Frequently asked questions
Living in the Divine Will means putting aside our human will and "living with just one Will" and that is God's Will.
Divine Will spirituality is not a devotion. It’s a way of life, returned to us following the Fall of Adam, who initially was given the Gift from God. The return of this Gift is to enable mankind to return to the way Adam lived before the Fall.
Divine Will Spirituality is the crown and completion of all spirituality, so you need to have a great deal of spirituality behind you; and then you become a beginner in Divine Will.
The first person to receive the Gift was Adam and then Eve, who lost it through Original Sin. But God promised through Redemption that we would be redeemed and brought back to the original Order, to the Place and the Purpose for which we were created by God. And when Jesus was on earth, He gave us only one prayer, the Our Father, in which He has us continuously pray with these words for its restoration:
‘THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN’
The third person to live in the Divine Will was Our Most Holy Mother, Mary. God preserved our Blessed Mother from being born with the stain of Original Sin and she was born with the Gift of Living in the Divine Will to enable the Son of Man to come on earth to redeem us. Our Blessed Mother told Luisa Piccarreta that from the first moment of her Conception, she was shown the fallen state of the human race and she chose to put her own will aside and place it at the foot of the Throne of God. She tells us she never once did her own will but continuously lived in the Divine Will.
The fourth person to live in the Divine Will was Jesus Christ, the Man-God.
Volumes 01 - 04 the foundations of a house. They guide us in the perfection of the virtues
Volumes 05 - 10 building the walls of the house
Volumes 11 - 12 putting the roof on the house
Volumes 13 - 36 changing a house into a home.
Volumes 01 - 10 show us how to become a Divine Image of Jesus Himself
Volumes 11 - 19 show us how to “Live” in the Divine Will through the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Volumes 20 - 36 show us how to “Live” in the Divine Will through the Power of the Holy Spirit
Volumes 01 - 10 show us how to become a Divine Image of Jesus Himself
Volumes 11 - 19 show us how to “Live” in the Divine Will through the Power of the Holy Spirit.
Volumes 20 - 36 show us how to “Live” in the Divine Will through the Power of the Holy Spirit
This Gift has been available from the time of Luisa writings. Up to now we only have permission to study copies of her writings. Their print in book form is prohibited until the Vatican Press print them.
Jesus dictated 36 Volumes to Luisa on guiding her and us on how to live in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. He told her the knowledge of the Gift was of extreme importance, and likened it to one giving a person what looked like two stones, only one of the stones was a diamond, without the knowledge of knowing this, the diamond would be discarded because of it’s unknown value.
These Rounds are known as the Rounds of Creation, Redemption and Sanctification.
The purpose of Man’s existence is to give love and glory to God, not only on his own behalf but on behalf of his brothers and sisters, substituting for all, and also on behalf of all Creation which is fixed in God’s Will without a voice. Man is expected to use his voice on behalf of Creation to give love and glory to God. And to return love and glory and reparation to God for the Work of Creation, Redemption and Sanctification.
Before the return of the gift, the saints of old could only live in their human will and doing the Will of God, which means complying with God’s orders. In this state we live as a servant.
With the Gift we live in the Divine Will united “with Jesus operating/reigning in us”.
Human marriage is God's Will! Genesis chapter 2 shows God uniting Adam and Eve Himself and He did this so that the Human Race could continue to exist, and also that they could journey through life with the help of each other.
What God wants is that we will love one another WITH His Love and IN His love - not just with human love. Also that we would conduct our human marriage in such a way that He can draw both spouses to Himself in His Divine Will. This is why He Himself elevated marriage to a sacrament so that it becomes a source of grace for both spouses and their children. The Church has many married saints to prove this.
We need to realise that WE are not called to live the same solitary life that Luisa was called to: this was HER special calling because she was to be the head of the generation that lives in the Divine Will and Jesus needed her complete attention in order to accomplish this.
Each of us has our own calling through which we glorify God and become a blessing to our brothers and sisters on the earth.
The main attachment that the Lord wants us to get rid of is the attachment to our own SELF and to our own way of doing things - to make gains for ourselves in both material and spiritual things. We have to stop worshipping ourselves if we are to be able to love anyone, human or divine! Marriage gives you daily opportunities to die to yourself and therefore to grow in love for your neighbour - your nearest neighbours being your spouse and your children, whom you must love with God's love so that they can grow to become godly themselves.
With reference to Volume 20 - Nov 3, 1926.
The first thing to look at are the billions of souls from every generation, every nation and every religion etc. These are all in the realms of Divine Mercy and Justice - beyond our knowledge or understanding
In Luisa's writings Jesus is speaking about Catholics - who should know about the 10 Commandments and about doing God's Will in their lives. Just as the Chosen People are judged on their Covenant of Justice (Jn 5:45) so we are judged by our Covenant of Love (Jn 5:22).
In the Nov 3, 1926 teaching, Jesus explains to Luisa that the souls in Purgatory are not some gelatinous mass which can be pushed about by our prayers on earth. Each one has an individual relationship with God depending on how they lived on earth.
1. If that soul died with a good relationship to God they are truly open to being helped by the Mystical Body on earth because they are part of it, and can receive the nourishment sent to them to deal with their needs. 2. If a soul was indifferent to God on earth they have not developed the ways to receive what is sent to them, and may spend a long time in Purgatory in order to merit God's Mercy which is implored by the Church on earth.
Example: If I have poor eyesight - and no glasses - I am unable to see what others can see. It's that simple. I must get glasses to help me......so the souls in Purgatory need the suffrages of the Church to help them on their way to Heaven.
Now to deal with the past: this was before the revelation of the Divine Will. The Past belongs to the era before the Divine Will, so different rules apply. It was the era of Redemption. Yes, if people offered their sufferings united with Jesus' sufferings, while doing God's Will to the best of their ability God used that to benefit the Holy Souls, but He didn't explain how He did it. In fact, that is the position of the whole church today - apart from those living in the Divine Will!
Finally, the thing we must remember is the sheer number of souls needing our help. One of the things we can do for all those gone before us is to gather their suffrages and glaze them with the Divine Will. Join them to the reparations of Jesus in His Passion. Afterwards in the Divine Will offer reparation and substitution for all suffrages done at a lesser level and then re-offer them to God on behalf of the whole church for all time Past Present Future.
This is the greatest thing you can do for the Church and for the Holy Souls.
St. Hannibal di Francia - who had been Luisa's extraordinary confessor - gave the nihil obstat to the first 19 volumes of Luisa's writings during his lifetime. The Church appointed him censor librorum to Luisa's writings.
In 1915 he gave the nihil obstat and imprimatur to Luisa's Hours of the Passion. He sent a copy to the bishops and archbishops of that time because of its importance, asking them to make it widely known.
He himself was canonised in 2004 by Pope St. John Paul 11. In an address to the Rogationist Fathers founded by Hannibal di Francia, Pope St. John Paul 11 said: " St. Hannibal saw the means God himself had provided to bring about the 'new and divine holiness' with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to 'make Christ the heart of the world'"
In a letter dated Feb 14, 1927 to Luisa Piccarreta, St Hannibal said: I have totally dedicated myself to the great work of the Divine Will. He was the chief apostle of Luisa's writings.
Her writings were locked away in the Vatican for (40?) years until Cardinal Ratzinger released them in 1994, allowing them to be widely read by the faithful.
2005: The process for Luisa's cause of canonisation began.
2011: The new Religious Community dedicated to the Divine Will received approval from the Vatican: Benedictines of the Divine Will, who live in Italy.
2012: Fr, Joseph Iannuzzi successfully defended and subsequently published his Doctoral Dissertation on The gift of living in the Divine Will according to the writings of Luisa Piccarreta. This was unanimously approved by the Gregorian University in Rome.
2013: Stephen Patton's book A guide to the Book of Heaven received the imprimatur.
2016: Notre Dame professor Fr. Edward O'Connor published Living in the Divine Will: the grace of Luisa Piccarreta.
2016: The Vatican itself published a biography of the Servant of God LP - with a preface by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints - strongly endorsing Luisa and her messages.
2016: Luisa was given her own entry into the Vatican's Dictionary of Mysticism.
[ This information can be got from Professor Daniel O'Connor's book: Thy Will be Done.
Another VIP resource is his massive tome called The Crown of Sanctity.
There are other resources but I think that this answers the question quite well!]
Frances' Answer:
This question is both an important and a frequent one, but it is very difficult to answer!
What goes on between the soul and God is very private - even the soul itself does not understand, unless the Lord illuminates it. It is clear from Luisa's writings that even she was not fully cognisant of what the Lord was accomplishing in her. He had to explain it over and over, and even after that she would still ask Him in the highest volumes for more clarification. All we know is that if you try to live in the Divine Presence and in His Will to the best of your ability, He promises to do everything else for us. LET ME DO! He says so frequently to Luisa - who thinks that she IS 'letting Him do'! You are, in fact, living in His Will, but there are layers in the soul that are dealt with only through trials and difficulties, so these events bring out hidden motivations and desires that must be cleansed and purified as we go along. 1) Our thinking must be purified so that, as St. Paul said, "we have the mind of Christ", 1 Cor:2:16. 2) Human emotions have to be purified so that our responses to everything are those of Christ Himself. 3) The human will itself has to be purified to be able to rest in the Divine Will without disturbance. It is during trying circumstances that the hesitations of human surrender are seen and dealt with. Confirmation of the gift of Divine Will comes with the final surrender, so that, as Jesus Himself says, you and He become inseparable. The human will is now permanently sacrificed to the Divine - like our Blessed Mother who never did her own will. *Not many achieve this in this life even though that is exactly what the Lord wants. It is achieved with the total sacrifice of the human will on a permanent basis, so that we return to our origin before The Fall, living in permanent communion with God, so that God reigns on Earth as He does in Heaven. *Many people are living in the Divine Will now, but not in its totality. They are pilgrims on the way to this glorious destiny. Nevertheless, all their acts done in the Divine Will are infinite in value, and they help the whole of Humanity to move towards its destiny in God. The more acts they do the more they progress towards the goal, until all their breathing, seeing, hearing, moving, working, etc is all in the Divine Will. Then God truly lives and works in us and through us, His kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.