Let no one lament over paradise lost, Mary: Day 188

Let no one lament over paradise lost

Blessed Henry Suso exults in the marvelous work of redemption, and Mary’s role in it. We’ve lost one paradise, yes; but we’ve gained two more, infinitely more wonderful!

Mary, how often have you put to flight the hostile powers of wicked spirits! How often have you allayed the angry justice of the severe Judge! How often have you obtained from him grace and consolation! How shall we ever acknowledge such great goodness?

If all angelic tongues, all pure spirits and souls, if heaven and earth and all that is contained in them, cannot properly praise her merits, her ravishing beauty, her graciousness and immeasurable dignity, then what shall we sinful hearts be able to do? Let’s do our best, and express to her our acknowledgment, our thanks. For indeed, her great kindness doesn’t look at the smallness of the gift; it looks at the purity of the intention.

Sweet Queen, with what justice can all women rejoice in your sweet name! For the first Eve was cursed that she ever ate of the bitter fruit of the tree of knowledge. But blessed is the second Eve, for she brought us again the sweet fruit of heaven.

Let no one lament over paradise. One paradise we lost, but we have won two others. For isn’t she a paradise in whom grew the fruit of the living Tree, in whom all delight and joy are contained together? And isn’t he also a paradise above every paradise, in whom the dead live again, if only they taste his fruit from whose hands, feet, and side the living fountains flow to water the whole earth—the fountains of inexhaustible mercy, immeasurable wisdom, overflow- ing sweetness, fervent love, the fountains of eternal life? Truly, Lord, whoever tastes of this fruit, whoever has drunk of this fountain, knows that these two gardens of paradise far surpass the earthly paradise.
—Blessed Henry Suso, Little Book of Eternal Wisdom

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
What—or rather, who—are the two “new paradises” we’ve gained to replace the one we lost? What are the fruits and fountains of the new Eden?

CLOSING PRAYER
My Lady, take me by the hand, and lead me to the new paradise that God has prepared, with “the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb,” and “the tree of life, with its . . . fruit . . . and the leaves of the tree . . . for the healing of the nations” (Rv 22:1–2).

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