Our Lady of Mount Carmel

 

OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL: St. Thomas of Villanova: Sermon 4 de Assumpt. Virginis: The contemplative life of the Blessed Virgin

What was Mary's life but one long act of contemplation, a continual outpouring of devotion, the incessant burning of a spiritual flame? We are not told of the blessed Virgin that she performed many miracles and signs, or made long journeys to spread the gospel, or gave extraordinary alms (which would have been impossible, because she lacked the means), or tended the sick, or redeemed captives, or built large numbers of churches or endowed religious houses with particular generosity. No; all the glory of the king's daughter was within, in the fervor of her heart, and in those golden borders, her pure thoughts and keen desires and the virtues which she possessed in all their manifold variety.

This does not mean that she did not perform Martha's noble tasks as well: she did, and brilliantly—far better than we can: for where we serve God in the persons of his servants, her service was given to him directly. Doing Martha's work did not stop the holy Virgin from fulfilling Mary's function. I lie asleep; but oh, my heart is wakeful, we read of her. Which is as if she were to say:  'As far as my outward behavior is concerned, I am asleep, because I am busy with my work; but inwardly I am awake, since all the time I am intent on prayer".

From the time when she soared up like an eagle and fixed her strong eyes on the dazzling brightness of the Godhead, she never looked back at the things of earth. Before she bore God's Word in her womb she gave herself to prayer and contemplation day and night, in company with the other virgins who lived with her in the Temple, where at the age of three she had been presented by her parents. She knew God before she knew herself, and before she could pray in words she habitually prayed in her heart. After the angel had brought her the message and she had become God's mother, she was always absorbed by the thought of the great mysteries accomplished in her. It was as though she were totally immersed in a vast sea of light and inwardly ravished in continual ecstasy, as the gospel shows us when it says that she treasured up all these sayings, and reflected on them in her heart. How could she forget God when she had carried him inside her body, nursed him on her lap and held him at her breast with her hands? Could a mother forget the son she bore in her womb? Could she possibly forget him if he was a Son like this one? After his ascension into heaven, we are told nothing more about Mary, except that she is said to have lived enclosed in an oratory, turning over in her mind all that she had seen and heard. That is all there was in the Virgin's life. That, in brief, is the whole story of her pilgrimage.