Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 26.7
26.7 Had I not been humble to the very extreme limit, as I told Joseph, I would not have deserved to bear within Me Him Who was lovering Himself, God, to the humiliation of being a man, in order to make reparation for the pride of the human race.
GRM 26.8-9
26.8 I have shown you that scene, which is not described by any of the Gospels, because I want to draw the excessively misguided attention of men to the conditions which are essential to please God and receive His continuous calls to your hearts.
Faith: Joseph believed the heavenly messenger’s words unquestioningly. He wanted but to believe, because he was sincerely convinced that God is good and that since he had hoped in the Lord, the Lord would not have reserved for him the torture of being betrayed, disappointed and sneered at by his neighbours. He asked for nothing, but to believe in Me, because, being honest, it was painful for him to think that other people were not honest. He lived according to the Law and the Law says: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’. We love ourselves so much that we think we are perfect even when we are not. Can we therefore not love our neighbour simply because we think he is faulty?
Unrestricted Charity. A charity that knows how to forgive, that wants to forgive, and forgive in advance wholeheartedly excusing the imperfections of our neighbours. It is necessary to forgive immediately, accepting every extenuating circumstance.
Humility, as unrestricted as charity. You must admit that you can be faulty even in simple thoughts, and you must not be so proud as to refuse to say: ‘I made a mistake’, because such pride would be more harmful than the previous fault. Everybody makes mistakes, with the exception of God. Who can say: ‘I am never wrong’? And there is a more difficult humility: the one that knows how to keep silent about God’s wonderful things in us, when it is not necessary to proclaim them for His glory, so that we might not discourage our neighbour who has not received such special gifts from God. If He wants, oh! if He only wants, God reveals Himself in His servant! Elizabeth ‘saw’ Me for what I was, My spouse knew Me for what I was, when it was time for him to know.
26.9 Leave to the Lord the care of proclaiming you His servants. He is anxious to do so, because every creature that rises to a particular mission, is a new glory which is added to His infinite glory, and is a witness of what man is, as God wanted him to be: a lesser perfection that reflects its Author. Remain in shadow and silence, you who are beloved by Grace, so that you may hear the only words of ‘life’, that you may deserve to have on you and in you the Sun that shines eternally.
Oh! Most Blessed Light, God, joy of Your servants, do shine on those servants of Yours that they may exult in their humility, praising You, only You, because You disperse the proud but raise the humble, who love You, to the splendour of Your Kingdom.
Maria has just seen the scene where Joseph asks Mary for forgiveness.
GRM 26.8
(...) There is a more difficult humility: the one that knows how to keep silent about God’s wonderful things in us, when it is not necessary to proclaim them for His glory, so that we might not discourage our neighbour who has not received such special gifts from God. If He wants, oh! if He only wants, God reveals Himself in His servant!
GRM 26.8
Humility, as unrestricted as charity. You must admit that you can be faulty even in simple thoughts, and you must not be so proud as to refuse to say: ‘I made a mistake’, because such pride would be more harmful than the previous fault. Everybody makes mistakes, with the exception of God. Who can say: ‘I am never wrong’? And there is a more difficult humility: the one that knows how to keep silent about God’s wonderful things in us, when it is not necessary to proclaim them for His glory, so that we might not discourage our neighbour who has not received such special gifts from God. If He wants, oh! if He only wants, God reveals Himself in His servant! Elizabeth ‘saw’ Me for what I was, My spouse knew Me for what I was, when it was time for him to know.
Mary sets out the essential conditions for pleasing God and welcoming his continual coming into our hearts.
GRM 26.9
26.9 Leave to the Lord the care of proclaiming you His servants. He is anxious to do so, because every creature that rises to a particular mission, is a new glory which is added to His infinite glory, and is a witness of what man is, as God wanted him to be: a lesser perfection that reflects its Author. Remain in shadow and silence, you who are beloved by Grace, so that you may hear the only words of ‘life’, that you may deserve to have on you and in you the Sun that shines eternally.
Oh! Most Blessed Light, God, joy of Your servants, do shine on those servants of Yours that they may exult in their humility, praising You, only You, because You disperse the proud but raise the humble, who love You, to the splendour of Your Kingdom.
GRM 27
Chapter title: The census edict. Teachings on love for one's spouse and trust in God.
Date of vision and dictation: Sunday, June 4, 1944
Calendar: Sunday, November 17, year -5
Location (map): Nazareth
Cycle: Birth and childhood of Jesus
Summary: Mary is at home. Her pregnancy is well advanced. Maria describes her and explains that this is how she will look in her glorified body. Then she resumes the narrative, and Joseph arrives. He smiles at his wife, but is worried. Mary realizes this, and he explains that an edict has just been issued. He is worried about Mary, who will have to make the journey, but the Virgin herself is thinking about Scripture and feels that the birth will take place there. She confides her thoughts to Joseph, who becomes even more alarmed and worried, and she reassures him, speaking of trust in God. Listening to her, Joseph calms down, smiles, and decides to set to work on the journey ahead.
Chapter contents: 27.1: Mary's advanced pregnancy and eternal youth. 27.2: The edict is published, we must go to Bethlehem. 27.3: That's where the Messiah is to be born. Trust in God! 27.4: Joseph smiles again. 27.5: What weighs on the shoulders of the bride and groom respectively. 27.6: Trust in God sums up the theological virtues. 27.7: Nothing can happen without God's permission.
GRM 27.1
27.1 I see the house in Nazareth once again: the little room where Mary usually takes Her meals. She is now working at a white piece of cloth. She lays Her work down to light a lamp, because it is getting dark, and She can no longer see well in the greenish light which comes in through the door half open on to the orchard. She closes the door, too.
Her abdomen is now very big. But She is still so beautiful. Her walk is always agile and all Her gestures are gentle. There is none of the heavy awkward movements which are generally noticed in a woman when she is about to give birth to her child. Only Her face has changed. Now She is «the woman». Before, at the time of the Annunciation, She was a young girl with the serene innocent face of a child. Afterwards, in Elizabeth’s house, when the Baptist was born, Her face had become more refined and gracefully mature. Now it is the serene but sweetly majestic face of a woman who has reached her full perfection in maternity.
She no longer resembles the «Annunciation» of Florence, so dear to you, Father. When She was a girl, I saw the resemblance. Her face is now longer and thinner, Her eyes are more pensive and larger. In brief, it is like what Mary is now in Heaven. Because Her countenance and age are once again as they were when the Saviour was born.
Her youth is the eternal youth which not only has not known the corruption of death, but has not even experienced the withering of age. Time has not touched our Queen and Mother of the Lord Who created time; and if in Her torture at the time of Passion — a torture which had begun for Her a long time previously, I could say since Jesus began to evangelise — She looked old, such aging was like a veil cast over Her incorruptible person. In fact since the moment that She sees Jesus risen, She becomes once again the fresh perfect creature She was before such torture, as if by kissing His Most Holy Wounds She had drunk a balm of youth which cancels the action of time, and even more so, of sorrow. In fact even eight days ago, when I saw the descent of the Holy Spirit on Whitsunday, I saw that Mary was ‘beautiful, most beautiful and all of a sudden looked younger’ as I wrote and had written previously: ‘She looks like a blue angel’. Angels do not grow old. They are eternally beautiful, because they reflect the eternal youth and the eternal presence of God.
The angelical youth of Mary, blue angel, is perfected now, but not in the secrecy of a room unknown to the world and with only one archangel as witness. It reaches the perfect age which She took with Her to Heaven and which She will keep forever in Her holy glorified body, when the Spirit adorns Her with the bridal ring and crowns Her in the presence of everybody.
I wanted to make this digression because I thought that it was necessary. I will now revert to the description.
Mary, thus, is now really a «woman» full of dignity and grace. Also Her smile has gained in sweetness and majesty. How beautiful She is!
Marie's physical description
GRM 27.2-4
27.2 Joseph comes in. He seems to be coming from the village, because he comes in through the main door, not from the workshop. Mary lifts Her head and smiles at him. Also Joseph smiles. But his smile seems to be a forced one, as if he were worried. Mary looks at him inquisitively. She then gets up to take the mantle that Joseph is taking off and She folds it and lays it on a chest.
Joseph sits at the table. He rests one elbow on it and lays his head on one hand, while with the other hand, absentmindedly, he combs and ruffles his beard with alternate strokes.
«Is there anything worrying you?» asks Mary. «Can I help you?»
«You always comfort me, Mary. But this time, I have a big problem… that concerns You.»
«Me, Joseph. And what is it?»
«They have posted an edict on the synagogue door. It orders the census of all Palestinians. And everybody must go and register in his place of origin. We must go to Bethlehem…»
27.3 «Oh!» exclaims Mary, interrupting him and putting one hand on Her bosom.
«It’s a shock, isn’t it? And a sad one. I know!»
«No, Joseph. That’s not it. I am thinking… I am thinking of the Holy Scriptures: Rachel, Benjamin’s mother and Jacob’s wife of whom the Star will be born: the Saviour. Rachel buried in Bethlehem, of which it is said: ‘But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, out of you will be born the Ruler’. The Ruler who was promised to the House of David. He will be born there…»
«Do You… do You think it is already the time?… Oh! What shall we do?» Joseph is completely dismayed. He looks at Mary with two pitiful eyes.
She realises this and smiles. But She smiles more at Herself than at him. A smile that seems to say: «He is a man, a just man, but a man. And he sees as a man. He thinks as a man. Have pity on him, o soul of Mine, and guide him so that he may see as a spirit.» But Her kindness induces Her to reassure him. She is not untruthful. She simply diverts his anxiety. «I do not know, Joseph. My time is very close. But could the Lord not delay it to relieve you from this worry? He can do everything. Don’t fear.»
«But the journey!… Think of the crowds. Shall we find good lodgings? Shall we be in time to come back? And if… if You are to become a Mother there, what will we do? We have no home there… We do not know anybody anymore.»
«Don’t be afraid. Everything will be alright. God finds a shelter for the animal about to give birth. Do you think He will not find one for His Messiah? We trust in Him, don’t we? We always trust in Him. The harder the trial, the more we trust. Like two children we put our hands in His fatherly ones. He is our guide. We rely entirely on Him. Consider how He has led us with love so far. A father, even the best of fathers, could not do it with greater care. We are His children and His servants. We fulfil His will. No harm can befall us. Also this edict is His will. What is Caesar after all? An instrument in the hands of God. Since the time when the Father decided to forgive man, He pre-arranged the events so that His Christ may be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem, the smallest town in Judah, did not yet exist and its glory was already destined. And there… a powerful man has risen, very far from here, and he conquered us, and now he wants to know all his subjects, now, while the world is in peace… so that the glory of Bethlehem may be accomplished and the word of God may not be belied, — as it would be if the Messiah were to be born elsewhere. Oh! What is our small trouble if we consider the beauty of this moment of peace? Just think, Joseph: a period of time when there is no hatred in the world! Can there be a happier hour for the rising of the ‘Star’, the light of which is divine and its influence is redemption? Oh! Do not be afraid, Joseph. If the roads are not safe, if the crowds will make the journey a difficult one, the angels will defend and protect us. Not us: but their King. If we find no accomodation, their wings will be our tents. No mishap will befall us. It cannot: God is with us.»
27.4 Joseph looks at Her and listens to Her, happily. The wrinkles on his forehead smooth away. He gets up, no longer tired or worried. He smiles. «You are blessed, Sun of my soul! You are blessed, because You see everything through the Grace of which You are full! Don’t let us waste time, then. Because we must leave as soon as possible, and come back as soon as possible, because everything is ready here for the… for the…»
«For our Son, Joseph. He must be such in the eyes of the world, remember that. The Father has covered His coming with the veil of mystery and we must not lift that veil. Jesus will do it, when the time comes…»
The beauty of Mary’s face, look, expression and voice, when She says «Jesus» cannot be described. It is already an ecstasy. And the vision ends on it.
GRM 27.3
«He is a man, a just man, but a man. And he sees as a man. He thinks as a man. Have pity on him, o soul of Mine, and guide him so that he may see as a spirit.»
When you come face to face with a soul steeped in human common sense, you might think to yourself.
GRM 27.5
Love is not the satisfaction of one’s senses and utility. To love is to satisfy him whom we love, beyond senses and utility, giving him the help he needs so that he may always be able to keep his wings open in the skies of hope and peace.