Day 5 – February 6 – Feast of Saint Titus and Saint Dorothy
Prayers-
O Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our mother, from the
heights of your dignity look down mercifully upon us while we, full of
confidence in your unbounded goodness and confident that your Divine Son will
look favorably upon any request you make of Him in our behalf, we beseech you
to come to our aid and secure for us the favor we seek in this novena. (make
your request) O Brilliant star of
purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption,
triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God,
Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation.
Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
By thine Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure
and my spirit holy. Ave Maria…
O God, Who adorned blessed Titus, Your
Confessor and Bishop, with the virtues of an apostle, grant, through his merits
and intercession, that by living justly and piously in this world, we may be
found worthy to enter heaven. 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.
May blessed Dorothy, Virgin and Martyr, who
was ever pleasing to You by the merit of her chastity and by her trust in Your
power, implore for us Your forgiveness, we beseech You, O Lord. 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.
Reading –
Taken from the first
part of the Discourse on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by Saint
Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
In the first place, it was befitting that the Eternal Father
should preserve Mary from the stain of original sin, because she was his daughter,
and his first-born daughter, as she herself declares: I came out of the
mouth of the Most High, the first-born before all creatures ("Ego ex ore Altissimi prodivi, primogenita ante
omnem creaturam"—Ecclus. xxiv. 5). For this text is
applied to Mary by sacred interpreters, the holy Fathers, and by the Church on
the solemnity of her Conception. For whether she be the first-born
inasmuch as she was predestined in the divine decrees, together with the Son,
before all creatures, according to the Scotists; or the first-born of grace as
the predestined Mother of the Redeemer, after the prevision of sin, according
to the Thomists; nevertheless all agree in calling her the first-born of
God. This being the case, it was quite becoming that Mary should never
have been the slave of Lucifer, but only and always possessed by her Creator;
and this she in reality was, as we are assured by herself: The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of His ways ("Dominus
possedit me in initio viarum suarum"—Prov. viii. 22,).
Hence Denis of Alexandria rightly calls Mary "the one and only daughter of
life" ("Una et sola, Filia vitae"—Ep. Contra Paul. Sam.).
She is the one and only daughter of life, in contradistinction to others who,
being born in sin, are daughters of death.
Besides this, it was quite becoming that the Eternal Father
should create her in his grace, since he destined her to be the repairer of the
lost world, and the mediatress of peace between men and God; and, as such she
is looked upon and spoken of by the holy Fathers, and in particular by St. John
Damascene, who thus addresses her: "O Blessed Virgin, thou wast born that
thou mightest minister to the salvation of the whole world" ("In vitam prodiisti, ut orbis universi
Administram te praeberes"—De Nat. B. V. s. 1). For
this reason, St. Bernard says "that Noah's ark was a type of Mary; for as,
by its means, men were preserved from the deluge, so are we all saved by Mary
from the shipwreck of sin: but with the difference, that in the ark few were saved,
and by Mary the whole human race was rescued from death" ("Sicut per illam omnes evaserunt diluviam, sic
per istam peccati naufragium; per illam paucorum facta est liberation, per
istam humani generic salvation"—S. de B. M. Deip).
Therefore, in a sermon found amongst the works of St. Athanasius, she is called
"the new Eve, and the Mother of life" ("Nova
Eva, Mater vitae"—In Annunt.); and not without reason, for the
first was the Mother of death, but the most Blessed Virgin was the Mother of
true life. St. Theophanius, of Nice, addressing Mary, says, "Hail,
thou who hast taken away Eve's sorrow!" (Salve,
quae sustulisti tristitiam Evae"—Men. Grac. 9 Jan. Od. 8).
St. Basil of Seieucia calls her the peace-maker between men and God:
"Hail thou who art appointed umpire between God and men!" and St.
Ephrem, the peace-maker of the whole world: "Hail, reconciler of the whole
world!" ("Ave, totius orbis
Conciliatrix!"—De Laud. Dei Gen).
But now, it certainly would not be becoming to choose an enemy
to treat of peace with the offended person, and still less an accomplice in the
crime itself. St. Gregory (Past. P.
1, c. 11) says, "that an enemy cannot undertake to appease his
judge, who is at the same time the injured party; for if he did, instead of
appeasinghim, he would provoke him to greater wrath." And therefore,
as Mary was to be the mediatress of peace between men and God, it was of the
utmost importance that she should not herself appear as a sinner and as an
enemy of God, but that she should appear in all things as a friend, and free
from every stain.
Still more was it becoming that God should preserve her
from original sin, for he destined her to crush the head of that infernal
serpent, which, by seducing our first parents, entailed death upon all men: and
this our Lord foretold: I will put enemities between thee and the
woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head ("Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et
semen tuum et semen illius; ipsa conteret caput tuum"—Gen. iii. 15).
But if Mary was to be that valiant woman brought into the world to conquer
Lucifer, certainly it was not becoming that he should first conquer her, and
make her his slave; but it was reasonable that she should be preserved from all
stain, and even momentary subjection to her opponent. The proud spirit
endeavored to infect the most pure soul of this Virgin with his venom, as he
had already infected the whole human race. But praised and ever blessed
be God, who, in his infinite goodness, pre-endowed her for this purpose with
such great grace, that, remaining always free from any guilt of sin, she was
ever able to beat down and confound his pride, as St. Augustine, or whoever may
be the author of the commentary on Genesis, says: "Since the devil is the
head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any
entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from
all stain" ("Cum subjection originalis
peccati caput sit diaboli, tale caput Maria contrivit; quia nulla peccati
subjection ingressum habuit in animam Virginis, et ideo ab omni macula immunis
fuit"). And St. Bonaventure more expressly says, "It was
becoming that the Blessed Virgin Mary, by whom our shame was to be blotted out,
and by whom the devil was to be conquered, should never, even for a moment,
have been under his dominion" ("Congruum
erat ut Beata Virgo Maria, per quam aufertur nobis opprobrium, vinceret
diabolum, ut nec ei succumberet ad modicum"—In Sent. iii. d. 3, p.
1, a. 2, q. 1).
But, above all, it principally became the Eternal Father to
preserve this his daughter unspotted by Adam's sin, as St. Bernardine of Sienna
remarks, because he destined her to be the Mother of his only begotten Son:
"Thou wast preordained in the mind of God, before all creatures, that thou
mightest beget God himself as man" ("Tu
ante omnem creaturam in mente Dei praeordinata fuisti, ut Deum ipsum hominem
procreares"—Pro Fest. V. M. s. 4, a. 3, c. 4). If,
then, for no other end, at least for the honor of his Son, who was God, it was
reasonable that the Father should create Mary free from every stain. The
angelic St. Thomas says, that all things that are ordained for God should be
holy and free from stain: "Holiness is to be attributed to those things
that are ordained for God" ("Sanctitas
illis rebus attribuitur, quae in Deum ordinantur"—P. 1, q. 36, a. 1).
Hence when David was planning the temple of Jerusalem, on a scale of
magnificence becoming a God, he said, For a house is prepared not for man,
but for God ("Nec enim homini
praeparatur habitation, sed Deo"—1 Par. xxix. 1). How
much more reasonable, then, is it not, to suppose that the sovereign architect,
who destined Mary to be the Mother of his own Son, adorned her soul with all
most precious gifts, that she might be a dwelling worthy of a God! Denis
the Carthusian says, "that God, the artificer of all things, when
constructing a worthy dwelling for his Son, adorned it with all attractive
graces" ("Omnium Artifex, Deus, Filio
suo dignum habitaculum fabricaturus, eam omnium gratificantium charismatum
adornavit"—De Laud. V. l. 2, a. 2). And the Holy
Church herself, in the following prayer, assures us that God prepared the body
and soul of the Blessed Virgin so as to be a worthy dwelling on earth for his
only-begotten Son: "Almighty and Eternal God, who, by the
co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious
Virgin and Mother Mary, that she might become a worthy habitation for thy
Son" ("Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui
gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui
habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti").
We know that a man's highest honor is to be born of noble
parents: And the glory of children are
their fathers ("Gloria filiorum
patres eorum"—Prov. xvii. 6). Hence in the world the
reputation of being possessed of only a small fortune, and little learning, is
more easily tolerated than that of being of low birth; for, whilst a poor man
may become rich by his industry, an ignorant man learned by study, it is very
difficult for a person of humble origin to attain the rank of nobility; but,
even should he attain it, his birth can always be made a subject of reproach to
him. How, then, can we suppose that God, who could cause his Son to be
born of a noble mother by preserving her from sin, would on the contrary permit
him to be born of one infected by it, and thus enable Lucifer always to
reproach him with the shame of having a mother who had once been his slave and
the enemy of God? No, certainly, the Eternal Father did not permit this;
but he well provided for the honor of his Son by preserving his Mother always
immaculate, that she might be a Mother becoming such a Son. The Greek
Church bears witness to this, saying, "that God, by a singular Providence,
caused the most Blessed Virgin to be perfectly pure from the very frist moment
of her existence, as it was fitting that she should be, who was to be the
worthy Mother of Christ" ("Providentia
singulari perfecit, ut Sanctissima Virgo, ab ipso vitae suae principio, tam
omnino existeret pura, quam decebat illam quae Christo digna existeret"—Menol.
25 Mart).
It is a common axiom amongst theologians that no gift was
ever bestowed on any creature with which the Blessed Virgin was not also
enriched. St. Bernard says on this subject, "It is certainly not
wrong to suppose that that which has evidently been bestowed, even only on a
few, was not denied to so great a Virgin" ("Quod
vel paucis mortalium constat fuisse collatum, fas certe non est suspicari
tantae Virgini esse negatum"—Epist. 174). St. Thomas of
Villanova says, "Nothing was ever granted to any saint which did not shine
in a much higher degree in Mary from the very first moment of her existence"
("Nihil unquam alicui Sanctorum concessum
est, quod non a principio vitae accumulatius perfulgeat in Maria"—De
Ass. conc. 1). And as it is true that "there is an
infinite difference between the Mother of God and the servants of God" ("Matris Dei et servorum Infinitum est
discrimen"—De Dorm. B. M. or. 1), according to the
celebrated saying of St. John Damascene, we must certainly suppose, according
to the doctrine of St. Thoams, that "God conferred privileges of graces in
every way greater on his Mother than on his servants" ("Quod prae omnibus aliis majora privilegia
gratiae acceperit"—P. 3, q. 27, a. 1). And now admitting
this, St. Anselm, the great defender of the Immaculate Mary, takes up the
question and says, "Was the wisdom of God unable to form a pure dwelling,
and to remove every stain of human nature from it?" ("Impotensne fuit sapientia Dei mundum sibi
habitaculum condere, remota omni labe conditionis humanae?")
Perhaps God could not prepare a clean habitation for his Son by preserving it
from the common contagion? "God," continues the same saint,
"could preserve angels in heaven spotless, in the midst of the devastation
that surrounded them; was he, then, unable to preserve the Mother of his Son
and the Queen of angels from the common fall of men?" ("Angelis aliis peccantibus, bonos a peccatis
servavit; et Matrem ab aliorum peccatis exsortem servare non valuit?"—De
Conc. B. M.). And I may here add, that as God could grant Eve
the grace to come immaculate into the world, could he not, then, grant the same
favor to Mary?
Yes indeed! God could do this, and did it; for on
every account "it was becoming," as the same St. Anselm says,
"that that Virgin, on whom the Eternal Father intended to bestow his
only-begotten Son, should be adorned with such purity as not only to exceed
that of all men and angels, but exceeding any purity that can be conceived
after that of God" ("Decens erat ut ea
puritate, qua major sub Deo nequit intelligi, Virgo illa niteret, cui Deus
Pater unicum Filium suum dare disponebat"—De Conc. Virg. c. 18).
And St. John Damascene speaks in still clearer terms; for he says, "that
our Lord had preserved the soul, together with the body of the Blessed Virgin,
in that purity which became her who was to receive a God into her womb; for, as
he is holy, he only reposes in holy places" ("Sic
Virginis una cum corpore animam conservasset, ut eam decebat quae Deum in sinu
suo exceptura erat; sanctus enim ipse cum sit, in sanctis requiescat"—De
Fide Orth. L. 4, c. 15). And thus the Eternal Father could
well say to his beloved daughter, As the lily among thorns, so is my love
among the daughters ("Sicut lilium
inter spinas, sic Amica mea inter filias"—Cant. ii. 2).
My daughter, amongst all my other daughters, thou art as a lily in the midst of
thorns; for they are all stained with sin, but thou wast always immaculate, and
always my beloved.
