Prayer.
O Lord Jesus, Who didst, for the love of us, etc., etc.
Tenth Day.
The closeness of the tie between Mother and Son gave Mary all the privileges and distinctions which she enjoys. This closeness was to unite the Son of God with Mary, and was to elicit from Him the most tender love and the most filial reverence. All this had been present to the thought of God from all eternity, and the conclusion forces itself upon our mind, that therefore the divine Word had, for His future Mother, a love infinitely greater than that which He bore for all other creatures. Mary's honor was infinitely dear to Him, because she was to be His Mother, chosen to be so by His eternal and merciful decrees. The Son's love protected the Mother. She, indeed, in her sublime humility, willingly submitted to whatever the rest of God's creatures [pg 513] had brought on themselves, and obeyed every tittle of those laws which were never meant for her. “O Mary, O marvellous, mystical creature! O resplendent mote, lost almost to view in the upper light of the supernal fountains! Who can sufficiently abase himself before thee, and weep for the want of love to love thee rightly, thou whom the Word so loved eternally?” (Faber.)
Prayer.
O Lord Jesus, Who didst, for the love of us, etc., etc.
Eleventh Day.
Mary was conceived without sin, because the eternal Father would not do less for the second Eve than He had done for the first; yet the latter was created, as was also the first Adam, in the state of original justice, which she forfeited by her disobedience. The Son of God would not permit that Mary, from whom He was to take the nature of man, should be deprived of that gift which He had given to Eve. The Holy Ghost, Who was to overshadow Mary, and through whose operation she was to become the Mother of the Incarnate Word, would not permit that foul stain of sin in which we are all conceived to rest even for an instant on His Bride. All men were to contract the sin of Adam. The sentence was universal, the condemnation went out against all the race; but God's own Mother could not be included. God, Who is the Author of that law; God, Who was free to make it as He willed, had power to save her from its effects; His omnipotence could exempt her, and it was nothing [pg 514] more than proper, even according to our frail reason, that she was exempted.