Matters arising at Magdala inquiry The Covenant of Mercy

[Seymour Mclean]

Matters arising at Magdala Inquiry.

 

A Jamaican-British Diamond and Golden Jubilee, OAU (AU) 2013, Spanish Town Compliance Unit, Ras Tafari International Consultants research paper.

 

 

 

 

THE COVENANT OF CHRIST WITH THE

BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,COMMONLY CALLED

THE "COVENANT OF MERCY."

[Version I. A.Fol. 75a, i ; Orient. No. 604, Fol. 65a.]

 

ON THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH YAKATIT (FEBRUARY

10) SHALL BE CELEBRATED THE COMMEMORATION OF OUR HOLY LADY, THE VIRGIN, TWOFOLD MARY, THE GOD-BEARER, BECAUSE SHE RECEIVED THEREIN THE COVENANT OF MERCY FROM HER SON, OUR REDEEMER, JESUS CHRIST.

 

WHOSOEVER SHALL CELEBRATE HER COMMEMORATION,

AND SHALL CALL UPON HER NAME, AND SHALL

GIVE ALMS UNTO THE POOR AND NEEDY, EVEN IF IT BE A

CUP OF COLD WATER ONLY [SHALL RECEIVE HIS REWARD].

 

NOW when the Son of this holy woman Maryam,

whose pure flesh He had taken upon Himself,

went up into heaven, He sat down on the right hand of

His Father, having fulfilled all the Law, and taken

upon Himself human nature, with the exception of sin,

and gained dominion over the pains of the Cross by

His own free will which He exercised for our redemption.

 

And He left His mother Mary in the house of

John His disciple, whom He loved, and whom He committed unto her protection, saying,

 

"Behold thy son,"

 

and also to that disciple He said,

 

"Behold thy mother."

 

And our Lady Mary dwelt [there], and she was wont

to go unto the grave of her Son, that is to say, to Golgotha, to pray there.

 

And it came to pass that when the Jews saw her they were filled with wrath and jealousy, and they wished to stone her, but God made her to disappear from their sight.

 

Then they took counsel together and appointed guards over His grave, so that she might not be able to come and pray there again; but she ceased not to go there each day.

 

Now the guards never saw her, for the mantle of the glory of her Son made her to be invisible, and angels came unto her at all times to minister unto her, and her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, watched over her continually, and fulfilled for her all her desires.

 

And after this He made her to ascend into heaven,

and He shewed her the place where the righteous rest,

and where dwell Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the

spirits of all the Fathers who had died from Adam unto Christ received her.

 

And they bowed down before her and said,

 

"Glory be unto God Who hath created thee for us, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone; in thee

we have found redemption”.

 

“And thou hast become the Gate of Life leading away from destruction, through the Incarnation of the Son of God of thee."

Then the angels lifted her up and carried her unto her beloved Son, [Who was seated upon] His throne; and flames of fire covered Him round about on the right hand and on the left.

 

Then our Lord took her hand, and He kissed her mouth and said unto her,

 

"Hast thou come, O My mother"?

 

Then He made her to ascend His throne of glory, and to sit by His side, and He described unto her the joy and gladness which eye hath never seen, and ear hath never heard, and the heart of man hath never imagined, that He had prepared for her.

 

And below the throne she saw David her father, the

King of Israel, together with all the Company of the

Prophets and the angels; and the souls of the righteous were standing round about them.

 

And David was singing psalms to his harp, and saying,

 

 "Hearken, O my daughter, see and incline thine ear, forget thy people in thy father's house, for the King hath desired thy beauty, and He is thy Lord" (Psalm xlv, ii).

 

And again the angels set her so that she might see the place of judgement, and they brought her unto the

place which was the boundary of the darkness that had

been prepared for Satan and his angels, and for all those who walked in his ways.

 

Then our Lady Maryam said,

 

"Woe is me ! Who will announce to the children of men that they shall come here"?  

 

And an angel said unto her,

 

"Fear thou not, O Mary, God is with thee”.

 

“He is with thee, and He will be with those who shall

come after thee".

 

 

Then the angels carried her along and brought her back to her [former] place.

 

And straightway our Lady Mary sat down, being exceedingly sorrowful for all the sinners.

 

Now that day was the sixteenth day of the month Yakatit, and she stood up on the

 

"place of the skull" (Golgotha),

 

and she made supplication unto her Son, saying,

 

"I adjure Thee, O my Son, by God Almighty Thy Father, and by Thy Name Christ, by the Paraclete Thy Spirit, and by my womb which bore Thee, Whom earth is not able to bear, and Whom even the angels are not able to approach for nine months and five days;

 

I adjure Thee, O my Son, by Thy going forth from me without pain, and by Thy birth;

 

I adjure Thee by my breasts which gave Thee suck, and by my lips which kissed Thee, and by my arms which embraced Thee, and by my feet which walked about with Thee;

 

I adjure Thee by the cradle wherein Thou didst lie, and by the swaddling bands wherewith Thou wast swathed;

 

O my Son, my beloved One,

 

I entreat and make supplication unto Thee that Thou mayest hearken unto the voice of my petition, and mayest come unto me, and mayest fulfil everything which is in my heart".

 

And it came to pass that when our Lady, the holy

Virgin Maryam, the Mother of the Light, had thus

spoken, our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ came

down, and with Him and round about Him were

thousands of thousands and tens of thousands of

angels.

 

And He said unto her,

 

"What shall I do for thee, O Mary My Mother” ?

 

“And what wish is it that thou wishest Me to fulfil for thee"?

 

Then our Lady, the Holy Virgin Maryam, made answer unto her beloved Son, and said unto Him,

"O my Son, my beloved One, my Lord and my Redeemer, my Hope, and my Refuge, in Whom is my trust, in Thee have I my strength, and in Thy asylum do Thou protect me”;

“Thou art He Whom I remember always”.

“And now, hearken Thou unto my prayer and unto my entreaty, and incline Thine ear unto the words of my mouth”.

“I who speak unto Thee am Thy Mother Mary, and I am Thine handmaiden”.

“Whosoever shall celebrate the festival of my commemoration, or shall build a church in my name, or shall clothe the naked, or shall visit the sick, or shall feed the hungry, or shall give drink to him that is athirst, or shall comfort him that is sorrowful, or shall make to rejoice him that is broken in spirit, or shall write a book of my praises, or shall meditate upon the hymns [sung]

to me on the day of my festival, reward Thou him, O

Lord, with a good reward from Thyself, the which eye

hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, nor mind of man

hath conceived”.

 

“I beseech Thee and I make supplication unto Thee, O Lord, on behalf of all those who shall believe on me, that Thou wilt make them to be free from Sheol”;

 

“and that Thou wilt remember him that is an hungered and him that is athirst, and all the trials which came upon me with Thee".

 

And our Lord Jesus Christ answered and said unto

her,

 

"It shall be even as thou sayest, and I will fulfil

for thee all thy petition”.

 

“Did I not become man through thee” ?

 

“I swear by Myself that I will not break My Covenant with thee".

 

“Salutation unto thee, O Book of the Law and the

Covenant like unto the Tables of stone, For each and every one who shall call upon thy name”!

 

“Let the hearts of sinners be softened, let the hearts of the oppressors be softened”.

 

“Let the hearts of those who are afflicted with sorrow be softened, O Maryam”.

 

“Amen”.

 

 

 

THE COVENANT OF MERCY

[Version II. A.Fol. ib, i.]

 

 

One day our Lord Jesus Christ said unto Mary,

 

"What sorrow can be greater than that which came

upon thee for My sake"?

 

And our Lady Mary said unto Him,

 

"O my Lord and God, there were Five Sorrows that came upon me for Thy sake, and they overcame me mightily”.

 

“The first of them was that which came upon me when

Simeon prophesied concerning Thee in the Sanctuary,

saying that the Jews would slay Thee”.

 

“The second was the sorrow I endured when I lost Thee in the Sanctuary, and I was seeking for Thee for three days”.

 

“The third was the sorrow I endured when I remembered

how they had bound Thee hand and foot, and how

Pilate's men scourged Thy back”.

 

“The fourth was the sorrow I endured when they crucified Thee between two thieves on the day of the Eve of the Sabbath, and Thou wast naked, and they drove five nails through Thy flesh”.

 

“The fifth sorrow I endured when I remembered how Joseph and Nicodemus took Thee down from the Cross, and swathed Thee in fine linen, and laid Thee in the tomb."

 

And our Lord said unto her who had given Him

birth,

 

"Thus saith our Father Who is in heaven:

 

“Whosoever shall keep in remembrance the sorrows and

sufferings which have come upon thee for My sake, and

the salutation of Gabriel, I will remit to him his sins”.

 

“And whosoever shall give an offering for thy name's

sake I will remit to him his sins, and I will make him to inherit the kingdom of heaven”.

 

“And I will come unto him with thee, O thou who didst give Me birth, and I will appear to him three days before his death".

This was the Covenant which Christ made with His

mother, and she told it unto Dexius, who wrote it down, together with her Miracles, so that [all] believers might read it.

May her prayer and blessing be with us for ever and ever.

What sorrow can be greater than the sorrows that

came upon thee, O Virgin Maryam?

 

For thou didst utter a cry when He cried unto thee

a cry On the Eve of the Sabbath, the day upon which He was on the holy wood, the Cross.

 

By the Five Sorrows, O deliver me from perdition,

And from the mighty terror of the terrible Sheol.

 

Matters arising at Magdala Inquiry.