I [Maria Valtorta] took the Holy Relic and began to say the usual prayer against Satan,
who I feel is very intent on prowling around my house, me, and her
[Maria’s housekeeper Marta]. Then
I said the Act of Contrition, made a Spiritual Communion, the prayer:
"Here I am, beloved and good Jesus… I am considering your five
Wounds, etc., etc." and the prayer of the Cross, plus the Act of
Offering, as I do every evening. I conclude with the "Glory Be"
to the Holy Archangels and Angels, and finally to my Guardian.
As
I say these last words to my Guardian Angel, I pause to ask, "But
what's your name? You must have a name! I call you 'internal
advisor.' But I'd like to call you by a name." He appears to me,
next to the bed, to the right, toward the back, and says promptly,
all smiles: "Azariah."
"Azariah?
Really?" He smiles even more and says, "Are you not sure?
Let's say together the 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' and seven 'Glorias,' as
I have taught you for years in order to find answers and guidance
from the Holy Spirit in every need, and then open the Bible at
random. The first name you see is mine."
I
say the prayers with him and then open the Bible. It opens to 2
Chronicles 15:1. "Azariah, son of Obed, etc., etc.". The
angel, still smiling, says: "And you can find the meaning of the
name in the Book of Tobit, in the notes at the bottom of the page."
I run to the Book of Tobit. I find at the bottom of the 5th chapter:
"Azariah means 'help of the Lord,' therefore Azariah son of
Ananias means: 'Help of the Lord, son of the goodness of the Lord.'"
The angel says: "So it is," and smiles, looking at me
sweetly.
I
observe him: tall, handsome, with dark brown hair, a round face,
perfect in line and color, dark brown eyes, large, sweet, beautiful.
I observe him in his loose robe: a straight tunic, very chaste, very
beautiful, without a belt or cloak, with wide sleeves and a square
neckline. The robe is white and silver. The bottom is a silver color,
slightly burnished; The relief of this dress, which looks like
precious brocade, is a luminous white, whiter than any snow or petal
ever formed. And the relief is a succession of lily stems with open
calyxes […] so that the angel seems wrapped in an enveloping
bundle of blooming lilies. At the neck, sleeves, and hem, silver
stripes.
I
say: "The same dress as on January 4, 1932, and the same
appearance!" [When she saw
her angel who had helped her at home after an illness, as she
recounts in her Autobiography] "Yes. It is I. And if on other
occasions I appeared to you with the three holy colors [red,
blue, and green], it is to remind you that the Guardian watches over
above all the life of the three theological virtues in the spirit of
his ward."
I
contemplate him, contemplate, contemplate, saying and savoring his
name throughout the night of bitter suffering and without a shadow of
sleep. From now on, "the internal advisor" will therefore
be referred to by the name of Azariah, because, as he told me in
greeting me before vanishing from my spiritual gaze, "every
guardian angel is an Azariah: a helper of the Lord who in special
cases makes himself more manifest by his order and for his glory."
While
I work with my needle, I mentally contemplate the moral figure of
Jesus Christ. I think that if I could have a picture of Him painted
according to my instructions and therefore as close as possible to
His Holy Human Face, I would like to have a phrase written underneath
that would be "all" that Jesus of Nazareth was. I think of
"Come to Me," "I am the Way, Truth, and Life,"
"It is I, do not fear." But I feel that this is not yet
what my soul desires to represent "the Christ."
St.
Azariah speaks to me: "Jesus is the Compendium of the love of
the Three. Jesus is the Compendium of what the Holy Trinity and Unity
of God are. He is the Perfection of the Three summarized in One. It
is the infinite, multifaceted Perfection epitomized in Jesus. An
abyss of Perfection before which the celestial armies and the blessed
multitudes of Paradise prostrate themselves in adoration. An abyss of
Love that could be, and can be, understood and accepted only by those
who possess love.
“Observe,
my soul, that both in the time of Christ and
in this era there were always two points on which the arrogant
intellect of man, who cannot believe unless he is humble and
loving, was most obstinate: that Christ was God and Man and performed
solely spiritual actions, for which he was hated even by his closest
friends and therefore betrayed, and that he created the Sacrament of
Love. Then, now, always, the "loveless" heretically said
and will say that God cannot be in Jesus and that Jesus cannot be in
the Most Holy, adorable Eucharist. Therefore, my soul, if you had to
have a word written under the effigy of the Man-God, you should have
it written: "I am the Compendium of
Love." And St. Azariah is silent, adoring.
St.
Azariah tells me: "Angels are superior to men. I say 'men' to
refer to the beings so called, composed of matter and spirit. Then we
are superior, all spirit. But remember that when Grace lives in man
and the Blood of the Mystical Body whose head is Christ circulates,
while the seven Sacraments strengthen him from birth to death, for
every state and every phase of life, then in you, 'living temples of
the Lord,' we see the Lord and adore Him in you, and then you are
superior to us, you are 'other Christs,' and you have what is called
the 'Bread of Angels,' but it is Bread only for men. Mystical,
insatiable hunger for the Eucharist that is within you and that makes
us cling to you, when you nourish yourselves with It, to smell the
divine fragrance of this perfect Food!”
Based
on Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks 1945-1950, entries for
January 15, 1946 and January 20, 1946, pp. 170-176.
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