This inspiring and revealing article on the secret life of the Mother of Jesus was compiled by Mr. Joseph Costa from the writings of the Italian mystic, Maria Valtorta (1897-1961). The webmaster would like to gratefully thank Mr. Costa for sharing it here--May God reward him for his efforts.
Not much is revealed in the New Testament of the Bible about Virgin Mary's secluded earthly life. But many gems from that life have been revealed to us in the holy Writings of Maria Valtorta, by Virgin Mary Herself; and by Her Son and Lord: Jesus Christ - Her sweet, gentle, and patient Son... like Herself... like Mother, like Son.
When on earth, Jesus, the Messiah, true God and true Man, once said to His listeners [As revealed to Maria Valtorta]:
"I want to be called the Son of Man because I lower Myself taking upon Myself all the miseries of man [via having acquired human nature, as a Man, in addition to retaining His divine nature, as God], to bear them [miseries, sufferings] as My first scaffold..."
Virgin Mary, a Woman, is the Mother of Jesus, as well as being Coredemptrix. Mary is descendant from man, from Adam and Eve, from the line of Bethlehemite king David of Judah. Without Mary, there would not have been Redemption. And She suffered for years and years, always obeying absolutely the Will of God, of God the Father Who, from eternity, "... generated Himself [as Jesus] from Himself [from the Father]."
Jesus was generated, not created, from the Father, Whose love for One Another generated Love, that is God the Holy Spirit, through Whose power Jesus, in His Humanity, was conceived and infused into the womb of Mary. Jesus never ceased being God while He was being formed, in His Humanity, in Mary's womb. And the Holy Spirit is the eternal real Spouse of Mary.
Below, Mary lights up for us 6 gems from Her secluded earthly life, which gems have been very briefly mentioned in the 4 Gospels according to saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are of course other gems not mentioned herein. Mary is second in holiness only to God. With Her absolute purity, obedience, and humility, Mary, the New Eve, countervailed, cancelled, primogenitor Eve's sins of carnal lust, disobedience, and pride.
Pursuant to the holy Writings of Maria Valtorta, truly one of the Church's greatest mystics that's ever lived on earth:
Virgin Mary Most Holy, Immaculate, lights up for us some gems from the coffer of Her secluded earthly life, thus:
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[Gem 1 - Presentation of Baby Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem - Luke 2.33]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "When speaking of the Presentation [of Baby Jesus] in the Temple [in Jerusalem pursuant to the then Jewish rite of Purification], [saint] Luke says that 'the father and the mother [i.e. (saint) Joseph and Virgin Mary] remained in amazement over the things that were being said about the Child [Baby Jesus]' [said with words by Simeon, and by Anna of Phanuel; and with glances by various persons nearby. Anna was the resident matron in the Temple, under whose care Mary was under for the 12 years or so that She, Mary, resided in the Temple, consecrated there along with other Jewish girls. She 'left' the Temple to marry Joseph, but both willingly, happily, took an oath therein, before they married, to remain chaste in marriage: '... to love each other as the angels do' - as their sacrifice of love to the Eternal Father for the early coming of the Messiah. Joseph, chosen miraculously for Her, was already a Nazirite. God knows where to lay His gifts].
[Virgin Mary continues:] "The two spouses [(saint) Joseph and Virgin Mary] felt this wonder ['over the things that were being said about the Child'] in different ways. I, to whom the Spouse Spirit had revealed the whole future [to Her from the Annunciation on], felt supernatural wonder, adoring the Will of the Lord [Jesus], who was robing Himself in flesh because He wanted to redeem man and was revealing Himself to the spiritually alive. I felt wonder once more at the fact that God had chosen Me, His humble handmaid, to be the Mother of the Incarnate Will [Jesus]. [Saint] Joseph felt wonder in a human manner, too, for he did not know anything except what the Scriptures had told him and the angel [Gabriel the Archangel] had revealed. I kept silence.
"The secrets of the Most High [God] were as if deposited in a closed ark [Tobit 12.7] in the Holy of Holies, and only I, the supreme Priestess, knew them, and the Glory of the Lord concealed them from the eyes of men with His unbearable splendour. They were abysses of splendour, and only the virginal eye kissed by the kiss of God could look fixedly at them. That is why both [saint] Joseph and I felt wonder. In different ways, but equally in awe.
[Gem 2 - Jesus 'lost' in the Temple for three days - Luke 2.49-50]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "The other passage in [saint] Luke should also be interpreted in this way [i.e. with Mary and Joseph 'feeling wonder in different ways,' as above, with Mary understanding more than Joseph, resulting in different feelings of awe]: 'But they [Mary and Joseph] did not understand what He [Jesus] had said to them.'
[When seemingly 'reprimanded' by Jesus' Mother, Jesus had replied to them, to Mary and Joseph: 'Could you not tell that I must needs be in the place which belongs to My Father?'
[This happened after Mary and Joseph had finally found 'lost' Jesus in the Temple after three days' searching for Him.
[Jesus was then about 12 years old and was then disputing with the then Jewish doctors/clerics of the (religious) Law - chiefly with Hillel, Gamaliel, and also with at least another one, Shammai, a nasty fellow who's probably now in Hell for calling 12 years old Jesus, 'Satan.' They, those religious doctors present, and those like them, Jesus told those present, '... could not understand the Word of God because meanness, pride, and falsehood prevented them from seeing and hearing.' Of course, these self-imposed, self-inflicted handicaps continue to plague the Church to this very day - via some clergy - albeit unseen, snakily.]
[Rabbi Gamaliel, stiff-necked and quintessentially Hebraic, eventually converted to Christianity in his last days, when he was old and completely blind, a blindness that began slowly immediately after the Crucifixion. And he eventually converted in secret - by going secretly in the night to Virgin Mary, and genuinely wept before Her in contrition in not seeing the Light, Jesus, sooner. When he calmed down, She then asked (saint) John to take him to (saint) Peter - the first Pope. Hillel seems to have died some time before circa 31 A.D. and, sometime after this, Jesus went and prayed for him at his grave.]
[Virgin Mary continues:] "I understood [the Words that Jesus had said to Mary and Joseph on being 'found,' that He '... needed to be in the place that belonged to His Father.']. I knew [She understood] even before [from the Annunciation], and if [God] the Father permitted My anguish as a mother, He did not conceal from Me the sublime meaning of the Words of My Son. But I remained silent so as not to mortify [saint] Joseph, to whom the fullness of grace was not granted. [Of the two, only Mary was full of Grace.]
"I was [and She still is, eternally] the Mother of God, but that did not exempt Me from being a respectful wife towards the Good Man [chaste holy saint Joseph, who, Mary had once said to him, was the head of the Family] who was My loving companion and vigilant brother.
[Recall that Tobit (in the Book of Tobit) called his wife Anna: 'sister,' as did also Raguel call his wife Edna: 'sister.']
[Virgin Mary continues:] "Our Family did not experience defects, for any reason or under any aspect. We loved one another in holy fashion [as angels do, holily], concerned about one thing alone: our Son [Jesus].
[Saint Joseph, on earth being the putative father of Jesus, always referred to Jesus as, 'his son.' And Mary referred to Joseph as being Jesus' father. And, so far as I'm aware, there was no one at that time who doubted that, despite what a today's times despicable clergyman, a filthy 'mouth of a snake,' had once said about this matter.]
[Virgin Mary continues:] "Oh, Jesus, as only He could do, restored to My Joseph every comfort in the hour of [Joseph's earthly] death [seemingly in pain], in remembrance of all that He had received from that Just Man [saint Joseph]. Jesus is the model for children, as Joseph is for husbands. I have received much pain from the world and on account of the world. But My holy Son and My just Husband [saint Joseph] made no other tears come to My eyes except those of their pain. [e.g. Mary wept when Joseph told Her that they had to flee immediately to {then wholly non-Muslim} Egypt - She wept because She felt Herself being the contributor to Joseph's pain of having to flee immediately, and in the middle of the night with Her and with a Toddler: infant Jesus.]
[No man was in Heaven prior to Redemption. All the just were then waiting in Limbo, waiting for Redemption to occur in order to enter Heaven. Limbo still exists, housing all the holy unbaptised (and perhaps all the aborted, murdered infants?) - until the Last Judgement, when they will then be baptised by the Fire of the Holy Spirit and thereby become part of the Mystical Body of Christ, and so can enter pure Heaven. Nothing impure can enter or remain in Heaven.]
[Virgin Mary continues:] "When [saint] Joseph was no longer at My side and I was the first earthly authority for My Son, I no longer acted as if I did not understand by remaining silent. No one would feel mortified any longer by seeing himself surpassed in understanding, and at [the wedding of Susanna at] Cana I spoke [to the servants]. 'Do what He tells you,' I said, for I knew that Jesus refused Me nothing [and He still doesn't] and that behind His standoffish Words there was already the first miracle prompted by Me and offered to Me by My Son, like a white rose that was first to appear on a rosebush in the spring. [Jesus worked this miracle, His first miracle on earth, turning water into wine, into the best wine, especially to please His Mother, as 'a wish of Hers is a law for Him.']
[Virgin Mary continues:] "It is necessary to know how to read the Gospel, Maria [Valtorta], Men do not know how to read it. I will guide your hand and explain it to you wherever My Jesus does not explain it to you. I am the Mother of both of you. I want My girl [Maria Valtorta], to know her most sweet Jesus, our Jesus, as few know Him.
"The more you know Him [that we all ought to do], the more you will love Him [that we relentlessly fail to do]. The more you love Him, the happier you will make Me."
[Jesus exhorts all of us to make an effort to know God, Himself, better; and to love also His Mother and ours, given to us by Him from the Cross at His Crucifixion. Mary suffered for many years as Coredemptrix... willingly]
[Gem 3 - We all have kinship with Jesus, through having the same Father - Matthew 12.46-50; Mark 3.31-35]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "[Saint] Matthew says, 'While Jesus was speaking, His Mother and [two of] His brothers [Joseph and Simon - being two of the four biological sons of Alphaeus and of his wife Mary of Clopas, and being two of the four biological nephews of saint Joseph, the earthly spouse of Virgin Mary] were outside, trying to speak to Him [to Jesus]. Someone said, 'Your Mother and your brothers are looking for You.' But He [Jesus] replied, 'Who is My Mother and who are My brothers? Here is My Mother and here are My brothers: whoever does the Will of My Father.'
[Virgin Mary continues:] "[Were the above Words...] A repudiation of His Mother? No. [They were...] Praise for His Mother, who was perfect in doing the Will of the Father. My Jesus well knew the will that I was carrying out! A will which I had made My own and before which I did not draw back, even if every lapsing minute repeated to Me, like a blow upon a nail driven into My heart, 'This ends with Calvary [at the Crucifixion of Jesus].' He [Jesus] well knew I had deserved to be the Mother of God because I had done His [God's, the Father's] Will, and if I had not done it, He [Jesus] would not have had Me as a Mother.
"Therefore, among all those who listened to Him [Jesus], as one bound to Him by a tie superior to the blood, by a supernatural link, I was the first among all the disciples in time and knowledge, for the Word of God [Jesus] had been instructing Me since the period when I bore Him in My womb [from the Annunciation]; I was 'His Mother,' in the meaning He attached to His divine Words, and, together with the human recognition of the listeners, He gave Me His divine recognition as a true mother, for I gave [human] life to the Will of His Father and mine [and ours].
[Gem 4 - The importance of hearing and observing the Gospel: the Words of Jesus: Truth - Luke 11.27-28]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "[Saint] Luke narrates that while Jesus was speaking, a woman [who had just fully recovered from illnesses] said 'Blessed is the woman that bore You and the breasts which gave You milk.' My Son replied, 'Rather, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it.'
[Too many clerics, most likely with nothing else better to do, seem to prefer hearing and preaching, contrary to the teachings of saint Paul, the useless words of dead philosophers, thereby faulting within the meaning of Luke 12.8--9; or perhaps they may be much too busy writing books that no one will read.]
[The woman above was Colomba, the elderly wife of old Abraham of Engedi, the head of the then Jewish synagogue in Engedi. Colomba was healed by Jesus both of blindness, and of being dull-witted due to grief. She received these two healing graces while Jesus was preaching uninvited, unsolicited, in the public square of Engedi but while she was simultaneously at her home. Her son, Elisha, whom in due course Jesus also cured, some years back had gone away to live in the mountains alone as he had contracted leprosy {but now curable, thanks to Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio}; and Colomba's daughter had died leaving her, elderly Colomba, and her holy elderly husband, Abraham, young grandchildren to care for.
[Little wonder, then, that poor elderly Colomba got grief-stricken; and went blind and dull-witted as a result. Jesus restored to elderly Colomba, 'the eyesight of her bygone days and the intelligence of her youth,' in order to comfort her holy husband, Abraham, in his old age.
[Abraham had once given assistance to the three kings (or wise men or magi) who were then fleeing from the hot pursuit of the murderous soldiers of wicked king Herod the Great cut-throat. Rome then censured his killings of the innocent infants in Bethlehem, with Caesar {?Augustus?} calling Herod, a 'pig who feeds on blood.']
[Abraham had learned that Jesus, the Messiah, was in the world from the three kings (Gaspar, Melchor, Baldazar), and was glad beyond measure when he finally met Him, Jesus, in Engedi.]
[Engedi was then near the edge of the Dead Sea; and Engedi was then a: "... pleasant oasis, the survivor of the lands of Eden [i.e. of the lands of wicked Sodom and Gomorrah] punished by God..." Sodom and Gomorrah lie at the bottom of the Dead Sea, never to rise again.]
[Virgin Mary continues:] "To be the Mother of Jesus was a grace [and] it was not licit for Me to boast of. Among the millions and millions of souls created by the Father, by an inscrutable decree He chose mine to be without stain [i.e. without Original Sin].
"The Eternal [i.e. the Eternal Father, God] does not want Me to humble Myself in Heaven, for He made Me Queen in the happy instant in which, on leaving the Earth, I was encircled by the embrace of My Son - this was My intense longing in the time of separation [i.e. in the duration during which She was separated from Her Son, between the time of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and the time of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into Heaven], a desire which consumed Me like a burning lamp. But, if He so permitted [i.e. the Eternal Father], I would eternally remain prostrated before His Radiance so as to humble My whole self in His sight, in remembrance of His benign decree, which gave Me a soul baptised [immaculate, without Original Sin] before all souls, not with water and salt, but with the fire of His love."
[The most humble person in Heaven is Virgin Mary - Queen of Heaven and Queen of the angels.]
[Gem 5 - The Christian conversion of Longinus, the Roman centurion who was, prior to his conversion, in charge of Jesus Christ's crucifixion: the abomination relentlessly demanded by the then Jewish Sanhedrin and consented to unlawfully and criminally by Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, at the peak of his cowardice and cruelty, in full view before the assembly of the Sanhedrin and their hysterical 'lynch-crucifixion' mob whom they, the Sanhedrin, had incited or bribed or lied to: all drunk with satanic vile hate for innocent Jesus, the Messiah, and baying for His Blood - Matthew 27.55-56; Mark 15.46; Luke 23.49; John 19.25]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "It was the mercy of Longinus that allowed Me to approach the Cross [with (saint) John - then probably about 20-22 years old - whom Longinus wrongly thought was Her son], at which I had arrived by way of steep shortcuts, carried more by love [by a miracle?] than by My own strength.
"Longinus was an upright soldier who did his duty and exercised his right with justice. He was already predisposed, then, towards the miracle of Grace. Because of that mercy of his, I obtained for him the gift of the drops [of Blood] from the Side [of Jesus' Chest when he, Longinus, pierced It with a lance - 'as for a knight'], and they [drops of Blood] were his baptism in grace, for his soul was thirsty for Justice and Truth."
[Longinus also did other compassionate things for Jesus. But, by an 'Eternal Decree' not obviously then known to Longinus, it was to be he that had to pierce Jesus' Side - His Heart. Later, the next day, responding to a request from Virgin Mary via others, he, together with another Roman, both in civilian clothes, went to the house of the Supper Room and gave Her what She had requested: the spear-head, which still had the stain of Jesus' Blood on it. In due course, Longinus became a saint of the Church.
[Most of the movies, if not all of them, about the various stages of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, are mostly hopelessly inaccurate - except for the actual fact of the Crucifixion itself. I have already dealt with this, at length, elsewhere.]
[Gem 6 - Descent of God, the Holy Spirit - Acts 2.1-4]
Virgin Mary reveals to us, that: "When the Spirit of the Lord descended to invest the twelve [= original remaining 11 apostles plus newly elected-with-prayers apostle, Matthias] assembled in the Cenacle [in the house of the Last Supper room] with His Power, He poured Himself upon Me as well. But if for all of them [the twelve apostles present] it was a knowledge which made them aware of the Third Person [of God the Holy Spirit] and of His divine gifts, for Me it was only a more intense rediscovery. For all of them He was a flame; for Me He was a kiss.
"He, the Eternal Paraclete [God the Holy Spirit], had already been [by this time] My Spouse for thirty-four years, and His Fire had so possessed and penetrated Me as to make My whiteness [holiness, obedience, purity, virginity] the body of a Mother [worthy of God]. After the divine marriage [at the Annunciation] He had also left Me filled with Himself, nor could He add Perfection to Perfection, for God cannot increase Himself, being most perfect and unsurpassable in His measure and having given Himself to Me without limit, to make My womanly flesh so holy as to become a dwelling place for the Divine One [for God the Son, the Lord Jesus] who was descending [as God] to incarnate Himself in Me [to become also a Man]."
[The Holy Spirit entered the locked-up room as a very shining burning Globe and went directly to Mary, hovering above Her head for some moments; and then split up into 13 canorous flames and descended to kiss the forehead of each of the 12 apostles, except that the flame for Mary was not a tongue of flame, but a crown that embraced and encircled Her holy virginal head.]
Jesus, while still remaining also being God, could not have also acquired humanity by being conceived and born in a human body that had the 'bite of Satan' there. That is, that had the stain, the scar of Original Sin. That's why Mary was conceived and born immaculate, i.e. without Original Sin, in order to be pure and holy, and worthy to receive the pure divine Seed: Jesus. Mary's soul was created 'from everlasting.'
Jesus reminds us: "Always remember that She [Virgin Mary] is the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Bride of the Holy Spirit and that Her fusion with the Trinity is perfect. She thus possess the power, intelligence, and wisdom of Her Lord. And She possess them in absolute fullness."
Mary, like Jesus, never sinned, "not even the lightest." That doesn't mean, though, that they were never tempted to sin. 'One is tempted to sin without consent, but one sins with consent.' We should always flee fast from situations that can make us fall into sin - something that primogenitor Eve failed to do, and so fell into sin. It was she who then led Adam into sin, and both were justly punished by God. I will say more on this some other time.
We all eventually die and immediately get judged, not by Jesus-the-Lamb, but by Jesus-the-Judge. Virgin Mary did not die as an individual born of woman dies, and She was not judged by God, Jesus, when Her time on earth was over.
But Jesus, Infinite Mercy, Order, has promised that those who recite the 'Chaplet of Divine Mercy,' even if only once, will receive great mercy from Him upon their earthly death.
After earthly death, a man's soul goes either to Hell, or to Heaven (or therein via a temporary stay in Purgatory or Limbo). There are no other abodes to go to!! After the Last Judgement (= the third judgement), when all the dead bodies of men resurrect from the earth and reunite with their respective souls [Ezekiel 37.7-8], only Hell and Heaven will then remain... eternally!!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us.
The foregoing is pursuant to the Gospel that Jesus dictated to Maria Valtorta, the Bible, and my analysis.
With kind regards.
Joseph Costa
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Excerpts from the Writings of Maria Valtorta cited herein are with permission from the Italian publisher:
Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Viale Piscicelli 89-91, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italy.
http://www.mariavaltorta.com/
info@mariavaltorta.com
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