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Conception of the Virgin Mary

Theme: The Virgin Mary in the Protévangile

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GRM 4.1

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

The old tree has borne a new branch and I am blessed.

At the Feast of Lights hope scattered the seed;

Now the fragrance of Nisan sees it germinating.

Like an almond-tree my flesh is adorned with flowers in spring.

Detail

Anne sings this canticle, which reveals that she is pregnant. See annotation concerning the Feast of Lights and Mary's conception.

Annotation

Hope sows the seeds for the Festival of Lights. According to J Aulagnier, the Festival of Lights, or Encénies, took place, in Jesus' time, during the full moon following the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). This took place on Kislev 25 (December 10-22 for this period). Mary's conception took place on the following full moon, December 20-22. This corresponds to the event celebrated by the Church on December 8.

Marie d'Agreda reports that this conception took place on a Sunday (The Mystical City of God - Book 1, Chapter 15, § 218).

The fragrant air of Nissan. Nissan: March 21, i.e. 3 months to tell Joachim with certainty that he was expecting a baby.

GRM 4.3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

I was hoping because the last day while I was praying in the Temple, as close as possible for a woman to be to the House of God, and it was already evening… remember that I was saying: “A little longer, a little more”. I could not withdraw from the place without receiving the grace! Well, in the growing darkness, from inside the sacred place, where I was watching from the depth of my soul, to obtain assent from the everpresent God, I saw a light, a spark of beautiful light depart. It was as white as the moon and yet it had in itself all the brightness of all the pearls and gems that are in the world. It seemed that one of the precious stars of the Veil, the stars placed under the feet of the Cherubim, had become detached and bright with a supernatural light… it seemed that beyond the sacred Veil, from the Glory itself, a fire started which came quickly towards me and while cutting through the air, it sang with a heavenly voice chanting: “May what you asked for, come to you”. That is why I sing: “A star will come to you”. What child will ours ever be, since it reveals itself as the light of a star in the Temple and in the Feast of Lights says: “I am”? Did you perhaps foresee rightly when you thought I would be a new Anne of Elkanah?

Detail

Mary's conception. Anne, Mary's mother, recounts when her wish was granted:

Annotation

Were you right in seeing in me a new Anne of Elkanah? Joachim had indeed spoken of the prophet Samuel's mother in EMV 3.

Under the feet of the cherubim: Cherubim (Kerubim) abounded in the decoration of Solomon's Temple (e.g. 1 Kings 6:23-35). The stars are probably the stars of David or Solomon's seal.

I had the impression that a fire was starting from behind the sacred Veil, from Glory itself, that it was coming rapidly towards me and that, as it crossed the air, it was singing in a celestial voice: "May what you have asked for happen to you! "This is the voice of the Redeemer, as we read in EMV 4.5: "Wisdom herself came down (...) and became a word to the barren woman" (p. 31).

What kind of child will ours be, then, to appear like the light of a star in the Temple and say: "I am" during the Festival of Lights? The star is part of Balaam's prophecy. Num 24:17-19. " I see him, but not as present; I contemplate him, but not closely. A star comes out of Jacob, a scepter rises from Israel. He breaks Moab's two flanks, he exterminates all the sons of tumult. Edom is his possession; Seir, his enemy, is his possession, and Israel displays his valour. Out of Jacob comes a dominator; he destroys in the cities what remains of Edom."

"I am" : the very name of God as defined to Moses, according toExodus 3:14-15. You will speak to the sons of Israel: "The one who sent me to you is: I AM". See the fact sheet on the Divine Name.

GRM 4.5-7

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

4.5 Jesus says:

«Wisdom, after enlightening them with dreams at night, descended “breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty”, and became Word for the barren one. He, who already saw His time for redemption close at hand: I, Christ, Anne’s grandson, almost fifty years later, by means of the Word, will work miracles on barren, diseased, possessed, desolate women and on all the miseries of the world.

But in the meantime, for the joy of having a Mother I whisper a mysterious word in the shade of the Temple that contained the hopes of Israel, of the Temple now at the end of its life, because a new and real Temple is about to come on earth, no longer containing the hopes of one people, but the certainty of Paradise for the people of the whole world, and for centuries and centuries until the end of the world. And this Word works the miracle of making fertile what was barren. And also the miracle of giving me a Mother, Who not only had the best disposition, as was natural She should have, being born of two saints, but, unique creature, not only had a good soul as many others still have, not only a continuous increase of goodness because of Her goodwill, not only an immaculate body, but had an immaculate soul.

4.6 You have seen the continuous generation of souls from God. Now think what must have been the beauty of this soul which the Father looked fondly on before time existed, which formed the delight of the Trinity, which Trinity longed to adorn it with its gifts, to present it to Itself. Oh! Most Holy Mary Whom God created for Himself and then for the salvation of men! Bearer of the Saviour, You were the first salvation. Living Paradise, with Your smile You began to sanctify the world.

The soul created to be soul of the Mother of God! When this vital spark derived from the more lively throb of the Threefold Love of the Trinity, the angels rejoiced because Paradise had never seen a brighter light. Like a petal of a heavenly rose, a mystical and precious petal, that was a gem and a flame, the breath of God descended to give life to a body quite differently than for others. It descended so powerful in its ardour that Guilt could not contaminate it, it came through the heavens and enclosed itself in a holy womb.

The world had its Flower, but did not yet know, the true, unique Flower, that blooms eternally: lily and rose, sweet-smelling violet and jasmine, helianthus and cyclamen blended together and with them all the flowers on earth in one Flower only: Mary, in Whom every grace and virtue is gathered together.

In April the land of Palestine looked like a huge garden and the fragrance and colours delighted the hearts of men. But the most beautiful Rose was still unknown. She was already flowering to God in the secrecy of Her mother’s womb, because my Mother loved since She was conceived. But only when the vine gives its blood to make wine and the sweet strong smells fill the yards and the nostrils, She would smile to God first and then to the world, saying with Her most innocent smile: “Here, the Vine that will give you the Bunch of grapes to be squeezed in the winepress, so that it will become eternal Medicine for your disease, is amongst you”.

I said: “Mary loved since She was conceived!” What is it that gives light and knowledge to the soul? Grace. What is it that removes Grace? Original sin and the mortal one. Mary, the Immaculate, was never deprived of the remembrance of God, of His closeness, His love, His light, His wisdom. She was therefore able to understand and love when She was but flesh forming around an immaculate soul that continued to love.

4.7 Later, I will let you contemplate mentally the depth of Mary’s virginity. You will have a spell of heavenly ecstasy, as when I allowed you to consider our eternity. In the meantime consider how to bear a creature free from the Stain that deprives one of God, gives the mother a superior intelligence and makes a prophetess of her, although she has conceived in a natural and human way. The prophetess of her daughter, whom she calls: “Daughter of God”. And consider what would have happened if innocent children had been born of innocent First Parents, as God wanted.

Man, you state that you are setting out to be “superman”, and with your vices are only setting out to be “superdemon”, this would have been the means to make you “superman”. The possibility of existing and living without the contamination of Satan, leaving to God the administration of life, knowledge, and goodness, not wishing more than what God had given you and which was little less than infinite. And thus, in an evolution towards perfection, you would have been able to generate children, who should be men in their bodies and sons of Intelligence in their souls: victors, strong, giants over Satan, who would have been vanquished so many thousand centuries before the hour, when he will be humiliated, and all his evil with him.»

Annotation

"After having enlightened them through the dreams of the night, Wisdom herself descended, as "an effluence of God's power, an all-pure emanation of the Almighty's glory" and became Word to the barren woman. Excerpt from the Book of Wisdom.

Book of Wisdom 7, 25

Wis 7, 25 : She is the breath of God's power, a pure emanation of the Almighty's glory; therefore nothing unclean can fall upon her.

Alone among all creatures, she had an immaculate soul. Cf. The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception proclaimed on December 8, 1854 by Pope Pius IX in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. The dogmatic proclamation appears at the end of the document.

You have seen the continual generation of souls by God. In the vision of May 25, 1944. See Les cahiers de 1944.

Like a celestial rose petal, an immaterial and precious petal that was a jewel and a flame, that came down to animate flesh in a very different way than for others. In the old edition, it is written: Like a heavenly rose petal, an immaterial and precious petal that was a jewel and a flame, that was the breath of God, that came down to animate flesh in a way different from others. About the "Breath of God" (alito di Dio) part. The expression was corrected by Maria Valtorta on a typed copy. Initially, she had written "Part of God" (parte di Dio).

Mary, in whom all virtues and graces are united. "Mary, plain of graces". Compare this with St. Alphonsus de Liguori: "According to St. Bernardine, all gifts, all virtues and all graces are dispensed by the hands of Mary, to whom she wills, when she wills, and as she wills"(St. Alphonsus-Marie de Liguori, Les Gloires de Marie, chapter 5).

In April, the land of Palestine resembled an immense garden where perfumes and colors delighted the hearts of men. But the most beautiful rose was still unknown. It was already blooming for God in the secret of the womb. In April, Mary had been conceived for 4 months

It was only at the moment when the vine gives its blood to be made into wine, when the sweet, strong smell of the must fills farmyards and nostrils, that she would smile, first to God and then to the world. Confirmation that Mary's birth took place in September (see EMV 5).

GRM 5.8-9.11-12

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

5.8 Come and read Her glories in the Book of the Ancestor. “God possessed me at the beginning of His works, from the beginning, before the Creation. From everlasting I was firmly set, in the beginning, before earth came into being, the deep did not yet exist and I was already conceived. The springs did not yet gush with water and the mountains had not yet risen in their huge masses, neither were the hills jewels in the sun, when I came to birth. God had not yet made the earth, the rivers and the foundations of the world, and I was there. When He prepared the Heavens I was present, when with immutable laws He enclosed the deep under the surface, when He fixed the Heavens firm and He suspended the springs of water there, when He assigned the sea its boundaries and gave laws to the waters, when He ordered the waters not to invade the shore, when He laid down the foundations of the earth, I was with Him arranging everything. I always played joyfully in His presence, I played in the universe…” You applied these words to Wisdom, but they speak of Her: the beautiful Mother, the holy Mother, the Virgin Mother of Wisdom that I am and Who is now speaking to you.

5.9 I wanted you to write the first line of the song at the top of the book that speaks of Her, so that She might be contemplated and the consolation and joy of God might be known; the reason for the constant, perfect, intimate delight of this God One and Triune, Who rules and loves you and Who received from man so many reasons for being sad; the reason why He perpetuated the human race, even when, at the first test, humanity deserved to be destroyed; the reason for the forgiveness you have received.

To have Mary that loved Him! Oh! It was well worth while creating Man and allowing him to exist and decreeing to forgive him, to have the Beautiful Virgin, the Holy Virgin, the Immaculate Virgin, the Loving Virgin, the Beloved Daughter, the Most Pure Mother, the Loving Spouse! God has given you so much and would have given you even more to possess the Creature of His delight, the Sun of His sun, the Flower of His garden. And He continues to give you so much on account of Her, at Her request, for Her joy, because Her joy flows into the joy of God and increases it with flashes that fill the light, the great light of Paradise with brilliant sparkles and every sparkle is a grace to the universe, to mankind, to the blessed souls who reply with a jubilant cry of alleluia to each generation of divine miracle, created by the desire of the Blessed Trinity to see the sparkling smile of joy of the Virgin.

(...) The Supreme Mind, that knows everything, even before man existed, knew that man would be his own thief and his own murderer. And as the Eternal Goodness has no limits in being good, before Guilt existed, He thought of the means to obliterate Guilt. The means: I, the Word. The instrument to render the means an efficient instrument: Mary. And the Virgin was created in the sublime mind of God.

5.12

Everything was created for Me, beloved Son of the Father. I-King should have had under my Divine Royal feet carpets and jewels such as no royal palace had, and songs and voices and servants and ministers around me as no sovereign ever possessed, and flowers and gems, all the sublime, the greatness, the kindness that may derive from the thought of a God.

But I was to be Flesh as well as Spirit. Flesh to save the flesh. Flesh to sublime the flesh, taking it to Heaven many centuries before its time. Because the flesh inhabited by the spirit is God’s masterpiece and Heaven had already been made for it. In order to become flesh I needed a Mother. To be God it was necessary that the Father was God.

Then God created His Spouse and said to Her: “Come with Me. At My side see what I am doing for our Son. Look and rejoice, eternal Virgin, eternal Maiden and may Your smile fill this Empyrean and give the angels their starting note and teach Paradise celestial harmony. I am looking at You. And I see You as You will be, Immaculate Woman, Who are now only a spirit: the spirit in which I rejoice. I am looking at You and I give the sea and the firmament the blue of Your eyes, the holy corn the colour of Your hair, whiteness to the lily and a rosy colour to the rose, like Your silky skin. I copy the pearls from Your minute teeth, I make the sweet strawberries watching Your mouth and I give the nightingale Your notes and the turtle-doves Your weeping. And reading Your future thoughts and listening to the beats of Your heart, I have a reason for guidance in creating. Come, My joy, have the worlds as a plaything as long as You will be the dancing light of My thoughts have the worlds for Your smile, have wreaths and necklaces of stars; place the moon under Your gentle feet; make Galatea Your stellar scarf. The stars and planets are for You. Come and enjoy looking at the flowers that will be a childish joy for Your Baby and a pillow for the Son of Your womb. Come and see sheep and lambs, eagles and doves being created. Stay beside Me when I make the hollows of the seas and grooves of the rivers and I raise the mountains and I adorn them with snow and forests. Stay here while I sow fodder and trees and vines, and I make the olive-tree for You, My Peaceful One, and the vine for You, My Vine branch who will bear the Eucharistic Bunch of grapes. Run, fly, rejoice, My Beauty. And may the universe which is created hour by hour learn from You to love Me, My Love, and may it become more beautiful owing to Your smile, Mother of My Son, Queen of My Paradise, Love of Your God”. And again, seeing the Fault and admiring the Faultless One: “Come to Me, You Who wipe away the bitterness of human disobedience, of human fornication with Satan and of human ingratitude. I will take with You My revenge over Satan”.

Annotation

Book of Proverbs, 8, 22-31

Prov 8, 22-31: The Lord made me for himself, the principle of his action, the first of his works, from everlasting.

Before the ages I was formed, from the beginning, before the earth appeared. When the abysses did not yet exist, I was born, when there were no springs. Before the mountains were fixed, before the hills, I was born, before the Lord made earth and space, the primitive elements of the world.

When he established the heavens, I was there, when he traced the horizon on the surface of the abyss, when he gathered the clouds in the heights and mastered the springs of the deep, when he imposed his limits on the sea, so that the waters could not violate his order, when he established the foundations of the earth. And I grew up beside him. I was his delight day after day, playing before him at all times, playing in the universe, on his earth, and finding my delight with the sons of men.

Read the glories of Mary in the book of the Ancestor. In the Septuagint, the Bible of Jesus' time, the book of Proverbs is called "Proverbs of Solomon". He was the son of David and the ancestor of Jesus (cf. Matthew 1:6: "David, from his union with the wife of Urias, begat Solomon").

This text, applied to Mary, is commented on in the Book of Azarias, on December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception (see note 13 below). Indeed, it has been retained by the liturgy as applying to the Immaculate Conception. This relationship - from all eternity - between Christ and the Virgin Mary, in whom he becomes incarnate, is developed and documented by Fr. G.M. Roschini in The Virgin Mary in the works of Maria Valtorta, synthesis of Valtorta's Marian theology, Part 1, Mary in eternity, pp. 66-71. He also refers to Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), 24:3ff.

Many theologians believe that the words of Proverbs 8:22-31 refer to both Jesus and Mary. The Liturgy of December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception, retained this text which cannot be applied to Jesus alone (the Word of God through whom all things were made). In fact, the text describes another feminine person (especially verses 27 to 31) alongside the Creator. Some have seen this attribution to the Virgin Mary as heresy, but can the Liturgy be heretical? We see in this text the foreknowledge of God in whom everything exists (cf. e.g. Ephesians 1:4 : "He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love". The foreknowledge of the Passion also exists in the Bible, long before its realization at the appointed time, let alone at the end of time. The same is true of the immaculate creation of Mary's soul infused into a human pulpit at the appointed time.

Jesus speaks of this again in EMV 196.7.

St Albert the Great (1200-1280), says: "God took extreme care to keep from all defilement the woman he had predestined from all eternity to be his mother in time" (Sermones de sanctis 38).

GRM 5.12

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Everything was created for Me, beloved Son of the Father. I-King should have had under my Divine Royal feet carpets and jewels such as no royal palace had, and songs and voices and servants and ministers around me as no sovereign ever possessed, and flowers and gems, all the sublime, the greatness, the kindness that may derive from the thought of a God.

But I was to be Flesh as well as Spirit. Flesh to save the flesh. Flesh to sublime the flesh, taking it to Heaven many centuries before its time. Because the flesh inhabited by the spirit is God’s masterpiece and Heaven had already been made for it. In order to become flesh I needed a Mother. To be God it was necessary that the Father was God.

Then God created His Spouse and said to Her: “Come with Me. At My side see what I am doing for our Son. Look and rejoice, eternal Virgin, eternal Maiden and may Your smile fill this Empyrean and give the angels their starting note and teach Paradise celestial harmony. I am looking at You. And I see You as You will be, Immaculate Woman, Who are now only a spirit: the spirit in which I rejoice. I am looking at You and I give the sea and the firmament the blue of Your eyes, the holy corn the colour of Your hair, whiteness to the lily and a rosy colour to the rose, like Your silky skin. I copy the pearls from Your minute teeth, I make the sweet strawberries watching Your mouth and I give the nightingale Your notes and the turtle-doves Your weeping. And reading Your future thoughts and listening to the beats of Your heart, I have a reason for guidance in creating. Come, My joy, have the worlds as a plaything as long as You will be the dancing light of My thoughts have the worlds for Your smile, have wreaths and necklaces of stars; place the moon under Your gentle feet; make Galatea Your stellar scarf. The stars and planets are for You. Come and enjoy looking at the flowers that will be a childish joy for Your Baby and a pillow for the Son of Your womb. Come and see sheep and lambs, eagles and doves being created. Stay beside Me when I make the hollows of the seas and grooves of the rivers and I raise the mountains and I adorn them with snow and forests. Stay here while I sow fodder and trees and vines, and I make the olive-tree for You, My Peaceful One, and the vine for You, My Vine branch who will bear the Eucharistic Bunch of grapes. Run, fly, rejoice, My Beauty. And may the universe which is created hour by hour learn from You to love Me, My Love, and may it become more beautiful owing to Your smile, Mother of My Son, Queen of My Paradise, Love of Your God”. And again, seeing the Fault and admiring the Faultless One: “Come to Me, You Who wipe away the bitterness of human disobedience, of human fornication with Satan and of human ingratitude. I will take with You My revenge over Satan”.

Detail

Mary is in God's mind from all eternity, but she is only created at a precise moment in time.