Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 36.8
True love is not selfish. And true love is always chaste, even if it is not perfect in chastity as the love of the two virgin spouses. Chastity united with charity yields a suite of other virtues and therefore two people who love each other chastely become perfect.
GRM 36.9
In that house they love work, and they would love it even if there was plenty of money, because the working man obeys the command of God and frees himself from vice, which like tenacious ivy clenches and suffocates idle people, who are like immovable rocks. Food is good, rest is serene, hearts are happy, when you have worked well and you enjoy the resting time between one job and the next one. Neither in the houses nor in the minds of those who love work, can various vices arise. And, in its absence, love, esteem, mutual respect prosper and tender children grow in a pure atmosphere and they thus become the origin of future holy families.
Maria has just seen a vision of the Holy Family in Egypt.
GRM 36.9
Humility reigns in that house. What a lesson of humility for the proud. Mary, from a human point of view, had a thousand reasons to be proud and to be adored by Her spouse. Many women are proud only because they are a little better educated, or of nobler birth, or of a wealthier family than their husbands. Mary is the Spouse and the Mother of God, and yet She serves — and does not expect to be served — Her consort, and She is full of love for him. Joseph is the head of the family, judged by God so worthy of being the head of a family, as to be entrusted by God with the guardianship of the Word Incarnate and the Spouse of the Eternal Spirit. And yet he is anxious to relieve Mary of Her work, and he takes care of the most humble jobs in the house so that Mary may not get tired, not only, but whenever he can he does his best to please Her and make Her house more comfortable and Her little garden more beautiful.
Maria has just seen a vision of the Holy Family in Egypt.
GRM 36.9
In that house order is respected: supernatural, moral, material. God is the Supreme Head and He is worshipped and loved: supernatural order. Joseph is the head of the family and he is loved, respected and obeyed: moral order. The house is a gift of God as well as the clothes and the furnishings. The Providence of God is shown in everything, of God Who supplied wool to sheep, feathers to birds, grass to meadows, hay to animals, grains and branches to birds, Who weaves the dress of the lily of the valley. The house, the dresses, the furnishings are accepted with gratitude, blessing the divine hand that supplies them, looking after them with respect as gifts of the Lord, without any bad humour because they are poor, without ill use, without abusing Divine Providence: material order.
Maria has just seen a vision of the Holy Family in Egypt.
GRM 37.8
37.8 Finally I would like to draw the attention of parents to how Joseph made a clever workman of Me, without any help of pedagogical learning. As soon as I was old enough to handle tools, he did not let Me lead a life of idleness, but he made Me work and he made use of My love for Mary as the means to spur Me to work. I was to make useful things for Mother. That is how he inculcated the respect which every son should have for his mother and the teaching for the future carpenter was based on that respectful and loving incentive.
Where are now the families in which the little ones are taught to love work as a means of pleasing their parents? Children, nowadays, are the tyrants of the house. They grow hard, indifferent, ill-mannered towards their parents. They consider their parents as their servants, their slaves. They do not love their parents and they are scarcely loved by them. The reason is that, while you allow your children to become objectionable, overbearing fellows, you become detached from them with shameful indifference.
They are everybody’s children, except yours, o parents of the twentieth century. They are the children of the nurse, of the governess, of the boarding schools, if you are rich people. They belong to their companions, they are the children of the streets, of the schools, if you are poor. But they are not yours. You, mothers, give birth to them and that is all. And you, fathers, do exactly the same. But a son is not only flesh. He has a mind, a heart, a soul. Believe Me, no one is more entitled and more obliged than a father and a mother to form that mind, that heart, that soul.
Jesus showed Maria the first lesson in Jesus' work. He gives a dictation and pauses on a final point.
GRM 37.9
37.9 A family is necessary: it exists and must exist. There is no theory or progress capable of destroying this truth without causing ruin. A shattered family can but yield men and women who in the future will be more perverted, and will cause greater and greater ruin. And I tell you most solemnly that it would be better if there were no more marriages and no more children on the earth, rather than have families less united than the tribes of monkeys, families which are not schools of virtue, of work, of love, of religion, but a babel in which everyone lives on his own like disengaged gears, which end up by breaking.
Broken families. You break up the most holy way of social living and you see and suffer the consequences. You may continue thus, if you so wish. But do not complain if this world is becoming a deeper and deeper hell, a dwelling place of monsters who devour families and nations. You want it. Let it be so.
GRM 38.3-5
38.3 Jesus is playing under the trees with two children who are about His own age. They have curly hair, but they are not blond. One, on the contrary, is very dark: a little head of a little black lamb which makes the skin of his little round face look even whiter, and two most beautiful large, wide open blue violet eyes. The other is less curly and his hair is dark brown, his eyes are brown and his complexion darker, but with a pinkish hue on his cheeks. Jesus’ little blond head looks like a blaze of light. They are playing in perfect harmony with some little carts on which there are… various articles: leaves, little stones, wood shavings, little pieces of wood. They must be playing at shops, and Jesus is the one who buys things for His Mummy, to Whom He takes now one thing, then another one. Mary accepts all the purchases with a smile.
Then the game changes. One of the two children proposes: «Let us play at the Exodus from Egypt. Jesus will be Moses, I will be Aaron, and you… Mary.»
«But I am a boy!»
«It does not matter. It’s just the same. You are Mary, and you shall dance before the golden calf, and the golden calf is that beehive over there.»
«I’m not going to dance. I am a man and I do not want to be a woman. I am a faithful believer and I am not going to dance before an idol.»
Jesus interrupts them: «Don’t let us play that part. Let us play this other one: when Joshua is elected Moses’ successor. So there will be no terrible sin of idolatry and Judas will be happy to be a man and My successor. Are you happy?»
«Yes I am, Jesus. But then You will have to die, because Moses dies afterwards. But I do not want You to die; You have always been so fond of me.»
«Everybody dies… but before dying I shall bless Israel, and since you are the only ones here, I shall bless the whole of Israel in you.»
They agree. Then there is an argument: whether the people of Israel, after so much travelling, still had the same carts they had when leaving Egypt. There is a difference of opinion.
They ask Mary. «Mummy, I say that the Israelites still had the carts. James says they didn’t. Judas does not know who is right. Do you know?»
«Yes, My Son. The nomadic people still had their carts. They repaired them when they stopped to rest. The weaker people travelled in them together with the foodstuffs, and the many things which were necessary for so many people were loaded into them. With the exception of the Ark, which was carried by hand, everything else was on the carts.» The question is now solved.
38.4 The children go down to the bottom of the orchard and from there, singing psalms, they come towards the house. Jesus is in front and He is singing some psalms in His gentle silvery voice. Behind Him, there come Judas and James holding a little cart which has been elevated to the rank of Tabernacle. But since they have also to play the part of the people, in addition to Aaron’s and Joshua’s, with their belts they have tied other miniature carts to their feet, and thus they proceed very seriously as if they were real actors.
They cover the whole length of the pergola, they pass in front of the door of Mary’s room and Jesus says: «Mummy, hail the Ark when it passes by.» Mary stands up smiling, and She bows to Her Son Who passes by, radiant in the bright sunshine.
Then Jesus clambers up the side of the mountain that forms the boundary of the house, or rather of the garden; He stands up straight on top of the little grotto, and speaks to… Israel. He repeats the orders and the promises of God, He appoints Joshua as the leader, calls him, and then Judas in his turn climbs up the cliff. He encourages and blesses him. He then asks for a… tablet (it is a large fig leaf) and He writes the canticle and reads it. It is not quite complete, but contains a large part of it, and He seems to be reading it from the leaf. He then dismisses Joshua who embraces Him crying, and He then climbs further up, right up to the edge of the cliff. And from there He blesses the whole of Israel, that is the two who are prostrated on the ground, He then lies down on the short grass, closes His eyes and… dies.
38.5 Mary, who has been watching from the doorstep smiling, when She sees Him lying still on the ground shouts: «Jesus, Jesus! Get up! Don’t lie down like that! Your Mummy does not want to see You dead!»
Jesus gets up smiling, runs towards Her, and kisses Her. Also James and Judas come. They also receive Mary’s caresses.
«How can Jesus remember that canticle which is so long and difficult and all those blessings?» asks James.
Mary smiles and answers: «His memory is very good and He pays a lot of attention when I read.»
«I too, at school, pay attention. But then I get sleepy with all the hubbub… shall I never learn then?»
«You will learn, be good.»
Jude, James and Jesus play in the garden of Nazareth as children. Mary is present.
Book of Numbers, 27, 12-23: The Lord said to Moses: "Go up to Mount Abarim and see the land I have given to the children of Israel. You will look at it, and then you too will be reunited with your people, just as your brother Aaron was. Indeed, you rebelled against my word in the desert of Cine, when the community sought to quarrel with me, when the gushing water should have manifested my holiness in their eyes. This happened at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, the waters of the Kadesh quarrel, in the desert of Cine. Then Moses spoke to the Lord. He said: "May the Lord, God of the spirits that animate every being of flesh, establish at the head of the community a man who goes out into the field and comes back at their head, who brings them out and brings them in. So the community of the Lord will not be like small cattle without a shepherd." The Lord said to Moses: "Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man inhabited by the spirit. Lay your hand on him, then set him before Eleazar the priest and the whole community, and give him your orders before their eyes. You will put in him a part of your radiance so that the whole community of the sons of Israel will listen to him. He will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will submit him to the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word, all the sons of Israel will go out; at his word, they will return, he and all the sons of Israel with him, the whole community.
Book of Deutoronomy 34: Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. The Lord showed him all the land: Gilead as far as Dane, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean, the Negev, the region of the Jordan, the valley of Jericho, the city of Palms, as far as Soar. The Lord said to him: "This land you see, I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give it to their descendants. I show it to you, but you shall not enter it." Moses, the Lord's servant, died there, in the land of Moab, according to the Lord's word. He was buried in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Moab. But even today, no one knows where his tomb lies. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyesight had not failed, nor had his vitality diminished. The sons of Israel mourned for Moses on the steppes of Moab for thirty days. The days of Moses' mourning came to an end. Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. A prophet like Moses, whom the Lord met face to face, never again arose in Israel. What signs and wonders the Lord had sent him to perform in Egypt, before Pharaoh, all his servants and all his land! With what a mighty hand, what a formidable power, Moses had acted in the eyes of all Israel!
GRM 38.3
One of the two children proposes: «Let us play at the Exodus from Egypt. Jesus will be Moses, I will be Aaron, and you… Mary.»
«But I am a boy!»
«It does not matter. It’s just the same. You are Mary, and you shall dance before the golden calf, and the golden calf is that beehive over there.»
«I’m not going to dance. I am a man and I do not want to be a woman. I am a faithful believer and I am not going to dance before an idol.»
Jesus interrupts them: «Don’t let us play that part. Let us play this other one: when Joshua is elected Moses’ successor. So there will be no terrible sin of idolatry and Judas will be happy to be a man and My successor. Are you happy?»
«Yes I am, Jesus. But then You will have to die, because Moses dies afterwards. But I do not want You to die; You have always been so fond of me.»
«Everybody dies… but before dying I shall bless Israel, and since you are the only ones here, I shall bless the whole of Israel in you.»
Jude, James and Jesus play in the garden of Nazareth as children. Mary is present.
GRM 38.7
ou do not necessarily spoil your children just because you keep them at home. To keep them at home implies loving them with good common sense and wholeheartedly.
GRM 38.8
You must keep their attention and let them relax at the same time. You must understand them, love them, and be loved by them, if you wish to get good results.
Mary agrees to teach Jude and James of Alphaeus and she says: