The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, as seen by mystic, venerable Mary of Agrita.
The palace which the Supreme King of Kings and the Lord of Lords had chosen for entertaining
His eternal and incarnate Son in this world was the most poor and insignificant hut or
cave to which most holy Mary and Joseph betook themselves after they had been denied all
hospitality and the most ordinary kindness by their fellow men.
as I have described in the foregoing chapter. This place was held in such contempt that,
though the town of Bethlehem was full of strangers, in want of night-shelter,
none would demean or degrade himself so as to make use of it for a lodging.
For there was none who deemed it suitable or desirable for such a purpose,
except the teachers of humility and poverty, Christ our Saviour and His purest Mother.
On this account, the wisdom of the Eternal Father had reserved it for them, consecrating it in all its bareness, loneliness, and poverty, as the first temple of light,
and as the house of the true Son of Justice, which was to arise for the upright of heart, from the resplendent Aurora Mary, turning the night of sin into the daylight of grace.
Most Holy Mary and Saint Joseph entered the lodging thus provided for them, and by the effulgence of the ten thousand angels of their guard they could easily ascertain its poverty and loneliness, which they esteemed as favors and welcomed with tears of consolation and joy.
Without delay, the two holy travelers fell on their knees and praised the Lord, giving Him thanks for His benefit, which they knew had been provided by His wisdom for His own hidden designs.
Mary, the heavenly Princess Mary, had a better insight, for as soon as she sanctified the
interior of the cave by her sacred footsteps, she felt a fullness of joy which entirely
elevated and vivified her.
She besought the Lord to bless with a liberal hand all the inhabitants of the neighboring city,
because by rejecting her, they had given occasion to the vast favors which she awaited in this neglected cavern.
It was forward entirely.
of the bare and coarse rocks without any natural beauty or artificial adornment, a place intended
merely for the shelter of animals, yet the Eternal Father had selected it for the shelter
and dwelling-place of his own son.
The angelic spirits, who, like a celestial militia, guarded their queen and mistress,
formed themselves into cohorts in the manner of court guards in a royal palace.
They showed themselves in their visible forms also to St. Joseph, for on this occasion it
was befitting that he should enjoy such a favor.
the one hand in order to assuage his sorrow by allowing him to behold this
poor lodging thus beautified and adorned by their celestial presence and on the
other in order to enliven and encourage him for the events which the Lord
intended to bring about during that night and in this forsaken place.
The great queen and empress, who was already informed of the mystery to be transacted here,
set about cleaning with her own hands the cave, which was so soon to serve as a royal
throne and sacred mercy seat.
For neither did she want to miss this occasion for exercising her humility, nor would she
deprive her only begotten son of the worship and reverence implied by this preparation
and cleansing of his temple.
St. Joseph, mindful of the majesty of his heavenly spouse, which, it seemed to him,
she was forgetting in her ardent longing for humiliation, besought hard not to deprive
him of this work, which he considered as his alone, and he hastened to set about cleaning
the floor and the corners of the cave, although the humble queen continued to assist him therein.
As the angels were then present in visible forms, they were, according to our motive speaking,
abashed at such eagerness for humiliation, and they speedily emulated with each other to join in this work,
or rather, in order to say it more succinctly.
In the shortest time possible, they had cleansed and set in order the cave, filling it with holy fragrance.
St. Joseph started a fire with the material which he had brought for that
purpose. As it was very cold, they sat at the fire in order to get more.
They partook of the food which they had brought, and they ate this, their frugal supper, with
incomparable joy of their souls.
The Queen of Heaven was so absorbed and taken up with the thought of the impending mystery
of her divine delivery, that she would not have partaken of food if she had not been
urged thereto by obedience to her spouse.
After their supper they gave thanks to the Lord as was their custom.
Having spent a short time in this prayer and conferring about the mysteries of
the incarnate Word, the Most Prudent Virgin felt the approach of the most
blessed birth. She requested her spouse St. Joseph to
retake himself to rest and sleep as the night was already far advanced. The man
of God yielded to the request of his spouse and urged her to do the same.
And for this purpose, he arranged and prepared a sort of couch with the articles of wear and their possession,
making use of a crib or manger that had been left by the shepherds for their animals.
Leaving Most Holy Mary in the portion of the cave thus furnished,
St. Joseph retired to a corner of the entrance where he began to pray.
He was immediately visited by the divine spirit, and felt a most sweet and extraordinary influence,
by which he was wrapped and elevated into an ecstasy.
In it was shown him all that passed during that night in the
in this blessed cave, for he did not return to consciousness until his heavenly spouse
called him.
Such was the sleep which St. Joseph enjoyed in that night, more exalted and blessed than
that of Adam in Paradise.
The queen of all creatures was called from her resting place by a loud voice of the Most High,
which strongly and sweetly raised her above all created things,
and caused her to feel new effects of divine power.
For this was one of the most singular and admirable ecstasies of her most holy life.
Immediately, also, she was filled with new enlightenment and divine influences, such
as I have described in other places, until she reached the clear vision of the divinity.
The veil fell, and she saw intuitively the Godhead itself in such glory and plenitude
of insight, as all the capacity of men and angels could not describe or fully understand.
All the knowledge of the divinity and humanity of her Most Holy Son, which she had ever received in former visions, was renewed and, moreover, other secrets of the inexhaustible archives of the bosom of God were revealed to her.
I have not ideas or words sufficient and adequate for expressing what I have been allowed to
see of these sacraments by the divine light, and their abundance and multiplicity convince
me of the poverty and want of proper
expression in created language. The Most High announced to his Virgin
Mother that the time of his coming into the world had arrived, and what would be
the manner in which this was now to be fulfilled and executed.
The most prudent lady perceived in this vision the purpose and exalted scope of these wonderful
mysteries and sacraments, as well in so far as related to the Lord himself, as also in
so far as they concerned creatures, for whose benefit they had been primarily decreed.
She prostrated herself before the throne of his divinity, and gave him glory, magnificence, thanks and praise for herself and for all creatures, such as was befitting the ineffable mercy and condescension of his divine love.
At the same time, she asks of the Divine Majesty, New Light and Grace, in order to be able worthily
to undertake the service and worship and the rearing up of the word-made flesh, whom she
was to bear in her arms and nourish with her virginal milk.
This petition, the Heavenly Mother, brought forward with the profoundest humility, as
one who understood the greatness of this new sacrament.
She held herself unworthy of the office of rearing up and conversing as a mother with
a God incarnate of which even the highest seraphim are incapable.
Prudently and humbly did the Mother of Wisdom ponder and weigh this matter.
And because she humbled herself to the dust and acknowledged her nothingness in the presence
of the Almighty, therefore His Majesty raised her up and confirmed anew upon her the title
of Mother of God.
He commanded her to exercise this office and ministry of a legitimate and true mother of himself,
that she should treat him as the son of the Eternal Father, and at the same time the son of her moon.
entrusted to such a mother, in whom was contained an excellence that words
cannot express. The Most Holy Mary remained in this ecstasy and beatific
vision for over an hour, immediately proceeding.
divine delivery. At the moment when she issued from it and regained the use of
her senses, she felt and saw that the body of the infinite God began to move
in her virginal womb.
How, releasing and freeing himself from the place which in the course of nature he had
occupied for nine months, he now prepared to issue forth from that sacred bridal chamber.
This movement not only did not cause any pain or hardship as happens with the other daughters of Adam and Eve in their childbirths,
but filled her with incomparable joy and delight, causing in her soul and in her virginal body such exalted and divine effects that they exceed all thoughts of men.
Her body became so spiritualized with the beauty of heaven that she seemed no more a human and earthly creature.
Her countenance emitted rays of light, like a sun incarnadined, and shone in indescribable
earnestness and majesty, all inflamed with fervent love.
She was kneeling in the manger, her eyes raised to heaven, her hands joined and
folded at her breast. Her soul wrapped in the divinity and she herself was
entirely deified. In this position and at the end of the heavenly rapture the most
exalted lady gave to the world the only begotten of the Father and her own.
our saviour Jesus, true God and man, at the hour of midnight, on a Sunday, in the year
of the creation of the world, 5199, which is the date given in the Roman Church, and
which date has been manifested to me as the true and certain one.
At the end of the beatific rapture and vision of the mother ever virgin, which I have described
above, was born the son of justice, the only begotten of the eternal father, and of Mary
most pure, beautiful, rifolgent, and immaculate.
leaving her untouched in her virginal integrity and purity, and making her more godlike and forever sacred.
For he did not divide, but penetrated the virginal chamber as the rays of the sun penetrate the crystal shrine,
lighting it up in prismatic beauty.
The infant god, therefore, was brought forth from the virginal chamber,
unencumbered by any corporeal material substance foreign to himself.
But he came forth glorious and transfigured for the divine infant wisdom decreed and ordained
that the glory of his most holy soul should in his birth overflow and communicate itself
to his body, participating in the gifts of glory in the same way as happened afterwards
in his transfiguration on Mount Tabor and in the presence of the apostles.
This miracle was not necessary in order to penetrate the virginal enclosure and to leave unimpaired the virginal integrity.
For without this transfiguration, God could have brought this about by other miracles.
Thus say the holy doctors, who see no other miracle in this birth than that the child was born without impairing the virginity of the mother.
It was the will of God that the Most Blessed Virgin should look upon the body of her Son,
the God-Man, for this first time in a glorified state for true reasons.
The one was in order that by this divine vision, the most prudent mother should conceive the highest reverence for the majesty of him, whom she was to treat as her son, the true God-man.
Although she was already informed of it,
twofold nature, the Lord nevertheless ordained that by
ocular demonstration she be filled with new graces
corresponding to the greatness of her most holy Son,
which was thus manifested to her in a visible manner.
The second reason was to reward by this wonder the fidelity and holiness of the Divine Mother,
for her most pure and chaste eyes, that had turned away from all earthly things for love
of her Most Holy Son, were to see Him at His very birth in this glory, and thus be rejoiced
and rewarded for her loyalty and beautiful love.
The sacred evangelist Luke tells us that the mother virgin, having brought forth her first
begotten son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger.
He does not say that she received him in her arms from her virginal womb, for this did
not pertain to the purpose of this narrative.
But the two sovereign princes, St. Michael and St. Gabriel, were the assistants of the
virgin on this occasion.
They stood by at the proper distance in human corporeal forms at the moment when the incarnate
word, penetrating the virginal chamber by divine power, issued forth to the light, and
they received him in their hands with ineffable reverence.
In the same manner as a priest exhibits the sacred host to the people for adoration, so
these two celestial ministers presented to the divine mother her glorious and refulgent
son.
All this happened in a short space of time. In the same moment in which the
holy angels thus presented the divine child to his mother, both son and mother
looked upon each other, and in this look she wounded with love the sweet infant
and was at the same time exalted and transformed in him. From the arms the
holy princes, the Prince of all the heavens spoke to his holy mother.
Mother, become like unto me, since on this day, for the human existence, which thou hast
today given me, I will give thee another more exalted existence in grace, assimilating
thy existence as a mere creature to the likeness of me, who am God and men."
The most prudent mother answered,
Raise me, elevate me, Lord, and I will run after thee in the order of thy ointments.
In the same way, many of the hidden mysteries of the canticles were fulfilled, and other
sayings which pass between
the infant God and the virgin mother had been recorded in that same book of songs.
As for instance, my beloved to me and I to him and his desire is toward me.
Behold, thou art art beautiful, my friend, and thy eyes are doves eyes. Behold, my beloved,
for thou art beautiful."
And many other sacramental words which to mention would unduly prolong this chapter.
The words which Most Holy Mary heard from the mouth of her Most Holy Son,
serve to make her understand at the same time the interior acts of His Holy Assault, united with the Divinity.
In order that by imitating them, she might become like unto Him.
This was one of the greatest blessings, which the most faithful and fortunate mother received
at the hands of her son, the true God in man, not only because it was continued from that
day on through all her life, but because it furnished her the means of copying his own
divine life as faithfully as was possible to a mere creature.
At the same time, the heavenly lady perceived and felt the presence of the most holy trinity,
and she heard the voice of the eternal Father saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am greatly pleased and delighted.
The most prudent mother made entirely godlike in the overflow of so many sacraments answered.
Eternal Father and Exalted God, Lord and Creator of the universe,
give me a new thy permission and benediction to receive in my arms the
desired of nations, and teach me to fulfill as thy unworthy mother and lowly
slave.
holy will. Immediately she heard a voice which said,
received thy only begotten son, imitate him, and rear him, and remember
that thou must sacrifice him when I shall demand it of thee.
The Divine Mother answered, Behold the creature of thy hands, Adorn me with thy grace, so
that thy Son and my God recede me for his slave, And if thou will come to my aid with
thy omnipotence, I shall be faithful in his service, And do thou count it no presumption
in thy insignificant creature, that she bear in her arms and nourish at her breast her
own lord and creator.
After this interchange of words, so full of mysteries, the divine child suspended the miracle of his transfiguration, or rather, he inaugurated the other miracle, that of suspending the effects of glory in his most holy body, confining them solely to his soul.
and he now assumed the appearance of one capable of suffering.
In this form, the most pure mother now saw him and still remaining in a kneeling position
and adoring him with profound humility and reverence.
She received him in her arms from the hands of the Holy Angels.
And when she saw him in her arms, she spoke to him and said,
My sweetest love and light of my eyes and being of my soul.
Thou hast arrived in good hour into this world as the Son of Justice.
In order to disperse the darkness of sin and death.
True God of the true God, save thy servants, and let all flesh see Him, who shall draw upon its salvation.
Receive me thy servant as thy slave and supply my deficiency, in order that I may properly serve thee.
Make me my son, such as thou desired me to be in thy service.
Then, the most prudent mother turned toward the eternal father to offer up to him his
only begotten, saying, Exalted Creator of all the universe, here is the altar and the
sacrifice acceptable in thy eyes.
From this hour on, O Lord, look upon the human race with mercy, and inasmuch as we have
deserved the anger, it is now time that thou be a peace in thy son and mine.
Let thy justice now come to rest, and let thy mercy be exalted.
For on this account the word has clothed itself in the semblance of sinful flesh, and become
a brother of mortals and sinners.
In this title I recognize them as brothers, and I intercede for them for my inmost soul.
Thou Lord has made me the mother of the of thy only begotten without my merit, since
this dignity is above all merit of a creature.
But I partly owe to men the occasion of this incomparable good fortune.
since it is on their account that I am the mother of the word made man and redeemer of them all.
I will not deny them my love or remit my care and watch from this for their salvation.
Receive eternal God, my wishes and petitions, for that which is according to thy pleasure and good will.
The mother of mercy turned also toward all mortals and addressed them, saying,
Be consoled, ye afflicted, and rejoice, ye disconsolate.
Be raised up, be fallen, come to rest.
Let the just be gladden, and the saints be rejoiced. Let the heavenly spirits break out
in new jubilee. Let the prophets and patriarchs of limbo draw new hope, and let all the generations
praise and magnify the Lord.
who renews his wonders, come, come ye poor, approach ye little ones without fear, for
in my arms I bear the lion made a lamb, the almighty become weak, the invincible subdued.
Come to draw life, hasten to obtain salvation, approach to gain eternal rest, since I have
all this for all.
And it will be given to you freely, and communicated to you without envy.
Do not be slow and heavy of heart, ye sons of men.
And thou, O sweetest joy of my soul, give me permission to receive from thee that kiss
desired by all creatures.
Therewith, the most blessed mother applied her most chaste and heavenly lips in order
to receive the loving caresses of the Divine Child, who on his part as her true son had
desired them from her.
Holding him in her arms, she thus served as the altar and the sanctuary.
where the 10,000 angels adored invisible human forms, their Creator incarnate and as the most
blessed Trinity assisted in a special manner at the birth of the Word. Heaven was, as it were,
emptied of its inhabitants, for the whole heavenly court had be taken itself to that blessed cave
of Bethlehem and was adoring the Creator in his garb and habit of a pilgrim.
And in their concert of praise, the Holy Angels entoned the new canticle.
Gloria Enochelcy's Dayo, Ettingera Pox, Haminibu Sponey Volintatis.
In sweetest and sonorous harmony, they have repeated it, transfixed in wonder at the numericals
then being fulfilled, and at the unspeakable prudence, grace, humility, and beauty of that
tender maiden of fifteen years, who had become the worthy trustee and minister of such vast
and magnificent sacraments.
It was now time to call St. Joseph, the faithful spouse of the most discreet and
attentive lady. As I have said above, he was wrapped in ecstasy, in which he was
informed by divine revelation of all the mysteries of the sacred birth during
this night.
But it was becoming that he should see, and, before all other mortals, should in his corporeal
faculties and senses, be present, and experience a door and reverence the word-made flesh.
For he of all others had been chosen to act as the faithful warden of this great sacrament.
At the desire of his heavenly spouse, he issued from his ecstasy, and,
On being restored to consciousness, the first sight of his eyes was the divine child in the arms
of the Virgin Mother, reclining against her sacred countenance and breast. There he adored him in
profoundest humility and in tears of joy. He kissed his feet in great joy and admiration,
which no doubt would have taken away and destroyed life in him, if divine power had not preserved it.
and he certainly would have lost all the use of his senses if the occasion had permitted.
When Saint Joseph had begun to adore the child, the most prudent mother asked leave of her son to arise.
For until then she had remained at her knees, and while Saint Joseph handed her the wrappings and swaddling clothes,
which she had brought. She clothed him with incomparable reverence, devotion,
and tenderness. Having thus swathed in closure, his mother, with heavenly wisdom,
laid him in the crib as related by St. Luke.
For this purpose, she had arranged some straw and hay upon a stone in order to prepare for
the God-man, his first resting place upon earth, next to that which she had found in
her arms.
According to Devontor Daemon, an ox from the neighboring fields ran up in great haste
and, entering the cave, joined the beasts of burden brought by the queen.
The Blessed Mother commanded them, with which show of reference was possible to them to acknowledge and adore their Creator.
The humble animals obeyed their mistress and prostrated themselves before the child, warming
him with their breath and rendering him the service refused by men.
And thus the God-made men was placed between two animals, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
and wonderfully fulfilling the prophecy that the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his
master's crib.
But Israel had not known me, and my people had not understood.
and now the words of the Queen.
The Virgin Mary speaks to Sister Mary of Agrata.
If men would keep their heart disengaged, and if they would rightly and worthily consider
this great sacrament of the kindness of the Most High towards men, it would be a powerful
means of conducting them in the pathway of life, and subjecting them to the love of their
creator and redeemer.
For as men are capable of reasoning, if they would only make use of their freedom to treat
this sacrament with the reverence due to its greatness, who would be so hardened as not
to be moved to tenderness at the sight of their God become man, humiliated in poverty,
despised, unknown.
Entering the world in a cave, lying in a major, surrounded by brute animals,
protected only by a poverty-stricken mother, and cast off by the foolish arrogance of the world.
Who will dare to love the vanity and pride, which was openly abode and condemned by the creator of heaven and earth in his conduct?
No one can despise the humility, poverty, and indigence which the Lord loved and chose for himself
as the very means of teaching the way of eternal life. Few there are, who stopped to consider this
truth an example, and on account of this vile and gratitude only the few will reap the fruit
of these great sacraments.
But if the condescension of my most holy Son was so great as to be still, so liberally
upon thee his light and knowledge concerning these vast blessings, ponder well how much
that are bound to cooperate with his light.
In order that thou mayest correspond to this obligation, I remind and exhort thee to forget all that is of earth, and lose it out of thy sight, that thou seek nothing, or engage thyself with nothing except what can help thee to withdraw and attach thee from the world and its inhabitants, so that, with the heart freed from all terrestrial affection.
Thou disposed thyself to celebrate in it the mysteries of the poverty, humility, and divine
love of the incarnate God. Learn from my example the reverence, fear, and respect,
with which thou must treat him, remembering how I acted when I held him in my arms.
follow my example, whenever thou receivest him in thy heart in the venerable sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Wherein is contained the same God-man who was born of my womb.
In this Holy Sacrament, thou receivest him and possesses him just as really, and he remains in thee
just as actually, as I possessed him and conversed with him, although in another manner.
I desire that thou go even to extremes in this holy reverence and fear, and I wish that
thou take notice and be convinced that in entering into thy heart in the holy sacrament
that God exhorts thee in the same words, which thou hast recorded as spoken to me.
Become like unto me.
His coming down from heaven onto the earth, his being born in humility and poverty, his
living and dying in it, giving such rare example of the contempt of the world and its deceits.
The knowledge which thou has received concerning his conduct, and which thou has penetrated
so deeply by divine intelligence, all these things should be for thee like living voices,
which thou must heed and inscribe into the interior of thy heart.
These privileges have all been granted to thee in order that thou discreetly use the common blessings to their fullest extent.
In order that thou mayest understand how thankful thou must be to my most holy Son and Lord.
and how thou should strive to make as great a return for his goodness as if he had come
from heaven to redeem thee alone, and as if he had instituted all his wonders and doctrines
in the Holy Church for none else than thee.
Oh