Magi: The Presentation of the Gifts - The Incarnation - Bk4 - Ch17

The Venerable Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda describes how the Magi Kings returned to the cave of the Nativity to see and adore the child Jesus, offering the gifts and then returning home avoiding Jerusalem. The Blessed Virgin Mary tells us we can provide such gifts as well, saying, "My daughter, great were the gifts which the Kings offered to my most holy Son; but greater still was the affection with which they offered them and the mystery concealed beneath them. On account of all this, they were most acceptable to his Majesty. I wish that you also offer up similar gifts, thanking Him for having made you poor in condition and profession. For I assure you, my dearest, there is no more acceptable gift to the Most High than voluntary poverty. There are very few in the world in our days who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God and Lord with the generosity and love of these holy Kings. The poor of the Lord, so numerous in our day, experience and give witness how cruel and avaricious human nature has become; since in their great necessities, they are so little succored by the rich. This gross uncharitableness of men offends the holy angels and grieves the Holy Ghost since they are bound to witness the nobility of the souls so degraded and abased in the service of vile greed of gold with all its evil powers (Sirach 10 20). As if all things had been created for the individual use of the rich, they appropriate them to themselves and deprive the poor, their brothers springing from the same nature and flesh; and denying them even to God, who created and preserves all things, and who can give or take at will. It is most lamentable that while the rich might purchase eternal life with their possessions, they abuse them to draw upon themselves damnation as sense less and foolish creatures (Luke 16 9)."