Oh Mary, I know that thou art the creature the most noble, the most sublime, the most pure, the most beautiful, the most merciful, the most holy; in a word, the most lovely of all creatures. Oh, if all knew thee, oh my Lady, and loved thee as thou dost merit! But I console myself that so many happy souls in heaven and on earth live enamored of thy goodness and beauty. Above all, I rejoice that God himself loves thee alone more than all men and angels united. My most amiable queen, I, a miserable sinner, also love thee, but I love thee too little: I desire a love greater and more tender towards thee; and this thou must obtain for me, for to love thee is a great sign of predestination, and a grace that God does not grant except to those whom he wishes to be saved.
I see myself then, oh my mother, greatly indebted to thy Son. I see that he merits an infinite love. Thou who desirest nothing but to see him loved, this is the grace that above all others thou must obtain for me; obtain for me a great love for Jesus Christ. Thou dost obtain from God whatever thou dost wish; ah, obtain for me this grace, to be so united with the divine will that I may never more be separated from it. I do not ask of thee the goods of earth, neither honors nor riches; I ask of thee what thy heart most desires, I wish to love my God. Is it possible that thou wilt not aid me in this my desire, which pleases thee so much? No, for thou dost even now help me, already thou art praying for me; pray, pray, and never cease to pray until thou seest me in paradise, beyond the danger of being able any more to lose my Lord, and certain of loving him forever, together with thee, my dearest mother.
SATURDAY.
Prayer to the most holy Mary to obtain her patronage.
Oh my most holy mother, I know what graces thou hast obtained for me, and I see the ingratitude of which I have been guilty towards thee. The ungrateful are no longer worthy of favors; but I will not on this account distrust thy mercy, which is greater than my ingratitude. Oh my great advocate, have pity on me. Thou art the dispenser of all the graces which God grants to us miserable sinners, and for this end he has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so merciful, that thou mightest succor us in our miseries. Ah, mother of mercy, do not leave me in my poverty. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee, defend me also, who recommend myself to thee. Do not tell me that it is difficult to gain my cause, for the most desperate causes are all gained when they are defended by thee. In thy hands, then, I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I commit my soul. It was lost; thou, by thy intercession, must save it. I wish to be enrolled among thy most devoted servants; do not cast me out: thou dost go in search of the wretched to relieve them; do not abandon a miserable sinner who has recourse to thee. Speak for me; thy Son does whatever thou dost ask of him. Take me under thy protection, and this will be enough: yes, for if thou dost protect me I fear nothing; nothing from my sins, for thou wilt obtain for me the remedy for the injury I have inflicted upon myself; nor from the demons, for thou art more powerful than all hell united; nor from Jesus my Judge himself, for by one prayer of thine he is appeased. I only fear that through my negligence I may cease to invoke thee, and shall thus be lost. My mother, obtain for me the pardon of all my sins, love to Jesus, holy perseverance, a good death, and finally, paradise; especially obtain for me the grace always to recommend myself to thee. It is true that these graces are too much for me who do not merit them, but they are not too much for thee who art so much beloved by God that he grants thee whatever thou dost ask of him. It is enough that thou dost begin to speak, and he denies thee nothing. Pray then to Jesus for me, tell him that thou dost protect me, and he will not fail to have pity on me. My mother, I trust in thee; in this hope I repose and live, and in this I wish to die. Amen.
Live alway, Jesus our love and Mary our hope!
LITTLE ROSARY OF THE SEVEN DOLORS OF MARY.
Incline unto mine aid, oh God, &c.
My mother, enable my heart to share thy sorrow for the death of thy Son.
First Dolor.—I pity thee, oh my afflicted mother, on account of the first sword of sorrow that pierced thee, when in the temple, by the prophecy of St. Simeon, all the cruel sufferings that men would inflict on thy beloved Jesus were represented to thee, which thou hadst already learned from the holy Scriptures, even to his death before thy eyes upon the infamous wood of the cross, exhausted of blood and abandoned by all, and thou without the power to defend or relieve him. By that bitter memory, then, which for so many years afflicted thy heart, I pray thee, oh my queen, to obtain for me the grace that always in life and in death I may keep impressed upon my heart the passion of Jesus and thy sorrows.