For "Mystical City of God" By: Ven. Mary of Agreda : please scroll down!
Prayer to ask for the most holy and perfect things of the Christian law, to imitate Jesus and Mary
Queen of Angels and Saints and my dearest Mother, Mary, urge and draw me on to great reverence of God, and to acknowledge my littleness; to fear and abhor sin, even the slightest; to an abhorrence of earthly vanities, and to deny myself my own inclinations. Move me to seek the last place; to the desire of being despised by creatures.
Inflame my heart to the love of the Cross and an earnest and generous acceptance of it; to joyful suffering!
Inflame my heart to chaste love and move me to love those that persecute me.
Move me to aspire the purest, the most perfect and refined virtues, and to unite myself to the highest and truest Good. Amen.
Other translation:
O Queen of the Angels and the Saints, and my dearest Mother, Mary, permeate me with a great reverence towards God; let me recognize my littleness. Let me fear and detest sin, even the slightest; Teach me to have an abhorrence of earthly vanities, and to renounce my own inclinations. Let me always seek the last place; to the desire of being despised by creatures.
Inflame my heart to the love of the Cross and an earnest and generous acceptance of it; to joyful suffering!
Inflame my heart to chaste love and teach me to love those that persecute me.
Move me to aspire to the purest, the most perfect and refined virtues, and to unite myself to the highest and truest Good. Amen.
The prayer contains the request for those essential virtues that God can bring forth in the depths of the soul. Of course it goes without saying that there are other important virtues, such as gratitude and repentance towards God, but if the virtues expressed in this prayer are present, then the other virtues will of themselves come into existence in the soul, when the circumstances require them. These virtues are precisely those which come into existence when God revels Himself to a soul, or if someone receives a vision from God. If these virtues come into existence during/as a result of receiving a vision or revelation, one can be practically certain, that the vision or revelation comes from God.
If this prayer asks for the most important actions which God can bring about in a soul, why would people not pray for them? Therefore it is to be greatly recommended that this prayer is prayed daily, for example during ones morning prayers, or as part of the preparation to receive Holy Communion. Pray this prayer slowly and with consideration, and not in a hurried manner as people often do with the Our Father, so that you are yourself well aware of why you are praying. God tends to share Himself more with a soul who focuses on Him peacefully, and not with someone hasty and agitated.
There is no copyright on this prayer. People are free to distribute this prayer, and even to greatly recommend it to others. It is however asked that the essential virtues asked for in this prayer are not changed, and that the prayer is written for private use. Maybe you know someone who would be interested in this prayer?
What follows is a short explanation of this prayer, in the hope that you may increasingly experience the fruitful workings of God’s grace.
Permeate me with a great reverence towards God.
We should consider that God is the origin of everything that exists, of everything that we have and are. Because we have received everything from God without deserving it ourselves (from our side), God has given us everything out of pure goodness, thus we owe Him everything. Due to the fact that we have received all our ability from God to perform any actions, therefore all our actions should belong to God, not to ourselves or anyone else. On the one hand it fills us with a great gratitude that God created us, us who through the Redemption obtained by His Son, who opened Heaven, and us – if we will at least serve the Lord as He asks us – who constantly through the Holy Spirit have the fruits of the Redemption applied to us, and ultimately lets us share in His Eternal Reign in Heaven; On the other hand we are filled with the thought that God maintains our lives in every moment, that at any moment we could die and appear before His seat of judgment, and thereafter, depending on our actions, either end-up ultimately for eternity in Heaven, or for eternity in Hell, with our awe for Him. These considerations are very important for a true and fitting attitude towards God.
Let me recognize my littleness.
If we are filled with a great reverence towards God, if we realise (even a little) how great God is, we would also easily see how small we are. This virtue of humility is important: it is the foundation of all other virtues. The greater the humility we have towards God, the more the love of God can grow in us and with that our love towards our neighbour.
Let me fear and detest every sin, no matter how small it is.
A sin is an insult to the majesty of God and contaminates the soul. Even the smallest sin is a much bigger insult of God than we can imagine here on earth (God is after all in His Being infinite). We will understand this far better hereafter. We must therefore fear sin, which means we should fear to insult God through a transgression of His Law; fear is the strongest emotion. Because the consequences of sin are so terrible, we should also have a loathing, and a true aversion to sin. Thus, we can also more easily avoid sin.
Teach me to have an abhorrence of earthly vanities.
The vanities of this world do not bring any benefits to the soul; they lead the soul away from God, they hinder grace, and bring the soul into the danger of committing sin. Therefore it is important to also to have a loathing of them. Some who longs for worldly things, stops striving towards God. God’s love in such a soul is strangled little-by-little. By comparison it is like a baby which is given water instead of milk. The water is not poisonous, but the baby will ultimately die of malnourishment; so also the soul from a lack of grace.
And to renounce my own inclinations.
It is also important to pray for the grace to always renounce one’s own inclinations and to follow our intellect. Frequently people are more inclined to follow their own inclinations/passions, which are often inclined to harm, than their intellect. They subordinate their intellect to their – often wrong – inclinations/passions of the moment, rather than the other way around. To put it another way: They do what they want, if it make sense or not, only because their inclinations/passions are urging them, and they search afterwards for arguments to justify their actions. Thereby man deceives himself and for men who know this sin is always a fact.
Let me always seek the last place.
Jesus advises us that the honour seeking Pharisee is a part of every-one of us. In general it is always good to choose the lesser in order to give the best to God and our neighbour. It is not for nothing that in many orders poverty is held in such high esteem. We do not need luxuries, only those necessities which we need in order to bring our love to God and in practice our neighbour. Many saints did not often even strive after those necessities, but had a practical trust in Divine Providence. If we on the contrary seek luxuries, then we will seek our own desires and place God to the side.
To the desire of being despised by creatures.
Success in the world leads to the forgetfulness of God. People become easily proud and arrogant. Jesus gives us in His Passion and Cross an example of what awaits the true follower of Christ: being despised by the world, which we should ultimately not have an aversion to. It is sometimes really difficult to endure the contempt of the world without protest, but we know that we do it for Christ and that it is very meritorious! It is probable that we do not long to be despised, and we do not make such a plea in this prayer. We only pray that we are given a desire for it.
Inflame my heart to the love of the Cross and an earnest and generous acceptance of it.
It appears that only the saints have a true longing for suffering and the Cross. If we also want to follow Christ, we must be prepared to carry our cross. How much easier would it be if we also loved the Cross! The more that we love Jesus and offer to Him out of love for Him, the more that we will also want to carry our cross out of love for Him. And therefore we make this plea in this prayer. We further ask that we will carry it with an earnest heart, in a steadfast way, and without hesitation. We ask to carry the cross generously, to suffer, to endure the difficulties, without complaint, but gladly, out of love for Our Beloved Lord, which is also said in the following plea:
Teach me to suffer with joy!
Without a doubt you know the passage in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles in the Sanhedrin are flogged, and are delighted that they were found worthy to suffer for the sake of Jesus (Acts. 5). Humanly speaking it is unimaginable, but with God’s grace anything is possible!
Inflame my heart to chaste love.
In this plea we do not ask for a worldly love, but for the infusion of the divine virtue of Love. It is a chaste love and a love with a pure intention, through which we do not seek our own pleasure, but we seek only to please God, without all kinds of ulterior motives.
Teach me to love those that persecute me.
God’s Love is all encompassing and if we have God’s Love in us, we must also love our enemies. Also those, who through their burden of sinfulness are inclined to be Gods enemies, are God’s creatures, even though they are not worthy. We must love them, as Jesus did, through praying for their conversion. Furthermore we should remember that we have also insulted God with our own sins, and that we also need Jesus’ redeeming power! If we therefore through Gods Providence experience persecution because of Our Beloved Lord, do we think that through our sins we were also God’s enemies, and we experience the suffering that the persecution brings with in order to repair the damage of our sins.
Move me to aspire to the purest, the most perfect and refined virtues.
We are here on earth in order to purify and remove our incorrect tendencies, unregulated passions, our vices and habits, and to practice the virtues more and more, so that what hinders the growth of God’s love in us is removed and that we will through love receive even more from God.
And to unite myself to the highest and truest Good. Amen.
We are already, through the sanctifying grace of God, united to Him on earth, if we are in the state of grace. The more that we love God; the more completely we will be united to Him. The highest and true Good is naturally God. ‘Highest’, because there exists no greater or more perfect creature than God. ‘True’, because God alone is really good, that is, God alone is the real Source of all truth and happiness. Every other thing which is good participates in God’s goodness.
This prayer is inspired by chapter 14 of the second book (8 parts in total) of the book written by the Spanish abbes the Venerable Maria of Agreda (2 April 1602- 24 May 1665), containing the mystical vision which she received about the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The book is spiritually deep, but not written in a complex style. The book emits the breath of the Wisdom of God, and often one is, through reading the book left full of wonder and surprise at the great mystery and wonders which God could work in a creature (Mary).
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To read the book about the Live of the Blessed Virgin Mary online : please click the link below and scroll down till you see: "City of God The Divine History and Life of the Virgin Mother of God Manifested to Mary of Agreda for the Encouragement of Mankind." :
http://www.stjosephpublications.com/books_page.htm
Here are the details if you would like to buy the physical books:
Mystical City of God
By: Ven. Mary of Agreda
ISBN: 9780895558251
Indication of Price (2,676 pages) : $160.00
To download the complete text of the Live of the Blessed Virgin Mary :
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