After the Trinity, Mary is the one whom we should most revere

There can be no doubt that the Blessed Mother and Virgin Mary, with a virile heart and the most constant determination, willed to deliver up her Son for the salvation of the human race, so that the Mother would be in every way conformed to the Father. And in this, what is most to be praised and cherished is that she agreed that her only Son should be sacrificed for the salvation of mankind.

And yet, she was so compassionate that, if it had been possible, she would have gladly taken upon herself all the torments her Son was enduring. Truly, then, was she strong and tender, gentle and rigorous at the same time, stingy to herself, and lavish to us!

So it is she who should be loved and revered above all things, after the supreme Trinity and its most holy Child Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose divine mystery no language can begin to express...

St Bonaventure (1221-1274)