Be Faithful and Attentive* — Book One

Chapter 4:

Beginning Your Day
in the Divine Will

"How beautiful is the beginning of the Day of the creature who lives in Our FIAT.  It is the enchantment of all of Heaven.  And if the entire Celestial Court could be subject to jealousy it would be jealous of the soul who would be so fortunate as to possess the beginning of the Eternal Day while still living in time — of that precious Day in which God bequeaths its beginning for the unfolding of His Life together with His creature."

(Vol. 35: December 14, 1937)

1.  Rising Prayers

Luisa says:  "Hardly awakened, as the eyes open to the light of the day, thus let us make all our being rise in the Light of the Will of God, and let us begin our rounds" (Divine Will Prayer Book).

Rounds to Begin the Day

See Rounds to Begin the Day in Book 2 — Advéniat Regnum Tuum  (These Rounds contain the Prevenient Act).[1]    Having made this first act of love in the Divine Will, proceed now to make your Morning Offering adapted for living in the Divine Will.  You may wish to use the example provided below:

Morning Offering

O my God, in union with the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary (here kiss your Brown Scapular that you wear in the name of all) and in your Divine Will, I renew again this morning my perpetual intention of offering You my every heartbeat, breath, thought, word, joy, sorrow and every act, and of performing them always in your Most Holy Will.  In each act I intend to offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, everywhere He is Sacramentally present throughout time, and every Sacrifice of the Mass offered throughout time.  I wish to say in each of these acts, "I love You, I adore You, I praise You, I thank You, I beg pardon and make reparation for all sins," all in the name of every human creature who will exist throughout time.  I also wish to implore in each of these acts, the quick and complete triumph of the Divine Will on earth, and its quick and complete triumph in me.

O my Jesus, I desire this day, as I strive to make my acts one with yours, to gain all the indulgences I can; and I offer these acts containing your infinite merits, to Mary Most Holy, that She may best apply them to the interests of your Most Sacred Heart.

Then, throughout this day (and always), I want in your Will, to continuously bring before the Divine Majesty: in my thoughts, the thoughts of everyone, in my eyes, the glances of everyone; in my words, movements, affections, desires and all other acts, those of my brothers: to supplement those acts that are good but only in a human way; to make reparation for those that are evil; to substitute for those things that should be done and are left undone; and to impetrate light, graces and love for them (Adapted from Vol. 11: May 3, 1916).

With my vigilant care to observe modesty in dress (See Chapter 5 — Clothed in the Divine Will or, available online, our Booklet on Modesty) I wish to continuously make divine reparations for all immodesty — especially in our times and more particularly in our churches; and I also wish to make reparation for the disobedience of clerics and religious who do not wear their religious garb, and for the good they leave undone because of this.  I ask You Lord, to grant that good, by your grace, to those souls who should have received it. Let no act of mine escape your Holy Will.  And no matter how small they may be, may they all work in a universal manner repairing, supplementing and substituting everyone's human acts so as to bring down your grace for the salvation and greatest possible sanctification of everyone, even to living in the Divine Will.

Finally my Jesus, it is my perpetual intention to continuously set all my acts in flight to all the Tabernacles of the world, and to every place your Sacramental Presence exists throughout time, to keep You continual company, and to provide You with constant relief and reparation (Adapted from Companion to the Hours of the Passion, 8 p.m.).

Asking for One's Daily Cross (Optional)

Sweet Mother Mary, please come, bring me the Cross Jesus has prepared for me with so much love today.  Please be with me, along with dear Luisa, my Guardian Angel and Saint ( your patron ) at every moment to help me carry it, with love, most faithfully all day long.

My Guardian Angel, please remind me continually, to call the Divine Will into all my acts throughout the day.

You may also wish to add other prayers such as the "Consecration
to the Divine Will" and the "Invocations to the Divine Will" found in Chapter 15 — A Treasury of Prayers.

Setting Up Court & The Role of the Saints and Angels

At this time you may also wish to imitate Bl. Dina, and "set up a court" within your soul for the God who dwells in you.  This "court" will consist of appropriate Heavenly Dwellers: The Most Blessed Virgin, Luisa, St. Joseph, your Holy Guardian Angel, your patron Saint, the Saint of the day and others.  The purpose of this court will be "to keep Him [Jesus] company, to concentrate on loving Him and to think of Him unceasingly."  Thus you will be able to say with Dina:  "He would never be forgotten or alone in me when I fell victim to distractions."[2]

This heavenly "court" can be a great consolation if you are one who ardently seeks to remain attentive, yet frequently falls "victim to distractions."  Even so, this consolation must not cause you to become lax in your efforts to Be Faithful And Attentive.  For when you become distracted, as mentioned in Chapter 1 (under the heading: When your Attentiveness Fails), you begin losing acts in the Divine Will.  And Jesus confirms that each act:

...contains all the goods that are in Heaven and on earth...  and your very Angel, who is beside you, remains fasting because of this [loss of attention], since each act that you do in It, as it follows its course, is one more accidental beatitude which he enjoys by being at your side.  It is a Paradise redoubled with joys that you offer him in such a manner that he feels happy about his lot of having you under his guardianship.  And since the joys of Heaven are in common, your Angel offers the accidental beatitude that he has received from you.  His Paradise is redoubled to all the Heavenly Court as fruit of the Divine Will in the soul whom he protects.  Everyone makes merry and magnifies and praises the power, the sanctity, the immensity of my Will.  Therefore, be attentive (Vol. 19: February 28, 1926).

Besides asking the Saints and Angels to keep Jesus company in you when you get distracted, you may also want to invite them to do your acts together with you.  For, once when Luisa did this, Jesus replied:

As you were calling everyone I felt Myself loved by everyone in return.  Since you have a free and deserving will, when you performed your act, My Will unleashed from Itself a greater Love, glory and happiness with which everyone felt themselves imbued; the Angels and Saints feel a greater glory and happiness as they feel themselves more reciprocated in Love by God; those on earth receive more help and more graces according to their dispositions.

All the acts made in My Will receive this great good because My Will is for everyone and all have a right to this act; and since it is the act of a wayfaring creature who derives merit for all the good it does, the merit becomes common merit and, therefore, common joy, love and glory.  If you only knew the meaning of being Loved in return by God and the joy and glory that a God can give, how much more attentive you would be...! The Angels and the Saints who know of It, sigh for your call so that they may have this great good; and when you do not call them, they anxiously say: 'Aren't you going to call Us today?'  For while you are on earth your merit develops in Heaven to give new love and new happiness to these Celestial Inhabitants (Vol. 35: September 12, 1937).

2.  Morning Meditation

How many Saints and spiritual writers have said that the morning meditation must never be omitted!  This is also true for the Children of the Divine Will.  Here you will obtain the graces needed to Be Faithful And Attentive to the Divine Will throughout the day.

In the first part of your meditation, go mentally over the foreseen activities of the day.  Think of the places you will be and the persons you may encounter.  What temptations lie before you?  What practical steps can you take to avoid succumbing?  This is the time to make a resolution to avoid a certain occasion of sin, to overcome a fault, and to be more faithful to some particular aspect of living in the Divine Will such as mortification, abandonment, or interior recollection.

In the second part, you must recognize your complete incapacity — due to your nothingness — to carry out the good resolutions you've just proposed.  Remember Luisa's words:  "I would be a deceiver if I were to deny that everything until now has been done in the fullness of the grace that the Lord generously and freely gave to me.  There is nothing of my own except my pure nothingness and the inclination to evil.  So, I can truly say that I have seen for myself that without all those graces and lights, I would not have been able to do anything but wrong" (Vol. 1:
Ch. 14).

Having recognized your incapacity, humbly beg from your dear Mother Mary — the Mediatrix of all God's graces — all the graces you need for the day to keep the particular resolutions you've made.  Plead fervently and with great confidence from the depths of your heart, for Jesus says:  "Whoever wants to live in my Will has a powerful Queen and Mother!" (Vol. 36: Dec. 28, 1938).  And again: "The most maternal Love of the Virgin bestows itself on every creature to nurture, guide, and protect it; to nourish it with her own milk and with her own nourishment, which is the Holy Divine Will (Vol. 34: Dec. 20, 1936).  Ask also for help to remain united to Her throughout the day, since as Blessed Dina says: "It is the quickest way to be immersed in Jesus."[3]  All this may be done in various ways as you feel inspired, or, you may want to use the following practice:

Using your Rosary, say on the Our Father beads:

"Sweet Mother Mary, help me to Be Faithful And Attentive to all Jesus wants of me today, doing everything for Him, with Him, and in Him.  Keep me completely abandoned and at peace, doing all my actions under your Maternal gaze.  And never let me go out of His Will; rather, please ensure that at every moment Jesus is properly clothed in the mantle of my exterior being."

Say on the Hail Mary beads (to honor Her perfect faithfulness to the Divine Will):

"Hail Mary, Virgin Most Faithful!"

Always finish your meditation with an act of gratitude.

The importance of the morning meditation cannot be stressed too much.  It is largely through this daily practice that you will obtain the graces needed to Be Faithful And Attentive throughout the day, and thus, little by little, advance in your perfection.  And your perfection — not for your own sake, but rather to please Jesus — is your duty:

...the creature, gifted with intelligence and will, must never neglect its perfection if it longs for God to be pleased with it.  Formed by God to his image and likeness, this creature can truly achieve the maximum perfection that God demands, if it is conformed to his Will in all things and corresponds to the graces He offers (Vol. 1: Chapter 11).

3.  Intentions

Many devout souls have the habit of offering each day of the week for a specific intention.  You may want to do the same.  Jesus Himself gave Blessed Dina Bélanger these intentions:[4]

Sunday............................................................. A day of Reparation

Monday........................................................ A day of Thanksgiving

Tuesday.......................................................... For my Congregation

Wednesday..................................... For Vocations to Religious Life

Thursday...................................................... For Consecrated Souls

Friday.......................................................................... For All Souls

Saturday......................................................................... For Priests

When she asked why there was not a day reserved for the souls in purgatory, Jesus replied:

The souls in purgatory have a share in each day of your week.  Through the offering of indulgences that you make each morning, my divine Mother, according to her wise choice, applies the merits of your prayers and actions.  You have no merits apart from my merits, and my merits are infinite, inexhaustible.  The intentions for each day of the week do not deprive the souls in purgatory who are as dear to me as anything.  My merits can be applied to them as well as to the special intentions of each of your days.[5]

From this is seen the importance of the intention made during the Morning Offering of gaining indulgences!  As Jesus has said, charity for these suffering souls is most pleasing to Him:

The kind of charity most acceptable to Me is helping those who are closest to Me, and those closest to Me are the souls in purgatory, for having been confirmed in My Grace, without any opposition between My Will and theirs, they live in Me continually, ardently loving Me and I am therefore constrained to see them suffer within Me, incapable themselves of obtaining the slightest relief.  Oh, how My Heart feels torn for the plight of these souls! For they are not far from Me but very close, and not only close, but within Me, whence how pleasing they are to My Heart those who seek to help them.  Suppose that you had a mother, a sister in a state of sorrow with whom you lived, and a stranger also in a state of sorrow who lived outside your home, who nonetheless could help himself by alleviating his own sorrow.  Would it not please you more if a person were to help your mother and your sister rather than the stranger, who can help himself without the aid of anyone? (Vol. 4: January 16, 1901).

Other ideas for intentions would include:  Pro-Life,[6] the good of the Church (her Pope & hierarchy, her missionary activity, her freedom and triumph, etc.), government leaders, those you are obligated to pray for and those who have asked for your prayers, the dying, children and youth, etc.  With regard to the children and youth, Jesus expresses:

...what a disappointment to see so many little lives that do not understand the Life of a God within their souls!  They grow up without any Divine Paternity as though they were alone in the world; they neither feel nor know how much they are Loved.  How can they, therefore, love Me?  Hence, once love has been stripped away the heart hardens, life becomes brutish and... the unfortunate youngsters... yield to the most heinous crimes....  This is a grief for your Jesus, and I want it to be a grief for you also, so that you may pray for the many youngsters, that they may be taught that I am in their hearts, that I Love and want to be loved (Vol. 35: January 10, 1938).

Of course as a Child of the Divine Will you will want to keep foremost in your intentions each and every day the coming of the Reign of God's Will on earth, for Jesus says:

I want you to ask for My Will in your pains, in the food that you eat, in the water you drink, in the work you do and in your sleep.  I want you to engage your breath and heartbeat in asking My Will to come and reign.  In this way everything will be an occasion for you to ask for My Will, even in the sun that fills your eyes with light, in the wind that whistles in your ears, in the sky that you see spread itself out over your head...  Everything must be an occasion for you to ask My Will to reign
in the midst of creatures.  By this means you will place many pledges in My hands, with the first pledge being your whole being: you will not
move unless you first ask that My Will be understood and desired by all (Vol. 35: October 31, 1937).[7]

4.  Preparation for Holy Communion

If you have the happiness of receiving Holy Communion today, remember to make some fervent and loving aspirations now, during
your morning prayers, to enkindle your desire to receive Him.  (See Chapter 9, No. 2 — Preparation.)

5.  The Role of Our Blessed Mother

Having suggested, in No. 2, that you make use of the intercession of Our Blessed Mother in making your Morning Meditation, it is fitting to end this chapter with a few words to explain more clearly her role in the life of a Child of the Divine Will.  As an exemplar of the "New and Divine Holiness," Blessed Dina Bélanger gives us this inspired reflection in her autobiography:

One morning, Jesus reminded me first of the following historic fact:  St. Elizabeth of Hungary, daughter of the King of Hungary, was betrothed at the age of four to the son of the Duke of Thuringia in Germany.  In spite of her age, the young Princess had to be sent to the foreign country where later she would be living.  Her mother, Queen Gertrude, who had the most tender motherly love for her, did everything her heart could invent in order to adorn the dear child; she lavished on her jewels, precious stones, countless costly gifts; in a word, she tried to do everything in her power, having at her disposal an immense fortune.

Then Jesus led me to understand the action of the Blessed Virgin in my regard.  My Heavenly Mother was preparing me not simply for betrothal but for the marriage that would take place in eternity.  If Queen Gertrude's maternal love could be so great, what must be that of the Heart of Mary!  Motherly love here on earth, in spite of its wealth of dedication, is like ice compared with the burning love of the Virgin Mother, the perfect creature.  The Queen of Hungary showered on her daughter adornments and rare jewels that she would hand over to a human fiancé from another country.  The Blessed Virgin is a Queen whose power and wealth are beyond compare:  She possesses the Heart of God!  What would She not do to embellish my soul so as to make it pleasing not to a fiancé, but to the Bridegroom; not to a man but to God, not to a stranger, but to her Son!  And what part did little Elizabeth play? — None at all.  At four years of age, she was completely unaware of what was happening all around her, and totally in her mother's hands.

In the same way, I was not to worry about anything but to let my Blessed Mother have her way;  She undertook to make reparation for and bring to perfection the past, the present and the future, making everything ready through the merits of Our Lord and her own.  That is why I am certain to glorify God in Heaven to the extent that He desires of me.  My faults and failings are great and innumerable, but my Mother is there to cover me with her cloak of perfection and give me Jesus together with his infinite treasures.[8]

The motto Bl. Dina chose for her life was:  "Love, and let Jesus and Mary have their way!"  Of course, by letting Jesus have his way, she meant letting Him have "complete freedom of action" within her.  But, she explained that by letting Mary have her way, she was "entrusting to Her unreservedly the task of ensuring that her Jesus would be clothed in the mantle of my exterior being."[9]

Jesus, in the Book of Heaven, offers these beautiful words about Our Lady's role:

If you only knew how much this Celestial Queen loves souls...  She, the faithful copy of Her Creator, gazes within Herself and discovers her immense seas of Love, of Grace, of Sanctity, of Beauty and of Light.  She then gazes upon the creature and yearns to give her entire Self together with all of her seas, so that they might possess their Mama with all her riches.  To see such children poor while their Mother is so rich — only because they do not live as heirs of their Mother — causes such grief...  She would have them immersed in her seas of Love, such that they would love their Creator as She loves Him, hidden within his Sanctity, embellished with his Beauty, filled with his Grace.  But not seeing them as She would like, had She not been in the state of Glory where there is no room for pain, would cause her to die from pure grief for each creature who does not live in the Divine Will.

Wherefore She prays incessantly; She employs all her seas in prayer as She implores the Divine Will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Her love is so great that in virtue of our Will She bilocates in each creature to prepare the interior of their souls; She draws them close to her Maternal Heart, She embraces them in her arms so as to dispose them to receive the Life of the Supreme Fiat, and oh, how she prays in each heart to our Adorable Majesty saying, "Hurry: my Love is about to overflow; I want to see my children living together with Me in that same Divine Will which formed all my Glory, my riches and my Great Inheritance.  Trust Me, and I will see to it that both my children and Your own Will, which is also Mine, shall be defended."

The love of this Celestial Queen is unsurpassable.  Only in Heaven will they know just how much She loves creatures and what She has done for them.  Her most exuberant, magnanimous and sublime act is desiring that they possess the Kingdom of my Will just as She does.  And oh, what this Celestial Lady will not do to obtain this intention!  You, too, unite yourself with Her and pray for such a holy intention  (Vol. 35: August 9, 1937).

Aptly, Luisa's entire thirty-six volumes end with this sweet and heartening passage in which Jesus speaks of Our Heavenly Mother's love for the Children of the Divine Will:

I want you to know the extent of My Heavenly Mother's Motherhood:  what She did, how much it cost Her and still costs Her.  (...)

Who can say how much She loved Me and how much I loved Her?  Her love was so great that I was unable to be in the midst of everything I did without feeling her Motherhood alongside Me.  I can say that She hastened — in order to never leave Me alone — even in My very breath, as I called out to Her.  Her Motherhood was for Me a need, a comfort and a support to My life on earth.  (...)

...all Heaven prays and waits anxiously for the Divine Will to be known and to reign.  Then, the great Queen will do for the Children of My Will what She did for her Jesus, and her Motherhood will have life in her many children.

I will give over My place in her Maternal Heart to the ones who live in My Will.  She will rear them for Me, She will guide their steps, She will hide them in her Motherhood and holiness.  All their acts will be endowed with her motherly love and her holiness.  They will be her true children, who resemble Me in everything...  And, oh, how I'd like to have everyone know that the one who wants to live in My Will has a powerful Queen and Mother!  She will make up for what is lacking in them, She will rear them on her maternal lap and, in everything they do, She will be with them to pattern their acts according to hers.  In this way, one can tell that they are children who have been reared, guided and bred in the love of My Mother's Motherhood.  They are the ones who will make Her happy and who will be her honor and her glory.  (Vol. 36: December 28, 1938 — Final words of the Book of Heaven)

Remember to keep in mind throughout the day, the motto that Jesus has given you:

END NOTES

[1]  See Chapter 6 for an explanation of the Prevenient Act.  back

[2]  Bl. Dina Bélanger, The Autobiography of Blessed Dina Bélanger, 3rd ed., pp. 154-5.  Sillery (Québec) Canada: Les Religieuses de Jésus-Marie, 1997.  back

[3]  Ibid., p. 149.  back

[4]  Ibid., p. 320.  back

[5]  Ibid., p. 321.  back

[6]  Pro-Life: Concerning the murder of unbaptized babies, Luisa related after one mystical experience:
 
      I passed this morning very anguished from the many offenses I saw men commit, especially for certain horrendous deceits.  What pain this caused Jesus: the loss of souls, much more for that of a newborn baby that they were going to kill without administering to it Holy Baptism.  It seems to me that this sin weighs very heavily on the balance of Divine Justice, so much that it cries for vengeance before God.  Yet these painful scenes are repeated quite often (Vol. 2: Jun. 9, 1899).
 
      Let the Children of the Divine Will be aware that in the United States alone this sin is repeated surgically (and has been for years with no end in sight) over 4000 times per day.  This does not include chemical abortions caused by birth control, nor does it include the mass destruction of human embryos in laboratories.  Thus, there can be no doubt that the Children of the Divine Will are called upon to make reparation for these unspeakable sins.  back

[7]  The Children of the Divine Will must keep in mind when making intentions that they have ceded all their rights to the Divine Will.  Therefore, they only make intentions with the desire to please Jesus by fulfilling his Will.  If Jesus wishes to use their prayers and offerings for other intentions they have already given Him full freedom to do so (See Vol. 11: Sept. 29, 1912).  back

[8]  The Autobiography of Blessed Dina Bélanger, pp. 174-5.  back

[9]  Ibid., p. 171.  back

* Be Faithful and Attentive: A Handbook for Living in the Divine Will
Web-edition Copyright © A.D. 2008 & 2015 Robert T. Hart — All Rights Reserved.