Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 22.4
The destiny of Your Son! He will be raised to the rank of King of the whole creation. Just think of that, Mary. King, because He will redeem the whole creation, and as such, He will be universal King. And He will be loved also in the world, in its lifetime.
Elizabeth spoke to Mary and said:
GRM 22.4
I feel a joy in me since You came here. I feel that my test is about to end and that I shall soon be completely happy.
GRM 22.6
22.6 I see Mary Who is spinning very quickly under the pergola, where the grapes are growing bigger and bigger. Some time must have elapsed because the apples are beginning to redden on the trees and the bees are humming near the fig flowers already mature.
Elizabeth is now quite stout, and she is walking heavily. Mary looks at her carefully and lovingly. Also Mary’s sides appear more round when She gets up to pick up the spindle which has fallen far away from Her. The expression on Her face has changed. It is more mature; before She was a girl, now She is a woman.
The women go into the house because it is now getting dark, and the lamps are lit in the room. While waiting for supper, Mary begins to weave.
«Do You never get tired?» asks Elizabeth, pointing to the loom.
«No, you can be sure of that.»
«I am exhausted by this heat. I have not suffered any longer, but now the weight is too heavy for my old kidneys.»
«Take courage. You will soon be free. How happy you will then be.»
GRM 22.7
«My Child! My Jesus! What will He be like?»
«As beautiful as You are, Mary.»
«Oh no! More beautiful! He is God. I am His maid. What I meant is, will He be fair or dark? Will His eyes be like a clear sky, or like the eyes of a mountain deer? I imagine Him more beautiful than a cherub, with golden curly hair, His eyes the same colour as the Sea of Galilee when the stars begin to peep on the horizon, His tiny little mouth as red as a pomegranate that bursts when it matures in the sun, and His cheeks as pink as this pale rose, with two little hands that could be contained in the hollow of a lily, they are so small and tiny, and two tiny feet that I can hold in the hollow of My hand, so soft and smooth, even more so than the petal of a flower. See. The idea I have of Him is taken from all the beautiful things that nature suggests to Me. And I can hear His voice. When He cries — because My Child will cry a little when He is hungry or sleepy, and it will always be a great pain for His Mummy Whose heart will be pierced every time She hears Him cry — when He cries, His voice will be like the bleating that now comes from a little lamb, only a few hours old, when it seeks its mother’s breast, and her warm maternal fleece to sleep. When He laughs — and My heart in love with my Creature will then be full of Heaven, for I can be in love with Him, because He is My God, and it will not be against My consecrated virginity to love Him as a lover — His voice when He laughs will be like the merry cooing of a happy little dove which is full and content in its cosy little nest. And I think of Him when He is taking His first steps… a little bird hopping on a flowery meadow. The meadow will be His Mother’s heart, it will be laid under His tiny pink feet with all Her love, so that He may not tread on anything that may hurt Him. Oh, how I will love My Child! My Son!»
Mary said to Elizabeth:
GRM 22.7-8
«Oh, how I will love My Child! My Son! Also Joseph will love Him.»
«But You will have to tell Joseph.»
Mary’s face darkens, and She sighs. «Yes, I will have to tell him… I wish Heaven would tell him, because it is so difficult to tell.»
«Shall I tell him? We will ask him to come for John’s circumcision…»
«No. I have entrusted God with the task of informing him of his happy destiny of putative father of the Son of God, and He will do so. The Spirit said to Me that evening: ‘Be silent. Entrust Me with the task of justifying You’. And He will do so. God never lies. It is a great trial, but with the help of the Eternal Father, it will be overcome. No one must learn from My mouth what the goodness of the Lord has done. Certainly you are the exception, because the Spirit revealed it to you.»
Mary speaks of her child and she says:
GRM 22.8
«No one must learn from My mouth what the goodness of the Lord has done. Certainly you are the exception, because the Spirit revealed it to you.»
«I have not mentioned it to anybody, not even to Zacharias who would have been very happy. He thinks you are a mother according to nature.»
«I know. And I decided that out of prudence. The secrets of God are holy. The angel of the Lord did not reveal My divine maternity to Zacharias. He could have done so, if God had wanted, because God knew that the time for the Incarnation of His Word in Me was already imminent. But God hid this joyful light from Zacharias, who rejected your late maternity as something impossible. I have complied with the will of God, as you have seen. You perceived the secret living in Me. He did not perceive anything. Until the screen of his incredulity does not fall before the power of God, he will be separated from supernatural lights.»
Elizabeth sighs and turns silent.
Mary tells Elizabeth about her motherhood and she says:
GRM 22.9
«That’s enough!» says Elizabeth. «You will become too tired.»
«Your time is approaching, Elizabeth. I want to prepare for your child clothes worthy of him who will precede the King of the House of David.»
Zacharias writes: «Of whom will He be born? And where?»
Mary replies: «Where the Prophets said, and of whom the Eternal Father will choose. Whatever our Most High Lord does, is well done.»
Zacharias writes: «Well, in Bethlehem then! In Judah. We shall go and worship Him, woman. And You will come to Bethlehem, too, with Joseph.»
And Mary, bowing Her head over the loom says: «I will come.»
The vision ends thus.
Marie works on the loom for her cousin.
GRM 22.10-11
22.10 Mary says:
«The first charity towards our neighbours is to be exerted towards our neighbours. This must not seem a pun to you. There is charity towards God and charity towards our neighbours. Charity towards our neighbours comprises also charity towards ourselves. But if we love ourselves more than our neighbours, we are no longer charitable, we are selfish. Also in lawful matters, we must be so holy as to always give priority to the needs of our neighbour. Be sure, My children, that God provides for the generous by means of His power and His bounty.
22.11 It was this certainty that led Me to Hebron to assist My relative in her condition. And to My eagerness for human help, God, giving beyond measure as He is wont, added an unforeseen gift of supernatural assistance. I went to give material help and God sanctified My good intention by sanctifying, through it, the fruit of Elizabeth’s womb, and by means of that sanctification, by which the Baptist was presanctified, He relieved the physical pain of the elderly daughter of Eve, who had conceived at an unusual age.
Elizabeth, a woman of fearless faith and confident submission to God’s will, deserved to understand the mystery that was enclosed within Me. The Spirit spoke to her through the bouncing in her womb. The Baptist pronounced his first speech, as the Announcer of the Word, through the veils and the diaphgrams of veins and flesh that separated and united him at the same time to his holy mother.
Neither did I deny My prerogative of being the Mother of the Lord, because she was worthy of the information and the Light had revealed Itself to her. To deny it would have meant denying God the praise that it was just should be given to Him, the praise that I bore in Me, and which, since I could not tell anyone, I repeated to the grass, to the flowers, to the stars, to the sun, to the singing birds and the patient sheep, to the warbling waters, to the golden light that kissed Me descending from Heaven. But it is sweeter to pray together rather than say our prayers by ourselves. I would have liked all the world to know of My destiny, not for My own sake, but that they might join Me in praising My Lord.
Prudence forbade me to reveal the truth to Zacharias. That would have implied going beyond the work of God. And if I was His Spouse and Mother, I was still His servant, and I could not take the liberty of substituting Him and exceeding Him in a decree, simply because He had loved Me beyond measure.
Elizabeth in her holiness understood, and was silent. Because a holy person is always submissive and humble.»
GRM 22.11
Prudence forbade me to reveal the truth to Zacharias. That would have implied going beyond the work of God. And if I was His Spouse and Mother, I was still His servant, and I could not take the liberty of substituting Him and exceeding Him in a decree, simply because He had loved Me beyond measure.
Elizabeth in her holiness understood, and was silent. Because a holy person is always submissive and humble.
GRM 22.11
A holy person is always submissive and humble.