Customer Reviews

The Divine Life of the Most Holy Virgin: Being an Abridgement of the Mystical City of God

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a convert to Catholicism, this book was an eye opener for me. Naturally, there are things within it that cause question for the average person - simply because it is difficult to comprehend how thorough and intricate God's plan is - and was for the blessed woman through whom the Word became Flesh. The book is a "hard read" in the beginning, but once you understand how the Ven. Mary of Agreda uses various terms, the book became one for me that I couldn't put down. I highly recommend this book for Catholics who wish to enrich their understanding of the Divine purpose and plan for Mary and the sacrifices she made to receive graces from God. For non-Catholics who may read this book, a word of truth: Catholics do NOT worship Mary; we honor her - there is a distinct difference, and this book helps the reader understand why Mary is deserving of our honor. I would have given the book 5 stars, but because it is a "hard read", I deducted one star.

This private revelation written by Venerable Mary of Agreda in the mid 1600's as revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God and the Queen of Creation is a blessing for all that read it.It reveals God's intention for Mary from the beginning of creation in the same instant that the Son of the Father would become the God-Man,Jesus Christ.It reveals the hidden earthly life of Holy Mary and the Holy Family from Mary's Immaculate Conception in St Anne and by St Joachim to her Coronation in Heaven as its Queen.It's revelation concerning the Trinity,creation,Lucifer's downfall,man's downfall,the Old Testament,the Life of Christ,Mary and St Joseph,of hell and purgatory,of the earthy possession and power of Satan and his demons,of Christ's Passion and death,of the interpretation and meaning of St John's Revelation and other Mysteries of God and Mary--- are without equal in private revelation.The ultimate goodness that this book reveals from The Queen of Mercy and Grace,is the tremendous power God has bestowed on The Mother of Mankind as sinful man's Intercessor to Christ thru her distribution of God's mercy and grace.Thus thru Her Human Perfectness as the Mother of God,She has become the Gateway to Heaven for individual man-if only he recognizes her as his Queen of Heaven and sincerely asks for Her Mercy and for his personal salvation.This writing has gained all of the approbations of the many Religious Orders,Congregations,Princes and Popes of The Roman Catholic Church.

I feel the book is more valuable than the bible in many ways. The bible gospels have conflicts in them, and were written many years after the fact. This book has to be factual and was and is very etifing and enhancing for me to read and reread. While some people shy away from this type of private revalations I find it rewarding. Many would not and do not take the effort to read this type of material. Knowing about the author helps a lot in appreciating the work. Truly it is one of the greatest books ever written. The other private revelation books do not provide factual and interesting information. They visualize and speculate in their mind, while the Mystical City leaves not doubt of authority and integrity.

I am writing this review as both a Catholic who has read the book and because I take great exception to the review by Ms Liouzis who gave the book one star. As Catholics, we are not required to believe private revelations or even appearances by the Blessed Virgin, so you are allowed to find this not worthy of belief. However, I find Liouzis's interpretation of scripture used in her review to be incorrect. Simply read the catechism of the Catholic Church to find out the correct answers to our belief of the Blessed Mother. I'm sorry Ms Liouzis, but your interpretation of scripture falls well short of what the Doctors of the Catholic Church have written. Thank God for the Catholic Church!

PS - I recommend to her (and others) books by Dr Scott Hahn, a convert to the Catholic Church. He will point you in the right direction.

I gave this book a 5 star rating...it is an outstanding book and gives many insights to the life of the Blessed Mother which i kept within myself all my life while loving her..A hard read indeed is not worth a 1 star demerit..That would be like only giving Shapespeare a 2 star rating because some of his books are unfathomable upon the first reading...This is a beautiful book,one to treasure all your life and retain on your Catholic bookshelf

Over the past 25+ years, I have become aware of the links between and among the people, institutions, customs and events that we think of as destructive or as healing. I began with the realization that the word "or"usually meant a dissenting, different or opposing choice rather than one that was equal.

How does this relate to "The Mystical City of God?" That term is used to describe Mary, the Mother of God. The mystical city of god, clearly perceived in the early centuries of the Christian faith as Mary, under the relentless elitism imposed by patriarchy became an "or,"forced upon human thinking by conceptsofseparation/dichotomy/powerover/oppression/suppression.

The return to a mainstream of spiritual awareness means going back more than 5,000 years to a time when the WHOLENESS of life was symbolized by the GREAT MOTHER in whose body was formed each human. HER chosen union with the HOLY SPIRIT produced the DI+VINE SON by whose seed--formed in him by The Mother as was everything--all other creation came. This is the essential mystical, physical and metaphysical act and that act is THE TRINITY, ever-renewing and repeating. There is no division/dichotomy/separation in THE VIRGIN: virginity itself means "whole, undivided."

If the Earth is to be free of strife and warfare and any other unnatural disharmony, there must be a return to the understanding, wisdom, respect and honoring of THE HER WHO IS the ALL-IN-ALL as ONLY THE GREAT MOTHER can be. This does not in any way mean a diminution of God The Father: Even the word "woman" contains the word "man" just as all men are born of women. This principle will not change even if the "womb" becomes a test tube.

If there is to be peace on earth, the harmony of Mother Nature must be understood, respected and venerated just as individual men and all men must learn anew to better understand and respect individual women and all women and that power within themselves that comes from their "feminine." The task of women is to resurrect out of passivity their divine roles as priestesses, lovers, warriors and androgyne.

In the words of the woman* who did the recent translations of the poetry from the forty-fourth century of Enheduanna, the Sumerian High Priestess of Inanna: "PROCLAIM!...In the past 30 years women have imagined a religion centered on goddess worship and have begun to reconstruct the myriad pieces of an actual ancient religion whose core was female...an exceptionally powerful goddess. She is "Queen of all given powers" and "unveiled clear light." She is "chosen, sanctified in heaven" and "Queen of fundamental forces/guardian of unchanging cosmic sources." The poet herself proclaims of the Goddess:
you lift up the elements
bind them to your hands
gather in powers
press them to your breast.

This is not that far from the nearest sanctioned and widespread preservation that we have had for two thousand years through Mary, the Mother of the Christ. However, only Mary's "obedience, docility and traditional female domesticity" have been emphasized in order to secure the hold on power of the usurping Greek, Roman and Judaeo-Christian patriarchies. We find that the "the four spiritual [paths]" spoken of by Betty De Shong Meador in her translation and commentary of Edheduanna's poetry have been suppressed: "Warrior, priestess, lover, androgyne..an unsubdued, multifaceted, energetic female force..raw energy bursting for expression..raw libidinous vitality..the whetstone against which the devotee hones her course toward spiritual maturation...Lady of largest heart."

The reclamation of the power of the feminine, of women, as the other half of the human race will bring the peace that the world seeks because it is already "..a coming out of one's self, a transcending of one's own HIStorically controlled situation...a paradoxical situation impossible to maintain in profane time, in an HIStorical epoch, but which is important to reconstitute...in order to restore the initial completeness, the intact source of holiness and power."

To fill this hole in the collective soul of humankind made by spiritual sexism, we could use a process pioneered to deal with other death-dealing choices of lifestyles: addictions. The required struggle, commitment, learning and discipline will be even more. It will take SERENITY (accepting, coming out of denial, about the inequality and missteps that the human species has made in allowing the masculine to dominate, internally and externally), COURAGE (to change this situation--(1)for men and their consorts to give up their holds on privilege and entitlement (2) for women, who are able, (a)to become braver, more outspoken, independent and interdependent in support of other women who are not operating oppressively within patriarchy and (b) to align strongly with the disadvantaged men, children and other animals of the Earth) and WISDOM to discern the new ways.