Preface
by Saint Annibale Maria. di Francia
J.M.J.A.
Messina,
October 29, 1926
Intelligentes
quae sit voluntas Dei.
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.
Who is this beloved daughter
and disciple of Our Lord, the author of the Hours of the Passion, who, up to
now, has written 20 volumes of divine revelations?
We cannot disclose her name and address because this would mean
prostrating her to the most severe affliction, and to the most deeply felt
crushing of soul and body.
She wants to live solitary, hidden and unknown. For no reason in the world would she have put
into writing the intimate and prolonged communications with adorable Jesus,
from her tenderest age until today, which still continue, who knows until when,
if Our Lord Himself had not repeatedly obliged her to, both personally and
through holy obedience to her Directors, to which she always surrenders with
enormous violence to herself, and also with great strength and generosity,
because her concept of holy obedience would make her refuse even an entrance
into Paradise, as did actually occur, and will be seen in the revelations of
October 11 and 30, 1909.
So very gracious are her discourses and dialogues with Lady Obedience,
as she calls her, almost wanting to get even for the subjection to which she is
forced. Now she speaks to her as to a
great Princess and Queen who imposes herself severely, now she portrays her as
a most powerful Warrior, who arms himself from head to food, ready to strike
the moment one dares to contradict him.
In substance, this soul is in a tremendous fight between an
overwhelming love of hiddenness and the inexorable empire of Obedience to which
she absolutely must surrender – and Obedience always wins. This constitutes one of the most important
traits of a true spirit - of a solid and tested virtue, because she has been
submitting to the dominion of the great Lady Obedience, with the greatest
violence to herself, for about forty years!
This solitary soul is a most pure virgin, wholly of God, who appears to
be the object of singular predilection of Jesus, Divine Redeemer. It seems that Our Lord, who century after
century increases the wonders of His Love more and more, wanted to make of this
virgin with no education, whom He calls the littlest one that He found on
earth, the instrument of a mission so sublime that no other can be compared to
it - that is, the triumph of the Divine Will upon the whole earth, in
conformity with what is said in the ‘Our Father’: Fiat Voluntas Tua sicut in Coelo et in
terra.
This Virgin of the Lord has been placed in bed as victim of Divine Love
for more than 40 years, from the time when she was still adolescent. It has been a state of a long series of
sufferings, both natural and supernatural, and of inebriations of the eternal
Charity of the Heart of Jesus. The
origin of these pains, which exceed every natural order, has been, almost
continuously, an intermittent privation of God, which constitutes that dark
night of the soul, called “bitter and terrible” by the mystic and Doctor, St.
John of the Cross, so much so, as to compare it to the pains which the souls in
Purgatory suffer because of the privation of God. He compares it somehow to a suffocation of
the soul, as when someone is breathless, because the breath of the soul is
God: Christus spiritus oris nostri
(Jesus Christ, the breath of our mouth).
In the course of these publications one will be able to read the
laments of this wounded dove searching for her Beloved – so intimate, sharp,
sensible, as to leave a profound impression of this Victim of Divine Love. But sometimes the thick veil is torn, the
soul sees Jesus, they embrace, they delight in each other, and the soul asks
for the mystical kiss of the Sacred Spouse of the Canticles. At times, the inebriation is such that, in a
delirium of love, her human resistance grows weak, and the soul exclaims: “Enough, enough! No more, Lord, for I cannot
sustain it!”, as once St. Francis Saverio exclaimed in similar circumstances.
All of these operations of Divine Love take place mostly in the silence
of the night, and in the morning, after Holy Communion, when she remains
cloistered and recollected for a couple of hours.
The sufferings of the body add to those of the soul, and occur at a
mystical level for the most part. With
no sign appearing on her hands, feet, side or forehead, she receives frequent
crucifixion from Our Lord Himself. Jesus
Himself lays her upon a cross, and pierces her with nails. And then, what Saint Teresa described when
she received the wound from the Seraphim, happens within her: a pain most sharp, such as to make her faint,
and at the same time, a rapture of love.
But if Jesus did not do so, it would be for this soul an infinitely
greater spiritual suffering, because, with the Seraphim of Carmel, she also
says: to suffer or to die.
Here is another sign of her
true spirit. Often times, when Our Lord
appears to her crowned with thorns, after He has abstracted her from her
senses, she gracefully removes the crown of thorns from His head and drives it
onto hers, experiencing atrocious spasms, but mystical contentments.
In the course of these
publications one will remain astonished in noticing an extraordinary intimacy
of Our Lord with this soul, which is in nothing inferior to those of St.
Getrude, St. Metilde, the Saints
Margherite or any other Saint. Often
times, as the aforementioned mystic and Doctor observes in similar cases, the
familiarity and intimacy with which Our Lord deals with this soul, renders her
daring in using certain expressions and in advancing certain demands, which
would appear excessive if one did not consider that Adorable Jesus, in the
matters of Faith, has given us proofs of His love even greater than those which
can be found in the intimate conversations between Jesus and any privileged soul. It is enough, above all, that He has given
Himself to us even as food in the Most Holy Eucharist.
After having mentioned her
long and continuous stay in bed as victim, for years and years, with the
experience of many spiritual and physical sufferings, it might seem that the
sight of this unknown virgin would be afflicting, as though seeing a person
lying with all the marks of past pains, of current sufferings, and the
like.
Yet, here there is something admirable.
In seeing this Spouse of Jesus Crucified, who spends the night in
painful ecstasies and in sufferings of every kind, during the day, sitting on
her bed doing her needlework - nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing appears, of
one who has suffered so much during the night; there is nothing, not one thing
extraordinary or supernatural in her air.
On the contrary, she appears as a healthy person, happy and jovial. She speaks, converses, laughs when
appropriate, but receives few friends.
Sometimes, some troubled heart confides in her, and asks for her
prayers. She listens kindly and
comforts, but never advances to make prophecies, never a word which might hint
at revelations. The great comfort which
she presents is always one, always the same:
the Divine Will.
Although she possesses no human knowledge, she is
abundantly endowed with a Wisdom all celestial - with the Science of the
Saints. Her words illuminate and
console. By nature her intellect is not
poor. She studied to the first grade
when she was a child; her writing is filled with mistakes, although she does
not lack appropriate terms, in conformity with the revelations; terms which
seem to be infused by Our Lord.
The
Hours of the Passion
At the same time as the sublime Revelations about the virtues in
general, and about the Divine Will in particular, for many years, at nighttime,
this soul has entered the contemplation of the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, with the addition of distinct information about many scenes of the
Passion.
The method was that of going through the 24 hours of the Adorable
Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which begin with the Legal Supper and end
with His death on the Cross. These
visions were sometimes accompanied by corresponding revelations of Our Lord.
Since nothing was published of the visions and revelations of this soul, in her
excessive desire to keep everything hidden, fearing that a publication, even
anonymous, might uncover her, she wanted to bury this
Treasure of
divine knowledges, of superhuman compassion, of superhuman fount of the most
loving affections within herself.
But her Spiritual Father
placed the majestic Lady Obedience, the strong Warrior armed from head to foot,
before her; and Our Lord Himself pushed her to manifest them for the good of
many souls.
She surrendered, and to the
author of this Preface was entrusted the printing of the writings which she put
on paper regarding this topic so important.
As the first Edition of this
admirable Treatise of the 24 Hours of the Passion of Our Lord appeared, the
blessing of God seemed evident. In a
short time all copies were depleted, which at that time were 5,000, without
being sent to specific addresses. It was
enough to send one copy to some devout person, that requests would begin to
arrive. An announcement was placed in
the periodical of our Anthonian Orphanages “Dio e il Prossimo” [“God and
Neighbor”] under the name of a Book of
Gold, and immediately the requests increased, in such a way that the
Edition was soon exhausted.
Most Eminent Cardinal
Cassetta, to whom nothing had been sent directly, requested 50 copies at once.
Then came the 2nd
Edition, a larger one, and then the 3rd. Both of them were rapidly depleted.
For the purpose of
promotion, sales were made at moderate prices, just to cover the expenses.
At that time a pleasant circumstance
occurred, which we remember with pleasure.
A letter, addressed directly to me, arrived from the Vatican, written by
that angelic Bishop - today Apostolic Nuncio of Venezuela, at that time the
Secretary of Bishop Msgr. Tacci (who is today an emeritus Cardinal) - Msgr.
Cento, who was then appointed Bishop of Acireale, and will perhaps be a
Cardinal of the Holy Church. There had
been no previous contacts between this lovable person and myself. In this letter he appeared enthusiastic from
the reading of the Hours of the Passion by an “unknown author”, and he prayed
me to reveal to him her name and address, because he wanted to correspond with
her about things of the spirit.
In truth, I was unable to
refuse. But he was not content with an
epistolary correspondence, and wanted to go to visit this chosen one of the
Lord in person. Even more, in order to
legitimize his trip of such a long distance, he offered to preach in a Triduum
for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Chiesa Madre. Every day he was near the bed of the “pious
author” in spiritual conversations, to his great contentment. After he departed from that town, he always
kept the most pleasant memory of this soul, so dear to Jesus.
Once the 3rd
Edition was depleted, the 4th one came, enriched with other writings
of the Servant of God. This time the
printing was executed at our press managed by the Sisters of my faithful one in
Messina, and
15,000 copies were printed. As the
announcement was repeated, requests arrived at all of our Houses.
It is not without reason
that this book has provoked so much enthusiasm.
Indeed, it is dictated with such surges of love, with such penetration
into the sufferings of the Incarnate Word, as to enrapture the soul of one who
reads it, and much more of one who meditates on it.
But, even more, there is an
undeniable concurrence of Grace which, one could say, begs two things: one is extensive reparations for all the sins
of the world of every kind, like the very ones which Our Lord Jesus Christ
presented to His Eternal Father interiorly at the time of His most bitter
Passion. Because of these reparations of
the author of the Hours, Our Lord promised – as is fully believed – many
exemptions from divine chastisements to those who meditate these hours and in the
places in which they are meditated.
Another divine goal is precisely that of placating Divine Justice, by
holding back the scourges which the Lord prepares.
In the course of these
publications which we are beginning, there are chapters which foresee divine
scourges of earthquakes, wars, fire, cloudbursts, devastation of lands,
epidemics, famines and the like.
Everything, everything has been predicted several years before, and
everything has come about, and much yet is left to come about. But the state of victim of this soul, her
prayers, her tears, her sufferings and her daringness of love with Jesus have
held back part of these scourges, and will hold back yet more.
A sign of the great
detachment of this soul from any earthly thing is her firmness and constancy in
accepting no gifts, either of money or anything else. On more than one occasion, people who read
the Hours of the Passion and in whom a sense of sacred affection for this
solitary and unknown soul arose, wrote to me that they wanted to send her
money. But she was so firmly opposed, it
was as if they had offended her.
Her way of living is very
modest. She possesses little, and lives
with a loving relative who assists her.
Since the little that they have is not enough to pay the rent or for
their support in these sad times of expensive living, she peacefully works, as
mentioned before, and earns something from her work, which has to serve
especially for her loving relative, because she has no expense for clothing or
shoes. Her food is of a few ounces per
day, and is offered to her by her assistant, because she never asks for
anything. Furthermore, a few hours after
she has taken that bit of food, she brings it up. However, her appearance is not of a dying
person, but not really that of a perfectly healthy person. Yet, she is not inactive; rather, she
consumes her strengths, both in the supernatural events of sufferings and
strain during the night, and with her work during the day. Her life is therefore almost a
perennial miracle.
To her great detachment from
any earnings which are not procured with her hands, one must add her firmness
in never accepting anything from the publication and sale of the Hours of the
Passion, which would be due to her by right as literary property. As I pressed her not to refuse it, she
answered: “I have no right, because the work is not mine, but of God.”
I will not continue
further. The life of this virgin, Spouse of Jesus, is more celestial than
terrestrial. She wants to be ignored
and unknown in the world, looking for nothing but her Jesus and Her Most Holy
Mother, whom she calls Mama, and who has a special predilection for this chosen
soul.
As the voluminous manuscripts which Our Lord has dictated to her are
gradually published, from the tenderness with which Jesus treats her, from the
sweet words with which He calls her, from His celestial embraces and her loving
correspondence, admirable things will be revealed about the singular virtues of
this soul, who - who knows - one day, coming out triumphantly from the
infallible judgments of the Church, will be placed on the altar as protection
of many.
