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complete glory.
It is true that in Heaven all the blessed enjoy perfect peace and full
contentment, yet it will
always be true that no one of them enjoys as great glory as he could have
merited had he loved and
served God with greater fidelity. Hence, though the saints in Heaven desire
nothing more than they
possess, yet in fact there is something that they could desire. While the sins
which they have
committed, and the time which they have lost, do not now cause any suffering so
as to mar their
perfect happiness, nevertheless it cannot be denied that a greater amount of
good done in life,
innocence preserved, and time well employed, would have given them greater
happiness in Heaven.
Mary not only desires nothing, but also lacks nothing that She could desire. For
in Her lifetime
She never committed any sin of the slightest imperfection. She not only never
lost divine grace,
and never even obscured it, but She never kept it idle; She never performed an
action which was not
meritorious; She never pronounced a word, never had a thought, never drew a
breath, that was not
directed to the greater glory of God. She never lost anything by negligence, but
always
corresponded to grace with Her whole strength, and loved God as much as She
could love Him. "O
Lord;' She can now say to Him in Heaven, "if I loved Thee not as much as Thou
didst deserve, at
least I loved Thee as much as I could."
In each of the saints there were different graces, as St. Paul says: There are
diversities of
graces (1 Cor. 12:4), so that each of the saints, by corresponding to the grace
that he had
received, excelled in some particular virtue - the one in preaching to hardened
souls, the other
in leading a penitential life, and another in a life of prayer. This is the
reason for which the
holy Church, in celebrating their festivals, says of each, There was not found
one like him. And as
in their merits they differ, so do they differ in celestial glory: For star
differeth from star in
glory (1 Cor. 15:41). Apostles differ from martyrs, confessors from virgins, the
innocent from
penitents.
The Blessed Virgin, however, being full of all graces, excelled each saint in
every particular
virtue. She was the Queen of the