The Mystical Nuptials of St. Catherine of Alexandria
MATEO CEREZO
1660


FIRST VISIT [See NOTE]
Visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary

In our Mother Mary we have another fountain, which is indeed fruitful to us. She is so rich in good things and in graces, says St. Bernard, that, there is no one in tile world who does not participate in them: "Of her fullness we have all received." [De Laud. V. M. hom. 2] The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was filled by God with grace, and as such was saluted by the Angel, "Hail, full of grace;" not for herself alone, but also for us. St. Peter Chrysologus adds, that she received that great abyss of grace, that she might then impart it to all who are devout to her: "The Blessed Virgin received this grace, that she might give in return salvation to all." [Serm. 143]

Ejaculatory prayer. Cause of our joy, pray for us!

[From the Naples Edition.]

Prayer of St. Ephrem. Most pure and immaculate Virgin! divine Mary, Mother of God! thou art elevated in dignity above all the Saints; thou art the hope of our fathers and the joy of the elect. Through thee, as the Mother of Jesus, we have been reconciled with God. O great Queen! have compassion on us, and grant us an asylum in the arms of thy mercy. We dedicate and consecrate ourselves to thy service; suffer not the devil to draw us with him into eternal flames.

Ejaculatory prayer.  Cause of our joy, pray for us.

THE PRAYER TO BE SAID AT THE END OF EACH VISIT, CLICK HERE.


NOTE: We have two kinds of Visits to the Blessed Virgin, one of which is found in several editions published at Naples, and the other in those editions that have appeared elsewhere. Both kinds, however, were without doubt written by St. Alphonsus. This is the reason why we publish them in his complete works. It may, perhaps, be asked why two kinds of Visits have been published, and which of the two was published first? To this no positive answer can be given, though we may venture on a conjecture. The Visits to the Blessed Sacrament appeared about the year 1745, with those Visits to the Blessed Virgin that we have put in the first place, and that were soon spread all over Europe. About five years after this publication, in 1750, the work called Glories of Mary was published, and excited comment on the part of some critics. An anonymous writer dared to reproach St. Alphonsus with having exaggerated certain prerogatives attributed to the Mother of God; but the Saint at once replied to this attack and triumphantly repelled it. It is very probable that St. Alphonsus then replaced the first twenty-two Visits that he had composed in honor of the Blessed Virgin by prayers drawn from different authors of great celebrity-----prayers that had already been inserted in his book, the Gories of Mary, "to show the high idea that the Saints had of the power and mercy of the Mother of God." The nine other Visits, joined to these prayers, appear to have been chosen with some modifications in the text which we regard as the first published. But this change was made only in the Naples editions: everywhere else the first prevailing text, or translations therefrom, have continued to be printed, with the exception of the first French translation which was made in 1773, from the fifteenth Naples edition.-----ED. The Saints sometimes employed the use of the word, "divine" [lower case] to Mary, not in the sense of her Divinity, but because she is the Mother of the Divine Word.-----The Web Master.


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