 CONTENTS:
HAILY
HOLY QUEEN PRAYER 11.
SPECIAL PRAYERS: 12.
VARIOUS EXAMPLES APPERTAINING TO THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PART 1
15.
MORE DEDICATIONS AND PRAYERS TO MARY: 16.
REPLY OF ST. ALPHONSUS TO THE ABBE ROLLI WHO WANTED TO "REFORM"
TRADITION HAIL, holy Queen, Mother of mercy. Hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. ALMIGHTY, everlasting God, Who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst so make ready the body and soul of the glorious virgin Mother Mary that she deserved to become a meet dwelling for Thy Son: grant that we, who rejoice in her memory, may by her loving intercession be delivered from the evils that hang over us, and from everlasting death. Through the same Christ our Lord R. Amen. V. May the Divine assistance remain always with us. R. Amen. NOTE FROM THE WEB MASTER This sub-directory, appeared a few years ago on this web site as a temporary section; we have expanded it and now re-introduce Excerpts from The Glories of Mary as a permanent feature. All the images are of Our Lady, Help of Christians, superimposed on beautiful backgrounds that span the four seasons and more. We worked very hard to provide as beautiful a graphic presentation as possible to accompany the most noble and edifying instruction of St. Alphonsus Liguori, a favorite of Catholic Tradition. All of the banner images are desktops for 1440 resolution, Windows. Some are for tiling, others for centering; if you are not familiar with this function, right click on your desktop, select Properties, Desktop, lower right, Position, there are 3 options, stretch, tile, center; you will not need the stretch choice here. For instance, Chapter 5, has a full Sea of Gallilee image which is elongated by necessity. You will have to choose tile or else Our Lady's head will be cropped. This is the same for Chapters 6, 7, and 8. Most of the desktops require centering only. INTRODUCTION St. Alphonsus wrote The Glories of Mary as a defense of our Lady's sublime position in traditional Catholic devotion. Certain writers of his time, tainted with Jansenism, were busy ridiculing devotion to Mary, singling out the Hail Holy Queen [Salve Regina] for particular criticism. St. Alphonsus' admirable handling of their false scandal over common Catholic practice was simple enough, but overwhelming in its effect. He quoted Saints, Doctors, popes, theologians, Sacred Scripture, the Liturgy, the mind of the Church, the whole vast treasury of Catholic tradition and said, equivalently, "Here is your answer." St. Alphonsus did not argue, except now and then. Where was the need for argument? His tone was quiet but devastating, full of the calm assurance which comes from reliance on unimpeachable authority. He was tender, at times rapturous, particularly when directly addressing our Blessed Lady in his beautiful prayers. He wrote with the mind of a genius and the heart of a child, a great theologian who was also a Saint. No one will ever know the extent of his influence over those millions of genuinely Catholic spirits who want to be devoted to our Lady. The original Glories of Mary is in two parts ----- the Saint's celebrated commentary on the Hail Holy Queen, and his discourses on our Lady's principal feasts and special virtues, along with certain Marian devotions and practices. It is only the commentary on the Hail Holy Queen which appears in this presentation. In Chapter 5 you will find the Saint suddenly interrupting his argument of defense of our Lady's greatness with these gallant and courageous words: "I may be allowed to make a short digression and give my own sentiment here. I would say that when an opinion tends in any way to the honor of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when it has some foundation and is not repugnant to the Faith, nor to the decrees of the Church, nor to truth, to refuse to hold it, or to oppose it because the reverse may be true, shows little devotion to the Mother of God. "I do not choose to be counted in that company, nor do I wish my reader to be. I wish rather to be in the company of those who fully and firmly believe all that can without error be believed of the greatness of Mary. "If there were nothing else to take away our fear of going too far in the praises of Mary, St. Augustine's opinion would be enough. He declares that anything we may say in praise of Mary is little in comparison with what she deserves, because of her dignity as Mother of God." This admirably sums up the attitude of the great-hearted champion of our Lady, in an age which was casting scorn on centuries of instinctively Catholic devotion. The impression that devout readers take away with them when they have read any part of the Saint's commentary is wonder and awe at the realization of Mary's power. But the Saint, masterful theologian and Doctor of the Church, is careful to place that power in its proper context. It is God's own goodness and mercy which come to us through Mary's intercession. She is the means ----- to Jesus and from Jesus ----- by God's Own arrangement.
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