Twenty Ninth Day: May 26, 2020

Treatise of True Devotion to the Virgin Mary [208-212]

2. She provides for all their needs.

The second charitable duty that Our Lady fulfills toward her faithful servants is that she provides them with everything they need for body and soul.

• She clothes them with a double garment, that is, with the merits of her Son, Jesus Christ, together with our own merits purified and elevated by her.
• She nourishes them with the most delicious food from the banquet table of God. She gives them the Son she has borne, the Bread of Life, to be their food. Mary is the treasurer and dispenser of the gifts and graces of the Most High God, she reserves a choice portion, indeed the choicest portion, to nourish and sustain her children and servants.

3. Mary guides them.

“A third service which Our Lady renders her faithful servants is to lead and direct them according to the will of her Son. Rebecca guided her little son Jacob and gave him good advice from time to time, which helped him obtain the blessing of his Father and saved him from the hatred and persecution of his brother Esau. Mary, Star of the Sea, guides all her faithful servants into safe harbor. She shows them the path to eternal life and helps them avoid dangerous pitfalls. She leads them by the hand along the path of holiness, steadies them when they are liable to fall and helps them rise when they have fallen. She chides them like a loving mother when they are remiss and sometimes she even lovingly chastises them.” (TD 209)

4. Mary defends and protects them.

“The fourth service Our Lady performs for her children and faithful servants is to defend and protect them against their enemies. By her care and ingenuity Rebecca delivered Jacob from all dangers that beset him and particularly from dying at the hands of his brother, as he apparently would have done, since Esau hated and envied him just as Cain hated his brother, Abel. Could anyone surrounded by a well-ordered army of, say, a hundred thousand men fear his enemies? No, and still less would a faithful servant of Mary, protected on all sides by her imperial forces, fear his enemy! This powerful Queen of Heaven would sooner dispatch millions of angels to help one of her servants than have it said that a single faithful and trusting servant of hers had fallen victim to the malice, number and power of his enemies.”

5. Mary intercedes for them.

“Finally, the fifth and greatest service which this loving Mother renders her faithful followers is to intercede for them with her Son. She appeases him with her prayers, brings her servants into closest union with him and maintains that union.

Rebecca made Jacob approach the bed of his father. His father touched him, embraced him and even joyfully kissed him after having satisfied his hunger with the well-prepared dishes which Jacob had brought him.

Then inhaling most joyfully the exquisite perfume of his garments, he cried, ‘Behold the fragrance of my son is as the fragrance of a field of plenty which the Lord has blessed.’ The fragrance of this rich field which so captivated the heart of the father, is none other than the fragrance of the merits and virtues of Mary who is the plentiful field of grace in which God the Father has sown the grain of wheat of the elect, his only Son.

Furthermore, once Mary has heaped her favors upon her children and her faithful servants and has secured for them the blessing of the heavenly Father and union with Jesus Christ, she keeps them in Jesus and keeps Jesus in them. She guards them, watching over them unceasingly, so they persevere to the end.

Such is the explanation given to this ancient allegory, so unknown and full of mysteries, which typifies the mystery of predestination and reprobation.”

Meditation

In this week, St. Louis directs us to resolve to know Jesus Christ, by repeating throughout the day the prayer of St. Augustine: “Lord Jesus, let me know You.” We will follow the advice Saint Louis teaches in the section: “How to live the Consecration in Holy Communion.” (Treatise of True Devotion 266-273). Therefore, you can apply this advice for the reception of Holy Communion. If you are unable to receive sacramentally, you can make a spiritual communion, which will be explained below.

Before the communion

1. Place yourself humbly in the presence of God.

2. Renounce your corrupt nature and dispositions, no matter how good self-love make them appear to you.

3. Renew your consecration saying, “I belong entirely to you, dear Mother, and all that I have is yours.”

4. Implore Mary to lend you her heart so that you may receive her Son with her dispositions.

During Holy Communion

When you are about to receive our Lord, in honor of each person of the Holy Trinity, say three times the prayer, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

1. Say it the first time as if you were telling the eternal Father that because of your evil thoughts and your ingratitude to such a good Father, you are unworthy to receive his only-begotten Son, but that here is Mary, his handmaid, who acts for you and whose presence gives you a special confidence and hope in him.

2. Say to God the Son, “Lord I am not worthy,” meaning that you are not worthy to receive him because of your useless and evil words and your carelessness in her service, but nevertheless you ask him to have pity on you because you are going to usher him into the house of his Mother and yours.

3. Say to the Holy Spirit, “Lord I am not worthy.” Tell him that you are not worthy to receive the masterpiece of his love because of your lukewarmness, wickedness and resistance to his inspirations. But nonetheless, you put all your confidence in Mary, his faithful Spouse.

Then you will approach to receive Holy Communion or, if you do not have the possibility of communicating sacramentally, you can make it spiritually with a formula like this:

“Lord, I believe you are really present in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things and I wish you in my soul. Since now I cannot receive you sacramentally, come spiritually into my heart (brief pause in which you join Jesus). Having come to me, I embrace you and join with you; never allow me to be separated from you.”

After Holy Communion

Close your eyes and recollect yourself. Then usher Jesus into the heart of Mary: You are giving him to his Mother who will receive him with great love and give him the place of honor, adore him profoundly, show him perfect love, embrace him intimately in spirit and in truth, and perform many offices for him of which we, in our ignorance, would know nothing.

Or, maintain a profoundly humble heart in the presence of Jesus dwelling in Mary. Or be in attendance like a slave at the gate of the royal palace, where the King is speaking with the Queen. While they are talking to each other, with no need of you, go in spirit to heaven and to the whole world, and all upon all creatures to thank, adore and love Jesus and Mary for you, “Come, let us adore.”

There are innumerable other thoughts with which the Holy Spirit will inspire you, which he will make yours if you are thoroughly recollected and mortified, constantly faithful to the great and sublime devotion which I have been teaching you.

Next, pray the Litany of the Incarnate Word. You could recite all of the invocations or eight per day. Conclude with the Ave Maris Stella [Hail, Star of the Sea].

LITANY OF THE INCARNATE WORD

Blessed be the Word who was incarnate of the Virgin Mary [repeated after each invocation]

Blessed be the Word, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. R.

Blessed be the Word who existed from all eternity. R.

Blessed be the Word through whom all things were made. R.

Blessed be the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who enlightens all people. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who emptied Himself and took the form of a slave. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who for nine months was formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who was born in a manger, circumcised, and offered in the Temple. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who was baptized by John in the Jordan. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who chose his disciples. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who proclaimed the Beatitudes. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who announced repentance. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, poor, chaste and obedient, even unto death. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, Priest, King and Prophet. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Bread of Life for the world. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, who obediently accepted even death, death on a cross. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, man of sorrows. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, meek and humble of heart. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, who descended into hell. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who ascended into heaven. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who will come again. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Eternal High Priest. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, Head of all, in heaven and on earth. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, present in every soul through grace. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, under the appearance of bread and wine. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word in the sword of the Spirit which is His Word. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word in whom all things are restored. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the King of all peoples. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the sign of contradiction. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the dawn from on high. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Lamb of God who takes away

the sins of the world. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Head of the Body, the Church. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word who sent the Holy Spirit. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, who gave us the seven Sacraments. R.

Blessed be the Mother of the Incarnate Word, Mary, Most Holy. R.

Blessed be the Mother of the Incarnate Word, Co-redemptrix. R.

Blessed be the Incarnate Word, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. R.

Ave Maris Stella

Hail, bright star of ocean, 
God’s own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin,
Gate of heavenly rest.

Taking that sweet Ave 
Which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us,
Changing Eva’s name.

Break the captives’ fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother;
May the Word Divine,
Born for us thy Infant,
Hear our prayers through thine.

Virgin all excelling,
Mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us,
Pure and undefiled.

Keep our life all spotless,
Make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus,
Joy forevermore.

Through the highest heaven
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.

May Jesus Christ reign through the Virgin Mary!

Religious Family of the Incarnate Word
Province of the Immaculate Conception, USA

Download the meditation in PDF here.