Meditations on the Most Blessed Virgin

THE faithful children of the Church, throughout the Catholic world, as well as every true religious, cherish the devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, strive to obtain its true spirit and observe all the practices it enjoins, because they feel that this devotion satisfies the innermost wants of the soul, opens up an unfailing fountain of divine grace, and procures for us the purest - the most inexpressible joys. Among the most efficacious means which our Holy Mother the Church has instituted to promote and foster this devotion in our souls, there is none more beneficial in its effects and influence than the holy practice of regular and daily meditation on the prerogatives, the life, the virtues, the glorious mission of Mary; of contemplating, by the light of faith, the Most Blessed Virgin, the master-piece of the Creator, the model of all virtues, the exalted Mother of the Incarnate Word, the Queen of Heaven, raised in glory far above the cherubim, yet, tenderly hearkening to our supplications, shedding around us the love of her own heart, accepting our humble offerings, and bestowing upon us those celestial treasures which flow through her as the channel of divine mercy. It is impossible to meditate on the attributes of Mary without being filled with the most intense desire to honor her name and invoke her intercession so to live as to merit her protection now, that hereafter we may participate in her glory. Who can behold her in anyone of the aspects in which she presents herself to our piety without experiencing, in his heart, the love of the most exalted virtue? The object of the present work is to render some aid in the proper performance of this holy and salutary exercise. We shall consider in order: 1. The life of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. 2. Her virtues. 3. Her exalted greatness and her patronage. 4. The devotion of which she is the object. The Meditations will be sufficiently numerous: I. For all the Feasts of the Most Blessed Virgin. 2. For every day in the month of Mary. 3. For the Saturdavs on which no particular feast occurs.