Notes for this keyword
Reading comfort
GRM 26.5
«Whatever you do is alright, Joseph. You are the head of the family, I am your servant.»
«No. I am Your servant. I am the happy servant of my Lord Who is growing in Your womb. You are blessed amongst all the women of Israel.»
Mary said to her husband:
GRM 26.5
«How can I receive God in my house? God… in my arms? I will die of joy!… I will never dare touch Him! I will never be able…!»
«You will be able, as I will, by the grace of God.»
«But You are… I am a poor man, the poorest of God’s children!…»
«Jesus is coming to us, poor people, to make us rich in God, He is coming to us two, because we are the poorest and we admit it. Rejoice, Joseph. The House of David has the King long waited for and our home will become more splendid than Solomon’s palace, because Heaven will be here and we shall share with God the secret of peace that men will be acquainted with later. He will grow among us, our arms will be the cradle for the Redeemer and our work will procure bread for Him… Oh! Joseph! We shall hear the voice of God calling us ‘father and Mother!’ Oh!…»
Mary cries with joy. Such happy tears! And Joseph, who is now kneeling at Her feet, is weeping with his head almost hidden in Mary’s wide dress, which falls in folds on to the plain floor of the room.
The vision ends here.
Joseph wonders:
GRM 31.4-5
31.4 «Nazareth? But you must stay here. The Messiah must grow up in Bethlehem. It is David’s town. The Most High, through Caesar’s will, brought Him to the town in David’s land, the holy land of Judaea. Why take Him to Nazareth? You know in what opinion the Jews hold the Nazarenes. This Child is to be in future years the Saviour of His people. The capital town must not scorn its King because He comes from a despised land. You know as well as I do how captious the Sanhedrin is and how disdainful its three main castes are… And then, here, near me, I will be able to help you somehow, and put everything I have, not so much in the way of material things, but of moral gifts, at the service of this New-Born Baby. And when He is old enough to understand, I will be very happy to be His teacher, as I will be for my own son, so that later, when He is grown up, He will bless me. We must consider that He is destined for great things and, consequently, He must be in a position to present Himself to the world with all the necessary means to win His game. He will certainly possess Wisdom. But also the simple fact that He was educated by a priest, will make Him more accepted by the difficult Pharisees and Scribes and will render His mission easier.»
31.5 Mary looks at Joseph, and Joseph looks at Mary. Above the rosy innocent head of the Child, sleeping unaware of it all, there is a silent exchange of questions. And they are questions full of sadness. Mary is thinking of Her little house, Joseph is concerned about his work. Here, where only a few days ago they were completely unknown, they must start from scratch. Here they have none of the dear things they left at home, and which they had prepared with so much love for the Child.
And Mary says so: «How can we do that? We have left everything there. Joseph had worked so hard for My Jesus, without sparing labour or money. He worked at night, so that during the day he could work for other people and thus earn enough to buy the best wood, the softest wool, the finest linen, and prepare everything for Jesus. He built beehives, and he even worked as a mason to make certain modifications in the house, so that the cradle could be placed in My room and remain there until Jesus had grown up and the cradle could then be replaced by a bed, because Jesus will stay with Me until He is an adolescent.»
«Joseph can go and get what you left there.»
«And where will we put it? You know, Zacharias, that we are poor. We have only our work and our home. And they both enable us to live without starving. But here… perhaps we will find some work. But we shall always have the problem of a house. This good woman cannot give us hospitality forever. And I cannot sacrifice Joseph more than he has already sacrificed himself for My sake!»
«Oh! Me! It’s nothing for me! I am concerned with Mary’s grief. Her grief in not living in Her own house…»
Two big tears well from Mary’s eyes.
«I think that house must be as dear to Her as Paradise, because of the mystery which was accomplished in it. I speak little, but I understand a lot. If it wasn’t for that, I would not be upset. I will work twice as much, that’s all. I am young and strong enough to work twice as much as I used to and see to everything. And if Mary does not suffer too much… and if you say that we must do so… well, here I am. I will do whatever you think is best. Provided that it will help Jesus.»
«It will certainly help. Think it over, and you will see the reasons.»
«It is also said that the Messiah will be called Nazarene…» objects Mary.
«True. But at least, until He is grown up, let Him grow up in Judaea. The Prophet says: ‘And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, will be the greatest, because out of you will come the Saviour’. He does not speak of Nazareth. Perhaps that title was given to Him for some reason unknown to us. But this is His land.»
«You say so, you, priest, and we… we listen to you with sad hearts, and we believe you. But how painful it is!… When shall I see that house where I became a Mother?» Mary is weeping, silently. And I understand Her grief. Oh! I do understand.
The vision ends with Mary’s weeping.
After the Nativity, Zacharias goes to visit Joseph and Mary. He is opposed to the Holy Family returning to Nazareth.
GRM 31.9
31.9 Obedience always saves you, even if the advice given to you is not completely perfect .
As you know, we obeyed. And we were right to do so. It is true that Herod confined the slaughter of the children to Bethlehem and its surroundings. But could Satan not have spread and propagated such hatred much farther and wider and have induced all the mighty ones in Palestine to commit a similar crime in order to kill the future King of the Jews? He could have done that and it would have happened in Christ’s early days, when the repeated miracles had drawn the attention of both the crowds and of those in power. If such an event had taken place, how could we have crossed the whole of Palestine, to go from Nazareth to Egypt, the hospitable land for persecuted Jews, and make such a journey with a little child, and while persecution was raging? It was easier to flee from Bethlehem, even if the flight was equally painful.
Obedience always saves you. Remember that.
Mary speaks of the Holy Family's obedience when Zacharias advised them to stay in Bethlehem.
GRM 32.1
32.1 I see a couple of people departing from a very modest house. A very young mother comes down an outside staircase holding in her arms a child wrapped in a white cloth.
I recognise our Mother. She is always the same: pale and blonde, agile and so kind in Her behaviour. She is dressed in white, with a pale blue mantle and a white veil on Her head. She is carrying Her Child so carefully.
Joseph is waiting for Her at the foot of the steps with a little grey donkey. Joseph is dressed entirely in light brown: both his tunic and his mantle are the same colour. He looks at Mary and smiles at Her. When Mary arrives near the little donkey, Joseph places the animal’s bridle on his left arm, he takes for a moment the Child, Who is sleeping peacefully, and thus allows Mary to sit more comfortably on the donkey’s saddle. He then hands Jesus back to Her and they set off.
Joseph is walking beside Mary, holding the bridle all the time and ensuring that the donkey goes straight ahead without stumbling. Mary is holding Jesus in Her lap, and lest He might feel cold, She spreads the edge of Her mantle over Him. Joseph and Mary speak very little but they often smile at each other.
The road, which is not a model road, winds along a country made barren by the season of the year. Only a few other travellers meet them on the road or overtake them.
GRM 32.2-4
32.2 Then I see some houses and the walls around a town. They go in through a gate and start walking on the ground which is all broken up, and very irregular. Progress is now much more difficult, both because the traffic causes the donkey to stop very often and because the holes, where stones are missing, make the poor animal jerk continuously and thus Mary and the Child are also disturbed.
The road is not flat. It is uphill, although very slightly. It is a narrow road running between high houses with small narrow low doors and only a few windows on the road. High above, the sky can be seen peeping with many thin blue strips between the houses, or rather between the terraces. Down in the street there are many people and much shouting. They meet other people on foot or riding donkeys or leading loaded donkeys and a crowd following a cumbersome camel caravan. At a certain moment, a patrol of Roman legionaries passes by with a great noise of hooves and arms and they disappear beyond an arch built across a narrow stony road.
Joseph turns left along a wider and more pleasant road. I can see the embattled town walls, with which I am already familiar, at the end of the street.
Mary dismounts from the little donkey near a gate where there is a kind of stall for other donkeys. I say «stall» because it is a kind of shed, or better still, a kind of shed spread with straw; there are also some poles with rings to which the animals are tied.
Joseph gives some coins to a little man who has gone up to him and with them he buys some hay and he draws a pail of water from a rustic well in the corner. He then feeds the donkey. He joins Mary and they both enter the enclosure of the Temple.
At first they turn their steps towards an arcade where the merchants are, to whom Jesus later will give a good lashing: the vendors of lambs and doves and the money-changers. Joseph buys two little white pigeons. He does not change any money: he obviously has what is required.
They then make for a side door, with eight steps, as all the doors seem to have, because the centre of the Temple is raised above the surrounding ground. The door opens into a great hall like the doors of our houses in towns, to give you an idea, only this one is larger and more ornate. In the hall there are two kinds of altars on the right and on the left, that is two rectangular constructions, the purpose of which I do not understand at first. They are like low basins, because the internal part is lower than the external rim, which is a few centimetres higher.
A priest approaches them, I do not know whether he was called by Joseph or whether he did so of his own accord. Mary offers Her two little pigeons and since I know their fate, I turn my eyes elsewhere. I look at the decorations of the very heavy portal, of the ceiling and of the hall. But I get the impression, by a side glance, that the priest sprays Mary with some water. It must be water, because I do not see any stains on Her dress. Then Mary, Who had given the priest a handful of coins together with the two pigeons (I had forgotten to mention that), goes into the real Temple, in the company of the priest.
I am watching everything. It is a most ornate place. Sculptured angels’ heads, palms and decorations adorn the columns, the walls and the ceiling. Light comes in through strange long narrow windows, obviously without panes, cut diagonally compared to the walls. I suppose the idea is to keep the rain out.
32.4 Mary moves forward to a certain point. She then stops. A few metres from Her, there are more steps on top of which there is a kind of altar, beyond which there is another construction.
I now realise that I thought I was in the Temple, instead I was in the part surrounding the real Temple, that is the Holy, beyond which no one can proceed, apparently, except the priests. What I therefore thought was the Temple, is but an enclosed vestibule, which on three sides encircles the Temple, in which the Tabernacle is enclosed. I do not know whether I have made myself understood. But I am neither an architect nor an engineer.
Mary offers the Child, Who has woken up and is turning His innocent eyes towards the priest, with the astonished look of infants a few days old. The priest takes Him in his arms and raises Him, with arms fully stretched out, towards the Temple, standing against the kind of altar placed on top of the steps. The rite is over. The Child is handed back to His Mother and the priest goes away.
Mary and Joseph present Jesus to the Temple.
GRM 35.7-8
(...) You are so hampered by your humanity — it really overwhelms your souls too much — that you cannot follow My ways and you fall; or you stop disheartened. You go on saying to yourselves and to those who would like to assist you, quoting the examples of the Gospel for you: ‘But Jesus, but Mary, but Joseph (and so on for all the saints) were not like us. They were strong, they were immediately comforted in their sorrow, also in the little sorrow which they experienced, they did not feel passion. They were already beings out of this world’.
35.8 That little sorrow! They did not feel passion!
Sorrow has been our faithful friend and it had all the most varied forms and names.
Passion… do not use a word wrongly, by calling passion the vices which mislead you. Be honest and call them ‘vices’, and capital ones in addition. It is not true that we did not know them. We had eyes to see and ears to hear, and Satan caused those vices to dance in front of us and around us, showing them to us with their heap of filth in action, or tempting us with his insinuations. But, since we firmly wanted to please God, his filth and insinuations, instead of achieving the purpose intended by Satan, obtained the very opposite. And the more he worked, the more we took shelter in the light of God, disgusted as we were with the muddy darkness he showed to the eyes of our bodies and of our souls.
But we did not ignore passions in our hearts, in their philosophical setting. We loved our country, and in our country we loved our little Nazareth above every other town in Palestine. We were fond of our house, of our relatives and friends. Why should we not? We did not become slaves to our feelings because nothing is to be our master except God. But our feelings were made good companions.
My Mother uttered a cry of joy when, after about four years, She went back to Nazareth and entered Her house, and kissed the walls where Her ‘yes’ had opened Her bosom to receive the Son of God. Joseph joyfully greeted his relatives and his little nephews, who had grown in numbers and in years, and he rejoiced when he saw that his fellow citizens remembered him and they sought him because of his ability. I Myself appreciated friendship and because of Judas’ betrayal, I suffered as for a moral crucifixion. And why not? Neither My Mother nor Joseph ever placed more love for their home or their relatives before the will of God.
GRM 35.8
Nothing is to be our master except God.
GRM 36
Maria saw a very poor house in Egypt. She sees the Child Jesus playing on the ground, at the age of two, two and a half at the most. Mary works at her loom while watching the child. At one point, she hands him his sandals, gives him a kiss, then puts away her loom. She returns, gives the Child her hand, and they leave the house for the street. Finally, she stops at a well. Joseph arrives in the meantime and quickens his pace when he sees his wife and Son. Joseph bends down to give the Child a piece of fruit, and there's a gentle, affectionate embrace between Jesus and his putative father. Joseph rises, taking Jesus in his right arm, and the three of them return to the house. Maria sees them preparing supper and eating together very simply, after praying.
Jesus then gives a dictation, insisting on the humility, resignation and perfect harmony of the Holy Family. Joseph and Mary are the guardians of the Holy Family, but they derive no material benefit from it. They live in poverty, in exile, in a world where people are suspicious of each other because they are strangers. Yet there is peace, serenity and harmony.
In this house, "there are no nervous, touchy people, closed faces or mutual reproaches, and even less reproaches towards God who does not shower them with material well-being." In this house," says Jesus, "we pray, we are frugal, we love work. Humility reigns in the Holy Family, and the supernatural, moral and material order is respected. We respect God (supernatural order), we respect Joseph as father and head of the family (moral order), we thank God for the goods we possess, even if they are poor (material order).
Jesus concludes by inviting us to meditate on this vision.
GRM 36.1-6
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.
36.2 And nearby on a mat on the ground there is the Child Jesus. I think He must be two years old, or two and a half at the very most. He is playing with some little pieces of carved wood, which look like little sheep or little horses, and with some clear wood shavings, less curly than His golden curls. With His little plump hands He is trying to put those wooden necklaces onto the necks of His little animals.
He is quiet and smiling. Very beautiful. His little head is a mass of very thick little golden curls, His skin is clear and slightly rosy, His eyes are live and bright, of a deep blue colour. The expression of course, is different, but I recognise the colour of the eyes of my Jesus: two beautiful dark sapphires.
He is wearing a kind of long white shirt which must certainly be His tunic, with short sleeves. At present He has nothing on His feet. His tiny sandals are on the mat and they, too, are being used as a toy by the Child, Who is placing His little animals on the mat, and then pulls the sandal by the strap as if it were a little cart. The sandals are very simple: a sole and two straps one of which coming from the tip and the other from the heel of the sole. The one coming from the tip then splits at a certain point and one piece passes through the eyelet of the strap from the heel, then goes round and is tied with the other piece, forming thus a ring at the ankle.
36.3 A little farther away, sitting also in the shade of the tree, there is Our Lady. She is weaving at a rustic loom and watching the Child. I can see Her white slender hands moving backwards and forwards throwing the shuttle on the weft while Her foot, shod in a sandal, is moving the pedal. She is wearing a tunic the colour of mallow flowers: a rosy violet like certain amethysts. She is not wearing anything on her head, and so I can see that Her hair is parted, forming two simple plaits which gather at the nape of Her neck. Her sleeves are long and rather narrow. She has no other ornament except Her beauty and Her most sweet expression. The colour of Her face, of Her hair and Her eyes, the form of Her face are always the same every time I see Her. She looks very young now. She looks about twenty years old.
At one point She gets up, and bends over the Child, puts His sandals back on again and ties them carefully. She then pats Him and kisses His little head and His beautiful eyes. The Child prattles and She answers. But I do not understand the words. She then goes back to Her loom; She covers the fabric and the weft with a piece of cloth, picks up the stool on which She was sitting and takes it into the house. The Child follows Her with His eyes without troubling Her when She leaves Him alone.
Obviously Her work is finished, and it is almost evening. In fact, the sun is setting on the barren sand, and a huge fire invades the whole sky behind the far away pyramid.
Mary comes back. She takes Jesus by the hand and lifts Him from His mat. The Child obeys without any resistance. While His Mother picks up His toys and the mat and takes them into the house, He toddles on His well shaped little legs towards the little goat and throws His little arms around her neck. The little goat bleats and rubs her head on Jesus’ shoulder.
Mary comes back. She is now wearing a long veil on Her head and is carrying an amphora in Her hand. She takes Jesus by the hand and they both start walking, turning round the little house towards the other side.
I follow them admiring the gracefulness of the picture. Our Lady adjusts Her step to the Child’s, and the Child toddles and trips along beside Her. I can see His rosy heels moving up and down, with the typical grace of children’s steps, on the sand of the little path. I notice that His little tunic does not reach down to His feet, but only to half His calf. It is very clean and simple and it is held tight to His waist by a little white cord.
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.36.4 I can now see a man coming along the road; he is not very tall, but is well built. I recognise Joseph, who is smiling. He looks younger than when I saw him in the vision of Paradise. He may be forty years old at the most. His hair and beard are thick and black, his skin is rather tanned, his eyes are dark. An honest pleasant face, inspiring confidence.
When he sees Jesus and Mary, he quickens his step. On his left shoulder he has a kind of saw and a kind of plane, and he is holding in his hand other tools of his trade, not exactly like the ones we use now, but almost similar. He is probably coming back after working in somebody’s house. He is wearing a tunic the colour of which is between hazel and dark brown; it is not very long — it reaches a good bit up from his ankles — and its sleeves are short. I think he is wearing a leather belt at his waist. It is the proper tunic of a workman. On his feet he has sandals tied at his ankles.
Mary smiles and the Child utters cries of joy and He stretches out the hand which is free. When the three meet, Joseph bends down and offers the Child a fruit which I think is an apple, by its colour and shape. He then stretches his arms and the Child leaves His Mother and cuddles in the arms of Joseph, bending His little head into the cavity of Joseph’s neck; he kisses Him, and is kissed by Him. A scene full of loving grace.
I almost forgot to say that Mary had promptly taken Joseph’s work tools, to leave him free to embrace the Child.
Then Joseph, who had crouched down to the ground to be at the same level as Jesus, stands up, takes his tools with his left hand and holds little Jesus tight to his strong chest with his right arm. And 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.
And this is a remark I wish to make: in all the visions concerning the human life of Jesus I have noticed that both He and Mary, as well as Joseph and John, are always tidy and clean both in their garments and their bodies. They wear modest and simple garments, but they are so clean that they look like gentlemen in them.
36.5 Mary comes back with the amphora and the door is closed on the rapidly growing dusk. The room is illuminated by a lamp that Joseph has lit and placed on his bench, where he now starts working on some little boards, while Mary is preparing supper. The fire, too, illuminates the room. Jesus, with His little hands leaning on the bench and His little head turned upwards, is watching what Joseph is doing.
They then sit down at the table after saying their prayers. Obviously they do not bless themselves with the sign of the cross, but they pray. It is Joseph who says the prayers, and Mary answers. I do not understand anything at all. It must be a psalm. But it is said in a language entirely unknown to me.
They then sit down at the table. The lamp is now on the table. Mary is holding Jesus in Her lap and makes Him drink some of the goat’s milk, into which She dips some small slices of bread that She has cut off a little round loaf. The crust of the loaf, as well as the inside, is very dark, it looks like rye bread or bread made with barley. It certainly contains a lot of bran, judging by its colour. In the meantime Joseph eats some bread and cheese, a small slice of cheese and a lot of bread. Then Mary sits Jesus on a little stool near Her and brings some cooked vegetables to the table — they appear to be boiled and dressed as we use them nowadays — and She also eats some of them after Joseph has helped himself. Jesus is nibbling happily at His apple, and He smiles displaying His little white teeth. Their supper ends with some olives or dates. I cannot tell exactly which because they appear to be too light to be olives and too hard to be dates. There is no wine. The supper of poor people.
But there is so much peace in this room that not even the sight of the most solemn royal palace could give me as much. And how much harmony!
36.6 Jesus does not speak this evening. He does not explain the scene. He has taught me with the gift of His vision and that is enough. May He be always and equally blessed.
Matthew 2:14-15:
Joseph arose, took the child and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt, where he remained until Herod's death, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by the prophet: Out of Egypt I have called my son.