MARY, OUR MOTHER

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Meditation 87

THE HEART OF OUR LADY

1. A Perfect Order.
Here is another wonder which adorns, in an extraordinary way, the Most Pure Heart of Mary, a something which is intimately related to its shining beauty. Order is an indispensable element in beauty. St. Augustine goes so far as to define beauty as the shining splendor of order.

In our heart order consists in regulating and directing all its movements according to the rule imposed on us by God. In every order there needs must be a rule. In a library, the size of the books might be taken as the standard of arrangement, or you might classify the books according to subjects, age, binding. The basis of the arrangement can vary.

But order is based on rule for it is through rule that every object is assigned its own place. The heart also has its own rule. Our will, our mind, our senses, all our powers must submit to the rule which subjects them to the Will of God. Therefore there will be order in our mind when our judgments are submitted to the judgment of God, when our thoughts are according to the thoughts of God. In a similar manner, order in our will consists in loving everything according to the rank of its merits but always with love inferior to and subjected to the love of God. The rule of love is to love God above all things. The rule which orders the use of our senses demands that they are subjected to our reason and not at the mercy of our whims.

Finally, there is order in our heart and in our whole being when we follow the Will of God.

How beautiful is this orderly submission. Look at the starry sky. Admire those gigantic globes of fire, keeping their dizzy speeds in spite of their enormous weight. See how everything is so perfectly arranged that there is no collision or interference.

The marvelous order imprinted by the Divine Wisdom shines forth everywhere in nature. Only man, only the human heart can abuse the power of his will, the gift of freedom. He seems to delight in destroying this divine order. How sad! No matter how charming and sublime nature appears in its wise arrangement, there is no more beautiful sight than a well ordered heart with all its movements and aspirations directed towards God. Is your heart like this, or must you realize with sadness the disorder that prevails in it?

And this disorder might perhaps be enormously devastating. Disorder is uncontrolled passions, in unmortified senses, in an unruly heart.

Every sin is a disorder. If sin abides in you what will be the state of your heart? The supreme law which should govern your life is this: Man has been created for the purpose of praising, revering and serving the divine majesty of God.

How do you keep this rule? Thus you can gauge the degree of order in your soul.

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