Divine will

The Divine Will is the very essence of God; it is the Source of all His Attributes,

of His Love, His Life, and His works.

What are we?

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1-3)

What was Saint John announcing by saying this? That the Divine Will still had to be revealed as the interior life of Jesus—that is, “living in the Divine Will”—so that it might become our life, following the example and spiritual doctrine of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, through whom in this historical time He has wished to manifest it.

So, what does it mean to “live in the Divine Will”? It means to live God’s very Will as one’s own, as revealed through the writings of Luisa Piccarreta. This was the interior life of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of Mary Most Holy, His Mother and our Mother.

Who is Luisa Piccarreta? The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, “the Little Daughter of the Divine Will,” is the creature whom the Lord chose to initiate in her the fulfillment of His ideal, of His eternal Decree, and to make it known in the Church and throughout the world: that His Divine Will may be in man what it is in God: his Life, his Happiness, the Source from which all His work flows.

Luisa was born in Corato (Bari, Italy) on April 23, 1865; she lived there all her life and died there on March 4, 1947. She is still remembered as "Luisa the Saint." Her cause for beatification was opened in 1994. Many testified to her life (among them numerous priests and bishops, a cardinal, and even a canonized saint, Saint Hannibal Maria Di Francia, who knew her for 17 years and was the ecclesiastical censor of her writings).

In short, what is Luisa's message? Luisa can repeat the Lord's words: “My teaching is not my own, but comes from him who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do his will will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:16-17).

And Jesus also said these words to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

And what is the gift of God? It is not just any gift, nor even something merely spiritual, but His own Divine Will, omnipotent, eternal, most holy.

Keeping the Commandments, doing God's will, peacefully accepting what God permits or ordains: all this is necessary for our salvation, but it is insufficient for His love. A popular hymn says, "God became like us so that we might become like Him." God wants us to be like Him, in His likeness. God wants us to live with Him in perfect communion of life, so that we may say the same words that Jesus said to the Father: "All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine" (John 17:10).

God wants us to love—to love Him with His own Love—so that our loving response is neither disproportionate nor unworthy. Knowing that our hearts (our wills) alone are incapable of loving in a divine way, worthy of God, He now offers us the gift of His own Heart, His adorable Will—the Heart of the Three Divine Persons—so that we may live His Life with them, participate in their works, and love as they love.

Now the Lord says to you: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant; I will make you a light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6).

Now the Lord says to you: “My son, give me your heart, because I want to give you Mine.”

Now the Lord says to you: “I want to give you My Will, so that what is in Me may be in you.”