John Eudes
John Eudes, CIM (14 November 1601 – 19 August 1680) was a French Catholic priest and the founder of both the Orders of Pur Lady of Charity in 1641 and Congregazione of Jesus and Mary, also known as the Eudists, in 1643. He was also a professed member of the Oratory of Jesus until 1643.
Quotes
[edit]- Twelve privileges of Mary's love:
- she began to love God from the first instant of her life;
- Mary's love in this first instant incomparably surpasses the love of the first Seraphim and the greatest Saint, even though considered in its perfection and highest degree;.
- Mary perfectly fulfilled the commandment: «You will love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, etc.»;. 4) it was never a moment without loving God;
- her love grew continually;
- it surpassed that of all the Angels together;
- she loved her Jesus with paternal and maternal affection together;
- being Mother, Daughter and Bride of Jesus, she loved him with the Heart of Mother, Daughter, Bride: three loves of three different species, which are not and will never be found united in any other Heart;
- for the love brought to her Son, she made herself worthy of being a participant in his Passion and of being associated with him in the work of the Redemption;
- for her inconceivable love for Jesus, He gave her the power to protect, direct, console and fill with all sorts of goods in life and death and after death, those who honor her with particular devotion;
- her ardent love united her to Jesus so strongly that death, by severing the union of the soul with the body of Jesus, had no repercussions on the inviolable union between the Savior and the soul of Her;
- love, who was able to separate the soul of Jesus on the Cross from the body, he was unable to separate that of Mary, destined to then find herself in body and soul in the glorious and immortal life.
- Quoted in Il Cuore di Maria: miracolo d’amore, Radio Spada, 22 August 2023.
- There is nothing in the virginal body of Mary that is not worthy of the immortal praises of all creatures. But his heart is entitled to a particular honor for its wonderful prerogatives:
- It is the principle of the life of this Divine Mother and of all the functions of her bodily and sensitive life: origin of the life of the one who gave life to the Son of God;
- Another prerogative of this Heart is to have prepared and donated the virginal blood from which the most holy body of the God-Man was formed;
- The third is that it was the beginning of the human life of the Child Jesus, during the hidden dwelling that He made in the bosom of his mother. As with any mother, it can be said that the life and heart of Mary was the life and heart of Jesus.
- The fourth prerogative is indicated by these words of the Song: «Our bed is all covered with fragrant flowers» (Ct I, 15). What is this bed, if not the most pure heart of Mary, on which the Child Jesus had to rest gently? It was the great privilege of the favourite disciple to have rested only once on the lovely chest of the master. But he hides how many times the Divine Saviour has not taken rest on his mother's virginal heart! What abundance of enlightenment, of graces, of blessings did Jesus not pour out on that heart always perfectly willing to receive divine influences, in that heart which He loved more than all other hearts, and from which He was loved more than by the Seraphim themselves! O my savior, I hear your voice repeating to every faithful soul to put you as a seal on its heart (Ct VIII, 6). It is what your holy mother has done excellently, carrying printed on her heart the living image of your life and all your virtues. And not content with this, you yourself wanted to put yourself as a seal on his heart to close it to everything that is not Jesus, to make you sole and sovereign master. You have impressed yourself on her maternal Heart by yourself, in a way worthy of You and Her.
- Fifth prerogative: it was the altar on which the great and continuous sacrifice of all natural passions rooted in the Heart was performed. They are the five passions of the irascible appetite: hope, mistrust; boldness, fear, and anger; and the six of the concupiscible part: love, hate, desire, escape, joy, sadness. After man has become rebellious against God, passions have turned against Him, so that instead of being totally subject to the will, they become its slave.
- John Eudes, Il Cuore Ammirabile della SS. Madre di Dio. Quoted in Meraviglie del Cuore fisico di Maria, Radio Spada, 19 August 2021.
Quotes about
[edit]- [In Paradise] Up there is St. Thomas, a saint so phlegmatic that, if an ox had entered his room, he would have continued to study; and there is also St. John Eudes, who felt himself boiling with anger at the mere sight of a heretic. There's Francis de Sales, the saint of fine manners, an artist in speaking and writing; and there's the Curate of Ars, a champion of discipline on his back and potatoes eaten with mold a week after cooking.
- Albino Luciani, Illustrissimi, foreword by Igino Giordani, commented by Giovanni Mocchetti, Edizioni A.P.E., Mursia, Milano, 1979, p. 94.
