Saint of the Day, September 19, 1966
“A Roman and Apostolic Catholic, the author of this text submits himself with filial devotion to the traditional teaching of Holy Church. However, if by an oversight anything is found in it at variance with that teaching, he immediately and categorically rejects it.”
The words “Revolution” and “Counter-Revolution” are employed here in the sense given to them by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the first edition of which was published in the monthly Catolicismo, Nº 100, April 1959.
The book by Pie Régamey, Les plus beaux textes sur la Vierge (Éditions La Colombe, Paris, 1946, pp.387 ff.) contains a testimony by Mélanie Calvat, the girl who had the vision of Our Lady of La Salette [read the integral text of the secret here, according to entirely reliable and duly indicated sources], on September 19, 1846:
“The Blessed Virgin was tall and well-proportioned. She seemed so light that a waft could hit her. Yet she remained unmoving and unalterable.
“Her physiognomy was majestic, imposing, but not as imposing as the grandees of the earth. She commanded respectful awe, while her majesty commanded respect interspersed with love.
“She attracted. Everything around her and her person inspired majesty, splendor, and the magnificence of an incomparable queen. She seemed beautiful, clear, immaculate, crystalline, heavenly. She also seemed like a good mother, full of kindness, gentleness, love for us, compassion, and mercy.”
I would say this illiterate shepherdess deserves to be in the French Academy of Letters for this admirable description. Let me read the whole text, and then we’ll comment on it.
“Tears – The Holy Virgin cried almost the entire time she spoke to me. Her tears flowed slowly, one by one, down to her knees; then, they disappeared like sparks of light. They were bright and full of love.
“I had wanted to console her so she wouldn’t cry, but it seemed that she needed to show her tears to display her love better, forgotten by men. Our tender Mother’s tears, far from weakening her air of queenly and ladylike majesty, seemed instead to embellish her and make her more lovable and radiant.
“The eyes of the Blessed Virgin, our tender Mother, cannot be described by human language. To speak of them would require a Seraphim; it would require the very language of God, who formed the Immaculate Virgin, the masterpiece of His power.
“The august Mary’s eyes seemed a thousand times more beautiful than sparkles, diamonds and precious stones. They were like God’s door through which you could see everything that can enchant the soul.
“Just this vision of the eyes of the purest of Virgins would suffice to be the Heaven of a blessed soul and make it fully comply with the Most High’s will in all events of life’s journey. Whoever saw Our Lady’s eyes would do God’s will forever. That would be enough to impel a soul to continuous acts of praise, thanksgiving, reparation and atonement.
“Only this vision concentrates the soul on God and makes it like a living dead who looks at earthly things, even the seemingly most serious, like children’s toys. She only wanted to hear about God and His glory.
“Sin is the only evil she sees on earth, and because of it, she would die of pain if God didn’t sustain her.“
All these points about Our Lady’s appearance are most beautiful and symbolize several ideas.
All these points about Our Lady’s appearance are most beautiful and symbolize several ideas.
The first idea is that of a downright celestial entity flooded with supernatural values and graces as befits her, whom an angel called “full of grace.” The first idea, then, is supernaturality.
The second is of a regal majesty expressed throughout her and radiating around her.
The third is immeasurable goodness, compassion, mercy, condescension, and affectionate outpouring of all her gifts on others to make them share in them. Our Lady’s incomparable outpouring of goodness seems contradictory to majesty but is its indispensable corollary.
All her features in the description are meant to symbolize this.
The Blessed Virgin was tall and well-proportioned.
Height is an attribute of majesty. So much so that princes, who are not kings, are called Your Highness. While it is not about physical height, it is a physical image of height in the other senses. So, it wasn’t necessary but fitting that Our Lady had a well-proportioned height. Because well-proportioned height is the opposite of monolithic, overwhelming, and crushing height. Perfect proportions make height kind and accessible, fitting many small things with grace and harmony, which makes it variegated. It’s unity in variety.
This perfection of Our Lady’s proportions almost “counterbalances” what might seem a bit frightening about her height.
“She looked so light that a waft could hit her.”
She was an entirely spiritual being whose body was completely dominated by the spirit and not subject to the law of gravity or the earth’s attraction. In her, the supernatural was at its fullest.
“She commanded respectful awe, while her majesty commanded respect interspersed with love.”
So she commanded respect that instilled fear on the one hand, and love on the other. It’s the image of true majesty. This majesty instills reverential fear, but not fear of a lash (which could incidentally come in), but a fear of displeasing such a hallowed being. On the other hand, Our Lady instilled love for being who she was.
“She attracted.”
True majesty attracts. True majesty does not repel. When you see a majesty that repels, it’s because it’s false.
For example, Napoleon had a majesty that repelled; it had nothing of authentic majesty.
“Everything around her and her person inspired majesty, splendor, and the magnificence of an incomparable queen.”
What was around her? An ordinary field with a few weeds. But then she came in and turned everything into a palace. Why? Because she communicates her glory to everything around her.
“She looked beautiful, clear…”
It’s luminous, supernatural clarity…
“…immaculate, crystalline, heavenly.”
It’s very interesting to see the need to add the crystal idea to affirm Our Lady’s purity and diaphanous nature. Something of the nobility of crystals appears within this.
Now comes the corollary:
“She also seemed like a good mother, full of kindness, love for us, compassion, and mercy.”
This juxtaposition gives us a good idea of perfect majesty. That’s why St. Bernard, in composing the Hail Holy Queen, put this paradox at the beginning: Hail Holy Queen and then Mother of Mercy—Supreme Queen, Supreme Mother, and Mother of supreme mercy.
She then speaks about Our Lady’s tears.
Our Lady cried, but there are two ways of crying: one is full of weakness and the other is full of pride. You cry when you’re in pain, but you can also cry when you’re above pain.
Let’s see what Our Lady’s weeping is like:
“The Holy Virgin cried almost the entire time she spoke to me. Her tears flowed one by one, slowly, down to her knees.”
All this is symbolic. Her tears flowed slowly, indicating self-control. There was nothing disheveled or convulsive, only the tears of a queen filled with a noble and serene sadness. The tears followed one another, reaching down to her knee to indicate the impulse with which they were shed and the depth of soul in them. As if to indicate that just as the tears run almost the whole length of her body, this sorrow floods her whole soul.
“Then, they disappeared like sparks of light.”
Should Our Lady’s tears fall to the ground, forming a little ball mixed with earth, or prosaically soak her dress?
Can we understand a queen whose habits are damp and heavy with tears? No.
So this ‘disappearing like sparks’ is a beauty. The tear that shines at the last moment gives off light and is collected by the Eternal Father in His splendors. This is a beautiful solution to a problem that could easily become prosaic.
“They were bright and full of love.”
The tears of such a queen should also be luminous. They couldn’t be opaque or “earthy” tears. The tears of one who is all pure can only be crystalline. And they glowed with love. We understand that a specific glow can mean love. Look at the immense tact in these formulations and how well they are thought out.
“I had wanted to console her so she would not cry, but it seemed that she needed to show her tears to display better her love forgotten by men.”
Far from weakening her air of queenly and ladylike majesty, our tender Mother’s tears seemed instead to embellish her…”
The true queen is such that she has one beauty when she is happy, another when she is sad, another when she is carefree. They are all special beauties. Our Lady’s tears gave her an unmistakable beauty: the beauty of the Queen’s sorrow. It’s a physiognomic aspect all of its own.
“[and] …make her more lovable and radiant.”
Lovable, meaning worthy of love. More radiant, meaning her personality expanded.
“Human language cannot describe the eyes of the Blessed Virgin, our tender Mother. It would take a Seraphim to speak of them. It would take the very language of God, who formed the Immaculate Virgin, the masterpiece of His power.”
The face is the summary of the body. The eyes are the summary of the face. In other words, the eyes are the quintessence of all the body’s expression. So, how would Our Lady’s soul express itself in her most noble and expressive body part? It is sublime, and human language cannot describe something sublime.