Behold, behold my model, my Mother, Mary, the first adorer of the Incarnate Word in her womb. how perfect must this adoration of the Virgin Mother have been in itself, how pleasing to God and how rich in graces!
What ought to have been the perfection of Mary's adoration at the first instant of the Incarnation?
I. An adoration of humility, of annihilation before the Sovereign Majesty of the Word, at the sight of the choice He has made of His poor handmaid, under the weight of so much goodness and love for her and for men. Such ought to be the first act, the first sentiment of our adoration after Holy Communion. Such was Elizabeth's sentiment when receiving the Mother of God, who was bringing to her the Saviour still hidden in her womb Unde hoc mihi? Whence comes to me this happiness which I so little deserve? It is the word of the centurion, also, at whose house Jesus chose to sojourn: Lord, I am not worthy!
II. The second of Mary's acts of adoration should naturally be an act of joyous gratitude for God's ineffable and infinite goodness to men, an act of humble gratitude for His having chosen this un worthy, but thrice happy, handmaid for the reception of so signal a grace. Her gratitude breathed forth in acts of love, of praise, of thanksgiving. She exalts the Divine Goodness. Gratitude is an out pouring of the soul in the person benefited, a great and loving expansion of the soul. Gratitude is the heart's love.
III. The third act of the Blessed Virgin's adoration had to be one of devotedness, the offering of self, the gift of self and of her whole life to the service of God: Ecce ancilla Domini; also an act of regret for being so little, for having so little, of being so incapable of serving Him worthily.
She offered herself to serve Him in whatever way He willed, by all the sacrifices that He might be pleased to exact of her, too happy to be able to please Him at any price, thus to respond to His love for men in His Incarnation.
IV. The last act of Mary's adoration was, doubtless, an act of compassion for poor sinners, for whose salvation the Word became incarnate. She knew how to excite His infinite mercy in their favor. She offered herself to repair for them, to do penance for them, in order to obtain their pardon and return to God. She begged for them the happiness of knowing their Creator and their Saviour, of loving and serving Him, thus rendering to the Most Holy Trinity the honor and glory due from every creature, but above all from man, the tender object of the love and mercy of a God so great and so good. that I could adore Our Lord as that good Mother adored Him, for I possess Him as she did, in Holy Communion!
O my God, hearken to the great, the important petition that I now make Thee! Give me the Most Blessed Virgin Adoratrix as my true mother. Let me share in her grace, in that state of uninterrupted adoration in which she was during the whole time that she bore Thee in her pure womb, that paradise of virtue and of love.
I feel, my God, that that would be one of the greatest graces of my life. I desire henceforth to adore in union with that Mother of adorers, the Queen of the Cenacle.
Practice. Make faithfully, and in union with Mary, your thanksgiving after Holy Communion.
Aspiration. Mary, I have received thy well-beloved Son, and I shall never let Him go!
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard