Salesian Literature

11.  The Visitation

Sermon for the Feast of the Visitation, July 2, 1621, concerning the admirable unions of contraries effected by God, especially the union of charity and humility as practiced by Our Lady at the Annunciation and Visitation, the pride and frivolity of human beings (especially of women, St. Elizabeth's reception of the Holy Spirit at the Visitation and what this teaches us about our reception of the Holy Spirit, our relationship to the angels and saints and what we should ask them for, and the visits of Our Lady to us and in what way we should desire and respond to them.

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God, who is One, loves unity and union; and all that is not unified is displeasing to Him, as the great Apostle Paul says: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.[1] [Gal. 3:20; Eph. 4:5-6]. But if He sovereignly loves what is united and conjoined, He is the enemy of disunion, for what is disunited is imperfect, disunion being caused only by imperfection. Being the Master and Lover of union, then, Our Lord has established three admirable unions in the sacred Virgin Our Lady, exclusive of the natural union of soul and body.

 

Now this natural union of soul and body is so excellent that all the philosophers have not yet exhausted nor defined their admiration of it, seeing that God has conjoined soul and body with so strict a joining that the body, without ceasing to be body, and the spirit, without ceasing to be spirit, form nevertheless only one person. This natural union is so exalted that we cannot give it the admiration due to it; indeed, it is the work of a God most high and a Lover of unity.

 

But it is not of this natural union of soul and body in Our Lady that I wish to speak, inasmuch as it is universal and common to the rest of humankind; I wish to dwell on three other admirable unions which God effected in her.

 

The first is that of the Divine Nature with human nature in her sacred womb, which is so elevated a mystery that it infinitely surpasses all that human and angelic understandings can conceive or comprehend. Never would the thought of so admirable a union have dared to enter the mind of any angel, cherubim or seraphim, for these two natures, the Divine and human, are so far removed from each other, and there is so great a distance between them, that no angelic creature could have thought that God had willed to effect this union. Divine Nature is the highest, and human nature is the lowest; Divine Nature is sovereign perfection, while human nature is sovereign misery. They are then two extremes, two great opposites; nevertheless, God has effected so admirable a conjoining of these two natures in the womb of the Virgin that they constitute only one Person, so that man is God, and God, without ceasing to be God, is man.

 

The second union which He effected in Our Lady was that of maternity with virginity, a union which is absolutely outside the course of nature, for it unites two things which it is impossible to find together in nature. Indeed, never was there seen nor did the thought exist that a mother was virgin, and that a virgin, without ceasing to be virgin, was mother. It is, then, a miraculous and supernatural union, effected by the all-powerful hand of God, who gave this privilege to our glorious Mistress; and as this union has happened in her alone, so will she alone remain ever Virgin and Mother at the same time.

 

The third union is that of a very exalted charity and a very profound humility. The union of these two virtues is certainly admirable inasmuch as they are greatly removed from each other, so that it seems that they could never meet in one same soul. Charity elevates the soul on high, and the more it increases and is perfected, the more also it exalts and elevates the soul in which it dwells. Humility does just the contrary: It abases the soul in its own esteem and in the esteem of all creatures, having for its proper effect that the greater the humility, the more it lowers in its own eyes the soul in which it dwells[2].  You see a little of the opposition between these two virtues and you say: How can we harmonize, unite and join together humility and charity since the nature of one is to ascend on high and that of the other to descend downward? It is impossible on the natural plane.

 

It is true that none but God could effect the union of these two virtues; but He who is one sole God wills and loves unity, and delights in displaying the greatness of His power by bringing about these admirable unions. Now, He has united charity and humility in the holy Virgin in such wise that there could be no charity in her without humility nor humility without charity; charity remaining humble and humility charitable; charity exalting the soul above all creatures and above itself, and humility abasing it below all — these two virtues remaining nevertheless conjoined in such wise that one cannot subsist without the other.

 

It is on this last union that I will dwell, which will lead me into the subject of this feast; for what is the Visitation of Our Lady to holy Elizabeth if not a meeting of humility and charity, or a summary of the effects of these two virtues practiced by the holy Virgin toward her cousin?[3]  Humility and charity have only one object. God as they "tend toward union with Him: nevertheless they pass from God to the neighbor, and it is in this transfer that they attain their perfection. Certainly our most glorious Mistress practiced these two virtues in a sovereign degree at the time of the Incarnation[4] when, the Angel Gabriel having announced this ineffable Mystery to her, she responded: I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say [Lk. 1:38], For while he was declaring her Mother of God and Queen of angels and men, while he was giving her to understand that she was to be exalted above all creatures angelic and human, she was lowering herself at the feet of all, saying; I am the chambermaid of the Lord. Great humility this! The holy Virgin had then such a clear knowledge of the misery of our nature and the distance between God and man that, seeing herself exalted and chosen above all, she abased herself to the lowest depths of her nothingness before the incomprehensible and inexhaustible abyss of the immense goodness of God.

 

It is true that she never humbled herself so profoundly as when she said: I am the servant of the Lord. But after having made acts of so perfect a humility and self-annihilation and having abased herself as low as she could, she immediately brought forth acts of charity, adding: Let it be done to me as you say. For in giving her consent and acquiescence to what the angel announced that God had asked of her, she demonstrated the greatest charity conceivable. You see then how at this moment God united charity and humility in the holy Virgin. In saying: I am the servant of the Lord, she abased herself to the profound abyss of her nothingness, but at the same time she was raised above the cherubim and seraphim by her charity when she added; Let it be done to me as you say. For at that moment the Divine Word took flesh in her virginal womb, and by this means she became Mother of God.

 

Behold how humility is joined to charity in Our Lady and how her humility exalts her; for God looks upon the lowly to raise them up [Ps. 113:7; 138:6]; that is why, seeing this holy Virgin humble herself beneath all creatures, He casts His eyes upon her and exalts her above all. This is what she herself makes us understand by the words of her sacred canticle [Lk. 1:48]: Because the Lord has looked upon my abjection, my lowliness and my misery, all nations shall call me blessed.[5] It is as if she had meant to say to St. Elizabeth: You proclaim me blessed [Lk. 1:45], and it is true that I am, but all my happiness proceeds from the fact that God has looked upon my abjection and my lowliness.

 

However, Our Lady was not satisfied with having thus humbled herself before the Divine Majesty, for she well knew that humility and charity are not in their perfection until they are transmitted to the neighbor. From the love of God proceeds love of the neighbor; and the great Apostle says; The greatness of your love for your brothers will be directly proportioned to the greatness of your love for God. [Cf. Rom. 13:8; Gal. 5:14; Eph. 5:1-2]. St. John teaches us this when he writes: How can it be that you love God, whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor, whom you do see? [1 Jn. 4:20].

 

If then we wish to prove that we do indeed love God, and if we wish others to believe us when we assure them of this, we must love our brothers well, serve them and assist them in their necessities. Now the holy Virgin, knowing this truth, set out promptly, says the Evangelist, proceeding in haste into the hill country of Judah [Lk. 1:39], into the town of Hebron, or, as others say, Jerusalem (it matters little), to serve her cousin Elizabeth in her advanced age and pregnancy. In this she manifested great humility and charity; for as soon as she saw herself Mother of God, she humbled herself to the point of immediately setting out on the road to go help and assist that good woman. It may not have been at that very hour, nor even on the very same day that she learned it, for I leave it to you to think that this holy Virgin remained in her little home, recollected and ravished in awesome wonder, meditating on this profound and incomprehensible Mystery that had been wrought in her. 0 God, what sweetness and delight did she not feel in her heart from the knowledge of this marvel! Oh, how many holy conversations and loving colloquies between the Son and the Mother!

 

She did not then leave on the very day of the Incarnation, but some days later, and proceeded in haste into the hill country of Judah. But what humility this! She goes to become the chambermaid and servant of her who was in everything and in every way inferior to her; for although St. Elizabeth was of noble extraction since she was of the tribe of Levi, being married to a high priest [Lk. 1:5], and on the maternal side she belonged to the house of David, yet for all that she was as nothing compared to the Virgin. Our Lady is Queen of Heaven and of earth, of angels and of men; yet these titles that we give her serve only to assist our poor understandings to picture her to ourselves in some fashion that we might comprehend her greatness a little, since she is sovereignly greater than all we can say of her. If we wish to give her a name worthy of her excellence, we must name her Mother of God;[6] for this word is so exalted that all the titles, praises, and commendations we could give her are contained in it, What humility, then, is that of the holy Virgin, when she has been chosen and declared Mother of the Eternal Word; she calls herself the servant of the Lord, and, as a chambermaid, sets out on her way to serve that good Elizabeth in her advanced years, O my God! How great and profound was that humility which she demonstrated in greeting her cousin, for the Evangelist notes that Our Lady, as the more humble, was the first to offer the greeting. [Lk 1:40].

 

But what blessings and graces entered this home with the sacred Virgin! We know this from the words of St. Elizabeth who, in a spirit of prophecy, cried out in a voice clear and distinct: But who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Then continuing, she said: Blest is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled. Blest are you among women, and blest is the Fruit of your womb, Jesus. Yes, this Fruit is not only blest but it is He who gives all blessings; and your coming has brought me so much happiness and consolation that the baby leapt in my womb for joy. [Lk. 1:42-45].

 

O God! Who can imagine the sweetness and delights that flowed into the heart of St. Elizabeth at this Visitation? How she pondered this great Mystery of the Incarnation and the graces and favors that the Lord had granted her! What loving words, what divine conversations were held between St. John in his mother's womb with his dear Master whom he knew and adored in the womb of Our Lady! What blessings and enlightenments this dear Saviour of our souls poured forth into the heart of His forerunner! At that moment He bestowed upon him the use of reason; but I will not speak of that at the present because I remember well having spoken to you about it on former occasions.[7]

 

I will touch upon only these two or three points with you in passing, to console and comfort your spirits. The first is that St. John had the use of reason; the second, that he was sanctified in his mother's womb; and the third, that he was filled with wisdom and the knowledge of God and divine mysteries and therefore he loved Him, adored Him, and leapt for joy. While yet in their mothers' wombs, Our Lord and St. John the Baptist knew each other, conversed together, and loved each other, having the use of affection, judgment and reason. The rest of us are indeed alive in the maternal womb, but we do not yet have the use of our faculties; we are there as a mass of flesh, and although we have our senses, still we cannot make use of them. St. John must have recognized the Saviour in the womb of Our Lady, since at His arrival he leapt for joy in his mother's womb; he must also have loved Him, for we do not leap for joy over the coming of those we neither know nor love. Now St. Elizabeth gave testimony to this truth by the words she spoke to the Virgin.

 

But what did Our Lady do amidst all these praises and benedictions? She did not react as women of the world who, if they are extolled, instead of humbling themselves exalt themselves the more. Man is so subject to pride and presumption that we can apply to him what Aristotle, that ancient philosopher, says of the horse — namely, that there is nothing so haughty. Indeed, if you watch a horse, do you not see his pride in his mane, his head, his whole bearing? He strikes the cobblestones impatiently and makes sparks fly with his hooves. Likewise, see some young dandy, some young fool; do you not mark his pride, his presumption and vanity? Notice his gait, his bearing, how he struts and carries his head high; in short, he exhibits a thousand follies and pompous gestures which are all marks of his pride and overweening conceit. Now consider a man on horseback: We do not know which is the more haughty, the horse or its rider; it seems as if they compete with each other in displaying their vanity.

 

Certainly, man is greatly subject to this pride and presumption, but when this vice enters the heads of women it produces even greater ruin and destruction; and because women are so subject to the desire of making a good impression on others, they are constrained to give particular attention to guarding and preserving this impression. The weakness of their sex leads them to this; The slightest thing arouses their vanity; oftentimes they fabricate thoughts and opinions of themselves which make them think themselves far superior to others. This ordinarily happens to weak minds; and the more imperfect they are, the more subject to such foibles, foolishness and pomposity. We have an example of this in that senseless, foolish and impudent Cleopatra. What impertinences and extravagances did she not resort to in order to glorify herself![8] And Eve, the first woman, on merely being told that she was created to the image of God, became so presumptuous that she wished to make herself like Him; with this end in view, she listened to and did all that the enemy suggested to her [Gen. 1:27; 3:5-6].

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But the sacred Virgin came to regain by her humility what the first Eve had lost by her pride; thus, she reversed Eve's pride and presumption by her humility. When the angel calls her Mother of God, she, plunging herself into the abyss of her nothingness, calls herself His chambermaid; and when Elizabeth proclaims her blest among women, she replies that this blessing arises from the fact that the Lord had looked upon her lowliness, her littleness, her abjection. O God, what a good sign in the spiritual life is humility of heart! It is a good indication that we have received divine graces efficaciously when these graces abase and humble us, and we see that the greater these graces are, so much the more do they profoundly annihilate the heart before God and creatures; so that, like the holy Virgin, we find all our happiness in the realization that the eyes of the Divine Goodness have looked upon our poverty and misery!

 

Profound humility and ardent charity, as much toward God as toward the neighbor, are thus the fruits produced in Our Lady's heart by the grace of God. Charity made her go in haste to the home of Zechariah, for although she was pregnant, her Divine Child was not burdensome to her, so that she experienced no encumbrance on the way. As she had conceived Him by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit [Lk. 1:35], she carried Him without inconvenience and brought Him forth without pain — Our Lord reserving her pangs of childbirth for the day of His Crucifixion, which His holy Mother must witness.

 

Thus, this incomparable Virgin enters Zechariah's house, and with her a superabundance of blessings for this family; for, as the Evangelist says, St. John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother's womb and St. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit [Lk. 1:41]. I know well that Elizabeth was a holy lady who already had the Holy Spirit in her. Then how are we to understand that she received Him at the coming of the Virgin? There can be no doubt that she did receive Him then, for the admirable effects that He brought about in her furnish sufficient proof of it. God gives His grace to the just in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over [Lk. 6:38]. Now, although Elizabeth had a good measure of the grace of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless at the Visitation of the Virgin she received it pressed down, shaken together and running over, since during this life grace is given in such a way that there can always be an increase and growth in its communication.[9] We must, then, be careful never to say: It is enough, I have a sufficiency of divine grace or virtues; enough of mortification, I have exercised myself sufficiently in that area.

 

That would be a serious error; and he who would speak such or similar words would thereby demonstrate his indigence, his destitution and the poverty that stalks him [Rev. 3:17]; for from such persons who think they have a sufficiency. God takes away what they have. "To the man who has, more will be given," says Our Lord; "the man who has not, will lose what little he has." [Matt. 13:12; 25:29]. This should be thus understood: To the man who has received much and has labored much and who does not relax, thinking he has no more need of anything, but who with a holy and true humility knows his poverty, more will be given. To the man who has much, still more will be given; but he who has received some grace and believes he has a sufficiency will lose what little he has, and nothing more will be given him.

 

Worldlings have a certain ambition to acquire riches and honors and never say: "Enough!" How blind they are in this, for however little they possess would be sufficient inasmuch as too much glory, wealth and dignities cause the death and loss of our souls. Certainly in all these things we can say: I have a moderate amount, I am satisfied, I have enough; but in what concerns spiritual goods, oh! While we are in this land of exile, we must never think that we have enough of them but must continually dispose ourselves to receive an increase of grace.

 

Our Lady, then, went to visit St. Elizabeth; but this visit was not useless nor like those which women of the world very often make solely for ceremony, to testify the deepest affections which they do not feel, and during them they frequently gossip about each other so that they come away with guilty consciences. St. Jerome, speaking of the devout lady Proba, describes the uselessness of the visits of the Roman ladies in an admirable manner, saying that those good women did nothing but exchange visits, and that most of these were unnecessary and a waste of time, a fact he deplores in this letter. Formerly there were many prayer gatherings, and greetings by way of prayer besides the complimentary greetings as still occur among gentlemen who meet, saying; "God be with us"; "God grant you a good day, a good year"; "May God help us." The Greeks used this salutation: "May God be with us, may God bless us"; the Jewish Christian: Pax Christi—"May the peace of Our Lord be with you"; and among the Latins; Laus Deo, Deo gratias—"Glory be to God, praised be God," In our time they use more complimentary expressions and say: "Sir, I am your servant; I kiss your hand"; and ordinarily they give no thought to what they say.

 

Our Lady's Visitation was not like that, for she went to serve her cousin. Their conversations were far from idle — rather, my God' How holy, pious and devout! That visit filled the whole family of Zechariah with the Holy Spirit. Now, the principle effects of the Holy Spirit are those which He produced in St. Elizabeth; you can easily understand this if you have also received Him. The first thing St. Elizabeth did was to humble herself profoundly, for, seeing the Virgin, she exclaimed: But who am I that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? This is the first fruit of the grace of God, humility; when grace visits the soul, it inclines it to efface itself in the awareness of the Divine Goodness and its own nothingness and deficiency.

 

Secondly, Elizabeth said: O how blest is she who trusted! And then; Blest are you among women and blest is the Fruit of your womb. By this you see that the second effect of the Holy Spirit is to make us remain firm in the faith and to confirm that of others; then to return to God, acknowledging that He is the source of all graces. "It is true," St. Elizabeth seems to say to the Virgin, "that you are blest among women, but it is also true that this blessedness comes to you from the Fruit of your womb, who is the Lord of all blessedness"; for we do not bless the fruit because of the tree, but the tree because of the goodness of its fruit.

 

And so, though we owe the sacred Virgin a cult and honor greater than we have for all other saints, nevertheless it must not equal that which we render to God. I say this to refute the heresy of some who hold that we must honor her in the same way as Our Lord, which is false; for we must adore God alone in and above all things [Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Matt. 4:10], and then render a very special honor to Our Lady as Mother of our Saviour and cooperator in our salvation. Such is the practice of the true Christian, and anyone who does not love and honor the Virgin with a quite special and particular love is not a true Christian. Thus, when the Holy Spirit comes to us. He leads us to love and praise God, and then His most holy Mother.

 

In the third place Elizabeth said that her baby leapt in her womb for joy; and this is the third mark of the visit of the Holy Spirit — interior conversion, the change to a better life. St. John was sanctified; likewise whoever receives the Holy Spirit is wholly transformed in God. If, then, you wish to know if you have received Him, examine your works, for it is by them that we know the answer.

 

But notice that St. Elizabeth received the Holy Spirit by means of the Virgin. Certainly we must avail ourselves of her as a mediatrix with her Son in order to obtain this Divine Spirit; and although we can go directly to God and ask for His graces without employing the mediation of the saints for this purpose, nevertheless Divine Providence has not willed that it happen so; but It has formed still another union, for God is One, as I told you at the beginning, and so He loves what is unified. Therefore He has so united the Church Militant with the Church Triumphant that the two make only one, having only one Lord who rules, guides, governs and nourishes them, though in different ways; thus we address ourselves to Him to ask for our daily bread [Matt. 6:11; Lk. 11:3], as much for our bodily needs as for the nourishment required for the soul.

 

Consider further that the Saviour, in willing to form this union, willed and ordained that we have recourse to the invocation of the saints. He has granted great favors to people through their intercession, and at other times He has employed that of the angels. But why does He employ the mediation of angels to protect us and bestow His graces on us? Could He not do it just as well Himself without using them? Doubtless He could, but in order to realize this union of which I speak. He has determined to unite angels with men and subject them one to the other. He has willed that the latter be served by the heavenly spirits, and that through this union the conversion of men should augment the angels' glory.

 

But, you will say to me, how can men cause joy to the angels? Do they not have perfect happiness in the vision of God? Of this there is no doubt; nevertheless, does not Holy Scripture testify that there will be more joy in Heaven over one converted sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people? [Lk. 15:7,10]. By these words you see the joy of the angels over the conversion of a sinner. Now, when I say that the angels celebrate in Heaven and rejoice, we must understand the same for the saints who are with them; for though the Evangelist speaks only of the blessed spirits, it is because before the Passion of Our Lord there were not yet any people in Heaven; but since the saints have entered there, they are so united with the angels that they share in their joy over the return of sinners. That is why the Church, like a good mother, wishing the better to teach us to make use of the mediation of the holy Virgin and the saints, Joined the Ave Maria to the Pater Noster so that we should recite it immediately after the Lord's Prayer.

 

There is no doubt that we may ask God, through Our Lady's intercession, not only for spiritual goods such as the virtues, but also for temporal ones. However, it is also true that we should not have recourse to so great a Virgin for trifles as some do — for example, to become richer or more beautiful, and the like nonsense; for just as it would be a grave discourtesy to employ a great prince's influence with the king or emperor to obtain some trifle of small account, so in the spiritual life it would be discourteous to employ the mediation of our glorious Queen for insignificant and transitory things. Moreover, we should always treat holy things, the saints and the sacred Virgin, with profound honor and respect. Certainly, when we speak of them we should prostrate our hearts to the earth, for the distance between us and these heavenly spirits is unimaginable; nevertheless, the affinity is so great that just as the earth is incapable of producing anything without the cooperation of the heavens, in like manner neither can we do anything of ourselves if we are not assisted by the saints. But we must avail ourselves of their assistance in what benefits us for eternity, beseeching them to obtain the grace of God and the virtues for us, employing the credit they have with our dear Saviour and Master for these gifts and others like them, and not using their intercession to obtain beauty, riches and such trifles. This, then, is how we receive the Holy Spirit through the mediation of the saints and of the Virgin.

 

Oh, how delightful and profitable it is to be visited by this holy Lady, for her visit always brings us many blessings. "O God," you will say, "I do wish the Virgin would visit me!" And why? "To be consoled, for it is so pleasant to have consolations! I would so love to have an ecstasy, a ravishment; indeed, I would very much like this sacred Virgin to show herself to me." Yes, and would you receive her as St. Elizabeth received her? Our Lady comes to visit us very often but we do not really want to receive her. Besides, St. Elizabeth was her relative, and that is why she went to seek her. But what can we do to become a relative of our amiable Sovereign? O God! There are a thousand ways of accomplishing this. Do you wish to be a relative of the Virgin? Communicate, for in receiving the Holy Sacrament, you receive the Flesh of her flesh and the Blood of her blood, since the precious Body of the Saviour, which is in the Divine Eucharist, was formed of her most pure blood by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Since it is impossible to be a relative of Our Lady in the same manner as Elizabeth, be so by imitating her virtues and her very holy life.

 

I shall finish with two examples; and although the time is up, nevertheless a short quarter of an hour will be Justified. The first is about St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the miracle-worker. Having been made bishop of a diocese in which there was very much work because of the heretics to be converted, he became subject to great fears and anxieties that he had not sufficient learning and eloquence to refute their errors. Then the holy Virgin appeared to him and instructed him, giving him full assurance of her continued assistance. She had with her her dear son of the Cross, namely, St. John the Evangelist, whom she commanded to write the profession of faith which she then gave to St. Gregory; he later inserted it in his Opuscules, where it can be seen to this day.

 

And here is another story: St. Gregory the Great relates it in his Dialogues as having happened in his time. I do not know if I have told it in this place; I do not have a good memory of it, but even though I may have already done so I will not fail to repeat it, because I am not in the presence of persons so particular that they cannot hear the same thing twice, for those with a good appetite enjoy the same dish a second time. But I must add this word also since it can be good and useful; There are some who are ready to banter and jest over the writings of this glorious saint, and indeed wrongfully, for St. Gregory was one of the greatest Popes that ever sat in the chair of Peter; a few years after his elevation to the papacy he withdrew into solitude and wrote the book of his Dialogues.

 

In it he relates that there was in the city of Rome a little girl aged seven, named Musa. This little Musette was greatly devoted to our sacred Mistress, and every day kissed her holy feet. Now one day Our Lady appeared to her, adorned as a Queen, beautifully robed, and accompanied by a multitude of young maidens all dressed in white. She addressed herself to little Musa and invited her to join these virgins—but she demurred, responding that she dared not do so. You see, she was very humble and polite. Our Lady went on to say: Ah now, my child, be very good and modest, but never coquettish. You will not live more than 30 days, for I will come to fetch you and take you away with these virgins.

 

Then she disappeared, and little Musa awoke to find herself completely changed; she took on an air of such great propriety and modesty that everyone was astonished, since this propriety surpassed her age. Her parents took her aside and asked the cause of the change; she replied that Our Lady had appeared to her with a troop of virgins and had told her not to be coquettish any more, but modest, because at the end of 30 days she would come to fetch her to take her away with her. Her father and mother did not pressure her because of the respect they bore the Holy Mother of God. At the end of 25 days the child was stricken with a prolonged fever which lasted five days, after which she died and Our Lady came to take her away.

 

Now we must draw a moral for ourselves from this story. Do you see, the Virgin visited little Musa, transformed and changed her totally. Transformation is the true mark of a divine visitation. We would indeed like to have revelations, but as a form of recreation, to pass the time, because they are indeed sweet and pleasing. Now, God does not give them for that; always they must cost us something. This visit cost the little Musa her life. Someone might have said to the Virgin: Ah, my Lady, how is it that you let this little girl suffer so much? She would have answered: Those who desire to share in my visits must always bring something of themselves.

 

We must then be firmly determined to suffer. And what? Dryness, aridity, disgust. It sometimes seems to us that we have been abandoned by God. You must endure all that if you wish to share in these visits, for to think that we can be devout without suffering is a delusion. Where there is more difficulty, there is more virtue.

 

Therefore, if you want the Virgin to visit you as she did the little Musa, there must be an interior transformation which cannot be effected without enduring something which is represented to us by the high fever this child suffered. Also, see if you have her confidence in Our Lady, for in order to be visited, confidence is necessary. In sum, we must humble ourselves as did St. Elizabeth, die to ourselves, and follow our divine Mistress in this life so that with her we can sing in her company on high: "My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord" [Lk. 1:46]. Amen, amen, amen.

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[1] Cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 5.

[2] Cf. Sermon for March 25, 1621; Conferences VIII.

[3] Cf. Sermon for July 2, 1618.

[4] Cf. Sermon for Mar. 25, 1621.

[5] Cf. Sermon for July 2, 1618.

[6] Cf. Sermon for March 25, 1621; Sept. 10, 1620; Aug. 15, 1618.

[7] Cf. Sermon for July 2, 1618; Sept. 10, 1620; November 21, 1620.

[8] St. Francis was obviously negatively impressed with the superficiality, conceits, and courtly bearing of many men and women of nobility.

[9] Cf. Treatise on the Love of God, Book 3, Chapter 1.

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