List of points

If I were a leper my mother would hug me. She would kiss my wounds without fear or hesitation.

—Well then, what would the Blessed Virgin Mary do? When we feel we are like lepers, all full of sores, we have to cry out: Mother! And the protection of our Mother will be like a kiss upon our wounds, which obtains our cure.

Turn to Our Lady — the Mother, Daughter and Spouse of God, and our Mother — and ask her to obtain more graces for you from the Blessed Trinity: the grace of faith, of hope, of love and of contrition. So that when it seems that a harsh dry wind is blowing in your life, threatening to wither those flowers of your soul, they will not wither… and neither will those of your brothers.

My Mother! Mothers on earth look with greater love on the weakest of their children, the one with the worst health, or who is least intelligent, or is a poor cripple…

—Sweet Lady! I know that you are more of a Mother than all other mothers put together. — And, since I am your son… And, since I am weak, and ill… and crippled… and ugly…

Fill yourself with confidence. The Mother we have is the Mother of God, the Most Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven and the World.

Do not abandon me, Lord. Don’t you see the bottomless pit this poor son of yours would end up in?

—My Mother: I am your son too.

Quomodo fiet istud quoniam virum non cognosco? — How can this marvel take place if I have no knowledge of man? What Mary asks the Angel is a reflection of her sincere Heart.

Observing the Blessed Virgin has confirmed for me a clear rule of conduct: to enjoy peace, and to live in peace, we must be very sincere with God, with those who direct our souls and with ourselves.

If you feel proud to be a son of Our Lady, ask yourself: How often do I express my devotion to the Virgin Mary during the day, from morning to night?

Almighty God, Omnipotent and Infinitely Wise, had to choose his Mother.

What would you have done, if you had had to choose yours? I think that you and I would have chosen the mother we have, filling her with all graces. That is what God did: and that is why, after the Blessed Trinity, comes Mary.

—Theologians have given a rational explanation for her fullness of grace and why she cannot be subject to the devil: it was fitting that it should be so, God could do it, therefore he did it. That is the great proof: the clearest proof that God endowed his Mother with every privilege, from the very first moment. That is how she is: beautiful, and pure, and spotless in soul and body!

All goodness, all beauty, all majesty, all loveliness, all grace adorn our Mother. —Doesn’t it make you fall in love, to have a Mother like that?

Turn constantly to the most Holy Virgin, the Mother of God and Mother of the human race; and she, with a Mother’s gentleness, will draw down the love of God on the souls you deal with, so that they may make up their minds to be witnesses for Jesus Christ, in their profession, in their ordinary work.

Invoke the Blessed Virgin. Keep asking her to show herself a Mother to you — monstra te esse Matrem! As well as drawing down her Son’s grace, may she bring the clarity of sound doctrine to your mind, and love and purity to your heart, so that you may know the way to God and take many souls to him.