Virgin Mary

Guido II

Mater Misericordiae

O Virgin of virgins, my Lady, beautiful in appearance "in whom angels desire to fix their gaze," turn, I beseech you, toward me, your virginal gaze; deign to dip the tip of your finger into your amphora, to bathe even with a drop of water, my weary and parched tongue. "All beautiful are you, my friend, in you no blemish; beautiful of face, most chaste of body, most holy of spirit, and, what is especially resplendent in you, most ready to succor the needs of the wretched. For you are the one who first draws from the deepest springs of mercy, you carry your amphora full of grace on the shoulder of your mighty understanding. What then did that maiden who was your figure do, O my Lady? "In haste," Scripture says, "she lowered the amphora on her arm," and, not content to give drink only to the one who asked, "even for your camels," she said, "I will draw from it, until they finish drinking. This means, O most blessed Virgin, that you also make me, a deformed, hunchbacked and tortured sinner, drink from your amphora. You truly pity our miseries, far beyond what we can ask, hope or think.

0 Virgin, beautiful by thy countenance and virginity, grant me also, I beseech thee, this drink, and prepare for me a place to dwell for this night, for near thee, as thou sayest, there is a vast place to lodge. This land on which we die is narrow, and men derive from it cause to Argu: Mine and the land, mine the spring, mine the wood. But with you the space to dwell is vast. Introduce me, Mother of mercy, into your Father's house, that I may not remain outside, nor be consumed by frost and cold, nor be assailed by the terrors of the night. Introduce me, that after I have washed my feet I may rest until "the breeze of day blows and the shadows lengthen".

You will lead me back to your husband Isaac. For you are truly the one whom the Lord has prepared for my Master's son, to be his mother, bride and sister. You are truly chosen and chosen over all women; you are full of grace, "the Lord is with you." The Lord, God the Father, has prepared you for the Lord, God his Son, that you may prepare us for him. Thou who deignest to take a seat on the back of this camel that kneels before thee, prepare thy Son Himself for us; make him favorable in the day when he shall arise to smite the earth with the breath of his mouth.
(Meditatio VII, pp. 158-163).

Augustin Guillerand

Transparency of the Trinity.

I find in her the whole abyss of this divine mystery that has drawn me so long and so strongly: I find the Three who are One and, in their presence, this soul of a simple peasant girl of Galilee, chosen by them to beget One of them. Mary's relations with the Holy Trinity, the life that unfolded in her Heart from the first moment her soul was united to her body, the lost and full, continually growing movement that carries her into the Heart of God, that keeps her clasped, immersed in him, with all her sights and wills, with all her thoughts and feelings, the desire she has to pour this into our hearts, to communicate this union and this life to us, to make us one with her, through her with Jesus, and through Jesus with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, what a subject of meditation, of contemplation, of intense gazing that endlessly begins again and is renewed by beginning again!.

Immense depth.

It is difficult to write about Mary. She immediately leads to the immense depths, where a Word says everything and this Word cannot be expressed with ours. Evidently we cannot, we must not think of penetrating this abyss; it is a mystery, it is the mystery of mysteries. However, we should not be afraid to contemplate it, because it is a mystery of light and love; God wants us to gaze upon it, to prolong this gaze as much as possible and to renew it often; he gives himself in the measure of this gaze and its purity.
These are but the babblings of a child. But we must be content with them. The Virgin herself, as high as her contemplation was, agreed to follow our obscure paths of the life of faith: we must follow them as she did, but with her, with our hand in her sweetest hand, our heart in her most pure and full of goodness Heart.

Invaded by the Spirit

Invaded by the Spirit Mary's task extends as far as Jesus extends, it is exercised where and when the Redeemer's role is exercised. Our Lord gives himself and reaches out to us through Mary. She is always between him and us: this is the divine plan. What is in the one must therefore reverberate in the other before it resonates in us and in order to resonate there. For a new life begins with him, and thus a new generation for her. What must be seen on Calvary is this new life and this new Mother of the living. "Woman, behold your son; behold your mother." Mary's task in this circumstance could not be stated more clearly, Jesus in this very instant finishes generating us. Mary witnesses this act of generation. She witnesses it as a mother; a mother who loses one Son in order to have another. Love, the immense Love that had invaded her on the day of the Annunciation and had taken possession of her flesh after having accomplished its work in this Flesh, takes possession of Mary so that she may generate in souls. That is why she again becomes "the woman": "Woman, behold your son." She now begins to fulfill a role as woman that she had not sustained until now: she begins to beget living ones whose life will be the life of this Spirit, the Spirit of the Word made flesh. Her task does not change; it expands. A new generation begins from the cross, embracing all who have believed or who will believe.

"Woman, behold your son"; this word immediately dilated immensely Mary's womb, where we all find our place. Its effect was immediate, total. No resistance to the Spirit of love was communicated to her. She inwardly repeated the one word of her existence, "Fiat." "Let it happen to me according to your word." And so it was done. She became the mother of all those to whom Jesus will communicate his Spirit of love. She has this Spirit of love in a special way at this instant, by these words, and for this reason. She will be present again on the Day of Pentecost receiving it as a member of the Church. Under the cross she receives as mother. Mary is standing, calm and affrighted, calm to receive this Spirit in fullness, shattered so that nothing of her own is an obstacle to it; she sees this Love, she is impregnated by it, she penetrates it; she is taken, transported out of herself by this Wind and becomes a flame of love in her turn, a hearth that receives all in order to pour it out on all.

Ella, on the surface, disappears outwardly. But she has initiated an activity that goes far and in which she has a role that cannot be forgotten. But the shadow into which the mediatrix has withdrawn is a hearth of fruitful light and the shadow of the Omnipotence that enveloped her when the Holy Spirit descended into her and she begot the "Holy One, called the Son of God." This shadow is expressed in Cana as in Nazareth: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: I am at the Lord's disposal." But now she turns to the servants. She shines her light, there she spiritually begets. She becomes mother of holiness, of the holiness that the Spirit produces in her and through her. Her task in the Church and in the whole of Christian history is all here, with her characters of humility and trust that so clearly mark her true children. She repeats these words particularly to those who surrender themselves into her hands: "Do whatever" Jesus will tell you, as I myself have done all that the Spirit has told me, and like me, you will give birth to him; in him we will enter into mutual relations that all words of love hint at but never say and will never say.
(Contemplations mariales)

Dionysius the Carthusian

Sweet Mother and Queen

O most glorious Queen, most pure Virgin, greatest Mother of all mothers, sweetest Mary, on what a summit, to what happiness, to what glory I see you placed! For behold you, the happiest, the most resplendent, the most admirable of all creatures, behold you are truly Mother, associated with the Father's paternity, having with him the same Son. Thou most excellent Mother of the only-begotten Son of God, thou exclusive tabernacle of the adorable Holy Spirit Comforter and Mother of him from whom he proceeds. Thou art the intimate friend of the essential and blessed Trinity, the keeper of the secrets, or rather partaker of their rule of life. and of their glory. The Creator God, the first maker, made you so and so great, so lovable and so perfect that he himself loved your beauty and splendor.

He came into you without changing place, he entered you, in the center of your Heart, filling it in abundance with every grace, every virtue, every perfection, forming from it the substance of a human flesh, and a most holy body from your most pure blood in your virginal womb. He dwelt in you and rested as on a most worthy throne, in a royal court, in a heavenly and most holy cell.

He whose duration is eternal, and who was born from the uncircumscribed and incomprehensible Heart of the Father, wanted to be born in time from the womb of your fruitfulness, like the bridegroom from his thalamus, true God and perfect man in the unity of the person. This King of heaven, this Lord of angels, born of you, you warmed him in your arms, nourished him from your bosom, caressed him with be your hands, and lived in wonderful intimacy with him on this earth for thirty years, until he left to preach, and then you followed him until his death on the cross. And now, sweetest Virgin, who can comprehend what abundance of graces, what fullness of divine charisms your Son, true God and your Creator, has given you in all this? It is evident that he has so and so enriched thee most of all, that he has raised thee above all the elect in all virtues and all benefits, as was fitting for a Mother, a Queen, a Bride so noble to be adorned, filled and elevated above all the servants of God. Behold, O lovely and venerable Mother, since you have been associated with God the Father and have become true Mother of the true God, you have somehow become of infinite dignity. By right, and because of the privilege of this divine motherhood, you have authority to command every creature heavenly and earthly. But what do I say "to every creature" when you have some authority over the true God born of you according to his human nature which he assumed from you, inasmuch as he was subjected to you and even now and forever honors you as his beloved Mother?

O Mother, we cannot comprehend your dignity, your holiness, your glory, we are unworthy to contemplate you, we cannot render you, homages worthy of you. But, just as we can in this life somehow know the Creator from creatures, attributing to him in an eminent degree all that there is of perfection and goodness in creatures to the exclusion of all imperfection, in the same way, sweetest Mary, we contemplate you above all other women.

Let us therefore love her fervently after God, let us venerate her with the greatest reverence, let us invoke her with the greatest devotion because God has made her what she is, because she is so great in herself, because we have obtained and are continually receiving, thanks to her, such great goods, because we are always in need of her mercy and succor, and because in the kingdom of heaven her presence and her sight ineffably increase the accidental reward of the blessed. We should praise her and greet her assiduously, rejoice wholeheartedly in her blessedness, in her and through her let us bless, praise and give thanks to the Most High God who has so exaltedly manifested all his charity, munificence, goodness and wisdom in this incomparable and good work, in Mary, and let our hearts rejoice as often as they remember her. In her, after God, be always our consolation.

And you, my good Queen, my Advocate so merciful, my Mother so loving, keep us always; help us, govern us, preserve us, and guide us finally to the port of eternal salvation.
(De laude et commendatione solitariae vitae, art. XXIX, Opera omnia, t. 38, p. 366)