Devotion to Mary

In venerating and loving and praising Thee [Mary], I make willing obeisance to the flower of creation, to the crown of God’s ineffable works and wonders. Were I to refuse Thee the tribute of my love and piety, I should have to refuse it to every being that was not God, to the very heart of the woman who bore me in her womb.

Hypocrites those who, boasting of the Christian name, reject the veneration which Catholicism of every age has rendered Thee [Mary]; a veneration which is but a pale reflection of that homage which Thou didst receive from God’s own Messenger [Archangel Gabriel]! Will it not be lawful for the children of men to do what God Himself commanded to be done by the Hierarchy of Heaven?

For thirty years the Word Incarnate had no other manifest occupation than that of obeying with absolute unreserved His Blessed Mother. Now, there is no form of devotion, veneration, and love, no manifestation of piety, more deep and true than the loving submission of a child or a youth to his mother. And that, precisely, is the devotion and piety chosen by Jesus for the space of thirty years.

The Church in every age, and now more than ever, has professed such devotion to Mary that Protestants rabidly accuse Her of Mariolatry, as though we Catholics venerated the Blessed Mother of Jesus as God. It is gross calumny; for in this, as in everything pertaining to piety, we know that the Holy Spirit comes to the aid of Christ’s Bride, safeguarding Her from all error.