The “Poor Soul”

INDEX – PART1 APPENDICES: THE BOOK DIVINE POWER OF LOVE – THE POOR SOUL – FATHER DAVID DE ANGELIS

 

THE “POOR SOUL”

 

WHO IS THE “POOR SOUL”?

by fr David De Angelis, Loreto, 25 marzo 1975

In order to get a greater credibility of the content of the book “Divine Power of Love”, it is necessary, without compromising the anonymity, to throw some light on this question, so that the reader may be lead in the right direction and in the true light to obtain a deep understanding of this message.
But why does the author sign her name as the “Poor Soul”? Precisely because the book contains the dialogue of a “poor” creature with God or even better of God with a poor creature. The dialogue went on through a period of twelve years, with more or less long sections of silence.
Faced by the unspeakable word of the Most High, she heard over and over again, without ever seeking it, sometimes all of a sudden, more often in a mysterious and even terribly painful state, the person concerned felt the need to sign always and uniquely in this way. She couldn’t do otherwise. In fact, “Poor Soul”, or sometimes “Little Soul” hasn’t been a free personal choice, but imposed by her inner situation.
Another reason, no less important, justifies also such a signature. According to the “Voice”, the Soul had to remain hidden, in the shade, offering her own prayers and personal sacrifices, moral or physical, for the cause of the glorification of the Holy Spirit.
After this right and proper introduction, we add that consequently and necessarily, everything that could contribute to discover her identity in the book, has been completely suppressed.
The Soul doesn’t live at the Oasis, doesn’t dwell in Loreto, she is not a native of the Marches. She is a consecrated nun who lives in a large feminine community of active life.
She has not had a particular education, neither a diploma of secondary school. Her usual occupation consists in very humble and modest work which she accomplishes with a profound sense of duty and a most scrupulous observance of the Rule.
Her character is strong and tenacious, yet with a softness of manners, and admits no compromise. She has an unlimited sincerity and a great franckness of language without lacking charity toward any one.
She judges objectively with serenity and balance. She has a deep and sharp psychological sense which doesn’t come from her education but from the Wisdom which the Spirit, who blows where he wants, granted her.
Her attitude is always characterized by a great modesty, mostly when she has to speak about things which concern her personally. She has no consideration for herself and she is not proud or doesn’t feel more important because of what the Lord has shown her for many years in so many intimate dialogues. She felt her greatest anguish when she had to reveal herself, in any way, and run the risk of telling her true identity and make known her secrets.
And if she revealed them, she dild that only because she could give herself no rest but by obeying to the orders of the voice.
If she wrote and handed periodically so many sheets of paper, she did it only out of obedience, but later on she didn’t know anything about them, never returned to their content for any reason, as if they weren’t hers and didn’t belong to her.
Yet these pages meant steps to be made… things to be realised. But she never got interested in nothing of this.
When later the book had to be published, as she was asked what she thought, if she thought it was right or not, she was astonished to learn that her writings had been kept, but she answered: “This doesn’t concern me, I am like dead…”.
This phrase “I’m like dead” summarises well her intimate and external attitude toward what the Lord has accomplished in her.
Never has she revealed her secrets neither to the nuns of her community, so that most probably none of them, neither any friend, could ever suspect or have an intuition of the riches of the supernatural gifts with which she has been gratified by the Lord.
The “Voice” has elected her: “Disciple” and “Apostle” of the cult and the devotion to the Holy Spirit, but never has she pronounced any word on the subject, nor has she ever done anything which could have revealed it.
How often the “Poor Soul” in perfect harmony with what has been said, has expressed the desire to return to her ordinary life meditating and praying as all the other nuns!
Such signs seem to us to verify and give credit, at least from the outside, to the contents of the book “Divine Power of Love”.

***

WHAT DOES THE LORD ASK THE “POOR SOUL”?

By ft David De Angelis, Loreto, 9 maggio 1975

In the preceding chapter we have shown to our readers that the “Poor Soul” mentioned in the book “Divine Power of Love”, is a person in flesh and blood, still living in an active feminine community, spending her time in union with God, fulfilling her duty, in humility and simplicity of life.
We have laid stress on her desire to live in the shade, hidden, as if she were dead, not at all anxious about what happens around her, nor even about what concerns her personally and directly.
From her demeanour and the manner in which things have happened, we can conclude that the Lord “has looked upon the humility of his servant” so that, bending over her, he has elevated her to the title of “Disciple and Apostle” of the cult and devotion to the Eternal Divine Spirit, revealing her, His designs of love for the salvation and sanctification of souls.
Now we want to see what really the Lord said to the “Poor Soul” and what new means of salvation and sanctification he has proposed.
It’s very easy: it suffices to skim through the book stopping at the more significant passages of the great Message.
First of all, we observe that there has been a preparation before time, in the eternity: “When you did not exist, I moulded you in my Love”, “I came from the Father to join you, which I chose since all eternity and loved with a love of predilection… so that I may find on earth a place where I can take refuge from so many iniquities of men”.
There has been equally a near and remote preparation in time. Her whole long religious life as a nun, made out of full and total answer to grace, in the constant exercise of virtues, is the remote preparation.
Since december 1963 to the first forthnight of november 1965 lies the immediate and direct preparation during which the Lord moulds her to make her an “instrument of his glory”.
It is interesting, from this point of view, to read the first part of the book so as to become aware how the “Lord Jesus prepared the Soul to make her a suitable instrument to show to the world: “the marvels of the Holy Spirit”: “When I asked you to consecrate yourself as a victim of reparation to my much profaned Heart, I also thought to make of you, later on, an Apostle of the cult to the Holy Spirit”.
After such a preparation, just hinted, here it is finally, the first annuncement of the great Message.
The 10th of November, 1965: “Why is it that the Church, my Spouse, does not honour the Holy Spirit by a more solemn, ardent and practical cult among the faithful? All is being done in Him and through Him since eternal centuries, on earth and in heaven, in an intimate communion with the Father and the Son”.
The Message acquires value also by the circumstances which accompany it, therefore they must be examined in detail.
The Soul is caught all of a sudden by the usual mighty mysterious power soon after Holy Communion, so she is forced to leave the church and go to her room upstairs. While going up the stairs she has the feeling that all her body will fall… she’s about to faint… she’s afraid of going mad… she thinks it may be the end… She then gathers up all her strength and cries out: “My God, mercy! Into Thy hands I commend my spirit”.
She finally reaches her room. She has lost all her strength, she feels she has given up hope.
Then, little by little, she recovers her strength, most that of the spirit, and profits by this to plunge herself in an exchange of love with her Jesus whom she feels present sacramentally in her heart.
She remains thus half an hour without being able to move, in a complete stillness, always with her spirit turned to the mysterious magnet which attracts her totally.
It is in this situation that the solemn “Voice” of Jesus announces her the first Message about the Holy Spirit, which we have given here above.
After this extraordinary event, the Soul confesses candidly that she is astounded and doesn’t understand at all the significance of what she heard. She only feels the need to recommend herself to the Lord.
The next day, the “Voice” repeats the same Message twice, though in a different manner and in different circumstances.
“Make yourself interpreter of my designs. I wish the Church, Mother and Mistress of all believers, to put into grater evidence the action of the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Life, of Truth, of Justice, of Love”.
“It is the desire of my Father and of my Heart that the Holy Spirit be better known and loved in the Church, my Spouse, and I assure you that an era of greater sanctity in the souls and of fraternity among the nations shall open up”.
On the 14th of November: “In the fullness of time the Father has given the Son to humanity… now His Son wants to manifest the Holy Spirit… the substantial Love of the Father and the Son”.
On December 8th of the same year again the “Voice”: “I entrust you with the mission to make my Church know that she must give a cult of greater glory to the Holy Spirit”.
The few extracts given here are enough to explain the substance of the Message coming from Heaven, by the intermediary of the “Poor Soul”.
What the “Voice” asks is a simple but important thing.
It asks for a more solemn, more ardent and practical cult to the Holy Spirit… it asks that His action in the Church and souls be put in a better light… that He be better known and loved.
“This is the desire of the Father and of the Son… The era of the Holy Spirit shall begin”.
The Message is addressed to the Church, made of believing and redeemed souls, to the teaching and taught Church: to the Pope, the Bishops, the Priests, the Consecrated Souls, the faithful, to the whole people of God.
What is asked is nothing exceptional: it contains only an exhortation. One would say that such a Message from Heaven would not be necessary for that matter.
That is right, but it is no less right that the Holy Spirit is still today the “Great Unknown”.
Now, after this wish of Jesus, for the good of the Church, of souls and their salvation and sanctification, we must make every possible effort, and neglect no means so that the Divine Spirit be known, loved and glorified by everyone.

***

FROM SHADOW TO LIGHT: Mother Carolina Venturella

 By David De Angelis, Palestrina, 1 novembre 1989

Most dear Disciples and Apostles, Friends and Benefactors.
No one had ever spoken about Mother Carolina Venturella from her birth to her death, at least as much as I know. Nor was anything said about her when her book was published with this completely new title “Divine Power of Love”, partly her own thoughts (printed in normal type) and partly dictated (bold type).
When, in 1975, the book came out, every one asked: WHO IS THIS AUTHOR WHO GAVE HERSELF THE NAME “A POOR SOUL”? It was really an incomprehensible name, provoking curiosity and maybe also compassion, at least at first. I tried to give an explanation, but for many it remained and remains incomprehensible.
The spontaneous question that came from the mind and from the mouth of anyone who had gone through the book, was always the same: Who is this woman?
Well, now at last everyone can know, and many know, that the “Poor Soul” is Mother Carolina Venturella.
She was a Canossian Nun, dead in the House of Colle Ameno at Torrette (Ancona), the 30th of August 1989, at 18:15 hour, in her 88th year and six months and now is buried in the cemetery of the same Suburb of Ancona in the private Chapel of the Sisters.
We had to wait for her death to know the true name of the Poor Soul, author of the great Message about the Holy Spirit, given through her to the Church of God. Yes! It was strictly necessary for her to disappear from the face of the earth before her devoted readers could learn publicly her very name. But what was the reason of this secret?
Facing the ineffable Word of the Most High, heard many times, without ever questioning, in various unexpected moments, mostly in a mysterious and terribly painful situation, the Sister felt the need to sign always only in this way. She could not do otherwise.
In fact the signature “Poor Soul” or sometimes “Poor Creature”, was not a personal choice, but imposed by her inner situation. She felt so little and miserable that she could not in any way think she was chosen by the Lord for a particular mission.
But there is also another reason, no less important, which justifies the name: according to the “Voice”, the Soul had to remain in the shade, hidden, offering her own prayers and sacrifices, moral and physical, for the cause of the glorification of the Holy Spirit.
With the public revelation of her name and surname, and the place of her birth, the House and religious Congregation which she belonged to and the cemetery where she was buried, the Poor Soul came into light. Now all our Disciples and Apostles and the friends and benefactors know her face, her devotion to the Eucharist, her delightful smile, which reflects clearly the spiritual richness of her soul by the photo published in our monthly magazine.
At this point we are ready to exclaim full of devotion and enthusiasm: I finally know you! You have finally come out in the light of the sun!
As much as you were hidden, so much now, you shine with radiant light!
Formerly, when she was alive, while reading the papers published in the book “Divine Power of Love”, everyone felt the need to ask her for prayers, while not knowing her, not even by name.
Now that they know her, surely they will ask her more spontaneously for intercession before the throne of God, so that they will invoke her: Mother Carolina, prey for us! Yes, let’s say too: Mother Carolina, pray for us and for the Work of the Holy Spirit!

INDEX – PART1 APPENDICES: THE BOOK DIVINE POWER OF LOVE – THE POOR SOUL – FATHER DAVID DE ANGELIS