The Ever-Innocent Maiden and Mother, Mary

~The following is a re-post (with additions and edits) from July of 2018 on the topic of the child Mary. It is often good to read about the eternal innocence of Our Lady as an antidote to the ever-present false teachings about her. ~SF

In the fall of 2017, a painting of the child Mary, and her saintly mother, Anne, were discovered by A. Therese in the town of Sorrento, Italy. A. Therese was walking down the street, and there they were. She took this (above) picture to commemorate the happy moment.

This posted painting leads one to think of the childhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to think of a girl, who, even as a grown woman, never left the innocence of her girlhood; indeed, who never lost the innocence of her immaculate conception.

She is the Immaculate Conception.

The Catholic novelist, Georges Bernanos (b. 1888- d. 1948), penned this fact in dialogue form in his novel  The Diary of a Country Priest. Specifically, Bernanos speaks it in the following, through the character of an old priest as he speaks to a young priest:

“The eyes of Our Lady are the only real child eyes that have ever been raised to our shame and sadness. Yes, lad, to pray to her properly, you have to feel those eyes of hers upon you. They are not the eyes of indulgence- for there is no indulgence without some kind of bitter experience. No, they are eyes of tender compassion, sorrowful surprise, and with something more in them, something inconceivable, inexpressible, something which makes her younger than sin, younger than the race from which she sprang, and though a mother, by grace Mother of All Graces, the youngest sister of the human race.”

Our Lady is the youngest sister of the human race, and raises her only real child eyes to us, in our shame and sadness. (paraphrase, Bernanos)

God, in His goodness, has given us this little maiden as our Mother, and we can take comfort in her maternal heart, in her Immaculate Heart; and, she is our little sister, though our Mother. This is why Catholic cultures have painted her in her childhood, in her innocent maidenhood: she remained an innocent (sinless) maiden her entire life, despite being a mother, despite advanced age.

This is very mysterious, and lovely.

It reminds me of this quote from G.K. Chesterton:

“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”

Indeed.

The Blessed Virgin Mary cannot be compared to any woman we have ever known.

He that is mighty did great things to her, and we call her blessed.*

May you have a good day in Our Lady’s month, May.

~SCF

*The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1, Our Lady speaks the Magnificat, information.

~Second image: the Coronation of Mary, picture source.