Mary’s Virtues, More Than The Stars
Fr. A. Raymond, SMM
“Thy Virtues, O Virgin, Surpass the Stars of Heaven in Numbers”!
M ARY’S soul was adorned with so many and such great virtues and privileges that she well deserves to hear her children proclaim them to the universe. Since it would be impossible for us to treat of each one in particular – each virtue or privilege would be matter for many sermons, let us content ourselves today with a brief explanation of this beautiful encomium which Holy Mother the Church heaps upon Mary, namely : ”Thou hast as many virtues, O Virgin as the heavens have stars!”
In the Book of Psalms, the prophet David calls upon all men to praise the Creator. He Who has deigned to produce the sun and the moon, the stars and other celestial bodies. Then, rising above the contingencies of nature, he invites us to praise God in the sanctification of His saints. Finally, he exhorts us to praise the even greater power which God has manifested in the creation of the firmament. ”Praise ye the Lord in his holy places; praise ye him in the firmament of his power” (Ps. 150) .
The interpreters of Holy Scripture tell us that it is evident that by this ”firmament, ” the Psalmist does not mean the starry sky which we can behold with our bodily eyes. God’s power, indeed, does not shine forth as much in the creation of the sky as it does in the sanctification of the saints. This ”firmament” he speaks of is the Queen of Saints, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, whom the Fathers of the Church often compare to, nay extol above the firmament itself.
Mary’s Virtues
The prophet David compares the Virgin Mary to the firmament. He does so because she is adorned with at least as many virtues as the latter is studded with stars on a cloudless night. ”Thou hast as many virtues, O Virgin as the heavens have stars!”
Some saints – like St. Louis de Montfort – prefer to say: Thy virtues, O Virgin, surpass the stars of heaven in numbers!
At first sight, this might seem exaggerated. But it is easy to prove how, far from being exaggerated, this comparison expresses a beautiful reality.
Immaculate Conception: Spanish Painter: Bartolomé Estebán Murillo: 1660
With this article, Father A. Raymond, a Montfort Father and seasoned Missionary of Our Lady, continues a series of sermonettes. The prior article may be found here.
Still, what God permits them to see of Mary’s virtues and privileges is as nothing compared to what He hides from their view. They are constantly discovering all their qualities and all their virtues in Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Nay, they are forever discovering other graces and virtues. These graces and virtues are far superior in quality and in numbers to those God has granted to them.
First of all, let us recall – as we have already explained in our sermonette entitled: Mary, Above the Angels (link) – that the number of angels is so great that it is almost infinite. Secondly, that each angel represents an idea of God and consequently possesses its own specific virtues and powers. And, finally, that the angels surpass one another in graces and virtues. In such sort that the lowest angel in a superior order possesses more virtues than the highest angel in an inferior order, and so on through the nine choirs of angels!
Now, we have seen that Mary is above all the angels. Because of her divine Motherhood she is the Queen of angels. It follows, therefore, that her perfections, that is to say the number of her virtues and privileges surpasses that of all the angels put together. Are we not justified in saying then: Thy virtues, O Virgin, surpass the stars of heaven in numbers!
Grace Granted To Mary
Moreover, we know that God measures His graces and virtues to us in proportion to the mission and the dignity He has in store for us. Thus St. Thomas teaches us that grace is given to each according to that for which God has chosen him. These are but a faithful echo of St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians. ”He (God) it is who has made us fit ministers of the new covenant . . .” (II Cor: 3:6).
But the Blessed Virgin Mary having been predestined, from the first moment of her existence, to be the Mother of God – a dignity far surpassing that of the highest angels and saints, it follows that she then received a superabundance of virtues and privileges that set her above all the angels and saints put together.
And is that the grace granted to Mary, on the day of her Immaculate Conception, was of a higher rank and of a superior order than that of all the angels and saints, since, as we have noted, it was a grace preparing her for her divine motherhood. The least degree of that grace, if we may so speak, exceeds the graces of all the angels and saints put together. It contains them all to a high degree and superabundantly.
When a man stands on the ocean shore for the first time he is amazed at the sight of the boundless expanse of water that stretches out before him. Yet he only secs a little corner of the ocean. So [it is] with the angels. They are in constant wonderment and admiration at the sight of the fulness of grace that adorns Mary’s soul. They can only cry out incessantly: How beautiful thou art, O Mary. How beautiful thou art!
No Creature Is As Highly Exalted
Still, what God permits them to see of Mary’s virtues and privileges is as nothing compared to what He hides from their view. They are constantly discovering all their qualities and all their virtues in Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Nay, they are forever discovering other graces and virtues. These graces and virtues are far superior in quality and in numbers to those God has granted to them.
St. Louis de Montfort brings this out in his True Devotion, when he writes : ”. . . the angels often asked one another: ‘Who is that?’; because the Most High either had hidden her from them. Or if He did reveal anything, it was nothing compared to what He kept undisclosed” (No. 3). And again, in his Secret of Mary, the same Saint writes : ”There does not exist and never will exist a creature in whom God, either within or without Himself, is so highly exalted as He is in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting the saints or the cherubim or the highest seraphim in Paradise. Mary is the paradise of God and His unspeakable world, into which the Son of God has come to work His wonders, to watch over it and take His delight in it.
God has made a world for wayfaring man, which is that world in which we dwell; He has made one for man in his glorified state, which is Heaven; and He has made one for Himself, which He has called Mary. It is a world unknown to most mortals here below and incomprehensible even to the angels and blessed in heaven above, who, seeing God so highly exalted above them all and so deeply hidden in Mary, His world, are filled with admiration and unceasingly exclaim : ’Holy! Holy! Holy!’ ” (No. 19).
Mary Possesses Natural and Supernatural Privileges
In a word, Mary possesses all the privileges both natural and supernatural granted to the angels and saints and which are in keeping with her mission as Mother of God and spiritual Mother of men.
Let us consider the number of angels in heaven. And remember that each one of them is endowed with virtues and qualities distinct from all the others. Have we not a perfect right to say the Blessed Virgin Mary has more virtues than the heavens have stars”! Many daughters have amassed riches, ” says Holy Writ, ”but thou has surpassed them all!”
