On the Blessed Virgin Mary
ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
St. Joseph of Cupertino
Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663), is one of the most famous Franciscan Priests and mystics in the Roman Catholic Church. Renowned for his unusual gift of levitation, he spent most of his life in solitude and prayer. Like his spiritual father St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joseph of Cupertino had the most ardent devotion to the Immaculate Mother of God.
From an Untitled Work by St. Joseph of Cupertino
Refuge of sinners, Mother of God, have pity on me.
She is the Dispensatrix of the graces of Paradise; all the riches of the human race come from Her hands, for God created Her for this.
God willed to be born of the Woman, the Virgin without sin; nor did He violate the virginal cloisters. Just as a spring is unchanged when a person, without bathing himself, sees his own image in the water, so the virginal cloister of Mary remained intact when the Lord entered. So too, when one stands before a mirror, he sees within it his own image, but turning away, his image is no longer in the mirror, and the mirror remains integral. Thus the sacred cloister of Mary ever Virgin remained inviolate.
God our Lord was so full of the milk of His divine love that He could not remain in that condition. It seems He felt a certain pain, and hence created the Blessed Virgin in whom He infused all graces. He made Her so as to be able to bestow the milk of divine grace on men as He wishes.
God could do this, and He did do this, namely, that the Blessed Virgin be conceived without sin. If a lord wished to make a lovely garden, in his mind he would plan various things to place in that garden, which he would then order made; but one particular he would reserve in his heart without telling others. When the garden was finished, he would order this to be revealed—for example, a fountain. Thus God our Lord planned the garden (that is, the world) and accomplished in common view all that He had planned, reserving to Himself, however, one holy idea. This He wished to reveal and decree in its own proper time: to make present in the world a Virgin without stain of sin, who would give birth to His Son, I say, the Son of God.
If a prelate—let us say, the Pope—should issue an excommunication, or launch an interdict against a city or its citizens for some crime committed in it, he has the power to exempt whomsoever he wishes—for example, Peter and John. He can do so without even mentioning this exemption, but merely reserving it in the recesses of his mind. So too, the High God, who is Superior of the entire world, could fulminate the curse of original sin on all the descendants of Adam, and could exempt by His omnipotence whomsoever He wished. Accordingly, He exempted from this law of the curse Her whom He had destined to be Mother of God.
Hail, holy Queen, rose without thorn, lily of love, Mother of the Lord, gain me this grace: that I may not die a sinner.
This short excerpt gives only a brief introduction to the thought and devotion of this famous Franciscan mystic. It forms part of the Little Marian Library of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Home Page of the Immaculate. This site is maintained by Immaculate Mediatrix, Inc., under the direction of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.
The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are a Roman Catholic Religious Institute of solemn vows headquartered at Benevento, Italy. Their Home Page is maintained from the Marian Friary of Our Lady Queen of the Seraphic Order, New Bedford, MA, United States of America.
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