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CHAPTER XVII.
THE ANGEL GABRIEL SENT AS AMBASSADOR TO THE MOST
BLESSED MARY TO INFORM HER. THAT SHE STILL HAD
THREE YEARS OF LIFE, AND WHAT HAPPENED TO
SAINT JOHN AND TO ALL NATURE AT THIS NEWS.
696. In writing of what still remains of the history of
our Lady, of our only and heavenly Phoenix, the most
blessed Mary, it is no more than right that our hearts be
filled with tenderness and our eyes with tears at the sweet
and touching marvels of the last years of her life. I
should wish to exhort the devout faithful not to read of
them nor consider them as past and absent, since the
powerful virtue of faith can make these truths present
to the mind; and if we look upon them with the proper
piety and Christian devotion, without a doubt we shall
gather the sweetest fruit, and our hearts shall feel the
effects and rejoice in the good, which our eyes cannot see.
697. The most holy Mary had arrived at the age of
sixty-seven years without having tarried in her career,
ceased in her flight, mitigated the flame of her love, or
lessened the increase of her merits from the first instant
of her Conception. As all this had continued to grow
in each moment of her life, the ineffable gifts, benefits and
favors of the Lord had made Her entirely godlike and
spiritual the
;
affectionate ardors and desires of her most
chaste heart did not allow Her any rest outside the centre
of her love ;
the bounds of the flesh were most violently
irksome the ; overwhelming attraction of the Divinity to
unite Itself with Her with eternal and most close bonds,
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