CHAPTER X
Mother Most Amiable.
God loves His works and delights in them. His love is commensurate with the perfection of His handiwork, so that the greater beauty He finds in them the more amiable are they in His sight. But God has no work more exalted or perfect in His creation than Mary.
He might make a greater world, a sublimer Heaven, but not a nobler, better mother than His own most amiable Mother, Mary.
Her love for Him, arising from her fulness of grace, surpasses that of all the choirs of angels. Her heart is a very ocean of love. She loved and loves God more than all His other creatures united. In her is all beauty; in her are all virtues, all graces, all perfections that can be found in all the saints combined. She has united them in herself, as the ocean unites in its bosom the waters of all the rivers of the world.
In creating the universe, God but spoke the word; while in creating Mary "He hath showed might in His arm" (Luke I—51). An ardent love for God consumed her soul. She longed for the redemption of man, for the coming of the Messiah. It was the object of her constant supplication. Her prayer availed and God condescended to tabernacle in her womb and become man to save man.
How lovable, O Lord, is this, Thy tabernacle among men, Mary, Thy most tender mother, by every title that renders Thy creature amiable in Thy sight. Most dear to God the Father, she is no less amiable to her spouse, the Holy Spirit of God.
One of the great advocates and lovers of Mary, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, tells us in his sermon on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin that the Holy Ghost united Himself to Mary as the fire does to the iron. He inflames her, consumes her, transforms her into His own love, in such a manner that we see in her only the ardent flower of love of the Holy Ghost.
She experiences only the fire of divine love. With reason is she called in Holy Scripture "the mother of fair love" (Ecc. XXIV—24).
If lovable to the Father and the Holy Spirit, how amiable to God the Son Whose mother she is! What son that does not look upon his mother as the most amiable among women! He loves her tenderly, he sees in her only what is lovable. She is all and all to him, his life, his sweetness, his hope. She is to him the best, the greatest, the most beautiful of women. If such be the feeling of the ordinary son for his mother, what must be the devotion of Jesus for His most pure, amiable mother.
To her alone He owes His being a child of man, hence He loves her wholly without having to share His affection with another. He belongs entirely to Mary. She has for Him an undivided love. Between them there is a perfect mutual love. They are to each other most amiable. Jesus knows and, in a Godlike manner, appreciates the lovable graces that adorn the soul and body of His mother. He is perfect and beautiful because all beauty and perfection are in Him; Mary is all beautiful for nothing defiled is in her.
The integrity of her virginity makes her body lovable; the virtues of humility and chastity render her soul radiant with loveliness. Her body is as pure as the snow, her soul is spotless.
Mary, the Mother of Him Who is dignity itself; beautiful, beside eternal beauty, immaculate in presence of Him Who never knew corruption, great with the Most High, spouse of the Holy Ghost, is the mother most amiable of Jesus. She conceived Him in her womb, nursed Him in His infancy and cared for Him in childhood and young manhood, accompanied Him in His journeys of kindness, love and charity.
In His sorrows she compassionated with Him, she rejoiced with Him in His joys. She was ever with Him from the manger to the tomb. His Godlike devotion to her points out how amiable His Mother Mary was to Him.
CHAPTER XI
Mother Most Admirable.
The heavens and the earth show forth the glory of God. All His works are wonderful. They magnify the name of the Lord. They sing His praises. Yet, Saint Thomas, the illustrious Doctor of the Church, declares that God could create nothing more glorious, nothing greater than the ever Blessed Virgin Mary, His most pure, most chaste, most amiable Mother.
How true this is appears from the reverence and obedience of her Divine Son for her. That a creature should command her Creator, and that the Creator should obey His creature is marvellous. She is so admirable that she possessed in her most chaste womb Him whom the heavens and the earth could not contain.
In her greatness, born of her humility, in her devotion, in her graces, in a word, in the manner that she profited by every gift or favor that she received from God, He has had more honor, more glory than He has from all His other creatures in Heaven and on earth.
The greatness of Mary as far surpasses that of all others of God's creatures as gold outvalues the basest metals, as Heaven is above the earth, as the light of the sun outshines that of all the other luminaries. Before her greatness all other created greatness fades away as the light of the stars vanishes before the dazzling rays of the sun.
All the renowned women of the Old Testament, Sara, Debbora, Jahel, Susanna, Judith, Esther and others were but figures of Mary.
Of Judith it was said: "She was greatly renowned among all" (Judith VII—8).
In addressing her, Holofernes spoke thus: "Thou shalt be great, and thy name shall be renowned through all the earth" (Judith XI—21). The people of Bethulia cried out to her as she passed: "Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; thou art the joy of Israel; thou art the honor of our people" (Judith XV—10).
These titles are eminently applicable to Mary and are bestowed upon her by the Doctors and Fathers of the Church.
We owe all to God, and in no wise is He indebted to us. It is different with Mary. Though she has received all from Him, He became, so to speak, her debtor when Jesus Christ, His well beloved Son, received of her His humanity, which is of her flesh and blood.
In His conception and in His birth the Godman became indebted to her even more so than other children to their mother, for from her alone did He take the substance wherewith to frame unto Himself a human body.
Among all the children of men, from creation and until the last of them shall be born into the world, there has not been nor can there be one so admirable as Mary. Seek midst all the blessed spirits who, are ministering angels at the throne of God, and not one will be found more wonderful than the Blessed Virgin. Her sanctity, holiness, virtues, graces and perfections of body and soul are so great that she is more illustrious than all the saints and angels and thereby gives more glory and honor to God than all of them.
She is verily the incomparable Virgin Mary, to whom all the saints and angels pay homage.
The Blessed Trinity honors her as the mother most pure, most chaste, most holy, most lovable in the beauty of both body and soul, of the Second Person of the Godhead, Christ Jesus, the Redeemer and Saviour of the world.
CHAPTER XII.
Mother Of Good Counsel.
"He that is mighty hath done great things to me" (Luke I—49). We shall know only in the Kingdom of God the wonderful things He did for the Mother of His Divine Son.
Mary was prominently before the mind of God from all eternity, and in her "He hath showed might in His arm" (Luke I—51). She is the masterpiece of His creation. He endowed her mind, heart and soul with all graces. He hailed her through one of His ministering spirits, "full of grace" (Luke 1—29). Is there, then, room for surprise at the many endearing titles by which Holy Mother Church invokes her help in the litany she recites in honor of Mary. All the invocations used in this form of prayer are fitting tributes of respect to her.
In vision she appeared to Saint Dominic and counseled him that in order to overcome the heresy of the Albigenses he should preach the devotion of the rosary, hence we invoke her as Queen of the Holy Rosary.
She appeared to two simple and humble children of the people and gave them as her name, the one so dear to her and her God, and by which she desired to be known and honored: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Queen conceived without sin, our Queen Immaculate.
Four hundred years and more have come and gone since the day when, midst the chanting of angels and the spontaneous pealing of bells, a picture, venerated under the title of our Blessed Mother of Good Counsel, made its appearance in the place where it is held in great benediction. This miraculous picture, the source of numerous miracles, was first honored in a small sanctuary dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin at Scutari in Albania.
Misfortune visited the place, because its people failed to recognize and profit by the many favors Heaven bestowed upon them. Pride and the delirium of pleasure wrecked Albania's reason. It persecuted the children of God, rejected His holy word, and after many unrighteous conflicts, fell from the unity of the faith. Weary of its evil ways, God visited it with a scourge terrible in its consequences. As Atila in his day proved to be the scourge of God, so now the Turks were the means in His Hands to chastise the wayward Albanians. Many of the inhabitants preserved their piety and held steadfastly to the faith in the midst of a deluge of sin. Some of these resolved to quit a land where they were not free to worship their God as they felt it their duty to do, and seek a place where they would not be molested in their religious obligations.
Of those who had determined to leave Albania, there were two devoted clients of Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, Georgeio and De Sclario. It was the practice of these two devoted servants of the Blessed Virgin to kneel in prayer before the picture of our Lady of Good Counsel to obtain a blessing upon unfortunate Albania and counsel in their undertakings.
It pleased Mary to advise them to seek a home elsewhere, and that she herself in the picture which they revered, would also depart from a land so inimical to her and her Divine Son. Genazzano of Latium, in Italy, was the place chosen by our Lady of Good Counsel where she would be henceforth honored.
It was on the twenty-fifth of April, 1467, that the miraculous picture, from out of a lightsome cloud, rested on an unfinished wall of the Chapel of Saint Biagio.
The multitudes who were gathered there on that day and saw the venerated picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel settling upon their church, were overcome with awe and admiration. Since then Genazzano has been the mecca of armies of pilgrims from Italy and other countries, who seek temporal and spiritual favors through Mary, the Mother of Good Counsel.
She is the seat of wisdom, which she possessed from the beginning. Through her inspirations we are enabled to turn aside from evil paths, into the only secure way of life. She admonishes us, by both word and example, to seek above all things the Kingdom of Heaven. She is its gate, and to enter it we must heed her wise counsels, and follow her life as closely as it is in our power to do.
Our vocation is to be saints. To reach the goal, Mary, Star of the Sea, will guide us over the troubled waters of life, if we allow the light of her wisdom to enter our souls.
The will of God is our sanctification, which we cannot fail to obtain, if we follow the inspiration of Mary's counsels in humbly accepting the dispensations of His divine providence towards us.
In joy, in sorrow; in poverty, in riches; in happiness, in afflictions; in sickness and in health, let us seek the advice of our sweet loving Mother of Good Counsel, that we may possess with her the virtue to keep our soul in peace, and to bless the name of God in our greatest distresses.
She will be our life, our sweetness, our hope; and the beneficent influence of her ways of wisdom will prove her to be our Mother of Good Counsel.
CHAPTER XIII
Mother Of Our Creator.
Mysteries surround us, we move, live and have our being, so to speak, in the midst of mysteries. There are marvels in the heavens, on the earth, in the waters, under the waters and in ourselves.
We know but little of the secrets of God. We understand but imperfectly the ways of Divine Providence. We cannot fathom God's infinite wisdom. His designs are inscrutable. We enter not into His counsels.
Our finite mind is powerless to comprehend the works of the Almighty Being.
As the child accepts without questioning the word of his father, so must we, even more so, receive the word of God as our way, our light and our life.
One of the profoundest mysteries we are asked to believe in, is that of the Most Blessed Trinity. One God, yet three Divine Persons. It is a dogma of Catholic faith. It is a teaching of Holy Scripture, a divinely revealed truth.
The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God, nevertheless there is but one God.
The Father is from all eternity, the Son had no beginning and will have no end, the Holy Ghost is the Alpha and Omega of all things. But they are not three eternals, they are but one eternal God, who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
God the Father alone is not the Creator, neither is the Son, nor is the Holy Ghost, but the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the triune God is the Creator of all things.
God the Son, the second person of the Adorable Trinity, became man in assuming human nature unto Himself, still He did not cease to be God, for as God He is eternal, in whom there can be neither change nor alteration. When, therefore, in the fulness of time, according to the designs of the Almighty, the second person of the Godhead was to become man, she who was chosen from all eternity and who was to furnish Him of her substance, when the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John I—14), is as much His Mother as any woman is the mother of her son.
But Mary is the woman of God's special predilection, whose chaste womb the Second Person of the Holy Trinity was to nestle and assume unto Himself of her flesh and blood and become man. She is, therefore, His Mother, the Mother of the God man who was born of her.
"Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanual, which, being interpreted, is God with us" (Matt. 1—23). And the Angel said to Mary. "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke I—31, 32). This Emmanuel, this Son of the Most High is none other than the Son of the ever glorious Virgin Mary. Her Son is the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, true God equal to His Father. He is our Creator. But Mary, being His Mother, is the Mother of our Creator.
Exalted dignity, sublime honor, marvel of marvels, that a creature should become the Mother of her Creator. But what a creature she is, who surpasses in dignity, in virtue, in grace all the Angels and Saints of God. Virgin of Virgins, spotless, most pure Mary, chosen from all eternity to be the glorious and immaculate Mother of our Creator.
