16 October 2010: Purity of Our Lady

(“Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia”, 1991, p630)

Chastity

“... our chastity is a joyful affirmation, a logical consequence of our surrender to God’s service, of our love: Josemaria Escriva, 24 March 1931.”

Chastity, perfect chastity, is the other side of the coin of love. A simple example, taken from human love, will help us understand and strengthen our hold on the meaning this virtue should have for us. When a man really loves a woman and loves her to the extent of wanting her to be his companion for life, this love is and should be necessarily exclusive: this love fills his heart, his whole life, and logically excludes other loves which are incompatible with it.

Well, this heart with which we love the world and people in the world is the same heart with which we have to love God our Lord: and this same heart which we give to the clean noble loves of the earth is the heart which you and I have given to Jesus.

We have followed him, renouncing joyfully other affections which, though they are human affectons, do not cease to be fine ones. Those who followed an earthly love had their eyes open and their heart full; and we, who have followed a heavenly love, also had our eyes open and our heart full.

Ref: Salvatore Canals, “Jesus as friend”, 1981, p51

Meditations on the Litany of Loreto

‘Vessel of singular devotion’ -- St Thomas teaches that devotion is the readiness with which our will conforms to the will of God. This was the principal virtue which rendered our most Holy Mother so dear to God.

O blessed are you my Lady, who was always, and in all, united to the divine will. Obtain for me the grace to spend my life in constant conformity to the will of God.

Ref: “The Glories of Mary.” In “Documentation Service”, V:323

Jesus dines in a Pharisee’s house

“A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him. Going in, he sat down to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see he did not wash before dinner. Then the Lord said, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish; but your inside is full of greed and wickedness!’” (Lk 11:37-9)

In this figure, by which a man is compared to a vessel, Jesus tells us we should never neglect the exterior, which all can see; but the interior, the purity of the soul, claims first priority. This is what makes a man meritorious before God.

If, then we wish to be free from all reproach, our endeavors should be directed chiefly to the formation of our ‘interior man’, but not to the exclusion of the ‘exterior’.

There are three things which form the interior man upon whom God looks with pleasure: 1) Purity of soul: freedom from stains of mortal sin; but, as much as possible, of venial sin also. 2) Union with God by a spirit of prayer. Living by God and in God, seeing God in all things. 3) Purity of intention, by which we seek only to please God, and therefore, make our actions resemble him.

How do we stand regarding purity of conscience, union with God, purity of intention? Let us ask God to show us in which of these qualities we have been wanting; and to give us the grace and courage to acquire it. Let us make it often the subject of our examination of conscience.

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp645-7

Memorial: St Margaret Mary Alacoque, virgin -- A nun of the Visitation Order, she had many mystical revelations about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and endeavored to propagate it to the whole Church. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1668)

The spirituality of St Margaret Mary

Her way of sanctity is rooted on the principle of what she calls ‘Pure love’, completely empty of self, persisting amidst aridity, suffering and desolation; a totality of loving because Christ will either take all or leave all. It is found in our own lowliness when we love God whatever he may do with us; a complete annihilation of self, abandonment and self-forgetfulness which lead to union with Christ. A total return of love he desires of us.

‘Pure Love’ is connected with suffering and humiliation. First, “... self-love is a poison that ruins everything”. The self must die and be buried in oblivion. Self-love makes us want to go on our own. Such obstacle to grace is so prone to tarnish the purity of divine love.

The second reason is simply their connection with Christ and his love for us. His love led him to choose suffering and humiliation as means for redeeming humankind. To love him then, is to love as he loved.

There is a mystical connection between love and suffering which is characteristic of devotion to the Sacred Heart. St Margaret writes: “True it is that one who loves does not think even in the midst of the greatest suffering that he is suffering anything. You will surely grant me that no one can love without suffering.”

Margaret Mary’s desire for suffering, humiliation and oblivion, arising from her burning desire for Pure Love brought her joy, happiness and peace. The rigorous logic of love makes her conclude that if God is pleased, that should suffice for us. There is no longer any suffering for those who ardently love Christ.

St Margaret Mary also says that love brings peace. The gift of self in Pure Love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus brings in our hearts his reign of love and peace. Amidst very great bitterness, she finds the joy of unchanging peace arising from her desire to belong to God; to count as nothing the praise and blame of men.

Ref: A F Makalinao, “St Margaret Mary Alacoque”, pp11-3

Memorial: St Hedwig, religious -- The wife of the Duke of Poland, an exemplary mother of seven children. She led a life of piety and solicitude for the poor and the sick. On becoming a widow, she retired to a Cistercian monastery. (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1668)

Memorial: St Gerard Majella, religious -- Patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labor. (Rev Hugo Hoever, SOCist, PhD, “Lives of the Saints”, 1989, pp431, 433-4)

Dedication of Our Lady of Milan, by Pope Martin V, in the year 1417. This church was built in 1388 by John Galleas, Duke of Milan. — Philip Bergomonsis, lib. iv Supl. ann. 1388. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)

Dedication: Church of Our Lady of Milan / ‘Madonna della Milan’ by Pope Martin V. 1417. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm);(www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html).

Our Lady of Purity (celebrated by Theatine Fathers) (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)

The Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)