the mystical temple of god 638 This is how every Christian should spend his birthday [that is the anniversary of his baptism]; and pass his spiritual feast of consecration not in drinking and luxurious revels, but in this thanksgiving. CHAPTER 20 The Guardians of the Mystical Temple Our singular Guardians, who are to be revered by us with singular honor are: the most August and Supereminent Virgin, the Mother of God, our guardian angel, and the saint whose name, as given us, we have. Who could adequately explain the care the most Holy Mother has for us? I would like to do so, if I could. Yet I know that she is concerned for us in no other way than she was concerned for Christ the Lord, her only and most beloved Son, since she recognizes that we are His members. I can mentally grasp almost all the good that she does for us, but I lack the words with which to set them forth for others to consider. And so I say briefly: we have all things through Mary, and, after God, it is in her that we live, move and have our being.163 “After God,” (as Albert the Great164 thinks) “she is the source of all grace in us” (in the book Mar. 1., Gen., n. 12).165 Hence Bernard, most devoted to her, says: “We venerate Mary with all the depth of our hearts, with all the ardor 163 Cf. Acts 17:28, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” 164 St. Albert the Great, Doctor of the Church, “the universal doctor” (d. 1280). Cf. Walz Angelo, “Albert the Great:” BS I, 710-712. 165 Albert The Great, Marian Bible, Bk. Genesis, n. 12, in: The Complete Works of Bl. Albert the Great, Paris 1848, vol. 37, p. 367. Also in a separate edition of this work, published at Cologne in 1625, p. 82, before the words quoted here we read: “lest they perish in the flood,” and after them can be read: “Genesis 7: ‘When Noah entered,’ that is, Christ, ‘into the ark,’ that is, into the womb of the Virgin Mary, which happened at the Incarnation, ‘all the springs burst,’ that is, of graces, ‘great abysses,’ when a flood of graces inundated Mary, and the devil was drowned, and sins were wiped away” (ibid., pp. 82-83).
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