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The Little Newborn of the Divine Will

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One day, when Luisa Piccarreta was about 13, while working in the house she was meditating on Jesus’ most bitter Passion which He had narrated to her in her interior. Her heart felt so oppressed by the pain that she could not breath, and fearing that something was about to happen to her, she went out onto the balcony to distract herself a little.  

A terrible vision then appeared before her eyes: the street was crowded with people who were leading Jesus carrying the cross. They were pushing Him from side to side. She saw Him sad and oppressed, His face dripping blood. His aspect was so pitiful that the very stones were moved. Jesus then raised His eyes toward her as if asking her for her help.

Luisa immediately went back into her room, now without realizing even where she was. Then, her heart broken for the sorrow, she burst into tears, and said to Him: « Oh, how you are suffering, my Good Jesus! If only I could help you and free you from those rabid wolves, or at least suffer your pains, sorrows and fatigues in your place and so give you the greatest relief! Yes, my Good, make me suffer too, because it is not right for you to suffer so much for love of me, and that I, a sinner, do not suffer anything for you. »

This was the first time but not the last time that Luisa "saw" what Jesus had already been describing to her from the time she was a child. This scene was repeated countless times throughout her lifetime in many ways..

These were just a few of the first signs of the all supernatural life, that our Lord wanted Luisa to live.

From a tender age, Our Lord had chosen this soul for His great designs, as she went step by step, down the road of the cross, the road that the Divine Will had prepared for her, which was to last all of her life.  

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Many years have already gone by since Luisa Piccarreta’s death in 1947 and her memory is still alive in many who knew her, who called her even while she was alive, « Luisa, the saint ».

Many remember this woman with admiration and religious affection, who spent more than sixty years bedridden. She was always the same, always calm and smiling while she was working with her embroidery spindles or else praying with the rosary in her hand.

She was reduced to such a state of continuous mystical sufferings by a precise design of God, after she had voluntarily accepted the invitation of Our Lord at the age of sixteen, to offer herself as victim; it was not because of illness, which the physicians could never find.

Whenever they saw her, they always found the sweet word of the Will of God upon her lips. She knew how to infuse peace of soul and of conscience into everyone. How many there were, who left her little room illuminated and spiritually transformed by the grace of God.

In a bed, surrounded by a white curtain-the smallest cell in the world-, Luisa lived her superhuman history of voluntary immolation as victim, with Jesus, in Jesus and for love of Jesus, in favor of poor sinners, constantly pleading for, as Jesus taught her, the coming of His Kingdom. This virgin, always calm and fresh, small in stature, with vivacious eyes and penetrating look, lived virtually alone.

The firsts years as victim, she was assisted by her parents, and after they died she lived with her youngest sister, Angela. During the last 40 years of her life she was also lovingly assisted by a pious woman, Rosario Bucci, who died recently after having given her precious testimony on everything she recalled about Luisa.

There was never a complaint, never any gesture of opposition to the Will of God, as it was manifested by the circumstance of the day. She was always seated, resting on three large pillows, with a crucifix before her, ever contemplating on, and modeling her life after Him. A long, entire lifetime, sixty-four years, in bed...

This soul, that belonged all to Jesus, lived on a tremendous cross, from 1882 (when she was seventeen) until 1947, going from the state of Jesus’ sensible presence, to the state of being deprived of Him – in suffering, in silence, in prayer

Her life, perfectly coherent, corresponds faithfully to the divine purpose upon her, for with great loyalty she allowed Jesus to form her as the depositary and secretary of the treasures of the Divine Will. In other words, she became the model and example of what the Divine Will is capable of doing in a soul when it possesses the soul and when it gives Itself to the soul as a gift. But above all, Luisa is, as our Lord himself called her, « The Little Daughter of the Divine Will ».

This soul, lacking almost all human instruction (she only learned how to read and write) had to write, under the obligation of an unbending, inexorable obedience, the history of her life and the intimacies and confidences that our Lord told her about living in the Divine Will, in order to make known the eternal decree of the coming of His Kingdom in the Church and in the whole world. This obedience was imposed by Jesus and confirmed by her confessors (she had five during the course of her life), and lasted thirty-39 years (from 1899 to 1938) during which time she wrote thirty-six volumes in diary form, as well as other writings

She would never have written them, if « lady Obedience » (as she used to call obedience, for which she had the highest regard) had not overcome her deep love for silence and her desire to remain unknown. Still, she had to do great violence to herself. And so it is that Luisa is the first witness to herself and to her unique and divine mission, since most of the experiences of her life come to us from her.