also keeping Jesus continuous company in His Passion through each person’s individual hour.  

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If you are interested in joining a clock, please contact me here

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If, after signing up, you do not receive a reply within a couple of days, please check your spam / junk mail (or promotions box if using gmail).

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