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Letters of Valtorta to Father Romualdo Migliorini, OSM³

1- She [Valtorta] prefers to write...
[from her letter of Oct. 29, 1942]

   Most Reverend Father, due more to my character which is closed, timid, not easily given to outpourings and confidences, and due also a little to my having been misunderstood and ridiculed too many times in life, I have much difficulty in opening my spirit, as I would wish, to a person who by his ministry and his wise goodness, could guide me so well and give me a greater comfort than what he already gives me. And then, since I repeat that it is good that there be openness and ample knowledge between the soul and the Director of the soul, I have recourse to my usual system: I write.
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2- She had been attracted by the light of God
[from her letter of Feb 1, 1943]

   The great desire of God is that He be seen [by] us. [That] His Unity be seen, His Trinity of power, of wisdom and of love, and that His Goodness is contained in Christ, [Who is] good to the point of wanting to die for us... And through this vision... we may be always more in love with Him, whence our whole being is formed, lives, and works within the guidance of love according to His Law which wants our good: His Law which I cannot see as anything but a Law of all love. But to see the light one need not be dazzled. It is enough to stare at a little smoking, smelly, ephemeral candle flame, to remain dazzled afterwards to the point of seeing no other reflection on the eye's retina than that trembling little flame. Even if the sun should cheerfully enter our room, the eye, weary of having its pupil dilated from that flicker of candlelight, no longer sees the sun... 
    It is the same with the soul's gaze. Many do not see the Light of God. They do not see God and do not feel Him because they have lost themselves in staring at all the trivial little human flames. Affections, business affairs, honors, concerns about one's own transitory body: man makes of everything—everything—a little flame and guards it, broods over it, loves it, adores it, makes it the aim of his life... and becomes blind to the true Light.
    I would have been one of these poor blinded souls had not God, with a Hand that to man's judgment could seem pitiless, extinguished all my little flames. All.
    I was passionate, thirsting for all the affection which I never had⁴, and thus I was brought to become attached to anyone who loved me a little, making them as so many gods of my heart, which would thereby have remained a human heart. But God...BAM! with a blast of His will He extinguished them all.  Today, one flame, tomorrow, the other; until all the candles which burned on my earthly altar were extinguished. What thick darkness, what cold, what terror!...
    Then, He came. He came little by little, attracting me with caresses and sensible joys. And like the dawn which reappears over a darkened world, the light, was restored little by little. I did not stare anymore now but at that rising of a light which consoled me after such a tangible darkness. And since I felt that nascent light was a light of love, I went always more toward it to be invaded and satisfied by it. But it never satisfies! The more one receives of it, the more one is nourished by it, the more one hungers for it.
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3- She is sincere, at the cost of being misjudged
[from her letters of Feb. 11, 1943 & Dec. 7, 1944]

    I am answering your two letters which I have read, re-read, and meditated on all their smallest words. And I answer with my habitual sincerity, caring little if I seem to you perhaps more human, and therefore further from perfection. Other weaker souls would have mostly used hypocrisy in order to appear better to you. Not I. I reveal myself just as I am, or if not, I remain silent and—good night! I think that sincerity is a great virtue in life, even if it turns our neighbor into an enemy. I think that a Christian  should always be sincere with others and with one's self. The Gospel says it: "Let your language be 'yes, yes; no, no" (Matt 5:37). And not only one's language, but all one's life ought to be limpid and frank: a very clear mirror in which we can be recognized as we are, without putting on masks which please certain people so much and which mislead our own and others' opinion [of us].
    With all due respect to Reverend Father Pinnoni—who would like to denature me by making me a hypocrite who shows herself sweet, submissive, without backbone or voice, in order to have the external appearance of holiness according to the model that certain people want, in order to say that one is in the grace of God: thus he forgets the great saints who were combative, impetuous, frank, and who also sanctified themselves and the crowds precisely through their volatile and unyielding personality, all poured out for the Good—I do not denature myself [for him]... Therefore have patience if I talk to you without veils and sweetness.
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4- To suffer by the will of God gives peace
[from her letter of Feb. 11, 1943]

    As I said to you this morning in confession, and with my heart overflowing with sorrow, only with sorrow, not with spite—I beg you to believe me—I absolutely cannot accept the idea that it is the will of God to procure certain sufferings for His creatures. No. God is goodness and He wants our good. He gives us sorrow by His grace and for our good. But the sorrow that truly comes from God is marked with a sign of peace and a strength that is miraculous. One's nerves, squeezed and torn by the sorrow that comes from God, sweat blood and tears, and are broken one by one..., but at the same time the soul senses the fatherly hand of God Who wipes away the blood and tears,  caresses the tortured nerves, and then there is, with our sobs, a heavenly harmony which, more than the song of David, calms our fury and sorrow. Thus it is when sorrow comes from God: so sweet is that suffering that one desires it as daily bread!—the sorrow of sickness, sorrow from loss of one's fortune, sorrow from the death of dear ones...The sorrow even of being abandoned on the part of persons on whom we had placed our confidence.
    But when the suffering comes from the useless wickedness of others, then it does not bear the divine mark nor is it accompanied by supernatural comfort. As the fruit of demonic instigation in a heart which has lent itself to that, [such suffering] bears with it the bitterness of hell, and it troubles and bites and darkens, and the unhappy soul on whom it pours itself it leads to a spiritual tumult that can reach despair and suicide... I know what it means to brush up against despair on account of the incessant scheming—a true, tireless, continual scheming—of certain individuals who, I am convinced, are instruments not of God, but of an evil spirit. It is terrible! I have not thrown myself onto an evil path because the goodness of God did not permit it. But on account of others and the work of others, I could have gone there.
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5- She did not want to be an object of psychic studies
[from her letter of Nov. 9, 1944]

    ...I am formally opposed to making the holy Work⁵, given for the joy of good [souls] and as a guide to priests, into a human study..., by treating the messenger as "the clinical case of Valtorta", and wanting to explain everything, thereby reducing all of it to a psychic phenomenon: to explain everything, even that which is nothing else than the supreme, adorable, fatherly work of God, of the Shepherd and Father of His flock.
    I am. But I [also] am not. I am, by being the "messenger". Nothing more. I know I do not exist except to be this, and if I were not this, that is, if I were not the "voice" which repeats the holy words, I would not be. Why, then, be occupied with Maria Valtorta, a rag of humanity and perfection?...
    Concerning the Work⁵, then, dictated by Jesus, I am opposed in the most determined manner for it to be made the study of a science which, stripped of its deceitful garb, appears for what it is: the most open form of rationalism. No. Let them be priests⁶ and not scientists. Let them be priests and not politicians. Let them be priests, that is, humble and upright, and not haughty and pushed into always forgetting their goal—souls—by a trinket: the satisfaction of doing a scientific work that is praised, cited and commented on by others of their ilk.
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6- She knows that she is a "nothing"
[from her letter of Dec. 7, 1944]

    Oh! Among all the enemies which this "messenger" has—enemies who say: "It is not possible that the messenger should merit so much"—there is no one as convinced of this as Maria Valtorta. Believe it. I say it often to Jesus: "But how could you have chosen me?", and He laughs and caresses me. Not even His repeated words of love which my soul drinks like thirsty ground, succeed in persuading me that I am indeed the 'messenger of Jesus' and therefore loved by Him with a love preserving me even from the miseries of Earth. Is this distrust?  No.  Knowledge of myself: a nothing.
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7- Concern for Martha⁷
[from her letter of March 25, 1946]

    Martha is full of good will, but not of [good] health. And in order that an overload of work does not make her sick on me, which would be a disaster, I have...stolen my money!!... Yes! If  one could steal even from oneself!  And how? By doing this: If I had said to Martha: "Take 500 lire and go to the pharmacy to buy 3 bottles of Becalfene," a tonic medicine which does one much good, we would have entered into a long discussion and I would have obtained nothing, because Martha would have crushed me under this true sentence: "You, who do not buy what is necessary even for yourself, you want to get medicine for me ? It's mad!"  Then I made her give me the purse (which I never ask for) as though to verify how much money I still had,... I broke a 500 [lire] note,... and in the afternoon, in Martha's absence, I begged Ms. Panigadi to get the medicine. Martha, I understood, had suffered from my verifying the money, as if I were suspicious of her honesty. She said nothing. But on Saturday, if she needs to take money for expenses, she gives me, very curtly, the purse ...  Well then..., when she sees that it was not distrust, but love in my wanting [the purse], she will scold me a great deal for my crazy prodigality, but she will not suffer any more in thinking that I distrusted her, and she'll get over it...

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8- Indifference of the Priests
[from her letter of April 11, 1946]

    Regarding the priests sent by His Excellency Monsignor Vescovo, for the present I have not seen even a shadow of them. But I will do as you say. Regarding those [priests] from the parish, oh! my God! But when will they ever come to visit the sick? Except for the old and rough Monsignor who comes in friendly visits 4 times a year—and he will certainly come for Easter; I will tell you how he behaves when he comes—the pastor and associate pastor come for the blessing of houses, and that's all. Just on the 3rd of this month, the assistant pastor, Don Dati, had come. He came to the doorway and did not even want to enter [my] room. Then, with a face hard as granite, in anger he gave a blessing from the threshold, then went out without saying a single word to his sick parishioner⁸. Don't say: "perhaps he was tired". He had gone around the whole house on the ground and on the first floor. So it was into my room that he didn't want to enter.

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9- Against the Premature Diffusion of the Work⁵
[from her letters of April 11 & 20, 1946]

    I tell you that Jesus has always been displeased about this continued distribution of parts of the Work⁹ without the protection of ecclesiastical approval, and He is more and more displeased... I point out to you that, even after Our Lord's permission to give pages of my testimonies to whomever I feel may need to read them, I didn't avail myself of this [permission], because I am always more convinced that there is no obedience, propriety, or prudence in even the best people. Not through my fault should the chastisement come. I obey and I have obeyed. Always. I can declare that with full conscience. As I can say that I have never used any kind of subterfuges.
    You should not have so much anxiety to make [the Work] known to this or that person... If this Father Berti¹⁰ seems to you a true priest, have him for a friend and for help... But do not multiply friendships... Have you not yet understood that this is a moment in which the Evil One is totally against the Work? Be courageous, prudent and patient. When, and if, you understand that the General has a true interest and faith in the Work, seek with his help to obtain [ecclesiastical] approval. But in the name of God, enough of spreading it in all directions!  Enough!  Enough! It's a serious thing, it's not a joke...
    Not a day passes that I don't discover new possessors of copies, and those who know the messenger. They stop Martha on the street, and haughtily complain  of being unable to come [here], of  being unable to have those typescripts which the Father would always give out; excited, most of them, they proclaim that they want to make this marvel (that is, me) known, and to spread what they have copied, sending it here and there. Thus Miconi, Ricci, and others of unknown origin. And it's come to my knowledge that Daniel Barsella has copied the writings, with previous permission. And that convents, hospitals, etc. etc., know about them from A to Z, to such an extent that they importune both Martha and my friends, being unable to reach me directly. And now, what should I say? I say only: Was this [by] the order of God? Who stops the sand anymore from seeping out and escaping on all sides? Wasn't the warning—many times repeated—revived [just] for  you: "If anyone acts in a way to pain and harm the messenger, I will remove the one who is the cause of the pain"? 
    Father, Father! I assure you that if I had been able to imagine this even at a distance, the hundred plus notebooks that I have written would still be in the state of manuscripts in my room... You have done me so much good as Maria Valtorta. A good which I will not forget and for which I am still thankful. A good for the sick woman, for the penitent, for a creature. But I would prefer that none of this had been done. Rather that all had been done for me as the messenger [of Jesus]; and that all that was to be done for this messenger would have been for my conformity to God's orders—Who wanted me left in peace in my mission...
    Unfortunately, people promise to keep [the copies] for themselves, but then they do not do it, and the proof of it is the mushrooming of pages everywhere. Thursday evening I had to submit to the judgment of someone who, not knowing he was speaking to the messenger—at least, let's hope so—said to me: "To judge that these writings do not come from a holy soul, the fact suffices that she has flaunted them here and there to be praised and to be known. The saints to not proclaim themselves thus." I answered: "You are right." And he was right. But is it I who have taken away the beauty of the virginity of this Work? Is it I who have diminished it by flaunting it? No. I have had only  the sacrifice first of writing, and now the insults of evil judgments, annoyances, and sorrow, at seeing the work of God mocked.

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10- She demands fidelity to the original [manuscripts]
[from her letter of April 15, 1946]

I beg you, in re-copying and correcting, do not limit yourself to looking at the typescripts, but [look] at the originals. At times of exhaustion, so violent for some time, I run through some pages of the typescripts and I discover errors of the copy that have escaped even from my correction. Thus in the dictation of August 27, 1944 (Life of the Virgin) on page D 1041, you have written on the 52nd line the word schiava ["slave/enslaved"]. Watch out!:  it is "schiva: s-c-h-i-v-a ["bashful/shy"]. To write "schiava" ["slave/enslaved"] distorts the whole meaning of the phrase, and almost becomes an insult of that which in the supernatural Word is praise.
     In that of August 12, 1944, you put for a title: "Jesus resuscitates a man slain in the house of the Magdalen". Not at all! He was dying, but not dead. Therefore a healing; but  one who is not dead cannot be resuscitated. I myself have seen only the three resurrections of the Gospel. The others will be dying, including the newborn of Castello of Caeserae Philippi, but not yet dead. The title is therefore "Jesus heals a man wounded in the house of the Magdalen".
    Pay attention, please!  Because even a comma out of place has its value. Rather, as of now I tell you that before presenting the Work I must look over it again with supreme care and with the help of the original manuscripts (which I'm sorry I left you take away, because at least I could review [them] word for word and have at least one very exact copy). You will understand that a nothing [like me] could produce a blasphemy or an error... It's enough that there are some wicked dispositions!... Let's at least not give [them] material for finding religious errors! Even in the fragment on the punishments beyond the tomb there is certainly a word omitted in the dictation about Hell, and the phrase becomes sibylline... And in the vision of August 8, 1944..., on page B 977, line 38, the word "serie" ["series"] should be corrected with the word "scie" ["wake/trail"], and thus the phrase becomes: "...many souls of the just and of children will enter, trails of whiteness, behind the purple of the Redeemer." Please correct it... Thanks. I exhort you to not hand out to anyone for any reason the manuscripts, or the "originals" if you prefer to call them such. Always remember that should human judgment have to judge [the revelations] as human works, by law they are the property of the writer, and as such should be returned to the writer. I have not been sleeping these days: I have informed myself by persons competent in law, by friends and even relatives.

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11- The Work⁵ is the Autobiography of Jesus
[from her letter of May 5, 1946]

I do believe that Father Berti¹⁰ is finding something "new and without human reference"! I have no book that might be of help to me; I am absolutely ignorant of any writing revealed or made by men on the subject. You know that I have said to you: "Even if I had money or there was someone who gave me The Life of the Virgin... by Father [Gabriele] Roschini, I would not read it. I want to know only from God". And thus do I say for any other writing of the kind. That the points [in The Poem...] are beautiful, exact and new, is natural! After all, it is the Author of the episodes Who narrates His own life, and there is no better and more exact biography than an Autobiography. Don't you think?
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12- She wants the Certainty that the Word is Protected
[from her letter of May 13, 1946]

    The news that enlightened and cultured Fathers are examining the writings with seriousness and secrecy, is not sufficient for me. This could also constitute support for the nature of the Work⁵ and the truth of the doctrine displayed in it. But it seems opportune to me and of the greatest necessity that you give me the assurance that the Fathers of the Order protect with prudence and delicacy, according to the Will of God, the Divine Work which I jealously and confidently entrusted to you. It's not enough for you alone to be its guardian. But it is necessary that their Superiors willingly accept, with a serious and felt responsibility, the treasure entrusted to them by God for its protection—a work which must be known by souls needing the Word of Life, after it has been protected with due caution. It is supremely necessary that the Divine Word be preserved in recollected and reverent silence, lovingly defended from human and diabolical traps which could eventually be laid by making the mistake of rushing to make it known, contrary to the manifest Will of God and before Holy Church has put the seal of Her Maternal infallible authority [on it] with the approval of a Bishop, as the Lord has said...
    Reverend Father, I ask you in the name of our Mama whom we lovingly honor in this month, and who guides me and smiles lovingly and gently, make your steps humbly near the Superiors, so that my soul may have rest in the assurance that the Precious Treasure¹¹ given by God is under the protection of  His Holy Order. This action will be able to increase the joy of your soul, bringing  back upon the path of the Divine Will the whole Heavenly Message which in its time must reach souls. Begin your steps with confidence and simplicity, I myself will listen with a spirit of faith to the decisions of the Superiors and if, through divine arrangement and according to the inscrutable ends of the Eternal, your Superiors find it inopportune to burden themselves with such responsibility, I will accept their decision with perfect tranquility, hoping always in the Lord, to have from Him the necessary help to serve Him faithfully to the end as He wills.

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13- Her Financial Straits
[from her letter of Sept. 29, 1948]

    I thank you very much for the 5000 lire sent to me which will allow me to go ahead for some time yet... I have the sense that in general very few take account of our real conditions, or that they do not believe what we say to them about this. But you will recall how I was struggling in our lack of finances already in 1945. One could easily think that after three years [our financial straits] have increased, despite my having sold the piano and other objects. All the more so since we have remained without any income¹² from January to July 15, 1948, on account of those two wretches whom I had to send away from my house because, through my perhaps excessive moral sense, and above all out of respect for the One Who descends there¹³, once I came to know the truth about those two, I could not permit them to continue living under my roof...
    I also have Martha suffering, and in order to cure her, since I need her to be quite healthy, I do not take care of myself as I should, limiting myself to taking only the drops for my heart, and neglecting the other treatments which would be indispensable to me. We nourish ourselves with inadequate food, and despite all these sacrifices, between food, light, water, taxes, medicine, etc., I put out 15,000 lire a month. Till now, Martha has worn my old castoff clothes and shoes. But they are now worn out, and soon I will have the duty of thinking of her who, all lost as she is near me, for [the last] 5 years does not take a penny.

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14- She Must Hide Her Ecstatic Raptures
[from her letter of Sept. 29, 1948]

Look: let me point out to you some things which I've also mentioned to Father Berti¹⁰, and which should be considered with that profundity that they require. It displeases me to have to speak of my spiritual experiences, but I must mention them because, since May, they have taken on another aspect. Now I often fall into an ecstatic state visible to whoever enters into my room. Nor can the tenants be prohibited from entering, because they would suspect that either I am infected, or dangerously mad. Even after coming out of this state, I remain for many hours with an appearance that announces a state which is not that of a sick woman, and not natural.
    Now I am always told: "Let no one know, let no one suspect." But even in not wanting to take account of my suffering and of my spiritual modesty—which suffers acutely by being surprised in those hours—doesn't it seem to you imprudent to give knowledge and vision of my special condition to unknown persons, [who are] perhaps of communist or anti-religious thought?  Doesn't it seem to you a contradiction to recommend to me not to have anyone come [here], to not even raise the curtain so I am not seen—and then to allow some real processions of the curious to come and go with the excuse of seeing the house to rent it, and to poke themselves into my room in order to negotiate [the terms]? To peer in, scrutinize, disturb, surprise me, and then, with their curiosity satisfied, or else doomed to remain disappointed, to go away, yielding their place to other curious comers? Don't you also tell me: "Don't let yourself be seen". A sick woman cannot be kept hidden while one discusses rent, only later to have her appear after the rental [agreement] is done. Whoever enters a house where there is a sick woman, has the right to know she is there, and to see her, so as to decide if it is or is not proper to live with her. And [thus] one cannot claim I remain with my door closed continually for the last nine months or a year, to keep my presence hidden...
    Summer tenants are something else: the swimmers are preoccupied with nothing else but having a good time¹⁴, and they are almost never in the house. But a winter tenant lives in company [with us] even in the rainy season, and is in the house throughout the whole day.

HOME

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    — NOTES —

1.  Dr. Emilio Pisani, Valtorta's devoted editor and publisher, reports that at Valtorta's wake, visitors to her room where her body was laid out, admired the fresh whiteness of her right hand—the hand by which as the "pen of the Lord", she recorded in her cursive style some 15,000 pages of Divine dictations and visions—while her left hand was typically livid or ashen as in death. [cf., "The Person and Works of Maria Valtorta", in The Poem of the Man-God, Vol. 1, 1986, p. XI].
2. "...a brief biography" — entitled: Fotobiografia Di Maria Valtorta [published in Italian by Centro Editoriale Valtortiano, 100 pages].
3. Father Romauld Migliorini, OSM, was Valtorta's spiritual director at the time, and also the typist of her hand-written manuscripts of the visions and dictations accorded her by Christ. The bold summary captions at the head of each letter were provided by Dr. Pisani.
4. "...affection which I never had..." —possibly a veiled reference to her mother's lack of affection for Valtorta Her mother also managed to terminate  two of Valtorta's romances. (cf.  "A Post-Mortem View of Iside Valtorta": Introductory Note).
5. " ...the holy Work" —"Work" here refers principally to The Poem of the Man-God, as well as other revelations and dictations given to Valtorta by Christ.
6. "priests" —Probably a reference to the priests of the Order of Servites of Mary who, at Christ's request, were to be the trustees of Valtorta's Works, and of whom Fr. Romuald Migliorini, OSM, her spiritual director, was a member.
7. Martha Diciotti was Maria Valtorta's "live-in" friend who, because of Martha's loneliness after her own mother died, came to live with Valtorta as her private nurse in 1935. At first Martha intended to stay just "15 days" to help Maria with her needs as a bed-ridden invalid, but those "15 days" were continually extended until they stretched to 26 years of loyal and devoted service to Maria. After Valtorta died, Martha continued living in Valtorta's house, taking care of it and details of the publication of Valtorta's writings, and showing visitors around the house and Valtorta's room. Martha died on February 5, 2001.
8. Valtorta was, of course, a bed-ridden invalid with many serious illnesses.
9. Father Migliorini was known to distribute imprudently parts of his typescript of Valtorta's manuscripts to his friends or confreres, which Valtorta several times warned him against doing. This is one of her severe rebukes for his imprudence.
10. Father Conrad Berti, OSM, who subsequently became the theological annotator  of Valtorta's published revelations, and replaced Fr. Migliorini as her spiritual director when his Superiors relocated him.
11. "Precious Treasure...Holy Order."—again it is a question of The Poem of the Man-God, principally, as well as all the other revelations and dictations given to Valtorta by the Lord. See also Note 6 above.
12- "income"—probably a reference to the rent Valtorta collected from tenants who rented rooms in her house—in this case from the two "wretches" she mentions having to send away and thus losing their rent payments.
13- "...the One Who descends there..."—presumably Valtorta is referring to Christ Who "descends" into her room whenever  Fr. Migliorini or another priest offered Mass there at her bedside. The two tenants ("wretches) Valtorta refers to here, are perhaps the ones she elsewhere describes as dabbling in the occult.
14. "...swimmers...to have a good time..."—Valtorta's hometown of Viareggio was and is a popular seaside resort town.