A Study on the Virtues of Mary

The start of my devotion to the Blessed Mother

Several Mays of my childhood my mother set up a little prayer table with a statue of the Blessed Mother and a candle, and I remember praying a family rosary in the evenings. Now, I can’t tell you that we did this every evening of those Mays, but I do know that this was the beginning of my devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Or maybe it was my godmother giving me my first miraculous medal accompanied by a book about Saint Catherine Laboure. Perhaps it began with impatiently praying Our Lady of Perpetual Help devotions after Tuesday morning Mass with my mother in the summer. It also could have been gazing into the crèche on Christmas morning and then trying to make the Fontanini figurine of the Infant Jesus fit into His mother’s arms raised in amazed adoration. Another place could have been praying with my dad’s heartfelt rendition of John Michael Talbot’s “Holy is His Name”—no one plays and sings it quite like my dad. Then there is the cassette tape with Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven,” given to my older sister by our younger aunt. I think wherever I was in my childhood, the Blessed Mother was not far away. It was in high school I began my first devotion of praying a daily rosary; I loved the scriptural rosary book.

The development of our relationship

I hit the hills of Steubenville, settling into my first dorm room of Marian Hall at Franciscan University, with a daily rosary routine in place. Late one evening my first weekend at school an acquaintance I had met in the courtyard walked with me over to the Portiuncula Chapel so that I could pray my rosary. I had developed a rapid-fire style of praying the rosary—the kind one develops when sharing a room with older sisters who want to turn out the light. This friend was quite surprised that night when I popped up from my knees and slipped out of the chapel after seven minutes. He had been expecting a twenty-minute-plus prayer time. This friend is now a monk. But the Blessed Mother was not finished developing my devotion to her—she is still working on it.

In the Spring semester I took a class on Mariology and learned all sort of reasons for devotion to the Blessed Mother. After learning that it was necessary in order to properly wear a scapular, I sought out a friar to enroll me in the Brown Scapular. But perhaps the most significant step in my relationship with our Lady was when my newly forming household (Steubenville’s version of sororities/fraternities) decided to do a “total consecration” to the Blessed Mother, following the directions given by Saint Louis de Monfort in A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. So, nineteen years ago, without really understanding what it all entailed I pledged myself a “slave” to Mary.

Even more than intercession, Mary is a model

I am not sure how I would have managed the years since then without her. The following semester she sustained me as I prayed my first 54 Day Rosary Novena for Mark to discern his vocation. I have done many 54-day novenas since then. There have been the countless rosaries prayer on road trips, in labor, through sleepless nights with a baby. And then, further, when I started praying Mother Teresa’s “Flying Novena” of nine Memorares, plus an extra one in thanksgiving for answered prayers, so that my son would fall asleep.

But it is more than going to her in prayer. It is learning that she is the model for all of us of how to be a creature towards our Creator. Her yes is the one to imitate. Her fiat should be imitated by us in our every breath, at the moment of our waking, in the face of each duty of our days, and when we go to bed at night.

Saint Louis de Montfort wrote that God desired for the Blessed Mother to “reproduce herself” in His people, so that her virtues could be found on earth without her “ceasing to be in heaven.”^[i] And while Mary wishes to do God’s will in helping us grow like Him, Saint Louis tells us that it is best for us to consecrate ourselves to her care and seek to imitate her virtues through true devotion to her:

True devotion to our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin, and to imitate in the Blessed Virgin particularly her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness, and her divine wisdom.^[ii]  

The more years I have prayed with her virtues, the more I have seen how my holiness is bound to my love and imitation of the Blessed Mother.

I have gazed many Sundays on the fresco of the Holy Family in my parish; the Blessed Mother looks on, with sewing in her hands, as Saint Joseph is at work at carpentry and the child Jesus assists him. I always pray for our home life to be like theirs, for the Blessed Mother to help me in my motherhood, wifehood, and commitment to my daily work.

The birth of Home: A Study on the Virtues of Mary

Thus, last summer, when the book team at Blessed is She decided to put together a book on the ten Marian Virtues as listed by St. Louis de Montfort, I was delighted. A year and a half ago, my dear friend at Blessed is She stepped down from her position as managing editor, moving on to other things. Having worked under her as theological editor editing books for over five years, I stepped up into the role of content editor for Blessed is She. Home: A Blessed Conversations Study on the Virtues of Mary, is the first complete book I midwifed as a head editor.

This book, which invites you into the home of the Blessed Mother, consists of twelve chapters, one per virtue plus an introduction and conclusion. Each chapter includes an explanatory narration by Olivia Spears, Scripture for lectio divina, a story written by one of Blessed is She’s writers, questions for reflection by Beth Davis, and a prayer compiled from the Church tradition by me and our copyeditor Sarah Zenter. It is designed for a woman to use on her own or with a small group.

The writers of the stories are Mariana Pimiento, Cathy Webb, Megan Hjelmstad, Debra Herbeck, Jana Zuniga Pingel, Michelle Karen D’Silva, Blythe Fike, Sister Maria Fatima, Senite Sahlezghi, and Karen Schultz. The design and layout is by Michelle Slough with artwork by Aubrey Major.

The book is a true window into the home of our Lady—a space to spend time with her, to understand her virtues, and to seek to grow in them. I invite anyone who is feeling the draw of the Blessed Mother, to consider reading and praying with this newest Blessed is She study.

^[i]  Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, trans. Frederick William Faber (London: Burns and Lambert, 1863), 19.

^[ii] Saint Louis, True, 72.

This post first appeared on Living with Lady Philosophy, a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support her work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

MARY SHOWS US THE WAY

Just as a mother might pass on a beloved family tradition to her daughters, Mary shares the recipe for growing in virtue with us.

This study on Mary's Virtues will breathe new life into your everyday, beginning right in Mary's home.

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About Susanna Spencer

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Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Content and Theological Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer, editor, and speaker living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew; narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God; a contributing author to our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up; and Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.