In the writings of the mystic Luisa Piccarreta (1865–1947), the "children of light" designate a new generation of Christians: no longer only souls redeemed by the Cross, but souls called to live in the Divine Will — that is, to let the divine Fiat reign and operate within them as it reigns in Heaven. The expression is not Luisa's invention: it comes from the Gospel and from Saint Paul, who already call believers "sons of light"[1][2].
The decisive text is a page dated October 27, 1922, entitled in the Book of Heaven "The Two Generations". In it, Jesus distinguishes, within the work of His Humanity, the children of darkness — sinful humanity, which He came to deliver by His Blood — and the children of light — "another generation" which He bore "in His thought" and destined to receive the gift of His Will[3].
Far from being a spiritual elite reserved for a privileged few, these children of light form, in Luisa's perspective, the people of the Kingdom of the Divine Will announced by the "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" of the Our Father. This article explains where the expression comes from, what exactly it means, how a "child of light" is born, and what it does not mean — so as to avoid any illuminist or elitist reading.
A biblical expression before being one of Luisa's
Before appearing in the Book of Heaven, the image of the "sons" or "children of light" runs through the entire New Testament. Luisa therefore does not create a vocabulary: she deepens a biblical category already received by Tradition.
"Sons of light" in the Gospel and in Saint Paul
Christ presents Himself as the source: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"[4]. From this received light, a filiation is born. In the parable of the clever steward, Jesus already contrasts two families of men:
"For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." — Jesus, Gospel according to Saint Luke 16:8[5]
The call becomes explicit a few days before the Passion:
"While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light." — Jesus, Gospel according to Saint John 12:36[6]
Saint Paul takes up the image and turns it into a baptismal morality: to be a child of light is to let the light received transform one's conduct.
"For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light." — Saint Paul, Letter to the Ephesians 5:8[7]
"For all of you are children of the light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness." — Saint Paul, First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:5[8]
From light received to light lived
In the New Testament, the "son of light" is first of all the one who believes in Christ and walks according to the Gospel, as opposed to the one who remains in the darkness of sin. It is a moral and baptismal state: light is received in faith, and must then enlighten one's whole life.
The newness of Luisa's writings is not to contradict this meaning, but to bring it to its fulfilment. Where Saint Paul asks us to conduct ourselves as children of light, Jesus, in the Book of Heaven, announces a generation that no longer contents itself with imitating light from the outside: it lets light live and operate within it, until its acts themselves become luminous with the light of the Divine Will. We thus pass from light received and imitated to light lived from within — what Luisa calls living in the Divine Will.
"The Two Generations": the founding text of October 27, 1922
Everything starts from a page that editions of the Book of Heaven entitle "The Two Generations". Luisa marvels that Jesus waited so long to reveal what His Humanity accomplished in the Divine Will "out of love for us". Jesus answers by unveiling the hidden design of His entire redemptive work.
The children of darkness and the children of light
Jesus first distinguishes two fruits of His Incarnation:
"Know that My Humanity bore two generations: the children of darkness and the children of light. I came to deliver the former and, for this, I shed My Blood." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 14, October 27, 1922[9]
The "children of darkness" are not the damned: they are men marked by the "miseries of the first man", the humanity heir to the Fall, which Christ redeems by His Passion. The Redemption applies to them the "benefits" of salvation and furnishes them "all the means necessary to be saved". This is the work of the redemptive Fiat, already accomplished on the Cross.
A generation "in the thought" of Christ
But Jesus announces that He is "now going further". Beyond the salvation offered to all, He bore a second design, long kept secret:
"I announce that there is another generation in My thought: the generation of My children destined to live in the Divine Will. For them I have prepared every grace, accomplished all My interior acts in the eternal Will." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 14, October 27, 1922[10]
The whole Humanity of Christ, He says, was "immersed in the Will of My heavenly Father" precisely "to form the generation of the children of light". This generation is the "supreme motive" of all He did and suffered; these children are "My cherished inheritance" entrusted to Him by the Father. Without the gift of the Divine Will, Jesus adds, "My coming upon earth would have been incomplete"[11]. The logic is one Luisa finds everywhere: God "first begets in His thought and, at the opportune moment, actualizes". Creation, then Redemption, first existed in the divine thought; so it is with the generation of the children of light.
Luisa, "spokesman and trumpet" of the new generation
On the same page, Jesus assigns Luisa a precise function: not to be the sole child of light, but to be its herald. The knowledge of the Divine Will will be "a powerful magnet" to attract souls and "to make this generation of the children of light dawn":
"Be attentive, my daughter: you will be the spokesman and the trumpet to convoke this new generation which I cherish so much and desire so ardently." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 14, October 27, 1922[12]
That is why Luisa is called elsewhere "the little daughter of the Divine Will": her mission is not to found a caste, but to make known the "knowledges" that will make this generation possible.
Who are they, concretely?
The expression might suggest a spirituality of exception, reserved for souls out of the ordinary. The texts say the opposite: the children of light are defined by a gift offered, not by a performance.
Not an elite, but a vocation offered to all
Jesus presents the new generation as an inheritance He wants to spread abroad, not as a jealously guarded privilege. He speaks of "attracting", "stirring", "convoking" — the vocabulary of universal call, not of selection. The theology that accompanied the spreading of Luisa's writings, notably in Father Joseph Iannuzzi, insists on this point: the gift of living in the Divine Will is not a new way for a few mystics, but a holiness offered to every baptized person, in line with the universal call to holiness recalled by the Second Vatican Council[13]. To be a child of light is therefore not to belong to a closed circle: it is to answer a call addressed to the whole Church.
Living in the Divine Will, not only doing the will of God
What distinguishes the child of light is not one more devotion, but a deeper mode of union. Doing the will of God is submitting to it from without, by obedience and resignation; living in the Divine Will is letting that Will become the living principle of all one's acts — a distinction Luisa develops at length and which is the subject of a dedicated article on the difference between doing the will of God and living in the Divine Will. The child of light is precisely the one in whom the light of the Fiat is no longer only a commandment to follow, but a life to let operate.
The role of the Knowledges of the Divine Will
How is this generation "begotten" in history? Through the spreading of the knowledges about the Divine Will that Jesus dictates to Luisa. On December 22, 1926, Jesus compares these knowledges to the rays of a sphere of sun, of which Luisa is the central point:
"The rays centered in this point are My knowledges that will give fecundity to the generation of the children of the Kingdom of My Will. That is why I always repeat to you: 'Be attentive,' so that none of My knowledges may be lost." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 20, December 22, 1926[14]
Each revealed knowledge "contains a specialty of good" destined "for the children of My Will". The "children of light" and the "children of the Kingdom of My Will" are thus two names for one and the same reality: a people born progressively as the light of the Divine Will makes itself known. This is the direct link between this generation and the Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth.
How is a child of light born? Divine fecundity
Luisa's writings make one essential point clear: a child of light is not manufactured by human effort, it is begotten. The vocabulary is deliberately maternal: generation, fecundity, childbearing.
The "divine Fecundity" of the soul
On November 27, 1927, Jesus reveals that the soul which lets the Divine Will reign within itself receives a share in the fecundity of God:
"The soul that lets the Divine Will reign within itself receives the virtue of divine Fecundity with which the soul can generate in others what it possesses. And it will see coming forth from itself the generation of the children of Light." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 23, November 27, 1927[15]
The child of light thus becomes, in turn, a begetter of other children of light: the holiness of the Divine Will is communicative by nature, like light that kindles without going out.
Mary, the first to generate the children of Light
The model of this fecundity is the Most Holy Virgin. On the same page, Jesus explains that it is "by giving life solely to the Divine Will" that the "sovereign Queen was able to generate within Herself and within all creatures the eternal Word"[16]. Because she lived perfectly in the Fiat, Mary did not only bear Christ according to the flesh: she became the Mother of the generation of the children of Light. This is one aspect of the place of Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will: she is not only the first child of light, she is its Mother and model.
When acts themselves become "children of light"
Luisa goes further still: it is not only persons, but their acts accomplished in the Divine Will that are called "children of light". On September 21, 1928, Jesus develops the image of the sun:
"The sun gives its light to every creature with a single burst of light. […] It is the same for acts accomplished in My Divine Will: they are children of the light of My Divine Will. Thus, with a single act it can make light for all, it can extend itself everywhere." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 24, September 21, 1928[17]
A single act done in the Divine Will, because it shares in the indivisible light of the Fiat, can "extend itself to all" — this is what Luisa experiences in what she calls her "rounds" or "tours" in Creation, where each act of love reaches all creatures at once.
Light, net and mission
The image of light is never, in Luisa, purely contemplative: it is missionary. The generation of the children of light is prepared by concrete work of spreading and attracting souls.
Hannibal di Francia and the transformation of the Knowledges "into sons of Light"
The human instrument of this spreading was first Saint Hannibal Maria di Francia, charged with editing Luisa's writings. On August 18, 1926, Luisa sees Jesus beside the "reverend father charged with the publication of the Writings concerning the Most Holy Will of God", transforming "all the Knowledges, effects and values of the Supreme Will into sons of Light", forming "a luminous crown around his head"[18]. Publishing and making the writings known is already begetting sons of light: the editorial mission and the spiritual generation are one.
The "net of light" cast over the earth
A few weeks later, on November 2, 1926, Luisa describes what her acts accomplished in the Fiat produce:
"As He formed His reflections, many sons of light came forth from them, forming a net of light over the earth to catch creatures. […] Each time you make your round in My Will, you acquire more light to form the net with which I catch creatures." — The Book of Heaven, volume 20, November 2, 1926[19]
The generation of the children of light is thus prepared even before being fully born: by a net of light woven from the acts of the first souls who live in the Divine Will, and destined to "catch" — that is, to attract — the greatest number.
Children of light and the Kingdom of the Divine Will
The children of light are not an isolated spiritual curiosity: they are the people of the Kingdom the whole Church asks for every day in the Our Father. When Luisa describes what "asking for the Kingdom of the Divine Will" means, she speaks of a work that "transports the earth to Heaven to bring Heaven down to earth"[20]. The generation of the children of Light is precisely the humanity of this Kingdom: men in whom the will of God "is done on earth as it is in Heaven".
This hope meets — without being reduced to it — the Catholic expectation of the new heavens and the new earth and the theme, present in the spiritual tradition, of a historical triumph of grace before the end of time. The theology accompanying Luisa's writings places it in line with the expectation of a "Kingdom of the Divine Will" understood not as a material millenarianism, but as an interior blossoming of holiness — as other Ignispedia articles detail regarding the Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth. The child of light is, here and now, its living premise.
What the expression does not mean
Because it speaks of a "new generation" and of "light", the expression calls for a few safeguards. Ignispedia's Catholic compass requires here a sober reading, neither illuminist nor elitist.
Neither illuminism nor gnosis: no caste of the "perfect"
The child of light is not an "initiate" holding a hidden knowledge that would place him above other baptized persons. The light in question is not a gnosis, but the Divine Will itself, freely offered and accessible through the ordinary means of grace — the sacraments, prayer, humility, charity. Nothing in Luisa's texts authorizes despising the "children of darkness": these are Christ's redeemed, loved and saved by His Blood. The new generation is not built against them, but as a surplus of gift within the same Church. Any reading that would turn the children of light into a spiritual aristocracy would betray the text, which speaks of an inheritance offered and a universal call.
The status of Luisa's writings today
Finally, it must be recalled that the doctrine of the children of light comes from private revelations. The Church teaches that these, even when recognized, "do not belong to the deposit of faith" and are not meant "to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it"[21]. Luisa Piccarreta is a Servant of God; her cause of beatification has known contrasting stages, and the Holy See accompanies the spreading of her writings with prudence and discernment[22]. Holding to the spirituality of the children of light is therefore welcoming it as a proposed spiritual help, in full fidelity to the Magisterium, and not as an imposed dogma — a distinction developed in the article on the ecclesial approval of Luisa's writings.
Thus understood, the call to become a "child of light" adds nothing to the faith: it simply invites one to let "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" become, in a soul, a light lived.
To go further
- Luisa Piccarreta (1865–1947) — the life and mission of the "little daughter of the Divine Will".
- What is the gift of living in the Divine Will? — the heart of the spirituality from which the children of light are born.
- Doing the will of God or living in the Divine Will? — the decisive distinction.
- What place does Mary hold in the Kingdom of the Divine Will? — the Mother of the generation of light.
- Why speak of a Kingdom of the Divine Will on earth? — the horizon of the children of light.
- Are Luisa's writings approved by the Church? — the doctrinal status.
Notes and References
Gospel according to Saint John 12:36: "While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light."
1 6Saint Paul, Letter to the Ephesians 5:8: "For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light."
2 7L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 14, October 27, 1922 — page entitled "The Two Generations". Jesus distinguishes "the children of darkness and the children of light", announces "another generation in My thought: the generation of My children destined to live in the Divine Will", and sends Luisa as "spokesman and trumpet" of this generation. Reference edition: Il Libro del Cielo, Centro Studi Luisa Piccarreta / Résiac ed. for the French translation.
3 9 10 11 12Gospel according to Saint John 8:12: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
4Gospel according to Saint Luke 16:8: "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light."
5Saint Paul, First Letter to the Thessalonians 5:5: "For all of you are children of the light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness."
8Rev. Joseph L. Iannuzzi, The Gift of Living in the Divine Will in the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta – An Inquiry into the Early Ecumenical Councils, and into Patristic, Scholastic and Contemporary Theology (doctoral dissertation in sacred theology, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, defended November 22, 2012): cited here as general theological accompaniment — the dissertation presents the gift as offered to all and not reserved to a few mystics (synthetic reading, without reference to a single page). The precise seat of the "universal call to holiness" is conciliar: Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, chapter V, "The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church", §§ 39–42.
13L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 20, December 22, 1926 — image of the sphere of sun of which Luisa is the "single point"; the "knowledges" of the Divine Will are the rays that "will give fecundity to the generation of the children of the Kingdom of My Will".
14L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 23, November 27, 1927 — the "virtue of divine Fecundity" by which the soul "will see coming forth from itself the generation of the children of Light"; the Virgin Mary, "by giving life solely to the Divine Will", generated the eternal Word and the generation of light.
15 16L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 24, September 21, 1928 — comparison with the sun: acts accomplished in the Divine Will "are children of the light of My Divine Will" and, with a single act, "can extend themselves to all".
17L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 19, August 18, 1926 — vision of Jesus beside the father charged with editing the writings (Saint Hannibal Maria di Francia), transforming "all the Knowledges, effects and values of the Supreme Will into sons of Light".
18L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 20, November 2, 1926 — the "sons of light" issued from Luisa's acts form "a net of light over the earth to catch creatures".
19L. Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 23, November 27, 1927 (same context) — "asking for the Kingdom of the Divine Will" means "transporting the earth to Heaven to bring Heaven down to earth".
20Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 67: "Throughout the ages, there have been so-called 'private' revelations […]. It is not their role […] to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history."
21On the current ecclesial status: Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2024 correspondence concerning the writings of Luisa Piccarreta, which invites prudence and discernment in their spreading. Luisa Piccarreta remains a Servant of God; see the article Luisa Piccarreta for the details of the cause and the Roman documents.
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