Day #7: God
MARY: If you must have trust in God and hide yourself in him alone, it?s necessary to meditate on him. His infinite greatness could oppress you, even while it ought to be the most beautiful subject of your trust. What is God? He is the most pure and most perfect spirit, the Creator and Master of all things. He is a spirit; he, therefore, being infinite, embraces all, understands all, without even minimally having to work or force himself to embrace all. Nothing escapes from the tenderness of his providence: he cares for the atom as for the giant, forgives evil, exalts virtue; he loves, he loves and is infinitely good! Such is his infinite goodness that he despises no creature. He loves all of them as a father; he regards all with pity, he watches over them, welcomes them, favors them … And if he cares with such love for all creatures, how much more does he care for you, made in his image and likeness? You see him as the great God, and yet there is no moment when he does not stoop down to you, you even live, move and are in him!
?How lovable you are, O my God! Even I am your creature … you loved me even before the ages … I was nothing and already your goodness was raising me up in your eternal designs! From the kiss of your heart I came forth pure and immaculate … from your mercy I attained the strength to conquer the infernal enemy … I am Mary because you are the God of infinite goodness! If you were not God, you would not have lifted me up with such goodness and mercy!? Your mother, my daughter, is for you the living proof of that divine greatness which is infinite, yes, but is also the loving refuge for the smallest creatures! Hide yourself, then, in the heart of your God … don?t worry about the little things of this world. LOVE GOD!
THE SOUL: How can you wish that I experience no sense of bewilderment before a God so beautiful, so holy,so good, that I have so often offended? Obtain for me, then, the pardon of my so many faults and show me that same mercy, you who are the Mother of mercy. Into your hands I entrust my soul; clothe me with yourself; present me to God because only with you my trust becomes great, in spite of my so many sins.
ASPIRATION: O my God, I thank you that you created me and that you are always near me.
LITTLE WORK: Think often during the day of the great blessedness of your soul in living under the glance of God and offer him? an act of love.
About the Meditations
The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.
Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)
To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy
Ave Maria!
