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

[Shin]

By the way congratulations on getting to the second volume Therese!

 

[Therese]

By the way congratulations on getting to the second volume Therese!

 

Thank you, Shin!  And getting to the second volume was the easiest thing to do with my goal of reading one chapter daily.  God bless you!

[Therese]

'"...Thou, my Spouse, shalt be my chosen One and thou hast found grace in my sight; and therefore I make thee Mistress of all these goods and I give thee dominion and possession of them all, so that, if thou art a faithful spouse according to my wishes, thou mayest distribute and dispose of them according as thou desirest and according as thy intercession shall direct; for this is the purpose, for which they are given into thy possession." Therewith the most blessed Trinity placed a crown on the head of our Princess Mary, consecrating Her as the sovereign Queen of all creation.'

Our Lord to Blessed Mary on the night before the Incarnation, as revealed to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 103

[Therese]

'Her entire being was made to shine forth the Divinity; for since the divine Word was to issue from the bosom of the eternal Father to descend to that of Mary, He provided for the greatest possible similarity between the Mother and the Father.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 105

[Therese]

'Rare and astonishing prodigy of humility, to see this Maiden, most holy Mary, though raised to the supremest dignity and holiness next to God, yet humiliating Herself and debasing Herself below the meanest of creatures; so that, by the force of this humility, no thought of her being destined for the Mothership of the Messias could find entrance into her mind!  And not only this: She did not even have a suspicion of anything great or admirable in Herself (Ps. 130, 1).  Her eyes and heart were not elated; on the contrary the higher She ascended by the operation of the right hand of her God, so much the more lowly were her thoughts concerning Herself.  It was therefore just, that the Almighty should look upon her humility (Luke 1, 48), and that therefore all generations should call her fortunate and blessed.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 106

[Therese]

'The bodily shape of the heavenly Queen was well proportioned and taller than is usual with other maidens of her age; yet extremely elegant and perfect in all its parts.  Her face was rather more oblong than round, gracious and beautiful, without leanness or grossness; its complexion clear, yet of a slightly brownish hue; her forehead spacious yet symmetrical; her eyebrows perfectly arched; her eyes large and serious, of incredible and ineffable beauty and dovelike sweetness, dark in color with a mixture tending towards green; her nose straight and well shaped; her mouth small, with red colored lips, neither too thin nor too thick.  All the gifts of nature in Her were so symmetrical and beautiful, that no other human being ever had the like.  To look upon Her caused feelings at the same time of joy and seriousness, love and reverential fear. She attracted the heart and yet restrained it in sweet reverence; her beauty impelled the tongue to sound her praise, and yet her grandeur and her overwhelming perfections and graces hushed it to silence.  In all that approached Her, She caused divine effects not easily explained; She filled the heart with heavenly influences and divine operations, tending toward the Divinity.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 115

[Therese]

'My daughter, with special affection I manifest to thee now my will and desire that thou make thyself worthy of intimate and familiar converse with God, and that for this purpose thy dispose thyself with great zeal and solicitude, weeping over thy sins, and forgetting and rejecting all the visible things, so that thou have no thought henceforth for any other thing outside of God.  Therefore thou must begin to practice all that I have taught thee until now, and whatever I will yet teach thee in the balance of this history.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 120

[Therese]

'In imitation of me be thou so humble, that as far as thou art concerned, thou be persuaded and convinced of thy entire worthlessness and incapability, not meriting to be considered even a slave of the servants of Christ.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 121

[Therese]

'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 to be sufficiently 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"  (Luke 1, 31).

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 137

[Therese]

'This [the Incarnation] 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.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 138



Note:  The Incarnation happened on the same day as the beginning of creation of the word and on the same day as the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, March 25th.

[Therese]

'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 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.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 141

[Therese]

'Look upon Him as upon the infinite God, loving, yet terrible.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 143

[Therese]

"'Yet, although I have shown thee part of their malice, I wish, my friend, that thou shouldst once more know in Me, how small is the number of those who are to know and love me as my chosen ones; and how great and extended is the number of the ungrateful and of the reprobate.  The innumerable sins and abominations of these impure and defiled men, whom I have foreseen in my infinite knowledge, retard my bounteous mercy and have locked up the treasurehouse of my Divinity, making the world entirely unworthy of receiving my gifts.'"

God the Father to Blessed Virgin Mary on the fifth day before the Incarnation, as revealed to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, p. 54
(Bk. 3, Chap. 5, Para. 48)

Actually, I believe it was the Blessed Trinity speaking to Ven. Mary of Agreda.  

[Therese]

'By the same Omnipotence He provided that this most holy soul of Christ, in its superior faculties and in its most noble operations, should be in the state of glory and enjoying beatitude; while all this immense glory was at the same time compressed, as it were, into the superior parts of his soul, suspending the effects and gifts of glory, that would otherwise naturally have communicated themselves to his body.  On this account He could be at the same time viator, subject to suffering, enabling Him to procure our salvation by means of his Cross, Pasion and Death.'

Ven, Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 145

[Therese]

'Above all I ask of thee, my dearest, to do that which is most acceptable to the Lord and most pleasing to me; that thou grieve, and in sweet affection mourn over the gross ignorance and dangerous tardiness of the sons of men; over the ingratitude also of the children of the Church, who having received the light of the divine faith, yet live in such interior forgetfulness of the works and benefits of the Incarnation, yea, of God Himself, and so much so, that they seem to differ from infidels only in some ceremonies and exterior worship.  They perform these without spirit or heartiness, many times offending and provoking the divine justice which they should placate.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. II, 156

[Shin]

Thanks for the clarification earlier Therese.

Ingratitude.. It certainly costs us grace!