Mater Christi: Meditations on Our Lady — The Second and Third Glorious Mysteries
_Spiritual Bouquet.
_ "Causa nostrae laetitiae, ora pro nobis."
The Second and Third Glorious Mysteries "_All these were persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women, and Mary the Mother of JESUS, and with His brethren.
_" (Acts i. 14. ) _1st Prelude.
_ (1) A picture of the Ascension--Our Lady kissing the Footprints.
(2) A picture of the Descent of the Holy Ghost--a tongue of fire resting on the head of Our Lady, who is seated in the midst of the Apostles.
_2nd Prelude.
_ Grace to enter into the dispositions of Mary.
_Point I. _--MARY ON ASCENSION DAY
Many, no doubt, were the visits that JESUS paid to His Blessed Mother during the forty days that His glorified Body still lingered in this world of ours, as though He were loath to leave it.
He was bracing her up for the time of exile that lay before her, filling her with stores of consolation upon which she would be able to draw in her times of desolation.
She probably knew that the fortieth day was the last, and that, when He led His little flock out "as far as Bethania," it was His last walk with them.
She knew of the "mountain appointed" where He wished all His brethren to assemble--"more than five hundred at once."
(1 Cor.
xv.
6. ) She heard His last words, heard Him charge His _witnesses_: "Going, therefore, teach (_make disciples of_) all nations: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
(St Matt.
xxviii.
19, 20. ) She was not to be a witness--though she was ever the silent witness of His Humanity--but it was only fitting that she should hear all the orders that were given to her children.
She heard of the promise of the Father, and that they were to stay in the city till it was fulfilled.
She saw Him lift up His hands in blessing--the last blessing; she watched with the rest His glorified Body raised up from their midst--watched till "a cloud received Him out of their sight," then she knelt in humble acquiescence to GOD'S will and kissed the ground where He had just stood--the favoured bit of earth which was the last to be touched by His blessed Feet.
When she looked up, it was to see two angels asking the astonished disciples why they were gazing into Heaven, and telling them that the same JESUS who was taken up from them into Heaven would so come again as they had seen Him go.
It was not to _her_ that the angels were speaking--_she_ was not gazing up.
She _knew_ the lesson that the others were being taught, knew that her Son was already in Heaven, sitting at the right hand of GOD.
(St Mark xvi.
19. ) When the Apostles realised sufficiently what had happened, they, "adoring, went back to Jerusalem with joy," (St Luke xxiv.
52), and Mary led them to the Cenacle to "wait for the promise of the Father," as her Son had bidden them.
Thus she taught them the lesson she would teach all her children--that the only thing to do in times of desolation and sorrow is to follow closely the commands of JESUS: "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye."
It is no use to stand gazing after what has gone; this is no time for regrets; He gave a clear command: "Go to Jerusalem and wait."
We shall always find that there is no balm for sorrow like fidelity to duty.
It costs something; human nature longs to stay and hug its sorrow; but it is far wiser to turn away from the loved spot and go bravely hand in hand with the Mother of Sorrows to do the next thing to which duty--that is the voice of JESUS--calls us.
_Point II.
_--MARY ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST
Nine days they spent with Mary the Mother of JESUS, persevering with one mind in prayer, (Acts i. 14), and going constantly to the Temple to praise and bless GOD.
(St Luke xxiv.
53. ) It was a Novena of prayer and thanksgiving.
It was Mary's first official act as Mother of the Church.
She kept the little flock together, kept them close to her Son by obedience to His last command, by intercession for the great gift that He had promised to send them, and by thanksgiving for all that He had been to them and done for them.
It was the first Retreat, and they made it with Mary, the Mother of GOD.
What must Mary's prayers have been during those nine days!
She was now more united than ever to her Son; her eye of faith saw Him at the Right Hand of GOD in Heaven; she saw eye to eye with Him; she knew all His interests and intentions; she had still a Mother's right to command Him;
she knew that nothing in their relationship was changed, and that He would not refuse her behests in Heaven any more than He had done on earth.
And so, as her eyes swept the wide horizon which was now hers, the Mother of the Church made a Novena for Pentecost, praying with all her knowledge and all her power, for the Holy Ghost to come down upon her children--to come and fill that Church of which she was the Mother, that Church which her Son had founded, for which He had given His life.
These first Retreatants had no books.
They needed none--their lives were so closely bound up with the life of JESUS; the Holy Spirit prayed within them; and Mary was ever with them directing, and setting them an example.
In proportion as these things are true of us are we independent of _exterior_ help in our prayers.
And the more we are able to dispense with exterior help, the more interior and real will be our prayers.
Then "when the days were accomplished"--when the Novena was over--the Holy Ghost came down as JESUS had promised that He should--came down as a tongue of fire upon each one: a proof that He had entered into each one of those expectant, faithful souls, filling each according to his capacity, and giving each the power needful to carry on the work that was appointed for him to do.
What, then, must have been the measure with which Mary was "filled with the Holy Ghost," for what was the Apostles' work compared with hers?
She had always been "full of grace"--she had long been the spouse of the Holy Ghost, ever since He had overshadowed her at the Incarnation, and He had always been filling her according to her ever-increasing capacity.
We have seen how, under her Son's training, her horizon was ever enlarging--how much wider it became on Calvary, how pain and joy had dilated her heart, how her intercourse with her Divine Son during those forty days had still more widened her outlook; and now, with all the fresh territory over which she was to reign, in her mind and in her heart, she had been praying--the Holy Ghost had been praying within her--for Him to come and overshadow her once again, and fill her with grace that she might be able to meet all her new responsibilities as Mother of the Church.
Mary had more need of the Holy Ghost than any of the hundred and twenty souls gathered in the Cenacle; her desire to receive Him too was greater than theirs; and so we may well believe that she received Him in a fuller measure.
She had no need of the gifts of tongues and miracles, which were a necessity to the Apostles, to help them in the beginning of their difficult work.
Her work during the remaining years of her life was that of intercession, and it was to be carried on in secret and obscurity.
The gifts she needed from the Holy Ghost were those of hiddenness, patience, humility, conformity to GOD'S will.
She needed Him in all His plenitude to pray within her with "unutterable groanings" for all the needs of the Church throughout all time.
Her work was still, as it ever had been, to _ponder_ in her heart--to meditate and hold colloquies with her Divine Son, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, about all the interests which they had in common.
_Colloquy.
_ "Our Lady of Light, Spouse of the Holy Ghost, I offer thee my whole heart, my soul and my body, to keep for JESUS, that I may be His for ever.
Our Lady of Light, pray for me."
(_Prayer of Blessed Grignon de Montfort.
_) _Resolution.
_ To think more of the Holy Spirit praying within me.
_Spiritual Bouquet.
_ "Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti, ora pro nobis."
(Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
) Mary's Exile "_Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged.
_" (Ps.
cxix.
5. )
