Chapter XL: On Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

NEXT to devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, which is beyond comparison above and before all others, as God is above all creatures, comes the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Divine Saviour.

Why should we cherish a tender love for her? Because she is the mother of our Lord. How can we love the Lord without loving her, who is His own mother? How foolish it is then to try to separate the love of the one from that of the other, or the devotion of the one from that of the other!

All true love and true devotion to the Blessed Virgin is grounded on our love for our Lord Jesus Christ. She took care of Him, she is the most beloved by Him, she was the most worthy to be His mother, and she is His mother.

Of course, then, she is above all the saints, and deserves especial love and veneration. And she has always had it, and always will have it, according to her own prophecy: “Behold, from henceforth all nations shall call me blessed” (St. Luke i. 48).

And as the Blessed Virgin is nearest and dearest to Jesus Christ, so is her power to help us greatest. How can the Saviour refuse anything to His own mother? If we desire anything from Him, we cannot do better than to add to our own prayers those of His mother, and beg her to intercede for us.

Pray earnestly and frequently to the mother of God: expose all your wants to her, and that you may be agreeable to her cherish a deep and tender love to her. And what kind of love is most suitable? That of a child to the best of mothers.

When St. Teresa lost her mother her heart was breaking with grief. She was very young at the time, and in the simplicity of her heart she knelt down and said to the Blessed Virgin: “Now my mother is dead, I have no one to take care of me; you must be a mother to me as long as I live,” shedding a torrent of tears at the same time. What a good mother the Blessed Virgin proved herself to St. Teresa; and what a consoling thought it is that a poor girl amid all her temptations, severe trials and afflictions, can have the blessed thought of that dear mother in Heaven watching over her with loving eyes, and with all a mother’s interest, in her truest welfare. That surely is enough to make a gleam of sunshine in the darkest day for the soul.

But if we would have this good mother for our own, we must take care to make ourselves agreeable to her. And how is that best done? I will tell you. Love her Son dearly, and she will love you dearly. And how shall her Son beloved dearly? By following his own example that he set us while he lived upon earth. By following the pure, the humble, innocent, charitable, example his own mother the Virgin herself has set us.

Ask yourself frequently, How would Jesus Christ, how would the Blessed Virgin, act under these circumstances? how would they be pleased to see me act? and then act accordingly. “Learn of me,” says our Lord, “for I am meek and humble of heart.” Of what use is it to recite devotions, to say the Rosary, or wear the Scapular, when you pay no attention to imitate the conduct of the Blessed Virgin?

Some wear the Scapular and lead wicked lives. They say: “One cannot be eternally lost who wears the Scapular.” Now, one who encourages himself to go on in wickedness with the idea of being preserved from the consequences of sin by wearing the Scapular, instead of getting any good from it, will only be making his damnation more certain.

The Scapular was intended as a badge of the true, faithful servants of Mary, who strive to live lives worthy of such a badge and of such an example. Great graces are annexed to wearing it with such an intention, but none to a superstitious and wicked use of it, such as I have described above.

A true soldier honors his uniform by his conduct. He stands to his colors as to his life, and so those who wear the Scapular should remember that they must walk worthy of that blessed habit and uniform of the Blessed Virgin with which they have been invested. We may think that a person of this sort, who wears the Scapular, cannot be lost, but not so of any other.

Living, then, in such a way as to please the Mother of God, we may invoke her assistance with great confidence in all our temptations, for she is able and willing to help us. Particularly is this the case in those against the virtue of purity. This most pure Virgin seems peculiarly ready to help us to keep that virtue which was so peculiarly her own. In all temptations, at the very first thought, fly to her protection. Pronounce the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and you will be strengthened so that you will not give the least consent to such a horrid temptation.

Pray a good deal to the Holy Virgin, either out of books, reciting her litany, Little Office, or other prayers; or use that excellent devotion, the Rosary; or pray out of the heart, talking familiarly and lovingly with her, and thinking over her life, and how yours may be like it.

Devotion to our Lady will make you understand better what the Lord has done for you in becoming a little child, and having a real woman for his mother, and deepen your love for Him. So that the Church rightly considers this true devotion to the Mother of God of very great consequence in reference to the love of God, which is the aim and end of our existence here in this world.