
BENEDICTINES OF DIVINE WILL

LETTERS OF ST. ANNIBALE
Excerpts from
THE LETTERS OF ST. ANNIBALE DI FRANCIA TO LUISA PICCARRETA
Messina 20-6-1924
"In my current morning meditations, besides the Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I am carefully reading and meditating on two or three chapters of your writings on the Divine Will, and the impressions I get are intimate and profound. I see a sublime and divine science in them, although I have not yet been able to penetrate them thoroughly, for my lack of intelligence. It is necessary to make these writings known to the world now, and I believe they will do a great deal of good. This science of the Divine Will is lofty, and yet these writings dictated by heaven present the doctrine in all its purity and clearness..."
Messina 12-7-1926
"I continue to read your writings: They are always sublime revelations, with illustrations worthy of the divine Creator, as for example, the comparison of the heartbeat to the one act of the divine Fiat."
Trani 28-8-1926
"Pray to the Lord to inspire us on how to do the publication and do it completely according to His Divine Volition. Amen. My thought is that the first print should be done in Oria, and that afterwards the whole printing should pass to Messina, where I reside, under my own eyes.
In the meantime, continue the 15th in black, in which you started to write what happened to you during your infancy, childhood and youth. Write everything. Write also a faithful and complete narration of the illness - that is, your being bedridden; when it was, how it happened, in what year, the oppositions of the Bishops, of the Confessors, etc.
Also, in Volume 19 write everything – everything that Our Lord reveals, even tiny things in passing.
Everything for Holy Obedience, great Lady, for the Glory of God, for your mortification and for the good of souls. Be careful not to distort or hide anything!"
Altamura 5-10-1926
"His Excellency, the Archbishop of Trani has already put his Imprimatur on seven more volumes of your writings.Meanwhile, I am finishing volume two, five and six. Truly, the Lord has guided you with immense goodness and charity. On Saturday, God willing, I will leave for Oria, to begin the printing of the first volume, divided in two parts... As far as myself, I feel a great Divine assistance for penetrating into the spirit of these writings and coordinating them for the purposes of the Divine Will. Surely, Our Lord can infuse this intellect in whomever He wants, I being unworthy of a Mission so holy!"
Oria 15-10-1926
"...His Excellency, the Archbishop of Trani, has given me authority over you regarding your writings and their publication, in other words, to direct you and to see to the publication of your writings.
These faculties cover everything you have written up to this point, and all that you write in the future.
The Archbishop was pleased to put so much trust in me for this work – which is something that Jesus himself has disposed- that he named me Ecclesiastic Reviewer for all the publications of his three dioceses. He even went so far as to get involved himself, by giving his authoritative Imprimatur after my Nihil Obstat..."
Messina 19-11-1926
"The publication of the entire work, with the printing, will be of about 25 thousand copies. Moreover, since the work will be thick, because it is the Divine Word speaking, and this is substantial Word of the Eternal Father, you can understand well how great the expense will have to be. Nevertheless, the Great Divine Treasurer certainly does not lack the means, even if it should cost a million. Besides, the books will be sold quickly, maybe more than the Hours of the Passion, and the money spent will return, and maybe even more."
Messina 14-2-1927
"Know that I no longer occupy myself with almost anything of the other things of my Institutes, since I dedicated myself completely to the great Work of the Divine Will. I talk about it with people of spirit; I engage in conversation about this topic with whomever I best can; I promote it as much as I can, also in my Institutes. As soon as possible, we will establish the Pious Universal Union for the Children of the Divine Will, with the little Chaplet included, about which I wrote you the other time.
This enterprise is great not only because of everything that I told you, but consider that it is about 25 thousand copies of the Whole Work, of all the volumes, present and future; therefore it is an enterprise of millions of lira.
Those dear young men of mine in Oria, he typographers, are working with great affection and great care; and I assure you that the edition presents itself as very beautiful, and I hope to send you a sample soon.