A treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

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I

60009Q202S

I

600089202S

A TREATISE

THE TRUE DEVOTION

TO

THE BLESSED VIEGIN.

BT THE YBNEBABLB 8BBYANT OV GOD,

LOUIS-MARIE, GRIGNON DE MONTFORT.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH

By FREDERICK WILLIAM PABER, D.D.

PBIBST OF THE OBATOBT.

LONDON:
BURNS AND LAMBERT, 17, 18 PORTMAN 6TRBET,

AND 63 PATEBNOSTEB BOW.
1863.

LONDON:

PRWTBD BT ROBSON, LBYBT, AND P&ANKLTN,

Oreat New Street and Fetter Lane.

CONTENTS.

PAQB

Translator's Preface v

Preface TO THE French Edition .... xiii
Introduction 1

PART I.
ON DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADT IN GENERAL.
I. Excellence and Necessity of Devotion to our

Blessed Lady 7

n. Discernment of the True Devotion to our Blessed

Lady ; five fundamental truths presupposed 37

1. False Devotions to our Lady . . 62

2. True Devotion ; its Characters . . 70

PART n.

ON THE MOST EXCELLENT DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADT,

OR THE PERFECT CONSECRATION TO JESUS BT MART.
Preliminary Observations on the different ways of

honouring our Blessed Lady .... 77
I. In what consists the perfect Consecration to Jesus

by Mary 82

n. Its Motives 91

Figure of this Consecration in the history of Ja-
cob receiving the blessing of Isaac through
the offices of Rebecca .126

IV COl^ENTS.

PAGB

III. Admirable Effects of the perfect Consecration to

Jesus by Mary . 149

rV. Its Exterior and Interior Practices . 169

Manner of practising this Devotion at Communion 185

Formula of Consecration to Jesus by Mary . . .190

PREFACE.

It was in the year 1846 or 1847, at St. Wilfrid's,
that I first studied the life and spirit of the
Venerable Grignon de Montfort ; and now, after
more than fifteen years, it may be allowable to
say, that those who take him for their master
will hardly be able to name a saint or ascetical
writer to whose grace and spirit their mind will
be more subject than to his. We may not yet
call him Saint ; but the process of his beatifica-
tion is so far and so favourably advanced, that
we may not have long to wait before he will be
raised upon the altars of the Church.

There are few men in the eighteenth century
who have more strongly upon them the marks

B

VI PREFACE.

of the Man of Provideiice than this Elias-like
Missionary of the Holy Ghost and of Mary.
His entire life was such an exhibition of the
holy folly of the Cross, that his biographers
unite in always classing him with St Simon
Salo and St. Philip Neri. Clement XL made
him a missionary-apostolic in France, in order'
that he might spend his life in fighting against
Jansenism, so far as it affected the salvation of
souls. Since the apostolical epistles it would be
hard to find words that bum so marvellously as
the twelve pages of his prayer for the Missionaries
of the Holy Ghost, to which I earnestly refer all
those who find it hard to keep up, under their
numberless trials, the first fires of the love of
souls. He was at once persecuted and venerated
every where. His amount of work, like that of
St. Antony of Padua, is incredible and, indeed,
inexplicable. He wrote some spiritual treatises,
which have already had a remarkable influence
on the Church during the few years they
have been known, and bid fair to have a much
wider influence in years to come. His preaching,
his writing, and his conversation were all im-

PEEFAOE. VU

pregnated with prophecy, and with anticipations
of the latter ages of the ChurcL He comes for-
ward, like another Si Vincent Ferrer, as if on
the days bordering on the Last Judgment, and
proclaims that he brings an authentic message
from God about the greater honour and wider
knowledge and more prominent love of His
Blessed Mother, and her connexion with the
second advent of her Son. He founded two reli-
gious congregations,— one of men, and one of
women, — ^which have been quite extraordinarily
successfiil ; and yet he died at the age of foriy-
three, in 1716, after only sixteen years of priest-
hood.

It was on the 12th of May 1853, that the
decree was pronounced at Eome, declaring his
writings to be exempt from all error which
could be a bar to his canonisation. In this
very treatise on the veritable devotion to our
Blessed Lady, he has recorded this pro-
phecy. " I clearly foresee that raging brutes
will come in fury to tear with their diabolical
teeth this little writing, and him whom the Holy
Ghost has made use of to write it ; or at least

VUl PBEFACE.

to envelop it in the silence of a coffer, in order
that it may not appear." Nevertheless, he pro-
phesies both its appearance and its success. All
this was fulfilled to the letter. The author died
in 1716, and the treatise was found by accident
by one of the priests of his congregation at St.
Laurent - sur - S^vre, in 1842. The existing
superior was able to attest the handwriting as
being that of the venerable founder; and the
autograph was sent to Eonie, to be examined
in the process of canonisation.

All those who are likely to read this book
love God, and lament that they do not love Him
more ; all desire something for His glory, — ^the
spread of some good work, the success of some
devotion, the coming of some good time. One
man has been striving for years to overcome a
particular fault, and has not succeeded. An-
other mourns, and almost wonders while he
mourns, that so few of his relations and friends
have been converted to the faitL One grieves
that he has not devotion enough ; another that
he has a cross to carry, which is a peculiarly-
impossible cross to him ; while a third has do*

PBEFAOB. ix

mestic troubles and family unliappinesses, which
feel almost incompatible with his salvation ; and
for all these things prayer appears to bring so
little remedy. But what is the remedy that is
wanted ? what is the remedy indicated by God
Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of
the Saints, it is an immense increase of devotion
to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing
short of an immense one. Here, in England,
Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion
to her is low and thin and poor. It is fright--
ened out of its wits by the sneers of heresy.
It is always invoking human respect and carnal
prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a
Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about
her. Its ignorance of theology makes it un-
substantial and unworthy. It is not the promi-
nent characteristic of our religion which it
ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence
it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are
not converted, that the Church is not exalted ;
that souls, which might be saints, wither and
dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly
frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelised.

X PBEFACB.

Jesus is obscured because Mary is k^t in the
background. Thousands of souls perish because
Mary is withheld from them. It is ihe miserable
imworthy shadow which we call our devotion
to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all
these wants and blights, these evils and omis-
sions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe
the revelations of the Saints, God is pressing for
a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another
devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think
of a higher work or a broader vocation for any
one than the simple spreading of this peculiar
devotion of the Venerable Grignon de Montfort.
Let a man but try it for himself, and his sur-
prise at the graces it brings wiili it, and the
transformations it causes in his soul, will soon
convince him of its otherwise almost incredible
efficacy as a means for the salvation of men,
and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.
Oh, if Mary were fcut known, there would be no
coldness to Jesus then 1 Oh, if Mary were but
known, how much more wonderfiil would be our
faith, and how different would our Communions
be ! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much

PBEFAOE. XX

happier, how much holier, how much less worldly
should we be, and how much more should we
be Uving images of our sole Lord and Saviour,
her dearest and most blessed Son I

I have translated the whole treatise myself,
and have taken great pains with it, and have
been scrupulously faithftJ. At the same time,
I would venture to warn ihe reader that one
perusal will be very far from making him master
of it If I may dare to say so, there is a grow-
ing feeling of something inspired and super-
natural about it, as we go on studying it ; and
with that we cannot help experiencing, after
repeated readings of it, that its novelty never
seems to wear off, nor its ftdness to be dimin-
ished, nor the fresh fragrance and sensible fire
of its unction ever to abate. May the Holy
Ghost, the Divine Zealot of Jesus and Mary,
deign to give a new blessing to this work in
England; and may He please to console us
quickly with the canonisation of this new apostle
and fiery missionary of His most dear and most

XU PREFACE.

immaculate Spouse; and still more with the
speedy coming of that great age of the Church,
which is to be the Age of Mary 1

F. W. Faber,
Priest of the Oratory,

, Presentation of our Blessed Lady,
1862.

Note.
See Vie de Louis-Marie Qrignon de Montfort (Le
Clerc, Paris, 1839); also the Jesuit Father Clorivi-
ere's life of him, 1785. Grandet's Life of him (1724),
as well as Bastide's memoirs of fifty missions given
with the servant of God, I only know by the quota-
tions in the Life of 1839.

PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION.

" Gk)D wishes that His holy Mother should now
be more known, more loved, more honoured,
than ever she has been ; and this will no doubt
come to pass, if the predestinate will enter, by
the grace and light of ihe Holy Ghost, into the
interior and perfect practice which I will dis-
cover to them." These words of the venerable
servant of God, Louis Marie Grignon de Mont-
fort, cannot fail to interest our piety, and to
inspire us with a lively desire of learning from
him so excellent a practice of honouring the
most holy Virgin.

He had been drawn from his earliest infancy,
in quite a particular fashion, to the love of this
Queen of Angels ; and in a conversation which
he had with his intimate friend Monsieur Blain,
two years before his death, the pious missionary
confessed to him that Gtod had favoured him

ZIY PREFACE TO THE FBENCH EDITION.

wiih an extraordinaxy grace, which was the
continued presence of Jesus and Mary in the
bottom of his soul. This word was a mystery
to Monsieur Blain ; but we shall see the expla-
nation of it in this little treatise. We shall see
revealed to us there the heart of him who knew
no fairer name than the slave of Jesus in Mary.
We do not, however, pretend to say that this
explanation will be equally understood by all.
We must remember here that word of the Eter-
nal Wisdom, " Thou hast hidden these things
from the wise and prudent, and revealed them
to the little ones." It has been said in the Life
of the venerable servant of God, that his history
will never be understood except by a Christian.
It has this in common wiih the lives of a great
number of the servants of God. We may say
also that this little work will never be under-
stood by a Christian who is too much a stranger
to the maxims of humility and evangelical sim-
plicity, and that the wise of this world will find
themselves shocked at the lessons of true wisdom
which they will read without penetrating their
sense. Animcdis homo nonperdpit ea^ quce surd

PBEFAOE TO THE FRENCH EDITIOK. Z¥

iSpiritus DeL Stultitia enim est illiy et non potest
intelligere^ quia spiritualiter examinaiur. The man
who guides himself only by natural light does
not comprehend the things of the Spirit of Qt)d.
They seem to him follies, because they can only
be judged by a supernatural light which he has
not got But let us hasten to add, that sincere
and simple souls will relish the manna hidden in
the pious and touching instructions of the virtu-
ous priest who consumed his life in evangelising
the poor. They will bless Divine Providence for
the treasure. They will feel themselves pene-
trated with love for Jesus and Mary, in reading
these burning pages, which the man of Qod
wrote in the fervour of his prayer, without ever
losing sight of the presence of our Divine Saviour
and His holy Mother. ... In conclusion, let us
say a few words on the discovery of this treatise.
At the time of the French revolution in 1793,
the manuscripts which the house of the Mission-
aries of St. Laurent-sur-S^vre possessed were
hidden in the neighbouring farms, where they
remained buried in dust for many years. Later
on, those which were found were put into the

XYl PBEFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION.

library of the missionaries. But this little trea-
tise was not at that time recognised, as was the
case with some others also composed by the
venerable founder of the Company. It was
not till 1842 that one of the priests of the
house of St Laurent found it by chance in the
library, where it had been put without being
recognised, after having been mixed up with a
great number of imperfect books. " After I had
read a few pages," says the priest, " I took it-,
hoping to find it useful for making a sermon on
our Lady. I read by chance the place where he
speaks of his Company of Mary. I recognised
the siyle and thoughts of our venerable founder,
and his way of addressing his missionaries ; and
after that, I had no doubt the manuscript was
his. I took it to our superior, who identified
the handwriting."

[The manuscript has been examined at Rome;
recognised to be the work of the venerable servant
of God ; most minutely examined in its doctrine ;
and declared to be exempt from all error which could
be a bar to his canonisation.]

INTRODUCTION.

It is by the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus
has come into the world, and it is also by her
that He has to reign in the world.

Mary has been singularly hidden during her
life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost
and the Church call her alma Mater^ — Mother
secret and hidden. Her humiliiy was so pro-
found that she had no propensity on earth more
powerfiil or more unintermitting than that of
hiding herself, even from herself, as well as
from every other creature, so as to be known to
Gk)d only. He heard her prayers to Him, when
she begged to be hidden, to be humbled, and to be
treated as in all respects poor and of no accoimt
He took pleasure in hiding her from all human
creatures in her conception, in her birth, in her
life, and in her resurrection and assumption.
Her parents even did not know her, and the
Angels often asked of each other : Quoe est ista?
Who is that? Because the Most High either hid

2 • INTRODUCTION.

her from them, or if He revealed any ihing of
her to them, it was nothing compared to what
He kept undisclosed.

Qt)d the Father consented that she should
do no miracle, at least no public one, during
her life, although He had given her the power.
God the Son consented that she should hardly
ever speak, though He had communicated His
wisdom to her. Qt)d the Holy Ghost, though
she was His faithful Spouse, consented that His
Apostles and Evangelists should speak but very
little of her, and no more than was necessary to
make Jesus Christ known.

Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the
Most High, of which He has reserved to Him-
self both the knowledge and the possession.
Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son, who
took pleasure in humbling and concealing her
during her life, in order to &vour her humihty,
calling her by the name of woman (mulier)^ as if
she was a stranger, although in His heart He
esteemed and loved her above all angels and all
men. Mary is the sealed fountain and the faith-
ful Spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone
has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the
repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells
more magnificently and more divinely than in
any other place in the universe, without except-
ing His dwelling between the Cherubim and
Seraphim. Neither is it allowed to any creature,

IKTBODUCTIOir. 8

no matter how pure, to enter into that sanctuary
without a great and special privilege.

I say with the Saints, The divine Mary is
the terrestrial Paradise of the New Adam,
where He is incarnate by the operation of the
Holy Ghost, in order to work there incompre-
hensible marvels. She is the grand and divine
World of God, where there are beauties and
treasures unspeakable. She is the magnificence
of the Most High, where He has hidden, as in
her bosom, His only Son, and in Him all that
is most excellent and most precious. Oh, what
grand and hidden things that mighty God
has wrought in this admirable creature! How
has she herself been compelled to say it, in spite
of her profound humiliiy : Fecit mihi magnUy qui
potem est! The world knows them not, because
it is at once incapable and unworthy of such
knowledge.

The Saints have said admirable things of
this Holy City of God ; and, as they themselves
avow, they have never been more eloquent and
more content than when they have spoken of
her. Yet, after all they have said, they cry out
that the height of her merits, which she has
raised up to the throne of the Divinity, camu)t
be fully seen ; that the breadth of her chariiy,
which is broader than the earth, is in truth im-
measurable ; that the grandeur of her power,
which she exercises even over God Himself,

4 INTRODUCTION.

incomprehensible ; and finally, that the depth of
her humility, and of all her virtues and graces,
is an abyss which never can be sounded.

height incomprehensible I breadth un-
speakable ! grandeur immeasurable I abyss
impenetrable ! Every day, from one end of the
earth to the other, in the highest heights of the
heavens and in the profoundest depths of the
abysses, every thing preaches, every thing pub-
lishes, the admirable Mary I The nine choirs of
Angels, men of all ages, sexes, conditions, and
religions, good or bad, nay even the devils them-
selves, willingly or unwillingly, are compelled,
by the force of truth, to call her Blessed.

St. Bonaventure tells us that all the Angels in
heaven cry out incessantly to her, Sancta^ sanctay
sancta Mariuy Dei Genitria et Virgo; and that
they oflFer to her millions and millions of times
a day the Angelical Salutation, Ave Maria; pro-
strating themselves before her, and begging of
her, in her graciousness, to honour them with
some of her commands.

St. Michael, as St Augustine says, although
the prince of all the heavenly court, is the most
zealous in honouring her and causing her to be
honoured, while he waits always in expectation
that he may have the honour to go, at her bid-
ding, to render service to some one of her serv-
ants.

The whole earth is fiill of her glory, es-

INTBODUCnON. O

pecially among Christians, amongst whom she
is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms,
provinces, dioceses, and cities. Numbers of ca-
thedrals are consecrated to God under her name.
There is not a church without an altar in her
honour, not a coimtry or a canton where there
are not some miraculous images, where all sorts
of evils are cured, and all sorts of good gifts ob-
tained. Who can count the confraternities and
congregations in her honour ? How many reli-
gious orders have been founded in her name and
under her protection I What numbers there are
of Brothers and Sisters of all these confraterni-
ties, and of religious men and women of all these
orders, who publish her praises and confess her
mercies ! There is not a little child, who, as it
lisps the Ave Maria, does not praise her. There
is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy,
has not some spark of confidence in her. Nay
the very devils in hell respect her while they fear
her.

After that we must surely say with the Saints,
De Maria nunquam satis; we have not yet praised,
exalted, honoured, loved, and served Mary as we
ought to do. She has deserved still more praise,
still more respect, still more love, and far more
service.

Ailer that we must say with the Holy Ghost j
Omnis gloria Jilioe Regis ab intusj — " All the glory
of the King's daughter is within." It is as if

C

INTRODUCTION.

all the outward glory, which heaven and earth
rival each other in laying at her feet, is nothing
in comparison with that which she receives with-
in £pom the Creator, and which is not known by
creatures, who in their littleness are imable to
penetrate the secret of the secrets of the King.

After that we must cry out with the Apos-
tle, Nee oculus vidity nee auris avdimt^ neo in cor
hominis ascendit^ — " Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, nor man's heart comprehended," the beau-
ties, the grandeurs, the excellences, of Mary, —
the miracle of the miracles of grace, of nature,
and of glory.

If you wish to comprehend the Mother, says
a Saint, comprehend the Son; for she is the
worthy Mother of God. Hie taceat omnia lingua^
— " Here let every tongue be mute."

It is with a particular joy that my heart has
dictated what I have just written, in order to
show that the divine Mary has been up to this time
unknown, and that this is one of the reasons that
Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be.
If, then, as is certain, the kingdom of Jesus
Christ is to come into the world, it will be but
a necessary consequence of the knowledge of the
kingdom of the most holy Virgin Mary, who
brought Him into the world the first time, and
will make His second advent full of splen-
dour.

TRUE DEVOTION

TO

THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

PART I.

ON DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADY IN GENERAL.

I. EXCELLENCE AND NECESSITY OF DEVOTION
TO OUR BLESSED LADY.

I AVOW, with all the Churcli, that Mary, being
but a mere creature that has come from the
hands of the Most High, is, in comparison with
His Infinite Majesty, less than an atom; or
rather she is nothing at all, because He only is
*^He who is," and thus by consequence that
grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to
Himself, never had, and has not now, any abso-
lute need of the Holy Virgin for the accomplish-
ment of His will and for the manifestation of His
glory. He has but to will, in order to do every

8 TBUE DEVOTION TO

thing. Nevertlieless I say that, things being
supposed as they are now, Grod having willed to
commence and to complete His greatest works
by the most holy Virgin, since He created her,
we may well think He will not change His con-
duct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and
He changes not either in His sentiments or in
His conduct.

God the Father has not given His Only-be-
gotten to the world except by Mary. Whatever
sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, — ^what-
ever prayers the prophets and the saints of the
ancient law may have offered up to obtain that
treasure for fiill four thousand years, — it was but
Mary that merited it ; it was but Mary who found
grace before Otd by the force of her prayers and
the eminence of her virtues. The world was un-
worthy, says St Augustine, to receive the Son
of God immediately from the Father's hands.
He has given Him to Mary in order that the
world might receive Him through her. The Son
of God has made Himself Man ; but it was in
Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost has
formed Jesus Christ in Mary ; but it was only
after having asked her consent by one of the
first ministers of His court

God the Father has communicated to Mary
His fruitfulness, as far as a mere creature was
capable of it, in order that He might give her
the power to produce His Son, aud all the mem-

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 9

bers of His mystical Body. God the Son has
descended into her virginal womb, as the new
Adam into the terrestrial paradise, to take His
pleasure there, and to work in secret the marvels
of His grace.

God made Man has found His liberiy in see-
ing Himself imprisoned in her womb. He has
made His Omnipotence shine forth in letting
Himself be ctoried by that blessed Virgin. He
has found His glory and His Father's in hiding
His splendours from all creatures here below, and
revealing them to Mary only. He has glorified
His Independence and His Majesty, in depend-
ing on that sweet Virgin, in His Conception, in
His Birth, in His Presentation in the Temple,
in His Hidden Life of thirty years, and even in
His Death, where she was to be present, in order
that He might make with her but one same
sacrifice, and be immolated to the Eternal Fa-
ther by her consent ; just as Isaac of old was
ofiered by Abraham's consent to the Will of
Qod. It is she who has suckled Him, nourished
Him, supported Him, brought Him up, and then
sacrificed Him for us.

admirable and incomprehensible depend-
ence of a God, which the Holy Ghost could not
pass in silence in the Gospel, although He has
hidden from us nearly all the admirable things
which that Incarnate Wisdom did in His Hidden
Life, as if He would enable us, by His revelation

10 TRUE DEVOnOK TO

of that at least, to understand something of its
price! Jesus Christ gave more glory to God
the Father by submission to His Mother during
those thirty years than He would have given
Him in converting the whole world by the
working of the most stupendous miracles. Oh,
how highly we glorify God, when, to please Him,
we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example
of Jesus Christ, our Sole Exemplar !

If we examine narrowly the rest of our
Blessed Lord's Life, we shall see that it was His
Will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sancti-
fied St. John in the womb of St. Elizabeth his
mother ; but it was by Mary's word. No sooner
had she spoken than John was sanctified ; and
this was His first and greatest miracle of grace.
At the marriage at Cana He changed the water
into wine ; but it was at Mary's humble prayer ;
and this was His first mirade of nature. He
has begun and continued His miracles by Mary,
and He will continue them to the end of ages by
Mary also.

God the Holy Ghost being barren in God —
that is to say, not producing another Divine
Person — is become firuitful by Mary, whom He
has espoused. It is with her, in her, and of
her, that He has produced His Masterpiece, which
is a God made Man, and whom He goes on pro-
ducing in the persons of His members daily to
the end of the world. The predestinate are the

THE BLESSED YIBGIK. 11

members of that Adorable Head. This is the
reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He
jQnds Mary, His dear and indissoluble Spouse^
in any soul, becomes the more active and mighiy
in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that
soul in Jesus Christ.

It is not that we may say that our Blessed Lady
gives the Holy Ghost His finiitfulness, as if Ho
had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God,
He has the same firuitfulness or capacity of pro-
ducing as the Father and the Son, only that He
does not bring it into action, as He does not pro-
duce another Divine Person. But what we want
to say is, that the Holy Ghost chose to make use
of our Blessed Lady, though He had no absolute
need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into ac-
tion, by producing in her and by her Jesus
Christ in His members ; a mystery of grace
unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual
among Christians.

The conduct which the Three Persons of the
Most Holy Trinity have deigned to pursue in
the Licamation and first coming of Jesus Christ,
They still pursue daily in an invisible manner
throughout the whole Church, and They will
still pursue it even to the consummation of ages
in the last coming of Jesus Christ.

God the Father made an assemblage of all
the waters, and He named it the sea (mare).
He has made an assemblage of all His graces,

12 TRUE DEVOTION TO

and He has called it Mary (Maria). This great
Grod has a most rich treasury in which He has
laid up all that He has of beauty, of splendour,
of rarity, and of preciousness, even to His own
Son ; and this immense treasury is none other
than Mary, whom the Saints have named the
Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all
men are made rich.

God the Son has communicated to His Mo-
ther all that He has acquired by His Life and
by His Death, His infinite merits and His ad-
mirable virtues; and He has made her the
treasuress of all that His Father has given Him
for His inheritance. It is by her that He appUes
His merits to His members, and that He com-
municates His virtues, and distributes His graces.
She is His mysterious canal ; she is His aque-
duct, through which He makes His mercies flow
gently and abundantly.

To Mary, His faithftd Spouse, God the Holy
Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts;
and He has chosen her to be the dispensatrix of
all He possesses, in such sort that she distributes
to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she
wills, and when she wills, all His gifts and graces.
The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men
which He does not pass through her virginal
hands. Such has been the Will of God, who
has willed that we should have every thing in
Mary ; so that she who impoverished, humbled,

THE BLESSED VIBGIN. 13

and hid herself even to the abyss of nothingness
by her profound humility her whole Kfe long,
should now be enriched, and exalted by the
Most High. Such are the sentiments of the
Church and the Holy Fathers.

If I were speaking to the free-thinkers of
these times, I would prove what I have said
so simply, drawing it out more at length, and
confirming it by tiie Holy Scriptures and the
Fathers, quoting the original passages, and ad-
ducing various solid reasons, which maybe seen
at length in the book of Fr. Poir^ {La Triple
Couronne de la Sainte Vierge), But as I speak
particularly to the poor and simple, who being
of good -will, and having more faith than the
common run of scholars, believe more simply
and so more meritoriously, I content myself
with putting out the truth quite simply, without
stopping to quote the original passages, which
they would not understand. Nevertheless, with-
out making much research, I shall not fail from
time to time to bring forward some of them. But
let us now go on with our subject.

Inasmuch as grace perfects nature, and glory
perfects grace, it is certain that our Lord is
still, in heaven, as much the Son of Mary as He
was on earth ; and that, consequently. He has
preserved the most perfect obedience and sub-
mission of all children towards the best of all
mothers. But we must take great pains not to

14 TRUB DEVOTION TO

conceive of this dependence as any abasement or
imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary is infi-
nitely below her Son, who is God, and therefore
she does not command Him, as a mother here
below would command her child, who is below
her. Mary, being altogether transformed into
God by grace, and by the glory which trans-
forms all the Saints into Him, asks nothing,
wishes nothing, does nothing which is contrary
to the Eternal and Immutable Will of God.
When we read, then, in the writings of SS. Ber-
nard, Bemardine, Bonaventure, and others, that
in heaven and on earth every thing, even to
God Himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin,
they mean to say that the authority which God
has been well pleased to give her is so great, that
it seems as if she has the same power as Gt)d,
and that her prayers and petitions are so power-
ftd with God, that they always pass for com-
mandments with His Majesty, who never resists
the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is
always humble and conformed to His WilL

If Moses, by the force of his prayer, arrested
the anger of God against the Israelites, in a man-
ner so powerfiil that the Most High and infi-
nitely mercifiil Lord, being unable to resist him,
told him to let Him alone, that He might be
angry with and punish that rebellious people,
what must we not with much greater reason
think of the prayer of the humble Mary, that

THE BLESSED YIBJGJN* 15

worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful
with His Majesty than the prayers and interces-
sions of all the Angels and Saints both in heaven
and on earth ?

Mary commands in the heavens the Angels
and the Blessed. As a recompense for her pro-
found humiliiy, God has given her the power
and permission to fill with Saints the empty
thrones fi'om which the apostate angels fell by
pride. Such has been the will of the Most High,
who exalts the humble, that heaven, earth, and
hell bend with good will or bad wiU to the
commandments of the hmnble Mary, whom He
has made sovereign of heaven and earth, general
of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dis-
penser of His graces, worker of His greatest
marvels, restorer of the human race, mediatrix
of men, the exterminator of the enemies of
Qody and the faithfiil companion of His gran-
deurs and His triumphs.

Qod the Father wishes to have children by
Mary till the consununation of the world ; and He
has said to her these words. In Jacob inhaJntay —
" Dwell in Jacob," — ^that is to say. Make jowc
dwelling and residence in My predestinated
children, figured by Jacob, and not in the
reprobate children of the devil, figured by
Esau.

Just as, in the natural and corporal genera-
tion of children, there is a father and a mother,

16 TRITE DEVOTION TO

SO in the supematural and spiritual generation
there is a Father, who is God, and a Mother,
who is Mary. All the true children of God,
the predestinate, have God for their Father, and
Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary
for his Mother, has not God for his Father.
This is the reason why the reprobate, such as
heretics, schismatics, and others, who hate our
Blessed Lady, or regard her with contempt
and indifference, have not God for their Father,
however much they boast of it, simply because
they have not Mary for their Mother. For
if they had her for their Mother, they would
love and honour her as a true and good child
naturally loves and honours the mother who has
given him life.

The most infallible and indubitable sign by
which we may distinguish a heretic, a man of
bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the pre-
destinate, is that the heretic and the reprobate
have nothing but contempt and indifference for
our Blessed Lady, endeavoming by their words
and examples to diminish the worship and love
of her openly or hiddenly , and sometimes under
specious pretexts. Alas ! God the Father has
not told Mary to dwell in them, for they are
Esaus.

God the Son wishes to form Himself, and,
so to speak, to incarnate Himself, every day by
His dear Mother in His members, and He has

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 17

said to her, In Israel hoereditare^ — " Take Israel
for your inheritance. " It is as if He had said, GJod
the Father has given Me for an inheritance all
the nations of the earth, all the men good and
bad, predestinate and reprobate. The one I will
lead with a rod of gold, and the others with a
rod of iron. Of one I will be the Father and
the Advocate, the Just Punisher of others, and
the Judge of all. But as for you, My dear
Mother, — you shall have for your heritage
and possession only the predestinate, figured by
Israel; and, as their good Mother, you shall
bring them forth and maintain them; and, as
their sovereign, you shall conduct them, govern
and defend them.

" This man and that man is bom in her,'*
says the Holy Ghost, — Homo et homo ruxtus est in
ea (Ps. Ixxxvi. 5). According to the explanation
of some of the Fathers, the first man that is
bom in Mary is the Man-God, Jesus Christ;
the second is a mere man, the child of Gt)d and
Mary by adoption. If Jesus Christ the Head
of men is bom in her, tibe predestinate who are
the members of that Head ought also to be bom
in her by a necessary consequence. One and
the same mother does not bring forth into the
world the head without the members, nor the
members without the head ; for this would be a
monster of nature. So in like manner, in the
order of grace, the Head and the members are

1 8 TEUE DEVOTION TO

bom of one and the same Mother ; and if a
member of the mystical Body of Jesus Christ—
that is to say, one of the predestinate — ^was bom*
of any other mother than Mary, who has pro-
duced the Head, he would not be one of the
predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but
simply a monster in the order of grace.

Besides this, Jesus being at present as much
as ever the Fruit of Mary, — as heaven and earth
repeat thousands and thousands of times a day,
" and Blessed be the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus,"
— it is certain that Jesus Christ is, for each man
in particular who possesses Him, as truly the
fruit of the work of Mary, as He is for the whole
world in general ; so that if any one of the &ith-
fiil has Jesus Christ formed in his heart, he can
say boldly. All thanks be to Mary I what I pos-
sess is her effect and her fruit, and without her
I should never have had it. We can apply to
her more truly than St. Paul applied to himself
those words, Quos iterum parturio donee formetur
Christus in vobis^ — " I am in labour again with
aU tibe children of God, until Jesus Christ my
Son be formed in them in the ftdness of His
age." St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and
going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that
all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to
the image of the Son of God, are in this world
hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin;
where they are guarded, nourished, brought up,

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 19

and made to grow by that good Mother untfl
she has brought them forth to glory after death,
which is properly the day of their birth, as the
Church calls the death of the just mystery of
grace, unknown to the reprobate, and but little
known even to the predestinate 1

God the Holy Ghost wishes to form Himself
in her, and to form elect for Himself by her,
and He has said to her, In electis meia mitte
radices. Strike the roots, My Well-beloved and
My Spouse, of all your virtues in My elect, in
order that they may grow from virtue to virtue,
and from grace to grace. I took so much com-
placence in you, when you lived on earth in the
practice of the most sublime virtues, that I de-
sire still to find you on earth, without your
ceasing to be in heaven. For this end, repro-
duce yourself in My elect, that I may behold in
ihem with complacence the roots of your invin-
cible faith, of your profound humility, of your
xmiversal mortification, of your sublime prayer,
of your ardent charity, of your firm hope, and
all your virtues. You are always My Spouse, as
fiuthfrd, as pure, and as finiitfrd as ever. Let
your faith give Me My faithftd, your purity
My virgins, and your fertility My temples and
My elect.

When Mary has struck her roots in a soul,
she produces there marvels of grace, which she
alone can produce, because she alone is the fruit-

20 TRUE DEVOTION TO

fill Virgin, who never has had, and never will
have, her equal in purity and in fruitfiilness.

Mary has produced, together with the Holy
Ghost, the greatest thing which has been, or
ever will be, which is a God-Man ; and she will
consequently produce the greatest things that
there will be in the latter times.

The formation and education of the great
Saints, who shall come at the end of the world,
are reserved for her. For it is only that singu-
lar and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in
imion with the Holy Ghost, singular and extra-
ordinary things.

When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found
Mary in a soul. He flies there. He enters there
in His folness; He communicates Himself to
that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to
which she makes room for her Spouse. Nay,
one of the great reasons why the Holy Ghost
does not now do startling wonders in our souls
is because He does not find there a sufficiently
great imion with His faithftd and indissoluble
Spouse. I say indissoluble Spouse, because since
that Substantial Love of the Father and the Son
has espoused Mary, in order to produce Jesus
Christ, the Head of the elect, and Jesus Christ
in the elect. He has never repudiated her, inas-
much as she has always been fruitfiil and faith-
ftd. We may evidently conclude, then, from
what I have said (1), That Mary has received

THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 21

from God a great domination over the souls of
the elect ; for she cannot make her residence in
them, as God the Father ordered her to do, and
form them in Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ in
them, and strike the roots of her virtues in their
hearts, and be the indissoluble companion of the
Holy Ghost in all His works of grace, — she can-
not, I say, do all these things unless she has a
right and domination over their souls by a singu-
lar grace of the Most High, who, having given
her power over His only and Natural Son, has
given it also to her over His adopted children,
not only as to their bodies, which would be but
little matter, but also as to their souls.

Mary is the Queen of heaven and earth by
grace, as Jesus is the King of them by nature
and by conquest. Now, as the kingdom of Jesus
Christ consists principally in the heart and in-
terior of a man, — according to that word, " The
kingdom of God is within you," — in like maimer
the kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally
in the interior of a man, that is to say, his soul ;
and it is principally in souls that she is more
glorified with her Son than in all visible crea-
tures, and that we can call her, as the Saints do,
the Queen of hearts.

(2.) We must conclude that, the most holy
Virgin being necessary to God by a necessity
which we call hypothetical, in consequence of
His Will, she is far more necessary to men, in

D

J

TEUE DEVOTION TO

order for them to arrive at their Last End. We
must not confound devotions to our Blessed Lady
with devotions to the other Saints, as if devotion
to her was not far more necessary than devotion
to them, or as if devotion to her were a, matter
of supererogation.

The learned and pious Suarez the Jesuit,
the erudite and devout Justus Lipsius doctor of
Louvain, and many others, have proved invin-
cibly, in consequence of the sentiments of the
Faliiers (and, among others, of St Augustine,
St. Ephrem deacon of Edessa, St Cyril of Je-
rusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St
John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St
Bemardine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure),
that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary
to salvation, and that, even in the opinion of
(Ecolampadius and some other heretics, it is an
infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem
and love for the holy Virgin ; while on the other
hand it is an infallible mark of predestination to
be entirely and truly devoted to her.

The figures and words of the Old and New
Testaments prove this. The sentiments and
examples of the Saints confirm it. Eeason and
experience teach and demonstrate it Even the
devil and his crew, constrained by the force of
truth, have often been obliged to avow it in
their own despite.

Among all the passages of the holy Fathers

THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 23

and doctors, of which I have made an ample col-
lection, in order to prove this truth, I shall, for
brevity's sake, quote but one : Tibi devotum esse^
est arma qucedam salutis quoe Deus his dat^ quos
vide salvos fieri^ — " To be devout to you, holy
Virgin," says St. John Damascene, " is an arm
of salvation which God gives to those whom He
wishes to save." I could bring forward here
many histories which prove the same thing, and,
among others, one which is related in the chroni-
cles of St. Dominic. There was an unhappy he-
retic near Carcassonne, where St. Dominic was
preaching the Rosary, who was possessed by a
legion of fifteen thousand devils. These evil
spirits were compelled, to their confusion, by the
commandment of our Blessed Lady, to avow
many great and consoling truths, touching devo-
tion to the holy Virgin ; and they did this with
so much force, and so much clearness, that it is
not possible to read this authentic history, and
the panegyric which the devil made, in spite of
himself, of devotion to the most holy Mary,
without shedding tears of joy, however luke-
warm we may be in our devotion to her.

If devotion to the most holy Virgin Mary is
necessary to all men, simply for working out
their salvation, it is still more so for those who
are called to any particular perfection ; and I do
not think any one can acquire an intimate union
with our Lord, and a perfect fidelity to the Holy

24: TBUE DEVOTION TO

Ghost, without a very great union with the most
holy Virgin, and a great dependence on her
succour.

It is Mary alone who has found grace before
God, without the aid of any other mere creature :
it is only by her that all those who have found
grace before God have found it at all ; and it is
only by her that all those who shall come aft^-
wards shall find it. She was foil of grace when
she was saluted by the Archangel Gabriel, and
she was superabundantly filled with grace by the
Holy Ghost when He covered her with His im-
speakable Shadow ; and she has so augmented,
fix)m day to day and firom moment to moment,
this double plenitude, that she has reached a
point of grace immense and inconceivable ; in
such sort that the Most High has made her the
sole treasurer of His treasures, and the sole dis-
penser of His graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and
to enrich whom she wishes ; to give the entry
to whom she wills into the narrow way of hea-
ven ; to pass whom she wills, and in spite of all
obstacles, through the strait gate of life ; and
to give the throne, the sceptre, and the crown
of iJie King to whom she wills. Jesus is every
where and always the Fruit and the Son of
Mary ; and Mary is every where the veritable
tree, who bears the Fruit of life, and the true
Mother, who produces it.

It is Mary alone to whom God has given

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 25

the keys of the cellars of divine love, and the
power to enter into the most sublime and secret
ways of perfection, and the power likewise to
make others enter in there also. It is Mary
alone who has given to the miserable children
of Eve, the feithless, the entry into the terres-
trial paradise, that they may walk there agree-
ably with Grod, hide themselves there securely
against their enemies, and feed themselves there
deliciously, without any more fear of death, on
the fruit of the trees of life and of the knowledge
of good and evil, and drink in long draughts
tiie heavenly waters of that fair fountain, which
gushes forth there with abundance ; or rather
she is herself that terrestrial paradise, that vir-
gin and blessed earth, from which Adam and
Eve, the sinners, have been driven, and she
gives no entry there except to those whom it is
her pleasure to make Saints.

All the rich among the people, to make use
of an expression of the Holy Ghost, according
to the explanation of St. Bernard, — all the rich
among the people shall supplicate thy face from
age to age, and particularly at the end of the
world ; ihat is to say, the greatest Saints, the
souls richest in graces and virtues, shall be the
most assiduous in praying to our Blessed Lady,
and in having her always present as their perfect
model to imitate, and their powerful aid to give
them succour.

2& TRUE DEVOTION TO

I have said that this would come to pass
particularly at the end of the world, and indeed
presently, because the Most High with His
holy Mother has to form for Himself great
Saints, who shall surpass most of the other
Saints in sanctity, as much as the cedars of
Lebanon outgrow the little shrubs, as has been
revealed to a holy soul, whose life has been
written by a great servant of God.

These great souls, ftdl of grace and zeal,
shall be chosen to match themselves against the
enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides ;
and they shall be singularly devout to our
Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, nourished
by her milk, led by her spirit, supported by her
arm, and sheltered under her protection, so that
they shall fight with one hand and build with
the other. With one hand they shall fight,
overthrow, and crush the heretics with their
heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the
idolaters with their idolatries, and the sinners
with their impieties. With the other hand they
shall build the temple of the true Solomon,
and the mystical city of God ; that is to say,
the most holy Virgin, called by the holy Fathers
the temple of Solomon and the ciiy of God. By
their words and their examples tiiey shall bend
the whole world to true devotion to Mary. This
shall bring upon them many enemies ; but it shall
also bring many victories and much glory for

THE BLESSED YIBQIK. 27

God alone. It is this which God revealed to St
Vincent Ferrer, the great apostle of his age,
as he has sufficiently noted in one of his works.

It is this which the Holy Ghost seems to
have prophesied in the fifty-eighth Psalm, of
which these are the words : Et sclent quia
Dominus dominabitur Jacob , etjinium terrce ; con--
vertentur ad vesperamj etfamem patientur tU canesy
et circuibunt dvitaterrij — " And they shall know
that God will rule Jacob, and all the ends of
the earth ; they shall return at evening, and
shall sufier hunger like dogs, and shall go round
about the city."

This city which men shall find at the end of
the world to convert themselves in, and to satisfy
the hunger they have for justice, is the most holy
Virgin, who is called by the Holy Ghost the
City of God.

It is by Mary that the salvation of the world
has begun, and it is by Mary that it must be
consummated. Mary has hardly appeared at
all in the first coming of Jesus Christ, in order
that men, as yet but little instructed and en-
lightened on the Person of her Son, should not
remove themselves firom Him, in attaching them-
selves too strongly and too grossly to her. This
would have apparently taken place, if she had
been known, because of the admirable charms
which the Most High had bestowed even upon
her exterior. This is so true that St. Denys the

28 TRUE DEVOTION TO

Areopagite has informed us in his writings that
when he saw our Blessed Lady, he should have
taken her for a Divinity, in consequence of her
secret charms and incomparable beauty, had
not the Faith in which he was well established
taught him the contrary. But in the second
coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made
known and revealed by the Holy Ghost, in order
that by her Jesus Christ may be known, loved,
and served. The reasons which moved the Holy
Ghost to hide His Spouse during her life, and to
reveal her but a very little since the preaching
of the Gt)8pel, subsist no longer.

Q^d, then, wishes to reveal and discover
Mary, the masterpiece of His hands, in these
latter times :

1. Because she hid herself in this world, and
put herself lower than the dust by her profound
hmniUiy, having obtained of God and of His
Apostles and Evangelists that she should not
be made manifest.

2. Because, being the masterpiece of the
hands of God, as well here below by grace as
in heaven by glory. He wishes to be glorified
and praised in her by those who are living upon
the earth.

3. As she is the aurora which precedes and
discovers the Sun of Justice, who is Jesus Christ,
she ought to be recognised and perceived, in
order that Jesus Christ may be so.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 29

4. Being the way by which Jesus Christ
came to us the first time, she will also be the
way by which He will come the second time,
though not in the same manner.

5. Being the sure means and the straight
and immaculate way to go to Jesus Christ, and
to find Him perfectly, it is by her that the holy
souls, who are to shine forth especially in sanctity,
have to find our Lord. He who shall find Mary
shall find life ; that is, Jesus Christ, who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. But no one can
find Mary who does not seek her ; and no one
can seek her, who does not know her : for we
cannot seek or desire an unknown object. It
is necessary, then, for the greater knowledge
and glory of the Most Holy Triniiy , that Mary
should be more known than ever.

6. Mary must shine forth more than ever
in mercy, in might, and in grace, in these latter
times : in mercy, to bring back and lovingly
receive the poor strayed sinners who shall be con-
verted and shall return to the Catholic Church ;
in might, against the enemies of God, idolaters^
schismatics, Mahometans, Jews, and souls har-
dened in impiety, who shall rise in terrible re-
volt against God to seduce all those who shall
be contrary to them, and to make them fall by
promises and threats; and, finally, she must
shine forth in grace, in order to animate and
sustain the valiant soldiers and faithfiil servants

30 TBUE DEVOTION TO

of Jesus Christ, who shall do battle for His in-
terests.

7. And, lastly, Mary must be terrible to
the devil and his crew, as an army ranged in
battle, principally in these latter times, because
the devil, knowing that he has but little time,
and now less than ever, to destroy souls, will
every day redouble his efforts and his combats.
He will presently raise up new persecutions,
and will put terrible snares before the faithful
servants and true children of Mary, whom it
gives him more trouble to surmoimt than it does
to conquer others.

It is principally of these last and cruel per-
secutions of the devil, which shall go on in-
creasing daily till the reign of Antichrist, that
we ought to understand that first and celebrated
prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the
terrestrial Paradise against the serpent It is to
our purpose to explain this here, for the glory of
the most holy Virgin, for the salvation of her
children, and for the conftision of the devil.

Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem^ et
semen tuum et semen illius; ipsa conteret caput
tuumj et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus (Gen. iii.
15), — " I will put enmities between thee and the
woman, and thy seed and her seed ; she shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for
her heel."

Gt)d has never made or formed but one en-

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 31

mity ; but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall
endure and develop even to the end. It is be-
tween Mary, His worthy Mother, and the devil,
— ^between the children and the servants of the
Blessed Virgin and the children and instruments
of Lucifer. The most terrible of dl the enemies
which God has set up against the devil is His
holy Mother, Mary. He has inspired her, even
since the days of the earthly Paradise, though
she existed then only in His idea, with so much
hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with
so much industry in unveiling the malice of that
old serpent, with so much power to conquer,
to overthrow, and to crush that proud impious
rebel, that he fears her not only more than all
Angels and men, but ia some sense more than
Grod Himself. It is not that the anger, the
hatred, and the power of God are not infinitely
greater than those of the Blessed Virgin, for the
perfections of Mary are limited, but it is, first,
because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely
more firom being beaten and pimished by a
little and hiunble handmaid of God, and her
humility humbles him more than the Divine
power; and, secondly, because God has given
Mary such a great power against the devils,
that, as they have often been obliged to confess,
in spite of themselves, by the mouths of the
possessed, they fear one of her sighs for a soul
more than the prayers of all the Saints, and one

32 TRXJE DEVOTION TO

of her menaces against them more than all
other torments.

What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has
gained by humiUty. What Eve has damned and
lost by disobedience, Mary has saved by obedi-
ence. Eve, in obeying the serpent, has de-
stroyed aU her children together with herself,
and has delivered them to him ; Mary, being
perfectly faithM to God, has saved all her chil-
dren and servants together with herself, and has
consecrated them to His Majesty.

Gtod has not only set an enmity but enmities^
not simply between Mary and the devil, but be-
tween the race of the holy Virgin and the race
of the devil ; that is to say, God has set enmi-
ties, antipathies, and secret hatreds between the
true children and the servants of Mary, and the
children and servants of the devil. They do not
love each other mutually. They have no inward
correspondence with each other. The children
of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the
world (for it is the same thing), have always up
to this time persecuted those who belong to our
Blessed Lady, and will in fiiture persecute them
more than ever ; just as of old Cain persecuted
his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob,
who are the figures of the reprobate and the
predestinate. But the humble Mary will always
have the victory over that proud spirit, and so
great a victory that she will go the length of

THE BLESSED VIRGIK.

crushing his head, where his pride dwells. She
will always discover the malice of the serpent
She will always counterwork his infernal mines
and dissipate his diaboUcal counsels, and will
guarantee even to the end of time her faithful
servants fix)m his cruel claw. But the power of
Mary over all the devils will especially break
out in the latter times, when Satan will lay his
snares against her heel ; that is to say, her hum-
ble slaves and her poor children, whom she will
raise up to make war against him. They shall
be little and poor in the world's esteem, and
abased before all, like the heel, trodden underfoot
and persecuted as the heel is by the other mem-
bers of the body. But in return for this, they
shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary
shall distribute to them abundantly. They shall
be great and exalted before God in sanctity,
superior to all other creatures by their animated
zeal, and leaning so strongly on the divine suc-
cour, that, with the humihty of their heel, in
union with Mary, they shall crush the head of
the devil, and cause Jesus Christ to triumph.

In a word, God wishes that His holy Mother
should be at present more known, more loved,
more honoured, than she has ever been. This no
doubt will take place, if the predestinate enter,
with the grace and light of the Holy Ghost,
into the interior and perfect practice which I
will disclose to them shortly. Then they will

34 TBITE DEVOTION TO

see clearly, as far as faith allows, that beautiful
Star of the Sea. They will arrive happily in har-
bour, following its guidance, in spite of the tem-
pests and the pirates. They will know the gran-
deurs of that Queen, and will consecrate them-
selves entirely to her service, as subjects and
slaves of love. They will experience her sweet-
nesses and her maternal goodnesses, and they
will love her tenderly like well-beloved children.
They will know the mercies of which she is full,
and the need they have of her succour; and they
will have recourse to her in all things, as to
their dear advocate and mediatrix with Jesus
Christ They will know what is the most sure,
the most easy, the most short, and the most per-
fect means by which to go to Jesus Christ ; and
they will deliver themselves to Mary, body and
soul, without reserve, that they may thus be all
for Jesus Christ

But who shall be those servants, slaves, and
children of Mary ? They shall be a burning fire
of the ministers of the Lord, who shall kindle
the fire of divine" love every where, and sicut
aagittce in manu potentisy — like sharp arrows in
the hand of the powerfiil Mary to pierce her
enemies. They shall be the sons of Levi, well
purified by the fire of great tribulation, and
closely adhering to God; who shall carry the
gold of love in their heart, the incense of prayer
in their spirit, and the myrrh of mortification in

THE BLESSED VIBOIK. 35

their body ; and they shall be every where the
good odour of Jesus Christ to the poor and to
the little, while they shall be an odour of death
to the great, to the rich, and to the proud world-
lings.

They shall be clouds thundering and flying
through the air at the least breath of the Holy
Ghost ; who, without attaching themselves to any
thing, without being astonished at any thing,
without putting themselves in pain about any
thing, shall shower forth the rain of the Word
of Grod and of life eternal. They shall thunder
against sin ; they shall storm against the world ;
they shall strike the devil and his crew; and
they shall strike ftuiiher and further, for life or
for death, with their two-edged sword of the
Word of Gted, all those to whom they shall be
sent on the part of the Most High.

They shall be the true apostles of the latter
times, to whom the Lord of Hosts shall give the
word and the might to work marvels, and to
carry off the glory of the spoils of His enemies.
They shall sleep without gold or silver, and,
what is more, without care, in the middle of
the other priests, ecclesiastics, and clerks, inter
medios cleros ; and yet they shall have the silvered
wings of the dove, to go, with the pure intention
of the glory of Gted and the salvation of souls,
wheresoever the Holy Ghost shall call them.
Neither shall they leave behind them, in the

36 TBUB DBVOnON TO

places where they have preached, any thing but
the gold of charity, which is the aocomplish-
ment of the whole law. In a word, we know
that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ,
who, marching in the footsteps of His poverty,
humility, contempt of the world, and chariiy,
shall teach the strait way of Grod in the pure
truth, according to the holy Gospel, and not
according to the maxims of the world, without
putting themselves in pain about things, or ac-
cepting persons, without sparing, fearing, or
listening to any mortal, however influential he
may be.

They shall have in their mouths the two-
edged sword of the Word of God. They shall
carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of
the cross, the crucifix in their right hand and
the rosary in their left, the sacred names of Je-
sus and Mary on their hearts, and the modesty
and mortification of Jesus Christ in their own
behaviour. These are the great men who shall
come. But Mary shall be there by the order of
the Most High, to extend His empire over that
of the impious, the idolaters, and the Ma-
hometans. But when and how shall this be ?
God alone knows. It is for us to hold our
tongues, to pray, to sigh, and to wait, — easpec-
tans easpectavu

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 37

n. DISCERNMENT OF THE TRUE DEVOTION TO
OUR BLESSED LADY.

Having said something so far of the necessity
which we have of the devotion to the most holy
Virgin, I must now show in what this devotion
consists. This I will do, by God's help, after I
shall have first presupposed some fundamental
truths, which shall throw light on that grand
and solid devotion which I desire to disclose.

First Truth. Jesus Christ our Saviour, true
Qod and true Man, ought to be the last end of
all our other devotions, else they are false and
delusive. Jesus Christ is the alpha and omega^
the beginning and the end of all things. We
labour not, as the Apostle says, except to render
every man perfect in Jesus Christ ; because it is
in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the
Diviniiy dwells, together with all the other
plenitudes of graces, virtues, and perfections ;
because it is in Him alone that we have been
blessed with all spiritual benediction; and be-
cause He is our only Master, who has to teach
us ; our only Lord, on whom we ought to de-
pend ; our only Head, to whom we must belong ;
our only Model, to whom we should conform
ourselves ; our only Physician, who can heal us ;
our only Shepherd, who can feed us ; ovcc only
Way, who can lead us ; our only Truth, who can
I us grow ; our only Life, who can animate

B

38 TBUE DEVOTION TO

US ; and our only All in all things, who can suf-
fice us. There has been no other name given
under heaven, except the name of Jesus, by
which we can be saved. God has laid no other
foundation of our salvation, of our perfection,
and of our glory, except Jesus Christ. Every
building which is not built upon that firm rock
Is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or
later will fall infallibly. Every one of the feith-
ftd who is not united to Him, as a branch to the
stock of the vine, shall fall, shall wither, and
shall be fit only to be cast into the fire. If we
are in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in us, we
have no condemnation to fear. Neither the
Angels of heaven, nor the men of earth, nor the
devils of hell, nor any other creatures, can in-
jure us ; because they cannot separate us troia
the love of God which is in Jesus Christ By
Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ,
we can do aU things ; we can render all honour
and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy
Ghost; we can become perfect ourselves, and
be to our neighbour a good odour of eternal
life.

K, then, we establish the solid devotion to
our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more
perfectly the devotion to Jesus Christ, and to
put forward an easy and secure means for
finding Jesus Christ K devotion to our Lady
removed us &om Jesus Christ, we should have

THE BLESSED YIRGIK. 39

to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but on
the contrary, so far from this being the case,
there is nothing which makes devotion to our
Lady more necessary for us, as I have already
shown, and will show still ftuiiher hereafter,
than that it is the means of finding Jesus Christ
perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, and of serv-
ing Him faithftdly.

I here turn for one moment to Thee, my
sweet Jesus, to complain lovingly to Thy Di-
vine Majesiy that the greater part of Chris-
tians, even the most learned, do not know the
necessary union which there is between Thee
and Thy holy Mother. Thou, Lord, art always
with Mary, and Mary is always with Thee, and
she cannot be without Thee, else she would
cease to be what she is. She is so transformed
into Thee by grace that she lives no more, that
she is as tiiough she were not. It is Thou
only, my Jesus, who livest and reignest in her
more perfectly than in all the Angels and the
Blessed. Ah I if we knew the glory and the
love which Thou receivest in this admirable
creature, we should have very different thoughts
both of Thee and her from what we have now.
She is so intimately united with Thee, that it
were easier to separate the light from the sun,
the heat from the fire. I say more: it were
easier to separate from Thee all the Angels and
the Saints than the divine Mary, because she

40 TRUE DEVOTION TO

loves Thee more ardently, and glorifies Thee
more perfectly, than all other creatures put to-
gether.

After that, my svreet Masterj is it not an
astonishingly pitiable thing to see the ignorance
and the darkness of all men here below in re-
gard to Thy holy Mother? I speak not so
much of idolaters and pagans, who, knowing
Thee not, care not to know Thee ; I speak not
even of heretics and schismatics, who care not
to be devout to Thy holy Mother, being sepa-
rated as they are from Thee and Thy holy
Church : but I speak of Catholic Christians,
and even of doctors amongst Catholics, who
make profession of teaching truths to others,
and yet know not Thee nor Thy holy Mother,
except in a speculative, dry, barren, and indif-^
ferent manner. These doctors speak but rarely
of thy holy Mother, and of the devotion which
we ought to have to her, because they fear, so
they say, lest we should abuse it, and should do
some injury to Thee in too much honouring
Thy holy Mother. If they see or hear any one
devout to our Blessed Lady, speaking often of
his devotion to that good Mother in a tender,
strong, and persuasive way, as of a secure
means without delusion, as of a short road
without danger, as of an immaculate way with-,
out imperfection, and as of a wonderftd secret
for finding and loving Thee perfectly, they cry

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 41

out against him, and give him a thousand false
reasons by way of proving to him that he ought
not to talk so much of our Blessed Lady, that
there are great abuses in that devotion, and
that we must direct our energies to destroy
these abuses, and to speak of Thee, rather than
to incline the people to devotion to our Blessed
Lady, whom they already love sufficiently.

We hear them sometimes speak of devotion
to Thy holy Mother, not for the purpose of estab-
lishing it and persuading men to it, but to destroy
the abuses which are made of it, while all the
time these teachers are without piety or tender
devotion towards Thyself, simply because they
have none for Mary. They regard the Bosary,
the Scapular, and the Chaplet as devotions
proper for weak and ignorant minds, and with-
out which men can save themselves; and if
there falls into their hands any poor client of
our Lady, who says his Rosary, or has any
other practice of devotion towards her, they
soon change his spirit and his heart Listead
of the Rosary, they counsel him the &evea
Penitential Psalms. Listead of devotion to
the holy Virgin, they counsel him devotion to
Jesus Christ.

my sweet Jesus, have these people got
Thy spirit? Do they please Thee in acting
thus ? Is it to please Thee, to spare one single
effort to please Thy Mother for fear of thereby

42 TRUE DEVOTION TO

displeasing Thee ? Does devotion to Thy holy
Mother hinder devotion to Thyself? Is it that
she attributes to herself the honour which we
pay her ? Is it that she makes a side for herself
apart ? Is it that she is an alien, who has no
union with Thee ? Does it displease Thee that
we should try to please her? Is it to sepa-
rate or to alienate ourselves from Thy love to
give ourselves to her and to love her? Yet,
my sweet Master, the greater part of the learned
could not shrink more from devotion to Thy
holy Mother, and could not show more indif-
ference to it, if all that I have just said were
true! Keep me. Lord, — ^keep ine from their
sentiments and their practices, and give me
some share in the sentiments of gratitude, es-
teem, respect, and love which Thou hadst in
regard to Thy holy Mother, in order that I
may love Thee and glorify Thee all the more
by imitating and following Thee more closely.

So, as if up to this point I had still said
nothing in honour of Thy holy Mother, give
me now the grace to praise her worthily, Fa/c
me digne tuam Matrem coUavdarey in spite of all
her enemies, who are Thine as well ; and grant
me to say loudly with the Saints, Non prcemmat
aliquis Deum se habere propitivm^ qui benedictam
Matrem offemam habuerit, — " Let not that man
presume to look for the mercy of God who
offends His holy Mother." To obtain of Thy

THB BLESSED YIB6IN. 43

mercy a true devotion to Thy holy Mother, and
to inspire it to the whole earth, make me to
love Thee ardently ; and for that end receive the
burning prayer which I make to Thee with St
Augustine and thy true friends :

" Tu es Christus, pater mens sanctus, Deus
mens pius, rex mens magnus, pastor mens bonus,
magister mens unus, adjutor mens optimus, di-
lectus mens pulcherrimus, panis mens vivus,
sacerdos meus in aetemum, dux mens ad pa-
triam, lux mea vera, dulcedo mea sancta, via
mea recta, sapientia mea praeclara, simplicitas
mea pura, concordia mea pacifica, custodia
mea tota, portio mea bona, salus mea sempi-
tema.

" Christe Jesu, amabilis Domine, cur amavi,
quare concupivi in omni vitS, me^ quidquam
prsBter te Jesum Deum meum? Ubi eram
quando tecum monte non eram ? Jam ex hoc
nunc, omnia desideria mea, incalescite et effluite
in Dominum Jesum; currite, satis hactenus tar-
d^tis ; properate, qu6 pergitis ; qusBrite quam
quseritis. Jesu, qui non amat te, anathema sit ;
qui te non amat, amaritudinibus repleatur.

" dulcis Jesu, te amet, in te delectetur, te ad-
miretur omnis sensus bonus tuaB conveniens laudi ;
Deus cordis mei et pars mea, Christe Jesu, defi-
ciat cor meum spiritu sue, et vivas tu in me, et
concalescat spiritu meo vivus carbo amoris tui,
et exorescat in ignem perfectum, ardeat jugiter

44 TBUE DEVOTION TO

in arS, cordis mei, ferveat in mediiUis meis,
flagret in absconditis animae meae; in die con-
summationis mess consummatus inveniar apud
te. Amen."

I have desired to put in Latin this admir-
able prayer of Si Augustine, in order that
those who understand Latin may say it every
day, to ask for the love of Jesus, which we seek
by the divine Mary.

\_The translator thinks it well to give the prayer
in English^ and rvithout throwing it into the small
print of a note ;]

Thou art Christ, my holy Father, my ten-
der Gk)d, my great King, my good Shepherd,
my one Master, my best Helper, my most
Beautiful and my Beloved, my living Bread,
my Priest for ever, my Leader to my coun-
try, my true Light, my holy Sweetness, my
straight Way, my excellent Wisdom, my pure
Simplicity, my pacific Harmony, my whole
Guard, my good Portion, my everlasting Sal-
vation.

Christ Jesus, sweet Lord, why have I ever
loved, why in my whole life have I ever de-
sired, any thing except Thee, Jesus my God ?
Where was I, when I was not in Thy mind
with Thee ? Now, from this time forth, do ye,
all my desires, grow hot, and flow out upon
the Lord Jesus; run, — ^ye have been tardy so
far ; hasten whither ye are going ; seek whom

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 45

ye are seeking. Jesus, may he who loves
Thee not be anathema ; may he who loves Thee
not be filled with bitterness !

sweet Jesus, may every good feeling that
is fitted for Thy praise love Thee, delight in
Thee, admire Thee, God of my heart, and my
Portion! Christ Jesus, may my heart faint
away in spirit, and mayest Thou be my life
within me I May the live coal of Thy love
grow hot within my spirit, and break forth into
a perfect fire ; may it bum incessantly on Ae
altar of my heart ; may it glow in my inner-
most being; may it blaze in hidden recesses
of my soul ; and in the day of my consumma-
ticKQ may I be found consummated with Thee I
Amen.

Second Truth. We must conclude, from what
Jesus Christ is with regard to us, that we do
not belong to ourselves, but, as the Apostle
says, are entirely His, as His members and His
slaves, whom He has bought at an infinitely
dear price, — the price of all His Blood. Before
Baptism we belonged to the devil, as his slaves ;
but Baptism has made us true slaves of Jesus
Christ, who have no right to live, to work, or to
die, except to bring forth fimit for that God-
Man, to glorify Him in our bodies, and to let
Him reign in our souls, because we are His
conquest. His acquired people, and His inherit-
ance. It is for the same reason that the Holy

46 TRUE DEVOTION TO

Ghost compares us, 1. to trees planted along the
waters of grace in the field of the Church, who
ought to bring forth their fimit in their seasons ;
2. to the branches of a vine, of which Jesus
Christ is the stock, and which must yield good
grapes; 3. to a flock of which Jesus Christ is
the shepherd, and which is to multiply and give
milk ; 4. to a good land, of which God is the
labourer, in which the seed multipUes itself, and
brings forth thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and a hun-
dred-fold. Jesus Christ cursed the unfruitftd
fig-tree, and gave sentence against the useless
servant, who had not made any profit on his
talent. All this proves to us that Jesus Christ
wishes to receive some finiits from our wretched
selves, namely, our good works, because those
good works belong to Him alone : Creati in ope-
rSms bonis in Christo Jem^ — " Created in good
works in Christ Jesus," — ^which words show both
that Jesus Christ is the sole principle, and ought
to be the sole end of all our good works, and also
that we ought to serve Him, not as servants on
wages, but as slaves of love. I will explain
myself:

Here on earth there are two ways of belong-
ing to another, and of depending on his author-
ity, namely, simple service and slavery, — ^what
we mean by a servant, and what we mean by a
slave.

By common service amongst Christians a

THE BLESSED YIR6IK. 4?

man engages himself to serve another, during a
certain time, at a certain rate of wages or of
recompense.

By slavery a man is entirely dependent on
another for his whole life, and must serve his
master without pretending to any wages or re-
ward, just as one of his beasts, over which he
has the right of life and death.

There are three sorts of slavery : a slavery
of nature, a slavery of constraint, and a slavery
of the will. All creatures are slaves of God in
the first sense : Domini est terra et plenitudo ejtiSy
— " The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness of
it." The demons and the damned are slaves in
the second sense; the just and the Saints in the
third. The slavery of the will is the most glori-
ous to God, who looks at the heart, claims the
heart, and calls Himself the God of the heart ;
that is, of the loving will, because by that sla-
very we make choice of God and His service
above all things, even when nature does not
oblige us to it.

There is an entire difference between a ser-
vant and a slave : 1. A servant does not give
all he is, all he has, and all he can acquire by
himself or by another, to his master ; but the
slave gives himself whole and entire to his mas-
ter, all he has and all he can gain, without any
exception. 2. The servant exacts wages for the
services which he performs for his master ; but

48 TRUE DEVOTION TO

the slave can exact nothing, whatever assiduity,
whatever industry, whatever energy, he may
have at his work. 3. The servant can leave his
master when he pleases, or at least when the
time of his service shall be expired ; but the
slave has no right to quit his master at his will.
4. The master of the servant has no right of
life and death over him, so that if he kill him
like one of his beasts of burden, he would com-
mit an unjust homicide ; but the master of the
slave has by the law a right of life and death
over .him, so that he may sell him to any body
he likes, or kill him, as if he stood on the same
level as one of his horses. 5. Lastly, the ser-
vant is only for a time in his master's service ;
the slave is for always.

There is nothing among men which makes
us belong to another more than slavery. There
is nothing among Christians which makes us
more absolutely belong to Jesus Christ and His
holy Mother than the slavery of the will, ac-
cording to the example of Jesus Christ Himself,
who took on Him the form of a slave for love
of us, — Formam servi accipienSj — and also accord-
to the example of the holy Virgin, who is called
the servant and the slave of the Lord. The
Apostle calls himself, as by a title of honour,
Servus Christi^ — " The slave of Christ" Chris-
tians are often called in the Holy Scriptures
Servi Christij " Slaves of Christ," — ^whioh word

THE BLBSS^) YIB6IK. 49

servfiSy as a great man has truly remarked, sig-
nified in old times nothing but a slave, because
there were no servants then like those of the
present day. Masters were served only either
by slaves or by fi-eedmen. It is this which
the catechism of the Holy Council of Trent, in
order to leave no doubt about our being slaves
of Jesus Christ, expresses by an unequivocal
term, in calling us Mandpia Christi^ — " Slaves
of Jesus Christ."

Having premised this, I say that we ought
to be to Jesus Christ and to serve Him not only
as mercenary servants, but as loving slaves,
who, by an effect of great love, give themselves
up to serve Him in the quality of slaves, for
the simple honour of belonging to Him. Before
Baptism we were the slaves of the devil ; Bap-
tism has made us the slaves of Jesus Christ :
Christians must needs be either the slaves of
the devil or the slaves of Jesus Christ.

What I say absolutely of Jesus Christ, I say
relatively of our Blessed Lady. Jesus Christ,
having chosen her for the inseparable companion
of His life, of His death, of His glory, and of
Hia power in heaven and upon earth, has given
her by grace, relatively to His Majesty, all the
same rights and privileges which He possesses
by nature. Quidquid Deo convenit per naiuramy
MarioB convenit per gratiamf—^^ All that is fitting
to Gk)d by nature is fitting to Mary by grace,"

50 TRUE DEVOTION TO

— say the Saints ; so that, accordmg to them,
Mary and Jesus having but the same will and
the same power, the two have the same subjects,
servants, and slaves.

We may, therefore, following the sentiments
of the Saints and of many great men, call our-
selves, and make ourselves, the loving slaves of
the most holy Virgin, in order to be by that
very means the more perfectly the slaves of
Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Lady is the means
our Lord made use of to come to us. She is
also the means which we must make use of to
go to Him. For she is not like all the rest of
creatures, who, if we should attach ourselves to
them, might rather draw us away from God
than draw us near Him. The strongest in-
clination of Mary is to unite us to Jesus Christ
her Son ; and the strongest inclination of the
Son is, that we should come to Him by His
holy Mother. It is to honour and please Him,
just as it would be to do honour and pleasure to
a king, to become more perfectly his subject
and his slave, by making ourselves the slaves of
the queen. It is on this account that the holy
Fathers, and St. Bonaventure after them, said
that our Lady was the way to go to our Lord :
Via veniendi ad Christum est appropinquare ad
iliam.

Moreover, if, as I have said, the holy Virgin
is the Queen and Sovereign of heaven and of

THE BLESSED VIBGIK. 01

earth, then is it not true what has been said by
St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bemardine, and
St Bonaventure, — has she not as many subjects
and slaves as there are creatures ? Imperio Dei
omnia subjiciuntur^ et Virgo ; ecce imperio Virginia
omnia subjiduntury et Deus. Is it not reasonable
that amongst so many slaves of constraint, there
should be some of love, who of their own good will,
in the quality of slaves, should choose Mary for
their mistress? What! are men and devils to have
their voluntary slaves, and Mary to have none ?
What I shall a king hold it to be for his honour
that the queen, his companion, should have slaves
over whom she has the right of life and death,
because the honour and power of the one is the
honour and power of the other, and yet are we to
think that our Lord, who, as the best of all Sons,
has divided His entire power with His holy
Mother, shall take it ill that she too has her
slaves ? Has He less respect and love for His
Mother than Ahasuerus had for Esther, or than
Solomon for Bathsebee ? Who shall dare to say
so, or even to think it ?

But whither is my pen hurrying me ? Why
am I stopping here to prove a thing so plain ?
If we do not wish to call ourselves slaves of the
Blessed Virgin, what matter? Let us make
ourselves and caU ourselves slaves of Jesus
Christ; for that is to be the slave of the holy
Virgin, inasmuch as Jesus is the finiit and tha

52 TRUE DEVOTION TO

glory of Mary ; and it is this very thing which
we do, by the devotion of which we are here-
after to speak.

Third Truth. Our best actions are ordina-
rily stained and corrupted by the ground of evil
which is so deeply laid up in us. When we put
dean and clear water into a vessel which has a
foul and evil smell, or wine into a cask the inside
of which has been spoilt by another wine which
has been in it, the clear water and the good
wine are spoilt, and readily take the bad odour.
In like manner, when God puis into the vessd
of our soul, spoilt by original and actual sin,
His graces and heavenly dews, or the delicious
wine of His love. His gifts are ordinarily spoilt
and corrupted by the bad leaven and the evil
which sin has left within us. Our actions, even
tte most sublime and virtuous, feel the eflFects of
it. It is therefore of great importance in the
acquiring of perfection, which it must be re-
membered is only acquired by union with Jesus
Christ, to empty ourselves of every thing which
is bad within us ; otherwise our Lord, who is
infinitely pure and hates infinitely the least stain
upon our souls, will cast us out fi'om His pre-
sence, and will not imite Himself to us.

1. To empiy ourselves of oiu'selves, we must,
first, thoroughly recognise, by the light of the
Holy Ghost, our inward corruption, our incapa-
ni^ &s^ every good thing useftd for salvation,

THE BLESSED TIBOIir. 53

our weakness in all things, our inconstancy at
all times, our indignity of every grace, and our
iniquiiy in every position. The sin of our first
fiither has spoilt us all, soured us, puffed us up
and corrupted us, as the leaven sours, puffs, and
corrupts the paste into which it is put. The
actual sins which we have committed, whether
mortal or venial, pardoned though they may be,
have nevertheless increased our concupiscence,
our weakness, our inconstancy, and our cor-
ruption, and have left evil consequences in our
souls. Our bodies are so corrupted that they
are called by the Holy Ghost bodies of sin, con-
ceived in sin, nourished in sin, and capable of
all sin, — bodies subject to thousands of maladies,
which go on corrupting fi-om day to day, and
which engender nothing but disease, vermin,
and corruption.

Our soul, united to our body, has become so
camaly that it is called flesh. '* All fledh having
corrupted its way," we have nothing for our
portion but pride and blindness in the spirit^
hardness in the hearty weakness and inconstancy
in the soul, concupiscence, revolted passions,
snd sicknesses in the body. We are naturally
prouder than peacocks, more grovelling on the
earth than toads, more vile than unclean ani-
mals, more envious th^i serpents, more glutton-
ous than hogs, more ftuious than tigers, lazier
than tortoises, weaker than reeds, and more ca-

F

64: TRUE DEVOTION TO

pricious than weathercocks. We have down
in our own selves nothing but nothingness and
sin, and we deserve nothing but the anger of
God, and the everlasting hell.

After this, ought we to be astonished if our
Lord has said, that whosoever wishes to follow
Him must renounce himself and hate his own
soul, and that whosoever shall love his own soul
shall lose it, and whosoever shall hate it shall
save it ? He who is infinite Wisdom does not give
commandments without reason, and He has
only commanded us to hate ourselves, because
we so richly deserve to be hated. Nothing is
worthier of love than God, and nothing is wor-
thier of hatred than ourselves.

2. Secondly, in order to empiy ourselves of
ourselves, we must die to ourselves daily. That
is to say, we must renounce the operations of
the powers of our soul, and of the senses of our
body. We must see as if we saw not, under-
stand as if we understood not, and make use of
the things of this world as if we made no use
of them at all. This is what St. Paul calls dying
daily, — Quotidie morior. If the grain of com
falling on the earth does not die, it remains
earth, and brings forth no good jfruit. Ifisi
granum frummti^ cadem in terrarrij mcyrtuum
fuerity ipsum solum manet. If we die not to
ourselves, and if our holiest devotions do not
inchne us to this necessary and useM death.

THE BLESSED VIBGIK. 55

we shall bring forth no fruit worth any thing,
and our devotions will become useless. All our
justices will be stained by self-love and our own
will ; and this will cause God to hold in abomin-
ation the greatest sacrifices we can make, and
the best actions we can do ; so that at our death
we shall find our hands empty of virtues and of
merifs, and we shall not have one spark of pure
love, which is only communicated to souls dead
to themselves, souls whose life is hidden with
Jesus Christ in Grod.

3. We must choose, therefore, among all the
devotions to the Blessed Virgin, the one which
draws us most towards this death to ourselves,
inasmuch as it will be the best and the most
sanctifying. For we must not think that all that
shines is gold, that all that tastes sweet is honey,
or aU that is easy to do and is done by the
greatest number is sanctifying. As there are
secrets of nature to do in a short time, at little
cost and with facility, natural operations, so
also in like manner there are secrets in the
order of grace to do in a short time, with sweet-
ness and facihty, supernatural operations, such
as emptying ourselves of self, filling ourselves
with God, and becoming perfect.

The practice which I am about to disclose is
one of these secrets of grace, unknown by the
greater number of Christians, known even to
few of the devout, and practised and rehshed by

56 TBUB DEVOTION TO

a far less number still. But in order to begin
to disclose this practice, let us consider a fourth
truth, which is a consequence of the third.

Fourth Truth It is more perfect, because it
is more humble, not to approach God of our-
selves, without taking a mediator. The very
foundation of our nature, as I have just shown,
is so corrupted, that if we lean on our* own
works, industries, and preparations, in order to
reach God and to please Him, it is certain that
our justices will be defiled, or be of little weight
before God, to engage Him to xmite Himself to
us, and to hear us. It is not without reason
that God has given us mediators with Hia
Majesty. He has seen our unworthiness and
incapacity. He has had pity upon us ; and^ in
order to give us access to His mercies. He has
provided us with powerfiil intercessors with His
grandeur, insomuch that to neglect these mediae
tors, and to draw near to His holiness directly,
and without any recommendation, is to £ul in
humility. It is to fail in respect towards GJod,
so high and so holy. It is to make less account
of that King of kings than we should make of
a king or prince of earth, whom we sboidd not
willingly approach without some friend to speak
for us.

Our Lord is our Advocate and Mediator of
redemption with God the Father. It is by Him
that we ought to pray, in union witibi the whcde

THE BLESSED VIBGIK. 57

Clrarch tritunphant and militant. It is by Him
that we have access to the Majesty of the Father,
before whom we ought never to appear except
leaning on the merits, and indeed clothed with
the merits, of His Son ; just as the young Jacob
eame before his father Isaac in the skins of the
kids to receive his benediction.

But have we not need of a mediator with the
Mediator Himself? Is our purity great enough
to unite us directly to Him, and by ourselves ?
Is He not God, in all things equal to His Father,
aind by consequence the Holy of Holies, as
worthy of respect as His Father? If, by His
infinite charity, He has made Himself our bail
and our Mediator with Grod His Father, in
order to appease Him and to pay Him what we
owed Him, are we on that account to have less
respect and less fear for His Majesty and His
Sanctity?

Let us say boldly with St. Bernard, that we
have need of a mediator with the Mediator Him-
self, and that it is the divine Mary who is the
most capable of filling that' charitable office. It
is by her that Jesus Christ came, and it is by
her <hat we must go to Him. If we fear to go
directly to Jesus Christ our Gk>d, whether be-
cause of His infinite greaiaiess, or because of our
vileness, or because of our sins, let us boldly
implore the aid and intercession of Mary our
Moibor. She is good^ she is tender, she has

58 TBUE DEVOTION TO

nothing in her austere or repulsive, nothing too
sublime and too brilliant. In seeing her, we see
our pure nature, ^he is not the sun, who, by
the vivacity of his rays, blinds us because of our
weakness; but she is fair and gentle as the
moon, which receives the light of the sun, and
tempers it to render it more suitable to our
capacity. She is so charitable that she repels
none of those who ask her intercession, no
matter how great sinners they have been ; for,
as the Saints say, never has it been heard since
the world was the world, that any one has con-
fidently and perseveringly had recourse to our
Blessed Lady, and yet has been repelled.

She is so powerfiil that never have any of
her petitions been refused. She has t)utto show
herself before her Son to pray to Him, and
straightway He grants her desires, straightway
He receives her prayers. He is always lovingly
vanquished by the breasts, the yearnings, and
the prayers of His dearest Mother. All this is
drawn firom St Bernard and firom St, Bonaven-
ture, so that, according to them, we have three
steps to mount to go to Grod : the first, which is
the nearest to us, and the most suited to our
capacity, is Mary ; the second is Jesus Christ ;.
and the third is Grod the Father. To go to
Jesus, we must go to Mary ; she is our media-
trix of intercession. To go to Glod the Father^
we must go to Jesus ; for He is our Mediator of

THE BLESSED YIROIK. 59

redemption. Now it is by the devotion which I
am about to bring forward, that this order is
guarded perfectly.

Fifth Truth It is very diflScult, considering
our weakness and frailty, to preserve in our-
selves the graces and treasures which we have
received from Grod : —

1. Because we have this treasure, which is
worth more than heaven and earth put together,
in frail vessels, — Habenvus thesaurum latum in
vasia JhCtUibus^ — ^in a corruptible body, and in a
weak and inconstant soul, which a mere nothing
disturbs and dejects.

2. Because the devils, who are skilful
thieves, wish to surprise us unawares, and to
strip us. They watch day and night for the fe-
vourable moment. For that end they go round
about us incessantly to devour us, and to snatch
from us in one moment, by a sin, all that we
have gained of graces and of merits for many
years. Their malice, their experience, their
stratagems, and their number, ought to make
us fear immensely this misfortune, especially
when we see how many persons, ftdler of grace
than we are, richer in virtues, better founded in
experience, and far higher exalted in sanctity,
have been surprised, robbed, and unhappily pil-
laged. Ah I how many of the cedars of Leba-
non, how many of the stars of the firmament,
have we not seen to fall miserably, and in the

60 TBUB DEYOnON TO

twinkling of an eye to lose all their height and
all their brightness I Whence comes tiiat aad
and curious change ? It has not been for want
of grace, which is wanting to no man ; but it
has been want of humility. They thought
themselves stronger and more suflScient than
they were. They thought themselves capable
of guarding their own treasures. They trusted
in themselves, leaned upon themselves. They
thought their house secio'e enough, and their
coffers strong enough, to keep the precious trea-
sure of their grace. It is because of that
scarcely sensible leaning upon themselves, while
all the while it seemed to them that they were
leaning only on the grace of God, that the most
just Lord has permitted them to be robbed by
leaving them to themselves. Alas I if they had
but known the admirable devotion which I will
unfold presently, they would have confided their
treasure to a Virgin, powerful and feithful, who
would have kept it for them as if it had been
her own possession ; nay, who would have even
taken it as an obligation of justice on herself
to preserve it for them.

3. It is difficult to persevere in justice be-
cause of the strange corruption of the world.
The world is now so corrupt, that it seems to be
inevitable that religious hearts should be soiled^
if not by its mud, at least by its dust. So that
it has become a kind of miracle fear any one to

THE BLESSED VIBOIK. 61

remain firm in the midst of tUs impetuous tor-
rent without being drawn in by it, in the midst
of that stormy sea without being drowned in it
or stripped by the pirates and the corsairs, in
the midst of that pestilent air without being
infected by it. It is the Virgin, alone faithAil,
in whom the serpent has never had part, who
works this miracle for those who serve her in
that sweet way which I have shortly to unfold.

Having assumed these Five Truths, we must
now take more pains than ever to make a good
choice of the true devotion to our Blessed Lady.
There are at this time, more than ever, false devo-
tions to our Blessed Lady, which it is easy to mis-
take for true ones. The devil, like a false coiner
and a subtle and experienced sharper, has already
deceived and destroyed so many souls by a felse
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that he makes a
daily use of his diabolical experience to plunge
many others by this same way into everlasting
perdition ; amusing them, lulling them to sleep
in sin, under the pretext of some prayers badly
said, or of some outward practices which he in-
spires. As a false coiner does not ordinarily
counterfeit any thing but gold and silver, or
very rarely the other metals, because they are
not worth the trouble, so the evil spirit does
not for the most part counterfeit the other de-
votions, but only those to Jesus and Mary, the
devotion to Holy Communion, and to our Blessed

bTi TBUB DEVOTION TO

Lady, because they are, among other devotions,
what gold and silver are amongst metals.

It is, then, very important first of all to
know (1) false devotions to our Blessed Lady
in order to avoid them ; and (2) the true de-
votion in order to embrace it. Li conclusion,
among so many practices of true devotion to
our Blessed Lady, I will explain more in detail,
in the second part of this treatise, which is the
most perfect one, the one most agreeable to our
Lady, the most glorious to Grod, and the most
sanctifyang to ourselves, in order that we may
attach ourselves to it.

1. On False Devotions to our Lady.

I find seven kinds of false devotees and
false devotions to our Lady, namely, (1) the
critical devotees ; (2) the scrupulous devotees ;
(3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous
devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees ; (6) the
hypocritical devotees ; and (7) the interested
devotees.

The critical devotees are, for the most part,
proud scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits,
who have at bottom some devotion to the holy
Virgin, but who criticise nearly all the practices
of devotion to her, which the simple people pay
simply and holily to their good Mother, because
these practices do not fall in with their own
humour and fancy. They call in doubt all the

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 63

miraoles and histories recorded by authors
worthy of our faith, or drawn from the ehroni-
des of religious orders ; narratives which testify
to us the mercies and the power of the most
holy Virgin. They cannot see without xm-
easiness simple and humble people on their
knees before an altar or an image of our Lady,
sometimes in the comer of a street, in order to
pray to God there ; and they even accuse them
of idolatry, as if they adored the wood or the
stone. They say that, for their part, they are
not fond of these external devotions, and that
their minds are not so weak as to give faith to
such a number of tales and little histories as are
in circulation about our Lady. Or, at other
times, they reply that the narrators have spoken
as professional orators, with exaggeration; or
they put a bad interpretation upon their words.
These kind of false devotees and of proud and
worldly people are greatly to be feared. They
do an infinite wrong to the devotion to our
Lady ; and they are but too successftil in alien-
ating people from it, under the pretext of de-
stroying its abuses.

The scrupulous devotees are those who ftar
to dishonour the Son by honouring the Mother,
to abase the one in elevating the other. They
cannot bear that we should attribute to our Lady
ihe most just praises which the holy Fathers have
given her. It is all they can do to endure that

64 TRUE DEVOTION TO

tiiere should be njore people before the altar of
the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sa-
crament, as if the one was contrary to the other,
as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady did
not pray to Jesus Christ by her. They are un-
willing that we should speak so often of our
Lady, and address ourselves so frequently to her.
These are the favourite sentences constantly in
their mouths : " To what end are so many chap-
lets, so many confraternities, and so many ex-
ternal devotions to the Blessed Virgin ? There
is much of ignorance in all this. It makes a
mummery of our religion. Speak to us of those
who are devout to Jesus Christ" (yet they often
name Him without uncovering : I say this by
way of parenthesis). " We must have recourse
to Jesus Christ ; He is our only Mediator. We
must preach Jesus Christ ; this is the solid de-
votion." What they say is true in a certain
sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by the ap-
plication they make of it, they hinder devotion
to our Blessed Lady, and it is, under the pre-
text of a greater good, a subtle snare of the evil
one. For never do we honour Jesus Christ more
than when we are most honouring His Blessed
Mother. Lideed we only honour Mary that we
may the more perfectly honour Jesus, inasmuch
as we only go to her as to the way in which we
are to find the end we are seeking, which is
Jesus.

THE BLESSED YXBGIN. 65

The Church, with the Holy Ghost, blesses
our Lady first, and our Lord second, — Benedicta
ifu m mulierSmSy, et henedktus fructua verUris tvi
Jems. It is not that Mary is more than Jesus,
or even equal to Him, That would be an into-
lerable heresy ; but it is that, in order to bless
Jesus more perfectly, we must begin by blessing
Mary, Let us, then, say with all the true clients
of our Lady against these false scnipulous de-
votees, Mary, thou art blessed amongst all
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

External devotees are persons who make all
devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward
practices. They have no taste except for the
exterior of this devotion, because they have no
interior spirit of their own. They will say quanti-
ties of Bosaries with the greatest precipitation ;
they will hear many Masses distractedly ; they
will go without devotion to processions; they
win enrol themselves in all sorts of confraterni-
ties, without amending their lives, without doing
any violence to their passions, or without imi-
tating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part
of devotion, without having any relish for its
solidity. If they have not sensible sweetness in
their practices, they think they are doing no-
thing; they get all out of joint, throw every
thing up, or do every thing at random. The

64 TRUE DEVOTION TO

there should be njore people before the altar of
the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sa-
crament, as if the one was contrary to the other,
as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady did
not pray to Jesus Christ by her. They are un-
willing that we should speak so often of our
Lady, and address ourselves so frequently to her.
These are the favourite sentences constantly in
their mouths : " To what end are so many chap-
lets, so many confraternities, and so many ex-
ternal devotions to the Blessed Virgin ? There
is much of ignorance in all this. It makes a
mummery of our religion. Speak to us of those
who are devout to Jesus Christ" (yet they often
name Him without uncovering : I say this by
way of parenthesis), " We must have recourse
to Jesus Christ ; He is our only Mediator. We
must preach Jesus Christ ; this is the solid de-
votion." What they say is true in a certain
sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by the ap-
plication they make of it, they hinder devotion
to our Blessed Lady, and it is, under the pre-
text of a greater good, a subtle snare of the evil
one. For never do we honour Jesus Christ more
than when we are most honouring His Blessed
Mother. Indeed we only honour Mary that we
may the more perfectly honour Jesus, inasmuch
lA&we only go to her as to the way in which we
%d the end we are seeking, which is

THE BLESSED YXBGIN. 65

The Church, with the Holy Ghost, blesses
our Lady first, and our Lord second, — Benedicta
tu in mulierSmSy, et hemdictus fructits ventris tui
Jesus* It is not that Mary is more than Jesus,
or even equal to Bom, That would be an into-
lerable heresy ; but it is that, in order to bless
Jesus more perfectly, we must begin by blessing
Mary. Let us, then, say with all the true clients
of our Lady against these false scrapulous de-
votees, Mary, thou art blessed amongst all
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

External devotees are persons who make all
devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward
practices. They have no taste except for the
exterior of this devotion, because they have no
intmor spirit of their own. They will say quanti-
tiea of Bosaries with the greatest precipitation ;
they will hear many Masses distractedly ; they
will go without devotion to processions; they
wiU enrol themselves in all sorts of confraterni-
ties, without amending their lives, without doing
any violence to their passions, or without imi-
tating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part
of devotion, without having any relish for its
solidity. If they have not sensible sweetness in
their practices, they think they are doing no-
thing ; they get all out of joint, throw every
thing up, or do every thing at random. The

64 TRUE DEVOTION TO

there should be njore people before the altar of
the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sa-
crament, as if the one was contrary to the other,
as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady did
not pray to Jesus Christ by her. They are un-
willing that we should speak so often of our
Lady, and address ourselves so frequently to her.
These are the favourite sentences constantly in
their mouths : " To what end are so many chap-
lets, so many confraternities, and so many ex-
ternal devotions to the Blessed Virgin ? There
is much of ignorance in all this. It makes a
mummery of our religion. Speak to us of those
who are devout to Jesus Christ" (yet they often
name Him without uncovering : I say this by
way of parenthesis). " We must have recourse
to Jesus Christ ; He is our only Mediator. We
must preach Jesus Christ ; this is the solid de-
votion." What they say is true in a certain
sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by the ap-
plication they make of it, they hinder devotion
to our Blessed Lady, and it is, under the pre-
text of a greater good, a subtle snare of the evil
one. For never do we honour Jesus Christ more
than when we are most honouring His Blessed
Mother. Lideed we only honour Mary that we
may the more perfectly honour Jesus, inasmuch
as we only go to her as to the way in which we
are to find the end we are seeking, which is
JesuB.

THE BLBS8SD YXBGIN. 65

The Church, with the Holy Ghost, blesses
our Lady first, and our Lord second, — Benedicta
tu in mulieribu8y et benedictus fntctus ventris tui
Jems. It is not that Mary is more than Jesus,
or even equal to Him. That would be an into-
lerable heresy ; but it is that, in order to bless
Jesus more perfectly, we must begin by blessing
Mary. Let us, then, say with all the true clients
of our Lady against these false scrupulous de-
votees, Mary, thou art blessed amongst all
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

External devotees are persons who make all
devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward
practices. They have no taste except for the
exterior of this devotion, because they have no
interior spirit of their own. They will say quanti-
ties of Eosaries with the greatest precipitation ;
they will hear many Masses distractedly ; they
will go without devotion to processions; they
wiU enrol themselves in all sorts of confraterni-
ties, without amending their lives, without doing
any violence to their passions, or without imi-
tating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part
of devotion, without having any relish for its
solidiiy. If they have not sensible sweetness in
their practices, they think they are doing no-
ticing; they get all out of joint, throw every
thing up, or do every thing at random. The

66 TRUE DEVOTION TO

world 18 full of these exterior devotees; and
there are no people who are more critical of men
of prayer, of those who foster an interior spirit
as the essential thing, while they do not lightly
accomit of that outward modesty which always
accompanies true devotion.

Premmptuous devotees are sinners abandoned
to their passions, or lovers of the world, who,
under the fair name of Christians and clients of
our Blessed Lady, conceal pride, avarice, im-
purity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction,
injustice, or some other sin. They sleep in peace
in the midst of their bad habits, without doing
any violence to themselves to correct their faults,
under the pretext that they are devout to the
Blessed Virgin. They promise themselves that
Gbd will pardon them; that they will not be
allowed to die without confession ; and that they
will not be lost eternally, because they say the
Eosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because
they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy
Eosary, or wear the scapular, or are enrolled
in other congregations, or wear the little habit
or little chain of our Lady.* They will not be-
lieve us when we tell them that their devotion is
only an illusion of the devil, and a pernicious
presumption likely to destroy their souls. They
say that God is good and merciful ; that He has
not made us to condemn us everlastingly ; that
* See note farther on.

THE BLESSED YIBOIK. 67

no man is without sin ; that they shall not die
without confession ; that one good Peceavi at the
hour of death is enough ; that they are devout
to our Lady ; that they wear the scapular ; and
that they say daily, without reproach or vanity,
seven Paters and Aves in her honour ; and that
they sometimes say the Eosary and the Office of
our Lady, besides fasting, and other things. To
give authority to all this, and to blind themselves
stiU further, they quote certain stories, which
they have heard or read, — it does not matter to
them whether they be true or false, — ^relating
how people have died in mortal sin without con-
fession ; and then, because in their Ufetime they
sometimes said some prayers, or went through
some practices of devotion to our Lady, how
they have been raised to life again, in order to
go to confession, or their soul been miraculously
retained in their bodies till confession ; or how
they have obtained from Qt)d at the moment of
death contrition and pardon of their sins, and so
have been saved ; and that they themselves ex-
pect similar favours. Nothing in Christianity
is more detestable than this diabolical presump-
tion. For how can we say truly that we love
and honour our Blessed Lady, when by our sins
we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying,
and outraging Jesus Christ her Son ? If Mary
laid down a law to herself, to save by her mercy
this sort of people, she would be authorising

68 TBUB DEVOnOH TO

crime, and aflsisting to crucify and outrage her
Son, Who would dare to think such a thought
as that?

I say, that thus to abuse devotion to our
Ladj, which, after devotion to our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and solidest of
all devotions, is to be guilty of a horrible sacri-
lege, which, afl;er the sacrilege of an unworthy
Ciommunion, is the greatest and the least pardon-
able of all sacrileges.

I confess that, in order to be truly devout to
our Blessed Lady, it is not absolutely necessary
to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though tiiis
were to be wished; but so much at least is
necessary, and I beg jou, to lay it well to
heart: —

1. To have a sincere resolution to avoid, at
least, all mortal sin, which outrages the Mother
as wdl as the Son. 2. I would add also that to
do violence to ourselves to avoid sin, to enrol
ourselves in confraternities, to say the Eosary or
other prayers, to fast on Saturdays, and the like^
is wonderftdly useful to the conversion of a sin-
iwr, however hardened ; and if my read^ is such
a one, even if he has his foot in the abyss^ I
would counsel these things to him. Nevertheless
it must be on the condition that he will only
practise these good works with the intention of
obtaining from Gk)d, by tbe intercession of the
Blessed Virgin, the grace of contrition and the

THE BLESSED YIBQIN. 69

pardon of his sins, to conquer his evil habits,
and not to remain quietly in the state of sin, in
spite of the remorse of his conscience, the ex-*
ample of Jesus Christ and the Saints, and the
maxims of the holy GospeL

The inconstant devotees are those who are
devout to our Blessed Lady by intervals and
whims. Sometimes they are fervent and some-
times lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready
to do any thing for her, and then, a Utde after-
wards, they are not Uke the same people. They
begin by taJdng up all the devotions to her, and
enrolling themselves in the confraternities ; and
then they do not practise the rules with fidelity.
They change like the moon; and Mary puts
them under her feet with the crescent, because
they are mutable, and unworthy to be reckoned
among the servants of that faithful Virgin, "vdiose
clients have for their special graces fidelity and
0(wastancy. It were better for such persons to
load themselves with fewer prayers and prac-
tices, and to fulfil them with faithftdness and
love, in spite of the world, the devil, and the
flesh.

We have still to mention the false devotees
to our Blessed Lady, who are the ht/pocritical
devotees ; who doke their sins and sinful habits
under her mantle, in order to pass in the eyes of
men for what they are not.

There are also the interested devotees, who

Q

60 TEUB DEVOTION TO

twinkling of an eye to lose all their height and
all their brightness I Whence comes that sad
and curious change ? It has not been for want
of grace, which is wanting to no man ; but it
has been want of humility. They thought
themselves stronger and more sufficient than
they were. They thought themselves capable
of guarding their own 1a*easures. They trusted
in themselves, leaned upon themselves. They
thought their house secure enough, and their
coffers strong enough, to keep the precious trea-
sure of their grace. It is because of that
scarcely sensible leaning upon themselves, while
all the while it seemed to them that they were
leaning only on the grace of God, that the most
just Lord has permitted them to be robbed by
leaving them to themselves. Alas ! if they had
but known the admirable devotion which I will
unfold presently, they would have confided their
treasure to a Virgin, powerful and faithful, who
would have kept it for them as if it had been
her own possession ; nay, who would have even
taken it as an obligation of justice on herself
to preserve it for them.

3. It is difficult to persevere in justice be-
cause of the strange corruption of the world.
The world is now so corrupt, that it seems to be
inevitable that religious hearts should be soiled,
if not by its mud, at least by its dust. So that
it has become a kind of miracle f(»r any one to

THE BLESSED YIBOIK. 61

remain firm in the midst of this impetuous tor-
rent without being drawn in by it, in the midst
of liiat stormy sea without being drowned in it
or stripped by the pirates and the corsairs, in
the midst of that pestilent air without being
infected by it It is the Virgin, alone faithftd,
in whom the serpent has never had part, who
works this miracle for those who serve her in
that sweet way which I have shortly to unfold.

Having assumed these Five Truths, we must
now take more pains than ever to make a good
choice of the true devotion to our Blessed Lady.
There are at this time, more than ever, false devo-
tions to our Blessed Lady, which it is easy to mis-
take for true ones. The devil, like a false coiner
and a subtle and experienced sharper, has already
deceived and destroyed so many souls by a false
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, that he makes a
daily use of his diabolical experience to plunge
many others by this same way into everlasting
perdition ; amusing them, lulling them to sleep
in sin, under the pretext of some prayers badly
said, or of some outward practices which he in-
spires. As a false coiner does not ordinarily
counterfeit any thing but gold and silver, or
very rarely the other metals, because they are
not worth the trouble, so the evil spirit does
not for the most part counterfeit the other de-
votions, but only those to Jesus and Mary, the
devotion to Holy Communion, and to our Blessed

62 TBUE DEVOTION TO

Lady, because they are, among other devotions,
what gold and silver are amongst metals.

It is, then, very important first of all to
know (1) false devotions to our Blessed Lady
in order to avoid them; and (2) the true de-
votion in order to embrace it. Li conclusion,
among so many practices of true devotion to
our Blessed Lady, I will explain more in detail,
in the second part of this treatise, which is the
most perfect one, the one most agreeable to our
Lady, the most glorious to Grod, and the most
sanctifying to ourselves, in order that we may
attach ourselves to it.

1. On False Devotions to our Lady,
I find seven kinds of false devotees and
false devotions to our Lady, namely, (1) the
critical devotees ; (2) the scrupulous devotees ;
(3) the extxjmal devotees; (4) the presumptuous
devotees ; (5) the inconstant devotees ; (6) the
hypocritical devotees ; and (7) the interested
devotees.

The critical devotees are, for the most part,
proud scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits,
who have at bottom some devotion to the holy
Virgin, but who criticise nearly all the practices
of devotion to her, which the simple people pay
simply and hohly to their good Mother, because
these practices do not fall in with their own
humour and fancy. They call in doubt all tbe

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 63

miracles and histories recorded by authors
worthy of our faith, or drawn from the chroni-
cles of religious orders ; narratives which testify
to us the mercies and the power of the most
holy Virgin. They cannot see without un-
easiness simple and humble people on their
knees before an altar or an image of our Lady,
sometimes in the comer of a street, in order to
pray to God there ; and they even accuse them
of idolatry, as if they adored the wood or the
stone. They say that, for their part, they are
not fond of these external devotions, and that
their minds are not so weak as to give faith to
such a number of tales and little histories as are
in circulation about our Lady. Or, at other
times, they reply that the narrators have spoken
as professional orators, with exaggeration; or
they put a bad interpretation upon their words.
These kind of false devotees and of proud and
worldly people are greatly to be feared. They
do an infinite wrong to the devotion to our
Lady ; and they are but too successful in alien-
ating people from it, under the pretext of de-
stroying its abuses.

The scrupulous devotees are those who ftar
to dishonour the Son by honouring the Mother,
to abase the one in elevating the other. They
cannot bear that we should attribute to our Lady
ihe most just praises which the holy Fathers have
given her. It is all they can do to endure that

bZ TBUE DEYOTIOH TO

Lady, because they are, among other devotions,
what gold and silver are amongst metals.

It is, then, very important first of all to
know (1) false devotions to our Blessed Lady
in order to avoid them ; and (2) the true de-
votion in order to embrace it. Li conclusion,
among so many practices of true devotion to
our Blessed Lady, I will explain more in detail,
in the second part of this treatise, which is the
most perfect one, the one most agreeable to our
Lady, the most glorious to Qtxi, and the most
sanctifying to ourselves, in order that we may
attach ourselves to it.

1. On False Devotions to our Lady.

I find seven kinds of false devotees and
felse devotions to our Lady, namely, (1) the
critical devotees ; (2) the scrupulous devotees ;
(3) the extxjmal devotees; (4) the presumptuous
devotees ; (5) the inconstant devotees ; (6) the
hypocritical devotees; and (7) the interested
devotees.

The critical devotees are, for the most part,
proud scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits,
who have at bottom some devotion to the holy
Virgin, but who criticise nearly all the practices
of devotion to her, which the simple people pay
simply and holily to their good Mother, because
these practices do not fall in with their own
humour and fancy. They call in doubt all the

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 63

miracles and histories recorded by authors
worthy of our faith, or drawn from the chroni-
des of religious orders ; narratives which testify
to us the mercies and the power of the most
holy Virgin. They cannot see without un-
easiness simple and humble people on their
knees before an altar or an image of our Lady,
sometimes in the comer of a street, in order to
pray to Grod there ; and they even accuse them
of idolatry, as if they adored the wood or the
stone. They say that, for their part, they are
not fond of these external devotions, and that
their minds are not so weak as to give faith to
such a number of tales and little histories as are
in circulation about our Lady. Or, at other
times^ they reply that the narrators have spoken
as professional orators, with exaggeration; or
they put a bad interpretation upon their words.
These kind of false devotees and of proud and
worldly people are greatly to be feared. They
do an infinite wrong to the devotion to our
Lady ; and they are but too successful in alien-
ating people from it, under the pretext of de-
stroying its abuses.

The scrupulous devotees are those who ftar
to dishonour the Son by honouring the Mother,
to abase the one in elevating the other. They
cannot bear that we should attribute to our Lady
ihe most just praises which the holy Fathers have
given her. It is all they can do to endure that

64 TRUE DEVOnOH TO

there should be njore people before the altar of
the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sa-
crament, as if the one was contrary to the other,
as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady did
not pray to Jesus Christ by her. They are un-
willing that we should speak so often of our
Lady, and address ourselves so frequently to her.
These are the favourite sentences constantly in
their mouths : " To what end are so many chap-
lets, so many confraternities, and so many ex-
ternal devotions to the Blessed Virgin ? There
is much of ignorance in all this. It makes a
mmnmery of our religion. Speak to us of those
who are devout to Jesus Christ" (yet they often
name Him without uncovering : I say this by
way of parenthesis). " We must have recourse
to Jesus Christ ; He is our only Mediator. We
must preach Jesus Christ ; this is the solid de-
votion." What they say is true in a certain
sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by the ap-
plication they make of it, they hinder devotion
to our Blessed Lady, and it is, under the pre-
text of a greater good, a subtle snare of the evil
one. For never do we honour Jesus Christ more
than when we are most honouring His Blessed
Mother. Lideed we only honour Mary that we
may the more perfectly honour Jesus, inasmuch
as we only go to her as to the way in which we
are to find the end we are seeking, which is
Jesus.

THE BLBS8SD VIBQIN. 65

The Church, with the H0I7 Ghost, blesses
our Lady first, and our Lord second, — Benedicta
tu in mulieribusy et bemdictua fructua ventris tui
Jesus. It is not that Mary is more than Jesus^
or even equal to Him. Tliat would be an into-
lerable heresy ; but it is that, in order to bless
Jesus more perfectly, we must begin by blessing
Mary. Let us, then, say with all the true clients
of our Lady against these false scrupulous de-
votees, Mary, thou art blessed amongst all
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

External devotees are persons who make all
devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward
practices. They have no taste except for the
exterior of this devotion, because they have no
interior spirit of their own. They will say quanti-
ties of Rosaries with the greatest precipitation ;
ihey will hear many Masses distractedly ; they
will go without devotion to processions; they
wiU enrol themselves in all sorts of confratemi-
ties, without amending their lives, without doing
any violence to their passions, or without imi-
tating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part
of devotion, without having any relish for its
solidity « If they have not sensible sweetness in
their practices, they think they are doing no-
thing; they get aU out of joint, throw every
thing up, or do every thing at random. The

66 TRUE DEVOTIOH TO

world is full of these exterior devotees; and
there are no people who are more critical of men
of prayer, of those who foster an interior spirit
as the essential thing, while they do not lightly
accomit of that outward modesty which always
accompanies true devotion.

Presumptuous devotees are sinners abandoned
to their passions, or lovers of the world, who,
under the fair name of Christians and clients of
our Blessed Lady, conceal pride, avarice, im-
purity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction,
injustice, or some other sin. They sleep in peace
in the midst of their bad habits, without doing
any violence to themselves to correct their faults,
under the pretext that they are devout to the
Blessed Virgin. They promise themselves that
Gbd will pardon them; that they will not be
allowed to die without confession ; and that they
will not be lost eternally, because they say the
Eosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because
they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy
Rosary, or wear the scapular, or are enrolled
in other congregations, or wear the little habit
or little chain of our Lady.* They will not be-
lieve us when we tell them that their devotion is
only an illusion of the devil, and a pernicious
presumption likely to destroy their souls. They
say that God is good and merciful ; that He has
not made us to condemn us everlastingly ; that
* See note farther on.

THE BLESSED YIBOIK. 67

no man is without sin ; that they shall not die
without confession ; that one good Peccavi at the
hour of death is enough ; that they are devout
to our Lady ; that they wear the scapular ; and
that they say daily, without reproach or vanity,
seven Paters and Aves in her honour ; and that
they sometimes say the Eosary and the Office of
our Lady, besides fasting, and other things. To
give authority to all this, and to blind themselves
still further, they quote certain stories, which
they have heard or read, — it does not matter to
them whether they be true or false, — relating
how people have died in mortal sin witiiout con-
fession ; and then, because in their lifetime they
sometimes said some prayers, or went through
some practices of devotion to our Lady, how
they have been raised to life again, in order to
go to confession, or their soul been miraculously
retained in their bodies till confession ; or how
they have obtained from God at the moment of
death contrition and pardon of their sins, and so
have been saved ; and that they themselves ex-
pect similar favours. Nothing in Christianity
is more detestable than this diabolical presump-
tion. For how can we say truly that we love
and honour our Blessed Lady, when by our sins
we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying,
and outraging Jesus Christ her Son ? If Mary
laid down a law to herself, to save by her mercy
this sort of people, she would be authorising

68 TRUE DEVOnOK TO

crime, and assisting to crucify and outrage her
Son. Who would dare to think sudi a thought
as that?

I say, that thus to ahuse devotion to our
Lady, which, after devotion to our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and solidest of
all devotions, is to he guilty of a horrible sacri-
lege, which, after the sacrilege of an imworthy
Communion, is the greatest and the least pardon-
able of all sacrileges.

I confess that, in order to be truly devout to
our Blessed Lady, it is not absolutely necessairy
to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though this
were to be wished; but so much at least is
necessary, and I beg you to lay it well to
heart: —

1. To have a sincere resolution to avoid, at
least, all mortal sin, which outrages the Mother
as wdl as the Son. 2. I would add also that to
do violence to ourselves to avoid sin, to enrol
ourselves in confraternities, to say the Bosary or
other prayers, to fast on Saturdays, and the like,
is wonderftdly useftil to the conversion of a sin-
ner, however hardened ; and if my readw is sudi
a one, even if he has his foot in the abyss, I
would counsel these things to him. Nevertheless
it must be on the condition that he will only
practise these good works with the intention of
obtaining from Grod, by the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin, the grace of contriticm and the

THE BLESSSD VIBQIK. 69

pardon of his sins, to conquer his evil habits^
and not to remain quietly in the state of sin, in
spite of the remorse of his conscience, the ex-
ample of Jesus Christ and the Saints, and the
maxims of the holy GlospeL

The inconstard devotees are those who are
devout to our Blessed Lady by intervals and
whims. Sometimes they are fervent and some-
times lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready
to do any thing for her, and then, a little after-
wards, they are not like the same people. They
begin by taking up all the devotions to her, and
enrolling themselves in the confraternities ; and
then they do not practise the rules with fideliiy.
They change like the moon; and Mary puts
them under her feet with the crescent, because
they are mutable, and unworthy to be reckoned
among the servants of that faithftd Virgin, whose
clients have for their special graces fideUty and
constancy. It were better for such persons to
load themselves with fewer prayers and prac-
tices, and to fiilfil them with faithftdness and
love, in spite of the world, the devil, and the
flesh.

We have still to mention the false devotees
to our Blessed Lady, who are the hypocritical
devotees ; who doke their sins and sinfiil habits
under her mantle, in order to pass in the eyes of
men for what they are not.

There are also the interested devotees, who

Q

70 TRUE DEVOTION TO

have recourse to our Lady only to gain some
lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured
of some illness, or for some other similar ne-
cessiiy, without which they would forget her
altogether. Both, however, of these two last
classes are false devotees, and neither of them
pass current before QoA. and His holy Mother.

Let us, then, take great care not to be of the
number of the critical devotees, who believe
nothing and criticise every thing ; nor of the
scrupulous devotees, who are afraid of being too
devout to oiu: Lady, out of respect to our Lord ;
nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their
devotion consist in outward practices ; nor of the
presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext
of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
wallow in their sins ; nor of the inconstant de-
votees, who by leviiy change their practices of
devotion, or throw them up altogether on the
least temptation; nor of the Aj(pom<icaZ devotees,
who put themselves into confraternities, and wear
the liveries of the Blessed Virgin, in order to
pass for good people ; nor, finally, of the interested
devotees, who only have recourse to our Lady to
be delivered from bodily evils, or to obtain tem-
poral goods.

2. On tJie Characters of True Devotion to our
Blessed Lady.
After having laid bare and condenmed the

THE BLESSED VIBOIK. 71

fiJse devotions to the most holy Virgin, we must,
in a few words, characterise the true devotion.
It must be (1) interior^ (2) tender^ (3) /wZy,
(4) constant^ and (5) disinterested.

1. True devotion to our Lady is interior;
that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the
heart. It flows from the esteem we have of her,
the high idea we have formed of her great-
ness, and the love which we liave for her.

2. It is tender ; that is to say, ftill of confi-
dence in her, like a child's confidence in his
loving mother. This confidence makes the soul
have recourse to her in all its bodily or mental
necessities, with much simplicity, trust, and
tenderness. It implores the aid of its good
Mother, at all times, in all places, and about all
things ; in its doubts, that it may be enlightened ;
in its wanderings, that it may be brought into
the right path; in its temptations, that it may
be supported ; in its weaknesses, that it may be
strengthened ; in its falls, that it may be lifted
up; in its discouragements, that it may be
cheered ; in its scruples, that they may be taken
away ; in its crosses, toils, and disappointments
of life, that it may be consoled under them. In
a word, in all its evils of body and mind, the
soul's ordinary reftige is in Mary, without fear-
ing to be importunate to her or to displease
Jesus Christ.

3. True devotion to our Lady is holy; that

73 TRUE DEVOnOK TO

is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin, and to
imitate in the Blessed Virgin particularly her
profound humiliiy, her lively faith, her continual
prayer, her universal mortification, her divine
purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience^
her angelical sweetness, and her divine wisdom.
These are the ten principal virtues of the most
holy Virgin.

4. True devotion to our Lady is constant
It confirms the soul in good, and it does not
let it easily abandon its spiritual exerdses. It
makes it courageous in opposing the world in
its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weari-
nesses and passions, and the devil in his temp-
tations. So that a person truly devout to our
Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable,
scrupulous, nor timid. It is not that such a
person does not fall, or change sometimes in the
sensible feeling of devotion, or in the amoimt
of devotion itself. But when he falls, he rises
again by stretching out his hand to his good
Mother. If he loses the taste and relish of de-
votion, he does not disturb himself because oi
that ; for the just and fiuthful client of Mary
lives on the faith of Jesus and Mary, and not
on sentiments and sensibilities.

6. Lastly, true devotion to our Blessed Lady

is disinterested ; that is to say, it inspires the soul

not to seek itself but God only, and God in His

V Mother. A true client of Mary does not

THE BLI88BD YIBfiDT. 73

Borve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre
and interest, nor for its own good, \diether
temporal, corporal, or spiritual ; but exclusively
because she merits to be served, and Qod alone
in her. He does not love Mary precisely be-
cause she does him good, or because he hopes
in her ; but because she is so worfliy of love.
It is on this account that he loves and serves
her as £dthAilly in his disgusts and drynesses,
as in his sweetnesses and sensible fervours. He
loves her as much on Calvary, as at the marriage
of Oana. Oh I how such a client of our Blessed
Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of
her, is agreeable and precious in the eyes of
God and of His holy Mother I But in these
days how rare is such a sight I It is that it
may be less rare that I have taken my pen to
put on paper what I have taught, in public and
in private, during my missions for many years.

I have now said many things about the most
holy Virgin ; but I have many more to say, and
Hxere are iniSnitely more which I shall omit,
whether from ignorance, inabiUiy, or want of
time, in ilie design which I have to form a true
dient of Mary, and a true disciple of Jesus
Ohrist.

Oh I but my labour will have been well ex-
pended if this little Writing, fidling into the
hands of a soul of good dispositions, a soul well
bom^ — ^bom of Qod and of Mary, and not of

74 TRUE DEVOTION TO

blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, — should unfold to him, and should, by the
grace of the Holy Ghost, inspire him with, the
excellence and the price of that true and solid
devotion to our Blessed Lady, which I am going
presently to describe. If I knew that my guilty
blood could serve in engraving upon any one's
heart the truths which I am writing in honour
of my true Mother and sovereign Mistress, I
would use my blood instead of ink to form the
letters, in the hope to find some good souls who,
by their fidelity to the practice which I teach,
shall compensate to my dear Mother and Mis-
tress for the losses which she has suffered
through my ingratitude and infidelities. I feel
myself more than ever animated to believe and
to hope all which I have had deeply engraven
upon my heart, and have asked of Grod these
many years, namely, that sooner or later the
Blessed Virgin shall have more children, ser-
vants, and slaves of love than ever ; and that,
by this means, Jesus Christ, my dear Maj^ter,
shall reign more in hearts than ever.

I clearly foresee that raging beasts shall come
in fiiry to tear with their diabolical teeth this
little Writing and him whom the Holy Ghost
has made use of to write it, or at least to smother
it in the silence of a coffer, that it may not
appear. They shall even attack and persecute
those who shall read it and carry it out in prac-

THE BLESSED VIBOIK.

75

tioe. But what matter ? On the contrary, so
much the better I This very foresight encom^ages
me, and makes me hope for a great success ; that
is to say, for a great squadron of brave and va-
liant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes,
to combat the world, the devil, and corrupted
nature in those more than ever perilous times
which are about to come I Qui legitj mtelligat.
Qui potest capere^ capiat.

96 TRUE DEVOTION TO

Qod, says Si Bernard, seeing that we are
unworthy to receive His graces immediatelj
from His own hand, gives them to Mary, in
order that we may have through her whatever
He wills to give us ; and He also finds His glory
in receiving through the hands of Mary the gra-
titude, respect, and love, which we owe Him
for His benefits. It is most just, then, that we
should imitate this conduct of God, in order, as
the same St. Bernard says, that the grace should
return to its Author by the same canal through
which it came: Ut eodem alveo ad laryitarem
gratia gratia redeaty quoJltuciL *

This is precisely what our devotion does.
We offer and consecrate all we are and all we
have to the Blessed Virgin, in order that our
Lord may receive through her mediation the
glory and the gratitude which we owe Ham.
We acknowledge ourselves unworthy and unfit
to approach His Infinite Majesty by ourselves ;
and it is on this account that we avail ourselves
of the intercession of the most holy Virgin.

Moreover, this devotion is a practice of
great humility, which God loves above all the
other virtues. A soul which exalts itself abasea
Gk)d ; a soul which abases itself exalts QtxL
God resists the proud, and gives His grace to
the humble. If you abase yourself, thinking
yourself unworthy to appear before Him and
to draw nigh to Him, He .descends, and lowers

THE BLESSED VIBOIK.

75

tioe. But what matter ? On the contrary, so
much the better I This very foresight encourages
me, and makes me hope for a great success ; that
is to say, for a great squadron of brave and va-
liant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes,
to combat the world, the devil, and corrupted
nature in those more than ever perilous times
which are about to come I Qui legit, inteUigat.
Qui potest capere, capiat.

98 TRUE DEVOTION TO

herself his baQ^ his sapplement, and his dear
all towards Jesns. In a word^ as that person
is all consecrated to Mary, so is Marj all for
him ; after such a £ishion that we can say of
that perfect servant and child of Mary what
St John the Evangelist said of himself, that he
took the holy Virgin for all his goods, — Accepit
earn discipuhM in sucu

It is this which produces in the soul, if it is
fiuthfid, a great distrust, contempt, and hatred
of self, and a great confidence and a great self-
abandonment in the Blessed Virgin, its good
Mistress. A man no longer, as before, leans on
his own dispositions, intentions, merits, and good
w(»rks ; because, having made an entire sacrifice
of them to Jesus Christ by that good Mother,
he has but one treasure now, where all his goods
are laid up, and that is no longer in himself;
for his treasure is Mary. It is this which makes
him approach oiy* Lord without servile or scru-
pulous fear, and pray to Him with great confi-
dence. It is this which makes him enter into
the sentiments of the devout and learned Abbot
Bupert, who, making an allusion to the victory
that Jacob gained over the angel, said to our
Blessed Lady these beautiful words : " Mary,
my Princess, Immaculate Mother of a God-man,
Jesus Christ, I desire to wrestle with that Man,
namely, the Divine Word, not armed with my
own merits, but with yours." Domino^ Dei

THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 99

genitrix Maria^ et incorrupta Mater Dei et
Saminisj nan meisy sed tuis armatus meritisy cum
isto VirOy seu VerboDeiy luctari cupio (Rup. Pro-
log. in Cantic.),

Oh, how strong and mighty we are with
Jesus Christ, when we are armed with the wor-
thy merits and intercession of the Mother of
Grod, who, as St. Augustine says, has lovingly
vanquished the Most High.

2. As by this practice we give to our Lord
by His Mother's hands all our good works, that
good Mother purifies them, embellishes them,
and makes them acceptable to her Son.

(1) She purifies them of all the soil of self-
love, and of tliat imperceptible attachment to the
creature, which slips incessantly into our best
actions. As soon as they are in her most pure
and fruitfiil hands, those same hands, which have
pever been sullied or idle, and which purify
whatever they touch, take away firom the present
which we ms^e to her all that was spoilt or im^
perfect about it.

(2) She embellishes our works, in adorning
them with her own merits and virtues. It is as
if a peasant, wishing to gain the firiendship and
benevolence of the king, went to the queen, and
presented her with a fruit, which was his whole
revenue, in order that she might present it to
the king. The queen, having accepted the poor
little offering from the peasant, would place the

100 TBOE BXVOTION TO

firuit on a large and beantifiil dish of goM, and
eoj on the peasant's hehalf, would pres^it it to
the king. Then the fruit, however unworthy in
itself to be a king's present, would become worthy
of his majesty, because of the dish of gold on
which it rested and the person who presented it.

(3) She presents these good works to Jesus
Christ ; for she keeps nothing of what is given
for herself, as if she was our last end. She refers
it all feithftdly to Jesus. Kwe give to hw^ we
give necessarily to Jesus ; if we praise her or
glorify her, we at once praise and glorify Jesus.
As of old, when St. Elizabeth praised her, so
now, when we praise and bless her, she sings
herself, MagiAficat anima mea Dominum.

(4) She persuades Jesus to accept these good
works, however little and poor the present may
be for that Saint of saints and that King of kings.
When we present any tiling to Jesus by ourselves j
and relying on our own industry and disposition,
Jesus examines the offering, and often rejects it
because of the stains it has contracted through
sdf-love ; just as of old He rejected the sacrifices
of the Jews when ihey were full of their own
will. But when we present Him any thing by
the pure and virginal hands of His Well-beloved,
we take Him by His weak side, if it is allowaUe
to use such a term. He does not consider so
much the thing that is given Him, as the Mother
who gives it. He does not consider so modi

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64 TRUE DEVOTION TO

there should be njore people before the altar of
the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sa-
crament, as if the one was contrary to the other,
as if those who prayed to our Blessed Lady did
not pray to Jesus Christ by her. They are un-
willing that we should speak so often of our
Lady, and address ourselves so frequently to her.
These are the favourite sentences constantly in
their mouths : " To what end are so many chap-
lets, so many confraternities, and so many ex-
ternal devotions to the Blessed Virgin ? There
is much of ignorance in all this. It makes a
mummery of our religion. Speak to us of those
who are devout to Jesus Christ" (yet they often
name Him without imcovering : I say this by
way of parenthesis). " We must have recourse
to Jesus Christ ; He is our only Mediator. We
must preach Jesus Christ ; this is the solid de-
votion." What they say is true in a certain
sense, but it is very dangerous, when, by the ap-
plication they make of it, they hinder devotion
to our Blessed Lady, and it is, under the pre-
text of a greater good, a subtle snare of the evil
one. For never do we honour Jesus Christ more
than when we are most honouring His Blessed
Mother. Lideed we only honour Mary that we
may the more perfectly honour Jesus, inasmuch
as we only go to her as to the way in which we
are to find the end we are seeking, which is
Jesus.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 65

The Church, with the Holy Qhost, blesses
our Lady first, and our Lord second, — Benedicta
tu in mulieribusy, et benedicius fntctits vmtria tui
Jema. It is not that Mary is more than Jesus^
or even equal to Him. That would be an into-
lerable heresy ; but it is that, in order to bless
Jesus more perfectly, we must begin by blessing
Mary. Let us, then, say with all the true clients
of our Lady against these felse scrupulous de-
votees, Mary, thou art blessed amongst all
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

External devotees are persons who make all
devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward
practices. They have no taste except for the
exterior of this devotion, because they have no
interior spirit of their own. They will say quanti-
ties of Bosaries with the greatest precipitation ;
they will hear many Masses distractedly ; they
will go without devotion to processions; they
wilt enrol themselves in all sorts of confraterni-
ties, without amending their lives, without doing
auy violence to their passions, or without imi-
tating the virtues of that most holy Virgin.
They have no love but for the sensible part
of devotion, without having any relish for its
solidiiy. If they have not sensible sweetness in
their practices, they think they are doing no-
thing; they get all out of joint, throw every
thing up, or do every thing at random. The

66 TRUE DEVOTION TO

world is fiall of these exterior devotees; and
there are no people who are more critical of men
of prayer, of those who foster an interior spirit
as the essential thing, while they do not lightly
account of that outward modesty which always
accompanies true devotion.

Premmptuoua devotees are sinners abandoned
to their passions, or lovers of the world, who,
under the fair name of Christians and clients of
our Blessed Lady, conceal pride, avarice, im-
purity, drunkenness, anger, swearing, detraction,
injustice, or some other sin. They sleep in peace
in the midst of their bad habits, without doing
any violence to Aemselves to correct their faults,
under the pretext that they are devout to the
Blessed Virgin. They promise themselves that
Grod will pardon them; that they will not be
allowed to die without confession ; and that they
will not be lost eternally, because they say the
Eosary, because they fast on Saturdays, because
they belong to the Confraternity of the Holy
Rosary, or wear the scapular, or are enrolled
in other congregations, or wear the little habit
or little chain of our Lady.* They will not be-
lieve us when we tell them that their devotion is
only an illusion of the devil, and a pernicious
presumption likely to destroy their souls. They
say that God is good and merciful ; that He has
not made us to condemn us everlastingly ; that
♦ See note farther on.

THE BLESSED YIBOIN. 67

no man is without sin ; that they shall not die
without confession ; that one good Peccavi at the
hour of death is enough ; that they are devout
to our Lady ; that they wear the scapular ; and
that they say daily, without reproach or vanity,
seven Paters and Aves in her honour ; and that
they sometimes say the Eosary and the Office of
our Lady, besides fasting, and other things. To
give authority to all this, and to blind themselves
still further, they quote certain stories, which
they have heard or read, — it does not matter to
them whether they be true or false, — ^relating
how people have died in mortal sin without con-
fession ; and then, because in their lifetime they
sometimes said some prayers, or went through
some practices of devotion to our Lady, how
they have been raised to life again, in order to
go to confession, or their soul been miraculously
retained in their bodies till confession ; or how
they have obtained from God at the moment of
death contrition and pardon of their sins, and so
have been saved ; and that they themselves ex-
pect similar favours. Nothing in Christianity
is more detestable than this diabolical presump-
tion. For how can we say truly that we love
and honour our Blessed Lady, when by oiu* sins
we are pitilessly piercing, wounding, crucifying,
and outraging Jesus Cluist her Son ? If Mary
laid down a law to herself, to save by her mercy
this sort of people, she would be authorising

68 TRUE DEVOnOK TO

crime, and assisting to crucify and outrage her
Son. Who would dare to think such a thought
as that?

I say, that thus to abuse devotion to our
Lady, which, after devotion to our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and solidest of
all devotions, is to be guilty of a horrible sacri-
lege, which, aft;er the sacrilege of an unworthy
Communion, is the greatest and the least pardon-
able of all sacrileges.

I confess that, in order to be truly devout to
our Blessed Lady, it is not absolutely necessaiy
to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though this
were to be wished; Imt so much at least is
necessary, and I beg you to lay it well to
heart: —

1. To have a sincere resolution to avoid, at
least, aU mortal sin, which outrages the Mother
as w^ as the Son. 2. I would add also that to
do violence to ourselves to avoid sin, to enrol
ourselves in confraternities, to say the Bosary or
other prayers, to fast on Saturdays, and the like,
is wonderfully usefol to the conversion of a sm-
ner, however hardened ; and if my reader is such
a one, even if he has his foot in the abyss, I
would counsel these things to him. Nevertheless
it must be on the condition that he will only
practise these good works with the intention of
obtaining from Gk)d, by the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin, the grace of contrition and the

THE BUSSSSD YIBGIK. 69

pardon of his sins, to conquer his evil habits^
and not to remain quietly in the state of sin, in
spite of the remorse of his conscience, the ex-
ample of Jesus Christ and the Saints, and the
maxims of the holj GK)speL

The mconatant devotees are those who are
devout to our Blessed Lady by intervals and
whims. Sometimes they are fervent and some-
times lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready
to do any thing for her, and then, a little after-
wards, they are not like the same people. They
begin by taking up aU the devotions to her, and
enrolling themselves in the confraternities ; and
then they do not practise the rules with fidelity.
They change like the moon; and Mary puts
them under her feet with the crescent, because
they are mutable, and unworthy to be reckoned
among the servants of that faithful Virgin, whose
clients have for their special graces fidelity and
ocmstancy. It were better for such persons to
load themselves with fewer prayers and prac-
tices, and to ftdfil them with faithftdness and
love, in spite of the world, the devil, and the
flesh.

We have still to mention the false devotees
to our Blessed Lady, who are the hypocritical
devotees ; who cloke their sins and sinfiil habits
under her mantle, in order to pass in the eyes of
men for what they are not.

There are also the interested devotees, who

G

70 TBUE DEVOTIOK TO

have recourse to our Lady only to gain some
lawsuit^ or to avoid some danger, or to be cured
of some illness, or for some other similar ne-
cessity, without which they would forget her
altogether. Both, however, of these two last
classes are false devotees, and neither of them
pass current before God and His holy Mother.

Let us, then, take great care not to be of the
number of the critical devotees, who believe
nothing and criticise every thing ; nor of the
scrupulous devotees, who are afraid of being too
devout to our Lady, out of respect to our Lord ;
nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their
devotion consist in outward practices ; nor of the
presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext
of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
wallow in their sins ; nor of the inconstant de-
votees, who by levity change their practices of
devotion, or throw them up altogether on the
least temptation; nor of the Ajpom^icaZ devotees,
who put themselves into confraternities, and wear
the liveries of the Blessed Virgin, in order to
pass for good people ; nor, finally, of the interested
devotees, who only have recourse to our Lady to
be delivered from bodily evils, or to obtain tem-
poral goods.

2. On tJie Characters of True Devotion to our
Blessed Lady.
After having laid bare and condemned the

THE BLESSED YIBQIK. 71

fidse devotions to the most holy Virgin, we must,
in a few words, characterise the true devotion.
It must be (1) interior^ (2) tender^ (3) Iwh/y
(4) constant^ and (5) disinterested,

1. True devotion to our Lady is interior;
that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the
heart. It flows from the esteem we have of her,
the high idea we have formed of her great-
ness, and the love which we have for her.

2. It is tender ; that is to say, ftill of confi-
dence in her, like a child's confidence in his
loving mother. This confidence makes the soul
have recourse to her in all its bodily or mental
necessities, with much simplicity, trust, and
tenderness. It implores the aid of its good
Mother, at all times, in all places, and about all
things ; in its doubts, that it may be enlightened ;
in its wanderings, that it may be brought into
ihe right path ; in its temptations, that it may
be supported ; in its weaknesses, that it may be
strengthened ; in its falls, that it may be lifted
up; in its discouragements, that it may be
cheered ; in its scruples, that they may be taken
away ; in its crosses, toils, and disappointments
of life, that it may be consoled under them. In
a word, in all its evils of body and mind, the
soul's ordinary reftige is in Mary, without fear-
ing to be importunate to her or to displease
Jesus Christ.

3. True devotion to our Lady is holy; that

73 TBTHB DEYOnOH TO

is to SBjy it leads the soul to avoid sin, and to
imitate in the Blessed Virgin particularly her
profound humility, her Uvely faith, her continual
prayer, her universal mortification, her divine
purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience,
her angelical sweetness, and her divine wisdom.
These are the ten principal virtues of the most
holy Virgin.

4. True devotion to our Lady is constanL
It confirms the soul in good, and it does not
let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It
makes it courageous in opposing the world in
its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weari-
nesses and passions, and the devil in his temp-
tations. So that a person truly devout to our
Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable,
scrupulous, nor timid. It is not that such a
person does not fall, or change sometimes in the
sensible feeling of devotion, or in the amount
of devotion itsel£ But when he falls, he rises
again by stretching out his hand to his good
Mother. If he loses the taste and relish of de-
votion, he does not disturb himself because of
that ; for the just and fiuthful client of Mary
lives on the faith of Jesus and Mary, and not
on sentiments and sensibiUties.

5. Lastly, true devotion to our Blessed Lady
is disinterested ; that is to say, it inspires the soul
not to seek itself but God only, and God in His
holy Mother. A true client of Mary does not

THE BUSSED YIRGnr. 73

serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre
and interest^ nor for its own good, whether
temporal, corporal, or spiritual ; but exclusively
because she merits to be served, and Qtod alone
in her. He does not love Mary precisely be-
cause she does him good, or because he hopes
in her ; but because she is so worthy of love.
It is on this account that he loves and serves
her as ^dthftdly in his disgusts and drynesses,
as in his sweetnesses and sensible fervours. He
loves her as much on Calvary, as at the marriage
of Cana. Oh I how such a client of our Blessed
Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of
her, is agreeable and precious in the eyes of
God and of His holy Mother 1 But in these
days how rare is such a sight I It is that it
may be less rare that I have taken my pen to
put on paper what I have taught, in pubUo and
in private, during my missions for many years.

I have now said many things about the most
holy Virgin ; but I have many more to say, and
there are infinitely more which I shall omit,
whether from ignorance, inabihty, or want of
time, m ihe design which I have to form a true
dient of Mary, and a true disciple of Jesus
Ohri^

Oh I but my labour will have been well ex-
pended if this little Writing, felling into the
hands of a soul of good dispositions, a soul well
born;— bom of God and of Mary, and not of

112 TRUE DEVOTION TO

on the vows which we have made in holy Bap-
tism. It was chiefly by this last reason that
he shut his adversaries' mouths, making them
see that this consecration to the holy Virgin,
and to Jesus Christ by her hands, is nothing
else than a perfect renewal of the vows and pro-
mises of Baptism. He has said many beautifiil
things on this practice, which can be read in his
works.

We may also see in M. Boudon's book the
different Popes who have approved this devotion,
the theologians who have examined it, the perse-
cutions they have undergone and have overcome,
and the thousands of persons who have embraced
it, without any Pope having ever condemned
it. Indeed, we cannot see how it could be con-
demned without overturning the foundations of
Christianiiy. It is clear, then, that this devotion
is not new ; and that if it is not common, it is
because it is too precious to be relished and
practised by all the world.*

(2) This devotion is a secure means of going
to Jesus Christ, because it is the very character-
istic of our Blessed Lady to conduct us surely
to Jesus, just as it is the very characteristic of
Jesus to conduct us surely to Ihe Eternal Father.
Spiritual persons, therefore, must not fall into

♦ Boudon says, in his Saint Esdavage^ that the
English Catholics were remarkable for this devotion
in the seventeenth century. — F. W. F.

THE BLESSED VIROIN.

75

tioe. But wliat matter ? On the contrary, so
much the better I This very foresight encourages
me, and makes me hope for a great success ; that
is to say, for a great squadron of brave and va-
Hant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes,
to combat the world, the devil, and corrupted
nature in those more than ever perilous times
which are about to come I Qui legit^ inieUigat.
Qui potest capere^ capiat.

PAET 11.

ON THE MOST EXCELLENT DEVOTION TO OUR
BLESSED LADY, OR THE PERFECT CONSE-
ORATION TO JESUS BY MARY.

There are several interior practices of true
devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the
principal of them stated compendiously. (1)
To honour her as the worthy Mother of GJod,
with the worship of hyperdulia ; that is to say,
to esteem her and honour her above all the other
Saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first
after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man ; (2)
to meditate her virtues, her privileges, and her
actions ; (3) to contemplate her grandeurs ; (4)
to make to her acts of love, of praise, of gratitude ;
(6) to invoke her cordially; (6) to offer our-
selves to her, and unite ourselves with her ; (7)
to do all our actions with the view of pleasing
lier; (8) to begin, to continue, and to finish
all our actions by her, in her, and with her, in
order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in
Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and fpr Jesus
Ohrist our Last End. We will presently e^^-
plain this last practice.

78 TKDB DEVOnOK TO

Tme devotion to onr Lady has also several
exterior practices, of which the following are the
chief: — (1) to enrol ourselves in her confrater-
nities, and enter her congregations ; (2) to join
the religious orders instituted in her honour ;
(3) to publish her praises; (4) to give alms,
to fast, and to undergo outward and inward
mortifications in her honour ; (5) to wear her
hveries, such as the rosary, the scapular, or the
litfle chain ; (6) to recite with attention, devo-
tion, and modesty, the holy Eosary , composed of
fifteen decades of Hail Marys in honour of the
fift;een principal mysteries of Jesus Christ, or
five decades, which is the third of the Bosary,
either in honour of the five Joyous Mysteries,
which are the Annunciation, the Visitation, the
Nativity of Jesus Christ, the Purification, and
the Finding of our Lord in the Temple ; or in
honour of the five Sorrowful Mysteries, which
are the Agony of our Lord in the Grarden of Ol-
ives, His Scourging, His Crowning with Thorns^
His Carrying of the Cross, and His Crucifixion ;
or in honour of the five Glorious Mysteries,
which are the Besurrection of Jesus Christ, the
Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost at
Pentecost, the Assumption of our Blessed Lady
body and soul into Heaven, and her Coronaticm
by the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity,
We may also say a Chaplet of six or seven de-
cades in honour of the years which we believe

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 79

our Lady lived on earth ; or the little Corona of
the Blessed Virgin, composed of three Our Fa-
thers and twelve Hail Marys, in honour of her
crown of twelve stars, or privileges; or the
Office of our Lady, so universaQy received and
recited in the Church ; or the Little Psalter of the
holy Virgin, which St. Bonaventure has com-
posed in her honour, and which is so tender and
so devout that one cannot say it without being
melted by it ; or fourteen Our Fathers and Hail
Marys in honour of her fourteen joys ; or some
other prayers, hymns, and canticles of the
Church, such as the Salve Regina^ the Almaj
the Ave Regina ccehrum^ or the Regina cceli,
according to the diffisrent seasons ; or the Ave
Maris Stella^ the gloriosa Domina, the Magni-
ficat, or some other practices of devotion of which
books are ftJl ; (7) to sing or have sung spi-
ritual canticles in her honour ; (8) to make her
a number of genuflexions or reverences, while
saying, for example, every morning, sixty or a
hundred times Ave Maria, Virgojidelis, to obtain
from God the grace by her to be faithful to the
graces of God during the day ; and then again
in the evening, Ave Maria, Mater misericordicBy
to ask pardon of God by her for the sins that
we have committed during the day ; (9) to take
care of her confraternities, to adorn her altars,
to crown and ornament her images; (10) to
carry her images, or to have them carried, in

68 TRUE DEVOnOK TO

crime^ and assisting to crucify and outrage her
Son, Who would dare to think such a ihought
as that?

I say, that thus to abuse devotion to our
Lady, which, after devotion to our Lord in the
Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and solidest of
all devotions, is to be guilty of a horrible sacri-
lege, which, after the sacrilege of an unworthy
Communion, is the greatest and the least pardon-
able of all sacrileges.

I confess that, in order to be truly devout to
our Blessed Lady, it is not absolutely necessary
to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though ^tna
were to be wished; but so much at least is
necessary, and I beg you to lay it well to
heart: —

1. To have a sincere resolution to avoid, at
least, all mortal sin, which outrages the Moib^r
as well as the Son. 2. I would add abo that to
do violence to ourselves to avoid sin, to enrol
ourselves in confraternities, to say the Bosary or
otiber prayers, to fast on Saturdays, and the like,
is wonderftdly useftil to the conversion of a sin-
ner, however hardened ; and if my read^ is sudi
a one, even if he has his foot in the abyss, I
would counsel these things to him. Nevertheless
it must be on the condition that he will only
practise these good works with the intention of
obtaining from Grod, by the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin, the grace of contrition and the

THE BUB3SSD YISaiN. 69

pardon of his sins, to conquer liis evil habits^
and not to remain quietly in the state of sin^ in
spite of the remorse of his conscience, the ex-
ample of Jesus Christ and the Saints, and the
maxims of the holy GospeL

The inconstant devotees are those who are
devout to our Blessed Lady by intervals and
whims. Sometimes they are fervent and some-
times lukewarm. Sometimes they seem ready
to do any thing for her, and then, a little after-
wards, they are not like the same people. They
begin by taking up all the devotions to her, and
enrolling themselves in the confraternities ; and
then they do not practise the rules with fidelity.
They change like the moon; and Mary puts
them under her feet with the crescent, because
they are mutable, and unworthy to be reckoned
among the servants of that faithftd Virgin, whose
clients have for their special graces fidelity and
constancy. It were better for such persons to
load themselves with fewer prayers and prac-
tices, and to fiilfil them with faithfulness and
love, in spite of the world, the devil, and the
flesh.

We have still to mention the &lse devotees
to our Blessed Lady, who are the hypocribioal
devotees ; who doke their sins and sinM habits
und^ her mantle, in order to pass in the eyes of
men for what they are not

There are also the interested devotees, who

G

70 TBUB DEVOTION TO

have recourse to oiir Lady only to gain some
lawsuit, or to avoid some danger, or to be cured
of some illness, or for some other similar ne-
cessiiy, without which they would forget her
altogether. Both, however, of these two last
classes are false devotees, and neither of them
pass current before Grod and His holy Mother.

Let us, then, take great care not to be of the
number of the critical devotees, who believe
nothing and criticise every thing ; nor of the
scrupulous devotees, who are afraid of being too
devout to our Lady, out of respect to our Lord ;
nor of the exterior devotees, who make all their
devotion consist in outward practices ; nor of the
presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext
of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin,
wallow in their sins ; nor of the inconstant de*
votees, who by levity change their practices of
devotion, or throw them up altogether on the
least temptation; nor of the Aj/pom^icaZ devotees,
who put themselves into confraternities, and wear
the liveries of the Blessed Virgin, in order to
pass for good people ; nor, finally, of the interested
devotees, who only have recourse to our Lady to
be dehvered firom bodily evils, or to obtain tem-
poral goods,

2, On tlie Characters of True Devotion to our
Blessed Lady.
After having laid bare and condemned the

THE BLESSED VIBOIN. 71

fiJse devotions to the most holy Virgin, we must,
in a few words, characterise the true devotion.
It must be (1) interior^ (2) tender^ (3) Jiolyy
(4) constant^ and (5) disinterested,

1. True devotion to our Lady is interior;
that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the
heart. It flows from the esteem we have of her,
the high idea we have formed of her great-
ness, and the love which we liave for her.

2. It is tender ; that is to say, ftdl of confi-
dence in her, like a child's confidence in his
loving mother. This confidence makes the soul
have recourse to her in all its bodily or mental
necessities, with much simplicity, trust, and
tenderness. It implores the aid of its good
Mother, at all times, in all places, and about all
things ; in its doubts, that it may be enlightened ;
in its wanderings, that it may be brought into
the right path ; in its temptations, that it may
be supported ; in its weaknesses, that it may be
strengthened ; in its falls, that it may be lifted
up; in its discouragements, that it may be
cheered ; in its scruples, that they may be taken
away ; in its crosses, toils, and disappointments
of Hfe, that it may be consoled under them. In
a word, in all its evils of body and mind, the
soul's ordinary reftige is in Mary, without fear-
ing to be importunate to her or to displease
Jesus Christ

3. True devotion to our Lady is holy; that

J3 TRXJB DETOnOK TO

is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin, and to
imitate in the Blessed Virgin particularly her
profound humility , her lively faith, her continnal
prayer, her universal mortification, her divine
purity, her ardent chariiy, her heroic patience,
her angelical sweetness, and her divine wisdom.
These are the ten principal virtues of the most
holy Virgin.

4. True devotion to our Lady is constant
It confirms the soul in good, and it does not
let it easily abandon its spiritual exerdses. It
makes it courageous in opposing the world in
its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weari-
nesses and passions, and the devil in his temp-
tations. So that a person truly devout to our
Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable,
scrupulous, nor timid. It is not that such a
person does not fall, or change sometimes in the
sensible feeling of devotion, or in the amount
of devotion itself. But when he falls, he rises
again by stretching out his hand to his good
Mother. If he loses the taste and relish of de-
votion, he does not disturb himself because of
that ; for the just and &ithful client of Mary
lives on the faith of Jesus and Mary, and not
on sentiments and sensibilities.

5. Lastiy, true devotion to our Blessed Lady
is disinterested ; that is to say, it inspires the soul
not to seek itself but God only, and God in His
holy Mother. A true client of Maiy does not

THS BLXBSBD YIBGIH. 73

serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre
and interest, nor for its own good, whether
t^nporal, corporal, or spiritual ; but exclusively
because she merits to be served, and Qtod alone
in her. He does not love Mary precisely be-
cause she does him good, or because he hopes
in her ; but because she is so worthy of love.
It is on this account that he loves and serves
her as faithftdly in his disgusts and drynesses,
as in his sweetnesses and sensible fervours. He
loves her as much on Calvary, as at the marriage
of Cana. Oh I how such a client of our Blessed
Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of
her, is agreeable and precious in the eyes of
Ghxi and of His holy Mother I But in these
days how rare is sudb a sight I It is that it
may be less rare that I have taken my pen to
put on paper what I have taught, in public and
in private, during my missions for many years.

I have now said many things about the most
holy Virgin ; but I have many more to say, and
there are infinitely more which I shall omit,
whether from ignorance, inabiUty, or want of
time, in the design which I have to form a true
client of Mary, and a true disciple of Jesus
Christ.

Oh 1 but my labour will have been well ex-
pended if this little Writing, Ming into the
hands of a soul of good dispositions, a soul well
bom, — ^bom of God and of Mary, and not of

74 TRUE DEVOTION TO

blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, — should unfold to him, and should, bythe
grace of the Holy Ghost, inspire him with, the
excellence and the price of that true and solid
devotion to our Blessed Lady, which I am going
presently to describe. If I knew that my guiliy
blood could serve in engraving upon any one's
heart the truths which I am writing in honour
of my true Mother and sovereign Mistress, I
would use my blood instead of ink to form the
letters, in the hope to find some good souls who,
by their fidelity to the practice which I teach,
shall compensate to my dear Mother and Mis-
tress for the losses which she has suffered
through my ingratitude and infideUties. I feel
myself more than ever animated to believe and
to hope all which I have had deeply engraven
upon my heart, and have asked of Grod these
many years, namely, that sooner or later the
Blessed Virgin shall have more children, ser-
vants, and slaves of love than ever ; and that,
by this means, Jesus Christ, my dear Master,
shall reign more in hearts than ever.

I clearly foresee that raging beasts shall come
in fiiry to tear with their diabolical teeth this
little Writing and him whom the Holy Ghost
has made use of to write it, or at least to smother
it in the silence of a coffer, that it may not
appear. They shall even attack and persecute
those who shall read it and carry it out in prac-

THE BLESSED VIBOIK.

75

tioe. But what matter ? On the contrary, so
mnch the better I This very foresight encourages
me, and makes me hope for a great success ; that
is to say, for a great squadron of brave and va-
liant soldiers of Jesus and Mary, of both sexes,
to combat the world, the devil, and corrupted
nature in those more than ever perilous times
which are about to come I Qui legit^ intelligat.
Qui potest capere^ capiat.

12€ TBUS BKTOTUmr fO

tdts berself be overcome in love and libenfi^
As a holy man said of her, For an egg, she gives
an ox; that is to say, for a little that is gtveo <Jo
her, the gives much of what she has received
from God. Hence, if a soul gives itself to hot
without reserve, she gives herself to that sool
without reserve, if only we put our eonfidencs
in her without presumption, and labour on am
side to acquire virtues, and to bridle our p«8w
rnxms.

Let, then, the faithful servants of the Blessed
Virgin say hardily with St John Damascene^
** Having confidence in you, O Mother of Qoi^
I shall be saved ; being under your protectioB, i
shall fear nothing ; with youi; succour, I shall
give battle to my enemies, and put them to flight ;
for devotion to you is an arm c^ salvation, whidi
Qod gives to those whom it is His will to sava**
i^[>em titam habens, O Deipara^ servabor ; deftf^
monem ttuim possideHSj rum timebo ; persequem
inimiooe meos et iufngam vertam^ haiben^ protto^
ti&nem et auxHimn tuum ; nam iSn decotum esm
48i arma qucBctam sahitis qtuB Deas his dot qmea
vuU sahx>8 fieri (Joan. Damasc.).

Of all the truths which I have be^i puttbig
forward with regard to our Blessed Lady asd
her children and servants, the Holy Ghost gives
us an admirable figure in tiie Scriptures. It im
in the history of Jacob, who received the bene*
diction of his father Isaac, by the skill and p«iaB

TBS mjasMD vmam. 137

of &^coa, his mother. This is the histcoy, aa
ii» Holj Ghost relates it I will afterwards add
ike explanati^m of it

Esau having sold Jacob his birthri^t, Be^.
becca, the mother of the two brothers, who loved
Jhoob tenderly, secured this advantage to him
BMOiy years afterwards- by an address most holy
fent mostftillof mystery. Isaac, feeling himself
wry cidy and wishing to bless his children before
he died, called his son Esau, who was his favour-
ite, and commancbd him to go out hunting, to
get him something to eat, in order tliat he mighit
Idesa him afterwards. Sebeeea promptiy iuf-
formed Jacob of what had passed, aitd ordered
}mn to go and take two kids firom the flook.
When he had given them to his modier, she pre^
pored for Isaac what she knew he liked. She
dothed Jacob in the garments of Esau, which
Ae kept, and covered his hands and his neok
irkh the skin of the kids, so that his father, who
WAS blind, might, in hearing Jacob's voice, think
«t least by the i^in of his hands that it was
&au his brother. Isaac, having been surprised
by the voice, which he thought was Jacob's
foice, made him come near him. Having touched
file skins with which his hands were covered, ha
WBoA that the voice truly was the voice of Jacob,
but tiiat the hands were the hands of Esan.
After he had eaten, and, in kissing Jacob, had
nnelt the odour of his perfttmed garm^its^ he

128 TBUS DBVOTIOK TO

blessed him, and wished for him the dew ofi
heaven and the fiiiitfidness of eartL He made
him lord over all his brethren, and finished his
blessing with these words, " Cursed be he thafc
curseth thee, and let him that blesseth thee btf
filled with blessings," Isaac had hardly finished
these words when Esau entered, and brought with
him what he had captured while out hunting, id
order that his father might eat it, and then bless
him. The holy patriarch was surprised with an
incredible astonishment when he imderstood
what had happened. But, far fi'om retracting
what he had done, on the contrary he confirmed
it, for he saw too plainly that the finger of Gtod
was in the matter. Esau then uttered great
cries, as the holy Scripture remarks, and loudly
accusing the deceitfulness of his brother, he asked
his father if he had but one benediction; being
in this point, as the holy Fathers remark, the
image of those who are too glad to ally God
with the world, and are fain to enjoy the con-
solations of heaven and the consolations of earth
both together. At last Isaac, touched with the
cries of Esau, blessed him, but with a blessii^
of the eartli, subjecting him to his brother. This*
made him conceive such an envenomed hatred
to Jacob, that he waited only for }ns fatherV
death, in order to kill him. Neither would:
Jacob have escaped death, if his dear mother
Bebecca had not saved him from it by her in**

THE BLESSED VIBGIK. 129

dostries, and by the good counsels which she
gave him, and which he followed.

Before explaining this beautiAil history, we
must observe that, according to the holy Fathers
and the interpreters of Scripture, Jacob is the
figure of Jesus Christ and the predestinate, and
Esau that of the reprobate. We have but got
to examine the actions and conduct of the one
and the other to form our judgment about this.

1. Esau, the elder, was strong and robust
of body, adroit and skilfiil in drawing the bow,
and in taking much game in the chase. 2. He
hardly ever stayed in the house; and putting no
confidence in any thing but his own strength
and address, he only worked out of doors. 3.
He took very little pains to please his mother
Bebecca, and indeed did nothing for that end.
4. He was such a glutton, and loved eating so
much, that he sold his birthright for a mess of
pottage. 5. He was, like Cain, fiill of envy
agunst his brother Jacob, and persecuted him
beyond measure.

Now this is the daily conduct of the repro-
bate. 1. They trust in their own strength and
afytitude for temporal afiairs. They are very
strong, very able, and very enlightened in
earthly business ; but very weak and very igno-
taut in heavenly things, — In terrenia fortes^ in
ecelestibus debiles. 2. It is on this account that
tiiey are hardly at all, or at least very little, at

130 TRUE T>EVt)WOS TO

their own bomes^ — thsA is to say, m tt^ir owM
interior, which is ihe inward and essential bousi
which God has given to every man, to live theife
9£b&r His example ; for Gt>d always rests in Him**
edf. The reprobate do not love retirement, nor
spiritnality, nor inward devotion ; and they tredl
as little, or as bigots, or as savages, those who
are interior or retired from the world, and wbir
work more within than without 3. TherqpOTH
bate care next to no&ing tat devotion to otu^
Blessed Lady, the Mother of the predestinate
It is true that ibey do not bate her formal!;^
Indeed, they sometimes praise her, and say tiiey
love her, and even practise some devotion in hei^
honour. Nevertheless they cannot bear that w«
should love her tenderly, because they have boI
ihe tendernesses of Jacob fear her. They &rf
much to say again^ the practices of devotion, ^
which her good children and servants &ithfi]lfy
employ themselves in order to gain her affectiiH^'
because they do not think that devotion neooB*
sary to salvation ; and they consid^, that pre^'
vided they do not hate our Lady formally, ch^
openly despise her devotion, it is enough. Mosl^
over, ^y imagine that they are already in her
good graces, and that, in fine, they are her ser*'
vants, inasmuch as they recite and mmnble eer^
tain prayers in her honour, withcmt tendemMjj
for her, or amendment in themselves. 4. Tlie
reprobate jsell their birthisght ; that is to 8ay^

TKS llJifligl YIBQitf. 181

iim {ddasares of paradise. They sell it for a
pottage of lentils ; that is to say, for the pleasures
of the earth. They laugh, they drink, they eat,
tJmy amuse themselves, they gamble, they dancei
nod take no more pains than Esau did to render
^imiselves worthy of the benediction of their
Qeavenly Father. In a word, they think only
of earth, and they love earth only ; and they
qpeak and act only for earth and for its pleasures,
a^Uing for one moment of enjoyment, for one
^mB puff of honour, and for a morsd of hard
o»6tal, yellow or white, their baptismal gracOi
Hkeir robe of innocence, and their heavenly in-
Wstitanoe. 5. Finally, the reprobate daily hate
aad persecute the predestinate openly and se-
foatly. They feel the predestinate as a burden
^ &em, they despise them, they criticise them,
tibey counterwork them, they abuse them, thc^
i^idk them, they cheat them, they impoverish themi
i&ey drive them away, they bring them low into
ili^doBt ; while they themselves are making for-
tooes, are taking their pleasures, getting them*
sf^ves into good positions, enriching themselves,
ajfgprandishig themselves, and living at their ease.
'*' As to Jacob, the younger; 1. He was of
ai&eUe ocmstitution, meek and peaceful. He
Hmd for the most part at home, in order to
ffm ihe good graces of his mother Bebeccai
wiiom he loved tenderly. If he went abroad|
i^ was not of bis own will, nor through any

132 TRUE DEYOnOH TO

confidence in his own industry, but to obey bis
mother.

2. He loved and honoured his mother. It
was on this accoimt that he kept at home. He
avoided every thing which could displease her,
and did every thing which he thought would
please her; and this increased the love whioh
Bebecca already had for him.

3. He was subject in all things to his dear
mother. He obeyed her entirely in all matters,
— ^promptly, without delaying, and lovingly,
without complaining. At the least token of
her will, the little Jacob ran and worked ; and
he believed every thing she said to him. For
example: when she told him to fetch two kids,
and that he should fetch them in order that she
should prepare something for his father Isaac
to eat, Jacob did not reply that one was enough
to make a dish for a single man, but without
reasoning he did what she told him to do.

4. He had a great confidence in his dear mo^
ther. As he did not lean in the least on his o^^
ability, he leant exclusively on the care and pro«-
tection of his mother. He appealed to her in aH
his necessities, and consulted her in all his doubti.
For example : when he asked if instead of a blesfti-
ing, he should not receive a curse from his fathec,
he believed her and trusted her, when she said
that she would take the curse upon herself.

5 Lastly, he imitated as far as he could the

THE BLMSBSD YEBGOK. 133

virtues he saw in his moiher. It seems as if
one of his reasons for leading suoh a sedentary
life at home was to imitate his dear mother,
who was virtuous, and kept herself removed
from bad companies, which corrupt the morals.
By this means he made himself worthy to re-
o^ve the double benediction of his beloved father.

Such also is the conduct which the predes-
tinate daily observe.

1. They are sedentary^ and home • keepers,
with their Mother. In other words, they love
retirement, and are interior. They give them-
selves to prayer; but it is after the example
and in the company of their Mother the holy
Virgin, the whole of whose glory is within, and
who, during her whole life, so much loved retire^
ment and prayer. It is true that they sometimes
sippeax without, in the world ; but it is in obedi-
ence to the will of God, and that of their dear
Mother, to fulfil the duties of their state. How-
ever apparently important their outward works
ipay be, they esteem still more highly those
which they do within themselves, in their in-
ierioTj in the company of the Blessed Virgin.
For it is within that tibey accomplish the great
woark of their perfection, compared with which
all their other works are but infant sports. It
jft on this account that, while sometimes their
brothers and sisters are working outwardly with
much energy, success, and skill, in the praise

L

134 TBUE DEVOTION TO

and with the approbation of the world, thqr,
on the contrary, know by the light of the Holy
Ghost that there is far more glory, more good,
and more pleasure, in remaining hidden in re*
treat with Jesus Christ their Model, in an
entire and perfect subjection to their Mother^
than to do of themselves wonders of nature and
grace in the world, as so many Esaus and re-
probates do. Gloria et diviiioB in domo eptSy-^
" Glory for G^ and riches for men are to be
found in the house of Mary."

Lord Jesus, how sweet are Thy tabernacles I
The sparrow has found a house to lodge in, and
the turtle-dove a nest for her little ones. Oh,
happy is the man who dwells in the house of
Mary, where Thou wert the first to make Thy
dwelling ! It is in this house of the predestinate
that he receives succour jGrom Thee alone, and
that he has disposed the steps and ascents of aU
the virtues, to raise himself in his heart to per-
fection in this vale of tears. Quam dilecta taber^
nacula tua !

2. The predestinate tenderly love and truly
honour our Blessed Lady as their good Mother
and Mistress. They love her not only by month,
but in trutL They honour her not only out*
wardly , but in the bottom of their hearts. They
avoid, like Jacob, every thing which can dis«r
please her ; and they practise with fervour what-
ever they think will make them find favour with

THE BLEBSED VIRGIK. 135

betr. They bring to her, and give her, not two
Mds, as Jacob did to Bebeoca, but their body
and their soul, with all that depends on them,
figured by the two kids of Jacob. They bring
them to her, (1) that she may receive them as
thmgs which belong to her ; (2) that she may
kill them, and make them die to sin and self, in
stripping them of their own skin, and their own
self-love, and by this means to please Jesus her
Son, who wills not to have any for His disciples
and firiends but those who are dead to them-
selves ; (3) that she may prepare them for the
taste of our Heavenly Father, and for His great-
est glory, which she knows better than any other
creature ; and (4) that by her cares and inter-
cessions this body and soul, thoroughly purified
from every stain, thoroughly dead, thoroughly
stripped, and well prepared, may be a delicate
meat, worthy of the moutii and the blessing
of our Heavenly Father. Is not this what the
predestinate do, who relish and practise the per-
fect consecration to Jesus Christ by the hands
of Mary, which we are now teaching them, by
v^y of testifying to Jesus and Mary an efiective
stfui courageous love?

The reprobate tell us loudly enough that
they love Jesus, and that they love and honour
Mary; but it is not with their substance, it is
not up to the point of sacrificing to them their
body witii its senses, their soul with its passions,

136 TBUE DBYOnOK TO

as the predestinate do. These last are subject and
obedient to our Blessed Lady^ as to their good
Mother; after the example of Jesus Christ, who^
of the three-and-thirty years He lived on earib>
employed thirty to glorify God His Father, by a
perfect and entire subjection to His holy Mother;

3. The predestinate obey Mary in following
exactiy her counsels, as the littie Jacob did those
of Bebecca, who said to him, Acquiesce cansUiis
meisj — " My son, follow my coimsels ;" or like
the people at the marriage of Cana, to whom our
Lady said, Quodcumque dixerit vobisj facHiej-^r
" Whatever my Son shall say to you, that do,"
Jacob, for having obeyed his mother, received
the blessing, as it were, miraculously, although
naturally he would not have had it. The people
at the marriage of Cana, for having followed our
Lady's counsel, were honoured with our Lord's
first miracle, who there changed the water inie
wine at the prayer of His holy Mother. La like
manner, all those who, to the end of time, shaU
receive the benediction of our Heavenly Father,
and shall be honoured by the wonders of Go^
shall only receive their graces in consequence 4rf
their perfect obedience to Mary- The Esaus, xa
the contrary^ lose their blessing through their
want of subjection to the Blessed Virgin.

4. The predestina,te have also a great confix
denoe in.the .goodness and power of our Blessed
Lady, their good Moither^ They call incessanfly

THE BLI!SSEI) VIRGDT. 137

fia* her help. They look upon her as their polar
tetar, to lead them to a good port. They lay
bare to her their pains and their necessities with
much openness of heart They attach themselves
to her mercy and her sweetness, in order to get
tiie pardon of their sins by her intercession, or
to taste her maternal sweetnesses in their pains
9md wearinesses.

They even throw themselves, hide themselves,
and lose themselves in an admirable manner in
b^ loving and virginal bosom, that they may be
9ei on fire there of pure love, that they may be
cleansed there fix)m their least stain, and fully to
£nd Jesus, who dwells there, as on His most
glorious throne. what happiness I "Think
not," says the Abbot Gueric, "that it is happier
to dwell in Abraham's bosom than in Mary's i
for it is in this last that our Lord has placed His
Ihrone," — Ife credideris majoris esse felidtatis
habitare in sinu Abrahce quam in sinu MaricBj ciim
w» eo Dominits posuerit ihronum suum.

The reprobate, on the contrary, putting all
.&eir trust in themselves, only eat with the pro-
idigal what the swine eat. They eat earth hke
tile toads, and, like the children of the world,
'^ey love only visible and external things. They
have no relish for the sweetnesses of Mary's
bosom. They have not that feeling of a cer-
jtoin resting-place, and a sure confidence, which
tiie predestinate feel in the holy Virgin, their

138 TBUB DEYOnOK TO

good Mother. They are miserably attached to
their outward hunger, as St Gregory says, and
make not so much as a pretence of having acgr
taste for the sweetness which is prepared withki
themselves, and within Jesus and Mary.

5. Lastly, the predestinate keep the ways of
our Blessed Lady, their good Mother; that is to
say, they imitate her. It is in this point that
they are truly happy and truly devout, and carry
more especially tibe mark of their predestination*
This good Mother says to them, Beati qui cusUh-
diuntviasmeas; that is to say, " Blessed are they
who practise my virtues, and with the help of
divine grace walk in the footsteps of my life.
During life they are happy in this world, through
the abundance of graces and sweetnesses which
I impart to them from my fulness, and more
abundantly than to others, who do not imitate
me so closely. They are happy in their death,
which is mUd and tranquil, and at which I am
ordinarily present myself, that I myself may
conduct them to the joys of eternity ; and, lastly,
they shall be happy in eternity ; for never luis
any one of my good servants been lost, who imi-
tated my virtues during Hfe."

The reprobate, on the contrary, are unhappy
during their life, at their death, andforetemUgr,
because they do not imitate our Lady in her vir-
tues, but content themselves with sometimes be-
ing enrolled in her confraternities, reciting some

THE BLESSED VIBOnr. 139

prayers in her honour, or going through some
other exterior devotion. holy Virgin, my
good Mother, how happy are those (I repeat it
with the transports of my heart), — ^how happy
are those who, not letting themselyes be seduced
by a false devotion towards you, faithfully keep
your ways, your counsels, and your orders I
But how unhappy ajid accursed are those who
nboae your devotion, and keep not the command-
ments of your Son, — Maledicti crmiea qui decli"
nant a mandatis tuis I

Let us now turn to look at the charitable
duties which our Blessed Lady, as the best of all
Mothers, ftdfils for the &ithfiil servants who have
given themselves to her after the manner I have
described, and according to the figure of Jacob.

L She loves them : Ego diligentea me diligoj —
** I love those who love me." She loves them
(1) because she is their true Mother; and a mo-
tiier loves her child, the fruit of her entrails ; (2)
she loves them out of gratitude, because they
. effectively love her as their good Mother ; (3) she
loves them because, being predestinate, God loves
-ihem, — Jacob diieaiy JEsau aiUem odio hdbui;
(4) she loves them because they are all conse-
erated to her, and are her possession and her
. inheritance, — In Israel hcereditare.

She loves them tenderly, and more tenderly
than all other mothers put together. Throw, if
yon can, all the natural love which all the mothers

140 TEUB DBVonoir to

of the world have for their children, into the ooff
heart of one mother for one only child. Sordy
that mother will love that child immensely,^
Nevertheless it is true that Mary loves her chil**
dren yet more tenderly than that mother would
love that child of hers.

She does not love them only with affection,
but with efficacy. Her love for them is aetivQ
and effective, equal to that of Bebecca for Jacob,
and fer beyond it.

See what this good Mother, of whom Be-
becca was but the type, does to obtain for her
children the blessing of our Heavenly Father.

1. She is on the look-out, as Bebecca was,
for favourable occasions to do them good, to
aggrandise and enrich them. She sees clearly
in Gtod all goods and evils, all prosperous and
adverse fortunes, the blessings 'and the cursings
of God ; and then she so disposes things from
afar, that she may exempt her servants from aD
sorts of evils, and heap upon them all sorts of
goods ; so that if there is a good fortune to make
in God by the fidelity of a creature to any high
employment, it is certain that Mary will pro-t
cure that good fortune for some of her true chil-
dren and servants, and will give them the grace
to go through it with fideliiy. It is a Saint who
says. Ipsa procurat negotia Tbostrtu

2. She also gives her clients good counsels, as
Bebecca did to Jacob, FUi mij acquiesce consiliig^

THE BLESSED YIBQIN. 141

BW^ — *^ My son, follow my counsels." Among
odier comisels, she inspires them to bring her
the two kids ; that is to say, their body and soul,
in order to consecrate them, to make a pottage
agreeable to Qod, and to do every thing which
Jesus Christ her Son has taught by His words
and His examples. K it is not by herself that she
gives these counsels, it is by the ministry of the
Angels, who have no greater honour or pleasure
than to descend to earth to obey any of her com-
mandments, and to succour any of her servants.
3. When they have brought to her and con-
secrated to her their body and soul, and all that
depends on them, without excepting any thing,
what does that good Mother do? Just what
Rebecca did of old with the two kids Jacob
brought her. (1) She kills them, and makes
them die to the old Adam. (2) She flays, and
strips them of their natural skin, their natural
inclinations, self-love, their own will, and all
attachment to creatures. (3) She cleanses them
of their spots, their vilenesses, and their sins*
(4) She dresses them to the taste of God, and
to His greatest glory; and as it is Mary alone
who knows perfectly what that divine taste is,
and what that greatest glory of the Most High,
it is Mary alone who, without making any mis-
take, can accommodate and dress our body and
soul for that taste infinitely exalted, and for that
glory, infinitely hidden.

142 TBUB DEVOTION TO

4. This good Mother, having received the
perfect oflFering which we make to her of oms
selves, our own merits and satisfactions, by the
devotion I am describing, strips us of our old
garments ; she makes us her own, and so makes
us worthy to appear before our heavenly Faih^.

(1) She clothes us in the clean, new, pre-
cious, and perfomed garments of Esau the elder,
—that is, of Jesus Christ her Son, — ^whom she
keeps in her house, — ^that is to say, whom she has
in her own power. She is the treasurer and eter-
nal dispenser of the merits and virtues of her Son,
which she gives and communicates to whom she
wills, when she wills, as she wills, and in such
quantiiy as she wills ; as we have seen before.

(2) She covers the neck and hands of her
servants with the skins of the kids she Mlled;
that is to say, she adorns them with the merits
and value of her own proper actions. She kills
and mortifies, it is true, all that is impure and
imperfect in them, but she neither loses nor dis-
sipates one atom of the good which grace has
done there. On the contrary, she preserves and
augments it, to make it the ornament and the
strength of their neck and their hands; thai
is to say, to fortify them, and to help them to
carry the yoke of tiie Lord, which is worn upon
the neck, and to work great things for the glory
of Qt)d, and the salvation of their poor brethren.

(3) She bestows a new perfume and a new

THE BI1E88BD YIBOIK. 143

grace upon their garmentB and adommentB^ in
eommunioating to them her own garments,
nerits, and virtues, which she bequeathed to
them by her testament, when she died ; as said
a holy religious of the last century, who died in
the odour of sanetiiy, and learnt this by revela-
tion. Thus all her domestics, faith&l servants
and slaves, are doubly clad in the garments of
her Son and in her own, — Omnea domestici
vestiti sunt dvplicibua. It is on this account
that they have nothing to fear from the cold of
Jesus Christ, who is white as snow, — a cold
which the reprobate, all naked, and stripped of
the merits of Jesus and Mary, cannot for one
moment bear.

(4) Finally, she enables them to obtain the
blessing of our Heavenly Father, though, being
but the youngest bom and indeed only adopted
children, they have no natural right to have it.
With these garments all new, most precious,
and of most fragrant odour, and with their body
and soul well prepared and dressed, they draw
near with confidence to the Father's bed of re-
pose. He understands and distinguishes their
voice, which is the voice of the sinner; He
touches their hands, covered with skins; He
smells the good odour of their clothes ; He eats
with joy of that which Mary their Mother has
dressed for Him, recognising in them the merits
and the good odour of His Son and of His holy

144 TBXJB DEVOTION TO

Mother. 1. First, then, He gives them His
double benediction, the benediction of the dew
of Heaven, De rore coelestij — ^that is to say, of
divine grace, which is the seed of glory ; Bene^
diant nos in omni benedictione spiritali in Chrikto
Jesu ; and then the benediction of the fat of the
earth, De pinguedine terrcBj — ^that is to say, tlie
good Father gives them their daily bread, and
a sufficient abundance of the goods of this world;
2. Secondly, He makes them masters of their
other brethren, the reprobate. But this primacy
is not always apparent in the world, which passes
in an instant, and where the reprobate are often
masters, — Peccatores effcibuntur et gloriolbuntur ;
vidi impium supereaaltatum et elevatum. But it
is nevertheless a true primacy; and it will
appear manifestly in the other world for all
eternity, where the just, as the Holy Ghost says,
shall reign over the nations, and command them,
— Dondnabuntur populis. 3, Thirdly, His Ma-
jesiy, not content with blessing them in their
persons and their goods, blesses also those who
«hall bless them, and curses those who shall
curse and persecute them.

n. The second duly which our Blessed Lady
ftdfils towards her faithful servants is, that shd
furnishes them with every thing, both for their
body and their soul. She gives them double
clothing, as we have just seen. She gives than
to eat the most exquisite meats of the table of

THI BLISBBD VIBQIlf. 145

€kld; for she gives them to eat the bread of
Itfe, which she herself has formed, A genera^
tionibm meis impleminij — My dear children, she
says, under the name of divine Wisdom, be filled
with my generations ; that is to say, with Jesos,
the fruit of life, whom I have brought into the
world for you. Venitey comedite panem meum et
hibite xmum quod miscui vdbis; comedite^ et bSritey
et inebriaminiy carissimiy — Come, she repeats to
&em in another place, eat my bread, which is
Jesus, and drink the wine of His love, which I
have mixed for jon. As it is Maiy who is the
treasurer and dispenser of the gifts and graces
of the Most High, she gives a good portion, and
indeed the best portion, to nourish and maintain
her children and her servants. They are fattened
cm the Living Bread. They are inebriated on
the wine which brings forth virgins. They are
borne at the bosom of Mary, — Ad vbera porta^
KmvnL They have such fecility in carrying the
yoke of Jesus Christ, that they feel nothing of
its weight, because of the oil of devotion which
has made it soften and decay, — Jugum eorum
puirescere fadet a fade oleL

IIL The third good which oui' JJady does to
her servants is, that she conducts and directs
Ihem according to the will of her Son. Bebecca
guided her little Jacob, and gave him good ad-
vice firom time to time; either to draw upon
himself the blessing of his father, or to avert

146 TBUB DSVOnOK TO

from himself the hatred and persecation of his
brother. Esau. Mary^ who is the Star of the Sea,
leads all her faithftd servants to a good port
She shows them the paths of eternal life, ^e
makes them avoid the dangerous places. She
conducts them by her hand along the paths of
justice. She steadies them when they are about
to fall ; she lifts them up when they have fallen.
She reproves them like a charitable mother when
they fail; and sometimes she even lovingly
chastises them. Can a child obedient to Mary,
his foster-mother and his enlightened guide, go
astray in the paths of etemiiy ? Ipsam aequens
rum demos J — " If you follow her," says Si Ber-
nard, "you cannot wander from the road." Fear
not, therefore, that a true child of Mary can be
deceived by the evil one, or fell into any formal
heresy. Tliere where the guidance of Mary is,
neither the evil spirit with his illusions, nor the
heretics with their subtleties, can ever come, —
Ipsd tenentej non corruis.

IV. The fourth good office which our Lady
renders to her children and feithftd servants is,
to protect ajid defend them. Rebecca, by her
cares and artifices, delivered Jacob from all
the dangers in which he found himself, and par-
ticularly from the death which his brother Esaa
would have inflicted on him, because of the
envy and hatred which he bore him; as Cain
did of old to his brother Abel. Mary, the good

THE BiiESSBD VIBGIN. 147

Mother of the predestinate, hides them under
the wings of her protection, as a hen hides her
chickens. She speaks, she hmnbles herself, she
condescends to all their weaknesses, to secure
iixem from the hawk and the vulture* She puts
herself round about them, and she accompanies
th^n, like an army in battle array, tU castrorum
aoks ordinatcu Shall a man, who has an army
(^ a hundred thousand soldiers around him, fear
his enemies ? A faithful servant of Mary, sur-*
rounded by her protection and her imperial
power, has still less to fear. This good Mother
and powerful princess of the heavens would
rather despatch battalions of millions of angels
to succour one of her servants than that it should
ever be said that a faithful servant of Mary, who
trusted in her, had had to succumb to the malice,
the number, and the vehemence of his enemies.

Y. Lastly, the fifth and the greatest good
which the sweet Mary procures for her faithftJ
clients is, to intercede for them with her Son,
and to appease Him by her prayers. She unites
them to Him with a most intimate union, and
she keeps them unshaken in that union.

Bebecca made Jacob come near to his father's
bed. The good man touched him, embraced
him, and even kissed him with joy, being con-
tent and satisfied with the well-dressed viands
which he had brought him ; and having smelt
with much contentment the exquisite perfimie of

148 TRUE lonroTxair to

his garments, he cried out, Ecce odor jilii mei
iicut odor agn pleni^ cui benediwit Dominus,-^
^'Behold the odour of my son, which is like the
odour of a ftdl field that the Lord hath blest.'*
This odour of the fidl field which charms the
heart of the Father is nothing else than the
odour of the virtues and merits of Mary, who is
a field ftdl of grace, where God the Father has
sown His only Son, as a grain of the wheat of
the elect Oh, how a child, perfimied with the
good odour of Mary, is welcome with Jesus
Christ, who is the Father of the world to come !
Oh, how promptly and how perfectly is such a
child united to his Lord I But we have shown
this at length already.

Furthermore, after Mary has heaped her fisi-
vours upon her children and faithftd servants,
and has obtained for them the benediction of her
Heavenly Father, and union with Jesus Christ,
she preserves them in Jesus, and Jesus in them:
She takes care of them, watches over them
always, for fear they should lose the grace cf
God, and fall back into the snares of their ene^
mies. In plenitudine detinet^ — she detains the
fiaints in their ftilness, and makes them perse-
vere to the end, as we have seen.

This is the interpretation of [the history of
Jacob and Esau] that great and ancient figure
of predestination and reprobation, so unknown,
and so ftill of mysteries.

TKB BLBBSSD TIBGm. 149

nL THE WONDERFUL EFFECTS WHICH THIS DE-
VOTION PRODUCES IN THE SOUL WHICH IS
FAITHFUL TO IT.

My dear brother, be sure that, if you are
&ithful to the interior and exterior practices of
lius devotion, which I will point out, the follow-'
iBg effects will take place in your soul :

1. By the light which the Holy Ghost will
give you by His dear Spouse, Mary, you will
understand your own evil, your corruption, and
your ineapaeity for any thing good, which is
fiot (}od's free gift to us, rither as Author
«f nature or of grace. In consequence of this
knowledge, you will despise yourself. You
will only iiiink of yourself with horror. You
will regard yoursdf as a snail, that spoila
every thing with its slime; or a toad, that
peisons every thing with its venom ; or as a
apiteAil serpent, only seeking to deceive. In
dOaer words^ the humUe Mary will communi-
cate to you a portion of her profound humiliiy ,
wiiieh will make you despise yourself, despise
aobody else, but love to be despised yourself.

2. Our Blessed Lady will give you also a
portion of her &ith, which was the greatest of
til fiuths that ever were on earth, greater than
Use &ith of all the Patriarchs, Proph^, Apos-
tles, and Saints put together. Now that she is
Deigning in the heavens, she has no longer this

M

THE BLESSED YIBGIN. 151

dead in sin, to teach and overthrow, by your
meek and powerftd words, the hearts of marble
and the cedars of Lebanon, and finally, to resist
the devil and all the enemies of salvation.

3. This Mother of fair love will take away
ttom. your heart all scruple and all disorder of
servile fear. She will open and enlarge it to
run the way of her Son's commandments with
the holy liberty of the children of God. She
will introduce into it pure love, of which she
has the treasure ; so that you shall no longer be
guided by fear, as hitherto, in your dealings
with the Gtod of charity, but by pure love. You
will look on Him as your good Father, whom
you will be incessantly trying to please, and
with whom you will converse confidently, as a
^Id with its tender father. If unfortunately
you offend Him, you will at once humble your-
self before Him. You will ask His pardon with
great lowliness, but at the same time you will
stretch your hand out to Him with simplicity ;
and you will raise yourself up lovingly, without
trouble or disquietude, and go on your way to
ffim without discouragement.

4. Our Blessed Lady will fill you with a
great confidence. in God and in herself: (1)
tecause you will not be approaching to Jesus
Bjr yourself, but always by that good Mother ;
(2) because, as you have given her all your
merits, graces, and satisfactions, to dispose of at

159 TBUB DKVOnOK TO

her will, she will commtuiicate to you her virtues,
and will clothe you in her merits, so that jem
will be able to say to GU)d with eonfidenee, ^ Be*
hold Mary Thy handmaid ; be it done unto me
according to Thy word,'* — Ecee ancUla Dcmmiy
jwt mihi secundum verbum tuum; (3) because^
as you have given yourself entirely to her, body
and soul, she, who is liberal with the liberal^
and more liberal even than the Uberal, will ia
return give herself to you in a marvellous but
real manner, so that you may say to her witib
assurance, Tuus sum ego^ salvummefacf^^^ I aaa
thine, holy Virgin ; save me:" or, as I have said
before, .with the Beloved Disciple, Accepi te in
mea, — '' I have taken thee, holy Mother, ibr all
my goods." You may also say with St. Bonar
venture, Ecce^ Dominay sahatrix meoy^ueiaiU
ter ogam el non timeioy quia fortiiudo mea^ et lems
mea in Domino es tu; and in anotherplace, 7\^|w
totus ego sum^ et omnia mea tua sunt; ffitgo
gloriosay super omnia benediatay ponam te tfit siff^
naculum super cor meumiy quia fortis est ut mma
dilectio tua. " My dear Mistress, who savea m^
I will have confidence and will not fear, beeaiMe
you are my strength and my praise in Hbe Loi^
... I am altogether yours, and all that I hiife
belongs to you; glorious Virgin, blessod
above all created things! I will put you aa a
seal upon my heart, because your love ia «b
strong as death."

THB BLC88BI) VlfiatK. 153

You may say to God, in the sentiments of
tiiB proj^et^ Dcmme^ non est eaaltatum cor meunij
mqus elati atmt ocuU mei; neque ambulcm in
magnUj neque in mirabiMms super me^ si non
hundliter senHebam; sed eaxiltavi animam meant :
mcmt ablacia6us est super matre tua^ ita retrHmtio
iat eawma mea^^-^^^ Lord, my heart and my eyes
iMfcve no right to extol themselves, or to be
jnxmd, or to seek great and wonderftd things.
Yet even in this I am not humbler but I have
fitted up and enoouraged my soul by confidence :
J am like a child, weaned from the pleasures of
earth, and resting on its mother's lap ; and it is
^n that lap that all good things come to me''
(flee Psalm oxxx.). (4) What will still farther
iwsroase your confidence in her is, that you will
bave less confidence in yourself. You have
^T6n her, in trust, all you have of good about
jou, that she may have it and keep it; and so all
: ib^ trust you once had in yourself has become
an increase of confidence in her, who is your
traasure. Oh, what confidence and what conso-
. linlifm is this for a soul, who can say that tiie
ctoeasure of Gbd, where He has been pleased to
.^fiit all He had most precious, is his own trea-
^ fore also I Ipsa est thesaurus Domini It was a
^ Saint who said she was the treasure of the Lord*
5. The soul of our Blessed Lady wiU com-
municate itself to you, to glorify the Lord.
Her 9fwi will enter into the place of yours, to

154 TBUE DEYOTIOK TO

rejoice in Qod her salvation, provided only ^baA
jou are faithM to the practices of this devoticHu
Sit in singulis anima Maricey vt magni/icet D<ynA*
nam : sit in singulis spiritus Marice^ ut eandtet tA
Deo (Si Ambrose), — " Let the soul of Mary be
in each of us to glorify the Lord : let the spirit
of Mary be in each of us to rejoice in God."
Ah! when will the happy time come, said a
holy man of our own days, who was all ab^
sorbed in Mary,- — ah! when will the happy
time come, when the divine Mary will be estab-
lished mistress and queen of hearts, in order
that she may subject them ftdly to the empire
of her great and holy Jesus ? When will souls
breathe Mary, as the body breathes air ? When
that time comes, wonderful things will happen
in those lowly places, where the Holy Ghost,
finding His dear Spouse as it were reproduced
in souls, shall come in with abundance, and fill
them fiill to overflowing with His gifls, and
particularly with the gift of wisdom, to wcark
the miracles of grace. My dear brother, when
will that happy time, that age of Mary, come,
when souls, losing themselves in the abyss of
her interior, shall become living copies of Maiy,
to love and glorify Jesus ? That time wiU not
come until men shall know and practise tins
devotion which I am teaching. Ut adveniat
Tegnvjm tuum^ adveniat regnum MaricB,

6. K Mary, who is the tree of life, is wall

THE BLBBSED VIBOIN. 155

iSDitiyated in our soul by fidelity to the praotioes
of this devotion, she will bear her fi:tiit in her
own time, and her fi:tiit is none other than Jesus
CSnrist. How many devout souls do I see who
seek Jesus Christ, some by one way or by one
practice, and others by otiier ways and other
praddces; and after they have toiled much
throughout the night, liiey say. Per totam
noetem laborantes nihil cepimua^ — " We have
toiled all night, and have taken nothing" I We
may say to them, Laborastia multum^ et intulis^
tis paruniy — " You have laboured much, and
gained little :" Jesus Christ is yet feeble in you.
But by that immaculate way of Mary, and that
divine practice which I am teaching, we toil
during the day; we toil in a holy place; we
toil but little. There is no night in Mary, be-
cause there is no sin, nor even the slightest
shade. Mary is a holy place, and the holy of
holies where Saints are formed and moulded.
Take notice, if you please, that I say the Saints
are moulded in Mary. There is a great differ-
ence between making a figure in relief by blows
of hammer and chisel, and making a figure by
iinrowing it into a mould. Statuaries and sculp-
tors labour much to make figures in the first
manner ; but to make them in the second man-
ner, they work little, and do their work quickly.
St. Augustin calls our Blessed Lady forma
Deiy — " the mould of Gk)d :" Si formam Dei te

156 TBUB DSYOnON TO

€^ppeUemj digna eaistis, — ^^ The mould fit to eaat
«nd mould gods." He who is cast in iUtt
mould is presently formed and moulded in Jesus
Christy and Jesus Christ in him. At a aUghl
expense and in a short time he will become Q^^
hecause he has been cast in the sama mould
which has formed a Qod.

It seems to me that I can very aptly ocun^
pare directors and devout persons^ who wish to
form Jesus Christ in themselves or others by
different practices &om this, to sculptors wfa»
trust in their own professional skill, ingenuity^
or art, and so give an infinity of hammerings
and chisellings to a hard stone or a piece of badly
polished wood, to make an image of Jesus Christ
out of it. Sometimes they do not succeed in
giving any thing like the natural expression of
Jesus, either fi*om having no knowledge or exA
perience of the Person of Jesus, or fi-om scnne
blow awkwardly given, which has spoiled tlie
work. But for those who embrace the aeciot
of grace which I am revealing to th^n, I rxus^
reasonably compare them to founders and eastp*
ers, who have discovered tJie beautiftd mould d
Mary, where Jesus was naturally and diviirafy.
formed; and without trusting to their own skiH^
but only in the goodness of the mould, they eaafe
themselves and lose themselves in Maiy, to b^
come the portraits of Jesus Christ after nature.

Oh, beautiful and true comparison I but who

THX BLEflfiED YHUHK. 157

w31 c(»npreh^id it ? I deeire that you may, my
dear brother. But remember that we only cast
m a mould what is melted and liquid ; iiiat ia
to say, you must destroy and melt down in
yourself the old Adam to become the new one
in Mary.

7. By this practiee, faithftdly observed, you
will give Jesus more glory in a month than by
any other practice, however difficult, in many
years ; and I give the following reasons for it.

(1) Because, doingyour actions by our Blessed
Lady, as this practice teaches you, you abandon
your own intentions and operations, although
good and known, to lose yourself, so to speak,
in the intentions of the Blessed Virgin, altliough
fliey are unknown. Thus you enter by partici-
pation into the sublimity of her intentions, which
az6 so pure, that she gives more glory to God by
the least of her actions— for example, in twirling
her distaff or pointing her needle-— than St. Law-
Teao& by his cruel martyrdom on his gridiron^
or ev^i all the Saints by all their heroic actions
put together. It was thus that, during her so-
jDum here below, she acquired such an unspeak-
aide aggregate of graces and merits, that it were
^asi^ to count the stars of the firmament, the
diops of water in the sea, or the grains of sand
Bpon its shore, than her merits and graces. Thus
it was that she gave more glory to Qod than all
the Angels and Saints have given Him, or ev^

158 THUE DEVOnON TO

will give Him. prodigy of a Mary! thou catist
not help but do prodigies of grace in souls that
wish to lose themselves altogether in thee I

(2) Because the soul in this practice counts
as nothing whatever it thinks or does of itself;
and only puts its trust, and takes its pleasure,
in the dispositions of Mary, when it approaches
Jesus, or even speaks to Him. Thus it practises
humiliiy far more than the souls who act of
themselves, and lean, with however impercep-
tible a complacency, on their own dispositions.
But if the soul acts more humbly, it therefore
glorifies God more highly ; and He is only per-
fectly glorified by the himible, and those that are
little and lowly in heart

(3) Because our Blessed Lady, wishing by
her great chariiy to receive the present of our
actions in her virginal hands, gives them an
admirable beauiy and splendour. Moreover,
she offers them herself to Jesus Christ, and with-
out difficuliy ; and our Lord is thus more glori-
fied by them than if we offered them by our
own criminal hands.

(4) Lastly, because you never think of Mary
without Mary, in your place, thinking of Otod,
You never praise or honour Mary without Mary
praising and honouring God. Mary is altch*
gether relative to Gt)d; and, indeed, I mighi
well call her the relation to GoA. She only
exists vdtfa reference to God She is the echo

THE BLESSED YISGIN. 159

o£ Ckxi, who says nothing, repeats nothing, but
Glod. If you say * Mary,' she says * GkxL' St.
Elizabeth praised Mary, and called her blessed,
because she had believed. Mary, the faithful
echo of Grod, at once intoned Magnificat anima
mea JDominum, — " My soul doth magnify the
Lead." That which Mary did then, she does
daily now. When we praise her, love her, honour
her, or give any thing to her, it is Grod who is
praised, Gfod who is loved, Gtxi who is glorified.
We give then to Qt)d by Mary and in Mary.

IV. PABTICULAB PRACTICES OF THIS
DEVOTION.

1. External Practices.
Although what is essential in this devotion
consists in the interior, we must not fail to unite
to the inward practice certain external observ-
ances. Hcec oportet facerey et Ula nan omittere.
We must do the one, yet not leave the other
undone, both because the outward practices
well performed aid the inward ones, and be-
cause they make a man remember, by remind-
ing has senses, what he has done or ought to do j
and also because they are suitable to edify our
neighbour, who sees them, which inward prac-
tices cannot do. Let no worldling then or critic
sneer at this. Let them not say that because
true devotion is in the heart, we must avoid

160 i»T7B imwcinoiK TO

exteraal deyotion ; or that devotion ought to he
bidden, and that tibere may be vanity in showing
it. Z answer with my Master, that men shouM
see our good works, that they may glorify our
^Father, who is in Heav^i ; not, as St. Gtregory
says, that wo ought to perform our actions and
axterior devotions to please men and to get
ja^aise, — ihat would be vanity, — but that w©
should som^mes do them before men, wxdi
the view of pleasing Qodj and glorifying Him
thereby, without caring either for the contempt
or the praise of men.

I will only allude briefly to some exterior
practices, which I do not call ' exterior' because
we do them without any interior, but because
they have something outward about them, to
distinguish them &om those which are purely
inward.

First Practice. Those who wish to enter into
this particular devoti<m, which is not at presort
erected into a confraternity, though that wei^
to be wished, — ^after having, as I said in ifad
first part of this pareparation for the reign of
Jesus Christ, employed twelve days, at least, m
emptying themselves of the spirit of the wcndd^
which is contrary to the spirit of Jesus Ghro^
• — should employ three weeks in filling thent-
selves with Jesus Christ by the holy Yir^i.
They should pursue the following order :

During the first week they should employ

THE WiTOIWlP YIBOiQl. 161

dd ^ir porayers and pious actions in adking
lior ft knowledge of tbemselyes^ and for eontri-
tion of their sins ; and they should do this in a
qpirit of humiliiy. For that end they can, if
they choose, meditate on what Ihaye said hefare
of our inward oorruption. They can look upon
themselves during the six days of this week wa
snails, crawling things, toads, swine, serpents,
and unelean animals; or they can reflect on
ihoise three oon^derations of Si Bernard, the
Yileness of our origin, the dishonours of our pre-
sent state, and our ending as the food of worms.
They should pray our Lord and the Holy Ghost
to enlighten them ; and for that end they might
use the ejaculations, Domme^ ut xideam^ or N(h
verim me^ or Veni Sande Spiritua; and iiiey may
say daily the Ave Tncms steUa, and the liteny ci
the Holy Ghost.

During the second week they should apply

themselves, during all their prayers and works

jQ9^ day, to know the Blessed Virgin. They

Aould ask this knowledge of the Holy Ghost;

tii^ should read and meditate what we have

iBaid about it. They should recite, as in the first

-iweek, the litany of the Holy Ghost and the Ave

maris Stella^ and in addition a Bosary daily, or,

\£ not a whole Bosary, at least a chaplet, fixr

ihe intention of impetrating more knowledge of

Mary.

They should apply themselves in the third

162 TBUB DEVOTION TO

^eek to know Jesus Christ. They can meditate
upon what we have said about Him, and say the
prayer of Si Augustine, which they will find in
the first part of this treatise. They can, with
the same Saint, repeat a hundred times a day,
Naoerim te^ — "Lord, that I might know Thee 1"
or Dominey ut videamj — "Lord, that I might
see who Thou art!" They shall recite, as in the '
preceding weeks, the litany of the Holy Ghost
and the Ave maris steUa^ and they shall add
<iaily the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus. At
the end of the three weeks they shall confess
and communicate, with the intention of giving
themselves to Jesus Christ, in the quality of
•slaves of love, by the hands of Mary. After
communion, whidhi they should try to make ac-
cording to the method given farther on, they
should recite the formula of their consecration,
which they will find afterwards. They ought to
write it, or have it written, unless it is printed;
and they should sign it the same day they have
made it It would be well also that on that
day they should pay some tribute to Jesus Christ
and our Blessed Lady, either as a penance fer
their past imfaithftilness to the vows of their-
Baptism, or in testimony of their dependence
and allegiance to tiie domain of Jesus and*'
Mary. This tribute ought to be according to
the devotion and capacity of eveiy one, as a
fast, a mortification, an alms, or a candle. IP

THE BLESSED YntGIV. 163

they iiad but a pin to give in homage, yet gave
it with a good heart, it would be enough for
Jesus, who looks only at the good-will. Once a
year at least, on the same day, they should renew
the same consecration, observing the same prac-
tices during the three weeks. They might also
once a month, or even once a day, renew what
they have done by these few words : Turn totus
ego mm J et omnia mea tua sunt^ — ^^ I am all for
Thee, and all I have belongs to Thee, my
sweet Jesus, by Mary Thy holy Mother."

Second Practice. They may recite every day
of their life, without however making any bur-
den of it, the Little Corona of the Blessed Virgin,
composed of three Our Fathers and twelve
Hail Marys, in honour of our Lady's twelve
privileges and grandeurs. This is a very ancient
practice, for it has its foundation in the holy
Scriptures. St. John saw a woman crowned
with twelve stars, clothed with the sun, and
htdding the moon under her feet; and this
woman, according to the interpreters, was the
most holy Virgin. There are many ways of
saying this Corona well ; but it would be too
Icmg to enter upon them. The Holy Ghost will
teach them to those who are the most faithM
to this devotion. Nevertheless, to say it quite
dimply we should begin by saying, Dignare me
Icmdare te^ Virgo sacrataj da mihi virtutem contra
ho8te8 tuo8. After that we should say the Credo,

164 TRux Dsvonov to

and then a Pater with four Aves^ and th^i one
Gloria Patri ; then another Pater^ four Aves, and
one Gloria Patri, and so on with the rest; and
at the end we should say the Sub tuum preemlium.
Third Practice. It is a most gloriooi and
praiseworthy thing, and very useful to those who
have thus made themselves slaves of Jesi» and
Mary, that they should wear, as a badge of their
loving slavery, little iron chains, blessed with
the proper benediction.*

* Note from the French. It may be thought that,
since the time of the venerable servant of God, cer-
tain decrees of the Congregation of the Index have ab-
soltttely condemned this usage ; but whatever may be
the precise extent of the prohibition intended by these
decrees, there seems to be nothing in them formally
interdicting the using of little chains io private persons.
We may see at the end of Collet's 'Life of Boudonthe
remarks of that theologian, justifying the pious Ardi*
deacon of Evreux from the criticisms of which he
was the object, by the occasion of his treatise Le
saint Esclavage de la Sainte Vierge. He cites the de-
crees which he read in the edition of the Index of
1758, and which have been repeated in the subset
quent editions. The words of the Index are as fol>
lows : " Prohibentur imagines, numismata insculpta
pro confratemitatibus mancipiorum Matris Dei, ita-
lice schiavi della Madre di Dio, sodales catenates
exprimentia. Item libelli in quibus eisdem conftar>
temitatibus regulse prsescribentur. Confratemitatei
autem quse catenulas distribuunt confratribus et con-
sororibus, brachiis et collo circumponendas atque geft-
tandas, ut eo signo beatissimse Virgini mancipatos se
esse profiteantur, et quainim institutum in eo manol*

TBE BLBS8BD YimiN. 165

; It is perfectly trae that these external badges
lire not essential, and a person who has embraced
this devotion may very well go without them;
nevertheless, I cannot refrain from warmly
praising those who, after having shaken off the
shamefrd chains of the slavery of the devil, in
which original sin, and perhaps actual sins,
had engaged them, have voluntarily surrendered
themselves to the glorious slavery of Jesus Christ,
and glory with St. Paul in being in chains for
Jesus ; chains a thousand times more glorious
and precious, though of iron, than all ihe golden
collars of emperors.

Once thwe was nothing more infamous on
earth than the Cross, and now that wood is the
most glorious boast of Christianity. Let us say
the same of the irons of slavery. There was
nothing more ignominious among the ancients ;
notiiing more shameM even now among the
heathen. But among Christians there is nothing
more illustrious iJian the chains of Jesus ; for
they unchain us, and preserve us from the in*
famous fetters of sin and ihe deviL They set us
at liberty, and chain us to Jesus and Mary ; not
by compulsion and constraint, like galley-slaves,

pflta prsBcipue yersatur, damnantur et €xsiinguuntur.
Societatibus vero quas ritum aliquem aut quodcumque
aliud ad mancipatum ejusmodi pertinens adhibent,
prsBoipitur ut id statim rejiciant" (Index, Decreta ge-
neralia, § 8, n. 3).

N

166 TRUE DEVOTIOH TO

but by charity and love, like children. Traham
€08 in vinculis cJiaritatisy — " I will draw them to
Me," said Grod by the mouth of the prophet, "by
the chains of love." These chains are as strong
as death, and they are in a certain sense strongest
in those who are faithM in carrying these glo-
rious badges to their death. For, though death
destroys their bodies in bringing them to cor-
ruption, it does not destroy the chains of their
slavery, which, being of iron, do not corrupt so
easily. Perhaps, at the day of the resurrection
of the body, the grand last judgment, these
chains shall still be round their bones, and shall
make a part of their glory, and be transmuted
into chains of light and splendour. Happy, then,
a thousand times happy, the illustrious slaves
of Jesus, who wear their chains even to the
tomb!

The following are the reasons for wearing
these little chains :

First, it is to remind the Christian of the
vows and engagements of his Baptism, of the
perfect renewal he has made of them by this de-
votion, and of the strict obligation under which
he is to be faithM to them. As the man who
shapes his course more often by the senses than
by pure faith easily forgets his obligations to-
wards God, unless he has some outward thing to
remind him of them, these little chains serve
marvellously to remind the Christian of the

THE BLESSED TIRGIN. 167

Cumins of sin, and of the slavery of the devil,
from which Baptism has delivered him, and of
the dependence on Jesus which he has vowed
to Him in Baptism, and of the ratification of it
which he has made by the renewal of his vows.
One of the reasons why so few Christians think
of their baptismal vows, and live with as much
license as if they had promised no more to Grod
than the heathen, is because they do not wear
any external badge to make them remember
it.

Secondly, it is to show that we are not
ashamed of the servitude and slavery of Jesus
Christ, and that we renounce the slavery of the
world, sin, and the devil.

Thirdly, it is to guarantee ourselves from the
chains of sin and the devil, and to be beforehand
with them ; for we must wear either the chains
of iniquiiy, or the chains of charity and salva-
tion : Vincula peccatorum aut vincula cliarUatis*
O my dear brother, let us break the chains of
sin and of sinners, of the world and of worldli-
ness, of the devil and his ministers ; and let us
cast far from us their depressing yoke : Dirum-
parrvas vincula eorumj et projiciamui a nobis ju^
gum ipsorum. Let us put our feet, to use the
terms of the Holy Ghost, into His glorious irons,
and our neck into His collars: Injice pedem
tuum in compedes illiusy et in torques illius collum
timm; suijice humerum tuum et porta illam^ et ne

168 TRUE DEVOTION TO

acedieris vinculis ejus. You will remark that
the Holy Ghost, before saying these words, pre-
pares a soul for them, lest it should reject His
important counsel. See His words: Attdi^JUiy
et accipe consilium intellectuSy et ne ahjidas consUia
mea^ — " Hearken, My son, and receive a counsel
of understanding, and reject not My counseL"

You would wish, my very dear friend, that
I should here unite myself to the Holy Ghost to
give you the same counsel with Him. Vinatda
Ulius alligatura salutisj — His chains are chains of
salvation. As Jesus Christ on the cross ought
to draw all things to Him, with their will or
against it. He will draw the reprobate by the
chains of their sins, that He may chain them like
galley-slaves and devils to His eternal anger and
revengefiil justice. But He will, and partioa*
larly in these latter times, draw the predestinate
by the chains of charity. Omnia trdham ad me*
ipsum^ Traham eos in vinculis charitatis. These
loving slaves of Jesus Christ, " the chained of
Christ,"— FiTzo^i Christij — can wear their chains
either on their neck or on their feet. Father
Vincent Caraffa, seventh general of the Jesuits,
who died in the odour of sanctity, in the year
1643, used to wear a circle of iron round his
feet as a mark of his servitude ; and said that his
only pain was that he could not publicly drag
a chain.

The Mother Agnes of Jesus, of whom we

THB BLESSED VIBQIN. 169

have spoken before, used to wear an iron chain
round her body. Others have worn it round
their neck, in penance for the collars of pearls
which they have worn in the world ; while other j
have worn it round their arms, to remind them-
selves, in their manual labours, that they were
slaves of Jesus Christ.

Fourth Practice. Those who undertake this
holy slavery should have a very special devotion to
the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Word
on the 25th of March. Indeed, the Incarnation
is the proper mystery of this practice, inasmuch
as it was a devotion inspired by the Holy Ghost,
first, to honour and imitate the ineffable de-
pendence which Grod the Son has been pleased
to have on Mary, for His Father's glory and
our salvation; which dependence particularly ap-
pears in this mystery, where Jesus is a captive
and a slave in the bosom of the divine Mary,
and depends upon her for all things ; secondly,
to thank God for the incomparable graces He
has given Mary, and particularly for having
chosen her to be His most holy Mother, which
choice was made in this mystery. These are the
two principal ends of the slavery of Jesus in
Mary.

Have the goodness to observe that I gene-
rally say ' the slave of Jesus in Mary,' ^ the sla-
very of Mary in Jesus.' I might, in good truth,
as many have done before, say ^the slave of

170 TECTB DEVOnOV TO

Mary/ ^ flie slavery of the holy Virgin ; huk I
think it is better to say ' the slave of Jesos in
Mary/ as Mr. Tronson, superior general of the
seminary in St. Snlpice, renowned for his rare
prudence and eonsommate piety, eonnselled to
an ecclesiastic who consulted him on the subject.
The following were the reasons :

1. As we are living in an age of intellectual
pride, and there are all round us numbers of
puffed-up scholars and conceited and critical spi*
rits, who have plenty to say against the best esta-
blished and most solid practices of piety, it is bet-
ter for us not to give them any needless occasion
of criticism. Hence it is better for us to say ' the
slavery of Jesus in Mary,' and to call ourselves
the slaves of Jesus Christ rather than the slaves of
Mary, taking the denomination of our devotion
rather from its last end, which is Jesus Christ,
than from the road and the means to the end,
which Mary is ; though I repeat that in truth
we may do either, as I have done myself. For
example : a man who goes from Orleans to Tours
by way of Amboise may very well say that he is
going to Amboise, or that he is going to Tours ;
that he is a traveller to Amboise, and a trav^er
to Tours ; with this difference however, that Ai&-
boise is but his straight road to Tours, and that
Tours only is the last end and term of }m
voyage.

2. A second reason is because the principal

THS BUSSED VIBGIK. 171

myBtery we celebrate in honour of this devotion
i» the mystery of the Incarnation, where we can
<mly see Jesus in Mary, and incarnate in her
bosom. Hence it is more to the purpose to
speak of the slavery of Jesus in Mary, and of
Jesus residing and reigning in Mary, according
to that beautiftd prayer of so many great men,
" O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in us,
in Thy spirit of sanctity," Ac

3. Another reason is because this maimer of
speaking sets forth still more the intimate union
which there is between Jesus and Mary. They
are so intimately united, that the one is altogether
in the other. Jesus is altogether in Mary, and
Mary is altogether in Jesus ; or rather, she exists
no more, but Jesus is all alone in her, and it were
easier to separate the light from the sun than
Mary from Jesus. So that we might call om*
Lord Jesus of Mary ^ and our Blessed Lady Jl/oty
of Jesus,

The time would not permit me to stop now
to explain the excellences and grandeurs of the
mysteries of Jesus Uving and reigning in Mary,
in other words, of the Incarnation of the Word,
I will content myself with saying these three
words : We have here the first mystery of Jesus
Oirist, — the most hidden, the most exalted,
and the least known. It is in this mystery that
Jesus, in His Mother's womb, which is for that
very reason called by the Saints the cabinet of

172 TRUE DEVOTIOK TO

the secrets of Gtxl, has, in concert with Mary,
chosen all the elect It is in this mystery that
He has wrought all the other mysteries of His
life by the acceptance which He made of thenu
Jesus ingrediens mundum didtj Ecce venioj vtfa"
dam voluntatem tuam. Consequently this mys-
tery is an abridgment of all mysteries, and
contains the will and grace of all. Finally,
this mystery is the throne of the mercy, of the
liberality, and of the glory of God. It is the
throne of His mercy for us, because, as we can-
not approach Jesus but by Mary, we can only
see Jesus and speak to Him by her intercession.
Jesus, who always hears His dear Mother, al-
ways grants His grace and mercy to poor sinners.
Adeamus ergo cumfiducid ad thronum gratioe. It
is the throne of His liberality for Mary, because,
while the new Adam dwelt in that true ter-
restrial Paradise, He worked so many miracles
in secret, that neither Angels nor men can com-
prehend them. It is on this account that the
Saints call Mary the magnificence of God, —
Magni/icentia Deiy — as if God were only mag-
nificent in Mary : solummodb ibi magnificus Do^
minus. It is the throne of His glory for His
Father, because it is in Mary that Jesus Christ
has calmed His Father, irritated against men,
and that He has made restitution of the glory
which sin ravished from Him, and that, by the
sacrifice He made of His own will and of Him«

THE BLESSED VIBGIN. 173

self, He has given Him more glory than ever
the sacrifices of the Ancient Law could do, and
He gives Him now an infinite glorj^, which He
never could have received from man.

Fifth Practice, Those who adopt this sla-
very ought also to have a great devotion to
saying the Hail Mary (the Angelical Salutation).
Few Christians, however enlightened, know the
real price, merit, excellence, and necessity of
the Hail Mary. It was necessary for the Blessed
Virgin to appear several times to great and en-
lightened Saints, to show them the merit of it.
She did so to St. Dominic, St. John Capistran,
and the Blessed Alan de la Roche. They have
composed entire works on the wonders and effi-
cacy of that prayer for converting souls. They
have loudly published and openly preached that,
salvation having begun with the Hail Mary, the
salvation of each one of us in particular is attached
to that prayer. They tell us that it is that prayer
which made the dry and barren earth bring
forth the fruit of life; and that it is that prayer
well said which makes the Word of God germi-
nate in our souls, and bring forth Jesus Christ,
the Fruit of Ufe. They tell us that the Hail Mary
is a heavenly dew for watering the earth, which
is the soul, to make it bring forth its fruit in
season ; and that a soul which is not watered by
that prayer bears no fruit, and brings forth only
thorns and brambles, and is ready to be cursed.

174 TRUE PKVOnON TO

Listen to what our Lady revealed to the
Blessed Alan de la Soche, as he has recorded
it in his book on the dignity of the Rosary :
" Know, my son, and make all others know,
that it is a probable and proximate sign of eter-
nal damnation to have an aversion, a Inkewarm-
ness, or a negligence, in saying the Angelical
Salutation, which has repaired the whole world.*'
Sdas enim et aecwrh inteUigaa et inde lath omnibus
notum facias^ quod videlicet signum probabile est et
propinquum cBtemoe damnaiionis horrere et acediarij
ac negligere Salutationem AnffeHcam^ totius mtmdi
i'eparationem. These are words at once terrible
and consoling, and which we should find it hard
to believe, if we had not that holy man for a
guarantee, and St. Dominic before him, and
many great men since. But we have also the
experience of several ages ; for it has always
been remarked that those who wear the outward
look of reprobation, like impious heretics and
proud worldlings, hate or despise the Hail Mary
or the Bosary.

Heretics still learn and say the Our Father^
but not the Hail Mary, nor the Bosary. That
is their horror. They would rather wear a ser-
p^it than a rosary.

The proud also, although Catholics, have
the same inclinations as their father, Lucifer;
and so have only contempt or indifference for
the Hail Mary^ and look at the Bosary as at a

THB BLESSED YIBOIK. 175

derotion which is only good for the ignorant
and for those who cannot read. On the contrary-
it is an equally universal experience, that those
who have otherwise great marks of predestina-
tion about them love and relish the Hail Mary,
and delight in saying it. We always see the
more a man is for God, the more he likes that
prayer. This is what our Lady said also to the
Blessed Alan, after the words which I have re-
cently quoted. I do not know how it is, nor
why, but nevertheless I well know that it is
true ; nor have I any better secret of knowing
whether a person is for God than to examine
if he likes to say the Hail Mary and the Rosary.
I say, if he likes; for it may happen that a person
may be under some natural inability to say it, or
even a supernatural one; yet nevertheless he likes
it always, and always inspires the same liking
into others. predestinate souls ! slaves of Jesus
in Mary ! learn that the Hail Mary is the most
beautiful of all prayers after the Our Father.
It is the most perfect compliment which you
can make to Mary, because it is the compliment
which the Most High sent her by an archangel,
in order to gain her heart ; and it was so power-
fid over her heart by the secret charms of which
it is so ftdl, that in spite of her profound humility,
ahe gave her consent to the Incarnation of the
Word. It is by this compliment also that you will
infeUibly gain her heart, if you say it as you ought*

176 nxTB DBYOTunr to

Tbe Hail Mary well said, that is, with atten-
tian, devotion, and modesty, is, aoooiding to the
Saints, the enemy of the devil, which puts him
to flight, and the hammer which crashes him.
It is the sanctification of the sonl, the joy of
Angels, the melody of the predestinate, the can-
ticle of die New Testament, the pleasure of Mary,
and the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. The
Hail Mary is a heavenly dew which fertilises
the souL It is the chaste and loving kiss which
we give to Mary. It is a vermilion rose which
we present to her; a precious pearl we offer
her ; a chalice of divine ambrosial nectar which
we hold to her. All these are comparisons of
the Saints.

I pray you urgently, by the love I bear you
in Jesus and Mary, not to content yourselves
with saying the Little Corona of the Blessed
Virgin, but a whole Chaplet ; or even, if you
have time, the whole Rosary every day. At
the moment of your death, you will bless the
day and hour in which you have followed my
advice. Having thus sown in the benedictions
of Jesus and Mary, you will reap eternal bene-
dictions in heaven : qui seminat in benedictiombuSj
de benedictixmSms et metet.

Sixth Practice. To thank God for the graces
He has given to our Lady, those who adopt
this devotion will often say the Magnificat, as
the Blessed Mary d'Oignies did, and many other

THE BLESSED TIBOIN. 177

Saints. It 18 the only prayer, the only work,
which the holy Virgin composed, or rather
which Jesus composed in her ; for He spoke by
her mouth. It is the greatest sacrifice of praise
which God ever received from a pure creature in
the law of grace. It is, on the one hand, the most
humble andgrateftd, and on the other hand, the
most sublime and exalted, of all canticles. There
are in that song mysteries so great and hidden,
that the Angels do not know ^em. The pious
and erudite Gerson employed a great part of
his life in composing works upon most difficult
subjects ; and yet it was only at the close of his
career, and even then with trembling, that he
undertook to comment on the Magnificat, so as
to crown all his other works. He wrote a folio
volume on it, and brings forward many admir-
able things about that beautiftd and divine can-
ticle. Among other things, he says that our
Lady often repeated it herself, and especially for
tiianksgiving after Communion. The learned
Benzonius, in explaining the same Magnificat,
rdates many miracles wrought by the virtue of
it, and says that the devils tremble and fiy when
fliey hear these words: FecU potentiam inbrac/do
8UO^ dispersit mperbos mente cordis mi

Seventh Fractioe. Those faithftd servants of
Mary, who adopt this devotion, ought always
greatly to despise, to hate, and to eschew ihe
corrupted world, and to make use of those prac*

178 TRUE DEVOTION TO

tices of the contempt of the world which we
have given in the first part of this treatise.

2. Particular and Interior Prax^icesfor those who
wish to he perfect.

Besides the external practices of the devotion
which we have been describing so far, and which
we must not omit through negligence or con-
tempt, so far as the state and condition of each
one will allow him to observe them, there are
some very sanctifying interior practices for those
whom the Holy Ghost calls to high perfection.

These may be expressed in four words : to do
all our actions hy Mary, icith Mary, in Mary,
and /or Mary ; so that we may do them all the
more perfectly hy Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus,
and /or Jesus.

I. We must do our actions hy Mary ; that is
to say, we must obey her in all things, and in
aU things conduct ourselves by her spirit, which
is the Holy Spirit of God. Those who are led
by the Spirit of God are the children of God, —
Qui spiritu Dei aguntur^ ii suntfilii DeL Those
who are led by the spirit of Mary are the children
of Mary, and consequently the children of God,
as we have shown ; and among so many clients of
the Blessed Virgin, none are true or faithM but
those who are led by her spirit. I have said that
the spirit of Mary was the Spirit of God, because
she was never led by her own spirit, but always

THS BLESSED YXBGIK. 179

by the Holy Ghost, who has rendered Himself so
completely master of her, that He has become her
own proper spirit. It is on this accoimt that St.
Ambrose says : SU in singulis Marice anima^ vt
magnijicet Dominum; sit in singulis spiritus Ma^
ricBy ut exsuUet in Deo^ — " Let the soul of Mary
be in each of us to magnify the Lord, and the
spirit of Mary be in each of us to rejoice in Qt)d."
A soul is happy indeed, when, like the good Je-
suit lay broiher, Alphonso Rodriguez, who died
in the odour of sanctify, it is all possessed and
over-ruled by the spirit of Mary, a spirit meek
and strong, zealous and prudent, hinnble and
courageous, pure and profoimd. Li order that
the soul may let itself be led by Mary's spirit,
it must first of aU renoimce its own spirit, and
its own proper lights and wills, before it does
any thing. For example : it should do so before
its prayer, before its saying or hearing Mass^
and before communicating; because the darkness
of our own spirit, and the malice of our own
will and operation, if we follow them, however
good they may appear to us, will put an obstacle
to the spirit of Mary. Secondly, wo must de-
liver ourselves to the spirit of Mary to be moved
and influenced by it in the manner she chooses.
We must put ourselves and leave ourselves in
her virginal hands, like a tool in the grasp of a
workman, like a lute in the hands of a skilful
player. We must lose ourselves, and abandon

180 TEUB DBVOTICW TO

ourselves to her, like a stone one throws into the
sea. This must be done simply and in an in-
stant, by one glance of the mind, by one little
movement of the will, or even verbally, in saying,
for example, I renounce myself; I give myself
to thee, my dear Mother, We may not, per-
haps, feel any sensible sweetness in this act of
union, but it is not on that account the less real*
It is just as if we were to say with equal sin-
ceriiy, though without any sensible change in
ourselves, what, may it please Grod, we never
shall say, I give myself to the devil; we should
not the less truly belong to the devil because we
did not feel we belonged to him. Thirdly, we
must, from time to time, both during and after
the action, renew the same act and offering of
imion. The more we shall do so, the more we
shall be sanctified ; and we shall all the sooner
attain to union with Jesus Christ, which always
follows necessarily on our union with Mary,
because the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus,
n. We must do our actions vrith Mary;
that is to say, we must in all our actions regard
Mary as an accompUdied model of every vurtae
aiKl perfection which the Holy Ghost has formed
in a pure creature, for us to imitate according
to our litde measure. We nrast therafi»:e in
every action consider how Mary has done it, or
how she would have done it, had she been in our
place* For that end we must examine and

THB BLB9SED YIBOIN. 181

meditate the great virtues which she practised
during her life, and particularly, first of all, her
lively faith, by which she believed without hesi-
tation the Angel's word, and beheved it faith-
ftdly and constantly up to the foot of the Cross;
2dly, her profound humiliiy, which made her
hide herself, hold her peace, submit to every
thing, and put herself the last of all ; and 3dly,
hetr altogether divine puriiy, which never has
had, and never can have, its equal under heaven;
and so on with all her other virtues. Let us
remember, I repeat it for the second time, that
Mary is the great and exclusive mould of God,
proper to make living images of God, at small
cost and in a little time ; and that a soul which
has found that mould, and has lost itself in it,
is presently changed into Jesus Christ, whom
that mould represents to the life.

m. We must do our actions in Mary. Tho-
roughly to understand this practice, we must
know, first, that our Blessed Lady is the true
terreBirial paradise of the new Adam, and that
i^ ancient Paradise was but a figure of her.
Tbere are, then, in this earthly paradise, riches,
badfuties, rarities, and inexplicable sweetnesses,
whidi Jesus Christ, the new Adam, had left
there $ it was in this paradise that He took His
complacence for nine months, worked His won-
ders, and displayed His riches with the magni-
ficence of a Gbd This most holy place is com-

O

182 TBUB DEVOTION TO

posed only of a virgin and immaculate earth,
of which the new Adam was formed, and on
which He was nourished, without any spot or
stain, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, who
dwelt there. It is in this earthly paradise that
there is the true tree of life, which has borne
Jesus Christ, the Fruit of Kfe, and the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, which has given
light unto the world. There are in this divine
place trees planted by the hand of God, and
watered by His Divine unction, which have
borne and daily bear finiits of a taste divine.
There are flower-beds, enamelled with beautiftd
and various blossoms ; virtues, shedding odours
which embalm the very Angels. There are
meadows green with hope, impregnable towers
of strength, and the most enticing houses
of confidence. . It is but the Holy Ghost who
can make us know the hidden truth of these
figures of material things. There are in this plaoe
an air of perfect purity ; a fair sun, without
the shadow of the Divinity; a fair day, without
the night of the Sacred Humanity ; a continual
burning fiimace of love, where all the iron that
is cast into it is changed, by excessive heat,
to gold. There is a river of humility, which
springs from the earth, and which, dividing it-
self into four branches, waters all that enchanted
place ; and these are the four cardinal virtues.
The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the Fathers,

tHE BLESSED VIBGIN. 183

also styles the Blessed Virgin the Eastern Grate,
by which the High-Priest, Jesus Christ, enters
the world and leaves it. By it He came the first
time, and by it He will come the second.

In the next place, to comprehend thoroughly
the practice of doing our actions in Mary, we must
know that the most holy Virgin is the Sanctuary
of the Divinity, the repose of the Most Holy
Trinity, the throne of God, the city of God, the
altar of God, the temple of God, the world of
God. All these different epithets and panegyrics
are most substantially true, with reference to
the different marvels which the Most High has
wrought in Mary. Oh, what riches 1 what
glory I what pleasure I what happiness! to be
able to enter in and dwell in Mary, where the
Most High has set up the throne of His supreme
glory I But how difficult it is for sinners like
ourselves to have the permission, the capacity,
and the light, to enter into a place so high and
so holy, which is guarded not by one of the
Cherubim, like the old earthly Paradise, but by
the Holy Ghost Himself, who is its absolute
master 1 He Himself has said of it, Hortus con-
clu8ic8y soror mea sponsay hortua corwlususy fom
aifffiatm; Mary is shut, Mary is sealed. The
miserable children of Adam and Eve, driven
from the earthly Paradise, cannot enter into this
one, except by a particular grace of the Holy
Ghost, which they ought to merit.

184 TRUE BEVOnON TO

After we have obtained this illustrious grace
by our fidelity, we must remain in the fair in-
terior of Mary with complacency, repose there
in peace, lean our weight there in confidence,
hide ourselves there with assurance, and lose
ourselves there without reserve. Thus, in that
virginal bosom, 1, the soul shall be nourished
wiih the milk of grace and maternal mercy ;
2, it shall be delivered from its troubles, fears,
and scruples ; and, 3, it shall be in safety
against all its enemies, — ^the world, the devil,
and sin, — ^who never have an entrance there.
It is on this account that Mary says that
they who work in her shall not sin : ^t ope-
rantur in mey non peccabunt; that is to say,
those who dwell in Mary's spirit shall fall into
no considerable &uli Lastly, 4, the soul shall
be formed in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ
in it, because her bosom is, as the holy Fathers
say, the chamber of the divine Sacraments,
where Jesus Christ and all the elect have been
formed.

IV. Finally, we must do all our actions /w
Mary. As we have given ourselves up entirely
to her service, it is but just to do every thing
for her, as a servant and a slave. It*is not that
we. can take her fer ihe last end of our ser-
vices, for that is Jesus Christ alone; but we
may take her for our proximate end, our mys-
terious means, and our easy way to go to Him.

THE BLESSED YIRGIK. 18^

like a good servant and slave, we must not
remain idle, but, supported by her protection,
we must undertake and achieve great things for
this august sovereign. We must defend her pri-
vileges when they are disputed ; we must stand
up for her glory when it is attacked ; we must
entice all the world, if we can, to her service
and to this true and solid devotion; we must
speak and cry out against those who abuse her
devotion to outrage her Son, and we must at
the same time establish this Veritable Devotion ;
we must pretend to no recompense for our lit-
tle services, except the honour of belonging to
so sweet a Queen, and the happiness of being
united by her to Jesus her Son by an indissoluble
tie in time and in eternity.

Glory to Jesus in Maiy !
Glory to Mary in Jesus I
Glory to God Alone !

MANNER OF PRACTISING THIS DEVOTION TO OUR
LADY, WHEN WE GO TO HOLY COMMUNION.

1. Before Communimu

1. You must humble yourself most pro-
foundly before God. 2. You must renoimce
your corrupt interior, and your dispositions,
however good your own self-love may make
them look. 3. You must renew your conse-
cration by saying, Tmia toius ego mm^ et omnia

186 TEUB DEVOTION TO

mea tua mnty — I am all thine, my dear Mis-
tress, with all I have. 4. You must implore that
good Mother to lend you her heart, that you
may receive her Son there with the same dispo-
sitions as her own. You will represent to her
that it touches her Son's glory, to be put into
a heart so sullied and so inconstant as yours,
which would not fail either to lessen His Glory
or to destroy it. But if she will come and dwell
with you, in order to receive her Son, she can
do so by the dominion which she has over all
hearts; and her Son will be well received by
her, without stains, and without danger of being
outraged or destroyed. Deits in medio ejiiSy nan
commovMtur. You will tell her confidently, that
all you have given her of your good is a little
matter to honour her ; but that by the Holy Com-
munion you wish to make her the same present
as the Eternal Father gave her, and that you
will honour her more by that than if you gave
her all the goods in the world ; and, finally, that
Jesus, who loves her alone, still desires to take
His pleasure and His repose in her, even in your
soul, though it be filthier far and poorer than
the stable where He made no difficulty to come,
simply because she was there. You will ask her
for her heart by these tender words : Acdpio te
in mea omnia^ prcebe mihi cor tuum^ Maria !

THE BLESSED YIB6IN. 187

2. At Communion.

On the point of receiving Jesus Christ, after
the Our Father, you say three times, Domine
non sum dignus. Say the first one to the Eternal
Father, telling Him you are not worthy, be-
cause of your evil thoughts and ingratitudes
towards so good a Father, to receive His only
Son ; but that He is to behold Mary, His hand-
maid, — Ecce ancilta Domini^ — who acts for us,
and who gives us a singular confidence and
hope with His Majesty : Quoniam singulariter in
spe constituisti m£.

You shall say to the Son, Domine non sum
dignus ; telling Him that you are not worthy to
receive Him, because of your idle and evil
words, and your infidelity to His service; but
that nevertheless you pray Him to have pity
upon you, that you may introduce Him into the
house of His Own Mother, and yours, and that
you will not let Him go, without His coming to
lodge with her. Tenui eum^ nee dimittam donee
introducam ilium in domum matris mecBy et in
cMculum genitrids mece (Cani iii. 4). You
will pray Him to rise, and come to the place of
His repose, and into the ark of His Sanctifica-
tion : Surge^ Domine^ in requiem tuam^ tu et area
sanctificationis tuce. Tell Him you put no con-
fidence at all in your own merits, your own

1 88 TBUB DEVOTION TO

strength, and your own preparations, as Esau
did ; but that you trust only in Mary, your dear
Mother, as the little Jacob did in the cares of
Bebecca. Tell Him that, sinner and Esau as
you are, you dare to approach His Sanctity,
supported and adorned, as you are, with the
virtues of His holy Mother.

You shall say to the Holy Ghost, Domine
lum sum dignm; telling Him that you are not
worthy to receive this masterpiece of His charity,
because of the lukewarmness and iniquity of
your actions, and because of your resistances to
His inspirations ; but that all your confidence
is in Mary, His faithfiil Spouse. You shall say
with St. Bernard, Hcec mea maxima fiduda^ hcec
tota ratio spei m^ece. You can pray even Him to
come Himself in Mary, His indissoluble Spouse,
telling Him that her bosom is as pure, and h^^
heart as burning as ever ; and that without His
descent into your soul neither Jesus nor Mary
will be formed, nor yet worthily lodged.

3. After Holy Communion.
After Holy Communion, while you are in-
wardly recollected and holding your eyes shut,
you will introduce Jesus into the heart of Mary.
You will give Him to His Mother, who will
receive Him lovingly, will place Him honour-
ably, will adore Him profomidly, will love Him
perfectly, will embrace Him closely, and will

THE BLESSED YIBGIK. 189

render to Him, in spirit and in trutii, many
homages which are unknown to us in our thick
darkness. Or else you will keep yourself pro-
foundly humbled in your heart, in the presence
of Jesus residing in Mary. Or you will sit like
a slave at the gate of the king's palace, where
he is speaking with the queen ; and while they
talk one to the other witibout need of you, you
will go in spirit to heaven and over all the earth,
praying all creatures to thank, adore, and love
Jesus and Mary in your place : Venitey adoremus^
venite. Or else you shall yourself ask of Jesus,
in union with Mary, the coming of His kingdom
on earth, through His holy Mother; or you
shall sue for the Divine wisdom, or for Divine
love, or for the pardon of your sins, or for some
other grace ; but always iy Mary and in Mary,
saying, while you look aside at yourself, Ne
respidasy Dominey peccata meay — " Lord, look
not at my sins ;" Sed oculi tui videant cequitates
MaricBy — " But let your eyes look at nothing in
me but the virtues and merits of Mary :" and
then, remembering your sins, you shall add,
Inimicus homo hoc fedty — " It is I who have
committed these sins;" or you shall say, Ab
homine iniquo et dohso erue me; or else, Te opor-
tet crescerej ms avtem minuiy — " My Jesus, you
must increase in my soul, and I must decrease ;
Haiy, you muat increase within me, and I must
be still less than I have been." CrescUe et mtd^

190 TRUE DEVOTION TO

tiplicaminiy — " Jesus and Mary, increase in me,
and multiply yourselves outside in others also."
There are an infinity of other thoughts wl^ich
the Holy Ghost furnishes, and will fiimish you,
if you are thoroughly interior, mortified, and
faithfiil to this grand and sublime devotion
which I have been teaching you. But always
remember that the more you leave Mary to act
in your Communion, the more Jesus will be
glorified. The more you leave Mary to act for
Jesus, and Jesus to act in Mary, the more pro-
foundly will you humble yourself, and will
listen to them in peace and silence, without
putting yourself in trouble about seeing, tast*
ing, or feeling ; for the just man lives through-
out on faith, and particularly in Holy Commu-
nion, which is an action of faith. Justus mens
ex fide vivit,

CONSECRATION OF OURSELVES TO JESUS CHRIST,
THE INCARNATE WISDOM, BY THE HANDS OF
MARY.

Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom! O
sweetest and most Adorable Jesus 1 True God
and True Man, only Son of the Eternal Father,
and of Mary always Virgin I I adore Thee pro-
foundly in the bosom and splendours of Thy
Father during etemiiy ; and I adore Thee also in
the Virginal bosom of Mary, Thy most worthy
Mother, in the time of Thine Incarnation.

THE BLESSED YIBQIN. 191

I give Thee thanks for that Thou hast
annihilated Thyself, in taking the form of a
slave, in order to rescue me from the cruel
slavery of the devil. I praise and glorify Thee
for that Thou hast been pleased to submit Thy-
self to Mary, Thy holy Mother, in all things,
in order to make me Thy faithful slave through
her. But, alas! imgratefrd and faithless as I
have been, I have not kept the promises which
I made so solenmly to Thee in my Baptism ; I
have not fulfilled my obligations; I do not
deserve to be called Thy son, nor yet Thy slave;
and as there is nothing in me which does not
merit Thine anger and Thy repulse, I dare no
more come by myself before Thy Most Holy
and August Majesfy. It is on this account that
I have recourse to the intercession of Thy most
holy Mother, whom Thou hast given me for a
mediatrix with Thee. It is by her means that
I hope to obtain of Thee contrition, and the
pardon of my sins, the acquisition and the pre-
servation of wisdom. I salute thee, then,
immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Di-
vinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be
hidden, and to be adored by Angels and by men.
I hail thee, Queen of heaven and earth, to
whose empire every thing is subject which is
under Glt)d.

I salute thee, sure refuge of sinners,
whose mercy fails to no one. Hear the de-

1 92 TBUB DEVOTION TO

sires which I have of the Divine Wisdom ; and
for that end receive the vows and offeringB
which my lowness presents to thee. I, N., a
faithless sinner, — I renew and ratify to-day in
thy hands the vows of my Baptism ; I renounce
for ever Satan, his pomps and works ; and I
give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incar-
nate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all
the days of my life, and to be more &ithiul to
Him than I have ever been before.

In the presence of aU the heavenly court I
choose thee this day for my Mother and Mis-
tress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy
slave, my body and soul, my goods, both in-
terior and exterior, and even the value of all my
good actions, past, present, and ftiture ; leaving
to you the entire and ftdl right of disposing of
me, and all that belongs to me, without excep-
tion, according to thy good pleasure, to the
greatest glory of God, in time and in eternity.

Receive, benignant Virgin, this litde
ofiFering of my slavery, in the honour of, and in
union with, that subjection which the Et^mal
Wisdom deigned to have to thy Maternity, in
homage to the power which both of you have
over this little worm and miserable dnner, and
in thanksgiving for the privileges with whidi
the Holy Trinity hath favoured thee, I protest
that I wish henceforth, as thy true slave, to
seek thy honour and to obey thee in aU things.

THE BLESSED VIBGIN. 193

admirable Mother, present me to thy
dear Son as His eternal slave, so that as He
hath redeemed me by thee, by thee He may
receive me. Mother of mercy, get me the
grace to obtain the true Wisdom of God ; and
for that end put me in the number of those
whom thou lovest, whom thou teachest, whom
thou conductest, and whom thou nourishest and
protectest, as thy children and thy slaves.

faithful Virgin, make me in all things so
perfect a disciple, imitator, and slave of the
Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ thy Son, that
I may attain, by thy intercession, and by thy
example, to the fulness of His age on earth,
and of His glory in the heavens. Amen.

Qui potest capere, capiat.
Quis sapiens, et intelliget hsBC ?

THE END.

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