Live 4 The LORD

Who Mary our Mother Is

SPOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT O Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, reveal to me the secret of your obedience. 1. 

“The Blessed Virgin Mary”—says St. Augustine—“was the only one who merited to be called the Mother and Spouse of God” (Ser 208:4). She was the true mother of God because she was the mystical spouse of the Holy Spirit, who had come upon her with a superabundance of grace from the first moment of her immaculate conception, “fashioned by (him) and formed as a new creature” (LG 56). The Holy Spirit had prepared her, with most loving care, to be the living tabernacle of the Son of God; and when the angel appeared to her with his great announcement, he saluted her at once with: “Hail, full of grace!” (Lk 1:28). Already possessed by the Holy Spirit, already overflowing with grace, she was still to receive a most singular new fullness: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (ib. 35). 

Stirred by Mary’s greatness, the Church prays: “O almighty, everlasting God, by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, you made ready the body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother Mary to be the fit dwelling place for your Son” (Brev). “By the cooperation of the Holy Spirit”: he is the architect of this miracle of grace and love, and the Blessed Mother belongs wholly to him as his bride, his temple, his exclusive property. To her the divine Paraclete addresses the words of the Canticle: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed” (Song 4:12). A garden locked against all profane entry, never violated by the shadow of sin, never ruffled by the wind of unruly passion, never taken up with any worldly affection. 

Mary was ever the most faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit, totally consecrated to him, attentive and docile to all his impulses and inspirations. Looking upon her, our most loving Mother, we feel impelled to keep our own hearts always attentive and docile to the action of the Holy Spirit. 2. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14). No creature was ever more completely moved and guided by the Holy Spirit than was the Blessed Mother: “The most glorious Virgin, Our Lady”—says St. John of the Cross—“was always moved by the Holy Spirit” (Asc III 2:10). 

Uniquely endowed with grace from the beginning, Mary lived in this attitude of unbroken openness and availability to the action of the Holy Spirit, which is characteristic of sanctity and of perfect union with God. Her course began at the point to which the saints arrive, with less perfection, at the end of their lives; furthermore, by her free faithful correspondence to grace she advanced to towering heights in this lofty state. 

After Jesus, the Virgin Mary is the surest model and guide for those who aspire to union with God; her very creaturehood makes her more accessible to us, and more easily imitable. Mary lived only for God. Studying her life in the Gospels, we never see her influenced by selfish motives or by reasons of personal interest; only one thing moves her: the glory of God and the interests of Jesus and of souls. 

In her humble, hidden life, in her work, in her poverty in all the privations and sufferings she had to undergo, there was never a thought of self; but forgetful of her own suffering and totally given to God, she was wholly given to fulfilling his will. It was the Holy Spirit who guided her, who urged her, who sustained her, and her secret was that she let herself be ruled and moved by him in everything. Just as she had conceived the Son of God by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so all her actions were begun by his inspiration.  

Although Mary’s sublime privileges are reserved to herself alone we can all seek to imitate her dispositions by eliminating from our lives everything that is the fruit of egoism, self-love, or pride, and by doing only those things that are inspired by grace, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit.