Today, the Roman Catholic Church honors the Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Franciscan saint, Padre Pio, had an image of Our Lady of Purity in his cell, and it has been documented that:
…his own mother gave him this picture. He said that, “The Blessed Mother is the Mother of all mothers,” and he referred to her affectionately as “my dear little Mother.” In one of his letters he wrote, “Poor dear mother, how she loves me! What great care she took to accompany me to the altar this morning. It seemed to me that she had nothing else to think about except myself, as she filled my whole heart with sentiments of holy love. I wish I had a voice strong enough to invite the sinners of the world to love Our Lady. But since this is not within my power, I have prayed and will pray to my dear Angel to perform this task for me.” (From The Housetops, p. 14)
“I wish I had a voice strong enough to invite the sinners of the world to love Our Lady.”
The following is a beautiful tribute to Our Lady, and her glorious purity, written by the Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D. in his book, Our Lady’s Feastdays:
1. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the Immaculate Conception. The closer a soul is to God, the farther it is from sin. God is infinite good; sin, horrible evil. No one could have had a closer approach to God than you, for it is impossible for any creature to be closer to God’s Son than His own Mother. From eternity, before anything was, you were united to your Son in the mind of God as His most pure Mother. When God decreed the incarnation of the Word, His very own Son, through you alone, you had a place in the same plan as Jesus. Since the conception of the Son of God is all holy, all pure, infinitely removed from every appearance of sin, it was supremely fitting that your conception should be equally far from sin. For that reason you were conceived by your mother, Saint Anne, without even the shadow of sin. You are the Virgin most pure.
Because you were to be the Mother of God, original sin, which like all Eve’s daughters you should have contracted, could not touch you. Such a stain would have reflected upon your Son, who is Holiness itself. Then Satan could boast that he had overcome Jesus in you, His Mother. You are pure and sinless. You expressed this to Saint Bernadette at Lourdes when you said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Mary, My Mother, there is no sin in you; in you there is only God’s grace—His light, His splendor, His love, His unspeakable delight. You are truly His beloved Daughter, the only one in whom there was never a stain. With you all is pure, virginal, immaculate In you there is no inclination to evil—no impure thoughts or desires. You are God’s purest and holiest creature, the one chosen to conceive and bear the Son of God. Who would not love you and endeavor to imitate you, most beautiful and immaculate Mother of God?
2. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are full of grace. You are the most beautiful of creatures, the one in whom there is no spot, God’s masterpiece. You are full of grace, the Lord’s free gift, and it overflows in you filling your soul with every virtue and perfection. What marvels of grace possessed your soul! Sanctifying grace made you God’s adopted child and the lawful heir to His eternal kingdom, putting you in possession of God’s goods and of God Himself forever. That grace made you holy and most pleasing in God’s eyes, the special object of His love. Sanctifying grace likened you to God as it did no other pure creature. Because you were full of God’s grace and a Virgin most pure, Gabriel could exclaim, “You have found grace with God.” No one has found or received such grace as you.
But who can describe the matchless purity and beauty of your soul? Jesus is the most beautiful of men; you were His mold, His mirror, and He, yours. Your soul contained all the marvels of God’s grace, for which reason the Church calls you the Singular Vessel of Devotion.
Mary, My Mother, you are all beautiful—beautiful in mind, in body, in soul! In you I behold the charm of the purest of virgins, the majesty of the noblest of mothers. You are beautiful at your presentation in the temple; in prayer before Gabriel as he awaited your answer, in Nazareth’s hidden life and later as you followed Jesus and listened to Wisdom speak. You were beautiful when you stood as the brave Queen of Martyrs beneath the cross of your dying Son; in the supper room beneath the fiery tongues of the Divine Spirit; beautiful, above all, in the glory in which you reign with Jesus. If a single soul in the state of grace by far excels in beauty all other earthly beauty, what beauty must you possess, Virgin most pure, who surpassed in holiness all other souls in the state of grace!
3. Mary, Mother of God, you are the Virgin most pure because you are the holiest of God’s creatures. You are the holiest of God’s creatures because you are the Mother of God. The Prophet tells us that God is “wonderful in His saints” (Ps. 67, 36). How wonderful, then, He must be in the Mother of the Saint of saints! In you, to an eminent degree, all the privileges of other saints meet. The Church venerates many holy virgins, martyrs and other saints, but no one of them has merited or obtained your title of Holy Virgin, Virgin most pure. Whatever of sanctity, of dignity, of merit, of grace and of glory, that we can imagine, all is in you.
Holiness is a complete separation from creatures and perfect union with God through love. No one ever belonged to Jesus as completely as you, for you are His Mother. Jesus belonged entirely to you, the holiest among women. Your womb was so pure, so immaculate that it became the Holy of Holies, in which Jesus Christ our Lord, the Eternal High Priest, alone found entrance.
Mary, My Mother, God raised you so high in Himself that He never has created and never will create a holier person more worthy of Himself, of His greatness, of His love, than you, O Virgin most pure. Having carried within you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, you share, as no one else does, in your divine Son’s holiness and purity. You come nearest to the holiness of God.
You are the holiest of women, the Virgin-Mother thrice holy, because you are holy of the Father, holy of the Son, holy of the Holy Spirit of Love. Hence with Holy Church I repeat, “You are all fair, Mary, and the stain of original sin is not in you. You are the Glory of Jerusalem; you are the Joy of Israel; you are the Honor of our people.”
“But who can describe the matchless purity and beauty of your soul? Jesus is the most beautiful of men; you were His mold, His mirror, and He, yours. Your soul contained all the marvels of God’s grace, for which reason the Church calls you the Singular Vessel of Devotion.”
Today, may we be molded by the Virgin, most pure, Mary, as St. Padre Pio was.
