The Heart of Mary, Furnace of Love for God

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Mary’s love for God is at the same time a love of daughter, mother and spouse: three loves of three different species, which have never found each other and will never find each other again, elsewhere.

The Eternal Father, having chosen the Blessed Virgin to communicate His divine paternity to her, making her Mother of the same Son of whom He is Father, has at the same time infused her with the grace to love Him with a love that conforms to this quality.The Son, in turn, having united Himself so intimately with his Mother that after his own hypostatic union there could not be any closer union, at the same time communicated to her the filial love He Himself has for His Father, so as to dispose her to cooperate perfectly in the great work of Redemption.

The Holy Ghost, having chosen this Virgin of Virgins to be His spouse, placed in her virginal Heart the love that a spouse of God must have for her husband and thus made her like Him, the love subsisting, changing her entirely into a lively flame of love.

The theologians are unanimous in affirming that the Blessed Virgin, in the first moment of her life, had more love for God than the highest Seraphim ever had. And at the moment that Jesus became incarnate in her, a sanctifying grace was given to her and, with her, a love greater than the sum of the love of all the angels and saints.

Moreover, the Blessed Virgin was never for a moment without loving. If she prayed, it was love that prayed in her and through her; if she adored and praised God, it was love that adored and praised in her and through her; if she spoke, it was love that spoke in her and through her; if she was silent, it was love that kept her in silence ; if she worked, it was love that applied her to her work; if she rested, it was love that put her at rest; if she ate or drank, it was love that obeyed the Holy Spirit saying through the mouth of Saint Paul: “Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all things for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).

“If St. Bernardine of Siena writes that the seven words that Our Lady spoke while she was in this world, and which are recorded in the Holy Gospel, are seven flames of love, what is to be said of all those acts and effects of love that came from this Heart, except that these are still as many fires and flames of divine love, which would be capable of setting all the hearts of the universe ablaze, if the ice of sin did not hinder them?” (St. John Eudes, Admirable Heart of Mary, chap. 7).

“O divine fire, which sets the most noble Heart of our glorious Mother ablaze, come into the hearts of all men. May we be able to say with Saint Augustine: O holy fire, how sweet and pleasant are your ardours. Blessed are those who are ablaze with your flames. Burn everything, set everything ablaze, devour everything, so that everything may be changed into an eternal fire of love and charity in the sight of the One who is all love and charity towards us!”(Chap. 6).