Picarreta.- novena per Nadal

Novena de Nadal de PICARRETA A wonderful and unimaginable New Era is about to dawn upon the earth. It will be the crowning glory of man, the Gospel and the Church. The happiness of Eden is to be restored; the true purpose of Creation will be realized, and our Father in Heaven will receive his greatest glory from humanity.

This new Era is none other than the Reign of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, the age of sanctification. This was first revealed to the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, in 1889.

She was then given the gift to live in the Divine Will--a state in which the human will is fused to that of God's, and the two wills operate as one. His Will becomes the soul's Life, Nourishment, and Everything, as It was for Jesus and for His Mother. This is potentially a higher form of union with God than even that of the mystical marriage.

Our Lord wishes to give this gift to all who desire it. You have only to ask for it. He promises to make you happy and holy, if you agree to surrender your will to Him. Born in Corato, Italy, in 1865, Luisa began the life of a victim soul in her teens, receiving the stigmata in her body, though it remained invisible at her request. She was mystically confined to bed for 64 years, without eating or drinking, living only on the Eucharist.

The Pontifical Theological Institute, appointed by the Vatican to examine the writings of Luisa Piccarreta, found nothing therein contrary to Faith and Morals. In 1994, at the request of John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Felici, Prefect for the Sacred Congregation for the Cause of Saints, instructed Archbishop Carmelo Cassati, President of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, to begin the Process of her Beatification.

Novena of Holy Christmas The Beginning of the Narration: Novena of Preparation for Christmas.

In a Novena for Holy Christmas of my always amiable Jesus, at the age of seventeen, I wanted to prepare myself for this festivity with the daily practice of different acts of virtue and mortifications for the special purpose of honoring the nine months that Jesus was pleased to be in the virginal womb of Mary Most Holy. I proposed, therefore, to make nine meditations a day , always concerning the Sacrosanct Mystery of the Incarnation.

FIRST EXCESS Jesus in the Bosom of the Father Decree of the Incarnation In a meditation, I proposed to carry myself by thought to Paradise. I imagined the Most Holy Trinity, in decisive council, wanting to redeem the human race which had fallen into the most squalid misery and from which, without divine action, it would never be able to rise to new life of absolute liberty. I then recognized the Father in the act of wanting to send his Only Begotten Son upon the earth, the Son assenting to the Father's desire, and the Holy Spirit pleased to be in His full consent, all for the greater good and salvation of humanity.

My mind became confused, and all my being marveled at such a great mystery of reciprocal love that was so strong and so equal between the Divine Persons, a love which diffused itself for the copious advantage of man. I then considered the ingratitude of man, which rendered inoperative the fruit of such great Love.

I would have remained in this state all day rather than for just one hour had He not made me hear a voice in my interior which said, "This is enough for now. Come with

Me, and you will see other greater excesses of my Love toward you."

SECOND EXCESS Jesus in the Womb of His Mother Love Which Reduces Him to Strictures and to Immobility My mind was transported to consider my always amiable Jesus residing in the most pure womb of Mary Most Holy, Virgin and Mother. I was amazed that the great God, who cannot be contained by the heavens would, for the Love of man, become so small and restricted as to neither move Himself nor breathe in the maternal womb.

As this consideration consumed me with love for my newborn Jesus, in my interior, He said to me, "See how much I love you? For pity's sake, make a little space in your heart for Me. Take out all that is not mine so that it may give Me more ease to move and breathe in your heart."

My heart then felt destroyed for love of Him. Giving vent to bitter crying, I asked pardon for my failings, promising to want to be all his. I repeated the same promise day after day, but to my confusion and to honor the truth no less, I found myself committing my usual defects. This caused me great pain; and I exclaimed, "Ah, my good Jesus, how benevolent You have been, and still are, toward this miserable creature! Have mercy on me always!"

THIRD EXCESS Devouring Love From the second meditation, I quickly passed to the third. From the beginning of this meditation, the voice inside me made itself sensibly apparent and said: "My child, place your head on the womb of My Mother and meditate on My small Humanity that is in there. Here, My love for creatures almost devours Me. The immense flames of My love, the oceans and seas of the love of My Divinity reduce Me to ashes, inundate Me and, by far, exceed every boundary so that My love rises above everything, even over all generations from the first to the last creature. My little Humanity was also devoured by so many flames of Love, yet it devours by that same Love. Do you know what my Eternal Love wants Me to devour? Oh yes, it is all souls! My child, My Love will only be satiated when it will devour them all into itself. Since I am God, I must operate as God and embrace each soul that could come into existence, because My Love would give Me no peace if I excluded anyone. Yes, my child, look well into the womb of my Mother and set your gaze on my Humanity already conceived. There you will find your soul conceived with Me, as well as the flames of my Love that engulfed you completely with love for Me. They will cease only when they have consumed you and Me! How much have I loved you, do love you, and will love you eternally!"

On hearing Jesus speak these words to me, I became lost in so much love. I would not have known how to reciprocate if a voice within me had not shaken me and said: "My child, this is nothing compared to what my Love can do. Press yourself closer to Me, give your hands to my dear Mother so that she can hold you tightly to her maternal womb. Meanwhile, look once more on my little Humanity, conceived in time, to conceive souls for eternity. This will give you an opportunity to reflect on the Fourth Excess of my Love, which becomes operative.

FOURTH EXCESS Operating Love, Which from the Very First Instant Makes Him Suffer the Same Pains of His Passion Over and Over Again My child, if you want to pass from my devouring Love to my operating Love, you will discover Me in an 'abyss without end' of suffering. Consider that every soul conceived in Me brings to Me the burden of its sins, weaknesses and passions. My Love obliges Me to carry the burden for each one because, after I conceived their souls within Me, I also conceived the contrition and reparation each of them will have to make to my celestial Father. So do not marvel if my Passion was conceived in Me. Look well into the womb of my Mother, and you will discover how much I feel and live the agony of so many sufferings. Look well at my little Head surrounded by a crown of thorns which, while cruelly piercing my skin, makes Me shed rivers of very hot and bitter tears from my eyes. Yes, be moved to pity for Me and, with your hands that are free to do this for Me, dry the many tears I shed. These thorns, my child, are none other than a cruel wreath that creatures make for Me with evil thoughts that crowd their minds. Oh, how cruelly they pierce Me a long coronation of nine months!

And as if this were not enough, they crucify my hands and feet to make Me satisfy the Divine Justice for them, they who travel over every perverse road, commit every injustice in the temporal things of life, and traffic in every illicit way for their own profit. In such a state, it is not possible for Me to move even a hand, finger or foot.

I remain immobile either because of the excruciating crucifixion I undergo, or because of the restricted space in which I live. And I bore this continuous crucifixion for nine months! Do you know, my child, why either the coronation with thorns, or the crucifixion are renewed in Me every moment? It is because mankind does not cease to conceive cruel designs which, under the form of nails or thorns, repeatedly transfix my temples, my hands and my feet.

In this way Jesus, in anguish and pain, continued to narrate what his little Humanity suffered from pain, immobility and tortures in the womb of his Mother. I pass over this so as not to be too lengthy, and because my heart does not have the courage to narrate all that Blessed Jesus suffered for love of us.

I could do none other than break into a flow of tears. Soon He shook me, however, and with a feeble voice, told the interior of my heart: My child, how I long to embrace you and reciprocate the suffering love you feel for Me; but I cannot do this yet; for, as you see, I am enclosed in this little area which renders Me immobile. I would like to come to you; but am unable, since I cannot yet walk. First child of my painful Love, come often to embrace Me because later, when I emerge from my Mother's womb, I shall come to you, embrace you, and stay with you.

And while with my imagination I imagined to be with Him in the womb of his Mother, I would embrace Him and press Him tightly to my heart. In his affliction, He once again made me hear his voice and said to me internally: "My child, this is enough for the present. Now go on to meditate on the Fifth Excess of my Love which, despite the fact that it is abused and disregarded, will not retreat, nor pause; rather it will surmount all and proceed ahead."

FIFTH EXCESS

Love Abandoned in Bitter Solitude Hearing myself being called by Jesus to meditate on the Fifth Excess of his Love, I pricked up the ears of my heart to hear, interiorly, the feeble but creative voice of Jesus say to me: "Observe that as soon as I was conceived in the womb of my Mother, I conceived grace to all human creatures at the same time so that they could grow, like Me, in knowledge and in truth. That is why I love their company, why I want to remain in continual correspondence of love with them, and why I very often communicate to them the palpitating manifestations of my Love.

I want to be continuously in lofty reciprocity of love, and to share daily my joys and griefs with them. I yearn for them to know that the only reason I came to earth from Heaven was to make them happy. And, like a little brother, I yearn to remain with and among them to win their benevolence and love. I yearn to re-give to each of them my Good and my Kingdom, even at the cost of the greatest sacrifice: my death for their life. In summary, I yearn to play with them, and cover them with kisses and lofty caresses of love.

But alas! know that in exchange for my Love, I receive nothing but continuous pain and suffering. In fact, there are those who listen unwillingly to the words of eternal Life; who scorn My company and unfetter themselves from my Love; and who try to escape from Me, or play deaf so as to reduce Me to silence. And worse, there are those that despise and abuse My love. The first do not care for my Good or my Kingdom, and return my kisses and embraces with indifference and forgetfulness.

The enjoyment I should have with them is reduced to silence and abandonment. The others, who are greater in number, reduce my Love for them to bitter tears, so not only is My love left without comfort but it is actually abused, despised and outraged.

So it can be said that while I am among them, I am always alone. How heavy is the solitude forced on Me by their abandoning Me, and making themselves deaf to even one of my words! They hinder and prevent an outpouring my Love. I am always alone, sad and silent, because if I speak I am not heard. O my child, repay Me for my unrequited Love by not ever leaving Me in this solitude! Allow Me to speak to you, and listen attentively to my teachings. Know that I am the Teacher of teachers. If you will listen to Me, you will learn many things and, at the same time, you will make Me stop crying, and you will enjoy Me. Tell me, would you like to play with Me?" I abandoned myself to Him by manifesting my desire to be always faithful to Him and by loving Him with the most tender compassion. But despite his magnanimity in wanting to delight with me as one of his creatures, He has remained alone, without any relief from the most sorrowful solitude. While I thus passed my Fifth Hour of meditation, the internal voice of my Jesus made itself manifest to my heart by saying: "Enough, enough of this. Now meditate on the Sixth Excess of my Love."

SIXTH EXCESS Love Suffocated and Confined in the Darkness of Sin and of Ingratitude "My child, may my intimacy be with you. Get closer to Me and pray to my dear Mother that she will make a little place for you in her maternal womb for you to observe the painful state in which I find Myself. "

In thought, I imagined that my Queen Mother, wishing to demonstrate to me her very great affection for me, would let me join the sweet and affable Jesus in her womb, He who had become incarnate in Her. I imagined that I was already in her womb, and very close to my lovable Jesus. But since the darkness was so great, it was impossible for me to see his features; and I could only feel his warm sigh of Love. From within me He continued to say: "My child, reflect on another superabundance of my Love. I am the Eternal Light and there is no other light outside of Me that is more resplendent. Consider, a little, the sun and how much splendor it has. Yet it is nothing more than a shadow of my Eternal Light. This Eternal Light of Mine became entirely eclipsed in Me when I assumed human form for love of creatures. Do you see the dark prison to which Love has led Me? Yes, it is for love of creatures that I confined Myself and waited for a gleam of light. I waited patiently in great darkness, in nights with neither stars nor rest always waiting for the light of the sun which as yet does not appear. What suffering I am enduring!

The tight quarters of my prison give Me no room to move, and produce untold anguish. The lack of light does not let Me see, gives Me much pain, and takes my breath away, breath which I must receive slowly through the respiration of my Mother.

Do you know what has brought Me to this prison, taken away my light, and makes Me struggle for breath? It has been the Love I feel for creatures as well as the darkness of creatures' sins. Every fault of theirs is another night for Me. It is the unrepented human heart and the black ingratitude that, like an infernal monster, suffocates Me. Together these produce an abyss so deep in obscurity that it has no bottom and instantly chokes Me with unheard of pains. What suffering! Oh excess of my unrequited Love, you have made Me go from an immensity of light to the depth of the darkest night, and into such narrowness as to make Me lose the liberty of my Heart.

While Jesus was saying all this, He moaned with moans that were muffled because of lack of space. In response, I wanted to give Him a little light with my love. Who can describe what Jesus suffered in turn for the love of creatures! Then in his pain and suffering, my always loving Jesus had me hear, in the depth of my interior, his sweet voice say to me: "Enough of this for now. Let us proceed to the Seventh Excess of my Love. " SEVENTH EXCESS Uncorresponded Love Is Hurt by the Ingratitude of Creatures Jesus then added: "My child, do not leave me in such solitude and obscurity! Do not desire to exit from my Mother's womb. But consider well the Seventh Excess of my Love. Listen to Me. I was completely happy in the Bosom of my Father. There was no good that I did not possess: joy, felicity, and so on; all were at my disposition.

The Angels, in reverence, offered Me the cult of the greatest adoration and hung on my every wish. But the excess of my Love for mankind made Me undergo a change in fortune. I divested Myself of every joy and felicity. I gave up all my goods and every celestial comfort to dress Myself with all the infirmities of creatures in order to procure for them my eternal happiness, my joys and my eternal contentment.

Nonetheless, this exchange would have been easy for Me if I had not found the most monstrous ingratitude and obstinate hatred in man. Oh, how my Eternal Love remained disappointed by such total ingratitude! I suffer much from the stubbornness and wickedness of man which, for Me, is greater than the sharpest thorns that pierced my Heart with untold punctures from my Conception to the last moment of

my Life. Observe, observe well my little Heart, and see the many thorns in which it lies. Observe the wounds the thorns make, and the rivers of Blood that flow from it.

What pain and suffering I am forever experiencing! My child, do not be ungrateful too, because ingratitude is the hardest and cruelest pain for your Jesus. Ingratitude is worse than slamming the door on my Heart. It keeps Me outside and frozen from coldness. And in spite of the perversity in the heart of man, my Love still does not cease. Actually, my Love assumes a more elevated attitude that makes Me become a beggar that moans and pines for them. And that, my child, is the Eighth Excess of my powerful Love."

EIGHTH EXCESS Begging, Moaning and Supplicating Love "My child, do not leave Me alone. Continue to rest your head on the breast of my Mother and you will hear my groans and supplications. You will see that neither my groans nor my pleadings will move ungrateful creatures to feel pity for my Love.

Thus you will see Me, still a baby, extend my hand as the poorest beggar, and ask for their souls, even as an alms. In this way I hope to attract their hearts and their affections, frozen by egoism. My child, my Heart wants to win the hearts of man at any cost. So I have decided that if, after using the Seventh Excess of my Love, they still play deaf and are indifferent to Me and my goods, then I must go further. My Love should have stopped at such ingratitude; but, no, it wants to surpass its limits and make my supplicating voice reach every heart from the maternal womb. To touch the fibers of the human heart, I use the most persuasive methods, the sweetest and most effective words, and the most moving prayers. Do you know what I say to the hearts of creatures? I say: My children, give me your hearts, which are mine; and in exchange for your hearts, I will give you everything you want, even Myself. On contact with my Heart, I will warm your hearts. I shall make them burst into flames and destroy every affection in you that is not of Heaven. Know that I purposely descended from Heaven to incarnate Myself in my Mother's maternal womb so that you could enter into the Bosom of my Celestial Father. Oh, do not deny Me this! Do not dash my hopes, which will be a source of infinite good to you.

In spite of all this, and seeing creatures resistant to my Love by turning their backs and going away from Me, I tried to stop them. With folded hands and the most supplicating and tender groans, I tried to entreat them by saying, with a voice choking with sobs: 'See, my child, that I am none other than a little beggar that asks for no alms other than your heart. Is it possible that you do not want to understand that this, my way of acting, is none other than the greatest excess of my unrequited Love? In order to attract creatures to his Love, the Creator takes on the form of a little baby so as not to produce fear. When He sees that the creature is recalcitrant and obstinate and does not grant his request, He pleads, laments and cries. Does this not move you to compassion? Does it not soften your heart?

My child, it seem as if the rational creature has completely lost the use of reason.

Whereas he should enjoy being engulfed and warmed by the flames of my Divine Love, instead he tries to extricate himself by going in search of beastly loves for which he will fall into infernal chaos and cry for a thousand eternities. At these words of Jesus, I felt as if I were melting. I was also terrified; and I shuddered as I contemplated the irreparable damage done and the tragic eternal consequences of human ingratitude. Immersed in this dual consideration, the voice of my Jesus made itself heard in my heart: "And you, my child, do you not want to give Me your heart?

Do you want Me to weep and break into lamentations and pleadings in order to obtain possession of even your heart? "

While Jesus was saying all this to me, my heart was seized by an ineffable tenderness for his unrequited Love. And sobbing, with a lively and heartfelt love never felt before, I said: My beloved Jesus, weep no more. Yes, yes, I give You not only my love, but all of me. I do not hesitate to give it to You. But in order to make it a more appreciated gift, I wish to remove from my heart all that is not yours. So please give me the proper grace to make it like yours so that your Love can assume a stable and permanent residence in me.

NINTH EXCESS Agonizing Love Which Wants to be Victor My actual state, my child, becomes always more painful. If you love Me, make sure that your gaze is always fixed on Me so that you may learn well everything that I have taught you. Offer to your little Jesus a little surcease from so much pain and suffering: a word of love, a caress, or an affectionate kiss so that my Heart may be elated by the feel of its reciprocated Love. This will give a rest to my bitter weeping and to the heavy afflictions from which I suffer.

Hear, my child, that after man had been given proof of my Love from the Eight Excesses of my Love, he should have melted or yielded to the contact with my true and sublime Love. Instead, he exchanges it badly, and makes Me pass to another Excess of my Love which, if not reciprocated, shall be even more painful to me.

Up to this time, man has not capitulated. I shall therefore follow with the Ninth Excess which consists of my most loving eagerness and enkindled longings of Love for man, and my most ardent desires to escape from my Mother's maternal womb in order to run after him. And after stopping him from sliding down the slope of evil, I yearn to embrace and kiss this man who is ungrateful to my Love so that he will become enamored by my Beauty, Truth and Eternal Goodness, of which I want to make him possessor, at any cost. This inestimable design of mine reduces my little Humanity, still unborn, to a state of agony so great as to make Me reach my last breath of life. Had I not been aided and sustained by my Divinity, inseparable to my Humanity by the Hypostatic Union, surely, this time, I would have breathed my last.

My Divinity communicates sweet fountains of new life and makes my little Humanity resist the continuous agony of the nine months, which can be considered to be closer to death than to life. My child, this Ninth Excess of my Love was none other than a continuous agony, from the first instant my Divinity entered the maternal womb to take on the human form and there hide the Essence of my Divinity. If I had done otherwise, I would have elicited fear instead of love in the creature, who then would not have wanted to unite to my Love. But alas! what a protracted agony it was for Me to wait nine months for the creature. Oh, how Love makes Me suffer and reduces Me to a continuous death! I repeat to you, my child, that if my Divinity had not given my Humanity its immense Love for sustenance and strength, my Love of creatures would have devoured Me. I would have been reduced to ashes. Not only would I have been consumed by the operating Love--my lamenting, supplicating Love that made Me take on the enormous burden of punishment due all creatures--but also by the satisfaction required by Divine Justice.

And what does it supplicate? The cold and insensible heart of creatures.

That is why my life in my Mother's maternal womb was rendered so painful that I no longer felt capable of staying away from creatures. I yearn, at any cost, for them to come to my breast and feel my palpitation hot with Love. I yearn to embrace them with my tender and pure affection so as to make them, eternally, lord of my goods.

Know that had I not been helped by you, before it was time to emerge into the light of day, I would have been consumed by the excess of this new Love. Look intently at Me in the maternal womb. See how pale I have become. Listen to my agonized voice that grows always more feeble. Feel the palpitations of my Heart which once beat fast, but now is almost pulse less. Refrain from taking your eyes from Me. Look at Me well, because I am now dying. Yes, dying from pure Love!

At this, I felt faint with love for Jesus; and I felt a deep silence between us. . . a sepulchral silence. My blood froze in my veins, and I no longer felt my heart beat in my chest. My breathing stopped and, trembling, I collapsed onto the bare earth. In this mental stupor, I stammered: My Jesus, my Love, my Life, my All. . . do not die.

I shall always love You; and I shall never leave You, no matter how great the sacrifice. But always give me the flame of your Love so that I will always Love You and be consumed, as soon as possible, for love of You, my Highest and Eternal Good.

I can say that it was then that I felt more than dead. Jesus was already born for this mortal life of ours in order to first make us subject to the death of our own will, and then, later, to give us true Eternal Life. He then touched me and made me recover from the drowsiness into which I had fallen. Sweetly, He said to me: "Daughter, reborn through my Love, get up. Rise to the life of my grace and my Love.

Correspond to Me in everything, and as you have kept Me company in the nine considerations on the Excesses of my Love, the long Novena of my Nativity, do the other twenty-four considerations about my Passion and Death on the Cross, distributing them among the twenty four hours of the day. In them you will discern other more sublime Excesses of my Love; and you will be a continuous relief to Me in the most sorrowful pains which come to Me from ungrateful creatures. In life, you will be the all loving one of my burial; and, in death, you will have the optimum part of my glory."