Thoughts of Mary – 21 May – “Mary’s Month”
The Source of Comfort
Moments with Saint Pope John XXIII (1881-1963)
Motives for melancholy are never in short supply – and when were they ever lacking in the history of the world? – because of the inexorable alternation in human life of sadness and joy.
Sometimes, these mix and merge together and when that happens, we would try in vain to separate them.
A wise man, a wise Christian, must do all he can to free himself from sad thoughts and, at all times, have recourse to those sources of comfort, which transform suffering into motives of love, of merit, of present and eternal joy.
The Mother of Jesus, who is our Mother too – oh how I love to associate these two titles! – is one of the richest sources of our consolation, the richest after Jesus, who is, of His very nature, Light and Life! – she, is rich in comfort and joy and encouragement, for all the children of Eve, who have become her own children through the redemptive sacrifice and will of Christ.
This explains, the whole world’s devotion to the Virgin, whom her saintly cousin, Elizabeth, truly hailed as “Blessed,” in reply to Mary’s confession of humility in the Magnificat, which remains the everlasting canticle of mankind redeemed, the song of the past, present ad future.
AnaStpaul 