THE
BEATITUDES

IN

  THE  MAGNIFICAT

†

 
– From the Mystical Revelations Given to Maria Valtorta –
 

 


— INTRODUCTORY NOTE —

In this excerpt translated from Valtorta's Quadernetti collection , Christ reveals to us through Valtorta that His Mother Mary did not know beforehand that She was the one destined to be His Mother: the Mother of God. We know from The Poem of the Man-God that Mary longed and prayed much for the coming of the Messiah, and that She hoped and entreated God that at the coming of the Messiah She might be a servant of His mother.1  But in Her great humility, She had no idea that She was Herself to be that Mother of the Messiah.

In Her Magnificat, sung in praise of God's great Mercy toward Her for this privilege, Christ then shows how the Beatitudes of His Sermon on the Mount were already contained in Mary's song, because She had already been living them throughout Her life. Some scant manuscript evidence attributes the song of the Magnificat to Elizabeth.  Modern biblical scholars, however, presuming on their "expertise" and their scientistic tools of historical and literary criticism, tend to attribute Mary's Magnificat to the literary skills of the evangelist Luke who, they allege, may have compiled the Magnificat from Old Testament sources and then placed the hymn on the lips of Mary when he composed his Gospel. This kind of retroactive revision of the Gospels has also been applied of course  to the words and deeds of Christ by some scholars, and in an extreme way by the infamous "Jesus Seminar". 2

Concerning this "expertise" of modern biblical scholars, Fr. John Saward invokes the views of the great French poet and diplomat, Paul Claudel. He writes:
The Scriptures may have fascinated [Claudel], but the scholars infuriated him. "Frightful pedants", he said, have turned a paradise, a promised land "overflowing with milk and honey," into "a museum and cemetery."  A "pseudo-scientific apparatus of arbitrary conjectures and frivolous hypotheses" has served only to "discourage, to disconcert, to dishearten the faithful."  Claudel dedicated the final years of his long life to the task of regaining this Paradise Lost. ...[He] struggled to save the Scriptures -- to rescue them from the "experts" and return them to the People of God. He not only called for, but actually attempted, a renewed exegesis: a truly Catholic reading of the Scriptures in the Church, in the light of her Tradition, in the spirit of her Fathers, guided by her Magisterium.3

As He often does in Valtorta's works, Christ blatantly contradicts here the "expertise" of the scholars. He states that "[Mary] sang the 'Magnificat'  some days later..." after the Annunciation. We may ask then whom we should believe about its composition:  modern scholars who were not there? Or Christ Who, though hidden, was?

— Trans.


[Sept. 8, 1948]4

Valtorta :
The Most Holy Master makes me reflect on the words "my Savior" [Lk 1:47], which prove that Mary was unaware of Her lot as the Immaculate and Her destiny as Mother of God.
JESUS :
Did the Madonna know that She was to be the Mother of the Messiah?

NO.  "And troubled by these words, She pondered what sort of greetings that might be" [Lk 1:29].
        "Then Mary said to the Angel: 'How will this happen, if I do not know man?'" [Lk 1:34]

If She had known, She would not have been troubled at that greeting, nor would She have asked what it meant. She would simply have thought: "The hour has come for the conception of the Word in My womb through the work of the Holy Spirit."

Whereas She is so unaware of it that She asks how it could happen to Her to become a mother if She does not know man. From this question it appears evident that Mary was unware of being the one destined for the divine Maternity, and She was unware as to how and by Whom the act could  be accomplished that would give flesh to the Word, and in what manner it would be accomplished.

It is true, as St. Thomas [Aquinas] says, that the Annunciation was willed by God through the free consent of Mary. But it is also true that the Angel had the task of enlightening Mary. Before that, She was unaware.

When She sang the "Magnificat" some days later, She knew it [then], but because Gabriel had announced it to Her.

"Fiat" ["Be it done"], yes. Because She was not unaware of the prophetic pages about the Christ [Messiah], and therefore of the suffering of the Christ-Redeemer.

Contemplate the beatitudes in the Magnificat, and the great Truth hidden in the words "my Saviour." To those who object to you, Maria, about the "second-begotten"5 of God, about "the soul of Mary [as] part of God," have them consider these two things:

I- That Mary was born of a human marriage and, like all men who believe in the Christ [Messiah], was saved (pre-saved or preserved) in view of the future merits of Christ the Savior.

If She would have had a divine nature, as some want to take My exact words to mean—badly understanding them and always literally, because they do not know how to read with the life which is spirit—then Mary would have had no need of being saved. And therefore, being by now filled with the Holy Spirit, She would not have called God "Her Savior".

II- Every soul, being a "breath, puff, or spirit of life" infused by God in the flesh of man, is a "part of God." With more perfection would that "breath, puff or spirit," be "part of God" which God infused in the flesh of His future immaculate Spouse, Mother, Ciborium of God, and His Ark.

But let them be. Only the eagle fix their gaze on the sun. From flowers only the bees draw honey. The others cannot fix their gaze on the Infinite Light which is Truth. And again, the others make of flowers only straw or hay for cud-chewing.

But the truth is this: the soul is part of God and  the soul of Mary was Part of God.

Yet, let them be!  They will bow their foreheads here, before the Truth on His sublime Throne, when forever and for a moment they will see the Sun Who is Truth, and they will be "living eagles" for eternity, or eagles struck down for eternity. For now, they are pigmies who believe they are giants, nocturnal birds who exchange the foolish fire of their science for the Sun of My Wisdom...

Contemplate the beatitudes again, the first ones [contained] in the Magnificat. For whoever knows how to read it, they are the prelude to the beatitudes of the [Sermon on the] Mount. Look: I will enlighten you, Maria.

[Blessed are the Poor in Spirit]
The beatitude of poverty of spirit: Mary [My Mother] had not gluttonous or avaricious. She did not desire Her own glory, and as soon as She possesses it, She shares it, and from that moment on, She  shares it always with all humanity. She brings grace to John, charity to Her cousin, the miracle to Zecharia. Later She will bring Grace into the world. She will give It to men,. She will sacrifice Her own love of a Mother and Her Heart, everything, in true poverty of spirit. And for this She will be Queen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Mary offered Herself meekly, to be an instrument of the greatest and most painful will of God: the Redemption. And She became the Mother whom all generations of the Earth will call blessed.

[Blessed are the Meek, for They shall Inherit the Earth]
She inherited the Earth, after inheriting Heaven, because She was meek besides being without greed and without avarice. Mary, professing Herself a handmaid of God not only in Her words, She consecrated Herself to weeping and sorrow; but Her spirit already exulted in God Her Savior, because those who weep will be comforted.

[Blessed are Those who Hunger and Thirst for Justice]
Mary was ravenous and anxiously thirsted for justice, standing with Her hands raised in offering from Her tenderest years, so that justice might triumph in the world. And God filled Her with Himself, the Supreme Good.

[Blessed are the Merciful, for They shall Obtain Mercy]
Mary made Herself a handmaid out of mercy for Humanity, and Mercy became incarnate in Her and was born of Her.

[Blessed are the Pure of Heart, for They shall See God]
Mary had feared God and therefore She was angelically pure, and saw God in His double Nature, nursed Him, cared for Him, Loved Him like no one else.

[Blessed are the Peacemakers, for They shall be Called Sons of God]
Mary, the Peaceful One, begot Peace, peacefully, in the continuous poise of the just, in the perfect self-dominion of the innocent, She welcomed the supreme honor and the supreme burden of being Mother of God and Coredemptrix; and God had done so many mighty things in Her that, among all those born by the will of man, She is the true and beloved Daughter of God.

[Blessed are Those who are Persecuted for the Sake of Justice, for Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.]
Mary is the humble one, and therefore is exalted above every creature. She is the persecuted one because of  Her faithful love for the sake of justice, and for this the Kingdom of God was in Her and She is in It.

The humble woman of Nazareth: insulted, calumniated, ridiculed and scorned even by those of Her own blood, just as She Herself sang in Her jubilation—it is She who glorifies the Lord for His infinite power, charity, justice. She is the first Voice of the choir of the Saints, who have come to the Kingdom by being poor of spirit, poor of means, but rich in virtue; by being meek, afflicted, lovers of justice, merciful, pure, peaceful, persecuted.

Truly, I say to you, that as Mary was born by the will of man and from the womb of a woman and is the Daughter of God, Queen of Heaven, so everyone born of man can, with his will, have that which Mary had: God in himself, and the Kingdom of his Father for ever and ever.

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— NOTES —

1."...servant of His mother." —See:  Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the Man-God, trans., Nicandro Picozzi and Patrick McLaughlin (Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, 1986), I, 54.
2. For a description of the "Jesus Seminar", its members and views, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar
3. See Fr. Saward's complete article at: http://christendom-awake.org/pages/jsaward/regainingparadise.htm.
4. Maria Valtorta, Quadernetti (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 2006): 136-139.
5. ..."second-begotten"  —See:  Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the Man-God, trans., Nicandro Picozzi and Patrick McLaughlin (Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, 1986), I, 7.