The Month of Mary, According to the Spirit of St. Francis of Sales. Saint de Sales Francis

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СКАЧАТЬ All that is sweet, and pure, and amiable in Nature—doves, bees, flowers, all took hold of his imagination. From his lips, as well as from his pen, issued loving invitations to perfection. His singular privilege, however, is that this meekness and grace appear always fresh to the devout reader, and are ever pleasing, even when he lays open the festering wounds of the heart. The great Fénélon, whose spirit and heart so vividly retraced the holy Bishop of Geneva, thus wrote to a lady: 'The books most useful for you are those of St. Francis of Sales. Everything in them is amiable and consoling; everything is solid experience, simple practice, and the feeling and light of grace. To have become accustomed to this kind of food is a mark of great perfection.' Bishop Parisis also says: 'Everything that can contribute to make this most amiable of Saints more known to the world, is of the greatest utility to the cause of religion.'

      For this reason we have composed this little work. It is a sort of résumé of the doctrine of St. Francis of Sales upon the prerogatives and virtues of the august Queen of Heaven, and we may gather a delicious bouquet for her month of May. Hence the devout reader will always meet with the genuine text of the Saint without any paraphrase, though not always in consecutive order. In each of the thirty-one considerations we have been obliged to discard those matters which did not relate to our subject. However, such suppressions only produce greater clearness in the whole work. We must say two words upon the manner in which this exercise can be rendered fruitful:

      1. If you are not able to assist at the public services or devotions in honour of the Blessed Virgin in your own church, erect a little altar to Mary in your house, and adorn her picture, or statue, with flowers, and there, every day, either alone or with others of your household, meditate upon her virtues, and implore her powerful intercession.

      2. It will be an excellent preparation to spend the last day of April in holy recollection, and to examine what is the principal passion that you will sacrifice to Mary during the course of the month, and the grace or virtue that you propose to obtain from God by recurring to her intercession. Do not fear to ask too much, she is the Mother of God, and our Mother also.

      3. Read every day the appointed meditation, with tranquillity and recollection, that your soul may relish the subject, and apply what is read to its own necessities. After your lecture, follow this advice of St. Francis of Sales: 'When you have concluded your prayer, take a little walk and gather a small nosegay of devotion from the considerations you have made, that you may inhale its spiritual odour throughout the day.'

      4. You should consider it a duty to approach the holy Sacraments more frequently than usual during the month, and never leave the Altar of Mary without having made a spiritual communion.

      5. Let no day pass, or, at least, no Saturday, without practising some mortification, sanctified and directed by obedience. 'Our devotion, however small,' said St. John Berchmans, 'is always pleasing to Mary, provided it be constant.' But let us not forget that interior mortifications are the most perfect; such as to abstain from speaking or looking about without necessity, etc., because in such mortifications there is less danger of vainglory, and they attack our passions in the innermost depths of the heart.

      6. Endeavour also to become familiar with ejaculatory prayers to Mary. 'This kind of prayer,' says St. Francis of Sales, 'may supply for every other kind, but no other kind of prayer can supply for this. Spiritual exercises without aspirations are like a firmament without stars, or a tree without leaves.'

      7. The month should be concluded by an offering of the heart to Jesus and Mary, after Holy Communion. And that you may more securely persevere in the service of the best of all Mothers, let it be your care to renew your resolutions every Saturday, to examine in what manner you have kept them, and by a protestation of sorrow for past omissions, and a determination of greater fidelity for the future, to repair the failings of the week.

      The sovereign Pontiff Pius VII. has granted to all who shall say some public or private prayers in honour of the most holy Virgin Mary during the course of the month of May, three hundred days Indulgence each day, and a Plenary Indulgence once in the month if, having confessed and Communicated, they pray for the holy Church.

      The same sovereign Pontiff has granted to all the faithful who, with a contrite heart, shall recite the Litany of Loreto, three hundred days Indulgence each time. All these Indulgences are applicable to the souls in Purgatory.

PROTESTATION.

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      IN conformity with the decree of the sovereign Pontiff Urban VIII., I declare that I wish to give only a purely human authority to all the miraculous facts related in this work, excepting those that are confirmed by the decisions of the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, to whose infallible judgment I intend to submit my person and my writings; nor shall I cease to declare myself her respectful son, believing all that she proposes to my belief, because she is the sole depositary here on earth of sound doctrine, of faith, and of catholic unity.

PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTION.

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       Doctrine of St. Francis of Sales upon Devotion to Mary.

      HOLY Church, speaking of the most Blessed Virgin, says that she went up from the desert of this world flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved. In fact, all the praises bestowed upon the Saints, and upon Mary in particular, terminate in Christ our Lord; because all these praises should be directed to the glory of her Divine Son, Who led her by His grace to the most exalted degree of merit and happiness.

      It is related in Scripture that the Queen of Saba, taking a multitude of gifts to Jerusalem, offered them all to Solomon. It is thus that all the Saints act—and the Mother of God especially. She is ever attentive to recognise that her virtues, her perfections, her merits, and her happiness proceed from the mercy of her Divine Son, Who is alone their source, their origin, and perfection: Soli Deo honor et gloria. All honour and glory to God alone; all should return to Him, because from Him alone is every perfect gift.

      If Mary be holy, who is it that sanctified her but her Divine Son? If she be saved, who was her Saviour but Jesus Christ?—Innixa super dilectum suum. Her whole happiness has its foundation in the mercy of her Divine Son. She may be called a lily of purity and innocence. This lily has acquired all its purity by being washed in the Blood of the Immaculate Lamb. She is a rose, on account of the ardour of her love, and her rich vermilion can be nought else than the Blood of her Son. If she is likened to fumes of odoriferous sweetness, the fire which produces them is the charity of her Divine Son and the wood of the Cross; in a word, everywhere and in everything, Mary is leaning upon her Beloved. Behold, devout souls, how we ought to be jealous of the honour of Jesus Christ. Do not imitate the enemies of holy Church, who think that they honour the Son more perfectly by refusing all honour to the Mother. On the contrary, the worship of the Mother is referred to the Son, and thus exalts His glory and mercy all the more.

      In order to show more clearly the purity of the worship which holy Church pays to the most Blessed Virgin, I will mention two contrary heresies, both equally injurious to the veneration deservedly due to Our Lady. One of these heresies sinned by excess; calling Mary the Goddess of Heaven, and offering sacrifices to her as such; the other sinned by default, condemning all honour paid to Our Lady. The Church, who walks in the royal road of moderation, in which virtue consists, condemned both these heresies, defining against the former that no sacrifice whatever could be offered to Mary, as she was a pure creature; and against the latter, that this holy Virgin, СКАЧАТЬ