http://www.de-vrouwe.net/english/index.html
Lourdes Official Website.
http://www.lourdes-france.org/bonjour.htm
The Blue Army of Mary:
http://www.bluearmy.com/
Ambassors of Mary
http://ambassadorsofmary.com/
Devotional prayers to Mary including litanies, rosaries and chaplets:
http://www.premier.net/~avemarie/
The forgotten part of the Fatima Message is THE FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS. The address is America Needs Fatima, P.O. Box 341, Hanover, PA 17331; tel (888 317 5571) eamil: anf@tfp.org and their website is below:
www.tfp.org
Quotes from each Doctor of the Church regarding the Mother of God, Virgin and Mother
St John Damascene
We fasten souls to the blessed Virgin Mary, our hope, as to a firm anchor-for unwavering confidence in Mary's maternal mediation.
St Basil
With a sense of profound realism, calls Mary's womb, a workshop: But what is the workshop of this economy? The body of a holy Virgin. And what are the {active} principles of this birth? The Holy Spirit and the overshadowing power of the Most High.
St Athanasius
Christ, being God, became man for our sake and was born of Mary, Mother of God, to free us from the devil's power.
Ephraem
Mary is the most marvelous creature who exist, after Jesus. Only you (Jesus) and your Mother are more beautiful than everything. For on you, O Lord, there is no mark; neither is there any stain in your Mother.
St Cyril of Jerusalem
He was made man, not in appearance only or as a phantasm, but in a real way. He did not pass through the Virgin, as if through a channel; rather he truly took flesh from her and by her was truly nursed, really eating and really drinking just as we do... as man he really slept in the boat, but as God he walked upon the waters.
St Gregory Nazianzus
He is born, but he has already been generated; he is born of a woman, but also from a Virgin. The former is human, the latter divine. In his human nature, he has no father; in his divine nature, he has no mother. Both of the (conditions) belong to divinity. He was dwelling in her womb, but he was recognized by the Prophet (John the Baptist) who, while himself dwelling in the womb, began to rejoice at the nearness of the Word for whose sake he was born.
St John Chrysostom
In case a Jew should ask you how the Virgin could give birth, answer him thus: How could a virgin soil make wondrous plants spring up? For, in the Hebrew, "Eden" means virgin soil. A virgin drove us out of paradise; through a Virgin we have found eternal life.
St Hilary
Held that the virginal conception of Jesus must have been such an overwhelming and sublime experience for his Mother that she could not imagine any choice other than a life lived in perpetual virginity. It became unthinkable for her to contemplate a conjugal life in the normal sense of the term.
St Ambrose
If we admit his generation from the Father, then let us also admit his birth from Mary, so that our faith might be complete. What was the reason for the Incarnation? It has to be this: the flesh that had sinned had to be redeemed by the same flesh.
St Jerome
You say that Mary did not remain a virgin. I, instead, claim to affirm something even more: namely, that Joseph also remained a virgin for Mary's sake, so that a virgin Son might be born from a virgin marriage. For if there was no place for fornication in a holy man like Joseph, and if it is not written that he had another wife, and if for Mary, who was considered his wife, he was a guardian rather than a husband, we conclude that, along with Mary, he who merited to be called father of the Lord remained a virgin.
St Augustine
Moreover, every faithful soul is a mother of Christ, and by doing the will of his Father through charity, which is a most fruitful virtue, every faithful soul transmits life to all those imprinted with the image of Christ. As for Mary, she fulfilled the Father's will; in this way, while physically she was only the Mother of Christ, spiritually she was both sister and Mother to him.
St Cyril of Alexandria
Regarding the Wedding in Cana. Further, Christ shows that the greatest possible honor is owed to parents by the fact that, out of respect for his Mother, he decided to work a miracle that he had not wanted to perform. Many notable things were accomplished in his one sign, his first sign. Honorable marriage is sanctified, and the curse pronounced against woman is overcome. Women will not longer bear children in sorrow, since Christ has blessed the very beginning of our lives.
St Peter Chrysologus
He who is not awestruck by this Virgin's spirit and who does not admire her soul is ignorant of how great God is. Heaven trembles, angels quake, creation cannot bear it, nature is helpless-yet a girl carries God in her womb; she receives him into herself and offers him a dwelling place. Truly blessed is she who was greater than the heavens, stronger than the earth, vaster than the globe. For she alone contained within herself that God whom the world cannot contain; she bore him who bears the world; she gave birth to her Father; she nursed him who nutures every living thing.
St Leo the Great
The entirety of the faithful profess its belief in God the Father almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. By three beliefs, the machinations of all the heretics are destroyed. By the Spirit, Christ is born from the body of his unsullied Mother; by this same Spirit, the Christian is reborn from the womb of holy Church. Not only our memory but somehow our eyes as well contemplate the conversation between the angel Gabriel and wondering Mary; likewise the conception by the Holy Spirit is wonderful both in its promise and in the faith that received it.
St Gregory the Great
The most blessed and ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, can be called by this name "mountain". Yes, she was a mountian, who by the dignity of her election has completely surpassed the height of every elect creature. Is Mary not the lofty mountain? For God, to achieve the conception of the eternal Word, raised the summit of her merits above the choirs of angels, up to the threshold of the Godhead... What is so remarkable about the fact that, after his Resurrection, the eternal Conqueror entered through closed doors? After all, when he came to die, did he not come forth without opening the Virgin's womb?
St Isidore
Mary, the Virgin Mother, is quite properly called "earth"... This earth was watered by the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, Christ is the head of male virgins, and Mary is the head of female virgins. She is their founder, the Mother of our Head, who is Son of the Virgin and Spouse of virgins.
St Bede the Venerable
The Venerable Bede had the enviable distinction of being Our Lady's homilist. The lessons for the Common of her feasts were his. The ninth lesson ended with this beautiful thought: "For the Mother of God was blessed indeed in that she gave flesh to the Word of God in time, but still more blessed in that she ever keeps that same Word in her love throughout eternity."
St Peter Damian
My Lord is sweet and my Lady is sweet, because He, my God is merciful and she, my Lady, is the door of mercy. May she lead us as the mother to the Son, as the daughter to the Father, as the bride to the Groom, who is forever blessed. Amen
St Anselm
His writings reveal the purest affection and the highest esteem for her. Although he did not write about Mary in formal treatises, he deserves to be called a great Marian Doctor. For he set forth the tradition about her with clarity and force, showing the divine maternity to be the foundation of all Our Lady's privileges. "Nothing is equal to Mary; nothing except God is greater than God."
St Bernard
His sermons on the Blessed Virgin amount to nothing less than a complete Mariology. "Let us honor her for the purity of her body, the holiness of her life. Let us marvel at her fruitful virginity, and venerate her divine son. Let us extol her freedom from concupiscense in conceiving and from all pain in bearing. Let us proclaim her to be reverenced by the Angels, desired by the nations, foretold by the patriarchs and prophets, chosen out of all and preferred before all..."
St Anthony of Padua
Our Lady's name is a strong tower. To her the sinner has recourse, and there finds security and salvation. O sweet name, which gives the sinner strength and blessed hope. We pray you, Our Lady, Star of the Sea, shine upon us in our distress on the sea of life, and lead us to safe harbor and the ineffable joys of eternity.
St Albert
He quotes Ecclesiasticus 24:29-31 to give the background reasons for his writing about the Blessed Virgin. Then he explains: It is in hope of these promised riches that we undertake this work; otherwise, we should be too much exalted above our narrowness of mind and knowledge... It is from her that we expect the happy completion and reward of our task. It is she who guides our wills, who determines us to write and who know our intentions... We are desirous only to render ourselves useful through these unpretending pages, to simple and untaught people like ourselves...(This is the beginning of his Mariale,) or "230 Questions concerning the Blessed Virgin."
St Bonaventure
Let us go to the Virgin with great confidence, and we will tranquilly find her in our necessities. Therefore this tabernacle is rightly to be honored, and to this tabernacle flight should be made, in which the Lord rested so familiarly, so that the Blessed Virgin herself could say truly and literally, "Who made me rested in my tabernacle." (Fourth sermon on Annunciation, IX, 673).
St Thomas Aquinas
She is endowed with this great privilege, that all sinners, all evil-doers who wholeheartedly hasten to her are saved...and all prayers which are poured forth to her are heard... Come, let us go confidently to this temple of grace, that we may find mercy.
St Catherine of Siena
She addressed the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word. So it is in studying those closest to Christ that we come to understand Him and to follow him better. We do not thereby detract from Him, but we learn how completely He can fill a human life and fulfill the yearnings and strivings of our human nature... This Bride (Mary)of the Crucified leads us to him who was crucified for love of us. The more we understand her, the more we can understand Him.
St Teresa of Avila
Teresa had a devotion to Mary
and was engaged in prayer with the Rosary and meditations on our
Sacred Lord, especially the sorrowful mysteries, whenever time
permitted outside the regular time for prayer. She held that from
prayer all favors flowed abundantly. Two of her favorite prayers were the Our Father and the Hail Mary prayer. She took as her
patron, St Joseph, the husband of Mary, who had cured her when she
was young. Who but Joseph and
Mary were as close to Jesus for nearly thirty years before his
public ministry?
St Peter Canisius
To be sure, walking in the footsteps of the Holy Fathers, we not only salute the praiseworthy and admirable Virgin, who is as a lily among thorns, but we also believe and profess her to be endowed with such great power that she can listen to, assist and favor poor mortals as long as they especially commend themselves and their desires to her and suppliantly expect daily grace through her motherly intercession.
St Robert Bellarmine
The Head of the Catholic Church is Christ, and Mary is the neck which joins the Head to its Body... God has promised that all the gifts, all the graces, and all the heavenly blessings which proceed from Christ as the Head, should pass through Mary to the Body of the Church. Even the physical body has several members in its other parts-hands, arms, shoulders and feet-but one head and one neck. So also the Church has many apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins, but only one Head, the Son of God, and one bond between the Head and members, the Mother of God.
St John of the Cross
Although John has not written extensively about the Mother
of God, there is according to the masters of the spiritual life,
hardly anything that John has not said about Mary from a spiritual
perspective. There are only sparse references about St Mary
including 12 explicit and only 4 from John's major writings.
However, from these profound, terse inclusions, an entire Mariology
could be drawn. This information may be gained by going to the
section marked "tapes" (from the link below) that Father Emmanuel
Sullivan of The Mother of God, OCD, recorded. He did extensive
research for the 400th anniversary on St John of the Cross and one
will be amazed to know that hardly anyone in the entire history of
the Catholic Church could say anything more fitting and excellently
about the Mother of God in fewer words than what St John of the
Cross expressed. In addition, there are many other excellent tapes
by wise and holy Carmelites about St John of the Cross. Please click on below links
http://www.icspublications.org/
http://www.spiritual-life.org/
St Lawrence of Brindisi
If we were limited to calling St Lawrence of Brindisi either a great Marian scholar or a great lover of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it would be hard to make a choice. (Taken from Father Christoper Renger's book and the follow paragraph on Mary) The 33 Doctors of the Church that is listed in the sources. Through the first woman and the first man the world was condemned; through the second Man and the second woman it was saved. Thus the principle of our reparation corresponds wonderfully with the principle of ruin. As then a demon in the bodily form of a serpent was sent by the devil to lead Eve astray, who was at that time both a virgin and espoused to a man, so an angel was sent by God in bodily guise to Mary, likewise a virgin and spouse. And as Eve, by giving ear to the serpent, became the origin of our fall, so Mary-by believing the angel-became the origin of our restoration. The former inaugurated sin and death; the latter inaugurated grace and life. Through the former we lost the earthly paradise; through the latter we gained the heavenly paradise.(Mariale, p. 91, quoted in Comm. Cer., p. 72).
St Francis de Sales
A quote from St Jane de Chantal: "... Our Blessed Founder also told me that while he was still a student he made a vow to say the Rosary every day of his life, in honor of God and of the Blessed Virgin, to obtain deliverance from a grievous temptation which molested him, and from which he was delivered. He always carried it (rosary) in his belt as a sign that he was a servant of our Lady."
St Alphonsus Liguori
In defending his praise of Mary, St Alphonsus quotes St Augustine, who declares: "that whatever we may say in praise of Mary is little in comparison with that which she deserves, on account of her dignity of Mother of God; and moreover, the Church says, in the Mass appointed for her festivals, "Thou art happy, O sacred Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise." The Glories of Mary is probably the most widely read book on the Blessed Virgin in the world. As of 1933, it has been published 32 times in English and 736 times in all.
St Therese
Pope John Paul II only proclaimed one doctor and he had this to say about her. St Therese was advanced of the Second Council of the Vatican, which present Mary as a woman of faith, united as the first of Christians with all who followed Christ. From the book: Last Conversations, pp. 161-62 "I must see her (Mary) real life, not her imagined life. I'm sure that real life was very simple... We know very well that the Blessed Virgin is Queen of heaven and earth, but she is more Mother than Queen...She was exempt from the stains of Original Sin; but on the other hand, she wasn't as fortunate as we are, since she didn't have a Blessed Virgin to love...
"A Walk Through History with the Doctors of the Church" by Sister Cecilia Bush, C.S.J. Information of this concise, literary miracle can be obtain from The Spiritual Life Center 7100 E. 45th St. North, Wichita, KS 67226 (316)744-0167 and SLC@spirituallifecenterwichita.org. This particular Spiritual Life Center in Wichita exhibits beautiful Icons of the Doctors of the Church. And it is believed to be "the only-one-in-the world" to house such an exhibit. Bishop Gerber's sister, Helen Bergkamp, had the work commissioned and done by a St. Louis artist, Ann Torrini. Helen asks Sister Cecilia Bush to write a companion book for those viewing the exhibit. Chuck Weber does the publicity for the Center and Sister Bush worked with him as they planned for the opening and book signing etc.
Information on this book is listed in the doctoral/sources/links on the doctors' homepage. The following is taken from that book and list only specific matter in chronological order on important facts related to the Mother of God and each doctor.
Athanasius and Mary
In defending the divinity of Christ, Athanasius contributed mightily to the theology of Mary. In his "Life of Antony", he called her "God-bearer." He presented her as the model of virgins, and centered on her personality as a program of Christian perfection in his "Letter to the Virgins". He cited Psalm 45:10-11 as proof of Mary's virginity and royal descent: "Hear O daughter, and see and incline your ear, forget your father's house, because the King desired your beauty." Athanasius noted Mary's unique privileges by applying to her Psalm 87:5: "Mother of Sion shall say, a man, and a man begotten of her and the Most High Himself formed her" to be the mother of the God-man. (O'Carroll, 1982, 61-2)
Hilary and Mary
Saint Hilary of Poitiers interprets 1 Corinthians 15:47 referring to the role of the Holy Spirit in Mary's conception of the God-Man. He says that "the first man is from earth, a thing of dust, the second man is from heaven...the child-bearing is from the Virgin and the conception from the Spirit." He depicts Joseph as a witness to the conception by the Holy Spirit because whenever Mary and Joseph are mentioned in the Gospels, she is called the Mother of Christ not the spouse of Joseph. Hilary affirms that Mary is the Mother of God by showing the identity of the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin. He said, "The only begotten Son of God taking the body of our nature from the Virgin." (0'carroll, 171)
Ephrem and Mary
Writing about Mary was one of Ephrem's favorite things. He stressed her virginity and held that she was a virgin before the birth of Jesus, during His birth and after His birth. Ephrem's belief in the Immaculate Conception was shown by his constant dwelling on Mary's sinlessness. To Ephrem, Mary was Mother of God. He asked, "What mother has ever called her son, Son of the Most High?" He is probably the first writer to call Mary the Bride of Christ. Ephrem also speaks of Mary as a symbol of the Church, which depends on her. In fact, Ephrem's voluminous writings on Mary prove that he deserves the title of Marian Doctor. (O'Carroll, 132-3)
Basil and Mary
St. Basil, like St. Albert the Great and many saints, referred to Mary under the title of prophetess., a person endowed with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight and character. He believed that the Holy Spirit bestowed this name and title on Mary by saying: "I went to the prophetess." In this, Basis followed the teaching of Origen, who called Mary, prophetess because of the Magnificat. In this context, Mary is acknowledged to have in still higher degree all the goodness and beauty which are founded in all the other saints. Moreover, Basil believed that it was through her intercession that these saints have received their own great endowments. He also lauded Mary's humility, as the safe treasure of all virtues. (O'Carroll, 71)
Gregory Nanzianzus and Mary
Two generations before the Council of Ephesus, Gregory was calling Mary "Theotokos," Mother of God. "If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is Theotokos, he is without the Godhead," he wrote. He called Mary the Temple of Christ and saw in her the beginning of virginity in the fullest sense. A teaching of Gregory shows the emergence of belief in Mary's Immaculate Conception from the fourth century and had great influence on Eastern thinking on this doctrine. "He took all things human save sin," Gregory said, "conceived of a virgin who had been purified previously by the Spirit in soul and body." (O'Carroll, 160)
Cyril of Jerusalem and Mary
Most of saint Cyril's Marian doctrine is contained in Catechesis XII. He treated her virginal conception at length and showed that the word "father" applied to Joseph did not mean physical paternity. Although he used the word "Theotokos" only once, he staunchly affirmed Mary as Mother of God and called Jesus the Virgin-born God. God the Word was made man in truth, Cyril said, of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, who sanctified her to receive the One through whom all things are made. On the Eve-Mary parallel, Cyril taught that since death came through the virgin Eve, there was need that from a virgin, life should appear. As the fallen angel in the form of a serpent deceived the one, so the Archangel Gabriel brought the Good News to the other, Cyril said. (O'Carroll, 114-5)
Jerome and Mary
Jerome loved Mary so much that he built a hospice in Bethlehem so that if Mary and Joseph were to come again looking for shelter, they would have a place to stay. An ardent defender of Mary's perpetual virginity, he wrote a book against Helvidius, who claimed that Mary had other children by St. Joseph after the birth of Christ. He saw virginity consecrated in Mary and presented as proof that on Calvary, the Virgin Son John received the Virgin Mother as a legacy from the Virgin Lord dying on the cross. Because John the Baptist heard the Lord's voice on Mary's lips, Jerome said, he wanted to break out of his mother’s womb in order to meet Him.
John Chrysostom and Mary
Commenting of Isaiah 7:14, John Chrysostom pointed out that because “Emmanuel" means "God with us," it gives evidence that God truly took on our human nature and became the son of Mary. Isaias was expressing wonder at the Incarnation, he said, and indicated explicitly that the Son of God equal to the Father deigned to be born of a Virgin. Chrysostom called Mary a boundless ocean of mercy and an abyss of the immense perfections of God. Comparing Mary to Eve, he states that: "A virgin drove us from Paradise; through a virgin we have found eternal life." In Eve, the wood of a tree and death were symbols of our defeat, he said, but in Mary, the wood of the Cross and the death of Jesus became symbols of our victory. (O'Carroll, 198)
Ambrose and Mary
Devotion to Mary assumed a new significance through the writings of Saint Ambrose. In staunchly defending the truth of the Virgin Birth, he appealed to reason by precedents in the realm of nature as logical proof of God's plan for the Incarnation. He appealed to faith by citing the Scriptures. In his Commentary on Luke, he called on all Christians to imitate Mary by stating: "Let Mary's soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be to rejoice in the Lord. Christ had only one mother in the flesh but we all bring forth Christ in faith."
Augustine and Mary
Augustine taught that the relationship between Mary and the Church rests on her virginal motherhood. Mary's Son made His Spouse, the Church, like His virginal mother. The Church is mother through charity and virgin through integrity of faith, he said. Just as there is a special relationship between Mary and the Church, it also exists between Mary and the members of the Church, who conceive the Eternal Word by faith and engender Him in the minds of others by preaching His word. Augustine compared Jesus and Mary to two mystical harps: "What is sounded on one," he says, "is sounded on the other though no one has touched it. When Jesus is in sorrow, Mary is in sorrow; when Jesus was crucified, Mary was crucified."
Cyril of Alexandria and Mary
Saint Cyril was the greatest protagonist of the Divine Motherhood of Mary. At the Council of Ephesus, he delivered what is rightly called the most famous Marian sermon of antiquity in which he gave Our Lady a series of glowing titles and credited her intercession for all the glories of salvation and sanctification. Preachers and poets have borrowed passages from this homily down through the centuries. Cyril contributed in great degree to the rapid development of devotion to Mary which followed the Council. After Ephesus, her feast days multiplied throughout the Catholic world. Cyril stressed Mary's perpetual virginity and her part in the Redemption.
Peter Chysologus and Mary
Peter lived in the generation extolling the Council of Ephesus which declared Mary Theotokos, Mother of God. A Marian theme is found in his five sermons on the Annunciation, his four on the Incarnation, and in his sermons. Stressing Mary's divine motherhood, Peter says: "She bore Him who bears the world, she brought forth the One who brought her for, and she fed Him who gives food to all living things." Insisting on her virginity, Peter wrote: "The Virgin conceives, the Virgin brings forth, the Virgin remains this." He was the first among the Latins to speak of Mary as Spouse of God through whom God, in the shelter of her womb, looked forward to the salvation of the lost, life to the dead and a relationship between the earthly and those in heaven. (O'Carroll, 284)
Leo the Great and Mary
In defending the two natures in Christ, Leo affirmed Mary's real motherhood and her perpetual virginity. He said: "In the whole and perfect nature of true man, true God was born, complete in His own, complete in ours...He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother who brought Him forth with her virginity intact, as she had conceived Him in preserving it." By assigning a saving role to the Incarnation, Leo enhanced Mary's part in it and states that there is no hope of salvation for humankind unless the Virgin’s Son was His Mother's Creator. Leo summarized his teaching in the Canon of the Mass by placing Mary first: "In union with the whole Church, we honor Mary, the ever virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God." (O'Carroll, 217-8)
Gregory the Great and Mary
Commenting on 1 Timothy 2:5, Gregory pointed out that it was as Son of the Father and Son of the Virgin that Jesus is called the One Mediator between God and humankind. He made distinctions between the divine and human natures of Jesus by saying: "He was from the Father without a mother before the ages, the same at the end of the ages from a mother without a (human) father." At Cana, Gregory had Jesus addressing Mary in these words: "I do not recognize you in (working) the miracle, which I do not do from the nature I got from you. When the hour of death will have come, I shall recognize you as my Mother for it is from you that I have the power to die." He saw the Incarnation as an espousal by the Father of the eternal Son with His human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary. (O'Carroll, 159)
Isidore and Mary
Growing up in Seville, Isidore was part of a faith community in which devotion to Mary was a way of life, part and parcel of his nationality and Spanish patriotism. Such devotion dated back to 40 A.D. when Our Lady was believed to have appeared to Saint James the Apostle to encourage his efforts in evangelizing Spain, a significant event corroborated in the writings of St. Isidore. When Gregory the Great asked his brother St. Leander, to come to Rome to advise him, Isidore was sent in his place. Upon returning to Seville, he brought Gregory as a gift of the Pope to Leander an image of Mary that Gregory had long revered in his private oratory. It was the image which Gregory carried in procession through the streets of Rome when the plague ceased in 590. This image is venerated today as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Caceres, Estramadura, Spain.
Bede and Mary
Venerable Bede marveled at Mary's humility despite the unparalleled favors which God had showered on her. In saying "He who is mighty has done great things for me," Mary attributed every good gift to God alone. Of this, Bede says: "It is a great thing for the Queen of Angels to be a virgin; it is a great thing for her to be a mother; it is a very great thing for her to be a virgin and Mother of God; but what surpasses all else is that, great as she is, Mary considers herself as if she were nothing." Bede also speaks of the Church as conceiving Christians and giving birth to them without pain just as Mary conceived and brought forth Christ. Both remain virgins even in giving birth through the Holy Spirit, he said.
John Damascene and Mary
"O Lady...today we offer ourselves to you; to you we consecrate our mind, soul, body, in a word, ourselves entirely, and with psalms, hymns, spiritual canticles, we honor you with all our power." These words of John unquestionably witness to his tender love for Mary. A great proponent of her Assumption, he delivered three of his greatest homilies on this feast day at the site of Mary's dormition near Gethsemane. He also preached a sermon on Mary's nativity in the Sanctuary of the Sheep Pool, which is said to have been the place of her birth. John thought the word "Theotokos" (Mother of God) expressed the whole mystery of the Incarnation because the true God was born of Mary. (O'Carroll, 200)
Peter Damian and Mary
Peter Damian excelled as a preacher on the Blessed Virgin at a time which was characterized by a great upsurge in devotion to Mary. Peter speaks of Mary as the door of Paradise and the ladder of heaven, which joins the depths of earth to the heights. Mary, he said, opened heaven to us, since life lost by humanity is restored through her. He taught that the same Body of Christ which Mary brought forth is the Body we perceive on the altar during the Eucharistic Celebration. Peter also composed an office of Our Lady for daily use. He said that it would have been impossible for the redemption to take place unless the Son of God was born of Mary. (O'Carroll 285-6)
Anselm and Mary
Anselm's great love for Mary is recorded in Alloquia Caelestia, a treatise in her praise. He says: "O woman admirably unique and uniquely admirable, grant me the grace that your love be constantly in my heart and that you bear me forever within your heart." Her sanctity surpasses that of all other creatures and gains her the dignity of becoming the restorer of the world, Anselm taught. He also believed that her sufferings were greater than those of any of the martyrs and that being raised so high, nothing but God is greater than Mary. Anselm declared that his mind failed him and his tongue was dumb when he wished to contemplate the immensity of Mary's grace and glory. (O'Carroll, 33)
Bernard and Mary
Saint Bernard's love for Jesus was accompanied by a tender devotion to Mary, which inspired the most beautiful of his writings. Altogether, they form a comprehensive treatise on Mariology. Bernard's love of Our Lady centered around her dignity as Mother of God, which entitled her to grace and privileges granted to her alone. He believed that God willed that all blessings come to us through Mary's hands and that our spiritual life flows from her Immaculate Heart. Bernard taught that to love Jesus was to love Mary. He composed the familiar and beautiful prayer, the Memorare.
Anthony and Mary
Anthony learned to love Mary in his mother's arms. She offered him to God at Our Lady's shrine in the Lisbon cathedral and often repeated the name of Mary to him. Since he believed firmly in the Assumption of Mary, he refrained from reading a passage in the Office that seemed to throw doubt on it. Mary then appeared to him and assured him that her body was taken up into heaven three days after her death. When violently tempted, Anthony called on Mary. At the end of his life despite weaknesses, Anthony found voice to call out: "O, Glorious Lady," to pay final tribute to Mary who had watched over him all his life.
Albert and Mary
Kneeling before the image of Mary, Albert heard her say, "Leave the world and enter the Dominicans." When discouraged about difficulty in learning and tempted to leave, Mary appeared to him, consoled him and granted his request for comprehensive knowledge of human learning. His writings on Mary's prerogatives surpassed any written before. In his book, "Mariale" he describes her physical beauty, her exceptional intellectual powers and her perfection in virtue-all of which she enjoyed as the Tabernacle of God. Overflowing with love of Mary, Albert wrote hymns in her honor and sang them while walking. He said that to prepare to serve the Son, one must first serve His Mother.
Thomas Aquinas and Mary
Thomas had a deep and heartfelt personal devotion to Our Lady. Writing at length on her Divine Motherhood, he explained that as Jesus is only one Divine Person, Mary can truly be called the Mother of God. This unparalleled grace placed her above the angels and saints because of the fullness of grace that was hers; and it gave her "a kind of infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God." Thomas wrote. He also saw Mary as the representative of all humanity, who brought about a spiritual marriage between the Son of God and the whole human race. He believed that in every danger or need, we can find refuge in this glorious Virgin. (O'Carroll, 343-4)
Bonaventure and Mary
After reading Bonaventure's poetic account of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, it is easy to see why he was the first to introduce the Feast of the Visitation. Not only did he catalogue her unique privileges in his writings, but he brought her to life by inviting his readers to "hear the Virgin singing for joy." He called Mary an immense vessel of grace, since she became powerful through and with the God she encompassed within her. God could not have made a more perfect mother, he said, since He could not have given her a more excellent Son. Bonaventure marveled at Mary's poverty and especially at her humility, since she called herself a poor handmaid, despite having been called full of grace, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, made the Mother of God, and appointed sovereign Lady of heaven and earth.
Catherine and Mary
After Catherine learned the Hail Mary at age 5, it became her constant prayer. She begged Mary that she might belong to Jesus alone; and at her mystical marriage, Our Lady presented her to Jesus and asked Him to espouse her. Constantly referring to Our Lady as "Sweet Mary," she also gave her many other titles, such as, Temple of the Trinity, Minister of Mercy, Ocean of Peace, Vessel of Humility and Fiery Chariot. Mary, she said, carries and spreads the fire of love because her Son is love. In every circumstance, Catherine saw Mary as an exemplar and secure refuge. She wished to lead everyone to Our Lady that all might surrender to divine intimacy. All of her letters were dedicated to the same "Sweet Mary."
Peter Canisius and Mary
True to his major role in the Counter Reformation, Peter Canisius undertook the first defense of Mary against the reformers. In his Summa, the most scholarly catechism, he outlined the traditional teaching on the Mother of God. Then he wrote a comprehensive work called "Of Mary, the Incomparable Virgin," which included the writings of ninety Fathers and Doctors, 4,000 biblical texts and more than 10,000 references to patristic and scholastic theologians, It outlined Mary's perfect life, her perpetual virginity, her honor as Mother of God, her Assumption and the devotion shown her by the Church. It also explained certain biblical texts which if misinterpreted could bring dishonor to Mary. (O'Carroll, 282-3)
Robert Bellarmine and Mary
Robert stated that Mary was the first to take a vow of virginity. He linked the Immaculate Conception with Mary's election by God, who in choosing her before all others, preserved her from original sin and adorned her with incomparable graces. Commenting on Mary's presence on Calvary, Robert stressed her union with Jesus by the most perfect maternal love. Despite her profound sorrow and her love for her Son, she loved the honor of the Father and the salvation of the world more. After the Ascension, Robert wrote, Mary taught and consoled the faithful. He cited miracles around the world as proof of how efficacious it is to invoke her. (O'Carroll 73-4)
Lawrence and Mary
Evidence of his tender devotion to Our Lady is given in the eighty-four sermons which Lawrence delivered before vast audiences in order to motivate people to honor Mary. In these homilies, he praised her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption and her other prerogatives in an inimitable manner. In her praise, Lawrence used the Bible, tradition, the writings of the Fathers and the liturgy. In multiplying her titles, Lawrence said: "She has become the daughter of God the Father, the true Mother of God the Son, the spouse and unique comfort of the Holy Spirit, the Queen of Heaven, the mistress of angels, the empress of the universe." Indeed, the writings of Lawrence on Mary comprise a complete treatise of Mariology.
Teresa and Mary
When Teresa was fifteen her mother died. She begged Mary to become her mother. She looked on Carmel as Mary's order. When she was not accepted as prioress of a monastery, Teresa told the nuns that Mary occupied that office. She told those who helped Carmel that they were helping Mary. She opened her book, The Foundations, with these words: "I begin in the name of the Lord and of the glorious Virgin whose habit I wear." Near the end of her life, she said: "Now, like the old man Simeon, I can say, 'I have seen in the order of the Virgin what I desired.'" Teresa considered Mary a special gift of God to her. (O'Carroll), 337
John of the Cross and Mary
John credited Mary with divine favors he had received in life. He said that she had saved him from drowning as a child, had led him to enter Carmel, and had delivered him from prison. In his greatest trials, he found that remembering her favors and looking at her images restored peace to his troubled soul. John emphasized her consent to the Incarnation, her divine motherhood, and the honor which is due to her. John said that he died happy in the thought that he would be able to recite Our Lady's Matins in heaven. As he died, a last request was to be clothed once again in the "habit of the Virgin," which lay beside his bed and which he had worn with such devotion. (O'Carroll, 199)
Francis and Mary
The deep love of Francis had for Mary is evident in his desire to have a group of religious who would practice the virtues of Mary visiting Elizabeth. Thus, humility, piety, and mutual charity were to be the hallmarks of the Order of the Visitation. Francis lauded Mary in twenty of his published sermons which were delivered on the feasts of our Lady. (The Sermons of Francis on Mary can be found in Catholic Book Stores.) He pictured Mary as a creature so holy and united with her Son that no one could love the Son without loving the Mother. Francis saw the Immaculate Conception as a benefit Mary received from the Redemption. He called Mary the Queen of Heaven and said that her Divine Motherhood makes her intercession more powerful than that of any of the saints.
Alphonsus Liguori and Mary
Alphonsus never wrote a letter or book, composed a single prayer or preached a sermon without referring to Mary. He spent seventeen years on his book,"The Glories of Mary," which is one of the greatest works of Mariology. Our Lady is said to have appeared to Alphonsus many times. Once 4,000 people to whom he was preaching saw a beam of light from an image of Mary on the altar cross the church and strike the face of Alphonsus. The severe physical, mental and spiritual anguish he suffered in his last years was alleviated by the thought of Mary's constant care of him. The night before he died, Alphonsus asked for her picture, kissed it, spoke softly and smiled radiantly. He died the next day as the noon Angelus began to ring.
Therese and Mary
Therese's ideal of spiritual childhood led to recognition of Mary as her exemplar. She remembered being miraculously cured when the statue of Our Lady of Victory in her room moved toward her and smiled. On the day of her First Holy Communion, Therese made an act of consecration to Our Lady, and her last poem entitled "Why I Love Mary." During the final months of her short life when she was suffering intensely, she spoke frequently of Mary. As she prepared for death, her eyes looked constantly on two pictures of Mary and on the statue of Our Lady of Victory which was in her room. Her last work on earth was making two crowns from corn flowers in order to please Mary, her mother. (O'Carroll, 343)
The Doctors and Medjugorje
Some of the messages of Medjugorje for the past twenty years plus are contained in the below links:
http://www.gospa.org/
It is my understanding that the only official Medjugorje homepage is below:
www.medjugorje.hr
It is also my understanding that the below Medjugorje website is another site that uses many official documents, because it is allowed. It is most informative with many interesting features including the latest news and articles with novenas and galleries. It has tools like a concordance, toplist and search ability too that can help others in their studies.
www.medjugorje.ws
We are The IIPG Queen of Peace prayer group. IIPG stands for "Internet International Prayer Group Queen of Peace". Links are below.
Website Address:
www.iipg-queenofpeace.org
To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mir_peace_shalom/
Explore reading about the alleged apparations at Medjogorge. See magazine link below.
Medjugorge Magazine
It
is very significant that the messages of God
through his
Church, Scripture, Tradition and the official
teaching
of the Magisterium, along with the communion of
saints,
including in a preeminent manner, the Mother of
God, are
invaluable for our sanctification and
salvation.
The alleged messages from the
Mother
of God at Medjugorje are so unique and
overwhelming-going
on now for over twenty years. They reflect
messages that can possibly
guide us
with graces and gifts according to the holy will
of God.
One does not have to accept or believe in any of
the
messages of Medjugorge. However, there has been
no widespread,
adamant opposition to the Medjugorje
messages. The Holy Father is silent about
the matter.
The fruits of Medjugorje have been so
rare and extraordinary that hardly can anyone
imagine anything
but good and inspiration flowing from these
precious
messages and visitation. Each person must use
his own discretion. If for any reasons you have doubts or suspicions
about the seers or the messages, allow God to lead you along a
different path and stick to the guidelines of the Church. Jesus has told
us that the tree
is always known by its fruits.
We must
not think
that God's mercy in any of His Mother's
visitations and
messages are a substitute for what the Church
and the
Sacraments have always given us. They are a rich
complements and always point to the gospel and
what the
doctors and saints have explained from the times
of the
Apostles and earlier times.
The Church,
as a protective Mother for
all the faithful, watches carefully at all of
Mary's
visitations, approved or still going on, to
safeguard
her children safety, assurances and passes no
judgment
until apparitions have officially
closed.
Mary's
messages highlight the great importance of
prayer and
its preparation for holiness to do God's Will.
The theme
of holiness and the acceptance of God's will in
one's
life will bring about union with God. Mary's
perennial
messages of uniting oneself with her Son and the
gospel
messages are the same messages she gives and she
never
tires of expressing that truth. The Old and the
New
Testament, along with the Church's daily
liturgy,
emphasizes that great holiness of God and sings
in her
daily prayers and services, with Mary, the
angels and
saints, that God is Holy, Holy,
Holy.
Each
message that Mary has given down through the
ages has a
unique ring, favor and fascination that is
distinctly
Christlike, different and singularly divine.
After all,
She is truly the Mother of God by grace,
kinship, gift
and motherhood.
The number of books on
approved
Mary's visitations and the Medjugorje phenomena
are vast
and can be found on many of the links on this
website.
Please investigate the sources and the links
section. Go
to the Homepage and look at the sidebar near the
end and
you will find these sections.
Many alleged messages can be inspired if the sources are outside from scripture, tradition, history and the magisterium of the Catholic Church. However, some messages from purported seers need to be carefuly weighed before one believes in them. The below link incorporates over seventy-five interesting sources or seers that can be investigated carefully and are not necessarily approved by the Catholic Church but may be worthy of belief.
http://weepingmadonna.org/
For some peace of mind and heart about Medjugorje, that only God permits, read:
Medjugorje, What Does the Church Say?
by Sr. Emmanuel and Denis Nolan. It does have the Nihil Obstat for those who are curious about that matter. It can be obtained from Queenship Publishing Company, 3rd Edition. P.O. Box 42028 Santa Barbara, CA 93140-2028-Phones:800 647-9882 and(805) 957-4893. Fax (805) 957-1631. The price I paid was $5.00 on May 29th, 2004
Another source of approved and unapproved contacts by the Mother of God in the below link.
www.theotokos.org.uk
For another highly recommended Medjugorje site for tours and visitation, please investigate the below site. Efforts are made with this pilgrimage for guests to stay with one of the seers when they are available.
Medjugorje Tours and Visitation Information, followed by a response regarding the visit itself.
First Visit To Medjugorje
The Imitation of Mary
Thomas a Kempis
Information of this book is found in the doctoral sources.
Chapter 1: How to Greet the Glorious Virgin Mary
Although I am without merit and am, indeed, conscious of my many sins, I have the utmost trust in Your Passion, Lord Jesus, and in the merits of Your Mother, the glorious and holy Virgin Mary. It is upon her that I wish to dwell for a moment; I pray, therefore, that I may be made worthy of doing so, since I dare not approach her without first being given permission.
I am well aware that due to my unworthiness I ought not present myself before this supremely worthy woman whom even the Angels admire and venerate, while exclaiming: “Who is this that arises from the desert of the world and overflows with the delights of paradise?”
2. Therefore, dearest Mary, it is unseemly that I should dare to dwell on the thought of your beauty and your greatness, for I am dust and ashes and am even the vilest creature on earth since I am a sinner and inclined to every kind of perverse act.
You, however, have been made higher than the heavens; you have the world beneath your feet and are worthy of honor and reverence because of the exalted state of your Son. Your ineffable kindness, which transcends every imagination, enchants me and draws my affections to you, for you are the comfort of the afflicted and always ready to help wretched sinners.
3. I am very much in need of great consolation and especially of your Son’s grace, because I am utterly unable to help myself. But if you, most merciful Mother, condescend to look upon my littleness, you can in many ways help and strengthen me with abundant consolations. Therefore, as soon as I feel burdened with difficulties and temptations, I shall have immediate recourse to you, for where grace abounds, mercy is more at hand.
4. If, then, I would attempt to grasp your exceptional glory and greet you in a worthy way from the depths of my heart, I must advance with a very pure spirit, for those who presume to approach your door without due reverence obtain not glory but a justified disgrace. Anyone approaching you must proceed with the greatest reverence and humility, but also with hope of being admitted in virtue of your mercy and clemency.
5. I come to you, therefore, with humility and reverence, with devotion and confidence, and with the greeting of Gabriel on my lips – a greeting that I joyously repeat with head bowed in respect and with hands open in deep devotion. I pray that this greeting may be repeated a hundred, a thousand, and even more times on my behalf by all the heavenly spirits. Indeed, I do not know anything dearer and more worthy I can offer you than this greeting.
6. Listen now to one most enamored of your name: “Heaven rejoices and earth is amazed when I say: Hail, Mary! Satan flees, hell trembles when I say: Hail Mary! The world becomes contemptible, the flesh foul, when I say: Hail, Mary! Sadness disappears and joy returns when I say: Hail, Mary!
“Tepidity vanishes and the heart is inflamed with love when I say: Hail, Mary! Devotion grows, compunction is born, hope intensifies, and consolation is increased when I say: Hail, Mary! The soul is renewed and the inclination to good is strengthened when I say: Hail, Mary!”
7. So intense is the sweetness of this blessed greeting that it cannot be expressed in human words. It remains forever loftier and more profound than any creature can grasp. Therefore, I kneel again before you, Most Holy Virgin Mary, and say: “Hail, Mary! Full of grace."
My most merciful Lady, Holy Mary, accept this very devout greeting and, with it , me as well, so that there may be something in me that pleases you, strengthens my trust in you, enkindles in me an ever increasing love, and keeps me forever devoted to your holy name.
8. Heaven grant that in order to satisfy my desire to honor you and greet you eternally from the depths of my heart, all my members may be transformed into tongues and the tongues into fiery voices. Mother of God, I want to be able to utter this greeting as a pure and holy sacrifice of prayer that will atone for all the sins by which I have merited God’s wrath, greatly saddened your Son, and very often dishonored and offended you and the entire heavenly court.
9. Since my life is a frail thing and transient due to all my excesses, my negligences, and my vain, unclean, and preserve thoughts, may heaven grant that all the blessed spirits and the souls of the just may turn to you, Most Blessed Virgin Mary, with pure devotion and ardent prayer.
May they repeat over and over in your honor that loftiest of greetings which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were the first to use to you through the mouth of the Angel. Thus, I would in a way find an incense worthy of being a sweet odor for in me there is nothing good and nothing deserving of reward.
10. But now, impelled by heartfelt devotion, I prostrate myself before you. Wholly on fire with reverence for your holy name, I repeat that joyful new greeting, never heard until the Archangel Gabriel, sent by God, entered your room and there on bent knee honored you by saying: “Hail, full of grace: the Lord is with you.”
In keeping with the precious custom of the faithful, I desire to address you and to do so with pure lips as far as is possible for me. How I desire with all my heart that all creatures would address you in the same way: “Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
11. Such is the Angelic greeting, composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and wholly befitting your dignity and your holiness. It is a prayer poor in words but rich in mysteries. As an utterance it is short, but its content is profound.
This prayer is sweeter than honey and more precious than gold. It is to be repeated over and over with all one’s heart, devoutly, and with pure lips, so that from these very few words may flow a board river of heavenly sweetness.
12. But woe to those who become annoyed with it, who pray without devotion, who do not reflect on its words that are more precious than gold, who do not taste its cups of honey, and who so often recite the Hail Mary without attention and reverence.
Sweetest Virgin Mary, preserve me from such serious neglect and lack of attention; forgive me my past indifference. I will be more devout, more fervent and attentive in saying the Hail Mary, wherever I may be.
13. After these reflections, what shall I now ask of you, my dearest Lady? What is greater, more useful, more necessary for me, an unworthy sinner, than to find favor with you and your beloved Son?
Through your intercession, then, I ask for the grace of God, since as the Angel said, you received the fullness of grace from God.
14. No favor is more precious to me and nothing else more needed by me, than the grace and mercy of God. His grace is enough for me, and I need nothing else, for without grace of what value would all my efforts be?
But what will be impossible for me if grace attends and aids me? I have many different spiritual defects, but the graces of God is a medicine effective against all the passions. If he deigns to come to my aid, all these defects will be lessened.
15. I am also poor in wisdom and spiritual knowledge, but God’s grace is a supreme teacher and dispenser of heavenly learning. It is able, therefore, to instruct me in everything necessary; it also dissuades me from seeking anything beyond what is necessary and from wanting to know what it is not permissible to know.
On the other hand, it advises and teaches me to humble myself and be content with it alone.
16. Merciful Virgin Mary, ask this noble and precious grace for me, that I may not desire or seek anything but grace upon grace.
Chapter 2: The Consolation of the Virgin Mary
Child: Now, my Lady, I ask you to speak with me a while. Speak in the Name of your Son, Who filled you with every spiritual grace.
2. Mother: I am the Mother of Mercy, full of sweet love; I am the ladder of sinners, the hope of forgiveness for the guilty, the strength of the afflicted, and the special delight of the Saints. Come to me, all you who love me, and you will be satisfied from the treasure of my consolations, for I am good and merciful to all who call upon me.
3. Come, all of you, just and sinners alike, and I will pray to the Father for you, I will pray also to the Son, that He may be reconciled with you in the Holy Spirit.
I invite all, I await all, I desire all to come to me. I do not despise any sinner; indeed, over a converted sinner I rejoice with immense love, as do the Angels of God in heaven. The precious Blood of my Son has not been shed in vain for the world.
4. Draw near to me, then, children of men; see how zealous I am for you before God and before my son, Jesus Christ, See, I will take His anger upon myself and with my fervent prayers I will placate Him Whom you know you have offended.
5. Be converted and come; do penance, and I will plead for your forgiveness. See, I stand between heaven and earth, between God and sinners; and by my prayers I ensure that this world will not perish. Do not, however, abuse God’s mercy and my clemency, but remain far from any sin, lest God’s anger and fearful vengeance come upon you.
6. I urge my children, I implore my loved ones: be imitators of my Son and you Mother. Bear in mind that I can never forget you, for I have compassion on all who are wretched and I am the most merciful Advocate of all the faithful.
7. Child: What splendid words, so full of heavenly delight! A sublime voice from on high that comes down like heavenly dew, bringing strength to sinners and glory to the just! A heavenly melody that pervades the consciousness of the despairing!
But who am I that the Mother of my Lord should speak to me? Blessed are you, Mother most holy, and blessed your words. They are milk and honey on your tongue, and their fragrance surpasses all other fragrances.
8. Mary, your words move my soul to its depths. See, hardly had your consoling voice reached my ears when my soul was uplifted, my spirit was reenergized, and my entire heart was flooded with joy, because today you brought me good and joyful news.
I was sad, but now your words have made me happy. Your voice is sweet in my ears: I was weighed down and discouraged, but now I am glad and truly strengthened.
9. You have extended your hand to me from on high and have touched me, and so I am healed of my distress. I was hardly able to speak, but now I want to sing of you and thank you.
My life had become wearisome; now, however, I do not fear even death. For I know that you are my intercessor with your Son, to Whose mercy I entrust myself from this moment on and at every moment of my years to come.
As soon as you spoke to the heart of your grieving orphaned child, I was immediately changed for the better and felt myself to be profoundly changed within. I lay there as one despairing, but you comforted me and raised my up by speaking words of great love to me.
10. Mother: But, child, what is the matter? Who wants to do you evil? They are not to be feared. I am here , as is my Son, your Brother, Who stands at the Father’s right hand and is the faithful Mediator and Intercessor for your sins. You must have complete trust in Him, for it is He Who gives life, He Who conquers death.
He was begotten by the Father from eternity; He took flesh from me in time; He was sent for the salvation of the entire world. He is the source of hope and strength, faith and victory. Therefore, be always mindful of Jesus and Mary and do not fear any enemy.
11. Child: Merciful Virgin Mary, blessed was the moment when you deigned to draw near to my heart that was prey to discouragement. If only I were able longer to hear your strengthening words that so intensely inflamed me and purified me, even as they touched me interiorly and renewed my very depths.
Blessed by your bosom, Mary, that continues to provide the sweet milk of consolation! Due to the abundant grace of the Child Jesus, Whom you nursed, you cannot deny your innate mercy to anyone who asks it of you. As a result, you often grant grace even to great sinners.
12. You are the Mother of boundless compassion, of immense mercy and love; the incomparable Virgin, to be loved and venerated by all; the extraordinary Mother of the Son of God, Who was born of you, as well as the universal Mother of all Christians and Mothers in a special way according to the degree of devotion we have toward you!
O Virgin, Queen of the world and Mistress of the Angels, draw me to you so that I may not remain burdened by my sins. Bestow the grace, the saving dew from heaven, of which you are the Mediatrix, so that I may merit to experience you a Mother of grace and fountain of mercy.
13. Mother: I am the Mother of noble love, of chaste and holy fear, of compassionate strength, and of sweet consolation. Therefore, when you hear my name, exult with all your heart. Bow down in reverence and greet me with joy, for in honoring the Mother you also honor the Son, Whose Father is God.
I am Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and that will always be my name. And who is Jesus? He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world, the King of heaven and earth, the Lord of the Angels, the redeemer of the faithful, the Judge of the living and the dead.
14. He is the hope of souls that are good, the consolation of the devout, the peace of the meek, the riches of the poor, the glory of the humble, the strength of the weak , the way for those astray, the light of the blind, the staff of the crippled, the relief of the oppressed, the help of those being tried, and the special refuge of all the good. Bless the Son, together with the Mother, and the Father will love you.
Whenever you serve me in any way, you give Him honor and glory, because His glory is my glory, and homage given to Him is praise of me. Place me and Jesus as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. Whether you are standing or sitting, praying, reading, writing, or working, let Jesus and Mary be always on your lips and always in your heart.
15. Child: May all peoples, all nations, all tongues serve you! May all creatures kneel before you! Let the heavens say: “Rejoice, O Mary!” and let the earth give answer: “Hail! through eternity and beyond!”
May all the Saints glorify your name and all the devout exult before you and the Lamb, Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord. Amen.
Chapter 3 Remember and Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
It is right that you be always mindful of the glorious Virgin Mary, the blessed Mother of Jesus. You should daily commend yourself to her merits and prayers and should turn to her in all your needs, just as a child that falls and hurts itself runs to its dear mother.
Mary’s name is sweet: it gives confidence to anyone who calls on her and invokes her. For her part, she is always ready to put in a good word to her Son Jesus on behalf of any troubled soul in need. If Mary, along with all the Angels of heaven, did not pray daily for thy world, how could the world continue to exist when it offends God so seriously and shows so little improvement?
Mary should , therefore, be invoked by everyone: the just and the sinful, but especially religious and those devout individuals who have vowed chastity and yearn with holy desires for the things of heaven, while wanting nothing to do with this world.
2. What should you ask of her? First of all, forgiveness of your sins; then the virtue of chastity and the gift of humility, which is pleasing to God. This in order that you may be always humble in His presence and desirous of being regarded as base and worthless. Finally, you should ask never to boast of anything, lest you lose everything you seem to possess.
3. You must also grieve that you are so far removed from true virtues: profound humility, holy poverty, perfect obedience, pure chastity, devout prayer, and burning love.
All these are the virtues that dwell in Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Therefore, be a poor beggar and prostrate yourself at her feet that you may obtain at least the smallest degree of these virtues, since you are unable to reach a higher degree due to your laziness.
4. Whatever you desire, pray humbly to obtain it through the hands of Mary. It is due to her glorious merits that those in purgatory and on earth receive help. Great is her grace and great her glory in Jesus, her Savior, beyond all the Saints in heaven. But all this she has for the sake of us who are still on earth.
Trust without reservation in her faithfulness. Her prayers are pleasing to God, and she neither asks nor desires anything not pleasing to Him and to His beloved Son, but only what helps your salvation according to the plans of the Divine Will.
5. God and the Blessed Virgin are greatly pleased when you pray to avoid sin and keep your heart humble. She, for her part, was satisfied before God only with her humility, and said nothing of the rest; despite the inexhaustible wealth of grace that was hers she never stirred from humility.
May the Virgin Mary pray for us in words that seek mercy, so that we may be made worthy of God’s grace.
The Imitation of Mary
Taken form Book 2: Knowing Mary:
Chapter 1: Mary and the Mystery of the Incarnation:
10. I bless and thank You, Lord Jesus, only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten before the world existed, for having deigned, in an indescribable way and out of utter humility, to be born in a filthy stable and placed in a poor manger because You loved holy poverty.
I praise You, beloved Jesus, for Your light-crowned coming, Your glorious birth from the blameless Virgin Mary, Your poverty, and Your lowly lodging in such a small and mean manger. Who could imagine the Most High God being made so little for the sake of humanity? How thankful the entire human race ought to be that You chose a narrow manger for its redemption!
What a tender, sweet, and lovable sight to see God having become a Child and being wrapped in poor rages and lying in a narrow manger in the presence of the animals! What incomprehensible humility that the Lord of all lords should become the servant of His servants!
Yet even this, Lord God, seemed but little, for You, my Creator, wanted to become my Father. You deigned even to be my Brother and take my flesh in the reality of Your human nature, although without contracting any of the ancient corruption.
12. Your birth transcends the laws of nature. Since it must repair nature itself, this birth, through a great miracle, differs from the manner in which human beings are born, and with Divine power consoles us in our laborious births.
How fortunate and lovable Your birth, sweet Jesus, Son of an exalted Virgin, that is, of the extraordinary Virgin Mary, for Your birth renew the births of all, improves their condition, shakes off prejudices against them, and rends the decree that condemned nature. And a result, those who are ashamed to be part of the sinful race of Adam can rejoice at Your unblemished birth and be sure of being happily reborn through Your grace.
13. I thank you, Jesus, only-begotten Son of God, for Your miraculous and glorious birth in virtue of which we have access to the grace by which we live, and we are confident in our hope of the glory of the children of God, which heaven has promised us.
You are the pledge of our redemption; You are the everlasting hope of all us faithful. To You we humble sinners have recourse. You Who first sought us out when we did not yet know You.
O holy and sweet infancy, which instills true innocence into human hearts; because of it, every period of life returns to You, is blessed, and becomes like You, not in the weakness of human limbs but in the humility of the senses and good morals.
Grant that I may follow in Your footsteps, most merciful Jesus, for in order to give humanity the example of virtue and eternal salvation, You willed to be born at midnight of the Virgin Mary. Enable me, then, to thank You and to sing Your praises with the Angels and the whole heavenly host, whom You appointed the happy messengers of Your holy birth.
Chapter 6: Prayers to Mary as She Weeps by the Cross
O Devout, holy, and sorrowful tears that the blessed , spotless, and ever Virgin Mary shed on Good Friday due to her heartfelt compassion for Christ and to His beloved Passion and Death on the Cross! They flowed abundantly down her cheeks and her bosom until they reached the lowermost hem of her garment. They soaked the veil over her sacred head and, falling on her holy feet, they soaked the dust of the ground.
2. If only I had been able at that time to follow in my Lady’s footsteps! If only I had been able secretly to gather her warm tears in a vessel, not in order to wash my feet, which have so often stained with evil thoughts and impure affections, but in order to wash my hands and head, that is, my evil words and actions, and so win forgiveness for all the sins I commit every day!
3. O faithful Mother of God, Virgin Mary, take pity on me. Wipe away all my vices by the power of your sufferings and your devoted intercession. Beloved Mary, aid my soul in the final hour of my life, and come with the multitude of the Angels and Saints to defend me against the terrors of the enemy and the pains of hell.
Be mindful of the precious, innocent Blood that your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, shed when dying for me, a sinner. Be mindful of His pierced side and all the tears you yourself shed throughout your life, and take pity on me. For you I long, in your merits I trust, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.
Virgin Wholly Marvelous Edited by David Supple, O.S.B., The Ravengate Press, P.O.Box 49, Still River, Massachusetts, 01467-0049. 1981.
Praises of Our Lady by the Pope, Councils, Saints, and Doctors of the Church. For the present time this section will focus exclusively with the Doctors only.
Contents
I The Virgin Birth
II Holy Nativity of Mary
III Most Holy Name of Mary
IV Presentation of the Holy Child Mary
V Adornments of Her Soul
VI Attributes and Qualities of Mary
VII Other Tributes and Observations
VIII Espousals of Our Lady
IX Annunciation-Incarnation
X Holy Humility of Mary
XI Spouse of God the Holy Spirit
XII The Visitation of Our Lady
XIII Commentary on the Magnificat
XIV The Immaculate Conception
XV Blessed Mary Ever-Virgin
XVI Mary's Divine Maternity
XVII Mother of God
XVIII Daughter, Mother, and Spouse of God
XIX Purification-Presentation of Jesus
XX Mother of Divine Grace
XXI At the Foot of the Cross
XXII Queen of Martyrs
XXIII Co-Redemptrix of the Human Race
XXIV Mother of the Mystical Body
XXV Mother of Priests
XXVI Queen of the Apostles
XXVII Mother of Us All
XXVIII Her Falling Asleep and Assumption
XXIX Sovereignty of Mary
XXX The Reign of Jesus Through Mary
XXXI Devotion of the Saints to Our Lady
XXXII Happy Clients of Mary
XXXIII Mother of Mercy
XXXIV Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted
XXXV Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope
XXXVI Now and at the Hour of Our Death
XXXVII The Most Pure Heart of Mary
XXXVIII Neglect of Mary
XXXIX The Imitation of Mary
XL The Holy Rosary
XLI Our Lady and Sacred Scripture
XLII Our Lady and the Liturgy
XLIII Our Lady in the Liturgical Year
XLIV Our Lady and the Holy Eucharist
XLV Mediatrix of All Graces
XLVI Prerogatives of Mary
XLVII Absolute Confidence in Mary
XLVIII True Devotion to Mary
XLIX The Holy Slavery
L Entire Consecration To Jesus Through Mary
Appendix
I The Virgin Birth
1 The same eternal Only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary...That is to say, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of His Virgin Mother who brought Him forth without detriment to her virginity, as, too, she had, without detriment to her virginity, conceived him. Leo
5 Truly do we proclaim Mary to be both Virgin and Mother, for true fecundity glorified her virginity and undefiled virginity glorified her true fecundity. Her virginity was rendered more glorious by her fecundity, and her fecundity by her virginity.
6 He Who wrote on the tablets of stone with iron, made Mary with child of the Holy Ghost; and He Who produced bread in the desert without ploughing, impregnated the Virgin without corruption; and He Who made the rod to bud without rain, made the daughter of David bring forth without seed.
7 A Virgin Mother was chosen, who would conceive without concupiscence, and who brought forth a Man without a man. Augustine.
8 Truly are you blessed among women, who without example to womankind rejoice in the honor of a mother and the beauty of virginity, and as becomes a virgin-mother, you have given life to the Son of God. Bede
9 Christ is born of a woman, but one to whom the fruit of fecundity came in such a manner that the flower of virginity did not fall.
10 A ray from the star does not diminish its brightness, neither does the Son of the Virgin lessen the virginity of His Mother. Bernard
11 She was chaste in her virginal body, as the Evangelist testifies, saying: And the name of the Virgin was Mary (Lk 1:27). In her virginal mind Mary was even more chaste, as she herself testifies. For she said to the Angel: How shall this be done, for I know not man (Lk 1:34). That is to say, I do not intend to know a man. Bonaventure
12 St. Gregory of Nyssa (+c.395) says, that so much did the Blessed Virgin love this virtue (of perpetual virginity), that to preserve it, she would have been willing to renounce even the dignity of Mother of God. This we may conclude from her answer to the Archangel, How shall this be done, because I know not man?(Lk 1:34)and from the words she afterward added, Be it done to me according to your word (v.38), signifying that she gave her consent on the condition that as angel had assured her, she would become a mother only by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. Alphonsus
II Holy Nativity of Mary
2 Come, all ye peoples! Come all, whoever or wherever you are; come and unite in celebrating the birth of the Virgin, with whom is likewise born our salvation. J. Damascene
3 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root (Isaias 11:1). This divine Mother is that powerful rod with which the violence of the infernal enemies is conquered. P. Damian
4 All are born of wrath (Eph.2:3). Oh, how far from this woe of them that are born was the most holy Nativity of Mary, who was not only free from original sin, but also from the fuel of misery, insofar as it leads to sin, for she was conceived without stain. Bonaventure
5 Our heavenly child, because she was appointed mediatress of the world, as also because she was destined to be the Mother of the Redeemer, received, at the very beginning of her existence, grace exceeding in greatness that of all the saints together. Hence, how delightful a sight must the beautiful soul of this happy child have been to Heaven and earth! Alphonsus
III Most Holy Name of Mary
1 The name of Mary is the key of the gates of Heaven. Ephraem
2 Your name, O Mary, is a precious ointment, which breathes forth the odor of divine grace. Let this ointment of salvation enter the inmost recesses of our souls. Ambrose
3 The name of Mary is an indication of chastity. Chrysologus
4 Mary means light, for from her proceeded Christ, the Light of the world. Isidore
8 O name of Mary! Joy in the heart, honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of her devout clients! Anthony
9 Glorious indeed, and admirable is your name, O Mary; for those who pronounce it at death need not fear all the powers of hell...Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.
10 As wax melts before fire, so do the devils lose their power against those souls who remember the name of Mary and devoutly invoke it.
11 Ave Maria! This name was inserted (in the Angelic Salutation) not by the Angel, but by the devotion of the faithful. The blessed Evangelist Luke says significantly, And the name of the Virgin was Mary. (Luke 1:27) This
most holy, sweet and worthy name was eminently fitting to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin. For Mary means a bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men she is the star of the sea; to the angels she is illuminatrix, and to all creatures she is lady...Let us pray, let us pray most devoutly to Mary and say: O Mary, Bitter Sea, help us, that we may be plunged into the bitter sea of penance! O Mary, Star of the Sea, pray for us, help us, that we may be guided rightly through the sea of this world! O Mary, Light-giver, help us, that we may be eternally illumined in glory! O Lady Mary, help us by your government and empire that we may be filially governed. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Bonaventure
12 Mary means star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession. Thomas
17 After the most holy and adorable Name of Jesus, there is no name more glorious or more powerful than the name of Mary. At the mention of this name, the angels rejoice and the devils tremble; through this invocation of this name, sinners obtain grace and pardon. Canisius
19 Salvation is occasionally more easily obtained, say St. Anselm by calling on the Name of Mary than by invoking that of Jesus. Not that He is not the source and Lord of all graces, but because, when we have recourse to the Mother, and she prays for us, her prayers have greater efficacy than ours, as being those of a mother. Liguori
IV Presentation of the Holy Child Mary
4 Hers was the hidden treasure of modesty, hers the self sacrifice of earnestness, hers to be the pattern of maidenhood at home, of kinswomanhood in ministry, of motherhood in the temple. O how many virgins has she presented to the Lord, saying: "Here is one who (like me) has kept stainlessly clean the wedding chamber." Ambrose
V Adornments of Her Soul
4 Let the life of the blessed Mary be ever present to you, in which, as in a mirror, the beauty of chastity and form of virtue shine forth. She was a virgin not only in body, but in mind, who never sullied the pure affection of her heart by unworthy feelings. She was humble of heart, serious in her conversation, prudent in her counsels, fonder of reading than of speaking. She placed her confidence rather in the prayer of the poor, than in the uncertain riches of this world. She was ever intent in her occupations, reserved in her conversation, and accustomed to make God, rather than man, the witness of her thoughts...her very appearance was the picture of her mind and the figure of piety.
5 She was a virgin, not in body only, but in mind also; the purity of her thoughts had been deflowered by no evil suggestion, she was lowly in heart...So pure was the Blessed Mary that she was (chosen) to be the Mother of the Lord; God made her whom He had chosen, and chose her of whom He would be made. Ambrose
6 If you look diligently at Mary, there is nothing of virtue, nothing of beauty, nothing of splendor or glory which does not shine in her. Jerome
7 Of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the honor of Christ, when we treat of sin I do not wish that she should be involved. For we know that a greater grace was accorded her wholly to conquer sin, by the very fact that she merited to conceive and bear Him of Whom we certainly know that He had no sin. Augustine
10 As the light of the sun so greatly surpasses that of the stars, that in it they are no longer visible, it so overwhelms them that they are as if they were not; so does; the great Virgin Mother surpass in sanctity the whole court of Heaven. Damian
11 It was only fitting that the Virgin to whose care God the Father was pleased to confide His only Son, should shine with a dazzling purity, surpassing all but that of God himself. Anselm
12 Ave, gratia plena. It was not enough for the Archangel simple to commend the grace of Mary; he wished also to insist emphatically on its fullness, when he said Gratia plena. O truly full, and fully full! Gabriel had not yet said: The Holy Ghost shall come upon you. If, therefore, before the coming upon her of the Holy Ghost, before the conception of the Son of God, Mary was full of grace, how much more so afterwards? Therefore, St Anselm aptly says of her fullness and of the fullness of her gratitude, "She, being already a thousand times full (of grace), was saluted by the Angel, filled with the Holy Ghost, breathed upon by the Divine plenitude." Well, therefore, is Mary said to be full of the (nine plenitudes, viz.) illumination of wisdom, of the outpouring of grace, of the riches of a good life, of the unction of mercy, of the perfection of the Church, of the redolence of fair fame, of the resplendence of divine glory, of the joy of eternal gladness.
13 Fitly is she compared to the aurora as well for herself as for us; for herself especially, for us in general. Mary for herself is well compared to the aurora according to Scripture: first, because of the driving away of the night of sin; secondly, because of the approach of the light of grace; third, because rising of the Sun of Justice; fourth, because of the place of her throne of glory. First in her most full sanctifications; secondly in her most bright conversation; thirdly, in her most wonderful generation of her Son; fourthly, in her most glorious Assumption.
14 Because Mary was free from original sin, she found no obstacle in obeying God; she was like a wheel, which was easily turned by every inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
15 Grace is shed abroad on your lips. Such was the grace of the lips of Mary, that she could excellently be prefigured by Judith, of whom is it said, There is not another woman upon earth in look, in beauty, and in sense of words (Judith 11:19). Truly there is not, nor Eve was, nor ever will be, such another woman upon earth, as Mary was, in her glorious life, in the beauty of a pure conscience, and in a sense of words of a most skilled tongue. We shall clearly see the grace of the lips of Mary if we diligently gather and mediate the words of her lips as recorded in the Gospel. Bonaventure
16 Her sanctification (from before her birth) was more perfect than that of others. We must hold that all that could be accorded to her was in fact accorded. It is altogether probable that she who bore the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, in preference to all others received greater privileges and graces.
17 He has set My tabernacle in the sun (Ps. 18:6) This means that Christ caused His body to rest in the sun, that is in the Blessed Virgin who had no darkening of sin, according to the word of the Canticle: You are all beautiful, My beloved, there is no spot in you.
18 Inasmuch as the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God, she possesses infinite dignity, derived from the infinite perfections of God, and in this respect, nothing superior to her can be made, since the omnipotence of God cannot bestow a greater honor on a mere creature. Aquinas
20 With reason is Mary called the Virgin of virgins: for she, without the counsel or example of others, was the first who offered her virginity to God. Albert
24 As the charity of this Mother of love excels in perfection that of all the Saints in Heaven, so did she exercise it more perfectly...She never felt any contradiction from the sensual appetite, and therefore her love, as a true Solomon, reigned peaceably in her soul and make all its acts as its pleasure.
25 Her charity surpassed that of the Seraphim, for many daughters have gathered together riches; you have surpassed them all (Prov. 31:29). The Saints and Angels are but compared to stars, and the first of them to the fairest of the stars; but she is fair as the moon, as easy to be chosen and discerned from all the Saints as the sun from the stars. And going on further I think again that as the charity of this Mother of love excels in perfection that of all the Saints in Heaven, so did she exercise it more perfectly, I say even in this mortal life. She never sinned venially, as the Church agrees; she had then no change nor delay in the way of love, but by a perpetual advancement ascended from love to love. Francis
26 It is certain that Mary's soul was the most beautiful that God had ever created; nay, more, after the work of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, this was the greatest and most worthy of Himself that an omnipotent God ever did in the world.
27 Who is she that goes forth by the desert, as a pillar of smoke, of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and all the powders of the perfumer? (Cant. 8:6). Her entire mortification typified by the myrrh, her fervent prayers signified by the incense, and all her holy virtues united to her perfect love for God, kindled in her a flame so great that her beautiful soul, wholly devoted to and consumed by divine love, arose continually to God as a pillar of smoke, breathing forth on every side a most sweet odor. Eustachius (Patriarch of Constantinople, 10th century) wrote, "A pillar of smoke, because burning interiorly as a holocaust with the flame of divine love, she sent forth a most sweet odor." Liguori
VI Attributes and Qualities of Mary
2 Consider how Mary is full of the joy of eternal happiness. Who is ignorant that she is of those of whom her Son said: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full?If therefore, the joy of the Apostles, of all those who are reigning with God, is full, how much more is the joy of the Mother of God full and complete? Of this plenitude St. Jerome says: "Full indeed of grace, full of God, full of virtues, she could not but possess most fully the glory of eternal splendor." What wonder, then, that she has full and overfull joy and glory in the Kingdom, who had grace full and overflowing in her exile upon earth? What wonder if both in Heaven and on earth her fullness was above that of every creature from whose fullness every creature has life? Bonaventure
3 Sanctifying grace not only repressed all irregular motions in the Blessed Virgin herself, but was also efficacious for others; so that notwithstanding the greatness of her beauty, she was never coveted by others. Aquinas
5 For this reason she was called myrrh, which prevents corruption, in the words of Ecclesiasticus, applied to her by the Church: I yield a sweet odor, like the best myrrh (Ecclus.24:20; and see Off.B.V.M., resp.4) Liguori
8 God said to her: "In my goodness, I set up Mary as a sort of bite, to catch the rational souls of men." Catherine of Siena
9 O blessed and most holy Virgin, who were the first among all women to consecrate your virginity to God by a perpetual vow, and were because of this granted to become the Mother of his Only-Begotten Son, I entreat your unspeakable goodness to disregard my sins and defects, and to grant me that I may have for Spouse the beloved of my soul, the Most Holy Son of God and your child, my Lord Jesus Christ! Catherine of Siena
10 You, O Mary, are the young plant that produced the fragrant flower of the Word. Only-begotten of God, because you were the fertile land that was sown with this Word. Catherine of Siena
11 I have recourse to you, dear Mary, and I place before you my petition in behalf of the Church, the sweet Spouse of Christ, your ineffable Son, and in behalf of his Vicar on earth, the Holy Father, so that light may be given to him to wisely and prudently reform the Holy Church. Catherine of Siena.
VII Other Tributes and Observations
2 Hail, reconciler of the whole world! Ephraem
3 Evil came by a woman, so good has come by the Woman: for by Eve we fell, by Mary we stand; by Eve we were reduced to slavery, by Mary we were made free. Eve took from us length of days, Mary restored to us immortality; Eve caused us to be condemned by the fruits of the tree;, Mary wrought our pardon by the gifts of the Tree, because Christ also hung upon the Tree as Fruit. As therefore we died through a tree, so by a Tree are we brought to life. All that was done by Adam is washed out by Mary. Ambrose
4 Queen of the world...the tabernacle of God...the celestial ladder by which the King of Heaven descended to earth, and man ascends to Heaven. P. Damian
5 It was only fitting that the Virgin to whose care God the Father was pleased to confide His only Son, should shine with a dazzling purity, surpassing all but that of God. Anselm
9 I remember that when my mother died I was twelve years old or a little less. When I began to understand what I had lost, I went, afflicted, before an image of Our Lady and besought heR with many tears to be my mother. It seems to me that although I did this in simplicity it helped me. For I have found favor with this sovereign Virgin in everything I have asked of her and in the end she has drawn me to herself. Teresa
10 The beauty that I saw in Our Lady was extraordinary, although I didn't make out any particular details except the form of her face in general and that her garment was of the most brilliant white, not dazzling but soft. Our Lady seemed to me to be a very young. Teresa
VIII Espousals of Our Lady
2 You say Mary did not remain a virgin: I go much further and say that Joseph too was a virgin for Mary's sake, that of a virginal marriage a Virgin Son might be born. Jerome
IX Annunciation-Incarnation.
4 Answer, O Sacred Virgin, why delay you the salvation of the world, which depends on your consent? Augustine
6 Fear not, Mary, you have found grace with God. As Christ was pleased to be comforted by an angel, so was it necessary that the Virgin should be encouraged by one. Chrysologus
8 Hail, full of grace!(Luke 1:28) In her womb was the grace of divinity, in her heart the grace of charity, upon her lips the grace of courtesy, in her hands the grace of mercy and generosity. And she was truly full of grace, for of her captives have received redemption, the sick their cure, the sorrowful their comfort, and sinners their pardon; the just have received grace the angels joy, and the Blessed Trinity glory and honor, and the Son of Man the substance of human flesh. The Lord is with you (loc. cit.). God the Father is with you, whom you clothe and surround with your flesh. O Virgin, make haste to give your answer! Answer a word and receive the Word, utter your own word and receive the Word of God, pronounce a word that shall pass and embrace a Word that shall not pass, arise, run, be opened! Arise by faith, run by devotion, and be opened by your consent. Bernard
9 Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and shall bring forth a Son; and you shall call His Name Jesus (Luke 1:31). The angel awaits the reply and we also, O Lady, on whom the sentence of condemnation weighs so heavily, await the word of mercy. Behold, the price of our salvation is offered you; we shall be instantly delivered if you consent. For the Lord Himself desires your consent, by which He has determined to save the world. Bernard
10 The Archangel Gabriel by saluting the glorious Virgin Mary with a glorious salutation, most fittingly consummated her blessedness by saying, Blessed are you among women, that is, more blessed than all women. And by this, whatever of malediction was infused into our nature by Eve, was taken away by the blessing of Mary. Let Gabriel therefore say, "Blessed are you among women"; blessed, I say, because of the fullness of grace to be venerated in you; blessed, because of the greatness of the mercy to be bestowed by you; blessed, because of the Majesty of the Person Who is to take flesh of you; blessed, because of the weight of glory which is to accumulated you. Bonaventure
11 The chief and immediate disposition of Mary at her conceiving (of Jesus) was the sincerity of love in her heart, which disposed her to received the love of the Holy Ghost, in order that she might conceive the immaculate Son. Bonaventure
12 Fear not, Mary, for you have found grace with God (Luke 1:30). Fear not, O Mary, for you have found, not taken grace, as Lucifer tried to take it; you have not lost it, as Adam lost it; you have not bought it, as Simon Magus would have bought it; but you have found it because you have desired and sought it. You have found uncreated grace: that is, God Himself became your Son; and with that grace you have found and obtained every created good. Albert
16 Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be done unto me according to your word.(Luke 1:38)What more beautiful, more humble, or more prudent answer could all the wisdom of men and angels together have invented, had they reflected for a million years? O powerful answer, which rejoiced Heaven and brought an immense sea of graces and blessings into the world!-answer which had scarcely fallen from the lips of Mary, before it drew the only-begotten Son of God from the bosom of His Eternal Father, to become Man in her most pure womb! Yes, indeed; for scarcely had she uttered these words when instantly the Word was made flesh (John 1:14): the Son of God became also the Son of Mary. Liguori
17 St. Thomas Aquinas calls the mystery of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word "the miracle of miracles" (DePot., 1.6,a.2). What greater prodigy could the world behold, than a woman becomes the Mother of God, and a God clothed in human flesh? Mary, by her humility, became the Mother of her Creator. The Creator, in His goodness, became the Son of His own creature. Liguori
18 Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with you; bless are you among women (Luke 1:28). Hail, O Virgin full of grace; for you were always full of grace above all other saints. The Lord is with you because you are so humble. You are blessed among women, for all others fall under the curse of sin; but you, because you are the Mother of the Blessed One, are, and always you will be blessed and free from stain. Liguori
X Holy Humility of Mary
1 God chose her to be His Mother more on account of her humility than of al other sublime virtues. Jerome
2 Mary's humility became a heavenly ladder, by which God came into the world. Augustine
3 Mary never exalted herself by reason of heavenly gifts; as she became more and more acquainted with heavenly mysteries, she fixed her mind more firmly in humility, answering the Angel, Behold the handmaind of the Lord, (Luke 1:38). This is an example to many, who in honors and prosperity, in graces and virtues, do not humble themselves with Mary and with Christ, but grow elated with pride like Eve and Lucifer. St Bede the Venerable
4 Though she pleased by her virginity, she conceived by her humility. Bernard
5 And how, Our Lady, could you unite in your heart so humble an opinion of yourself with so great purity, with such innocence, and so great a plenitude of grace as you did posssess? And How, O blessed one, did this humility and so great humility ever take so deep root in your heart, seeing yourself thus honored and exalted by God? Bernard
6 You would never have ascended far above all the choirs of angels, if on earth you had lowered yourself by humility below all men. Bernard
9 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, (Isaias 11:1). The only-begotten Son of God was to be born, not from the root, precisely to denote the humility of the Mother: by the root humility of heart is understood. Albert the Great
XI Spouse of God the Holy Spirit
2 Mary was the only one who merited to be called the Mother and Spouse of God. Augustine
3 The Divine Spirit, the love itself of the Father and the Son, came corporally into Mary, and enriching her with graces above all creatures, reposed in her and make her His Spouse, the Queen of Heaven and earth. Anselm
4 The Holy Ghost shall come upon you (Luke 1:35). Mary is called the temple of the Lord and the sacred resting of the Holy Ghost: for by the operation of the Holy Ghost she became the Mother of the Incarnate Word. Aquinas
5 This Lord (God the Holy Ghost) Who is so singularly with Mary is the Lord Whose most beautiful spouse Mary is. To this Lord, as to this spouse, we can apply the words of Osee: I will espouse you to Myself in justice, and
in commiserations, and I will espouse you to me in faith; and you shall know that I am the Lord. (Osee 2:19-20). Behold a beautiful spouse, beautiful in justice, and in the judgment of her looks, beautiful in compassion and in mercy in the regard of her neighbors, and beautiful in faith in the sight of God...Of how great sweetness and beauty is that spouse of the Supreme Consoler (the Paraclete)! Because, as Augustine, say, "Who is this Virgin, so holy that the Holy Spirit deigns to come to her? So beautiful, that God chooses her for His spouse?" Bonaventure
8 The glorious Virgin, Our Lady, never had in her soul the form of any creature whatsoever, nor did she move or do anything on account of it, but her movements were always in and by the Holy Spirit. John of the Cross.
9 Among all Heaven's saints she is the most humble, yet she excels them all in the spendor of her grace and in the fire of her love. Hence, she is called black but beautiful (Can.1:4), black because of her humility, for the sun has altered my color (1:5). Bright sunbeams darken one's complexion. Similarly the sublime light of Divine knowledge produces humility of heart. Brindisi.
XII The Visitation of Our Lady
3 And she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe in her womb leaped. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb! And how have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, the moment that the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy (Lk 1:40-45). See how great is the power of the words of Our Lady; for no sooner has she pronounced them, than the Holy Ghost is given. Bonaventure
4 Mary's visit to the household of Zachary has a striking parallel in the Old Testament when the Ark of the Covenant was entrusted to the house of the priest Obededom. King David conducted the Ark to Obededom's house where it remained three months. And the Lord blessed Obededom and all his household (2 Kgs. 6:2). He bestowed many gifts upon it. Today, God conducts Mary, the living Ark of the Covenant, to the priestly house of Zachary. She too will remain three months. As a result God blessed this house. The Holy Spirit fills Zachary and Elizabeth (cf. Luke 1:67; 1:41). And John too is filled with the Holy Spirit though still in his mothers's womb, leaping and dancing as another David before the Ark of the Lord. Did not Elizabeth say, The babe in my womb leaped for joy (Luke 1:44)? But this happened at Mary's word, for she arose and went with haste into the hill country after the Son of God had been conceived in her by the Holy Spirit.And she entered the house of Zachary and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary...she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Brindisi
5 Elizabeth, filled as she was with the Holy Spirit, saw and spoke by Divine inspiration of things past, present and future...She knew, too, the infinite dignity, the present and future glory of the most holy and humble Virgin Mary. Hence in sheer wonder and ecstatic delight she cried out: Blessed are you among women...How have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?... Blessed is she who has believed. Mary's past grace was known to Elizabeth: Blessed are you; her present dignity: the Mother of my Lord; her future glory: Blessed is she who has believed, because the things promised her by the Lord shall be accomplished. Brindisi
6 Mary, rising up...went into the hill country with haste (Luke 1:39>. Rising from the quiet of contemplation to which she was always devoted, and quitting her beloved solitude, she immediately set out for the dwelling of St. Elizabeth; and because charity bears all things (1 Cor. 13:7) and cannot support delay, as St. Ambrose remarks on this Gospel, "the Holy Ghost knows not slow undertakings" (in Luc.1), without even reflecting on the arduousness of the journey, this tender Virgin immediately undertook it. Liguori
XIII Commentary on the Magnificat
1 From the abundance of her heart, Mary magniifies the greatness of God's power, holiness and mercy. He has done great things for me, He Who is mighty and holy is His Name; and for generation upon generation is His mercy, to those who fear Him (Luke 1:50). God, she declares, is all-powerful, all-holy, and ever merciful. Here this most divine prophetess opens the most profound series of sacred Theology, for Theology treats of God under three aspects: His nature, His power, and His works. And so Mary sings: My soul magnifies the Lord, Jehovah, the name of the divine nature. She speak of His power: He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name;and for generation upon generation is His mercy.
She speaks of His works: He has shown might with His arm by creating, conversing and ruling the world. He has manifested His power by wonderful works: He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart, for he has scatter forever all the demons who, exalting themselves in the conceit of their heart, had risen up against God. Truly, He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly.Thus the most Holy Virgin, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks most sublimely of God. Brindisi.
XIV The Immaculate Conception
10 Mary was altogether sinless. Chrysostom
14 The new Eve, and the Mother of Life. Athanasius
15 Of a truth (O Lord), You and Your Mother are they alone who are in every way wholly fair; for in You, O Lord, there are no spot, in Your Mother no stain. Ephraem
16 She was as innocent as Eve before her fall, a Virgin most estranged from every stain of sin, more holy than the Seraphim, the sealed fountain of the Holy Ghost, the pure seed of God, ever in body and in mind intact and immaculate. Ephraem
17 Most holy Lady, Mother of God, alone most pure in soul and body, alone exceeding all perfection of purity…alone made in your entirety the home of all the graces of the Most Holy Spirit, and hence exceeding beyond all compare even the angelic virtues in purity and sanctity of soul and body…my Lady most holy, all-pure, all-immaculate, all-stainless, all-undefiled, all-incorrupt, all-inviolate…spotless robe of Him Who clothes Himself with light as with a garment…flower unfading, purple woven by God, alone most immaculate. Ephraem
18 She was immaculate, and remote from all stain of sin. Ephraem
20 Receive me not form Sarah, but from Mary; that it may be an uncorrupted Virgin, a Virgin free by grace from every stain of sin. Ambrose
21 She was a Virgin not in body only, but in mind also; the purity of her thoughts had been deflowered by no evil suggestion...So pure was Blessed Mary that she was chosen to be the Mother of the Lord; God made her whom He had chosen and chose her of whom He would be made. Ambrose
24 Hail, full of grace (Lk 1:28). By these words the angel shows that she was altogether excluded from the wrath of the first sentence, and restored to the full grace of blessing. Augustine
25 With the exception therefore of the Holy Virgin Mary, with regard to whom, when sin is in question, I cannot, out of respect of Our Lord, permit of any discussion-for how can we know of any greater grace that could have been bestowed on her for complete victory over sin, when she merited to conceive and bring forth Him Who, we all know, had no sin?...Augustine
29 The serpent never had any access to this paradise. Damascene
30 Our Lord preserved the soul, together with the body, of the Blessed Virgin in that purity which became her who was to receive a God in her womb; for as He is holy, He reposes only in holy places. Damascene
31 The flesh of the Virgin, taken from Adam, did not admit of the stain of Adam. Damian
33 It was fitting that the conception of the Man Who was the Son of God should be by a Mother most pure. Fitting that the Virgin should be adorned with a purity than which none can be imagined greater below the Divine; the Virgin to whom God the Father decreed to give His only Son, Whom, begotten from His own Heart, equal with Himself, He loved as Himself, that entering the natural order He might become her Son as well as His; whom the Son Himself chose to make His Mother, substance of his substance; of whom the Holy Spirit willed and decreed to effect that of her should be conceived and born Him from Whom He Himself proceeds. Anselm
34 It was becoming that the Blessed Virgin Mary, by whom our shame was to be blotted out, and by whom the devil was to be conquered, should never, even of a moment, have been under his domination. Bonaventure
35 Let the stars be darkened with the mist thereof. Let it expect light and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning of the day. (Job 3:9). The dawn, whose rising and the night does not see, signifies the Blessed Virgin, whose nativity was not initiated by the night of original sin. For the night which Job cursed, the night in which man was conceived, is original sin... As the light of the morning, when the sun rises, shines in the morning without clouds (Kgs. 23:4). The light of the morning is the holiness of Mary, by which the Sun of Justice, Who was about to come from her, irradiated her. Bonaventure
36 Our Sovereign Lady was full of preventing grace for her sanctification: that is, preservative grace against the corruption of original sin. Bonaventure
37 The Holy Ghost, as a very special favor, redeemed and preserved her from original sin by a new kind of sanctification, and this in the very moment of her conception. Bonaventure
38 The Blessed Virgin never committed any actual sin, not even a venial one. Otherwise she would not have been a Mother worthy of Jesus Christ; for the ignominy of the Mother would also have been that of the Son, for He would have had a sinner for His Mother. Aquinas
43 “The one and only daughter of life” (St Dionysius the Great of Alexandria, 265: Ep. Contra Paul. Sam.). She is the one and only daughter of life, in contradistinction to others, who being born in sin are daughters of death. Liguori
44 As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters (Cant. 2:2). My daughter, among all My others, you are as a lily in the midst of thorns; for they are all stained with sin, but you were always immaculate, and always My beloved. Liguori
45 And now if Mary, on account of a single venial sin, which does not deprive a soul of divine grace, would not have been a mother worthy of God, how much more unworthy would she have been had she contracted the guilt of original sin, which would have made her an enemy of God and a slave of the devil... You are all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in you (Cant. 4:7). These words, say St. Ildephonsus and St. Thomas, are properly to be understood of Mary, as Cornelius a Lapide remarks; and St. Bernardine of Siena (Pro. Fest. V.M.) and St. Laurence Justinian (In Nat. B.M.) assert they are to be understood precisely as applying to her Immaculate Conception; whence Bl. Raymond Jordano addresses her, saying, "You are all fair, O most glorious Virgin, not in part, but wholly; and no stain of mortal, venial or original sin is in you" (Cnt. de V. M.) Liguori.
XV Blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin
3 But O Virgin Lady, Immaculate Mother of God, my glorious Lady, my benefactress, higher than the heavens, far more pure than the sun in its rays of shining splendor...the rod of Aaron that budded, truly have you appeared as a stem whose flower is your true Son, our Christ, my God and my Maker; you did bear according to the flesh God and the Word, did preserve your virginity before His birth, did remain a virgin after His birth, and we have reconciled to God by Christ your Son. Ephraem
4 Of Him Who is God and Man are you the Mother, Virgin before (His) birth, Virgin in birth, and Virgin after birth. Cyril of J.
5 So great was her grace, that not only it preserved her own virginity, but conferred that admirable gift of purity on those who beheld her. Ambrose
7 We believe that God was born of a virgin because we read it; because we do not read it we do not believe that Mary wedded again after the birth of her Child. Nor do we say this because we would condemn marriage; for surely virginity itself is the fruit of marriage. Jerome
9 A privilege of Mary was that she alone was a mother and at the same time an inviolable virgin. St. Bernard, praising this privilege, say: "Mary chose for herself the better part." Clearly the better, because conjugal fecundity, or fecund virginity. The privilege of Mary will not be given to another, because it will not be taken away from her. Bonaventure
13 God allowed the Blessed Virgin to suffer so that she would merit more. John of the Cross.
XVI Mary's Divine Maternity
3 Through the conception of the Divine Word, Mary has become for us the heaven that enclosed the Divinity in the narrow arch of her womb for the purpose of exalting mortals to the great dignity of kinship of God. Ephraem
4 The nobility of the Child was in the virginity which brought Him forth and the nobility of the parent was in the Divinity of the Child.
5 Mary, the Virgin Mother, brings forth today the Author of grace. She is the Mother and Sovereign of the universe; she remains a Virgin as she gives birth today to her Son. The sun begets the Sun; the creatures gives birth to the Creator. She is His child and she is His Mother. Mary was chosen as Mother, predestined before all creatures, filled with all grace, all virtue, all holiness, to the end that of a Mother most pure might be born the Son infinitely pure. And as in Heaven the Son has a Father immortal and eternal, so on earth the Son, according to the flesh, is the Mother. In Heaven He is eternal and immense with the Father, on earth, like the Mother, He is in time and full of meekness. In Heaven He is the image of the Father; on earth He is the likeness of His Mother. Augustine
6 Hail, Mother and Virgin, living and immortal tabernacle of God, the world's treasure and light, ornament of virgins, support of true faith, firm foundation of every church. You who gave birth to God, and carried under your pure Heart Him Whom space cannot contain. You through whom the Holy Trinity is praised and worshipped, and through whom the holy Cross is venerated in the whole world...Who can worthily praise you who are above all praise? Cyril of Alex.
7 Blessed is the Fruit of your womb. (Lk 1: 43)By the entrance of His only-begotten Son, the Lord consecrated by the grace of the Holy Ghost the temple of the virginal womb. And our earth will give its fruit, because the same Virgin, who had her body from the earth, brought forth a Son, co-equal indeed in divinity with God the Father, but in reality of His flesh consubstantial with Her Bede
8 Well is He called the Fruit of salvation, without Whom we have no salvation, according to that word: There is no salvation in any other. And St. Anselm says: "There is no salvation except Him Whom you, O Virgin, have brought forth." You, therefore, O Mary, are truly the tree of salvation, who has borne for the world the Fruit of salvation. Bonaventure
9 Woe to them who are with child and bring forth in those days. (Mt. 24:19) Oh, how far from this woe was Mary when she conceived and brought forth, as St. Augustine testifies saying, "How blessed is that Mother who without stain conceived Purity, and without pain brought forth Healing." Bonaventure
11 The two sons of Mary are the God-Man, in His Divinity, and man, in his humanity. Mary is the Mother of one in the body, of the other in the spirit. Wherefore, St Bernard say: "You are the Mother of the King, you are the Mother of the exile; you are the Mother of God the Judge, and you are the Mother of God and of man; as you are the Mother of both, you can not bear discord between your two sons." Bonaventure
XVII Mother of God
1 Hail, O Mary, Mother of God, Virgin and Mother!
Morning Star, perfect vessel.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! holy temple in which God Himself was conceived.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! chaste and pure dove.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! ever-effulgent light; from you proceeds the Sun of Justice.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! you did enclose in your sacred womb, the One Who cannot be encompassed.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! With the shepherds we sing the praise of God, and with the angels the song of thanksgiving: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Through you came to us the Conqueror and triumphant Vanquisher of hell.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Through you blossoms the splendor of the Resurrection.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! You have saved every faithful Christian.
Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Who can praise you worthily, O glorious Virgin Mary? Cyril
6 What greater prodigy could the world behold, than a woman become the Mother of God, and a God clothed in human flesh! Mary, by her humility, became the Mother of her Creator. The Creator, in His goodness, became the Son of His own creature. Liguori.
10 If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God, such a one is a stranger to the Godhead. If anyone shall say that (Christ) passed through the Virgin as through a channel and was not formed in her both in divine and human fashion-divine because without a husband's cooperation, human because conceived in accordance with human law-such a one too is an atheist. If Anyone shall say that a man was made, and that afterwards God entered into him-he renders himself liable To damnation. Nazianzen
11 If anyone should not confess that Emmanuel is truly Good, and that in consequence the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God-for she brought forth according to the flesh the Word of God made flesh-let him be anathema. Cyril of Alex.
12 You, O Mary, have given birth to the Creator, in you began the Origin of all creation; in your womb God Dwelt. P. Chrysologus
13 Let Nestorious be filled with shame and lay his hand on his lips. This Child is God. How then shall she who bore Him not be God's Mother? But if anyone refuses to acknowledge her as Mother of God, such a one is far removed from the Godhead. These are not my words, though it is I who use them, for I inherited these glorious teachings from Gregory the Theologian. Damascene
14 When we say that Mary is the Mother of God, this alone transcends every greatness that can be named or imagined after that of God. Anselm
15 To be the Mother of God is the greatest grace which can be conferred on a creature. It is such that God could make a greater world, a greater Heaven, but He cannot exalt a creature more than by making her His Mother. Bonaventure.
16 The Blessed Virgin, by becoming the Mother of God, received a kind of infinite dignity because God is infinite; this dignity therefore is such a reality that a better is not possible just as nothing can be better than God. Aquinas
17 What greater prodigy could the world behold than a woman become the Mother of God, and a God clothed in human flesh? Mary by her humility, became the Mother of her Creator. The Creator, in his goodness, became the Son of His creature. Liguori
XVIII Daughter, Mother and Spouse of God
1 The Lord is with You. (Luke 1:28) The Father is with you, because He made His Son yours; the Son is with you, Who, in order to work in you admirable secret, in a wonderful manner unlocked the secret room of generation, and kept for you the seal of virginity; the Holy Ghost is with you, Who together with the Father sanctified your womb. Bernard
3 She became in a wonderful and singular manner the daughter of the Lord, the mother of the Lord, the spouse of the Lord, and the handmaid of the Lord. If we wish to describe her relation to each Divine Person, we can say that the Lord Who is with Mary is the Lord and Father, the Lord and Son, the Lord and Holy Ghost, the Lord Who is triune and one. He is the Father and Lord, of Whom Mary is the most noble daughter. He is the Son and Lord of Whom Mary is the most just spouse; He is the Lord Triune and One of Whom Mary is the most submissive handmaid. Mary certainly is the Daughter of the Most High, the Mother of the Most High Goodness, the Handmaid of the Most High Trinity.Bonaventure
4 How could she but be powerful, she who merits the triple title: Domini Filia, Domini Mater, Domini Sponsa, Daughter of God, Mother of God and Spouse of God. Bonaventure
6 Albeit the work of three,
in One it is perfected;
the Word becomes incarnate
in the womb of the Blessed Mary.
And He who had but Father,
has now a Mother too...
Therefore the Son of God
and Son of Man he is called. John of the Cross
XIX Purification-Presentation of Jesus
1 The Virgin was not subject to the law of purification in Deuteronomy: since without human generation she became Emmanuel's Mother pure and holy and undefiled; and, having become Mother, remained still a Virgin. Basil.
2 On this day the Virgin Mother brings the Lord of the Temple into the Temple of the Lord; Joseph presents to the Lord a Son, who is not his own but the Blessed Son of that Lord himself, and in Whom He is well pleased; Simeon, the just man, confesses Him for whom he had been so long waiting; Anna, too, the widow, confesses Him. The Procession of this solemnity was first made by these four, which afterwards was to be made, to the joy of the whole earth, in every place and by every nation. Bernard
3 And he (Simeon) said to Mary His Mother: Behold this Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted and your own soul a sword shall pierce. The sword signifies the bitter passion and death of her Son. The material sword cannot kill or wound the soul, so the sharp Passion of Christ, although by compassion it pierced the soul of Mary, never dealt it a mortal wound. Bonaventure
4 St. Simeon received a promise from God that he should not die until he had seen the Messiah. (Luke 2:2-26) But this grace he receive through Mary, for it was in her arms that he found the Savior. Hence, he who desires to find Jesus, will not find Him otherwise than by Mary. Liguori
5 But the Blessed Virgin did not offer Him as other mothers offered their sons. Others also offered them to God, but they knew that this oblation was simply a legal ceremony, and that by redeeming them they made them their own, without a fear of having again to offer them to death. Mary really offered her Son to death, and knew for certain that the sacrifice of the life of Jesus which she then made was one day to be actually consummated on the Altar of the Cross; so that Mary, by offering the life of her Son, really to sacrifice her own entire self to God... Although from the moment she became the Mother of Jesus, Mary consented to His death, yet God willed that on this day she should make a solemn sacrifice of herself, by offering her Son to Him in the Temple, sacrificing His precious life to Divine Justice. Hence, St Epiphanius (+403) calls her a "priest" (Virginam appello velut sacerdotem. [Hom. in Laud.S.M.] And now we begin to see how much this sacrifice cost her, and what heroic virtues she had to practice when she herself subscribed the sentence by which her beloved Jesus was condemned to death. Liguori
6 And your own soul a sword shall pierce. (Luke 2:35) Compassion alone for the sufferings of this most beloved Son was the sword of sorrow which was to pierce the Heart of the Mother, as St. Simeon exactly foretold. Already the most Blessed Virgin, as St. Simeon says, was enlightened by the Sacred Scriptures and knew the sufferings that the Redeemer was to endure...Mary, I say, already knew all these torments that her Son was to endure, but in the words addressed to her by St. Simeon, all the minute circumstances of the sufferings internal and external, that were to torment her Jesus in His passion, were make known to her, as Our Lord revealed to St Teresa. Liguori.
XX Mother of Divine Grace
2 Happy she who has become for all creation the fountain that pours out all good things! From her has shone light for all creatures. Ephraem
3 On others grace was bestowed in measure; but the whole fullness was poured into Mary. Jerome
5 I am the city of refuge, says, Our Lady, for all those who have recourse to me. Come, then, to me, my children; for from me you will obtain graces, and these in greater abundance than you can possible imagine. Damascene
6 Mary is the Mother of all graces. Anselm
7 By you we have access to your Son, O blessed finder of grace, Mother of Life, Mother of Salvation, that by you He may receive us, Who by you was given to us. Bernard
10 She is a full aqueduct, that others may receive of her plenitude...But why did Gabriel, having found the divine Mother already full of grace, according to his salutation, Hail, full of grace, afterward say, that the Holy Ghost would come upon her to fill her still more with grace? If she was already full of grace, what more could the coming of the Divine Spirit effect? Mary was already full of grace; but the Holy Ghost filled her to overflowing, for our good, that from her superabundance we miserable creatures might be provided. Bernard.
13 A gracious woman shall find glory (Prov. 11:16). O truly happy finder, Mary, who is so great in this world, so great in Heaven! No pure creature found such grace in this world, such glory in Heaven. And certainly she found both grace and glory with the Lord, for as it is said in the Psalm, The Lord will give grace and glory (Ps. 83:12).Bonaventure
14 Grace upon grace has a chaste and holy woman (Ecclus. 26:19). The woman chaste above all women is Mary, the woman holy above all women, in whom is grace above grace, the grace of glory above the grace of the way, the grace of rewards in Heaven above, the grace of merits in this world. Bonaventure
15 With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justices. That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures. (Prov. 8:18, 21). We ought all to keep our eyes constantly fixed on Mary's hands, that through them we may receive the graces that we desire. Bonaventure
16 Let us go, therefore, with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid (Heb. 4:16). The throne of grace is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Albert
XXI At the Foot of the Cross
2 The lance which opened His side (John 19:34) passed through the soul of the Blessed Virgin, which could never leave her Son's Heart. Bernard
3 Those wounds which were scattered over the body of Our Lord were all united in the single Heart of Mary. Bonaventure
4 O Lady, tell me, where did you stand? Was it only at the foot of the Cross? Ah, much more than this, you were on the Cross itself, crucified with your Son. Bonaventure
5 When she saw the love the Eternal Father towards men to be so great that, in order to save them, He willed the death of His Son; and, on the other hand, seeing the love of the Son in wishing to died for us: in order to conform herself who was always and in all things united to the will of God to this excessive love of both the Father and the Son toward the human race, she also with her entire will offered and consented so, the death of her Son, in order that we might be saved. Bonaventure
6 As all the world is under obligation to Jesus for his Passion, so also are we under obligation to Our Lady for her compassion. Albert
10 On these words of the Gospel, there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother (John 19:25) St. Antoninus says, "Mary stood, supported by her faith, which she retained firm in the divinity of Christ." And for this reason it is, the Saint adds, that in the Office of Tenebrae only one candle is left lighted. St Leo the Great (+461), on this subject applies to Our Blessed Lady the words of Proverbs (31:18), Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. Liguori
11 She gave Him to us a thousand and a thousand times, during the three hours preceding His death, and which she spent at the foot of the Cross; for during the whole of that time she unceasingly offered, with the extreme of sorrow and the extreme of love, the life of her Son in our behalf, and this with such constancy, that St. Anselm (Abp. of Canterbury, +1459) and St. Antoninus (O.P., Abp of Florence, +1459) say, that if executioners had been wanting she herself would have crucified Him, in order to obey the Eternal Father Who willed His death for our salvation. If Abraham has such fortitude as to be ready to sacrifice with his own hands the life of his son, with far greater fortitude would Mary (far more holy and obedient than Abraham) have sacrificed the life of hers. Liguori
12 Then the disciples all leaving Him, fled (Mt. 26:56)... Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother (John 19:25). His loving Mother did not abandon Him; she remained with Him until He expired...she did not go to a distance, but drew nearer to the Cross, the hard bed on which Jesus Christ had to die. Mary, who stood by its side, never turned her eyes from Him; she beheld Him...suspended by those three iron hooks. Liguori
XXII Queen of Martyrs
1 As the sun surpasses all the stars in lustre, so the sorrows of Mary surpass all the tortures of the martyrs. Basil
2 That Mary was a true martyr cannot be doubted, as Denys the Carthusian, Pelbart, Catharinus and others prove; for it is an undoubted opinion that suffering sufficient to cause death is martyrdom, even though death does not ensue from it. St. John the Evangelist is revered as a martyr, though he did not die in the caldron of boiling oil, but came out more vigorous than he went in. St. Thomas says "that to have the glory of martyrdom, it is sufficient to exercise obedience in its highest degree, that is to say, to be obedient unto death." "Mary was a martyr," says, St Bernard, "not by the sword of the executioner, but by the bitter sorrow of heart." Liguori
3 O marvelous patience and meekness of Mary, who was not only most patient while her Son was crucified in her presence, but also before the crucifixion, when her Son was reviled, as it is said in the Gospel of Mark. Is not this the Son of the carpenter and of Mary and a little further on, And they were scandalized in Him. Jerome
5 The most cruel tortures inflicted on the martyrs were trifling, or as nothing in comparison with the martyrdom of Mary. Anselm
7 And why? O Lady, did you also go to sacrifice yourself on Calvary? Was not a crucified God sufficient to redeem us, that you, His Mother, would also go to be crucified with Him? Bonaventure
9 Consider how love draws all the pains, all the torments, all the sufferings, all the sorrows, the wounds, the Passion, the Cross, and even the death of Our Redeemer into the Heart of His most Holy Mother. Alas, the same nails that crucify this Divine Child crucify also the Heart of the Mother; the same thorns which pierce His head, pierce the soul of that most gentle Mother. Through her condolence she had the same sorrows that her son suffered; the same Passion through compassion, in a word, the sword of death which pierced the Son of this well-beloved Son, likewise pierced the Heart of that most loving Mother, inasmuch as the Heart of the Mother was one with her Son in so perfect a union that nothing could wound the one without also wounding the other. Her maternal breast thus wounded by love, far from seeking the cure of her wound, loved it more than any healing, cherishing the marks of sorrow that love has engraved on her Heart, and desiring continually to die of this wound since her Son had died of it amid the flames of charity, a perfect holocaust for all the sins of the world. Francis
XXIII Co-Redemptrix of the Human Race
7 O Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you your just dues of praise and thanksgiving, you who by the wondrous assent of your will did rescue a fallen world? What songs of praise can our weak human nature recite in your honor, since it is by your intervention alone that it has found the way to restoration? Augustine
8 By you, O Mary, the Trinity is glorified; by you the precious Cross is celebrated and reverenced throughout the whole world. By you mankind, which was enslaved by the errors of idolatry, has been converted to the truth; believers have been baptized; churches are everywhere erected. By your aid, nations have done penance. What more can be said? By you the only-begotten Son of God, that true Light, has shined on those that were in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Who can worthily celebrate your praises, O Mother and Virgin! Cyril of Alexandria
10 Devotion to you O Mary, is a pledge of salvation which God grants to those whom He wills to save.
11 O Blessed Mother of God, open to us the gate of Mercy: for you are the salvation of the human race. Damascene
12 God would not become Man without the consent of Mary: in the first place, that we might feel ourselves under great obligations to her, and secondly, that we might understand that the salvation of all is left to the care of the Blessed Virgin. Damian
13 Although God could create the world out of nothing, yet when it was lost by sin, He would not repair the evil without the cooperation of Mary. Anselm
14 Through you, O Mother of love, O Mother of salvation, who has found grace with God, we find access to the Father, so that through you we are received by Him Who has been given to us through you. You are the dispenser of all graces; our salvation is in your hands. Bernard
15 God has deposited in Mary the fullness of all that is good, so that if we have any hope, any grace, any salvation, we should know that all comes to us by Mary. Bernard
16 See, O man, the designs of God-designs by which He is able to dispense His mercy more abundantly to us; for, desiring to redeem the whole human race, He has placed the whole price of Redemption in the hands of Mary, that she may dispense it at will. Bernard
17 All men, past, present and to come, should look upon Mary as the means and negotiator of the salvation of all ages. Bernard
18 When God was about to redeem the human race, He deposited the whole price in Mary's hands. Bernard
19 You have gone, O Virgin, in the salvation of your people: to their salvation with Christ. O blessed one, in your hands is laid up our salvation: be mindful O loving one, of our poverty. He whom you will save, will be saved: and he from whom you shall turn away your face, will go down to destruction. Bonaventure
20 By you redemption has been sent from God: the repentant people shall have the hope of salvation...The way to come to Christ is to approach her: he who shall fly her shall not find the way of peace...Approach to our Lord to pray for us: that by you our sins may be blotted out...may sinners find grace with God by you, the finder of grace and salvation. Bonaventure
21 It is a great thing in any saint to have grace sufficient for the salvation of many souls; but to have (as Mary had) enough to suffice for the salvation of everybody in the world, is the greatest of all. Aquinas
22 Mary is after God and with God and under God the efficient cause of our regeneration because she begot our Redeemer, and because by her virtue, she merited by a merit of congruity this impeccable honor. She is the material cause, because the Holy Ghost through the intermediary of her consent took from her pure flesh and blood the flesh and blood from which was made the Body immolated for the Redemption of the world. She is the final cause, for the great work of Redemption which is ordained principally for the glory of God, is ordained secondarily for the honor of this same Virgin. She is the formal cause, for the Light of a Light so very deiform she is the universal exemplar which shows us the way out of darkness to the vision of the Eternal Light. Albert
25 I will put enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed: she shall crush your head (Gen. 3:15). Who could this woman, the serpent's victor, be but Mary, who by her fair humility and holy life always conquered him and beat down his strength? The Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ was promised in the person of that woman, as it is remarked by St. Cyprian and after him another ancient writer; and therefore God did not say "I put," "but I will put," lest He might seem to refer to Eve,...to signify that the serpent's opponent was not to be Eve, who was then living, but would be another woman descending from her, and who, as St. Vincent Ferrer observes, "would bring our first parents far greater advantages than those which they had lost by their sin"...St. Bruno says that "Eve was the cause of our death," by allowing herself to be overcome by the serpent, "But that Mary," by conquering the devil, "restored life to us". Liguori
XXIV Mother of the Mystical Body
3 The Mother of our Head, in bearing Him corporally became spiritually the Mother of all members of this Divine Head. Augustine
5 What dignity, O Virgin, could be more highly prized than to be the Mother of those of whom Christ deigned to be Father and Brother? Anselm
XXV Mother of Priests
1 The Heart of the Glorious Virgin contributed to the work of our Redemption, because Jesus Christ, Who is both the Victim Who was sacrificed for our salvation and the Priest who immolated the Victim, is the fruit of her Heart. St. John Eudes
XXVI Queen of Apostles
4 Hail Mary, for by you the Son of God gives light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death; by you the prophets have spoken; by you the Apostles preached salvation to the nations; by you the Holy Cross is hallowed and venerated in all the world; by you the wicked angels have been routed, and Heaven restored to fallen man, by you souls chained in the errors of idolatry come back to the way of knowledge and of the truth; by you the faithful come to holy Baptism and churches have been established among all peoples of the earth. Cyril of Alexandria
6 Hail, O you by whom we have been numbered among the citizens of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church! Damascene
XXVII Mother of Us All
8 Although in the most pure womb of Mary there was but one grain of corn, which was Jesus Christ, yet it is called a heap of wheat, because all the elect were virtually contained in it; and as she was also to be their Mother, in bringing forth Jesus He was truly the first-born of many brethren. Ambrose
10 Through you do the miserable obtain mercy, the ungracious grace, sinners pardon, the weak strength, the worldly heavenly things, mortals life, and pilgrims their country. Augustine
12 It is true that according to the prophecy of Isaias, Jesus, in dying for the Redemption of the human race, chose to be alone. I have trodden the winepress alone (Is.63:3) but, seeing the ardent desire of Mary to aid in the salvation of man, He disposed it so that she, by the sacrifice and offering of the life of her Jesus, should cooperate in our salvation, and thus become the Mother of our souls. This Our Savior signified when, before expiration, He looked down from the Cross on His Mother and on the disciple St. John, who stood at its foot, and, first addressing Mary, He said, Behold your son, as it were saying, Behold the whole human race, which by the offer you make of My life for the salvation of all, is even now being born to the life of grace. Then turning to the disciple, He said, Behold your Mother. "By these words" says St. Bernardine of Siena, "Mary, by reason of the love she bore them, became the Mother, not only of St John, but of all men." And Silverira (Goncalo da Silvira, S.J., Martyred 1651) remarks that St. John himself, in stating this fact in his Gospel, says: "Then he said to the disciple, Behold your Mother. Here observe well that Jesus did not address Himself to John but to 'the disciple,' in order to show that He then gave Mary to all who are His disciples, that is to say, to all Christians, that she might be their Mother." Further says Silveria, "John is but the name of one, whereas the word disciple is applicable to all; therefore Our Lord makes use of a name common to all, to show that Mary was given to us. Liguori
XXVIII Her Falling Asleep and Assumption
7 One day, the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, Queen of Angels, the Lord desired to grant me the following favor; in a rapture he showed me her ascent to heaven, the happiness and solemnity with which she was received, and the place where she is. The glory my spirit experienced in seeing so much glory was magnificent. The effects of this favor were great...I was left with a longing to serve Our Lady since she deserved this so much. Teresa
11 The Queen stood on the right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety (Ps.44:10). We read how the angels have come to the death and burial of some of the saints, and how they have accompanied the souls of the elect to Heaven with hymns and praises. How much more should we believe that the heavenly army, with all its bands, came forth rejoicing in festal array, to meet the Mother of God, surrounded her with effulgent light, and led her with praises and canticles to the throne prepared for her from the beginning of the world. Jerome
12 This venerable day has dawned, the day that surpasses all the festivals of the saints, this most exalted and most solemn day on which the Blessed Virgin was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. On this day the queenly Virgin was exalted to the very throne of God the Father, and elevated to such a height that the angelic spirits are in admiration. Augustine
13 I hold that Mary is in Christ and with Christ: in Christ, because in Him we live and move and have our being; with Christ, because she is assumed in glory. Augustine
19 It has been handed down to us from of old, that at the time of the glorious Passing of Our Lady, all the Apostles who were then toiling in various parts of the world for the salvation of mankind were in an instant caught up into the air, and borne together to Jerusalem.
There a vision of angels appeared to them, and they heard the chant of Angelic Powers. And thus with glory to God, she yielded up her blessed soul into the hands of her Maker. As for her body, which is an ineffable manner had harbored God, it was carried out for burial amid the hymns of Angels and of the Apostles, and was laid in a tomb at Gethsemane, and for three days the songs of Angels continued without ceasing.
At the end of the three days the melody of the Angels ceased, and Thomas, who alone had been absent, having come on the third day, and desiring to pay homage to that body which had harbored God, the Apostles opened the tomb, but search as they would, nowhere could they discover the sacred body. They found only the clothes in which it had been enshrouded and being refreshed with the ineffable fragrance which proceeded from them, they once again more closed the tomb.
Astounded at the extraordinary and mysterious event, they could but conclude, that He Whom it had pleased to take of the Virgin Mary, and of her to be made Man and to be born-though He was God the Word and the Lord of glory-and Who had kept her virginity unimpaired even after childbirth, had also been pleased, upon her departure hence, to shield her sinless body from decay, and to honor it by removal hence before the common and universal resurrection.
There were present then together with the Apostles the most holy Timothy, the first Bishop of the Ephesians, and Dionysius the Areopagite, as he himself attests in what he wrote to the afore said Timothy with reference to Blessed Hieromtheus, who was also present on that occasion.
("Once he has spoken, any further speech is out of place": so the Areopagite)."For even among our Divinely inspired Pontiffs he shone, as you yourself were witness, when, as you remember, we also and many of our holy brethren had come together to view that body which had given birth to Life, and harbored God."
There were present James, the brother of the Lord, and Peter, supreme head and eldest of theologians, and having seen the sacred body, we were all pleased to chant, as each one might, the praises of the infinite goodness and power of God." Damascene
20 Your stainless body did not remain within the earth; you were transported alive to the royal abode of Heaven-you who are at once Queen, Mistress and Sovereign, and very truly the Mother of God... How could she taste death who has given Life to all? She does, indeed, submit to the law enacted by Him Whom she bore; and as a daughter of the old Adam, she submits to the sentence passed of old-for her Son, though He is Life itself, did not exempt Himself from it. But as the Mother of the living God, she is worthily taken up to Him.
Damascene.
22 Our Savior ascends to Heaven by the power of His sovereign might, as Lord and Creator, accompanied by angels who pay Him homage, not dependent on their help or assistance. Mary is assumed into Heaven in virtue of an uplifting grace, escorted and upheld by the angels, raised aloft by grace, not by nature...The whole multitude of angels are gathered together, to see their Queen at the right of the Lord of host, in gilded vesture, in her ever immaculate body. Damian
23 O Glorious Virgin, who did submit to death, but could not be held in durance by the bonds of death: because you alone, O Virgin, did bear Him Who was the death of death, and of the grave the sting! Anselm
24 It was precisely for this purpose that the Redeemer was pleased to ascend to Heaven before His Mother: He did do not only to prepare a throne for her in that Kingdom, but also that He might Himself accompany her with all the blessed spirits, and thus render her entry into Heaven more glorious, and such as became one who was His Mother. Anselm
25 If the mind of man can never comprehend the immense glory prepared in Heaven by God for those who on earth have loved Him, as the Apostle tell us (1 Cor. 2:9), who can ever comprehend the glory that He has prepared for His beloved Mother who, more than all men, loved Him on earth; no, even from the first moment of her creation, love Him more than all men and angels united? Bernard
26 Today she is welcomed by Him whom she herself welcomed when He came to the hamlet of this earth of ours. But with what honor, think you, He welcomed her, with what exaltation and what glory! There was not on earth a worthier spot than the temple of her virginal bosom, nor was there in Heaven a place more exalted than the seat where Mary was enthroned by her Divine Son. Happy twofold welcome! Hence we read today of that woman who received Christ into her home (Gospel for 15 August, Luke 10:38-42), a reception that was an image of Mary's reception into Heaven...Who can conceive how great was the glory of the Queen of the world, as she advanced, or with what depth of devotion an affection the whole multitude of the heavenly legions went forth to meet her; with what glad canticles she was conducted to her glorious throne; with what placid mien, what serenity of countenance, what divine embraces she was welcomed by her Son, and exalted above all creatures, with the honor which such a Mother merited, and the glory which became so great a Son? Bernard
27 I will glorify the place of My feet (Is. 60:13. Mary is the place to which the allusion is made. For the Lord's feet are His lowly human nature, and Mary is the sanctuary that harbored it. And today He has glorified this spot, raising it above the angels. Hence we have evidently her glorious Assumption. That is why it was said: Arise, O Lord into Your resting-place: You and the Ark which You have sanctified.(Ps.131:8). The Lord arose when He ascended to the right hand of the Father. The ark which He was sanctified arose when the Virgin Mother was assumed to the heavenly bridal chamber. Go forth and contemplate admiringly the Mother of the King in the diadem wherewith her Son crowned her in the day of her triumph and glorious Assumption. Anthony
28 The last curse common to man and woman lies in this, that they must return to dust; and from this Mary was free. We believe that after her death she was restored to life and carried to Heaven, according to verse 8, Psalm 121, a text very often applied by early Christian writers to the twofold resurrection of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, she being the true Ark of the Convent, which the Lord has sanctified. Thomas
29 The flower perishes in death, as it is said in Isaias: The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen . It will flower again in a glorious resurrection, according to the Psalmist: My flesh has flowered again. This flower of the glorification of the body has, as it were, as many petals as the glorified body has gifts and rewards. And certainly the holy Doctors seem to hold it as probable, and strive with some show of reason to prove, that the Blessed Virgin was taken up body and soul into Heaven, and that her body and soul are now in glory.
30 When the glorious Virgin was assumed into Heaven, she augmented the joy of all its inhabitants. Bonaventure
31 (After citing many evidences, Scriptural and Patristic, he concludes:) For these reasons and from these arguments based on authority, as well as many others, it is plain that the most Blessed Mother of God has been assumed in body and should beyond the choirs of angels. And this in every way we believe to be true. Albert
33 If this Mother lived her Son’s life, she also died her Son’s death…Having collected in her spirit all the most beloved mysteries of the life and death of the Son by a most lively and continued memory of them, and withal, ever receiving directly the most ardent inspirations which her Child, the Son of Justice has cast upon human beings, in the highest noon of His charity; and besides, making on her part also, a perpetual movement of contemplation, at length the sacred fire of this divine love consumed her entirely as a holocaust of sweetness, so that she died thereof, the soul being wholly ravished and transported into the arms of the direction of her Son. Francis
34 Cedrenus (Georgius Cedrenus, Comp. Histor., n. 86), Nicephorus (Nicephorus Gregoras, His.,I. 2, c.21) and Metaphrastes (Symeon Metaphrastes, or. de Vita et Dorm.M.-for this writer see Catholic Encyclopedia, x, 225)relates that, some days before her death, Our Lord sent her the Archangel, Gabriel, the same that announced to her that she was that blessed woman chosen to be the Mother of God...Many authors, such as St Andrew of Crete (In Dorm.S.M., or.i) St John Damascene (Hist.I.3, c. 40), Euthymius (De Dorm B. M.,or.1 et 2), assert that, before her death, the Apostles, and also many disciples...assembled in Mary's room. Liguori
35 There are three things that render death bitter: attachment to the world, remorse for sins, and the uncertainty of salvation. The death of Mary was entirely free from these causes of bitterness, and was accompanied by three special graces, which rendered it precious and full of joy. She died as she had lived, entirely detached from the things of the world; she died in the most peace; she died in the certainty of eternal glory. Liguori
36 As the loving Virgin lived, so did she die. As Divine Love gave her life, do did It cause her death; for the Doctors and holy Fathers of the Church generally say she died of no other infirmity than pure love; St Ildephonsus (+667) says that Mary ought not to die, or only die of love. Liguori
XXIX Sovereignty of Mary
1 If the Son is a King, the Mother who begot Him is rightly and truly considered a Queen and Sovereign. Athanasius
2 And He was subject to them (Luke 2:51). Jesus Christ having reigned to make Mary His Mother, inasmuch as He was her Son He was truly obliged to obey her. Ambrose
3 We truly confess her to be Queen of Heaven, because she brought forth the King of Angels. Augustine
4 The greatest glory of the blessed in Heaven is, after seeing God, the presence of this beautiful Queen.
5 Her Son esteems her prayers so greatly, and is so desirous to satisfy her, that when she prays it seems as if she rather commanded then prayed, and was rather a queen than a handmaid. Damian
6 You, O Lady, are more exalted than the patriarchs, greater than the martyrs, more glorious than the confessors, purer than the virgins, and, therefore, you alone and without them, can accomplish what they can do only jointly with you. Anselm
7 And a great sign appeared in heaven, a Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars . (Apoc. 12:1). You O Lady, have clothed the Sun, that is the Eternal Word, with human flesh; but He has clothed you with His power and mercy. Bernard
8 Why does the Church call Mary "the Queen of Mercy"? It is because we believe that she opens the abyss; of the mercy of God to whomsoever she wills, when she wills, and as she wills; so that there is no sinner, however great, who is lost if Mary protects him. Bernard
9 When the Blessed Virgin conceived the Eternal Word in her womb, and brought Him forth, she obtained half the Kingdom of God: so that she is Queen of Mercy as Jesus Christ is King of Justice. Aquinas
10 Nay, more, whenever the most sacred Virgin goes to God to intercede for us, she, as Queen, commands all the angels and saints to accompany her, and unite their prayers to hers. Bonaventure
11 Her throne is as the sun in my sight, and as the moon perfect for ever (Ps. 88:38).The Lord has prepared for Mary eternal light in heaven so that as the sinful soul, the throne of the devil, will be miraculously dark for ever, Mary, the Mediatrix, the throne of Christ, will be marvelously luminous for ever. Bonaventure
16 Mary, then, is Queen: but for our common consolation, be it known that she is a Queen so sweet, clement, and so ready to help us in our miseries, that Holy Church wills that we should salute her in this prayer (Salve Regina) under the title of Queen of Mercy. Liguori
17 Jesus, Who is omnipotent, made Mary also omnipotent; though of course it is always true that where the Son is omnipotent by nature, the Mother is so only by grace. But that she is so is evident from the fact that, whatever the Mother asks for, the Son never denies her...This is know from what occurred at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee. When the wine failed, the most Blessed Virgin, being moved to compassion at the sight of the affliction and shame of the bride and bridegroom, asked her Son to relieve them by a miracle, telling Him that they had no wine . Jesus answered, Women, what is that to you and Me? My hour is not yet come (John 2:4)...Mary, who well knew her privilege, although her Son seemed to have refused her the favor, yet told them to fill the jars with water, as if her request had already been granted. And so it was; for Jesus, to content His Mother, changed the water into the best wine. But how is this? As the time for working miracles was that of the public life of our Lord...Yet from all eternity God had determined that nothing that she asked should ever be refused the divine Mother...That is the sense in which Saint John Chrysostom (+407) understood it; he says that, "Through Jesus answered thus, yet in honor of His Mother He obeyed her request." (In Jn.,hom. 21) This is confirmed by St. Thomas Aquinas (+1274), who says that by the words, My hour is not yet come, Jesus intended to show, that had the request come from any other, He would not then have complied with it; but because it was addressed to Him by His Mother, He could not refuse it. St Cyril (+444) and St. Jerome (+420), quoted by Barrada, say the same thing. Also Gaudavensis, on the foregoing passage of St. John, says that "to honor His Mother, Our Lord anticipated the time for working miracles" (In Conc. Ev., c.17) Liguori.
XXX The Reign of Jesus Through Mary
2 Let the soul of Mary be in each of us to glorify the Lord; let the spirit of Mary be in each of us to rejoice in God. Ambrose
5 The King loved her more than all women, and placed the diadem of His Kingdom on her head (Esther 2:17). We read that there was a twofold utility in the grace of Esther which she had with the king: one was, that she obtained the royal crown; the other, that she delivered her nation, which had been condemned to death. So Mary, our Esther, obtained such grace with the eternal King that by it she not only attained to the crown herself, but delivered the human race, which was condemned to death. Therefore Saint Anselm (Archbishop of Canterbury, +1109) says: "How shall I worthily praise the Mother of my Lord and God, by whose fecundity I, a captive, was redeemed, by whose Child I, being lost, was recovered and led back from the exile of misery to the homeland of eternal beatitude?" Bonaventue
6 My power is in Jerusalem (Ecclus. 24:15). Jerusalem signifies the Church Triumphant in Heaven: it signifies also the Church Militant upon earth. For truly both in Heaven and on earth the Mother of the Creator has power. Bonaventure.
XXXI Devotion of the Saints to Our Lady
2 Most blessed couple (St Joachim and St Anne), the whole creation is in your debt. For it is through you that it has been enabled to offer the Creator a present above all presents, the chaste Mother, who alone was worthy of the Creator. Rejoice, Joachim, for unto us a son is born of your daughter. J. Damascene
3 You are the ravisher of hearts: for have you not ravished my heart, O Queen? Bernard.
4 Hail, my Lady, my Mother; nay, even my heart and my soul. Bonaventure
5 After God, our greatest glory and our greatest joy is Mary. Bonaventure
7 Let us love her as did St. Aloysius Gonzaga (S.J., +1581), whose love for Mary burned so unceasingly, that whenever he heard the sweet name of his Mother mentioned, his heart was instantly inflamed and his countenance lighted up with a fire that was visible to all. Let us love as much as St. Francis Solano (O.F.M.,+1610), who, maddened as it were -but with a holy madness-with love for Mary, would sing before her picture that, like worldly lovers, he serenaded his most sweet Queen. Liguori
XXXII Happy Clients of Mary
2 Mary not only comes to us when called, but even spontaneously advances to meet us. Jerome
3 O Mother of God, if I place my confidence in you, I shall be saved. If I am under your protection, I have nothing to fear, for the fact of being your client is the possession of a certainty of salvation, which God grants only to those whom He intends to save. Damascene
4 To serve Mary and to be her courtier is the greatest honor we can possibly posses; for to serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there, and to live under her commands is more than to govern. Damascene
5 As the other planets are illumined by the sun, so do all the elect receive light and increase of happiness from the sight of Mary. Bonaventure
XXXIII Mother of Mercy
1 Mary is so endured with feelings of compassion that she not only deserves to be called merciful, but even mercy itself. Pope Leo I, Doctor of the Church.
2 Mary, by how much she is higher and holier than we are, is more clement and compassionate to converted sinners. Pope Gregory I, Doctor of the Church.
4 God has ordained that she should assist us in everything. Basil, Doctor of the Church.
5 By her we obtain the pardon of our sins.Chrysostom
6 Sinners receive pardon by the intercession of Mary alone. Chrysologus
9 Mary stands in the presence of her Son, and never ceases to intercede for sinners. Bede, the Venerable, Doctor of the Church
11 Open to us the gate of mercy, O holy Mother of God! John Damascene, Doctor of the Church.
12 Hear us, loving one; be with us, be favorable to us; help us, most powerful Mother, that our minds may be cleansed from stains and our darkness illuminated. Anselm, Doctor of the Church.
13 If he who prays does do merit to be heard, the merits of the Mother, to whom he recommends himself, will intercede effectually. Anselm, Doctor of the Church.
14 In dangers, in troubles, in doubt’s think of Mary, call upon Mary...If you follow her guidance, you will not go astray. If you pray to her, you will not give up hope. If you think of her, you will not do wrong. If she upholds you, you will not stumble. If she protects you, you will not be afraid. If she leads you, you will reach the goal. Bernard, Doctor of the Church.
15 We praise her humility, we admire her virginity; but her mercy is sweeter to the unfortunate; we cling more tenderly to her mercy, we remember it more frequently, we invoke it more unceasingly. Bernard, Doctor of the Church.
16 A throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth (Is. 16:5). The throne of divine mercy is Mary, the Mother of Mercy, in whom all find the solace of mercy...Therefore St Bernard exultantly says: "Let him be silent on the subject of your mercy, O Blessed Virgin, who, having invoked it in his necessities, found it wanting." Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church.
17 Hold in ever highest and most affectionate veneration, the glorious Queen, Mother of Our Lord, turning to her in all your pressing needs and difficulties as to a most sure refuge, imploring the help of her protection, choosing her as your advocate, whole-heartedly and without misgiving entrusting your cause to her who is the Mother of Mercy, and zealously offering her day by day most special marks of reverence. But that your devotion may be acceptable and your homage pleasing, you must endeavor to maintain within you as best as you can, in soul and body, the spotlessness of her purity, and try to your utmost to walk in her footsteps, humbly and gently like her. Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church.
XXXIV Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted
3 She was predilected from all eternity to be Mother of God, that those who could not be saved according to the rigor of Divine Justice, might be so with the help of her sweet mercy and powerful intercession. Chrysostom
4 Mary stands before her Son, unceasingly praying for sinners. Bede
5 Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that He came to call not the just, but sinners. Anselm
6 It behooves the Queen of Virgins, by a singular privilege of sanctity, to lead a life entirely fee from sin, that while she ministered to the Destroyer of death and sin, she should obtain the gift of life and justice for all.
7 O man, whoever you are, understand that in this world you are tossed about on a stormy and tempestuous sea, rather than walking on solid ground; remember that if you would avoid being drowned, you must never turn your eyes from the brightness of this star, but keep them fixed on it, and call on Mary. In dangers, in straits, in doubts, remember Mary, invoke Mary. Bernard
8 Even when the Mother of God lived in this valley of tears, she was inexpressibly loving and merciful toward the afflicted; how much more compassionate is she now since she reigns happily in Heaven! Now she realizes human misery more fully, and therefore manifests her mercy and assistance more generously. She is, indeed, our Mother; and could a mother forget her children? Bonaventure
XXXV Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope
4 O Lady, cease not to watch over us; preserve and guard us under the wings of your compassion and mercy, for, after God, we have no hope but in you. Ephraem
5 O blessed Mary, who can return to you sufficient thanks, or adequately celebrate your praises, for having by your consent succored a ruined world? What praise can human weakness offer to you, which by your means has found the port of salvation?... Holy Mary! succor the miserable, help the fainthearted, comfort the mournful, pray for the people, intercede for the clergy, pray for the devoted female sex, and let all experience your intercession who celebrate your holy Conception. Amen-From a prayer ascribed to St Augustine.
7 O Blessed Mother of God (Deipara), open to us the gate of mercy: for you are the salvation of the human race. Damascene
8 Let us look more deeply and see with how great a depth of devotion He wishes Mary to be honored by us Who have placed the fullness of all good in Mary, so that if we have any ground for hope, or for salvation, we should know that from her it springs. Bernard
9 I am the root and stock of David, the bright and Morning Star (Apoc. 22:16). Mary is called the Star of the Sea: for as those who sail on the ocean are directed to the port they seek by observing the stars, so Christians are directed to glory by Mary. Aquinas
XXXVI Now and at the Hour of our Death
5 What a day of joy that will be for you, when Mary the Mother of Our Lord, accompanied by the choirs of virgins, will go to meet you! Jerome
6 Through Mary's intercession, many souls are in paradise who would not be there had she not interceded for them, for God has entrusted her with the keys and treasures of the heavenly Kingdom. Aquinas
8 For in the latter end you shall find rest in her, and she shall be turned to your joy. Then shall her fetters be a strong defense for you, and a firm foundation and her chain a robe of glory. For in her is the beauty of life, and her bands are a healthful binding (Ecclus. 6:29-31). O you are indeed fortunate, my brother, if at death you are bound with the sweet chains of the love of the Mother of God! These chains are chains of salvation; they are chains that will insure salvation, and will make you enjoy in death that blessed peace which will be the beginning of your eternal peace and rest. Liguori
10 Oh, that we may end our lives as did the Capuchin Father, Fulgentius of Ascoli, who expired singing, "O Mary, O Mary, the most beautiful of creatures! let us depart together"; or, according to the annals of the Order, like Blessed Henry the Cistercian, who expired in the very moment that he was pronouncing the most sweet name of Mary. Liguori
XXXVII The Most Pure Heart of Mary
2 No created mind, no created heart, no human force is capable of knowing how much love the Heart of Mary had for Our Lord. Jerome
4 The love of God had so deeply wounded and penetrated the Heart of Mary, that there was nothing left in it that was not filled with love; for God inflamed no other heart with His love so much as that of the Blessed Virgin. For as she was free from all attachment to earthly things, so she was most susceptible to the flames of this blessed fire. Bernard
XXXVIII Neglect of Our Lady
2 Not only those, O Lady, offend you who outrage you, but you are also offended by those who neglect to ask your favors. Bonaventure
XXXIX The Imitation of Mary
1 There is nothing by which we can with greater certainly gain the affection of Mary than by charity toward our neighbor. G. Nazianzen
2 Now, therefore, children, hear me; blessed are they that keep my ways (Prov. 8:32). Mary was such that her life alone was a model for all. Let the virginity and life of Mary be to you as a faithful image, in which the form of virtue is resplendent. Thence learn how to live, what to correct, what to avoid, what to retain. Ambrose
3 He who does not the works of his Mother, abjures his lineage. Mary humble, and he proud; Mary pure, and he wicked; Mary full of love, and he hating his neighbor. Chrysologus
5 If you cannot imitate the virginity of this humble Virgin, imitate her humility. Bernard
XLII Our Lady and the Liturgy
3 O glorious Lady! thronged on high
Above the star-illumined sky;
Thereto ordained, thy bosom lent
To thy Creator nourishment.
Through thy sweet Offspring we receive
The bliss once lost through hapless Eve;
And Heaven to mortals open lies
Now thou are Portal of the skies.
Thou art the door of Heaven's high King,
Light's Gateway fair and glistening;
Life through a Virgin is restored;
Ye ransomed nations, praise the Lord!-Ascribed usually to St
Venantius Fortunatus (+609) or St Anthony of Padua, O.F.M.
Doctor of the Church (+1231)
36 Meet indeed it is to bless you, Mother of God, ever blessed and most sinless Mother of Our God. Honored above the cherubim, infinitely more glorious than the seraphim, who did bear the Word and are still Maiden. Mother of God in truth, you we magnify. Hymn of Praise, from the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
37 O full of grace, all creation, the angelic host and the race of men, rejoices in you: holy sanctuary, spiritual paradise, glory of virgins from whom God took flesh; He Who was God before all time became a little Child within you. Your lap was His throne, and your womb He made greater than the sky. All creatures are joyful in you, O full of grace. Glory to you. Hymn of Praise, from Byzantine Liturgy of St Basil
XLIV Our Lady and the Holy Eucharist
1 Through the prayers of Your pure Mother, the Blessed ever-Virgin Mary, my sure hope and protection, enable me without condemnation to partake of Your holy, immortal, life-giving and terrible Mysteries. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church.
2 It is through Mary that we are able to eat the Bread of Heaven every day; it is through her prayers that God inspires us to receive It and grants us the grace to receive It worthily. As Eve induced man to eat of the forbidden fruit which brought death upon us, so it is right that Mary should prompt us to eat the Bread which gives us life. Damian
XLV Mediatrix of All Graces
30 It becomes you, as being Mother of God, Queen, Lady and Mistress, for the sake of the King, Lord God and Master, born of you, to be mindful of us, as you stand near Him Who... granted you all graces, whence you are called "full of grace."... Be mindful of us, most Holy Virgin, and bestow on us gifts from the riches of your graces, O you, full of grace. Athanasius
31 Most Holy Lady, Mother of God, full of grace, our nature's glory, channel of all good things, Queen of all things after the Trinity, Mediatrix of the world after the Mediator...Through you we hold the certain pledges of our Redemption; through you we hope the certain pledges of our Redemption; through you we hope to reach the heavenly Kingdom...Through you all glory, honor and holiness vouchsafed to the human race from the first Adam to the last ages has been granted, is being granted, will be granted to apostles, prophets, martyrs and all the just and humble of heart-O you only Stainless One-and in you O Full-of-grace all creation exults with joy. Ephraem
32 I salute you; O great Mediatress of peace between men and God. Ephraem
33 This great Virgin and Mother found grace to restore thereby salvation to all men. Chrysologus
38 In your hands, O Mary are the riches of the Divine mercies. You alone are the one chosen to receive such a great grace. Damian
39 What all saints can do with you, you can do yourself and without them...If you are silent, none can pray for me or help me; but if you do speak, all can pray for me, all can hasten to my aid. Anselm
40 By you we have access to the Son, O blessed finder of grace, bearer of life and mother of salvation, that we may receive Him by you, Who through you was given to us. Bernard
41 Christ could suffice; for indeed, all our sufficiency is from Him; but we have need of an intercessor with Christ, nor is there anyone more influential than Mary. Bernard
43 The Virgin is called full of grace because she distributes this Divine life to all men. Aquinas
44 The moon, set between the sun and the earth, gives to the earth the light she receives from the sun. Thus, Mary, Madiatrix between God and us, transmits to the earth the heavenly graces she receives from the Divine Sun. Bonaventure
45 You are that most faithful dove of Noe, who has most faithfully stood forth as Mediatrix between the Most High God and the world submerged in a spiritual deluge. The crow was unfaithful, the dove most faithful. Eve was the unfaithful mediatrix of perdition; Mary was the faithful Mediatrix of salvation. St. Bernard says: "Mary was the faithful Mediatrix, who prepared the antidote of salvation for both men and women." Bonaventure
46 There are various types of "fullness" of grace. Among them is the fullness which receives solely for the purpose of giving, and that is the fullness of the canal. Now the Blessed Virgin has this fullness: for all graces without exception pass by her hands. Albert
47 She is the Universal Dispenser of all heavenly gifts. Albert
56 Observe that St. Elizabeth receives the Holy Ghost through the intervention of the Blessed Virgin, in order to teach us that we must use of her as our Mediatrix with her Divine Son, if we wish to obtain the Holy Ghost. True, we could go direct to God and ask Him for His grace without the help of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, but God has not so willed it. Francis
59 God is the source of every good, and the absolute Master of all graces; Mary is only a pure creature, who receives whatever she obtains as a pure favor from God. But who can ever deny that it is most reasonable and proper to assert that God, in order to exalt this great creature, who, more than all the others honored and loved Him during her life, and whom, moreover, He had chosen to be the Mother of His Son, our common Redeemer, wills that all graces that are granted to those whom He has redeemed should pass through and be dispensed by the hands of Mary? We most readily admit that Jesus Christ is the only Mediator of justice, and that by His merits He obtains for us all graces and salvation; but we say that Mary is the mediatress of grace; and that receiving all she obtains through Jesus Christ, and because she prays and asks for it in the Name of Jesus Christ, yet all the same whatever graces we receive, they come to us through her intercession. Liguori
60 The intercession of Mary is even necessary to salvation; we say necessary-not absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the will itself of God, that all graces that He dispenses should pass through the hands of Mary, according to the opinion of St. Bernard, and which we may now with safety call the general opinion of theologians and learned men. Liguori
...It is maintained by Vega, Mendoza, Segneri, Paciucchelte, Poire, Crasset and by numerous other learned authors. Liguori
61 She is called by the Venerable Abbott of Celles (Bl Raymond of Jordano, +1381) "the treasure of God, and the Treasure of grace": by St Peter Damian (+1072) "the Treasure of divine graces"; by Albert the Great (St Albertus Magnus, +1280) the "Treasurer of Jesus Christ"; by St Bernadine (+1444) "the Dispenser of graces"; by a learned Greek, quoted by Petavius, "the storehouse of all good things."...Richard of St. Laurence (+1245) says that "Mary is a treasure, because God has placed all gifts of graces in her as in a treasury, and thence He bestows great stipends on His soldiers and labors. Liguori
XLVI Prerogatives of Mary
6 Would you know how far this Virgin surpasses in dignity the Powers of Heaven? They with fear and trembling stand before God covering their faces with their wings; she offers up the human race to Him to Whom she gave birth. Through her we may obtain pardon for our sins. Hail then, O Mother, heavenly being, Virgin-throne of God, the glory and the bulwark of the Church; pray for us constantly to Jesus your Son our Lord, that through you we may find mercy in the day of judgment, and attain to the good things laid up for those who have love God. Chrysostom
7 Everywhere the holy Church of God sings, what it is unlawful to believe of any other of the saints, that the merits (of Mary) transcend those of all angels and archangels. This privilege-not, as it were, of nature, but of grace-belongs to the Virgin Mary. Jerome
8 Every gift, every grace, every good that we have and that we receive continually, we receive through Mary. If Mary did not exist, neither would we, nor would the world. Brindisi
9 God wants everyone, everyone to learn this truth from childhood on: that he who trusts in Mary, that he who relies on Mary will never be abandoned either in this world or in the next. Brindisi
10 Mary is the Queen of the true Faith. Cyril of Alexandria
13 There is an infinite difference between the Mother of God and the servants of God. J.Damascene
15 The fourth mode in which God is in a creature is that of identity; this He is in the Blessed Virgin Mary, for He is one with her. Let every creature be silent and tremble, and scarcely dare glance at the immensity of so great a dignity. Damian
16 As the light of the moon and stars is entirely eclipsed on the appearance of the sun, that it is as if it were not, so also does Mary's glory so far exceed the splendor of all men and angels, that, so to say, they do not appear in Heaven. Peter Damian
17 No one is equal to you. O Lady, for all are either above or beneath you: Above Mary, God only; beneath Mary, all that is not God. Anselm.
18 This is the singular glory of our Virgin, that she merited to have her Son in common with God the Father. Bernard
19 My abode is in the full assembly of saints (Ecclus. 24:16). I (B.V.M.) hold in plenitude all that other saints have held in part. Bonaventure
20 Mary is called the Gate of Heaven (felix coeli porta) because no one can enter that blessed Kingdom without passing through her. Bonaventure
21 A privilege of Mary is that she alone above all creatures was in the body most familiar with God. For, what was never granted to any other creature, nor will ever be granted again in eternity-she bore God for nine months in her womb, she nourished God from her breasts full of heaven, for many years she sweetly brought up Our Lord, she had God subject to her, she handled and embraced her God in pure embraces and kisses with tender familiarity. Bonaventure
22 King Solomon also made a great throne. (3 Kings 10:18) Mary is the throne of Solomon, great in grace and glory. St Bernard well says, "As much more grace than others as Mary obtained on earth, so great a degree of singular glory did she gain in Heaven." Bonaventure
23 The Blessed Virgin, who was equal to and even more superior in merit to all men and angels, was exalted above all the celestial orders. Aquinas
24 To be the Mother of God is the highest dignity after that of being God. Mary could not have been more closely united to God than she was without becoming God. Albert
25 I, Mary, am that dove of Noe (Gn. 8:2) which brought the olive-branch of peace to the Church. Albert
26 The Virgin Mary contemplates the majesty of God in incomparably closer proximity than all other creatures. Albert
27 She is the dispenser of Divine mercy. Catherine of Siena
37 Mary is in all things similar to Christ, in nature, grace and glory: in nature, being of the same nature with Christ; in grace, being also holy and full of grace and the Holy Spirit; and in glory, being like Christ as the moon is like the sun and a queen is like the king. Yes, Mary resembles Christ in her predestination, her birth, her resurrection, her assumption, her glorification. Brindisi
38 In Heaven the Mother of Fair Love is after Christ God's greatest blessing to the universal Church-the blessing of blessings, than which none greater could be thought out, since she does all things for us with God the Almighty. Brindisi
39 Her dignity infinitely exceeds that of the angels, having become so much superior to the angels as (she) has inherited a more excellent name than they. (Heb.1:4) For the dignity of the angels and saints compared to that of the Mother of God is as the moon compared to the brilliance of the sun. Hence, Mary, as we read in the Apocalypse (1:12), is clothed with the sun, crowned with the stars, and has the moon beneath her feet. Brindisi
40 Nothing under God can be more glorious than Mary. She is Queen of Heaven, Queen of Angels, Empress of Paradise, Daughter of the Heavenly Father, Mother of the Only-begotten Son of God, Spouse of the Holy Spirit. In her dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. (Col.2: 9) Brindisi
XLVII Absolute Confidence in Mary
9 While I keep my hope in you unconquerable, O Mother of God, I shall be safe. I will fight and overcome my enemies with no other buckler than your protection and your all powerful aid. Damascene
10 O blessed confidence, O safe refuge, Mother of God and our Mother! Anselm
11 The Mother of God is my Mother. How firm, then, should be our confidence, since our salvation depends on the judgment of a good Brother and a tender Mother. Anselm
12 Turn not away your eyes from the splendor of this star, if you will not be overwhelmed by storms. If the signs of temptation arises, if your strike on the rocks of temptation, or tribulation, look upon the star, call on Mary... Following her, you stray not; praying to her, you shall never despair; thinking of her, you shall never err; if she upholds you, you shall not fall; under her protection you shall not fear; if she is she is your guide, you shall not grow weary; with her favor you shall attain your end; and so in yourself you shall experience how truly it is said: And the name of the Virgin was Mary. Bernard
13 After God, it is our greatest glory, O Mary, to behold you, to adhere to you, to abide in the defense of your protection. Bernard
16 "Who," says Cardinal Bellarmine (St Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, + 1621: De Sept Verb. 1,i, c. 12), "would ever dare to snatch these children from the bosom of Mary, when they have taken refuge there? What power of hell, or what temptation, can overcome them, if they place their confidence in the patronage of this great Mother, the Mother of God and our Mother?" Liguori
XLVIII True Devotion to Mary
1 St Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort.
XLIX The Holy Slavery
4 Govern me, O my Queen, and leave me not to myself. Bonaventure
5 Even should she take my life, I would still hope in her and, full of confidence, would desire to die before her image. Bonaventure
6 Command me; employ me as your will, and chastise me when I do not obey; for the chastisements that come from your hands will be to me pledges of salvation. I would rather be your servant than the ruler of the earth. I am your; save me (Ps. 118:94). Accept me, O Mary, for your own, and as yours, take charge of my salvation. Liguori.
L Entire Consecration to Jesus Through Mary
All our perfection consists in being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ: and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. Now, Mary being the most conformed of all creatures to Jesus Christ, that which most consecrates and conforms the soul to Our Lord is devotion to His Holy Mother, and the more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus. Hence it comes to pass that the most perfect consecration to Jesus Christ is nothing else than a perfect and entire consecration of ourselves to the Blessed Virgin, and this is the devotion which I teach; or, in other words, a perfect renewal of the vows and promises of Baptism.
We must give her 1) our body, with all its senses and its members; 2) our soul, with all its powers; 3) our exterior goods of fortune, whether present or to come; 4) our interior and spiritual goods, which are our merits and our virtues, and our good works, past, present and future. In a word, we must give her all we have in the order of nature and in the order of grace, and all that may become ours in the future, in the orders of nature, grace and glory; and this we must do without the reserve of so much as one farthing, one hair, or one least good action; and we must do it also for all eternity; and we must do it, further, without pretending to, or hoping for, any other recompense for our offering and service except the honor of belonging to Jesus Christ through Mary and in Mary – even though that sweet Mistress were not, as she always is, the most generous and the most grateful of creatures...
In this consecration to Our Lady, we give her all the satisfactory, impetratory and meritorious value of our actions; in other words, the satisfactions and the merits of all good works. We give her all our merit, graces and virtues – not to communicate them to others, for our merits, graces and virtues – not to communicate them to others, for our merits, graces and virtues are, properly speaking, incommunicable, and it is only Jesus Christ Who, in making Himself our surety with His Father, is able to communicate His merits – but we give her them to keep them, augment them and embellish them for us.
Our satisfactions, however, we give her, to communicate to whom she likes, and for the greatest glory of God. It follows from this, that by this devotion, we give to Jesus Christ in the most perfect manner, inasmuch as it is by Mary’s hands, all we can give him, and far more than any other devotions in which we give Him, and far more than by any other devotions in which we give him either a part of our time, or a part of our good works, or a part of our satisfactions and mortifications; because here everything is given and consecrated to Him, even the rights of disposing of our interior goods, and of the satisfactions which we gain by good works day after day…
We consecrate ourselves at once and the same time to the most Holy Virgin and to Jesus Christ: to the most Holy Virgin as to the perfect means which Jesus Christ has chosen whereby to unite Himself to us, and us to Him; and to our Lord as to our last end, to Whom as our Redeemer and our God we owe all we are….
St Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort
