THE HOURS OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST Luisa Piccarreta The Little Daughter of the Divine Will THE HOURS OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST Luisa Piccarreta The Little Daughter of the Divine Will The original Italian editions of this book received the following ecclesiastical seals of approval: First edition Revisione arcivescovile, Naples, February 20 , 1915 Nihil Obstat: Francesco Sorrentino (Revisore eccl.) Imprimatur: A. Can. Laviano, V.G. Second edition Revisione arcivescovile, Naples, 1916 Nihil obstat: Francesco Sorrentino (Revisore eccl.) Imprimatur: A. Can. Laviano, V.G. Third edition Revisione arcivescovile, Naples, 1917 Reimprimatur: Francesco Sorrentino (Revisore eccl.) Fourth edition Messina, August 8, 1924 Nihil Obstat: D. Prestifillipo, SJ Fifth edition Taranto, Curia Archiepiscopale, August 28, 1934 Nihil Obstat: Delegato dall’Arcviesco, Giuseppe Blandamura Ad usum privatum All English trans. from the Italian text, introductions, annotations and theological presentations: Rev. Joseph Leo Iannuzzi, STD, Ph.D. Introductions, Annotations and Theological Presentations © MHT, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................... iii The History of this Publication ....................................... x Preface by St. Hannibal di Francia .............................. xii Prayer Before Each Hour ............................................ xvi Prayer After Each Hour .............................................. xvii First Hour: 5 PM .............................................................. 1 Second Hour: 6 PM .......................................................... 8 Third Hour: 7 PM ...........................................................15 Fourth Hour: 8 PM ........................................................ 23 Fifth Hour: 9 PM ........................................................... 41 Sixth Hour: 10 PM ......................................................... 51 Seventh Hour: 11 PM .................................................... 63 Eighth Hour: 12 AM ...................................................... 79 Ninth Hour: 1 AM .......................................................... 85 Tenth Hour: 2 AM ......................................................... 91 Eleventh Hour 3 AM ...................................................... 95 TABLE OF CONTENTS Twelfth Hour: 4 AM .................................................... 101 Thirteenth Hour: 5 AM ............................................... 107 Fourteenth Hour: 6 AM .............................................. 115 Fifteenth Hour: 7 AM .................................................. 119 Sixteenth Hour: 8 AM ................................................. 125 Seventeenth Hour: 9 AM ............................................. 135 Eighteenth Hour: 10 AM ............................................. 151 Nineteenth Hour: 11 AM ............................................. 165 Twentieth Hour: 12 PM ............................................... 197 Twenty-First Hour: 1 PM ........................................... 209 Twenty-Second Hour: 2 PM ....................................... 223 Twenty-Third Hour: 3 PM .......................................... 233 Twenty-Fourth Hour: 4 PM ........................................ 241 ii INTRODUCTION Luisa’s appointed extraordinary confessor and censor librorum St. Hannibal of Francia affirms that Luisa’s meditation on Jesus’ Passion constitutes a “new method” and “totally new approach,” which Luisa was the first1 to introduce to the Church, as it offers reparations that “extend and multiply themselves to infinity.” Indeed, Jesus reveals to Luisa that as the soul meditates the “Hours of the Passion” that he dictated to her, it assumes his own humanity,2 intercedes for souls,3 offers the Father reparation and satisfaction,4 and averts his Divine Justice.5 Such a soul procures “new graces,”6 a “new life of grace”7 and all the goods that Jesus desires.8 The Luisian method of meditation is one of attentively and contemplatively assimilating the Lord’s Passion into one’s own life.9 It is not simply the act of recalling the sufferings of Jesus as something that occurred 2,000 years ago in a far away land; rather, it is primarily an act of the human will entering into the Divine Will, in 1 L. Piccarreta, volume 11, November 4, 1914. 2 Ibid., vol. 11, April 10, 1913. 3 Ibid., vol. 11, October 1914. 4 Ibid., vol. 11, November 4, 1914. 5 Ibid., vol. 11, September 6, 1913. 6 Ibid., vol. 11, November 4, 1914. 7 Ibid., vol. 7, November 9, 1906. 8 Ibid., vol. 11, October 1914. 9 Ibid., vol. 12, October 24, 1918. INTRODUCTION which the lives of all creatures are present to us and “in act.”10 Admittedly, Luisa uses the old scholastic expression “in act” to convey the timelessness of Jesus acts and sufferings on behalf of all creatures. By this she intends that the human being’s participation in Jesus’ interior life and sufferings may be present, concurrent and concomitant within each one of our acts, whereby we repeat his life in us, recover his “likeness”11 and, filling ourselves with God,12 communicate to all generations the infinite value, merits13 and effects of his Passion. Jesus reveals to Luisa: “To repeat in the soul My Passion in act, is different from one who only thinks of My pains and pities them. The former is an act of My own life [in the Divine Will that the soul accomplishes], which takes My place and repeats My pains, whence I feel requited for the effects and the value of a divine life. [The latter,] in thinking of My pains and in offering Me pity, permits Me to experience only the soul’s company. But do you know in whom I may repeat the pains of My Passion in act? In the soul who possesses My Will as the center of its life. My Will alone is one act without succession of acts. This single act is as though fixed to one point which never moves, and this point is eternity […] Now, the soul who lives in My Will possesses this single 10 Ibid., vol. 11, September 21, 1913. 11 Ibid., vol. 11, April 23, 1916. 12 Ibid., vol. 11, March 24, 1913. 13 Ibid., vol. 11, April 10, 1913. iv