NOTICE
First Edition
This work, the GLORIOUS OF MARY, was published in 1750, at Naples. St.
Alphonsus was then fifty-four years old. His bodily health had become
exhausted by austerities and excessive labor. This made him believe that
his end was approaching, as he himself declares in the dedication of his
work, and did not permit him to suspect that he had yet to live nearly
forty years in the service of God. It is known that this indefatigable
apostle made a vow never to lose a moment's time. All the time that he
did not employ in the exercise of the ministry he divided between prayer
and study, hardly allowing his body the rest and the care that it
absolutely required. His zeal at the same time embraced all that might
serve to promote the welfare of souls. It is thus that during many years
he amassed an ample supply of materials destined to form so many useful
works, which it was his intention to publish in order to convert sinners,
or enlighten and nourish the piety of the faithful, or to aid those that
were charged with the duty of laboring in behalf of souls;—a twofold end
that he always kept in view, and that he specially proposed to himself by
publishing the Glories of Mary, as may be seen in the Introduction.
There are books which, though not voluminous, are yet
sufficient to render a name popular and immortal; and such undoubtedly is
the book entitled the GLORIES OF MARY. This work is not only a source of
glory to its author, but it is much more—it is a great benefit that God
bestows upon all. Heartily welcomed by all those that love good books,
and especially by souls that hunger and thirst after justice, or need
consolation and encouragement, translated afterwards into all languages,
printed and reprinted in every country of the world, the GLORIOUS OF MARY
has up to the present time produced incalculable good, and what good
should it not produce in the future?
In the original, the GLORIES OF MARY is divided only into two
parts, no doubt because it was printed at first in two volumes, the first
of which contained the explanation of the Salve Regina, and the
second all the rest. In it, however, we find five Parts that are very
distinct, and we follow this division in order to be better able to
understand the whole work in all its details.
Everything that our saint has written is, as it were, a
summary of a Catholic tradition on the subject that he treats: it is not
an individual author; it is, so to speak the Church herself that speaks to
us by the voice of her prophets, her apostles, her pontiffs, her saints,
her fathers, her doctors, of all nations and of all ages. No other book
appears to be more worthy of recommendation in this respect than the
GLORIES OF MARY. We should, however, be able to rely upon the
authenticity of the quotations. These we have carefully verified, and can
vouch for their exactness. We found that we had to make corrections in
the texts of Scripture as well as in other parts of the work; but we have
made them because we were convinced that the holy author himself would
have made them or would have approved them.
Cardinal Dechamps, in the preface of the little work that he
has published in honor of the Blessed Virgin, entitled LA NOUVELLE EVE,
"The New Eve," relates the following incident: "At a visit that we paid to
a learned and pious friend, we found the GLORIES OF MARY among the books
that covered his table. He saw that I had noticed the work, and taking it
in his hand, he said: "This is my spiritual thermometer, for when I am not
faithful to grace, this book by the least of its pages enlightens me and
sustains my confidence. When I grow negligent and become lukewarm it
hardly suits my taste; it is, so to speak too much for me. Noticing this
state of things, I enter into myself, and I recognize without difficulty
that it is not the light that has diminished its brightness, but that it
is the interior eye that is no longer able to bear its brilliancy. I then
strive to restore to this eye of the soul its purity and its power, and
soon the thermometer rises; I wish to say that the soul rises and finds
itself in unison with the dear GLORIES OF MARY.
"We have taken care," adds Cardinal Dechamps, "not to draw
from this isolated fact a general conclusion, as this would not be
justifiable, since daily experience proves that the GLORIES OF MARY
touches sinners and brings them back to God, as well as consoles the just,
and animates them to perseverance. Yet it is not less true that there is
a certain state of the soul, unhappily too much known;—a state of languor
and darkness, in which one feels the need of varying one's reading, and of
being sweetly brought back to that kind of reading, which one has become
almost unworthy of relishing."
St. Alphonsus has himself unintentionally bestowed praise on
his work, under most touching circumstances, as is related by Father
Panzuti. When the saint was almost a nonagenarian, the lay-brother who
attended him was as usual making with him a spiritual reading. One day he
was quite enraptured with what was read to him, and his memory having
failed him, he said at the end: "Brother, who is the author of that
beautiful book? Oh how well written it is! What sweetness! Tell me who
wrote it?" The lay-brother reading the title of the book, answered, "The
GLORIES OF MARY, by Alphonsus de Liguori." At these words the holy man
became quite confused, and remained silent. His humility found itself, as
it were, caught in a trap.
There is no danger of erring if we say that those persons who
are fond of reading books, such as those of our saint, and especially the
GLORIES OF MARY, are in God's friendship or are on the point of attaining
it; and if they persevere in such a disposition their salvation will be
assured. The GLORIES OF MARY is a book that contains a selection of fine
pearls, skillfully set in a frame that enhances yet more their beauty and
their value; it is a mosaic of precious stones, the sight of which
attracts and delights the eye, elevates and purifies it, without ever
fatiguing it, provided it is not yet injured; it is a cloud that illumines
and protects, a water that refreshes and heals, a celestial manna that
sustains our life in this arid and perilous desert, and aids us to reach
safely the promised land, by giving as a foretaste of the goods with which
it abounds, Read a page of the GLORIES OF MARY, no matter which, and you
will experience these effects.—Ed. |