The birth of Mary (Maria Valtorta)

 

The birth of Mary in the Gospel as it was revealed to me

Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) gave the Church some notebooks published under the title L'Évangile tel qu'il m'a été révélé (originally Poem of the Man-God). Publication is authorised on condition that it is made clear that this is a literary work by Maria Valtorta, and not a new Gospel[1].

"I see Ann coming out of the vegetable garden. She's leaning on the arm of a relative, probably because she looks like her. She is very fat and looks tired, perhaps because of the heat. The air is scorching, overpowering.

It must have been dry for a long time; even the grass in the meadow at the end of the property is dry and short. Joachim is standing around the rows of vegetables and olive trees.

Anne slowly makes her way towards Joachim, who spots her and hurries to meet her:

"Have you come all this way?

"The house is as hot as an oven.

"And you're suffering.

"The only suffering of my last moments of pregnancy. It's the suffering of everyone: man and beast. Don't stay too long in the heat, Joachim."

"The water we have been hoping for so long, and which for three days seemed to be near, has not yet come, and the countryside is burning."

Joachim, with the anguish of all farmers, scans the sky.

"Let's go back home," says Anne.

"It's hard to breathe here too".

A song springs up in my heart: Tobias' song...

She looks even more olive-coloured because of the pallor that has invaded her face:

"Are you in pain?

"No, but I'm experiencing the great peace I felt in the Temple when I was given the grace. It's like ecstasy. A sweet somnolence of the body, while the spirit rejoices and calms down into a peace that nothing humanly comparable. I have loved you, Joachim, and when I entered your house and said to myself: "I am the wife of a righteous man", I felt a sense of peace and the same every time your foreseeing love took care of your Anne. But this peace I feel is not the same thing.

You see, I think it is a peace like that which, like sweetly spreading oil, must have invaded the spirit of Jacob our father after his dream of the angels and, better still, like the delightful peace of the two Tobias when Raphael appeared to them.

It penetrates me deeply, and as I taste it, it grows more and more. It's as if I were soaring into the azure spaces of heaven... and, I don't know why, from the moment I have this peaceful joy in my heart, a hymn is born in my heart: Tobias' hymn.

It seems to me that it was written for this hour... for this joy... for the land of Israel that receives it... for Jerusalem, sinful and now forgiven... but when I say: "Thank the Lord for the good things He has given you and bless the Lord so that He may rebuild His Tabernacle in you", I think that the one who will rebuild the Tabernacle of the True God in Jerusalem will be this creature who will be born... and I still think that it is no longer the city, but the being who will be born of me that destiny prophesied when the hymn says: ..."You will shine with a brilliant light, all the peoples of the earth will bow down before you, the nations will come to you to bring you gifts, they will worship the Lord in you and keep your land as a land because in you they will call upon the Great Name.

You will be happy in your children, for all will be blessed and will gather to the Lord. Blessed are those who love you and enjoy your peace!..."

And the first to enjoy it is me, his blessed mother...".

Satan seems to have risen from hell...

Anne changes colour as she says these words, and soft tears stream down her cheeks. She hurried towards the house between her husband and his relative.

The clouds, driven by a violent wind, race and gather across the sky, and the plain darkens and shakes, heralding a storm. When they reach the threshold of the house, the first flash of blue lightning rips through the sky, followed by the rumour of the first clap of thunder.

Everyone goes inside and Anne withdraws while Joachim, joined by his helpers, talks on the threshold about the long-awaited water, a blessing for the parched land. But joy gives way to fear as a terrible storm breaks out, accompanied by lightning and clouds laden with hail.

"If the cloud is torn apart, the grapes and olives will be crushed as if by a millstone. Woe to us!

Joachim is then gripped by another anguish, for his wife, for whom the time has come to give birth. The relative or other women, including Alphée's mother, leave Anne's flat, only to return with basins of hot water and cloths dried by the fire.

"I'm a man and I've never been to a birth, but I remember hearing that the absence of pain is a very bad sign", says Joachim.

Night arrives, brought forward by an extraordinarily violent storm. Torrents of water, wind, lightning, all at once. One of the boys noticed the violence and said:

"It looks like Satan has risen from hell with all his devils. Look at those black clouds! Smell the smell of sulphur in the air, those sinister whistles, those cries of lament and curse. If it's him, he's furious tonight!

The other boy laughed and replied:

"A great prey will have escaped him, or Michael has struck him with a thunderbolt from God and he has his horns and tail sliced off and burnt."

Everything was easy and happy!

A woman ran past and shouted:

"Joachim, he's going to be born! And everything has been easy and happy!

The storm suddenly falls, after a final thunderbolt so violent that it throws the three men against the wall; and in the front of the house, in the ground of the garden, a black and smoky hole remains as a souvenir.

At the same time, a gigantic rainbow spread its semicircle across the whole sky.

It seems to emerge from the summit of Mount Hermon, rises into the clear September sky and, passing through spaces purified of all taint, flies over the hills of Galilee and the plains of Israel.of Galilee and the plain which appears to the south and seems to end at the end of the horizon, where a chain of steep mountains completely blocks the view.

"What a sight never seen before!

"Look! Look!"

"It seems to encircle the whole land of Israel, and already, but look, here is a star while the sun is not yet gone. What a star! It shines like a huge diamond!

"And there's the moon. It's the full moon, and we're still three days away from it. But look at the splendour!

The women arrived joyfully with a pink baby in a white cloth. It's Mary, the Mother! A Mary no longer than an arm's length, with a little ivory head tinged slightly pink and little carmine lips, a little bit of a nose between two rounded cheeks, and her mother's face.two rounded cheeks and her little eyes, two innocent dots that are the colour of azure, and the little hair on her round head has the pinkish-blonde tinge of certain white honeys.

And her hands... closed they are like two foam rosebuds and open... they look like two jewels of ivory or alabaster, barely pink. How will these hands wipe away so many tears?

The toes are masterpieces of Lilliputian sculpture. But how are we going to find sandals when these little doll's feet take their first steps, and how are these little feet going to make such a hard journey and endure so much pain under a cross?

It's the Star!

Under the very white silk you can see the movement of the breath and if, like the happy father, you put your mouth to kiss it, you can hear a little heart beating... a little heart that is the most beautiful that the earth has possessed over the centuries: the only immaculate human heart.

The women continue to talk about the storm and the wonder of the moon, the star and the gigantic rainbow, while they and Joachim enter the happy mother's room and hand her the little creature. Anne smiled at the thought:

"It's the Star!

she said.

"Mary, rainbow of peace! Mary, my star! Mary, shining moon! Mary, our pearl!

"You call her Mary?

"Yes. Mary, star, pearl, light, peace..."

"But this name also means bitterness... Aren't you afraid it'll bring her bad luck?

"God is with her. She is His before she exists. He will lead her along his paths and all bitterness will be transformed into heavenly honey. Now you're at your mother's... just a little longer before you're all God's..."

And the vision ends with the first sleep of Anne, now a mother, and Mary, her child."

Source:

- Maria Valtorta. The Gospel as it was revealed to me.

 

 

To know more

 

-on Maria Valtortain the Marian Encyclopaedia

-on the birth of Maryin the Marian Encyclopaedia