Ave Maria Meditations
The Graces of Mary’s Immaculate Heart
We can say in truth that Jesus is the fruit of Mary’s heart as well as of her womb, and that the faithful are the fruits of the same heart, because the very virtues of faith, humility, purity, love, and charity, which rendered her worthy to become the Mother of God, made her also the Mother of all God’s children.
As the Eternal Father gave her the power to conceive his Son in her heart and in her virginal womb, by clothing her with the divine virtue whereby he generates his divine Son from all eternity in his own adorable bosom, so also did God grant her the power to form Christ and give birth to him in the hearts of the children of Adam, who thus became members of Jesus Christ and sons of God. Even as Mary conceived and will eternally bear her Son Jesus Christ in her heart, she also conceives and holds forever in the same heart all the holy members of our divine Head. They are her beloved children, the fruits of her maternal heart, and she offers them to the divine majesty as a perpetual sacrifice.
I could quote many holy Fathers and illustrious Doctors to show how Almighty God saved mankind “in the midst of the earth,” that is, in the holy heart of Mary, Mother of Jesus. Her heart cooperated with his divine mercy, having received such a plenitude of grace, according to the Angelic Doctor, Saint Thomas, that she became enabled to cooperate with her Son in the salvation of all men. This inspires Saint Bonaventure to say that her heart is the source of universal salvation, “All salvation springs from Mary’s heart.”
All this being conceded, what must be our obligations towards the most charitable heart of our Blessed Mother! What gratitude can we show, what praises can we sing, what feast can we celebrate in honor of her heart, that will be worthy of her excessive charity towards us, and of the favors granted to us by divine mercy through her intercession?
Mary is the center of the earth in which our salvation was wrought. She is also the center of the renewed world: the Christian world, the road of the new man, the world of divine love and holy charity.
St. John Eudes (feast day is August 19th)
