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Vigils Reading – Memorial of BVM
February 8
MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS
By St Thérèse of Lisieux
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In speaking of our Lady, we ought not to make improbable assertions
about matters that are beyond our knowledge, for example, that when she
was a small child she went up to the Temple to offer herself to God with
extraordinary fervor and a heart on fire with love. For all we know, she went
simply in obedience to her parents.
If a sermon on the Blessed Virgin is to bear fruit, it must describe her
real life, such as the Gospel gives us a glimpse of, and not her fancied life.
And we perceive clearly that her real life at Nazareth and later on must have
been quite ordinary…”He was subject to them”. How simple it all is!
Sometimes the Blessed Virgin is represented as being quite
unapproachable. Instead, we ought to show that she was imitable in her
practice of hidden virtues; we ought to point out that she lived a life of faith,
just as we do.
We know well that the Blessed Virgin is queen of heaven and earth; but
she is more of a mother than a queen, and we ought not to give out the idea,
as I have heard it done more than once, that because of her prerogatives she
eclipses the glory of all the saints, just as the sun, rising in brilliance, makes
the stars disappear. My God, what a strange thing to say! A mother who
makes the glory of her children disappear! For my part, I believe just the
opposite; I think that she will greatly increase the splendor of the elect.
We do well to speak of her prerogatives. But we should not stop there.
We should make her loved. If, when we hear a sermon on the Blessed Virgin,
the preacher tries to do nothing from beginning to end but call forth our
admiration, we become bored, and that does not lead to love and imitation.
Who knows but what some souls will not experience a certain sense of
estrangement from a creature so lofty?