Vigils Reading – Memorial of B.V.M.

THE GLORIOUS AND HAPPY TRANSITION OF THE MOST HOLY MARY

From “The Mystical City of God” by Venerable Mary of Agreda7

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The day was approaching in which the true and living Ark of the covenant was to be placed in the temple of the celestial Jerusalem… Three days before the most happy Transition of the great Lady, the Apostles and disciples were gathered in Jerusalem and in the Cenacle. The first one to arrive was saint Peter…

The great Lady came to the entrance of her oratory in order to receive the vicar of Christ our Savior. Kneeling at his feet She asked his blessing and said: “I give thanks and praise to the Almighty, that He has brought to me the holy Father for assisting me in the hour of my death.” Then came saint Paul, to whom the Queen showed the same reverence with similar tokens of her pleasure at seeing him…

The great Lady looked upon them all with her accustomed modesty and reverence and spoke to them as follows: “My dearest children, give permission to your servant to speak in your presence and to disclose my humble desires.” Saint Peter answered that all listened with attention and would obey Her in all things… She then prostrated Herself and kissed the feet of saint Peter as the vicar of Christ… From saint Peter She went to saint John, and kneeling likewise at his feet, said: “Pardon, my son and my master, my not having fulfilled toward thee the duties of a Mother as I ought and as the Lord had commanded me, when from the Cross He appointed thee as my son and me as thy mother. I humbly and from my heart thank thee for the kindness which thou hast shown me as a son. Give me thy benediction for entering into the vision and company of Him who created me.” …

She rose to her feet and addressed them all, saying: “Dearest children and my masters, always have I kept you in my soul and written in my heart. I have loved you with that tender love and charity, which was given to me by my divine Son, whom I have seen in you, his chosen friends. In obedience to his holy and eternal will, I now go to the eternal mansions, where I promise you as a Mother I will look upon you by the clearest light of the Divinity, the vision of which my soul hopes and desires in security. I commend unto you my mother, the Church, the exaltation of the name of the Most High, the spread of the evangelical law, the honor and veneration for the words of my divine Son, the memory of his Passion and Death, the practice of his doctrine. My children, love the Church, and love one another with that bond of charity, which your Master has always inculcated upon you. To thee, Peter, holy Pontiff, I commend my son John and all the rest.”

The words of the most blessed Mary, like arrows of a divine fire, penetrated the hearts of all the Apostles and hearers… All of them wept, and with them wept also the sweetest Mary, who could not resist this bitter and well-founded sorrow of her children…

Only saint John and some of the Apostles were enlightened as to the presence of Christ the Savior, yet the others felt in their interior its divine and powerful effects… Her tunic was folded about her sacred body, her hands were joined and her eyes fixed upon her divine Son, and She was entirely inflamed with the fire of divine love… She pronounced those words of her Son on the Cross: “Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” Then She closed her virginal eyes and expired