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Bible - Book of Proverbs

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GRM 3.5-10

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

3.5 Jesus says:

«The just are always wise, because, as friends of God, they live in His company and are taught by Him, yes, by Him, Infinite Wisdom.

My grandparents were just and therefore they possessed wisdom. They could quote accurately from the Book, singing the praises of Wisdom from its context: “I loved her and searched for from my youth: I resolved to have her as my bride”.

Anne of Aaron was the strong woman of whom our Ancestor speaks. And Joachim, a descendant of king David, had not sought as much charm and wealth as virtue. Anne possessed a great virtue. All holy attributes joined together like a sweet-smelling bunch of flowers to become one beautiful thing that was this exceptional Virtue. A real virtue, worthy of being set before the throne of God.

Joachim had therefore married wisdom twice, “loving her more than any other woman”: the Wisdom of God enshrined in the heart of a just woman. Anne of Aaron had not sought anything else but to join her life to that of an honest man, certain that family joy lies in honesty.

3.6 And to be the emblem of the “strong woman” she lacked only the crown of children, the glory of the married woman, the justification of marriage, the one of which Solomon speaks, as for her happiness she lacked children, the flowers of a tree that has become one thing with the adjoining tree and obtains thereof abundance of new fruit, in which the two good qualities blend into one, because she had never experienced any disappointment on account of her husband.

3.7 Although she was now approaching old age and had been Joachim’s wife for many years, she was always for him “the spouse of his youth, his joy, the most dear hind, the graceful fawn”, whose caresses always had the fresh charm of the first nuptial evening and sweetly charmed his love, keeping it as fresh as a flower sprinkled with dew, and as ardent as a fire continuously kept burning. Therefore, in their affliction of their childless state, they spoke to each other “words of consolation in their thoughts and troubles”.

3.8 And when the time came, after having taught them in life, eternal Wisdom enlightened them with dreams at night, visions of the poem of glory that was to come from them and it was the Most Holy Mary, My Mother. If their humility made them hesitant, their hearts trembled in hope at the first hint of God’s promise. There was already certainty in Joachim’s words: “Do hope… We shall gain our favour from God by our faithful love”. They were dreaming of a child: they got the Mother of God.

3.9 The words of the book of Wisdom appear to be written for them: “By means of her I shall acquire glory before the people… by means of her, immortality shall be mine and I shall leave an everlasting memory to my successors”. But to obtain all this they had to become masters of a true and lasting virtue which no event marred. Virtue of faith. Virtue of charity. Virtue of hope. Virtue of chastity. The chastity of a married couple! They possessed it, because it is not necessary to be virgins to be chaste. And chaste nuptial beds are guarded by angels and from them descend good children who make the virtue of their parents the rule of their lives.

3.10 But where are they now? Now children are not wanted, neither is chastity. I therefore say that love and marriage are desecrated.

Annotation

In all truth, they could repeat what the Book says when it sings the praises of Wisdom in the book of the same name: See Wis 8:2 below.

Anne, daughter of Aaron, was the strong woman of whom our forefather speaks. Solomon, from whom Jesus descended. Author of the "Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel" (Proverbs 1:1). For the quotation, see Proverbs 31:10-27.

Joachim had thus twice married wisdom "loving her more than any other woman": God's wisdom contained in the heart of the righteous woman. See Wis 8:9 below.

To be the emblem of the "strong woman", all she needed was to be crowned with children, for this is the glory of a wife, the justification of marriage, of which Solomon speaks. See Pr 31, 28.

Now an old woman, Joachim's wife for decades, she remained for him "the wife of his youth, his joy, his beloved hind, his graceful gazelle". See Pr 5:18-19. Almost unanimous tradition has it that Anne was married for more than 20 years (4 lustres) (cf. P.V. Charland, Les trois légendes de Madame Saincte Anne, volume 1 1898, page 11), and that she had Mary in her old age. This tradition is also confirmed by Marie d'Agreda(La Cité mystique de Dieu - Livre 1, Chapitre 15, § 209, page 518), as well as by Anne-Catherine Emmerich (La Vie de la Vierge Marie, Presses de la Renaissance, 2006, page 45).

In their sadness at being childless, they spoke to each other "words of comfort in their cares and woes": see Wis 8, 9 below.

The words of the Book of Wisdom seem to have been written for them: "For her sake I will have glory among the multitudes... For her sake I will have immortality, and I will leave an everlasting memory for those who come after me. "See Wis 8, 9-10.

Book of Wisdom 8, 2 and 8, 9-10

Wis 8, 2 : I loved her and sought her out from my youth; I sought her as my wife, and was enamored of her beauty.

Wis 8:9-10 : So I resolved to take her as my life's companion, knowing that she would be to me a counsellor of all good, and a comfort in my cares and sorrows. Through her, I said to myself, I would have glory in the assemblies, and, still young, honor with the old men.

Book of Proverbs 5, 18-19

Pr 5, 18-19 : Bless your spring, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. Charming doe, graceful gazelle, - let her charms intoxicate you at all times, be always enamored of her love!

Book of Proverbs 31, 10-31

Pr 31, 10-31 :

THE STRONG WOMAN.

ALEPH. Who can find a strong woman? Her price far outweighs that of pearls.

BETH. Her husband's heart trusts her, and profits will not fail her.

GHIMEL. She does him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

DALETH. She seeks wool and flax, and works with her cheerful hand.

HÉ. She is like the merchant's vessel, bringing her bread from afar.

VAV. She rises while it is yet night, and gives food to her house, and task to her maids.

ZAIN. She thinks of a field, and acquires it; with the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard.

HETH. She girds her loins with strength, and strengthens her arms.

TETH. She feels that her gain is good; her lamp is not extinguished in the night. YOD. She puts her hand to the distaff, and her fingers take up the spindle.

CAPH. She stretches out her hand to the unfortunate, she opens her hand to the needy.

LAMED. She does not fear the snow for her house, for all her house is clothed in crimson.

MEM. She makes herself blankets, byssus and purple are her garments.

NUN. Her husband is well known at the city gates, when he sits with the elders of the land.

SAMECH. She makes shirts and sells them, and delivers belts to the merchant.

AÏN. Strength and grace are her adornment, and she laughs at the future.

PHE. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and good words are on her tongue.

TSADÉ. She watches over the paths of her house, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

QOPH. Her sons rise up and proclaim her happy; her husband rises up and gives her praise:

RESCH. "Many daughters have shown themselves virtuous; but you, you surpass them all."

SCHIN. Deceitful is grace, and vain is beauty; the woman who fears Yahweh is the one who will be praised.

THAV. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works declare her praise at the gates of the city.

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 6.6

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.

Annotation

Solomon says: Proverbs 9:4.

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 saythis in EMV 378.8 and in Matthew 19:14-15; Mark 10:13-14, and Luke 18:15-17.

Gospel of Matthew 19, 14-15

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

Gospel of Luke 18, 15-17

Lk 18, 15-17 : Some people also brought their little children to him to touch them; when his disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called the children to him 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. 17Truly, 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."

GRM 9.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

The books of wisdom may be applied to all men, who will find guidance in them and a light for their behaviour. But happy are those who can be recognised amongst the spiritual lovers of Wisdom.

Annotation

There are five wisdom books in the Bible: Proverbs - Ecclesiastes (Qohelet) - Song of Songs - Job - Wisdom (of Solomon) - Ecclesiasticus (Sirach).