Be Faithful and Attentive*

Author's Introduction

"Jesus, my Mother, come to write together with me.  Lend me your most holy hands so that I may write that which pleases You and only that which You want."

(Hours of the Passion, 11 a.m.)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit — and in the Divine Will.  Amen.

Dear Son or Daughter of the Divine Will, you have been reading the writings of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, the Book of Heaven.  By the grace of God you have received these words, and the immense Gift they contain, with joy, and have begun putting them into practice.  The Gift of course, is God's Divine Will.  And when you are properly disposed and make use of this Gift, your acts take on a divine value and become eternal.  They penetrate everywhere and bring God's grace to all souls on earth in every age.  They give more glory to the Saints in Heaven and even enrapture the Three Divine Persons of God!  Realize then that you are a chosen soul.  Think of the great Saints.  None of them received this Gift God has offered you:  not St. Dominic, not St. Francis of Assisi, not St. Catherine of Sienna, not St. Teresa of Avila.  It was not given to St. Mary Magdalen, nor to St. Paul, nor to any of the Apostles, not even the Apostle John, the beloved of Our Lord.  St. John the Baptist whom Our Lord called the greatest of "them that are born of women" (Mt. 11:11) [1] was not granted this Gift, nor can we be sure that it was granted even to dear St. Joseph, the putative father of Our Divine Saviour, who for nearly thirty years lived in such great intimacy with Him, calling Him "my Son." [2]  God, in his mysterious Wisdom, has chosen instead, to give this incomprehensible Gift to YOU. [3]

And who are you to receive such a Gift which all the Saints have been denied?  To be sure, you are nothing.  God created you out of nothing, and at every moment He sustains you or you would again vanish into nothingness.  Your talents, abilities and even your desire to do good all come from Him.  You can say with Luisa: "There is nothing of my own except my pure nothingness and the inclination to evil" (Vol. 1: Ch. 14). [4]  Therefore, you must realize that it is by his own free choice and not because of any good you have done that God has chosen you as a recipient of the greatest Gift God can give.  While this thought naturally fills you with great joy and gratitude, it should also cause you to be filled with a certain holy fear, for Jesus said:  "...unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required" (Lk. 12:48).

What does God expect of a soul to whom He has chosen to give his Adorable Will?  He expects this soul to Be Faithful And Attentive at working to never do her own will, but only God's, and, of learning to continually call his Divine Will into all her acts.  In this way, little by little, the soul will come to fully possess God, and God to fully possess the soul.  This soul has also been given the great responsibility (and privilege!) of bringing God's Kingdom to earth, transforming the earth into a terrestrial paradise.  Jesus told Luisa:

"...to reestablish the Kingdom of my Will on earth, there must be sufficient acts by creatures to keep my Kingdom from remaining suspended and enable It to descend and take form upon the very acts which creatures have formed in order to obtain such an immense good.  This is why I urge you so much to make your rounds in all our works, our Creation and Redemption.  I do it to have you contribute your acts, your 'I love You,' your adoration, your recognition and your 'thank You' over all our works....  Then, if, in truth, you want this Kingdom, continue your acts so that when the established number has been completed, you can obtain that for which you sighed with so much insistence" (Vol. 19: Sept. 13, 1926).

Jesus also said:

"...since God has established and ordered everything, He awaits that souls pray more insistently and with the power of their prayer, strengthened by the power of his own Will, draw down the Eternal Will from Heaven; and with their sweet chains of love tie It to the earth in order to let It reign in the midst of creatures.  These souls will be as so many brides that, ringed around their Spouse with their loving chains, carry Him as in triumph in the midst of creatures.  And, as the Holy Virgin put an end to the nocturnal hours of the Patriarchs and Prophets and formed the dawn to let the Sun of the Eternal Word shine, so these souls will form the dawn to let shine the Sun of the Divine Fiat, so that the Will of God may reign on earth as in Heaven" (Vol. 20 & Others: May 26, 1928).

Do you see, then, dear soul, what great work God wants to accomplish by your acts, done in his Will?  Realize deeply both the immense privilege and responsibility Almighty God has given you!  What an ungrateful wretch you indeed would be if you did not consider the Gift of the Divine Will to be the "pearl of great price" mentioned in the Gospel, at which finding, you must "sell all" and purchase that pearl.  This "selling all" is none other than giving up your own will — and doing so constantly — to allow the Divine Will to operate in you.  When you have learned to never do your own will, but only to operate with his, continuously in all the ups and downs of life and in all the trials and sorrows God will send you, and when you come to that point that you would rather die than do a single act of your own will, you will have "sold all" and the "pearl of great price" — God's Divine Will — will be your own possession!

To encourage you on this long journey, keep in mind that even just one act done in the Divine Will is a divine act and worth more than Heaven and earth.  Just one act done in the Divine Will gives more glory to God than all the acts of all the previous Saints and martyrs combined.  Remember too that God does not expect you to be successful in remaining always in his Divine Will all at once since you are in the habit of always living in your own will.  He does, however, as mentioned above, expect a diligent effort to make constant use of this Gift.  If that great Marian Saint, St. Louis De Montfort said, "Beware, then, of remaining inactive while possessing my secret; it would turn into a poison and be your condemnation," [5] about those who gain knowledge of True Devotion to Mary and don't make use of it — how much more do these words apply to those who do not make diligent use of the infinitely greater Gift of the Divine Will.  Jesus gives this analogy:

Imagine a room in which all the shutters are closed:  regardless of the sun's intensity outside, the room always remains dark.  Now, the act of opening the shutters indicates the desire for the light; but even that is not enough, if one does not take advantage of the light by tidying up the room, dusting it, and by getting down to work, so as not to waste the light that has been obtained and thus prove oneself ungrateful.  So, it is not enough merely to have the will of knowing the truths [of the Divine Will], if — in the light of the Truth that is illuminating him — a person does not also seek to brush away his weaknesses and to put his life in order according to the light of the Truth that he knows, and, together with it, to set himself to the task, thus making it part of himself, in such a way that the light of the Truth that he has absorbed shines through his mouth, his hands, and his demeanor.  Otherwise, it would be like killing the Truth; not to put it into practice would be to live in disorder before the light.  A poor room full of light but totally thrown into disorder, topsy-turvy and in complete disarray, and a person inside of it that doesn't take care to put it in order:  wouldn't this be a pitiful sight to behold?  But that is what someone is like who knows the truths and does not put them into practice  (Vol. 13: November 19, 1921).

It is for this reason — that God expects so much of souls to whom He has offered the Gift of his Will — that Book 1: Fiat Mihi Secundum Verbum Tuum has been compiled.  It has been designed to help you understand what it means to live in the Divine Will, so you can Be Faithful And Attentive in living it out in your daily life.  Jesus wants you to "understand clearly what [He has] revealed, because, according to the clarity with which they [the truths] will be expounded, so will they produce their effects" (Vol. 19: Aug. 18, 1926).  Much information from traditional Catholic resources and from the lives of the Saints has also been included to help you die to self and practice virtue, since "one must first practice the lesser forms of holiness" (Vol. 13: Dec. 3, 1921) to live in the Divine Will.  Between the chapters you will find inspiring words from the Book of Heaven for encouragement.

Book 2: Adveniat Regnum Tuum consists of a variety of formulated rounds intended to help you fulfill Jesus' request:  "...to make your rounds in all our works, our Creation and Redemption ... to contribute your acts, your 'I love You', your adoration, your recognition, and your 'thank You' over all our works," in order to bring the Kingdom of God's Will to earth.

Despite your diligent efforts, you will no doubt find yourself often failing and unable.  Here it is that you must learn to be completely abandoned (See Chapter 2) in the arms of Jesus, confident He is taking full care of your soul, and turning your failures and inability into victories.  He will masterfully use them only to make you more sure of your pure nothingness, and of your absolute dependence on Him.  Therefore, on one hand, you will always want to keep in mind the need to Be Faithful and Attentive, and on the other, to be always abandoned and at peace.

END NOTES

[1]  All Biblical passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible unless otherwise noted.  back

[2]  As noted in the 2005 publication of Be Faithful and Attentive, The Book of Heaven, Volume 14: October 6, 1922 and Day 25 of The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, seem to indicate that St. Joseph did not live in the Divine Will.  Yet, since that first publication, one of Mr. Hart's colleagues has discovered in an "upper volume" (i.e. after Vol. 19) a passage where Luisa clearly indicates her belief that he did.  Was this simply the holy and pious sentiment of the humble Servant of God, or did St. Joseph — whom the Church traditionally honors with the special veneration of "proto-dulia" — truly posses this Gift?  This question as yet remains to be definitively answered.  back

[3]  It is important to note that although this Gift of living in the Divine Will is greater that any gift of sanctity received by any of the Saints of old, this does not mean that one who receives this new Gift of sanctity is instantaneously made greater, or that he will necessarily become greater, than all or any of the Saints of the past.  While it is true that any act done in the Divine Will is of infinite and incomprehensible value, this does not necessarily indicate that the one performing it is greater in virtue than any one of the Saints who all practiced virtue to an heroic degree.  back

[4]  This Handbook was compiled by Robert T. Hart using excerpts only from Volumes 1-19, "Volume 20 & Others" and Volumes 35-36 of the Book of Heaven — the translations available to him in English at the time.  For information on the translations used in producing this work, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Center for the Divine Will — P.O. Box 340 — Caryville, TN 37714.  back

[5]  St. Louis De Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, Introduction.  Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1995.  back

* Be Faithful and Attentive: A Handbook for Living in the Divine Will
Web-edition Copyright © A.D. 2006 & 2015 Robert T. Hart — All Rights Reserved.