I recently began reading some of Mark Mallett’s posts on Luisa, Living in the Divine Will, and turned to two documents which he indicated online: THE CROWN OF SANCTITY, (a book available at Amazon also), https://danieloconnor.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/the-crown-of-sanctity.pdf
The other document which I downloaded seems to have disappeared online; so I cannot reference it for you.
However, I recommend these links, the first on her writings: ON LUISA AND HER WRITINGS, https://www.markmallett.com/blog/2020/01/07/on-luisa-and-her-writings/
The second on Luisa and St. Faustina, together: THE DIVINE FOOTNOTES, https://www.markmallett.com/blog/2020/01/09/the-divine-footnotes/ .
As I read the second, simpler doc, [the one I can’t now find] I was struck by two concepts which Luisa explained, the difference between submitting to God’s Will, DOING the Divine Will, and LIVING in the Divine Will. Here are her words: “First, in my poor opinion, living in submission means to submit to the Divine Will in everything, both when things go well and when they go badly. It means to see the Divine Will in everything, to see the Power of the Divine Order which the Divine Will imposes on all creatures, so that not even one hair of our head can fall if the Lord does not want it. [Yet] … for someone who lives in submission to the Divine Will, it’s almost impossible not to mix in his own will. He will be a good son, but he will not fully exemplify the thoughts, words and life of his father within himself in everything that he does. Since he has to come and go, attend to other people and deal with them, the flow of his love is broken – because only a continuous union makes love grow without interruption. When the current of the will of the father is not in continuous communication with the current of the will of the son, in the intervals the son can get used to doing his own will…. to do My Will is to Live with two wills so that when I give orders to follow Mine, the soul feels the weight of her own will which resists It. And even though she faithfully executes the orders of My Will, she feels the weight of her rebellious nature, her passions and her inclinations.”
What does it mean, therefore, to LIVE IN THE DIVINE WILL? “Living in the Divine Will means being inseparable from It, doing nothing by oneself, because in the presence of the Divine Will the soul feels incapable of doing anything. She does not ask for orders, nor does she receive them, because she feels incapable of going on by herself.” At some point Luisa tells Christ: “My love, Jesus, my ideal is to fulfill Your Will, and my sole purpose is to reach the point where none of my thoughts, words, deeds, or heartbeats ever leaves the Kingdom of Your Supreme Will.”
Jesus tells Luisa: “To Live in My Will is to “Live with one single Will – which is God’s. … Now, you must know that to enter into My “Fiat,” the essential thing is to want to do so – to constantly yearn to Live in It. The second thing is to take the first step, and once the creature has taken it, My Divine Will surrounds her with Light and with such an allure that she loses the desire to do her own will. …she not only feels a great need to Live in My Will, but she feels It as her own Life, which cannot be distinguished from Mine. So you can see how easy it is. But you must want it as much as My Fatherly Goodness wants it.”
I was amazed and touched when I read these words of Christ, because they reminded me of Hugh Owens’ book, NEW AND DIVINE: THE HOLINESS OF THE THIRD CHRISTIAN MILLENNIUM:
“I want you to know that when the creature works in My Divine Will, her works, her acts, her worship and her love for God are done, formed and enclosed in Eternity, because My Divine Will is eternal, and all that is done in It never leaves Eternity. Everything is always in Act in It forever – in worship and in Divine and perpetual Love.”
Owen explains the eternal mode of prayer, telling us, “In the lives and writings of the exemplars [St. Theresa, Venerable Luis Martinez, Blessed Dina Belanger, St. Theresa, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Blessed Conchita, St. Maximillian Kolbe and others] Jesus shows his willingness to open his Heart completely to all who abandon themselves to the reign of the Father’s Will through the Holy Spirit....On several occasions, Our Lord told the exemplars of the ‘new holiness’ that He had given them, the ability to do God’s will as He did it, in time and in eternity–‘on earth as in Heaven.’” [pp. 28, 31]
Owen: “Jesus told Blessed Dina Belanger that by abandoning herself to the Father’s Will through the Holy Spirit, she would allow Him to operate freely in her and with her, in eternity. In the “eternal mode,” she [and others] would be able to do those acts perfectly that Jesus had prepared for her with the Father and the Spirit before the creation of the world. Thus, they would be present to all souls, past, present, and future in all of their acts. Their smallest actions, performed together for the glory of the Father and for the good of all creatures, would influence all souls for good. [p.36-37]
This spirituality is so rich and so deep, and THE CROWN OF SANCTITY published in March 2019, also explores so much of it including insights from NEW AND DIVINE [Hugh Owens’ book].
My thirst and longing truly to live in the Divine Will has been growing exponentially in the last few years. In July 2016, I read Jesus’ words to Conchita:
“You are to live cloistered in the very inner sanctuary of your soul, for there is where dwells the Holy Spirit.”
The nex
t day, the Holy Spirit gave me this: “In the perfect FIAT of my Mother, I find my inner cloister.” I am determined with all my heart to live in the Fiat of Mary—“Be it done to me according to Thy Word.”
Here is something of what I understood then: This was the way I was to live in the Divine Will, in the Fiat of Mary herself, under her tutelage: “I, too, am determined to live in her perfect Fiat to the Divine Will, in this most hidden of inner cloisters of my own heart, in all the moments of my life—each one a sacrament of the moment. This cloister of the Fiat wraps me in humility, first, enabling me to be “the handmaid of the Lord”—in purity, because to live in Fiat is always to be overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live in His Fire, to be transformed into the Heart of Jesus.” [ THE INNER CLOISTER OF FIAT]
I cannot be satisfied to DO the Divine Will, but I am driven to LIVE in the Divine Will, as Mary herself. Mary’s Fiat is in perfect conjunction with the Fiat of Jesus Himself to live the will of the Father. I want my whole life to be perfectly fused with the Fiat of Jesus and Mary, a perfect FIAT of abandonment to the Divine Will through the Holy Spirit who overshadows every aspect of my life.
On a simple, ordinary level of day to day life, I try to live in the sacrament of the moment, for each little moment as it comes is a moment of abandonment to the Divine Will; union with the Divine Will as my life and will fuses with the Eternal Will in the eternal mode of prayer. Thus, my whole life is cloistered in the Divine Will, never parting from it, always flowing with it—as the Holy Spirit blows where He will.
Jesus told Luisa that learning to live in the Divine Will is easy: “ Now, you must know that to enter into My “Fiat,” the essential thing is to want to do so – to constantly yearn to Live in It.”
Here are some points to ponder:
The interior lives of Jesus and Mary revolved around the Will of the Father.
To Live in the Divine Will is to live in the Eternal Mode of prayer, the prayer of Christ Himself.
Luisa says: “One who works in the Divine Will works in Eternity, while one who acts outside of the Divine Will works in time.”
To Live in the Divine Will is not merely to Do the Divine Will, but to be inseparable from the one Divine Will.
To live in the Divine Will is to be cloistered, enclosed as in a garden or sanctuary of delight, never to leave it, but to abandon our own will, our life and every aspect of our life to be fused with the One Will.
All that we need do is to abandon ourselves, yearning through the Holy Spirit for union with the Divine Will in the sacrament of every moment.
Living in the Divine Will gives perfect peace because all is simplified in One Will—no tension of two wills, struggle, or conflict.
“Abandon yourself simply by accepting all, the way that it is given to you… Give yourself completely serving all for love of Me. [Simple Path, 4-E, # 80, p. 231]
Finally, Luisa describes the freedom and delight of the soul who lives in the Divine Will:
“It is impossible to find this daughter without her Father, nor the Father without her. Not only her exterior, but her whole interior seems to be interwoven with the Father’s Interior, transformed, and completely dissolved in God. O the rapid and sublime flights of this daughter in the Divine Will! This Divine Will is immense; in every instant It circulates within everyone, It gives life to everything, and orders all things. And the soul, soaring in this immensity, flies to everyone, helps everyone, and loves everyone. It is as if Jesus Himself helps and loves – something that cannot be done by a soul who lives in submission.”
SOUL FOOD MINISTRIES 