13. On the feast day of our Holy Virgin Mary
Maria together with
her fiancé John went up the mountain, to the chapel of the Archangels, to
attend the divine Liturgy and to receive the Body and Blood of their
well-beloved King Jesus, on that great day of the feast of our Holy Virgin
Mary.
Both of them love
God very much and want to have a blessed family, which will worship the Creator
and will live according to His Will.
After the divine
Liturgy they did not leave immediately, but sat under a big shady tree beside
the stone spring of cool water to enjoy the beauty of the mountain and thank
God for the many gifts He gave them.
Their joy grew when
they saw the elder priest approach them and sit near them like a sweet father
close to his children.
-My child, Mary, I
came to wish you many happy returns for your name day. I wish that you will
become like our sweet mummy, the Holy Virgin Mary.
-Thank you very
much, holy father. Although I am a young girl who makes lots of mistakes and
sins, I would very much like to become, even a little, like our heavenly Mummy.
You would give us much joy if you would tell us something about our sweet Holy
Virgin Mary, that will help us both to love Her Son more and more.
-It is also a great
pleasure for me, my beloved children, to speak to sweet souls, who are
searching with much desire and yearning to know and love our sweet king Jesus with
more affection. This is also the main reason that our holy Church established
all these holy feasts.
-What do you mean,
father?
-On the feast days
of our Saints we always remember, my daughter, our heavenly Father, Whom they
also loved with adoration and for His sake suffered greatly. Every time a Saint
celebrates we remember how we also need to live, in order to get into the
heavenly kingdom of God. That is why every
Saint's celebration is for us an opportunity to be like them. To learn how
they lived in this life to please God, so we can imitate them and to live here
on earth as they lived. Every Saint has something different to teach us about
his personal struggle, but also the virtues that each of them loved the most.
As there are many flowers, different in shape, beauty and fragrance, so the
flowers of God, our Saints, differ from each other in the way they struggled to
remove their mistakes and to love God. While, however, they differed in the
type of exercise they applied to reach the arms of their beloved God King, all
of them had one thing in common, which was the common secret of their heart.
-What was that,
holy Father?
-All of them, my
children were very divinely in love with
their heavenly King God. While they knew they were very sinful and unworthy
of divine Grace, however, like small children who love and adore their mother
and they cannot live without her, so they longed to live like babies in the
arms of their beloved God. Their struggle, although it was long and difficult,
however, was made with great joy by them, because their motivation was the love
that burned in their hearts for their Beloved and not fear of being punished
for their mistakes or condemned to hell for their sins! A struggle, my
children, which is made from love, is always the most beautiful! It is the only
struggle in which you have the will to persevere without getting tired or
discouraged. A struggle which is made from love, is the one which makes God
very happy with His children and bless them richly with His divine Grace.
-Holy father, in
what way did Our Holy Virgin Mary struggle so much that She managed to win the
highest point of divine Grace? John
asked.
-Our Holy Virgin
Mary, my son, did the most valuable thing a person can do for God, but also
what God could ask from His every child. She
trusted Her heavenly Father with absolute love and obedience as a baby trusts
his sweet mummy. Her mind, Her heart, Her eyes and Her lips were speaking
only of Her God. And even though She was human, She lived like an angel on
earth, showing all of us how we too can live like this. She didn't do something
difficult or impossible to attract divine Grace and be the Mother of God Himself. She simply surrendered all Her existence
to His divine love and His Will. That is, She followed the path of spiritual infancy and became a baby in His heart. In
the person of our sweet Holy Virgin Mary our God Himself shows us the easiest way to get to know Him, to love and to share
His divine Grace so that we will be worthy one day to enter into His heavenly
kingdom, where only joy and happiness exist.
-What does
spiritual infancy mean, father? Maria asked to learn with much desire and
yearning.
-It means, my good
child, to live like a baby in the arms of God with complete trust in His
will and He will be for you your only Mother and Father. And as a child
does not recognize anybody else as his parents, except those who gave him life,
so you also recognize as a true Mother and Father of your soul He who created
you. Moreover, we must not forget that our earthly parents only give us our
body, while our immortal soul is only given to us by our God. So if we call
parents those, who gave us only the body, how should we call our Creator who
gave us the immortal soul? For our Holy Virgin Mary, God was the Mother and
Father of Her soul, that's why She obeyed His divine Will as an obedient little
child. She lived the wonderful path of spiritual infancy so faithfully and
consistently, that made God trust Her with His only begotten Son to become Her
Son. So the Son of God was not only Her own God, but also Her own Son. He became Her Son and Her God.
-Holy father, if we
follow the path of spiritual infancy which our Holy Virgin Mary also walked,
will we be able to love Christ as our Son and God as She does?
-Of course, my
child. This is furthermore, the most important message that the Holy Virgin
Mary wants to give us on this feast day. That is, whoever follows the path of
spiritual infancy and becomes a small child, in God's arms, can live the
greatest mystery of the world like our Holy Virgin Mary; to become the Son of
God, the Son of Man, and his Son! To hold Him in his arms, like our Holy Virgin
Mary did, with divine love as his unique heavenly treasure. Then he will be
worthy to be a child in God's arms, but at the same time, a little mother to
the holy Infant of Bethlehem, the small sweet Jesus. This is the miracle of
miracles. For the Son of God, to become the Son of Man. To be our sweet Jesus,
as He is for our Holy Virgin Mary, our Son and our God. But for this to happen,
we must be simple and humble like children, without malice, hatred, envy and
jealousy. Not to be ruthless and cunning, but very honest and merciful. To
easily ask for forgiveness for our mistakes and not let our anger to last more
than it would in the heart of a child, that is, only a short time. To achieve
all these things, we can use a great and important virtue, which our Holy
Virgin Mary had and her soul was greatly blessed.
-What was that virtue?
-It was prayerful silence. She never spoke unnecessary words, that might
upset Her heavenly Father or embitter Her fellowman. The few words She spoke were like honey from her mouth, spreading only joy,
hope and peace to all people. Our Holy Virgin Mary knew very well that the
foundation of spiritual life is to be humble in mind, to love God with all the
power of your heart and speak to Him as a child talks to his dad. Additionally,
this is the strength of true prayer. Talking to God your Father with your
prayer as a child talks to his dad. To speak to Him about everything, for good
things that you did, but also for the bad ones. And to truly repent for the bad
things you have done and to ask for forgiveness, and to ask Him to give you humility
for the good things you did, not to lose the reward of your good deed, and in
addition to bless you, so you can do even many more good things in His holy
name.
-Please bless us, father, so we can follow
from today on the wonderful way of spiritual infancy!
