Letter from SAINT ANNIBALE DI FRANCIA to Luisa

Most esteemed one in the Lord,

I already sent you the two little bottles of that ink you asked me for – for the fountain pen. Write me, if you need notebooks. I hope, if good Jesus wants – I hope in His Divine Will to come to the Continent around the end of July. I can no longer travel by train, because my legs get swollen. I’ll try to arrive in Taranto by steam boat, and then from Taranto to Oria, and from Oria to Trani, as trips of a few hours – so be it. It seems to me that the time of the departure for the great journey is approaching…

Currently, in my morning meditation, in addition to the adorable Passion of Our Lord Jesus, beloved of our hearts, I meditate – that is, I read slowly and with reflection – two or three chapters of your writings in the Divine Will; and the impressions I draw are intimate and profound! I see a sublime and Divine Science, though I still do not understand it completely, given the scarcity of my intelligence.

These are writings that must now be made known to the world. I believe they will produce great good. For as sublime as this science of the Divine Will is, so do these writings of divine dictation present it, clearly and limpidly. In my opinion, no human intellect would have been able to form them.

The Hours of the Passion, 4th Edition, is already at the end of the printing, including the little treatise on the Divine Will. However, I am preparing several new chapters chosen from your writings, and I will add them to the Treatise with a little preface. In the meantime I have commissioned new paper for the printing of one entire first volume about the Divine Will, of the size of the Hours; but we will make the choice of the material when I come, God willing, together with your spiritual Father and with you.

I received a letter from Turin, from a cleric in love with the Divine Will, who is waiting for the new publications. He had written to me three years ago, and he had published in a Catholic periodical some chapters of the Little Treatise of the Divine Will, which is in the Hours.

However, I always insist on one point – that is, sanctity does not consist of a formula. In order to form, with this new Science, saints who may surpass those of the past, the new Saints must also have all of the virtues, and in heroic degree, of the ancient Saints – of the Confessors, of the Penitents, of the Martyrs, of the Anachorists, of the Virgins, etc. etc.

Now I present to you the most heartfelt wishes for your Name Day. May most beloved Saint Aloysius, whose Name you carry, obtain for you all the fire of Divine Love, and perfect consummation in the Divine Will!

I pray you to carry also miserable me, in your flights in the Divine Will! Meanwhile, for you I implore, in my meager prayers, the superabundant grace through which you may correspond perfectly to all the divine designs upon you. Amen.

Many regards to your sister. If you change your home, give me your new address.

I kiss the hands of the Most Reverend Father Confessor. I bless you in the Most Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and I say,

Yours in J.C. Canonico A.M. Di Francia