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Mary is the channel through which the
blessings of Heaven flow to mankind. No
grace of prayer, no inclination towards
goodness, no strength to practice virtue,
no spiritual consolation, and no
material benefit is ours, except that it
be given through Mary’s blessed hands.
Throughout all Christendom, Mary is
called “ ” for no other reason
than that She is the Lady of mildness,
love and goodness. Her Heart is full of
love and mercy towards us. Her desire
to give us graces is greater than our
desire to receive them. Mary’s love is
unfailing. She dispenses graces to all
who have recourse to her and gives
them most liberally because She is
Queen of Heaven; most lovingly,
because She is Our Mother.
If we ask something that is not for
our good, it will not be given. Yet, let
us not believe that our prayer has
been in vain, for She will obtain
something far better for us than what
we had asked of her. Never will She
leave a prayer unanswered! We all
stand in great need of a Mother who is
able to dry our tears and comfort our
desolate hearts; a Mother who will
teach us in our griefs not to mourn
without hope. Such a Mother is Mary!
As Mary’s own Heart
has experienced every
possible grief, sin
excepted, so She is most
compassionate towards
her children who are in
distress and affliction,
in suffering and sickness,
in poverty and humiliation,
in temptation and
sin, or in the agony
of death. There is no
corporal or spiritual
necessity of mankind in
which Mary is not the
Comfortress of the
Afflicted and the Mother
of Mercy. There is no
necessity in which She cannot assist,
no misery which She will not relieve
and no evil from which She does not
deliver us. Mary’s power manifests itself
above all in cases where all human
help fails. St.p Bernard calls Mary the
and encourages
us to have recourse to her if we find
ourselves tossed about by storms and
tempests in the current of this world.
We must not turn our eyes away from
the bright Star of the Sea, lest we be
overwhelmed ed by by the t e waves.a es.
In every
tribulation,
She never
takes her eyes off of us.
M
ary looks down upon us with a
mother’s solicitude and exerts her
power to the utmost to preserve us
from sin, or to raise us up if we have
been so unfortunate as to have fallen.
As the devil goes about seeking whom
he may devour, so Mary goes about
seeking whom She may save. Mary is
ever faithful in her help to the dying.
When the spiritual enemy draws near
and makes his final effort to plunge
the soul into perdition, it is Mary who
hastens to help. She raises the soul up,
enlightens, comforts and strengthens
it, to overcome the temptations of the
devil, persevere in the Grace of God
and depart this world
with peace of soul.
Our Divine Savior gave
power to His Apostles and
disciples to cast out devils
and heal every kind of
infirmity. Who could
doubt, then, that He has
also invested His Mother
with this prerogative?
How many hundreds of
thousands afflicted with
bodily ailments, with
blindness, lameness or
incurable maladies have
visited her shrines with
confidence and devotion,
and have miraculously