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

[Therese]

'Mortify and crush it [thy mortal body] until it is dead to all that is delightful to the senses, so that even the common actions necessary for life shall appear to thee more painful than agreeable, taste more of bitterness than of dangerous enjoyment.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 197

[Therese]

'If I, who never had displeased or offended the Lord since the beginning of my existence, judged this virtue of humility so necessary in order to find grace in his eyes and be raised up by his right hand, how much more is it necessary for thee to humble thyself to the dust and annihilate thyself in his sight, who was conceived in sin and hast so often offended Him?  (Ps. 50, 7).  Humiliate thyself to nothingness, and acknowledge that what being the Most High has given thee, thou hast but ill employed, and that, therefore, thy very existence should be subject of humiliation to thee.  Thus wilt thou at last find the treasure of grace.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 197

[Therese]

'The perdition of Judas began by his despising her good will and by conceiving against the Mother of God a sort of ill-will and impiety.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 206

[Therese]

'O my dearest Daughter, if men would place no hindrance by their sins, and if they would not resist this infinite bounty, how measureless would be the favors and blessings upon them!  According to thy way of understanding thou must look upon Him as being outraged and made sorrowful by the opposition of mortals to his boundless desires of doing them good.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 207

[Shin]

'O my dearest Daughter, if men would place no hindrance by their sins, and if they would not resist this infinite bounty, how measureless would be the favors and blessings upon them!  According to thy way of understanding thou must look upon Him as being outraged and made sorrowful by the opposition of mortals to his boundless desires of doing them good.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 207

This is a really encouraging quote in that I think of how wonderful life can be if one learns not to resist God and place those sinful hindrances in the way.

[Therese]

'O my dearest Daughter, if men would place no hindrance by their sins, and if they would not resist this infinite bounty, how measureless would be the favors and blessings upon them!  According to thy way of understanding thou must look upon Him as being outraged and made sorrowful by the opposition of mortals to his boundless desires of doing them good.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 207

This is a really encouraging quote in that I think of how wonderful life can be if one learns not to resist God and place those sinful hindrances in the way.

Yes, it is really is an encouraging quote, Shin.  From what I have read in City of God our Lord wishes to lavish great and many favors upon us!  If we could only be properly disposed to receive them!

[Shin]

It's not enough to live only exterior holiness, we have to have virtue in how we think too!

[Therese]

It's not enough to live only exterior holiness, we have to have virtue in how we think too!

They say that what we say and do usually begins with thoughts, good or bad thoughts.

[Shin]

Yes so in the beginning always good thoughts.

[Therese]

Yes so in the beginning always good thoughts.

And when we have thoughts that are not good we must pray immediately and nip the problem in the bud before the devil can work havoc in us by tempting us to say or do something wrong. 

[Therese]

'On former occasions I have already told thee, that the number of those foreknown as doomed, is so great, and of those that save themselves is so small, that it is not expedient to say more in particular.  For if thou hast the sentiments of a true daughter of the Church, the spouse of Christ, my Son and Lord, thou wouldst die at seeing such misfortune.  What thou mayest know, is, that all the loss and misfortune apparent in Christian nations and governments, as well among chiefs as among subjects of the Church and of the secular state, all originate and flow from the forgetfulness and contempt of the works of Christ and of the works of his Redemption.  If there were a way of rousing them to a sense of thankfulness and to a sense of their duty as faithful and acknowledged children of their Creator and Redeemer, and of me, who am their Intercessor, the wrath of the divine Judge would be appeased, and their would be some diminution of the widespread ruin and perdition among Catholics.  The eternal Father, who is justly zealous for the honor of his Son and rigorously chastises the servants, who know the will of their Lord and refuse to fulfill it, would again be reconciled.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 220

[Shin]

The vices of forgetfulness and ingratitude..

How much happier all would be if folks practiced the opposite virtues.. What a beautiful thought to think of Christian nations full of thanksgiving and gratitude in the day to day lives of their people.

The fewness of the saved.. how important it is to motivate people to pursue God with all their hearts..

[Therese]

The vices of forgetfulness and ingratitude..

How much happier all would be if folks practiced the opposite virtues.. What a beautiful thought to think of Christian nations full of thanksgiving and gratitude in the day to day lives of their people.

The fewness of the saved.. how important it is to motivate people to pursue God with all their hearts..

So true!

[Therese]

'So great was the efficacy of their [Jesus' and Mary's] prayers, that all those who pronounce these names in reverence and faith, overcome their hellish enemies and precipitously repel them in virtue of the prayers, triumphs and victories of our Savior and of his most holy Mother.  On account of the protection thereby offered to us against the arrogant giants of hell, and on account of all the other helps furnished us in the holy Church of our Lord, no excuse is left for us not battling legitimately and valiantly, or for not overcoming and vanquishing the demon, as the enemy of the eternal God and our own.  For in this we should follow the example of our Savior according to our ability.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 227

[Therese]

'He [Lucifer] with tireless malice labors to overthrow the barriers of restraint, so that, forgetful of the last things and of eternal torment, men may give themselves over, like brute beasts, to sensual pleasures, and unmindful of themselves consume their lives in the pursuit of apparent good, until, as Job says (Job. 21, 13), they suddenly fall a prey to eternal perdition.  Such is in reality the fate on innumerable foolish men, who abhor the restraint imposed upon them by this truth.  Do thou, my daughter, allow me to instruct thee, and keep thyself free from such harmful deceit and from this forgetfulness of the worldly people.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 230

[Therese]

'The anchoret John, many years before [his preaching] had made for himself a large cross, which he had placed at the head of his couch:  with it he performed some exercises of penance and he was accustomed to place himself upon it in the form of one crucified, when he was engaged in prayer.  He did not wish to leave this treasure in the desert; therefore, before issuing forth, he sent it by the hands of the holy angels to the Queen of heaven and earth and requested them to tell Her that the cross had been his greatest and most beloved companion in his long banishment; that he sent it to Her as a precious treasure, because he knew what was to be wrought upon it by the Son of God, and also because the holy angels had told him, that her most holy Son and Redeemer of the world often made use of a cross like this, when performing his prayers in his oratory.  The angels had made this cross fashioning it from a tree in the desert at his request; for the saint had neither the necessary strength nor the instruments for this kind of work, whereas the holy angels wonted not the skill and needed no instruments on account of the power they have over material creation.  With this present and message of saint John the holy princes returned to their Queen, and She received this token form their hands with innermost emotions of sorrow and consolation, at the thought of what mysteries were in so short a time to be enacted upon the hard wood of the Cross.  She addressed it in words of tenderness and placed it in her oratory, where She kept it ever afterwards together with the other cross which had been used by her Son.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, Vol. III, 236