MARY, OUR MOTHER

THE PURIFICATION OF OUR LADY

5. Her Poverty.
She was not in a position as other women to offer a little lamb. And since the poor were allowed to substitute a couple of turtle doves, She comes forward with the offering of the poor. Poverty is humiliating but it is much more so when it is so public. Yet Mary is not ashamed of being poor nor of being known as such. She is ready to be despised by the well-to-do. If those little doves had been able to understand their value in the hands of Mary, how happy they would have considered themselves! They were nothing less than the offering of Mary's sacrifice.
Offer yourself to Mary. Tell Her you want to be Her possession for ever. But if your sacrifice is to be of any value you must imitate Her closely. Why do you not strive to copy those virtues in your heart, especially those that cost more, the most humiliating, the most self-effacing and self-sacrificing? Come, try and copy your model.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]