Mary’s 6 Virtues of Simplicity

by St. Peter Julian Eymard

THE VIRTUE OF SIMPLICITY

The Just walk in all simplicity, and the impious in deceit. I advise you strongly to make of simplicity the form and basis of your life. Our Lord commended this virtue: “Unless you go back, and become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Simplicity is the form and vesture of humility; it is the poverty of spirit beatified by the Divine Master. One of the characteristics of holiness is simplicity, whereas one of the chief signs of spiritual decay is duplicity. In this respect the life of Mary is particularly edifying and instructive.

Her hidden life has a special character which differentiates it from that of Jesus. In her we do not find the humility that astounds and confounds, the mixture of power and weakness, of grandeur and submission which in the life of Jesus fills us with wonder. Mary’s life is always even, always simple and hidden. Simplicity characterizes her piety, her virtues, and all her actions.

1. Mary is simple in her exterior.

She is characterized neither by the severity of her demeanor nor by an affected negligence. Her spirit is humble and gentle like that of Jesus. Everything that is hers bears the mark of her low station and places her among the women of the common people. In like manner should we wear the insignia of a humble rank: neither too much nor too little.

2. Mary is simple in the world.

She will readily sacrifice her retirement, the sweetness of contemplation to go far away to her cousin Elizabeth so as to congratulate her and wait upon her. For three months she will be her cousin’s helpmate, her humble servant, and the delight of that privileged home.

Whenever the glory of her Son will demand it, she will appear in public. She will attend the wedding at Cana. She will say nothing in self-praise, will take advantage neither of her dignity as mother of the Messiah nor of the power and glory of her Son to gain prominence in the eyes of men; she devotes herself to works of charity in the measure suggested by prudence.

3. Mary is simple in her duties.

Mary fulfills her duties with meekness, without haste, ever content with what happens to her, every ready to take up a new task. She fulfills them all with an evenness of temper which keeps its troubles to itself and seeks no consolation, which catches the attention of no one because everything is natural and nothing is overdone. In like manner our whole life must be made up of little actions and sacrifices, which God alone is to know and reward.

 4. Mary is simple in her piety.

Gifted with the highest degree of prayer a creature can attain, living in the habitual practice of perfect love, exalted above all the angels, and constituting by her dignity of Mother of God a special order in the marvelous works of creation, Mary, nevertheless, serves her Lord with the ordinary and common forms of piety.

She follows the prescriptions of the Law. She attends the legal feasts. She prays in the midst of the common faithful. Nothing distinguishes her from others; nothing, not even an extraordinary fervor, reveals exteriorly the perfection of her piety.

Such must be our piety: common in its practices, simple in its means, modest in its exterior; avoiding with care all singularity, which is the subtle product of self-love; shunning the unusual as being too open to vainglory and illusion.

5. Mary is simple in her virtues.

She possesses all the virtues in their highest degree; she practices them all to their very last perfection, but under a form that is simple and common. Her humility sees only the goodness of God, and in return for all the favors He heaps upon her, she manifests only a humble gratefulness: the gratefulness of the poor, without pomp or glory, the gratefulness that is not even taken notice of.

Can anything good come from Nazareth? No one pays attention to Mary. That is the great secret of perfection: to know how to find holiness in what is most simple; to know how to foster it with what is most common; to know how to preserve it in the midst of neglect and indifference.

A public virtue is much exposed. The virtue that is praised and commended is very close to its fall. The flower which everybody wishes to admire soon fades.

Let us, therefore, love the little virtues of Nazareth, the virtues that are born at the foot of the Cross close to Jesus and Mary; we then have no reason to fear the storms which uproot the cedars, nor the thunderbolts which strike the mountain top.

6. Mary is simple in her sacrifices.

She accepts exile in silence and gentleness, without recrimination. She does not grow vain over her being called to great sacrifices, nor does she pray to have their harshness smoothed out.

She is simple in the presence of her holy spouse’s anxiety. Rather than reveal to him the great mystery which had been wrought in her and which would exalt her so much in his eyes, she submits to his doubts. She leaves it to God to clear things up and remains calm in the hands of Providence.

Her soul is pierced with sorrow as she follows her Son in the carrying of the Cross, but she does not fill Jerusalem with her cries and lamentations. Plunged on Calvary into a boundless sorrow, a sorrow as great as her love, she suffers in silence and, having bidden a last and mute adieu to her Son, she withdraws, a desolate mother, but resigned.

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What a beautiful model for the soul that wishes to live of the life of Jesus Eucharistic. In the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus veils not only His divinity but also His humanity. We see nothing of Him, not even a ray of His glory as on Mount Thabor, not a divine and outward gleam of His power.

Exteriorly, He takes on the condition of the Sacred Species. How insignificant these species! Always white! But white is no color. It is irksome to look at for any length of time. And thus Our Lord, so beautiful during His lifetime, the most beautiful of the children of men, has no visible human beauty in the Blessed Sacrament.

All the virtues and actions of Jesus in His divine Sacrament are also marked with the same character of simplicity. His Eucharistic poverty is extreme: the priest must give Him the matter of His Sacrament, a tabernacle, a ciborium. All Jesus brings to us is His love.

His Eucharistic obedience is continual, universal, perpetual, and no one takes any notice of it. His divine Person has only the greatness of its love as a weapon of defense against its enemies, against sacrilegious profaners. He is ceaselessly undergoing a mystic crucifixion, and no one is aware of it; faith alone informs us of it.

His is a perfect purity, but the Eucharistic veils conceal its beauty and luster. His Eucharistic charity, like that of a mother, is inexhaustible; no one, however, sees His divine Hands as they distribute blessings lavishly.

Thus must my whole life be simple and hidden in order to be, like that of Jesus, all Eucharistic.

Mothers are never unemployed, or should not be, for their children are not merely to be born of them but tended by them until death parts them. Children take a deal of tending, children of all ages. She has to go on looking after them; that is what inevitably happens, for she is the home. The family carries the nation, she carries the family. The whole of Christendom rests on the mother’s knee. ~Fr. Bede Jarrett, O.P.

Painting by Emile Munier (1840-1895)

“It is worth while now for me, – now while the brief occasion lasts – to overcome one temptation, to do one small kindness, to improve my mind by one half hour of study, to wait in patience when there is nothing else to be done, to bear a headache, or sleeplessness, or some small pain….”

Penal Rosaries!

Penal rosaries and crucifixes have a wonderful story behind them. They were used during the times when religious objects were forbidden and it was illegal to be Catholic. Being caught with a rosary could mean imprisonment or worse. A penal rosary is a single decade with the crucifix on one end and, oftentimes, a ring on the other. When praying the penal rosary you would start with the ring on your thumb and the beads and crucifix of the rosary in your sleeve, as you moved on to the next decade you moved the ring to your next finger and so on and so forth. This allowed people to pray the rosary without the fear of being detected. Available here.

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