Divine Will
in
Practice
Book of Heaven Reflections
These are some reflections mostly on the references to the Passion from the Book of Heaven UPDATED 04/05/25
8. Peace is the springtime of the soul
Jesus to Luisa, ..."My daughter, ....Everything is peace in Me, therefore I do not tolerate in you even one shadow which may shade your soul. Peace is the springtime of the soul. All virtues bloom, grow and smile, like plants and flowers at the rays of the Sun in springtime, which dispose all things of nature to produce, each one, its own fruit. If it wasn’t for the Spring, which shakes the plants from the torpor of cold with its enchanting smile, and clothes the earth with a flowery mantle that calls everyone to admire it with its sweet enchantment, the earth would be horrid and the plants would end up withering.
So, peace is the Divine smile which shakes the soul from any torpor. Like celestial springtime, it shakes the soul from the cold of passions, of weaknesses, of thoughtlessness etc., and with its smile it makes all flowers bloom, more than in a flowery field, and it makes all plants grow, through which the Celestial Farmer is pleased to stroll and pick the fruits, to make of them His food. Therefore, the peaceful soul is my garden, in which I enjoy and amuse Myself. Peace is light, and everything that the soul thinks of, says and does, is light that she emanates; and the enemy cannot get close to her, because he feels struck, wounded and dazzled by this light, and is forced to flee so as not to be blinded. Peace is dominion, not only of oneself, but also of others. So, before a peaceful soul, all remain either conquered or confused and humiliated. Therefore, they either let themselves be dominated, remaining as friends, or they leave confused, unable to sustain the dignity, the imperturbability, the sweetness of a soul who possesses peace. Even the most perverted ones feel the power that she contains. This is why I glory so much in making Myself called God of peace - Prince of Peace. There is no peace without Me; I alone possess it and I give it to my children, as legitimate children who remain bound as heirs of all my goods.
The world, creatures, do not have this peace; and what is not possessed cannot be given. At the most they can give an apparent peace, which torments them inside - a false peace, which contains a poisonous sip within it; and this poison puts to sleep the remorse of conscience, and leads one to the kingdom of vice.
Therefore, true peace is I, and I want to conceal you in my peace, so that you may never be disturbed, and the shadow of my peace, like dazzling light, may keep far away from you anything or anyone who might shade your peace." Vol 13. December 18, 1921
Reflection:
The above excerpt from the Book of Heaven may bring us peace and perhaps may unsettle us at the same time. It may bring us peace when we look outward and in our dealings with others, but may unsettle us when we look inward, into our own hearts, into our fears, worries and regrets.
Surrendering whatever is going on in our lives to the Lord brings us into the Will of God, leading us to deeper trust in him, and into inner peace in knowing that He is in control.
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7. In sympathising with the Mother, one sympathises with Jesus. On Calvary, at the crucifixion, Luisa sees all generations in Jesus.
As the state of privation continued, this morning I seemed to see Him for a little while, together with the Queen Mother; and since adorable Jesus had the crown of thorns, I removed it from Him and I sympathised with Him thoroughly. While I was doing this, He told me: "Sympathise also with my Mother, because since the reason for Her sorrows is my suffering, in consoling Her, you console Me." After this, I seemed to find myself on mount Calvary, in the act of the crucifixion of Our Lord, and while He suffered the crucifixion, I could see – I don’t know how – all generations, past, present and future, in Jesus. And since Jesus had everyone within Himself, He felt all the offenses that each of us would give Him, and He suffered for all in general, and for each individual in particular, in such a way that I could see also my sins, and the pains that He suffered for me individually; and I could also see the remedy that He administered to us, with the exception of no one, for our evils and for our eternal salvation. Now, who can say all that I saw in blessed Jesus?: from the first to the last man.
Vol 4. April 5, 1901
Reflection:
As we enter into Holy Week and focus more deeply on the Passion, we see Jesus in the above excerpt informing Luisa that whatever she and we do to console the Blessed Mother, we also do it to Jesus.
Luisa then finds herself at the crucifixion and sees all generations, past, present and future in Jesus, i.e. the mystical body of Christ. She also sees the offenses each person would give Jesus, how He suffered for all in general and for each individual in particular. And also the remedies He administered to us all for our sins and for our eternal life.
The above few lines are something we need to consider very carefully. It’s very easy to go to confession and receive absolution without giving any real thought to the price Jesus paid for our salvation….. the sufferings He endured out of love for us… for you and for me.
We in response, and by fusing in Divine Will, can make reparation for our own sins and those of others by offering Jesus’ reparations to himself, and by using our own crosses as divine currency. We are also invited to go deeper and ponder on how our own sins have afflicted Jesus, on what part we played in his crucifixion, and on where we are at now on our earthly journey.
Perhaps this coming week we can ask ourselves does our life line up with Jesus’ life?
Do I think as He thinks, speak as He speaks and act as He acts?
Are there any areas of my life in which I am compromising?
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6. The new and continuous way to meditate the Passion.
I was doing the Hours of the Passion and Jesus, all pleased, told me: "My daughter, if you knew what great satisfaction I feel in seeing you repeating these Hours of my Passion - always repeating them, over and over again - you would be happy. It is true that my Saints have meditated on my Passion and have comprehended how much I suffered, melting in tears of compassion, so much so, as to feel consumed for love of my pains; but not in such a continuous way, and repeated many times in this order. Therefore I can say that you are the first one to give Me this pleasure, so great and special, as you keep fragmenting within you - hour by hour - my life and what I suffered. And I feel so drawn that, hour by hour, I give you this food and I eat the same food with you, doing what you do together with you. Know, however, that I will reward you abundantly with new light and new graces; and even after your death, each time souls on earth will do these Hours of my Passion, in Heaven I will clothe you with ever new light and glory." Vol 11. Nov 4, 1914
Reflection:
I love this excerpt from the Book of Heaven. What joy it gives when we realise the great satisfaction we can give to Jesus by him seeing us praying our Hours day-in day-out, on the days we find them easy, and also those in which we may be distracted with one thing or another.
He says to Luisa that she is the first one – by virtue of the gift of Divine Will – to pray continuously in this way. Even though we are following her lead, we also are first because each of us is different and give a response that is unique to us. As we meditate on the Hours in our own way, Jesus is drawn to us and shares his Will, giving us graces of new knowledges and truths.
The Lord is so pleased by us praying the Hours that He promises that even in heaven, we will continue to be clothed with new light and glory. Let us remember the many souls who tried to live in Divine Will and who are now with the Lord and are benefiting right now by us praying our Hours.
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5. How the Angels are around the soul who does the Hours of the Passion. These Hours are sweet little sips that souls give to Jesus.
I was doing the Hours of the Passion, and blessed Jesus told me: "My daughter, in the course of my mortal life, thousands and thousands of Angels were the cortege of my Humanity, gathering everything I did – my steps, my works, my words, and even my sighs, my pains, the drops of my Blood - in sum, everything. They were the Angels in charge of my custody, and of paying Me honour; obedient to my every wish, they would rise to and descend from Heaven, to bring to the Father what I was doing. Now these Angels have a special office, and as the soul remembers my Life, my Passion, my Blood, my wounds, my prayers, they come around this soul and gather her words, her prayers, her acts of compassion for Me, her tears and her offerings; they unite them to mine, and they bring them before my Majesty to renew for Me the glory of my own Life. The delight of the Angels is so great that, reverent, they listen to what the soul says, and pray together with her. So, with what attention and respect must the soul do these Hours, thinking that the Angels hang upon her lips to repeat after her what she says."
Then He added: "After the so many bitterness’s that creatures give Me, these Hours are sweet little sips that souls give Me; but for the many bitter sips I receive, the sweet ones are too few. Therefore, more diffusion, more diffusion!" Vol 11. Oct 13, 1916
Reflection:
In reading the above passage we can only try to imagine the number of angels surrounding Jesus. I am reminded of the apparition at Knock Shrine in Ireland with the angels flying up and down over the Lamb of God on the altar. ".... you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of man." John 1:51
We see here they have a special office in that when we pray the Hours of The Passion, they have the office of gathering our words, prayers, acts of compassion, our tears and offerings and uniting them to Jesus' Passion and then bringing them before his Majesty to renew the glory of his life. These angels seem to be the same ones who ministered to Jesus, seeing that they have a special office.
The angels cannot do this on their own because this grace was not given to them, they were sent to serve mankind, " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation." Heb 1:14
They were sent to serve us and it is important that we remember their presence and the joy we can give them when we are praying the Hours. They are listening to us and repeating what we say, and we in turn are invited to imitate them in their reverence and respect through our awareness of what we are actually doing in union with them.
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4. How crosses open the doors to new manifestations of the Divine Will.
"My daughter, my Will wants to give Itself to you more and more; and in order to give Itself more, It wants to make Itself understood more. And to render what it manifests to you, more stable safer, and more estimable, It gives you new pains, to dispose you more, and to prepare in you the void in which to place Its truths. It wants the noble courtship of pain in order to be sure about the soul, and to be able to trust her. It is always pain – it is crosses that open the doors to new manifestations, to more secret lessons, to the greatest gifts which I want to place in you. In fact, if the soul bears my Will, when It is suffering and sorrowful, with firmness, she will become capable of receiving my Will, when It brings happiness, and will acquire the intellect and the hearing in order to understand the new lessons of my Will. Pain will make her acquire the celestial language, in such a way that she will be able to repeat the lessons she has learned." Vol 17. June 25, 1925
Reflection:
I notice the word “more” is used 8 times in this short extract from the Book of Heaven. Jesus is explaining to Luisa (and to us also) that He always wants a deeper union with souls in as much as we are capable of responding to Him. In order for us to have a deeper union it is necessary that we understand the graces being offered in the Divine Will, and this spiritual growth naturally takes time. We need to understand Divine Will so that we will value and respect it more. For us to come to a stage of understanding it is necessary that we surrender our human wills and the means Jesus uses for us to get to this stage of surrendering is through sufferings and pain. Sufferings slow us from our busyness and help us to see and gain knowledge of what’s important. When we come to the stage of naturally surrendering our sufferings and trials to the Lord, we show that He can trust us and he can then use them to create a void in which to place the Divine Will truths. We need to be firm and constant whether we suffer or not and to grow into the habit of surrendering everything to the Lord, thereby allowing Him to fill us as He wishes and wills.
Lord, we ask you for the grace to see our sufferings and trials as coming from You. To accept them readily and to use them as Divine Currency and so allow You to fill us with new truths. Amen
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3. The Hours of the Passion are the very prayers of Jesus.
I was thinking about the Hours of the Passion, which have now been written, and how they are without any indulgence. So, those who do them gain nothing, while there are many prayers enriched with many indulgences. While I was thinking of this, my always lovable Jesus, all kindness, told me: "My daughter, through the prayers with indulgences one gains something, but the Hours of my Passion, which are my very prayers, my reparations, and all love, have come out of the very depth of my Heart. Have you perhaps forgotten how many times I have united Myself with you to do them together, and I have changed chastisements into graces over the whole earth? So, my satisfaction is such and so great, that instead of the indulgence, I give the soul a handful of love, which contains incalculable prices of infinite value. And besides, when things are done out of pure love, my love finds its outpouring, and it is not insignificant that the creature gives relief and outpouring to the love of the Creator." Vol 11, Sept 6, 1913
Reflection:
One sees in this short excerpt the difference between praying in our human will devotional way and praying in the Divine Will. One who does not understand Divine Will could presume that there in nothing to be gained - as in indulgences - from praying the Hours. Jesus however, reassures us in replying to Luisa that when we fuse with him, we are praying with his prayers and reparations which come out of the very depths of his Heart. While we may not seem to gain anything in a visible sense, we are allowing him to give vent to his love which He longs to pour into our receptive and appreciative hearts, and which contains incalculable and infinite value. Love lives by giving.
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2. The effectiveness of these Hours depends on whether the soul does them in union with Jesus and in His Will. How Jesus desires that souls do the Hours of the Passion.
I was writing the Hours of the Passion, and I thought to myself: ‘How many sacrifices in order to write these blessed Hours of the Passion, especially to put on paper certain interior acts which had passed only between me and Jesus. What will be the recompense that He will give to me?' And Jesus, letting me hear His tender and sweet voice, told me: "My daughter, as recompense for having written the Hours of my Passion, for each word you have written I will give you a kiss - a soul." And I: ‘My love, this is for me; and what will You give to those who will do them?' And Jesus: "If they do them together with Me and with my own Will, I will also give them a soul for each word they will recite, because the greater or lesser effectiveness of these Hours of my Passion is in the greater or lesser union that they have with Me. By doing them with my Will, the creature hides within my Volition, and since it is my Volition that acts, I can produce all the goods I want, even through one word alone; and this, for each time you will do them." Vol 11, Oct 1914
Reflection:
The thought that we may be saving a soul with each word we recite while fused in Divine Will and in union with Jesus is very appealing, and this may be foremost in many of our minds when we first start praying the Hours. It's great to realise you may be saving a soul with each word you recite.
However, in a deeper reading of what He says, we realise that the effectiveness of our prayers depends on the greater or lesser union we have with him. His Will acts within us when we fuse with him and so we need to come to the stage of remaining in union with him no matter what the outer circumstances of our lives are.
Being in union with Jesus means living in the present. If you can ask yourself at this moment where is your mind? Is it caught up in the past with you thinking of some regret or annoyance...., or is it in the future with you worrying about something? If either of these two scenarios resonate with you, decide to let them go now and bring your mind and heart back to the present moment, and back to Jesus.
Letting go of the past and the future takes time, but by trying to remain fused in Divine Will, and by doing our acts and rounds along with prayer and meditation of the volumes, will gradually draw us into a deeper union with Jesus. Union with Jesus brings peace.
If you find your peace disappearing, perhaps ask yourself where is your mind, what are you thinking about? It's either in the past or the future. Jesus is in the present.
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1. Everything that Jesus did and suffered is in continuous act of giving itself to man. All the remedies needed for the whole humanity are in His Life and Passion.
I was thinking about the Passion of my sweet Jesus, and upon coming, He told me: "My daughter, every time the soul thinks about my Passion, remembers what I suffered, or compassionates Me, she renews within herself the application of my pains. My Blood rises to inundate her, and my wounds place themselves on the path to heal her if she is wounded, or to embellish her if she is healthy - as well as my merits, to enrich her. The commerce she produces is amazing; it is as if she placed on a counter everything I did and suffered, earning twice as much. In fact, everything I did and suffered is in continuous act of giving itself to man, just as the Sun is in continuous act of giving light and heat to the earth. My work is not subject to exhaustion; if the soul just wants it so, and as many times as she wants, she receives the fruit of my Life. So, if she remembers my Passion twenty, a hundred, a thousand times, so many more times will she enjoy Its effects. But how few are those who make a treasure of it! With all the good of my Passion, one can see souls who are weak, blind, deaf, mute, crippled - living cadavers, such as to be disgusting. This, because my Passion is put into oblivion. Vol 13. Oct 21, 1921
Reflection:
In the above passage we read of Jesus telling Luisa that all we need for our lives is to be found in his life and Passion. That every time we think about his Passion, meditate on it or empathise with him, we renew within ourselves his merits. His blood washes us. His wounds heal us (spiritually), placing us in the eternal order of God, and from which our outer wounds will then also receive the intended effects (This takes time). And also if we are healthy that we will come to receive and experience new knowledges, graces and truths of his Divine Will. He says that the merits we can earn by remembering his life and Passion are twice as much as He earned.
This revelation alone should cause us to decide to increase our meditation of his Passion because He, like the sun is in a continuous act of giving to us. We in response by being fused in Divine Will and praying through Our Lady, in the name of all, past, present and future, should place the intention of wanting to remember him always, and ask her to dispose us to receive the fruits of his life and Passion through our meditations.