the-glories-of-mary

GLOKIES OF MARY. 369
Thou
nard said, addressing the blessed Virgin:
art an enclosed garden, where the sinner s hand
never entered to rob it of its flowers.*
We know that this divine spouse loved Mary
more than all the other saints and angels united,
as Father Suarez, St. Lawrence Justinian, and
others affirm. He loved her from the beginning,
and exalted her in sanctity above all creatures,
as David expresses it: "The foundations thereof
are in the holy mountains; the Lord loveth
the
gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.
. . . This man is born in her, and the Highest
himself hath founded her."f
All which words
signify that Mary was holy from her conception.
The same thing is signified by what the Holy
Spirit himself says in another place: Many
daughters have gathered together riches; tbou
hast surpassed them all."J
If
Mary has sur
passed all in the riches of grace, she then possess
ed original justice, as Adam and the angels had
it. "There are young maidens without number:
one is my dove, my perfect one (the Hebrew
reads, my uncorrupted, my immaculate) ;
she is
the only one of her mother." All just souls
* Hortns conclusus tu es, ad quern deflorandum manus peccatorum
nunquam introivit.
t Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctis; diligit Dominus portas
Sion super omnia tabernacula Jacob. . .
,
Homo natus est in ea et
ipge fundavit earn Altissimus. Psai. Ixxxvi. 1, 2, 5.
$ Mutse flliae
congregaverunt divitias, tu supergressa es universas.
Prov. xxxi. 29.
Adolescentularum non est numerus. Una est columba mea, per
*, una est matris suss. Cant. vi. 8.