The Mystical City of God: Complete Edition Containing all Four Volumes with Illustrations

Description

§§742-754 (ref:61.1-61.13) are on how Mary entered the state of marriage: "Greater was this trial than that of Abraham (Gen. 22, 1, etc.), for he did not love Isaac in the same degree as most holy Mary loved inviolate chastity."cf. Q. [Why did Our Lady marry?](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/74437/1787) A: Because her parents died and young girls' service in the Temple was not perpetual.ref:103.5:> 422\. The humble but blessed house of Joseph contained three rooms, which occupied nearly all its space and formed the exclusive dwelling place of the two Spouses; for they kept neither a man nor a maid-servant. In one of the rooms saint Joseph slept, in another he worked and kept the tools of his trade of carpentering; the third was ordinarily occupied by the Queen of heaven and was also her sleeping room. It contained a couch made by the hands of saint Joseph. This arrangement they had observed since their espousal and from the day on which they had come to this, their dwelling.Ven. Maria Agreda seems to think Our Lady was employed similarly as St. Thérèse's mother (ref:123.4): > In view of their great poverty, and of the great difficulty of sufficient employment as a carpenter, the great Lady resolved to assist him by the work of her hands to earn a livelihood. She immediately executed her resolve by seeking to obtain needlework through the intervention of the pious women, who, attracted by her modesty and sweetness, were beginning to have intercourse with Her.