Vigils Reading – Queenship of BVM

THE WAY OF DIVINE LOVE

From a mystical dialogue between the Virgin Mary and Sr. Josefa Menéndez 3

◊◊◊

Our Lady appeared in all her beauty… “Daughter,” she replied…”do not be afraid, for <the devil> can only do one thing, that is, give you opportunities of increasing your merit. Do you not know that I am watching over you and that Jesus will never abandon you?”… A thrill of joy transfused the face of Our Lady, as she recalled the beatitude of the eternal present she now possessed, and stooping to her child’s lowliness, she related to her something of the earthly pilgrimage which led her from the shadow of its sorrows to the effulgence of never-ending bliss… She said… ‘during the whole of my life in this world my soul was transpierced by a sword of grief.’

I asked her… if the presence of the Child Jesus, so small and so lovely, had not been the best of consolations? “Listen, child,'” Our Lady went on. “From childhood I knew of divine things and the hopes centred in the coming of the Messiah. So when the Angel declared the mystery of the Incarnation to me, and I found myself chosen as the Mother of the Redeemer of mankind, though my heart adhered to the divine will with entire submission, it was drowned in a sea of bitterness and woe. For I knew all that this tender and heavenly Child was destined to endure, and Simeon’s prophecy only confirmed the anguish of my mother’s heart.

Can you, then, imagine how I felt while contemplating My Son’s charms, His heavenly countenance, His hands, and feet which I knew were to be so cruelly ill- treated? I kissed those little hands, and felt my lips already stained with the Precious Blood that one day would gush from their wounds. I kissed His feet, and already saw them nailed to the Cross. And as I carefully tended His hair, I pictured it all clotted with Blood and entangled in the cruel thorns. And when at Nazareth, He first ventured on a few steps, hastening with outstretched arms to meet me, my tears fell as I pictured them extended on the Cross on which He was to die.

“When He reached boyhood, He was so divinely beautiful that none could contemplate Him unmoved. . . yet in my heart, the heart of a mother, the sword was turned at the thought of the tortures that were to be inflicted on Him, of which I felt beforehand the savage recoil. Then He left me for three years during His apostolic life, and there followed the terrible hours of His Passion and Death. What a martyrdom! When after three days I saw Him in the glory of His risen life the trial changed, for I knew that He could suffer no more. but O! how sad it was to part from Him! My sole relief then lay in consoling Him, by repairing for the sins of men. And my long exile began…

“I was about to enter my seventy-third year, when my soul passed like a flash from earth to heaven. At the end of three days the Angels fetched my body and brought it in triumph and jubilation to reunite it to my soul. What adoration! What admiration! What sweetness, when at long last my eyes beheld in glory His Majesty surrounded by the angelic choirs… my Son… my God! And how, daughter, can I express the amazement of my lowliness when I was crowned with such gifts and overwhelmed with jubilations and rejoicings? . . . Sorrow had indeed passed away, never to return. For all eternity, glory, sweetness, and love were mine.’ Our Lady spoke with enthusiasm… yet all her words still mirrored sweetest humility.

There was silence for a short time, for Our Lady seemed absorbed by the recollection of that marvellous entry into heaven. Then once more turning to Josefa, and looking lovingly upon her, she said: “All things pass away, daughter, and bliss is everlasting. Suffer and love. My Son will soon crown your efforts and labours. Do not fear, He and I both love you!