The Work Given to Maria Valtorta

See also: Visions and Dictations of Maria Valtorta, Maria Valtorta in the Work.

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The works of Maria Valtorta: The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Notebooks 1943, Notebooks 1944, Notebooks 1945-1950, The Little Notebooks, Book of Azariah, Lessons on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans and the Autobiography.

The work of Maria Valtorta mainly consists of "inspired" writings (visions and dictations). Maria Valtorta received her main work, The Gospel as Revealed to Me, essentially through visions, and her various complementary works, Notebooks 1943, Notebooks 1944, Notebooks 1945-1950, The Little Notebooks, the Book of Azariah as well as Lessons on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans mainly through dictations, aside from occasional visions. In addition, there are author writings such as her Autobiography and correspondence.

Origin and nature of the texts

In his comments, Jesus attributes the inspired texts, especially Maria Valtorta's major work, to the Holy Spirit.

"In the evening of the Last Supper, I said to the Eleven who loved Me: “When the Comforter comes, He will remind you of everything I told you”. When I spoke I always bore in mind, in addition to those who were present, all those who would be My disciples in spirit, and with truth and a will to want. The Holy Spirit, Who already with His Grace instils the faculty of remembering God into you, freeing souls from the torpor of the Original Sin and relieving them of the obscurities that, because of the sad inheritance of Adam, envelop the brightness of the spirits created by God to enjoy His sight and spiritual knowledge, completes His work of Master by “reminding” the hearts of those who are led by Him and who are the children of God, of what I said, and which constitutes the Gospel.

To remind here means to enlighten the spirit of it. Because it is nothing to remember the words of the Gospel if its spirit is not understood. And the spirit of the Gospel, which is love, can be made understood by the Love, that is, by the Holy Spirit, Who, as He has been the true Writer of the Gospel, is also its only Commentator, because only the Author of a work knows the spirit of it and understands it [...]

“The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send you in My Name, will teach you everything, will remind you of everything I told you”. (John 14:26).

“When that Spirit of Truth comes, He will teach you all the truth: because He will not speak by Himself, but will say everything He has heard and will announce you the future. He will glorify Me, because He will take what is Mine and will announce it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine; that is why I said that He will receive what is Mine and will announce it to you”. (John 16:13-14-15)."

Jesus thus defines the gift of this work as the updated memory (anamnesis) of the eternal Gospel which it "recalls, comments on and completes deep within the souls of the children of God." To those who rightly object that Revelation is closed, Jesus clarifies: "this work adds nothing to Revelation, it only fills the gaps that occurred due to natural causes and supernatural wills." The conformity of Maria Valtorta's writings to the Gospel, but also to the Bible, is one of its major characteristics. For these inspired writings, Maria Valtorta is not the author.

• The visions: Maria Valtorta is only the describer. She describes what she sees, hears or feels in her own words, but the origin of the vision is inspired. Jesus instructs her not to omit any detail: he considers them important for achieving the greatest possible authenticity.
• The dictations: Maria Valtorta merely records what is first dictated to her by Jesus or Mary, then, over time, by God the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Angels or the saints. These are their words that we read, as understood by Maria Valtorta. She obviously did not have the abilities or knowledge to handle most of the subjects she deals with.

In both cases, Maria Valtorta is called an "instrument" by Jesus in reference to the long preparation she underwent to be only the "pen of God" according to the description given to her by one of her hagiographers. To this end, and in order to avoid loss between the revelation and its transcription, Maria Valtorta writes herself and immediately.

• Author writings: Maria Valtorta expressed herself as such in her correspondence and in the comments which very rarely punctuate visions and dictations. These personal writings are clearly distinct from the inspired writings which she never edits. It is these author writings that testify to the holiness of Maria Valtorta and not the visions and dictations which cannot be attributed to her. Among these testimonies, her Autobiography is of particular importance.

The mode of reception of the work is documented within it, whether concerning the details of the manifestation of the charism itself, the divine reasons for the gift of the work, or instructions to follow regarding writing, revision, or transmission of it.

See the article: Visions and Dictations of Maria Valtorta.

Mode of revelation

Maria Valtorta is present in the scenes she describes and her descriptions call on her five senses: mainly hearing and sight, but also, more rarely, smell, taste and touch. She becomes an active witness of what happens and conveys it like a recorded report. This is the inner perception, one of the three modes of communication of private revelations usually accepted by the Church. It is found, for example, in Apparitions where the seer touches a reality inaccessible to our usual senses but perceives it with his supersensible senses. The many details given by Maria Valtorta attest to the authenticity of the vision because most cannot stem from personal culture or documentary study.

This mystical mechanism is particularly well documented in the writings of Maria Valtorta. She mainly locates the mystical life in the "The Spirit", the third component of man evoked by Saint Paul (Man is Body, Soul, and Spirit). She does not theorize the concept but experiences it. It is her testimonies that illuminate several aspects of the mystical life, such as participation in redemptive sufferings (the victim souls), the Kingdom of God "within us," the "death" of the Soul though immortal, Ecstasy ... and of course, visions and revelations. The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality in the soul. "Spirit" means that man is destined from his creation for his supernatural end, and that his Soul is capable of being gratuitously elevated to communion with God.

See the article: Man is Body, Soul, and Spirit

The reasons for the work

For the Dean of the Pontifical Lateran University Faculty, the work of Maria Valtorta known today under the title The Gospel as Revealed to Me exceeds human possibilities. For this director of an international scientific exchange organization, the author displays talents that cannot be gathered in a single person. For the rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the knowledge presented is "remarkable". For this Blessed One, translator of the Bible into Chinese, this private revelation is a "masterpiece". For the founder of the Pontifical Marian University, what she reveals of the Virgin Mary surpasses everything he has read or written and he recalls the great conformity of these accounts with Scripture and the Gospel in particular.

For these authoritative persons the work is remarkable in more than one way and their opinions raise questions about the meaning and place to be given to a private revelation that claims to describe the visions of life and words of the Christ 2,000 years ago: In what way does it "bear an authentic call of Christ to his Church" in this particular period of our history? Jesus specifies this in a dictation to Maria Valtorta:

The reasons that have induced Me to enlighten and dictate episodes and words of Mine to little John are, in addition to the joy of communicating an exact knowledge of Me to this loving victim-soul, manifold. But the moving spirit of all of them is My love for the Church, both teaching and militant, and My desire to help souls in their ascent towards perfection. The knowledge of Me helps to ascend. My Word is Life."

It is therefore appropriate to examine what this work brings to "the teaching and militant Church" and to "souls ascending towards perfection." In other words, what objectives or reasons motivate this gift and what factors or causes underlie them.

Triggering factors

These private revelations are motivated by the prophetic vision of an era of dechristianization and apostasy of peoples to which Jesus intends to provide a remedy: the power of his Word.

"Less knowledge and more charity. Fewer books and more Gospel. And light in souls, for I am Light. Clear away everything to make room for the Light."

"Remove everything" to restore the original purity of the Word which is "Light, born of Light." According to Jesus, rationalism which has largely infiltrated the heart of the Church, has driven out faith and its power:

"One of my greatest sorrows is to see how rationalism has infiltrated into hearts, including hearts that say they are mine. It would be useless to inform priests of such a great gift. Precisely among them are those who, while preaching Me and my past miracles, deny my Power, almost as if I were no longer the Christ still capable of speaking to souls languishing because of an absence of my Word, nearly admitting a current incapacity on my part for miracles and for making grace powerful in a heart. "To believe is a sign of purity in addition to faith. To believe is intelligence in addition to faith. Whoever believes in purity and in intelligence distinguishes my Voice and gathers it in."

Rationalism has produced "so many books that talk about me and which, edit after edit, change after embellishment, have become unreal". Jesus therefore desires to: "give those who believe in me a vision brought back to the truth of my stay upon earth."

These private revelations are a "miracle" whose spiritual fruit is faith and whose means is "the revitalized eternal Gospel". The Chinese and Indian bishops rightly understood the help to evangelization this work represented. The Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation has also published a selection of testimonies in this sense.

According to Jesus, this private revelation enters the concert of the "last attempts" that have manifested throughout the century of Satan according to the premonitory vision that Leo XIII had on October 13, 1884. This pope’s vision echoes in the declaration of Pope Paul VI of June 29, 1972 about "the smoke of Satan" rising in the midst of the people of God. Thirty years earlier, Jesus confided to Maria Valtorta a similar statement:

"The disgrace of the earth is such that its fumes, not very different from those issuing from Satan's dwelling, rise to the feet of God's throne with a sacrilegious impetus."

This battle by revitalized "the eternal Gospel" takes on a solemn and insistent character in the message of December 23, 1948, which Maria Valtorta gave to the Holy Father. Heaven warned him notably of the advancing Hell and urged him not to falter in defending the work given to Maria Valtorta.

Jesus summarizes the opportunity of his gift: through the work, he "takes the place of the empty pulpits or ringing words without true life."

The pursued objectives

Faced with this observation, Jesus lists seven "main", with the first two standing out particularly:

1. Strengthen the fight Against errors.

2. Awaken a deep love for the Gospel and what relates to Christ.

The other five emphasize particularly important evangelical teachings:

3. Show the various ways of guiding souls.

4. Restore to their truth the figures of the Son of Man and of Mary.

5. Know exactly the complexity and duration of the Passion of Jesus.

6. Show the power of Jesus' Word and its various effects.

7. Make known the mystery of Judas who is the fall of a spirit whom God had filled with extraordinary gifts.

Fighting errors

The Fall of Modernists, illustration in Christian cartoons by E. J. Pace in 1922. The steps are: Christianity → The Bible not infallible → Man not made in the image of God → No miracle → No virgin conception → No deity → No atonement → No resurrection → Agnosticism → Atheism

As a main reason, Jesus targets modernism, a religious movement traversing Catholicism. Born at the end of the 19th century, its repercussions are still felt today. It is characterized by a break with traditional Catholic teaching, in the light of the philosophical, historical and psychological theories of the 20th century. This movement is therefore the main motive for the gift of visions:

"The most profound reason for the gift of this work is that in the present time, when modernism, condemned by My holy Vicar Pius X, becomes corrupted in more and more harmful doctrines, the Church, represented by My Vicar, may have further material to fight against those who deny:

• the supernaturalness of dogmas;
• the divinity of the Christ;
• the Truth of the Christ God and Man, real and perfect both in the faith and in the history that has been handed down on Him (Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, Apostolic Letters, tradition);
• the doctrine of Paul and John and of the councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon, as My true doctrine verbally taught by Me;
• My unlimited science, as it is divine and perfect;
• the divine origin of the dogmas of the Sacraments of the Church One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic;
• the universality and continuity, until the end of time, of the Gospel given by Me and for all men;
• the perfect nature, from the beginning, of My doctrine that has not been formed, as it is, through successive transformations, but was given as it is: the Doctrine of the Christ, of the time of Grace, of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Kingdom of God in you, divine, perfect, immutable. The Gospel for all those thirsting for God."

In more than a century, views ranged from Alfred Loisy to Eugen Drewermann. Alfred Loisy (1857-1940), a French priest and theologian, is often considered a leader of modernism. For him, the Church and dogmas are historical developments and the Gospels must be read in light of historical criticism. He coined a widely cited phrase: "Jesus announced the Kingdom, and it is the Church that came." In contemporary times the German theologian Eugen Drewermann (born 1940) interprets the miracles of the Gospels as symbolic stories, lacking literal historical foundation. He offers a psychoanalytic reading of biblical texts, viewing miracles as symbolic expressions of inner human experiences. One cannot help but draw a connection between the spread and longevity of these opinions and Western dechristianization. While the modernist movement claims the Gospel and Church are human works, Maria Valtorta's private revelation presents them as divine works entrusted to men, similar to Creation. Fundamentally different. Jesus gives this "fight" Against the "errors" an eschatological dimension by referencing Apocalypse 12 and situates the role the work must play: "the eternal Gospel well opened—even on those pages closed until now."

"To the red dragon with seven heads, ten horns and seven diadems on its head, which with its tail drags a third of the stars from the sky and drops them - and I solemnly tell you that they drop even lower than the earth - and persecutes the Woman; to the beasts of the sea and of the earth that many, too many worship, allured as they are by their appearance and prodigies, I ask you to oppose My Angel flying in the middle of the sky, holding the Eternal Gospel well open, also at the Pages so far closed, so that men, through its light, may be saved from the coils of the huge serpent with seven jaws, that wants to drown them in its darkness, and upon My return I may find again faith and charity in the hearts of those who persevere, and they may be more numerous than the work of Satan and of men allow one to hope they may be."

Maria Valtorta's work is therefore not a new heretical Gospel, but the one proclaimed continuously for 2,000 years. A dictation of December 23, 1948 specifies this point: The Work Given to Maria Valtorta is "a new announcement of the Gospel that confirms the old one." It is therefore, in a way, an anamnesis, both a reminder and updating.

Awakening a deep love for the Gospel

This second reason is a consequence of this private revelation which overlaps the Gospel at 98.5%, without contradiction and, more surprisingly, the Bible at 87%. Jesus exposes this second fundamental reason:

"To rouse a keen love for the Gospel and for everything pertaining to the Christ in Priests and in laymen. First of all, renewed love for My Mother, in Whose prayers lies the secret of the salvation of the world. She, My Mother, is the Conqueress of the cursed Dragon. Assist Her power by means of your renewed love for Her and of your renewed faith and knowledge of what pertains to Her. Mary has given the Saviour to the world. The world will receive salvation again from Her."

For the readership, the visions offer an immersive experience, a true Pilgrimage in time and space to meet Jesus. However, it is observed that some clergy, trained to scrutinize the spiritual value of every word of the Gospel, find it difficult to enter visions abundant in contextual details. Even ecclesiastical authorities very favorable to Maria Valtorta's work, such as Msgr. Ugo Emilio Lattanzi, found these details superfluous.

Value of immersive reading

This immersive reading is, on the contrary, highly valued by readers because it supports the personal encounter with Christ and his Gospel. It also has utility in deepening certain episodes of the Gospel. For example, in the episode of The Canaanite woman where Jesus displays an entirely unusual attitude of harshness and indifference towards the grieving mother. Maria Valtorta's episode gives it a context not only plausible but also meaningful: it is a lesson given to future evangelizers of barbaric lands where prejudices will no longer apply.

This abundance of details (several thousand listed) justifies the existence of this online encyclopedia. It also responds to "modernists" proponents of a fundamental challenge to the Gospel, and thus the Church, on behalf of historical and scientific data. On the contrary, in Maria Valtorta's work, science and history serve the authenticity of the "eternal Gospel." This point fascinates readers and leads to an in-depth exploration of Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium. Science and faith no longer oppose but cooperate. They no longer separate but unite, "proofs" in hand.

An example can be found in contesting the authenticity of the trial of Jesus, at night, in the home of Caiphas (Joseph), the High Priest. The Mishna indicates a trial must take place in the daytime. Although this rule postdates Jesus, it probably existed in his time. Historians conclude the synoptic gospels that describe it are false. But this fact is cited in Maria Valtorta, where Gamaliel leaves the "illegal" session of Matthew 26:57-66. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea even add that the time and place are illegal. The Sanhedrin should have met in the Hall of Hewn Stones, at the Temple, in daylight. Maria Valtorta thus uses historical knowledge in service of evangelical truth: the illegality of Jesus' Trial which the Sanhedrin, caught out, tries to remedy by a sham early morning session. On the same fact, historical science misunderstood attempts to destroy the eternal Gospel, while the other, based on "real" visions, authenticates it.

Therefore, work carried out on these historical, scientific, exegetical and even theological data progressively forms a research corpus that slowly penetrates the world of research.

The revitalized "eternal Gospel" does not remain a dead letter. It becomes an active principle of evangelization. This is another characteristic of readership illustrated by numerous spontaneous initiatives as well as engagements within the Church.

Show the various ways to guide souls

This third reason, like the following ones, is addressed to the "spiritual masters and [soul] directors" who, for their ministry, can study the different spirits that agitated around Jesus, and the various ways he used to Save them. These reasons mainly concern Church pastors, but also all those who, with them, engage in evangelization or lay services. This reason and the following ones train them for the diversity of human situations encountered.

'"Because it would be foolish to have only one method with all the souls. The way to attract to Perfection a just person who spontaneously tends to it, is different from that to be used with a believer in sin, and from that to be used with a Gentile."

And Jesus applies this directive to the evangelization of our world where pagans abound, "poor people who have replaced the true God with the idols of power and arrogance, or of gold, or of lust, or with the idol of the pride of their knowledge."

He also mentions those who are part of separated Churches and calls them "modern proselytes, that is those who have accepted the Christian idea, but not the Christian citizenship."

While the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles mention by name only about sixty characters, The Gospel as Revealed to Me stages 736 named characters of whom a third are confirmed by historical sources. There are 121 main characters, named more than ten times in the work, a fact not found in historical sagas notes Arnaud Lefevre, a lecturer.

The typology of Jesus' catechesis toward the different groups remains to be done, but the work describes clearly enough how the Good News was announced to the Apostles and Disciples, to the Sanhedrin, to the Romans of the occupying force, to proselytes, to the reprobates, etc., to draw many teachings. Father Yannik Bonnet, a polytechnician, senior industrial executive who became a priest after his widowhood thanks to Maria Valtorta's work, testifies in two conferences about the usefulness of this work in priestly pastoral ministry.

Jesus notes on this topic:

"Some people, when reading this Work, will object: “It does not appear from the Gospel that Jesus was in touch with Romans and Greeks, and consequently we reject these pages”. How many things do not appear from the Gospel, or can just be detected behind thick curtains of silence, drawn by the Evangelists on episodes, of which they did not approve, because of their unbreakable Jewish frame of mind! Do you think that you know everything I did? I solemnly tell you that not even after reading and accepting this illustration of My public life will you know everything about Me."

Jesus here speaks of Maria Valtorta's work as an illustration of his public life. This affirmation should be understood in the Italian sense of the word "illustrazione": an exposition of data and information aimed at clarifying the origin, nature and content of a document. Thus, for Jesus, The Gospel as Revealed to Me, which illustrates "the eternal Gospel", is a clarification of its origin, nature and content.

Restore to their truth the figures of the Son of Man and Mary

In this fourth reason, Jesus affirms that he and the Virgin Mary are the prototype of Man before the original fault, as God had created him.

"true children of Adam by flesh and blood, but of an innocent Adam. The children of the Man were to be like us, if our First Parents had not depreciated their perfect humanity – in the sense of man, that is of a creature in which there is the double nature, spiritual, in the image and likeness of God, and the material nature – as you know they did. Perfect senses, that is, subject to reason even in their great efficiency. In the senses I include both the moral and the corporal ones."

They are therefore the model of what redeemed humanity should have been by the Passion of Jesus. They are a reference point for relations that can exist in "holy" families.

On this occasion, Jesus dwells on the relations of Mary with Jesus as the work describes them. To those who find them too demonstrative, he refers them to the Eastern historical and cultural context and invites them to go beyond this literal reading to perceive the unfolding of the divine plan. Likewise, he addresses those who would consider excessive Jesus' love for his mother, to the holiness of this mutual love which was never selfish but entirely oriented toward a single goal: the realization of the Divine Plan according to the Father's will. For the God he was, confronted with ungrateful humanity, Mary's love was that comfort celebrated by Proverbs 8:21-31 and assigned by the liturgy to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

He then expands his thought by returning to the "clarification" of the "eternal Gospel" he had mentioned earlier under the term "illustration":

"And the purpose of this Work is also to clarify certain points that a number of circumstances has covered with darkness and they thus form dark zones in the brightness of the evangelic picture and points that seem a rupture and are only obscured points, between one episode and another, indecipherable points, and the ability to decipher them is the key to correctly understand certain situations that had arisen and certain strong manners that I had to have, so contrasting with My continuous exhortations to forgive, to be meek and humble, a certain rigidity towards obstinate, inconvertible opponents."

Contrary to a common feeling among commentators, Jesus states that there are no contradictions or inconsistencies in the eternal Gospel. There are only "obscured points." This is what the reader sees clarified by the unprecedented facts and words of Maria Valtorta's work. In the immersive reading it offers, the life and teachings of Jesus become of a "Gospel simplicity" in the proper sense.

Know exactly the complexity and duration of Jesus' Passion

Face of Jesus reconstructed by Jean-François Lavère from the Shroud of Turin and Veronica's veil. Study published in Chrétiens Magazine, no. 268, April 2014.

"[complexity and duration] that culminates in the sanguinary Passion accomplished in few hours, that had consumed Me in a daily torture that lasted for years and years, and that had increased more and more, and with the passion of My Mother, Whose heart was pierced by the sword of sorrow for the same length of time. And urge you, through this knowledge, to love us more."

Maria Valtorta’s contribution lies indeed in the "intimate" knowledge of the moral and psychic sufferings of the Lord evoked discreetly in the prologue of John 1:10-11: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own home, and his own people did not receive him." Indeed, the Violence of the bloody Passion was preceded by the rejection of his own city, the Temple transformed into a "den of thieves", the impenitence of the clergy of the time, the ingratitude of the crowds, lack of faith, abandonment, betrayal, misunderstanding by the Apostles, etc. It is all this "daily torture" shared by the reader, that of a God not as judge and avenger, but as merciful God who "so loved the world". Jesus comments on this point at the end of the third year of his public life as he begins the ascent to Jerusalem that will lead him to the Cross.

The contribution then lies also in the "intimate" knowledge of Mary's sorrows announced by the prophecy of the old man Simeon on the sword that pierced her Heart "during the same time," i.e. for "many years." Mary, raised in the Temple, knew the fate of the Messiah announced by the prophets, she was enlightened by the Holy Spirit and her Redeemer Son revealed nothing of his destiny to her. At the tomb, her heroic courage, which was her Son's comfort in his mission, was no longer needed: only the extreme suffering of a mother holding before her eyes her dead and tortured Son remains, "Who is the man that would not weep to see the Mother of Christ in such great suffering?" proclaims rightly the fifth tercet of the Stabat Mater.

But it is precisely in the bloody Passion that these sufferings "culminate," as Jesus says, those remembered during Holy Week. Maria Valtorta's visions extend from Palm Sunday to the night of Holy Saturday. The crucifixion and death of Our Lord is reported directly in a long 30-page chapter, but also later through the account of the apostle John, the only apostle present. The meeting of Lorenzo Ferri, who worked on reconstructions of the Shroud of Turin, with Maria Valtorta confirms the authenticity of this testimony of the Passion and allowed identification of particular points of the relic: elongation of an arm, nailing of the feet, scourging, trace of Mary’s hand, etc.

Show the power of Jesus’s Word and its various effects

Of the twelve Apostles, eleven were "very imperfect, rough, ignorant, violent, but with goodwill", the twelfth, Judas, was "learned more than most of them, refined by living in the capital and in the Temple, but of evil will." Jesus invites to observe the evolution of the first toward perfection. A perfection they genuinely achieved by "hard, very hard struggle against heavy obscure powers" Jesus insists on the "heroicity of Virtues" that the Church probes to welcome the meritorious Soul among the saints "Because merit is really consequent on the victory over disorderly passions and temptations, a victory achieved through love for God and to attain the final aim: to enjoy God forever."

"God gives the means to be converted, but He does not do violence to the will of man, and if man does not want to be converted, in vain he has what serves other people to become converted."

He also asks to reflect on the power of his Word over The Spirit and the body, which gives meaning to the miracles he performs.

"Let those who examine the situation consider the manifold effects of My Word not only on the human man, but also on the spiritual man. Not only on the spiritual man, but also on the human man. My Word, when it is received with goodwill, transforms both, leading to external and internal perfection."

And he concludes by giving sense to a conversion that comes from God.

"This should be considered by those who will find the apostles’ nature, which was as it is described, strong, and will judge it unnatural. I was not a difficult doctor and a proud king, I was not a master who judges other men unworthy of him. I was indulgent to people. I wanted to form using raw materials, and fill empty vases with all kinds of perfections, proving that God can do everything, He can raise a son of Abraham from a stone, a son of God, and from a nonentity a master to confuse masters proud of their science, which has very often lost the scent of Mine."

Make known the mystery of Judas

This mystery is the fall of a spirit whom God had filled with extraordinary gifts. What Jesus says about it speaks for itself:

"A mystery that is repeated too often and is the wound that aches in the Heart of your Jesus.

To let you know how people fall changing from servants and sons of God into demons and deicides, who kill the God in them by killing Grace, so that such knowledge may prevent you from setting foot on the paths from which one falls into the Abyss, and it may teach you how to behave when trying to hold back the imprudent lambs that push on towards the abyss.

Apply your intelligence to study the horrible and yet common figure of Judas, a complex in which are agitated like snakes all the capital vices that you find and have to fight in this or that person. It is the most important lesson to be learned by you, because it is the one that will be more useful to you in your ministry of spiritual masters and directors. How many people, in every state of life, imitate Judas giving themselves to Satan and meeting eternal death!"

This important figure in the work has given rise to a book collecting all excerpts concerning him.

Structure and organization

The gift of the work was progressive, according to Maria Valtorta's preparation for the role of "spokesperson."

• The long period of bedridden immobilization, which began on April 1, 1934, ended with the writing of the 'Autobiography completed in two months. She had written Cuore di una donna (Heart of a Woman) which seems to have been a forerunner of her Autobiography, but the manuscript was destroyed at Jesus' request without anyone reading it.
• On April 22, 1943 began the series of dictations which continued until June 22, 1954, for those reported.
• They alternate with the visions constituting The Gospel as Revealed to Me, amongst others. They began on January 16, 1944 with the vision of the Wedding at Cana.

These three modes interweave without merging over about twelve years.

A little more than three weeks after giving her first vision, Jesus gives Maria Valtorta his instructions on the work he is going to "reveal" to her"

"I have planned to alternate your contemplations and My consequent clarifications with true and proper dictations to comfort you and your spirit, granting you the beatitude of seeing, and also because in this way the difference in style between your composition and Mine will be obvious. [...] In the contemplations I will not keep a chronological order corresponding to that of the Gospels. I will select the points which I find more useful on that day for you or for other people, following My own line of teaching and goodness."

Despite the absence of chronological order in the giving of visions, Jesus' instructions will allow the full coherence to be reconstructed so much so that they were used as a basis for the dating of Jesus’ life.

Instructions for its insertion and dissemination

The work fits within the Church and relies on an evangelizing readership. This emerges from Jesus' instructions when entrusting the main work to the Servites of Mary, of whom one member, Father Corrado Berti played a determining role.

Insertion within the Church

"Seek approval which will defend and ensure the Work. Seek at once and do not desist until you find it. [...] Do not use half measures. I want a secure approval."

We know that the events did not lead to this approval: The opinion of the Holy Father was not followed by the Holy Office which only intervened indirectly in a game of evasions with the work's supporters who committed blunders. The condemnation decreed after the pope's death quickly lost its legal value. Subsequently, the very reserved opinion of Cardinal Ratzinger in 1985 was amended by his unconditional approval in 1992. A very negative opinion of 1988 was wrongly attributed to him. In his thank you letter, Pope Francis (2024) encourages investigative and media work for Maria Valtorta's "literary" work. The Italian Bishops’ Conference issued a prudential opinion (1992) while the French doctrinal commission (2021) pointed out the lack of Church recognition. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (2025), in its statement responding to queries, fully reprises, but without naming it, the Italian Bishops’ Conference recommendation. Meanwhile, the three successive Archbishops of Lucca, the reference authority, have examined to varying degrees the cause of Maria Valtorta which has not yet been introduced. To date, the Church has not judged under the new norms as these require prior study which has not yet occurred and a final diocesan bishop's report which has not been submitted. Meanwhile, the recognized growing readership relies on interpersonal relations, including with clergy.

Evangelization

The evangelization movement is decidedly offensive. Jesus situates it in reference to the Apocalypse and in terms not unlike the "Apostles of the last times" of St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. Not in the anxiety-inducing perspective of the end of the world, but in the joyful perspective of the new Pentecost foretold by 20th century popes and in the new evangelization associated with it. Jesus begins by saying: "May the Paraclete baptize you in his Fire so that you may be my witnesses and guardians of this wonder I have given you out of love for your soul." He addresses consecrated and faithful who will ensure that his Word (revitalized in Maria Valtorta's work) is "known, disseminated, and used." Here is the triple Mission.

The call to evangelization is particularly vigorous:

"Are the churches empty, half‑empty? Let the houses be entered. Rise up, 0 sleeping ones! Rise up, O shy ones! It is not time to sleep. [...] Help the Master, who has mercy on this throng and gives you bread so that it will not die in the desert. Give this bread."

And he prophesies the arrival of new information technologies which the evangelizing readership of Maria Valtorta has embraced:

"What is it that is sanctified? The vaster and vaster knowledge of God, given to counterbalance the increasingly immense, active, and corrosive preaching of the Beast, provided with the means suitable for the new times, with the means penetrating where people do not. I said so: 'The children of this age are shrewder than the children of the light." They use the new means and with subtle propaganda penetrate where the static nature of the children of the light does not. Books are destruction, nowadays because they represent penetration. Why not counterdestroy, then, what they, the dark ones, are building over the ruins of what was mine and they have demolished? Sow over the ruins and, by my Grace, which shall accompany your efforts, and new mustard steles shall arise from the ruins‑the smallest seed, which, however, produces so much foliage that it gives shelter to birds without a nest. Too many souls no longer have a nest in faith simply because they are not aware, they do not know Me. The poor recollection of a God‑Man dying on a Cross is not knowledge of Me. Knowledge of Me is to know all the forms of Christ's evangelization, of Christ's sacrifice, of the love of Christ, Man and God."

The strong and urgent call to return to the "eternal Gospel" is not unique to Maria Valtorta. In 1995, John Paul II described the human scale struggle of the "culture of life Against the culture of death actively encouraged by strong cultural, economic and political currents, supporting a certain utilitarian conception of society". Against this "structure of sin", the announcement of the Gospel becomes urgent, he writes. For his part, The Holy Spirit commenting on Apocalypse 1:8 concerning "he who is to come", entrusts Maria Valtorta:

"In what way? Certainly not by taking on flesh again. If his return is certain, equally certain is the fact that He will never take on different flesh, since He possesses perfect flesh‑eternal, glorified by the Father‑from the first time He robed Himself therewith.

Nor will He come for a second redemption. There will not be a second redemption, for the first was sufficient and perfect. [...]

And the Word of the Father will not come for a second Evangelization. He will not come personally. And yet He will evangelize.

He will raise up new evangelizers who will evangelize in his Name. They will evangelize in a new way in keeping with the times, a new way which will not substantially change the eternal Gospel or the great Revelation, but will broaden, complete, and make them understandable and acceptable even to those who, on account of their atheism and their incredulity regarding the Last Things and many other revealed truths, cite the reason that "they cannot believe things which they do not understand (...)

New evangelizers. In reality, there already are, even if the world partly is unaware of them and partly attacks them. But they will be more and more numerous (...)"

How to make the work "known, disseminated, used"

The Sending of the Disciples by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

To the Samaritan woman shocked that Jesus asks her for Water, he replies "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you!." It is the reflex of every reader faced with suspicion when sharing the depth of this work. He embraces St Paul’s feeling: "preaching the Gospel is not a matter of pride to me, it is a necessity imposed on me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!." However Jesus, after launching his Call to vigorous and fearless action, gives advice on efficacy:

"(...) good sense is needed in using my gift. [...]

Not an open, resounding dissemination, but a slow, ever broader outpouring [...]

But until the end we must attempt the salvation of hearts. We have been formed for this, my brother and sister. We thus bring souls succumbing to the asphyxia of the world, the senses, and money to inhale true oxygen. We accomplish our work."

St Paul gives Timothy this advice, which applies to every evangelizer:

“(...) proclaim the Word, be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable, rebuke wrongdoing, give corrections, encourage, always with patience and a concern to instruct. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine; but, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers to suit their own itching ears, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be self-possessed, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelizer, carry out your ministry fully.”

This call to evangelizing zeal is punctuated by appeals to “patience and a concern to instruct” and to appropriate conduct: “in all things be self-possessed, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelizer.” Jesus, in Maria Valtorta, expresses this through a few explanations:

“One should meditate on the fact that excessive zeal can ruin everything worse than a little delay does. When forced, things end up coming apart. And this thing‑holy, useful, and willed by God (…) must not come apart. (...) But it must not be a whirling torrent moving impetuously, twisting, submerging, devastating‑and passing on. It must be gentle water passing mildly in a slight thread and irrigating by nourishing roots slowly without ruining even one stem. A thread, I said. Given with much prudence and in very measured fashion. Given with goodness, without exclusivism, but with dignity. (...)

Every manifestation of the supernatural is a 'sign of contradiction' among men. (…)

Those who watch over them ought, with maximum patience and prudence, to see to it that the 'contradiction' does not take on violent forms capable of destroying the instrument's mission with verdicts and impositions which bind his spiritual members and torment his spirit and morale, placing him between God, who wants, and man, who does not want, the work.”

Main excerpts

In "The Gospel as Revealed to Me"

• Jesus explains to Maria Valtorta why he does not present the visions in chronological order GRM 43
• The reasons and organization of the book GRM 44
• Jesus quotes passages from the Gospel justifying the many miracles reported in the work of Maria Valtorta. He also justifies them by his nature as God Incarnate GRM 298
• End of the 3rd year of Public Life and preparation for the Passion : Everything that preceded and that in certain episodes perhaps seemed aimless to ill-disposed or superficial readers, is now il­luminated by its gloomy or bright light. Particularly the most im­portant figures. Those that many will not admit are useful to know, just because they contain the lesson for the present masters, who more than ever are to be instructed to become true masters of the spirit. […] Thus nothing is superfluous in this work. Neither the magnificent figures nor the weak and gloomy ones. […]
  Will all this be understood by modern society, to which I grant this knowledge of Myself to strengthen it against the more and more powerful attacks of Satan and the world? Also nowadays, as twenty centuries ago, those to whom I reveal Myself will con­tradict one another. Once again I am the sign that is rejected. But not with regard to Myself, but with regard to what I stir up in them. Good people, those of goodwill, will have the good reactions of the shepherds and of humble people. The others will react in a wicked manner, like the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and priests of those days. One gives what one has. A good person who comes in touch with wicked people provokes a surge of greater wickedness in them. And judgement will be passed on men as it was done on Good Friday, according to how they have judged, ac­cepted and followed the Master, Who with a fresh attempt of in­finite mercy has made Himself known once again. How many people’s eyes will open and how many will acknowledge Me saying: “It is He. That is why our hearts burnt within us as He talked and explained the Scriptures to us”?” GRM 540

In the other works of Maria Valtorta

Notebooks 1943

• July 18 : I take the place of the empty pulpits or ringing words without true life. Fewer books and more Gospel.
• August 15 : Your writings should be used in the following way. The part which is yours will have the usual informative value for the curiosity of man, who always wants to probe into the secrets of souls.
  The part which mine, and which should be separated from yours, will have formative value, for the voice of the Gospel is found therein, and this voice always has value for spiritual formation, in whatever manner it comes to you. Even when the manner-or manners-in which it has come within the reach of souls no longer belongs to this earth, it remains what it is and does not lose its value.
• August 23 : Go and spread the Word. Go with discernment and care. Do not apply it to all in the same way. May the Spirit of Light, who was spoken of yesterday at Mass, help you to choose the passages to be made known and to be kept unknown for the time being. It is my counsel that you make a selection of the words spoken. There are passages which for the time being must remain a sweet conversation among us. Others which should be made known only to persons who, on account of either their role or their soul, are already in a position to be admitted to certain kinds of knowledge. Other passages may be uttered and disseminated among souls. […] My Word of Truth must not serve lies. My Word of Mercy must not serve acts of revenge. Be careful, then.
• August 27 : The dictations do not contradict each other. One must read them with faith and simplicity of heart.
• September 10: My little John, I entrust my Word to you. Transmit it to the masters-let them use it for the good of creatures. It comes from the One Shepherd, from the Good Shepherd, who has written the truth of his Word with his Blood. […] My Word does not serve only to offer an earthly good, but to give the Good which does not die: eternal Life. There is thus nothing more sacred and precious than my Word. Receive it with your soul on its knees, and let your love be incense purifying your heart, which receives it, your hand, which writes it, your mouth, which repeats it, and your eye, which reads it. Live as an angel and a priest, for I have granted to you to hear what the angels hear and what priests repeat. And live increasingly as a victim, for it is sacrifice that opens the ears of the spirit, and it is blood that washes the tongue which speaks of the Lord.
• October 26: One of the things which ought to be examined by those who judge your case with too little faith and too much humanity, which rationalism renders hostile and incredulous towards the wonderful works of God, is the different tones of my communications.
  It ought to be a probative factor. But, since nothing is more blinding than incredulity, nothing alters divine reality more than the spirit of the world, this will be a barrier before which those unable to spread their sails on the open sea of Faith in God and prefer to remain close to land, in the shallows of their rational science and spiritual aridity will come to a halt. They will say that, whereas one of the tones is solemn and hieratic, impregnated with what is ancient, the other is more modest and more human and more modern. What seems to them to be a pretext on your part is instead the undeniable proof of your sincerity.
• December 9 :As for the passages, it is useless to scatter them as food for reptiles, who may make use of them as a harmful weapon and as a gag upon my little christs. I have already stated and repeat that a lot of prudence is needed, for you are living amid poisonous reptiles. Why do you want to satisfy foolish curiosity? I do not dictate what I dictate for your amusement or to bend to your unhealthy thirst for knowledge of the future. When you know, do you perhaps change? No. Do not be liars or naive. You do not change. The upright spirits already have more than enough of what is said for all without lifting the deepest veils.
• December 13 : I do not speak to satisfy the curiosity of superstition or even of simple humanity. I am not a pagan oracle, and I don't want you to be pagans. I will thus not take away from you the joy of my Word, but will restrict my Word to the points aimed exclusively at the spirit, without drawing parallels between it and events at present or in the near future. This gap shall remain as a warning for many and shall last as long as I will. But if a nonspiritual use should be made of your work, I will give you the command to write for yourself alone, and in the event you do not obey, I will take the Word away from you.

Notebooks 1944

• September 24 : - Excessive zeal can ruin everything. - If you only knew what a slavery it is to be an instrument of God. - Respect the spokesperson. - Gentleness, prudence, and reserve. - What ruined the truly holy work of Mary of Agreda? - It is not only your interests that are at stake here, but those of God. - Various instructions for the diffusion and use of the work. - On Anne Catherine Emmerich.
• November 25 : You are a nonentity. But into your 'nothingness' I entered and said, 'See, speak, and write.' The nonentity has become my instrument. And what is mine is always consecrated and should be treated as something consecrated.

Notebooks 1945-1950

• December 19, 1945 : You must know that I adapt manifestations to the environment and purpose for which I have inspired them. You received the mission to become a worldwide voice. You must sing the hymn of Mercy and Love, Wisdom and Perfection, for all ears and all hearts, all intelligences and all souls. Therefore, after having prepared you for this capacity‑and do not grow proud, for everything you have has been given you by Me for this mission, including illness and being alone, everything‑I made you a complete 'voice,' a giant‑you that are a pygmy. But it's not you‑it's Me in you. I am the giant, then, my little Christopher who bear Christ but are borne by Him.
• June 2, 1946 : - Jesus entrusts the work to the order of the Servites of Mary - What Jesus wants for the work Distribute this bread: how? - The work on the work is not yet finished - Publish with the approval of the Church.

• February 18, 1947 : - I am that work. (The Gospel as Revealed to Me) It is not only I who dictate and elucidate it, but it is I who live it out, I who present Myself to you as I was in my mortal days - The eternal, most wise Word, who is carrying out a new work of love and salvation because He has mercy on the excessively large number who are dying of spiritual starvation, who are being lost because they do not know Me.
• January 6, 1948: But these are not pages for them. Indeed, I order you to remove them from here and make them into a separate notebook to be given in the manner and to the persons I indicated to you. They have received what was needed to obtain the approval of Jesus' Work. The rest is a treasure which one must merit in order to possess it. And there is someone who has deserved it because of having done our Will in regard to you with perfect charity and with no pretension about his work in relation to you. And there is also another reason involving Divine Providence which originates this order.
• April 28, 1948: Amid intense wafts of perfume, on the first anniversary of the end of the Work, Mary promises consolations to the writer.
  “My daughter, the very roses of Eternal Love, from the Annunciation to the Assumption, were a thorn bush for me. For this reason, in your thorn bush, be content, considering that you are like your Mother and your Queen. Only after finishing time do we pick from the bush, changed into a rush bush, eternal roses yielding just ineffable, inexpressible, perennial joy.
  "Pray a great deal. That my Epiphany may shine everywhere, attracting innumerable spirits to the Star of God, and my Pentecost may be fulfilled and the hearts of men may be renewed, bringing peace to the Church and the world, salvation to men in this life and the other, and glory to God. Do not be astonished at anything extraordinary that may happen to you in May. I want to compensate you spiritually for so much. But seek solitude, for the veil extended over the mysteries of Love may not be lifted in the presence of all, but only in the presence of those who are allowed by Infinite Love to see, savor, and know...
  "Remain in ardent expectation in your minimal cenacle, as I did in ours. Love and pray."
• March 30, 1949 : For my Heart suffers, as if it were still on the cross, from what has been committed against Me, the Author of the work, and against you, my instrument, and against souls, many deprived of the Word which is Life.
• August 16, 1949' : - Jesus makes severe reproaches to the deniers of the work - They have received all the necessary proofs - Let them not commit blasphemy against the Spirit - Do not act like them - I once more came 'to my house and was not welcomed or recognized

• September 5, 1949: Jesus says to the writer, weary of having to fight against the enemies of the Work: “Your saying, 'I offer you my sufferings today for the intentions dearest to You' is worth more than a thousand prayers uttered with one's lips while there is selfishness in one's heart."

The Little Notebooks

• December 23, 1948 : This dictation reveals the pressures that Pope Pius XII had to endure after his support for the publication of the work of Maria Valtorta. God the Father encourages him to stand firm in very strong terms and reveals to him the eschatological dimension of “The Gospel as Revealed to Me.”

Book of Azariah

• 5th Sunday after Easter : My daughter, do you remember that hour of sad peace in which I appeared to you as a Servite and drew you to Myself, under the black mantle, to protect you while I wept, looking towards the north? Now I shall explain to you the meaning of that prophetic vision. "My Son-and I cannot explain the reasons to you for the time being-had placed you under the protection of the Servants of Mary because you cannot remain alone, my daughter, with your great Treasure. (The work given to Maria Valtorta) The Eternal had also given Me the protection of a spouse-useless for generation, necessary for guardianship -when the Treasure of Heaven and the World was about to descend into Me.
• Thursday after Trinity, Corpus Christi : Indeed, dictations or visions are forms (species); but the substance is the Word who teaches. He gives Himself and produces different fruits, always as the Eucharist, according to whether He is received by the good or the not good. And it is just for it to be this way, for the Word is Eucharist and the Eucharist remains the Word under a different form, but with the same divine holiness. Since they are, then, one and the same, the gifts and fruits produced are identical: Life, Wisdom, Holiness, Grace.

Authors who write about the life and deeds of saints.

Gift conferred by divine Grace for the common good.

Manifestation of the Holy Spirit after the Bible to a person or particular group. It is individual and relative.

Action of a person (called an "apostate") who renounces their Religion and faith, who publicly abandons their Religion (to adopt another or not). It thus announces their choice to religious representatives.

Authority in matters of faith and morals exercised over the Catholic faithful by the pope and all bishops in communion with the pope.

Name given to the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) because of their common framework.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

Persons of non-Israelite origin who renounce their beliefs to join Judaism.

Also called "ordinary of the place", he has the authority to judge the authenticity of private revelations occurring in his territory. His prior discernment is required by the Church to pronounce.

Place located in Jerusalem where Jesus celebrated Passover with his Apostles and instituted the Eucharist on the eve of his death (from Latin cenaculum: dining room). This place became the first Church at the request of the Virgin Mary.

Analysis of the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

People who analyze the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

Solemn document of the pope or a council defining essential points of the Catholic faith.