Writings of St Louis Marie de Montfort (2024)

The Secret of Mary

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THE SECRET OF MARY

Introduction

1. Here isa secret, chosen soul, which the most High God taught me and whichI have not found in any book, ancient or modern. Inspired by theHoly Spirit, I am confiding it to you, with these conditions:

(1) That youshare it only with people who deserve to know it because theyare prayerful, give alms to the poor, do penance, suffer persecution,are unworldly, and work seriously for the salvation of souls.

(2) That youuse this secret to become holy and worthy of heaven, for the moreyou make use of it the more benefit you will derive from it. Underno circ*mstances must you let this secret make you idle and inactive.It would then become harmful and lead to your ruin.

(3) That youthank God every day of your life for the grace he has given youin letting you into a secret that you do not deserve to know.

As you go onusing this secret in the ordinary actions of your life, you willcome to understand its value and its excellent quality. At thebeginning, however, your understanding of it will be clouded becauseof the seriousness and number of your sins, and your unconsciouslove of self.

2. Before youread any further, in an understandable impatience to learn thistruth, kneel down and say devoutly the Ave Maris Stella ("Hail,thou star of ocean"), and the "Come, Holy Spirit",to ask God to help you understand and appreciate this secret givenby him. As I have not much time for writing and you have littletime for reading, I will be brief in what I have to say.

[1. Necessity of having a true devotion to Mary]

[A. The grace of god is absolutely necessary]

3. Chosen soul,living image of God and redeemed by the precious blood of JesusChrist, God wants you to become holy like him in this life, andglorious like him in the next.

It is certainthat growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All yourthoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake mustlead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God innot doing the work for which he created you and for which he iseven now keeping you in being. What a marvellous transformationis possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulnessinto holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvellouswork, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible fora mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish itby giving his grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner.The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievementas this.

4. Chosen soul,how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reachthe high level to which God is calling you? The means of holinessand salvation are known to everybody, since they are found inthe gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them;the saints have practised them and shown how essential they arefor those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These meansare: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial,abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will ofGod.

5. The graceand help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practise allthese, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, thoughnot in the same measure. I say "not in the same measure",because God does not give his graces in equal measure to everyone, although in his infinite goodness he always gives sufficientgrace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performsgreat works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performslesser works. The value and high standard of our actions correspondsto the value and perfection of the grace given by God and respondedto by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.

[B. To find the grace of God, we must discover Mary]

6. It all comesto this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain fromGod the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wishto teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Maryif you would obtain this grace from God.

7. Let me explain:

(1) Mary alonefound grace with God for herself and for every individual person. No patriarch or prophet or any other holy person of the OldLaw could manage to find this grace.

8. (2) It wasMary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace, andbecause of this she is called the "Mother of Grace".

9. (3) Godthe Father, from whom, as from its essential source, every perfectgift and every grace come down to us, gave her every grace whenhe gave her his Son. Thus, as St Bernard says, the will of Godis manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus.

10. (4) Godchose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenserof all his graces, so that all his graces and gifts pass throughher hands. Such is the power that she has received from him that,according to St Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternalFather, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the HolySpirit to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much asshe wills.

11. (5) Asin the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, soin the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church musthave God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prideshimself on having God for his Father but does not give to Marythe tender affection of a true child, he is an impostor and hisfather is the devil.

12. (6) SinceMary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must alsoproduce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians.A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor memberswithout a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member ofJesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth, he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ,which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicateit abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children.

13. (7) TheHoly Spirit espoused Mary and produced his greatest work, theincarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disownedher and so he continues to produce every day, in a mysteriousbut very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and throughher.

14. (8) Maryreceived from God a unique dominion over souls enabling her tonourish them and make them more and more godlike. St Augustinewent so far as to say that even in this world all the elect areenclosed in the womb of Mary, and that their real birthday iswhen this good mother brings them forth to eternal life. Consequently,just as an infant draws all its nourishment from its mother, whogives according to its needs, so the elect draw their spiritualnourishment and all their strength from Mary.

15. (9) Itwas to Mary that God the Father said, "Dwell in Jacob", that is, dwell in my elect who are typified by Jacob. It was toMary that God the Son said, "My dear Mother, your inheritanceis in Israel", that is, in the elect. It was to Mary thatthe Holy Spirit said, "Place your roots in my elect".Whoever, then, is of the chosen and predestinate will have theBlessed Virgin living within him, and he will let her plant inhis very soul the roots of every virtue, but especially deep humilityand ardent charity.

16. (10) Maryis called by St Augustine, and is indeed, the "living mouldof God". In her alone the God-man was formed in his humannature without losing any feature of the Godhead. In her alone,by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as humannature is capable of it.

A sculptorcan make a statue or a life-like model in two ways: (i) By usinghis skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statueout of hard, shapeless matter; (ii) By making a cast of it ina mould. The first way is long and involved and open to all sortsof accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammerto ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward,almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mould must be perfectand true to life and the material must be easy to handle and offerno resistance.

17. Mary isthe great mould of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit to give humannature to a Man who is God by the hypostatic union, and to fashionthrough grace men who are like to God. No godly feature is missingfrom this mould. Everyone who casts himself into it and allowshimself to be moulded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ,true God, with little pain or effort, as befits his weak humancondition. He will take on a faithful likeness to Jesus with nopossibility of distortion, for the devil has never had and neverwill have any access to Mary, the holy and immaculate Virgin,in whom there is not the least suspicion of a stain of sin.

18. Dear friend,what a difference there is between a soul brought up in the ordinaryway to resemble Jesus Christ by people who, like sculptors, relyon their own skill and industry, and a soul thoroughly tractable,entirely detached, most ready to be moulded in her by the workingof the Holy Spirit. What blemishes and defects, what shadows anddistortions, what natural and human imperfections are found inthe first soul, and what a faithful and divine likeness to Jesusis found in the second!

19. There isnot and there will never be, either in God's creation or in hismind, a creature in whom he is so honoured as in the most BlessedVirgin Mary, not excepting even the saints, the cherubim or thehighest seraphim in heaven.

Mary is God'sgarden of Paradise, his own unspeakable world, into which hisSon entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take hisdelight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, theone we are living in. He created a second world - Paradise - forthe Blessed. He created a third for himself, which he named Mary.She is a world unknown to most mortals here on earth. Even theangels and saints in heaven find her incomprehensible, and arelost in admiration of a God who is so exalted and so far abovethem, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, his chosenworld, that they exclaim: "Holy, holy, holy" unceasingly.

20. Happy,indeed sublimely happy, is the person to whom the Holy Spiritreveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him true knowledgeof her. Happy the person to whom the Holy Spirit opens this enclosedgarden for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Spirit gives accessto this sealed fountain where he can draw water and drink deepdraughts of the living waters of grace. That person will findonly grace and no creature in the most loveable Virgin Mary. Buthe will find that the infinitely holy and exalted God is at thesame time infinitely solicitous for him and understands his weaknesses.Since God is everywhere, he can be found everywhere, even in hell.But there is no place where God can be more present to his creatureand more sympathetic to human weakness than in Mary. It was indeedfor this very purpose that he came down from heaven. Everywhereelse he is the Bread of the strong and the Bread of angels, butliving in Mary he is the Bread of children.

[C. A true devotion to the Blessed Virgin is indispensable]

23. The difficulty,then, is how to arrive at the true knowledge of the most holyVirgin and so find grace in abundance through her. God, as theabsolute Master, can give directly what he ordinarily dispensesonly through Mary, and it would be rash to deny that he sometimesdoes so. However, St Thomas assures us that, following the orderestablished by his divine Wisdom, God ordinarily imparts his gracesto men through Mary. Therefore, if we wish to go to him, seekingunion with him, we must use the same means which he used in comingdown from heaven to assume our human nature and to impart hisgraces to us. That means was a complete dependence on Mary hisMother, which is true devotion to her.

[2. What perfect devotion to Mary consists in]

[A. Some true devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary]

24. There areindeed several true devotions to our Lady. I do not intend treatingof those which are false.

25. The first consists in fulfilling the duties of our Christian state, avoidingall mortal sin, performing our actions for God more through lovethan through fear, praying to our Lady occasionally, and honouringher as the Mother of God, but without our devotion to her beingexceptional.

26. The secondconsists in entertaining for our Lady deeper feelings of esteemand love, of confidence and veneration. This devotion inspiresus to join the confraternities of the Holy Rosary and the Scapular,to say the five or fifteen decades of the Rosary, to venerateour Lady's pictures and shrines, to make her known to others,and to enrol in her sodalities. This devotion, in keeping us fromsin, is good, holy and praiseworthy, but it is not as perfectas the third, nor as effective in detaching us from creatures,or in practising that self-denial necessary for union with JesusChrist.

27. The thirddevotion to our Lady is one which is unknown to many and practisedby very few. This is the one I am about to present to you.

[B. The perfect practice of devotion to Mary]

[1. What it consists in]

28. Chosensoul, this devotion consists in surrendering oneself in the mannerof a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through her, and then performingall our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.

Let me explainthis statement further.

29. We shouldchoose a special feast-day on which to give ourselves. Then, willinglyand lovingly and under no constraint, we consecrate and sacrificeto her unreservedly our body and soul. We give to her our materialpossessions, such as house, family, income, and even the innerpossessions of our soul, namely, our merits, graces, virtues andatonements.

Notice thatin this devotion we sacrifice to Jesus through Mary all that ismost dear to us, that is, the right to dispose of ourselves, ofthe value of our prayers and alms, of our acts of self-denialand atonements. This is a sacrifice which no religious order wouldrequire of its members. We leave everything to the free disposalof our Lady, for her to use as she wills for the greater gloryof God, of which she alone is perfectly aware.

30. We leaveto her the right to dispose of all the satisfactory and prayervalue of our good deeds, so that, after having done so and withoutgoing so far as making a vow, we cease to be master over any goodwe do. Our Lady may use our good deeds either to bring reliefor deliverance to a soul in purgatory, or perhaps to bring a changeof heart to a poor sinner.

31. By thisdevotion we place our merits in the hands of our Lady, but onlythat she may preserve, increase and embellish them, since meritfor increase of grace and glory cannot be handed over to any otherperson. But we give to her all our prayers and good works, inasmuchas they have intercessory and atonement value, for her to distributeand apply to whom she pleases. If, after having thus consecratedourselves to our Lady, we wish to help a soul in purgatory, rescuea sinner, or assist a friend by a prayer, an alms, an act of self-denialor an act of self-sacrifice, we must humbly request it of ourLady, abiding always by her decision, which of course remainsunknown to us. We can be fully convinced that the value of ouractions, being dispensed by that same hand which God himself usesto distribute his gifts and graces to us, cannot fail to be appliedfor his greatest glory.

32. I havesaid that this devotion consists in adopting the status of a slavewith regard to Mary. We must remember that there are three kindsof slavery.

There is, first,a slavery based on nature. All men, good and bad alike, are slavesof God in this sense.

The secondis a slavery of compulsion. The devils and the damned are slavesof God in this second sense.

The third isa slavery of love and free choice. This is the kind chosen byone who consecrates himself to God through Mary, and this is themost perfect way for us human beings to give ourselves to God,our Creator.

33. Note thatthere is a vast difference between a servant and a slave. A servantclaims wages for his services, but a slave can claim no reward.A servant is free to leave his employer when he likes and serveshim only for a time, but a slave belongs to his master for lifeand has no right to leave him. A servant does not give his employera right of life and death over him, but a slave is so totallycommitted that his master can put him to death without fearingany action by the law.

It is easyto see, then, that no dependence is so absolute as that of a personwho is a slave by compulsion. Strictly speaking, no man shouldbe dependent to this extent on anyone except his Creator. We thereforedo not find this kind of slavery among Christians, but only amongMuslims and pagans.

34. But happy,very happy indeed, will the generous person be who, prompted bylove, consecrates himself entirely to Jesus through Mary as theirslave, after having shaken off by baptism the tyrannical slaveryof the devil.

[2. The excellence of this practice of devotion]

35. I wouldneed much more enlightenment from heaven to describe adequatelythe surpassing merit of this devotional practice. I shall limitmyself to these few remarks:

1. In givingourselves to Jesus through Mary's hands, we imitate God the Father,who gave us his only Son through Mary, and who imparts his gracesto us only through Mary. Likewise we imitate God the Son, whoby giving us his example for us to follow, inspires us to go tohim using the same means he used in coming to us, that is, throughMary. Again, we imitate the Holy Spirit, who bestows his gracesand gifts upon us through Mary. "Is it not fitting,"remarks St Bernard, "that grace should return to its authorby the same channel that conveyed it to us?"

36. 2. In goingto Jesus through Mary, we are really paying honour to our Lord,for we are showing that, because of our sins, we are unworthyto approach his infinite holiness directly on our own. We areshowing that we need Mary, his holy Mother, to be our advocateand mediatrix with him who is our Mediator. We are going to Jesusas Mediator and Brother, and at the same time humbling ourselvesbefore him who is our God and our Judge. In short, we are practisinghumility, something which always gladdens the heart of God.

37. 3. Consecratingourselves in this way to Jesus through Mary implies placing ourgood deeds in Mary's hands. Now, although these deeds may appeargood to us, they are often defective, and not worthy to be consideredand accepted by God, before whom even the stars lack brightness.

Let us pray,then, to our dear Mother and Queen that having accepted our poorpresent, she may purify it, sanctify it, beautify it, and so makeit worthy of God. Any good our soul could produce is of less valueto God our Father, in winning his friendship and favour, thana worm-eaten apple would be in the sight of a king, when presentedby a poor peasant to his royal master as payment for the rentof his farm. But what would the peasant do if he were wise andif he enjoyed the esteem of the queen? Would he not present hisapple first to her, and would she not, out of kindness to thepoor man and out of respect for the king, remove from the appleall that was maggoty and spoilt, place it on a golden dish, andsurround it with flowers? Could the king then refuse the apple?Would he not accept it most willingly from the hands of his queenwho showed such loving concern for that poor man? "If youwish to present something to God, no matter how small it may be,"says St Bernard, "place it in the hands of Mary to ensureits certain acceptance."

38. Dear God,how everything we do comes to so very little! But let us adoptthis devotion and place everything in Mary's hands. When we havegiven her all we possibly can, emptying ourselves completely todo her honour, she far surpasses our generosity and gives us verymuch for very little. She enriches us with her own merits andvirtues. She places our gift on the golden dish of her charityand clothes us, as Rebecca clothed Jacob, in the beautiful garmentsof her first- born and only Son, Jesus Christ, which are his merits,and which are at her disposal. Thus, as her servants and slaves,stripping ourselves of everything to do her honour, we are cladby her in double garments - namely, the garments, adornments,perfumes, merits and virtues of Jesus and Mary. These are impartedto the soul of the slave who has emptied himself and is resolvedto remain in that state.

39. 4. Givingourselves in this way to our Lady is a practice of charity towardsour neighbour of the highest possible degree, because in makingourselves over to Mary, we give her all that we hold most dearand we let her dispose of it as she wishes in favour of the livingand the dead.

40. 5. In adoptingthis devotion, we put our graces, merits and virtues into safekeeping by making Mary the depository of them. It is as if wesaid to her, "See, my dear Mother, here is the good thatI have done through the grace of your dear Son. I am not capableof keeping it, because of my weakness and inconstancy, and alsobecause so many wicked enemies are assailing me day and night.Alas, every day we see cedars of Lebanon fall into the mire, andeagles which had soared towards the sun become birds of darkness,a thousand of the just falling to the left and ten thousand tothe right. But, most powerful Queen, hold me fast lest I fall.Keep a guard on all my possessions lest I be robbed of them. Ientrust all I have to you, for I know well who you are, and thatis why I confide myself entirely to you. You are faithful to Godand man, and you will not suffer anything I entrust to you toperish. You are powerful, and nothing can harm you or rob youof anything you hold."

"Whenyou follow Mary you will not go astray; when you pray to her,you will not despair; when your mind is on her, you will not wander;when she holds you up, you will not fall; when she protects you,you will have no fear; when she guides you, you will feel no fatigue;when she is on your side, you will arrive safely home" (SaintBernard). And again, "She keeps her Son from striking us;she prevents the devil from harming us; she preserves virtue inus; she prevents our merits from being lost and our graces fromreceding." These words of St Bernard explain in substanceall that I have said. Had I but this one motive to impel me tochoose this devotion, namely, that of keeping me in the graceof God and increasing that grace in me, my heart would burn withlonging for it.

41. This devotionmakes the soul truly free by imbuing it with the liberty of thechildren of God. Since we lower ourselves willingly to a stateof slavery out of love for Mary, our dear Mother, she out of gratitudeopens wide our hearts enabling us to walk with giant strides inthe way of God's commandments. She delivers our souls from weariness,sadness and scruples. It was this devotion that our Lord taughtto Mother Agnes de Langeac, a religious who died in the odourof sanctity, as a sure way of being freed from the severe sufferingand confusion of mind which afflicted her. "Make yourself,"she said, "my Mother's slave and wear her little chain."She did so, and from that time onwards her troubles ceased.

42. To provethat this devotion is authoritatively sanctioned, we need onlyrecall the bulls of the popes and the pastoral letters of bishopsrecommending it, as well as the indulgences accorded to it, theconfraternities founded to promote it, and the examples of manysaints and illustrious people who have practised it. But I donot see any necessity to record them here.

[3. The interior constituents of this Consecration and itsSpirit]

43. I havealready said that this devotion consists in performing all ouractions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.

44. It is notenough to give ourselves just once as a slave to Jesus throughMary; nor is it enough to renew that consecration once a monthor once a week. That alone would make it just a passing devotionand would not raise the soul to the level of holiness which itis capable of reaching. It is easy to enrol in a confraternity;easy to undertake this devotion, and say every day the few vocalprayers prescribed. The chief difficulty is to enter into itsspirit, which requires an interior dependence on Mary, and effectivelybecoming her slave and the slave of Jesus through her. I havemet many people who with admirable zeal have set about practisingexteriorly this holy slavery of Jesus and Mary, but I have metonly a few who have caught its interior spirit, and fewer stillwho have persevered in it.

Act with Mary

45. 1. Theessential practice of this devotion is to perform all our actionswith Mary. This means that we must take her as the accomplishedmodel for all we have to do.

46. Beforeundertaking anything, we must forget self and abandon our ownviews. We must consider ourselves as a mere nothing before God,as being personally incapable of doing anything supernaturallyworthwhile or anything conducive to our salvation. We must havehabitual recourse to our Lady, becoming one with her and adoptingher intentions, even though they are unknown to us. Through Marywe must adopt the intentions of Jesus. In other words, we mustbecome an instrument in Mary's hands for her to act in us anddo with us what she pleases, for the greater glory of her Son;and through Jesus for the greater glory of the Father. In thisway , we pursue our interior life and make spiritual progressonly in dependence on Mary.

Act in Mary

47. 2. We mustalways act in Mary, that is to say, we must gradually acquirethe habit of recollecting ourselves interiorly and so form withinus an idea or a spiritual image of Mary. She must become, as itwere, an Oratory for the soul where we offer up our prayers toGod without fear of being ignored. She will be as a Tower of Davidfor us where we can seek safety from all our enemies. She willbe a burning lamp lighting up our inmost soul and inflaming uswith love for God. She will be a sacred place of repose wherewe can contemplate God in her company. Finally Mary will be theonly means we will use in going to God, and she will become ourintercessor for everything we need. When we pray we will prayin Mary. When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion we will placehim in Mary for him to take his delight in her. If we do anythingat all, it will be in Mary, and in this way Mary will help usto forget self everywhere and in all things.

Act through Mary

48. 3. We mustnever go to our Lord except through Mary, using her intercessionand good standing with him. We must never be without her whenpraying to Jesus.

Act for Mary

49. 4. We mustperform all our actions for Mary, which means that as slaves ofthis noble Queen we will work only for her, promoting her interestsand her high renown, and making this the first aim in all ouracts, while the glory of God will always be our final end. Ineverything we must renounce self- love because more often thannot, without our being aware of it, selfishness sets itself upas the end of all we work for. We should often repeat from thedepths of our heart: "Dear Mother, it is to please you thatI go here or there, that I do this or that, that I suffer thispain or this injury."

50. Beware,chosen soul, of thinking that it is more perfect to direct yourwork and intention straight to Jesus or straight to God. WithoutMary, your work and your intention will be of little value. Butif you go to God through Mary, your work will become Mary's work,and consequently will be most noble and most worthy of God.

51. Again,beware of doing violence to yourself, endeavouring to experiencepleasure in your prayers and good deeds. Pray and act always withsomething of that pure faith which Mary showed when on earth,and which she will share with you as time goes on. Poor littleslave, let your sovereign Queen enjoy the clear sight of God,the raptures, delights, satisfactions and riches of heaven. Contentyourself with a pure faith, which is accompanied by repugnance,distractions, weariness and dryness. Let your prayer be: "Towhatever Mary my Queen does in heaven, I say Amen, so be it."We cannot do better than this for the time being.

52. Shouldyou not savour immediately the sweet presence of the Blessed Virginwithin you, take great care not to torment yourself. For thisis a grace not given to everyone, and even when God in his greatmercy favours a soul with this grace, it remains none the lessvery easy to lose it, except when the soul has become permanentlyaware of it through the habit of recollection. But should thismisfortune happen to you, go back calmly to your sovereign Queenand make amends to her.

[4. The effects that this devotion produces in a faithfulsoul]

53. Experiencewill teach you much more about this devotion than I can tell you,but, if you remain faithful to the little I have taught you, youwill acquire a great richness of grace that will surprise youand fill you with delight.

54. Let usset to work, then, dear soul, through perseverance in the livingof this devotion, in order that Mary's soul may glorify the Lordin us and her spirit be within us to rejoice in God her Saviour.>Let us not think that there was more glory and happiness in dwellingin Abraham's bosom - which is another name for Paradise - thanin dwelling in the bosom of Mary where God has set up his throne.(Abbot Guerric)

55. This devotionfaithfully practised produces countless happy effects in the soul.The most important of them is that it establishes, even here onearth, Mary's life in the soul, so that it is no longer the soulthat lives, but Mary who lives in it. In a manner of speaking,Mary's soul becomes identified with the soul of her servant. Indeedwhen by an unspeakable but real grace Mary most holy becomes Queenof a soul, she works untold wonders in it. She is a great wonder-worker especially in the interior of souls. She works there insecret, unsuspected by the soul, as knowledge of it might destroythe beauty of her work.

56. As Maryis everywhere the fruitful Virgin, she produces in the depthsof the soul where she dwells a purity of heart and body, a singlenessof intention and purpose, and a fruitfulness in good works. Donot think, dear soul, that Mary, the most faithful of all God'screatures, who went as far as to give birth to a God-man, remainsidle in a docile soul. She causes Jesus to live continuously inthat soul and that soul to live in continuous union with Jesus.If Jesus is equally the fruit of Mary for each individual soulas for all souls in general, he is even more especially her fruitand her masterpiece in the soul where she is present.

57. To sumup, Mary becomes all things for the soul that wishes to serveJesus Christ. She enlightens his mind with her pure faith. Shedeepens his heart with her humility. She enlarges and inflameshis heart with her charity, makes it pure with her purity, makesit noble and great through her motherly care. But why dwell anylonger on this? Experience alone will teach us the wonders wroughtby Mary in the soul, wonders so great that the wise and the proud,and even a great number of devout people find it hard to creditthem.

58. As it wasthrough Mary that God came into the world the first time in astate of self-abasem*nt and privation, may we not say that itwill be again through Mary that he will come the second time?For does not the whole Church expect him to come and reign overall the earth and to judge the living and the dead? No one knowshow and when this will come to pass, but we do know that God,whose thoughts are further from ours than heaven is from earth,will come at a time and in a manner least expected, even by themost scholarly of men and those most versed in Holy Scripture,which gives no clear guidance on this subject.

59. We aregiven reason to believe that, towards the end of time and perhapssooner than we expect, God will raise up great men filled withthe Holy Spirit and imbued with the spirit of Mary. Through themMary, Queen most powerful, will work great wonders in the world,destroying sin and setting up the kingdom of Jesus her Son uponthe ruins of the corrupt kingdom of the world. These holy menwill accomplish this by means of the devotion of which I onlytrace the main outlines and which suffers from my incompetence.

[5. Exterior practices]

60. Besidesinterior practices, which we have just mentioned, this devotionhas certain exterior practices which must not be omitted or neglected.

[Consecration and its renewal]

61. The firstis to choose a special feast-day to consecrate ourselves throughMary to Jesus, whose slaves we are making ourselves. This is anoccasion for receiving Holy Communion and spending the day inprayer. At least once a year on the same day, we should renewthe act of consecration.

[Offering of a tribute in submission to the BlessedVirgin]

62. The secondis to give our Lady every year on that same day some little tributeas a token of our servitude and dependence. This has always beenthe customary homage paid by slaves to their master. This tributecould consist of an act of self-denial or an alms, or a pilgrimage,or a few prayers. St Peter Damian tells us that his brother, BlessedMarino, used to give himself the discipline in public on the sameday every year before the altar of our Lady. This kind of zealis not required, nor would we counsel it. But what little we giveto our Lady we should at least offer with a heart that is humbleand grateful.

[A Special Celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation]

63. The thirdpractice is to celebrate every year with special fervour the feastof the Annunciation of our Lord. This is the distinctive feastof this devotion and was chosen so that we might honour and imitatethat dependence which the eternal Word accepted on this day outof love for us.

[The Saying of the Little Crown and the Magnificat]

64. The fourthpractice is to say every day, without the obligation of sin, theprayer entitled "The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin",which comprises three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Marys, and tosay frequently the Magnificat, which is the only hymn composedby our Lady. In the Magnificat we thank God for favouring us inthe past, and we beg further blessings from him in the future.One special time when we should not fail to say it is during thanksgivingafter Holy Communion. A person so scholarly as Gerson informsus that our Lady herself used to recite it in thanksgiving afterHoly Communion.

[The wearing of a little chain]

65. The fifthis the wearing of a small blessed chain either around the neck,on the arm, on the foot, or about the body. Strictly speaking,this practice can be omitted without affecting the essential natureof the devotion , but just the same it would be wrong to despiseor condemn it, and foolhardy to neglect it.

Here are the reasons for wearing this external sign:

(1) It signifiesthat we are free from the baneful chains of original and actualsin which held us in bondage.

(2) By it weshow our esteem for the cords and bonds of love with which ourLord let himself be bound that we might be truly free.

(3) As thesebonds are bonds of love, they remind us that we should do nothingexcept under the influence of love.

(4) Finally,wearing this chain recalls to us once more that we are dependenton Jesus and Mary as their slaves. Eminent people who had becomeslaves of Jesus and Mary valued these little chains so much thatthey were unhappy at not being allowed to trail them publiclylike the slaves of the Muslims.

These chainsof love are more valuable and more glorious than the necklacesof gold and precious stones worn by emperors, because they arethe illustrious insignia of Jesus and Mary, and signify the bondsuniting us to them.

It should benoted that if the chains are not of silver, they should for convenience'sake at least be made of iron.

They shouldnever be laid aside at any time, so that they may be with us evento the day of judgement. Great will be the joy , glory and triumphof the faithful slave on that day when, at the sound of the trumpet,his bones rise from the earth still bound by the chain of holybondage, which to all appearance has not decayed. This thoughtalone should convince a devout slave never to take off his chain,however inconvenient it may be.

[Supplement]

A. Prayer to Jesus

66. Most lovingJesus, permit me to express my heartfelt gratitude to you foryour kindness in giving me to your holy Mother through the devotionof holy bondage, and so making her my advocate to plead with yourMajesty on my behalf, and make up for all that I lack throughmy inadequacy.

Alas, O Lord,I am so wretched that without my dear Mother I would certainlybe lost. Yes, I always need Mary when I am approaching you. Ineed her to calm your indignation at the many offences I havecommitted every day. I need her to save me from the just sentenceof eternal punishment I have deservedly incurred. I need her toturn to you, speak to you, pray to you, approach you and pleaseyou. I need her to help me save my soul and the souls of others.In a word, I need her so that I may always do your holy will andseek your greater glory in everything I do.

Would thatI could publish throughout the whole world the mercy which youhave shown to me! Would that the whole world could know that withoutMary I would now be doomed! If only I could offer adequate thanksfor such a great benefit as Mary! She is within me. What a preciouspossession and what a consolation for me! Should I not in returnbe all hers? If I were not , how ungrateful would I be! My dearSaviour, send me death rather than I should be guilty of sucha lapse, for I would rather die than not belong to Mary.

Like St. Johnthe Evangelist at the foot of the Cross, I have taken her timeswithout number as my total good and as often have I given myselfto her. But if I have not done so as perfectly as you, dear Jesus,would wish, I now do so according to your desire. If you stillsee in my soul or body anything that does not belong to this nobleQueen, please pluck it out and cast it far from me, because anythingof mine which does not belong to Mary is unworthy of you.

67. Holy Spirit,grant me all these graces. Implant in my soul the tree of truelife, which is Mary. Foster it and cultivate it so that it growsand blossoms and brings forth the fruit of life in abundance.Holy Spirit, give me a great love and longing for Mary, your exaltedspouse. Give me a great trust in her maternal heart and a continuousaccess to her compassion, so that with her you may truly formJesus, great and powerful, in me until I attain the fullness ofhis perfect age. Amen.

B. Prayer to Mary [for her faithful slaves]

68. Hail, Mary,most beloved daughter of the eternal Father; hail, Mary, mostadmirable mother of the Son; hail, Mary, most faithful spouseof the Holy Spirit; hail, Mary, Mother most dear, Lady most loveable,Queen most powerful! Hail, Mary, my joy, my glory, my heart andsoul. You are all mine through God's mercy, but I am all yoursin justice. Yet I do not belong sufficiently to you, and so onceagain, as a slave who always belongs to his master, I give myselfwholly to you, reserving nothing for myself or for others.

If you stillsee anything in me which is not given to you, please take it now.Make yourself completely owner of all my capabilities. Destroyin me everything that is displeasing to God. Uproot it and bringit to nothing. Implant in me all that you deem to be good; improveit and make it increase in me.

May the lightof your faith dispel the darkness of my mind. May your deep humilitytake the place of my pride. May your heavenly contemplation putan end to the distractions of my wandering imagination. May yourcontinuous vision of God fill my memory with his presence. Maythe burning love of your heart inflame the coldness of mine. Mayyour virtues take the place of my sins. May your merits be myadornment and make up for my unworthiness before God. Finally,most dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I mayhave no other spirit but yours to know Jesus and his divine will.May I have no soul but yours to praise and glorify the Lord. MayI have no heart but yours to love God purely and ardently as youlove him.

69. I do notask for visions or revelations, for sensible devotion or evenspiritual pleasures. It is your privilege to see God clearly inperpetual light. It is your privilege to savour the delights ofheaven where nothing is without sweetness. It is your privilegeto triumph gloriously in heaven at the right hand of your Sonwithout further humiliation, and to command angels, men, and demons,without resistance on their part. It is your privilege to disposeat your own choice of all the good gifts of God without any exception.

Such, mostholy Mary, is the excellent portion which the Lord has given you,and which will never be taken from you, and which gives me greatjoy. As for my portion here on earth, I wish only to have a sharein yours, that is, to have simple faith without seeing or tasting,to suffer joyfully without the consolation of men, to die dailyto myself without flinching, to work gallantly for you even untildeath without any self-interest, as the most worthless of yourslaves. The only grace I beg you in your kindness to obtain forme is that every day and moment of my life I may say this threefoldAmen: Amen, so be it, to all you did upon earth; Amen, so be it,to all you are doing now in heaven; Amen, so be it, to all youare doing in my soul. In that way, you and you alone will fullyglorify Jesus in me during all my life and throughout eternity.Amen.

C. The care and growth of the Tree of Life,
or, in other words,
How best to cause Mary to live and reign in oursouls

[A. The Holy Slavery of love. The Tree of Life.]

70. Have youunderstood with the help of the Holy Spirit what I have triedto explain in the preceding pages? If so, be thankful to God.It is a secret of which very few people are aware. If you havediscovered this treasure in the field of Mary, this pearl of greatprice, you should sell all you have to purchase it. You must offeryourself to Mary, happily lose yourself in her, only to find Godin her.

If the HolySpirit has planted in your soul the true Tree of Life, which isthe devotion that I have just explained, you should see carefullyto its cultivation, so that it will yield its fruit in due season.This devotion is like the mustard seed of the Gospel, which isindeed the smallest of all seeds, but nevertheless it grows intoa big plant, shooting up so high that the birds of the air, thatis, the elect, come and make their nest in its branches. Theyrepose there, shaded from the heat of the sun, and safely hiddenfrom beasts of prey.

[B. How to cultivate it]

Here is thebest way, chosen soul, to cultivate it:

71. (1) Thistree, once planted in a docile heart, requires fresh air and nohuman support. Being of heavenly origin, it must be uninfluencedby any creature, since a creature might hinder it from risingup towards God who created it. Hence you must not rely on yourown endeavours or your natural talents or your personal standingor the guidance of men. You must resort to Mary, relying solelyon her help.

72. (2) Theperson in whose soul this tree has taken root must, like a goodgardener, watch over it and protect it. For this tree, havinglife and capable of producing the fruit of life, should be raisedand tended with enduring care and attention of soul. A soul thatdesires to be holy will make this its chief aim and occupation.

73. Whateveris likely to choke the tree or in the course of time prevent itsyielding fruit, such as thorns and thistles, must be cut awayand rooted out. This means that by self- denial and self-disciplineyou must sedulously cut short and even give up all empty pleasuresand useless dealings with other creatures. In other words, youmust crucify the flesh, keep a guard over the tongue, and mortifythe bodily senses.

74. (3) Youmust guard against grubs doing harm to the tree. These parasitesare love of self and love of comfort, and they eat away the greenfoliage of the Tree and frustrate the fair hope it offered ofyielding good fruit; for love of self is incompatible with loveof Mary.

75. (4) Youmust not allow this tree to be damaged by destructive animals,that is, by sins, for they may cause its death simply by theircontact. They must not be allowed even to breathe upon the Tree,because their mere breath, that is, venial sins, which are mostdangerous when we do not trouble ourselves about them.

76. (5) Itis also necessary to water this Tree regularly with your Communions,Masses and other public and private prayers. Otherwise it willnot continue bearing fruit.

77. (6) Yetyou need not be alarmed when the winds blow and shake this tree,for it must happen that the storm-winds of temptation will threatento bring it down, and snow and frost tend to smother it. By thiswe mean that this devotion to our Blessed Lady will surely becalled into question and attacked. But as long as we continuesteadfastly in tending it, we have nothing to fear.

[C. Its lasting fruit: Jesus Christ]

78. Chosensoul, provided you thus carefully cultivate the Tree of Life,which has been freshly planted in your soul by the Holy Spirit,I can assure you that in a short time it will grow so tall thatthe birds of the air will make their home in it. It will becomesuch a good tree that it will yield in due season the sweet andadorable Fruit of honour and grace, which is Jesus, who has alwaysbeen and will always be the only fruit of Mary.

Happy is thatsoul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is planted. Happier stillis the soul in which she has been able to grow and blossom. Happieragain is the soul in which she brings forth her fruit. But happiestof all is the soul which savours the sweetness of Mary's fruitand preserves it up till death and then beyond to all eternity.Amen.

"Let himwho possesses it, hold fast to it."