The great Mother of God, so mysteriously united to Jesus Christ from all eternity by the same decree of predestination, received the final crowning privilege of being preserved from the corruption of the grave and, following her Son in his victory over death, was brought, body and soul, to the highest glory of heaven, to shine as Queen at His right hand.

The first canonized saint of the Western Hemisphere, Rose of Lima (1586-1617) might also be considered a type of the special vocation of contemplative-in-the-world.  Inspired by the example of St. Catherine of Siena, Rose became a Dominican lay tertiary and devoted herself to works of active charity while living a life of extreme austerity. 

When he was twenty-one, Dominic received the first direct inkling of what the Lord's plans for his future might be. He writes: "One of these days (I think it was one of the last of the year 1813) as I was saying my prayers, the idea came to me that God wanted me to be a priest, and that I was to go and bring the light of the Gospel to a foreign nation."

Mary was born to be the mother of the Savior of the world, the spiritual mother of all men, and the holiest of God's creatures. This is one of the three birthdays in the Church Calendar: Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mary. All three were born without original sin, Mary and Jesus being conceived without sin, and St. John being cleansed of original sin while in the womb at the Visitation of Mary. 

Paul Daneo confides to the Heart of Mary himself and the Congregation she has asked him to found.  Into her hands he makes a vow to promote with all his strength devotion to the Passion of her Son.  She had appeared to him, clothed as he is now.  From now on it would be up to her.  He has placed his future and that of his Institute forever in her care.

Mary then is Queen, first of all by the natural right of her divine motherhood.  Secondly, by right of conquest upon Calvary;  and thirdly, as Mediatrix and Dispenser of all the grace Jesus acquired by his death.  But the Queenship of Mary rests basically on what is called the principle of consortium---that is, the union of love between Jesus and Mary by which she lived the very life of her Son, and through a communion of pain and sorrow most properly deserved to become reparatrix of the sinful world.

We now reflect on Mary as the inspiration of our Congregation. “The most sweet Mother of God is the loving Custodian of every religious order….Yet there are some who are more particularly obligated to her, because she appears as the one who communicated the idea, showed the form of its habit and intervened in its foundation.”

The highest graces of Paul’s interior life came as an overflow from Mary’s heart. Devotion to Mary was like a sea of love and sorrow that surged in and engulfed his whole being. This devotion flooded over into his letters:  “Love this infinite Good with the sweet Heart of this great Lady.”  “Enter into that chamber of love, which is her sacred Heart.”