Excerpts from Mystical City of God by Ven. Mary of Agreda

[Therese]

'Act as one who lives in a castle surrounded by enemies, and who perchance must go to the gate to transact necessary business.  He acts with such wariness, that he will pay more attention to safeguard his retreat and shield himself, than to transact business with others, being always on the watch and on the guard against danger.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 279

[Shin]

Good lessons on how to pray!

'Act as one who lives in a castle surrounded by enemies, and who perchance must go to the gate to transact necessary business.  He acts with such wariness, that he will pay more attention to safeguard his retreat and shield himself, than to transact business with others, being always on the watch and on the guard against danger.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 279

The Catholic fortress instructed for us to have by Our Lady!

[Therese]

Good lessons on how to pray!

And principally on how we are to live!

[Therese]

'Act as one who lives in a castle surrounded by enemies, and who perchance must go to the gate to transact necessary business.  He acts with such wariness, that he will pay more attention to safeguard his retreat and shield himself, than to transact business with others, being always on the watch and on the guard against danger.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 279

Worldlings do not protect themselves in this way, thus the reason why they fall into many transgressions against God.  Having true fear of the Lord (fear of offending Him) would make a good Catholic want to protect himself from the world in this way, heeding our Lady's instruction and warning.  He would know that this instruction applies to all of his dealings in this world.

[Therese]

'Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep, as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies.  This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and sensible being (I Cor. 2, 14), that they do not feel any other evils except those concerning the animal nature in them; all that is interior is harmless in their estimation.  On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses (Ephes. 6, 12) and since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them, they forget the fear of them.  [...]So much the more certain is the danger, the more concealed it is, and so much the more deadly are the wounds, the less they are felt and recognized.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 331


Satan and his satellites use everything against us to try to tempt us to sin; they can use acquaintances, places, things, activities, etc. to try to get us to offend God.  May I always resist them solid in my Faith.  May I use humility, meekness, obedience, holy poverty, prayer, mortification, conformity to God's holy Will, etc. as my weapons against those wicked, trouble making demons!

[Therese]

'They [the dragon and other demons] weigh thy actions carefully, watch thy footsteps, and work zealously to lay snares for thee in all thy undertakings. [...]It suffices to remind thee of thy soft and yielding nature, which thy enemies will strive to make use of for thy destruction.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 334


Satan has many, no, most, "Catholics" in his grip--Our Lady in MCG says that most people are walking under Satan's standard--I've even read that 98% of "Catholics" contracept and that as many "Catholics" get divorced as Protestants.  What a pitiful tragedy!  

Lord Jesus, have mercy and help your children, save them from the dragon's snares!  Keep your children safe in the bosom of your Church and convert heretics, schismatics and infidels!

[Therese]

'Living faith alone and humility of heart are the double armor which enable them [sinners] to procure glorious victory.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 339



Living faith alone and humility of heart!  True living faith and true humility--one can't procure victory without them!

[Therese]

'If it should be necessary, soothe the wrath of thy persecutors with sweet words, and undeceive those who are led astray by false reports.  Do this not in order to excuse thyself, but in order to pacify thy brothers and for their inward and outward peace; this thou wilt at one and the same time conquer thyself and those who hate thee.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 358

[Therese]

'Ponder, then, dearest, upon the small return given for the love of my Son and Lord by mortals, and how forgetful of thanks even his faithful continue to be.  Assume it as thy task, as far as thy weak powers allow, to render satisfaction for this grievous offense:  loving Him, thanking Him and serving Him with all thy powers, for all the other men who fail to do so.  Therefore thou must be an angel in promptitude, most fervent and punctual on all occasions; thou must die to all earthly things, eliminating and crushing all human inclinations and rising upon the wings of love to the heights of love designed for thee by the Lord.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda,  Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 538

[Therese]

'Hear me, my daughter, and bend thy ears to these counsels and doctrines of eternal life.  Cast out from they faculties every image and affection toward human creatures and turn all the powers of thy heart and soul toward the mysteries and blessings of the Redemption.  Occupy thyself wholly with them, ponder and weigh them, give thanks for them as if thou alone wert in existance, as if they had been wrought solely for thee, and singly for each human being in particular (Gal. 2, 20).  Thus thou wilt find life and the way of life, proceeding thus thou canst not err; but thou shalt find therein the light of thy eyes and true peace.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 539

[Therese]

It's a pity that few souls hear our Lady's instruction and that few souls who do hear her instruction care to follow it!  She is our model and teacher.  May we each imitate her and follow her instruction so that we can be very pleasing to her and so that we will have true devotion to her.  We can't have true devotion to Mary if we offend her by ignoring her words and example.  God bless you!

[Therese]

'The tender love of the heavenly Mother is beyond all comprehension or understanding of man; for her natural love was greater than any other mother was capable of, and her supernatural love exceeded that of all the angels and saints together.  Her reverence and worship cannot be compared with that of any other created being.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 536





What a Mother!!--and to think that she is ours!!  Let us not disappoint her!

[Therese]

'Although the pains caused by the wounding [of the Infant Jesus's Circumcision] were most severe, as well on account of the delicacy of his body as on account of the coarseness of the knife, which was made of flint, yet his tears were not so much caused by the sensible pain as by the supernatural sorrow caused by his knowledge of the hard-heartedness of mortals.  For this was more rude and unyielding than the flint, resisting his sweetest love and the divine fire he has come to enkindle in the world and in the hearts of the faithful (Luke 12, 49).  Also the tender and affectionate Mother wept, like the guileless sheep, which raises its voice in unison with the innocent lamb.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 534



Hard-heartedness is so cruel, and so evil!  Woe to the hard-hearted who refuse to repent!

[Shin]

It's good to read these beautiful quotes Therese. How are you doing?

'The tender love of the heavenly Mother is beyond all comprehension or understanding of man; for her natural love was greater than any other mother was capable of, and her supernatural love exceeded that of all the angels and saints together.  Her reverence and worship cannot be compared with that of any other created being.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 536

How happy we should be! 

[Therese]

I am well, Shin.  Thank you so much for asking!  I've been reading my MCG and am now on the first chapter of Vol. III.  I've been following the Eastertide meditations from Saints' Books and working with meditations from two other books.  I use these three meditation books to help me when I pray and they do help me a lot, because they are most excellent books--every one of them.  Are you working with any books during your prayer time?  Shin, I do hope that you are praying at least 30 min. of mental prayer daily.  I myself can pray a lot more than 30 min. because of my schedule and because my prayer duties are my most important duties in the day.  I think that we can agree that we should all be praying assiduously for the glorification of God's Name and for the salvation of souls.