Our Lady and the The Fruits of Contemplation

There are no better words, nor a better way to describe what we must do on earth to bring about God’s Kingdom of love, than the words of St Thomas Aquinas. He said that the vocation of the Church, and all who are privileged to belong to the Church is, “To contemplate and to share the fruits of contemplation with others”. In his writings it is quite clear that in saying this,  he is not speaking so much about our ultimate destiny in heaven, but our ultimate destiny here on earth.

Our Lady’s Personal Contemplation

This is the prayer that enabled Our Lady at all times, to be able to fix her loving gaze upon God both before and after the glorification of her son, Jesus. After her son’s glorification however, her contemplation of God became far more powerful, far more intensive, and far more fruitful, because then she not only prayed with her son as before, but in, with and through him. What she received in return was God’s love in ever greater measure than before, and contained within that love, were all the infused virtues.

It is to these infused virtues that we all aspire, together with all the other supernatural gifts that expanded her motherhood more fully and more deeply than before. St Peter was without doubt the rock upon which the Church was founded. But Mary, the Mother of God was its mother to whom all would turn to discover in-depth and in detail the life of Jesus, from his birth in a wooden crib to his death on a wooden cross.  For this alone, the new fraternity that came to be called the Church was utterly unique. It was this personal and deeply emotional knowledge that became the spiritual lifeblood of the early Church.

The first Apostles and disciples had their memories and their recollections, but these close and fervent followers of Christ might well have been saints in the making, but they were not saints yet. This would take many years of spiritual purification before they could contemplate their Lord as Mary did. Many people forget that a great apostle like St Paul, for instance, took ten years in spiritual preparation before he became the apostle to the Gentiles.

The Consequences of Mary’s Contemplation

Her Immaculate Conception meant that Our Lady was totally free from the selfishness and sin and the sources of pride and prejudice that rule spiritual beginners. That is why Our Lady needed to remain behind after her son returned to heaven. In the oldest and most ancient images or Icons of the first Pentecost day, it is always Our Lady who stands out pre-eminently, with the sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence over her head. They all received the Holy Spirit simultaneously, but they all had to practise the repentance that St Peter preached for many years before the Holy Spirit did in them, what he immediately did in Our Lady. Because of her Immaculate Conception, there was no sin or any remnants of sin in her, to prevent the immediate action of the Holy Spirit. That is why the wisdom promised to all at the Last Supper filled Our Lady to overflowing at the first Pentecost.

Why Mary Remained Behind

Many have wondered why Jesus asked his mother to remain behind after his return to heaven. We can now see why.  Whilst the others were being prepared and purified by the Holy Spirit, learning to contemplate and receive the fruits of Contemplation as she had, she would remain behind. She would remain at the centre of the Church to do what her son would have done if his life had not come to such a premature and ignominious end.

The writing of the Gospels would be delayed until the evangelists were sufficiently purified by the Holy Spirit in prayer, to receive his inspiration to write them. For these precious works had to be written without injecting into them the pride or the prejudice that always distorts the truth in the works of purely secular writers, even with the best will in the world. In this strange spiritual limbo land, before the Holy Spirit could become fully effective in the Apostles through practising the repentance that St Peter preached, Our Lady stood out. As the mother of the fledgling Church, her immaculate conception meant that she not only knew more about her son and his teaching than anyone else but there was something more.

She embodied in her person and her personal sanctity all the infused virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit that had not yet been fully developed in everyone else. It was only when in following her example, the Holy Spirit could do in them what was done in her, that God drew her up and into Heaven. Here she was united with her son to become the Queen of Heaven and Mother of the Universe.

Contemplation – Mary’s Supreme Prayer

It was in those vital years before the Holy Spirit had fully established the Church as Jesus intended, that Our Lady’s role in its spiritual foundation was crucial.  The first commandment was integrated into her daily prayer,  as it was in the daily prayer of all the first Christians, most of whom would have been Jewish. In order to practise that prayer as God intended, they would have to learn how to love God by firstly learning to love him in Jesus Christ her son. Only Our Lady’s recollection of him, and what he said and did, and how he loved, was free of the pride and prejudice that would distort the recollection of others.

That is why it is to Our Lady more than to any other to whom we are indebted for teaching the early Church the way to the contemplation that was her supreme prayer then, as it still is now.  The practice that above all others would enable everyone to come to know and love God by loving him in Jesus Christ Our Lord, was called meditation. And it is as vital today as it was in the early Church to lead sincere believers into a loving relationship with Christ, that will eventually lead them on and into mystical contemplation. It is this sublime supernatural prayer that all who dwell in the mystical and glorified body of Christ, experience now, as they will eventually experience it continually to all eternity in heaven.

Not Just For Ourselves But For Others

We might not have the inspired wisdom of Our Lady to teach us in person as she taught so many in the early Church, but we do have to hand the sacred scriptures of the New Testament. They were written by men who practised daily repentance and sacrifice in prayer, eventually enabling the Holy Spirit to inspire them to write them for us. Always remember that they were first written, not for scholars to study and haggle over, or to prove their pet theological theses,  but above all else to love the only man who can bring about our personal salvation, and the personal salvation of others.

The fruits of contemplation to which meditation finally leads are not just given for us but for others. Our calling and our vocation as Christians is not just for ourselves, but for others, and to reconvert the world back to Christ. This cannot be done without the contemplation that fills us with the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Be sure of this, they are only given in their fullness through the contemplation that was the daily prayer of Our Lady,  now and forever Our Heavenly Queen and Mother.