From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

ALTHOUGH Mary's glory is within her, beauty appears also in the garment wherewith she is clad: a mysterious robe woven of the virtues of the saints, who owe to her both their justice and their reward. As every grace comes to us through our Mother, so all the glory of heaven converges towards that of the Queen.

Now among the blessed souls there are some more immediately connected with the holy Virgin. Prevented by the peculiarly tender love of the Mother of grace, they left all things, when on earth, to run after the odour of the perfumes of the Spouse she gave to the world; in heaven they keep the greater intimacy with Mary which was theirs even in the time of exile. Hence it is, that at this time of her exaltation beside the Son of God, the Psalmist sings also of the virgins entering joyously with her into the temple of the King. The crowning of our Lady is truly the special feast of these daughters of Tyre, who have themselves become princesses and queens in order to form her noble escort and her royal court.

If the saint proposed to our veneration to-day is not adorned with the diadem of virginity, she is nevertheless one of those who have deserved in their humility to hear the heavenly message: Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear; and forget thy people and thy father's house.[1] In reply, such was her eagerness in the ways of love, that numberless virgins followed in her footsteps in order to be more sure of reaching the Spouse. She also, then, has a glorious place in the vesture of gold, with its play of colours, wherewith the Queen of Saints is clad in her triumph. For what is the variety noticed by the psalm in the embroideries and fringes of that robe of glory, if not the diversity of tints in the gold of divine charity among the elect? In order to bring forward the happy effect produced by this diversity in the light of the saints, Eternal Wisdom has multiplied the forms under which the life of the counsels may be presented to the world. Such is the teaching given in the holy liturgy, by bringing together the feasts of yesterday and to-day on its sacred cycle. Between Cistercian austerity and the more interior renouncement of the Visitation of holy Mary there seems to be a great distance: nevertheless the Church unites the memory of St. Jane de Chantal and of the Abbot of Clairvaux in homage to the Blessed Virgin during the happy octave which consummates her glory; it is because all rules of perfection are alike in being merely variations of the one rule, that of love, of which Mary’s life was a perfect pattern. ‘Let us not divide the robe of the Bride,’ says St. Bernard. ‘Unity, as well in heaven as on earth, consists in charity. Let him who glories in the rule not break the rule by acting contrary to the Gospel. If the kingdom of God is within us, it is because it is not meat and drink; but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.[2] To criticize others on their exterior observance, and to neglect the rule in what regards the soul, is to take out a gnat from the cup and to swallow a camel. Thou breakest thy body with endless labour, thou mortifiest with austerities thy members which are on the earth; and thou dost well. But while thou allowest thyself to judge him who does not so much penance, he perhaps is following the advice of the Apostle: more eager for the better gifts, keeping less of that bodily exercise which is profitable to little, he gives himself up more to that godliness which is profitable to all things.[3] Which, then, of you two keeps the rule better? doubtless he that becomes better thereby. Now which is the better? The humbler, or the more fatigued? Learn of me, said Jesus,[4]because I am meek and humble of heart.'[5]

St. Frances de Sales, in his turn, speaking of the diversity of religious Orders, says very well: 'All religious Orders have one spirit common to them all, and each has a spirit peculiar to itself. The common spirit is the design they all have of aspiring after the perfection of charity; but the peculiar spirit of each is the means of arriving at that perfection of charity—that is to say, at the union of our souls with God, and with our neighbour through the love of God.' Coming next to the special spirit of the institute he had founded together with our saint, the Bishop of Geneva declares that it is 'a spirit of profound humility towards God and of great sweetness towards our neighbour, inasmuch as there is less rigour towards the body, so much the more sweetness must there be in the heart.’[6] And because 'this Congregation has been so established that no great severity may prevent the weak and infirm from entering it and giving themselves up to the perfection of divine love,’[7] he adds playfully: 'If there be any sister so generous and courageous as to wish to attain perfection in a quarter of an hour by doing more than the Community does, I would advise her to humble herself and be content to become perfect in three days, following the same course as the rest. For a great simplicity must always be kept in all things: to walk simply, that is the true way for the daughters of the Visitation, a way exceedingly pleasing to God and very safe.’[8] With sweetness and humility for motto, the pious Bishop did well to give his daughters for escutcheon the divine Heart whence these gentle virtues derive their source. We know how magnificently Heaven justified the choice. Before a century had elapsed, a nun of the Visitation, St. Margaret Mary, could say: 'Our adorable Saviour showed me the devotion to His divine Heart as a beautiful tree which He had destined from all eternity to take root in the midst of our institute. He wills that the daughters of the Visitation should distribute the fruits of this sacred tree abundantly to all those that wish to eat of it, and without fear of its failing them.’[9]

‘Love! love! love! my daughters; I know nothing else.' Thus did Jane de Chantal, the glorious cooperatrix of St. Francis in establishing the Visitation of holy Mary, often cry out in her latter years. ' Mother, said one of the sisters, ‘I shall write to our houses that your charity is growing old, and that, like your godfather St. John, you can speak of nothing but love.' To which the saint replied: ‘My daughter, do not make such a comparison, for we must not profane the saints by comparing them to poor sinners; but you will do me a pleasure if you tell those sisters that if I went by my own feelings, if I followed my inclination, and if I were not afraid of wearying the sisters, I should never speak of anything but charity; and I assure you, I scarcely ever open my mouth to speak of holy things, without having a mind to say: Thou shalt love the Lord with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.'[10]

Such words are worthy of her who obtained for the Church the admirable Treatise on the Love of God, composed, says the Bishop of Geneva, for her sake, at her request and solicitation, for herself and her companions.[11] At first, however, the impetuosity of her soul, overflowing with devotedness and energy, seemed to unfit her to be mistress in a school where heroism can only express itself by the simple sweetness of a life altogether hidden in God. It was to discipline this energy of the valiant woman without extinguishing its ardour, that St. Francis perseveringly applied himself during the eighteen years he directed her. ‘ Do all things,' he repeats in a thousand ways, ' without haste, gently, as do the angels; follow the guidance of divine movements, and be supple to grace; God wills us to be like little children,' And this reminds us of an exquisite page from the lovable saint, which we cannot resist quoting: ‘ If one had asked the sweet Jesus when He was carried in His Mother’s arms, whither He was going, might He not with good reason have answered: I go not, 'tis My Mother that goes for Me: and if one had said to Him: But at least do You not go with Your Mother? might He not reasonably have replied: No, I do not go, or if I go whither My Mother carries Me, I do not Myself walk with her nor by My own steps, but by My Mother's, by her, and in her. But if one had persisted with Him, saying: But at least, O most dear divine Child, You really will to let Yourself be carried by Your sweet Mother? No, verily, might He have said, I will nothing of all this, but as My entirely good Mother walks for Me, so she wills for Me; I leave her the care as well to go as to will to go for Me where she likes best; and as I go not but by her steps, so I will not but by her will; and from the instant I find Myself in her arms, I give no attention either to willing, or not willing, turning all other cares over to My Mother, save only the care to be on her bosom, to suck her sacred breast, and to keep myself close clasped to her most beloved neck, that I may most lovingly kiss her with the kisses of My mouth. And be it known to you that while I am amidst the delights of these holy caresses which surpass all sweetness, I consider that my Mother is a tree of life, and Myself on her as its fruit, that I am her own heart in her breast, or her soul in the midst of her heart, so that as her going serves both her and Me without My troubling Myself to take a single step, so her will serves us both without My producing any act of My will about going or coming. Nor do I ever take notice whether she goes fast or slow, hither or thither; nor do I inquire whither she means to go, contenting Myself with this, that go whither she please I go still locked in her arms, close laid to her beloved breasts, where I feed as among lilies. .... Thus should we be, Theotimus,[12] pliable and tractable to God’s good pleasure.’[13] The Church abridges for us far better than we could the life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal:

Joanna Francisca Fremiot de Chantal, Divione in Burgundia clarissimis orta natalibus, ab ineunte ætate eximiæ sanctitatis non obscuras edidit significationes. Eam enim vix quinquennem nobilem quemdam Calvinistam solida supra ætatem argumentatione perstrinxisse ferunt, collatumque ab eo munusculum fiammis illico tradidisse in hæc verba: En quomodo hæretici apud inferos comburentur, qui loquenti Christo fidem detrectant. Matre orbata, Deiparæ Virginis tutelæ se commendavit, et famulam, qua ad mundi amorem eam alliciebat, ab se rejecit. Nihil puerile in moribus exprimens, a sæculi deliciis abhorrens, martyriumque anhelans, religioni ac pietati impense studebat. Baroni de Chantal nuptui a patre tradita, virtutibus omnibus excolendis operam dedit, liberos, famulos, aliosque sibi subjectos in fidei doctrina, bonisque moribus imbuere satagens. Profusa liberalitate pauperum inopiam sublevabat, annona divinitus non raro multiplicata: quo factum est, ut nemini se umquam Christi nomine roganti stipem abnegaturam spoponderit.

Viro in venatione interempto, perfectioris vitæ consilium iniens, continentiæ voto se obstrinxit. Viri necem non solum æquo animo tulit, sed, in publicum indultæ veniæ testimonium, occisoris filium e sacro fonte suscipere sui victrix elegit. Modica familia, tenui victu atque vestitu contenta, pretiosas vestes in pios usus convertit. Quidquid a domesticis curis supererat temporis, precibus, piis lectionibus, laborique impendebat. Numquam adduci potuit ut alteras nuptias, quamvis utiles et honorificas, iniret. Ne autem a proposito castimoniæ observandæ in posterum dimoveretur, illius voto innovato, sanctissimum Jesu Christi nomen candenti ferro pectori insculpsit. Ardentius in dies caritate fervescens, pauperes, derelictos, ægros, teterrimisque morbis infectos ad se adducendos curabat; eosque non hospitio tantum excipiebat, solabatur, fovebat, verum etiam sordidas eorumdem vestes depurgabat, laceras reficiebat, et manantibus fcetido pure ulceribus labia admovere non exhorrebat.

A Sancto Francisco Salesio, quo spiritus moderatore usa fuit, divinam voluntatem edocta, proprium parentem, socerum, filium denique ipsum,quem etiam vocationi obsistentem, sua e domo egrediens, pedibus calcare non dubitavit, invicta constantia deseruit, et sacri instituti Visitationis sanctæ Mariæ fundamenta jecit. Ejus instituti leges integerrime custodivit, et adeo paupertatis fuit amans, ut vel necessaria sibi deesse gauderet. Christianæ vero animi demissionis et obedientiæ, virtutumque denique omnium perfectissimum exemplar se præbuit. Altiores in corde suo ascensiones disponens, arduissimo efficiendi semper id quod perfectius esse intelligeret, voto se obstrinxit. Denique, sacro Visitationis instituto ejus potissimum opera longe lateque diffuso, verbo, exemplo et scriptis etiam divina sapientia refertis, ad pietatem et caritatem sororibus excitatis, meritis referta, et sacramentis rite susceptis, Molinis, anno millesimo sexcentesimo quadragesimo primo, die decima tertia Decembris, migravit ad Dominum,ejusque animam, occurrente sancto Francisco Salesio, in cœlos deferri sanctus Vincentius a Paulo procul distans adspexit. Ejus corpus postea Annecium translatum est: eamque miraculis ante et post obitum claram Benedictus decimus quartus beatorum, Clemens vero decimus tertius Pontifex Maximus albo sanctorum adjecit. Festum autem ejusdem die duodecimo Kalendas Septembris ab universa Ecclesia Clemens decimus quartus Pontifex Maximus celebrari præcepit.

Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal was born at Dijon in Burgundy, of noble parents, and from her childhood gave clear signs of her future great sanctity. It was said that when only five years of age she put to silence a Calvinist nobleman by substantial arguments, far beyond her age, and when he offered her a little present she immediately threw it into the fire, saying: 'This is how heretics will burn in hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks.' When she lost her mother, she put herself under the care of the Virgin Mother of God, and dismissed a maid-servant who was enticing her to love of the world. There was nothing childish in her manners; she shrank from worldly pleasures, and thirsting for martyrdom, she devoted herself entirely to religion and piety. She was given in marriage by her father to the Baron de Chantal, and in this new state of life she strove to cultivate every virtue, and busied herself in instructing in faith and morals her children, her servants and all under her authority. Her liberality in relievingthe necessities of the poor was very great, and more than once God miraculously multiplied her stores of provisions; on this account she promised never to refuse anyone who begged an alms in Christ’s name.

Her husband having been killed while hunting, she determined to embrace a more perfect life and bound herself by a vow of chastity. She not only bore her husband’s death resignedly, but overcame herself so far as to stand godmother to the child of the man who had killed him, in order to give a public proof that she pardoned him. She contented herself with a few servants and with plain food and dress, devoting her costly garments to pious usages. Whatever time remained from her domestic cares she employed in prayer, pious reading, and work. She could never be induced to accept offers of second marriage, even though honourable and advantageous. In order not to be shaken in her resolution of observing chastity, she renewed her vow, and imprinted the most holy name of Jesus Christ upon her breast with a red-hot iron. Her love grew more ardent day by day. She had the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and those who were afflicted with the most terrible diseases brought to her, and not only sheltered and comforted and nursed them, but washed and mended their filthy garments, and did not shrink from putting her lips to their running sores.

Having learnt the will of God from St, Francis de Sales her director, she founded the Institute of the Visitation of our Lady. For this purpose she quitted, with unfaltering courage, her father, her fatherin-law, and even her son, over whose body she had to step in order to leave her home, so violently did he oppose her vocation. She observed her Rule with the utmost fidelity, and so great was her love of poverty, that she rejoiced to be in want of even the necessaries of life. She was a perfect model of Christian humility, obedience, and all other virtues. Wishing for still higher ascensions in her heart, she bound herself by a most difficult vow always to do what she thought most perfect. At length when the Order of the Visitation had spread far and wide, chiefly through her endeavours, after encouraging her sisters to piety and charity by words and example, and also by writings full of divine wisdom; laden with merits, she passed to the Lord at Moulins, having duly received the Sacraments of the Church. She died on December 13, in the year 1641. St. Vincent de Paul, who was at a great distance, saw her soul being carried to heaven, and St. Francis de Sales coming to meet her. Her body was afterwards translated to Annecy. Miracles having made her illustrious both before and after her death, Benedict XIV placed her among the blessed, and Pope Clement XIII among the saints. Pope Clement XIV commanded her feast to be celebrated by the universal Church on the twelfth of the Kalends of September.

The office of Martha seemed at first to be destined for thee, O great saint! Thy father, Francis de Sales, forestalling St. Vincent de Paul, thought of making thy companions the first Daughters of Charity. Thus was given to thy work the blessed name of Visitation, which was to place under Mary’s protection thy visits to the sick and neglected poor. But the progressive deterioration of strength in modern times had laid open a more pressing want in the institutions of holy Church. Many souls called to share Mary’s part were prevented from doing so by their inability to endure the austere life of the great contemplative Orders. The Spouse, who deigns to adapt His goodness to all times, made choice of thee, O Jane, to second the love of His Sacred Heart, and come to the rescue of the physical and moral miseries of an old, worn-out, and decrepit world.

Renew us, then, in the love of Him whose charity consumed thee first; in its ardour thou didst traverse the most various paths of life, and never didst thou fail of that admirable strength of soul, which the Church presents before God to-day in order to obtain through thee the assistance necessary to our weakness.[14] May the insidious and poisonous spirit of Jansenism never return to freeze our hearts; but at the same time as we learn from thee, love is only then real when, with or without austerities, it lives by faith, generosity, and selfrenunciation, in humility, simplicity, and gentleness. It is the spirit of thy holy institute, the spirit which became, through thy angelic Father, so amiable and so strong; may it ever reign amidst thy daughters, keeping up among their houses the sweet union which has never ceased to rejoice heaven; may the world be refreshed by the perfumes which ever exhale from the silent retreats of the Visitation of holy Mary!

[1] Ps. xliv. 11.
[2] Rom. xiv. 17.
[3] 1 Tim. iv. 8.
[4] St Matt. xi. 29.
[5] Bernard. Apologia ad Gulielm.
[6] Entretiens spirituels.
[7] Constitutions of the Visitation, Introduction.
[8] Entretiens spirituels.
[9] Letter of June 17, 1689, to Mother de Saumaise.
[10] Memoirs of Mother de Chaugy, Part III., chap. v.
[11] Treatise on the Love of God, Preface; Memoirs of Mother de Chaugy.
[12] ‘A great servant of God informed me not long ago that by addressing my speech to Philothea in the “Intro duction to a Devout Life,” I hindered many men from profiting by it: because they did not esteem advice given to a woman to be worthy of a man. I marvel that there were men who, to be thought men, showed themselves in effect so little men. . . . Nevertheless, to imitate the great Apostle in this occasion, who esteemed himself a debtor to everyone, I have changed my address in this treatise and speak to Theotimus; but if perchance there should be any woman (and such an unreasonableness would be more tolerable in them) who would not read the instructions which are given to men, I beg them to know that Theotimus to whom I speak is the human spirit desirous of making progress in holy love, which spirit is equally in women as in men.’—'Treatise on the Love of God,’ Preface.
[13] ‘Treatise on the Love of God,’ Book IX, chap. xiv. (We have preferred the translation by Dom H. B. Mackey, O.S.B.)
[14] Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion of the Feast.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

‘IT is a great thing for a saint to have as much grace as would suffice for many; but if he had sufficient for all men in the world, that would be fulness of measure: and this is the case with Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin.’[1] So speaks the prince of theologians with regard to her whom Suarez salutes as the 'universal cause, intimately united to the Lord her Son.'[2]

A higher authority than that of the School has confirmed this teaching of the Angelic Doctor; in his encyclical Magnœ Dei Matris, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII has deigned to make his own the words we have just quoted; and he adds: 'When, therefore, we hail Mary as full of grace, we awaken the recollection of her sublime dignity and of the redemption of the human race, wrought by God through her intermediary; moreover we call to mind the divine and eternal relationship whereby she is associated to Christ in His joys and His sorrows, His humiliations and His triumphs, in ruling and aiding men with a view to their eternal welfare.’[3]

St. Bernardine of Siena compares our Lady to the fountain mentioned in Genesis, which sprang from the earth and watered its whole surface.[4] And as it is well to know the different expressions of the different schools, we may add that the illustrious representative of the Seraphic Order recognizes in Mary what he calls ‘a sort of jurisdiction or authority over every temporal procession of the Holy Ghost,’[5] because, he continues, ‘she is the Mother of Him from whom the Holy Ghost proceeds; and therefore all the gifts, graces, and virtues of this Holy Spirit are administered by her hands, distributed to whom she wills, when she wills, and as she wills, and as much as she wills.’[6]

We must not, however, conclude from these words that the Blessed Virgin has a right, properly so called, over the Holy Ghost or His gifts. Nor may we ever consider our Lady to be in any way a principle of the Holy Ghost, any more than she is of the Word Himself as God. The Mother of God is great enough not to need any exaggeration of her titles. All that she has, she has, it is true, from her Son by whom she is the first redeemed. But in the historical order of the accomplishment of our salvation, the divine predilection, whereby she was chosen to be Mother of the Saviour, made her to be ' the source of the source of life,' according to the expression of St. Peter Damian.[7] Moreover, being Bride as perfectly as she was Mother, and united, in the fulness of all her powers of nature and of grace to all the prayers, to all the sufferings, to the whole oblation of the Son of Man, as His truly universal co-operatrix in the time of His sorrow: what wonder that she should in the days of His glory have a Bride's full share in the dispensation of the goods acquired in common, though differently, by the new Adam and the new Eve? Even if Jesus were not bound in justice to give it her, who would expect such a Son to act otherwise?

Bossuet, who cannot be suspected of being carried away, and whom we therefore quote by preference, did not consider his necessary controversies with heresy an excuse for not following the doctrine of the saints. ‘God,’ says he, ‘having once willed to give us Jesus Christ by the holy Virgin, the gifts of God are without repentance, and this order remains unchanged. It is and ever will be true, that having received by her charity the universal principle of grace, we also receive through her mediation its various applications in all the different states whereof the Christian life is made up. Her maternal love having contributed so much to our salvation in the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the universal principle of grace, she will eternally contribute to it in all the other operations, which are but dependent on the first.

Theology recognizes three principal operations of the grace of Jesus Christ: God calls us, justifies us, gives us perseverance. Vocation is the first step; justification is our progress; perseverance ends the voyage, and gives us in our true country glory and rest, which are not to be found on earth. Mary’s charity takes part in these three works. Mary is the Mother of the called, of the justified, and of the persevering; her fruitful charity is an universal instrument of the operations of grace.’[8]

This noble language is an authentic testimony to the tradition of the holy Church of Gaul, which by its Irenæus, its Bernard, its Anselm, and so many others, made France the kingdom of Mary. May the present teachers put to profit what they have inherited from their great predecessors, and continue to sound the inexhaustible depths of mystery in Mary; so that one day they may deserve to hear from her lips that word of Eternal Wisdom: They that explain me shall have life everlasting.[9]

We borrow from the ancient processional of our English St. Edith the beautiful Responsory Quœ est ista; after which we will give a series of other graceful Responsories written in metre, which are to be found in the Antiphoner of Sens, 1552.

Responsories

℟. Quæ est ista quæ penetravit cœlos? ad cujus transitum Salvator advenit, et induxit eam in thalamo regni sui, ubi cantantur organa hymnorum;
* Quæ ab angelis ad laudem Regis æterni sine fine resonant semper.

℣. O Virgo ineffabiliter veneranda, cui Michæl Archangelus, et omnis militia angelorum deferunt honorem, quam vident exaltatam super cœlos cœlorum.
* Quæ ab angelis.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
* Qua ab angelis.
℟. Sanctas primitias offert Genitus Genitori: * Florem virgineum niveo candore decorum.

℣. Non calor hunc coxit, nec frigus noctis adussit. * Florem.
℟. Regni cœlestis, per fructum virginitatis, * Damna reformantur vetitum contracta per esum.

℣. Restitui numerum gaudet sacer ordo minutum. * Damna.
℟. Virginitas cœlum post lapsum prima recepit: * Sed prius in Genito, post in Genitrice beata.

℣. Cœlicus ordo sacram reveretur virginitatem. * Sed prius.
℟. Porta Sion clausi portam penetrat paradisi: * Prima parens toti quam secum clauserat orbi.

℣. Intactæ matri reseratur janua cœli. * Prima.
℟. Unam quam petiit Virgo benedicta recepit: * Ut facie Domini sine tempore perfrueretur.

℣. Divinum munus votum prævenit et auxit. * Ut facie.
℟. Quindenis gradibus dum scandit ad atria vitæ: * Angelicum meruit Virgo transcendere culmen.

℣. Post Genitum Genitrix meruit præcellere cunctis. * Angelicum.
℟. Ecclesiæ Sponsum Virgo genuit speciosum: * Qui Deus est et homo persona junctus in una.

℣. Sic secum Matrem cœlesti sede locavit. * Qui Deus.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. * Qui Deus.

℟. Who is this that hath penetrated the heavens? At whose passage the Saviour came to meet her, and introduced her into His royal chamber, where music and hymns resound:
* Which the angels sing unceasingly, for ever praising the Eternal King.

℣. O Virgin unspeakably venerable, to whom Michæl the Archangel and all the angelic hosts pay honour, whom they behold exalted above the heaven of heavens.
* Which the angels.

Glory be to the Father, etc.
* Which the angels.
℟. Holy firstfruits does the Son offer to His Father. * The virginal flower lovely in its snowy whiteness.

℣. No heat has scorched it, nor night-cold withered it. * The virginal flower.
℟. Through the fruit of virginity of the heavenly kingdom, * The loss incurred by eating the forbidden fruit is repaired.

℣. The sacred hierarchy rejoices that its diminished number is restored. * The loss incurred.
℟. After the fall virginity is the first to recover heaven: * First of all in the Son, then in his Blessed Mother.

℣. The heavenly ranks revere holy virginity. * First of all.
℟. The gate of Sion enters the gate of closed Paradise. * Which our first mother had closed to herself and the whole world.

℣. To the spotless Mother the gate of heaven is opened. * Which our first.
℟. The Blessed Virgin received the one thing she requested. * To enjoy the face of the Lord for all eternity.

℣. The divine bounty both prevented and surpassed her desire. * To enjoy.
℟. While she mounts the fifteen steps to the palace of life, * The Virgin deserved to rise above the angelic heights.

℣. Next to her Son the Mother merited to surpass all others. * The Virgin.
℟. The Virgin brought forth the beautiful Spouse of the Church. * Who is both God and man united in one Person.

℣. Thus he placed His Mother with Him on His heavenly throne. * Who is.

Glory be to the Father, etc. * Who is.

The following Hymn was composed by St. Peter Damian:

Hymn

Aurora velut fulgida,
Ad cœli meat culmina,
Ut sol Maria splendida,
Tamquam luna pulcherrima.

Regina mundi hodie
Thronum conscendit gloriæ,
Illum enixa filium
Qui est ante luciferum.

Assumpta super angelos,
Excedit et archangelos;
Cuncta sanctorum merita
Transcendit una femina.

Quem foverat in gremio,
Locarat in præsepio:
Nunc Regem super omnia
Patris videt in gloria.

Pro nobis, Virgo virginum,
Tuum deposce Filium:
Per quam nostra susceperat
Ut sua nobis præbeat.

Sit tibi laus, Altissime,
Qui natus es ex Virgine:
Sit honor ineffabili
Patri, sanctoque Flamini.

Amen.

As a brilliant aurora
Mary rises to the heights of heaven,
glittering as the sun,
most beautiful like the moon.

To-day the Queen of the world
ascends to her throne of glory,
the Mother of that Son
who was begotten before the day-star.

She is raised above the angels
and passes beyond the archangels;
this one woman surpasses
all the merits of the saints.

Him, whom she had cherished in her bosom,
she placed in a manger;
now she beholds Him King
over all in the glory of His Father.

O Virgin of virgins,
implore for us thy Son:
by thee He received of ours,
through thee may He give us of His own.

To Thee, O Most High, be praise,
who wast born of the Virgin:
be honour to Thy ineffable
Father and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

[1] Thom. Aq. Opusc. in Salutat. Angelicam.
[2] Suarez in III^am P., qu. xxxvii, art. 4. Disputat. xxi, sect. 3.
[3] Encyclical of September 8, 1892.
[4] Bernardin. Sen. Pro festiv. V.M. Sermo vi de annuntiatione, art. i, c. 2.
[5] Ibid. Sermo v. de Nativit. B.M., cap. 8.
[6] Bernardin Sen. etc.
[7] Petr. Dam. Homilia in Nativ. B.V.
[8] Bossuet, Sermon sur la dévotion à la Ste. Vierge, pour la fete de la Conception 9 Dec., 1669.
[9] Eccli. xxiv. 31.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

THE valley of wormwood has lost its bitterness; having become Clairvaux, or the bright valley, its light shines over the world; from every point of the horizon vigilant bees are attracted to it by the honey from the rock which abounds in its solitude. Mary turns her glance upon its wild hills, and with her smile sheds light and grace upon them. Listen to the harmonious voice arising from the desert; it is the voice of Bernard, her chosen one. 'Learn, O man, the counsel of God; admire the intentions of Wisdom, the design of love. Before bedewing the whole earth, he saturated the fleece; being to redeem the human race, he heaped up in Mary the entire ransom. O Adam, say no more: “The woman whom Thou gavest me offered me the forbidden fruit;" say rather: “The woman whom Thou gavest me has fed me with a fruit of blessing.”With what ardour ought we to honour Mary, in whom was set all the fulness of good! If we have any hope, any saving grace, know that it overflows from her who to-day rises replete with love: she is a garden of delights, over which the divine South Wind does not merely pass with a light breath, but sweeping down from the heights, He stirs it unceasingly with a heavenly breeze, so that it may shed abroad its perfumes, which are the gifts of various graces. Take away the material sun from the world: what would become of our day? Take away Mary, the star of the vast sea: what would remain but obscurity over all, a night of death and icy darkness? Therefore, with every fibre of our heart, with all the love of our soul, with all the eagerness of our aspirations, let us venerate Mary; it is the will of Him who wished us to have all things through her.'[1]

Thus spoke the monk who had acquired his eloquence, as he tells us himself, among the beeches and oaks of the forest,[2]and he poured into the wounds of mankind the wine and oil of the Scriptures. In 1113, at the age of twenty-two, Bernard arrived at Citeaux, in the beauty of his youth, already ripe for great combats. Fifteen years before, on March 21, 1098, Robert of Molesmes had created this new desert between Dijon and Beaune. Issuing from the past, on the very feast of the patriarch of monks, the new foundation claimed to be nothing more than the literal observance of the precious Rule given by him to the world. The weakness of the age, however, refused to recognize the fearful austerity of these newcomers into the great family, as inspired by that holy code, wherein discretion reigns supreme;[3] for this discretion is the characteristic of the school accessible to all, where Benedict 'hoped to ordain nothing rigorous or burthensome in the service of God.’[4] Under the government of Stephen Harding, the next after Alberic, successor of Robert, the little community from Molesmes was becoming extinct, without human hope of recovery, when the descendant of the lords of Fontaines arrived with thirty companions, who were his first conquest, and brought new life where death was imminent.

'Rejoice, thou barren one that bearest not, for many will be the children of the barren.' La Ferté was founded that same year in Chalonnais; next Pontigny, near Auxerre; and in 1115 Clairvaux and Morimond were established in the diocese of Langres; while these four glorious branches of Citeaux were soon, together with their parent stock, to put forth numerous shoots. In 1119 the Charter of charity confirmed the existence of the Cistercian Order in the Church. Thus the tree, planted six centuries earlier on the summit of Monte Cassino, proved once more to the world that in all ages it is capable of producing new branches, which, though distinct from the trunk, live by its sap, and are a glory to the entire tree.

During the months of his novitiate Bernard so subdued nature that the interior man alone lived in him; the senses of his own body were to him as strangers. By an excess, for which he had afterwards to reproach himself, he carried his rigour, though meant for a desirable end, so far as to ruin the body, that indispensable help to every man in the service of his brethren and of God. Blessed fault, which heaven took upon itself to excuse so magnificently. A miracle (a thing which no one has a right to expect) was needed to uphold him henceforth in the accomplishment of his destined mission.

Bernard was as ardent in the service of God as others are for the gratification of their passions. 'You would learn of me,’ he says in one of his earliest works, 'why and how we must love God. And I answer you: The reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of loving Him is to love Him without measure.'[5] What delights He enjoyed at Citeaux in the secret of the face of the Lord! When, after two years, he left this blessed abode to found Clairvaux, it was like coming out of paradise. More fit to converse with angels than with men, he began, says his historian, by being a trial to those whom he had to guide: so heavenly was his language, such perfection did he require surpassing the strength of even the strong ones of Israel, such sorrowful astonishment did he show on the discovery of infirmities common to all flesh.[6]

But the Holy Spirit was watching over the vessel of election called to bear the name of the Lord before kings and people; the divine charity which consumed his soul taught him that love has two inseparable, though sadly different, objects: God, whose goodness makes us love Him; and man, whose misery exercises our charity. According to the ingenious remark of William de Saint-Thierry, his disciple and friend, Bernard re-learnt the art of living among men.[7] He imbued himself with the admirable recommendations given by the legislator of monks to him who is chosen Abbot over his brethren: "When he giveth correction, let him act prudently, and push nothing to extremes, lest whilst eager of extreme scouring off the rust, the vase be broken. . . . When he enjoineth work to be done, let him use discernment and moderation, and think of holy Jacob's discretion, who said: “If I cause my flocks to be overdriven, they will all die in one day." Taking, therefore, these and other documents regarding that mother of virtue, discretion—let him so temper all things as that the strong may have what to desire and the weak nothing to deter them.'[8]

Having received what the Psalmist calls 'understanding concerning the needy and the poor,' Bernard felt his heart overflowing with the tenderness of God for those purchased by the divine Blood. He no longer terrified the humble. Beside the little ones who came to him attracted by the grace of his speech might be seen the wise, the powerful, and the rich ones of the world, abandoning their vanities, and becoming themselves little and poor in the school of one who knew how to guide them all from the first elements of love to its very summits. In the midst of seven hundred monks receiving daily from him the doctrine of salvation, the Abbot of Clairvaux could cry out with the noble pride of the saints: ‘ He that is mighty has done great things in us, and with good reason our soul magnifies the Lord. Behold we have left all things to follow Thee: it is a great resolution, the glory of the great apostles; yet we, too, by His great grace have taken it magnificently. Perhaps, even if I wish to glory therein, I shall not be foolish, for I will say the truth: there are some here who have left more than a boat and fishing-nets.'[9]

‘What more wonderful,' he said on another occasion,‘than to see one who formerly could scarce abstain two days from sin preserve himself from it for years, and even for his whole life? What greater miracle than that so many young men, boys, noble personages—all those, in a word, whom I see here—should be held captive without bonds in an open prison by the sole fear of God, and should persevere in penitential macerations beyond human strength, above nature, contrary to habit? What marvels we should discover, as you well knew, were we allowed to seek out the details of each one's exodus from Egypt, of his passage through the desert, his entrance into the monastery, and his life within its walls.'[10]

But there were other marvels not to be hidden within the secret of the cloister. The voice that had peopled the desert was bidden to echo through the world; and the noises of discord and error, of schism and the passions, were hushed before it; at its word the whole West was precipitated as one man upon the infidel East. Bernard had now become the avenger of the sanctuary, the umpire of kings, the confidant of sovereign Pontiffs, the thaumaturgus applauded by enthusiastic crowds; yet, at the very height of what the world calls glory, his one thought was the loved solitude he had been forced to quit. 'It is high time,' he said, ' that I should think of myself. Have pity on my agonized conscience: what an abnormal life is mine! I am the chimera of my time; neither clerk nor layman, I have the habit of a monk and none of the observances. In the perils which surround me, at the brink of precipices yawning before me, help me with your advice, pray for me.'[11]

While absent from Clairvaux he wrote to his monks: ‘My soul is sorrowful and cannot be comforted till I see you again. Alas! Must my exile here below, so long protracted, be rendered still more grievous? Truly those who have separated us have added sorrow upon sorrow to my evils. They have taken away from me the only remedy which enabled me to live away from Christ; while I could not yet contemplate His glorious face, it was given me at least to see you, you His holy temple. From that temple the way seemed easy to the eternal home. How often have I been deprived of this consolation? This is the third time, if I mistake not, that they have torn out my heart. My children are weaned before the time; I had begotten them by the Gospel, and I cannot nourish them. Constrained to neglect those dear to me and to attend to the interests of strangers, I scarcely know which is harder to bear, to be separated from the former or to be mixed up with the latter. O Jesus, is my whole life to be spent in sighing? It were better for me to die than to live; but I would fain die in the midst of my family; there I should find more sweetness, more security. May it please my Lord that the eyes of a father, how unworthy soever of the name, may be closed by the hands of his sons; that they may assist him in his last passage; that their desires, if Thou judge him worthy, may bear his soul to the abode of the blessed; that they may bury the body of a poor man with the bodies of those who were poor with him. By the prayers and merits of my brethren, if I have found favour before Thee, grant me this desire of my heart. Nevertheless, Thy will, not mine, be done; for I wish neither to live nor to die for myself.’[12]

Greater in his Abbey than in the noblest courts, Bernard was destined to die at home at the hour appointed by God; but not without having had his soul prepared for the last purification by trials both public and private. For the last time he took up again, but could not finish, the discourses he had been delivering for the last eighteen years on the Canticle. These familiar conferences, lovingly gathered by his children, reveal in a touching manner the zeal of the sons for divine science, the heart of the father and his sanctity, and the incidents of daily life at Clairvaux. Having reached the first verse of the third chapter, he was describing the soul seeking after the Word in the weakness of this life, in the dark night of this world, when he broke off his discourses, and passed to the eternal face-to-face vision, where there is no more enigma, nor figure, nor shadow.

The following is the notice consecrated by the Church to her great servant:

Bernardus, Fontanis in Burgundia honesto loco natus, adolescens propter egregiam formam vehementer sollicitatus a mulieribus, numquam de sententia colendæ castitatis dimoveri potuit. Quas diaboli tentationes ut efiugeret, duos et viginti annos natus, monasterium Cisterciense, unde hic ordo incepit, et quod tum sanctitate florebat, ingredi constituit. Quo Bernardi consilio cognito, fratres summopere conati sunt eum a proposito deterrere: in quo ipse eloquentior ac felicior fuit. Nam sic eos aliosque multos in suam perduxit sententiam, ut cum eo triginta juvenes eamdem religionem susceperint. Monachus jejunio ita deditus erat, ut quoties sumendus esset cibus, toties tormentum subire videretur. In vigiliis etiam et orationibus mirifice se exercebat; et christianam paupertatem colens, quasi cœlestem vitam agebat in terris, ab omni caducarum rerum cura et cupiditate alienam.

Elucebat in eo humilitas, misericordia, benignitas: contemplationi autem sic addictus erat, ut vix sensibus, nisi ad officia pietatis, uteretur: in quibus tamen prudentiæ laude excellebat. Quo in studio occupatus, Genuensem ac Mediolanensem aliosque episcopatus oblatos recusant, professus se tanti officii munere indignum esse. Abbas factus Claravallensis, multis in locis ædificavit monasteria, in quibus præclara Bernardi institutio ac disciplina diu viguit. Romæ, sanctorum Vincentii et Anastasii monasterio ab Innocentio Secundo Papa restituti præfecit abbatem ilium, qui postea Eugenius Tertius Summus Pontifex fuit, ad quem etiam librum misit de Consideratione.

Multa præterea scripsit, in quibus apparet, eum doctrina potius divinitus tradita, quam labore comparata, instructum fuisse. In summa virtutum laude exoratus a maximis principibus de eorum componendis controversiis, et de ecclesiasticis rebus constituendis, sæpius in Italiam venit. Innocentium item Secundum Pontificem Maximum in confutando schismate Petri Leonis, cum apud imperatorem et Henricum Angliæ regem, tum in concilio Pisis coacto, egregie adjuvit. Denique tres et sexaginta annos natus, obdormivit in Domino, ac miraculis illustris, ab Alexandro Tertio Papa inter sanctos relatus est. Pius vero Octavus Pontifex Maximus ex sacrorum Rituum Congregationis consilio sanctum Bernardum universalis Ecclesiæ Doctorem declaravit et confirmavit, necnon Missam et Officium de Doctoribus ab omnibus recitari jussit, atqueindulgentias plenarias quotannis in perpetuimi ordinis Cisterciensium ecclesias visitantibus die hujus sancti festo concessit.

Bernard was born of a distinguished family at Fontaines in Burgundy. As a youth, on account of his great beauty he was much Bought after by women, but could never be shaken in his resolution of observing chastity. To escape these temptations of the devil, he, at twenty-two years of age, determined to enter the monastery of Citeaux, the first house of the Cistercian Order, then famous for sanctity. When his brothers learnt Bernard’s design, they did their best to deter him from it; but he, more eloquent and more successful, won them and many others to his opinion; so that together with him thirty young men embraced the Cistercian Rule. As a monk he was so given to fasting, that whenever he had to take food he seemed to be undergoing torture. He applied himself in a wonderful manner to prayer and watching, and was a great lover of Christian poverty; thus he led a heavenly life on earth, free from all anxiety or desire of perishable goods.

The virtues of humility, mercy, and kindness shone conspicuously in his character. He devoted himself so earnestly to contemplation, that he seemed hardly to use his senses except to do acts of charity, and in these he was remarkable for his prudence. While thus occupied he refused the bishoprics of Genoa, Milan, and others, which were offered to him, declaring that he was unworthy of so great an office. He afterwards became Abbot of Clairvaux, and built monasteries in many places, wherein the excellent rules and discipline of Bernard long flourished. When the monastery of SS. Vincent and Anastasius of Rome was restored by Pope Innocent II, St. Bernard appointed as Abbot the future Sovereign Pontiff, Eugenius III; to whom he also sent his book 'De Considera tione.'

He wrote many other works which clearly show that his doctrine was more the gift of God than the result of his own labours. On account of his great reputation for virtue, the greatest princes begged him to act as arbiter in their disputes, and he went several times into Italy for this purpose, and for arranging ecclesiastical affairs. He was of great assistance to the Supreme Pontiff Innocent II in putting down the schism of Peter de Leone, both at the courts of the emperor and of King Henry of England, and at a Council held at Pisa. At length, being sixty-three years old, he fell asleep in the Lord. He was famous for miracles, and Pope Alexander III placed him among the saints. Pope Pius VIII, with the advice of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, declared St. Bernard a Doctor of the universal Church, and commanded all to recite the Mass and Office of a Doctor on his feast. He also granted a plenary indulgence yearly for ever, to all who visit churches of the Cistercian Order on this day.

Let us offer to St. Bernard the following hymn, with its ingenuous allusions; it is worthy of him by the graceful sweetness wherewith it celebrates his grandeurs:

Hymn

Lacte quondam profluentes,
Ite, montes vos procul,
Ite, colles, fusa quondam
Unde mellis ilumina;
Israel, jactare late
Manna priscum desine.

Ecce cujus corde sudant,
Cujus ore profluunt
Dulciores lacte fontes,
Mellis amnes æmuli:
Ore tanto, corde tanto
Manna nullum dulcius.

Quæris unde duxit ortum
Tanta lactis copia;
Unde favus, unde prompta
Tanta mellis suavitas;
Unde tantum manna fluxit,
Unde tot dulcedines.

Lactis imbres Virgo fudit
Cœlitus puerpera:
Mellis amnes os leonis
Excitavit mortui:
Manna sylvæ, cœlitumque
Solitudo proxima.

Doctor o Bernarde, tantis
Aucte cœli dotibus,
Lactis hujus, mellis hujus,
Funde rores desuper;
Funde stillas, pleniore
Jam potitus gurgite.

Summa summo laus Parenti,
Summa laus et Filio:
Par tibi sit, sancte, manans
Ex utroque, Spiritus;
Ut fuit, nunc et per ævum
Compar semper gloria.

Amen.

Ye mountains, once flowing with milk,
depart to a distance;
depart, ye hills that once
poured forth streams of honey;
Israel, cease to boast freely
of your ancient manna.

Behold one from whose heart ebb forth,
and from whose mouth
flow out sweeter fountains
of milk and rival rivers of honey:
than such a mouth,
than such a heart no manna could be sweeter.

Thou askest whence
such abundance of milk originated;
whence the honeycomb,
whence the swift-flowing sweetness of honey;
whence such manna;
and whence so many delights.

The showers of milk the Virgin Mother
shed on him from heaven:
the mouth of the dead lion
was the source of the honeyed rivers:
the woods and the solitude
so nigh the heavens produced the manna.

O Bernard, O Doctor, enriched
with such gifts of heaven,
shed down upon us
the dews of this milk and of this honey;
give us the drops,
now that thou possessest the full sea.

Highest praise be to the Sovereign Father,
and highest praise to the Son:
and be the like to Thee, O Holy Spirit,
proceeding from them both,
as it was, now is, and ever will be,
equal glory eternally.

Amen.

It was fitting to see the herald of the Mother of God following so closely her triumphal car; entering heaven during this bright Octave, thou delightest to lose thyself in the glory of her whose greatness thou didst proclaim on earth. Be our protector in her court; attract her maternal eyes towards Citeaux; in her name save the Church once more, and protect the Vicar of Christ.

But to-day, rather than to pray to thee, thou invitest us to sing to Mary and pray to her with thee; the homage most pleasing to thee, O Bernard, is that we should profit by thy sublime writings and admire the Virgin who, ‘to-day ascending glorious to heaven, put the finishing touch to the happiness of the heavenly citizens. Brilliant as it was already, heaven became resplendent with new brightness from the light of the virginal torch. Thanksgiving and praise resound on high. And shall we not in our exile partake of these joys of our home? Having here no lasting dwelling, we seek the city where the Blessed Virgin has arrived this very hour. Citizens of Jerusalem, it is but just that, from the banks of the rivers of Babylon, we should think with dilated hearts of the overflowing river of bliss, of which some drops are sprinkled on earth to-day. Our Queen has gone before us; the reception given to her encourages us who are her followers and servants. Our caravan will be well treated with regard to salvation, for it is preceded by the Mother of mercy as advocate before the Judge her Son.'[13]

'Whoso remembers having ever invoked thee in vain in his needs, O Blessed Virgin, let him be silent as to thy mercy. As for us, thy little servants, we praise thy other virtues, but on this one we congratulate ourselves. We praise thy virginity, we admire thy humility; but mercy is sweeter to the wretched; we embrace it more lovingly, we think of it more frequently, we invoke it unceasingly. Who can tell the length and breadth and height and depth of thine, O blessed one? Its length, for it extends to the last day; its breadth, for it covers the earth; its height and depth, for it has filled heaven and emptied hell. Thou art as powerful as merciful; having now rejoined thy Son, manifest to the world the grace thou hast found before God: obtain pardon for sinners, health for the sick, strength for the weak, consolation for the afflicted, help and deliverance for those who are in any danger,[14] O clement, O merciful, O sweet Virgin Mary!’[15]

[1] Bernard. Sermo. Nativ. B.M.
[2] Vita Bernardi, L. iv. 23.
[3] Greg. Dialogue II., xxxvi.
[4] S. P. Benedict. in Reg. Prolog.
[5] De diligendo Deo, I, 1.
[6] Vita, I, vi. 27-30.
[7] Vita, I, vi. 30.
[8] S. P. Bened. Reg. lxiv.
[9] Bern. De diversis, Sermo xxxvii. 7.
[10] In Dedicat. Eccl, Sermo i. 2.
[11] Epist, ccl.
[12] Epist, cxliv.
[13] Bernard. In Assumpt. B.M.V., Sermo i.
[14] Bernard. In Assumpt B.M.V., Sermo iv.
[15] A tradition of the cathedral of Spires attributes to St. Bernard the addition of this triple cry of the heart to the Salve Regina.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

IN the eternal decrees Mary was never separated from Jesus; together with Him, she was the type of all created beauty. When the Almighty Father prepared the heavens and the earth, His Son, who is His Wisdom, played before Him in His future humanity as first exemplar, as measure and number, as starting point, centre, and summit of the work undertaken by the Spirit of Love; but at the same time the predestined Mother, the woman chosen to give to the Son of God from her own flesh His quality of Son of Man, appeared among mere creatures as the term of all excellence in the various orders of nature, of grace, and of glory. We need not, then, be astonished at the Church putting on Mary’s lips the words first uttered by Eternal Wisdom: ‘From the beginning and before the world was I created.’

The divine ideal was realized in her whole being, even in her body. To form out of nothing a reflection of the divine perfections is the purpose of creation and the law even of matter. Now, next to the face of the most beautiful of the sons of men, nothing on earth so well expressed God as the Virgin's countenance. St. Denis is said to have exclaimed on seeing our Lady for the first time: 'Had not faith revealed to me thy Son, I should have taken thee for God.’ Whether it be authentic or not to place it in the mouth of the Areopagite,[1] this cry of the heart expresses the feeling of the ancients. We shall be the less surprised at this, if we remember that no son ever, resembled his mother as Jesus did; it was the law of nature doubled in Him, since He had no earthly father. It is now the delight of the angels to behold in the glorified bodies of Jesus and Mary new aspects of eternal beauty, which their own immaterial substances could not reflect.

Now the unspeakable perfection of Mary’s body sprang from the union of that body with the most perfect soul that ever was, excepting, of course, the soul of our Lord her Son. With us, the original Fall has broken the harmony that ought to exist between the two very different elements of our human being, and has generally displaced, and sometimes even destroyed, the proportions of nature and grace. It is very different where the divine work has not thus been vitiated from the beginning; so that in each blessed spirit of the nine choirs, the degree of grace is in direct relation to His gifts of nature.[2] Exemption from sin allowed the soul of the Immaculate One to inform the body of its own image with absolute sway, while the soul itself, lending itself to grace to the full extent of its exquisite powers, suffered God to raise it supernaturally above all the Seraphim, even to the steps of His own throne.

For in the kingdom of grace, as in that of nature, Mary's supereminence was such as became a Queen. At the first moment of her existence in the womb of St. Anne, she was set far above the highest mountains; and God, who loves only what He has made worthy of His love, loved this entrance, this gate of the true Sion, above all the tabernacles of Jacob. It was indeed impossible that the Word, who had chosen her for His Mother, should, even for an instant, love any creature more, as being more perfect. Throughout her life there was never in Mary the least want of correspondence with her preventing graces; so great perfection could not brook the least failing, the least interruption, the least delay. From the first moment of her most holy Conception till her glorious death, grace operated in her without hindrance, to the utmost of its divine power. Thus, starting from heights unknown to us, and doubling her speed at each stroke of her wings, her powerful flight bore her up to that nearness to God, where our admiring contemplation follows her during these days.

Our Lady, moreover, is not only the first-born, the most perfect, the most holy, of creatures and their Queen—or rather she is all this, only because she is also the Mother of the Son of God. If we wish only to prove that she alone surpasses all the united subjects of her vast empire, we may compare her with men and with angels, in the order of nature and of grace. But all comparison is out of the question if we try to follow her to the inaccessible heights, where, still the handmaid of the Lord, she participates in the eternal relations which constitute the Blessed Trinity. What mode of divine charity is that whereby a creature loves God as her Son? But let us listen to the Bishop of Meaux, not the least of whose merits is to have understood as he did the greatness of Mary: ‘To form the holy Virgin's love, it was necessary to mingle together all that is most tender in nature and most efficacious in grace. Nature had to be there, for it was love of a son; grace had to act, for it was love of a God. But what is beyond our imagination is that nature and grace were insufficient; for it is not in nature to have God for a son; and grace, at least ordinary grace, cannot love a son as God: we must therefore rise higher. Suffer me, O Christians, to raise my thoughts to-day beyond nature and grace, and to seek the source of this love in the very bosom of the Eternal Father. The divine Son, of whom Mary is Mother, belongs to her and to God. She is united with God the Father by becoming the Mother of His only begotten Son, who is common to her and the Eternal Father by the manner of His conception. But to make her capable of conceiving God, the Most High had to overshadow her with His own power—that is, to extend to her His own fecundity. In this way Mary is associated in the eternal generation. But this God, who willed to give her His Son, was obliged also, in order to complete His work, to place in her chaste bosom a spark of the love He himself bears to His only Son, who is the splendour of His glory and the living image of His substance. Such is the origin of Mary’s love: it springs from an effusion of God’s heart into hers; and her love of her Son is given to her from the same source as her Son Himself. After this mysterious communication, what hast thou to say, O human reason? Canst thou pretend to understand the union of Mary with Jesus Christ? It has in it something of that perfect unity which exists between the Father and the Son. Do not attempt any more to explain that maternal love which springs from so high a source, and which is an overflow of the love of the Father for His only begotten Son.’[3]

Adam of St. Victor offers us this sweet sequence where with to praise her and pray to her in the midst of this stormy sea:

Sequence

Ave, Virgo singularis,
Mater nostri salutaris,
Quæ vocaris stella maris,
Stella non erratica;

Nos in hujus vitæ mari
Non permitte naufragan,
Sed pro nobis salutari
Tuo semper supplica.

Sævit mare, fremunt venti,
Fluctus surgunt turbulenti;
Navis currit, sed currenti
Tot occurrunt obvia!

Hic sirenes voluptatis,
Draco, canes, cum piratis,
Mortem pene desperatis
Hæc intentant omnia.

Post abyssos, nunc ad cœlum,
Furens unda fert phaselum;
Nutat malus, fluit velum,
Nautæ cessat opera;

Contabescit in his malis
Homo noster animalis:
Tu nos, mater spiritalis,
Pereuntes libera.

Tu, perfusa cœli rore,
Castitatis salvo flore,
Novum florem novo more
Protulisti sæculo.

Verbum Patri coæquale,
Corpus intrans virginale,
Fit pro nobis corporale
Sub ventris umbraculo

Te prævidit et elegit
Qui potenter cuncta regit,
Nec pudoris claustra fregit,
Sacra replens viscera;

Nec pressuram, nec dolorem,
Contra primæ matris morem,
Pariendo Salvatorem,
Sensisti, puerpera.

O Maria, pro tuorum
Dignitate meritorum,
Supra choros angelorum
Sublimaris unice:

Felix dies hodierna
Qua conscendis ad superna!
Pietate tu materna
Nos in imo respice.

Radix sancta, radix viva,
Flos, et vitis, et oliva,
Quam nulla vis insitiva,
Juvit ut fructificet;

Lampas soli, splendor poli,
Quæ splendore præes soli,
Nos assigna tuæ proli,
Ne districte judicet.

In conspectu summi Regis,
Sis pusilli memor gregis
Qui, transgressor datæ legis,
Præsumit de venia:

Judex mitis et benignus,
Judex jugi laude dignus
Reis spei dedit pignus,
Crucis factus hostia.

Jesu, sacri ventris fructus,
Nobis inter mundi fluctus
Sis dux, via et conductus
Liber ad cœlestia:

Tene clavum, rege navem;
Tu, procellam sedans gravem,
Portum nobis da suavem
Pro tua clementia.

Amen.

Hail, matchless Virgin,
Mother of our salvation,
who art called Star of the Sea,
a star that wandereth not;

permit us not in this life’s ocean
to suffer shipwreck,
but ever intercede for us
with the Saviour born of thee.

The sea is raging, the winds are roaring,
the boisterous billows rise;
the ship speeds on, but her swift course
what fearful odds oppose!

Here the sirens of pleasure,
the dragon, the sea-dogs, pirates,
all at once menace well-nigh
despairing man with death.

Down to the depths and up to the sky
does the raging surge bear the frail bark;
the mast totters, the sail is snatched away,
the mariner ceases his useless toil;

our animal man faints
amid so great evils:
do thou, O Mother, who art spiritual,
save us ere we perish.

The dew of heaven being sprinkled on thee,
thou, without losing the flower of thy purity,
didst in a new manner
give to the world a new flower.

The Word co-equal with the Father,
entering thy virginal body,
took for our sakes a body
in the secret of thy womb.

He who rules all things in His power,
foresaw and elected thee.
He filled thy sacred bosom
without breaking the seal of thy virginity.

Unlike the first mother,
thou, O Mother, didst feel
neither anguish nor pain
in bringing forth the Saviour.

O Mary, by the dignity
of thy merits,
thou alone art raised
far above the choirs of angels:

happy is this day whereon
thou didst ascend to such heights!
Oh! in thy motherly love,
look down upon us here below.

O holy root, O living root,
O flower and vine and olive,
no in-grafted energy
made thee fruitful;

light of the earth and brightness of heaven,
thou outshinest the sun in splendour;
present us to thy Son,
that He judge us not sternly.

In presence of the Most High King,
be mindful of the little flock,
which, though it has transgressed the law given it,
dares to hope for pardon;

the Judge, who is mild and merciful,
Judge worthy of everlasting praise,
becoming the victim of the Cross,
gave to the guilty the pledge of hope.

O Jesus, fruit of a holy Mother,
to us amid the world’s
billows be a guide,
a way and a free passage to heaven:

take the helm and guide the ship:
and stilling the tempest,
do Thou in Thy clemency
lead us to a pleasant harbour.

Amen.

[1] Ex pseudo-epistola Dionys. ad Paulum
[2] Thom. Aquin., Ia. P., qu. lxii., art. 6.
[3] Bossuet, First sermon for the Assumption.
[4] Damas, in Callisti.