In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this video we want to describe the love for Mary of some saints.
Of course, all the saints without exception have been devotees of the Virgin Mary
and all have loved her with fervor as children.
We have chosen some of them without meaning that they are the most loving of the Virgin Mary.
They are only a sample of the many other saints who could also love her.
The important thing is that we can get an idea of the great love that all the saints
have had for the Virgin Mary our Mother and that we imitate them in this love so through
the Virgin Mary we can go faster, more easily and more securely to love Jesus,
our God and Lord, present among us as a close friend in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury who lived from 1034 to 1109 said:
You can say what you want about the Virgin Mary as long as you do not say that she is God
and you will fall short. It is impossible for a true devotee of Mary to be lost.
And Saint Bonaventure who lived from 1221 to 1274 said: God could not do a greater thing than Mary.
He could make a bigger world, he could make a bigger heaven, but he couldn't have made
a bigger mother than Mary. I never saw any saint who was not a devotee of the Virgin Mary.
Saint Clare of Assisi lived from 1194 to 1253. Her love for the Virgin Mary was extraordinary
and she had the grace to see her repeatedly, especially before she died. Sister Bienvenida
stated in the process of beatification that one day she was reflecting on the wonderful holiness
of Saint Clare of Assisi and it seemed to her that the entire heavenly court was moving and preparing
to honor her, especially the Virgin Mary. And while this witness entertained herself, thinking
and imagining this, she suddenly saw with the eyes of her body, a great multitude of virgins,
dressed in white, with crowns on their heads, approaching and entering through the door of the
room in which Saint Clare of Assisi lay. And in the midst of these virgins there was a higher one,
most beautiful among all the others, who had on her head a crown greater than the others.
And on the crown there was a golden ball, like a censer or incense burner,
from which came such a glow that it seemed to illuminate the entire house.
And the virgins approached the bed of Saint Clare of Assisi. And the one that seemed the tallest
covered her with a very fine cloth, so fine that by its subtlety you could see Saint Clare
of Assisi even if she was covered with it. Then the Virgin of virgins, that is the Virgin Mary,
the tallest, leaned her face over the face of the virgin Saint Clare of Assisi or perhaps
over her chest, since this witness could not distinguish well, whether over one or the other.
When this was done, they all disappeared. The witness was awake and very alert.
Saint Lidwina of Schiedam lived from 1380 to 1433.
Saint Lidwina of Schiedam's love for the Virgin Mary was extraordinary, more than can be humanly
thought. The image of the Virgin Mary that was in the parish of Schiedam was for her a treasure.
That image had been brought to Schiedam by the same sculptor who had made it.
This had happened shortly before the birth of Saint Lidwina. The sculptor was a foreigner
who had made the image in wood and took it to sell it in Antwerp, where the Feast of
the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was to be celebrated, which attracted many people so
it would be easy to find a buyer. The ship in which he was traveling made a stop at Schiedam,
and at the time of departure, it was impossible to leave despite more efforts made by the sailors.
Then the word spread and many people attended. They all said they wanted the Virgin Mary to stay
with them. Money was offered to the sculptor and he accepted the price for the image.
Then the ship was able to leave without any difficulty, which was considered a miracle
and a clear manifestation that the Virgin Mary wanted to stay among them forever.
To accompany her to church, an improvised procession was formed and her image was carried
amid applause and cheering, all of them grateful for such a miracle and gift that God gave them.
In the parish a brotherhood was formed that organized her feast every year and
in the afternoons they sang the litanies and the Salve Regina to the Virgin Mary.
When the fire burned the church and the convent next to it in 1428, the image of the Virgin Mary
was undamaged, and while the church was being repaired, it was taken to Saint Lidwina's house.
How many gazes of love was Saint Lidwina able to give her and how many offerings of love done to
the Virgin Mary on her part! It was the image that had smiled at Saint Lidwina when she was a child.
Her happiness did not last long, since on November 18th of that year 1428
the church was repaired and the blessed image of the Virgin Mary was returned.
In a short time the angel took Saint Lidwina of Schiedam to heaven and the Virgin Mary met her.
She said to her: "How did you come without a veil with your head uncovered?" Saint Lidwina replied:
"This is how my guide, the angel, has brought me." The Virgin Mary, after speaking familiarly
with her, lent her a veil. She did not want to take it, but the angel told her: “Take it and
put it on your head, because only for seven hours it can be on earth. Give it to the confessor so
that he can put it on the head of the image of the Virgin Mary of the church”. The veil was
beautiful and gave off a very soft and pleasant perfume. Before seven hours were up, she called
for the confessor to put the veil on the image. Then the angel came and took the veil to heaven.
Saint John of the Cross lived from 1542 to 1591. From a very young age he had a lot of devotion
to the Virgin Mary, especially since he was saved by her twice. When he fell into the lagoon of his
town, the very beautiful and resplendent Virgin Mary appeared to him in the air,
who he understood to be the Queen of angels, Mary Our Lady.
Also in Medina del Campo he fell into a well of the hospital and he himself
told Father Inocencio that when he fell, he sank to the ground and Our Lady appeared to
him and took his hand and raised him to the surface above the water and was with him.
He wanted to enter the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary
of Mount Carmel or Carmelites as a religious for the love of Mary
and he wanted throughout his life to honor her especially at her festivals.
According to the statement of sister Francisca, he loved the Virgin Mary very much,
so wherever he saw her image it gave Saint John of the Cross great consolation to look at her
and he remembered when he saw her at the well and enjoyed looking at her,
seeing the care which the Virgin Mary gave to him as a mother who takes care of her child.
Father Martin assures that all the talks of Saint John of the Cross and conversations were about the
Blessed Sacrament and the Virgin Mary. Every day he prayed the Office of Our Lady on his knees.
And he liked to sing hymns to the Virgin Mary on the roads. In Saint John of the Cross' cell,
he only had a cross, the breviary, the Bible and an image of the Virgin Mary.
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi lived from 1559 to 1619. Father Luis certifies that once,
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi in a monastery of the Capuchin Order where I was,
implied that he had learned all the science that he had,
miraculously from the glorious Virgin Mary.
Father Alberto assures us:
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi was very devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and when I was in Germany,
many of our religious told me that while Saint Lawrence of Brindisi was celebrating
Mass in the chapel below the choir of our Prague convent, an image of the Virgin Mary spoke to him.
When he wrote letters, he ended with these words: Nos cum prole
pia benedicat Virgo Maria meaning "may the Virgin Mary bless us with her son Jesus".
When he blessed the sick with the sign of the cross, he said:
"By the sign of the cross and by the holy names of Jesus and Mary, may God free you".
In the temptations of impurity he advised going to God and to the Virgin Mary and saying:
"By the purest virginity of Jesus and Mary, free me, Lord, from the spirit of fornication"
Father Patricio tells us that Saint Lawrence,
when he called someone, said Ave Maria and when he answered, he also said Ave Maria.
Wishing that many would be devotees of the Virgin Mary, Saint Lawrence told them that
in the novitiate he was very delicate in health, and despite this, he began to fast on Saturdays
in honor of the Virgin Mary. Thus his health also began to improve and he gained weight. But later,
loosening in this devotion on the advice of a Superior who felt sorry for his age and health,
he then returned to his first weakness and infirmity. Saint Lawrence begged his Superior
to let him return to his fasts, and with this medicine alone, he improved in his health.
He used to pray in front of an image of the Virgin Mary painted in a chapel of the local
Capuchin church. Once, while in prayer, Saint Lawrence of Brindisi suddenly burst into tears.
The religious came, and finding him in a sea of tears,
they asked him why he was crying, but he did not want to answer. The next day, the Superior
insisted that Saint Lawrence tell him the cause and he replied that the Virgin Mary had cured
him of the serious and dangerous chest disease from which he had suffered since his youth.
Father Juan says: The older Saint Lawrence got in age, the more he grew in this devotion and hobby;
and he was reduced to such a term in the last years of his life
that once he heard about God or His Mother the Virgin Mary,
he suddenly was out of himself; abstracted in such a way that no matter how great people were
talking to him, he just remained absorbed and abstracted for entire quarters of an hour.
I have found myself present to this many times, and I have seen and observed everything:
I have heard many of these people, such as Monsieur Duke Doria, some Venetian
nobles and others, who, meeting Saint Lawrence on several occasions, they said : "We have lost the
conversation with Saint Lawrence, he is already absorbed in God and in the Blessed Virgin Mary."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.