 Book 1 Chapter 18 of the Mystical City of God, Volume 3, by the venerable sister Mary of Jesus of a greater. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book 1 Chapter 18. Other Mysteries and Occupations of the Great Queen and Lady and her Most Holy Son while they lived alone together. As I have already said in other places, the knowledge of the many sacramental mysteries of Jesus and Mary are reserved for the increase of the accidental beatitude of the predestined in eternal life. The highest and most ineffable of these mysteries took place during the four years in which they lived together after the death of St. Joseph and before the public preaching of our Lord. It is impossible for any mortal worthily to understand such profound secrets. How much less can I, rude and untutored as I am, manifest properly what I have been made to understand concerning them? But in that which I do manifest will be seen the cause of my inability. The soul of Christ our Lord was a most transparent and flawless mirror in which the blessed mother saw reflected all the mysteries and sacraments which the Lord as the head and artificer of the Holy Church, the Restorer of the human race, the Teacher of eternal salvation and the Angel of the Great Council, wrought and accomplished according to the eternal decrees of the Most Blessed Trinity. In the execution of this work consigned to him by the Eternal Father Christ our Lord consumed his whole earthly life and lent to it all the perfection possible to a God-man. In the measure as he approached his consummation and the full accomplishment of its sacraments, so also the force of his divine wisdom and omnipotence became more evident. Of all these mysteries our great Queen and Lady was the eyewitness and her purest heart was their depository. In all things she cooperated with her divine Son as his helpmate in the works of the reparation of mankind. Accordingly in order to understand entirely the designs of eternal providence and the process of dispensing all the mysteries of salvation it was necessary that she comprehend also the things hidden in the science of Christ our Redeemer. The works of his love and prudence, by which he prepared the efficient means of attaining his high purposes. In the little which I can say of the works of Most Holy Mary I must also presuppose the works of her Most Holy Son, for she cooperated with him and imitated him as her pattern and model. The Saviour of the world was already 26 years of age, and in the measure as his Most Holy Humanity approached his perfect growth and his earthly end Christ proceeded to manifest it by permitting his operations to show more and more openly the purpose of the redemption. All these mysteries the evangelist Luke includes in those few words with which he closes the second chapter. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and man. Among men his Blessed Mother cooperated and grew in knowledge with the increase in progress of her Son without remaining ignorant of anything that the Son of God and man could ever communicate to a mere creature. Among these hidden and divine mysteries the Great Lady also perceived during these years how her Son and true God began more and more to extend his plans not only those of his uncreated divinity but of his humanity so as to include all the mortals in his redemption as a whole. How he weighed his value in the eyes of the Eternal Father, and how, in order to close the gates of Hell and call men to eternal happiness, he came down from Heaven to suffer the bitterest torments and death, and how, in spite of all this, the folly and wickedness of those that were to be born after he had thus annihilated himself on the cross, would urge him to widen the portals and open the lowest abysses of Hell, consigning them to those horrible and dreadful torments which their blind ignorance continued to disregard. The knowledge and contemplation of this sad fate caused great affliction and sorrow to the human nature of Christ our Lord, and sometimes pressed forth a bloody sweat. In these agonies the Divine Teacher persevered in his petitions for all that were to be redeemed. In conformity with the will of his Eternal Father he desired with the most ardent love to be sacrificed for the rescue of men. For as not all were to be saved by his merits and sacrifices, he knew that at all events the Divine Justice must be satisfied, and the offenses to the divinity be made good by the punishment which Divine Equity and Justice had prepared from all eternity for the infidels and the thankless sinners on the day of retribution. Entering into these profound secrets, by her deep wisdom, the Great Lady joined her most holy Son in the sorrowful contemplation and sighs for those unfortunates. While at the same time her heart was torn by grief at the heavy affliction of the blessed fruit of her womb, many times the meekest dove shed in sanguine tears when she saw her Son sweat blood in the agonies of his sorrow. For only this most prudent Lady and her Son, the true God and man, could ever justly weigh, as in the scales of the sanctuary, what it meant, on the one hand, to see a God dying upon a cross, in order to seal up the infernal regions, and on the other hand, the hardness and blindness of mortal hearts, in casting themselves headlong into the jaws of eternal death. In these great sorrows it sometimes happened that the most loving mother was overcome by deathly weaknesses, and they would no doubt have ended her life if she had not been preserved by divine intervention. Her sweetest Son, in return for her most faithful and loving compassion, sometimes commanded the angels to console her and take her into their arms, at other times, to sing her own heavenly canticles of praise in honor of the divinity and humanity. At other times, the Lord himself took her into his arms, and gave her new celestial understanding of her exemption from this iniquitous law of sin and its effects. Thus reclining in his arms, the angels sang to her in admiration, while she, transformed and enraptured in heavenly ecstasies, experienced new and exquisite influences of the divinity. At such times, this chosen one, this perfect and only one, was truly reclining on the left hand of the humanity, while rejoiced and caressed by the right hand of the divinity. Her most loving son and spouse conjured the daughters of Jerusalem not to wake his beloved from his sleep, which cured the sorrows and infirmities of her love, until she herself desired to be thus awakened, and the supernal spirits broke forth in wonder to see her raised above them all, resting on her beloved son, clothed in very colored garment at his right hand, and they blessed and extolled her above all creatures. The great queen was made acquainted with the deepest secrets concerning the predestination of the elect in virtue of the redemption, and she saw them as they were written in the eternal memory of her son. She was enabled to see how he applied to them his merits and efficaciously interceded for their salvation, how his love and grace, of which the reprobate made themselves unworthy, were awarded to the predestined according to their different dispositions. Among the predestined she also saw those whom the Lord in his wisdom and solicitude was to call to his apostolate an imitation, and how by means of his hidden and foreordained decrees. He began to enlist them to the standard of his cross, which they themselves afterwards were to unfold before the world, and how he pursued the policy of a good general, who, planning a great battle or conquest, assigns the different duties to different parts of his army, chooses the most courageous and well-disposed for the most arduous positions. Thus Christ our Redeemer, in order to enter upon the conquest of the world and to spoil the demon of his tyrannical possession by the power of his Godhead as the word, disposed of this new army to be enlisted, assign the dignities and offices of his courageous and strong captains and predestined them for the posts of duty. All the preparations and apparatus of this war were prearranged in the divine wisdom of his most holy will, just in the order in which all was to take place. All this was also open and manifest to the most prudent mother, and to her was given, by infused species, to see and personally to know many of the predestined, especially the apostles and disciples, and a great number of those who were called to the Holy Church in the primitive and later ages. On account of this supernatural knowledge given to her by God, she knew the apostles and others before coming in contact with them, and just as the Divine Master had prayed and obtained for them their vocation before he called them, so also the heavenly lady made them the object of her prayers. Hence, in the favors and graces which the apostles received before hearing or seeing their master, and which disposed and prepared them to accept their vocation to the apostolate, the mother of grace had likewise cooperated. In proportion as the time of his public preaching drew nearer, the Lord redoubled his prayers and petitions for them and sent them greater and more efficacious inspirations. In like manner, the prayers of the heavenly lady grew to be more fervent and efficacious, and when afterwards they attached themselves to the Lord and saw her face to face, she was want to say of them as well as of many others to her son, these, my son and master, are the fruits of thy prayers and of thy holy desires. She sang songs of praise and thanksgiving because she saw his wishes fulfilled and because she saw those who were called from the beginning of the world drawn to his following. In the prudent contemplation of those wonders, our great Queen was want to be absorbed and to break out in matchless hymns of admiration and praise, performing heroic acts of love and adoring the secret judgments of the Most High. Entirely transformed and penetrated by this fire which issued from the Lord in order to consume the world, she was accustomed, sometimes in the secret of her heart, at others in a loud voice, to exclaim, Oh infinite love, oh manifestation of goodness ineffable and immense, why do mortals not know thee? Why should thy tenderness be so ill-repaid? Oh ye labors, sufferings, sighs, petitions and desires of my beloved, altogether more precious than pearls, than all the treasures of the world, who shall be so unhappy and so ungrateful as to despise thee? Oh children of Adam, whom can you find to die for you many times, in order that your ignorance might be undeceived, your hardness be softened and your misfortunes relieved? After these ardent exclamations, the Blessed Mother conversed with her son, mouth to mouth, and the Highest King consoled and dilated her heart, reminding her how pleasing she herself was to the Most High, how great a grace and glory were to be merited for the predestined, in comparison with the ingratitude and hardness of the reprobate. Especially he showed her the love of himself toward her, that of the Blessed Trinity, and how much God was pleased with her faithful correspondence and immaculate purity. At other times the Lord showed her what he was to do in his public preaching, how she was to cooperate with him and help him in the affairs and in the government of the New Church. She was informed of the denial of St. Peter, the unbelief of Thomas, the treachery of Judas and other events of the future. From that moment on, the dutiful lady resolved to labor zealously in order to save that treasonous disciple, and she followed her resolve as I shall relate in its place. The perdition of Judas began by his despising her good will and by conceiving against the mother of grace a sort of ill will and impiety. Of these great mysteries and sacraments the heavenly lady was informed by her most holy son, so great was the wisdom and science deposited in her that all attempts at fully explaining them is vain, for only the knowledge of the Lord could exceed that of Mary which far excelled that of all the seraphim and cherubim. But if our Lord and Redeemer Jesus and Mary his most holy mother employed all these gifts of grace and science in the service of mortals and if a single sigh of Christ our Lord was of incalculable value for all creatures, and if those of his mother, though they had not the same value as his, being those of a mere creature, were worth more in the eyes of God than the doings of all creation taken together, to what an immense value will both their united merits swell when we add together what son and mother did for us in their petitions, tears, bloody sweat, fearful torment and death of the cross and all the other actions in which the mother joined the divine son as his helpmate and partaker of all his acts. O, in gratitude of men, O, hardness of our cardinal heart, more than adamantine, where is our insight, where our reason, where is even the most common compassion or gratitude of human nature, is it not moved to pity and compassion by the sensible objects the causes of its eternal damnation? Why then does it so completely forget to be moved by the life and sufferings of the Lord, the cause of eternal happiness and peace in the life to come? Instruction given to me by the Queen of Heaven, most holy Mary. My daughter, it is certain that even if thou or any of the mortals were able to speak in the language of the angels, they would not on that account be able to describe the blessings and favors which the right hand of the most high showered upon me in those last years of the life of my son with me. These works of the Lord are of an order, far above thy capacity and that of the rest of the mortals. But since thou hast received such special enlightenment concerning these sacraments, I wish that thou praise and extol thee almighty for all that he did for me and for raising me out of the dust by such exalted favors. Although thy love of the Lord must be spontaneous as that of a devoted daughter and of a most loving spouse, not selfish or forced, yet I wish that for the support of thy human weakness and the strengthening of thy hope thou fondly remember how delightful the Lord is in his charity toward those who love him with filial fear. Oh, my dearest daughter, if men would place no hindrance by their sins and if they would not resist this infinite bounty, how measureless would be the favors and blessings upon them. According to thy way of understanding, thou must look upon him as being outraged and made sorrowful by the opposition of mortals to his boundless desires of doing them good. And they carried their opposition so far that they accustomed themselves not only to be unworthy of tasting of his sweetness, but also not to believe that others ever participate in his sweetness and blessings which he desires so much to communicate to all. Be careful also to give thanks for the incessant labors of my most holy son for all men and for what I have done in union with him as has been shown thee. Catholics should bear in mind more constantly the passion and death of the Lord because the Church so often recalls it to their remembrance, although few show themselves grateful. But there are still fewer who take thought of the other works of my son and of mine. For the Lord allowed not one hour, yea, not a moment, to pass, in which he did not employ in gaining gifts and graces for rescuing all men from eternal damnation and making them participators in his glory. These works of the Lord God incarnate will be witnesses against the forgetfulness and hard-heartedness of the faithful, especially on the day of judgment. If thou, who possesses the light and the doctrine of the most high and my teachings, will not be grateful, thy confusion will be even greater than that of others, since thy guilt is more heinous. Thou must not only correspond to the many general blessings, but also to the special and particular ones which thou experienceest every day. Guard against the danger of forgetfulness and conduct thyself as my daughter and disciple. Do not delay for one moment to apply thyself to a good life, in the best way possible to thee. For this purpose, attend well to the interior lights and to the instructions of thy spiritual guides, the ministers of the Lord. Be assured, if thou correspond to some of the graces and favors, the most high will open up his almighty hands and fill thee with riches and treasures. Book 1, Chapter 19, of the Mystical City of God, Volume 3, by the venerable sister Mary of Jesus of Agerda. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book 1, Chapter 19, Christ our Lord begins to prepare for his public preaching by announcing to some the presence of the Redeemer into the world. His most holy mother assists him therein, and the powers of hell begin to get uneasy. The fire of divine charity burned in the bosom of our Redeemer and Master, as in a closed furnace, until the opportune time destined for its manifestation. For in due time he was to lay bare the burning love of his bosom by means of his public preaching and miracles, and at last, even to break the vase of his humanity, in order to pour forth his charity. Although it is true, as Solomon says, that fire cannot be concealed in the bosom without burning the vestments. Proverbs, Chapter 6, Verse 27. And although the Lord always manifested his love, sending forth from him, it sparks in flames in all his doings, since the moment of his incarnation, yet in comparison to what he was to accomplish in his chosen time, and in comparison to the conflagration of his interior love, we may say that the flames of his love had until then remain covered and enclosed. The Lord had now reached perfect adolescence, attaining his 27th year. According to our way of speaking, it seemed as if he could not any more restrain the impetus of his love and of his desire to fulfill the will of the Eternal Father in accomplishing the salvation of men. He was filled with sorrowing love, prayed and fasted much, and began to mingle with the people and communicate with mortals. Many times he passed the nights in prayer on the mountains, and began to absent himself two or three days from the house and from his most holy mother. The most prudent lady, by these absences and excursions of her son, foresaw the approach of his labors and sufferings. She already felt the sword, prepared for her devout and affectionate love, piercing her heart and soul, and was entirely consumed in most tender acts of love for her beloved. During these absences of her son, her heavenly courtiers and vassals, the holy angels, attended upon her invisible forms, and the great lady spoke to them of her sorrows and sent them as messengers to her son and lord in order that they might bring her news of his occupations and exercises. The holy angels obeyed their queen, and by their frequent messages she was enabled in her retirement to follow the highest king, Christ, in all his prayers, supplications and exercises. Whenever the Lord returned, she received him prostrate on the ground, adoring him and thanking him for the blessings which he had gained for the sinners. She served him as a loving mother and sought to procure for him the poor refreshment of which she knew he stood in need as a true man, subject to suffering. For often it happened that he passed two or three days without rest or food or sleep. As already described, the most blessed mother was aware of the labors and cares weighing down the soul of the redeemer. The Lord always informed her of them and of his new undertakings of the hidden blessings communicated to many souls by new light concerning the divinity and concerning the redemption. Full of this knowledge, the great queen was wont to say to her most holy son, My Lord, highest and true happiness of souls, I see, light of my eyes, that thy most ardent love for men will not rest or be appeased until it has secured eternal salvation for them. This is the proper occupation of thy charity and the work assigned to thee by the eternal Father. Thy words and precious works must necessarily draw toward thee many hearts. But oh, my sweetest love, I desire that all the mortals be attracted and that all of them correspond to thy solicitude and exceeding great charity. Behold me, thy slave, O Lord, with a heart prepared to fulfill all thy wishes and to offer her life if necessary, in order that all creatures may submit to the longings of thy most ardent love, which so completely devotes itself to drawing them to thy grace and friendship. To this offering, the mother of mercy was urged by her ardent desire to see the teaching and labors of our Redeemer and Master bring forth their proper fruit. As the most prudent lady fully estimated their value and dignity, she wished that they be lost for none of the souls, nor that proper thanks for them should be wanting in men. In her charity, she wished to assist the Lord, or rather to assist her fellow men, who heard his words and witnessed his works, in corresponding to these favors and lose not their chances of salvation. She was consumed with a desire to render worthy thanks and praise to the Lord, for his wonderful bounty toward souls, seeking to repay the debt of acknowledgement and gratitude, not only for those mercies that were efficacious, but for those which the guilt of men made inactive. In this thanksgiving, the thanks of our great lady were as hidden as they were admirable. For in all the works of Christ our Lord, she participated in a most exalted degree, not only insofar as she cooperated as the cause, but in as far as the effects are concerned. She so labored for each soul, as if she herself were the one to be benefited. Of this I will say more in the third part. To this offering of the most loving mother, her most holy son answered, My dearest mother, already the time has come, in which I must, conformable to the will of my eternal Father, commence to prepare some hearts for the reception of my light and doctrine, and for giving them notice of the opportune and foreordained time of the salvation of men. In this work I wish thee to follow and assist me, beseech thou my Father to send his light into the hearts of the mortals and awaken their souls, that they may with an upright intention receive the message of the presence of their Savior and Teacher in the world. From that day on his mother, according to his own desire, accompanied him in all his excursions from the town of Nazareth. Our Lord began to make these excursions more frequently in the three years preceding his public preaching and baptism. In the company of our great Queen, he made many journeys in the neighborhood of Nazareth and to the province of Naphthally, as was prophesied by Isaiah's. Isaiah chapter 5 verse 2. And other parts. In his conversation with men he began to announce to them the coming of the Messiahs, assuring them that he was already in the world and in the territory of Israel. He told them of it without intimating that he himself was the one they thus expected, for the first testimony of his being Son of God was given publicly by the eternal Father when the voice from heaven was heard at the Jordan. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew chapter 3 verse 17. Without especially announcing his true dignity, the only begotten spoke of it in general terms as one who knows with certainty. Without performing any public miracles or using other outward demonstration, he secretly accompanied his teachings and testimonies by interior inspirations and helps which he conferred on the hearts of those with whom he conversed and treated. Thus disposing their souls by faith, he prepared them to receive him afterwards so much the more readily in person. He made acquaintance with such as by his divine wisdom he knew to be prepared and capable, or rather, less unsuited, to accept the seed of truth. To the more ignorant he spoke of the signs of the coming of the Redeemer, known to all, such as the coming of the three kings and the slaughter of the innocents and of similar events. With the more enlightened he adduced the testimonies of the prophets already fulfilled and he explained to them these truths with the power and force of a divine teacher. He proved to them that the Messiahs had already come to Israel and he pointed out to them the kingdom of God and the way to reach it. As he exhibited in his outward appearance so much beauty, grace, peace, sweetness and gentleness of manner and of speech, and as all his discourse, though veiled, was nevertheless so vivid and strong, and as he added thereto, also his interior help of grace, the fruit of this wonderful mode of teaching was very great. Many souls forsook the path of sin, others began a virtuous life, all of them were instructed and made capable of understanding the great mysteries, and especially of believing that the Messiahs had already begun his reign. To these works of mercy the divine teacher added many others, for he consoled the sorrowful, relieved the oppressed, visited the sick and grief-stricken, encouraged the disheartened, gave salutary counsel to the ignorant, assisted those in the agony of death, secretly gave health a body to many, helped those in great distress, and at the same time led them on to the path of life and of true peace. All those that trustfully came to him or heard him, with devout and upright mind, were filled with light and with the powerful gifts of his divinity. It is not possible to enumerate or estimate the admirable works of the Redeemer during these three years of public preaching after his baptism. All was done in a mysterious manner, so that without manifesting himself as the author of salvation, he communicated it to a vast number of souls. In nearly all these wonderful operations, our great lady was present, as a most faithful witness and co-worker. As all of them were manifest to her, she assisted and gave thanks for them in the name of the creatures and the mortals who were thus favored by divine bounty. She composed hymns of praise to the Almighty, prayed for the souls as one, knowing all their interior necessities, and by her prayers, gained for them new blessings and favors. She herself also undertook to exhort and counsel them, drawing them to the sweet teachings of her son, and giving them intimation of the coming of the messiahs. She practiced these works of mercy more among women, intimating among them the works of mercy which her most holy son performed for men. Few persons accompanied or followed the Savior and His most blessed mother in those first years, for it was not yet time to call them to a close following of His doctrines. He permitted them to remain in their homes, simply instructing and urging them to a more perfect life by His divine enlightenment. The ordinary companions of the heavenly teachers were the holy angels, who served them as most faithful vassals and servants. Although they often returned from these excursions to their home in Nazareth, yet on their journeys they stood more in need of the ministry of these courtiers of heaven. Some of the nights they passed in prayer without any other shelter than that of the sky, and on these occasions the angels protected them and sheltered them from the inclemency of the weather, and sometimes they brought food. At other times, the Lord and His mother begged food, refusing to accept any money or other gifts not necessary for their present nourishment. When at times they separated, the Lord Jesus visiting the sick in hospitals, and His mother, other sick persons, innumerable angels accompanied Mary in visible forms. Through their mediation, she performed some of her works of charity, and was kept informed of the doings of her most holy son. I do not dilate in particular upon the wonders performed by them during this time, nor upon the labors and difficulties encountered on these excursions, in the taberns, and from the obstacles which the common enemy placed in their way. It is enough to know that the teacher of life and his most holy mother were looked upon as poor pilgrims, and that they preferred the way of suffering without evading any labor deemed advisable for our salvation. In this hidden manner, the Divine Master and His mother spread the knowledge of His coming to all sorts of persons, yet the poor were more especially the objects of His blessed solitude. They ordinarily are more capable of God's truths, because they are less burdened with sin, and endowed with more light, and because their minds are more free and unhampered by vain anxieties. They are likewise more humble and diligent in subjecting their will and understanding, and in applying themselves to an upright and virtuous life. Moreover, as during these three years, Jesus did not preach openly, nor with manifest authority confirmed by miracles, he addressed himself rather to the humble and poor, who are led to the truth with less show of authority. Nevertheless, the attention of the ancient serpent was much aroused by many of the doings of Jesus and his mother, for not all of his miracles remain concealed, though the power by which they were done was hidden. Satan saw that through his words and exhortations, many sinners were brought to penance, amended their life, and escaped his tyranny. Others advanced in virtue, and in all who listened to the teacher of life, the common enemy noticed a great and unheard of change. What enraged him most, was that he could not succeed in his attempts with those that were in the throes of death, though he multiplied his cunning and malice in these last hours of the souls in this life. It often happened that this bloodthirsty dragon, having approached the sick in order to exert his malice, was interrupted by the entrance of Jesus or Mary and felt a powerful force which hurled him and his demons to the deepest caverns of hell. If Jesus or Mary had previously come to the sick room, the demons could not enter and could exert no influence upon the sick person who thus died in the powerful protection of the Lord. As the dragon felt this divine power, without being able to account for it, he conceived an insane rage and anxiously sought means of counteracting the damage. Then happened what I shall relate in the next chapter, as I do not wish to enlarge this present one. Teaching of the Most Holy Queen, Mary My daughter, I see the astonished at the information which I give thee concerning the mysterious works of my Most Holy Son and concerning my own share in them, for thou seest on the one hand how powerful they are for making an impression on human hearts, and on the other that many of them have remained hidden until now. Thy wonder should not be that men have not known these mysteries, but that, having been informed of so many others concerning the life and activity of their own and my Lord, they have held them in such contempt and forgetfulness. If they were not so ignoble of heart and would lovingly contemplate the divine truths, they would find in my sons and in my own life, as far as it is known to them, most powerful motives for thankfulness. By the articles of faith and by the many other truths taught and preached in the Holy Church, many worlds could be converted. For these truths exhibit clearly that the only begotten of the Eternal Father clothed himself in the mortal flesh of sinful man in order to redeem the human race by the frightful death of the cross. Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, verse 7 Acquiring for them eternal life by the loss of his own and recalling and liberating them from everlasting death, if this blessing were taken at its true value, and mortals were not so ungrateful to their God and Savior and so cruel toward themselves, none would lose their chance of salvation or bring upon themselves eternal damnation. In thy amazement, then, my dearest, weep ceaselessly for the terrible loss sustained by so many insane and thankless souls who are forgetful of God, of their duty and of their own selves. On former occasions I have already told thee that the number of those foreknown as doomed is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular. For if thou hast the sentiments of a true daughter of the Church, the spouse of Christ, my son, and Lord, thou wouldst die at seeing such misfortune. What thou mayest know is that all the loss and misfortune apparent in Christian nations and governments, as well among chiefs, as among subjects of the Church and of the secular state, all originate and flow from the forgetfulness and contempt of the works of Christ and of the works of His redemption. If there were a way of rousing them to a sense of thankfulness, and to a sense of their duty, as faithful and acknowledged children of their Creator and Redeemer, and of Me, who am their intercessor, the wrath of the Divine Judge would be appeased, and there would be some diminuation of the widespread ruin and perdition among Catholics. The Eternal Father, who is justly zealous for the honor of His Son, and rigorously chastises the servants who know the will of their Lord and refuse to fulfill it, would again be reconciled. The faithful in the Church make much of the sin of the infidel Jews in taking away the life of their God and Master. They are right in doing so, for it was a most heinous crime, and merited the punishments decreed against that people. But Catholics forget that their own sins are rendered heinous by other elements of guilt surpassing that of the Jews, for although their error was culpable, they esteemed it as truth in the end, then also the Lord delivered Himself up to them, allowing them to follow the counsels of hell, by which they were oppressed for their sins. In our days, the Catholics are not in ignorance, but in the fullness of the light, by which they know and understand the divine mysteries of the incarnation and redemption. The Holy Church has been founded, spread out, made illustrious by miracles, by saints, by holy writings, by the knowledge and proclamation of truths unknown to the Jews. In spite of all these multiplied advantages, blessings, truths and enlightenment, many live like infidels, and as if they had not before their eyes, so many inducements to draw them on and oblige them, nor so many chastisements to fill them with dread. How can Catholics, then, under these circumstances, imagine that the sins of others were greater or more grievous than their own? How can they presume that their punishment shall not be more lamentable? Oh, my daughter, ponder well this doctrine and be filled with holy fear. Humiliate thyself to the dust, and confess thyself the lowest of the creatures before the most high. Look upon the works of thy Redeemer and Master. Imitate them, and apply them sorrowfully, to satisfy for thy own faults in sorrow and penance. Do thou imitate and follow me in my ways, as far as thou art enlightened from on high. And I wish that thou labor not only for thy own salvation, but also for the salvation of thy brethren. This thou must do by praying and suffering for them, charitably admonishing those thou canst, and eagerly doing for them more than is thy duty. Show thyself even more anxious to benefit those who have offended thee. Be patient with all, and humiliate thyself below the abject. According to the directions given thee before, be thou solicitous to assist, with fervent charity and firm assurance, those that are in the dangers of death. End of Chapter 19 Book 1 Chapter 20 of the Mystical City of God Volume 3 by the venerable sister Mary of Jesus of a Greta. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book 1 Chapter 20 Lucifer calls a meeting in Hell in order to hinder the works of Christ our Redeemer and of his Most Holy Mother. The tyrannical sway of Lucifer over this world was not any more so unobstructed as it had been in the ages preceding the incarnation of the Divine Word, for from that hour in which the Son of the Eternal Father descended from heaven and assumed flesh in the bridal chamber of his virginal mother, this strongly armed one felt a superior force which oppressed and crushed him, as I have related in its place. Chapter 11 Verse 21 After the birth of Christ, he felt this power when the infant Jesus entered into Egypt and on many occasions afterward this demon was routed and overcome by the force of divine truth issuing from the great queen. Comparing and connecting these past happenings with all the new experiences related in the foregoing chapter, the ancient serpent was beginning to be much troubled by his fears and suspicions, lest a new and vast force had established itself on the earth. But as the sacrament of the incarnation was deeply hidden from him, he lived on in his blind fury without suspicion of the truth, although since his fall from heaven he had most anxiously tried to ascertain when and how the Divine Word would leave heaven and assume human flesh, for this wonderful work of God was what his arrogance and pride feared most of all. This anxiety induced him to convoke the many council meetings of which I have spoken in this history and also the one of which I now speak. Finding himself then full of uncertainty concerning the experiences of the demons and of himself with Jesus and Mary, this enemy of the human race questioned himself by what power he had been vanquished and put to flight in his attempts to ruin the dangerously sick and the dying and in his other encounters with the Queen of Heaven. As he could not clear the mystery for himself, he resolved to consult those of his associates who excelled in malice and astuteness. He gave forth a roar or tremendous howl in hell, using the language understood by the demons and called together those who were subject to him. All of them having gathered together he made them a speech saying, My ministers and companions, you have always followed me in my just opposition. You well know that in the first state in which we were placed by the Creator of all things, we acknowledged him as the universal source of all our being and thus also respected him, but as soon as to the detriment of our beauty and preeminence, so close to the deity, he imposed upon us the command that we adore and serve the person of the word in human form, which he intended to assume, we resisted his will. For although I knew that this reference was due him as God, yet as he chose to unite himself to the nature of man, so ignoble and inferior to mine, I could not bear to be subject to him, nor could I bear to see that he did not favor me rather than the creature man. He not only commanded us to adore him, but also to recognize as our superior a woman, his mother, a mere earthly creature. To these grievances I took exception and you with me. We objected to them and resolved to deny him obedience. On account of our behavior at that time, we are punished and made to suffer the pains of our present condition, although we are aware of these truths and acknowledge them with terror among ourselves, it will not do to confess them before men. CHAPTER 2 VIRUS 19 And this I put as a command upon you all in order that they may not know of our present difficulty and weakness. But if this God-man and his mother are really to come, it is clear that their coming into this world shall be the beginning of our greatest ruin and torment, and for this reason I must seek with all my strength to prevent it and to destroy them, and at the cost of overturning and destroying all the world. You all know how invincible has been my strength until now, since such a great portion of the world obeyed my command and is subject to my will and cunning. But in the last few years I have noticed on many occasions that your powers seem to have decreased and weakened, that you were oppressed and overcome, and I myself feel a superior force which restrains and intimidates me. All times I have searched with you through the whole world, trying to find some clue for this loss and oppression which we feel. If this messiahs, who is promised to the chosen people of God, is already in the world, we not only fail to discover him on the whole face of the earth, but we see no certain signs of his coming, and we perceive none of the pomp and outward show naturally attended upon such a person. Nevertheless I have my misgivings, lest the time of his coming from heaven unto this earth be already near. Therefore we ought all be eager to destroy him and the woman whom he chose for his mother, whoever shall distinguish himself in this work, shall not complain in my thankfulness and reward. Until now I have found guilt and the effects of guilt in all men, and I have seen no such majesty and grand magnificence as would induce the word to become man and which would oblige mortals to adore him and offer him sacrifice, for by this homage we shall be able to recognize him. The certain indication of his coming and the distinguishing mark of the messiahs will no doubt be that neither sin nor its consequences common to other children of Adam will ever be able to touch him. So much the greater, therefore, continued Lucifer. Is my confusion at present? For if the eternal word has not yet come into the world, I cannot understand these new experiences, nor whence comes this strong opposition which overpowers us. Who drove us out and hurled us from Egypt? Who destroyed the temples and crushed the idols of that country in which we were adored by all the inhabitants? Who oppresses us now in the land of Galilee and its neighborhood, and prevents us from perverting many of the persons in danger of death? Who keeps away from sin so many souls, as if they were withdrawn from our jurisdiction, and who causes so many to better their lives and begin to seek the kingdom of God? If this damaging influence is allowed to continue, great misfortune and torment may arise for all of us from this secret force which we do not comprehend. It is necessary to put a stop to it and search anew all over the world, whether it does not contain a great prophet or saint who seeks our destruction, I have not been able to discover anyone to whom I can ascribe such power. Only I have a great hatred against that woman, our enemy, especially since we persecuted her in the temple and later on in her house at Nazareth, for we have always been vanquished and terrified by the virtue which shields her and resists our malice. Never have I been able to search her interior or come near her person. She has a son, and when both of them attended at his father's death, all of us were unable to approach the place where they were. They are poor and neglected people. She is an unknown and helpless little woman, but I presume without a doubt that both son and mother must be counted among the just, for I have continually sought to draw them into the failings common to men, and yet I have never succeeded in causing them to commit the least of the disorderly or reprehensible actions which are so common and natural with other people. I know that the Almighty conceals from me the state of these souls, and this doubtlessly argues some hidden danger for us. Although the interior condition of some other souls has been concealed from us on certain occasions, yet this was but rarely and not in the manner as with these two. Even if this man is not the Messiah's, it is certain that they are just and our enemies, which is sufficient reason for persecuting them and ruining them, and especially for seeking to find out who they are. Do you all follow me in the enterprise with all diligence, for I shall be your leader in our fight against them? With this exhortation, Lucifer concluded his long speech, in which he gave to the demon much more information and malicious counsel. But I need not mention them here, since this history will contain other references to the hellish plots to make us understand the cunning of that venomous serpent. Immediately the Prince of Darkness, together with countless legions of evil spirits, issued forth from hell and spread over the whole world. They persisted in roaming through it many times, searching out in their malice and cunning all the just, tempting those they recognized as such, and provoking them and other men to commit the evil deeds hatched out in their own infernal minds. But Christ our Lord in his wisdom concealed his own person and that of his mother for many days from the haughty Lucifer. He did not permit him to see or recognize him, until he betook himself to the desert, where he allowed and wished the devil to tempt him after his long fast, and Lucifer did tempt him, as I shall relate in its place. When this meeting was held in the infernal regions, Christ, to whom our Divine Master all was known, betook himself to prayer against the malice of the dragon, and among other petitions he prayed as follows. Eternal and most high God and Father, I adore thee and exalt thy infinite and immutable essence. I confess thee as the highest and boundless good, and I offer myself in sacrifice to thy divine will, for the vanquishing and crushing of the infernal powers and of their malicious counsels against my creatures. I shall battle for them against my and their enemies, and by my own works and victories. I shall leave them an encouragement, an example of what they must do, so that those who serve me, from their heart, may prevail against Lucifer's malice. Defend my Father, the souls from the snares and cruelty of the serpent and its followers, and grant to the just, the power of thy right hand, in order that through my intercession and death, they may gain victory over their temptations and dangers. Our great Queen and Lady had a like knowledge of the evil counsels of Lucifer, and saw all that passed in her Divine Son and the prayer he offered. As the co-attetrics of his triumphs, she joined in the prayers and petitions of her Son to the Eternal Father. The most high granted all of them, and on this occasion Jesus and Mary obtained immense assistance and rewards from the Father, for those that battle against the demons in the name of Jesus and Mary. So great was the efficacy of their prayers, that all those who pronounce these names in reverence and faith overcome their hellish enemies, and precipitously repel them in virtue of the prayers, triumphs and victories of our Savior and of His Most Holy Mother. On account of the protection thereby offered to us against the arrogant giants of hell, and on account of all the other helps furnished us in the holy Church of our Lord, no excuses left us for not battling legitimately and valiantly, or for not overcoming and vanquishing the demon as the enemy of the Eternal God and our own, for in this we shall follow the example of our Savior according to our ability. Teaching of the Most Holy Mary, the Queen of Heaven. My daughter weep with bitterest sorrow over the stubbornness and blindness of mortals, in not understanding and acknowledging the loving protection which they have in my Divine Son, and in me, as a relief from all their troubles and necessities. My Lord spared Himself no exertion, and left no means unemployed in order to gain for them inestimable treasures of Heaven. He garnered up His infinite merits in the holy Church, the most important fruit of His passion and death. He left the secure pledges of His glorious love, and procured for them most easy and efficacious means in order that all of them might enjoy and apply them for their use and for their eternal salvation. He offers them, moreover, His protection and mine. He loves them as children. He cherishes them as His chosen friends. He calls them by His inspirations. He invites them by His blessings and graces. He awaits them as a most kind Father. He seeks them as their pastor. He helps them as the most powerful. He rewards them as one possessing infinite riches, and governs them as a mighty King. All these and innumerable other favors, which are pointed out by faith, offered by the Church, and presented before their very eyes, men forget and despise. As if blind, they love the darkness and deliver themselves up to the fury and rage of those cruel enemies. They listen to His lies. They his wicked suggestions, and confide in His snares. They trust and give themselves up to the unquenchable fire of His wrath. He seeks to destroy them and consign them to eternal death, only because they are creatures of the most high, who vanquished and crushed this most cruel foe. Guard thyself, therefore, my dearest, against this deplorable error of the children of men, and disengage thy faculties in order that thou may clearly see the difference between the service of Christ and that of Belial. Greater is that difference than the distance between heaven and earth. Christ is eternal life, the true light and the pathway to eternal life. Those who follow Him, He loves with imperishable love, and He offers them His life and His company. With it an eternal happiness, such as neither eyes have seen, nor ears have heard, nor ever can enter into the mind of man. Chapter 14 Verse 6 Lucifer is darkness itself, error, deceit, unhappiness and death. He hates his followers and forces them into evil as far as possible, and at the end inflicts upon them eternal fire and horrid torments. Let mortals give testimony whether they are ignorant of these truths, since the Holy Church propounds them and calls them to their minds every day. If men believe these truths, where is their good sense? Who has made them insane? Who drives from their remembrance the love which they ought to have for themselves? Who makes them so cruel to themselves? Oh, insanity never sufficiently to be bewailed, and so little considered by the children of Adam! All their life they labor and exert themselves to become more and more entangled in the snares of their passions, to be consumed in deceitful vanities and to deliver themselves over to the inextinguishable fire, death and everlasting perdition as if all were a mere joke and as if Christ had not come down from heaven to die on a cross for their rescue. Let them but look upon the price and consider how much God himself paid for this happiness who knew the full value of it. The idolaters and heathens are much less to blame for falling into this error, nor does the wrath of the most high in kindle so much against them as against the faithful of his church, who have such a clear knowledge of this truth. If the minds of men in our present age have grown forgetful of that, let them understand that this happened by their own fault, because they have given a free hand to their enemy, Lucifer. He with tireless malice, labors to overcome the barriers of restraint, so that forgetful of the last things and of eternal torment, men may give themselves over, like brute beasts, to sensual pleasures, and unmindful of themselves consume their lives in the pursuit of apparent good until, as Job says. Job 21 verse 13 They suddenly fall a prey to eternal perdition. Such is, in reality, the fate of innumerable foolish men who abhor the restraint imposed upon them by this truth. Do thou, my daughter, allow me to extract thee, and keep thyself free from such harmful deceit, and from this forgetfulness of the worldly people? Let the despairing groans of the damned, which begin at the end of their lives, and at the beginning of their eternal damnation, ever resound in thy ears. Oh, we fools, who esteem the life of the jest as madness! Oh, how they are counted among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints! We have aired, then, from the path of truth and of justice. The Son has not arisen for us. We have wearied ourselves in the ways of iniquity and destruction. We have sought difficult paths, and aired by our own fault, from the way of the Lord. What has pride profited us? What advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? All has passed away from us like a shadow. Oh, had we but never been born! This, my daughter, thou must fear and ponder in thy heart, so that, before thou goest to that land of darkness and of eternal dungeons, from whence there is no return, thou mayest provide against evil and avoid it by doing the good. During thy mortal life and out of love, do thou now perform that, of which the damned in their despair, are forced to warn thee by the excess of their punishment. End of chapter 20 Book 1, chapter 21 of the mystical city of God, volume 3, by the venerable sister Mary of Jesus, of a Greta. Book 1, chapter 21, Saint John, having obtained great favors from the most holy Mary, is ordered by the Holy Ghost to go forth on his public preaching. He first sends to the heavenly Lady his cross. I have already spoken of some of the favors conferred on Saint John by the Blessed Mary during her sojourn in Egypt, also of her solicitude for her cousin Elizabeth and Saint John, when Herod resolved to take away the lives of the Holy Innocence. I have also mentioned that the future precursor of Christ, after the death of his mother, remained altogether in the desert, until the time appointed by the Divine Wisdom, and that he lived there more the life of a seraph than of a man. His conversation was with the holy angels and with the Lord of all creation. This was his sole occupation, and never was he idle in the exercise of his love and of the heroic virtues, which he began in the womb of his mother. Not for one moment was grace in him unprofitable, nor did he fail in the least point of perfection possible. His senses, being altogether withdrawn from earthly things, did not in any way hinder him, for they did not serve him as windows, through which the images of the deceitful vanities of the creatures are want to bring death to the souls. Since this Saint was so fortunate as to be visited by the Divine Light, before he saw the light of created Son of this world, he overlooked all that is seen by eyes of the flesh and fixed his interior gaze immovably upon the being of God and his infinite perfections. The divine favors received by Saint John exceed all human intelligence, capacity, and thought. His holy and exalted merits, we shall understand in the beatific vision and not before. As it does not pertain to the object of this history, to relate what I have seen of these mysteries and what the holy doctors and other authors have written of his prerogatives, I must confine myself to relate that which is necessary for my present purpose. Namely, what refers to the share of the Heavenly Lady in his exaltation? For through her, Saint John received most inestimable favors. Among them not the least was her sending food to him every day until he reached the age of seven years, which she did by the ministry of the holy angels, as I mentioned above. From his seventh year, until he reached the ninth, she sent him only bread, but after that year, she ceased to send him any food, for she understood that during the rest of his day in the desert it was the will of heaven and of himself that he nourished himself by roots, wild honey, and locusts, which he accordingly did until he came forth to preach. Yet though Mary did not any more send him food, she continued to send to him, her holy angels, in order to console him and inform him of the doings and mysteries of the incarnate word, but these visits happen no oftener than once a week. These great favors, besides serving other ends, encouraged Saint John to bear with his solitude, not that the desolation of his abode and the severity of his penance caused him any discouragement, to make these desirable and sweet to him, his own wonderful holiness and grace were sufficient. But these tokens of love served to counteract the vehemence of his love, which drew him toward Christ and his mother, and to make their absence and the want of their intercourse bearable to him. For there is no doubt, that restraining his desire for this intercourse was a greater pain and suffering to his loving soul than all the inclinancies of his habitation, his fasting and penances, and the horrors of the lonely mountains, and would have been impossible if his heavenly lady and aunt had not assisted him by continually sending her holy angels to bring messages from his beloved. The great Hermit inquired into all the particulars of the son and mother, with the anxious solicitude of a loving bridegroom. Canticles, Chapter 1, Verse 6 He asked also the holy angels, who visited him and the others, that attended upon him, to do the same. These were the ordinary occupations of the precursor, until he arrived at the perfect age of thirty years, and in this manner, he was prepared by divine providence for his appointed task. The destined and acceptable time, decreed by the eternal wisdom, for sending forth St. John, the harbinger of the incarnate word, the voice resounding in the desert, had now come. Isaiah, Chapter 40, Verse 3 As related by the evangelists, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, under the High Priest, Annas and Caiaphas, the command of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the desert. Luke, Chapter 3, Verse 1 And he came to the banks of the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance, for the remission of sins, and preparing the hearts for the reception of the promised messiahs, pointing him out with his finger, who had been expected for so many ages. This command of the Lord, St. John heard in an ecstasy, in which, by a special operation of the divinity, he was enlightened and prepared by the plentitude of the light and grace of the Holy Spirit. In this rapture, he obtained a deep insight into the mysteries of the redemption, and he was favored with an abstract division of the divinity, so wonderful that he was transformed and changed to a new existence of sanctity and grace. The Lord commanded him to issue forth from the desert, in order to prepare the way for the preaching of the incarnate word by his own, thus exercising the office of a precursor and all that pertained to it, for he was now instructed and filled with most abundant grace for his work. The new preacher, St. John, came from the desert, clothed in camel skin, girded with a cincher or cord made likewise of leather. His feet were bare, his features thin and emaciated, his appearance wonderfully graceful, modest, and humble, his soul was filled with invincible and magnanimous courage, his heart inflamed with the love of God and man, his words rang forth, strong and forceful, piercing to the souls of his hearers, like the sparks from the immutable and divine essence of the Almighty. He was gentle toward the meek, loving toward the humble, wonderful in the sight of angels and men, terrible to the proud, dreadful to the sinners, and an object of horror to the demons. He was a preacher fit to be the instrument of the incarnate word, and such as was needed for this people of the Hebrews, who were so hard-hearted, thankless and stubborn, and who were now cursed with heathen governors, avaricious and proud priests, without enlightenment, without prophets, without piety, without fear of God, though they had been visited by so many calamities and chastisements for their sins. He was now sent to open the eyes of his people to their miserable state, and prepare their hearts to know and receive their Savior and Teacher. The anchor at John, many years before, had made himself a large cross, which he had placed at the head of his couch. With it he performed some exercises of penance, and he was accustomed to place himself upon it in the form of one crucified when he was engaged in prayer. He did not wish to leave this treasure in the desert, therefore, before issuing forth, he sent it by the hands of the holy angels to the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and requested them to tell her that the cross had been his greatest and most beloved companion in his long banishment, that he sent it to her as a precious treasure, because he knew what was to be wrought upon it by the Son of God, and also because the holy angels had told him that her most holy Son and Redeemer of the world often made use of a cross like this when performing his prayers in his oratory. The angels had made this cross, fashioning it from a tree in the desert and his request, for the saint had neither the necessary strength nor the instruments for this kind of work, whereas the holy angels wanted not the skill and needed no instruments on account of the power they have over material creation. With this present and message of Saint John, the holy princes returned to their Queen, and she received this token from their hands, with innermost emotions of sorrow and consolation, at the thought of what mysteries were in so short a time to be enacted upon the hardwood of the cross. She addressed it in the words of tenderness, and placed it in her oratory, where she kept it ever afterwards, together with the other cross, which had been used by her Son. At her death, the most prudent lady left these crosses, with other remembrances, to the apostles as a priceless heritage, and by them they were carried through different countries where they preached. In regard to this matter, I had some doubts, which I proposed to the mother of wisdom, saying to her, Queen of heaven and my mistress, most holy among the saints, and chosen among creatures, as the mother of God himself, being an ignorant and dull woman, I find a difficulty in what I have here written. If thou give me permission, I would like to mention it to thee, for thou, O Lady, art the mistress of wisdom, and hastain to be my teacher, in the doctrine of eternal life and salvation. My difficulty is this. I see not only Saint John, but also thee, my Queen, reverence the cross before thy most holy Son had died upon it, whereas I have always believed, that until the hour in which he wrought our salvation upon the sacred wood of the cross, it had served as a gibbet of shame for the punishment of criminals, and that therefore it was considered as a token of contempt and ignominy, and even the Holy Church teaches us, that all its value and dignity came to the cross by its contact with the body of the Redeemer and through its connection with mystery of man's redemption. Answer and instruction given me by the Queen of Heaven, most holy Mary. My daughter, gladly will I satisfy thy desire and answer thy doubt. What thou sayest is true. The cross was ignominious before my Son and Lord, honoured and sanctified it, by his passion and death, and solely on account of this passion and death, the adoration and reverence shown to it by the Church is now due to it. If any one, who was ignorant of the mysteries, which were connected with it, and which were so well known to me and St. John, would have given it such worship and honour as I have before the redemption, he would have been guilty of error and idolatry, for he would have worshipped a creature of which he did not know that it was worthy of such an honour. But we showed this veneration to the cross for several reasons. We knew for certain that the Redeemer was to accomplish his work upon the cross. We knew also that, before dying upon it, he had begun to sanctify this sacred emblem by his contact, in placing himself upon it during his prayers, and in offering himself freely to die upon it. The Eternal Father, moreover, had accepted these foreseen works of the cross from his Divine Son by an unalterable decree. All the actions and the contacts of the incarnate Word were of infinite value and thus sanctified the sacred wood, making it worthy of the highest veneration. Whenever I or St. John showed this reverence to the cross, we had before our minds these mysteries and truths. We did not adore the cross in itself or the material of which it was made, for the Divine Worship was not due to it until the works of the Redemption should have been completed upon it. But we waited for the formal execution of the work intended to be performed upon it by the incarnate Word. This was the real object of our reverence and worship of the cross, and this is also now the meaning and intent of the practice of the adoration of the cross in the Holy Church. Accordingly, thou must ponder well, thy obligation, and that of all the mortals in regard to the reverence and esteem due to the Holy Cross, for if I and the Holy Precursor, even before the death of my Divine Son upon it, so eagerly imitated him in his love and reverence of it, and in the exercises which he performed in connection therewith, what should not the faithful children of the Church do, after they have seen their Creator and their Redeemer, crucified upon it, and when they have the image of the crucified before their very eyes? I desire, then, my daughter, that thou embrace the cross with boundless esteem, that thou use it as the priceless jewel of thy spouse, and that thou accustom thyself to perform those exercises upon it, which are known and practiced by thee, without ever of thy own will, forgetting or neglecting them, as long as obedience will permit thee. Whenever thou approachest such sacred exercises, let it be with a profound reverence, and with a deep pondering of the passion and death of the Lord, thy beloved. Try to introduce the same custom among thy religious, zealously exhorting them there too, for no exercise is more proper to the spouses of Christ, and if performed with devotion and reverence, it will be most pleasing to their Lord. In addition to this, I wish that thou, in imitation of Saint John the Baptist, prepare thy heart for all that the Holy Spirit wishes to work in thee, for his own glory, and for the benefit of souls. As far as depends upon thee, love solitude and withdraw thy soul from the confusion of created things. Whenever thy duty to God forces thee to deal with creatures, seek always thy own sanctification and the edification of thy neighbor, so that in thy outward conversation and intercourse the zeal of thy Spirit may shine forth. His exalted virtues now known to thee, and those resplendent in the lives of other saints, should serve thee as a spur and as an example. Seek, like a busy bee, to build up the sweet honeycomb of sanctity and innocence, so much desired in thee by my divine Son. Distinguish well between the labors of the bee and of the spider. The one converts her nourishment into sweetness, useful for the living and the dead, while the other changes it into snare and venom. Do thou gather the flowers of virtue from the saints in the garden of the church, as far as thy weak endeavors, with the aid of grace, will permit. Imitate them eagerly, and incite others by thy eloquence, thus drawing blessings upon the living and the dead, while thou anxiously flyest from the harm and damage of sinful deeds. End of Chapter 21 Book 1, Chapter 22 of the Mystical City of God, Volume 3, by the venerable Sister Mary of Jesus of Agreda. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book 1, Chapter 22 Most Holy Mary offers her only begotten Son for the redemption of the human race to the eternal Father. In return for this sacrifice, he grants her a clear vision of the Divinity. She takes leave of her Son as he departs for the desert. The love of our great Queen and Lady for her Divine Son must always remain the standard by which we must measure, as well her actions as all her emotions, either of joy or sorrow during her earthly life. But we cannot measure the greatness of her love itself, nor can the holy angels measure it, except by the love which they see in God, by the intuitive vision. All that can ever be expressed by our inadequate words, similes and analogies, is but the least portion of what this heavenly furnace of love really contained. For she loved Jesus as the Son of the Eternal Father, equal to him in essence and in all the divine attributes and perfections. She loved him as her own natural Son. Son to her, in as far as he was man, formed of her own flesh and blood. She loved him because as man he was the saint of saints and the meritorious cause of all other holiness. Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 He was the most beautiful among the sons of men. Psalm 44 verse 3 He was the most dutiful son of his mother, her most magnificent benefactor, since it was he that by his sonship had raised her to the highest dignity possible among creatures. He had exalted her among all and above all by the treasures of his divinity and by conferring upon her the dominion over all creation together with favors, blessings and graces, such as were never to be conferred upon any other being. These motives and foundations of her love were established and, as it were, all comprehended in the wisdom of the heavenly lady, together with many others, which only her exalted knowledge could appreciate. In her heart there was no hindrance of love, since it was the most innocent and pure. She was not ungrateful, because her profoundest humility urged her to a most faithful correspondence. She was not remiss, because in her the most abundant grace wrought with all its efficacy. She was not slow or careless, since she was filled with most zealous and diligent fervor. Not forgetful, since her most faithful memory was constantly fixed upon the blessings received and upon the reasons and the precepts of deepest love. She moved in the sphere of the divine love itself, since she remained in his visible presence and attended the school of divine love of her son, copying his works and his doings in his very company. Nothing was wanting to this peerless one among lovers for entertaining love without limitation of measure or manner. This most beautiful moon then, being at its fullness and looking into this son of justice, just as it had risen like a divine aurora, from height to height, and reached the noontide splendor of the most clear light of grace. This moon, Mary, detached from all material creatures, and entirely transformed by the light of this sun, having experienced on her part all the effects of his reciprocal love, favors and gifts, in the height of her blessedness, at a time when the loss of all these blessings in her sun made it most arduous, heard the voice of the Eternal Father, calling her as he once called upon her prototype, Abraham, and demanding the deposit of all her love and hope, her beloved Isaac. Genesis, Chapter 22, Verse 1 The most prudent mother was not unaware that the time of her sacrifice was approaching, for her sweetest son had already entered the thirtieth year of his life, and the time and place for satisfying the debt he had assumed was at hand. But in the full possession of the treasure, which represented all her happiness, Mary was still considering its loss as far off, not having as yet had its experience. The hour therefore drawing near, she was wrapped in a most exalted vision, and felt that she was being called and placed in the presence of the throne of the most blessed Trinity. From it, issued a voice of wonderful power saying to her, Mary, my daughter and spouse, offer to me thy only begotten son in sacrifice. By the living power of these words came to her the light and intelligence of the Almighty's will, and in it the most blessed mother understood the decree of the redemption of man through the passion and death of her most holy son, together with all that from now on would happen in the preaching and public life of the Savior. As this knowledge was renewed and perfected in her, she felt her soul overpowered by sentiments of subjection, humility, love of God and man, compassion and tenderest sorrow, for all that her son was to suffer. But with an undismayed and magnanimous heart, she gave answer to the most high. Eternal King and omnipotent God of infinite wisdom and goodness, all that has been outside of thee, exist solely for thy mercy and greatness, and thou art undiminished Lord of all. How then dost thou command me, an insignificant warmlet of the earth, to sacrifice and deliver over to thy will, the Son, whom thy condescension has given me? He is thine eternal Father, since from all eternity before the morning star thou hast engendered him. Psalm 109, verse 3. And thou begettest him, and shalt beget him through all the eternities, and if I have clothed him in the form of servant. Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, verse 7. In my womb and from my own blood, and if I nourished his humanity at my breast and ministered to it as a mother, this most holy humanity is also thy property, and so am I, since I have received from thee all that I am and that I could give him. What then can I offer to thee that is not more thine than mine? I confess, most High King, that thy magnificence and beneficence are so liberal in heaping upon thy creatures, thy infinite treasures, that in order to bind thyself to them, thou wishes to receive from them as a free gift, even thy only begotten Son, him whom thou begettest from thy own substance and from the light of thy divinity. With him came to me all blessings together, and from his hands I received immense gifts and graces. Wisdom, chapter 7, verse 11. He is the virtue of my virtue, the substance of my spirit, life of my soul, and soul of my life, the sustenance of all my joy of living. It would be a sweet sacrifice, indeed, to yield him up to thee, who alone knowest his value, but to yield him for the satisfaction of thy justice, into the hands of his cruel enemies, at the cost of his life, more precious than all the works of creation. This, indeed, most High Lord, is a great sacrifice which thou askest of his mother. However, let not my will but thine be done. Let the freedom of the human race be thus bought. Let thy justice and equity be satisfied. Let thy infinite love become manifest. Let thy name be known and magnify before all creatures. I deliver him over into thy hands before all creatures. I deliver over into thy hands, my beloved Isaac, that he may be truly sacrificed. I offer my son the fruit of my womb in order that, according to the unchangeable decree of thy will, he may pay the debt contracted not by his fault, but by the children of Adam, and in order that in his death he may fulfill all that thy holy prophets, inspired by thee, have written and foretold. This sacrifice, with all that pertain to it, was the greatest and the most acceptable that ever had been made to the Eternal Father, since the creation of the world, or will be made to the end, outside of that made by his own son, the Redeemer. And hers was most intimately connected with and like to that which he offered. If the greatest charity consists in offering one's own life for the beloved, without a doubt most Holy Mary far surpassed this highest degree of love toward men, as she loved her son much more than her own life, for in order to preserve the life of her son, she would have given the lives of all men, if she had possessed them, yea, and countless more. Among men there is no measure by which to estimate the love of this heavenly lady, and it can be estimated only by the love of the Eternal Father for his son, as Christ says to Nicodemus. John Chapter 15 Verse 13 So God loved the world, that he gave his only son, in order that none of those who believed in him might perish. So this might also be said in his degree of the love of the mother of mercy, and in the same way do we owe to her proportionately our salvation. For she also loved us so much, that she gave her only son for our salvation, and if she had not given it, in this manner, when it was asked of her by the Eternal Father, on this occasion, the salvation of men could not have been executed by this same decree, since this decree was to be fulfilled on condition that the mother's will should coincide with that of the Eternal Father, such as the obligation which the children of Adam owe to most Holy Mary. Having accepted the offering of the Great Lady, it was fitting that the most blessed Trinity should reward and immediately pay her by some favor, which would comfort her in her sorrow, and manifest more clearly the will of the Eternal Father, and the reasons for his command. Therefore the Heavenly Lady, still wrapped in the same vision, and raised to a more exalted ecstasy, in which she was prepared and enlightened, in the manner elsewhere described. The divinity manifested itself to her by an intuitive and direct vision. In this vision, by the clear light of the essence of God, she comprehended the inclination of the infinite good, to communicate his fathomless treasures to the rational creatures by means of the works of the incarnate word, and she saw the glory that would result from these wonders to the name of the Most High. Filled with jubilation of her soul, at the prospect of all these sacramental mysteries, the Heavenly Mother renewed the offering of her Divine Son to the Father, and God comforted her with the life-giving bread of heavenly understanding, in order that she might, with invincible fortitude, assist the incarnate word in the work of the redemption as his co-attetrics and helper, according to the disposition of infinite wisdom, and according as it really happened afterwards in the rest of her life. Then Miss Holy Mary issued forth from this exalted rapture, in the description of which I will not further detain myself, for it was accompanied by the same circumstances as the other intuitive visions already mentioned. But by its effects, and the strength imparted through it, she now prepared to separate from her Divine Son, who had already resolved to enter upon his fast, in the desert, in view of receiving his baptism. He therefore called his mother, and speaking to her with the tokens of sweetest love and compassion, he said, My mother, my existence as man, I derive entirely from thy substance and blood, of which I have taken the form of a servant in thy virginal womb. Let her to the Philippians, chapter 2 verse 7 Thou also hast nursed me at thy breast, and taken care of me by thy labors and sweat. For this reason I account me more thine own, and as thy son, than any other ever acknowledged, or more than any ever will acknowledge himself as the son of his mother. Give me thy permission and consent toward accomplishing the will of my eternal Father. Already the time has arrived, in which I must leave thy sweet intercourse and company, and begin the work of the redemption of man. The time of rest has come to an end, and the hour of suffering for the rescue of the sons of Adam has arrived. But I wish to perform this work of my Father with thy assistance, and thou are to be my companion and helper, in preparing for my passion and death of the cross. Although I must now leave thee alone, my blessing shall remain with thee, and my loving and powerful protection. I shall afterwards return to claim thy assistance and company in my labors, for I am to undergo them in the form of man, which thou hast given me. With these words, while both mother and son were overflowing with abundant tears, the Lord placed his arms around the neck of the most tender mother, yet both maintaining a majestic composure, such as befitted these masters in the art of suffering. The heavenly lady fell at the feet of her divine son, and with ineffable sorrow and reverence answered, My Lord and Eternal God, thou art indeed my son, and in thee is fulfilled all the force of love which I have received of thee. My inmost soul is laid open to the eyes of thy divine wisdom. My life would account but little, if I could thereby save thy own, or if I could die for thee many times. But the will of the Eternal Father and thy own must be fulfilled, and I offer my own will, as a sacrifice for this fulfillment. Receive it, my son, and as master of all my being, let it be an acceptable offering, and let thy divine protection never be wanting to me. It would be a much greater torment for me not to be allowed to accompany thee in thy labors and in thy cross. May I merit this favor, my son, and I ask of thee, as thy true mother, in return for the human form, which thou hast received of me. The most loving mother also besought him to take along some food from the house, or that he allow it to be sent to where he was to go. But the Savior would not consent to anything of the sort at the same time enlightening his mother of what was befitting for the occasion. They went together to the door of their poor house, where she again fell at his feet, to ask his blessing and kiss his feet. The Divine Master gave her his benediction, and then began his journey to the Jordan, issuing forth as the Good Shepherd, to seek his lost sheep, and bring them back on his shoulders, to the way of eternal life, from which they had been decoyed by deceit. Luke Chapter 15 Verse 5 When our Redeemer sought St. John in order to be baptized, he had already entered his thirtieth year, although not much of it had yet passed, for he betook himself directly to the banks of the Jordan, where St. John was baptizing. Matthew Chapter 3 Verse 13 And he received baptism at his hands, about thirty days after he had finished the twenty-ninth year of his life, on the same day as is set aside for its celebration by the Church. I cannot worthily describe the sorrow of most holy Mary at his departure, nor the compassion of the Savior for her. All words and description are far too inadequate to manifest what passed in the heart of the Son and Mother. As this was to be part of their meritorious sufferings, it was not befitting that the natural effects of their mutual loves should be diminished. God permitted these effects to work in them to their full extent, and as far as was compatible with the holiness of both Mother and Son. Our Divine Teacher also found no relief in hastening his steps toward the goal of our redemption, to which he was drawn by the force of his immense charity, nor was the thought of what he intended a lessening of the sense of loss which she sustained at his departure, for all this only made more certain and more copious the torment which he was to undergo. Oh, my dearest love, why does not our ingratitude and hardness apart allow us to meet thee with a responsive love? Why does not the perfect uselessness of man, and still more, his ingratitude, influence thee to desist? Without us, oh my eternal goodness in life, thou wilt be just as happy without us as with us, just as infinite in perfections, holiness and glory. We can add nothing to that, which thou hast in thyself, since thou art entirely independent of creatures. Why, then, oh my love, does thou so anxiously seek us out and care for us? Why does thou, at the cost of thy passion and the cross, purchase our happiness? Without doubt, because thy incomprehensible love and goodness esteems it as thy own, and we alone insist in treating our own happiness as alien to thee and to ourselves? Instruction which the Most Holy Mary, the Queen of Heaven, gave me. My daughter, I wish that thou ponder and penetrate more and more, this mystery of which thou hast written, so fixing it in thy soul, that thou wilt be drawn to imitate my example, at least in some part of it. Consider, then, that in the wisdom of the divinity which I had on this occasion, I was made to comprehend the high value which the Lord sets upon the labors, the passion and death of my Son, and upon all those who were to imitate and follow Jesus in the way of the cross. Knowing this, I not only offered to deliver my Son over to passion and death, but I asked him to make me his companion and partaker of all his sorrows, sufferings and torments, which request the Eternal Father granted. Then, in order to begin following in the footsteps of his bitterness, I besought my Son and Lord to deprive me of interior delights, and this petition was inspired in me by the Lord himself, because he wished it so, and because my own love taught me and urged me thereto. This desire for suffering and the wishes of my Divine Son led me on in the way of suffering. He himself, because he loved me so tenderly, granted me my desires, for those whom he loves he chastises and afflicts. Because his mother was not to be deprived of this blessed distinction of being entirely like unto him, which alone makes this life most estimable. Immediately this will of the Most High, this my earnest petition, began to be fulfilled. I began to feel the want of his delightful caresses, and he began to treat me with greater reserve. That was one of the reasons why he did not call me mother but woman, at the marriage feast at Cana and at the foot of the cross. John chapter 2 verse 4, and chapter 19 verse 26, and also on other occasions when he abstained from words of tenderness. So far was this from being a sign of diminuation of his love, that it was rather an exquisite refinement of his affection to assimilate me to him in the sufferings which he chose for himself as his precious treasure and inheritance. Hence thou wilt understand the ignorance and error of mortals, and how far they drift from the way of light, when, as a rule, nearly all of them strive to avoid labor and suffering, and are frightened by the royal and secure road of mortification and the cross. Full of this deceitful ignorance, they do not only abhor resemblance to Christ's suffering and my own, and deprive themselves of the true and highest blessing of this life, but they make their recovery impossible, since all of them are weak and afflicted by many sins, for which the only remedy is suffering. Sin is committed by base indulgence and is repugnant to the suffering sorrow, while tribulation earns the pardon of the just judge. By the bitterness of sorrow and affliction, the vapors of sin are allayed, the excesses of the concupisable and erasable passions are crushed, pride and haughtiness are humiliated, the flesh is subdued, the inclination to evil, to the sensible and earthly creatures, is repressed. The judgment is cleared, the will is brought within bounds, and its desultory movements at the call of the passions are corrected, and above all, divine love and pity are drawn down upon the afflicted, who embrace suffering with patience, or who seek it to imitate my most holy Son. In the science of suffering are renewed all the blessed riches of the creatures, those that fly from them are insane, those that know nothing of this science are foolish. Exert thyself then, my dearest daughter, to advance in this knowledge, welcome labors in suffering, and give up ever desiring human consolations. Remember also that in the spiritual consolations, the demon conceals his pitfalls for thy ruin and destruction, for thou should us know his continual attempts to ruin the spiritually inclined. The pleasures of contemplating and looking upon the Lord, and his caresses, great or small, are so enticing that delight and consolation overflow in the faculties of the mind, and cause some souls to accustom themselves to the sensible pleasures of this intercourse. In consequence thereof, they make themselves unfit for other duties, belonging to reasonable life of human creatures, and when it is necessary to attend to them, they are annoyed, lose their interior peace and control, become morose, intractable, full of impatience toward their neighbors, forgetting all humility and charity. When they then perceive their own restlessness and its consequences, they blame all to their exterior occupations, in which the Lord has placed them for the exercise of their obedience and charity, failing to see or acknowledge that all their troubles arise from their want of mortification, and subjection to providence, and from their attachment to their own selfish inclinations. The demon tries to beguile them by mere desires for quiet and solitude, and the secret communications of the Lord in solitude, for they imagine that in retirement all is good and holy, and that all their trouble arises from inability to follow their pious desires in solitude. In these very faults thou has fallen sometimes, and from now on I wish that thou guard against them especially, for all things there is a time, as the wise man says. Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verse 5 Both were enjoying delightful embraces, and for abstaining therefrom. To seek to prescribe to the Lord a time for his intimate embraces is the error of souls only beginning imperfectly to serve the Lord and to strive after virtue, and similar is the fault of feeling too deeply the want of these consolations. I do not tell thee therefore purposely to seek distraction and exterior occupations, nor to find thy pleasure in them, for this is nothing short of dangerous, but to obey with peace of mind, whenever thy superiors command, and willingly to leave the delights of the Lord in order to find him again in useful labor and in service of thy neighbor. This thou must prefer to retirement and to private consolations, and on this account thou must not love them too much, for in the anxious cares of a superior thou must learn to believe, hope and love so much the more deeply. In this manner thou must find thy Lord at all times, in all places and occupations, as thou hast already experienced. I desire that thou never consider thyself deprived of his sweetest vision and presence, or of his most loving intercourse, or that thou doubt with pusillanimity whether thou canst find and enjoy God outside thy retirement. All creation is full of his glory. Ecclesiasticus chapter 42 verse 16 And there is no void, and thou livest and movest and hast thy being in God. Enjoy thou thy solitude whenever he does not oblige thee to these exterior occupations. All this thou wilt still more fully understand in the nobility of the love which I require of thee, for the imitation of my son and of me. With him thou must rejoice sometimes in his youth, sometimes accompany him in his labors for the salvation of men, sometimes retire with him to solitude, sometimes be transfigured with him to a new creature, sometimes embrace with him tribulations and the cross, following up the divine lessons which he taught thereby. In short, I wish thee to understand well, that in me there was a continual desire to imitate, or an actual imitation, of all that was most perfect in his works. In this consisted my greatest perfection and holiness, and therein I wish thee to follow me, so far as thy weak strength assisted by grace will allow. For this purpose thou must first die to all the inclinations of a daughter of Adam, without reserving in thee any choice of desires, any self constituted judgment as to admitting or rejecting the good. For thou knowest not what is befitting, and thy Lord and spouse, who knows it, and who loves thee more than thou dost thyself, will decide all this for thee, if thou resignest thyself entirely to his will. He gives thee a free hand, only in regard to thy love of him, and in thy desire to suffer for him, while in all the rest thy desires will only make thee drift away from his will and mine. This will surely be the result of following thy own will and inclinations, desires and appetites, deny and sacrifice them all, raising thyself above thyself, up to the high and exalted habitation of the Lord and Master, attend to his interior lights, and to the truth of his words of eternal life. John chapter 6 verse 69. And in order that thou mayest follow them, take up the cross. Matthew chapter 16 verse 24. Tread in his footsteps walk in the odor of his ointments. Canticles chapter 1 verse 3. And be anxious to reach thy Lord, and having obtained possession of him, do not leave him. Canticles chapter 3 verse 4. End of chapter 22. Book 1 chapter 23 of the mystical city of God, volume 3, by the venerable sister Mary of Jesus of Egereta. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Book 1 chapter 23, the occupations of the virgin mother, during the absence of her most holy son, and her intercourse with her guardian angels. When the Redeemer of the world had left the bodily presence of his most loving mother, she felt herself, as it were, in any clips or under a shadow, caused by the transposition of the clear Son of Justice, which had illumined and rejoiced her. Yet, though this might be true of her senses, her soul lost nothing of the light in which it bathed and in which it was raised above the burning love of the seraphim. As all the operations of her faculties, during the absence of the human personality of her son, concerned themselves with the divinity, she so ordered all her doings that, retired within her dwelling and separated from all human intercourse, she might apply herself to the contemplation and praise of the Lord. She wanted to give herself up entirely to the exercise of prayer and petition, in order that the seed of the divine word and doctrine, which the Lord was to plant into the hearts of men, might not be lost on account of their hardness and ingratitude, and not fail to give abundant fruit of eternal life and salvation of souls. By means of her infused knowledge, she knew the intentions of the incarnate word, and therefore the most prudent lady resolved not to converse with any human creature, in order to imitate him in his fasting and retirement of the desert, as I will relate farther on, for she was a living image and faithful reproduction of Christ, whether he was absent or present. Shut up in her house during all the days in which her divine son was absent, our blessed lady spent her time in exercise of devotion. Her prayers were so ardent that she shed tears of blood in weeping over the sins of men. She genuflected and prostrated herself upon the ground, more than two hundred times each day, and this was an exercise which she practiced with a special earnestness, during all her life, as an exterior manifestation of her humility, charity, reverence, and worship of God. Of it I shall speak many times in the course of this history. Thus cooperating with her absent son and Redeemer, she interceded so powerfully and efficaciously with the eternal father, that on account of her merits, and on account of her presence here upon this earth, according to our way of speaking. He forgot the sins of all the mortals, who were then making themselves unworthy of the preaching and doctrine of his Most Holy Son. Mary then cleared away this hindrance by the clamors of her burning charity. She was the Mediatrix, who merited and gained for us the blessing of being taught by our Lord himself, and of receiving the law of his Holy Gospel from his own lips. What time still remained after her prolonged contemplations and exalted prayers the great Queen spent in conversation and intercourse with her Holy Angels, for the Lord had commanded them anew to attend upon their mistress in bodily forms, during all the time in which her son was to be absent. It is in this form that they were to serve his tapper-nackle and guard the Holy City of his habitation. The ministers of God obeyed most diligently and served their Queen with admirable and befitting reverence. As love is so active and so impatient of the absence and privation of the object beloved, it finds its greatest comfort in speaking of its sorrow and rehearsing the cause of it, in renewing ever again the memory and discussing the excellences and conditions of the beloved. By such discourse it beguiles its sorrow, diverts its grief, and recalls to memory the images of her well-beloved. Such was also the course pursued by the most loving mother of our truest and highest good. For while her faculties were overwhelmed by the immense ocean of the Divinity, she felt not the bodily absence of her son and Lord, but as soon as she again recovered the use of her senses, which had been accustomed to his amiable intercourse, and now found herself deprived of it, she immediately felt the irresistible force of her most intense, chaste, and sincere love, unfathomed by any creature. It would have been impossible for nature to suffer such pain and still retain life had it not in her been divinely supported and strengthened. In order to afford some relief to her sorrow-laden heart, she therefore returned to her holy angels and complained to them as follows. Ye diligent ministers of the most high, fashioned by the hands of my beloved, my friends and companions, give me intelligence of my cherished son and master, tell me where he tarries, and inform him that I am dying on account of the want of his life-giving presence. Oh, sweet and bounteous love of my soul, where art thou more beautiful than all the sons of men, where dost thou lay thy head, where rest thy most delicate and most holy body from his fatigues? Who is there to attend upon thee, light of my eyes? How can my tears ever cease to flow, deprived of the clear light of the sun, which illumined mine? Where, oh my son, canst thou fine repose? Where shall this, thy lonely and poor little be, find thee? What course shall this, thy little bark, pursue in the vast billows of this ocean of love? Where shall I find peace? Oh, beloved of my desires, to forget thy presence is not possible to me. How, then, can it be possible to live in mere memory of thee without actual intercourse? What shall I do? Oh, who shall console me and lend me his company in this bitter solitude, whom shall I seek among creatures, as long as thou art absent, who are the only one and all that my heart yearns after in its love? Sovereign spirits, tell me, what does my Lord and my beloved? Inform me of his exterior movements, and omit nothing of his interior doings, as far as in the light of his divinity is made clear to you. Point out to me all his footsteps, in order that I may follow and imitate him. The holy angels obeyed their queen, consoling her in the sorrows of her mournful love, speaking of the most high and repeating to her her most exalted praises, of the most sacred humanity of her son, and of all his perfections. They informed her of all his occupations and undertakings, and of the places in which he wandered. This they did by enlightening her understanding, in the same way a higher angel is want to enlighten, those of an inferior order, for this was her manner of intercourse with the angels, unhindered by her body and the senses. The heavenly spirits communicated to her the prayers of the incarnate word, his teachings, his visits to the poor and the sick, and other actions, so that the heavenly lady was unable to imitate him in all these proceedings according to her condition. Thus she engaged in most exalted and magnanimous undertakings, as I shall yet describe, and by this means she was eased in her sorrow and grief. She also several times, sent the holy angels to visit in her name, her sweetest son. On such occasions, she gave them most prudent instructions, full of deep and reverential love, also supplying them with linen cloths and towels, prepared by her own hands, in order that they might wipe the divine visage of the Saviour, when they saw him exhausted and covered with bloody sweat, for the Blessed Mother knew that he was thus overcome more and more, as he approached the fulfillment of all the works of the redemption. The holy angels obeyed their Queen therein, with incredible reverence and holy fear, because they knew that the Lord himself permitted it in order to yield to the ardent desires of his most holy mother. At other times, informed by the angels or by a special vision or revelation of the Lord, she knew of his prayers and petitions for mankind in the mountains. Then she would perform the same prayers in her house, in the same posture and with the same words. Sometimes, when she saw that the Lord of all creation was in want of food, she also sent him by the hands of the angels some nourishment, although this happened but seldom. For the Lord, as I have indicated in the foregoing chapter, did not always permit his mother to act according to the promptings of her love. Therefore, during the 40 days of his fast, she did not send any food because she understood such to be his will. At other times, the heavenly lady occupied herself in composing hymns of praise and thanksgiving to the Most High. This she did by herself or in company and alternating songs with the angels. All these cantalquils were most exalted in style and contained the deepest mysteries. At other times, she hastened to the assistance of her neighbor in imitation of her Most Holy Son. She visited the sick, consoled the sorrowful and afflicted, enlightened the ignorant, brought relief to them, and enriched them with divine grace and bounty. Only during the time of the great fast of our Lord, she retired and remained in her house, as I have already mentioned. During this retirement, our Queen and Lady separated herself from all human company, and she was favored by almost continually recurring ecstasies in which she received peerless gifts and treasures of the Divinity, for the hand of God imprinted and painted as upon an admirably prepared canvas the outlines and images of his infinite perfections. All these new graces and gifts she employed in working for the salvation of men, and all her occupations and thoughts follow closely the doings of the Savior, as becoming the co-attetrics of the Lord in his labors for the redemption of mortals. Although these benefits and close intercourse with the Lord could not but bring her a great and ever new joy and exultation of soul in the Holy Spirit, yet in the inferior and sensible parts of her being she experienced the pains which she had sought and asked of the Lord in union with him and in imitation of his sufferings. In this desire of following him in his sufferings she was insatiable and she besought the eternal Father for this privilege with incessant and burning love. She renewed that pleasing sacrifice of the life of her Son and her own, which she made in accordance with the will of God, and she was consumed with the desire of suffering with her beloved, enduring the greatest pains precisely because of the want of such suffering. Instruction which the Queen of Heaven, Most Holy Mary gave me. My dearest daughter, the wisdom of the flesh has made men ignorant, foolish and hostile to God, because it is of the devil, deceitful, earthly and rebellious to the divine laws. Romans chapter 8 verse 7 The more the children of Adam study and exert themselves to reach the evil objects of their carnal and animal passions and to attain the means of indulging them, so much the more will they fall into ignorance of divine things, by which alone they can come to their true ultimate end. This ignorance and worldly prudence is still more abominable and still more hateful in the eyes of God when it occurs in the children of the Church. By what right can the children of this world call themselves sons of God, brethren of Christ and inheritors of his possessions? The adopted son must be, in all that is possible, like unto the natural son. A brother is not of different blood or position from that of his brother. One is not called an heir merely because he is in some way concerned with the possessions of his father, but because he has the full enjoyment and comes into the possession of the principal property of the testator. How then are those heirs of Christ who love, desire and seek only earthly goods and are perfectly satisfied with them? How can those be his brothers who so widely depart from his position, his teachings and his holy rule of life? How can they be similar to him and claim to be his image and likeness when they so often destroy in themselves all likeness of him and allow themselves to be so often sealed with the image of the infernal beast? Apocalypse chapter 16 verse 2 By divine light, thou knowest my daughter, these truths, and how much I exert myself to make myself the image of the most high, namely my son and lord. Do not think that I have given these such deep insight into my works without some purpose, for it is my wish that this remain written in thy heart and be forever before thy eyes, serving thee as a rule for all thy conduct during the remainder of thy life which cannot be of very long duration now. Do not allow thyself to be retarded and snared away from my following by intercourse with creatures. Let them alone, avoid them, despise them insofar as they can hinder thee on thy way. In order that thou mayest advance in my school, I wish to see thee poor, humble, despised, abased, yet always with a cheerful heart and countenance. Do not try to repay thyself with the applause or the love of any creature, nor allow human sentiment to rule thee. For the most high has not dust in thee for such useless entanglements or for occupation so lowly and adverse to the religious state to which he has called thee. Think attentively and humbly of the tokens of his love received at his hands and of the treasures of his grace which he has showered upon thee. Neither Lucifer nor any of his ministers and followers are ignorant of them. They are filled with wrath against thee, and in their cunning they will let no stone unturn for thy destruction. His greatest efforts will be directed against thy interior, where he has planted his battery of cunning and deceit. Do thou live well prepared and watchful against all his attacks, close the portals of thy senses, and preserve the authority of thy will, without allowing it to be spent on human undertakings, no matter how good and upright they may appear to thee. For if in the least point thou curtail the love which God requires of thee, this very point will be seized upon, by thy enemies, as a portal of entrance. All the kingdom of God is within thee. Keep it there, and there wilt thou find it, and in it all the good thou desirest. Forget not my teachings and discipline, lock it up in thy bosom, and remember how great is the danger and damage from which I thereby wish to preserve thee. That thou art called to imitate and follow me is the greatest blessing which thou canst ever desire. I am ready in my extreme clemency to grant thee this blessing, if thou dispose thyself to high resolves, holy words and perfect works, which alone can raise thee to the state which the Almighty and I desire thee to attain. End of chapter 23