The Book of Joshua and Luisa

 

June 14, 2018 – Liturgy of Hours First Reading – Joshua 5:13 – 6:21

The most powerful enemy city is destroyed

When Joshua was near Jericho, he raised his eyes and saw a man standing there before him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, ‘Are you with us or with our enemies?’ He answered, ‘No, I am captain of the army of the Lord, and now I come…’. Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped him and said, ‘What are my Lord’s commands to his servant?’ The captain of the army of the Lord answered Joshua, ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy.’ And Joshua obeyed.  (obedience)

  Now Jericho had been carefully barricaded against the Israelites; no one came out, no one went in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Now I am delivering Jericho and its king into your hands. All you fighters, valiant warriors, will march round the town and make the circuit once, and for six days you will do the same thing. But seven priests will carry seven trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day you will go seven times round the town and the priests will blow their trumpets. When the ram’s horn rings out (The shofar, made of rams  horn is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the very end of Yom Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah), when you hear the sound of the trumpet, the whole people must utter a mighty war cry and the town wall will collapse then and there; then the people can storm the town, each man going straight ahead.’

  Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests are to carry seven trumpets of ram’s horn in front of the ark of the Lord (carried the ten Commandments in it).  He said to the people, ‘Forward! March round the town and let the vanguard march before the ark of the Lord.’ All was done as Joshua ordered the people. Seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram’s horn in front of the Lord moved onwards and blew their trumpets; the ark of the covenant of the Lord came behind them, the vanguard marched in front of the priests with their trumpets, the rearguard followed behind the ark; the men marched, the trumpets sounded.

  Joshua had given the people the following order: ‘Do not shout, do not utter even a word; let nothing be heard from you till the day when I say: Raise the war cry. Then you are to shout.’

  At Joshua’s command, the ark of the Lord went round the town and made the circuit once; then they returned to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua rose early and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Bearing the seven ram’s horn trumpets, the seven priests walked before the ark of the Lord sounding their trumpets as they went, while the vanguard marched before them and the rearguard behind the ark of the Lord, and the march went on to the sound of the trumpet.

  They marched once round the town on the second day and returned to the camp, and so on for six days. On the seventh day they rose at dawn and marched seven times round the town in the same manner. Only on that day did they march round seven times. At the seventh time the priests blew their trumpets (the number seven denotes completeness or perfection) and Joshua said to the people, ‘Raise the war cry, because the Lord has given the town into your hands.

  ‘The town and everything inside it must be set apart for the Lord under a ban; only the life of Rahab the harlot is to be spared, with all who are in her house, since she hid the messengers we sent. But beware of the ban yourselves; do not be covetous and take anything that is under the ban; that would lay the whole camp of Israel open to the same ban and bring disaster on it. All the silver and all the gold, all the things of bronze and things of iron are consecrated to the Lord and must be put into his treasury.’

  The people shouted, the trumpets sounded. When they heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a mighty war cry and the wall collapsed then and there. At once the people stormed the town, every man going straight ahead; and they captured the town. They enforced the ban on everything in the town: men and women, young and old, even the oxen and sheep and donkeys, massacring them all.

“the wall will collapse” -  

Luisa:  “I could see my littleness, the nonentity of my being, and I was stunned at how daring I had been, wondering from where had I taken that courage to offend a God so good, who, in the very act in which I was offending Him, assisted me, preserved me, nourished me. And if He had any rancor with me, it was for the sin I committed, which He greatly hated, while He loved me immensely, He excused me before divine justice, and was all occupied with removing that wall of division between the soul and God, which sin had produced. Oh! if all could see who God is, and who the soul is in the act of sinning, they would all die of sorrow, and I believe that sin would be exiled from the earth.”  Vol. 1

“the ark”

“…the fugitives drew around Me, surrounding Me like a crown; and with tears and sighs, they asked for my forgiveness for they had so cravenly abandoned their Master, and had run away from Him. I welcomed them maternally in the ark of refuge and salvation of my Heart; I assured all of them of the forgiveness of my Son, and I encouraged them not to fear. I said to them that their destiny was in my hands, because He had given them all to Me as my children, and I recognized them as such.  (The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will)

 “the sound of the trumpet” -  

“See now, how necessary it is that my Will be known in all relations - in the prodigies, in the effects, in the value - what I did in this Will for the creatures, and what they must do. And this will be a powerful magnet in order to draw creatures, to make them receive the inheritance of my Will, and make the generation of the children of light come out into the field. Be attentive, my daughter; you will be my  spokesperson - the trumpet, to call them and to gather this generation, so beloved and longed for by Me.”  Book of Heaven, Oct. 27, 1922

“This is why many times I have recommended to you that you omit to write nothing of what regards my Will – because knowledge is the way, and its light serves as trumpet to call those who are listening, to make itself heard; and the more the trumpet sounds – and it sounds more for as many more knowledges as it has, to be manifested – the more people will rush up. Knowledge takes the attitude now of pulpit, now of teacher, now of compassionate father and excessive lover; in sum, it has all the ways in its power in order to enter the hearts, to conquer them and to triumph in everything. And the more knowledges it contains, the more ways it has in its power.”  Book of Heaven, January 23, 1924

“All the silver and all the gold, all the things of bronze and things of iron” – 

“Now, you must know that my Will is most pure gold; and so that the thread of your will may become most pure gold - in such a way that, as the thread of your will is braided with Mine, one would not be able to distinguish which one is yours and which one is Mine - it takes only sacrifice and pains. Consuming the thread of your human will, they substitute it with the golden divine thread which, identifying itself with mine, forms one single thread, and braiding the whole great wheel of Eternity, extends everywhere and finds itself in every place. But if my Will is gold and yours is iron, you will remain behind, and Mine will not lower Itself to be braided with yours. If you take two objects of gold, though each one may have its own different shape, by melting them, you will be able to form one single object, and would no longer be able to distinguish the gold of one from that of the other. But if one object is of gold and the other of iron, one will not stick to the other, and it will be impossible to form one single object of gold. So, only sacrifice changes the nature of the human will.”  Book of Heaven, Aug. 12, 1922

St. Michael the Archangel

“..saw a man standing there before him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, ‘Are you with us or with our enemies?’ He answered, ‘No, I am captain of the army of the Lord, and now I come…’”

“My beloved, the most pleasing and most consoling words for my Mother are: ‘Dominus Tecum’ [‘The Lord is with Thee’]. In fact, as soon as they were pronounced by the Archangel, She felt the whole of the Divine Being being communicated to Her, and therefore She felt invested with divine Power, in such a way that, in the face of the divine Power, Her own dissolved; and so my Mother remained with the divine Power in Her hands.”   Jan. 10, 1903

Luisa’s prayer: Archangel Saint Michael, defend me from the infernal enemy, who puts so many obstacles in my mind to make me fail this obedience. Archangel Saint Rafael, and you, my guardian Angel, come to assist me and to accompany me, to direct my hand, that I may write the truth alone.

L. Bauer, JMJ -  June 14, 2018

DIVINE WILL AND DIVINE MERCY

 Divine Will and Divine Mercy

DIVINE WILL (BOOK OF HEAVEN)

AND DIVINE MERCY (DIARY OF ST. FAUSTINA)

Divine Will – Luisa Piccarreta was born on April 23, 1865, (the Sunday after Easter Divine Mercy Sunday).    A few hours after Luisa’s birth, her father wrapped her in a blanket and took her to the main church for Baptism.

Divine Mercy  - Jesus to St. Faustina, “I desire that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy.  (Diary #299)  (On Luisa’s birthday of April 23, Pope John Paul II solemnly instituted the Universal Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday)

Divine Will – Luisa, having accepted the role of victim soul, came to experience a most peculiar condition: every morning she found herself rigid, immobile, huddled up in bed, and no one could move her because of her weight, as if she were a large piece of lead, nor could they stretch any of her members.  Her arms, head and legs were strongly stiffened and no one was able to stretch her out.  Her body assumed a rock-like hardness.  Her tiny frame grew so heavy that no one could lift it.  In this death-like state, Luisa was totally paralyzed.  It required the presence of a Priest who, by blessing her with the sign of the Cross with his thumb on the back of her hands, reciting at the same time the Trisagion prayer of the Byzantine liturgy, “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy on us.”  This would dispel the corpse like rigidity and Luisa could then be moved into a sitting position.  

Divine Mercy – Jesus to St. Faustina, “This prayer will serve to appease My wrath.  You will recite it for nine days, on the beads of the Rosary, in the following manner:  First of all, you will say one Our Father and Hail Mary and the I Believe in God.  Then on the Our Father beads, you will say the following words:  ‘Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son Our Lord Jesus Christ , in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.’  On the Hail Mary beads you will say the following words:  ‘For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’  In conclusion, three times you will recite these words, ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.’” (Diary  #476)

God’s Mercy

Divine Will  - Continuing in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, and I saw a multitude of people, and in their midst one could hear noises of bombs and gun shots. People were dropping dead or wounded, and those who were left would flee up to a palace nearby; but the enemies would go up there and kill them, more surely than those who remained outside. So I said to myself: ‘How I wish I could see whether the Lord is there in the midst of these people, so as to say to Him: ‘Have mercy – pity on these poor people!’ So I went round and round and I saw Him as a little Child; but little by little He kept growing, until He reached the perfect age. I drew near Him and I said: ‘Amiable Lord, don’t You see the tragedy that is happening? You don’t want to make use of mercy anymore? Do You perhaps want to keep this attribute as useless, which has always glorified your Incarnate Divinity with so much honor, forming a special crown on your august head, and bejeweling You with a second crown, so wanted and loved by You - which is souls?’  Now, while I was saying this, He told me: ‘Enough, enough, do not go any further; you want to speak of Mercy, and what about Justice – what are we going to do with It? I have told you and I repeat to you: ‘It is necessary that Justice follow Its course’.” So I replied: ‘There is no remedy - why then leave me on this earth when I can no longer placate You and suffer in the place of my neighbor? Since it is so, it is better if You let me die.’ At that moment I saw another person behind the shoulders of blessed Jesus, and He told me, almost making a sign with His eyes: “Present yourself to my Father and see what He tells you.’ I presented myself, all trembling, and as soon as He saw me, He told me: “Why have you come to Me?” And I: ‘Adorable Goodness, infinite Mercy, knowing that You are Mercy Itself, I have come to ask for your Mercy – Mercy on your very images, Mercy on the works created by You; Mercy on nothing else but your creatures themselves.’ And He said to me: “So, it is Mercy that you want. But if you want true Mercy, after Justice has poured Itself out It will produce abundant fruits of Mercy.” (Vol. 6, April 16, 1904)

Divine Mercy – In answer to Luisa’s request for Mercy, St. Mary Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament was born the following year on August 25, 1905.

Food of the Divine Will

Divine Will – The Archbishop, Giuseppe Bianchi Dottula (Dec. 22, 1848 – Sept. 22, 1892) came to know of what was happening in Corato.  He delegated to Luisa a special confessor, Fr. Michele De Benedictis.  Fr. De Benedictis ordered Luisa to eat at least once a day, even if she immediately threw up everything she had swallowed.  Luisa was to live on the Divine Will alone.  It was under this Priest that she received permission to stay in bed all the time as a victim of expiation.  

Divine Mercy – St. Faustina “Jesus-Host, whom I have this very moment received into my heart, through this union with You, I offer myself to the Heavenly Father as a sacrificial host, abandoning myself totally and completely to the most merciful and holy will of my God.  From today onward, Your Will, Lord, is my food.  Whatever Your Fatherly hand gives me, I will accept with submission, peace and joy.”  (Diary #1264)

Trust

Divine Will – Continuing in my usual state, as soon as blessed Jesus came, He told me:  My daughter, the souls who will shine the most, like bright gems in the crown of my Divine Mercy, are the souls who have more trust, because the more trust they have, the more they give space for the attribute of my Mercy to pour into them any grace they want. On the other hand, the soul who does not have true trust herself, closes the graces within Me remaining always poor and unequipped, while my love remains constrained within Me, and I suffer very much. And in order not to suffer so much, and to be able to pour out my love more freely, I deal more with those souls who trust than with the others. With these I can pour out my love, I can play, I can cause loving contrasts, since there is no worry that they might take offense or become fearful; on the contrary, they become more brave and take everything in order to love Me more. Therefore, trusting souls are the outpouring and the amusement of my love, the ones who receive more graces, and the richest.”    (Volume 11, April 10, 1912)

Divine Mercy – “When you say this prayer with a contrite heart and with faith on behalf of some sinner, I will give him the grace of conversion.  This is the prayer: O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You.”  ( Diary, #186-187)

“My Heart rejoices in this title of Mercy.”  (Diary, #300)  Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God.  All the works of My Hands are crowned with mercy.”  (Diary, #301)

FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING – KING OF MERCY

Divine Will – I was thinking about today’s Feast – that is, the Feast of Christ the King; and my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me:  “My daughter, the Church does nothing but intuitively grasp what She must know on my Divine Will and how Its Kingdom must come.  Therefore, this Feast is the prelude of the Kingdom of my Divine Fiat. Indeed, the Church is doing nothing other than honoring my Humanity with those titles which, by right, are due to It; and when She has given Me all the honors that befit Me, She will move on to honor and to institute the Feast to the Kingdom of my Divine Will, by which my Humanity was animated. The Church proceeds step by step, and now She institutes the Feast to my Heart, now She consecrates the century, in all solemnity, to Christ the Redeemer, and now She moves on, with greater solemnity, to institute the Feast to Christ the King. Christ the King means that He must have His Kingdom, He must have peoples worthy of such a King. And who will ever be able to form for Me this Kingdom if not my Will? Then, yes, will I be able to say: ‘I have my people – my Fiat has formed it for Me.’ Oh! if the leaders of the Church knew what I have manifested to you about my Divine Will, what I want to do, Its great prodigies, my yearnings, my sorrowful heartbeats, my anguishing sighs, for I want my Will to reign, to make everyone happy, to restore the human family - they would feel that in this Feast of Christ the King is nothing other than the secret echo of my Heart which, echoing in them, without their knowing it, has them institute for Me the Feast of Christ the King in order to call their attention and reflection. ‘Christ the King…. And His true people – where are they?’ And they would say: ‘Let us hasten to make His Divine Will known; let us let It reign, that we may give a people to Christ the King, whom we have called so. Otherwise, we have honored Him with words, but not with facts’.”  (Vol. 25, 10/28/1928)

Divine Will – In 1994, on the day of the Feast of Christ the King, in the main Church, Archbishop Carmelo Cassati, in the presence of a large crowd, including foreign representatives, officially opened the beautification cause of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta.

Divine Mercy – “Write this:  before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy.”

(Diary, #83, told to St. Faustina in 1934)

REFLECTION OF GOD

Divine Will – Continuing in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus came, and placing His holy hand under my chin, He told me:  “My daughter, you are the reflection of my Glory.”  Then He added:  In the world I need mirrors to which to go and look at Myself.  Only then can a fount serve as mirror in which people can reflect themselves, when the fount is pure; but it is of no use for the fount to be pure if the waters are cloudy.” (Vol. 10, Feb. 3, 1912)

Divine Mercy – “O Most Holy Trinity!  As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy.  I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord.”

(Diary, #163)

EFFECTS OF MEDITATING CONTINUOUSLY ON THE PASSION

Divine Will – Finding myself in my usual state, I was thinking about the Passion of Our Lord, and while I was doing this, He came and told me:  “My daughter, one who meditates continuously on my Passion and feels sorrow for it and compassion for Me, pleases Me so much that I feel as though comforted for all that I suffered in the course of my Passion, and by always meditating on it, the soul arrives at preparing a continuous food.”  (Vol. 7, Nov. 9, 1906)

Divine Mercy – “Jesus told me that I please Him best by meditating on His sorrowful Passion and by such meditation, much light falls upon my soul.  He who wants to learn true humility should reflect upon the Passion of Jesus.”  (Diary, #267)

“My daughter, meditate frequently on the sufferings which I have undergone for your sake, and then nothing of what you suffer for Me will seem great to you.  You please Me most when you meditate on My Sorrowful Passion.  Join your little suffering to My Sorrowful Passion so that they may have INFINITE value before My Majesty.”  (Diary, #1512)

(Saint Hannibal Maria Di Francia – Messina, Oct. 29, 1926:  “We begin with this first printing, the publication of more than 20 handwritten volumes of sublime revelations which, always excepting the judgments of the Holy Church,  we believe to have been given by Our Lord Jesus Christ to a soul, a dearest daughter and disciple of His, who is the pious author of the Hours of the Passion.  Even now we make known that these revelations, which are continuing and will continue, we don’t know for how much longer, have as their goal the establishment of the complete Triumph of the Kingdom of the Divine Will upon earth.”  )

LIVING HOSTS

DIVINE WILL - “It seems that the souls who do my Will do nothing, while they do everything, because, being in my Will, they act in a divine manner, in a hidden and surprising way. So, they are light that illuminates, they are winds that purify, they are fire that burns, they are miracles that make others do miracles. Those who do miracles are channels; but in these souls resides the power. Therefore, they are the foot of the missionary, the tongue of the preachers, the strength of the weak, the patience of the sick, the regime of the superiors, the obedience of the subjects, the tolerance of the slandered, the firmness in dangers, the heroism of the heroes, the courage of the martyrs, the sanctity in the saints, and so with all the rest. Being in my Will, they concur with all the good that can exist both in Heaven and on earth. This is why I can surely say that they are my true hosts - but living hosts, not dead ones. In fact, the accidents that form the host are not full of life, nor do they influence my life; but the soul is full of life, and by doing my Will, she influences and concurs with all that I do. This is why these hosts consecrated by my Will are more dear to Me than the very sacramental hosts, and if I have reason to exist in the sacramental hosts, it is to form the sacramental hosts of my Will. “   (Vol.  11, Mar. 15, 1912)

Divine Will - Continuing in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus, on coming, told me: “My daughter, as the soul emits her acts in my Will, she multiplies my Life. So, if she does ten acts in my Will, she multiplies Me ten times; if she does twenty, a hundred, a thousand and yet more, so many times am I multiplied. It happens as in the sacramental consecration: as many hosts as they place, so many times am I multiplied. The difference which exists is that in the sacramental consecration I need the hosts in order to multiply Myself, and the priest who would consecrate Me; while in my Will, in order to be multiplied, I need the acts of the creature in which, more than in a living host - not a dead one, like those hosts before my consecration - my Will consecrates Me, and It encloses Me in the act of the creature, and I remain multiplied at each one of their acts done in my Will. Therefore, my love has its complete outpouring with the souls who do my Will and live in my Volition. They are the ones who always substitute, not only for all the acts that creatures owe Me, but for my very Sacramental Life.”  

(Vol. 14, March 24, 1922)

DIVINE MERCY – When I had received Jesus in Holy Communion, my heart cried out with all its might, “Jesus, transform me into another host!  I want to be a living host for you.  You are a great and all-powerful Lord; You can grant me this favor.”  And the Lord answered me, You are a living host, pleasing to the Heavenly Father.  But reflect:  What is a host?  A sacrifice.  And so…?”   “O my Jesus, I understand the meaning of ‘host’, the meaning of sacrifice.  I desire to be before Your Majesty a living host; that is, a living sacrifice that daily burns in Your honor.”   (Diary, #1826)

NOTES:  Taken from “The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta, Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, pg. 511

Jesus reveals to the Canadian mystic who was beautified, Dina Belanger, “The grace of incarnating Me, of living and growing in your soul, never to leave it, of possessing you and of being possessed by you as in one and the same substance…is the grace of graces.”  “I want to deify you in the same way as I united My humanity with My divinity…”

Similarly, Jesus reveals to the Mexican mystic, who was declared Venerable, Conchita deArmida, “While saying at the last Supper: ‘The is My Body, this is My Blood’, I had in mind the extension of this Body and this Blood in My priests transformed in Me, fully formed also, in this sense, Living Eucharists, and with the same end of living immolated on behalf of all the world.  Then I beheld in My soul that they would disappear, and in a certain sense, like the substance of bread and wine, remain transformed into Me for the salvation of souls.”

Jesus reveals to Faustina Kowalska: “You are a living host, pleasing to the Heavenly Father.”

O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in You!