MARY, OUR MOTHER

MOTHER OMNIPOTENT

3. Let us thank God for it.
Having reached this point, let us raise our heart to God in thanksgiving. The priest at Holy Mass daily renders thanks to god in a loud voice and invites the congregation to do likewise for the innumerable benefits that His divine hand constantly showers upon us. What else can we do in face of the numberless benefits He and His Beloved Mother have bestowed on us? We ought to give continuous thanksgiving. Let us start right now.

And this thanksgiving of our should not consist merely of words. God expects the most beautiful hymn of gratitude, a practical correspondence in behavior.

Your gratitude should lead to the strengthening of your trust in Our Heavenly Mother, a trust that admits no fatigue, discouragement or cowardly disappointment.

Be strong on this point because the devil will be ever to tempt. How many souls he has deceived even to despair! So now to Our Lady's feet. She is your Mother given you by God and so, no matter how ungrateful you have been in the past, you can always have recourse to Her. With filial right you can demand from Her a motherly love, a motherly compassion and at the same time a Queenly omnipotence. She is both Empress and Mother.

Justice and bounty surround the throne of God. Goodness and mercy the throne of Mary. If rightly you feel impressed by the justice of God you cannot be frightened before the throne of Our Lady.

She is ever expecting your return. And far from being offended by confidence, lack of confidence on the contrary offends both Jesus and Mary. Have you not heard from the lips of Our Lord that there is a greater happiness in Heaven, for a sinner who repents than for the hundred just who persevere? And in Heaven, the first to rejoice is Our Blessed Lady. She will make a feast at the return of Her prodigal son who had gone away but was eventually found; who was dead but is now alive.

Let, then, your motto be: never lose heart; never grow downhearted, never be discouraged. Even if you see you are making no headway, achieving nothing, keep on trusting in Our Blessed Lady and go on working every day with more enthusiasm.

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