Difference between living in the Divine Will and doing the Divine Will

The Great Difference Between Living in the Divine Will

and Doing the Divine Will

Volume 3 - July 10, 1900

Difference between living for God and living in God.

While I was in the same confusion, He made Himself seen like a flash and made me understand that I had not written everything He had told me the day before – that is, that the soul must not only live for God, but in God.  So, blessed Jesus repeated to me the difference that exists between living for God and living in God, saying to me:  “In living for God, the soul can be subject to disturbances, to bitternesses, to being inconstant, to feeling the weight of passions, to meddle in earthly things.  But the living in God – no, it is completely different, because the most important thing so that one person may enter to dwell inside another person is to lay down all that belongs to him – that is, to strip himself of everything, to leave his own passions; in a word, to leave everything in order to find everything in God. 

Now, when the soul has not only stripped herself, but has slimmed down well, then will she be able to enter through the narrow door of my Heart to live in Me, according to my way and from my own Life.  In fact, even though my Heart is immense, so much so, that there is no end to Its boundaries, Its door, however, is extremely narrow, and only one who is stripped of everything can enter into It.  This, with reason, because since I am Most Holy, I would never admit anything to live in Me which is extraneous to my sanctity.  Therefore, my daughter, try to live in Me and you will possess Paradise in advance.”

Who can say how much I understood of this living in God?  But then He disappeared and I was left in my same state. 

Volume 12 - August 14, 1917

Jesus did nothing other than give Himself prey to the Will of the Father.  Difference between living resigned to the Will of God, and living in His Will.

As I was in my usual state, my sweet Jesus just barely came, passing by, and told me:  “My daughter, I did nothing other than give Myself prey to the Will of the Father.  Therefore, if I thought, I thought in the mind of the Father; if I spoke, I spoke in the mouth and with the tongue of the Father; if I worked, I worked in the hands of the Father.  I even breathed my breathing in Him, and everything I did was ordered the way He wanted.  Therefore, I could say that I carried out my Life in the Father, and that I was the bearer of the Father, because I enclosed everything in His Will and I did nothing by Myself.  My main point was the Will of the Father, because I did not care about Myself, nor did I interrupt my course because of the offenses I received; rather, I kept flying more and more toward my center.  Only then did my natural Life end, when I fulfilled the Will of the Father in everything.

The same for you, my daughter.  If you give yourself prey to my Will, you will no longer have concerns for anything.  The very privation of Me, which torments you and consumes you so much, flowing in my Will, will find support, my hidden kisses, my Life in you, clothed with you.  In your very heartbeat you will feel Mine - burning and sorrowful; and if you don’t see Me, you feel Me; my arms hold you tightly.  How many times you feel my motion, my refreshing breath, which refreshes your ardors!  You do feel all this; and when you try to see who squeezed you, who breathes on you, and you do not see Me, I smile at you, I kiss you with the kisses of my Will, and I hide more within you, in order to surprise you again, and let you jump once more into my Will.  Therefore, do not sadden Me by afflicting yourself - but let Me do.  May the flight of my Volition never cease in you; otherwise you would hinder my Life within you.  On the other hand, as you live in my Will, I do not find any hindrance, and I make my Life grow, and I carry out my Life as I want.”

Now, out of obedience, I want to say a few words on the difference between living resigned to the Divine Will, and living in the Divine Will.

First:  living resigned.  According to my poor opinion, this means to be resigned to the Divine Will in everything, both in prosperous and in adverse circumstances, seeing in everything the Divine Will, the order of the divine dispositions which the Divine Will has over all creatures, such that not even one hair can fall from our head if the Lord does not want it so. 

It seems to me like a good son, who goes wherever his Father wants, and suffers whatever his Father wants.  Poor or rich, it is indifferent to him; he is happy just being what his Father wants.  If he receives or asks for an order to go somewhere to carry out some business, he goes only because his Father wanted it so.  But in the meantime, he has to take some refreshment, stop to rest, have some food, deal with people; therefore he has to put much from his own will, even though he goes because his Father wanted it.  However, in many things he finds himself in the circumstance of doing them by himself; so it may happen that he is far away from his Father for days, for months, without receiving specification of the Will of his Father in all things. 

Therefore, for one who lives resigned to the Divine Will, it is almost impossible not to mix his own will with It.  He will be a good son; however, he will not have the thoughts, the words and the life of his Father fully portrayed within himself, in everything.  In fact, since he has to go, return, follow and deal with people, love is already broken - because only a continuous union makes love grow, and it never breaks - and the current of the Will of the Father is not in continuous communication with the current of the will of the son.  During those intervals the son may get used to doing his own will.  However, I believe that this is the first step toward sanctity.

Second:  living in the Divine Will.  I would like the hand of my Jesus to write this.  Ah, He alone could say all the beauty, the goodness and the sanctity of living in the Divine Will!  I am not capable; I have many concepts in my mind, but I lack the words.  My Jesus, pour Yourself into my word, and I will say what I can.

Living in the Divine Will means being inseparable, doing nothing by oneself, because in the face of the Divine Will one feels incapable of anything.  He does not ask for orders, nor does he receive them, because he feels incapable of going by himself.  So he says:  ‘If You want me to do this, let us do it together, and if You want me to go, let us go together.’  Therefore, he does all that his Father does.  If the Father thinks, he makes the thoughts of the Father his own, and does not add one thought to those of his Father.  If the Father looks, if He speaks, if He works, if He walks, if He suffers, if He loves, he too looks at what the Father is looking at; he repeats the words of the Father; he works with the hands of the Father; he walks with the feet of the Father; he suffers the same pains of the Father, and he loves with the love of the Father.  He lives inside his Father, not outside of Him; therefore, he is the reflection and the perfect portrait of his Father - which is not, for the one who lives only resigned.  It is impossible to find this son without his Father, nor the Father without him; and not only externally, but all his interior is as though interwoven with the interior of the Father - transformed, dissolved completely, completely, in God.

Oh, the rapid and sublime flights of this child in the Divine Will!  This Divine Will is immense; in every instant It circulates within everyone; It gives life and order to everything.  And the soul, wandering within this immensity, flies to all, helps all, loves all, but as Jesus Himself helps and loves - which cannot be done by one who lives only resigned. 

Therefore, one who lives in the Divine Will finds it impossible to do things by himself; even more, he feels nausea for his human works, though holy, because in the Divine Will all things, even the smallest ones, take on a different look.  They acquire nobility, splendor, Divine sanctity, Divine power and beauty; they multiply to infinity, and in one instant one does everything.  And after he has done everything, he says:  ‘I have done nothing - Jesus did.  And this is all my contentment:  that, miserable as I am, Jesus gave me the honor to keep me in the Divine Will, to let me do what He Himself has done.’  Therefore, the enemy cannot bother this child - whether he has done well or badly, little or much - because Jesus Himself did everything, and he together with Jesus.  He is the most peaceful one; he is not subject to anxiety; he loves no one and loves everyone - but divinely.  One can say that he is the repeater of the Life of Jesus, the organ of His voice, the heartbeat of His Heart, the sea of His graces. 

True Sanctity, I believe, consists only in this.  All other things are shadows, larvae, specters of sanctity. 

In the Divine Will, virtues take their place in the Divine order; while, outside of It, in the human order, they are subject to self-esteem, to vainglory, to passions.  Oh! how many good works, how many attended Sacraments are to be cried over before God, and to be repaired, because they are empty of  Divine Will, and therefore without fruits.  Heaven willing that all would understand true sanctity.  Oh! how all other things would disappear.

So, many find themselves on the false way of sanctity.  Many place it in the pious practices of piety - and woe to those who move them!  Oh, how they deceive themselves!  If their wills are not united with Jesus and transformed in Him - which is the continuous prayer - with all of their pious practices their sanctity is false.  And it shows how these souls pass very easily from pious practices to defects, to amusements, to the sowing of discord, and other things.  Oh, how dishonoring this kind of sanctity is!  Others place it in going to church, in attending all the services, but their will is far from Jesus.  And it shows how these souls have little care for their own duties; and if they are hindered, they get angry, they cry that their sanctity goes up in the air.  They complain, they disobey, they are the wounds of families.  Oh! what a fake sanctity.  Others place it in frequent confessions, in scrupulous spiritual directions, in having scruples for everything; but they do not have any scruple if their will does not run together with the Will of Jesus - and woe to those who contradict them!  These souls are like inflated balloons:  a little hole is enough for the air to come out, and their sanctity goes up in smoke, and falls to the ground.  These poor balloons always have something to say; they are mostly inclined to sadness.  They live always in doubt, and therefore would like to have a director for themselves, who would advise them, give them peace and console them in every little thing.  But they are soon more agitated than before.  Poor sanctity, how forged it is.

I would like the tears of my Jesus in order to cry together with Him over these false sanctities, and make everyone know how true sanctity is in doing the Divine Will and in living in the Divine Volition.

This sanctity puts its roots so deeply that there is no danger that it may oscillate, because it fills Heaven and earth, and finds its support everywhere.  This soul is firm, not subject to inconstancies or voluntary defects.  She is attentive to her duties; she is the most sacrificed and detached from everyone and everything, even from spiritual directions themselves; and since her roots are deep, she rises up so high that the flowers and fruits bloom in Heaven.  She is so hidden in God that the earth sees little or nothing of this soul.  The Divine Will keeps her absorbed within Itself; only Jesus is the author, the life, the form of the sanctity of this enviable creature.  She has nothing of her own, but everything is in common with Jesus.  Her passion is the Divine Will; her characteristic is the Will of her Jesus, and ‘FIAT’ is her continuous motto.

On the other hand, the poor and false sanctity of the balloons is subject to continuous inconstancies, and while it appears that the balloons of their sanctity swell up so much as to seem to be flying in the air at a certain height, to the point that many, and even their directors, are amazed - soon they are disillusioned.  One humiliation, one favor of the directors toward someone else, is enough to deflate these balloons, because they see this as a theft against them, considering themselves the neediest.  So, while having scruples for silly things, they then reach the point of disobeying.  Jealousy is the woodworm of these balloons, which, consuming the good they do, keeps sucking air from them, and the poor balloon deflates and falls to the ground, reaching the point of dirtying itself with earth.  Then the sanctity that was in the balloon appears.  And what can one find in it?  Love of self, resentment, passions, hidden under the aspect of good, almost to have occasion to say:  they have become the amusement of the devil; so, of all their sanctity, nothing was found but a mass of defects, apparently disguised as virtues.  But then, who can say everything?  Only Jesus knows the worst evils of this fake sanctity, of this devout life without foundation, because it leans on false piety.  These fake sanctities are spiritual vines without fruit - sterile, and cause of who knows how much crying for my lovable Jesus.  They are the ill feeling of society, the worry of very directors, and of families.  One can say that they bring with themselves a noxious air that harms everyone.

Oh! how so very different is the sanctity of the soul who lives in the Divine Will!  These souls are the smile of Jesus.  They are far away from everyone, even from the very directors.  Only Jesus is everything for them; therefore, nobody worries for them.  The beneficial air which they possess embalms everyone; they are the order and the harmony of everyone.  Jesus, jealous of these souls, becomes actor and spectator of whatever they do – there is not one heartbeat, breath, or thought which He does not regulate and dominate.  Jesus keeps this soul so absorbed in the Divine Will that she can hardly remember that she is living in exile.