the-glories-of-mary

GLOKIES OF MARY. 376
necessary to fill the office in a becoming man
ner.* Now if
Mary was chosen to be mother of
God, it was meet that God should adorn her,
even from the first moment, with an immense
grace, and of an order superior to the grace of
all other men and angels; it
being requisite that
the grace should correspond with the most high
and immense dignity to which God exalted her;
in which opinion all theologians agree with St.
Thomas, who says: The Virgin was elected to be
the mother of God, and therefore there can be
no doubt that God, by his grace, rendered her
Hence Mary, before being made moth-
fit for it.f
er of God, was adorned with a sanctity so
per
fect, that it rendered her fit for this great dig
nity. In the blessed Virgin, therefore, says the
holy doctor, was a perfection, as it were prepara
tive, by which she was fitted to become the
mother of Christ; and this was the perfection
of sanctification.J
And St. Thomas had before said, that Mary
was called full of grace, not on account of the
in its
degree of grace, since she had not grace
highest possible degree; for even the habitual
grace of Jesus Christ (as the same doctor says)
* Regnla firma est in sacra theologia, quod quandocnmque Deus
tllquem eligit ad aliquem statum, omnia bona illi dispenset, qme illi
tatui necessaria sunt et ilium copiose decorant. Serm. 10, a 2, c. I.
t Virgo fuit electa, ut esset mater Dei, et ideo non est dubitandum
quia Deus per suam gratiam earn ad hoc idoneam reddidit. Loc.
cit. art. 4.
t In B. Virgine fuit perfectio quasi dispositiva, per quam reddebatur
idonea ad hoc quod esset mater Christi; et haec fuit parfoctio
anctific*tionia. Cit. q. 27. a. 5, ad a.