Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 42.8
Mary was always united to God in the gravest hours of Her life: in the Temple, when She was asked to marry, at Nazareth when She was called to Maternity, again at Nazareth when shedding the tears of a widow, at Nazareth in the dreadful separation of Her Son, on Calvary in the torture of seeing Me dying.
GRM 42.9
Learn, you who are crying. Learn, you who are dying. Learn, you who are living to die. Endeavour to deserve the words I said to Joseph. They will be your peace in the struggle of death. Learn, you who are living to die. Endeavour to deserve the words I said to Joseph. They will be your peace in the struggle of death. Learn, you who are dying, to deserve to have Jesus near you, comforting you. And if you have not deserved it, dare just the same, and call Me near you. I will come. With My hands full of graces and consolation, My Heart full of forgiveness and love, My lips full of words of absolution and encouragement.
Death loses its bitterness if it takes place between My arms. Believe Me. I cannot abolish death, but I can make it sweet for those who die trusting in Me.
Christ, on His Cross, said on behalf of you all: ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit’. He said that in His agony, thinking of your agonies, your terrors, your errors, your fears, your desire for forgiveness. He said it with His Heart pierced by extreme torture, before being pierced by the lance, a torture that was more spiritual than physical, so that the agonies of those who die thinking of Him might be relieved by the Lord and their spirits might pass from death to eternal Life, from sorrow to joy, forever.
Jesus has just shown Joseph's death and speaks of Mary's grief.
GRM 42.9
Learn, you who are dying, to deserve to have Jesus near you, comforting you. And if you have not deserved it, dare just the same, and call Me near you. I will come. With My hands full of graces and consolation, My Heart full of forgiveness and love, My lips full of words of absolution and encouragement.
GRM 43.5
During a hailstorm nothing seems capable of protecting you. But it is not so. Humanity, which is sleeping buried under spiritual waters, is made to surface by the storm, which brings to the surface also the gems of a supernatural doctrine. Those gems had fallen into your hearts and are just waiting for the storm so that they may appear on the surface again and say to you: ‘We are here as well. Do not forget us’.
GRM 43.5
We always act so that you may receive solace from us, not dismay and increased sorrow. All we need is that you trust us. It is enough if you say with Joseph: ‘If Jesus is left with me, I have everything’ and we will come with heavenly gifts to comfort your spirits.
Marie says:
GRM 43.6
All Joseph had from his union with Jesus, from a human point of view, were worries, fatigue, persecutions, starvation. He had nothing else. But as he aimed only at Jesus, all this was turned into spiritual peace and supernatural joy. I would like to take you to the point where My Spouse was when he said: ‘Even if we should have nothing else, we shall always have everything, because we have Jesus’.
GRM 43.6
Translation in progress
GRM 43.7
(...) Mary!… Do you belong to Jesus? Do you want to belong to Him? Where, how did Jesus die? My dear child, weep, but persevere bravely. Martyrdom does not consist of the form of torture, but in the constancy with which the martyr endures it. Thus death from a weapon is martyrdom and likewise moral grief is martyrdom, if it is suffered for the same purpose. You are suffering for My Son’s sake. Whatever you do for your brothers is still love for Jesus Who wants them to be saved. Thus your suffering is martyrdom. Persevere in it. Do not wish to do anything by yourself. The pressure of pain is too severe and thus it is not possible for you to have sufficient strength to be your own guide and control your human nature preventing it from weeping: all you need do is to let grief torture you without rebelling against it. It is enough for you to say to Jesus: ‘Help me!’ What you cannot do, He will do in you. Remain in Him, always in Him. Do not wish to come out of Him. If you do not want, you will not come out and even if your sorrow is so deep as to prevent you from seeing where you are, you will always be in Jesus.
GRM 43.7
Martyrdom does not consist of the form of torture, but in the constancy with which the martyr endures it. Thus death from a weapon is martyrdom and likewise moral grief is martyrdom, if it is suffered for the same purpose. You are suffering for My Son’s sake. Whatever you do for your brothers is still love for Jesus Who wants them to be saved. Thus your suffering is martyrdom. Persevere in it. Do not wish to do anything by yourself. The pressure of pain is too severe and thus it is not possible for you to have sufficient strength to be your own guide and control your human nature preventing it from weeping: all you need do is to let grief torture you without rebelling against it. It is enough for you to say to Jesus: ‘Help me!’ What you cannot do, He will do in you. Remain in Him, always in Him. Do not wish to come out of Him. If you do not want, you will not come out and even if your sorrow is so deep as to prevent you from seeing where you are, you will always be in Jesus.
Mary turns to Maria and says:
GRM 44.9-12
44.9 The lesson of the contemplation of My separation is addressed especially to those parents and children that God will call upon to renounce one another for the sake of a greater love. It also applies to all those who have to face a painful renouncement.
How many such sorrowful situations you find in your lives! They are thorns on the earth and they pierce your hearts, I know. But for those who accept them with resignation – mind, I am not saying “’for those who wish them and accept them with joy”, which is already perfection; I am saying: “with resignation” – they become eternal roses. But only few people resign themselves to accepting them. Like restive little donkeys, you kick back against the Father’s will, and you jib, and you even try at times to hit good God with spiritual kicks and bites, that is, with rebellion and blasphemy.
44.10 And do not say: “I had but this good thing and God took it away. I had but this affection and God took it away!”. Also Mary, a gentle woman, with perfect love, (because in the Virgin Full of Grace also affections and sensations were perfect), also Mary had but one good thing, and one love on the earth: Her Son. The only thing left to Her. Her parents had died a long time before. Joseph had died some years earlier. Only I was left to love Her and make Her feel She was not alone. Her relatives, because of Me, of Whose divine origin they were not aware, were somewhat hostile to Her, because they considered Her a mother incapable of imposing Herself on Her Son, Who did not behave according to good common sense and turned down marriage proposals which could bring prestige to the family, as well as material help.
Her relatives reasoned according to common sense, to human sense — you call it good sense, but it is only human sense, that is selfishness — and they would have liked My life to comply with their habits. After all, they were always afraid that one day they might get into trouble because of Me, as I had already dared express certain ideas which they considered too idealistic and thought they might irritate the Synagogue. Hebrew history was full of teachings on the fate of Prophets. The Prophet’s mission was not an easy one, and often brought about death for the prophet and trouble for his kinsfolk. And there was always the fear that one day they might have to take care of My Mother.
They were therefore irritated by the fact that She did not oppose Me in anything, on the contrary, She seemed to be in perpetual adoration in front of Her Son. This conflict was to increase in the three years of My public life when it culminated with open reproaches every time they met Me in the midst of crowds and were ashamed of what they considered My mania for vexing the powerful classes. And they reproached Me and My poor Mother!
44.11 Mary was aware of the moods of Her relatives and was able to foresee their future tempers — they were not all like James, Judas and Simon or their mother Mary of Clopas — but although She knew what Her destiny was going to be during the three years of My public life, and was aware of Her destiny and Mine at the end of the three years, She did not fight back, as you do. She cried. And which mother would not have cried because of the separation from a son who loved her as I loved Mine, or because of the prospect of long days devoid of My presence in a solitary house, or because of the dreary outlook of a Son doomed to butt against the malice of guilty people who took vengeance for their guilt by offending the Blameless One to the extent of killing Him?
She cried because She was the Co-Redeemer, and because She was the Mother of mankind who were being born once again to God. And She had to cry for all the mothers who are not able to turn their motherly sorrows into a crown of eternal glory.
How many mothers there are in the world from whose arms death snatches their creatures! How many mothers there are whose sons are torn away from their sides by a supernatural will! As the Mother of all Christians, Mary cried for all Her daughters, and in Her sorrow of a bereft Mother, She cried for all Her sisters. And She cried for all Her sons, who, born of woman, were to become apostles of God or martyrs for God’s sake, because of their loyalty to God or because of man’s cruelty.
44.12 My Blood and My Mother’s tears are the mixture that fortifies those destined to a heroic fate, obliterates their imperfections and the sins they committed because of their weakness and, in addition to martyrdom, in whatever way suffered, it grants them the peace of God and then the glory of Heaven, if they suffered for God.
The missionary fathers find that mixture to be a flame that warms them in the regions covered with perpetual snow, and they find it to be a dew when the sun is scorching. Mary’s tears originate from Her charity, and they gush out from Her heart of a lily. They therefore possess the fire of virginal Charity, the Spouse of Love, and the scented freshness of virginal Purity, like the drops of water which gather in the chalice of a lily on a dewy night.
Our mixture is found by those consecrated in the desert of a well understood monastic life: it is a desert because it only lives in communion with God, whilst all other affections fade away and become pure supernatural charity: towards relatives, friends, superiors and inferiors.
It is found by those consecrated to God in the world, in the world that neither understands nor loves them, a desert also for them, as they live in it as if they were alone, so much are they misunderstood and mocked for My sake.
Our mixture is found by My dear “victims”, because Mary is the first victim for Jesus’ love, and with Her hands of a Mother and a Doctor, She gives Her followers Her tears which refreshen and urge to a greater sacrifice.
Holy tears of My Mother!
Jesus leaves Nazareth to begin his public life.