Our Lady Of The Snow

First Point

We are not in a position to offer temporal gifts to the Most Blessed Virgin, for we have renounced the world and left all to consecrate ourselves to the service of God.¹ All she asks of us, the reason why the Church seems to have instituted this feast today to honor the holy Mother of God, is to encourage us to have a very special devotion to her and to procure it for those whose guidance God has entrusted to us. The Church calls your attention to the great grace she gave on this day to these two people who were so eager to promote her honor, which was that she willed that they be remembered in the Church and that what they did to honor her, and what she did in their favor, be proclaimed until the end of time by all the faithful.Let us be convinced that everything we do to honor the Most Blessed Virgin or to cause her to be honored will be very richly rewarded by God through her. Let us always acknowledge her as our good Mother, for Jesus Christ gave her as such to all those who would be devoted to her. He did this in the person of Saint John, when, at the point of death, he said to him, My Son, behold your Mother.

Second Point

What must oblige us most especially to have a great devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin is the fact that she is so highly honored by the Eternal Father. He has given her a position above all pure creatures because she bore in her womb the One who is equal to him and who is one in nature with him. She is exalted above all creatures because of the abundance of grace bestowed on her, which surpasses that given to anyone else, and because of the purity of her life, which no one has equaled. This led Saint Anselm to declare that it was only right that Mary be clothed in great glory and lifted high above all creation, because, after God, no one is superior to her. Is it not to be incomparably raised above all creatures to have become the temple of the living God when she conceived the Son of God? For this reason, we apply to her the words of Psalm 132: God has chosen her to make his dwelling in her,³ and these other words from Psalm 65: Your temple is holy.⁴ Abbot Rupert goes even farther; he says that once the Holy Spirit had visited the Most Blessed Virgin to make her conceive the Son of God, she became totally beautiful with a divine beauty. This made Saint Bernard say that we ought to honor the Most Blessed Virgin with the tenderest of devotions because God placed the fullness of all good in her when he enclosed the divine Word in her womb. But what ought to encourage us most especially to cultivate such a devotion is the great good that we will receive from it. The same saint says, Let us have a great veneration and a most tender devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin, because it is through her that we receive the benefits that God wishes us to have. Entering into detail concerning these benefits, he explains as follows: The Holy Spirit distributes all his gifts, graces, and virtues to whomsoever he pleases, when he pleases, and in the manner and the amount he judges proper, through the ministry of the Most Blessed Virgin. Saint Anselm, to stir up our trust in her, adds that when someone invokes the name of the Mother of God, even if the one who has recourse to her does not deserve to be heard, the merits of this most holy Mother of God still suffice to win from God’s goodness whatever that person asks. Let us, then, have confidence, as Saint Bernard continues, that if we have true devotion for the Most Blessed Virgin, nothing we need for our salvation will be lacking.

Third Point

It would be of little use to us to be persuaded of our obligation to have a special devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin if we did not know what this devotion includes, if we did not possess it effectively, and if we did not show it on the appropriate occasions. Because she is superior to all creatures, we must have a greater devotion to her than to all other saints, whoever they may be. We show our devotion to the saints at certain times and on certain days of the year, but the devotion we ought to have for the Most Blessed Virgin must be continual. This is why it is of Rule in our Institute (1) not to let a single day go by without reciting the rosary and to say it while walking in the streets; (2) to celebrate all her feasts with great solemnity; (3) to uncover our heads and bow every time we hear her name or pass in front of her image, as this devotion requires; (4) considering her as the principal patroness of our Society, we place ourselves daily under her protection at the end of our prayer in the morning and in the evening and after each exercise; we have recourse to her, placing in her, after God, our entire confidence; (5) we invoke her in our most pressing needs as our primary advocate, after Jesus Christ, before God. Are we faithful to all these practices of devotion toward the Most Blessed Virgin? How well do we perform them? Is it in the spirit we have proposed above? Let us not fail in this if we wish to receive a great abundance of grace through the merits of the Most Blessed Virgin.

Historical Context

The format of this meditation (with its introductory explanation) and the style do not seem typical of De La Salle; should this meditation have been placed with the other six in the Additions of the original editions? The feast celebrates the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, the oldest church in honor of our Lady, dating back to the fifth century. While the legend described in the introduction to the meditation is said to have occurred in the fourth century, it was Pope Sixtus III (432–440) who built the great basilica there to celebrate the Council of Ephesus, which in 431 declared Mary to be the Mother of God. Over many Meditations for the Principal Feasts of the Year ✦ 279 centuries, of course, the building has been restored and extended a number of times.

Scripture Citation

1. Mt 19:27
2. Jn 19:27
3. Ps 132:13
4. Ps 65:5