Saturday to Our Lady

Saturdays bring us once more to the dear Mother of Jesus. The Holy Catholic Church teaches us several truths concerning Mary; and these truths are the object of our Faith, on the same ground as the other articles contained in the Creed. Jesus said to His apostles, and they, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, communicated His teaching to the Church (Us). 'Mary, my Mother, is a daughter of Adam and Eve; but the stain of original sin was not upon her. The decree that every human being should be conceived in sin was suspended in her regard. She was full of grace from the first moment of her Conception. Jeremias and John the Baptist were sanctified in their mother's wombs; Mary was Immaculate from the very first moment of her existence.'

Jesus also said to His Apostles, and commanded them to repeat His words to the Church: 'Mary is truly Mother of God, and must be honored as such by all creatures; for she truly conceived Me and gave Me birth, according to My human nature.' 'Mary, My Mother, conceived Me in her chaste womb without ceasing to be a Virgin, and she gave Me birth without her Virginity suffering any injury.'

Thus, Mary's Immaculate Conception which prepared her for her sublime office, her divine Maternity and her perpetual Virginity, are three dogmas of our Faith, which were revealed to the Apostles directly by our Lord. Holy Mother Church merely repeats them after the Apostles, just as the Apostles repeated them after hearing them form their divine Master.


Our beloved Abbot Gueranger speaks with us to our Blessed Mother:

'What must have been thy sentiments, O Mary, thou most humble of creatures, when Jesus unveiled thy glories to the disciples? They already reverenced thee, but they could never have known the grand gifts bestowed on thee by God, unless that God Himself had revealed them. What glorious things were said of thee, O City of God! If thy humility was troubled when the archangel called thee full of grace, and blessed among women; how must thou not have shrunk from the homage paid thee by the Apostles, when they were first told that thou wast the Mother of God, the ever-spotless Virgin, Immaculate from thy very conception! But no, blessed Mother! thou canst not shun the honors that are richly thy due. The prophecy spoken by thyself, in Zachary's house, must be fulfilled: "All generations shall call thee BLESSED! The time is at hand; a few days hence, the preaching of the Gospel will have commenced. Thy name, thy ministry, thy glories are an essential part of the Creed which is to be carried throughout the world. Up to this time, thou hast been shrouded in a veil of mystery; that veil must now be drawn aside--Jesus will have it so---and thou must be known as Mother of the God, who, when He came to save us, disdained not to assume our human nature in thy chaste womb. Dearest Mother! Queen of angels and men! suffer us to unite our fervent homage with that which the Apostolic College gave thee, when Jesus first revealed to them thy glories!


Let's honor our Blessed Mother and recite this sequence of the Cluny Missal of 1523. It is a graceful imitation of the Victimae Paschali:


Let Christians offer to the Virgin Mary their hymns of praise.

O lady ever blessed! let sinners be reconciled to God by thy prayers.

May they that receive the Pascal Lamb be, by thy intercession, cleansed from the old leaven.

Give us, O Mary, thou merciful and loving Virgin!

To enjoy the sight of the living and Risen Christ.

Reconcile us with Jesus by thy holy prayers.

O thou the spotless Mother of the Word of God!

We believe that the God-Man who was born of thee hath risen again in glory.

We know that Christ hath truly risen from the dead. Do thou, O Mother! preserve and defend us. Amen.



O Mary, Mother of or Lord and Saviour, open your Immaculate heart to our pleas.