Considerations and Prayers for Every Day.
First Day. Mary's Immaculate Conception.
“Thou art all fair, O My love, and there is not a spot in thee.”—Cant. iv. 7. These words are found in the Canticles of Solomon, and are applied to the Blessed Virgin. From all eternity she had been predestined to be the Mother of God, [pg 185] to give to the almighty God that body, that flesh and blood, which He was to assume for our redemption, and the creature that He selected for His Mother must have been all pure, all holy, and free from the slightest taint of sin. A few saints, such as John the Baptist and the prophet Jeremias, were sanctified in their mother's womb. And if these men, because of their predestination, were born without sin, surely it cannot be supposed that God did not bestow on Mary a greater privilege—that He exempted her from the necessity of being even for one instant the slave of sin. O Mother mine, O Mother of the Church of God, I hail thee! Have pity on us, O Mary conceived without sin, and obtain for us the grace to struggle against our passions.
Prayer.
O holiest and purest of virgins, well dost thou merit this title! Thou who wast a virgin although a mother, pray for us. Take pity on us, thy children; intercede for us with Jesus, that He may have mercy on us, and grant us the grace to walk worthy of our vocation, that we may be His through time and eternity. Amen.
Second Day. Mary's Nativity.
The whole earth was filled with gladness at the birth of Mary, because of her was to be born Jesus Christ, Our Saviour and Redeemer, Who was to deliver us from the slavery of the devil. How heaven must have rejoiced at the birth of such a mother! A nation's joy at the birth of an heir to [pg 186] the throne may give you some faint idea of the joy the angels experienced at Mary's nativity. This is a day of jubilation for the entire world, for the just and the sinner, for time and eternity. Hell alone is afraid, for this is the woman destined to crush the serpent's head. Her appearance was the blessed dawn, announcing the rising of the Sun of righteousness. Made holy at her conception, the object of God's love at her birth, every step in Mary's life was marked by new progress in virtue; no shadow of sin ever tarnished the beauty of her soul. Let us then praise our Mother and Queen, and implore her to take pity on us, whose lives are passed in a constant struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Let us beg her to aid us in these combats, and to bring us to our eternal home.
Prayer.