FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING
22 years ago to the day
The Cause of the Beautification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta began in Trani, Italy
In 1860, two French associations, the Apostleship of Prayer and the League of the Sacred Heart, had merged and launched the first worldwide movement of prayer for the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with their motto, ” Thy Kingdom Come!” On June 11, 1899, the faithful of the entire world, in union with their bishops and with the Vicar of Christ on earth, consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Also in 1899, the Society for the Social Reign of Christ submitted the first petition ever presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites for a liturgical Feast of Christ the King. They were joined by members of the League of the Sacred Heart and the Apostleship of Prayer in a campaign for this feast which specifically petitioned the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth. In 1898 the new prelate, Archbishop Tommaso de Stefano (March 24, 1898 – 13 May 1906) delegated as her new confessor Fr. Gennaro Di Gennaro, who carried out this task for twenty-four years. The new confessor, glimpsing the marvels that the Lord was working in this soul, categorically ordered Luisa to put down in writing all that God’s grace was working within her. None of the excuses made by the Servant of God to avoid obeying her confessor in this were to any avail. Not even her scant literary education could excuse her from obedience to her confessor. Fr. Gennaro Di Gennaro remained cold and implacable, although he knew that the poor woman had only been to elementary school. Thus on February 28, 1899, she began to write her diary, of which there are thirty-six large volumes! The last chapter was written on December 28, 1939, the day on which she was ordered to stop writing. Leo XIII in 1899, in the encyclical Annum Sacrum of May 25, he warned the Bishops of the entire world that on the following June 11, he would consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart, demanding that they unite themselves with him in this act. December 11, 1925, Pope Pius XI published the encyclical Quas Primas instituting the liturgical feast of Christ the King throughout the universal Church where the pope clearly stated the truth: that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will be established upon the earth.
Volume 35 – December 25, 1937 Jesus remained silent, and I continued to think about the birth of Little Baby Jesus. And He added: “Little daughter of my Will, the feast of my birth was the feast – the beginning of the feast – of my Divine Will. As the Angels were singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest Heavens, and peace on earth to the men of good will,’ all Angels and the Creation assumed a festive mode and, while celebrating my birth, they celebrated the feast of my Divine Will. In fact, with my birth, our Divinity received true glory unto the highest Heavens; and men will have the true peace, when they will recognize my Will, giving It dominion and allowing It to reign. Only then, they will feel my Will as good – will they feel the divine strength; only then, will Heaven and earth sing together: ‘Glory to God in the highest Heavens, and peace on earth to the men who will possess the Divine Will.’ All will abound in these men, and they will possess the true peace.”
October 28, 1928 How all that has been done by God has not been taken by the creature. Works of Jesus. The Feast of Christ the King, prelude of the Kingdom of the Divine Will. I was continuing my round in the Divine Volition, to follow all of Its acts; and my sweet Jesus, making Himself felt in my interior, told me: “My daughter, all that has been done by Our Divinity, both in Creation and in Redemption, has not all been absorbed by the creature, but is all in my Divine Will, in waiting, to give itself to creatures. If you could see everything in my Divine Fiat, you would find an army of acts of Ours, which came out of Us to be given to creatures; but because Our Will does not reign, they have neither the space in which to put them, nor the capacity to receive them. And this divine militia has been waiting for as long as twenty centuries to place itself in office of exercise, so as to bring to creatures the gifts, the clothings, the joys and the divine weapons which each of Our acts possesses, in order to form together with them one single divine army – a celestial militia. Now, so that the Kingdom of Our Divine Will may reign in the midst of creatures, it is necessary that the creature absorb into herself all of these acts of the Divinity done for love of them – and absorb them so much into herself, as to enclose within herself everything that my Fiat possesses, interiorizing them and consummating them within herself. So, my Divine Will, consummated within the creature, will make this whole divine army reenter into her. All of Our acts which came out of Us for love of them, in Creation, Redemption and Sanctification, will reenter into creatures, and my Divine Will, reentered and consummated within them, will feel triumphant and will reign, dominant, together with Our divine army. This is why I do nothing but make you sip, continuously, everything that was done by Us and that is done in Creation, Redemption and Sanctification – so as to be able to say once again, as I did on the Cross: ‘I have consummated everything – I have nothing left to do in order to redeem man.’ So shall my Will repeat: ‘I have consummated it in this creature, in a way that all Our acts have been enclosed in her – I have nothing left to add. I have consummated everything, so that man might be restored and the Kingdom of my Divine Will may have Its life and Its regime on earth as It does in Heaven.’ Oh! if you knew how many works I am doing in the depth of your soul in order to form this first Kingdom to my Divine Will…. In fact, once I have done the first, from one creature It will pass on to the next, in such a way that my Kingdom will be populated more than all others. Therefore, my love in forming this Kingdom of Mine is so great, that in the soul in whom my Divine Volition must reign, I want to enclose everything that I Myself did in Redemption, that which the Sovereign Queen did, adding what all the Saints have done and do. Nothing must be lacking in her of all Our works; and in order to do this, I put the whole of Our Power, Wisdom and Love in motion.” After this, I was thinking about today’s Feast – that is, the Feast of Christ the King; and my sweet Jesus, moving in my interior, told me: “My daughter, the Church does nothing but intuitively grasp what She must know on my Divine Will and how Its Kingdom must come. Therefore, this Feast is the prelude of the Kingdom of my Divine Fiat. Indeed, the Church is doing nothing other than honoring my Humanity with those titles which, by right, are due to It; and when She has given Me all the honors that befit Me, She will move on to honor and to institute the Feast to the Kingdom of my Divine Will, by which my Humanity was animated. The Church proceeds step by step, and now She institutes the Feast to my Heart, now She consecrates the century, in all solemnity, to Christ the Redeemer, and now She moves on, with greater solemnity, to institute the Feast to Christ the King. Christ the King means that He must have His Kingdom, He must have peoples worthy of such a King. And who will ever be able to form for Me this Kingdom if not my Will? Then, yes, will I be able to say: ‘I have my people – my Fiat has formed it for Me.’ Oh! if the leaders of the Church knew what I have manifested to you about my Divine Will, what I want to do, Its great prodigies, my yearnings, my sorrowful heartbeats, my anguishing sighs, for I want my Will to reign, to make everyone happy, to restore the human family – they would feel that in this Feast of Christ the King is nothing other than the secret echo of my Heart which, echoing in them, without their knowing it, has them institute for Me the Feast of Christ the King in order to call their attention and reflection. ‘Christ the King…. And His true people – where are they?’ And they would say: ‘Let us hasten to make His Divine Will known; let us let It reign, that we may give a people to Christ the King, whom we have called so. Otherwise, we have honored Him with words, but not with facts’.”
