...After this I continued my acts in the Divine Fiat, and my poor mind stopped in the little house of Nazareth, where the Queen of Heaven, the celestial King Jesus and Saint Joseph were in possession of and lived in the Kingdom of the Divine Will. So that this kingdom is not estranged to the earth: the house of Nazareth, the family that lived in it belonged to this kingdom and they held it in full vigor... ( Book of Heaven Vol 29 May 31, 1931)
Ever since (2003) I first learnt about the teaching of Luisa Piccarreta and the gift or grace living or dwelling in the Divine Will on earth, there have been speakers and teachers of Divine Will trying to exclude St Joseph from this grace and in a sense to divorce him from Mary and Jesus and throw him out of the Holy House of Nazareth and replace him with Luisa. These people are sincere and they have been taught this by those who introduced them to the Divine Will. Many of them have accepted this premise and then tried to twist the teaching of Luisa in order to fit this paradigm.
The priest in the Divine Will movement that I respected the most was the late Franciscan Father Robert Young who also accepted that St Joseph lived in the Divine Will. It was also the Franciscans that understood that Mary had been immaculately conceived and argued with the Domincans over this for centuries before the Magisterium decided the issue definitely and infallibly in 1854. Even the great Dominan theologian and philosopher St Thomas Aquinas was wrong on his teaching in regard to this.
Today we have very erudite and theologically impressive men who like St Thomas Aquinas was wrong on the immaculate conception so are they in regards to Joseph living in the Divine Will. They are sincere but they are sincerely wrong. In order to virtually deny the quote above they have to preform theological gymnastics in order to exclude St Joseph from the fullness of the gift of living in Divine Will. The whole thrust of Josephology in the Church and the reclaiming of the role of the Father has to be ignored or sidelined.
I suggest these men study the teachings of the great doctor of the Church St Lawrence of Brindisi in his understanding of the Holy House of Nazareth- of Jesus, Mary and Joseph- as the Incarnational Circle. This Incarnational Circle is also known as the Order of the Hypostatic Union. St Joseph is not just one of the saints. He is unique icon and shadow of the Father and no saint including Luisa can have a grace higher than him except for Jesus and Mary. Joseph is one in soul and totally eclipsed in Mary. In fact Luisa is not a cuckoo in the House of Nazareth who throws out St Joseph but in fact all her acts and her unique mission in Divine Will are done in union with Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All our acts in divine Will we unite with Luisa as she unites with Jesus, Mary and Joseph in order to bring the fullness of Glory to God -Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Book of Heaven of Luisa refers to reflections. However it obvious that it refers to two different kinds of reflections. Drawing on my orthodox Jewish background it is rather clear to me that this concept of reflections parallels the Jewish understanding of the Sefirot (which are often translated into English as attributes or emanations). However there are two kinds of Sefirot. There are those which are considered to be of one essence with the Divinity and thus uncreated lights or emanations and the created Sefirot which are created lights or emanations.
These teachers of Divine Will confuse the idea of the effects of the Divine Will with the reflections. However while one could associate the effects with the created reflections with the saints before Luisa these are not the divine uncreated reflections of the Trinity in which Jesus (in his humanity), Mary and Joseph live in the Holy House of Nazareth. Of course Our Lady and St Joseph both live also in the created reflections deriving from the humanity of Jesus living and acting in Divine Will . And St Joseph also lives in the created reflections of Our Lady and he lives in the reflections of Jesus and Mary to such an extent that he was totally eclipsed and inundated in them. These reflections are his heavenly manna or food. In a unique way St Joseph is the created reflection of God the Father and he lives in a unique manner in the uncreated reflections of God the Father so that he is the icon and shadow of the Father.
Joseph is the Rosh Bayit (Master of the House) and the Father of the Kingdom of the Divine Will reigning in the Holy House of Nazareth not a minor servant who lives in an outer circle separated from his spouse and child. St Joseph did not just passively receive the gift of the Divine Will but it was activated in him. St Joseph by his espousals to Our Lady did receive the knowledge of the Divine Will and this was activated in all the acts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.Dear child, in this house of Nazareth, the Kingdom of the Divine Will was in full force. Every little act of ours – that is, working, starting the fire, preparing the food – were all animated by the Supreme Volition, and were formed on the solidity of the sanctity of pure love. Therefore, from the littlest to the greatest of our acts, immense joys, happinesses and beatitudes were unleashed. And we remained so inundated as to feel ourselves as though under a pouring rain of new joys and indescribable contentments...("Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will" Day 25)...Now, you must know that for your Mama, for dear and sweet Jesus, and for Saint Joseph, the little house of Nazareth was a Paradise. Being the Eternal Word, my dear Son possessed the Divine Will within Himself, of His own virtue; immense seas of light, of sanctity, of joys and of infinite beauty resided in that little Humanity. I possessed the Divine Will by grace; and even though I could not embrace immensity, as did beloved Jesus – because He was God and Man, and I was always His finite creature – yet, in spite of this, the Divine Fiat filled Me so much, having formed Its seas of light, of sanctity, of love, of beauties and of happinesses; and the light, the love and everything that a Divine Will can possess, which came out of Us, were so great that Saint Joseph remained eclipsed, inundated, and lived of our reflections.
“My daughter, your life must be hidden with Us in the House of Nazareth. If you work, if you pray, if you eat, if you walk, you must give one hand to Me, the other to our Mother; and look at St Joseph to see if your acts are like Ours.
Then you will be able to say, ‘I make a model of what Jesus, my heavenly Mother and St Joseph do. Then, I copy it.’ I want to repeat My hidden Life in you according to the model you have made. In you I want to find the works of my Mother and St Joseph, as well as My own works...
...My daughter, take heart, don’t be discouraged. If you don’t know how to do something, ask Me to teach you and I’ll do it right away. I’ll speak to you of Our actions, Our intentions, and Our constant Love. I’ll show you how I, like sea, and they, like two rivers, overflowed into each other; that We didn’t have much time to talk, since Love absorbed us so much. See how far behind Us you are? You must work hard to catch up to Us. I don’t want you behind, but with Us; so be silent and pay attention for I do not want you to be behind Us but in Our midst.” (Childhood Memories Notebook)
Of course these issues are all open to theological speculation and discussion at this stage of salvation history and one needs to respect the sincerity of people on both sides of these questions. I hope we don't have to wait for 600 years to get definitive and infallible teaching on this but God has his perfect timing. The discussions and disagreements we have now may help to clarify this. In Judaism this is known as "dispute for the sake of Heaven".Pirkei Avot: “Any debate that is for the sake of Heaven in the end will endure; but any debate that is not for the sake of Heaven in the end will not endure..."