Ave Maria Meditations
“God sent His Son, born of a woman.” (Gal. 4:4)
This woman is Mary, and she is a virgin. It is from her, and from her alone, that Christ takes His human nature; it is to her He owes it that He is Son of Man; she is truly Mother of God. Mary, therefore, occupies a transcendent, essential and unique place in Christianity. In the same way as the quality “Son of God”, so is Mary united to Jesus: indeed, the Virgin Mary enters into the mystery of the incarnation by a title belonging to the very nature of the mystery.
We must be, like Jesus, Filius Dei and Filius Mariae; He is both of these perfectly; if then we wish to reproduce His likeness within us, we must bear this twofold quality. No piety would be truly Christian if it did not include in its object the Mother of the Incarnate Word. Devotion towards the Virgin Mary is not only important, but necessary, if you wish to draw abundantly at the source of life.
To separate Christ from His Mother in our piety is to divide Christ; it is to lose sight of the essential mission of His sacred humanity in the distribution of divine grace. Where the mother is left out, the Son is no longer understood. How can we love Him truly, how can we resemble Him perfectly, without having a special devotion to her from whom He took this human nature?
Blessed Columba Marmion
