Discourse IV — The Annunciation of Mary

In the Incarnation of the Word, Mary could not have humbled herself more than she did; God, on the other hand, could not have exalted her more than he did.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. This is the word of the Lord; it cannot fail: Qui autem se exaltat humiliabitur, et qui se humiliaverit exaltabitur (Matt. XXIII, 12). Hence, God having determined to become man to redeem lost mankind and thereby to manifest to the world his infinite goodness, and needing to choose a mother on earth, he went searching among women for the one who was the holiest and the most humble. But among all of them he beheld one — the maiden Mary — who, the more perfect she was in virtue, the more simple and humble, like a dove, she was in her own esteem. Adolescentularum non est numerus: una est columba mea, perfecta mea (Cant. VI, 7–8). This one, said God, shall be my chosen mother. Let us therefore see how humble Mary was, and consequently how much God exalted her.

In the Incarnation of the Word, Mary could not have humbled herself more than she did — the first point. God could not have exalted Mary more than he did — the second.

Point I

Speaking precisely of the humility of this most humble maiden in the Canticle of Canticles, the Lord said: Dum esset rex in accubitu suo, nardus mea dedit odorem suum (Cant. I, 11). St. Antoninus comments on these words and says that in the spikenard plant — since it is so small and lowly — the humility of Mary was prefigured, whose fragrance rose to heaven and from the bosom of the Eternal Father drew the Divine Word into her virginal womb: Nardus est herba parva, et significat beatam Virginem, quae dedit humilitatis odorem; qui odor usque ad caelum ascendit, et in caelo accumbentem fecit quasi evigilare et in utero suo quiescere. Thus the Lord, drawn by the fragrance of this humble maiden, chose her for his mother when he willed to become man to redeem the world. But for the greater glory and merit of this mother, he did not wish to become her son without first obtaining her consent: Noluit carnem sumere ex ipsa, non dante ipsa, says Abbot William. Hence, while the humble maiden was in her poor little dwelling, sighing and praying to God then more than ever with the greatest desire that he would send the Redeemer — as was revealed to St. Elizabeth, a Benedictine nun — behold, the Archangel Gabriel comes to bring the great embassy. He enters and greets her, saying: Ave, gratia plena; Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus (Luke I, 28): God save you, O Virgin full of grace, for you have always been rich in grace above all other saints. The Lord is with you, because you are so humble. You are blessed among women, for while all others incurred the curse of sin, you — because you are the Mother of the Blessed One — have been and will always be blessed and free from every stain.

In the meantime, what does humble Mary reply to this greeting so full of praise? Nothing. She did not reply, but reflecting on the greeting she was troubled: Quae cum audisset, turbata est in sermone eius et cogitabat qualis esset ista salutatio. And why was she troubled? Perhaps from fear of deception, or from modesty at seeing a man, thinking — as some hold — that the angel appeared to her in human form? No, the text is clear: turbata est in sermone eius; Eusebius of Emesa notes: Non in vultu, sed in sermone eius. This disturbance was therefore entirely one of humility, at hearing praises so far removed from her own humble estimate of herself. Hence the more she hears herself exalted by the angel, the more she lowers herself and enters into consideration of her own nothingness. St. Bernardine here reflects and says that had the angel told her she was the greatest sinner in the world, Mary would not have been so astonished; but upon hearing such lofty praises, she was wholly disturbed: Si dixisset: O Maria, tu es maior ribalda quae est in mundo, non ita admirata fuisset: unde turbata fuit de tantis laudibus. She was troubled because, being so full of humility, she abhorred every praise of herself and desired that her Creator and giver of every good should be praised and blessed. So indeed Mary herself told St. Bridget, speaking of the time when she was made Mother of God: Nolui laudem meam, sed solius datoris et Creatoris.

But at the very least, I say, the Blessed Virgin was well instructed from the Sacred Scriptures. She knew that the time foretold by the prophets for the coming of the Messiah had arrived, that the weeks of Daniel were fulfilled, that according to Jacob's prophecy the scepter of Judah had passed into the hands of the foreign king Herod. She already knew that a virgin was to be the mother of the Messiah. She then hears from the angel praises that seemed to befit no one but a Mother of God. Did perhaps the thought then come to her — at least a "who knows whether I might be this chosen Mother of God"? No, her profound humility did not even allow her to entertain such a thought. Those praises served only to fill her with great fear, so much so that, as St. Peter Chrysologus reflects: Sicut Christus per angelum voluit confortari, ita per angelum debuit Virgo animari: Just as the Savior willed to be comforted by an angel, so St. Gabriel, seeing Mary so frightened at the greeting, had to encourage her, saying: Ne timeas, Maria, invenisti gratiam apud Deum: Do not fear, O Mary, nor be astonished at the great titles with which I have greeted you; for though in your own eyes you are so small and lowly, God, who exalts the humble, has made you worthy of finding the grace lost by men. Therefore he has preserved you from the common stain of all the children of Adam; therefore from the moment of your Conception he has honored you with a grace greater than that of all the saints; therefore, finally, he now exalts you to be his Mother: Ecce concipies et paries filium, et vocabis nomen eius Iesum.

Come now, what are we waiting for? Exspectat angelus responsum, St. Bernard speaks here, exspectamus et nos, o Domina, verbum miserationis, quos miserabiliter premit sententia damnationis: My Lady, the angel awaits your answer; we await it even more, we who are already condemned to death. Ecce offertur tibi pretium salutis nostrae; statim liberabimur, si consentis. St. Bernard continues: Behold, O our Mother, the price of our salvation is already offered to you — the Divine Word to be made man in you. If you accept him for your son, we shall at once be freed from death. Ipse quoque Dominus, quantum concupivit decorem tuum, tantum desiderat et responsionis assensum, in qua nimirum proposuit salvare mundum: Your Lord himself, as much as he has fallen in love with your beauty, just as much desires your consent, in which he has determined to save the world. Responde iam Virgo sacra, St. Augustine takes up, vitam quid tricas mundo? Quickly, my Lady, answer; delay no longer the salvation of the world, which now depends upon your consent.

But behold, Mary already answers; she answers the angel and says: Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. O answer more beautiful, more humble, and more prudent than all the wisdom of men and angels together could have devised, had they pondered it for a million years! O mighty answer that gladdened heaven and brought to earth an immense sea of graces and blessings! Answer that, scarcely issued from Mary's humble heart, drew the only-begotten Son from the bosom of the Eternal Father into her most pure womb, to become man! Yes, for no sooner were those words uttered — Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum — than at once Verbum caro factum est: the Son of God became also the Son of Mary. O fiat potens! exclaims St. Thomas of Villanova, o fiat efficax! o fiat super omne fiat venerandum! For by the other fiats God created light, heaven, and earth; but by this fiat of Mary, says the saint, a God became man like us.

But let us not depart from our point; let us consider the great humility of the Virgin in this answer. She was indeed enlightened to know how exalted was the dignity of Mother of God. The angel had already assured her that she was this happy mother chosen by the Lord. But with all this, she does not advance in her own self-esteem; she does not pause to take pleasure in her exaltation. Looking on one side at her own nothingness and on the other at the infinite majesty of her God who chose her for his mother, she recognizes herself unworthy of so great an honor, but does not wish to oppose his will in the slightest. Therefore, when asked for her consent, what does she do? What does she say? Wholly annihilated in herself, wholly inflamed with desire to unite herself more closely with God, abandoning herself entirely to the divine will, she replies: Ecce — behold — ecce ancilla Domini. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, bound to do what her Lord commands. And she meant to say: If the Lord chooses me for his mother — I who have nothing of my own, for all I have is his gift — who can think he chooses me for any merit of mine? Ecce ancilla Domini. What merit can a handmaid have to be made the mother of her Lord? Ecce ancilla Domini. Let only the goodness of the Lord be praised, not his handmaid; for it is entirely his goodness to set his eyes upon a creature as lowly as I am and to make her so great.

O humilitas, here exclaims Abbot Guerric, angusta sibi, ampla divinitati! Insufficiens sibi, sufficiens ei quem non capit orbis! O great humility of Mary, which makes her small in her own eyes but great before God! Unworthy in her own sight, but worthy in the eyes of that immense Lord whom the world cannot contain.

But more beautiful on this subject is the exclamation of St. Bernard, who says in his fourth sermon on Mary assumed into heaven, admiring the humility of Mary: My Lady, how could you unite in your heart so humble an opinion of yourself with such purity, such innocence, and such fullness of grace as you possessed? Quanta humilitatis virtus, cum tanta puritate, cum innocentia tanta, imo cum tanta gratiae plenitudine? And whence, the saint continues, O blessed Virgin, has this humility — and such humility — so firmly taken root in you, seeing yourself so honored and exalted by God? Unde tibi humilitas et tanta humilitas, o beata?

Lucifer, seeing himself endowed with great beauty, aspired to exalt his throne above the stars and make himself like God: Super astra Dei, he said, exaltabo solium meum... et similis ero Altissimo (Is. XIV, 13). What would the proud one have said and presumed had he ever found himself adorned with the privileges of Mary? The humble Mary did not act so: the more she saw herself exalted, the more she humbled herself. Ah, my Lady, for this beautiful humility — concludes St. Bernard — well did you make yourself worthy of being regarded by God with singular love; worthy of captivating your King with your beauty; worthy of drawing, with the sweet fragrance of your humility, the eternal Son from his repose in the bosom of God into your most pure womb: Digna plane quam respiceret Dominus, cuius decorem concupisceret rex, cuius odore suavissimo ab aeterno illo paterni sinus attraheretur accubitu. Hence Bernardine of Busti says that Mary merited more by that answer — Ecce ancilla Domini — than all creatures together could merit by all their works: B. Virgo plus meruit, dicendo humiliter, Ecce ancilla Domini, quam simul mereri possent omnes purae creaturae.

So it is, says St. Bernard: while this innocent Virgin, though by her virginity she made herself dear to God, it was by her humility that she made herself worthy — insofar as a creature could make herself worthy — of being made the Mother of her Creator: Etsi placuit ex virginitate, tamen ex humilitate concepit. And St. Jerome confirms it, saying that God chose her as his Mother more for her humility than for all her other exalted virtues: Maluit Deus de Virgine incarnari propter humilitatem, quam propter aliam quamcumque virtutem. Mary herself expressed this to St. Bridget, telling her: "Whence did I merit such a grace as to be made the Mother of my Lord, if not because I recognized my nothingness and humbled myself?" Unde promerui tantam gratiam, nisi quia cogitavi et scivi nihil me esse vel habere? And she had already declared it in her most humble canticle when she said: Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae... fecit mihi magna qui potens est (Luke I, 48–49). Where St. Lawrence Justinian notes that the Blessed Virgin Non ait, respexit virginitatem, innocentiam, sed humilitatem tantum. And by this humility — as St. Francis de Sales observes — Mary did not mean to praise the virtue of her humility, but wished to declare that God had looked upon her nothingness — humilitatem, idest nihilitatem — and out of his pure goodness had willed to exalt her thus.

In sum, says St. Augustine, the humility of Mary was like a ladder by which the Lord deigned to descend to earth to become man in her womb: Facta est Mariae humilitas scala caelestis, per quam Deus descendit ad terras. And St. Antoninus confirmed it, saying that the humility of the Virgin was her most perfect and most proximate disposition for becoming the Mother of God: Ultima gratia perfectionis est praeparatio ad Filium Dei concipiendum; quae praeparatio fuit per profundam humilitatem. And with this we understand what Isaiah foretold: Egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet (Is. XI, 1). Blessed Albert the Great reflects that the divine flower — the Only-begotten of God — was, according to Isaiah, to spring not from the summit or the trunk of the plant of Jesse but from the root, precisely to denote the humility of the Mother: De radice eius, humilitas cordis intelligitur. And more clearly the Abbot of Celles explains: Nota quod non ex summitate, sed de radice ascendet flos. And therefore the Lord said to this beloved daughter of his: Averte oculos tuos, quia ipsi me avolare fecerunt (Cant. V). St. Augustine: Unde avolare, nisi a sinu Patris in uterum Matris? On this thought the learned commentator Fernandez says that the most humble eyes of Mary, with which she always gazed upon the divine greatness without ever losing sight of her own nothingness, did such violence to God himself as to draw him into her womb: Ita illius oculi humillimi Deum tenuerunt, ut suavissima quadam violentia ipsummet Dei Patris Verbum in uterum suum Virgo attraxerit. And with this we understand, says Abbot Franco, why the Holy Spirit so praised the beauty of his spouse for the eyes of a dove she possessed: Quam pulchra es, amica mea! quam pulchra es! oculi tui columbarum (Cant. IV, 1). Because Mary, gazing upon God with the eyes of a simple and humble dove, so captivated him with her beauty that she made him a prisoner in her virginal womb with bonds of love. So Abbot Franco speaks: Ubinam terrarum tam speciosa Virgo inveniri posset quae regem caelorum oculis caperet et vinculis caritatis pia violentia captivum traheret?

Let us therefore conclude this point. Mary, in the Incarnation of the Word, as we have seen, could not have humbled herself more than she did. Let us now see how God, having made her his Mother, could not have exalted her more than he did.

Point II

To comprehend the height to which Mary was raised, one would need to comprehend how sublime are the greatness and majesty of God. It will therefore suffice simply to say that God made this Virgin his Mother, to understand that God could not have exalted her more than he did. St. Arnold of Chartres rightly asserted that God, by making himself the Son of the Virgin, constituted her at a height superior to all the saints and angels: Maria constituta est super omnem creaturam. So that, apart from God, she is without comparison higher than all the heavenly spirits, as St. Ephrem says: Nulla comparatione ceteris superis est gloriosior. And St. Andrew of Crete confirms: Excepto Deo, omnibus altior. With St. Anselm, who says: My Lady, you have none who is your equal, for every other being is either above or below you; God alone is above you, and all others are beneath you: Nihil tibi, Domina, est aequale; omne enim quod est, aut supra te est, aut infra: quod supra, solus Deus; quod infra, est omne quod Deus non est. So great, in sum, says St. Bernardine, is the exaltation of this Virgin, that God alone can and does comprehend it: Tanta est perfectio Virginis, ut soli Deo cognoscenda reservetur.

And this removes the wonder of some — observes St. Thomas of Villanova — that the sacred Evangelists, who were so copious in recording the praises of a Baptist or a Magdalene, were then so sparing in describing the excellences of Mary. Satis fuit, the saint answers, de ea dicere: de qua natus est Iesus. What more do you seek — the same saint continues — for the Evangelists to say about the greatness of this Virgin? It suffices that they attest she was the Mother of God. Having written in this single phrase the greatest, the sum total, of her excellences, there was no need to go describing them in detail: Quid ultra requiris? Sufficit tibi quod Mater Dei est. Ubi ergo totum erat, pars scribenda non fuit. And why not? St. Anselm takes up the point. To say of Mary only that she is the Mother of God surpasses every height that can be expressed or conceived after God: Hoc solum de S. Virgine praedicari, quod Dei Mater sit, excedit omnem altitudinem quae post Deum dici vel cogitari potest. And Peter of Celles adds: Give her whatever name you wish — Queen of Heaven, Mistress of Angels, or any other title of honor — you will never succeed in honoring her as much as by simply calling her Mother of God: Si caeli reginam, si angelorum dominam, vel quodlibet aliud protuleris; non assurges ad hunc honorem, quo praedicatur Dei Genitrix.

The reason is evident, because, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, the closer a thing approaches its source, the more it receives of its perfection; and since Mary is the creature closest to God, she has participated more than all others in grace, perfection, and greatness: Quanto aliquid magis participat illius effectum, etc. Beata autem Virgo Maria propinquissima Christo fuit, quia ex ea accepit humanam naturam; et ideo prae ceteris maiorem debuit a Christo gratiae plenitudinem obtinere (3 p., q. 27, a. 5). Hence Father Suarez draws the reason why the dignity of Mother of God is of an order superior to every other created dignity: since it belongs in a certain way to the order of the hypostatic union, with which it is necessarily conjoined: Dignitas Matris est altioris ordinis, pertinet enim quodammodo ad ordinem unionis hypostaticae; illam enim intrinsece respicit et cum illa necessariam coniunctionem habet. Hence Denis the Carthusian asserts that after the hypostatic union there is no closer union than that of the Mother of God with her Son: Post hypostaticam coniunctionem, non est alia tam vicina, ut unio Matris Dei cum Filio suo. This, teaches St. Thomas, is the supreme union a pure creature can have with God: Est suprema quaedam coniunctio cum persona infinita. And Blessed Albert the Great asserts that being the Mother of God is the dignity immediately next to the dignity of being God: Immediate post esse Deum, est esse Matrem Dei. Hence he says that Mary could not have been more closely united to God than she was, unless she herself became God: Magis Deo coniungi, nisi fieret Deus, non potuit.

St. Bernardine affirms that in order for the Blessed Virgin, as Mother of God, to conceive and bear a God, she had to be elevated to a certain equality with the divine persons through a quasi-infinity of graces: Quod femina conciperet et pareret Deum, oportuit eam elevari ad quamdam aequalitatem divinam per quamdam infinitatem gratiarum. And since children and their parents, morally speaking, are regarded as the same thing — their goods and honors being held in common — St. Peter Damian says that if God dwells in creatures in various ways, in Mary he dwelt in a singular manner of identity, making himself one and the same thing with Mary: Quarto modo inest Deus creaturae, scilicet Mariae Virgini, per identitatem, quia idem est quam illa. And then he exclaims with that celebrated saying: Hinc taceat et contremiscat omnis creatura, et vix audeat aspicere tantae dignitatis immensitatem. Habitat Deus in Virgine, cum qua unius naturae habet identitatem.

Therefore St. Thomas asserts that Mary, being made the Mother of God, by reason of this most intimate union with an infinite good, received a certain infinite dignity, which Father Suarez calls infinite in its kind: Dignitas Matris Dei suo genere est infinita. For the dignity of divine motherhood is the greatest dignity that can be conferred upon a pure creature. The Angelic Doctor teaches that just as the humanity of Jesus Christ, although it could have received from God greater habitual grace — Cum enim gratia habitualis, here is the reason he assigns, sit donum creatum, confiteri oportet quod habeat essentiam finitam. Est cuiuslibet creaturae determinata capacitatis mensura, quae tamen divinae potestati non praeiudicat quin possit aliam creaturam maioris capacitatis facere — nevertheless in its union with a divine person, it could not have received greater dignity: Virtus divina licet possit facere aliquid maius et melius quam sit habitualis gratia Christi, non tamen posset facere quod ordinaretur ad aliquid maius quam sit unio personalis ad Filium unigenitum a Patre. So likewise the Blessed Virgin could not have been made greater in dignity than by being made the Mother of God: B. Virgo ex hoc quod est Mater Dei, habet quamdam dignitatem infinitam ex bono infinito quod est Deus; et ex hac parte non potest fieri melius. St. Thomas of Villanova wrote the same: Utique habet quamdam infinitatem esse Matrem Infiniti. And St. Bernardine says that the state to which God exalted Mary as his Mother was supreme, so that he could not raise her higher: Status maternitatis Dei erat summus status, qui purae creaturae dari posset. And Blessed Albert the Great confirms: Dominus B. Virgini summum donavit, cuius capax fuit pura creatura, scilicet Dei maternitatem.

Hence St. Bonaventure wrote that celebrated sentence: God can indeed make a greater world, a greater heaven, but he cannot make a creature more exalted than by making her his Mother: Esse Matrem Dei est gratia maxima purae creaturae conferibilis. Ipsa est quam maiorem facere non potest Deus. Maiorem mundum facere potest Deus, maius caelum, maiorem quam Matrem Dei facere non potest. But best of all, the divine Mother herself expressed the height to which God had raised her when she said: Fecit mihi magna qui potens est (Luke I, 49). And why did the Blessed Virgin not declare what these great things were that God had given her? St. Thomas of Villanova answers that Mary did not explain them because they were so great they could not be explained: Non explicat quaenam haec magna fuerint, quia inexplicabilia.

Hence St. Bernard was right to say that God created the whole world for this Virgin who was to be his Mother: Propter hanc totus mundus factus est. And St. Bonaventure was right to say that the world continues to exist at Mary's disposal: Dispositione tua, Virgo sanctissima, perseverat mundus, quem et tu cum Deo ab initio fundasti, the saint hereby adhering to the words of Proverbs which the Church applies to Mary: Cum eo eram cuncta componens (Prov. VIII, 30). St. Bernardine added that God, out of love for Mary, did not destroy man after the sin of Adam: Propter singularissimam dilectionem ad hanc Virginem praeservavit. Hence the holy Church rightly sings of Mary: Optimam partem elegit. For this Virgin Mother not only chose the best things but chose the best part of the best things, the Lord having endowed her in the highest degree — as Blessed Albert the Great attests — with all the general and particular graces and gifts conferred upon all other creatures, all as a consequence of the dignity granted her as divine Mother: Beatissima Virgo gratia fuit plena, quia omnes gratias generales et speciales omnium creaturarum in summo habuit.

Thus Mary was an infant, but of that state she had only the innocence, not the defect of incapacity, for from the first moment of her life she always had the perfect use of reason. She was a virgin, but without the stigma of sterility. She was a mother, but together with the glory of virginity. She was beautiful — indeed most beautiful, as Richard of St. Victor, St. George of Nicomedia, and St. Dionysius the Areopagite say. The latter — as many admit — enjoyed the privilege of once seeing her beauty, and said that had not faith instructed him that she was a creature, he would have adored her as God. And the Lord himself revealed to St. Bridget that the beauty of his Mother surpassed the beauty of all men and angels, letting the saint hear him speak to Mary and say: Omnes angelos et omnia quae creata sunt excessit pulchritudo tua. She was most beautiful, I say, but without harm to those who beheld her, since her beauty banished impure impulses and instead inspired thoughts of purity, as St. Ambrose attests: Tanta erat eius gratia, ut non solum in se virginitatem servaret, sed etiam si quos inviseret integritatis donum insigne conferret. And St. Thomas confirms: Gratia sanctificationis non solum repressit in Virgine motus illicitos, sed etiam in aliis efficaciam habuit; ita ut quamvis esset pulchra corpore, a nullo concupisceretur. Hence she called herself myrrh, which prevents corruption: Quasi myrrha electa dedi suavitatem odoris, as the holy Church applies it. In the active life she labored, but without her activity drawing her away from union with God. In the contemplative life she was recollected in God, but without neglecting temporal duties or the charity due to her neighbor. Death came to her, but without its anguish and without the corruption of the body.

Let us therefore conclude. This divine Mother is infinitely inferior to God, but immensely superior to all creatures. And if it is impossible to find a son nobler than Jesus, it is equally impossible to find a mother nobler than Mary. This should serve the devotees of this Queen not only to rejoice in her greatness but also to increase their confidence in her most powerful patronage; for since she is the Mother of God, Father Suarez says she has a certain right over his gifts to obtain them for those for whom she prays: Unde fit ut singulare ius habeat ad dona Filii sui. St. Germanus, on the other hand, says that God cannot but hear the prayers of this Mother, since he cannot but recognize her as his true and immaculate Mother; thus the saint speaks to the Virgin: Tu autem quae materna in Deum auctoritate polles, etiam iis qui enormiter peccant eximiam reconciliationis gratiam concilias. Non enim potes non exaudiri, cum Deus tibi ut verae ac intemeratae Matri suae in omnibus morem gerat. So that, O Mother of God and our Mother, neither power to help us is lacking to you, nor the will: Nec facultas nec voluntas illi deesse potest, says St. Bernard. For you already know — I shall say to you with your Abbot of Celles — that God has not created you only for himself, but has given you to the angels as their restorer, to men as their repairer, and to the demons as their conqueror; since through your merits we recover divine grace, and through you the enemy is conquered and cast down: Non tantum sibi te fecit, sed te angelis dedit in instaurationem, hominibus in reparationem, daemonibus in hostem; nam per te Deus homini pacificatur, diabolus vincitur et conteritur.

And if we wish to please the divine Mother, let us greet her often with the Hail Mary. Mary once appeared to St. Mechtilde and told her that no one could honor her better than with this greeting. And from it we shall also draw singular graces from this Mother of Mercy, as will be seen from the following example.

Example

Well known is the event reported by Father Paolo Segneri in his Christian Instructed (Part 3, ch. 34). A young man burdened with sins of impurity and evil habits went to confess in Rome to Father Niccolo Zucchi. The confessor received him with charity, and compassionating his misery, told him that devotion to Our Lady could free him from that accursed vice. He therefore imposed as a penance that until the next confession, every morning and evening — upon rising and going to bed — he should recite a Hail Mary to the Virgin, offering her his eyes, his hands, and his whole body, begging her to guard them as her own, and kiss the ground three times. The young man practiced this penance, at first with little improvement. But the Father continued to urge him never to abandon it, giving him courage to trust in the patronage of Mary.

During this time the penitent departed with other companions and spent several years traveling the world. When he returned to Rome, he went again to find his confessor, who, with great joy and astonishment, found him completely changed and free from his former filth. "My son," he said, "how did you obtain from God so beautiful a transformation?" The young man answered: "Father, Our Lady, through that little devotion you taught me, obtained the grace for me."

But the marvels do not end here. The same confessor related this account from the pulpit. A captain heard it — a man who for many years had been carrying on a sinful relationship with a certain woman. He too resolved to practice the same devotion in order to free himself from that horrible chain that kept him a slave of the devil — and this good intention is necessary in all those sinners, in order that the Virgin may be able to help them — and so he too left the relationship and changed his life. But what happened next? After six months, foolishly and trusting too much in his own strength, he wished one day to go visit that woman to see whether she too had changed her life. But as he approached the door of the house — where there was obvious danger of falling again — he felt himself pushed back by an invisible force and found himself as far from the house as the length of that street, deposited in front of his own home. He then recognized with a clear light that Mary had thus saved him from his ruin. From which we see how solicitous our good Mother is not only to draw us out of sin, if with this good intention we commend ourselves to her, but also to free us from the danger of new falls.

Prayer

O Immaculate and holy Virgin, O creature the most humble and the most great before God! You were so small in your own eyes, yet so great in the eyes of your Lord, that he exalted you even to choosing you for his Mother and thereby making you the Queen of heaven and earth. I thank God who has so highly raised you, and I rejoice with you in seeing you so united to God that more is not permitted to a pure creature. Before you, who are so humble despite so many privileges, I am ashamed to appear — I, wretch, so proud despite so many sins. But poor as I am, I too wish to greet you: Ave, Maria, gratia plena: You are already full of grace — obtain a share of it for me as well. Dominus tecum: That Lord who has always been with you from the first moment of your creation has now bound himself more closely to you by becoming your Son. Benedicta tu in mulieribus: O woman blessed among all women, obtain for us too the divine blessing. Et benedictus fructus ventris tui: O blessed plant that gave the world so noble and holy a fruit! Sancta Maria Mater Dei: O Mary, I confess that you are the true Mother of God, and for this truth I am ready to give my life a thousand times. Ora pro nobis peccatoribus: But if you are the Mother of God, you are also the mother of our salvation and of us poor sinners, since to save sinners God became man, and he made you his Mother so that your prayers might have the power to save any sinner. Come then, O Mary, pray for us. Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae: Pray always: pray now while we are alive amid so many temptations and dangers of losing God; but pray still more at the hour of our death, when we shall be at the point of leaving this world and being presented before the divine tribunal, so that, being saved through the merits of Jesus Christ and through your intercession, we may come one day — with no further danger of losing ourselves — to greet you and praise you with your Son in heaven for all eternity. Amen.