a) MARY

"She glorified God and she, in turn, was glorified by God.

The person who glorifies God will, in turn, be glorified by God, says the Lord.  And who, more than Mary, glorified God on this earth?  She glorified God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

She glorified God the Father when, by her consent to the Incarnation of the Word, she made it possible for God the Father to see his domain expanded and his power increased, as he beheld among his subjects a subject of infinite perfection.  And, in truth, since, in his humanity, Christ is inferior to the Father, the Father, in a certain way, became the God of God; and this he became through Mary.

She glorified God the Son when his infinite love ‑- which in God's eternal designs caused him to sacrifice himself for humanity ‑- could be satisfied only when Mary appeared on the scene.  If he was glorified by his temporal birth, he was, in fact, glorified in the very flesh he took from Mary.

She glorified God the Holy Spirit when, as soon as she consented to the designs of the Most High, the Divine Paraclete descended to unite, within her, the Redeemer's most holy soul with his most sacred body.  Thus, having hypostatically united that adorable humanity with the nature and person of the Divine Word, the Holy Spirit acquired ad extra the fecundity he does not have ad intra, as well as a certain precedence over the most sacred humanity of Christ.

Mary, therefore, had to be glorified in the heavens by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  She had to be glorified not with one but with a triple crown.¹

"Mary, figure of the Church"

In the words of St. Ambrose, the whole life of Mary, the mysteries that took place in her, the graces that adorned her, the blessings distributed through her, were a figure, an image, a prophecy, so to speak, of the Catholic Church: "Mary bore in herself the figure of the Church." In fact, we cannot deny that Mary's existence is tied directly to that of Christ and that it shares much more in the destiny of Christ than in that of the human race.  Now, then, look at the nature of the Catholic Church and you will see that, like Mary, she forms one sole thing with Christ, lives of his Spirit, seeks his glory and loves him with a most perfect love.  The Eagle of Doctors said that the flesh of Christ is the very flesh of Mary: caro Christi, caro Mariae.  One could not elucidate with clearer truth and greater precision the Gospel statement: "of whom Jesus was born." 

Now, who cherishes and defends the virginal flesh of Mary and makes it known to people?  Is it not the Catholic Church?  You will notice that, through the power of Christ, the divine maternity is made present and extended in all the Sacraments of which the Church is minister.  In everything you will see the power of Christ's blood.  You will understand that this blood was given us by Mary and is applied to us through the ministry of the Catholic Church.  What a beautiful and clear correlation between the mother and the spouse of Christ!  The Scriptures all speak of the Redeemer and, as a consequence, speak of the Virgin, of which  he was born, and of the Church, through whom he still lives on earth until the end of time.  This union between Christ, the Virgin and the Church is so intimate that one cannot separate

them.  When you read ‑- from the first to the last page of the Holy Books ‑- about the woman's Son who saves the world, you are also reading about the triumph of the Virgin Mary and, with her, about the triumph of the Church.²

"Mother of the Church"

Who can describe with what ecstatic fervor, passionate love and persevering prayer Mary turned to the divine Paraclete in the Cenacle, beseeching him to pour himself out in the fullness of his gifts on these firstfruits of the faith, as well as on all future believers, and to be their light, their counselor, their guide, and their solace for all ages to come?  At the same time, who can doubt that the divine Spirit lovingly accepted and gladly granted the supplications of Mary, this spouse of his, adorned with every virtue, embellished with every gift, so beloved in his eyes, so powerful over his heart?  Who will not conclude with me that Mary played a most important part in the marvelous effects produced by the Holy Spirit among men and women at his coming and that we truly owe a debt of gratitude for them also to the Virgin Mary?

Consider that, with her example, she helped immeasurably to stir up even in the Apostles those excellent dispositions that were to serve as an invitation to a richer outpouring of the Spirit.

Yes, in the eyes of the Apostles, Mary was a sacred treasure, a venerable person.  In her they saw instilled the spirit of their divine Master.  In her they saw Jesus himself mirrored, Jesus himself somehow personified.  They looked at her as the rule of all their actions, as the model of their lives.  I would say, moreover, that they would depend on her will in all things .

On the other hand, during all the days she spent with the Apostles in the Cenacle, with what frequency, enthusiasm, and rapture must Mary have talked to them about the sublime excellence of the Spirit they were to receive, about the importance of his mission, the preeminence of his gifts and the need to dispose themselves to receive him worthily!  Imagine what an impression these words of hers ‑- so precious because of her authority, so efficacious because of her example ‑- must have made on the Apostles and how her words must have inspired them to purify their hearts, enkindle their desires, and quicken their supplications, in a word, to prepare themselves for a more copious

sharing in the divine Spirit! (...).

It is precisely on Pentecost Day that Mary began to exercise on earth the spiritual motherhood to which she had been raised at the foot of the Cross.

In fact, at Nazareth the Holy Spirit consecrated Mary Mother of God, while in the Cenacle he invested her as Mother of the Church.  As Mother of the Head, she also had to be mother of the members.³

"Mary represents reborn humanity"

I would never finish, dearly beloved, if I were to list all the extraordinary blessings the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception has brought to earth.  Let me just say this: look at the peace and serenity of the Church in the midst of the present struggle!  War is all around her but not within her.  The weeds have been separated from the chosen wheat.  False Catholics, having removed their masks, have shown their true colors.  Now the Church enjoys the peace that had been foretold for so long.  In fact, the Church's noblest peace does not consist in a letup from the battles to which her Divine Spouse has sent her ‑- hence her title Militant ‑- but especially in remaining the repository of truth and justice against the thousand enemies surrounding her.  Her peace consists in unity of thought and in the knowledge of the truth in complete accord with the highest of all Authorities.  Has not this peace been achieved, despite the many ups and downs of history?  Yes, the Church does now enjoy that true, spiritual, and eternal peace which the angels proclaimed to the world at the birth of Christ and which Christ himself bequeathed to his disciples: that peace, in a word, that is the establishment and spread of the kingdom of God in the midst of the world (...).

I challenge anyone to show me another period when the protection of Mary was as manifest and tangible as in our age or when the internal peace of the Church was as marvelous as after the definition of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.  From the grotto of Lourdes has not the Holy Virgin confirmed with her own lips and in the clearest way the most sublime attribute of the pontifical ministry, namely, Infallibility, when she said: "I am the Immaculate Conception?" Is it not because of her that so many poor dupes have opened their eyes to the truth and that the loveliest and most fragrant flowers from the parched fields of Protestantism are gradually being transplanted in the mystical

flower-beds of the one true Church of Jesus Christ? (...).

Just as the Incarnation was the outpouring of God's mercy and love upon a world that had entirely deserted him, in the same way Mary Immaculate, in the 19th century, represents a reborn humanity returning to the arms of its God.  In the 19th century, Mary Immaculate represents the delightful array of all the loveliest virtues which ‑- like at the Savior's coming ‑- are moving across the face of the earth to take possession of it at the very moment when vices of all kinds are inundating it.  Humility overcomes pride, love replaces egoism, purity defends seduced innocence. 

In the 19th century, Mary Immaculate represents complete victory of the spirit over the flesh.  She represents freedom from crime, degradation and slavery; the proclamation of the dignity, nobility and greatness of human nature.  For the 19th century, Mary Immaculate constitutes the most gentle solace of the poor and the afflicted.  Wholly innocent, she was not subject to the pain due to sin.  Yet she suffered poverty, humiliation and the most excruciating torments, thus becoming the Queen of Martyrs!  In the 19th century, Mary Immaculate represents for the rich a wholesome reminder not to be attached to the goods of the earth but to those of heaven and to perform works of Christian charity for the poor of Jesus Christ.  Though she was the Mother of God and was loved by him above all other creatures put together, she received no riches other than the riches of heaven!  In the 19th century, Mary Immaculate entreats good people to treasure grace most highly and pleads with sinners to abandon a life of sin.  Finally, in the 19th century, Mary Immaculate is the rainbow of peace invoked in family disputes, in the turmoil of dreadful upheavals, in moments of fears and threats of even more terrible evils!⁴

"The loving Mediatrix between God and the 19th century"

Our age deifies human reason, proclaiming that man has never needed Redemption because he has never fallen.  Our age refuses to confess the disorder that interiorly degrades it.  Our age rejects the sacred dogmas of our most holy Religion and its divine Mysteries.  Hence, for our age, Jesus Christ is not the merciful Savior who redeems heaven and earth by his Blood but, at most, a great philosopher, on whom people have bestowed divine attributes.  For

our age, the earth is not the way leading to the happiness of paradise but the paradise of happiness.  For our age, matter is not a ladder by which we climb more easily to the knowledge of God but the ultimate goal of our hopes.  Our age's only preoccupation is to subdue and transform matter, to see nothing, accept nothing and hope in nothing but matter.  As a result, while distances in the world of nature are daily diminishing through the telegraph and the steamship, those of the world of grace are steadily increasing.  While the electric light dimly illuminates the darkness of night, the gentle and serene light of faith is fading in civil society.

Dearly beloved, who is going to heal this horrible wound of our miserable age?  Who is going to lead this prodigal son back to his father's house?  The one who will mediate peace and pardon between nature and grace, between God and the 19th century, is the loving Mediatrix; she who is the most beautiful miracle of nature, the most perfect work of grace; she in whose very person nature and grace, the natural and the supernatural, science and faith, come together and intertwine in a most perfect and stupendous way; in a word, she who alone can be called the Immaculate One (...).

The dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception is the most decisive condemnation of modern unbelief.  It is the most solemn affirmation of the supernatural order and of all those truths that pertain to the supernatural order.

If we believe Mary was conceived without original sin, we cannot but profess the dogma of Creation, of Redemption, and of Sanctification, because belief in her Immaculate Conception is the same as confessing that the divine Father created Mary's soul in a wholly perfect state, that the divine Word ransomed her in a way wholly different from the way he ransomed the children of Adam, and that the Holy Spirit endowed her with his incomparable gifts.  If we believe Mary was conceived without original sin, we cannot but glorify God's Goodness, which set her apart from the corrupt mass of the whole human race; God's Wisdom, which chose her, the second Eve, as the means to repair the harm done to human nature by the first Eve; and God's Power, which overwhelmed Lucifer in the most glorious way.  If we believe Mary was immune from original sin, we cannot but profess God's utter freedom vis‑à‑vis everything outside himself, as well as his absolute dominion over nature, and we cannot but pay homage to the infinite Holiness of God, the implacable enemy of all sin.  Finally, if we believe Mary was immune from the primeval fall, we cannot but profess

full submission of intellect and heart to the Catholic Church, which proposes the Immaculate One for our belief.⁵

"The Age of the Immaculate One"

True, our age has had different titles.  Some call it the Age of Enlightenment and Progress, others the age of chemical and mathematical sciences, others the age of discussion and freedom.  We will call it the Age of the Immaculate One.  Yes, some day her other titles might be questioned, might be forgotten; not this one.  Dearly beloved, in what other age, more than in ours, was there, or could there be, such a universal, enthusiastic and passionate love for the Immaculate Mother of God?⁶

"Mother of consolation"

We repay love with love.  What more tender and active love is there than the love Mary has for us?  Mary is our Mother.  What would happen if the truth that Mary is our Mother were fully understood, a truth that for twenty centuries has sufficed to dry so many tears, soothe so much pain, and make so many hearts throb!   Mary is Jesus' mother because she conceived him in her womb.  She is our mother because she conceived us in her heart.  She is Jesus' mother by nature, our mother by adoption.  As mother of the Head, she is mother of all the members.  As mother of the Redeemer, she is also mother of the redeemed because she begot the Redeemer to the life of time for the sole purpose of begetting human beings to the life of eternity.  Mary is our mother, so much so that precisely for this reason is she mother of God: "for us men ... by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man."  Mary is our mother; and lest anyone have the slightest doubt about this truth, Jesus himself assures us of it in his own words from the height of the Cross as he is about to breathe his last, that is to say, at the most solemn moment of his mortal life: "Behold your mother."

We call her mother of mercy, which is tantamount to saying mother of consolation.  It is her queenly title: "Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy."  She asks only one thing ‑- to pour all the riches of her motherly heart upon our miseries.  Misery is ignorance and error, the source of

our deviations.  Misery is temptation, a mysterious agony of our spiritual forces.  Misery is death, the death of grace, the degradation of our nature, and the enslavement of our freedom.  Misery is anguish of spirit; it is distress of the heart.  Misery is the privation of the necessary things of life; it is sickness and infirmity of the body.  Misery is persecution by the wicked, the unjust oppression of the weak and the wretched.  Now, for all these miseries we find the remedy in the heart of Mary.  We can ask our mother in heaven for anything and expect everything from her: light, strength, forgiveness, encouragement, comfort, help, protection, well-being: "Mother of consolation, cause of our joy."⁷

"Let us live as Mary lived"

Mary took her seat on the throne of the divinity.  Yet, though Mother of God, she would never have achieved these heights without merits.  It was her merits and her virtues that raised her to such glory, and only merit and virtue will also lead us to heaven.  Let us live as Mary lived.  Let us imitate Mary to the degree of grace God grants us.  After her example, let us ask God, through the intercession of such an august Lady, to be fervent in prayer, humble in our words and dispositions, resigned to the will of God in our tribulations, full of love for God and of sincere charity toward all, always willing to render good for evil to everyone, zealous for the glory of God and the triumph of the Church and its infallible Head, hard-working and ready, as faith demands, to seal with our very blood the great truths God has taught us in his mercy.⁸

"Devotion to the Most Holy Virgin must be sound"

Remember that devotion to the Most Holy Virgin must be sound.  In other words, it must not be one of those superficial and shallow devotions that amount to a few external practices.  Instead, devotion to her should lead you to purify your soul from defects and enrich it with virtues.  Before we can turn an uncultivated piece of land into a delightful flower garden, we must first uproot the underbrush and weeds from it and then plant the choicest shrubs and

flowers.  This is also how sound devotion works.  You will undoubtedly have to make some  sacrifices.  But, in the end, you will succeed because, seeing how hard you are struggling and laboring to please her, the Blessed Virgin will generously help you in all the assaults that your passions and the devil himself will mount against you.  In such encounters, turn to her with all your heart and protest to her that you would rather die than offend her divine son.  Rest assured: victory will be yours (...).

Your desire to please the Blessed Mother should encourage you to adorn your soul with her virtues.  If you love her, you will not find it hard because love impels one to imitate the person loved and makes lover and loved one alike.  Fix your eyes on Mary's virtues.  Watch how she acts and try to reproduce her virtues in yourselves (...). 

If you happen to be in church, think of Mary in the Temple; if at home, think of Mary at Nazareth; if at table, think of Mary at the wedding feast of Cana.  If you think of her, you can imitate her virtues in every one of your actions.⁹

"Be devoted to the Rosary"

We must not be surprised if, in all ages, extraordinary favors were obtained and smashing victories achieved through the Rosary.  People famous for noble birth, learning, prestige, and holiness, pontiffs, bishops, princes, commanders-in-chief, warriors, magistrates, lawyers, doctors, masters in the arts and sciences and writers made the Rosary their dearest delight.  The Rosary has become the devotion of all times, places, conditions, ages, and tongues, the queen of devotions, the universal devotion.  The Supreme Pontiffs have enriched the Rosary with so many indulgences, privileges, and favors (...)

Let us recite it daily in the company of many others, as if ‑- in Tertullian's words ‑- we were laying siege in close ranks to the throne of God to do him loving violence.  We, too, would behold the marvel witnessed by St. Augustine: people's prayers rising and God's mercies descending.

Let us then be devoted to the Rosary, dearly beloved.  Love it the way our ancestors did.  To you parents, above all, I say: every night hold classes of Christian wisdom in your homes by means of the Rosary.  See to it that, as your children meditate on these mysteries

and repeat the prayers, they are reminded of how much God, Jesus Christ, and Mary love them.  Let them learn that, for our sakes, God is the all-giving love, Jesus Christ is the sacrificial love, and Mary is the assisting love.  With so many seducing voices drawing them to earth, may there be a powerful one to lift their hearts to the love of heaven.¹⁰

"Come together every evening to say the Rosary"

Come together every evening, all together, parents and children, to say the Rosary before the beloved and venerable picture of the Holy Family, as your ancestors did.  Oh, the prayer that blends the trembling voice of the elder with the innocent babble of the child!  The prayer of the whole family before that picture will rise like sweet incense to the very throne of God and turn into a rainfall of God's choicest graces.  Jesus himself assures us that where two or three are gathered in common prayer to ask some favor of the heavenly Father in his name, he himself will be in their midst.  If this is true, will Jesus not be in the midst of the Christian family when it all comes together to pray?  Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Savior's promise will never pass away.  We can be sure that from such a devotional practice there will flow into every member of the family light for the mind, warmth for the heart, and strength for the will.  In a short time ‑- once the pernicious effects stemming from neglect of God and his law have passed away ‑- family life will blossom in overflowing peace and contribute powerfully to the welfare of civil society itself.¹¹

"'Ask her to teach me love for God"

You mean you are not coming down anymore this year?  For your penance, you will pay a visit to our dearest Mother for me, all for me, because I need it so much!  Ask her to teach me love for God, love for the Cross, holy abandonment to the will of God, death to the world and to my own heart -- to all things.  Should you obtain this grace for me, how happy I would be.¹²