Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
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 27.6
Trust is (...) obedience. And God loves the obedient man. Obedience implies that we acknowledge ourselves as His children and we acknowledge God as our Father. And a father can but love when he is a real father. God is our real Father and a perfect Father.
Mary explains trust in three points: trust is love, trust is humility, trust is obedience.
GRM 29.6
You know by now. It is by means of pain that we achieve peace and every grace for ourselves and our neighbours.
GRM 29.12
And yet all this was not sufficient to achieve for woman the peace lost by Eve. I obtained that for you at the foot of the Cross: when I saw Him dying, Whom you saw being born. When I felt My bowels being torn apart by the cry of My dying Creature, I became void of all femininity. I was no longer flesh, but an angel. Mary, the Virgin Spouse of the Spirit, died that moment. The Mother of Grace remained, Who gave you the Grace She generated from Her torture. The female reconsecrated ‘woman’ by me on Christmas night, achieved at the foot of the Cross the means to become a creature of Heaven.
This I did for you, depriving Myself of all satisfactions, even of holy ones. And whereas you had been reduced by Eve to females not superior to the mates of animals, I made of you, if you only wish so, saints of God. I ascended for you. As I had done for Joseph, I lifted you higher up. The rock of Calvary is My Mount of Olives. From there I took My leap to carry to Heaven the resanctified soul of woman together with My flesh, now glorified because it had borne the Word of God and had destroyed in Me the very last trace of Eve. It had destroyed the last root of that tree with four poisonous branches, a root stuck in the sensuality that had dragged mankind to fall and that will go on biting at your intestines until the end of time and to the last woman. From there, where I now shine in the ray of Love, I call you and I show you the Medicine to control yourselves: the Grace of My Lord and the Blood of My Son.
Mary describes what she went through to participate in the co-redemption of women. She overcame pride by humbling herself to the depths of her being. She overcame the greed of our first parents by giving up her Child in advance. She overcame greed, both for knowledge and for pleasure, by accepting to know only what God wanted her to know. And she overcame lust, which is gluttony carried to the point of gluttony. She then continues her explanation to Maria:
GRM 29.13
Rest your soul in the light of this dawn of Jesus, to gain strength for the future crucifixions which will not be spared you, because we want you here and one comes here through pain, because we want you here and the higher one comes the more one has suffered to obtain Grace for the world.
GRM 30.11
God shows Himself to those who have a child’s soul and He shows them also His mysteries and allows them to hear His divine words and Mary’s. And those with a child’s soul have also Levi’s holy daring and they say: ‘Let us kiss Jesus’ dress’. They say that to Mary. Because it is always Mary Who gives you Jesus. She is the Bearer of the Eucharist. She is the Living Pyx.
He who goes to Mary, finds Me. He who asks Her for Me receives Me from Her. When a creature says to Mary: ‘Give me Your Jesus that I may love Him’, My Mother’s smile causes Heaven’s colours to change into a more lively brightness because of its greater delight.
Say, therefore, to Her: ‘Let me kiss Jesus’ dress, let me kiss His wounds’. And dare even more: ‘Let me rest my head on Your Jesus’ Heart, that I may delight in It’.
Jesus gives Maria a dictation, after she has seen the shepherds' adoration in the manger. He says:
GRM 30.11
God shows Himself to those who have a child’s soul and He shows them also His mysteries and allows them to hear His divine words and Mary’s. And those with a child’s soul have also Levi’s holy daring and they say: ‘Let us kiss Jesus’ dress’. They say that to Mary. Because it is always Mary Who gives you Jesus. She is the Bearer of the Eucharist. She is the Living Pyx.
Jesus gives Maria a dictation, after she has seen the shepherds' adoration in the manger. He says:
GRM 31.8-9
Rely peacefully on the word of him who guides you. And believe and obey his advice. Obedience always saves you, even if the advice given to you is not completely perfect.
GRM 31.9
31.9 Obedience always saves you, even if the advice given to you is not completely perfect .
As you know, we obeyed. And we were right to do so. It is true that Herod confined the slaughter of the children to Bethlehem and its surroundings. But could Satan not have spread and propagated such hatred much farther and wider and have induced all the mighty ones in Palestine to commit a similar crime in order to kill the future King of the Jews? He could have done that and it would have happened in Christ’s early days, when the repeated miracles had drawn the attention of both the crowds and of those in power. If such an event had taken place, how could we have crossed the whole of Palestine, to go from Nazareth to Egypt, the hospitable land for persecuted Jews, and make such a journey with a little child, and while persecution was raging? It was easier to flee from Bethlehem, even if the flight was equally painful.
Obedience always saves you. Remember that.
Mary speaks of the Holy Family's obedience when Zacharias advised them to stay in Bethlehem.
GRM 31.10
Respect for a priest is always a sign of a Christian education. Woe to those priests who lose their apostolic ardour! Also Jesus said that. But woe also to those who think that they are right in despising them! Because they consecrate and hand out the True Bread that descends from Heaven. And that contact makes them holy, just like a sacred chalice, even if they are not totally holy. They will answer to God for it. You must consider them as such and not worry about anything else. You must not be more strict than your Lord Jesus, Who, at their command, leaves Heaven and descends to be raised by their hands. You must learn from Him. And if they are blind, if they are deaf, if their souls are paralysed and their thoughts are unsound, if they are lepers full of faults in strong contrast with their mission, if they are like corpses in sepulchres, then call Jesus that He may heal them and revive them.
Call Him with your prayers, and your suffering, o victim souls. To save a soul is to predestine one’s own soul to Heaven. But to save the soul of a priest is to save a large number of souls, because every holy priest is a net that drags souls to God. And to save a priest, that is to sanctify: re-sanctify, is to create this mystical net. Each prey is a light to be added to your eternal crown.