Rationale for Book
by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
My beloved reader and brother in Mary: Since the devotion that led me to write,
and moves you to read, this book makes us happy children of the same good
Mother, should you hear it remarked that I might have spared myself the labor,
as there are already so many celebrated and learned works on the same subject, I
beg that you will reply, in the words of the Abbot Francone, that "the praise of
Mary is an inexhaustible fount: the more it is enlarged the fuller it gets, and
the more you fill it so much the more is it enlarged"
- ("Laus Mariae fons est indeficiens, qui, quanto
longius extenditur, tanto amplius impletur, et quanto amplius impletur, tanto
latius dilatatur" De Grat. Dei. lib. vii). In short, this
Blessed Virgin is so great and so sublime that the more
she is praised the more
there remains to praise; so much so, says an ancient writer, "that if all the
tongues of men were put together, and even if each of their members was changed
into a tongue, they would not suffice to praise her as much as she deserves"
- ("Etsi omnium nostrum membra verterentur in
linguas, eam laudare sufficeret nullus"Serm. 208. E. B. App.).
I have seen innumerable works of all sizes which treat of the
Glories of Mary; but finding that they were rare, voluminous, or did not answer
the object I had in view, I endeavored to collect, from as many authors as I
could lay my hands on, the choicest passages, extracted from Fathers and
theologians, and those which seemed to me to be the most to the point, and have
put them together in this book, in order that the devout may with little trouble
and expense be able to inflame themselves with the love of
Mary, and more
particularly to furnish priests with matter for their sermons, wherewith to
excite others to devotion towards this divine
Mother.
Worldly lovers often speak of those whom they love, and
praise them,
in order that the object of their affections may be praised and extolled by
others. There are some who pretend to be lovers of
Mary, and yet seldom either
speak of her or endeavor to excite others to
love her: their
love cannot be
great. It is not thus that true lovers of this
amiable Lady act; they desire to
praise her on all occasions, and to see
her loved by the whole world, and never
lose an opportunity, either in public or in private, of enkindling in the
hearts
of others those blessed flames of love with which they themselves burn towards
their beloved Queen.
That every one may be persuaded how
important it is, both for his own good and that of others, to promote
devotion
towards Mary, it is useful to know what theologians say on the subject.
Saint Bonaventure says that those who make a point of announcing to
others the glories of
Mary are certain of heaven; and this opinion is confirmed
by Richard of Saint Laurence, who declares "that to honor this Queen of Angels is
to gain eternal life" ("Honorare Mariam,
thesaurizare est sibi vitam aeternam"De Loud. B.M.V. l.2, p.1);
and he adds, "that this most gracious Lady will honor in the next world those
who honor her in this" - ("Glorificabit in futuro
honorificantes se in praesenti."Ib.). And who is ignorant of the
promise made by Mary herself, in the words of
Ecclesiastes, to those who
endeavor to make her known and
loved here below, "they that explain me shall
have life everlasting"; ("Qui elucidant me,
vitam aeternam habebunt"Ecclesiasticus
24:31) for this passage is
applied to her by the
Church, in the office of the Immaculate Conception.
"Rejoice, then", exclaims Saint Bonaventure (who did so much to make the
glories
of Mary known), "rejoice, my soul, and be glad in her; for many good things are
prepared for those who praise her"
- ("Exsulta,
anima mea, et laetare in illa; quia multa bona sunt laudatoribus praeparata"Psalt.
B.V. p. 43); and he says that the whole of the sacred Scriptures
speak in praise of Mary:
"let us therefore always with our hearts and tongues
honor this divine Mother, in order that we may be conducted by her into the
kingdom of the blessed" - ("Si enim omnes Scripturae
loquuntur de ea, Deiparam perpetuo contemplemur corde, et lingua celebremus, ut
ab ipsa ad gaudia perpetua perducamur"Paciucch. in Ps. 86, exc. 25).
We learn from the revelations of Saint Bridget, that the blessed
Bishop Emingo was in the habit of always beginning his sermons with the
praises
of Mary. One day the
Blessed Virgin herself appeared to the saint, and desired
her to tell him that in consequence of his
pious practice, "she would be his
Mother, that he would die a holy death, and that she would herself present his
soul to God" (Rev. extr. C. 104.Rev. l. 4,
c. 125.); he died like a saint in the
act of praying, and in the most
heavenly peace.
Mary also appeared to a Dominican friar, who always concluded
his sermons by speaking of her; when on his
deathbed the Blessed Virgin
defended
him from the devils,
consoled him, and then she herself carried off his happy
soul (Auriem. Aff. scamb. P. 1, c. 13.).
The devout Thomas ΰ Kempis represents to us Mary recommending a
soul who had
honored her to
her Son, and saying, "My most loving Son, have mercy on the soul
of this servant of Thine, who loved and extolled me" ("Fili mi amantissime, Miserere animae famuli tui,
amatoris et laudatoris mei"Ad Nov. s. 21).
Next, as to the advantage of this devotion for all,
Saint Anselm says,
that as the most sacred
womb of Mary was the means of
salvation for sinners, the
hearing of her praises must necessarily
convert them, and thus also be a means
of their salvation; "how can it be otherwise than that the salvation of sinners
should come from the remembrance of her praises, whose womb was made the way
through which the Savior came to save sinners?"
-
("Quomodo fieri potest, ut ex memoria laudis ejus salus non proveniat
peccatorum, cujus uterus factus est via ad sanandum peccatores?"De Excell. V.
c. 1.) And if the opinion is true, and I consider it is indubitably so
(as I shall show in the fifth chapter),
that all graces are dispensed by
Mary, and that all who are
saved, are saved only
by the means of this divine
Mother, it is a necessary consequence that the
salvation of all depends upon preaching
Mary, and exciting all to
confidence in
her intercession.
It is well known that it was thus that Saint Bernardine of
Sienna sanctified Italy, and that
Saint Dominic converted so many provinces. Saint
Louis Bertrand never omitted in his sermons to exhort all to
love Mary; and many
others have done the same.
I find that Father Paul Segneri the younger, who was a very
celebrated missioner, in every mission preached a sermon on
devotion to Mary,
and always called it his beloved sermon. And in our own missions, in which it
is an inviolable rule to do the same, we can attest, with all truth, that in
most cases no sermon is more profitable, or produces so much compunction in the
hearts of the people, as the one on the
mercy of Mary. I say, on
her mercy;
for, in the words of Saint Bernard, "we praise her virginity, we admire her
humility; but because we are poor sinners, mercy attracts us more and tastes
sweeter; we embrace mercy more lovingly; we remember it oftener, and invoke it
more earnestly" - (Laudamus virginitatem,
humilitatem miramur; sed miseris sapit dulcius mesericordia; misericordiam
amplectimur carius, recordamur saepius, crebrius invocamus"In Assumpt.
S. 4.); and for this reason I here leave other authors to describe the
other prerogatives of Mary, and confine myself for the most part to that of
her mercy and powerful intercession; having collected, as far as I was able, and
with the labor of many years, all that the holy Fathers and the most celebrated
writers have said on this subject; and as I find that the
mercy and power of the
most Blessed Virgin are admirably portrayed in the
prayer "Salve Regina", the
recital of which is made obligatory for the greater part of the year on all the
clergy, secular and regular, I shall divide and explain this most
devout prayer
in separate chapters. In addition to this, I thought that I should be giving
pleasure to Mary's devout clients, by adding discourses on the
principal
festivals and virtues of this
divine Mother, and by placing at the end of the
work the devotions and
pious practices most used by her servants, and most
approved of by the Church.
 Devout reader, should this work, as I trust it will, prove
acceptable to you, I beg that you will recommend me to the
Blessed Virgin, that
she may give me great
confidence in her
protection. Ask this
grace for me; and
I promise you, whoever you may be, that I will ask the same for you who do me
this charity. O, blessed are they who bind themselves with
love and confidence
to these two anchors of
salvation, Jesus and
Mary. Certainly, they will not be
lost. Let us then both say, devout reader, with the pious
Alphonsus Rodriguez,
"Jesus and Mary, my most sweet loves, for you may I suffer, for you may I die;
grant that I may be in all things yours and in nothing mine"
- ("Jesu et Maria, amores mei dulcissimi! pro vobis
patiar, pro vobis moriar; sim totus vester, sim nihil meus"). Let us
love Jesus and
Mary, and become saints; we can neither expect nor hope anything
better. Farewell, then, until we meet in Paradise, at the feet of this most
sweet Mother and of this most
loving Son; there to
praise them, to love them
face-to-face for all eternity.
Amen.
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