Mater Christi: Meditations on Our Lady

BY THE SAME AUTHOR With a Preface to each volume by the Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J.
SPONSA CHRISTI. Meditations on the Religious Life. PASSIO CHRISTI. Meditations for Lent. DONA CHRISTI. Meditations for Ascension-tide, Whitsun-tide, and Corpus Christi.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
Mater Christi, ora pro nobis
NEW IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 1920 All rights reserved
Nihil obstat Josephus Rickaby, S.J. Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur ✠Eduardus Archiep. Birmingamien.
Die 31 Oct. 1918.

Jesus Christ, yesterday and to-day, the same also for ever. (Heb. xiii. 8.) His salvation extends to all generations. My salvation shall endure for ever, and My righteousness shall not fail. (Isaias li. 6.) Also He says: My words shall not pass away . (Matt. xxiv. 35.) He is the Teacher of all times, and that as well by His actions as by His words, by what He said and by what He did. It was His to do and to teach . (Acts i. 1.) It is ours, ours in this twentieth century, to listen to what He says, and to mark what He does. It is ours to hear Him and to see Him, spiritually. That we do by reading of His gospel, by listening to sermons, and very particularly by meditation, or by what St Ignatius calls contemplation of the mysteries of His life. To contemplate in the Ignatian sense is to make yourself present at some scene of our Saviour's life and behold it all, as it were, re-enacted before your eyes. It is the process called in modern philosophy visualisation. These Meditations are composed on the Ignatian plan of visualising what Our Lord did, said, and suffered. Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. (Luke xi. 28.) Blessed are they who take pains thus to hear what their Saviour says , to contemplate and visualise what He does . They are the persons most likely, with Mary, to keep all these words in their heart (Luke ii. 51), and in their measure to fulfil the teaching of the Teacher of all nations . (Matt. xxviii. 19.)