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This page has three parts: Independent Biblical Identification, Cross-Entry Synthesis, and Observation Notes.
02-1899-05-16 Biblical Resonance Analysis
May 16, 1899 — The Virtue of the Cross. Stripping Oneself of One’s Own Will.
STAGE ONE — INDEPENDENT BIBLICAL IDENTIFICATION
1. The Cross Disposes the Soul to Patience
“The cross disposes the soul to patience. The cross opens Heaven, and unites Heaven and earth together – that is, God and the soul.”
Romans 5:3–5 (translation pending) — ‘Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’
Rationale: The Pauline chain — suffering → endurance → character → hope → love — is the apostolic form of “the cross disposes the soul to patience.” The Pauline “endurance” (hypomonē) is the long-suffering patience that Hogan names as the fruit of the cross: “long-suffering means l with another mile, o with another mile, n with another mile.” The cross that disposes to patience is the suffering of Romans 5:3 that produces the endurance the soul cannot acquire any other way. The terminal link — love poured into the hearts through the Spirit — is the “unites Heaven and earth together, God and the soul” of May 16.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline suffering-endurance-hope chain as the apostolic form of the cross-disposes-to-patience teaching.
James 1:2–4 — ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.’
Rationale: The Jacobean “testing of faith produces steadfastness” — the joy in trials because of what the testing produces — is the apostolic form of the same cross-to-patience teaching. The “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” is the fruit of the full effect of steadfastness: the soul that has received the cross’s full virtue has been completed by it, lacking nothing. The May 16 teaching extends this: the cross not only produces patience and completion but also removes the rust of earthly things and gives the flavor of celestial things.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Jacobean testing-produces-steadfastness as the apostolic form of the cross-disposes-to-patience teaching.
Hebrews 12:11 — ‘All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’
Rationale: The Hebrews “peaceful fruit of righteousness” yielded by discipline — recognized as painful in the moment but fruitful when the training is complete — is the apostolic form of the cross’s patience-producing virtue. The “later it yields” corresponds to the May 16 reversal: the cross that causes boredom and contempt for earthly things in the moment gives “instead, the flavor and enjoyment of celestial things.” The temporal reversal — painful now, fruitful later — is the Hebrews structure applied to the May 16 double-fruit.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Hebrews discipline-yields-peaceful-fruit as the apostolic form of the cross-producing-celestial-flavor teaching.
2. The Cross Opens Heaven, Uniting God and the Soul
Ephesians 2:14–16 (translation pending) — ‘For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.’
Rationale: The Pauline cross as the instrument of reconciliation — breaking down the dividing wall, killing the hostility, uniting both to God — is the apostolic doctrinal form of “the cross opens Heaven, and unites Heaven and earth together, God and the soul.” The Pauline cross that reconciles is the May 16 cross that opens heaven: in both cases the cross is the instrument that removes the barrier (the dividing wall / the rust of earthly things) and produces the union (both to God / God and the soul).
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline cross-that-reconciles as the apostolic form of the cross-that-opens-heaven-and-unites-God-and-the-soul.
John 12:32 — ‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”’
Rationale: The dominical declaration that the lifting-up on the cross draws all to himself — the cross as the instrument of the divine attraction — is the Christological form of “the cross opens Heaven.” The lifting-up on the cross is the opening of the heaven-earth union: the crucified Jesus drawing all people to himself is the cross-as-conduit between earth and heaven. The May 16 teaching that the cross unites Heaven and earth corresponds to the dominical drawing-all-to-myself: both name the cross as the instrument of divine-human union.
Type: Christological — the dominical lifted-up-drawing-all as the Christological form of the cross-opening-heaven-and-uniting-God-and-the-soul.
3. The Cross Removes the Rust of Earthly Things
“The virtue of the cross is powerful, and when it enters into a soul, it has the virtue of removing the rust of all earthly things. Not only this, but it causes her boredom, bother and contempt for the things of the earth, giving her, instead, the flavor and the enjoyment of celestial things.”
Philippians 3:7–8 — ‘However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ’
Rationale: The Pauline counting-everything-as-rubbish — the complete revaluation of earthly gains as loss in the light of Christ — is the apostolic form of “boredom, bother and contempt for the things of the earth.” The cross produces in Luisa’s entry what the knowing-of-Christ produces in Paul’s theology: the earthly things that previously had value become rubbish, not because they are evil but because the surpassing worth of the heavenly has made them tasteless. The “flavor and enjoyment of celestial things” corresponds to the Pauline “surpassing worth of knowing Christ.”
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline count-everything-as-rubbish as the apostolic form of the cross-producing-boredom-with-earthly-things.
Colossians 3:1–2 — ‘If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.’
Rationale: The Pauline instruction to set the mind on things above — not on earthly things — is the apostolic form of the cross-redirecting-to-celestial-things. The May 16 cross produces what the Colossians instruction commands: the soul whose mind has been set on things above has received the “flavor and enjoyment of celestial things” that the cross gives. The cross is the instrument that makes the Colossians imperative experientially natural rather than merely morally required.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline set-your-mind-on-things-above as the apostolic form of the cross-giving-flavor-of-celestial-things.
Wisdom 3:6 — ‘He tested them like gold in the furnace, and he accepted them as a whole burnt offering.’
Rationale: The Wisdom tradition’s gold-in-the-furnace image — suffering as the refining fire that removes impurity — is the deuterocanonical form of “the cross removes the rust of earthly things.” The furnace-fire and the cross share the same purifying function: both remove what does not belong to the refined soul. The rust of earthly things is the impurity that the cross’s fire removes; what remains after the removal is the gold of the soul ready for the celestial flavor.
Type: Typological — the Wisdom gold-in-the-furnace as the deuterocanonical form of the cross-removing-the-rust.
4. “Few Are Those Who Recognize the Virtue of the Cross”
1 Corinthians 1:18 — ‘For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’
Rationale: The Pauline declaration that the word of the cross is folly to those perishing — recognized as power only by those being saved — is the apostolic doctrinal form of “few are those who recognize the virtue of the cross; therefore they despise it.” The despising of the cross in May 16 is the practical form of the Pauline “folly”: the same content (the cross), the same division (those who despise/those who recognize), the same consequence (perishing / being saved). The cross’s power is invisible to those who cannot receive it.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline word-of-the-cross-is-folly as the apostolic form of few-recognize-the-virtue/therefore-despise-it.
Matthew 16:24 — ‘Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’
Rationale: Hogan cites Matthew 16:24. The dominical cross-bearing instruction — denied by Peter immediately before (Matthew 16:22–23) and commanded to all disciples — is the Christological form of the cross-recognized/despised division. Peter’s rejection of the cross in the prior verses is the paradigmatic form of “they despise it”; the command to all disciples is the recognition that the cross is not optional for the follower of Christ. The “Christian without a cross is an anachronism” (Hogan) is the pastoral form of the same dominical teaching.
Type: Christological — the dominical take-up-your-cross as the Christological form of the cross-for-every-disciple teaching, contrasted with the despising.
5. One Word of Jesus Contains Immense Light
One single word leaves an immense light, and to ruminate well on it one could remain occupied the whole day in most profound meditation.
John 1:1–5 — ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.’
Rationale: Hogan cites John 1:1–5 directly. The Johannine identification of the Word with God — in him was life and the life was the light — is the Christological ground for “one single word of Jesus leaves an immense light.” Jesus is the creative Word; every word he speaks carries the fullness of the Word-who-is-God. The immense light left by a single word is the light of the Word who is light — the ordinary human word carries only what the speaker knows; the Word who is God carries the whole of divine knowing in every utterance.
Type: Christological — the Johannine Word-is-life-and-light as the Christological ground for the immense-light-from-a-single-word teaching.
Hebrews 4:12 — ‘For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’
Rationale: The Hebrews living-and-active word — sharp, piercing, discerning — is the apostolic form of the immense light left by a single word of Jesus. The sharpness that “pierces to the division of soul and spirit” corresponds to the depth of the rumination that occupies the whole day: the word penetrates where ordinary language cannot reach, illuminating what no human word can discern.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Hebrews living-and-active word as the apostolic form of the immense-light-from-a-single-word.
6. Stripping the Will: Only Then Does the Divine Will Invest the Soul
“My daughter, what I look at in the soul is when she strips herself of her will. Only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.”
Matthew 26:39 — ‘He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”’
Rationale: The dominical “not my will but yours” — the paradigmatic form of the stripping of the human will in the Gethsemane prayer — is the Christological model for the stripping-of-one’s-own-will teaching. Jesus provides in the Agony not a principle but an enacted form: the complete subordination of the human will to the divine, precisely when the human will most acutely wants the opposite outcome. The souls of May 16 who “call themselves devout as long as things go their way” are the negative counterpart: the Gethsemane moment when the will asserts itself against the divine disposition rather than submitting.
Type: Christological — the dominical Gethsemane not-my-will-but-yours as the Christological paradigm for the stripping-of-one’s-own-will.
Romans 12:1–2 — ‘Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.’
Rationale: The Pauline living-sacrifice and mind-renewal — the bodily and intellectual presentation to the divine will — is the apostolic form of the stripping-of-one’s-own-will. The “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed” is the practical form of the May 16 teaching: the soul that strips its own will stops being conformed to the world (the devout souls of the entry who seek their own comfort) and is transformed by the renewal of its mind — invested, divinized, made entirely the Lord’s.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline living-sacrifice-and-mind-renewal as the apostolic form of the stripping-of-the-will-to-receive-the-divine-will.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 — ‘I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them.’
Rationale: The Ezekielian divine promise to remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh — the divine will put within, causing the creature to walk in the divine statutes — is the Old Testament prophetic form of “only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.” The stripping of the stony heart corresponds to the stripping of one’s own will; the new heart and Spirit within corresponds to the divine Will investing and divinizing. May 16’s teaching is the experiential form of the Ezekielian promise: the soul that strips the human will receives the new heart the prophet promised.
Type: Typological — the Ezekielian new-heart-and-Spirit-within as the Old Testament prophetic form of the divine-Will-investing-and-divinizing.
Galatians 2:20 — ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.’
Rationale: The Pauline crucified-with-Christ — second use in the volume (first at May 7) — is the apostolic form of “only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.” The stripping of one’s own will is the Pauline crucifixion of the self; the divine Will investing and divinizing is the Christ who lives in. The “it is no longer I who live” of Galatians 2:20 is the experiential form of the will having been stripped; the “Christ who lives in me” is the divine Will that has invested the stripped soul. May 7 used Galatians 2:20 for the creatures-must-disappear teaching; May 16 uses the same text for the stripping-of-the-will — the same theological reality at two levels.
Type: Direct doctrinal parallel — the Pauline it-is-no-longer-I-who-live as the apostolic form of the divine-Will-investing-the-stripped soul. Second use.
7. The Devout Souls Who Have Not Stripped Their Will
“Take a look at these souls who call themselves devout… as long as things go their way. But then, one little thing – if their confessions are not long enough, if the confessor does not satisfy them – is enough for them to lose peace; and some reach the point of no longer wanting to do anything.”
Matthew 7:13–14 — ‘“Enter in by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate and the way is restricted that leads to life! There are few who find it.’
Rationale: Hogan cites Matthew 7:13–14 as the anchor for “they have taken the wrong way.” The devout souls who follow their own comfort — who want long confessions and satisfied preferences — are on the wide and easy way, not the narrow gate. The narrow gate of May 7 required detachment, nakedness, and simplicity; the souls of May 16 have retained the attachment to their own way of doing things, which makes the narrow gate inaccessible. The wrong path is the path that looks like devotion but is actually self-accommodation.
Type: Christological — the dominical narrow-gate as the Christological form of “they have taken the wrong way.”
Luke 9:23 — ‘He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’
Rationale: The Lukan form of the cross-bearing instruction — “daily” — is the Christological form of the stripping-of-the-will as a daily practice. The souls of May 16 who lose peace at a “one little thing” have not been stripping their will daily; the daily cross-denial of Luke 9:23 is the daily form of what Hogan names: “if we’re not stripping ourselves on a daily basis of our will, the divine will cannot take over.” The daily practice distinguishes the genuine follower from the devout-when-comfortable.
Type: Christological — the Lukan take-up-your-cross-daily as the Christological form of the daily-stripping required for the divine Will to take over.
Isaiah 29:13 — ‘The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;’
Rationale: The Isaianic prophetic indictment of lip-service with hearts far from God — the religion that is “a commandment taught by men” rather than the divine encounter — is the Old Testament prophetic form of the devout-when-comfortable souls of May 16. They “call themselves devout” but their devotion fails the moment it costs them something. The Isaiah 29:13 pattern — drawing near with the mouth, heart far — corresponds exactly: the confession-seeking, the comfort-demanding, the devotional form without the interior submission.
Type: Typological — the Isaianic lip-service-with-heart-far as the Old Testament prophetic form of the devout-when-comfortable failure.
Revelation 3:15–16 — ‘“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.’
Rationale: The dominical Laodicean rebuke — the lukewarm soul that is neither committed nor openly opposed, comfortable in its half-measure — is the Christological form of the devout-when-comfortable souls. The Laodicean church “calls itself” faithful but has not been tested; the devout souls of May 16 “call themselves devout” but have not stripped their own will. Both are the comfortable middle that looks like devotion and lacks the substance. The Laodicean “I will spit you out” corresponds to “they have taken the wrong way” of May 16.
Type: Christological — the dominical Laodicean-lukewarm as the Christological form of the devout-when-comfortable souls.
STAGE TWO — COMPARISON WITH HOGAN’S COMMENTARY
CORRESPONDENCES
VIP designation — this entire entry Hogan designates May 16 as a VIP entry: “this is a vip message you need to put vip on it because it is absolutely central to the journey of the divine will.” Two specific VIP points within: (1) the cross-disposes-to-patience teaching; (2) the stripping-of-one’s-own-will as the precondition for the divine Will to invest. This is the first entry in Volume 2 where Hogan explicitly VIPs the entry as a whole rather than a specific passage.
Matthew 16:24 — Take up your cross Both analyses identify Matthew 16:24 as the Christological anchor for the cross-bearing teaching. Hogan’s application: “a Christian without a cross is an anachronism.” Complete convergence.
John 1:1–5 — The Word is life and light Both analyses identify John 1:1–5 as the anchor for the immense-light-from-a-single-word. Complete convergence.
Matthew 7:13–14 — They have taken the wrong way Both analyses identify Matthew 7:13–14 as the anchor for “they have taken the wrong way.” Complete convergence.
The stripping-of-the-will / cup-of-tea analogy Hogan’s most memorable illustration: “if I have a cup full of tea I cannot drink water; I have to pour out the tea to put the water in.” The stripping of the human will is the emptying of the cup to receive the divine will. This is the practical form of the May 16 teaching at its most compressed.
DEVIATIONS
Hogan reads the devout-when-comfortable primarily from retreat experience; this analysis grounds it scripturally Hogan’s most extended pastoral contribution is her retreat-experience observation: the nuns, priests, brothers, and lay people who come on retreat but want the best rooms, complain about the food, and won’t keep silence — these are the May 16 devout souls. This is practically important but not scripturally grounded. This analysis adds Isaiah 29:13 (lip-service, heart far) and Revelation 3:15–16 (Laodicean lukewarm) as the scriptural forms.
ADDITIONS — MINE
Romans 5:3–5 — Suffering produces endurance produces hope The Pauline suffering-chain as the apostolic form of cross-disposes-to-patience is not engaged by Hogan.
James 1:2–4 — Testing of faith produces steadfastness The Jacobean testing-produces-steadfastness as the apostolic form of the same teaching is not engaged by Hogan.
Hebrews 12:11 — Discipline yields peaceful fruit The Hebrews discipline-yields-peaceful-fruit as the apostolic form of the cross-producing-celestial-flavor is not engaged by Hogan.
Ephesians 2:14–16 — Cross breaks down the dividing wall The Pauline cross-that-reconciles as the apostolic form of the cross-opening-heaven is not engaged by Hogan.
John 12:32 — Lifted up, will draw all to myself The dominical lifted-up-drawing-all as the Christological form of the cross-uniting-heaven-and-earth is not engaged by Hogan.
Philippians 3:7–8 — Count everything as rubbish The Pauline count-everything-as-rubbish as the apostolic form of cross-producing-boredom-with-earthly-things is not engaged by Hogan.
Colossians 3:1–2 — Set your mind on things above The Pauline set-mind-on-things-above as the apostolic form of the cross-giving-celestial-flavor is not engaged by Hogan.
Wisdom 3:6 — Gold in the furnace The Wisdom gold-in-the-furnace as the deuterocanonical form of the cross-removing-rust is not engaged by Hogan.
1 Corinthians 1:18 — The word of the cross is folly The Pauline word-of-the-cross-is-folly as the apostolic form of few-recognize/therefore-despise is not engaged by Hogan.
Hebrews 4:12 — The word of God is living and active The Hebrews living-and-active word as the apostolic form of the immense-light-from-a-single-word is not engaged by Hogan.
Matthew 26:39 — Not my will but yours The dominical Gethsemane not-my-will as the Christological paradigm for the stripping-of-the-will is not engaged by Hogan.
Romans 12:1–2 — Living sacrifice; be transformed by the renewal of your mind The Pauline living-sacrifice-and-mind-renewal as the apostolic form of stripping-the-will is not engaged by Hogan.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 — New heart, new spirit, I will put my Spirit within The Ezekielian new-heart-and-Spirit as the Old Testament prophetic form of the divine-Will-investing-and-divinizing is not engaged by Hogan.
Galatians 2:20 — It is no longer I who live (second use) The Pauline crucified-with-Christ as the apostolic form of the stripped-will-receiving-the-divine-will is not cited by Hogan (though first used at May 7).
Luke 9:23 — Take up your cross daily The Lukan daily-cross-bearing as the Christological form of the daily-stripping required is not engaged by Hogan.
Isaiah 29:13 — Drawing near with the mouth, heart far The Isaianic lip-service as the Old Testament prophetic form of the devout-when-comfortable failure is not engaged by Hogan.
Revelation 3:15–16 — The lukewarm Laodicean rebuke The dominical Laodicean-lukewarm as the Christological form of the devout-when-comfortable souls is not engaged by Hogan.
ADDITIONS — HERS
VIP designation for the entire entry Hogan’s designation of the entry as wholly VIP is the most significant editorial act in her Vol02-03 commentary. It positions the stripping-of-the-will teaching as the central teaching of the Divine Will journey in the foundational volumes.
The cup-of-tea analogy The most compressed and practically memorable formulation: the human will must be poured out like tea before the divine will can be poured in like water. This is the May 16 teaching at its most useful for practical application.
The retreat-experience testimony Hogan’s forty-year retreat observation provides the contemporary pastoral form of the devout-when-comfortable souls: the religious and laity on retreat who want the best rooms, complain about the food, and won’t keep silence. The observation gives the entry’s teaching a recognizable contemporary face.
“The motto we have to have in the divine will adventure: not my will but thine be done” Hogan’s formulation of the Divine Will motto — “not my will but yours” as the daily practical form of the stripping — provides the Gethsemane connection in pastoral rather than scriptural form. This analysis grounds it formally in Matthew 26:39.
VIP / SPECIAL DESIGNATIONS
VIP — entire entry. Hogan designates explicitly: “this is a vip message… absolutely central to the journey of the divine will.” Two internal VIP peaks:
VIP Peak 1: “The cross disposes the soul to patience. The cross opens Heaven, and unites Heaven and earth together.” The cross-teaching as the practical mechanism of the heaven-earth union that the Divine Will journey produces.
VIP Peak 2: “What I look at in the soul is when she strips herself of her will. Only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.” The stripping-of-the-will as the single precondition for the divine Will to operate. Primary anchors: Matthew 26:39, Romans 12:1–2, Ezekiel 36:26–27, Galatians 2:20.
STAGE TWO SYNTHESIS
May 16 is the first entry in Volume 2 that Hogan designates as VIP in its entirety, and it delivers two teachings that are foundational for the Divine Will theology as the volume moves toward its close.
The cross-teaching develops the April-May formation arc to its practical conclusion: the cross is not merely suffered but understood as the instrument of heaven-earth union. The four functions of the cross (disposer of patience, opener of heaven, remover of earthly rust, giver of celestial flavor) constitute a complete theology of the cross as the spiritual instrument that produces what the formation arc has been developing: the soul stripped of earthly attachment, redirected to celestial things, united to God through patience. The April 26 detachment and the May 7 stripping-to-pass-through-the-narrow-door find their instrument identified: it is the cross that does what the formation arc has been describing.
The stripping-of-the-will is the entry’s most important teaching for the corpus — the single named precondition for the Divine Will. The progression from the foundational-volumes arc is now complete and explicit: self-knowledge (April 23) → detachment (April 26) → purity of intention (May 7) → charity stripped of everything (May 12) → stripping of the will (May 16). The will is the last and deepest layer of the stripping: when the will is stripped, the divine Will can invest, divinize, and make the soul entirely his own. This is the Divine Will theology’s operative definition at the foundational level: not a set of prayers or devotions, but the daily stripping of the human will to allow the divine Will to occupy the space the human will has vacated.
The devout-when-comfortable souls are the entry’s negative illustration: they have stripped nothing, not even their preference for long confessions and satisfied expectations. The one-little-thing that destroys their peace reveals the will still fully operative beneath the devotional form. “They have taken the wrong way” — the wide and easy way that accommodates the self rather than the narrow gate that requires the stripping.
Cross-Entry Synthesis
May 16, 1899 — The Virtue of the Cross. Stripping Oneself of One’s Own Will.
Note: VIP — entire entry. Hogan designation: “absolutely central to the journey of the divine will.” Two internal VIP peaks: (1) the four functions of the cross as the instrument of the heaven-earth union; (2) “what I look at in the soul is when she strips herself of her will — only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.” Hogan convergences: Matthew 16:24 (cross for every disciple), John 1:1–5 (the Word is light), Matthew 7:13–14 (wrong way). Key additions: Romans 5:3–5 (suffering-endurance chain); Ephesians 2:14–16 (cross breaks down the dividing wall); 1 Corinthians 1:18 (the word of the cross is folly); Matthew 26:39 (Gethsemane — not my will); Ezekiel 36:26–27 (new heart and Spirit within); Galatians 2:20 second use; Isaiah 29:13 and Revelation 3:15–16 for the devout-when-comfortable souls. The entry structurally completes the foundational-volumes formation arc and names the cross as the instrument by which every prior stripping is accomplished.
I. The Formation Arc Completed: The Cross as Instrument
May 16 closes the foundational-volumes formation arc that April 23 opened. The five teachings:
| Entry | Teaching | The Stripping |
|---|---|---|
| April 23 | Self-knowledge | Strip the false inflation of praise |
| April 26 | Detachment | Strip the attachment to things and outcomes |
| May 7 | Purity of intention | Strip the creaturely “I” that seeks credit |
| May 12 | Charity stripped of everything | Strip the self-seeking within the act of love |
| May 16 | Stripping of the will | Strip the human will to receive the divine Will |
The arc has moved from the outermost layer of the soul’s disorder (susceptibility to praise, April 23) inward through attachments, intentions, and the motivating charity, to the will itself — the deepest and last layer. When the will is stripped, the Divine Will can invest, divinize, and make the soul entirely his own. The May 16 teaching is not a sixth stripping added to the previous five; it is the ground from which the previous five grew: all of them were particular expressions of the will still in possession of itself. The stripping of the will is the act that makes all the others possible — and the cross is the instrument by which all five strippings are accomplished.
The four functions of the cross (disposes to patience; opens heaven and unites God and the soul; removes the rust of earthly things; gives the flavor of celestial things) map directly onto the arc:
- Patience → the fruit of the trial that April 26’s detachment and May 9’s bitter-breath prepared
- Heaven opened; God and soul united → the goal toward which the entire arc has been directed
- Rust of earthly things removed → the practical form of April 26 (detachment) and May 12 (charity stripped)
- Flavor and enjoyment of celestial things → the experiential result of the reorientation begun at April 23
The cross is not one element among many in the formation arc; it is the arc’s operative mechanism, named explicitly for the first time in May 16.
II. The Will-Stripping as the Divine Will Theology’s Operative Definition
“What I look at in the soul is when she strips herself of her will. Only then does my Will invest her, divinize her, and make her all Mine.”
This is the most compact and precise definition of the Divine Will journey in the entire Volume 2 sequence. Its structure:
Precondition: The stripping of one’s own will — not suppression, not management, but the daily emptying (Hogan’s cup-of-tea analogy) that makes space for another will entirely.
Consequence: The divine Will invests (enters and fills the emptied space), divinizes (transforms the nature of the soul by the nature of what fills it), and makes the soul entirely his (possession through identification, not domination).
The three verbs are sequential and cumulative: Investment without divinization would be mere indwelling; divinization without complete possession would be partial transformation. The full sequence — invest, divinize, make all Mine — describes the complete form of what the Divine Will does when the human will has fully vacated.
The scriptural triangulation:
- Matthew 26:39 (Gethsemane): The paradigmatic act — “not my will but yours.” The stripping enacted by the Son as the model for every disciple. Not once but daily (Luke 9:23).
- Ezekiel 36:26–27 (new heart and Spirit within): The Old Testament prophetic promise of exactly this — the stony human will removed, the divine Spirit put within, causing the soul to walk in the divine ways.
- Galatians 2:20 (it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me): The apostolic experiential form — the stripped human “I” replaced by the indwelling Christ. The “invest, divinize, make all Mine” of May 16 is the May 16 form of Galatians 2:20.
- Romans 12:1–2 (living sacrifice; be transformed by the renewal of your mind): The apostolic practical form — the daily presenting of the self as sacrifice is the daily form of the stripping; the transformation by the renewal of the mind is the divinizing.
Together these four texts constitute the complete biblical theology of the will-stripping: historical model (Gethsemane), prophetic promise (Ezekiel 36), apostolic experience (Galatians 2:20), apostolic practice (Romans 12:1–2).
III. The Devout-When-Comfortable Souls: The Diagnostic Portrait
“Take a look at these souls who call themselves devout… as long as things go their way. But then, one little thing – if their confessions are not long enough, if the confessor does not satisfy them – is enough for them to lose peace.”
The devout-when-comfortable souls are May 16’s negative illustration and its most pastorally charged element. Their portrait is precise: not sinners or apostates, but souls who “call themselves devout” — who have the form of devotion, who pursue confessions and spiritual direction, who seek the consolations of the religious life. The single diagnostic is the “one little thing”: the moment the situation no longer serves their preference, they lose peace, and some stop doing anything at all.
The biblical texts triangulate the failure at three levels:
The prophetic level (Isaiah 29:13 — drawing near with the mouth, heart far): The devotion is formal, external, a matter of practice and preference rather than interior submission. The confessions sought, the satisfaction expected — these are the “mouth” that draws near; the will never surrendered is the “heart far.”
The dominical level (Revelation 3:15–16 — the Laodicean lukewarm): The devout souls occupy the comfortable middle — more committed than the openly irreligious, less committed than the stripped soul. The one-little-thing that destroys their peace is the test that reveals the lukewarm: when the cross appears, they do not pick it up but “reach the point of no longer wanting to do anything.” The Laodicean “I will spit you out” is the severe form of “they have taken the wrong way.”
The dominical level (Matthew 7:13–14 — the wrong way/wide gate, cited by Hogan): The wrong way is the wide and easy way that accommodates the self. It looks like a devotional path because it is populated by those who “call themselves devout”; it is the wide gate because it does not require the stripping.
The direct connection to the confessor is theologically deliberate. May 2 established that faith-activated concurrence with the confessor is the form of faith in Jesus himself; May 9 showed that the confessor-dependency is Luisa’s own thorn-in-the-flesh cross. May 16 now shows the devout souls whose failure is precisely their relationship to the confessor: they want the confessor to satisfy their preferences. The confessor who is the form of divine concurrence (May 2) and the source of the unrecognized cross (May 9) becomes, in May 16, the diagnostic instrument: how the soul relates to the confessor reveals whether it has stripped its own will or retained it.
IV. Continuity with May 9 and May 12: The Bitter-Bitterness Thread
This morning He poured a little bit more of bitterness from His mouth into mine, and then He told me…
May 16 opens with a continuation of the May 9 bitter-breath communication and the May 12 bitter-side-drinking: Jesus pours more bitterness from his mouth into Luisa’s. The teaching about the cross and the stripping of the will is delivered after this additional pouring — the teaching is given from within the experiential form of what the cross requires, not as instruction preceding the experience.
The sequence is pedagogically significant: first the bitter communication (the cross experienced), then the teaching (the cross understood). The experiential precedes the intellectual; the body receives before the mind expounds. This is the structure of the entire formation arc: the soul is formed through what it receives and undergoes before it is taught what that reception and undergoing means. May 16’s teaching about the cross is the theological articulation of what May 9 and May 12 communicated experientially.
The continuation also answers May 12’s note that “Jesus continued for a few more days to manifest himself in the same way — not wanting to detach himself from me.” The bitter communications of the following days have kept Jesus close — drawn to the one who is absorbing what justice requires, bound to the intercessor by the very suffering that makes the intercession efficacious. The lamb-like Jesus of May 12 (disarmed, meek after the pouring) is the Jesus who cannot be without Luisa in the days that follow, who continues pouring bitterness from his mouth, and who then gives her the cross-teaching and will-stripping teaching that constitute May 16’s VIP content.
SYNTHESIS CONCLUSION
May 16 is the doctrinal culmination of the entire April–May formation arc and the first entry Hogan designates as VIP in its entirety. Its two contributions are of primary significance for the corpus:
First: The cross identified as the formation arc’s instrument. The four functions of the cross (patience, heaven-earth union, rust-removal, celestial flavor) map onto the arc’s five teachings as the mechanism by which each stripping is accomplished. The cross is not added to the formation; it is the formation’s operative power, named explicitly for the first time.
Second: The stripping of the will as the Divine Will theology’s operative definition. “What I look at in the soul is when she strips herself of her will” — this single sentence contains the entire Divine Will journey in compressed form. The precondition (stripping), the consequence (investment, divinization, complete possession), and the practical form (daily emptying, Gethsemane repeated) together constitute the most important doctrinal disclosure in Volume 2 after the May 7 one-single-love VIP. The cup-of-tea analogy (Hogan) is its most practically applicable form: the human will must be poured out before the divine will can be poured in.
The entry’s position in the arc is decisive: it does not add another stripping to the list but names the ground from which all the previous strippings grew and the instrument by which all of them are accomplished. The soul that has reached May 16 — having passed through self-knowledge, detachment, purity of intention, charity stripped of everything — now receives the name for what it has been doing all along: stripping itself of its own will so that the divine Will can invest, divinize, and make it entirely his.
Observation Notes
See this note in volume context →
02-1899-05-16
The formation arc is now complete (April 23 → 26 → May 7 → 12 → 16). The five-entry table in the CES is the arc’s canonical summary. Future synthesis documents should use this table.
VIP count for the volume: May 7 (one-single-love, passage-level) and May 16 (entire entry) are the two VIP designations so far in the post-April portion of Volume 2. Track whether subsequent entries receive similar whole-entry VIP status.
The confessor as diagnostic instrument — May 16 completes a three-entry confessor arc: May 2 (faith-activated concurrence), May 9 (unrecognized cross), May 16 (the devout souls’ failure revealed by their confessor relationship). The arc is worth naming explicitly in any volume summary.
Galatians 2:20 second use: May 7 (creaturely side — creatures must disappear) and May 16 (will-stripping — it is no longer I who live). The two uses together form the complete theology of the Pauline self-emptying: the creaturely “I” vacates so that Christ occupies. Track third use if it appears.
The bitter-mouth communication thread continues: May 9 (single bitter breath), May 12 (full Side-drinking, sweet then bitter), May 16 (more bitterness from his mouth). Track whether this continues or reaches a terminus in the coming entries.