Various Practices of Devotion
in Honor of the Divine Mother,
Introduction
by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori
"The Queen of Heaven is so gracious and liberal",
says Saint Andrew of Crete, "that she
recompenses her servants with the greatest munificence for the most trifling
devotions". Two conditions,
however, there are: the first is, that when
we offer her our
devotions, our souls should be
free from sin; otherwise
she would address us, as
she did a wicked
soldier, spoken of by Saint Peter Celestine. This soldier
every day performed some
devotion in honor of our
Blessed Lady. One day he was
suffering greatly from
hunger, when Mary
appeared to him, and offered him some most delicious meats, but in so
filthy a vessel, that he could not bring himself to taste them. "I
am the Mother of God", the Blessed Virgin
then said, "and am come to satisfy thy hunger".
"But, O Lady", he answered, "I
cannot eat out of so dirty a vessel". "And
how", replied Mary, "canst
thou expect that I should accept thy devotions, offered to me with so defiled a
soul as thine"? On hearing this the soldier was
converted, became a hermit, and lived in a desert for
thirty years. At
death, the Blessed Virgin, again
appeared to him, and took him herself to
Heaven.
In the
first part of this work we said that it was morally impossible
for a client of Mary to be
lost; but this must be understood, on
condition that he lives either without sin,
or at least, with the desire to abandon it;
for then the Blessed Virgin will
help him.
But should any one, on the other hand, sin
in the hope that Mary will
save him, he thereby would render himself
unworthy and incapable of her
protection. The second condition is
perseverance in devotion to
Mary: "Perseverance
alone", says Saint Bernard, "will
merit a crown". When Thomas à
Kempis was a young man, he used every day
to have recourse to the Blessed Virgin with
certain prayers; he one day omitted
them; he then omitted
them for some weeks, and finally gave
them up altogether. One night he saw Mary
in a dream; she embraced all his companions,
but when his turn came she said, "What
dost thou expect, thou who hast given up thy devotions? Depart, thou art
unworthy of my caresses". On hearing this, Thomas awoke in
alarm, and resumed his ordinary
prayers.
Hence, Richard of Saint Lawrence
with reason says, that "he who perseveres in his
devotion to Mary will be blessed in his confidence, and will obtain all he
desires". But as no one can be certain of this
perseverance , no one before
death can be certain of
salvation. The advice given by the venerable
John Berchmans, of the Society of Jesus, deserves our particular
attention. When this holy young man was dying,
his companions entreated him , before he left this world, to tell them what
devotion they could perform which would be
agreeable to our Blessed Lady. He replied in
the following remarkable words: "Any devotion, how ever
small, provided it is constant". I therefore now give with
simplicity, and in a few words, the various devotions
which we can offer to our Mother, in order
to obtain her favor;
and this I consider the most useful part of my work. But I do not
so much recommend my dear reader to practice them
all, as to choose those which please him
most, and to persevere in
them, with fear
that if he omits them he may
lose the protection
of the divine
Mother. O, how many are there now in Hell,
who would have been saved had they only
persevered in the devotions which they
once practiced in honor of Mary!
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