Living In The Kingdom of the Divine Will
Luisa Piccarreta 1865 – 1947
J.M.J.
Living in
The Kingdom of the Divine Will
Jesus speaks to Luisa Piccarreta 1865-1947
Cause for Luisa’s Beatification opened 20 November 1994
This little booklet is intended to be a simple aid to living and praying in the Divine Will as taught by Jesus to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta.
It is not a complete guide, but it is hoped that newcomers to this spirituality will find, in these simple lessons, a means of embracing and understanding Jesus’ invitation to live in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
With Ecclesiastical Approval
Trani, Italy - 17th October 1997
+ Carmelo Cassati Archbishop of Trani Barletta – Bisceglie
A little at a time
Jesus said to Luisa:
“Promise to be faithful to Me and I shall pour into you many graces that will cause you to marvel. I have great designs on you, but only if you correspond and conform to my Will. I shall delight in making you a perfect image of Me. You shall imitate Me from My birth to My death. Do not have any doubt about succeeding, because I will teach you how it can be done a little at a time.”
Book of Heaven Volume 1
The Purpose of the Gift of the Divine Will
The purpose of the Gift of the Divine will is to allow God to receive perfect glory from the whole human family. (i.e. from Adam to the last person to be created.)
[Perfect Reparation is the primary work of the Gift.]
From the moment he was created, Adam could give God a perfect return of love and glory in everything, all of the time, because he possessed the Gift of the Divine Will. At the Fall, Adam lost this Gift and was then able to correspond to God with only his limited human capacity - not with the unlimited capacity of the Divine Will which he previously enjoyed.
Jesus told Luisa that when He created Adam He placed within Adam’s human will the Divine Will. The Divine Will ‘resided’ there only because Adam consented to this, allowing himself to be animated by God in every way: his thoughts, words, glances, steps, movements, breaths and heartbeats etc. For this reason all of Adam’s acts were of a Divine order because he was consenting to letting the Divinity do everything within him. It is because the Divinity was doing everything in him that Adam’s acts were perfect, thereby giving perfect glory and perfect correspondence of love to his Creator.
This does not imply a lack of free will on the part of Adam. Instead, Adam was continuously consenting to giving the Divinity the freedom to ‘operate’ in him in this way*. The human will is presented by Jesus as an empty glass in which the waters of the Divine Will reside. This was intended by God to be the permanent condition of man. The human will was not created to be isolated from the Divine Will. Up until the Fall, the Divine Will operated in every aspect of Adam’s being. With the gift of freewill Adam could empty himself, at any time, of this Divine capacity to glorify God perfectly. In fact, he did empty himself of this Gift when he took the forbidden fruit.
* This does not mean that Adam was made divine. He was always a creature, but a creature consenting to letting the Creator animate him in every act of life.
The Saints and the Gift of the Divine Will
A frequently asked question is: “But didn’t the saints possess the Gift of the Divine Will?”
The answer is ‘No’.
Until now, the saints have been able only to align themselves to God’s Will - i.e. as they became more aware of what God wanted them to do and how he wanted them to be in their daily lives, they corresponded as best they could to His Will.
However, the Gift of the Divine Will is not only about doing God’s Will, but possessing God’s Will, i.e. letting God carry out His own will, Himself, within you through your consent. This is what Adam was doing up until the Fall, and what Jesus did in His humanity throughout His whole life while on earth.
Jesus points out that Luisa, who received the Gift of the Divine Will on 8th September 1889, marks the beginning of the era of the Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth.
This Gift is now available to everyone.
How this Gift was prophesied in the Scriptures The first biblical prophecy can be found in Genesis 3:15.
This prophecy was spoken by God to Satan.
God prophesied the coming of a future Redeemer, the Messiah. The Jews prayed for the fulfilment of this prophecy and so Jesus came. Before leaving the earth Jesus gave another prophecy which He placed in the one prayer that He taught us: the Our Father.
The prophecy is: “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In other words, just as the saints in Heaven possess the Divine Will with which to perfectly glorify God and correspond perfectly to His love, so have the Christian generations (on earth) been praying for this same Will to be enjoyed on earth as It is in Heaven.
Thus, we have been praying for a return of our original capacity to perfectly correspond to our Creator. And this is why Jesus subtitled these writings:
“The recall of the creature to the Order, Place and Purpose for which it was created by God.”
The Trinity and the Divine Will
The Three Persons of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - do not each possess Their own separate Wills consenting to one another’s wishes. Instead, the Three Persons of the Trinity share the same one Divine Will. This is why there can only be agreement, peace, harmony etc., between Them. By the powers of the one Divine Will the Father is able to direct all His infinite love to His Son, and by the same powers of the same one Divine Will, the Son is able to perfectly return this same infinite love to the Father.
It was this same one Divine Will which Adam originally possessed in Eden prior to the Fall, and which Jesus also possessed in His Humanity throughout His earthly life. Thus Adam was able to correspond to God’s love as was Jesus Himself. One could say that the Uncreated Son (Jesus) and the created son (Adam) could perfectly correspond to the Father by the powers of that same one Divine Will which they both possessed.
Jesus’ Prayer in John 17
This prayer of Jesus is a threefold prayer. He prays first for Himself, then for His disciples, and finally for all future disciples. It is in the final part of His prayer that Jesus makes this request of the Father:
“That they may be one with Me, as I, Father, and You are one.”
As we have learned (Page 8) the Trinity are not just good friends agreeing with one another but are one in the Divine Will. Thus, for each disciple to be one with Jesus, in the same way as Jesus is one with the Father, would require the disciple to also possess the same one Divine Will as Jesus and the Father. And this is what Jesus prayed for the night before He died.
How to receive the Gift of Divine Will
To receive the Gift of the Divine Will one needs the desire to receive It, and
to decide to no longer give life to one’s own human will. Jesus said:
“... you do not need paths, nor doors, nor keys to enter into My Divine Will
...
To enter creatures need but remove the pebble of their own will ...
A soul has but to desire It and all is done, My Will assumes all the work ...”
Volume 12 - 16th February 1921
It is important to remember that having desired the Gift after deciding to sacrifice one’s own will, that it is Jesus who does all the work. Only Jesus can do a divine act. We always remain as creatures, surrendering to His most holy Will.
GOLDEN RULE We desire it
and Jesus does all the work
A lesson for life: FORGET SELF
From the first moment a soul decides to embrace living in the Divine Will she must learn to forget herself. Jesus says that there is only one way of achieving this, and that it must be practiced for the rest of your life:
“My daughter, in order for the soul to be able to forget herself everything she does or has to do must be done as if I wanted to do it in her. If she prays, she should say: ‘It is Jesus who wants to pray, and I pray together with Him.’
If she works: ‘It is Jesus who wants to work,’ it is Jesus who wants to walk, it is Jesus who wants to eat, who wants to sleep, who wants to get up, who wants to enjoy Himself.’ And it should be like that in everything for the rest of her life, excluding errors. Only in this manner is the soul able to forget herself. For not only will she do everything because I want it, but, because I want to do it, she will need Me.
Volume 11 – 14th August 1912 Everything should now be done with reference to Jesus because it is He who
is doing everything within us - except error, i.e. sin.
What if I sin?
If we sin we would lose the gift of the Divine Will. This is because we obviously cannot make Jesus sin. If we make a sincere act of contrition then we can ask Jesus to return the Gift to us, and He will do so.
Jesus is yearning so much for us to always possess this Gift that He gladly
returns the Gift to us. It is only through our having this Gift that Jesus can ensure a perfect return of love and glory to the Father from within the creature.
If our sin was of a serious nature - mortal sin - then we would first have to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and then ask Jesus to return the Gift to us.
Praying in the Divine Will (1)
To pray in the Divine Will we should remember Jesus’ instruction to forget self. We can begin by saying:
“Jesus wants to pray so I pray with Him.”
Jesus gave this lesson to Luisa:
“I want to teach you the way of how you must be with Me.
IMPORTANT
First you must:
enter inside Me
transform yourself into Me
take that which you find in Me.”
1908
Remember that everything is achieved by the ‘Golden Rule’
Volume 8 - 9th February
We desire it and Jesus does all the work.
Notice that Jesus did not say “think,” but “desire.”
Thought alone will not do. It is the desire of the heart which ensures living in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
Praying in the Divine Will (2)
We first desire to enter into Jesus (and He brings this about by the ‘Golden Rule’.)
Then we transform ourselves into Him (also brought about by the ‘Golden Rule’.) As St. Paul said: “Put on Christ,” so we do everything as another Jesus, since Jesus is doing everything within us: our thoughts, words, actions, steps, movements, breaths, heartbeats - everything, except sin.
Next, we take what we find in Jesus.
Jesus explained to Luisa (Volume 11 – 14th August 1912) that while He was on earth, during His Hidden Life.
(i.e. up to the age of 30 years when His Public Ministry began,)
He took into Himself all the thoughts, words, actions everything about everyone from Adam to the last person to be created, and He redid everyone’s life in His Divine Will. In this way there is a divine version of each one’s life. Why? Because only the divine version can give God perfect glory - our human attempts at glorifying God, no matter how holy we become, would always fall short of absolute perfection.
Praying in the Divine Will (3)
Jesus did not immediately offer the divine version of our lives to the Father, but suspended them within Himself, waiting for the day that you would come along - and after giving your ‘fiat,’ your ‘yes’ to the Gift of the Divine Will - you would
enter into Him
transform yourself into Him and take what you find in Him.
Now you can find in Jesus the divine version of your life suspended in Him. Take it, make it your own (by the ‘Golden Rule’) and offer it with Jesus to the Father. You can do this repeatedly, not only with your own life, but also repeatedly with every-one’s life. Jesus wants you to do this for every-one’s life.
Praying in the Divine Will (4) In the name of everyone
Because Jesus redid the lives of everyone (from Adam to the last created soul) in His Divine Will then we can also pray, work, speak, walk, eat, sleep, and enjoy ourselves etc., in the name of everyone.
This is what Jesus said to Luisa:
“In my glances I took all the creatures’ eyes, in my voice their words, in my movements theirs, in my hands their works, in my Heart their affections and desires, in my feet steps; and, making them like Mine, my Humanity satisfied the Father ...”
“Now, why cannot you also do it? FOR HE WHO LOVES, ALL IS POSSIBLE UNITED TO ME! In my Will pray and bring before the Divine Majesty in your thoughts the thoughts of everyone; in your eyes the glances of everyone; in your words, movements, affections and desires of those of your brothers to make reparation for them; to obtain light, graces and love for them. In my Will you will find yourself in Me and in everyone. You do my Life. You will pray with Me; and the Divine Father will be content with it, and all Heaven will say, “Who calls us upon the earth? Who is it that wants to embrace this Holy Will in herself enclosing all of us together? And how much good you can obtain for the earth by making Heaven descend upon the earth.”
Volume 11 - 3rd May 1916
Therefore, finding everyone in Jesus, we can pray in the name of everyone, and Jesus promises that it will be as if everyone is praying in a divine way.
If the whole of humanity prayed together in a human way, even this volume of prayer would not compare with just one prayer in the Divine Will because a divine prayer has infinite value, or merit, since it possesses the very dispositions and qualities of Jesus Himself because it is He who is doing all the work in His Divine Will.
We can now pray the Rosary, for example, in the name of everyone; and keep Jesus company in the Blessed Sacrament in the name of everyone, etc., so that God is receiving a perfect return of love and glory from everyone simultaneously in every-thing we do - providing we desire it!
Remember: the size of your prayer group, if you are praying in the Divine Will in the name of all, is every-one from Adam to the last created soul!
Rounds in the Divine Will
There is much to be said about ‘Rounds’ in the Divine Will, but here is a beginning.
On one occasion, as Jesus was taking Luisa around the Universe, she could hear Jesus’ voice saying ‘I love you’ on everything - every star, planet, moon, etc. While she was enjoying this experience, Jesus turned to her and said: “Luisa, where is your ‘I love you’ to Me?” Jesus explained that if she desired it (in the Divine Will) she could place her ‘I love You’ to Jesus on everything too, because Jesus would do it for her.
And so we are invited by Jesus to do the same: to place our ‘I love You’ to Jesus on every created being/thing (past, present and future). These are the Rounds of Creation.
We can place our ‘I love You’ on everything that Jesus said and did during His life on earth, including His resurrection and Ascension. These are the Rounds of Redemption.
We should also place our ‘I love You’ on all the acts of the Holy Spirit, e.g. the sacraments, prayer, inspirations, graces etc. These are
Rounds of Sanctification.
Jesus told Luisa to make these Rounds incessantly Volume 18 ‘I love You with Your Will’
Luisa writes: Continuing my usual state, Blessed Jesus let Himself be seen inside of me, but so fused with me that I would see His eyes in mine, His mouth in mine, and in the same way all his body. And while I was seeing Him like this, He said to me: “My daughter, see how I fuse Myself and make Myself one sole thing with the soul who does my Will. I make Myself her own life, because my Will is inside and outside of her. You can say that It is like the air she breathes which gives life to everything in her. It is like light that makes everything be seen and understood; It is heat that warms, fecundates, and makes things grow. It is heart that beats, hands that work, feet that walk. And when the will unites with My Will, My Life is formed in the soul.”
Afterwards, having received Communion, I was telling Jesus: “I love You,” and He told me: “My daughter, do you really want to love Me? Say: ‘Jesus, I love You with your Will.’ And since my Will fills Heaven and earth, your
love will surround me everywhere and your ‘I love You’ will reverberate high in the Heavens, and in the depths of the abysses; and so, if you want to say: ‘I adore You. I bless You, I praise You, I thank You.’ you will say it united in my Will, and you will fill the Heavens and earth with adorations, blessings, praises, and thanksgiving in my Will.
These are simple things easy and immense.
Volume 11 - 2nd October, 1913
Our Lady and the Divine Will
Jesus made Mary the “Queen and Mother of the Kingdom of Divine Will.” Mary was the third person (after Adam & Eve) to be given the Gift of the Divine Will, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception). Jesus, in His humanity, was the fourth Person to possess the Gift of Divine Will. Next was Luisa Piccarreta, and everyone after her who will say ‘yes’ to this Gift.
Our Lady gave Luisa thirty-one lessons* on the Kingdom of the Divine Will. With this Gift, what one would strive for in years can be accomplished in just one day! (Lesson 13*)
Three times a day Our Lady wants us to sit upon her lap, (morning, noon and evening), and say to her:
“My Mother, I love you. Love me, too, and give me a sip of the Will of God for my soul. Give me your blessing also, that I might do all my actions under your maternal gaze.”
At night Our Lady also wants us to present all our acts of the day onto her maternal lap.
* Book: The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. MUST READ
IMPORTANT: IN THIS BOOK, MOTHER MARY WILL TEACH YOU 31 LESSONS ON HOW TO LIVE IN THE DIVINE WILL WITH HER!
IMPORTANT Prevenient and Actual Acts
[Anticipatory and Current Acts]
Prevenient [Anticipatory] Act
This is to be done as soon as you awake,
‘at the break of dawn’
Jesus says; it is when you tell Jesus in your own words that you want everything today to be done only in His Divine Will.
EXAMPLE: COME MOST HOLY DIVINE WILL, COME AND REIGN IN EVERY THOUGHT, WORD, DEED, PRAYER, JOY AND SUFFERING OF THIS DAY.
Actual [Current] Acts
These are the particular acts you do during the day, like washing, eating, working, praying, etc.
“You should say: Jesus wants to ... and so I do it together with Him.”
Volume 11 - 14th August 1912
As far as your memory allows, one should continue throughout the day in this way. Fortunately, Jesus does not accuse us for our poor memories. Our acts continue to be in the Divine Will because of the Prevenient Act, but, as Jesus says:
“Both acts are necessary; the prevenient act assists, creates the disposition and makes room for the actual act. The actual act preserves and enlarges the disposition for the prevenient act.”
Volume 14 - 27th May 1922
Calling down the Divine Will in our daily lives
Jesus wants us to call down the Divine Will into everything and everyone. Like the lesson (Page 11) about forgetting self, we can call down the Divine Will in the following way:
Come Divine Will, come wash in me, or Come Divine Will, come eat in me, or Come Divine Will, come drive in me, or
Come Divine Will, come work in me, or
pray ... rest ... speak ... etc.
There is no set formula for praying in the Divine Will. So, alternatively one might pray:
Come Divine Will, come wash in my washing, Come Divine Will, come eat in my eating, etc.
Jesus said to Luisa that the Kingdom of the Divine Will, will not reign fully on earth until a certain number of Acts in the Divine Will have been completed.
[Saint] Hannibal di Francia’s Little Rosary of the Divine Will
START SAYING THIS PRAYER DAILY IN ALL THE DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE!
(5th July 1851 - 1st June 1927)
Saint Hannibal di Francia was one of Luisa’s extraordinary Confessors. So inspired was he by the spirituality of Luisa’s writings that he founded two Religious Orders: the Rogationist Fathers and the Daughters of the Divine Zeal. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 7th October 1990, and canonized on 16th May 2004. In the later years of his life he composed the following simple chaplet to be said on a Rosary Beads. Every day he prayed this chaplet, often more than once, especially in his last sickness.
Begin
One Our Father... One Hail Mary... One Glory Be...
On the Small Beads.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.
On the Large Beads.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
In conclusion
Lord Jesus, we praise You, we love You, we bless You and we thank You together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in Your Holy and Eternal Divine Will.
Amen.
Prayer for Luisa’s Beatification
O Most Holy Trinity,
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us that as we pray we should ask that our Father’s Name be always glorified, that His Will be done on earth and that His Kingdom should come to reign among us.
In our great desire to make known this Kingdom of love, justice and peace, we humbly ask that you glorify your Servant Luisa, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will who, with her constant prayer and suffering, deeply yearned for the salvation of souls and the coming of God’s Kingdom in the world.
Following her example we pray to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to help us joyously embrace the crosses of this world so that we may also glorify your Name and enter into the Kingdom of your Will. Amen.
Act of Consecration to the Divine Will
Luisa Piccarreta
Oh adorable and Divine Will, behold me here before the immensity of Your Light, that Your eternal goodness may open to me the doors and make me enter into It to form my life all in You, Divine Will. Therefore, oh adorable Will, prostrate before Your Light, I, the least of all creatures, put myself into the little group of the sons and daughters of your Supreme FIAT.
Prostrate in my nothingness, I invoke Your Light and beg that It clothe me and eclipse all that does not pertain to You, Divine Will. It will be my Life, the centre of my intelligence, the enrapturer of my heart and of my whole being. I do not want the human will to have life in this heart any longer. I will cast it away from me and thus form the new Eden of peace, of happiness and of love.
With It shall be always happy. I shall have a singular strength and a holiness that sanctifies all things and conducts them to God.
Here prostrate, I invoke the help of the Most Holy Trinity, that They permit me to live in the cloister of the Divine Will and thus return in me the first order of creation, just as the creature was created.
Heavenly Mother, Sovereign and Queen of the Divine Fiat, take my hand and introduce me into the light of the Divine Will. You will be my guide, my most tender Mother, and will teach me to live in and to maintain myself in the order and the bounds of the Divine Will. Heavenly Mother, I consecrate my whole being to your Immaculate Heart. You will teach me the doctrine of the Divine Will and I will listen most attentively to Your lessons. You will cover me with Your mantle so that the infernal serpent dare not penetrate into this sacred Eden to entice me and make me fall into the maze of the human will. Heart of my greatest Good, Jesus, You will give me Your flames that they may burn me, consume me, and feed me to form in me the Life of the Divine Will.
Saint Joseph, you will be my protector, the guardian of my heart, and will keep the keys of my will in your hands. You will keep my heart jealously and shall never give it to me again, that I may be sure of never leaving the Will of God.
My Guardian Angel, guard me; defend me; help me in everything so that my Eden may flourish and be the instrument that draws all men into the Kingdom of the Divine Will. Amen.
Pray this Consecration Prayer in the name of everyone LUISA’S WRITINGS
By 1938 Luisa had written 36 volumes. The title to this work was given by Jesus Himself (in Volume 19). He called the volumes; “BOOK OF HEAVEN” and Jesus also gave the subtitle: “The recall of the Creature to the Order, to the Place and to the Purpose for which he was created by God.”
In addition to the 36 volumes (only some are presently available in English) there is a selection of Luisa’s prayers in THE DIVINE WILL PRAYER BOOK, and a series of lessons on the Divine Will dictated to Luisa by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a book called THE VIRGIN MARY IN THE KINGDOM OF THE DIVINE WILL.
Another important work is THE HOURS OF THE PASSION in which Jesus not only shares certain details concerning His Passion, but also some of His thoughts and prayers during the last 24 hours of His life.
Seven Points to Remember Daily Check List
1. When you wake up make your Prevenient Act
2. Never lose sight of the Golden Rule
3. Sit upon your Heavenly Mother’s lap three times a day, and speak these words with the heart of a
loving child
4. Begin doing Actual [Current] Acts, remembering
to do this as often as your memory allows. Example: Divine Will walk
in my walking.
5. Make your Rounds in the Divine Will — pray the Rosary of the Divine Will
6. Before retiring to bed place all your Acts of the day upon Our Lady’s lap
7. Before closing your eyes give Jesus permission to have you make Rounds during your sleep
FIAT!
