How the Blessed Mother loves you -- live in the shadow of Mary and never forget Her unfailing good will towards you

By Plinio Correa de Oliveira

To glimpse Our Lady’s love for us, we must understand that her love differs from all other human love.  Our Lady’s affection for us cannot be compared, for example, to that of a mother who tickles her child under the chin saying, “You little cutie,” as the little one gurgles with delight.

On the other hand, when the child makes too much noise, or breaks something, the mother storms, “Johnny be quiet and watch what you are doing!”

This mode of acting, capriciously alternating between caress and outburst, leaves the child disoriented, and confused, as he registers the inconsistency.

Our Lady’s love has no semblance to the above example.  Her love is rooted in the fact that God loves us, and that we are made in the image and likeness of this same God.

For this reason, she loves us like God loves us with a love that is
focused, stable, deep, complete, a love that participates in the same love she has for God.

On the other hand, she sees in us the incomparable grace of baptism, which raises us from mere creatures of God to children of
God.   Thus, she loves us as children, and foresees all that each of us can become if we correspond to the magnificent designs of grace for us.

She loves this design, and fondly considers the sketch, the blueprint of the ultimate marvel that God plans to accomplish in us.

Our human failings have no power to fatigue or diminish her love. And no matter how good she is to us, she always wants to do more for us.  No matter how much we walk toward her, she covers much more ground toward us, because alas, we love her much less than she loves us.

No matter how much we try to please her, she hastens to give us more than we gave her, until we cannot believe how much she has done for us.

This is how our heavenly mother is.  To live in the shadow of Mary is to never lose sight of her unfailing good will towards us.  We will thus lead a calm, joyful spiritual life, even when tossed by great temptations for she is truly the constant star of the serene or stormy see of our lives.