“… Our Lady is the Mother of God,… She also is… the Mother of men, and therefore, our Mother”.
It seems to me that this invocation (Mother of God) has a very important point: it is that since Our Lady is the Mother of God, by a series of consequences She also is, and especial so, the Mother of men, and therefore, our Mother.
I believe that the most precious grace that one can have in terms of devotion to Our Lady comes when She deigns to establish with each of us, through ineffable ties, a truly maternal relationship. This can take place in a thousand ways, but in general Our Lady shows to be our Mother especially when She saves us from some predicament in a way that becomes completely unforgettable. Or when She forgives us for some particularly unforgivable fault through one of those kindnesses that only mothers can have; She passes by, forgives us, and removes all rubbish much like Our Lord Jesus Christ would heal leprosy: nothing is left.
[Our fault was such that] nothing deserved to be forgiven, there were no mitigating circumstances, [we] deserved nothing but God’s wrath. But Our Lady, as Mother, with her sovereign power and that indulgence which mothers have, erases and eliminates all that with a smile, and the past is completely forgotten.At times Our Lady gives such graces in a way that they remain marked by fire on a person for a lifetime; marked by a fire from heaven, not one from earth or even less so from hell. The soul is marked by fire with the belief that we can turn to Her a thousand times in utterly indefensible circumstances and She will always forgive us again because She has opened for us a door of mercy that no one will close.
The preceding article has been translated and adapted without the author’s revision. Taken from an informal meeting between the author and members of the Brazilian TFP held on 11/20/1963