This post has been a long time coming…

I wasn’t sure how or where to begin, and the thought of posting about the Divine Will seemed overwhelming.

When I was uncertain about how to blog about this, I reached out to someone who spends his life promoting the Divine Will and the revelations to Luisa Piccarreta.

Daniel O’Connor encouraged me to present it however feels most natural because he believes that God gives us each graces to introduce it slightly differently, and in doing so we’ll all manage to reach different people.

I decided to create a new series for this topic and will post about it periodically.

I decided to begin now because of today’s feast, which I’ll explain later in the post.

First, I’ll give an introduction to the Divine Will.

Then, I’ll give an important example.

Introduction

The following passage comes from Daniel O’Connor’s book The Crown of Sanctity: On the Revelations of Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta.

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The Essence of the Message in One Page

At this unique moment in the history of the world, the fitting time has at long last arrived in which God wishes to give us His Own Will—the Gift that contains every imaginable gift—the true Crown and Completion of all Sanctity both in Heaven and on earth. This Gift entails not only the grace to do God’s Will perfectly but also the total immersion of your human will within His Will, so that this Divine Will becomes the life principle of your soul even as your soul is the life principle of your body.

Within this Gift is all love, invincible joy, and perfect peace. Within It is absolute assurance of salvation. Within It is total deliverance from Purgatory. Within It is God’s infinite pleasure. Within It is the complete victory of every noble mission in one simple principle. Within It alone is the full realization of man’s creation in the Image and Likeness of God. Within It is the Culmination of Deification, the fruitfulness of Mystical Marriage, the aspiration of the Unification of Wills, and the essence of Marian Consecration. Within It is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary promised at Fatima.

You cannot earn this Gift or merit It—you can only allow God to give It to you, and in exchange for His Divine Will, He asks only for your loving and trusting relinquishing of the tiny pebble of your own human will.

Whoever you are, no matter what, it is easy to allow Him to give His Will to you: simply say with sincerity, “Jesus, I Trust in You. Thy Will be Done. I give you my will, and in return I want to live only in Your Will.” If you strive to converse with Him continually in this manner, then rest assured that He has given you His Will. Though your journey is not yet over, the victory already permeates your every step.

God wishes also to give this Gift to the whole world. Pray unceasingly, therefore, for the Coming of the Kingdom of the Divine Will, by way of which God’s Original Design for the world and for mankind will at last be realized. Pray with the joy and confidence that comes from knowing that the arrival of this reign is a guarantee, for it is nothing other than the full realization of the Fiat Voluntas Tua of the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus Himself prayed, and thus bears the absolute certainty of being fulfilled. Its arrival is only a question of time, but you can—and now are called to—hasten this time.

Entrust yourself completely to Our Lady, who lived more perfectly in the Divine Will than any other creature ever has or ever will, and she, who loves you—her dear child—will ensure that you Live in the Will of her Son. Especially let her sorrows and the Passion of her Son be always before your mind.

Finally, rejoice always in the invincible and continuous peace that will inevitably inundate the soul of anyone who really believes these truths (20).

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Now that we have a general understanding of the Divine Will, let’s explore it further through a pivotal event in Salvation History.

Feast

On March 25th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.

At the Annunciation, Archangel Gabriel visits the Blessed Virgin Mary and announces that she was chosen to bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38).

After the angel’s announcement, Mary gives her fiat: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Many sources say that fiat is simply the Latin word for yes, but it means much more.

American priest Fr. John Jirak explains:

“When we say yes, it’s as if it’s coming from me, I’m taking the initiative. Fiat has a whole different meaning because it is, in Latin, in the passive voice versus the active voice. The active voice – this means I’m the subject, I’m acting, it’s coming from me, I’m initiating it, it has the American spirit. The passive voice means that the subject is being acted upon, And so, what she is saying is, let me be made. Let it be made in me. Let it be done in me.”

When Mary gives her fiat, she gives God permission to work in and through her and offers herself entirely to Him.

Through her response at the Annunciation, Mary shows us the essence of living in the Divine Will.

Section 2617 of the Catechism explains:

In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made “full of grace” responds by offering her whole being: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word.” “Fiat“: this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God’s, because he is wholly ours.

The Annunciation was one event, one point in time, but Mary always responds to the Lord with a fiat.

Even though she doesn’t know every detail, she knows that the Lord desires her ultimate good and trusts Him completely.

Mary continuously gives God permission to let His Will be done in her.

And each of us are called to do the same.

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Fiat Voluntas Tua + Thy Will Be Done