THE

 

   

LIVING  BREAD

 

 

   

"I am the Living Bread that has come down from Heaven,

so that if anyone eat of it he will not die"1

 

   

 

   

From the Mystical Revelations of Maria Valtorta –

 

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INTRODUCTORY  NOTE

 

Some time ago a poll was conducted among contemporary Catholics to obtain their views and beliefs on current issues and traditional doctrines of the Church. Among the doctrines subjected to this poll was the ancient belief in the Real Presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist at Mass and in the Tabernacles of Catholic churches. The results of the poll purportedly showed an alarming percentage of "Catholics"  who either did not believe at all in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, or at most saw it with Protestant eyes as only a "symbol" of His Presence. Now the Eucharist is undeniably a traditional symbol: not only of Christ's suffering and death, but also especially of unity among all believers.2 In Catholic theology, however,  it is not and never has been merely a "symbol" of Christ's Presence, as would be, e.g., the Cross, the Paschal candle, or the book of the Gospels. For the Eucharist is Christ physically and spiritually present: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in His Resurrected and Glorified state.

Now undoubtedly this loss of belief in the Real Presence is indeed alarming. And it has been attributed to the oft criticized poor or even erroneous catechesis of modern religious and CCD programs in Catholic schools. Yet such incredulity is not without precedent -- and a very ancient one at that. Indeed in the very embryonic Church still in the formative stage of the first disciples, the Apostle John tells us that after Jesus had discoursed to the Jews in their Synagogue at Capharnaum about giving them His flesh to eat as the Living Bread from Heaven, "...many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?'" And "...from this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him."3 The difference between those first incredulous disciples and the unbelieving "Catholics" of today, is the first disciples at least showed intellectual honesty and integrity by acting on their unbelief. They "turned back and no longer went about with Him." Whereas today, instead of following the example and intellectual  honesty of those first disillusioned disciples, heterodox "Catholics" of every stripe remain ensconced beneath the fleece of self-defined "Catholicism." There they can insidiously subvert, ravage and refashion the flock of true Catholic disciples into their own lupine image.

Yet in the today's Church rife with skepticism and unbelief, Christ the Good Shepherd has not left His faithful flock without added means of defense against these fleece-clothed wolves -- means whereby to confirm His true disciples in the ancient faith of His physical Presence with them. One such means is His use of modern prophets and mystics, "mouthpieces" through whom He reiterates and reaffirms the imperiled doctrines of the ancient faith. Outstanding among these in our times is the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta [†1961], whose voluminous revelations constitute one of the great treasures given the modern Church to bolster the Faith. In these revelations are found a number of Dictations specifically regarding the Eucharist, given by Christ Himself to Valtorta for the benefit of His flock of today. The 7 Dictations offered here and translated especially for this presentation are taken from two of Valtorta's collections of these Revelations: her I Quaderni del 1943 ("Notebooks for 1943"), and her I Quaderni del 1944 ("Notebooks for 1944"). In them Christ focuses mainly on the Eucharist and its nature. Along with the documents presented here. the reader might also like to review a document previously posted to this Site on the same subject:  An Hour With the Master.  May these teachings be for all who read them the means to strengthen their faith in this great mystery of Heavenly Love.

-- Translator

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I

[June 4, 1943]4
 

JESUS :

"I love all souls. I love those of the pure who live as My Heart desires for your good; [I love] the souls of those who are meek as I am meek; of the generous who expiate for all and continue My Passion; of the merciful who imitate Me in regard to their brothers. I love sinners, because it is for them that I became Redeemer and mounted  the cross. Their sins give Me sorrow but do not extinguish My love for them, do not extinguish My desire to clasp them to My bosom when they repent. I love little souls who are not without imperfections, but who are rich with a love that annuls imperfections.

I love you, you who call yourself 'Maria' [= 'Mary'], for Me the sweetest of names. The name of My Mama. That name which is a shield and defense against the ambushes of the demon, that name which is the music of Heaven, that name which makes Our Trinity bolt for joy, that name with which I surrounded Myself in life and in the hour of death. Mary of  Magdala, Mary Clopas: those who were faithful to Me and to My Mother.

Believe in this [My] love for you. Feel this love around you. Poor soul! You can only find My Heart that knows how to love you as you need.

I have loved you so much that I have even granted your whims -- truly not too reasonable -- by guaranteeing with true facts your castles in the air. Not because that pleases Me, but because I did not want to demean you before the world and because I knew that even these whims would know how to change themselves later into weapons of penance and love, and therefore of holiness.

I have loved you so much that I knew how to wait for you... I looked at you making [yourself] a bizarre little she-goat and sometimes I smiled, sometimes I was saddened; but I never became angry because I knew that My little she-goat would become one day a ewe lamb.

If I had not loved you as I have, do you think you would be what you are? No. Think well that you would only have become always worse. But it was I Who was watching.

Have no fear of My caresses. Jesus never causes fear. Abandon yourself. With your heart and with your generosity. Give Me all. And take all from Me.

Yesterday evening, this morning, you placed upon the great pyre of sacrifice5 for peace, your little bundle of sacrifice, and you placed it with a smile squeezed out by love, struggling against the human tears which wanted to well up, against the whispers of the Enemy who wanted to trouble you. Oh! dear one! It  will not be forgotten, this sacrifice of yours made with the joy of love.

Now I ask something of you. You know -- and you think of it with sorrow -- that many [Eucharistic] Particles are scattered among filth and ruins in the devastation of the churches.6 It is as if I were overthrown, because I am in the Sacrament. Well then, place your love, ideally, as a precious carpet, as a tablecloth of purest linen to gather up the Eucharistic-Me, struck, wounded, profaned, driven out of My tabernacles, not by the little humans who strike My churches -- they are only the instruments -- but by Satan who moves them. By Satan who knows that the times are growing short and that this is one of the decisive struggles which anticipate My coming.

Yes. Behind the screen of races, of domination, of rights, behind the movement of political necessities, in reality hide Heaven and Hell which fight each other. And it would suffice that half of those believing in the true God -- but what am I saying? less than this -- less than a quarter of  believers really believing in My Name would suffice to subdue the weapons of Satan. But where is that Faith?

Love Eucharistic-Me. The Eucharist is the Heart of God, it is My Heart. I gave each of you My Heart in the Last Supper; I give it to you -- provided you want it -- always.  And you will not conceive the Christ in yourselves nor bring Him forth to the light if you do not know how to make His Heart live in you. When in the womb of a woman a new creature is formed, what is formed first? The heart. And so it is for the life of the spirit. You will not give the Christ if you do not form in yourselves His Heart, by loving the Eucharist which is Life, and true Life.  Loving  as My Mother loved Me when [I was] just conceived.

Oh! what caresses through Her virginal flesh for Me, unformed and minuscule, as I throbbed in Her with My little embryonic Heart. Oh! what throbbings did I not communicate to Her heart through the dark recesses of the organism, from the depth of that living Tabernacle where I was being formed to be born and to die for each of you, crucifying the heart of My Mama on My very own Cross, for each of you!

But I communicate those same throbbings to each of you in your heart when you receive Me. Your carnal and intellectual heaviness does not permit you to perceive them, but I give them to you. You, then, open up fully to receive Me.

But you, [Maria], many times in the day -- I cannot say to you: at every moment, but if you were a cherub and not a creature that has the weariness of matter [to contend with], I would say to you: at every moment -- repeat this prayer:

Jesus, Who are struck down in our churches by the hand of Satan, I adore You in all the  Particles scattered and destroyed among the ruins. Take me for Your ciborium, for Your  throne, for Your altar. I know I am not worthy, but You love to stay among those who  love You, and I love You for myself and for whoever does not love You. Let suffering  empurple me like blood so that I become a worthy adornment to receive You Who  want to be like us in this hour of war.7 Let my love be a lamp which burns before You,   Most Holy One, and my holocaust [be] incense. Amen."

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NOTES - I

1.  John 6:51.
2.  Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:17.
3.  John 6:48-67.
4.  Maria Valtorta, I Quaderni del 1943 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 23-25.
5. "pyre of sacrifice": This possibly refers to the Mass.
6. "devastation": a reference to the Second World War than raging, and the bombardments of Italy, even of Valtorta's hometown of Viareggio.
7. See Note 6 above.

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 – I I

[June 23, 1943]1
 

    JESUS :

"In the other eucharistic encounter,2 Maria,  I made you see what the Eucharist is. Today  I will show you another eucharistic truth. If the Eucharist is the Heart of God, Mary is the ciborium of that Heart.

Look at My Mother, eternal living ciborium into which descends the Bread that comes from Heaven. Whoever wants to find Me, and to find Me with the fullness of [My] gifts, should seek My Majesty and Power, My Divinity, in the sweetness,  the purity, the charity of Mary. It is She who makes of Her Heart the ciborium for the Heart of Her God and yours.

The Body of the Lord became a body in the bosom of Mary, and it is My Mother who hands It with a smile to each of you, as if She offered you Her dearly beloved Child laid in the cradle of Her most pure maternal heart. In Heaven it is the joy of Mary to give each of you Her Offspring and to give you Her Lord. With Her Son She gives you Her spotless Heart, that Heart which has loved and suffered in infinite measure.

It is a widespread opinion that My Mother had only suffered morally. No. The Mother of mortals knew every kind of suffering. Not because She had deserved it. She was immaculate, and the sorrowful heritage of Adam was not in Her. But [She knew every kind of suffering] because, being Coredemptrix and Mother of the whole human race, She had to consummate the sacrifice to the very end, and in all forms. Therefore as a woman, She suffered the inevitable sufferings of a woman who conceives an offspring: she suffered weariness of Her flesh heavy with My weight; she suffered in bringing Me forth to the light,3 She suffered in Her hasty flight, She suffered lack of food, She suffered heat, cold, thirst, hunger, poverty, fatigue. Why should She not have had to suffer if I, the Son of God, succumbed to the sufferings proper to humanity?

Being holy does not mean being exempt from the miseries of matter. Being redeemers, then, means being particularly subject to the miseries of the flesh which has painful sensitivity. Holiness and redemption are practiced and achieved in all manners, even, for example, with toothaches. It suffices for the creature to make of such carnal misery a means of merit and not of sin.

I Myself and Mary made the miseries of human nature into so many weights of redemption for all of you. Even now My Mother suffers when She sees you so deaf to grace, rebels toward Me. Holiness, I repeat, does not mean the exclusion of suffering, but rather it means the imposition of suffering.

Thank Mary, therefore, who gives Me to you with the smile of a Mother, thank Her for all the suffering that being My Mother has brought Her. You all never think thanking Mary in whose womb I became flesh! That Flesh which I now give to you to nourish you for eternal Life.

Enough: contemplate and adore Me radiant in the Eucharist, in the living throne which is the breast of Mary, My most pure Mother and yours."

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Valtorta :

 

"Now I explain.4 Sunday --no, rather, Friday the 18th, I seemed to see Jesus at the side of my bed; I nodded to Him there. But He did nothing. Sunday, the 20th, before you came, while you were here and after your coming for Communion, I seemed to see Jesus no longer at the side of my bed, but at the foot of the bed, as He gave me the Particle. But He did not have a pyx in His Hand: He had His Heart and He gave me His Heart as a Particle, taking it from His Breast. He was of an infinite majesty and sweetness. He then explained to me the significance of the Vision. It will be found in the notebook on the date of June 20th.5

This morning I saw the Madonna. She appeared seated, smiling with love, but sad. She had Her dark mantle which descended from Her head, open over her garment, also dark; it seemed maroon. On Her head, beneath the mantle, must have been a white veil because I glimpsed a slight edge of it.

In the middle of Her breast radiates a very large and very beautiful Host. And -- what constitutes the marvel of the Vision -- it seems that through the Species (which here appear like very beautiful quartz: it is bread, but it appears like sparkling crystal) appears a very beautiful baby. The Baby-God made flesh.

The Madonna, who had Her arms open to hold Her mantle open, looks at me and then lowers Her face and Her adoring gaze on the Host which sparkles in Her breast. In her breast, not on Her breast. It is as if through some mystical x-rays, I could see into the breast of Mary, or better, it is as if some x-rays made visible on the outside what is inside of Mary. As if This Woman were a body without any opacity. I don't know how to explain it.

In a word, I see this and Jesus explains it to me.6 The Virgin does not speak. She only smiles. But Her smile is as eloquent as a thousand words, and even more.

How it would please me to know how to paint in order to make a copy of it for you and have you see it. And above all I would want to have you see the different levels of brightness. There are three: one, of a peaceful softness, constituted by the body of Mary, is the external covering and protector of the second, a radiant and vivid brightness constituted by the great Host. A victorious light, I would say (to use human speech), which makes up the internal covering for the divine Jewel that shines like liquid fire with an indescribable beauty, and which is, in its infinite beauty, infinitely sweet, and is the little Jesus who smiles with all His tender and innocent flesh through His nature as God and through His age of an infant.

Under the veils of these other two brightnesses, this third one is a brightness for which there is no comparison to describe it. One needs to think of the sun, of the moon, of the stars: to take the differing lights of all the astral bodies, to make of them a single vortex of light which is fused gold, fused diamond, and this gives a pale likeness of what my heart sees in this blessed hour. What will Paradise be, covered with this light?

Likewise, there is no comparison fit to tell the sweetness of Mary's smile. Regal, holy, chaste, loving, sad, inviting, comforting... are words which say [but] one thing and should say a thousand things to even approach what that virginal, maternal, heavenly smile is."

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NOTES - II

1. Maria Valtorta,  I Quaderni del 1943 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 55-58.
2. "...other eucharistic encounter": i.e., of June 4, [See No. I] and June 20, [See No. III].
3. [Note from the editor, Dr. Pisani]: "...in the monumental Work on the life of the Lord, [The Poem of the Man-God], ... written by Maria Valtorta, one reads that the Divine maternity of the Madonna did not entail for Her any physical suffering, which is the fruit of Original Sin, for from its taint She was preserved; but [we read] that the Madonna, being Coredemptrix, experienced every kind of suffering, procured by circumstances and by men, even with regard to Her conception and Her virginal delivery."
4. Valtorta is here addressing her spiritual director, Fr. Romuald Migliorini, OSM.
5. The Dictation of June 20th follows immediately  [See III below.]
6."Jesus explains it to me." -- In the Dictation of June 20th [No. III] below.

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I I I

[June 20, 1943]1
 

 

   

 

JESUS :

"Now that you have seen,2 have you understood what the Eucharist is? It is My Heart which I distribute to each of you. A greater and more loving gift I could not give you.

If, when you receive Communion, you know how to see Me Who give you My Heart, would you not be moved by it? But your faith should be so strong, and as strong too your charity, so as to make you see this. This mental vision should not constitute one of My exceptional gifts. It should constitute the rule, the sweet rule. And it would be the rule if you were really My disciples.

3Then you would see Me, you would hear Me say over the Bread and over the Wine the words of consecration, [you would see Me] breaking and distributing the Bread, reaching it out to you with My own Hands. My priest would disappear because I would superimpose Myself on him to say to you: 'Here is the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, My Body which should keep you for eternal Life.' And in the light of love you would see that I reach out to you My own Heart, the superperfect part of My most perfect Body, that [Part] from which gushes forth Charity Itself.

I have done this for love of you all: I have given Myself. And this I have done for you, Maria, today: I have raised the veil of the Mystery4 and I have made known to you how I come to each of you, how I give Myself to you, what I give you of Mine, even if you do not know how to see and understand.

Enough for today. There are no other words to say to you. Look and adore."

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NOTES - III

1.  Maria Valtorta,  I Quaderni del 1943 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 185-186.
2. In the margin Valtorta indicates this was written before Communion and interrupted by the coming of her spiritual director, Fr. Romuald Migliorini, OSM.
3. In the margin, Valtorta indicates "Written after Communion."
4. In the Vision of June 23, 1943, described above by Valtorta in Document II.

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I V

[June 19, 1943]1

JESUS :

 
"To obtain the true fruits of the Eucharist, there is no need to consider this as an episode that is repeated in epochs more or less distant in time, but rather to make the thought of it the basis of life.

Live thinking of Eucharistic-Me Who am ready to come, or Who have already come into you, making of our meeting a continual present which lasts as long as your life lasts. Do not separate yourself with your spirit from Me, work in the ray which issues from the Eucharist, never going out of Its orbit, like stars which revolve around the sun and live by its benefits.

Here too I propose Mary to you as a model. Her union with Me should be the model of your union with Me. The life of Mary,2 My Mother, was wholly eucharistic. The life of Maria2 [Valtorta], the little victim, should be wholly eucharistic.

If Eucharist means to signify communion, Mary lived eucharistically for almost all Her life. For I was in My Mother before being in the world as Man. Nor did I cease to be in Her, when as Man I was in the world no longer. We were not separated anymore from the moment in which obedience was sanctified to the very heights of God, and I became flesh in Her bosom, so pure that the angels are less so by comparison; so holy, that no ciborium that welcomes Me is as holy.

Only in the Bosom of God is there perfection of holiness greater than that of Mary's. She is, after the One and Triune God, the Saint of Saints.

If it were granted to you mortals to see the beauty of Mary as it is, you would remain enraptured and sanctified by it. There is no comparison in the Universe able to tell you what My Mother is. Be saints, and you will see Her.

And if to see God is the joy of the Blessed, to see Mary is the joy of all Paradise. Because in Her not only do the angelic choirs and the ranks of the Saints delight, but the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit contemplate Her as the most beautiful work of Their Trinity of Love.

We were never separated, the two of Us. She aspired to Me with all the strength of Her virginal and immaculate Heart awaiting the promised Messiah. A most pure communion of desire which lured Me from the depth of Heaven. [Then] a more vivid communion from the moment of the blessed Annunciation until the hour of My Death on the Cross.

Our spirits were always united by love. [By] a most intense communion of love and of immense sorrow during My martyrdom and in the days of My burial. [And by] a eucharistic communion after My glorious Resurrection and Ascension until the Assumption, which was the eternal union of the most pure Mother with Her Divine Son.

Mary has been the perfect eucharistic soul.  She knew how to hold Her God with an ardent love, a purity above angelic purity, a continual adoration. How can I separate Myself from that Heart which lived for Me? I remained even after the consummation of the species.3

The words I said to My Mother during My thirty-three years when I was Her Son on earth, are nothing compared to the colloquies which the Eucharistic-Me had with Her-My-Ciborium. But those words are too divine and too pure for the mind of man to be able to know them, and for the lips of man to repeat them. In the Temple of Jerusalem only the Priest entered into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Lord was. But in the Temple of the Heavenly Jerusalem only I, God, enter and know the secrets of the most holy Ark which is Mary, My Mother. Strive to imitate Mary. And, since it is too arduous a thing, tell Mary to help you. What is impossible to man is possible to God, very possible though if asked in Mary, with Mary, through Mary."

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NOTES - IV

1.  Maria Valtorta, I Quaderni del 1943 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985):  183-185.
2. The Blessed Virgin's name, "Mary" in Italian is of course also "Maria," though translated into its English word "Mary" here to distinguish Her from "Maria" Valtorta.  The significance of the identical names of the Blessed Virgin "Maria," and "Maria" Valtorta is being alluded to here by Christ.
3. Christ seems to be saying here that  even though the eucharistic species had dissolved in Mary's body after Communion, He remained physically present in Her.

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V

[May 17,1944]1

   JESUS :

"The usual difficult spirits -- I call them 'incredulous rationalists' -- will find this Dictation incongruous. To say of My Blood today that it is the commemoration of My Ascension to Heaven! Why?

Because so I will it. And if I will it, it is a sign that it is not incongruous, because I never do anything illogical. However, I do not speak for these blind dregs of humanity, a crowd of idols deprived of a soul, representations of pride and foolishness. I speak for My children. And especially for you, Maria.

We have been separated 40 days.2 Your sorrow and your love have counted them. Today, the day commemorating the separation from My disciples,3 I return, poor violet of My Cross,4 submerged and burned by the salt of her weeping but thirsting for My Blood to live. It is only My Blood that makes you live. It is only My Voice that consoles you. It is only My Presence that makes you happy. Here I am: with you.

You weep? Do not weep. Listen. All that you saw intellectually is what really happens.

My Blood does not cease to pour Itself out upon the earth. For twenty centuries It continues to shine in the face of creation as a testimony of love, and like dew, It descends wherever there is a cross which says: 'Here is a land belonging to Christ.'

The angels of every single believer-- rather of everyone who bears the name of 'Christian' -- in their angelic nature these angels do nothing but weave flights between heaven and earth to get divine treasures for each one of their wards. Nor does  the angelic work cease here, because even the other countless angelic peoples adore, by eternal order, for those  non Christians who do not adore the true God, and they pray for My Blood to be poured out upon all creatures so It will be adored by them.

The  angels of the just adore jubilantly, united to the souls of these same just who anticipate on earth the adoration which will be eternal. The angels of those who are non Christians adore hopefully, hoping to be able to become their guardians in the sign of the Cross. The angels of sinners who are no longer children of God, adore tearfully. And still tearfully they entreat the Blood that by Its power It may redeem those hearts. Finally, the angels of the churches scattered through the earth adore, bearing to God the Blood elevated at every Mass in memory of Me.

The Blood descends and the Blood goes up with ceaseless rhythm. There is no moment of the day in which My Blood does not ascend to God, or in which It does not descend from the throne of God upon the earth.

You have never reflected on it, Maria. But the Mass repeats the three most important points of My Life as Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate.

When, at the Consecration, the species5 become Flesh and Blood, there I incarnate Myself as [I did] once before. Not in the womb of the Virgin. But in the hands of a virgin.6 Here is why I have required in My priests angelic purity. Woe to the profaners who, with their body sullied from carnal union, touch the Body of God! Because if your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore should be kept holy and chaste, the body of the priest at whose command I descend from Heaven to become Flesh and Blood and lie in his hands as in a cradle -- his body should be more spotless than the lily. And with his body, his heart, his tongue.

In the Elevation is the Crucifixion. ‘When I am lifted up I will draw all to Me,’7 and when from an altar I am lifted up, there I draw with Me all the throbbings of those present, all their needs, all their sorrows, all their prayers, and with them I present Myself to the Father and I say: ‘Here I am. The One consumed by love asks You, O Father, to give all for these "My own," because I have given all for them.’

And when the Sacrifice [of the Mass] is consummated with the consuming of the Species, I return to My Father, while saying: ‘I bless all of you. I am with you till the end of the world,’ as on the morning of the Ascension.8

Through love I incarnate Myself, through love I consume Myself, through love I ascend. To plead in your favor. It is always Love that reigns in My works.

Mediate on the Mass in these lights which I illumine for you. And think that there is no moment in the day in which a Host is not consumed for love of each of you and Blood consecrated to increase the heavenly pools in which human spirits are cleansed, their infirmities healed, their dryness watered, their sterility made fertile, and that which [previously] belonged to error is made God’s.

Contemplate My Blood which, after being poured out in painful tortures, ascends to the Father shouting for you all:  ‘Father, into Your Hands I entrust these MY spirits. Father, do not forsake them.9 I, the Lamb eternally immolated, I will it for them.’ And to annul even the memory of passed doubt, repeat to yourself: ‘For this my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices, and even my body rests in hope, because You have not left my soul in the hell of sorrow. But for love of Your Blood you have made known to me, and recently still more, the ways of life, and filled me again with joy by Your Presence.’10

These are, with a few modifications, the words of Peter after Pentecost. Speak them in anticipation of that day. You have drunk so much gall, poor Maria. Console your heart with the honey of [these] eternal words.

I bless you, like the Eleven, before ascending."

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NOTES - V

1. Maria Valtorta, I Quaderni del 1944 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 356-358.
2. Valtorta had not seen Christ in Vision from Good Friday, April 7, 1944, until May 17,  1944: precisely 40 days.
3. "...the separation": That is, the Ascension (cf. Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-53).
4. In a Vision of the Crucifixion the previous year April 22, 1943, Valtorta had noticed a small violet at the foot of the Cross, and saw it as a symbol of herself.
5. "The species":  that is, the species of bread and wine.
6.  An important theological justification and confirmation of priestly celibacy in Catholic Tradition and as firmly maintained by Pope John Paul II and the Magisterium.
7.  John 12:32
8.  Matthew 28:16-20.
9. Cf. Luke 23:46 and Matthew 27:46.
10.  Acts 2:25-28 [= Psalm 16:8-11].

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V I

[May 26,1944]1

 

   THE HOLY SPIRIT :2

 
"Why does Isaiah say: ‘You who thirst, come to the water, and you also who have no money, hurry to buy and eat [sic] wine and milk’?3

Because there is One Who has paid for all the eternal riches for each of you, and for your hunger and your thirst He has procured and ground the purest grain, and procured and pressed out the most beautiful grape. And from this procurement of His -- paid for with an immeasurable price and ground and pressed out with a sweat of blood – He has made for you a Bread and a Wine which take away all hunger and all thirst that is not a hunger and thirst for what is spiritual, and They give to him who receives them, Life.

The Grain is the Flesh born in the virginal bosom of My Spouse. The Wine is the Blood whose source is in the immaculate Heart that opened like the bud of a flower when My thunderbolt descended like a fiery arrow to make of Her a Mother -- the Mother for Him Who was to Her both Father and Spouse.

Oh! moment in which We Three were blissful in Her Heart and found the creature's love that We had desired in every creature, and which no one outside of  Her, most holy Mary, possessed!

Her blood! A few drops around the Seed of the Lord. But it then becomes so great a river, so inexhaustible a river, that it does not cease to flow for ages, nor will it cease until the last day.

I -- Love -- I have given this Food so that it might be a Testimony to all peoples of the Father's Goodness. I -- I have given this Word. My Love has sent It upon the earth so that It might be a Master to all peoples and their Guide to God. And out of love He was torn from Us, and the eternal Word remained in His painful exile whose end was a shameful death, until the awaited fruit of the gentiles was given: the Redemption. Redemption of the body through His Blood. Redemption of weakness through His Flesh. Redemption of ignorance through His Word.

He accomplished all that Love willed, He  wrought all that He was to do. In nothing did He spare Himself.

Do not close your spirits to this Treasure. Come, since you are thirsting. You who know how to  thirst and you who, still more at death’s door4, no longer know how to thirst. Here is the Wine which strengthens and the Milk which consoles and cures. And if you are poor and without money,5 come likewise. Love, One and Triune, opens to you His riches, provided you love Him."

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NOTES - VI

1. Maria Valtorta, I Quaderni del 1944 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 375-376.
2. Although Valtorta has indicated this Dictation is from "Jesus," it seems from the content, according to the editor, that it is rather from the Holy Spirit, as indicated in this translation.
3. Isaiah 55:1.
4. "...at death's door": here probably means spiritual death, grave sin.
5. Isaiah 55:2.

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V I I

 
[December 12, 1944]1

 

Valtorta :

"In receiving Holy Communion from the hand of Fr. Migliorini,2 I find my eucharistic joy again which Compito had annulled,3 that is, the visible presence of Jesus at the side of Fr. Migliorini. I smile at my sweet white-garbed Jesusand while I make my thanksgiving I ask myself why He stands at the left of Father [Migliorini]. It seems to me His position should be on the right. Jesus responds, coming to meet my desire to have light and says:

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JESUS :

‘In My attitude is an instruction of faith, of respect, and of humility. How do you see Me? In glorious garments? No. You see Me as Jesus of Nazareth, the Master, the Man.

What is the Eucharist? The greatest, most holy miracle of God. It is God. It is God because in the Eucharist the Son of God is there, God like the Father, God made flesh through Love, that is through the work of the Third Person. It is God because it is a miracle of love, and God is where love is. Love witnesses God more than any word or devotion, or act, or work. I, Author of this miracle, which is the witness of the power of God and of His Nature – Love – I render honor to this miracle. In order to tell all of you that it is true, to tell you that it is holy, to tell you that it should be venerated with the greatest respect. Jesus-Master adores His [Own] divine nature in the Eucharist. Here is why I appear to you as Master, not as the glorious Jesus. The glorious Jesus could not adore anything. To Him should go the adoration of all that is, since He is the God Who has returned to His Kingdom. But the Son of man can still show His Will to venerate the Ark which contains Me, God: [the Ark of] the Eucharistic Bread. And I do it, to teach you all to do it.

Why do I stand at the left? Again to instruct you. The priest, while he is performing his priestly functions, is worthy of the greatest respect. And the fact that I obey his command and descend: as Blood, to wash your hearts, as Flesh to nourish your spirits, affirms for you  this [respect]. Learn from Me, Who am humble, to have humility.

Enough for now [Maria]. Pray. Write what you must [now], because later, little John,4 there is need to work. The Gospel waits.5

My little John!4 Little pearl born in the great sea of suffering! But how you are destined to be inlaid as a gem in the crown of the Son and of the Mother. Pearls are so much the more beautiful as they are formed more in the deep sea and agitated by deep storms which upset even the [the sea's] bottom. Without these the heart of the oyster is not opened, nor is there deposited in the wound that nucleus in which suffering inlays the gem.

Tears, tears, Maria! What a thing are tears! They have had only one point less value than My Blood has had. You have all been redeemed through the Blood of Jesus and the tears of Mary.6

My peace be always with you.' "

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NOTES - VII

1.  Maria Valtorta, I Quaderni del 1944 (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 1985): 746-747.
2.  Valtorta’s spiritual director.
3.  Valtorta lived and wrote many of her Visions during the Second World War, sometimes even during  aerial bombardment of her hometown of Viareggio.. Under the imminent threat of one such aerial bombardment of  Viareggio, the town was completely evacuated. Thus Valtorta, a bed-ridden paraplegic, had to be transported to the town of Compito where she resided with relatives for several months. Such a wrenching from one’s home and hometown would be a traumatic experience for anyone, especially one in Valtorta’s infirm condition. Consequently, it adversely affected her devotions and spiritual experiences, especially when receiving Communion.
4.  "little John":  the affectionate epithet, or  "pet name" Jesus gave Valtorta and by which He often addresses her. It signifies her similarity to the apostle John in his attitude of laying his head on the breast of Jesus to hear the revelations of His Heart (cf. John 13:23). Valtorta had a special love and devotion to St. John and  mystically imitated John in this attitude of receiving all her revelations from Christ.
5.  "The Gospel waits":  that is, the Dictations and recording of  Visions of the Gospel which Christ progressively gave Valtorta over several years, subsequently published in her great Masterwork:  "The Poem of the Man-God". This Work was originally titled "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me," and in the latest Italian edition the publisher, Dr. Emilio Pisani, is reverting to this original title for the Work.
6.  "Mary":  Although the same Italian word "Maria" is used here, as when Christ addresses "Maria" Valtorta about her suffering and tears here and in the previous paragraph, it seems in this last instance that Christ is referring to the tears of His Mother, Mary, and so "Mary" has been used to translate "Maria" here.