Jesus says:
"Every age has had its forms of piety.
The Church was born among the rough waves of the world. Virgins and consecrated persons lived mixed among the pagan crowd, bringing to it the perfume of Christ that saturated them, and they conquered the world for Christ.
Then came the time of austere segregations. To bury oneself for the world was, according to the vision of that time, necessary for the perfection and continuous redemption of souls. From the monasteries, the hermitages, the walled cells, rivers of sacrifices and prayers spread over the earth, descended to Purgatory, ascended to Heaven.
Later came the convents of active life. Hospitals, asylums, schools, benefited from this new manifestation of the Christian religion.
But now, in the pagan world of a new paganism even more atrocious because it is more demonically subtle, consecrated souls are needed again to live in the world as in the first times of My Church, to be perfumed by Me. They sum up the active and contemplative life in one word: "Victims".
How many victims this poor world needs in order to obtain mercy! If men would listen to me, I would say to each one my loving commandment: "Sacrifice, penance, in order to be saved". But I have only those Victims who know how to imitate Me in sacrifice, which is the highest form of love.
What did I say? "This is how it will be understood if you are my disciples: if you love one another.... There is no greater love than that of one who lays down his life for his friends".
The victims have carried love so high that it has a form similar to mine. The victims give themselves for Me because I am in the souls, and whoever saves a soul saves Me in that soul.
Therefore there is no greater love for Me than to immolate oneself for Me, your Friend, and for the poor sinful souls who are our fallen friends. I say: ours, because where there is a soul in love, there is also God with her, and that is why we are two. You often think longingly of cloistered life. But think, my soul, that being a victim makes you like the most austere cloistered women. The victim adores, the victim atones, the victim prays. The prayer of a victim is the same as that of the cloistered one, with the additional difficulty of having to live a life of prayer amidst the dissipations of the world.
Here too I am your example. I, Victim, have known how to adore, to pray, to expiate, being in the world. One can be a victim soul of golden perfection in the midst of the crowd, and not sedate while under a double fence. Here too, it is love that counts and not external forms.
How does one become a victim? By living with only one thought: to console myself by redeeming others. Others are redeemed by sacrifice. I am consoled by love and by kindling love in extinguished hearts. The life of the victim is a perpetual non-belonging, a continuous pouring out, an incessant burning.
But to the one who knows how to live like this, the Invisible Presence is granted to him, which you also enjoy. For I am where my apostles and my martyrs are. And the victims are martyrs and apostles".
MARIA VALTORTA. NOTEBOOK 1943. June 16