Mary: pillar of fire, pillar of cloud; Mary: Day 014

Last updated on: August 3, 2015 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

Mary: pillar of fire, pillar of cloud; Mary: Day 014 2015-07-20T20:41:27-05:00 Pete Socks

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Mary: pillar of fire, pillar of cloud

St. Alphonsus tells how the ancient Israelites’ journey in the wilderness fore- shadowed Our Lady.

St. Cosmas of Jerusalem used to say, “While I keep my hope in you unconquerable, O Mother of God, I shall be safe. I will fight and overcome my enemies with no other buckler than your protection and your all-powerful aid.” All who are so fortunate as to be the servants of this great queen can say the same thing. “O Mother of God, if I hope in you, I most certainly shall not be overcome; for, defended by you, I will pursue my enemies and oppose them with the shield of your protection and your all-powerful help. Then, without doubt,
I will conquer!”

James the monk (who was a teacher among the Christians of the East) addressed our Lord this way on the subject of Mary: “You, O Lord, have given us in Mary arms that no force of war can overcome, and a trophy never to be destroyed.”
It is said in the Old Testament that God guided His people from Egypt to the land of promise “by day in a pillar of cloud . . . and by night in a pillar of fire” (Ex 13:21). This stupendous pillar, at times as a cloud, at others as fire, says Richard of Saint Lawrence, was a foreshadowing of

Mary fulfilling the double ministry she constantly exercises for our good: As a cloud she protects us from the heat of divine justice; and as fire she protects us from the demons.
She protects us as a burning fire; for St. Bonaventure remarks: “As wax melts before the fire, so do the demons lose their power against those souls who often remember the name of Mary, and devoutly invoke it—and still more so, if they also endeavor to imitate her virtues.”
—St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
How does imitating Mary’s virtues protect us against the Devil? Why are the virtues our spiritual armor against the assault of temptations?

CLOSING PRAYER
Blessed Lady, if I imitate your humility, I will be protected against temptations to pride. If I take on your purity, no impurity will tempt me. And so with every other virtue you display. Help me to cover myself in the spiritual armor of God!

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