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Isaiah 45:11-16-18-19-21-23
The Spirit of God says:
“Do not fail to call yourself the word of Him who is Wisdom and Love of God, Him who from eternity to eternity pours Himself upon all that is to sanctify it for God, Him who with his power presided over all the works of our Trinity and who is not foreign to all that is holy in time and in eternity, for I am the Sanctifier, the One who with his septiform gift sanctifies you and bears you to God, making Him known to you in his will on Earth and in his glory in Heaven.
“I am the Wisdom of God. I am the One whom the Second Person of our Most Holy Triad calls the ‘Teacher of all truth, He who will not speak to you on his own, but will say everything that He has heard and will announce to you the times to come.’29
“O you that seek to know even more than what is necessary, this is the One who can give you that knowledge which you seek.I am He. I. Light of Light am I; Spirit of Spirit am I; Intelligence of Intelligence. I am the guardian, the repository of all truths - past, present, and future - the knower of all God’s decrees, the administrator of his lights to men. I am the One who, not absent with my counsel from the Creator’s works, not absent from the decree of Redemption, am not absent from you, either, to counsel you and, with the sweetness of love, make the wishes which the Father proposes to you a fait accompli. am even more. I am the Love inspiring you with what is suitable for giving you God’s embrace and bearing you to his breast along the path of holiness.
“Like a merciful wet nurse, I clutch your incapacity as those just born to Life and educate and raise you. Holding you in my arms, I give you warmth to bring you to assimilate the most sweet milk of the Word of God so that it will become life in you. I make Myself a shield for you against the dangers of the world and of Satan because Love is a saving power. guide and support you and, as a master of loving patience, instruct you. I make you - burdensome and sluggish, faint-hearted and weak - into heroes and athletes of God. I make you - spiritually poor - into kings of the spirit, for I cover your spirits with my divine splendors and set them on a throne which is the greatest of all, since mine is the throne of eternal holiness.
“But to know Me it is necessary not to have idolatry in one’s heart. It is necessary to believe in what I have sanctified. To believe in the truths which I have illuminated. It is necessary to abandon error. It is necessary to seek God where He is. Not where the Enemy of God and man is.
“Do you want to know the Truth? Oh, come to Me! I alone can tell it to you. And I tell it to you in the way my goodness knows to be appropriate for you, so as not to disturb your weakness as men and your relativity.
“Why do you love what is contorted, complicated, and dark? Love Me, who am simple, straightforward, and luminous, Me, who am the joy of God and of the spirit.
“Do you want to know the future of the spirit? I teach it to you by speaking to you of an eternity awaiting you in a blessedness which is inconceivable for you, in which, after this hour of sojourn, the only sojourn upon the Earth, you shall rest in God from all labors, from all sorrows, and shall forget pain because Joy shall be your possession; and even if Love, which is never so alive as in Heaven, makes you throb with pain over the living, it shall not be pity which gives you pain, but only active love which shall also be joy.
“Do you want to know the Creator’s perfections in things, the mysteries of creation? I can tell them to you, I who, as Wisdom, ‘emerged first of all from the mouth of God, the firstborn before all creatures,’30 I who am in all that is, for everything bears the seal of love, and I am Love. My Being extends over the whole Universe; my Light bathes the stars, planets, seas, valleys, herbs, and animals in Itself; my Intelligence races over the whole Earth, instructs those far off, gives everyone a reflection of the Exalted, and educates in the search for God; my Charity penetrates like breath and conquers hearts.
“I attract the just of the Earth to Myself, and to the upright ones without knowledge of the true God I grant reflections of this holy God of yours whereby a streamlet of Truth is in all revealed religions, placed there by Me, who am the One who irrigates and makes fruitful.
“In addition, like the powerful surge of an eternal spring, I overflow on all sides of the Catholic Church of Christ, and with Grace, the seven gifts, and the seven sacraments make faithful Catholics into servants of the Lord, those chosen for the Kingdom, sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Christ, and gods whose destiny is so infinitely sublime that any sacrifice is warranted to possess it.
“Turn to Me. You will know and understand and be saved, for you will encounter the Truth. Separate, separate yourselves from error, which gives you no joy or peace. Bend your knee before the true God. Before the God who spoke on Sinai31 and evangelized in Palestine. Before the God who speaks to you through the Church, made into a Teacher by Me, the Spirit of God.
“There is no other God apart from Us: Triune. There is no other Religion but our centuries-old one. There is no other future, on the Earth and beyond, except the one conveyed to you by the holy Books. Everything else is a Lie destined to be put to shame by Him who is Justice and Truth.
“Ask Us - Power, Word, and Wisdom - for light so that you will not walk beyond, along false paths of death, but be able yourselves as well, who are wandering, to come onto the way along which salvation was found by those who, through their humble, wise, holy faith, pleased God, who made them his saints.”
Mary says:
“And since I am the Mother, I also speak, clasping you to my breast to lead you to faith, my children whom I see dying, nourished as you are on deathly poison.
“I beg you, for the sake of that Son of mine whom I gave with painful joy for your salvation - come back onto the paths of Christ. You have written his most holy Name on your pathways. But it is a profanation. And if it weren’t for the fact that the Enemy obscures your minds and guides your hand, forcing it to write what good sense could not lead you to write, you would not write that blessed Name on the ways over which Satan comes to you and on the doors of your grotesque temples as Godless people.
“But for your sake I say to the Father, ‘Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing,’32 and I ask the Holy Father for you, poor children deceived by Satan. I defeated Satan in myself and for the sake of men. He is under my foot. I will defeat him in you as well, provided you come to me.
“I am the Mother. The Mother whom Love has made the mother of beautiful love. I am the one in whom the manna of Grace rests, as in an ark. I am Full of Grace, nor does God place a limit on my power to pour out this divine treasure. I am the Mother of the Truth, who became flesh in me. I am the bearer of man’s Hope. Through me the hope of the patriarchs and the prophets has become a reality. I am the seat of Wisdom, who made me his own, and the Mother of the Son of God.
“Come, that I may take you to Christ, holding your hand, with this hand of mine, which assisted the first steps of Jesus the Savior along the ways of earth and taught Him to walk so that He would readily go up to Golgotha to save you, dearer to me, because you are the most unfortunate of all men, the condemned, whom I fight to snatch away from the power dragging you into the abyss, to save you for Heaven.
“See how much I have wept for you. For you are not the ones who fall when dragged down by a weight of flesh, so impetuous and sudden that it bowls you over without giving you the time or opportunity to react. You are the ones who tenaciously, knowingly commit the sin which is not forgiven - my Son said So.33 You deny the Truth to make iniquitous lies into truths for yourselves. You become lucifers. And you could be angels!
“I don’t ask you for much. Only for you to love me as a Mother, only for you to call me. My name will already be honey to your poisoned lips. And it will be salvation, for where Mary is, there Jesus is, and whoever loves me cannot fail to love the Truth who is the Son of my flesh. I do not reproach; I do not condemn. I love. I just love.
“I should not cause you any fear because I am meeker than a ewe lamb and more peaceful than an olive tree. So meek that, surpassing ewe lambs, I let my Child be torn away from my breast and be sacrificed on an altar of blood without reacting, without cursing. So superior to the olive tree that by myself I made myself an olive under the grindstone, and I let myself be pressed by pain to make the oil to medicate your wounds and consecrate you for Heaven drip out of my virginal, motherly, immaculate heart.
“Lay your infirm heads on my lap. I will heal them and say to you the words which Wisdom says to me to lead you to the Light of God.”
How beautiful! How beautiful! How beautiful what I see is!
I shall try to be very precise and clear in describing for you what Communion brought me.
You already know that I was happy. But you don’t know what blessedness and what a joyful vision was granted to me from the moment of Eucharistic union on. It was like a picture being shown to me by degrees. But it was not a picture - it was contemplation. I was recollected therein for a good hour with no other prayer but this contemplation, which enraptured me beyond the earth.
It began right after receiving the consecrated Host, and I think it did not escape you that I was slow to respond and greet you - I was already enveloped. In spite of that, I expressed the whole act of thanksgiving out loud, as the vision came upon me more and more intensely. And then I became still, with my eyes closed, as if I were sleeping. But I have never been so awake in my entire self as in that hour.
In its final stage, the vision is still continuing as I write. I am writing under the gaze of so many heavenly beings who see that I am saying only what I see, without adding details or making modifications. And here is the vision.
As soon as I received Jesus, I felt the Mother, Mary, on the left-hand side of the bed, who was embracing me with her right arm drawing me to herself. She was wearing her dress and white veil, as in the visions of the Grotto, in December.34 At the same time I felt enveloped by a golden light and by a soft, indescribably soft color, and the eyes of my spirit sought its source, which I sensed was raining down on me from above. It seemed to me that my room, though remaining the room it is, in its floor and four walls and furnishings, no longer had a ceiling and that I was seeing the boundless blue skies of God.
Suspended in these blue skies, the Divine Dove of fire remained perpendicularly over Mary’s head, and, of course, over my head, since I was leaning cheek-to-cheek against Mary. The Holy Spirit’s wings were open, and He remained in an upright, vertical position. He did not move, and yet He vibrated, and with each vibration there were waves, rays, and sparks of splendor which issued forth. From Him there emerged a cone of golden light whose summit started from the Dove’s breast and whose base enwrapped Mary and me. We were gathered into this cone, this cloak, this embrace of joyful light. A most intense light and yet not glaring, for it communicated new strength to one’s eyes which increased with every flash flowing forth from the Dove, ever augmenting the flash already existing with every vibration of the Dove. I felt my eyes expanding into a supernatural power, almost as if they were no longer the eyes of a creature, but of an already glorified spirit.
When I attained the capacity to see beyond, thanks to the inflamed Love suspended over me, my spirit was called to look higher. And, against the brighter blue of Paradise, I saw the Father. Distinctly, although his figure blue in lines of immaterial light. A beauty which I shall not attempt to describe because it is superior to human capacities. He appeared to me as if on a throne. I speak this way because He appeared to me seated with infinite majesty. But I saw no throne, chair, or baldachin. Nothing resembling the earthly shape of a seat. He appeared to me from my lefthand side (in the direction of my Jesus on the Cross, just to give you an idea, and therefore to the right of his Son), but at an incalculable height. And yet I saw Him in the most minute of his extremely luminous features. He was looking towards the window (also to give you, an idea of the different positions). He was looking with a gaze of infinite love.
I followed his gaze and saw Jesus. Not the Jesus as Teacher I usually see. Jesus as King. White clothing, but with a luminous, extremely white robe, like Mary’s. A robe that seems to be made of light. Most beautiful. Stalwart. Imposing. Perfect. Blazing. In his right hand - He was standing - He held his scepter, which is also his standard. A long rod, almost a crosier, but even taller than my very tall Jesus, which doesn’t end in the curl of a crosier, but in a transverse rod, which thus forms a cross made in this way,35 from which there hangs, supported by the shorter rod, a banner of most luminous, white silk, made like this,36 and marked on both sides by a purple cross; on the banner, written in words of light, almost as if written with liquid diamonds, is the name “Jesus Christ.”
I very clearly see the wounds on his hands because his right hand is holding the rod aloft, towards the banner, and his left hand is indicating the wound in his side, which I do not, however, see as anything but a luminous point from which there are emanating rays descending to the ground. The wound on the right hand is precisely in the area of the wrist and looks like a glittering ruby the size of a tencentesimo coin. The one on the left hand is more centrally located and larger, but it further extends like this37 towards the thumb. They shine like vivid rubies. I see no other wounds. On the contrary the Body of my Lord is most beautiful and intact in all its parts.
The Father is looking at the Son on his left. The Son is looking at his Mother and me. But I assure you that if He were not looking with love, I could not bear the gleaming of his gaze and of his appearance. He is really the King of tremendous majesty who is spoken of.38
The longer the vision lasts, the more the capacity to perceive the smallest details increases in me and to see further and further all around.
Indeed, after a while I see St. Joseph (in the corner, where the Nativity Scene is). He is not so tall, more or less like Mary. Sturdily built. With grizzly hair, curly and short, and a squarely-cut beard. A long, thin, aquiline nose. Two wrinkles cut across his cheeks, starting from the corners of his nose and moving down until fading at the sides if his mouth in his beard. Dark, very good eyes. In them I rediscover the lovingly good look of my father. The whole face is good, thoughtful without being sad, dignified, but very, very good. He is wearing a dark blue-purple tunic like the petals of certain periwinkles, and his cloak is the color of camel’s skin. Jesus points him out to me, saying, “Here is the patron of all the just.”
The Light then calls my spirit from the other side of the room - that is, towards Marta’s bed39 - and I see my angel. He is kneeling, facing towards Mary, whom he seems to venerate. Dressed in white. His arms are crossed over his chest, and his hands are touching his shoulders. His head is bending very low, and I thus see little of his face. His gesture reflects profound devotion. I see his beautiful, long, extremely white, pointed wings, real wings made to fly swiftly and surely from Earth to Heaven, now gathered in behind his back. By his attitude he is teaching me how to say, “Hail Mary”
As I continue to observe him, I sense that someone is close to me on my right and is resting his hand on my right shoulder. It is my St. John, with his face shining with cheerful love.
I feel blessed. And I recollect myself in the midst of such blessedness, thinking I have touched the peak. But a brighter gleaming of the Spirit of God and of the wounds of Jesus, my Lord, further increases my ability to see. And I see the heavenly Church, the triumphant Church! I shall attempt to describe it for you.
Above there remain the Father, the Son, and now the Spirit as well, high above the Two, half way between the Two, whom He links with his splendors.
Further down, as if between two skyblue slopes - a blue which is not of this earth - gathered together in a blessed valley, is the multitude of those glorified in Christ, the army of those marked with the name of the Lamb,40 a multitude which is light, a light which is song, a song which is adoration, an adoration which is blessedness.
On the left are the ranks of the confessors. On the right are those of the virgins. I did not see the ranks of the martyrs, and the Spirit has me understand that the martyrs are added to the virgins, for martyrdom renders the soul virginal once more, as if just created. All of them seem to be dressed in white, both the confessors and the virgins. That luminous white of the robes of Jesus and Mary.
Light emanates from the skyblue floor and the skyblue walls of the holy valley, almost as if they were made of burning sapphire. The robes of diamond cloth emit light, as do, above all, the spiritualized bodies and faces. And here I shall make an effort to describe for you what I have observed in the different bodies.
Only the bodies of Jesus and Mary are bodies of flesh and spirit - alive, pulsating, perfect, sensitive to touch and contact: two glorious bodies which are, however, really “bodies.” The Eternal Father, the Holy Spirit, and my angel are light in the shape of a body, just so it can be perceptible to this poor servant of God. St. Joseph and St. John are light which is now more compact, certainly because I must perceive their presence and words. All the blessed forming the host of the Heavens are white flames which are spiritualized bodies.
None of the confessors turns around. They are all looking at the Most Holy Trinity. Some of the virgins turn about. I distinguish the Apostles Peter and Paul, for, though luminous and dressed in white like everyone else, their faces are indeed more distinguishable than the others - a characteristic Jewish face. They are looking at me benignly (it’s a good thing they are!).
Then there are three blessed spirits, who I grasp are women, who observe me, gesture, and smile. You could say they are inviting me. They are young. But it in fact seems to me that all the blessed are of the same age: youthful, perfect, and equally beautiful. They are lesser copies of Jesus and Mary. I cannot say who these three heavenly creatures are, but since two are carrying palms and one, only flowers - the palms are the only sign distinguishing the martyrs from the virgins - I think I am not mistaken in saying they are Agnes, Cecilia, and Thérèse of Lisieux.
In spite of my desire to do so, what I cannot convey to you is the Hallelujah of this multitude. A Hallelujah which is both powerful and soft as a caress. And everything laughs and shines more intensely with each hosanna of the multitude for its God.
The vision ceases and in its intensity crystallizes in this form. Mary leaves me, and, with Her, John and Joseph; the former takes her place in front of the Son, and the other two, theirs, in the ranks of the virgins.
Praise be to Jesus Christ.
29 John 16:13.
30 Sirach 24.
31 Exodus 19-20.
32 Luke 23:24
33 Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10.
34 Seethe entry for December 29, 1943, in The Notebooks. 1943.
35 Here the writer drew a very elongated Latin cross.
36 Here the writer roughly sketched a kind of cross-shaped shield.
37 Here the writer drew a little elliptic circle, elongated towards a point on the right.
38 In the Roman liturgy’s Dies irae, dies illa.
39 Throughout the volume, when the writer names Marta, she is referring to Marta Diciotti. Born in Lucca in 1910, Marta lived at Maria’s side and lovingly provided her with care from 1935 until the writer’s death on October 12, 1961. Thereafter she continued to live at Maria Valtorta’s residence in Viareggio.
40 Revelation 7.