Monday, January 2 : Saint Maximilian Kolbe

When one looks at the Immaculate Virgin one senses a need in one’s heart to come closer to her… People who love her and write about her pause to see who she is, even if they don’t know her at any depth. Who is she in relation to God the Father? He is her Creator, of course and she herself declares: “I am the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1,38). But who else is she? She is the one chosen by the eternal Father. One cannot conceive this; human words are not adequate to express it. The heavenly Father wanted his Son, the second Person of the Trinity, to have the Immaculate Virgin as his mother in time. She is truly the mother of the Son of God – how difficult this is to grasp! We have to be very united to the Mother of God to understand this mystery at greater depth. The Virgin Mary cannot be compared with other saints by the fact that she is the Mother of God’s Son, truly Mother of God… To be created by God, to be a child by adoption: these things can yet be understood. But really to be the Mother of God is something that exceeds all understanding… It is a truth of faith that the Immaculate one is actually the Mother of God and not just the mother of Jesus’ humanity. With regard to the Holy Spirit: she is his Bride. We can’t conceive this either! The Holy Spirit is united to the Immaculate Virgin to such an extent that He seems to make up a single being with her… In all these things our intellect is not sufficient since the Trinity is infinite. And even were we to have perfect knowledge, there is an infinite distance between what we know of the Blessed Trinity and what it is in reality. Later, in heaven, we shall get a much better idea of this mystery. Even after thousands and thousands of years this understanding will always remain limited to such an extent that eternity will be necessary to come to perfect understanding.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team