Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year

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168. THE GREAT PROMISE
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Jesus, prepare my heart to receive the Holy Spirit whom You have promised and merited for me.


MEDITATION

1. Since last Sunday, the Church has been preparing us for the Ascension of Our Lord. Today, taking up the subject again, she goes a step further. She mentions the coming of the Holy Spirit, and in so doing, makes use of a passage from Jesus’ discourse after the Last Supper. Our Lord is speaking to the Apostles and preparing their souls for His departure. Sad and thoughtful, they listen to Him, without courage to question Him. Like a kind father, the Lord breaks the painful silence. “And now I go to Him that sent Me, and none of you asketh Me: ‘Whither goest Thou?’” He hastens to console them: “It is expedient to you that I go, for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (Gosp : Jn 16,5-14). Only Jesus’ death could merit this great gift for us, and it was not until after His Ascension into heaven that the Holy Spirit, the Envoy of the Father and the Son, could descend upon the Church. The Apostles were about to lose the sensible, physical presence of their adored Master.

However, He would not leave them orphans and would continue to help them invisibly by His Spirit, who would take up His work with them. Jesus did His work in a visible manner in their midst; the Holy Spirit would do His in a secret, hidden way, but in one no less efficacious and real. Furthermore, as Jesus Himself said, the action of the Holy Spirit would complete His. “I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will teach you all truth.... He shall receive of mine and shall show it to you.” The hearts of the Apostles, still dulled by sin, could not really comprehend these profound truths; it was necessary that Jesus, by dying on the Cross, destroy sin—the great obstacle to the action of the Holy Spirit—and then, when He had ascended into heaven, He would send the divine Paraclete whom He merited for them and for us by His Passion. The sending of the Holy Spirit to our souls is the principal fruit of the Passion of Jesus.


2. We can draw some practical applications from today’s Gospel. First of all, we must fervently prepare ourselves for Pentecost, so that the coming of the Holy Spirit will be renewed in us in all its plenitude. Since sin is the obstacle to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, our preparation must consist in a very special purity of conscience. Sin must be destroyed in us, not only in its actual manifestations, even though they are slight, but also in its deepest and most hidden roots.

We must be convinced, furthermore, that a certain action of the Holy Spirit is never interrupted in a soul in the state of grace; this is even more true of a soul who tries to correspond faithfully to the divine motions. This action does not necessarily have to be perceived and consoling. In aridity and despondency the Holy Spirit also works in the faithful soul; His action is secret and hidden, but also real and effective. Its chief purpose is to purify the soul and dispose it for union with God. If the soul is convinced of this, it will remain confident, even in difficulties, and, if it neither understands nor sees its path, it will trust in the Holy Spirit, who sees and knows well the goal to which He is leading it.

Finally, today’s Gospel invites us to invoke the action of the Holy Spirit on the Church and on the whole world: on the Church, to govern and direct her in the accomplishment of her mission; on the world, to convince it of the truth which it rejects. “And when He is come,” said Jesus, “ He will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment, ” that is, He will make it see that it is the slave of sin because it has not believed in Christ. He will make it understand that justice and sanctity are found only in Him, the Redeemer, and He will show it that the devil, the “prince of this world, ” is henceforth overcome and condemned.


COLLOQUY

“Ah! eternal Word, teil me, I beg You, what prevents the Holy Spirit from accomplishing all His work in the soul? You tell me that the first impediment is malice; another impediment is the self-will of those who want to serve You, but in their own way. We want Your Spirit, but we want Him in the way that pleases us, and as much as pleases us; in this way we make ourselves incapable of receiving Him. At other times, lukewarmness is the hindrance; we think we are serving You and do not realize we are serving ourselves. But You, O Lord, want to be served with humility and sincerity, without self-love. Thus Your Spirit takes no rest but in a soul which He finds plunged in humility. Alas! O loving Word, I should like to know what I ought to do about these hindrances, for what good will it do me to understand them, if I do not know the cure for them? Now, I see plainly that the remedy for malice is a simple right intention; the remedy for self-will is a will so dead to self that it wills only what You will. The cure for lukewarmness is the ardor of charity, which like fire, comes into our hearts and burns up all tepidity” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“Come, O Holy Spirit, sanctify me! Come, O Spirit of Truth, fill me! Your divine Wisdom will establish me in the truth. I am thirsting for truth, and wish it to rule over my mind, my words, my affections, and my actions, avoiding everything that is opposed to it, not only lies, but also dissimulation, duplicity, and lack of sincerity with myself.

“Come, O Spirit of Peace, bring me Your peace! That profound peace which dilates the soul and prepares it for Your operations, that peace which calms and dominates all the sensible part of the soul and even the superior part.

“Come, O Spirit of Charity, inflame me and inspire me with Your love, so that I can pour it out over the souls whom I would bring to You! Oh! transform me into love; only thus shall I be able to fully respond to Your call, and be of use to the Church ” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

169. MARY OUR GUIDE AND MODEL

PRESENCE OF GOD - Under your protection I take refuge, O Mary; be the guide and model of my interior life.


MEDITATION

1. Month of May, month of Mary! The heart of every Christian turns spontaneously toward his heavenly Mother, with a desire to live in closer intimacy with her and to strengthen the sweet ties which bind him to her. It is a great comfort on our spiritual way, which is often fatiguing and bristling with difficulties, to meet the gentle presence of a mother. One is so at ease near one’s mother. With her, everything becomes easier; the weary, discouraged heart, disturbed by storms, finds new hope and strength, and continues the journey with fresh courage.

“If the winds of temptation arise,” sings St. Bernard, “if you run into the reefs of trials, look to the star, call upon Mary. In danger, sorrow, or perplexity, think of Mary, call upon Mary.” There are times when the hard road of the “nothing” frightens us, miserable as we are; and then, more than ever, we need her help, the help of our Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary has, before us, trodden the straight and narrow path which leads to sanctity; before us she has carried the cross, before us she has known the ascents of the spirit through suffering. Sometimes, perhaps, we do not dare to look at Jesus the God-Man, who because of His divinity seems too far above us; but near Him is Mary, His Mother and our Mother, a privileged creature surely, yet a creature like ourselves, and therefore a model more accessible for our weakness. Mary comes to meet us during this month, to take us by the hand, to initiate us into the secret of her interior life, which must become the model and norm of our own.


2. St. Thérése of the Child Jesus, referring to certain discourses on the Blessed Virgin, said, “She is spoken of as unapproachable, whereas she should be represented as imitable” (NV). Mary is inaccessible, it is true, in the sublime privileges which flow from her divine maternity, and it is right to consider these prerogatives in order to admire and contemplate them, to praise our Mother’s greatness and hence always to love her more and more; but, at the same time, we must consider Mary in the concrete picture of her earthly life. It is a simple, humble picture, which never leaves the framework of the ordinary life common to all mothers; under this aspect, Mary is truly imitable. Our program for the month of May, then, will be to contemplate the grandeurs of Mary, that we may be stimulated to imitate her virtues.

We shall consider Mary especially as the ideal and the model of our interior life. No one has understood, as she did, the depth of meaning in the words of Jesus: “But one thing is necessary” (Lk 10,42), and no one has lived by these words better than she. From the very first moment of her life, Mary was entirely God’s and lived only for Him. Consider the years spent in the Temple in silence and prayer, the months passed at Nazareth in recollection, and in adoration of the eternal Word incarnate within her, the thirty years lived in sweet intimacy with Jesus, her Son and her God; then the sharing of His apostolic life, the union with Him in His Passion, and finally, her last years with St. John, during which, by her prayers, she was the support of the infant Church. Although the scenes in which she moved changed in appearance, although the external circumstances varied, her life remained unchanged in its substance, in her interior search for the “one thing necessary,” and in her adherence to God alone.

The succession of events and her exterior activity did not hinder her from persevering in that attitude of continual prayer in which St. Luke presents her to us: “Mary kept all these words [the divine mysteries], pondering them in her heart ” (2,19). If, in imitation of Mary, our heart is firmly anchored in God, nothing can distract us from our interior occupation: to seek and love the Lord and live in intimacy with Him.


COLLOQUY

“O my soul, do you fear to approach God? He has given you Jesus as Mediator. Is there anything that such a Son could not obtain from His Father? The Father who loves Him will answer Him, because of the love He bears Him. But do you yet hesitate to approach Him? He made Himself your brother, your companion, and in everything, sin excepted, He willed to undergo all the humiliations of human nature, just to compassionate your miseries. Mary has given you this brother. But His divine Majesty still awes you, perhaps; for, although He is man, He does not cease to be God. Do you want an advocate with Him? Have recourse to Mary. Mary is a pure creature, pure not only because she is free from sin, but also because of her unique human nature. I am sure, O Mary, that your prayers will be heard because of the respect you deserve; your Son will certainly hear you because you are His Mother, and the Father will hear His Son. This is why my confidence is unshakable; this is the reason for all my hope! O Blessed Virgin, the Angel declared that ‘you have found grace before God.’ You will always find grace, and I need only grace; I ask for nothing else” (St. Bernard).

“Draw me after you, O Virgin Mary, that I may run in the odor of your ointments. Draw me, for I am held back by the weight of my sins and the malice of your enemies. Since no one comes to your Son unless he is drawn by the Father, I dare to say that no one, so to speak, comes to Him if you do not draw him by your prayers. You teach true wisdom, you beg grace for sinners, you are their advocate, you promise glory to those who honor you, because you are the treasury of grace. You have found grace with God, O most sweet Virgin, you who have been preserved from original sin, filled with the Holy Spirit, and have conceived the Son of God. You have been given all these graces, O most humble Mary, not only for yourself, but also for us, so that you may be able to help us in all our necessities” (Ven. R. Jourdain).

170. THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, you who called yourself the handmaid of the Lord, teach me how to consecrate all my strength and life to His service.


MEDITATION

1. All the splendors—divine filiation, participation in divine life, intimate relations with the Trinity—which grace produces in our souls are realized in Mary with a prominence, a force, a realism, wholly singular. If, for example, every soul in the state of grace is an adopted child of God and a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Virgin is so par excellence and in the most complete manner, because the Triune God communicated Himself to her in the highest degree possible for a simple creature, to such a degree that Mary’s dignity, according to St. Thomas, touches “the threshold of the infinite” (cf. 14, q. 25, a. 6, ad 4). This can easily be understood when we think that, from all eternity, Mary was chosen by God to be the Mother of His Son. As the Incarnation of the Word was the first work of the mind of God, in view of which everything was created, so also Mary, who was to have such a great part in this work, was foreseen and chosen by God before all other creatures. It is fitting that the words of Sacred Scripture are applied to her: “ The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning” (Pro 8,22).

When Adam, deprived of the state of grace, was driven out of Paradise, only one ray of hope illumined the darkness of fallen humanity: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman,” God said to the serpent, “and she shall crush thy head” (Gn 3,15). Here Mary appears on the horizon as the beloved Daughter of God, as she who will never be, for a single moment, a slave of the devil; as she who will always be spotless and immaculate, belonging wholly to God : as the Daughter whom the Most High will always look upon with sovereign complacency, and whom He will introduce into the circle of His divine Family by bonds of the closest intimacy with each of the three divine Persons: Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Incarnate Word, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit.


2. Mary lived her divine filiation in a profound sentiment of humble dependence and loving adherence to God’s every will. We have the best example of this in her reply to the Angel’s message: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1,38). Mary was aware of her position as a creature in relation to the Creator, and although she had been raised to such high dignity that, “after God’s, it is the greatest that can be imagined” (Pius XI), she could find no better way to express her relations with God than to declare herself His “ handmaid.” This word describes the interior attitude of the Virgin toward God; it was not a passing attitude, but one that was permanent and constant throughout her whole life. Like Jesus, who, when He came into the world, announced, “I have come to do Thy will” (Heb 10,9), so Mary, who was to be the most faithful likeness of Jesus, offered herself to the will of her heavenly Father when she said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word.”

Faithful to her word, she would accept without reserve not only every manifest will of God, but also every circumstance permitted by Him: the long, inconvenient journey which would bring her far from home, just when she was about to bring into the world the Son of God; the poor, humble shelter of a stable; the flight into Egypt by night, the privations and inconveniences of exile, the labor and weariness of a life of poverty, the separation from her Son when He would leave her to begin His apostolate, the persecutions and insults He would endure and of which her maternal heart would be well aware, and finally, the disgrace of the Passion and death of her beloved Son on Calvary. We have good reason to believe that in each of these events, her interior dispositions were the same as on the day of the Annunciation: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” What an example for us of humble dependence on God, of absolute fidelity to His will, and of perseverance in our vocation, in spite of the difficulties and sacrifices we shall have to encounter.


COLLOQUY

O Mary, all pure and all holy, Paradise of God, His beloved Daughter, chosen by Him from all eternity to be the Mother of His only Son, preserved by Him from every shadow of sin, enriched by Him with all graces...how great and how beautiful you are, O Mary! “You are all beautiful, O Mary, and there is no stain of sin in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people” (Tota Pulchra).

The Most High has always looked upon you with complacency and He willed to give Himself to you in a unique way. “The Lord is with you, O Mary! God the Father is with you, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Triune and One God. God the Father, whose noble Daughter you are; God the Son, whose most worthy Mother you are; God the Holy Spirit, whose gracious Spouse you are. You are truly the Daughter of the sovereign, eternal God, the Mother of sovereign Truth, the Spouse of sovereign Goodness, the handmaid of the sovereign Trinity ” (cf. Conrad of Saxony). But from all these titles, you choose the last, the humblest, and the lowest, and call yourself the handmaid of the Lord.

“Oh! how sublime is your humility, which never yields to the seductions of glory, and in glory knows no pride. You were chosen to become the Mother of God, and you call yourself servant! O Blessed Lady, how were you able to unite in your heart such a humble idea of yourself, with so much purity and innocence, and especially such plenitude of grace? O Blessed Lady, whence comes such humility? Truly, because of this virtue, you have merited to be looked upon by God with extraordinary love; and you have merited to charm the King with your beauty, and to draw the eternal Son from the bosom of the Father” (cf. St. Bernard).

O Mary, you proclaimed yourself to be the handmaid of the Lord, and you have truly lived as such, always humbly submissive to His will, always ready to respond to His call and invitation. Who more than you could say with Jesus: “My meat is to do the will of My Father” (cf. Jn 4534). O Mary, sweet Daughter of the heavenly Father, impress upon my heart a little of your docility, a little of your love for God’s holy will, in order that I may serve Him less unworthily.

171. SPOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, make me docile to His divine motions.


MEDITATION

1. “The Blessed, Virgin Mary,” says St. Augustine, “was the only one who merited to be called the Mother and Spouse” of God. She became the Mother of God because she was the Spouse of the Holy Spirit: “the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee ” (Lk 1,35), said the Angel, explaining the mysterious, divine manner in which she would become a mother, the Mother of the Son of God. At that moment the Holy Spirit, who had already possessed Mary’s soul from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception, came upon her with such exceptional plenitude that He formed within her the sacred Body of Jesus. Justly, therefore, does Mary deserve the name of Spouse of the Holy Spirit: she is His possession, His sanctuary, His temple.

The divine Paraclete may well say to her in the words of the Canticle: “My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up” (4,12). Mary is a garden enclosed, because she was never defiled—even for an instant—by the shadow of sin, was never subject to the winds of unruly passions, never taken up with any affection for creatures. “The most glorious Virgin, our Lady,” says St. John of the Cross, “never had the form of any creature imprinted on her soul, and was never moved by any creature, but her actions were always inspired by the Holy Spirit” (AS II, 2,10). Filled with grace from her conception, Mary is always the faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, attentive and docile to all His impulses and inspirations. If Mary’s sublime privileges are reserved for her alone, we can, nevertheless, imitate her interior dispositions by keeping our heart, in imitation of hers, always attentive and docile to the action of the Holy Spirit.


2. Complete docility to the motion of the Holy Spirit is precisely the characteristic of the state of union with God. Mary was “raised to this lofty state from the beginning,” according to the teaching of St. John of the Cross (ibid.); and this is evident if we consider that Mary was not only created in grace but that she had, from the very beginning, a degree of grace far superior to that attained by the greatest saints at the end of their lives. Therefore, this state of perfect union with God, which is our ideal and the goal of all our efforts, was Mary’s portion from the dawn of life. Furthermore, by her free, faithful correspondence to grace, she advanced to towering heights in this lofty state.

Considering these truths, therefore, we can easily see that after Jesus the Virgin Mary is the surest model and guide for those who aspire to union with God; her very creaturehood makes her more accessible to us, and more easily imitable. Mary teaches us that the great secret of quickly reaching union with God is entire detachment from creatures, especially from that creature we love so much, ourself. Mary lived only for God. Studying her life in the Gospels, we never see her influenced by selfish motives or by reasons of personal interest; only one thing moves her : the glory of God and the interests of Jesus and of souls.

In her humble, hidden life, in her work, in her poverty, in all the privations and sufferings she had to undergo, there was never a thought of self, never a complaint; rather, she was always ready to advance, totally oblivious of her suffering, wholly given to the fulfilling of the divine will. It was the Holy Spirit who guided her, who urged her, who sustained her, and her secret was to let herself be ruled and moved by Him in everything. Just as the Blessed Virgin conceived the Son of God by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so all her actions were begun by His inspiration. This is exactly how we should imitate Mary: eliminate from our life everything that is the fruit of our egoism, self-love, or pride, and do only the things that are inspired by grace, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit.


COLLOQUY

“O Mary, you are holy in body and mind. You can say in a special way: ‘My conversation is in heaven’ (cf. Phil 3,20). You are the garden enclosed, the sealed fountain, the temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit; you are the wise Virgin who not only provided herself with oil, but filled her lamp with it. O Mary, how were you able to reach the inaccessible majesty of God, if you did not knock, ask, and seek? Yes, you found what you were looking for, and the Angel said to you, ‘You have found grace before God.’ Yet, how could you, who were already full of grace, find more grace? Oh! you were truly worthy to find grace, because you were not satisfied with the fullness which you had, but asked for a superabundance of grace for the salvation of the world! ‘ The Holy Spirit will come upon you,’ said the Angel, and this precious balm was poured over you in such abundance that it flowed from you over the whole earth.... If heretofore the Holy Spirit was in you in the fulness of grace, now He comes upon you, as if to call attention to the superabundant plenitude of grace which He pours upon you. If in the past grace was present only in your soul, it now invades your breast also. ..the divine power makes you fruitful and you conceive of the Holy Spirit” (St. Bernard).

O Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, look upon my wretchedness and my weakness. God has placed in you the fullness of all His gifts so that I may understand that all hope, all grace, all salvation come from you! You see how hard my heart is, how dull my mind; help me, therefore, O faithful Virgin, to overcome the resistance of my pride, my selfishness and my cowardice, so that my soul may open itself fully to the invasion of grace, abandoning itself with docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, promptly following His impulses, inspirations and invitations.

172. THE MOTHER OF GOD

PRESENCE OF GOD - Holy Mother of God, make my heart one with yours, which was ever one with the Heart of God!


MEDITATION


1. The divine maternity is the source of all Mary’s privileges. Mary, the Immaculate One, the beloved Daughter of the Father, is also the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, whose power overshadowed her because she had been chosen to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word. All Mary’s greatness and glory are explained in the light of her divine maternity; furthermore, her very existence is explained by her predestination to this high office. If God had not decreed that the Incarnation of His Son should take place in the womb of a virgin, we should never have had that masterpiece of grace and loveliness, the Most Blessed Virgin; we should never have had her smile or her maternal caresses. Therefore, we love and honor Mary because she is the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus; and loving her in her relation to God, our devotion to her only makes our love for God, for Jesus, deeper and more tender. “Mater Dei, Mater Creatoris,” Mother of God, Mother of our Creator, we invoke her in the litany. These two titles which seem to be contradictory, actually express a unique synthesis because Mary, although a creature, is really the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God’s Son to whom she has given a human body: the fruit of her flesh and blood is the Son of God in whom and by whom all things were created. Here we understand more than ever how Mary’s dignity reaches the threshold of the infinite. “God could make a bigger world or a wider sky, but He could not raise a pure creature higher than Mary, for the dignity of Mother of God is the highest dignity that can be conferred on a creature” (St. Bonaventure).

To anyone who wonders why so little is said about Mary in the Gospel, St. Thomas of Villanova replies: “What more do you want? Is it not enough for you to know that she is the Mother of God? It would have been sufficient to say, ‘De qua natus est Jesus,’ Jesus was born of her.” In fact, O Mary, all I need to know, in order to love you, is that you are the Mother of my God.


2. Although God, from all eternity, had predestined Mary to be the Mother of His Son, He would not have her unaware of this, and so, when the time came for carrying out His plan, He asked the humble Virgin’s consent. The Angel’s message revealed to Mary the sublime vocation which God had reserved for her: “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus” (Lk 1,31). Mary asked and the Angel explained the mystery of the divine maternity which would take place in her, without prejudice to her virginity. What could God have asked that Mary would have refused? It was not the first time that she gave up her own will for God’s: from the beginning of her existence, she had lived in the state of perfect union with God, and her chief characteristic was simply this full conformity of her human will with the divine will. That is why Mary gave her consent with all the love of her soul, said her fiat, accepted voluntarily, and voluntarily abandoned herself to God’s action. From this moment the mystery was accomplished, and the Virgin Mary bore God present within her, not only spiritually—like all souls who are in the state of grace—but also physically. St. Peter Damien says that the Word of God was present in her “ by identity,” since He was one with her, as the child is one with its mother: identity of nature by flesh and blood, and by the life of the body which Mary communicated to her Son; identity of grace by the abundance of supernatural life which the Son communicated to His Mother; identity of affections, desires, and sentiments which the Heart of Christ implanted in the Heart of Mary. No one could ever say more truly than Mary: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me ” (Gal 2,20).

Immense, marvelous mystery! And in the depths of this mystery we find the yes of a humble, human creature. God has created man free, and that is why, although He wants to work great things in him, He will not do so without his consent. God wants to transform us by His grace and to sanctify us, but before He does so, He waits for our assent. When this yes is complete and total, as Mary’s was, God will accomplish His work in us.


COLLOQUY

“I give You thanks, O Lord God, from the depths of my heart, because You condescended, for love of us unworthy creatures, to take upon Yourself our human nature. Born of a Virgin, You were nourished by her milk, cradled in her bosom; You were submissive to her, You who preserve and direct everything that exists. And You have deigned to enlighten me, a miserable creature, so that I might know that You have a Mother; You permit me, unworthy as I am, to be able and to dare to address her.... Oh! with what devotion should I not give my heart to you, O Virgin Mary! My mouth should be filled with wonderful sweetness when I speak to you, sweet and gentle Lady, and when I bless the fruit of your womb. Oh! when I address you, how is it that I am not so filled with delight that I forget everything but you and the fruit of your womb? What greeting is more welcome than the one which recognizes you as the Mother of God? You wish men to rejoice in you, so that their love will always reach your divine Son; therefore, you wish to be called and recognized as the Mother of God.

"Hail, then, O Mary, and truly hail! O wonderful Ave, that drives the demons away, frees sinners, and makes your children rejoice.... The Angel congratulates you, O Virgin; the Word took flesh in your womb, and you became the Mother of God. Every creature sings an endless Ave to you! With how great reverence, honor, and devotion should we salute you, O Blessed Virgin, because you seek those who approach you reverently and devoutly. You love them, you nourish them, and adopt them as your children. Oh! blessed is he who has the joy of having you for Mother, who embraces you lovingly and imitates you in his works! Oh! blessed is he who does all he can to conform himself to you, O Mother of God! Certainly he is one who, despising every creature, attaches himself to God alone, his only love, and, crucified with Christ, sighs for the salvation of souls” (cf. St. Bonaventure).

173. OUR MOTHER

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, since you are really my Mother, make me your true and worthy child.


MEDITATION

1. When she consented to become the Mother of the Son of God, Mary bound herself by very close bonds not only to the person of Jesus, but also to His work. She knew that the Savior was coming into the world to redeem the human race; hence, when she agreed to become His Mother, she also agreed to become the closest collaborator of His mission. In fact, by giving us Jesus, the source of all grace, Mary collaborated most effectively and even directly in the diffusion of grace in our souls. “If Jesus is the Father of our souls,” St. Alphonsus says, “ Mary is their Mother, for, in giving us Jesus, she gave us true life; and later, by offering on Calvary the life of her Son for our salvation, she brought us forth to the life of divine grace.”

As one woman, Eve, had cooperated in the losing of grace, so by a harmonious disposition of divine Providence, another woman, Mary, would cooperate in the restoration of grace. It is true that all grace comes from Jesus, who is the only source of grace and the one and only Savior; but, inasmuch as Mary gave Him to the world, and was intimately associated with His whole life and work, we can truly say that grace also comes from Mary. If Jesus is its source, Mary, according to St. Bernard, is its channel, the aqueduct which carries it to us. Since Jesus willed to come to us through Mary, so all grace and all supernatural life come to us through her. “This is the will of Him who decreed that we should have everything through Mary” (St. Bernard). Ali that Jesus merited for us by strictest right, condignly, Mary has merited for us fittingly, congruously. The Blessed Virgin is then truly our Mother. When she brought forth Jesus, she brought us forth at the same time to the life of grace; we can address her in all truth: “Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy; our life, our sweetness, and our hope!”


2. “From the moment that the Blessed Virgin Mary became the Mother of the Savior, she loved us so much, and she devoted herself so completely to obtaining our salvation that,” St. Bernardine of Siena tells us, “from that moment she carried us in her bosom like a most loving mother.” Even as the redemptive mission of Jesus, begun at the moment of His Incarnation, was consummated on Calvary, where His death merited supremely for us, so too, Mary’s maternity found its fullest expression at the foot of His Cross. While Jesus was dying in the midst of the most atrocious torments, His loving Heart was preparing a truly exquisite gift for us. On earth, His dearest possession had been His Mother; now He would leave her to us as a most precious inheritance. “Behold thy Mother” (Jn 19,27), He said to St. John, thus giving her to the Apostle who, at that moment, represented the whole human race. These words of Jesus expressed the great truth which had had its beginning at the first moment of His Incarnation in the Virgin’s womb and which now was fulfilled at the foot of the Cross : this is the truth of Mary’s spiritual motherhood of all mankind. Mary saved our souls together with Jesus, for as He was offering Himself in sacrifice for us, Mary was offering Him, her Son, as the divine Victim for our redemption. As co-redemptrix, she procured the life of grace for us; therefore, she is the woman who in the supernatural order gives us life: she is our Mother.

“God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son for our salvation,” says the Evangelist (cf. Jn 3,16), and similarly, St. Bonaventure declares, “it can be said that Mary so loved the world that she gave her only Son, in order that, through Him, all might have eternal life.” See at what price Mary has become our Mother and we have become her children. Because it has cost her so much to give us birth, she very rightly desires us to live as her true children, worthy of the life of grace, which flows from the pierced side of her Jesus and from her maternal heart, pierced by the sword of sorrow.


COLLOQUY

“Oh blessed confidence, O sure refuge, you, the Mother of God, are my Mother! How can I fail to hope, since my salvation and my sanctity are in the hands of Jesus, my Brother, and Mary, my Mother?” (Cf. St. Anselm).

“O Mary, Mary, bearer of the fire of love, and dispenser of mercy! Mary, co-redemptrix of the human race, when you clothed the Word with your flesh, the world was redeemed. Christ paid its ransom with His Passion, and you paid it with the sorrows of your body and soul ” (St. Catherine of Siena).

“O Mary, you are that garden enclosed, which contains the Giver of Life; God Himself is within you, with heaven and all creatures. The whole world is saved by the Blood received from you. Without you, O Mary, there would be no paradise for me; without you, there would be no God for me....

“O Mary, how countless are the gifts and graces which you wish to bestow on creatures! And who would not want to receive them? It is perseverance in desiring them which is lacking; you, most loving Mother, do not offer gifts to your children when you see that they would not appreciate them and would throw them away; for you know that the guilt thus incurred would have to be punished later. O Mary, you want to grant me your gifts, but I deprive myself of them, because I want to mingle my gifts with yours. I should like to have your graces, but I want my own will at the same time, and so I cannot have them. I should like to have your good will, but also the love and kindness of creatures. I cannot have both. I want your love and my self-love, but this combination is impossible. I want to live under your mantle, but also under the mantle of my own comfort. Yet, it is not fitting to be delicate members of a thorn-crowned head; neither is it fitting for your children to seek their comfort under your mantle, O sweet Mother, when you had so little regard for your own comfort.

“O Mary, what can I offer and give you that will please you? If I offer you my will, I fear that you will not accept it, because it is not conformed to God’s will. If I offer you my intellect, it is not enlightened; if I give you my affection, it is not pure. I offer you the Heart of your only Son! and a greater gift I cannot offer” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

174. THE MARIAN LIFE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Mary, I wish to live with you as a child with its mother.


MEDITATION

1. The high place which Mary, as the Mother of God, occupies in the work of our sanctification fully justifies our desire to live intimately with her. As children love to be near their mother, so we as Christians want to live with Mary, and in order to do this, we resort to little means of keeping her in our thoughts. For instance, we may have her picture before us and greet her affectionately every time we look at it. Then, with a glance of faith, we can go beyond the picture, and reach Mary living in glory, Mary who, by means of the Beatific Vision, sees us, follows us, knows all our needs, and helps us with her maternal aid.

By means of this our faith, our soul remains in continual contact with Mary. Spontaneously throughout the day, we increase our little pious practices in her honor, our prayers and ejaculations; all these combine to intensify our relations with Mary. Saturdays, the month of May, the several feasts of Mary are for us so many occasions of remembering her especially, of meditating on her prerogatives, contemplating her beauty, and continually increasing our love for her. In fact, it is impossible to bear the sweet picture of Mary in our mind and heart without feeling moved to love her, without feeling the need of showing her the reality of our love by trying to please her, that is, by living like true children of hers. In this way the “Marian” life, or the life of intimacy with Mary, can penetrate the whole of our “Christian” life and make us more faithful in the fulfillment of all our duties, for nothing can please Mary more than to see us accomplishing with love her Son’s will. Furthermore, Christian life lived under Mary’s maternal eye acquires that special gentleness and sweetness which arise spontaneously from the constant companionship of a most loving Mother who lavishes attention on us.


2. Another aspect of the Marian life is the imitation of Mary. Jesus alone is the “Way” that leads to the Father, He is the only model; but who is more like Jesus than Mary? Of whom more than of Mary can it be said that she has the same thoughts as Christ? “O Lady,” exclaims St. Bernard, “God lives in you and you live in Him. You clothe Him with the substance of your flesh, and He clothes you with the glory of His Majesty.” While Jesus dwelt in the Virgin’s pure womb, He clothed her with Himself, communicated His infinite perfections to her, filled her with His sentiments, desires, affections, and divine wishes; and Mary, who gave herself up entirely to His action, was completely transformed into Him, so that she became a faithful copy of Him. The liturgy says that “ Mary is the most perfect image of Christ, formed truly by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, took full possession of Mary’s pure, gentle soul, and traced in it, very delicately and perfectly, all the features and characteristics of the soul of Jesus. Therefore we can well say that to imitate Mary is to imitate Jesus. This is why we choose her for our model. We do not love Mary for herself alone, but because she is the Mother of Christ; likewise, we do not imitate Mary for herself, but for Christ, whose most faithful image she is. Jesus is the one Way which leads us to the Father, and Mary is the surest and easiest way to reach Jesus. By incarnating in Himself the perfections of the Father, Jesus made it possible for us to imitate them; by retracing Jesus’ perfections in herself, Mary has made them more accessible to us, has brought them within our very reach. None can say as well as she: “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor 4,16). Since Jesus came to us through Mary, it is wholly appropriate that we should go to Jesus through her.


COLLOQUY

“O my most sweet Mother, you call me and say to me: ‘If anyone is a little one, let him come to me.’ Children always have their mother’s name on their lips, and they call her whenever they are in danger, fright, or difficulty. O sweet Mother, O loving Mother, you want me, like a little child, to call upon you always and to have unceasing recourse to you.... Permit me then to invoke you constantly and to say: ‘O Mother, loving Mother!’ Your name consoles me, moves me tenderly, and reminds me of my obligation to love you. Your name encourages me to confide myself to you. ‘My Mother,' thus I call you, and thus I want to call you always. After God, you are my hope, my refuge, and my love in this vale of tears. O my sweet Lady and Mother! by the love you show your children you ravish their hearts. Ravish also, I beg you, my poor heart which so greatly desires to love you. You, O Mother, charmed God with your beauty, and drew Him from heaven into your womb; and I, shall I live and not love you? No, I shall have no rest without the assurance that I have a true love for you, my Mother, a constant, tender love. Yes, I want to love you, O sweet Mother, but I fear, at the same time, that I do not love you, for I have heard it said that love makes a lover resemble the loved one.... I know how different I am from you! Could this be a sign that I do not love you? You are so pure, and I so impure! You are so humble, and I am so proud! You are so holy, and I so wicked! But this is what you ought to do, O Mary, since you love me : make me like you. You have the power to change hearts; then take mine and transform it. Show all the world how great is your power in favor of those you love! Sanctify me and make me worthy of being your child ” (cf. St. Alphonsus).