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 7 Before Meditation 7 After Meditation 9 Meditations 1. Immaculate 10 2. Mary's Birthday 16 3. Her Presentation in the Temple 21 4. Her Marriage 29 5. Hail Mary 37 6. Mary's First Word. ("How shall this be done?") 45 7. Her Second Word. ("Behold the Handmaid of the Lord") 51 8. Her Third Word. (Her Salutation to Elizabeth) 57 9. Her Fourth Word. (The Magnificat) 65 10. Her Silence 70 11. Her Expectation 76 12. The Stable 82 13. The Circumcision of her Son 88 14. Her Purification 93 15. Wise Men and Babes 100 16. Egypt 106 17. Mary's Fifth Word. ("Son, why hast Thou done so to us?") 115 18. Nazareth 121 19. Mary's Sixth Word. ("They have no wine") 130 20. Her Seventh Word. ("Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye") 136 21. "Who is My Mother?" 141 22. The Fourth and Fifth Dolours. (Meeting Jesus with His Cross, and The Crucifixion) 147 23. The Sixth and Seventh Dolours. (The Taking down from the Cross and The Burial) 153 24. The First Glorious Mystery 160 25. The Second and Third Glorious Mysteries 165 26. Mary's Exile 173 27. Her Death 180 28. Her Tomb 187 29. "Who is She?" (The Fourth Glorious Mystery) 192 30. Mary's Coronation. (The Fifth Glorious Mystery) 197 31. Salve Regina 205