Virgo Potens

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 4th In the Gospel we find the secret of the surprising harshness that Our Lord often shows to great souls. Consider another instance where He humbles, almost tramples upon, the love of a mother. The episode of the Canaanite woman (Matt, xv, 22-8) sheds a great light. ‘And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, oh Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously troubled by a devil.’ It was not for herself she was praying, but for her daughter. ‘Who answered not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: Send her away, for she crieth after us: And He answering, said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the House of Israel.’ (continued)

MATER PULCHRÆ DILECTIONIS Mother of Fair Love Virtue of the Month SEPTEMBER — MORTIFICATION PRAYER to MARY I love thee, O Mother of Jesus ! who by thy intercession hast obtained for me time for repentance. Amen. ~ St. Alphonsus' Prayer Book (1888)

2 of 2 Month of the The Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 3rd We cannot but be struck as we read the Gospel at the discovery that whenever Jesus meets His Mother, it is always to break something in her, to wound more deeply that poor tenderness of emotion wherewith the heart of the most loving and most holy of mothers was wrung. Yet that tenderness was utterly legitimate. It seems that she received her heart of flesh only that it might be wounded by the Child for Whom alone it beat. It seems as though Jesus treats her with an amazing, an inconceivable harshness. In the natural order no man could be so harsh to such a mother without being guilty of sin, for no mere man could in the very moment of natural harshness be supernaturally so tender. The tenderness of natural love is holy, and each time Jesus wounded it afresh it was to bring to a more burning intensity the flame of the supernatural charity that bound them. Amazing and inconceivable as His harshness may be, it is nought else but the instrument of a tenderness more amazing and more inconceivable still. It is a mask covering the mystery of the tenderest and mightiest of loves. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 3rd All the rigour that the heavenly Father used towards the Son in Whom He was well pleased, His Son seems in turn to have used towards the Mother He loved. With His own hands He offers to His Mother the chalice which He likewise had to drink in spite of His three supplications. (continued)

Thus concludes ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the The Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 2nd [153. continued] And God declares His hatred and abhorrence of all those that disseminate discord among their neighbours. [Prov. vi, 9] Dissensions arise generally from pride, which prompts us to over-esteem ourselves and to set our own welfare and opinions against those of others, and from this arises the quarreling, litigation, obstinacy, slandering, faction, hatred, strife and many other evils without number and without end. [St. Thomas 22, qu. xxxvii, art. 1 et 2; et qu. xxxviii, art. 2; et qu. cxxxii, art. 5]” ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

2 of 2 Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 2nd Yet even in the first instant it was wonderful. Combined in it were the most marvellous outpourings of the order of Nature and of the order of Grace. In the order of Nature, it was the love of Mary for a Child which in the very act that made her mother did not violate her virginity but consecrated it: she brought Him into the world without travail, as effortlessly as a ray of light passing through a window. In the order of Grace, it was the love of a heart supernaturally pure, which had known no stain of sin, which from the first moment beat only for God—a heart filled with Charity to overflowing like a stream running bank-high and ever growing to become a great river. The love of the Virgin for her Son was thus perfect from the beginning yet could grow. Its first perfection was the perfection of the seed. And the seed must blossom and come to the perfection of the fruit. Now everything moved in harmony for this end. Consider first her docility — a docility delicate, clear-seeing, ready at each moment to find some deeper depth as God’s demands were progressively manifested to it. This docility increased in a marvellous manner in that moment when, to the angel who came to reveal her vocation, the Virgin replied in words and in her heart, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy Word’ (Luke i, 38). It would continue to grow, and grow mightily until her death. It had to be so. For at the instant of the Incarnation, she bore within her Him Who had come to teach men the unimaginable demands of love. Of her He asked more than of all others, for thus it was that He caused love to grow in her. No love here below is as dear to Him as this love of His Mother. Its growth He Himself would direct. In all other cases, it is the mother who gives, the child who receives. Not so here, for the Child is the Master of love. He was to lead her by ways so high, so mysterious, so sorrowful that it is manifest to us that He made the same choice for His Mother that His heavenly Father had made for Him: “I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptised; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished” (Luke xii, 50). Let us study, in the visible signs left us in the Gospel, the mysterious law governing the mighty upward movement of love in Our Lady. ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 2nd INTRODUCTION LET us think upon the love that there was between Jesus and His Mother. His love for her could know no increase. In the first moment it filled His soul in full measure and overflowing. Thus it will remain for all eternity. It is so mighty that nothing can be added to it. Her love for Him could know increase. (continued)

Month of the The Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 1st 153. Discord is a discrepancy of the will which prevents it from conforming to the will of God in such matters as it ought to conform for the glory of God and the good of the neighbour; and it is a grave sin, because St. Paul counts dissensions among those sins which exclude those who commit them from the kingdom of Heaven. [Gal. v, 20] (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

2 of 2 Month of the the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 1st In her liturgy for the feast of Seven Dolours she ventures to comment upon it, compassionately and tenderly and reverently. She does not forbid even the humblest of her children to comment likewise, provided that this be done with humility, claiming no more than to stammer out some tiny part of all that could be said in order that men’s souls may be preserved from error or forgetfulness. But the Church knows better than any that the inspired words, when they are received with living faith and contemplated in the light of the gifts of understanding and wisdom, have a power of their own to lead souls to the heart of the revealed mystery where words themselves are powerless. This is the secret of her liturgy wherein the great texts of the Gospel pass before our eyes in the recurrent cycles of the years ~ Charles Journet, Our Lady of Sorrows. Tr. F.J. Sheed. (1939)

1 of 2 Month of the the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ September 1st FOREWARD THE sorrow of the Mother of God is immeasurably beyond what human words can say. It remains a secret between the Virgin and her Son. Revelation contains that small hint of it which has been divinely communicated to the world. This the Church preserves lovingly. (continued)

SEPTEMBER Beauteous Babe, her arms, between, Sweet SEPTEMBER seems to say, “Hither, hence, and homage pay To the little new-born Queen !” ~ E. C. DONNELLY ~ Short Lives of the Saints (1884)

✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯ 2026 September ~ Month of the Seven Dolors of Mary / The Sorrowful Mother ~ ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 31st [152. continued] Thirdly, in respect of the form of the command, by which the superior expresses his intention that he wishes to be obeyed in such and such a matter, but it is principally pride that aggravates the disobedience, as the will refuses to submit as it should to Divine law. [St. Thomas, 2a 2æ, qu. lxix, art. 1; et qu. cv per tot.]” ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 31st [152. continued] Thirdly, in respect of the form of the command, by which the superior expresses his intention that he wishes to be obeyed in such and such a matter, but it is principally pride that aggravates the disobedience, as the will refuses to submit as it should to Divine law. [St. Thomas, 2a 2æ, qu. lxix, art. 1; et qu. cv per tot.]” ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Sayings of the Saints “We must do everything through a motive of love, and nothing through compulsion. Our love for obedience must be greater than our fear of disobedience.” ~ St. Francis de Sales St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 31st And thus, the feast of the Holy Heart of the Mother of God, which is celebrated on February 8th, encompasses all the other feasts of our holy Mother, for it is the feast of her Heart strictly speaking — the feast of this Heart which is the principle of all her holiness, all her holy virtues, all her holy mysteries, and all the glories and grandeurs that she will possess everlastingly in heaven: "All the glory of the King's daughter is within." After that, judge for yourself how many great and marvellous things are honored by this holy solemnity of the Admirable Heart of the Queen of the Angels, and with what devotion it ought to be celebrated. To all the above recommendations add meditation on the virtues, excellences and wonders contained in the admirable Heart of the Mother of the Saviour, which is an excellent way to motivate yourself to love and honor it. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 31st TWELVE METHODS OF PRACTISING THIS DEVOTION (continued) Finally, all these solemnities are the feasts of the most holy Heart of the Queen of every heart, because, as we said before, her Heart is the source and origin of whatever is great, holy and admirable in each of these feasts. (continued)

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 30th [152. continued] Secondly, in respect of the nature of the things commanded, because when these are of greater importance, especially in the laws of God, the disobedience is greater, therefore it is a graver sin to disobey those precepts which enjoin the love of God than those which command us to love our neighbour. (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

2 of 2 Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ August 30th Christmas is the feast of her Divine and Virginal Childbirth, the feast of the delights of her Heart, which is utterly suffused and exalted with joy and love for her lovable Infant upon beholding Him born before her eyes. The feast of the Purification is the feast of the first public and solemn sacrifice which her Heart made to Almighty God of His Son, her dearest Child. It is also the feast of the humility of her Heart, when she took her place in the temple among the ordinary mothers, and joined the ranks of the poor in offering what the poor were accustomed to offer. The feast of the Assumption commemorates the triumphs of her Heart, the feast of its most perfect and intimate union with the Heart of the Most Blessed Trinity; the feast of the glorification and crowning of her Heart as Sovereign ruler of all hearts. ~ Saint John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God (1680)