                      THE SECRET OF MARY

                         INTRODUCTION

1.   Here is a secret, chosen soul, which the most High God
taught me and which I have not found in any book, ancient or
modern.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, I am confiding it to
you, with these conditions:
     (1) That you share it only with people who deserve to
know it because they are prayerful, give alms to the poor, do
penance, suffer persecution, are unworldly, and work seriously
for the salvation of souls.
     (2) That you use this secret to become holy and worthy of
heaven, for the more you make use of it the more benefit you
will derive from it.  Under no circumstances must you let this
secret make you idle and inactive.  It would then become
harmful and lead to your ruin.
     (3) That you thank God every day of your life for the
grace he has given you in letting you into a secret that you
do not deserve  to know.
     As you go on using this secret in the ordinary actions of
your life, you will come to understand its value and its
excellent quality.  At the beginning, however, your
understanding of it will be clouded because of the seriousness
and number of your sins, and your unconscious love of self.

2.   Before you read any further, in an understandable
impatience to learn this truth, 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 given by him.  As I have not much time
for writing and you have little time 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 Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy
like him in this life, and glorious like him in the next .
     It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your
vocation.  All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you
suffer or undertake must lead you towards that end.  Otherwise
you are resisting God in not doing the work for which he
created you and for which he is even now keeping you in being. 
What a marvellous transformation is possible!  Dust into
light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness,
creature into Creator, man into God!  A marvellous work, I
repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere
creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by
giving his grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. 
The very creation of the universe is not as great an
achievement as this.

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

5.   The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us
to practise all these, but we are sure that grace will be
given to all, though not 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 sufficient grace to each.  A person who
corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who
corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works.  The value
and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and
perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the
faithful soul.  No one can contest these principles.

[B. TO FIND THE GRACE OF GOD, WE MUST DISCOVER MARY]

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

7.   Let me explain:
     (1)  Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for
every individual person .  No patriarch or prophet or any
other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this
grace.

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

9.   (3)  God the Father, from whom, as from its essential
source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us ,
gave her every grace when he gave her his Son.  Thus, as St
Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus
and with Jesus.

10.  (4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator
and the dispenser of all his graces, so that all his graces
and gifts pass through her hands.  Such is the power that she
has received from him that, according to St Bernardine, she
gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus
Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to whom she wills, as
and when she wills, and as much as she wills.

11.  (5) As in the natural life a child must have a father and
a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of
the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his
mother.  If he prides himself on having God for his Father but
does not give to Mary the tender affection of a true child, he
is an impostor and his father is the devil.

12.  (6) Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus
Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that
is, all true Christians.  A mother does not conceive a head
without members, nor members without a head.  If anyone, then,
wishes to become a member of Jesus 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 communicate it abundantly to true
members of Jesus Christ, her true children.

13.  (7) The Holy Spirit espoused Mary and produced his
greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through
her.  He has never disowned her and so he continues to produce
every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of
the elect in her and through her.

14.  (8) Mary received from God a unique dominion over souls
enabling her to nourish them and make them more and more
godlike.  St Augustine went so far as to say that even in this
world all the elect are enclosed in the womb of Mary, and that
their real birthday is when this good mother brings them forth
to eternal life.  Consequently, just as an infant draws all
its nourishment from its mother, who gives according to its
needs, so the elect draw their spiritual nourishment and all
their strength from Mary.

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

16.  (10) Mary is called by St Augustine, and is indeed, the
"living mould of God" .  In her alone the God-man was formed
in his human nature without losing any feature of the Godhead. 
In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made
godlike as far as human nature is capable of it.
     A sculptor can make a statue or a life-like model in two
ways: (i) By using his skill, strength, experience and good
tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter; (ii)
By making a cast of it in a mould.  The first way is long and
involved and open to all sorts of accidents.  It only needs a
faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. 
The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless
and inexpensive, but the mould must be perfect and true to
life and the material must be easy to handle and offer no
resistance.

17.  Mary is the great mould of God, fashioned by the Holy
Spirit to give human nature to a Man who is God by the
hypostatic union, and to fashion through grace men who are
like to God.  No godly feature is missing from this mould. 
Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be
moulded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, true God,
with little pain or effort, as befits his weak human
condition.  He will take on a faithful likeness to Jesus with
no possibility of distortion, for the devil has never had and
never will 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 ordinary way to resemble Jesus Christ by
people who, like sculptors, rely on their own skill and
industry, and a soul thoroughly tractable, entirely detached,
most ready to be moulded in her by the working of the Holy
Spirit.  What blemishes and defects, what shadows and
distortions, what natural and human imperfections are found in
the first soul, and what a faithful and divine likeness to
Jesus is found in the second!

19.  There is not and there will never be, either in God's
creation or in his mind, a creature in whom he is so honoured
as in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting even the
saints, the cherubim or the highest seraphim in heaven.
     Mary is God's garden of Paradise, his own unspeakable
world, into which his Son entered to do wonderful things, to
tend it and to take his delight in it.  He created a world for
the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in.  He created a
second world - Paradise - for the Blessed.  He created a third
for himself, which he named Mary.  She is a world unknown to
most mortals here on earth.  Even the angels and saints in
heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration
of a God who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant
from them, and so enclosed in Mary, his chosen world, that
they exclaim: "Holy, holy, holy" unceasingly.

20.  Happy, indeed sublimely happy, is the person to whom the
Holy Spirit reveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him
true knowledge of her.  Happy the person to whom the Holy
Spirit opens this enclosed garden for him to enter, and to
whom the Holy Spirit gives access to this sealed fountain
where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living
waters of grace.  That person will find only grace and no
creature in the most lovable Virgin Mary.  But he will find
that the infinitely holy and exalted God is at the same 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 creature and more sympathetic to human weakness than in
Mary.  It was indeed for this very purpose that he came down
from heaven.  Everywhere else he is the Bread of the strong
and the Bread of angels, but living in Mary he is the Bread of
children.

21.  Let us not imagine, then, as some misguided teachers do,
that Mary being simply a creature would be a hindrance to
union with the Creator.  Far from it, for it is no longer Mary
who lives but Jesus Christ himself, God alone, who lives in
her.  Her transformation into God far surpasses that
experienced by St Paul and other saints, more than heaven
surpasses the earth.
     Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that
she should reserve even one soul for herself.  On the contrary
she leads every soul to God and to union with him.  Mary is
the wonderful echo of God.  The more a person joins himself to
her, the more effectively she unites him to God.  When we say
"Mary", she re-echoes "God".
     When, like St Elizabeth, we call her blessed, she gives
the honour to God.  If those misguided ones who were so sadly
led astray by the devil, even in their prayer-life, had known
how to discover Mary, and Jesus through her, and God through
Jesus,they would not have had such terrible falls.  The saints
tell us that when we have once found Mary, and through Mary
Jesus, and through Jesus God the Father, then we have
discovered every good.  When we say "every good", we except
nothing.  "Every good" includes every grace, continuous
friendship with God, every protection against the enemies of
God, possession of truth to counter every falsehood, endless
benefits and unfailing headway against the hazards we meet on
the way to salvation, and finally every consolation and joy
amid the bitter afflictions of life.

22.  This does not mean that one who has discovered Mary
through a genuine devotion is exempt from crosses and
sufferings.  Far from it!  One is tried even more than others,
because Mary, as Mother of the living, gives to all her
children splinters of the tree of life, which is the Cross of
Jesus.  But while meting out crosses to them she gives the
grace to bear them with patience, and even with joy.  In this
way, the crosses she sends to those who trust themselves to
her are rather like sweetmeats, i.e. "sweetened" crosses
rather than "bitter" ones.  If from time to time they do taste
the bitterness of the chalice from which we must drink to
become proven friends of God, the consolation and joy which
their Mother sends in the wake of their sorrows creates in
them a strong desire to carry even heavier and still more
bitter crosses.

[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 holy Virgin and so find grace in
abundance through her.  God, as the absolute Master, can give
directly what he ordinarily dispenses only through Mary, and
it would be rash to deny that he sometimes does so.  However,
St Thomas assures us that, following the order established by
his divine Wisdom, God ordinarily imparts his graces to men
through Mary.  Therefore, if we wish to go to him, seeking
union with him, we must use the same means which he used in
coming down from heaven to assume our human nature and to
impart his graces to us.  That means was a complete dependence
on Mary his Mother, 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 are indeed several true devotions to our Lady.  I
do not intend treating of those which are false.

25.  The first consists in fulfilling the duties of our
Christian state, avoiding all mortal sin, performing our
actions for God more through love than through fear, praying
to our Lady occasionally, and honouring her as the Mother of
God, but without our devotion to her being exceptional.

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

27.  The third devotion to our Lady is one which is unknown to
many and practised by 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.  Chosen soul, this devotion consists in surrendering
oneself in the manner of a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through
her, and then performing all our actions with Mary, in Mary,
through Mary, and for Mary.
     Let me explain this statement further.

29.  We should choose a special feast-day on which to give
ourselves.  Then, willingly and lovingly and under no
constraint, we consecrate and sacrifice to her unreservedly
our body and soul.  We give to her our material possessions,
such as house, family, income, and even the inner possessions
of our soul, namely, our merits, graces, virtues and
atonements.
     Notice that in this devotion we sacrifice to Jesus
through Mary all that is most dear to us, that is, the right
to dispose of ourselves, of the value of our prayers and alms,
of our acts of self-denial and atonements.  This is a
sacrifice which no religious order would require of its
members.  We leave everything to the free disposal of our
Lady, for her to use as she wills for the greater glory of
God, of which she alone is perfectly aware.

30.  We leave to her the right to dispose of all the
satisfactory and prayer value of our good deeds, so that,
after having done so and without going so far as making a vow,
we cease to be master over any good we do.  Our Lady may use
our good deeds either to bring relief or deliverance to a soul
in purgatory, or perhaps to bring a change of heart to a poor
sinner.

31.  By this devotion we place our merits in the hands of our
Lady, but only that she may preserve, increase and embellish
them, since merit for increase of grace and glory cannot be
handed over to any other person.  But we give to her all our
prayers and good works, inasmuch as they have intercessory and
atonement value, for her to distribute and apply to whom she
pleases.  If, after having thus consecrated ourselves to our
Lady, we wish to help a soul in purgatory, rescue a sinner, or
assist a friend by a prayer, an alms, an act of self-denial or
an act of self-sacrifice, we must humbly request it of our
Lady, abiding always by her decision, which of course remains
unknown to us.  We can be fully convinced that the value of
our actions, being dispensed by that same hand which God
himself uses to distribute his gifts and graces to us, cannot
fail to be applied for his greatest glory.

32.  I have said that this devotion consists in adopting the
status of a slave with regard to Mary.  We must remember that
there are three kinds of slavery.
     There is, first, a slavery based on nature.  All men,
good and bad alike, are slaves of God in this sense.
     The second is a slavery of compulsion.  The devils and
the damned are slaves of God in this second sense.
     The third is a slavery of love and free choice.  This is
the kind chosen by one who consecrates himself to God through
Mary, and this is the most perfect way for us human beings to
give ourselves to God, our Creator.

33.  Note that there is a vast difference between a servant
and a slave.  A servant claims wages for his services, but a
slave can claim no reward.  A servant is free to leave his
employer when he likes and serves him only for a time, but a
slave belongs to his master for life and has no right to leave
him.  A servant does not give his employer a right of life and
death over him, but a slave is so totally committed that his
master can put him to death without fearing any action by the
law.
     It is easy to see, then, that no dependence is so
absolute as that of a person who is a slave by compulsion. 
Strictly speaking, no man should be dependent to this extent
on anyone except his Creator.  We therefore do not find this
kind of slavery among Christians, but only among Muslims and
pagans.

34.  But happy, very happy indeed, will the generous person be
who, prompted by love, consecrates himself entirely to Jesus
through Mary as their slave, after having shaken off by
baptism the tyrannical slavery of the devil.

[2.  The excellence of this practice of devotion]

35.  I would need much more enlightenment from heaven to
describe adequately the surpassing merit of this devotional
practice.  I shall limit myself to these few remarks:
     1. In giving ourselves to Jesus through Mary's hands, we
imitate God the Father, who gave us his only Son through Mary,
and who imparts his graces to us only through Mary.  Likewise
we imitate God the Son, who by giving us his example for us to
follow, inspires us to go to him using the same means he used
in coming to us, that is, through Mary.  Again, we imitate the
Holy Spirit, who bestows his graces and gifts upon us through
Mary.  "Is it not fitting," remarks St Bernard, "that grace
should return to its author by the same channel that conveyed
it to us?"

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

37.  3. Consecrating ourselves in this way to Jesus through
Mary implies placing our good deeds in Mary's hands.  Now,
although these deeds may appear good to us, they are often
defective, and not worthy to be considered and accepted by
God, before whom even the stars lack brightness.
     Let us pray, then, to our dear Mother and Queen that
having accepted our poor present, she may purify it, sanctify
it, beautify it, and so make it worthy of God.  Any good our
soul could produce is of less value to God our Father, in
winning his friendship and favour, than a worm-eaten apple
would be in the sight of a king, when presented by a poor
peasant to his royal master as payment for the rent of his
farm.  But what would the peasant do if he were wise and if he
enjoyed the esteem of the queen?  Would he not present his
apple first to her, and would she not, out of kindness to the
poor man and out of respect for the king, remove from the
apple all that was maggoty and spoilt, place it on a golden
dish, and surround it with flowers?  Could the king then
refuse the apple?  Would he not accept it most willingly from
the hands of his queen who showed such loving concern for that
poor man?  "If you wish to present something to God, no matter
how small it may be," says St Bernard, "place it in the hands
of Mary to ensure its certain acceptance."

38.  Dear God, how everything we do comes to so very little! 
But let us adopt this devotion and place everything in Mary's
hands.  When we have given her all we possibly can, emptying
ourselves completely to do her honour, she far surpasses our
generosity and gives us very much for very little.  She
enriches us with her own merits and virtues.  She places our
gift on the golden dish of her charity and clothes us, as
Rebecca clothed Jacob, in the beautiful garments of 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
clad by her in double garments - namely, the garments,
adornments, perfumes, merits and virtues of Jesus and Mary.
These are imparted to the soul of the slave who has emptied
himself and is resolved to remain in that state.

39.  4. Giving ourselves in this way to our Lady is a practice
of charity towards our neighbour of the highest possible
degree, because in making ourselves over to Mary, we give her
all that we hold most dear and we let her dispose of it as she
wishes in favour of the living and the dead.

40.  5. In adopting this devotion, we put our graces, merits
and virtues into safe keeping by making Mary the depositary of
them.  It is as if we said to her,"See, my dear Mother, here
is the good that I have done through the grace of your dear
Son.  I am not capable of keeping it, because of my weakness
and inconstancy, and also because so many wicked enemies are
assailing me day and night.  Alas, every day we see cedars of
Lebanon fall into the mire, and eagles which had soared
towards the sun become birds of darkness, a thousand of the
just falling to the left and ten thousand to the right.  But,
most powerful Queen, hold me fast lest I fall.  Keep a guard
on all my possessions lest I be robbed of them.  I entrust all
I have to you, for I know well who you are, and that is why I
confide myself entirely to you.  You are faithful to God and
man, and you will not suffer anything I entrust to you to
perish.  You are powerful, and nothing can harm you or rob you
of anything you hold."
     "When you 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" (Saint Bernard).  And again, "She
keeps her Son from striking us; she prevents the devil from
harming us; she preserves virtue in us; she prevents our
merits from being lost and our graces from receding."  These
words of St Bernard explain in substance all that I have said. 
Had I but this one motive to impel me to choose this devotion,
namely, that of keeping me in the grace of God and increasing
that grace in me, my heart would burn with longing for it.

41.  This devotion makes the soul truly free by imbuing it
with the liberty of the children of God.  Since we lower
ourselves willingly to a state of slavery out of love for
Mary, our dear Mother, she out of gratitude opens wide our
hearts enabling us to walk with giant strides in the way of
God's commandments.  She delivers our souls from weariness,
sadness and scruples.  It was this devotion that our Lord
taught to Mother Agnes de Langeac, a religious who died in the
odour of sanctity, as a sure way of being freed from the
severe suffering and 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 prove that this devotion is authoritatively
sanctioned, we need only recall the bulls of the popes and the
pastoral letters of bishops recommending it, as well as the
indulgences accorded to it, the confraternities founded to
promote it, and the examples of many saints and illustrious
people who have practised it.  But I do not see any necessity
to record them here.

[3.  The interior constituents of this consecration and its
spirit]

43.  I have already said that this devotion consists in
performing all our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary,
and for Mary.

44.  It is not enough to give ourselves just once as a slave
to Jesus through Mary; nor is it enough to renew that
consecration once a month or once a week.  That alone would
make it just a passing devotion and would not raise the soul
to the level of holiness which it is capable of reaching.  It
is easy to enrol in a confraternity; easy to undertake this
devotion, and say every day the few vocal prayers prescribed. 
The chief difficulty is to enter into its spirit, which
requires an interior dependence on Mary, and effectively
becoming her slave and the slave of Jesus through her.  I have
met many people who with admirable zeal have set about
practising exteriorly this holy slavery of Jesus and Mary, but
I have met only a few who have caught its interior spirit, and
fewer still who have persevered in it.

                                                 Act with Mary

45.  1. The essential practice of this devotion is to perform
all our actions with Mary.  This means that we must take her
as the accomplished model for all we have to do.

46.  Before undertaking anything, we must forget self and
abandon our own views.  We must consider ourselves as a mere
nothing before God, as being personally incapable of doing
anything supernaturally worthwhile or anything conducive to
our salvation.  We must have habitual recourse to our Lady,
becoming one with her and adopting her intentions, even though
they are unknown to us.  Through Mary we must adopt the
intentions of Jesus.  In other words, we must become an
instrument in Mary's hands for her to act in us and do with us
what she pleases, for the greater glory of her Son; and
through Jesus for the greater glory of the Father.  In this
way , we pursue our interior life and make spiritual progress
only in dependence on Mary.

                                                   Act in Mary

47.  2. We must always act in Mary, that is to say, we must
gradually acquire the habit of recollecting ourselves
interiorly and so form within us an idea or a spiritual image
of Mary.  She must become, as it were, an Oratory for the soul
where we offer up our prayers to God without fear of being
ignored.  She will be as a Tower of David for us where we can
seek safety from all our enemies.  She will be a burning lamp
lighting up our inmost soul and inflaming us with love for
God.  She will be a sacred place of repose where we can
contemplate God in her company.  Finally Mary will be the only
means we will use in going to God, and she will become our
intercessor for everything we need.  When we pray we will pray
in Mary.  When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion we will
place him in Mary for him to take his delight in her.  If we
do anything at all, it will be in Mary, and in this way Mary
will help us to forget self everywhere and in all things.  

                                              Act through Mary

48.  3. We must never go to our Lord except through Mary,
using her intercession and good standing with him.  We must
never be without her when praying to Jesus.

                                                  Act for Mary

49.  4. We must perform all our actions for Mary, which means
that as slaves of this noble Queen we will work only for her,
promoting her interests and her high renown, and making this
the first aim in all our acts, while the glory of God will
always be our final end.  In everything we must renounce self-
love because more often than not, without our being aware of
it, selfishness sets itself up as the end of all we work for. 
We should often repeat from the depths of our heart: "Dear
Mother, it is to please you that I go here or there, that I do
this or that, that I suffer this pain or this injury."  

50.  Beware, chosen soul, of thinking that it is more perfect
to direct your work and intention straight to Jesus or
straight to God.  Without Mary, your work and your intention
will be of little value.  But if 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 experience pleasure in your prayers and good deeds.  Pray
and act always with something of that pure faith which Mary
showed when on earth, and which she will share with you as
time goes on.  Poor little slave, let your sovereign Queen
enjoy the clear sight of God, the raptures, delights,
satisfactions and riches of heaven.  Content yourself with a
pure faith, which is accompanied by repugnance, distractions,
weariness and dryness.  Let your prayer be: "To whatever Mary
my Queen does in heaven, I say Amen, so be it."  We cannot do
better than this for the time being.

52.  Should you not savour immediately the sweet presence of
the Blessed Virgin within you, take great care not to torment
yourself.  For this is a grace not given to everyone, and even
when God in his great mercy favours a soul with this grace, it
remains none the less very easy to lose it, except when the
soul has become permanently aware of it through the habit of
recollection.  But should this misfortune happen to you, go
back calmly to your sovereign Queen and make amends to her.

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

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

54.  Let us set to work, then, dear soul, through perseverance
in the living of this devotion, in order that Mary's soul may
glorify the Lord in 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 dwelling in Abraham's bosom - which is
another name for Paradise - than in dwelling in the bosom of
Mary where God has set up his throne. (Abbot Guerric)

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

56.  As Mary is everywhere the fruitful Virgin, she produces
in the depths of the soul where she dwells a purity of heart
and body, a singleness of intention and purpose, and a
fruitfulness in good works.  Do not think, dear soul, that
Mary, the most faithful of all God's creatures, who went as
far as to give birth to a God-man, remains idle in a docile
soul.  She causes Jesus to live continuously in that soul and
that soul to live in continuous union with Jesus.  If Jesus is
equally the fruit of Mary for each individual soul as for all
souls in general, he is even more especially her fruit and her
masterpiece in the soul where she is present.

57.  To sum up, Mary becomes all things for the soul that
wishes to serve Jesus Christ.  She enlightens his mind with
her pure faith.  She deepens his heart with her humility.  She
enlarges and inflames his heart with her charity, makes it
pure with her purity, makes it noble and great through her
motherly care.  But why dwell any longer on this?  Experience
alone will teach us the wonders wrought by 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 credit them.

58.  As it was through Mary that God came into the world the
first time in a state of self-abasement and privation, may we
not say that it will be again through Mary that he will come
the second time?  For does not the whole Church expect him to
come and reign over all the earth and to judge the living and
the dead?  No one knows how 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 the most scholarly of men and those
most versed in Holy Scripture, which gives no clear guidance
on this subject.

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

[5. Exterior practices]

60.  Besides interior practices, which we have just mentioned,
this devotion has certain exterior practices which must not be
omitted or neglected.

                                [Consecration and its renewal]

61.  The first is to choose a special feast-day to consecrate
ourselves through Mary to Jesus, whose slaves we are making
ourselves.  This is an occasion for receiving Holy Communion
and spending the day in prayer.  At least once a year on the
same day, we should renew the act of consecration.

   [Offering of a tribute in submission to the Blessed Virgin]

62.  The second is to give our Lady every year on that same
day some little tribute as a token of our servitude and
dependence.  This has always been the customary homage paid by
slaves to their master.  This tribute could 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, Blessed Marino,
used to give himself the discipline in public on the same day
every year before the altar of our Lady.  This kind of zeal is
not required, nor would we counsel it.  But what little we
give to our Lady we should at least offer with a heart that is
humble and grateful.

      [A Special Celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation]

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

           [The Saying of the Little Crown and the Magnificat]

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

                               [The wearing of a little chain]

65.  The fifth is 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 nature of the devotion , but just the
same it would be wrong to despise or condemn it, and foolhardy
to neglect it.
     Here are the reasons for wearing this external sign:
     (1)  It signifies that we are free from the baneful
chains of original and actual sin which held us in bondage.
     (2)  By it we show our esteem for the cords and bonds of
love with which our Lord let himself be bound that we might be
truly free.
     (3)  As these bonds are bonds of love, they remind us
that we should do nothing except under the influence of love.
     (4)  Finally, wearing this chain recalls to us once more
that we are dependent on Jesus and Mary as their slaves. 
Eminent people who had become slaves of Jesus and Mary valued
these little chains so much that they were unhappy at not
being allowed to trail them publicly like the slaves of the
Muslims.
     These chains of love are more valuable and  more glorious
than the necklaces of gold and precious stones worn by
emperors, because they are the illustrious insignia of Jesus
and Mary, and signify the bonds uniting us to them.
     It should be noted that if the chains are not of silver,
they should for convenience' sake at least be made of iron.
     They should never be laid aside at any time, so that they
may be with us even to the day of judgement.  Great will be
the joy , glory and triumph of 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 holy bondage, which to all
appearance has not decayed.  This thought alone should
convince a devout slave never to take off his chain, however
inconvenient it may be.

                         [SUPPLEMENT]

                      A. PRAYER TO JESUS

66.  Most loving Jesus, permit me to express my heartfelt
gratitude to you for your kindness in giving me to your holy
Mother through the devotion of holy bondage, and so making her
my advocate to plead with your Majesty on my behalf, and make
up for all that I lack through my inadequacy.
     Alas, O Lord, I am so wretched that without my dear
Mother I would certainly be lost.  Yes, I always need Mary
when I am approaching you.  I need her to calm your
indignation at the many offences I have committed every day. 
I need her to save me from the just sentence of eternal
punishment I have deservedly incurred.  I need her to turn to
you, speak to you, pray to you, approach you and please you. 
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
and seek your greater glory in everything I do.
     Would that I could publish throughout the whole world the
mercy which you have shown to me!  Would that the whole world
could know that without Mary I would now be doomed!  If only I
could offer adequate thanks for such a great benefit as Mary! 
She is within me.  What a precious possession and what a
consolation for me!  Should I not in return be all hers?  If I
were not , how ungrateful would I be!  My dear Saviour, send
me death rather than I should be guilty of such a lapse, for I
would rather die than not belong to Mary.
     Like St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the Cross, I
have taken her times without number as my total good and as
often have I given myself to 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 still see in my soul or body
anything that does not belong to this noble Queen, please
pluck it out and cast it far from me, because anything of 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 true life, which is Mary.  Foster it and
cultivate it so that it grows and blossoms and brings forth
the fruit of life in abundance.  Holy Spirit, give me a great
love and longing for Mary, your exalted spouse.  Give me a
great trust in her maternal heart and a continuous access to
her compassion, so that with her you may truly form Jesus,
great and powerful, in me until I attain the fullness of his
perfect age.  Amen.

                       B. PRAYER TO MARY
                   [FOR HER FAITHFUL SLAVES]

68.  Hail, Mary, most beloved daughter of the eternal Father;
hail, Mary, most admirable mother of the Son; hail, Mary, most
faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit; hail, Mary, Mother most
dear, Lady most lovable, Queen most powerful!  Hail, Mary, my
joy, my glory, my heart and soul.  You are all mine through
God's mercy, but I am all yours in justice.  Yet I do not
belong sufficiently to you, and so once again, as a slave who
always belongs to his master, I give myself wholly to you,
reserving nothing for myself or for others.
     If you still see anything in me which is not given to
you, please take it now.  Make yourself completely owner of
all my capabilities.  Destroy in me everything that is
displeasing to God.  Uproot it and bring it to nothing. 
Implant in me all that you deem to be good; improve it and
make it increase in me.
     May the light of your faith dispel the darkness of my
mind.  May your deep humility take the place of my pride.  May
your heavenly contemplation put an end to the distractions of
my wandering imagination.  May your continuous vision of God
fill my memory with his presence.  May the burning love of
your heart inflame the coldness of mine.  May your virtues
take the place of my sins.  May your merits be my adornment
and make up for my unworthiness before God.  Finally, most
dearly beloved Mother, grant, if it be possible, that I may
have 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.  May I have no heart but yours to love God purely and
ardently as you love him.

69.  I do not ask for visions or revelations, for sensible
devotion or even spiritual pleasures.  It is your privilege to
see God clearly in perpetual light.  It is your privilege to
savour the delights of heaven where nothing is without
sweetness.  It is your privilege to triumph gloriously in
heaven at the right hand of your Son without further
humiliation, and to command angels, men, and demons, without
resistance on their part.  It is your privilege to dispose at
your own choice of all the good gifts of God without any
exception.
     Such, most holy Mary, is the excellent portion which the
Lord has given you, and which will never be taken from you,
and which gives me great joy.  As for my portion here on
earth, I wish only to have a share in yours, that is, to have
simple faith without seeing or tasting, to suffer joyfully
without the consolation of men, to die daily to myself without
flinching, to work gallantly for you even until death without
any self-interest, as the most worthless of your slaves.  The
only grace I beg you in your kindness to obtain for me is that
every day and moment of my life I may say this threefold Amen:
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 you
are doing in my soul.  In that way, you and you alone will
fully glorify Jesus in me during all my life and throughout
eternity.  Amen.

         IV. THE CARE AND GROWTH OF THE TREE OF LIFE,
                      or, in other words,
                    HOW BEST TO CAUSE MARY
                TO LIVE AND REIGN IN OUR SOULS

[A. The holy slavery of love.  The Tree of life.]

70.  Have you understood with the help of the Holy Spirit what
I have tried to explain in the preceding pages?  If so, be
thankful to God.  It is a secret of which very few people are
aware.  If you have discovered this treasure in the field of
Mary, this pearl of great price, you should sell all you have
to purchase it.  You must offer yourself to Mary, happily lose
yourself in her, only to find God in her.
     If the Holy Spirit has planted in your soul the true Tree
of Life, which is the devotion that I have just explained, you
should see carefully to its cultivation, so that it will yield
its fruit in due season.  This devotion is like the mustard
seed of the Gospel, which is indeed the smallest of all seeds,
but nevertheless it grows into a big plant, shooting up so
high that the birds of the air, that is, the elect, come and
make their nest in its branches.  They repose there, shaded
from the heat of the sun, and safely hidden from beasts of
prey.

[B. How to cultivate it]

     Here is the best way, chosen soul, to cultivate it:

71.  (1)  This tree, once planted in a docile heart, requires
fresh air and no human support.  Being of heavenly origin, it
must be uninfluenced by any creature, since a creature might
hinder it from rising up towards God who created it.  Hence
you must not rely on your own endeavours or your natural
talents or your personal standing or the guidance of men.  You
must resort to Mary, relying solely on her help.

72.  (2)  The person in whose soul this tree has taken root
must, like a good gardener, watch over it and protect it.  For
this tree, having life and capable of producing the fruit of
life, should be raised and tended with enduring care and
attention of soul.  A soul that desires to be holy will make
this its chief aim and occupation.

73.  Whatever is likely to choke the tree or in the course of
time prevent its yielding fruit, such as thorns and thistles,
must be cut away and rooted out.  This means that by self-
denial and self-discipline you must sedulously cut short and
even give up all empty pleasures and useless dealings with
other creatures.  In other words, you must crucify the flesh,
keep a guard over the tongue, and mortify the bodily senses.

74.  (3)  You must guard against grubs doing harm to the tree. 
These parasites are love of self and love of comfort, and they
eat away the green foliage of the Tree and frustrate the fair
hope it offered of yielding good fruit; for love of self is
incompatible with love of Mary.

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

76.  (5) It is also necessary to water this Tree regularly
with your Communions, Masses and other public and private
prayers.  Otherwise it will not continue bearing fruit.

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

[C. Its lasting fruit: Jesus Christ]

78.  Chosen soul, 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 that the birds of the air will make their home in
it.  It will become such a good tree that it will yield in due
season the sweet and adorable Fruit of honour and grace, which
is Jesus, who has always been and will always be the only
fruit of Mary.
     Happy is that soul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is
planted.  Happier still is the soul in which she has been able
to grow and blossom.  Happier again is the soul in which she
brings forth her fruit.  But happiest of all is the soul which
savours the sweetness of Mary's fruit and preserves it up till
death and then beyond to all eternity.  Amen.
     "Let him who possesses it, hold fast to it."
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