Maria Valtorta and her work

The vision opens with birds attracted by the food near the caves. Jesus gives them breadcrumbs, and one bold bird even manages to take a piece of cheese. When the meal is over, Christ goes to wake the other apostles. Some are already ready, others are slower; John and Judas even have trouble getting up. Jesus goes to wake up his favorite, who, still fast asleep, takes him for his mother. Jesus laughs and gently wakes him up with a kiss on the cheek. The beloved disciple then wakes up completely, is surprised to see Jesus, and reveals to the Master what he has experienced in the cave. He had not come to see Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, during that week's retreat, but had come to Christ in the "Fire that is the Eternal Love of the Most Holy Trinity". After recounting his mystical experience to him, John asks not to say anything to his companions. Jesus agrees, and asks him to get ready for them to leave.

The Twelve are changed by this retreat: they are calmer, quieter, and more attentive to Christ's words. The soul has been king these last few days, and has made them grow: they are no longer children, but spiritual adolescents.

If Jesus were to remain with them, isolated from the world, he would soon turn them into great saints, but he must return to the world to fulfill the Father's Will. The Master will also send his apostles.

These are no longer the preferred disciples, but the apostles, the leaders of his Church. They will not be enough to accomplish everything, so they associate them with the disciples. They will all have the same mission, but their functions will be different. They will not all be perfect, nor will the spirit that animates them be eternal, for the world will tempt them, and they will have to defend themselves against temptation and against themselves.

The group now leaves the Gorge d'Arbel and heads for Tiberias for a few hours.

Jesus gives a short dictation to Maria, in which he points out that twenty centuries may have deprived the apostolic Gospel of certain parts. This does not harm the doctrine, but it does harm the ease of understanding the apostolic Gospel.

Jesus descends from the Gorges d'Arbel. Men and women are waiting for him, and Jesus performs miracles to reward their faith. Then they introduce him to the apostles and say that they will take care of the needs of the souls, while he goes to find others who are even more miserable than they are. Frightened, the apostles follow him, but Jesus encourages them to obey and assures them that they have incorporated his Word without their realizing it. Dejected, they watch the Master leave, but Thomas and James of Alphaeus encourage them to practice obedience, and Matthew encourages them to say a prayer to Wisdom rather than lament.

As soon as the Twelve have finished, the people join him and nag them with questions. In particular, they want to follow the Lord's way, even though they are like grandchildren. Simon the Zealot takes the floor and urges them to examine themselves, keeping in mind the cornerstone of their faith. This is immutable, since it comes from God. Then we must examine all the other stones to see if they are good, bad or useless. If they are bad and come from sensuality, hatred or Satan, they must be destroyed; if they come from God, they must be kept, and our spiritual edifice rebuilt with them. In short, we must demolish "in order to rebuild and to ascend by testing the quality of your old stones at the sound of God's voice."

John then goes on to encourage souls not to be afraid of the path of holiness, even if they are children. There are heroes of holiness like John the Baptist, but the Lamb of God knows that souls are not yet purified, so he himself shows us the way. And his way is love.

John's long speech impressed all present.

Hermas and Stephen listened to him, and Stephen blessed him. But John is very humble and appoints Peter as their leader (Simon de Jonas is stunned). When Stephen asks to follow Christ, Andrew's brother asks him to examine himself, to discern, and then to come to the Lord. In the meantime, he can stay with them to see how they live.

Mary is alone in Nazareth. A knock at the door. It's Aglaia asking for mercy in Jesus' name. Mary immediately welcomes her, but the young woman is in tears. She considers herself a nobody, but the Virgin gives her confidence and invites her to speak.

Aglaé confessed her whole life. She talks about her youth, her parents, her attraction to the shows in Syracuse. She tells of a Roman patrician in front of whom she danced almost naked. She confesses to having followed him to Rome, where she led a life of debauchery. The patrician having grown weary, she survived by exploiting her dancing talents. A dancing master took her in, perfected her art, then threw her into the corrupt patriarchy of Rome. Eventually, she was brought to Palestine, and her new master led her to Hebron, where she discovered who Jesus was.

She fled a little later and found Jesus at Belle-Eau. She is the veiled woman. But soon the Master is attacked. He has to leave, and Aglaé waits for him, only to be spotted by the Pharisees. So she went to Nazareth, but the Virgin was nowhere to be seen. So she goes to Capernaum, where she is offered to be Christ's lover, but she doesn't dare present herself to the Lord in this way. The young woman goes to Nazareth and confesses everything to him.

Mary is shocked by her story, but assures her that everything begins for this repentant soul, and welcomes her into her home. The Virgin also assures her of Christ's forgiveness and says she will entrust her to a friendly family. In the meantime, Aglaé will stay in Nazareth.

Jesus climbs the Horns of Hattin. There, he reaches a village where his disciples and apostles are waiting for him. They give him feedback on their first preaching. Peter emphasizes his two cousins and especially John; the beloved, for his part, says that Peter has spoken well.

After some discussion, Jesus tells them that he wants to speak to them alone. It is then agreed to wait for the people to go home before Christ teaches the Twelve and the other disciples. In the meantime, the Master goes off to pray, and when evening comes, everyone gathers around him.

Jesus then returns to the preaching of the others, and declares that those who have given the most are those who have forgotten themselves the most, thanks in part to their union with God. Others had scruples and were afraid of doing the wrong thing. So Jesus talks about the conditions for perfect discipleship. He explains that the apostles and those who follow him are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Finally, the Savior teaches that God's light must shine in them, and warns priests not to lose sight of their mission. Woe to those who lose charity, woe to those who reject Wisdom, woe to those who become spiritually dead, woe to those who corrupt Christ's little flock.

Jesus' speech ends here.

Jesus is on the Horns of Hattin. The crowd is now present, and Christ begins to speak to them. They asked him what the Kingdom of God is, what God is, and how to conquer Heaven, and Jesus patiently answered them, inviting them in particular to follow the Law and to love. Then Jesus talks about the gifts God had given Adam and Eve. In particular, the Lord speaks of the soul, the natural gifts of beauty, integrity, intelligence and will, as well as moral gifts and the submissiveness of the senses and reason. He goes on to speak of sanctifying grace, which is the "life of the soul": God shines in his creature and wants us to be with him in Heaven. In fact, Jesus speaks of the immortality of the soul, and states that he will erase the sin of original sin and restore grace to us.

The second part of his speech is about how to conquer Heaven. After pointing out that the Law exists, he encourages souls not to see the path to holiness in terms of threat ("woe is me if I don't do this"), but in terms of love ("blessed would I be if I did this"). He then goes on to set out the Beatitudes, developing them one by one, before bringing his speech to a close.

Jesus is still on the Horns of Hattin, continuing the Sermon on the Mount. First of all, the Lord reminds us that He does not change the Law one iota, because it was He Himself who gave it together with the Most Holy Trinity. However, Christ completes it, without overloading it as men do.

After defining the holy man, Christ goes on to say that he who follows one of the least commandments will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and he who violates one of the Commandments will be one of the least in the Celestial Kingdom. The Master warns against the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, and also warns people to beware of false prophets.

Jesus then returns to the subject of neighborly love, and outlines a number of features that we find in the Gospel: loving and forgiving, turning the other cheek, thinking that it is better for him to hit us than to hit someone who cannot bear it, and so on. He invites us to be generous, to give our tunic so that our brother doesn't commit a double theft if someone tries to steal something from us. Finally, Christ goes back on the saying: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", replacing it with love, and encourages us to be perfect like our heavenly Father, not to get angry or hold a grudge against our neighbor, but to be reconciled with him.

When the Master concludes his discourse, Jesus speaks of someone who hates him, and who dares not ask for the miracle. But when his apostles question him, he tells them that the scales had fallen from his eyes, not from his heart.

Jesus talks about oaths, fasting and prayer. In his sermon, he dwells on man's difficulty in being honest and on his false oaths: all too often, man is a perjurer, and he who demands an oath does not himself have much confidence in his neighbor. When we take an oath and swear to something, invoking that which is dearest to us, we deceive our neighbor: we are thieves, sacrilegious, traitors and homicidal. But we don't deceive God, who is Truth itself. Jesus therefore encourages people not to take false oaths, as in the Gospel, and he enjoins others not to swear on the dead, nor on the head of our family, nor on our body, which belongs to God. Let our yes be a yes and a no be a no.

Secondly, Christ insists on prayer said from the heart, where we seek not to be noticed and are not overcome by scruples. We must stop counting the number of hours we spend in prayer: it's not so much soulless prayers that count, but actions and words said with love. Jesus declares that we can do anything by praying: whether it's making a loaf of bread or doing our work, as long as we seek to love in everything. We must also not be afraid to ask, for God is a Father who watches over us and our needs.

Then the Master explains why God may not answer our prayer. He may refuse us a grace because it would hurt us in the future. Sometimes, therefore, God says: "I cannot", because in His Wisdom, He sees that such a grace, which seems good to us now, would be harmful to us later.

Finally, Jesus applies what he says about prayer to fasting: we mustn't flaunt it in public or be sad, but be joyful and act as if we've eaten well. Hiding this fast from others will be an act of heroism, and God will reward us for not seeking praise from men. What's more, anyone who fasts out of love feeds on love.

The Savior then sends away the people who are listening and welcomes two poor people. One is Ishmael, a man rejected by his daughter who wants to make his last Easter; the other is a woman named Sarath who is ill. He heals the latter and Jesus asks him to look after the old man. Christ then asks Simon the Zealot if he can entrust them to Lazarus, since they are two poor men who have nothing, and Lazarus assures him that he can. The episode ends with the old man happily adopting a new daughter and finding a new protector.

Chapter title: Fifth Discourse on the Mount: the use of wealth, almsgiving, trust in God.

Date of vision: Sunday, May 27, 1945.

Calendar: Thursday, February 17, 28 (4 Adar I 3788)

Location (map): The Horns of Hattin

Cycle: Sermon on the Mount

Summary: The crowd is growing and Jesus continues his discourse. He begins by encouraging souls to treasure themselves in Heaven, where no thief can steal our riches. On earth, we need to make proper use of our possessions and gold, and remember that everything we own can be destroyed by fire, disease and misfortune. We must therefore transform these earthly possessions into supernatural goods, and use them to treasure the Kingdom.

Secondly, Jesus encourages us to be charitable out of a supernatural spirit, and not to seek human praise. We shouldn't show off our charity and good deeds, but always act with discretion. The same goes for almsgiving: Christ advises us to give with charity, and then forget about the act itself. We'll be left with God's smile and peace, and the Father will reward us.

Jesus is interrupted by a Pharisee, who accuses him of not practicing what he says. In fact, Jesus had taken in Ishmael and Sarah in EMV 172, and the man reproaches him for not reassuring them as he had said he would. Jesus corrects his words, and then the old man Ishmael himself intervenes. His words make the inappropriate man flee, and the Savior continues his speech. All he asks is that the man be forgiven.

The Master tells us not to be afraid of tomorrow. God will always give what is needed. He himself is poor, and he relies on the rich to give charity in God's name. We mustn't worry about having little, nor worry about the future: the Father himself feeds the birds, and we are more than birds. We must have faith in the fatherhood of the Lord and seek first the virtues. The rest will be given to us as a bonus, and tomorrow will take care of itself.

Chapter contents: 173.1: The crowd is always growing. 173.2 : The fructification of material and spiritual wealth. 173.3 : Make for yourselves treasures in Heaven where thieves cannot enter. 173.4 : When you give alms, don't blow the trumpet to attract the attention of passers-by. 173.5 : An insulting man calls out to Jesus: Master, you deny your words! The old man Ishmael rebukes him. 173.6 : Don't do good to get a reward, to have a guarantee for tomorrow. 173.7 : Do not worry about tomorrow, seek the Kingdom of God.

Old edition: Volume 3, chapter 33