Meditation 14
THE NAME OF MARY
Continued
That this holy Name may not be indifferent to us but rather induce us to a deeper knowledge and to a more fervent invocation of it, it is imperative that we should meditate on its meaning.
As about 300 different interpretations have been given it is rather difficult to ascertain its true meaning. But it is providential that God should have left it open to so many interpretations, all of them so good and so meaningful, and thus make us understand that all excellences and perfections are contained in Our Blessed Lady.
The most probable of all these interpretations are the following:
1. Beautiful, or rather, the beautiful par excellence, as though to mean that She is Beauty itself. And there is no other way to see Her. As beautiful as the moon, sings the Church. Indeed, just as in the darkness of night, when everything is deprived of beauty, the placid and serene light of the moon suddenly shines, greater than the stars, so does Mary with Her shining beauty dispel darkness and share Her light with all who would partake of it.
She is also called Tota Pultra, [All Beautiful]. All, Tota. In Mary there is nothing that is not extremely beautiful; body, soul, eyes, senses, heart, everything. In Her there is nothing unsightly, nothing stained, nothing to mar Her beauty. Give a thought to the things that the world calls beautiful and you will be convinced that the world has no idea of what real beauty is. The world gives the name of beauty only to corporeal beauty, which oftener than not, is artificial and merely outward, external. The world is satisfied with that beauty because it knows no other. Instead, Mary is always and at every moment most beautiful, Tota Pulchra. How aptly then the name of Mary applies to Her as thus interpreted.
{From 'Marian Meditations' Book}
As about 300 different interpretations have been given it is rather difficult to ascertain its true meaning. But it is providential that God should have left it open to so many interpretations, all of them so good and so meaningful, and thus make us understand that all excellences and perfections are contained in Our Blessed Lady.
The most probable of all these interpretations are the following:
1. Beautiful, or rather, the beautiful par excellence, as though to mean that She is Beauty itself. And there is no other way to see Her. As beautiful as the moon, sings the Church. Indeed, just as in the darkness of night, when everything is deprived of beauty, the placid and serene light of the moon suddenly shines, greater than the stars, so does Mary with Her shining beauty dispel darkness and share Her light with all who would partake of it.
She is also called Tota Pultra, [All Beautiful]. All, Tota. In Mary there is nothing that is not extremely beautiful; body, soul, eyes, senses, heart, everything. In Her there is nothing unsightly, nothing stained, nothing to mar Her beauty. Give a thought to the things that the world calls beautiful and you will be convinced that the world has no idea of what real beauty is. The world gives the name of beauty only to corporeal beauty, which oftener than not, is artificial and merely outward, external. The world is satisfied with that beauty because it knows no other. Instead, Mary is always and at every moment most beautiful, Tota Pulchra. How aptly then the name of Mary applies to Her as thus interpreted.
{From 'Marian Meditations' Book}
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