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Christmas. A New Dictation by Mary
Mary says:
“The blessedness of the Christmas ecstasy came to me like the fragrance of a flower enclosed in the living vase of the heart throughout life. Indescribable joy. Human and superhuman. Perfect.
“When the coming of each nightfall hammered the painful memento into my heart - ‘One day less of waiting, one day closer to Calvary’ - and my soul emerged therefrom cloaked in pain, as if a wave of agony had covered it, a foretaste of the waves of the tide which would swallow me up on Golgotha, I bent my spirit over the memory of that blessedness which had remained alive in my heart, just as one bends over a mountain gorge to hear the echo of a love song once more and see the house of one’s joy in the distance.
“It was my strength in life. And it was, above all, at the hour of my mystical death at the foot of the Cross. In order not to go so far as to say to God - who was punishing us, my gentle Son and me, for the sins of a whole world - that the punishment was too atrocious and that his hand as a Chastiser was too severe, through the veil of the most bitter tears a woman has ever shed I had to concentrate on that luminous, beatific, holy remembrance, which rose up in that hour as a vision of comfort from within my heart to tell me how much God had loved me; it rose up to meet me without waiting for me to seek it, since it was holy joy, for all that is holy is infused with love and love gives its life even to the things which seem not to have life.
“Maria, we must act like this when God strikes us.
“To remember when God has given us joy, so as to be able to say, even in the midst of torment, ‘Thank You, my God. You are good to me.’
“To seek to make our joys God’s joys - that is, not to procure human joys for ourselves, willed by us and liable to be contrary, like all that is the result of our acting cut off from God, to his Divine Law and Will, but to await joy from God alone.
“To preserve the remembrance of those joys even when joy has passed, for the recollection which spurs us towards good and towards blessing God is a memory not to be condemned, but, rather, to be recommended and blessed.
“To pervade the darkness of the present hour with the light of that hour in order to make it so luminous that it will be sufficient for us to see the Holy Face of God even in the darkest night.
“To temper the bitterness of the chalice with that sweetness we have enjoyed so as to be able to bear its taste and reach the point of drinking it right to the last drop.
“To feel the sensation of God’s caress while the thorns are piercing our brow because it has been conserved as the most precious of memories.
“These are the seven forms of blessedness set against the seven swords. I give them to you as my Christmas lesson (introduce this date), and, along with you, I give them to all my beloved ones.”
The Eternal Spirit says:
“I am Love. I do not have292 my own voice because my Voice is in the whole creation and beyond the creation. Like the ether, I spread through all that is; like fire, I inflame; like blood, I circulate.
“I am in every word of Christ and flower on the lips of the Virgin. I purify the mouths of the prophets and saints and make them luminous. I am He who inspired things before they existed, for it is my power that, like a heartbeat, moved the creative thought of the Eternal.
“Through Christ all things have been made, but all things have been made by Myself, Love, for it is I that with my secret power moved the Creator to work the miracle.
“I was when nothing was, and I shall be when only Heaven remains.
“I am the inspirer of the creation of man, to whom the world was given for his delight, the world in which, from the oceans to the stars, from the Alpine peaks to the stems, my seal is present.
“I shall be the one to place on the lips of the last man the supreme invocation: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’
“I am the One who, to placate the Father, infused the idea of the Incarnation and descended, as a creative fire, to make Myself an embryo in the immaculate womb of Mary, and ascended, made Flesh, onto the Cross, and from the Cross, to Heaven again, to make the new alliance between God and man in a ring of love, as, in an embrace of love, I had clasped the Father and the Son, generating the Trinity.
“I am He who speaks without words, everywhere and in every doctrine originating in God, He who without touch opens eyes and opens ears to hear the supernatural, He who without a command draws you from the death of life to Life in the Life which knows no limit.
“The Father is upon you; the Son is in you; but I, the Spirit, am in your spirits and sanctify you with my presence.
“Seek Me wherever there is love, faith, and wisdom. Give Me your love. The fusion of love with Love creates Christ in you and bears you back into the Father’s breast.
“I have spoken today, which is the advent of Love on Earth, my highest manifestation, the one from which redemption and Pentecostal infusion come to the Earth.
“May my Fire dwell in you and set you aflame, recreating you for God, in God, and through God, the Eternal Lord, to whom all praise should be given, in Heaven and on Earth.”
In the Communion thanksgiving, while I was praying out loud for all of us and Anna and Paola293 (Marta294 had gone to the kitchen for a moment), I was caught in ecstasy. I saw Mary take the Child from her lap, clasp Him to her heart, kiss Him, and rock Him to sleep.
And this would not be very bad. The bad part was that I saw Paola raise her eyes from her missal (for, though I was reading, and my eyes were thus lowered, I still saw the book, the Virgin, and the onlookers at the same time) and stare at me, and I saw Marta rush to be near me and look as well.
Seeking to master myself, I went to the end of Pius XII’s prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the other prayers. But I got the feeling I was close to foundering completely in the blessed sweetness of the ecstasy, and I asked God and Mary to help me go forward and conceal me from the others in that state of mine. Afterwards people came, we had breakfast (milk and coffee), and so on.
Finally, over an hour later, I asked Paola, “Why were you looking at me?”
She replied, “Because I noticed a change in your voice and face. Your voice was laughing and weeping at once, and your face was transformed.”
Marta said, “From the kitchen I heard your voice change tone so much that I ran over, thinking you were feeling ill, and I saw you completely different.”
“Different in what way?”
“As if you were beside yourself.”
I did not deny it because the tears of the “joyful weeping,” as Mary says, were still rising up from my heart, and I felt the inner light shining through from my face.
Oh, Father...!295 Afterwards I remained inflamed and transfigured, rendered more beautiful throughout the day.
In the continuation of the vision which was enrapturing me, I seemed to be seeing Mary getting up from the place where I have always seen Her in the past few days - at the end of my bed, on the right side - and coming close to my bed, holding the Child in her arms. I distinctly saw the gesture of supporting her left hand on the floor to act as a lever for her body and the slightly rolling step typical of those who wear sandals. When She was close to me, I saw the Divine Baby sleeping, placid and beautiful, resting on Mary’s right arm and breast. My tears were falling... Mary then slipped her left arm around my shoulder, drawing me to Herself, in such fashion that I was under her veil and felt the slender shoulder and delicate breast against my head and my heart, and I knew that on the other side was my Jesus, also resting on the Mother.
I was like that for some time. But I am still seeing Her here, at my bedside, with the Child in her arms. How lovely, meek, pure, and dear She is! And how placid is the Child’s repose! The breathing of a little bird... How beautiful it is to remain like this! What is suffering if it gives us these joys? I wanted to tell you about the joy filling me inside and outside and beautifying me, for it is too lovely for me to keep it to myself. I am happy. One thing I am tempted to pout over a bit before the Mother and Jesus is their having allowed others to see my transfiguration. Heaven knows! Never mind...!
292 The writer adds to the line: “(or I do not use)”.
293 Anna was the second wife of Giuseppe Belfanti, the cousin of the writer’s mother. Paola is the daughter of Giuseppe and stepdaughter of Anna.
294 Marta Diciotti.
295 Father Migliorini.