The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"AndTHE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 209tures may indeed apprehend Him by knowledge, butonly the good by love. Only in the good does He soexist as to be with them as well as in them ;with themby a certain harmony and agreement of will, and inGod is with all His saints.. But He is withthis wayMary in a yet more special manner, for in her ffcerewas so great an agreement and union with God, thatnot her will only, but her very flesh was to be unitedto him." 1"Blessed art thou women."among The same expression is applied to two other women in the HolyScripture, viz., to Jahel and Judith. The former wascalled blessed after she had slain Sisara, 2 and thelatter after she had slain Holofernes, 3both of whomhad been enemies of God s people, and in this respectthese two women are true types of Mary, who waschosen by God to crush the head of the serpent, theinfernal enemy of mankind. And if they deservedthe title of blessed for being the instruments of Godin rescuing Israel from temporal calamities, howmuch more does Mary merit that appellation, whoco-operated so actively in the salvation of the humanrace?The Evangelist proceeds:Mary, rising upin those days, went . . . into a city of Juda; andshe entered into the house of Zachary and salutedElizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabethheard the salutation of Mary, the infant leapt in herJ 3St. Bernard. Judges v. * Judith xiii.18* O