Places in The Gospel as it was revealed to me

35.1 My spirit sees the following scene.

It is night. Joseph is sleeping in his little bed in his very small room: the peaceful sleep of a man after a hard day’s honest and diligent work.

I can see him in the dark room, because a thin ray of moonlight filters in through the window shutters left ajar, either because Joseph is too warm in the little room or because he wants to be woken by the early rays of light at daybreak and get up at once. He is lying on one side and is smiling at some vision he sees in his dream.

But his smile turns into an expression of anxiety. He is now sighing deeply as if he had a nightmare and he awakes with a start. He sits up on his bed, rubs his eyes and looks around. He looks at the little window where the feeble light comes in. It is the dead of night but he grasps his robe, which is lying at the bottom of the bed, and still sitting on the bed he pulls it on over the white short-sleeved tunic he is wearing next to his skin. He pulls the blanket away, puts his feet on the floor and looks for his sandals. He puts them on and ties them. He stands up and goes towards the door facing his bed, not the one at the side of his bed leading into the large room where the Magi were received.

He knocks very gently, a very soft knocking with the tips of his fingers. He must have heard a voice asking him to enter because he opens the door carefully and sets it ajar without making any noise. Before going to the door he has lit a small single flame oil lamp, and lights his way with it. He goes in. The room is a little larger than his own, and there is a low bed in it, near a cradle, with a night lamp in a corner, the flickering flame of which seems like a little star with a soft golden light that allows one to see without disturbing anyone sleeping.

• Locations - Anne of Bethlehem Hospital House

35.6 Come, Mary, it is starting to dawn. It is time to say goodbye to our hostess and load our things. Everything will be alright.»

Mary gets up obediently. She puts on Her mantle while Joseph makes up a last parcel and goes out with it.

Mary lifts the Child gently, wraps Him in a shawl and clasps Him to Her heart. She looks at the walls that have given Her hospitality for some months and She touches them caressingly with one hand. Happy house, that deserved to be loved and blessed by Mary!

She goes out. She goes through Joseph’s little room, into the large room. The landlady, in tears, kisses Her goodbye and, lifting the edge of the shawl, she kisses the forehead of the Child Who is sleeping calmly. They go down the outside steps.

• Locations - Anne of Bethlehem Hospital House

• Holy Family
• Jesus Christ
• Jesus as a child
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Places - Matarea
• Summary of EMV
• The Virgin Mary

36.1 The sweet vision of the Holy Family. The place is in Egypt. I have no doubt because I see the desert and a pyramid.

I see a small house with a single floor, a ground floor, completely white. A poor house of very poor people. The walls are just plastered and whitewashed. There are two doors, one near the other, leading into the only two rooms of the house which, for the time being, I do not enter. The little house is in the middle of a small piece of sandy ground, enclosed by a fence of canes fixed into the ground, a very weak protection against thieves; it can only be used as a protection against cats or stray dogs. On the other hand, who would think of stealing where it is quite visible that there is not even the shadow of riches?

The little piece of ground, enclosed by the cane hedge, has been patiently cultivated as a little garden, notwithstanding that the earth is arid and poor. In order to make the hedge a little thicker and less scanty, they have grown some creepers which appear to be modest convolvuli, only on one side there is a shrub of jasmine in full bloom and a bush of common roses. In the kitchen garden I see some very modest vegetables in the centre under a tall plant which I do not recognise and which gives some shade to the arid ground and to the little house. A little black and white goat is tied to the plant and it is browsing on the leaves of some branches thrown on the ground.

• Places - Matarea

I see that on the front of the house the hedge is broken by a rustic gate, which Mary opens to go out onto the road. It is a poor road at the end of a town or a village, whatever it may be, where it ends up with the country that here is formed of sand and some other houses, as poor as this one, with some scanty kitchen gardens.

I do not see anybody. Mary looks towards the centre of the town not towards the country, as if She were waiting for someone; She then moves towards a vessel or well, whatever it may be, which is some ten metres further up, and on which some palm trees form a shady circle. Over there some green can be seen on the ground.

• Places - Matarea

(...) He moves towards the house, while Mary goes to the fountain to fill Her amphora.

After entering the enclosure of the house, Joseph puts the Child down, takes Mary’s loom into the house, and then he milks the goat. Jesus watches all these activities carefully and in particular the closing of the little goat in a little closet in one side of the house.

It is now getting dark. I can see the red of the sunset becoming violet on the sands which seem to be trembling because of the heat. The pyramid looks darker.

Joseph goes into the house, into a room which must be his workshop, the kitchen, the dining room all in one. The other room is obviously the bedroom. But I do not go in there. The fire is lit in a low fireplace. There is a carpenter’s bench, a small table, some stools, some shelves with two oil lamps and some kitchenware on them. In a corner, there is Mary’s loom. And a great deal of order and cleanliness. A very poor dwelling, but very clean.

• Places - Matarea

• Holy Family
• Jesus Christ
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Locations - Nazareth
• Summary of EMV

• Alphée de Jacob (father of James and Jude d'Alphée and uncle of Jesus)
• James of Alphaeus (apostle)
• Jesus as a child
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Jude of Alphée (apostle)
• Locations - House of Nazareth
• Summary of EMV

38.2 I see the room where they usually eat their meals and where Mary works at Her loom or needlework. The room is near Joseph’s workshop and I can hear the sound of his working. Here instead there is silence. Mary is sewing some strips of wool which She has certainly woven Herself; they are about a metre and a half wide and twice as long and I think they will be used to make a mantle for Joseph.

From the door which opens onto the kitchen garden, ruffled hedges of little daisies can be seen; their colour is violet blue and they are normally called «Maries: or «starry Sky.» I do not know their botanical name. They are in full bloom and consequently it must be autumn. But the green is still thick and beautiful on the plants and from two beehives leaning against a sunny wall, bees are flying in the bright sunshine buzzing and dancing, going from a fig-tree to the vines, and then to a pomegranate-tree full of its round fruits, some of which have already burst from excessive growth and show the strings of juicy rubies, lined up inside the green-red casket divided into yellow sections.

• Locations - House of Nazareth

• Holy Family
• Jesus as a child
• Joseph d'Alphée
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)
• Locations - House of Nazareth
• Simon d'Alphée
• Summary of EMV
• The Virgin Mary