One day, Maria Valtorta had read a passage in the prayer-writings of sister Benigna Consolata Ferrero (1885-1916), namely, the passage on 'How One Should Act in a State of Aridity,' with sister Benigna counselling: 'Call Him [Jesus] with the sweetest names.' So, at her next opportunity, Maria Valtorta asked Jesus: 'What are the sweetest names for You?' Jesus replied: "What should you call Me? What are My sweetest names? Why, those of the Songs of Songs, daughter and spouse [Maria Valtorta] of My love and My sorrow." Commenting further on the Song of Songs that's in the Old Testament of the Bible, Jesus says that: "The Song, which conceals the loving relations between God and the Church and between God and souls, is not understood by the learned." And "the loving relationship between God and the soul" is a spiritual supernatural marriage - "the holy marriage of the soul with its God!" The Song of Songs "... is not understood by the learned," most likely because they, the religious theorists and the putative philosophers, are probably much too busy whiling away the hours dissecting exotic rubbish and other abstract nonsense residing inside esoteric chimeras; and then writing books about it that no one will ever read. But saint Paul's got it right, though: "God's power, not man's wisdom, was to be the foundation of your faith." (I Corinthians 2.5) Increasingly, the Bible, the Book of the true only God, is increasingly being replaced by the 'book of man,' by the rubbish-books of man, subtly echoing Lucifer's ancient decadent pride: "I am god." He also said: 'I am.' Lucifer wasn't much of a god when confronted by archangel Michael and got kicked out of Heaven and into Hell. [Michael means, 'who is like God.'] A lot of misleading words has been bandied about and written by many men about that nebulous, spiritual-mental-emotional phenomenon that goes by the phrase of: "the dark night of the soul," or alternatively sometimes called, "the state of aridity," as called above by sister Benigna Consolata Ferrero. No one is immune from that spiritual 'dark night,' when it hits the soul. Some of the questionable learned, some psychiatrists, probably reckon that it's a mental illness. But then again, many of them also probably think that everyone on earth, except themselves of course, has a mental illness. Some of their hypotheses are much too outrageous or satanic to repeat. "The dark night of the soul" is not a mental illness, but a spiritual disequilibrium requiring a spiritual solution as 'prescribed' below by Jesus, who is also 'the Master of life and death, of health and sickness.' The key to understanding this phenomenon, explained by Jesus below, and how to manage or conquer it, lies in understanding a particular sentence (and chapter) in the Song of Songs [i.e. in the book of the Song of Solomon], that's in the Old Testament of the Bible. Sacred Scriptures do matter, really, being paramount, binding, despite what religious theorists, and their cognates, the heretics, may say or do. Philosophism is a false religion, the enemy of Truth, the enemy of Christianity, no matter how many men may think otherwise or whoever they may be. Mostly useless words in the wind, this philosophy business, much like flatulence. To dilettantes, those useless words may seem rather attractive at first, due mainly to their very, very, clever word constructs, but many of them crumble into dust upon closer analysis. Jesus only is Truth, worth adoring, worth studying, worth contemplating, worth following, worth dying for: the All. The reward is eternal bliss in Heaven in the glory and splendour of Jesus Triumphant. Jesus, true God and true Man, pursuant to the Gospel that He dictated to Maria Valtorta: Jesus Christ elaborates further, thus: "The sentence in the Song [in the book of the Song of Songs in the Bible] - 'At night in my bed I sought the love of my soul and did not find him' (Song 3.1) - should be read supernaturally as follows. "Often, and for different reasons, the night comes for the soul. The needs of life, which you [an individual] frequently cause to become 'the cares of life,' create dusky shadows, sometimes so deep as to be like a starless night. God's will, to test your constancy, sometimes prompts other kinds of nocturnal darkness. During these obscure times the 'love [God] of the soul' withdraws. "The soul, if it is not completely dead [i.e. if not damned through mortal sin], spontaneously loves its Creator God. Even if you do not realise, this light [soul] of yours, this flame of yours, hidden within the dark barriers of the flesh [of man], longingly tends towards the Kingdom [God] from which it has come and sighs for union with its Origin [God]. The soul on earth finds itself lost amongst strangers and seeks the closeness of the Only One who assures it: God. "When, because of your heedlessness, God withdraws, for you have created the night with your human cares, the soul suffers. A kind of initial bewilderment takes place in it. But afterwards the time comes when it reawakens, and it then seeks 'its love' [God] and suffers from feeling Him [God] to be far away and because of its [soul's] laxity, which has allowed the flesh to dominate with its worthless cares [of the world]. "When, on the other hand, it is God who, to test a spirit [soul], withdraws from it and allows the night to envelope it, this vigilant spirit then realises at once that it has been left by its Love [God] and leaps to its feet to seek Him and experience no peace until it has reached Him and clasped Him to its heart. "The spirit [soul] that has comprehended the Light [God] sets the only care you [an individual] ought to have - 'the seeking of God' - against the cares of the earth. The holy care of the soul in love, which the divine care of God, in love with the souls of His creatures [all individuals] to the point of giving Himself for their salvation, repays. "Whether you [an individual] have lost My closeness by your own fault [by sinning] or by My will [to test us], be capable of imitating the bride in the Song [in the book of the Song of Songs in the Bible]. Rise up without delay; search tirelessly and unhesitatingly, and fearlessly. "If the distance [withdrawal of God] depends on you [an individual, by sinning], it would be shameful for you not to seek to have yourselves forgiven by being patient and insistent in the search. If it [withdrawal of God] depends on God [to test us], it would be offensive for you to show human impatience and thereby virtually reproach God, who is beyond censure. [We must never, ever, ask God 'why?' about anything, as we are unfit even 'to untie the straps of His sandals.'] "And you should not even be afraid. When one seeks God, God, even if He is hidden, watches over him [an individual]. The world thus cannot do any 'real' harm to the seeker of God. Even if it [world] rages with mockery or with persecution, always consider that these are things of relative duration [even if it lasts a lifetime on earth] whereas the fruit of your bold love [for God] never perishes [in eternity in Heaven]. "When your loving searches finally grant that you may rejoin the love [God] of your souls, hug that love with a stronger and stronger embrace until it becomes total and indissoluble fusion between yourselves and Him [God]. "See, My little bride [Maria Valtorta, i.e. any individual], when this point is arrived at, Jesus never draws away. It is enough for you to turn the spirit's [soul's] gaze to see Me near. Just like a husband in love who moves about the nuptial house: it suffices for the bride to turn around or peer out the door in order to see Him [God] near her or in the next room. "Isn't all this sweet? Doesn't it give you a great deal of security? Abundant peace and comfort?" Jesus adds further: "I am not called the 'spouse' of your souls through a vain manner of speaking. I have wedded you with the rite of pain [His] and have given you My Blood as an endowment, for you are so poor [in pain], by yourselves, that you would have been a discredit to the King's dwelling [Heaven]. Those who are stripped of all robes [i.e. without pain, i.e. without a wedding garment - Matthew 22.11-13] do not enter into the Kingdom [Heaven] of My Father. I have woven the nuptial garment [wedding garment - pain] for you and dyed it with divine purple [Jesus' Blood] to make it more beautiful in the eyes of My Father; I have crowned you with My wreath [crown of thorns], for those who reign wear a crown, and I have given you My sceptre [Cross]. [In times past, earthly kings often wore a crown, used to dress mostly in purple, and had a sceptre in hand, as visible signs of their putative royalty. Indeed, many were, or started off as, rogues or abhorrent tyrants or mafia types - like king Herod the great cut-throat, of circa 0-3 A.D. in Judah.] Truly, I would have liked to give this [pain] to all souls [to all men], but numberless ones have disdained My gift. They have preferred the robes, crowns, and sceptres of the earth, whose duration is so relative and whose efficacy is so empty compared to the laws of the spirit." [Some of those who readily come to my mind as having accepted pain include Maria Valtorta, saint Francis of Assisi, and saint padre Pio.] Very briefly, what Jesus is referring to here, is that we must accept pain, i.e. the way of the cross (Matthew 10.38), to expiate our own sins and/or those of others and thereby become co-redeemers with Christ, as being our own wedding garment that allows us entry into Heaven. Christian martyrdom re-virginalises the soul of the Christian martyr. Thus, having no blemish nor any other impurity, being like a newly created soul, it immediately enters into Heaven. Nothing impure can ever enter into Heaven. Anything impure is expiated in Purgatory, provided the soul has not committed a mortal sin, in which case it goes straight to Hell for endless eternity. As simple and as clean-cut as that. The soul of every man is a particle of God, One and Three, Who is Infinite. And the soul is infused into the egg-foetus of a woman at conception. The soul is eternal as its Maker is eternal, and naturally longs, loves, to return to its Origin: God. Too may souls do not return There, preferring instead to go to Satan's alluring dwelling: Hell. Jesus said: "And in truth I tell you, with the sorrow of the supreme Founder [Jesus], that in the final hour three-fourths of My Church will deny Me, and I will have to cut them away from the trunk [i.e. from the mystical Body of Christ] as dead branches corrupted by unclean fever [i.e. by a continuous lust]." [Dead branches - damned souls to be burned in the fires of Hell.] I think denying Jesus means that many men will abandon the true Christian faith and not faithfully fully obey the Ten Commandments; but instead will follow the alluring sinful ways of the world, and sin. And all that, is really happening right now, even among some of Christ's own ministers: the stars. (Apocalypse.12.3-4) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us. The foregoing is pursuant to the Gospel that Jesus dictated to Maria Valtorta, the Bible, and my analysis. With kind regards. Joseph Costa PS Divine Jesus says: "In order to lead the life of victims [i.e. of victim souls and thereby becoming co-redeemers - like Maria Valtorta] with equilibrium, one must place oneself resolutely on a spiritual plane, totally forgetting what is not on this plane. --- "For the spirits [victims souls] living on the spiritual plane are like the animals in Ezekiel's Theophany [= visible manifestation of God to man]. (Ezekiel 1.4-28) They [victims souls] have four aspects, since their action is fourfold, and they make use of four mouths. They look at God, who is their Sun, with their faces as eagles and sing His praises therewith. They sate [fully feed] themselves on Him like lions, for God is their prey, and that is the only prey they desire. As patient as oxen, they do not weary of praying for their brothers and sisters, the conquest of whom for the kingdom [Heaven] of the spirit is a patient, untiring work. And with their human mouth they repeat to men in human language what, while flying like eagles into the kingdom of the Sun God, they have heard from God." Before Jesus explained it, who could possible have understood Ezekiel's Theophany? Eagles have great eyesight and can see clearly far into the distance; and I think that they can also stare at the sun without harming their eyesight. Private revelations, especially ultra-importantly, those given to Maria Valtorta, help us to draw us nearer and nearer to the true only God: to Jesus, and away from Satan, his ruinous allurements, and their intoxicating stench. Those who oppose such private revelations, are doing the Devil's work, really. And Satan indeed does have hordes of workers at his disposal who wait anxiously, lovingly, to do his bidding, in glee. Fools!! More men fall into Hell than ascend into Heaven. Just as Jesus' birth was to become a sign of contradiction, of salvation or ruin for many, as prophesised by Simeon (Luke 2.34), so likewise, according to the Father, will be the Dictations given, and the visions shown, by Jesus to Maria Valtorta: 'the work.' In another private revelation elsewhere, Jesus said that the 'raging reactions of Satan can be verified by the resistance that many priests oppose to this work.' He who cannot sense therein 'the savour of the Divine, the perfume of the Supernatural, has a soul encumbered and darkened.' Such priests are fools, and they must surely, perforce, be devastated having to submit, to being humiliated, to having to take lessons from the laity, i.e. from Maria Valtorta. The ancient words of pride uttered long ago by their ancient predecessors, the scribes, the pharisees, and the chief priests, must surely be echoing painfully within their minds: " 'What,' they answered, 'are we to have lessons from thee...?' " (John 9.34) And of course we must never forget that Lucifer's fall was due to pride. Divine Jesus does not need the prior approval of anyone in order to manifest Himself to whomever He pleases, whenever He pleases, however He pleases. And nor does He need to tick certain boxes in order to be believed by captious disbelievers, who will never believe... even if 'someone should rise from the dead.' Jesus' divine Words have endogenous, self-emanating power and authority. (John 7.46) In addition, Jesus' revelations to Maria Valtorta conform with today's Canon 212 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church. ------------------------------------------------- Excerpts from the Writings of Maria Valtorta cited herein are with permission from the Italian publisher: Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Viale Piscicelli 89-91, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italy. http://www.mariavaltorta.com/ info@mariavaltorta.com -------------------------------------------------