Transcription
Welcome to Queen of Peace Media. What a blessing it is to have with me here, Mother Gabriel Marie. She is the mother superior of the Benedicting Daughters of Divine Will, and she is taking us through a four-part series covering the four parts of this brand new book by Marcel Laflam, Introduction to Life in the Divine Will through the writings of Louisa Picoretta, a servant of God. And if you do not have this book already and would like to follow along with her as we go through this second chapter and the next two chapters and the next two videos, you can get this book at queenofpacemedia.com. I have not yet been able to put it into words. So, I'm so glad you're here. It's not a devotion. It's a new way of life. Jesus says to Louisa, "I see that these writings will be for my church like a new sun which will rise in her midst." And people 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. My brothers and sisters, this could be you. This may be you. And thank you so much, mother, for helping to put this incredible new life into words.
>> Well, I hope he does because I never have anything to say, you know. Um, I think, uh, only God can teach us how to live in the divine will and and I ask him to speak through both of us now in his divine will and Our Lady be with us and the Holy Spirit, uh, that we want them to be with us, the whole heavenly court and all the angels. I want to invite them all to this conference with us, uh, to inspire us to say the words that Jesus wants us to say. Amen.
I was just reading here. Jesus says, "Oh, how beautiful it is to live in my will. This pleases me so much that in future generations, I will make all other forms of holiness disappear. Whatever their virtues, I will make holiness in my will reappear."
Which is not and will not be human, but divine holiness. So, this is divine holiness, allowing Jesus to relive his life in each one of us. That's what this is all about. He wants to do it more than we want him to do it. He loves us so much. But, you know, we learn in the divine will that we are nothing and he is everything. So, without him, we're nothing. But in him, we are everything. If we knew how much he loves us, we'd die of joy. As you know, we are walking tabernacles. The Trinity dwells in our souls. We forget that. We don't, we don't go into ourselves looking at him. We go into ourselves adoring the earthly trinity, me, myself, and I, rather than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus says, "But how painful it is for us," meaning the Trinity, "to see the creature does not recognize who it is that forms his life and who nourishes all his acts. He looks out at humanity, and and humanity, by and large, doesn't even know he exists. He's so shut out of those he loves. I can imagine, I can't imagine the incredible pain God must have, not being able to reach us and yet wanting to be so intimately united to us. Only a God could suffer as much as he suffered because only a God loves as much as he loves. So, he, he suffers over souls being lost. You know, Louisa, uh, was taking on his suffering for him. She wanted to, she wanted to suffer with him so he wouldn't have so much suffering because she saw what he was suffering over souls being lost, souls not coming to him. He longs for us to come to him. You know, Louisa wanted to see him. We all want corporeal visions. We want to see God. We want to touch him. We want to feel him. And he, he would come out and he said, "But Louisa, I'm closer to you and I'm within you." He was trying to teach her about that divine indwelling, that he lives within us. He's within each one of us. And that's why he says, "What you do to others, you do to me," because he's within each person, you know.
So, um, but this beautiful book that we're talking about here is a beautiful introduction because it really brings out so many beautiful passages, uh, that our Lord gave to Louisa explaining what this priest was saying in this introductory book. Jesus says, "Will in man is what most makes him resemble his creator. I placed a part of my immensity and my power in human will and giving it a place of honor, I established it as a queen of the whole person and the trustee of all his actions." It was by an act of human will that Adam and Eve committed original sin. We all were affected by that sin of Adam and Eve, the original sin. We can't blame them. If we would have, we would have come later, maybe we would have messed up just as they did, you know. Um, we don't know. But, you know, they say, "Happy fall, happy fall." Because because Adam and Eve fell, we have a Savior, we have a beautiful Mother, we have the Church. We have, because we have our, our free will, and he never takes that away from us. We have our free will. Uh, even the, the saints in heaven, they have their free will still. They have their human will, human will, but their will is so united to God's will, they only do what God wants. They will only, souls in purgatory too, their wills are set in God totally. And so that's what we want to live, that same life that they live here on earth. Making our will and his will one will, where they say, "An inch by inch, holiness is a cinch. A yard by yard, holiness is hard." So, little by little, we're growing in holiness as we choose him in every little detail of our lives. And we can make a decision about something, but we choose what we know God would want us to choose, and always asking him. And part of not choosing God's will is that we can fear his will because we don't want to suffer.
>> So we block him out. There are these incredible words in the book where Jesus says, "God's will is the soul's paradise on earth. Who doesn't want paradise on earth? And the soul who does God's will forms God's paradise on earth. God's will is the sole key that opens divine secrets."
>> Wow.
>> Right.
>> And the soul acquires such familiarity with the house of God that she predominates as if she were the owner. And I can just imagine Mary and Louisa, who lived in the divine will, basically saying, walking around. The soul is walking. Louisa didn't walk. She was confined to her bed for 60 years. But in essence, she was always transported and flying around and walking around with Jesus when she was in her mystical states. And they were saying, "Jesus, I would like this. I would like that. I would like that person saved. I would like such and such." And to have such freedom in the house of God. And they could do this, of course, because they were entirely one with his will. In that sense, there's a kind of ownership. And it's incredible to be so free within the house of God.
>> Well, he can't say no to his mother because she lived totally in his divine will. So, he can't say no to himself if she's totally living in his will. And Louisa was totally living in his will. He can't say no to himself because they both were only doing his will. So, you know, at one point Louisa said, "I want to do what you want." He said, "But Louisa, I want to do what you want to do because I know that you only, you only want to do what I want you to do." So, the more you live in the divine will, the more God will not be able to say no to you because he can't say no to himself. And you're letting him relive his life in you totally. So he can't say no to himself.
So it goes on to say here, um, get caught in the microphone here with these glasses. He says, "Oh, how the will can be expanded. How many good things and how many evils can it not contain? This is why of all things, it is man's will that I want. For if I have this, I conquer everything. The fortress is taken. Now, it is by a free act of will that a person must merge with the divine will in order to recover original order." So, it's our free will that wants us to live this gift, that wants us to give our fiat to God, that says, "God, I want this gift of the divine will." It's my free will wanting that, desiring that. He sees the desires of our hearts and he makes them realities.
>> So, mother, acts and rounds are new terms and key to living in the divine will. I thought maybe we could explain those a little.
>> What God does is amen the smallest act that we do. Letting Jesus do it in us is a great, great act, um, greater than the greatest acts in the Church that people are doing that are not in divine will. I'll introduce what rounds are in one way of saying that, basically, God has given us so much past, present, and future, and creatures, people have not adequately thanked him for it and have not honored what he's done. And so, in the divine will, we can make up for that. We can make reparation for that. And we can, in our imagination, go around the world and through time and say thank you and put "I love you" on everything. You, that's why we have to really believe what these beautiful writings say. When you want to put your "I love you" on everything in creation, redemption, or sanctification, he's putting the "I love you" on there for you on these objects, whatever it may be. Um, if I want to put an "I love you" on every, we have a lot of rabbits around here, every rabbit that ever was and ever will be. I desire it. Jesus puts the "I love you" on every rabbit for me. And that, that "I love you" on every rabbit shouts out to the Eternal Father from me, "I love you, God. I love you, God. I love you, God." So, Jesus does the act, but I have the desire. He takes the desire and from my desire, he does the action for me.
>> And gives it to me as a gift. It's all mine.
>> And it never, you never lose it. Adam and Eve after the fall, you know, and when they went to heaven, um, everything they did before the fall, they never lost. They had a bank in heaven. It was filled with all their acts and rounds and divine will, and they never lost that. Uh, you want to be rich, you know, you might lose your bank account here on earth, but on heaven, God has a bank up there. The more acts and rounds you do, you become a multi-multibillionaire, you know, when you get there. It's all waiting for you. It's all there. You don't see anything happening when you do it on earth. You don't see flashing lights or, but it's the more, the more you have knowledge of these beautiful teachings our Lord gave Louisa, the more profound every act and round you do is. He told that to Louisa, it's your faith, your, it makes your faith grow and what he says is really happening. And as your faith grows, uh, it's more profound. There's more power in every act and round you do because every act and round you do goes back to God, and then he sends it around the world, and it touches every, every soul, uh, every heart and soul according to how much they open to the grace for transformation. So, that's how it works, you know. So, we don't want to waste these acts. You told Louisa, "Every act and round not done is a big loss because it's an act of God." And what God does is amen the smallest act that we do. Letting Jesus do it in us is a great, great act. So, I love what you said about doing the rounds in such a spontaneous way because that is the way I prefer to pray. I do a rote prayer. I do the 12-year St. Bridget prayer every day, and it would be very hard for me to add anything besides that and the Rosary that I already do in a rote manner. So, this is beautiful, and they are described in this book as well. So, how to pray the rounds, they have actual rote prayers for those of you who would find that easier. People have different ways of doing it. God will inspire you to the way to do it, the way you want to do it. Um, you can sit on the porch and look around and put your "I love you" on everything. You're driving a car, you see things, you put your "I love you," and you really believe that it's happening. When I pray the Rosary, I do a rounds Rosary on every aspect of the mysteries. You put your "I love you." You can place yourself there. You can be at the foot of the cross because everything's present to God. God is outside of time. We're in time. You can be at the crib in Bethlehem when Our Lady placed Jesus in the, in the, in the little crib in the manger. Um, you can be everywhere, you know, and you put your "I love you" on everything that you see when you're going through these mysteries. Um, when I go to the, uh, the Luminous Mysteries, you know, the proclamation of the kingdom, my "I love you" on every word that Our Lord gave Louisa to write in his divine will, on every act and round in divine will that was ever done, and I take it as my own, give it back. So, that's, and every Our Father that's prayed, I unite him with the Our Father when Jesus taught his apostles the Our Father. So, you know, you can do whatever you want, and you can have a divine will Rosary by putting your "I love you" in every aspect of every mystery in the Rosary. It makes the Rosary, molds more delightful, it gives you good meditation, you know. So, that's what rounds are, and he told Louisa, he wants us to do rounds and continual rounds and acts always.
That I mean, you're not, you're not, after a while, you, you don't have to say it anymore. It's just in your mind. At one point, it's words. I put my "I love this or that" on the other, or "Jesus, come do this," and "They come do that in me." After a while, you're just thinking, "Jesus is doing it in me. I want Jesus is doing it in me." It's just a thought. Uh, "I want to put my 'I love you'." Just a thought. "I want to put my 'I love you'." You don't have to say word for word for word. It's your desire. Desire of your heart, and it's a thought and a desire that comes out, and Jesus knows what you're thinking. He knows your motives. He knows your desires. So, he makes it happen. So, you know, mother, I just read a story about Servant of God, Father Don Dindo, and an amazing priest. Audrey Peio said of him, "All of paradise is in your soul." So, that says a bit about who Father Dindo was. And I read this story where he's in a waiting room, and he spontaneously said, "Chair, love God. Doorway, express the love of God. Wall, love God." And a nun friend walked into the room, and she said, "What is all this noise? Everything in here is praising God, right?" God takes us in our word. He does what we want. A mother or father wants to please that little baby, you know, but the baby wants, they want to give it to him. That's how we spoil our children. Well, God wants to spoil us, but he wants us to desire these things, and he will do what we want, you know. And, um, we have to have faith that if I tell a chair to praise God, that chair is praising God. Do I believe that God sees the desire of my heart and it becomes a reality? He wants me to praise him in everything and thank him in everything. Uh, you know, you praise him and thank him in every grain of sand, every, every blade of grass, every, uh, rock, anything. You want to praise and thank him, even man-made things. You can put your "I love you" on every car. Say, "Jesus, you know, all of those cars were made out of something that God created. That man cannot make anything out of nothing. Everything that man has created was something that God created before, and he took what God created and formed something out of it, you know, metal. Everything comes from God, you know." So, yes, you can put your "I love you" on everything because everything comes originally from God.
>> What God is saying is, I can praise myself if I want through a chair because
>> it's me acting through creation.
>> Yeah.
>> Remember in scripture, Jesus said, "If I am quiet, even the very stones will cry out." And that just means that all of creation is under his dominion.
>> Yes. God told Louisa, well, for, I'll give you an example. If he said, if you desire to put an "I love you" on every leaf on every tree, you don't have to go with a pen to do it. He says, "I see the desire of your heart, and I put the 'I love you' on every leaf on every tree for you." And because I did it, it becomes a divine "I love you." And because it's divine, it has no beginning, no end. It shouts out to the Father from you, Louisa, "I love you, God. I love you, God," for all eternity. It will never come to an end. God is before us. He's behind us. He's in front of us. He's under us. He's within us. Mostly, he's within us in a different way than he is everywhere else. You know, we were created in his image and likeness. And as we live this beautiful gift, we grow more and more into the image and likeness of God. He said that he relived every person's life to perfection while he was on earth. So, we take all those lives that he relived in a perfect way and take them as our own and give them back to him. He, he relived each one of our lives in a perfect way. Even though we messed up, he redid all of that for us in a perfect way. So that the Father will have a perfect life from each one of us. So it'll be in the end as if Adam and Eve had never fallen. The Father will get all the honor and glory he deserves, all the honor and glory he should have gotten had there never been a fall, had everyone lived a perfect life. Jesus did it for him. He told his mother, he says, "In the end, I will make all things right." You know, it's a delightful way of living. Gives you lots of joy and peace. And the more you call him in everything you do, the more you shrink and the bigger he gets in you. And the littler you become, you realize without him, you're nothing. And that, that humility, realizing your nothingness helps you have perfect joy. You know, your joy grows as you grow in humility. Because what is pride? But insecurity. As we're insecure, we're, we're unhappy. And, and insecurity comes from pride. Um, humility is joy. You know, I'm always trying to think of what skeptics are thinking. So, one could argue, it sounds like you're saying that Jesus is in denial or he's changing his mind. What does that mean? He made my crazy life perfect. So, he made it perfect because he wanted to give the honor and glory to his Father that the Father deserved. So, he came and relived each one of our lives for us. How did he do that? He said he called our conception into his conception. He called our birth into his birth. So, he didn't, he dignified all of our acts by calling all of our acts into his. Every footstep that you make was called into his footsteps. Every word we speak was called into his words. And so he came on earth to live and suffer and die. He was God. For him to become, come in a man's body, become a man was like, uh, a man becoming a dog, you know, that's what Bishop Sheen said, you know. So, he suffered, he lowered himself to become one of us in order to redo every life by calling all of our activities into his and making them and deifying our activities so the Father will have a perfect life from each person who would ever be.
>> So how would he do that for someone who ends up in hell?
>> He called all of that person's actions, his footsteps, his thoughts, his birth, his conception into his, all of that person's sufferings into his sufferings. Now, he didn't do the bad acts. He didn't perform bad. He won't do anything against his Father's will. So, those are knocked out of the box. He lived a perfect life as if each person would have never sinned. That's the kind of life he lived for each person by calling us into his perfect life. I call in all of our lives. Now, we're going to understand a lot more in, in, uh, in, in eternity. Mother Angelica used to say that, um, that for all eternity, we'll be learning something new about God every second, every moment.
You know, this is just scratching the surface. The divine writings that Loy gave Louisa are beautiful. They have the most profound truths I've ever read anywhere. And after you read these volumes and you really study it, you see it in everything. You see it in the Gospels. You see it in everything the Church has taught. Everything comes alive to you more. Um, the Church comes alive to you more. All the, you know, we've had a lot of feast days lately. All the feast days become more alive to you. You know, um, so, you know, that's, it's such a, I mean, the, the Church is so beautiful. We're so privileged to be Catholic to have and have this beautiful gift of the divine will as Catholics. In heaven, we're going to be learning something new about God for all eternity. Can you imagine what God, what kind of a God we have that it will never come to an end, that you're going to be learning something new about him, and that's where your joy will come from, knowledge of God, knowing God. Um, and the more you know him, the more joy you will have in heaven. So, that's the divine will writings gives us a little bit more knowledge of who God is that you can have joy, greater joy in heaven. Of course, we want to live in the divine will, not because we want to, uh, eliminate purgatory, which he told Louisa, "Those who live totally in his divine will eliminate purgatory." He said, "Those who live in divine will will have the highest places in heaven." But our motive should not be that. Our motive should be, um, that we want to give God the honor and glory, all the honor and glory he deserves. If we don't have a perfect motive, we're going to have to go to purgatory to perfect that motive, you know. So, you can't live totally in divine will if you have an impure motive, wanting something for yourself.
>> It's got to be all for God.
>> Mhm.
>> Mhm. I can also hear critics saying, "Wait a minute. You think that you're going to be holier than thou or not need what the church offers anymore." And what would you say to to those people who say such?
>> Because you do go wrong when you're disobedient. If you're disobedient to the Church, you are in error. And you're, God, God's not going to do those acts within you. He only does acts according to his will. Um, so you have to ask, what is his will for you? Uh, if, if we're Catholics, his will is for us to truly follow the Catholic Church and the teachings of the Church, to live our Catholic life as most, as the most, most way that we can. That's according to his will. That's what he wants. Louisa was truly Catholic. She had the Rosary in her hand all day long. Uh, Louisa had communion in her bedroom, um, every day. Um, Louisa, uh, had a confessor. We need, we need confessors. We need the priests. Louisa was so excited when she went to live with the Daughters of Divine Zeal, and her, she could see the tabernacle from her bedroom, her bed. And now they've got her bed, little sisters, where the altar is now, where they have Mass there in their little chapel. We need pastors. We need the priests. Um, you know, and I don't know, you know, people say, well, you know, in the future, there will be no Church. Will be different than it is now. And, uh, I don't know what things will be like in the future, but I know now, unless you live your Catholic faith the way you're supposed to live it now, you won't be ready for any fulfillment that may come that later. You got to be obedient now to what the Church is teaching us. Jesus was obedient to the Old Law till the night he died. Obedience is so important to be obedient always. You know, uh, we don't know what the future has for us. We know that in heaven, there will be no sacraments. You know, in heaven, we won't need that. You know, everything will be perfect in heaven. You'll have everything there. Look at that and say, "Well, now I need the Church. The Church is a gift to me. The Church has helped me to grow in holiness." You don't have to do things different. You continue to do what you do, but asking Jesus to do it in you. When I go to Mass, I can say, "Jesus, come and attend Mass in me. Come and receive yourself in me." During the Mass, I'm listening to the words of the priest, and I'm realizing Jesus's ears and my ears. He's listening, I'm listening. And when I'm saying the prayers, Jesus is praying the prayers in me. So, the whole Mass is a divine will act. You're, you're letting him listen, and you're listening to the priest. It makes you more attentive to the Mass. It makes you, Jesus is receiving himself in me. You have 20 minutes. 20 minutes as Jesus is with you. You should be praying after communion. Um, so everything becomes holy in divine will as you call him into those activities. You pray in the Rosary. Jesus is praying the Rosary in me. I can't say the Rosary perfectly. I get distracted, but Jesus won't. He'll make up for my mistakes. And he says that in the writings, if we, because of our, he understands our human weakness. We try to pray well. We don't always pray perfectly. Sometimes we're distracted. He makes up for the difference because he knows we desire to do it perfectly. We desire to have him do it in us.
What I'm thinking right now is this is a wonderful antidote to boredom, to ennui.
>> Right?
>> And if one is thinking, well, I'm not accomplishing anything today because all I did was stand in line at the DMV. The lady behind the counter was rude to me. You can think, "Wow, that day was a waste." Yeah.
>> This moment at the DMV can be the biggest "I love you" that the earth ever knew because I asked Jesus to put his "I love you" on every DMV worker, every person in line.
>> Yeah, you can do all kinds of things in divine will and make it a whole thing rather than a complaining thing, you know. Um, just, just make it something positive. And we get in a habit. We're creatures of habit. You can get in a habit of of trying to look positively at everything. You know, the, the devil is the author of negative thoughts and words, and God is the author of positive words and thoughts. And they've even done a study with water that when people are positive in a room, the crystals in the water, when they put it under a microscope, were beautiful and beautiful shapes. And when they were in a, the water was in a room with negativity, being people shouting, people upset, saying negative things, the crystals in the water were all jagged and ugly. Um, so they've done that, uh, even with the holy water. They put holy water under a microscope, and the, the crystals in the holy water were beautiful. Then they poured, and the crystals of the, of the regular water were not so beautiful. They poured the, the holy water, or this exercise water, just a little bit in the regular water, and all the regular water became holy water. So, you know, um, we influence each other. We can be positive or we can be negative. And if you look at the bright side of everybody, everything, and bright side of every person, you can always find good in everybody. You can get in a habit of doing that. We get in a habit of being negative, or we can get in a habit of being positive.
And, you know, when we start getting in a habit of putting our acts of calling Jesus into all of our activities, we're going to be living in his divine will always. When we get in a habit of putting our "I love you" throughout the day, you may forget, but you, in the morning, you say, you make that little prevenient act. "Jesus, come and do everything in and through me all day long." During the day, you kind of mention again different things you want him to do in you. But even if you forget, as long as you're doing everything according to his will, he's doing everything in and through you as you ask him to do in the morning. And if you say, "Jesus, I want to put my 'I love you' on everything I see all day long," and you forget to do any kind of rounds throughout the day, everything you see, he's putting his "I love you" on for you. For you, you know, it's just very simple. It's just to really believe that what you desire, he does for you. He's doing all the actions for you.
The book really, really does help. And you prefer to read something each day. You prefer to have that structure and deep understanding and critical thinking regarding all of this. How to do rounds? How to do a prevenient act, an act in the morning of having everything you do in the day be in the divine will. Marcel Laflam did a wonderful job of synthesizing this. Follow the specific prayers if you prefer that. And mother, do you mind if I close with the 15 characteristics of living in the divine will that close chapter 2, which we've just covered?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So on page 53, this is not a new devotion. It is truly a new life. It means living a divine holiness. It means exchanging the human will for the divine will. It means being dominated by God's will. It means living like a son and daughter who possesses their father's belongings. It means being in perfect accord with God, sharing a communion of goods. It means attaining to divine order within oneself. It means the acceptance of suffering if it be God's will. It is an emptying of what does not belong to God. It means doing nothing by oneself. It means allowing God to do wonders in our acts. It means having an infinite capacity for praising God. It means acting on behalf of the whole creation and all people. It means doing tours or rounds of prayer. It is to receive the endowment of Mother Mary's love.
>> Next week we'll go into chapter three.
There's a lot in the chapter we didn't cover, but one thing was suffering. Just call Jesus into all of your suffer. Everybody suffers throughout the day. Every little inconvenience is suffering. "Jesus, come suffer this in me." And it becomes a divine act that Jesus is suffering. Don't waste your sufferings. And that's covered in, in chapter two. Okay. I just wanted to add that in.
And I just want to thank you again, mother, for helping us understand and initiate living in the divine will. Would you be so kind as to say a closing prayer for all of us?
>> Lord Jesus, we thank you for this time together. We ask you to open all of our hearts to all the truths that you have taught Louisa through these writings. Let us learn those same truths by reading them, pondering them, and applying them to our lives so that we can, with our lives, give you all the honor and glory you deserve, Lord Jesus. Amen.
>> Amen.
>> God bless. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.