TAKEN FROM THE SPIRIT OF ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI Mission Church Press, 1910 with Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat Part 2 It was our Saint who first introduced the custom of saluting the Blessed Virgin Mary after the visit to the Blessed Sacrament. When we read his universally admired book on the GLORIES OF MARY we imagine we are listening to the sweet and unctious language of a Saint Bernard. He never allowed an opportunity of recommending devotion to the Blessed Virgin slip by. If anyone came to visit him or to seek advice, he always found a chance to introduce into the conversation a word or two in honor of the Mother of God. "She is our Mother," he would say, "She must bring us to Heaven; She must assist us in the hour of death. How unhappy we should be did this exalted Queen of Heaven not intercede for us!" This devotion he recommended with particular emphasis to the young. A youth who had been received into the Congregation, desired to visit him before entering the Novitiate in order to receive his blessing. The first words our Saint addressed to him were: "Strive earnestly to acquire a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary." Then after he had blessed him, he continued: "My dear son, if you wish to persevere have great reverence for the Mother of God; if you fail to do so, you will lose your vocation. Mary is the Mother of perseverance. Call upon her in the morning when you arise and say to her: "Most Holy Virgin, thou art my Mother and my Queen; I recommend myself to thee; assist me that I may not lose my God. Obtain for me, O my Queen, a great and constant love for God, the grace to serve Him faithfully in this Congregation to which He has called me, and finally the happiness to die in the grace of God and as thy faithful servant." The Prefect of Students told him one day that some young men had been ordained deacons and were proving very exemplary; Alphonsus was rejoiced to hear this and said he would recommend them to the Blessed Virgin in order that she might obtain for them the grace to preserve the spirit of Jesus Christ and persevere in the Congregation. Hereupon he exhorted the Prefect to instill into the young men a great devotion to the Mother of God, saying: "To her I am indebted for my progress in the spiritual life. Owing to my sins I would have gone back; but on account of my devotion to the Blessed Virgin I have happily made some progress." When at St. Agatha he went every Saturday evening to the Seminary and had something read from a work by Auriemma on the Mother of God. Then he would give the Seminarians an impressive conference, and explain to them how necessary it was, if they desired to be saved always to revere the Blessed Virgin and in all temptations to have recourse to her with confidence. "I fear very much," said he, for the salvation of him who thinks little of the devotion to the Mother of God, and who neglects to seek her intercession, for as St. Bernard well says, "such a one closes against himself the fountain of all grace." The celebrated Muratori had raised some opposition to the teaching of certain Doctors of the Church and particularly St. Augustine and St. Bernard, that all graces that God grants to us come through the hands of Mary. Whereupon St. Alphonsus wrote a treatise to prove that this pious opinion was one of long standing in the Catholic Church and was based on a solid theological foundation, which regarded the intercession of Mary not only as very useful but even necessary. When he heard that a certain priest had made use of assertions out of keeping with the great esteem we owe to the Blessed Virgin, he wrote with tears in his eyes, to the bishop of that priest begging him to express his disapproval of this misleading doctrine. He also wrote to the Grand Almoner of the King and said among other things that for the honor of his heavenly Mother he would be ready to shed his heart's blood, even to the last drop. Although the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary had not as yet been declared a dogma of faith, nevertheless St. Alphonsus maintained it firmly and highly commended those members of his Congregation who, on finishing their theological studies took a vow if necessary to give their blood and their life in defense of this holy doctrine. He said, "although faith does not oblige us to accept this prerogative of the Blessed Virgin as a truth revealed by God, still all that is wanting is the formal declaration of the Church. Would that I had the happiness to live to see the definition of this Article of faith." Every Saturday he had a sermon preached on this mystery in the Church of the Conventual Fathers at St. Agatha. He likewise established a Congregation of young people whose special object was to honor the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. The Blessed Mother rewarded her faithful servant even here on earth for the devotion he showed towards her. It can truly be said that in all doubts she was his Counselor, and in all undertakings his trusted Guide. One day in conversation with his confessor he inadvertently made the remark that in his youth the Blessed Virgin had deigned to speak to him with holy familiarity, that he had consulted her on all the affairs of his Congregation, and that she had informed him of some wonderful things. The confessor was anxious to know what she had said to him, but Alphonsus simply replied in his humble way: "She said very beautiful things to me." A tradition has it that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him several times while at prayer in the Grotto of Scala where he went at times to perform certain acts of penance. During the Novena which he preached before the feast of the Nativity of Mary in the Church of Our Lady of the Redemption of Captives at Naples, he seized the veil of the picture of the Mother of God one night after the sermon, and with childlike simplicity kissed it and said: "This good Mother obtained for me the grace to leave the world." When he was asked how this happened he replied: "When I was still a lay man I happened to be passing by this church one day during a Novena that preceded one of the feasts of the Mother of God; I went in and heard the sermon and then it was that Mary obtained for me the grace to leave the world and enter the service of the Sanctuary." In the many sufferings with which he was visited in the last years of his life, he never lost sight of his beloved Mother. In the year 1786, one year before his death, he was accustomed to have something read to him from the GLORIES OF MARY. "Today," said he, "I find it very hard to keep my thoughts together; read me something from my book on the confidence we should have in order to attain eternal happiness through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary." When they had acceded to his pious wish he continued to repeat with a joyous smile: "Oh how very powerful is Mary's intercession with God." And then he said: "Now I am old, my heavenly Mother; I cannot preach any longer on thy exalted prerogatives; but I wish I had someone who would speak to me of them." One night when he was unable to sleep he called his servant Alexius and said to him: "Tell me something about the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin."   Another time after confession, he was conversing with his confessor about the love for Jesus and Mary. The confessor asked him if he desired to see the Mother of God as several other Saints had done. Alphonsus acknowledged that he certainly desired this most ardently, but, great sinner that he was, he did not expect it. This he said out of humility for the fact is, Mary had often honored him with this privilege. The nearer he approached the end of his life, the more ardent was his desire to see his exalted Queen in Heaven. He often spoke of it and one day in recreation he said: "Will not that be a glorious sight when we see the Blessed Mother! I shall love her and gaze upon her in Heaven. Which one of us will have the happiness to die on a feast of the Mother of God?" Another time when a portion of the GLORIES OF MARY had been read he exclaimed: "When one hears mention of the Mother of God, one feels his heart grow tender." As he said this his countenance beamed with joy. We shall only mention the fact that as deacon, St. Alphonsus was cured of a serious illness by the Blessed Virgin. At Foggia, at Amalfi, and at Arienzo she appeared to him in presence of all the people. Particularly in the hour of death was it evident how much Mary loved her true and faithful servant. During life the Saint had often prayed to her; "Pardon me, my beloved Queen, my boldness----come, I beseech thee before I die, come and console me by thy presence. Thou hast shown this favor to so many of thy servants; behold O Mary, I love thee and place great confidence in thee. I also beg this favor of thee and I hope to obtain it from thee. It is true I am only a poor sinner, but still I am thy servant; I love thee and place great confidence in thee; I await thee therefore and beg thee not to deny me the consolation I expect and ask of thee." The favor which he had so ardently besought from this amiable Queen was really granted to him before his death. "O men!" he exclaims in the GLORIES OF MARY "Why do you not love Mary who is so loving and deserving of love and so faithful here on earth. She obtains for us an abundance of consolation and of grace, and in Heaven eternal glory from her Divine Son. O Mary, Mary thou art more beautiful than all creatures; thou art after Jesus more lovable than anything man can love; thou meritest our esteem more than all created beings; thou art dearer than all that could rejoice the human heart. Have compassion on my poor heart; yes, poor indeed it is, for it does not love thee as much as it should. But thou canst inflame me with thy holy love. So then, O Mary, turn thy loving eyes toward me; look upon me, draw me to thee and next to God make me love nothing but thee, O thou most tender and loving Mother of Jesus and my spiritual Mother." In his visits he says: "I love thee Oh most amiable Lady and for the love of thee I promise to serve thee always and to do all in my power to make others love thee also." The whole life of our Saint proves how faithfully he kept his promise. "God," says he in another place, "has destined Mary to be the refuge and asylum of all sinners." Therefore he sought to inspire the most abandoned sinners with great confidence in the aid of this loving Mother and in this way to win them back to God. "If I have recourse to thee, O my Queen" said he, "thou canst not reject me on account of my sins. Ah, what do I say! The more wretched I am, the more entitled I am to count on thy assistance, for God has destined thee to be the refuge of the most abandoned. "O my Mother" he wrote four years before his death: "I will always love thee and place my hope in thee; through thee I must be saved." -----St. Alphonsus, Founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer [Redemptorists]     HOME-----------------THE GLORIES OF MARY www.catholictradition.org/Mary/mary20-2.htm