Mary was born a saint, and a great saint; for the grace with which God enriched her from the beginning was great, and the fidelity with which she immediately corresponded to it was great.

STORY

There were two young noblemen in Madrid, of whom the one encouraged the other in leading a wicked life, and in committing all sorts of crimes.  One of them one night in a dream saw his friend taken by certain dark men, and carried to a tempestuous sea.  They were going to take him in a similar manner, but he had recourse to Mary, and made a vow that he would embrace the religious state; on which he was delivered from those men.  He then saw Jesus on a throne, as if in anger, and the Blessed Virgin imploring mercy for him.  After this his friend came to pay him a visit, and he then related what he had seen; but his companion only turned it into ridicule, and he was shortly afterwards stabbed and died.  When the young man saw this his vision was verified, he went to confession, and renewed his resolution to enter a religious Order, and for this purpose he sold all that he had; but instead of giving it to the poor, as he had intended, he spent it in all sorts of debauchery.  He then fell ill, and had another vision.  He thought he saw hell open, and the divine Judge, who had already condemned him.  Again he had recourse to Mary, and she once more delivered him.  He recovered his health and went on worse than ever.  He afterwards went to Lima in South America, where he relapsed into his former illness; and in the hospital of that place he was once more touched by the grace of God, confessed his sins to the Jesuit Father, Francis Perlino, and promised him that he would change his life; but again he fell into his former crimes.  At last the same Father, going into another hospital in a distant place, saw the miserable wretch extended on the ground, and heard him cry out:  “Ah, abandoned wretch that I am! For my greater torment this Father is come to witness my chastisement.  From Lima I came here, where my vices have brought me to this end; and now I go to hell.”  With these words he expired, without even leaving the Father time to help him.

PRAYER

O holy and heavenly Infant, You who are the destined Mother of my Redeemer and the great mediatrix of miserable sinners, pity me.  Behold at your feet another ungrateful sinner who has recourse to you and asks your compassion.  It is true, that for my ingratitude to God and to you I deserve that God and you should abandon me; but I have heard, and believe it to be so (knowing the greatness of your mercy), that you do not refuse to help any one who recommends himself to you with confidence.  O most exalted creature in the world! Since this is the case, and since there is no one but God above you, so that compared with you the greatest saints of heaven are little; O saint of saints, O Mary! Abyss of charity, and full of grace, comfort a miserable creature who by his own fault has lost the divine favour.  I know that you are so dear to God that he denies you nothing.  I know also that your pleasure is to use your greatness for the relief of miserable sinners.  Ah, then, show how great is the favour that you enjoy with God, by obtaining me a divine light and flame so powerful that I may be changed from a sinner into a saint; and detaching myself from every earthly affection, divine love may be enkindled in me.  Do this, O Lady, for you can do it.  Do it for the love of God, who has made you so great, so powerful, and so compassionate.  This is my hope.  Amen.

How befitting it was that each of the Three Persons should preserve Mary from Original Sin.

STORY

A woman came to a house of our little Congregation in this kingdom to let one of the Fathers know that her husband had not been to confession for many years, and the poor creature could no longer tell by what means to bring him to his duty; for if she named confession to him, he beat her. The Father told her to give him a picture of Mary Immaculate. In the evening the woman once more begged her husband to go to confession; but he as usual turned a deaf ear to her entreaties. She gave him the picture. Behold! He had scarcely received it, when he said, “Well, when will you take me to confession, for I am willing to go?” The wife, on seeing this instantaneous change, began to weep for joy. In the morning he really came to our church, and when the Father asked him how long it was since he had been to confession, he answered, “Twenty-eight years.” The Father again asked him what had induced him to come that morning. “Father,” he said, “I was obstinate; but last night my wife gave me a picture of our Blessed Lady, and in the same moment I felt my heart changed, so much so, that during the whole night every moment seemed a thousand years, so great was my desire to go to confession.” He then confessed his sins with great contrition, changed his life, and continued for a long time to go frequently to confession to the same Father.

In another place, in the diocese of Salerno, in which we were giving a mission, there was a man who bore a great hatred to another who had offended him. One of our Fathers spoke to him, that he might be reconciled; but he answered: “Father, did you ever see me at the sermons? No, and for this very reason, I do not go. I know that I am damned; but nothing else will satisfy me, I must have revenge;” The Father did all that he could to convert him; but seeing that he lost his time, he said, “Here, take this picture of our Blessed Lady.” The man at first replied, “But what is the use of this picture?” But no sooner had he taken it, than, as if he had never refused to be reconciled, he said to the missionary, “Father, is anything else required besides reconciliation? – I am willing.” The following morning was fixed for it. When, however, the time came, he had again changed, and would do nothing. The Father offered him another picture, but he refused it; but at length, with great reluctance, took it, when, behold! He scarcely had possession of it than he immediately said, “Now let us be quick; where is Mastrodati?” and he was instantly reconciled with him, and then went to confession.

PRAYER

Ah my Immaculate Lady! I rejoice with you on seeing you enriched with so great purity. I thank, and resolve always to thank, our common Creator for having preserved you from every stain of sin; and I firmly believe this doctrine, and am prepared and swear even to lay down my life, should this be necessary, in defence of this your so great and singular privilege of being conceived immaculate. I would that the whole world knew you and acknowledged you as being that beautiful “Dawn” which was always illumined with divine light; as that chosen “Ark” of salvation, free from the common shipwreck of sin; that perfect and immaculate “Dove” which your divine Spouse declared you to be; that “enclosed Garden” which was the delight of God; that “sealed Fountain” whose waters were never troubled by an enemy; and finally, as that “white Lily,” which you are, and who, though born in the midst of the thorns of the children of Adam, all of whom are conceived in sin, and the enemies of God, was alone conceived pure and spotless, and in all things the beloved of your Creator. Permit me, then, to praise you also as your God himself has praised you: You are all fair, and there is not a spot in you. O most pure Dove, all fair, all beautiful, always the friend of God. O how beautiful are you, my beloved! How beautiful are you! Ah, most sweet, most amiable, immaculate Mary, you who are so beautiful in the eyes of the Lord, – ah, disdain not to cast your compassionate eyes on the wounds of my soul, loathsome as they are. Behold me, pity me, heal me. O beautiful loadstone of hearts, draw also my miserable heart to yourself. O you, who from the first moment of your life did appear pure and beautiful before God, pity me, who not only was born in sin, but have again since baptism stained my soul with crimes. What grace will God ever refuse you, who chose you for his daughter, his Mother, and Spouse, and therefore preserved you from every stain, and in his love preferred you to all other creatures? I will say, in the words of St Philip Neri, “Immaculate Virgin, you have to save me”. Grant that I may always remember you; and you, do you never forget me. The happy day, when I shall go to behold your beauty in Paradise, seems a thousand years off; so much do I long to praise and love you more than I can now do, my Mother, my Queen my beloved, most beautiful, most sweet, most pure, Immaculate Mary. Amen.

The Sweetness of the Name of Mary during Life and Death.

STORY

St Camilla de Lellis urged the members of his community to remind the dying often to utter the holy names of Jesus and Mary.  Such was his custom when assisting people in their last hour.  When he himself came to die he gave an edifying example of confidence in the holy names.  His biographer relates that when death was approaching, the saint invoked the sweet names of Jesus and Mary with such tender devotion that all present were inflamed with love for the sacred names.  With his eyes fixed on the images of Jesus and Mary, and his arms crossed on his breast, an expression of heavenly peace rested on his face when his soul took its flight.  His last words were the sacred names of Jesus and Mary.

PRAYER

O great Mother of God and my Mother Mary, it is true that I am unworthy to name you; but you, love me and desire my salvation, must, notwithstanding the impurity of my tongue, grant that I may always invoke your most holy and powerful name in my aid, for your name is the succor of the living, and the salvation of the dying.  Ah, most pure Mary, most sweet Mary, grant that henceforth your name may be the breath of my life.  O Lady, delay not to help me when I invoke you, for in all the temptations which assail me, and in all my wants, I will never cease calling upon you, and repeating again and again, Mary, Mary.  Thus it is that I hope to act during my life, and more particularly at death, that after that last struggle I may eternally praise your beloved name in heaven, O clement, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary.  Ah, Mary, most amiable Mary, with what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what tenderness, is my soul penetrated in only naming, in only thinking of you!  I thank my Lord and God, who for my good, has given you a name so sweet and deserving of love, and at the same time so powerful.  But, my sovereign Lady, I am not satisfied with only naming you, I wish to name you with love:  I desire that my love may every hour remind me to call on you, so that I may be able to exclaim with St Bonaventure, “O name of the Mother of God, you are my love.”  My own dear Mary, O my beloved Jesus, may your most sweet names reign in my heart, and in all hearts.  Grant that I may forget all others to remember, and always invoke, your adorable names alone.  Ah! Jesus my Redeemer, and my Mother Mary, when the moment of death comes when I must breathe forth my soul and leave this world, deign, through your merits, to grant that I may then pronounce my last words, and that they may be, “I love You, O Jesus; I love you, O Mary; to you do I give my heart and my soul.”

How great are the clemency and compassion of Mary.

STORY

In the life of Father Anthony de Colleli we find the following occurrence narrated:  “A certain unfortunate woman was having illicit relations with two young men.  One of these, prompted by jealousy, stabbed the other to death.  Very much frightened by what had happened, the sinful woman went to confession to Father Onofrius.  She related the following:  After the murder the unfortunate man appeared to her, all black, bound in chains, and surrounded by flames.  He held a sword in his hand with which he attempted to kill her.  Trembling with fear she cried out:  ‘Why do you wish to kill me?  What have I done to you?’  The man, filled with rage, replied:  ‘What, you wretch, you ask what you have done!  It is your fault that I have lost my God.’  Immediately the woman called on the Blessed Virgin to help her, and at the sound of the name of Mary, the apparition vanished.”

PRAYER

O Mother of mercy, since you are so compassionate, and have so great a desire to render service to us poor creatures and to grant our requests, behold I, the most miserable of all men, have now recourse to your compassion, in order that you may grant me that which I ask.  Others may ask what they please of you, – bodily health, and earthly goods and advantages; but I come, O Lady, to ask you for that which you desire of me, and which is most in conformity and agreeable to your most sacred heart.  You are so humble; obtain for me humility and love of contempt.  You were so patient under the sufferings of this life; obtain for me patience in trials.  You were all love towards your neighbour; obtain for me charity towards all, and particularly towards those who are in any way my enemies.  You were entirely united to the divine will; obtain for me entire conformity to the will of God in whatever way he may be pleased to dispose of me.  You, in fine, are the most holy of all creatures; O Mary, make me a saint.  Love for me is not wanting on your part; you can do all, and you have the will to obtain me all.  The only thing, then, that can prevent me from receiving your graces is, either neglect on my part in having recourse to you, or little confidence in your intercession; but these two things you must obtain for me.  These two greatest graces I ask from you; from you I must obtain them; from you I hope for them with the greatest confidence, O Mary, my Mother Mary, my hope, my love, my life, my refuge, my help, and my consolation.  Amen.

Mary Leads Her Servants to Heaven.

STORY

The Franciscan Chronicles relate that a certain Brother Leo saw in a vision two ladders the one red, the other white.  On the upper end of the red ladder stood Jesus and on the other stood His holy Mother.  The brother saw that some tried to climb the red ladder; but scarcely had they mounted some rungs when they fell back, they tried again but with no better success.  Then they were advised to try the white ladder and to their surprise they succeeded for the Blessed Virgin stretched out her hand and with her aid they reached heaven.

PRAYER

O Queen of heaven, Mother of holy love!  Since you are the most amiable of creatures, the most beloved of God, and his greatest lover, be pleased to allow the most miserable sinner living in this world, who, having by your means been delivered from hell, and without any merit on his part been so benefited by you and who is filled with love for you, to love you.  I would desire, were it in my power, to let all men who know you not, know how worthy you are of love, that all might love and honor you.  I would desire to die for the love of you, in defence of your virginity, of your dignity of Mother of God, of your Immaculate Conception, should this be necessary, to uphold these your great privileges.  Ah! my most beloved Mother accept this my ardent desire, and never allow a servant of yours who loves you, to become the enemy of your God, whom you love so much.  Alas!  Poor me, I was so for a time, when I offended my Lord.  But then, O Mary, I loved you but little, and strove but little to be beloved by you.  But now there is nothing that I so much desire, after the grace of God, as to love and be loved by you.  I am not discouraged on account of my past sins, for I know that you, O most benign and gracious Lady, do not disdain to love even the most wretched sinners who love you; even more, that you never allow yourself to be surpassed by any in love.  Ah! Queen most worthy of love, I desire to love you in heaven.  There, at your feet, I shall better know how worthy you are of love, how much you have done to save me; and thus I shall love you with greater love, and love you eternally, without fear of ever ceasing to love you.  O Mary, I hope most certainly to be saved by your means.  Pray to Jesus for me.  Nothing else is needed; you have to save me; you are my hope.  I will therefore always sing O Mary, my hope, you have to save me.

Mary Succors Her Clients In Purgatory.

STORY

A noble lady, who had an only son, was informed one day that he had been killed.  The murderer had by chance taken refuge in her own palace.  She then began to reflect that Mary had forgiven the executioners of her Son; and therefore determined that she also would pardon that criminal for the love of the sorrowful Mary.  She not only did this, but also provided him with a horse, money and clothes, that he might escape.  Her son then appeared to her, and told her that he was saved, and that for her generous conduct to his enemy the divine Mother had delivered him from purgatory, in which otherwise he would have had to suffer for a long time, and that he was then going to Paradise.

PRAYER

O Queen of heaven and earth!  O Mother of the Lord of the world!  O Mary, of all creatures the greatest, the most exalted, and the most amiable! It is true that there are many in this world who neither know you nor love you; but in heaven there are may millions of angels and blessed spirits, who love and praise you continually.  Even in this world, how many happy souls are there not who burn with your love, and live enamoured of your goodness!  O, that I also could love you, O Lady worthy of all love!  O, that I could always remember to serve you, to praise you, to honor you, and engage all to love you!  You have attracted the love of God, whom, by your beauty, you have, so to say, torn from the bosom of his Eternal Father, and engaged to become man, and be your Son.  And shall I, a poor worm of the earth, not be enamoured of you?  No, my most sweet Mother, I also will love you much, and will do all that I can to make others love you also.  Accept, then, O Mary, the desire that I have to love you, and help me to execute it.  I know how favorably your lovers are looked upon by God.  He, after his own glory, desires nothing more than yours, and to see you honored and loved by all.  From you, O Lady, do I expect all; through you the remission of my sins, through you perseverance.  You must assist me at death, and deliver me from purgatory; and finally, you must lead me to heaven.  All this your lovers hope from you, and are not deceived.  I, who love you with so much affection, and above all other things, after God, hope for the same favors.

AND AFTER THIS OUR EXILE SHOW UNTO US THE BLESSED FRUIT OF THY WOMB, JESUS

STORY
In the year 1604, in a city of Belgium, there were two young men, students, but who, instead of attending to their studies, gave themselves up to a life of debauchery.  One night they were both in the house with an evil companion, when one of them, named Richard, returned home, leaving his companion there.  After he had reached home, and had begun to undress, he remembered he had not that day said some “Hail Marys,” that he was in the habit of reciting.  Feeling very sleepy he was loath to say them; he did himself violence, and repeated them, though without devotion, and half asleep.  He then lay down, and had fallen into a sound slumber, when he was suddenly roused by a violent knocking at the door, and without its opening he saw his companion, deformed and hideous, standing before him.  “Who are you?” he cried out.  “What! Do you not know me?” “Ah, yes! But how you are changed; you seem to me a devil.”  “Truly,” he exclaimed, “poor unfortunate creature that I am, I am damned; and how?  When I was leaving that wicked house, a devil came and strangled me; my body is in the street, and my soul in hell; and you must know,”  added he, “that the same fate awaited you, had not the Blessed Virgin preserved you in consideration of that little act of homage of the ‘Hail Mary.’  Fortunate are you if only you know how to take advantage of this warning sent you by the Mother of God.”  With these words he opened his mantle, and, showing the flames and serpents by which he was tormented, he disappeared.  Richard immediately burst into sobs and tears, and, casting himself prostrate on the ground, he returned thanks to Mary, his protectress; and, while thinking how to change his life, he heard the bell of the Franciscan monastery ringing for matins.  “Ah! It is there,” says he, “that God calls me to do penance.”  He went immediately to the convent, and implored the Fathers to admit him.  But they were hardly willing to do so, knowing his wicked life; but he, sobbing bitterly, told all that had taken place; and two Fathers being sent to the street, and having found the strangled body, which was as black as a coal, they admitted him.  From that time forward Richard led a most exemplary life, and at last went to preach the Gospel in the Indies, and then to Japan, where he had the happiness of giving his life for Jesus Christ, being burnt alive for the faith.

PRAYER
O Mary, my most dear Mother, in what an abyss of evils should I not now be, if you had not so many times delivered me with your compassionate hand!  How many years ago should I not have been in hell, had you not saved me by your powerful prayers!  My grievous sins already drove me there; divine justice had already condemned me; the devils already longed to execute the sentence; and you did fly to my aid, and save me without being even called or asked.  And what return can I make to you, O my beloved protectress, for so many favors and for such love?  You also did overcome the hardness of my heart, and did draw me to your love and to confidence in you.  And into how many other evils should I not have fallen, if with your compassionate hand you had not so often helped me in the dangers into which I was on the point of falling!  Continue, O my hope, to preserve me from hell, and from the sins into which I may still fall.  Never allow me to have this misfortune – to curse you in hell.  My beloved Lady, I love you.  Can your goodness ever endure to see a servant of yours that loves you lost?  Ah! then, obtain that I may never more be ungrateful to you and to my God, who for the love of you has granted me so many graces.  O Mary, tell me, shall I be lost?  Yes, if I abandon you.  But is this possible?  Can I ever forget the love you have borne me?  You, after God, are the love of my soul.  I can no longer trust myself to live without loving you.  O most beautiful, most holy, most amiable, sweetest creature in the world, I rejoice in you happiness, I love you, and I hope always to love you both in time and in eternity.  Amen.

TURN, THEN, THINE EYES OF MERCY TOWARDS US.

STORY

In the kingdom of Valencia a great sinner resolved to become a Mohammedan, hoping thereby to escape from the arm of justice. On his way to the ship’s landing where he meant to set sail, he entered a church in which the Jesuit Jerome Lopez was preaching on the Mercy of God. Touched by the sermon, the poor sinner went to confession to the missioner. When asked if he had practiced any special devotion to which this great grace might be attributed he replied: I simply prayed to Mary every day not to abandon me.”

In a certain hospital the same Father met a sinner who had not gone to confession for fifty-five years. He had however practiced this little devotion: whenever he passed her picture he greeted the Mother of God and asked her for a happy end. He then related: one day while fighting with an enemy my dagger broke. I turned to Mary and cried out: “Alas, alas, now I shall be killed and eternally lost; Mother of sinners, help me.” Scarcely had he said this when he found himself in safety. The poor sinner made a general confession and died full of confidence.

PRAYER

O greatest and most sublime of all creatures, most sacred Virgin, I salute you from this earth – I, a miserable and unfortunate rebel against my God, who deserve chastisements, not favors, justice, and not mercy. O Lady, I say not this because I doubt your compassion. I know that the greater you are the more you do glory in being benign. I know that you rejoice that you are so rich, because you are thus enabled to comfort us poor miserable creatures. I know that the greater is the poverty of those who have recourse to you, the more do you exert yourself to protect and save them. O my Mother, it was you who did one day weep over your Son who died for me. Offer, I beg you, your tears to God, and by these obtain for me true sorrow for my sins. Sinners then afflicted you so much, and I, by my crimes, have done the same. Obtain for me, O Mary, that at least from this day forward I may not continue to afflict you and your Son by my ingratitude. What would your sorrow avail me if I continued to be ungrateful to you? To what purpose would your mercy have been shown me, if again I was unfaithful and lost? No, my Queen, permit it not; you have supplied for all my shortcomings. You obtain from God what you will. You grant the prayers of all. I ask of you two graces; I expect them from you, and will not be satisfied with less. Obtain for me that I may be faithful to God, and no more offend him, and love him during the remainder of my life as much as I have offended him.

Mary is the Peace-maker between Sinners and God.

STORY
In Braganza there was a young man, who, after giving up the confraternity, abandoned himself to so many crimes that one day, in despair, he went to drown himself in a river; but before doing so, he addressed our Blessed Lady, saying: “O Mary, I once served you in the confraternity; help me.”  The most Blessed Virgin appeared to him and said:  “Yes, and now what are you going to do?  Do you wish to lose yourself both in soul and body?  Go, confess your sins, and rejoin the confraternity.”  The young man, encouraged hereby, thanked the Blessed Virgin, and changed his life.

PRAYER
O my most sweet Lady, since your office is, as William of Paris says, that of a mediatress between God and sinners, I will address you in the words of St Thomas of Villanova; “Fulfil your office in my behalf, O tender advocate; do your work.  Say not that my cause is too difficult to gain; for I know, and all tell me so, that every cause, no matter how desperate, if undertaken by you, is never, and never will be, lost.  And will mine be lost?  Ah no, this I cannot fear.  The only thing that I might fear is, that, on seeing the multitude of my sins, you might not undertake my defence.  But, on seeing your immense mercy, and the very great desire of your most sweet heart to help the most abandoned sinners, even this I cannot fear.  And who was ever lost that had recourse to you?  Therefore I invoke your aid, O my great advocate, my refuge, my hope, my mother Mary.  To your hands do I entrust the cause of my eternal salvation.  To you do I commit my soul; it was lost, but you have to save it.  I will always thank our Lord for having given me this great confidence in you; and which, notwithstanding my unworthiness, I feel is an assurance of salvation.  I have but one fear to afflict me, O beloved Queen, and that is, that I may one day, by my own negligence, lose this confidence in you.  And therefore I implore you, O Mary, by the love you bear to Jesus, yourself to preserve and increase in me more and more this sweet confidence in your intercession, by which I hope most certainly to recover the divine friendship, that I have up to now so madly despised and lost; and having recovered it, I hope, through you, to preserve it; and preserving it by the same means, I hope at length to thank you for it in heaven, and there to sing God’s mercies and yours for all eternity.  Amen.  This is my hope; thus may it be, thus will it be.

Mary is so tender an Advocate that she does not refuse to defend the Cause even of the most miserable.

STORY
In one of our missions, after the sermon on the Blessed Virgin Mary, which it is always customary in our Congregation to preach, a very old man came to make his confession to one of the Fathers.  Filled with consolation he said, “Father, our Blessed Lady has granted me a grace.”  “What grace has she granted you?”  the confessor asked.  “You must know, Father,” he replied, “that for five-and-thirty years I have made sacrilegious confessions, for there is a sin which I was ashamed to confess; and yet I have passed through many dangers, have many times been at the point of death, and had I then died, I should certainly have been lost; but now our Blessed Lady has touched my heart with grace to tell it.”  This he said weeping, and shedding so many tears, that he quite excited compassion.  The Father, after hearing his confession, asked him what devotion he had practised.  He replied that on Saturdays he had never failed to abstain from milk-diet in honor of Mary, and that on this account the Blessed Virgin had shown him mercy.  At the same time he gave the Father leave to publish the fact.

PRAYER
O great Mother of my Lord, I see full well that my ingratitude towards God and you, and this too for so many years, has merited for me that you should justly abandon me, and no longer have a care of me, for an ungrateful soul is no longer worthy of favors.  But I, O Lady, have a high idea of your great goodness; I believe it to be far greater than my ingratitude.  Continue, then, O refuge of sinners, and cease not to help a miserable sinner who confides in you. O Mother of mercy, deign to extend a helping hand to a poor fallen wretch who asks you for pity.  O Mary, either defend me yourself, or tell me to whom I can have recourse, and who is better able to defend me than you, and where I can find with God a more clement and powerful advocate than you, who are his Mother.  You, in becoming the Mother of our Saviour, was thereby made the fitting instrument to save sinners, and was given me for my salvation.  O Mary, save him who has recourse to you.  I deserve not your love, but it is your own desire to save sinners, that makes me hope that you love me.  And if you love me, how can I be lost?  O my own beloved Mother, if by you I save my soul, as I hope to do, I shall no longer be ungrateful, I shall make up for my past ingratitude, and for the love which you have shown me, by my everlasting praises, and all the affections of my soul.  Happy in heaven, where you reign, and will reign forever, I shall always sing your mercies, and kiss for eternity those loving hands which have delivered me from hell, as often as I have deserved it by my sins.  O Mary, my liberator, my hope, my Queen, my advocate, my own sweet Mother, I love you; I desire your glory, and I love you forever.  Amen, amen.  Thus do I hope.