"very few souls, that is among all the souls in the world in general, want to sympathize with the agony endured by his Heart, that is, to console him through the most intimate union." Bl. Dina.
 |
| Luisa Piccarreta |
The Infinite Value of the Hours of the Passion
by
Hugh Owen
According to the great
spiritual theologian, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., "All the saints have lived until the end of their lives by the contemplation of the Passion." The writings of Luisa Piccarreta and others have opened a window on to the abyss of Our Lord's interior sufferings.
Concerning our own participation in the sufferings of Jesus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that
"because in his incarnate divine person he has in some
way united himself to every man, 'the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery' is offered to
all men ... " (eee, 618). Through
the Passion of Jesus, "suffering, a consequence of Original Sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes
a participation in the
saving work of Jesus"(CCC, 1520).
Again and again, in his revelations
to twentieth century victim souls such as
Blessed Dina Belanger and the Servants of God Conchita Cabrera and Luisa Piccarreta, Jesus has
complained of the ignorance
and indifference of souls-even consecrated souls-before the sufferings of his Sacred Heart. Very few souls want to sympathize with
me in my agony, He confided to Blessed Dina Belanger, a religious of the
Congregation of Jesus and Mary. In her
spiritual diary, Blessed Dina noted
that "very few souls, that is among
all the souls in the world
in general,
want to sympathize with the agony endured by his Heart, that is, to console
him through the most intimate union." (emphasis added)
In many private revelations approved by the Church in
this century, Our Lord has begged for a loving JV contemplation of his interior sufferings. He told Conchita Cabrera:
I only remained on the Cross
of Calvary for
three hours, but on the interior Cross of My Heart,
My whole life ... I wish
that above all, there be honored the interior sufferings of My Heart, sufferings undergone from
My Incarnation to the Cross and
which are
mystically prolonged in
My Eucharist. These sufferings are still unsuspected by the world. None the less I
declare to you that, from the first moment of my Incarnation, the
Cross already planted
in My Heart
overburdened
Me and
the thorns penetrated
it. The blow struck by the
lance might have been some
solace causing
to gush from My Side a
volcano of love and of suffering
but I did not consent
to that until after
My death.
I only receive ingratitude.
That is why My
Heart overflowing with tenderness will ever
feel the thorns of the Cross.
In heaven, as God, I cannot suffer.
To find this Cross which above did
not exist, I
descended into this world
and became man.
As God-Man, I could suffer infinitely
to pay the
price of salvation of so many souls. During My life, I
never desired
anything except
the Cross, and ever
the Cross, wanting to show the world That which
is the sole wealth
and happiness on earth, the currency which will buy an eternal happiness.
Jesus asked Conchita to start Congregations for the primary purpose of venerating
his interior sufferings:
 |
| Conchita_Cabrera_de_Armida |
In these
houses,
in this "oasis" will be honoured this ocean of interior
sufferings, today known to but very few. There, they will take
My thorns and with them
pierce their
own hearts. They will
lighten
the weight of the Cross which burdens My Heart, themselves becoming
living Crosses. Their
lives will remain wholly secluded
in the interior of the Cross
of My Heart, venerating, alleviating,
making their own these interior sufferings which, for thirty-three years,
never left
Me for
a single moment (emphasis added).
To Blessed Dina, Jesus described the frightful consequences of men's failure to contemplate the sorrows of his Sacred Heart. She wrote:
 |
| Blessed Dina Belanger |
He let me see in spirit millions of souls
rushing after Satan towards their eternal ruin. And he, the savior, was there, surrounded by a small number of faithful souls, suffering for these millions of sinners, but to no purpose. His Heart saw souls falling in countless numbers
into hell. Seeing this, I said: "My Jesus,
You accomplished the act of redemption to the full; what
is wanting, then, given that so many
souls are being lost?" He answered: It
is because devout souls do not unite
themselves sufficiently with my sufferings ... 1 entrust great secrets to souls
who are willing to
sympathize with
me in my sufferings
and console me in my agony
(emphasis added).
Perhaps the simplest and most
complete account of the
interior sufferings
of Jesus can be found in the writings of Luisa Piccarreta. From her teenage years, Luisa spent much of each day in loving contemplation of Our Lord's Passion. Around
1913, under obedience to her extraordinary confessor, Blessed Hannibal Di Francia, Luisa recorded Our Lord's revelations
concerning his interior sufferings from Holy Thursday until his death on Good Friday. One day, Blessed Hannibal read one ofthe Hours
of the Passion to
his friend Pope St. Pius X. After listening for a while,
the Holy Father interrupted
the reading. "Father,
this should be read kneeling,"
the Pope exclaimed; "It is Jesus who is speaking."
In her diary, Luisa recorded
Our Lord's testimony concerning
the special grace attached
to the Hours of the Passion. Jesus told Luisa:
It is true that
my saints have meditated my Passion
and have understood how much 1
have suffered and have burst into
tears
of compassion; so much so
as to feel themselves
consumed for
love of my pains, but
not in such a continuous
and always
repeated way,
nor with this order. ~ (
Therefore 1
can say that you are the first to give
Me this
great
and special pleasure,
that of breaking
down in yourself, hour by hour, my Life and
that which 1 suffered.
And 1 feel Myself so drawn
that, hour by hour ... 1 do together
with you that which you do. Know, though,
that 1 will
recompense you for it abundantly with new
light and new graces; and even after your
death, every
time souls upon earth
shall do these Hours of
my Passion, L in Heaven, will dress you
with ever
new light and glory.
When Luisa asked Jesus what favour He would
grant to souls who would contemplate his sufferings in the Hours of
the Passion, He told her:
1 will also give them a soul
for every word which they
will recite
if they will do them together with Me and with my same Will,
because all the
greater or lesser efficacy of these Hours of my Passion
lies in the greater or lesser union which they have
with Me. And
by doing them with
my Will, the
creature hides itself
in my Will; and with
my Will in act, I can do all the good that 1
want, even with a single
word. And this 1 will
do every time that they will
do them ... These
Hours are
the most precious of all, for they
are none other than
the repetition of what
1 did in the course of my mortal Life and of what 1 continue to do in the Most
Blessed
Sacrament. When 1 hear these Hours of
my Passion, I hear
my own voice and my
own prayers. I see my Will in that soul who
desires the good of all and who
wants to make reparation for all, and I feel
transported; whence, 1 take up my dwelling within
her, so
as to do within her
that which she herself does. Oh,
how I would love it if only
one soul in
every town
were to
make these Hours of my Passion! I would feel my own presence
in each town, and
my Justice - greatly disdained in
these times -
would be partly appeased.
According to St. Paul, "where sin abounds, grace abounds
all the more" (Rmns 5:20).
Thus, in this century,
when the culture of death threatens to overwhelm the world completely, God has revealed his greatest graces by inviting us to live in continual communion with his interior sufferings. As He told Conchita:
It is
a great honor for
souls when
the Father
calls them to associate them with the
Redemption;
with the eo-redemption, uniting them with Me and Mary. ..
The Holy Spirit will reign the day when My sacrifice of suffering will also reign: the Cross in hearts (emphasis added)."
Letters of Gold from the House of the Divine Will
Issue No.25 - February 1999
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