She maketh the friends of God (Wisd 7:27)
He that looketh upon her shall remain secure.If he trust to her, he shall inherit her, and his generation shall be in assurance. For she walketh with him in temptation, and at the first she chooseth him. She will bring upon him fear, and dread and trial, and she will scourge him with the affliction of her discipline, till she try him by her laws, and trust his soul. The she will strengthen him, and make a straight way to him and give him joy. And will disclose her secrets to him, and will heap upon him treasures of knowledge and understanding, (Ecclus 4:16, 21) and shall cause him to inherit an everlasting name. (Ecclus 15:6)
"She is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God." "They that use". How can we use Mary? Firstly, as our mother, our confidant, our truest friend, turning to her with the loving trust of a child in all our needs. Going this we shall become dear to her Son, for "God loveth them that love her". Secondly, we can use hes as our model. By first studying and then copying her, we shall attain to some faint degree of imitation, and so become less unfit to be called the friends of God. "I have not called you servants, I have called you friends," Our Lord said to His disciples, and we know His first act after they attached themselves to Him at the beginning of His public life was to introduce them to His blessed Mother at the marriage of Cana; and that they might know her better, they all went together with her to Capharnaum for some days, where those rough unlettered fishermen had an opportunity of studying more at leisure the gentle, unselfish, refined ways of her whose "ways were beautiful ways," of her who from that time forth was to be to them as a mother, adviser and helper. Thirdly, we can use Mary as a refuge. There are times when we all have need of such times - when we have grieved the Heart of God, and, unable to face the pained look of His sacred countenance, we bury ours in His Mother's lap, begging her to plead for us, and by her love to make up to Him for what we have caused Him to suffer. The saints of God, his holy confessors, have all made use of our Lady in these three ways. St Bernard's love of his heavenly Queen is too well known to need comment, as is also that of St Dominic, whose name will ever be associated with her Rosary. St Ignatius, even in the early days of his conversion, was full of enthusiastic, chivalrous devotion to Mary Immaculate, a devotion shared in a high degree by many of his spiritual sons, such as St Aloysius, St Stanislaus, St John Berchmans. St Philip Neri had her name constantly on his lips, while his little exhortation, "Love Mary, be devout to Mary," bore untold fruit in the hearts of his hearers.
Let us therefore use Mary as the saints have done, and beg her unceasingly to make us, as she made them, the friends of God.
Queen of Confessors, pray for us.
Devotional picture representing Mary, Queen of Confessors, depicts her queenly figure adorned with scepter and crown. Mary is sitting on a throne of clouds surrounded by sumptuous drapery held by two little angels. At her feet are kneeling several bishops and a king, looking up in admiration or down with awe and reverence. Two figures attract special attention. One of them seems to be wearing the habit of the Dominicans, probably Saint Dominic; he offers a crown or wreath of roses. The other figure, in simple and monk-like attire, could be Saint Francis.
The representation is inspired by Revelation 4:10, "They fell down before the one on the throne and threw down their crowns." (Picture and description after:
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