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

[Therese]

"...All these blessings I procure for Christians for heaven in our times; and if not all experience them, it is not because I do not solicit them, but because there are very few of the faithful who call to me with all their heart and who dispose themselves toward meriting and reaping the fruit of my maternal love.  I would defend them all from the dragon, if all would call upon me and if all would fear his pernicious deceits, by which they are ensnared and entrapped to eternal damnation.  In order that all may wake up to this frightful danger, I now give them this new reminder.  I assure thee, my daughter, that all those, who damn themselves after the death of my Son and in spite of the benefits and favors procured by my intercession, will suffer greater torments in hell than those who were lost before his coming and before I was in the world.  Thus those who from now on understand these mysteries and despise them to their loss, shall be subject to new and greater punishments.

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 152

[Shin]

Let us recommend ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary!

[Therese]

Let us recommend ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Yes, all throughout the day! May we be in the habit of invoking her frequently, and we will not forget to invoke her in our moment of greatest need, at the time of our death.  May her sweet name and the sweet Name of Jesus be our last two words on earth.

[Therese]

'He desires not the death of the sinner (Ezech. 33, 11); and, as thou hast written, He does not entertain an absolute and antecedent decree of damning his creatures, but seeks to save them all, if they do not peruse perdition of their own free will.  Although He permits this in his justice as being inseparable from the free will of man, it is against his inclination.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 177

[Therese]

'If I desire that thou labor with such fervor of charity for the salvation of thy brethren, consider what thou must do to save thyself, and in what estimation thou must hold thy own soul, for which an infinite price was offered.  I wish to admonish thee as a Mother, that when temptations and passions incline thee toward the commission of any sin, no matter how small, remember the sorrows and the tears which the knowledge of the sins of men and the desire to prevent them has caused me.  Do not thou cause the like in me, my dearest; for although I am now incapable of that pain, yet thou deprivest me of the accidental joy of seeing thee, to whom I condescended to become a Mother and Teacher, really endowed with the perfection taught in my school.  If thou art unfaithful in this, thou wilt frustrate my great desire of seeing thee please my divine Son and accomplish his holy will in all its plentitude.  By the infused light which thou receivest, do thou ponder how great are any faults thou mayest commit after being so favored and bound in duty to Lord and to myself.  Dangers and temptations will not be wanting to thee during the rest of thy earthly life; but in all of them remember my teaching, my sorrows and my tears, and above all what thou owest to my divine Son, who is so liberal toward thee in applying to thee the fruit of his blood for the purpose of eliciting thy grateful response.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 178

[Therese]

'She [Blessed Mary] knew all the faithful that joined the Church, was informed of the natural inclinations, of the degree of virtue and grace they possessed, the merit of their works, their beginning and end.  She was ignorant of nothing pertaining to the Church, except when sometimes the Lord concealed from Her some affair, which afterwards was made known to Her at its conclusion.  Her knowledge was not barren or profitless, but was inspired with the charity of Her divine Son toward all She saw and knew.  As She at the same time was aware of the sacraments of divine Providence, She used all of her wisdom according to the measure and weight of her interior charity; for She gave neither more nor less than was proper according to the deserts of love and estimation due to each one; and this is a defect which we children of Adam ordinarily incur, even if we think we have used the nicest equity.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 179

[Therese]

'From the variety and bitterness of my pains and sorrows, with which my whole life was interwoven, even after I had returned from the right hand of my Son in heaven to the earth, thou wilt understand, that thy own life must be of the same texture, if thou wishest to follow me as my faithful disciple.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 200

[Therese]

'In their [the Apostles and disciples] labors She [Blessed Mary] comforted and assisted them through her holy angels, inspiring them with courage and bearing them to different localities, whenever necessary.  The latter  according to saint Luke, happened to Philip on the way to Gaza, when he baptized the Aethiopian, the servant of Queen Candace.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 208

[Therese]

'This symbol, which we ordinarily call the Creed, the Apostles established after the martyrdom of saint Stephen and before the end of the first year after the death of the Savior.  Afterwards, in order to refute the Arian and other heresies, the Church, in the councils held on their account, explained more fully the mysteries contained in the Apostles' Creed and composed the one now chanted in the Mass.  But in substance both are one and the same and contain the fourteen articles, which are the basis for the catechetical teaching of the Christian faith and which we are all bound to believe in order to be saved.  As soon as the Apostles had finished pronouncing this Creed, the Holy Ghost approved of it by permitting a voice to be heard in their midst saying: "You have decided well.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 218

[Therese]

'O my daughter, bear in mind the reverence with which thou shouldst recite the Credo, Pater and Ave, and do not make thyself guilty of the thoughtless rudeness of many of the faithful in this matter.  The frequency with which these prayers and divine words are repeated in the Church should not infringe upon the proper reverence due to them.  This presumption arises from pronouncing them merely by the lips without meditating upon their meaning.  I desire that they be to thee a subject of continuous meditation; and for this purpose the Most High has given thee a taste for studying the catechism; and thou wilt please the Lord and me, if thou carry it with thee and read it many times, as thou hast been accustomed to and as I again charge thee to do from now on.'

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

[Therese]

'Just as I was most anxious in that which pertained to the service of the children of the Church, so do thou be punctual in all that thou perceivest to be the will of God, whether it is for the benefit of thy soul or for the benefit of thy neighbor; and thus thou wilt imitate my example.'

Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 221

[Therese]

'As the disciples were scattered through different cities, some near and others far, She [Blessed Mary] sent the symbol [the Apostles' Creed] and letter to those in the neighborhood by some of the faithful, and to those farther off, by her angels.  To some of the disciples, in fact to the greater number of them, the angels appeared visibly; while to others they did not appear, but they placed these documents into their hands in an invisible manner, at the same time admirably moving their hearts.  As well through these inspirations, as from the letter of the Queen, the disciples knew whence these messages had come.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 223

[Therese]

Secondly, in the beginnings of the Church the merits of the passion and death of Christ, together with the prayers and intercession of his most holy Mother, were in a certain sense more acceptable and therefore (according to our way of understanding) more powerful with the eternal Father.  For the children of the Church had not yet interposed the many and grievous sins, which have been committed since then and which have placed such great obstacles to the benefits of the Lord and to his Holy Spirit.  Hence He does not now manifest Himself so familiarly to men as in the primitive Church.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 226

[Therese]

'I wish to state here, that besides the knowledge derived by our Queen from infused images She had also in God himself another knowledge of things through her abstractive vision, by which She continually saw the Divinity.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 234

[Therese]

Joined with this plentitude of infused species and knowledge, She held absolute command of her faculties, as I said above, so that She admitted no images or ideas except those that were absolutely necessary for sustaining life, or for some work of charity or perfection.  With this adornment and beauty, which was patent to the angels and saints, the heavenly Lady was an object of admiration, inducing them to praise and glorify the Most High for the worthy exercise of all his attributes in Mary, his most holy instrument.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 234

[Therese]

In Volume IV, paragraphs 237 and 238 of Mystical City of God we read about our Lady's care for the Apostles as they were about to leave for the other locations of the world to preach the Gospel.   Our Lady made each of the Apostles a tunic like she had made for her Son so that they should imitate Him even in their clothing and be known exteriorly as His disciples.  She also gave them twelve crosses of the height and size of each and gave one to each as a witness of their doctrine and for consolation that they might carry this cross with them wherever they went during their preaching.  Each kept and carried this cross until death.  Our Lady also gave each Apostle a case of relics of: three thorns from our Lord's crown, pieces of cloth that were once wrapped around the Divine Infant Lord and the linen on which she had caught the blood from the Circumcision and Passion of our Lord.  These were highly cherished possessions of our Lady and were a great comfort to the Apostles to possess.