No Special Privileges?

Ever intent on projecting his own Protestant and Modernist rationalism onto the empty shell of what is left of recognizable Catholicism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, Jorge Mario Bergoglio rarely misses an opportunity to put multiple drops of blasphemous and heretical poisons into his allocutions, homilies, “apostolic” exhortations, and encyclical letters.

Most of those Catholics who read or listen to his words have no means to recognize blasphemy or heresy and to flee from it because they are the products of over fifty straight years of nonstop apostasy, blasphemy and heresy. These Catholics have been robbed of any true sensus Catholicus, something that Jorge Mario Bergoglio knows and is exploiting all of the time, not most of the time, all of the time.

This is because the Argentine Apostate is a tool of the devil himself, a veritable demon dressed up to look like a permissive, indulgent, understanding and merciful “pope, and the adversary must know that his time is running out on him as the pace at which events in the world and the counterfeit church of conciliarism are unfolding is nothing less than stupefying. It is as though the combined forces of hell have unleashed their final assaults upon us all. There is no “relief” to be found in the farce that represents itself as electoral politics, and there is certainly no “relief” to be had for “conservatives” and “traditionally-minded” Catholics in the ranks of the sect erroneously believed to be the Catholic Church.

It is thus the case that all but a relative handful of Catholics in the world see in their “Burger King” “pope” a “regular guy” figure, a man who sweeps away all sense of Catholic mystery and who is unconcerned about doctrines, commandments, and moral black and moral white. Bergoglio feeds a desire on the part of Catholics who have been the victims of over fifty years of spiritual, doctrinal, liturgical and pastoral malpractice and deceit to want to believe they have can have their worldly and cake and it eat it, too, without detriment to their eternal salvation. What passes for the Catholic faith in the mind of Modernists such as Bergoglio is nothing other than a collection of religious fables mixed in with a variety of political, social, cultural, scientific and anthropological ideologies that have as much to with reality as the late Howard Cohen’s (more popularly known as “Howard Cosell”) hair.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is such a naturalist and a rationalist that he is rarely happier than when he engages in blasphemous acts of “de-mythologizing” the miracles of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and portraying Our Lady herself as full of doubt and capable of questioning the holy will of God the Father. The only time that this septuagenarian is happier is when he is bashing believing Catholics by the use of all manner of pejoratives and invectives, each of which is put into his mouth by the devil himself.

Thus it is that the Argentine Apostate returned once again to blaspheming Our Lady during a staging of the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical service in the esplanade in front of the Marin Shrine in Caacupe, Paraguay, on Saturday, July 11, 2015, Our Lady’s Saturday and the Commemoration of Pope Saint Pius I.

Bergoglio’s “homily” was full of drops of poison that showed once again that this wretched little man does not believe in the doctrinal effects of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, a disbelief that he shares, I might add, with his predecessor, the octogenarian Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who permitted The Nativity Story, a Protestant-produced motion picture that blasphemed Our Lady by portraying her to be a moody, sulky and rebellious teenager, to have its world premiere in the Paul the Sick Audience Hall on Sunday, November 26, 2006, the First Sunday of Advent.

Here are the pertinent passages from Bergoglio’s “homily,” followed by just a bit of commentary and refutation:

In the Gospel, we have just heard the greeting of the angel to Mary: Rejoice, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Rejoice, Mary, rejoice. Upon hearing this greeting, Mary was confused and asked herself what it could mean. She did not fully understand what was happening. But she knew that the angel came from God and so she said yes. Mary is the Mother of Yes. Yes to God’s dream, yes to God’s care, yes to God’s will.

It was a yes that, as we know, was not easy to live. A yes that bestowed no privileges or distinctions. Simeon told her in his prophecy: “a sword will pierce your heart” (Lk 2:35), and indeed it did. That is why we love her so much. We find in her a true Mother, one who helps us to keep faith and hope alive in the midst of complicated situations. Pondering Simeon’s prophecy, we would do well to reflect briefly on three difficult moments in Mary’s life.

1. The first moment: the birth of Jesus. There was no room for them. They had no house, no dwelling to receive her Son. There was no place where she could give birth. They had no family close by; they were alone. The only place available was a stall of animals. Surely she remembered the words of the angel: “Rejoice, Mary, the Lord is with you”. She might well have asked herself: “Where is he now?”.

2. The second moment: the flight to Egypt. They had to leave, to go into exile. Not only was there no room for them, no family nearby, but their lives were also in danger. They had to depart to a foreign land. They were persecuted migrants, on account of the envy and greed of the King. There too she might well have asked: “What happened to all those things promised by the angel?”

3. The third moment: Jesus’ death on the cross. There can be no more difficult experience for a mother than to witness the death of her child. It is heartrending. We see Mary there, at the foot of the cross, like every mother, strong, faithful, staying with her child even to his death, death on the cross. There too she might well have asked: “What happened to all those things promised to me by the angel? Then we see her encouraging and supporting the disciples. (Jorge Blasphemes Our Lady once again.)

The English translation of Bergoglio’s “homily” rendered Saint Gabriel’s words to Our Lady at the Annunciation as “Rejoice, full of grace. The Lord is with you” not “Hail, full of grace,” which he used in the Spanish text that he used in Caacupe, Paraguay, nine days ago (“Alégrate, llena de gracia. El Señor está contigo”). Omitted in both versions, however, are the words that follow Saint Gabriel’s angelic salutation to Our Lady, “blessed are thou amongst women. Here is the text as found in the Latin Vulgate that was translated by Saint Jerome himself: “et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus.” (Luke 2: 26.)

I do not believe that this omission was accidental as Bergoglio heretically blasphemed Our Lady when he said that the Fiat to the holy will of God (not the “dream” of God as He is omniscient, knowing all things to the end of time) “bestowed no privileges or distinctions” upon her.

Well, let us start with one privilege and distinction given to no other woman: Our Lady became the Mother of God at the moment of the Annunciation. No special privilege or distinction, Jorge? (See Appendix D below for Father Adolf Tanqueray's defense of the Divine Materinity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its privileges, which Father Tanqueray summarized as follows: "From the dignity of the Divine Maternity proceed all the privileges granted to the Blessed Virgin, her most perfect sanctity, and her supernatural relations with creatures.")

Blasphemer.

Heretic.

Blaspheming heretic.

Obviously, Our Lady had been prepared for the moment of the Annunciation upon which our very salvation rested by her having been preserved from all stain of Original and Actual Sin from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception in the womb of our Good Saint Anne, whose feast in the unreformed general Roman Calendar of 1954 is celebrated in six days, that is, on Sunday, July 26, 2015.

Pope Pius IX explained the doctrinal effects of her Immaculate Conception that had clothed her with Perfect Integrity of body and soul when he solemnly defined the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception in Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854:

Mary Compared with Eve

Hence, it is the clear and unanimous opinion of the Fathers that the most glorious Virgin, for whom "he who is mighty has done great things," was resplendent with such an abundance of heavenly gifts, with such a fullness of grace and with such innocence, that she is an unspeakable miracle of God -- indeed, the crown of all miracles and truly the Mother of God; that she approaches as near to God himself as is possible for a created being; and that she is above all men and angels in glory. Hence, to demonstrate the original innocence and sanctity of the Mother of God, not only did they frequently compare her to Eve while yet a virgin, while yet innocence, while yet incorrupt, while not yet deceived by the deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent; but they have also exalted her above Eve with a wonderful variety of expressions. Eve listened to the serpent with lamentable consequences; she fell from original innocence and became his slave. The most Blessed Virgin, on the contrary, ever increased her original gift, and not only never lent an ear to the serpent, but by divinely given power she utterly destroyed the force and dominion of the evil one.

Biblical Figures

Accordingly, the Fathers have never ceased to call the Mother of God the lily among thorns, the land entirely intact, the Virgin undefiled, immaculate, ever blessed, and free from all contagion of sin, she from whom was formed the new Adam, the flawless, brightest, and most beautiful paradise of innocence, immortality and delights planted by God himself and protected against all the snares of the poisonous serpent, the incorruptible wood that the worm of sin had never corrupted, the fountain ever clear and sealed with the power of the Holy Spirit, the most holy temple, the treasure of immortality, the one and only daughter of life -- not of death -- the plant not of anger but of grace, through the singular providence of God growing ever green contrary to the common law, coming as it does from a corrupted and tainted root.

Explicit Affirmation . . .

As if these splendid eulogies and tributes were not sufficient, the Fathers proclaimed with particular and definite statements that when one treats of sin, the holy Virgin Mary is not even to be mentioned; for to her more grace was given than was necessary to conquer sin completely. They also declared that the most glorious Virgin was Reparatrix of the first parents, the giver of life to posterity; that she was chosen before the ages, prepared for himself by the Most High, foretold by God when he said to the serpent, "I will put enmities between you and the woman."-unmistakable evidence that she was crushed the poisonous head of the serpent. And hence they affirmed that the Blessed Virgin was, through grace, entirely free from every stain of sin, and from all corruption of body, soul and mind; that she was always united with God and joined to him by an eternal covenant; that she was never in darkness but always in light; and that, therefore, she was entirely a fit habitation for Christ, not because of the state of her body, but because of her original grace.

. . . Of a Super Eminent Sanctity

To these praises they have added very noble words. Speaking of the conception of the Virgin, they testified that nature yielded to grace and, unable to go on, stood trembling. The Virgin Mother of God would not be conceived by Anna before grace would bear its fruits; it was proper that she be conceived as the first-born, by whom "the first-born of every creature" would be conceived. They testified, too, that the flesh of the Virgin, although derived from Adam, did not contract the stains of Adam, and that on this account the most Blessed Virgin was the tabernacle created by God himself and formed by the Holy Spirit, truly a work in royal purple, adorned and woven with gold, which that new Beseleel made. They affirmed that the same Virgin is, and is deservedly, the first and especial work of God, escaping the fiery arrows the the evil one; that she is beautiful by nature and entirely free from all stain; that at her Immaculate Conception she came into the world all radiant like the dawn. For it was certainly not fitting that this vessel of election should be wounded by the common injuries, since she, differing so much from the others, had only nature in common with them, not sin. In fact, it was quite fitting that, as the Only-Begotten has a Father in heaven, whom the Seraphim extol as thrice holy, so he should have a Mother on earth who would never be without the splendor of holiness.

This doctrine so filled the minds and souls of our ancestors in the faith that a singular and truly marvelous style of speech came into vogue among them. They have frequently addressed the Mother of God as immaculate, as immaculate in every respect; innocent, and verily most innocent; spotless, and entirely spotless; holy and removed from every stain of sin; all pure, all stainless, the very model of purity and innocence; more beautiful than beauty, more lovely than loveliness; more holy than holiness, singularly holy and most pure in soul and body; the one who surpassed all integrity and virginity; the only one who has become the dwelling place of all the graces of the most Holy Spirit. God alone excepted, Mary is more excellent than all, and by nature fair and beautiful, and more holy than the Cherubim and Seraphim. To praise her all the tongues of heaven and earth do not suffice.

Everyone is cognizant that this style of speech has passed almost spontaneously into the books of the most holy liturgy and the Offices of the Church, in which they occur so often and abundantly. In them, the Mother of God is invoked and praised as the one spotless and most beautiful dove, as a rose ever blooming, as perfectly pure, ever immaculate, and ever blessed. She is celebrated as innocence never sullied and as the second Eve who brought forth the Emmanuel.  (Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854.)

What style of speech did Jorge Mario Bergoglio choose to use nine days ago?

Indeed, did Bergoglio's style of speech make it appear as though Our Lady "never lent an ear to the serpent" when he spoke as follows on December 20, 2013?

“The Gospel does not tell us anything: if she spoke a word or not… She was silent, but in her heart, how many things told the Lord! ‘You, that day, this and the other that we read, you had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I see him there!’ Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ John Paul II would say this, speaking about Our Lady in that moment. But she, with her silence, hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope.” (Ever Talkative Apostate: Silence guards one's relationship with God.)

Our Lady did not understand, Jorge?

Blasphemer.

Heretic.

Does Bergoglio's style of speech make it appear that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the fairest flower of our race, was "never in darkness but always in light"?

Here is a brief list of three of other privileges granted to the august Mother of God, the very fairest flower of the human race who had been chosen by God to be the New Eve and the Ark of the New Covenant, the very Singular Vessel of Honor in whose Virginal and Immaculate Womb His Co-Eternal and Co-Equal Divine Son, the Eternal Word Himself through Whom all things were made, was made Incarnate by the working of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost:

1. Our Lady’s Perpetual Virginity, a doctrine denied both by Gerhard Ludwig Muller, the prefect of the misnamed conciliar Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and by the man whose works he has been assigned the task of collecting for publication, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.
2. Our Lady is the Queen of Heaven and of Earth. Not a "special privilege or distinction, Jorge?
3. Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Graces, something signified by the Miraculous Medal that she herself told Saint Catherine Laboure, a spiritual daughter of Saint Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Congregation of the Mission whose feast was commemorated yesterday, Sunday, June 19, 2015, the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, and by the fact that the unreformed Roman Missal permits a commemoration of Our Lady under this title on May 31, which is the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
4. Our Lady is the Co-Redemptrix, something that Pope Leo XIII taught in Iucunda Semper Expectatione, September 8,1894:

The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven. Now, this merciful office of hers, perhaps, appears in no other form of prayer so manifestly as it does in the Rosary. For in the Rosary all the part that Mary took as our co-Redemptress comes to us, as it were, set forth, and in such wise as though the facts were even then taking place; and this with much profit to our piety, whether in the contemplation of the succeeding sacred mysteries, or in the prayers which we speak and repeat with the lips. First come the Joyful Mysteries. The Eternal Son of God stoops to mankind, putting on its nature; but with the assent of Mary, who conceives Him by the Holy Ghost. Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother's womb and favored with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin. At last the expected of nations comes to light, Christ the Savior. The Virgin bears Him. And when the Shepherds and the wise men, first-fruits of the Christian faith, come with longing to His cradle, they find there the young Child, with Mary, His Mother. Then, that He might before men offer Himself as a victim to His Heavenly Father, He desires to be taken to the Temple; and by the hands of Mary He is there presented to the Lord. It is Mary who, in the mysterious losing of her Son, seeks Him sorrowing, and finds Him again with joy. And the same truth is told again in the sorrowful mysteries.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is in an agony; in the judgment-hall, where He is scourged, crowned with thorns, condemned to death, not there do we find Mary. But she knew beforehand all these agonies; she knew and saw them. When she professed herself the handmaid of the Lord for the mother's office, and when, at the foot of the altar, she offered up her whole self with her Child Jesus -- then and thereafter she took her part in the laborious expiation made by her Son for the sins of the world. It is certain, therefore, that she suffered in the very depths of her soul with His most bitter sufferings and with His torments. Moreover, it was before the eyes of Mary that was to be finished the Divine Sacrifice for which she had borne and brought up the Victim. As we contemplate Him in the last and most piteous of those Mysteries, there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother, who, in a miracle of charity, so that she might receive us as her sons, offered generously to Divine Justice her own Son, and died in her heart with Him, stabbed with the sword of sorrow. (Pope Leo XII, Iucnda Semper Expectatione, September 8, 1894.)

This is, of course, all quite foreign to the naturalistic and Modernist mind of the blaspheming heretic named Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

No special privileges?

Well, anyone who wants to have the heavenly assistance of the Mother God nunc, et in hora mortis ought to rise immediately to defend her honor, not to exculpate the hideous blaspheming heretic from Argentina.

Perhaps it is best to let Our Lady herself speak to Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s misrepresentations of her reactions to the Annunciation, the Flight into Egypt, and the Crucifixion and Death of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

First, here is an account of the Annunciation as given by Our Lady herself to the Venerable Mary of Agreda as found in The Mystical City of God (all references below are from Mr. Timothy Duff’s New English Edition of The Mystical City of God):

132. The holy archangel saluted our and his Queen and said: Ave gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus (Lk. 1:28). Hearing this new salutation of the angel, this most humble of all creatures was disturbed, but not confused in mind (Lk. 1:29). This disturbance arose from two causes: first, from her humility, for She thought Herself the lowest of the creatures and thus in her humility, was taken unawares at hearing Herself saluted and called the Blessed among women; secondly, when She heard this salute and began to consider within Herself how She should receive it, She was interiorly made to understand by the Lord, that He chose Her for his Mother, and this caused a still greater perturbance, having such a humble opinion of Herself. On account of this perturbance the angel proceeded to explain to Her the decree of the Lord, saying (Lk. 1:30-2): Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with the Lord. Behold thou shalt conceive a Son in thy womb, and shalt give birth to Him; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Most High, and the rest as recorded of the holy archangel.

133. Our most prudent and humble Queen alone, among all the creatures, was sufficiently intelligent and magnanimous to estimate at its true value such a new and unheard of sacrament; and in proportion as She realized its greatness, so She was also moved with admiration. But She raised her humble heart to the Lord, who could not refuse Her any petition, and in the secret of her spirit She asked new light and assistance by which to govern Herself in such an arduous transaction; for, as we have said in the preceding chapter (119), the Most High, in order to permit Her to act in this mystery solely in faith, hope and charity, left Her in the common state and suspended all other kinds of favors and interior elevations, which She so frequently or continually enjoyed. In this disposition She replied and said to holy Gabriel, what is written in St. Luke (1:34): "How shall this happen, that I conceive and bear, since I know not, nor can know, man?" At the same time She interiorly represented to the Lord the vow of chastity, which She had made and the espousal, which his Majesty had celebrated with Her.

134. The holy prince Gabriel replied (Ib. 35-6): "Lady, it is easy for the divine power to make Thee a Mother without the co-operation of man; the Holy Spirit shall remain with Thee by a new presence and the virtue of the Most High shall overshadow Thee, so that the Holy of holies can be born of Thee, who shall himself be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth has likewise conceived a son in her sterile years and this is the sixth month of her conception, for nothing is impossible with God. He that can make her conceive, who was sterile, can bring it about, that Thou, Lady, be his Mother, still preserving thy virginity and enhancing thy purity. To the Son whom Thou shalt bear God will give the throne of his father David (Ib. 32) and his reign shall be everlasting in the house of Jacob. Thou art not ignorant, O Lady, of the prophecy of Isaias (Is. 7: 14), that a Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son, whose name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. This prophecy is infallible and it shall be fulfilled in thy person. Thou knowest also of the great mystery of the bush, which Moses saw burning without its being consumed by the fire (Ex. 3:2). This signified that the two natures, divine and human, are to be united in such a manner, that the latter is not consumed by the divine, and that the Mother of the Messias shall conceive and give birth without violation of her virginal purity. Remember also, Lady, the promise of the eternal God to the Patriarch Abraham, that, after the captivity of his posterity for four generations, they should return to this land; the mysterious signification of which was, that in this, the fourth generation, the incarnate God is to rescue the whole race of Adam through thy cooperation from the oppression of the devil (Gen. 15:16). [In the original autographed manuscript Ven. Mary of Agreda explains this fourth generation as follows: "The mystery of this fourth generation is that there are four generations: First, that of Adam without a father or mother; second, that of Eve without a mother; third, of our own, from a father and mother; fourth, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, from a Mother without a father.”] And the ladder, which Jacob saw in his sleep (Ib. 28:12), was an express figure of the royal way, which the eternal Word was to open up and by which the mortals are to ascend to heaven and the angels to descend to earth. To this earth the Onlybegotten of the Father shall lower Himself in order to converse with men and communicate to them the treasures of his Divinity, imparting to them his virtues and his immutable and eternal perfections."

135. With these and many other words the ambassador of heaven instructed the most holy Mary, in order that, by the remembrance of the ancient promises and prophecies of holy Writ, by the reliance and trust in them and in the infinite power of the Most High, She might overcome her hesitancy at the heavenly message. But as the Lady herself exceeded the angels in wisdom, prudence and in all sanctity, She withheld her answer, in order to be able to give it in accordance with the divine will and that it might be worthy of the greatest of all the mysteries and sacraments of the divine power. She reflected that upon her answer depended the pledge of the most blessed Trinity, the fulfillment of his promises and prophecies, the most pleasing and acceptable of all sacrifices, the opening of the gates of paradise, the victory and triumph over hell, the Redemption of all the human race, the satisfaction of the divine justice, the foundation of the new law of grace, the glorification of men, the rejoicing of the angels, and whatever was connected with the Incarnation of the Onlybegotten of the Father and his assuming the form of servant in her virginal womb (Philip. 2:7).

136. A great wonder, indeed, and worthy of our admiration, that all these mysteries and whatever others they included, should be entrusted by the Almighty to a humble Maiden and made dependent upon her fiat. But befittingly and securely He left them to the wise and strong decision of this courageous Woman (Prov. 31:11), since She would consider them with such magnanimity and nobility, that perforce his confidence in Her was not misplaced. The operations, which proceed within the divine Essence, depend not on the co-operation of creatures, for they have no part in them and God could not expect such co-operations for executing the works ad intra; but in the works ad extra and such as were contingent, among which that of becoming man was the most exalted, He could not proceed without the co-operation of most holy Mary and without her free consent. For He wished to reach this acme of all the works outside Himself in Her and through Her and He wished that we should owe this benefit to this Mother of wisdom and our Reparatrix.

137. Therefore this great Lady considered and inspected profoundly this spacious field of the dignity of Mother of God (Prov. 31:16) in order to purchase it by her fiat; She clothed Herself in fortitude more than human, and She tasted and saw how profitable was this enterprise and commerce with the Divinity (Ib. 17-18). She comprehended the ways of his hidden benevolence and adorned Herself with fortitude and beauty. And having conferred with Herself and with the heavenly messenger Gabriel about the grandeur of these high and divine sacraments, and finding Herself in excellent condition to receive the message sent to Her, her purest soul was absorbed and elevated in admiration, reverence and highest intensity of divine love. By the intensity of these movements and supernal affections, her most pure heart, as it were by natural consequence, was contracted and compressed with such force, that it distilled three drops of her most pure blood, and these, finding their way to the natural place for the act of conception, were formed by the power of the divine and holy Spirit, into the body of Christ our Lord. Thus the matter, from which the most holy humanity of the Word for our Redemption is composed, was furnished and administered by the most pure heart of Mary and through the sheer force of her true love. At the same moment, with a humility never sufficiently to be extolled, inclining slightly her head and joining her hands, She pronounced these words, which were the beginning of our salvation: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Lk. 1:38).

138. At the pronouncing of this fiat, so sweet to the hearing of God and so fortunate for us, in one instant, four things happened. First, the most holy body of Christ our Lord was formed from the three drops of blood furnished by the heart of most holy Mary. Secondly, the most holy soul of the same Lord was created, just as the other souls. Thirdly, the soul and the body united in order to compose his perfect humanity. Fourthly, the Divinity united Itself in the Person of the Word with the humanity, which together became one composite being in hypostatical union; and thus was formed Christ true God and Man, our Lord and Redeemer. This happened in springtime on the twenty-fifth of March, at break or dawning of the day, in the same hour in which our first father Adam was made, and in the year of the creation of the world 5199, which agrees also with the count of the Roman Church in her Martyrology under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. This reckoning is the true and certain one, as was told me when I inquired by command of my superiors. Conformable to this the world was created in the month of March, which corresponds to the beginning of creation. And as the works of the Most High are perfect and complete (Dt. 32:4), the plants and trees come forth from the hands of his Majesty bearing fruit, and they would have borne them continually without intermission, if sin had not changed the whole nature, as I will expressly relate in another treatise, if it is the will of the Lord; now however I will not detain myself therewith, since it does not pertain to our subject.

139. In the same instant, in which the Almighty celebrated the nuptials of the hypostatic union in the womb of most holy Mary, the heavenly Lady was elevated to the beatific vision and the Divinity manifested Itself to Her clearly and intuitively. She saw most high sacraments, of which I will speak in the next chapter. The mysteries of the inscriptions with which She was adorned and which the angels exhibited, as related in the seventh chapter (82; also Con. 207, 363-4), were made clear to Her each in particular. The divine Child began to grow in the natural manner in the recess of the womb, being nourished by the substance and the blood of its most holy Mother, just as other men; yet it was more free and exempt from the imperfections, to which other children of Adam are subject in that place and period. For from some of these, namely those that are accidental and unnecessary to the substance of the act of generation, being merely effects of sin, the Empress of heaven was free. She was also free from the superfluities caused by sin, which in other women are common and happen naturally in the formation, sustenance and growth of their children. For the necessary matter, which is proper to the infected nature of the descendants of Eve and which was wanting in Her, was supplied and administered in Her by the exercise of heroic acts of virtue and especially by charity. By the fervor of her soul and her loving affections the blood and humors of her body were changed and thereby divine Providence provided for the sustenance of the divine Child. Thus in a natural manner the humanity of our Redeemer was nourished, while his Divinity was recreated and pleased with her heroic virtues. Most holy Mary furnished to the Holy Ghost, for the formation of this body, pure and limpid blood, free from sin and all its tendencies. And whatever impure and imperfect matter is supplied by other mothers for the growth of their children was administered by the Queen of heaven most pure and delicate in substance. For it was built up and supplied by the power of her loving affections and her other virtues. In a like manner was purified whatever served as food for the heavenly Queen. For, as She knew that her nourishment was at the same time to sustain and nourish the Son of God, She partook of it with such heroic acts of virtue, that the angelic spirits wondered how such common human actions could be connected with such supernal heights of merit and perfection in the sight of God.

140. The heavenly Lady was thus established in such high privileges in her position as Mother of God that those which I have already mentioned, and which I shall yet mention, convey not even the smallest idea of her excellence, and my tongue cannot describe it, for neither is it possible to conceive it by the understanding, nor can the most learned, nor the most wise of men find adequate terms to express it. The humble, who are proficient in the art of divine love, become aware of it by infused light and by the interior taste and feeling, by which such sacraments are perceived. Not only was most holy Mary become a heaven, a temple and dwelling place of the most holy Trinity, transformed thereto, elevated and made godlike by the special and unheard of operation of the Divinity in her most pure womb; but her humble cottage and her poor little oratory was consecrated by the Divinity as a new sanctuary of God. The heavenly spirits, who as witnesses of this marvelous transformation were present to contemplate it, magnified the Almighty with ineffable praise and jubilee; in union with this most happy Mother, they blessed Him in his name and in the name of the human race, which was ignorant of this the greatest of his benefits and mercies. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Three, Chapter IX. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter IX. Please see Appendix A below for some the of the passages that preceded the ones cited just above.)

Please re-read Paragraph 140 above for a powerful and brief antidote to Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s claim that the Incarnation bestowed “no special privileges or distinctions” upon the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As the Venerable Mary of Agreda noted, “The heavenly Lady was thus established in such high privileges in her position as Mother of God that those which I have already mentioned, and which I shall yet mention, convey not even the smallest idea of her excellence, and my tongue cannot describe it, for neither is it possible to conceive it by the understanding, nor can the most learned, nor the most wise of men find adequate terms to express it.”

In other words, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a blaspheming heretic. No special privileges, Jorge?

Similarly, Our Lady reacted with perfect equanimity of spirit throughout the difficult seventy-seven mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, an equanimity that continued even when Saint Joseph told her that he could find no lodging for her and his Foster-Child, Whose Nativity was nigh:

461. For the greater reproach of human ingratitude, it happened also that once during these wintry days they reached a stopping-place in the midst of a cold rain and snow storm (for the Lord did not spare them this inconvenience), and they were obliged to take shelter in the stables of the animals, because the owners would not furnish better accommodation. The irrational beasts showed them the courtesy and kindness which was refused by their human fellow-beings, for they retreated in reverence at the entrance of their Maker and of his Mother, who carried Him in her virginal womb. It is true the Queen of creation could command the winds, the frost and the snow not to inconvenience Her; but She would not give such a command in order not to deprive Herself of suffering in imitation of her most holy Son, even before He came forth into the world. Therefore the inclemencies of the weather affected Her to a certain extent. The faithful St. Joseph however did his utmost to shield Her, and still more did the holy angels seek to protect Her, especially the holy prince Michael who remained at the right side of his Queen without leaving Her even for a moment. Several times when She became tired he led Her by the arm along the way. Whenever the Lord permitted he also shielded Her against the weather and performed many other services for the heavenly Queen and the blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus.

462. Thus variously and wonderfully assisted, our travelers arrived at the town of Bethlehem at four o'clock of the fifth day, a Saturday. As it was at the time of the winter solstice, the sun was already sinking and the night was falling. They entered the town, and wandered through many streets in search of a lodging-house or inn for staying overnight. They knocked at the doors of their acquaintances and nearer family relations; but they were admitted nowhere and in many places they met with harsh words and insults. The most modest Queen followed her spouse through the crowds of people, while he went from house to house and from door to door. Although She knew that the hearts and the houses of men were to be closed to them, and although to expose her state at her age to the public gaze was more painful to her modesty than their failure to procure a night lodging, She nevertheless wished to obey St. Joseph and suffer this indignity and unmerited shame. While wandering through the streets they passed the office of the public registry and they inscribed their names and paid the fiscal tribute in order to comply with the edict and not be obliged to return. They continued their search, betaking themselves to other houses. But having already applied at more than fifty different places, they found themselves rejected and sent away from them all. The heavenly spirits were filled with astonishment at these exalted mysteries of the Most High, which manifested the patience and meekness of his Virgin Mother and the unfeeling hardness of men. At the same time they blessed the Almighty in his works and hidden sacraments, since from that day on He began to exalt and honor poverty and humility among men.

463. It was nine o'clock at night when the most faithful Joseph, full of bitter and heartrending sorrow, returned to his most prudent Spouse and said: "My sweetest Lady, my heart is broken with sorrow at the thought of not only not being able to shelter Thee as Thou deservest and as I desire, but in not being able to offer Thee even any kind of protection from the weather, or a place of rest, a thing rarely or never denied to the most poor and despised in the world. No doubt heaven, in thus allowing the hearts of men to be so unmoved as to refuse us a night-lodging, conceals some mystery. I now remember, Lady, that outside the city walls there is a cave which serves as a shelter for shepherds and their flocks. Let us seek it out; perhaps it is unoccupied, and we may there expect some assistance from heaven, since we receive none from men on earth." The most prudent Virgin answered: "My spouse and my master, let not thy kindest heart be afflicted because the ardent wishes which the love of thy Lord excites in thee cannot be fulfilled. Since I bear Him in my womb, let us, I beseech thee, give thanks for having disposed events in this way. The place of which thou speakest shall be most satisfactory to me. Let thy tears of sorrow be turned into tears of joy, and let us lovingly embrace poverty, which is the inestimable and precious treasure of my most holy Son. He came from heaven in order to seek it, let us then afford Him an occasion to practice it in the joy of our souls; certainly I cannot be better delighted than to see thee procure it for me. Let us go gladly wherever the Lord shall guide us." The holy angels accompanied the heavenly pair, brilliantly lighting up the way, and when they arrived at the city gate they saw that the cave was forsaken and unoccupied. Full of heavenly consolation, they thanked the Lord for this favor, and then happened what I shall relate in the following chapter. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Four, Chapter IX. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter IX.)

Our Lady accepted all as coming from the hand of God without ever once questioning His Holy Will, and it is thus blasphemous and heretical for anyone, no less a putative “pope,” to make it appear that she was capable of entertaining thoughts that come only too naturally to those steeped in the same kind of in naturalism and sentimentality that forms the basis of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s ideologically-shaped and nurtured world view.  

Our Lady displayed the same embrace of the Holy Will of God as she prepared to take the Infant Jesus with her under Saint Joseph’s protection to Egypt to flee from King Herod. Her only concern was the protection of Christ the King, and it was Our Lady who consoled Saint Joseph’s sorrow when her Most Chaste Spouse, he who is the Patron of the Universal Church and the Protector of the Faithful, explained Saint Gabriel’s message to her, which God Himself had already revealed to her beforehand:

609. In the course of these manifestations, on the fifth day of the novena after the presentation and purification, while the heavenly Lady was in the temple with the Infant on her arms, the Deity revealed Itself to Her, although not intuitively, and She was wholly raised and filled by the Spirit. It is true, that this had been done to Her before; but as God's power and treasures are infinite, He never gives so much as not to be able to give still more to the creatures. In this abstractive vision the Most High visited anew his only Spouse, wishing to prepare Her for the labors, that were awaiting Her. Speaking to Her, He comforted Her saying: "My Spouse and my Dove, thy wishes and intentions are pleasing in my eyes and I delight in them always. But Thou canst not finish the nine days' devotion, which Thou hast begun, for I have in store for Thee other exercises of Thy love. In order to save the life of thy Son and raise Him up, Thou must leave thy home and thy country; pass with Him and thy spouse Joseph into Egypt, where Thou art to remain until I shall ordain otherwise, for Herod is seeking the life of the Child. The journey is long, most laborious and most fatiguing. Do thou suffer it all for my sake, for I am, and always will be, with Thee."  

610. Any other faith and virtue might have been disturbed (as the incredulous really have been) to see the powerful God fleeing from a miserable earthly being, and that He should do so in order to save his life, as if He, being both God and man, could be affected by the fear of death. But the most prudent and obedient Mother advanced no objection or doubt; She was not in the least disturbed or moved by this unlooked for order. Answering She said: "My Lord and Master, behold thy servant with a heart prepared to die for thy love if necessary. Dispose of me according to thy will. This only do I ask of thy immense goodness, that, overlooking my want of merit and gratitude, Thou permit not my Son and Lord to suffer, and that Thou turn all pains and labor upon me, who am obliged to suffer them." The Lord referred Her to St. Joseph, bidding Her to follow his directions in all things concerning the journey. Therewith She issued from her vision, which She had enjoyed without losing the use of her exterior senses and while holding in her arms the Infant Jesus. She had been raised up in this vision only as to the superior part of her soul; but from it flowed other gifts, which spiritualized her senses and testified to Her that her soul was living more in its love than in the earthly habitation of her body. 

611. On account of the incomparable love, which the Queen bore toward her most holy Son, her maternal and compassionate heart was somewhat harrowed at the thought of the labors which She foresaw in the vision impending upon the infant God. Shedding many tears, She left the temple to go to her lodging-place, without manifesting to her spouse the cause of her sorrow. St. Joseph therefore thought that She grieved on account of the prophecy of Simeon. As the most faithful Joseph loved Her so much, and as he was of a kind and solicitous disposition, he was troubled to see his Spouse so tearful and afflicted, and that She should not manifest to him the cause of this new affliction, This disturbance of his soul was one of the reasons why the holy angels spoke to him in sleep, as I have related above when speaking of the pregnancy of the Queen (400). For in the same night, while St. Joseph was asleep, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and spoke to him as recorded by St. Matthew (2:13): "Arise, take the Child and his Mother and flee into Egypt. There shalt thou remain until I shall return to give thee other advice, for Herod is seeking after the Child in order to take away its life." Immediately the holy spouse arose full of solicitude and sorrow, foreseeing also that of his most loving Spouse. Entering upon her retirement, he said: "My Lady, God wills that we should be afflicted, for his holy angel has announced to me the pleasure and the decree of the Almighty that we arise and flee with the Child into Egypt, because Herod is seeking to take away its life. Encourage thyself, my Lady, to bear the labors of this journey and tell me what I can do for thy comfort, since I hold my life and being at the service of thy Child and of Thee."

612. "My husband and my master," answered the Queen, "if we have received from the hands of the Most High such great blessings of grace, it is meet that we joyfully accept temporal afflictions (Job 2:10). We bear with us the Creator of heaven and earth; if He has placed us so near to Him, what arms shall be able to harm us, even if it be the arm of Herod (Ib. 17:3)? Wherever we carry with us all our Good, the highest treasure of heaven, our Lord, our guide and true light, there can be no desert; but He is our rest, our portion, and our country. All these goods we possess in having his company; let us proceed to fulfill his will." Then most holy Mary and Joseph approached the crib where the Infant Jesus lay, and where He, not by chance, slept at that time. The heavenly Mother uncovered Him without awakening Him, for He awaited those tender and sorrowful words of his Beloved: Fly away, O my beloved, and be like the roe and the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages (Cant. 8:14; 7:11). And the tender Mother added: "Sweetest Love, meekest Lamb, thy power is not limited by that of earthly kings; but Thou wishest, in thy exalted wisdom, to hide it for love of men. Who among mortals can think of taking away thy life, O my God? Is it not in thy power to annihilate all life? Since Thou givest life to all, why should men take away thine (Jn. 10:10)? Since Thou visited them in order to give them eternal life, why should they wish to give Thee death? But who shall comprehend the secrets of thy Providence (Rom. 11:34)? Allow me, then, O Lord and light of my soul, to awaken Thee, for when Thou sleepest thy heart is awake”(Cant. 5:2).

613. Some such sentiments were also expressed by St. Joseph. Then the heavenly Mother, falling upon her knees, awakened the sweetest Infant, and took Him in her arms, Jesus, in order to move Her to greater tenderness and in order to show Himself as true man, wept a little. O wonders of the Most High in things according to our judgments so small! Yet He was soon again quieted, and when the most holy Mother and St. Joseph asked his blessing He gave it them in visible manner. Gathering their poor clothing into the casket and loading it on the beast of burden which they had brought from Nazareth, they departed shortly after midnight, and hastened without delay on their journey to Egypt, as I will relate in the following chapter.

614. I will here add what I have been made to understand as to the concordance of the two Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke in regard to this event For, since all of them wrote under guidance and light of the Holy Ghost, each of them knew what the other three had written, and what they had omitted to say in their Gospels. Hence it happened that according to divine predisposition some of the happenings of the life of Christ and of the Gospel were described by all four of the Evangelists, while again some other things mentioned by one were omitted by the others. St. Matthew describes the adoration of the Kings and the flight into Egypt, while these events were not mentioned by St. Luke. He again describes the Circumcision, Presentation and Purification, which are omitted by St. Matthew. Thus St. Matthew, after referring to the departure of the Magi, immediately, without speaking of the Presentation, relates that the angel appeared to St.Joseph commanding him to flee into Egypt; but it does not follow therefrom that the Child had not been presented before that time in the temple, for it is certain that this was done after the departure of the Kings and before the flight into Egypt, as is narrated by St. Luke. Thus, likewise, although St. Luke, after describing the Presentation and Purification, immediately mentions that the holy Family lived in Nazareth, we must not conclude that they had not before that time lived in Egypt he writes nothing of this flight into Egypt either before or after, because it had already been recorded by St. Matthew. And this flight took place immediately after the Presentation before most holy Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth. As St. Luke had received no commission to write about this journey it was natural that, in continuing his history, he should mention the return to Nazareth immediately after the Presentation. To say that, having fulfilled what the law commanded, they returned to Galilee, was not to deny the flight into Egypt, but it was merely continuing the narrative without mentioning the flight from Herod. Even the very text of St. Luke intimates that the return to Nazareth happened after their sojourn in Egypt, for he says that the Child grew and increased in wisdom, and that grace was manifested in Him, which could not have been before He had passed the years of infancy. Hence it must have been after his return from Egypt, and at an age when the use of reason usually begins to show itself in children.

615. I was also given to understand how foolish it is in the infidels or incredulous to stumble against this cornerstone, Christ our Good, even in his infancy, and to take offense at seeing Him flee to Egypt in order to defend Himself against Herod, as if this were on account of his weakness and not a mystery, and as if it had happened for no higher purpose than to defend his life against the cruelty of a wicked man. For the well-disposed souls the words of the Evangelist are amply sufficient: since he says it happened in order that the prophecy of Osee might be fulfilled, who prophesies in the name of the eternal Father: And I called my Son out of Egypt (Osee 11:1; Mt. 2:15). The ends which He had in view in sending Him there and in calling Him thence are most exalted and mysterious: of these I will say something anon (641ff.). If not all of the doings of the incarnate Word are equally admirable and sacramental, yet no one with sane judgment can dispute or ignore the sweet providence of God in directing the secondary causes, while allowing full liberty to the human will (Ecclus. 15:14). For this reason, and not for want of power, He permits so many idolatries, heresies and other sins, which are not any smaller than that of Herod, for this reason He permitted the crime of Judas and all those which followed in the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ. Certainly He could have prevented all these sins and yet would not, not only because He wished to work our Redemption, but also in order that He might secure to man freedom of his will in all his actions. He was ready to give to men the helps and graces according to his divine Providence, whereby they could accomplish the good, if they would only use their free will to attain it in the same degree as they were using it to follow evil. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Four, Chapter XXI. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter XXI.)

We must take heart from following words, remembering that everything that happens to us occurs within the Providence of God, remembering also that those who calumniate and detract us are actually our best friends as to be stripped of all earthly respect and honor and alleged self-importance is one of the greatest favors that others can do for us even though they may be motivated by pure malice:

For this reason, and not for want of power, He permits so many idolatries, heresies and other sins, which are not any smaller than that of Herod, for this reason He permitted the crime of Judas and all those which followed in the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ. Certainly He could have prevented all these sins and yet would not, not only because He wished to work our Redemption, but also in order that He might secure to man freedom of his will in all his actions. He was ready to give to men the helps and graces according to his divine Providence, whereby they could accomplish the good, if they would only use their free will to attain it in the same degree as they were using it to follow evil. whereby they could accomplish the good, if they would only use their free will to attain it in the same degree as they were using it to follow evil. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Four, Chapter XXI. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter XXI.)

In the midst of every evil that afflicts us, of course, we must exhibit the same holy acceptance of the ineffable will of God with the equanimity and fortitude of the Mother of God herself: “Wherever we carry with us all our Good, the highest treasure of heaven, our Lord, our guide and true light, there can be no desert; but He is our rest, our portion, and our country.” We have Our Lord by virtue of the fact that we possess the Catholic Faith through no merits of our own.

Why is there so much worry about the lords of the realm and their partners in establishing the Judeo-Masonic new world order and the one world ecumenical church, namely, the lords of the counterfeit church of conciliarism?

Why?  

We must be fortified by these very words of Our Lady herself as given to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:

Suffer with a magnanimous heart, and labor to increase the possessions of thy Lord and Master, namely, souls, which are so precious in his sight and which He has purchased with his life-blood. Never shouldst thou fly from labors, difficulties, bitterness and sorrows, if by any of them thou canst gain a soul for the Lord, or if thou canst thereby induce it to leave the path of sin and enter the path of life. Suffer with a magnanimous heart, and labor to increase the possessions of thy Lord and Master, namely, souls, which are so precious in his sight and which He has purchased with his life-blood. Never shouldst thou fly from labors, difficulties, bitterness and sorrows, if by any of them thou canst gain a soul for the Lord, or if thou canst thereby induce it to leave the path of sin and enter the path of life.

Suffering is the only path to salvation, and it must be embraced with love, gratitude, and joy in imitation of the all-holy Blessed Virgin Mary, she who stood so valiantly without a word of complaint at the foot of the Holy Cross. This is something that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has dared to place into question by making it appear as though Our Lady doubted, if not cursed at, the will of God the Father to effect the world’s redemption through the bloody Sacrifice of her own Divine Son and by her own perfect cooperation in it.

A meditation found in The Servite Manual on the Fourth Sorrow of Our Lady teaches us much about her holy dispositions as she met her Divine Son carrying the instrument of our own salvation, His Most Holy Cross:

In the midst of all this, Mary had seen the thousand hands that were upon her Son; she had heard the thousand jokes and blasphemies which were uttered against Him; she had seen the filthy hand of the executioner grasping His neck, and the miry foot of the brutal soldier  spurning His bruised flesh; she had seen the point of the lance goad Him on and the club fall upon His shoulder; she had noticed the sneer of the priest, the sarcasm of the Pharisee, the vulgar joke of the Roman soldier, the blasphemy of the Jew, the shriek and yell of the demon-possessed populace. Nothing escaped her. What were the feelings of her heart among these orgies? In the breadth of sorrow which lay heavily upon her, she saw nothing but God only. In that light, all secondary causes vanished. There was no Pilate, no Herod, no Annas, no Caiphas, no Pharisees, no executioners, but only God and His adorable will. Hence so much sweetness, so much gentleness, so much patience, so much calmness, so much tender love of sinners. Not a feeling of rancor, not a gesture of just anger, not a sign of indignation against those barbarous men. God exacted from His son that price for the ransom of the children of Adam. Is it thus that you look upon the crosses and trials which God presents you through the hands of wicked agents? Do you take them only as coming from God in punishment of your sins? Is is not true that on such occasion you lose sight of God entirely, and turn with all the powers of your soul to vent your rage against those men who have been but the secondary causes of your troubles? Learn from Mary now an important lesson – that all our trials and sufferings, even those which come from the wickedness of men, are not without relation to the Will of God, who orders or permits them all, according to the holy and loving designs of His Wisdom. (The Servite Manual: BEHOLD THY MOTHER: A Collection of Devotions Chiefly in Honor of OUR LADY OF SORROWS, p. 250,  published originally in 1947 by the Servite Fathers and republished by Refuge of Sinners Publishing, Inc., with the permission secured by the Gauvin and Sentman families, who funded the printing of the first two hundred copies. The republished books, which are very beautifully printed with a larger print size than the original while retaining the same pagination, are available for $10.00 plus shipping from: msgauvin@icloud.com. Although not listed  on the Refuge of Sinners Publishing, inquiries may be made of this firm at Joyful Catholic, as to how to order copies, which I am informed cost $15.99 plus shipping. Please do pray for the Sentman and Gauvin families who took the initiative to have this great spiritual treasure republished.)

How can we not do likewise?

We must accept suffering as Our Lady did, she who never complained about the will of God because she loved Him purely and perfectly, enfleshing His Divine Son and being willing to suffer His death for us sinners out of love for the Most Holy Trinty and for us, her ungrateful children who permit ourselves to be distracted by the events of the world and personal squabbles that are merely the means for us to to sanctity and to save our souls as the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son, Christ the King, through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady, the Queen of Martyrs, accepted the will of God the Father for His Co-Equal and Co-Eternal Son, her own sole begotten Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without regret or complaint. She suffered, to be sure, as no human being had suffered before her or would suffer after her until the end of time. She suffered because she saw the unspeakable wretched effects that our sins, having transcended time, had on the very Body that she had given Our Lord in her Virginal and Immaculate Womb. Our Blessed Mother suffered in complete compassion with her Divine Son and was grieved greatly by the ingratitude of sinful men for whom He was shedding every single drop of His Most Precious Blood to redeem and who she would bring to spiritual rebirth in great agony as she stood so valiantly at the foot of His Holy Cross.

The Venerable Mary of Agreda the true disposition of Our Lady as she accompanied her Divine Son on the Via Dolorosa to Mount Calvary:

As a reward for their tears and their compassion these women were enlightened so as to understand this doctrine. In fulfillment of the prayerful wish of the blessed Mother the pharisees and ministers were inspired with the resolve to engage some man to help Jesus our Savior in carrying the Cross to mount Calvary. At this  juncture, Simon, of Cyrene, the father of the disciples Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15, 21), happened to come along. He was called by this name because he was a native of Cyrene, a city of Lybia, and had come to Jerusalem. This Simon was now forced by the Jews to carry the Cross a part of the way. They themselves would not touch it, yea would not even come near it, as being the instrument of punishment for One whom they held to be a notorious malefactor. By this pretended caution and avoidance of his Cross they sought to impress the people with a horror for Jesus. The Cyrenean took hold of the Cross and Jesus was made to follow between the two thieves, in order that all might believe Him to be a criminal and malefactor like to them. The Virgin Mother walked very closely behind Jesus, as She had desired and asked from the eternal Father. To his divine will She so conformed Herself in all the labors and torments of her Son that, witnessing with her own eyes and partaking of all the sufferings of her Son in her blessed soul and in her body, She never allowed any sentiment or wish to arise interiorly or exteriorly, which could be interpreted as regret for the sacrifice She had made in offering her Son for the death of the Cross and its sufferings. Her charity and love of men, and her grace and holiness, were so great, that She vanquished all these movements of her human nature. (The Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, Volume III: The Transfixion, p. 637-638. This is from the original English edition of The Mystical City of God. The hour has become too late to import and format Mr. Duff's corrected translation.)

"She never allowed any sentiment or wish to arise interiorly or exteriorly, which could be interpreted as a regret for the Sacrifice She had made in offering her Son for the death on the Cross and its sufferings. Her charity and love of men, and her grace and holiness, were so great, that She vanquished all these movements of her human nature."

So much for "Lies! I was deceived," Bergoglio. Blasphemer.

Our Lady was no less composed in the integrity of the interior movements of her soul as she stood at the foot of her Divine Son's Cross:

665. When the most prudent Mother perceived that now the mysteries of the Redemption were to be fulfilled and that the executioners were about to strip Jesus of his clothes for crucifixion, She turned in spirit to the eternal Father and prayed as follows : "My Lord and eternal God, Thou art the Father of thy onlybegotten Son. By eternal generation He is engendered, God of the true God, namely Thyself, and as man He was born of my womb and received from me this human nature, in which He now suffers. I have nursed and sustained Him at my own breast; and as the best of sons that ever can be born of any creature, I love Him with maternal love. As his Mother I have a natural right in the Person of his most holy humanity and thy Providence will never infringe upon any rights held by thy creatures. This right of a Mother then, I now yield to Thee and once more place in thy hands thy and my Son as a sacrifice for the Redemption of man. Accept, my Lord, this pleasing offering, since this is more than I can ever offer by submitting my own self as a victim or to suffering. This sacrifice is greater, not only be cause my Son is the true God and of thy own substance, but because this sacrifice costs me a much greater sorrow and pain. For if the lots were changed and I should be permitted to die in order to preserve his most holy life, I would consider it a great relief and the fulfillment of my dearest wishes." The eternal Father received this prayer of the exalted Queen with ineffable pleasure and complacency. The patriarch Abraham was permitted to go no further than to prefigure and attempt the sacrifice of a son, because the real execution of such a sacrifice God reserved to Himself and to his Onlybegotten. Nor was Sara, the mother of Isaac, informed of the mystical ceremony, this being prevented not only by the prompt ness of Abraham s obedience, but also because he mistrusted, lest the maternal love of Sara, though she was a just and holy woman, should impel her to prevent the execution of the divine command. But not so was it with most holy Mary, to whom the eternal Father could fearlessly manifest his unchangeable will in order that She might, as far as her powers were concerned, unite with Him in the sacrifice of his Onlybegotten. (The Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, Volume III: The Transfixion, pp. 643-644.)

Similar testimony is provided to us by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori in Victories of the Martyrs as he drew upon the writings of various saints to describe Our Lady's disposition during her Divine Son's Passion and Death:

We have now to witness a new kind of martyrdom--a Mother condemned to see an innocent Son, and one whom she loves with the whole affection of her soul, cruelly tormented and put to death before her own eyes.

There stood by the cross of Jesus his Mother. St. John believed that in these words he had said enough of Mary's martyrdom. Consider her at the foot of the cross in the presence of her dying Son, and then see if there be a sorrow like unto her sorrow. Let us remain for awhile this day on Calvary, and consider the fifth sword which, in the death of Jesus, transfixed the heart of Mary.

As soon as our agonized Redeemer had reached the Mount of Calvary, the executioners stripped him of his clothes, and piercing his hands and feet "not with sharp but with blunt nails," as St. Bernard says, to torment him more, they fastened him on the cross. Having crucified him, they planted the cross, and thus left him to die. The executioners left him; but not so Mary. She then drew nearer to the cross, to be present at his death; "I did not leave him (thus the Blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget), "but stood nearer to the cross."

"But what it avail thee, O Lady." says St. Bonaventure, "to go to Calvary, and see this Son expire? Shame should have prevented thee; for his disgrace was thine, since thou were his Mother. At least, horror of witnessing such a crime as the crucifixion of a God by his own creatures should have prevented thee from going there." But the same saint answers, "Ah, they heart did not then think of its own sorrows, but of the sufferings and death of thy dear Son,: and therefore thou wouldst thyself be present, at least to compassionate Him. "Ah, true Mother," says Abbot William, "most loving Mother, whom not even the fear of death could separate from thy beloved Son!"

But, O God, what a cruel sight was it there to behold this Son in agony on the cross, and at its foot this Mother in agony, suffering all the torments endured by her Son! Listen to the words in which Mary revealed to St. Bridget the sorrowful state in which she saw her dying Son on the Cross: "My dear Jesus was breathless, exhausted, and in his last agony on the cross; his eyes were sunk, half-closed, and lifeless; his lips hanging, and his mouth open; his cheeks hollow and drawn in; his face elongated, his nose sharp, his countenance sad; his head had fallen on his breast, his hair was black with blood, his stomach collapsed, his arms and legs stiff, and his whole body covered with wounds and blood."

All these sufferings of Jesus were also those of Mary; "Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus," says St. Jerome, "was a wound in the heart of the Mother." "Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary," says St. John Chrysostom, "might see two altars, on which two great sacrifices were consummated; the one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary." Nay, better still may we say with St. Bonaventure, "there was but one altar--that of the cross of the Son, on which, together with his divine Lamb, the victim, this Mother was also sacrificed;" therefore the saint asks this Mother, "O Lady, where art thou? near the cross? thyself with thy Son." St. Augustine assures us of the same thing: "The Cross and nails of the Son were also those of his Mother; with Christ crucified the Mother was also crucified." Yes; for, as St. Bernard says, "Love inflicted on the heart of Mary the tortures caused by nails in the body of Jesus." So much so, that, as St. Bernardine writes, "At the same time that the Son sacrificed his body, the Mother sacrificed her soul."

Mothers ordinarily fly from the presence of their dying children; but when a mother is obliged to witness such a scene, she procures all possible relief for her child; she arranges his bed, that he may be more at ease; she administers refreshments to him; and thus the poor mother soothes her own grief. Ah, most afflicted of all Mothers! O Mary, thou hast to witness the agony of thy dying Jesus; but thou canst administer him no relief. Mary heard her Son exclaim, I thirst, but she could not even give him a drop of water to refresh him in that great thirst. She could only say, as St. Vincent Ferrer remarks, "My Son, I have only the water of tears." She saw that on that bed of torture her Son, suspended by three nails, could find no repose; she would have clasped him in her arms to give him relief, or that at least he might there have expired; but she could not. "In vain," says St. Bernard, "did she extend her arms; they sank back empty on her breast." She beheld that poor Son, who in his sea of grief sought consolation, as it was foretold by the prophet, but in vain: I have trodden the winepress alone; I looked about and there was none to help; I sought, and there was none to give aid. But who amongst men would console him, since all were enemies? Even on the cross he was taunted and blasphemed on all sides: And they that passed by, blasphemed Him, wagging their heads. Some said to his face, If thou be the Son God, come down from the cross. Others, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Again, If He be the King of Israel, let Him come down from the cross. Our Blessed Lady herself said to St. Bridget, "I heard some say that my Son was a thief; others that he was an impostor; others, that no one deserved death more than he did; and every word was a new sword of grief to my heart."

But that which the most increased the sorrows which Mary endured through compassion for her Son, was hearing him complain on the cross that even his Eternal Father had abandoned him: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Words which the divine Mother told the same St. Bridget could never, during her whole life, depart from her mind. So that the afflicted Mother saw her Jesus suffering on every side; she desired to comfort him, but could not.

That which grieved her the most was to see that she herself, by her presence and sorrow, increased the sufferings of her Son. "The grief," says St. Bernard, "which filled Mary's heart, as a torrent flowed into and embittered the heart of Jesus." "So much so," says the same saint, "that Jesus on the cross suffered more from compassion for his Mother than from his own torments." He thus speaks in the name of our Blessed Lady: "I stood with my eyes fixed on him, and his on me, and he grieved more for me than for himself." And then, speaking of Mary beside her dying Son, he says, "that she lived dying without being able to die." "Near the cross of Christ his Mother stood half-dead; she spoke not; dying she lived, and living she died; nor could she die, for death was her very life."

Passino writes that Jesus Christ himself one day, speaking to blessed Baptista Varani of Camerino, assured her that when on the cross, so great was his affliction at seeing his Mother at his feet in so bitter an anguish, that compassion for her caused him to die without consolation; so much so, that the Blessed Baptista, being supernaturally enlightened as to the greatness of this suffering of Jesus, exclaimed, "O Lord, tell me no more of this Thy sorrow, for I can no longer bear it."

"All," says Simon of Cassia, "who then saw this Mother silent, and not uttering a complaint in the midst of so great suffering, were filled with astonishment." But if Mary's lips were silent, her heart was not so, for she necessarily offered the life of her Son to the divine justice for our salvation. Therefore, we know that by the merits of her dolors she cooperated in our birth to the life of grace; and hence we are the children of her sorrows. "Christ," says Lanspergius, "was pleased that she, the cooperatress in our redemption, and whom he had determined to give us for our Mother, should be there present; for it was at the foot of the cross that she was to bring us, her children forth." If any consolation entered that sea of bitterness in the heart of Mary, the only one was this, that she knew that by her sorrows she was leading us to eternal salvation, as Jesus himself revealed to St. Bridget: "My Mother Mary, on account of her compassion and love, was made the Mother of all in heaven and on earth." And indeed these were the lat words with which Jesus bid her farewell before his death: this was his last recommendation, leaving us to her for her children in the person of St. John: Woman, behold thy son. From that time Mary began to perform this good office of a mother for us; for St. Peter Damian attests, "that by the prayers of Mary, who stood between the cross of the good thief and that of her Son, the thief was converted and saved, and thereby she repaid a former service." For, as other authors also relate, this thief had been kind to Jesus and Mary on their journey into Egypt; and this same office the Blessed Virgin has ever continued, and still continues, to perform." (Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Victories of the Martyrs.)

Although Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II paved the way for Jorge Mario Bergoglio's latest blasphemy, which is very common amongst his revolutionary Jesuit confreres, Bergoglio is so bold as to place sentiments in the mind of the Blessed Virgin Mary that deny the doctrinal effects of her Perfect Integrity and that ignore the plain witness provided us by saints and mystics. "Reality," for Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is whatever he conjures it up to be.

Father Frederick William Faber explained Our Lady's disposition as she stood by the foot of the Holy Cross as follows:

Another peculiarity of the Crucifixion is the length of time during which the tide of suffering remained at its highest point without any sign of ebbing. The mysteries, which filled the three hours, seem too diversified for us to regard them, at least till we come to the Dereliction, as rising from less to greater in any graduated scale. They are rather separate elevations, of unequal height, standing linked together like a mountain-chain. But the lowest of them was so immensely high that it produced most immeasurable agony in her soul. The anguish of death is momentary. The length of some of the most terrific operations which can rack the human frame seldom exceeds a quarter of an hour. Pain pushed beyond a certain limit, as in medieval torture, is instantaneous death. In human punishments which are not meant to kill, the hand of science keeps watch on the pulse of the sufferer. But to Mary the Crucifixion was three hours, three long hours, of mortal agony, comprising hundreds of types and shapes of torture, each one of them intolerable in itself, each pushed beyond the limits of human endurance unless supported by miracle, and each of them kept at that superhuman pitch for all that length of time. When pain comes we wish to lie down unless madness and delirium come with it, or we are fain to run about, to writhe, gesticulate, and groan. Mary stood upright on her feet the whole while, leaning on no one, and not so much as an audible sigh accompanied her silent tears. It is difficult to take this thought in. We can only take it in by prayer, not by hearing or reading.

It was also a peculiarity of the Crucifixion that it was a heroic trial of her incomparable faith. Pretty nearly the faith of the whole world was in her when she stood, with John and Magdalen, at the foot of the Cross. There was hardly a particle of her belief which was not tried to the uttermost in that amazing scene. Naturally speaking, our Lord's Divinity was never so obscured. Supernaturally speaking, it was never so manifest. Could it be possible that the Incarnate Word should be subject to the excesses of such unparalleled indignities? Was the light within Him never to gleam out once? Was the Wisdom of the Father to be with blasphemous ridicule muffled in a white sack, and pulled about in absurd, undignified helplessness by the buffooning guards of an incestuous king? Was there not a point, or rather were there not many points, in the Passion, when the limit of what was venerable and fitting was overstepped? even in the reserved narrative of the Gospels, how many things there are which the mind cannot dwell on without being shocked and repulsed, as well as astonished! Even at this distance of time do they not try our faith by their very horror, make our blood run cold by their murderous atrocity, and tempt our devotion to withdraw, sick and fastidious, from the affectionate contemplation of the very prodigies of disgraceful cruelty, by which our own secret sins and shames were with such public shame most lovingly expiated? Is not devotion to the Passion to this day the touchstone of feeble faith, of lukewarm love, and of all self-indulgent penance? And Mary, more delicate and fastidious far than we, drank all these things with her eyes, and understood the horror of them in her soul, as we can never understand it. Think what faith was hers. (Father Frederick Faber, The Foot of the Cross, published originally in England in 1857 under the title of The Dolors of Mary, reprinted by TAN Books and Publishers, pp. 259-262.)

Yes, Our Lady had Faith all throughout her immense sufferings as she watched her only-begotten Son suffer and die for our redemption. She felt the pangs of bitter agony as she suffered as on with her Divine Son. Never once, however, did she accuse God the Father of being a "deceiver."

Indeed, the deceiver himself could not comprehend what kind of woman Our Lady to be as Christ the King was about to undergo His Passion and Death:

223. Finding himself then full of uncertainty concerning the experiences of the demons and of Himself with Jesus and Mary, this enemy of the human race questioned himself by what power he had been vanquished and put to flight in his attempts to ruin the dangerously sick and the dying and in his other encounters with the Queen of heaven. As he could not clear the mystery for himself, he resolved to consult those of his associates who excelled in malice and astuteness. He gave forth a roar or tremendous howl in hell, using the language understood by the demons, and called together those who were subject to him. All of them having been gathered together, he made them a speech, saying: "My ministers and companions, who have always followed me in my just opposition, you well know that in the first state in which we were placed by the Creator of all things, we acknowledged Him as the universal source of all our being and thus also respected Him. But as soon as, to the detriment of our beauty and pre-eminence, so close to the Deity, He imposed upon us the command, that we adore and serve the person of the Word, in the human form, which He in tended to assume, we resisted his will. For although I knew, that this reverence was due Him as God, yet as He chose to unite Himself to the nature of man, so ignoble and inferior to mine, I could not bear to be subject to Him, nor could I bear to see, that He did not favor me rather than the creature man. He not only commanded us to adore Him, but also to recognize as our superior a Woman, his Mother, a mere earthly creature. To these grievances I took exception and you with me. We objected to them and resolved to deny Him obedience. On account of our behavior at that time we are punished and made to suffer the pains of our present condition. Although we are aware of these truths and acknowledge them with terror among ourselves, it will not do to confess them before men (Jas. 2, 19). And this I put as a command upon you all, in order that they may not know of our present difficulty and weakness." 

224. "But if this Godman and his Mother are really to come, it. is clear, that their coming into this world shall be the beginning of our greatest ruin and torment, and that, for this reason, I must seek with all my strength to prevent it and to destroy Them, even at the cost of overturning and destroying all the world. You all know how invincible has been my strength until now, since such a great portion of the world obeyed my command and is subject to my will and cunning. But in the last few years I have noticed on many occasions, that your powers seemed to have decreased and weakened, that you were oppressed and overcome, and I myself feel a superior force, which restrains and intimidates me. Several times I have searched with you through the whole world, trying to find some clue for this loss and oppression which we feel. If this Messias, who is promised to the chosen people of God, is already in the world, we not only fail to discover Him on the whole face of the earth, but we see no certain signs of his coming and we perceive none of the pomp and outward show naturally attendant upon such a person. Nevertheless I have my misgivings, lest the time of his coming from heaven onto this earth be already near. Therefore we ought all be eager to destroy Him and the Woman whom He shall choose for His Mother. Whoever shall distinguish himself in this work, shall not complain of my thankfulness and reward. Until now I have found guilt and the effects of guilt in all men, and I have seen no such majesty and grand magnificence as would induce the Word to become man and which would oblige mortals to adore Him and offer Him sacrifice, for by this homage we shall be able to recognize Him. The certain indication of his coming and the distinguishing mark of the Messias will no doubt be, that neither sin nor its consequences, common to other children of Adam, will ever be able to touch Him." (The Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, Volume III: The Transfixion, pp. 643-644.)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio does the work of the adversary by seeking to undermine, if ever so subtly, especially to the untrained ears of those who have been steeped in fifty plus years of conciliarism (and younger Catholics have known nothing other than conciliarism and its corrupted practices and perverted doctriens), any kind of belief in the doctrinal effects of Our Lady's  Immaculate Conception.

The Divine Office for the Feast of the Seven Dolors of Our Lady contains Saint Bernard of Clairvaux's beautiful summary of all that Jorge Mario Bergoglio disbelieves concerning the Perfect Integrity of the Mother of God in the midst of her sorrows:

The Martyrdom of the Virgin is set before us, not only in the prophecy of Simeon, but also in the story itself of the Lord’s Passion. The holy old man said of the Child Jesus, Luke ii. 34, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; yea, said he unto Mary, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also Even so, O Blessed Mother! The sword did indeed pierce through thy soul! for nought could pierce the Body of thy Son, nor pierce thy soul likewise. Yea, and when this Jesus of thine had given up the ghost, and the bloody spear could torture Him no more, thy soul winced as it pierced His dead Side His Own Soul might leave Him, but thine could not.

The sword of sorrow pierced through thy soul, so that we may truly call thee more than martyr, in whom the love, that made thee suffer along with thy Son, wrung thy heart more bitterly than any pang of bodily pain could do. Did not that word of His indeed pierce through thy soul, sharper than any two-edged sword, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, Heb. iv. 12, Woman, behold thy son! John xix. 26. O what a change to thee! Thou art given John for Jesus, the servant for his Lord, the disciple for his Master, the son of Zebedee for the Son of God, a mere man for Very God. O how keenly must the hearing of those words have pierced through thy most loving soul, when even our hearts, stony, iron, as they are, are wrung at the memory thereof only!

Marvel not, my brethren, that Mary should be called a Martyr in spirit. He indeed may marvel who remembereth not what Paul saith, naming the greater sins of the Gentiles, that they were without natural affection, Rom. i. 31. Far other were the bowels of Mary, and far other may those of her servants be! But some man perchance will say Did she not know that He was to die? Yea, without doubt, she knew it. Did she not hope that He was soon to rise again? Yea, she most faithfully hoped it. And did she still mourn because He was crucified? Yea, bitterly. But who art thou, my brother, or whence hast thou such wisdom, to marvel less that the Son of Mary suffered than that Mary suffered with Him? He could die in the Body, and could not she die with Him in her heart? His was the deed of that Love, greater than which hath no man, John xv. 13; her’s, of a love, like to which hath no man, save He. (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Matins, Feast of the Seven Dolors of Our Lady.)

Our Lady is the model of our Holy Faith, not of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's "justified doubt."

Those who do not defend the Mother of God in the midst of the latest blasphemies uttered by "Pope Francis," who is so singularly busy with his work of spiritual destruction that not even all of the waking hours in a calendar year could be used to cover every detail in the depth that it deserves, must reckon with these words of Pope Saint Anastasius I:

That which is done for the love of Christ gives me very much joy; Italy as victor with that zeal aroused for the godhead, retained that faith whole which was handed down from the Apostles and placed in the whole world by our ancestors. For at this time when Constantius of holy memory held the world as victor, the heretical African faction was not able by any deception to introduce its baseness because, as we believe, our God provided that the holy and untarnished faith be not contaminated through any vicious blasphemy of slanderous men-that faith which had been discussed and defended at the meeting of the synod in Nicea by the holy men and bishops now placed in the resting place of the saints.

For this faith those who were then esteemed as holy bishops gladly endured exile, that is Dionysius, thus a servant of God, prepared by divine instruction, of those following his example of holy reollection, LIBERIUS, bishop of the Roman Church, Eusebius also of Vercelli, Hilary of the Gauls, to say nothing of many, of whose decision the choice could rest to be fastened to the cross rather than blaspheme God Christ, which the Arian heresy compelled, or call the Son of God, God Christ, a creature of the Lord. (Pope Saint Anatasius I, “The Orthodox of Pope Liberiusm” From the Epistle “Dat Mihi Plurimus" to Venerius, Bishop of Milan, about the year 400, Number 93. As found in Henry Denzinger, Enchirdion Symbolorum, thirteenth edition, translated into English by Roy Deferrari and published in 1955 as The Sources of Catholic Dogma--referred to as "Denziger," by B. Herder Book Company of St. Louis, Missouri, and London, England, p. 40. This citation takes care of a few birds with one proverbial stone, including the falsehood that there have been "heretical popes.")

Those who remain silent about this latest blasphemy against Our Lady must also recokon with these words of Pope Saint Leo the Great:

But it is vain for them to adopt the name of catholic, as they do not oppose these blasphemies: they must believe them, if they can listen so patiently to such words. (Pope Saint Leo the Great, Epistle XIV, To Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, St. Leo the Great | Letters 1-59 ) 

May I propose that we pray an extra set of mysteries today, the Feast of Saint Jerome Emiliani, and to pray the Chaplet of the Twelve Privileges of Our Lady as found in Appendix E below.

It is now time to post this article before my battery runs out while this is being typed!

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Jerome Emiliani, pray for us.

Saint Margaret, pray for us.

Appendix A

Passages From The Mystical City of God on the Annunciation

123. I wish to confess before heaven and earth and its inhabitants, and in the presence of the Creator of the universe and the eternal God, that in setting myself to write of the profound mystery of the Incarnation, my feeble strength deserts me, my tongue is struck mute, my discourse is silenced, my faculties are benumbed, my understanding is eclipsed and overwhelmed by the divine light, which guides and instructs me. In it all is perceived without error and without any deviousness; I see my insignificance and I am made aware of the emptiness of words and the insufficiency of human terms for doing justice to my concepts of this sacrament, which comprehends at one and the same time God himself and the greatest and most wonderful work of his Omnipotence. I see in this mystery the divine and admirable harmony of his infinite providence and wisdom, with which from all eternity He has ordained and prearranged it, and by which He directed all creation toward its fulfillment. All his works and all his creatures were only well adjusted means of advancing toward this apex of his aims, the condescension of a God in assuming human nature.

124. I saw that the eternal Word had awaited and chosen, as the most opportune time and hour for his descent from the bosom of the Father, the midnight of mortal perversion (Wis. 18:14), when the whole posterity of Adam was buried and absorbed in the sleep of forgetfulness and ignorance of their true God, and when there was no one to open his mouth in confessing and blessing Him, except some chosen souls among his people. All the rest of the world was lost in silent darkness, having passed a protracted night of five thousand and about two hundred years. Age had succeeded age, and generations followed upon generations, each one in the time predestined and decreed by the eternal Wisdom, each also having an opportunity to know and find Him, its Creator, for all had Him so nigh to them, that He gave them life, movement and existence within their own selves (Acts 17:27-8). But as the clear day of his inaccessible light had not arrived, though some of the mortals, like the blind, came nigh to Him and touched Him in his creatures, yet they did not attain to the Divinity (Rom. 1: 23) and in failing to recognize Him, they cast themselves upon the sensible and most vile things of the earth.

125. The day then had arrived in which the Most High, setting aside the long ages of this dark ignorance (Acts 17:30), resolved to manifest Himself to men and begin the Redemption of the human race by assuming their nature in the womb of most holy Mary, now prepared for this event as already stated (5ff.). In order to be able to describe what was revealed concerning this event to me, it is necessary to make mention of some hidden sacraments connected with the descent of the Onlybegotten from the bosom of the Father. I assume as firmly established what the holy faith teaches in regard to the divine Persons, that although there is a real personal distinction between the three Persons, yet there is no inequality in wisdom, omnipotence or other attributes, just as little as there is in the divine nature; and just as They are equal in dignity and infinite perfection, so They are also equal in these operations ad extra, which proceed from God himself for the production of some creature or temporal object. These operations are indivisibly wrought by three divine Persons, for not one Person alone produces them, but all Three in so far as They are one and the same God, possessing one and the same wisdom, one and the same understanding and will. Thus what the Son knows and wishes, that also the Father knows and wishes; and so also the Holy Ghost knows and wishes whatever is known and willed by the Father and the Son.

126. In this indivisibility of action the three Persons wrought and executed, by one and the same act, the mystery of the Incarnation, although only the person of the Son accepted for Himself the nature of man, uniting it to Himself hypostatically. Therefore we say that the Son was sent by the eternal Father, from whose intelligence He proceeds, and that the Father sent Him by the intervening operations of the Holy Ghost. As it was the Person of the Son which came to be made man, this same Person before descending from the heavens and the bosom of the Father, in the name of that same humanity to be received by Him, made a conditional request in that divine consistory that, on account of his foreseen merits, his salvation and satisfaction of the divine justice for sins be extended to the whole human race. He desired the fiat or ratification of the most blessed will of the Father, who sent Him, for the acceptance of this Redemption by means of his most holy works and his passion, and through the mysteries, which He was to enact in the new Church and in thelaw of grace.

127. The eternal Father accepted this petition and the foreseen merits of the Word; He conceded all that was proposed and asked for the mortals, and He himself confirmed the elect and predestined souls as the inheritance and possession of Christ forever. Hence, Christ himself, our Lord, through St. John says that He has not lost nor has allowed to perish those whom the Father had given him (Jn. 18:9), but kept all, except the son of perdition, which was Judas (Jn. 17:12). In another place it is said that no one shall snatch his sheep from his hands, nor from those of his Father (Jn. 10:28-9). The same would hold good of all those that are born, if they would avail themselves of the Redemption, which, as it is sufficient, should also be efficacious for all and in all, since his divine mercy desired to exclude no one, if only all of them would make themselves capable of receiving its benefits through the Redeemer.

128. All this, according to our way of understanding, happened in heaven at the throne of the most blessed Trinity as a prelude to the fiat of the most holy Mary, of which I will presently speak. At the moment in which the Onlybegotten of the Father descended to her virginal womb, all the heavens and the creatures were set in commotion. On account of the inseparable union of the divine Persons, the Three of Them descended with the Word, though the Word alone was to become incarnate. And with the Lord their God, all the hosts of the celestial army issued from heaven, full of invincible strength and splendor. Although it was not necessary to prepare the way, since the Divinity fills the universe, is present in all places and cannot be impeded by anything; nevertheless all the eleven material heavens showed deference to their Creator, and, together with the inferior elements, opened up and parted as it were, for his passage; the stars shone with greater brilliancy, the moon and sun with the planets hastened their course in the service of their Maker, anxious to witness the greatest of his wonderful works.

129. Mortals did not perceive this commotion and renewal of all the creatures; both because it happened during the night, as well as because the Lord wished it to be known only to the angels. These with new wonder praised Him, knowing these profound and venerable mysteries to be hidden from men, for they knew that men were far removed from understanding these wonderful benefits, so admirable even in the eyes of angelic spirits. To these angelic spirits alone was at that time assigned the duty of giving glory, praise and reverence for these benefits to their Maker. However, in the hearts of some of the just the Most High infused at that hour a new feeling and affection of extraordinary joy of which they became conscious. They conceived new and grand ideas concerning the Lord; some of them were inspired and began to confer within themselves, whether this new sensation, which they felt, was not the effect of the coming of the Messias in order to redeem the world; but all this remained concealed, for each one thought, that he alone had experienced this renewal of his interior.

130. In the other creatures there was a like renovation and change. The birds moved about with new songs and joyousness; the plants and trees gave forth more fruit and fragrance; and in like proportion all the rest of the creatures received and felt some kind of vivifying change. But among those that received the greatest share, were the Fathers and Saints in limbo, whither the archangel Michael was sent with the glad message, in order to console them and cause in them the fullness of jubilee and praise. Only for hell it was a cause of new consternation and grief, for at the descent of the eternal Word from on high, the demons felt an impetuous force of the divine power, which came upon them like the waves of the sea and buried all of them in the deepest caverns of their darkness without leaving them any strength of resistance or recovery. When by divine permission they were again able to rise, they poured forth upon the world and hastened about to discover what strange happening had thus undone them. However, although they held several conferences among themselves, they were unable to find the cause. The divine Power concealed from them the sacrament of the Incarnation and the manner in which most holy Mary conceived the incarnate Word (326). Not until the death of Christ on the cross did they arrive at the certainty, that He was God and true man, as we shall there relate (Tran. 705).

131. In order that the mystery of the Most High might be fulfilled, the holy archangel Gabriel, in the shape described in the preceding chapter (113) and accompanied by innumerable angels in visible human forms and resplendent with incomparable beauty, entered into the chamber, where most holy Mary was praying. It was on a Thursday at six o'clock in the evening and at the approach of night. The great modesty and restraint of the Princess of heaven did not permit Her to look at him more than was necessary to recognize him as an angel of the Lord. Recognizing him as such, She, in her usual humility, wished to do him reverence; the holy prince would not allow it; on the contrary he himself bowed profoundly as before his Queen and Mistress, in whom he adored the heavenly mysteries of his Creator. At the same time he understood that from that day on the ancient times and the custom of old whereby men should worship angels, as Abraham had done (Gen. 18:2), were changed. For as human nature was raised to the dignity of God himself in the person of the Word, men now held the position of adopted children, of companions and brethren of the angels, as the angel said to the Evangelist St. John, when he refused to be worshipped (Apoc. 19:10).

132. The holy archangel saluted our and his Queen and said: Ave gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus (Lk. 1:28). Hearing this new salutation of the angel, this most humble of all creatures was disturbed, but not confused in mind (Lk. 1:29). This disturbance arose from two causes: first, from her humility, for She thought Herself the lowest of the creatures and thus in her humility, was taken unawares at hearing Herself saluted and called the Blessed among women; secondly, when She heard this salute and began to consider within Herself how She should receive it, She was interiorly made to understand by the Lord, that He chose Her for his Mother, and this caused a still greater perturbance, having such a humble opinion of Herself. On account of this perturbance the angel proceeded to explain to Her the decree of the Lord, saying (Lk. 1:30-2): Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with the Lord. Behold thou shalt conceive a Son in thy womb, and shalt give birth to Him; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Most High, and the rest as recorded of the holy archangel.

133. Our most prudent and humble Queen alone, among all the creatures, was sufficiently intelligent and magnanimous to estimate at its true value such a new and unheard of sacrament; and in proportion as She realized its greatness, so She was also moved with admiration. But She raised her humble heart to the Lord, who could not refuse Her any petition, and in the secret of her spirit She asked new light and assistance by which to govern Herself in such an arduous transaction; for, as we have said in the preceding chapter (119), the Most High, in order to permit Her to act in this mystery solely in faith, hope and charity, left Her in the common state and suspended all other kinds of favors and interior elevations, which She so frequently or continually enjoyed. In this disposition She replied and said to holy Gabriel, what is written in St. Luke (1:34): "How shall this happen, that I conceive and bear, since I know not, nor can know, man?" At the same time She interiorly represented to the Lord the vow of chastity, which She had made and the espousal, which his Majesty had celebrated with Her.

134. The holy prince Gabriel replied (Ib. 35-6): "Lady, it is easy for the divine power to make Thee a Mother without the co-operation of man; the Holy Spirit shall remain with Thee by a new presence and the virtue of the Most High shall overshadow Thee, so that the Holy of holies can be born of Thee, who shall himself be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth has likewise conceived a son in her sterile years and this is the sixth month of her conception, for nothing is impossible with God. He that can make her conceive, who was sterile, can bring it about, that Thou, Lady, be his Mother, still preserving thy virginity and enhancing thy purity. To the Son whom Thou shalt bear God will give the throne of his father David (Ib. 32) and his reign shall be everlasting in the house of Jacob. Thou art not ignorant, O Lady, of the prophecy of Isaias (Is. 7: 14), that a Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son, whose name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. This prophecy is infallible and it shall be fulfilled in thy person. Thou knowest also of the great mystery of the bush, which Moses saw burning without its being consumed by the fire (Ex. 3:2). This signified that the two natures, divine and human, are to be united in such a manner, that the latter is not consumed by the divine, and that the Mother of the Messias shall conceive and give birth without violation of her virginal purity. Remember also, Lady, the promise of the eternal God to the Patriarch Abraham, that, after the captivity of his posterity for four generations, they should return to this land; the mysterious signification of which was, that in this, the fourth generation, the incarnate God is to rescue the whole race of Adam through thy cooperation from the oppression of the devil (Gen. 15:16). [In the original autographed manuscript Ven. Mary of Agreda explains this fourth generation as follows: "The mystery of this fourth generation is that there are four generations: First, that of Adam without a father or mother; second, that of Eve without a mother; third, of our own, from a father and mother; fourth, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, from a Mother without a father.”] And the ladder, which Jacob saw in his sleep (Ib. 28:12), was an express figure of the royal way, which the eternal Word was to open up and by which the mortals are to ascend to heaven and the angels to descend to earth. To this earth the Onlybegotten of the Father shall lower Himself in order to converse with men and communicate to them the treasures of his Divinity, imparting to them his virtues and his immutable and eternal perfections."

135. With these and many other words the ambassador of heaven instructed the most holy Mary, in order that, by the remembrance of the ancient promises and prophecies of holy Writ, by the reliance and trust in them and in the infinite power of the Most High, She might overcome her hesitancy at the heavenly message. But as the Lady herself exceeded the angels in wisdom, prudence and in all sanctity, She withheld her answer, in order to be able to give it in accordance with the divine will and that it might be worthy of the greatest of all the mysteries and sacraments of the divine power. She reflected that upon her answer depended the pledge of the most blessed Trinity, the fulfillment of his promises and prophecies, the most pleasing and acceptable of all sacrifices, the opening of the gates of paradise, the victory and triumph over hell, the Redemption of all the human race, the satisfaction of the divine justice, the foundation of the new law of grace, the glorification of men, the rejoicing of the angels, and whatever was connected with the Incarnation of the Onlybegotten of the Father and his assuming the form of servant in her virginal womb (Philip. 2:7).

136. A great wonder, indeed, and worthy of our admiration, that all these mysteries and whatever others they included, should be entrusted by the Almighty to a humble Maiden and made dependent upon her fiat. But befittingly and securely He left them to the wise and strong decision of this courageous Woman (Prov. 31:11), since She would consider them with such magnanimity and nobility, that perforce his confidence in Her was not misplaced. The operations, which proceed within the divine Essence, depend not on the co-operation of creatures, for they have no part in them and God could not expect such co-operations for executing the works ad intra; but in the works ad extra and such as were contingent, among which that of becoming man was the most exalted, He could not proceed without the co-operation of most holy Mary and without her free consent. For He wished to reach this acme of all the works outside Himself in Her and through Her and He wished that we should owe this benefit to this Mother of wisdom and our Reparatrix.

137. Therefore this great Lady considered and inspected profoundly this spacious field of the dignity of Mother of God (Prov. 31:16) in order to purchase it by her fiat; She clothed Herself in fortitude more than human, and She tasted and saw how profitable was this enterprise and commerce with the Divinity (Ib. 17-18). She comprehended the ways of his hidden benevolence and adorned Herself with fortitude and beauty. And having conferred with Herself and with the heavenly messenger Gabriel about the grandeur of these high and divine sacraments, and finding Herself in excellent condition to receive the message sent to Her, her purest soul was absorbed and elevated in admiration, reverence and highest intensity of divine love. By the intensity of these movements and supernal affections, her most pure heart, as it were by natural consequence, was contracted and compressed with such force, that it distilled three drops of her most pure blood, and these, finding their way to the natural place for the act of conception, were formed by the power of the divine and holy Spirit, into the body of Christ our Lord. Thus the matter, from which the most holy humanity of the Word for our Redemption is composed, was furnished and administered by the most pure heart of Mary and through the sheer force of her true love. At the same moment, with a humility never sufficiently to be extolled, inclining slightly her head and joining her hands, She pronounced these words, which were the beginning of our salvation: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Lk. 1:38).

138. At the pronouncing of this fiat, so sweet to the hearing of God and so fortunate for us, in one instant, four things happened. First, the most holy body of Christ our Lord was formed from the three drops of blood furnished by the heart of most holy Mary. Secondly, the most holy soul of the same Lord was created, just as the other souls. Thirdly, the soul and the body united in order to compose his perfect humanity. Fourthly, the Divinity united Itself in the Person of the Word with the humanity, which together became one composite being in hypostatical union; and thus was formed Christ true God and Man, our Lord and Redeemer. This happened in springtime on the twenty-fifth of March, at break or dawning of the day, in the same hour in which our first father Adam was made, and in the year of the creation of the world 5199, which agrees also with the count of the Roman Church in her Martyrology under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. This reckoning is the true and certain one, as was told me when I inquired by command of my superiors. Conformable to this the world was created in the month of March, which corresponds to the beginning of creation. And as the works of the Most High are perfect and complete (Dt. 32:4), the plants and trees come forth from the hands of his Majesty bearing fruit, and they would have borne them continually without intermission, if sin had not changed the whole nature, as I will expressly relate in another treatise, if it is the will of the Lord; now however I will not detain myself therewith, since it does not pertain to our subject.

139. In the same instant, in which the Almighty celebrated the nuptials of the hypostatic union in the womb of most holy Mary, the heavenly Lady was elevated to the beatific vision and the Divinity manifested Itself to Her clearly and intuitively. She saw most high sacraments, of which I will speak in the next chapter. The mysteries of the inscriptions with which She was adorned and which the angels exhibited, as related in the seventh chapter (82; also Con. 207, 363-4), were made clear to Her each in particular. The divine Child began to grow in the natural manner in the recess of the womb, being nourished by the substance and the blood of its most holy Mother, just as other men; yet it was more free and exempt from the imperfections, to which other children of Adam are subject in that place and period. For from some of these, namely those that are accidental and unnecessary to the substance of the act of generation, being merely effects of sin, the Empress of heaven was free. She was also free from the superfluities caused by sin, which in other women are common and happen naturally in the formation, sustenance and growth of their children. For the necessary matter, which is proper to the infected nature of the descendants of Eve and which was wanting in Her, was supplied and administered in Her by the exercise of heroic acts of virtue and especially by charity. By the fervor of her soul and her loving affections the blood and humors of her body were changed and thereby divine Providence provided for the sustenance of the divine Child. Thus in a natural manner the humanity of our Redeemer was nourished, while his Divinity was recreated and pleased with her heroic virtues. Most holy Mary furnished to the Holy Ghost, for the formation of this body, pure and limpid blood, free from sin and all its tendencies. And whatever impure and imperfect matter is supplied by other mothers for the growth of their children was administered by the Queen of heaven most pure and delicate in substance. For it was built up and supplied by the power of her loving affections and her other virtues. In a like manner was purified whatever served as food for the heavenly Queen. For, as She knew that her nourishment was at the same time to sustain and nourish the Son of God, She partook of it with such heroic acts of virtue, that the angelic spirits wondered how such common human actions could be connected with such supernal heights of merit and perfection in the sight of God.

140. The heavenly Lady was thus established in such high privileges in her position as Mother of God that those which I have already mentioned, and which I shall yet mention, convey not even the smallest idea of her excellence, and my tongue cannot describe it, for neither is it possible to conceive it by the understanding, nor can the most learned, nor the most wise of men find adequate terms to express it. The humble, who are proficient in the art of divine love, become aware of it by infused light and by the interior taste and feeling, by which such sacraments are perceived. Not only was most holy Mary become a heaven, a temple and dwelling place of the most holy Trinity, transformed thereto, elevated and made godlike by the special and unheard of operation of the Divinity in her most pure womb; but her humble cottage and her poor little oratory was consecrated by the Divinity as a new sanctuary of God. The heavenly spirits, who as witnesses of this marvelous transformation were present to contemplate it, magnified the Almighty with ineffable praise and jubilee; in union with this most happy Mother, they blessed Him in his name and in the name of the human race, which was ignorant of this the greatest of his benefits and mercies.  

INSTRUCTION OF THE MOST HOLY QUEEN

141. My daughter, thou art filled with astonishment at seeing, by means of new light, the mystery of the humiliation of the Divinity in uniting Himself with the human nature in the womb of a poor maiden such as I was. I wish however, my dearest, that thou turn thy attention toward thyself and consider how God humiliated Himself and came into my womb, not only for myself alone, but for thee as well. The Lord is infinite in his mercy and his love has no limit, and thus He attends and esteems and assists every soul who receives Him, and He rejoices in it, as if He had created it alone, and as if He had been made man for it alone. Therefore with all the affection of thy soul thou must, as it were, consider thyself as being thyself in person bound to render the full measure of thanks of all the world for his coming; and for his coming to redeem all. And if with a lively faith thou art convinced and confesses that the same God who, infinite in his attributes and eternal in his majesty, lowered Himself to assume human flesh in my womb, seeks also thee, calls thee, rejoices thee, caresses thee, and thinks of thee alone, as if thou wert his only creature (Gal. 2:20), think well and reflect to what his admirable condescension obliges thee. Convert this admiration into living acts of faith and love; for, that He condescends to come to thee, thou owest entirely to the goodness of the King and Savior, since thou thyself couldst never find Him nor attain Him.

142. Considering merely that which this Lord can give thee outside of Himself, it will appear to thee grand, even when thou perceivest it only by a mere human intelligence and affection. It is certainly true that any gift from such an eminent and supreme King is worthy of all estimation. But when thou beginst to consider and know by divine light, that this gift is God Himself and that He makes thee partaker of his Divinity, when thou wilt understand, that without thy God and without his coming, all creation would be as nothing and despicable in thy sight; thou wouldst want to enjoy thyself and find rest only in the consciousness of possessing such a God, so loving, so amiable, so powerful, sweet and affluent; who, being such a great and infinite God, humiliates Himself to thy lowliness in order to raise thee from the dust and enrich thy poverty, performing toward thee the duties of a Shepherd, of a Father, a Spouse and most faithful Friend.

143. Attend, therefore, my daughter, in the secret of thy heart to all the consequences of these truths. Ponder and confer within thyself about this sweetest love of the great King for thee; how faithful He is in his gifts and caresses, in his favors, in the works confided to thee, in the enlightenment of thy interior, instructing thee by divine science in the infinite greatness of his Being, in his admirable works and most hidden mysteries, in universal truth and in the nothingness of visible existence. This science is the first beginning and principle, the basis and foundation of the knowledge which I have given thee in order that thou mayest attain to the decorum and magnanimity, with which thou art to treat the favors and benefits of this thy Lord and God, thy true blessedness, thy treasure, thy light and thy Guide. Look upon Him as upon the infinite God, loving, yet terrible. Listen, my dearest, to my words, to my teachings and discipline, for therein are contained the peace and the enlightenment of thy soul. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Three, Chapter XI. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: ( Chapter XI.)

Appendix B

Passages from The Mystical City of God on finding no room in the inn

Solomon, in the Canticles, describes in diverse metaphors and similitudes many great mysteries of  the Queen of heaven, but in the third chapter he refers more particularly to what happened to the heavenly Mother in her pregnancy and during this journey. During this time was fulfilled to the letter all that is said of the couch of Solomon (Cant. 3: 7), of his chariot and of his golden bed; of the guard, which was stationed around it enjoying the divine vision; also all the other sayings, which are contained in those prophecies. What I have pointed out will suffice to make them understood, and they should excite our admiration of the wonderful sacraments of God's activity for the good of man. Who is there among mortals whose heart is not softened? Or who is so proud as not to be abashed? Or so careless as not to be filled with wonder at such miraculous extremes? The infinite and true God hidden and concealed in the virginal womb of a tender Maiden, full of grace and beauty, innocent, pure, sweet, pleasing and amiable in the eyes of God and of men, surpassing all that the Lord God has ever or shall ever create! To see this great Lady, bearing the treasure of the Divinity, despised, persecuted, neglected, and cast out by the blind ignorance and pride of the world! And on the other hand, while She is thus pushed aside into the last places, to see Her loved and esteemed by the triune God, regaled by his caresses, served by his angels, revered, defended and assisted with the greatest anxiety and watchfulness! O children of men, slow and hard of heart (Ps. 4: 3)! How deceitful are your ways (Ps. 61:10) and how erroneous is your judgment in esteeming the rich and despising the poor (James 2: 2ff.), exalting the proud and humiliating the lowly, applauding the braggarts and casting out the just! Blind is your choice and full of error your judgment, and you will find yourselves frustrated in all your desires. Ambitiously you seek riches and treasures, and you find yourself in poverty beating the air. I f you had received the true ark of God, you would have been blessed by the hand of the Almighty, like Obededom (II Kg. 6: 11); but because you have treated it unworthily, many of you have experienced the punishment of Oza (Ib. 7).

460. The heavenly Lady observed and knew the secrets of the different souls of those She met, penetrating into the very thoughts and conditions of each, whether of grace or of guilt in their different degrees. Concerning many souls She also knew whether they were predestined or reprobate, whether they would persevere, fall, or again rise up. All this variety of insight moved Her to the exercise of heroic virtues as well in regard to the ones as to the others. For many of them She obtained the grace of perseverance; for others efficacious help to rise from their sin to grace; for others again She prayed to the Lord with affectionate tears, feeling intensest sorrow for the reprobate, though She did not pray as efficaciously for them. Many times, worn out by these sorrows, much more than by the hardships of travel, the strength of her body gave way; on such occasions the holy angels, full of refulgent light and beauty, bore Her up in their arms, in order that She might rest and recuperate. The sick, afflicted and indigent whom She met on the way, She consoled and assisted by asking her most holy Son to come to their aid in their necessities and adversities. She kept Herself silently aloof from the multitude, preoccupied with the Fruit of her divine pregnancy, which was already evident to all. Such was the return which the Mother of mercy made for the inhospitality of mortals.

461. For the greater reproach of human ingratitude, it happened also that once during these wintry days they reached a stopping-place in the midst of a cold rain and snow storm (for the Lord did not spare them this inconvenience), and they were obliged to take shelter in the stables of the animals, because the owners would not furnish better accommodation. The irrational beasts showed them the courtesy and kindness which was refused by their human fellow-beings, for they retreated in reverence at the entrance of their Maker and of his Mother, who carried Him in her virginal womb. It is true the Queen of creation could command the winds, the frost and the snow not to inconvenience Her; but She would not give such a command in order not to deprive Herself of suffering in imitation of her most holy Son, even before He came forth into the world. Therefore the inclemencies of the weather affected Her to a certain extent. The faithful St. Joseph however did his utmost to shield Her, and still more did the holy angels seek to protect Her, especially the holy prince Michael who remained at the right side of his Queen without leaving Her even for a moment. Several times when She became tired he led Her by the arm along the way. Whenever the Lord permitted he also shielded Her against the weather and performed many other services for the heavenly Queen and the blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus.

462. Thus variously and wonderfully assisted, our travelers arrived at the town of Bethlehem at four o'clock of the fifth day, a Saturday. As it was at the time of the winter solstice, the sun was already sinking and the night was falling. They entered the town, and wandered through many streets in search of a lodging-house or inn for staying overnight. They knocked at the doors of their acquaintances and nearer family relations; but they were admitted nowhere and in many places they met with harsh words and insults. The most modest Queen followed her spouse through the crowds of people, while he went from house to house and from door to door. Although She knew that the hearts and the houses of men were to be closed to them, and although to expose her state at her age to the public gaze was more painful to her modesty than their failure to procure a night lodging, She nevertheless wished to obey St. Joseph and suffer this indignity and unmerited shame. While wandering through the streets they passed the office of the public registry and they inscribed their names and paid the fiscal tribute in order to comply with the edict and not be obliged to return. They continued their search, betaking themselves to other houses. But having already applied at more than fifty different places, they found themselves rejected and sent away from them all. The heavenly spirits were filled with astonishment at these exalted mysteries of the Most High, which manifested the patience and meekness of his Virgin Mother and the unfeeling hardness of men. At the same time they blessed the Almighty in his works and hidden sacraments, since from that day on He began to exalt and honor poverty and humility among men.

463. It was nine o'clock at night when the most faithful Joseph, full of bitter and heartrending sorrow, returned to his most prudent Spouse and said: "My sweetest Lady, my heart is broken with sorrow at the thought of not only not being able to shelter Thee as Thou deservest and as I desire, but in not being able to offer Thee even any kind of protection from the weather, or a place of rest, a thing rarely or never denied to the most poor and despised in the world. No doubt heaven, in thus allowing the hearts of men to be so unmoved as to refuse us a night-lodging, conceals some mystery. I now remember, Lady, that outside the city walls there is a cave which serves as a shelter for shepherds and their flocks. Let us seek it out; perhaps it is unoccupied, and we may there expect some assistance from heaven, since we receive none from men on earth." The most prudent Virgin answered: "My spouse and my master, let not thy kindest heart be afflicted because the ardent wishes which the love of thy Lord excites in thee cannot be fulfilled. Since I bear Him in my womb, let us, I beseech thee, give thanks for having disposed events in this way. The place of which thou speakest shall be most satisfactory to me. Let thy tears of sorrow be turned into tears of joy, and let us lovingly embrace poverty, which is the inestimable and precious treasure of my most holy Son. He came from heaven in order to seek it, let us then afford Him an occasion to practice it in the joy of our souls; certainly I cannot be better delighted than to see thee procure it for me. Let us go gladly wherever the Lord shall guide us." The holy angels accompanied the heavenly pair, brilliantly lighting up the way, and when they arrived at the city gate they saw that the cave was forsaken and unoccupied. Full of heavenly consolation, they thanked the Lord for this favor, and then happened what I shall relate in the following chapter.

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE MOST HOLY MARY, THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, GAVE ME.

464. My dearest daughter, if thou art of a meek and docile heart, these mysteries which thou hast written about and hast understood, will stir within thee sweet sentiments of love and affection toward the Author of such great wonders. I wish that, bearing them in mind, thou from this day on embrace with new and great esteem the contempt and neglect of the world. And tell me, dearest, if, in exchange for this forgetfulness and scorn of the world, God look upon thee with eyes of sweetest love, why shouldst thou not buy so cheaply what is worth an infinite price? What can the world give thee, even when it esteems thee and exalts thee most? And what dost thou lose, if thou despise it? Is its favor not all vanity and deceit (Ps. 4:3)? Is it not all a fleeting and momentary shadow (Wis. 5:9), which eludes the grasp of those that haste after it? Hence if thou hadst all worldly advantage in thy possession, what great feat would it be to despise it as of no value? Consider how little thou dost in rejecting all of it for the love of God, for mine and that of the holy angels. And if the world does not neglect thee as much as thou shouldst desire, do thou on thy own behalf despise it, in order to remain free and unhampered to enjoy to the full extent the highest Good with the plenitude of his most delightful love and intercourse.

465. My most holy Son is such a faithful Lover of souls that He hast set me as the teacher and living example of the love of humility and true contempt of worldly vanity and pride. He ordained also for his own glory as well as for my sake that I, his Servant and Mother, should be left without shelter and be turned away by mortals, in order that afterwards his beloved souls might be so much the more readily induced to offer Him a welcome, thus obliging Him, by an artifice of love, to come and remain with them. He also sought destitution and poverty, not because He had any need of them for bringing the practice of virtues to the highest perfection, but in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God.

466. Thou knowest well, my dearest, that thou hast been incessantly instructed and exhorted by divine enlightenment to forget the terrestrial and visible and to gird thyself with fortitude (Prov. 31:17), to raise thyself to the imitation of me, copying in thyself, according to thy capacity, the works and virtues manifested to thee in my life. This is the very first purpose of the knowledge which thou receivest in writing this history, for thou hast in me a perfect model, and by it thou canst arrange the converse and conduct of thy life in the same manner as I arranged mine in imitation of my sweetest Son. The dread with which this command to imitate me has inspired thee as being above thy strength thou must moderate, and thou must encourage thyself by the words of my most holy Son in the Gospel of St. Matthew: Be ye perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48). This command of the Most High imposed upon his holy Church is not impossible of fulfillment, and if his faithful children on their part dispose themselves properly He will deny to none of them the grace of attaining this resemblance to the heavenly Father. All this my most holy Son has merited for them, but the degrading forgetfulness and neglect of men hinder them from maturing within themselves the fruits of his Redemption.

467. Of thee particularly I expect this perfection, and I invite thee to it by the sweet law of love which accompanies my instruction. Ponder and scrutinize, by the divine light, the obligation under which I place thee, and labor to correspond with it like a faithful and anxious child. Let no difficulty or hardship disturb thee, nor deter thee from any virtuous exercise, no matter how hard it may be. Nor be content with striving after the love of God and salvation of thyself alone; if thou wouldst be perfect in imitating me and fulfilling all that the Gospel teaches, thou must work for the salvation of other souls and the exaltation of the holy name of my Son, making thyself an instrument in his powerful hands for the accomplishment of mighty works to advance his pleasure and glory. (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Four, Chapter IX. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter IX.)

Appendix C

Passages from The Mystical City of God on The Flight into Egypt

609. In the course of these manifestations, on the fifth day of the novena after the presentation and purification, while the heavenly Lady was in the temple with the Infant on her arms, the Deity revealed Itself to Her, although not intuitively, and She was wholly raised and filled by the Spirit. It is true, that this had been done to Her before; but as God's power and treasures are infinite, He never gives so much as not to be able to give still more to the creatures. In this abstractive vision the Most High visited anew his only Spouse, wishing to prepare Her for the labors, that were awaiting Her. Speaking to Her, He comforted Her saying: "My Spouse and my Dove, thy wishes and intentions are pleasing in my eyes and I delight in them always. But Thou canst not finish the nine days' devotion, which Thou hast begun, for I have in store for Thee other exercises of Thy love. In order to save the life of thy Son and raise Him up, Thou must leave thy home and thy country; pass with Him and thy spouse Joseph into Egypt, where Thou art to remain until I shall ordain otherwise, for Herod is seeking the life of the Child. The journey is long, most laborious and most fatiguing. Do thou suffer it all for my sake, for I am, and always will be, with Thee."

610. Any other faith and virtue might have been disturbed (as the incredulous really have been) to see the powerful God fleeing from a miserable earthly being, and that He should do so in order to save his life, as if He, being both God and man, could be affected by the fear of death. But the most prudent and obedient Mother advanced no objection or doubt; She was not in the least disturbed or moved by this unlooked for order. Answering She said: "My Lord and Master, behold thy servant with a heart prepared to die for thy love if necessary. Dispose of me according to thy will. This only do I ask of thy immense goodness, that, overlooking my want of merit and gratitude, Thou permit not my Son and Lord to suffer, and that Thou turn all pains and labor upon me, who am obliged to suffer them." The Lord referred Her to St. Joseph, bidding Her to follow his directions in all things concerning the journey. Therewith She issued from her vision, which She had enjoyed without losing the use of her exterior senses and while holding in her arms the Infant Jesus. She had been raised up in this vision only as to the superior part of her soul; but from it flowed other gifts, which spiritualized her senses and testified to Her that her soul was living more in its love than in the earthly habitation of her body. 

611. On account of the incomparable love, which the Queen bore toward her most holy Son, her maternal and compassionate heart was somewhat harrowed at the thought of the labors which She foresaw in the vision impending upon the infant God. Shedding many tears, She left the temple to go to her lodging-place, without manifesting to her spouse the cause of her sorrow. St. Joseph therefore thought that She grieved on account of the prophecy of Simeon. As the most faithful Joseph loved Her so much, and as he was of a kind and solicitous disposition, he was troubled to see his Spouse so tearful and afflicted, and that She should not manifest to him the cause of this new affliction, This disturbance of his soul was one of the reasons why the holy angels spoke to him in sleep, as I have related above when speaking of the pregnancy of the Queen (400). For in the same night, while St. Joseph was asleep, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, and spoke to him as recorded by St. Matthew (2:13): "Arise, take the Child and his Mother and flee into Egypt. There shalt thou remain until I shall return to give thee other advice, for Herod is seeking after the Child in order to take away its life." Immediately the holy spouse arose full of solicitude and sorrow, foreseeing also that of his most loving Spouse. Entering upon her retirement, he said: "My Lady, God wills that we should be afflicted, for his holy angel has announced to me the pleasure and the decree of the Almighty that we arise and flee with the Child into Egypt, because Herod is seeking to take away its life. Encourage thyself, my Lady, to bear the labors of this journey and tell me what I can do for thy comfort, since I hold my life and being at the service of thy Child and of Thee."

612. "My husband and my master," answered the Queen, "if we have received from the hands of the Most High such great blessings of grace, it is meet that we joyfully accept temporal afflictions (Job 2:10). We bear with us the Creator of heaven and earth; if He has placed us so near to Him, what arms shall be able to harm us, even if it be the arm of Herod (Ib. 17:3)? Wherever we carry with us all our Good, the highest treasure of heaven, our Lord, our guide and true light, there can be no desert; but He is our rest, our portion, and our country. All these goods we possess in having his company; let us proceed to fulfill his will." Then most holy Mary and Joseph approached the crib where the Infant Jesus lay, and where He, not by chance, slept at that time. The heavenly Mother uncovered Him without awakening Him, for He awaited those tender and sorrowful words of his Beloved: Fly away, O my beloved, and be like the roe and the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages (Cant. 8:14; 7:11). And the tender Mother added: "Sweetest Love, meekest Lamb, thy power is not limited by that of earthly kings; but Thou wishest, in thy exalted wisdom, to hide it for love of men. Who among mortals can think of taking away thy life, O my God? Is it not in thy power to annihilate all life? Since Thou givest life to all, why should men take away thine (Jn. 10:10)? Since Thou visited them in order to give them eternal life, why should they wish to give Thee death? But who shall comprehend the secrets of thy Providence (Rom. 11:34)? Allow me, then, O Lord and light of my soul, to awaken Thee, for when Thou sleepest thy heart is awake”(Cant. 5:2).

613. Some such sentiments were also expressed by St. Joseph. Then the heavenly Mother, falling upon her knees, awakened the sweetest Infant, and took Him in her arms, Jesus, in order to move Her to greater tenderness and in order to show Himself as true man, wept a little. O wonders of the Most High in things according to our judgments so small! Yet He was soon again quieted, and when the most holy Mother and St. Joseph asked his blessing He gave it them in visible manner. Gathering their poor clothing into the casket and loading it on the beast of burden which they had brought from Nazareth, they departed shortly after midnight, and hastened without delay on their journey to Egypt, as I will relate in the following chapter.

614. I will here add what I have been made to understand as to the concordance of the two Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke in regard to this event For, since all of them wrote under guidance and light of the Holy Ghost, each of them knew what the other three had written, and what they had omitted to say in their Gospels. Hence it happened that according to divine predisposition some of the happenings of the life of Christ and of the Gospel were described by all four of the Evangelists, while again some other things mentioned by one were omitted by the others. St. Matthew describes the adoration of the Kings and the flight into Egypt, while these events were not mentioned by St. Luke. He again describes the Circumcision, Presentation and Purification, which are omitted by St. Matthew. Thus St. Matthew, after referring to the departure of the Magi, immediately, without speaking of the Presentation, relates that the angel appeared to St.Joseph commanding him to flee into Egypt; but it does not follow therefrom that the Child had not been presented before that time in the temple, for it is certain that this was done after the departure of the Kings and before the flight into Egypt, as is narrated by St. Luke. Thus, likewise, although St. Luke, after describing the Presentation and Purification, immediately mentions that the holy Family lived in Nazareth, we must not conclude that they had not before that time lived in Egypt he writes nothing of this flight into Egypt either before or after, because it had already been recorded by St. Matthew. And this flight took place immediately after the Presentation before most holy Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth. As St. Luke had received no commission to write about this journey it was natural that, in continuing his history, he should mention the return to Nazareth immediately after the Presentation. To say that, having fulfilled what the law commanded, they returned to Galilee, was not to deny the flight into Egypt, but it was merely continuing the narrative without mentioning the flight from Herod. Even the very text of St. Luke intimates that the return to Nazareth happened after their sojourn in Egypt, for he says that the Child grew and increased in wisdom, and that grace was manifested in Him, which could not have been before He had passed the years of infancy. Hence it must have been after his return from Egypt, and at an age when the use of reason usually begins to show itself in children.

615. I was also given to understand how foolish it is in the infidels or incredulous to stumble against this cornerstone, Christ our Good, even in his infancy, and to take offense at seeing Him flee to Egypt in order to defend Himself against Herod, as if this were on account of his weakness and not a mystery, and as if it had happened for no higher purpose than to defend his life against the cruelty of a wicked man. For the well-disposed souls the words of the Evangelist are amply sufficient: since he says it happened in order that the prophecy of Osee might be fulfilled, who prophesies in the name of the eternal Father: And I called my Son out of Egypt (Osee 11:1; Mt. 2:15). The ends which He had in view in sending Him there and in calling Him thence are most exalted and mysterious: of these I will say something anon (641ff.). If not all of the doings of the incarnate Word are equally admirable and sacramental, yet no one with sane judgment can dispute or ignore the sweet providence of God in directing the secondary causes, while allowing full liberty to the human will (Ecclus. 15:14). For this reason, and not for want of power, He permits so many idolatries, heresies and other sins, which are not any smaller than that of Herod, for this reason He permitted the crime of Judas and all those which followed in the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ. Certainly He could have prevented all these sins and yet would not, not only because He wished to work our Redemption, but also in order that He might secure to man freedom of his will in all his actions. He was ready to give to men the helps and graces according to his divine Providence, whereby they could accomplish the good, if they would only use their free will to attain it in the same degree as they were using it to follow evil.

616. In this sweetness of his Providence He gives sinners time, hoping for their conversions, as in the case of Herod. If He would use his absolute power and perform great miracles for preventing the course of secondary causes, the order of nature would be confounded, and to a certain extent He would contradict Himself in his double role as Author of grace and as Author of nature. Therefore miracles must happen but rarely, and on special occasions for particular reasons, or when some end is to be served. Hence God reserves them for the manifestations of his power at certain times. He makes Himself known as the Author of his works by bringing them into existence and preserving them independently of creatures. Neither must we wonder that He should consent to the death of the innocent children which Herod murdered, for it would not have been to their benefit to save them through a miracle, since by their death they were to gain eternal life together with an abundant reward which vastly recompensed them for the loss of their temporal life. If they had been allowed to escape the sword and die a natural death not all would eventually have been saved. The works of the Lord are just and holy in all particulars, although we do not always see the reasons why they are so, but we shall come to know them in the Lord when we shall see Him face to face.

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, MOST HOLY MARY, GAVE ME.

617. My daughter, what thou must especially learn from this chapter is, that thou accustom thyself to humble thanksgiving for the benefits which thou receivest, since thou, among many generations, art so specially signalized by the riches of grace with which my Son and I visit thee without any merit of thine. I was wont to repeat many times this verse of David (Ps. 115:12): What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered to me? In such sentiments I humiliated myself to the dust, esteeming myself altogether useless among creatures. Therefore, if thou knowest what I did as Mother of God, consider what then is thy obligation, since thou must with so much truth confess thyself unworthy and undeserving of all thou receivest, and so poorly furnished for giving thanks and for making payment. Thou must supply thy insufficiency and thy misery by offering up to the eternal Father the living host of his onlybegotten Son, especially when thou receivest Him in the holy Sacrament and possessest Him within thee, for in this thou shouldst also imitate David, who, after asking the Lord what return he should make for all his benefits, answers (Ib. 13): I will take the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Thou must accept the salvation offered to thee and bring forth its fruits by the perfection of thy works, calling upon the name of the Lord, offering up his Onlybegotten. For He it is who gave the virtue of salvation, who merited it, who alone can be an adequate return for the blessings conferred upon the human race and upon thee especially. I have given Him human form in order that He might converse with men (Bar. 3:38) and become the property of each one. He conceals Himself under the appearances of bread and wine (Jn. 6:57) in order to accommodate Himself to the needs of each one, and that each one might consider Him as his personal property fit to offer to the eternal Father. In this way He furnishes to each one an oblation which no one could otherwise offer, and the Most High rests satisfied with it, since there is nothing more acceptable nor anything more precious in the possession of creatures.

618. In addition to this offering is the resignation with which souls embrace and bear with equanimity and patience the labors and difficulties of mortal life. My most holy Son and I were eminent Masters in the practice of this doctrine. My Son began to teach it from the moment in which He was conceived in my womb. For already then He began to suffer, and as soon as He was born into the world He and I were banished by Herod into a desert, and his sufferings continued until He died on the Cross. I also labored to the end of my life, as thou wilt be informed more and more in the writing of this history. Since therefore We suffered so much for creatures and for their salvation, I desire thee to imitate Us in this conformity to the divine will as being his spouse and my daughter. Suffer with a magnanimous heart, and labor to increase the possessions of thy Lord and Master, namely, souls, which are so precious in his sight and which He has purchased with his life-blood. Never shouldst thou fly from labors, difficulties, bitterness and sorrows, if by any of them thou canst gain a soul for the Lord, or if thou canst thereby induce it to leave the path of sin and enter the path of life. Let not the thought that thou art so useless and poor, or that thy desires and labor avail but little, discourage thee; since thou canst not know how the Lord will accept of them and in how far He shall consider Himself served thereby. At least thou shouldst wish to labor assiduously and eat no unearned bread in his house (Prov. 31:27). (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, The Incarnation, Book Four, Chapter XXI. See Mr. Timothy Duff’s new English translation of this text: Chapter XXI.)

Appendix D

ADOLPH TANQUERY ON THE DIVINE MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

THE BLESSED VIRIGN MARY BEHELD OBJECTIVELY

A. The Divine Maternity of Mary

827. I. Thesis: The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly the Mother of God. In opposing the Nestorians, the Council of Ephesus made this a matter of faith: "If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel in truth is God and that on this account the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, let him be anathema." The meaning of this thesis is that the Blessed Virgin brought forth Christ who is God.

a. Proof of thesis from Scripture. The Gospels narrate that the Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth Christ who is truly God. Wherefore Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, called the Blessed Virgin the mother of the Lord: "Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me"?

b. Proof of thesis from Tradition.

1) Through the first three centuries the Fathers professed that Mary gave birth to God; "Christ, born of Mary, is Emmanuel or God with us".

2) By the beginning of the fourth century the name God-bearing is given to Mary and the use of this appellation is so frequent that Julian the apostate reproached the Christians because they would not stop calling Mary God-bearing; and John of Antioch warned his friend Nestorius lest he stir up the crowds by persistently opposing this title.

3) In the fifth century, with Nestorius openly denying the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin, St. Cyril vigorously defend and fought for this Catholic dogma, and the Council of Ephesus, to the great joy of the people, defined the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos. 

c. Proof from Reason.

The Blessed Virgin conceived and brought forth the person who is God, namely Christ; But generation is not terminated at nature, but at the person who subsists and continues in the begotten nature; for example, the mother of Peter, although she produces his body only, is rightfully called the mother of Peter himself.

828 2. The Excellency of this dignity.

a. In Itself: the dignity of Mother of God far surpasses all other dignities, with the exception of the hypostatic union, because it proximately belongs to the order of the hypostatic union. For, in producing the matter of Christ's body, in willingly conceiving, giving birth to, and nourishing that body, the Blessed Virgin was, so to speak, the instrumental cause of the hypostatic union and the cooperator with the divine persons in the great work of the Incarnation. Consequently, because she is the mother of God, she has a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God.

 

b. In its consequences--As the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin contracted special relations with the three divine persons:

 

1) In some manner she shares in the fruitfulness of the Father because she brings forth in time the same Son whom the Father alone generates from all eternity as one consubstantial to Himself.

2) She contracts a special affinity and a wonderful union with the Word in the Incarnation through generation, in the entire course of life through intimate communion, in the Passion through compassion, in glory through a glorious blessedness.

3) In a certain manner she has become the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, for the formation of Christ's body in the Blessed Virgin's womb is attributed to the Holy Ghost.

Thus Mary is also called at times the complement to the Trinity because de facto the Trinity has made use of the Blessed Virgin as an instrument for the purpose of accomplishing the work of the Incarnation.

From the dignity of the Divine Maternity proceed all the privileges granted to the Blessed Virgin, her most perfect sanctity, and her supernatural relations with creatures. . . . 

II. THE RELATIONS OF MARY WITH CREATURES

These are four in particular which proceed from her divine maternity: The Blessed Virgin is first, the mother of Christians, secondly, the cooperatrix in the Redemption, thirdly, the queen of creatures, fourthly, the mediatrix of grace.

839 A. Mary is the spiritual mother of men.

1. This is proved from her divine maternity: Mary is the mother of Christ, the head of the mystical body the members of which are men. But the fact that she is the mother of the head makes her mother of her members. Mary's spiritual motherhood is proved also from the title of donation or gift since Christ dying on the cross gave us to her as sons, saying to John (and through extension to all Christians): "Behold thy mother".

2. The manner in which Mary is our spiritual mother. Truly she bears us spiritually because she is the meritorious (de congruo) and exemplar cause of our justification; in a secondary degree, however, dependently on Christ.

840 B. Mary is Christ's cooperatrix in the Redemption; she is co-redemptrix. She cooperated in man's salvation secondarily and dependently on Christ by consenting both to the Incarnation of the World and to the death of Christ.

1. Proof from Scripture. In the Gospel story the Angel announces to Mary the conception of the Son of God who will be the Savior of the world. Mary, however, with the greatest humility gives her consent. Also, she is associated in the work of the Passion and therefore of the Redemption: she stands at the cross, suffering along with the suffering Christ.

2. Proof from Tradition. The Fathers compare Eve, who was the cause of death, to Mary, who is the cause of our salvation. Thus writes St. Irenaeus. This doctrine Pius X and Benedict XVI confirm, the latter with these words: "She (Mary) with Christ redeemed the human race".

841 C. Mary is the Queen of men and of all creatures. She is the Mother of Christ Who is the King of men and of all creatures. So we say: Hail, Queen" and we call her Queen in the Litany of Loreto. She carries on a royal rule of  benevolence and of mercy.

842 D. Mary is the universal mediatrix of grace,  a secondary mediatrix and one dependent on Christ, universal, however, because no grace is dispensed without her intervention.

1. Proof from Scripture: Mary gave to us Christ, the source of all grace; therefore, indirectly and at least in cause she offers all graces to us. Too, directly, and efficaciously as co-redemptrix she intercedes in order to obtain all graces.

2. Proof from Tradition. The Fathers teach that no grace is granted without her intervention; for example, St. Ephraem and St. Bernard. The same doctrine the Holy Pontiffs Leo XIII and Pius X state explicitly. Also, the Liturgy affords an argument which rests on the existence of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace. The prayers of this office are a further proof.

3. Proof from Reason. Through Mary God gave to us Christ, the universal principle of grace; therefore even the individual graces He always grants through her. Besides, it is quite proper that the Blessed Virgin, who united herself efficaciously to Christ's merits, should be similarly associated with Him in the distribution of all graces.

III. DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

843 A. State of the Question.

1. Errors. The cult which Catholics pay to the Blessed Virgin Protestants bitterly attack as superstitious, illusive, even idolatrous.

2. Catholic doctrine. The cult of the Blessed Virgin is not the cult of latria, which is due to God alone, nor is it the simple cult of dulia due to the saints. But it is the cult of hyperdulia because of her singular supernatural superiority. Therefore devotion to Mary embraces:

1) Veneration and reverence because of the dignity of the divine maternity conferred on her and because of her outstanding holiness;

2) Invocation and confidence because she is a powerful and also a merciful mediatrix with Christ;

3) Filial, love because she is our spiritual Mother; this love leads us on to an imitation of her virtues.

844 B. Thesis: Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is altogether legitimate and beneficial. This is de fide from the ordinary universal magisterium of the Church.

1. Proof from Scripture.

a. God teaches us how great a veneration we must have for Mary when, through the Angel Gabriel, He thus addressed her: "Hail, full of grace"; similarly when, through the mouth of Elizabeth, He says to the Blessed Virgin: "Blessed art thou among women".

b. Christ instructs us how great a confidence we must have in Mary when He performs His first miracle at the request of the Blessed Virgin.

c. Finally, why denying upon the cross. Christ shows us with what great love we must cherish the Blessed Virgin when to John and to all Christians He addresses these words: "Behold thy mother". 

2. Proof from Tradition.

That devotion to the Blessed Virgin flourished in the first centuries is evident from the images found in the catacombs, from the temples, erected as soon as peace was granted to the Church, from the encomiums of the Fathers, from all the Liturgies.

3. Proof from Reason.

This cult is proper:

a. It is in way offensive to God because ultimately it is referred to God, the author of all the gifts which we venerate to Mary;

b. It is an imitation of God's way of acting: because He sent His word to us through Mary, it is right that we approach Jesus through Mary.

c. It is very profitable for obtaining graces more efficaciously: as in human affairs we obtain favors from the King through intercession of the Queen, so we gain many graces from the Supreme King through the intervention of the Queen of heaven.

Corollary. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is proper, pious, and salutary. Pope Pius XII has set aside August 22 as the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (Adolph Tanquerey, A Manual of Dogmatic Theology, pp. 102-111)

Appendix E

The Chapelet of the Privileges of Our Lady

In the Name of the FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY GHOST. Amen.

V. O GOD, come to my assistance.
R. O LORD, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the FATHER….

∗ ∗ ∗

HAIL to thee, purest, holiest Mother of JESUS.

We humbly pray thee, by thy predestination, whereby thou wast even from all eternity elected Mother of GOD; by thy Immaculate Conception, whereby thou wast conceived without stain of original sin; by thy most perfect resignation, whereby thou wast ever conformed to the will of GOD; and, lastly, by thy consummate holiness, whereby throughout thy whole life thou didst never commit one single fault: we pray thee to become our advocate with our LORD, that He may pardon our many sins, which are the cause of his wrath. And thou, O FATHER Almighty, by the merits of these privileges vouchsafed to this thy well-beloved Daughter, hear her supplications for us, and pardon us, her clients.

Spare, O LORD, spare thy people.
PATER once, Ave four times, Gloria once.
By thy holy and Immaculate Conception deliver us, glorious Virgin Mary.

∗ ∗ ∗

HAIL to thee, purest, holiest Mother of JESUS.

We humbly pray thee, by the most holy Annunciation, when thou didst conceive the Divine Word in thy womb; by thy most happy delivery, in which thou didst experience no pain; by thy perpetual virginity, which thou didst unite with the fruitfulness of a mother; and, lastly, by the bitter martyrdom which thou didst undergo in our SAVIOUR’S death: we pray thee to become our mediatrix, that we may reap the fruit of the Precious Blood of thy Son. And Thou, O Divine Son, by the merit of these privileges granted to thy well-beloved Mother, hear her supplications, and pardon us, her clients.

Spare, O LORD, spare thy people.
PATER once, Ave four times, Gloria once.
By thy holy and Immaculate Conception deliver us, glorious Virgin Mary.

∗ ∗ ∗

HAIL to thee, purest, holiest Mother of JESUS.

We humbly pray thee, by the joys which thou didst feel in thy heart at the Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS CHRIST; by thy Assumption into Heaven, whereby thou wast exalted above all the Choirs of the Angels; by the glory which GOD has given thee to be Queen of all saints; and, lastly, by that most powerful intercession, where by thou art able to obtain all that thou dost desire: we pray thee, obtain for us true love of GOD. And Thou, O HOLY SPIRIT, by the merits of these privileges of thy well-beloved Spouse, hear her supplications, and pardon us her clients. Amen.

Spare, O LORD, spare thy people.
PATER once, Ave four times, Gloria once.
By thy holy and Immaculate Conception deliver us, glorious Virgin Mary.

∗ ∗ ∗

Antiphon. Thy Conception, Virgin Mother of GOD, brought joy to the whole world, for of thee was born the Sun of Justice, CHRIST our GOD, who, loosing the curse, bestowed the blessing, and, confounding death, gave unto us eternal life.

V. In thy Conception, Virgin Mary, thou wast Immaculate.
R. Pray to the FATHER for us, whose SON JESUS, conceived by the HOLY GHOST, thou didst bring forth.

Let us pray. GOD of mercy, GOD of pity, GOD of tenderness, who, pitying the affliction of thy people, didst say to the angel smiting them, “Withhold thy hand”; for the love of thy glorious Mother, at whose precious breast thou didst sweetly find an antidote to the venom of our sins, bestow on us the help of thy grace, that we may be freed from all evil, and mercifully protected from every onset of destruction. Who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

R. Amen. (Chaplet of the Twelve Privileges of Our Lady.)