(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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On the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Joseph of Cupertino
Refuge of sinners, Mother of God, have pity on me. She is the Dispensatrix of
the
graces of Paradise; all the riches of the human race come from Her hands, for
God created Her for this. God willed to be born of the Woman, the Virgin without
sin; nor did He violate the virginal cloisters. Just as a spring is unchanged
when a person, without bathing himself, sees his own image in the water, so
the virginal cloister of Mary remained intact when the Lord entered. So too,
when one stands before a mirror, he sees within it his own image, but turning
away, his image is no longer in the mirror, and the mirror remains integral.
Thus the sacred cloister of Mary ever Virgin remained inviolate. God our Lord
was so full of the milk of His divine love that He could not remain in that
condition. It seems He felt a certain pain, and hence created the Blessed
Virgin in whom He infused all graces. He made Her so as to be able to bestow
the milk of divine grace on men as He wishes. God could do this, and He did do
this, namely, that the Blessed Virgin be conceived without sin. If a lord
wished to make a lovely garden, in his mind he would plan various things to
place in that garden, which he would then order made; but one particular he
would reserve in his heart without telling others. When the garden was
finished, he would order this to be revealed -- for example, a fountain. Thus
God our Lord planned the garden (that is, the world) and accomplished in
common view all that He had planned, reserving to Himself, however, one holy
idea. This He wished to reveal and decree in its own proper time: to make
present in the world a Virgin without stain of sin, who would give birth to His
Son, I say, the Son of God. If a prelate -- let us say, the Pope -- should issue
an excommunication, or launch an interdict against a city or its citizens for
some crime committed in it, he has the power to exempt whomsoever he wishes --
for example, Peter and John. He can do so without even mentioning this
exemption, but merely reserving it in the recesses of his mind. So too, the
High God, who is Superior of the entire world, could fulminate the curse of
original sin on all the descendants of Adam, and could exempt by His
omnipotence whomsoever He wished. Accordingly, He exempted from this law of the
curse Her whom He had destined to be Mother of God. Hail, holy Queen, rose
without thorn, lily of love, Mother of the Lord, gain me this grace: that I may
not die a sinner.