'Abhor human ostentation, suffer in silence and let the world consider thee ignorant; for it does not know where true wisdom dwells.'
Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 602
'Another deceit has spread through the world: many imagine that they are following Christ their Master, though they neither suffer affliction nor engage in any exertion or labor. They are content with avoiding boldness in committing sins, and place all their perfection in a certain prudence or hollow self-love, which prevents them from denying anything to their will and from practicing any virtues at the cost of their flesh. . . He [Jesus] chose not a life of softness and ease for the flesh, but one full of labors and pains; for He judged His instructions to be incomplete and insufficient to redeem man, if He failed to teach them how to overcome the demon, the flesh and their own self. He wished to inculcate, that this magnificent victory is gained by the Cross, by labors, penances, mortifications and the acceptance of contempt: all of which are the trademarks and evidences of true love and the special watchwords of the predestined.'
Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. III, 662
'I was made to understand, that if God were not so outrageously misused in his mercy, He would often interpose, even miraculously, his divine Omnipotence in our behalf. Especially would He do this in defense of the mystical body of the Church and of some Catholic governments, bringing to naught the counsels of hell for the destruction of Christianity in our times. We do not merit this protection of the infinite power, because all are united in rousing the divine wrath and the whole world his joined hands with the infernal fiends, into whose power it has fallen on account of the blind and insane pursuit of evil rampant among men.'
Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 296
'It is important for all the children of the Church to escape the ignorance in which they live concerning the dangers besetting their eternal salvation; for they do not know or take notice, that their ignorance of these secrets is the chastisement of the sin of Adam, and how, after being enlightened, they again lose it and become more unworthy of it than before through their own sins. Many of the faithful are as oblivious and careless, as if there were no demons to persecute and deceive them; and if they sometimes think of them, it is superficially and lightly, falling immediately back into their forgetfulness, which for many of them means no less than eternal punishment. If at all times and in all places, in all their works and on all occasions the demons set their snares, it is but just and proper that Christians on their part take not one step without asking divine light to see and avoid the danger. But as the children of Adam are so torpid in regard to this matter, they perform scarcely one work without being assailed by the infernal serpent and infected by his poison. Thus they accumulate sins upon sins, evil upon evil, irritating the divine justice and shutting out mercy.'
Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 361
'In order to deserve this protection of the Lord, God wishes the
creature on its part never to relax in vigilance, nor trust in its own
strength, nor ever be remiss in asking and desiring this help; for
without it, man can do nothing and will soon perish.'
Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. IV, 454
