Marie as a child

5.5 The women arrive jubilant with a plump little baby wrapped in plain linen.

It is Mary, the Mother. A very tiny Mary, who could sleep in the arms of a child, a Mary as long, at the most, as an arm, with a little head of ivory dyed pale pink. Her tiny carmine lips no longer cry but are set in the instinctive act of sucking: they are so small that one cannot understand how they will be able to take a teat. Her pretty little nose is between two tiny round cheeks, and when they get Her to open Her eyes, by teasing Her, they see two small parts of the sky, two innocent blue points that look but cannot see, between thin fair eyelashes. Also Her hair on Her little round head is a pinkish blond, like the colour of certain honeys which are almost white.

Her ears are two small shells, transparent, perfect. Her tiny hands… what are those two little things groping in the air and ending up in Her mouth? Closed, as they are now, they are two rose buds that split the green of their sepals and show their silk within. When they are open, as now, they are two ivory jewels, made of pink ivory and alabaster with five pale garnets as nails. How will those two tiny hands be able to dry so many tears?

And Her little feet? Where are they? For the time being they are just kicking, hidden in the linen. But now the relative sits down and uncovers Her… Oh, the little feet! They are about four centimetres long. Each sole is a coral shell, with a snow white top veined in blue. Her toes are masterpieces of Lilliputian sculpture: they, too, are crowned with small scales of pale garnet. But where will they find small sandals, when those little feet of a doll will take their first steps, sandals small enough to fit such tiny feet? And how will those little feet be able to go such a long way and bear so much pain under the cross?

But that for the time being is not known, and the onlookers smile and laugh at her kicking, at Her well shaped legs, at Her minute plumpish thighs that form dimples and rings, at Her little tummy, a cup turned upside-down, at Her tiny perfect chest. Under the skin of Her breast, as soft as fine silk, the movement of Her breathing can be seen and the beating of Her little heart can be heard, if, as Her happy father is doing now, one lays one’s lips there for a kiss… This is the most beautiful little heart the world will ever know: the only immaculate heart of a human being.

And Her back? They are now turning Her over and they can see the curve of Her kidneys and then the plump shoulders and the pink nape of Her neck, which is so strong that the little head lifts itself up on the arch of the minute vertebrae. It looks like the little head of a bird that scans the new world that it views. She, the Pure and Chaste One, protests with a little cry at being thus exposed to the eyes of so many, She, Entirely Virgin, the Holy and Immaculate, Whom no man will ever see nude again, protests.

Cover, do cover this bud of a lily which will never be opened on earth and which, still remaining a bud, will bear its Flower, even more beautiful than Herself. Only in Heaven the Lily of the Triune Lord will open all its petals. Because up there, there is no particle of fault that may unwillingly profane its spotlessness. Because up there the Triune God is to be received, in the presence of the whole Empyrean, the Triune God that within a few years, hidden in a faultless heart, will be in Her: Father, Son, Spouse.

Here She is again, in Her linen, in the arms of Her earthly father, whom She resembles. Not at the moment. Now She is just the sketch of a human. I mean that She will be like him when She has grown into a woman. She has nothing of Her mother. She has Her father’s colour of complexion and eyes and certainly also his hair. His hair is now white, but when he was young it was definitely fair, as one can tell from his eyebrows. She has Her father’s features, made more perfect and gentle, being a woman, but that special Woman. She has also the smile, the glance, the way of moving and height of Her father. Thinking of Jesus, as I see Him, I find Anne has given her height to her Grandson and her deep ivory colour to His skin. Mary, instead, has not the stateliness of Her mother: a tall and supple palm-tree, but She has the kindness of Her father.

• Marie as a child
• The Virgin Mary

Anne is carrying the Baby, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes, or rather, all tied up in a wide garment of light wool, which, however, must be soft and warm. It is impossible to describe how carefully and lovingly she carries and watches her little creature, lifting the edge of the fine warm cloth to see if Mary is breathing freely, and then she readjusts it to protect Her from the sharp air of a clear but cold winter day.

• Marie as a child
• The Virgin Mary

6.2 «The Lord has loved you very much…» says Elizabeth sighing.

«And that is why I am giving Him the thing I love most. This flower of mine.»

«How will you be able to tear it from your heart when the time comes?»

«Remembering that I did not have her and that God gave her to me. I shall always be happier now than then. When I know She is in the Temple I will say to myself: “She is praying near the Tabernacle, She is praying the God of Israel also for Her mummy” and I will have peace. And a greater peace I will have in saying: “She belongs entirely to Him. When these two old but happy parents, who received Her from Heaven, are no longer alive, He, the Eternal, will still be Her Father”. Believe me, I am fully convinced, this little creature is not ours. I was not able to do anything more… He put Her in my bosom, a divine gift to wipe away my tears and fulfil our hopes and our prayers. That is why She belongs to Him. We are the happy guardians… and may He be blessed for this!»

• Consecrated souls
• Family martyrdom
• Giving thanks to God
• God the Father
• Marie as a child
• Offer everything to God
• Parents and children

Zacharias whispers something to his colleague, who nods smiling. He then approaches the group, which has reassembled, and as he congratulates the mother and father on their joy and their loyalty to the promises, he is given the second lamb, the flour and the cakes.

«So this daughter is sacred to the Lord? May His blessing be with Her and with you. Here is Anna. She will be one of Her teachers. Anna of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. Come here, woman. This little one is offered to the Temple as a victim of praise. You will be Her teacher and She will grow holy under your guidance.»

Anna, already completely grey, fondles the Child, who has awakened and is looking with Her innocent and surprised eyes at all the white and gold lit up by the sun.

The ceremony must be over. I did not see any special rite for the offering of Mary. Perhaps it was sufficient to tell the priest, and above all God, at the sacred place.

6.5 «I would like to give the offering to the Temple and go over there where I saw the light last year.»

They go accompanied by Anna of Phanuel. They do not enter the actual Temple; since they are women and it is the case of a little girl, it is understandable that they do not even go where Mary went to offer Her Son. But very close to the wide open door, they look into the half-dark inside from which sweet songs of girls can be heard and where precious lamps are lit and spread a golden light on two flower beds of white veiled heads: two real flowerbeds of lilies.

«In three years’ time You will be there too, my Lily» promises Anne to Mary, Who looks fascinated at the inside and smiles at the slow song.

«You would say that She understands» says Anna of Phanuel. «She is a beautiful child! She will be as dear to me as if She were my own. I promise you, mother. If I shall be granted to be so.»

«You shall, woman» Zacharias says. «You will receive Her amongst the sacred girls. I also shall be there. I want to be there that day to tell Her to pray for us from the very first moment…» and he looks at his wife who understands and sighs.

The ceremony is over and Anna of Phanuel withdraws, while the others leave the Temple speaking to one another.

I hear Joachim say: «Not only two lambs and the best, but I would have given all my lambs for this joy and to praise God!»

I do not see anything else.

• Anne de Phanuël (mistress of the Virgin Mary in the Temple)
• Marie as a child
• The Virgin Mary

6.6 Jesus says:

«Solomon in his Wisdom says: “Whoever is childlike, let him come to me”. And really from the stronghold, from the walls of her city, Eternal Wisdom said to the Eternal Maiden: “Come to Me”, longing to have Her. Later the Son of the Most Pure Maiden will say: “Let little children come to Me because the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs, and those who do not become like them will not have any part in My Kingdom”. The voices follow one another and while the voice of Heaven cries to little Mary: “Come to Me”, the voice of Man says, and thinks of His Mother in saying so: “Come to Me if you can be like children”.

I give you My Mother as a model.

Here is the perfect Maiden with the pure and simple heart of a dove, here is the One Whom years and worldly contacts do not make defiant in the cruelty of a corrupted, twisted, false spirit. Because She does not want it. Come to Me, looking at Mary.

6.7 Since you see Her, tell me: Is Her glance as an infant very different from the one She had at the foot of the Cross or in the delight of Pentecost or when Her eyelids closed upon Her innocent eyes for Her last sleep? No. Here is the uncertain and astonished glance of an infant, then it will be the amazed and modest look of the Annunciation, and then the happy one of the Mother in Bethlehem, then the worshipping glance of My first and sublime Disciple, then the tormented one of the Tortured Mother on Golgotha, then the radiant glance of Resurrection and Pentecost, then the veiled look of the ecstatic sleep of the last vision. But whether it opens at the first sight, or closes tired on the last light, after seeing so much joy and horror, Her eye is the clear, pure, placid piece of the sky that always shines below Mary’s forehead. Wrath, falsehood, pride, lewdness, hatred, curiosity never soil it with their smoky clouds.

It is the eye that looks at God lovingly, whether it cries or laughs, and that for God’s sake fondles and forgives and bears everything, and by the love of God is rendered unassailable to the assaults of Evil, that so often makes use of the eye to penetrate the heart. It is the pure, restful, blessing eye that the pure, the saints, the lovers of God possess.

I said: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is cloudy, your whole body will be all darkness”. Saints possessed this eye which is the light for the soul and salvation for the flesh, because like Mary throughout their lives they looked only at God. Even more: they remembered God.

I will explain to you, My little voice, the meaning of My word.»

• Dictations of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in the EMV
• Marie as a child
• The Virgin Mary

7.1 I see Anne once again: since yesterday evening I see her in this way: sitting at the entrance of the shady pergola, busy with her needlework. She is wearing a grey sand coloured dress, a very simple one and very wide, probably because of the great heat.

At the end of the pergola the mowers can be seen cutting the hay. But it cannot be first-crop hay because the grapes are almost golden coloured and the fruits of a large apple-tree are like shiny yellow and red wax. The cornfield is nothing but stubble with poppies waving like tiny flames and stiff and clear cornflowers shaped like stars and as blue as the eastern sky.

A little Mary comes out from the shady pergola: She is already quick and independent. Her short step is steady and Her white sandals do not stumble amongst the pebbles. Her graceful gait already resembles the slightly undulating step of a dove, and She is all white — like a little dove — in Her linen dress which reaches down to Her ankles. It is a wide dress curled at the neck by a blue ribbon and the short sleeves show rosy and plump forearms. She looks like a little angel: Her hair is silky and honey-blonde, not very curly but gracefully wavy ending in curls: Her eyes are sky blue, Her sweet little face is rosy and smiling. Also the breeze that puffs through the shoulders of Her linen dress through Her wide sleeves makes her look like a little angel with wings half-open, ready to fly.

In Her hands she has poppies, cornflowers and other flowers that grow in cornfields, but I do not know their names. She is walking and when She is near Her mother She starts running, shouting joyfully and, like a little dove, She ends Her flight against Her mother’s knees who has opened them to receive Her. Anne has put her needlework aside so that She does not get pricked and has opened her arms to embrace Her.

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Marie as a child
• The Virgin Mary

So far until yesterday evening, and this morning She reappears and continues as follows.

«Mummy, Mummy!» The little white dove is completely in the nest of Her mother’s knees, touching the short grass with Her little feet and hiding Her face in Her mother’s lap, so that only Her golden hair can be seen on the nape of Her neck over which Anne bends to kiss it fondly.

7.2 Then She lifts Her head and offers Her mother flowers. They are all for Her mummy and for each one She tells the story She has invented.

“This blue and big one, is a star which has come down from Heaven to bring the kiss of the Lord to My mummy. Here: kiss this little celestial flower there, on its heart, and you will see that it tastes of God.

This other one, instead, which is a paler blue, like daddy’s eyes, has written on its leaves that the Lord loves daddy very much because he is good.

And this tiny little one, the only one to be found, (it is a myosote), is the one that God made to tell Mary that He loves Her.

And these red ones, does mummy know what they are? They are pieces of king David’s dress, stained with the blood of the enemies of Israel and sown on the battlefields and the fields of victory. They originate from those strips of the heroic regal dress torn in the struggle for the Lord.

Instead this white and gentle one, that seems to be made with seven silk cups looking up to the sky, full of perfumes, and that was growing over there, near the spring — daddy picked it for Her amongst the thorns — is made with the dress of Solomon. He wore it, so many many years before, in the same month in which his little granddaughter was born, when he walked in the midst of the multitudes of Israel before the Ark and the Tabernacle, in the splendid majesty of his robes. And he rejoiced because of the cloud which returned to encircle his glory, and he sang the canticle and the prayer of his joy.”

«I always want to be like this flower, and throughout My life, like the wise King, I want to sing canticles and prayers before the Tabernacle» end Mary.

«How do You know these holy things, my darling? Who told You? Your father?»

«No. I do not know who it is. I think I have always known them. Perhaps there is someone who tells Me and I do not see him. Perhaps one of the angels that God sends to speak to good people. »

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Bible - First Book of Kings
• David (biblical character)
• Joachim of David (father of the Virgin Mary)
• Marie as a child
• Salomon (biblical character)
• The Virgin Mary
• Words of the Virgin Mary

7.3 Mummy, will you tell Me another story?»

«Oh, my dear! Which story do You wish to know?»

Mary is thinking, deeply absorbed in Her thoughts. Her expression should be immortalized in a portrait. The shadows of Her thoughts are reflected on Her childish face. There are smiles and sighs, sunshine and clouds, thinking of the history of Israel. Then She makes up Her mind: «Once again the story of Gabriel and Daniel, where Christ is promised.»

And She listens, with Her eyes closed, repeating in a low voice the words Her mother says, as if to remember them better. When Anne finishes She asks: «How long will it be before we have the Immanuel?»

«About thirty years, my darling.»

«Such a long time! And I shall be in the Temple… Tell Me, if I should pray very hard, so hard, day and night, night and day, and I wanted to belong only to God, for all My life, for this purpose, would the Eternal Father grant Me the grace of sending the Messiah to His people sooner?»

«I do not know, my dear. The Prophet states: “Seventy weeks”. I do not think a prophecy can be wrong. But the Lord is so good» she hastens to add, seeing tears appear on the fair eyelashes of her child, «the Lord is so good that I believe that if You do pray very hard, so hard, He will hear Your prayer.»

A smile appears once again on Her little face, which She has lifted up towards Her mother and the rays of the sun, filtering through the vine branches cause Her tears to shine like dew-drops on very thin stems of alpine moss.

7.4 «Then I will pray and I shall be a virgin for this.»

«But do you know what that means?»

«It means that one does not know human love, but only the love of God. It means that one has no other thought but for the Lord. It means to remain children in the flesh and angels in the heart. It means that one has no eyes but to look at God, and ears to listen to Him, and a mouth to praise Him, hands to offer oneself as a victim, feet to follow Him fast, and a heart and a life to be given to Him.»

«May God bless You! But then You will never have any children, and yet You love babies and little lambs and doves so much… Do You know that? A baby is for his mother like a little white and curly lamb, he is like a little dove with silk feathers and a coral mouth to be loved and kissed and hear the words: “Mummy!”»

«It does not matter. I shall belong to God. I shall pray in the Temple. And perhaps one day I will see the Immanuel. The Virgin who is to be His Mother must be already born, as the great Prophet says, and She is in the Temple… I will be Her companion… and maidservant. Oh! Yes. If I could only meet Her, by God’s light, I would like to serve Her, the Blessed One. And then, She would bring Me Her Son, She would take Me to Her Son, and I would serve Him too… Just think, mummy!… To serve the Messiah!!» Mary is overcome by this thought that exalts Her and makes Her totally humble at the same time. With Her hands crossed over Her breast and Her little head slightly bent forward and flushed with emotion, She is like an infantile reproduction of the Annunciation that I saw. She resumes: «But will the King of Israel, the Lord’s Anointed, allow Me to serve Him?»

«Have no doubts about that. Does King Solomon not say: “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and countless maidens?” You can see that in the King’s palace there will be countless maidens serving the Lord.»

«Oh! You can see then that I must be a virgin? I must. If He wants a virgin as His Mother, it means that He loves virginity above all things. I want Him to love Me, His maiden, because of the virginity which will make Me somewhat like His beloved Mother… This is what I want… »

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Bible - Book of Daniel
• Daniel (biblical character)
• Marie as a child
• Messiah
• Saint Gabriel Archangel
• The Virgin Mary
• Words of the Virgin Mary

« I would also like to be a sinner, a big sinner, if I were not afraid of offending the Lord… Tell Me, mummy, can one be a sinner out of love of God?»

«But what are You saying, my dear? I don’t understand You.»

«I mean: to commit a sin in order to be loved by God, Who becomes the Saviour. He who is lost, is saved. Isn’t that so? I would like to be saved by the Saviour to receive His loving look. That is why I would like to sin, but not to commit a sin that would disgust Him. How can He save Me if I do not get lost?»

Anne is dumbfounded. She does not know what to say.

Joachim helps her. He has approached them walking noiselessly on the grass, behind the low hedge of vine-shoots. «He has saved You beforehand, because He knows that You love Him and You want to love Him only. So You are already redeemed and You can be a virgin as You wish» says Joachim.

«Is that true, daddy?» Mary embraces his knees and looks at him with Her clear blue eyes, so like Her father’s and so happy because of this hope She gets from Her father.

«It is true, my little darling. Look! I was just bringing You this little sparrow, that at its first flight landed near the spring. I could have left it there but its weak wings did not have enough strength to fly off again, and its tiny legs could not hold onto the slippery moss stones. It would have fallen into the water. But I did not wait for that. I took it and now I am giving it to You. You will do what you like with it. The fact is that it was saved before it fell into danger. God has done the same with You. Now, tell me, Mary: have I loved the sparrow more by saving it beforehand, or would I have loved it more saving it afterwards?»

«You have loved it now, because you did not let it get hurt in the cold water.»

«And God has loved You more, because He has loved You before You sinned.»

«And I will love Him wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly. My beautiful little sparrow, I am like you. The Lord has loved us both equally, by saving us… I will now rear you and then I will let you go. And you in the forest and I in the Temple will sing the praises of God, and we shall say: “Please send the One You promised to those who expect Him”. »

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Birds
• Character prophecies in the EMV
• Fishermen
• Immaculate Conception
• Joachim of David (father of the Virgin Mary)
• Love of the Virgin Mary
• Marie as a child
• Sauveur
• Sin
• The Virgin Mary and animals
• Words of the Virgin Mary

« Oh! Daddy, when will you take Me to the Temple?»

«Soon, my dear. But are You not sorry to leave Your father?»

«Yes, very much! But you will come… in any case, if it did not hurt, what sacrifice would it be?»

«And will You remember us?»

«I always will. After the prayer for the Immanuel I will pray for you. That God may give you joy and a long life… until the day He becomes the Saviour. Then I will ask Him to take you to the celestial Jerusalem.»

The vision ends with Mary tightly clasped in Her father’s arms.

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Consecrated virginity
• Family martyrdom
• Joachim of David (father of the Virgin Mary)
• Marie as a child
• Parents and children
• Sauveur
• Words of the Virgin Mary