Marian Consecration With Aquinas

MARIAN
CONSECRATION

WITH

AQUINAS

A Nine Day Path for Growing Closer
to the Mother of God

MATT FRADD
FR. GREGORY PINE, OP

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina

Marian Consecration With Aquinas copyright © 2019 Matt Fradd

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, or in texts quoted from other sources, all Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Caroline Green

Cover image: The Virgin and Child with St. Thomas Aquinas, 1424-30 (fresco) / Angelico, Fra (Guido di Pietro) (c.1387-1455) / Bridgeman Images

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019953005

ISBN: 978-1-5051-1490-4

Published in the United States by
TAN Books
PO Box 410487
Charlotte, NC 28241
www.TANBooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

INTRODUCTION

MARIAN CONSECRATION

Marian consecrations are all the rage in some quarters. Hip Catholics tote their True Devotion books around campus, organize Morning Glory prayer groups, and sport consecration chains without apology.

Yet in other circles, there is decidedly less Marian verve. Folks in secular settings or with Protestant friends sometimes find it hard to justify such a visible provocation. To take one of the more controversial elements of the faith and to make it the be-all and end-all seems to some a bit imprudent. Is this supposed to further the conversation or end it?

I (Matt) first learned about Marian consecration when I was serving as a missionary with NET Ministries of Canada. When it was introduced to me, I remember the thought freaking me out a bit. Leading up to that time, I was becoming more and more comfortable with invoking the saints in my own personal prayer and asking for their intercession. I had also enjoyed some success in warding off objections from my Protestant friends. Then all of the sudden, here’s this talk about total consecration and slaves of Mary. I found it to be too much.

But at the prompting of my friends, I gave it a go. I made an honest attempt at reading St. Louis de Montfort, but—truth be told—I couldn’t really get into it. I’d come across individual quotations that I found interesting or beautiful, but the overall approach never really appealed to me. His flowery language didn’t resonate; it left me cold. Now, this isn’t to say that the problem is his. Many find his writings inspiring, but—for whatever reason—I didn’t. If patron saints are like heavenly friends, then you could say that we never hit it off.

For a while, I remained on the periphery of the consecration scene, but over the course of an ongoing conversion and coming to know the saints of the tradition, I discovered an approach that spoke to me. Later on, I heard consecration described as “entrustment,” and I found that more palatable. Again, I don’t mean to suggest that the truth of a doctrine is a matter of taste, but—in my own case—presentation was a big part of whether or not to get on board. The language of entrustment—language that Aquinas uses in his prayer to Mary and that St. John Paul II uses in the modern magisterium—conveyed a sense that was more maternal and less cultic. I thought, “Yeah, that’s a lot cooler.”

The point of this book is to offer another approach to Marian consecration. As we know from St. Maximilian Kolbe and Fr. Michael Gaitley, there isn’t just one path to Marian consecration. Rather, there is a whole variety, and these can work well to captivate the different spiritual temperaments of a wide range of Christians.

So, as students and devotees of St. Thomas Aquinas, we wanted to put together this book for people who hear the Gospel best when it is preached and explained in St. Thomas’s idiom—for those who want to be formed by what he says about Marian consecration. As a result, this consecration will be a bit more theological than most. St. Thomas believed that it matters what you think and that when you know well, you are freer to love better. So, part of the aim of this preparation for consecration will be to instruct and enlighten, with the confidence that an illumined mind prompts a devoted heart.

ST. THOMAS AND THE VIRGIN MARY

St. Thomas, like many of the saints before and after him, had a great love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. While there are not many stories of his devotion to her, one early story is illustrative. As a small child, he was often seen toddling around his family home (well, it was a castle) with a piece of paper balled up in his fist. When his mother finally wrested it from his grasp, she saw that it read, “Ave Maria, gratia plena” (Hail Mary, full of grace).

St. Thomas’s love for the Blessed Virgin comes out even more spectacularly in his writings. In the Summa, he asks the question, “Whether God can do better than what He does?” St. Thomas responds with a scriptural passage from St. Paul, “[God] is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20). So, in short, yes, God could do better. For everything that he’s made, we can imagine a better version or something else that bests it somehow. Picture your best friend. Now, picture him with wings. Bingo.

But, here’s the thing. St. Thomas doesn’t just leave it at that. In the reply to the fourth objection, he writes, “The humanity of Christ, from the fact that it is united to the Godhead; and created happiness from the fact that it is the fruition of God; and the Blessed Virgin from the fact that she is the mother of God; have all a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is God. And on this account there cannot be anything better than these; just as there cannot be anything better than God” (ST Ia Q. 25, a. 6, ad4um). You heard right, St. Thomas just classed Mary with the humanity of Christ and created beatitude. Clearly, he esteems her greatly.

ST. THOMAS AND CONSECRATION

The next question naturally arises: Did St. Thomas even write anything about Marian consecration? To be perfectly honest, St. Thomas Aquinas never addresses the question of Marian consecration directly. That being said, we can get at his thoughts by approaching it from another angle. Consecration comes up in his writings on the sacraments, specifically when talking about Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Holy Orders. But his teaching on consecration is clearest in the discussion of religious life.

After describing the theological and moral virtues—which God intends for all—St. Thomas shifts gears and concludes with a short section describing the charismatic graces and states of life—which God intends only for some. So, after passing through prophecy, rapture, tongues, words, and miracles (a pretty exciting section), he rounds out the scoring with a treatment of religious life. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a vocation advertisement. It’s safe to read on.)

In one of those questions, St. Thomas is trying to get at the heart of religious consecration. What exactly is religious consecration anyway? He gives a few explanations, but the last one is the most powerful:

Again, “a holocaust is the offering to God of all that one has,” according to Gregory (Hom. xx in Ezech.). Now man has a threefold good, according to the Philosopher (Ethic. i, 8). First, the good of external things, which he wholly offers to God by the vow of voluntary poverty; secondly, the good of his own body, and this good he offers to God especially by the vow of continence, whereby he renounces the greatest bodily pleasures. The third is the good of the soul, which man wholly offers to God by the vow of obedience, whereby he offers God his own will by which he makes use of all the powers and habits of the soul. (ST IIaIIae Q. 186, a. 7)

What exactly is he saying here? Recall that in the Old Testament, during those times when the temple was open for worship, there were a variety of ways that one could make a gift of his possessions. If you’ve ever read through Leviticus, you’ve probably come across cereal offerings, wave offerings, incense offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, et cetera. Now, with all of these offerings, part of the host would be given to God (often the blood or the fat), part would be given to the priest(s), and (sometimes) part would be given to the one offering the sacrifice. But there is one offering—the whole burnt offering or holocaust offering—that wasn’t divided up. Rather, the host was consumed whole and entire on the altar of sacrifice. This was seen by the Jews as the greatest kind of offering. Why? Well, because it gets to the heart of what sacrifice is for. We receive our lives from God, and we offer them to God. We have nothing of our own. Rather, it’s all a gift. And so we should live with the recognition and the gratitude that comes of receiving everything from the Lord, and this should translate into a spirit of sacrifice, of self-offering.

So, given that background, we can appreciate why St. Thomas describes religious life as a kind of whole burnt offering. By the vow of poverty, one offers his possessions. By the vow of chastity, one offers his body. By the vow of obedience, one offers his soul. Taken together, they offer the whole person.

In another place, in the same question, St. Thomas borrows again from St. Gregory the Great’s Homilies on Ezekiel. There St. Gregory writes, “When a man vows to God all his possessions, all his life, all his knowledge, it is a holocaust.” And why, one might ask, would anyone choose to do that? Well, because God is worthy. But here’s the thing; that’s not only true for religious. It’s true for all mankind. So then how do we respond?

CONSECRATION AND BAPTISM

In the Christian tradition, it’s common to speak of religious life as a kind of second baptism. Why? Was the first baptism not enough? That’s not what’s being said. The sense is that religious consecration builds on baptismal consecration. Think about it this way: At baptism, one is understood to die with Christ. We descend with him into waters as a kind of entombment, and we rise glorious and victorious from the font to live a new and resurrected life. But that life is gained at the price of a death: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). So, at baptism, we die to sin, and in religious consecration, one dies to the world.

But—and here’s the kicker—it’s not just religious who are called to live poverty, chastity, and obedience. All Christians, though not intended to live the counsels in fact, are called to live them in spirit. To understand what this means, we have to get at the second sense of consecration. To consecrate something means simply to make it holy. And, as we know, to be holy means to be set apart. So, consecration means set apart for holy use. You can see this with things used in the liturgy. We consecrate altars before celebrating Mass on them. After which point, it doesn’t make sense to use an altar for anything else. It is no longer an ordinary table. It has been set apart for holy use. So, too, we consecrate or bless chalices before using them to hold the Precious Blood. After which point, again, it doesn’t make sense to use a chalice for anything else.

Let’s bring it home here. We are consecrated at baptism, and in the process, we are set apart for holy use. By his baptismal character, a Christian is fashioned for the worship of God. That doesn’t mean a Christian has to spend every moment of every day in public or private acts of prayer and worship, but it does mean that in every moment of every day, we can be present to God, given to God.

Like we said, all Christians are called to live the spirit of the counsels. We are called to a healthy detachment from material things. We are called to love generously and not selfishly. We are called to empty ourselves after the manner of Christ. By baptism, we have died to the world so as to live unto God. We have been consecrated, set apart for holy use, and we are marked by that purpose forever.

Okay, so if that’s the case, isn’t baptism sufficient? To make a Marian consecration seems like overkill, like making it out to be an eighth sacrament or making her the fourth member of the Holy Trinity. Here again, the parallel with religious life is illuminating. In response, we can say, yes, baptism is sufficient, but God is generous. He just keeps giving gifts. To some, he gives this grace of “following Christ more closely” after the manner of the apostles, of being “totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all” (CIC 573). So, too, Marian consecrations do not take anything away from baptismal consecration. Rather, they build on it.

But there is a difference we should highlight. Religious life is a consecration to Christ. Marian consecration, as the name suggests, is a consecration to Mary. It’s quite a distance to go from a member of the Most Blessed Trinity to a creature. How does that make sense?

CONSECRATION AND CAUSALITY

Here, we can rely again upon the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. We believe that God is at work in creation. He isn’t the God the deists imagine—laid up in his heavens, watching the world unfold from a distance. No, God is involved in our lives in even the minutest detail. St. Augustine famously wrote that God is more interior to us than we are to ourselves. So God looks upon us, imparts being to us at each moment, and works in and through us. That last piece can be a little bit scary. What do you mean when you say God works in and through me? Are we like puppets that God manipulates for some creepy and inexplicable reason? Nope. That’s not what we’re saying.

God makes us to be real causes, real agents in the world. He could, in theory, bring about all his plans directly without the help of his creatures, but he has chosen to act in and through us. Why? Well, for one, it manifests his power still more gloriously. Think about it, who is the better boss: the one who micromanages and does everything himself or the one who effectively delegates and animates his team? Exactly.

God’s delegation doesn’t mean he is removed from the scene. As we’ve said before, he remains intimately present even in the creature who is really acting. And here, we can appreciate a certain wisdom at work. God wants us to be like him. He wants to share his divine life with us, making us adopted sons and daughters. Now, he can do that by simply giving us grace; it reflects our great dignity even to be capable of receiving grace. But, for God, it seemed insufficient to leave it at that. Rather than restricting our place to that of passive recipients, he also makes us causes of change in the world and even causes of grace. He gives us a place within his providential plans, precisely to make us more like him who is the protagonist of the whole saving work.

So he entrusts parents with the creation of new life. He entrusts mere mortals with the governance of nations and the waging of wars. He entrusts priests with the conversion of bread and wine into his Body and Blood. It’s really awesome to think about. This is the reason why it makes sense to pray in the first place. God knows what is good for us. He also knows what we want. So why would we ever bother praying? Well, because God has chosen to work through our prayers. He somehow binds up his gift of grace with our participation. He clarifies vocations through time spent in adoration. He purifies souls in purgatory through the offering of the Mass. He reconciles sinners to himself through the Anointing of the Sick and the Commendation of the Dying.

CONSECRATION AND THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

But, what is more, he also likes to bring about his will by empowering us to pursue holy designs with the help of others. The sacraments keep us constantly involved with the community of believers. We have to confess our sins to a priest. We are made to choose a sponsor at Confirmation. We come to knowledge of the Scriptures in study groups. This is part of the reason why we pray to the saints.

You can see where this is going. If it makes sense to be thrown in with Christians on earth, then why should death put an end to our ongoing communion? If fragile, imperfect Christians prove so helpful, why shouldn’t glorious, perfect Christians be more helpful yet? So, in the Church’s tradition, we are encouraged to venerate the saints for the miracle of grace that God has worked in them and also to invoke their intercession to obtain what is necessary for salvation.

During their lives, the saints merited graces which are stored up in the treasury of heaven. But grain gathered in a silo rots, so God makes those merits fruitful for the whole Church. In God’s mysterious designs, the saints are permitted to act instrumentally in applying graces to those who call upon their names. In his wisdom, God wants to answer the prayers of his people through the mediation of his saints.

The saints themselves had a sense of this. On his deathbed, St. Dominic encouraged his brothers not to lament his loss, for he would be of more service to them after death than before. St. Thérèse longed to spend her heaven doing good on earth. And we can appreciate why God wills it so. God stirs up our desire for the life of sanctity and the life of heaven by having us appeal to those who already enjoy it. By a thousand invisible tethers, he anchors our hearts in heaven so that we can be drawn into the communion of saints that we have already begun to experience. This is just one more beautiful feature of the dispensation of his grace.

Now while we might appeal to our favorite saints or patron saints or saints especially suited for some purposes, there is a kind of hierarchy among the saints. Some receive objectively greater graces in their lives and so enjoy a special esteem in the Church’s tradition. Think about St. Joseph. It’s not for nothing that he was the foster father of the only begotten Son of God, the most chaste spouse of the Virgin, the Universal Protector of the Church, and the Terror of Demons. So, while all saints enjoy the vision of God and are filled to the brim with grace and are powerful intercessors in heaven, it’s still true that not all saints are equal.

Another way of getting at this is to say that some saints are more powerful intercessors because they play a more significant part in the history of salvation. Within God’s saving plans, there are certain privileged places, certain privileged roles. But at the center of history stands his choice to take human flesh and to be born of a woman. When the Godman entered our history, he could have struck like lightning. He could have appeared spontaneously. He could have done any number of other things. But he didn’t. As we pray at Mass, “For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

MARY THE MOLD

God’s choice changes everything. The Lord chose Mary to be the Mother of God, the Theotokos, the God-bearer. As St. Augustine writes, “Him whom the heavens cannot contain, the womb of one woman bore. She ruled our Ruler. She carried him in whom we all are. She gave milk to our Bread.” God’s choice resounds through salvation history. It is not an isolated event. It is a blueprint of salvation. We who would be adopted sons and daughters of God must always and everywhere look to him who is the only-begotten Son of God and to the Mother who gave him birth.

In this spirit, St. Augustine writes about the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mold of God, since she formed the Godman in her womb. St. Louis de Montfort loved this image. He writes in his True Devotion, “Mary is the great mold of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit to give human nature to a Man who is God by the hypostatic union, and to fashion through grace men who are like to God. No godly feature is missing from this mold. Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be molded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, true God, with little pain or effort, as befits his weak human condition.”

Using an image taken from sculpture, he extends the analogy to show that there is no better way to go about becoming like Christ than the way Christ himself chose. There are two methods, he recounts, to make a statue: with a hammer and chisel or with a mold. In the former course, it is difficult and susceptible to all kinds of mistakes. In the latter course, it is easy and assured. Mary has already formed Christ once, and she remains available to form us after the likeness of her Son. This captures the excellence and superiority of her mediation and intercession, which is but a share in the mediation and intercession in Christ.

So to be consecrated or entrusted to Mary is not strictly necessary. But it is good. And of all the saints to whom one could entrust himself, she is, by far, the greatest. She plays the greatest role in salvation history. She is given the greatest graces. God brings about his biggest plans in and through her. She is the Immaculate Conception. She is the Virgin Mother of God. She is Spouse of the Spirit. She is assumed into heaven where she reigns as Queen.

GOD, MARY, AND US

In what follows, we are going to take the approach of St. Thomas. We’ll meditate on the mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the grace at work in her overflows in our own lives. In St. Thomas’s understanding, everything that Christ did and suffered is saving, and that includes what he does and suffers in and through the Virgin Mary. So, by contemplating her, we can hope not only for enlightenment and inspiration but also for salvation.

This book is tailor-made to help you to do just that. Each day will include a selection from St. Thomas’s works that speaks to the grace of God at work in the Blessed Virgin Mary. The theological reflections help to heal our minds from the distraction and error that keep us from consecration and to free us to entrust ourselves to her.

Over the course of the next nine days, we will consider the Hail Mary in great detail. The Hail Mary, what St. Thomas called the Angelic Salutation, was a prayer that he himself treasured. It forms the subject for one of his most beautiful sermons, part of which we’ll read together. And, in the end, we hope that the recitation of this prayer will fortify us in our identity as Christians.

But what is our identity as Christians, you might ask. If you ask any human being in heaven or on earth, “Who are you?” he’d probably respond—quite naturally—with his name: “I’m Matt.” But if you followed up, you might access something deeper: “I didn’t ask your name. I asked, ‘Who are you?’” Perhaps a bit confused at this point, he might respond, “Well, I’m an Australian [If you’re me (Matt) or one of my countrymen].” Now, a pattern emerges as your questioner follows up: “I didn’t ask your nationality. Who are you?” At this point, what do you say? “My parents are Gary and Debbie. I’m a rugby fan. I like chocolate chip cookies.” No. In the end, our deepest identity as Christians is to be a son or daughter of God. Every Christian in heaven and on earth should respond with one accord: “I am a child of God.”

Mary enjoys the most profound relationship with the Blessed Trinity of any Christian. She enjoys the life of grace to a degree unparalleled by any mere mortal. Throughout her life, she grew in grace at a bewildering rate. One author speaks of her as a kind of meteor. As she gets closer to the goal, closer to heaven, she just keeps picking up speed. At the time of her death or passing from this life, she was hurtling towards the heavenly Father.

In addition to being an adopted daughter of the Father in a preeminent way, she also has unique relationships with the other Persons of the Blessed Trinity. She is the Mother of the only begotten Son of God. She bore the God-man in her womb for nine months. She taught him to walk, to pray, and to love. He performs miracles at her bidding. He entrusts the Church to her in the end.

Finally, she is the Spouse of the Spirit. Her relationship with God is fruitful in a way unlike that of any other human being. The angel announces to her the plans of God, and she assents with a lively faith, quickening the Son in her Womb. The Spirit descended upon her in the New Creation as it once descended upon the waters at the dawn of time. She is the bride of the Bridegroom God. She is the Spirit’s dwelling place. When it comes to God, she is mother, spouse, and daughter. This is almost beyond belief.

What lies ahead is a journey with and through her to Jesus Christ. During the course of these days, you should pray the Rosary devoutly, meditating upon her role in the divine mysteries. You should recite the Hail Mary with attention to the Angelic Salutation, the words of St. Elizabeth, and the response of the Church, each day asking for more and more lights and insights, for greater devotion and zeal, and for Marian virtues and a Marian heart.

Practically speaking, the consecration takes us nine days. You should plan to complete the consecration in successive days. Each day will have a theological reflection based on a passage from St. Thomas’s writings and then a passage from St. Thomas himself. You can do it whenever you like, but there’s a tradition of concluding on a Marian feast day, so plan to start eight days before a feast. The theological reflection and selected passage from Aquinas for each day should take you five to ten minutes. After each reading, you should follow on with a Rosary, continuing to ponder the mysteries described in the day’s reading. That’s really all there is to it: reading and Rosary.

On the ninth day, once you’ve prepared to make an act of entrustment, go before an especially significant statue of the Virgin Mary, or an icon of the Theotokos, or to a shrine or altar dedicated to her. Kneel before her whom you have come to know more fully and love more tenderly in the past days, and pray the prayer of entrustment. The act may not be accompanied by fireworks or consolations or organ accompaniment, but know that in that act of faith, the Lord delights to receive your prayer through his Mother, whose every request he has promised to answer.

DAY 1

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

You’ve made the choice to entrust yourself to Mary. For some of you, it may seem totally natural to make this step. For others, it may not. You may even still have some lingering doubts: Is this really necessary? Is this even okay?

For those who have come from a non-Catholic background, the idea of praying to the Blessed Mother—or even praying to saints in general—might cause some discomfort. Now, if your discomfort were over something silly or slight, we could just push on without paying it much mind, but this is a big deal. It’s something that touches on the central mysteries of the faith. So let’s start with a word about saint worship. That’s right, saint worship.

For today’s meditations, you’ll read a couple of passages from St. Thomas’s Summa Theologiae on whether we should ask the saints to pray for us and whether the saints in heaven can hear our prayers. The first response highlights their role as mediators between us and God, suggesting that it’s fitting for grace to come to us through the intercession of heavenly friends. The second response describes how doing good on earth is part of their happiness of heaven and that God gives them what they need to minister. The texts are beautiful, and we’ll get to them in short order, but first, a word of introduction.

So how in the world can it possibly be okay to pray to saints? Doesn’t that make them out to be gods? In short: no. And here’s why.

Prayer has a variety of expressions. When Protestant Christians use the word pray, they typically use it to mean any words, thoughts, or affections addressed directly to God. When an evangelical says, “I’m going to pray,” it’s understood that they’re praying to God. But when Catholics use the word pray, they sometimes mean it in the traditional English sense, which is to ask. You can find this in the Scriptures. In 1 Kings 2, we come across a request that Bathsheba makes of her son. It reads, “I pray thee, say me not nay” (1 Kgs 2:20 KJV). Well, at least it does in the King James Version, which is beautiful and sometimes confusing. Regardless, the point is that she’s not making an idol of her son, she’s just making a request.

In the Catholic teaching and practice, we distinguish between two forms of prayer or worship. That’s right. We’re coming back around to worship. On the one hand, there is what we call sacrifice or adoration. If you care to know the Greek terms, this is called latreia. This kind of prayer is offered only to God, since he alone is our Creator, our End, and our Redeemer. The prayer of sacrifice or adoration is a kind of self-offering, a giving of oneself to God in utmost reverence and subjection. In short, God alone is God, and that merits a particular kind of prayer. And so, in our practice of the faith, there are certain words, gestures, and ritual forms that we reserve to him exclusively. So, for instance, in litanies, we ask the saints to pray for us, but we don’t ask them to have mercy on us. We only ask that of God.

Now, there is a second form of prayer or worship which we call veneration. The Greek word for this is dulia. This is the type of prayer or worship we offer to the saints. Perhaps at this point, the word worship is making you nervous. Don’t let it. Worship is an old English word that just means to “declare worthy.” It used to appear in the exchange of marriage vows in the Anglican Church: “With my body, I thee worship.” That being said, if the word makes you uncomfortable, you can drop it, but you should know that when we pray to the saints, we are offering a kind of worship.

Now, back to veneration. Here’s the thing: with veneration, we are not worshipping in the same way as when we offer sacrifice or adoration. We are not acknowledging and reverencing the saints as our Creator, End, and Redeemer. Rather, we are declaring the saints to be worthy of a certain praise. All we are saying is this: God has made them holy. They consented to and cooperated with his grace, and so they are due a kind of esteem, recognition, and honor. This we call veneration, and it’s a form of prayer or worship.

But we don’t stop with praising them. When we pray to the saints, we also ask for their intercession. We are asking them to pray for us, to apply their merits to our lives. Again, not because God can’t do this directly, but because he likes to do it through the saints. Why? Well, take an analogy from your experience. When a teacher instructs her students, she may not be quite sure that they’ve absorbed the material. She can test them or have them repeat back to her what they’ve heard in class, but even so, it’s not always clear whether they’ve really taken the lesson to heart. But say she observes one of her students helping one of his classmates—progressing through the problem step by step with careful attention. At this point, she knows that at least this student has learned. Ultimately, God is teaching us to be like himself, and that transformation is brought to perfection when we act as mediators or causes in the giving of grace.

And, again, we can appreciate the wisdom of this dispensation. We are destined to live a life of communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That communion is the fruit of friendship with Christ, which draws us further up and further in to the life of God. But that friendship is not an isolated affair. It is a communion that radiates through the whole Church such that we go to God together, by the intercession and encouragement of our friends—both on earth and in heaven.

So, just as we might be inclined to ask a friend to pray for us when we’re going through a rough spot, we might ask a heavenly friend to do the same. In one of his articles devoted to the subject, St. Thomas quotes St. Jerome to this effect: “If the apostles and martyrs, while yet in the body and having to be solicitous [concerned] for themselves, can pray for others, how much more now that they have the crown of victory and triumph?” In other words, if the saints and martyrs, while on earth, dealt with all sorts of hardships and yet still had the wherewithal to pray for others, why would they stop praying for others now that they’re in heaven? Wouldn’t they pray for us all the more and to greater effect?

The way that we described it seems pretty inoffensive. Why, then, do folks get so agitated at the mere mention of it? Here’s the thing: Many argue that this practice distracts from Christ’s unique and excellent role in mediating divine life. Catholics and Protestants agree that Jesus Christ is the sole mediator of salvation. Protestants worry that Catholics have way too many mediators between man and God: Mary, the saints, the Church, the sacraments, the priesthood, et cetera. They often point to 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” What about that, they might ask, do you not understand?

In response, I’d encourage them to read the verses that lead up to that passage. 1 Timothy 2:1–4 reads: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men. … This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Immediately before explaining the unique mediation of Christ, St. Paul is encouraging us to pray for each other. And, as we said before, if we can ask a saint on earth to pray for us without compromising the unique mediation of Christ, why can’t the same be true of a heavenly one?

We believe that this passage is talking about Christ being the mediator with a capital M. One drop of his blood is sufficient to merit the salvation of all peoples of all times. The saints are mediators with a lowercase m, in that they carry out God’s good work. And so, just as we do not undermine the mediation of Christ by asking our Christian brothers and sisters to pray for us, neither do we undermine it by asking our heavenly brothers and sisters to pray for us.

“But,” you might object, “your Christian brothers and sisters are alive; the saints are dead.” Is that so? The saints in heaven are actually more alive than we, and not just alive but fully righteous. For “nothing unclean shall enter it [heaven]” (Rv 21:27). And if they’re fully righteous, then their prayers are powerful, for “the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (Jas 5:16).

Ultimately, we know from 1 Corinthians 12:20 that Christ has one body. He doesn’t have two bodies, one in heaven and one on earth. The saved are not separated from that one body by death (see Rom 8:38–39). And no part of that one body can claim to not need another part (see 1 Cor 12:21). So not only is it okay to pray to the saints but, in fact, it’s part of God’s perfect plan for our salvation. Because, in the end, we go to God together, or we fall away alone. And in his generosity, God affords us communion with those who have gone before us—who instruct us by their teaching, who enrich us through their holiness, and who help us with their prayers. So pray on and read on. We’re just getting started.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

Should We Ask the Saints to Pray for Us?

According to Dionysius (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 5) the order established by God among things is that “the last should be led to God by those that are midway between.” Wherefore, since the saints who are in heaven are nearest to God, the order of the Divine law requires that we, who while we remain in the body are pilgrims from the Lord, should be brought back to God by the saints who are between us and Him: and this happens when the Divine goodness pours forth its effect into us through them. And since our return to God should correspond to the outflow of His boons upon us, just as the Divine favors reach us by means of the saints’ intercession, so should we, by their means, be brought back to God, that we may receive His favors again. Hence it is that we make them our intercessors with God, and our mediators as it were, when we ask them to pray for us.

Can the Saints in Heaven Hear Our Prayers?

The Divine essence is a sufficient medium for knowing all things, and this is evident from the fact that God, by seeing His essence, sees all things. But it does not follow that whoever sees God’s essence knows all things, but only those who comprehend the essence of God: even as the knowledge of a principle does not involve the knowledge of all that follows from that principle unless the whole virtue of the principle be comprehended. Wherefore, since the souls of the saints do not comprehend the Divine essence, it does not follow that they know all that can be known by the Divine essence—for which reason the lower angels are taught concerning certain matters by the higher angels, though they all see the essence of God; but each of the blessed must needs see in the Divine essence as many other things as the perfection of his happiness requires. For the perfection of a man’s happiness requires him to have whatever he will, and to will nothing amiss: and each one wills with a right will, to know what concerns himself. Hence since no rectitude is lacking to the saints, they wish to know what concerns themselves, and consequently it follows that they know it in the Word. Now it pertains to their glory that they assist the needy for their salvation: for thus they become God’s co-operators, “than which nothing is more Godlike,” as Dionysius declares (Celestial Hierarchy 3). Wherefore it is evident that the saints are cognizant of such things as are required for this purpose; and so it is manifest that they know in the Word the vows, devotions, and prayers of those who have recourse to their assistance.

DAY 2

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

Today we begin reading from St. Thomas’s Commentary on the Hail Mary. Unlike many of his more famous works like the Summa Theologiae or his Commentary on the Gospel of John, this work was not originally for an academic audience. It’s actually a homily. And while St. Thomas also preached academic sermons (as you’ll see later), this one is a popular sermon—addressed to an ordinary, church-going audience.

It can be easy to forget that St. Thomas was a preacher in his own right. The letters at the end of his name and at the end of the names of all Dominicans (O.P.) stand for Order of Preachers. He wasn’t just a professional academic. Before he is a scholar and professor, he is first a preacher of the Word—like St. Dominic before him and like all Dominicans since. His vocation was to contemplate and to give to others the things he contemplated—or better—the very God whom he contemplated.

The historical record seems to indicate that St. Thomas was quite a good preacher. No surprise there! We’re told by one of his early biographers that St. Thomas would, at times, move his listeners to tears. We get a sense for his poetical abilities in the texts for the liturgy of Corpus Christi, but you can also see it a bit here in his preaching.

Now, truth be told, the Commentary on the Hail Mary, which we’re going to read over the course of the next six days, isn’t something that he would have written out and published. Instead, one of his listeners would have scrawled down shorthand notes when St. Thomas was actually preaching and then expanded on them later. As a result, not all of his brilliance comes through, but quite a bit still does.

To appreciate this, though, you’ll have to get used to his style. At times, it can feel a bit distant or abstract. Why doesn’t he write with more tenderness? Why not display a more devout piety? There are plenty of reasons you could give: his setting, his training, his habit of mind, et cetera. But one thing is evident, just because his prose-style is stark, doesn’t mean it’s sterile. What he lacks in florid flourishes, he more than makes up for with contemplative insight—an insight that issues from the very heart of his vocation.

You see, for St. Thomas, the work of prayer, theology, and preaching is no mere hobby. It’s a matter of life and death. And here’s why: St. Thomas really believes that it matters what you think and what you love. In the end, it’s what sets us apart from the beasts. Alone among all of material creation, we have minds with which to know and hearts with which to love. We succeed or fail as human beings insofar as we perfect these capacities in an ongoing encounter with the true and the good.

So, for St. Thomas, it really matters what you know and love. It’s not enough to know about lots of different things. We want to know what is universally true and to know it perfectly. We want to love what is universally good and to love it wholly. And we will not be satisfied until we can hang our minds and hearts on something, or Someone, that will bear the weight of all our desiring.

So St. Thomas trains all of his considerable abilities on sounding the depths of the mysteries of God and salvation. This gets at the reason for his love of order—the clear structure that you find in each day’s reading. St. Thomas believed that God and his creation are orderly. It says so in the Scriptures. Just read Genesis 1. What is more, our lives are patterned after the same order. And so, for St. Thomas, the cast of his work—his theological style—is aimed at reflecting the order that he discerned in creation. Why? Well, because our minds ought to be conformed to what is. That’s just the truth. No, seriously, that’s how he defines truth.

So when surveying the order of creation, certain things cause St. Thomas a particular wonder. In ascending the ranks of creation, he noticed a kind of “gap” between God and man, between unlimited Spirit (God) and spirit in matter (man). He was delighted to discern there a place for the angelic choirs. Now, it goes without saying that St. Thomas believed that angels exist because the Scriptures reveal it. But when reading these passages, St. Thomas was not content to leave the scriptural data unexamined. He was interested in explaining what it means to be a pure, limited spirit. In fact, St. Thomas is so famous for his speculation on the angels that he is often referred to as the Angelic Doctor.

In his theology, St. Thomas considers angels in themselves as created by God and destined for beatitude, but he also considers them at great length by comparison to God and man. On the one hand, angels are wholly spiritual and therefore less limited than man. On the other hand, they are created and contingent, and therefore infinitely lower than God. Effectively, by situating the angels in their proper rank, St. Thomas sheds light on what is proper to God and what is proper to man, distinguishing in order to unite.

In today’s reading, St. Thomas takes up a consideration of the Annunciation with an eye to the messenger (Angel is taken from the Greek word angelos, which just means “messenger”). Consider, he counsels, the fact that an angel is greeting a woman with a salutation of honor. Again, an angel (who ranks higher in the order of creation) appears in service to a woman (who ranks lower). Clearly, something strange is afoot. The world has been turned on its head. Here already we have a taste for the topsy-turveydom which comes to characterize God’s dealings with men. For indeed, “he has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.”

In this passage, St. Thomas will compare the angelic and human nature so as to set the stage for the truly extraordinary work that God has wrought in Mary. So permit St. Thomas to take you by the hand and walk you through today’s passage. Ponder the announcement of the angelic salutation and marvel at her whom Gabriel greeted.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

From the Commentary on the Hail Mary¹

This salutation has three parts. The Angel gave one part, namely: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed art you among women” (Lk 1:28). The other part was given by Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, namely: “Blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). The Church adds the third part, that is, “Mary,” because the Angel did not say, “Hail, Mary,” but “Hail, full of grace.” But, as we shall see, this name, “Mary,” according to its meaning agrees with the words of the Angels.²

“Hail Mary”

We must now consider concerning the first part of this prayer that in ancient times it was no small event when Angels appeared to men; and that man should show them reverence was especially praiseworthy. Thus, it is written to the praise of Abraham that he received the Angels with all courtesy and showed them reverence. But that an Angel should show reverence to a man was never heard of until the Angel reverently greeted the Blessed Virgin saying: “Hail.”

In olden time an Angel would not show reverence to a man, but a man would deeply revere an Angel. This is because Angels are greater than men, and indeed in three ways. First, they are greater than men in dignity. This is because the Angel is of a spiritual nature: “You make your angels spirits” (Ps 103:4). But, on the other hand, man is of a corruptible nature, for Abraham said: “I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes” (Gn 18:27). It was not fitting, therefore, that a spiritual and incorruptible creature should show reverence to one that is corruptible as is a man. Secondly, an Angel is closer to God. The Angel, indeed, is of the family of God, and as it were stands ever by Him: “Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him” (Dan 7:10). Man, on the other hand, is rather a stranger and afar off from God because of sin: “I have gone afar off” (Ps 44:8). Therefore, it is fitting that man should reverence an Angel who is an intimate and one of the household of the King.

Then, thirdly, the Angels far exceed men in the fullness of the splendor of divine grace. For Angels participate in the highest degree in the divine light: “Is there any numbering of His soldiers? And upon whom shall not His light arise?” (Job 25:3). Hence, the Angels always appear among men clothed in light, but men on the contrary, although they partake somewhat of the light of grace, nevertheless do so in a much slighter degree and with a certain obscurity. It was, therefore, not fitting that an Angel should show reverence to a man until it should come to pass that one would be found in human nature who exceeded the Angels in these three points in which we have seen that they excel over men—and this was the Blessed Virgin. To show that she excelled the Angels in these, the Angel desired to show her reverence, and so he said: “Ave (Hail).”

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¹ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

² The Hail Mary or Angelical Salutation or Ave Maria in the time of St. Thomas consisted only of the present first part of the prayer. The second part—“Holy Mary, Mother of God,” etc.—was added later by the Church.

DAY 3

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

In the reflections for today and tomorrow, we turn to the most famous words in the Hail Mary: “full of grace.” It’s hard to appreciate just how meaningful these words are. Mary is full of grace—from the top of her head to the soles of her feet (metaphorically speaking). Seriously though: full.

Christians who read the Gospels in the original language will often point out that the word for “full of grace” is literally something like “she having been graced.” It describes a present reality already perfected in the past. It’s not, “Hail! You’re about to be graced.” Or, “Hail! You’re kind of graced, but about to be more so.” Rather, the angel Gabriel announces that what God has given is now made known. God has gone before himself to prepare a worthy dwelling for his only begotten Son.

In the years leading to the moment of the Annunciation, Mary has been surrounded by and steeped in divine love to a mind-boggling extent. She has been loved unto the threshold of her maternity. Perhaps, she had suspected that the day would come. In sacred art, it’s common to see Mary pictured at the Annunciation with the Scriptures open on her knees as she searches for the meaning of the divine life already at work in her. She conceived the Word in grace before she conceived the Word in flesh.

Mary has been blessed with nearly the highest degree of grace imaginable. The intensity and extent of her love is second only to that of her Son. From the womb, Mary has never known sin, and from the dawn of reason, she has continued to grow with an ever-gathering speed. With each passing day, Mary is picking up speed as she hurtles towards the kingdom of heaven—which is to say, towards her Son.

It follows that the Annunciation is no historical accident, no matter of mere angelic happenstance. The archangel Gabriel was not strolling through Judea in search of candidates. He was sent directly to the object of God’s greatest affection—the world’s first love. God has chosen her and loved her—he has predestined her—with an eye to this day. And so, though she is at first confused at the announcement, she is not confounded. Unlike Zechariah, she is neither dismayed nor fearful. Made ready by grace, she is able to recognize the advent of her vocation.

Whenever theologians describe the gifts given to Mary (her divine maternity, her perpetual virginity, her Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption), they direct our attention first to her divine maternity. This grace is most closely allied with the grace of the Incarnation. Mary is truly the Mother of God. If you had only one title by which to invoke her, one that captures what is most beautiful and distinctive about the grace of God at work in her, this would be it.

All her other graces flow from her divine maternity. Her fullness of grace, perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption into heaven all make of her or show her to be a worthy Mother of so noble a Son, one intimately united to him in every aspect of his life.

Now, at this point, a word about the Immaculate Conception. For those of you who have read a thing or two about St. Thomas, you’ve probably heard that he was not a proponent of the Immaculate Conception. Instead, he says that Mary would have contracted original sin and then been sanctified in the womb. In today’s reading, you’ll see that spelled out pretty plainly. You might ask, why in the world did he deny the Immaculate Conception? Is he a heretic? Okay, let’s pump the brakes and sort out the details.

First, some argue that St. Thomas actually changed his mind on the matter and, in the end, affirmed the doctrine. Not many people hold for this though, so it’s on us to explain St. Thomas’s teaching.

Second, the Immaculate Conception was not formally defined as a dogma of the Catholic Church until December 8, 1854. That’s almost six hundred years after St. Thomas died. Up until that point, the matter was open for debate, and many saints and theologians in the Church differed in their opinions. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Peter Damian, St. Bonaventure, and St. Albert the Great were all—with St. Thomas—suspicious of the proposed doctrine. In the years after St. Thomas’s death, consensus shifted in favor of the doctrine, but at the time when St. Thomas lived and wrote, it wasn’t even close to clear.

Third, St. Thomas wasn’t trying to take anything away from Mary. He did not begrudge her anything. Rather, he was trying to be faithful to Christ. It’s the only way that he saw to hold for the universality of salvation in Christ. If Mary were conceived without sin, St. Thomas thought, then she didn’t need a redeemer. And if that were the case, then Christ wouldn’t be the Redeemer of all mankind.

Now, you can see the bind in which this put St. Thomas. The problem isn’t so much the fact that Mary was born before Jesus. St. Thomas had already figured out how grace can be applied before the Incarnation. (He had to explain how Old Testament patriarchs and prophets could be saved by the grace of Christ.) The real problem for St. Thomas was one of justification. In his mind, one needed to contract sin in order to be saved from it. Now, St. Thomas granted that Mary never committed personal sins and that she was sanctified in the womb (as were St. John the Baptist and the prophet Jeremiah), but he couldn’t see a way to her being conceived without sin.

And so, in this matter, other figures in the tradition came to his aid. The most famous advocate for the Immaculate Conception was Blessed John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan friar born some forty years after St. Thomas. Scotus argued not only is it true that Mary is redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ but it’s also true that she is redeemed in most excellent fashion. Whereas all other men are liberated from sin, she is preserved from it. Rather than being exempted from the redemption, she received it in peculiar and perfect fashion.

Which brings us back to our first point. At the moment of the Annunciation, Mary is already graced in a preeminent way. God has foreseen this moment and provided for it at every turn—at conception, in virginity, and by grace. And so in today’s passage, we greet her with the angel and ask the benefit of receiving her maternal mediation anew and afresh. For by God’s grace, she is first redeemed, and by her prayers, we hope to share richly in that same redemption.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

“Full of grace”³

The Blessed Virgin was superior to any of the Angels in the fullness of grace, and as an indication of this the Angel showed reverence to her by saying: “Full of grace.” This is as if he said: “I show you reverence because you dost excel me in the fullness of grace.”

The Blessed Virgin is said to be full of grace in three ways. First, as regards her soul she was full of grace. The grace of God is given for two chief purposes, namely, to do good and to avoid evil. The Blessed Virgin, then, received grace in the most perfect degree, because she had avoided every sin more than any other Saint after Christ. Thus it is said: “You are fair, My beloved, and there is not a spot in you” (Sg 4:7). St. Augustine says: “If we could bring together all the Saints and ask them if they were entirely without sin, all of them, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin, would say with one voice: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ (1 Jn 1:8). I except, however, this holy Virgin of whom, because of the honor of God, I wish to omit all mention of sin” (De natura et gratia 36). For we know that to her was granted grace to overcome every kind of sin by Him whom she merited to conceive and bring forth, and He certainly was wholly without sin.

Christ excelled the Blessed Virgin in this, that He was conceived and born without original sin, while the Blessed Virgin was conceived in original sin, but was not born in it. She exercised the works of all the virtues, whereas the Saints are conspicuous for the exercise of certain special virtues. Thus, one excelled in humility, another in chastity, another in mercy, to the extent that they are the special exemplars of these virtues—as, for example, St. Nicholas is an exemplar of the virtue of mercy. The Blessed Virgin is the exemplar of all the virtues.

In her is the fullness of the virtue of humility: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38). And again: “He has looked on the humility of his handmaid” [Lk 1:48]. So she is also exemplar of the virtue of chastity: “Because I know not man” (Lk 1:34). And thus it is with all the virtues, as is evident. Mary was full of grace not only in the performance of all good, but also in the avoidance of all evil.

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³ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

DAY 4

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

Today, we pick up again where we left off, meditating upon the grace given to the Blessed Virgin. In his Commentary on the Hail Mary, St. Thomas says that Mary is full of grace in three ways. Yesterday, we read about the first way: her soul is full of grace. Today, we’ll read about the remaining two ways: her body is full of grace and her grace overflows upon humanity. Let’s say a word about each of these remaining two.

What does it mean to say that Mary’s body is full of grace? At first, this seems like a strange notion. Can one have a holy body? Does grace really transform human lives to that extent? Well, in one sense, not really, but in another sense, decidedly yes.

To begin, what is grace in the first place? As Christians, we believe that it is an immaterial, created share in God’s divine life that makes us pleasing to God. It’s common to describe grace as a habit of the soul or a habit of being, and its primary effect is to heal and elevate our whole nature. (St. Thomas will often liken grace to health, as if it were the “supernatural health” of the soul.) So grace is not restricted to perfecting just one faculty or the other (like the virtues), but instead, it puts the whole person in relation to God, making him or her an adopted son or daughter of God.

While maintaining that grace is at work in the whole person, it is also true that grace is especially at work in our spiritual faculties of intellect and will. St. Thomas teaches that intellect and will are just what constitute the image of God in us. These are the aspects of our humanity that are most distinctively human. These are what make us capable of receiving God and his grace. So, keeping in mind that grace perfects the whole person, we want to say that grace is principally at work in our spiritual faculties.

What then does grace accomplish in our intellect and will? Well, grace conforms our minds and hearts to God, such that we take our cues in thought and deed from the divine love at work in our members. Before the restoration of grace, we were spiritually orphaned, ignorant of our supreme calling. Closed off from God, we foundered in a rebellion of false autonomy. With the renewal of grace, we are made adopted sons and daughters of God. Grace renovates the image of God at work in us.

With this in mind, it makes sense that St. Thomas begins with the first sense of Mary’s fullness of grace: grace fills her soul. And yet, it’s interesting that he doesn’t leave it with that. So now let’s move on to the second and third senses.

There is a sense in which grace can be said to transform the body. Many of us recognize this intuitively. Just picture the smile of a saint. Imagine St. Teresa of Calcutta’s furrowed but radiant face. Think of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati living it up with the “Shady Characters.” In their features, you can see something of the grace of God. How else can you account for the beauty of someone so ravaged by sorrows and trials?

With the Blessed Virgin Mary, we believe that God’s grace was at work in her in such a powerful way that it “overflowed” into her body. Think about it this way: Mary knew God in her mind and cherished him in her heart. By grace, God was the object of her thoughts, words, and deeds. She abided in his love, ever-mindful of his presence. And then one day, that same God took flesh in her womb. The God who was present to her night and day assumed a human nature ex Maria virgine.

Now, it would be foolish to suggest that the grace of her soul is independent from the grace that is quickened in her womb. To be clear, the Incarnation is a grace. The human nature of the only begotten Son of God is united to a divine nature in the Person of the Word. That union is a grace. (St. Thomas calls it “the grace of union.”) It’s true that Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit, but she herself gives her body for the human nature of the Incarnate Lord.

So, does she beget grace? Well, kind of. Strictly speaking, only God creates grace, but Mary is instrumental in that creation. Through the cooperation of her own human nature filled as it is with grace, she conceives in her womb the Son of God—graced beyond imagining. And so her grace can be said to overflow into her body, which is pretty amazing.

St. Thomas concludes his list with a third and final sense in which Mary is full of grace: her grace overflows onto all men. At first blush, this sounds like St. Thomas is making Mary out to be a fourth member of the Trinity. Don’t worry, he’s not. All grace is Christ’s grace, and all grace comes to us through Christ—in the Church, by the sacraments, through the ministers. What is more, we believe that Christ bestows his grace on whom he wills, and he desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

But Christ is not alone in this work. Again, not because he can’t go it alone, but because he has chosen to associate the saints in his work of salvation. Among all the saints, Mary is most intimately implicated in his providential plan. Christ alone merits our salvation in strict justice, for he alone is God Incarnate. By a singular privilege, he can offer satisfaction to God with excelling charity as high priest and head of the Church. But in this saving work, he has chosen to ally the gift of grace to the mediation of his mother. What he merits in justice, she merits in fitting union with him—by a kind of friendship. The graces that pass through the hands of Christ do so at the bidding of his mother, not because he is reluctant, but because it is beautiful.

Such is her fullness of grace that it could not be contained within the narrow limits of her soul. The gifts God has given her have a life all their own; they are water welling up unto eternity. And, as they do, they brim over first into her body and then into the mystical body of Christ. So, as you read and pray with today’s passage, ask Mary anew for a share in her grace—the grace of her Son. We can assure you that she delights in such requests, and her Son will not deny them.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

“Full of Grace”⁴

Again, the Blessed Virgin was full of grace in the overflowing effect of this grace upon her flesh or body. For while it is a great thing in the Saints that the abundance of grace sanctified their souls, yet, moreover, the soul of the holy Virgin was so filled with grace that from her soul grace poured into her flesh from which was conceived the Son of God. Hugh of St. Victor says of this: “Because the love of the Holy Spirit so inflamed her soul, He worked a wonder in her flesh, in that from it was born God made Man.” “And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).

The plenitude of grace in Mary was such that its effects overflow upon all men. It is a great thing in a Saint when he has grace to bring about the salvation of many, but it is exceedingly wonderful when grace is of such abundance as to be sufficient for the salvation of all men in the world, and this is true of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin. Thus, “a thousand bucklers,” that is, remedies against dangers, “hang therefrom” (Sg 4:4). Likewise, in every work of virtue one can have her as one’s helper. Of her it was spoken: “In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue” (Sir 24:25). Therefore, Mary is full of grace, exceeding the Angels in this fullness and very fittingly is she called “Mary” which means “in herself enlightened”: “The Lord will fill your soul with brightness” (Is 48:11). And she will illumine others throughout the world for which reason she is compared to the sun and to the moon.

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⁴ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

DAY 5

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

You’ve probably heard it said that God lives in you or that he is somehow present to you. Whether we get it from the Scriptures or a “Footprints” bookmark, we’re all pretty much convinced that God is somehow near. The saints of the Church’s tradition will sometimes describe this teaching as the “indwelling of the Holy Trinity.” In the words of St. Paul, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?” (1 Cor 6:19).

At first, that may sound like a pious metaphor, perhaps like you had a best friend in school who moved away and ever since you’ve cherished her memory. Thoughts of her crop up. Scents and scenes recall the past. Even though absent, she remains part of your life. And, at times, the remembrance can be so strong that it’s as if she’s still with you. If we had to imagine the “indwelling of the Holy Trinity,” many of us would work along these lines.

But for comparison, let’s think of another way one can be present. Think of how Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist. We believe that the Incarnate Lord reigns in paradise now and unto ages of ages. But, without quitting his heavens, he is made present elsewhere in creation. At every Mass on earth, in the consecration of the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ is made sacramentally present under the appearance of bread and wine. It is a change unlike any other. Whereas formerly there was bread and wine, now there is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the only begotten Son of God. To be clear, his sacramental presence is not merely symbolic; it’s real—the Real Presence. We offer the Eucharist the worship of sacrifice or adoration; we genuflect before the tabernacle; we take all pains to show it the love and care due to God himself. God is truly present in the Eucharist.

So here we have a spectrum of presence. On the one hand, you have the memory of your beloved friend, which we’re calling metaphorical presence. On the other hand, you have the Holy Eucharist, which we’re calling sacramental presence. If we had to choose how God is present in each of us as in a temple, most of us would probably go with the metaphorical presence. Would you be shocked to hear that this doesn’t even come close? What if we were to tell you that the indwelling Holy Trinity is present to you more like sacramental presence? Well, here’s the thing: it’s true.

Let’s walk through this with the Angelic Doctor. When St. Thomas describes how God is in all creation, he gives three senses of divine presence. God, he says, is present to all things by essence, presence, and power. He is present by essence as giving all things their very being. He is present by presence in that all things are “bare and open to his eyes.” He is present by power as giving all things their agency. But St. Thomas doesn’t stop here; he adds another sense in which God is present to the just (whether in heaven, in purgatory, or on earth). To these chosen, God is present by grace.

You can see how this fits in beautifully with what we’ve said about the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. In our earlier discussions of grace, it may have sounded like grace is something static—like “holiness points” that you accumulate in hopes of getting a high sanctity score. But now we’re in a better position to understand the essence of grace. At root, grace is a relationship. The life of grace just is the cultivation of the presence of God. The life of grace is Trinitarian communion through friendship with Christ on the way to heaven.

So if, as we said, the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed the greatest degree of grace imaginable after that of her Son, we can confidently say there is no human being before or since to whom God was so very present. This, then, gets at what it means to say, “The Lord is with you.” In the passage that we’ll read today from the Commentary on the Hail Mary, St. Thomas describes how Mary excels all creation in her closeness to God. God is present in Mary to an almost incredible depth and extent.

You might say, “Sure. But what else would you expect from the Mother of God? How is that supposed to motivate me when I haven’t been given that grace?” Fair point. It’s true that there are certain things about Mary’s experience that don’t translate. As we said in the introduction, she is most Beloved of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Spirit in a unique way. And while the temptation might be to wonder why God didn’t give you some of those graces, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s grace isn’t meant to cause us despair. It’s meant to inspire us and to help us.

Sure, Mary’s graces are extraordinary, but they draw our attention to just how marvelous are the ordinary graces that God gives to each of us. Yes, God was present to her in a most excellent fashion, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he is present to you. Not all of us have as sensational a vocation story as she did, but that doesn’t mean your story is any less precious to God.

Some of the Lord’s miracles highlight this for us. Think, for example, of the miracle that Mary orchestrated: the miracle of the wedding feast at Cana. What happened? Water became wine. What about that’s miraculous? Well, water doesn’t ordinarily become wine, at least not instantaneously. Well then, how do you ordinarily get wine? First, a vintner plants seed and rain falls. Then the vines grow and bear grapes. Finally, the grapes are gathered and crushed. Once, the juice ferments, you have wine (more or less). So, for shorthand, we could just as well say that rain falls and eventually you get wine. Which is to say, water becomes wine.

But here’s the thing: the fact that the Lord can turn water into wine in an extraordinary fashion doesn’t make it any less mysterious and beautiful that he does so in an ordinary fashion. Rather, by performing the miracle as he did, he recaptures our attention, revealing just how awesome are the “ordinary” dealings of God with his creation. So, too, is it with the grace of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God’s presence to her bears extraordinary fruit, but in a sense, such is the vocation of each one of us—to be God-bearers. Every Christian is called to “give birth” to the God who dwells in us as in a temple, who is more present to us than we are to ourselves. In truth, her dignity reveals our destiny. So, as you read today’s passage, call to mind God’s great love which has given to us the Blessed Virgin as an icon of his Incarnate Presence.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

“The Lord Is With You”⁵

The Blessed Virgin excels the Angels in her closeness to God. The Angel Gabriel indicated this when he said: “The Lord is with you”—as if to say: “I reverence you because you art nearer to God than I, because the Lord is with you.” By the Lord; he means the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, who in like manner are not with any Angel or any other spirit: “The Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). God the Son was in her womb: “Rejoice and praise, O you habitation of Sion; for great is He that is in the midst of you, the Holy One of Israel” (Is 12:6).

The Lord is not with the Angel in the same manner as with the Blessed Virgin; for with her He is as a Son, and with the Angel He is the Lord. The Lord, the Holy Ghost, is in her as in a temple, so that it is said: “The temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit,” because she conceived by the Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon you” (Lk 1:35). The Blessed Virgin is closer to God than is an Angel, because with her are the Lord the Father, the Lord the Son, and the Lord the Holy Ghost—in a word, the Holy Trinity. Indeed of her we sing: “Noble resting place of the Triune God.” “The Lord is with you” are the most praise laden words that the Angel could have uttered; and, hence, he so profoundly reverenced the Blessed Virgin because she is the Mother of the Lord and Our Lady. Accordingly she is very well named “Mary,” which in the Syrian tongue means “Lady.”

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⁵ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

DAY 6

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

When some Christian authors really get going on Mary, it’s almost as if there’s no praise they won’t heap on her. Frankly, some of it can begin to sound like things that we only want to say about God. Sometimes, it’s these types of “excesses” that really make Protestants (and even some Catholics) a bit uncomfortable.

In today’s selection from the Commentary on the Hail Mary, St. Thomas explains what it means for Mary to be blessed among women: 1) She is free from sin and its penalties; 2) she is immune from the drudgery of labor; 3) she did not undergo death, but was assumed bodily into heaven.

To modern ears, some of these claims sound a bit like science-fiction. They can be especially hard to swallow for Protestants. Again, how closely can Mary resemble God without muddying the waters? At what point is it all just too much?

As we’ve made clear (hopefully), Mary isn’t God. Never has been. Never will be. A word from St. Louis de Montfort (one keen on Marian piety of the super-intense variety) brings home the point: “With the whole church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God, is compared to his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing, since he alone can say, ‘I am he who is.’”⁶ That, then, should be clear enough.

Beyond this, we also want to say that God—who from all eternity enjoys the fullness of life—has no absolute need of the Blessed Virgin. He doesn’t need her to carry out his will. He has only to will and it is. But in his unsearchable Wisdom, God saw fit to use Mary as an instrument or agent in his work of salvation. As a result, our lives and our prayers are shaped by his choice.

St. Louis de Montfort continues in the same passage: “However, I declare that considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to come, that he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts or his way of acting.”⁷ Basically, God has used Mary to carry out his providential plans in the past. Also, God doesn’t change. Therefore, it stands to reason that he will use her to carry out his providential plans in the present and future.

Philosophically, that’s all well and good, but it’s unclear whether that was ever the main issue. Let’s address the root fear: Sometimes Catholics and Protestants worry that if they give special attention to Mary, they’re somehow robbing that attention from God—that if they speak of the glories of Mary, they’re somehow distracting from the glories of God. And while this is a good sensitivity to have, there’s a misunderstanding at work in it.

You see, God isn’t in competition with his creatures. He is not just one actor on a stage of actors all of which are on equal footing. He is more like the playwright, director, producer, actor, and muse all at once. God is a transcendent cause—the giver of being and the giver of causing. He makes all things to be and to act. It follows that everything that is or that acts is somehow a reflection or indication of God. What is more, the glory of the creature redounds to the glory of God. As Hopkins put it, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

We have an easier time of appreciating this when it comes to other created things. For instance, you see a starlit sky and you marvel at how beautiful it is. In the moment, you’re lost in a kind of contemplative wonder. You might just look at it and go, “Wow,” without saying anything more. Now, this amazement isn’t the liturgical worship of God alone, and yet, it doesn’t mean that it is therefore idolatrous! When a pious friend passes by and sees you captivated, it’s not like he is going to rebuke you and say, “Stop it. Cut that out. You don’t want to give too much attention to the starlit sky. You should be praising God directly, exclusively, and continuously.”

You can also find this kind of wonder at created things in the Scriptures. In Psalm 19 we read, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (vv. 1–4).

In this passage, there’s a sense that the stars glorify God just in being stars. “There is no speech, nor are there words,” and yet their created splendor tells forth the glory of God. Think of any example you want: standing before a powerful waterfall, holding a newborn and being completely fascinated with him. There’s something about this wonder—the wonder before God’s creation—that is good.

Every time we talk about the beauty, virtue, or glory of something, do we have to immediately and painstakingly reaffirm that we are not making it God but instead referring our admiration of said created thing to God, its Creator? Can’t we just say, “Wow, what a beautiful piece of artwork!” and have that be an implicit way of praising the artist. It seems we can.

What is more, love is not a scarce good. If we think about love as if it were a material good, we might worry that love of one thing detracts from love of another, but such is not the case. The love of God is a spiritual good that mysteriously increases as it is shared. You can love your mother, and you can love your father, and the two loves are not in conflict. Rather, they are harmonized and intensified in the love of the common good of the family.

Now, admittedly, it is possible to get lost in created things. Instead of seeing them as traces and images of the Creator and referring our praise to their source, it can be tempting to get lost in all their exquisite beauty. Some things just tend to suck up our affections and leave us exhausted. Rather than refer them to God, instead we are, as T. S. Eliot put it, “distracted from distraction by distraction.” But with the love of the Blessed Virgin, just the opposite is the case. Mary is perfectly transparent to the grace of God at work in her. When praise is referred to her, she refers it to her Son. Lest we be lost in all her lovely glories, her soul “magnifies the Lord” as she directs our gaze to “He who is mighty.”

As many have observed, Mary is like the moon. The moon does not have any light of its own, but merely reflects the splendor of the sun. Likewise, the splendor of Mary is but a reflection of her Son. And by her prayers and mediation she makes his light visible to those shrouded in darkness. So, as you meditate on today’s passage, consider Mary as she stands before God, as humbled and yet exalted, as blessed among women.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

“Blessed Art Thou Among Women”⁸

The Blessed Virgin exceeds the Angels in purity. She is not only pure, but she obtains purity for others. She is purity itself, wholly lacking in every guilt of sin, for she never incurred either mortal or venial sin. So, too, she was free from the penalties of sin. Sinful man, on the contrary, incurs a threefold curse on account of sin. The first fell upon woman who conceives in corruption, bears her child with difficulty, and brings it forth in pain. The Blessed Virgin was wholly free from this, since she conceived without corruption, bore her Child in comfort, and brought Him forth in joy: “It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise” (Is 35:2).

The second penalty was inflicted upon man in that he shall earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. The Blessed Virgin was also immune from this because, as the Apostle says, virgins are free from the cares of this world and are occupied wholly with the things of the Lord (1 Cor 7:34).

The third curse is common both to man and woman in that both shall one day return to dust. The Blessed Virgin was spared this penalty, for her body was raised up into heaven, and so we believe that after her death she was revived and transported into heaven: “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place, You and the ark which You hast sanctified” (Ps 131:8). Because the Blessed Virgin was immune from these punishments, she is “blessed among women.” Moreover, she alone escaped the curse of sin, brought forth the Source of blessing, and opened the gate of heaven. It is surely fitting that her name is “Mary,” which is akin to the Star of the Sea (“Maria, maris stella”), for just as sailors are directed to port by the star of the sea, so also Christians are by Mary guided to glory.

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⁶ St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2010).

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

DAY 7

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

When we read the Bible, we should always be on the lookout to make connections among different parts of the text. When we listen to the Word—whether in Mass or elsewhere—we often find that one passage sheds light on another. Now how could that be? Is it just by coincidence that events repeat themselves or seem otherwise connected? Not a chance! It’s all part of a plan.

You see, God is the author of all of Scripture. What is more, he knows salvation history by his eternal and creative wisdom. And, when inspiring the Word of God, he breathes his knowledge of salvation history into the Scriptures as he wills, regardless of strict chronology. At first that may sound confusing, but it doesn’t need to be too complicated.

What we’re basically saying is that God is able to orchestrate salvation history in order to reveal himself to his people and that the Scripture records this drama for us. So, for instance, the real high point of salvation history comes with the Incarnation. We believe that the only begotten Son of God took to himself human flesh; that he suffered, died, and rose; and that it is through faith in him that we have life. That is a pretty significant event—the most significant.

Since the coming of Christ is so decisive for the salvation of the world, God lays out his designs in advance. He chooses a people and makes a covenant with them in anticipation of the Messiah. He also is at work in their history to indicate the manner of the Lord’s coming, and Scripture recounts this movement for us throughout its pages. Take the Exodus story for instance. In Moses, we have a type—that is, a kind of anticipation or foretelling—of Christ. The Passover prefigures our redemption. The parting of the Red Sea foreshadows the sacrament of Baptism. At every turn, the Old speaks in partial ways of the fullness to come in the New.

In response to this dimension of biblical revelation, we as Christians read Scripture typologically; that is to say, we read it as something delicately woven and richly interrelated. The Fathers of the Church and medieval theologians were especially good at reading Scripture in this way, and they were always on the lookout for Christ and his mysteries.

Let’s look at an example of this. In one homily, St. John Chrysostom describes Christ’s triumph as a perfect reversal of the devil’s victory. He writes, “Christ conquered the devil using the same means and the same weapons that the devil used to win. … The symbols of our fall were a virgin, a tree, and death. The virgin was Eve; then there was the tree; and death was Adam’s penalty. And again, these three tokens of our destruction … became the tokens of our victory. Instead of Eve there was Mary; instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the wood of the cross; instead of Adam’s death, the death of Christ.”

The identification of Christ and Adam itself occurs in the Scriptures. After describing the sin of Adam in the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes, “For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom 5:15). In 1 Corinthians 15, he also refers to Christ as the “last Adam” or end-times Adam. And you’ll regularly hear Christ referred to as the “New Adam.”

The understanding of Christ as the New Adam crops up often among the Fathers and medieval theologians. There is a sense that Christ has come to undo our sinful solidarity with our original parents by a new solidarity in grace. He comes to gather up all that is proper to the humanity of Adam and to relive it in a redeemed way. As in Adam we are fated to experience sin, death, and alienation, so in Christ we are destined to partake of grace, beatitude, and communion.

From an early date, Christians saw that just as there is a woman associated with Adam in sin, namely Eve, so too there is a woman associated with Christ in grace, namely the Blessed Virgin Mary. Beginning with St. Justin Martyr, it became commonplace to describe Mary as a New Eve who stands alongside Christ, the New Adam. Of course, the parallel isn’t perfect (Mary is Jesus’s mother, not his wife), but the association is clear and fitting.

Not only is this arrangement fitting, it is also ironic. Not ironic in the sarcastic or cynical sense, but in the sense of being unexpected or paradoxical. St. Thomas seizes on this point in a beautiful way. He details in today’s passage how Mary recovers what is lost in Eve, or more precisely, how Mary finds what it is that Eve sought. St. Thomas sets the stage by describing how Eve sought divinization but instead found depravity; how Eve sought pleasure but instead found pain; how Eve sought beauty but instead found vanity.

As many Fathers and medieval theologians taught, the root of Eve’s defeat is pride. St. Thomas describes the original sin as a rejection of God’s original plan precisely because it was gratuitous, because it was unmerited. Either man could not bear to have God for his end (choosing himself instead) or he could not bear to have God’s indispensable help in grace (choosing to work by his own strength). Here’s the thing though: Beatitude can only be enjoyed as a gift. It takes grace, and only God gives grace. Man was destined to a divinized life of unparalleled delight and beauty, but it meant begging for it and receiving it. Such a stoop, our first parents could not abide. So they ceded the grace and lost themselves.

But, Mary—the New Eve—has discovered the way through. In place of pride, her clarion call is, “He has lifted up the lowly.” By humility, Our Lady inherits the riches which God held in store for a new race redeemed in Christ. And in the process, she garners all the gifts that Eve surrendered: She becomes like God, she experiences incomparable delight, and she contemplates the utmost beauty. At long last, Mary has found the secret of true happiness, the key that unlocks the kingdom of heaven. For she has not grasped at these gifts by her own power, rather, “He has looked with favor on his lowly handmaid.”

So, in today’s passage, thank God for the gifts that have been lost in Eve and found in Mary. Pray that by her prayers we too might partake of the life-transforming, utterly delightful, and majestically beautiful love of her Son.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

“Blessed Is the Fruit of Your Womb”⁹

The sinner often seeks for something which he does not find; but to the just man it is given to find what he seeks: “The substance of the sinner is kept for the just” (Prov 13:22). Thus, Eve sought the fruit of the tree (of good and evil), but she did not find in it that which she sought. Everything Eve desired, however, was given to the Blessed Virgin. Eve sought that which the devil falsely promised her, namely, that she and Adam would be as gods, knowing good and evil. “You shall be,” says this liar, “as gods” (Gen 3:5). But he lied, because “he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). Eve was not made like God after having eaten of the fruit, but rather she was unlike God in that by her sin she withdrew from God and was driven out of paradise. The Blessed Virgin, however, and all Christians found in the Fruit of her womb Him whereby we are all united to God and are made like to Him: “When He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:2).

Eve looked for pleasure in the fruit of the tree because it was good to eat. But she did not find this pleasure in it, and, on the contrary, she at once discovered she was naked and was stricken with sorrow. In the Fruit of the Blessed Virgin we find sweetness and salvation: “He who eats My flesh … has eternal life” (Jn 6:55).

The fruit which Eve desired was beautiful to look upon, but that Fruit of the Blessed Virgin is far more beautiful, for the Angels desire to look upon Him: “You are beautiful above the sons of men” (Ps 44:3). He is the splendor of the glory of the Father. Eve, therefore, looked in vain for that which she sought in the fruit of the tree, just as the sinner is disappointed in his sins. We must seek in the Fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary whatsoever we desire. This is He who is the Fruit blessed by God, who has filled Him with every grace, which in turn is poured out upon us who adore Him: “Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritual blessings in Christ” (Eph 1:3). He, too, is revered by the Angels: “Benediction and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor and power and strength, to our God” (Rev 7:12). And He is glorified by men: “Every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). The Blessed Virgin is indeed blessed, but far more blessed is the Fruit of her womb: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Ps 117:26).

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⁹ Expositio Salutationis angelicae or Commentary on the Hail Mary by St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Joseph B. Collins, New York, 1939.

DAY 8

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

For today’s passage from St. Thomas, we’re going to read part of one of his academic sermons. The Latin name of the sermon is Lux Orta, which means, “light dawns” or “a light has arisen.” The name comes from the first Scripture passage that St. Thomas quotes in the sermon: “Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart” (Ps 97:11).

Now, for the last six days, we’ve read from the Commentary on the Hail Mary, which was first delivered as a popular sermon (in a typical church setting) in the vernacular. What you have for today was first delivered as an academic sermon (in the university setting) in Latin.

Believe it or not, preaching was actually one of St. Thomas’s responsibilities as a master of theology in the thirteenth-century university. Instead of sitting on committees and reviewing student evaluations for accreditation agencies, he preached the word of God, which seems infinitely preferable. So, throughout the course of the academic year, each master was expected to read Sacred Scripture and comment on it, to dispute controverted philosophical and theological points both in the classroom and in the public square, and finally, to preach sermons like this one.

If you’ve glanced ahead at the text, you’ll notice it doesn’t sound too much like twenty-first-century pulpit preaching. It doesn’t contain charming stories. It’s pretty sparse on helpful imagery. Truth be told, it sounds more like a thirteenth-century theological treatise. Well, you’re not wrong. So was St. Thomas just a bad preacher? Too bookish for his own good?

Not quite. Remember we said this is an academic sermon, likely given in Paris. It was probably preached to an audience of professors and students from the theology faculty. There were no fishermen present, no postmen, no babysitters—just theologians. Everyone present at this sermon is all in for theology. The atmosphere is academic.

In that context, you might expect St. Thomas to show off a bit—to flex his theological muscles and employ abstruse jargon and convoluted arguments to outwit his fellow theologians. But—thankfully—this is not what we have here. Rather, St. Thomas hardly uses any theological terms here, or in his academic sermons more generally. Even though an over-the-top display of his virtuosity might have impressed his listeners, St. Thomas places greater emphasis on communicating in terms that are plain and simple. Not only does he want them to understand, he wants them to love what he describes.

In this sermon, the object of his affection is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Specifically, he points to seven ways she is like light. The imagery is beautiful, but, as you’ll notice, what we have isn’t your typical pious or devotional reading. It’s more theological. St. Thomas is not satisfied with merely rehearsing the rough outlines of Mary’s role in salvation history or with quoting pithy one-liners from the tradition about her graces. He wants to go further—to really inquire into the secrets of her heart and into the mysteries of her grace. And it’s interesting to witness how St. Thomas goes about the task.

While we could say plenty of things about his tone and style and argumentation, perhaps the most interesting peculiarity of his style is how he uses Scripture. Practically every line of the sermon makes reference to the sacred page. To gain entry to the sanctuary of Mary’s secrets and graces, St. Thomas chooses to use the inspired word of God. St. Thomas knew that in the Scriptures God has taught us a language for riddling out the faith, and so we must be content to use what God reveals.

We have already gotten the sense that St. Thomas doesn’t always use Scripture in what we might consider the customary fashion. Oftentimes, St. Thomas is using passages in the Bible to interpret other passages in the Bible—ones that aren’t often read together. This may seem a bit strange to modern minds. We might wonder: What can the persons described in the Old Testament possibly teach us about the Blessed Virgin Mary? They lived at different times and in different places. Their stories are told by different authors. They seem to have little in common.

But St. Thomas points us to the distinctiveness of the Bible. Here it will be helpful to explain further a couple of things we have mentioned earlier about typology. As we said yesterday, we believe that God is the author of all of Sacred Scripture. The whole of it is inspired. It includes what God intends and nothing of what he doesn’t. It is the word of God—a living, breathing revelation.

So it comes as no surprise then that the Bible isn’t like other books. There are whole worlds of meaning that go beyond the literal sense. As St. Thomas teaches, not only does God use the words of Scripture to convey his meaning, he also uses the persons, places, and things themselves which the Scripture describes. That may sound strange at first, but such is God’s power and providence that he can use these things to point beyond the limitations of their original time and place to reveal other dimensions or facets of his saving plan.

Again, it’s for this reason that we can read the Scripture typologically; that is to say, with an eye to how events separated by centuries are somehow intended to illumine each other. The events in the Old Testament gesture towards those in the New. And events in the New Testament fulfill what went before in the Old.

This dynamic of scriptural revelation is seen especially in its revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ. But, as St. Thomas believes, the logic of typology extends to those bound up with the life of Christ—both those who come before and those who go after. Among those whom Christ loves, there is none so beloved as the Blessed Virgin. And so we come to find evidence of her graces and mysteries concealed throughout the Sacred Scriptures, gesturing persistently at the Mother of God.

It is with this conviction that St. Thomas reads the Bible as he does, and his preaching is the fruit of a life lived as lectio divina in prayerful search of God. In discerning the presence of Christ throughout the Scriptures, St. Thomas discovers the presence of Christ’s mother like a light that has arisen.

So, when reading this sermon, think of it as inquiring with St. Thomas into the very Wisdom of God. In this your last day of preparation, search with St. Thomas to know and to love God’s masterwork—the woman whom God foreknew, whom he fashioned for marvelous works, whom he hides at the heart of his plan and in the depths of his Word.

A MOMENT WITH AQUINAS

Seven Ways the Blessed Virgin Mary Is Like Light¹⁰

Firstly, I say, light is the source of joys because a man at sea greatly desires the light and rejoices in it. This is why what is prefigured in Esther 8:16 is well suited to the virgin. This is why it is said to the Jews (that is, to those professing the faith—and thus to Christians who profess that Christ is God and man) that there is a “new light,” that is, the Blessed Virgin, who is called “a new light because neither before nor after has one been seen like her.” And she is called light because she is without the darkness of sin and ignorance. She is seen to rise with the eyes of the heart, for which the eyes of the body now supply, giving rise to interior joy, esteem of neighbor, and dancing for God. On the joy of this rising Solomon says, “The light of the just (that is, of the Blessed Virgin) gives joy, but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.”

Secondly, the light is the way and guide to travelers. In like manner, the Blessed Virgin is a guide on that way. In John 12:35 it is said: “Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you.” It says, “walk”, in accomplishing the good, it does not say stand idly by like those of whom the Gospel speaks, “Why do you stand here idle all the day?” (Matthew 20:6). It does not say sleep, but “walk while you have the light,” that is the Blessed Virgin, “lest the darkness overtake you,” that is, the works of darkness, or the dark angels, namely the demons, or the darkness, that is infernal punishments. This is why Proverbs 4:18 says, “The paths of the just go forth like a shining light, and rise even to the fullness of day.” The paths of the just: the Blessed Virgin, who is the path, is narrow and pure; she is pure by the purity of her virginity, and narrow by the stricture of religion, and upright by the rectitude of her manner of life. So, the paths of the just, that is, the Blessed Virgin, as the light, shines (in herself) and going forth from good unto better (in others), rising even to the fullness of the day, that is, even unto the joy of eternity.

Thirdly, the light expels the darkness. In like manner, the power of the glorious virgin expels vices. In Isaiah 9:2, we read, “The people who walk in darkness [namely the ignorant before the coming of Christ and the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary] have seen a great light,” namely the Blessed Virgin, who was a great light, because just as her Son illumines the whole world, so the Blessed Virgin illumines the whole human race. Of this light it is said in Genesis 1:3, “God said let there be light, and there was light.” Let there be light for the creation of the soul of the Blessed Virgin, and there was light in her sanctification. In Genesis 1:4, it says, “And God divided the light from the darkness,” because after [her creation] she did not commit a sin. It is also said of this light in Genesis 32:26, “Let me go, for the dawn has already risen.” At dawn the darkness is put to flight and the light is led in. Likewise, the Blessed Virgin puts to flight the darkness of sin and leads in the light of grace. The dawn (aurora) is also called the dew hour (hora rorans), because in its rising the heavens became like flowing honey. Likewise, it is called the dawn (aurora) like a good breeze (aura bona), because then the birds chirp and in a certain measure show gladness and joy; likewise the patriarchs had the joy of heaven in the birth of the Virgin. It is also called the dawn (aurora), that is, the golden breeze (aurea aura), from its preciousness. Thus St. Bernard declares: “If you take away the sun, who will shine light upon the whole world? Where will be the day? Take away Mary, the star of this great and spacious sea, (that is, the world), and what will be left but fog and the densest darkness? What then? If she is present, then she puts to flight the darkness, and if she is present, the light begins.”

Fourthly, the light is diffusive and communicative of its rays. In like manner, the Blessed Virgin diffuses and communicates the rays of her grace. This is why in Sirach 24:26-27, we read: “Come over to me, all you that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweeter than honey and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.” “Come over,” namely from the vanity of the world; “to me,” namely who am full of grace; or, “come over” from the error of the world “to me” who am virtuous; or “come over” from indulgences “to me” who am a lover of chastity, and be filled from my fruits, that is, be filled with charisms (spiritual gifts) of graces. You will receive no small amount, but a great deal, “for my spirit is sweeter than honey,” because the Blessed Virgin is kind and merciful to all, wherefore St. Bernard declares: “The Blessed Virgin opens the depths of her mercy to all, and all receive from her fullness: cure to the sick, consolation to the sorrowful, pardon to the sinner, grace to the righteous; moreover, the substance of flesh to the Son of God, so that there should be no one that hides himself from her warmth.”

Fifthly, light is the gracious mother of colors. In such a way, the Blessed Virgin is the mother of virtues. Just as colors make the body beautiful, so also virtues make the soul beautiful, because the mother of virtues is the Blessed Virgin. It is said in Sirach 24:24, “I am the mother of beautiful love,” namely for God. Love is a binding to two things. It binds us to God, firstly, “by fear,” whereby we flee from sin. Solomon says, “The just man fears and turns away from evil.” And in another place, he says, “For fear of the Lord drives out sin” (Sirach 1:27). And, secondly, “by knowledge,” namely of holy faith, “and of holy hope,” that is, of hope of future beatitude. Thus St. Bernard again says, “If we have any virtue, if we have any salvation and grace, we know that we are wholly filled by her since she overflows with delights. For in her we find that enclosed garden through which the divine south wind (Auster) blows, from which sweet scents flow into the charisms (spiritual gifts) of graces.”

Sixthly, light is the most splendid of all creatures. Likewise, the Blessed Virgin. Thus, we find in Wisdom 7:29, “She is more brilliant than the sun,” i.e. more than a just man shining in the Church militant; and “above the order of the stars,” i.e. of all the saints in the Church triumphant, compared to “the light,” that is, to angelic creatures, “she is found mightier,” in dignity and beauty.

Seventhly and lastly, the light is delight and consolation of the eyes. Likewise, the Blessed Virgin is the consolation of men. This is why, in the book of Wisdom (7:10), it is said, “beyond health,” whereby weakness is put to flight, “beyond beauty” of the body, whereby deformity is cleansed, “I loved her and chose to have her rather than the light” of a good life. That light is hateful to evil things, such as the demons, and delightful to the good. This is why St. Augustine says that bread is bitter to a sick person, when it is sweet to a healthy one, and light is hateful to sick eyes which is loveable to pure ones. This light is loveable to the intellect which is healed through faith, and to the heart which is healed through charity. No wonder if the Blessed Virgin is loveable, because it is said of her in Esther 2:15 that, “She was exceedingly fair, and her incredible beauty made her appear agreeable and lovely in the eyes of all.” It is said of her in Proverbs 11:16, “A gracious woman will find glory,” namely eternal glory, to which he [Christ] leads us, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God forever and ever. Amen.

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¹⁰ Sermo XVII Lux Orta, St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. Translated by Ryan Grant and Gregory Pine, © TAN Books, 2019.

DAY 9

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

You made it. After eight days of preparation, you’re ready to complete your novena with an act of entrustment. The fact that you’re reading this installment means that the Lord is at work in you. He is at work in you to carry out his providential plans in a new and powerful way through the mediation of our Blessed Mother. At the end of today’s theological reflection, you’ll find the prayer of entrustment. We’ll get there in short order, but before we do, let’s be clear what exactly we mean when we say that the Lord is at work in you.

Sometimes, with all the effort that goes into a Marian consecration, we can unconsciously begin to think of the preparation as our work. Regardless of how delightful the reflections, profound the passages, and moving the prayers, the whole thing may begin to feel a little burdensome at times. Making your way through all of the prescribed texts can be demanding, especially if it’s something you’ve never done before or if you miss a day and double up on the next. Arriving at the final day with your original resolve intact may feel like a moral feat. But with this comes a subtle temptation to ascribe the glory to ourselves rather to God. So let’s be perfectly clear: This is the Lord’s work in us.

Let’s head off an objection at the start: We are not saying that you are in no way involved in this, as if you were a puppet and God a puppet master. Clearly, you are taking an active role in this preparation. You’re a real agent in the drama of your salvation. So the fact that you’ve made it to this point says something about you. You have consented to and cooperated with the grace of God at work in your life.

But, more basically, we know that “every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas 1:17). Were it not for God’s grace, it wouldn’t have occurred to you to entrust yourself to Mary. Were it not for God’s grace, you wouldn’t have had the inclination to take up the effort now. Were it not for God’s grace, you wouldn’t have made it to this point. There is nothing we have that we have not first received.

And so, mindful of this, we approach this entrustment with a profound sense of gratitude. God has been so generous. The Lord who came into the world through the womb of the Virgin Mary continues to work his marvels of grace through her intercession. He has seen fit to give us a mother, not only in the order of nature, but also in the order of grace. He entrusts us to her protection at the foot of the cross and assures us of her abiding presence in our spiritual lives.

These truths hold regardless of whether or not we acknowledge them. They’re just the facts of the matter. But in the Church and through the sacramental life, we can be taken up into the realities they describe. Slowly, the mysteries themselves begin to work on us, to transform us, and ultimately to save us. This act of entrustment enhances our entry into these mysteries. With another wave of his mercy, the Lord sees fit to immerse us more fully in the ocean of grace that he dispenses through the prayers of his Mother. In the end, by this entrustment, we hope to be yet more devout sons and daughters of so noble a Mother.

So what else is there to say? You’re ready! Not because you’ve done anything to make yourself worthy—not because you’ve read the passages with 100 percent comprehension and perception or said your Rosary with 100 percent attention and devotion. No, to get to that point is the work of a lifetime and then some. You’re ready because the grace of God already at work in your life has prepared you for further graces. In short, you’re ready because God is generous and faithful.

In response to that grace, then, take a moment to ready your heart for this act of entrustment. There’s something to be said for a little pilgrimage. Kneel before a statue, icon, or image of Our Lady. You can find one in your house, apartment, or dormitory. You can make a trip to a local church or even to a pilgrimage site. Take a moment to recollect yourself in the graces that have led you to this point. How did you come to be here?

You’re all set to pray the prayer, and you don’t need any advice on how best to do that. One thing remains: Keep praying it. Prayer isn’t so much about sensible consolations or momentary fireworks. Prayer is about showing up and then showing up again and then showing up some more. In the end, prayer is a matter of friendship, and your best friends are the ones who just keep coming. Marian devotion grows like any other relationship—with time and attention. Regardless of whether you choose to pray this prayer, or the Rosary, or the Akathist hymn, or the seven sorrows, incorporate Marian devotion into your daily prayer and stick with it. There is no substitute for perseverance.

Okay, that’s it. Pray for us. We’ll pray for you. The Blessed Mother will pray for us all.

PRAYER OF ENTRUSTMENT TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS¹¹

O most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary, Mother of God, filled with all tenderness, Daughter of the most-high King, Lady of the Angels, Mother of all the faithful, on this day and all the days of my life, I entrust to your merciful heart my body and my soul, all my acts, thoughts, choices, desires, words, deeds, my entire life and death, so that, with your assistance, all may be ordered to the good according to the will of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Be to me, my most holy Lady, a comforter and an ally against the stratagems and traps of the ancient enemy and of all those who harbor ill intentions against me. From your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, request for me the grace to resist firmly the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and a constant resolve to sin no more and to persevere in your service and the service of your beloved Son.

My most holy Lady, I also beseech you to obtain for me true obedience and true humility of heart so that I may recognize myself truly as a sinner—wretched and weak—and powerless, without the grace and help of my Creator and without your holy prayers, to do any kind of good work or even to resist the unrelenting assaults of evil. Procure for me also, O my most sweet Lady, perpetual purity of mind and body, so that with a pure heart and chaste body I may be strengthened to serve you and your beloved Son. … From Him, obtain for me a spirit of poverty willingly accepted with patience and tranquility of mind, so that I will have the strength … to work for my own salvation and that of my neighbors. Obtain for me as well, O most sweet Lady, true charity with which from the depths of my heart I may love your most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, after Him, love you above all other things, and love my neighbor in God and because of God. Thereby may I rejoice in his goodness, sorrow over his evils, despise no one, never judge rashly, and never in my heart exalt myself over anyone. Grant, O Queen of Heaven, that ever in my heart I may have fear and love alike for your most sweet Son; that I may give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon me not for my merits but by His kindness; and that I may ever make a pure and sincere confession and do true penance for my sins, in order that I might deserve to obtain His mercy and grace.

I pray also that, at the end of my life, you, Mother without compare, Gate of Heaven and Advocate of sinners, will not allow me, your unworthy servant, to stray from the holy Catholic faith But that you will protect me with your great piety and mercy, defend me from evil spirits, and obtain for me, through the blessed and glorious Passion of your Son and through your own intercession, received in hope, the forgiveness of all my sins. When I die in your love and His love, may you direct me into the way of salvation and blessedness. Amen.

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¹¹ St. Thomas Aquinas, Devoutly I Adore Thee, translated by Robert Anderson and Johann Moser (Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1933), “Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas to the Blessed Virgin”, pp. 21-31.