18th April : Our Lady Of Life
18th April
Our Lady Of Life
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Beautiful in the morning sun is the tree of life, which is devotion to Mary. Lifting its green branches into the blue sky, it gives shelter to the birds of the air, and shade to those who rest beneath it. In its thick foliage small animals find refuge from beasts of prey.
Mary’s devotion is a sturdy tree of life, deeply rooted and firm in the storm. Though it may bend before the blasts of temptation, it will never fall until it is transplanted to that paradise at the end of the world where it will shine, jeweled and splendid, in the land of eternity.
Here is the cool shade of Mary’s care, the quiet ease of her constant companioning. She speaks in soft murmur of its leaves and tells us of God.
Here is the refuge of her mercy. Beasts of evil desire cannot harm those who flee to her sanctuary. She will protect the least of her children in the arms of her love.
Other trees bloom and die. The tree of Mary is always green. Its fruit is always ready at her children’s hands; and that fruit is Jesus. He is her first fruit and her only fruit. To her faithful ones, she gives Him continually. To those who find it, death holds no terror; nothing can harm those who live by Mary. “Happy the soul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is planted; happier the soul in which she has acquired growth and blossom.”
