|

The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
22. HELIOPOLIS, ON. JOSEPH BUILDS A PLACE FOR JEWISH PRAYER.
|
I again saw the Holy Family in Heliopolis. They were still living near
the heathen temple under the vaulting of the massive walls. Not far off
Joseph built a place of prayer in which the Jews living in the city
assembled together with the Holy Family. Before this they had had no
meeting-place for prayer. The room had a lightly built dome above it,
which they could open so as to be under the open sky. In the middle of
the room stood a sacrificial table or altar, covered with white and
red, and having scrolls upon it. The priest or teacher was a very old
man. The men and women were not so strictly separated at their prayers
as in the Promised Land: the men stood on one side and the women on the
other. I had a sight of the Blessed Virgin visiting this place of
prayer with the Infant Jesus for the first time. She sat on the ground
leaning on one arm; the Child was sitting before her in a little
sky-blue dress, and she put His hands together on His breast. Joseph
stood behind her, as he always does here, though the other men and
women stand and sit in separate groups on each side of the room. I was
often shown how the little Jesus was already growing bigger, and how He
was often visited by other children. He could already speak and run
quite well; He was much with Joseph, and I think went with him when he
worked away from home. He wore a little dress like a shirt, knitted or
woven in one piece. Some of the idols fell down in the temple near
which they lived, just as the statue near the gate had collapsed on
their entry into the city; many people said that this was a sign of the
wrath of the gods against the Holy Family, and in consequence they
suffered various persecutions.
|