Jesus leaves his most holy mother and goes to the supper room.
But the paleness of your face, your trembling lips, your suffocated voice, as though wanting to burst into tears in saying good bye ah, everything tells me how much You love Her and how much You suffer in leaving Her! But to fulfill the Will of the Father, with your Hearts fused into each other, You submit Yourselves to everything, wanting to repair for those who, unwilling to overcome the tendernesses of relatives and friends, and bonds and attachments, do not care about fulfilling the Holy Will of God and corresponding to the state of sanctity to which God calls them.
· [Lesson 1] In this way we ourselves repair for all acts of persons --past, present and future; imagine the effects it has for today for the healing of all individuals where we surrender to that higher level of grace in which God lovingly answers with more of His Divine will to become more effective in opening the life of the world to experience justice and peace. When we are fused in Christ’s heart through the contemplation of his passion, and by which we go deeper and reach the full efficacy of God's design by way of contemplating also Mary's pain, we come to experience for ourselves in a more fuller degree, God's increase in grace to meet our needs and merit grace for souls.
What pain these souls give You by rejecting your love and by contenting themselves with the love of creatures! My sweet Love, while I make reparation with You, let me stay with your Mother. Let me console Her and support Her while You leave. Later, I will hurry my steps to catch up to You. But, oh, what sorrow I feel, seeing my anguished mother tremble! And while she tries to say good-bye to her son, her sorrow is so great that her voice dies on her lips and she cannot even pronounce a word. In her swoon of love, She almost faints. She cries, “My Son, my Son, I bless You! What a bitter separation this is—crueler than any death!”
But grief keeps Her from saying more and leaves Her speechless. Inconsolable Queen, let me help You. Let me dry your tears and comfort You in your bitter sorrow. My Mother, I will not leave You alone; I ask You to take me with You. In this most sorrowful hour for You and Jesus, You teach me what I must do. You teach me how I must defend Him, make reparation to Him, and console Him; and—if I must—give my life to defend Yours.
· [Lesson 2] In following the steps of Jesus, he has given us the great gift of his Mother to follow in her steps as she follows her Son; as Jesus has traced out the way for us to go, She, as mediatrix of graces, our Mother, fulfills her duty to ensure that we, as children of God, operate effectively in God's grace. We, therefore, live under her mantle.
I will not come out from beneath your mantle. At a sign from You I will fly to Jesus. I will offer Him your Love, your affections and your kisses together with mine. I will place them on each wound, in each drop of his Blood, in each pain and insult. As He feels the kisses and Love of his Mother in each pain, may his wounds be soothed. Then I will come back to hide under your mantle. And I will bring his kisses back to You, to soothe your pierced Heart.
· [Lesson 3] This provides an important pattern for us to follow. We offer to Jesus the love and tenderness of his Mother along with ours for his consolation; we complete this act by bringing to Mary, the love and tenderness of her Son, along with ours, to console her sorrow. We do well to recall this cycle during the recollection of Christ's passion.
My Mama, my heart is pounding, I want to go to Jesus. And as I kiss your maternal hands, bless me as You blessed Jesus, and allow me to go to Him. My sweet Jesus, love directs me toward your steps and I reach You, as You walk along the streets of Jerusalem together with your beloved disciples. I look at You and I see You still pale.
· [Lesson 4] A practice in which we ask Mary, in the way Jesus asked for her blessing as he marks the moment of his definitive step towards the cross, we ask for her blessing to mark the instance in which we desire to be with Jesus.
I hear your voice—sweet, but sad—so sad as to break the hearts of your disciples, who are deeply disturbed by your sadness. As I lean to listen, I hear You say, This is the last time I will go through these streets alone. Tomorrow I will be bound and dragged through them amid a thousand insults. Pointing to the places where You will be more cruelly insulted and tortured, You say, Like the sun, my life here below is about to set. Tomorrow, at this hour, I will be no more. But I will rise, like the sun, on the third day. At your words, the disciples grow sad and silent and do not know what to answer. You add, Take courage! Do not despair! I am not leaving you. I will always be with you; still, it is necessary for me to die for the good of all.
As you pause, I see that You are moved, but with a trembling voice You proceed in your teaching. And before enclosing Yourself in the cenacle, You look at the sun which is setting, just as your life is setting; You offer your steps for those who find themselves at the setting of their lives, giving them the grace to let them set in You, and repairing for those who, in spite of the sorrows and disillusions of life, persist in not wanting to surrender to You.
· [Lesson 5] Mercy and love is directed towards those who are dying, both for those who would be disposed to receiving his grace to have the ability to die in peace, and for those, who, "in spite of the sorrows and disillusions of life, persist in not wanting to surrender" to Him, might find at the last moment the window to see God and surrender to him.
Then you look again at Jerusalem, the center of your miracles and of the preferential love of your heart. In return, the city is already preparing the cross for you and sharpening the nails, to commit the deicide. You shudder, your Heart breaks and You cry over its destruction. With this, You repair for many souls consecrated to You, whom You tried to form with so much care as portents of your love, but ungrateful and unrequiting, they only bring you more bitter suffering! I want to share in your atonement, to soothe the breaking of your heart. But I see that You are horrified by the sight of Jerusalem, and, turning your eyes away, You enter the supper room.
· [Lesson 6] What pain Jesus feels for the unrequited love from those who purportedly have consecrated their lives to God, in which they are ungrateful for the attention and love God has given them. Luisa demonstrates the proper attitude and response from those who say publicly they serve God:
My love, draw me closer to your heart, let me make your sorrows my own, and let me offer them together with you. Look mercifully on my soul; pour your love into it, bless me.
· [Lesson 7] Hence, the blessing with which we ask from our blessed Mother in our flight to Jesus, returns to us as the ultimate blessing from Jesus himself.
Luisa’s reflections and practices in outline form.
Jesus did not take his last steps without purpose:
· In them he glorified the Father and asked for the salvation of souls.
· We must place in our steps the same intentions of Jesus that is, to sacrifice ourselves for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls.
· Furthermore, we should imagine that we are placing our steps in those of Jesus.
· He wasted nothing in each step, but enclosed all the steps of creatures in his own, making reparation for all ungodly steps, in order to give the Father the glory he deserves, and life to all the evil steps of creatures so that they might walk the path of good.
· Likewise, so should we place our steps into those of Jesus, repeating his own intentions.
As Jesus walks to the Cenacle, let us enclose all our thoughts, affections, heartbeats, prayers, actions, meals, work, and all our other acts in the Heart of Jesus as they unfold.
· In this way, our actions will acquire a divine character.
· However, since it is difficult to always keep this divine attitude because it is hard for the soul to fuse her acts continuously in Him the soul can compensate with the disposition of her good will, which will please Jesus very much.
· He will keep watch over her every thought, word, and heartbeat.
· He will place them in attendance inside and outside of Himself, gazing at them with great Love, as the fruit of the creature’s good will.
· Then, when the soul fuses itself in him, doing its immediate acts with him, good Jesus feels so drawn toward this soul that He will do what she does together with her, transforming the creature’s acts into a divine work.
All this is the effect of God’s goodness, who takes everything into account and rewards everything, even the smallest act done in the Will of God, so that the creature is restituted in everything.
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