The glories of MaryLiguori, Alfonso Maria de', Saint
Religion
The glories of Mary
Liguori, Alfonso Maria de', Saint
Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Early works to 1800
Finally, St. Ephrem adds that the name of Mary is the key of the gate of
heaven to him who devoutly invokes it;[858] and therefore St. Bonaventure
rightly calls Mary the salvation of all those who invoke her: “O salus te
invocantium;” as if it were the same thing to invoke the name of Mary and
to obtain eternal salvation; for as the Idiot affirms: The invocation of
this holy and sweet name leads to the acquisition of superabundant grace
in this life, and sublime glory in another.[859] If you desire, then,
brethren, concludes Thomas à Kempis, to be consoled in every affliction,
have recourse to Mary, invoke Mary, honor Mary, recommend yourselves to
Mary. Rejoice with Mary, weep with Mary, pray with Mary, walk with Mary,
and with Mary seek Jesus; in a word, with Jesus and Mary desire to live
and to die. Do this, he adds, and you will always advance in the way of
the Lord; for Mary will pray for you, and the Son will surely graciously
listen to the mother.[860] Such are his beautiful words.
Very sweet, then, in life to her servants, is the most holy name of
Mary, on account of the great graces which it obtains for them, as we
have seen above; but sweeter still will it be to them in dying by the
sweet and holy death she will obtain for them. Father Sertorio Caputo, of
the Society of Jesus, exhorted all those who were called to the bedside
of the dying, often to pronounce the name of Mary, saying that this
name of life and of hope, pronounced in death, is alone sufficient to
scatter the enemies and to comfort the dying in all their anguishes.
St. Camillus of Lellis also strongly recommended it to his religious,
that they should remind the dying often to invoke the name of Mary and
of Jesus, as he always practised it with others; but more sweetly he
practised it himself at the moment of his death, when, as we read in
his life, he named with so much tenderness his beloved names of Jesus
and Mary, that he inflamed also with love of them all those who heard
him. And at length, with his eyes fixed on their adorable image, and his
arms crossed, the saint expired in celestial peace, pronouncing with his
last breath the most sweet names of Jesus and Mary. This short prayer of
invoking the holy names of Jesus and Mary, says Thomas à Kempis, which it
is as easy to retain in the memory as it is sweet to consider, is at the
same time powerful to protect whoever uses it from all the enemies of our
salvation.[861]
Blessed is he, says St. Bonaventure, who loves thy sweet name, oh mother
of God.[862] Thy name is so glorious and admirable, that those who
remember to invoke it at the moment of death, do not then fear all the
assaults of the enemy.[863]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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