Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Further Divine Perfections Mirrored in the Immaculate Heart of Mary: 
2    MEEKNESS, PATIENCE AND CLEMENCY OF GOD MIRRORED IN THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
God’s meekness, patience and clemency are three divine perfections which are joined with mercy to form one and the same perfection, although their effects are different. 
The first and greatest of miseries, the source of all wretchedness is sin. When man is so unhappy as to offend God mortally, he at once becomes the object of God’s wrath which would crush him the very instant he consents to sin, as he infinitely deserves to be. But divine meekness prevents the destruction and arrests the torrent of God’s just anger, ready to pour upon the sinner. If man perseveres in his crime, he deserves to be cast upon divine vengeance, but divine patience interposes and persuades God to suffer the sinner to await his repentance with admirable goodness. These are the effects of divine meekness and patience. God’s clemency is manifested by remitting entirely or in part the punishment due to sin. Whoever is in mortal sin deserves the eternal punishment of hell, divine clemency often sends temporal affliction to those who are in the miserable state, to oblige them to struggle out of it, and thus become delivered from eternal suffering. If they will be converted at the very instant they feel sentiments of true remorse, divine mercy effaces the guilt of sin from their souls. 
These three divine perfections live and reign in the Heart of the Mother of Mercy, communicating their own divine inclinations most excellently. After the Heart of God Himself there never was and never shall be a heart so full of meekness, patience and clemency as the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 
While she dwelt on earth, she beheld the world filled with idols and idolators. With the exception of a very small number, men generally were armed against God, trying, if possible, to dethrone Him, to put Him under their feet and annihilate Him. They would set His enemy in His place and sought to procure for the usurper the adoration and honor which belong to God alone. As the Most Blessed Virgin Mary loved God with a love so great that we cannot describe it, she experienced an indescribably great sorrow at the sight of the crimes committed against His Divine Majesty. 
But who can appreciate her greater grief over the atrocious torments inflicted on her beloved Son by the perfidy of the Chosen People? She knew Him to be Innocence and Sanctity incarnate; yet she Saw Him persecuted and tormented as though He were the greatest of criminals. She watched Him bound and roped like a thief, dragged through the streets of Jerusalem like a scoundrel, beaten, bruised, mocked, spit upon, clothed in the white garment of a fool, given up to the mockery, insults and outrages of a band of rude soldiers, reviled, spurned in favor of Barabbas, scourged and torn with whips from head to foot, crowned him: “crucify him” (John 19, 15). She saw her dear Son condemned to a cruel death, carrying the heavy Cross to be the instrument of His torture, stripped, nailed and fastened to the Cross with great nails that pierced His gentle hands and feet. She watched His adorable lips, in the torment of thirst, given gall and vinegar to drink, His sacred ears filled with curses and blasphemies, all the members of His body dislocated so that one could count His very bones: “They have numbered all my bones” (Ps. 21, 18). She beheld the body of the Godman, her Son, covered with wounds, experiencing inconceivable pain, His blessed soul lacerated with anguish and torment. Finally, she watched Him die the cruelest and most shameful death that ever happened. 
Now what did she do, the Mother of Sorrows, as she beheld her treasure, her most innocent Lamb torn, flayed and slain? She loved Him with a peerless love. Did she cry out against His pitiless murderers? Did she lament of the wrong and injustice wreaked upon Him? Did she implore the Eternal Father’s justice? No. She remained silent; not a word was heard from her lips; only her stifled sighs, her tears alone were seen. Her most gentle Heart fought against the entry of any sense of injury or movement of impatience, or aversion or bitterness towards her cruel tormentors. Her Heart abounded with meekness, patience and clemency, so that she imitated her Son, Jesus, and sought to excuse the men who were killing Him, repeating in her Heart the words He uttered with His lips: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23, 34). She offered for their salvation the very Blood they shed, the sufferings they inflicted upon Him, the cruel death they executed. She was prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice herself together with her Son, to obtain mercy for those wicked men. 
Nor is that all. The glorious Virgin now reigning in heaven can see much more clearly the numberless and frightful enormity of the sins committed against God. She sees this earth of ours which should be a paradise since the God of Heaven honored it with His presence and made it His dwelling place; yet it is filled with sinners and enemies of God, who blaspheme and dishonor Him without ceasing, even more than the devils and the damned in hell. 
Our Lady knows that her Son, the Son of God, came into the world to save all men; that salvation cost Him infinite labor, ignominies, tears and blood to deliver mankind from the bondage of the devil and hell and reconcile them to His Father. And yet she sees men turning their back on God, denying and forsaking Him, to side with Satan and cast themselves headlong into hell. She Sees innumerable atheists and blasphemers making every effort to exterminate the Holy Church founded by her Jesus through the shedding of the last drop of His Blood, and to render His sacred name contemptible, abominable and odious to the entire world: “They have set me an abomination to themselves” (Ps. 87, 9). 
Our heavenly Mother perceives all these crimes and all the wickedness most clearly, and her inconceivably great love for God and for her Son is wounded beyond anything we can imagine. She is Queen of Heaven and earth, and God has given her sovereign power over all created things; therefore she would avenge most justly the many atrocious insults offered by men to their God and Saviour. But far from doing this, she permits herself to be induced by her very patient and gentle Heart to use the power of her merits and intercession in order to halt the just fury of divine vengeance, and to arrest the torrent of God’s wrath. She obtains from His divine Majesty that He as a merciful father, not to exterminate them but to correct and convert them. 
But towards sinners who are still in this world, which is a place of mercy where our all-bountiful Mother has established the throne and empire of her mercy and clemency, her Heart is so filled with sweetness and benignity that this pious Virgin should always have the power and the will to reconcile them to her Son. 

Fr. Pancras Raja
Spiritual Director
January 19, 2023

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Consecration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Immaculate Heart of Mary
http://ourladyofmountcarmelusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consecration-to-Immaculate-Heart-by-Our-Lady-of-Mt.-Carmel-SSPX-Marian-Corps.pdf

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