Mary explains the reasons for her joy to the mystic Maria Valtorta

Mary says:

"I want you to understand my joys better. You will say the Franciscan rosary more willingly.

In the first one, I was not happy because of my glory and joy, but because the time had come for man's redemption and God's forgiveness of man.

The second one made me happy not because of the praise offered me by my cousin, but because I had begun redemption by sanctifying the Baptist by taking my

Jesus, your Redeemer, to him.

The blessedness of the third one was not exclusively because I had become a mother, without pain or the staining of my virginity, or because of the grace of being

able to kiss God, my Son, either. But because the Earth now had the Savior.

What made me happy the fourth time was that in the three Magi I saw all of those who, from everywhere in the world and in all periods of the earth, from that

moment on, would come towards the Light, towards my Lord, and would proclaim Him to be their King and their Savior and God.

The joy of the fifth event did not come exclusively from my love as a Mother who ceases to suffer because her lost Son is found again. It would have been

selfishness. But it was inexpressible joy to hear the 'Gospel' echoing forth for the first time and to understand that a few years in advance it was falling into some

hearts and sprouting there into an eternal plant. I rejoiced over these people instructed in advance.

The sixth joy was an even greater love for you, redeemed creatures. The Risen One told me that the Heavens were open and already inhabited by the holy ones of

the Lord who had been awaiting that hour for centuries and that in those Heavens the seats of all the saved were ready. And for me, your Mother, to know that

your dwelling was ready was a joy of incalculable depth.

Finally, the seventh joy was not because of my glory. But because, having been made the Queen of the Heavens by the goodness of God, as the Queen I could concern myself with you, my beloved ones, and, chosen as I was to sit at the right hand of God, I could speak, pray, and obtain

graces directly for you, with powerful entreaty.

No joy was for me alone. Selfishness, even the most just and holy, destroys love. Every joy came to me through perfect love and was spurred towards an even

more perfect love.

Maria Valtorta - 1944 Notebook, May 14 

(1) Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) was an Italian mystic and writer. She was a Franciscan tertiary and a lay member of the Servants of Mary who reported personal conversations with, and dictations from Jesus Christ in the 10 volumes of The Gospel as Revealed to Me.