Example of Mary's Love for Us

​St. Louis de Montfort teaches that having a devotion to Mary will lead us to Christ in the most perfect way. There are also many examples in books such as St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s. Glories of Mary, and St. Louis de Montfort’s, Secret of the Rosary that show that even having a remote devotion to Mary can be of help to the salvation of our souls. This knowledge is not to make us sloppy or careless in our love for God and His Mother, but to help us see the immense love and care Mary has for all of Her children. She is so attentive to the needs of all of us that She will ask the Father for almost the impossible if someone has showed Her the least little act of love toward Her. Here is such an example – may we foster true devotion to Her and explain to others Her great intercessory power before the throne of God.
                   
We read in the revelations of St. Bridget, that there was once a lord as noble by birth as he was low and sinful in his habits. He had given himself by an express compact, as a slave to the devil, and had served him for sixty years, leading such a life as may easily be imagined, and never approaching the sacraments. Now, this prince was about to die and Jesus Christ, in His compassion, commanded St. Bridget to tell his confessor to visit him, and exhort him, to make his confession. The confessor went, and the sick man told him that he had no need of a confessor, for that he had often made his confession. The confessor visited him a second time and that poor slave of hell persevered in his obstinate determination not to make his confession. Jesus again directed the saint to tell the confessor to go to him again. He obeyed, and this third time related to him the revelation made to the saint, and that he had returned so many times because the Lord, who desired to show him mercy, had directed him to do so.
 
On hearing this, the dying man was moved, and began to weep. "But how," he exclaimed, "can I be pardoned, when for sixty years I have served the devil, made myself his slave, and have laden my soul with innumerable sins?"
 
"Son," answered the father, encouraging him, "Do not doubt: if you repent of them, in the name of God I promise you pardon." Then, beginning to gain confidence, he said to the confessor: "Father, I believed myself lost, and despaired of salvation; but now I feel a sorrow for my sins, which encourages me to trust; and as God has not yet abandoned me, I wish to make my confession." And in fact on that day he made his confession with great sorrow; the next day he received communion, and on the sixth he died contrite and entirely resigned.
 
After his death, Jesus Christ further revealed to St. Bridget, that this sinner was saved, and was in Purgatory, and that he had been saved by the intercession of the Virgin, His Mother; for the deceased, although he had led so sinful a life, yet had always preserved devotion to her Dolors (Seven Sorrows); whenever he remembered them he pitied Her.
 
PRAYER
Oh my afflicted Mother! Queen of martyrs and of sorrows, You have shed so many tears for Your Son, who died for my salvation, and yet what will Your tears avail me, if I am lost? By the merits, then, of Your Dolors, obtain for me a true sorrow for my sins, and a true amendment of life, with a perpetual and tender compassion for the passion of Jesus and Your own sufferings.
 
Oh my Mother, by the grief You did experience on seeing Your Son before Your eyes bow His head and expire upon the cross, I entreat You to obtain for me a holy death. Ah, do not cease, oh Advocate of sinners, to assist my afflicted and struggling soul in that great passage that it has to make into eternity I now invoke Your Son and You to help me at that last moment, and I say: Jesus and Mary, to you I commend my soul. Amen.