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Jesus' entourage

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GRM 5.5

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

5.5 The women arrive jubilant with a plump little baby wrapped in plain linen.

It is Mary, the Mother. A very tiny Mary, who could sleep in the arms of a child, a Mary as long, at the most, as an arm, with a little head of ivory dyed pale pink. Her tiny carmine lips no longer cry but are set in the instinctive act of sucking: they are so small that one cannot understand how they will be able to take a teat. Her pretty little nose is between two tiny round cheeks, and when they get Her to open Her eyes, by teasing Her, they see two small parts of the sky, two innocent blue points that look but cannot see, between thin fair eyelashes. Also Her hair on Her little round head is a pinkish blond, like the colour of certain honeys which are almost white.

Her ears are two small shells, transparent, perfect. Her tiny hands… what are those two little things groping in the air and ending up in Her mouth? Closed, as they are now, they are two rose buds that split the green of their sepals and show their silk within. When they are open, as now, they are two ivory jewels, made of pink ivory and alabaster with five pale garnets as nails. How will those two tiny hands be able to dry so many tears?

And Her little feet? Where are they? For the time being they are just kicking, hidden in the linen. But now the relative sits down and uncovers Her… Oh, the little feet! They are about four centimetres long. Each sole is a coral shell, with a snow white top veined in blue. Her toes are masterpieces of Lilliputian sculpture: they, too, are crowned with small scales of pale garnet. But where will they find small sandals, when those little feet of a doll will take their first steps, sandals small enough to fit such tiny feet? And how will those little feet be able to go such a long way and bear so much pain under the cross?

But that for the time being is not known, and the onlookers smile and laugh at her kicking, at Her well shaped legs, at Her minute plumpish thighs that form dimples and rings, at Her little tummy, a cup turned upside-down, at Her tiny perfect chest. Under the skin of Her breast, as soft as fine silk, the movement of Her breathing can be seen and the beating of Her little heart can be heard, if, as Her happy father is doing now, one lays one’s lips there for a kiss… This is the most beautiful little heart the world will ever know: the only immaculate heart of a human being.

And Her back? They are now turning Her over and they can see the curve of Her kidneys and then the plump shoulders and the pink nape of Her neck, which is so strong that the little head lifts itself up on the arch of the minute vertebrae. It looks like the little head of a bird that scans the new world that it views. She, the Pure and Chaste One, protests with a little cry at being thus exposed to the eyes of so many, She, Entirely Virgin, the Holy and Immaculate, Whom no man will ever see nude again, protests.

Cover, do cover this bud of a lily which will never be opened on earth and which, still remaining a bud, will bear its Flower, even more beautiful than Herself. Only in Heaven the Lily of the Triune Lord will open all its petals. Because up there, there is no particle of fault that may unwillingly profane its spotlessness. Because up there the Triune God is to be received, in the presence of the whole Empyrean, the Triune God that within a few years, hidden in a faultless heart, will be in Her: Father, Son, Spouse.

Here She is again, in Her linen, in the arms of Her earthly father, whom She resembles. Not at the moment. Now She is just the sketch of a human. I mean that She will be like him when She has grown into a woman. She has nothing of Her mother. She has Her father’s colour of complexion and eyes and certainly also his hair. His hair is now white, but when he was young it was definitely fair, as one can tell from his eyebrows. She has Her father’s features, made more perfect and gentle, being a woman, but that special Woman. She has also the smile, the glance, the way of moving and height of Her father. Thinking of Jesus, as I see Him, I find Anne has given her height to her Grandson and her deep ivory colour to His skin. Mary, instead, has not the stateliness of Her mother: a tall and supple palm-tree, but She has the kindness of Her father.

Detail

Description of Mary who has just been born.

GRM 5.6

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Anne smiles at one of her thoughts: «She is the Star» she says. «Her sign is in Heaven. Mary, arch of peace! Mary, my Star! Mary, pure moon! Mary, our pearl!»

«Are you calling Her Mary?»

«Yes. Mary, star and pearl and light and peace…»

«But it means also bitterness… Are you not afraid of bringing Her misfortune?»

«God is with Her. She belongs to Him before She existed. He will lead Her along His ways and all bitterness will turn into heavenly honey. Now be of Your mummy… for a little longer, before being all of God…»

Detail

The choice of Marie's first name. This is Anne, her mother, speaking.

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.

GRM 5.13-14

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

To man and woman, corrupted by Satan, God decided to oppose the Man born of a Woman Whom God had super-sublimed to such an extent that She generated without knowing man: a Flower that generates a Flower, without the need of seed, by a unique kiss of the Sun on the inviolated chalice of the Lily-Mary.

5.14 The revenge of God!

Hiss, O Satan, your hatred while She comes into the world! This Child has beaten you! Before you were the Rebel, the Twister, the Corruptor, you were already beaten and She was your Conqueror. One thousand assembled armies are of no avail against your power, the arms of men fall before your scales, o Perennial One, and there is no wind capable of dispersing the stench of your breath. And yet, the heel of this Child, which is so rosy as to look like the inside of a rosy camellia, and is so smooth and soft that silk seems coarse in comparison, and is so small that it could enter the chalice of a tulip and make itself a tiny shoe with that vegetable satin, that heel is crushing your head without any fear and relegates you to your den. And Her cry causes you to flee away, although you are not afraid of armies. And Her breath purifies the world of your foul smell. 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!

In vain you have corrupted them, who had been created innocent, leading them to knowledge and conception by means of the sensuousness of lust, depriving God, in His beloved creature, of being the benefactor of the children according to rules, which, had they been respected, would have kept a balance on earth between sexes and races, a balance capable of avoiding wars between people and calamities between families.

By obeying, they would have also known love. Indeed, only by obeying they would have known love and possessed it. A complete and peaceful possession of this gift from God, Who from the supernatural descends to the inferior, so that also the flesh may rejoice devoutly, since it is united to the spirit and created by Him Who created the spirit.

Now, men, what is your love, what are your loves? Either lewdness disguised as love or an incurable fear of losing the love of your partner through her or other people’s lewdness. You are never sure of possessing the heart of your husband or wife, since lust entered the world. And you tremble and cry and become overwrought with jealousy, sometimes you kill to avenge a betrayal, sometimes you despair, and sometimes you lack will or even become insane.

This is what you have done, Satan, to the children of God. Those whom you have corrupted, would have known the joy of having children without suffering any pain and would have experienced the joy of being born without fear of dying. But now you are beaten in a Woman and by a Woman. From now on, whoever loves Her will become once again God’s own, overcoming your temptations, to be able to look at Her immaculate purity. From now on mothers, though not able to conceive without pain, will find comfort in her. From now on She will be the guide for married women and the Mother of dying people, so that it will be sweet to die resting on that breast which is a shield against you, you Cursed One, and against the wrath of God.

GRM 5.14-15

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

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.

5.15 The Virgin’s Virginity!…

Come. Contemplate this deep virginity that gives ecstatic dizziness in its contemplation! What is the poor enforced virginity of a woman that no man married? Less than nothing. What is the virginity of a woman who wanted to be a virgin to belong to God, but is so in her body and not in her spirit, where she allows alien thoughts to enter and entertains allurements of human thoughts? It is a sham virginity, but still very little. What is the virginity of a cloistered nun who lives only for God? Very much. But it is never the perfect virginity when compared with My Mother’s.

There has always been an union, also in the most holy one. The original union between spirit and Fault. The one that only Baptism dissolves. It dissolves it, but as in the case of a woman separated from her husband by his death, it does not render virginity complete such as it was in the First Parents before Sin. A scar remains and hurts causing one to remember it, and it is always ready to become a sore like certain diseases that periodically are made worse by their virus. In the Virgin there is no sign of this dissolved union with the Fault. Her soul appears beautiful and intact as when the Father conceived Her, gathering all graces in Her.

She is the Virgin. She is the Only One. She is the Perfect One. The Complete One. Conceived as such. Generated as such. Remained such. Crowned such. Eternally such. She is the Virgin. She is the abyss of intangibility, of purity, of grace that is lost in the Abyss from which it emerged: in God: most perfect Intangibility, Purity, Grace.

That is the revenge of the God Triune and One. Against creatures desecrated He raises this Star to perfection. Against unhealthy curiosity He raises this Coy Virgin, contented only with loving God. Against the science of evil, this sublime Innocent Virgin. In Her there is not only no knowledge of dejected love: there is not only non-acquaintance with the love that God had given to married people. Much more. In Her there is the absence of incentives, the inheritance of Sin. In Her there is only the icy and white-hot wisdom of divine love. A fire that strengthens the flesh with ice, so that it may be a transparent mirror at the altar where God married a Virgin and does not lower Himself because His perfection embraces Her perfection, which, as it becomes a bride, is only inferior to His by one point, subject to Him as a Woman, but without fault as He is.»

GRM 6.1-5

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

6.1 In Jerusalem I see Joachim and Anne, together with Zacharias and Elizabeth, coming out of a house, which must belong to friends or relatives, and they are heading towards the Temple for the ceremony of the Purification.

Anne is carrying the Baby, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes, or rather, all tied up in a wide garment of light wool, which, however, must be soft and warm. It is impossible to describe how carefully and lovingly she carries and watches her little creature, lifting the edge of the fine warm cloth to see if Mary is breathing freely, and then she readjusts it to protect Her from the sharp air of a clear but cold winter day.

Elizabeth is holding some parcels in her hands. Joachim is pulling with a rope two big and very white lambs, which are more like rams than lambs. Zacharias has nothing in his hands. He is handsome in his linen garment, which can be seen under a white heavy woollen mantle. Zacharias, much younger than the one already seen at the birth of the Baptist, in his full manhood, as Elizabeth is a mature woman, but still fresh in her appearance: and she bends in ecstasy over the tiny sleeping face, every time Anne looks at the Baby. She also looks beautiful in her blue almost dark violet dress and in her veil that covers her head and then falls on her shoulders and on the mantle, which is darker than her dress.

But Joachim and Anne are certainly solemn in their best clothes. Unexpectedly, he is not wearing his dark brown tunic. Instead he has on a long garment of a very deep red, which we would now call St. Joseph’s red, and the fringes attached to his mantle are new and beautiful. He, too, is wearing a kind of rectangular veil on his head and it is secured with a leather band. Everything is new and of excellent quality.

Anne, oh! She is not wearing dark clothes today! Her dress is a very pale yellow, almost the colour of old ivory, tied at her waist, neck and wrists with a large belt that seems of silver and gold. Her head is covered by a very light damask veil, held at her forehead by a thin but precious plate. She has a filigree necklace around her neck and bracelets at her wrists. She is like a queen, also because of the dignity with which she wears her dress, and particularly her cape, which is of a light yellow colour hemmed with a Greek fret beautifully embroidered in the same shade.

«You look exactly as the day you got married. I was just a little older than a girl, then, but I still remember how beautiful and happy you were» says Elizabeth.

«But now I am even more so… and I decided to wear the same dress for this rite. I had kept it for this… and I was no longer expecting to put it on for this.»

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!»

6.3 They have now reached the walls of the Temple.

«While you go to Nicanor’s Gate, I will go and inform the priest. And then I will come, too» Zacharias says. And he disappears behind an arch leading into a large yard surrounded by porches.

The group continues to proceed along the ensuing terraces. I do not know whether I have said this before: the enclosure wall of the Temple is not on level ground but it rises up higher and higher by means of successive terraces. Each terrace is reached by means of a flight of steps and on each terrace there are yards and porches and beautiful portals wrought in marble, bronze and gold.

Before reaching their destination they stop to take out the contents of the parcels: cakes, I think, which are wide and flat and very greasy, some white flour, two doves in a small wicker cage and some big silver coins: they are quite heavy but fortunately garments did not have pockets in those days. They would have made holes in them.

Here is the beautiful Gate of Nicanor, all chiselled in heavy bronze silver plating. Zacharias is already there beside a stately priest dressed in linen.

Anne is sprinkled with what I suppose is lustral water and then she is instructed to move towards the altar of the sacrifice. The Child is no longer in her arms. Elizabeth, who has stopped at this side of the Gate, has taken Her.

Joachim, instead, enters behind his wife, dragging a miserable bleating lamb. And I… I do exactly what I did on the occasion of Mary’s purification: I close my eyes not to see any slaughter.

Now Anne is purified.

6.4 Zacharias whispers something to his colleague, who nods smiling. He then approaches the group, which has reassembled, and as he congratulates the mother and father on their joy and their loyalty to the promises, he is given the second lamb, the flour and the cakes.

«So this daughter is sacred to the Lord? May His blessing be with Her and with you. Here is Anna. She will be one of Her teachers. Anna of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. Come here, woman. This little one is offered to the Temple as a victim of praise. You will be Her teacher and She will grow holy under your guidance.»

Anna, already completely grey, fondles the Child, who has awakened and is looking with Her innocent and surprised eyes at all the white and gold lit up by the sun.

The ceremony must be over. I did not see any special rite for the offering of Mary. Perhaps it was sufficient to tell the priest, and above all God, at the sacred place.

6.5 «I would like to give the offering to the Temple and go over there where I saw the light last year.»

They go accompanied by Anna of Phanuel. They do not enter the actual Temple; since they are women and it is the case of a little girl, it is understandable that they do not even go where Mary went to offer Her Son. But very close to the wide open door, they look into the half-dark inside from which sweet songs of girls can be heard and where precious lamps are lit and spread a golden light on two flower beds of white veiled heads: two real flowerbeds of lilies.

«In three years’ time You will be there too, my Lily» promises Anne to Mary, Who looks fascinated at the inside and smiles at the slow song.

«You would say that She understands» says Anna of Phanuel. «She is a beautiful child! She will be as dear to me as if She were my own. I promise you, mother. If I shall be granted to be so.»

«You shall, woman» Zacharias says. «You will receive Her amongst the sacred girls. I also shall be there. I want to be there that day to tell Her to pray for us from the very first moment…» and he looks at his wife who understands and sighs.

The ceremony is over and Anna of Phanuel withdraws, while the others leave the Temple speaking to one another.

I hear Joachim say: «Not only two lambs and the best, but I would have given all my lambs for this joy and to praise God!»

I do not see anything else.

GRM 6.1

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Anne is carrying the Baby, all wrapped up in swaddling clothes, or rather, all tied up in a wide garment of light wool, which, however, must be soft and warm. It is impossible to describe how carefully and lovingly she carries and watches her little creature, lifting the edge of the fine warm cloth to see if Mary is breathing freely, and then she readjusts it to protect Her from the sharp air of a clear but cold winter day.

GRM 6.4-5

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Zacharias whispers something to his colleague, who nods smiling. He then approaches the group, which has reassembled, and as he congratulates the mother and father on their joy and their loyalty to the promises, he is given the second lamb, the flour and the cakes.

«So this daughter is sacred to the Lord? May His blessing be with Her and with you. Here is Anna. She will be one of Her teachers. Anna of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. Come here, woman. This little one is offered to the Temple as a victim of praise. You will be Her teacher and She will grow holy under your guidance.»

Anna, already completely grey, fondles the Child, who has awakened and is looking with Her innocent and surprised eyes at all the white and gold lit up by the sun.

The ceremony must be over. I did not see any special rite for the offering of Mary. Perhaps it was sufficient to tell the priest, and above all God, at the sacred place.

6.5 «I would like to give the offering to the Temple and go over there where I saw the light last year.»

They go accompanied by Anna of Phanuel. They do not enter the actual Temple; since they are women and it is the case of a little girl, it is understandable that they do not even go where Mary went to offer Her Son. But very close to the wide open door, they look into the half-dark inside from which sweet songs of girls can be heard and where precious lamps are lit and spread a golden light on two flower beds of white veiled heads: two real flowerbeds of lilies.

«In three years’ time You will be there too, my Lily» promises Anne to Mary, Who looks fascinated at the inside and smiles at the slow song.

«You would say that She understands» says Anna of Phanuel. «She is a beautiful child! She will be as dear to me as if She were my own. I promise you, mother. If I shall be granted to be so.»

«You shall, woman» Zacharias says. «You will receive Her amongst the sacred girls. I also shall be there. I want to be there that day to tell Her to pray for us from the very first moment…» and he looks at his wife who understands and sighs.

The ceremony is over and Anna of Phanuel withdraws, while the others leave the Temple speaking to one another.

I hear Joachim say: «Not only two lambs and the best, but I would have given all my lambs for this joy and to praise God!»

I do not see anything else.

Detail

Anne has come to present Mary to the Temple and purify herself after giving birth. She is accompanied by her husband, Elizabeth and Zechariah. When all is accomplished and she is purified by the priest, a colleague of Zechariah, Maria Valtorta writes the following.

GRM 6.6-7

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

6.6 Jesus says:

«Solomon in his Wisdom says: “Whoever is childlike, let him come to me”. And really from the stronghold, from the walls of her city, Eternal Wisdom said to the Eternal Maiden: “Come to Me”, longing to have Her. Later the Son of the Most Pure Maiden will say: “Let little children come to Me because the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs, and those who do not become like them will not have any part in My Kingdom”. The voices follow one another and while the voice of Heaven cries to little Mary: “Come to Me”, the voice of Man says, and thinks of His Mother in saying so: “Come to Me if you can be like children”.

I give you My Mother as a model.

Here is the perfect Maiden with the pure and simple heart of a dove, here is the One Whom years and worldly contacts do not make defiant in the cruelty of a corrupted, twisted, false spirit. Because She does not want it. Come to Me, looking at Mary.

6.7 Since you see Her, tell me: Is Her glance as an infant very different from the one She had at the foot of the Cross or in the delight of Pentecost or when Her eyelids closed upon Her innocent eyes for Her last sleep? No. Here is the uncertain and astonished glance of an infant, then it will be the amazed and modest look of the Annunciation, and then the happy one of the Mother in Bethlehem, then the worshipping glance of My first and sublime Disciple, then the tormented one of the Tortured Mother on Golgotha, then the radiant glance of Resurrection and Pentecost, then the veiled look of the ecstatic sleep of the last vision. But whether it opens at the first sight, or closes tired on the last light, after seeing so much joy and horror, Her eye is the clear, pure, placid piece of the sky that always shines below Mary’s forehead. Wrath, falsehood, pride, lewdness, hatred, curiosity never soil it with their smoky clouds.

It is the eye that looks at God lovingly, whether it cries or laughs, and that for God’s sake fondles and forgives and bears everything, and by the love of God is rendered unassailable to the assaults of Evil, that so often makes use of the eye to penetrate the heart. It is the pure, restful, blessing eye that the pure, the saints, the lovers of God possess.

I said: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is cloudy, your whole body will be all darkness”. Saints possessed this eye which is the light for the soul and salvation for the flesh, because like Mary throughout their lives they looked only at God. Even more: they remembered God.

I will explain to you, My little voice, the meaning of My word.»

Annotation

Later, the Son of the All-Pure Child would say: "Let the little children come to me, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; he who is not like them has no part in my Kingdom. "Jesus will say this in EMV 378.8 and in Matthew 19:14-15, Mark 10:13-14 and Luke 18:15-17.

I said it in Matthew 6:22-23(EMV 174.9) and Luke 11:34-35(EMV 413.7).

Gospel of Matthew 6, 22-23 and 19, 14-15

Mt 6, 22-23 : The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be in light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how great will be the darkness!

Mt 19, 14-15 : Jesus said to them, "Let these little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven is for those who are like them. "15And laying his hands on them, he went on his way.

Gospel of Luke 11:34-35 and 18:15-17

Lk 11, 34-35 : The lamp of your body is your eye. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be in the light; if it is evil, your body too will be in darkness.

Lc 18, 15-17 : Some people also brought their little children to him to touch them; when his disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, will not enter it. "

Gospel of Mark 10, 13-14

Mk 10, 13-14 : Little children were brought to him to touch. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like them."