Madre de Dios, mira que nuestras familias se están matando

Se acuchillan, se pegan fuego, se arrojan al vacío, se envenenan, se disparan, continuamente hay crímenes en los matrimonios y parejas de nuestro país. Se acrecienta el odio entre hombres y mujeres, las leyes no consiguen poner coto a los crímenes, porque no pueden poner coto al odio. Los corazones quedan desgarrados para siempre con motivo de las separaciones y divorcios, muchos creen que sólo con el crimen se pueden apaciguar sus corazones decepcionados y traspasados.
Madre de Dios, pon remedio a esta situación, pues el demonio nos ha solicitado para cribarnos, destruyendo las familias. Mira los hijos huérfanos por la muerte y las separaciones. Mira que los remedios de las leyes humanas no hacen sino atizar el fuego del odio entre el hombre y la mujer. Virgen de los dolores, sé nuestro socorro.

Nuestra Señora de las aguas

The image of Mary, Nuestra Señora de las Aguas (Our Lady of the Waters) shows the Sorrowful Mother and has enjoyed a long tradition of popular devotion.

According to the chronicles of the convent, the title of “Our Lady of the Waters” was given to this image for having saved a priest who was in imminent danger of shipwreck. Acknowledging his benefactress, the priest left in his testament a perpetual annuity so that her feast could be celebrated every year on Friday of Passion Week (Friday before Good Friday).

Another report relates the title of the image to an event of 1714. At that time a group of native Indians led by a priest walked towards the Church of Jesús María, asking for permission to celebrate a religious function before the image of the Virgin (who had walked over the waters). They insisted that they had seen the Virgin holding back the waters in order to avoid a flood that threatened them, and that her image could be found in the convent. The religious began to be suspicious, and going to the choir, to their great surprise they found that the image of the Sorrowful Mother had wet garments, especially the hem, and also the feet of the image.

They moved the image to the Church and the Indians confirmed that this had been the image they had seen. Information was collected about the events, and it was acknowledged that one could not attribute to natural causes the wetness that covered the image. Henceforth, on July 1 of that year the ecclesiastical authorities declared that one could believe that the Blessed Virgin had worked the miracle and that through her intercession they were spared from the dangers of the flood.

To this day the image is venerated and is now guarded by the Fathers of the Heart of Mary.

Universidad marianista de Dayton, Ohio.

De los libros de Exempla

TALES OF THE VIRGIN

1. VIRGIN SAVED MATRON AND MONK WHO ELOPED
WITH TREASURES OF MONASTERY

Jacques de Vitry, CCLXXXII. (pp. 117, ff.)

A certain very religious man told me that this happened in a place where he had been living. A virtuous and pious matron came frequently to the church and served God most devoutly, day and night. Also a certain monk, the guardian and treasurer of the monastery, had a great reputation for piety, and truly he was devout. When, however, the two frequently conversed together in the church concerning religious matters, the devil, envying their virtue and fame, tempted them sorely so that the spiritual love was changed to carnal. Accordingly they made an agreement and fixed upon a night in which the monk was to leave his monastery, taking the treasures of the church, and the matron was to leave her home, with a sum of money which she should secretly steal from her husband.

After they had left and fled, the monks on rising in the morning saw that the receptacles were broken and the treasures of the church stolen and not finding the monk, they quickly pursued him. Likewise the woman's husband, seeing his chest open and the money gone, pursued his wife. Seizing the monk and the woman with the treasure and money, they brought them back and threw them into prison. Moreover so great was the scandal through all that part of the country and so much were all religious persons reviled that the damage from the infamy and scandal was far greater than from the sin itself.

Then the monk restored to his senses, began with many tears to pray to the blessed Virgin, whom from infancy he had always served, and never before had any such misfortune happened to him. Likewise the matron began urgently to implore the aid of the blessed Virgin whom, frequently, day and night, she had been accustomed to salute and before whose image she had been wont to kneel in prayer. At length the blessed Virgin appeared before them in great anger and after she had upbraided them severely, she said, "I am able to obtain pardon for your sins from my son, but what can I do about such an awful scandal? For you have so befouled the name of religious persons before all the people, that in the future no one will trust them. This ia an almost irremediable injury."

At length the pious Virgin, overcome by their prayers, summoned the demons who had caused the deed and enjoined upon them that, as they had caused the scandal to religion, they must bring the infamy to an end. Since, indeed, they were not able to resist her commands, after much anxiety and various conferences they found a way to remove infamy. In the night they placed the monk in the church and repairing the broken receptacle as it had been before, they placed the treasure in it. Also they closed and locked the chest which the matron had opened and replaced the money in it. And they set the woman in her room and in the place where she was accustomed to pray by night.

When, moreover, the monks found the treasure of their house and monk, who was praying to God just as he had been accustomed to do; and the husband found his wife and the treasure; and they found the money just as it had been before, they began to be amazed and to wonder. Rushing to the prison they saw the monk and the woman in fetters just as they had left them. For one of the demons was seen by them transformed into the figure of a monk and another into the shape of a woman. When the whole city had come together to see the miracle, the demons said in the hearing of all, "Let us go, for long enough have we deceived these people and caused ill to be thought of religious persons." And having said this they vanished. Moreover all fell down at the feet of the monk and of the woman and demanded pardon.

Behold how great infamy and scandal and how inestimable damage the devil would have wrought against religious persons, if the blessed Virgin had not aided them.

2. VIRGIN IN PLACE OF NUN WHO HAD FLED FROM THE CONVENT

Caesar of Heisterbach, Distinctio VII, Cap. XXXIV. (Vol. II, pp. 42-43.)

Not many years ago, in a certain monastery of nuns, of which I do not know the name, there lived a virgin named Beatrix. She was beautiful in form, devout in mind, and most fervent in the service of the mother of God. As often as she could offer secretly to the Virgin special prayers and supplications, she held them for her dearest delight Indeed, having been made custodian, she did this more devoutly because more freely.

A certain clerk, seeing and lusting after her, began to tempt her. When she spurned the words of lust, and on that account he insisted the more strenuously, the old serpent enkindled her breast so vehemently that she could not bear the flames of love. Therefore coming to the altar of the blessed Virgin, the patroness of the oratory, she spoke thus: "Mistress, I have served thee as devoutly as I could; behold, I resign thy keys to thee, I cannot longer withstand the temptations of the flesh." And, having placed the keys on the altar, she secretly followed the clerk.

When that wretched man had corrupted her, he abandoned her after a few days. Since she had no means of living and was ashamed to return to the convent, she became a harlot. After she had continued in that vice publicly for fifteen years, she came one day in a lay habit to the door of the monastery. She said to the doorkeeper, "Did you know Beatrix, formerly custodian of this oratory?" When the latter replied, it I knew her very well. For she is an honest and holy woman, and from infancy even to the present day she has remained in this monastery without fault." When she hearing, the man's words, but not understanding them, wished to go away, the mother of mercy appeared in her well-known image and said to her, "During the fifteen years of thy absence, I have performed thy task; now return to thy place and do penance; for no one knows of thy departure." In fact, in the form and dress of that woman, the mother of God had performed the duties of custodian. Beatrix entered at once and returned thanks as long as she lived, revealing through confession what had been done for her.

3. WOMAN PUNISHED FOR DESPISING A STATU.E OF THE VIR GIN

Caesar of Heisterbach, Distinctio VII, Cap. XLV. (Vol. II, pp. 62-63.)

In the chapel of the castle of Veldenz there is a certain ancient image of the blessed Virgin holding her son in her bosom. This image is, indeed, not very well made, but is endowed with great virtue. A certain matron of this castle, which is situated in the diocese of Trier,

standing in the chapel one day looked at the image and despising the workmanship, said, "Why does this old rubbish stand here?'"

The blessed Mary, the mother of mercy, not as I think, complaining to her son of the woman who spoke so foolishly, but predicting the future penalty for the crime to a certain other matron, said "Because that lady," designating her by name, "called me old rubbish, she shall wretched as long as she lives."

After a few days that lady was driven out by her own son from all her possessions and property, and up to the present day she begs wretchedly enough, suffering the punishment for her foolish speech. Behold how the blessed Virgin loves and honors those who love her, and punishes and humbles those who despise her.

4. HORRIBLE DEATH OF A BLASPHEAFER OF THE VIRGIN

Étienne de Bourbon, No. 133. (p. 113)

Also near Cluny, as I have heard from many, it happened recently, namely, in the year of our Lord 1246, when I was there, that a certain tavern keeper on the Saturday before Advent, in selling wine and taking his pay, blasphemed Christ during the whole day. But when about the ninth hour, in the presence of a multitude of men, he had sworn by the tongue of the blessed Virgin, by blaspheming her he lost the use of his tongue, and by speaking basely of her, suddenly stricken in the presence of the multitude, he fell dead.

5.. ROBBER DELI VERED FR OM HANGING BECAUSE OF
HIS PRAYERS TO THE VIRGIN

Étienne de Bourbon, No. 119. (p. 103)

Also we read that a certain robber had this much of good in him, that he always fasted on bread and water on the vigils of the blessed Mary, and, when he went forth to steal, he always said, "Ave Maria", asking her not to permit him to die in that sin. When moreover he was captured and hung, he remained there three days and could not die. When he called out to the passers by, that they should summon a priest to him, and when the priest had come and the prefect and others, he was removed from the gallows, and said that a most beautiful virgin had held him up by the feet during the three days. Promising reform, he was let go free.

6. THE DE VIL THWARTED BY PRAYERS TO THE VIRGIN

Étienne de Bourbon, No. 129. (p. 110)

Also it is related that there was a certain knight, lord of a castle in Auvergne, whom the devil served in human form for twelve years, as he wanted to carry the knight off on account of his sins, if he should find him at any time unfortified. When this was revealed to a certain holy man, he approached the castle, saying that he wished to speak with the servants. When, moreover, the devil seeing the holy man, wanted to run away and hide, the latter had him summoned and adjured him to say what he wanted and who he was. He replied that he was the devil and that for twelve years he had been waiting for a chance to carry off that lord; but he was not able to do so, because seven times each day the lord with bent knees was accustom the blessed Virgin, and to say the "Pater noster" seven times. Adjured in the name of the blessed Virgin he left the foul corpse in which he was and fled.

From University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, published for the Dept. of History of the University of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press [1897?-1907?]. Vol II, No 4, pp. 2-7

Visiones de santa Brígida de Suecia

The above text was translated into Middle English at Syon Abbey in a manuscript now in the Garrett Collection at Princeton University, then translated into modern English in Julia Bolton Holloway, Saint Bride and Her Book: Birgitta of Sweden's Revelations (1992; republished, Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer , ISBN 0-941051-18-8). This vision concerns the Florentine Seneschal of Naples, Nicholas Acciaiuoli, at whose deathbed Bride was present, 8 September 1366, Johannes Jørgensen, Saint Bridget of Sweden (London: Longmans Green, 1954), II.183-188.

{ How Saint Bride sees in her spiritual sight the judgment of a soul whom the fiend accused, and at the last was helped by our Lady;and how she saw all Hell and Purgatory and many other marvels; and how needful it is to help them who are in Purgatory. Chapter 17. [IV.7]

{ It seemed to a person who was awake in prayer and not sleeping as though she had seen in her spiritual sight a palace of incredible greatness, in which were countless people, clad in white and shining clothes. And each of them seemed to have a proper seat to himself. In this palace stood principally a judgment seat, in which it was as if there were a sun; and the brightness that went from that sun was more than may otherwise be told or understood, in length, depth and breadth. There stood also a Virgin close to that seat, having a precious crown on her head. And all who were there served the Son sitting on the throne, praising him with hymns and songs. Then appeared there an Ethiopian, fearful in sight and bearing, as though he had been full of envy and greatly enraged. He cried and said: 'O you rightful Judge, grant me this soul, and hear his works; for now his life is near the end. Allow me therefore to punish the body with the soul, until they are separated'.

When this was said, it seemed to me that one stood before the throne, like a knight armed excellently, and wise in words, and sober in hearing, who said: 'You, Judge, see, here are his good works that he has done up to this hour'.

And then there was heard a voice out of the sun sitting on the seat: 'Here are vices', he said, 'more than virtues. And it is not justice that vice be joined to him who is supreme virtue'.

Then answered the Ethiopian: 'Therefore it is rightful that this soul be joined to me; because if it has any vice in it, in me is all wickedness'. The knight answered: 'The mercy of God follows every person until the last moment of his life, and then comes the Judgment. And in this man that we speak of are yet both soul and body joined together, and discretion remains in him'.

The Ethiopian answered: 'The Scriptures say, that may not be: you shall love God above all things, and your neighbour as yourself. See you therefore, that all the works of this man are done out of dread, and not out of love and charity as they ought to be. And all the sins that he is cleansed of, you will find him cleansed with little contrition. And therefore he has deserved Hell; because he has forfeited the kingdom of Heaven. And therefore his sins are here opened before the Judgment of God. For he never yet was contrite in goodly charity for the sins that he has done'.

The knight answered: 'Truly, he hoped and believed he would become contrite before his death'.

'You', he said, 'have gathered all the deeds that he had ever done well, and you know all his words and his thoughts for the salvation of his soul. And all these, whatever they may be, may not be likened to that grace gained by contrition for the love of God with holy faith and hope, and much less they may not cancel out all his sins. For justice is in God who is without beginning, that no sinner shall enter Heaven who is not perfectly contrite. And therefore it is impossible that God should judge against the disposition ordained from before time. Therefore the soul is to be judged to Hell and to be joined with me in everlasting pain'.

When this was said, the knight held his peace and answered nothing to these words. After this appeared innumerable fiends, like sparks out a hot fire. And they all cried out with one voice saying to him who sat in the seat as a sun: 'We', they say, 'know that you are God in two Persons, without beginning and end, and there is no other God but you. You are that charity to which is joined mercy and righteousness. You were in yourself from before the beginning, having not lessened nor in any little way changed, as it seemed God without you is not, and nothing has joy without you. Therefore your charity made angels of no other matter but the power of your Godhead. And you did as mercy stirred you. But after that we were burned within with pride, envy and greed; your charity, loving righteousness, cast us out of heaven with the fire of our malice into dark and unseeable deepness that is now called Hell. So did your charity, then, which shall not yet be separated from the Judgment of your justice, whether it be after mercy or after equity. And yet we say more, if the thing which you love before all things, the Virgin who bore you, who never sinned, had sinned mortally and died without goodly contrition, you love justice so that her soul should never have got to Heaven, but it should have been with us in Hell. Therefore, Judge, why do you not condemn this soul to us, that we may punish it after his works'.

After this was heard as it were the sound of a trumpet, and all who heard it were still. And then was heard a voice saying: 'Be still and listen, all angels, souls and fiends, to what the Mother of God speaks'.

And then, the same Virgin appearing before the seat of Judgment and having under her mantle as it had been some great private things, said: 'O, you enemies, you persecute mercy and without charity you love justice, though here appears a lack of good works for which this soul ought not to get Heaven, yet see what I have under my mantle'.

And when the Virgin had opened both the fronts of her mantle, under the one appeared as like a little church, in which seemed to be some men of religion /See the medieval paintings, particularly common in Florence, of Mary in this attitude with people gathered within her cloak; also the Giotto Arena Chapel Last Judgment fresco with Ernesto Scrovegni donating that chapel shown self-referentially within it, Sarel Eimerl, The World of Giotto: c. 1267-1377 (New York: Time Incorporated, 1967), p. 129; also Birgitta's cloak which survives as a relic. Here Bride is speaking of Nicholas Acciaiuoli's founding of the Carthusian monastery, La Certosa, in Florence, 1342, from his ill-gotten Neapolitan gains as that Kingdom's Seneschal, and from similar motives as had Scrovegni the Arena Chapel. Compare, too, with St Francesca Romana ./; and under the other appeared women and men, Friends of God , religious and other /Birgitta frequently uses this term, associated with the medieval Dominican mystics, the Friends of God, especially in her material concerning Magister Mathias, who was buried with the Stockholm Dominicans, and who had studied at their house in Paris. This can explain Birgitta's presence in the great Dominican fresco in Santa Maria Novella's Spanish Chapel./. And they all cried with one voice saying, 'Have mercy, merciful Lord'.

Then after there was silence and the Virgin spoke and said: 'The Scripture said, he who has perfect faith may thereby move mountains in the world. What then may and ought the voices of these do, who had faith and also served God with charity? And what shall those friends of God do, whom this man asked that they pray for him, that he might be separated from Hell and obtain Heaven? And he sought no other reward for his good works but heavenly things, where all their tears and prayers may not or are not of power to take him and lift him up so that he get goodly contrition with charity before his death, and furthermore I shall add to my prayers the prayer of all the saints that are in Heaven, whom this man specially worshipped'. Yet then further said the Virgin: 'O, you fiends, I command you by the power of the Judge to take heed of these things that you see now in justice'.

Then they all answered as if it had been with one mouth: 'We see', they said, 'that in the world a little water and great air balance out the anger of God. And so by your prayer is God weighed to mercy with charity'.

After this was heard a voice from the Son, saying: 'For the prayers of my friends shall this man now get goodly contrition before his death, in so much that he shall not come into Hell; but he shall be purged with them who suffer most grievous pain in Purgatory. And when the soul is purged, he shall have reward in Heaven with them who had faith and hope on earth with right little charity'.

When this was said, the fiends fled away. Then after that it seemed to the Bride as if there had opened a fearful and dark place wherein there appeared a furnace all burning within; and that fire had nothing else to burn but fiends and living souls. And above that furnace appeared that soul whose judgment was just completed. The feet of the soul were fastened to the furnace, and the soul stood up like a person. It did not stand in the highest place nor in the lowest, but as if on the side of the furnace. The shape of the soul was fearful and marvelous. The fire of the furnace seemed to come up between the feet of the soul, as when water ascends up by pipes. And that fire ascended upon his head, and violently thrust him together; so much that the pores stood as veins running with burning fire. His ears seemed like smiths' bellows which moved all his brain with continual blowing. His eyes seemed turned upside down and sunk in as if they were fastened to the back part of his head. His mouth was open and his tongue drawn out by his nostrils and hung down to his lips. His teeth were as iron nails fastened to his palate. His arms were so long that they stretched down to his feet. Both his hands seemed to have and to press together a kind of fat with burning pitch. The skin which seemed to be upon the soul seemed like the skin upon a body, and it was as a linen cloth all fouled with filth; which cloth was so cold that each one could see it tremble and shiver. And there came from it pus from a sore with corrupt blood, and so wicked a stench that it could not be compared to the worst stench in the world. When his tribulations were seen, there was heard a voice of the soul that said five times, 'Woe, woe, alas, alas', crying with tears and all his might.

First he said: 'Alas and woe to me, that I loved God so little for his truly great virtues and grace given to me'. The second: 'Alas and woe to me, that I did not fear the Judgment of God as I ought'. The third, 'Alas and woe to me, that I loved the body and the lust of my sinful flesh'. The fourth, 'Alas and woe to me, for my worldly riches and pride'. The fifth, 'Alas and woe to me, that ever I saw you, Lewes and Joan'./Latin text gives 'Ludovicum et Ioannam'. This is the vision Bride had about Nicholas Acciaiuoli, Grand Seneschal of Naples, who had been tutor to Prince Lewes of Taranto and whose marriage he arranged in 1347, following her murder of her previous husband and King of Naples, Andrew of Hungary, 1345. Acciaiuoli had founded Carthusian Certosa in Florence, 1342: ASF Monastero de Santa Brigida detto del Paradiso 61, fols. 21v-24v; Vatican MS Ottob. lat, fol. 120; Jorgensen 2:121-122. The Carthusians continued to inhabit Certosa until the war years when they fled first to Lucca, then Grenoble. Today Certosa is shared by Cistercian monks and the University of Florence's medievalists of S.I.S.M.E.L. For a sepia photograph of Carthusian monks at the Certosa in Pavia , see 'I Fratelli Alinari: Florentine Photographers'/

Then the angel said to me: 'I will explain this vision to you. This palace you have seen is the likeness of heaven. The multitude of those who were on the thrones, clad in white and shining clothes, are angels and the souls of saints. The sun means Christ in his Godhead. The woman means the Virgin who bore God. The Ethiopian means the fiend who accuses the soul. The knight means the angel who tells of the good works of the soul. The furnace means Hell, which is so burning within, that if all the world burnt with all things that are within, it would not be like the greatness of that furnace. In this furnace are heard diverse voices, all speaking against God, and all beginning their utterances with "Woe and alas", and ending in the same way. The souls appeared as people whose members are stretched out without comfort and who never can rest. Know also the fire that seemed to you in the furnace, burns in everlasting darkness, and the souls that burn within it do not all have the same pain. The darkness that appeared about the furnace is called "limbus" /To be in 'limbo' is to be betwixt and between, neither in Heaven nor in Hell. See Dante, Inferno 4./, and it comes from the darkness that is in the furnace and yet they are both the same place and one Hell. Whoever comes there shall never dwell with God. Above this darkness is the greatest pain of Purgatory that souls may suffer. And beyond this place is another place where there is less pain, that is none other but the lack of firmness in strength, beauty and such other: as I tell you by a parable, as if there were a sick man; and when the sickness and the pain had ended, he was left so feeble that he had no strength, until he recovered little by little. The third place is above, where there is no other pain but the desire of coming to God. And that you should understand this better in your conscience, I tell you by a parable, as if other metals were meddled with gold and burnt in a most hot fire and should so long be purged, that the other metals were refined away; and the gold stayed pure and clean though the other metal was strong and thick, so that it should need the hotter fire, and the gold was like running water, and all burning. Then the master of the work puts the gold in another place, where it shall take its true form and shape by sight and by touch. And after that, he puts it in the third place, where it is kept until it is presented to the owner.

'It is the same spiritually. In the first place above the darkness is the greatest pain of Purgatory, where you see the said soul being purged. There is tormenting by fiends. There appear the likeness of venomous worms and the likeness of savage beasts. There is heat and cold. There is darkness and confusion that comes from the pain that is in Hell. Some souls there have less pain and some more, according to whether their sins were amended or not, during the time that the soul dwelled in the body. Then the master, that is, the justice of God, puts the gold, that is the souls, in other places, where there is less strength, in which the souls abide until they have refreshing of their friends or of the continual prayers of holy Church. For a soul, the more help it has from its friends, the rather will it become strong and be delivered from that place. After this, the soul is born to the third place, where there is no pain except the desire to come into the presence of God and to his blessed sight. In this place dwelled many and for a very long time, without, those who had perfect desire while they lived in the world to come to the presence and sight of God. Know also that many die in the world so virtuously and innocently, that soon they come to the sight and presence of God. And some have so amended their sins with good works, that their souls shall feel no pain. But there are few who come not to the place where there is desire to come to God. Therefore all souls abiding in these three places have a part in the prayers and good works of holy Church that are done in the world; namely of those that they did while they lived, and of those which are done by their friends after their death. Know also that as sins are many and diverse, so are the pains many and diverse. Therefore as the hungry one delights in food when it comes to his mouth, and the thirsty in drink, and as he who is downcast, is gladdened with joy, and the naked with clothing, and the sick with going to his bed, so the souls joy in and are partners of the good deeds that are done for them in the world'.

Then said the angel furthermore: 'Blessed be he who has in the world helped souls with prayers, good works and the labour of his body. For the Justice of God may not lie which says that souls either must be purged after their death with the pain of Purgatory, or else they must be loosed by the good works of their friends'.

After this were heard many voices out of Purgatory, saying: 'O Lord Jesus Christ, just Judge, send your charity to them who have spiritual power in the world; for then shall we have more part than we have now, of their song, readings and offerings'.

Above this space from where this cry was heard, it seemed as if it were a house in which were heard many voices, saying, 'Let those be rewarded of God who send us help from our errors'.

In the same house the sun seemed to go forth as if it had been the spring of a day. And under that dawn appeared a cloud that had not the light of the morning time. Out of which came a great voice, saying: 'O Lord God, give of your unspeakable power to each of them in the world a hundredfold reward, that with their good deeds lift us up into the light of your Godhead and into the sight of your face'.