Something to think about.

I was watching a program called "Picturing Mary", a program about the Virgin in art airing on local public TV.

The program ended with a sentence I thought very poignant:

"The English poet William Wordsworth best summed it up when he described her as "our tainted nature's solitary boast."

I have to meditate on that. I have to consider that next time I want to get on some high horse and sneer at another's faults, past or present.
Mary is the ONLY thing we humans can boast about.
The rest of us, to a person, are just poor sinners. And if we have asked for and received forgiveness, not one of us has any right to feel as though our forgiven sins are somehow "less damaging" than another's forgiven sins. ALL sin is a rejection of God - yours, mine, and theirs.
And forgiven is forgiven. God doesn't dwell on sins which He has forgiven.
We should not presume to either, be they ours or someone else's.

Mary - our tainted nature's solitary boast.
Not you, not me.
Us? We are just enjoying a mercy which we in no way deserve.

Lord, let me remember this every day.