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On arriving at San Damiano, the following night his eyes grew so much worse that he could not see the light, and was obliged to give up going any further. Then Sister Clare made him a little cell of reeds, in order that he might repose the better; but St Francis, owing partly to the pain he suffered, and partly to the multitude of rats, which much annoyed him, could rest neither day or night. After suffering for several days this pain and tribulation, he began to think that it was sent to him by God as a punishment for his sins, and he thanked the Lord in his heart and with his lips, crying out with a loud voice: “My God, I am worthy of this, and even worse. My Lord Jesus Christ, thou Good Shepherd, who hast shown thy mercy to us poor sinners in the various bodily pains and sufferings it pleaseth thee to send us; grant to me, thy little lamb, that no pain, however great, no infirmity nor anguish, shall ever separate me from thee.” Having made this prayer, a voice came from heaven, which said: “Francis, if all the earth were of gold, if all the seas and all the fountains and all the rivers were of balm, if all mountains, all hills, and all rocks were made of precious stones, and if thou couldst find a treasure as much more precious again as gold is more precious than earth, and balm than water, and gems than mountains and rocks, if that precious treasure were offered to thee in the place of thy infirmity, wouldst thou not rejoice and be content?” St Francis answered: “Lord, I am unworthy of such a treasure.” And the voice of God said again: “Rejoice with all thy heart, Francis, for such a treasure is life eternal, which I have in keeping for thee, and even now promise to thee; and this thine infirmity and affliction is a pledge of that blessed treasure.”
From: The Little Flowers

From the Hours of The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ; 5:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.:
Before beginning his passion, Jesus goes to his mother to ask for her blessing. In this act he teaches us how we must be obedient, with both interior and exterior obedience, in order to correspond to the inspirations of grace. At times we are not ready to carry out a good inspiration because we are held back by self-love, to which the temptation attaches itself; on account of human respect; or because we won’t do holy violence to ourselves.

But to reject the good inspiration of practicing virtue, of doing a virtuous act or a good work, or of practicing a devotion, makes the Lord go away; and this deprives us of new inspirations. Instead, the prompt, devout and prudent correspondence to holy inspirations draws down on us greater lights and graces.

When we have a doubt about any inspiration, we must turn promptly and with the right intention, to the great means of prayer, and to good and sound advice. This way, God will not fail to illuminate our soul so we can follow every good inspiration; and he will give us more of them, for the ever greater advantage of our soul.

We must do our actions, our acts, our prayer, the Hours of the Passion, with the same intentions of Jesus, in his Will, sacrificing ourselves as he does, for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls. We must be ready to sacrifice ourselves in everything for the love of our dear Jesus, conforming ourselves to his spirit, acting with his own sentiments and abandoning ourselves in him – not only in all our exterior pains and difficulties, but above all, in whatever he may dispose in our interior. Then, when the occasion arises, we will find ourselves ready to accept any pain.

This way, we will give our Jesus sweet little sips. Then if we do all this in the Will of God (which contains every sweetness and contentment in an immense way), we will give Jesus large sweet gulps which will lessen the poisoning he receives from creatures, and we will console is divine heart.

Before beginning any action, let us always ask for God’s blessing so that our actions may have the touch of the divinity, and draw his blessings down upon ourselves and on all creatures as well.

Soul: My Jesus, may your blessing go before me, accompany me and follow me, so that everything I do may bear the seal of your ”I bless you.”

From: The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
Here sounds the Hour of Sorrow: the Passion. A Deicide. The Crying of all Nature.

The soul to her Sorrowful Mother:
My dear sorrowful Mother, today, more than ever, I feel the irresistible need to be close to you. No, I will not move from your side, to be spectator of your bitter pains and to ask you, as your child, for the grace to place in me your sorrows and those of your Son Jesus, and also His very death; so that His death and your pains may give me the grace to make my die continually to my will, and make me rise again above it, to the life of the Divine Will.

Lesson of the Queen of Sorrows:
Dearest child, do not deny me your company in so much bitterness. The Divinity has already decreed the last day of my Son down here. One of His apostles has already betrayed Him, giving Him up into the hands of the Jews, to make Him die. My dear Son, taken by excess of love and not wanting to leave His children, for whom He came to search upon earth, has already left Himself in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, so that whoever wants Him, can possess Him. So, the life of my Son is about to end, and He is about to take flight for His celestial Fatherland.
Ah, dear child, the Divine Fiat gave Him to me, and in the Divine Fiat I received Him; and now, in that same Fiat, I give Him back.
My heart is torn; immense seas of sorrows inundate me; in the atrocious spasm, I feel life leaving me. But nothing could I deny to the Divine Fiat; on the contrary, I felt disposed to sacrifice Him in the Divine and Omnipotent Fiat. I felt such strength by virtue of It, that I would have been content with dying rather deny anything to the Divine Will.
Now, my child listen to me. My maternal heart is drowned with pains; only thinking that my Son, my God, my life, has to die, is more than death for your Mama. Yet, I know I must live! What torment! What profound lacerations form in my heart, piercing it all the way through, like sharp swords! Yet, dear child - I grieve in saying this to you, but I must: in these pains and profound lacerations, and in the pains of my beloved Son, there was your soul - your human will. Since it did not allow itself to be dominated by the Will of God, we covered it with pains; we embalmed it, we fortified it with our pain, so that it would dispose itself to receive the life of the Divine Will.
Ah, if the Divine Fiat had not sustained me and continued Its course with infinite seas of light, of joy, of happiness, along side the seas of my bitter pains, I would have died as many times for as many the pains my dear Son suffered! Oh, how tortured I felt, when He made Himself seen for the last time - pale, with a sadness of death on His face, and with trembling voice, as if He wanted to burst into sobs, told me: “Good-bye Mama! Bless your Son, and give Me the obedience to die. My Divine Fiat and yours made Me be conceived, and my and your Divine Fiat must let Me die. Hurry, O dear Mama, pronounce your Fiat, and tell Me: ‘I bless You and I give You the obedience to die crucified! So does the Eternal Will want, and so I too want’.“
My child, what a blow to my pierced heart! Yet, I had to say it, because there were no forced pains in us, but all voluntary. So, we blessed each other, and exchanging that gaze which is not able to detach itself from the beloved one, my dear Son, my sweet life, departed; and I, your sorrowful Mama, let Him go. But the eye of my soul never lost sight of Him. I followed Him into the Garden, in His terrible agony, and – oh, how my heart bled in seeing Him abandoned by all, even by His most faithful and dear apostles!
Dear child, the abandonment of dear ones is one of the greatest pains for a human heart in the stormy hours of life; especially for my Son, Who had loved them so much and done good to them, and Who was in the act of giving His life for the very ones who had just abandoned Him in the extreme hours of His life – even more, they had run away! What pain - what pain! And I, in seeing Him sweat blood – agonize, agonized together with Him and sustained Him in my maternal arms. I was inseparable from my Son; His pains were reflected in my heart, liquefied by pain and love, and I felt them more than if they were my own. So I followed Him all night. There was not one pain or accusation which they gave Him that did not resound in my heart. But at the dawn of the morning, unable to resist any longer, accompanied by the disciple John, Magdalene and other pious women, I wanted to follow Him step by step, also corporally, from one tribunal to another.
My dearest child, I heard the roaring of the blows that fell upon the naked body of my Son; I heard the mockeries, the satanic laughter, and the blows they gave Him on His head, when they crowned Him with thorns. I saw Him when Pilate showed Him to the people – disfigured, unrecognizable. I felt deafened by the “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” I saw Him taking the cross on His shoulders, exhausted and panting. And I, unable refrain, hastened my step to give Him my last embrace and to dry His face, all wet with blood. But, no! There was no pity for us. The cruel soldiers pulled Him by the ropes and made Him fall. Dear child, what harrowing pain, not being able to sustain my dear Jesus in so many pains! Every pain opened a sea of sorrow in my pierced heart. Finally, I followed Him to Calvary, where, in the midst of unheard-of pains and horrible contortions, He was crucified and lifted up on the Cross. Only then was it conceded to me to be at the foot of the cross, to receive from His dying lips the gift of all my children, and the right and seal of my maternity over all creatures. Shortly after, in the midst of unheard-of spasms, He breathed His last. All nature wore mourning, and cried over the death of its Creator. The sun cried, obscuring itself and withdrawing, horrified, from the face of the earth. The earth cried with an intense trembling, ripping open in various places, for the death of its Creator. All cried: the sepulchers by opening, the dead by rising; even the veil of the temple cried with sorrow, and was torn. All lost joy, and felt terror and fright. My child, your Mama remained petrified with pain, waiting to receive Him into my arms, to close Him in the sepulcher.
Now, listen to me in my intense pain: with the pains of my Son I want to speak to you of the great evils of your human will. Look at Him in my sorrowful arms, how disfigured He is! He is the true portrait of the evil the human will does to the poor creatures. My dear Son wanted to suffer so many pains in order to raise this will again - fallen into the abyss of all miseries; each pain of Jesus and each one of my sorrows called it to rise again in the Divine Will. Our love was so great that in order to rescue this human will, we filled it with our pains, up to the point of drowning it, and enclosing it inside the immense seas of my pains, and those of my beloved Son.
Therefore, on this day of sorrows for your sorrowful Mamma, a day which is all for you, give me, in return, your will into my hands; that I may enclose it within the bleeding wounds of Jesus, as the most beautiful victory of His Passion and death, and as the triumph of my most bitter pains.

The soul:
Sorrowful Mamma, your words wound my heart; I feel like dying upon hearing that it was my rebellious will that made you suffer so much. Therefore, I beg you to enclose it in the wounds of Jesus, that I may live from His pains and from your bitter sorrows.

Little Sacrifice:
Today, to honor me, you will kiss the wounds of Jesus, saying five acts of love, and praying to me that my sorrows may seal your will in the opening of His sacred side.
Ejaculatory Prayer:
May the wounds of Jesus and the sorrows of my Mama give me the grace to make my will rise again in the Will of God.