Living the Gift

Luisa begins: Returning to the point about living in the Divine Will, I was told that it was like living in the state of union with God; and my always lovable Jesus, in coming, said to me: “My daughter, there is a great difference between living united with Me and living in my Will.” As He was saying this, He stretched His arms toward me and told me: “Come into my Will, even for one instant, and you will see the great difference.”

I found myself in Jesus. My tiny atom was swimming in the Eternal Volition. And since this Eternal Volition is one single Act that contains, altogether, all the acts, past, present and future – since I was in the Eternal Volition, I took part in that single Act which contains all acts, as much as it is possible for creature.

I took part also in the acts which do not exist, and which must yet exist, until the end of the centuries, and until God will be God. And for these acts too I loved Him, I thanked Him, I blessed Him, etc. There was no act which escaped me. I took the Love of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and I made it mine, just as their Will was mine; and I gave it to Them as if it were my own. How happy I was to be able to give Them their own Love as though my own! And how They found their full contentment and complete outpouring in receiving their own Love from me, as if It were mine! But who can say everything? I lack the words.

Now, blessed Jesus told me: “Have you seen what living in my Will is? It is to disappear and to enter the sphere of Eternity; it is to penetrate into the Omnipotence of the Eternal One – into the Uncreated Mind, and take part in everything and in each Divine act, as much as it is possible for a creature. It is to make use, even while on earth, of all the Divine qualities; it is to hate evil in a Divine way. It is extending oneself to everyone without exhaustion, because the Will which animates this creature is Divine. It is the Sanctity which is not yet known, which I will make known, and which will place the last ornament, the most beautiful and the brightest among all other sanctities. It will be the crown and the fulfillment of all the other sanctities.

“Now, to live united with Me is not to disappear – two beings appear together; but one who does not disappear cannot enter into the sphere of Eternity to take part in all the Divine acts. Ponder well, and you will see the great difference.”

Luisa Piccarreta, Book of Heaven, Volume 12, April 8, 1919

So we can see that this “living” in the Divine Will is not the same as “doing” the Divine Will as we have come to know it. The latter is a human path to sanctity. The former is a “new and Divine Holiness”.

The Gift of Living in the Divine Will is meant for everyone. We continue to live our normal life striving always to remain in a state of grace and grow in virtue. But we learn to do all our acts in a new way. This includes all the ordinary acts of daily living, from the smallest eye blink to the greatest suffering. By doing our acts in the Divine Will, God draws us into his One Eternal Act, which reaches to all times and places.

So, before this New Era can come, many more souls must learn about and desire the Gift of Living in the Divine Will. This means reading, studying, and putting into practice what is taught in the Volumes. Those who correspond to this Gift are entrusted to call the whole world into the Will of God, in preparation for the Era of Peace.

This does not mean we are special, saintly, or even holy. We are little ones who have nothing to offer, but of course God loves to create out of nothing. What he needs are souls willing to acknowledge their nothingness, fuse with Him and “let Him do”, as he often tells Luisa in the writings.

Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi explains the Four Steps to Living in the Divine Will:

“Desire (admits us to this gift), knowledge (advances us in this gift), virtue (anchors us in this gift), and life (actualizes this gift). While the soul in the state of grace may, with holy desire, immediately enter into God’s one eternal operation and impact all things concomitantly, it is not until the soul becomes grounded in the virtues that it may experience life in the Divine Will, as life implies continuity in God’s one eternal operation.”

Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, STD, Ph.D., Manual for Priests, Instructing the laity on the Gift of Living in the Divine Will, Section 2.3.9, The Four Steps to Living in the Divine Will.

Living in the Divine Will is at once simple and complex, readily accessible yet infinitely deep. In the Divine Will, we do everything, but feel nothing. We fuse ourselves in Jesus and let him live his life in us. “Jesus, walk in my walking, talk in my talking, read in my reading, eat in my eating, clean in my cleaning, blink in my blinking…” In our abject poverty, God makes us owners and administrators of the heavenly treasury. As we enter into our nothingness and “let God do” in, with, through, and for us and for all, we, and indeed human history, are transformed in ways that will take an eternity to begin to appreciate. Fiat!

In forming this group, we hope to encourage, assist, and journey with others who are responding to God’s call through the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta. God has put everything into place; the time is upon us for the fulfillment of the Our Father prayer. Let us pray for the grace to imitate Mary, Queen of the Divine Will, and Luisa, Little Daughter of the Divine Will, in giving our own unending Fiat! to God, asking him continually to pour out on us and on all, the Gift of Living in the Divine Will.

Do you want to know how to grow in the FIAT? By calling it in everything you do, whether natural or spiritual. In fact, everything is in the Divine Will; therefore It wants to love together with you, and if you call It, It gives you Its Love in your power in order to be loved; It gives you Its sanctity to make yourself a saint, Its light to make Itself known and to eclipse your weaknesses, miseries and passions, so that they may no longer have life in you, but only Its Will, laying and forming Its Life in your little act…

Letters of Luisa, “To Sister Clara”, January 2, 1939