MEDITATION UPON THE MOTIVES WE HAVE TO LOVE AND HONOR OUR LADY; WHICH MAY SERVE FOR FOURTH SATURDAY OF THE MONTH.

RAFFAELLO Sanzio 

Madonna of Loreto (Madonna del Velo) 

1509-10

FOUR MEDITATIONS UPON THE MOTIVES WE HAVE TO LOVE AND HONOR OUR LADY; WHICH MAY SERVE FOR EACH SATURDAY OF THE MONTH.

IV MEDITATION.

1st PRELUDE. Imagine you see our Lady seated on a Throne of great glory, at the right hand of her Son; surrounded with Angels, announcing her prasis, and reverencing her as the Mother of God, and their Queen.

2nd PRELUDE. Beg the grace to be sensible of the many motives you have to love and honor her, and that you may effectually show your sentiments in her regard, by a zeal of propagating her honor and worship, and an eagerness to imitate her virtues.

FIRST POINT.

CONSIDER, that our blessed Lady challenges our love for the love and affection she bears to us, and the favours she has done us, and benefits she has bestowed upon us, which may all be comprehended in this; she has given us our Jesus, and by giving him, what is there in the abyss of the Divine Treasure which she has not given us? It was not without knowing the value of the gift, for she knew it perfectly well, and earnestly wished us all the good which was to be derived from him to us. Richard of St. Victor says. She desired the salvation of all; she sought it, and by her prayers obtained it; nay, it was effected by her means, and therefore she is called the Safety of the world. In a gift, the love of the giver is chiefly to be regarded and efleemed; in those the Blessed Virgin bestows on us. Love has the greatest part. None can express her love and tenderness for us; for if she casts her eyes on herself, she cannot but reflect on the last words her Son spoke to her in our favour: Woman Behold your Son. It is impossible  she should not love us, with the greatest afflections, after fuch a recommendation.

SECOND POINT.

Confider, that our Lady finds several incentives to love us with all tenderness and affection; for if she looks on herself (as we said before) she sees that she is in quality of our Mother, left us as such by the will and testament of her dying Son; and to comply with the duty of a Mother, favours alone are not sufficient. Love and Affection must be the principle from which they proceed; therefore, if at the time that her Divine Son declared her our Mother, she had not found in herself the bowels of tenderness and compassion for us, our Lord had certainly bestowed them upon her that she might bear that character. If she turns her eyes towards Almighty God, she acknowledges him as the original of all her affection to us, fo that her love for God is the measure of her love to us.

If then her heart, now she reigns in Heaven, is a furnace of divine love, seven times hotter than the hearts of all the other Saints, it follows, that their love for us is far less than that which burns in the breast of this our Heavenly Mother. And she being now invested with such power and authority, there is no doubt but she makes use of it for our advantage: and though at present we cannot discover the number and qualities of the favours we have received by her intercession, yet, after this life, we shall see the many effectual graces she has obtained for us, and how she concurred in a singular manner with all the favours and graces, which the Divine Mercy has allowed upon us.

THIRD POINT.

Confider, that we cannot doubt of our Lady's seeing all our necessities in the Divine Word, as in a clear and spotless mirror: for if Almighty God makes them known to our Guardian Angels, to the end they may help and assist us, it cannot be supposed that he would keep them secret from his own Mother, to whom he has recommended the safety of all mankind, much more than he has to any Angel the safety of anyone in particular. If then she knows and sees all our necessities, who can think that the sight of so much misery, in creatures helpless of themselves, does not move her compassion to implore her Divine Son's mercy for them, that they may find speedy relief to their miseries, since asking and obtaining is one and the fame thing with her. We may apprehend, that finding nothing in us which deserves her affection, her love for us is totally extinguished; but it is quite the contrary, since our demerits, and want of motives in us to deserve her love, concur in great part to make us objects of it.

Our Holy Father Saint Augustin says, that the love which burns in our Lady's breast, and her care and solicitude for us, as much surpasses those of all the Saints, as she surpasses them in dignity, and love to God.

Lady Lucy Herbert
Prioress of the English Austin Canonesses at Bruges
(1668-1744)