The Blessed Virgin Mary: Clement and Loving

Today, I am going back to The Glories of Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori. In the excerpt I am posting, the Marian saint speaks of the clemency of Mary and of her great charity. St. Alphonsus relates that:

….  to our Lady’s great compassion for sinners, St. Bernard calls her the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. And St. Leo tells us that, when he looks at her, he no longer sees God’s justice but only His mercy, for Mary is full of the mercy of God.

She is like a fair olive tree in the field (Sir 24: 14). Only oil (a symbol of mercy) is extracted from the olive; only grace and mercy flow from the hands of Mary…

And what safer refuge can we find than the compassionate heart of Mary? There the poor find a home, the sick a cure, the afflicted consolation, the doubtful counsel, and the abandoned help.

We would be poorly off indeed if we had no Mother of Mercy to attend to us all the time and relieve us in our needs. Where there is no woman, a person mourns who is in want (Sir. 36:27 —– Vulgate).

St. John Damascene comments: “This woman is no other than the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Wherever she is not, the sick person groans.”

It must be this way, since all graces are dispensed at Mary’s prayer. Where there is no prayer from Mary — there can be no hope of mercy, as our Lord gave St. Bridget to understand — “Unless the prayers of Mary interposed, there could be no hope of mercy.”

But perhaps you fear that Mary is not aware of our needs, or has no feeling for them. Ah no; she sees and feels them far better than we do ourselves.

There is not one among all the Saints who can ever feel for us in our miseries, of body and soul, like this woman, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary…

Indeed, Mary is more eager to grant us graces than we are to receive them. Therefore, no matter when we go to her, we find her hands filled with generous mercies.

When the Samaritans refused to receive Christ and His doctrines, St. James and St. John asked Him if they should command fire from Heaven to fall on them and consume them. But our Lord replied: “You know not of what spirit you are” (Lk 9:55 —– Vulgate).

Jesus as much as said: “I am so tender and merciful that I came from Heaven to save sinners, not chastise them, and you wish to see them lost. Fire indeed — and chastisement! Speak no more of chastisement, for that is not My spirit.”

So too in our Lady’s case: her spirit is the same as her Son’s, and we can never doubt but that she is all mercy. As she said to St. Bridget: “I am called the Mother of Mercy, and it was God’s mercy that made me so merciful.”  (Chapter Nine, The Glories of Mary)

That is beautiful.

May we never cease calling on Mary, trusting in her goodness; and keeping close to her Immaculate Heart, for as St. Alphonsus tells us: “And what safer refuge can we find than the compassionate heart of Mary? There the poor find a home, the sick a cure, the afflicted consolation, the doubtful counsel, and the abandoned help.”

May you have a good day.

~SCF

~Image: Our Lady of Divine Providence, information. Excerpt from the linked website: “… attention is called to a touching detail peculiar to Gaetano’s Madonna: the Child’s fingers confidingly clasping those of Its Mother. The Barnabites interpret this pose to be a symbol of the sacred source of the power of the Mother of God. The Child seems to say, ‘Mother dear, I place in thy hands the authority to act in My name. From My infinite treasure-house do thou provide good things to all who implore thy aid.’  Hence her title.”