Skip to content

Notes for this theme

Galilee region

Page 3 of 22

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 38

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Maria sees the house in Nazareth. Jesus, James and Jude are playing together in the garden: they are still children. Mary is not far away. They decide to perform a passage from the Bible. They suggest playing the scene of the golden calf in Exodus, but one of the cousins doesn't want to play Miriam, who has bowed down to the idol. So Jesus suggests playing the part where Joshua is elected as Moses' successor. This idea suits everyone. After asking Mary about a point in Exodus, they go off to play, and Jesus plays Moses to perfection. His cousins are amazed that he recites the texts so well.

Mary of Alphaeus arrives with Alphaeus. They return from Cana and bring with them three lambs. One is for Jesus, and is all white; the others are rather black. It was Joseph's idea to offer these to his Son, and Alphée wanted to do the same with his children.

Alphée suggested that Jesus should soon go to school, but Mary categorically refused: she would teach her Child. Joseph supports her decision, and Alphée thinks his brother is too quick to bow to his wife's decision. Joseph responds wisely, and Mary of Alphée asks that the Virgin teach her children as well. She says she doesn't mind, and convinces Alphée to let them come to her house for a few hours. The children promise to love her and pay attention to her lessons.

GRM 38.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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.

GRM 39

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

The Virgin prepares clothes for Jesus with Mary of Alphaeus. She dyes his clothes. It seems that she obtained the color through her embroidery, and that this gift came from Rome. In any case, the Mother of Christ thanks her relative for her help, and she declares that Jesus is like a son to her.

The vision stops and resumes later. Maria describes Jesus at the age of twelve. He is with his parents and relatives, surrounded and loved. Mary asks Joseph to bless him, so that their Child will draw strength from him, and she will learn to detach herself from him a little more. Joseph assures her that their relationship will not change, and that he will not compete with her for the Son they hold so dear. Mary kisses Joseph's hand in an affectionate gesture, and the patriarch of the Holy Family blesses them both. Then they set off...

GRM 39.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

39.2 I see Mary bending over a tub, or rather a terracotta container, in which She stirs something that steams in the cool clear air which fills the kitchen garden in Nazareth.

It must be the depth of winter, because, with the exception of the olive-trees, all the plants and trees are bare and look like skeletons. High above, the sky is very clear and there is a beautiful sunshine. But it does not mitigate the bitterly cold wind that shakes the bare boughs and the little green-grey branches of the olive-trees.

GRM 42

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Maria sees the carpenter's bench in Nazareth. Jesus is working there. Mary arrives and calls her Son: they go into a room where Joseph is dying. Jesus goes close to his father, tries to revive him and sits his Mother down. He then prays and comforts the dying man. Joseph dies peacefully in his arms, surrounded by his Son and his most holy Bride.

Jesus then gives dictation, emphasizing Mary's suffering at this moment, for she truly loved her Joseph. To find strength in this trial, and to give her fiat, she clings to Jesus. She also clings to God in the hour of trial.

Jesus invites us to do the same, and to call on him at the hour of our death, for between his stockings it loses all its harshness. Jesus said for all of us: "Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit", for all those who die thinking of him, so that our agonies may be softened.

GRM 42.1

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

I see the inside of a carpenter’s workshop. It looks as if two of the walls are formed by rocks, as if the builders had taken advantage of natural grottos converting them into rooms of a house. Here the northern and western walls are indeed the rocky ones, whereas the other two walls, the southern and eastern ones, are plastered, just like ours.

On the northern side, in the recess of the rock, they have built a rustic fireplace, on which there is a little pot with some paint or glue, I do not know exactly which. The wall there is so black that it seems to be covered with tar, because of the firewood that has been burnt there for many years. A hole in the wall, with a big large tile on top of it, takes the place of a chimney to let out the smoke. But it must have performed its duty very badly, because the other walls have also been blackened by the smoke, and even now there is a smoky mist all over the room.

GRM 42.3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

They go into the adjoining room, full of bright sunshine coming from a door open onto the little kitchen garden, which is also full of light and green, and where doves are fluttering around, near the clothes hanging out to dry and blowing in the wind. The room is poor but tidy. There is a low bed, covered with small mattresses, (I say mattresses because they are thick and soft things, but the bed is not like ours). Leaning on it, on many cushions, is Joseph. He is dying. It is obvious from the livid paleness of his face, his lifeless eyes, his panting chest, and the total relaxation of all his body.

GRM 44.1

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

44.1 I see the interior of the house in Nazareth: a room which looks like a dining room, where the members of the Family take their meals and rest during the day. It is a very small room with a plain rectangular table near a chest, which is set against one of the walls. The chest also serves as a seat. Near the other walls there is a loom and a stool, and there are two more stools with a kind of bookcase on top of which there are oil lamps and other objects. A door is open onto the kitchen garden. It must be almost evening, because only some faint sun-rays are visible in the upper foliage of a tall tree, which is beginning to grow verdant in its first leaves.

GRM 44.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

He then listens and gets up. He also goes out into the kitchen garden, and after looking around, He moves towards the right-hand side of the house, and through an opening in the rocky wall, He goes into what I recognise as the carpenter’s workshop. It is now very tidy, without any boards or shavings lying about, and also the fire is out. There is the large work bench, all the tools are laid aside, and there is nothing else.