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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 |
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