The month of our Lady ...

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First Day. — Motives of Devotion to

Our Blessed Lady 8

I

It being our duty to love God principally because he contains essentially in himself every perfection, and it being likewise our duty to praise God in his saints, it becomes our duty to be especially devoted to Mary ; because amongst all the creatures of God she is the most pure, the most holy, the most perfect. As such we discover her in the designs of the Lord ; and the church of God's infallible truth applies to this great mother in a mystic sense whatever the Scripture says of the divine Wisdom. Hence Mary is made to say of herself: — I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the first born before all creatures (Eccl. xxiv. 5). The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived ; neither had the fountains of water as yet sprung out. . .When he prepared the heavens, I was present;

when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths, I was with him forming all things {Prov. viii. 22). I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on Mount Sion. I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho {EccL xxiv. 17).

Mary is thus celebrated by the spouse of the Canticles : Thou art all fair, O my love ; and there is not a spot in thee. Thou comest forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun {Cant. iv. 7). It is not surprising, therefore, that the angel of God, when in the fulness of time he visited Mary as a messenger from the Most High, exclaimed on beholding her, — Hail, full of grace ; the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women {Luke i. 28).

In like manner, the Fathers of the Church proclaimed Mary the most holy and most lovely creature that ever issued from the hands of Him that is mighty. The eternal God, says St. Bernardine, created in time his holy mother, such as he had chosen her from eternity, adorning her with all the gifts of nature and grace, which became the grandeur of his majesty. With the exception of Christ, and with the exception also of his most blessed mother, says

THE MONTH OF OUR LADY.

St. Cyril, we were all born in sin. Mary was an object of wonder to angels and to men, says Albertus Magnus, because all that human nature, all that a mere creature is capable of being endowed with, was found in Mary. What is more holy, says St. Thomas, than Mary? Neither Prophets, nor Apostles, nor Martyrs, nor Patriarchs, nor Thrones, nor Dominations, nor Cherubim, nor Seraphim. Amongst all created beings, visible and invisible, nothing greater or more excellent than she can be found. According to Suarez, Mary surpasses in sanctity, not only every saint and every angel individually considered, but all saints and all angels united. Mary, therefore, is, in the words of the Church, Queen of all saints, because in holiness and perfection she far excels them.