The Spiritual Exercises outline the rigorous self-examination and spiritual meditations of St. Ignatius, written to pave a path to holiness through contemplation, prayer, and discipline. This excerpt offers a thorough meditation on the spiritual and earthly motherhood of the Virgin Mary.
Preparatory Prayer
First Prelude
See Mary at the foot of the cross; hear Jesus saying to you, “Behold thy Mother!”
Second Prelude
Ask of Jesus a filial love for Mary your Mother.
Considerations
1. That Mary was given you for your Mother.
2. That she has really shown herself a Mother to you.
3. That you ought to be a confiding and devoted son to her.
First Point
Mary has been given you for a Mother
Consider, then, in your heart all the circumstances of this gift.
1. She was given to you by Jesus Christ, God and Master of all creatures, from whom emanates all power, paternal and maternal; by Jesus Christ the God-Saviour, who had already sacrificed for you the body and lavished the blood He derived from Mary. Having nothing more to give you but her, He bestows her on you as a complement of all His gifts.
2. She is given to you in the clearest terms, the strongest, the most precise, to enable you to realize what they signify: “Behold your Mother.” Jesus said, in showing the bread, “This is My body”; and the bread became His body. Pointing to His Mother, He says, “Behold thy Mother”; Mary immediately became our Mother.
3. She was given to you under the most serious and solemn circumstances. Jesus, dying, makes His last dispositions and signifies His last will. Alone of all the disciples the beloved John is present to receive in the name of all Christians the last gift that their Divine Master makes to them. Thus all the fathers and doctors of the Church have understood it.
4. She is given you “for your Mother.” Feel these words at the bottom of your heart. Recall to yourself that man does not live only by bread; that his soul as well as his body has a life to receive and support. It is in this supernatural order that Mary is your Mother; if you live to grace, it is through her. The principle of this spiritual life is in Jesus; but Mary’s is the bosom that bore you, the milk that nourished you, the maternal heart that always loves its children even when ungrateful.
5. Why was a mother according to grace given to you? And why was this mother the mother of God? Interrogate Jesus in profound recollection of heart. He wished to become your brother both by father and mother; He wished that all should be in common between you; He wished that if the infinite height of His divinity terrified you, a creature, His mother and yours, should serve as your advocate, your refuge and your mediatrix with Him; He wished to encourage the most timid, open the hearts most oppressed by fear, offer to all the sweetest motive for trust, always well founded, never too great; for a mother always loves her child; and Jesus, Son of Mary, will always love His mother.
Second Point
Mary has always shown herself your Mother
1. She received you to her heart when Jesus gave you to her for her child; so the Scripture calls Jesus Christ her first-born (Matt. 1:25). You ought to be born in her and by her, after Him.
2. She has nourished you, not only by the graces her prayers have obtained for you, but also in a real manner by the Body and Blood of her Son given to you in the Eucharist.
3. She has anticipated you, cared for you, loaded you with favors. All the graces you have received from the Lord have been solicited and obtained by her. So, your call to the faith, the grace of a Christian education, of a first communion; the grace of conversion and retreat, the grace that now leads you to give yourself entirely to God—all come to you from Jesus through Mary (St. Bernard).
4. At need, Mary obtains for the defense and salvation of her children extraordinary graces and wonderful miracles. What prodigies have caused, sustained, spread everywhere, confidence among Christian people! What striking proofs of her protection the Church recalls to our memory by solemn feasts and pious practices, enriched by precious indulgences! What titles Christians give her to testify their gratitude: “Help of Christians, health of the sick, comfort of the afflicted, refuge of sinners, gate of heaven, our life, our sweetness, our hope!” What a concourse of people to the places where she is most honored, where she obtains the most succors to those who invoke her! What prayers and acts of thanksgiving at the foot of her altars! And in our days what conquests made by Our Lady of Victories! What favors bestowed on all hearts devoted to the heart of Mary!
5. Her protection, “strong as an army” (Cant. 6), preserves her faithful children from all dangers; she is for them an assured pledge of predestination. So the doctors of the Church believe, who assure us “that a servant of Mary cannot perish.”
Third Point
We then owe to our Mother love, confidence, imitation, zeal to spread devotion to her
1. Love for her who is the beloved of Our Lord; gratitude toward her who has loaded us with benefits, filial affection for our Mother.
2. Confidence. Her power and her title of Mother were given to her that our trust in her might be unlimited, that we might know that she would always be able and willing to help us.
3. Imitation. She expects from us this proof of true love. Does not the child naturally resemble the mother? Let this resemblance in us be the fruit of our efforts, of a careful study and practice of her virtues. Sons of a virgin, let us be pure; sons of the Mother of sorrows, let us be faithful to Jesus, even unto the cross.
4. Zeal to spread her devotion. A sincere love will produce this zeal. We must praise and defend all the practices authorized by the Church; her images must be venerated and distributed; we must love to wear her livery, to visit the places where she is honored; take pleasure in singing her praises, in preceding her feasts by penance and in sanctifying them by the reception of the holy Eucharist. Let us honor the sacred heart of Mary and honor it by a particular devotion.
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This article is taken from a chapter in Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius by Saint Ignatius of Loyola which is available from TAN Books.