Mary loved God with her whole heart, Mary: Day 044

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

Mary loved God with her whole heart, Mary: Day 044 2015-08-22T07:28:53-05:00 Pete Socks

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Mary loved God with her whole heart

St. Alphonsus tells us that Mary perfectly fulfilled the greatest commandment: to love God with all her heart.

St. Anselm says that “wherever there is the greatest purity, there is also the greatest charity.” The more a heart is pure, and empty of itself, the greater is the fullness of its love toward God. The most holy Mary, because she was all humility and had nothing of self in her, was filled with divine love—so much so that “her love toward God surpassed that of all men and angels,” as St. Bernar- dine writes. For this reason St. Francis of Sales called her the “Queen of Love.” God has indeed given us the precept to love him with our whole hearts: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Mt 22:37). But as St. Thomas declares, “This commandment will be fully and perfectly fulfilled by those in heaven alone, and not on earth, where it is fulfilled only imperfectly.” On this subject, St. Albert the Great remarks that in a certain sense, it wouldn’t have been fitting for God to give a precept that was never to have been perfectly fulfilled. Yet this would have been the case, had not the Mother of God perfectly fulfilled it. Richard of Saint Victor confirms this opinion, saying, “The mother of our Emmanuel practiced virtues in their very highest perfection. Who has ever fulfilled as she did that first commandment, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart’? In her, divine love was so ardent that no defect of any
kind could have access to her.”

“The love of God,” says St. Bernard, “so penetrated and filled the soul of Mary that no part of her was left untouched. She loved with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with her whole strength; and she was full of grace.” “Well might even the Seraphim have descended from heaven,” says Richard of Saint Victor, “to learn, in the heart of Mary, how to love God.” —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
When St. Thomas comments that the great command to love God with all that we are will be fully and perfectly fulfilled only in heaven, do his words discour- age me or encourage me? Do I find it consoling that at least one person, Our Lady, was able to fulfill the command perfectly even in this life?

CLOSING PRAYER
“Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart” (Ps 86:11–12).

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