During the Holy Christmas novena, in the third hour of meditation, Luisa contemplated another excess of love of our Lord – Devouring love. She then felt an inner voice inviting her to rest her head upon the womb of the Heavenly Mother to peer inside and see His little Humanity, His Love that devoured Him, the fires, the oceans and how the immense seas of His Divine love inundated and burned Him, raising their flames so high as to spread everywhere and to all generations, from the first to the last man.
His little Humanity was devoured in the midst of so many flames, and all this because His Eternal Love wanted to make Him devour souls; only when He devoured them all was He pleased. Luisa then meditated and reflected on the fact that Jesus waited for souls in order to devour them, not to make them die but to enclose them in His little Humanity and give them a new birth, to raise and nourish them with His devouring flames and give them new life, a life entirely of love.
Once, during another Holy Christmas novena, Jesus showed Luisa (vol. XXV, December 21, 1928) that every excess of His love was a boundless sea. In this sea, waves of flames rose up high and in the waves flowed all souls devoured by these flames, which enveloping them made them live like fish that flow in the waters of the sea. These waters are the life of the fish, their guide, defense, bed and comfort, so much so that if they were to come out of the sea they could say: “Our life is over because we left our inheritance, the fatherland given to us by our Creator”. And so these towering waves of flames that issued from the seas of fire, by devouring these creatures, wanted to be their life, guide, defense, nourishment, comfort and fatherland. As creatures come out of this sea of love they suddenly find death; so Baby Jesus weeps, groans, prays, cries and sighs that no one comes out of these devouring flames, because He does not want to see anyone die. This is why as soon as Jesus was conceived He enclosed within Himself the great birth of all generations – more than a tender mother encloses her birth, formed by her love to deliver it to the light – but with unheard of pains and even with His death (vol. XXVII December 18, 1929). In the Incarnation, in fact, Jesus grafted Humanity to the Divinity so that creatures would be united with Him and take part in this grafting (vol. V, October 2, 1903). Whoever tries to unite his life to Jesus’ makes the graft of Humanity evolve into the Divinity, and if with the will, works and the heart makes the effort to carry out his life according to Jesus’ standard, he gives development to the graft made by Him and adds other branches to the tree of His Humanity.
On December 18, 1929, Jesus showed Himself to Luisa so very little in the midst of that abyss of flames. He made her notice that He was breathing nothing but flames, and in His breath He felt that the flames of His devouring love bore the breath of all creatures. His little heart throbbed flames, which as they grew enraptured the heartbeats of all creatures and deposited them in His heart; and so, He felt all heartbeats palpitate in His little heart. Everything was flames; His little hands sent out flames, as did His motionless feet. How demanding His love was and is in order to enclose everyone in Himself and give life to everyone! It placed Him in a devouring fire; oh how He felt and feels alive the faults, miseries and pains of everyone! And in the midst of those devouring flames, burdened with so many pains, He looks at all His children and crying exhorts them not to leave Him or stray far from Him who is their Father, not to abandon Him but to have at least compassion for the fire that devours Him, for His burning tears and all because of them, because He loves them too much, as God, as Father, and as His very Life.
His love’s greatest concern is to devour the human will in creatures, because it is the origin of every evil. These words seem to echo the words of the Gospel: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled (Lk 12:49). Jesus came to light a fire on earth, to unleash a fire, a fire of love, a devouring fire that ignites our consciences and warms souls. Christ is a devouring fire. Let us draw near to the source of this fire so that it burns and consumes us, melts and makes us one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.