The Holy Name of Mary
In his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, St. Louis Marie de Montfort says that we never think of Mary without Mary thinking of God for us. "You never praise or honour Mary without Mary joining you in praising and honouring God. . . . If you say Mary she says God. When St. Elizabeth praised Mary calling her blessed because she had believed, Mary, the faithful echo of God, responded with her canticle, My soul glorifies the Lord."As a community devoted to the Perpetual Rosary as Our Lady's Guards of Honor, the Sisters here have been keeping their Hours of Guard every day since our foundation in 1944. Imagine calculating the number of times the Holy Name of Mary, repeated twice in each Ave, has ascended from our loving hearts to the throne of God. And every time Our Lady hears our praise, she turns to Our Lord and gives us and everything we are and have to Him. "What Mary did on that day [of the Visitation], she does every day. When we praise her, when we love and honour her, when we present anything to her, then God is praised, honoured and loved and receives our gift through Mary and in Mary." As the Most Holy Name of Mary in the Hail Mary forms a throne, as it were, for the Most Holy Name of Jesus, so the loving meditation of the Ave forms a throne for Him in our hearts.