p. 94The Blessed Virgin Mary

“Behold thy Son. … Behold thy Mother” (John xix. 27). These were the last words that Jesus Christ addressed to any creature before His death, they are His last will. By them He intrusted all His disciples to His own beloved Mother as her spiritual children, and gave her to all His disciples as their spiritual Mother. These words have a special reference to religious, who are represented by St. John, the beloved disciple of our Saviour. He was a virginal soul, who had left all things for Christ’s sake. Religious vow and practise chastity, have left all things for Christ’s sake, and have become His beloved spouses. No one else, then, has a greater claim to Mary as a Mother.

Religious may then say, Mary, in fact, has been truly our Mother, and the most tender of mothers, for we may, indeed, say, “All good things came to me together with her, and innumerable riches through her hands, for she is an infinite treasure to men; which they that use, become the friends of God” (Wisd. vii. 11, 13). We owe everything to Mary. It is through her that we received all the graces bestowed on us whilst we were in the world, and particularly the inestimable grace of our vocation. How many times did she not preserve us from danger, how many times did she not obtain for us victory over the allurements and temptations of the world! It was she who obtained for us the strength and heroism requisite to leave the world, to renounce its pleasures, to give up our own will. We can easily remember how she helped us when we invoked her, how she consoled and encouraged us in our trials. But what favors has she not conferred on us since the day on which we were consecrated and espoused to her divine Son! Has she not, so to speak, spoiled us by her kindness? Without her help we could never have practised the virtues required of religious—humility, self-denial, obedience, meekness and charity. Without her we could not have overcome our many temptations, borne our numerous little trials. We could not have persevered until now in our holy vocation, had we not been assisted by the Mother of perseverance. How kind and loving has she not been to us in all our wants! Never did she refuse us a favor. And how many benefits has she not conferred p. 95on us without our being aware of them! Had it not been for her tender maternal solicitude for us, to how many dangerous and violent temptations should we not have been exposed, and how deeply should we not perhaps have fallen! And had we been more loving and devoted children to her, had we more promptly invoked her, more fervently prayed to her, and more faithfully honored her, we should not have committed so many faults, or be now so full of imperfections and so devoid of virtue.

We claim Mary as our Mother, and boast of being her children. But to be truly her children, we should bear some resemblance to her. As she is our spiritual Mother, her spiritual features, that is, her virtues, should be delineated in us, should be visible in our conduct. In the first place, we should resemble her in humility. Although she was the holiest and most perfect and most exalted of creatures, she excelled all in humility. By her virginity, says the Church, Mary pleased God; but it was by her humility that she conceived the Son of God. “Without humility,” says St. Bernard, “even Mary’s spotless virginity would not have saved her.” “Humility,” says St. Teresa, “drew the Son of God from heaven into the womb of a virgin; and it is only by a similar humility that we can draw Him into our souls.”

Secondly, Mary distinguished herself by her love of silence, recollection, retirement and prayer. Her union with God was constant and uninterrupted. Prayer was the food of her soul; it was a second nature to her. Let us strive to imitate her in this, and especially in making our daily meditation well.—Thirdly, Mary was a model of obedience. Let us consider our rules as the will of God towards us, and look upon the orders of our superiors as the orders of God Himself.—Fourthly, Mary was all aglow with divine love, and zealous for the salvation of mankind. Let us love no one but God, and allow in our heart no affection unless it be for God or in God, and, at the same time, let us be ready to sacrifice ourselves for the welfare and salvation of our neighbor in so far as obedience permits.—In fine, Mary is the Queen of Martyrs, the Mother of Sorrows, for next to Jesus, no one ever suffered so much and so willingly and patiently as Mary. Let us, like her, accept all sufferings, all trials and crosses, with patience and resignation, as sent to us by God out of love for us.

Let us ask Mary, our Mother, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of Perseverance, to help us faithfully to keep our good resolutions, to help us to imitate her virtues. Let us entreat her, by the love she bears to our Spouse Jesus, by the love she bears to us her children, to help us to resemble her, to become her true and worthy children. She who is the most loving of mothers cannot refuse a prayer so pleasing to her—a prayer which she can easily grant us, for she is all-powerful with her divine Son. He cannot refuse anything to her who bore Him, whom He loved, honored and obeyed on earth as His Mother, and whom He has exalted in heaven above all creatures. Let us in all our sorrows, in all our trials and sufferings, and especially in all our temptations and dangers, have recourse to her with the utmost fervor, love and confidence, for she, the most powerful and tender of mothers, will obtain for us all we ask through her. “In all your wants,” says the holy Redemptorist, Blessed Clement Maria Hofbauer, p. 96“turn to the Blessed Virgin. She is the Mother of Mercy, and will obtain mercy for you from her Son. Never has the Son refused His Mother a grace, for He cannot turn away a prayer of His Mother. She has found, and always will find, grace with God.” “He who remembers,” says St. Alphonsus, “having, in temptations against chastity, invoked the name of Mary, may rest assured of not having given consent to them.”

We should daily honor Mary in a special manner, and pray much and often to her. We can never honor her too much, whom God has so greatly honored. We ought, moreover, to do all in our power to inspire others with devotion to her, with a tender love for her and an unlimited confidence in her intercession. We ought to consider our devotion to Mary as our protection, as the surest means of salvation and sanctification, and as a pledge of life everlasting, because she never forsakes those who are devout to her. “The devotions we practise in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary,” says St. Teresa, “however little in themselves, are very pleasing to her divine Son, for He rewards them with eternal glory.” “If you persevere until death,” says St. Alphonsus, “in true devotion to Mary, your salvation is assured.”

Let us heed the beautiful exhortation of St. Bernard, that great servant of Mary. “O thou who feelest thyself tempest-tossed amid the shoals of this world, turn not away thine eyes from the Star of the sea, if thou wouldst avoid shipwreck. If the winds of temptation blow furiously, if tribulations rise up like rocks before thee, cast a look at the Star, heave a sigh to Mary. If the waves of pride, ambition, calumny, jealousy, seek to swallow up thy soul, turn thine eyes towards the Star, breathe a prayer to Mary. If anger, love of pleasure, threaten thy frail bark, seek the protecting look of Mary. If horror for thine own sins, remorse of conscience, dread of the divine judgments, overwhelm thee with sadness and seek to plunge thee into the abyss of despair, cling closely to Mary. In thy dangers, in thy anguish, in thy doubts, think of Mary, call on Mary. Let the sweet name of Mary be on thy lips, in thy heart, and, whilst seeking the aid of her prayers, lose not sight of the example of her virtues. So long as thou followest her, thou canst not go astray. So long as thou invokest her, thou canst not be without hope. As long as thou thinkest on her, thou wilt remain in the right path. So long as she sustains thee, thou canst not fall. So long as she protects thee, thou hast nothing to fear. If she favor thy voyage, thou wilt safely reach the harbor of salvation.”

Consecration to Mary, Our Mother

O most holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, my beloved Spouse, I now again choose thee as my own Mother. Henceforth I will never cease to love, cherish and venerate thee as my own beloved Mother all the days of my life. To thee will I have recourse in all my trials, sufferings and temptations, and I shall do my best to induce others to love and venerate thee, and to invoke thee in all their wants. O Mary, deign to accept me as thine own most loving child, and make me faithful to thee. Make me, like thee, humble, meek, patient, charitable, pure, obedient and docile to my rules and superiors. Deign to obtain for me an unwavering love for my Spouse Jesus, and a holy and well-regulated zeal for the salvation of souls. O Mary, my dearest Mother, do not forsake me, thy child, when I am assailed by temptation; hasten then at once to my assistance, and do not permit me ever to prove untrue to my beloved Jesus. Enable me, by thy all-powerful help, to become, through a constant growth in virtue and holiness, daily more and more pleasing to Jesus, my heavenly Spouse, and to persevere until death in the love of Him and of thee, my most tender and beloved Mother Mary. Amen.