In honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception: December 8th, A Holy Day of Obligation

“Blessed angel of God, tell me thy name.” The angel answered: “Why dost thou ask my name, which is Wonderful?

From the Little Flowers:

…When all the other friars were fast asleep, St Francis rose from sleep, and finding the child’s cord tied to his own, he carefully untied it so as not to awake him and went alone into the wood which was near the convent. Entering into a little cell which was there, he began to pray. Shortly after, the child awoke, and finding St Francis gone, and the cord untied, he rose up quickly and went to seek him. Perceiving the door open which led to the wood, he thought St Francis had gone that way; and entering into the wood, and hurrying on to the little cell, he heard the sound of many voices. Approaching near to hear and see whence they came, he saw a great and wonderful light all round the saint, and in the light was Jesus Christ, with the Virgin Mary, St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, and a great multitude of angels, all talking with St Francis. On seeing this, the child fell to the ground as if he had been dead. The miracle of this holy vision being ended, St Francis rose to return to the convent, and stumbling in the way against the child, who appeared to be dead, with great compassion he took him up in his arms and carried him in his bosom, as the good shepherd is wont to carry his lambs. Having learned from him how he had seen the vision, he forbade him to tell any man thereof so long as he, St Francis, lived. The little child grew up in the grace of God, and had a great devotion to St Francis. He became one of the most distinguished men of the Order. After the death of St Francis, he related the vision to the brethren.

Heaven and Earth: The Catechism of the Catholic Church; 325-336; (p.85-87

December 8, 1922; Volume 15 The Immaculate Conception.

Luisa: I write to obey, and I offer everything to my sweet Jesus, uniting myself to the sacrifice of His own obedience in order to obtain grace and strength to do it as He wants. And now, oh! my Jesus, give me your holy hand and the light of your Intelligence, and write together with me.
I was thinking of the great portent of the Immaculate Conception of my Queen and Celestial Mama, and in my interior I heard Him say:

Jesus: “My daughter, the Immaculate Conception of my beloved Mama was prodigious and fully marvelous; so much so, that Heaven and earth were astonished, and made feast. All of the Three Divine Persons competed with each other: the Father made an immense sea of Power pour out of Himself; I, the Son, an infinite sea of Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, an immense sea of eternal Love, which, merging into one, formed one single sea. And in the middle of this sea the conception of this Virgin was formed, chosen among the chosen. So, the Divinity administered the substance of this conception, and not only was this sea the center of Life of this admirable and unique creature, but it was around Her, not only to defend Her from anything which might shadow Her, but to give Her in every instant new beauties, new graces, power, wisdom, love, privileges, and so on. Therefore, her little nature was conceived in the center of this sea, and was formed and grew under the influence of these divine waves; so much so, that the Divinity did not want to wait as It usually does with other creatures: as soon as this noble and unique creature was formed, It wanted Her embraces, the return of Her love, Her kisses, and to enjoy Her innocent smiles. Therefore, as soon as Her Conception was formed, I gave Her the use of reason, I provided Her with all sciences, I made Her aware of Our joys and Our sorrows with regard to Creation. And even from her maternal womb, She came into Heaven, at the foot of Our Throne, to give Us Her embraces, the return of Her love, Her tender kisses. Throwing Herself into Our arms, She smiled at Us with such delight of gratitude and thanksgiving as to snatch Our smiles. Oh, how beautiful it was to see this innocent and privileged creature, enriched with all of the divine qualities, coming into Our midst, all love, all trust, without fear; because only sin is what puts distance between Creator and creature, breaking love, dissolving trust, and striking fear. So She came into Our midst as Queen, Who, with her love, given by Us, drew Us to her volition, enraptured Us, put Us in feast, and captured yet more love. And We let Her do so - enjoying the love that enraptured Us, and constituting Her Queen of Heaven and earth.

Heaven and earth exulted and made feast together with Us, in having their Queen after so many centuries… The sun smiled in its light, and considered itself fortunate in having to serve its Queen by giving Her light. The heavens, the stars, and the whole universe smiled with joy and made feast, because they were to delight their Queen, showing Her the harmony of the spheres and of their beauty. The plants smiled, which were to nourish their Queen; and the earth too, smiled and felt ennobled in having to provide the residence for its Empress and to be trodden by Her steps. Only hell cried and felt itself to be losing strength by the dominion of this Sovereign Lady.

But do you know what was the first act of this Celestial Creature when She found Herself before Our Throne for the first time? She recognized that all of the evil for man had been the split between his will and That of his Creator, and She trembled; without a moment’s hesitation She bound her will to the foot of my Throne, without ever wanting to know it; and my Will bound Itself to Her and became the center of Her Life, to the extent that all of the currents, all of the relations, all of the communications were opened between Us and Her, and there was not one secret which We did not entrust to Her. This was precisely the most beautiful, the greatest, the most heroic act She did – to place her will at Our feet – an act which made Us, enraptured, constitute Her Queen of all. Do you see then, what it means to bind oneself to my Will and to not know one’s own?

The second act was to offer Herself for any sacrifice, for love of Us. The third, to render Us the honor, the glory of the whole Creation, which man had taken away from Us by doing his own will. Even from her maternal womb She cried for love of Us, in seeing Us offended, and cried with sorrow over guilty man… Oh, how these innocent tears moved Us, and hastened Redemption, so longed for! This Queen dominated Us, bound Us, and extracted infinite graces from Us. She made Us bend toward mankind; so much so, that We could not resist, nor did We know how to resist Her repeated petitions. But where did so much power come from, and so much influence over the Divinity Itself? Ah, you have understood: it was the power of Our Will acting in Her, which, while dominating Her, rendered Her dominator of God Himself. Moreover, how could We resist so innocent a Creature, possessed by the Power and Sanctity of Our Will? It would be as though resisting Ourselves. We could see our divine qualities in Her; like waves did the reflections of Our Sanctity flow over Her - reflections of divine manners, of Our Love, of Our Power, and so forth; and Our Will, Which was their center, attracted all the reflections of Our divine qualities, and made Itself crown and defense of the Divinity dwelling within Her. If this Immaculate Virgin had not had the Divine Will as center of Life, all the other qualities and privileges with which We so enriched Her would have been, comparatively, an absolute nothing. This is what confirmed and preserved Her many privileges; even more, in every instant It multiplied new ones.

Here, then, is the reason for which We constituted Her Queen of all, because when We operate, We do it with reason, wisdom and justice: She never gave life to her human will, but our Will was always intact in Her. How could We say to another creature, ‘You are Queen of Heaven, of the sun, of the stars, and so on’, if instead of having our Will as dominion, she were dominated by her own human will? All of the elements, Heaven, sun and earth, would have withdrawn from the rule and dominion of this creature. All would have cried out in their mute language: ‘We do not want her! We are superior to her, because we have never withdrawn from your eternal Volition; as You created us, so we are’; so would the Sun have cried out with Its light, the stars with their flickering, the sea with its waves, and so on with all the rest. Instead, as soon as they all felt the dominion of this excelling Virgin, who, almost as their sister, never wanted to know her own will but only That of God, not only did they make feast, but felt honored to have their Queen, and thronged around Her to court Her and pay tribute to Her – the moon, by placing itself as footstool at her feet, the stars as crown, the sun as diadem, the Angels as servants, men as though in waiting… Everyone, everyone honored Her and paid to Her their obsequies. There is no honor and glory that cannot be given to our Will - whether It is acting in Us, Its own residence, or dwelling in the creature.

But do you know the first act of this noble Queen when, coming out of the maternal womb, She opened her eyes to the light of this low world? As She was born, the Angels sang ditties to the Little Celestial Baby, and She remained enraptured; her beautiful soul left her little body, accompanied by throngs of angels, and went around Heaven and earth, gathering all the Love that God had spread through the whole of Creation, and penetrating into Heaven, She came to the foot of our Throne and offered Us the return of the love for all Creation, and pronounced her first ‘Thank You’ in the name of all. Oh, how happy We felt in hearing the ‘Thank You’ of this Little Baby Queen; so We confirmed in Her all the graces, all the gifts, such as to make Her surpass all other creatures together. Then, throwing Herself into our arms, She delighted with Us, swimming in the sea of all contentment’s, being embellished with new beauty, new light and new love. She pleaded once again for mankind, with tears praying Us to let the Eternal Word descend in order to save Her brothers; but as She was doing this, our Will let Her know that She had to descend to the earth, and soon She left Our contentment’s and Our joys, and departed, in order to do… what? Our Will. Powerful magnet Our Will was, residing on earth in this newborn Queen! No longer did the earth appear alien to Us; We no longer felt like striking it, making use of our Justice. We had the Power of Our Will, which, in this innocent Baby, held back our arms, smiled at Us from the earth, and turned Justice into graces and sweet smile; to the extent that, unable to resist this sweet enchantment, the Eternal Word accelerated His course. Oh, prodigy of my Divine Will, to You everything is due, through You everything is accomplished, and there is no greater prodigy than my Will dwelling in the creature!”