Among all human beings, there is one creature upon whom God has bestowed a unique predilection, a creature whom He has filled with the most magnificent gifts and in whom He has placed all His delight. She surpasses in beauty, intelligence, and greatness all the daughters of Zion, and exceeds in holiness all the Angels and all the Saints in Heaven: she is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the masterpiece of the Almighty.
Mary is announced to the world long before her appearance: already in the earthly paradise, when God promises Adam a Savior and declares to the serpent that a Woman will crush its head. To prepare this Woman, blessed among all, God does even more: by a singular privilege, He preserves her, from the first instant of her conception, from the original stain that marks every child coming into the world. This unique grace, granted to her who was to be the Mother of God, is contemplated each year by the Church on December 8, in the solemn feast of the Immaculate Conception.
The most holy Virgin receives on earth a home worthy of her: Saint Joachim as her father and Saint Anne as her mother. Her childhood unfolds in the Temple like a hidden flower. She prays, meditates on the holy books, works with her hands, and sings the praises of the Lord. All her youth is a secret communion between her Heart and the Heart of God. When she becomes a young woman, she is betrothed to Saint Joseph, the humble and just man chosen to be the guardian of this treasure.
One day, while Mary is in prayer, heaven opens. An angel enters her dwelling. It is Gabriel, the messenger of God. He greets her: “Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” The Virgin is troubled by such a greeting and humbles herself even more. But the angel reassures her and reveals to her the plan of God: she will conceive a Son, whom she will call Jesus.
Then, in a consent that engages the destiny of the world, the Virgin Mary responds: “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” In that silent moment, the eternal Word takes flesh in her womb: the mystery of the Incarnation is accomplished, God becomes man, and Heaven descends upon the earth.
A few months later, in Bethlehem, the Child Jesus is born in the poverty of a manger. Mary does not give Him His divinity – which comes from the Father – but she gives Him His humanity, that body and blood through which He will save us. Yet, because the Son she bears is one and the same person, true God and true man, the Church rightly honors her with the title Mother of God. Among all the titles our devotion gives her, none is sweeter to her Heart than the one that proclaims her divine motherhood, for it contains, better than the longest discourses, all her glories and all her greatness.
On the Cross, on Good Friday, as Jesus is already in agony, He still wishes to give us a final proof of His love. Turning toward Mary with a gaze full of tenderness, He says to her, indicating Saint John: “Woman, behold your son.” Then Jesus looks at His beloved disciple, Saint John, and says to him: “My son, behold your Mother.” In that solemn moment, Mary adopts us all in the person of John, and the love she has for us surpasses that of all the mothers of the earth combined.
For our part, we can never have too much gratitude or tenderness toward the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is through her that the covenant of love between God and man, broken by the sin of Adam, has been restored. By giving Jesus to the world, she has given us the source of every good. We are invited to love her with the trusting affection of a child for its mother and to invoke her as our most powerful protector.
Several times a day, it is fitting to address to her the Ave Maria, or Hail Mary, the sweetest of Marian prayers. It begins with the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women,” then takes up the words of Saint Elizabeth: “And blessed is Jesus, Thy Son.” The Church has added the final supplication: “Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
Our Mother in Heaven has her hands full of spiritual treasures, and she delights in pouring them out upon docile souls. Let us ask her to prepare our hearts herself to receive Jesus in Holy Communion. Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, who was the first tabernacle in which Jesus dwelt before His birth, will help us, if we pray to her, to make a good first Communion. She will place within us something of the reverence and love with which she was filled when, at the end of her life, she approached the holy Table.
Let us then go to Jesus through Mary: to the all-powerful Son through the all-good Mother. This is the surest, gentlest, and shortest path into the Heart of God.
It is right to have a special devotion to Saint Joseph, the spouse of Mary and foster father of Jesus. He to whom God entrusted the care of Jesus, innocence itself, and of Mary, the purest of virgins, can certainly watch over us. Each day, we should pray to this great Saint to help us keep a chaste body and a spotless soul, to work faithfully, and to live in silence, faith, and trust.
At our birth, each of us also receives, through the goodness of God, a special protector: a Guardian Angel. A pure spirit, the Angel has no body, and our eyes cannot see him, yet he sees all that we do. Out of respect for his presence, we are invited to flee from all that is evil. It is fitting to invoke him in all our needs: a discreet companion on the journey, he comes to our aid, enlightens us, warns us, and removes – so far as God permits – the heaviest stones that could make us fall on this steep road that leads from earth to Heaven, where one climbs more than one walks.
It is recounted in the Chronicles of the Friars Minor that Saint Francis of Assisi, caught up in ecstasy, once contemplated a vast spiritual landscape. Between earth and Heaven stood two great ladders. One was entirely red, the color of blood and sacrifice; at its summit stood Our Lord Himself. The other was entirely white, radiant like the light of dawn; above it leaned the Virgin Mary, gentle and maternal.
The sons of Saint Francis, full of courage, rushed toward the red ladder. They wished to climb directly to Jesus. They set out, ascended a few steps, but the slope was so steep that they slipped, lost their footing, and fell heavily back to the ground. They tried again, with even greater effort, and once more they fell. Soon, exhausted and covered with wounds, they were on the verge of giving up.
Discouragement drew tears from them: Heaven seemed too high, holiness out of reach.
Seeing this, Francis was deeply grieved. His fatherly heart turned toward the Savior. “Lord,” he pleaded, “have pity on my brothers. They wish to come to You, but they cannot succeed.” Then Jesus answered him: “Your brothers are not going about it in the right way to reach Me. Tell them to go first to My Mother, by climbing the white ladder.”
Consoled, Saint Francis hastened to pass on Christ’s counsel to his brothers. Raising their eyes to Mary, the brothers implored her help and began to climb the white ladder. The ascent was not without difficulty: at times they slipped, fell back a rung or two, and had to catch their breath. But they rose again, entrusted themselves to the Virgin, and continued. Step by step – that is, from virtue to virtue, from light to light – they gradually ascended.
When they drew near the top, they felt their strength failing. Heaven was so close, and yet it seemed they would not be able to reach it. Then, with one voice, they cried out to Mary. The Virgin bent down, smiling, and extended her hand to them. With a maternal gesture, she drew them to herself, sheltered them beneath her immaculate mantle, and presented them to her Son, before whom they found favor.
Through this maternal and all-powerful protection, the brothers were received into Heaven. Jesus welcomed them, and their entrance into glory echoes through the centuries: Let us go to Jesus through Mary.
To climb Mary’s “white ladder” is simply to go to Jesus by allowing oneself to be guided by His Mother. Concretely, this means entrusting one’s life to her each day through a simple prayer, such as a “Hail Mary,” or: “O my Queen, O my Mother, I give myself to you; keep me.” It also means forming the habit of offering her our joys, our sorrows, and our efforts, so that she may present them to Jesus. In this way, we advance from virtue to virtue. With her, the ascent remains demanding, but it is never again solitary.