J.M.J. Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890) wrote the following passage, which is entitled "Sharing Mary's Fortitude" and appeared in Magnificat. It was submitted by Missy.
"Mary's glories
are not only for the sake of her Son, they are for our sakes also. Let us
copy her faith, who received God's message by the angel without a doubt; her
patience, who endured Saint Joseph's surprise without a word; her obedience,
who went up to Bethlehem in the winter and bore our Lord in a stable; her
meditative spirit, who pondered in her Heart what she saw and heard about Him;
her fortitude, whose Heart the sword went through; her self-surrender, who gave Him up during his ministry and consented to His death . . . .
"What shall bring
you forward in the narrow way, if you live in the world, but the thought and
patronage of Mary? What shall seal your senses, what shall tranquilize
your heart, when sights and sounds of danger are around you, but Mary? What shall give you patience and endurance, when you are wearied out with the
length of the conflict with evil, with the unceasing necessity of precautions,
with the irksomeness of observing them, with the tediousness of their
repetition, with the strain upon your mind, with your forlorn and cheerless
condition, but a loving communion with her! She will comfort you in your
discouragements, solace you in your fatigues, raise you after your falls,
reward you for your successes. She will show you her Son, your God and
your all. When your spirit within you is excited, or relaxed, or
depressed, when it loses its balance, when it is restless and wayward, when it
is sick of what it has, and hankers after what it has not, when your eye is
solicited with evil and your mortal frame trembles under the shadow of the
Tempter, what will bring you to yourselves, to peace and to health, but the
cool breath of the Immaculate and the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon."
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