From the Calendar -- October 15, 1926 Volume 20

Then, I was thinking to myself: “In the ‘Our Father,’ Our Lord teaches us to say—to pray: ‘Your Will be done.’ Now, why does He say that He wants us to live in It?”

And Jesus, always benign, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, ‘Your Will be done’ that I taught in the ‘Our Father’ meant that all were to pray that they might at least do the Will of God. And this is for all Christians and for all times; nor can anyone call himself a Christian if he does not dispose himself to do the Will of his Celestial Father. But you have not thought of the other addition that comes immediately after: ‘On earth as It is in Heaven.’ ‘On earth as It is in Heaven’ means to live in the Divine Will; it means to pray that the Kingdom of My Will may come on earth in order to live in It.

“In Heaven, they not only do My Will, but they live in It—they possess It as their own thing, and as their own Kingdom. And if they did It, but did not possess It, their happiness would not be full, because true happiness begins in the depth of the soul. To do the Will of God does not mean to possess It, but to submit oneself to Its commands, while to live in It is possession. Therefore, in the ‘Our Father’, in the words ‘Your Will be done’ is the prayer that all may do the Supreme Will, and in ‘on earth as It is in Heaven,’ that man may return into that Will from which he came, in order to reacquire his happiness, the lost goods, and the possession of his Divine Kingdom.”

From the Calendar -- October 14, 1911 Volume 10

[Jesus speaking] “Oh! How scarce is the number of those who fuse their lives completely in Love! I recommend to you, My daughter—make known to everyone you can that everything is in Love—the necessity of Love—and that all that is not Love, be they even holy things, instead of making them walk forward, make them go backward. May your mission be to teach the true life of Love, in which there is all that is beautiful of creatures, and all that is most beautiful which they can give Me.”

From the Calendar -- October 13, 1921 Volume 13

[Jesus speaking] “You must know that I have manifested to you great things about My Will, which you have not yet chewed well and digested, in such a way as to take all the substance and form the whole mass of blood in your soul. One you have formed all the substance, I will come back again, and I will manifest to you other things, more sublime, about My Will. And as I wait for you to digest them well, I will keep you occupied with the other truths which belong to Me, so that, if creatures do not want to make use of the sea, of the sun of My Will in order to come to Me, they may use little fountains and channels to come to Me, and take for their own good the things that belong to Me.”

From the Calendar -- October 12, 1900 Volume 4

… After this, He [Jesus] assumed the appearance of the Crucified, He shared His pains with me, and said to me: “My daughter, the most powerful enemies of man are: the love of pleasures, of riches, and of honors. These enemies render man unhappy, because they penetrate even into his heart and consume him continuously; they embitter him, they bring him down so much, as to make him lose all happiness. And I, on Calvary, defeated these three enemies, and obtained for man the grace to conquer them too, giving back to him the lost happiness. But man, always ungrateful and heedless, rejects my grace and loves these enemies fiercely, which put the human heart in a continuous torture.” Having said this, He disappeared, and I comprehended with such clarity the truthfulness of these words, that I felt abhorrence and hate for these enemies. May the Lord be always blessed, and may everything be for His glory.”

From the Calendar -- October 11, 1901 Volume 4

[Jesus speaking] “My daughter, what a war is being nourished in the moral world—it is horrifying to see it! Yet, the first nourishment that should be sought in society, in families and by each soul, should be that of peace. All other nourishments become unhealthy without it—be they even virtues themselves; charity, repentance, without peace, they bring neither health nor true sanctity. Yet this nourishment so necessary and salutary has been discarded by today’s world, and they want nothing but turbulence and wars. My daughter, pray, pray.”

From the Calendar -- October 10, 1906 Volume 7

This morning blessed Jesus made Himself seen within a torrent of light, and creatures were inundated with this light, in such a way that all the human actions received the attitude of operating from this light. While I was seeing this, blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, I am concurring continuously in every slightest human action, be it even one thought, one breath, one movement. But creatures, not thinking about this attitude of Mine toward them, not only do they not do all their works for Me, from whom they receive the life of their very operating, but they attribute what they do to themselves. Oh! if only they thought about this continuous attitude of Mine toward them, they would not usurp what is Mine, to the detriment of My glory and of My good; while they should be doing everything for Me and give it to Me. Everything which is done for Me can enter into Me, and I keep it deposited within Myself to give it all to them in the next life. But everything which is not done for Me cannot enter into Me, because those are not works worthy of Me; on the contrary, I feel nausea for them and I reject them, even though there was My attitude.

From the Calendar -- October 9, 1921 Volume 13

… my lovable Jesus told me in my interior, “… But do you know why I called everyone and gave the lamb to all? Because I too wanted food from them. I wanted everything they would do to be food for Me. I wanted the food of their love, of their works, of their words—of everything.”

And I: “My Love, how can it be that our works become food for You?”

And Jesus: “It is not on bread alone that one can live, but on everything to which My Will gives virtue of making one live. If bread nourishes man, it is because I want it so. Now, whatever the creature disposes with her will to make of her work—that is the form which it assumes. If with her work she wants to form food for Me, she forms food for Me; if Love, she gives Me Love; if reparation, she forms reparation. And if in her will she wants to offend Me, she makes of her work the knife to wound Me, and maybe even to kill Me.”

From the Calendar -- October 8, 1931 Volume 29

My poor mind goes around the Sun of the Supreme Fiat, and I find It surrounded by all the works, sacrifices, pains, heroism, that all the Saints, ancient and new, have done; those of the Queen of Heaven, as well as what Blessed Jesus has done for love of us. The Divine Will preserves everything; It having been the Prime Actor of all the good acts of creatures, It keeps them jealously, It holds them in deposit within Itself, and It uses them to glorify Itself and to glorify those who did them. And I, seeing that everything belonged to the Will of God—since It is also mine, everything was mine; and going around in each act, I offered them as mine to glorify more the Eternal Volition, and to impetrate the coming of Its Kingdom upon earth.

But while I was doing this, my always lovable Jesus, surprising me, told me: “My daughter, listen to the admirable secrets of My Will: if the creature wants to find everything that, beautiful, good and holy, has been done in the whole history of the world by Me, by the Celestial Mama, and by all the Saints, she must enter into the Divine Will—in It everything is to be found in act. As you were paying attention to each act, remembering it, offering it, the Saint who had done that act, that sacrifice, felt called by the pilgrim soul, and saw his act palpitating again on earth, and therefore, doubled the glory to his Creator and to himself; and you, who were offering it, covered by the celestial dew of the good of that holy act. And according to the purpose, noble and high, with which it is offered, more intense and great is the glory and the good it produces.

“How many riches does My Will possess! There are all My Acts, those of the Sovereign Queen, that are all waiting to be called, remembered, offered by the creature in order to duplicate the good for the benefit of creatures, and to give Us double glory. …”

From the Calendar -- October 7, 1934 Volume 33

Jesus speaking:

“There is no greater happiness for the creature than being able to say, and be certain of, being Loved by God. And there is no greater happiness for Us than being Loved by one who was created by Us only in order to love Us and to complete Our Will. Now the creature, while she finds herself in her Creator, would want that everyone would love Him, that they would recognize Him. And in virtue of the Divine Fiat with which she is animated, she wants to make arise and call again all the acts of creatures in God in order to tell Him: 'I give You everything, and I love You for everyone.’ Therefore together with the Divine Volition she makes herself the thought of every intelligence, the look of every eye, the word of every voice, the heartbeat of every heart, the motion of every work, the step of every foot. What thing does the one who Lives in My Will not want to give Me? Everything and everyone.”

From the Calendar -- October 6, 1927, Volume 23

”My daughter, just as My Divine Will is spread in all Creation, so do I want to find you, united with It, in all created things, as though spread within each of them. You will be the heart of the earth, that I may find your life palpitating within it, attesting to Me, with its continuous heartbeat, and in its continuous murmuring, praising Me, adoring Me, thanking Me; and giving Me smacking kisses, affectionate and pure, in the darting of the fish, for yourself and for those who cross the sea. You will be the arms of the sun, so that, as you extend and expand within its light, everywhere I may feel your arms embracing Me and clasping Me tightly to tell Me that it is Me alone that you seek, it is Me alone that you want and love. You will be the feet of the wind, to run after Me and let Me hear the sweet treading of your steps, that never stop running, even if you do not find Me.

“I am not content if I do not find My little daughter in all the things created by Me for love of her. I ask all Creation: ‘Is the little daughter of My Will there? For I want to enjoy her and be with her.’ And if I do not find you, I lose My enjoyment and My sweet amusement.”

Volume 26 August 7, 1929

“Now, when the knowledges about My Fiat will make their way, disposing those who will have the good of knowing them, My more than paternal Goodness, in order to show the excess of My Love, will place My very Humanity, all the good I did, in each creature, at her disposal, in a way that they will feel such strength and grace as to let themselves be dominated by My Divine Will. And My Humanity will be in the midst of the children of My Kingdom, like Heart in their midst, for the decorum and the honor of My Fiat, and as antidote, grace and defense from all the evils that the human will has produced. The ardor of My Love that wants It to reign is such and so great, that I will perform such excesses of love as to win the most rebellious wills.”

Christmas Novena

The Nine Excesses of Love in the Incarnation of the Word

by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will 

...I also tell you that in reading the nine Exercises of Christmas ... one remains astounded at the immense Love and the immense suffering of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ for love of us, and for the salvation of souls. I have never read in any other book on this topic a Revelation so touching and penetrating!”

—St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, Feb. 14, 1927

“With a Novena of Holy Christmas, at the age of about seventeen, I prepared myself for the Feast of Holy Christmas, by practicing various acts of virtue and mortification; and, especially, by honoring the nine months which Jesus spent in the maternal womb with nine hours of meditation each day, always concerning the mystery of the Incarnation.” 

—Luisa Piccarreta

First Excess of Love

As for example, for one hour, with my thought, I brought myself to Paradise, and I imagined the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, sending the Son upon earth; the Son, promptly obeying the Will of the Father; the Holy Spirit, consenting. 

My mind was confused in contemplating a mystery so great, a love so reciprocal, so equal, so strong among Themselves and toward men; and then, the ingratitude of men, and especially my own. I would have remained there, not for one hour, but for the whole day; but an interior voice told me: “Enough – come and see other greater excesses of my love.” 

Second Excess of Love

Then, my mind brought itself into the maternal womb, and remained stupefied in considering a God so great in Heaven, now so annihilated, restricted, constrained, as to be unable to move, and almost even to breathe. 

The interior voice told me: “Do you see how much I have loved you? O please, make Me a little space in your heart; remove everything which is not Mine, so you will give Me more freedom to move and to breathe.” 

My heart was consumed; I asked for His forgiveness, I promised to be completely His own, I poured myself out in crying; but – I say this to my confusion – I would go back to my usual defects. Oh Jesus, how good You are with this miserable creature! 

Third Excess of Love

As I moved on from the second to the third meditation, an interior voice told me: “My daughter, place your head upon the womb of my Mama, and look deep into it at my little Humanity. My love devoured Me; the fires, the oceans, the immense seas of love of my Divinity inundated Me, burned Me to ashes, and sent their flames so high as to rise and reach everywhere – all generations, from the first to the last man. My little Humanity was devoured in the midst of such flames; but do you know what my eternal love wants Me to devour? Ah! Souls! And only then was I content, when I devoured them all, to remain conceived with Me. I was God, and I was to operate as God – I had to take them all. My love would have given Me no peace, had I excluded any of them. Ah! My daughter, look well into the womb of my Mama; fix well your eyes on my conceived Humanity, and you will find your soul conceived with Me, and the flames of my love that devour you. Oh! How much I loved you, and I do love you!” 

I felt dissolved in the midst of so much love, nor was I able to go out of it; but a voice called me loudly, saying: “My daughter, this is nothing yet; cling more tightly to Me, and give your hands to my dear Mama, that She may hold you to her maternal womb. And you, take another look at my little conceived Humanity, and watch the fourth excess of my love.” 

Fourth Excess of Love

“My daughter, from the devouring love, move on to look at my operative love. Each conceived soul brought Me the burden of her sins, of her weaknesses and passions, and my love commanded Me to take the burden of each one of them. And it conceived not only the souls, but the pains of each one, as well as the satisfaction which each one of them was to give to my Celestial Father. So my Passion was conceived together with Me. Look well at Me in the womb of my Celestial Mama. Oh! How tortured was my little Humanity. Look well at my little head, surrounded by a crown of thorns, which, pressed tightly around my temples, made rivers of tears pour out from my eyes; nor was I able to make a move to dry them. O Please! Be moved to compassion for Me, dry my eyes from so much crying – you, who have free arms to be able to do it. These thorns are the crown of the so many evil thoughts which crowd the human minds. Oh! How they prick Me, more than thorns which sprout from the earth. But, look again – what a long crucifixion of nine months: I could not move a finger or a hand or a foot. I was always immobile; there was no room to be able to move even a tiny bit. What a long and hard crucifixion, with the addition that all evil works, assuming the form of nails, continuously pierced my hands and feet.” So He continued to narrate to me pains upon pains – all the martyrdoms of His little Humanity, such that, if I wanted to tell them all, I would be too long. 

I abandoned myself to crying, and I heard in my interior: “My daughter, I would like to hug you, but I am unable to do so – there is no room, I am immobile, I cannot do it. I would like to come to you, but I am unable to walk. For now, you hug Me and you come to Me; then, when I come out of the maternal womb, I will come to you.” But as I hugged Him and squeezed Him tightly to my heart with my imagination, an interior voice told me: “Enough for now, my daughter; move on to consider the fifth excess of my love.” 

Fifth Excess of Love

And the interior voice continued: “My daughter, do not move away from Me, do not leave Me alone; my love wants your company. This is another excess of my love, which does not want to be alone. But do you know whose company it wants? That of the creature. See, in the womb of my Mama, all of the creatures are together with Me – conceived together with Me. I am with them, all love. I want to tell them how much I love them; I want to speak with them to tell them of my joys and sorrows – that I have come into their midst to make them happy and to console them; that I will remain in their midst as a little brother, giving my goods, my kingdom, to each one of them at the cost of my life. I want to give them my kisses and my caresses. I want to amuse myself with them, but – ah, how many sorrows they give Me! Some run away from Me, some play deaf and force Me into silence; some despise my goods and do not care about my kingdom, returning my kisses and caresses with indifference and obliviousness of Me, so they convert my amusement into bitter crying. Oh! How lonely I am, though in the midst of many. Oh! How loneliness weighs upon Me. I have no one to whom to say a word, with whom to pour Myself out, not even in love. I am always sad and taciturn, because if I speak, I am not listened to. Ah! My daughter, I beg you, I implore you, do not leave Me alone in so much loneliness; give Me the good of letting Me speak by listening to Me; lend your ear to my teachings. I am the master of masters. How many things do I want to teach you! If you listen to Me, you will stop my crying and I will amuse Myself with you. Don’t you want to amuse yourself with Me?” 

And as I abandoned myself in Him, giving Him my compassion in His loneliness, the interior voice continued: “Enough, enough; move on to consider the sixth excess of my love.” 

Sixth Excess of Love

“My daughter, come, pray my dear Mama to set aside a little space for you with- in her maternal womb, that you yourself may see the painful state in which I find Myself.” So, in my thoughts, it seemed that our Queen Mama made me a little room to make Jesus content, and placed me in it. But the darkness was such that I could not see Him; I could only hear His breathing, while He continued to say in my interior: “My daughter, look at another excess of my love. I am the eternal light; the sun is a shadow of my light. But do you see where my love led Me – in what a dark prison I am? There is not a glimmer of light; it is always night for Me – but a night without stars, without rest. I am always awake...what pain! The narrowness of this prison – without being able to make the slightest movement; the thick darkness...; even my breathing, as I breathe through the breathing of my Mama – oh, how labored it is! To this, add the darkness of the sins of creatures. Each sin was a night for Me, and combined together they formed an abyss of darkness, with no boundaries. What pain! Oh, excess of my love – making Me pass from an immensity of light and space into an abyss of thick darkness, so narrow as to lose the freedom to breathe; and all this, for love of creatures.” 

As He was saying this, He moaned – moans almost suffocated because of the lack of space; and He cried. I was consumed with crying. I thanked Him, I compassionated Him; I wanted to make Him a little light with my love, as He told me to. But who can say all? Then, the same interior voice added: “Enough for now; move on to the seventh excess of my love.” 

Seventh Excess of Love

The interior voice continued: “My daughter, do not leave Me alone in so much loneliness and in so much darkness. Do not leave the womb of my Mama, so you may see the seventh excess of my love. Listen to Me: in the womb of my Celestial Father I was fully happy; there was no good which I did not possess; joy, happiness – everything was at my disposal. The angels adored Me reverent- ly, hanging upon my every wish. Ah, excess of my love! I could say that it made Me change my destiny; it restrained Me within this gloomy prison; it stripped Me of all my joys, happinesses and goods, to clothe Me with all the un- happinesses of creatures – and all this in order to make an exchange, to give them my destiny, my joys and my eternal happiness. But this would have been nothing had I not found in them highest ingratitude and obstinate perfidy. Oh, how my eternal love was surprised in the face of so much ingratitude, and how it cried over the stubbornness and perfidy of man. Ingratitude was the sharpest thorn that pierced my heart, from my conception up to the last moment of my life. Look at my little heart – it is wounded, and pours out blood. What pain! What torture I feel! My daughter, do not be ungrateful to Me. Ingratitude is the hardest pain for your Jesus – it is to close the door in my face, leaving Me numb with cold. But my love did not stop at so much ingratitude; it took the attitude of supplicating, imploring, moaning and begging love. This is the eighth excess of my love.” 

Eighth Excess of Love

“My daughter, do not leave Me alone; place your head upon the womb of my dear Mama, and even from the outside you will hear my moans and my supplica- tions. In seeing that neither my moans nor my supplications move the creature to compassion for my love, I assume the attitude of the poorest of beggars; and stretching out my little hand, I ask – for pity’s sake, and at least as alms – for their souls, for their affections and for their hearts. My love wanted to win over the heart of man at any cost; and in seeing that after seven excesses of my love, he was still reluctant, he played deaf, he did not care about Me and did not want to give himself to Me, my love wanted to push itself further. It should have stopped; but no, it wanted to overflow even more from within its boundaries; and from the womb of my Mama, it made my voice reach every heart, with the most insinuating manners, with the most fervent prayers, with the most penetrating words. And do you know what I said to them? ‘My child, give me your heart; I will give you everything you want, provided that you give Me your heart in exchange. I have descended from Heaven to make a prey of it. O please, do not deny it to Me! Do not delude my hopes!’ And in seeing him reluctant – even more, many turned their backs to Me – I passed on to moaning; I joined my little hands and, crying, with a voice suffocated by sobs, I added: ‘Ohh! Ohh! I am the little beggar; you don’t want to give Me your heart – not even as alms? 

Is this not a greater excess of my love; that the Creator, in order to approach the creature, takes the form of a little baby so as not to strike fear in him; that He asks for the heart of the creature, at least as alms, and in seeing that he does not want to give it, He supplicates, moans and cries?” 

Then I heard Him say: “And you, don’t you want to give Me your heart? Or maybe you too want Me to moan, beg and cry in order to give Me your heart? Do you want to deny Me the alms I ask of you?” And as He was saying this I heard Him as though sobbing, and I: ‘My Jesus, do not cry, I give You my heart and all of myself.’ Then, the interior voice continued: “Move further; pass on to the ninth excess of my love.” 

Ninth Excess of Love

“My daughter, my state is ever more painful. If you love Me, keep your gaze fixed on Me, to see if you can offer some relief to your Jesus; a little word of love, a caress, a kiss, will give respite to my crying and to my afflictions. Listen my daughter, after I gave eight excesses of my love, and man requited them so badly, my love did not give up and wanted to add the ninth excess to the eighth. And this was yearnings, sighs of fire, flames of desire, for I wanted to go out of the maternal womb to embrace man. This reduced my little Humanity, not yet born, to such an agony as to reach the point of breathing my last. But as I was about to breathe my last, my Divinity, which was inseparable from Me, gave Me sips of life, and so I regained life to continue my agony, and return again to the point of death. This was the ninth excess of my love: to agonize and to die of love continuously for the creature. Oh! What a long agony of nine months! Oh! How love suffocated Me and made Me die. Had I not had the Divinity with Me, which gave Me life again every time I was about to finish, love would have consumed Me before coming out to the light of day.” 

Then He added: “Look at Me, listen to Me, how I agonize, how my heart beats, pants, burns. Look at Me – now I die.” And He remained in deep silence. I felt like dying. My blood froze in my veins, and trembling, I said to Him: ‘My Love, my Life, do not die, do not leave me alone. You want love, and I will love You; I will not leave You ever again. Give me your flames to be able to love You more, and be consumed completely for You.’ 

The Birth of Jesus
December 25, 1900 Volume 4 

As I was in my usual state, I felt I was outside of myself; after wandering around, I found myself inside a cave, and I saw the Queen Mama in the act of giving birth to Little Baby Jesus. What a wonderful prodigy! It seemed that both Mother and Son were transmuted into most pure light. But in that light one could see very well the human nature of Jesus containing the Divinity with- in Itself, and serving as a veil to cover the Divinity; in such a way that, in tearing the veil of human nature, He was God, while covered by that veil, He was Man. Here is the prodigy of prodigies: God and Man, Man and God! Without leaving the Father and the Holy Spirit – because true love never separates – He comes to dwell in our midst, taking on human flesh. Now, it seemed to me that Mother and Son, in that most happy instant, remained as though spiritualized, and without the slightest difficulty Jesus came out of the Maternal womb, while both of them overflowed with excess of Love. In other words, those Most Pure Bodies were transformed into Light, and without the slightest impediment, Light Jesus came out of the Light of the Mother, while both One and the Other remained whole and intact, returning, then, to their natural state. 

Who can tell the beauty of the Little Baby who, at the moment of His birth, transfused, also externally, the rays of the Divinity? Who can tell the beauty of the Mother, who remained all absorbed in those Divine rays? And Saint Joseph? It seemed to me that he was not present at the act of the birth, but remained in another corner of the cave, all engrossed in that profound Mystery. And if he did not see with the eyes of the body, he saw very well with the eyes of the soul, because he remained enraptured in sublime ecstasy. 

Now, in the act in which the Little Baby came out to the light, I had wanted to fly and take Him in my arms, but the Angels prevented me, saying that the hon- or of holding Him first belonged to the Mother. Then, the Most Holy Virgin, as though stirred, returned into Herself and from the hands of an Angel received Her Son in Her arms. In Her ardor of love, She squeezed Him so tightly that it seemed that She wanted to draw Him into Her womb again. Then, wanting to let Her ardent love pour out, She placed Him at Her breast to suckle. In the meantime, I was completely annihilated, waiting to be called so as not to be scolded again by the Angels. Then the Queen said to me: “Come, come and take your Beloved, and you too, enjoy Him – pour out your love with Him.” As She was saying this, I drew near Mama, and She gave Him to me, into my arms. Who can say my contentment, the kisses, the squeezes, the tendernesses? After I poured myself out a little, I said to Him: ‘My beloved, You have suckled the milk of our Mama, share it with me.’ And He, all condescending, poured part of that milk from His mouth into mine, and then He told me: “My beloved, I was conceived united to suffering, I was born to suffering, and I died in suffering. And with the three nails with which they crucified Me, I nailed the three powers – intellect, memory and will – of those souls who yearn to love Me, keeping them all drawn to Myself, because sin had rendered them infirm and dispersed from their Creator – without any restraint.” As He was saying this, He gazed at the world and began to cry over its miseries. On seeing Him cry, I said: ‘Lovable Baby, do not sadden with your tears a night so happy for one who loves you. Instead of pouring ourselves out in crying, let us pour ourselves out in singing’; and as I said this, I began to sing. Jesus was amused at hearing me sing, and He stopped crying; and completing my verse, He sang His own, with a voice so powerful and harmonious that all other voices disappeared at the sound of His most sweet voice....