The Venerable Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda describes the journey the holy couple undertook when the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph went to visit St. Elizabeth ending with the entry of Zachariah's house. The Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us, "...whenever the creature holds in proper esteem the good works and the services, which the Lord commands for his glory, it will feel within itself great facility of operation, great sweetness in undertaking them, and a readiness and alacrity in continuing and pursuing them. These different feelings then give testimony of their being truly useful and commanded by God. But the soul cannot experience these affections, if it is not altogether devoted to the Lord, keeping its gaze fixed upon his divine pleasure, hearing of it with joy, executing it with alacrity, and forgetting its own inclination and conveniences. The soul must be like the faithful servant, who seeks to do only the will of his master and not his own. This is the manner of obeying, which is fruitful and which is due from all the creatures to their God and much more from all the religious, who explicitly promise this kind of obedience."
"Attend, therefore, my daughter, with all solicitude to the works of virtue and perfection, which you know to be desirable in the eyes of the Lord. Despise none of them nor withdraw from any of them and cease not to exercise them, no matter how violently your inclinations and your weakness should oppose their exercise. Trust in the Lord and proceed to put them into execution, and soon his power will overcome all difficulties. Soon you will also know by happy experience how light is the burden and how sweet is the yoke of the Lord (Matthew 11 13). He did not deceive us when He spoke those words, as might be argued by the tepid and the negligent, who in their torpidity and distrust, tacitly repudiate the truth of this statement."
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