Jesus621 says:
“You came very close to the truth, but did not reach it perfectly.622
“Those who are with Me in Paradise and who, for mysterious reasons, have lived through an hour of hell on earth, as you call it, do remember, it’s true. But they do not taste its bitterness or see its blackness or receive any more jolts of horror on remembering it. Here everything is light, sweetness, and peace. And nothing can cancel them out, not even the memory of the most atrocious torments undergone. But the memory remains. It no longer hurts, but it survives. It is a source of active charity.
“Never again say, my little daughter, never again say, ‘If I can be elsewhere, I will not want to remember having lived any more. I won’t have even a look any more for this painful earth, where there is so much pain and so much evil.’ In reasoning like this, you reason in a human manner. You must not do so. I have placed you outside the little base circle of what is human. I have already placed you in the infinite, joyous freedom of the supernatural. Strip yourself of all residue of the human with holy alacrity and a cheerful will. Be a ‘daughter of God’ in a complete way.
“To be a daughter of God completely means to be one as one is such in Heaven - that is, to possess a love overcoming every obstacle of bitter memory, and, indeed, for bitter memories to be a spur towards greater charity.
“Look, daughter. When one is here, in my Paradise, one possesses Love, for Paradise is the eternal possession of God, who is Love. In possessing perfect Love, the spirit experiences a metamorphosis in perfection which overturns even the last residue of human justice.
“Has a spirit suffered on earth? Precisely because it is aware that one suffers on earth, it has mercy on the earth and devotes itself to active charity out of mercy on the earth.
“Has it suffered on earth on account of men? For the earth, in itself, is good. It gives you bread and wool, fruits and fire; it is not an enemy and cruel to you, as man is. But precisely because it knows that on earth it is men that suffer and cause suffering, the deified spirit thus feels a holy will to act in favor of its poor brothers and sisters in exile. All of them poor. Those who suffer and, even more, those who cause suffering, for they obtain for themselves eternal poverty and eternal desolation.
“My saints, from the beatific bosom of contemplation, do not cease for an instant to work for you that are still wandering in exile, and it is a great joy for them when a smile from Me orders them to come into your midst to assist you and lead you back to Good.
“The Paradise of the saints has two faces. One looks towards and delights in God. The other is turned towards their poor brothers and sisters, and this watchful, loving charity will not cease until the last man has finished struggling on earth. The saints ask my Divine Majesty to grant that they may come to you to help you.
“Do you see, daughter? Today my martyr Lawrence623 is looking at the poor earth and poor men with more love than ever, for, immersed as he is in Charity and Wisdom, he sees in that earth and those men one of the two main reasons for his eternal blessedness, and he wants to help them out of gratitude for their having been the reason for his glory. Even if you were in the place of temporary expiation, you would have this active charity. For the souls in purgatory do not yet see God, but they already love Him as in Heaven and already have the charitable impulses of the blessed.
“Never again say that you want to forget the earth, then. My children never have an egocentric love, but, imitating their Lord, they beam out their rays like suns on the good and the wicked to call them all to the Light.
“I, your Father - who have so loved the earth, all of whose past and future misdeeds I knew, the misdeeds committed on it by men, and who tore my Word from my breast to send Him to sanctify the earth - have wanted to give you this teaching. My Thought knew that among the future misdeeds there would be the deicide. And yet that has not put a check on my love. As it has not checked the loving haste of the Word or the loving activity of the Paraclete.
“Think as a daughter of God, and the blessing of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit will always be upon you.”
How sweetly the Most Holy Father spoke! A lesson which was one big caress, uttered with such great and peaceful majesty that - as you may notice, except for the word “deified,” which I wrote again because I had left a blot on account of a sudden swerve of my hand - I did not have to make corrections or additions occasioned by lagging behind as the Voice dictated.
I won’t say that thing any more, either, then, and, beginning today, I shall think - and I say so clenching my teeth - of being concerned about the earth when I have left it. By trying and trying, I hope to arrive at thinking this without difficulty - if God helps me....
How many things poor Maria has had to “not do any more” since she became a “spokesman”! I could say that I have gradually had to give up all my thought. I could say that the basic word for the loving divine conversations is “Don’t do this out of love for Me.” So be it always, though. It is enough for Him to hold me in his arms to keep Satan from torturing me with memories....
Later, Jesus says (it is really Him, for I feel his caress):
“At dangerous and stormy moments, a ship’s master is always vigilant at his post. He no longer trusts his sailors, not even the helmsman or the first-rate seaman responsible for maneuvering the sails. He takes the tiller in his hands and gives orders and oversees maneuvers with the sails. Because he knows that no one can love that ship, whose master he is, as he does; he has put all his savings into it to obtain bread for his children, and every one of its boards, nails, and ropes bears the name of a memory.
“One thing was purchased with the sacrifice of his wife, who wanted to deny herself a dress and a necklace to make the ship more beautiful; another was obtained through that harsh labor on a foreign ship, away from home for so long, work done to receive a large salary and achieve the dream of possessing the finest ship in the town; on that board the first of his children took his initial steps; on the other one the elderly father wept with joy on seeing that his son was now the master, and those tears were the holy water for the little ship.... How many memories!
“He does not want the ship to be in danger, for it is too dear to him, loved as if it were his wife or his child, as if it were part of his house.... He watches over it, then, with vigilant love and in hours of danger does not cease for an instant to look after it, for he does not want to see it perish; nor does he want to see it suffering damage by crashing into rocks and shoals, or see it dismasted, without the wing of the sails because a sudden maneuver has let them be clutched by the claws of a chance wind. Nor does he want it to slow down, with its sails limp in the dead calm of a sirocco, for he knows how treacherous the sea is and how too deep a calm precedes a storm as soon as one emerges from the areas where the calm prevails.
“This is what the good master does. And shouldn’t I do the same with you? Look back and observe whether, every time a storm was brewing for you or was upon you and was shaking you, I did not take the tiller in hand.
“Now that your spiritual sight is sharp and strong, you can see your whole life in its truth, in its truths - both human and superhuman. And in these you see the foresight and love of your Jesus shining like a star on the top of your mast. I did not let you seek the Pole Star of man. But I came down. I set Myself at the head of your own self, and with the magnetism of my divinity, much stronger than that raining down from the stars, I discharged fluids to tame events and call you to Myself.
“You... for so long, in the mists of your humanity, took that Starlight to be just one more little light which annoyed your eyes with its constant twinkling. You ...ïn the midst of the voices of your storms were not able to comprehend the Voice of that twinkling. But it was I just the same. And it sweetly lulled you to sleep or violently prostrated you; when I saw you were heading towards a danger of whatever kind, I would take the tiller and the sails out of your hands and steer them Myself straight into the open ocean of my love, which wanted you. When you were able to see Me, you were already away from the shoals and rocks. You had only to sail trustingly towards the Sun.
“Go on looking. It is good from time to time to turn around to see the works which are as many signs of love left along our way by the one who loves us. Go on looking. A storm may also overtake those sailing on the open sea. It is not only near the reefs. And you have encountered many and will encounter many. But have you ever perished? Never. Why? Because I am with you. I allow you to feel these storms approaching. Indeed, I want you to know that they are about to come, so that you may fortify yourself in advance to face them, and also so that you will have a twofold merit in also suffering them in advance. In this, too, my sister-spouse, I make you like Me and Mary. We knew our Passion far in advance.... I allow them to come. Why?
“A seraphic creature wrote, ‘Many pages in my life will not be read on earth.’ It is not only Thérèse of Lisieux who can say this. Regarding all souls, and especially the privileged ones, it may be said without falsity that ‘many pages in their lives will not be read on earth.’ They are the pages of the secrets of the King.624 Of the mysterious reasons for his conduct with souls. When, having plunged into the Light, you are able to read the immortal pages of the eternal books, you will know the reason for certain hours of yours.
“I allow these storms to come. Atrocious ones. Yes. Atrocious, extremely atrocious. I admit it, Maria, victim of our love - mine and yours. But when they come, neither do I limit Myself, a Star descending to sprinkle astral influences over your way, to remaining at the top of the mainmast. I come even further down. I come alongside you. I take you - yes, Maria, it is as you wish625 - I take your poor head and poor heart in my hands and on the wounds in your heart pour the balms of my caresses and of my blood, dripping from my pierced palms, and I close your eyes and ears with these hands, which love you, so as not to have you see and hear the terrifying appearance and voices of the storm.
“Do not say, ‘But in April You left me alone.’626 Do not say this. When a sick child raves, his father to no avail caresses and kisses him and holds him in his arms, so that he will not suffer harm and will feel that he is not alone. The sick child does not see or understand, and weeps: ‘Daddy! Daddy! Why don’t you come? Why don’t you help me?’ As long as the fever lasts, the child weeps and the father is distressed - the former, over being left alone, and the latter, because he cannot make himself be recognized.
“That happened this past April between Me and you. The reason is one of the mysteries which will be read in the eternal books. But consider - and believe this, and, along with you, let those who witnessed your torment believe, and all of you should firmly believe - that it is a reason involving ‘great’ love. But you were in my arms. You were struggling and calling Me. You thought you were clashing against Satan and human wickedness. No. They were at your side. But you were bumping against Me. Me alone. Because you were in the circle of my arms and clasped against my breast. Not gripped by Satan. By Me. You thought you were alone. You did not hear my voice. But I was speaking in your hair. I spoke so much to your superconscious that it calmed down, like a child before the lullaby rocking him.
“I am the Jesus who calmed the storms on the Lake of Galilee.627 He calmed them without touching the tiller and sails, with the dominion of his will alone. I can calm the storm roaring around a child of mine, holding him in my arms and commanding the winds and waves to be still.
“Do not fear, daughter. Do not leave the circle of my arms and, in addition, do not fear anything. Even if the whole world collapsed around you, I would not have you experience desolation. I shall pour over you the ‘torrents of peace and joy’ Isaiah speaks about. Even if you were left alone in an empty world, you would always find ‘a breast to receive you - mine - and you would be rocked on these knees as upon a mother’s.’628
“Last year, precisely in these days, I said to you, ‘I will be your father and mother and brother and spouse.’629 Jesus never lies. I was, am, and will be this. ‘For I have loved you with an eternal love and for this reason show you constant benignity.’630
“Go securely under the rays of the Star of your love - Me, Jesus.”
Two hours after this dictation I am hit by a very intense heart crisis and think I am dying. While prostrated in it, in order to die while looking at the Mother and Jesus, I place the image of Our Lady of Sorrows on my lap and that of my Crucified Jesus, the one on the back of which, in the black days when I could no longer pray, I wrote three verses of the Dies Irae and four of the Stabat Mater. I read and look at them and also read the card on which I wrote my litanies to God’s goodness, which were also transcribed in those days from my handwritten prayer books so as to have them before me always and manage to say one word to God.
And as I suffer and languish, I think and say to Jesus, “Jesus, You speak correctly. But in those days I was no longer able to say a word to You. Not even one...! So many days without being able to say that I loved You...!”
And Jesus answers, and I write, though I feel I am dying, for this flower is too beautiful to be lost:
“It does not matter. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. It is thus the soul’s thought for Him whom it loves. When one loves, one loves even if one cannot say to the beloved, ‘I love you.’ The lips are silent, for there is space between the two and the voice does not arrive, but the heart is not silent.
“Did you stop loving Me in those days? No. Rather, you loved as never before, for you continued to love without feeling a response by your Love. And you raved, mad with love, not so much because of what afflicted you as because you no longer felt Me. It was this that you could not resign yourself to.... What name, then, do you want to give to this delirium, which kept you from saying to Me those well-known words, but did not keep you from longing for Me? What name, if not ‘love’? The most perfect love a creature can have. Love for Me. Not for what could come from Me. For Me. Me alone. The love of your seraphic Francis: ‘Blessed is he who loves and does not ask to be loved.’ Love in order to love.
“You thus prayed not with your lips, but with your higher part, with the most perfect one. Be at peace. Since you began to love Me you have not ceased to pray for an instant because you have not ceased for an instant to love.”631
What a beautiful absolution! Blessed be Jesus for it.
621 But the Eternal Father is speaking, as is later seen.
622 The reference is to the impression that in Paradise one does not forget a moment of the experience of hell on earth, expressed in the entry for August 9.
623 The Feast of St. Lawrence is August 10.
624 Tobit 12:7.
625 Cf. August 9.
626 The period of abandonment began on April 9.
627 Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25.
628 Cf. Isaiah 66:12-13.
629 In the dictation on August 12, 1943. Cf. The Notebooks. 1943.
630 Jeremiah 31:3.
631 The sentence Maria Valtorta wrote for the cards to be printed at her death comes to mind: “I have finished suffering, but I shall continue to love:”