Saints On Series: Vol II - Saints, Popes and Blesseds Speak on the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Rory Michael Fox

"The honor of Mary is so intimately connected with the honor and glory of Jesus that to deny the one is at the same time a denial of the other." – Bl. William Joseph Chaminade.

The Catholic Church has taught since Apostolic times that Jesus Christ can never be rightly known in isolation from his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rejecting the unique person and role of Our Lady Saint Mary in God's salvation plan leads inexorably to the rejection of Christ. Mary matters! And there can be no better place to search out the truth about the Holy Virgin Mary, and through her to discover and follow the true Jesus Christ, than in the writings of the Saints, Popes and Beatified of the Holy Catholic Church. Contributors include Blessed John Henry Newman, Saint Bonaventure, Blessed Henry Suso, Saint Louis Marie de Montfort, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, and more. Includes more than 100 educational and inspirational quotations on the right understanding of Our Lady and the Church from dozens of important Saints, Popes and Blesseds spanning the ages, from the Second Century's St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lugdunum, to 20th Century Catholic luminaries Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta. The book concludes with two special study sections – 1. an exploration of Marian apparitions around the world, including Our Lady's visitations at Guadalupe, Laus, La Salette, Lourdes, Pontmain, Fatima, Beauraing and Banneux, plus several lesser known apparition sites including the Holy Virgin's 1594 Ecuadorian appearance as Our Lady of Good Success, and 2. the complete text of The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, patterned after the eight hours of the Divine Office, a Marian devotion that is prayed daily by members of the Confraternity of Mary Immaculate Queen. Lavishly Illustrated throughout with 78 full color Marian images.

Editor's Note:

My most difficult task as Editor of Saints, Popes and Blesseds Speak On The Blessed Virgin Mary: Veneration of Our Lady in the Holy Catholic Church in the Words of Her Greatest Saints, Mystics and Visionaries was not locating sufficient source material to paint a true and compelling portrait of Our Lady and her central role in the Catholic Church and in our lives. The saints have sung Mary's praises in literally millions of words since the First Century. The great challenge has been, rather, selecting from that ages-long chorus the few choice words to include in this work, those writings best suited to reveal the many facets of the jewel that is Mary the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, and the Mother of us all, to those who would choose to know her in this generation, and through her, to discover and follow her true son, Jesus Christ.

I pray that I have succeeded. Whether you are a Marian scholar, a practitioner of Marian devotions and spirituality, a new Catholic just starting your journey of discovery, or even a non-Catholic curious to learn what the Catholic Church really teaches concerning the Holy Mother of God, this authoritative collection is sure to bless you with knowledge, inspiration, and most of all, with truth.

Rory Michael Fox
Sunday, May 13, 2012, The 95th Anniversary of Our Lady's First Appearance at Fatima, Portugal

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Paradigm Press
• Release date: May 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476411989

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Saints On Series: Vol II - Saints, Popes and Blesseds Speak On The Blessed Virgin Mary

Copyright © 2012 by E-Saint Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

An E-Saint Library Book. View the complete E-Saint Library catalog at www.ESaintLibrary.com

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Fox, Rory Michael.

Saints On Series: Vol II - Saints, Popes and Blesseds Speak On The Blessed Virgin Mary /by Rory Michael Fox

– E-Saint Library eBook Edition

1. Blessed Virgin Mary. 2. Mariology. 3. Marian Devotion. 4. Catholicism 5. Catholic Theology 6. Catholic Spirituality. 7. Christian Theology.  8. Christian Spirituality. 9. Title.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: WHY MARY MATTERS

BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMANN

THE REVERENCE DUE TO THE VIRGIN MARY

OUR LADY IN THE GOSPEL

THE GLORIES OF MARY FOR THE SAKE OF HER SON

MAY THE MONTH OF PROMISE

ST. BONAVENTURE ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT ST. BONAVENTURE

THE MEANINGS OF THE NAME MARY

THE FOURFOLD GRACE IN MARY--OF GIFTS, OF SPEECH, OF PRIVILEGES, AND OF REWARDS

MARY IS BLESSED ON ACCOUNT OF HER FULLNESS OF GRACE, THE MAJESTY OF HER OFFSPRING, THE MULTITUDE OF HER MERCIES, THE GREATNESS OF HER GLORY

BLESSED HENRY SUSO ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT BLESSED HENRY SUSO

ON THE WORTHY PRAISE OF THE PURE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

ON THE UNUTTERABLE HEART-RENDING GRIEF OF THE PURE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

ST. LOUIS MARIE DE MONTFORT ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT

TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN

TO FIND THE GRACE OF GOD, WE MUST DISCOVER MARY

THE FOURTH MEANS: A LOVING AND GENUINE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN

THE CARE AND GROWTH OF THE TREE OF LIFE, or, in other words, HOW BEST TO CAUSE MARY TO LIVE AND REIGN IN OUR SOULS

MARY'S PART IN THE LATTER TIMES

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

OF THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

OF THE VIRGINITY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

OF THE ESPOUSALS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

THE HAIL MARY

BLESSED ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT BLESSED ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH

THE DEATH OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AT EPHESUS

THE BURIAL AND ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI

ON THE CONFIDENCE WITH WHICH WE OUGHT TO RECOMMEND OURSELVES TO THE MOTHER OF GOD

MARY, OUR QUEEN, OUR MOTHER

MARY, OUR MEDIATRESS

SAINTS, POPES AND BLESSEDS SPEAK ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

MARIAN APPARITIONS AND THE MAKING OF SAINTS

ST. JUAN DIEGO AND OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

OUR LADY OF LAUS or REFUGE OF SINNERS

ST. CATHERINE LABOURÉ AND OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE

SAINT MARIE-BERNARDE SOUBIROUS AND OUR LADY OF LOURDES

OUR LADY OF PONTMAIN

OUR LADY OF FÁTIMA

OUR LADY OF BEAURAING

OUR LADY OF BANNEUX

APPARITIONS APPROVED BY A LOCAL BISHOP BUT STILL AWAITING FULL VATICAN APPROVAL

THE LITTLE OFFICE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

INTRODUCTION: WHY MARY MATTERS

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The honor of Mary is so intimately connected with the honor and glory of Jesus that to deny the one is at the same time a denial of the other.

-- Blessed William Joseph Chaminade

In a recorded talk on Apologetics for the New Evangelization, renowned Catholic convert, apologist and speaker Dr. Scott Hahn sums up Mary's role in God's plan for the Salvation of Humanity by saying – If you miss it with Mary, you'll miss it with Jesus... It, in this context, being the truth. If you fail to comprehend, or worse, should you openly reject (as do most Protestant Christians) the truth about Mary's Immaculate Conception and Perpetual Virginity, of her role as Spouse of the Holy Spirit and source of Jesus' physical body and human nature, of her humble yes to God at the Annunciation (Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.) as the undoing of Eve's prideful assent to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, of her typological role as the New Ark of the Covenant, the New Eve, etc., and of every other fundamental Church teaching regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary, you will simply never arrive at a true understanding of Jesus.

While it is not true, as anti-Catholics so often declare, that we Catholics worship Mary as a savior in her own right, it is reality that the one true Savior cannot be known apart from her. Rejection of, hostility toward, or even simple lack of understanding concerning the very real role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in God's salvific plan is a rejection of Jesus, of the one true mediator between God and Man, and of salvation as well. A Jesus unhinged from either his Heavenly Father or earthly mother (God and Mary) is no Jesus at all. Gross rejection or even simple marginalization of Mary must inevitably birth false Christs in the minds of believers, imaginary Saviors with no true power to save. Any professed Christian who rejects Jesus' mother is, most charitably expressed, sadly delusioned concerning God, Jesus and his or her own salvation. They miss it, as so eloquently phrased by Dr. Hahn.

In the words of St. Maximilian Kolbe: Jesus honored her before all ages, and will honor her for all ages. No one comes to Him, nor even near Him, no one is saved or sanctified, if he too will not honor her. This is the lot of Angels and of men.

Or St. Louis Marie de Montfort: All true children of God have God for their father and Mary for their mother; anyone who does not have Mary for his mother does not have God for his father.

Or St. Ildephonsus: No one will ever be the servant of the Son without serving the Mother.

Or St. Alphonsus de Liguori: Woe to those who despise devotion to Mary! . . . The soul cannot live without having recourse to Mary and recommending itself to her. He falls and is lost who does not have recourse to Mary.

Mary matters! This has been a foundational and unchanging teaching of the Church from the First Century to the present moment. And there can be no better place to search out the truth about Mary, and through her to discover and follow the true Jesus Christ, than in the words and writings of the Saints, Popes and Beatified of the one true Church, those unique individuals tasked in all eras with preserving the great truths of Christianity, and with passing them on, undefiled, to new generations of the faithful.

My most difficult task, as Editor of this volume, was not locating sufficient source material to paint a true and compelling portrait of the Blessed Virgin and her central role in the Church and our lives. The saints have sung Mary's praises in literally millions of words since the First Century. The great challenge has been, rather, selecting from that ages-long chorus the few choice words to include in this work, those writings best suited to efficiently and effectively reveal the many facets of the jewel that is Mary the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, and the Mother of us all, to those who would choose to know her in this generation, and through her, to discover, and follow, her true son, Jesus Christ.

I pray that I have succeeded. Whether you are a devoted Marian scholar, a new Catholic just starting out on your journey of discovery, or even a non-Catholic curious about what the Church really teaches concerning the Blessed Virgin, may this collection bless you with knowledge, inspiration, and most of all, with truth.

Rory Michael Fox

Sunday, May 13, 2012

The 95th Anniversary of Our Lady's First Appearance at Fatima, Portugal

BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

ABOUT BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMANN

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Blessed John Henry Newman was an important figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century.  Originally an evangelical Oxford academic and priest in the Church of England, Newman was a leader in the Oxford Movement, an influential group of Anglicans who wished to return the Church of England to many Catholic beliefs and forms of worship. In 1845 Newman left the Church of England and was received into the Roman Catholic Church where he was eventually granted the rank of cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.  Newman's beatification was officially proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI on September 19, 2010.  His canonization is dependent on the documentation of additional miracles.

THE REVERENCE DUE TO THE VIRGIN MARY

Blessed John Henry Newman

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'From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.' Luke 1, 43.

TODAY we celebrate the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary; when the Angel Gabriel was sent to tell her that she was to be the Mother of our Lord, and when the Holy Ghost came upon her, and overshadowed her with the power of the Highest. In that great event was fulfilled her anticipation as expressed in the text. All generations have called her blessed. The Angel began the salutation; he said, 'Hail, thou that art highly favoured; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.' Again he said, 'Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God; and, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.' Her cousin Elizabeth was the next to greet her with her appropriate title. Though she was filled with the Holy Ghost at the time she spake, yet, far from thinking herself by such a gift equalled to Mary, she was thereby moved to use the lowlier and more reverent language. 'She spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' ... Then she repeated, 'Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.' Then it was that Mary gave utterance to her feelings in the Hymn which we read in the Evening Service. How many and complicated must they have been! In her was now to be fulfilled that promise which the world had been looking out for during thousands of years. The Seed of the woman, announced to guilty Eve, after long delay, was at length appearing upon earth, and was to be born of her. In her the destinies of the world were to be reversed, and the serpent's head bruised. On her was bestowed the greatest honour ever put upon any individual of our fallen race. God was taking upon Him her flesh, and humbling Himself to be called her offspring; such is the deep mystery! She of course would feel her own inexpressible unworthiness; and again, her humble lot, her ignorance, her weakness in the eyes of the world. And she had moreover, we may well suppose, that purity and innocence of heart, that bright vision of faith, that confiding trust in her God, which raised all these feelings to an intensity which we ordinary mortals cannot understand. We cannot understand them; we repeat her hymn day after day, yet consider for an instant in how different a mode we say it from that in which she at first uttered it. We even hurry it over, and do not think of the meaning of those words which came from the most highly favoured, awfully gifted of the children of men:

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His hand-maiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.

Now let us consider in what respects the Virgin Mary is Blessed; a title first given her by the Angel, and next by the Church in all ages since to this day.

1. I observe, that in her the curse pronounced on Eve was changed to a blessing. Eve was doomed to bear children in sorrow; but now this very dispensation, in which the token of Divine anger was conveyed, was made the means by which salvation came into the world. Christ might have descended from heaven, as He went back, and as He will come again. He might have taken on Himself a body from the ground, as Adam was given; or been formed, like Eve, in some other divinely-devised way. But, far from this, God sent forth His Son (as St. Paul says), 'made of a woman.' For it has been His gracious purpose to turn all that is ours from evil to good. Had He so pleased, He might have found, when we sinned, other beings to do Him service, casting us into hell; but He purposed to save and to change us. And in like manner all that belongs to us, our reason, our affections, our pursuits, our relations in life, He needs nothing put aside in His disciples, but all sanctified. Therefore, instead of sending His Son from heaven, He sent Him forth as the Son of Mary, to show that all our sorrow and all our corruption can be blessed and changed by Him. The very punishment of the fall, the very taint of birth-sin, admits of a cure by the coming of Christ.

2. But there is another portion of the original punishment of woman, which may be considered as repealed when Christ came. It was said to the woman, 'Thy husband shall rule over thee;' a sentence which has been strikingly fulfilled. Man has strength to conquer the thorns and thistles which the earth is cursed with, but the same strength has ever proved the fulfillment of the punishment awarded to the woman. Look abroad through the Heathen world, and see how the weaker half of mankind has everywhere been tyrannized over and debased by the strong arm of force. Consider all those Eastern nations, which have never at any time reverenced it, but have heartlessly made it the slave of every bad and cruel purpose. Thus the serpent has triumphed, making the man still degrade himself by her who originally tempted him, and her, who then tempted, now suffer from him who was seduced. Nay, even under the light of revelation, the punishment on the woman was not removed at once. Still (in the words of the curse), her husband ruled over her. The very practice of polygamy and divorce, which was suffered under the patriarchal and Jewish dispensation proves it.

But when Christ came as the seed of the woman, He vindicated the rights and honour of His mother. Not that the distinction of ranks is destroyed under the Gospel; the woman is still made inferior to man, as he to Christ; but the slavery is done away with. St. Peter bids the husband 'give honour unto the wife, because the weaker, in that both are heirs of the grace of life.' [1 Pet. iii. 7.] And St. Paul, while enjoining subjection upon her, speaks of the especial blessedness vouchsafed her in being the appointed entrance of the Saviour into the world. 'Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.' But 'notwithstanding, she shall be saved through the Child-bearing;' [1 Tim. ii. 15.] that is, through the birth of Christ from Mary, which was a blessing, as upon all mankind, so peculiarly upon the woman. Accordingly, from that time, Marriage has not only been restored to its original dignity, but even gifted with a spiritual privilege, as the outward symbol of the heavenly union subsisting betwixt Christ and His Church.

Thus has the Blessed Virgin, in bearing our Lord, taken off or lightened the peculiar disgrace which the woman inherited for seducing Adam, sanctifying the one part of it, repealing the other.

3. But further, she is doubtless to be accounted blessed and favoured in herself, as well as in the benefits she has done us. Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? If to him that hath, more is given, and holiness and Divine favour go together (and this we are expressly told), what must have been the transcendent purity of her, whom the Creator Spirit condescended to overshadow with His miraculous presence? What must have been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son of God, the only one whom He was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the one appointed to train and educate Him, to instruct Him day by day, as He grew in wisdom and in stature? This contemplation runs to a higher subject, did we dare follow it; for what, think you, was the sanctified state of that human nature, of which God formed His sinless Son; knowing as we do, 'that which is born of the flesh is flesh,' and that 'none can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' [1 John iii. 6. Job xiv. 4.]

Now, after dwelling on thoughts such as these, when we turn back again to the Gospels, I think every one must feel some surprise, that we are not told more about the Blessed Virgin than we find there. After the circumstances of Christ's birth and infancy, we hear little of her. Little is said in praise of her. She is mentioned as attending Christ to the cross, and there committed by Him to St. John's keeping; and she is mentioned as continuing with the Apostles in prayer after His ascension; and then we hear no more of her. But here again in this silence we find instruction, as much as in the mention of her.

1. It suggests to us that Scripture was written, not to exalt this or that particular Saint, but to give glory to Almighty God. There have been thousands of holy souls in the times of which the Bible history treats, whom we know nothing of, because their lives did not fall upon the line of God's public dealings with man. In Scripture we read not of all the good men who ever were, only of a few, viz. those in whom God's name was especially honoured. Doubtless there have been many widows in Israel, serving God in fastings and prayers, like Anna; but she only is mentioned in Scripture, as being in a situation to glorify the Lord Jesus. She spoke of the Infant Saviour 'to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.' Nay, for what we know, faith like Abraham's, and zeal like David's, have burned in the breasts of thousands whose names have no memorial; because, I say, Scripture is written to show us the course of God's great and marvellous providence, and we hear of those Saints only who were the instruments of His purposes, as either introducing or preaching His Son. Christ's favoured Apostle was St. John, His personal friend; yet how little do we know of St. John compared with St. Paul; and why? because St. Paul was the more illustrious propagator and dispenser of His Truth. As St. Paul himself said, that he 'knew no man after the flesh,' [2 Cor. v. 16.] so His Saviour, with somewhat a similar meaning, has hid from us the knowledge of His more sacred and familiar feelings, His feelings towards His Mother and His friend. These were not to be exposed, as unfit for the world to know, as dangerous, because not admitting of being known, without a risk lest the honour which those Saints received through grace should eclipse in our minds the honour of Him who honoured them. Had the blessed Mary been more fully disclosed to us in the heavenly beauty and sweetness of the spirit within her, true, she would have been honoured, her gifts would have been clearly seen; but, at the same time, the Giver would have been somewhat less contemplated, because no design or work of His would have been disclosed in her history. She would have seemingly been introduced for her sake, not for His sake. When a Saint is seen working towards an end appointed by God, we see him to be a mere instrument, a servant though a favoured one; and though we admire him, yet, after all, we glorify God in him. We pass on from him to the work to which he ministers. But, when any one is introduced, full of gifts, yet without visible and immediate subserviency to God's designs, such a one seems revealed for his own sake. We should rest, perchance, in the thought of him, and think of the creature more than the Creator. Thus it is a dangerous thing, it is too high a privilege, for sinners like ourselves, to know the best and innermost thoughts of God's servants. We cannot bear to see such men in their own place, in the retirement of private life, and the calmness of hope and joy. The higher their gifts, the less fitted they are for being seen. Even St. John the Apostle was twice tempted to fall down in worship before an Angel who showed him the things to come. And, if he who had seen the Son of God was thus overcome by the creature, how is it possible we could bear to gaze upon the creature's holiness in its fulness, especially as we should be more able to enter into it, and estimate it, than to comprehend the infinite perfections of the Eternal Godhead? Therefore, many truths are, like the 'things which the seven thunders uttered,' [Rev. x. 4.] 'sealed up' from us. In particular, it is in mercy to us that so little is revealed about the Blessed Virgin, in mercy to our weakness, though of her there are 'many things to say,' yet they are 'hard to be uttered, seeing we are dull of hearing.' [Heb. v. 11.]

2. But, further, the more we consider who St. Mary was, the more dangerous will such knowledge of her appear to be. Other saints are but influenced or inspired by Christ, and made partakers of Him mystically. But, as to St. Mary, Christ derived His manhood from her, and so had an especial unity of nature with her; and this wondrous relationship between God and man it is perhaps impossible for us to dwell much upon without some perversion of feeling. For, truly, she is raised above the condition of sinful beings, though by nature a sinner; she is brought near to God, yet is but a creature, and seems to lack her fitting place in our limited understandings, neither too high nor too low. We cannot combine, in our thought of her, all we should ascribe with all we should withhold. Hence, following the example of Scripture, we had better only think of her with and for her Son, never separating her from Him, but using her name as a memorial of His great condescension in stooping from heaven, and not 'abhorring the Virgin's womb.' And this is the rule of our own Church, which has set apart only such Festivals in honour of the Blessed Mary, as may also be Festivals in honour of our Lord; the Purification commemorating His presentation in the Temple, and the Annunciation commemorating His Incarnation. And, with this caution, the thought of her may be made most profitable to our faith; for nothing is so calculated to impress on our minds that Christ is really partaker of our nature, and in all respects man, save sin only, as to associate Him with the thought of her, by whose ministration He became our brother.

To conclude. Observe the lesson which we gain for ourselves from the history of the Blessed Virgin; that the highest graces of the soul may be matured in private, and without those fierce trials to which the many are exposed in order to their sanctification. So hard are our hearts, that affliction, pain, and anxiety are sent to humble us, and dispose us towards a true faith in the heavenly word, when preached to us. Yet it is only our extreme obstinacy of unbelief which renders this chastisement necessary. The aids which God gives under the Gospel Covenant, have power to renew and purify our hearts, without uncommon providences to discipline us into receiving them. God gives His Holy Spirit to us silently; and the silent duties of every day (it may be humbly hoped) are blest to the sufficient sanctification of thousands, whom the world knows not of. The Blessed Virgin is a memorial of this; and it is consoling as well as instructive to know it. When we quench the grace of Baptism, then it is that we need severe trials to restore us. This is the case of the multitude, whose best estate is that of chastisement, repentance, supplication, and absolution, again and again. But there are those who go on in a calm and unswerving course, learning day by day to love Him who has redeemed them, and overcoming the sin of their nature by His heavenly grace, as the various temptations to evil successively present themselves. And, of these undefiled followers of the Lamb, the Blessed Mary is the chief. Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, she 'staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;' she believed when Zacharias doubted, with a faith like Abraham's she believed and was blessed for her belief, and had the performance of those things which were told her by the Lord. And when sorrow came upon her afterwards, it was but the blessed participation of her Son's sacred sorrows, not the sorrow of those who suffer for their sins.

If we, through God's unspeakable gift, have in any measure followed Mary's innocence in our youth, so far let us bless Him who enabled us. But so far as we are conscious of having departed from Him, let us bewail our miserable guilt. Let us acknowledge from the heart that no punishment is too severe for us, no chastisement should be unwelcome (though it is a sore thing to learn to welcome pain), if it tend to burn away the corruption which has propagated itself within us. Let us count all things as gain, which God sends to cleanse away the marks of sin and shame which are upon our foreheads. The day will come at length, when our Lord and Saviour will unveil that Sacred Countenance to the whole world, which no sinner ever yet could see and live. Then will the world be forced to look upon Him, whom they pierced with their unrepented wickednesses; 'all faces will gather blackness.' [Joel ii. 6.] Then they will discern, what they do not now believe, the utter deformity of sin; while the Saints of the Lord, who seemed on earth to bear but the countenance of common men, will wake up one by one after His likeness, and be fearful to look upon. And then will be fulfilled the promise pledged to the Church on the Mount of Transfiguration. It will be 'good' to be with those whose tabernacles might have been a snare to us on earth, had we been allowed to build them. We shall see our Lord, and His Blessed Mother, the Apostles and Prophets, and all those righteous men whom we now read of in history, and long to know. Then we shall be taught in those Mysteries which are now above us. In the words of the Apostle, 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: and every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.' [1 John iii. 2, 3.]

OUR LADY IN THE GOSPEL

Blessed John Henry Newman

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There is a passage in the Gospel of this day, which may have struck many of us as needing some illustration. While our Lord was preaching, a woman in the crowd cried out, Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the breasts which Thou hast sucked (Luke 11). Our Lord assents, but instead of dwelling on the good words of this woman, He goes on to say something further. He speaks of a greater blessedness. Yea, He says, but blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. Now these words of our Lord require notice, if it were only for this reason, because there are many persons nowadays who think they are said in depreciation of the glory and blessedness of the Most Holy Virgin Mary; as if our Lord had said, My Mother is blessed, but my true servants are more blessed than she is. I shall say some words then on this passage, and with a peculiar fitness, because we have just passed the festival of Lady Day, the great feast on which we commemorate the Annunciation, that is, the visit of the Angel Gabriel to her, and the miraculous conception of the Son of God, her Lord and Saviour, in her womb.

Now a very few words will be sufficient to show that our Lord's words are no disparagement to the dignity and glory of His Mother, as the first of creatures and the Queen of all Saints. For consider, He says that it is a more blessed thing to keep His commandments than to be His Mother, and do you think that the Most Holy Mother of God did not keep the commandments of God? Of course no one, no Protestant even, no one will deny she did. Well, if so, what our Lord says is that the Blessed Virgin was more blessed in that she kept His commandments than because she was His Mother. And what Catholic denies this? On the contrary we all confess it. All Catholics confess it. The Holy Fathers of the Church tell us again and again that our Lady was more blessed in doing God's will than in being His Mother. She was blessed in two ways. She was blessed in being His Mother; she was blessed in being filled with the spirit of faith and obedience. And the latter blessedness was the greater. I say the Holy Fathers say so expressly. St. Augustine says, 'More blessed was Mary in receiving the faith of Christ, than in receiving the flesh of Christ. In like manner St. Elizabeth says to her at the Visitation, 'Beata es quae credidisti, Blessed art thou who didst believe; and St. Chrysostom goes so far as to say that she would not have been blessed, even though she had borne Christ in the body, unless she had heard the word of God and kept it.

Now I have used the expression 'St. Chrysostom goes so far as to say, not that it is not a plain truth. I say, it is a plain truth that the Blessed Virgin would not have been blessed, though she had been the Mother of God, if she had not done His will, but it is an extreme thing to say, for it is supposing a thing impossible, it is supposing that she could be so highly favoured and yet not be inhabited and possessed by God's grace, whereas the Angel, when he came, expressly hailed her as full of grace. Ave, gratia plena." The two blessednesses cannot be divided. (Still it is remarkable that she herself had an opportunity of contrasting and dividing them, and that she preferred to keep God's commandments to being His Mother, if she could not have both.) She who was chosen to be the Mother of God was also chosen to be gratia plena, full of grace. This you see is an explanation of those high doctrines which are received among Catholics concerning the purity and sinlessness of the Blessed Virgin. St. Augustine will not listen to the notion that she ever committed sin, and the Holy Council of Trent declares that by special privilege she through all her life avoided all, even venial sin. And at this time you know it is the received belief of Catholics that she was not conceived in original sin, and that her conception was immaculate.

Whence come these doctrines? They come from the great principle contained in our Lord's words on which I am commenting. He says, 'More blessed is it to do God's will than to be God's Mother. Do not say that Catholics do not feel this deeply – so deeply do they feel it that they are ever enlarging on her virginity, purity, immaculateness, faith, humility and obedience. Never say then that Catholics forget this passage of Scripture. Whenever they keep the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Purity, or the like, recollect it is because they make so much of the blessedness of sanctity. The woman in the crowd cried out, 'Blessed is the womb and the breasts of Mary. She spoke in faith; she did not mean to exclude her higher blessedness, but her words only went a certain way. Therefore our Lord completed them. And therefore His Church after Him, dwelling on the great and sacred mystery of His Incarnation, has ever felt that she, who so immediately ministered to it, must have been most holy. And therefore for the honour of the Son she has ever extolled the glory of the Mother. As we give Him of our best, ascribe to Him what is best, as on earth we make our churches costly and beautiful; as when He was taken down from the cross, His pious servants wrapped Him in fine linen, and laid Him in a tomb in which never man was laid; as His dwelling place in heaven is pure and stainless so much more ought to be so much more was that tabernacle from which He took flesh, in which He lay, holy and immaculate and divine. As a body was prepared for Him, so was the place of that body prepared also. Before the Blessed Mary could be Mother of God, and in order to her being Mother, she was set apart, sanctified, filled with grace, and made meet for the presence of the Eternal.

And the Holy Fathers have ever gathered the exact obedience and the sinlessness of the Blessed Virgin from the very narrative of the Annunciation, when she became the Mother of God. For when the Angel appeared to her and declared to her the will of God, they say that she displayed especially four graces, humility, faith, obedience and purity. Nay, these graces were as it were, preparatory conditions to her being made the minister of so high a dispensation. So that if she had not had faith, and humility, and purity, and obedience, she would not have merited to be God's Mother. Thus it is common to say that she conceived Christ in mind before she conceived Him in body, meaning that the blessedness of faith and obedience preceded the blessedness of being a Virgin Mother. Nay, they even say that God waited for her consent before He came into her and took flesh of her. Just as He did no mighty works in one place because they had not faith, so this great miracle, by which He became the Son of a creature, was suspended till she was tried and found meet for it till she obeyed.

But there is something more to be added to this. I said just now that the two blessednesses could not be divided, that they went together. Blessed is the womb, etc.; Yea, rather blessed, etc. It is true, but observe this. The Holy Fathers always teach that in the Annunciation, when the Angel appeared to our Lady, she showed that she preferred what our Lord called the greater of the two blessednesses to the other. For when the Angel announced to her that she was destined to have that blessedness which Jewish women had age after age looked out for, to be the Mother of the expected Christ, she did not seize the news, as another would, but she waited. She waited till she could be told it was consistent with her Virgin state. She was unwilling to accept this most wonderful honour, unwilling till she could be satisfied on this point. How shall this be, since I know not man? They consider that she had made a vow of virginity, and considered that holy estate a greater thing than to bear the Christ. Such is the teaching of the Church, showing distinctly how closely she observes the doctrine of the words of Scripture on which I am commenting, how intimately she considers that the Blessed Mary felt them, viz. that though blessed was the womb that bore Christ and the breasts which He sucked, yet more blessed was the soul which owned that womb and those breasts, more blessed was the soul full of grace, which because it was so gracious was rewarded with the extraordinary privilege to be made the Mother of God.

But now a further question arises, which it may be worth considering. It may be asked, Why did our blessed Lord even seem to extenuate the honour and privilege of His Mother? When the woman said, Blessed is the womb, etc., He answered indeed, Yea. But He went on, Yea, rather blessed. And on another occasion, if not on this, He said when someone told Him that His Mother and brethren were without, Who is My Mother? etc. And at an earlier time, when He began His miracles, and His Mother told Him that the guests in the marriage feast had no wine, He said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. These passages seem to be coldly worded towards the Blessed Virgin, even though the sense may be satisfactorily explained. What then do they mean? Why did He so speak?

Now I shall give two reasons in explanation:

1. The first which more immediately rises out of what I have been saying is this: that for many centuries the Jewish women had looked out each of them to be the Mother of the expected Christ, and had not associated it apparently with any higher sanctity. Therefore they had been so desirous of marriage; therefore marriage was held in