The Magnificat (A Marian Devotion)

The


Magnificat




(A Marian Devotion)

by

Dr. James J. Ripley



CONSECRATION AND DEDICATION





I would that this work, this Marian devotion, united by the theme of the Magnificat, be first and foremost a prayer of love. It is extended as a prayer of loving praise, of loving thanksgiving, of loving conciliation, and of loving petition. Indeed, God has shown us how best to love Him. God has told us how best to approach Him. He has made it manifestly clear to us, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would have us approach Him by means of His Sacraments through His Mother, Spirit Spouse, and greatest Daughter, Mary Immaculate; for She is not only Our Greatest Daughter, who most honors us, but is, indeed, Our Mother, whom most we honor, Our Lady and Our Queen, whom most we obey, and the one, among mere creatures, to whom we are most espoused whenever we wisely do God's Will of Love. It is to Her that I consecrate myself, such as I am and with such as I have. It is to Her that I dedicate this present work and my life entire, with all of my thoughts words and works, and not only insofar as some few of these may be pleasing to Her. These I offer through Her to Her Father Son and Spirit Spouse together with all of the joys and sufferings of every moment of all of my days. I ask Her to take all of these imperfect things that I offer in this prayer, that but for my confidence in Her I would not have the temerity to offer, to purify them and to make them perfect. I ask Her to bereave them all, this prayer included, of all loves that are material, sensible, imaginary, magical and selfish, insofar as these may not be meritorious. I ask Her to distill out only that love which is spiritual, suprasensible, ideal, mystical, and selfless, even and especially as that love had from the very first been pressed out of life’s duress, signaling life’s only real success. I ask Her to present them at last to Her Beloved Son and Father and Spirit Spouse as a perfect prayer: as a simple, pure, unadulterated, immaculate concept of love.

Written

in the

City of Our Lady Queen of the Angels

Dedicated and Consecrated

on the

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

and

Completed in the Year of Our Lord

2002

Copyright 2003 Queenship Publishing-All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Number: 2003112133

ISBN: 1-57918-242-9

Published by:

Queenship Publishing

Post Office Box 220
Goleta, Ca 93116
(800) 647-9882 / (805) 692-0043 / FAX (805) 967-5133
www.queenship.org

E-mail author: dr.jamesj.ripley@gmail.com

Printed in the United States of America


Contents






Introduction to the Magnificat..........................................................1


I. Eucharist, Love, and Wisdom............................................19

II. Baptism, Hope, and Fear....................................................69

III. Holy Orders, Faith, and Understanding........................86

IV. Reconciliation, Justice, and Piety....................................133

V. Anointing, Prudence, and Knowledge............................150

VI. Confirmation, Fortitude, and Fortitude.........................174

VII. Matrimony, Temperance, and Counsel.........................195


RESPECTS ………………………………………….……..216


RESPECT 1:- How Jesus Grew in Wisdom and Age.............................217

RESPECT 2:- Mary Immaculate: Queen of Angels and of Men..........221

RESPECT 3:- The Great Secret of St. Joseph, The Great Seer.............230


APPENDIX:- The Magnificat in Summary......................................................249






THE FOLLOWING TABLE,


THE SEVEN SEVENS,



is included here and on the last page of this book as a summary by regions (chapters) and systems (e.g., the Sacramental System, etc.). These summary tables are extended in order to provide readers with a rapid orientation and a ready reference toward the comprehension of the themes particular to this work:



THE MAGNIFICAT

(A Marian Devotion)




The Seven Sevens



Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7









Introduction


to


The Magnificat

From the Gospel
of
St. Luke
1:46 And Mary said:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, {line 1}

1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. {line 2}

1:48 For He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid; {line 3}

for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call {line 4}
me blessed.

1:49 For He that Is Mighty hath done great things in me, {line 5}

and Holy Is His Name. {line 6}

1:50 And His Mercy Is from generation unto {line 7}
generations to them that fear Him.

1:51 He hath shown Might in His Arm; He hath {line 8}
scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

1:52 He hath put down the mighty from their seat, {line 9}
and hath exalted the humble.

1:53 He hath filled the hungry with Good Things, {line 10}
and the rich He hath sent empty away .

1:54 He hath received Israel, being mindful of His Mercy. {line 11}

1:55 As He spoke to our fathers: {line 12}
to Abraham and to his Seed Forever."
It is the purpose of this work on The Magnificat, this Marian devotion, to champion Our Lady Mary Immaculate,[1] to defend the Sacraments, to encourage the reader and the writer alike to engage in them properly, and to live Her virtues. We shall accomplish these ends in the light of the utterances of the Magnificat,[2] in the light of other scripture, in the light of tradition, in the light of faith, and in the light of reason. This purpose shall be furthered by a parallel and comparison among seven of the various sevens of perfection. In the Light of the Spirit of an ongoing Pentecost shall seven sevens herein be paralleled and compared including: the seven groupings of the utterances of the Magnificat,[3] the seven Sacraments and their concomitant graces,[4] the seven virtues[5] and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit[6] that are given to perfect them, the seven last words of Christ,[7] the seven churches of Asia, and the seven Angels[8] who stand before the Throne of God.[9]

In the foregoing light would we champion Our Lady and defend the Sacraments that She contains who contains Him. We shall achieve this end not as champions of time and of space, not as historians and geographers, but as champions of God’s Omnipresent[10] Eternal Ubiquity[11]; for in lieu of the now or then or when of time and the here or there or where of space shall we at once understand all in the moment and the locus of His Everpresent Now. Indeed, from the foundation of the world, the Incarnation in and of the Immaculate Conception, indeed, each and all of the Sacraments are ever in the Mind of God. These have not come to us, and neither must they be intended, merely as afterthoughts of history, nor should they be viewed as mere products of the circumstance of geography or local culture. They are artifacts neither of space nor of time, for neither are they artifacts of man’s invention nor vestigial relics, merely to be relegated to some dusty shelf together with a collection of other curios, the practical usefulness of which has long since been exhausted. Indeed, Who lays the foundation, knows what He will edify.[12] Truly, it is ever in the Mind of the Great Cause that we properly use history and geography, time and space, as we would any of His effects: to bring us ever closer to Him. However, we are not to intend those effects improperly nor are we to abuse them; for although time is a reality and space is yet another reality, His Eternal Ubiquity and Omnipresence, Is The Reality.[13]

To wit, the Sacraments, like the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, could not be said to have “evolved,” as the historians of time and the geographers of space would perforce have us believe. Rather than properly use them, many historians and geographers abuse history and geography, time and space, wielding them as bludgeons with the destructive object of beating the notion into credulous humanity that if the Church, as Her Sacraments, has evolved over time and space, that She is no longer what She was. In this way many would, by calling attention to Her merely accidental mutability, by questioning Her stability, manage to question Her validity. What they are basically suggesting is that the Church has evolved into or become what She was never intended to be from Her inception. However, that argument is refuted by the Immaculate Conception, and Mary, the Immaculate Conception, ad extra, is the Church in a preeminent manner. For as She was conceived sinless, All Holy, informed, and in Love, in the immutable Mind of God and in the womb of Her mother Saint Anne, so She is perpetually, as given by Her perpetual virginity; neither has She changed over time nor for the convenience of the times nor in essence from place to place.

The merely historical and geographical argument, suspended merely in time and space, is further refuted by the Magnificat, whose utterance is suspended in God’s Omnipresent Eternal Ubiquity. The Prophesies of the Magnificat are made in a certain now of time, and a certain here of space, before the institution and ratification of the Sacraments; yet, the Sacraments are clearly understood and embraced and delineated by Her therein in the full flower of their character or Spirit. So too, the Prophesies of the Magnificat are made in that certain now of time, and here of space, some thirty-three years before the descent of the Holy Spirit, on that first Pentecost, and the distribution of His Gifts, inaugurating the newly nascent and barely natant Church; yet, His Gifts to us through Her are clearly understood and embraced and delineated by Her therein in the full flower of their character or Spirit. Therefore, inasmuch as the prophetic words of the Magnificat are inspired in Mary Immaculate by the Eternal Word, from the Everpresent Here and Now of His Ubiquity and His Eternity, and His Omnipresence, and uttered in accord with Him by Her, they bespeak, and we must therefore accede to, the Eternal Immutable and Most Necessary character of the Seven Gifts, and especially of the Seven Sacraments, that here and now, and in this present work, we would uphold and defend, and in Her and for love of Her, champion.

Indeed, the prophecy contained in the Magnificat is made from the most cardinal of all positions; for it is uttered not in the past of the old testament nor in the fulfilling future of the new covenant, the Light having yet to be born to light, but as a testimony and as a promise of that new testament yet to unfold. At the moment of the Great Visitation, in the Magnificat, She is not prophesying the coming of the Messiah, who already reposes in Her treasury as the Greatest Treasure. She does not prophesy of His coming, as had other prophets before Her, but rather to what end and to what specific purpose He had already come. In the Great Prophecy of the Magnificat, She would speak to us for Him, telling us specifically of what He will do in order to bring about our sanctification and salvation through the institution and ratification of the Sacramental System, telling us specifically of those prudent, economical and efficient means that He would institute and ratify in order to bring about the ends of justice. Indeed in that moment She truly understands the hypostatic union achieved within Her, understanding all by Divine Light, even as She stands between the old covenant and the new. For Her faith is perfected by understanding perfected by Vision. In that Light, and from that vantage point, standing between the old and the new, She tells us of how He will knit the two, fulfilling the former with the latter. Indeed, the Magnificat is uttered, as are all prophecies, in the Everpresent Now of God’s Immutable and Most Necessary Eternity.[14]

Indeed, the Eternal and Immutable and Most Necessary Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, Three distinct Persons in One God, are Themselves Eternally and mutually immersed in One Another, without blurring, blending or admixture. Indeed, are They Eternally, Immutably, and most Necessarily Lovingly ordered to One Another. Truly are They forever happily reconciled Each One with the Others, in an eternal concilium or assembly of the most intimate propinquity. So too is Each forever anointed and crowned by the Knowing-Loving of the Others. Forever are They confirmed and fortified in One Another, and Eternally United in mutual intentional union, hence in communion, each One with the Others as One.

Furthermore, truly can it be said of the eviternal good and holy Angels,[15] from the very first moment of their loving inception in the Mind of that same Triune Godhead, that immediately they understood and lovingly, hence wisely and necessarily and immutably, did they choose to be immersed in Him, as Is He in them, lest they cease to love, cease to know, cease to be. So too, from the very first, did the holy Angels choose to be ordered immediately to Him, thence to man in His Light; for they are that “light,” that from the very first, He had ordained for them “to be” in Him: “Let there be light.” Indeed, from the very first did the holy Angels forever choose to be reconciled with His Holy, Eternal, Immutable, and Most Necessary Will of Love for us, especially in the Light of the proposed Incarnation in and of the Immaculate Conception. Upon this choice were they thenceforth and forever anointed for the Kingdom of Heaven by Him, anointed in their knowing and in their loving in Him of Him and by Him. Upon this choice were they confirmed by Him and secured in Him, in His Heavenly Kingdom forever, in mutual intentional union and communion with Him, and with all else in Him.[16]

Truly, from the very first moment of Her Immaculate Conception, in the Mind of God, and in the womb of Her mother St. Anne, do we find Our Lady, Mary Immaculate, possessed of all grace and reason,[17] living as the most Immaculate Concept or the Purest Idea of Love that the Triune Godhead can produce in a human creature; for truly do we find Her from that moment onward and forever perfectly immersed in, ordered to, reconciled with, anointed and crowned by, confirmed in, and in a loving mutual intentional union and most holy communion with the Divinity and all else in Him.

Through the Sacramental System, through the Seven Sacraments, we too are invited to a similar perfection of grace, gift, merit, and virtue in Her, who is their active repository and dispenser. All Grace, the Greatest Gift, the Highest Merit, and the Most Heroic Virtue reposes in Her and comes to us through Her because it is in Her, among mere creatures, that All Perfection prefers to dwell: first, in Her Immaculate Conception, inasmuch as the Great Cause, from that instant, mutually indwells with His most witting and willing of mere effects, who is at once forever aware of Him and in love with Him; secondly, in the Incarnation in and of Her, at the moment of the Great Annunciation; and lastly, thence and whence and forever is She, among mere creatures, the most frequented City of God.[18]

Furthermore, in order that we might begin to understand the singular virtues of this City of God, that we might begin to intend Her properly, that we might begin to emulate Her, engaging in the practice of those virtues that distinguish Her, and that distinguish a true devotion to Her, it is among the purposes of this work to dispel what appears to be a prevalent notion among many erroneous thinkers that Mary Immaculate was merely a passive instrument of God, and merely in passive potency to being acted upon. Therefore, it is the purpose of this work to dispel the notion that Mary Immaculate, was merely, at first, at the moment of Her Immaculate Conception, a genetically informed, but otherwise uninformed, single-celled mote of protoplasm. It is the purpose of this work to dispel the notion that Mary Immaculate, except for Her most Holy Pregnancy, was otherwise a merely uninformed and naive fourteen year old girl at the moment of the Incarnation. It is the purpose of this work to dispel the notion that Mary Immaculate, except for that which on Calvary assailed Her senses, was otherwise a merely uninformed and highly emotional middle-aged mother at the Foot of the Cross. It is the purpose of this work to dispel those erroneous notions whose proponents suggest that Mary Immaculate was merely a conduit for the Hypostatic Mystery and not essential to It, that She was at best merely marginally cognizant of Her Mission, of Her role in the plan of salvation, that She did not so much act, and that She was in the main merely acted upon.

To begin to dispel such notions, we must allow that where the act of cognition precedes and necessitates the act of volition, that there obtains, for composed being, between knowing and loving a relationship similar to that of cause and effect. Therefore, inasmuch as the Love of Mary Immaculate is the purest and the greatest, then it follows that Her Knowing, Her Science, is the greatest of all among mere creatures. She could not be the Queen of the Angels did She not exceed them in what they, by their natures, are otherwise said to do best, among mere creatures. The good angels, as natural, but purely spiritual beings, engage in operations that are especially if not exclusively spiritual; good angels mostly know and love. If She is to be their Queen, and the Queen of all, She must know most and love best of all. She must know more than each and more than their sum; for truly is Her Love greater than each and greater than the sum. She was and is and shall ever be their Queen and ours, from the first moment of Her Immaculate Conception, in the womb of Saint Anne, where, as Saint Louis de Montfort tells us: “She was possessed of grace and reason.” Ergo, inasmuch as Her Great Loving distinguishes Her Immaculate Conception, it presupposes Her Great Science. Truly, from the very first, She knows why and how it is that She is what She is. Indeed, had She at any time from the first moment of Her Immaculate Conception been unaware of Her mission, She not only could not have been in Love, but She would have had no mission.

In the light of this Great Science, it is the purpose of this work, this Marian devotion, to guide the reader toward a proper intention of Our Blessed Lady, Mary Immaculate, and hence toward a proper intention of Her Graces, Gifts, and Meritorious Virtues. Indeed, it is most important that we come to intend Her properly because She is at once our Mother[19] and our greatest Daughter, our Queen and our Little Princess. Indeed, She is even our Spirit Spouse, when we are especially good; for She is the one, in Her All Holy Humanity, to whom we are most espoused whenever we are best engaged in our most nearly worthy knowing and informed loving and doing, whenever we emulate Her virtues, having properly intended the Graces, Gifts and Merits of which She is witting and willing repository and dispenser.

In order that we might intend Mary Immaculate wittingly and lovingly and devoutly we must understand that from the very first moment of Her Immaculate Conception, as in Her Most Holy Pregnancy, from the very first moment of the Incarnation in and of Her, thence forever, She contains, and is contained by, She is aware of, and in love with, all of the Perfection alluded to in The Magnificat. For She, the greatest effect, among mere creatures, is from the very first keenly aware and profoundly in love with Her Great Cause. Indeed, later on, at the moment of the Great Visitation, and out of loving gratitude, is She prompted to utter the Prophecy of the Magnificat in chorus and in accord with the thoughts of Her Divine Son reclining yet within the Thalamus of Her Virginal Womb.[20] Indeed, the Person of the Word enters and stays in Hypostatic union in and of Her only upon Her understanding and upon Her loving fiat, ever in accord with His Will of Love.

In the Magnificat, Our Lord speaks with Her and through Her to us of Her, of Himself in and of Her, of what He has done in Her, and of what He would do in us.

Indeed, in the Magnificat we find revealed the mysteries of the Seven Sacraments. So too, are we given to know of the Graces of the Father that Create Her, of the Gifts of the Spirit that Sanctify Her, of the Merits of the Son that Save Her, and of the Meritorious Virtues that She practices from the very first moment of Her Immaculate Conception in the Mind of God and in the womb of Her mother St. Anne.

Hence, that our devotion to Her be complete, as we rightly intend Her are we rightly to intend the Graces of the Father, the Gifts of the Spirit, and the Merits of the Son, of which She is active repository and dispenser, that we might better emulate Her in the practice of Her Meritorious Virtues. Indeed, our faith or belief in Her, and our devotion to Her, is perfected, fulfilled, completed, and finished by our understanding of Her when we begin happily to glean and generously to live the significance of the Magnificat uttered by Her in chorus with Her Divine Son at the moment of the Great Visitation.

St. Louis Marie de Montfort, in his 18th century work, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, wrote of many exterior and interior practices that indeed mark and favor true devotion to Mary Immaculate. The eight interior practices referred to by Montfort in the first chapter of the second part of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, apply especially well to the purpose of this work. These interior practices are enumerated by Montfort as follows:

. . . (1) To honour her as the worthy Mother of God with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say to esteem her and honour her above all the other Saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man; (2) to meditate her virtues, her privileges, and her actions; (3) to contemplate her grandeurs; (4) to make to her acts of love, of praise, of gratitude; (5) to invoke her cordially; (6) to offer ourselves to her, and unite ourselves with her; (7) to do all our actions with the view of pleasing her; (8) to begin, to continue, and to finish all our actions by her, in her, and with her, in order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ with Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, our Last End. . . .

Indeed, it is the purpose of this work on The Magnificat to engage the writer of this work and the reader of this work in each and all of these most necessary interior practices.

Among the exterior practices, of which Montfort lists twelve, in the first chapter of the second part of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the third, sixth, and eighth exterior practices, as they apply especially to this present work on The Magnificat, are therein stated as follows:

. . .(3) to publish her praises; . . . (6) to recite with attention, devotion, and modesty the holy Rosary, . . . or. . . the Magnificat . . . (8) to make her a number of genuflections or reverences, while saying, for example, every morning, sixty or a hundred times Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis, to obtain from God the grace by her to be faithful to the graces of God during the day; and then again in the evening, Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae to ask pardon of God by her for the sins that we have committed during the day; . . .

Indeed, it is the purpose of this work on The Magnificat to engage the writer of this work and the reader of this work in each of these most valuable exterior practices.

It is hoped that as we attain to such interior and exterior practices of devotion that we might in some small way begin: “To honor the gratitude of the Blessed Virgin toward God in the Magnificat.”[21]

Combining the third exterior practice, and the sixth exterior practice relative to devout recitation of the Magnificat, it is the purpose of this work, to publish the praises of Mary Immaculate, offering Her hundreds of reverences, in the context of Her prophetic canticle, thereby magnifying the one, among mere creatures, that most magnifies the Lord, that most manifests Him as Almighty. Praise of Her,[22] the greatest work, the masterpiece of God’s Hand among mere creatures, cannot be locked up forever in one’s heart, albeit infinitely ample, as are all human hearts that long for Infinite Goodness. Indeed, this praise must be passed from the writer’s heart to his hands, to his reader’s eyes, thence to their hearts and hands and lips, as through their works and words Her praiseworthy virtues are magnified and manifest to others.

All of these worthy aspirations shall most expeditiously obtain and be attained to, by both writer and reader alike, as surely as we do not fail to avail ourselves of that element of the sixth exterior practice which recommends the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary. Indeed, as we meditate upon the mysteries of the Holy Rosary: the joyful and the sorrowful and the glorious mysteries, of life and of death and of rising again, each of our interior practices shall, with greatest facility, come to bear fruit in our exterior practices, in our words and in our works, as in them we magnify God and manifest Him to one another.[23]

With regard to the eighth exterior practice it is useful to note that each chapter is divided into three parts. The first part of each chapter serves as an introductory overview of varying lengths. The second part of each chapter entitled: “Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis,” “Hail Mary, Faithful Virgin,” provides us with an opportunity to review and to reverence a number of Our Lady’s meritorious virtues. This second part of each chapter makes certain statements and poses a series of questions, presented as if statements, without question marks, for each enjoys the same answer; for as often as we might inquire into the matter regarding who, among mere creatures, best does justice to the Graces, Gifts, and Merits with which God has favored Her, anyone who is honest must forever reply: “Maria, Virgo Fidelis.” As surely as we honestly respond to these statement-like questions relative to Her and utter Her name, we have called upon Her. As surely as we have called upon Her, and as surely as we watch for Her at dawn,[24] She comes to us. Indeed as we think of Her who ever thinks of our sanctification and salvation, there She is, present to us, especially if we invoke Her cordially. As surely as She is present to us must we salute Her with the angelic salutation: “Ave Maria.” Then must we add in all honesty, and in the light of the just perspective of a true humility, “Virgo Fidelis.”

The third part of each chapter, serving as an examination of conscience, is entitled: “Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae,” “Hail Mary, Mother of Mercy.” Again, this third part of each chapter makes certain statements and poses a series of statement-like questions, again, each with the same answer; for more often than not whenever we might inquire into the matter regarding whether or not we, among mere creatures, have done our best to do justice to the Graces, Gifts, and Merits with which God has favored us through our Blessed Mother, we are, more often than not, moved in all honesty to implore of Her mercifully to intercede for us, as we recall Her: “Maria, Mater Misericordiae.” Yet, as surely as we recall Her mercies, and ask of our Blessed Mother mercifully to intercede for us, She comes to us, and is ever with us, when for Her sake we keep vigil.[25] Indeed, as we think of Her who ever thinks of our sanctification and salvation, there She is, present to us, especially if we invoke Her cordially. As surely as She is present to us must we again salute Her with the angelic salutation: “Ave Maria.” Thereupon in all honesty, and in the light of that just perspective of a true humility, an actual grace from Her, that clarifies for us just how, in any given instance, we have failed to respond to God’s Grace through Her, how we have oftentimes rejected His Gifts from Her, and how we have often failed to take proper advantage of His Infinite Merits, first applied to Her, it becomes incumbent upon us to add: “Mater Misericordiae.”

In this work on The Magnificat, the reader shall engage with the writer in an eight day odyssey, and pilgrimage, and quest. Our immanent movement shall be akin to an odyssey because ultimately we shall end our week where we began it; we shall begin our week with Christ on one Sunday, live in His Light during the week, ever emulating His virtues and those of Our Lady Mary Immaculate, and return to Him on the next Sunday, from our Alpha Beginning toward our Omega End or Purpose in life. Our immanent movement shall also be akin to a pilgrimage because we shall, day by day, endeavor to come closer and closer to Christ until once again we come to Him in the Eucharist on the following Sunday, hopefully, more nearly worthily.[26] In yet another sense, our pilgrimage will not so much be to the holy land as to become the holy land and holy city wherein God dwells and gladly reposes in the heart of each on that Seventh Day, upon our our more nearly worthy reception of Him in the Eucharist. So too, our immanent movement shall be akin to a quest, not so much for the Holy Grail but that we might truly become the Holy Grail, upon our our more nearly worthy reception of Him in the Eucharist, as throughout the week we shall have prepared ourselves to be more nearly worthy vassals and vessels of the Blessed Sacrament.

We shall begin as one on a Sunday morning, as one “who watches for Her at dawn.”[27] We shall begin with chapter one of this work entitled: “Eucharist, Love, and Wisdom.” After reading the introduction, we shall carefully consider the content of the second part of chapter one subtitled: “Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis” relative to the Eucharist, Love, and Wisdom. We shall consider the Blessed Sacrament relative to Mary Immaculate and consider Her stellar virtues as we examine this section, and propose to live those virtues, from moment to moment, during the course of that day, that we might more nearly worthily approach the Eucharist. As often as one of Her virtues is delineated, we reverence Her. Immediately, shall we praise God in Her saying: “Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis.” We shall attend Mass on Sunday. If we are in the state of grace, we shall receive Communion, if not, and confession is not immediately available to us, we shall make a spiritual Communion. We shall praise God and thank Him for His Eternal Sacraments in the Incarnation in and of the Immaculate Conception. We shall tell Him how we long to receive Him worthily in the Eucharist. After Communion we shall devoutly recite the Magnificat. If ours was a spiritual Communion, we must include the devout recitation of the Magnificat and ask Him to give us the grace through Mary Immaculate to reconcile with Him promptly through the Sacrament of Penance.

Later that same Sunday, perhaps in the evening, we shall reunite as one. As one “who for Her sake keeps vigil,”[28] we shall make an examination of conscience by considering the content of the third part of chapter one subtitled: “Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae”. We shall humbly ask ourselves if we have managed to emulate the virtues of Mary Immaculate during the course of the day. If we have failed to do so, relative to any given point, we must prevail upon Her to intercede for us ever praying: “Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae.” Indeed, we may find ourselves more in need of Her intercession than we might have thought at the onset of the day, even though we began our day with the strongest of resolutions to live those virtues.

We shall consider Monday to be the First Day of our conversion, the dawn of a new creation in each of us. We shall begin on Monday morning with chapter two of this work entitled: “Baptism, Hope, and Fear.” Again, after reading the introduction, we shall carefully consider the content of the second part of chapter two subtitled: “Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis.” We shall ponder the Sacrament of Baptism relative to Mary Immaculate, the mutual immersion of God and man in Her, and consider Her heroic virtues as we examine this section. Thereupon, we shall propose to live those virtues, from moment to moment, during the course of that day, that we might more nearly worthily approach the Eucharist on the following Sunday, the Eternal Seventh Day. Again, as often as one of Her virtues is delineated, we reverence Her. Immediately, shall we praise God in Her saying: “Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis.”

Monday evening, the evening of the First Day, we shall again make an examination of conscience by considering the content of the third part of chapter two subtitled: “Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae.” We shall ask ourselves if we have managed to emulate these virtues of Mary Immaculate during the course of the day. If we have failed to do so, relative to any given point, we must prevail upon Her to intercede for us praying: “Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae.” Once again, we may find ourselves more in need of Her intercession than we might have thought at the onset of our day, even though we began our day with the strongest of resolutions to live those virtues.

In the morning and evening of each of the remaining days of the week, Tuesday through Saturday, the Second through the Sixth Days, we shall take a similar approach as we carefully consider in turn the content of each chapter given by those days. Throughout the remaining days of the week we shall ever endeavor to emulate the virtues of Our Lady Mary Immaculate. We shall ever solicit Her grace and Her powerful intercession, ever singing the praise of Christ Jesus in and of Her. It is hoped that when at last we return to the Seventh Day, on the eighth day of our odyssey, pilgrimage, and quest, that the dawning of that Eternal Seventh Day will find us better prepared for the proper reception, possession, contemplation, and love of the Eucharist.

Believing and cleaving to everything and denying nothing that the Holy Catholic Church teaches relative to strict adherence to the matter and form of the Sacraments, we are prepared properly to receive Christ in the Eucharist, only if we engage the Spirit of each of the Seven Sacraments, from moment to moment, throughout any given day, according to our state in life. Indeed, whether we are married or single, the Spirit of the Sacraments both of Holy Orders and of Matrimony should play a part in our every waking moment, as surely as we are ordered from Baptism to the only One that Is Holy, and as surely as we are so ordered in the Matrimony or Motherhood of Mary Immaculate. Truly, whether or not we deem ourselves physically ill or moribund, we must come to live, from moment to moment the Spirit of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick; for as surely as we ever truly prefer a finite delimiting truth or good to the Infinite, Unlimited, or Boundless Truth and Good, the Truth and Good that would set us free to do whatever is truly good,[29] we are indeed sick and in need of healing.


Mary Immaculate, the Greatest of Mere Creatures

Indeed, God has told us how to love Him in Christ. He has told us to love both God and man in Christ; indeed, Christ has said: “Whatever you do to the least of these you do to Me.” Hence, if we are to love properly their Common Creator Cause, then we must love not only that Great Cause, but we must also learn properly to love even the least of those mere effects and mere creatures suspended in that Cause. We must love Him in Himself above all else, but we must love Him also in His most cherished and beloved creatures, His intelligent effects,[30] including, among them, even the least of these, His called and chosen ones,[31] that are His rational effects.[32] It is the purpose of this work to represent the All Holy Humanity of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, as the most exalted of His effects, among mere creatures. For She is, among mere effects or mere creatures, not the “least of these” but the greatest of these; for She is the most witting and loving Vessel of the graces of each of the Seven Sacraments, as surely as She comprehends and embraces the Seven Angels at the Throne of God, who contain them. For is She not infinitely greater than the sum of the Seven Churches of Asia? For She is, among mere creatures, the most exalted Vessel of each of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, as surely as She comprehends and embraces each of the seven meritorious virtues that they perfect. For are not those virtues found by the Divinity to be perfect in Her All Holy Humanity? For does She not, among mere creatures, knowingly comprehend and lovingly embrace, together with these great gifts and graces, the greatest grace of the greatest of sorrows and sufferings? Indeed, it is this very loving suffering, accepted by Her wittingly and willingly, that renders Her paramount even to the highest of the Seraphim, establishing Her as Our Lady, Queen of the Angels.

The Nature of the Humanity of Mary Immaculate

What is the nature of this His greatest Work, the Masterpiece of His Hand, ad extra, among mere creatures? For only God, among all beings, Is Supernatural; only He, among all beings, does not have a nature and an existence. Among all beings, it Is only He Who Is, only Yahweh, Whose Nature or Essence Is Existence, His, and that of all else that is. It is however, the purpose of this work to draw attention to the fact that She, from the very first moment of Her Immaculate Conception, as His Purest Concept or Idea of Love ad extra, is immersed in God, copenetrated with His Supernature, and thereby divinized. Each intelligent and loving mere creature is invited by God to be so divinized, through His Infinite Power, by the copenetration and elevation of their natures by His Supernature. It is not the purpose of this work to refer to Her human nature in the negative or pejorative sense in which the phrase ‘human nature’ is most often ill-applied. Often the phrase ‘human nature’ is misused in an attempt to excuse inappropriate human behaviors or, as in the case of Mary Immaculate, in order erroneously to attribute some weakness to Her, casting thereby aspersions upon Her, in an attempt to derogate or to detract from so Immaculate a Concept. Indeed there are many these days who are far too eager to do so, as if God could not work prodigious wonders within the poetic constraints of human nature. Indeed, the All Holy Humanity of Mary Immaculate is supernatural only as any mere creature is supernatural, upon immersion in God. However, it is precisely this aspect of Her human nature, divinized and elevated infinitely by God’s Supernature, that should most interest the rest of us who share that human nature with Her. Truly, we are all invited, to engage fully the Seven Sacraments, that each of us might be as She, in our mere human natures: immersed in, ordered to, reconciled with, anointed for, confirmed in, espoused to, and in communion with God and man, in Christ Jesus, in Mary Immaculate.

There is one great distinction that obtains between the All Holy Humanity of Mary Immaculate and that of all other mere creatures; for Mary Immaculate, is perfectly immersed, ordered, reconciled, anointed, confirmed, espoused, and in communion from the very first moment of Her Immaculate Conception by the Power of God, Who so informed Her human intellect as to enkindle in Her willing heart a conflagration of ineffable unconditional love. Yet was She destined for unutterable suffering. For although She cannot and will not sin, She can and does suffer.

But shall we dismiss this greatest of all effects among mere creatures, merely because She is merely an effect and merely a creature? Can we afford to ignore the greatest mere effect that the Great Cause can produce in a mere creature? Would it not be to deny His very efficacy in our very lives; for are we not mere creatures? Should we not hope that He might do in us what He has done under the appearances of inanimate bread, and what He has done in the soul or anima [33] of that mere creature who best, among mere creatures, magnifies Him and manifests His Greatness? Would we be doing true science, were we to accept the Cause yet reject the greatest effect that He can create among mere creatures? Is it not manifestly clear that if we reject the greatest Work, of which He Who Is Almighty Is capable, ad extra, among mere creatures, that we reject Him? Can I tell Him that I love Him, but that I despise His works?

Among Mere Creatures, the Hope of Humanity

Sharing with Her a common human nature, as mere creatures, it is our hope, for love of God, that we might be as She. Embracing Christ, the incomprehensible, in His Humanity and in His Divinity, She is at one and the same instant, the earthly paradise, and the tree of Life, Who bears Him as the Greatest Fruition of Love. Properly prepared to receive Him in the Eucharist, as She receives Him in the Incarnation, prepared as She is, as the Immaculate Concept or the Purest Idea of Love ad extra, we too might be as She for love of God. We might be as She who is, among mere creatures, the Holy Grail, the promised Holy Land, the Arc of the Covenant, and the Masterpiece of His Hand.

And yet, the expression, “mere creature” merits some explanation.[34] The “colors” of our Lady, Mary Immaculate, are blue and white. They are the colors of the standard of David, that family line whose tree ultimately bore Her and our Lord, Jesus Christ, as its finest Fruit. Yet the blue and white sky that embraces and transcends the world is at once a composite of mere creatures and a symbol of that mere creature who not only comprehends and embraces the world of all mere creatures but also transcends it. In one sense, the word “Mary,” means “bitter,” and the word “Mare” reminds us of the blue ocean of bitter salty tears that She sheds to save us, even as it reminds us of the depth and the breadth of Her great sorrow for our state, and of the profundity and compass of Her science, reflecting and reflected by that sky of Her boundless Love for us, dispersing the Light and Warmth of the Son. Truly, by day we have the sun, also a mere creature, a created thing, to remind us of Her brilliance and Her warmth that banishes cold ig`norance or lukewarm indifference, and the darkness of mitigating `ignorance; daily do we have the reminder of how She dies with Christ and rises with Him. By night we have the moon, yet another mere creature, a created thing, to remind us of how She in Christ has, with Him, and by His Merits, conquered the darkness of sin and its horrible consequences. If we need yet more to remind us indefinitely, if not infinitely, of Her, we have all of the stars, of all of the galaxies, and of all of the universes, if indeed there be more than one, mere creatures, one and all, merely created things, that, as it were, crown Her Queen of All the Universes that turn toward One, in the Corona Radiata of the heavens.

For She is fairer than the sun
and surpasses every constellation of the stars.
Compared to light, She takes precedence;
for that, indeed, night supplants,
but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.[35]

Truly, Mary Immaculate, is full of Grace; indeed, were we to posit Her, for the sake of spurious comparison, alongside, as it were, of the rest of creation below Her, taken as a whole, then all mere creatures great and small, all of the universes, if indeed there be more than one, with their uncounted, perhaps countless, galaxies, stars, planets and moons, all of humanity, save that of the Word Made Flesh, throughout the ages, from generation unto generations, all of the patriarchs and prophets of the old testament and all of the saints, martyrs and virgins, of the new testament, indeed, and easily so, all of the glorious angels, ordered and serried as they are hierarchically in ageless eviternity, and unimaginably indefinite, if not infinite, variety and number, all of the mighty and powerful, loving and brilliant seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers, virtues, archangels, and angels, worthy as they are of our greatest respect and love, for the wonderful and glorious things that God has wrought in them, as for their participation in His Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, all, just as certainly collectively as singly, are as naught and negligible when compared to that one mere creature of all mere creatures who best responds to what God has done in Her. Compared to Mary Immaculate’s knowing and loving response, to God's Gifts, Graces, and Merits, all other mere creatures, taken collectively, pale by comparison under the pall of relative insignificance. Simply, if God had created naught but Christ in His Humanity, ever One in Hypostasis with the Divine and Increate Word, and one mere creature, and were that mere creature Mary Immaculate, then were His Creative Act complete forever.




Therefore, for All that Is True and Good in Her:

For Zion's sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
Until Her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and Her victory like a burning torch.[36]

Forevermore, O Blessed Virgin, Mary Immaculate:

Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
You shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.

You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord,
a royal diadem held by your God.

No more shall men call you "Forsaken,"
or your land "Desolate,"
But you shall be called "My Delight,"
and your land "Espoused."
For the Lord delights in you,
and makes your land his spouse.

As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.[37]

WISDOM

7:7 Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the Spirit of Wisdom came to me.

7:8 I preferred Her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with Her,

7:9 nor did I liken any priceless gem to Her;
because all gold, in view of Her, is a little sand,
and before Her, silver is to be accounted mire.

7:10 Beyond health and comeliness I loved Her,
and I chose to have Her rather than the light,
because the splendor of Her never yields to sleep.[38]

7:11 Yet all good things together came to me in Her company,
and countless riches at Her hands;

7:12 and I rejoiced in them all, because Wisdom is their leader,
though I had not known that She is the Mother of these.[39]

7:13 Simply I learned about Her, and ungrudgingly do I share--
Her riches I do not hide away;

7:14 for to men She is an unfailing Treasure;
those who gain this Treasure win the friendship of God,
to Whom the Gifts they have from discipline[40] commend them.







WISDOM

6:22

Now what Wisdom is, and how She came to be

I shall relate; and I shall hide no secrets from you,

But from the very beginning I shall search out and

bring to light knowledge of Her, nor shall I diverge

from the Truth.[41]




[1]St. Louis Marie de Montfort, How to Say Your Rosary with St. Louis de Montfort (hereafter referred to as “Montfort Rosary”), “The Assumption,” Meditation 2: “To honor Her Immaculate Conception and the fullness of grace and reason in the womb of her mother St. Anne,” and “The Assumption,” Meditation 3: “To honor her nativity which has gladdened the world,” Meditation 4: “To honor her admirable life exempt from all sin.” and Meditation 5: “To honor her singular virtues.” (Bay Shore, New York: Montfort Publications, n.d.), p.33.
[2]Luke 1: 46-55, The Canticle of Mary. Cf. 1Samuel 2:1-10, The Canticle of Hannah. Cf. Luke 1: 67-79, The Canticle of Zechariah.
[3]Montfort Rosary, “The Visitation,” Meditation 8: “To honor the `gratitude of the Blessed Virgin toward God in the ‘Magnificat’.”
[4]Ibid. “The Descent of the Holy Ghost,” Meditation 5: “To honor the plenitude of graces with which He privileged Mary, His faithful Spouse.”
[5]Ibid. “The Assumption,” Meditation 6: “To honor the plenitude of her singular virtues.”
[6]Ibid. “The Descent of the Holy Ghost,” Meditation 8: “To honor the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.”
[7]Ibid. “The Crucifixion,” Meditation 6: “To honor His seven last words.”
[8]Ibid. “The Annunciation,” Meditation 10: “To honor the adoration by the Angels of the Word Incarnate in the womb of Mary.”
[9]Please see the Appendix: “Table: The Seven Sevens.”
[10] Omnipresence: present to all things
[11] Ubiquitous: present in all places
[12]Cf. 1 Kings 7:9, Matthew 13:35, Matthew 25:34, and Revelation 13:8.
[13] Indeed, without the Incarnation there could be no Immaculate Conception. Likewise, without the Immaculate Conception there could be no Incarnation. Therefore, we must view these Realities not so much in terms of the then of time or the there of space but in terms of the Everpresent Here and Now of The Great Reality.

[14]Venerable Maria de Agreda, City of God, trans. Fiscar Marison (Rev. G. J. Blatter), Vol. III: The Transfixion (4 vols.); Washington, New Jersey: Ave Marie Institute, AMI Press, 1971, reprinted 1990, p. 72-73:- “She was acquainted also with the Sacraments, which Her divine Son was to establish in the Church; their efficacy, the results in those that receive them, varying according to the different dispositions of the recipients, and all their strength flowing from the sanctity and merits of Her most holy Son, our Redeemer. She was also furnished with a clear understanding of all the doctrines which He was to preach and teach; of the new and old Testament, and of all mysteries hidden under its four different ways of interpreting them, the literal, moral, allegoric, and anagogic; and all that the interpreters of the Scriptures were to write in explanation. But Her understanding of all these was much more extensive and profound than theirs. She was aware that all this knowledge was given to Her in order that She might be the Teacher of the whole Church; for this was Her office in the absence of Her most holy Son, after His Ascension into heaven.”
[15]Indeed, the Sacraments play to the animal and to the angelic in our human nature. As outward signs they provide our animal operations with the necessary sensible images. As inward grace they provide our angelic operations with the necessary suprasensible support and ideas, to perfect our knowing and our loving.
[16]Montfort Rosary, “The Annunciation,” Meditation 6: “To honor the mission and the salutation of the Angel Gabriel” and “The Annunciation,” Meditation 10: “To honor the adoration by the Angels of the Word Incarnate in the womb of Mary,” and “The Nativity,” Meditation 5: “To honor the adoration and the canticles of the Angels at the birth of Jesus Christ,” and “The Agony in the Garden,” Meditation 6: “To honor the consolation” that “He,” the Word Incarnate, “greatly desired from an Angel.”
[17]Ibid. “The Assumption,” Meditation 2: “To honor Her Immaculate Conception and the fullness of grace and reason in the womb of Her mother St. Anne.”
Furthermore, is it not even said of St. John the Baptist in, Luke 1:15, that he was “. . . filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb.” Finally, St. John Eudes in his 17th century book, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, states that “. . . Bernadine and Albertus Magnus, together with Abbot Rupert, St. Bernard, and several others . . . assert that this admirable Virgin enjoyed the light of the Beatific Vision at least sometimes in Her life. If this be so, we may well believe, (and this is the sixth privilege [of: ‘The Twelve Marvelous Privileges Of The Immaculate Conception Of The Most Holy Mother Of God’]), that this favor [of the Beatific Vision] was accorded at the moment of Her Immaculate Conception. These holy Doctors assign as proof of this assertion, that . . . this grace was given to Moses, and to St. Paul, when he was ravished to the third heaven.” Indeed, the Queen could not be “less favored than Her subjects.” St. John Eudes, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2003, p. 74.
[18]Isaiah 62:12:- “. . . you shall be called ‘Frequented,’ a city that is not forsaken.”
[19] Montfort Rosary, “The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin,” Meditation 8: “To honor her as the Mother and support of Christians.” and Meditation 9: “To honor her as the joy and sweetness of the just.”
[20]In the Old Testament, it was an imperfect motive that prompted Hannah to sound her canticle of victory over her enemies, whereas It Is the Perfect Motive, It Is The Prime Mover, The First Mover, that Moves Mary Immaculate to sing His praises in the Magnificat. This is so as surely as the New Testament, in Jesus Christ Living in Mary Immaculate, has come to Perfect the Old. Cf. 1 Samuel 1 and 1 Samuel 2: 1-10.
[21]Montfort Rosary, “The Visitation,” Meditation 8: “To Honor the gratitude of the Blessed Virgin toward God in the Magnificat.”
[22]It is not so much that I capitalize the effect that is She, but the Great Cause of Her--forever One with Her, identified with Her, and therefore inseparable from Her.
[23]To this end one must strongly recommend the invaluable 36 page booklet entitled: How to Say Your Rosary with St. Louis de Montfort, often cited herein as “Montfort Rosary.”
[24]Wisdom 6:14
[25]Wisdom 6:16
[26]The phrase “more nearly worthily” is given here to mean “in the state of sanctifying grace”, i.e., without any stain of mortal sin on the soul, even though we yet may be striving against the force of our bad habits, and struggling with our venial faults. Who, among us, save our Blessed Mother, in this life as pilgrim, is perfectly worthy to receive the Most High God under his roof, into his being? Nevertheless, while we work on our venial and other lesser faults and bad habits we must come to Him in the confidence that He Will forever receive and assist with His Grace that Israel who, with firm purpose of amendment, genuinely struggles to attain to His High Standard of Love.
[27]Wisdom 6:14
[28]Wisdom 6:16
[29]John 8:32
[30]The intelligent effects include the angels and man.
[31]For He chose to unite Himself in Hypostatic union with men, who are ever in need of a Physician, and not with the good angelic pure forms who, from the first moment of their inception and choice, responded once and for all to graces applied to them in the Merits of Christ from all Eternity.
[32]Human beings are God’s rational effects. Angels do not need to reason; they simply know.
[33] Luke 1:46:- “Magnificat anima mea Dominum.” “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
[34]Wisdom 7:22-23:- “for Wisdom, the artificer of all, has taught me . . .” that “. . . in Her is a Spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure, and very subtle.”
[35]Wisdom 7:29-30
[36]Isaiah 62:1
[37]Isaiah 62:2-5
[38]Hence if I would choose Wisdom rather than the light, and Wisdom is not merely knowing but doing, for it consists in knowing God’s Will of Love and doing It, it would be wise, therefore, to love. For as it is well that I understand or know the immaculate concept or the pure idea of love, it is imperative that I do or live that love in the flesh, that I come to be, the incarnational image of that immaculate concept of love. It is imperative that I do all that I know.
Where Wisdom Is Love and Love Is Wisdom, neither can these sleep nor die eternally, as does the light in Lucifer, the son of the dawn, the morning star of Isaiah 14:12, who fell from the heavens and dies forever because he knew but did not do, because he was aware but not in love. Truly, love never dies. Faith dies with us and is replaced and perfected with Vision. Hope dies with us and is replaced and perfected as Possession of the longed for Object. However, the love of the wise never dies; for it is love both here and hereafter, though it comes to perfect Fruition upon the clearest Vision and the most secure Possession.
[39]Ecclesiasticus 24:24-31:-- “Wisdom sings Her own praises”: “I am the Mother of fair Love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the Way and of the Truth; in me is all hope of Life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. He that eats of me shall hunger still [for Her Son], he that drinks of me shall thirst for more [for Her Son]; he that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded, he that works by me, shall not sin, and he that explains me, shall have Life everlasting.”
[40]Discipline is another name for wisdom as love, wherewith one wisely loves even and especially under duress, even and especially regardless of one’s feelings or whatsoever may assail one’s senses. The good disciple, the true lover of Wisdom, the truly wise lover, regardless of circumstance or situation, is ever possessed of Wisdom: that as Knowledge comprehends every gift, and that as Love embraces every meritorious virtue.
[41]Wisdom 6:23-25 continues as follows: “Neither shall I admit consuming jealousy to my company, because that can have no fellowship with Wisdom. Indeed, a great number of wise men is the safety of the world, and a prudent king, the stability of his people; so take instruction from my words, to your profit.”
Cf. St. Louis Marie de Montfort, How to Say Your Rosary with St. Louis de Montfort, “The Descent of the Holy Ghost,” Meditation 9: “To ask for the gift of wisdom and the coming of His reign in the hearts of men.”