Hidden Prayers of Virgin Mary

READ: (Vol 2 Bk 1 Chap 11)

In this disposition Mary replied and said to holy Gabriel, what is written in saint Luke: "How shall this happen, that I conceive and bear; since I know not, nor can know, man?" At the same time She interiorly represented to the Lord the vow of chastity, which She had made and the espousal, which His Majesty had celebrated with Her.

The holy prince Gabriel replied (Luke 1, 24) : "Lady, it is easy for the Divine power to make Thee a Mother without the co-operation of man; the Holy Spirit shall remain with Thee by a new presence and the virtue of the Most High shall overshadow Thee, so that the Holy of Holies can be born of Thee, who shall Himself be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth has likewise conceived a son in her sterile years and this is the sixth month of her conception; for nothing is impossible with God. He that can make her conceive, who was sterile, can bring it about, that Thou, Lady, be His Mother, still preserving thy virginity and enhancing thy purity. To the Son whom thou shalt bear, God will give the throne of His father David and His reign shall be everlasting in the house of Jacob. Thou art not ignorant, O Lady, of the prophecy of Isaias (Is. 7, 14), that a Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son, whose name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. This prophecy is infallible and it shall be fulfilled in thy person. Thou knows also of the great mystery of the bush, which Moses saw burning without its being consumed by the fire (Exod, 3, 2). This signified that the two natures, Divine and human, are to be united in such a manner, that the latter is not consumed by the Divine, and that the Mother of the Messias shall conceive and give birth without violation of her virginal purity. Remember also, Lady, the promise of the eternal God to the Patriarch Abraham, that, after the captivity of His posterity for four generations, they should return to this land; the mysterious signification of which was, that in this, the fourth generation is first that of Adam without a father or mother; second, that of Eve without a mother; third, of our own, from a father and mother; fourth, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, from a Mother without a father. The incarnate God is to rescue the whole race of Adam through thy cooperation from the oppression of the devil (Gen. 15, 16). And the ladder, which Jacob saw in his sleep (Gen. 28, 12), was an express figure of the royal way, which the eternal Word was to open up and by which the mortals are to ascend to heaven and the angels to descend to earth. To this earth the Onlybegotten of the Father shall lower Himself in order to converse with men and communicate to them the treasures of His Divinity, imparting to them His virtues and His immutable and eternal perfections."

With these and many other words the ambassador of heaven instructed the most holy Mary, in order that, by the remembrance of the ancient promises and prophecies of holy Writ, by the reliance and trust in them and in the infinite power of the Most High, She might overcome her hesitancy at the heavenly message.

She withheld her answer to God, in order to be able to give it in accordance with the Divine will and that it might be worthy of the greatest of all the mysteries and sacraments of the Divine power. 

She reflected that upon her answer depended the pledge of the most blessed Trinity, the fulfillment of His promises and prophecies, the most pleasing and acceptable of all sacrifices, the opening of the gates of paradise, the victory and triumph over hell, the Redemption of all the human race, the satisfaction of the Divine justice, the foundation of the new law of grace, the glorification of men, the rejoicing of the angels, and whatever was connected with the Incarnation of the Onlybegotten of the Father and His assuming the form of servant in her virginal womb (Philip 2, 7).

A great wonder, indeed, and worthy of our admiration, that all these mysteries and whatever others they included, should be entrusted by the Almighty to an humble Maiden and made dependent upon her fiat. 

But befittingly and securely He left them to the wise and strong decision of this courageous Woman (Prov. 31, 11), since She would consider them with such magnanimity and nobility, that perforce His confidence in Her was not misplaced. 

Execution of the ad intra operations, which proceed within the Divine Essence, depend not on the co-operation of creatures, for they have no part in them and God could not expect such co-operations for executing the works; but in the works ad extra and such as were contingent upon the creature, among which that of becoming the incarnate God was the most exalted, He could not proceed without the co-operation of most holy Mary and without her free consent. 

For He wished to reach this acme of all the works outside Himself in Her and through Her, and He wished that we should owe this benefit to this Mother of wisdom and our Reparatrix.

Therefore this great Lady considered and inspected profoundly this spacious field of the dignity of Mother of God (Prov, 21, 11) in order to purchase it by her fiat; She clothed Herself in fortitude more than human, and She tasted and saw how profitable was this enterprise and commerce with the Divinity. 

She comprehended the ways of His hidden benevolence and adorned Herself with fortitude and beauty. And having conferred with Herself and with the heavenly messenger Gabriel about the grandeur of these high and Divine sacraments, and finding Herself in excellent condition to receive the message sent to Her, her purest soul was absorbed and elevated in admiration, reverence and highest intensity of Divine love.

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 sufficiently to be 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).

At the pronouncing of this "fiat," so sweet to the hearing of God and so fortunate for us, in one instant, four things happened. First, the most holy body of Christ our Lord was formed from the three drops of blood furnished by the heart of most holy Mary.

Secondly, the most holy soul of the same Lord was created, just as the other souls. 

Thirdly, the soul and the body united in order to compose his perfect humanity. 

Fourthly, the Divinity united Itself in the Person of the Word with the humanity, which together became one composite being in hypostatical union; and thus was formed Christ true God and Man, our Lord and Redeemer. 

This 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. 

This reckoning is the true and certain one, as was told me, when I inquired at command of my superiors. Conformable to this the world was created in the month of March, which corresponds to the beginning of creation.

And as the works of the Most High are perfect and complete (Deut. 32, 4), the plants and trees come forth from the hands of his Majesty bearing fruit, and they would have borne them continually without intermission, if sin had not changed the whole nature, as I will expressly relate in another treatise, if it is the will of the Lord; now however I will not detain myself therewith, since it does not pertain to our subject.

READ: Vol 2 Bk 2 Chap 1

In the midst of these tormenting anxieties the holy Spouse Joseph appealed to the tribunal of the Lord in prayer and placing himself in His presence, he said: "Most high Lord and God, my desires and sighs are not unknown to Thee. I find myself cast about by the violent waves of sorrow (Ps, 31. 10) which through my senses have come to afflict my heart. I have given myself over with entire confidence to the Spouse whom Thou has given me. I have confided entirely in her holiness; and the signs of this unexpected change in Her are giving rise to tormenting and fearful doubts lest my confidence be misplaced. Nothing have I until now seen in Her which could give occasion for any doubt in her modesty and her extraordinary virtue; yet at the same time I cannot deny that She is pregnant. To think that She has been unfaithful to me, and has offended Thee, would be temerity in view of such rare purity and holiness: to deny what my own eyes perceive is impossible. But it is not impossible that I die of grief, unless there is some mystery hidden beneath it which I cannot yet fathom. Reason proclaims Her as blameless, while the senses accuse Her. She conceals from me the cause of her pregnancy, while I have it before my eyes. What shall I do? We both have come to an agreement concerning our vows of chastity, and we have both promised to keep them for Thy glory; if it could be possible that She has violated her fidelity toward Thee and toward me, I would defend Thy honor-and would forget mine for love of Thee. Yet how could She preserve such purity and holiness in all other things if She had committed so grave a crime in this? And on the other hand, why does She, who is so holy and prudent, conceal this matter from me? I withhold and defer my judgment. Not being able to penetrate to the cause of what I see, I pour out in Thy presence my afflicted soul (Ps, 141, 3), God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Receive my tears as an acceptable sacrifice; and if my sins merit Thy indignation, let Thy own clemency and kindness move Thee not to despise my excruciating sorrow. I do not believe that Mary has offended Thee; yet much less can I presume that there is a mystery of which I, as her Spouse, am not to be informed. Govern Thou my mind and heart by Thy divine light, in order that I may know and fulfill that which is most pleasing to Thee."

Saint Joseph persevered in this kind of prayer, adding many more affectionate petitions; for even though he conjectured that there must be some mystery in the pregnancy of the most holy Mary hidden from him, he could not find assurance therein.

 Then the Lord himself appeared to His most holy Mother, and in reward of her glorious victories He communicated to Her new gifts and privileges; Her thousand guardian angels visibly presented themselves with innumerable hosts of others, and sang to Her new canticles of praise in honor of the Most High and of Herself. 

And with celestial concord of sweet and audible voices they sang of Her, that which the holy Church figuratively sings of the triumph of Judith: "Thou art all beautiful, Mary our Lady, and there is no stain of sin in Thee; Thou art the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem; Thou art the honor of the people of God; Thou art She, who magnifies His name, the Advocate of sinners, who defends them against their proud enemy ! O Mary! Thou are full of grace and of all perfection."

READ Vol 2 Bk 1 Chap 28

  She was a living image of Christ our Redeemer and Master. Immediately the Mistress of holy humility prostrated Herself to the ground and abasing Herself to the dust, said:

"Most high God and my Lord, behold this vile worm of the earth, acknowledging itself formed from it (Gen. 2, 7), and coming from nothingness to this existence, which I hold through Thy most liberal clemency. I acknowledge also, O highest Father, that Thy ineffable condescension, without any merits of mine, has raised me from the dust, to the dignity of being the Mother of Thy Onlybegotten. From my whole heart I praise and exalt Thy immense goodness in so favoring me. In gratitude for such great blessings I offer myself to live and labor anew in this mortal life, according to all the decrees of Thy divine will. I consecrate myself as Thy faithful servant and as the servant of the children of the Church. All of them I present before Thy immense charity and implore Thee from my inmost heart to look upon them as their kindest God and Father. For them I offer up the sacrifice of being deprived of Thy glory and peace, and of having chosen of my own free will suffering rather than joy, denying myself the vision of Thee in order to perform what is so pleasing in Thy sight." 

Read: (Vol IV Bk I Chap I)

Thursday, the eve of the Passion and Death of the Savior, had arrived; at earliest dawn the Lord called to Him, His most beloved Mother and She, hastening to prostrate Herself at His feet, responded; "Speak, my Lord and Master, for thy servant heareth." Raising Her up from the ground, He spoke to Her in words of soothing and tenderest love: "My Mother, the hour decreed by the eternal wisdom of My Father for accomplishing the salvation and restoration of the human race and imposed upon Me by His most holy and acceptable will, has now arrived; it is proper that now We subject to Him our own will, as We have so often offered to do. Give Me thy permission to enter upon My suffering and death, and, as My true Mother, consent that I deliver Myself over to My enemies in obedience to My eternal Father. In this manner do Thou also willingly cooperate with Me in this work of eternal salvation, since I have received from Thee in thy virginal womb the form of a suffering and mortal man in which I am to redeem the world and satisfy the Divine justice. 

Just as thou, of thy own free will, didst consent to my Incarnation, so I now desire thee to give consent also to My passion and death of the Cross. To sacrifice Me now of thy own free will to the decree of My eternal Father, this shall be the return which I ask of thee for having made thee My Mother; for He has sent Me in order that by the sufferings of My flesh I might recover the lost sheep of His house, the children of Adam" (Matth. 18, 11). 

These and other words of the Savior, spoken on that occasion, pierced the most loving heart of Mary and cast Her into the throes of a sorrow greater than She had ever endured before. For now had arrived that dreadful hour, whence there was no issue for her pains, neither in an appeal to the swift fleeting time nor to any other tribunal against the inevitable decree of the eternal Father, that had fixed the term of her beloved Son's life. 

When now the most prudent Mother looked upon Him as her God, infinite in His attributes and perfections, and as the true Godman in hypostatical union with the person of the Word, and beheld Him sanctified and ineffably exalted by this union with the Godhead: She remembered the obedience He had shown Her as His Mother during so many years and the blessings He had conferred upon Her during His long intercourse with Her; She realized that soon She was to be deprived of this blessed intercourse and of the beauty of His countenance, of the vivifying sweetness of His words; that She was not only to lose all this at once, but moreover that She was to deliver Him over into the hands of such wicked enemies, to ignominies and torments and to the bloody sacrifice of a death on the Cross. 

How deeply must all these considerations and circumstances, now so clearly before Her mind, have penetrated into her tender and loving heart and filled it with a sorrow unmeasurable! 

But with the magnanimity of a Queen, vanquishing this invincible pain, She prostrated Herself at the feet of Her Divine Son and Master, and, in deepest reverence, kissing his feet, answered:  "Lord and highest God, Author of all that has being, though Thou art the Son of my womb, I am Thy handmaid; the condescension of Thy ineffable love alone has raised me from the dust to the dignity of being Thy Mother. It is altogether becoming that I, vile wormlet, acknowledge and thank Thy most liberal clemency by obeying the will of the eternal Father and Thy own. I offer myself and resign myself to His Divine pleasure, in order that in Me, just as in Thee, my Son and Lord, His eternal and adorable will be fulfilled. The greatest sacrifice which I can make, is that I shall not be able to die with Thee, and that our lot should not be inverted; for to suffer in imitation of Thee and in Thy company would be a great relief for my pains, and all torments would be sweet, if undergone in union with Thine. That Thou shouldst endure all these torments for the salvation of mankind shall be my only relief in my pains. Receive, O my God, this sacrifice of my desire to die with Thee, and of my still continuing to live, while Thou, the most innocent Lamb and figure of the substance of Thy eternal Father undergoest Death (Heb. 1, 3). Receive also the agonies of my sorrow to see the inhuman cruelty of Thy enemies executed on Thy exalted Person because of the wickedness of the human kind. O ye heavens and elements and all creatures within them, ye sovereign spirits, ye Patriarchs and Prophets, assist me to deplore the death of my Beloved, who gave you being, and bewail with me the misery of men, who are the cause of this Death, and who, failing to profit of such great blessings, shall lose that eternal life so dearly bought! 0 unhappy you, that are foreknown as doomed! and 0 ye happy predestined, who shall wash your stoles in the blood of the Lamb (Apoc, 7, 14), you, who knew how to profit by this Blessed Sacrifice, praise ye the Lord Almighty! 0 my Son and infinite delight of my soul, give fortitude and strength to Thy afflicted Mother; admit Her as Thy disciple and companion, in order that she may participate in Thy Passion and Cross, and in order that the eternal Father may receive the sacrifice of Thy Mother in union with Thine." 

With these and other expressions of her sentiments, which I cannot all record in words, the Queen of heaven answered her most holy Son, and offered Herself as a companion and a coadjutrix in His Passion.

Read: Volume III Book II Chapter IX

It happened many times during these last days, that in order to abate somewhat the excesses of her love and in order to prevent her bosom from being forced asunder, She broke the silence of her retreat and spoke to the Lord: "My sweetest Love, highest Good and Treasure of my soul, draw me now after the sweetness of Thy ointments, which Thou hast permitted Thy handmaid and mother to taste in this world (Cant. 1, 3). My will always found its rest entirely in Thee, the highest Truth and my true Good; never have I known any other love than the love of Thee! 0 my only hope and glory! Let not my course be prolonged, let not the beginning of that much desired freedom be postponed! (Ps. 141, 8). Solve now the chains of that mortal existence, which still detains me! Let the term of my life be fulfilled, let that end come toward which I tended from the first instant in which I received my being from Thee. My dwelling among the inhabitants of Cedar has been prolonged (Ps. 119, 5) ; but all the powers of my soul and all its faculties look toward the Sun which gives it life, follow the fixed North-star that leads them on, and faint away in longing for the Good they are awaiting. 0 ye supernal spirits, by the most exalted condition of your spiritual and angelic nature, by the happiness, which you enjoy in the never-failing beauty of my Beloved, I beseech you to have pity on me, my friends. Do ye pity this stranger among the children of Adam, captive in the bonds of mortal flesh. Present to my and your Lord the cause of my sorrow, of which He is not ignorant (Cant. 5,8); tell Him that for His sake I embrace suffering in my banishment, and that I so desire it; but I cannot desire to live in my own self; and if I am to live in Him in order to preserve my life, how can I live in the absence of this, my life? Love it is, which gives my life and at the same time deprives me of it. Life cannot live without love; hence, how can I live without the Life, which alone I love? In this sweet violence I am perishing; tell me if possible of the qualities of my Beloved, for amid such aromatic flowers the swoonings of my impatient love shall find recovery!" (Cant. 2, 5).

With such and other still more fervent aspirations the most blessed Mother assuaged the fires of her spirit, that She excited the wonder of the holy angels who attended upon Her and served Her. And as they, by means of their high intelligence and heavenly science, were able to understand these excesses, they on one occasion answered Her as follows: "Our Queen and Lady, if Thou wishs again to hear us speak of the tokens of thy Beloved that we know of, consider that He is beauty itself and that He contains within Himself all the perfections beyond all desire. He is amiable without defect, delightful beyond comparison, pleasing without the least flaw. In wisdom He is inestimable, in goodness without measure, in power boundless, in greatness immeasurable, in essence infinite, in majesty inaccessible, and all His perfections are infinite. In His judgments He is terrible (Ps. 65, 5), His counsels inscrutable (Rom. 11,33), in His justice most equitable (Ps. 118, 137), in His thoughts unsearchable, in His words most true, in His works holy (Ps. 144, 13), rich in mercies (Ephes. 2, 4). Space cannot overreach Him, narrowness cannot confine Him, sorrow cannot disturb Him, joy cannot cause any change in Him; nor does He ever fail in His wisdom, or change in His will (Jas. 1, 17); abundance cannot overwhelm, or want come near Him, memory adds nothing, forgetfulness takes away nothing from His knowledge; what was, is not past for Him, and what is to come, never happens to Him; the beginning gave no origin to His being, and time will bring to Him no end. Without being caused, He causes all things (Ecc1i. 18, 1), and He has not need of anything, but all things need participation in Him; He preserves them without labor, He governs them without confusion. Those who follow Him walk not in darkness (John 8, 12), those who know Him are happy, who love and extol Him, are blessed; for He exalts His friends, and at last glorifies them by His eternal vision and intercourse (John 17, 3). This, o Lady, is the Good which Thou lovest and whose embraces Thou shalt shortly enjoy without intermission through all His eternities." Thus spoke the holy angels.

Read: (Vol IV Bk II Chap XVIII)