The mystery of redemption and suffering

« Oh! Daddy, when will you take Me to the Temple?»

«Soon, my dear. But are You not sorry to leave Your father?»

«Yes, very much! But you will come… in any case, if it did not hurt, what sacrifice would it be?»

«And will You remember us?»

«I always will. After the prayer for the Immanuel I will pray for you. That God may give you joy and a long life… until the day He becomes the Saviour. Then I will ask Him to take you to the celestial Jerusalem.»

The vision ends with Mary tightly clasped in Her father’s arms.

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Consecrated virginity
• Family martyrdom
• Joachim of David (father of the Virgin Mary)
• Marie as a child
• Parents and children
• Sauveur
• Words of the Virgin Mary

The gaps in your intelligence are the natural fruits of your fall from Grace and honesty. By losing Grace you banished Wisdom for centuries. As a meteor, which is hidden behind masses of clouds, Wisdom no longer reached you with its bright flashes, but through mist which your prevarications have rendered thicker and thicker.

• Consequences of Fault - Original sin
• Corruption
• Honesty
• Thanks
• Wisdom

Then Christ came and He restored Grace, the supreme gift of the love of God. But do you know how to keep this gem clear and pure? No, you do not. When you do not crush it with your individual will in sinning, you soil it with your continuous minor faults, your weaknesses, your attachment to vice. Such attempts, even if they are not a proper marriage with the septiform vice, are a weakening of the light of Grace and of its activity. And then, to weaken the magnificent light of intelligence that God had given the First Parents, you have centuries and centuries of corruption, which exert a harmful influence on the body and on the mind.

• Adam and Eve
• Consequences of Fault - Original sin
• Corruption
• Sin
• Thanks
• Vice
• Weakness
• Will

8.2 They proceed slowly. Very slowly. They seem to be wishing to carry on their journey for as long as possible. Everything serves as a pretext to stop… But a journey must come to an end! And this one is about to end. Up there, at the top of this last stretch of the road, there are the Temple walls. Anne utters a groan and holds Mary’s hand tighter.

«Anne, my dear, I am here with you!» a voice utters, coming out from the shade of a low arch built over a crossroads. And Elizabeth, who was waiting for them, approaches her and embraces her. And since Anne is crying she says: «Come into this friendly house for a little while. Then we shall go together. Zacharias is here too.»

They all enter a low dark room where the only light is a big fire. The landlady, obviously a friend of Elizabeth, but unknown to Anne, kindly withdraws and leaves them alone.

«You must not think that I am repenting or I am giving my treasure to the Lord unwillingly» explains Anne crying, «but it’s my heart… oh! how my heart aches, my old heart that is returning to its childless solitude! If you could only feel…»

«I know, my dear Anne… But you are good and God will console you in your solitude. Mary will pray for the peace of Her mother. Won’t you, Mary?»

Mary caresses Her mother’s hands and kisses them. She presses them to Her face to be caressed and Anne holds Her little face tightly in her hands and kisses it repeatedly. She is never tired of kissing Her.

Zacharias enters and greets them saying: «May the peace of the Lord be with the just.»

«Yes» replies Joachim, «implore peace for us, because our hearts are trembling in our offer, as Abraham’s did, while he was climbing the mountain, but we shall not find another offer to replace this one. Neither do we want it, because we are faithful to the Lord. But we are suffering, Zacharias. Since you are a priest of God, please understand us and do not be perturbed.»

«Never. On the contrary, your sorrow which does not go beyond reasonable limits and does not shake your faith, teaches me how to love the Most High. But take heart. »

• Anne of Aaron (mother of the Virgin Mary)
• Bible - Book of Genesis
• Elizabeth of Hebron (mother of John the Baptist)
• Family martyrdom
• Joachim of David (father of the Virgin Mary)
• Marie as a child
• Zacharie (father of John the Baptist)

He who possesses purity possesses love, he who possesses love possesses wisdom, he who possesses wisdom possesses generosity and heroism, because he knows why he makes a sacrifice.

• Generosity
• Heroism
• Love
• Pain and suffering
• Purity
• Sacrifice and immolation
• The fruitfulness of suffering
• Wisdom
• Words of wisdom

How many trials they experienced, whilst you, men, do not want to have to suffer and cry, simply because you think that you are not completely wicked!

• Pain and suffering

Children belong first to God and then to their parents. Every son can say what I said[3] to My Mother: “Do you not know that I must be busy with My Father’s affairs?” And every father, every mother must learn the attitude to be maintained looking at Mary and Joseph in the Temple, at Anne and Joachim in the house of Nazareth, a house which was becoming more and more forlorn and sad, but where one thing never diminished, but increased continuously: the holiness of two hearts, the holiness of a marriage.

What light is left to Joachim, an invalid, and to his sorrowful wife, in the long and silent nights of two old people who feel they are about to die? Only the little dresses, the first pair of little sandals, the simple toys of their little daughter, now far away, and memories of Her, memories… And peace when they say: “We are suffering, but we have done our duty of love towards God”.

• Consecrated virginity
• Family martyrdom
• Parents and children
• Peace

While obeying the Law, I must obey the Voice that whispers to Me: “I want You”; I am a virgin and a virgin I shall remain, How shall I succeed? This sweet invisible Presence that is with Me will help Me, because it is Its desire. I am not afraid. I have no longer My father and mother… and only God knows how My love for whatever human being belonged to Me was burnt in that pain. Now I have but God. I therefore obey Him unquestioningly… I would have done so also regardless of My father and mother, because I have been taught by the Voice that whoever wishes to follow It, must go beyond father and mother. Parents are loving patrols watching the hearts of their children, whom they wish to lead to happiness according to their plans… and they are not aware of other plans leading to infinite happiness… I would have left them My dresses and mantles, to follow the Voice that says to Me: “Come, My beloved Spouse”. I would have left them everything, and the pearls of My tears, for I would have cried having to disobey them, and the instincts of My blood, because I would have defied even death to follow the Voice calling Me who, would have told them that there is something greater and sweeter than the love of a father and mother and that is the Voice of God.

• Consecrated virginity
• Family martyrdom
• Obedience to the Virgin Mary
• Parents and children

What treasure of intelligence God gave man, Adam! The Fall impaired it, but My sacrifice reinstates it and opens the splendour of Intelligence, its wealth, its science for you. How sublime is the human mind united to God by His grace, sharing with God the power of knowledge!… The human mind united to God by Grace.

• A state of grace before the sin - Original sin
• Adam and Eve
• Consequences of Fault - Original sin
• Intelligence

David’s race has been struck too severely and scattered too widely to allow the various branches to gather like foliage around the royal palm.

• David (biblical character)
• Persecution