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mattchase82 · 2 years

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THE VICTORY OF CHRIST OVER HELL

Ven. Mary of Agreda - Died in 1665 and was later discovered incorrupt. She is credited with authoring the "Mystical City of God" through revelation from the Blessed Virgin. Her body has been examined again in later years, including in 1909 and 1989 with no degradation to the body. Her body has remained incorrupt for over 340 years and is kept in a convent in Spain. THIS IS ONE OF HER MANY VISIONS OF JESUS.

The hidden and venerable mysteries of this chapter correspond to many others scattered through the whole extent of this history. One of them is, that Lucifer and his demons in the course of the life and miracles our Savior, never could ascertain fully whether the Lord was true God and Redeemer of the world, and consequently what was the dignity of the most holy Mary. This was so disposed by divine Providence, in order that the whole mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption of the human race might be more fittingly accomplished. Lucifer, although knowing that God was to assume human flesh, nevertheless knew nothing of the manner and the circumstances of the Incarnation. As he was permitted to form an opinion of this mystery in accordance with his pride, he was full of hallucinations, sometimes believing Christ to be God on account of his miracles, sometimes rejecting such an opinion on account of seeing Him poor, humiliated, afflicted and fatigued. Harassed by these contradicting evidences, he remained in doubt and continued his inquiries until the predestined hour of Christ’s Death on the Cross, where, in virtue of the Passion and Death of the sacred humanity, which he had himself brought about, he was to be undeceived and vanquished by the full solution of these mysteries.

Lucifer and his demons, as soon as they saw the Lord taking the Cross upon his sacred shoulders, wished to fly and cast themselves into hell; for at that moment they began to feel with greater force the operations of his divine power. By divine intervention this new torment made them aware that the Death of this innocent Man, whose destruction they had plotted and who could not be a mere man, threatened great ruin to themselves. They therefore desired to withdraw and they ceased to incite the Jews and the executioners, as they had done hitherto. But the command of the most blessed Mary, enforced by the divine power, detained them and, enchained like fiercest dragons, compelled them to accompany Christ to Calvary. The ends of the mysterious chain that bound them were placed into the hands of Mary, the great Queen who, by the power of her divine Son, held them all in subjection and bondage. Although they many times sought to break away and raged in helpless fury, they could not overcome the power of the heavenly Lady. She forced them to come to Calvary and stand around the Cross, where She commanded them to remain motionless and witness the end of the great mysteries there enacted for the salvation of men and the ruin of themselves.

Lucifer and his infernal hosts were so overwhelmed with pains and torments by the presence of the Lord and his blessed Mother, and with the fear of their impending ruin, that they would have felt greatly relieved to be allowed to cast themselves into the darkness of hell. As this was not permitted them, they fell upon one another and furiously fought with each other like hornets disturbed in their nest, or like a brood of vermin confusedly seeking some dark shelter. But their rabid fury was not that of animals, but that of demons more cruel than dragons.

The time had now come for this ancient dragon to be vanquished by the Master of life. As this was to be the hour of his disillusionment, and as this poisonous asp was not to escape it by stopping his ears to the voice of the Enchanter (Ps. 57, 5), the Lord began to speak the seven words from his Cross, at the same time providing that Lucifer and his demons should understand the mysteries therein contained. For it was by this disclosure that the Lord wished to triumph over them, over sin and death, and despoil them of their tyrannous power over the human race. The Savior then pronounced the first word: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” (Luke 23, 34). By these words the princes of darkness came to the full conviction, that Christ our Lord was speaking to the eternal Father, that He was his natural Son and the true God with Him and the Holy Ghost, that He had permitted death in his most sacred and perfect humanity, united to the Divinity for the salvation of the whole human race; that now He offered his infinitely precious merits for the pardon of the sins of all those children of Adam, who should avail themselves thereof for their rescue, not excepting even the wretches that crucified Him. At this discovery Lucifer and his demons were thrown into such fury and despair that they instantly wished to hurl themselves impetuously to the depths of hell and strained all their powers to accomplish it in spite of the powerful Queen.

In the second word spoken by the Lord to the fortunate thief: “Amen I say to thee, today thou shalt be with Me in paradise,” the demons understood that the fruits of the Redemption in the justification of sinners ended in the glorification of the just. They were made aware that from this hour the merits of Christ would commence to act with a new force and strength, that through them should be opened the gates of Paradise, which had been closed by the first sin and that from now on men would enter upon eternal happiness and occupy their destined heavenly seats, which until now had been impossible for them. They perceived the power Christ to call sinners, justify and beautify them, and they felt the triumphs gained over themselves by the exalted virtues, the humility, patience, meekness and all the virtues of his life. The confusion and torment of Lucifer at seeing this cannot be explained by human tongue; but it was so great, that he humiliated himself so far as to beg the most blessed Virgin to permit them descend into hell and be cast out from her presence; but the great Queen would not consent, as the time had not yet arrived.

At the third word spoken by the Lord to his Mother: “Woman, behold thy son!” the demons discovered that this heavenly Lady was the true Mother of the Godman, the same Woman whose likeness and prophetic sign had been shown to them in the heavens at their creation, and who was to crush their head as announced by the Lord in the terrestrial paradise. They were informed of the dignity and excellence of this great Lady over all creatures, and of her power which they were even now experiencing. As they had from the beginning of the world and from the creation of the first woman, used all their astuteness to find out who this great woman that was announced in the heavens could be, and as they now discovered Her in Mary, whom they had until now overlooked, these dragons were seized with inexpressible fury; their having been thus mistaken crushed their arrogance beyond all their other torments, and in their fury they raged against their own selves like bloodthirsty lions, while their helpless wrath against the heavenly Lady was increased a thousandfold. Moreover, they discerned that saint John was appointed by Christ our Lord as the angel guardian of his Mother, endowed with the powers of the priesthood. This they understood to be in the nature of a threat against their own wrath, which was well known to saint John. Lucifer saw not only the power of the Evangelist, but that given to all the priests in virtue of their participation in the dignity and power of our Redeemer; and that the rest of the just, even though no priests, were placed under the special protection of the Lord and made powerful against hell. All this paralyzed the strength of Lucifer and his demons.

The fourth word of Christ was addressed to the eternal Father: “God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The evil spirits discovered in these words that the charity of God toward men was boundless and everlasting; that, in order to satisfy it, He had mysteriously suspended the influence of the Divinity over his most sacred humanity, thus permitting his sufferings to reach the highest degree and to draw from them the most abundant fruits; that He was aware and lovingly complained of his being deprived of the salvation of a part of the human race; how ready He was to suffer more, if such would be ordained by the eternal Father. Man’s good fortune in being so beloved by God increased the envy of Lucifer and his demons, and they foresaw the divine Omnipotence following out this immense love without limitation. This knowledge crushed the haughty malice of the enemies and they were made well aware of their own weakness and helplessness in opposing this love, if men themselves should not choose to neglect its influence.

The fifth word of Christ, “I thirst,” confirmed Christ’s triumph over the devil and his followers; they were filled with wrath and fury because the Lord clearly let them see their total overthrow. By these words they understood Him to say to them: If what I suffer for men my love for them seem great to you, be assured that my love for them is still unsatiated, that it continues to long for their eternal salvation, and that the mighty waters of torments and sufferings have not extinguished it (Cant. 8, 7). Much more would I suffer for them, if it were necessary, in order to deliver them from your tyranny and make them powerful and strong against malice and pride.

In the sixth word of the Lord: “It is consummated!” Lucifer and his hordes were informed that the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption was now accomplished and entirely perfected according to the decree of divine wisdom. For they were made to feel that Christ our Redeemer had obediently fulfilled the will of the eternal Father; that He had accomplished all the promises and prophecies made to the world by the ancient Fathers; that his humility and obedience had compensated for their own pride and disobedience in heaven in having not subjected themselves and acknowledged Him as their Superior in human flesh; and that they were now through the wisdom of God justly humbled and vanquished by the very Lord whom they despised. The great dignity and the infinite merits of Christ demanded that in this very hour He should exercise his office and power of Judge over angels and men, such as had been conceded to him by the eternal Father. He now applied this power by hurling this sentence at Lucifer and all his followers, that, being condemned to eternal fire, they instantly depart into the deepest dungeons of hell. This very sentence was included in the pronouncing of the seventh word: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” (Luke 23, 46.) The mighty Queen and Mother concurred with the will of her Son Jesus and united with his her command that Lucifer and all demons depart to the infernal depths. In virtue of these decree of the supreme King and of the Queen, the evil spirits were routed from Calvary and precipitated to deepest hell more violently and suddenly than a flash of light through the riven clouds.

The rout of Lucifer and his angels from Calvary to the abyss of hell was more violent and disastrous than their first expulsion from heaven. Though, as holy Job says (Job 10, 21), that place is a land of darkness, covered with the shades of death, full of gloomy disorder, misery, torments and confusion; yet on this occasion the chaos and disorder was a thousandfold increased; because the damned were made to feel new horror and additional punishments at the sudden meeting of the ferocious demons in their rabid fury. It is certain that the devils have not the power of assigning the damned to a place of greater or lesser torment; for all their torments are decreed by divine justice according to the measure of the demerits of each of the condemned.

As soon as Lucifer was permitted to proceed in these matters and arise from the consternation in which he remained for some time, he set about proposing to his fellow–demons new plans of his pride. For this purpose he called them all together and placing himself in an elevated position, he spoke to them: “To you, who have for so many ages followed and still follow my standards for the vengeance of my wrongs, is known the injury which I have now sustained at the hands of this Mangod, and how for thirty–three years He has led me about in deceit, hiding his Divinity and concealing the operations of his soul, and how He has now triumphed over us by the very Death which we have brought upon Him. Before He assumed flesh I hated Him and refused to acknowledge Him as being more worthy than I to be adored by the rest of creation. Although on account of this resistance I was cast out from heaven with you and was degraded to this abominable condition so unworthy of my greatness and former beauty, I am even more tormented to see myself thus vanquished and oppressed by this Man and by his Mother. From the day on which the first man was created I have sleeplessly sought to find Them and destroy Them; or if I should not be able to destroy Them, I at least wished to bring destruction upon all his creatures and induce them not to acknowledge Him as their God, and that none of them should ever draw any benefit from his works. This has been my intent, to this all my solicitude and efforts were directed. But in vain, since He has overcome me by his humility and poverty, crushed me by his patience, and at last has despoiled me of the sovereignty of the world by his Passion and frightful Death. This causes me such an excruciating pain, that, even if I succeeded in hurling Him from the right hand of his Father, where He sits triumphant, and if I should draw all the souls redeemed down into this hell, my wrath would not be satiated or my fury placated.”

“Is it possible that the human nature, so inferior to my own, shall be exalted above all the creatures! That it should be so loved and favored, as to be united to the Creator in the person of the eternal Word! That He should first make war upon me before executing this work, and afterwards overwhelm me with such confusion! From the beginning I have held this humanity as my greatest enemy; it has always filled me with intolerable abhorrence. O men, so favored and gifted by your God whom I abhor, and so ardently loved by Him! How shall I hinder your good fortune? How shall I bring upon you my unhappiness, since I cannot destroy the existence you have received? What shall we now begin, O my followers? How shall we restore our reign? How shall we recover our power over men? How shall we overcome them? For if men from now on shall not be most senseless and ungrateful, if they are not worse disposed than we ourselves toward this Godman, who has redeemed them with so much love, it is clear that all of them will eagerly follow Him; none will take notice of our deceits; they will abhor the honors which we insidiously offer them, and will love contempt; they will seek the mortification of the flesh and will discover the danger of carnal pleasure and ease; they will despise riches and treasures, and love the poverty so much honored by their Master; and all that we can offer to their appetites they will abhor in imitation of their true Redeemer. Thus will our reign be destroyed, since no one will be added to our number in this place of confusion and torments; all will reach the happiness which we have lost, all will humiliate themselves to the dust and suffer with patience; and my wrath and haughtiness will avail me nothing.”

“Ah, woe is me, what torment does this mistake cause me! When I tempted Him in the desert, the only result was to afford him a chance to leave the example of this victory, by following which men can overcome so much the more easily. My persecutions only brought out more clearly his doctrine of humility and patience. In persuading Judas to betray Him, and the Jews subject Him to the deadly torture of the Cross, I merely hastened my ruin and the salvation of men, while the doctrine I sought to blot out was only the more firmly implanted. How could One who is God humiliate Himself to such an extent? How could He bear so much from men who are evil? How could I myself have been led to assist so much in making this salvation so copious and wonderful? O how godlike is the power of that Man which could torment and weaken me so? And can this Woman, his Mother and my Enemy, be so mighty and invincible in her opposition to me? New is such power in a mere creature, and no doubt She derived it from the divine Word, whom She clothed in human flesh. Through this Woman the Almighty has ceaselessly waged war against me, though I have hated Her in my pride from the moment I recognized Her in her image or heavenly sign. But if my proud indignation is not to be assuaged, I benefit nothing by my perpetual war against this Redeemer, against his Mother and against men. Now then, ye demons who follow me, now is the time to give way to our wrath against God. Come all of ye to take counsel what we are to do; for I desire to hear your opinions.”

Some of the principal demons gave their answers to this dreadful proposal, encouraging Lucifer by suggesting diverse schemes for hindering the fruit of the Redemption among men. They all agreed that it was not possible to injure the person of Christ, to diminish the immense value of his merits, to destroy the efficacy of the Sacraments, to falsify or abolish the doctrine which Christ had preached; yet they resolved that, in accordance with the new order of assistance and favor established by God for the salvation of men, they should now seek new ways of hindering and preventing the work of God by much the greater deceits and temptations. In reference to these plans some of the astute and malicious demons said “It is true, that men now have at their disposal a new and very powerful doctrine and law, new and efficacious Sacraments, a new Model and Instructor of virtues, a powerful Intercessor and Advocate in this Woman; yet the natural inclinations and passions of the flesh remain just the same, and the sensible and delectable creatures have not changed their nature. Let us then, making use of this situation with increased astuteness, foil as far as in us lies the effects of what this Godman has wrought for men. Let us begin strenuous warfare against mankind by suggesting new attractions, exciting them to follow their passions in forgetfulness of all else. Thus men, being taken up with these dangerous things, cannot attend to the contrary.”

Acting upon this counsel they redistributed the spheres of work among themselves, in order that each squadron of demons might, with a specialized astuteness tempt men to different vices. They resolved to continue to propagate idolatry in the world, so that men might not come to the knowledge of the true God and the Redemption. Wherever idolatry would fail, they concluded to establish sects and heresies, for which they would select the most perverse and depraved of the human race as leaders and teachers of error. Then and there was concocted among these malignant spirits the sect of Mahomet, the heresies of Arius, Pelagius, Nestorius, and whatever other heresies have been started in the world from the first ages of the Church until now, together with those which they have in readiness, but which it is neither necessary nor proper to mention here. Lucifer showed himself content with these infernal counsels as being opposed to divine truth and destructive of the very foundation of man’s rescue, namely divine faith. He lavished flattering praise and high offices upon those demons, who showed themselves willing and who undertook to find the impious originators of these errors.

Some of the devils charged themselves with perverting the inclinations of children at their conception and birth; others to induce parents to be negligent in the education and instruction of their children, either through an inordinate love or aversion, and to cause a hatred of parents among the children. Some offered to create hatred between husbands and wives, to place them in the way of adultery, or to think little of the fidelity promised to their conjugal partners. All agreed to sow among men the seeds of discord, hatred and vengeance, proud and sensual thoughts, desire of riches or honors, and by suggesting sophistical reasons against all the virtues Christ has taught; above all they intended to weaken the remembrance of his Passion and Death, of the means of salvation, and of the eternal pains of hell. By these means the demons hoped to burden all the powers and the faculties of men with solicitude for earthly affairs and sensual pleasures, leaving them little time for spiritual thoughts and their own salvation.

Lucifer heard these different suggestions of the demons, and answering them, he said: “I am much beholden to you for your opinions: I approve of them and adopt them all; it will be easy to put them into practice with those, who do not profess the law given by this Redeemer to men, though with those who accept and embrace these laws, it will be a difficult enterprise. But against this law and against those that follow it, I intend to direct all my wrath and fury and I shall most bitterly persecute those who hear the doctrine of this Redeemer and become his disciples; against these must our most relentless battle be waged to the end of the world. In this new Church I must strive to sow my cockle (Matth. 14, 25), the ambitions, the avarice, the sensuality, and the deadly hatreds, with all the other vices, of which I am the head. For if once these sins multiply and increase among the faithful, they will, with their concomitant malice and ingratitude, irritate God and justly deprive men of the helps of grace left to them by the merits of the Redeemer. If once they have thus despoiled themselves of these means of salvation, we shall have assured victory over them. We must also exert ourselves to weaken piety and all that is spiritual and divine; so that they do not realize the power the Sacraments and receive them in mortal sin, or at least without fervor and devotion. For since these Sacraments are spiritual, it is necessary to receive them with well–disposed will, in order to reap their fruits. If once they despise the medicine, they shall languish in their sickness and be less able to withstand our temptations; they will not see through our deceits, they will let the memory of their Redeemer and of the intercession of his Mother slip from their minds. Thus will their foul ingratitude make them unworthy of grace and so irritate their God and Savior, as to deprive them of his helps. In all this I wish, that all of you assist me strenuously, losing neither time nor occasion for executing my commands.’’

It is not possible to rehearse all the schemes of this dragon and his allies concocted at that time against the holy Church and her children, in order that these waters of Jordan might be swallowed up in his throat (Job 40, 18). It is enough to state that they spent nearly a full year after the Death of Christ conferring and considering among themselves the state of the world up to that time and the changes wrought by Christ our God and Master through his Death and after having manifested the light of his faith by so many miracles, blessings and examples of holy men. If all these labors have not sufficed to draw all men to the way of salvation, it can be easily understood, that Lucifer should have prevailed and that his wrath should be so great, as to cause us justly to say with saint John: “Woe to the earth, for satan is come down to you full of wrath and fury!’’ But alas! that truths so infallible and so much to be dreaded and avoided by men, should in our days be blotted from the minds of mortals to the irreparable danger of the whole world! Our enemy is astute, cruel and watchful: we sleepy, lukewarm and careless! What wonder that Lucifer has intrenched himself so firmly in the world, when so many listen to him, accept and follow his deceits, so few resist him, and entirely forget the eternal death, which he so furiously and maliciously seeks to draw upon them? I beseech those, who read this, not to forget this dreadful danger. If they are not convinced of this danger through the evil condition of the world and through the evils each one experiences himself, let them at least learn this danger by the vast and powerful remedies and helps, which the Savior thought it necessary to leave behind in his Church. For He would not have provided such antidotes if our ailment and danger of eternal death were not so great and formidable.

WORDS OF THE QUEEN

The Virgin Mary speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain

This close imitation and living reproduction of Christ, confronting the demons in the first children of the Church, they feared so much, that they dared not approach and they precipitously fled from the Apostles and the just ones imbued with the doctrines of my divine Son. In them were offered up to the Almighty the first fruits of grace, and of Redemption. What is seen in the saints and in perfect Christians in those times, would happen in the present times with all the Catholics if they would accept grace and work with it instead of permitting it to go to waste, and if they would seek the way of the Cross; for Lucifer fears it as much now as in the times thou hast been writing of. But soon the charity, zeal and devotion in many of faithful began to grow cold and they forgot the blessings of the Redemption; they yielded to their carnal inclinations and desires, they loved vanity and avarice and permitted themselves to be fascinated and deceived by the false pretenses of Lucifer, obscuring the glory of their Savior and inveigling them into the meshes of their mortal enemies. This foul ingratitude has thrown the world into the present state and has encouraged the demons to rise up in their pride against God, audaciously presuming to possess themselves of all the children of Adam on account of this forgetfulness and carelessness of Catholics. They presume to plot the destruction the whole Church by the perversion of so many who have fallen away from it; and by inducing those who are in it, to think little of it, or by hindering them from producing the fruits of the blood and death of their Redeemer. The greatest misfortune is, that many Catholics fail to recognize this great damage and do not seriously think of a remedy, although they can presume that the times, of which Jesus forewarned the women of Jerusalem, have arrived; namely, those in which the sterile should be happy, and in which many would call upon the mountains and the hills to cover and fall upon them, in order not to see the devastation of wickedness cutting down the sons of perdition, the dried trees, barren of all the fruits of virtue.

#catholicism #traditional catholic #catholic #christianity #heaven #lent #saints #hell #catholic church #christ #venerable mary agreda #the mysticle city of god #the passion of the christ

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consecratedhearts · 6 years

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From private revelation given to Venerable María de Ágreda:

...the holy angels heard a voice from the throne speaking in the person of the Father: “Our chosen One shall be called MARY, and this name is to be powerful and magnificent. Those that shall invoke it with devout affection shall receive most abundant graces; those that shall honor it and pronounce it with reverence shall be consoled and vivified, and will find in it the remedy of their evils, the treasures for their enrichment, the light which shall guide them to heaven. It shall be terrible against the power of hell, it shall crush the head of the serpent, and it shall win glorious victories over the princes of hell.”

The Lord commanded the angelic spirits to announce this glorious name to Saint Anne, so that what was decreed in heaven might be executed on earth. The heavenly Child, lovingly prostrate before the throne, rendered most acceptable and human thanks to the eternal Being; and She received the name with most admirable and sweet jubilation.

If the prerogatives and graces, which She then was favored with, were to be described, it would necessitate an extra book of many volumes. The holy angels honored and acknowledged most holy Mary as the future Mother of the Word and as their Queen and Mistress enthroned at the right hand of her Son; they showed their veneration of her holy name, prostrating themselves as it proceeded from the throne in the voice of the eternal Father, especially those who had it written on the devices over their breast. All of them gave forth canticles of praise for these great and hidden mysteries.

(holy card: “Nativity of the Holy Virgin. Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The children of Mary are above all and forever the children of the Cross.”)

#Nativity of the Virgin Mary #Venerable Maria de Agreda #Mystical City of God

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pamphletstoinspire · 3 years

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THE BLESSED VIRGIN’S TRANQUILITY IN SUFFERING

A Meditation by Father Frederick William Faber

“Learn to suffer for Jesus Christ without letting others perceive it.”

—Saint Teresa of Avila

What shall we think of that last characteristic of her dolors, which so amazed Saint Bernard, the moderation with which she bore them? Who is ever able to forget, when they meditate upon our Blessed Mother, the heavenly tranquility of her “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” at the Annunciation? The same tranquility is unbroken even when her heart is breaking beneath the Cross. Except in the case of very high sanctity, and even there the exception does not always hold, moderation in sorrow would imply something like coldness or insensibility. We should hardly love very tenderly any one, the even tenor whose way deep affliction could not disturb. In the case of the saints the love of God acts as a countercharm to the spells of sorrow. It at once distracts and compensates, and so makes endurance easier.

But with Mary it was just in her love of God that the exceeding bitterness of her agony consisted. If then we figure to ourselves the bewildering complications of misery, the enormous weight of sorrow, the supernatural aggravations also of it, which she had to bear, and then the way in which with such resistless might it bore down upon her solitary heart, it is amazing to see it all break upon her tranquility, as a billow breaks in idle foam upon some huge promontory, which quivers to its base as it flings the wild waters back, and yet remains unbroken. So it was with her. She was not insensible like the cold granite. On the contrary, the tempest went through her, searched every corner of her capacious nature, filled to overflowing every possibility of suffering, and drenched with bitterness every faculty and affection. Yet not a ruffle passed on her tranquility. Her peace within was as untroubled as the cavities of the ocean when the surface is wildly rocking in the storm.

Nevertheless this tranquility was no protection to her against the intensity of the suffering. It rather enabled her to suffer more. It allowed the grief to penetrate more unresistedly into every part of her. Yet there was no wildness, no loud sighs, no broken sobs, no outspoken words of complaint. Still less – the thought is one which would never have crossed the mind of an intelligent lover of Mary, if careless untheological pictures had not indecorously brought it before so many of us – still less were there any vehement attitudes of grief, any contortions of the venerable beauty of her face, any womanish wringing of the hands, any negligence of dishevelled hair, any protrations on the ground as of one overcome with mortal anguish, least of all any fainting away, any need of a supporting arm around her, whether it were that of John or Magdalen, any suspension of that glorious reason which sleep even had not interrupted in its magnificent exercises, since the very first moment of the Immaculate Conception. Let us in indignant love give to the flames these ignorant, dishonorable representations, and drive out of ourselves the odious images which their skill and beauty may have left upon our minds.

Mary “stood” beneath the Cross: that is the simple grandeur of the scriptural picture, which represented the actual truth, and whose artist was her own Spouse, the Holy Ghost. And it was on the picture of that calm, standing woman which her fond child, Saint Bernard, gazed in admiring love. This, too, is the attractiveness of our Lady’s apparitions in the revelations of Mary of Agreda, compared with her portrait in the visions of Sister Emmerich. The instincts of the Spanish nun were more true than those even of the artistic soul of the ecstatic German.

Never, then, must we put away from ourselves the thought of this moderation of Mary in her woes. There was nothing wild, nothing unsettled, nothing dramatic, noting passionate, nothing demonstrative, nothing excessive; but she stood in calmest, queenliest dignity – quiet, not as a sweet evening landscape, or a noontide summer sea, or a green wood at dawn, or a moonlit mountain-top, or any other image in the poetry of nature, but quiet, in her measure and degree, as the Divine Nature of our Lord while the tumult of the Passion was trampling His Human Nature to death. Her tranquility was the image of that tranquility. It was one of the many participations in Himself which Jesus gave to her in those dark hours.

(Excerpted from The Foot of the Cross, written by Father Frederick William Faber, published in London in 1858 by Thomas Richardson and Son.)

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

#sorrows of Mary

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mythicallore · 5 years

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Bizarre Stories of Teleportation

Teleportation, to move over vast distances within the blink of an eye, has captured our imagination and remained a fixture of science fiction stories for years. Moving from one place to another instantaneously has an irresistible allure to it, and indeed has moved out past the boundaries of fiction to be seriously pursued by science in recent years. Yet are there those out there who have already somehow achieved this amazing feat through means beyond our current understanding? If some truly bizarre and mind-bending reports are to be believed, the answer to this question would be yes. These are cases that in some form or another seem to suggest the possibility that human teleportation may not only be possible but has already occurred, be it through interdimensional portals, mysterious doorways through perhaps the fabric of reality itself, somehow bending the rules of physics as we know them, or through some other strange force that we cannot even begin to fathom.

Stories of people mysteriously teleporting go back surprisingly far back into history and continue right up into the modern day. Some of the earliest accounts appear to have a rather folkloric or religious quality to them but are intriguing nevertheless. In the Bible there are many references to people traveling vast distances instantaneously, often said to be swiftly carried along by angels, and there are other early accounts of teleportation, such as the 1st century philosopher and physician Apollonius of Tyana, who was said to teleport over great distances to treat the victims of a plague.

In the 17th century, there were several such cases. One such case was written of in a 1692 book on Scottish fairies called The Secret Comnion-Wealth, by a Rev. Robert Kirk, which mentions a man who seemed to have the ability to teleport over short distances. One passage explains the phenomenon thus:

His neighbors often perceived this man to disappear at a certain place, and about one hour after to become visible, and discover himself near a bowshot from the first place. It was in that place where he became invisible, said he, that the Subterraneans [fairies] did encounter and combat with him.

There is also the story of a nun called the Venerable Mary Jesus of Agreda, who between 1620 and 1631 was claimed to have made over 500 teleportations from her convent in Spain all the way over to New Mexico, in the New World, an entire ocean away, for the purpose of converting the region’s Jumano Indians. At first these claims were met with skepticism by the Catholic Church, which called her delusional, but missionaries in the New World, as well as the Indians themselves, gave testimony that seemed to substantiate the fantastical claims. For instance, in 1622, a New World missionary named Father Alonzo de Benavides wrote a letter to both Pope Urban VIII and Philip IV of Spain claiming that someone had already been actively converting the Jumano Indians since long before before he had even arrived. When the Indians were asked where they had learned about Christianity they claimed that it had been shown to them by a European “lady in blue,” and that this mysterious woman had given them crucifixes and a chalice that appeared to be have come from Mary’s convent.

At the time, Benavides knew nothing of the claims that Mary could allegedly teleport back and forth over the ocean, and he would not hear these stories until he returned to Spain. So fascinated was he by the accounts that he personally interviewed Mary and supposedly found her to be quite sincere, as well as demonstrating an intimate, detailed knowledge of the Jumano Indians and the area where they lived far beyond what she could have possibly studied through books alone. Mary had apparently kept a diary of her mysterious jumps to the New World but had burnt it at the urging of the church and out of a fear of being labelled a witch. Nevertheless, logs kept by various other missionaries, conquistadors, and explorers in the New World proved to agree with and sync up very well to when Mary claimed to have made her visits and what she had worn there, as well as the activities she had engaged in. There were also claims from other nuns at the convent that Mary would sometimes vanish from her quarters, and that it was during these absences that she was described as being “off with the Indians.” There were also accounts by other disparate tribes vast distances away that gave reports of a similar mysterious European woman, and which were nearly identical despite these tribes sometimes being thousands of miles apart.

This all seemed to lend some weight to the amazing story, and it was also unlikely that Mary would be intentionally making it all up, as she had once almost been tried as a witch as a young girl and so was wary of admitting to her strange experiences, at times even seeming to outright deny them. Nevertheless, Benavides claimed that he had seen proof without a doubt that Mary was indeed able to make these mysterious journeys. At the time, Benavides’ account of Mary Jesus de Agreda became famous all over his country, and the case would become widely debated over the ensuing years. Did Mary Jesus de Agreda have the ability to somehow instantly jump over the ocean and hop all abut the New World through teleportation or is this all just religious myth and hysterics? No matter what the answer may be, it is a remarkable historical account to be sure.

Many early reports of teleportation seem to be inextricably linked with witchcraft or poltergeist activity. In 1661 a woman from Cork named Florence Newton was tried and accused of being a witch. It was claimed that Newton was prone to having violent episodes of demonic possession in which she would vomit all manner of strange objects such as wool or even pins, and would exhibit supernatural strength, easily hurling large men about like dolls. She would also allegedly be constantly barraged by stones that seemed to materialize from nowhere only to vanish once again after pelting her. Perhaps her most bizarre ability was teleportation, and Newton was claimed to often disappear from a room only to reappear moments later in another room or even on the roof or within a locked chest.

Poltergeists make an appearance in a variety of reports as well. In 1722, a farmer family in the small village of Sandfeldt, East Germany, was terrorized by a poltergeist that routinely tripped the children and picked them up to hang them in midair. The children also sometimes vanished into thin air, only to mysteriously appear in a totally different area moments later or sometimes several hours later. The case was apparently quite well documented. There is also the case of a man named Richard Giles, of Bristol, in the United Kingdom, whose children were menaced by a sinister entity that would push, shove, bite, scratch, and throw rocks at them, as well as whisk them away without a trace only to dump them in another location out of nowhere. Interestingly, although onlookers claimed that the children would simply disappear into thin air and reappear, for the kids themselves it was a decidedly more frightening affair, with one of the children saying that she had been carried by a “witch” dressed in ragged clothes who had held an odiferous skeletal hand over her mouth as she carried her along.

These eery early stories may be heavily influenced by myth, religion, fear, or exaggeration, but it shows how far back these ideas go, how persistent they are, and cases of teleportation have continued on in the years beyond. On June 3, 1871, there was a bizarre incident when a London psychic simply known as Mrs. Guppy allegedly spontaneously teleported from her home in Highbury England to land in the middle of a seance being conducted at a home around 3 miles away. Strangely, almost comically, Mrs. Guppy was reported as appearing out of thin air wearing nothing but her underwear.

#paranormal #teleportation #supernatural

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dathwan · 2 years

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Blessed art thou among all women. Let angels and men praise thee; let all the generations know, praise, and exalt thy dignity; and may the Most High be eternally praised for having created thee so pleasing in his eyes and in the sight of all the blessed spirits. I hope to enjoy thy sight in the heavenly fatherland.

St. Joseph’s last words - according to Venerable Mary of Agreda

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thewahookid · 2 years

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Today's Meditation

"The temporal goods are created by the Most High for the sole purpose of sustaining life; having attained this end, the need of them ceases. And as this need is limited, soon and easily satisfied, there is no reason that the care for the immortal soul should be only fitful and temporary, while the hunger after riches should be so perpetual and unintermitting, as it has come to be among men. It is the height of perverseness for man to mix up the end and the means in an affair so important and urgent, that he devote all his time, all his care, all the exertion of his powers and all the alertness of his mind to the life of the body, of which he knows not the duration nor the end, and that on the other hand, in many years of his existence he spare for his poor soul only one hour, and that very often the last and the worst one of his whole life." — Venerable Mary of Agreda, p. 85-6

Mystical City of God, p85-6

An Excerpt From

Mystical City of God, p85-6

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littleflowerfaith · 2 years

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When Jesus, in recommending His Mother to St. John, called her "Woman," they clearly understood that she was that great Woman who had been shown to them in Heaven after their creation; and again that it was she that was to crush the head of Lucifer, as had been foretold him in the terrestrial Paradise.

-The Divine Life of the Most Holy Virgin, Ven. Mary of Agreda

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portraitsofsaints · 2 months

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Venerable Mary of Agreda

1602-1665

Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda was born to a noble Spanish family, all of whom eventually became religious. Chosen abbess of the convent of Agreda in 1627, she held the position until her death. She is best known for writing the Mystical City of God, 6 volumes of revelations received directly from the Blessed Virgin Mary about her life. A mystic and visionary, she had the gift to bilocate as many as 500 times from her cell to the American Indians in what is now known as Texas and New Mexico, encouraging them to conversion. Her body is incorrupt to this day.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

#MaryofAgreda #Mystics #RomanCatholicFaith #Revelations #catholic art

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surejaya · 4 years

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True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration

Download : True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration More Book at: Zaqist Book

True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration by Venerable Mary of Agreda

True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration by Saint Louis de Montfort: - The Original and Best 1863 Translation from the French by Reverend Frederick William Faber, D.D. - Two Books in One, True Devotion to Mary and 33-Day Preparation for Total Consecration - Includes Prefaces, an Introduction, information on True Devotion and Saint Louis De Montfort - A Classic Masterpiece of Marian Theology - Including illustrations by Bartolome Esteban Murillo Publisher: A Paperback Edition is available: ISBN-13: 978-1-78379-000-5 A Classic Masterpiece of Marian Theology, True Devotion to Mary is considered the greatest book on the Blessed Virgin Mary ever written and has been recommended and practiced by eight Popes. "When we praise her, love her, honour her or give anything to her, it is God who is praised, God who is loved, God who is glorified, and it is to God that we give, through Mary and in Mary." (True Devotion n. 225) Publisher: Catholic Way Publishing

Download : True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration More Book at: Zaqist Book

#book #zaqistbook #epub #kindle #GreatReads #MustRead #WhatToRead

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infinitelyblessed-27-blog · 6 years

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He offered up the murdered children as the first fruits of His own Death; asking Him also that they receive the use of reason, in order that they might be a willing sacrifice for their Redeemer and accept their death for His glory. Thus, He would be able to reward them with the crowns of martyrdom for what they suffered. All this, the eternal Father granted.

p. 674 of Incarnation, Volume two of Venerable Mary of Agreda's Mystical City of God. Source: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/holy-innocents-chose-to-die

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mattchase82 · 2 years

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JESUS PROCLAIMS HIS LOVE FOR MAN TO HELL DURING HIS CRUCIFIXION

#catholicism #traditional catholic #catholic #christianity #heaven #lent #saints #hell #catholic church #christ #the mysticle city of god #venerable mary agreda #the passion of the christ #jesus

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stevedonnellyfaith-blog · 5 years

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St Joseph (Post 58) 10-8-14

St Joseph like Mary is often an enigma to converts to the Catholic Church. We sort of get that St Peter is special despite his uneven performance as an apostle. It is not hard to discern why Catholics think a lot of St Paul – the guy wrote half the New Testament, his advice was prolific and a lot more mystical than Ann Landers’ columns. The details on St Joseph, though, are pretty sketchy. Back in my Youth Choir days, if I had had to play Joseph in our annual musical, I might have demanded, “What’s my motivation?” Actually, probably not, I usually got second banana roles because I was good at memorizing my lines, but I think I delivered them all in the same boring monotone that would have been more appropriate for a commercial for toenail fungus remover.

When I listen to the readings concerning Jesus’ nativity and childhood, there doesn’t seem to be much development of Joseph’s character. It has been difficult to equate the sparse information about Joseph in the bible to St Joseph being the patron saint of everything from “the worker” to peppermint swirl ice cream. To me the amazing extrapolation of a few biblical references to so many patronages always seemed as improbable as the stories of my grandmother cooking eleven hundred different recipes out of Spam during the Second World War.

From the gospels I know that Joseph was a just man, who followed angelic direction much better than Zachariah did. He accompanied and protected Mary through several difficult and dangerous journeys to Bethlehem, to Egypt and to Nazareth. He brought his family to Jerusalem for the great feast days and only once misplaced his foster son for three days, but there is little detail about Joseph in even those references. If a student had submitted the biblical story of Joseph in my dad’s creative writing course, low marks would have been received – it’s all plot summary. Joseph’s personality is a puzzle.

Because I like puzzles of all sorts, I have read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church and different other sources of Catholic tradition over the years looking for clues about Joseph. While I understand that there is no dogmatic teaching concerning the head of the Holy Family, the puzzle pieces that I have found in Mary of Agreda’s Mystical City of God and other sources seem to complement rather than contradict the rough outline provided in the Gospels. Here are some of my thoughts that have a logical basis if not a theological one:

· I expect that Joseph had some kind of idea of who Jesus was not only because he was being directed by angels but because the angelic intervention in his dreams is included in The Bible. The inclusion of his dream means that Joseph confided in Mary who would have been the only possible source to the Evangelists assuming that Joseph was dead at the time of Jesus’ public ministry. If Joseph confided in Mary, it is reasonable to conclude that Mary confided in Joseph. I believe that is how marriage is supposed to work.

· The Catholic tradition that Mary grew up in the temple as a consecrated virgin but left at adolescence and needed a protector seems consistent with the Bible to me. The start of her menstruation would have made Mary ritually impure and prevented her from residing in the temple any longer. From what we know from other Biblical stories the prospects for unattached females without means in period Jewish society were pretty poor – think gleaning, servitude or worse. That the temple staff would have arranged for a protector seems to explain Joseph’s agreement to marry a consecrated virgin.

· Joseph’s acceptance of Mary’s status as a consecrated virgin seems implicit in his decision to divorce her quietly. Already married (thus the idea of divorce) Mary and Joseph could not consummated their union if Mary’s pregnancy is a surprise to Joseph.

This logically leads me to believe that Joseph was a pretty good guy. He agreed to marry an unwealthy girl and seems to never consummating the marriage. That his dream life is included in one of the Gospels speaks to the fact that he had a close relationship with Mary – she was really his wife not a domestic servant. Would most modern men have been willing to pick up and move several times by foot throughout the Holy Land in an effort to protect a spouse and child under those conditions? The Bible tells us that at one point Mary and Joseph received expensive gifts from foreign benefactors, but the Holy Family doesn’t seem to have acquired servants or possessions. Also they appear to have chosen to live in the biblical equivalent of Bayonne, New Jersey. Mary and Joseph appear to have lived the beatitudes that Jesus would later proclaim.

St Joseph fascinates me because Nick and I belong to a men’s group named after him, but also because I see in Joseph a model for how a husband and father is supposed to act. I expect that he was a good carpenter, but maybe he was terrible. Catholics call Joseph the “Terror of Demons” – maybe that is because the demons were afraid that a Joseph made bookcase would collapse on their heads. I don’t think that was the case. More importantly, the selflessness of his life gives me something to shoot for as a parent. His “motivation” seems to be self-sacrifice. Step 1 in imitating St Joseph is total surrender to God.

In my own life I know another man to whom I also look for inspiration. He is an older guy and lugs about a good sized cross of medical problems including mobility issues. He is retired so in American thinking, he has earned the right to spend his time as he so chooses. From approximately 3 PM until his bedtime on most nights he chooses to tutor his nine-year-old granddaughter who has issues with handwriting, spelling, speech and mathematics. Not much of a retirement for a high school English teacher.

He was hospitalized the other week for a couple days as a precaution for a routine malady common to geezers. He told me that he spent all his recuperation time thinking about what his granddaughter was doing without him. More than likely she was missing his daily offering of time and attention.

As I sit here typing about the lessons that I have learned from contemplating the acts of Joseph and this other man, I know that over the years, occasionally, I have fallen short of the mark in my parental and marital vocation in comparison to the ideal man. I say this not because I am a terrible parent or was a terrible husband, but to accentuate why Catholics venerate and try to imitate saints. Handwriting doesn’t get better with practice unless the student copies a model as a guide to perfection.

#St Joseph #Men of St Joseph #Terror of Demons #God #Jesus #The Holy Spirit #The Virgin Mary #Gospel #Sacrifice #Mary of Agreda #Mystical City of God #Love #Faith #IHM

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