Mater Christi: Meditations on Our Lady

Mary's Expectation

"His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me." (Cant. ii. 6.)

"My Beloved to me and I to Him." (verse 16.)

1st Prelude. Mary and Joseph waiting.

2nd Prelude. Grace to believe that God's plans are the best.

We should like to penetrate into those remaining six months, which Mary and Joseph spent together, before the birth of the Holy Child. Scripture is silent about them, but it is not difficult for a sanctified imagination to picture something of what was taking place. Perhaps the thought of the Altar of Repose on Maundy Thursday will bring the realities home to us better than anything else could. Though He is hidden from our sight, all know that He is there. Angels are in constant adoration, and the faithful do not forget Him. All try to get near and to hold silent communion with Him; and all are expecting the great day when He will rise again and show Himself to them. And He is spending the time in giving His blessing and His grace to all who, by faith, seek Him. The house at Nazareth was in very deed God's Sanctuary, containing the Altar of Repose, where the Saviour of the world was resting. Angels were in constant adoration before their King. The faithful consisted of Mary and Joseph, whose thought and conversation could be about nothing else but the Child Who was coming into the world. And who shall measure the graces and blessings, which that Child was showering upon Mary and her faithful spouse, during those months of waiting and prayer and holy converse, while they planned and arranged with such care and minuteness, as parents are wont to do, every detail connected with the birth of the firstborn?

But man proposes and God disposes. God, Who "ordereth all things sweetly," (Wisdom viii. 1), was stirring up the whole civilised world so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said: "And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, … out of thee shall He come forth to me, that is to be the Ruler in Israel; and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity." (Micheas v. 2.) It was in Bethlehem– not at Nazareth, that the Child was to be born. And to effect this, "in those days there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled… And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went … out of the city of Nazareth … to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and family of David), to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife." (St Luke ii. 1-5.) What a trial this order must have been to Mary! To leave home, to forego all her plans, to take a long journey, to interrupt her days of solitude and calm and peace – and all at the bidding of a heathen Emperor. But Mary knew how to take her trials. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. "Be it done to me according to Thy word." For her there were no second causes. It was ever God Who was ordering "all things sweetly" for her, and she had nothing to say but "Ecce ancilla – fiat." She waited for nothing but God's will. And as He arranged it, she could spend her time of waiting just as well on the public highway to Bethlehem as in the seclusion of Nazareth.

Oh, my Mother, teach me this lesson too: if I could only learn it, how different my life would be! My life – every detail of it – is in God's Hands. He is "ordering it sweetly," and I complain! How little is my faith! When my faith is great enough, I shall take all things, as sweetly as God orders them, even though they may upset my most cherished plans.

And so, in obedience to the command, Mary and Joseph leave the calm and quiet and solitude of their little home, and go to face poverty and difficulties and the unknown. But Jesus is with them, and this makes them independent of exterior circumstances – their calm and quiet are unbroken, and they can find solitude even in the busy thoroughfares. Mary is communing with her Child, and is peaceful with the peace He gives. Joy, too, fills her heart as she thinks how fast the time is approaching when she will see His face.

Oh, how I should love to be allowed to go with them on this journey! At my request, Mary readily consents to take me as her servant, and I am so glad to be in that blessed company that I forego everything else – I know that the Family I have come to live with is poor, and I am determined not to ask them to get any special things for me. The table has the barest necessities – perhaps hardly these, for true poverty consists in the want of necessities; but it is the company that I care about, and nothing else matters. I can see that all sorts of inconveniences and privations and hardships will be mine, but I cannot be an exception in that Family; and somehow, now that I am so close to the Blessed Mother, I do not wish to be. My great desire is to be like her, and to share all with her and her Son.

At Bethlehem Joseph begins his weary and anxious search for a lodging; but all in vain – no one wants the Holy Family. How Joseph suffers at each refusal – not for himself but for Mary! Mary is too much taken up with her joy to heed the suffering. And the servant – does she regret that she is not in one of the big hotels, as she might have been, or does she turn with joy to follow the Holy Family to the cave, saying: With Jesus and Mary I have all I want, and I love every hardship and every privation which comes to me, because I have made myself one with them?

Oh, my Mother, I thank thee for allowing me to be thy servant; I thank thee for bringing me into such close contact with thy Son; I thank thee for every privation, every difficulty, every hardship, every inconvenience, every crossing of my own will which has come to me, because I chose to be in thy company and in that of thy Son. Help me to persevere bravely, thinking all worth while for the sake of the company.

Colloquy with Mary, asking her to get me grace to be always joyous, because I am living my life with her and her Blessed Son.

Resolution. To show myself worthy of the company I am in, by the way I face the little difficulties of my everyday life.

Spiritual Bouquet. "I am Thy servant and the son of Thy handmaid." (Ps. cxv. 16.)

The Stable

"Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." (St Luke ii. 19.)

1st Prelude. Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger.

2nd Prelude. Grace to ponder with Mary

"She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger." She has seen His face at last; she has folded Him in her arms and pressed Him to her bosom – her Son and her God. And she ponders – she meditates – she cannot tell her thoughts to any human soul – but she can tell them to her Son. Dico ego opera mea Regi. I will speak of my works to the King. (Ps. xliv. 2.) Many works had been wrought in and through Mary by the Holy Ghost, but they were all the King's secrets, and she pondered over them, speaking of them to Him alone. There was her vow of virginity, which she did not even speak of to her parents; there was the visit of the King's messenger, of which she spoke to no one – not to Elizabeth, nor even to St Joseph; there was the painful journey to Bethlehem, and the difficulty about finding a lodging. She might have told St Luke all about it, and had it all written down in the Gospel – but no, there is not a word except the mere fact that they went to Bethlehem, and that there was no room for them in the inn. Her sufferings were those of the King, and she shared them with Him alone.

And now that she has got her Jesus, she spends her time in pondering – in telling Him her thoughts and her secrets, which are His too.

How much I should gain if I could be a little more like my Mother in this! – if, instead of being so ready to go and talk of all the things that have been said and done to me, or of what I have said or done, or of what I have had to suffer, I were just to speak to my King about it – let it be something between us which nobody else knows anything about. It may often be my duty to speak, as it was Mary's later on, when she was obliged, for example, to tell St Luke all about the Angel's visit and what he said to her, because God wanted that piece of revelation to be written. But this was later. She did not go at once and tell Elizabeth all about it. Let us learn from Mary to let our first words, at any rate, be for our King; and, if this is so, it is probable that in many cases the matter will go no further, and others as well as ourselves will be saved from the miseries which so often follow from our being too ready to talk. Dico ego opera mea Regi. To Him I can never say too much, and He loves those silent heart-to-heart colloquies. He loves the things which are talked over with Him only – the King's secrets.

"They came with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in a manger." And during their visit they "understood," and went away to tell the good news to wondering listeners, leaving Mary still pondering. Each moment of her Son's life on earth brings her fresh matter for meditation. She has scarcely time to think of the miraculous birth before she hears "a multitude of the Heavenly Army" proclaiming the birth, praising God, and telling of the glory that is being given to Him, and of the peace that is being brought to earth. And Mary realises that she no longer has her Babe all to herself, that Heaven and earth claim Him. Then the Shepherds arrive; and after they have adored the Saviour Who is born to them, they tell His Mother of all the wonders of that night: of the Angel of the Lord who suddenly stood by them in the night watches; of the "brightness of God"; of how they feared; of how the Angel bid them: "Fear not"; of the good tidings that he brought, and of the great joy which was to be for everyone; that the Angel had actually told them that the Child was the Messias, and that he had given them the strangest sign by which they could know Him – He will be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger! And lastly, how they had come in haste, as soon as the Angels had gone back to Heaven, and had found it all to be true. What joy this beautiful, simple, story must have brought to the Mother's heart! What fresh subjects for meditation now were hers! What a tender welcome she would give to these simple shepherds, whom God had picked out for such signal favours, and had allowed to be the first worshippers of her Son! How she would realise all the "great things" that God was doing now that she heard them from the mouths of these "little ones" to whom God had revealed them! (St Matt. xi. 25.) How graciously she would accept the poor offerings of these poor men to her Child Who had chosen to be poor! And how proud she would be that she, as His Mother, had the right to lift that little Hand, to convey the blessing which His Heart was giving to those who were going to be His first witnesses and apostles.

"Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart." How easy meditation was to Mary! Why? Because she lived always in the closest possible union with Jesus. If I find my meditations difficult, let me examine myself, and see whether the cause may not be that my union with Him is not so close as it was, that I have let something come between us, that I am not telling all my secrets to the King. If this is so, let me hasten to put things right with Him; and then I shall find again that my most precious moments are those in which I can devote my thoughts entirely to my King and ponder over the simple stories told of Him and His Blessed Mother.

Colloquy.The Alma Redemptoris Mater: – "Sweet Mother of our Redeemer, gate whereby we enter Heaven, and star of the sea, help us, we fall; yet do we long to rise. Nature looked upon thee with admiration when thou didst give birth to thy Divine Creator, thyself remaining before and after it a pure Virgin. Gabriel spoke his Hail to thee; we sinners crave thy pity." (Anthem from Advent to the Purification.)

Resolution. To ponder more and speak less.

Spiritual Bouquet. "Dico ego opera mea Regi."

The Circumcision of Mary's Son

"And after eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived." (St Luke ii. 21.)

1st Prelude. Mary with her Child.

2nd Prelude. Grace to learn more about them both.

After one week of peace and joy, Mary is called upon to suffer with, and on account of, her Son. The Law of God is clear. "On the eighth day, the infant shall be circumcised." (Lev. xii. 3.) And there is no doubt in the minds of Mary and Joseph, that, though the Holy Child has no need of the rite which probably cleansed away original sin, He must nevertheless submit to it, as being part of His Father's law, every jot and tittle of which He has come to fulfil. So Jesus, of His own free will, classes Himself with sinners, and offers to God the firstfruits of that Blood which He will shed for them on Calvary.

The Circumcision of her Son means much to Mary; she sees Him suffer; she hears His cry of pain; she sees the Blood flow; and she understands that to be the Mother of God means being the Mater Dolorosa; and now she has fresh matter for her Meditations. Her Son is to be the Victim for sin, and she unites her sacrifice to His.

The rite of Circumcision was to the Jew a sign of the Covenant that God had made with his nation – it marked him out as one of God's own people; it was a mark of his dependence on God, and also of his slavery to sin till God set him free.

"Circumcision is that of the heart," St Paul tells us, "in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. ii. 29.) By assisting with Mary at the Circumcision of her Son, I mean that I want to understand something of this circumcision of the heart– understand, that is, that God has made a covenant with me, that I belong to Him, and am dependent on Him; I mean that I am ready with the knife of mortification to cut away all that prevents me from being a good servant, ready to "resist unto blood," if need be, but, at any rate, ready to make myself a victim with Jesus, as Mary did, willing to suffer anything which He calls upon me to suffer.

His Name was chosen by His Heavenly Father, and revealed both to Mary and Joseph before His birth – to Mary by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, and to Joseph by the Angel who was sent to allay his suspicions about his wife. Jesus – the "name which is above every name"! God gave it Him because "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death – even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) He earned His Name by the Cross, and it was given Him at the moment when He shed the first drops of His Precious Blood. He could have allowed this first shedding of His Blood to redeem the world, had He so willed. He could have made it the redeeming Blood, but it was not yet His Will; His time had not yet come; He wished to live and to suffer long years on earth before He shed the Blood which He intended to be efficacious for the Redemption of the world. "Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." (St Matt. i. 21.) And when at length He did shed His redeeming Blood on Calvary, there was a title nailed to the Cross, proclaiming His Name to all: "This is Jesus," the Saviour. He is saving His people from their sins.

It cost Him much to be the Saviour, and it cost Mary much to be the Mother of the Saviour; but both cheerfully made the sacrifice in advance – both entered into God's plan for my salvation. Jesus had come to do His Father's will – He was content to do it – and His Mother was content to be identified in everything with her Son, and to say her Fiat. If my salvation cost Jesus and Mary so much, ought it not to cost me something too? Would it be fair if all were easy and smooth for me? Surely not. Surely, if I have a part in the Saviour, I ought to have a part in His Cross. Let the thought of the Holy Babe shedding His first drops of Blood on His Mother's knee brace me up to meet suffering, of whatever kind God chooses for me; let it hush my murmurs and my discontent; let it make me not only willing but anxious to suffer, and thus to have an opportunity of being like Him, Who was in such a hurry to shed His Blood, that it seemed as though it were too long for Him to wait till Calvary. He must make the sacrifice in advance, and offer at any rate the firstfruits of His Blood to His Father.

Colloquy with Mary, who is identifying herself with the sufferings, intentions, and desires of her Son. Teach me, my Mother, not only to expect but to appreciate suffering. How can I be like Jesus, and a child of thine without it? I want to look upon it always as a sign of love, as a sign that I am recognised as one of the Holy Family.

Resolution. To understand that my very existence on earth means suffering, and that my identification with Jesus and Mary means suffering willingly and cheerfully.

Spiritual Bouquet. "I come to do Thy Will, O my God."

Her Purification

"They carried Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord."

1st Prelude. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph going to the Temple.

2nd Prelude. Grace to go too, and learn the lessons.

It is the fortieth day after the birth of her Son, the day when it is Mary's turn to keep the legal observances, and so to identify herself in all things with her Son. There is no need for her to be purified, before she is allowed to enter God's Temple; neither is there any need for her to present her Firstborn in the Temple and pay the ransom money for Him, for His Name is Saviour and He is Himself the Ransom for His people. There is no need; but Mary gladly does both, that she may enter more closely into the spirit of her Son, Who had undergone the rite of circumcision.

How many unnecessary humiliations and unpleasant duties do I undertake just for the sake of identifying myself with Jesus and Mary, and sharing their spirit?

We may imagine the Holy Family quietly setting out for their two hours' walk to the Temple, attracting no more notice than was usually attached to an event so common. Passing remarks were probably made as to its being the first time she was out; as to the disparity in their age; as to their poverty, for Joseph was carrying two doves, the offering of the poor, to be offered by Mary for her Purification.

Ah, how little the world sees! Extraordinary things are going on, though they are hidden, as is ever God's wont, under things most ordinary. Mary, the purest of creatures, the Virgin of virgins, the Queen of Heaven, of Angels and of men, is bearing in her arms the Lord of glory, Who is on His way to visit His Temple for the first time, and thus to fill it with a greater glory than ever Solomon's Temple had possessed. Angels are worshipping and adoring at every step of that journey, and presently they will throw open wide the gate of the Temple to let the King of Glory in. And the humble and silent Joseph is playing a part which no Jew before or since has ever played; for though the verdict of the world is that he is too poor to afford to take a lamb, in reality he is too rich to need one, for is he not bringing to the Temple the Lamb of God – an offering which no one has ever been rich enough to make before? Let us try to see things and judge them from God's point of view – not from the world's.

This involved three sacrifices.

(1) The sacrifice made by Jesus. Ecce Venio. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God." He has come to the Temple to offer Himself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to His Father. This is the morning sacrifice – the evening sacrifice will be on Calvary. This is like the Offertory at Mass, when the Priest offers to God the Bread and Wine which He will use presently to accomplish the sacrifice at the Consecration. He is the "Firstborn amongst many brethren," (Rom. viii. 29), that is why He must be presented in the Temple. He is our Elder Brother. He represents us all, and answers to God for all those who are united to Him. He offers Himself as a Ransom that all the rest of the family may go free.

Am I prepared to ratify this offering that my Elder Brother made in my name? Have I any right to claim the privileges? Yes, if I am united with Him, identified with Him; if I am saying as He did: "Behold, I come to do Thy Will," and this in the little sacrifices of my everyday life.

(2) The sacrifice made by Mary. Ecce ancilla. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." Mary knows perfectly well what she is doing when she puts her Jesus into the arms of the Priest. She knows that she is offering to God the firstfruits – the earnest of what is to come; and she makes her sacrifice whole-heartedly, zealously, lovingly. She said her Fiat at the Incarnation, and she will never take it back. She is His Mother – it is with Blood drawn from her veins that He will one day redeem the world; and she offers to God now, not only the Victim Who is to be the Redeemer, but herself as a co-victim – herself to suffer with Him. "Behold the Handmaid of the Lord" – ready to give Him all that He requires. How perfectly Mary identifies herself with Jesus! It is her intense love which enables her to copy so exactly.

(3) The sacrifice made by Joseph. Ecce adsum. "Behold, I am here too, ready for any sacrifice." Joseph is so closely connected with Jesus and Mary that he must share their spirit and do what they do. But his sacrifice is made in the dark, as ours are for the most part. He does not know what Jesus and Mary are doing. He cannot gauge the extent of their sacrifices – enough for him to unite his intention with theirs, and to offer with perfect detachment his two treasures to God, begging Him to use them as He will. Am I ready to make my sacrifice – even a blind one – ready to say: Ecce adsum– "Behold, here I am" – and to trust where I cannot understand?

The sacrifice was no sooner made than God took Mary at her word. Simeon, holding "the Christ of the Lord" in his arms, called Him "the salvation which Thou hast prepared; a light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." And while His father and mother were wondering at these things which were spoken concerning Him, Simeon addressed himself to "Mary His Mother," and spoke in no hidden language of the Passion; and the sword pierced her soul, for though she knew it all, it was the first time she had heard it from the lips of another. It was the first of the Seven Dolours. She heard that her Child was to be: —

1. "… for the fall of many": that is, the ruin of many. What a lifelong sorrow for the heart of Mary to know that for many her Son's Passion would be in vain – that He was to be the "touchstone," with the result that, in many cases, He would be "rejected of men"!

2. "… for a sign which shall be contradicted." War was to be waged against Him in all places, and that to the end of time. This was the treatment He, Who had come to be the Saviour and the Light of the World, was to receive.

And then Simeon added: "Thy own soul a sword shall pierce." He identified Mary with her Son, and spoke not only of His Passion but of her Compassion. The Queen of Sorrows was now on her throne; there was no longer any doubt about it. God had accepted her sacrifice. Jesus was the Victim, and she was His Mother – the Mater Dolorosa.

But Simeon's prophecy was not the last word that Mary was to hear before she left the Temple courts, which she loved so well. God, Who in His love had permitted the wound, had provided also some balm to be poured into it. A little act of courtesy was waiting for Mary to do before she was free to ponder over all that had happened in the Temple, and especially over the new revelation which had stabbed her to the quick. Well did old Anna, the Prophetess, know the maiden whose happy childhood had been spent in the Temple! How gladly Mary went up to her and renewed her friendship with her! How proud she was to show her little Son to her! Mary was wondering how much Anna knew; but she did not speak, she revealed nothing. Soon she found out that the holy old woman had been rewarded for her fasting and prayers and vigils, by a special revelation, in consequence of which she "confessed to the Lord and spoke of Him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel." And Mary heard, and balm was poured into that first sword-wound.