August 5
Our Lady Of The Snow
Preparation. - “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall draw salvation from the Lord” (Prov. 8. 35). We shall see tomorrow, first, how the Blessed Virgin in the mystery of this feast manifests her goodness and her desire to save us, and secondly, the meaning of the snow that fell miraculously on this day. By means of these considerations we shall reanimate our fervor in venerating our heavenly Mother, for in her we find the grace that leads to salvation. “He shall draw salvation from the Lord.”
I. How Greatly The Blessed Virgin Desires To Save Us
In the fourth century, during the pontificate of Pope Liberius, a Roman patrician and his worthy wife, being childless, made a vow to institute the Queen of heaven as their heiress. Moved by their filial piety, Mary appeared in a dream to them, and also to Pope Liberius, manifesting her desire to possess a church on the Esquiline hill on the very spot which they would find covered with snow. This was on August 5, when the greatest heat reigns in Rome. The Pope, accompanied by a number of prelates, priests and faithful, found the ground covered with snow in the very spot where the Basilica of St. Mary Major was in consequence erected, which is one of the most famous in the world.
Who does not herein admire the Blessed Virgin’s charity and solicitude for our salvation? She kindly accepts the temporal donation, and why? to repay it a hundredfold with eternal goods. She wishes a church built in her honor, and this in order to make an asylum for souls and a refuge for sinners. By accepting the legacy of the patrician and his wife, she procures for them the merit of an excellent work, and extends this benefit in the city of Rome to all Christendom, by re-awakening the faith by means of the remarkable prodigy the whole Church celebrates on this day. How ingenious and tender is Mary’s goodness! No; it is not in vain that she is called the “Queen and Mother of mercy.” From the moment she conceived the God of love, become incarnate in her for our salvation, her heart has become dilated in our favor as an immense ocean of compassion, wherein we may drown all our miseries. The most wretched are her own subjects, whom she receives with extreme kindness, when they are repentant. Why are we so diffident, so hesitating, when we implore her help? Does she not, like her Son, cry to us, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will refresh you”?
Most merciful Virgin, far from me be the thought of ever mistrusting thee. On the contrary, I hope from thy all-powerful charity victory over my perverse inclinations, the courage and constancy necessary for my perseverance, and the strength to build up the edifice of my perfection over the ruins of my self-love, and especially of my predominant passion. Deign, O Queen of holiness, to obtain for me the sincere will to cause my soul to rule henceforth over my body, my reason over my senses, faith over my judgement, grace and charity over my natural inclinations which would prevent my perfect union and resemblance with Thy amiable Son. “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall draw salvation from the Lord.”
II. What The Miraculous Snow Of This Day Represents To Us
The Church, in celebrating this day’s feast, intends not only to re-animate our confidence in Mary’s goodness, but also to honor her virginal purity, of which, says St. Sophronius, snow is the emblem. The most brilliant stars are not pure before God (Job 15. 15); but the Holy Ghost Himself did not find the least spot in His immaculate Spouse. “There is not a spot in thee” (Cant. 4. 7). The innocence of the angels themselves, observes St. Bernard, bears no comparison with the incomprehensible purity of the Virgin-Mother. Being exempt from original sin and inundated with the most abundant graces from her very conception, and enriched with the most precious privileges, she always was the white and most pure Dove, the Beloved of the most holy God, who in her found His rest and His delights.
On her side, this most faithful Virgin placed in God alone all her affections, all her love; this perfected her interior purity always more and more. For the more we love God, the infinite Purity, the more our soul disengages herself from all that is created, and with this disposition chastity becomes strengthened and easy to observe. Our attachments to ourselves, to our body, to the gratification of our senses and to creatures are, in fact, but so many thorns that tend to inflict wounds on the angelic virtue. Wherefore, if we intend to preserve it intact, it behooves us to strive, under Mary's guidance, to shun the smallest faults, and to bind ourselves closely and solely to the Supreme Good.
The soul that is raised above the senses and desires to be united to the Lord, resembles limpid water and the purest crystal. The divine light penetrates her, showing her the nothingness of transitory pleasure and the solidity of the joys of virtue. Hence she watches over herself, mortifies herself, is addicted to prayer, and thus is kept out of danger and brought near to Jesus. Oh, how chastity becomes easy and sweet to truly detached heart!
Immaculate Virgin, I say to thee with St. Sophronius, the whiteness of snow is only an imperfect image of the purity that distinguishes thee above all virgins. Obtain for me chastity of body, a horror for the slightest stain, and a constant watch over my heart, in order to preserve it for God alone. Enable me to live here below as in a desert, where my sole occupation may be to sanctify my soul and procure the glory of thy divine Son.
