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

[Shin]

It was my intention today to post a passage from the last chapter, a passage that manifests the immense love that our Lord Jesus Christ had for those cruelest of malefactors who were seeking His life; but I could not locate it in my book.  There is so much in this book that I have not posted.  How I wish that all of you would obtain Mystical City of God and read all four volumes of it so that you will not miss out on anything.  God bless you!

Yes there is so much! I am even now reading and looking for the passage! Fear not, whether we find it or not, I think sometime you will find it again for us in the future. 

[Therese]

It was my intention today to post a passage from the last chapter, a passage that manifests the immense love that our Lord Jesus Christ had for those cruelest of malefactors who were seeking His life; but I could not locate it in my book.  There is so much in this book that I have not posted.  How I wish that all of you would obtain Mystical City of God and read all four volumes of it so that you will not miss out on anything.  God bless you!

Yes there is so much! I am even now reading and looking for the passage! Fear not, whether we find it or not, I think sometime you will find it again for us in the future. 

I honestly hope to.  I'll have to note the chapter number.  When I read about how Jesus loved and prayed for His evil malefactors as they were doing Him very great injury I saw the depths of God's love and how deep our love is supposed to be.  God bless you! 

[Therese]

'The sight of the white vestment, by which they proclaimed Him fit to be treated only as an insane fool, pierced her heart with new sorrow; though She alone, of all mankind, recognized the mystery of his purity and innocence indicated by this vestment.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 608

Thanks be to God now we can too see a little!

'See Jesus Christ in His priest, clothed in the habiliments of His Passion.

The amice represents the piece of cloth which His captors muffled the Savior's eyes. The alb is the white robe with which the lewd Herod derisively vested Him. The girdle recalls to us the rope with which the Jews bound Him in the Garden of Gethsemane in order to lead Him before His judges. The maniple represents the chains with which He was fastened to the pillar to be scourged; the stole, the rope by which He was dragged beneath His Cross through the streets of Jerusalem. The chasuble symbolizes the purple mantle cast about His shoulders in the praetorium, or else the heavy Cross upon Him.'

St. Peter Julian Eymard

Wow!  The comparison is so beautiful!  Thanks so much for sharing this with us, Shin!

[Therese]

'I understand that some of the doctors have said or have persuaded themselves, that our Savior Jesus at his scourging and at his crucifixion, for his greater humiliation, permitted the executioners to despoil Him of all his clothing.  But having again been commanded under holy obedience to ascertain the truth in this matter, I was told that the divine Master was prepared to suffer all the insults compatible with decency; that the executioners attempted to subject his body to this shame of total nakedness, seeking to despoil Him of the cincture, which covered his loins; but in that they failed; because, on touching it, their arms became paralyzed and stiff, as had also happened in the house of Caiphas, when they attempted to take off his clothes (Chapt. XVII).  All the six of his tormentors separately made the attempt with the same result.  Yet afterwards, these ministers of evil, raised some of the coverings; for so much the Lord permitted, but not that He should be uncovered and despoiled of his garments entirely.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 627

[Therese]

'Their ceaseless blows inhumanly tore the immaculate virginal flesh of Christ our Redeemer and scattered many pieces of it about the pavement; so much that a large portion of the shoulder-bones were exposed and showed red through the flowing blood; in other places also were laid bare larger than the palm of the hand.  In order to wipe out entirely that beauty, which exceeded that of all other men (Ps. 44, 3), they beat Him in the face and in the feet and hands, this leaving unwounded not a single spot in which they could exert their fury and wrath against the most innocent Lamb.  The divine blood flowed to the ground, gathering here and there in great abundance.  The scourging in the face, and in the hands and feet, were unspeakable painful, because these parts are so full of sensitive and delicate nerves.  His venerable countenance became so swollen and wounded that the blood and the swellings blinded Him.  In addition to their blows the executioners spirted upon his Person their disgusting spittle and loaded Him with insulting epithets (Thren. 3, 30).  The exact number of blows dealt out to the Savior from head to foot was 5, 115.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 629

[Therese]

'Although She [Blessed Mary] shed no blood except what flowed from her eyes with her tears, nor was lacerated in her flesh [as Her Son was at the Scourging of the Pillar]; yet the bodily pains so changed and disfigured Her, that saint John and the holy women failed to find in her any resemblance of Herself.

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 630

[Therese]

'They placed upon his sacred head a cap made of woven thorns, to serve Him as a crown (John, 19, 2).  This cap was woven of thorn branches and in such a manner that many of the hard and sharp thorns would penetrate into the skull, some of them to the ears and others to the eyes.  Hence one of the greatest tortures suffered by the lord was that of the crown of thorns.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 633


'When the Blessed among women, most holy Mary, saw her divine Son as Pilate showed Him to the people and heard him say: "Ecce homo!" She fell upon her knees and openly adored Him as the true Godman.  The same was also done by saint John and the holy women, together with all the holy angels of the Queen and Lady; for they saw that not only Mary, as the Mother of the Savior, but that God himself desired them thus to act.

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 636

[Therese]

In order that the most ignominious death foretold for my Lord should be brought about (Sap. 2, 20; Jer. 11, 19) it was necessary that He should be persecuted by men.  But that these men should happen to be the Jews, the priests and the unjust Pilate, was their own misfortune, not the choice of the Almighty, who wishes to save all (Tim. 2, 4).

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 640

[Therese]

'The same, which happened in the head Christ the Lord and Son of God, must happen to all members of his mystical body, that is, to the just and predestined to the end of the world.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 641

[Therese]

Not too long ago I read the book A Doctor at Calvary by Dr. Pierre Barbet, M.D..  In this book Dr. Barbet reveals his study of the Shroud of Turin.  He states that our Lord was crowned with a cap of thorns and not with a wreath of thorns, as is commonly depicted in pictures.  Ven. Mary of Agreda says the same thing as Dr. Barbet, that our Lord was crowned with a cap of thorns. 

[Therese]

According to Ven. Mary of Agreda, our Lord was scourged by six torturers, two at a time they took turns scourging our Lord.  The first two used "thick cords, full of rough knots."  The second pair continued the scourging with "hardened leather thongs."  The last pair of scourgers used "tough rawhides, dried hard like osier twigs." 

[Shin]

'Although She [Blessed Mary] shed no blood except what flowed from her eyes with her tears, nor was lacerated in her flesh [as Her Son was at the Scourging of the Pillar]; yet the bodily pains so changed and disfigured Her, that saint John and the holy women failed to find in her any resemblance of Herself.

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 630

May the Lord grant us to in some way console Our Lady of Sorrows!

[Therese]

'Although She [Blessed Mary] shed no blood except what flowed from her eyes with her tears, nor was lacerated in her flesh [as Her Son was at the Scourging of the Pillar]; yet the bodily pains so changed and disfigured Her, that saint John and the holy women failed to find in her any resemblance of Herself.

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 630

May the Lord grant us to in some way console Our Lady of Sorrows!

Yes, every day and all day!

[Therese]

'O my sweetest Love, Jesus, light of my intellect and glory of my soul!  Do not, O my Lord, trust in my sluggish torpidity to follow Thee with my Cross on the way!  Take it upon Thee to do me this favor; draw me after Thee, to run after the fragrance of thy sweetest love (Cant. 1, 3) of thy ineffable patience, of thy deepest humility, that I may desire for contempt and anguish, and seek after participation in thy ignominy, insults and sorrows.  Let this be my portion and my inheritance in this mortal and oppressing life, let this be my glory and my repose; and outside of the Cross and its ignominy, I desire not to live or be consoled or to partake of any rest or enjoyment.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 655

[Therese]

'The executioners, bare of all human compassion and kindness, dragged our Savior Jesus along with incredible cruelty and insults.  Some of them jerked Him forward by the ropes in order to accelerate his passage, while others pulled from behind in order to retard it.  On account of this jerking and the weight of the Cross they caused Him to sway to and fro and often to fall to the ground.  By the hard knocks He thus received on the rough stones great wounds were opened, especially on the two knees and they were widened at each repeated fall.  The heavy Cross also inflicted a wound on the shoulder on which it was carried.  The unsteadiness caused the Cross to knock sometimes against his sacred head, and sometimes the head against the Cross; thus the crowns of his thorns penetrated deeper and wounded the parts, which they had not yet reached.  To these torments of the body the ministers of evil added many insulting words and execrable affronts, ejecting their impure spittle and throwing the dirt of the pavement into his face so mercilessly, that they blinded the eyes that looked upon them with such divine mercy.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 656

[Therese]

'Another deceit has spread through the world: many imagine that they are following Christ their Master, though they neither suffer affliction nor engage in any exertion or labor.  They are content with avoiding boldness in committing sins, and place all their perfection in a certain prudence or hollow self-love, which prevents them from denying anything to their will and from practicing any virtues at the cost of their flesh....He [Jesus] chose not a life of softness and ease for the flesh, but one full of labors and pains; for He judged His instructions to be incomplete and insufficient to redeem man, if He failed to teach them how to overcome the demon, the flesh and their own self.  He wished to inculcate, that this magnificent victory is gained by the Cross, by labors, penances, mortifications and the acceptance of contempt:  all of which are the trademarks and evidences of true love and the special watchwords of the predestined.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 662