Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 5.14
You are defeated. Her name, Her look, Her purity are lances and thunderbolts that pierce you and demolish you and imprison you in your den in Hell, o Cursed One, who deprived God of the joy of being the Father of all men created!
Jesus speaks to Satan and evokes his Mother
GRM 5.14
The sublime victory of God over Satan’s revenge was to raise the perfection of the beloved creature to a super-perfection that should annul, at least in one person, all recollection of humanity, liable to Satan’s poison, so that the Son should be generated not by a man’s chaste embrace, but by a divine embrace that causes the spirit to change colour in the ecstasy of the Fire.
Jesus speaks of Mary.
GRM 6.2
6.2 «The Lord has loved you very much…» says Elizabeth sighing.
«And that is why I am giving Him the thing I love most. This flower of mine.»
«How will you be able to tear it from your heart when the time comes?»
«Remembering that I did not have her and that God gave her to me. I shall always be happier now than then. When I know She is in the Temple I will say to myself: “She is praying near the Tabernacle, She is praying the God of Israel also for Her mummy” and I will have peace. And a greater peace I will have in saying: “She belongs entirely to Him. When these two old but happy parents, who received Her from Heaven, are no longer alive, He, the Eternal, will still be Her Father”. Believe me, I am fully convinced, this little creature is not ours. I was not able to do anything more… He put Her in my bosom, a divine gift to wipe away my tears and fulfil our hopes and our prayers. That is why She belongs to Him. We are the happy guardians… and may He be blessed for this!»
Anne speaks with Elizabeth, the future mother of John the Baptist. She asks her how she will know how to offer her child to God when the time comes.
GRM 7.5
« I would also like to be a sinner, a big sinner, if I were not afraid of offending the Lord… Tell Me, mummy, can one be a sinner out of love of God?»
«But what are You saying, my dear? I don’t understand You.»
«I mean: to commit a sin in order to be loved by God, Who becomes the Saviour. He who is lost, is saved. Isn’t that so? I would like to be saved by the Saviour to receive His loving look. That is why I would like to sin, but not to commit a sin that would disgust Him. How can He save Me if I do not get lost?»
Anne is dumbfounded. She does not know what to say.
Joachim helps her. He has approached them walking noiselessly on the grass, behind the low hedge of vine-shoots. «He has saved You beforehand, because He knows that You love Him and You want to love Him only. So You are already redeemed and You can be a virgin as You wish» says Joachim.
«Is that true, daddy?» Mary embraces his knees and looks at him with Her clear blue eyes, so like Her father’s and so happy because of this hope She gets from Her father.
«It is true, my little darling. Look! I was just bringing You this little sparrow, that at its first flight landed near the spring. I could have left it there but its weak wings did not have enough strength to fly off again, and its tiny legs could not hold onto the slippery moss stones. It would have fallen into the water. But I did not wait for that. I took it and now I am giving it to You. You will do what you like with it. The fact is that it was saved before it fell into danger. God has done the same with You. Now, tell me, Mary: have I loved the sparrow more by saving it beforehand, or would I have loved it more saving it afterwards?»
«You have loved it now, because you did not let it get hurt in the cold water.»
«And God has loved You more, because He has loved You before You sinned.»
«And I will love Him wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly. My beautiful little sparrow, I am like you. The Lord has loved us both equally, by saving us… I will now rear you and then I will let you go. And you in the forest and I in the Temple will sing the praises of God, and we shall say: “Please send the One You promised to those who expect Him”. »
Mary as a child has decided to be a virgin out of love for God, and she hopes to be the handmaid of the Mother of God. Then she adds:
Can one be a sinner out of love for God? (...) How can he save me if I do not lose myself?
This paradoxical relationship between sin and grateful love for the Redeemer can be found in the Easter Exultet: Blessed is the sin of man, which brought the only Saviour to the world in distress!
Saint Paul also cultivates this paradox out of love for his brethren: I myself, for the Jews, my brethren by race, would wish to be anathema, separated from Christ (Romans 9:3).
GRM 7.8
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.
GRM 9.3
“He who loves her [Wisdom], loves life and will inherit Life” says Ecclesiasticus. This sentence is linked with Mine20: “He who loses his life for My sake, will save it”. Because we are not referring to the poor life of this world, but to the eternal life, not to the joys of one hour, but to the immortal ones.
Book of Ben Sira the Wise 4, 12-13
Si 4, 12-13 : To love her is to love life; those who seek her from the dawn will be filled with happiness; he who possesses her will obtain glory as an inheritance; where he enters, the Lord gives his blessing.
Gospel of Matthew 16:25
Mt 16, 25 : For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Gospel of Mark 8:35 and Gospel of Luke 9:24
Mk 8:35 / Lk 9:24: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it.
See EMV 346.9.
GRM 10.6
How much Blood the Saviour will have to shed to redeem us! How much indeed! From the thousands of wounds that Isaiah saw on the Man of Sorrows, a stream of Blood is falling, like dew from a porous vase. May this divine Blood not fall where there is desecration and blasphemy, but into chalices of fragrant purity that may receive it and gather it for the purpose of spreading it amongst the diseased and leprous souls and amongst those who are dead to God. Give lilies to wipe with their pure petals the sweat and the tears of Christ! Give lilies for His keen desire of Martyrdom! Oh! Where is the Lily that will bear You? Where is the Lily that will quench Your parching thirst, that will become red with Your Blood, will die for the pain of seeing You dying, and will cry over Your bloodless Body? Oh! Christ! Christ! My desire!…»
GRM 15.5
We do not take care only of the spirit, but we also look after matter, which is not the queen but a useful servant to the spirit in fulfilling its mission.
GRM 16.1-4
What I see. Mary, a very young girl: She looks fifteen years old, at the most. She is in a small rectangular room: a room most suitable for a girl. Along one of the longer walls there is a bed: a low bed, without bedstead, covered with thick mats or carpets, which appear to be laid on boards or cane-trellis, because they are very stiff and without any curve, as is usual with our beds. Against the other wall there is a kind of bookcase with an oil lamp, some rolls of parchment, some needlework carefully folded: it seems to be embroidery work.
Beside the bookcase, towards the door, which opens onto the kitchen garden and which is now covered by a curtain gently moved by a light breeze, there is the Virgin sitting on a low stool. She is spinning some linen which is as white as snow and as soft as silk. Her little hands, just a little darker than linen, are whirling the spindle very quickly. Her beautiful young face is slightly bent forward and She is smiling gently as if She were caressing or following some sweet thought.
There is a great silence in the little house and in the kitchen garden. There is a great peace both on Mary’s face and in the surrounding place. There is peace and order. Everything is neat and tidy and the room, although very modest looking and very modestly furnished — it is almost as bare as a cell — has something austere and regal about it because of its cleanliness and the care with which everything is laid: the clothes on the bed, the rolls, the lamp, the copper pitcher near the lamp, with a bunch of branches in bloom in it. I do not know whether they are peach or pear branches. They are certainly branches of a fruit-tree, with pinkish white flowers.
16.2 Mary begins to sing in a low voice, then She raises Her voice slightly. But She does not sing loudly. Still, it is a voice vibrating in the little room and one can perceive the vibration of Her soul in it. I do not understand the words as they are spoken in Hebrew. But as now and again She repeats «Jehovah» I realize that it is a sacred song, perhaps a psalm. Mary is probably remembering the songs of the Temple. And it must be a happy memory because She lays Her hands in Her lap, while still holding the yarn and the spindle, and lifts Her head leaning against the wall: Her face is beautifully flushed and Her eyes are lost behind… I wonder what sweet thought. Her eyes are shining with tears, which appear but do not overflow and they make Her eyes look larger. And yet those eyes are smiling, they are smiling at a thought they can see and by which Mary is abstracted from the earthly world. Mary’s face, flushed and girded by the plaits She wears rolled up like a crown around Her head, seems a beautiful flower, as it emerges from Her plain white dress.
The song changes into a prayer: «Most High Lord God, do not delay any longer in sending Your Servant to bring peace to the world. Grant us the favourable time and the pure and prolific virgin for the coming of Your Christ. Father, Holy Father, grant Me, Your servant to offer My life for this purpose. Grant Me to die after seeing Your Light and Your Justice on earth and after knowing that our Redemption has been accomplished. O Holy Father, send the Promise of the Prophets to the earth. Send the Redeemer to Your maidservant, so that in the hour of My death, Your abode may be opened to Me, as its gates have already been opened by Your Christ for all those who have hoped in You. Come, come, O Spirit of the Lord. Come to the faithful who are expecting You. Come, Prince of Peace!…» Mary remains absorbed in this way…
16.3 The curtain moves fast, as if someone behind it ventilated it with something or shook it to draw it. And a pearl white light mixed with pure silver makes the slightly yellow walls clearer and makes the colours of the cloths brighter and Mary’s raised face more spiritual. And in such light, while the curtain is still drawn on the mystery to be accomplished, the Archangel prostrates himself: the curtain no longer moves: it is hanging stiff against the doorposts like a wall separating the inside from the outside.
It must necessarily take a human appearance. But it is a transhuman appearance. Of what flesh is this beautiful and gleaming figure made? With what substance did God form it to make it perceptible to the senses of the Virgin? Only God can possess such substances and use them so perfectly. It is a face, a body, eyes, a mouth, hair and hands like ours. But they are not our dull matter. It is a light that has taken the colour of flesh, of eyes, hair, lips, a light that moves and smiles, looks and speaks.
16.4 «Hail, Mary, full of Grace, Hail!» The voice is a sweet arpeggio as of pearls thrown on a precious metal plate.
Mary is startled and lowers Her head. And She is even more startled when She sees the shining creature kneeling at about a metre from Her and looking at Her with infinite veneration, his hands crossed over his chest.
Mary jumps to Her feet and She squeezes against the wall. She turns pale and red alternately. Her face shows surprise and fear. She subconsciously presses Her hands against Her breast hiding them under Her large sleeves. She stoops, endeavouring to conceal Her body as much as possible. An attitude of gentle modesty.
«No. Do not fear. The Lord is with You! You are blessed amongst all women!»
But Mary continues to be afraid. Where has that extraordinary being come from? Is he a messenger of God or of the Deceiver?
«Do not fear, Mary!» repeats the Archangel. «I am Gabriel, the Angel of God. My Lord has sent me to You. Do not be afraid, because You have found grace in the eyes of God. And You will conceive and bear a Son and You will call Him “Jesus”: He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High (and such He will really be). And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His Ancestor David and He will rule over the House of Jacob forever, and His reign will have no end. Understand, o Holy Virgin loved by God, Daughter blessed by Him, called to be the Mother of His Son, what Son You will generate!»
«How can this come about, since I do not know man? Perhaps the Lord God will no longer accept the offer of His maidservant and does not want Me a Virgin for His love?»
«Not by deed of man You will be a mother, Mary. You are the Eternal Virgin, the Holy Virgin of God. The Holy Spirit will come upon You and the power of the Most High will cover You with its shadow. So the Child born of You will be called Holy and Son of God. Our Lord God can do everything. Elizabeth, the barren one, in her old age has conceived a son who will be the Prophet of Your Son, and will prepare His ways. The Lord has removed her disgrace and her memory will remain amongst peoples together with Your name, as the name of her creature will be joined to the name of Your Holy Son, and until the end of centuries you will be called blessed, because of the Lord’s Grace which has come to you both and particularly to You, by means of Whom Grace has come to all peoples. Elizabeth is in her sixth month and her burden lifts her to joy, and will lift her even more when she hears of Your joy. Nothing is impossible to the Lord, Mary, full of Grace. What shall I tell my Lord? Let no thought whatsoever disturb You. He will protect Your interests if You trust in Him. The world, Heaven, the Eternal Father are awaiting Your word!»
Mary crosses Her hands over Her breast and bowing down deeply, She says: «I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to Me.»
The Angel shines out of joy. He kneels in adoration because he certainly sees the Spirit of God descend upon the Virgin bent down in assent, and he disappears without moving the curtain, but leaves it well drawn over the holy Mystery.
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a young virgin girl, given in marriage to a man of the house of David, called Joseph; and the girl's name was Mary. The angel entered her home and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." At this word, she was overwhelmed, and wondered what this greeting could mean.
Then the angel said to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, "How is this to be, since I know no man?" The angel replied: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the one to be born will be holy, and will be called the Son of God. And now, in her old age, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son and is in her sixth month, although she was called the barren woman. For nothing is impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." Then the angel left her.
GRM 16.4
16.4 «Hail, Mary, full of Grace, Hail!» The voice is a sweet arpeggio as of pearls thrown on a precious metal plate.
Mary is startled and lowers Her head. And She is even more startled when She sees the shining creature kneeling at about a metre from Her and looking at Her with infinite veneration, his hands crossed over his chest.
Mary jumps to Her feet and She squeezes against the wall. She turns pale and red alternately. Her face shows surprise and fear. She subconsciously presses Her hands against Her breast hiding them under Her large sleeves. She stoops, endeavouring to conceal Her body as much as possible. An attitude of gentle modesty.
«No. Do not fear. The Lord is with You! You are blessed amongst all women!»
But Mary continues to be afraid. Where has that extraordinary being come from? Is he a messenger of God or of the Deceiver?
«Do not fear, Mary!» repeats the Archangel. «I am Gabriel, the Angel of God. My Lord has sent me to You. Do not be afraid, because You have found grace in the eyes of God. And You will conceive and bear a Son and You will call Him “Jesus”: He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High (and such He will really be). And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His Ancestor David and He will rule over the House of Jacob forever, and His reign will have no end. Understand, o Holy Virgin loved by God, Daughter blessed by Him, called to be the Mother of His Son, what Son You will generate!»
«How can this come about, since I do not know man? Perhaps the Lord God will no longer accept the offer of His maidservant and does not want Me a Virgin for His love?»
«Not by deed of man You will be a mother, Mary. You are the Eternal Virgin, the Holy Virgin of God. The Holy Spirit will come upon You and the power of the Most High will cover You with its shadow. So the Child born of You will be called Holy and Son of God. Our Lord God can do everything. Elizabeth, the barren one, in her old age has conceived a son who will be the Prophet of Your Son, and will prepare His ways. The Lord has removed her disgrace and her memory will remain amongst peoples together with Your name, as the name of her creature will be joined to the name of Your Holy Son, and until the end of centuries you will be called blessed, because of the Lord’s Grace which has come to you both and particularly to You, by means of Whom Grace has come to all peoples. Elizabeth is in her sixth month and her burden lifts her to joy, and will lift her even more when she hears of Your joy. Nothing is impossible to the Lord, Mary, full of Grace. What shall I tell my Lord? Let no thought whatsoever disturb You. He will protect Your interests if You trust in Him. The world, Heaven, the Eternal Father are awaiting Your word!»
Mary crosses Her hands over Her breast and bowing down deeply, She says: «I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to Me.»
The Angel shines out of joy. He kneels in adoration because he certainly sees the Spirit of God descend upon the Virgin bent down in assent, and he disappears without moving the curtain, but leaves it well drawn over the holy Mystery.