Presentation
From The Hours of the Passion
by the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta
little daughter of the Divine Will
FULL BOOK BELOW – with audio version here: https://youtu.be/b6BaY46NsqU?si=59ppR88yoF0vtjG5
This book (The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ) is a translation of the Italian book, L’Orologio della Passione di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo, written by Luisa Piccarreta, “The Little Daughter of the Divine Will,” about the year 1914, in obedience to the ecclesiastical authority at that time, the now Saint Annibale Maria di Francia. This presentation was taken largely from the preface of the fourth edition, which Saint Annibale Maria di Francia had written for the original Italian.
Luisa was seventeen years old (she relates these facts in the first of thirty-six volumes which she wrote by order of holy obedience). On the last day of a Christmas Novena which Jesus Himself prompted her to do, He surprised her with an unusually vivid experience of the marvelous Mysteries of His Love. And He told her He wanted to lavish New and Greater Graces on her, manifesting to her other, even more lofty Excesses of His Immense Love, and inviting her to continue giving Him uninterrupted company during the twenty-four hours of His Sorrowful Passion and death.
Much later, after Luisa had already been Living these Hours of the Passion intensely in her interior for more than thirty years, the now Saint Annibale di Francia, who was the ecclesiastic delegate on matters concerning Luisa’s writings and who had come to know about this practice of hers, gave her the obedience to write these Hours down. This, then, is how the book, The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ began.
It was then that Saint Annibale di Francia published it for the first time. To this edition, there followed seven others: five in Italian and two in German—always with the proper ecclesiastical permissions. It was recently published in English and Spanish as well.
When Luisa had finished writing the Hours of the Passion, she wrote a letter which she gave to Saint Annibale together with the book, who included it in the book’s preface when he published it. From this letter, we come to appreciate how pleased Jesus is, and how many benefits are lavished upon the soul, when it practices these Hours on a daily basis, as Bread without which one cannot live. Here is the letter.
“I am finally sending you this hand-written copy of The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May it all be for His greater Glory. I have also enclosed a few sheets on which I have described the Effects and the beautiful Promises which Jesus makes to all those who meditate these Hours of the Passion.
“I believe that if whoever meditates on them is a sinner he will convert; if he is imperfect he will become perfect; if he is holy he will become holier; if he is tempted he will find victory; if suffering he will find strength, medicine and comfort in these Hours; if weak and poor he will find a spiritual food and a mirror in which to look at himself continually, and so become beautiful and similar to Jesus, our Model.
“Jesus’ Joy is so immense when someone meditates on the Hours of the Passion, that He would like to see at least one copy of these meditations being used in every city and town. Because then it would be as if Jesus were hearing His own Voice and His own Prayers which He raised to His Father during the twenty-four hours of His painful Passion. And if this is done at least by a few souls in each town and city, He Himself promises that the Divine Justice will be appeased in part, and punishments will be lessened.
“Reverend Father: You make an appeal to everyone. Bring this little work to completion, which my Loving Jesus has had me do.
“I would also like to add that the purpose of these Hours of the Passion is not so much that of recounting the story of the Passion, since there already are many books which deal with this pious subject, and it would not be necessary to write another one. Instead, its purpose is to make reparation: to unite ourselves to Jesus in each of the different moments of His Passion, and with His own Divine Will, make a worthy reparation for each of the various offenses He receives, and compensate Him for everything that all creatures owe Him.
“From this there derive the different ways of making reparation in these Hours. In some instances, the soul blesses Him, in others it sympathizes with Him, in others it praises Him, it comforts suffering Jesus, it compensates Him, it begs, prays and asks Him, and so on.
“So, I entrust to you the task of making known the purpose of these Hours to those who will read them.”
Therefore, in every city, town and nation, let us form so many cenacles, in which these twenty-four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord are meditated and lived. Like so many living clocks, let them faithfully mark the hours of each day, to keep Jesus company with our love, our reparation and our gratitude, for He is not loved as He deserves. Indeed, His own children offend Him and crucify Him again in their hearts, by closing the doors to Grace, to the Divine Will.
It happened that on one occasion, Saint Annibale di Francia went to Luisa’s house and recounted what had taken place on one of his visits with the Pope (being an intimate friend of Pope Saint Pius X, he was frequently received by him). While with him, he wanted to introduce him to the book, The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which he had been spreading. So, St. Annibale read a few pages of it to the Pope, specifically, from the Hour of the Crucifixion. At a certain point, the Pope interrupted him, saying:
“Father, this book should be read while kneeling: It is Jesus Christ who is speaking!”
The Promises of Jesus for Whoever Does
The Hours of the Passion
From the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta
V10 – 4.10.13 – “Tell me, my Good Lord, what will You grant in return to those who will make the Hours of your Passion on which You had instructed me?” And He: “My daughter, I shall not regard these Hours as ‘your things, but as things done by Me, and I shall Grant to you My Very Own Merits, as if I, Myself, were, in Actuality, Suffering My Passion. I shall, thereby, make you obtain the Effects of My Passion, according to the soul’s disposition. This, I shall Accomplish on earth: Of Myself, I could not have Offered you more; and in Heaven: I shall place these souls at the front, Shooting them with Arrows of Love and of Happiness for the many hours they spent in making the Hours of My Passion. And they shall shoot Me with arrows as well. What a Sweet Enchantment for all the Blessed this shall be!”
V11 – 9.6.13 – I was thinking about the Hours of the written Passion, how they have no indulgences; and therefore, whoever does them cannot gain any indulgences, as they can with so many other prayers enriched with so many indulgences. While I was thinking of this, my Always Amiable Jesus, all Mildness, said to me:
“My daughter, with indulgenced prayers, one can gain something. Instead, the Hours of My Passion, which are My Very Own Prayers, My Reparations, and Complete Love, have Truly Issued from My Heart. Have you, perhaps, forgotten how many times I United Myself with you, in order to make these Hours Together, and how I Changed Scourges into Graces for the entire earth? Therefore, My Enjoyment is So Great, that instead of indulgences, I give you a Handful of Love which Contains Inestimable Coins of Infinite Value. Then, when things are Accomplished with Pure Love, My Love Discovers for you the Vent, for My Love Desires that the creature give relief and vent to the Creator’s Love.”
V11 – 10…14 – As I was writing the Hours of the Passion, I thought to myself: “How many sacrifices there are in writing these blessed Hours of His Passion, especially when having to write down certain interior acts that passed only between Jesus and myself! What will be the recompense that Jesus shall Offer me for them? And Jesus, making me hear His Sweet and Tender Voice, said to me:
“My daughter, as a recompense for having written the Hours of My Passion, for every word that you have written, I will give you a Kiss, a soul.”
And I: “My Love, this is for me. What will you give, instead, to those who shall make them?”
And He: “If they shall make them Together with Me and with My Own Will, for every word that they make, I shall give them a soul, because the greater or lesser efficacy of these Hours of my Passion is determined by the greater or lesser union they have with Me. And by making these Hours with My Will, the creature therein hides himself, whereby, My Will doing the Acting, I AM thus able to do All the Good I Want, even through the use of a single Word. And I shall do this every time they make them.”
On another occasion, I was complaining to Jesus, that after so many sacrifices in writing these Hours of the Passion, there were so few souls who made them.
And He: “My daughter, do not complain. Even if there were but only one soul, you should be happy. Would I not have Suffered My Entire Passion for the sake of Saving only one soul? The same applies to you; good must never be omitted simply because there are few who make use of it. All evil, however, is reserved for him who does not take advantage of So Much Good. And so, just as My Passion Applied to My Humanity the Merit of Saving All, which was what I Desired and Merited According to My Desires, and not according to the desires of such creatures who would make poor use of It, therefore impeding My Design of Saving All, so it should likewise be with you: According to the measure in which your will is assimilated to Mine in desiring to do good to all, in that measure will you be rewarded. All evil is reserved for those, who while being able to do good, do not do so.
These Hours are the Most Precious of All, for they are none other than the Repetition of what I did in the Course of My Mortal Life and of what I continue to do in the Most Blessed Sacrament. When I Hear these Hours of My Passion, I Hear My Own Voice and My Own Prayers. I See My Will in that soul who desires the good of all and who wants to make reparation for all, and I Feel Transported; whence, I Take Up My Dwelling within her, so as to do within her that which she herself does. Oh, how I would Love it if only one soul in every town were to make these Hours of My Passion! I would Feel My Own Presence in each town, and My Justice, Greatly Disdained in these times, would be Placated in part.”
Also, one day while I was making the Hour (4 PM) in which our Heavenly Mother gave Jesus over to be Buried, I followed Her closely in order to keep Her company throughout Her Bitter Desolation, so as to offer Her my compassion. It was not my custom to always act in this way, but only sometimes. And so, as I was undecided as to whether or not I should continue to act in this manner, Blessed Jesus Appeared in All of His Love, and as if Beseeching me, He said:
“My daughter, I bid you not to leave Her; you shall accompany Her for My Love’s Sake, in honor of My Mother. Know, that every time you accompany Her, My Mother Feels as if She Herself were on earth in Person, Repeating Her Life and Experiencing the Glory and Love which She had Offered Me while on earth. Wherefore, I, Feeling as if My Mother were on the earth again, Experience Her Motherly Tenderness, Her Love, and All the Glory that She Gave Me. Therefore, I will Consider you as a Mother.”
V11 – 11.4.14 – “My daughter, if you knew what Great Satisfaction I Feel in seeing you repeating these Hours of My Passion – always repeating them, over and over again – you would be happy. It is true that My Saints have meditated on My Passion and have comprehended how much I Suffered, melting in tears of compassion, so much so, as to feel consumed for love of My Pains; but not in such a continuous way, and repeated many times in this order. Therefore I can say that you are the first one to give Me this Pleasure, So Great and Special, as you keep fragmenting within you – hour by hour – My Life and what I Suffered. And I Feel So Drawn that, hour by hour, I Give you this Food and I Eat the Same Food with you, doing what you do Together with you. Know, however, that I will Reward you Abundantly with New Light and New Graces; and even after your death, each time souls on earth will do these Hours of My Passion, in Heaven I will Clothe you with Ever New Light and Glory.”
V11 – 11.6.14 – As I continued the usual Hours of the Passion, my Lovable Jesus told me: “My daughter, the world is in continuous act of renewing My Passion; and since My Immensity Envelopes Everything, inside and outside the creatures, from their contact I AM Forced to Receive Nails, Thorns, Scourges, Scorns, Spit and All the rest which I Suffered in the Passion – and still More. Now, at the contact with souls who do these Hours of My Passion I Feel the Nails being Removed, the Thorns Shattered, the Wounds Soothed, the Spit Taken Away. I Feel I AM Repaid in Good for the evil that others do to Me, and in Feeling that their contact does no harm to Me, but Good, I Lean More and More on them.”
In addition to this, Returning to Speak about these Hours of the Passion, Blessed Jesus said: “My daughter, know that by doing these Hours the soul takes My Thoughts and makes them her own; she takes My Reparations, Prayers, Desires, Affections, and even My Most Intimate Fibers, and makes them her own. And Rising Up between Heaven and earth, she does My Same Office, and as Co-Redemptrix, she says with Me: ‘Ecce ego, mitte me [Here I am, send me] – I want to Repair for All, Answer for All, and Impetrate Good for All’.”
V11 – 10.13.16 – I was doing the Hours of the Passion, and Blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, in the Course of My Mortal Life, thousands and thousands of Angels were the Cortège of My Humanity, Gathering Everything I did – My Steps, My Works, My Words, and even My Sighs, My Pains, the Drops of My Blood – in sum, Everything. They were the Angels in Charge of My Custody, and of Paying Me Honor; Obedient to My every Wish, they would Rise to and Descend from Heaven, to Bring to the Father what I was doing.
Now these Angels have a Special Office, and as the soul remembers My Life, My Passion, My Blood, My Wounds, My Prayers, they Come Around this soul and Gather her words, her prayers, her acts of compassion for Me, her tears and her offerings; they Unite them to Mine, and they Bring them before My Majesty to Renew for Me the Glory of My Own Life. The Delight of the Angels is So Great that, Reverent, they Listen to what the soul says, and Pray Together with her. So, with what attention and respect Must the soul do these Hours, thinking that the Angels hang upon her lips to Repeat after her what she says.” Then He added: “After the so many bitternesses that creatures give Me, these Hours are Sweet Little Sips that souls give Me; but for the many bitter sips I receive, the sweet ones are too few. Therefore, more diffusion, more diffusion!”
V12 – 3.16.17 – “And when they read the applications (Hours) of My Passion, since I AM in you, I Pour Myself up to the brim of your soul and I Speak to you of My Most Intimate Things, which I had not Manifested until now, and of how the soul must follow Me in that Operating of mine. Those applications will be the Mirror of My Interior Life, and whoever will reflect himself in it, will copy My Own Life within himself. O! how they Reveal My Love, My Thirst for souls, and in each Fiber of My Heart, in each of My Breaths, Thoughts, etc. Therefore, I speak to you more than ever, but as soon as I finish, I Hide; and you, not seeing Me, tell me that I have changed. Even more, I tell you that when you do not want to repeat with your voice what I say to you in your interior, you hinder My Outpouring of Love.”
V12 – 5.16.17 – Then I found myself outside of myself. I was in the midst of many souls who were saying to me – they seemed to be Purging souls and Saints, and were mentioning one person known to me, who died not too long ago – and they were saying to me: ‘He feels as though happy in seeing that there is not one soul who enters Purgatory without carrying the Mark of the Hours of the Passion; and surrounded by the Cortège of these Hours and helped by them, souls take a safe place. And there is not one soul who flies into Heaven without being accompanied by these Hours of the Passion. These Hours make a Continuous Dew Rain Down from Heaven to earth, into Purgatory, and even into Heaven.’
On hearing this, I said to myself: ‘Maybe my Beloved Jesus, in order to keep the Word He had Given – that for each Word of the Hours of the Passion He would Give a soul – there is not one soul whom He Saves who does not benefit from these Hours.’ Afterwards, I returned into myself, and as I found my Sweet Jesus, I asked Him whether that was True. And He: “These Hours are the Order of the Universe; they put Heaven and earth in Harmony, and Hold Me Back from Sending the world to ruin. I Feel My Blood, My Wounds, My Love, and Everything I did, being placed in Circulation; and they Flow over All in order to Save All. And as souls do these Hours of the Passion, I Feel My Blood, My Wounds, My Yearnings to Save souls, being put on the Way, and I Feel My Life being Repeated. How could creatures obtain any good if not by means of these Hours? Why do you doubt? This thing is not yours, but Mine. You have been the strained and weak instrument.”
V12 – 7.12.18 – I was praying for a dying soul with a certain fear and anxiety, and my Lovable Jesus, on Coming, told me: “My daughter, why do you fear? Don’t you know that for each Word on My Passion, for each thought, compassion, reparation, memory of My Pains, as many Ways of electricity of Communication Open between Me and the soul, and therefore the soul keeps adorning herself with as many varieties of beauties? She has done the Hours of My Passion, and I will receive her as daughter of My Passion, clothed with My Blood and adorned with My Wounds. This flower has grown inside your heart, Luisa, and I Bless it and Receive it in My Heart as a favorite flower.” And while He was saying this, a flower came out of my heart, and took flight toward Jesus.
V22 – 6.17.27 – After this, I found myself outside of myself, and while looking for my Sweet Jesus I encountered Father Di Francia. He was all cheerful, and he told me: “Do you know how many Beautiful Surprises I found? I did not think it would be so when I was on earth, though I thought I had done good by publishing the Hours of the Passion. But the Surprises I found are Marvelous, Enchanting, of a Rarity never before seen: All the Words regarding the Passion of Our Lord changed into Light, One More Beautiful than the Other – All Braided Together; and these Lights Grow More and More as creatures do the Hours of the Passion, So More Lights add to the First. But what surprised me the most were the few sayings published by me about the Divine Will: each saying changed into a Sun, and these Suns, Investing All the Lights with their Rays, form Such a Surprise of Beauty that one remains Enraptured, Enchanted. You cannot imagine how surprised I was at seeing myself in the midst of these Lights and these Suns – how content I was; and I thanked our Highest Good, Jesus, who had Given me the Occasion and the Grace to do it. You too, thank Him on my behalf.”
