Day 8 – May 29th – Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
de Pazzi
~Prayers~
O my sovereign Queen and worthy
Mother of my God, most holy Mary; I seeing myself, as I do, so despicable and
loaded with so many sins, ought not to presume to call thee Mother, or even to
approach thee; yet I will not allow my miseries to deprive me of the
consolation and confidence that I feel in calling thee mother; I know well that
I deserve that thou shouldst reject me; but I beseech thee to remember all that
thy Son Jesus has endured for me, and then reject me if thou canst. I am a wretched sinner, who, more than all
others, have despised the infinite majesty of God: but the evil is done. To thee have I recourse; thou canst help me;
my Mother, help me. Say not that thou canst
not do so; for I know that thou art all-powerful, and that thou obtainest whatever
thou desirest of God; and if thou sayest that thou wilt not help me, tell me at
least to whom I can apply in this my so great misfortune. "Either pity me," will I say with
the devout St. Anselm, "O my Jesus, and forgive me, and do thou pity me, my
Mother Mary, by interceding for me, or at least tell me to whom I can have
recourse, who is more compassionate, or in whom I can have greater confidence
than in thee.” (Prayer of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, The Glories of Mary)
O God, Who lovest virginity, and
who didst make thy blessed Virgin Mary Magdalen a-fire with the love of
thyself, and rich with thy heavenly gifts, grant unto us, who honour her memory
by a yearly feast, the grace to copy the ensample of her purity and of her
tenderness. Through Jesus Christ, thy
Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy
Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
(Missale Romanum)
~Reading for Meditation~
Taken from True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, by Saint Louis Marie de
Montfort
Mary is the Queen of heaven and
earth by grace as Jesus is king by nature and by conquest. But as the kingdom
of Jesus Christ exists primarily in the heart or interior of man, according to
the words of the Gospel, "The kingdom of God is within you", so the
kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is principally in the interior of man, that is,
in his soul. It is principally in souls that she is glorified with her Son more
than in any visible creature. So we may call her, as the saints do, Queen of
our hearts.
We must conclude that, being
necessary to God by a necessity which is called "hypothetical", (that
is, because God so willed it), the Blessed Virgin is all the more necessary for
men to attain their final end. Consequently we must not place devotion to her
on the same level as devotion to the other saints as if it were merely
something optional.
She enriches our good works by
adorning them with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a poor peasant,
wishing to win the friendship and favour of the king, were to go the queen and
give her an apple - his only possession - for her to offer it to the king. The
queen, accepting the peasant's humble gift, puts it on a beautiful golden dish
and presents it to the king on behalf of the peasant. The apple in itself would
not be a gift worthy of a king, but presented by the queen in person on a dish
of gold, it becomes fit for any king.
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