Mater Christi: Meditations on Our Lady

Jesus Christ, yesterday and to-day, the same also for ever. (Heb. xiii. 8.) His salvation extends to all generations. My salvation shall endure for ever, and My righteousness shall not fail. (Isaias li. 6.) Also He says: My words shall not pass away. (Matt. xxiv. 35.) He is the Teacher of all times, and that as well by His actions as by His words, by what He said and by what He did. It was His to do and to teach. (Acts i. 1.) It is ours, ours in this twentieth century, to listen to what He says, and to mark what He does. It is ours to hear Him and to see Him, spiritually. That we do by reading of His gospel, by listening to sermons, and very particularly by meditation, or by what St Ignatius calls "contemplation" of the mysteries of His life. To "contemplate" in the Ignatian sense is to make yourself present at some scene of our Saviour's life and behold it all, as it were, re-enacted before your eyes. It is the process called in modern philosophy "visualisation." These Meditations are composed on the Ignatian plan of visualising what Our Lord did, said, and suffered. Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. (Luke xi. 28.) Blessed are they who take pains thus to hear what their Saviour says, to contemplate and visualise what He does. They are the persons most likely, with Mary, to keep all these words in their heart (Luke ii. 51), and in their measure to fulfil the teaching of the Teacher of all nations. (Matt. xxviii. 19.)

20th October 1918.

PRAYERS

O Holy Ghost, give me a great devotion and a great attraction towards Mary, Thy spouse; a great support in her maternal bosom, and an abiding refuge in her mercy; so that in her and by her Thou mayest form in me Jesus Christ.

My Queen and my Mother, to thee I offer myself without reserve; and to give thee a mark of my devotion, I consecrate to thee during this day, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, and my whole person. Since then I belong to thee, O my good Mother, preserve and defend me, as thy property and possession. Amen.

Immaculate!

"Thy Holy Tabernacle which Thou hast prepared from, the beginning." (Wisdom ix. 8.)

1st Prelude. A picture or medal of the Immaculate Conception.

2nd Prelude. Grace to understand.

Why should Mary be called a Tabernacle? She tells us herself – for the Church applies these words to Mary: "He that created me rested in my tabernacle." (Ecclus. xxiv. 12.) He sojourned there for a time Who "was made flesh and dwelt (tabernacled the Greek word means) among us." When did God begin to prepare His Tabernacle? Was it on the day of the Holy and Immaculate Conception? Was it when He spoke to our first parents of "the seed of the woman"? Was it just before the War in Heaven, when He revealed His plans to the first creatures of His Hands? Long, long before! "From the beginning," the Holy Tabernacle was being prepared. And He says this, Who had no beginning, with Whom is "neither beginning of days nor end of life," (Heb. vii. 3), Who says of Himself: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." (Apoc. i. 8.) From all Eternity, then, the Holy Tabernacle was being prepared in the mind of God.

What care God took in the preparation of Mary, because she was to be the Mother of His Son! And what care He takes in His preparation of me! I, too, have always been in the mind of God. "From the beginning" He has prepared me to fulfil the end for which He created me. Here on earth we are very careful about the training of those who are destined to fill certain offices, and the higher the office the more careful the training. How carefully are princes of royal blood trained! How careful is the preparation of a Priest, of a Religious! But God has been at work at the preparation long before we begin ours, and He is training for a most important office, namely, the salvation of the soul – the end for which He created every single child of Adam. All the chequered picture of the life of God's child forms a part of His preparation – all the ups and downs, and windings and turnings, and things that seemed at the time, perhaps, so useless. Mistakes and failures – even sin itself, He can, by means of the contrition which it causes, turn to good account, as He did in the cases of St Mary Magdalen, of St Peter, and of innumerable others. He knows how to bring good out of evil, and to make all work together for good to those who love Him.

What have I got to do, then, in the matter? Do as Mary did, prove my love to Him by co-operation in His plans for me. There must be no complaint about what He arranges. Faith must be strong enough to believe that, not only now in the present, all things are working together to enable me to fulfil the end for which God created me; but that in the past, too – that past which I so often allow to disturb my peace – God was working, and preparing me step by step for what He intended me to be. It is want of faith, really, which is often at the bottom of all my problems and difficulties. I will not believe that He forgives and forgets and brings good out of the evil. This it is which interferes in God's preparation of me, and makes me unfit for the work for which He has so patiently been preparing me. Let me think to-day of Mary's perfect co-operation, and ask her to obtain for me more faith and more love.

What was it? A human body and soul specially prepared by God to be the Tabernacle where His Son should rest – a body, we may well believe, more than usually beautiful, for that body from which He that was "fairer than the sons of men" was to take flesh, must needs be fair too. "Thou art all fair." But it was the soul which made the Tabernacle holy. Here the preparation had been special and unique. Mary's soul had a beauty all its own, for neither original sin nor any of its effects had ever touched it. Not only was it sinless, as my soul was after Baptism, but, instead of being prone to evil, it was upright, and ever aspiring after good. Never once was there a wilful imperfection in Mary's soul. It is probable, too, that her understanding was enlightened, and that she had the full use of reason from the moment of her Conception, that is, from the moment when her body and soul were joined together. In her will there was no weakness, it was in perfect conformity with God's Will; and in her heart there was no concupiscence. Her body, too, shared in this wondrous liberty, for it knew neither sickness nor corruption.

But are we not making Mary almost equal with her Son? No, for the gulf between them is that between the Creator and the creature. Could any gulf be wider? Her Son was God, and was impeccable by nature. Mary was impeccable by grace. Mary was sinless because God her Creator chose to make her so, so that at the moment of her conception He was able to say: "Thou art all fair – there is no spot in thee."

Such was "the Holy Tabernacle prepared from the beginning."

And Mary is my model! Does it seem impossible? Does it almost weary me to have such perfection given me to copy? Let me answer my question by another: CouldGod do otherwise? Would it be worthy of Himself if He were to give me anything less than a perfect copy? If for our pupils, who are studying merely things of time, we seek ever the best models, can we expect God, Who is training for eternity, to give His pupils a copy that is less than perfect? And the task need not discourage us. God is not a hard master expecting to reap where He has not sown. He does not expect more than He has given; He does not expect perfection; but He does expect generous efforts. He does expect fidelity, and correspondence to the grace He has given. It was her constant perseverance in these virtues which kept Mary always full of grace and pleasing to God, not the privilege of her Immaculate Conception.

"O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Pray that I, who with all a child's love and admiration desire to copy my Mother, may never be discouraged, but may go on, ever aiming at perfection, and never surprised at the want of it; full of faults and failings always, but full, too, of love and confidence and conformity to God's Will. So shall I one day, with my Mother's prayers and help, be presented "spotless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." (Jude 24.)

Colloquy. "O God, Who by the Immaculate Conception of a Virgin didst prepare a worthy habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee that Thou, Who through the foreseen death of Thy same Son didst preserve her from all stain of sin, wouldst grant also to us through her intercession to come pure to Thee." (Collect for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.)

Resolution. To strive to copy my model.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Be diligent, that ye may be found undefiled and unspotted to Him in peace." (2 Peter iii. 14.)

Mary's Birthday

"In me is all grace." (Ecclus. xxiv. 25.)

1st Prelude. A picture of Our Lady's Nativity. St Anne is holding up her babe, just swaddled, and offering it to God; the nurse is waiting to put the little one in its cradle. St Joachim is coming into the room. A Dove is hovering over the babe's head. Angels are looking on.

2nd Prelude. Grace to look on with the Angels, and try to understand.

What does it all mean? Why are the Angels so full of interest? Was the birth of this little one so different from any other? It was indeed miraculous, but Joachim and Anne were by no means the only ones thus favoured. No, there is something beyond this which is engaging the interest of the Angels. They see in this little babe, whom Anne is offering to God, a sight to make them wonder and adore – they see a soul which has never been touched by original sin. They had seen Adam created in grace; they had seen Jeremias, and later would see John Baptist, both spotless from their birth, but spotless because they had been cleansed from original sin before birth. In these souls, however, they saw no more than they see in each little soul as it leaves the baptismal font, grace having taken the place of original sin. But in Mary they see a sight which they have never seen before – a soul whose sanctity surpasses that of angels and of men, a soul which will glorify God more perfectly than any other creature ever has done, or will do. No wonder the Angels are lost in admiration!

They have known about the Incarnation ever since the War in Heaven; now they see one of the steps by which it was to be accomplished. They see the "tabernacle prepared," and at its side they will never cease to wonder and praise God, as long as that pure soul stays in this land of exile.

Mary was born with an end to fulfil, just as I was. She was created to praise, reverence, and serve God, just as I was; created to save her soul, just as I was. And because of her absolute purity, she understood her end perfectly from the first moment of her existence, and followed it always without swerving. While her mother was offering her to God, she, with the full use of her reason (as many hold) offered herself to fulfil the end for which she had been created. She did not know what the particular end was to be – God did not reveal to her till the day of the Incarnation, that she was to be the Mother of God – but she offered herself to do what God wished, she put herself at His disposal.

And this is what I must do every day of my life if I would fulfil the end for which God has created me. Here I am, Lord, to do Thy bidding, to do whatever Thou didst intend me to do to-day. I may not know, any more than did the Immaculate babe in her cradle, what the particular end is for which He has destined me; but that does not matter. If I am found faithfully doing my duty of the moment, whatever it may be – doing it, that is to say, for God, praising, reverencing, and serving Him in it – I shall not miss the important moment in my life when God calls me to the special work for which He has destined me. I can, if I will, do each little duty of my everyday life for God, with the pure motive of giving Him pleasure. It is the surest way of making myself indifferent as to whether or not the duty gives me pleasure! And it ensures that, from one point of view, all duties will be a pleasure. I was created by God to do this particular thing for Him at this particular moment, so I do it. What an uplifting thought! It puts me at once on to another plane – the supernatural plane – where the whole aspect is different. This is the truth, which the little one whose birthday I am thinking about to-day understood so perfectly. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," was her cry even then. It was because Mary understood the value of the "Sacrament of the moment," as it has been called, that when the moment of her life came, and her great end was revealed to her, she was able to say: "Ecce ancilla Domini!" She was used to saying it; it was the most natural thing for her to say. And so will it be for me, if only I will practise as Mary did. I shall bow to His Will in the great crises of my life – not naturally but supernaturally – because I have formed the habit in all the little things that make up my life.

Overshadowing His spouse is the Holy Ghost. He it was Who filled her with grace at the moment of the Immaculate Conception. He it is Who will keep her "full of grace" at every moment of her life. Never for one instant will He leave her. Never for one instant will she cease to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost. (1 Cor. vi. 19.) Always will He be able to say to her: "Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee." (Cant. iv. 7.) Why? Because Mary will never "extinguish the Holy Spirit." (1 Thess. v. 19.) She will never "grieve" Him. (Eph. iv. 30.) And not only will she never resist a single one of His inspirations, but she will never let one pass by unnoticed. Her correspondence to grace will be perfect.

Oh, what need I have to turn to the little one in her cradle to-day, and say: "Pray for me now"! Pray that I may never extinguish the Holy Spirit, but live always in a state of grace. Pray that I may never grieve Him, Whose temple I am, by resisting His pleadings with me.

Colloquy with the babe in her cradle.

Resolution. To make much of the "Sacrament of the moment" to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "In me is all grace." (Ecclus. xxiv. 25.)

Mary's Presentation in the Temple

"In the holy dwelling-place I have ministered before Him." (Ecclus. xxiv. 14.)

1st Prelude. The child on the Temple steps.

2nd Prelude. Grace to present myself to God.

At the age of three years, tradition tells us, Mary left her home to go and live in the Temple – not merely, as other little girls of her time, to attend the Temple school, but to dedicate herself to God, and to live continually under the shadow of His Presence, as Samuel of old had done. Her desire, even at that tender age, was to confirm her parents' dedication of her at her birth, by giving herself up entirely to God, to live a hidden life with Him away from everything, however lawful, that might disturb her union with Him. She waited only for His call, and as soon as it was given, she left all and followed – even her parents must take a second place.

So, joyously and eagerly, did Mary fulfil her end of the moment. God called her, and she went to Him. She did not know what He wanted her for, nor did she seek to know. Sufficient for her that He wanted her, and was calling. At once she presented herself before Him as the little Samuel of old. "Here am I, for Thou didst call me. Speak, for Thy servant heareth." (1 Kings iii. 9.) She was ready for anything that He might want.

And this should be the attitude of all who would serve Him – a constant presentation of themselves to Him for whatever He wants. This attitude can only be arrived at by the spirit of sacrifice. To be always at liberty for God's service, the soul must be disentangled from all else, free from all that would hold it back. And this means sacrifice. Mary, presenting herself at the Temple, is specially, though not exclusively, the model of those who are called to the Religious Life. But do not let us make any mistake – a Religious is not free to give himself to God because he has left parents and home and possessions. He may go through all these preliminaries, and yet not be, by any means, at God's service. The great work of disentangling the soul and setting it free is done inside the Cloister, while the Religious is learning that it is self which stands in the way, and that until that is crushed, he is not able to render to God free and joyous service, such as Mary did. And this lesson has to be learned by those outside the Cloister too, if they would follow Mary in being always ready to answer God's calls and do His biddings. It is not their home and friends and possessions that they are asked to quit, but themselves. God will constantly want them in the midst of their busy lives, and they will never be too much occupied or engrossed to answer His calls, if self is out of the question. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service." (Rom. xii. 1.) Present yourselves each day, each hour, each moment, with each joy, each sorrow, each duty, each difficulty – present all as an offering to Him, Who expects your reasonable service. This is the lesson which the child on the Temple steps teaches us to-day – the lesson of self-sacrifice.

Her parents did not thwart her in her wish. They had made their sacrifice three years before, and they were not likely to take it back now. They had probably told Mary the story of their long, childless years; of their earnest prayers to God; and of their promise to give the child back to Him should He bless them with one. They would have told her, too, that they had offered her to God at birth, and that, as soon as she was old enough, she would present herself in God's Temple, as something dedicated to His service. And now, to-day, they accompany their little one to the "holy dwelling-place" where she is to "minister before Him," and watch her climbing the Temple steps, at the top of which the Priest is waiting to receive her in God's name. Desolate though their home would now be, Joachim and Anne would rather have it so than interfere in any way with the call of God to their child. They recognised that God has His rights, and that these must come first.

What an honour God shows to parents, when He gives a vocation to a child of theirs; and what a blessing is thereby bestowed on the whole family! And surely, if there is merit laid up for the one who, in answer to God's call, leaves father, mother, brother, sister, friend, to follow Him, there is merit also for those who make perhaps an equally great sacrifice, even if it is somewhat grudgingly made. God will not forget the hearts and homes which have been made desolate because He has ravished a heart there. He is never outdone in generosity. Those who have given up their treasure on earth will find treasure in Heaven.

Children sometimes give themselves unnecessary pain by presuming too readily that their parents' consent will be withheld. They will often find their parents more ready than they think to make the sacrifice. It is not likely that God would give a vocation in a family without making some sort of preparation there for it. His ways are not our ways, and so it happens that there are many surprises.

It is not known exactly when she made it – probably not on the day of her Presentation. She would take then the Temporary Vow of Virginity, as all the pupils at the Temple school did till they left to be married. But some time during her stay in the Temple, Mary, probably unknown to anyone but God, Who inspired her, took a vow of Perpetual Virginity. She could keep nothing back from God; He must have all. She presented herself "wholly acceptable unto God."

To understand what a strange thing this Vow of Mary's was, we must remember that in those days everyone married, even priests and High Priests, and everyone hoped – and especially now that the expectation was getting keener – that his would be the favoured family in which the Messias was to be born. Mary had more reason to hope than many others, for was she not of the tribe of Judah, and of the House of David? Yet she took a vow which cut her off from all hope that this greatest of blessings would be hers. Why? Because her sacrifice of self was perfect. Self was laid entirely on one side, and, as a consequence, her humility was so great that she never thought it possible that the honour of being the Mother of the Messias could be hers, and she cut herself off from all prospect of it. It was this very self-abnegation which was fitting Mary for the destiny God intended for her. Her Vow of Virginity, made in response to God's inspirations, was the necessary means for the carrying out of His plans. God's ways are not our ways. "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel." (Is. vii. 14.) But there were no virgins; and the fact that every Mother in Israel was hoping to be the Mother of the Messias was a proof that this "sign," which God Himself gave, was wholly ignored. It was contrary to the spirit of the age. And this was God's moment. Clearly He gave His call: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house; and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty." (Ps. xliv. 11, 12.) And as the little one, in answer to the appeal, joyously mounted the Temple steps, the Angels were already saluting her as Queen of Virgins. She was the first; how many would follow in her train! "After her shall virgins be brought to the King; her neighbours shall be brought to Thee; they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing; they shall be brought into the Temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, sons shall be born unto thee." (Verses 15-17.)

May there not be a warning here for those who, having, in imitation of Mary, taken the Vow of Virginity, desire too ardently to be the "spiritual Mothers of children"? Mary had no such desires. Her whole desire was for union with God – there was not a tinge of self in it. The soul which thinks itself unworthy of being used is the one God uses, the soul which is wrapped up in seeking after its own perfection, hiding itself in its interior life, living its life in solitude with God and for God. Blessed are the Mothers of spiritual children! Yes, but rather blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. There should be no limit to our zeal for souls, but it should be covered up by an annihilation of self, and an unobtrusive humility – a humility which teaches us to act, not to talk, as if we could never be the ones chosen by God to do His work. Humility, far from being an obstacle, always makes it easier for God to carry out His plans.

Colloquy. "O Mary, Queen of Virgins, grant that by thy intercession we may deserve to be presented one day to the Most High in the Temple of His glory." (Collect for the Feast of the Presentation, B.V.M., Nov. 21.)

Resolution. To present myself often to God to-day.