Posted by Spiritual Reading
VITA, DULCEDO ! HAIL, OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS!
XXII.-MARY IS OURLIFE, BECAUSE SHE OBTAINS FOR US PERSEVERANCE.
In the following words of the Book of Proverbs, which are applied to her by the Church, Mary says :
Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at rny gates, and waiteth at the posts
of my doors-(Prov. viii. 34)-as if she would say : Blessed is he that hears my voice and is
constantly attentive to apply at the door of my mercy, and seeks light and help from me. For
clients who do this Mary does her part, and obtains them the light and strength they require to
abandon sin and walk in the paths of virtue. For this reason Innocent III beautifully calls her H
the moon at night, the dawn at break of day, and the sun at mid-day.” She is a moon to enlighten
those who blindly wander in the night of sin, and makes them see and understand the miserable.
state of damnation in which they are ; she is the dawn, that is the forerunner of the sun, to those
whom she has already enlightened, and makes them abandon sin and return to God, the true Sun of
Justice; finally, she is a. sun to those who are in a state of grace, and prevents. them from again
falling into the abyss of sin.
Learned writers apply the following words of Ecclesiasticus to Mary : Her bands are a
healthful binding-(Ecclus. vi. 31). ” Why bands?” asks, St. Laurence Justinian, ” except it be
that she binds her servants and thus prevents them from straying into the, paths of vice.” And
truly this is the reason for which Mary binds her servants. St. Bonaventure also, in his
commentary on the words of Ecclesiasticusfrequently used’ in the Office of Mary, My abode is in the
full assembly, of saints-(Ecclus. xxiv. 16), says that Mary not only has her abode in the full
assembly of Saints, but also. preserves them from falling, keeps a·constant t.C\4, qy: ·
their virtue that it may not fail, and restrains the evil
spirits from injuring them. Not only has she her abode in the full assembly of Saints, but she
keeps the Saints, there by preserving their merits that they may not lose them, by restraining the
devils from injuring them, and by withholding the arm of her Son from striking sinners. In the
:Book of Proverbs we are told that all Mary’s clients are clothed with double garments. For all
her domestics are clothed with double garments-(Prov.xxxi. 21). Cornelius a Lapi.de explains what this double clothing is. He says that it ” consists in her adorning her faithful servants with the virtues of
her Son and with her own”; and thus clothed they persevere in virtue.
Therefore St. Philip Neri, in his exhortations to peni tents, used always to say : ” My children,
if you desire perseverance be devout to our Blessed Lady.” St. John Berchmans, of the Society of
Jesus, used also to say : “Whoever loves Mary will have perseverance.” Truly beautiful is the
reflection of the Abbot Rupert on this subject in his commentary on the Parable of the Prodigal
Son. He says that, ” if this dissolute youth had had a mother living he would never have
abandoned the paternal roof, or at least would have returned much sooner than he did “; meaning
thereby that a son’ of Mary either never abandons God, or, if he has this mis fortune, by her help
he soon returns.
Oh, did all men but love this most benign and loving Lady, had they but recourse to her always and
without delay in their temptations, who would fall? Who would ever be lost? He falls and is lost
who has not recourse to Mary. St. Laurence Justinian applies to Mary the words of Ecclesiasticus :
I have walked in the waves of the sea-(Ecclus. xxiv. 8), and makes her say : ” I walk with my
servants in the midst of the tempests to which they are constantly exposed, to assist and preserve
them from falling into sin.”