The
Blessed Virgin asks to be invoked under this new title.
The mystic Maria Valtorta writes:
In recompense for my atrocious
suffering, Jesus is always with me, renewing the miracle of quenching
my thirst with the Blood of His open Heart and immersing me in the
fire of His Heart. Such bliss. [This miracle was
reported in
Valtorta’s Notebooks
on March 16, 1947.] And Most Holy Mary
comes in the afternoon, appearing in a dull ashen-colored mantle, as
she did two nights ago.
And after telling me that she
is happy that Rosaries are being recited together in Rome—"for
prayer is more effective when offered by many"—she says to me:
"Do you wish to know why you see me clad in this unusual mantle
of penance—almost a mantle of mourning—even though I weep no more
and the joy of my Heart radiates forth? Behold. I tell you now. And
I reveal to you a new
title
by which I desire you to invoke me.
“For however little my sorrow is meditated upon,
accepted, or believed—however degrading the description of it may
seem, or however much people may wish to deny it—precisely because
they know not how to meditate upon my sorrow as both a mother and a
believer, I was a victim alongside my Son.
“And I remain so still.
“For every offense committed against Him strikes
my Heart and scourges my love for Him, just as every suffering He
endured on that Day of the Passion was a scourge, a blow, a thorn, a
nail, a violent shock, and a fall for me as well. And so, now that a
furious, tireless, and ever-more-violent hail of offenses is being
hurled by humanity against its Lord, I don this mantle of penance—I,
the victim alongside my Son, the Divine Victim.
“Do you see? I stand in the posture of
supplication I assumed at the Sepulcher, at the moment of my complete
sacrifice and my supreme prayer for mankind. I implore and I pour
forth graces. I gather up prayers and acts of reparation. I offer
myself, and I make my offering. I implore the Father—and I implore
His mercy. With my graces, I bring comfort to the faithful.
“I gather their prayers and acts of reparation.
I offer them to console the Love of My Heart. And to render them
powerful, I offer Myself together with you—I, the Mother, a victim
of and for humanity.
“Greet Me, O Mary, in this
manner: ‘Hail, Mary, Victim Mother for the sins of men, pray for
us.’ For this
is My new title:
“Immaculate
Mary, Victim pierced by the sins of the world.”
Then Most Holy Mary vanished, but Jesus
remained—still there, still there…
Based on Maria Valtorta, The Notebooks
1945-1950, June 3, 1949, pp. 527-528.
Saint
Azariah says: "The mission of the Guardian Angel is believed by
people to end with the death of the one being guarded. This is not
always the case. It ceases, as a consequence, at the death of the
unrepentant sinner, and to the great sorrow of the Guardian Angel of
the unrepentant. And it is transfigured into joyful and eternal glory
at the death of a saint who passes from Earth to Heaven without
pauses in purgative service.
But
it continues as it was, as a protection that intercedes and loves its
charge, for those who pass from Earth to Purgatory to atone and be
purified. So we, the Guardian Angels, pray with charity for you
before the throne of God, and united with our prayers of love, we
offer the suffrages that your relatives and friends offer you on
Earth. Oh! I cannot express fully how alive, active, and sweet is the
bond that still unites us to you in Purgatory.
Like
mothers watching for the return of health in a child who was ill and
is convalescing, like wives counting the days that separate them from
the reunion with their imprisoned husband, so do we. We, not even for
a moment, cease to observe divine, loving Justice and your souls
being purified in the fires of love. And we rejoice as we see Love
increasingly appeased toward you, and you ever more worthy of His
Kingdom.
And
when the Light commands us: "Go and bring him out here,"
more swiftly than lightning, we rush to bring a moment of
Paradise—which is faith, which is hope, which is comfort—to those
who still remain to atone, there in Purgatory. And we embrace the
beloved soul for whom we labored and suffered, and we ascend with
her, teaching her the heavenly hosanna.
The
two sweetest moments in the Guardians' mission, the two sweetest
moments, are when Charity says to us: "Come down, for a new man
is born and you must guard him as a gem that belongs to me," and
when we can ascend with you to Heaven. But the first is less than the
second.
The
other moments of joy are your victories over the world, the flesh,
and the devil. But just as we tremble at your fragility from the
moment you are taken into custody, so we always tremble after each of
your victories, for the Enemy of Good is vigilant, trying to destroy
what the spirit builds. Therefore, joyful, perfect in its joy, is the
moment when we enter Heaven with you. For nothing can destroy what is
already accomplished.
And
now, my soul, I respond to your inner question: is God pleased that
there is another Guardian in your house? [A mother with her newborn
child is staying at Maria Valtorta’s
home.] O you, who never ask us questions but keep your spirit open
[...],
know that it is sweet to answer
those like you, and to give you comfort, a soul dear to God and
tormented by men. Yes. God is pleased. Pleased because in your house
there is an angel happy to watch over a newly created soul, a gem of
God, and pleased because Jesus is the One who loved little ones.
Based on Maria Valtorta The Notebooks 1945-1950,
July 16, 1947, pp. 403-404.
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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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my
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