Day #11: Mary’s Grace
THE SOUL: Hail, O Mary, full of grace! … From the wretched earth where I am, I raise up my glance to you to admire you and I see you resplendent, beautiful, clothed in glory … Hail, O Full of grace! How the little things of this world seem vile next to you who by grace have reached the highest summits of perfection … Hail, Mother of God, my Mother! You are the most beautiful work of the Lord’s hands, you are a monument of divine mercy, you are the glory of his love … Hail, O Spouse of God!
You are the creature who loved God so much, who overcame the poverty of human nature, and flew directly to the Infinite without ever deviating. The grace of God lent you these wings of love and you were pure, immaculate, all-beautiful, all-holy … Hail, O Mary!
I admire you, O Mother; the Angels pay homage to you and exalt you; the human generations call you ‘blessed’ and raise up monuments of thanks and love to you … you are the all-holy … Hail, O Mary!
Oh! Who could have imagined that a flower so beautiful could be born of the pitiable stock of Adam? … You entered into this world full of grace: Hail, O Mary! I am small, but I am happy because I am your child. You look after me, you guide me, you lift me up. In you I have found support and life because you are the inexhaustible channel of divine mercies: Hail, O Mary!
Hail, O Mary; your sweet glance lifts me up and makes me live because your glance is full of mercy! Take into your heart my soul as a little flower, and, if instead of finding fragrance, you find parasites, cleanse it with your hand full of goodness.
Hail, O Mary! You are my life, my sweetness, my hope, O full of grace, O Immaculate Virgin. Amen.
ASPIRATION: O Mary, my hope, to you I entrust my soul.
LITTLE WORK: Abstain during the day from innocent acts of curiosity.
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!
