St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary
Mary’s Heart, The Inexhaustible Fountain Part 2
Her most generous Heart is indeed a fountain of living waters whose salutary streams flow on all sides, over the land of the wicked as well as of the just, in imitation of the All-good and All-merciful Heart of our Heavenly Father who causes His providential rain to fall on the good and the bad alike. This is the reason why the Holy Ghost calls the charitable Heart of the Mother of Mercy “the fountain of gardens,” fons hortorum. In another passage He names it the fountain that “shall water the torrent of thorns.” What are these gardens, what is this torrent of thorns, watered by this beautiful fountain?
The gardens are all the Orders of the Church that lead a truly Christian and holy life. They are delicious gardens for the Son of God, blooming with flowers and fruit that the Spouse longs for when she exclaims: “Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.” These mystical gardens likewise represent all holy souls, no matter what their state or condition, in whom the heavenly Bridegroom finds His delight among the flowers of holy thoughts, desires and affections, and among the refreshing fruits of virtues and good works.
The thorns represent the wicked, whose lives are infested with the thorns of their sins, This torrent is the world, which resembles an impetuous torrent, full of refuse and evil odors, making much noise, but flowing swiftly past, dragging the majority of men into the abyss of perdition. “The world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof.”
But the Heart of the Mother of Mercy is so full of goodness that its effects are felt even by the torrent of thorns, or rather, by the poor thorns which are swept in this torrent to be thrown into the eternal whirlpool of hell. The wonderful waters of her holy fountain, coming in contact with these barren and dead thorns, fit only for eternal fire, cause many of them to awaken to new life, and some are even transformed into beautiful trees that bear quantities of good fruit, worthy to be placed on the table of the Eternal King. The reason is that this fountain’s divine waters are not only living, but lifegiving. Mary’s Heart is, therefore, not only a fountain of living waters but a fountain of life, and of life eternal.
But it is not enough to love life without furnishing the substance to nourish and sustain it. For this reason, Mary’s maternal Heart is not only a fountain of living and life-giving waters; it is, moreover, a fountain of milk, of honey, of oil and of wine.
The Heart of the Mother of Fair Love is a fountain of milk and honey for all her children, especially for those who are still weak, tender and delicate, not yet capable of taking more solid food.
Her Heart is also a fountain of oil, that is, of mercy for all sinners. It is, moreover, a fountain of wine to give strength and vigor to the weak and comfort to the sorrowful and afflicted, according to the divine words: “Give strong drink to them that are sad: and wine to them that are grieved in mind.”
All those who comfort other men for the sake of charity, and, above all, who work for the salvation of their neighbor, should be inebriated with the wine of divine love! To such as these our charitable Mother, ever burning with zeal for the salvation of souls, cries in a loud voice:
“Come, children, come beloved of my Heart, come, draw from the fountain of your Mother’s Heart the heavenly wine of divine love; drink long and deep; filled with the rapture of the spirit, you need fear no excess. Drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved. Drink of this pure wine, father of virginity and of all holy virgins. ‘Wine springing forth virgins.’
“This heavenly wine fills the Seraphim with delight; it inebriated the Apostles of my Divine Son; it filled the Redeemer Himself with holy rapture when, in the excess of His love for you, He renounced the grandeurs of His divinity and humbled Himself in the lowly crib and on the ignominious Cross. Drink with Him of this delicious wine, that you may forget and despise what the world loves and esteems, that you may love and value God alone, and exert yourself with all your might to establish the reign of His love and His glory in the souls of men. Thus will you become the beloved children of His Heart and of my own.”
Who will give me a voice strong enough to be heard in all the world, crying to all men: “All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no money make haste, buy, and eat: Come ye, buy wine and milk without money, and without any price.”
You who thirst vainly after the false honors of the world, come instead to the most honorable Heart of the Queen of Heaven, and you will learn by the example of this Heart’s thirst for the glory of God alone, that true honor consists in following His Divine Majesty: “It is great glory to follow the Lord.” Every other honor is only smoke, vanity and illusion.
You who thirst after the riches of earth, come hither, and you will find incomparable treasures. You who thirst after worldly pleasures, come and you will find the contentment of the angels, the delights of God, the peace and joy of the children of God and of God’s Mother, according to the divine promise addressed to each faithful soul: “Behold I will bring upon her as it were a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the Gentiles.”
Emerge from the filth of the world’s horrible torrent, of the torrent of thorns that is whirling you into the abyss of perdition! Emerge and enter the sweet waters of the river of peace. Give yourself up in holy ecstasy to this torrent of delights.
AnaStpaul 