Yesterday there was no dictation. Rest for my weary shoulders, crushed by abundant writing in recent days. But not an absence of heavenly favors.
First of all, a lot of peace, and then the visible presence of my Heavenly Friends and their caresses and - perceptible to others as well - that scent of roses, which is sometimes pure, as if there were tufts of just-cut roses in the room, and sometimes seems fused to a tenuous smell of iodine and vinegar, as if the roses had withered a little on their stems. The perfume comes slowly; at the outset, it is barely a nuance; it then intensifies and grows, virtually coming in waves, at times very forceful and at times less marked. It then disperses as it has come.
It is generally the smell of roses. But sometimes it is complex, as if there were gardenias, jasmines, violets, lilies of the valley, normal lilies, and tuberoses. I never smell carnations, irises, daffodils, freesias, or other flowers. Only the ones I mentioned above.
I think it is brought by some “Friend” or comes with the blessing of Padre Pio.564 But I do not know exactly. And I greet it every time with a thanksgiving, saying, “Whoever you are, thank you for your perceptible protection.” For I feel protected when I am in the midst of those fragrances, even more than usual. As if I were in the arms of someone who loves me with the perfection of a saint.
Now, before writing what I have written, I took the Bible and opened it by chance. It opened upside down. You can see it was by chance! And, after turning the book around correctly, I saw Exodus, chapter 30: the altar of the perfumes. Jesus says to me, “Leave it open there. It is the lesson for today. First write on the perfumes I send you, and then I shall speak on the ones I want you to send Me.” I have written and wait.
Jesus says:
“To every soul that loves Me I say, ‘Make your heart an altar on which your love is fragrant before my holiness.’ But to my beloved ones I give a more specific command. Because I want you to be perfect. I want this out of love and out of justice. Every gift demands repayment. I have given to you beyond measure. You must give to Me without measure.
“Understand the way I want you to be, under the metaphor of the biblical altar.565
“How should your heart be an altar for perfume? Made of precious material on the inside and on the outside and in every part of it.
“In the acacia wood there is concealed the meaning of preciousness, incorruptibility, resistance, and lightness. This wood, precious because it is not abundant and has special characteristics, was endowed with these qualities. Precious because it was scarce and rare in trunks that were so sturdy that they could be squared into blocks a meter high and half a meter wide. Incorruptible under the action of water and woodworms because of its hardness, which increased as it aged, as the color became more precious, very gradually changing from the shade of a bright straw yellow and getting darker and darker until looking as black as ebony. Very resistant, then, to the deleterious action of humidity and woodworms, it was particularly employed for those objects which, in view of the use to which they were put, had to be protected against wearing out quickly. First of all, the sacred objects. At the same time, it was lighter than other kinds of wood that were less resistant, but much heavier. Suitable, then, for use in objects that, when necessary, had to be lifted up and carried out of respect.
“Your heart must be like this. Precious because it is formed by love and by union with God and by generosity in love. Incorruptible under the deleterious action of sensuality and temptation and Satanic treachery, the three woodworms of the soul, for generous love and union make the fibers of the heart incorruptible under disintegrating action coming from outside. How can anything else enter a heart that is full of Me? How can corruption enter into a place which is pervaded by Him who in all eternity has never known what corruption is? How can Death enter the place where the Living One has his dwelling?
“Your heart must be very hard, very strong, and very resistant. A block over which the adverse forces slide in futility, like the wing of a fly. You belong to God. My seal is upon every fiber of yours. No other sign should be there. Become sturdier and sturdier in love and union to make your heart more and more resistant to all that is not your God.
“At the same time, let it be very light. Not imprisoned by any root of humanity, not weighed down by any materiality or by base conventions. Never degrade your spirit and your faith with pettiness. They are two heavenly realities and must be conserved in a supernatural atmosphere.
“I have given you much so that you will give much to Me. I have taught you much so that you will serve Me with wisdom. Do not forget this. As I have taken you, that are base, to carry you much higher than you deserved to come, so you with all care must avoid descending - indeed, with your strength for flight you must seek increasingly to rise. Devote all your will to this.
“With your spirit squared like a cornerstone. Let the virtues be the sides and faces of this spirit of yours, which has become an incense altar for Me. And let it rest on a base of sacrifice: this is the side resting on the ground. On the miserable earth, which should be saved with sacrifice. Let the four sides which rise up be made of temperance, fortitude, justice, and prudence, and the upper side, the one opposite the base, be made of charity. Charity comes from Heaven and tends towards Heaven. Charity is the stone in the altar on which the oblations in honor of God and propitiatory offerings for one’s brothers and sisters are consumed. Let the two horns be hope and faith.
“And as is proper for the three theological virtues and the dignity of the altar, let everything be covered with very fine gold. Every molecule of gold is provided by an act of love and sacrifice by you. Sacrifice and love: the precious amalgam which robes the altar of the heart in splendor. Everything related to God must be entirely in gold. Your holocaust, a fragrance more pleasing to God than that of all the flowers on earth, must be offered on a utensil worthy of the Lord. Gold, then, which man has perverted as a metal by making it an instrument for sin, but which the soul wants to possess spiritually so as to offer it in worship of God.
“The frame must be provided by your vigilance, ever watchful so that the scented fire of your love will not diminish. The rings are your good will; the shafts, your promptness in serving God, letting yourself be carried where He wills.
“And you shall keep this altar constantly before Me. Before the Ark of Testimony of God, who is your Savior, the Word of the Lord concealed by human flesh. Through this veil, I shall speak to you. For I must still use means suited to your condition as a living being. When the time for your peace comes, I shall then speak to your spirit, and it will understand Me exclusively by looking at itself in the light of Heaven.
“‘And Aaron shall burn incense upon it.’
“Who is Aaron? Why, I am! I am your Priest and Pontiff, and on the altar which you have prepared for Me I burn the sweetly fragrant incense of your loving immolation in the morning and evening. Morning and evening - that is, always. You must provide Me with this incense so that I may consume it. For yourself, for your brothers and sisters, and for the glory of God, let yourself burn.
“In the east there are plants with precious aromas which, the more they are wounded and skinned by man, emit more of these scents. If they are left without cuts, they are in no way different from other plants. Green fronds and a rugose rind without fragrance. But if iron opens wounds, they then drip with balms, like tears wrung out by pain, which serve to perfume oils and protect against decomposition. And the plant must always be slashed so as to give and give and give until its death. If they leave it alone, the wound heals and the precious drops no longer trickle out.
“Meditate and learn.
“No other perfume or oblation or victim should be placed on this altar. But only the perfume of your charity, the oblation of yourself, a victim offered to divine Charity out of charity towards all.
“‘And once a year,’ Exodus says, ‘Aaron shall make expiation with the blood offered for sin.’ But I say to you, ‘And every time I wish to, with your blood, squeezed out and sprinkled under the knife of Pain, I shall make a sacrifice of expiation for the sins of the world.’
“Do not lament. I go up onto the altar every day, thousands and thousands of times a day, to be consumed. There is not a minute or a second, twenty-four hours a day, in which, at some point on the globe, there is not an altar on which the innocent Host, raised up, fails to shine. You still exist because of this perpetual and continuous holocaust of mine; the Father’s wrath would otherwise have destroyed you some time ago, for your sinning surpasses the infinite patience of God.566
“What does the priest say at the altar? Pro me at omni humano genere. This is the thought of the priest as he offers and immolates. It is also yours: ‘For me and for the whole human race Jesus immolated Himself. I, too, immolate myself for the whole human race, with Him, in Him, and through Him.’ And consider - always consider this, every time anguish and torment burn and pierce and crush and nail you with instruments of fire - that all of your anguish and all of your torment serve to give a grace to the human race.
“It is not sterile to agonize. It is not even a selfish agonizing doing good to you. It is an agony with which you purchase gifts of grace for the unfortunates who are unable to love and pray, or are unable to do so as they should. Therefore, when you agonize more, say to yourself, ‘By this real cases of despair are canceled out. Thank You, my God, for using me for this purpose.’
“Go in peace, little John. Where there is charity and love, God is present, the great John said.567 I am thus with you, and you, with God, for you have understood love.”
564 Padre Pio da Pietrelcina (1887-1968), the Capuchin stigmatic to whom the writer was devoted.
565 Exodus 30:1-10.
566 The sentence means that, if Christ did not renew his redeeming Sacrifice every day, the accumulation of men’s sins would prompt God to stop using mercy.
567 1 John 4:7-16.