{"id":12651,"date":"2026-05-02T00:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/?p=12651"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:07:02","slug":"may-devotions-to-the-blessed-virgin-mary-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/2026\/05\/02\/may-devotions-to-the-blessed-virgin-mary-week-1\/","title":{"rendered":"MAY DEVOTIONS TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (WEEK 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This year, for each day in the month of May, we will be posting excerpts of the book The May Book of the Breviary<\/em>, by Father John Fitzpatrick, O.M.I., published by R&T Washbourne, London, 1904.\u00a0 Nihil Obstat:\u00a0<\/em>Father Thomas Dawson, O.M.I., and Imprimatur:<\/em>\u00a0Cardinal Francis Alphonsus Bourne, dated April 14, 1904.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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AUTHOR’S PREFACE<\/a><\/p>

THE SECOND EVE, by St. Irenaeus<\/a><\/p>

THE SECOND EVE, by St. Augustine<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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May 1st \u2013 Mary, The Mirror of Righteousness<\/b>
<\/strong>from Saint Ambrose<\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Let the virginity and the whole life of the Blessed Mary be before your eyes in a word-picture, as it were, from which, as from a mirror, is reflected the beauty of chastity and the loveliness of all virtue. \u00a0Hence you may take the model for your life; for here, for your learning, all matters of right and exemplary conduct \u2013 what to correct, what to avoid, and what to hold fast by \u2013 are set forth and are seen. \u00a0The first incentive to the learner is the position of the teacher.\u00a0 But who is more noble than the Mother of God?\u00a0 Who more glorious than she whom glory itself chose? \u00a0What more chaste than she who gave birth to a body, while in her own person she remained inviolate?
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What shall I say of the rest of her virtues?\u00a0 She was a virgin, not only in her body, but also in her mind, the purity of whose desires had not been deflowered by any deceitful wile. \u00a0She was humble of heart, grave in word, prudent in thought, and sparing of speech, though fond of reading; she put her hope, not in the uncertainty of riches, but in the prayer of the poor; she was diligent at her work, modest in her conversation; she had no human respect, but only cared what God might think of her; she did harm to no one, and wished well to all; she shunned boasting, she followed reason, she loved whatsoever things were good.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Such was Mary that her single life is an example to every one of us.\u00a0 If, then, the doer displease us not, let us approve what she did; if any woman desires her reward, she ought to follow her example. \u00a0In one only Maiden, how many virtues do shine forth! \u00a0The secret of modesty was her own, and a high standard of faith, and a devotedness in good offices; she was a model maiden in her home, a model servant when away from it, a model mother in the Temple.\u00a0 Oh, to how many maidens shall she draw nigh! \u00a0Oh, how many shall she take in her arms, and present to the Lord, saying, \u201cHere is one, here is one who has kept pure from spot the couch and nuptial chamber of my Son!\u201d<\/p>

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0O merciful God! give strength unto our frailty, that we, who commemorate the holy Mother of God, may, by the help of her intercession, rise again from our sins. \u00a0Through the same Christ, our Lord. \u00a0Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 2nd \u2013 The Chosen of the Chosen Race<\/b>
<\/strong>from Saint John Chrysostom<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Son of God chose not for His Mother a woman of wealth or property, but that blessed Maiden whose soul was adorned with all the virtues. \u00a0It was because the Blessed Mary had preserved her purity more perfectly than any other of our human kind that she conceived Christ, our Lord, within her womb. \u00a0Let us, then, have speedy recourse to this most holy Virgin, the Mother of God, that we may obtain the help of her patronage. \u00a0Come, then, all you maidens, whosoever you may be, take refuge with the Mother of our Lord; for, under her protection, she will keep for you inviolate the fairest and most precious of all your possessions.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The blessed and ever-virgin Mary, my dearly beloved Brethren! was indeed most wonderful. \u00a0For, what has ever been, or can at any time be, discovered greater or more illustrious than she? \u00a0She, in her sole self, is greater than the heavens and the earth. \u00a0And what is holier than she? \u00a0Neither Prophets, nor Apostles, nor Martyrs, nor Patriarchs, nor Angels, nor Thrones, nor Dominations, nor Seraphim, nor Cherubim, nor, finally, any other creature whatsoever, whether visible or invisible, can be found greater or more excellent than she. \u00a0She is both the handmaid and the Mother of God, and at one and the same time both maiden and mother.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She is the Mother of Him who was begotten of the Father before all ages, and who is acknowledged as the Lord of all by Angels and by men. \u00a0Would you know how much more eminent is this Maiden than the heavenly Powers? \u00a0They stand by, in fear and trembling, veiling their faces, while she presents the human race to Him whom she brought forth. \u00a0Through her also we obtain the remission of our sins.\u00a0 Hail, then, O Mother! \u2013 heaven! damsel! virgin! throne! \u2013 ornament, and boast, and buttress of our Church! pray for us assiduously to Jesus, thy Son and our Lord, that through thee we may find mercy in the day of judgment, and may attain to the good things which are reserved for them who love God, by the grace and bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory and honour and empire, now and for ever and ever. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 O God! who didst vouchsafe to choose the Blessed Mary to be Thy court and Thy virginal dwelling-place, grant, we beseech Thee, that, strengthened by her protection, we may, through Thee, joyfully take part in commemorating her: who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 3rd \u2013 The Immaculate Conception<\/b>
<\/strong>from the Dogmatic Bull of Pope Pius IX<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ineffable God, whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence, and whose wisdom \u201creacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly\u201d (Wisdom 8:1), foreseeing from all eternity the most woeful ruin of all the human race which would follow on Adam’s transgression, and decreeing in His mysterious purpose before the worlds were that the primal work of His bounty should be completed by the still more hidden mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, and that man who, through the wicked wiles of the devil and despite His own merciful designs, had fallen into sin, should not perish, but that what had fallen in the first Adam should be still more happily re-established in the second, from the beginning and before all ages elected and ordained for His only-begotten Son a Mother, from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, taking flesh, He should be born; and with so great a love did He love her beyond all creatures that in her His will was wholly and well pleased.
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0To which end He bestowed upon her from the treasure of the Divinity so marvellous an abundance of all the heavenly gifts of grace, and so far exceeding anything bestowed on any Angel or Saint, that, always absolutely free from every stain of sin, she showed forth in herself such a plenitude of innocence and sanctity, that short of God no greater can at all be imagined and only the thought of God Himself can comprehend. \u00a0And, in sooth, it was most fitting that this most worshipful Mother should always be bright with the brightness of the most perfect holiness, and that, by her absolute freedom from even the stain of original sin, she should gain so complete a victory over the ancient serpent, since to her God the Father designed to give His only Son \u2013 whom, begotten in His own bosom and equal to Himself, as His own self He loves \u2013 that He, one and the same, might be by nature both the Son of God the Father and the Virgin’s Son. . . .
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, learned in celestial lore, have made it their first care in their books explanatory of Scripture, or written in defense of dogma and for the instruction of the faithful, eagerly and in many and divers ways to preach and to set forth the Virgin’s supreme sanctity and dignity, and her freedom from every stain of sin and glorious victory over the most dreadful enemy of the human race. \u00a0And thus, when commenting on the words, \u201cI will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed\u201d (Genesis 3:15), by which God, fore-announcing in the beginning of the world the remedies prepared in His mercy for the restoration of mortal man, repelled the audacity of the wily serpent, and marvellously raised up a hope for our human kind, they taught that, by His divine pronouncement, the merciful Redeemer of the human race \u2013 namely, the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus \u2013 was clearly and openly pointed out, that His most Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, was also indicated, and that by these words signal expression was given to the enmity against the devil which is common to both of them. \u00a0And thus as Christ, the Mediator between God and man in our human nature which He had assumed, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, fastened it like a victor to the Cross, so the most holy Virgin \u2013 bound up with Him in the most close and indissoluble bond, and together with Him and through Him giving vent to her sempiternal enmity against the venomous serpent \u2013 triumphing fully over him, has crushed his head beneath her immaculate foot. . . .
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wherefore having, in all lowliness and in fasting, offered up without intermission our own private prayers and the public prayers of the Church to God the Father through His Son, that He would deign to guide and strengthen our mind by the power of His Holy Spirit, having implored the aid of all the court of heaven, and having with groans called upon the Holy Ghost the Paraclete \u2013 now We, inspired by Him, to the honour of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the praise and glory of the Virgin-Mother of God, and for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of our own authority, declare, pronounce, and define that: The doctrine which maintains that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first moment of her Conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed of God, and therefore to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.\u00a0 Wherefore, if any shall dare \u2013 which God forbid! \u2013 to think in their heart anything other than that which we have defined, let them know and understand that they are condemned by their own judgment, have suffered shipwreck of the faith, and have fallen away from the unity of the Church.<\/p>

Let us pray
<\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0O God! who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, and by the foreseen death of the same, Thy Son, didst preserve her from every stain, grant, we beseech Thee, that, by her intercession, we also made pure may come unto Thee. \u00a0Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. \u00a0Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 4th – The Purest Pearl of Time’s Great Sea<\/b>
<\/strong>from Saint Cyril of Alexandria\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I see before me a joyful congregation of all the saints who, with willing hearts, have come together, at the bidding of holy Mary, the ever-virgin Mother of God. \u00a0Be praise and glory unto Thee, O Holy Trinity! who hast summoned us all to this solemn feast. \u00a0Praise be to thee also, O holy Mother of God! \u00a0Thou art the priceless pearl of all the world; thou art the inextinguishable lamp; thou art the crown of virgins; thou art the sceptre of the true faith, the indestructible temple; thou art the limit of the Illimitable; thou art Mother and Virgin, through whom, as the holy Gospels tell, cometh the Blessed One who cometh in the name of the Lord.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through thee is the name of the Trinity hallowed; through thee is the precious Cross proclaimed and worshipped all over the world.\u00a0 Through thee there is joy in heaven; the Angels and Archangels are made glad, devils are put to flight, and man himself is recalled to heaven. \u00a0Through thee every creature, once held in bondage to idols, is converted to the knowledge of the truth, believers are brought to holy Baptism, and churches are built up over all the earth. \u00a0By thy help the heathen come to repent.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what more than this? \u00a0Through thee the only-begotten Son of God, that true light, shone upon them who were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. \u00a0Through thee the Prophets prophesied; through thee the Apostles preached salvation to the Gentiles. \u00a0Who can set forth fully thy titles to our praise, O Mary, Mother and Maiden? \u00a0My dearly beloved Brethren, let us glorify her name, while we worship her Son, the spotless Bridegroom of the Church, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Almighty and everlasting God! who, by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, didst prepare both the body and soul of the glorious Virgin and Mother, Mary, worthily to become the dwelling-place of Thy Son, grant that, as we rejoice in recalling her to mind, so, by her merciful intercession, we may be delivered from the evils that hang over us, and from everlasting death. \u00a0Through the same Christ, our Lord. \u00a0Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 5th – Our Lady of the Second Eve<\/b>
<\/strong>from Saint Epiphanius<\/p>

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, was prefigured by Eve, who bore the mystic name of \u201cthe mother of all the living.\u201d \u00a0Eve was called the mother of all the living even when, because of her transgression, the words had been said to her, \u201cDust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return\u201d (Genesis 3:19). \u00a0And it is strange that, after her sin, she should have been called by that great name. \u00a0It is true that, so far as things of sense are concerned, all the generations of men upon the earth are descended from Eve; but it was verily of Mary that life was born into the world, for she gave birth to Him who liveth, and it was in this way that Mary became the Mother of all the living.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To Eve was given the wherewithal to cover and clothe herself; but to Mary God granted that she should bring forth for us a Lamb, yea, a shearling, and that from what was its glory \u2013 I mean its fleece \u2013 should be wrought for us with wisdom, and by its very own virtue, the vesture of immortality. \u00a0For Eve became the cause of death to man, since it was through her that death entered into the world; but Mary is the cause of life indeed, of whom life was begotten unto us, for it was through her that the Son of God came into this world.\u00a0 \u201cWhere sin abounded, grace did more abound\u201d (Romans 5:20), and whence came death, thence also came forth life, that life should take the place of death; and He who, through a woman, was made our life, cast out death, which by a woman had been brought in. \u00a0On the one hand, the virgin Eve sinned through disobedience; on the other, it was through a Virgin that that obedience was given unto grace, to which was owing the annunciation of His coming in the flesh and life everlasting.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In what way or in what words shall I speak of the most illustrious and holy Virgin? \u00a0For, next after God, she is of all things the highest in excellence; she is in herself more beautiful than the very Cherubim and Seraphim and all the angelic host, and, to tell her praise, neither earthly speech nor heavenly, not even that of Angels, will at all suffice. \u00a0O Blessed Virgin! \u00a0O Mary, pure Dove and Bride of Heaven! nay, in one, the heaven, the temple, and the throne of the Godhead, whose own is the Christ, the sun that shines in heaven and on earth! \u00a0Bright cloud from whom came forth the Christ, as splendid lightning comes from heaven, to light up the world! \u00a0Hail, gate of heaven! full of grace, of whom the prophet, in the Canticle of Canticles, plainly and openly speaks in the course of his song, exclaiming: \u201cMy sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed \u2013 a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up\u201d (4:12). \u00a0The Virgin is the stainless Lily who brought forth the Christ, that Rose who fadeth not away.\u00a0 O holy Mother of God! \u00a0O spotless Ewe! who hast borne the Word, who took flesh of thee, even Christ the Lamb. \u00a0O most holy Virgin, who hast dazzled the angelic hosts! \u00a0\u201cA great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun\u201d (Apocalypse 12:1), bearing in her arms the Light; a great sign in heaven \u2013 the Son of Man dwelling in the chamber of the Virgin’s womb; a great sign in heaven \u2013 the Lord of the Angels become the Virgin’s Child! \u00a0The Angels accused Eve, but now they celebrate the praise of Mary, who raised up again the fallen Eve and gained admission to heaven for Adam, who had been driven forth from Paradise. \u00a0For she is the Mediatress of heaven and earth, and has brought them together in a natural way.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The grace of this holy Virgin is very great. \u00a0Hence, Gabriel at once salutes the Maiden, saying to her, \u201cHail, full of grace!\u201d thou who art a heaven of glory. \u00a0\u201cHail, full of grace!\u201d thou Virgin adorned with many virtues. \u00a0\u201cHail, full of grace!\u201d thou golden urn that containest the heavenly manna, \u201cHail, full of grace!\u201d that slakest them who thirst from the fountain of thy never-failing sweetness. \u00a0Hail, most holy and immaculate Mother! who gavest birth to the Christ who was before thee. \u00a0Hail, Royal Purple, who didst to be the King of heaven and earth! \u00a0Hail, uncomprehended Book! who didst set forth the Word and the Son of the Father for all the world to read.<\/p>

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 O Lord! we beseech Thee, that the glorious intercession of the blessed, and glorious, and ever-virgin Mary, may protect us, and may bring us to life everlasting. \u00a0Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. \u00a0Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 6th – The Annunciation<\/b>
<\/strong>from Saint Peter Chrysologus<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. \u00a0And the Angel being come in, said unto her: \u2018Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women.\u2019 \u00a0Who, having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. \u00a0And the Angel said to her: \u2018Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. \u00a0Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus\u2019.\u201d (Luke 1:26-31).
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, dearly beloved Brethren, you have heard an Angel treating with a woman about the redemption of mankind. \u00a0You have heard it debated how man should return again to life by the very ways whereby he had fallen upon death. \u00a0An Angel deals with Mary concerning our salvation, because an angel had dealt with Eve unto our ruin. \u00a0You have heard an Angel constructing with unspeakable skill a temple to the Divine Majesty out of the slime of our flesh.\u00a0 You have heard how, by a mystery beyond our comprehension, God found a place on earth, and man a place in heaven. \u00a0You have heard how, in an unheard-of way, God and man were joined together in one Body. \u00a0You have heard how, by the Angel’s encouragement, weak human nature was made strong to bear the whole glory of the Godhead.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then, lest in Mary our fragile frame should succumb like sand beneath the heavy weight of this heavenly construction; lest the slender stem should snap asunder of the Virgin who was about to bear the fruitage of the whole human race, the Angel’s voice at once forestalls and drives away all fear, saying, \u201cFear not, Mary.\u201d \u00a0Before any reason is given, the exalted station of the Virgin is made known by her very name, for the Hebrew name of Mary in Latin means Lady<\/em>. \u00a0The Angel, then, greets her as Lady, that the Mother of her Lord may put aside the trepidation of His handmaid, since the will of her own Offspring had bidden her to be born and to be called a Lady. \u00a0\u201cFear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace.\u201d \u00a0In very sooth, she who has found grace knows not how to fear: \u201cThou hast found grace.\u201d
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She gave glory to heaven, God to earth, and faith to the nations; she put an end to vice, she ordered life aright, and set a rule for conduct. \u00a0The grace which the Angel brought her the Virgin accepted, giving in return salvation to the world. \u00a0A Virgin blessed indeed is she, for she possesses at the same time both the grace of maidenhood and the dignity of motherhood; a Virgin blessed indeed, for she merited the grace of that heavenly conception, and still kept the coronet of her virginity; a Virgin blessed indeed, for the glory was hers to have a Divine Offspring, and to remain the queen of all the chastities.<\/p>

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 O God! who didst will that, at the message of the Angel, Thy Word should take flesh in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, grant, we beseech Thee, that we, who believe her verily to be the Mother of God, may be helped by her intercession in Thy sight. \u00a0Through the same our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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May 7th – The Virgin-Mother<\/b>
<\/strong>from Pope Saint Leo the Great<\/p>\n

     A virgin is chosen of the royal lineage of David, who, being destined to bear the Divine Child in her body, has already conceived her Divine and Human Offspring in her soul; and, lest in her ignorance of the supernal design which was to be wrought within her by the Holy Ghost, she should fear at such an unwonted announcement, the future Mother of God learns of it from her colloquy with the Angel, and is reassured that she has nothing to fear for her maiden modesty.  And why should she not have hope concerning a conception unexampled in its character, since to her is promised the sufficiency of the power of the Most High?  She believes, and her faith is confirmed by the witness of the miracle which was actually being wrought.  An unhoped-for fruitfulness is bestowed upon Elizabeth, so that there may be no longer any doubt that He who made the barren to conceive would make a virgin also to conceive.  And so, the Word, the Son of God, who was in the beginning with God, by whom all things were made, and without whom was made nothing that was made, was made flesh, that He might deliver man from everlasting death.
     Our Lord Jesus Christ, descending from His throne in heaven, but leaving not His Father’s glory, came into this lower world, being born in a new order of things and by a new birth.  He came in a new order, in that He who was invisible among His own was made visible among us; the Incomprehensible willed to be comprehended, and He who is from everlasting began to be in time.  He was born by a new birth, for, being conceived of a virgin, He was born of a virgin, without any father in the flesh, and leaving inviolate the virginity of His Mother; for such a birth beseemed the future Saviour of mankind, who was to have in Himself the nature of man’s being, and have no share in the defilements of man’s flesh.  Unlike us in His origin, He is like us in His nature; we believe that He is free from human use and custom, but it was only by the Divine Power that a virgin did conceive, that a virgin did bring forth, and that all the while she remained a virgin still.
     Since the Divine Spirit had decreed to raise up what was cast down, to bind together what was broken, and again and again to bestow such an abounding modesty as overcomes the allurements of the flesh, it must needs be that the purity of her Offspring should first keep the virginity of the Mother as inviolate as it had ever been, and that the power of the Holy Spirit should be poured forth to preserve the cloister of the modesty and the hostel of the holiness that were well-pleasing to Him; so that virginity, which in others could not survive motherhood, might still serve as a model to these others, in its being born again.  Moreover, doth it not seem to have been a counsel of the highest wisdom that Christ chose to be born of a virgin?  It was to the end that the devil might not know that the salvation of mankind had begun, for, the spiritual nature of the conception being hidden from him, he believed that His birth was in its nature like that of others who was like others in Himself.  To bring this about, the Christ came forth from a virgin who had conceived of the Holy Ghost; and, contrary to the case of other mothers, this Mother drew purification from her conception’s very source.<\/p>\n

Let us pray<\/b>
<\/strong>     O God! who, by the fruitful virginity of the Blessed Mary, hast given unto mankind the rewards of everlasting life, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may experience the power of her intercession, through whom we have merited to receive the Author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.  Amen.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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SEE ALSO:<\/em><\/span><\/p>

READINGS AND PRAYERS FOR MAY 8-14<\/a><\/p>

READINGS AND PRAYERS FOR MAY 15-21<\/a><\/p>

READINGS AND PRAYERS FOR MAY 22-31<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The cover image (on the homepage) is an apricot rose photographed on 6 June 2019 by Erstmal_Pause<\/a>.<\/em><\/h5>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This year, for each day in the month of May, we will be posting excerpts of the book The May Book of the Breviary, by Father John Fitzpatrick, O.M.I., published by R&T Washbourne, London, 1904.\u00a0 Nihil Obstat:\u00a0Father Thomas … Continuar lendo <\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liturgical-calendar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12651"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12913,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12651\/revisions\/12913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societyofthemostholyredeemer.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}