|
From Secret of
Mary: Nos. 23-24
True Devotion to Our Blessed Lady
If we would go
up to God, and be united with Him, we must use the same means He used
to come down to us to be made Man and to impart His graces to us. This
means is a true devotion to our Blessed Lady. There are several true
devotions to our Lady: here I do not speak of those which are false.
The first consists in fulfilling our Christian duties, avoiding mortal
sin, acting more out of love than with fear, praying to our Lady now
and then, honoring her as the Mother of God, yet without having any
special devotion to her. The second consists in entertaining for our
Lady more perfect feelings of esteem and love, of confidence and
veneration. It leads us to join the Confraternities of the Holy Rosary
and of the Scapular, to recite the five or the fifteen decades of the
Holy Rosary, to honor Mary's images and altars, to publish her praises
and to enroll ourselves in her modalities. This devotion is good, holy
and praiseworthy if we keep ourselves free from sin. But it is not so
perfect as the next, nor so efficient in severing our soul from
creatures, in detaching ourselves in order to be united with Jesus
Christ. The third devotion to our Lady, known and practiced by very few
persons, is this I am about to disclose to you, predestinate soul. It
consists in giving one's self entirely and as a slave to Mary, and to
Jesus through Mary, and after that, to do all that we do, through Mary,
with Mary in Mary and for Mary We should choose a special feast day on
which we give, consecrate and sacrifice to Mary voluntarily lovingly
and without constraint, entirely and without reserve: our body and
soul, our exterior property such as house, family and income, and also
our interior and spiritual possessions: namely, our merits, graces,
virtues, and satisfactions.
Prayers for the Second Week
|
|
