Article I — Excellence and Necessity of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

I confess with the whole Church that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of the Most High, is, compared with his infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is nothing at all, since he alone is "He who is"; and that consequently this great Lord, always independent and self-sufficient, never had and still does not have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and the manifestation of his glory: he has only to will in order to do all things.

I say, however, that, things being as they are, God having willed to begin and to accomplish his greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we may well believe that he will not change his way of acting for all ages to come; for he is God and does not change in his sentiments or his conduct.

God the Father gave his only-begotten Son to the world only through Mary. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have breathed, whatever entreaties the prophets and saints of the Old Law may have made for four thousand years to obtain that treasure, it was Mary alone who merited it, and who found grace before God by the power of her prayers and the height of her virtues. The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father; he gave him to Mary so that the world might receive him through her. The Son of God became man for our salvation, but in Mary and through Mary. God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in Mary, but only after asking her consent through one of the chief ministers of his court.

God the Father communicated to Mary his fruitfulness, insofar as a mere creature was capable of it, to give her the power of producing his Son and all the members of his Mystical Body. God the Son descended into her virginal womb, as the new Adam into his earthly paradise, to take his delight there and to work in secret wonders of grace.

God made man found his freedom in being imprisoned in her womb; he displayed his power in letting himself be carried by this blessed Virgin; he found his glory and that of his Father in hiding his splendors from all the creatures of this world, revealing them only to Mary. He glorified his independence and his majesty in depending upon this lovable Virgin in his conception, in his birth, in his presentation at the Temple, in his hidden life of thirty years, and even in his death, where she had to be present so that he might make with her but one sacrifice and be immolated by her consent to the Eternal Father, as Isaac of old was immolated by Abraham's consent to the will of God. It is she who nursed him, fed him, supported him, raised him, and sacrificed him for us.

O admirable and incomprehensible dependence of a God, which the Holy Spirit could not pass over in silence in the Gospel, although he has hidden from us nearly all the admirable things that this Incarnate Wisdom did during his hidden life, in order to show us its value! Jesus Christ gave more glory to God his Father by his submission to his Mother during thirty years than he would have given him by converting the whole earth through the working of the most stupendous miracles. Oh, how highly we glorify God when, to please him, we submit ourselves to Mary, following the example of Jesus Christ, our only model!

If we examine closely the rest of the life of Jesus Christ, we shall see that he willed to begin his miracles through Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, by the word of Mary; as soon as she spoke, John was sanctified — and this was his first and greatest miracle of grace. He changed water into wine at the wedding of Cana, at her humble request — and this was his first miracle of nature. He began and continued his miracles through Mary, and he will continue them through Mary until the end of time.

God the Holy Spirit, being barren in God — that is to say, not producing another divine Person — became fruitful through Mary, whom he espoused. It is with her, in her, and of her that he produced his masterpiece, who is a God made man, and that he produces every day until the end of the world. The predestinate are the members of the body of this adorable Head; and therefore the more he finds Mary, his dear and indissoluble spouse, in a soul, the more powerful and active he becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.

This does not mean that the Blessed Virgin gives the Holy Spirit a fruitfulness he does not possess: for, being God, he has the fruitfulness, or the capacity of producing, just as the Father and the Son, although he does not exercise it, since he does not produce another divine Person. But what it means is that the Holy Spirit, through the agency of the Blessed Virgin, whom he is pleased to use although he has no absolute need of her, brings his fruitfulness into act, producing in her and by her Jesus Christ and his members: a mystery of grace unknown even to the most learned and spiritual among Christians.

The way in which the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity acted in the Incarnation and the first coming of Jesus Christ, they continue every day, in an invisible manner, in the holy Church, and they will continue it until the end of time, in the last coming of Jesus Christ.

God the Father made a gathering of all the waters, which he called the sea; he made a gathering of all his graces, which he called Mary. This great God has a treasury or storehouse, most rich, in which he has enclosed all that he has of beauty, splendor, rarity, and preciousness, even his own Son; and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints call the treasury of the Lord, from whose fullness all men are made rich.

God the Son communicated to his Mother all that he acquired by his life and his death, his infinite merits and his admirable virtues; and he made her the treasurer of all that his Father gave him as his heritage. It is through her that he applies his merits to his members, communicates his virtues, and distributes his graces. She is his mysterious channel, his aqueduct, through which he gently and abundantly sends his mercies.

God the Holy Spirit communicated to Mary, his faithful spouse, his ineffable gifts, and he chose her to be the dispenser of all that he possesses; so that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, how she wills, and when she wills, all his gifts and graces; and no heavenly gift is given to men that does not pass through her virginal hands. For such has been the will of God, who willed that we should have all things through Mary; so shall she be enriched, exalted, and honored by the Most High, she who impoverished, humbled, and hid herself to the depths of nothingness by her profound humility, throughout her whole life. Such are the sentiments of the Church and the holy Fathers.

If I were speaking to the freethinkers of this age, I would prove all that I have simply stated, at greater length, from Holy Scripture and the holy Fathers, citing the Latin passages, and from several solid arguments which may be seen set out at length by Rev. Fr. Poire in his Triple Crown of the Blessed Virgin. But as I am speaking particularly to the poor and simple, who, being of good will and having more faith than the generality of scholars, believe more simply and with more merit, I content myself with stating the truth plainly, without stopping to cite all the Latin passages they would not understand, although I do not fail to quote some of them, without searching far. Let us continue.

Since grace perfects nature, and glory perfects grace, it is certain that Our Lord is still in heaven as much the Son of Mary as he was on earth, and that consequently he has retained the submission and obedience of the most perfect of all children toward the best of all mothers. But we must take care not to conceive of this dependence as any abasement or imperfection in Jesus Christ. For Mary, being infinitely below her Son, who is God, does not command him as a mother here below would command her child who is beneath her. Mary, being wholly transformed in God by grace and glory — which transforms all the saints in him — asks nothing, wills nothing, does nothing that is contrary to the eternal and immutable will of God. When therefore we read in the writings of St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Bonaventure, and others, that in heaven and on earth everything, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God has been pleased to give her is so great that she seems to have the same power as God; and that her prayers and petitions are so powerful with God that they always pass for commands with his Majesty, who never resists the prayer of his dear Mother, because she is always humble and conformed to his will.

If Moses, by the power of his prayer, stayed the anger of God against the Israelites, in a manner so powerful that the most high and infinitely merciful Lord, unable to resist him, told him to let him alone so that he might be angry and punish that rebellious people — what must we think, with far greater reason, of the prayer of the humble Mary, the worthy Mother of God, which is more powerful before his Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the angels and saints of heaven and earth?

Mary commands in heaven over the angels and the blessed. As a reward for her profound humility, God has given her the power and the commission to fill with saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell through pride. Such is the will of the Most High, who exalts the humble, that heaven, earth, and hell bend, willingly or unwillingly, to the commands of the humble Mary, whom he has made sovereign of heaven and earth, the commander of his armies, the treasurer of his treasures, the dispenser of his graces, the worker of his great marvels, the restorer of the human race, the mediatrix of men, the exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of his grandeurs and triumphs.

God the Father wills to have children made through Mary until the end of the world, and he speaks to her these words: In Jacob inhabita! — "Dwell in Jacob," that is to say, make your dwelling and your residence in my children and predestinate, who are prefigured by Jacob, and not in the children of the devil and the reprobate, who are prefigured by Esau.

Just as in natural and bodily generation there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a father, who is God, and a mother, who is Mary. All true children of God and of the predestinate have God for their father and Mary for their mother; and whoever does not have Mary for his mother does not have God for his father. This is why the reprobate, such as heretics, schismatics, and others, who hate or regard with contempt or indifference the Blessed Virgin, do not have God for their father, however much they may boast of it, because they do not have Mary for their mother. For if they had her for their mother, they would love her and honor her, as a true and good child naturally loves and honors the mother who gave him life.

The most infallible and unmistakable sign for distinguishing a heretic, a man of bad doctrine, a reprobate, from one of the predestinate, is that the heretic and the reprobate have nothing but contempt or indifference for the Blessed Virgin, seeking by their words and example to diminish her cult and her love, openly or secretly, sometimes under specious pretexts. Alas! God the Father has not told Mary to dwell in them, because they are children of Esau.

God the Son wills to form himself and, so to speak, to become incarnate every day in his members through his dear Mother, and he says to her: In Israel haereditare — "Take Israel for your inheritance." It is as if he said: God my Father has given me as my heritage all the nations of the earth, all men, good and bad, predestinate and reprobate. I will lead the one with a rod of gold and the other with a rod of iron. I will be the father and the advocate of the one, the just avenger of the other, and the judge of all. But as for you, my dear Mother, you shall have for your heritage and possession only the predestinate, prefigured by Israel; and as their good mother you shall bring them forth, raise them up; and as their sovereign you shall lead them, govern them, and defend them.

"A man and a man is born in her," says the Holy Spirit: Homo et homo natus est in ea. According to the explanation of some Fathers, the first man born in Mary is the God-Man, Jesus Christ; the second is a mere man, child of God and of Mary by adoption. If Jesus Christ, the Head of men, is born in her, the predestinate, who are the members of that Head, must also be born in her, by a necessary consequence. One and the same mother does not bring forth the head without the members, nor the members without the head; otherwise it would be a monster of nature. So likewise in the order of grace, the Head and the members are born of one and the same mother; and if a member of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ — that is to say, one of the predestinate — were born of another mother than Mary, who produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but a monster in the order of grace.

Moreover, since Jesus is now as much as ever the fruit of Mary, as heaven and earth repeat to her a thousand and a thousand times every day — "And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus" — it is certain that Jesus Christ is, for each man in particular who possesses him, just as truly the fruit and the work of Mary as he is for the whole world in general. So that if any of the faithful has Jesus Christ formed in his heart, he can say boldly: "Thanks be to Mary! What I possess is her effect and her fruit, and without her I would not have it." And we can apply to her, more truly than St. Paul applied them to himself, these words: Quos iterum parturio donec formetur Christus in vobis — "I am in labor again with all the children of God, until Jesus Christ my Son is formed in them in the fullness of his age."

St. Augustine, surpassing himself and all that I have just said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, cared for, and brought up by that good mother, until she brings them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth, as the Church calls the death of the just. O mystery of grace, unknown to the reprobate and little known to the predestinate!

God the Holy Spirit wills to form his elect in her and by her, and he says to her: In electis meis mitte radices — "Strike, my beloved and my spouse, the roots of all your virtues into my elect," so that they may grow from virtue to virtue and from grace to grace. I took such delight in you when you lived on earth in the practice of the most sublime virtues that I desire still to find you on earth, without ceasing to be in heaven. Reproduce yourself for this purpose in my elect; let me see in them with delight the roots of your invincible faith, your profound humility, your universal mortification, your sublime prayer, your ardent charity, your firm hope, and all your virtues. You are always my spouse, as faithful, as pure, and as fruitful as ever: let your faith give me faithful ones, let your purity give me virgins, let your fruitfulness give me elect and temples.

When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who has never had and never will have her equal in purity and in fruitfulness.

Mary produced, with the Holy Spirit, the greatest thing that ever was or ever will be, which is a God-Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest things that shall be in the last times. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved to her; for only this singular and miraculous Virgin can produce, in union with the Holy Spirit, singular and extraordinary things.

When the Holy Spirit, her spouse, has found her in a soul, he flies there, he enters there fully, he communicates himself to that soul abundantly, and to the extent that the soul gives place to his spouse. And one of the chief reasons why the Holy Spirit does not now work striking wonders in our souls is that he does not find there a sufficiently great union with his faithful and indissoluble spouse. I say indissoluble spouse: for since that substantial Love of the Father and the Son espoused Mary to produce Jesus Christ, the Head of the elect, and Jesus Christ in the elect, he has never repudiated her, because she has always been fruitful and faithful.

We must evidently conclude from what I have just said: first, that Mary has received from God a great dominion over the souls of the elect; for she cannot make her dwelling in them, as God the Father has commanded her, nor form them in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ in them, nor strike the roots of her virtues into their hearts, nor be the indissoluble companion of the Holy Spirit in all his works of grace — she cannot, I say, do all these things unless she has a right and dominion over their souls, by a singular grace of the Most High, who, having given her power over his only-begotten and natural Son, has also given it to her over his adopted children — not only as regards the body, which would be very little, but also as regards the soul. Mary is the queen of heaven and earth by grace, as Jesus is its king by nature and by conquest. Now, as the kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the heart and the interior of man — according to the words, The kingdom of God is within you — so the kingdom of the Blessed Virgin is principally in the interior of man, that is, in his soul; and it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures. And so we may call her with the saints the Queen of Hearts.

Second, we must conclude that the Blessed Virgin being necessary to God with a necessity which is called hypothetical — that is, consequent upon his will — she is far more necessary to men in order for them to attain their last end. We must not, therefore, place devotion to the Blessed Virgin on the same level as devotion to the other saints, as though it were no more necessary and were merely optional.

The learned and devout Suarez, of the Society of Jesus; the erudite and pious Justus Lipsius, doctor of Louvain; and several others have invincibly proved, on the authority of the Fathers — among them St. Augustine, St. Ephrem the deacon of Edessa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus of Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure — that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is necessary for salvation, and that it is an infallible mark of reprobation, even in the opinion of Oecolampadius and certain other heretics, to have no esteem and no love for the Blessed Virgin; and that, on the contrary, it is an infallible mark of predestination to be entirely and truly devoted to her.

The figures and the words of the Old and New Testaments prove it; the opinions and examples of the saints confirm it; reason and experience teach and demonstrate it. The devil himself and his minions, pressed by the force of truth, have often been obliged to confess it in spite of themselves. Of all the passages from the holy Fathers and Doctors, of which I have made an ample collection to prove this truth, I will cite but one, so as not to be too long: Tibi devotum esse, est arma quaedam salutis quae Deus his dat quos vult salvos fieri — "To be devoted to you, O holy Virgin," says St. John Damascene, "is a weapon of salvation that God gives to those whom he wills to save." And I could here relate several stories that prove the same thing, among others the one recorded in the chronicles of St. Dominic, when fifteen thousand demons, possessing the soul of an unfortunate heretic near Carcassonne where St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary, were obliged, to their confusion, by the command of the Blessed Virgin, to confess several great and consoling truths concerning devotion to the Blessed Virgin, with such force and clarity that one cannot read this authentic account and the panegyric which the devil delivered despite himself on devotion to the Blessed Virgin without shedding tears of joy, if one has the least devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

If devotion to the Blessed Virgin is necessary to all men simply for their salvation, it is even more so for those who are called to a particular perfection. And I do not believe that a person can acquire intimate union with Our Lord and perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without a very great union with the Blessed Virgin and a great dependence on her help.

It is Mary alone who has found grace before God, without the help of any other mere creature. It is only through her that all who have ever found grace before God have found it; and it is only through her that all who shall come after will find it. She was full of grace when she was greeted by the Archangel Gabriel; and she was superabundantly filled with grace by the Holy Spirit when he overshadowed her with his ineffable power. And she has so increased this double fullness from day to day, from moment to moment, that she has attained an immense and inconceivable degree of grace. So that the Most High has made her the sole treasurer of his treasures and the sole dispenser of his graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and to enrich whom she wills; to lead whom she wills into the narrow way of heaven; to bring whom she wills, despite all obstacles, through the narrow gate of life; and to give the throne, the scepter, and the crown of king to whom she wills. Jesus is everywhere and always the fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the true tree that bears the fruit of life, and the true mother who produces him.

It is to Mary alone that God has given the keys of the cellars of divine love, and the power of entering into the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and of leading others into them. It is Mary alone who gives entrance into the earthly paradise to the wretched children of the unfaithful Eve, to walk there delightfully with God, to hide there safely from their enemies, and to feed there with delight on the fruit of the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil, and to drink in long draughts the heavenly waters of that fair fountain which springs up there in abundance. Or rather, she is herself that earthly paradise, that virgin and blessed land from which Adam and Eve the sinners were driven out. She gives entrance only to those whom it pleases her to make saints.

All the rich among the people — to use the expression of the Holy Spirit, according to the explanation of St. Bernard — all the rich among the people shall entreat your face from age to age, and especially at the end of the world; that is to say, the greatest saints, the souls richest in graces and virtues, shall be the most assiduous in praying to the Blessed Virgin, and in having her always present as their perfect model to imitate and their powerful aid to help them.

I have said that this will happen particularly at the end of the world, and soon, because the Most High with his holy Mother must form great saints who shall surpass most of the other saints in holiness as much as the cedars of Lebanon surpass the little shrubs, as was revealed to a holy soul whose life was written by a great servant of God.

These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to oppose the enemies of God, who will rage on every side; and they shall be singularly devoted to the Blessed Virgin, illumined by her light, nourished by her milk, led by her spirit, supported by her arm, and sheltered under her protection; so that they shall fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they shall fight, overthrow, and crush the heretics with their heresies, the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries, and the sinners with their impieties. And with the other hand they shall build up the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God — that is, the Blessed Virgin, called by the holy Fathers the Temple of Solomon and the City of God. By their words and their examples, they shall draw the whole world to true devotion to her, which will bring upon them many enemies, but also many victories and much glory for God alone. This is what God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, that great apostle of his age, as he himself has sufficiently indicated in one of his works.

This is what the Holy Spirit seems to have foretold in Psalm 58, of which these are the words: Et scient quia Dominus dominabitur Jacob et finium terrae; convertentur ad vesperam, et famem patientur ut canes, et circuibunt civitatem — "The Lord shall reign in Jacob and to the ends of the earth; they shall be converted toward evening, and they shall suffer hunger like dogs, and shall go round about the city to find something to eat."

This city, which men shall find at the end of the world to be converted and to satisfy the hunger they shall have for justice, is the Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Holy Spirit the City and the City of God.

It is through Mary that the salvation of the world was begun, and it is through Mary that it must be accomplished. Mary was scarcely noticed in the first coming of Jesus Christ, lest men, as yet so little instructed and enlightened about the person of her Son, should turn away from him by attaching themselves too strongly and too crudely to her — which would apparently have happened had she been known, because of the admirable charms which the Most High had placed even in her outward appearance. This is so true that St. Dionysius the Areopagite has left us in writing that, when he saw her, he would have taken her for a divinity, because of her secret charms and incomparable beauty, had not the faith in which he was well grounded taught him otherwise. But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary must be made known and revealed by the Holy Spirit, so that through her Jesus Christ may be known, loved, and served. The reasons which led the Holy Spirit to hide his spouse during her life, and to reveal her only a little in the preaching of the Gospel, no longer exist.

God therefore wills to reveal and make known Mary, the masterpiece of his hands, in these last times: first, because she hid herself in this world and put herself lower than the dust by her profound humility, having obtained from God, from his Apostles and Evangelists, that she should not be made known; second, because, being the masterpiece of the hands of God, as much on earth by grace as in heaven by glory, he wills to be glorified and praised in her on earth by the living; third, since she is the dawn that precedes and reveals the Sun of Justice, who is Jesus Christ, she must be seen and recognized so that Jesus Christ may be; fourth, since she is the way by which Jesus Christ came to us the first time, she will be so again when he comes the second time, though not in the same manner; fifth, since she is the sure means, the straight and immaculate way to go to Jesus Christ and to find him perfectly, it is by her that the holy souls who are to shine forth in sanctity must find him. Whoever shall find Mary shall find life, that is, Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But we cannot find Mary unless we seek her; we cannot seek her unless we know her; for we neither seek nor desire an unknown object. It is therefore necessary that Mary be better known than ever, for the greater knowledge and glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Sixth, Mary must shine forth more than ever in mercy, in power, and in grace in these last times: in mercy, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor sinners and wanderers who shall be converted and return to the Catholic Church; in power, against the enemies of God — the idolaters, schismatics, Muslims, Jews, and hardened sinners — who shall revolt terribly to seduce and bring down, by promises and threats, all who oppose them. And finally she must shine forth in grace, to animate and sustain the valiant soldiers and faithful servants of Jesus Christ, who shall fight for his interests. Seventh, Mary must be terrible to the devil and his minions, as an army drawn up in battle array, especially in these last times, because the devil, knowing well that he has little time — and now less than ever — to destroy souls, will redouble his efforts and his attacks every day. He will soon raise up new persecutions and will lay terrible traps for the faithful servants and true children of Mary, whom he has more difficulty overcoming than others.

It is principally of these last and cruel persecutions of the devil, which shall increase daily until the reign of the Antichrist, that we must understand that first and famous prediction and curse of God, pronounced in the earthly paradise against the serpent. It is fitting to explain it here, for the glory of the Blessed Virgin, the salvation of her children, and the confusion of the devil.

Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius; ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus. (Gen. 3:15) — "I will put enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel."

God has never made and formed but one enmity — but it is an irreconcilable one, which shall last and grow until the end: between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil; between the children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and minions of Lucifer. And so the most terrible of all the enemies that God has raised up against the devil is Mary, his holy Mother. He gave her, even from the earthly paradise, though she existed as yet only in his idea, so great a hatred of this accursed enemy of God, so great a skill in uncovering the malice of that ancient serpent, so great a power to conquer, to overthrow, and to crush that proud rebel, that he fears her more — not only more than all the angels and men, but in a sense more than God himself. This is not because the wrath, the hatred, and the power of God are not infinitely greater than those of the Blessed Virgin, since the perfections of Mary are limited; but, first, because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being conquered and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the divine power; and, second, because God has given Mary such great power against the devils that, as they have often been obliged to confess in spite of themselves through the mouths of the possessed, they fear more a single one of her sighs for a soul than the prayers of all the saints, and a single one of her threats against them more than all their other torments.

What Lucifer lost by pride, Mary gained by humility. What Eve damned and lost by disobedience, Mary saved by obedience. Eve, by obeying the serpent, lost all her children together with herself, and delivered them to him. Mary, having rendered herself perfectly faithful to God, saved all her children and servants together with herself, and consecrated them to his Majesty.

God has placed not merely one enmity but enmities — not only between Mary and the devil, but between the race of the Blessed Virgin and the race of the devil. That is to say, God has placed enmities, antipathies, and secret hatreds between the true children and servants of Mary and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love for one another; they have no inner sympathy with one another. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world — for it is all the same thing — have always persecuted and will persecute more than ever those who belong to the Blessed Virgin, just as Cain of old persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob — who are the figures of the reprobate and the predestinate. But the humble Mary will always have the victory over that proud one, and so great a victory that she will even crush his head, where his pride resides. She will always uncover his serpent's malice; she will expose his infernal plots and scatter his diabolical counsels; and she will protect her faithful servants from his cruel claws until the end of time. But Mary's power over all the devils will shine forth especially in the last times, when Satan will lay his snares against her heel — that is, against her humble slaves and her poor children, whom she will raise up to make war against him. They shall be little and poor in the eyes of the world, and lowly before all, like the heel, trodden upon and persecuted as the heel is by the other members of the body. But in return they shall be rich in the grace of God, which Mary will distribute to them abundantly; great and exalted in holiness before God; superior to every creature by their zeal; and so strongly supported by divine aid that, with the humility of their heel, in union with Mary, they shall crush the head of the devil and make Jesus Christ triumph.

Finally, God wills that his holy Mother be at present more known, more loved, and more honored than she has ever been. This will doubtless come to pass if the predestinate enter, with the grace and the light of the Holy Spirit, into the interior and perfect practice that I shall lay before them in what follows. Then they shall clearly see, as far as faith allows, this beautiful star of the sea, and they shall arrive safely in port, despite the storms and the pirates, by following her guidance. They shall know the grandeurs of this Sovereign, and they shall consecrate themselves entirely to her service, as her subjects and her slaves of love. They shall experience her sweetness and her maternal goodness, and they shall love her tenderly as her beloved children. They shall know the mercies with which she is filled and the need they have of her help, and they shall have recourse to her in all things, as to their dear advocate and mediatrix with Jesus Christ. They shall know that she is the surest, the easiest, the shortest, and the most perfect means of going to Jesus Christ, and they shall give themselves to her, body and soul, without reserve, in order to belong to Jesus Christ in the same way.

But who shall these servants, slaves, and children of Mary be? They shall be a burning fire, ministers of the Lord, who shall kindle the fire of divine love everywhere. They shall be sicut sagittae in manu potentis — "like sharp arrows in the hand of the powerful Mary," to pierce her enemies.

They shall be children of Levi, well purified by the fire of great tribulation and closely attached to God, who shall carry the gold of love in their hearts, the incense of prayer in their minds, and the myrrh of mortification in their bodies; and who shall be everywhere the good fragrance of Jesus Christ to the poor and the lowly, while they shall be a fragrance of death to the great, the rich, and the proud of this world.

They shall be thundering clouds, flying through the air at the least breath of the Holy Spirit, who, without attaching themselves to anything, or being surprised at anything, or troubling themselves about anything, shall spread the rain of the word of God and of eternal life. They shall thunder against sin; they shall storm against the world; they shall strike the devil and his followers; and they shall pierce through and through, for life or for death, with their two-edged sword of the word of God, all those to whom they shall be sent by the Most High.

They shall be true apostles of the last times, to whom the Lord of hosts shall give the word and the power to work marvels and to carry off glorious spoils from his enemies. They shall sleep without gold or silver, and, what is more, without care, "in the midst of the other priests, ecclesiastics, and clerics" — inter medios cleros — and yet they shall have the silver wings of the dove, to go, with the pure intention of the glory of God and the salvation of souls, wherever the Holy Spirit shall call them. And they shall leave behind them, in the places where they shall have preached, nothing but the gold of charity, which is the fulfillment of the whole law.

Finally, we know that they shall be true disciples of Jesus Christ, who, walking in the footsteps of his poverty, humility, contempt of the world, and charity, shall teach the narrow way of God in pure truth, according to the holy Gospel, and not according to the maxims of the world; without troubling themselves or showing partiality to anyone; without sparing, heeding, or fearing any mortal, however powerful.

They shall have in their mouths the two-edged sword of the word of God. They shall carry on their shoulders the bloody standard of the Cross, the crucifix in the right hand and the rosary in the left, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary on their hearts, and the modesty and mortification of Jesus Christ in all their conduct.

These are the great men who shall come; but Mary shall be there by the order of the Most High, to extend her empire over that of the ungodly, the idolaters, and the Muslims. But when and how shall this be? God alone knows. It is for us to be silent, to pray, to sigh, and to wait.

Exspectans exspectavi — "I have waited; I have waited!"