Lately I’ve been given an amazing grace: reading the book The Life of Mary: As Seen by the Mystics. It’s one of those books that you just know the Holy Ghost is working through to change you–to help you become a Saint. I felt the same way with The Autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary and the life of Mother Mariana in The Story of Our Lady of Good Success. Massive amounts of grace.
I think the thing that is most striking to me in all of these books is the remarkable example of daily life of perfection in the spiritual life. Lukewarmness and excuses to be sinful seem to be obliterated by just reading the story of their lives. In The Life of Mary, this idea reaches a climax in Our Lady, the perfect woman.
An Image of the Perfect Woman
How truly remarkable that we have books like this: insights into the life of Mary and commentary on the Epistles by St. Thomas Aquinas, given to him by St. Peter and St. Paul themselves in his very cell. It truly is a wonder why so many Catholics are enamored with The Chosen series when we have much greater, more exacting accounts of the life of Jesus and Mary. The image of Jesus and Mary that we form in our souls from such works is a great benefit to us and our salvation.
During a time in history where our idea of femininity has been crushed for consecutive generations, what a blessing an account of Mary’s life is for us. Her virtues can become our virtues. Her mysteries somehow become embedded into our souls. We, as mothers, can see how the perfect woman and perfect mother lived her life–and thus, how God desires for us to live.
Total Humility and Acts of Mortification
Two of the greatest attributes of Mary that has especially affected me while reading The Life of Mary is her total humility and acts of mortification. Even though Mary was sinless, she did not know that she could not sin, so she was continually anxious about possibly offending God. She desired to please him in all things. Truly, her life was given away to God, no matter the cost–which was very great at times, even as a young child. She saw herself as so little and had a profound desire for the Redeemer to come into the world. She even begged God that she would be given the blessing to serve the mother of the Redeemer.
From her youth, she denied herself specific foods, clothes, sleep, and attention. She understood mortification and lived it with all her being. She denied herself, so that she could be fully obedient to the will of God at all times and express her deep love of him.
Mortification in Our Daily Life
I am afraid that I have not fully committed myself to true mortification in my life. I think part of the reason for this is that I’m not sure what mortification should look like for a mother. Besides, there are a lot of natural occasions in motherhood to mortify ourselves that cannot be avoided. However, Mary shows us the example of perfection. She always, always had God’s Will in mind and wanted to please him continuously. She did not have any selfish inclinations.
She epitomizes how everything we do can be linked to pleasing God and our family. Each of our actions can be reflected on and discerned if we are making our lives a beautiful gift for our loved ones. Sometimes that means getting extra sleep for ourselves so that we can serve them better. Sometimes that means forgoing our phone and instead focusing on the people around us. Making little gifts, little notes, little treats for our loved ones can be a sacrifice for us, but should especially be sought after over our selfish desires and hobbies. Truly, our hobbies turn into activities that gives joy to our family and establishes a devoted home: making a baby bonnet, growing fresh cucumbers, baking a favorite cookie.
Forgetting Ourselves, Living for our Family
The only way we can be truly happy is to give our lives away. As mothers, that means we can be creative in how we use each moment to help our family and please God. As queens of our homes, our crowns may be full of diadems of sweet children, but we cannot forget that they must also be imaged after the crown of thorns that our Savior wore. If Mary found many forms of mortification in the moments of her motherhood, we, too, should be working toward gaining more merit for heaven. May her vast love of God overflow unto us!
And yet in all her daily work she was never interiorly at leisure for she spent every moment in profound inner recollection, prayer, and spiritual communion with God in her heart, worshiping and beseeching Him to send the promised Redeemer to suffering mankind. – The Life of Mary: As Seen By the Mystics
Find other great books for Traditional Catholic women here.
