She is on Earth a Celestial Paradise

This holy and divine soul is in the Church what the dawn is to the firmament, and she immediately precedes the sun. But she is more than the dawn. God is and acts in her more than she does. She has no thoughts but by his grace, no movement but by his spirit, no action but for his love. The course of her life is a perpetual movement which, without interruption, without relaxation, tends to the One who will soon become her life...

The time is near, and the Lord is with her, he fills her with himself, and establishes her in a grace so rare that it fits her alone, for this Virgin hidden in a corner of Judea, unknown to the universe, betrothed to Joseph, forms a chorus of her own in the order of grace, so unique is she!

Years go by, graces increase. She enters, day after day, into an admirable elevation, by special infusion and perfect cooperation... She is on earth a celestial paradise that God planted with his own hand, and that his angel keeps for the second Adam. But this is hidden from her eyes, and her spirit, sunk in the depth of her humility, doesn't see the lofty design that God has for her.


Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575 - 1629)
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Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.