13 MAR - OUR MOTHER THE EMPRESS (ROME)

 A tradition records that this image spoke to St. Gregory the Great in the year 593. 

    The humility of the purest Mary was the dawn of grace, the pure beginning of all creatures, the superior over them all, the prodigy of the divine perfections, 

    the center of His love, the sphere of the omnipotence of God who called God her Son and was called by Him His mother, 

    she nevertheless humbled herself to the lowest place in all creation. A creature should not seek the honor which does not belong to it although the Highest 

    in his infinite kindness accepts it and considers Himself under obligation to one who practices it in that way. But she, most admirably exceeding all this, 

    while deserving all exaltation and majesty, 

    humbled herself more than all other creatures and sought neither honor nor exaltation. Thus Mary, holding worthily the dignity of Mother of God, 

    annihilated herself, and by this very humility deserved anew and in justice to be raised to the dominion and sovereignty of all creation.




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