The Venerable Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda describes the journey made by Mary and Joseph, in the company of their Guardian Angels, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The Virgin Mary teaches us, "You know well, my dearest, that you have been incessantly instructed and exhorted by divine enlightenment to forget the terrestrial and visible and to gird yourself with fortitude (Proverbs 31:17), to raise yourself to the imitation of me, copying in yourself, according to your capacity, the works and virtues manifested to you in my life. This is the very first purpose of the knowledge which you receive in writing this history; for you have in me a perfect model, and by it you can arrange the converse and conduct of your life in the same manner as I arranged mine in imitation of my sweetest Son. The dread with which this command to imitate me has inspired you as a being above your strength, you must moderate and you must encourage yourself by the words of my most holy Son in the Gospel of Saint Matthew: “Be ye perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This command of the Most High imposed upon his holy Church is not impossible of fulfillment, and, if his faithful children on their part dispose themselves properly, He will deny to none of them the grace of attaining this resemblance to the heavenly Father. All this my most holy Son has merited for them. But the degrading forgetfulness and neglect of men hinder them from maturing within themselves the fruits of His Redemption."
