“To Jesus through Mary” is a famous quote by Saint Louis De Monforte. It means Mary is directing us to Jesus through her love and her intercession. “Mary is all-holy. For the community of believers she represents the paradigm of the authentic holiness that is achieved in union with Christ” (General Audience- Mary: Model of Faith, Hope, and Charity, Saint John Paul II September 3, 1997). Mary provides us a model of how to become holy through her virtues. While there are many virtues, I will be drawing inspiration from Mary’s ten principal virtues, which are deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom (True Devotion to Mary paragraph 108, St. Louis De Monfort).
Deep Humility
Last year, I was fortunate to meet and hear a keynote address by Sister Dede (Deirdre) Byrne, POSC. She gave an amazing talk that was very inspiring. As she was leaving the stage, the crowd gave her a standing ovation. During the standing ovation, she went back up to the microphone and said, “Do not clap for me, clap for Him!”. I loved Sister Dede’s boldness and redirection. She did not do the keynote merely to be praised, but she did it to glorify God. How often in the secular world we can take the credit for our material things, talents, and works. For example, when we receive a compliment how often we often feel a sense of pride, or self-worth, or self-accomplishment, or self-importance. If it wasn’t for God, we wouldn’t have our things, our talents, or our works. Like Mary, we should direct everything that we are and everything we have to Him, to give Him glory. Mary does this beautifully when she recites the Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke, “‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid; for behold, henceforth all generations shall call be blessed; because he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name …’” (Luke 1:46-50). When we practice humility, we think of ourselves less and direct our attention towards Him and give Him glory.
Lively Faith
Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN said, “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous. When you have God, you don’t have to know everything about it; you just do it.” This is faith. Faith is “believing that what God has revealed is true-not because its intrinsic truth is seen with the rational light of reason-but because of the authority of God who reveals it, of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.” (First Vatican Council, Denzinger 3008). Faith goes beyond our human reason. Faith originates with God. We must put all our trust in Him. Mother Angelica did a lot of “ridiculous” things because she had faith in God. In a biography written by Raymond Royale, he retells this story of when Mother Angelica followed God’s will to start EWTN. In doing so, she bought a satellite for 1.5 million dollar with only $200 in her bank account. This is what happens when the man delivers the satellite to her in Alabama and is expecting a down payment.
“She goes out to greet the delivery man, and she’s stalling–she’s taking the guy on a tour of the monastery, she’s handing out cookies, anything to keep him from asking for the money. Finally, he asks for the $600,000 [delivery down payment] and she says– ‘Let me go pray for a minute, I’ll be right back.’ She goes into the chapel and she kneels down and as spouses are wont to do, she kind of tried to make her spouse feel guilty. She says, ‘I thought you wanted this satellite Lord and I wheeled and dealed and I got it for you and now I’m having a little problem, we need this money or I’m going to have to turn your satellite away.’
And she kind of waits for the money to fall from the ceiling and it doesn’t, so she decides to get up and turn the delivery truck away. And as she walks out, one of the sisters comes running out of the monastery and says, ‘Mother, there is a man on the phone and he’s very insistent, he needs to talk to you and he won’t get off the line.’ She said, ‘But, I got big business out here, Sister.’ She says, ‘I know, but he’s very insistent.’ So she says, ‘Oh, give me the phone.’ So she talks to this guy. It’s a businessman calling from his yacht in the Bahamas. He read one of her little spiritual books she had written, a little mini book, tracts on the spiritual life, years before. He’s calling because this book changed his life, helped him reconcile with his family and he’s calling to make a donation to her book ministry, a donation of $600,000. She says, ‘Can you send it right now?’” (https://epicpew.com/mother-angelicas-business-101/)
Mary has great faith. After the Annunciation, when Mary was with child, she wasn’t able to reveal the news to Joseph. “But she felt obliged to keep God’s great secret to herself until He gave her permission to reveal it to anyone. With deep wisdom and confidence, she resigned the whole matter into the hands of the Divine Providence” (The Life of Mary as Seen By the Mystics, p. 93). But it was clear to Joseph that Mary was with child based on her physical appearance and this was causing him anxiety. This too was causing Mary anxiety, for she felt like she could not tell him because she was obligated by God. Mary had prayed to God saying, “‘I beseech Thee, Lord, not to permit him to carry out this decision and leave me!’” (The Life of Mary as Seen By the Mystics, p. 93). That night, God sent the Angel Gabriel to Joseph in a dreaming saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take thee Mary thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:19-20). Sometimes in the case of Mary and Mother Angelica, God waits until the very last moment to intervene. It takes great courage to put our faith and trust in God, beyond our human reason. All things are possible with God.
Blind Obedience
Obedience is conforming your will to His Will. Mary’s fiat at the Annunciation is an example of blind obedience.
But Mary said to the angel, “‘How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?’ And the angel said to her in reply, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.’ … Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:34-38).
Even though she accepted God’s Will she didn’t know all the details of God’s plan. You could say she followed “blindly.” As Jesus says, “‘You are my friends if you do as I command’” (John 15:14). Mary knew that this was God’s Will for her to be the Mother of God. In her not knowing all the detail of God’s plan, she followed God “blindly.” Blind obedience takes love, trust, and humility. Blind obedience takes love because if we truly love someone, we will do what they say no matter the cost. Think of Mary at the foot of the cross with Jesus. Mary loves Jesus so much she is willing to be with her Son every step of the way no matter how much suffering she endured seeing him tortured and crucified. Blind obedience takes trust, because we have to trust Jesus to lead us. Lastly, blind obedience takes humility, because in order to trust God, we need to have humility. As C.S. Lewis says, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of ourself less.” When we think of ourselves less that allows space for us to love God more. We below are like little “handmaids” of the Lord. As Mary said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Truly, Our Lady is a great example of blind obedience as she gave her fiat, her yes to God to follow His Word for the salvation of many!
Unceasing Prayer
Prayer is about a personal relationship with God. This does not mean we do our daily prayer and we are done for the rest of the day or going to Mass and checking off the box. No, prayer is much more than that. Prayer is intimacy with God. According to St. John Damascene, prayer is defined as “the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, or requesting good things from God” (CCC 2559). Everything we do can be offered as a prayer, if we love God with all our mind and heart in doing it. All of our sufferings and even joys can be offered as prayers. Offering up the Mass can be a form of prayer. As St. Augustine said, “To sing is to double pray.” Praising God is prayer. Saying formal prayers is an example of praying. Reading the Bible is a form of prayer. We can also ask God for good things in prayer. We can ask Him to heal sick family members or friends. We can ask God to increase our virtue. We can ask God to help us with difficult tasks. We can ask God for protection against the evil one. Prayer is essential for the spiritual life. It is so essential that in every Marian apparition, Our Lady tells us to pray. She even gave us the gift of the Rosary as prayer. Mary encourages us to pray to deepen our relationship with her Son. Mary’s whole life was unceasing prayer because every moment of every day was uniting her heart to His Heart.
Constant Self-Denial
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24). In order for us to let God into our hearts, we need less of ourselves and more of Him. In self-denial, we are practicing detachment. We need to let go of our idols so that we can enter true communion with Jesus. “Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 2113). As Jesus says in the Gospel, “‘Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ ”(Matthew 19:24). The eye of a needle at that time was a reference to a smaller gate that only a camel with no baggage could enter through. If we want to enter in through the Gate of Heaven, we need to detach ourselves from our baggage, idols, and things. When we practice self-denial, we allow more room in our soul for God.
Our Lady practices constant self-denial. Anytime the Holy Family received income or gifts, they only kept one third. They gave one third to the temple, one third to the poor, and kept only one third for themselves (The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics, p. 69). Mary and Joseph were often times so poor that they lacked the necessaries, even when Mary was pregnant, because they gave so much to the poor and they did not set a price for their labor but only accepted what the person was willing to give (The Life of Mary As Seen By The Mystics, p. 98). Because Mary and Joseph had physically less, they had more room for God.
While getting rid of our things is one aspect of self-denial, there are other ways to practice this virtue. You could fast from food or drink to offer up a pray intention, giving up eating a certain food for a period of time, letting a family member pick out an activity instead of you, letting someone else have the last slice of pizza, etc. Life’s pleasures are not a bad thing in themselves, but to live a properly ordered life, ordered toward God’s love, self-denial is a necessity. For example, God created cocoa beans in which we make chocolate. Chocolate is delicious and God certainly wants us to enjoy the foods on this earth He created for us. But if we become attached to chocolate, it will impede our relationship with the Lord. The art of self-denial is putting the emphasis on God rather than our own wants and needs.
Surpassing Purity
Purity is “freedom from anything that weakens or impairs or changes the nature of a being or its activity. (Modern Catholic Dictionary by John Hardon, p. 452). Some of us can relate to Mary’s purity via virginity, which is beautiful, but not all of us women are called to virginity because some of us are called to marriage. However, purity within our marriages can be only sharing ourselves emotionally, physically, and spiritually with our spouses only and not another man. Purity also relates to Mary’s sinlessness. We can go to Confession to free ourselves from our sinful nature and receive the grace to help us to sin no more. Modesty, a form of purity, relates to how we present ourselves as women. Modesty doesn’t mean frumpy, but presenting our bodies in a beautiful way that represents how God created us in His Image.
Ardent Love
The greatest act of love the world will ever know is Jesus Christ dying, being crucified on the Cross for our salvation. (Eucharistic Concelebration with The New Cardinals and Presentation of the Cardinal’s Ring, Homily of Pope Benedict XVI, St Peter’s Basilica Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe Sunday, 25 November 2007). Although Mary was not crucified like Jesus, because her heart was so close to His Heart, she bore the pain of the Crucifix physically and spiritually. This suffering is only possible by ardent love. Ardent comes from the Latin word ardere, which means “to burn.” Mary had such an ardent love for God that she was willing to suffer as much as Christ suffered, as she explains to St. Bridget of Sweden in a vision:
“‘Because I was very close to Him during His Passion and did not allow myself to be separated from Him, for I stood next to His Cross, and because the nearer something is to the heart the keener is its stab, so His suffering was more painful to me than to others…Therefore I boldly assert that His suffering became my suffering because His Heart was mine…Then in the excessive anguish of His humanity He cried to His Father: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!’ When I, His Most Sorrowful Mother, heard these words, in my keen grief of heart all my limbs trembled-and indeed as often as I later thought of that cry, I could hear it again in my ears’” (The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics, 214-216).
In bearing this suffering comes great joy as Jesus has saved us from our sins in dying on the Cross. When we have a burning love for God, an ardent love of Him, it is inevitable we will experience suffering, but we will also experience equal if not more joy. The result of Jesus’s suffering opened the gates of Heaven and allowed us to have eternal joy with Him.
Heroic Patience
The word patience comes from the Latin word patientia, which means the quality of suffering and enduring. In the waiting there is suffering and endurance is required. The suffering can be fruitful for our souls because it causes us to cling to God more deeply.
Mary spoke to Mother Agreda (in referring to Jesus being lost at the Temple) saying, “‘The Lord absented Himself from me in order that by seeking Him in sorrow and tears I might find Him again in joy and with abundant fruits for my soul. In my great love the uncertainty as to the cause of His withdrawal gave me no rest until I found Him’”(The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics, 156). Whatever or whomever we are waiting for, the Lord allows us to suffer so that we can cling to Him. He gives us the grace to sustain us and as a result, we continue to bear fruit.
Angelic Kindness
Kindness, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, is the quality of understanding sympathy and concern for those in trouble or need (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=34440&randomterm=false). The kindness of Mary is epitomized in the Memorare Prayer, “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided”. Mary will not turn anyone away. She is always happily ready to serve us, to intercede for us because Jesus has entrusted Mary to us when he was on the Cross. Jesus said to Mary, “‘Woman behold your son’” (John 19:16). Mary is our trusted Heavenly Mother who is always loving us with her sweetness.
Heavenly Wisdom
According to St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologiae, “wisdom is both the knowledge of and judgment about ‘divine things’ and the ability to judge and direct human affairs accordingly”. (I/I.1.6; I/II.69.3; II/II.8.6; II/II.45.1–5). Mary has heavenly wisdom because Jesus revealed these secrets to her (Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics, 160). Therefore, only by God’s Grace in revealing His Wisdom does Mary possess such Wisdom. One of the titles of Mary is: “Our Lady Seat of Wisdom.” As baptized Catholics, we receive the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit at Baptism, one of them being wisdom. We can continue to strive for wisdom by receiving the Sacraments and having greater intimacy with the Lord.
Conclusion
“If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ” (Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary: With Preparation for Total Consecration). Mary only has these virtues because of God’s grace. We can obtain these graces too through God’s grace and continue to ask Mary to intercede for us as we grow closer to her Son.
