THE
HOLY SPIRIT
ON
MODERN WARS
AND
NATURAL DISASTERS
+
— From the Mystical Revelations of Maria
Valtorta —
— INTRODUCTION —
The brief excerpt labeled "Part
I" of the document that follows this Introduction, has been
translated from the recently published [2006] collection of
Valtorta's revelations entitled, Quadernetti ["Little
Notebooks"]. It is dated as
given to her in June, 1953, the Feast of the Sacred Heart:
just before the end of the Korean War in July of that year, and
three years after that War began, in 1950. The Holy Spirit,
Author of Part I and Part II of this Dictation, refers
specifically in Part I to the Korean War, and the natural
disasters occurring also at that time—and He gives the cause of
the War and these disasters.
At the end of Part I, the Holy Spirit refers to a previous
Dictation He had given three years earlier to Valtorta—again on
the Feast of the Sacred Heart, just before the outbreak of the
Korean war in June of 1950. There, He had explained the proper
view of these distressing events. So He concludes Part I with
the suggestion to Valtorta that "if you can find what I said in
1950..., recopy it here"—that is, after the excerpt labeled
"Part I".
Part II, then, of this presentation appears to be that earlier
Dictation referred to in the closing statement of Part I. It is
found in Valtorta's Lezioni sull'Epistola Di
Paolo Ai Romani ["Lessons on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans"],
and is therefore
translated here in Part II as a companion piece to Part I.
The Korean war ended over half a century ago. But more wars and
disasters have followed and seem now to be multiplying and
escalating. We experienced the humiliating Vietnam war, and are
presently in the midst of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with no
end in sight, along with the terrorism these have generated.
Then there are the powder kegs of Lebanon and the middle east,
of Africa, etc. Likewise, natural disasters are proliferating
today in a terrifying way:
numerous violent storms,
tornadoes, hurricanes, unprecedented heat waves, extensive brush
and forest fires, major earthquakes in various places, tsunamis
and floods, volcanoes erupting, bridges and buildings suddenly
collapsing, mines caving in on workers—all with great loss of
life and property.
And modern man asks:
"Where is the God of love in this!? Why does God permit all
these evils!?"
But what of the evils that
man
permits!? We see today the frightening proliferation and
widespread acceptance—even welcoming—of such grave
moral evils as:
abortion, rape, sodomy and homosexual lifestyles with their
attempted "marriages";
sexual abuse in families, as well as by pedophile clerics and
teachers; senseless
murders, suicides, euthanasia ("assisted suicides"), attempts at
human cloning—and now:
even attempts to produce "parahumans" or human/animal hybrids
with genetic engineering, by fusing human and animal genes. Man
has surely crossed the line drawn in the sand by his Creator.
Can there be any doubt of the far greater relevance of these
prophetic Dictations
today,
than when they were first given to Valtorta?
And then modern man asks, "Where is the God of Love!?" He is
here, as always. But He is grieving at the horrible abuse of His
gift of free will to man. And yes, His chief attribute, His
essence, is love, perfect love—indeed, the Holy Spirit
IS
that Love. Yet He is also a God of perfect Justice. Thus, when
man, by his obstinate rebellion and increasing depravity, forces
this God of Love to employ as well the discipline of His Justice:
then does His Love become—in St. Augustine's phrase—"severe
love". Or in modern parlance—"tough
love". He "gives us our
head", leaves us to our evil choices, in the grieving hope that,
by their consequences, we will finally learn wisdom of heart...
[Psalm 90:12]
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PART I
[June 12, 19531
Feast of the
Sacred Heart]
On this same
feast three years ago, when the war in Korea was about to break out,
I already said how strongly disturbed and troubled is the Divine Justice
toward all of Humanity for its way of acting. And I announced to you
[Maria], that because of this, terrible chastisements would have descended
upon the Earth. The facts: floods,
cyclones [hurricanes], earthquakes with victims and disasters everywhere,
have confirmed My statement. But today I repeat to you that Divine
Justice is at the limit of its tolerance.
Do not blame what is happening on anything else but the piling up of sins
of every kind being committed always more on Earth. [They are] horrible
sins against the Faith, the Church, good morals; unnamable vices—compared
to which adultery is still a small thing;
hatred and desire of death against the Church and the Priesthood; crimes,
sacrileges in actions and words—and I could continue endlessly. These
things—and nothing else—are the cause of the misfortunes that have
happened until now, and also of future [misfortunes], always more
grievous, which will befall the Earth and Humanity because of the always
more grievous faults committed.
If you can find again [Maria] what I said in 1950, recopy it here.2
And pray, and urge prayer, that this corruption of Humanity may cease, if
one wants to avoid frightful catastrophes. I am Wisdom and Truth, and I
know what is to happen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PART II
[June 16,
19503
Feast of the
Sacred Heart]
[Here
follows the Dictation from Lezioni
sull'Epistola Di Paolo Ai Romani
referred to in the
last paragraph of Part I above.
—Trans.]
What shall we say
then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For He says to
Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I have compassion." So it depends not upon man's
will or exertion, but upon God's mercy. For the scripture says to
Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing My power
in you, so that My Name may be proclaimed in all the earth." So then
He has mercy upon whomever He wills, and He hardens the heart of
whomever He wills. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find
fault? For who can resist His will?" But who are you, a man, to answer
back to God?
—Romans 9:14-18
THE HOLY SPIRIT
2 :
No one, without becoming
sacrilegious or showing himself an unbeliever, can arrogate to himself
[the right] to make observations to God or [give] Him orders —even if
the way in which God deals with individuals, nations, or all humanity,
seems unjust to him.
For, truly those who do not
believe that something can be from God unless they see a divine
manifestation, imitate the fault of the apostle Thomas [Jn
20:19-29]—the fault of a man not yet confirmed in
faith in the Christ4, but
rather shaken in that faith by the capture and ignominious death of the
Christ. They therefore repeat the
unpardonable and
unpardoned fault of the Pharisees, high Priests, Scribes, or anyone
who, in order to believe, and in the moment of the consummation of the
greatest sacrifice of God's love—Who is infinite Charity—demanded that
Christ should descend from the Cross and save Himself. Nor would that have
then sufficed for them, since they would have said:
"He did it because He is a satan, and Beelzebul helped Him" [Matt
12:24].
No one can make observations or [give] orders to God. Because God is God.
And all—persons and things past, present and future—are a nothing compared
to Him: One and Triune, Immense,
Perfect, in all His Three Persons and in His marvelous Unity, as in His
Attributes and Acts.
There is no other God outside of Him:
the Father God, Creator and Lord of Heaven and Earth, First Person of the
Most Holy Triad, Who was begotten by no one, because [He is] Eternal.
And, by divine generation, He begot [generated] from Himself, His Word—by
means of Whom all things have been made—the Second Person, divine,
eternal, immense, perfect, equal in all to the First [Person] Who takes
pleasure in Him, just as the Son takes pleasure in the Father Who has
begotten Him. And this double [mutual] pleasure is the origin of the Holy
Spirit Who proceeds from the Father and the Son and is Their very Love
Itself. [He is] the knot that
tightens Them, the embrace that unites Them, and the fire that fuses Them
without creating confusion of Persons. And He is the peace in which They
work untiringly and rest together in Love, through Love and with Love;
Which proceeds from Them, and Which is the greatest attribute and very
essence of God.
He, God, being Love, cannot but be also Justice. Because only one who does
not love can be unjust toward his fellows, or to his children and
brothers. But one who loves is always just, and even though recognizing
that the actions of another are unjust—because not to recognize them as
such, if they be [unjust], would not be goodness but foolishness—He is
just also in punishing them. [In this way He is] neither excessive in
severity nor in indulgence, but acting in the measure that the fault
demands.
God loves. He loves His children as a Father—as Jesus, the God-Man,
[loves] His brothers. Hence God is always just, in punishing as in
rewarding. And when from the lips of incarnate Wisdom there came forth the
Gospel counsels: "Do what, and as,
I have done. Be perfect as your Heavenly Father" [Matt
5:48]—the Word
was urging [you] to this perfection of a loving justice:
to the perfect Justice of the Father and of the Son made Man. [He was
urging you] to that justice, namely, which does not favor any side:
neither from pressures nor for gifts, nor for friendship nor [blood]
relationship: but it judges,
absolves, or condemns, with a spirit that transcends every material or
earthly thing, as it should.
To be just with one's neighbor is still more difficult than to be a lover
of God. Because God is good, and it is easy to love someone who is good.
Because God is comfort, and it is easy to love someone who comforts and
consoles. Because God is a support, and it is easy to love someone who
supports. And because God is forgiveness, and it is easy to love someone
who forgives.
But a neighbor is often bad and unjust; and ready to hurt you and to
increase your pain with his incomprehension, obstinacy, ridicule and
hardness. And
he easily abandons you if you are oppressed or unhappy—when he
doesn't become an accomplice of someone who already oppresses you, so he
may oppress and hurt you still more. It is hard for him to forgive, even
when he unjustly thinks he was offended or damaged by you, although you
are innocent. And it is very hard for him to forgive when he is [indeed]
provoked by your fault. To love him, therefore, is difficult.
But it is said:
"Love those who hate you and you will be sons of the Most High" [Matt
5:44-45]. Why? Because you will have perfect love:
the greatest image and likeness of God. Just as any son assimilates the
life which his father transmits to him through his seed, and the inherited
physique from his father is ineffaceable—whether in his blood, appearance,
character, or name—so [it will be] for all of you:
if you assimilate the chief attribute of God—the one that is His essence:
[love]—you thus take into yourselves the very Life of God. You live for
Him and in Him, and you become His
true sons, not
through an equality of nature and substance, but through a
supernaturalizing of the creature, which thus becomes divinized through a
relative participation in the actions of God, One and Triune, and through
its likeness [to God] by doing what He does always:
by loving.
God says to Moses: "I will have
mercy.... I will have compassion...." [Exod
33: 19].
But His mercy and compassion did not begin from that
moment. Although united to divine justice, [these attributes] were already
alive in Eden, before the two Transgressors
were
condemned in
time with work, suffering, fatigue, exile, and death.
But [they were]
forgiven for eternity with the promise of the Redemption, and by
means of the Redemption [Gen
3: 14-20].
[There is] still more: that mercy
and compassion [of God] were alive before the existence of man, whose
future Fault was not unknown to his Creator. God created man in order to
give him Heaven, sonship, and divine likeness, [even] while knowing that
man, who ought to be holy, was already destined to be—of his own will—a
sinner, a rebel, transgressor, thief, a homicide, violent, a liar,
lecherous, sacrilegious, an idolator—all the evil human tendencies present
in him by human consent. And above all, God created man while knowing he
was capable at
one time
of killing His Word—Who for man's sake had assumed [man's] Humanity—and of
wounding that Word with his sins times without number, as the grains of
sand that form the sea bed; and doing so from [the time of] the Word's
redemptive coming until the end of the ages.
This
[foreknowledge] gives the exact measure of the infinite mercy and
compassion of God.
From eternity God looked at His Word, and His eternal Thought, considered
all the things He had created through the Word. Jubilantly He admired in
His thought the numberless beauties and marvels of the Creation, which had
been made through the Word at the proper moment. But at the same time, the
Father of lights saw that creative poem of all light and goodness,
staining itself with a disfiguring, poisonous stain:
the origin of every fault and disaster.
As one who marvels and pauses to contemplate a place of delights, of all
balms and flowers, of pure water and the songs of birds, and then trembles
with horror upon seeing come out of it a poisonous and aggressive serpent
which breaks, bites and kills plants and animals, and corrupts the water
and the flowers—so the Father of the Word and of man, contemplating from
eternity the future Creation in which all would have been created
"good" [Gen
1:1-31], saw
the Serpent attack, corrupt and poison everything, bringing suffering [to
this Creation]. He saw fallen man, and He saw Cain, killer of Abel [Gen
4:1-16] and
figure of another Cain (Israel) who would kill the new Abel:
His Word [Jn 11:45-53].
Before such knowledge, even the holiest of men—if they had not hated—would
at least have felt indifference rise up [in them] for the ungrateful,
uselessly benefited, squanderer of the benefits received.
But God—No. God knows all. But His mercy and compassion do not change nor
weaken. Rather they are born precisely through this eternal knowledge. And
[His mercy and compassion] decree that, since Man and men will be sinners,
homicides of their eternal part [the soul] and of their brothers:
in order to make them "living", "sons" and "co-heirs" again, it is
necessary to sacrifice the Son.
He will be the Son of Man, the faithful and most holy Adam, the Abel and
the Lamb immolated by the deicide Cains. And from the first Fault and the
second Fault—that of Eden and that of the Temple [Jn
11:45-53]—will
come the Redemption.
And God will be compassionate and merciful with whom He wills. That is,
with all those
who, in their turn and with good will, want to be "sons of God", having
welcomed the Christ [the "Messiah"] with love, and followed and practiced
the commandments and instructions of the divine Word.
God draws good from all things, always.
From the Fault of Adam, He drew the good of the Redemption—the measure of
the divine Charity which is infinite and most perfect.
He drew the confirmation of His infinite power, justice and goodness, from
the stubbornness of Pharaoh toward the divine orders which Moses, His
servant, transmitted to the Egyptian monarch [Exod
7:8 - 12:34].
Thus, through the plagues that struck Egypt, and through the killing
of the first-born, and of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, Pharaoh knew that
God is the Lord. And the People of God also knew it, through those
prodigies which confirmed them in their faith in the Only God,
in their God.
From the fault of Israel—the crucifier of His incarnate Word—God drew the
blessed certainty of the Resurrection of the flesh and of the eternal
Jerusalem, where the spirits of the just ascend, and where later the flesh
of the just will be reunited to their spirits, for an eternal life of joy.
From all, the Most Good draws good things. It is only
necessary that man, with his good will, should know how to draw his good
from all that God does. How? By not rebelling, and by not estranging
himself from his Heavenly Father, if His hand is heavy and His chalice
bitter.
You are sinners. All of you. Even the best are imperfect. Jesus was
innocent, holy, perfect [Heb
7:26]. And yet
the Father loaded upon Him the whole weight of the faults of men, so that
it consumed Him on Golgotha. And He presented to Jesus the bitterest
chalice [Lk 22:42]—more
bitter than the bitterness of all that is disgusting:
from the abandonment of His Father [Matt
27:46], to the
suffering of His Mother;
from the betrayal of a friend and apostle, to the cowardice of the other
apostles; and from the denial of His Cephas [Matt
26:69-75], to
the ingratitude of the people. Among men, no one has borne nor will bear
the burden, nor will drink the chalice which crushed and embittered the
Christ: the Innocent.
Hence, know how to imitate Him—in
His perfect good will, and in His most holy obedience—in order to draw
your good from all that God permits to befall you, to test you and to
reward you.
________________________
—
NOTES
—
1-Maria
Valtorta, Quadernetti (Edizioni
Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del
Liri (FR), Italia, 2006): 213.
2- Valtorta gives no indication of Who the Divine Author is in
this following brief excerpt. But guided by its opening sentence—
"On this same feast three years
ago...," —as well as its last paragraph:
"If you can find again [Maria]
what I said in 1950..." — it is probably the Holy Spirit, since
the Dictation of 1950 to which this sentence refers, is found in her
Lezioni sull'Epistola di Paolo ai
Romani
[Lessons on the Epistle of Paul
to the Romans]. In that work, Valtorta clearly indicates that the
Author Who Dictated it, and wishes to be called the "Most Sweet Guest",
is the Holy Spirit [op. cit.,
p.118] .
3- Maria Valtorta,
Lezioni sull'Epistola di Paolo ai
Romani
(Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via
Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1986): 237-242.
4- The article "the" is often
used in Italian where it is not needed in English. However, here it
is retained from the original Italian before
"Christ"— "the
Christ" — because "Christ" is the English form of the Greek "Christos",
which means "anointed", and translates the Hebrew word for "anointed::
"Mashiach" [English: "Messiah"]. Hence, the divine Author here seems to
be saying that Thomas was not yet sure ("confirmed in faith") that
Christ was the "Mashiach"—the Messiah.
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