SANCTITY
2. The Will of God in Mary.
God's Will in regard to Mary was that She should be the sum total, the model and spring of all sanctity. At the very first instant of Her conception Mary was inundated by sanctifying grace and became conscious of Her actions, enjoying a full knowledge and a full mastery of Herself whereby she threw Herself with all Her might towards the Heart of God.
Watch this marvelous sight which had never happened before nor will ever happen again. God floods the soul of Mary with the torrent of His love and of His life, and Mary, making use of all the graces She received, without neglecting a single one, directs Her life of grace and gratitude towards God.
In Mary the reaction was equal to the action. Much had She received; all of which She gave back. The first action of God upon the soul of Mary, an action that was powerful, bounteous and loving, was to fill Her soul to its full capacity with sanctifying grace. But to that divine action, infinitely loving and bounteous, Mary offered so to speak, Her reaction, by giving Herself infinitely lovingly up to God without limitation and with all the strength of Her being.
This sanctifying grace of God kept on increasing and developed prodigiously in the immaculate soul of Mary. Her correspondence to grace kept on inviting His love and grace. How far did that sanctity grow? God only has the answer, since God alone knows how far His actions went and how far Her reaction reached.
Bear in mind that there is a real sanctity and there is a moral sanctity. The real sanctity is the sanctity of those things dedicated or consecrated to God. Such is the sanctity of a temple where God especially dwells. Such is the sanctity of the sacred vessels and of the objects dedicated to divine worship. We may take as an example of real sanctity in man the sanctity of the newly baptized child in whose soul the life of grace abides. We have an example of moral sanctity in the acts of virtue through which the soul freely and voluntarily corresponds to the grace of God and gives itself entirely to His divine love.
Mary is most holy both with a real and with a moral sanctity. Through real sanctity Her soul is in a close union with the Holy Trinity. St. Thomas says that this union is the closest and strongest that can exist between a creature and the Creator, and therefore the real sanctity of Mary is the greatest possible. To this boundless real sanctity of Mary equally great moral sanctity corresponds. She profited by all the graces sent by God without ever wasting a single one so that it may be said of Mary much more rightly than of St. Paul: The grace of God was not in vain or useless in Her. In one word, through this moral sanctity of Our Heavenly Mother, Her correspondence to the divine favors was exactly just what it ought to be, just what God wanted and expected, namely, most perfect in every way. Here you have a measuring rod to gauge the sanctity of Our Lady. You may well understand why it is said that sanctity consists in love, since love is the melting of two hearts into one, is the transformation of one into the other. In real sanctity, God loves His creatures and out of this love gives it through grace a share in His own divine life. Then the soul by giving itself up to God and by loving Him, transforms itself into Him and corresponds to His grace and love.
In sanctity, therefore, there must be this love of two hearts. There must be these two elements: the heart of God and the heart of man. Sanctity is, consequently, the sanctity of God plus the sanctity of man. Apply all this to Mary. Deduce how much God loves Her and how much She loves God. All Her life was one single flame of love. Love prompted, propelled all Her actions. The intensity of Her love was the perfection of Her sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. The Will of God in Mary.
God's Will in regard to Mary was that She should be the sum total, the model and spring of all sanctity. At the very first instant of Her conception Mary was inundated by sanctifying grace and became conscious of Her actions, enjoying a full knowledge and a full mastery of Herself whereby she threw Herself with all Her might towards the Heart of God.
Watch this marvelous sight which had never happened before nor will ever happen again. God floods the soul of Mary with the torrent of His love and of His life, and Mary, making use of all the graces She received, without neglecting a single one, directs Her life of grace and gratitude towards God.
In Mary the reaction was equal to the action. Much had She received; all of which She gave back. The first action of God upon the soul of Mary, an action that was powerful, bounteous and loving, was to fill Her soul to its full capacity with sanctifying grace. But to that divine action, infinitely loving and bounteous, Mary offered so to speak, Her reaction, by giving Herself infinitely lovingly up to God without limitation and with all the strength of Her being.
This sanctifying grace of God kept on increasing and developed prodigiously in the immaculate soul of Mary. Her correspondence to grace kept on inviting His love and grace. How far did that sanctity grow? God only has the answer, since God alone knows how far His actions went and how far Her reaction reached.
Bear in mind that there is a real sanctity and there is a moral sanctity. The real sanctity is the sanctity of those things dedicated or consecrated to God. Such is the sanctity of a temple where God especially dwells. Such is the sanctity of the sacred vessels and of the objects dedicated to divine worship. We may take as an example of real sanctity in man the sanctity of the newly baptized child in whose soul the life of grace abides. We have an example of moral sanctity in the acts of virtue through which the soul freely and voluntarily corresponds to the grace of God and gives itself entirely to His divine love.
Mary is most holy both with a real and with a moral sanctity. Through real sanctity Her soul is in a close union with the Holy Trinity. St. Thomas says that this union is the closest and strongest that can exist between a creature and the Creator, and therefore the real sanctity of Mary is the greatest possible. To this boundless real sanctity of Mary equally great moral sanctity corresponds. She profited by all the graces sent by God without ever wasting a single one so that it may be said of Mary much more rightly than of St. Paul: The grace of God was not in vain or useless in Her. In one word, through this moral sanctity of Our Heavenly Mother, Her correspondence to the divine favors was exactly just what it ought to be, just what God wanted and expected, namely, most perfect in every way. Here you have a measuring rod to gauge the sanctity of Our Lady. You may well understand why it is said that sanctity consists in love, since love is the melting of two hearts into one, is the transformation of one into the other. In real sanctity, God loves His creatures and out of this love gives it through grace a share in His own divine life. Then the soul by giving itself up to God and by loving Him, transforms itself into Him and corresponds to His grace and love.
In sanctity, therefore, there must be this love of two hearts. There must be these two elements: the heart of God and the heart of man. Sanctity is, consequently, the sanctity of God plus the sanctity of man. Apply all this to Mary. Deduce how much God loves Her and how much She loves God. All Her life was one single flame of love. Love prompted, propelled all Her actions. The intensity of Her love was the perfection of Her sanctity.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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