The Notebooks
 Cover page of the French edition (reprint 2024)
| |
| Work Details | |
|---|---|
| Author | Maria Valtorta |
| Writing Period | From June 16, 1942 to June 22, 1954 + undated texts |
| Number of Pages | 298 |
| First Italian Edition | |
| Title | Quadernetti |
| Publication | 2015 |
| Publisher | Centro Editoriale Valtortiano |
| French Translation | |
| Title | The Notebooks |
| Translator | Yves d'Horrer |
| Publication | 2018 |
| Publisher | Centro Editoriale Valtortiano |
| ISBN | 978-88-7987-236-0 |
| Distribution | Bookstores - online sales - [publisher's website] |
Under the generic title of "The Notebooks", the publisher has gathered, in chronological order, various writings of Maria Valtorta scattered on loose sheets, booklets, three notepads, and one notebook. Written at different dates (except for some without any mention and impossible to date), they cover various topics, which frequently relate to those of the three "Notebooks" and the "Letters". Different notes allow for referencing them.
At the end of the volume, a 37-page appendix presents correspondence about "The Tomb of Saint Peter," regarding the location of which Maria Valtorta was questioned in 1948 by the entourage of Pius XII following the papal audience.
Unlike the three volumes of the "Notebooks", the texts collected in the "Carnets" may be supplemented, in any future edition, by other scattered manuscripts that could be discovered among the unpublished Valtortian documents.
Table of Contents[edit | edit source]
- Life and Works of Maria Valtorta (p. 7)
- Writings from 1942 (p. 11)
- Writings from 1943 (pp. 11-14)
- Writings from 1944 (pp. 15-73)
- Writings from 1945 (pp. 73-81)
- Writings from 1947 (pp. 81-102)
- Writings from 1948 (pp. 102-183)
- Writings from 1949 (pp. 184-213)
- Writings from 1950 (pp. 214-221)
- Writings from 1953 (pp. 221-245)
- Writings from 1954 (pp. 245-246)
- Undated and impossible to date writings (pp. 247-260)
- Appendix: The Tomb of Saint Peter (pp. 261-298)
The First Texts[edit | edit source]
[In the foreword is the original poem "The Sinister Mountain," which was transcribed in a notebook and published in the volume The Notebooks of 1943 dated May 13. The term "spinacristi," which appears in the following commentary, is explained in the introduction of the Autobiography. The date given at the end is from the year when Father Migliorini went to visit Maria Valtorta, then infirm, and became her spiritual director.]
June 16, 1942"Here is what the little sister “spinacristi[1]” wrote after seeing a cross on a hill, and Love crucified on it... But do not tell anyone about my... I do not dare call it a vision, but simply a “view,” so that no one takes me for a mystic or a madwoman. Besides, to mock my ego, it would be better to be called mad than mystic. Because I am not, and because I might take pride, and then God help me!... I think that infinite Mercy, which forgives so much, turns away from the proud; and I do not want it to turn away from me, just as I do not want it to say to me: “How did you dare distort the idea with your poor rhymes?” But it is precisely for His mercy that I beg you, my Father, to accept them and pardon. June 16, 1942 - Sister Spinacristi"August 13, 1943
Invocation to Mary for Peace."At this hour of Darkness when a large part of the world weeps over the ruins of its Homeland, while homes, affections, and dreams are broken by the storm of a deserved but terrifying punishment, it is with Conscience darkened by faults and suffering that we invoke Heaven and you, who are its Queen.
May the light of Grace descend to enlighten us so we can understand what is truly necessary and give us the ability to ask for it. May it come to instruct our Hearts, which have lost the knowledge of Life and know only how to sin. May it come to teach us prayer and love.
We have such a need to love and pray! We no longer know how to truly believe in God, loving Him with all our strength and loving those He has given us as brothers. We no longer know how to love or pray, and this is the source of all our ills.
In place of the Heart, we have a knot of hatred and sin. Our Soul, like a bird caught in the hunter’s nets, no longer knows how to rise to Heaven and agonizes biting the mud of the earth.
O Mary, you who obtained that water be turned into wine in the jars[2], obtain for us the most necessary miracle: conversion to the love of our Hearts molded from hatred. You who are the Mother of God and ours, uproot from us the tendencies we inherit from Cain.
Through the divine, immaculate, and virginal Maternity that forms your double crown, be a mother a second time; be the Mother of this poor humanity that dies under the grasp of the Vanquished under your heel[3], for he takes revenge for the defeat you, the very strong Woman, inflicted on him through poor and confessing men that we are.
Unite a second time with the Spirit of love to generate us anew to the life of Grace.
If we are reborn in you, we will take from your Heart the purity that we lost and the charity that makes us children of God. Then we will know and be able to raise our Heart again in prayer that is not just empty words, but a holy act of faith and will.
Teach us to pray and to love, O Mary.
Guide our Souls and lips yourself, holy Virgin, to ask for this Peace of which you are Queen and Treasurer, since you are the Mother of Christ, who is Peace itself.
Teach us to ask for and to deserve the Peace that reunites children with their parents, husbands with their wives, fathers with their children, the Peace that makes us good and active, a Peace that unites peoples currently divided, under the sign of your Son, who commanded us to love one another as brothers and who, as Brother, loved us unto death.
Peace, O holy Virgin! On this feast of your Assumption, give us Peace, O Mary, so that the faith of those who already believe in you and love you—not as you deserve but only to the extent of their capacity to love—may increase; and also so that those who do not know you for who you really are, those who deny you, and those who ignore your existence may come to believe.
Shine, O Morning Star, over this sky darkened by flames and profaned by curses.
Chase away by your smile the nightmare that has spread over the world and that pushes the sons of Adam to Doubt of God.
Protect us, O Queen, Against all traps and defend the Mission of your Son, who came to bring Peace to the world at the price of His suffering.
You told us once: “Let it be done according to the word of God” and these words marked the beginning of salvation for the human race.
Oh! Obtain for us from the Eternal the word of Peace, in memory of that hour when you united yourself to The Holy Trinity.
Make the divine lips of your Son pronounce this blessed “fiat” and, once the clash of homicidal weapons has ceased, may the hymn celebrating the goodness of the Lord and your power rise before the throne of the Most High and before yours, glorious Virgin."
Frankly, I thought I could not satisfy you.
Here is what came today. I write it, but do not re-copy it, because I am sure you will give me a copy of it.
As for the rest of your letter, you will find the answer in the notebook. It is a Good beautiful answer[4], as much for me as for you, and I think it will please you as it pleases me.
Jesus, who looks at me crushed under the weight of the cross, wants to lighten our cross because He sees that we bend under the sadness of these days.
But, poor Jesus, He is Good sad too...
I have the impression that to my anguished question: “Where are you going, Lord?” He gives a similar answer to that given to Peter: “I am going to die for all my children who no longer know how to die (with faith, hope, and charity).”
If I could make you see Jesus’ look! It is a deep sea of sorrow... and one cannot see the bottom of His divine pain.
Thank you for your letter and its content. But... those notes that come back to me after taking a trip through Viareggio...!
That is enough. I stop here because I have terrible back pain and Jesus did not spare me today. He made me write I do not know how long...
I will pray for your preaching. But I will also pray that the ears of your listeners are not just useless ornaments, but the means to bring the Word into their Hearts. If this does not happen, it is in vain that you try to equal the greatest preachers. And if you have the merit of preaching, others will only have the demerit of being... soulless figures.
Pray for the poor scribbler of Jesus that I am, and bless me.
August 13, 1943 Maria Valtorta"
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Spinacristi or “thorn of Christ” generally refers to the Christ’s Thorn Jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi), whose sharp thorns were used to weave Christ’s crown of thorns. This identification comes from several ancient traditions and from the relic of the Holy Crown of Paris.
- ↑ See John 2:1-11.
- ↑ See Genesis 3:15.
- ↑ The Good beautiful answer is found in The Notebooks of 1943, on the same date of August 13.