CHAPTER IV.
AD TE CLAMAMUS EXULES FILII HEVÆ.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
SECTION I.
HOW READY MARY IS TO SUCCOR THOSE WHO CALL UPON HER.
We poor children of the unhappy Eve, guilty before God of her sin, and condemned to the same punishment, go wandering through this valley of tears, exiles from our country, weeping and afflicted by innumerable pains of body and soul! But blessed is he who in the midst of so many miseries turns to the consoler of the world, to the refuge of the unhappy, to the great mother of God, and devoutly invokes her and supplicates her! “Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates.”[302] Blessed, says Mary, is he who listens to my counsels, and incessantly watches at the door of my mercy, invoking my help and intercession! The holy Church instructs us her children with how great attention and confidence we should have continually recourse to this our loving protectress; ordaining special devotions to her, that during the year many festivals should be celebrated in her honor; that one day of the week should be especially consecrated to her; that every day, in the divine office, all ecclesiastics and members of religious orders should invoke her in behalf of the whole Christian people, and that three times a day all the faithful, at the sound of the bell, should salute her. This will suffice to show how, in all seasons of public calamity, the holy Church always directs her children to have recourse to the divine mother with novenas, prayers, processions, visits to her churches and altars. This, Mary herself wishes us to do, namely, always to invoke and supplicate her, not to ask our homage and praise, which are too poor in comparison with her merit, but that our confidence and devotion to her thus increasing, she may aid and console us more. She seeks such as approach her devoutly and reverently, says St. Bonaventure; these she cherishes, loves, and adopts as her children.[303]
The same St. Bonaventure says, that Mary was prefigured by Ruth, whose name, being interpreted, signifies seeing, hastening;[304] for Mary, seeing our miseries, hastens to aid us by her compassion.[305] To which Novarino adds, that Mary is so desirous to do us good, that she can bear no delay; and not being a miserly keeper of her favors, but the mother of mercy, she cannot restrain herself from dispensing, as soon as possible among her servants, the treasures of her liberality.[306]
Oh, how ready is this good mother to aid him who invokes her! “Thy two breasts are like two young roes.”[307] Richard of St. Laurence, explaining this passage, says that the breasts of Mary readily, like the roe’s, give the milk of mercy to those who ask it.[308] The same author assures us that the mercy of Mary is bestowed on all who ask it, though they offer no prayer but a “Hail Mary.” Hence, Novarino affirms, that the blessed Virgin not only hastens, but flies to aid those who have recourse to her. She, says this author, in exercising mercy, cannot but resemble God; for, as the Lord hastens to succor those who ask help from him, being very faithful to observe the promise which he has made to us—Ask, and you shall receive[309]—so Mary, when she is invoked, immediately hastens to help those who call upon her.[310] And by this is explained who was the woman of the Apocalypse, with two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert.[311] Ribeira explains these two wings to signify the love with which Mary always hastens to God.[312] But the blessed Amadeus says, remarking on this passage, that the wings of an eagle signify the velocity with which Mary, surpassing in swiftness the seraphs, always comes to the help of her children.[313]
We read in the Gospel of St. Luke, that when Mary went to visit St. Elisabeth, and bestow blessings on all her family, she was not slow, but travelled that whole journey with haste.[314] But we do not read that it was so on her return. For the same reason, it is said in the sacred Canticles, that the hands of Mary are turned.[315] For, as Richard of St. Laurence explains it, The art of turning is easier and quicker than other arts, so Mary is more ready than any other of the saints to aid her suppliants.[316] She has the greatest desire to console all, and she scarcely hears herself invoked before she graciously receives the petition and comes to our aid.[317] Justly, then, St. Bonaventure calls Mary, The salvation of those who invoke her: “O salus te invocantium!” signifying, that to be saved it is sufficient to appeal to this divine mother, who, according to Richard of St. Laurence, is always ready to aid those who pray to her.[318] For, as St. Bernardine de Bustis says: This great Lady is more desirous to confer favors upon us than we are to receive them.[319]
Neither should the multitude of our sins diminish our confidence that we shall be graciously heard by Mary, if we cast ourselves at her feet. She is the mother of mercy, and there would be no occasion for mercy, if there were no wretchedness to be relieved. Therefore, as a good mother does not hesitate to apply a remedy to her child, however loathsome its disease, although the cure may be troublesome and disgusting; thus our good mother does not abandon us, when we recur to her, however great may be the filth of our sins, which she comes to cure.[320] This sentiment is taken from Richard of St. Laurence. And Mary intended to signify the same when she appeared to St. Gertrude, spreading her mantle to receive all who had recourse to her: at the same time it was given the saint to understand, that the angels are waiting to defend the devout suppliants of Mary from the assaults of hell.[321]