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| Virgen de Ocotlán Virgin Mary of Ocotlán, Tlaxcala, Mexico |
We must ever bear in mind that there are not two Blessed Virgin's, one the Mother of God, the other the mother of men; neither has the one Virgin Mary two hearts, with one of which she may love Jesus her Firstborn, whilst with the other she may love the Brethren Of Jesus. She loves us with the same tenderness, with the same understanding, with the same faithfulness, with the same mother's love with which she loved our Lord, as her Child, on earth. For this was she made by God all that she is —in the first place no doubt for the sake of Christ, from her incarnate, but also for the sake of all those for whom Christ should die. His Mother is our mother. He gave us none other than His own —one, surely, of the most sacred and touching of His gifts. It is this fact—that we know her to be our mother, bestowed upon us as such by our Elder Brother, made by God so unutterably loving for our sake too, as well as for His own, that gives Catholics an ease and confidence, a happiness, a feeling of being at home with our Lady which none but Catholics can ever understand. Even in the schismatic East, where boundless is the veneration for the august Mother of God, this childlike feeling seems to be somewhat wanting in the devotion of the people. Eastern schismatics vie with Catholics in the titles of honour they lavish upon Mary Most Holy ; they constantly chant her praises in their churches, and are wont to seek her intercession in the various needs of life. But rarely, if ever, do they call her, as Catholics love to call her, our Lady, our mother. With them she is the Great Lady, raised high above the Cherubim and the Seraphim ; with us she is that indeed, but we love to remember (what Eastern schismatics would never deny, though they seem to forget it strangely in practice) that she is also the dear mother who rejoices to know that we are her children. She is crowned in high Heaven, but she is also throned in our hearts on earth, for we know that we can trust her always to care for us, even as in the days of His weakness she cared for her Child Jesus. As she was true to Him, so—if we will but believe it —will she be true to us in all our anxieties, in all our miseries, in every moment of life—even to the end.
After the Love of God from whom all pure love springs, there can be no love like to the love of Mary, as there is no constancy like to Mary's. Its depth and magnitude are beyond the power of human words to reach, beyond all human comprehension. It lies, however, within the experience of us all, for to all God has given this Mother of Fair Love. To each one He says : "Ecce mater tua."
"He said to the Disciple whom He loved : Behold thy mother. And from that hour the Disciple took her to his own."