One excellent way to become acquainted with Mary’s spirit and her Immaculate Heart is to study the life of St. John the Baptist. Since he was sanctified in St. Elizabeth’s womb by a word of Our Lady, one sees that She, in a mysterious way, communicated her spirit to him there. And everything the Precursor accomplished in his life was a result of that initial grace received and constantly intensified through her prayers. Accordingly, we can regard St. John the Baptist as the austere ascetic, the preacher of the Lamb of God that was to come, and as the hero who faces Herod and dies as a martyr, sublime in greatness and serenity. This is one of the facets of Our Lady’s spirit.