MARY, OUR MOTHER

MOTHER OMNIPOTENT

2. The Universal Power.
This all-powerfulness is not limited to one place or one time, or to some privileged class of souls, to one particular order of graces and helps, or to one special kind of petition or prayer. Nothing of the kind. It is universal. It has no limits of any sort. We are all children of Mary. She will help us all. She will love us all without exception. All, and in all, both spiritually and temporally. No need is beyond Her power. No benefaction exhausts her hands. Nor can time weaken the efficacy of Her graces.

If Mary made saints of other souls, if others were raised to the life of grace, if others were helped in diverse manners, all this can happen to you. Your soul can also achieve pardon, grace, life, sanctity.

Since the first sin was committed, the devil became a universal, an all-world power, subjecting all souls, the whole world over, to temptation. He enkindles the passions in them in order to enchain souls. How frightful is this dominion of the devil and how universal. Who has not experienced it? Only Our Lady, by Her most pure Conception, escaped this captivity. In fact She binds him, subdues him, masters him. She pursues him everywhere and combats and conquers him always. The dominion of the devil is universal but so likewise is the all-powerfulness of Mary. Her triumph will be universal and eternal.

But Her victory is not Her's alone. It is also ours. No one has recourse to Her and has trust in Her in vain. All the saints, all hose who withstand the devil, do so because of Mary. Without Mary their efforts would have been futile.

That is why many holy doctors apply to Mary those words of the psalmist: Unless God build His house, in vain do toil those who build it. Unless God keep watch over the city, in vain do watchmen guard it. And who is the guard and the defense of the house of the Lord if not Our Lady? The Lord guards His city but He does so through Mary knowing then that it is well defended. One who takes shelter under Her protecting mantle will never fear.

You ought to know it well for you must have experienced it yourself. Is not your soul one more witness to those words of the Memorare, No one had ever recourse to Her and was left unaided. Satan knows it well. How many times has he been bound to confess with infernal rage that he could do nothing against the devotees of Our Lady?

The piety of all founders has acknowledged the universality of Her power and called Her "The Gate of Heaven," "the Ladder of Paradise," "the Refuge of sinners," "the Throne of the Eternal King," "the Hall of propitiation" where all of us are heard and helped.

You should keep on repeating deliberately and affectionately all those many expressions which refer to the consoling universality of Mary's power: Mary is "the hope of sinners," "the path to life," "the harbor of safety," "the salvation of mankind," "the spring-source of grace," "the star of the sea," "the Mediatrix between God and men," "the key of Heaven," "the hope of the fallen," "the strength of the just," "the joy of the Angels," "the Queen of the centuries."

Your heart could also find many similar expressions which you could weave into an ardent, loving litany to your Mother.

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