PART III, BOOK VIII.

 

Describes the Journey of the Most Blessed Mary with Saint John to Ephesus; the Death and Chastisement of Herod; the Destruction of the Temple of Diana; the Return of the Most Blessed Mary from Ephesus to Jerusalem; the Instructions She gave to the Evangelists; the exalted State of Her purest Soul before Her death; Her most blessed Transition, Assumption and Coronation in heaven.

 

CHAPTER 1.

 

THE MOST BLESSED MARY DEPARTS WITH SAINT JOHN FROM JERUSALEM FOR EPHESUS; SAINT PAUL GOES FROM DAMASCUS TO JERUSALEM; SAINT JAMES ARRIVES THERE; HE VISITS THE GREAT QUEEN IN EPHESUS; REFLECTIONS ON THE MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS DURING ALL THESE JOURNEYS.

 

365. The most blessed Mary, having enriched and blessed Saragossa and the kingdom of Spain by her presence, and her promises of protection, and having established through saint James and her angels the temple as a monument to her sacred name, was borne by the hands of the seraphim back to Jerusalem. As soon as the great Lady of heaven and Queen of the angels had left the cloud-throne, on which She had been borne, and set her foot upon the floor of the Cenacle, She prostrated Herself upon it, humbling Herself to the dust in order to praise the Most High for the favors conferred upon Her, upon saint James and upon the kingdom of Spain in this miraculous journey. At the thought of a temple built in her honor and for her invocation, She, in her ineffable humility, so annihilated Herself in her own estimation, as seemingly to have entirely forgotten that She was the Mother of God, a sinless Creature and without measure superior to all the highest seraphim. She humbled Herself and gave thanks for these benefits, as if She were a mere worm of the earth, of less value and guilty of more sins than all the creatures. This new debt seemed to Her so great, that She felt obliged to aspire to new and more exalted degrees of holiness in recompense. This She resolved to do and really accomplished, arriving at a degree of wisdom and humility beyond all our capacity to conceive.

 

366. In these exercises, and in praying with great fervor for the defense and increase of the Church, She spent the greater part of the four days after her return to Jerusalem. In the meanwhile the evangelist saint John made preparations for the journey and embarkation for Ephesus, and on the fourth day, which was the fifth of January of the year forty, saint John notified Her that it was time to leave; for there would be a ship and all things had been arranged for the journey. The great Mistress of obedience, without answer or delay, knelt down and asked permission of the Lord to leave the Cenacle and Jerusalem; and then She proceeded to take leave of the owner of the house and its inhabitants. It can easily be imagined, how sorrowful they were at this leave-taking; for on account of her most sweet conversation, and because of the favors and blessings received at her liberal hands, all were held captives and prisoners in love and veneration of Her, whereas now all at once they were to be deprived of her consoling presence and of this rich Treasure, the well spring of so many blessings. All of them offered to follow and accompany Her; but as this was not opportune, they asked Her to hasten her return and not to forsake forever this house, which was entirely at her disposal. The heavenly Mother thanked them for these pious and loving wishes by expressing her own humble love, and She somewhat allayed their grief by giving them hope of her return.

 

367. Then She asked permission of saint John to visit the holy places of our Redemption and there to worship and adore the Lord, who had consecrated them by his presence and his precious blood. With the Apostle She made these sacred stations, exhibiting incredible devotion and tears of reverent love, and saint John, deeply consoled at being permitted to accompany Her, exercised himself in heroic acts of virtue. The most blessed Mother saw at each of the holy places the angels, who had been deputed to guard and defend them; and anew She charged them to resist Lucifer and his demons, lest they destroy or profane by irreverence those sacred spots, as they desired and intended to do through the unbelieving Jews. She told the angels to drive away by holy inspirations the bad thoughts and diabolical suggestions, by which the infernal dragon sought to excite the Jews and other mortals to blot out the memory of Christ our Savior in those holy places, and She charged them with this duty for all the future times, since the wrath of the evil spirits against the places and the works of the Redemption endures through all the ages. The holy angels obeyed their Queen and Mistress in all that She ordained.

 

368. Having satisfied her piety, She asked saint John on her knees to bless Her for the journey, just as She had been wont to do with her divine Son; for She continued to exercise the same great virtues of obedience and humility toward the beloved disciple, his substitute. Many of the faithful of Jerusalem offered Her money, jewels, vehicles and all things necessary for her journey to the sea and to Ephesus. The most prudent Lady humbly showed her appreciation to all, but accepted nothing. For her journey to the sea She made use of an unpretentious beast of burden, on which She was carried along as the Queen of the virtues and of the poor. She recollected the journeys and pilgrimages She had made with her divine Son and with her spouse Joseph, and these recollections, together with the heavenly love, which had induced Her once more to travel, awakened in her dove-like heart tender and devout affections. In order to be in all things most perfect, She excited new acts of resignation to the divine will in being deprived, for the glory and exaltation of his name, of the company of her Son and of her spouse, whose consoling presence She had enjoyed on her former journeys. She also resigned Herself to the divine will in regard to leaving the quiet of the Cenacle, the neighborhood of the sacred places, and the intercourse with so many of the faithful and devout children of the Church, and praised the Most High: because He had given Her the beloved disciple as a companion in her banishment.

 

369. For her greater alleviation and comfort during this journey all her holy angels on her leaving the Cenacle, appeared to Her in visible and corporeal forms surrounding Her and protecting Her in their midst. With this escort of the celestial host and the human company of saint John She journeyed to the port, where the vessel was ready to sail for Ephesus. She spent her time in oftrepeated and sweet colloquies and canticles with the celestial spirits, sounding the praises of the Most High. At other times She conversed with saint John, who with admirable reverence was tenderly solicitous to serve Her in all that occurred and seemed opportune. This solicitude of saint John was met by the heavenly Mother with incredible humility and gratitude; for these two virtues, gratitude and humility, made all the favors She received appear to Her very great, and although all service was due Her in justice, She nevertheless acknowledged it as the most voluntary favor.

 

370. They came to the harbor and immediately embarked in the ship with other passengers. The great Queen of the world was now for the first time upon the sea. She saw and comprehended with clearness the vast Mediterranean and its communication with the great ocean. She beheld its height and depth, its length and breadth, its caverns and secret recesses, its sands and minerals, its ebb and tide, its animals, its whales and fishes of all sizes, and whatever other portentous animals it enclosed. She knew how many men had drowned and perished in voyaging it and She remembered the saying of Ecclesiasticus: That those who navigate the sea, narrate its dangers (Ecclus 43, 26), and that of David: Wonderful are the surges and pride of the swollen waves (Ps. 92, 4). The heavenly Mother could easily know all this, as well because of an especial dispensation of her divine Son, as on account of her supreme angelic privilege and grace, and of her singular participation in the divine attributes, which resembled those of the most sacred humanity of Christ our Savior. In virtue of these gifts and privileges, her knowledge extended to all these things not only as they are in themselves and without deceit, but far beyond the sphere of angelic knowledge.

 

371. When this great panorama of creatures, in which were reflected, as from a most clear mirror, the greatness and omnipotence of the Creator, was presented to her faculties filled with heavenly wisdom, her spirit winged its ardent flight to the very being of God, so wonderfully reflected in those creatures, and for all of them, and in all of them, She gave praise and glory and magnificence to the Most High. With the compassion of a most loving Mother for those who trusted their lives to the indomitable fury of the sea in navigating over its waves, She most fervently besought the Almighty to protect from its dangers all who should call upon her name and ask for her intercession. The Lord immediately granted this petition and promised to favor whoever upon the sea should carry some image of Her and should sincerely look upon this Star of the sea, most blessed Mary, for help in its perils. Accordingly it will be understood, that, if the Catholics and the faithful encounter ill success and perish in navigation, it is because they ignore the favors to be obtained from the Queen of the angels, or because on account of their sins they fail to remember Her in the raging storms, or fail to seek her favors with sincere faith and devotion; for neither can the word of the Lord ever fail, nor will the great Mother ever deny assistance to those endangered by the perils of the sea.

 

372. Another wonder also happened; for when the most blessed Mary saw the sea with the fishes and other maritime animals, She gave them all her blessing and commanded them to acknowledge and praise their Creator in the manner they were capable of. Then it was wonderful to see all the fishes of the sea obeying her command and with incredible swiftness placing themselves in front of the ship. None of the species of sea-animals was missing, each being represented by an innumerable multitude. All of them surrounded the ship and showed their heads above the water and with unwonted motions and signs of pleasure for a long time acknowledged Her as the Queen and Mistress of creatures and showed themselves grateful to Her for coming upon the waters and visiting them in their place of habitation. This strange event astonished all the passengers as something never before seen. The multitudes of large and small fishes, so crowded and packed together, somewhat impeded the progress of the vessel, and the passengers gazed upon this spectacle and wonderingly discussed it, for they did not know the cause of this miracle. Saint John alone understood it, and for a while he could not restrain his tears of devoted joy. After some time he asked the heavenly Mother to give them her blessing and her permission to depart since they had so promptly obeyed Her when asked to praise the Most High. The sweetest Mother complied, and immediately that army of fishes disappeared and churned the sea into foam by their quick motion. Thereupon the ship pursued its way over the tranquil and serene bosom of the waters, arriving at Ephesus in a few days.

 

373. When they landed the great Queen continued to work miracles equal to those wrought upon the sea. She cured the sick and the possessed, who, as soon as they came into her presence, were set free. I will not tarry to relate all these wonders; for many books would be necessary and much time to describe all the doings of the most blessed Mary and the favors of heaven, which She dispensed as the instrument and medium of the omnipotence of the Most High. I will record only those, which are necessary for this history and which shall suffice to manifest in some measure the unknown and wonderful works of our great Queen and Lady. In Ephesus lived some Christians, who had come from Jerusalem. There were not many, but on learning of the arrival of the Mother of Christ the Redeemer, they hastened to pay Her a visit and offer their dwellings and their possessions for her use. But the great Queen of virtues, who sought neither ostentation nor temporal commodities, chose for her dwelling the house of a few retired and poor women, who were living by themselves free from intercourse with men. By the intervention of the angels, they lovingly and generously placed their home at the disposition of the Lady. In it they selected a very retired room for the Queen and another for saint John, which these Two occupied during their stay in Ephesus.

 

374. The most blessed Mary thanked the owners, who were to live with Her. Then She retired to her room and, prostrate upon the ground as was usual in her prayers, The adored the immutable essence of God, offering to sacrifice Herself in his service in this city and saying:

"Lord God omnipotent, by the immensity of thy Divinity Thou fillest all the heavens and the earth (J er. 23, 24). I, thy humble handmaid, desire to fulfill entirely thy holy will, on all occasions, in all places, and at all times, in which thy Providence shall deign to place me; for Thou art my only Good, my being and my life, and toward thy pleasure and satisfaction tend all my thoughts, words and actions." The most prudent Mother perceived that the Lord accepted her prayer and her offering, and that He responded to her desires with divine power, ready to assist and govern Her always.

 

375. She continued her prayer for the holy Church and laid out her plans for the assistance of all the faithful. She called her angels and sent some of them to aid the Apostles and disciples, whom She knew to be much pressed in the persecutions, raised by the demons through infidel men. In those days saint Paul fled from Damascus before the attacks of the Jews, as he himself mentions in the second epistle to the Corinthians, where he says, that he was let down from the walls of the city in a basket (II Cor. 11,23). To defend him from these perils and those with which Lucifer threatened him on his way to Jerusalem, the great Queen of angels sent her angels to be his guard and protection; for the wrath and fury of hell was roused against saint Paul more than against any of the other Apostles. This is the journey the Apostle himself refers to in his letter to the Galatians (Gal. 1, 18), where he says, that after three years he went to Jerusalem to visit saint Peter. These three years are not to be counted from the time of his conversion, but from the time he had returned from Arabia to Damascus. This is to be inferred from the text itself, for after stating that he returned from Arabia to Damascus, he immediately adds, that after three years, he went up to Jerusalem. If those three years are counted from the time before his sojourn in Arabia, the text would occasion much confusion.

 

376. With greater clearness this may be proved by computing the time of the death of saint Stephen and the journey of the most blessed Virgin to Ephesus. For counting from the day of his Nativity, saint Stephen died at the end of the thirty-fourth year of Christ, but counting them from the day of the Circumcision, as the Church does now, saint Stephen died seven days before the completion of the thirty-four years, being the seven days before the first of January. The conversion of saint Paul happened in the year thirty-six, on the twenty-fifth of January. If he had come to Jerusalem three years afterwards, he would have found there the most holy Mary and saint John, while he himself says, that he had not seen anyone of the Apostles there, except saint Peter and saint James the less, who was called Alpheus, If the holy Queen and saint John had at that time been in Jerusalem saint Paul would certainly not have missed seeing them, and he would have mentioned at least saint John; yet he says, that he had not seen him. The explanation is, that saint Paul came to Jerusalem in the year forty, four years after his conversion, and a little less than a month after the most blessed Mary had departed for Ephesus. Saint Paul had entered the fifth year of his conversion and the other Apostles, except the two he saw, had already left Jerusalem and were preaching the Gospel of Christ, each one in his appointed province.

 

377. Conformably with this reckoning we must assume, that saint Paul spent the first year after his conversion, or the greater part of it, in journeying to Arabia and preaching the Gospel there; then, the three following years, in Damascus. Hence the evangelist Luke, in the ninth chapter of his Acts of the Apostles, although he says nothing of Paul's journey to Arabia, nevertheless says that for many days after his conversion the Jews of Damascus plotted to take his life, these many days referring to the four years thus passed. Then he adds, that his disciples, aware of the plots of the Jews, on a certain night lowered him in a basket from the city walls and thus despatched him on his journey to Jerusalem. There, although knowing of his miraculous conversion, the Apostles and the new disciples, nevertheless retained a certain fear and suspicion of his not persevering, because he had been such a professed enemy of Christ, our Savior. Hence they at first held themselves aloof from saint Paul, until saint Barnaby spoke to them and introduced him to saint Peter, saint James and other disciples (Acts 26, 27). Saint Paul prostrated himself at the feet of the vicar of Christ, kissed them in acknowledgment of his errors and sins, and begging to be admitted as one of his subjects and as a follower of his Master, whose holy name and faith he desired to preach at the cost of his blood.

 

378. From the fear and suspicion of saint Peter and James concerning the perseverance of saint Paul we can likewise deduct that he arrived in Jerusalem in the absence of the most blessed Mary and saint John; for he would have presented himself first of all to Her to allay suspicion against him; and the two Apostles would likewise have first asked Her, whether they could trust saint Paul. All of them would have been set at ease by the most prudent Lady, as She was so solicitous and attentive in consoling and instructing the Apostles, especially saint Peter. But since the great Lady had already left for Ephesus, they had no one to assure them of the constancy of saint Paul, until saint Peter reassured himself of it at seeing him thus prostrate at his feet. Thereupon he was received with great joy of soul by saint Peter and the other disciples. All of them gave humble and fervent thanks to the Most High, and commissioned saint Paul to preach in Jerusalem. This he gladly did, to the astonishment of all the Jews who knew him. As his words were like burning arrows, that penetrated into the hearts of all that heard him, they were struck with terror; and in two days all Jerusalem was roused by the news of his arrival, flocking to see him with their own eyes.

 

379. Lucifer and his demons were not asleep on this occasion, for they were visited by the Almighty with an increase of torment at the arrival of saint Paul. The divine power, so evident in him, oppressed and paralyzed the infernal dragons. But as their pride and malice shall never be extinguished through all the eternity of their existence (Ps. 73, 23), they were roused to fury, as soon as they recognized this divine virtue as flowing from Paul. Lucifer, with incredible rage, called together many legions of the demons and exhorted them anew to rouse themselves and exert all the forces of their malice for the entire destruction of saint Paul, and not to leave any stone unturned in Jerusalem and in all the world for the attainment of this object. The demons without delay set about this work, exciting Herod and the Jews against the Apostle, and directing their attention to the burning zeal with which he began to preach in Jerusalem.

 

380. The great Mistress of heaven perceived all this from her retirement in Ephesus; for in addition to the knowledge of all things through her heavenly science, She received information of all that happened to saint Paul from the angels She had sent for his defense. As the most blessed Mother expected the disturbance about to be raised by the malice of Herod and the Jews, especially against saint Paul, and as, on the other hand, She knew the importance of preserving his life for the exaltation of God's name and the spread of the Gospel, the great Queen was filled with new solicitude and regret at being absent from Palestine, where She could have rendered more immediate assistance to the Apostles. Therefore She sought to furnish it so much the more abundantly from Ephesus by multiplying her prayers and petitions, her ceaseless tears and sighs, and by other measures through the hands of her holy angels. In order to allay her anxieties, the Lord, one day in her prayer, assured Her, that He would fulfill her petitions and protect the life of saint Paul in this danger and in these assaults of the devil. And so He did: for one day saint Paul, while praying in the temple, was raised to an ecstatic rapture and filled with most exalted enlightenment and understanding, wherein the Lord commanded him immediately to leave Jerusalem and save his life from the hatred of the unbelieving Jews.

 

381. Hence saint Paul sojourned in Jerusalem at that time not more than fifteen days, as he himself says in his epistle to Galatians (Gal. 1, 18). After some years he returned thither from Miletus and Ephesus and was taken prisoner, and he refers to this ecstasy in the temple and to the command of the Lord to leave Jerusalem in the twenty-second chapter of the Acts. Of this vision and command he informed saint Peter, as the head of the apostolic college; and after consultation concerning his mortal danger, he was secretly sent to Caesarea and Tarsus with orders to preach indiscriminately to the gentiles, which he did. The most blessed Mary was the instrument and Mediatrix of all these miraculous favors. It was through Her that her Divine Son operated them, and from Her, God received the proper thanks for the graces distributed to the whole Church.

 

382. Having thus been reassured in regard to the life of saint Paul, the most blessed Mother entertained the hope that through the assistance of divine Providence She might save the life of her cousin James, who was very dear to Her and who was still in Saragossa, protected by the hundred angels She had appointed for his guardians and companions at Granada. These holy angels frequently went back and forth, bringing the petitions of the Apostles to the most blessed Mary and her counsels back to him. In this way saint James learned of the sojourn of the great Queen in Ephesus. When he had brought the chapel or small temple of the Pillar in Saragossa to a sufficient state of completion, he consigned it to the care of the bishop and the disciples appointed by him here as in other cities in Spain. Some months after the apparition of the Queen, he departed from Saragossa, continuing to preach through different provinces. Having come to Catalonia, he embarked for Italy, where without much delay, he pursued his journey overland always preaching until he again embarked for Asia, and ardently desiring to see there the most blessed Mary, his Mistress and Protectress.

 

383. Saint James happily attained his object and reached Ephesus. There he prostrated himself at the feet of the Mother of his Creator, shedding copious tears of joy and veneration. From his inmost heart he thanked Her for the peerless favors obtained at her hands from the Most High during his travels and his preaching in Spain, and especially for her having visited him and conferred such blessings upon him during her visits. The heavenly Mother, as Mistress of humility, immediately raised him from the ground and said to him: "My Master, remember thou art the anointed of the Lord and his minister, and that I am a humble wormlet." With these words the great Lady fell on her knees and asked the blessing of saint James as a priest of the Most High. He remained for some days in Ephesus in the company of the most blessed Mary and of his brother John, to whom he gave an account of all that had happened to him in Spain. With the most prudent Mother during those days he held most exalted colloquies and conferences, of which it will suffice to record the following.

 

384. In order to prepare saint James for his leave taking the blessed Mary one day said to him: "James, my son, these will be the last few days of thy life. Thou knowest how deeply I love thee in the Lord, and how I desire to raise thee to his intimate love and eternal friendship, for which He has created thee, redeemed and called thee. In the few days that still remain of thy life, I desire to demonstrate to thee my love and I offer thee all that by the divine grace I can do for thee as a true Mother." To this exceedingly great favor saint James responded with deepest veneration: "My Mistress and Mother of my God and Redeemer, from the bottom of my soul I thank Thee for this new benefit, possible only to thy unbounded charity. My Lady, I beseech Thee, give me thy blessing that I may suffer martyrdom for thy Son, my true God and Savior. If it is his will and for his glory, I beseech Thee from my soul, not to forsake me in the sacrifice of my life, but that I may see Thee with my own eyes in my passage and that Thou offer me as an acceptable victim in his divine presence."

 

385. The most holy Mary promised to present his petition to the Lord and that She would fulfill it, if the divine will and condescension should so permit. Thus inspiring him with the hope of her assistance and with other consolations of eternal life, She comforted the Apostle and strengthened him for his expected martyrdom. Among other words She spoke to him also as follows: "My son James, what torments or suffering shall ever seem great at the prospect of entering the eternal joys of the Lord? The most bitter shall seem sweet and the most terrible, welcome and desirable to him who knows the infinite and highest Good, which he shall possess in return for a momentary sorrow (II Cor. 4, 17). I congratulate thee, my master, for thy most happy lot and that thou art so soon to leave the tribulations of this mortal1ife in order to enjoy the infinite Good as a comprehensor in the gladness of his divine countenance. In this my heart is lightened that thou art so shortly to obtain what my soul desires for thee; and that thou givest thy temporal life for the unending possession of eternal rest. I give thee the blessing of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, in order that all the three Persons, in the oneness of their essence, assist thee in tribulation and lead thee to the desired end; and my own blessing shall be with thee in thy glorious martyrdom."

 

386. The great Queen added other words of admirable wisdom and highest consolation in parting from saint James. She asked him, in her name and in the name of all the creatures to praise God, and to intercede for the holy Church, as soon as He should come to the vision of the blessed Trinity. Saint James offered to do all She desired and again asked her favor and protection in the hour of his martyrdom. This She once more promised, and taking leave of Her, saint James said: "My Mistress, blessed among women, thy life and intercession is the prop on which the holy Church, now and during the ages in which it is to exist, shall rest securely in the midst or the persecutions and temptations of the enemies of the Lord. Thy charity shall be to Thee the instrument of thy martyrdom. Keep in mind always, as our sweetest Mother, the kingdom of Spain, where the holy Church and the faith of thy divine Son and Redeemer has now been planted. Receive it under thy special protection and preserve in it thy sacred temple and the faith, which I unworthily have preached; and give me thy holy blessing." The most holy Mary promised to fulfill his petition and desires, and She parted from him, bestowing upon him her reiterated blessing.

 

387. Saint James took leave also of his brother saint John, who shed abundant tears, not so much of sorrow as of joy, on account of the happy lot of the elder brother, since he was to be the first of the Apostles to attain eternal happiness and the palm of martyrdom. Thereupon saint James journeyed without much delay to Jerusalem, where he preached for some days before he died, as I shall show in the next chapter. The great Lady of the world remained in Ephesus, attentive to all that happened to saint James and all the other Apostles, without losing them from her interior vision or intermitting her prayers for them and for all the faithful of the Church. At the thought of the martyrdom of saint James for the name of Christ, such conflagrations of love and desires of giving her life for the Lord welled up in the purest heart of Mary, that She merited, many times over, the crowns gained by the Apostle and by all others together; for with each one of the martyrs She suffered many martyrdoms of love, more excruciating to her chaste and burning heart than the torments of sword and fire to the bodies of the martyrs.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST HOLY MARY GAVE ME.

 

388. My daughter, in the events of this chapter thou wilt find much guidance for a perfect life. Consider then, that just as God is the beginning and origin of all the being and faculties of creatures, so also, according to right reason, He is to be their sole last end; for if man has received all without meriting it, then he likewise owes all to Him who has given it gratis; and if men have received all in order to produce results, then all the results belong to the Creator and not to the creatures. This truth, which I understood fully and pondered in my heart, urged me to prostrate myself and lower myself to the very dust in adoring the immutable being of God. I reflected how I was created out of nothing, formed of earth, and in the presence of God I annihilated myself, acknowledging Him as the Creator, to whom lowed my life, being and motion (Acts 17, 28), and protesting that without Him I was nothing, and that all was due to Him as the one beginning and end of all creation. In the light of this truth, all that I did and suffered seemed little; and although I ceased not to do good, I continually longed and sighed to do and suffer still more. Never was my heart satisfied, because I still found myself a debtor, getting poorer and ever more indebted. This state of mind is very well founded in right reason and still more on faith, and this debt is manifest and common to all men, if they would only direct their attention toward it. But amid the universal forgetfulness of men I wish, my daughter, that thou solicitously imitate me in the practices and exercises described to thee, and especially that thou humble thyself to the dust and abase thyself in proportion as the Most High raises thee up by the favors and blessings of his right hand. The example of my humility thou wilt see clearly evident in the special favors, as for instance, when He commanded a temple to be built, in which I was to be honored and invoked even during my mortal life. This and other favors humbled me beyond all human imagination. Therefore, if I thus humbled myself after performing such great things, consider how much more thou must do it in response to such great liberality of the Lord toward thee and after such niggardly correspondence on thy part.

 

389. I wish also, my daughter, that thou imitate me in being very careful to practice poverty of spirit concerning the use of necessities and comforts, offered thee by thy sister-nuns or by thy well-wishers. Choose and accept only the most poor and most ordinary, the most undesirable and humble things for thy use; for otherwise thou canst not imitate me in the spirit, in which without ostentation I refused all comforts and good things of this life offered to me by the faithful of Jerusalem, and of which I accepted only what was absolutely necessary during my sojourn in Ephesus. In the exercise of this virtue is contained much that will make human beings happy, while the deceived and blind worldlings please themselves in pursuing what is entirely opposed to this virtue and truth.

 

390. Seek also to guard thyself from another very common mistake: namely that by which men, instead of acknowledging that all the goods of body and soul belong to the Lord, nevertheless appropriate all of them to themselves and consider them so much their own, that they not only refuse to offer them freely to their Creator, but even, if at any time they must part with them; lament and are aggrieved over their loss, as if they had been injured or as if God had treated them unjustly. With such a disorderly affection parents are wont to love their children, and children their parents, married men their wives, and wives their husbands, and all of them, their possessions, honor, health and other temporal goods, while many souls thus love even the spiritual goods; and they go so far in this disorderly love, that they have no measure in their sorrow, when they lose them. Though it be impossible to recover them, they live in unrest and dejection, passing from the disorder of their sensible affection to the disorder of their reason and to unjust complaint. Hence they dare not only condemn the rulings of divine Providence and lose the merit of sacrificing what is the Lord's, but they wish to have it understood, that they esteem the possession of these transitory goods as their highest aim, and that, if they were permitted, they would live many ages content with these apparent and perishing things.

 

391. None of the children of Adam can have a love greater, or one equal to that, with which I loved my divine Son and my spouse saint Joseph; yet this love was so well ordered while I lived in their company, that I willingly sacrificed their conversation and intercourse during all the time in which I was deprived of their presence. This conformity and resignation I desire thee to imitate, whenever something is wanting to thee, which thou shouldst love in God; for outside of God thou art permitted to love nothing. The anxious desire of seeing the supreme Good and of loving God eternally and forever in heaven must alone be perpetual in thee. For this happiness thou must sigh in tears from thy inmost heart; for it thou must gladly suffer all the hardships and afflictions of this mortal life. Thou must live in these aspirations in such a way, that from now on in trying to make thyself worthy of God thou be anxious to suffer all that thou hearest or understandest as having been suffered by the saints. But remember these desires of suffering and these aspirations and attempts to see God are to be of such a kind, that thy suffering becomes real through thy sorrow at not being able actually to encounter actual torments and at not being found worthy of bearing all the martyrdom thou thus desirest. In thy flights of desire to arrive at the beatific vision thou must permit no other lower motive to intermingle, such as the relief afforded by the joy of God's vision against the hardships of this life; for to desire the vision of the highest Good, is not love of God, but love of self and of one's own comfort, and cannot merit reward in the eyes of the all-penetrating and all weighing omnipotent God. But if thou do all these things sincerely and in all perfection, as a faithful servant and spouse of my divine Son, desiring to see Him in order to love Him, praise Him, and never to offend Him eternally, and if thou covet all labors and sufferings only for these ends, believe me and assure thyself, that thou wilt draw Us to thee and that thou wilt arrive at the kind of love thou continually desirest; since precisely for this purpose, We are so liberal with thee.

 

CHAPTER II.

 

THE GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM OF SAINT JAMES; THE MOST BLESSED MARY ASSISTS HIM AND BEARS HIS SOUL TO HEAVEN; HIS BODY IS BROUGHT TO SPAIN; THE IMPRISONMENT OF SAINT PETER AND HIS LIBERATION FROM PRISON; THE MYSTERIES CONNECTED WITH THESE EVENTS.

 

392. Our great apostle saint James came to Jerusalem at a time when that whole city was very much incensed against the disciples and followers of Christ our Lord. This new fury the demons had secretly roused by stirring up the zeal of the Jews for the old Law and their jealousy against the new evangelical Law. The immediate cause of these movements was the preaching of saint Paul, who, although he remained not more than fifteen days in Jerusalem, nevertheless in that short time, by the divine power, had converted many and excited the wonder and admiration of all the people. Although the unbelieving Jews felt relieved somewhat by the news of his having left Jerusalem, yet they were again thrown into consternation by the speedy arrival of saint James, who showed no less zeal and heavenly wisdom in proclaiming the name of Christ our Redeemer. Lucifer, who was not ignorant of his coming, availed himself of it as a new means of exciting the spleen and rousing the wrath of the high priests, priests and scribes. Saint James began to preach most fervently the name of the Crucified, his mysterious Death and Resurrection. In the first few days he converted to the faith some of the Jews, among whom were especially Hermogenes and Philetus, both of them magicians and sorcerers, who had a pact with the devil. Hermogenes was deeply versed in magic and Philetus was his disciple; the Jews wanted to engage the services of these two in order either to overcome saint James in dispute, or if that was impossible, to take away his life by their magic arts.

 

393. This wickedness the devils had intended to execute through the instrumentality of the unbelieving Jews; for they themselves could not come near saint James on account of the terrors of the divine grace emanating from the Apostle. Philetus first began the dispute with saint James, so that, if he should gain no advantage, Hermogenes, as the more skillful master in the magic art, might enter the combat. Philetus brought forth his sophistical and false arguments, but the holy Apostle spoke with such wisdom and force, that all his sophism yielded as the darkness before the light: Philetus was overcome and converted to the truth of Christ, becoming from that time on a defender of the Apostle, and his doctrine. But fearing the diabolical arts of his master Hermogenes, he sought the protection of saint James. The holy Apostle gave him a piece of cloth or linen, which he had received from Mary, and with this relic Philetus protected himself against the power of Hermogenes for some days, until the latter himself entered the dispute.

 

394. Although Hermogenes feared saint James, he could not evade the meeting, because he had pledged himself to the Jews to enter the discussion and convince saint James. Accordingly he tried to enforce his errors by more cogent arguments than his disciple. But all that he could do was unavailing against the heavenly force and wisdom of the Apostle, which was like an impetuous torrent. He brought Hermogenes to silence and obliged him to confess his belief in the mysteries of the faith of Christ, just as he had done with Philetus: both of them accepted the faith and doctrine preached by the Apostle. The demons were roused to fury against Hermogenes and, through the power they had acquired over him, began to maltreat him on account of his conversion. As he learned how Philetus had defended himself by the relic obtained from the Apostle, he sought a like favor against his enemies. Saint James gave him the scarf he had used in his travels and with it Hermogenes put to flight the demons and made them powerless to approach or afflict him further.

 

395. These conversions and others made by saint James in Jerusalem were hastened by the tearful sighs and prayers of the great Queen in her retreat at Ephesus, where (as I have often said) She knew by vision all that was done by the Apostles and the other faithful of the Church; and particularly what happened with the beloved Apostle James for whom She was especially solicitous as being so near his martyrdom. Hermogenes and Philetus persevered for some time in the faith of Christ; but afterwards they fell away and lost it in Asia, as is evident from the second epistle to Timothy, where saint Paul says that Figelus, or Philetus, and Hermogenes had left him. Although the seed of the faith had sprung up in the hearts of these men, it took no sufficient root to resist the temptations of the demon, whom they had served and familiarly entertained for so long a time. The evil and perverse inclinations of their vices still remained and again prevailed, withdrawing them from the faith they had accepted.

 

396. When the Jews, through the conviction and conversion of Philetus and Hermogenes, saw their hopes frustrated, they were filled with new anger against the apostle saint James and they determined to put an end to his life. For this purpose they bribed Democritus and Lysias, centurions of the Roman militia, to furnish them with soldiers for the arrest of the Apostle. In order to hide their treachery they were to raise a feigned quarrel or disturbance on a certain day during his preaching and thus get him within their power. The execution of this wicked design was left to Abiator, the high-priest of that year, and to Josias, a scribe of the same mind as the high priest. As they had planned, so they executed their scheme; for, while the saint was preaching to the people about the mystery of the Redemption, proving it to them with admirable wisdom from the testimonies of the ancient writings and moving his audience to tears of compunction, the priest and the scribe were roused to diabolical fury. Giving the signal to the Roman soldiers, the priest sent Josias to throw a rope around the neck of saint James and fell upon him, proclaiming him a disturber of the people and the author of a new religion in opposition to the Roman empire.

 

397. Democritus and Lysias thereupon rushed up with their soldiers and brought the Apostle bound to Herod, the son of Archelaus, whose malice had been roused interiorly through the astuteness of Lucifer and exteriorly by the evil-minded and hateful Jews. Thus doubly incited, Herod began against the disciples of the Lord, whom he abhorred, the persecution mentioned by saint Luke in the twelfth chapter of the Acts and sent his soldiers to afflict and imprison them. He instantly commanded saint James to be beheaded, as the Jews had asked. Incredible was the joy of the holy Apostle at being seized and bound like his Master and at seeing himself conducted to the place, where he was to pass from this mortal life to the eternal through martyrdom, as he had been informed by the Queen of heaven. He offered most humble thanks for this benefit and publicly reiterated the open profession of his faith in Christ our Lord. Remembering the petition he had made in Ephesus, that She be present at his death, he called upon Her from his inmost Soul.

 

398. The most holy Mary from her oratory heard these prayers of her beloved Apostle and cousin; for She was attentive to all that happened to him and She helped and favored him with her own efficacious petitions. During this her prayer, She saw a great multitude of angels and heavenly spirits of all hierarchies descending from heaven, part of them surrounding the Apostle in Jerusalem as he was led to the place of execution, while numerous others approached their Queen at Ephesus. Presently one of them addressed Her saying: "Empress of heaven and our Lady, the most high Lord and God bids you immediately to hasten to Jerusalem to console his great servant James, to assist him in his death and to grant all his loving and holy desires." This favor the most blessed Mary joyfully and gratefully acknowledged. She praised the Most High for the protection granted to those who trust in his mercy and put their lives in his hands. In the meanwhile the Apostle was led to execution and on the way thereto he wrought great miracles upon the sick and ailing and on some possessed by the demons. There were a great number of them, because the rumor of his execution by Herod had spread about and many of the unfortunates hastened to receive his last ministrations and counsels. All that applied were healed by the great Apostle.

 

399. In the meanwhile the holy angels placed their Queen and Mistress upon a most refulgent throne, as they had done on other occasions, and on it bore Her to Jerusalem and to the place of the execution of saint James. The holy Apostle fell upon his knees in order to offer his life to the Most High in sacrifice, and when he raised his eyes toward heaven, he saw in the air near him the Queen of heaven, whom he had been invoking in his heart. He beheld Her clothed in divine splendors and great beauty, surrounded by multitudes of the angels. At this heavenly spectacle the soul of James was moved to new jubilee and his heart was seized with the ardors of a divine love. He wished to proclaim the most blessed Mary as the Mother of God and the Mistress of all creation. But one of the sovereign spirits restrained him in this fervent desire and said: "James, servant of our Creator, restrain within thy own bosom these precious sentiments and do not manifest to the Jews the presence and assistance of our Queen; for they are not worthy or capable of knowing Her, but instead of reverencing Her will only harden themselves in their hatred." Thus advised the Apostle forbore and moving his lips in silence, he spoke to the heavenly Queen as follows:

 

400. "Mother of my Lord Jesus Christ, my Mistress and Protectress, Thou consolation of the afflicted and refuge of the needy, in this hour bestow upon me, my Lady, thy so much desired blessing. Offer for me to thy Son and Redeemer of the world, the sacrifice of my life, since I am burning with desire to be a holocaust for the glory of his name. Let today thy most pure and spotless hands be the altar of my sacrifice, in order that it may become acceptable in the eyes of Him, who died for me upon the cross. Into thy hands, and through them into the hands of my Creator, I commend my spirit." Having said these words, and keeping his eyes fixed upon the most holy Mary, who spoke to his heart, the holy Apostle was beheaded by the executioner. The great Lady and Queen of the world (O wonderful condescension!) received the soul of her beloved Apostle and placing it at her side on the throne, ascended with it to the empyrean heavens and presented it to her divine Son. As the most blessed Mary entered the heavenly court with this offering, She caused new joy and accidental glory to all the heavenly inhabitants and was received with songs of praise. The Most High received the soul of James and placed it in eminent glory among the princes of his people. The most blessed Mary, prostrate before the throne of the Almighty, composed a song of praise and thanksgiving for the triumphal martyrdom first gained by one of his Apostles. On this occasion the great Lady did not see the Divinity by intuitive vision, but by an abstractive one, such as I have described before this. But the blessed Trinity filled Her with new blessings and favors for Herself and for the holy Church, for which She had made great preparations. All the saints likewise blessed her and then the holy angels brought Her back to her oratory in Ephesus, where in the meanwhile an angel had impersonated Her. On arriving the heavenly Mother of virtues prostrated Herself as usual in order to give thanks to the Most High for all that had happened.

 

401. The disciples of saint James during the following night secured his sacred body and secretly brought it to Jaffa, where by divine disposition they embarked with it for Galicia in Spain. The heavenly Lady sent an angel to guide and accompany them to the port, where according to the divine will they were to disembark. Although they did not see the angel, they felt his protection during the whole voyage and often in a miraculous manner. Thus Spain, just as it owed its first instruction in the faith so deeply rooted in the hearts of its people, to the protection lavished by most holy Mary upon the Apostle, now also owes to Her the possession of his sacred body for its consolation and defense. Saint James died in the year forty-one of our Lord, on the twenty-fifth of March, five years and seven months after his setting out to preach in Spain. According to this count and that which I gave above, the martyrdom of saint James happened seven full years after the death of our Savior Jesus Christ.

 

402. That his martyrdom was at the end of March is clear from the twelfth chapter of the Acts, where saint Luke says, that because of the rejoicings of the Jews in the death of saint James, Herod imprisoned also saint Peter with the intention of beheading him after the feast of the Pasch, which was that of the paschal lamb, or of unleavened bread. This the Jews celebrated on the fourteenth of the moon of March. From this passage it appears that the seizure of saint Peter was during this Pasch or very near it; and that the death of James had preceded it a few days, the fourteenth of the moon of March in the year forty-one, according to our present computation of the years and months, occurred in the last days of March. Accordingly the death of saint James happened on the twenty-fifth, before the fourteenth of the moon, and soon thereupon took place the imprisonment of Peter and the Pasch of the Jews. The holy Church does not celebrate the feast of saint James on the day of his death, because it falls on the same day as the Incarnation and ordinarily also in the time of the Lord's passion. It was therefore transferred to the twenty-fifth of July, which is the day on which the body of the Apostle was brought to Spain.

 

403. The death of saint James and the haste of Herod in inflicting it, greatly increased the most impious cruelty of the Jews; for in the savage brutality of the wicked king they saw a valuable means of pursuing their vengeance against the followers of Christ the Lord. Lucifer and his demons were of like opinion; they, by their suggestions, and the Jews, by their insistent flatteries, persuaded him to seize upon saint Peter, which he readily did in order to gain the good will of the Jews for his own temporal ends. The demons stood in great awe of the vicar of Christ on account of the power emanating from him against them; and therefore they secretly sought to hasten his imprisonment. Saint Peter, bound with many chains, lay in the dungeon awaiting his execution after the holidays of the Pasch. (Acts 12, 4). Although the undaunted heart of the Apostle was as free from anxiety or solicitude as if he had been at liberty, yet the whole body of the Church of Jerusalem was in consternation, and all the disciples and the faithful were greatly afflicted at the news that Herod was to execute him without delay. In their affliction they multiplied their prayers and petitions to the Lord for the preservation of saint Peter, whose death threatened the whole Church with great havoc and tribulation. They invoked also the protection and powerful intercession of the most blessed Mary, from whom they all expected deliverance.

 

404. The dangerous crisis impending over the Church was not unknown to the heavenly Mother, for, from her retreat in Ephesus, by her clearest interior vision of all things, She saw all things that passed in Jerusalem. She likewise increased her ardent requests, her sighs, prostrations and bloody tears, supplicating the Lord for the liberation of saint Peter and the protection of the holy Church. These prayers of the blessed Mother penetrated the heavens and wounded the heart of her Son Jesus, our Savior. In response the Lord descended in person to her oratory, where She was lying prostrate with her virginal face upon the ground mingling with the dust. The sovereign King entered and raised Her lovingly from the ground, saying: "My Mother, moderate thy sorrow and ask whatever thou wishest; for I shall grant it all and thou shalt find grace in my eyes to obtain it."

 

405. By the presence and loving caresses of her Son the heavenly Mother was reanimated and filled with glad consolation; for the tribulations of the Church were the sole cause of her martyrdom, and to see saint Peter in prison condemned to death, and the dangers thus threatening the primitive Church, afflicted Her more than can be conceived. She renewed her petition in the presence of Christ the Redeemer, and said: "Lord and true God, my Son, Thou knowest the tribulations of thy holy Church and her clamors sound in thy ears, while they penetrate to the inmost of my afflicted heart. Thy enemies are resolved to take away the life of her Pastor, thy vicar; and if Thou, my Lord permit it now, they will scatter thy little flock and the infernal wolves will triumph over thy name in seeing their wishes fulfilled. Issue then, my Lord God and life of my soul, thy sovereign command over this sea of tribulation, and the winds and waves, that batter this little ship, shall be quieted and I shall live. Protect thy vicar and confound thy enemies. And if it is to thy glory and according to thy will let these tribulations come over me, so that I may suffer for thy faithful children and be the aid of thy right arm I may battle with the invisible enemies in the defense of thy holy Church."

 

406. Her divine Son answered: "I desire that thou act according to thy wishes, using the powers I have given Thee: do or undo whatever is necessary for the welfare of my Church, and Thou mayest be sure, that all the fury of the demons will be turned toward Thee." She thanked him for this new favor and offered to undertake the battles of the Lord for his faithful, saying: "Most High Lord, hope and life of my soul, prepared is the heart and spirit of thy servant to labor for the souls bought with thy blood and life. Although I am but useless dust, I know Thee to be infinite in power and wisdom; with the favor of thy assistance I fear not the infernal dragon. As Thou wishest me to dispose and act in thy name for the welfare of the Church, I now command Lucifer and all his ministers of wickedness, who are disturbing the Church, to descend to the abyss and there be silenced until it shall please thy Providence to permit their return to the earth." This command of the Queen of the world in Ephesus was so powerful, that at the very moment of her issuing it, all the demons in Jerusalem were precipitated into hell, the whole multitude descending into the eternal caverns without power of resisting the divine force exerted through the most blessed Mary.

 

407. Lucifer and his companions knew that this chastisement proceeded from our Queen, whom they called their enemy because they dared not pronounce her name. They remained in hell, confounded and dismayed as on other occasions, until they were permitted to rise in order to battle against Mary, as will be related further on. During that time they consulted anew about the means of attaining this end. Having obtained this triumph over the demons the most blessed Mary bethought Herself of overcoming likewise the opposition of Herod and the Jews, and therefore She said to her divine Son: "Now, my Son and Lord, if it is thy will, let one of thy holy angels be sent to deliver thy servant Peter from prison." Christ our Lord approved of her wish and, at the orders of both these Sovereigns, one of the heavenly spirits there present hastened to liberate saint Peter from his prison in Jerusalem.

 

408. The angel executed these orders very swiftly.

Coming to the dungeon, he found saint Peter fastened with two chains, guarded by two soldiers at his side and by a number of other soldiers at the entrance of the prison. The Pasch had already been celebrated and it was the night before he was to be executed according to the sentence passed upon him. But the Apostle was so little disturbed that he was sleeping with as much unconcern as his guards (Acts 12, 6). When the angel arrived, he was obliged to wake him by force and while saint Peter was still drowsy, said to him: "Arise quickly; put on thy girdle and thy shoes, take thy mantle and follow me." Saint Peter found himself free of the chains and, without understanding what was happening to him and ignorant of what this vision could mean, followed the angel. Having conducted him through some streets, the angel told him, that the Almighty had freed him from prison through the intercession of his most blessed Mother, and thereupon disappeared. Saint Peter, coming to himself understood the mystery and gave thanks to the Lord for this favor.

 

409. Saint Peter thought it best first to give an account of his liberation and consult with James the Less and others of the faithful, before seeking safety in flight. Hastening his steps he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark. This was the house of the Cenacle, where many of the disciples had gathered in their affliction. Saint Peter called to them from the street, and a servant-maid, by the name of Rhode, descended to see who was calling. As she recognized the voice of Peter, she left him standing at the door outside and fled excitedly to the disciples, telling them that it was Peter. They thought it some foolish misunderstanding of the servant; but she maintained, that it was Peter; so they, far from guessing the liberation of Peter, concluded that it might be his angel. During these questions and answers saint Peter was in the street clamoring at the door, until they opened it and with incredible joy and gladness saw the holy Apostle and head of the Church freed from the sorrows of prison and death. He gave them an account of all that had happened to him through aid of the angel, in order that they might in strict secrecy notify saint James and all his brethren. Foreseeing that Herod would search for him with great diligence, they unanimously decided that he leave Jerusalem that very night and not return, lest he should be taken in some future search. Saint Peter therefore fled, and Herod, having instituted a search in vain, chastised the guards, and was roused to new fury against the disciples. But on account of his pride and impious designs, God cut short his activity by a severe punishment, of which I shall speak in the following chapter.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS GAVE ME.

 

410. My daughter, thy astonishment at the singular favor conferred by me on my servant James at his death, affords me an occasion to tell thee of a privilege confirmed to me by the Almighty at the time when I bore the soul of the Apostle to heaven. Although I have already on other occasions revealed to thee something of this secret, thou shalt now understand it more fully in order to increase thy filial devotion toward me. When I brought to heaven the happy soul of James, the eternal Father spoke to me in the hearing of all the blessed: "My Daughter and Dove, chosen for my acceptation from all the creatures, let my courtiers, angels and saints understand that, for the exaltation of my holy name, for thy glory and for the benefit of mortals, I now give thee my royal word, that if men, in the hour of their death invoke thee and call upon thee with affection in imitation of my servant James, soliciting thy intercession with me, I will bend to them in clemency and look upon them with eyes of fatherly mercy; I will defend and guard them against the dangers of that last hour; I will ward off the cruel enemies that seek the perdition of souls in that hour; I will furnish them through thee with great helps for resisting these enemies and gaining grace, if they wish to avail themselves of this help; and thou shalt present to Me their souls to be rewarded by my liberal hands."

 

411. For this privilege the whole triumphant Church, and I with it, sang hymns of thanks and praise to the Most High. Although the angels have the office of presenting the souls when they issue from the captivity of mortal life, to the tribunal of the just Judge, yet I have this same privilege in a more exalted degree than is granted to any other creature by the Omnipotent; for I possess it by another title and by a particular and supereminent right. Many times I make use of this privilege and I have done so with some of the Apostles. Since I see thee desirous of knowing how thou canst obtain from me this favor so precious to the soul, I answer thy pious wish by exhorting thee to take care lest thou make thyself unworthy by ingratitude and forgetfulness; and before all, to gain for thyself that inviolate purity, which I expect of thee and of the other souls. For the great love which love and cherish toward God, obliges me, with sincerest affection and charity to demand of all men the observance of his holy law and the preservation of their friendship and grace with God. This thou must prefer before thy life and be willing to die rather than offend thy God and highest Good.

 

412. I wish that thou set about obeying me, act out my instructions, and work with all thy might to imitate what thou seest and writest of me; that thou permit no intermission in thy love, nor forget for one moment the heartfelt affection thou owest to the liberal mercy of thy Lord; that thou be thankful for all his blessings and to me, since thy obligations are far beyond the power of fulfillment by thee in this mortal life. Be faithful in thy correspondence, fervent in thy devotion, ready to do what is most holy and perfect. Let thy heart expand and do not narrow it in pusillanimity, following the instigations of the devil. Extend thy hand to strong and powerful deeds, filled with confidence in the Lord; be not oppressed by adversities, thus impeding the will of the Lord in thee, and the high ends of his glory. Retain vivid faith and hope, even in the greatest assaults and temptations. In all this let the example of my servants James and Peter assist thee, and the certain knowledge of possessing through me the happy security of those who live under the protection of the Most High. In this confidence and in devotion to me James obtained the singular favor I showed him in his martyrdom; trusting in me he undertook immense labors in order to reach that crown. In this confidence saint Peter remained so tranquil and content in his prisonchains, nor lost for a moment the serenity of his soul. Thus he merited at the same time, that my divine Son and myself should plan his liberation. Of such favors the children of darkness make themselves unworthy, because they build all their hopes on that which is visible and on their diabolical earthly astuteness. Raise up thy heart, my daughter, and withdraw it from these deceits; aspire to that which is most pure and holy, since with thee shall be the arm of the Almighty, who wrought such great wonders in Me.

 

CHAPTER III.

 

THE DOINGS OF THE MOST BLESSED MARY IN CONNECTION WITH THE DEATH AND CHASTISEMENT OF HEROD; SAINT JOHN PREACHES IN EPHESUS AND WORKS MANY MIRACLES; LUCIFER RISES UP TO BATTLE WITH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN.

 

413. In the rational creature love produces on the heart effects similar to those of the force of gravity on the stone. The stone tends to move whithersoever its own weight draws it, that is to its centre of attraction; love is the weight of the heart, drawing it to its centre, namely, to that which it loves. If at any time the heart is diverted by necessity or inadvertence, love will immediately make it recoil like a liberated spring returning again to its normal position. This weight or sway of love in a manner seems to take away the liberty of the heart, in so far as it becomes subject and subservient to what it loves, and prevents the will from commanding any other course of action than that sought and ordered by the urgency of this love. The happiness or unhappiness of a creature arises from the good or evil use it makes of love, for what man loves that he makes his master; if this master is evil and vile, so will also the man be tyrannized and degraded; if good, then will he be ennobled and made happy, and so much the more, the more noble and excellent the good is, that he loves. By these principles I hope to be able to explain in part, what has been made known to me concerning the exalted state in which the most holy Mary lived never having dropped from it but rising higher and higher from the first instant of her Conception without interruption or relaxation, until She entered the state of a comprehensor in the beatific vision.

 

414. If all the love of the holy angels and of men could be united in one person, it would be less than that of the most holy Mary; yet, if we could unite the love of all the other creatures into one whole, it is certain that such a conflagration of love would result, that, without being infinite, it would seem so to us, on account of its surpassing all our comprehension. If then the charity of our great Queen exceeded all this, only the infinite Wisdom could measure the love of this Creature and estimate the intensity, with which it inclined and tended toward the Divinity. We however can at least understand that in this chastest, purest and most inflamed heart there could be no other mastery or sway, no other movement or liberty, except that of loving supremely the highest Good; and this in such an exalted degree, that with our limited capacity we can much sooner believe than understand it, confess than penetrate it. This charity of the most pure Virgin filled Her at the same time with the most ardent desires of seeing the face of God, who was absent, and assisting the holy Church, which was present to Her. Thus She was consumed by two opposite tendencies; but She governed them with such wisdom, that there arose from them no conflict within Her, nor did She give Herself up to the one to the neglect of the other; but She attended to both, exciting wonder in all the saints and fullest complacency in the Lord of the saints.

 

415. In this exalted and eminent state of holiness the most holy Mary often consulted within her heart about the condition of the primitive Church left in her charge; and how She could exert Herself for its peace and progress. In these aspirations the liberation of saint Peter, which made it possible for him to continue the government of the faithful, and also the casting forth of Lucifer and his demons from Jerusalem, which freed the faithful from their tyranny and allowed them some respite, afforded the most holy Mary some relief and consolation in her anxiety. The divine Wisdom, which dispenses labors and consolations with weight and measure (Wis. 11, 21), ordained that the most blessed Mother should at that time have a very intimate knowledge of the evil disposition of Herod. She perceived the abominable ugliness of that most unfortunate soul brought on by his boundless vices and oft-repeated crimes, which had roused the wrath of the just and almighty Judge. She knew how greatly Herod and the Jews were enraged against Jesus and his disciples after the escape of saint Peter. She saw, also, how the seed of rage, sown by the demons in the hearts of Herod and the Jews, had grown, and how furious their hatred against Jesus our Redeemer and his disciples had become; how the iniquitous ruler had conceived the purpose of exterminating all the faithful within the confines of Judea and Galilee and how he would employ in this work all his forces and means. Although the most blessed Mary was aware of this design of Herod, She was not informed at that time of his horrid death. But as She knew his power and the depravity of his soul, She was horrified at his evil state, and deeply grieved at his wrath against the followers of the faith.

 

416. In her anxieties and in her reliance upon the divine help our Queen labored incessantly in prayers and tears, travailing in her clamors as I have shown on other occasions. Ever governed by her most exalted prudence, She spoke to one of the highest angels of her guard, saying: "Minister of the Most High and creature of his hands, my solicitude for the holy Church strongly urges me to seek its welfare and progress. I beseech thee to ascend to the throne of the Most High, represent to Him my affliction; ask Him in my name, that I may be permitted to suffer instead of his faithful servants and that Herod be prevented from executing his designs for the destruction of the Church." Immediately the angel betook himself to the Lord with this message, while the Queen of heaven, like another Esther, remained in prayer for the liberty and salvation of her people and of Herself. (Eph. 4, 16). The heavenly ambassador was sent back by the blessed Trinity with the answer: "Princess of heaven, the Lord of hosts says, that Thou art the Mother, the Mistress and the Governess of the Church, and that Thou holdest his power while Thou art upon earth; and He desires Thee, as the Queen and Mistress of the heaven and earth, to execute sentence upon Herod."

 

417. In her humility the most blessed Virgin was somewhat disturbed by this answer, and urged by her charity, She replied to the angel: "Am I then to pronounce sentence against a creature who is the image of the Lord? Since I came forth from his hands I have known many reprobates among men and I have never called for vengeance against them; but as far as I was concerned, always desired their salvation if possible, and never hastened their punishment. Return to the Lord, angel, and tell Him that my tribunal and power is inferior to and dependent upon his, and that I cannot sentence anyone to death without consulting my Superior; and if it is possible to bring Herod to the way of Salvation, I am willing to suffer all the travails of the world according to the disposition of his divine Providence in order that this soul may not be lost." The angel hastened back with this second message of his Queen and having presented it before the throne of the most blessed Trinity, was sent back to Her with the following answer: "Our Mistress and Queen, the Most High says, that Herod is of the number of the foreknown, since he is so obstinate in his malice, that he will take no admonition or instruction; he will not co-operate with the helps given to him; nor will he avail himself of the fruits of the Redemption, nor of the intercession of the saints, nor of thy own efforts, 0 Queen and Lady, in his behalf."

 

418. For the third time the most holy Mary dispatched the heavenly prince with still another message to the Most High, saying: "If it must be that Herod die in order to hinder him from persecuting the Church, do thou, 0 angel, represent to the Almighty, how in the infinite condescension of his charity, He has granted me in mortal life to be the Refuge of the children of Adam, the Advocate and Intercessor of sinners; that my tribunal should be that of kindness and clemency for the refuge and assistance of all that seek my intercession; and that all should leave it with the assurance of pardon in the name of my divine Son. If then I am to be a loving Mother to men, who are the creatures of his hands and the price of his life-blood, how can I now be a severe judge against one of them? Never was I charged with dealing out justice, always mercy, to which all my heart inclines; and now it is troubled by this conflict of love with obedience to rigorous justice. Present anew, O angel, this my anxiety to the Lord, and learn whether it is not his pleasure that Herod die without my condemning him."

 

419. The holy messenger ascended for the third time and the most blessed Trinity listened to his message with the plenitude of pleasure and complacency at the pitying love of his Spouse. Returning, the angel thus informed the loving Mistress: "Our Queen, Mother of our Creator and my Lady, the almighty Majesty says that thy mercy is for those mortals who wish to avail themselves of thy powerful intercession, not for those who despise and abhor it like Herod; that Thou art the Mistress of the Church invested with all the divine power, and that therefore it is meet Thou use it as is opportune: that Herod must die; but it shall be through thy sentence and according to thy order." The most blessed Mary answered: "Just is the Lord and equitable are his judgments (Ps, 118, 137). Many times would I suffer death to rescue this soul of Herod, if he himself would not by his own free will make himself unworthy of mercy and choose perdition. He is a work of the Most High (Job. 10,8), formed according to his image and likeness (Gen. 1,27) ; he was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, which taketh away the sins of the world (Apoc. 1, 5). But I set aside all this and, considering only his having become an obstinate enemy of God, unworthy of his eternal friendship, by the most equitable justice of God, I condemn him to the death he has merited, in order that he may not incur greater torments by executing the evil he has planned."

 

420. This wonder the Lord wrought for the glory of his most blessed Mother and in witness of his having constituted Her as the Mistress of all creatures with supreme power to act as their Sovereign like her divine Son. I cannot explain this mystery better than in the words of the Lord in the fifth chapter of saint John, where He says of Himself: "The son cannot do anything that the Father does not; but He does the same, because the Father loves Him; and if the Father raises the dead, the son also raises whom he pleases, and the Father has given to the Son to judge all, in order that just as all honor the Father, they may also honor the Son; for no one can honor the Father without honoring the Son." And immediately He adds: that He has given Him the power of judging, because He is the Son of man, which He is through his most blessed mother. On account of the likeness of the heavenly Mother to her Son (of which I have often spoken) the relation or proportion of the Mother with the Son in this power of judgment must be transferred to the Mother in the same manner as that of the Son from the Father. Mary is the Mother of mercy and clemency to all the children of Adam that call upon Her; but in addition to this the Almighty wishes it to be understood that She possesses full power of judging all men and that all should honor Her, just as they honor her Son and true God. As his true Mother He has given Her the same power with him in the degree and proportion due to Her as his Mother and a mere creature.

 

421. Making use of this power the great Lady sent the angel to Caesarea, where Herod then was, to take away his life as the minister of divine justice. The angel executed the sentence without delay. The evangelist saint Luke says, that the angel of the Lord struck Herod and, eaten up by worms, the unhappy man died the temporal and eternal death. The wound of this stroke was interior and from it sprang the corruption and the worms that so miserably finished him. From the same text it appears that, after having beheaded saint James and after saint Peter had escaped, Herod descended to Caesarea in order to compose some differences that had arisen between him and the inhabitants of Sidon and Tyre (Acts 12, 23). Within a few days, vested in the royal purple and seated upon a throne, he harangued the people with great show of words. The people, full of vain flattery, proclaimed him as a victor and as a god; and Herod, in foolish vanity, was pleased with this adulation of the people. Because he had not given honor to God, but usurped to himself divine honor in vain pride, as saint Luke says, the angel of the Lord struck him. Although this was his last crime, which filled the measure of his iniquity, he merited the chastisement not only for this, but for so many other crimes committed by him in persecuting the Apostles, mocking the Lord our Savior (Luke 23, 11), beheading the Baptist (Mark 6, 27), committing adultery with his sister-in-law Herodias, and for many other abominations.

 

422. Immediately the angel returned to Ephesus and gave an account of the execution of the sentence against Herod. The merciful Mother wept over the loss of this soul; but praised the judgments of the Lord and gave him thanks for the benefit, which the Church would derive from his chastisement; for, as saint Luke says (Acts 12, 24), the Church grew and increased by the word of God. This was true not only in Galilee and Judea, where the persecutor Herod was removed, but, through saint John and the help of the most holy Mother, the Church was taking root in Ephesus. The science of the blessed Apostle was full as that of the cherubim, and the love of his heart was inflamed like that of the seraphim; and he had with him as his Mother and Teacher, the Mistress of wisdom and grace. On account of these precious advantages the Evangelist could undertake great and wonderful works for the foundation of the law of grace, not only in Ephesus, but in all neighboring regions of Asia and in the borderlands of Europe.

 

423. Arriving at Ephesus the Evangelist began to preach in the city, baptizing those whom he converted to the faith of Christ our Savior and confirming the faith by great miracles and prodigies, such as had never been witnessed by those gentiles. Since the Greek schools in those countries turned out many philosophers and men learned in what, notwithstanding the admixture of many errors, could be called human sciences, the blessed Apostle convincingly taught them the true science, making use not only of miracles and signs, but of argumentation for the credibility of the Christian faith. All his catechumens he immediately sent to the most holy Mary and She instructed many; as She knew the interior inclinations of all, She spoke to the heart of each one and filled it with heavenly light. She wrought prodigies and miracles for the benefit of the unfortunate, curing the possessed and the infirm, succored the poor and the needy and, by the labor of her own hands, gave assistance to the sick in the infirmaries, attending upon them in person. In her house the kindest Queen had a supply of clothes for the most poor and forsaken of her fellowmen. She helped many in the hour of their death, gaining these souls in their last agony and bringing them safely through all the assaults of the demon to their Creator. So many souls did She draw to the path of truth and life eternal, and so numerous were the wonders She wrought for this end, that they could not be recorded in many books; for no day passed in which She did not increase the possessions of the Lord by the copious and abundant fruit of souls.

 

424. On account of the growth of the primitive Church through the holiness, solicitude and labors of the Queen of Heaven, the demons were filled with confusion and furious disappointment. Although they rejoiced in the condemnation of all souls because it swelled the numbers of the damned in hell yet they were grievously put out at the death of Herod; for on account of his obstinacy they had expected from him no amendment of his vile and abominable life and therefore had considered him a powerful instrument for the persecution of the followers of Christ our Lord. The divine Providence permitted Lucifer and the other infernal dragons to emerge from the depths of hell, whither they had been cast forth from Jerusalem by the most blessed Mother, as I have related in the last chapter. After having spent their time in hell in planning and preparing temptations for their conflict with the invincible Queen of the angels, Lucifer resolved to make complaint against Her to the Lord himself, as he had done against holy Job (Job 1, 9) ; although he now did it with greater wrath. With this intent, before issuing from the abyss, he spoke to his ministers as follows:

 

425. "If we do not vanquish this Woman, our Enemy, I fear that without a doubt She will destroy my sovereignty; for we all find in Her a strength more than human, which annihilates and oppresses us, whenever and in whatsoever manner She pleases to exercise it. This is what makes Her intolerable to me; for if She were God, who is offended by my high aspirations and hostility and who has infinite power to destroy us, I would not feel so much confusion at being overcome; but this Woman, though She is the Mother of God, of the incarnate Word, is not God; She is a mere creature of a nature inferior to ours. I shall not further endure to be treated by Her in such an imperious manner and be ruined by her opposition to me. Let us all go forth to destroy Her and let us make our complaint to the Omnipotent as we have now concluded to do." In reliance upon his pretended rights the dragon executed his resolve; for he alleged, that God, instead of leaving Her in her humble condition exposed to the persecutions and temptations of the demons, had by his graces and gifts unjustly raised this Woman above him, though She was but dust of the earth while he was an angel of such superior essence. But I must remark, that these hellish foes did not present themselves before the Lord so as to see Him, being entirely incapable thereof; but through their knowledge and belief in the supernatural mysteries, which is conceded to them in a curtailed yet by them unavoidable measure, they are permitted to speak to God. This is what is meant, when they are mentioned as being in the presence of God to make complaint or to have converse with Him.

 

426. The Almighty gave Lucifer permission to go forth in battle against the most blessed Mother; but the conditions asked by Satan were unjust, and therefore many of them were not conceded. The divine Wisdom furnished those weapons, which were appropriate to each combatant, in order that the victory of his Mother might be so much the more glorious and crush the head of this ancient and poisonous serpent (Gen 3, 15). This battle was mysterious, no less than its triumphant issue, as we shall see in the following chapters; moreover its mysterious character is plainly evident in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse and from the other mysteries of which I have spoken in my explanations of the first part of this history (Part 1, No. 94). I wish only to state here, that the divine Providence foreordained all this, not only for the greater glory of his most holy Mother and for the exaltation of the divine power and wisdom, but also in order to bring relief to the Church from the persecutions roused against it by the demons; and also to bind Himself with some show of justice to the bestowal of the infinite favors and blessings which the most holy Mary alone and no other souls could ever merit for the whole Church. The Lord continually works in this manner in his Church: preparing and fortifying some chosen souls, against which, as members and parts of his holy Church, the dragon may exert all his wrath and fury. If they overcome him by the help of divine grace, their victories redound to the benefit of the whole mystical body of the faithful and the enemy loses some of his right and power over them.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE GREAT QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME.

 

427. My daughter, when in the course of this history I so often call thy attention to the lamentable state of the world and to that of the holy Church in which thou livest, and when I so often express my maternal solicitude that thou imitate me, remember, my dearest, that I have great reasons for obliging thee to lament with me and for wishing thee to weep over that which I bewailed in my mortal life ; and which would afflict me in my present state, if in it I were capable of sorrow. I assure thee, soul, thou hast reached times, in which thou oughtest to shed tears of blood because of the calamities coming over the children of Adam. Since thou canst not at one and the same time attain a full knowledge of them all, I remind thee of what from my place in heaven I see going on in the whole world among the believers of the holy faith. Turn then thy eyes upon those multitudes and behold the greater part of the children of Adam in the darkness and errors of unbelief, rushing without hope of salvation to eternal perdition. Behold also the children of the faith and of the Church, how heedless and forgetful of this damage they continue to be, so that there are none who seem to deplore it. For in contempt of their own salvation, they care not about that of others and, their faith being dead and their love extinct, they sorrow not for the loss of souls created by God and redeemed by the blood of the incarnate Word.

 

428. All are the children of the eternal Father who is in heaven (Matth 23, 9) and all are obliged to have a care of their brethren according to each one's condition. This obligation rests more especially upon the children of the Church, who can live up to it by their prayers and supplications. But this duty lies still more directly upon those who have influence, upon those who are nourished by the Christian faith, and who enjoy more of the benefits of the liberal hand of the Almighty. Those who through the law of Christ are favored with temporal advantages and who make use of them for the service and the delights of the flesh, are they who, as the powerful, are to be more powerfully tormented (Matth 23, 9). If the pastors and the chiefs of the house of the Lord seek only a life of ease, without caring to engage in true earnest labor, they will make themselves accountable for the ruin of the flock of Christ and for the carnage brought on by the infernal wolves. 0 my daughter, into what a lamentable state has the Christian people been cast by the powerful, by the pastors, and by the wicked ministers, whom God has given them in his secret judgments! O what confusion and chastisements await them! Before the tribunal of the just Judge they will have no excuse; since the Catholic truth undeceives them, their conscience loudly protests, while they willfully remain deaf to all warnings.

 

429. The cause of God remains neglected and without a champion; his possessions, which are the souls, are left without increase; all as it were look but to their own interest and preservation, each one according to his own diabolical cunning and according to his state of life. Truth is obscured, flattery raises its voice, avarice is unbridled, the blood of Christ is trodden under foot, the fruits of the Redemption are held in contempt; no one wishes to risk his own comfort or interest in order to save what has cost the Savior his blood and life. Even the friends of God are influenced by the evils; for they do not make use of their charity and its holy liberty as they ought; and most of them allow themselves to be overcome by their cowardice and content themselves with working for themselves alone, forsaking the common cause of the souls of others. Hence thou mayest understand, my daughter, that now, after the evangelical Church has been established by my divine Son and fertilized by his own blood, those unhappy times have come, of which the Lord himself complains through his holy Prophets, saying: what the palmerworm hath left the locust has eaten, and what the locust left the bronchus consumed, and the residue is destroyed by the mildew; (Joel 1, 4) and in order to gather some fruits from his vineyard, the Lord goes about like the gleaner after the vintage, who seeks some remaining grape, or some olive, which is not dried up, or carried away by the demons (Is. 24, 13).

 

430. Tell me now, my daughter, how is it possible, if thou still hast a true love for my divine Son and for me, that thou find consolation or rest in thy heart at the sight of the loss of souls, which He redeemed by his blood and I have sought with blood-mingled tears? Even today, if I could shed them, I would begin to do so with new weeping and compassion; and since it is not possible for me now to weep over the dangers threatening the Church, I wish that thou do it and that thou spurn consolation in a misfortune so calamitous and so worthy of lament. Weep bitterly then, and lose not the merit of such a sorrow; and let it be so deep, that thou findst no relief except in affliction for the sake of the Lord whom thou lovest. Think of what I did, in order to stave off the damnation of Herod and to prevent it for those who wish to avail themselves of my intercession. In the beatific vision I pray without ceasing for the salvation of my clients. Let not the labors and tribulations sent to thee by my divine Son intimidate thee from helping they brethren and acquiring them for the possession of Christ Amidst the injuries done to Him by the children of Adam, do thou labor to recompense them in some measure by the purity of thy soul, which I desire shall be rather that of an angel than of an earthborn woman. Fight the battles of the Lord against his enemies and in his name and mine, crush their head, reign over their pride and cast them into hell. Do thou also counsel the ministers of Christ with whom thou conversest, to use their power in doing the same, to defend the souls in lively faith and, in them, the honor and glory of the Lord; for thus shall they repress and vanquish them with divine power.

 

CHAPTER IV.

 

THE MOST BLESSED MARY DESTROYS THE TEMPLE OF DIANA IN EPHESUS; HER ANGELS BRING HER TO THE EMPYREAN HEAVENS, WHERE THE LORD PREPARES HER FOR THE BATTLE AND VICTORY OVER THE INFERNAL DRAGON; THIS CONFLICT BEGINS WITH TEMPTATIONS TO PRIDE.

 

431. Most celebrated is the history of the city of Ephesus, situated on the western confines of Asia; for many renowned events of past ages made that city famous and illustrious throughout the globe. But its greatest privilege and excellence consists in having entertained and harbored within its walls the supreme Queen of heaven and earth for the space of some months, the number of which I will state later on. This privilege was a most fortunate one for Ephesus; since the other things which are mentioned for its renown made it truly unhappy and infamous, because through them the prince of darkness had permanently set up his throne in that city. But as our great Lady and Mother of grace found Herself hospitably entertained and thus considered Herself under obligation to its inhabitants, who received Her liberally and offered her gifts, it naturally followed, that She, in accordance with her most perfectly ordered and burning charity deeming Herself brought nearer to these her benefactors, should repay their hospitality with greater blessings. For if She was liberal to all, even strangers, She would certainly be much more free with her gifts and favors to the inhabitants of Ephesus. Her own gratitude moved Her to this, since She considered Herself indebted to the whole commonwealth. She offered up for it special prayers, asking her divine Son to pour out over its inhabitants his blessings and as a kind Father to illumine and bring it to the knowledge of the true faith.

 

432. The Lady received answer that, as the Mistress and Queen of the whole Church, She was free to do as She pleased; that, however, She should take notice of the obstacles, which this city placed in the way of the divine clemency by its ancient and still existing abominations; that its inhabitants had thereby locked the gates of mercy and merited the rigors of justice, which would have already been executed upon them, if the Lord had not ordained Her to live among them just at the time, when their wickedness had reached the highest point and called the loudest for punishment. Together with this answer the most blessed Mother perceived, that the divine Justice, as it were, asked her permission and consent to the destruction of that idolatrous people of Ephesus and its neighborhood. At this answer and what it implied the kind heart of the sweetest Mother was much afflicted; but her immense charity was not intimidated, and multiplying her prayers, She answered the Lord:

 

433. "Most High, just and merciful King! I know well that the rigor of thy justice will be executed, if thy mercy is excluded; but for thy mercy any motive found by thy wisdom is sufficient, although small may be the inducement presented on the part of sinners. Consider therefore, 0 Lord, how this city has afforded me a dwelling according to thy will and how its inhabitants have helped me and offered me and thy servant John their goods. Temper thy rigor, my God, and let it be exercised on me, for I am willing to suffer for the salvation of these unfortunates. Thou, O Allpowerful, whose infinite goodness and mercy forever conquers in good or evil canst take away the obstacle, which prevents their profiting of thy blessings; let not my eyes behold the destruction of so many souls, the works of thy hands, purchased by thy blood." The Lord replied: "My Mother, I desire that thou see for thyself the cause of my just indignation and how much these men, for whom thou pleadest, have merited it. Attend, and thou shalt see." And immediately, by a most clear vision, She saw what follows.

 

434. She perceived that many centuries before the incarnation of the Word in her virginal womb, among the many councils held by Lucifer for the destruction of men, one was held in which he thus spoke to his demons: "From the delights of my former state in heaven, from the prophecies made by God to man and from the favors shown to many of his friends, I conjecture how much God shall be beholden to men and women for abstaining from certain vices, which I desire to maintain upon the world. These vices are especially those connected with the delights of the flesh and with the pleasures of possession or avarice; in these He seeks to induce them to renounce even what is allowed. In order that they may be so induced, He shall furnish them with many helps, so that they may be chaste and poor of their own accord, and subject their free will to that of others. If through these virtues they overcome us, they will merit great reward before God, as I have spied out in some who were chaste, poor and obedient. My plans will be seriously frustrated, if we do not take measures to counteract this damage and seek to compensate for it in all the ways open to our astuteness. I take into consideration also, that, if the divine Word is to assume human flesh, as I have been given to understand, He will be very chaste and pure, and that He will teach chastity to others, not only men, but women, who, though they are weaker, yet usually are more tenacious. If they, whom I overcame in the first woman, shall thus vanquish me, it will be so much the more tormenting to me. Besides all this, the Scriptures of the ancients speak much of the favors, which men shall enjoy through the incarnate Word. For the human nature of the Son of God is to enrich and raise up earthborn men by his power."

 

435. "In order to oppose all this" Lucifer continued, "I desire your counsel and your diligent help; and we must begin even now to hinder men from attaining such great benefits." Thus the hateful plotting of hell against evangelical perfection was far in advance of its profession in the religious orders. This matter was thoroughly considered by the demons and the result of their deliberations was, that a great many demons should be appointed as heads of hellish legions, who were to tempt those desirous of living a life of chastity, poverty and obedience. In derision of chastity especially, they were to institute a sort of false and apparent state of virginity, in which counterfeit and hypocritical virgins were to consecrate themselves to Lucifer and all the demons. The enemies hoped thereby to gain over these persons to themselves not only for their own triumph, but also to cast discredit upon the chaste life of religious orders, which they presumed would be instituted by the incarnate Word and his Mother in the world. In order that this false religion might be propagated so much the better in the world, they resolved to found it upon worldly abundance and on whatever is most pleasing to nature, as in reality it was; for in secret those interested agreed to live licentiously under the name of chastity in honor of false gods.

 

436. But immediately the question arose, whether this religion was to be for men or for women. Some of the demons wanted it to be for men only, in order that through their greater constancy those religious orders might be more permanent; others again thought that men are not so easily deceived as women, since they reason more deeply and could more easily detect error; while there was not so much of this risk in women, who were of weak judgment, ready to believe earnestly in what they like and have once settled upon, and inclined to persevere in their error. This argument prevailed and was approved by Lucifer, although he did not entirely exclude men; for he judged, that some would be found, who would embrace the fallacy on account of the influence they would thereby gain over others. This could be expected especially if the demons would help along by nourishing their fear of losing the estimation of their fellowmen and by astutely making use of public opinion to keep alive the fallacies in those who would engage in this service.

 

437. Following up their infernal schemes the demons set about instituting a counterfeit and false religious order or congregation of virgins; for Lucifer said to the other demons: "Although it would be a great pleasure to me to have real virgins consecrated and dedicated to my worship and adoration in the same way as God wishes them for Himself; yet chastity and purity of the body so offends me, that I cannot endure this virtue, even if practiced entirely in honor of my greatness. Therefore we must see to it, that these virgins be the object of our basest attempts. If any of them should remain chaste in body, we shall fill her with bad thoughts and desires, so that in reality none of them will be chaste, though they may strive to contain themselves out of vain pride; and as they are to be impure in their thoughts, we will seek to maintain them in the vainglorious conceit of their virginity."

 

438. In order to start these false religious orders the demons scoured through the whole earth, and it seemed to them, that among all the nations, certain women called Amazons were best suited for the execution of their devilish plans. These Amazons had come from Scythia to Asia Minor where they now lived. They were warlike, covering up by their arrogance and pride the weakness of their sex. By force of arms they had possessed themselves of extended provinces, and had constituted Ephesus as the centre of their power. For a long time they governed themselves, disdaining subjection to men and life in their company, for such a life, they in their presumptuous pride, called slavery or servitude. Since much is said of them in histories, though with many contradictions, I will not dilate upon this matter. For my purpose it is sufficient to state, that, since these Amazons were proud, vainglorious and averse to men, Lucifer found them predisposed toward his counterfeit virginity. He filled them with vain hopes of gaining great veneration and renown in the world by being known as pledged to virginity and stirred them with the desire of becoming famous and admired of men and perhaps of one of them reaching the position and worship of a goddess. In their unbridled desire of this worldly honor they gathered around them many Amazons, both true and counterfeit virgins, and instituted their spurious congregation of virgins at Ephesus, the place of their origin.

 

439. In a short time these more than foolish virgins grew very numerous and through the instigations of the demons were much admired and applauded by the world. Among them one signalized herself and became very celebrated for her beauty, nobility, high intellect, chastity and other allurements. She was called Diana and the fame and admiration of her became widespread. The veneration of her and the multitude of her companions were the occasion of the building of the renowned temple of Ephesus, which the world estimated as one of its marvels and which took many years to construct. As Diana gradually gained the worship and title of goddess among the blind multitude, this rich and sumptuous temple was finally dedicated to her, and was called the temple of Diana. In imitation of it and under the same title, many others were built in other parts of the world. In order to spread the renown of this counterfeit virgin during her lifetime in Ephesus, the demon communicated with her and filled her with diabolical illusions; many times he surrounded her with a false splendor and manifested to her secrets to be promulgated. He taught her also some ceremonies and forms of worship similar to those of the people of God; by which she and the people might worship the devil. The rest of the virgins venerated her as a goddess; which was also done by the other heathens, who were as prodigal as they were blind in attributing divinity to all that seemed to them wonderful.

 

440. These diabolical frauds had thus been established when the neighboring kings defeated the Amazons and assumed the government of Ephesus. They preserved this temple of Ephesus as something sacred and divine, and they permitted the continuance of that gathering of foolish virgins. Although some man of the people burned this temple, the city and the government authorities rebuilt it, being especially helped by the contributions of women. This was a little more or less than thirty years before the Redemption of the human race. Hence at the time when the most blessed Mother was in Ephesus not the old temple stood, but the second one, built later. In this temple the virgins occupied different apartments. But as, during the time of the Incarnation and death of Christ, idolatry was so firmly established in the world, those diabolical women not only had not improved in their customs, but deteriorated, and nearly all of them held abominable intercourse with the demons. In connection therewith they committed other most loathsome crimes and deceived the world by their humbugging prophecies, by which the devil filled both them and their dupes with their insanities.

 

441. This and much more did the most blessed Mary behold around Her in Ephesus and on account of it She was struck with a sorrow certainly mortal, if She had not been preserved by the Lord. But having seen that Lucifer had appropriated the statute of Diana as a seat or throne of his wickedness, She prostrated Herself upon the ground before her divine Son and said: "Lord God Most High, worthy of all reverence and praise! It is proper that these abominations, which have lasted for so many ages, should cease. My heart cannot bear to see that an unhappy and abominable woman receive the worship due to the true God, such as Thou alone as the Infinite deservest; nor can I endure to see the name of chastity so profaned and prostituted in honor of the demons. Thy infinite condescension has made me the guide and the mother of virgins, as a most noble part of thy Church, the most precious fruit of thy Redemption, most pleasing to Thee. The title of chastity must be consecrated to Thee in the souls, which shall be my children, and I cannot consent to leave it any longer to these adulterous women. I make complaint against Lucifer and against hell, for their presumption in unjustly appropriating such a right. I beseech Thee, my Son, to chastise them by rescuing these souls from his tyranny and conferring on them the liberty of thy faith and true light."

 

442. The Lord answered: "My Mother, I grant thy petition, for it is not just that, even were it only in name, this virtue of chastity, which was so ennobled in Thee and is so pleasing to Me, should be ascribed to my enemies. But many of those counterfeit virgins are foreknown as reprobates on account of their abominations and their obstinacy, and all of them will not embrace the way of eternal life. Some few of them will accept the faith, which shall be taught them." At this juncture saint John came to the oratory of the most blessed Mother; but he did not then know of the mystery She was then engaged in, nor of the presence of her divine Son. But the true Mother of the humble wished to join to her prayers those of his beloved disciple. She therefore secretly asked permission of her Son to speak to him and said to him: "John, my Son, my heart is grieved on account of the abominable crimes committed against the Most High in the temple of Diana and my soul desires to see them ended and atoned." The holy Apostle answered: "My Lady, I have seen something of what passes in that abominable place. I cannot restrain my sorrow and my tears, that the demon should be there venerated and worshipped as is due to God alone; and no one can put a stop to such great evils, unless Thou, my Mother, wilt take this matter in hand."

 

443. The most blessed Mary then ordered the Apostle to join Her in prayer for a remedy of these evils. Saint John betook himself to his chamber, while the most blessed Lady remained with the Savior in hers. Prostrate before the Lord and shedding copious tears, She resumed her prayers and petitions. She persevered therein with most burning fervor and as it were in agonizing sorrow appealing to her divine Son for comfort and consolation, She received the following response to her petitions and prayers: "My Mother and my Dove, let what thou askest be done without delay; give thy orders and commands according to thy heart's wishes as the powerful Mistress." By this favor the love of the most blessed Virgin was inflamed with zeal for the honor of the Divinity. As Queen She imperiously commanded all the demons in the temple of Diana to descend immediately to the depths of hell and to leave the place, which they had infested as their own for so many years. Many legions of them inhabited that temple, deceiving men by their superstitions and profaning the souls; but in the shortest twinkling of an eye, in virtue of the powerful command of the Queen, most holy Mary, all of them were hurled into hell. So great was the terror by which She struck them down, that as soon as She opened her lips to pronounce the first word they waited not for the second; for they were then already in hell and the swiftness of an angel, proper to them as pure spirits, seemed to them tardy in their flight from the Mother of the Omnipotent.

 

444. They were unable to leave the abysmal caverns until, as I shall soon relate, they received permission to come forth with the great dragon to do battle with the Queen of heaven; and in hell itself they sought the localities farthest removed from the place where She was upon earth. I must remark, that by these triumphs the most holy Mary so vanquished the demon, that he could not return to reassume the same position or jurisdiction in those places of which he was dispossessed. But this infernal serpent was and is so venomous, that new heads grow upon him where the former are cut off, continually evolving new schemes of malice and wickedness against God and his Church. Following up her victory the great Mistress of the world, with the consent of Christ our Savior, immediately ordered one of her holy angels to repair to the temple of Diana and destroy it without leaving a stone upon a stone. Of all the women that dwelt there he was to save only nine designated by Her, while all the rest should die and be buried in the ruins of the building. These were reprobates, whose souls, before they could increase their punishment by more sins, should be buried in hell with the demons, whom they had obeyed and worshipped.

 

445. The angel of the Lord executed the mandate of his Queen and Mistress, and in the shortest space of time the rich and famous temple of Diana, the establishment of which had consumed many ages, was shattered to the dust: so sudden was the destruction and ruin of it, that it roused the astonishment and fear of the inhabitants of Ephesus. He saved the nine women designated by the most holy Mary in pursuance of the command of Christ our Savior; for these alone accepted the faith, as I shall relate. All the others perished in the ruins, not leaving even a remembrance of themselves. Although the inhabitants of Ephesus instituted an inquiry, they could find no one upon whom to put the blame, as they had been able to do in the burning of the first temple when, for the sake of the fame attached to his crime, the incendiary delivered himself up of his own accord. The evangelist saint John took occasion from this event to preach with still greater fervor the divine truth and to free the Ephesians from the deceits and errors of the demons. The Evangelist joined the Queen of heaven in giving thanks to the Most High for this triumph over Lucifer and over idolatry.

 

446. But it is necessary here to explain, that this event must not be connected with that mentioned in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles concerning the temple of Diana, which saint Luke relates, that a renowned artificer of Ephesus, called Demetrius, who manufactured silver images of the goddess Diana, conspired with others, who were interested in his art or trade, against saint Paul; for the Apostle preached all through Asia, that those were no gods, which were manufactured by the hands of men. On account of this new doctrine Demetrius persuaded his associates, that saint Paul was not only ruining their trade, but causing the temple of Diana, so greatly venerated in Asia and the whole world, to be despised. This conspiracy roused the artisans, and they, the whole city, so that the cry went up: "Great is the Diana of the Ephesians," bringing on what saint Luke relates in that chapter. In order to make intelligible what I have said above, I will add, that this temple, of which saint Luke speaks, was another, less costly and more ordinary temple, which the Ephesians began to build after the most blessed Virgin had returned to Jerusalem. When saint Paul came to preach in Ephesus this temple had already been completed. From what saint Luke says, we can gather how deeply ingrown idolatry and the cult of Diana was in the Ephesians and in the whole of Asia. This was natural not only on account of the length of the time in which this error had held sway, but also because that city had made itself illustrious and famous throughout the world by the worship of Diana and by its great temple. The inhabitants of Ephesus having been delivered from this deceit and vanity by the Blessed Virgin, and their city being the seat and source of this worldwide superstition, imagined that they could not live without their goddess or without their building temples in her honor. So ingrained was the ignorance of the true God among the heathens, that many Apostles and many years were required for making known the truth and rooting out the cockle of idolatry, especially among the Romans and the Greeks, who esteemed themselves the most wise and civilized of all the nations of the earth.

 

447. Having destroyed the temple of Diana the most holy Mary conceived still greater desires of laboring for the exaltation of the name of Christ and for the spread of the holy Church, in order that the triumph gained over the enemies might bring its proper fruit. While She was thus multiplying her prayers and petitions for this purpose, it happened one day that the holy angels manifested themselves to Her in visible forms and said to Her: "Our Queen and Mistress, the great God of celestial hosts commands us to bring Thee to heaven before his royal throne to which He calls Thee." The most holy Mother answered: "Behold here the handmaid of the Lord; let his holy will be done in me." Then the angels received Her on a throne of light, such as I have described on other occasions, and bore Her to the empyrean heavens and to the presence of the most holy Trinity, which manifested Itself not by an intuitive, but by an abstractive vision. She prostrated Herself before the sovereign throne, adored the immutable being of God in profound humility and reverence. Then the eternal Father spoke to Her and said: "My Daughter and meekest Dove, the cries of thy inflamed heart for the exaltation of my holy name have come to my ears, and thy petitions for the holy Church are acceptable in my eyes, inclining me to mercy and clemency. In response to thy love I wish to renew in thee my power, in order that thou mayest defend my honor and glory, triumph over my enemies and their ancient pride, bind and crush their necks, and in order that through thy victories thou mayest assist my Church and acquire new blessings and favors for its members, thy brethren."

 

448. The most holy Mary replied: "Behold, 0 Lord, I am the least of thy creatures; my heart is prepared for all that shall be thy pleasure and for all that shall promete the exaltation of thy ineffable name and thy greater glory; let thy divine will be done in me." The eternal Father added: "Let all my courtiers of heaven understand, that I appoint Mary as the chief and leader of all my hosts, and as the conqueror of all my enemies gloriously to triumph over them." The other two divine Persons, the Son and the Holy Ghost, added their approval; and all the blessed with the angels answered: "Thy holy will be done, 0 Lord, in heaven and on earth." Thereupon the Lord ordered eighteen of the highest seraphim to adorn, strengthen, and arm their Queen for battle against the infernal dragon. On that occasion were mysteriously fulfilled the promise in the book of Wisdom: that the Lord armed the creatures for vengeance upon his enemies, and the other sayings there recorded (Wis. 5, 18). Six of the seraphim first came forward to adorn the most blessed Lady with a sort of light as with an impenetrable armor, which at the same time manifested the holiness and justice of the Queen, so invincible and impenetrable to the demons, that in an ineffable manner She was made godlike in strength. For this wonder the seraphim and the saints gave thanks to God.

 

449. Immediately another six of the seraphim approached and, in obedience to the command of the Lord, they furnished Her with another new enlightenment. It was a sort of reflection of the Divinity in her countenance, unbearable to the sight of the demons. In virtue of this gift, the enemies, although, as we shall see, they came to tempt Her, could not look upon her godlike face, not being deemed worthy of this privilege by the Lord. Then came also the last six seraphim and at the command of the Lord they furnished Her with offensive weapons, since She was to take upon Herself the defense of the Divinity and its honor. In pursuance of their divine commission the angels added to all the faculties of the great Lady new qualities of divine virtue, corresponding to the gifts with which the Most High had endowed Her. In virtue of this privilege the great Mistress received the power to impede, restrain and counteract at her will the most secret schemes and attempts of all the demons, so that all of them became subject to the will and mandate of the most holy Mary, without liberty to hinder her decrees; and of this power She availed Herself frequently in favor of the faithful and of her clients. All these special powers, and whatever they implied, the three divine Persons confirmed, each One separately conferring upon her gifts corresponding to his divine attributes and bidding Her return to the Church and by them triumph over the enemies of the Lord.

 

450. In parting the three divine Persons gave their blessing to the most blessed Mary and She adored Them in deepest reverence. Then the angels, full of wonder at the works of the Most High, brought Her back to her oratory, exclaiming: "Who is She, that so godlike, rich and prosperous, descends from the highest heaven to the world to defend the honor of God's name? How well appointed and how beautiful does She advance to battle for the Lord? 0 Queen, 0 most exalted Lady, proceed prosperous in thy beauty, go forth and reign over all the creatures, and let all of them praise and magnify Thee; because He has shown Himself so liberal and powerful in thy blessings. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Sabbaoth, the Lord of the celestial hosts (Is. 6, 3) and in Thee shall bless Him all the generations of men." Arriving at her oratory the most blessed Mary gave humblest thanks to the Almighty, prostrating Herself to the dust as She was wont to do on such occasions.

 

451. The most prudent Mary conferred within Herself for some time, in order to prepare for her conflict with the demons. While thus meditating She saw issuing upon the earth, as from the abyss, a fearful red dragon with seven heads, from each of which came forth the smoke and fire of vast wrath and fury, while many other demons followed him in similar shapes. This vision was so horrible that no other living being could have looked upon it without losing its life; and it was indeed necessary, that the most blessed Mary should be forewarned and made so invincible in order to enter into battle with these blood-thirsty beasts of hell. They gathered around the great Queen in furious howlings and began to vaunt their threats, saying; "Come, come let us destroy this our enemy; we have the permission of the Almighty to tempt Her and make war upon Her. This time we shall make an end of Her, we shall take vengeance for the injuries She has continually inflicted on us and for the destruction of our temple of Diana. Let us destroy Her likewise; She is but a Woman, a mere Creature, whereas we are knowing, astute and powerful spirits; we need not fear this earthly creature."

 

452. That entire host of infernal dragons advanced upon the invincible Queen, Lucifer leading them on and challenging Her to battle. As the most deadly poison of this serpent is his pride, by which he usually instills his vices for the destruction of innumerable souls, it seemed to him proper to begin with this vice, outwardly concealing it in accordance with the state of sancity, which he attributed to the most holy Mary. For this purpose the dragon and his followers transformed themselves into angels of light and thus manifested themselves to Her, imagining that She had not yet seen and recognized them as demons and dragons of hell. They began with praise and flattery saying: "Powerful art Thou, Mary, great and valorous among women; all the world honors and celebrates Thee for the virtues it sees in Thee and for the prodigies and wonders Thou performest through them. Thou art worthy of glory, since no one equals Thee in holiness. We know this better than all the rest, and therefore we proclaim it and sing to Thee in festive joy at thy doings." By these counterfeit acknowledgments Lucifer sought to excite in the mind of the humble Queen, haughty thoughts of pride and presumption. But instead of moving or persuading Her to any pleasure or consent in them, he drew forth in Her living darts of pain, that transfixed her sincerest heart. Not all the torments of the martyrs were to Her so painful as these diabolical flatteries. In order to confound them, She excited acts of humility, annihilating Herself and debasing Herself in such an admirable and resistless a manner, that hell could not bear it nor remain longer in her presence; for the Lord had ordained that Lucifer and his ministers should recognize and feel these acts of humility. All the devils fled with dreadful howls, saying: "Let us away to the abyss, for less painful to us is the confusion of that place than the humility of this invincible Woman." They left Her, and the most prudent Lady gave thanks to the Almighty for this first victory.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE GREAT QUEEN AND LADY OF HEAVEN GAVE ME.

 

453. My daughter, the pride of the demon includes a desire which the devil himself knows is absurd: namely, his desire that the saints serve and obey him as god, and thus make him like to God in this respect. But the fulfillment of this desire is impossible, since it implies in itself a contradiction. The essence of holiness consists in the creature's conforming itself to the divine will, loving God above all things in obedience, whereas sin consists in deviating from this rule by the love of some other object and obedience to the demon. But the uprightness of true virtue is so conformable to reason, that even the devil cannot ignore it. On this account he seeks, if possible, to cause the good to fall in order to satisfy his wrath and envy at not being able to draw them to his service, and satiate his intense desire of preventing the glory of God in his saints, which he cannot appropriate for himself. Hence also his violent efforts to fell to the earth some cedar of Lebanon in sanctity and to enslave those who have been the servants of the Most High. With this in view he exerts all his ingenuity and care, and often he seeks to induce his devotees to practice some of the moral virtues, even if only in appearance, as is done by hypocrites and as we have seen in the virgins of Diana. He hopes thereby to have his share in what God loves and desires, and to sully and pervert what the Lord wishes to use as a channel for his purity.

 

454. Remember, my daughter, that the byways, snares and schemes of this serpent for the fall of the just are so numerous, that without the special favor of the Most High the souls could never know them, much less overcome them or escape his treacherous plots. In order to deserve this protection of the Lord, God wishes the creature on its part never to relax in vigilance, nor trust in its own strength, nor ever be remiss in asking and desiring this help; for without it, man can do nothing and will soon perish. What especially draws down the divine clemency is fervor of the heart and promptness in divine worship, and above all, persevering obedience and humility, which give stability and fortitude against the assaults of the enemy, I wish to impress upon thy mind, not for thy discouragement, but for thy advice and warning, that the works of the just, to which this serpent does not impart some of its poison, are very rare. For usually he tries with utmost subtlety to excite some terrestrial passion or inclination, by which he secretly deflects or perverts the intentions, preventing man from acting purely for God and for the legitimate ends of true virtue. Since the cockle of some foreign affection, either in part or the whole, is thus sown with the wheat, it is difficult to detect, unless souls strip themselves of all earthly inclinations and examine their works in the divine light.

 

455. Thou art well warned, my daughter, against this peril and against the ceaseless efforts of the demons, which are more violent against thee than against other souls. Let not thy vigilance be less than his, and do not trust in the mere appearance of good intention in thy works; for, though appearances must always be good and upright, yet this is not sufficient, nor can the creature always discern them. The demon often deceives the soul under the cloak of a good intention, proposing some apparently or remotely good end, in order to lead them into proximate danger; and thus it happens, that, enmeshed in this danger, the men never attain the good which drew them into action. At other times he prevents the soul, under cloak of this good intention, from examining into circumstances, which vitiate the act by imprudence in the performance. Then again, under the outwardly good intention, are often hidden the earthly passions and inclinations, which dominate the heart. Hence, amid so many dangers, thou canst find safety only in scrutinizing thy actions by the light which the Lord infuses into the superior part of thy soul; by it thou wilt know how to distinguish the good from the evil, the truth from the falsehood, the bitter from the sweet, passions from right reason (Jer. 15, 19). Then the divine light in thee will not be obscured by darkness, the eye will be single and will purify the body of thy actions (Matth. 6, 22), and thou wilt be entirely and in all things pleasing to thy Lord and to Me.

 

CHAPTER V.

 

THE MOST HOLY MARY, CALLED BY THE APOSTLE SAINT PETER, RETURNS FROM EPHESUS; SHE CONTINUES HER BATTLE WITH THE DEMONS; IS OVERTAKEN BY GREAT STORMS AT SEA; SOME OTHER INTERVENING MYSTERIES.

 

456. After the death of the unhappy Herod the primitive Church of Jerusalem enjoyed some measure of quiet and tranquillity for a considerable time. The great Lady of the world merited this favor through her maternal solicitude and care. During this time saint Barnaby and saint Paul preached with wonderful success in the cities of Asia Minor, Antioch, Lystra, Perge and others, as is related by saint Luke in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and in connection with the miracles and prodigies performed by saint Paul in those cities and provinces. The apostle saint Peter, after his liberation from prison, fled from Jerusalem and retired to another part of Asia not under the jurisdiction of Herod. From that place he governed the faithful accruing to the Church in Asia and those that were in Palestine. All of them acknowledged and obeyed him as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and head of the Church, believing that all he ordained and enacted upon earth was confirmed in heaven. With this firm faith they came to him with all their doubts and difficulties as to their supreme pontiff. Among other matters they asked him to decide the questions raised by some of the Jews concerning the doings and teachings of saint Paul and Barnaby as well in Jerusalem as in Antioch, in opposition to the circumcision and the law of Moses, as I will relate later on and as is recorded by saint Luke in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

 

457. On this occasion the Apostles and disciples of Jerusalem begged saint Peter to return to the holy city in order to settle these controversies and establish order, so that the preaching of the faith might not be hindered; for since the death of Herod the Jews had no one to assist them in their persecutions, and therefore the Church enjoyed greater peace and tranquillity in Jerusalem. On the same grounds they also asked him to request the holy Mother of Jesus to come to that city; for all the faithful longed for Her with loving hearts, expected to be consoled in the Lord and hoped for the prosperity of all the affairs of the Church through her presence. On account of these appeals saint Peter resolved to return at once to Jerusalem, and before setting out, he wrote the following letter to the most holy Queen.

 

458. Letter of Saint Peter to most holy Mary. “To Mary, the Virgin, Mother of God: Peter, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, thy servant and the servant of the servants of God." "Lady, among the faithful some doubts and differences have arisen concerning the doctrine of thy Son and our Redeemer, whether the ancient law of Moses is to be observed in conjunction with his teachings. They wish to know from us what is proper, and that we state to them what we heard from the mouth of the divine Teacher. In order to consult with my brethren, the Apostles, I am now setting out for Jerusalem and, for the consolation of all and by thy love for the Church, we beseech Thee likewise to come to that city, where, since the death of Herod, the Jews are more peaceful and the faithful more at ease. The multitude of the followers of Christ desire to see Thee and console themselves in thy presence. When we shall have arrived at Jerusalem, we shall notify the other cities, and with thy assistance will be established what shall be conducive to the interests of the holy faith and to the excellence of the law of grace."

 

459. This was the tenor and contents of the letter. The Apostles usually observed the same method, addressing first the person or persons to whom they were writing, then mentioning the writer, or inversely, as is apparent in the letters of saint Paul, and of saint Peter and of the other Apostles. To call the Queen Mother of God was agreed among the Apostles after they had composed the creed; and in speaking of Her they used indiscriminately the term of Virgin or Mother, because it was very important that all the faithful of the Church should accept the doctrine of the virginity and maternity of the great Lady. Some of the other faithful called Her Mary of Jesus, or Mary of Jesus, the Nazarene. Others less significantly called Her Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne. Such were the titles given to our Queen by the faithful in their conversation. The holy Church, preferring the names given Her by the Apostles, calls Her Virgin and Mother of God, and to these it has added other titles, still more illustrious and mysterious. A messenger brought the letter of saint Peter to the heavenly Lady, and in giving it to Her, he mentioned that it was from the Apostle. She received it on her knees, in reverence for the Vicar of Christ, and kissed it; but She would not open it, because saint John was absent preaching in the city. As soon as the Evangelist returned, She as usual asked his benediction on her knees, and handed him the letter, telling him that it was from saint Peter, the supreme high-priest. Saint John asked her what it contained; but the Mistress of all virtues answered: "Do thou, my master, first read it and then tell me what it contains." This the Evangelist proceeded to do.

 

460. I cannot restrain my wonder and confusion at the humility and obedience of the most holy Mary in a matter of so small moment; for only her heavenly prudence could inspire Her, the Mother of God, with the thought, that it would be more humble and submissive not to read this letter of the Vicar of Christ except in the presence and under the obedience of the one to whose guidance She had submitted Herself as her superior. Her example reproves and stigmatizes the presumption of inferiors, who try to find excuses and pretenses for evading the humility and obedience due to their superiors. But the most holy Mary was a model and a teacher of holiness in all things, great or small. Having read the letter to Her, he asked Her, what She thought best to write to the Vicar of Christ. But also in this She did not wish to give any appearance of her being his equal or superior, preferring to obey; and therefore She answered: "My son and master, do thou arrange whatever shall be proper; for I, as thy servant, will obey." The Evangelist replied, that it seemed to him best to obey saint Peter and return immediately to Jerusalem. "It is right and proper to obey the head of the Church," answered the purest lady; "let us prepare even now for our departure."

 

461. Thus resolved, saint John went out to seek passage for Palestine and to prepare whatever was necessary for a speedy departure. In the meanwhile, at the request of the Evangelist, most blessed Mary called together the women who were her acquaintances and disciples in Ephesus, in order to take leave of them and instruct them in what they must do to persevere in their holy faith. There were seventy-three of them, many of them virgins, among whom were also the nine saved from the ruins of the temple of Diana. These and many others Mary herself had converted and catechized in the faith; and She had formed of them a community in the house of their hostesses. Through this congregation of women the heavenly Lady had begun to atone for the sins and abominations, perpetrated in the temple of Diana for so many ages, and She established the observance of chastity in community life in that very city of Ephesus where the devil had profaned it. Of all this, these women had been informed, though they did not know that She had destroyed the temple of Ephesus; for this remained a secret, in order that neither the Jews should find a pretext, nor the heathens be stirred to anger against the gentle Mother by their insane love of Diana. The Lord provided that the ruin of the temple should be looked upon as an accident and be soon forgotten, so that profane authors wrote nothing about it, though they had written much concerning the burning of the first temple.

 

462. The most blessed Mary, in her desire to console them for her absence spoke to these disciples in sweetest words. She left them a paper, in which She had written with her own hand: "My daughters, the will of the Almighty calls me back to Jerusalem. In my absence keep in mind the doctrine, which you have received from me and which I heard from the mouth of the Redeemer of the world. Look upon Him always as your Lord and Master and as the Spouse of your souls, serving Him and loving Him with all your heart. Remember the commandments of his holy law, in which you shall be instructed by his ministers and priests, reverence and obey them in humility, without ever accepting other teachers, who are not disciples of Christ my divine Son, or followers of his doctrine. I shall always see that his ministers assist and protect you, and I shall never forget you or cease to commend you to the Lord. In my place will remain Mary, the elder: obey her in all things with great respect, and she will care for you with the same love and solicitude as I have done. You will observe inviolate retirement and recollection in this house, and no man shall ever enter it; and if it is necessary to speak to anyone, it shall be in the portal, in the presence of three of your number. Your prayers shall be uninterrupted and in private, reciting and singing those I have left you written in my chamber. Observe silence and meekness and treat your neighbors as you would be treated yourselves. Speak always the truth and be ever mindful of Christ crucified in all your thoughts, words and actions. Adore Him and confess Him as the Creator and Redeemer of the world; and in his name I give you his blessing, and I ask Him to live in your hearts."

 

463. These and other exhortations the most blessed Mother left for the congregation, which She had dedicated to her Son and true God. The one She had appointed their superior was one of the pious women, who had offered Her hospitality and who owned the house. This woman was well able to govern, for she had had much intercourse with the Queen and had been well informed concerning the law of God and its mysteries. She was called Mary the elder, because the most holy Mother had given her own name to many others in Baptism, communicating, as the Wise man says, without envy the excellence of her name (Wis. 7, 13) ; as this one was the first thus baptized in Ephesus, She was called Mary the elder, to distinguish her from the later ones. The most blessed Mary left them also in writing, the Our Father, the Creed and the ten Commandments together with other prayers, which they were to recite vocally. To encourage them in these and other exercises She also left them a large cross made quickly at her request by the hands of the angels and set up in her oratory. Besides all this, as a kind Mother, and in order to bind them to Her still more, She distributed the things in her possession, which, though of trifling human value, were nevertheless rich and inestimable to them as being pledges and proofs of her maternal love.

 

464. Moved to great pity because, having engendered them in Christ, She was now obliged to relinquish them as orphans, She took leave of them. They all prostrated themselves at her feet with great wailing and abundant tears; for now they were to lose in one moment the consolation, the refuge and the joy of their heart. But on account of the continued solicitude of the most blessed Mother for her devout congregation all the seventythree afterwards persevered in the fear of God and the faith of Christ our Lord. Yet the demon raised up violent persecutions against them and against the inhabitants of Ephesus. Foreseeing this the prudent Queen fervently prayed for them before leaving and asked her divine Son to guard and preserve them, and to appoint some angels for the defense of this small flock. All this the Lord granted Her according to her wish; and She afterwards often consoled them by sending exhortations from Jerusalem and by charging the disciples and Apostles at Ephesus to watch over these virgins and retired women. The great Lady continued this loving care during her whole life.

 

465. When the day of departure arrived, the Humblest of the humble asked saint John for his blessing and with it they betook themselves to the ship, having remained in Ephesus two years and a half. On leaving their dwelling all her thousand angels manifested themselves in visible human forms, but all of them were armed for battle and formed into squadrons. This unwonted sight gave Her to understand, that She was to be prepared to continue her conflict with the great dragon and his allies. Before reaching the sea She saw a great multitude of the infernal legions meeting Her in various dreadful and terrific shapes; in the midst of them came a dragon with seven heads, so horrible and huge as to exceed the size of a large ship, and so fierce and abominable as to cause torment by its mere presence. Against these formidable hosts the invincible Queen fortified Herself by the most firm faith and fervent love, repeating the words of Psalms and the sayings from the mouth of her most holy Son. She ordered her holy angels to assist Her, for those terrific shapes naturally inspired Her with some human dread and horror. The Evangelist knew nothing of this conflict until the heavenly Lady afterwards informed him and gave him an insight into it.

 

466. Our blessed Lady embarked with the saint, and the ship's sails were set. But it had proceeded only a short distance from the port, when those dragons of hell, making use of the permission given them, stirred up the sea by a tempest such as had not been seen before that time nor until now; for the Almighty wished to exalt the power of his arm and the holiness of Mary and therefore He permitted such liberty to the malice and powers of the demons in this battle. The waves rose with terrific roarings, piling themselves upon the winds and apparently even upon the very clouds, forming with them mountains of water and foam, as if they were preparing for an onset to break the bounds of the abysses that imprisoned the ocean (Ps. 13, 9). The ship was lashed and battered to and fro, and it seemed a miracle that it was not shattered to splinters at each shock. Sometimes it was hurled up into the clouds, at others sent to plow up the sand of the ocean's abysses; often its sails and masts were buried in the foaming waves. During some of the onsets of this unspeakably furious hurricane the ship was held in the air by the angels in order to save it from some of the vaster billows, which would inevitably have overwhelmed and sent it to the bottom.

 

467. The mariners and passengers perceived the effects of this assistance, but remained ignorant of the cause; in their distress they were beside themselves, bewailing their ruin, which they deemed inevitable. The demons added to their terror; for, assuming human shapes, they loudly called upon the mariners as if from neighboring ships sent to their aid and urged them to forsake their ship and save themselves in the others. For though all the vessels suffered in this storm, yet the wrath of the demons and their power of doing harm was confined principally to the ship on which our Lady sailed and the distress and peril of the other vessels was not so great. The malicious designs of the demons were known only to the most blessed Virgin and not to the sailors, and therefore they believed these voices as of true passengers and sailors. Thus deceived they at times gave up caring for their own ship and left it to the fury of the sea, expecting to save themselves on one of the other ships. But the angels supplied their place directing and steering it when the sailors gave it up in despair to the destruction of the waves.

 

468. In the midst of this confusion and distress the most holy Mary preserved her tranquillity, serenely borne up by the ocean of her magnanimity and virtue, but at the same time practicing all the virtues by acts heroic in proportion to the exigencies of the occasion and the dictates of her wisdom. As during this tempestuous voyage She personally experienced the dangers of navigation, which She had understood on her former voyage by divine inspiration, She was moved to new compassion for all voyagers at sea and renewed her former prayers and petitions. The most prudent Virgin also admired the indomitable forces of the sea and was led to consider the wrath of divine justice, so well represented by this insensible creature. And passing from these considerations to that of the sins of mortals, who drew it upon themselves from the Almighty, She entered into the most ardent prayers for the conversion of the world and the increase of the Church. For this She offered up the hardships of this voyage; since notwithstanding the tranquillity of her soul, She suffered much bodily inconvenience and still greater affliction at the. thought that all her fellow-voyagers were made to suffer this persecution and tribulation of the demons on her account.

 

469. A large share of this suffering fell to the evangelist saint John on account of his deep solicitude for his true Mother and Mistress of the world. To this was added his own actual suffering. All was so much the more dreadful to him, because at that time he did not know what was passing in the interior of the most blessed Virgin. He sought a few times to console Her and console himself by assisting and comforting Her. Although the voyage from Ephesus to Palestine usually lasted only about six days, this one lasted fifteen, of which fourteen were tempestuous. One day saint John was very much disheartened at the continuance of this measureless hardship and, no longer able to restrain himself, said "My Lady, what is this? Are we to perish at sea? Beseech thy divine Son to look upon us with the eyes of a Father and to defend us in this tribulation." The blessed Mother answered him: "Do not be disturbed, my son; for we must now fight the battles of the Lord and overcome his enemies by fortitude and patience." I shall beg of Him that no one who is with us shall perish, and that He sleep not, who watches over Israel (Ps. 70, 4) ; the strong ones of his court assist us and defend us; let us suffer for Him who placed Himself upon the Cross for the salvation of all." At these words saint John recovered the necessary courage.

 

470. Lucifer and his demons with increasing fury threatened the powerful Queen by telling Her that She would perish in this sea and not escape alive. But these and other threats were but spent arrows and the most prudent Mother despised them, not even listening to them, or looking upon the demons, or speaking to them a single word. They themselves on the other hand could not bear even to glance at her face on account of the virtue of the Most High shining from it. And the more they strove to overcome this virtue, the weaker they became and the more were they tormented by those offensive weapons, with which the Lord had clothed his most holy Mother. But in all of this lengthened conflict He concealed from her his purpose and also his countenance, never showing Himself to Her in visions as had been usual.

 

471. But at the end of fourteen days of this stormy voyage her divine Son deigned to descend and visit Her in person. He appeared upon the sea and saying: "My dearest Mother, I am with thee in tribulation." This vision and the words of the Lord, ineffably consoling on all occasions, were especially consoling to the most blessed Mother in this extremity; because help is more welcome in necessity. She adored her Son and God and answered: "My God and only Good of my soul, whom the winds and the sea obey (Matth. 8, 27), behold, my Son, our affliction: let not the works of thy hands perish." The Lord said to Her: "My Mother and my Dove, from thee have I received human form; therefore I desire that all my creatures obey thy orders; command them as the Mistress of all, for they are subject to thy will." The most prudent Mother had desired the Lord to command the waves, as He had done in the storm on the sea of Galilee; but the occasion was different, since at that time there was no one else but He to command the winds and the sea. The heavenly Mary therefore obeyed and, in the name of her divine Son, She first commanded Lucifer and his hosts instantly to leave the Mediterranean and cease to harass it. Immediately they fled in the direction of Palestine; for She had not commanded them to hell, not wishing to put an end to the battle. The enemies having retired, She commanded the waters and the winds to subside. They immediately obeyed, becoming tranquil and serene in the shortest space of time to the great astonishment of the passengers, who knew not the cause of this sudden change. Christ the Lord took leave of his Mother, having filled her with benedictions and joy and told Her to disembark on the next day. Thus it also happened; for on the fifteenth day after their embarkation, they arrived happily at port and left the ship. Our Queen and Mistress gave thanks to the Almighty for these benefits and offered Him songs of thanksgiving and praise for having saved Her from the dreadful dangers. In this also the Evangelist joined, and the blessed Mother thanked him for having accompanied Her in her hardships. She asked his blessing and then they both set out for Jerusalem.

 

472. The holy angels accompanied their Queen and Lady in battle array as I have said; for also the demons were awaiting her arrival resolved to continue the conflict as soon as She had reached the shore. With incredible fury they led on the assault by suggesting various temptations against all the virtues; but all their darts fell back upon themselves; they could make no breach in this tower of David, of which the Spouse says, that it is furnished with the thousand shields and all the arms of the strong, e Cant. 4, 4), and that it is fortified by towers of silver. Before entering her house in Jerusalem the great Lady, in her piety and devotion, yearned to visit the sacred spots consecrated by our Redemption, which was also the last thing She had done on leaving the city; but as saint Peter, at whose call She had come, was waiting, and as She knew the proper order to be maintained in all the virtues, She preferred obedience to her private devotions. Accordingly She betook Herself directly to the house of the Cenacle, where saint Peter then stayed, and falling on her knees before him, She asked for his blessing and begged his pardon for not having complied sooner with his command. She sought his hand in order to kiss it as that of the high-priest; but She did not lay the blame for her delay on the storm, nor did She mention any other circumstance in excuse. Only from the accounts furnished to him afterwards by saint John, did saint Peter learn of the hardships encountered on the voyage. The Vicar of our Savior and all the disciples and faithful of Jerusalem received their Teacher and Mistress with indescribable joy, reverence and love, and they prostrated themselves at her feet, thanking Her for having come to fill them with gladness and consolation and live where they could see and serve Her.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME.

 

473. My Daughter, I desire that thou continually renew the remembrance of what I have told thee of these sacred mysteries of my life; for it is not my will that thou be only an insensible instrument for manifesting them to the Church, but rather that thou be the one, who before and above all others shall draw fruit from this new blessing by practicing my teachings and following my example. For this purpose has the Lord called thee, and for it have I chosen thee as my daughter and disciple. Since thou hast duly noticed my act of humility in not opening the letter of saint Peter without consent of my son John, I wish to dilate further upon the lesson contained in this instance. I desire thee to notice that in those two virtues, humility and obedience, which are the foundation of Christian perfection, there is nothing small, and all that pertains to them is most pleasing to the Most High and draws down the most abundant reward of his generous mercy and justice.

 

474. Consider then, my dearest, that, just as in the present condition of man nothing is more contrary to his nature than the subjection of one's will to that of another, so nothing is more necessary than this subjection for the bending of that stiff-necked pride, which the demon seeks to stir up in all the children of Adam. Hence the enemies labor sleeplessly to induce men to follow their own judgment and will. Thereby the devils gain many triumphs and lead many souls into diverse roads of destruction; for in all states and conditions of life the demon seeks to instill this poison into mortals, secretly soliciting them to follow their own judgment and refuse to obey the laws and the will of their superiors, but rather to despise and rebel against it, perverting the order of divine Providence for the well-ordering of all things. And because men overthrow this government of the Lord, the world is filled with confusion and darkness, created things are thrown out of order and subjected to opposite force without regard or attention to God and his laws.

 

475. But though all this damage is odious in the eyes of the supreme Governor and Lord, yet it is especially displeasing to Him in religious, who, being bound by the vows of religion, seek to widen these restrictions or altogether free themselves from their obligations. I am not now speaking of those who transgress their rules in open daring or break their vows in small or in great things; this is nothing else than a dreadful temerity entailing eternal damnation. But, in order that they may not incur such a danger, I wish to exhort those who seek their salvation in religion, to guard themselves against entertaining opinions or explanations for relaxing the obedience due to their superiors in the name of God, or against trying to determine what liberties they might take without committing sin by infringing on obedience and their other vows or against studying whether they may not act according to their own judgment in certain matters great or small. Such disquisitions are never made for the better observance of vows, but always in order to stifle the remorse of conscience in breaking them. I remind them, that the demons seek to induce them to swallow these poisonous gnats, in order that, little by little, after being accustomed to those that seem insignificant, they may arrive at swallowing the camels of the more serious sins. Those that continually hover about the entrances to mortal sins, will, to say the least, make themselves liable to a strict inquiry by the Judge and thus receive the smallest reward. For they have studied all their lives to give to the Lord the least in their power to oblige Him.

 

476. These attempts to explain away the binding force of the love of God, tending to remodel it according to the inclinations of the flesh, are very abominable to my divine Son and to myself; for it is a sign of great disaffection to obey the divine law out of necessity, making it apparent, that only the fear of punishment urges one on, and not love toward Him who commands, and that nothing would be done, if no punishment were in store. Many times, in the effort to avoid humiliation at the hands of the immediate superior, the subject appeals to the higher authority and thus asks for exemptions from those who have only a general information and cannot know or understand his particular needs or danger. It cannot be denied, that this is still a kind of obedience; but it is also certain, that it is a shift for greater liberty, diminishes the reward and incurs danger; since without doubt it is more meritorious to obey and subject oneself to the inferior authority, to those in a lower condition, and to those less favorably disposed to one's own views and inclinations. I learned no such doctrines in the school of my divine Son, nor did I show them in practice; for all things I sought the permission of those I held as superiors, never being without them as thou hast seen. Even for opening and reading the letter of saint Peter, the head of the Church, I waited to find out the will of his inferior, who was my more immediate superior.

 

477. My daughter, I do not wish thee to follow the teachings of those who seek liberty and license in following their own inclinations; but I choose thee and conjure thee to imitate me and walk the secure path of perfection. Hankering after dispensations and exemptions perverts the christian and the religious life. At all times thou must live in humble and obedient subjection, and thou must not hold thyself excused therefrom on account of being a superior, for thou hast thy confessors and superiors. If sometimes in their absence thou canst not act in obedience, ask counsel and obey one of thy subjects. For thee, all of them should be as superiors; and let not this seem strange to thee; since thou art the least of the human born and shouldst consider thyself so, humiliating thyself beneath them all in order to be my true follower, my disciple and daughter. Besides this thou must punctually tell me thy faults twice a day and ask my permission for all that thou art to do during each day, confessing also every day the sins thou committest. I shall exhort thee, and command thee what is proper, both through myself and through my ministers of the Lord; and thou must not shrink to tell many others of thy ordinary faults, in order that in all things and before all men thou humiliate thyself in the eyes of the Lord and in mine. This science, hidden to the world and the flesh, I desire thee to learn and impart to thy nuns. In teaching thee this lesson I wish to reward thee for thy labor in writing my life; for by these instructions in so important a doctrine I wish to impress thee, that, if thou wishest to imitate me as thou shouldst, thou must communicate or speak with no one, nor undertake anything, nor write letters, nor move about, nor allow any thoughts (if possible), except in obedience to me and to those who govern thee. The worldly and carnal men call these virtues impertinent and vain observances; but their ignorant pride will have its punishment when, in the presence of the Judge, truths will be revealed; then will be seen who were the ignorant and the wise, and those will be rewarded, who as true servants have been faithful as well in small as in greater things (Matth. 25, 21); when there is no remedy left, the foolish ones will know the damage done by their carnal prudence.

 

478. As thou wert moved to a certain envy on learning that I myself governed that congregation of women at Ephesus, I now advise thee to have no such feeling. Remember that thou and thy nuns have chosen me for your Superior and special Patroness in order that I might govern you as your Queen and Lady; and I desire them to know, that I have accepted this office and have constituted myself in it forever on condition, that they be perfect in their vocation and very faithful to their Lord, my divine Son, to whom I have assigned them as his spouses. Remind them often of this, so that they watch over themselves and retire from the world, despising it with all their hearts; that as my daughters they do not degenerate, living in recollection and peace; that they follow and execute the doctrines which I have given thee in this history for thee and for them and that they hold it in high veneration, gratefully writing it in their hearts. For in having presented to them my life for the rule and government of their souls, as it is now written by thy hands, I am fulfilling my office as Mother and Superior, in order that as subjects and as daughters they may tread in my footsteps, imitate my virtues and correspond with me in faithful love.

 

479. Another important lesson canst thou draw from this chapter, namely: those that do not obey willingly, when any adverse circumstance turns up in what is commanded, will immediately be cast down, afflicted and disturbed, and, in order to justify their impatience, they will blame the one that commands, and complain about him either to his superiors or to others, as if he that commands were responsible for the untoward accidents happening to the inferior, or as if he had it in his power to direct the government of the whole world according to the wishes of his subject. Indeed, many times God, in reward for complete submission, raises hindrances in order that the one who obeys may increase his merit and crown, at other times he punishes those who show any repugnance in obeying by withholding full success; and all these accidents can in nowise be blamed upon the superior, who commands. The Lord simply said: He who hears you, and who obeys you, hears and obeys Me (Luke 10, 16). The labor connected with obedience always redounds to the benefit of those who obey; if they do not profit by their obedience, it is no fault of the one that commands. I made no complaints against saint Peter for asking me to come from Ephesus to Jerusalem, although I suffered so much on the voyage; but I asked him pardon for not having fulfilled his command more expeditiously. Never show any grievance or sign of being displeased toward thy superiors, for this is a very ugly spirit and such liberty will destroy all the merit of thy obedience. Look upon them with reverence, as taking the place of Christ, and thy merit will be abundant; follow my footsteps, my example and my doctrine, and thou wilt be perfect in all things.

 

CHAPTER VI.

 

THE VISIT OF THE MOST BLESSED MARY TO THE HOLY PLACES; SHE GAINS MYSTERIOUS TRIUMPHS OVER THE DEMONS; SHE SEES THE DIVINITY IN HEAVEN BY A BEATIFIC VISION; THE APOSTLES CONVOKE A COUNCIL; THE HIDDEN MYSTERIES CONNECTED WITH ALL THESE EVENTS.

 

480. All our efforts are gloriously insufficient to describe the plenitude of perfection of all the doings of the most blessed Mary; for unfailingly are we overcome by the grandeur of even the smallest virtue (if indeed there be any of them small) when we come to consider the matter upon which She wrought them. But our efforts, shall always be full of blessings for us, if, without presumptuously attempting to fathom this ocean of grace, we humble ourselves to glorify and exalt in Her the Creator and to discover more and more in what we can imitate Her. I shall esteem myself very fortunate, if by making known the favors conferred by God upon our great Queen, I can show to the children of the Church something of what is so far above that for which I cannot find adequate and appropriate terms to describe; for in all that I can say, I shall still speak as one that is dull, stuttering and without fervor of devotion. Wonderful are the events which have been manifested to me for the purpose of being recorded in this and the following chapters.

 

481. After the most blessed Mary had complied obediently with the will of saint Peter, as I have related in the preceding chapter, She thought it proper to satisfy her piety in visiting the sacred spots of our Redemption. She performed all her works of mercy with such prudence, that She omitted none, assigning to each one its place in order that no circumstance necessary to bring it to perfection might be wanting. Applying her heavenly wisdom She first performed that which was greater and foremost in order, then what seemed of less importance; but, as well the one as the other, with all the attention of her soul in the measure as each required. She left the Cenacle to visit the sacred places and was accompanied by all her holy angels, as well as followed up by Lucifer and his legions for further conflict. These dragons, forming in battle array and presenting the most fearful shapes, uttered their threats and suggested their temptations. But as soon as the great Lady approached any of the holy places to perform her devotions, the demons fell back, repelled by divine power; they also felt themselves crushed by the hidden virtue communicated to these holy places through the Redemption of Christ. Lucifer, urged on by the temerity of his pride, attempted to come nearer; for, relying upon his permission to tempt and persecute the great Lady, he was anxious, if possible, to gain some victory over Her in the very places where he had been so signally vanquished; or at least to hinder Her from showing the veneration and worship required.

 

482. But the Most High ordained, that the power of his arm against Lucifer and his demons should be shown through this very Queen, and that her exercises, which he tried to disturb, should be the sword with which he was to be overcome and cut down. And thus it happened; for the devotion and piety with which the heavenly Mother worshipped her divine Son and with which She renewed the grateful remembrance of the Passion, caused such terror to the demons, that they could not tolerate it and they felt a force so oppressive and tormenting proceeding from Her, that they were obliged to recede still farther from the invincible Queen. They broke out into fearful roarings, audible to Her alone, and they exclaimed: "Let us fly from this Woman, our Enemy, who so confounds and oppresses us by her virtues. We seek to blot out the remembrance and the veneration of these places, in which men were redeemed and in which we were despoiled of our dominion; and this Woman, being a mere creature, hinders our designs and renews the triumphs gained by her Son upon the Cross."

 

483. The most holy Mary made all the stations of the holy places in company of her angels; and having arrived on mount Olivet, where her Son ascended into heaven, the Lord himself, in effable beauty and glory, descended from his throne to visit and console his most pure Mother. He manifested Himself to Her with the affection and bounty of a Son, yet as the infinite and powerful God. He so filled Her with his Divinity and elevated Her above the terrestrial, that for a long time She was separated from visible things; and though She ceased not to attend to external works, She performed them with a greater constraint upon Herself, being completely spiritualized and transformed into her Divine Son. Through her divine Son She perceived that these favors were part of her reward for her humility and obedience toward saint Peter and in attending upon his commands in preference not only to her devotion, but also her convenience. He also promised Her anew his assistance in her battle against the demons and in immediate fulfillment of this promise, the Lord ordained that Lucifer and his hosts should then and there become convinced of a power in Her such as they had not experienced before.

 

484. The Queen returned to the Cenacle and as the demons again sought to renew their temptations, they rebounded like inflated rubber balls, when thrown swiftly at a stone wall. These vainglorious hosts were hurled back upon themselves with greater force than that with which they had assaulted the most holy Mary. They broke out in still more furious howlings and, driven to confess certain truths by their own dismay, they said; "0 we unhappy ones, who are obliged to look upon such happiness of the human nature! What great excellence and dignity man has now attained in this pure Creature! How ungrateful shall men be, and how foolish, if they do not profit by the blessings bestowed upon them in this Daughter of Adam! She is truly its salvation and our destruction. Great things her Son does with Her; but She is not unworthy of them. A cruel punishment is this, that we must confess all these truths. O would that God conceal from us this Woman, who adds such torments to our envy! How shall we vanquish Her, if the mere sight of Her is insufferable to us? Let us console ourselves in the fact, that men lose so much of what this Woman merits for them, and that they foolishly despise Her. In them shall we avenge our injuries, through them we shall exercise our fury, filling them with illusions and errors; for if they but pay attention to her example, all of them would profit by this Woman and follow her virtues. But this is not enough to console me (added Lucifer) for this Woman, his Mother, can please God more than all the sins we can lead men into shall displease Him; and even if this were not so my position does not permit me to remain indifferent at seeing human nature so highly exalted in a mere weak Woman. This wrong is unbearable: let us return to persecute Her; let us give vent to the fury of our envy even in spite of torment: and though we all suffer by it, let our pride be not dismayed, for possibly some triumph may yet be gained over this our Enemy."

 

485. The most blessed Mary knew of and heard all these wrathful threats; but as the Queen of virtues She despised them all. Without the least sign of disturbance in her countenance She retired to her oratory in order prudently to confer with Herself concerning the mysteries of this conflict and concerning the difficult business now before the Church in seeking to end circumcision and the ancient law. In this the Queen of the angels labored for a few days, engaged during her retirement in continual prayers, petitions, tears and prostrations. In her own affairs She also asked the Lord to stretch out his almighty arm against Lucifer and grant Her the victory over him and the demons. Although the great Lady knew Him to be on her side and that He would not leave Her in tribulation, She ceased not her prayers and She acted on her part as if She had been the weakest of creatures in the time of temptation. She taught us what we ourselves should do in temptation, since we are so subject to them and so apt to be overcome. She prayed for the holy Church, asking the Lord to grant to it his evangelical law, pure, unsullied, without wrinkle, and unhampered by the ancient ceremonies.

 

486. This petition the most blessed Mary urged with the most burning fervor; for She knew that Lucifer and all hell sought through the Jews to unite circumcision with Baptism and the rites of Moses with the truths of the Gospel. The admission of these fallacies would help to maintain the Jews in their stubborn adhesion to the old Law during the coming ages. One of the fruits and triumphs of the great Lady in her battle with the dragon was, that circumcision was immediately rejected by the council of which I shall speak; and from that time on the pure grain of evangelical truth was separated from the dried and barren stubble of the mosaic ceremonies, as it is to this day in our holy mother the Church. All this the most blessed Mary procured through her merits and her prayers. She knew, in the meanwhile, that saint Paul and saint Barnaby were hastening from Antioch to Jerusalem in order to confer with saint Peter and, as related by saint Luke in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, solve the difficulties raised by the Jews.

 

487. Saint Paul and saint Barnaby were aware of the return of the Queen of heaven when they came to Jerusalem. In his ardent desire of seeing Her saint Paul with saint Barnaby, at once sought her presence, and they cast themselves at her feet, shedding abundant tears of joy. Not less was the joy of the heavenly Mother at meeting these Apostles, toward whom She bore an especial love in the Lord on account of their zealous labors for the exaltation of God's name and the spread of the faith. The Mistress of the humble desired them to present themselves first to saint Peter and the rest, and last to Her, judging Herself to be the least of all creatures. But they, preserving the proper order in their reverence and love, thought that none should be preferred to Her who was the Mother of God, the Mistress of all creation and the beginning of all our happiness. The great Lady prostrated Herself before saint Paul and Barnaby, kissed their hands and asked for their blessing. On this occasion saint Paul was favored with a wonderful ecstatic abstraction, in which were revealed to him great mysteries and prerogatives of this mystical City of God, the Blessed Mary, and he saw Her as it were completely invested with the Divinity.

 

488. Through this vision saint Paul was filled with admiration and with incomparable love and veneration for the heavenly Mary. Somewhat recovering himself, he said to Her: "Mother of all piety and clemency, pardon this vile and sinful man for having persecuted thy divine Son, my Lord, and his holy Church." The Virgin Mother answered and said: "Paul, servant of the Most High, if He who created and redeemed thee, deigned to call thee to his friendship and made thee a vessel of election, how can I, his slave, refuse to pardon thee? (Acts 9, 15). My soul magnifies and exalts Him, because He wished to manifest Himself so powerful, liberal and holy in thee." Saint Paul thanked the heavenly Mother for the benefit of his conversion and for the other favors conferred upon him by Her in saving him from so many dangers. The same also saint Barnaby did, and both again asked for her protection and help, which the most holy Mother promised.

 

489. Saint Peter, as the head of the Church, had called upon the Apostles and disciples then in and around Jerusalem, and convoked them to a meeting in the presence of the Mistress of the world. In order that the most prudent Virgin, in her profound humility, might not absent Herself from this council, saint Peter had interposed his authority as Vicar of Christ. All of them being gathered, saint Peter said: "My brethren and children in Christ our Savior, it was necessary that we meet in order to solve the difficulties and decide upon the affairs, which our most beloved brethren Paul and Barnaby have brought to our notice, and to determine other matters touching the increase of the holy faith. For this it is proper that we engage in prayer to obtain the assistance of the Holy Ghost and we shall persevere therein for ten days as is our custom. On the first and on the last day we shall celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, by which we shall dispose our hearts to receive the divine light." All of them approved of this arrangement. In order to celebrate the first Mass on the next day the Queen prepared the hall of the Cenacle, cleaning and decorating it with her own hands and holding all things in readiness for the Communion of Herself together with the Apostles and disciples during those Masses. Saint Peter alone celebrated, observing all those rites and ceremonies which I have described, when speaking of the Masses on other occasions.

 

490. The other Apostles and disciples communicated at the hands of saint Peter; then the most blessed Mary, taking the last place. Many angels descended to the Cenacle. All those present saw them and at the time of the consecration the Cenacle was filled with a wonderful light and fragrance, through which the Lord wrought wonderful effects in their souls. Having celebrated the first Mass, they agreed upon certain hours, in which they were to persevere together in prayer, as far as they could without neglecting the necessary ministry of souls. The great Lady retired to a place, where She remained alone and motionless for those ten days without eating or speaking to anyone. During that time She experienced such hidden mysteries as to move the angels to astonishment; and I find myself unable to describe what has been manifested to me concerning them. I will briefly indicate a small part of these mysteries, for to state all is impossible. The heavenly Mother having received holy Communion on the first of the ten days and retired to pray alone, at the command of the Lord, was immediately raised up by her angels and others there present to the empyrean heavens. Since She was taken up body and soul, one of the angels took her shape in order that the Apostles in the Cenacle might not become aware of her absence. They bore Her up with the splendor and magnificence described by me on other occasions, and on this occasion it was even greater on account of the designs of the Lord. When Mary arrived in a region of the air far removed from the earth, the almighty Lord commanded Lucifer and all his hellish hosts to come into the presence of the Queen into those higher regions. Immediately all of them came before Her and She saw them and knew them all just as they were and the condition they were in. The sight was somewhat painful to her, because the demons are so abominable and disgusting; but She was armed with divine virtue, so that She could not be harmed by this horrible and execrable sight. Not so the demons; for the Lord gave them to understand by an especial insight the greatness and superiority of that Woman, whom they were persecuting as their Enemy. They were made to perceive how foolishly presumptuous they had been in their attempts against Her. To their still greater terror they saw that She carried in her bosom the sacramental Christ and that the whole Divinity held Her as it were enveloped in its Omnipotence for their humiliation, overthrow and destruction.

 

491. The demons moreover heard a voice proceeding from the Deity itself, saying: "With this shield of my powerful arm, invincible and strong, I shall always defend my Church. This Woman shall crush the head of the ancient serpent (Gen. 3, 15), and shall forever triumph over Its haughty pride for the glory of my holy name." All these and other mysteries of the most holy Mary the demons perceived and understood while they were gathered around Her in dismay. So great was the despair and crushing pain which they felt, that they, with loudest clamors, said: "May the power of the Almighty cast us immediately into hell, and let it not keep us in the presence of this Woman, who torments us more than the fire. 0 invincible and strong Woman! Recede from us, since we ourselves cannot fly from thy presence, where we are bound by the chains of the Almighty. Why dost Thou also torment us before our time? (Matth. 8, 29). Thou alone of all human nature art the instrument of the Omnipotent against us; and through Thee men can acquire the eternal blessings we have lost. Those that have sunk into despair of ever seeing God eternally, are now rewarded for the accredited good works of their Redeemer by the vision of Thee, which in our hate is to us a torment and chastisement. Release us, almighty Lord and God; let this new punishment, in which Thou renewest that of our fall from heaven, cease; for in it Thou executest the punishment Thou hast threatened us with in this wonder of thy powerful arms."

 

492. During these and other lamentations of despair the demons were held spellbound in the presence of the Queen for a long time, and although thy made the most violent efforts to fly, they were not permitted to do it as fast as their fury urged them on. In order that the terror of the most holy Mary might strike them so much the deeper and become the more notorious, the Lord ordained, that She herself should use her authority as Mistress and Queen in permitting them to leave. At the instant in which She did this, all of them cast themselves, with all the swiftness in their power, from the upper regions into the abyss. They gave forth dreadful howls, terrorizing all the damned souls with new punishments, and, full of dismay and torments in not being able to deny their defeat, they proclaimed in their presence the power of the Almighty and of his holy Mother. Having won this triumph the most serene Empress proceeded on her way to the empyrean heaven, where She was received with new and admirable jubilee, remaining there for twenty-four hours.

 

493. She prostrated Herself before the throne of the most blessed Trinity and adored It in the unity of its undivided nature and majesty. She prayed for the Church, in order that the Apostles might understand and resolve what was proper for the establishment of the evangelical law and the termination of the law of Moses. In answer to these petitions She heard a voice from the throne, by which the three divine Persons, One after the Other and each One for Himself, promised to assist the Apostles and disciples in declaring and establishing the divine truth, assuring Her, that the Father would direct its establishment by his Omnipotence, the Son, as head of the Church, assist it by his Wisdom, and the Holy Ghost, as its Spouse, by his Love and his enlightening gifts. Then the heavenly Mother saw, that the most holy humanity of her Son presented to the Father the prayers and petitions, which She Herself had offered for the Church, and how, approving of them, He proposed the reasons why they should be fulfilled, in order that the faith of the Gospel and his entire holy law might be established in the world in accordance with the decrees of the divine will and mind.

 

494. Immediately, in execution of this will and proposal of Christ our Savior, the Lady saw issuing forth from the Divinity and immutable essence of God the form of a temple or Church, beautiful, clear and resplendent as if built of diamond or of sparkling crystal, adorned with many enamels and relieves to enhance its beauty. The angels and saints saw it and in astonishment exclaimed: "Holy, holy, holy and powerful art Thou, Lord, in thy works" (Apoc. 4, 8). This Church or temple the most blessed Trinity placed in the hands of the most holy humanity of Christ, and, in a manner which cannot be described in words, He united it with Himself. Thereupon He turned it over to the most holy Mother and as soon as Mary received it, She was filled with new splendor. She annihilated Herself within Herself and then saw the Divinity, clearly and intuitively, by eminent and beatific vision.

 

495. The great Queen remained in this joy for many hours, truly introduced into the cellar of fermented wine spoken of in the Canticles (Canticle 8, 2). Since what She experienced and received there surpasses all created thought or capacity, it suffices here to say, that anew was ordered in Her love (Cant. 2, 4) and directed with new fervor toward the Church consigned to Her under the above symbol. Enriched by these favors, She was borne back by the angels to the Cenacle, having in her hands the mystical temple She had received from her divine Son. She remained in prayer during the other nine days without motion and without interrupting the acts, in which She had been left by the beatific vision. They fall not within human thought, and can much less be indicated by human words. Among other things which She did, was to distribute the treasures of the Redemption among the children of the Church. Commencing with the Apostles and going through the different ages, She applied them separately to the just and the saints, according to the secret disposition of eternal predestination. The execution of these decrees her divine Son had consigned to the most holy Mary, giving Her dominion over the whole Church and the dispensation of all the graces, that each one earns through the merits of the Redemption. Regarding a mystery so exalted and hidden, I cannot say more than this.

 

496. On the last of the ten days saint Peter celebrated the other Mass and all received holy Communion as in the first. Then, all being gathered in the name of the Lord, they invoked the Holy Ghost and began to consult about the solution of the difficulties that had arisen in the Church. Saint Peter, as the head and the highpriest, spoke first, then saint Paul and Barnaby, and saint James the Less, as is related by saint Luke in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts. The first decision of this council was, that the exact law of the circumcision and the law of Moses should not be imposed upon the baptized; since eternal salvation was given through Baptism and faith in Christ. Although saint Luke principally mentions only this decision, yet there were others, which defined certain matters concerning the government and the ceremonies of the Church, in order to stop some abuses introduced by the indiscreet piety of some of the faithful. This is held to be the first council of the Apostles, although they had also gathered to establish the Credo and other things as mentioned before. However, at that only the Apostles had convened, whereas now also those disciples took part, who could come. Also the manner of conferring and of resolving was different, being a formal decision, as is clear from the words of saint Luke: "It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us," etc. (Luke 15, 28).

 

497. Couched in these terms the decision of the council was sent by letter to the faithful and to the churches of Antioch, Syria and Cilicia; and they remitted these letters through the hands of saint Paul and Barnaby and of other disciples. In order that the approbation of the Lord might not be wanting, it happened, that, both in the Cenacle at coming to their decision, and in Antioch when the letters were read before the faithful, the Holy Ghost descended in visible fire, so that all the faithful were consoled and confirmed in the Catholic truth. The most holy Mary gave thanks to the Lord for the blessings thus bestowed upon the Church. She immediately dispatched saint Paul and Barnaby with the rest and for their consolation She gave them as relics part of the clothes of Christ our Lord and some objects She had still left of the Passion. Offering them her protection and prayers, She sent them filled with new consolation and spiritual force upon the labors still awaiting them. During all these days of the council, on account of the terror with which most holy Mary had inspired him, Lucifer and his ministers could not come near the Cenacle; yet they prowled about in the distance, without being able to execute any of their malice against its members. Happy age, and fortunate congregation!

 

498. Since, in spite of his continual prowling about the Queen and his roaring as of a hungry lion, Lucifer saw that he could gain no advantage himself, he engaged some sorceresses, with whom he had made an express pact, and persuaded them to attempt the life of Mary by magic means. These unhappy dupes tried it in several ways; but their enchantments were of no avail. Many times, when they purposely placed themselves in the way of the Queen, they were struck dumb and motionless. The most blessed Mary, in her boundless charity, labored much to undeceive and convert them by kind words and deeds; but of the four, who were thus sent on by the demon, only one was converted and received Baptism. And thus all his attempts came to naught, Lucifer was so confused and enraged, that he would many times have given up tempting the most blessed Mary, if his unquenchable pride had permitted him. The Lord almighty ordained all this, in order that the victories and triumphs of his Mother might be more glorious, as we shall see in the following chapter.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME.

 

499. My daughter, in the constancy and invincible fortitude with which I vanquished the demons, thou hast one of the most urgent motives for persevering in grace and acquiring great crowns. The human nature and that of the angels (even though they be devils) are subject to contrary and opposite conditions; for the spiritual nature is indefatigable, and that of mortals weak and so prone to fatigue, that it soon tires and succumbs in labor. As soon as it finds any difficulty in the practice of virtue it is discouraged and turns back; what it pursues with pleasure on one day, it contemns the next; what seemed agreeable today, it finds hard tomorrow; now it wishes, then again it does not wish; sometimes it is fervent, sometimes lukewarm. But the demon is never fatigued or weakened in his efforts at tempting souls. The Almighty, however, is not wanting in his providence; for He limits and restrains the power of the demons, so that they cannot pass the measure set for them, nor exert all their indefatigable powers for the persecution of souls. On the other hand He supports the weakness of men, giving them grace and strength to resist and overcome their enemies on the prescribed battleground.

 

500. Hence the inconstancy of souls in virtuously maintaining their position during temptation and in not bearing with fortitude and patience the inconveniences of doing good and fighting against the demons, is not excusable. The bent of passion, drawing man toward the sensible and pleasurable, suddenly presents itself across the path of duty and the demons, with diabolical astuteness, seek to exaggerate the hardship and disagreeableness of mortification, representing it as dangerous to health and life. Thus he deludes innumerable souls to precipitate themselves from one abyss to another. In this thou hast before thy eyes, my daughter, a very common aberration of the worldly-minded, but which is very abominable in the sight of the Lord and myself. Hence it is, that many men are weak, wavering and indisposed toward the practice of virtue or penitential mortification for their sins. And the very ones who are so weak in doing good, are strong in doing evil. In the service of the devil they are constant and are ready to undergo much more difficult and arduous tasks in sinning, than the law of God commands for the practice of virtue. They show themselves tardy and imbecile in the work of saving their souls, eager and strong to load upon themselves eternal damnation.

 

501. This damage also those who profess a life of perfection are wont in part to incur, if they unduly consider the hardships attached to such a life. Drawn into this deception, they either hinder their advance in perfection or afford the devil many victories in temptation. In order that thou, my daughter, mayest not incur this danger, thou shouldst consider the fortitude and constancy with which I resisted Lucifer and all hell, and the magnanimity with which I despised his illusions and temptations, not permitting myself to be disturbed, or to pay any attention to them; for this is the best way to overcome his haughty pride. Nor was I ever led by temptation to remissness in my labors or in my exercises; but I augmented them, together with my prayers, petitions and tears, as is necessary in the time of battle with those enemies. Hence I exhort thee to do the same in eager watchfulness; because thy temptations are not of the ordinary kind, but are directed against thee in highest malice and astuteness. Of this I have warned thee many times and this experience teaches thee.

 

502. Since thou hast noticed the great terror caused to the demons at perceiving the sacramental Lord resting in my bosom, I wish to call thy attention to two things. First, that for the overthrow of hell and for causing fear in the demons, all the holy Sacraments of the Church are most powerful means; but above all the holy sacrament of the Eucharist. This was one of the hidden purposes of the Lord my Son, in the institution of this sovereign mystery and of the other Sacraments. If in our time men do not ordinarily feel these powerful effects, it is because in the frequency of the reception of the Sacraments much of the veneration and estimation in receiving them has been lost. But do not doubt, that souls who frequent them with devotion and piety, are formidable to the demons and that they exercise great power and dominion over them in the same way as thou hast seen and described it of me. The explanation of this fact is: that this divine fire, in the pure souls, finds itself as it were in its own element. In me it was active to the limit of possibility in a mere creature, and therefore I inspired such terror to the demons.

 

503. In further proof of what I said, I wish secondly to inform thee, that these blessings were not to have an end with me; for in proportion God has wrought the same effects in other souls. In our own times it has happened that, in order to vanquish the demon, God showed and opposed to him a soul bearing within it the sacramental species and thereby so humiliated and annihilated the dragon, that for many days he dared not approach this soul and begged the Omnipotent not to be shown any soul bearing within it holy Communion. On another occasion Lucifer, in conjunction with some heretics and other bad Christians, schemed to do severe harm to these Spanish kingdoms; and if God had not cut them short through this same person, the whole of Spain would now be lost and in the hands of the enemies. The divine clemency interfered for its defense by showing this person to the devil and his ministers after Communion. In their terrors the demons dropped their malicious designs for the immediate destruction of all Spain. I will not tell thee who this person was; for it is not necessary, and I reveal this secret to thee for no other purpose than to show how favorably the Almighty looks upon a soul which tries to merit its favors and worthily receives Him in holy Communion; and how He manifested Himself liberal and powerful not only to me, on account of my dignity and sanctity of Mother, but how He wishes also in other souls to be known and glorified as relieving the needs of the Church according to time and occasion.

 

504. From this thou wilt understand, that, in the same proportion as the demons fear the souls that worthily receive holy Communion and other fortifying Sacraments, so they exert all their powers to cause those souls to fall and to hinder them from accumulating all this strength of the Lord against them. Labor then against these tireless and astute enemies and seek to imitate me in fortitude. I desire also that thou hold in great veneration the councils of the Church and all such gatherings, and whatever is resolved and established by them; for the Holy Ghost assists at these councils and He fulfills his promise, that He will be with those who gather together in his name (Matth. 8, 20). Hence what is thus ordained and commanded must be obeyed. Although in our times no visible signs of the assistance of the Holy Ghost occur in such councils, yet He does not fail to govern them invisibly; for signs and wonders are not any more so necessary as in the first beginnings of the Church. Such as are necessary are not withheld by the Lord. For all these blessings exalt and praise his liberal kindness and mercy, and especially for those which He conferred on me during my mortal life.

 

CHAPTER VII.

 

THE MOST HOLY MARY ENDS THE BATTLE WITH THE DEMONS, GLORIOUSLY TRIUMPHING OVER THEM: AS IS DESCRIBED BY SAINT JOHN IN THE TWELFTH CHAPTER OF THE APOCALYPSE.

 

505. In order to understand better the mysteries to be described in this chapter, it is necessary to presuppose what I have written in the eighth, ninth and tenth chapter, of the first book, of the first part, where I explained the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse in so far as it was made known to me at that time. Not only there, but during the whole course of this heavenly history, have I referred to the present chapters of this third part for a description of the battles of the most holy Mary with Lucifer and the demons, the triumphs She gained, and the state in which She was left by the Almighty after these battles for the rest of her earthly life. Of all these sacred mysteries the evangelist saint John had a knowledge and he describes them in his Apocalypse (as I have stated at other times), especially in the twelfth and twenty-first chapters. On these two chapters I must discourse in this history for two reasons.

 

506. First, the secrets contained in them are so exalted and magnificent, that they can never be adequately explained or manifested; especially as the Evangelist, considering it as the sacrament of the King and Queen, has enveloped them in such enigmatical and metaphorical language, as can be interpreted only through divine revelation when and how the Lord shall please; and in this the Evangelist followed the express commands of the most holy Mary. Secondly, the proud rebellion of Lucifer, although in general opposing the supreme will and orders of the Most High and omnipotent God, was especially directed against Christ our Lord and his Mother, to whose superiority and excellence the apostate angels do not wish to subject themselves. Also the first rebellion and war waged with saint Michael in heaven was in protest against their authority; but at that time they could not war with the incarnate Word and with his Virgin Mother in person, but only against the mysterious sign or representation of that mysterious Woman, which they saw placed in the heavens as a prophetic symbol of all the mysteries of the Incarnation to be enacted in her womb. When the time came for the execution of all these sacraments and for the Incarnation of the Word in her womb, it was proper that this battle of the demons should be renewed and that Christ and Mary should triumph over them in person. For this the Lord, as well in heaven as afterwards in paradise, had threatened them with this enmity between the Woman and the serpent, and between the seed of the Woman and the serpent, in order that She might crush his head.

 

507. All this was fulfilled to the letter in Christ and in Mary; for of our great Highpriest and Savior saint Paul says, that He was tempted in all things like we ourselves and for our example, but without sin; and the same can be said of the most holy Mary. Lucifer had permission to tempt Them after his fall from heaven, as I have said in the tenth chapter of the first Part. And because this battle with the most holy Mary was to be a counterpart of the first one in heaven and was to be for the demons the fulfillment of the threat and menace contained in her image, it was described and enveloped in the same enigmatical words. Having sufficiently explained about the first battle, I must now speak of what happened in the second. Although Lucifer and his demons had already been punished in their first rebellion by the eternal loss of the beatific vision and hurled into hell, they were now punished anew in this second battle by additional accidental torments corresponding to their evil desires and attempts against the most blessed Mary. The explanation thereof is, that the natural faculties of a creature draw satisfaction and contentment from their attaining what they strive after and this in proportion to the vehemence with which they have striven; and on the other hand, pain and disappointment in not attaining their object, or in experiencing opposite results. Now, the demons since their fall had desired nothing more vehemently than to see that One fall from grace, who was to be the medium of grace for the children of Adam. Hence it was an inconceivable torment for the infernal dragons to find themselves vanquished and foiled in the desperate desires and hopes entertained by them for so many ages.

 

508. The heavenly Mother on the other hand, on account of the same and many other reasons, in the overthrow of the ancient serpent gained a most joyful triumph. For the conclusion of this battle, moreover, and for the state which She was then to enjoy during the rest of her life, her divine Son held in readiness so many and such great blessings, as surpass all human and angelic capacity. In order to say something of what I have been made to understand, the reader must remember, that, on account of our limited powers and capacity, we are constrained to use for the most exalted mysteries the same terms and words as we use for the more ordinary ones. Yet in what I am to speak of now, there is infinite latitude and extent of mystery, within which the Almighty can raise the creature from one state, which seems to us the highest, to one much more exalted, and from this again to a higher and more excellent state. For, such a creature as Mary, after being destined and confirmed in this world of graces, gifts and favors, and after reaching (as She really did) all that is not God's essence, must at last embrace within itself a vastness of excellence so great, that, of its own Self, it constitutes a new hierarchy, greater and more exalted than all the rest of the creatures angelic and human.

 

509. Having premised all this, I will proceed to tell as well as I can, what happened to Lucifer until his final overthrow through the most holy Mary and her Son our Savior. The dragon and his demons were not yet entirely subdued by the triumphs related in the last chapter, when they were hurled down from the upper air into the abyss by the great Lady; nor by their ill-success with the sorceresses in Jerusalem. But, fearing in his malice that he should have little time left for his temptations and persecutions, the enemy, in his implacable malice, wished to make up for the shortness of time by an increase of fury and temerity. Hence he sought out other men, who, having been especially instructed by him in magic and witchcraft, were still greater sorcerers. To these Lucifer gave special and minute directions how to take away the life of Her whom they held as their enemy. These ministers of evil attempted to fulfill their commission many times, making use of very powerful and pernicious charms. But none of them could in any way harm either the life or the health of the most blessed Mary; for the effects of sin exerted no influence over Her who was sinless and who, moreover, for other reasons, was exempt and superior to all natural causes. Seeing this and finding his most deeply laid plans frustrated, the dragon visited those sorcerers with fierce and cruel punishments; for the Lord permitted this, because they had merited chastisement for their temerity and in order that they might know, what kind of master they served.

 

510. Full of this new fury Lucifer convened all the princes of darkness and reminded them of the many reasons they had since their fall from heaven, for straining all their forces and their whole malice in order to cast down this Woman, their Enemy; since they now clearly recognized in Her the One shown to them at that time. They all agreed with him and resolved to unite and assault Her alone, presuming that on some occasion or another they would find Her less prepared and bereft of her defense. Mary being alone in her oratory, they at once seized this opportunity and, emptying hell for this enterprise, they advanced upon Her in united multitudes. This battle was the greatest ever fought by a mere creature, from the first one in the empyrean heaven to the end of the world; and it was very much like that first one. In order to estimate the fury of Lucifer and his demons, in coming to where the most blessed Mary then was, one must consider their torments, as well in perceiving the divine power emanating from Her as in remembering how often they had been oppressed and vanquished by Her. But their wrath and envy conquered even these torments and drove them, in spite of their pains, to throw themselves as it were upon the bristling pikes and swords to avenge themselves upon the heavenly Lady for not to make such an attempt was a greater torment than any other.

 

511. The first assault of the demons was directed principally upon the exterior senses of Mary, consisting in terrific how lings and confused clamors. Arraying their hosts in the air, they produced such a fearful noise and trembling, that the machinery of the whole world seemed on the point of destruction. To make all this appear more real, they assumed diverse visible shapes, some of horrid and different kinds of demons, other of angels of light. In these shapes they pretended to begin a darksome and formidable contest or battle, seemingly without cause and so that only the confused and terrible noise could be heard. Thus they sought to produce fear or disturbance in the soul of the most blessed Lady. And truly they would have excited terror in any other, even the most holy creature, if left to the ordinary resources of grace, and no one could have encountered them without losing life; for this onset lasted for twelve whole hours.

 

512. But our great Queen and Lady remained immovable and serene, as tranquil as if She heard or saw nothing of all this; She was disturbed or altered in no wise, showed no change in her countenance, no traces of sorrow during the whole of this infernal uproar. Then the demons proceeded to other temptations directed against the internal faculties of the invincible Mother, pouring out their diabolical malice more than I can describe; for all that devilish multitude exhausted the full measure of their hellish astuteness in concocting their false revelations, lights and suggestions, their promises and threats in attempting to infect each of her virtues by temptations to the contrary vice. I will not stop to enumerate in particular these temptations, as it is neither necessary nor convenient. But our Lady and Queen overcame them all, since in opposition to the vices She performed acts of the contrary virtues, which reached an excellence fully in proportion to the impulse and force of her then acquired state of grace, gifts and perfection.

 

513. As one who was experiencing the strength of hellish malice and who knows the necessity of divine assistance, She prayed on that occasion for all that are afflicted and tempted by the demon. The Lord granted Her the power of extending her protection to all those who are tempted and who invoke her intercession. The demons persevered in this battle until no kind of malice was left un-attempted against the most pure Mother. Then She on her part called upon the divine justice, asking God to rise up and judge his cause (as David says Ps. 73, 22), that his enemies might be dispersed and those who abhorred his presence be put to flight. To fulfill his judgment the incarnate Word descended from heaven to her retirement in the Cenacle, appearing to his Virgin Mother as her sweetest and loving Son, and to the enemies as the severe Judge on the throne of his supreme majesty. He was accompanied by innumerable angels, by the ancient saints, Adam and Eve and many patriarchs and prophets, and saint Joachim and Anne. All these presented and manifested themselves to the most blessed Mary in her oratory.

 

514. Prostrating Herself as usual in deepest veneration and worship, the great Lady adored her Son and true God. The demons did not see the Lord, though they were made aware of his royal presence and tried to fly from the imminent punishment. But the divine power detained them, fettering them in the manner in which their spirit nature permitted; and the ends of their fetters or chains the Lord placed into the hands of his most blessed Mother.

 

515. Then a voice issued from the throne saying: "Today comes upon you the wrath of the Almighty, and the first sentence, fulminated against the ancient serpent from on high and afterwards in paradise, shall be executed: a Woman descended from Adam and Eve shall crush its head (Gen. 3, 15), because in your disobedience and pride, you have despised the humanity of the Word in the virginal womb." Immediately the most holy Mary was raised from the earth by the hands of six seraphim nearest to the throne of God and, enveloped in a refulgent cloud, was placed at the side of the throne of her divine Son. From his own essence and Divinity issued an ineffable and supereminent splendor, which enveloped and surrounded Her like the globe of the sun. Beneath her feet appeared also the moon, indicating that She was to subject to Her all that was inferior, earthly and variable, symbolized by the concavity of the moon. Over her head was placed a diadem or crown of twelve stars, as an emblem of the divine perfections communicated to Her to the fullest extent possible in a mere creature. She was also shown as pregnant, not only of the concept of God in her mind, but also of the corresponding love. She gave forth a voice as if of the sorrows of the birth of what She had conceived, in order that all creatures might participate in it; and they rejected it, although She desired it with tears and groans (Apoc. 12, 1).

 

516. This sign, in all the grandeur in which it had been conceived in the divine mind, was shown in heaven to Lucifer, who was present as the great, red dragon with seven heads crowned with seven diadems and ten horns. In this horrid shape he represented himself as the author of the seven capital sins, who attempted to crown these sins with his invented heresies as diadems and who armed by his astuteness and strength as with ten horns, had sought to overthrow the divine law contained in the ten commandments. In like manner he had encircled with his tail and drawn to hell with him a third part of the stars of heaven; (Apoc. 12, 4) ; not only in seducing the myriads of angels, who followed him in disobedience, but also in casting from heaven of the Church many of the believers, who seemed to have risen above the stars either in dignity or sanctity.

 

517. In such a fearful and horrid shape stood Lucifer, and with him, in many other and various, all of them abominable, shapes, stood his fellow-demons, arranged in battle array around Mary, who was about to bring forth in spiritual birth the perpetual existence and enrichment of the holy Church. And the dragon, in furious envy, that this Woman should be so powerful in establishing and spreading this Church, and that She should, by her merits, example and intercession, enrich it with so many graces and raise so many myriads of men to their predestined eternal happiness, stood in readiness to devour if possible, what She was to bring forth and to destroy this new Church. In spite of the envy of the dragon She brought forth a man-child, who was to govern all the nations with a strong rod of iron. This manchild was the most righteous and strong spirit of the Church, which in the righteousness of Christ our God holds sway over all the nations in justice; and likewise it signified all the apostolic men, who in the same righteous spirit are to judge (Matth. 19, 28) with the iron rod of divine justice. All this it was that most holy Mary brought forth, not only because She gave birth to Christ, but also because through her merits and diligence She brought forth the Church in holiness and rectitude, nourished it during the time She lived in it, and even now and forever preserves it in the manly spirit, in which it was born, maintaining the uprightness of the Catholic truth, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail (Matth. 16, 18).

 

518. Then, says saint John, this man-child was taken up to the throne of God and the Woman fled to her destined place in the desert in order that She might there be nourished one thousand two-hundred and sixty days. This signifies, that all the legitimate offspring of the heavenly Mother, as well that which is the fruit of the general spirit of holiness in the Church, as also the particular souls which She engendered and engenders as her proper spiritual children, shall arrive at the throne where is her natural Offspring, Christ, in whom and for whom She engenders and raises her children. But the solitude to which the most blessed Mary was carried was a most exalted and mysterious state, to which She was raised after her battle and of which I shall say something presently. It is called a solitude, because She alone of all creatures was in that state, and none other could ever reach or attain it. In it She was without the company of creatures; and She was moreover left alone by the dragon, who more than anyone else was ignorant of this mystery, and could not any more tempt or persecute Her in person. There the Lord nourished Her one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which was the time She lived in this state before passing to another.

 

519. All this was darkly known and intimated to Lucifer and his demons before this heavenly Woman and living Sign was hidden away from their sight. The knowledge of her destiny took away the confidence, which, for more than five thousand years, had inspired the dragon with the hope of being able to vanquish Her who was the Mother of the incarnate Word. Hence the despair and torment of Lucifer and his demons can to a certain extent be imagined; especially as they now saw themselves overcome and held bound by the very Woman, whom they had with such insane fury sought to cast down from grace and deprive of the merits and fruits of the Church. The dragon in agonizing efforts to escape, said: "O Woman, give me leave to hurl myself into hell, for I cannot bear thy presence, nor will I ever venture to come before Thee as long as Thou livest upon this world. Thou hast conquered, 0 Woman, Thou hast conquered, and I acknowledge thy power in Him who has made Thee his Mother. Omnipotent God, chastise us Thyself, since we cannot resist Thee; but do not send thy punishments through a Woman of a nature so inferior to ours. Her charity consumes us, her humility crushes us, and She is in all things a living manifestation of thy mercy for men. This is a torment surpassing many others. Assist me, ye demons! But alas, what can our united efforts avail against this Woman, since all our power cannot ever deliver us from her presence until She herself casts us forth? O foolish children of Adam, who follow me, forsaking life for the sake of death, truth or falsehood? What absurdity and insanity is yours, (so in despair I must confess), since you have in your midst and belonging to your own nature the incarnate Word and this Woman? Greater is your ingratitude than mine and this Woman forces me to confess the truths, which I abhor with all my heart. Cursed be my resolve to persecute this Daughter of Adam, who so torments and crushes me!"

 

520. While the dragon thus gave vent to his despair, the prince of the heavenly hosts saint Michael appeared in order to defend the cause of the incarnate Word and his most blessed Mother; and by the arms of the understanding they began another battle with the dragon and his followers (Apoc. 12, 7). Saint Michael and his angels hurled at them the convincing arguments of old, reproaching them with their pride and disobedience in heaven and with their temerity in persecuting and tempting the incarnate Word and his Mother, and contending with those in whom they had no part or right whatever, since they could accuse Them of no sin, injustice or imperfection. Saint Michael justified the works of the divine justice, declaring them most righteous and unblamable chastisements for the disobedience and apostasy of Lucifer and the demons. Anew they anathematized them and confirmed the sentence of their damnation, confessing the Almighty as holy and just in all his works. The demon and his angels on the other hand likewise tried to defend their rebellion and the audacity of their pride; but all their reasonings were false, vain, and full of diabolical presumption and error.

 

521. A silence ensued in the altercation and the Lord of hosts spoke to the most holy Mary: "My Mother and my Beloved, chosen from the creatures by my eternal wisdom for my habitation and holy temple! Thou hast given Me human form and restored the human race; Thou hast followed Me, imitated Me and merited the graces and gifts communicated to Thee above all my creature and Thou hast never permitted them to be unprofitable in Thee. Be Thou the worthy object of my infinite love, the protection of my Church, its Queen, Mistress and Governess. To Thee is commissioned my power, and, as the almighty God, I place it in thy most faithful disposal. In virtue of it do Thou command the infernal dragon, that as long as Thou shalt live in the Church, he shall not sow the seed of error and heresy which he holds in readiness; cut off his hardened neck, crush his head; for during the days of thy life I desire that the Church shall derive this advantage from thy presence."

 

522. The most holy Mary executed this command of the Lord and as Queen and Mistress enjoined the infernal dragons to become mute and powerless to spread their false doctrines among the faithful, and that, as long as She was to live upon earth, none of them presume to deceive mortals by their heretical tenets and doctrines. And so it happened; for although the demon, in his wrath and vengeance, had intended to pour out this poison in the Church, the Lord, for the sake of his love of the heavenly Mother, hindered it during her lifetime. After her glorious Transition, permission was given to the demon to spread his heresies because the sins of men subjected them to the just judgments of the Lord.

 

523. Thereupon, (as saint John says), the great dragon, the ancient serpent called satan and devil, was cast forth and with his demons banished from the presence of the Queen. Their chains were lengthened and they fell upon the earth, where they were permitted to remain. The voice of the archangel was heard in the Cenacle, saying: "Now is come the salvation, and the strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ; because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, 0 heaven, and you that dwell therein. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time" (Apoc. 12, 10). By these words the angel proclaimed, that in virtue of the victories and triumphs of the most blessed Mary, united to those of her Son and Savior, the reign of God, his Church, and the effects of the Redemption of man were assured to the just. All this he called the salvation, the strength and power of Christ. And as, without doubt, if the most blessed Mother had not overcome the infernal dragon, this impious and powerful enemy would have hindered the effects of the Redemption; therefore this voice of the angel resounded victoriously at the conclusion of the battle and at his casting forth unto the earth and the sea. He congratulated the saints, because now the head and the plottings of the demon, by which he slandered men, were crushed, and the angel calls them brethren because of their relationship with the angels through the soul, through grace and glory.

 

524. The calumnies, by which the devil persecuted and accused the mortals were the illusions and deceits by which he expected to pervert the beginnings of the evangelical Church, and his appeals to the justice of God, alleging that men, through their ingratitude and wickedness and by their having taken away the life of Christ the Savior, did not merit Redemption or mercy, but deserved to be punished by leaving them to their own sinfulness and to the darkness of eternal damnation. Against all these accusations, however, Mary, as our most sweet and kind Mother, rose up in our defense, meriting for us faith and its spread, the abundance of mercies and gifts accruing to us from the death of her Son, all of which the sins of those that crucified Him and the others, that would not receive Him, have indeed failed to deserve. The angel, by his prediction of woe, warns the inhabitants of the earth to be prepared for the serpent, which now descended to them in such great wrath; for without a doubt this dragon knows, that he has little time for wrecking his fury upon men, since he has learned of the mysteries of Redemption, the power of most holy Mary, the abundance of grace and wonderful favors in the primitive Church. From all these facts he suspects, that the end of the world is at hand, or that all men will follow Christ our Lord and avail themselves of the intercession of his Mother to gain eternal life. Alas, that men themselves should be more foolish and ungrateful than even the demon himself dared to think.

 

525. In further explanation of these mysteries, the Evangelist states, that when the dragon saw himself cast upon the earth, he attempted to persecute the mysterious Woman, who had brought forth the man-child. But to Her were given two wings as of a great eagle, in order that She might fly into the solitude or desert, where She was nourished for a time, and for two times, and for the half of a time, hidden away from the sight of the serpent. And therefore the serpent cast forth after the Woman a great river to overwhelm Her if possible. By these words the wrath of Lucifer against God, his Mother and the Church are more definitely declared; for, as far as this dragon is concerned, he never permits his envy to slumber, his pride to weaken, or his malice to sleep in tempting anew this Queen as long as he has power and permission. But they were taken from him in regard to the Queen; and hence it is said, that two wings were given to Her for flying into the desert, where She is nourished during the stated times. These wings were the divine power of ascending to the vision of the Deity given to Mary and of descending to distribute the treasures of grace to men, as we shall describe in the next chapter.

 

526. From that time on the serpent had no more power to tempt Mary in person, wherefore it is said that her solitude or desert is removed from the sight of the demon. The times and the time and half of a time are three years and a half, which contain the thousand two hundred and sixty, less a few days, as mentioned before. In this state, and in others yet to be spoken of, the most blessed Mary spent the rest of her mortal life. But since the dragon was forced to give up tempting Her, he shot forth the blood of his venomous malice after the heavenly Woman; for after her victory he sought astutely to tempt the faithful and to persecute them through aid of the Jews and gentiles; and especially after her glorious Transition into heaven did he loosen the flood of his heresies and false schisms locked up within himself. The threats which he uttered after her victory, referred to the war he intended to wage against men in order to avenge himself upon Her; for, being now unable to vent his rage upon the person of the Queen, he resolved to continue it against those, whom the Lady loved so much.

 

527. Hence saint John says that the dragon proceeded to make war upon the others, who are of her generation and seed, who observe the law of God, and have the testimony of Christ. And the dragon stood upon the sands of the sea, namely; he relied upon the countless infidels, idolators, Jews and pagans, through whom he has made and does make war upon the holy Church, besides secretly waging the war of temptation against the faithful. But the solid and firm set earth, which is the immutability of the Church, and the imperishable Catholic truth helps the mysterious Woman; because She opens her mouth and swallows and absorbs the flood poured out against Her by the serpent. And so it happened in reality, since the holy Church, which is the organ and the mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost, has condemned and overthrown all the errors, the false sects and doctrines by her definitions, by holy Scriptures, by the decrees of her councils, by the teachings of her doctors, instructors and preachers of the Gospel.

 

528. All these mysteries and many others the Evangelist intimates and describes under the image of this battle and triumph of most holy Mary. In order to end the conflict, though Lucifer was already cast from heaven and given over, fettered in chains, into the hands of the victorious Queen, the great Lady perceived it to be the will of the Lord her divine Son, that She hurl him and his hosts into the infernal caverns. Fortified and strengthened by God, She released them and commanded them immediately to depart into hell. As soon as She pronounced the word, all the demons fell into the most distant caverns of hell, where they remained for some time giving forth terrible and despairing howls. Then the holy angels sang new hymns to the incarnate Word on account of his victories and those of his invincible Mother. The first parents, Adam and Eve, gave thanks to God, because He chose this their Daughter for his Mother and thus repaired the ruin they had caused to their posterity; the Patriarchs, because their great expectations and prophecies were so happily and gloriously fulfilled; saint Joachim, saint Anne and saint Joseph, with still greater jubilee, glorified the Almighty for their Daughter and Spouse; and all of them together sang the glory and praise of the Most High, so holy and admirable in his counsels. The most blessed Mary prostrated Herself before the royal throne and adored the incarnate Word, offering Herself anew to labor for the Church, and asking his blessing, which She received with admirable effects. She asked also her parents and her Spouse for their blessing, recommending the holy Church and all the faithful to their prayers. Thereupon the whole celestial gathering took their leave and returned to heaven.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH MARY, THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, GAVE ME

 

529. My daughter, with the rebellion of Lucifer and his demons in heaven have commenced the battles between the kingdom of light and that of darkness, between Jerusalem and Babylon; and these battles will not cease to the end of the world. The Captain and Head of the children of light is the incarnate Word, as the Author of holiness and grace; and Lucifer, as the author of sin and perdition, has constituted himself as the leader of the children of darkness. Each one of these chieftains defends his followers and seeks to increase his reign and the number of his adherents. Christ seeks to draw men to Himself by the truths of his divine faith, by the favors and gifts of his grace, by the holiness of his virtues, by his consolations in labors and by the certain hope of his promised happiness, commanding his angels to accompany, to console and defend them until they should be able to bring them to heaven; Lucifer, on the other hand, gains his followers by lies, deceits and treachery, by the allurements of ignominious and abominable vices, by darkness and confusion; he treats them in this life like a tyrant, afflicting them relentlessly and depriving them of all consolation; while in the next life he holds in readiness for them eternal and horrible torments, which he himself and through his demons shall inflict upon them with inhuman cruelty as long as God is God.

 

530. But alas! in spite of this truth, so infallible and so well known to mortals, in spite of the infinite difference of the recompense, how few, my daughter, are the soldiers that follow Christ, as their legitimate Lord, as their King, their Chief, and their model; and how numerous are those that band with Lucifer, who gives them no existence, no life, who affords them no nourishment, nor any return; who deserves nothing nor in any way obliges them, as was and is the case with the Author of life and grace, my divine Son? So great is the ingratitude of men, so foolish their infidelity, so unhappy their blindness. Merely because God has given men freedom of will, either to follow their Master or not, to show themselves thankful or not, they side with Lucifer and serve him freely, permit him to enter the house of God and his temple, that he may tyrannically confuse and profane it and draw after him the greater part of the world to his eternal torments.

 

531. This conflict will last to the end, because the Prince of eternity, on account of his infinite goodness, will not cease to defend the souls He created and redeemed by his blood. But not only He himself battles with the dragon, nor only through his angels; for it redounds to the greater glory and exaltation of his name, if He overcomes the enemies and confounds their pride through the human creatures, in whom they seek to avenge themselves upon the Lord. I, being a mere creature, next to my Son, the true God, was the Leader and Sovereign in these battles. Although through his Passion and Death, He vanquished the demons, who had become very haughty by the dominion of sin inaugurated among men by Adam; yet, after He, and I in his name, had triumphed over the enemies and through our victories established the Church in such high perfection and holiness, the Church would have persevered and Lucifer would have remained crushed (as I said before), if the ingratitude and the forgetfulness of men had not impelled him anew toward the perdition and ruin of the whole globe.

 

532. Nevertheless my divine Son did not forsake the Church, which He had acquired by his blood, nor have I, as its Mother and Protectress, forsaken it; and We continue to look within it for some souls to defend the glory and honor of God and fight the battles against hell for the confusion and crushing of the demons. Hence I wish thee to dispose thyself by divine grace for this battle and not to wonder at the strength of the demon, nor to be downcast at thy misery and poverty. Thou knowest that the wrath of Lucifer against me was greater than against any of the creatures, and greater than against all of them together; but by the power of the Lord I vanquished him gloriously, and thou, in the same power, canst resist him in thy smaller temptations. Although thou mayest be weak and wanting in what is required, I wish thee to understand, that my divine Son acts now as a king who is short of subjects and soldiers and will admit anyone who wishes to serve in his army. Encourage thyself then to conquer satan in present matters, for then the Lord will afterwards arm thee for greater battles. I tell thee, that the Church would not be entangled in its present difficulties, if a number of the souls belonging to it had taken it upon themselves to defend the cause and honor of God; but the Church stands very much alone and forsaken by the children, whom it nourished at its own bosom.

 

CHAPTER VIII.

 

THE STATE OF CONTINUAL ABSTRACTIVE VISION. IN WHICH GOD PLACED THE MOST BLESSED MARY AFTER HER VICTORY OVER THE DEMONS, AND HER BEHAVIOR THEREON.

 

533. In the measure in which the mysteries of the infinite and eternal Wisdom were being fulfilled, so the great Lady was raised in the sphere of holiness beyond all human thought above the rest of the creatures. As her triumphs over the infernal dragon were gained under the conditions and circumstances I have described, and resulted in the rewards I have mentioned; and as all these events of her life were the sequel of the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption and of all the rest, in which She had associated with her divine Son, it is impossible that our lowly human faculties should even faintly comprehend the effects of these mysteries upon the purest heart of the heavenly Mother. She conferred within Herself upon these works of the Lord and weighed them by the scales of her most exalted wisdom. The devouring flame of her celestial love grew into a conflagration, which excited the astonishment of all the angels and courtiers of heaven; and her natural powers of life could not have withstood the impetuous onsets of her desire to annihilate Herself entirely in the essence of the Divinity, if they had not been sustained by miraculous influence. At the same time She was drawn toward men by her most sweet and maternal charity; for they all depended upon Her, just as the plants upon the sun that vivifies and nourishes them. She therefore lived in a state of violent longing to unite both the objects of her love in her bosom.

 

534. In such a state the most blessed Mother found Herself after the victories over the dragon. Notwithstanding her having, through the whole course of her life from its first instant, at all times done what was most pure, most holy and exalted, without ever being embarrassed by her travels, labors and cares in the service of her divine Son; yet at this juncture there arose as it were a contest in her heart between her love of God and of the souls. In all her works of charity She felt the force of her aspirations drawing Her to the higher and new gifts and workings of grace. On the one hand She was impelled to withdraw Herself from all the sensible things in order to wing her flight to the continual and supreme union with the Divinity, and, in imitation of comprehensors and especially of the state of her divine Son on earth, free Herself from all hindrance of creatures in order to enjoy all that He enjoyed outside of what belonged to Him in virtue of the hypostatic union. This latter was indeed not possible in the blessed Mother; yet the height of her sanctity and love seemed to demand all that was next below the state of comprehensors. On the other hand She was drawn by her love of the Church to hasten the relief of the faithful in all the necessities; for without thus being engaged in these duties of a Mother of the family, She could scarcely rest satisfied with the favors and delights of the Most High. As each of these activities of Martha required time, She continued to study how She might adjust her life so as to be wanting neither in the active nor the contemplative life.

 

535. The Most High permitted this sort of solicitude to arise in his most blessed Mother in order that the favor of her new state, held in readiness for Her by his omnipotence, might come to Her so much the more opportunely. Therefore He spoke to Her and said: "My Spouse and my Beloved, the anxious aspirations of thy most ardent love have wounded my heart and by the power of my right hand I wish to operate in thee what I have done to none of the creatures, nor ever shall do; for thou art chosen as none other of my creatures for my delights. For thee alone have I prepared a state and condition, in which I shall nourish thee with my Divinity as one of the blessed, yet in a different manner; in it thou shalt continually enjoy my sight and my embraces, my peace and tranquillity, without being embarrassed by created things or by thy condition as a pilgrim. In this habitation thou shalt wing thy flight freely and without bonds through the infinite regions required by thy love; and from it thou shalt also fly to the aid of the holy Church, of which thou art Mother. Charged with my treasures, thou shalt distribute them among thy brethren according to thy pleasure in their necessities and labors, so that through thee they all may be relieved."

 

536. This is the favor which I pointed out in the last chapter and which the Evangelist clothes in these words: "And the Woman fled into the wilderness, where She had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed Her a thousand two hundred and sixty days," and a little farther on: "And there were given to the Woman two wings of a great eagle, that She might fly into the desert unto her place, where She was nourished" (Apoc. 12, 14). It is not easy to make myself understood regarding this mystery; for it contains many supernatural effects, which have no counterpart in any other creature and are wonders reserved by God exclusively to the faculties of the most blessed Mary; and since faith teaches us, that we cannot measure or comprehend the power of the Almighty, it is proper to confess, that He can operate in Her much more than we can understand and that we need only deny such excellence in Her, as would imply an evident and manifest contradiction. In that which has been shown me for the purpose of recording it in this history, supposing that I understand it, I do not see any contradiction in the way I see it; although the proper terms for recording it fail me in what I write.

 

537. I say then, that after Mary our Leader and Mistress had triumphed in her battles over the dragon and his demons, God raised Her to a state in which He manifested to Her the Divinity, not by an intuitive vision like that of the blessed, but by another clear vision through created species, which in this history I have always called abstractive vision; because it depends not upon the actual presence of the object seen, nor moves the understanding by the object itself; but by other species, which present the object as it is in itself, although absent; namely in the same manner as God can show me the city of Rome as it is in itself by infusing into my mind all the images and likenesses of that city. This kind of vision of the Divinity the most blessed Virgin had enjoyed before during her life, as I have often demonstrated in this history. Although it was thus not altogether new to Her, since She enjoyed abstractive vision at the moment of her Conception (as said at the time), yet it was new now in two respects. First, from this time on it was permanent and continual, enduring till her death and till She passed into the beatific vision; while before that time it had been occasional and passing. Secondly, from this time it continued to increase in intensity day by day, and thus reached a degree more exalted, more admirable and excellent than before, and beyond all created thought and measure.

 

538. For this purpose all her faculties were touched by the fire of the sanctuary, causing new effects of the Divinity, illuminating and exalting Her above Herself; for this state was to be a participation of that held by the comprehensors and the blessed, yet at the same time different from theirs. Hence it is important to note wherein it was like and wherein it was unlike to theirs. The likeness consisted in Her seeing the same object of the Divinity and the same attributes which they enjoyed by secure possession, only She understood them more deeply than they. The differences consisted in three points: first the blessed see God face to face and by intuitive vision, whereas the most blessed Mary saw Him by an abstractive vision as described; secondly, the beatific vision of the saints in the Fatherland and their essential fruition, in which the glory of the understanding and the will consists, cannot increase; whereas the abstractive vision of Mary in her pilgrimage had no limit or restriction, but her knowledge of the infinite attributes and the divine essence increased day by day; and for this were given to Her two wings of an eagle, by which She was to soar continually in this limitless ocean of the Divinity, comprehending ever more and more of its infinity.

 

539. The third difference was, that the saints can neither suffer nor merit, this being incompatible with their state; whereas our Queen could well accumulate suffering and merit in her state of vision, as being still a wayfarer. And without this possibility this state would not have been so great and valuable in her eyes, nor for the Church; for the meritorious works of so great a Lady, in this state of so great grace and holiness, were of the most inestimable value and price to all men. She presented a new and wonderful spectacle to the angels and saints, a sort of portrait of her divine Son; for as the Queen and Mistress She had the power to dispense and distribute the treasures of grace, and at the same time, to add to them by her own ineffable merits. And though She was not a comprehensor, as the saints in heaven; yet in her state of pilgrimage She held a place so near to Christ and so like to his on earth, that, if compared with Him, She was indeed a pilgrim in body and soul; but if compared to the other pilgrims on earth, She seemed a comprehensor and one of the blessed.

 

540. This her state required that all the armory of her senses and other faculties should be of another order and capable of operations proportionate to her condition Hence the manner of her activity experienced an entire change, and in the following way: all the species or impressions of creatures, which through her senses had acted upon her understanding, were now at an end or blotted out from her mind; though, as I have said above in this third part (No. 126), the great Lady had not admitted any images or species except only those that were necessary for the exercise of charity and other virtues. Now even these, in as far as they were terrestrial and in as far as they partook of the sensitive in entering her understanding, the Lord abolished, purging and distilling them of all that they yet contained of their origin in the senses. In place of the images and impressions, which thenceforward She could receive through the natural activity of her sensitive and intellectual faculties, the Lord infused into her mind other species, more pure and immaterial, and by means of these her perception and understanding was raised to a more exalted level.

 

541. This wonder will present no difficulty to the understanding of the learned. In order to explain myself more thoroughly, I wish to say, that, when we call to action the five bodily senses by which we hear, see and taste, we receive certain impressions of the objects presented to them; these impressions are passed on to another interior and corporeal faculty, called the general or common sense, the imaginative, or estimative phantasy, in which all the impressions of the exterior senses are united and perceived or felt and are deposited and kept in reserve, as in a storehouse of the five senses. Up to this point our perception is like that of the animals, although with some difference. After these impressions of the common sense or phantasy have thus been stored within us, who are rational animals, our mind, by means of the natural workings of its faculties, co-operates with them and enables the intellect to become active, distilling from them other spiritual or immaterial images; and by means of these spiritual images, which it produces within itself, it naturally comes to know and understand what first entered through the senses. Hence philosophers say, that, in understanding our mind speculates upon the phantasy in order to draw from it the images of what it is to understand according to the natural routine of our acting faculties. This routine is maintained, because the soul is united to the body and depends upon it in its operations.

 

542. But in the most blessed Mary, after entering the new state, this mode of procedure was not entirely preserved; for the Lord had miraculously supplied for her intellect another mode of action, independent of the phantasy and the general sense. In place of the species, which her understanding was naturally to draw from the impressions of exterior objects through the senses, He had infused into Her other kinds of images, which represented exterior objects in a more exalted manner; whereas those which She acquired by the senses, remained in the storehouse of the phantasy without being used by the active understanding, which was instead furnished with and illustrated by the supernatural species. These her understanding made use of in its activity, while at the same time those received and stored in the general phantasy served Her for the feeling of pain and sensible afflictions. Thus in this temple of the most blessed Mary was fulfilled what happened in its figure long before: the stones were shaped and wrought outside the temple, whereas within, the strokes of the hammer or other noise were not heard (III Reg. VI 7); likewise the animals were killed and sacrificed upon the altar outside the precincts of the sanctuary (Ex. 40, 27); and in it were offered only the holocaust of the incense and spices burned in the sacred fire.

 

543. Through the workings of this miracle in our great Queen and Lady the stones of her virtues for her adornment were hewn and polished in the lower sensitive faculties of her soul, while in the for all of the common senses were offered up the hardships, sorrows and pains, which She bore for the faithful in her labors for the Church. But in the holy of holies of her intellect and her will were offered up only the perfume of her contemplation and vision of the Divinity and the fire of her incomparable love. For this purpose the species of the senses, representing objects in a more earthly manner and with the turmoil natural to them, were not appropriate. Therefore the divine power excluded them altogether and replaced them with other images of the same objects, infused, supernatural and purer, capable of nourishing the abstractive contemplation of the Divinity and more appropriate to her knowledge of God, whom She unceasingly looked upon and loved in the inviolable peace, tranquillity and serenity of her soul.

 

544. These infused species in the most blessed Mary were founded upon the essence of God himself, because they represented all things to her understanding in the same way as a mirror represents objects to our eyes and make themselves known to us without obliging us to inspect them directly. In this manner She was aware in all things of whatever was for the good of the children of the Church; of what She was to do for them in their labors and difficulties and of the manner in which She was to promote the fulfillment of the divine will in heaven and on earth. Favored by this kind of vision, She was enabled to make her petitions in such a way as to have them all granted by the Lord. From this kind of insight the Lord exempted in Her the works which She was to perform in obedience to the commands of saint Peter and saint John, and sometimes requested by some of the other Apostles. The heavenly Mother herself had asked for this exemption, because She did not wish to interrupt her practice of obedience, which She loved so much; and also because She wished to make it plain, that through obedience the will of God is known with such certainty, that the obedient person needs no other means or byways of finding the will of God than this obedience to the commands of superiors; for this is without a doubt what God wishes and commands, and therefore is right.

 

545. For all her other doings then (except what pertained to obedience and holy Communion), the understanding of the most blessed Mary did not depend upon her intercourse with sensible creatures, nor on the images of the senses. But of all of them She remained independent and undisturbed, enjoying the abstractive vision of the Divinity without interruption, either awake or asleep, working or at rest, without need of forethought or reasoning about what was most perfect, or more agreeable to the Lord, about the necessities of the Church, or the time and manner coming to its aid. All this was present to her mind in the vision of the Divinity, just like to the blessed through the beatific vision. And just as the least important of the knowledge of the blessed is that concerning the creatures; so also (besides what our great Queen knew concerning the state of the Church, its government and of all the souls), the principal object of her knowledge were the incomprehensible mysteries of the Divinity, which She comprehended more deeply than the highest seraphim and saints. With this heavenly bread and nourishment She was sustained in that solitude prepared for Her by the Lord. In it She was solicitous for the Church without being disturbed, busily employed without inquietude, attentive without distraction, and in all things She was full of God within and without, clothed with the purest gold of the Divinity, immersed and absorbed in this incomprehensible sea. Yet at the same time She was attentive to all her children and their welfare, finding no rest except in the ministrations of her maternal charity.

 

546. This was the reason why the two wings of an eagle were given to Her; for by them She raised Herself to the solitude where the thoughts of neither angels or men could ever soar; and by them She descended from that unattainable height and flew to the aid of mortals, not haltingly, but with the lightest and swiftest flight. O prodigy of the omnipotence of God! O unheard of miracle, which so clearly manifests his infinite greatness! Our understanding fails us, our comprehension is suspended and our powers are exhausted in the contemplation of such a hidden sacrament. Happy, golden ages of the beginnings of the Church, when it held such treasures within it, and fortunate we, if we could in our own unhappy times, as far as is possible and as far as our necessities and miseries require, see these signs and wonders renewed through his most blessed Mother!

 

547. The happiness of that age, and the manner in which the most holy Mother used her powers, will be better understood, if we adduce some practical instances of the assistance rendered by Her to the souls. One was that of a man living in Jerusalem and well known in the city, because he held a prominent position and was endowed with more than an ordinary mind and some moral virtues. As for the rest, he was a zealous upholder of the ancient law like saint Paul, and a bitter opponent of the teachings and the law of Christ the Savior. The blessed Mary knew this in the Lord, and through her intercession God had prepared the way for his conversion. On account of his good standing in the opinion of others, the blessed Lady desired very much to convert and save him. This She asked of the Most High with ardent love and fervor, and the Lord granted Her the request. Before the most blessed Mother entered the new state of being, She had applied her great prudence and insight to find means of converting this soul; but now this kind of study was no longer necessary; for She needed only to attend to the Lord, where, at her request, all that She had to do for his conversion was made clearly manifest.

 

548. She saw that this man was to come to Her through the preaching of saint John and that She need only tell saint John to preach where this Jew would hear him. The Evangelist obeyed her orders; and at the same time the guardian angel of that man inspired him with the desire of seeing the Mother of the Crucified, whom all praised as a loving, modest and pious Woman. The Jew did not at that time foresee any spiritual good possibly to result from this visit, because he had not the divine light for such knowledge; but without proposing to himself any such ends, he desired to visit the great Lady out of calculating curiosity, merely in order to see who this Woman, so much spoken of by others, might be. But when he came into the presence of most holy Mary and looked upon Her, while with heavenly prudence She spoke to him, He was entirely changed into a new man. He immediately prostrated himself at the feet of the great Queen, confessing Christ as the Savior of the world and asking to be baptized. He received Baptism then and there at the hands of saint John, and while the words of Baptism were pronounced, the Holy Ghost came in visible form upon this man, who thenceforward was distinguished for his holy life. The heavenly Mother sang a hymn of thanksgiving for this great and wonderful favor.

 

549. Another inhabitant of Jerusalem, deceived by her cousin versed in witchcraft, apostatized from the faith. As the blessed Lady knew all things in the Lord, She was aware of her fall. In great affliction the Lady applied Herself to tearful prayers and exercises of atonement for the return of this woman, for She knew that such willful falling away in those who have once given themselves to the pursuit of eternal life, always makes a return much more difficult. The prayers of the most blessed Mother readily paved the way for the salvation of this soul deceived by the serpent. Immediately the Queen saw that this Woman should be warned and exhorted by saint John, in order to bring her to a sense of her evil deed. Saint John spoke to her, she listened and confessed her sin to him, thus being restored to grace. The blessed Mary afterwards exhorted her to persevere and resist the demon.

 

550. Lucifer and his demons dared not disturb the Church in Jerusalem during the presence of the Queen, whom they feared to approach; for her power filled them with fear and drove them to flight. Instead they sought to make conquests among the baptized of those ports of Asia where saint Paul and the other Apostles were preaching; they succeeded in perverting some to apostasy and to cause disturbance or hindrance in the preaching of the Gospel. The most zealous Princess knew of the machinations of the dragon and asked the Lord for assistance, if it should be proper under the circumstances. She received answer, that She might act as the Mother, as the Queen and Mistress of all creation, and that She had found grace in the eyes of the Most High. Thus encouraged from on high She clothed Herself with invincible strength; and like the faithful spouse, who rises from the couch, leaves the bridal chamber and the throne of her bridegroom, and arms herself to defend him against his assailants: so the valorous Lady, armed with divine power, rose up against the dragon, snatched the prey from his maw, wounding him by the power of her virtues, and commanding him again to sink into the abyss. And as She commanded, so it was fulfilled. Many other innumerable wonders, wrought by our Queen, could be cited; but these will suffice to indicate the state in which She then was constituted and the way in which She operated therein.

 

551. For greater perspicuity and in connection with the reckonings given before, it remains to mention the year in which the most blessed Lady received this favor (Nos. 376, 465, 495, 435). When She betook Herself from Jerusalem to Ephesus, She had attained the age of fifty-four years, three months and twenty-six days; and her voyage took place in year forty of the birth of Christ, on the sixth of January. She remained in Ephesus two and a half years, returning in the year forty-two on the sixth of July; and in the year fifty-six and ten months ef her age. The first council mentioned above was held by the Apostles two months after the Queen returned from Ephesus; so that during that council the most blessed Mary completed her fifty-seventh year. Then succeeded the battles and triumphs and her elevation to the exalted state herein described, in the beginning of her fifty-eighth year, and in the year of our Lord the Savior, forty-two and nine months. This state lasted twelve hundred and sixty days mentioned by saint John in the twelfth chapter, and then She passed to another, which I shall describe farther on.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST BLESSED MARY, GAVE ME.

 

552. My daughter, none of the mortals have any excuse for not ordering their lives in imitation of the life of my divine Son and of my own; for We were an example and model for all. Noone can be without blame, if in his own state he is not perfect, having before his eyes the incarnate God, who became the Teacher of holiness for all states of life. Some souls, however, are by the divine will chosen and set apart from the common order, in order that they may enjoy more of the fruit of his blood, imitate more perfectly his life and mine, and cause his divine goodness, omnipotence and mercy to shine forth more resplendently. Whenever these chosen souls faithfully and fervently correspond with the Lord, only worldly ignorance will wonder, that He should show Himself so liberal in exerting his power to overwhelm them with favors and blessings beyond all human conception. Whoever places such wonders of his beneficence in doubt, will only hinder the glory God seeks in his works. Such unbelievers attempt to measure them by the restricted and curtailed capacity of the human mind, which in them is usually depraved and obscured by their own.

 

553. And if the chosen souls themselves are so gross as to doubt his benefits, or do not dispose themselves to receive and use them prudently, or with the esteem and appreciation due to the operations of God: then, no doubt, they offend his Majesty much more than others, to whom no such blessings or talents are vouchsafed. The Lord does not wish the bread of the children to be cast to the dogs (Matth. 15, 26) ; nor his pearls to those who tread them under foot or despise them (Matth. 7, 7) ; for these blessings of special grace are the reserves of his highest Providence, and the capital of the price of the Redemption. Reflect then, my dearest, that such faults are committed by those souls, who are diffident in arduous or adverse events, or who shrink from the Lord, or hinder Him, when they are singled out as the instruments of his power for his service. Their sin is still more reprehensible when they refuse to confess Christ in all such works for fear of the difficulties connected with them and of the gossip of the world concerning such new undertakings; when they act in such a manner, that they serve God and do his will only when it coincides with their own; or if they practice virtue only when it is accompanied by such and such conveniences; or love only when it does not disturb their tranquillity; or if they believe or acknowledge benefits only when sweetened by caresses. As soon as adversity or labor is to be encountered for the sake of God, they at once give way to discontent, sorrow, discouragement and impatience, by which they frustrate the designs of the Lord and make themselves incapable of perfection in virtue.

 

554. All this arises from a deficiency of prudence, knowledge and true love, which prevents these souls from looking to their own and their neighbor's advance. For they look to themselves, rather than to God; and are governed more by self-love, than divine love and charity. Tacitly they are guilty of great presumption, since they attempt to direct God's will and even to reprehend it, professing their readiness for great labors in his service under such and such conditions and their inability under other conditions. They are unwilling to risk their credit and their comfort, even for the common good and for the glory of God. They think that, as they do not openly proclaim their refusal, they do not make themselves guilty of this temerity; yet it is the devil, who conceals it from them, in order that they may incur guilt.

 

555. In order that thou, my daughter, mayest not fall into this monstrous sin, thou shouldst discreetly ponder what I give thee to understand and record, and how much I desire thee to imitate me. I could not fall into such sins, yet in continual watchfulness I prayed to the Lord to govern me in all my actions according to his will and pleasure only, and I gave myself no liberty of doing anything that was not according to his greater pleasure. Hence I sought for myself the forgetfulness and the retirement from all creatures. Thou art subject to sin, and thou knowest how many snares the dragon, by himself and through the creatures, has laid in order to lead thee into it: hence thou hast good reason for ceaselessly beseeching the Almighty to govern thee in all thy actions, and for closing the portals of thy senses in such a way as to exclude from thy interior every image or figure of mundane and earthly things. Renounce therefore thy free will into the hands of thy God and yield it to every pleasure of the Lord and mine. In what thou must necessarily transact with creatures for the fulfillment of the divine law and of charity, admit no image except what is unavoidable; and immediately ask, that the remembrance of what is not necessary be blotted out of thy mind. Concerning all thy works, words and thoughts consult with God, with thy angels and with me, for we are always with thee; consult also with thy confessor wherever possible. All that thou dost or resolvest without this consultation, hold in suspicion and as dangerous, and only by comparing it with my teachings, thou canst ascertain, whether it agrees or disagrees with the will of God.

 

556. Above all never lose sight of the essence of God; for the light of faith which thou hast received, is to serve especially for this purpose. Since this is to be thy last end, I wish that even in mortal life thou attain this vision as far as is possible to thee with the divine grace. It is indeed time that thou cast out those vain fears and suggestions, by which the enemy has sought to hinder and detain thee from giving constant credit to the blessings and favors of the Lord. Begin to be prudent and strong in this confident faith and deliver thyself entirely to the pleasure of his Majesty, in order that He may do with thee and in thee what shall be best for his service.

 

CHAPTER IX.

 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GOSPELS WRITTEN BY THE EVANGELISTS; THE PART WHICH THE MOST BLESSED MARY HAD IN THEIR COMPOSITION,. SHE APPEARS TO SAINT PETER IN ANTIOCH AND IN ROME: SIMILAR FAVORS SHOWN TO OTHER APOSTLES.

 

557. I have described, as far as I was permitted, the exalted state of the great Queen and Lady after the first council of the Apostles, and also her victories over the infernal dragon and his demons. Although the wonderful works which She accomplished during these times and at all times, cannot be recorded in a history, nor even summed up, I was nevertheless given special light for the purpose of describing the beginnings of the Gospels and the call of the Evangelists to undertake their writing, the part which Mary bore in their being written, her solicitous care for the absent Apostles, and the miracles She wrought for them. In the second part, and on many occasions I have stated, that the heavenly Mother had a positive knowledge of all the mysteries of grace, of the Gospels and other holy writings, which were to serve for the confirmation of the new Law. In this knowledge She was confirmed many times, especially on the day of her ascension with her divine Son into heaven. From that day on, without forgetting anything, She often prostrated Herself in prayer before the Lord, asking Him to send his divine light upon the Apostles and holy writers and to order them to write, when the opportune time should have come.

 

558. Afterwards, when the Queen returned from heaven and was put in charge of the Church (as related in the sixth chapter of this book), the Lord made known to Her that the time for beginning to write the holy Gospels had arrived and that She should make her arrangements for this purpose as the Mistress and Instructress of the Church. But in her profound humility and discretion She obtained the consent of the Lord, that this should be attended to by saint Peter, his vicar and the head of the Church; and that he should be specially assisted by divine enlightenment for a matter of such importance. All this was granted by the Most High; and when the Apostles met in the council mentioned by saint Luke in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, after they had settled the doubts about circumcision, as I described in the sixth chapter, saint Peter proposed to them all the necessity of recording in writing the mysteries of the life of Christ our Savior and Teacher, so that they might be preached to all the faithful in the Church without variation or difference, thus doing away with the old Law and establish the new.

 

559. Saint Peter had already consulted with the Mother of wisdom; and all the council having approved of his proposal, they called upon the Holy Ghost to point out the Apostles and disciples who should write the life of the Savior. Immediately a light was seen descending upon saint Peter and a voice was heard saying: "The high priest and head of the Church shall assign four for recording the works and the teachings of the Savior of the world." Saint Peter and all present prostrated themselves, giving thanks to the Lord for this favor. When all of them had again risen, saint Peter spoke: "Matthew, our beloved brother, shall immediately begin to write his Gospel in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Mark shall be the second, who shall likewise write the Gospel in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Luke shall write the third, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Our most beloved brother John shall be the fourth and last to write the mysteries of our Savior and Teacher in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." This decision the Lord confirmed by permitting the heavenly light to remain until these words were repeated and formally accepted by all those appointed.

 

560. Within a few days saint Matthew set about writing the first Gospel. While praying in a retired room of the Cenacle and asking to be enlightened for the inception of his history, the most blessed Mary appeared to him seated on a throne of great majesty and splendor, the doors of the room still remaining closed. The great Lady told him to arise, which he did, asking for her benediction. Then She spoke to him and said: "Matthew, my servant, the Almighty sends me with his blessing, in order that with it thou begin the writing of the Gospel which thou hast the good fortune to be entrusted with. In this thou shalt have the assistance of the Holy Ghost and I shall beg it for thee with all my heart. But concerning myself it is not proper, that thou write anything except what is absolutely necessary for manifesting the Incarnation and other mysteries of the Word made man, and for establishing his faith in the world as the foundation of his Church. This faith being established, the Almighty will find other persons, who, when the times arrive in which it shall become necessary, shall reveal to the faithful the mysteries and blessings wrought by his powerful arm in me." Saint Matthew signified his willingness to obey the mandate of the Queen; and while he conferred with Her about composing his Gospel, the Holy Ghost came down upon him in visible form; and in the presence of the Lady He began to write the words as they are still extant in his Gospel. The blessed Mary then left him and saint Matthew proceeded in his history, finishing it in Judea. He wrote it in the Hebrew language in the year forty-two of our Lord.

 

561. The Evangelist Mark wrote his gospel four years later, in the forty-sixth year after the birth of Christ. He likewise wrote it in Hebrew and while in Palestine. Before commencing he asked his guardian angel to notify the Queen of heaven of his intention and to implore her assistance for obtaining the divine enlightenment for what he was about to write. The kind Mother heard his prayer and immediately the Lord commanded the angels to carry Her with the usual splendor and ceremony to the Evangelist, who was still in prayer. The great Queen appeared to him seated on a most beautiful and resplendent throne. Prostrating himself before Her, he said: "Mother of the Savior of the world and Mistress of all creation, I am unworthy of this favor, though I am a servant of thy divine Son and of Thyself." The heavenly Mother answered: "The Most High, whom thou servest and lovest, sends me to assure thee, that thy prayers are heard and that his holy Spirit shall direct thee in the writing of the Gospel, with which He has charged thee." Then She told him not to write of the mysteries pertaining to Her, just as She had asked of saint Matthew. Immediately the Holy Ghost, in visible and most refulgent shape, descended upon saint Mark, enveloping him in light and filling him with interior enlightenment; and in the presence of the Queen he began to write his Gospel. At that time the Princess of heaven was sixty-one years of age. Saint Jerome says, that saint Mark wrote his short Gospel in Rome, at the instance of the faithful residing there; but I wish to call attention to the fact, that this was a translation or copy of the one he had written in Palestine; for the Christians in Rome possessed neither his nor any other Gospel, and therefore he set about writing one in the Roman or Latin language.

 

562. Two years afterwards, in the year forty-eight and of the Virgin the sixty-third, saint Luke wrote his Gospel in the Greek language. To him also, as to the others, Mary appeared when he was about to begin it. Having represented to the heavenly Mother, that, in order to manifest the Incarnation and life of her divine Son, it was necessary to touch upon the manner of the actual conception of the Word made man and upon other things concerning her dignity as the natural Mother of Christ, and having received orders from Her to pass over in silence the other mysteries and wonders connected with her dignity as Mother of God, saint Luke obtained her permission to write somewhat more freely of the heavenly Mary in his Gospel. The Holy Ghost descended upon him and in the presence of the great Queen he began to write his Gospel, drawing his information principally from direct inspiration of her Majesty. Saint Luke continued a most devoted servant of the Lady and never permitted the image of the sweetest Mother seated on the throne of majesty, as he had seen Her on this occasion, to be effaced from his mind. Thenceforward he lived continually in her presence. Saint Luke was in Achaia, when this apparition happened to him, and there also he wrote his Gospel.

 

563. The last of the four Evangelists who wrote the Gospels, was the apostle saint John in the year fifty-eight of the Lord. He wrote his in the Greek language, during his stay in Asia Minor after the glorious transition and assumption of the most blessed Mary. His Gospel was directed against the heresies and errors, which, (as indicated above), the devil immediately after the transition of the Virgin Mother began to sow for undermining the faith in the Incarnation of the divine Word. For as Lucifer had been humiliated and vanquished by this mystery, he at once directed the onslaught of heresy against it. For this reason the evangelist saint John writes so sublimely and adduces so many arguments for the true and undoubted Divinity of Christ our Savior, far surpassing the other Evangelists in this regard.

 

564. Although when the Evangelist was about to begin his Gospel the most blessed Mary was already in heaven, She descended in person, resplendent with ineffable glory and majesty and surrounded by thousands of angels of all choirs and hierarchies. Appearing to saint John She said: "John, my son and servant of the Most High, now is the proper time for writing the life and mysteries of my divine Son, so that all mortals may know Him as the Son of the eternal Father, as true God and at the same time as true man. But it is not yet the opportune time for recording the mysteries and secrets which thou knowest of me; nor shall they as yet be manifested to a world so accustomed to idolatry, lest Lucifer abuse them for disturbing those who are to receive the faith in their Redeemer and in the blessed Trinity. The Holy Ghost will assist thee and I desire thee to begin writing in my presence." The Evangelist worshipped the great Queen of heaven and was filled with the divine Spirit as the others had been. Assisted by the kind Mother, he immediately set about writing his Gospel. Before She departed to the right hand of her divine Son, She gave him her benediction and promised him her protection for all the rest of his life. Such were the beginnings of the sacred Gospels, all of them having been commenced with the assistance and by the intervention of the most blessed Mary, giving the Church to understand, that all these benefits have been vouchsafed at her hands. After having thus anticipated the history of the Evangelists, in order to account for the beginnings of the Gospels, we shall now return to our narrative.

 

565. In proportion as the most blessed Lady after the council of the Apostles was exalted by her divine knowledge and the abstractive vision of God, so her care and solicitude for the welfare of the Church increased; for the faith was now spreading out over the earth day by day. As a true Mother and Teacher, She lavished her special attention upon the Apostles, whose names and whose welfare She bore written in her heart. All of them, except saint John and saint James the less, immediately after the termination of the council, left Jerusalem for the field of their labors, and the kindest Mother was deeply concerned at the thought of the hardships and difficulties connected with their preaching. She looked upon them with tender pity in their peregrinations, and held them in highest veneration on account of their holiness and dignity as priests, as Apostles of her divine Son, founders of the Church, preachers of his doctrine, and as the elect of the divine Wisdom chosen for such high ministries to the glory of the Most High. It was truly necessary that the most blessed Lady and Mistress, in order to attend to and take care of so many matters throughout the holy Church, should be raised to the state which She now held: for in any lower condition She could not have so easily and properly attended to so many duties and at the same time maintain that interior tranquility and peace, which her soul enjoyed.

 

566. Besides her own knowledge and solicitude for the whole Church, the most holy Mother again charged her angels to take care of all the Apostles and disciples, to console them in all their tribulations and to haste to their aid in all their difficulties. For by the subtlety of their spiritual nature they could attend to all this without losing sight of the face of God and enjoying beatific vision. She thus charged them because it was so important to establish the Church and because they were the ministers of the Most High and the works of his hands. She told them also to inform Her of all that the Apostles and disciples were doing, and especially when they were in need of any clothing; for to this matter the watchful Mother wished to attend in particular, in order that they might go about clothed in a uniform manner, such as they wore when they departed from Jerusalem. By this prudent foresight, the Apostles showed no difference in their garments as long as the great Lady was alive; but all of them wore clothes of the same form and color, similar to that worn by her divine Son. Assisted by the holy angels, She wove with her own hand the tunics for this purpose and sent them through the angels to the Apostles on their journeys. In thus making it possible for them to wear vestments similar to those which had been worn by Christ our Savior, the great Mother provided that even in their exterior appearance the Apostles preached his doctrines and his most holy life. In regard to the other necessities of life, such as food, She left them to begging and to the labor of their hands, or to the alms which were offered to them.

 

567. At the orders of the Queen the angels frequently assisted the Apostles in their travels and tribulations and in the persecutions as well of the gentiles and the Jews, as of the demons, who continually excited evil-minded men against the preachers of the Gospel. The angels often visited them in visible shapes, conversing with them and consoling them in the name of the most blessed Mary. At other times they performed the same office interiorly without manifesting themselves; sometimes they freed them from prison; sometimes they warned them of dangers and snares; sometimes they accompanied them on their way or carried them from one place to another where they were to preach, or informed them of what they were to do according to the circumstances peculiar to certain places or peoples. Of all these things they also kept their blessed Lady informed; for She took care of all of them and labored with them more than all of them together. It is not possible to enumerate the cares, solicitudes and diligent doings of this kindest Mother; for not a day or a night passed, in which She did not perform many miracles for the Apostles and for the Church. Besides all this She wrote to them many times, animating them with heavenly exhortations and doctrines, and filling them with consolation and strength.

 

568. But what is more wonderful: She not only communed with them by means of her angels and by letters, but She appeared to them Herself, whenever they called upon Her or when they were in some tribulation or necessity. Although (besides appearing to the Evangelists, concerning which I have already spoken), She appeared to many of the Apostles, I will here speak only of her apparitions to saint Peter, who, as head of the Church, stood in greater need of the counsels and assistance of the most blessed Mary. Hence to him, She sent her angels more frequently, and the saint sent those, which were assigned to him as pontiff of the Church, and he wrote to Her and communicated with Her oftener than the other Apostles. Soon after the council of Jerusalem saint Peter was journeying to Asia Minor and came to Antioch, where he first established his pontifical see. On account of the difficulties which he met in the execution of his design, the vicar of Christ was downcast and afflicted, and the most blessed Mary well knew of it and how much he stood in need of her favor. In order to confer it upon him in the manner suited to the importance of the occasion, She had her holy angels bring Her to saint Peter, and appeared to him, seated on a throne of majesty as at other times. The Apostle, seeing Her before him so resplendent, prostrated himself before Her with wonted fervor, and bathed in tears, said to Her: "Whence this favor to me, a sinner, that the Mother of my Redeemer should come to where I am ?" The heavenly Teacher of the humble descended from her throne, and, moderating the splendors which surrounded Her, knelt before the Highpriest of the Church and asked his blessing. With none of the other Apostles, but only with saint Peter did She observe this conduct in her apparitions to them; although except at these apparitions, when She conversed with them in the natural way, She was wont to ask their blessing on her knees.

 

569. But because saint Peter was the vicar of Christ and the head of the Church She descended from her royal throne and showed him reverence, acting as one of the members of the Church yet in mortal flesh. Speaking familiarly with the holy Apostle She conferred with him upon the weighty matters then under consideration. One of them was the advisability of beginning to celebrate some of the feasts of the Lord. After they had resolved on the course to be taken, the holy angels took Her back from Antioch to Jerusalem. Later on, when saint Peter, in obedience to the orders of the Savior, had gone to Rome with the intention of transferring the apostolic see to that city, the blessed Lady appeared once more to saint Peter. There it was ordained that in the Roman Church should thenceforth be celebrated the feast of the Nativity of her divine Son, of the Passion, and of the institution of most holy Sacrament in the manner as it is now done on Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday. Later on, after many years, was established also the feast of Corpus Christi to be celebrated on the first Thursday after the octave of Pentecost, as is still the rule. But the first feast of the blessed Sacrament on Holy Thursday, was instituted by saint Peter, as also the feast of the Resurrection, the Sundays, the Ascension, with the paschal and other observances of the Roman Church to the present day; and all of these were instituted by the order and according to the counsel of the most blessed Mary. After these doings saint Peter went to Spain, visiting some of the churches founded by saint James and establishing others before returning to Rome.

 

570. On another occasion, before (though very near), the glorious transition of the heavenly Mother, saint Peter being likewise at Rome, a dispute arose among the Christians, which greatly distressed and afflicted both him and all those concerned. The Apostles remembered the favors he had received in his tribulations at the hands of the great Queen and grieved very much that he should now be deprived of her counsel and assistance. He therefore besought the angels of his guard and those given him as assistants in his office of highpriest, to manifest his troubles and necessity to the blessed Mother in order to obtain help in his difficulties by her powerful intercession with her Son. The Queen, who knew the fervor and humility of saint Peter, failed not in responding to his wishes. She commanded the angels of the Apostle to bring him to Jerusalem, where She then was. They immediately executed her command and brought saint Peter to the Cenacle and the presence of his Queen. This singular favor inflamed the fervent affections of the Apostle, and he prostrated himself before the most blessed Mary, full of joy and tears to see the prayer of his heart fulfilled. The great Lady commanded him to arise, and She, instead, fell on her face saying: "My master, give thy servant thy blessing as vicar of Christ our Lord my Son." Saint Peter obeyed and gave Her his blessing. Then they gave thanks to the Lord for having fulfilled their wishes; and although the humble Mistress of virtues was not unaware of the tribulations of saint Peter and of the faithful of Rome, She listened to his account of what had happened.

 

571. The most blessed Mary advised him of all that he needed to know and do in order to allay the trouble and restore peace in the church of Rome. She spoke with such wisdom, that, although he had had a high concept of her prudence, he was carried beside himself in his admiration and joy of what he heard and experienced of it on this occasion, and he gave humble thanks for this new favor. Having thus informed him of many things for establishing the Church in Rome, She asked his blessing and took leave of him. The angels brought him back to Rome, while, as was her wont, the most blessed Mary remained prostrate upon the ground in the form of a cross, asking the Lord to quiet this disturbance. Her prayer was heard; for on coming back to Rome, saint Peter found matters in a better state, and soon the consuls permitted the faithful freely to follow the law of Christ. From these miracles, which I have adduced, some insight is afforded in the doings of Mary in the government of the Apostles and of the Church. For if all were to be recorded, more volumes would be required than I am now writing lines. Hence I refrain from enlarging upon them, in order that in the rest of this history I may describe the wonderful and unheard-of favors, which the Lord conferred upon the most holy Mary in the last years of her life; although at the same time I confess, that I can give only some stray hints of what I have seen, in order that Christian piety may be led to the contemplation and praise of the Omnipotent, the Author of these venerable sacraments.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS GAVE ME.

 

572. My dearest daughter, at other times I have spoken to thee of a complaint, which I have against the children of the Church, and especially against the women, in whom the fault is greater. In my sight it is abominable, because it is so much opposed to my own conduct in life. I repeat it here, in order that thou mayest imitate me and keep away from what the foolish women and daughters of Belial are guilty of: namely, treating the priests of the Most High without reverence, esteem, or respect. This fault increases day by day in the Church, and therefore I renew this warning already several times recorded. Tell me, my daughter, what must be thought of the fact, that priests, the anointed of the Lord, appointed to represent Christ and to consecrate his body and blood, are serving vile, impure, and earthly women? That they should stand uncovered and do reverence to a proud and miserable woman, only because she is rich and they are poor? I ask, has the poor priest less dignity than the rich? Or do riches confer a greater or equal dignity, power and excellence, than the one given to priests and ministers by my divine Son? The angels have no regard for the rich on account of their possessions, but they respect priests for their exalted dignity. Hence, how could such an abuse and perversity creep into the Church, that the anointed of the Lord should be outraged and despised by the faithful, who know and confess them to be sanctified by Christ himself ?

 

573. It is true that the priests themselves are very guilty and reprehensible when they, disregarding their dignity, enslave themselves to the service of other men, and much more, of women. But if priests have some excuse in their poverty, the rich have none in their pride, that they should, on account of the poverty of the priests, oblige them to be servants, when in reality they are masters. This monstrosity is very abominable to the saints and very disagreeable in my eyes on account of the veneration I had for the priests. Great was my dignity as Mother of God; yet I often prostrated myself at their feet and considered it a great happiness to kiss the ground on which they trod. But the blindness of the world has obscured the sacerdotal dignity and confounded the precious with the vile (Jer. 15,· 19); it has lowered the priests to the position of the common people by its laws and disorderly customs (Is. 25, 2), making use of the one as well as the other for their degradation; and the same minister who now at the altar offers the tremendous sacrifice of the sacred body and blood, afterwards leaves it to serve and subject himself to the service even of women, who by nature and by the condition are so inferior, and sometimes are made even more unworthy by their sins.

 

574. I wish then, my daughter, that thou seek to make up for this fault and abuse among the children of the Church as far as possible. I give thee to understand that even from my throne in heaven I look with veneration and respect upon the priests who are on earth. Thou must always regard them with the same veneration, as if they were at the altar, or holding the most blessed Sacrament in their hands or at their breast; and even the ornaments and all their vestments thou shouldst hold in great veneration, just as I with reverence provided garments for the Apostles. Then, besides what thou hast understood and written concerning the divine Scriptures, thou must gage thy esteem for these writings by what they contain and enclose and by the means which the Almighty took to incite the Evangelists to write them. As well in the Gospels as in the rest of holy writings the Holy Ghost himself lent his assistance in order that the Church might be rich and prosperous in the abundance of doctrine, of science and tight concerning the mysteries and operations of the Lord. To the supreme pontiff of Rome thou must render highest obedience and veneration before all other men; and when thou hearest him mentioned. show reverence by inclining thy head as if thou heardst the name of my divine son or my own named in thy presence; for on earth he takes the place of Christ. And when I lived in the world, I showed my reverence whenever the name of saint Peter was pronounced. In order that thou mayest practice my doctrine and find grace in the eyes of the Most High, whom all these works please very much and who considers none of them small if done for his love, I wish that thou be very attentive and a most faithful follower of my footsteps.

 

CHAPTER X.

 

THE EXERCISES IN MEMORY OF THE PASSION PRACTICED BY THE MOST HOLY MARY; THE REVERENCE WITH WHICH SHE RECEIVED HOLY COMMUNION, AND OTHER DOINGS OF HER MOST HOLY LIFE.

 

575. Without ever failing in her attention to the exterior government of the Church (as I have until now made plain), the most blessed Mary in secret practiced other exercises and good works, by which She merited innumerable gifts and blessings from the Most High, as well for the common benefit of all the faithful, as for myriads of particular souls in furtherance of their salvation. As far as I can in these last chapters, I shall, for our instruction and admiration and for the glory of the most blessed Mother, write of these hidden and unknown works. First of all I will state, that notwithstanding the many privileges which the great Queen of heaven enjoyed, She constantly kept present in her memory the doings and the mysteries of the life of her divine Son; for besides the abstractive vision, by which She in these last years continually saw the Divinity and knew all things, the Lord had from her Conception conceded to Her the privilege of never forgetting what once She had known or understood; for in this regard She enjoyed the privilege of an angel, as I have stated in the first part.

 

576. I also stated in the second part, in writing of the Passion, that the blessed Mother felt in her body and purest soul all the pains and torments of our Savior Jesus, so that none of them were hidden to Her or without the corresponding suffering in her own self. All the images or impressions of the Passion remained imprinted in her interior just as She had received them; for She had made this request of her Lord. These were not blotted out, as were the other sensible images, through the vision of the Divinity; rather they were made more vivid, in order that She might miraculously rejoice in her compassion and at the same time suffer those sorrows, for this was her desire during the time She was still to live in mortal flesh and to this exercise She directed her natural will-power. As exquisite as her favors and privileges were (according to what I have always maintained in my discourse), they nevertheless were all pledges and tokens of the reciprocal love of her divine Son, who, in our way of speaking, could not contain Himself or refrain from dealing with his Mother as the God of love, as the Omnipotent, infinitely rich in mercies. But the most blessed Virgin did not ask for them or seek them; for her sole desire was to be crucified with Christ, to continue within Herself his sorrows, renew his Passion, and without this it seemed to her useless and idle to live in passible flesh.

 

577. Hence She ordered all her occupations in such a manner, that She might at all times preserve in her heart the image of her divine Son, afflicted, outraged, wounded and disfigured by the torments of his Passion and within Herself She beheld this image as in a most clear mirror. She heard the injuries, outrages, affronts and blasphemies against Him, with all the circumstances of time and place, and She beheld the whole Passion as in one living and penetrating vista. Throughout the day this sorrowful vision excited Her to most heroic acts of virtue and stirred her sorrow and compassion; but her most prudent love did not content itself with these exercises. During stated hours and times She engaged in other exercises with her holy angels, especially with those I have mentioned in the first part as bearing the tokens or the escutcheons of the instruments of the Passion. These in the first place, and then the other angels, She engaged as assistants in the following exercises.

 

578. For each kind of the wounds and sufferings of Christ our Savior She recited special prayers and salutations, in order to give them special adoration and worship. For each of the contemptuous and insulting words of the Jews and his other enemies, which had been spoken either in envy or in fury or vengeance, for each of the blasphemies uttered, She composed special hymns of veneration and honor to make up for their attempts at diminishing it. For the insulting gestures, mockeries and personal injuries, She practiced most profound humiliations, genuflections and prostrations, and in this manner She sought continually to make up for the affronts and injuries heaped upon her divine Son in his life and his passion; and thus She confessed his Divinity, his humanity, his holiness, his miracles, his works and his doctrines. For all She gave Him glory and magnificence; and in all the holy angels joined Her, and corresponded with Her full of admiration of such wisdom, fidelity and love united in a mere creature.

 

579. Even if the most blessed Mother during her whole life had engaged in no other occupation than these exercises, She would have accomplished and merited more than all the saints in all that they have done or suffered for God. By the force of love her sorrow in these exercises was equal to martyrdom many times over; and many times would She have died in them, if the divine power had not sustained her life for still greater merit and glory. And if, as is true, She in her immense charity offered all these works for the Church, let us consider how much we are in her debt as faithful children for thus increasing the treasures of help, which She left at the disposal of us unfortunate children of Eve. And in order that our meditation may not be halfhearted and lukewarm, I will say, that the effects of her contemplations were often astounding; many times She wept tears of blood, which covered her whole face; at other times in her agony She was not only bathed in perspiration, but in a bloody sweat, running from Her even to the ground. What is more, sometimes her heart was wrenched from its natural position by the violence of her grief; and when She was in such extremes, her divine Son came from heaven, furnishing Her with new strength and life to soothe her sorrow and heal the wounds caused by love of Him, and in order that by such assistance and comfort, She might continue the exercises of her compassion.

 

580. The Lord however wished Her to lay aside these sorrowful sentiments and affections on the days in which She commemorated the mystery of his Resurrection, as I will speak of later on, in order that there might be maintained the proper relation between cause and effect. For some of these sorrows were incompatible with the favors overflowing in their effects upon the body, yet excluding pain. But She never lost sight of his sufferings and therefore felt other effects of her compassion by uniting with her joys, the gratitude for what the Lord endured. Thus in the sweetness of all the favors of the Lord his Passion entered as a mixture of bitterness. She obtained also the consent of the evangelist saint John to remain retired in her oratory for celebrating the death and burial of her divine Son on the Friday of each week. On those days saint John remained in the Cenacle to receive those who called upon Her and allowed none to disturb Her; and whenever he could not attend to this duty, it was performed by some other disciple. The most blessed Mary retired for this exercise at five 0' clock on Thursday and did not reappear until toward noon of Sunday. In order that during these three days no important matter pertaining to the government of the Church might be neglected, the great Lady appointed one of her angels to take her shape and briefly dispatch what would suffer no delay, so provident and attentive was She in all affairs of charity touching her children and domestics.

 

581. To describe or comprehend what happened with our heavenly Mother during the exercises of these three days can never be within our capacity; the Lord alone, who was the Author of them, shall one day manifest it to us in the light of the saints. Also what I myself have come to know of it, I am unable to describe; I will only say that beginning with the washing of the feet, the most blessed Mary commemorated all the mysteries up to that of the Resurrection; and in each hour and moment She renewed in Herself all the movements, actions, works and sufferings as they had happened in her divine Son. She repeated the same prayers and petitions as He himself had made and as we have seen described in their place. Anew the most pure Mother felt in her virginal body all the pains endured by Christ our Savior. She carried the Cross and placed Herself upon it. In short, I will say, that as long as She lived, the whole passion of her divine Son was renewed in Her week for week. Through this exercise the great Queen gained great favors and blessings for those who devoutly bear in mind the Lord's passion; and hence the powerful Queen has promised to all such souls, especial assistance and participation in the treasures of the Passion; for She desired from her inmost heart, that the Church should continue and preserve its commemoration. In virtue of her wishes and prayers the Lord ordained, that afterwards many persons in the holy Church should follow these exercises of the Passion, imitating his most blessed Mother, who was the first one to teach and practice such an exalted profession.

 

582. In these exercises the great Queen sought especially to celebrate the institution of the most blessed Sacrament by new hymns of praise, of thanksgiving and fervent love. She was solicitous to invite for this purpose her own angels and many others from the empyrean heaven, in order to assist and accompany Her in these praises of the Lord. It was a wonder worthy of his Omnipotence, that the Most High should send from heaven multitudes of angels to view this prodigy of Christ's remaining sacramentally present in her heart from one Communion to the other and to incite them to give glory and praise for the wonderful effects of his sacramental presence in this Creature, whom they beheld more pure and more holy than the angels and seraphim and the like of which they had not seen or would ever see in all the rest of creation.

 

583. It was not less wonderful to them (just as it ought to be to us) to see, that though the great Queen was worthy of preserving within Herself the sacred species as in a tabernacle, She was so solicitous in preparing Herself anew by the most fervid exercises and devotions every time She was again to receive holy Communion; and this She did nearly every day except on those in which She remained in her oratory. She first offered up for this purpose her weekly exercises of the Passion; and besides this, whenever She retired at nightfall before the day of Communion, She began other exercises, such as prostrations in the form of a cross, genuflections, prayers, and adorations of the immutable essence of God. She asked permission of the Lord to speak to Him and to permit Her, in spite of her earthly lowliness, to partake of his Son in the holy Sacrament; She appealed to his infinite bounty and to his love toward the Church in thus remaining sacramentally present, as a reason that She should be favored with this blessing. She offered to Him his own Passion and Death, the worthiness with which He had communicated Himself, the union of his human nature with the divine, all his works from the moment of his conception in the virginal womb, all the virtue of the angelic nature and its works, of all the just in past, present and future times.

 

584. Then she made most intense acts of humility, professing Herself but dust and ashes in comparison with the infinite being of God, to which the highest creatures are so inferior and unequal. In the contemplation of what She was to receive sacramentally, She was so affected and so deeply moved, that it is impossible to describe it in words; for She raised Herself and transcended above the choirs of seraphim and cherubim; and as, in her own estimation, She considered Herself the lowest of all creatures, She called upon her guardian angels and upon all the other angels, asking them, with incomparable humility, to supplicate the Lord to dispose and prepare Her for receiving Him worthily, since She was but an inferior and earthly creature. The holy angels, obeying Her in joyful admiration, assisted and accompanied Her in these petitions, in which She persevered for the greater part of the night preceding her Communion.

 

585. As the wisdom of the great Queen, although in itself finite, is for us incomprehensible, we can never worthily understand to what height rose her virtues and works of love on these occasions. But they were often of such a kind as to oblige the Lord to respond by a personal visit, in which He gave Her to understand with what pleasure He came to dwell sacramentally in her heart and to renew in Her the pledges of his infinite love. When the hour of her Communion arrived, She first heard the Mass usually celebrated by the Evangelist. In these Masses, although the Epistles and Gospels, being not yet written, were not read, the consecration was always the same as now, and to it were added other rites and ceremonies with many psalms and orations. At the end of Mass the heavenly Mother approached, making three most profound genuflections; all inflamed with love She received her Son in the Sacrament, welcoming in her purest bosom and heart that same God, to whom She had given the most sacred humanity in her virginal womb. Having communicated, She retired, and, unless some very urgent need of her fellowmen demanded otherwise, remained alone for three hours. During these hours the Evangelist was often privileged to see rays of light darting forth from Her as from the sun.

 

586. The prudent Mother also provided that for the celebration of the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass the Apostles and priests be clothed in ornate and mysterious vestments, different from those they wore in ordinary life. Accordingly, with her own hands, She provided ornaments and sacerdotal vestments for its celebration, thus originating the ceremonious observances in the Church. Although these vestments were not quite of the same form as nowadays; yet they were not materially different in appearance from those which in the course of time came into use in the Roman Church. The material was more alike; for She made them of linen and rich silks, purchased with the alms and presents made to Her. Whenever She worked at these vestments, sewing or fitting them, She remained on her knees or on her feet, and She would not entrust them to other sacristans than the angels, who assisted and helped Her in all these things; likewise She kept these ornaments and all that pertained to the service of the altar in incredible order and cleanliness; and from such hands as hers, all came forth with a celestial fragrance, which enkindled the spirit of the ministers.

 

587. From many kingdoms and provinces, where the Apostles were preaching, numbers of converts came to Jerusalem in order to visit and converse with the Mother of the Redeemer of the world, at the same time offering rich gifts. Among others, four sovereign princes, who were royal governors of provinces, visited Her and brought many valuable presents, which they placed at her disposal for her own use and for the Apostles and disciples. The great Lady answered that She was poor like her Son, and that the Apostles likewise were poor in imitation of their Master; that hence these riches were not appropriate to the life they professed. They begged Her to console them by accepting their gifts for the poor or for the divine worship. On account of their persistent requests She received part of what they offered, and from the rich silks She made some ornaments for the altar; the rest She distributed among the indigent and the infirmaries. For She was accustomed to visit such places and often served and washed the poor with her own hands, performing such services, as well as distributing the alms, on her knees. Wherever it was possible She consoled the needy and assisted the sick in their last agony. Nor did She ever rest from works of charity, either actually engaging in them, or pleading and praying for others in her retirement.

 

588. She gave salutary advice to those princes or kings at their visit, admonishing them and instructing them in regard to the good government of their provinces. She charged them to watch over the equitable administration of justice without acceptation of persons; to consider themselves mortal men as all the rest, to fear the supreme Judge, by whom all are to be judged according to their own works; and above all, to further the exaltation of the name of Christ, the propagation and security of the holy faith, in which alone the governments and reigns can be firmly established. For without faith, government is but a lamentable and disastrous slavery of the demons, which is permitted by the hidden judgments of God for the punishment of both those that govern and that are governed. The fortunate princes promised faithfully to execute all her instructions and they afterwards remained in communication with the heavenly Queen through letters and other intercourse. The same benefit in its degree resulted to all that visited Her; for all of them left her presence more ardent in virtue, full of light, joy and consolation unspeakable. Many who were as yet unbelievers, on seeing Her, loudly professed their belief in the true God; for they were unable to restrain the interior forces awakened by the presence of their most blessed Mother.

 

589. And such effects must not be held as surprising, since the great Lady was entirely transformed into a most efficacious instrument of the power of God and of his grace among men. Not only her words, so full of wisdom, roused the admiration and convinced the minds by communicating new light; but on her lips was diffused heavenly grace for communicating it and in her countenance shone the sweetness and beauty of heaven, while her own quiet majesty and modesty, grave yet pleasing, together with the hidden virtue (like that ascribed to her divine Son in the Gospel), attracted and refreshed the hearts (Luke 6, 19). Some remained speechless in admiration, some broke forth in tears, others in exclamations of wonder and praise, confessing that great is the God of the Christians, who had formed such a Creature. Truly could they testify to what some saints said to Her: that Mary was a divine prodigy of virtue. Let Her be eternally known and praised through all the generations as the true Mother of God, who made Her so attractive to human eyes, such a sweet Mother to the sinners, so amiable to angels and men.

 

590. During these last years the Queen ate or slept very little; and this little only, because saint John asked Her to rest for at least a small portion of the night. But this sleep was only a slight suspension of the senses, lasting no longer than a half hour, during which, in the manner above described, She lost not the vision of the Divinity. Her food was a few mouthfuls of ordinary bread and sometimes a little fish, taken at the instance of the Evangelist and in order to keep him company; for in this, as in other privileges, saint John was thus fortunate, not only eating with Her from the same table, but having the food prepared for him by the great Queen and administered to him as from a mother to her son, and moreover being obeyed by Her as a priest and a substitute of Christ. Very well could the great Queen get along without even this sleep or nourishment, which seemed more a ceremony than the sustenance of life; but She partook of them not from necessity, but in order to practice obedience and humility and thus pay some tribute to human nature; for in all things She was most prudent.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH MARY THE MOST BLESSED QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, GAVE ME.

 

591. My daughter, through the whole course of my life is evident how gratefully I kept in mind the works of the Redemption, the passion and death of my divine Son, especially after I had actually seen Him sacrificed on the Cross for the salvation of men. But in this chapter particularly have I wished to draw thy attention to the care and the continual exercises, by which I renewed in me not only the remembrance, but the sufferings of the Passion. I desire that the knowledge of this cause men to feel reproach and confusion at their monstrous forgetfulness of the incomprehensible benefit of the Redemption. 0 what a shameful, what a horrible and dangerous ingratitude of men is this! Forgetfulness is a clear proof of contempt, for one does not forget so easily, what one holds dear. What reason or excuse then can there be, that men forget the eternal blessings they have received? That they should despise the love, with which the eternal Father has delivered over to death his only begotten Son? The charity and patience with which his and my Son accepted it for them (John 3, 16.) The insensible earth responds to the efforts of those that cultivate it; wild beasts become tame and domesticated in return for benefits. Men among themselves are beholden to their benefactors; and when such thankful feelings are not forthcoming, they resent it, condemn it, and call it a great offense.

 

592. What is the reason then, that only toward their God and Redeemer they should be ungrateful and forget what He suffered in order to rescue them from eternal damnation? And in view of this very evil return, they complain of not receiving his assistance as they desire. In order that they may understand what fearful guilt they load upon themselves by their ingratitude, I will remind thee, my daughter, that Lucifer and his demons, seeing so many souls oblivious of the sufferings of Christ, draw the following conclusions and say of such souls: "This soul does not remember or hold in esteem the benefit of God's Redemption and we are certain of gaining it over to our side; for the soul that is so foolish as not to remember such a blessing, will certainly not detect our wiles. Let us proceed to tempt and destroy it, since it is deprived of its strongest defense." Having in their large experience found their reasoning on this point to be almost infallible, they zealously seek to blot out the memory of the passion and death of Christ and to excite a contempt for the preaching or discoursing about it among men; and they have succeeded to a great extent, causing dreadful damage to souls. On the other hand they are wary and fearful of tempting those who have accustomed themselves to the meditation and the remembrance of the sufferings of Christ; for from this source they feel issuing against them a force and influence, which often prevents them from approaching those who thus piously cherish the memory of the Passion.

 

593. I desire thee then, my dearest, not to detach from thy bosom and heart this bouquet of myrrh (Cant. 1, 12) and to imitate me closely in the contemplation and the exercises of the Passion. For thus must thou keep alive the memory of the sufferings of my divine Son and satisfy for the injuries and blasphemies inflicted upon his divine Person by his enemies who crucified Him. Seek thou, as long as thou shalt be upon earth, to compensate for the ingratitude and forgetfulness of mortals. And in order to do it as I desire, never let thy remembrance of Christ crucified, afflicted and blasphemed be extinguished. Persevere in thy exercises, never omiting them except in obedience or in a just cause; for if thou imitate me in this I shall make thee a participant in the effects I myself felt.

 

594. In order to dispose thyself day by day for holy Communion thou shouldst apply whatever thou performest in these exercises; imitate also the other works and practices, which thou hast come to know of me. If I, the Mother of Him whom I was to receive, deemed myself unworthy of Communion and by so many means sought the purity necessary for such a Sacrament, consider what thou must do, so poor and subject to so many miseries and imperfections! Purify the temple of thy interior, scrutinizing it by the divine light and adorning it with great virtues, since it is the eternal God, whom thou art to receive; One, of whom nobody but Himself is worthy. Invoke the intercession of the angels and saints to obtain grace from the Lord. Above all I exhort thee to call upon me and ask me to help thee; for thou must know, that I am the special Advocate and Protectress of those, who desire to arrive at great purity for receiving holy Communion. Whenever they invoke me for this purpose, I present myself before the throne of the Most High, and, as one well knowing the disposition required for harboring God himself, I ask his favor and grace for those who are about to receive Him in the holy Sacrament. I have not lost in heaven the solicitude and zeal, which I exhibited upon earth. Having asked me, proceed to ask also the intercession of the angels, for they also are very anxious to see souls approach the holy Eucharist with great devotion and purity.

 

CHAPTER XI.

 

THE LORD, BY NEW FAVORS, RAISES THE MOST BLESSED MARY ABOVE THE STATE DESCRIBED IN THE EIGHTH CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK.

 

595. In the eighth chapter I have stated that the Queen of heaven for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days was nourished and maintained in the condition and state described by the Evangelist, as described in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. That number of days made up more or less three and a half years, and brought the most blessed Mary to the sixtieth year of her life plus two months and a few days and the forty-fifth of the Lord. Just as the stone falls the more swiftly the closer it approaches to its centre of gravity, so, in proportion as the great Queen and Mistress of all the creatures advanced toward the end of her most holy life, the more swift became also the flight of her purest spirit and the impulse of her desires to arrive at the centre of her eternal rest and repose. From the moment of her Immaculate Conception She had issued forth like a vast river from the ocean of Divinity, where She was conceived in the eternal ages; and by the inundations of gifts, graces, favors, virtues, merits and holiness, She was now grown in greatness beyond the limited sphere of all creation. The impetuous floods of her wisdom and love resistlessly rushed back to unite themselves with the ocean of the Infinite; for thence She had issued only in order to shed forth over and over again her maternal clemency upon the Church (Eccles. 1,7).

 

596. In these last years of her life the great Queen had already, by the violence of her love, begun to suffer a sort of ceaseless martyrdom. Without a doubt it is true in the spiritual order, what philosophers claim in the corporal: that the nearer a moving object approaches its centre of attraction, the more powerfully is it drawn to that centre; and the most blessed Mary had now approached so closely to the infinite and highest Good, that She was divided from It, as is said in the Canticles (Cant. 2,9), only by the grating or partition of mortality. This did not any more suffice to impede the reciprocal vision and love, and between Them was only the vast force of love, impatient of all hindrances, to complete the union, so that all other desires were swallowed up by the one immense desire of overcoming and doing away with these hindrances. Such was the desire of her divine Son, held back only by his reluctance to deprive his Church of such a Teacher; such was also the desire of the most holy Mother, who, although She restrained Herself from asking for the natural death, could not restrain the forces of her love and thus felt the violence of the constraint of mortal life and of the fetters hindering her flight.

 

597. Yet as long as the conditions predetermined by the eternal Wisdom had not arrived, She continued to suffer the pains of that love, which is strong as death (Cant. 8, 6). Through them She called upon her Beloved, who came from his retreat from the mountains to dwell in the village of the plains (Cant. 7, 11), to view the flowers and the fragrant fruits of his vineyard. By the darts of her eyes and of her desires She wounded the heart of her Beloved and drew Him from the heights into her presence. Hence it happened once, in the time of which I am going to speak, that the ardors of love in the most blessed Mother grew to such proportions, that She could truly be said to be languishing with love (Cant. 2, 5); for without being affected by the infirmities of our earthly passions, She languished on account of the impetus of her loving heart drawn toward the Lord, in order that just as He was the cause of her ailment, He might also be its glorious medicine and cure. Her holy angels full of admiration of the effects of their Queen's impetuous love, spoke to Her angelic words in order to soothe her ardors by inspiring her with hope of secure possession. But these remedies allayed not the flame, but rather enkindled it; and the great Lady answered only by conjuring them to tell her Beloved, that She was languishing with love. To Him they brought her message and presented to Him the tokens She desired. On this occasion, and on others of this last part of her life, (as I wish especially to state), were fulfilled in Her, the only and worthy Spouse, the hidden mysteries of the Canticle of Solomon, and so it came, that the supreme princes of heaven, who were present in visible form, were obliged to support Her in their arms on account of the pains of love that overcame Her.

 

598. Then her divine Son came down from heaven, seated on a throne of glory and surrounded by myriads of angels, who gave Him praise and magnificence. Coming to the most blessed Lady He refreshed and comforted Her in her pains, and said to Her: "My Mother, most beloved and chosen for our delight, the clamors and sighs of thy loving soul have wounded my heart. Come my Dove, come to my celestial fatherland, where thy sorrow shall be turned to delight, thy tears into gladness, and where thou shalt rest from thy sufferings." Immediately the holy angels, at his command, placed the Queen at the side of the Lord, her divine Son, and with celestial music they all ascended to the empyrean heaven. Mary fell in adoration at the throne of the most holy Trinity. The sacred humanity of Christ kept Her at his side, causing new accidental joy to all the courtiers of heaven and, according to our mode of speaking, exciting anew the attention of all the saints, He presented Her and spoke to the eternal Father, saying:

 

599. "My Father and eternal God, this is the Woman, that gave Me my human form in her virginal womb, that nourished Me at her breast and sustained labors for Me, that shared in my hardships and co-operated with Me in the works of the Redemption. This is She, who was always most faithful and fulfilled our will according to our entire pleasure; She, pure and immaculate as my Mother, through her own works, has reached the summit of sanctity according to the measure of the gifts We have communicated to Her; and when She had merited her reward and could have enjoyed it forever, She deprived Herself of it for our glory and returned to attend to the establishment, the government, and instruction of the Church militant; and We, in order that She might live in it for the succor of the faithful, deferred her eternal rest, which She has merited over and over again. In the highest bounty and equity of our Providence it is just, that my Mother should be remunerated for her works of love beyond all other creatures; and toward Her the common law of the other mortals should not apply. If I have merited for all infinite merits and boundless graces, it is proper that my Mother should partake of them above all the others who are so inferior; for She in her conduct corresponds to our liberality and puts no hindrance or obstacle to our infinite power of communicating our treasures and participating them as the Queen and Mistress of all that is created."

 

600. To these words of the most sacred humanity of Christ the eternal Father replied: "My most beloved Son, in whom I have the plenitude of my pleasure and complacency (Matth. 17,5) : Thou art the First-born and the Head of all the predestined (Rom. 8, 29) and in thy hands I have placed all things (John 3, 35) in order that Thou mayest judge with equity all the nations and generations, and all my creatures (John 5, 22). Distribute my infinite treasures and communicate them as Thou desirest to thy Beloved, who clothed Thee in passable flesh; reward Her according to her dignity and merit, which are so pleasing in our eyes."

 

601. In accordance with the pleasure of the eternal Father Christ our Savior decreed and as it were pledged Himself to his most blessed Mother, in the presence of all the saints, that from henceforth, as long as She should live in mortal flesh, She should, on every Sunday after finishing her exercises of the Passion, be brought by the holy angels to the empyrean heaven and there, in the presence of the Most High, celebrate in body and soul the joys of the Resurrection. The Lord also decreed, that in her daily Communion He should manifest to Her his most sacred humanity united to the Divinity in a new and wonderful manner, different from that in which She had enjoyed it until that day; so that this might serve as a pledge and foretaste of the glory, which He had reserved for his most holy Mother in eternity. All the blessed understood how just were these manifestations of his glory and greatness in his holy Mother, how well they corresponded to the dignity and holiness of the great Queen, and how well they were merited by her full response to the divine operations in Her. All of them sang new canticles of praise and glory to the Lord, who was so holy, just and wonderful in all these works.

 

602. Then Christ our God turned to his purest Mother and said: "My most loving Mother, I shall remain with Thee always as long as thy mortal life shall last; and I shall be with Thee in a new manner, so wonderful, as neither men nor angels have known until now. In my presence thou shalt not feel lonely, and where I am, there shall be my reign, in Me shalt Thou rest from thy anxieties; I shall be thy recompense in the narrowed space of thy exile; for Thee the fetters of thy mortal body shall not be irksome and soon shalt Thou be free of them. Until that day comes, I shall be the end of thy afflictions, and I shall release the barriers still opposing thy loving desires. In all this do I give Thee my royal promise." While these promises and favors were lavished upon Her the most Holy Mary was immersed in her ineffable humility, praising, magnifying and thanking the Omnipotent for his beneficent liberality and annihilating Herself in her own estimation. Such a spectacle can neither be described nor understood in this life. For here was to be seen the infinite God freely proclaiming his Mother worthy of assuming the highest place in the estimation of his infinite wisdom, while She, in rivalry with the infinite Power, humiliated Herself, abased and annihilated Herself, though meriting the exaltation She received.

 

603. Besides all this She was enlightened and renewed in all her faculties, (in the manner explained elsewhere), for the beatific vision. When She was thus prepared, the veil fell, and for some hours, wrapt in the intuitive vision of God, She enjoyed the essential fruition and glory in a manner far above that of the saints. She drank the waters of life from their own fount; She satiated her most burning desires; She reached her centre and rested from that swift motion, which She was again to resume as soon as She was to return from her vision. After this vision She gave thanks to the most blessed Trinity and again interceded for the Church. Then, entirely refreshed and comforted, the holy angels brought Her back to her oratory. There, as described on other occasions, her body had remained in visible form, in order that She might not be missed by the faithful. On leaving the cloud, in which She had been borne from heaven, She prostrated Herself as usual upon the ground and humiliated Herself for all these favors and benefits more deeply than all the children of Adam ever humiliated themselves for all their sins and miseries. From that time on, as long as She lived, the promise of the Savior in regard to Her was fulfilled; and on all Sundays, after She had done with the exercises of the Passion, at the hour of the Resurrection, all her angels raised Her in a cloud-throne to the empyrean heaven, where Christ, her most Holy Son, came forth to meet Her and unite Her with Himself. The Divinity did not always manifest Itself intuitively; but aside of this, the effects and participation of this visit were glorious beyond human capacity to comprehend. On these occasions the angels were wont to sing that hymn: "Regina Crœli lætare, alleluia;" and these were days of solemn festivity for all the saints, especially for saint Joseph, saint Joachim and Anne, and those more closely connected with Her, as well as for her guardian angels. At these visits She consulted with the Lord about the arduous affairs of the Church, pray for it, particularly for the Apostles, and return to the earth laden with riches like that ship of the merchant, of which Solomon speaks in the thirty-first chapter of the Proverbs.

 

604. This privilege, although it was a special grace of the Most High, nevertheless was due to the most blessed Mary on two accounts. First because, for the sake of watching over the Church, She voluntarily deprived Herself of the joys of the beatific vision, and therefore, by the ardors of her love and of seeing God, many times suffered the agonies of death. Hence, in order to preserve her life it was very proper, that She should sometimes enjoy the divine presence; and whatever was possible and proper, was due to the Mother from her Son. Secondly, in renewing every week the memory of the passion of her divine Son, She as it were suffered it on her own Person and died with the Lord: consequently, it was proper that She should rise with Him. As He however was already glorified in heaven, it was reasonable that She should, through his presence, be made a participant in the joy of his Resurrection, and thus reap the fruits of the sorrows and tears She had sown (Ps. 125, 5).

 

605. With regard to the second privilege, which the Lord promised her, namely, daily Communion, I advert that, up to the time of which I am speaking, the great Queen omitted holy Communion on some days; as for instance during the journey to Ephesus, during some absences of saint John, and on other occasions. Her profound humility induced Her to submit to these omissions, resigning Herself without complaint in obedience to the Apostles; for in all things the great Lady was the model and Mistress of perfection, teaching us self denial also in such things as appear most holy and proper. But the Lord, who seeks his rest in humble souls and above all desired to rest and live in the heart of his Mother for the purpose of frequently renewing his wonders, ordained that from this time on, She should communicate every day for the rest of her life. This will of the Most High, Mary perceived in heaven; but, being most prudent in all her actions, She resolved to wait until it could be executed in obedience to saint John; for She did all things as an humble inferior and as a subject of those by whom She was to be governed in such things.

 

606. Therefore She did not herself tell saint John of what She had recognized as the will of God. But it happened one day that the Evangelist was very much taken up with preaching and he let the hour for Communion pass. She spoke to her holy angels, asking their advice; and they answered, that the command of her divine Son ought to be fulfilled, and that they would inform saint John and intimate to him this order of his Master. Then one of the angels manifested himself to saint John where he was preaching and said: "John, the Most High wishes that his Mother, our Queen, receive Him sacramentally every day during her life upon the earth." Thus reminded, the Evangelist immediately returned to the Cenacle, where the most blessed Mary was waiting for holy Communion, and said: "My Mother and Lady, the angel has told me of the command of the Lord, that I administer his sacramental body to Thee each day without exception." The most blessed Mother answered: "And thou, Sir: what dost thou command in regard to this?" Saint John replied: "That the command of thy Son, my Lord, be fulfilled." And the Queen said: "Behold me ready to obey in all things as thy servant." From that day on She received holy Communion every day without exception to the end of her life. Fridays and Saturdays, the days of her exercises, were not excepted; while on Sundays, instead of holy Communion, She was raised to the empyrean heavens.

 

607. At the moment when She received in her heart the sacramental species, the sacred humanity of Christ manifested itself through them in the form He had when He instituted the blessed Sacrament. Although the Divinity did not manifest Itself in any other than by the abstractive vision now habitual to Her, yet the humanity manifested Itself to Her glorious, much more resplendent and wonderful than at the Transfiguration on mount Tabor. This vision She enjoyed for three consecutive hours after receiving holy Communion, and its effects upon Her were such as cannot be described in words. This was the second reward offered to Her by her divine Son to recompense Her somewhat for the eternal glory, which He had delayed at her own desire. Besides this there was another reason for this wonder: the Lord wished to recompense Himself and counteract beforehand the ingratitude, the lukewarmness and evil disposition, with which the children of Adam were to receive and handle the sacred mystery of the Eucharist during the ages of the Church. If the most blessed Mary had not made up for these shortcomings of creatures, the Lord would have earned no sufficient thanks from his creatures, nor could He have been satisfied with the returns made by men for the institution of this Sacrament.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE GREAT QUEEN OF THE ANGELS GAVE ME.

 

608. My daughter, when mortals, having run the short course of their lives, come to the end at which God expects them to merit eternal life, then will they also by their own experience, see the finish of all their errors and deceits. Then the just will see in what consisted their real salvation and happiness, and the reprobate, wherein lay their lamentable and everlasting perdition. 0 how happy, my daughter, is the man, who during the short instant of his life seeks to anticipate the divine science, which he is so soon to possess by experience! This is the true wisdom, not to wait for the end until knowing that end, but look to the end in the beginning of the course, and enter upon it, not with so many doubts whether we shall attain the end, but with some security of attaining it. Consider then, with what sentiments those must be animated, who, at the beginning of a race, see a great prize, which they can attain by pressing on their course for a time with great diligence (I Cor. 9, 24). Certainly they will set out with all speed, without turning aside or permitting themselves to be detained by any cause whatsoever. And if they press not on or if they cease to look to the prize at the end of their course, they will be held either as foolish, or as ignorant of what they were losing.

 

609. Such is mortal life of men, a short course, the end of which shall bring to the runner either eternal glory or everlasting torment as a reward or punishment. All men are born to run this race by the use of their reason and free will; and no one, much less the children of the Church, can plead ignorance as an excuse. Hence, where is the judgment and good sense of those in the Catholic faith? Why does vanity still retain its hold upon them? Why do they ensnare themselves in the love of what is only apparent and deceitful? Why do they ignore the end to which they shall come so soon? Why will they not understand what there awaits them? Do they perhaps not know that they are born but to die (Ps. 138, 49), that life is but momentary, death infallibly certain, the reward or punishment unavoidable and eternal? (II Cor. 4, 1i). What can the lovers of this world answer to these questions? Those that consume all of their short life (for even the longest lives are very short), in accumulating honors, or riches, in wasting their strength and powers in the enjoyment of corruptible and most vile pleasures?

 

610. Alas, my friend, consider how false and treacherous is the world in which thou art born and which thy eyes behold. In it I desire thee to show thyself as my disciple, my follower, a child of my desires, and a fruit of my prayers. Forget it entirely with a heartfelt abhorrence: do not lose sight of the end toward which thou runnest so swiftly, the purpose for which thy Creator formed thee out of nothing; sigh for it continually, and direct toward it thy anxious solicitude; do not permit thyself to be drawn away by the fleeting, vain and deceitful things of the world; let the divine love alone dwell in thee and engage all thy forces; for that is not a true love, which permits any part of them to be diverted to other things, or which does not free them and mortify them entirely from passing things, and subject them to the one great end. Let this love be in thee strong as death (Cant. 8, 6), so that thou mayest be renewed entirely as I desire. Do not hinder the will of my divine Son in all that He wishes to accomplish in thee, and be assured of his fidelity, which rewards a hundredfold (Matth. 19, 29). Keep in mind with humble veneration what He has until now wrought in thee; and I exhort thee and admonish thee to experience in thee anew his truths, as I have commanded thee. For all this continue thy exercises with new solicitude in finishing this history. And give thanks to the Lord for the great and inestimable benefits of his having ordered and disposed thy superiors to permit thee to receive Him daily in holy Communion. Preparing thyself for it in imitation of me, continue also the petitions I have recommended and enjoined upon thee.

 

CHAPTER XII.

 

HOW THE MOST BLESSED MARY CELEBRATED HER IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND NATIVITY; AND THE BLESSINGS WHICH SHE RECEIVED ON THOSE DAYS FROM HER SON OUR SAVIOR JESUS.

 

611. All the offices and titles of honor, which the most blessed Mary held in the Church, that of Queen, Mistress, Mother, Governess and Teacher, and all the rest, were given to her by the Omnipotent not as empty and fruitless names, but were accompanied by the superabundant plenitude of grace which is proper and which the Almighty can communicate to each. This plenitude consisted in this, that as Queen She knew all that concerned her reign and its extent; as Mistress She knew the measure of her power; as Mother She knew all the children and dependents of her household, without excepting anyone through all the ages of the Church until the end; as Governess She knew all that were subject to Her; and as Teacher, She possessed the wisdom and science through which the holy Church, by her intercession, was to be instructed and guided, while enjoying the presence and the influence of the Holy Ghost until the end of the world.

 

612. Hence our great Queen had a clear knowledge not only of all the saints that preceded or followed Her in the Church, of their lives, their works, their deaths, and rewards in heaven; but also of all the rites, ceremonies, decisions, and festivities of the Church in course of the ages, and of all the reasons, motives, necessities and opportunities, in and for which they were established with the assistance of the Holy Ghost. For He gives us our spiritual nourishment in proper time for the glory of the Lord and the increase of the holy Church. As I have spoken of this matter in the course of this history, especially in the second part. I need not repeat it here. From her full knowledge and her corresponding holiness, there arose within the heavenly Instructress a certain thankful eagerness, to introduce into the Church militant the worship, veneration and festivities observed by the holy angels in the triumphant Jerusalem, and thus imitate, as far as was possible, what She had so often seen done in heaven for the praise and glory of the Most High.

 

613. In this more than seraphic spirit She commenced to practice by Herself many of the ceremonies, rites and exercises, which were afterwards introduced in the Church; and these She also inculcated and impressed upon the Apostles, in order that they might introduce them as far as the circumstances then allowed. She not only invented the exercises of the Passion, of which I have spoken above, but many other customs and ceremonies, which were later on received in the churches, in the congregations and religions. For whatever She knew as pertaining to the worship of the Lord or the practice of virtue, She performed, and in her wisdom She was ignorant of nothing that ought to be known. Among these exercises and rites was the celebration of the feasts of the Lord and of Herself, in order to renew the memory of the benefits for which She stood indebted, as well the benefits relating in general to the human race, as those especially referring to Herself, striving thus to give thanks and adoration for all. Although She had spent her whole life in this pursuit without relaxation or forgetfulness, yet, when She entered upon this new mysterious phase of her life, She prepared to signalize these feast days by celebrating them with exercises founded on a deeper insight. As I will speak of the other festivals in the following chapters, I will describe here only how She celebrated her Immaculate Conception and Nativity, the first mysteries of her life. These commemorations or feasts She had begun to celebrate since the Incarnation of the Word; but She celebrated them more particularly after the Ascension, and especially in these last years of her life.

 

614. On the eighth day of December of each year She celebrated her Immaculate Conception with a jubilee and gratitude beyond all human words; for this privilege was for the great Queen of the highest importance and value. She imagined Herself altogether incapable of ever acknowledging it with sufficient gratitude. She commenced her exercises on the evening before and spent the whole night in admirable devotions, shedding tears of joy, humiliating Herself, prostrating Herself, and singing the praises of the Lord. She deeply reflected, that She was formed of the same earth and descended from Adam according to the common order of nature; that She was preserved and exempted from the weight of the same guilt and conceived with such a plenitude of graces and gifts only because She was set apart and snatched from the rest by the Almighty. She invited her own angels to help Her to return proper thanks, and in union with them She alternated new songs of praise. Then She asked the same favor of the rest of the angels and saints in heaven; but during all this time the divine love so inflamed Her, that the Lord was obliged to strengthen Her, lest all her natural forces be consumed and death ensue.

 

615. After She had spent the whole night in these exercises, Christ descended from heaven and the angels raised Her to his royal throne in heaven, where the celebration of the feast was continued with new glory and to the accidental joy of the courtiers of the heavenly Jerusalem. There the blessed Mother prostrated Herself and adored the most holy Trinity, again giving thanks for the benefit of her immunity from sin and her Immaculate Conception. Then She again took her place at the right hand of Christ her Son and the Lord himself as it were acknowledged the goodness of the eternal Father in having given Him a Mother so worthy and so full of grace, exempt from the common guilt of Adam. Anew the three divine Persons confirmed upon Her this privilege, as it were ratifying and approving it and pleasing Themselves in thus having distinguished Her among all the creatures. In order to give repeated testimony to this truth, a voice proceeded from the throne in the name of the Father, saying: "Beautiful are thy footsteps, 0 prince's Daughter, conceived without sin." Another in the name of the Son, said: "Altogether pure and without contact of guilt is my Mother, who gave Me human form to redeem men." And in the name of the Spirit:

"All fair art thou, my Spouse, all fair art thou and without stain of the universal guilt."

 

616. In between these voices were heard the choirs of all the angels and saints, singing in sweetest harmony: "Most holy Mary, conceived without original sin." To all these honors the most prudent Mother answered by thanksgiving, worship and praise of the Most High, rendered with such profound humility that it passed all angelic understanding. In order to conclude the solemnity She was raised to the intuitive and beatific vision of the most holy Trinity; and after enjoying this glory for some hours, She was brought back by the angels to the Cenacle. This was the manner in which her Immaculate Conception was solemnized after the Ascension of her divine Son. Now this feast is celebrated in a different manner, as I will describe in another book, which I have orders to write concerning the holy Jerusalem, the Church triumphant, if the Lord shall concede this grace to me. This feast and others She began to celebrate from the time of the Incarnation; for finding Herself to be the Mother of God She wished to commemorate the blessings She had received in virtue of this dignity, and therefore in this latter part of her life, She requited them in company with Her holy angels by rendering her worshipful thanksgiving to the Son of God, who had thus favored Her. The other exercises She performed in her oratory on returning from heaven, and they were of the same kind as I have often referred to on occasions of special favors from God; for all of them ever increased Her admirable humility.

 

617. The feast of her Nativity She celebrated on the eighth of September, on which She was born. She began on the evening before with the same prostrations and canticles as at the feast of her Conception. She gave thanks for having been born to life into the light of this world, and for the favor of having been raised to heaven in the hour of her birth to look upon the Divinity intuitively, as I have narrated in the first part of this history. She resolved anew to spend her whole life in fulfilling the pleasure of the Lord, acknowledging that for this purpose alone it was given to Her. Though in the first beginning and entrance of her life She had advanced in merit as far as the highest saints and seraphim, She resolved now, in its latter part, to begin to labor anew as if She were just beginning the practice of virtue. She asked the Lord to lend Her his assistance, govern Her in all her actions and lead Her to the highest end proposed for his glory.

 

618. As for the rest concerning this feast, although She was not raised to heaven as on the day of her Conception, yet her divine Son came down from there with many choirs of the angels, with the Patriarchs and Prophets, and with saint Joachim, saint Anne, and saint Joseph. With this company Christ our Savior descended in order to celebrate the birthday of his most blessed Mother upon earth. And this purest of creatures, in the presence of that celestial company, adored the Lord with wonderful reverence and worship, and again expressed her thankful acknowledgment for having been placed upon the earth and for the benefits connected therewith. Then the angels imitated Her and sang: "Nativitas tua, Dei Genetrix Virgo," etc., signifying: Thy birth, 0 Mother of God, announced to all the universe a great joy; for of Thee was born the Sun of justice, Christ our God. The Patriarchs and Prophets sang their hymns of glory and thanksgiving; Adam and Eve also, because in Her was born the Restorer of their ruin; her parents and her spouse, because they had been blessed with such a Daughter and Spouse. Then the Lord himself raised the heavenly Mother from the ground on which She lay prostrate, and placed Her at his right hand; and straightway new mysteries of the Divinity were manifested to Her. This vision, although not intuitive but abstractive, afforded Her a still deeper insight and participation in the Divinity.

 

619. By these ineffable favors She was transformed, inflamed and spiritualized to the likeness of her divine Son in a new and special manner, as if for a new beginning. On these occasions the Evangelist saint John merited some measure of participation in the feast, for he heard some of the music of the angels and he was privileged to say Mass while the Lord and the angels were present in the oratory, and to communicate the great Queen while Jesus her Son, whom She was receiving sacramentally, was Himself at her side. These spectacles were the source of new joy to the saints, who served at the same time as witnesses to this Communion, more worthy than any ever was seen since Christ lived, or shall ever be seen upon earth. At the moment of Communion her divine Son remained with the great Lady in the sacramental form, while He himself, in his glorious and natural form, ascended to heaven. O hidden marvels of the divine Omnipotence! If the Lord shows Himself wonderful in all his saints, (Ps. 67, 36), how wonderful will He not have been with his exalted Mother, whom He loved above all, and for whom He had reserved the great and special manifestations of his wisdom and power? Let all the creatures confess Him and give Him glory, virtue and magnificence.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, MOST BLESSED MARY, GAVE ME.

 

620. My daughter, first of all I wish to enlighten thee concerning certain doubts of thy heart regarding the exalted and extraordinary mysteries of this history. Two misgivings have disturbed thy interior: first, whether thou who knowest thyself to be such an insignificant, useless and ignorant woman, art a fit instrument for recording these mysteries; whether it would not be better to let some other person, more learned and perfect in virtue, write them and thus give them more authority; since thou art the least of all, the most useless and ignorant. Secondly, whether these mysteries, which are so extraordinary and never heard of, especially the frequent beatific and intuitive visions of the Divinity during my life, shall ever find credit among those who read of them. To thy first doubt I answer, that in truth thou art the least and most useless of all; since thou hast heard it from the mouth of the Lord and I confirm it. But remember that belief in this history and in all that it contains, does not depend on the instrument, but on its Author, who is the highest truth, and upon the contents of thy writing; and in this regard not even the highest seraph could add thereto, nor canst thou diminish or omit anything.

 

621. That an angel should write this history is not befitting; and if he should, the unbelievers and the sluggish of heart will nevertheless find occasion to slander him. It is necessary that the instrument be a human person; but it was not proper that this person be the most learned or wise; for then this work might be ascribed to his knowledge and thus occasion the danger of having the divine light esteemed no higher, or even lower, than human knowledge, or it might be attributed entirely to human forethought and industry. It is more to the glory of God, that this person should be a woman, who can rely neither on her own knowledge, nor her own industry. I likewise take special pleasure and honor from the fact that thou art this instrument; because thou (and all others) wilt know, that there is nothing of thy own in this history and that thou must not attribute more to thyself than to the pen with which thou writest, since thou art but the instrument in the hands of the Lord and the repeater of my words. And, as thou art such, so insignificant and sinful, thou wilt not be disturbed in seeing mortals refuse to believe; since, in disbelieving what thou writest, they will not do any wrong to thee, but by their unbelief fail in proper reverence for my words. Although thy faults and shortcomings are many, they can all be neutralized by the charity and kindness of the Lord, who has not looked for any other instrument of this work, but has raised thee from the dust and manifested in thee his liberal power. He has communicated his doctrine by one in whom the power of his truth would appear more plainly; and hence I desire that thou follow it up in thy conduct and reach the perfection thou desirest.

 

622. In answer to the second misgiving and anxiety, whether the greatness of these mysteries will not prevent belief in what thou writest, I have said many things in the course of this history. Those that take care to attain a worthy concept and appreciation of me, will find no difficulty in believing me; for they will understand the relation and proportion of my privileges to the dignity of Mother of God. They will understand that God's works are perfect; and if anyone begins to doubt in these matters, it is certain that he does not know what God is, or what I am. If God has shown Himself so powerful and liberal in the other saints, that many in the Church are held to have seen the Divinity in mortal life, and certainly have seen it, how, or on what grounds can that be denied to me, what is conceded to so many others inferior to me? All that my divine Son merited and did for them, was ordained for his glory, and secondarily in my honor; the end must be held in higher esteem and valuation than the means: hence greater was the divine love, which inclined God to favor me than all the rest, whom He has benefited for my sake. There is no reason for surprise in stating that what He has done sometimes for them, He has done many times for Her, whom He has chosen as his Mother.

 

623. Let the pious and the prudent keep in mind what has been taught in the Church, that the measure of the favors I received from the hands of my divine Son, is his Omnipotence and my capacity; for He has conceded to me all the favors which He could confer, and which I was capable of receiving. These graces were in me not barren, but always fruitful to the fullest extent in which it was possible in a creature. The divine Master himself was my Son, powerful to operate as far as the creature placed no obstacle; since I placed no such obstacle, how can anyone dare to limit his works of love toward me his Mother, whom He himself had made worthy of his benefits and favors above all the rest of his saints, not one of whom deprived himself, like I have, of his fruition, even an hour, for the sake of helping his Church? And if what He did for me seem much, I desire thee and all the rest to understand, that all his favors were grounded upon and included in the one privilege of my being conceived without sin; for it was a greater favor to make me worthy of his glory, when I could not merit it, than to show me his glory when I had merited it and had placed no hindrance.

 

624. By these considerations thy doubts will be solved; and as for the rest, let that be my concern, and let it be thine, to follow and imitate me; for as far as thou art concerned, this is the purpose of all thou understandest and writest. This should be thy solicitude, that thou omit the practice of no virtue made known to thee. I wish that thou also attend to what the other saints have done in following my divine Son and me; for thou dost not owe less than they to his mercy, and with none have I been more kind and liberal. In my school I wish thee to learn the love, the gratitude and humility of a true disciple of mine; for I desire thee to distinguish thyself and advance thyself exceedingly. All my festivals thou shouldst celebrate with a sincere devotion and invite the saints and angels to assist thee therein; especially the feast of the Immaculate Conception, in which I was so highly favored by the divine power and from which I derived so much joy. In these times, more than formerly, I am solicitous of seeing it acknowledged by men and of their praising the Most High for this extraordinary miracle. On the day of thy own birth into the world thou shouldst render special thanks to the Lord in imitation of me and perform some extra work in his service. Above all thou shouldst resolve thenceforth to amend thy life and to commence to labor in this anew. And all the mortals, instead of spending the anniversary of their birth in demonstration of vain earthly joy, should make similar resolutions.

 

CHAPTER XIII.

 

THE MOST BLESSED MARY COMMEMORATES OTHER BLESSINGS WITH HER ANGELS, ESPECIALLY HER PRESENTATION AND THE FEAST DAYS OF SAINT JOACHIM, SAINT ANNE AND SAINT JOSEPH.

 

625. Gratitude for the benefits received at the hands of the Lord is a virtue so noble, that by means of it we may preserve our intercourse and correspondence with God himself: He, as rich, generous and powerful conferring upon us his gifts; we, as poor, humble and aware of our needs, returning for them our thanks. It is natural that he who gives liberally and generously should be content with the thanks of him who, as the needy one, is receiving the benefit; and this thankfulness is a short, easy and delightful return, which satisfies the liberal giver and induces him to continue his liberality. If this ordinarily happens among men of generous and magnanimous heart, how much more in the dealings of God with men; for we are misery and poverty itself, while He is rich, most liberal, and if we could imagine any constraint in Him, it would be that of receiving and not that of giving. As this great Lord is so wise, just and equitous, He will never reject us on account of our poverty, but only on account of our ingratitude. He desires to give us plentifully, but at the same time He wishes us to be grateful, rendering Him the glory, honor and praise contained in gratitude. Such a return for small benefits, obliges Him to confer other greater ones; if we are grateful for all, He multiplies them. However it is only the humble that secure them, since they are at the same time thankful.

 

626. The great Teacher of this science was the most blessed Mary; for, though She alone had received the plenitude of highest blessings possible to be communicated to a mere creature by the Almighty, She forgot none of them, nor ever ceased to acknowledge them by the most perfect thankfulness within the powers of a creature. For each one of the gifts of nature or grace, none of which She failed to recognize and acknowledge, She composed special songs of praise and thanksgiving and instituted admirable exercises in special commemoration and acknowledgment. In view of this She had assigned the days of the whole year, and special hours of each day, in which She sought to renew the memory of these graces and give thanks for them. But in the midst of all these observances and solicitudes She forgot not those of the government of the Church, the instruction of the Apostles and disciples, the counsel and advice to be given to the innumerable persons, who came to Her; for She denied Herself to no one who came, nor failed to respond to the needs of any of the faithful.

 

627. Hence, if due thankfulness obliges God so much and inclines Him to renew and increase his blessings, what human thought can ever conceive how much his beneficence was called into action by the gratitude shown by his most prudent Mother for his many and exalted blessings and rendered to Him with all the fullness of humble love and praise due to each? All we other children of Adam in comparison with Her are slow, ungrateful and so dull of heart, that the little we do (if we do anything at all), does not appear worthy of consideration; but "the great things, which the faithful and thankful Queen performed, seemed little to Her, and even when She did all in her power, She held Herself to be remiss and failing in diligence. In another place I said that the activity of the most blessed Mary resembled that of God himself, who is a pure act, operative by his very being or essence, which cannot cease in its infinite activity. Of this quality and excellence of the Divinity our great Queen had acquired a certain ineffable participation, so that She seemed in Herself to be one continued and untiring act. If grace is impatient of rest in others, no one must be surprised, if in Mary, in whom grace was without measure and, according to our way of thinking, without known limits, it should partake in such an exalted degree of God and his activity.

 

628. I cannot show or elucidate this mystery better than by referring to the admiration it caused in the angels, who were witnesses of it. Many times it happened, in their wonder at what they saw in their Queen and Lady, that they spoke to Her or to each other: "Powerful, great and admirable is God in this Creature more than in all his works. Vastly does human nature in Her rise above us. Eternally be blessed and magnified thy Maker, 0 Mary; Thou art the ornament and beauty of all the human race. Thou stirrest to holy emulation all the angelic spirits, and to admiration all the inhabitants of heaven. Thou art the wonder of God's omnipotence and of the power of his right hand, the summary of the works of the incarnate Word, the exact copy of his perfections, the reproduction of all his actions, assimilating Thyself entirely to the One Thou hast given form in thy womb. Thou art a worthy Teacher of the militant Church, the special glory of the triumphant, the honor of our people, the restorer of thy own. Let all the nations know thy virtue and greatness, and let all generations praise and bless Thee. Amen."

 

629. With these heavenly princes the most blessed Mary celebrated the memory of God's blessings and gifts. She invited them to accompany Her in rendering proper thanks, not only because of her most ardent and fervent love, which, on account of the insatiable thirst caused by the fire of her charity, demanded such a return as of justice; but also because of her profound humility, which caused Her to acknowledge her obligations beyond all other creatures. Hence She asked all creation to help Her in paying her debt, although no one but She could ever pay it worthily. Filled with this wisdom, She drew down to her oratory on earth the court of the supreme King and changed the world into a new heaven.

 

630. On the anniversary of her Presentation in the temple in commemorating this benefit, She commenced the evening before and spent the whole night in exercises of thanksgiving as described for the feast of her Conception and Nativity. She acknowledged the blessing of having been called to his temple by the Lord, and to the house of prayer at such an early age, and of having received so many favors while residing there. But the most remarkable feature of her celebration was, that the great Mistress of virtue, full of divine wisdom, renewed in her memory the teachings and instructions given to Her in the temple by the priest and her teacher at that early age. With the same loving solicitude She preserved in her memory the teachings of her holy parents Joachim and Anne, and those of the Apostles. All of them She rehearsed and practiced with greater and greater perfection according as the advancing years of her life demanded. Although the teaching of her divine Son were eminently sufficient for all her doings; yet She recalled those received from all the others; She permitted Herself no cessation in the practice of humility and obedience, nor ever overlooked the least point or permitted any of the ingenious secrets of these virtues to be obscured and remain idle. 0 how highly did She esteem the sayings of the wise! "Lean not upon thy own prudence; be not wise in thy own conceit" (Prov. 3, 5, 7). "Despise not the discourse and the teaching of the presbyters, and live always according to their sayings" (Ecc1i. 8,9). "Do not enter into high speculation with yourselves, but conform to the lowly" (Rom. 12, 16).

 

631. In celebrating this feast the great Lady felt some certain natural regret for the quiet retirement of the temple in her youth, notwithstanding that She had so promptly obeyed the Lord in forsaking it and in resigning Herself to the exalted ends for which He had withdrawn Her. But He did not fail to requite Her by some special favors on this feast. On this day the Lord descended from heaven in great magnificence and in the company of the angels as on other occasions, and addressing his most blessed Mother in her oratory, He said: "My Mother and Dove, come to Me, thy God and thy Son. I wish to afford thee a temple and a habitation more exalted, more secure and godlike, one that is within my own being: come, my most Beloved, to thy legitimate dwelling." At these most sweet words the seraphim raised their Queen from the ground, where She always lay prostrate at his visits until He bade Her rise, and with heavenly music placed Her at the right hand of the Lord. She perceived or felt Herself at once filled with the Divinity as a temple with his glory, and bathed, surrounded and contained as a fish is in the sea, experiencing by this union or contact with the Divinity new and unspeakable effects. For She thereby attained a possession of the Divinity, which I cannot describe and which afforded the heavenly Mother a great delight and joy, additional to that of seeing God face to face.

 

632. This great favor the prudent Mother called "My exalted refuge and dwelling," and the feast itself She called "The feast of the Being of God"; and She composed wonderful canticles to express its significance and give thanks. At the end of this day She thanked the Almighty for having created the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, including all from Adam to her natural parents in whom her lineage ended. She thankfully rehearsed all the gifts of grace and nature conferred upon them by the divine power, and for all their prophecies, and for what is recorded of them in the holy Scriptures. Then She turned to her parents Joachim and Anne, and thanked them for having presented Her so young to God in the temple. At the same time, as they were now enjoying the beatific vision in the heavenly Jerusalem, She besought them to thank God in her stead and to ask Him to teach Her how to be thankful and to be governed by Him in all her doings. Above all, She besought them to give thanks to the omnipotent Lord for having exempted Her from original sin and chosen Her as his Mother. These two blessings She always considered inseparable.

 

633. The feast days of saint Joachim and saint Anne She celebrated almost with the same ceremonies as that of her Presentation. Both of those saints descended with the Lord to her oratory with an innumerable multitude of angels; with them She gave thanks to God for having provided Her with parents so holy and conformable to the divine will, and for the glory which He had conferred upon them. In acknowledgment of all these works of the Lord She composed new hymns with the angels, which they sang to sweet and harmonious music. Besides this, another marvel took place on these festal days of her parents: the angels of the Queen and others who came from on high, divided into choirs, some explaining to the Queen the attributes or perfections of the Divinity and others those of the incarnate Word This colloquy afforded Her incomparable joy and new incentive to her loving and inflamed affections. Saint Joachim and Anne derived therefrom also a great additional delight. Before they returned to heaven the great Lady asked their blessing and then remained prostrate upon the ground in thanksgiving for these favors.

 

634. On the feast of her most chaste and holy spouse Joseph She celebrated her espousal, in which the Lord had given her a most faithful companion to conceal the mysteries of the Incarnation of the Word and to execute with such high wisdom the secret works of the Redemption of man. As all these dealings and eternal counsels of the Most High were recorded in the purest heart of Mary, and as She held them in so worthy contemplation, She commemorated them with ineffable joy and thanksgiving. On this feast, saint Joseph came in the splendor of glory and with myriads of angels, in order to solemnize the feast with joyful music and to sing the new hymns and canticles, which the heavenly Mother composed in thanksgiving for the blessings received by her holy spouse and Herself at the hands of the Most High.

 

635. After having consumed many hours in this celebration She spent others of that day in conversing with her glorious spouse about the perfection and attributes of God; for in the absence of her Lord the most loving Mother delighted most in such discourses and conferences. On taking leave from her holy spouse, She begged him to pray for Her in the presence of the Divinity and to praise Him in her name. She recommended to his prayers also the necessities of the holy Church and of the Apostles. Then, after asking his blessing, She continued her acts of humility and thanksgiving as usual, while the glorious saint Joseph returned to heaven. But I wish here to mention two things: first, that on these festivals, while her Son lived upon earth and happened to be present, He was accustomed to show Himself transfigured as He was on Tabor. This favor He showed Her many times, and mostly on these occasions; for by them He repaid Her in a measure for Her devotion and humility and renewed the divine effects consequent upon these marvels. Secondly, that in order to celebrate these favors and blessings, the great Queen, besides what has already been mentioned, added other observances worthy of her piety and of our attention. Namely, on the days spoken of and on others of which I shall speak directly, She gave food to many of the poor, preparing the victuals Herself and serving them with her own hands and on her own knees. For this purpose She directed the Evangelist to gather the most needy and destitute, which he faithfully did according to her orders. Moreover She had more costly food prepared to be sent to the poor sick in the infirmaries whom She could not gather around Her, and afterwards She went in person to console and heal them by her presence. This was the manner in which the most blessed Mary celebrated the festivals and which She taught the faithful to imitate, showing them how to be thankful for all things as far as possible, both by making sacrifices and by good works.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, MOST BLESSED MARY, GAVE ME.

 

636. My daughter, the sin of ingratitude is one of the most heinous committed by men against God and by it they make themselves most unworthy and abominable in the sight of God and the saints. For both God and the saints have a kind of horror of this vile conduct in men. Yet in spite of its pernicious effects, there is none which men, each one in particular, commit more frequently and thoughtlessly. It is true that in order to lessen the debt accumulating by their most ungrateful and universal forgetfulness of his benefits, God requires from his Church a certain recompense for this want of thankfulness in her children and in mankind. For in recognition of his blessings, the Church as such offers up so many prayers and sacrifices of praise and glory as we see ordained in her. But as the favors and graces of his liberal and watchful Providence are not only for the common good of the faithful, but to the advantage of each mortal in particular, the debt of gratitude is not paid by this general thanksgiving of the Church; each one for himself owes thanks for what he receives from the divine liberality.

 

637. How many are there among the mortals, who during the whole course of their lives have not excited one sincere act of thanksgiving for the gift of life, for its preservation, for health, food, honors, possessions and all the other temporal and natural goods! Others there are, who, if at any time they give thanks for these benefits, do it not because they truly love God, the Giver, but because they love themselves and delight in these temporal and earthly blessings and in the possession of them. This kind of vain deceit discovers itself in two ways: first, in seeking these earthly and transitory goods, men are full of dissatisfaction, haste and discomfort, and they scarcely can think of, ask for, or desire other more spiritual things, loving only what is apparent and passing. Although many times their being deprived of health, honor, possessions and other things is a blessing of God, which prevents in them a blind and disorderly attachment to such matters; yet they think it a misfortune and, as it were, an injury, and they allow their heart continually to verge on destruction by trespassing upon what is finite and perishable.

 

638. Secondly, this deceit is known by the forgetfulness of spiritual benefits in the blind pursuit of what is transitory, so that men neither recognize or acknowledge what is beyond. This fault among the children of the Church is most vile and dreadful, since, without any obligation on the part of God and without any of their merit, the divine mercy seeks to draw them to the secure path of eternal life, signally applying to them the merits of the passion and death of my divine Son. Everyone who is now in a state of holiness in the Church, could have been born in other times and ages, before God came into the world; moreover he could have been born among pagans, idolaters, heretics or other infidels, where his eternal damnation would be unavoidable. Without their merit God called such persons to his holy faith, giving them knowledge of the certain truth; justifying them in Baptism, putting at their disposal the Sacraments, the ministers, the teachings and enlightenments of eternal life. He placed them upon the sure path, granted them his assistance, pardoned them their sins, raised them from their falls, waited for their repentance, invited them by his mercy, and rewarded them with a liberal hand. He defended them through his holy angels, gave them Himself as a pledge and as a nourishment of eternal life ; and thus He accumulated so many blessings upon them, that they are without measure or number, and that not a day nor an hour passes without increasing their indebtedness.

 

639. Tell me then, daughter, what thanks are due to his so liberal and fatherly kindness? And how many men deserve to experience it? The greatest blessing of all is that in punishment for this ingratitude the portals of his mercy have not been closed, and the fountains of his goodness have not dried up; for it is infinite. The root of this most dreadful ingratitude in men is the boundless desire and covetousness for the temporal, apparent and transitory goods. From this insatiable thirst grows their unthankfulness; for as they hanker so much after the temporal goods, they undervalue what they receive and give thanks neither for them nor for the spiritual goods; and thus they are most ungrateful as well for the ones as the others. In addition to this unbearable foolishness they are guilty of a still greater one, namely, they ask God not for what is necessary to them, but for things which are injurious and will bring about their eternal perdition. Among men it is considered mean to ask a favor from the one they have offended; and still more outrageous to ask a favor for the purpose of committing a still greater offense. What must we then say of a vile earthly being, an enemy of God, when he petitions his Creator for life, health, honor, possessions and other things.. for which he will never give thanks, and which he does not intend to use for any other purpose than to offend the divine Giver?

 

640. If, in addition to this, such men never thank God for having created them, redeemed them, called them, borne them with patience and justified them, prepared for them the same glory which He enjoys: and if, while expecting this glory, they do not even ask for the grace of acknowledging and repenting of their sins, they certainly show nothing but the utmost temerity and presumption. I assure thee, my dearest, that this so frequent ingratitude toward God is one of the most certain signs of reprobation in those who are guilty of such forgetfulness and carelessness. It is also a bad sign, when the just Judge confers temporal blessings upon those who ask for them in forgetfulness of the blessings of the Redemption and Justification; for all such, oblivious of the means of their eternal salvation, demand but the instruments of their death, and to yield to their demands is no blessing, but a chastisement of their blindness.

 

641. All these evils I manifest to thee in order that thou mayest fear them and avoid their causes. But remember that thy gratitude must not be of the ordinary or common kind; for the blessings thou hast received go far beyond thy knowledge and power of appreciation. Do not allow thyself to be deceived into shrinking from proper acknowledgment of graces on the plea of humility. Thou knowest the efforts of the demon to make thee forget the works and the favors of the Lord by drawing thy attention toward thy faults and miseries and making thee believe that the blessings of truth, which thou hast received, are incompatible with these thy shortcomings. Begin in earnest to cast off this deception and know, that the more thou ascribest the goods thou receivest from his bounty to Him alone, the more dost thou annihilate and humiliate thyself; and that the more thou owest to Him, the less able thou art to pay thy debts, since thou canst not pay even for the least of his favors. To be convinced of this truth is not presumption, but prudence; and not to acknowledge this indebtedness is not humility, but most reprehensible foolishness; for thou canst not be thankful for what thou dost not know; nor will thy love be stirred to action readily without being incited by the blessings and favors of God. Thou art full of fear of losing the grace and friendship of the Lord; and with good reason dost thou fear, if thou dost not make them fruitful; for He has done as much for thee, as would suffice to justify many souls. But to have a prudent fear of losing his grace is quite a different thing from doubting it for the purpose of escaping acknowledgment for it; and this is the kind of doubt into which the enemy labors to cast thee, seeking to substitute a stubborn incredulity for holy fear of God, by clothing it in the mantle of a good intention and humility. Thy fear must exert itself in watching over thy treasure and in striving to imitate me with the purity of an angel and practicing all the teachings which I give thee in this history for this very purpose.

 

CHAPTER XIV.

 

THE WONDERFUL MANNER IN WHICH THE MOST BLESSED MARY CELEBRATED THE MYSTERIES OF THE INCARNATION AND NATIVITY OF THE GODMAN, AND HOW SHE GAVE THANKS FOR THESE IMMENSE BLESSINGS.

 

642. As the most holy Mary was so faithful in smaller things, there can be no doubt that She was faithful in the greater. If She was solicitous and diligent in giving thanks for the minor blessings, certainly She would render the full measure of thanks for the more important benefits conferred by the Most High upon Her and all the human race. Among these the Incarnation of the eternal Word in the womb of the most blessed and pure Mother takes the first place; for this was the most excellent work and the greatest grace possible to God's infinite power and wisdom in his dealings with men. The joining of the divine essence with the human being in the person of the Word through hypostatic union was the beginning of all the gifts and blessings of the Omnipotent conferred upon the human as well as upon the angelic nature. This truth is more intelligible, when we take into consideration what faith teaches: that the divine Wisdom foresaw in eternity the ingratitude of the reprobate and their abuse and waste of the wonderful blessing of the Incarnation of the true God, by which He became the Teacher, Redeemer and model of all the mortals.

 

643. Hence the infinite Wisdom marvelously provided, that among men there should be some One, who could compensate this injustice and, by worthy thanksgiving, be the means of placating and satisfying Him as far as is possible on the part of human nature. This was done in the first place by the sacred humanity of our Redeemer and Master, Jesus, who is our Mediator with the eternal Father, reconciling to Him the whole human race (I Tim. 2, 5), satisfying for its shortcomings and paying its debts by the superabundance of his merits. However, as this Lord was true God and man, human nature apparently remained a debtor to Him, unless some one among mere creatures could repay the Redeemer in as far as with the divine grace it was possible to man. This return was made by his own Mother and our Queen; since She alone was the secretary of the great counsel and the archive of his mysteries and sacraments. She was the only one who knew, weighed and thankfully acknowledged it in the measure to be expected from a human being not united personally with the Divinity. She alone supplied a recompense for all the shortcomings and imperfections, and for the total want of gratitude in the children of Adam. She alone knew how and was able to appease and satisfy her divine Son for the unjust behavior of all the mortals in not having received Him as their Redeemer and Master, as the true God made man for the salvation of all.

 

644. The incomprehensible and sacred mystery of the Incarnation the great Queen kept so constantly present in her memory, that She never forgot it even for one instant. At the same time She was ever conscious of the ignorance of this blessing in so many of the children of Adam; and in order to give thanks for it in her own name and in the name of all, She practiced many genuflections, prostrations and other acts of adoration, repeating continually in diverse variations the following prayer: "My Lord and highest God, in thy royal presence I prostrate myself and present myself before Thee in my own name and in that of the human race, I bless and magnify Thee, I confess and adore Thee in the mystery of the hypostatic union of the human and divine nature of the eternal Word. If the unfortunate children of Adam are ignorant of this blessing, and if those that know of it fail in giving worthy thanks for it, remember, our kindest Lord and Father, that they live in the weak flesh, so full of darkness and passions, and that they cannot come to Thee, if Thou in thy loving condescension dost not draw them on (John 6, 44). Pardon, my God, the shortcomings of their weak nature and condition. I, thy slave and vile wormlet of the earth, with all the courtiers of thy glory, give Thee thanks for myself and for each one of the mortals in acknowledgment of this blessing. And I beseech Thee, O my Son and Lord, from the bottom of my soul, to take up this cause of thy brethren and obtain for them the forgiveness of thy eternal Father. Favor with thy immense clemency these unfortunates conceived in sin, who do not recognize their own misfortune, and do not know what they are doing nor what they should do. I beg for thy people and for my own; for as far as Thou art man we are all of thy nature, which do not Thou despise; and in as far as Thou art God, Thou givest infinite value to thy works. Let them be the worthy return and thanksgiving for satisfying our debt, since Thou alone canst pay what we have received and what we owe to the eternal Father for sending Thee from heaven to earth as the Savior of the poor and Rescuer of the captives (Luke 4, 18). Give life to the dead, enrich the poor, enlighten the blind (Matth. 11, 5) ; Thou art our salvation, our happiness and our restoration."

 

645. This prayer and others like it were of ordinary occurrence in the life of the great Queen of the world. But to her continuous and daily thanksgiving She added other exercises to celebrate the exalted mystery of the Incarnation, especially on the anniversaries of the days in which the divine Word assumed flesh in her purest womb; and on these days She was more favored by the Lord than on others. This feast for Her lasted not only for one day, but for nine, comprising the nine days before the feast of the Annunciation, or the twenty-fifth of March, during which She had prepared Herself for this sacrament, as described in the beginning of the second part of this history. I have there recorded in nine chapters the marvels which preceded the Incarnation and by which the heavenly Mother was to be worthily prepared for the conception of the incarnate Word in her sacred and virginal womb. It is necessary here to refer to them and recall them briefly in order to describe the manner in which She celebrated and renewed her thanksgiving for this highest of marvels and blessings.

 

646. She commenced the solemnity on the sixteenth of March in the evening and during the next nine days until the twenty-fifth of March, She remained in retirement without. eating or sleeping. Saint John the evangelist was the only one who came to Her, and only in order to minister to Her holy Communion during the nine days. The Almighty renewed all the favors and blessings which He had conferred upon Mary during those days immediately preceding the Incarnation; with this difference however, that her Son and our Redeemer now added new ones; for as He was already born of Her, He took it upon Himself to assist, regale and favor his most loving and worthy Mother in this feast. On the first six days of this novena, after the blessed Mother had passed some hours of the night in her accustomed exercises, the incarnate Word descended from heaven refulgent in glory and majesty and accompanied by myriads of angels; with them He entered the oratory and showed Himself to his most blessed Mother.

 

647. The most pious and prudent Mother adored her Son and true God with the humility, veneration and worship, such as She alone in her wisdom knew how to render. Then by the ministry of the holy angels She was raised from the earth and placed on the throne at the right hand of her Son the Lord. There She felt within Herself an intimate and ineffable union with the humanity and Divinity, by which She was transformed and filled with glory and new divine influences unspeakable to man. In this condition and state the Lord renewed in Her the marvels of the nine days before the Incarnation in the order in which they had then occurred. And to these He added other favors and admirable effects, conformable to the state attained since then both by Himself and his blessed Mother. Although the habitual science of all things was always preserved in Her, yet on such occasions Her knowledge was enhanced by a new intelligence and divine light, which enabled Her to apply and exercise her knowledge with greater insight and with more powerful effect.

 

648. On the first of these nine days were shown Her all the works performed by God on the first day of the creation of the world; the order and mode of their creation; the heaven, the earth and the abysses, with their length, breadth and depth; the light and the darkness, their separation and all the conditions, changes and qualities of these material and visible things. Of the invisible things She saw the creation of the angels, all their species and perfections, their perseverance in grace, the strife between the obedient and the disobedient, the fall of the apostates and the confirmation of the others in grace, and all the other mysteries, which Moses includes in the works of the first day (Gen. 1, 1). She recognized likewise the intentions of the Almighty in the creation of these and other things: namely to communicate and manifest his Divinity, so that all the angels and men, according to their faculties, might know and praise Him in them. And lest the renewal of this knowledge be fruitless in the most prudent Mother, Her divine Son said to Her: "My Mother and my Dove! I gave thee knowledge of all these works of my infinite power, in order to manifest to thee my greatness before assuming flesh in thy virginal womb, and I renew it in thee now, in order to confirm in thee thy possession and dominion over the angels, the heavens, the earth, the light, and the darkness, all of which shall serve and obey thee as my Mother; and in order to afford thee an occasion worthily to thank and praise the eternal Father for the blessings of creation, which men do not know how to appreciate."

 

649. The great Queen faithfully responded to this will of the Lord and satisfied for the indebtedness of mankind in its entirety, giving thanks in her own name and in that of all men for these incomparable blessings. In these exercises, and in other mysterious ones, She passed the day until the Lord returned to heaven. On the second day at midnight the Lord again descended in the same manner and recalled in the heavenly Mother the knowledge of the works of the second day of the creation: how in the midst of the waters was formed the firmament, dividing the one from the other, the number of the heavens, their harmonious arrangement, nature and qualities, their greatness and beauty. All this She knew with infallible certainty, just as they came into being, without admixture of mere opinions; She knew also what were the views of the learned and of authors. On the third day was refreshed in Her the knowledge of what is indicated in the Scriptures for the third day of creation; that the Lord congregated the waters upon the earth and formed the sea and the dry land; and how the dry land, upon the command of its Creator, immediately produced plants, herbs, trees and other things for its beauty and adornment. She knew the nature and qualities of all these plants and the manner in which they are useful or hurtful to man. On the fourth day She recognized particularly the formation of the sun, the moon and the stars of heaven, their material, their form, properties, influences and all their movements, dividing the time into seasons, days and years (Gen. 1, 14). On the fifth day was manifested to Her the creation and generation of the birds of the air, of the fishes of the sea, how in the beginning they were formed of the waters, and how these animals afterwards are reproduced and propagated; how many were the species, the conditions and faculties of the animals of the land and the sea. On the sixth day She received new enlightenment and insight into the creation of man, as the terminus of all the material creatures; and in understanding his exquisite and harmonious nature as a recapitulation of all the rest of the world of creatures, She comprehended also the mystery of the Incarnation, which was the end and purpose of his creation, and She possessed the other secrets of the divine Wisdom hidden in this and the other works, testifying to his infinite greatness and majesty.

 

650. On each of these days the great Queen composed a special hymn of praise to the Creator for the works performed on the corresponding day of creation and for the mysteries made known to Her. Then She prayed for all men, especially for the faithful, asking for their reconciliation to God and their enlightenment concerning the Divinity and his works, in order that they might thereby be helped to know, love and praise the Almighty. And as She was aware of the ignorance of so many unbelievers, who would not come to the knowledge and belief of the true faith, and as She considered the ingratitude and sluggishness of so many believers, who know of these works of the Most High, the most blessed Mother performed heroic and admirable works in compensation for these defects of the children of Adam. Because She so faithfully responded, her divine Son raised Her to a new participation in the gifts of his Divinity and attributes, accumulating upon Her all that the rest of mortals lost by their most ungrateful forgetfulness. Over all the works of that day He confirmed upon Her anew full possession and dominion, in order that all might acknowledge Her and serve Her as the Mother of their Creator, and as the supreme Queen over all creatures in heaven and earth.

 

651. On the seventh day these divine favors were still further increased and enhanced, although her divine Son did not descend from heaven in the last three days; but instead She herself was raised up to Him, in correspondence with what had happened on the three days before the Incarnation. Accordingly at midnight, at the command of the most high Lord, the angels carried Her up to the empyrean heaven, where, while She was adoring the immutable being of God, the supreme seraphim clothed Her in a vestment more pure and white than the snow and more refulgent than the sun. They girded Her with a girdle of jewels so rich and beautiful that there are none in nature for comparison; each one shone more brilliantly than the globe of the sun, yea of many suns combined. Then they added bracelets and necklaces, and other adornments befitting Her whom they adorned; and all these adornments the seraphim brought from the throne of the most blessed Trinity, each of them in its own way signifying a new participation and communication of the Divinity. And not only these adornments signified a new participation and communication of the divine perfections in their Queen, but also the seraphim, those six that adorned Her, likewise represented mysteries contained in their ministry.

 

652. To these succeeded six other seraphim who, in another manner, adorned the Queen, as it were, retouching her faculties and giving them subtlety, beauty and grace unspeakable in human words. And still other six seraphim furnished the celestial light by which her understanding and will was made capable of the beatific vision and fruition. Having thus adorned and beautified the great Queen, all of the eighteen seraphim raised Her to the throne of the most blessed Trinity and placed Her at the right hand of the Onlybegotten, our Savior. There She was asked what was her petition and desire. And the true Esther answered: "I ask mercy for my people, 0 Lord (Esther 7, 3); and in their name and mine I desire and long to thank thy almighty clemency for giving human form to the eternal Word in my womb for their salvation." To these petitions and prayers She added others of incomparable love and wisdom, supplicating for the whole human race and especially for the holy Church.

 

653. Then her divine Son spoke to the eternal Father and said: "I confess and praise Thee, my Father, and I offer to Thee this creature, the daughter of Adam, pleasing in thy eyes as the one chosen for my Mother from all the creatures and as a testimony to our infinite attributes. She alone knows worthily and fully to estimate and thankfully to acknowledge the favor I have shown to men in vesting Myself in their nature for the purpose of teaching them the way of eternal life and saving them from death. We have chosen Her in order that She might appease our indignation at the ingratitude and small return We receive from mortals. She makes up for what the others are either unable or unwilling to give; and We cannot despise the prayers which our Beloved offers for them in the plenitude of her holiness and entirely to our pleasure."

 

654. All these marvels were repeated on each of the last three days of the novena; and on the last, which was the twenty-fifth of March, at the hour of the Incarnation, the Divinity manifested Itself to Her intuitively and with a greater glory than to all the blessed. The saints received an addition to their accidental joy on all those days; but the last was one of greater festivity and of extraordinary jubilee for the whole of Jerusalem triumphant. The favors received by the most blessed Mother on that day far exceed all human thought; for all her privileges, graces and gifts were on that day ratified and increased by the Almighty in an ineffable manner. As She was still a Pilgrim and knew all the conditions of the holy Church in the present and the future ages, She asked and merited great blessings for all times; to say it more briefly, She obtained all the blessings which the divine power wrought for men from the beginning and shall work unto the end of the world.

 

655. On all these feasts celebrated by the great Queen, She obtained the conversion of innumerable souls, which at that time and at succeeding times were to come to the Catholic faith. On this feast of the Incarnation, however, this privilege was made still more extensive; for on these days She merited for many kingdoms, provinces and nations the blessings and favors they have received in being called to the holy Church. Those that have persevered more faithfully in the Church are so much the greater debtors to the petitions and merits of the heavenly Mother. But it has especially been shown me, that on the day on which She celebrated the Incarnation, She liberated all the souls from purgatory; and that from heaven, where this favor was granted to the Queen of all creation and the Mother of the Redeemer, She sent the angels to bring them to Her in order that She might offer them as the fruit of the Incarnation to the eternal Father. For in that mystery He had sent his Onlybegotten Son to regain for Him the souls from the tyranny of their enemies. For all these souls Mary composed new canticles of praise, and in the jubilee of having thus augmented the heavenly court of heaven She returned to the earth, where She continued her thanksgiving with her accustomed humility. This miracle is not at all incredible, for it is not strange that on the day on which the most holy Mary was raised to the immense dignity of Mother of God and Mistress of all creation, all the treasures of the Divinity should be opened to the children of Adam, her brethren and her children; for on that same day the Divinity itself was poured out on Her, entering her womb and uniting Itself hypostatically with the substance derived from Her. She alone in her wisdom could worthily appreciate this blessing special to Her and for the common good of all.

 

656. The solemnity of the birth of Christ her Son She celebrated in still another manner. On the evening before She commenced with the exercises, hymns and other devotions as for the other feasts; and at the hour of the Birth, her divine Son descended with myriads of angels and in glorious majesty as on other occasions. He was accompanied also by the patriarchs saint Joachim, saint Anne, saint Joseph and saint Elisabeth, the mother of the Baptist, as well as other saints. Then the angel at the command of the Lord raised Her from the ground and placed Her at his divine right hand amid celestial harmony, rehearsing the hymn of glory as on the day of Nativity and other canticles, which the Lady herself had composed in honor of this mystery and in praise of God's infinite perfections. After having united with them in these praises for a long time, the heavenly Mother, with the permission of her Son, descended from the throne and prostrated Herself anew at his feet. In this posture She adored Him in the name of all the human race and thanked Him for his having been born into the world for their salvation. In addition to this thanksgiving She prayed most fervently for all men, especially for the children of the Church, urging the weakness of human nature, its need of grace and divine help for raising itself and for meriting eternal life. As an argument She alleged the mercy of the Lord in being born for their salvation, the poverty of his Birth, the labors and hardships it entailed, how He was nursed at her breast and cherished by Her as his Mother, and how many were the other works connected with these mysteries. This prayer was accepted by her Son, our Savior; and in the presence of all the angels and saints that accompanied Him, He acknowledged his obligation to listen to the charitable pleadings of his most blessed Mother for her people. Again He confirmed Her as Mistress and Dispenser of all his treasures of grace and commissioned Her to apply and distribute them to men according to her pleasure. This the most prudent Lady proceeded to do with admirable wisdom and to the immense benefit of the Church. At the close of this solemnity of the birth of Christ She begged all the saints to praise the Lord for the mystery of His birth in her name and for all the other mortals. She then asked the blessing of her divine Son, who in giving it, returned to heaven.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE GREAT LADY OF THE ANGELS, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME.

 

657. My daughter and disciple, I desire that thy admiration in writing of the mysteries of my life and holiness induce thee to praise the Omnipotent for his liberality toward Me; and thy confidence in my powerful intercession and protection should raise thee above thyself. But if thou art astonished that my divine Son should thus add grace upon grace and gifts upon gifts, and that He should visit me so frequently and raise me to his presence in heaven, remember what thou hast already recorded concerning my depriving myself of the beatific vision for the sake of governing the Church. And even if this charity had not merited this recompense during my mortal life, He was ready, on account of my being his Mother and He my Son, to work such wonders with me as are beyond created thought and were due to no other creature. The dignity of Mother of God so far exceeds the sphere of all the other creatures, that it would be base ignorance on the part of men to deny me favors greater than those bestowed upon other saints. Taking human flesh of my substance carried with it such an obligation in the eternal Word, that (according to thy mode of understanding) God himself could not meet it, without a return adequate to his Omnipotence and corresponding fully to my capacity of receiving. This power of God is infinite and inexhaustible, and will always remain so; but that which God communicates, is finite and limited. I, too, am a mere created being, and in comparison with the being of God, all created beings are nothing.

 

658. In addition to this, on my part, I placed no obstacle, but deserved the unlimited and unrestrained liberality of the Omnipotent in all his gifts, graces and favors as far as they could be communicated to a creature. As these, notwithstanding their wonderful greatness, were always finite and the power and essence of God is always infinite and without limit, it can easily be understood how I could accumulate grace upon grace and blessings upon blessings. And not only was I capable of thus receiving, but it was equitable that I should thus receive, in order that I might correspond with entire perfection to his marvelous work of making me the Mother of God; for none of his works remain imperfect or defective. Since this dignity of being made the Mother of God contains all graces as in their origin and fount, therefore, as soon as men know me to be Mother of God, they implicitly also know, as in their cause, the perfections due to such excellence in dignity. It was left to the devotion, piety and good will of the faithful to earn the regard of my divine Son and my protection, by searching properly into my holiness and gifts and by recording and confessing them in evidence of their devotion and my dignity. For this purpose, special knowledge and enlightenment has been given to many saints, to authors and writers, besides special revelations to others concerning some favors and privileges conceded to me by the Almighty.

 

659. As nevertheless many of the mortals, even the zealous ones, have been timid in this matter, and others, in their want of piety, unduly sluggish, my divine Son has, in his fatherly condescension and at the time most opportune for his holy Church, manifested to them these hidden mysteries, without depending upon human insight and knowledge, but upon the enlightenment of his own truth, in order that they might gather new joy and hope from the knowledge of my privileges, and give to the Almighty new glory and praise for the blessings coming from me and from the works of the Redemption.

 

660. I wish, my daughter, that thou consider thyself more under this obligation than all the rest of men, since I have chosen thee for my special disciple and daughter, in order that, by the writing of my life, thy heart may be raised to a more ardent and anxious desire to imitate and follow me. The lesson of this chapter for thee should be, that thou follow me in the ineffable thanksgiving for the blessed Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word in my womb. Write in thy heart this marvel of the Omnipotent, in order never to forget it, and signalize especially the days corresponding to the mysteries which thou hast there described. In them and in my name I desire that thou celebrate this festivity with great fervor and joy of thy soul, thanking God in the name of all mortals for his having become incarnate in me for their salvation; and also praising Him for having raised me to the dignity of being his Mother. And remember that nothing ever caused so much astonishment in the saints and angels, who have a knowledge of the infinite essence of God, than to see Him united to the human nature; and, although they continue to understand more and more of this mystery, there will always remain more to find out through all the ages.

 

661. In order that thou mayest properly renew and celebrate these benefits of the Incarnation and Nativity of my divine Son, thou must try to acquire humility and purity as of an angel; for by these virtues thy thanksgiving will be pleasing to the Lord and by them thou wilt in a measure give some return for his having made Himself of thy nature. Ponder deeply how heavy are the sins of men who, while having Christ as their Brother, fall from such excellence and neglect their obligations. Consider thyself as a portrait or image of the Godman, and that any kind of sin is equivalent to thy despising it and blotting it out of thy soul. This new dignity to which human nature was raised is much forgotten by the children of Adam and they refuse to forsake their old habits and miseries in order to put on Christ (Rom. 13, 14). But thou, my daughter, forget the house of thy father and thy people (Ps. 44, 11), and seek to renew thyself with the beauty of thy Savior, in order that thou mayest be pleasing in the eyes of the supreme King.

 

CHAPTER XV.

 

OTHER FEAST DAYS CELEBRATED BY THE MOST BLESSED MARY IN MEMORY OF THE CIRCUMCISION, THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS, HER PURIFICATION, THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD, HIS FAST, THE INSTITUTION OF BLESSED SACRAMENT, HIS PASSION AND RESURRECTION.

 

662. In renewing the memory of the mysteries of the life and death of Christ the Savior, our great Queen sought not only to give worthy thanks for Herself and for the whole of the human race, in order, as the Teacher of all holiness and wisdom, to lead the Church to this holy science of gratitude; but besides fulfilling this debt of thanks, She also sought to draw down God's infinite bounty and merciful clemency to meet the weakness and misery of the human kind. The most prudent Mother knew that her divine Son and the eternal Father were much repelled by the sins of mortals, and that at the tribunal of his mercy they had no other claim than the infinite charity by which God had lovingly reconciled them to Him though they were sinners and his enemies (Rom. 5, 8). As Christ our Savior had accomplished this reconciliation by his works and the mysteries of his life and death, the heavenly Lady thought these very days, on which the works of Christ had been performed, most convenient and proper for multiplying her prayers to the Omnipotent, beseeching Him to show his love for love's sake to call them to his faith and friendship, and to justify them for no other reason than because He had himself merited and gained for them justification and life everlasting.

 

663. Never will either men or angels fully know what a debt the world owes to the maternal piety of this great Lady and Queen. The many favors which She received at the hands of the Almighty each time She was admitted to beatific vision in her mortal flesh, were blessings not only for Her, but also for us; for on those occasions her divine knowledge and charity reached the highest possible degree in a created being and in the same degree did She desire the glory of the Most High in the salvation of the rational creatures. As She was yet in the state of a pilgrim and thus could merit and gain their salvation, her loving anxieties lest souls lose the enjoyment of God overflowed all bounds in her purest heart. Hence She suffered a martyrdom prolonged through her whole life and it would have consumed her vital forces each hour and each instant, if the power of God had not prevented it; for the thought that so many souls should damn themselves and be eternally deprived of the vision and enjoyment of God, and, in addition to this, that they should suffer the eternal torments of hell, without further hope of the remedy which they had despised, was really a martyrdom to Her.

 

664. This lamentable misfortune caused an immense sorrow to the sweetest Mother, because She alone recognized and weighed it fully in her wisdom. She was filled with a corresponding charity, and would have suffered without any relief, if She had been left only to the influences of her love and merely to the consideration of what the Lord had done and suffered for rescuing men from eternal damnation. But the Lord foresaw and provided against this deadly sorrow in his most faithful Mother; therefore He at times miraculously preserved her life; at others He withdrew her mind from it by diverse enlightenments; at others again He revealed to Her the secrets of the eternal predestination, in order that her heart might be quieted by seeing into the equity of his divine Justice. All these and other measures were applied by Christ the Savior in order that his most blessed Mother might not die at the sight of the sins and the eternal damnation of the reprobate. And if this unhappy and calamitous fate of sinners as foreseen by the heavenly Lady, could so afflict her purest heart, and if it could so move her divine Son, that He subjected Himself for their salvation to the sufferings and death of the Cross, what words can describe the blind foolishness of those men, who so senselessly rush upon their irreparable and never sufficiently to be dreaded ruin of their souls?

 

665. But the manner in which our Savior and Master Jesus alleviated the sorrows of his beloved Mother, was by listening to her petitions and prayers for mortals, by showing his appreciation of her love, by offering Her his treasures and infinite merits, by constituting Her his principal almoner, and by consigning into Her hands the free and loving distribution of all the treasures of his mercy and grace, and thus bring succor to the souls whom in her deep science She knew to be in greatest need thereof. These promises of the Lord to his most blessed Mother, as well as the solicitude and prayers of the loving Queen, were of ordinary and constant occurrence; and they were still more notable on the festivals commemorating the mysteries of her divine Son. For the day of the Circumcision She commenced her exercises at the same hour as at the other feasts; and the incarnate Word descended to her oratory with the same majesty and accompanied by the angels and the saints. As this mystery consisted in his beginning to shed his blood for men and in his subjecting Himself to the law of sinners as if He were one of them, the acts of his most pure Mother in commemoration of that great condescension and clemency were ineffable.

 

666. The great Mother humiliated Herself to the lowest depths; She lovingly compassioned the sufferings of the Child-God in such a tender age; She thanked Him for this blessing conferred upon all the children of Adam; She bewailed the universal forgetfulness and want of appreciation of the blood shed for the rescue of all. And, as if ashamed in the presence of her divine Son for not having paid her debts, She offered her own life and her own blood in satisfaction and in imitation of her Master's example. She spent that whole day in sweet converse and colloquy reiterating her desires and petitions. Yet, though the Lord accepted her offerings, it was not befitting to let Her actually pay all the sacrifices of her inflamed love. Therefore She added other inventions of her charity toward the mortals. She besought her divine Son to divide his gifts, caresses and favors among all the children of men; She begged that She alone be singled out to suffer for his love; that all should share in the reward, all should taste the sweetness of the divine Spirit, that all might be induced to enter the path of eternal life, and none be lost in eternal death, since their God himself became man and suffered for the very purpose of drawing all men to Himself (John 12, 32). Then She offered to the eternal Father the blood, which his Son shed in the Circumcision and his humility in allowing Himself to be circumcised in his sinlessness. After She had thus exercised acts of incomparable perfection and adored Him as true God and man, her divine Son gave Her his blessing and returned to the right hand of the eternal Father in heaven.

 

667. To prepare for the feast of the Magi She began her devotions some days before, in order as it were to get ready some presents to offer to the incarnate Word. The principal offering of the Queen were the souls brought to a state of grace and called by Her the gold. For this purpose to obtain this gift of gold She availed Herself of the services of the holy angels, ordering them to lead numerous souls to the knowledge and belief of the true God by special and powerful inspirations. This result was brought about by their ministry and much more by her own prayers and petitions, so that She drew many from sin, brought others to the faith and to Baptism, and snatched others from the talons of the infernal dragon at the hour of death. To this gift She then added the gift of myrrh, which were her prostrations in the form of a cross, her humiliations, and other exercises of penance, by which She prepared Herself so as to present her own Self as myrrh before her God. Her third offering was the incense of her inflamed and soaring love, her words and ejaculations, and other promptings of her affection, so full of wisdom and sweetness.

 

668. In order to receive these offerings, her divine Son, on the day and hour of the mystery, descended with innumerable angels and saints. In their presence, and inviting all the courtiers of heaven to assist, She made her offering accompanying it with wonderful adoration, worship and love; and with the offering She combined a fervent prayer for all the mortals. Then She was taken up to the throne of her Son and true God and made to share the glory of his sacred humanity in an ineffable manner. She was divinely united with it and as it were transfigured by its splendors and translucency. A few times, in order to moderate the conflagration of her love, the Lord himself embraced Her and permitted Her to recline upon his arms. These favors are such as cannot be described in words; for the Omnipotent sought each day to exhaust upon Her the treasures of his blessings, old and new (Matth. 13, 52).

 

669. After receiving these favors, She descended from the throne and supplicated the Lord for mercy upon mankind. She concluded her petitions by a canticle of praise in the name of all and She asked the saints to accompany Her in all this. On this day also a wonderful thing happened; namely, at the end of this feast She asked all the Patriarchs and Saints present to intercede for Her with the Almighty, that He might assist and govern Her in all his works. For this purpose She went from one to the other repeating her request and as if humbly kissing their hands. Her divine Son, ineffably pleased, permitted Her to exercise her humility also before her parents, and before the Patriarchs and Prophets related to Her. But this demonstration of her humility was not extended to the angels, because they were her ministers and not in the same relations with Her as her holy forebears. These heavenly spirits attended upon Her in another way, namely serving Her in these exercises.

 

670. Then the Queen celebrated the Baptism of Christ our Lord with magnificent thanksgiving for his submitting to be baptized Himself and thus establishing this Sacrament. After offering her prayers for the Church She withdrew to fast for the forty following days in order to commemorate the fast of the Lord and of Herself after his Baptism, as I have recorded in its place. During these forty days She did not sleep, or eat, or leave her retreat, unless some great necessity of the Church demanded her presence. Her only intercourse was with saint John when receiving holy Communion, or when She was obliged to despatch some business for the government of the Church. The beloved disciple was also more solicitous in his attendance upon Her, absenting himself rarely from the Cenacle. He relieved the numerous persons who sought help in their necessities, and he cured the sick by applying some article, which had been used by the powerful Queen. Many possessed by demons also came, and some of them were freed before arriving; for the demons dared" not linger within the bodies of those that approached the dwelling of most holy Mary. Others of the demons cast themselves into the abyss as soon as the possessed were touched by the cloak, or the veil, or some other article belonging to the Queen. If any of the demons still resisted, the Evangelist called the blessed Lady, at whose presence they fled without waiting for further commands.

 

671. It would be necessary to write many books, if all the miracles and works of the great Queen during these forty days were to be recorded: for, if She did not sleep, or eat, or rest, who can estimate what She in her great solicitude and activity accomplished during so long a time? It is enough to know, that She applied and offered up all for the increase of the Church, the justification of souls, the conversion of the world, and to assist the Apostles and disciples preaching the Gospel throughout the earth. At the end of this Lent her divine Son regaled Her with a banquet similar to the one brought by the angels to Him at the end of his fast, as I have described in its place. Only this one was more splendid, since at it was present the glorified Savior, full of majesty and accompanied by myriads of angels, some of them serving, others singing in divine and celestial harmonies; and the Lord himself furnished what was eaten by his most blessed Mother. This day was very delightful to Her, more on account of the presence of her divine Son and his tokens of love, than on account of the exquisite nectars and mannas of heaven. In thanksgiving She prostrated Herself and asked his benediction, adoring the Lord; and He, having given it to Her, returned to the celestial regions. During all these apparitions of the Lord Christ, the pious Mother performed great and heroic acts of humility, submission and veneration, kissing the feet of her Son, acknowledging Herself unworthy of those favors, and asking for new graces in order to serve Him better in the future.

 

672. Possibly there may be those, who in their human prudence, will consider as rather frequent these apparitions of the Lord, which I have described for so many occasions. But those who think so, will have to show what is the measure of the holiness of the Mistress of grace and virtue and the reciprocal love of such a Mother and Son, and they will be obliged to tell us how far these favors exceed the measure due tc the circumstances. They forget, that both faith and reason convince us, that this measure goes far beyond all human estimate. As for myself, the light in which I see these things excludes all doubt, and moreover it should suffice for anyone to consider, that each day, each hour and moment, Christ our Savior descends from heaven, wherever in all the world a priest legitimately consecrates the sacred Host in the Mass. I say, that He descends not only by a bodily motion, but by the change of bread and wine into his sacred body and blood. Though this descent happens in a different manner, which I will not gainsay or dispute; yet the holy Catholic faith teaches me, that the same Christ is actually present and remains in the consecrated host. This wonder the Lord performs thus frequently for men and for their welfare, notwithstanding that there are so many unworthy ones, and some even among those who consecrate. If anyone can induce Him to continue this favor, it is no one else than the most blessed Mary, for whom He will do it and for whom He has principally begun to do it, as I have explained elsewhere. Hence it is not astonishing that He should have visited Her personally so many times; since She alone was able and knew how to merit it not only for Herself, but for all the rest of us.

 

673. After the fast the great Lady celebrated the feast of her Purification and the Presentation of the infant God in the temple. In order that She might make this offering and that God might accept it, the most blessed Trinity appeared in her oratory with his heavenly court. To prepare Her for offering up the incarnate Word, the angels vested and adorned Her with the same garments and jewels, as I have described for the feast of the Incarnation. Then she offered up a comprehensive prayer, in which She supplicated for the whole human race and especially for the Church. The reward for this prayer and for the humility, with which She subjected Herself to the law of the purification as well as for her other exercises, was a new increase of grace, new gifts and favors for Herself, and for others great helps and blessings.

 

674. The memory of the Passion, the institution of the blessed Sacrament, and of the Resurrection She celebrated not only every week, as described above, but also on the anniversaries of their happening. Each year She observed their commemoration in the manner as is now done in the Church in the Holy Week. Besides the exercises of each week She added many others; and on Good Friday, at the hour in which Christ was crucified, She placed Herself upon a cross and there remained for three hours. She renewed all the prayers of the Lord, with all the sorrows and mysteries of that day. But on the following Sunday, which corresponds to the Resurrection, She was raised by the holy angels to the empyrean heavens where during that day She enjoyed the beatific vision, while on the ordinary Sundays her vision of the Godhead was abstractive.

 

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF THE ANGELS GAVE ME.

 

675. My daughter, the divine Spirit, whose wisdom and prudence governs the holy Church, through my intercession has ordained, that in it so many different feasts should be celebrated, not only in order that proper thanks should be given to the Creator and Redeemer for the works of the Redemption, of my life, and of the saints, and that the blessings, which never can be properly repaid, may not be forgotten by mankind; but also in order that these solemnities might afford men an opportunity of attending to holy exercises and of recollecting themselves interiorly by withdrawing from the solicitudes of temporal affairs; and in order that they might, by the exercise of virtue and the good use of the Sacraments, repair the losses sustained by their distractions, imitate the virtues and the lives of the saints, solicit my intercession, merit the forgiveness of their sins and gain the graces and favors held in readiness by the divine mercy in these mysteries.

 

676. This is the spirit of the holy Church, by which She desires to govern and nourish her children as a devoted mother. And I, who am Mother of them all, sought to attract and bind them to the secure path of their salvation. But the insinuations of the infernal serpent have always (and especially in the unhappy times in which thou livest) tended to pervert these holy ends of the Lord and mine, and when he cannot pervert the order of the holy Church, he exerts himself to prevent the greater part of the faithful from being benefited by her institutions and strives to induce many to convert them into greater guilt for their condemnation. And the same demon will stand as their accuser at the tribunal of the divine justice; for on the days of greatest solemnity and festivity men not only fail to enter into the spirit of the Church by employing them in works of virtue and in worship of their God; but just on those days they commit the most grievous sins, as is ordinarily the case with carnal and worldly men. Certainly most outrageous and reprehensible is the common forgetfulness and contempt of this duty in the children of the Church, when they profane the sacred and holy days by spending them in diversion and play, in excessive and disorderly eating and drinking, irritating the justice of the Almighty instead of appeasing Him, in succumbing to their invisible enemies instead of vanquishing them, and in permitting them to triumph in their pride and malice.

 

677. Do thou, my daughter, bewail this damage, since I cannot bewail it now in the same way as I have done it in mortal life; and exert thyself to assist thy brethren in overcoming this widespread carelessness. And although the life of the religious should differ from that of seculars so as to have no distinction of days and to apply every day for the divine worship, for prayer and holy exercises, as thou shouldst teach thy subjects; yet I desire thee to celebrate with them the feasts of the Lord and mine by a more careful preparation and purity of conscience. I wish thee to fill all thy days and thy nights with works holy and pleasing in the sight of the Lord; but on the festivals thou shouldst add other interior and exterior exercises. Excite the fervor of thy heart, recollect thyself, and if it seems to thee that thou art doing much, labor still more earnestly to make certain thy vocation and election (II Pet. 1, 10), nor ever omit any exercise out of negligence. Consider that the days are evil (Ephes. 5, 6), and that life disappears like a dream (Ps. 143, 4). Live very carefully in order that thou mayest not be found without merit, holy deeds and perfect works. To each hour assign its legitimate occupation, as thou hast seen me do it, and as I have many times admonished and taught thee.

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