THE CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF S. JAMES THE APOSTLE. CHAPTER V.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be you therefore also patient, and strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
How patiently did Mary wait while the years of her sojourning were prolonged, until the coming of her beloved Lord, when she should receive the precious fruit of her labours, the recompense of her sufferings. As she had waited with persevering, calm, confident prayer for the coming of the Paraclete ; so also, strengthening her heart, did she wait for the coming of her Divine Son to take her home to Himself.
11 Behold, we account them blessed who have endured.
Mary the blessed amongst women has the first and chief part in this as in every other blessedness: for who ever endured as that Mother of sorrows ?
16 Pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man passible like unto us: and with prayer he prayed that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not for three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again : and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
As Jesus Christ anticipated the time for His first miracle— whereby He manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him—at the prayer of His Mother; so too Mary's prayers hastened the time of His coming; when the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit —Rorate cÓ•li desuper, et nubes pluant Justum. Aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem. Benedicat nos Deus, Deus noster, benedicat nos Deus.
Terra dedit fructum suum - And still are Mary's prayers of efficacious avail with her Son to obtain us grace, that we may be saved.
" If the Gentiles at Jerusalem," writes Cardinal Newman, "sought Philip, because he was an Apostle, when they desired access to Jesus, and Philip spoke to Andrew, as still more closely in our Lord's confidence, and then both came to Him, is it strange that the Mother should have power with the Son, distinct in kind from that of the purest Angel, and the most triumphant Saint ? "[Sermons to Mixed Congregations—The Glories of Mary for the sake of her Son.]