MARY: Do you know what is the real cause of the life and the beauty of a flower? … You see its brilliant shades, smell its delicate fragrance and yet you don’t recognize that all of this buds forth from those humble roots which are hidden in the barren and often muddy earth. It is the humble earth that secures the vital part of a flower and in it that the roots are hidden and these cannot give life to the flower if they are not hidden! Virtue is always born from an intimate and profound hiddenness! Flowers must certainly be seen for Jesus says: “Let your good deeds be seen by others”, but the seeds from which they bud, the life of the heart must remain concealed and hidden.

How many times do you not love to appear virtuous before those who see you and seek the vain praise of others’ Then you remove the root from being hidden, it unhappily dries up and also the flower wilts and dies. The paid gardener cuts the flower and ties it to an artificial stem so that it may be admired … but in doing this he kills it! When you seek human praise, you cut the flower of virtue and you place it on an artificial stem … After empty praise it is nothing more than a mass of withered leaves. Therefore love hiddenness and desire that only God sees you and reads the secret of your heart.

THE SOUL: O Mary, open your humble Heart to me as a refuge so that I may hide myself in it! Human
praise disturbs me, agitates me, makes me so ugly and I recognize that I get worse after praise. I?m full of pride and I can?t free myself of it except by hiding myself in God! O Mary, give me the strength to flee human praise and my vanity!

ASPIRATION: O Mary, give me humility of heart.

LITTLE WORK: When something redounds to your praise, don?t say it for the love of holy humility.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary. To obtain a copy of this or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #5: Hiddenness first appeared on AirMaria.com.

MARY: I present Jesus to you this morning; he is my Son and he is the Son of God! He is the flower, the admirable, the prince of peace! Let your glance meet with his, … and tell me if he is beautiful, if he is lovable! … Do you not see Jesus? Jesus is Jesus because no beauty equals his, no love can describe him outside of his own love! … Kiss this divine Heart, daughter; I give it to you so that you may love him, so that you may love him in greater depth! …

Rest on this adored Heart … I give it to you so that it may appease your misery, so that it may eliminate it! Submerge yourself in this sea of mercies; I present it to you so that it may cancel your fearfulness and render you full of courage, with him. Do you not see Jesus? He is your divine gardener; it is he who loves you, who lovingly cares for you, who forgives you.

Do you not hear how many words of love that he makes you hear from that Heart?

You have contemplated him disfigured, dripping with blood, full of bitterness … has he not undergone this for your love?

You have admired him glorious and triumphant outside of the tomb … did he not triumph in order to be your resurrection and life?

Jesus, Jesus … is your spouse! He binds you with bonds of love that can never be broken; he has offered you to his Father as part of his Heart … do you not love your Jesus?

THE SOUL: O Mary, the very name of Jesus makes me melt with love … O how gentle and mild you are, O lovable Heart of Jesus! My fearfulness cannot endure before you because you are goodness … O how I love you, Jesus! You are the God-man who became man for my love and precisely to stoop all the way down to me and to save me!

Therefore expand your wounds, O Jesus; I want to heal my miseries in them! Open to me your divine Heart; I want to obtain from you love and virtue! I love you, O good Jesus, I love you and you gaze on me with eyes of mercy!

O Mary, teach this poor heart of mine unlimited trust, total abandonment to a God so good! …

Jesus! how sweet your name is, how gentle is your love, how great is your mercy!

ASPIRATION: O Jesus, I offer you my heart and my life; my Jesus, mercy!

LITTLE WORK: Call upon the holy name of Jesus during the day and for the sake of his love deprive yourself of something you really like at table.

About the Meditations

The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary. To obtain a copy of this or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy

Ave Maria!

The post School of Mary – Day #8: Jesus first appeared on AirMaria.com.