The Contemplative Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary

the purpose of life is to know god that's a nice clean simple statement from saint thomas aquinas the purpose of life is to know god and that one statement he sums up what our life is all about it's about knowing god now we know that there are two ways to know god according to the teaching of saint thomas one way is by nature another way is by grace by nature a human being can know god through philosophical reasoning and can rise up to knowing the existence of god from his effects in the world around us in the natural order that kind of knowledge is open to all human beings in principle and by observing the world we can come to know that god exists and some of his attributes but when we know the existence of god and his attributes that way god remains rather distant far off in a manner of speaking he's the conclusion of one of our inferences or demonstrations there's another way of knowing god which is by grace when we are plunged into the life of christ filled with the spirit and we receive the spirit's gifts and the virtues we are able to know god by faith and by the gifts of the spirit and this is another way of knowing god that's not the result of an inference or philosophical inquiry it's an immediate personal knowledge of god that we carry in the depths of our souls so when saint thomas aquinas says that the purpose of our life is to know god in fact god created us to know him not only naturally or by philosophical reasoning but in the second way as well by faith god has revealed himself to us in christ he has sent the prophets and the apostles to testify to us the first truth comes to us and we hear it proclaimed we believe by faith this is what god has made us for to know him in this personal and immediate way beginning in faith growing through the spirit's gifts of knowledge understanding wisdom and other gifts and to continue knowing him this way more and more and more all the way to the point that we see him face to face in heaven in the beatific vision in another place saint thomas says the purpose and delight of our entire life is to know the trinity in unity when he makes that statement saint thomas is even clearer that the purpose of our life is to know the holy trinity and that can only be known by divine revelation and in the ultimately through the beatific vision that's what god made us for was to know him this way in this personal immediate way by grace and all of the baptized are called to the fullness of contemplative prayer that is to know god in this very personal very familiar kind of way now when you hear the statement that all the baptized are called to the fullness of contemplative prayer you might immediately think of cloisters or monasteries the cloistered life but that's not what i have in mind the cloistered life is an outward form of life where monks or nuns live in a monastic form of life with its regular observances and its rhythm of prayer and liturgy and various things that go into that life that's an outward form of life i'm not saying that everyone is called to that outward form of life obviously i am saying that everyone is called to contemplative prayer and contemplative prayer is a form of interior life it's something that takes place in the heart the life of the heart and it's a life of knowing and loving god so when i say that all of the baptized are called to the fullness of contemplative prayer what i mean is that all the baptized are called to the heights of union with god they're called to live like the saints did in this deep union of knowledge and love with god in the depths of the heart it's important to get clear on this that all the baptized are called to the fullness of contemplative prayer because for a long period of time in the church in the last several centuries there was a a view circulating among some theologians and some preachers that not all of the baptized are called to the fullness of contemplative prayer or to the heights of union with god these theologians and some preachers declared that only some people are called to the heights of union while other people the majority of people are called simply to an ordinary life to observe the commandments the ten commandments and that's it they're not necessarily called or largely they're not called to know god in this familiar personal intimate kind of way in the depths of the heart that's just not what is given to us and there was a dispute and a controversy about this question and the theologians who followed saint thomas aquinas were opposed to this position that not everyone is called and really advanced the view vigorously that all of the baptized are called to a contemplative prayer into the heights of contemplative prayer and to union with god to know him personally and with great familiarity and intimacy in the depths of the heart by grace the second vatican council went on to affirm this position in the fifth chapter of lumengencium the universal call to holiness and when the second vatican council speaks about the universal call to holiness it should not be interpreted to mean all the baptized are simply called to le be morally well behaved or lead a life in accordance with the commandments it should be understood to mean that all the baptized are called to contemplative prayer the heights of contemplative prayer and union with god and to know him personally in the depths of their heart in this profound way by grace so all the baptized are called to this that means god is now calling you and me to know him and to love him and to become a contemplative soul that is someone who is aware of the presence of god in the depths of his or her heart and lives with god in the depths of the heart and responds to him by knowing and loving him more and more let's think about how this works a little bit let's review some of the basic points of the anthropology of saint thomas aquinas and then we'll go on to discuss the contemplative life of the blessed virgin mary what is a human being well to begin with a human being is composed of body and soul we are a psychosomatic unit so and the soul is what's responsible for the body being alive and being ordered and active in the various organs and parts of the human being but there's more to us than just our body and our organic activity or biological activity every human being has a personal core in the depths of his or her being and this personal core goes by different names sometimes saint thomas aquinas calls it the spirit the human spirit sometimes he calls it the heart and sometimes he calls it mind these three different terms all signify one in the same mysterious reality which is the core of the human person this is where we have our intellect which is capable of knowing truth and our will which is capable of loving what is good and this personal core is called spirit because it's not the activity properly speaking of organs physical organs in our body these are powers of the soul that are purely spiritual or immaterial so it's called spirit it can also be called the heart because all of our thoughts words and deeds free actions come from this principle within the intellect and will together forming one potential whole aquinas calls it that is our heart it's the deep place within us he also calls it the mind and he specifically uses that word mind to signify these two powers of intellect and will in their interaction with one another our will following our intellect and so there's this place within us that's capable of a knowledge and a love which is more than just sensation there are eyes of the soul that's the intellect there is the deep loves of one's heart that's the will and this is the place within us that we can know god in a very personal and familiar way by grace how so the image of god each human being is created in the image of god and the image of god in us is found precisely in this interior core in the spirit the heart or the mind and when the image of god is renewed in us by grace it actually becomes a reflection a likeness of the triune god himself a living reflection of the father son and holy spirit it the same place deep within us also becomes a temple a dwelling place where the father son and holy spirit live in us and dwell in us by grace and one of the interesting things is that god created us to be in to become his temple not only individually but communally together as a church so the more that each individual has his or her heart renewed by the grace of god the more the individual becomes a temple of the whole of the holy trinity but likewise the more people in which this renewal takes place the more that the whole church on earth becomes the temple of god more and more and more but in order for this to happen our hearts need to be renewed by grace that's the great work that god carries out in us thanks to the death and resurrection of the lord jesus and the grace of the holy spirit poured into our hearts the love of god has been poured forth into our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us saint paul says and saint thomas aquinas loves to quote that passage and when the spirit is poured forth into our hearts this when the spirit of love is given to us our hearts begin to be renewed that we become we we acquire or receive the grace of a new heart in the catechism of the catholic church paragraph 2 6 9 7 it says that prayer is the life of the new heart so the catechism very closely associates the heart the renewal of the heart by grace and the life of prayer this renewal begins in our hearts by grace let's try to get a little bit more specific when god pours his grace into our hearts in our baptism first thing we receive is the grace of faith the theological virtue of faith and that faith establishes us in contact with god revealing himself god reveals himself and he does so through the testimony of the church we hear the testimony of the church and that testimony meets with the grace of faith faith moves us to believe the testimony as god's own word and when we do so we come into living contact with nothing and no one less than god himself that's an amazing thing that we have immediate spirit personal spirit contact with god and the spirit of understanding the gift of understanding is given to us as well and the gift of knowledge and the spirit of understanding gives us many lights and insights into the meanings of the mystery the mysteries of faith the articles of the creed and the spirit of knowledge gives us a proper estimation of creatures in comparison to god helps us realize how transitory creatures are and how little they uh are in comparison to god and that they're not worth going astray for or sinning for the holy spirit also pours into our hearts charity the love of god and with charity comes also the spirit's gift of wisdom and wisdom is this marvelous gift by which we behold god in in himself as good as goodness as love and we can behold him with the eyes of love gazing upon god with the eyes of love looking at him through the very light of love itself love itself gazes upon god thanks to this spirit of wisdom it's not yet the beatific vision to be sure it's not an open vision of god face to face but with the spirit of wisdom comes a profound perception of god nonetheless an experiential knowledge of god taste and see the goodness of the lord that's what goes with the spirit's gift of wisdom now all of these gifts faith and and the spirit's gifts of knowledge understanding and wisdom and charity all of this is given to us by the grace of god in baptism how shall we understand contemplation or contemplative prayer the catechism of the catholic church in paragraph 2715 says this contemplation is a gaze of faith fixed on jesus so it's a form of gazing but it's a gaze of faith this focus on jesus it says is a renunciation of self so there's a kind of self-forgetfulness there and his gaze purifies our hearts and the light of the countenance of jesus illumines the eyes of our heart that is our intellect and teaches us to see everything in light of his truth and his compassion for all men it goes on to say that contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of christ and thus it learns the interior knowledge of the lord so you can see a couple of times in that in that paragraph it describes contemplation or contemplative prayer as a gaze a gaze of faith a gaze upon jesus and a gaze upon everything in the world in light of jesus and the mysteries of the life of jesus so contemplation and contemplative prayer really consists of looking beholding gazing and that's the great that's the great grace of contemplative prayer it's not figuring things out or analyzing them or that's more meditative that's meditation or theological study and inquiry where we're actively deliberately trying to work things out or figure them out or analyze them contemplation is more a simple look a gaze like two people who are in love with each other they just simply look upon each other and they love to look upon each other and they look upon each other with love and through love and their love grows from that mutual gaze that's contemplation and we can be we're called to be contemplatives like that with god himself there is a certain problem that we have though and that is we could say the problem of attention see our attention in order to be contemplative and to really enter into contemplative prayer it means that our our attention needs to be fixed on god or focused on god and we all know how difficult it is to keep our attention fixed on god our loves are divided and scattered in many directions and we're interested in so many other things except god and drawn to so many other things but less than god that our attention is always going sort of here or there or it's focused upon ourselves and so there's a need for us to be recovered recuperated more specifically for the eyes of our heart to be recovered so that we can gaze upon god in a way that's stable and steady and fixed and continuous and do so in a spirit of wisdom and love but that's a long process that we all need to go through and it happens by grace slowly gradually over the course of time through much prayer and initial forms of of meditation and initial forms of contemplation we take steps by by acts of faith and acts of hope and love and study and contemplate and meditation and and and prayer and slowly we're led down a path into contemplation in a way the whole christian life is ordered towards that and gradually slowly more and more we become temples of the holy trinity and become aware of the indwelling of the holy trinity more and more in the depths of our hearts we're held back by sin we all have disordered passions disordered attachments there's egoism or egocentrism that keeps us thinking about ourselves or focusing upon ourselves or interested in ourselves all of those are effects of the fall and the grace of god comes to us in order to purify us liberate us from those effects cleanse us more and more of those things and open up for us and form in us this habit of gazing upon god and looking at him with love and with joy and delight that's what god made us for is to know him and in that personal familiar way in the depths of our hearts but we grow into it slowly and gradually the blessed virgin mary is our model and our ex our exemplar in this contemplative prayer she was a contemplative soul if ever there was one the greatest contemplative soul after jesus christ himself and she enjoyed from the first moment of her conception the fullness of grace so not only did did mary live in a state of sanctifying grace but she had the fullness of it as the angel says hail full of grace and with this fullness of grace comes all the same virtues and gifts that we have in our in our that we receive in our baptism so the blessed virgin mary had faith and she had the spirit's gifts of understanding and knowledge she had charity she had the spirit's gift of wisdom and she had this this gaze of the eyes of her heart but there's an important difference between mary and us and we can understand this difference if we bring in a theological principle sometimes called the principle of preeminence theologians who study mary mariologists will often appeal to this principle and it goes like this mary was preeminent among the saints what does that mean specifically she received in the fullest measure all the supernatural favors and graces accorded to the other saints so whatever the other saints had mary had in a higher way that means she has the grace of faith understanding knowledge charity wisdom and this gazing upon god she has all those graces but in a manner beyond far beyond all of the other saints so mary had faith beyond all others she had the spirit's gift of understanding beyond all others she had the spirit's gift of knowledge beyond all others she had a charity that was all surpassing she had wisdom the spirit of wisdom beyond all others and and therefore she had this love gaze that was greater and beyond any other so here's one way to maybe make it a little more concrete think of the most mystical saints you can think perhaps of saint catherine of siena whatever there was in saint catherine of siena and her personal familiarity with god the blessed virgin mary had that but in a manner greater than catherine of siena or think of all the mystical graces and contemplative lights that saint teresa of avila had the blessed virgin mary was greater than teresa of avila or john of the cross or teresa lewis hugh or saint elizabeth of the trinity or whatever other saint you might name who is lived in deep union with god in prayer the blessed virgin mary was greater she was the ultimate contemplative soul after jesus christ himself of course and that's because she had by faith this sublime contact with god in the depths of her heart and the depths of her her spirit or in the depths of her mind her mind didn't need to be renewed from the effects of sin because she never had those effects to begin with the saint thomas aquinas teaches that the fullness of grace overflowed in her so abundantly that whatever effects there were from uh left over from adam and eve from the huma from the fall were totally subdued in her and her soul was preserved from all from all was was preserved from sin i mean given that the teaching of the immaculate conception of course and she also had the spirit's gift of understanding so she would have had these penetrating lights and insights into the mysteries of the faith and the spirit of knowledge would have been working in her in a sublime way where she could see the greatness of god and and sort of the the relative smallness of creatures and her charity was surpassing all others the the love of the blessed virgin mary was just immense i mean it was beyond any other saint and with a love like that that's the love with which she gazed upon god contemplated him contemplated christ and knew him in that very personal very familiar deep way so what was the contemplative life of the virgin mary i mean it's really beyond all telling the secret it's this belongs to the secret of her soul really but we can say some important things what did she what did she gaze upon well the first thing we need to say is that she gazed upon god and all of god's attributes the love of god the goodness of god the truth of god the power of god the wisdom of god the great peace of god the providence of god the way that god runs the world those sorts of topics i guess you could say that for us we can struggle with those to kind of keep our mind on those things you could say that for her she was sort of naturally taken by those things or supernaturally taken by those things it was customary or habitual for her to focus on those those mysteries of god and to ponder them saint john yudes when he discusses the knowledge and wisdom of mary he says this quote god was the single object of her gaze as well as her love so saint john youth depicts the blessed virgin mary as captivated by god gazing upon him just as someone who's in love gazes upon the beloved the blessed virgin mary just loved god with such a deep vast charity that she was taken by him and gazed upon him and could taste and see the goodness of the lord due to an exceedingly high degree of the gift of wisdom what else did she gaze upon the word of god the jewish people of her day it was very common for them to memorize the scriptures and to know it by heart and and there's every good reason to believe that the blessed virgin mary knew the scriptures knew them very well was deeply imbued with them and so when it came time to sing her magnificat i mean there's so many illusions to things in the old testament and that one in that one prayer that she offers up that she's really filled and flooded with the word of god she reveals that her soul is imbued with the word this is what benedict the 16th says and his encyclical letter deus caritas asked about the blessed virgin mary quote the magnificat is entirely woven from threads of holy scripture threads drawn from the word of god here we see how completely at home mary is with the word of god with ease she moves in and out of it she speaks and thinks with the word of god the word of god becomes her word and her word issues from the word of god here we see how her thoughts are attuned to the thoughts of god how her will is one with the will of god since mary is completely imbued with the word of god she is able to become the mother of the word incarnate that's how benedict the 16th depicts the blessed virgin mary or or his commentary on scripture's depiction of the blessed virgin mary she's a woman of the word she's contemplating the word of god she's keeping it before the gaze of the eyes of her heart she's listening to the word she's pondering the word and in so doing she knows it she's she's flooded with it and when she goes to speak when she goes to to pray and to sing her praises to god she she spontaneously thinks and speaks in scriptural terms but there's another thing that our lady has her gaze upon all the time especially after the birth of the lord but even before she has her gaze on the face of christ she has her gaze on the face of christ here's how john paul ii describes the contemplation of the blessed virgin mary in rosarium virginis marie he says quote the contemplation of christ has an incomparable model in mary notice the expression incomparable model she's above all the other saints no one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the faith of face of christ as faithfully as mary the eyes of her heart already turned to him at the enunciation when she conceived him by the power of the holy spirit that's an ordinary thing for mothers to do is to ponder the child growing within them but mary does so with all of that fullness of grace surging through her heart and illuminating her intellect and will in the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features when at last she gave birth to him in bethlehem her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her son as she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger let's notice the theme of gazing that's the characteristic of contemplation and contemplative prayer that simple gaze he goes on out he goes on to say mary's gaze ever filled with adoration and wonder would never leave him sounds like saint john yudes the single object of her gaze was god at times john paul ii says it would be a questioning look as in the episode of the finding in the temple it would also be a penetrating gaze one capable of deeply understanding jesus even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions as at cana at other times it would be a look of sorrow especially beneath the cross where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth for mary not only shared the passion and death of her son she also received the new son given to her and the beloved disciple on the morning of easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the resurrection and finally on the day of pentecost a gaze of fire with the outpouring of the holy spirit do you see the recurrence of the theme the gaze of mary she she gazed upon christ even while he was still in her womb she gazed upon him when she held him in her arms she gazed upon him in his his adult life in his ministry she gazed upon him at the foot of the cross at the resurrection no one gazed upon the face of jesus christ as continuously and as faithfully as the blessed virgin mary or with as much love or with as much understanding or with as much knowledge and wisdom as she and what's amazing is that she was free of all of those disordered movements that kept keep us away and keep distract us and draw us away she had a kind of focus that was pure and and and steadfast and that way and she she caught when we're called to be like that only we are on our way growing into it gradually and slowly with her help as we'll say more later what can we say about this passage she kept all these things pondering them in her heart that passage just by itself is reveals a vast mystery of the contemplative life of mary scripture scholars tell us to understand the term pondering there to mean interpretation she's going over and over the sayings of the of the saving events in her in her memory and she's doing so in light of divine providence she's trying to understand what they mean she's trying to read the signs so to speak so she would have remembered the words of the angel she would have remembered saint joseph and the dreams he received and she would have remembered this the sayings of of the magi and the shepherds and and simeon and anna that's what that's what it means which says she remembered all these things the the words the sayings pondering them in her heart she was trying to understand them in light of the whole plan of god divine providence and all that she had come to understand of god's plan through her understanding of scripture but she also would have pondered the events too and the things that went into the saving events all of it from the annunciation to uh the scene with the in the manger the shepherds uh the magi the flight into egypt uh the finding in the temple she kept all these things in her heart and she would have kept the whole life of christ the public ministry of christ um she would have kept the passion of of christ of course in her heart and his resurrection after he ascends she her heart would have been a treasure chest of the events that saved the world and she kept pondering these things interpreting them but as she pondered them she was growing in charity growing in charity because she was unopposed by any mortal or venial sins or disordered attachments continually growing in grace and pondering them with more understanding more knowledge more wisdom increasingly more as time went on so that by the time pentecost came and and she continued to live on this earth for some period of time we don't know how long she would have had a profound amazing understanding and wisdom regarding the meaning and the significance of the saving events and by that point she would have understood her call to become the spiritual mother of all of the living because the lord entrusted the beloved disciple to her at the foot of the cross and told her this was her vocation behold your mother mother woman behold your son so she would have seen the church growing with as the apostles were preaching and more and more people were being baptized she would have seen more and more people kind of becoming her spiritual children and she would have seen the life that she conceived in her womb years earlier the very life of christ she would have seen that life multiplying in the souls of all those who were being baptized and coming into the church and she would have seen the implications of her fiat and her yes and would have seen the implications of the life of christ unfolding in the lives of all these people and she would have remembered that she's called to be their mother their her children and she would have prayed and interceded for them to grow but then once our lady was assumed and taken up into heaven she received even more i mean the ultimate contemplative grace the beatific vision the very light of glory the sight of god and in the light of glory in heaven she sees absolutely every human person she sees the vocation of each person she sees the plan of god for each and every person and she sees the plan of god for leading that person to the fulfillment of his or her vocation in the mystical body of christ she sees all the obstacles and trials that each person faces and is going to face on that journey and she sees the divine plans for overcoming those trials and obstacles and how to turn them to the advantage of each soul and she is devoted in this life she enjoys in the light she's devoted to intercessory prayer for each person to become who god created the person to be and we know that he's created you and me to become these contemplative souls to become men and women who enter upon the grace of contemplative prayer that's why god created us to know god and to know him in this familiar way in the depths of our hearts and the blessed virgin mary knows what that means for each one of us personally what that means for each one of us in particular and she knows what god has created us to be and who we're called to become and all that she was given all the grace that she had was given to her ultimately so that she would be our spiritual mother and would pray us into becoming the person that god created us to be she was born to pray born to intercede for us and lead us into the heights of union the heights of contemplative prayer sometimes people will object and say you know this picture of mary that you've drawn is is so high and it's so lofty she's so ideal i can't i can't relate to her it's too far away we're not saved by psychological identification with with anyone or anything we're saved by grace through faith that's what saint paul says psychological identification is something that comes gradually over time but what gets us there to begin with is faith it's believing in the blessed virgin mary believing in the greatness and the magnitude of the grace god gave her and believing in her spiritual maternity and how she prays for us to become who we're called to be and she prays us day in and day out to into the heights of contemplative prayer that's that's what makes her so effective is the grace that she was given and her vocation and her spiritual maternity and what you and i are are called to do is to believe first of all in the greatness of her her mystery her prayer her intercessory prayer and her vocation to be our spiritual mother so if you ask the question how do we make our way how do you and i make our way down this path of being purified and growing by grace into the heights of union with god and into the life of contemplative prayer here are five things we can say uh about that process practically speaking number one faith in the mystery of the blessed virgin mary and her spiritual maternity faith in that mystery obtains graces for us grace is to grow into contemplative prayer and into the heights of union and knowing god personally in the depths of our hearts number two love of the blessed virgin mary contemplative prayer is granted to people in proportion to their love of the virgin so the more we love the blessed virgin mary the more p we tend to grow into contemplative prayer and become like her more and more so fly to the blessed virgin mary show her your love in some way or another and grace will come it's it's an amazing thing that's really the third point i mean how much should we love her all the way to the point of abandonment number three abandonment of our lives of all the protection that we need our need for protection from spiritual enemies and and things like that and progress in the spiritual life abandon it all to the blessed virgin mary take every concern every worry about the spiritual life about growing in the spiritual life about where you may be or anything like that and just place it in the hands of the blessed virgin mary entrusted to her entrust yourself to her abandon all to her she will see to everything exquisitely this abandonment to the blessed virgin mary is very powerful number four the rosary that's a very practical thing we can do the saying the daily rosary the the each of the mysteries of the rosary is one of the memories of mary that's what john paul ii says in rosarium virginis maria every one of those mysteries is is one of her memories so when we join when we say the prayer of the rosary we're actually joining the blessed virgin mary in her prayer we are participating in the prayer life in the contemplative life of the blessed virgin mary if you ask how can i participate in her contemplative life that's it the rosary john paul ii says that when we pick up the rosary and pray it we are mystically transported to mary's side lastly number five silence the life of the blessed virgin mary her contemplative life was a life of silence we are in great need of silence in our society great need of entering silence and giving our minds and our hearts to to to focusing on god and his attributes his word the face of christ the mysteries of christ and just staying there and living in that and remaining focused on him we need silence for that here's an excerpt from a homily by pope paul vi on the feast of the holy family in 1964. it's in the breviary in the office of readings here's what pope paul vi says i'll leave you with this quote first we learn from the silence of nazareth if only we could once again appreciate its great value we need this wonderful state of mind he's talking about silence of course beset as we are by the cacophony of strident protests and conflicting claims so characteristic of these turbulent times the silence of nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet to reflect on the deeply spiritual and to be open to the voice of god's inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation of meditation of a well-ordered personal spiritual life and of silent prayer that is known only to god silent prayer that is known only to god the blessed virgin mary enjoyed that in abundance you and i are called to that as well let us go to the virgin and she will obtain for us the grace to become contemplative souls okay i can take questions now thank you very much father james um our uh first question comes from youtube john mcnichols asks how might one know that they are experiencing this gaze of contemplation um that's a great question here's the tricky part about it if you're trying to analyze it in the moment and you're asking yourself am i experiencing the gaze of contemplation right now that's exactly the kind of reflexive or reflective self-preoccupation that takes us away from the gaze of contemplation so the better way to proceed would be to in a way forget about whether am i contemplating right now am i contemplating right now am i contemplating right now because then it's about me and just simply turn the eyes of the heart towards god christ one of the mysteries of christ's life or an icon the face of christ or something like that and just strive to pay attention to him and the more you forget yourself and just focus on him maybe just say you jesus the more contemplative you're becoming by doing that very thing our next question comes from stephen hobbs on zoom stephen asks did mary having the fullness of grace have to make an effort for me part of the greatness of the saints is their effort that they made to know god to pray to make sacrifice what about the blessed mother did she have to make an effort there's no doubt that when god gives us his grace his grace moves us to to act and when god's grace was stirring within the depths of the soul of the blessed virgin mary he was moving her to act and so there's no doubt that she would have carried out external practices and she would have gone to the synagogue and listened to the scriptures and she would have devoted herself to prayer in the home and adopted certain postures and done things like that so she definitely would have acted that way would it have been effort in the sense of being strenuous or very difficult or very painful or something like that well it's going to depend on the the time of her life that you're talking about i think she was formed in contemplative prayer from a very early age and she would have developed virtue grown in the virtues very deeply and when someone has the virtues then we tend to do to carry out the acts that go with those virtues we tend to carry them out easily and freely and joyfully so i would just i would say that ordinarily prayer would have come very spontaneously very easily uh to the blessed virgin mary it would have been is is second nature to her not praying would have been probably the harder thing for her to do but there's no doubt that at other times in her life there would have been tremendous suffering and difficulties in praying and one can only try to imagine what it would have been like to be at the foot of the cross as her as the mother of of the lord and try to be with him and and pray in those conditions um i'm uh joan captain on zoom asked the question which um which i'll just paraphrase basically um she asks um was mary perceptively or obviously different from others i mean if you're passing her on the street would you know there's something different about her i tend to think so i just we have to be very careful not to blow that out of proportion or sort of start to become rather fantastical or imaginative about it um so even in the lives of of other saints people remarked about various dispositions or a countenance that they had for example with saint elizabeth of the trinity many people observed her prayerfulness and her countenance and her gaze the saint elizabeth of the trinity had eyes that revealed a spirit that was profoundly lost in god and many people saw this and many people noticed this it's very easy for me to think the blessed virgin mary would have been like that or rather saint elizabeth of the trinity was like the blessed virgin mary and mary had that kind of countenance even more so but we again we have to be careful we don't we can only imagine what that would have been like and imagination is very often misleading so um it's a good question i guess i would just say she would have been different she probably would have been noticeably different but how much so and we've got to be careful about letting our imaginations run wild thank you in his stunning prayer late have i loved you o beauty ever ancient ever knew from the confessions saint augustine writes lo you were within and i was without seeking you among the shapely things you have made in what sense is god interior to us even without the gift of grace augustine was living in a way contrary to the life of grace and yet he speaks of an interior presence of god was god within augustine pre-conversion and that he was giving graces to augustine's conscience to reflect on his sins and consider how he was unfaithful to the lord's commandments that's a good question um there's no doubt that prior to his conversion which also would have been prior to his to his well yeah prior to his conversion let's just say when augustine is living in a state of um serious sin he would not have been in a state of sanctifying grace but there would have been at the very least actual graces moving within him and leading him along and there's a way in which he marvels at how god was doing so even though he personally was dispersed and lost in external things a lot of the fathers of the church talk about how the condition of fallen man because of the sin of adam we tend to be oblivious to what is going on within and we tend to be absorbed in what is going on around us and given to a life of disordered passions regarding sensory stimuli and augustine is a classic illustration of that but then later on he realizes that all along god was with him and was bringing him and leading him interiorly to conversion and those would have been preparatory graces they eventually leading him to to contrition and all sorts of things that would have been according to one understanding of it on the thomistic view of things would be actual graces sometimes extensive uh actual graces over a long period of time or multiple different actual graces at different times all right our next question comes from harold gomes on zoom he says my question or thought has to do with a consecration to mary begin everything to her and she gives everything to us could you speak about the blessed virgin sharing her contemplative gifts with us by our belonging to her as her children that's a good question thanks for bringing that up i was touching upon the same point basically in the when i mentioned abandonment so when we go to the blessed virgin mary we can bring to her all the needs of our spiritual life all the needs of our souls our temporal needs but also spiritual needs and just simply hand it all over to her and abandon it all to her and ask her to to make of us through her prayer whatever it is that she wants to make of us and by abandoning ourselves to her with that kind of confidence which she deserves because of the magnitude of her grace and her role as mother of god and mother of the church spiritual mother of us all and queen of heaven because she she deserves that we we should go to her and abandon all to her and entrust all to her and she will obtain the great particular graces that we need along the way and she knows better than you and i do exactly what we need to make the next step in the circumstances we're actually in now in order to become the person who god has designed us to be or planned us to be from all eternity and she knows better than we do so the the best thing to do is to go to her and abandon all into her hands and and leave it with her and she will obtain immense graces we um we have time for one more question so i have two questions which i'm going to combine into one um so um uh one question comes from catherine lopez is it truly possible oh sorry is it truly possible to be a marian contemplative in the world today there's so much noise even in the church and then the other question which is similar comes from james h on zoom how can we in our everyday lives use our daily tasks or responsibilities to gaze upon god those are good questions um one it is possible for people to become contemplative souls in the midst of the world and in practical affairs it's difficult it's challenging no doubt about it religious life holds many many advantages in helping people to grow into the life of contemplative prayer but it's possible to do so in the midst of the world and one way to do so is to take various tasks and affairs that we have over the course of the day and bring them into our prayer and talk with the lord about these things as we go through the day asking him for help asking him for the things we need thanking him for things that have gone well asking for counsel and for instruction and for guidance and for help acts of prayer like that throughout the day short little prayers to jesus to the blessed virgin mary jesus i trust in you mary mother of jesus pray for us mary be a mother to me now any little prayers like that throughout the day that is what really helps a person to move along the path of living in the presence of god more and more and more it's not something that happens overnight it does require an effort at first but if we apply ourselves to it slowly gradually by god's grace we become increasingly more aware of the presence of god and in tune with him in the middle of the day in the middle of our affairs

Channel: The Thomistic Institute

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Length: 58min 14sec (3494 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021