Mater Christi: Meditations on Our Lady

Eia ergo Advocata Nostra.Therefore, just because of our misery and need – it is our only plea, and one which appeals more than any other to a Mother's heart – we appeal to her as our Advocate: one who will plead our cause, who will speak to the King for us and tell Him of our needs, as she did long ago at Cana of Galilee. Had ever banished children such an advocate – one to whom the Judge has pledged Himself: "I must not turn away thy face!"

O Advocata nostra, plead for me with thy Son when I stand before Him to be judged! In that terrible moment remember my Salve, for I shall be unable to say it then.

Misericordes Oculos ad nos Converte.Turn thy merciful eyes upon us. We only ask her to look. It is quite enough for a mother to see her child in trouble. She does not need to be told what to do.

Et Jesum Benedictum Fructum Ventris tui nobis post hoc Exilium Ostende. Here we get to the point of the prayer – the sighs, and groans, and cries, and tears of the banished children are all because they want to see Jesus. And after this our exile show unto us the Blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. "We would see Jesus" (St John xii. 21), and we come to ask His Mother to show Him to us. This is her great work; and she turns to the children and says: "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye," and you shall see His Face one day.

After this our exile.

"When the voyage is o'er, O stand on the shore

And show Him at last to me."

It is because I cannot see Jesus that I am so often in trouble in the land of exile. If my faith were strong enough I should see Him continually, and sorrow would flee away. We have not got to wait till the voyage is o'er before seeing Him. Many and many a glimpse of the Blessed Fruit of her womb does our Mother give us. To be near her means that we are near Him too. Each Communion, each absolution – yea, each humiliation and sorrow is our Mother letting us see Jesus if we will only look; and when she stands on the shore to show Him at last, we shall see that it is the "same Jesus" Who so often walked with us in the land of our exile, though our eyes were for the most part holden by our want of faith, and we did not recognise Him.

O Clemens, O Pia, O Dulcis Virgo Maria.O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. We multiply our words in trying to express to our Mother something of what we feel towards her, but they all mean the same thing – that she is a Mother. Her sweetness is as ointment poured forth, and attracts all to it. Her kindness and love, too, have been known to all since she stood at the Foot of the Cross, and received all her banished children into her stricken heart. Never in vain can we appeal to our sweet Mother. And so with renewed confidence we will say our Salve, rejoicing even in this vale of tears because we have a Mother who knows all about us, and who will never forget us; whose one desire is to show us the Blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus; who will teach us to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, even as she sang her Magnificat; and who will one day, when the days of our exile are over, sing with us the ever "new song" of Redemption to "Him Who loved us and washed us in His Blood."

Till then, dear Mother, help us to be patient, and help us to learn the lessons of the valley, remembering that they will never be learned at all if they are not learned here.

Colloquy. The Salve Regina.

Dei Genitrix, intercede pro nobis

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Note.– There are times when we get a little tired of Preludes and Points, and feel that a change of method would be a help to our Meditation. St Ignatius knew this, and knew also that to some minds Preludes and Points would be a positive hindrance; and so he has given us, in his book of the Spiritual Exercises, "Three (other) methods of prayer." Our Meditation to-day is according to the Second Method, which "consists in considering the signification of each word of a prayer." (Text of the Exercises.) St Ignatius says that if one or two words give us sufficient matter for thought and spiritual relish and consolation, we are not to be anxious to pass on, even though the whole time of the Meditation be spent on one word, but leave the rest till the next day. So we may take to-day as many words of the Salve Regina as we find spiritual relish for. This method, St Ignatius tells us, may be applied to "any other prayer whatsoever."