September 24, 2006 Mother of God

Mary of La Salette, France

The Story of Our Lady of LaSalette

Much less well known than the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes and Fatima is the appearance of Our Lady some years earlier, in 1846, to young children in the French Alps.

The little hamlet of LaSalette was home to perhaps 500 peasants in the mid 19th century, among them two children who did not even know each other until shortly before the apparition.

Maximin Giraud, age 11, and Melanie Mathieu, age 15, were typical of children in small agricultural communities at the time; neither attended school, and both spent their days as shepherds, herding their flocks to pastures up the mountain near the village. It was at such a pasture, 6,000 feet high in the French Alps, that their lives were changed forever on September 19, 1846.

It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day, and it began with the two children leading a small herd of cows up the slope of the mountain. Ager a lunch of bread and cheese, the two fell asleep near a spring which had gone dry long ago. When they awoke, their cows had wandered off and were nowhere to be seen.

After a few tense minutes, they caught up with them on a nearby slope, but they were utterly unprepared for what they say next.

As the children returned to the spot where they’d fallen asleep to get their knapsacks, next tot he dried-up spring, they say a brilliant light. As their eyes adjusted tot he light, they say a woman sitting on a large stone, her face resting in her hands, and her elbows on her knees, weeping.

She said to them as they approached, “Come near, my children, be not afraid; I am here to tell you great news.” She wore a white robe, covered with pearls, and an apron almost as long as the robe. The children used the word “cap” to describe that which was on her head, but rather than a substance, they said it appeared to be made of light. There were roses beneath it, as well as on her dress.

The “Beautiful Lady,” as they would always describe her, told of her unceasing prayers to her Son to spare the people there despite their refusal to honor the Lord’s Day, and to take His name in vain. Speaking in the manner of the prophets of old, she said, “Six days have I given you to labor, the seventh I have kept for myself, and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy. Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which make the arm of my Son so heavy.” She continued to weep all the while she spoke with them.

She warned of a great famine to come if the people did not mend their ways, and asked, “Do you say your prayers well, my children?” They admitted they did not. “You must be sure to say them well, morning and evening.” She described to them a conversation between Maxime and his father that had taken place once when no one else was present.

At one point, she talked with each child separately, giving each a secret that they refused to share with anyone. (They agreed to reveal the secrets five years later, to Pope Pius IX, but only to him.) In all, she spoke with them for perhaps half an hour, and concluded by telling them children to “make this known to all my people.” Then she climbed to the top of a nearby hill, and as the children described it, she began to disappear, “She seemed to melt away.”

Maximin and Melanie were as uneducated in the ways of faith as they were the more mundane subjects of school. Their families were not church-goers, and had not taught them the most basic of prayers. When they returned to the village, they described the woman they had seen not as the Blessed Virgin but simply as “the Beautiful Lady.”

As word spread of the children’s story, the hamlet was thrown into turmoil. To many, it was clear that they had witnessed an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, and event he skeptical were shunned by the way the children were able to repeat they Lady’s words in fluent French despite the fact that until that day, they spoke only a patois, a local dialect.

At dawn the next morning, on Sunday, they were sent to tell their story to the parish priest, who was initially irritated at being interrupted as he was preparing his sermon. Soon, his attitude had changed, and he became thoroughly shaken. “How fortunate you are, my children. You have seen the Blessed Virgin.” He asked them to tell their entire story from the beginning to end, and he transcribed it as they went. Soon afterward, he entered his church to say mass, and parishioners were startled by the emotion of a sermon far different than the one he’d originally planned.

Skeptics were furious. The mayor and the police chief dealt harshly with the children, trying to shake their story. They accused the children of lying and worse. But they would not recant, and before long, the tide began to turn. Soon there were incidents of mass conversion, and long-empty churches in the area filled again. Maximin’s own father, who had angrily forbidden him to retell the story of “the Beautiful Lady,” returned to his long lost faith. The spring at the site of the apparition that had been dry for so many years was once again filled with water.

More years of controversy followed, but in 1851 the Bishop of Grenoble, France, after a lengthy investigation, proclaimed the apparition of La Salette “bears within itself all the characteristics of truth.” In 1852, the cornerstone was laid for a beautiful Basilica built on the site of the apparition. It remains a magnet for pilgrims to this day. And in front of the entrance to the Basilica are bronze statues depicting the apparition on, the very site where it occurred. One of these statues, that of the “Weeping Mother” the children first say, was reproduced in the Memorial to the Unborn dedicated on the grounds of St. Catherine of Siena Church, Great Falls, Virginia, USA.

The Book of Heaven

Title to be Given for the Printing of the Book about the Will of God. The Return of Man into Order and to His Place

August 27, 1926 Volume 19

Finding myself in my usual state, my always amiable Jesus let me see the Reverend Father who must occupy himself with the writings on the adorable Will of God. And Jesus, moving close to him said: “My son, the title you will give to the book that you will print about my Will will be this:

The Kingdom of the Fiat in the Midst of Creatures

Book of Heaven

The Recall of the Creature to the Order, to the Place and to the Purpose for Which He was Created by God.”

See, even the title I want to correspond to the great work of my Will. I want the creature to understand that the place assigned to him by God is in my Will; and, as long as he does not enter into it, he will be without place, without order, without purpose. He will be an intruder in the Creation without rights of any kind; and, therefore, he will go wandering about without peace, without heritage; and I, moved to compassion for him will cry continuously to him: Enter into your place; come into the order; come to take your inheritance, to live in your house. Why do you want to live in a strange house? Why do you want to occupy a land that is not yours? And not being yours, you live unhappy; and you are the servant and laughingstock of all created things.

All things created by Me, because they are in their place, are in order and in perfect harmony with all the plenitude of their goods assigned to them by God. You alone want to be unhappy but with a voluntary unhappiness. Therefore, come into your place. I call you there and I await you. So he, who takes it upon himself to know my Will, will be my mouthpiece; and I will entrust to him the secrets of Its Kingdom.”

And so, after that, He made all creation seen, how all created things are in the place wanted by God and, therefore, in perfect order and in complete harmony among themselves. The Supreme Will, because they are in their place, maintains their existence integral, beautiful, fresh and always new; and order carries the common felicity and universal strength to everyone. What enchantment in seeing the order, the harmony of all Creation. And Jesus, taking up his say again, added: “My daughter, how beautiful are our works. They are our honor and our perennial glory. All are in their place, and each created thing fulfills perfectly its office.
Only man is our dishonor in our creative work, because, by subtracting himself from our Will, he walks with his head down on the ground and his feet in the air. What disorder! What disorder! It is horrifying to see him, walking with his head down, dragging the earth; everything is thrown into confusion, is transformed. He lacks the necessary space for his sight to look; neither can he diffuse himself into space nor go very far, because the office of walking is of the feet; that of the head is to dominate; therefore, doing one’s own will is the true and perfect headlong fall of man and the disorder of the human family.

Therefore, it interests Me so much that my Will be known, so that he return to his place, no longer dragging himself along with his head down, but that he walk with his feet, no longer forming my and his disorder but my and his honor. Look yourself, do not creatures look ugly seeing them walking with their heads on the ground? Doesn’t it also displease you to see them so disordered?

I looked and saw their heads down and their feet in the air. Jesus disappeared; and I remained to look at this ugly spectacle of the human generations; and I prayed heartily that His Will be known.

February 10, 1924 Volume 16

Necessity to write everything in these writing: The good they will produce. Indisputable purity, sanctity and strength of the doctrine of the Divine Will; it will be as a new Sun in the Church, which will renew Her and therefore transform the face of the earth. Abandonment in the Divine Volition.

Luisa: I was thinking to myself about all that was written in these past days, and I said to myself that they were neither necessary nor serious things. I could have done without putting them on paper, but obedience wanted it so, and I had the duty to say ‘FIAT’ also in this… But as I was thinking about this, my beloved Jesus told me: “Yet, my daughter, everything was necessary in order to make known how to live in my Will. By not saying everything, some quality of how to live in It would be missing, and therefore the writings could not have the full effect of the living in my Will. For example, on the abandonment of living in my Will; if the soul did not live completely abandoned in my Will, she would be like a person who lived in a sumptuous palace, and now leaned out of a window, now out of a balcony, now went down to the front door. In this way the poor one goes through the rooms just shortly or in passing, and therefore she knows nothing of the rule, of the work it takes, of the goods which are in there, of what she can take, and of what she can give. Who knows how many goods are there, and she knows nothing about it. Therefore she does not love as she should love, nor does she esteem that palace as it deserves. Now, for the soul who lives in my Will and is not completely abandoned in It, self reflections, cares of herself, fears, disturbances, are nothing other than the windows, the balconies, the front doors that she forms in my Will; and going out very often, she is forced to see and feel the miseries of human life. And since the miseries are her own property while the riches of my Will are Mine, she becomes more attached to the miseries than to the riches, so she will not love nor enjoy the meaning of living in my Will. And since she formed the main entrance, one day or another she will go out to live in the miserable hovel of her own will. See, then, how complete abandonment in Me is necessary in order to live in my Will. My Will does not need the miseries of the human will; it wants the creature to live together with it - beautiful, just as she was delivered from Its Womb, without the miserable provision she made herself in the exile of life.

Otherwise, there would be disparity, which would bring sorrow to my Will and unhappiness to the human will.
Do you see how necessary it is to make them understand that complete abandonment is needed in order to live in my Will? And you say it is not necessary to write about it? I feel compassion for you, because you do not see what I see, and that’s why you take it lightly. Instead, in my All-seeing-ness, I see that these writings will be for my Church as a new Sun which will rise in her midst; and men, attracted by its radiant light, will strive to transform themselves into this light and become spiritualized and Divinized, and therefore, renewing the Church, they will transform the face of the earth.

The doctrine on my Will is the purest, the most beautiful, not subject to any shadow of the material or of interest, either in the supernatural or in the natural order. Therefore, just like the Sun, It will be the most penetrating, the most fecund, and the most welcomed and appreciated. And being Light, It will make Itself understood and will make Its own way. It will not be subject to doubt or suspicions of error; and if some words will not be understood, it will be because of too much light, which, eclipsing the human intellect, will not allow them to understand the whole fullness of the Truth. However, they will not find one word which is not true. At the most, they will not be able to comprehend it fully.

Therefore, in view of the good which I see, I push you to neglect nothing in writing. One saying, one effect, one simile on my Will can be like beneficial dew upon the souls, just as dew is beneficial on the plants after a day of burning sun, or like a pouring rain after long months of drought. You cannot understand all the good, the light, the strength contained in one word; but your Jesus knows it, and knows the ones whom it will serve and the good it will do.”

Luisa: Now, as He was saying this, He showed me a table in the midst of the Church, and all the writings on the Divine Will placed on it. Many venerable people surrounded that table and were transformed into light and divinized; and as they walked, they communicated that light to whomever they encountered. Then Jesus added: “You will see this great good from Heaven, when the Church will receive this celestial food, which will strengthen her and make her rise again to her full triumph.”