"My love for you far surpasses the love you have for me!"

The first reason why Mary has a great love for men is that she has a great love for God. Saint John tells us: "And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1Jn 4:21). If then, even among the blessed spirits, no one loves God more than Mary, we will never find anyone, after God, who loves us more than this most loving Mother.

Why does our heavenly Mother cherish us so much?

It is because, at the moment of his death, her beloved Jesus entrusted us to her maternal affection. As we have seen, he presented her all people in the person of St. John when he said to her, "Woman, this is your son" (Jn 19:26).

Moreover, we are children who are excessively dear to Mary, because we have cost her excessive pain. This is the nature of mothers.

One day St. Alphonsus of Liguori, of the Society of Jesus, found himself before an image of Mary and, feeling his heart burning with love for the Blessed Virgin, could not help saying to her: "My most loving Mother, I know that you love me, but not as much as I love you!" To this Mary, as if hurt on this delicate point of her love, replied: "What are you saying, Alphonsus, what are you saying? Oh, how much my love for you surpasses the love you have for me! Know that the distance between Earth and Heaven is smaller than the measure of your love compared to mine." (Zaninus, Vita, II, 12).

Françoise Breynaert