St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, The Inexhaustible Fountain Part 1

The fourth symbolic picture of Our Lady’s most blessed Heart is the wonderful fountain that God caused to spring from the ground at the beginning of the world, as described in the second chapter of Genesis. “A spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth.” St. Bonaventure tells us that this fountain was a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “She was prefigured in the fountain that sprang from the earth.” But we have equal reason to say that this represented her Heart, which is truly a living fountain whose heavenly waters irrigate not only the whole earth, but every created thing in Heaven as well as on earth. Mary is the sealed fountain of the holy Spouse, which her divine Bridegroom calls “a fountain sealed up,” for it remained sealed not only against the world, the devil and every kind of sin, but it was closed even to the Cherubim and Seraphim, who could not penetrate the marvellous secrets or comprehend the inestimable treasures hidden by God in Our Lady’s pure Heart.

All we can say is that Mary’s immaculate Heart is a fountain of light, a fountain of holy and blessed water, a fountain of living and life-giving water, a fountain of milk and honey and a fountain of wine. It is the source of a great river, nay, of four miraculous streams, and finally, it is the source of an infinity of blessings and goodness.

The Heart of Mary, as well as her name, which means “enlightened” or “the one who enlightens,” and also “star of the sea,” is indeed a true fountain of light. Holy Church considers and honors her as the resplendent door of pure light; Tu porta lucis fulgida, and salutes her as the portal through which divine Light entered the world: Salve porta, ex qua mundo lux est orta. Truly the Heart of Mary is the fountain of the sun, because Mary is the Mother of the Sun of Justice, and this divine Sun is the fruit of Mary’s Heart.

Mary’s Heart is a fountain of water, but one of blessed, holy and precious water. I here speak of the innumerable tears that poured from this sacred fountain and, united with those of the Redeemer Himself, cooperated in our redemption. O Mary, how many streams of tears have flowed from thine eyes, with their source in thy loving, charitable, devoted and merciful Heart! Tears of love, tears of charity, tears of joy, of sorrow and of compassion! How often did not the ardent love of the maternal Heart for thy infinitely lovable Son cause thee to shed bitter tears, beholding Him so little loved, so much hated, offended and dishonored by the majority of men, although it was the duty of man to serve Him? How often thy burning charity for souls caused thee to weep because through their own malice, millions of precious souls would be lost, notwithstanding all that He did and suffered in order to save them? How many times have the holy angels witnessed tears of sublime devotion coursing down thy beautiful face, as thou wast absorbed in holy communion with the Divine Majesty? All the saints were granted the gift of tears, which could not possibly have been wanting in the Mother of Sorrows who has assured us that she possesses the fulness of gifts bestowed on all the saints.

The most pure Heart of Mary is also a fountain of living water, which means a fountain of grace. This ought not to astonish us, for the Archangel Gabriel declared long ago that the Mother of the Saviour was full of grace, gratia plena, and the Church calls her Mater gratiae, Mother of Grace, and Mater divinae gratiae, Mother of Divine Grace. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, affirms that Our Lady is so full of grace that out of her abundance she can dispense graces to all men.

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, The Sun

The sun is the second symbolic picture which God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has deigned to give us of the Immaculate Heart of the Queen ~ of heaven and earth. God did not create the natural sun, our wonderful luminary, merely to enlighten our material world; He made it also to be a representation of the excellent perfections which shine in the luminous Heart of the world’s Sovereign Lady.

We should remember that the infinite power of God has divided this great universe into three different states or orders, namely the state of nature, the state of grace and the state of glory. His divine wisdom has nevertheless established such a perfect bond, relationship and resemblance among these three states and among the beings existing in these orders that whatever is in the order of nature is an image-of the things belonging to the order of grace, and whatever belongs to the order of nature and grace is a figure of what is to be seen in the state of glory.

Hence, the sun, which is truly the heart of the visible world, and the most beautiful and glowing gem of nature, gives us, in spite of its dazzling light, only a very faint shadow of our heavenly Sun, the Heart of the Mother of God.

Sacred Scripture calls the sun an admirable vessel, the work of the Sovereign Lord. “An admirable instrument, the work of the Most High. Great is the Lord that made him,” But we can say of the most excellent Heart of the Mother of God that it is an incomparable masterpiece of God’s almighty hand. It is a compendium of all the marvels He has worked in pure creatures, and will be the eternal object of the admiration and delight of angels and men. Great indeed is He who made it, because His divine magnificence appears in her admirable Heart more clearly than in all the other wonderful things of nature, grace and glory.

Mary’s Heart is surrounded, filled, penetrated by light, and her light is incomparably more brilliant and radiant than all the lights of the celestial spaces. It is all light, and after God, it is the first source of the lights which shine in the firmament of the Church. “I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth.”

Yes, hers is indeed the heart of the entire world, the heart of Heaven and earth, the heart of the Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant, since the Holy Spirit bids us sing: Vitam datam per Virginem, gentes redemptae plaudite. “All ye nations, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, rejoice, sing the praises of your Redeemer and His glorious Mother! You were condemned to eternal death, and the Son of Mary has made you free; the Mother of Jesus has restored life to you, even eternal life, by giving you her Son, who is Life essential and the source of all life.”

The solar sun has been in perpetual motion since its creation in space, and it travels so rapidly that mathematicians calculate its speed to be over one million leagues an hour. Similarly, the holy Heart of Mary, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, has been completely kept in motion by love for God and charity towards mankind. As long as Mary, the admirable Sun of Light and Purity, was on earth, she sped or rather flew with such celerity on the path of sanctity that the speed of our material sun is simply a shadow and a figure by comparison. For this holy Sun, Mary’s immaculate Heart, progressed incomparably farther in the mystical and supernatural way of the world of grace than the material sun which revolves around our visible world.

St. Germanus of Constantinople calls the Heart of Mary the happiness of the entire world. Commune mundi gaudium. And St. John Damascene says that it is an ocean of inexhaustible delight: Gaudii pelagus inexhaustum.

“Take away the sun that enlightens our material world,” says St. Bernard, “what will become of day or light? Take away Mary, the Star of the Sea, or take away the Heart of Mary, the true Sun of the Christian World, and what would be left? Without Mary’s radiance, nothing is left but enveloping darkness, the shadow of death and the frightful night of the grave.”