93) Critical devotees are, usually, proud scholars, strong and self-satisfied minds, who deep down have some devotion to the Blessed Virgin, but who criticize almost all practices of devotion to the Blessed Virgin that simple people return simply and holiness to this good Mother, because they do not return to their whim. They call into doubt all the miracles and stories reported by reliable authors, or taken from the chronicles of religious orders, which prove the mercies and the power of the Most Holy Virgin. They would only be able to see with difficulty simple and humble people kneeling before an altar or image of the Blessed Virgin, sometimes in a street corner to pray to God; and they accuse them of idolatry, as if they worshiped wood or stone; They say that, for themselves, they do not like these external devotions and that their minds are not so weak as to give credence to so many tales and stories that are told about the Blessed Virgin. When we tell them of the admirable praises that the holy Fathers give to the Blessed Virgin, they either respond that they spoke as orators, by exaggeration, or they give a bad explanation for their words. These kinds of false devotees and proud and worldly people are much to be feared and they do infinite harm to devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, and effectively alienate people from it, under the pretext of destroying its abuses.
94) The scrupulous devotees are people who fear to dishonor the Son by honoring the Mother, to lower one by elevating the other. They cannot allow the Blessed Virgin to be given the very just praise given to her by the Holy Fathers; they only tolerate with difficulty that there are more people on their knees before an altar of the Blessed Virgin than before the Blessed Sacrament, as if one were contrary to the other; as if those who pray to the Blessed Virgin did not pray to Jesus Christ through her! They do not want us to talk about the Blessed Virgin so often and address her so often. Here are some sentences that are common to them: What is the use of so many rosaries, so many brotherhoods and external devotions to the Blessed Virgin. There is a lot of ignorance in this. It is making a mummery of our religion. Tell me about those who are devoted to Jesus Christ (they often name him without revealing themselves, I say this in parentheses): we must resort to Jesus Christ, he is our only mediator; we must preach Jesus Christ, that’s the solid thing! What they say is true in one sense; but in relation to the application they make of it, to prevent devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, it is very dangerous, and a fine trap of the evil one, under the pretext of a greater good; for we never honor Jesus Christ more than when we honor the Most Holy Virgin, since we only honor her in order to honor Jesus Christ more perfectly, since we only go to her as to the way to find the end where we are going, which is Jesus.
95) The Holy Church, with the Holy Spirit, blesses the Blessed Virgin first, and Jesus Christ the second: Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus . Not because the Blessed Virgin is more than Jesus Christ or equal to him: that would be an intolerable heresy; but in order to bless Jesus Christ more perfectly, we must first bless Mary. Let us therefore say with all the true devotees of the Blessed Virgin, against her scrupulous false devotees: O Mary, blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
96) External devotees are people who make all their devotion to the Most Holy Virgin consist of external practices; who only taste the exterior of devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, because they have no interior spirit; who will say many rosaries in haste, will hear several masses without attention, will go to processions without devotion, will join all their brotherhoods without amending their lives, without violence to their passions and without imitation of the virtues of this most holy Virgin. They only love the sensitive of devotion, without tasting the solid; if they do not have sensitivity in their practices, they believe that they are no longer doing anything, they detract, they leave everything there, or they do everything half-heartedly. The world is full of these kinds of exterior devotees, and there are no people more critical than people of prayer who apply themselves to the interior as to the essential, without despising the exterior modesty which accompanies always true devotion.
97) The presumptuous devoteesare sinners abandoned to their passions, or lovers of the world, who, under the beautiful name of Christian and devotee to the Blessed Virgin, hide either pride, or avarice, or impurity, or drunkenness , or anger, or swearing, or slander, or injustice, etc. ; who sleep peacefully in their bad habits, without doing much violence to correct themselves, under the pretext that they are devoted to the Virgin; who promise themselves that God will forgive them, that they will not die without confession, and that they will not be damned, because they say their rosary, because they fast on Saturday, because they are of the brotherhood of the Holy Rosary or Scapular, or of its congregations, because they wear the little habit or the little chain of the Blessed Virgin, etc. When they are told that their devotion is only an illusion of the devil and a pernicious presumption capable of ruining them, they do not want to believe it; they say that God is good and merciful; that he did not make us to damn us; that there is no man who does not sin; that they will not die without confession; that a good peccavi at death is enough; moreover that they are devoted to the Blessed Virgin; that they wear the scapular; let them say every day without reproach and without vanity seven Fathers and seven Hail Marys in his honor; that they sometimes even say the rosary and the office of the Blessed Virgin; let them fast, etc. To confirm what they say and to blind themselves further, they bring some stories that they have heard or read in books, true or false, it does not matter, which give credence to people who died in mortal sin, without confession. , because they had, during their life, said some prayers or performed some practices of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, or were resurrected to confess, or their soul miraculously remained in their body until confession, or by the mercy of the Blessed Virgin, obtained from God, at their death, contrition and forgiveness of their sins, and thereby were saved, and thus they hope for the same thing.
98) Nothing is so damnable in Christianity as this diabolical presumption; for can we truly say that we love and honor the Blessed Virgin, when, through her sins, we prick, pierce, crucify and mercilessly outrage Jesus Christ her Son? If Mary made it a law to save these kinds of people through her mercy, she would authorize the crime, she would help to crucify and outrage her Son; who would ever dare to think so?
99) I say that to thus abuse devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, who, after devotion to Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, is the holiest and most solid, is to commit a horrible sacrilege, which ,after the sacrilege of unworthy communion, is the greatest and the least forgivable. I admit that, to be truly devoted to the Blessed Virgin, it is not absolutely necessary to be so holy that one avoids all sin, although one might wish so; but it is necessary at least (let us note clearly what I am going to say): - First, be in a sincere resolution to avoid at least all mortal sin, which outrages the Mother as well as the Son; —Secondly, do violence to oneself to avoid sin; — Third, join brotherhoods, recite the rosary, the holy rosary or other prayers, fast on Saturdays, etc.
100) This is wonderfully useful for the conversion of even a hardened sinner; and if my reader is such, and if he has one foot in the abyss, I advise him, but on condition that he will only practice these good works with the intention of obtaining from God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the grace of contrition and forgiveness of one's sins, and to overcome one's bad habits, and not to remain peacefully in the state of sin, against the remorse of one's conscience, the example of Jesus Christ and saints, and the maxims of the holy Gospel.
101) Inconstant devotees are those who are devoted to the Blessed Virgin at intervals and in quips: sometimes they are fervent and sometimes they are lukewarm, sometimes they seem ready to do everything for her service, and then, a little later, they are not no longer the same. They will first embrace all the devotions of the Blessed Virgin; they will join its brotherhoods, and then they do not practice its rules with fidelity; they change like the moon, and Mary places them under her feet, with the crescent, because they are changeable and unworthy to be counted among the servants of this faithful Virgin, who have fidelity and constancy as their share. It is better not to burden oneself with so many prayers and devotional practices, and to do little with love and faithfulness, despite the world, the devil and the flesh.
102) There are still false devotees to the Blessed Virgin, who are hypocritical devotees , who cover their sins and their bad habits under the mantle of this faithful Virgin, in order to pass in the eyes of men for what they are not. not.
103) There are still interested devotees who only resort to the Blessed Virgin to win some lawsuit, to avoid some danger, to cure an illness, or for some other need of the kind, without which they would forget her ; and both are false devotees, who have no place before God or his holy Mother.
104) Let us therefore be careful to be among the critical devotees, who believe nothing and criticize everything; scrupulous devotees, who fear being too devoted to the Blessed Virgin, out of respect for Jesus Christ; external devotees, who make all their devotion consist of external practices; presumptuous devotees, who, under the pretext of their false devotion to the Blessed Virgin, languish in their sins; fickle devotees, who, out of carelessness, change their devotional practices, or leave them altogether at the slightest temptation; hypocritical devotees, who join brotherhoods and wear the livery of the Blessed Virgin in order to appear good; and finally interested devotees, who only have recourse to the Blessed Virgin to be delivered from bodily ills or to obtain temporal goods.
