2nd Prelude. Beg for an increase of devotion to her, invoking her under the title of Queen of the Society of Jesus.
POINT I. Why is all the Church so devoted to Mary? Because God wishes to be honored by man especially in connection with the grandest exhibition of His love for man, the mystery of the Incarnation. Now in this mystery Mary holds a most prominent place; she is the key to the proper understanding of it. Besides, as Jesus was given to mankind through Mary, so through her He is given to individual souls. Therefore the Church salutes her as “Mother of Divine Grace”; and many holy writers say that every grace comes to all individual souls through her intercession.
How do we know that God is pleased with so great a devotion to Mary?
1. From the constant teaching of the Church, which has applied to her such texts as these: “He that shall find me shall find life and shall have salvation from the Lord” (Prov. viii, 35); “They that work by me shall not sin” (Ecclus. xxiv, 30); etc.
2. From the Doctors of the Church, who have exhausted all their resources of learning to inculcate this devotion. Such are Sts. Augustine, Bernard, Liguori, Anthoninus, Bonaventure, etc.
3. From the workings of the Holy Ghost, who has fostered this devotion in the lives of numberless Saints and of other highly favored servants of God, as well as in the practice and prayers of the Church itself, and the unanimous teachings of her theologians.
4. From so many miracles performed through the invocation of the Blessed Virgin in every land.
POINT II. What part has our Society taken in fostering this devotion?
1. A most conspicuous part. For instance St. Ignatius ascribes his conversion to the vision he had of her, he made himself her Knight at Montserrat, he makes us meditate on her and pray to her in our retreats.
2. In the life and death of St. Stanislaus, St. Berchmans, St. Alphonsus, St. Francis Hieronymo and, in fact, all her Saints and her great men generally.