CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

506 CITY OF GOD
fused heavenly grace for communicating it and in her
countenance shone the sweetness and beauty of heaven,
while her own quiet majesty and modesty, grave yet pleas
ing, together with the hidden virtue (like that ascribed to
her divine Son in the Gospel), attracted and refreshed the
hearts (Luke 6, 19). Some remained speechless in ad
miration, some broke forth in tears, others in exclama
tions of wonder and praise, confessing that great is
the God of the Christians, who had formed such a
Creature.
Truly could they testify to what some saints
of virtue.
said to Her : that Mary was a divine prodigy
Let Her be eternally known and praised through all the
generations as the true Mother of God, who made Her
so attractive to human eyes, such a sweet Mother to the
sinners, so amiable to angels and men.
590. During these last years the Queen ate or slept
very little ;
and this little only, because saint John asked
Her to rest for at least a small portion of the night.
But this sleep was only a slight suspension of the senses,
lasting no longer than a half hour, during which, in the
manner above described, She lost not the vision of the
Divinity. Her food was a few mouthfuls of ordinary
bread and sometimes a little fish, taken at the instance
of the Evangelist and in order to keep him company; for
in this, as in other privileges, saint John was thus for
tunate, not only eating with Her from the same table,
but having the food prepared for him by the great Queen
and administered to him as from a mother to her son,
and moreover being obeyed by Her as a priest and a sub
stitute of Christ. Very well could the great Queen get
along without even this sleep or nourishment, which
seemed more a ceremony than the sustenance of life; but
She partook of them not from necessity, but in order
to practice obedience and humility and thus pay some
More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com