TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

Reflections on the deep meaning of milestones
from the lives of Jesus and Mary

inspired by the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to

Introduction

One of the main reasons why, in our times, Christianity appears to be loosing such a great deal of its vital force, lies in the fact that the Christians today seem to know the major events from the lives of Jesus and Mary on earth only from the calendar: Very little seems to be known about the actual spiritual depth of these events. This is why the Mistress of all souls has inspired Her Myriam to write brief reflections on the very essence of that which these milestones from the holy lives of the Messiah and His Mother really intend to teach to the souls. For what purpose did Divine Providence allow these events to take place? What is it God wants to teach the souls through these events? How can the souls put these Divine lessons to use within themselves?

The souls must never forget that God pursues a goal with everything, and that this goal aims at bringing His Plan of Salvation for the souls closer to its accomplishment by turning each soul into a blossoming flower. Through these Gems of grace Mary wants to offer the souls a special way of evangelization, which is able to add new glitter to the souls whose knowledge of the marvellous doctrine of God’s only Truth has been covered with a layer of worldly dust.

At the service of the Mistress of all souls,

Her Myriam, Passion season 2010

INDEX

  1. The Annunciation – the Incarnation of Jesus Christ
  2. Palm Sunday
  3. Holy Thursday
  4. Good Friday
  5. Holy Saturday
  6. Easter
  7. the Ascension of Christ
  8. Pentecost – the Coming of the Holy Spirit
  9. The Visitation of Mary
10. The Transfiguration of Jesus
11. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven
12. Mary’s Coronation in Heaven
13. The Birth of Mary
14. Presentation of Mary in the Temple
15. Mary’s Immaculate Conception
16. The Birth of Jesus Christ on earth
17. Epiphany
18. The Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, and Jesus’ stay in the desert
19. The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple
20. The Flight into Egypt
21. The Wedding at Cana
22. The Finding of the twelve year old Jesus

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

1. The Annunciation of Mary (March 25) – The Incarnation of Jesus

The deep meaning of the word of consent

The total consecration to Mary is the holy bond through which the soul puts her entire being and her entire life at the service of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. By the word of consent ("Yes, Mary, I want to belong to You, and through You, to God, totally, unconditionally and eternally") the soul actually expresses her desire to turn away from the works of sin and to turn to the Works of Light, of true Love.

On March 25 we commemorate the day on which the Most Blessed Virgin Mary put Herself completely at the service of the greatest Divine Work since Creation: the Salvation of mankind. God had predestined Her for the accomplishment of extraordinary things, and to that end He had bestowed upon Her the unique Privilege of the Immaculate Conception. Mary lived a spotless youth, did not commit even the slightest sin, and out of sheer Love for God and all Her fellow creatures She did not want to give in to any temptation, being perfectly aware that God’s Law is the only and perfect Source of Light, Love and true Life.

Therefore, when on that day God sent His angel to Mary with the invitation for Her to be the Mother of the Messiah, He essentially invited Mary to become the Embodiment of the mystical marriage between the human souls and their God. By virtue of the Immaculate Conception and of the spotlessly sinless life She led, Mary was a perfectly holy Tabernacle. The only thing missing yet was the formal surrender of the free human will to God’s Works and Plans. This surrender, the sealing of the mystical marriage between the human souls and God, was effected through Mary’s words: "It may be done unto Me according to thy word".

A created soul consented towards God to being the Mother of the Messiah, so as to enable the latter to grow in a physical body, and therefore to redeem mankind through the power of suffering.

Through Her word of consent Mary signed the holy New Covenant between the souls and God, and was the first to put Her entire life and Her entire being at the service of God’s Plan of Salvation without the slightest limitations. If it had not been for Her word of consent, the Conception of the Redeemer should not have taken place at that point of time, which had been set by God’s perfect Wisdom. Mary’s complete consecration to God’s Works became the foundation of our Redemption.

I have repeatedly had the opportunity to point out that the soul’s free will is decisive as to the development of God’s Plans, and therefore as to the development of the world and of history. The reason for this is, that God regards man’s free will as holy and inviolable: In principle He only intercedes in the developments of our world if souls ask Him to. If God is 'put off site' He lets souls do as they like. This is exactly why in our godless world innumerable developments end up in chaos: The spirit of the world lacks Divine Wisdom. The misery of the world does not originate with any indifference on God’s part, but with the fact that man will keep neglecting to request God’s intervention. Put in other words: Wherever man fails to ask that his free human will be allowed to merge with God’s Will, misery is born, because God’s Light only rises where it is explicitly invited.

It is an infallible indication for God’s perfect Love that He should choose exactly this spot, where so many things in the world go off the rails – the human soul’s free will – to become the key to the greatest accomplishments. Indeed, God keeps wanting His Works to be countersigned by human souls, in that the latter sacrifice their free will to Him. Only to the extent to which man’s free will becomes one with God’s Will, will his life yield unperishable fruits. This is exactly what Mary has shown us in the practice of Her life, and what She, on the occasion of God’s invitation through the angel, turned into what is probably the most important milestone in the history of salvation: Mary said 'yes' to God’s Works and Plans fully and unconditionally, thereby making it possible for each soul of good will to be redeemed by Jesus.

Thereby Mary showed us the way to achieving the greatest possible fruitfulness for our souls: Redemption as a fruit of complete, unconditional surrender, in which the soul no longer lives for herself, but exclusively for the accomplishment of God’s interests. The soul that sets herself this single goal in life, has understood for what purpose she was actually sent into the world. In so doing, she allows her free will, this weak spot in the fruitfulness of her life, to merge completely with the perfectly fruitful Will of God, and opens herself up to the fullness of Redemption and sanctification, and to Eternal Bliss.

In these Last Times God prefers the soul to repeat Mary’s word of consent (to allow it to bloom within herself) by speaking this word of consent exactly towards Mary, through complete, unconditional and everlasting consecration to Her, the One that God elevated to be the Mistress of all souls on account of Her perfect unity with His Will. Through our total consecration to Mary we open up all gates of our soul for the 're-enactment' of the Incarnation of Jesus within us, through Mary’s intermediary, so that Christ may be able to continue living within us, and to complete our Redemption, because the perfectly Pure One, Mary, will then forever have become the Mistress of our will.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

2. Palm Sunday

The deep meaning of Palm Sunday – the Triumphal Entry of Jesus in Jerusalem

During His Triumphal Entry in Jerusalem, just a few days before He was to begin His Great Passion, Jesus the Saviour was waved at with palm leaves. The masses greeted Him with their cries of hosanna and their outbursts of joy. It would appear like an atmosphere of joy, yet in reality it was a great sign of the inconstancy and the superficiality of the souls, for in a few days time the sounds of the cries of hosanna and of the outbursts of joy were transformed into the sounds of the hammers beating on the Cross. The Queen of Heaven explains the deep background of this event as follows:

The palm is the symbol of victory, as well as of peace. Mary says that Palm Sunday is intended to teach the souls that only true peace of heart can take the soul to the great victory over herself. Is it not said, that he who defeats others, is strong, but he who defeats himself, is powerful? To defeat others, is an act which does not bring the soul everlasting salvation. Everlasting salvation is the fruit of the victory over one’s personal weaknesses and seducibilities, for the soul that defeats those within herself, is set free from the slavery of sin.

self conquest + inner peace
= the key to Redemption
= the soul’s triumphal procession to her glorification

In truth, Palm Sunday rings in the days of Passion, because on this day the Redeemer and Divine Providence set the great sign for that which is to be the beginning of true Redemption: the victory over one’s own inner weaknesses and storms. No suffering will be able to really liberate the soul as long as the heart has not succeeded in taming the storms within itself. For this whole system to be imprinted on the souls forever, Divine Providence inspired the souls of Jerusalem to cover the way along which the Messiah was to enter the city of God, with palm leaves.

The souls at Jerusalem believed the moment had arrived at which Jesus would bring them worldly liberation. A great many of them were disappointed soon, when it became crystal clear that the only liberation the Messiah was aiming at, was the liberation of the souls: the liberation from the slavery of sin, not from any worldly yoke. Jesus entered the city, which in His days was in a way the symbol of God’s dwelling on earth, the symbol of God’s Kingdom on earth. The Triumphal Entry therefore shows the souls the triumphal procession of the soul towards her glorification, as a journey through which she puts her personal weaknesses, seducibilities and inner storms to death, and offers her body to God as a sacrifice, preferably through the hands of Mary. Jesus, too, was born of Mary, and offered Himself up to God in a joint sacrifice performed by Himself and by Mary, such as was shown to me by the Queen of Heaven. Likewise, God takes special joy when souls in these Last Times give themselves to Mary in total consecration, in order to be born again of Her, and to allow all crosses on the path of their life to be sacrificed in and through Her, for the redemption of themselves and that of other souls.

Jesus entered the city of God as the true Light. However, light that is not accepted (that is not put to use within the soul) does not illuminate, it blinds. Most souls of Jerusalem (symbols for all mankind of all the ages) did not want to see God’s Truth: Most souls geared their entire life to the accomplishment and the following of their personal, human truth. That is why, a few days later, they would not realize they were actually getting rid of the Son of God. This is what it would be like throughout history: The souls keep expecting worldly gifts from God (the liberation from their worldly burdens) and keep crucifying Him in all their sins and aberrations, because He does not suit their views of life.

The Mistress of all souls points out that the big lesson of Palm Sunday should be this: That the Kingdom of God can only be established on earth to the extent to which the souls:

• recognize the true Light and the teachings of Truth;

• accept that this Light and this Truth wants to come and redeem and sanctify every individual soul, it being understood that the latter must be willing to shed off her own lack of inner peace and her own seducibilities, and to sacrifice herself to the redeeming effect produced by each daily cross;

• accept that true liberation is not the one from worldly and physical burdens, but the one from the power of temptation, which wants to crucify the soul so as to bring her eternal death.

The Mistress of all souls emphatically invites the souls to consider the blessed palm as a sacrifice of their material nature and their physical burdens, and to pray ardently with this palm for the final victory over themselves, for the accomplishment of their Redemption.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

3. Holy Thursday

The deep meaning of Holy Thursday – institution of the Church and the Sacraments
Beginning of the Great Passion of Jesus

The eve of the last day of the Messiah’s earthly life seems like a hinge around which His entire Mission on earth revolves. For 33 years the Christ has been showing the elected people of Israel the way back to its God. He reminded the souls of the Truth and explained it, thus making it felt that a new wind was about to blow through creation: the wind of the New Covenant, the contract by virtue of which God intended to guide His souls to true everlasting salvation through the Mercy of His Presence, which was henceforth to remain noticeable. Jesus enabled the souls to actually feel God’s Presence in the many miracles and in the announcement of His Words of Light. On this holy night He seems to mass all this together.

On the night of Holy Thursday Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist, thereby confirming God’s intention to really conclude the mystical marriage with His souls. By making use of the Holy Eucharist with a pure heart, the soul will be able to show God her desire to take Him up within her.

Later that night Jesus sets off for the Garden of Gethsemane together with His disciples. In the Garden, the Christ is immersed in a frame of mind which Mary shows us as being the hinge of His Mission as the Redeemer: After having led a life of fighting the darkness through His Words and deeds of Light, in Gethsemane Jesus pulls the darkness in its fullness into His Heart in order to expiate it for the benefit of all mankind. See the marvellous symbolism of this holy night:

Jesus threw Himself down to the ground, as if He wanted to press all worldly things against Himself. He weeps bitterly, while in long, deep visions He beholds the terrible darkness of the sins of all mankind throughout the ages. His frame of mind is expressed in the image of the cup of bitterness (all sins of all the ages), which is so horrible that for just one moment the disgust He feels for it, gets the better of Him. He knows He is on the verge of the Great Passion, and that it will be in vain for innumerable souls, because the latter will not want to follow the Light.

Then Jesus testifies of an absolutely perfect Love: He accepts to empty the cup completely by speaking the words "Not as I, but as You would have it, Father". He is perfectly well aware that the Most Holy Trinity has foreseen the Sufferings and the Death on the Cross of the incarnated Son of God to be the crown on the Covenant of Eternal Salvation for the souls, and thus that God’s Will is the force which in this hour must be perfectly obeyed. In this night the Christ signs in His Heart the deed of victory of God’s Light over darkness. Here the Messiah shows all souls that the only source of all bliss lies in defeating human weakness and human thinking, and in perfectly accepting God’s decrees, because the latter are the motor of the Great Plan of Salvation, which is geared to the everlasting bliss for each soul of good will, i.e.: for each soul that allows her human will to be fully absorbed by the Will of God.

Above Gethsemane the full moon is shining. It is night. It is night in the souls as well: The Light of the Sun (God’s Truth) is no longer accepted by very many souls, and the thick layer of the darkness of sin has covered the earth. The full moon, however, symbolizes the imminent resurrection of the Light.

While those who are going to take Jesus prisoner (= want to render God’s Works ineffective), are approaching the Garden, the disciples have fallen asleep, symbolizing the fact the souls are no longer alert to the vicinity of sin.

Judas, the traitor, has literally sold Jesus to the slaves of darkness, and kisses Jesus to identify the One they are after. It is shown hereby how the sinful soul betrays God in heart and soul in favour of her material interests, while approaching Him with the sign of Love, just for the sake of appearances. God is therefore literally turned over to the devil.

In the depth of night Divine Providence uses the high priest to show how much mankind is busy judging its God, and how much it wishes Him to be dead, so that it might be able to keep following its own truth, to keep making its own laws, and to keep hiding its sinfulness forever behind the thesis that the only Truth is a heresy, aiming at dividing the souls.

The darkness can only be rendered ineffective by the sacrifice of one’s own human nature. That is why Christ here performs an act of surrender through which He literally delivers Himself up to the Cross. Life in the following of Christ should be a way of the Cross, a way on which all sufferings are meaningfully offered up to God’s Plan of Salvation in order to lead the soul to her glorification. The golden path to do this, is the one of total consecration of the entire path of one’s life to Mary.

The Mistress of all souls sometimes compares Herself with the full moon: She reflects God’s Light towards the souls, that live in the night of sin, aberration and human thinking. The soul that gives herself up completely to Mary, learns how to enable the fruits of Holy Thursday to mature within her day after day: She offers the sinfulness of the world up to the Cross of Salvation through the hands of Mary, and seals this sacrifice through the consecration of her own trials, the cup of all elements of bitterness from her own life. She gets acquainted with the experience of disgust at the darkness, because she now learns how to look at it from God’s Heart, and she no longer fights it by cursing it, but by accepting the Will of God, Who wants to turn her life into a triumphal procession towards her glorification, in the footsteps of Him, Who for her sake did not shy away from any dishonour, pain or cross.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

4. Good Friday

The deep meaning of Good Friday – the Passion and Jesus’ Death on the Cross

Good Friday, the day of our Redemption. As a result of the original sin the human body had been subjected to the experiences of suffering. God clothed the body with this faculty in order to enable the souls to conclude a new covenant with Him, through which they would themselves contribute to their own sanctification and to the accomplishment of the great Plan of Salvation which was to end up in the establishment of God’s Kingdom of Love and Peace on earth: a return, as it were, to the situation prior to the original sin, in a paradise in God’s sensible Presence. Through the way of physical and emotional sufferings each soul was henceforth to be able to make her own contribution to the expiation of the violation of the original bond their God had concluded with mankind for a life in His Presence in the Garden of Eden.

On account of the rapidly increasing burden of sins God allowed His Son to incarnate, in order to sanctify all human sufferings and to repair the covenant between God and the souls by sealing it in His immaculate Divine Blood. Blood is a symbol of vital force. The Blood of Jesus is the symbol of the fullness of Divine Life.

The last day of the Messiah’s life witnesses the encounter between the darkness of sin and the Light of Divine Life. The darkness of human suffering and of sin is transformed into the Light of Redemption. Jesus is not performing a mere symbolic act, He represents all souls of all times, in the broadest sense of the word. Under the night sky above the Garden of Gethsemane He had already taken up all souls into His Heart. Now, for the first time, the souls were to be involved in their own Redemption in the blazing double fire of perfect Love and perfect Suffering (because it was accomplished in absolute unity with Divinity, as in an absolutely perfect consecration).

On this day the darkness seems to celebrate its greatest victory. Appearances are deceptive: In the devastating sufferings God has hidden the key to the Source of the fullness of His Light. In proportion as Christ’s Suffering is accomplished, the works of darkness loose their eternal effects. Later, in her own sufferings, the soul will be able to use this gift for her benefit by consecrating her sufferings to Mary, thus having them transformed into Light which deprives the darkness of its power.

The Roman Procurator Pilate does not find any guilt in this 'man', yet he has him scourged, out of fear for what people will say. This is an expression of the fact the soul makes God suffer so easily (by sinning) in order to do 'the right thing' by people. The human folly scourges God because it does not understand His Wisdom and His Love, and does not think it important in comparison with the own human interests and the own personal image in the eyes of the world. The Messiah has His innocent Body ripped to pieces for the expiation of the countless sins of the flesh. Every temptation the soul gives in to, is a double whiplash: on within the soul, and one on God’s Heart.

The scourged God-Man is crowned with thorns. The souls mock their God, but do not realize that, in reality, they are showing how the head (the symbol for living on the basis of the thinking, brooding and judging mind) is crowned a king, while hurting the soul with countless thorns: the devastating effects of worldly thinking, brooding and pride. After the crowning with thorns Pilate shows Jesus to the people and speaks the words "Ecce homo" (behold the man). Unknowingly, he thereby actually says: "Behold what sin does to a soul: It tears her apart, while allowing the blood of true Life to ooze out of her".

The people is left with the choice, who is to be released in honour of the Jewish Passover: Jesus or Barabbas. The choice falls on the latter, while Jesus is sentenced to be crucified: The souls choose to release the sin and to kill God. A banned God is no longer an obstacle for man to commit sins. Jesus embraces the Cross, and consecrates to God the ways of the cross to be accomplished in the lives of all souls of all times, so that all suffering, born with love and surrender, may for all eternity be united with His most sacred Way of the Cross, and may thus truly bring the accomplishment of God’s Plan of Salvation.

During the Way of the Cross Jesus repeatedly falls down to earth. The souls will keep falling under the burdens of their trials, and then time and time again seem to be concluding a bond with the things of the world (as if they would be going down on their knees before the earth). Jesus allows His redeeming Blood to mix with the earth, and rises again to carry the burden of the sins of all times to the place where they will be put to death (= where they are going to loose their everlasting power over the souls).

Jesus, who has taken the sins of all times unto Himself, allows to be crucified with them. Within Him the works of darkness (sin) are now agonizing, while He is bleeding to death: It is demonstrated how the souls are loosing the blood of Divine Life altogether, yet are enabled to travel towards eternal glorification in unity with the Redeemer. At the foot of the Cross stands Mary, the sinless Tabernacle that now turns into a golden Sacrificial Chalice in which the Divine Blood is collected. In the most intimate unity with the suffering Redeemer She sacrifices all Sufferings and all sins of the world to the Eternal Father, and offers the Sacrificial Chalice filled with the Divine Blood of Jesus to God as a most holy reservoir from which for all eternity graces of redemption and sanctification will be prepared. Here Mary is, in the fullest sense of the word, the Co-Redemptrix and the Mediatrix of Graces.

Jesus offers His Mother, the Most Holy Sacrificial Chalice, to the souls, and the souls to Her. Like Mary was to announce in our days, it is right there that Her predestination to be the Mistress of all souls is confirmed by Jesus.

It is accomplished. Above Golgotha an unusual darkness breaks in. It seems as though God wants to show the souls what effect is created when the consequences of all sins are made visible above the world, like they are here, where they are released, so to speak, from the pierced Heart of the Redeemer in order to be turned over to Divine Mercy. The New Covenant is signed in the Blood of Divine Life, for the rebirth of each soul that is prepared to unite her life with Jesus’ Cross and to accept the gift consisting of His Mother as the Mediatrix, Co-Redemptrix and Mistress, for the perfect following of Christ and the crowning of His great legacy.

Jesus has given Himself up to be sentenced to the Death on the Cross: The souls have got the opportunity to judge themselves whether they want to have God in their lives or not. On Good Friday the God-Man delivers His Human Nature up to be put to death in order to perfectly glorify Divinity: If the transitory things are sacrificed, that which is truly sacred is left. This ought to be the big lesson of life for every soul on the way of the cross her life actually is.

Between Gethsemane and Golgotha Jesus and Mary wept and suffered for nothing else but the sins, the seducibility and the indifference of souls, and the latter’s attachment to all worldly things and worldly frames of mind. The fruits from the Tree of the Cross can only mature for the soul who has discovered the sin, seducibility and indifference within herself, and has learned to weep about the folly and the darkness of all worldly things around her and within herself. Only in this soul that which has made the Suffering of Jesus necessary, is crucified day after day. Only in the constant battle against her own seducibility, weakness and worldly attachments the soul is sufficiently light to resurrect like a little co-redemptrix of souls.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

5. Holy Saturday

The deep meaning of Holy Saturday – the day after Jesus’ Death on the Cross

The Redeemer has died on the Cross, so that each soul that wants to experience God’s Love and wants to do His Works, may find true Divine Life, a Life which can not be killed by the crosses of life either, but on the contrary glorifies these crosses and enables the soul to experience these crosses as gifts of the most sublime Love. In this awareness – the experience of the highest Love through sufferings and sorrows which are understood and accepted as the only meaningful way to go through life – the Mother of God has lived every single one of Her days on earth. On this day the souls can find Her in the deepest experience of Sorrow.

The Sufferings of Jesus as a Man are accomplished. The absolutely perfect nature of these Sufferings has opened up Heaven again, after many centuries, and have rung in the Era of Divine Mercy. Under the New Covenant each human life will become meaningful as a way towards a new Kingdom: the Kingdom of God on earth, which will be established on the foundation of the unlimited redeeming and sanctifying power of Love and consecrated trials. From the Cross Jesus entrusted His Mother to the souls, and the souls to His Mother. This is how God wanted it to be: That the souls should make the New Covenant and Redemption fruitful within themselves by surrendering completely to Mary. She is the Bearer of perfect sanctity and of the perfect knowledge of the Way to achieve it. Mary was given full powers to make the Works of Jesus fully flower in each individual soul.

Mary would not be able to complete Redemption within the individual souls if She had not experienced the absolutely perfect Sorrow Herself. The Mother of Sorrows was rightly the Co-Redemptrix with the Messiah, because during Her life on earth She experienced every aspect of human sorrows in its fullness. In the Immaculate Conception God prepared Her soul for the perfect sanctification of every experience of life, and with the Incarnation of the Divine Messiah in Her Womb, Her Heart was merged with the Heart of the God-Man, so that She might be able to follow Him with maximum fruitfulness in His Mission as the Redeemer. God wished the soul to 'complete within her own being all that is lacking in the Sufferings of Christ'. Therefore God wants to need the human soul so that all of His Works might not only be provided with the Seal of God, but with the human soul’s signature as well. Thus He wanted to need Mary’s signature, in Her capacity as the Representative of all creatures, to ratify His Covenant of Redemption for all mankind of all times.

By virtue of this Mary is the Co-Redemptrix, She who signs the Covenant of Redemption on behalf of all mankind. For this act, which She would fully confirm at the foot of the Cross, to obtain 'legal force' within God’s Law, Mary first had to take all human souls of all times up into Her Heart as into a Sacrificial Chalice. This mystical act is tantamount to an act of complete self-sacrifice and self-denial, through which a soul makes herself available to God in her body, mind and heart, to help carry all burdens and crosses of other souls, in order to help expiate them in her own body, mind and heart. In Mary God has fully accepted this act because She was predestined to be the perfect Auxiliary to the Redeemer and His Works. As a consequence thereof Mary has lived a life of terrible sorrows in mind and Heart, and of (generally unknown) physical sufferings. This is the capacity in which She was standing at the foot of the Cross, carrying in Her Heart all souls of all times, and mystically merged with the Redeemer, who was expiating all sins on the Cross: A perfect Sacrifice, made by a God made Man in unity with a created soul who, in the order of grace, had been elevated to the highest level of Divine Life.

Even now that the Redeemer has died on the Cross, His Works are carried along in Mary’s Heart. During the hours between the Death on the Cross on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter morning, Mary bears the terrible burden of all souls of all times. She keeps crying, not in the first place for a human reason (the fact She has witnessed the Death of Her Son), but for a spiritual reason: Because of the unique gift She has received from God, owing to which She has got knowledge of all human souls of all times, and of all sins of all times, Her Heart is torn to pieces on this day after Jesus’ Death on the Cross, because of the terrible burden of all sins that have made the Sufferings of the Christ necessary. She is crying incessantly because She sees the fullness of Truth, and therefore knows what pains sin inflicts upon God: Eternal Love, Who has oceans of Divine Life pour down upon the souls, finds back but very few brooks of it on earth, whereas the major part of the flows of graces are covered underneath layers of the dust of worldly attachments, and evaporate under the fever of countless billions of sins.

On Holy Saturday Mary is dying deep in Her Heart – this perfect Mirror of infinite Divine Love – being perfectly well aware of the fact the souls have just killed their God, and that they are going to keep doing so in their hearts. On account of this awareness, for Mary the horror of Good Friday will last until the end of times.

The dark blanket of sin is spread over the souls. Jesus’ Death on the Cross has made the sun rise above creation, yet only the soul that is willing to follow Jesus all the way through the loving consecration of the crosses of her own life, will be able to receive within herself this sun’s Light, and owing to this Light, enable the Heavenly seed of her Redemption to flower. Mary’s tears are the rain, which arouses Divine Life contained in this seed. What an symbol: Between Jesus’ Suffering and His redeeming Death on the Cross on the one hand, and His Resurrection on the other, lies the Sorrowful Heart of Mary. For the souls She is the Bridge between their sufferings and their glorification, between their trials and their sanctification.

On Holy Saturday the Saviour’s Body rests in the tomb. True following of Jesus also consists herein, that the soul crucifies the world within herself and dies of the world, and that she entrusts all her old habits and weaknesses to the Tomb of Mary’s Heart, in order to rise from this Tomb for a new life, true Divine Life.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

6. Easter

The deep meaning of Easter – the Resurrection of Jesus

The Resurrection of the Light. Early in the morning the crucified Love appears to be risen: The eternal night, which has threatened the souls ever since the original sin, is broken. Through the Resurrection the victory of Love, which was accomplished on the Cross, is crowned for all eternity.

In the Passion and the Resurrection God shows the souls a crystal-clear image of what life on earth is all about: The soul is to mourn over all her sins, seducibilities and worldly attachments (Holy Thursday), she is to crucify them in all her sufferings and trials and to sacrifice them with love to God’s Plan of Salvation (Good Friday), she is to carry them to the grave through and in total consecration to Mary (Holy Saturday), in order to be born again of Mary for true Divine Life (Resurrection).

The soul that dies in sin, has got no part of the Resurrection of Love within herself, because she has voluntarily crucified Love within herself. The soul, however, that leads her life wishing to keep crucifying sin and darkness within herself, is clothed by God with the grace of her resurrection for true Life. In this soul the Love is not killed, it has only suffered for the sake of her perfection, and through the grace of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection she is born again, in glorification of the Light of true Love, Bearer of Divine Life. Easter is the absolute climax of the victory of the Light over darkness. The Resurrection reminds the human soul of her origin: God’s Heart, the Source and Destination of all Life and of all Love.

The soul can crucify darkness within herself in every victory over a temptation, over a weakness, over an attachment to worldly thinking and desires, over a tendency to cling to her own past. Through all this she helps weave the robe of her resurrection, the pattern of which has been prepared by God and can be shaped by Mary to the extent to which the soul surrenders to Her, who has realized the unique privilege of an absolutely perfect path of life. In proportion as the darkness dies in a soul, the Light within her is aroused and she lives the Mystery of Easter in the deepest sense of the word: the resurrection for a Life detached from everything which chains her to the things of the world.

That is why Easter is the feast of the soul’s glorification and freedom. Under the Old Covenant God promised that the souls that would put the blood of the killed Easter lamb on their door posts while He was going to pass through the land of Egypt to strike the heathens, would be spared. Under the New Covenant God promises that the souls that will assimilate the Blood of the Easter Lam Christ and are willing to merge it with their own blood by following Christ in their own lives and by believing in the fruits of His Work of Redemption, will experience true liberation. The oppressor is no longer Egypt’s pharaoh, but Satan, the big enemy of God’s Works.

Under the Old Covenant God struck the Egyptians on the Jewish Passover, under the New Covenant, at Easter He strikes Satan and his works in the soul. In order to allow the effects of the Easter Mystery under the New Covenant to flower within her, the soul must therefore first glorify within herself the Redeeming Sufferings of the Christ and the co-redeeming Sorrows of Mary, by reshaping the path of her life into a way of the cross of consecrated sufferings, a crusade of Love towards her own liberation from all darkness.

The true way to the soul’s Easter is the way of actually living Love in every detail of life. True Love is the will, not to sin, not to displease God in any way. It is the aspiration to give each fellow creature we meet the feeling that God is really close to them, so that our presence provides them with the experience of joy and peace. The soul aiming for this goal every day of her life, collects within herself the grace and the Light that prepare her resurrection for Eternal Love. Being a true Christian is actually living the Mystery of Easter in that Christ is living, working and suffering within one’s soul, and will therefore also arouse the soul for Eternal Life. If the soul allows Christ to live within her on earth, He will also live within her beyond her earthly life, and rise in unity with her.

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TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

7. The Ascension of Jesus

The Messiah did not lead an ordinary life. His Mission on earth was not like that of the average created soul. Yet the Most Holy Trinity set the Son of God as an Example for all souls. In order for this Example might not be a merely theoretical one, but one set within the framework of a perfectly meritorious life, Jesus was to be born a Man. He was to lead a life in which no trial inherent to human life would be lacking. Christ came into the world to announce the Kingdom of God on earth. This Kingdom can only be established to the extent to which human souls overcome their trials. A trial is regarded by God as overcome if it is borne and consecrated in genuine Love, so as to turn into material for the preparation of redeeming and sanctifying graces. This is how God transforms darkness into Light if the soul puts her free will at the service of God’s Plan of Salvation.

Let us consider Jesus. If we are to try and be one with Him in suffering and in overcoming our trials, we will also be allowed to unite with Him in that which comes afterwards, for in Jesus’ Human Nature God has forever demonstrated that He indeed wants to elevate man after His image.

After Jesus’ Suffering and physical Death in perfect Love and surrender for the benefit of God’s Plan of Salvation the Christ rises from the dead as a sign for the final victory of Life over death. As of His Resurrection, for a period of forty days Jesus regularly appears to His disciples in order to give them His last instructions. In those days He is already living in a different dimension, for the human component of His being has already overcome all trials. Then the day arrives on which He gives the souls the sign that is meant to show them that in God’s Reality everything continues infinitely, and that thus nothing ever comes to an end, except everything which intends to bring darkness and death: Jesus ascends into Heaven.

In His Ascension Jesus teaches the souls two major lessons from which, exactly during the hardest moments of their lives, they will be able to derive the strength to have true hope flourish within themselves, and thereby to go on fighting with their hearts filled with Light:

1. The immense value of spiritualization. On this day Jesus ends His physical, visible Presence among the souls. As of His Ascension the disciples and all His followers have got to find Him deep inside their hearts, for they will no longer see Him living and working in a visible shape, nor ever again hear His voice. It is expected from the souls that, as of this day, they should fully live in the atmosphere of true faith. Jesus said to the disciples: "I will be with you till the end of times". Nevertheless they no longer see Him after His Ascension. Henceforth they will have to do with His promise, and will have to believe that God always keeps His promises, in other words: that He IS not only there, but that He is also WORKING. This faith now applies to the entire promise:

• that Jesus will stay with the souls, even though they do not see Him. This refers to God’s permanent Presence, as well as to the reality of Holy Communion;

• that Jesus is leaving in order to prepare the souls a place in Heaven, in other words: that life indeed goes on beyond physical death;

• that He is going to send the Holy Spirit to complete His Works within them.

In all of this Jesus points out to the souls that they can only find happiness on earth to the extent to which they succeed in rising above themselves and in increasingly focusing on the experience of the things which can not be perceived. True faith is the faculty of being convinced, in every detail of earthly life, that God is present, and that He is actually implementing all His promises in one’s own life, in one’s own soul and in mankind as a whole. This is what turns true faith into a source of happiness and of true inner peace. Yes, "My Peace be with you", as it says in one of Jesus’ promises.

2. The assurance that separation on earth is not the end. Everything which bears Divine Life, never ends, just like God Himself has no end. When today Jesus separates from His followers on the Mountain of Olives, His separation from them is merely physical. His Presence will not end. Likewise the physical death of a person that is dear to us, is not a final separation, quite the opposite, it is the beginning of a relationship in the fullness of this person’s presence with us. Just like Jesus will stay with all souls till the end of times, through a Divine Mystery our deceased, too, stay spiritually connected with us until we are joined with them forever in Eternal Life. God has created this Mystery, and has demonstrated it in Jesus and elevated it to be a point of doctrine, so that no soul might ever forget to go on leading her own life after a beloved one has been separated from her on earth.

While Jesus was lifted up from the earth and rose into Heaven, two men stood by them in white robes and said: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into Heaven?". Indeed, separation from a beloved person must not make a soul forget to go on living, for God’s Plan with her has not yet been completed. In this soul true faith must be the engine driving her to reunification in Eternal Life: reunification with the beloved person, and the final unification with Christ, both in their fullness, as true faith is the nourishment God has prepared for the souls for the moments when the world seems to have taken everything away from them. Thus true faith will be for every soul the force by which she herself is once going to rise up to Heaven, as the accomplishment of her following of Christ.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

8. Pentecost

The deep meaning of Pentecost - the Coming of the Holy Spirit

For three years Jesus had lived with His disciples. He had taught them the only Truth day and night. Nevertheless He promised them the Coming of the Holy Spirit in His words: "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance all that I have said to you".

By speaking these words, Jesus points out that the soul will not be able to fully accomplish being a Christian without the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

God is working constantly. As the three major Divine Works we have come to know: Creation, Redemption and Sanctification. The first of these Works (Creation) engenders all animate and all inanimate things. The second and third of these Works (Redemption and Sanctification) are wrought by God only for the benefit of the creature He regards as the coronation of His Works of Creation: the human soul. Although the Three Divine Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are perfectly One in one single Divinity, we regard the Eternal Father as the Source of the Works of Creation, the Son Jesus Christ as the Source of the Works of Redemption, and the Holy Spirit as the Source of the Works of Sanctification.

Without Creation, there can be no life. Among all living creatures man is the only one to have received a soul after the image of God, and only the human soul is able to receive the fullness of grace and to 'process' it within herself such as to be ready to help bring salvation to creation, to represent God towards all creatures, to acquire knowledge of God’s Truth (God’s Light), and on the basis of this knowledge, to be enabled to enjoy the eternal contemplation of God’s Countenance.

Thus the soul is like a flower, which has got to unfold itself ever more in order to develop the fullness of its beauty and its scent. The soul is made receptive to this fullness of God’s Truth and God’s Light by the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus said to His disciples: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth". Only to the extent to which the soul allows herself to be opened up by the Holy Spirit, will she be able to look at the reality of life more like God Himself looks at it: devoid of worldly and human thinking, and against the background of the extent to which everything will be likely to serve God’s Plan of Salvation.

It is expected of every created human soul that she should bring to bloom within herself the Work of Redemption that Jesus Christ accomplished for the benefit of all souls, by meticulously following Jesus in accepting all crosses of earthly life with Love, and by developing within herself all the virtues which will make her resemble Him more and more. Thus the soul has got to grow to ever higher levels of sanctity through the accomplishment of Redemption. The soul will be able to bear the fullness of Truth only to the extent to which she accomplishes Redemption within herself. Let us consider the process of perfecting the soul, which could be summarized against the background of the three successive major events after Jesus had accomplished His Work of Redemption on the Cross:

1. The Resurrection of Jesus Symbolizes the rebirth of the soul, which is possible only after she has very much brought the Christ’s Work of Redemption to bloom within herself. This rebirth of the soul as a 'new man' signifies her inner liberation owing to the fact she has learned to deal with her crosses in the right way, and therefore no longer experiences life as an oppressing situation of which she is a victim or even a prisoner;

2. The Ascension of Jesus symbolizes the soul’s complete detachment from worldly things, whereas her consciousness, her thinking, feeling and desiring begin to live more and more in the sphere of the things of eternity, the needs of worldly life become ever less important to her, and worldly events affect her ever less;

3. The Coming of the Holy Spirit: Only after the soul, in her inner experience, has really detached herself from the grip of worldly things and influences, will she be able to open up to the fullness of sanctification. This is how we should understand Jesus’ words when He says: "If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you". In other words: The soul must have greatly made Redemption (Jesus’ Work) bloom within herself, otherwise she will not be able to open up sufficiently to the Works the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish within her (the Helper can not come to her).

This is why the Holy Spirit is called the Sanctifier. He represents the Divine Force which has to transform the soul into God’s image. Originally the human soul was created such as to be the image of God. Therefore she lived in a state of perfect sanctity. This state of sanctity was lost through the original sin. In order to restore the state of salvation of the entire creation, ever since the original sin all human souls have got to suffer trials. The soul now is to gain back sanctity through the way in which she deals with these trials. The original sin worked like a ban on the souls, by virtue of which the access to Eternal Bliss in Heaven was denied them. Each soul individually must erase the ban imposed by the original sin through a life in obedience towards God’s Law, i.e. a life in application of all virtues and in the footsteps of the Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus is called the 'Saviour' or 'Redeemer' because, through His Sufferings and His Death on the Cross, He has lifted the ban imposed upon the human souls by virtue of the original sin. However, each soul has to make this a reality in her own life by perfectly following Jesus.

The works through which the soul is able to accomplish Redemption within herself, must be crowned by the soul’s attempting to open herself up completely to the actions of the Holy Spirit to her benefit. God’s Spirit wants to bring the Works of the Redeemer within the soul to their highest possible fruition, and to enable the soul to make the very best of all gifts and graces she has received and still receives. The Holy Spirit aims at 'spiritualizing' the human soul: He wants to pull her thinking, feeling and longing away from the atmosphere of worldly influences altogether, so that all her works and words may help bring salvation upon creation. This is what we refer to as 'sanctification' (transforming human works into Heavenly Works, so to speak). This was exactly God’s main purpose when He let Mary (the Spouse of the Holy Spirit!) reveal as the Mistress of all souls: God invites every soul to accept Mary as her Mistress, so that She might be able to guide the soul internally and to transform her such as to enable her to open up to the highest degree to the Works of the Holy Spirit, who wants to bring to blossom within the soul everything the latter has received from God to enable her to attain true sanctity.

Immediately after Jesus’ Ascension the disciples locked themselves up in the cenacle at Jerusalem together with Mary, where they spent day and night in prayer and reading the bible, and where, in the early morning of Pentecost, they were ecstacized by the effusion of the fire of God’s Eternal Truth, which had the most various effects within them. This effusion enabled them to practise their great vocation at the service of God’s Kingdom. In a manner of speaking the Pentecostal fire burned the last traces of human feeling, thinking and longing out of them, so that their hearts and souls were prepared for a life which was going to bring salvation upon many souls. This marked the beginning of a chain of Heavenly fire which was to be passed on from generation to generation, and of which every one of us is a link.

On Pentecost the Holy Spirit longs to conclude the Wedding of Sanctity with every human soul, the Covenant which enables Him to lift the soul up above her human nature up to a level on which she is truly able to do God’s Works. That was Jesus’ ultimate goal.

God’s joy is perfect. Nevertheless its effects can make themselves be felt more distinctly in creation as well, in proportion as a greater number of souls act upon the invitation extended by the Holy Spirit, for the fullness of grace is the fruit of a perfect Wedding between God and a soul, through which the soul ratifies God’s Will by putting her own will at His service. God ardently desires that each soul should allow herself to be transformed into a temple of prayer and of longing for His Spirit, a cenacle in which Mary takes the central place like a Magnet of perfect sanctity who attracts Her Divine Groom towards Her for an everlasting merger of Love, and thereby immerses the soul which She completely rules, into the Ocean of Divine Fruitfulness, which enables her to lose herself in the Spirit who wants to bring her the absolute accomplishment in the fullness of Peace and Love.

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TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

9. The Visitation of Mary

The deep meaning of the Visitation of Mary - the feast of May 31

When the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that She was going to receive Jesus in Her womb, he also announced to Her that Her kinswoman Elisabeth, in spite of the fact she was allegedly barren, had been pregnant for six months. Thereupon Mary takes off from Nazareth in Galilee (the northern province of Israel) to Ain Karim in Judea (the country’s southern province), for a long and difficult journey of which the destination is situated in a mountainous region. What is the deep meaning and sense of this visit?

Elisabeth is a woman of very mature age. In her womb she carries the fruit which will later be known as John the Baptist. Mary Herself is pregnant with Jesus, the Man-God, the Messiah and Redeemer. Although She is perfectly well aware of Her unique predestination (as Mother of the Messiah), Mary renounces Herself completely in serving Her fellow person. At Mary’s arrival She greets Her cousin, and the Holy Spirit inspires the latter that Mary is pregnant with the Son of God. So for the first time ever, God directly announces to a human soul that Mary is the Mother of the Messiah. Elisabeth tells Mary that in her womb, John the Baptist has leapt for joy when hearing Mary’s voice.

Thus we get to know Mary as the One who bears Jesus to the souls, as the One who will always be the Bearer of Light, who will always be very closely united to God, and who therefore represents God: Wherever Mary appears, the atmosphere is filled with God’s Presence. This is how it will be forever. Moreover it is important that it is not people who proclaim Her as having this capacity, but God Himself, through an inspiration from the Holy Spirit to Elisabeth.

For three months Mary will completely deny Her own needs in order to bring joy and assistance to Elisabeth, thereby actually already announcing the Mission of the Redeemer, who is going to bring Love, Light and joy to the souls:

• Love, because in spite of Her own pregnancy Mary renounces Herself for three months for the benefit of Her fellow person, and She does so from a Heart in which She is perfectly One with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit;

• Light, because in Her (and thus in Jesus’) Presence Elisabeth receives the Light of Truth about Mary and Jesus, and consequently about the true meaning of this moment in the history of salvation;

• Joy, because the still unborn child leaps for joy. Through Mary Jesus is already acting like the One who is coming to alleviate the human soul’s life through loving support and the tangible Presence of God. Moreover God thereby testifies of the fact hat also the unborn fruit already reacts to God’s Presence, meaning it is already guided by God.

In Her visit to Elisabeth Mary also makes it clear that the truly holy soul spares no effort to bring God to the souls: Her journey is long, and the last part of Her itinerary before She reaches Her destination, is mountainous. In this fact God shows that souls not always make themselves easily accessible to His Light, and that it often takes perseverance in charity to open a soul up to Salvation.

In reply to Elisabeth’s words the Spirit of God, who shortly before contracted the perfect mystical marriage with Mary and deposited within Her the germ of the Man-God, inspires Mary to pronounce the Magnificat, by which She glorifies God, but through which God also inspires Her to raise the first corner of the veil as to Her own capacity and the role She is to play within His Plan of Salvation: "Henceforth all generations will call Me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things unto Me". God Himself has Mary announce that She is going to remain a key figure for the salvation of souls throughout the history of salvation.

In a mystical way, Mary here brings the Christ into contact with His precursor, John the Baptist, who, as a man, will be six months older than Jesus, and who for some time will announce the coming of the Messiah, until the latter appears Himself in public for the first time when letting Himself be baptized by John in the river Jordan. The Baptist reacts from his mother’s womb to Mary’s voice, who is completely immersed in the Christ dwelling within Her own womb.

A striking thing is Mary’s constant Presence with Elisabeth and Zachary throughout a period in which both are heavily tried: Zachary is unable to speak until John’s birth, and Elisabeth is constantly being tempted as to the truth of her understanding about Jesus and Mary, and as to the promise that her own son John is going to be great in God’s eyes. In this respect we must bear in mind that Mary’s Presence in the house and garden of Elisabeth and Zachary is a very quiet Presence: She speaks but rarely, She seems to be 'hovering' through the house, and all Her chores She completes nearly without making the slightest noise. The greatest signs of Her Presence are the deep peace and the Heavenly Light She spreads all around Her. This is God’s testimony of Mary’s humility and self-denial: It is not She who makes Her Presence noticed through human signs, it is God who marks Her Presence by purely Heavenly signs. God here depicts Mary as the One who supports the souls afflicted by trials and temptations through their difficult days in an inconspicuous way.

In this event Mary shows to all generations what God expects from every single soul: That she should help bring Jesus to her fellow creatures, make God’s Presence noticeable, renounce herself for the benefit of her fellow person, bring joy and Light, ignore her own needs, not attract attention but rather refer to God, and glorify God as the One who is perfectly just and whose promises remain effective for all eternity. Mary here demonstrates to the souls that a truly holy soul actually does no longer live a life of her own but is a mere instrument of service, which lets itself be moved by God alone in all acts, words and desires.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

10. The Transfiguration of Jesus

The deep meaning of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor – the feast of August 6

Shortly after Jesus had entrusted to His disciples the fact that the Son of Man was to be put to death yet would arise on the third day, He went upon Mount Tabor with His three confidants Peter, John and James. On the summit of Mount Tabor the disciples met with a special experience. Jesus’ Countenance became radiant and His garment dazzling white. With Him appeared Moses and Elijah. Let us consider what lessons God wants to teach the souls through these events.

It is remarkable that God should like to have major manifestations of glorification take place on mountains. He did this with Jesus on Mount Calvary, He has done it repeatedly with Mary where She appeared on mountains, and He also did it on Mount Tabor. A high mountain symbolizes contact with Heaven in a place that is far away from worldly influences. In such places silence is predominant, and signs of human presence are scarce. Hence the heart opens up more easily to all Divine influences. The high mountain is also a symbol for the soul’s victory over her 'self'.

When Jesus takes the three disciples with Him to the summit of Mount Tabor, it is as if He wanted to demonstrate them that the soul can only be lifted up through efforts which require a victory over her physical component. On the summit He shows Himself to them in a glorified shape. Here Jesus embodies the glorified, perfectly holy soul that radiates as if she did not even have a physical body. Shortly after He has announced His Sufferings, Death and Resurrection to His disciples, He is now testifying of the Messiah’s glorified Being.

With Jesus, Moses and Elijah appear. These souls are not involved in this event purely by coincidence:

Moses is the one who had received from God the Ten Commandments. Thus he symbolizes the Law. He is also a symbol of liberation, for he led the Jews out of Egypt, where they had lived in bondage for a very long time. Whereas Moses had liberated God’s people physically, Jesus here on Mount Tabor is the One who, as the Man-God, has been sent as the great spiritual Liberator.

To God’s people Elijah was the great prophet who, on the last day of his life on earth, was taken away to Heaven in horses and a chariot on fire. We might look at it this way: He was taken up into glory in the fire of God’s Love and God’s Truth. He symbolizes the prophets. Let us therefore look at the entire symbolism behind the presence of these figures from the Old Covenant:

Together, Moses and Elijah represent 'Law and prophets'. Let us in this respect bear in mind that Jesus, when referring to the whole of Divine Truth, would say: "That is Law and prophets". In Moses and Elijah two major representatives of God’s Truth and of true Love bear witness to Christ as the Embodiment of Divine Love and Truth, and of Liberation or Redemption. In a way both these souls here depict that which is embodied in its absolute perfection by Jesus.

In Moses and Elijah the next followers of Christ are made witnesses of Truth, Love and Redemption as Divine Mysteries, as elements of God’s Glory. God Himself audibly crowns Jesus’ glorification by speaking the words: "This is My Son, in Whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him". It is remarkable, that the Eternal Father already referred to the Divine nature of Jesus as His Son when the latter was being baptized in the river Jordan, before the beginning of His Public Life. On Mount Tabor, shortly before the great Suffering through which Jesus’ earthly Mission is to be crowned, He will do this once again.

This is a great moment, for actually the Eternal Father is saying to those who will soon be among the very first priests of the only true Church: "Here the Law and prophets are indeed represented, but the very core of interest is henceforth to be Christ, He is the One the souls should listen to in order to accomplish their own glorification". The New and everlasting Covenant is thus visibly and audibly pointed at as taking precedence over the Old Covenant for all times to come.

In the glorification on Mount Tabor God makes a vital statement towards the souls: Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. He has not come to abolish the Law, but to bring its fulfillment. It is He, who has come to add a completely new meaning to the Old Covenant, which had been deteriorating into a mere performance of empty ceremonies, and to teach the souls that the emphasis within God’s Plan of Salvation has now been shifted for all eternity: Henceforth the souls will be expected to accomplish their own glorification through a meticulous following of Christ, and to add meaning to their sanctification by not avoiding the path of suffering, of self-conquest and of detachment.

On Mount Tabor, Jesus as the Crown on God’s Law, on Divine Truth, on Divine Love, on Redemption, on spiritualization, is God’s living Sign of the Promise of Glorification as the fruit of:

• perfect obedience (the Law)

• perfect implementation of God’s words and teachings (Truth)

• true Love

• accepted and consecrated trials and crosses (Redemption)

• victory over the physical component of one’s being (spiritualization).

In fact, all of this is shown to the souls on two mountains: On the first one (Mount Tabor) God shows them the fruit like it will be reality in Paradise, on the second one (Mount Calvary) He will show them the golden path to this glorification. Together, Tabor and Calvary express the unity between suffering and sanctity. The crowning of being a Christian and the fulfillment of God’s Law are fully contained in the aforementioned points. It is not a mere coincidence that they should constitute the very essence of the signposts God provides the souls in these Last Times with, by giving them the teachings of Mary as the Mistress of all souls.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

11. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

The deep meaning of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, body and soul –
the feast of August 15

Each soul is sent into the world to lead a life, of which the beginning and the end are determined by God, entirely according to His eternal Plan of Salvation for all souls. When the soul has completed her time on earth, she must have made full use of all that which God has given her as to talents, gifts and abilities, and of that which she has received on a day-to-day basis in the way of graces. She must have put all of this to the maximum fruitfulness for her own sanctification and for the promotion of God’s Works for the Salvation of all creation. Subsequently there follows a Divine judgment on the soul’s life which has just come to an end: The balance of a life is struck, and according to this balance the soul’s state of existence for all eternity is established.

When the time foreseen for the life of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary on earth was fulfilled, several unique events took place. God had bestowed unique privileges upon Her, because Her role within God’s Plan of Salvation was unique: She was the only created soul who was to be united with Divinity in soul and body. God had granted Her the privilege of the Immaculate Conception, through which She was received free from the original sin and the far-reaching effects thereof for a life, in which She was to be the Mother of the Man-God, Christ the Saviour. At the time determined by God the Holy Spirit took Her to be His Bride, the Divine Germ of Jesus Christ was infused into Her womb, and She bore the incarnated Divinity within the most holy Tabernacle of Her Womb for nine months. She led a spotlessly holy life, not stained by even the slightest sin or vice, thereby proving for the entire duration of Her life that She was the absolute Mistress over all evil, all darkness, all temptation and discouragement, and that, consequently, She also was the absolute Mistress over Herself, since She did not even allow Herself the slightest derogation from the most holy way of living as the Mother of Christ.

God did not want to take His chosen Daughter up with Him the way He takes any other soul, because Mary had never trodden the paths of sin and was therefore able to leave this earth with a perfectly unstained soul. Her merits were absolutely unique, for She had not had this perfectly holy life presented to Her on a silver platter, She had fought for it every minute, and even much harder than the average soul does. As soon as the satan had noticed this soul was the Bearer of something untouchable, for that She so brilliantly resisted all his manipulations and inspirations, he tried Her even infinitely more ruthlessly than he used to with any other soul. Her power over Satan, over his following and over all his works was so infinite, that in hell the assumption started to rise (the devil was not granted any absolute certainties on this) that this Woman might be the Mother of the Messiah. The trials grew even heavier. These trials, as well as Mary’s unparalleled knowledge of sin and Her insight into the sinfulness of the souls, together constituted the tremendously heavy burden of Mary’s Sorrows.

God had intended never to allow that Mary should die physically, but to assume Her into Heaven without the slightest change of state. However, Mary insisted with God that She should pass over to Eternal Life the way any other soul does, because even the Divine Saviour had gone through death. God knew how to shape His Love, by letting Mary pass into 'dormition'. She slipped into a state of deep exaltation, and was assumed into Heaven with body and soul.

Mary was not subjected to any judgment before the throne of God, for with Her Immaculate Conception (i.e. almost fifty years before Jesus would die on the Cross) She already had received an 'advance' to Redemption, as She was free from the stain of original sin. Because She had led an absolutely holy life, no balance of Her life needed to be struck.

When life on earth runs to an end, the soul is brought before the throne of God in order that judgment be passed on her life. The body, however, remains on earth. In Mary’s case, Her body was assumed into Heaven as well. The reason for this can be found in Divine Wisdom and Justice:

Normally the physical body bears the traces of all kinds of sin and vice. With Mary this was not the case. Even Her body was to become the object of deepest veneration, as in Her it had become an instrument of power over darkness. Indeed, in Her physical body Mary had:

• overcome all temptations;

• perfectly controlled all needs exceeding the bare necessities of life;

• renounced all attachments in order to lead a life at the service of God’s Plan of Salvation.

Every fiber of Mary’s Being, Her body as well as Her Heart (all Her states of mind, Her Sorrows on account of sin, Her perfect Love), Her mind (each one of Her thoughts was geared to the accomplishment of God’s Plans) and Her soul (which had not experienced even the slightest damage by sin or vice) left this world as spotless as it was at the time of Her Immaculate Conception. Mary was taken up into Heaven in the fullness of Her Being because She had remained perfectly one with God’s Will and had thereby guaranteed in everything, even in Her slightest thoughts, feelings and desires, in each word spoken and in every deed, the perfect execution of all that God had wanted to accomplish through Her life on earth.

Mary had grown into the perfect image of God. By Her Assumption into Heaven God wanted to testify of His unlimited Love and Mercy, and of His boundless acknowledgement of the soul that allows herself to be fully taken up into Him and that, while on earth, does not do anything but His Works. On earth, Mary was the perfect Mirror of Divine Love, purity, beauty, power and fruitfulness. Not one single fiber of Her Being was to be subjected to the decay of lifeless nature, for Mary was forever one with the fullness of Divine Life. In Her Assumption into Heaven with body and soul God wanted to demonstrate that what is aimed at by the soul on earth, is completed and eternalized by Him after life on earth. Mary only lived for the completion of fruitfulness in Divine Life. God confirmed this by taking Her up into the fullness of Divine Life. Right at Her entry into Heaven, He would not subject Her to Divine judgment, but elevate Her above everything for all eternity, with the Heavens as witnesses.

In Mary’s Assumption into Heaven God shows the supreme Sign for the fruit the soul will inherit if she allows sanctity to be completed within herself by sacrificing herself completely for the benefit of the perfect victory of His Will, which raises everything to Life.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

12. Mary’s Coronation in Heaven

Already before the soul of the Immaculate Virgin Mary was created, God had prepared for Her a unique role within His Plan of Salvation. After Mary had accomplished Her spotlessly holy life on earth, and She had made infinitely powerful contributions to the accomplishment of God’s Works on the merits of Her persistent perfect unity with God’s Will, Eternal Love assumed Her into Heaven, body and soul. This is how He emphasized Mary’s unique value for His Works, and the unique level of Her sanctity. Mary’s Assumption into Heaven was God’s great Sign of recognition for the soul that accomplishes Her life on earth in perfect accordance with His expectations and perfectly geared to the needs of His Plan of Salvation.

This Sign was made visible by God immediately after Mary’s entry into Heaven. When Mary entered into Heaven, She was, unlike the procedure followed with any other human soul, not subjected to a judgment of Her life which had just ended, on the contrary, She was crowned by the Most Holy Trinity as the Queen of all creatures. As early as in the hour when Mary’s soul was created God already intended for Her to have this capacity. She was to be the Queen of all creatures for all eternity. Mary’s Coronation took place in front of all the angels and saints. In Her Revelation of August 22, 2006, Mary announced the words spoken by the Most Holy Trinity at Her Coronation. At that occasion God literally referred to Her as the Queen of all things created and Mistress of all souls, and announced to all residents of Heaven the unlimited nature of Her power. Like the Most Holy Trinity said to all residents in Heaven during Its Divine Proclamation, the foundation for the completion of the Divine Plan of Redemption had been perfected in Mary’s Coronation.

The announcement of Mary in Her unique sublimity and superiority over all creatures was not restricted to Heaven: The Divine Decree concerning Mary’s everlasting, irrevocable capacity as the Queen of all creatures was also proclaimed in purgatory an in hell. The souls that were accomplishing their purification in purgatory received this announcement with great joy. They understood that they had just been granted an extremely powerful Advocate who was able to bring forward their entry into Heaven.

In the regions of darkness the words spoken by God and the image of the Coronation of Mary (which were shown to them in a supernatural way) brought forth a storm of anxiety and shattering fear. Only now Satan recognized with certainty the confirmation of that which he had been fearing all along throughout Mary’s life on earth, but of which he had never received proof: that this was THE Woman, the One of whom it had been predicted that She was to gain the final victory over him in the Last Times. Satan and his following now heard from God’s mouth that Mary was able and was allowed to wield an absolute power over them, so that they would be completely at Her mercy.

From this, Satan gathered that the Works of Redemption completed by Jesus Christ had received an additional dimension in 'the Woman': In Her, God now officially acknowledged for all Heaven, purgatory and hell to hear, that Mary was the One by whose perfect sanctity His Plan of Salvation was to be completed. This conclusion had far-reaching consequences: Satan had understood that according to God’s Law Christ’s Works of Redemption had to be complemented by the perfect sanctity and the unity of a human soul with Divine Will. This was another reason why the Coronation of Mary became a major milestone in the history of salvation.

In the eternal Queen God crowned Mary as the Woman through whom He completely restored mankind to honour after the disgrace of the original sin. Eve had not been able to fulfill her role as the queen of all creatures, because she had not succeeded in maintaining the sanctity she had received. Therefore, to Satan the Coronation of Mary was a shattering sign: He was given evidence for the fact that the human soul was able to attain perfect sanctity. Mary was the Queen of everything, and justly so, for She was the only soul to have incessantly displayed a Love which had invested Her with the power to command the devil on his knees in every single detail of Her daily life. In Mary Satan was for the first time completely defeated by a created soul, which to him meant an even greater humiliation that the defeat he has suffered at Christ’s Death on the Cross, because Christ was Divine by nature.

During the Coronation of Mary as the Queen and Mistress of all creatures all residents of Heaven lay prostrated at Her feet and took a vow of eternal obedience towards their Queen and Mistress, in accordance with God’s Decree. Mary received the power to implement and shape Divine Providence, and the Most Holy Trinity decreed that within Divine Law, obedience or disobedience towards Mary would have a similar effect as obedience or disobedience towards God Himself.

At the creation of Mary’s soul God had collected the perfections of all elements created and yet to be created by Him. Since, moreover, during Her entire life on earth She had allowed these perfections to fully yield fruit and She had not in the slightest way violated any of them, She was crowned as the Queen and Mistress of all creatures, and justly so in accordance with the Law of Divine Justice. In Her Revelation of December 22, 2006, Mary would say: "Queen was the title of My glory, Mistress the title of My power. Mistress of all souls is the absolute crown on My capacity as the Queen of all creatures".

It is remarkable that God testified of Mary’s sublimity towards the residents of Heaven, of purgatory and of hell, yet at that time not yet towards the souls on earth. They were to learn about it much later, the crown on this proclamation being the revelation of Mary as the Mistress of all souls as of November 26, 2005, when Mary announced to Myriam:

"It is God’s will that from this hour I should be known to humanity as the Mistress of all Souls". Of the souls on earth God expects they should believe in Mary’s unique sublimity while still living on earth. As the Mistress of all souls proclaimed, every soul will in the hour when judgment is passed on her life, for a few moments see Mary the way She really is. They who will enter into Eternal Life will enjoy the permanent contemplation of Her Glory as God’s Masterpiece, as one of the constituents of Eternal Bliss.

Mary’s capacity as the Queen of all creatures and Mistress of all souls is one of the greatest gifts God ever prepared for mankind. Her Coronation was actually the beginning of the special role assigned to Mary for these Last Times: The crown She wears is the crown of perfection as a created soul, a privilege reserved for Her and Her alone. She bears within Herself the Love, the power and the Wisdom in the most extended fullness a created soul can ever achieve according to Divine Law. Never again will the earth see a soul that will even come close to Mary’s Love, power and Wisdom.

Mary’s Coronation as the Queen of all creatures and Mistress of all souls has enabled God to accomplish through a human soul Works in other souls, which seal the victory of the Light over darkness even more convincingly than the same Works could ever do if they were accomplished by God directly, because in Mary a created soul accomplishes Divine Works in other created souls. Towards Satan this makes for a much more striking victory of the Light. Through Mary’s Coronation God presented Her, so to speak, to creation as His official Representative. Indeed, He, the King of creation, did not give Her the title of 'Princess', but the double title of:

• Queen of all creatures, i.e.: The One who represents the Kingdom of God towards all creation, and

• Mistress of all souls, i.e.: The One who has got the power to guide all souls and to transform them from within, so that they may achieve their optimum fruitfulness for the Kingdom of God.

For mankind, Mary’s Coronation as Queen of all creatures and Mistress of all souls is an extraordinary sign of hope: God’s Reconciliation with the souls had been accomplished at the Cross, and would, in a manner of speaking, be confirmed by elevating a human soul beyond reach above all creatures. In the Coronation of the Mother of God, the Most Holy Trinity once again demonstrated His unlimited Love for the souls. He did not set his sign as a hollow and empty formula, but as the foundation for the completion of Redemption and sanctification for many.

The Queen and Mistress was given to the souls like a Star that is able to guide them towards Eternal Light in the King’s Palace. Blessed are they who follow Her and believe in Her sublimity, for they pay the highest honour to God in the most exquisite of His Works: the perfectly holy soul of the Woman, who is the perfect opposite of the original sin. The first queen (Eve) brought darkness upon the souls, the Eternal Queen (Mary) gave birth to the Light, and preceded the souls on the way to glorification in the perfect radiance of the Light. She did not do this for Her own sake, She did it as an invitation for all souls to live like She has lived, and to do so under Her guidance and in the deepest consecration to Her.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

13. The Birth of Mary

Throughout the history of salvation all of God’s Plans and Works have been motivated by this single force which is so utterly Divine: Love. God is nothing but pure Love. Because He wanted to share His Love with living creatures He created the angels, and later the human soul. Part of the angels became unfaithful to Him, and were therefore no longer able to continue living in Heaven. Later they would inspire the first human souls to the very same disloyalty towards God. Because Love is a Divine force, and no Divine Plan ever remains unfulfilled (so that the same applies to God’s intention that a perfect flow of Love should be maintained forever between the human soul and Himself), God would proclaim the Mystery of Redemption, which was to bring the fulfillment of His Plan: The Redemption of the human soul from the effects of sin, which separates the soul from God.

God established His Mystery of Redemption on the Plan to have His Son be born in a human body, in order to lovingly sacrifice to God the most various forms of trials and sufferings experienced in this human nature, so that the souls might henceforth be enabled to accomplish their Redemption. To this end Jesus had to go through all the steps of Incarnation from a mother’s womb. Thus God needed a Mother, who would be suitable as a Bearer for the Man-God. 'Suitable' in this context means 'perfectly holy', like a 'divinized' Tabernacle. To this end God conceived His Plan for the creation of 'the Woman', the female being that was to constitute the counterpart of the first woman, Eve, who had brought the original sin upon mankind. The Woman was to be the Figurehead for the human soul that defeats Satan and all his works of darkness and is thereby again able to be united with God’s Heart. The concrete implementation of this Plan saw the light of day in the Birth of the Holy Virgin.

The Birth of Mary, the 'Ocean of God', is therefore one of the major milestones in the history of salvation. On that day the immaculately conceived soul of the One who is to be the Mother of the Messiah begins her life in the flesh. This is the first day of the holiest life ever to be lived by a created soul on earth. This is how far God’s Love and His view on the dignity of the human soul as the crown on creation went: With Mary He created a soul in whom all elements of perfection from His Works of creation were merged into the absolute Masterpiece of His power as the Creator: Mary as the 'Daughter of man', like He would have the Mistress of all souls call Herself in Her revelation to Myriam van Nazareth on September 29, 2006, after She had had the Holy Archangel Michael give Her this very same title when the Archangel was singing Mary’s praise to Myriam in another revelation on the same day.

On the day of Mary’s Birth God showed great signs. The residents of heaven were in great joy. They understood that the implementation of the Plan of Redemption had now actually begun. The was great commotion in hell as well. Even though Satan would for a long time merely be able to guess about the identity of 'the Woman', on the day of Her Birth the regions of darkness were prey to the effects of the powerful flows of graces which were being poured down upon creation.

For many years mankind would be ignorant as to who Mary really was. Her Birth was wrapped in mysteries. As of Her very first days 'Mèr-i-am N’Zareth', as I heard Her aramaic name be called, possessed a charisma like no soul on earth had ever possessed, and displayed a behaviour which appeared far more sublime than that of the 'average' soul. Even as a newborn child Mary already possessed perfect Wisdom. God had also endowed Her with an extraordinary knowledge of the Mysteries of creation. This knowledge lived within Her like seeds which were to spring up gradually. That already at the creation of Her soul Mary was predestined to a unique sublimity, was made very clear to me in visions in which Mary was shown to me as a newborn child and as a very young girl, with angels prostrated at Her feet. Even as early as in those days an extensive guard of angels was allotted to Her, which were totally at Her disposal.

For the human souls of all times Mary’s Birth contains first of all a very great sign of hope. Through the Birth of 'the Woman' God proves to the souls:

that His Love for the human soul is so unlimited that He wants to have His Divine Son be born of a human woman, to have Him grow up in this woman’s womb, have Him be raised by this woman for an earthly life, and wants to create between Him and this woman an everlasting mystical union; that He spares no effort to restore the sanctity of the human souls, which was lost on account of the original sin. Mary’s soul was created with the unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception. Thus this perfectly holy soul was linked up with a body, and born for a life which was for all the ages to serve as proof of the fact a created soul could be perfectly holy, and so was indeed able to live after the image of God; that the human soul is not powerless against temptation and the effects of sin. Mary was to become the first soul possessing an absolute power over any temptation, any work of darkness, and all effects of sin. The latter was to become clear especially in later times: see the following point; that He wants to keep implementing His Plan for the Redemption of the human souls throughout the ages, for in Mary He created the Bridge between Heaven and earth, the One who will have the power to bring the Works accomplished by the Man-God towards the Redemption of souls, to their completion in each individual soul, to the extent to which the soul consecrates herself to Her: Mary is so sublime that human souls are able to consecrate themselves to Her, and thereby to belong to God so totally that they are able to grow after His image and likeness; that He wanted to see Satan, the source of all misery, defeated by the human soul. Jesus had broken the absolute and unchangeable character of Satan’s power over the souls by suffering in a human body, yet He was Divine by nature. In Mary, however, the created human nature was invested with the power to subject Satan completely and totally, in two stages: in Her own life, and later as 'the Woman', the One leading the execution of the Divine Plan of Salvation, the Queen of all creatures and Mistress of all souls, who is eventually to crush Satan’s head.

The day on which Mary’s Birth is commemorated may be regarded by each soul as an invitation from God to surrender to Mary with body and soul, for She is the Masterpiece of creation, and to invoke Her Mediation for the grace of a complete rebirth in total following of Her. After all Mary is the One God initially presented to the angels, and centuries later to the human souls, as the Model of the 'ideal soul', the absolute achievement of the highest perfection ever to be reached by a human soul, the embodiment of perfection in Divine Life. Through total consecration to Mary the soul displays to her Mistress her actual longing to become just like Her.

Every human being can only be born once physically, yet he can be born again spiritually every day. In proportion as the soul stops setting bounds to her consecration to Mary, the Queen of Heaven will be able to mould her more after Her own model, this model which represents God’s view of the perfect human soul. On this festive day the soul can beg her Heavenly Mistress that She may, as of today, bring the great sign of hope God has shown through Mary’s Birth, to full bloom within her, so that she may succeed in having the most holy seed Mary carries within Herself, transformed into flowers of Divine Life in her own spiritual garden as well.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

14. The Presentation of Mary in the Temple – the feast of November 21

It is remarkable how totally the lives of Jesus and Mary on earth were exclusively geared to fulfilling the history of salvation. In the deepest sense of the word They only lived on earth for the Salvation of the souls. The unique characteristic of the lives of Jesus and Mary indeed lies in the fact They were the only Ones who did not need Their lives on earth as means to obtain Their own salvation and sanctification, as They were perfectly holy: Jesus as the Man-God and Mary as the perfectly sinless, immaculately conceived soul. To Them only the second of both goals God sets for each human soul on earth, was applicable: the personal contribution to the accomplishment of His Plan of Salvation. It can be said for an absolute fact that the lives of Jesus and Mary were lives of expiation and sacrifice in every single detail.

The life of Mary, who was in God’s Heart predestined to become the Mother of the Messiah, was in all details outlined by the Creator in accordance with His Wisdom. Yet this is not a guarantee for leading a life in the full fruitfulness for God’s Plans and Works. With Mary this was indeed entirely the case, as She merged Her will with God’s Will right from the beginning, and She would not deviate from this rule for even one moment throughout Her life. This observation is of the utmost importance, because it shows us each moment of Mary’s life as a spot on the path of Her life that She Herself accepted wholeheartedly. The first remarkable spot on the path of Mary’s life was marked by Her third birthday, when She was consecrated to God in the Temple at Jerusalem.

The depth of this event can only be understood against the background of some knowledge about the unique capacities of Mary as a child. Because Mary was chosen by God to be the Mother of the Messiah (provided She would voluntarily agree to this), She had been granted the unique privilege of the Immaculate Conception. Her soul was therefore in a perfectly intact state when it was linked up with a physical body. Moreover God granted Mary the unique gifts of a perfect knowledge, wisdom, and a unique intelligence, and He elevated Her beyond reach above every soul He had ever created and was yet to create. The Most High clothed this unique status with a power which would never be matched by any created soul.

Mary was born equipped with these faculties. In view of the fact She was like a living Treasury of Divine Gifts and Graces (this is the meaning of the word saying Mary is 'full of grace') a special 'bodyguard' of angels was allotted to Her, all of them exclusively and totally at Her service. The little Mary already spoke with these angels while She was still lying in the cradle. She was able to see and hear them, and enjoyed a perfect understanding of many Divine Mysteries. She possessed a perfect knowledge of all things created and of all Divine Decrees. Many elements of this knowledge were not constantly active in Her conscience: She had them at Her disposal indeed, but had to 'call them into Her conscious mind' according to the needs of Her inner life. Some elements of knowledge were kept veiled to Her by God for some time, among other things the knowledge about Her being predestined to be the Mother of Christ. God’s infallible Wisdom decreed this in order that Mary’s life should not be deprived of any merits. If She had known everything consciously and in advance, this would have been the case. Furthermore She was not to know in advance that She was to become the Mother of the Messiah, as She had to be able to give Her consent voluntarily. This is what She was going to do shortly after Her stay in the Temple, which began on the day of Her Presentation.

Thus the little Girl of Nazareth was very unusual because of Her unique faculties and inner states. She was very pretty, extraordinarily intelligent and wise, and extremely virtuous. Most of Her unique gifts She hid in Her humility, in an endeavour not to attract any attention. Everything people taught Her, She knew Herself, yet She did not let on. 'Her' angels obeyed all and any of Her commands, even when given by simply beckoning them, yet She reduced the use of Her power over them to a minimum, so as to be able to lead a 'normal' life in the eyes of the world, and to attract as little attention upon Herself as possible.

Thus the day came when Her mother Anne and Her father Joachim were going to present Her in the Temple at Jerusalem in order to begin a life at God’s service. Contrary to 'ordinary' children, who would, under the circumstances, mainly experience the sadness over being separated from their parents, Mary, in spite of Her perfect Love for Her parents, chiefly experienced the excitement brought forth by the prospect of surrendering completely to a life of prayer and service to Her Heavenly Beloved One. Despite Her so tender age little Mary was perfectly aware of what this step would mean for Her: A life of surrender, consecration, sacrifices and self-denying service. Exactly this filled the small unstained Flower of Galilee with true delight. The three year old Mary very consciously consecrated Herself to God in the Temple. While the priest was speaking the customary prayers over Her, She offered Her Heart and Her life to God.

So, this day we commemorate how Mary preceded us in the total, unconditional and everlasting consecration of Her entire being and Her entire life to God with a view to fulfilling His Plan of Salvation and His Works. This very vow is expected from every soul that now consecrates herself to Mary in Her following. For Mary the Presentation of Herself in the Temple marked the beginning of a period as a temple virgin, which was ended when God’s Time had come and She was to become the virginal Mother of Christ. Although Mary was perfect in the order of grace as Her soul was immaculately conceived and therefore free from the effects of the original sin, and She did not commit the slightest sin, God’s Wisdom guided the path of Her life through the Temple at Jerusalem in order for Her to live there at His service for nearly twelve years. Let us look at the symbolism, which enables us to better understand the meaning and purpose of this event in Mary’s life:

• Mary entered the Temple at Jerusalem at the age of exactly three years, the holy number symbolizing Divinity;
• In those days Jerusalem was considered to be the city of God, the centre of God’s Kingdom on earth, whereas the Temple symbolized His holy residence;
• Mary consecrated Herself totally to God, in order that Her life might become a holy offering for the benefit of His Plan of Salvation;
• She was to remain a temple virgin for nearly twelve years. Twelve symbolizes the number of tribes in Israel, in other words: the whole of God’s people. 'God’s people' is not to be understood to mean 'Israel', but 'all souls willing to belong to God'. God here symbolically expresses the fact that She who had been living in His Heart in the capacity as the Mistress of all souls, pulls all souls of all the ages together into Her Heart and consecrates them there to God. It is remarkable that, after this period of symbolic merger with God, Mary will in the true sense of the word merge with Him in the Marriage with the Holy Spirit and in becoming perfectly one with Christ.

We can regard the Presentation of Mary in the Temple as the beginning of the preparation for Her actual unity with God through a perfect experience of Her being totally consecrated to Him for a number of years. Mary here teaches the souls to look at consecration as a holy bond through which the soul gives herself entirely to God’s Plan of Salvation and which thereby prepares her for the merger with God. On this day the souls are invited to consecrate themselves to Mary in the Temple of Her Heart, with a view to being integrated there into a life of unity with God. In Mary’s Heart every detail of life is sanctified to a perfect offering for the fulfillment of God’s Plan of Salvation. As Mary is the living Tabernacle of the Most Holy Trinity and the living Temple of sacrifice and praise, everything which is consecrated by a soul to Mary voluntarily, lovingly and with the permanent active collaboration on the soul’s part, is in Mary’s Heart enveloped in the gold and incense of the perfect offering to God. In a close unity with this living Temple the soul is, through a life of total service to God, prepared for the Marriage with the Holy Spirit and the Birth of Christ within her.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

15. Mary’s Immaculate Conception

The deep meaning of the Immaculate Conception of Mary’s soul
the feast of December 8

One of the major signs of hope the faithful soul can find, lies in the observation that God, the Source of all Life, Light and Love, is always one step ahead of the darkness. When God conceived His Plan for the creation of man, He had also in mind a Plan to lift man up to be a creature that was to live after His image. God would therefore, in the hour which seemed fit for doing so, send His Son Jesus Christ into the world to complete a life in a human shape. For the Son of God to be able to unite His Divinity with human nature, Christ had to be born of a female human. This is why God conceived the germ of this Woman and called Her 'Mer-i-am', 'Ocean of Divine features, Love, power, richness, beauty and glory'. Even before God created the germ of Mary’s soul He showed the 'project' of this germ in a vision to the residents of Heaven.

When God actually created the first human souls He concluded a covenant with them, by virtue of which they were to live in His 'sacred Garden' (the Garden of Eden), in a state of perfect sanctity and with the Love from and towards God as their only essential need. God entrusted everything to them, however He set them the prohibition, not to eat from the fruits of a particular tree in the Garden. This prohibition was to serve as a trial to determine the souls’ actual Love of God: True Love inspires respect for the wishes of the beloved one, as well as the tendency to raise these wishes above one’s own wishes and needs. The first woman, Eve, however, acted upon Satan’s inspiration to violate God’s Law, just like he himself had. This act of disobedience was the original sin.

According to the Law of Divine Justice the original sin would henceforth preclude all human souls from the true, perfect sanctity they had to possess to acquire Eternal Bliss in Heaven. The life God’s Son was to lead on earth would, through His redeeming Sufferings and His teachings, again prepare the souls for the achievement of this great goal. This is how God had already seen it before the original sin was committed: Christ was to lift human nature up.

The first sin would have inconceivably deep consequences for the entire human race. Eve was initially destined to be the queen of creation, who, together with Adam, the first king of creation, was to represent God towards all creatures. On account of the violation of the covenant God has entered into with the first two souls the latter were no longer able to represent God towards the creatures in the dignity of true sanctity, and to rule creation in accordance with God’s Law. However, God would not let go of His original ideal, according to which the human soul was to be ready to be elevated to a life in His image. Mary (Mer-i-am) would become God’s reply to the devaluation of the human soul by Satan, the prince of darkness.

On account of the original sin every soul to come after the first pair of souls was provided with a mark. One could compare this mark with a mortgage on a house: For the first souls sanctity, being connected to God, was an acquired right, for all those who came after them it would be a commodity which had to be paid for very dearly and for which every lack of contribution gives rise to massive interests. The soul has got to make life-long efforts to pay off the temple of the covenant with God. Mary’s soul, however, was from day one exempted from this heavy burden. In Her soul the temple of the covenant with God was ready, and was forever to be Her property. Mary’s soul being created without the mark from the original sin is referred to as Her Immaculate Conception. God reserved this privilege exclusively to Mary.

Why did God grant Mary the Immaculate Conception? Mary was to become the Mother of God’s Son Jesus Christ, provided She would consent to being His Mother. That is why He created Her soul without the stain from the original sin. I already compared this mark, this stain, with a furrow draining the water of Divine Love from the soul, or with a leak through which this water oozes away. Each soul that bears this furrow or this leak (i.e. every human soul except Mary) has therefore got to wage an uninterrupted battle to be able to maintain true Life within herself. Without true Life, the vital strength the soul incessantly receives from God, the soul is not able to accomplish sanctity within herself and is thus unable to achieve the actual goal of her life on earth. In Mary Divine Life in its fullness had to dwell: Jesus Christ. It would be unthinkable that a created human soul would be able to bear the Son of God within herself if this soul were not exempted from the original sin: such as soul can not be a tabernacle in which the fullness of Divine Life is present. In Mary this fullness was indeed present.

The very first souls, Adam and Eve were also immaculately conceived. Without the original sin all souls of all times would have been immaculately conceived, and they would all, without any exceptions, have lived in the state of stainless sanctity which characterized the very first souls before the original sin was committed. God had foreseen that His Son was to come to earth as the Messiah in order to raise human nature above the angelic state. Because of the original sin the Messiah’s mission would be even deeper: He would now be obliged to teach the souls how to live in harmony with God again and, by His Sufferings and Death on the Cross, to restore the possibility to become holy. This is exactly the mission of Christ Mary is now trying to complete in the individual souls in these Last Times:

The deep essence of Mary’s mission as the Mistress of all souls consists herein, that She is now trying to lead as many souls as possible back to the state prior to the original sin, thus that She is attempting to prepare and to guide the return to the state of true sanctity in as many souls as possible. When Mary now says to the soul: 'Follow Me', this essentially means: 'Let yourself be transformed by Me into My own image, to the state as though you, too, were immaculately conceived, in order that you might again live under the most sacred covenant with God, in His image'. This is how Mary intends to bring Jesus’ Works of Redemption to their true fruitfulness within each soul.

Thus the Mistress of all souls is trying to complete the Mission of Jesus Christ within the souls. She teaches them the Science of Divine Life and, on the basis of the bond of total consecration to Her, tries to transform them from within into souls in whom Divine Life is developed never to be lost again. Holding on to Divine Life within the soul is done by living in sanctity. Each sin, each vice, and each negligence when it comes to doing the proper things, allows Divine Life to ooze away from the soul through the leak sprung by the original sin. The faithful following of Mary (as it is taught in the Science of Divine Life) allows the effects of the original sin to be pushed back step by step, thereby enabling the soul to increasingly 'hold on' to Divine Life. This is the true meaning of the 're-shaping' power of the Mistress of all souls: She has received the power to thoroughly transform every soul that actively cooperates, into a fortress of sanctity, so that this soul is able to live more and more as though she were no longer influenced by the effects of the original sin. This is the true way to sanctity, to growing after the image of God.

Thus God tries to take the souls back to the state He had foreseen for them from the very beginning, through Mary as the Mistress of all souls, by virtue of Her Immaculate Conception. The Woman thus remains to the fullest extent God’s Sign towards the darkness, the Sign for the souls’ ability to achieve true sanctity, the Sign indicating that the original sin need not have the final say and need not cut off the soul from Divine Life forever.

The feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the feast of the perfectly holy human soul. Each soul has got the mission to curb within herself the effects of the original sin. This being a very difficult thing to accomplish, God offers the souls the possibility of the total consecration to the only human soul that has been perfectly on top of the effects of the original sin: Mary. This is precisely why God longs so much for the souls to follow Mary, in total and unconditional consecration to Her, and to open themselves up to Her inner guidance altogether, by a deep Love of Her and leading a life at Her service. She was elected to take souls back to that state of true harmony with God’s Law, as it existed prior to the fall of man. This is the Great Sign God wanted to show through Mary: She will crush Satan and render his works ineffective, and She will do so by virtue of Her Immaculate Conception, which has enabled Her to be the perfect Tabernacle of God, the Co-Redemptrix with Christ and the Mistress of all souls. In Mary’s Immaculate Conception God has built the indestructible Bridge between Himself and the souls.

The covenant with the souls that God initially made in the Garden of Eden, was never suspended by Him, but it was by the souls. In Mary’s Immaculate Conception God wanted to remind the human souls of all the ages of the everlasting validity of the covenant. In every individual soul the covenant must again be made operative, so that the soul might be able to come nearer to being Mary’s mirror image. In God’s eyes Mary is indeed the Image of the ideal human soul, and through Her Immaculate Conception He immortalized this Image in Her, so that She might in all the ages help transform souls after Her own model. Therefore God desires from every soul:

• that she should consecrate herself to Mary for all her life;

• that she should strictly apply this consecration in order to truly grow after Mary’s image;

• that she should accept and honour Mary as the Mistress of all souls, for exactly in this 'capacity of capacities' She is to take the soul back to God’s ideal;

• that she should pray to be released from the effects of the original sin, and should collaborate in accomplishing this by following Mary’s teachings.

This is how God completes the circle: With Mary’s Immaculate Conception He started the preparation for the Redemption of souls; in the Mistress of all souls and the Science of Divine Life He wants to accomplish Redemption, which was made accessible by Jesus after a life as the God-Man born of the womb of the Immaculate Conception, in every individual soul.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

16. The Birth of Jesus Christ on earth

The deep meaning of Christmas – the feast of December 25

From the very beginning God harboured extraordinary plans for the human souls. It was already part of His original Plan that the human soul was to live in perfect sanctity, after His own image. The Creator never wanted to give up this Plan, even after the first human souls had committed the original sin, thereby losing the state of sanctity. He did not even let go of it despite the sins, which after the fall of man would be committed without restraint. Because by virtue of Divine Law sin and its effects on the whole of creation find their remedy in obedience, Love and suffering, God would send His Son Jesus Christ into the world so as to lead a human life in a human shape, preserving His Divinity.

Christ was to assume the state of the human being with all its weaknesses and all its trials, and was to gain the souls access to their Redemption from the effects of the original sin. He was to do so through a life characterized by obedience, Love and suffering. In this respect I refer to the fact the Mistress of all souls calls the trio 'obedience + Love + suffering' the 'triangle of spiritual fruitfulness'... True following of Jesus would therefore be characterized exactly by obedience, Love and suffering.

Thus God sent His Son into the world, not as a mature appearance, but as the germ of the Man-God, who was laid in the Holy Virgin Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. The 'Woman', God’s greatest Work of Wonder among the human souls, was granted the perfect mystical marriage with the Most Holy Trinity, so that Her virginal womb might bear the Messiah. For nine months humanity and Divinity merged within Mary, as a symbol for the preparation of the human soul for her return to the state of perfect sanctity in a birth as the elevated soul in accomplished Divine Life.

Mary lived with Joseph in Nazareth, a small town in Israel, which was in those days part of the territory occupied by the Roman Empire. The emperor of Rome ordained a census to be held in all occupied regions. To that end all members of each family had to be registered in the place where the head of the family was born. Joseph therefore set out with Mary, who was in the latest stage of Her pregnancy, to Bethlehem, where She was to give birth to the Messiah. Through the events and phenomena accompanying this journey God spoke to the human souls of all times:

• The journey to Bethlehem was full of inclement weather and trials, which were endured by Mary and Joseph in an attitude of full surrender and deep Love. God thereby wanted to show that the journey leading to the rebirth of a soul for Divine Life runs on a rough patch, which, however, obtains its highest fruitfulness if the soul overcomes all obstacles:

• in an attitude of obedience (the order by the Roman emperor has got its counterpart in spiritual life in God’s invitation to the soul to prepare her rebirth for true Life);

• in Love (Mary confronted all trials in an attitude of self-denial in order to give the Messiah to the world);

• consecrating all her trials (Mary and Joseph offered all their obstacles to God, during their uninterrupted prayer and acts of consecration while they were on their way).

• At Bethlehem Mary and Joseph were denied every possibility to find lodging. God points out that throughout history God will be banished from the majority of human souls. There is no room in the inns of the souls (= the hearts) for sanctity and its characteristics (austerity, softness, inconspicuousness, lack of interest in all worldly things). God is left outside in the cold.

• Eventually there appears to be nothing left for Joseph and Mary but to put up at a grotto in the hills, which is only used by shepherds as a shelter for the animals on their way to the pastures. Mary makes it clear to Joseph that She appreciates this opportunity more than a stay at a busy inn, for She wants to give birth to the Man-God in a quiet and secluded place. God points out that a great many human hearts are like grottos in a barren region, cold and defiled.

• At the grotto preparations are made for the Birth of Christ. Remarkably enough the little Jesus there receives true warmth and Love only from a few well specified categories of creatures:

• from Mary and Joseph: human souls in a state of sanctity not to be paralleled in the history of mankind;

• from animals (an ox and a mule): within creation animals are in various respects THE creatures to give uncomplicated spontaneous love;

• from shepherds, very simple human souls that do not on the basis of all kinds of rational thinking but from a warm heart acknowledge that something miraculous is happening here, which truly comes from God. God here calls upon the later priests of Christ, who will be called to be shepherds to human souls, and who are to fulfill this duty in deep simplicity and with a spontaneous Love from a warm heart;

• later also the Three Magi from the Orient will come and visit: three sublime personalities who will relinquish their worldly standing to literally come looking for God to give Him their presents.
  
  It is remarkable that God lets His messengers (the angels) announce the Birth of Christ specifically to shepherds, and not a but further to the crowd of people in the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem. This is how it will always be: God will always find the highest fruitfulness for His words in the uncomplicated souls living from a warm heart filled with spontaneous Love.

• As of the day on which the germ of the Man-God was laid in Mary, She lived in an unusual state of raptures. Throughout the journey to Bethlehem it seemed as though Mary kept slipping ever more deeply into the perfect unity with Christ. When the hour to give birth to the Messiah had come, She was in a state of absolute ecstasy. The delivery was absolutely painless, and during the event the Mother of God was wrapped in a magnificent Light. God intends this event to serve as a preview of the soul’s rebirth for Divine Life: a birth in true Light, bringing God delight. Mary’s deep ecstasy at the Birth of Christ was also owing to the fact that, during delivery, She was granted unique visions on the depth of the Plan of Redemption.
  
  When delivering a child the mother already partakes physically in the pains God’s Heart suffered on account of the original sin, and through this pain she is offered the opportunity to contribute to the reparation of the fall of the first human souls. On account of Her Immaculate Conception Mary was elevated above the necessity to make this contribution. That is why She was exempted from the pains of childbirth. Moreover it would have been inappropriate that the Mother of the Man-God should have given birth to the latter in pain, because Christ came to bring the world nothing but true joy and delivery from the pains sin causes to the soul.
  
  The Birth of the Man-God is a unique event: Christ will only be born once physically. Yet Christmas wants to remind the souls:

• that they are called upon to be born again of the Spirit, for Divine Life. The Mistress of all souls points out that, in these Last Times, She has more than ever before got the mission to 'give birth to' souls after the Spirit, in that She has got the power to guide the Works of renewal performed by the Holy Spirit, and to complete them in every soul that surrenders to Her completely in total and unconditional consecration. For the souls, the perfect following of Christ also entails a rebirth of Mary for Divine Life;

• that Christ was born on earth to proclaim God’s Kingdom, and that in these Last Times souls with the mission to build the foundations for the completion of God’s Kingdom on earth are 'born' (transformed, renewed) of Mary. Thus Mary is truly the Mother of God’s Kingdom on earth as, by virtue of a Divine Decree, the King of this Kingdom, Christ, was to be born of Her. In these Last Times Mary is in Her last stage of pregnancy, ready to give birth to the accomplishment of God’s Plan of Salvation, which will be truly fulfilled with the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.

Each year again Christmas extends God’s invitation to every soul to prepare for a new life, a rebirth from Mary’s womb for a life truly following Jesus Christ. On Christmas night God actually wants to give birth to Jesus within the soul, so that He may grow up inside of her, in unity with her, and may constantly share with her the nourishment from His redeeming Blood and the blessings of His Love, which will liberate the soul from everything that attaches her to worldly life in a state of disgrace. To that end the soul must allow Mary access to herself, so that She may be able to purify the shabby grotto of her inner life of all and any impurities and darkness, and may transform her into a tabernacle of sanctity in which Christ can unfold His Divinity.

Christmas must be the birth of true Light within the soul. God intended it to be the transformation of the soul from a cold, impure and dark grotto into a place of true Love, purity and sanctity, the soul’s birth as a true Christian.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

17. Epiphany

The deep meaning of the visit of the Three Magi at Bethlehem – January 6th

In Gem nr. 16 the Most Blessed Virgin Mary had me point out that during the first days of His life Baby Jesus received sincere warmth and Love only from a few well specified categories of creatures. These categories had simplicity in common. Only a creature that is simple and sincere at heart actually finds Christ, Divine Light. Among the few visitors in honour of the newborn Messiah, however, we also find the Three Magi. They, too, belong to the same category: Although they are members of a higher class they are quite simple and very sincere at heart. As I wrote earlier: They relinquished their worldly standing to literally come looking for God and give Him their presents. Also these events are bearers of God’s hidden lessons for all souls:

The Three Magi were essentially scholars, who knew the Jewish prophecy about the birth of a great king. They had noticed a star, which had caught their attention on account of its magnitude and its brightness. They associated both facts with each other, not through logical reasoning but through Divine inspiration. The remarkable things is, that these three persons did not reach this conclusion jointly, but from three different countries. It was to mark the beginning of a remarkable event.

There is talk about 'three Magi from the East'. Mary points the souls to the symbolic meaning behind these three elements:

• three: This number will appear every time God wants to refer to a perfect whole: The Most Holy Trinity consists of three Divine Persons, Jesus’ Public Mission lasted for three years, etcetera. In this case the three Magi represent the whole of mankind;

• Magi: Magi were considered to be 'wise men'. Wisdom is the soul’s faculty to totally absorb God’s Light and thereby acquire an in-depth understanding of Eternal Truth. The three Magi were souls with an unusual openness to Divine inspiration, who therefore acted upon the inner voice of God in their hearts throughout this event;

• the east: Is the place from where the sun rises. Mary points out that the Light, the sun, must be able to rise from every soul, in other words: The soul must possess the right state of heart to be a bearer of the Light, of the germ of sanctity. The three Magi did possess this inner state, and were thereby symbolic predecessors for the souls that are ready for the most intimate contact with God.

Every one of the three Magi set out from their respective native countries for a long journey of which neither the duration nor the difficulties nor the exact destination were known to them. All this is a symbol of every soul’s path of life. They set out on this journey because of an inner inspiration: God’s Spirit calls upon every soul to look for God. At a given place they met each other, consulted with each other on the matter they were pursuing, and found out right away that their destination and purpose were the same. God here shows how easily souls who are essentially strangers to each other, feel each other’s heart and get on the same wavelength if they are deeply inspired by God’s Spirit and allow nothing but His Law to live within them. God here seems to be showing us a model for international solidarity through Divine inspiration: This solidarity only becomes truly effective if souls divest themselves of worldly interests and only focus on higher goals.

The Magi follow a star which is not like the others. It keeps guiding them throughout their journey, and then suddenly stands still over the place where 'the King' is born. The Queen of Heaven points to the powerful symbol God here wants to show to all generations: In every soul’s life Mary must be the Star: She possesses the Light to guide each soul infallibly to God, so that She is the leading Light over the path of their life. The soul that truly listens to God’s Spirit within her heart will sooner or later receive, within her heart, the inspiration to find His Bride, the Heavenly Star, and to follow Her and keep her eyes on Her while She is moving over the path through the soul’s life. She shows the way, brings souls together, and reminds of the fact that every soul should be 'a wise one from the east'. Eventually She points the soul to the place where She wants to give birth to Jesus for her.

Because the star guides them into the land of Israel, the three Magi visit king Herod. The latter symbolizes Satan. Herod insists they should return and inform him of the whereabouts of this 'new king'. God points out here that Satan wants to tempt each soul into delivering the Light (within themselves and in other souls) to him, so that he might kill it. Herod indeed harbours the plan to have all the new-born in the Bethlehem region killed, assuming the 'new king' should then inevitably be among them.

Eventually, in the rough hilly land in the vicinity of Bethlehem the Magi find the grotto, over which the star is shining very brightly. It is shown to me how they enter the grotto, so dignifiedly and yet so humbly. They kneel down in front of the little Jesus lying in Mary’s lap. Mary, who was still a young girl in those days, is treated by them like a Queen. They tell Her about their findings and listen to the extraordinary wise words She speaks, which make a deep impression on them. They are given a very deep understanding of the true nature of Jesus, of the true nature of Mary, and of the Mystery of Salvation. I can see how, with tears in their eyes and kneeling down very deeply, they lay down their presents at Mary’s feet, while praising and glorifying the little Christ and expressing their conviction that God is really working here: The new King is not a worldly Ruler but the God of souls, and in order to make the Salvation of His souls possible He had to be born under the poorest possible circumstances, and of an immaculately holy female creature. I can even hear one of them saying that 'the Most High has now, through Mary, erased the disgrace of the original sin' and (pointing to the star in the sky above) that 'God has now truly for all the ages brought His indestructible Light to the human souls'.

Through the presents God speaks to His souls for all times:

One of the Magi lays down gold in front of the little Christ, and explains it denotes His unique royal dignity as God.

The second one lays down incense in front of Him. Incense is explained to me by Mary as symbolizing self-sacrifice, total surrender and Love. She points out that the soul should, as it were, have herself burn down like incense and thereby glorify God by enveloping Him in the perfumed cloud of the sanctity she acquires day by day through her own commitment.

The third of the Magi lays down myrrh in front of Jesus and Mary, and explains this is the most precious herb from the orient, a much wanted bitter herb. Myrrh symbolizes the bitterness of suffering and trials for human souls, but also the bitterness God Himself and Mary experience, who will suffer throughout the ages on account of the sins committed by mankind. Myrrh was used as a bitter herb to stimulate digestion. Mary points to its symbolizing new life for creation. We could consider myrrh to symbolize how the bitterness (the trials) of life are able to raise the souls to new life time and again, on an ever more elevated level, and to make God’s graces 'more digestible', so to speak, i.e. to improve their being assimilated and being put to use within the soul.

We could summarize the meaning of the three presents as follows: Visit Jesus daily with a heart filled with gold, incense and myrrh (self-sacrifice, devotion, glorification, praise, aspiring for sanctity, accepting all trials, and veneration for His Divine dignity). Each soul is to aspire to becoming gold, incense and myrrh herself for God:

• gold: The soul should become a tabernacle of sanctity, in which God finds a worthy permanent residence;

• incense: The soul should allow herself to be burnt down in a life of total consecration, and glorify God by all her actions and words, thoughts and feelings;

• myrrh: The soul should live such as to help God, so to speak, to alleviate the indigestibility of all sins and vices in His creation, by leading a life in virtuousness, joy, acceptance and Love.

Before leaving, the Magi warn Mary and Joseph as to the fact not everybody is happy about the birth of Christ. Here they demonstrate once again how deep their understanding is, and that they are perfectly well aware who this Child is.

Mary points out that the visit by the three Magi in fact constitutes a first apostolic act for the benefit of Christ: He will for the first time be announced beyond the frontiers of Israel. The fact the three Magi come from different countries, points to the fact that the souls of all nations are called upon to look for Christ and to empty themselves in His service.

Each soul’s path through life must be a journey to the Light. In Mary, God has given us a Star that is able to direct us towards God’s Light any time. On her path through life each soul repeatedly comes into contact with the evil one, and just like the three Magi returned to their country without meeting Herod again, each soul should, as soon as she has really found Christ in her life, make efforts to avoid the ways leading to Satan, so that he may not be able to kill Christ and the innocent child of purity within her ever again.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

18. The Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, and Jesus’ stay in the desert

The deep meaning of the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan and of His stay in the desert – Baptism of Jesus: first Sunday after Epiphany

When He has turned thirty, the Messiah, driven by His perfect Divine Wisdom, is inspired to end His hidden Life and make Himself known to the people of Israel. He informs His Mother Mary that He is going to see John the Baptist, who is baptizing souls in a wadeable part of the big river Jordan near Bethany. John the Baptist makes the special Mission of Jesus known to the people by saying in a voice expressing his being profoundly touched: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". In these words the Baptist probably speaks the most important prophecy in the history of salvation, for he identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, and summarizes the true vocation of Christ: He is the Lamb of God, who will be 'slaughtered' for the redemption of the souls from the fatal slavery to their sins.

When Jesus descended into the water of the river Jordan, the Baptist says to Him: "I need to be baptized by You, and You come to me?" John had been baptizing people in the Jordan river for quite some time. He did so by way of performing a purification ritual preaching repentance for the forgiving of sins. He was so thoroughly enlightened by the Spirit of God that he knew he was the predecessor of Christ, the Redeemer of the souls. Through this same enlightenment He immediately recognized Jesus. Therefore he knew that this Man did not need a baptism to be purified, for that, being the Son of God, He was absolutely immaculate. Therefore he was not able to bring himself to baptizing Jesus. Jesus, however, replied: "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness". Jesus here refers to the deep meaning of baptism:

Baptism was intended by God to open up the soul to the fullness of grace. Baptismal water can be considered to be 'water of Divine Life'. Through Baptism the soul gets the opportunity to truly follow Christ, to grow after the image of God, which is indeed the vocation of every soul. Through His baptism Jesus wanted to set an example for the souls. For Him it was not a purification ritual, but the beginning of His Public Life, in a way His true 'vocation in Life'. In that this act was performed by the hand of His 'predecessor', the one who was to point to Him as the Redeemer, His Public Life was thus, as it were, introduced through an 'official' channel. Just like the Messiah was to be born in a physical body like any human being, His Public Mission, too, was to begin in a visible way.

And when Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and came to rest on Him, and a voice from Heaven said: "This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased". To John this sign provided confirmation for the fact Jesus was the Son of God. God here sets a mighty symbol as a before-image denoting the fact that the actual Christian Baptism Jesus was to institute Himself later, is a Sacrament, a junction between God and the baptized soul, in which the Holy Spirit would infuse Himself into the latter, and the baptized soul would thereby in the true sense of the word become a child of God.

When His baptism was accomplished, Jesus set out to the desert in order to prepare for forty days His Mission at the service of the Divine Plan of Salvation. In This succession 'baptism + withdrawal into the desert' God shows His desire that the souls should prepare their true vocation in life, the whole of the works they are called upon to perform at the service of God’s Plan of Salvation, by giving two components a fixed place in their inner lives:

1. by allowing the fire of God’s Spirit and the bath in the water of Divine Life to purify them;

2. by withdrawing as frequently as possible from everything which ties them to worldly things, in order to lead a reflective life, immersed in an inner peace of heart (the 'Peace of Christ'), in order to more easily find God in this 'quiet', this scarcity of impressions.

The Mistress of all souls once pointed out in a revelation it is a good thing to think of Her Immaculate Heart as the river Jordan. Total consecration to Mary would then consist herein, that the soul immerses herself in the water of Divine Life, which abounds in Mary’s Heart. Mary is filled with Divine baptismal water which purifies souls and prepares them for a rebirth. See the parallel between total consecration to the Mistress of all souls and the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan:

• Jesus begins His Public Life by going to the Jordan and having Himself baptized; the soul begins her true life at God’s service by immersing herself in Mary;

• The baptism in the river Jordan served as a ritual purification for the forgiving of sins; the immersion in Mary serves as a purification in the water of all Her virtues, as a washing by Her sanctifying Presence and rule;

• The Holy Spirit comes down and rests upon Jesus, and God points to Him, calling Him His Son; with total consecration to Mary the Latter calls the Holy Spirit down upon the soul in order to infuse the fire of rebirth into her.

As the Man-God Jesus was intended by the Most Holy Trinity to be the great Example of Divine Life. In the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan God emphasizes the necessity that the soul should be baptized, in a double sense of the word: in the Sacrament of Baptism, but also in a baptism which can, in fact, be accomplished repeatedly, viz. by uninterruptedly opening oneself up to the inspirations from the Holy Spirit and His fire of Love, and to the incessant purification of the soul and the heart. Essentially, before every important act each soul should pray to obtain the fire of the Holy Spirit and the immersion in the cleaning bath of Divine Life. The soul can find all of this united in Mary. Practical life of total consecration to Mary constantly immerses the soul in the fire of God’s Spirit, as well as in the purifying effects of the rule of the most holy one among created souls: Mary.

When Jesus said to Nicodemus that man had to be born again of the Spirit, this was exactly what He meant: The soul must keep detaching herself from all worldly bonds and begin to live from a world of thinking, feeling and wanting which is fully geared to God’s interests. All of this is expressed, as a matter of fact, in a constantly renewed baptism in the Holy Spirit and an increasingly deep retreat into the desert of detachment. The soul experiences the combination of both of these elements by the total consecration to Mary, to the extent to which she actually surrenders to Her and she lets herself be governed and inspired by Her.

The Sacrament of Baptism can be regarded as a first purification and preparation of the soul for true Divine Life. The constantly renewed baptism in the soul’s opening herself up to the uninterrupted inspiration from the Holy Spirit and the purification through total consecration to Mary is like a constant liberation from worldly dust, the never ending worldly influences upon the soul, a sign of longing for detachment and liberation from worldly things and thoughts, in order to be truly a child of God. Jesus has set us the example in His own baptism in the river Jordan. That He thought this important, should be clear from the mere fact He went all the way from Nazareth to the river Jordan near Bethany, on foot, to receive this baptism, a walk covering a distance of more than one hundred kilometers (over seventy miles). He did not need this baptism, yet He longed to obtain it, because in this baptism, too, He wanted to let it be known that He intended to 'be truly human in everything'. On the path from birth to death He wanted to skip not one single element that would be important to the human souls. He indeed wanted to make the Work of Redemption complete.

After His baptism Jesus, driven by God’s Spirit, retreated into the desert, and stayed there for forty days. Jesus here gives a vital lesson to all souls. The desert is a relatively desolate landscape. Therefore it symbolizes:

• detachment from all worldly things and thoughts, from the excess of sensory impressions;

• deprivation and sacrifices, on account of scanty food reserves and the extreme climate;

• struggle against all possible dangers from outside (symbolized by snakes, scorpions and birds of prey). In the spiritual field these symbolize temptations;

• struggle against the enemies from within: the emptiness and silence deliver the soul to the fullness of inner life, thus enabling the own weaknesses and faults to come to light (pop up into consciousness) sooner and more easily.

For al these reasons the stay in the desert symbolizes spiritualization, mortification of the world and of the self. The soul becomes more prone to contemplation, and inner life gets more focused. The soul is thus alone with herself, with God, and with the devil. It is exactly in inner life, however, that the soul unfolds herself completely and can accomplish an in-depth purification and sanctification.

Through Jesus’ stay in the desert God confirms the thesis brought forward by the Mistress of all souls, who has repeatedly explained the ways through which Satan attacks the souls. Here He shows us three of the main ones:

• temptation to be materialistic, to be attached to worldly things: Satan speaks to Jesus: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread". Jesus replies: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God". Jesus’ words remind the souls that true Life can not be derived from matter, but only from the unity with God and the Love for His Works.
• temptation of pride, to aspire for power: Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and says: "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me". Jesus replies: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve". Jesus’ words remind the souls that they must under no circumstances let themselves be tempted into coveting transient glory. Countless souls worship Satan by aspiring all kinds of worldly things, which lead them away from their service to God. Every time the soul gives in to a temptation she is in fact kneeling down before Satan. The highest form of rendering service to God and worshiping Him is total consecration to Mary, through which the soul literally gives herself away to God’s Works.
• temptation to any lack of faith: Satan sets Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple and says to him, "If You are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written: 'He will command His angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone'." Jesus, however, replies: "Again it is written: 'You shall not put the Lord thy God to the test'."

  Jesus reminds the souls they must not doubt God’s Works, nor wonder about them.

In His baptism and His subsequent stay in the desert Jesus points to the necessity that the soul should long for the water of Divine Life, for the fire of God’s Spirit that infuses inspirations and Love into her, and for the purification and detachment from all traces that have remained operative within her and are likely to separate her from Divine Life. After His stay in the desert Jesus was to begin His actual Mission as the Redeemer of human souls. Each soul is called upon to accept and complete Jesus’ Work of Redemption within herself through her own trials. In order to make these personal contributions fruitful, she must aspire for a constant purification and detachment. Only then will each day truly yield her a rebirth. The Mistress of all souls was given us by God to guide and rule all of this within ourselves in an absolutely perfect way.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

19. The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple

The deep meaning of Candlemas – the feast of February 2

On February 5, 2008, Mary in Her capacity as Mistress of all souls announced that on Candlemas day Heaven celebrates the victory of the Light over darkness. Mary is the Leader in this battle of the Light against darkness. The Queen of Heaven points out that this day is a regular torture for the forces of darkness. How are we to understand this?

Mary is also called the Mother of the Light. The Light is Jesus Christ, who is sent into the world as the Messiah, the Redeemer of souls, the Embodiment of Divine Truth, of God’s Works and Plans, and of Divine Life. Thus we can say that Mary received the outpouring of Divine Light when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Her and She consequently became pregnant with Jesus purely through Divine intervention. She gave birth to God’s Light on Christmas night, and in accordance with Jewish law She went to the temple at Jerusalem in order to present Him (the Embodiment of the Light) to the Eternal Father on the fortieth day after His birth. For the first time Christ comes to His temple (= among His people).

The incarnated Divinity is presented to God. In this consecration of Christ by Mary it is as though Mary, the Bridge between Heaven and earth, between God and the souls, in Her capacity as the Representative of all souls of all times, consecrates Divine Light, all of God’s Works and Plans and the germ of the Mystery of Salvation to God, so that the fruitfulness of it all may be accomplished for all eternity. As a matter of fact, God offers perfection, however, the latter must yield its effect, its fruit, in combination with the voluntary consecration of souls.

Thus Mary and Joseph go to the temple in order to present Jesus, and in Him all souls who, throughout the ages, will open themselves up to Redemption, to God. This consecration becomes a timeless milestone in the history of Salvation. In that a consecration, performed with all oneVs heart and actually lived in daily practice, sanctifies that which is being consecrated (voluntarily and undividedly makes it a part of God’s Works of Salvation), in this consecration of the Embodiment of God’s Works and Plans it is actually all souls of all times that are being presented to God. As of that moment the only thing still lacking is the accomplishment of the Work of Redemption by Christ, and the souls’ voluntary participation in their own Redemption. In God’s Heart, however, the ultimate victory of the Light over darkness is already a sure thing. That is why Jesus’ Presentation in the temple through the hands of Mary can be regarded as the before-image of this final victory of Divine Light. That is why, beyond all time, on this day Heaven commemorates this final victory, the power and glory of the Light of the world, and the power and glory of Mary, who has performed this timeless consecration and who is then going to confirm and seal it through a life of endless Sorrows.

When presenting Jesus in the temple Mary and Joseph offer a sacrifice of two pigeons, according to the law. In so doing they symbolize the fact the soul, when consecrating herself, her path of life or anything whatsoever, pleads with God to obtain true peace. The pigeon symbolizes inner peace, the absence of anxiety or inner struggle. True peace takes root in a soul as soon as she experiences the inner certainty that she truly belongs to God and that her future and her fate lie hidden in God’s Love. God wants to point out that truly lived consecration must open up true inner peace within the soul, because in true consecration Divine Will merges with the soul’s free will. In proportion as the human soul’s will becomes more one with Divine Law, this soul’s life becomes more fruitful, holier, and her life gets its full meaning.

In the temple Mary and Joseph meet Simeon, an old and very pious man, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to become the Messiah’s prophet in the temple, the central place of meeting between God and the souls. Simeon takes Jesus in his arms, close to his heart, and now speaks words through which God teaches the souls about the very being of the Messiah:

• "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples...". Here Simeon expresses the fact that the soul who keeps Jesus in her heart of hearts, has found the absolute accomplishment, the eventual meaning and sense of her life, and is thus ready to return to God. Simeon, in other words, refers to Jesus, Divine Light, as the absolute fulfillment in life. He who has found Jesus (with the eyes of the soul) and has given Him a place of honour in his heart, possesses everything. His quest in this world has come to an end.
• "... a Light to the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel". Christ is the Light of God, which has come to shine through the darkness of all souls living without God. Throughout the ages every soul will be a bearer of something heathenish, to the extent to which she has not yet opened herself up to the fullness of God’s Truth. The soul can have her heathenish traits replaced by assimilating Divine Truth. The 'people Israel' is the before-image of all souls who will become followers of Christ. All followers of Christ will for all times express God’s glory, for they are the souls that have understood the true sense of life and through which God will bring His Works on earth to their fulfillment.
• "This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed...". Jesus will forever be the cause of two parties opposing each other: the souls accepting God’s Light and Truth and living according to it, and the souls who will not pay attention to God, His Works and Plans, or will oppose them. Wherever the name of Jesus will be spoken or God’s Presence, His Works and Plans and His Law will be discussed, it will become clear which souls cherish all of this in their hearts, and which do not.

In these Last Times the same will apply to Mary, who now comes to bring the completion of the knowledge and understanding of Divine Truth, and is also becoming a sign that is opposed. Thus all souls that want to follow Jesus and Mary all the way will in their turn become signs that are opposed. The followers of Jesus and Mary will, in the experiences of their daily lives, be signs of the battle between Light and darkness. The true Christians are they who will follow Christ all the way, without any compromise. Being a true Christian is a sign that is opposed because in all situations it bears testimony to the Light and does not make compromises with darkness. First and foremost this means that the true Christian does not allow himself to be made a prisoner of worldly thinking, materialism or any form of modernism. Indeed, in all of these, man and his needs are the centre of attention, not God and the needs of His Plan of Salvation.

• (to Mary): "... and a sword will pierce Your soul". God here predicts through Simeon that Mary’s soul is going to experience the very depths of Sorrows. The ultimate depth of the experience of sorrow goes very far beyond that which man usually understands by 'sorrow' in the worldly sense of the word. Sorrow or heartache usually covers the experience of sadness over some worldly loss or an injustice of which one feels oneself a victim. The fullness of sorrow, however, which pierces the soul, is the one in which the soul experiences the true depth of that which she regrets, in a mystical way. It is tantamount to the feeling God Himself experiences with regard to the event or situation concerned.

We have met an example of this with the weeping women during Jesus’ way of the Cross, where the Redeemer points out they should not weep over the 'injustice' of the crucifixion, but rather over that which makes the crucifixion necessary: the countless sins of all times. A second example can be seen on Mount Calvary, where Mary does not simply weep like a mother would when she watches her child dying, but in Her capacity as a soul who, being perfect in Her mystical development, watches the Son of God dying because of the burden of sins weighing on mankind.

Candlemas will be a feast of Light in the soul only if she is prepared to keep fighting within herself the various forms of darkness of the world and to focus on God’s Light every moment of the day: on His Works, the signs of His Providence, on the teachings and in-depth explanations He offers the souls through Mary. If the soul satisfies this condition, she becomes herself a temple in which each moment of her life is constantly presented to God and to His Plan of Salvation. If the soul does so within the framework of a life of total consecration to Mary, it will be Mary who will be doing the same with the soul as She did with little Jesus. The soul in Mary’s arms automatically becomes a sign that is opposed, a light in the darkness of any lack of faith, and an object of co-redemption. All of this are the features of true Christianity. It is part of our legacy to share joy and suffering with the Incarnated Word. Only through this unity with Christ will the soul be able to become one with Him in glory.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

20. The Flight into Egypt

The deep meaning of the flight of Mary and Joseph with the Infant Jesus into Egypt
(no fixed date of commemoration)

After Mary and Joseph had presented the Infant Jesus to God in the temple at Jerusalem, Joseph was warned by an angel to take off to Egypt with Mary and little Jesus. King Herod had indeed ordered to murder all newborn infants up to the age of two years in the Bethlehem environment, after the three Magi form the orient had told him that a 'new king' was born at Bethlehem. He wanted to eliminate the future 'competitor' right away.

The quiet, safe Bethlehem was thus given up in favour of the insecurities of Egypt. It would become a journey which was begun in the middle of the night, in rather inhospitable weather. The journey took many days, partly through wasteland full of dangers. The destination was uncertain, as the angel had not specified it. The Holy Family had therefore nothing to resort to but God’s guidance. In Egypt They did not know anything or anyone, and nobody knew Them. They would build up a kind of provisional new life there. Years later the process was to repeat itself: Joseph would again be warned by an angel saying that he who had been a menace to the Infant’s life, had now died, and They could therefore return to Israel.

It is remarkable to what extent God uses this whole adventure experienced by the Holy Family to depict the journey of every Christian soul’s life. Let us consider the underlying symbolism:

• Herod’s decision symbolizes the works of Satan, who never ceases to persecute Christ in the Christians. Ever since his fall, Satan has been wanting to 'kill' God (make His Works ineffective and, if possible, destroy them). As he is unable to touch God, he focuses all his efforts on the creatures, especially on the human souls. Like Herod wanted to kill Jesus, Satan wants every soul’s spiritual death.

  However, God here shows us His counteraction: Through Saint Joseph (God prefers working through souls) He leads the Christ into a country of paganism and idolatry. Here we can see God as the One who protects the Light from dark influences in order to be able to fully use it against the darkness. This is what He expects from every soul: that she should preserve all the Light she bears within herself against negative influences, and that she should keep using it against the darkness.

• The flight here symbolizes the persecution of the Christians. This flight will keep going on throughout the ages, for each soul that conscientiously opts for being a Christian and truly practices this choice in everyday life, is constantly threatened by the darkness and keeps fleeing her whole life long from temptations of all kinds. The persecution of Christians is sanctified in the flight into Egypt. God here indicates that flight is not automatically tantamount to cowardice: If a flight is likely to help guarantee the continuation or the protection of a Work of God, flight even constitutes a service to Him.

• The Infant Jesus does not undertake this flight by Himself: Here He is the small, dependent soul that is taken along by Mother and foster father. God here shows the souls the right attitude in all trials: blind surrender to Mary and to Saint Joseph as the Custodians and Guides on the path of life. In this time God teaches the souls how to safeguard their spiritual capital under the power and guidance of Mary as the Mistress of all souls, and how to find protection against the devastating influences (the death of the soul) through Mary’s doings.

  The journey of life is here depicted as a 'flight' from the menace, which not only comes from outside but also from the soul’s inner states of heart and mind. The Mistress of all souls once had the power to get the Infant Jesus, the Son of God, out of harm’s way. This power She now exercises over each soul that, just like the Infant Jesus, entrusts herself to Her actions: She completely transforms this soul so that the latter may become strong against the threats that are constituted by her own seductibility and her own weaknesses. Whoever lets himself be guided out of all danger by Mary, with the blind surrender which is inherent to a small child, eventually comes 'home' safely in Nazareth (Heaven), very often after an eventful life in the Egypt of a godless world.

• It is remarkable that the beginning of the persecution of the Infant Jesus practically coincides with His being consecrated in the temple. God points out that the soul that consecrates herself to Mary, and through the Temple of Mary’s Heart to God, will be persecuted in a special way by the evil one, who through all kinds of setbacks in life and all kinds of temptations wants to paralyze her spiritually, so as to make her life as unfruitful as possible for God’s Works.

  Right after consecrating Jesus to God in the temple, Mary and Joseph set out on their flight to Egypt. Thus They prove to be the Protectors of Christ and therefore of God’s Plan of Salvation. They cope with the heavy trials of the insecure journey into Egypt in order to give the Christ the opportunity to accomplish His Works of Salvation later on. Thus in our days we know the Mistress of all souls to be the Protector of the Light, who transforms every soul that surrenders to Her blindly, to such an extent that she is able to reap a maximum benefit from her faculties to further salvation and do God’s Works. The Mistress of all souls guides every soul consecrated to Her to the summit of her fruitfulness in both of her life’s goals: her own sanctification, and making a maximum contribution to the completion of God’s Plan of Salvation.

• The flight into Egypt expresses a perfect surrender to God’s Will. Mary and Joseph not only flee out of fear for the death of a child, but because They want to enable the Christ to accomplish His unique mission in this world. Each soul plays a unique part within God’s Plan of Salvation, and can be enabled by the Mistress of all souls to fulfill this part with the utmost fruitfulness. Mary and Joseph do not hesitate when the angel reports God’s wish that They should leave for a distant and unknown country. They ask no questions, They just leave, in the middle of the night (the darkness of an imminent death: If the Christ should here die as a Man, countless souls would live in the darkness of spiritual death forever). Their only motivation for embarking on this uncertain adventure is God’s Will. God herewith also demonstrates how blind surrender to Him (for the souls through consecration and blind surrender to Mary) frustrates all plans of the darkness (the flight into Egypt makes it impossible for Herod to kill the Christ).

• This flight also symbolizes detachment: The familiar is left behind because it is being affected by sin or becomes a bearer of sin, in favour of the unfamiliar, just because God wants it. Many things the soul attaches herself to, hamper her growth and make her unfruitful. Only the soul that, upon God’s word, is ready to let go of everything, is able to escape spiritual death and to finish the path foreseen for her.

• In the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt God demonstrates the unshakable faith of Mary and Joseph in the guidance and support from Divine Providence. The entire journey of life of every soul is an uncertain adventure. The flight into, the stay in, and the return from Egypt was to Mary and Joseph a longstanding venture filled with dangerous adventures, just like the path of each soul’s life on earth. In spite of hunger, thirst, heat, threats and innumerable other trials Mary and Joseph have never doubted whether They had done the right thing trusting God’s word so blindly. During the stay in Egypt They did not know the day when They might be allowed to go back home. In those years Their Hearts sanctified all human souls’ many hours of waiting and expecting filled with insecurity and doubt, and ransomed streams of graces for all souls that throughout the ages would have the courage to believe, in spite of all insecurities of life, that eventually God will arrange for everything to turn out for the best.

• God here teaches the souls that whenever they are counteracted and persecuted, they should preserve the Christ within their hearts (that they must not betray or deny Him, that they must never lose their faith, and must never turn their backs on their faith), that they must protect Him there by the warmth of their Love, faith and hope against all persecution, as acts of unity with the Redeemer’s eternally carrying the Cross and of their willingness to deny themselves for God’s Works, and that they should regard their lives as one uninterrupted opportunity to spread Light in the darkness. The souls can do this by consecrating all their trials to Mary and by bearing them with Love in unity of heart with the suffering Christ.

• During the flight into Egypt Mary truly becomes what is referred to by the title 'Shield of the persecuted' (a title She inspired Myriam in 1999). This is what She will remain for all souls. Each soul is indeed a bearer of the germ of sanctity, the germ of Christ.

Just like the flight into, the stay in, and the return from Egypt, the path of life of every soul that is willing to do God’s Works is a chain of trials, persecutions, moments of hardship, battle against all kinds of dangers and threats. The soul that, while experiencing all this, surrenders to Mary as blindly as an infant to his mother, will be navigated by Her out of any threat to Divine Life within the soul, and will be led through the desert of the troubles of life to a safe homecoming in the Nazareth of God’s Heart.

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

21. The Wedding at Cana

The deep meaning of the presence of Jesus and Mary
at the wedding at Cana in Galilee
(no fixed date of commemoration)

After Jesus had been baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, He retreated into the desert for a period of forty days. Briefly after His return He attended a wedding at Cana, to which He, His Mother and His first disciples were invited. Jesus and Mary led a life which was in every respect detached from any interest in worldly influences. Nevertheless Jesus had to be present at this feast, because it was to be a milestone within His life as the Messiah. If this had not been the case, the story of this event would never have been past on.

Let us consider the deep meaning of the elements the Gospel tells us on the subject. The Mistress of all souls explains all this, and points out to the souls that the deep significance of each act and each word can only be understood against the background of some knowledge of the spiritual Mission of the Messiah and of Her own Mission.

• When the guests’ wine ran out, Mary said to Jesus: "They have no wine".

Mary Herself never drank even as little as one drop of alcohol. In visions She repeatedly showed me, and assured me in words, that She drank only water, honey water and fruit juice (mainly from grapes). Although the wine at the wedding was therefore of no personal interest to Her whatsoever, it occurred to Her that the guests were in need of something (the wine), and that soon this need could no longer be fulfilled. God here shows the souls that they can safely trust in Mary for all of their needs as, so to speak, She cannot find peace before She knows that every soul is all right. 'All right' is to be understood in the spiritual meaning of the word, so as a situation in which the soul has got that which she needs to bloom for Eternal Life.

The Queen of Heaven points out that wine is not only a 'noble' beverage, but also symbolizes the Blood of Christ. This means that, in truth, at Cana God lets Mary demonstrate to the souls that every soul that is invited to the wedding meal (which in truth means: that wants to enjoy Eternal Life in Heaven), should be able to partake in the Works of Redemption, and that Mary is able to play a key role within this major Mystery. Mary reminds us of Her re-shaping power as the Mistress of all souls: She is able to help accomplish Redemption within the soul if the soul actively collaborates in her being re-shaped, which is only possible through loving consecration of trials and sufferings.

Thus, in point of fact Mary wishes that every soul should have the wine of Redemption, as well as the state of mind inviting her to actively collaborate in Jesus’ Work of Redemption, which is represented by His Blood.

• Jesus replies to Mary: "Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come".

Considered through worldly eyes it would seem as though Jesus were rebuking Mary by speaking these words. Through the remark She makes to Jesus She expresses Her wish that Jesus Himself should provide new wine. It is remarkable that the Gospel mentions the fact that there were six stone water jars there 'for the Jewish rites of purification'. It was expected of the Jews that they should ritually clean their hands and all jars etc. before a meal. Mary knows that Jesus is the Son of God, and that, consequently, He is able to turn this water into wine.

Here Jesus calls Mary 'Woman'. This is very remarkable, taking into account the relationship of deep Heavenly Love which existed between Them. Nevertheless Jesus did not mean to patronize His Mother or to treat Her so formally and reservedly. By calling Her 'Woman' Jesus points to the fact His relationship with Mary will henceforth surpass the relationship of the Son towards His Mother: Jesus now no longer belongs to Her, but to the whole of mankind. Mary here enters the scene as the Mediatrix between God and the souls. Jesus is going to use this form of address 'Woman' again later: on Mount Calvary.

Jesus here essentially expresses an inner struggle, because He knows the Eternal Father has provided for Mary to be the Mediatrix, and that consequently She has the power to induce Him to commit actions favouring the souls. However He also knows that the hour to begin His public Mission has not yet come.

• Mary says to the servants: "Do whatever He tells you".

Mary is aware of the power She has to accelerate, to reinforce and to guide God’s Works for the benefit of the souls. God is showing here how Mary aims at reinforcing souls as to trusting Jesus blindly: Whatever He may say, it will automatically be for the souls’ benefit, so they had better act upon His words.

Through Her determination Mary shows that She is following Her true vocation. She only keeps pursuing Her actions because She knows God Himself is calling Her to do the things She intends to do. Mary is indeed called upon to be a Bridge between the Redeemer and the souls. Here She is the Mediatrix of Graces, for She knows that Jesus is not going to refuse Her anything, that He knows Her secret wish and that He is going to grant it.

Furthermore, however, at Cana Mary is already the Co-Redemptrix, who absolutely wants to enable all souls to partake in the Mystery of Redemption. She secretly wishes that:

1. at Cana: each soul should have the wine Jesus is going to prepare through a Divine miracle;

2. in general: each soul should 'drink Christ’s Blood', in other words, that she should actively partake in the Works of Redemption.

• Jesus now goes to the servants and tells them: "Fill the jars with water".

Indeed, God has provided for six large jars to be standing here, all in all able to hold several scores of gallons of water. Mary reminds the souls of 'the water of Divine Life' She refers to every now and then. By this She means 'the drops of every trial, of every daily cross'. Jesus goes to the servants with the intention of granting Mary’s wish. In this event God is, in a manner of speaking, bowing His head to a created soul, for this soul (Mary) has wanted God to advance His hour. In spite of the fact Mary is thus asking for something quite out of the ordinary (a modification of the original Plan of Salvation), God gives in. In reality, Mary here displays an unlimited power over God’s Heart.

Jesus knows quite well He is going to turn the water into wine, and that He is going to do so because Mary wishes Him to, and because She has prepared the servants to follow Him blindly in everything. Here God demonstrates a soul can obtain an immense power upon God’s actions by longing intensely for the good of her fellow souls, in complete self-denial, and by arousing within these souls a blind trust in God.

• Jesus works the miracle secretly, and subsequently says to the servants who have filled the jars with water: "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast".

The master of the feast discovers he has not been given water, but wine.

Mary has brought God to 'doing Her will' at a wedding. In reality, however, She has brought God to granting Her wishes forever, whenever She will intercede for God to change the water of Divine Life (a soul’s consecrated trials and crosses) into the Divine effects of the Blood of Christ (the accomplishment of Redemption). Turning the water into wine points to the merger between the soul’s trials and the Blood of Christ, through total consecration and through the will to be united with Christ while carrying the crosses of life.

What has happened here on the spiritual level? The human element (the water, the tears of human suffering) is turned into the Divine element (the wine, symbolizing God’s power of Redemption) because:

1. the soul has shown faith and has collaborated: The servants have trusted in Jesus and have been pouring scores of gallons of water into the jars;

2. the soul has obeyed Mary: The servants have not asked any questions, they have just done as She told them to;

3. Mary has used Her unlimited power, and She has linked God’s Works up with a human work: The water was poured into the jars, no questions asked, and it was presented to the master of the feast, which is why God has turned the human work into a Divine Work.

Mary has allowed another Divine Work to be brought about forever: The jars also symbolize the souls. Throughout life the jar of the soul is filled with the millions of drops of worldly influences and impressions, disbelief, superficiality, etcetera. Through Mary’s intervention this water can be changed into true wine, symbolizing the Divine. This is another way in which God shows us Mary’s re-creating power: One word from Her mouth, and God even changes His Plans in order to meet the soul, provided the latter surrenders to Mary and believes in God’s Works.

At Cana Mary intercedes aiming at one single thing: fulfilling Her vocation, which consists in making the spiritual wedding between each soul and God a major success. The soul that, upon Mary’s word, lets God be the Supervisor of the filling of her jar with all elements of earthly life (Jesus supervising the filling of the jars at Cana) can experience all elements of her life being sanctified (all water in her jar turning into wine, because on account of her wanting to have the celestial marriage between her and God to be consummated, the water was water of Divine Life). The souls present at the wedding at Cana (i.e. those wanting to enter into marriage with God) are united with God through the merger between their own will and Mary’s will and God’s Will.

• The master of the feast tastes the wine, calls the bridegroom and says to him: "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now".

The Mistress of all souls points out that this passage refers to two elements:

1. Worldly life promises the souls Heaven on earth: All worldly temptations seem like wine, yet merely intoxicate the soul, so that she does not notice the quality of her life getting increasingly worse in proportion as she 'drinks more freely – from the influences from the world';

2. God’s Plan of Salvation has kept the good wine until the Last Times. In that the world gets darker and darker the soul must in these days make relatively greater efforts to sanctify herself. In our days the soul that applies herself thoroughly in the struggle for spiritualization can, by so doing, achieve very high degrees of sanctity. Mary invites the souls to be aware of the fact that exactly because of the unparalleled darkness ruling the world, she is now being made known as the Mistress of all souls: the capacity of capacities, the crowning of Her God-given power as the Guide, the Teacher, the Mediatrix, the Co-Redemptrix and the Commander in the battle against darkness.

Using the events of the wedding at Cana as an image of reference, the role played by the Mother of God in these Last Times consists herein:

As the Mistress of all souls Mary can and wants to guide the souls towards the celestial marriage, by arousing within them the willingness:

• to cherish a blind trust in God’s Works;

• to bring them into close contact with the Divine;

• to make them aware of the intoxicating worldly influences;

• to transform them such as to enable them to recognize God’s best wine and to henceforth long for no other wine but the best.

In this sense we can say that now, in these Last Times, God presents the souls with His good wine: In the Science of Divine Life the souls are now being given:

• the fully elaborated programme for their sanctification;

• a full development of awareness as to the strategies of the one who 'serves the poor wine' (Satan), and

• a full development of awareness as to the true sublimity of Mary as the One to whose actions no limitations are set, on account of Her perfect unity with God’s Will.

The Mistress of all souls prepares the souls who are willing to listen to Her implicitly, for the consummation of the celestial marriage, which is sealed in the total transformation of all human matters (the water) into pure sanctity (the wine).

www.maria-domina-animarum.net

TOTUS TUUS, MARIA !

GEMS OF GRACE

22. The Finding of the twelve year old Jesus

The deep meaning of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple
(no fixed date of commemoration)

When Jesus was twelve years old Mary and Joseph took Him along with Them to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Passover. When returning from the feast They found out that Jesus was not among those travelling back home. Having made this discovery They went back to Jerusalem to find Him. After a three-day search They found Jesus in the Temple. As is the case for many of the events occurring in the lives of Jesus and Mary God hid several lessons for the human souls in this event as well. The Queen of Heaven will graciously shed some light on them for us.

It is not a coincidence that this event should occur around Easter. The Easter period is pre-eminently the time in which God’s glorification achieves its fullness. This glorification was to be embodied some time later in Christ rising in the morning of Easter Day. This first remarkable action of the twelve year old Jesus already was essentially a profound glorification of God, as will become apparent further down these lines.

Initially, when on Their way back home from Jerusalem Mary and Joseph find out that Jesus is no longer with Them, They go on the assumption He must be in the caravan somewhere. So They start inquiring if anybody has seen Him. Mary and Joseph lead a life which is focused entirely on God and His interests. Nevertheless through Their actions in this event God demonstrates the soul’s inclination to find what she is looking for with her fellow man. In the meantime the soul pursues her journey through life erring, until at some point she decides to 'turn around' (the moment of conversion!). This is how Mary and Joseph go about looking for Jesus. However, in point of fact, in so doing They do not display any worldly dispositions having taken root inside Themselves. What They do display here, is the spiritual behaviour of countless souls:

• being oriented towards man, expecting everything from their fellow man;
• in the meantime persistently proceeding on the wrong track;
• finally realizing that God is the centre of all things, and consequently converting themselves.

Mary and Joseph are deeply impressed by the fact They have lost sight of Their only Treasure, Jesus, the Son of God. In the reality of spiritual life countless souls are losing sight of Christ and of God’s Works and Plans every single day, so that He disappears right out of their lives without their even noticing it, so to speak. Often they are not even aware they have lost God. The soul loses Jesus with each sin and with any element of indifference and lack of faith as regards God’s Presence in life, and does not find Him as long as she keeps focusing her thoughts, feelings and longings on the things of the world. To express it in words that many will be able to understand even better: Many souls are looking for happiness with people and in the things of the world, yet it can only be found with God.

So the Immaculate Mother and the Foster Father decide to return to Jerusalem, as nobody in the caravan appears to have seen Jesus. This is a meaningful symbol drawing attention to the fact the majority of people have not got eyes for God. Only after a three-day search They are going to find Him. Here God is symbolizing the Three Divine Persons, because God must be found back in His fullness, as the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier:

• The soul who has been wounded by sin must contribute actively to her inner healing (re-creation);
• The soul must contribute to her Redemption from the impact of sin and temptation;
• The soul must contribute to her sanctification, the perfection in all virtues and accomplished spiritualization of all her thoughts, feelings and desires.

For the soul to actually contribute to the achievement of all of this, first and foremost she must believe in God, actively look for Him her whole life long, and keep in mind she is herself a bearer of a holy germ, a room which was actually furnished inside of her for God to be able to dwell inside of her yet which is usually neglected to a great extent.

Mary and Joseph then return to Jerusalem, and after three painful days of searching They end up in the Temple, where They find Jesus. Jerusalem here symbolizes the soul. The Temple symbolizes the soul’s actual deep core, the germ of sanctity. This is the only place where God wants to live in His fullness. God lives in all of creation, but He prefers the core of the human soul when it comes to establishing His throne room. Jesus has stayed back in Jerusalem, and has spent His time in the Temple. Nobody can claim that His parents’ grief was immaterial to Him, nor that He did not want to be with Them, but He does, to be sure, accomplish a mission within the framework of God’s Plan:

1. Here the twelve year old Jesus is going to impress Himself upon people’s minds for the first time, an occasion some would later avail themselves of to recognize Him as the Messiah;
2. Here He is setting a sign for all human souls: Whatever the soul may think or feel, God’s Works must take priority at each and every moment in life. Here Jesus is putting Himself at the service of God’s Works by allowing His caring about the fellow people He loves the most (Mary and Joseph) to serve God’s glorification: For three days He is staying in the Temple, conversing with the scribes;
3. Here Jesus demonstrates to the souls His determination to leave anything aside in order to be able to dwell in the soul’s temple, the germ of sanctity. Thus He already expresses, albeit in a concealed way, His longing to remain with the souls until the end of times, among other things in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus wants to be where God is glorified, where God is actually living, viz. in the soul’s temple.

So, when Mary and Joseph arrive back at Jerusalem They do not meet a Child that has been feeling left to His own devices or abandoned, nor One that has been feeling lost in the hustle and bustle of the city, on the contrary, They find Him in the Temple, busy with the scribes. He asks them questions, and in His turn answers theirs, leaving them stunned on account of His unparalleled Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. Let us recognize the symbol: The soul that is looking for God in the very depths of her own being can discover God’s Truth right there, and receive the grace of Wisdom.

When arriving where He is, Mary asks Him: "Son, why have You done so to us? behold, Your father and I have sought You, sorrowing".

This is a normal question for a mother to ask her child that has just escaped his parents’ supervision. However, in asking this question Mary is fulfilling a part in a Plan of God, who wants to demonstrate that a soul that loses God, usually blames God for this, as if it were He who has abandoned the soul, which He never does: On the days on which he encounters the hardest trials man easily feels abandoned by God. In reality, however, it is on such days that God is looking more fervently than ever for a dwelling in the hidden core deep inside the soul, in order to assist her in making her trial more fruitful for His Plans and Works.

This is how Jesus answers His Mother: "How is it that You sought Me? Did You not know that I must be about My Father’s business?"

Mary has known all along that Jesus had not come on earth to lead a 'normal' human life, but to open up the orchard of God’s Plan of Salvation to the souls in His Teachings, His Sufferings, His Death on the Cross, and His Resurrection. Actually in His answer Jesus addresses each soul, pointing out that:

• the soul is often looking for God in the wrong place, whereas He prefers to stay deep inside her;
• the soul should follow Him by looking for salvation inside herself by working on her own sanctification, in order that Jesus may be able to forget everything else while staying inside of her (just like He seemed to forget everything else while staying in the Temple at Jerusalem), because in a sanctified soul God is glorified the most and His Works are promoted best.

When these events took place Jesus was twelve years old. For the Jews this was the age of adulthood. Here another symbol is unveiled: The human soul reaches spiritual maturity only as soon as she starts looking for God above all things, and does so in the core of her own being. This is indeed what Jesus expresses here by staying back in the Temple for the first time at this symbolic age (the temple symbolizing the soul’s deepest core) to glorify God through all of His actions and by visibly putting God above everything. For the human soul it takes a major spiritual development to look for God above all things. Doing so from the bottom of one’s heart and in a very determined way denotes the fact of having reached a point where the soul truly starts being a factor for promoting salvation, and is therefore moving forward on the path toward sanctity.

Despite the fact Jesus had stayed back in the Temple with the intention of going about God’s Works, He goes down to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, 'and is obedient to Them'. Let us see the deep meaning behind this: Whoever is determined to look for God deep inside of themselves (in the germ of sanctity), is going to get God as a Companion on their further journey through life. On top of this Jesus is well aware of the fact His time to become a public Teacher has not come yet, so He blindly obeys Those to Whom He is entrusted, until the day on which He is going to be given to mankind as a whole, after His Baptism in the river Jordan. He goes down with Them, to live with Them. That is what He wants to do in each and every soul, but to that end the soul must convert time and time again, day after day – in a manner of speaking, after each time the soul has 'lost Jesus' she must return to the Jerusalem of the germ of sanctity deep inside of herself – in order to actively look for God over and over again.

♥ ♥ ♥

This concludes the series Gems of Grace. In 22 instalments the Queen of Heaven has been granting the souls a number of elements of insight enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the events that played a major part in Her and Jesus’ life on earth, and have thus become of paramount importance for the development of God’s Plan of Salvation and for teaching the souls the Science of Divine Life. May these elements of insight help many souls to follow Jesus and Mary, for They are the mirrors in which each soul can read the progress she has made on her own path towards sanctity.