July 10 Our Lady of Virtues Memorial – For the American Province This Mass is in celebration of God the Father, who in his “infinite goodness” (Pref) has given the Church the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ, as a “model of every virtue” (Ent Ant, Com Ant, cf. LG, n. 65). “Although in the Blessed Virgin the Church already attains that perfection by which she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Ephesians 5:27), the faithful are still striving to conquer sin and grow in holiness. They therefore raise their eyes to Mary, who shines brightly as the exemplar of virtues for the whole company of the elect” (LG, n. 65): — the model of sublime love, so that the faithful pray: that the Church “may stand before all peoples as the sacrament of [God’s] love” (Col); — the model of faith and hope, so that the faithful ask that the Church “may look always to the Blessed Virgin and so grow in fervor of faith,” and be “strengthened by the hope of future glory” (PC); — the model of profound humility: “… [God has] shown us in the Blessed Virgin Mary the model of … profound humility” (Col); — the model of persevering prayer in oneness of mind and heart, for the Apostles and the first disciples “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with … Mary, the Mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:12-14); Mary “prays with the Apostles in oneness of mind and heart” (Pref); — the model of worship in spirit: Mary is “the shining model of true worship for [God’s] Church and of our duty to offer ourselves as a holy victim, pleasing in [God’s] eyes” (PO, cf. Romans 12:1); — the model of liturgical worship: the Mother of Jesus, as Pope Paul VI reminds us, is the “exemplar of that sense of reverent devotion with which the Church celebrates the divine mysteries and expresses them in its life” (MC, n. 16); for Mary is “the Virgin who listens, … the Virgin of prayer, … the Virgin Mother, … the Virgin who offers” (Pref; cf. MC, nn. 16-21); she is the Virgin who keeps vigil, awaiting the Resurrection of her Son (cf. Pref). In brief, Mary is “the model of the Church as a whole in its worship of God” (MC, n. 21).
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