Act of Offering to Merciful Love and Divine Justice
- 1925: Offering Act to Merciful Love, following the discovery of that of St. Thérèse of Lisieux;
- 1931: Offering Act as a victim to Divine Justice and Love. "My offering act," she specifies.
1925: Offering Act to Merciful Love
The circumstances
At 27 years old, a reading was to upheave Maria Valtorta and give a definitive direction to her life. She recounts it in her Autobiography[1]. She had pocket money which she decided to invest in buying the four Gospels and the Story of a Soul by St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She entrusted one of her friends with the purchases."On January 28, 1925, I received a large package containing the books I had requested, as well as a volume added by my dear former schoolmate, which was a book of Gospel commentaries for young people [...] I immediately began reading the Story of a Soul[2]. I felt as if I were back at school. But at school, the sisters had stopped reading at the 'proper' life and memories and advice. I, possessing the entire work, could go further.My Soul melted with love. I had found the harp player capable of making my spirit’s strings vibrate. I would have Good wanted to make them sing to God, but I had not yet succeeded. The little saint Thérèse, with her little hand, had taken mine and led it on the strings, teaching me the song of love and giving.
When I read the offering act to Merciful Love, I wept for joy... I had found what I was looking for. If to enter the Franciscan Third Order I had imposed a trial period on myself, here I did not wait a moment. For two years I had been searching for a spiritual mistress who could serve as my godmother in my rite of sacrifice to God. I had finally found her!
I decided to make a very good confession, a fervent communion, better than usual, then to pronounce my offering act [...] In the evening, in the room where I am now, with great emotion of love, I knelt on the floor and I recited my offering act. Since then, I renew it every day.
Sufferings have fallen upon me like rain since that day. But if it were allowed to man to erase lived time and if I had to return to that January 28, 1925, the day I received those books, 'I would do again what I did' with even more joy, because during these eighteen years, in the ocean of sorrows in which I have been immersed, I have always tasted, with the best part of myself, a spiritual joy which I believe is a foretaste of that which will be given in the Heavenly Jerusalem, 'where joy is eternal.'
I too can say with the Little Flower: 'Since that evening began for me a new period of my life, the most beautiful of all, the most filled with heavenly graces. Charity entered my Heart with a big need to forget myself, to give myself. And since then I have always been happy.'"
The text
She then decides to solemnly offer herself "to Merciful Love" and does so on Sunday, June 7, 1925, the feast of The Holy Trinity, exactly thirty years after Saint Thérèse did the same on this same solemnity. The content of this consecration was likely similar to that of little Thérèse, as Maria did not leave us a text. Undoubtedly the text was inspired by that of Thérèse of the Child Jesus who wrote notably:"In order to live in an act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a holocaust victim to your Merciful Love, begging you to consume me constantly, letting the overflowing flood of infinite tenderness contained in you flow into my Soul so that I may thus become a Martyr of your Love, oh my God!"
1931: Offering Act as a victim to Justice and Love
The circumstances
Maria Valtorta then experiences the power of the "victimal gift":"The Christian who was saved by a God dead on the cross resists suffering, resists any kind of suffering. He does not know the sweetness of suffering, the power of suffering, the transformation into God that suffering effects in us. For my part, I noticed that if for a month I pray like a machine, exhausting my head and stomach, most often I get nothing. 'But I only need to suffer one hour and offer my suffering for a determined purpose and I get anything.' Sacrifice is the salvation of the world and souls. Souls and the world are always saved by the sacrifice of those who are more generous. These reflections overwhelmed me to the point that it became obvious to me that the time had come to make a stricter offering to Divine Justice[3].It is the period when relations are tense between the fascist power and the Catholic Action to which she belongs. She then has the feeling that serious events are being prepared.
"I decided to speed up my progress. I had set my offering to Divine Justice for September 8, to place my vow of suffering under the Protection of the Blessed Virgin. But now it was not appropriate to delay any longer. The circumstances indicated this to me. So I asked God to inspire for me the formula to adopt.A few days later, it was the first Friday of June. At Mass, surrounded by the young associates, I experienced an hour of true agony of blood... I saw in my mind 'everything' that was preparing: wars, famines, deaths, massacres... and endless despair. What suffering! And I, who never cry in public, wept with such bitterness that I was Confessionstantified. At the end of Mass, I had to be helped out because I could no longer see, so abundant were my tears... My kindest companions asked me what was happening... I told them what was going on, though without revealing, in proper modesty, certain details.
A few days later, I felt the offering act blossom in my Heart as I wrote and pronounced it on July 1, the feast of the Precious Blood. Was there a better day to choose to unite myself to the Victim whose divine blood had entirely flowed to appease the Father’s justice? Was there a nobler name to choose from that moment on than 'Maria of the Cross'? [...] The Cross was my love and I 'wanted' it as my altar. The cross had been the companion of my life since childhood and now, pushed by a supernatural spur, I prayed for the great Cross to be immolated on it. This name therefore came back to me and suited me perfectly. And it will be the name that will remain to me in the eyes of God as long as I live and even beyond...
Immediately after offering myself to the martyrdom of love was added an acute martyrdom of suffering in the flesh, intensified in the spirit by an austerity that seemed to weigh on my being.
Let me explain, or try to explain myself. I did not feel abandoned by God. No. His love always watched over me. But if Jesus caressed me, the Father increased the weight of his hand on my Heart. That’s when a period of harsh penances began. Everything that until then had constituted the sensitive part of supernatural love had disappeared. I mean those sweet visions that for years had been my comfort. I mean that certainty I had that God would have spared us what we are currently living. The hour of Gethsemane came immediately, in full and obscure darkness... and it lasted, I could say, ten long years, because only from 1941 did its bitterness lessen.
Do not imagine that I felt dryness of Heart. No, never. Just as I was never deprived of the comfort of Christ’s love. But I suffered intensely and morally by perceiving 'exactly' what was going to happen in the world... I wept all my tears because of this. I wept a lot begging the Eternal to keep away this terrible plague, and I mortified myself for this in harsh penances to calm, appease, to placate Divine Justice. So much so that when the scourge broke out and everyone more or less lost their heads, I had no more tears to cry. I had already tortured myself in advance by seeing this terrible tragedy unfold... I physically suffered in a frenzy of pains, some more terrible than others, and the series is not yet over... I felt all possible pains in my body which became an inventory of medical symptoms! And what is worse is that these sufferings did not leave the spiritual part of my being untouched, but disturbed it in an outburst of sensations which by themselves constitute a martyrdom... But I will speak of it in due time. What is certain is that Justice spared me in no way. And you will be able to witness it yourself[4].
The text
This text is reproduced in The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950, on February 10, 1946, pp. 182-185."Oh my God, origin and end of all power, of all wisdom and all Good, eternal and uncreated Love, Holy Trinity, be blessed now and forever, loved and adored for ever and ever.So that this love for you spreads and invades the whole earth and that the Kingdom of Christ establishes there bringing men Peace, this Peace which comes from you alone, so that Souls turn to you, the fountain of Living Water that quenches all thirsts and grants eternal life, I, despite my misery and sins, dare, from the abyss of my nothingness, to raise my Heart and my life, all my being, to you, Blessed Godhead, and offer you this nothingness as a host of expiation and love for the advent of your reign, so that your Peace may blossom, for the redemption of Souls, of those I love and know, of those most dear to me because of the bonds that unite me to them, as well as of those unknown or enemies to me.
May this sacrifice I offer you please you, O God, by the intercession of Mary and Saint Joseph, despite its smallness. It is all I can give you, but I do it with joy for the conversion of Souls, the Peace of the world, the prosperity, tranquility, Peace and all other Good of my Homeland, for the triumph of the Church over its Enemies, for the return to God of those nations that have become the prey of Satan and schisms, for the perfection of the priesthood, my eternal salvation, that of my parents and of all the Souls I have loved, instructed in your Law and led towards you.
If I compared the splendor of your power to my misery, I would be annihilated before such omnipotence; if I confronted my nullity and fault with your perfection, I would have to flee as unworthy far from your face; 'but I trust in you,' as pleases you, and I give myself to you entirely, with my past, my present, my Future, my faults, my efforts toward Good, my falls, my immense desires of love for you and for Souls. I think you are Love; Mercy, Goodness; you are the Father, the Brother, the Spouse of our Souls, you are Charity made flesh and you reject no one from your overflowing love. I am therefore sure that you will look with pity on your little slave to sweeten the offering, hear the prayer and consent to its desires.
Ah! I will remain at your feet as long as it pleases you, awaiting your smile that will reveal to me that my offering is accepted; the wait will not frighten me because I know it is a trial you send me to test my faith, no more than my nullity will frighten me, since I cover it with the merits of my Beloved God who lives in me. And I take up again the ineffable words of my adored Word, my Master and Redeemer, to present to you my prayer, to you, the Eternal: "Father, forgive men because they do not know what they are doing, forgive because of the merits of Christ, of Mary, of the martyrs and saints; 'and if, to appease your offended Justice, new hosts of expiation are necessary, here I am, O Father, immolate me for Peace between man and God, between man and man, for the advent of your reign."
O my Beloved God, your Heart bleeds from being constantly wounded by this tide of sins that floods the earth, and your Thirst for love grows each day as humanity moves away from you. Oh! Take me as a consoling host of your offended love. I would like to renew this offering every time a sin wounds you and a new offense is committed Against The Holy Trinity; I would like to be innocent and rich in merits to be more able to console you; I would like to have multitudes of Souls at my side ready to offer themselves to your love. But I am poor and alone, guilty as well.
However, my incapacity, my misery, my solitude do not frighten me; I am as you please, that suffices me and encourages me to offer myself to you. It is you who put in my Heart this ever-growing Thirst for love and immolation, and that teaches me that you also want me, poor and weak as I am, a true nothing, lost before your immensity.
Conscious of this smallness which is mine, I beg you not to treat me as a spouse or a sister. You are the Master of heaven and earth, I am a grain of dust... You are the King of kings, I the last of your Subjects. But just as, in a royal palace, there are on one hand the sovereign's intimates who spend their days with him, united by affection, and on the other hand the servants whose only duty is to obey, I desire, my Beloved, that you consider me as a servant — or even less —. I want to be the slave whose only goal is to serve her Lord 'with humility and fidelity.' I want to be the Confessionstantly used instrument for the triumph of Merciful Love on earth, the humble servant who gives herself entirely for the cause of her king, the creature who stands in the dust at the foot of your throne to cover with her poor song the blasphemous howls of sinners, to console by her faithful love your pierced Heart, to win you a multitude of Souls by her unnoticed sacrifice. You yourself said it, my Beloved Jesus: he who shows the greatest love is the one who gives his life for his friends. Here I come, I offer myself to you, my only and perfect friend, so that your Kingdom may be established on earth as in the Hearts of men.
You also said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself." I too desire, following your example, to be lifted on the cross of suffering, on your cross of salvation that most flee with terror; crucified with you, for you, I want to expiate for those who sin, obey you for those who rebel, bless you for those who curse you, love you for those who hate you, beseech you for those who forget you, live, in a word, in an act of perfect love, bringing everything back to you, recognizing you in all, loving all through you and in you, finally accepting everything from you, my infinite Good.
O my Beloved, by the cross I ask of you, by the life I offer you, by the love to which I aspire, make me a happy victim of your Merciful Love. May I live in it and from it, act under its impulse, may each of my acts, words, thoughts and Actions bear the seal of this love.
May it be my shield and my Purification, my joy and my martyrdom, may it be an ever more intimate fusion with you, until that ultimate fusion in which the Soul, freed, soars to unite with you to adore and love you perfectly for the blessed eternity."
Further discovery
- The Spiritual Life of Maria Valtorta
- Her spiritual masters
- Hymn to love and suffering
- Her Invisible Stigmata
- Tertiary of the Servites of Mary
- Her rosaries
- The Virgin of Fatima in the life of Maria Valtorta