Mater Christi

PREFACE Jesus Christ, yesterday and to-day, the same also for ever. (Heb. xiii. 8.) His salvation extends to all generations. My salvation shall endure for ever, and My righteousness shall not fail. (Isaias li. 6.) Also He says: My words shall not pass away. (Matt. xxiv. 35.) He is the Teacher of all times, and that as well by His actions as by His words, by what He said and by what He did. It was His to do and to teach. (Acts i. 1.) It is ours, ours in this twentieth century, to listen to what He says, and to mark what He does. It is ours to hear Him and to see Him, spiritually. That we do by reading of His gospel, by listening to sermons, and very particularly by meditation, or by what St Ignatius calls "contemplation" of the mysteries of His life. To "contemplate" in the Ignatian sense is to make yourself present at some scene of our Saviour's life and behold it all, as it were, re-enacted before your eyes. It is the process called in modern philosophy "visualisation." These Meditations are composed on the Ignatian plan of visualising what Our Lord did, said, and suffered. Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. (Luke xi. 28.) Blessed are they who take pains thus to hear what their Saviour says, to contemplate and visualise what He does. They are the persons most likely, with Mary, to keep all these words in their heart (Luke ii. 51), and in their measure to fulfil the teaching of the Teacher of all nations. (Matt. xxviii. 19.) JOSEPH RICKABY, S. J. Preface 5 Prayers 6 Before Meditation 6 After Meditation 7 Meditations 1. Immaculate! 8 2. Mary's Birthday 12 3. Her Presentation in the Temple 15 4. Her Marriage 20 5. Hail Mary! 25 6. Mary's First Word. ("How shall this be done?") 30 7. Her Second Word. ("Behold the Handmaid of the Lord") 34 8. Her Third Word. (Her Salutation to Elizabeth) 38 9. Her Fourth Word. (The Magnificat) 43 10. Her Silence 47 11. Her Expectation 51 12. The Stable 54 13. The Circumcision of her Son 58 14. Her Purification 61 15. Wise Men and Babes 66 16. Egypt 70 17. Mary's Fifth Word. ("Son, why hast Thou done so to us?") 75 18. Nazareth 79 19. Mary's Sixth Word. ("They have no wine") 85 20. Her Seventh Word. ("Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye") 89 21. "Who is My Mother?" 92 22. The Fourth and Fifth Dolours. (Meeting Jesus with His Cross, and The Crucifixion) 96 23. The Sixth and Seventh Dolours. (The Taking down from the Cross and The Burial) 100 24. The First Glorious Mystery 104 25. The Second and Third Glorious Mysteries 108 26. Mary's Exile 113 27. Her Death 118 28. Her Tomb 122 29. "Who is She?" (The Fourth Glorious Mystery) 125 30. Mary's Coronation. (The Fifth Glorious Mystery) 129 31. Salve Regina 134